Faith Or Foolishness Which Is It

THIS MATERIAL HAS NOT BEEN EDITED FOR

SCRIPTURAL ACCURACY, SPELLING, OR GRAMMAR

FAITH OR FOOLISHNESS WHICH IS IT?

Acts 19:11-20

11 Miracles Glorify Christ

Now God worked unusual miracles by the hands of Paul, 12 so that even handkerchiefs or aprons were brought from his body to the sick, and the diseases left them and the evil spirits went out of them.

13 Then some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists took it upon themselves to call the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, "We exorcise you by the Jesus whom Paul preaches."

14 Also there were seven sons of Sheva, a Jewish chief priest, who did so. 15 And the evil spirit answered and said, "Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are you?" 16 Then the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, overpowered them, and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded. 17 This became known both to all Jews and Greeks dwelling in Ephesus; and fear fell on them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified.

18 And many who had believed came confessing and telling their deeds. 19 Also, many of those who had practiced magic brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all. And they counted up the value of them, and it totaled fifty thousand pieces of silver. 20 So the word of the Lord grew mightily and prevailed. NKJV

Mark 9:38-41

38 Jesus Forbids Sectarianism

(Matt 10:40-42; Luke 9:49, 50)

Now John answered Him, saying, "Teacher, we saw someone who does not follow us casting out demons in Your name, and we forbade him because he does not follow us." 39 But Jesus said, "Do not forbid him, for no one who works a miracle in My name can soon afterward speak evil of Me. 40 For he who is not against us is on our side. 41 For whoever gives you a cup of water to drink in My name, because you belong to Christ, assuredly, I say to you, he will by no means lose his reward. NKJV

Here we find two examples in Scripture of people seeing to cast out evil spirits from an individual. In the first case we find Paul’s ministry and the power of God being used on the powers of Satan and with great success. And because of Paul’s success we find ‘itinerant Jewish exorcists’ or we could call them ‘vagabond [perierchome’noon] Jews who were exorcises [exorkistoon –one who employs a formula of conjuration for expelling demons].

Now in our second story the disciples said ‘…casting out demons…’ not were trying to cast out demons, so God was working through them because of faith while in the other case it was not a matter of faith but of foolishness that was exhibited and of course it ended in failure.

There were certain laws of God that had to be obeyed first:

1. The Law of Identification. “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned. And these signs shall follow them that believe [faith] In My name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues;” Mark 16:16, 17

Note: Without being identified with Jesus and being born again (see John 3:1-8) a person is a child of the devil and as Jesus said in Matthew 12:26 “And if Satan cast out Satan, he is divided against himself; how shall then his kingdom stand?” So the seven found out the hard way.

Paul the Learner

FAITH OR FOOLISHNESS WHICH IS IT?

2. The Law of the will of God. In John 8:28, 29 Jesus said, “Then said Jesus unto them, When ye have lifted up the Son of man, then shall ye know that I am he, and that I do nothing of myself; but as my Father hath taught me, I speak these things. And he that sent me is with me: the Father hath not left me alone; for I do always those things that please him.’

Note: Just because you have a desire to do some great thing for God, and you move toward that purpose with great so called faith, doesn’t mean that what you purpose is what God wills. It’s like filling in a check for a large amount [a plane or boat or a TV ministry or what ever] and because it is for the furtherance of the Gospel we expect God to sign it and guess what He doesn’t sign it. This of course is only an example but I am sure that we all have come to this place in our lives and left disappointed.

Paul the Learner

3. The Law of obedience.

Matt 14:22-33

22 Jesus Walks on the Sea

(Mark 6:45-52; John 6:15-21)

Immediately Jesus made His disciples get into the boat and go before Him to the other side, while He sent the multitudes away. 23 And when He had sent the multitudes away, He went up on the mountain by Himself to pray. Now when evening came, He was alone there. 24 But the boat was now in the middle of the sea, tossed by the waves, for the wind was contrary. 25 Now in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went to them, walking on the sea.

26 And when the disciples saw Him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, "It is a ghost!" And they cried out for fear. 27 But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, "Be of good cheer! It is I; do not be afraid." 28 And Peter answered Him and said, "Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water." 29 So He said, "Come." And when Peter had come down out of the boat, he walked on the water to go to Jesus.

30 But when he saw that the wind was boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink he cried out, saying, "Lord, save me!" 31 And immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and caught him, and said to him, "O you of little faith, why did you doubt?" 32 And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased.

33 Then those who were in the boat came and worshiped Him, saying, "Truly You are the Son of God."

NKJV

Note: God established certain laws of nature and one of these laws is that a person cannot walk on water and the only exception is that He who created the seas [the Word who became flesh see John 1:14] can walk on the water. Now we are quick to point out the failure of Peter as he doubted and began to sink and the Lord had to reach out and save him.

But what of the rest of the disciples? Why did they not ask for the same thing? It was because they knew that it was impossible as far as man is concerned to walk on water and that is why they thought it was a ghost. I don’t care how much faith you may clime to have ‘you cannot walk on water’ and the only reason why Peter was even able to walk on the water is because Jesus said “Come”. So unless Jesus tells you to walk on the water, don’t try it. Paul the Learner

FAITHE OR FOOLISHNESS WHICH IS IT?

4. The Law of perfection. ‘And he cometh to Bethsaida; and they bring a blind man unto him, and besought him to touch him. And he took the blind man by the hand, and led him out of the town; and when he had spit on his eyes, and put his hands upon him, he asked him if he saw ought. And he looked up, and said, I see men as trees, walking. After that he put his hands again upon his eyes, and made him look up: and he was restored, and saw every man clearly. And he sent him away to his house, saying, Neither go into the town, nor tell it to any in the town.” Mark 8:22-26

Note: Two things:

1. Jesus takes the man out of the town and tells him not to go back into the town or to tell his story to anyone in the town.

2. Jesus has to pray twice for the man.

1. He leads him out of the village in order that He might perform the cure in secret, and this, in order that He might not have a stampede of sick folk. Our Lord’s compassionate heart went out to the sick, but He always kept His chief mission in mind, the cure of souls, not bodies. Wuest

Mark 8:22-26

A blind man restored to sight

This cure is related only by this evangelist, and there is something singular in the circumstances.

I. Here is a blind man brought to Christ by his friends, with a desire that he would touch him, v. 22. Here appears the faith of those that brought him-they doubted not but that one touch of Christ's hand would recover him his sight; but the man himself showed not that earnestness for, or expectation of, a cure that other blind men did. If those that are spiritually blind, do not pray for themselves, yet let their friends and relations pray for them, that Christ would be pleased to touch them.

II. Here is Christ leading this blind man, v. 23. He did not bid his friends lead him, but (which bespeaks his wonderful condescension) he himself took him by the hand, and led him, to teach us to be as Job was, eyes to the blind, Job 29:15. Never had poor blind man such a Leader. He led him out of the town.

THE REASON WHY HE LED HIM OUT OF THE TOWN.

Had he herein only designed privacy, he might have led him into a house, into an inner chamber, and have cured him there; but he intended hereby to upbraid Bethsaida with the mighty works that had in vain been done in her (Matt 11:21), and was telling her, in effect, she was unworthy to have any more done within her walls. Perhaps Christ took the blind man out of the town, that he might have a larger prospect in the open fields, to try his sight with, than he could have in the close streets.

III. Here is the cure of the blind man, by that blessed Oculist, who came into the world to preach the recovering of sight to the blind (Luke 4:18), and to give what he preached. In this cure we may observe,

1. That Christ used a sign; he spat on his eyes (spat into them, so some), and put his hand upon him. He could have cured him, as he did others, with a word speaking, but thus he was pleased to assist his faith which was very weak, and to help him against his unbelief. And this spittle signified the eye-salve wherewith Christ anoints the eyes of those that are spiritually blind, Rev 3:18.

FAITH OR FOOLISHNESS WHICH IS IT?

2. That the cure was wrought gradually, which was not usual in Christ's miracles. He asked him if he saw aught, v. 23. Let him tell what condition his sight was in, for the satisfaction of those about him. And he looked up; so far he recovered his sight, that he could open his eyes, and he said, I see men as trees walking; he could not distinguish men from trees, otherwise than he could discern them to move. He had some glimmerings of sight, and betwixt him and the sky could perceive a man erect like a tree, but could not discern the form thereof, Job 4:16. But,

3. It was soon completed; Christ never doeth his work by the halves, nor leaves it till he can say, It is finished. He put his hands again upon his eyes, to disperse the remaining darkness, and then bade him look up again, and he saw every man clearly, v. 25.

8:24, 25. Expositor says: “The narrative contains three compounds of blepo (ana, dia, and en):

1. The first denotes looking up in the tentative manner of blind men, [blepo ana]

2. The second, looking through (a mist as it were) so as to see clearly, [blepo dia]

3. The third, looking into so as to see distinctly, as one sees the exact outlines of a near object. [blepo en].

“He looked up,” is the Greek word ânâ blepo. “Make him look up,” in the best Greek texts is diablepo “he looked through,” speaking of a piercing look. “Saw” is the Greek word emblepo “looking into so as to see distinctly.” This is the only report of a gradual cure in the healings wrought by out Lord. The reason for this method here is not given.

Translation from the Greek. And having looked up, he kept on saying, I see the men; as trees I see them walking around. Then again He placed His hands upon his eyes; and he looked steadfastly; and he was restored to his former state; and he was seeing all things at a distance and clearly. Wuest

Note: Faith expects that ‘God does everything perfect’ and so will not accept anything less than the perfection that God does. Jesus prayed a second time for complete deliverance. So whether the slowness of the restoration of the sight of the blind men was to ‘symbolize the slowness of the Twelve in attaining spiritual insight (Expositors) or some other reason only God knows. Paul the Learner

I am not trying to discourage a person to have faith in the wonderful acts of God, heaven forbid for I have seen God do some wonderful things in healing and so forth and I believe that ‘nothing is impossible to him that believeth’ but that doesn’t mean that you can go into a hospital and empty it out and to a mortuary and bring back all the dead that are in it.

If God tells you to do something, then do it and expect God to fulfill His word to you. But if God has not told you to do it, don’t look for it to happen even if you use all of your mighty faith (as you think you have) for many have tried and have gone away discouraged and of course blaming God and not there own foolishness. Paul the Learner