Bible Study
Thursday, July 30, 1987
—Making our View of God Practical—
When I attended seminary in the late 1980s, I was an active member of First Baptist Church of Euless, Texas, now Cross City Church. I led a Bible study on Thursday nights for single adults, and for a period of weeks, we examined the importance of having a biblical view of God.
Around that time, Dr. Mark Corts preached a sermon at Calvary Baptist Church in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, titled “When Faith Bears Witness.” It fit perfectly with the theme of the series I was leading—having and holding a biblical view of God.
So, for one of the studies, I showed a video of Dr. Corts’s sermon; then we discussed his message. I also prepared a handout that included the following quotes from Pastor Corts’s sermon.
—B. Nathaniel “Bev” Sullivan
In Hebrews 11:2-7, Abel, Enoch, and Noah are mentioned. Note particularly verse 2, which states that “By faith the elders obtained a good testimony.” Each of these men of God obtained a witness for his faith.
In Noah’s case, the rain came down, and the rain was a witness to his faith, that his faith was justified. It took faith for Noah to build the ark.
- In verse 4, 5, and 7, there is a present witness.
- In verse 39 there is a promise of the future—faith that God will do what He says He will do.
- In verse 40 there is mentioned perfection for all eternity. [Hebrews 11]
Five times in Hebrews 11 the Bible speaks about faith’s obtaining a witness for itself. [See Heb. 11:2,4,5,33,39].
All of the saints in Hebrews 11 obtained a witness for their faith.
Many afflictions came to those who lived by faith, and even their afflictions were a testimony of their faith.
Hebrews 11 is not only the Faith Hall of Fame, but the Company of the Risk Takers.
Hebrews 11 is not only the Faith Hall of Fame, but the Company of the Risk Takers.
Carl Bloch, 1890
Some people would rather look for the second coming of Jesus than deal with the implications and demands of His first coming.
Faith does not create its own object, but it does create its own reward or testimony. Illustration: a father’s rewarding his children with a much-desired gift.
If you live in the Company of the Risk Takers, God will give you a reward for living the life of faith.
Whenever you lose joy in the Christian life, whenever you lose meaning, it may because you’re no longer living by faith.
Vance Havner said, “They’re a whole lot of people who are worried about going out on a limb who haven’t even climbed up the tree.”
They’re a whole lot of people who are worried about going out on a limb who haven’t even climbed up the tree.
—Vance Havner—
The writer of Hebrews is saying to us that the Christian life is to be the life of burning enthusiasm, of riskful extravagance. It is to be a life lived right on the edge so that we come almost to the point of disaster, so that God steps in and does for us what we cannot do. Too many of us are living very predictable lives.
Step out on a limb today! Step out on a limb tomorrow! Go for it! Paul and Silas lived on the edge of life, in the Company of the Risk Takers. John was a man of flammable faith! They put him on Patmos to keep his faith from spreading.
The Christian steps out on the limb knowing God is always there, and he gives God a chance to prove that He’s there so that faith bears its own witness.
There is the Company of the Risk Takers, but there is also the Council of the Wait and See, of which Gamaliel is representative.
There are a lot of people who live the Christian life in the Council of the Wait and See.
The Council of the Wait and See is about to kill Christianity. These are Christians who never get involved, who sit on these pews week in and week out, and when you call for visitation they’re never there, when you call for involvement they’re never there. Oh, they’re opposed to abortion, but they don’t want to ever do anything about it. I want to tell you folks that life is full of issues that we had better get involved in and we had better get risky with, and we had better get out on the cutting edge or they’re going to overwhelm us and there won’t be any place for you to rest on your pew!
I want to tell you folks that life is full of issues that we had better get involved in and we had better get risky with, and we had better get out on the cutting edge or they’re going to overwhelm us and there won’t be any place for you to rest on your pew!
—C. Mark Corts—
Too many in the Christian faith have joined the Council of the Wait and See. No wonder life has lost its meaning. No wonder the Christian life has lost joy. If there is no risk there is not joy!
Will you be a spectator of the gospel or a participator in the gospel? The question confronts all of us. We must be in the Company of the Risk Takers or we will slide automatically into lifetime membership of the Council of the Wait and See.
Everything that is related to the gospel is worth risking your life for. We need to get off the middle of the fence! Let us stop anticipating the future as a means of delaying involvement in the present.
If you’re going to get a good canoe ride, you must head for the white water. There is a risk, but the best ride is where the white water is!
This is the challenge: to head to where the white water issues of life are. To get out of the Council of the Wait and See and to get into the Company of the Risk Takers is to live life on the edge of faith where, if God doesn’t come through, nothing is going to happen.
While a world is lost and dying and going to hell, while millions of babies are being slaughtered, while young people are being lorded over by drugs, while millions of Americans are living a life enslaved to alcoholism, while the forces of the cosmos and the world and the flesh and the devil have trapped us and destroyed our marriages, we are sliding around the edge of the rocks the safe way where the quiet placid pool of water lays over by the edge—and the book of Hebrews is saying, get into the white water issues of life and make your life count!
The people of God should be known as risk takers.
The Company of the Risk Takers are those out there risking everything for the cause of Jesus Christ, and if it flops, they’ll be embarrassed, but God will restore them.
The life of faith has its greatest rewards at the point of its greatest risk.
A second thing about canning is that when you get into the white water you better paddle for all you’re worth! Act! Do something! Take more than one step of faith!
Every time we’ve stepped out in faith God has given greater reward than the time before, and He’s never let us down.
God prospers and brings joy to the Company of the Risk Takers.
As long as you are alive, God calls you to be in the Company of the Risk Takers, no matter the consequences, and the Christian life is a life lived on the edge of faith where the white water is!
You can either slide through life into a pool of mediocrity, never taking a risk, never facing the issue of the gospel, or you can abandon your way into immortality and obtain this testimony: that by your faith, in the Company of the Risk Takers, you pleased God!
—Dr. Mark Corts—
top image: Photo by Chen Hu on Unsplash
“When Faith Bears Witness” is a sermon preached by Dr. Mark Corts at Calvary Baptist Church in Winston-Salem, NC, in 1987.
This summary of Dr. Corts’s sermon copyright © 2019 by B. Nathaniel Sullivan. All rights reserved.