"What Is Not a Part of Faith" Romans 10:14-15
Overview
What Is Faith—and What Is Not
Popular culture often portrays faith as believing against common sense, a leap into irrationality, or something a little silly we cling to anyway. Scripture says otherwise. Biblical faith is neither blind nor absurd. It has three essential components, often summarized with the acronym KAT: Knowledge, Assent, and Trust.
Knowledge is the necessary foundation. Paul asks in Romans 10:14-15, "How are they to believe in one of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone to proclaim him?" We cannot believe what we do not know, which is why the church sends preachers with "beautiful feet" to share the facts of who Jesus is and what He has done. Yet knowledge alone is not faith—many people can quote Scripture and articulate doctrine without believing any of it.
Assent is the second component—agreement that what one has heard is true. But assent alone still falls short. James 2:19 reminds us, "You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder." The demons possess accurate knowledge and agree with it, yet they have no faith. Likewise, 1 Corinthians 2:14 tells us spiritual realities must be spiritually discerned; mere intellectual agreement does not save.
Trust is what completes faith. In John 4:46-53, the royal official whose son lay dying did not just hear Jesus' words and agree with them—he "believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and started on his way." He staked his son's life on Jesus. That is faith: not only knowing the gospel and agreeing it is true, but personally relying on Christ crucified and risen for the forgiveness of sins. It is the difference between believing a man can wheel someone across Niagara Falls on a tightrope and actually climbing into the wheelbarrow.
So what is not part of faith? Works. Scripture is clear in Ephesians 2:8-9 that we are saved by grace through faith alone, "and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God." Our deeds contribute nothing to faith itself. And yet, as James insists, faith without works is dead James 2:17. Faith is never alone—it always expresses itself in action, as Luther said, faith is "an active and busy thing." Works flow from faith; they are its fruit, not its substance. Knowledge, assent, and trust are all gifts of God, and so are the works that follow—so that all the glory belongs to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit alone.
Transcript
Would you open your Bible, please, with me this morning to the 10th chapter of the Book of Roman. 0s
The miracle on 34th Street. 5s
It's a classic movie, isn't it? 9s
And within that movie, there are a couple of lines that are particularly intriguing. 13s
One line is this. 20s
Faith is believing when common sense tells you not to. 23s
Faith is believing when common sense tells you not to. 33s
You've got another line in the movie that says, I believe, I believe, I know it's silly. 42s
But I believe, it's interesting how faith can be described in societal terms as this leap into 51s
irrationality. We're one checks out their intellect and one simply embraces the absurd 63s
simply because it's what it is that you do. 73s
Is that faith? Is faith believing when common sense tells you not to? 79s
But what is faith? And in particular also, what is not a part of faith? 99s
What is faith and what is not a part of faith? Those are the questions for this morning. 107s
The Bible describes faith as having three elements. You can spell it out by using the first letter of 119s
each. You can spell it out cap with a cap. Knowledge, a scent, and trust. Those are the three 126s
biblical elements of faith. Knowledge, a scent, and trust. In each of our texts for this morning, 134s
it dealt with one of the elements of faith, knowledge, a scent, or trust. 142s
Look where they please at Romans the 10th chapter, verse 14. 149s
Paul writes, but how are they to call on one in whom they've not believed? 157s
How are they to believe in one of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone to 161s
proclaim him? And how are they to proclaim him unless they are sent as it is written? 171s
How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news? It is impossible to have faith 178s
without a knowledge component with regard to the faith. We can't believe if we don't know 190s
what it is that we are to believe. So Romans the 10th chapter addresses here the 198s
knowledge element of faith and how beautiful are the feet or feet as we go and share the good news 205s
of Jesus Christ. And as we share the good news of Jesus Christ, there are simply factual 216s
elements that we share. Don't we? An element of faith is knowledge, but knowledge does not 224s
comprise all of faith, right? There's a host of people at a tremendous amount of knowledge 236s
about the scriptures. They can quote you chapter and verse. They can articulate in precise and 247s
correct ways Christian doctrine. They have a tremendous amount of knowledge of the scripture 255s
and Christian doctrine. And yet at the same time they're not a person of faith. 263s
Knowledge is an element of faith, but it's not all of faith. 271s
The second. A cent. Let's turn over to first Corinthians the second chapter. That's page 146. 280s
First Corinthians chapter 2 will pick up in verse 14. Here portrait is the second element of faith. 288s
Paul writes, those who are unspearachable do not receive the gifts of God's spirit. 302s
They're foolishness to them and they're unable to understand them because they're spiritually discerned. 309s
They see part of faith is an ascent that indeed what the person with the beautiful feet, 316s
carrying the gospel message is telling them is true. But ascent, but the people who are 338s
myself is not faith. Simply agreeing with regard to the knowledge of what one has heard 346s
about Jesus Christ is not faith. How do we know that? James the second chapter records this. 356s
You believe that God is one, you do well. Even the demons believe and shutter. 366s
What's being quoted here are referred to as Deuteronomy 6. That was what was called the 377s
the Sheema for the Jew. That was the understanding that God is one, that we don't have many 383s
gods, polytheism, but we have one god, one god. And what's referenced here is that indeed the demons 389s
believe that. The demons believe in the existence of God. The demons believe that God is one. 399s
They have knowledge of the existence of God. They have knowledge that God is one god. That there's 408s
only one god. They have knowledge and they agree with that knowledge that God is one, but to demons believe 416s
hardly. They've got knowledge. They ascend to it. They agree with it. They accept that God is one. 426s
But knowledge and a scent is not faith. This is only two elements of the faith. 441s
What's the third element? Let's go please to page 83 in the New Testament. John the fourth chapter. 455s
page 83, John chapter 4, our gospel text for this morning. 463s
The scripture says beginning with verse 46 of chapter 4, then he came again to Kena in Galilee 474s
where he had changed the water into wine. There was a royal official who suddenly ill and 480s
cappernum when he heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee. He went and begged him to come 486s
down and heal his son for he was at the point of death. Then Jesus said to him, unless you see 492s
signs and wonders, you will not believe. The official said to him, sir, come down before my little boy 499s
dies. Jesus said to him, go, your son will live. The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him 507s
and started on his way. As he was going down, his slaves met him, told him that his child was alive. 518s
So he asked him the hour when he began to recover and they said to him, yesterday at one in the 526s
afternoon, the fever left him. The father realized that this was the hour when Jesus had said to him, 532s
your son will live. So he himself believed along with his whole household. 539s
Jesus not only gave him his son back. Jesus gave him the word to believe and there was trust 548s
in the word, there was trust in who Jesus is. One can have knowledge, but knowledge alone isn't 556s
faith. One can have a scent, but a scent alone isn't faith. One can have knowledge and a scent, 570s
but knowledge and a scent is not faith. No, faith, three components, knowledge, 577s
scent, and trust, trust. Guy Richards writes, it's a helpful example, I think. 587s
Riches writes this, picture that three guys are in a field of landmines. They've got no 602s
detection devices or anything. They're standing there and they're surrounded by landmines. 612s
One of them says, well, I'm just going to walk. I'm just going to walk. I'm going to step out on 621s
faith and I'm just going to walk trusting that none of these landmines are going to go off. 629s
I'm just going to walk and hear I go. Is that faith? That's not faith. Why? Because there's no 638s
knowledge there. There's no knowledge. There's a hope, but there's no knowledge of where the landmines 647s
are. It's not faith. That's foolishness. That's silly. That's silly. 654s
Okay, so you've got two guys that are remaining. Helicopter comes along. 662s
Person shouts down from the helicopter and says, I know where the landmines are and I'll 669s
test it. Now, if that person steps out, is that faith? Knowledge. I know where the landmines are. 684s
A cent. Okay. Is that faith? There's knowledge and there's a cent. That's only two elements. 700s
Let's see then that the two guys there with the helicopter above them. The guys says, 719s
I know where the landmines are. I'll show you how to get through the field. 724s
And they turn to the guy in the helicopter and they say, who are you? Why do you have this knowledge 732s
of where the landmines are? Can we get some references here from you with regard to that? 743s
And the guy tells them why he has the knowledge, who he is, who sent him? 755s
And what his rule is? And then they step out. Is that faith? Sure it is. Why? What's there? 765s
You've got knowledge? I know where the landmines are. You've got a cent. Okay. I agree. 783s
And you've got trust. You've got trust in the person and the helicopter. 796s
Because of who they are, who sent them? Because of their references. 803s
Faith, biblically, is knowledge, a cent, and trust. Knowledge. 813s
The Bible tells us who we are. That each one of us are sinners. Each one of us sin against God and thought word and deed. 826s
What we have done and what we've left undone. The Bible tells us no amount of good works can ever save us or redeem us. 834s
There's no way that we can make ourselves right before God. That standing before God on judgment day 841s
cloaked in our own sinfulness is a terrifying prospect. But the Bible gives us the knowledge 848s
that God and His love and grace has sent His Son, Jesus Christ, and on the cross, Jesus Christ took 859s
all of our sin. And the wrath of God for sin was laid upon Jesus at the cross. 866s
That we have been redeemed. That we're claimed in the waters of baptism. 875s
That indeed what God has done for us in Jesus Christ, that word put together with the water, 881s
and we're washed in it, and God has made His decision about us. 887s
We have all of that knowledge and there is a cent to the knowledge by the grace of God. 893s
And there is trust, born of God, that Jesus is who He says He is. 904s
Why Jesus was sent to earth? Why the second number of the Trinity took on flesh and 913s
more the sin of all humanity? Why Jesus Christ rose from the dead? The father's declaration 921s
that the sacrifice for sin had been accepted and we trust. Knowledge is sent and trust in who Jesus 928s
is and what He's done for us. It's the wheelbarrow example, right? Permit me to use it again. 940s
It's the person who puts the tight rope across Niagara Falls turns to the crowd and says, 947s
do you believe that I can walk across this tight rope? And the crowd says, 953s
absolutely, we've heard about you. We've had friends that have seen you do that. We've seen pictures 957s
of you do that. We believe that you can walk across that tight rope. He says, 963s
do you believe that I can push a wheelbarrow across this tight rope across Niagara Falls? 967s
Absolutely. We believe in that. We've seen pictures. We've read the accounts of that. Do you believe 973s
that I can push a person in a wheelbarrow across the tight rope? Stemming across Niagara Falls? 980s
We believe we've seen. We've heard friends have seen you do that. We have seen pictures. We have 988s
read the accounts that indeed you can push a person in a wheelbarrow across the tight rope 993s
with Niagara Falls underneath you with no net. We have absolutely seen that. And then the 999s
guy turns to the crowd and says, now which one of you wants to get in the wheelbarrow? 1006s
See, there can be knowledge. There can be a scent. 1014s
There's no faith unless there's trust, right? Trust. 1021s
So if faith is knowledge is sent and trust, what's not part of faith? What's not a part of faith? 1033s
Let's go back to the mind field again. Two standing there. They've got knowledge from the person 1048s
talking to him from the helicopter. They've ascended. They've accepted that knowledge and they trust. 1056s
Who the person is? That's telling him this. So where there's knowledge is sent and trust. 1063s
What would they then do? They'd start to walk, right? It walks exactly how the person in the 1073s
helicopter tells them to walk. That faith would express itself. But that expression of the faith 1083s
is not a part of faith. You see, we are saved by grace through faith alone. This is not our own 1096s
doing. The scripture says it is the gift of God. We are saved by the grace of God through faith 1108s
in the Lord Jesus Christ alone. But faith is never alone because faith where there's faith will always 1113s
express itself in what? Indeed, in actions and works. But the deeds and the actions and the works 1121s
are not part of faith, right? They flow from faith. That's why James says where there's no works 1131s
then faith is dead. Works are to part of faith. Nope. But where there's faith, 1146s
there'll be works. That's why Luther says faith is an active and a busy thing. 1155s
So what's part of faith? Knowledge acceptance, trust, cat. What's not a part of faith? 1164s
Works. But where there's faith? What happens? There's works. As faith, as works flow from 1174s
faith, faith is believing when common sense tells you not to. I believe I believe I know it's 1193s
a lozi theology, right? Because faith, knowledge, acceptance, a scent, trust. And it's all a gift, isn't it? 1221s
It's all a gift. Faith isn't something we drum up. Faith is that which is given. It's all a gift. 1238s
And the works that flow out of faith, it's all a gift. Why? Because when it's all a gift, 1249s
who gets the glory? But the Father's Son Holy Spirit, one God, three persons. 1263s
Knowledge, the scent, trust, gift. 1276s