Dr Greg Bahnsen - Proverbs: Proverbs 14:15 (Gullibility) (Part 60)

This Lord's day in your Bibles to the 14th chapter of Proverbs, we'll take as our reading the 15th verse. Again, we have one of those instances where just one verse will be plenty to claim our attention for a few minutes this morning as we consider God's word and its teaching. Proverbs 14:15. Hear now, God's word. The simple believes every word. But the prudent man looks well to his going. And thus far the reading of God's word. J.L. mencken was a very pungent pundit and social commentator, no friend of the Christian religion, as we would understand. Shouldn't surprise us then that once Menkin defined faith as an illogical belief in the occurrence of the improbable. An illogical belief in the occurrence of the improbable. I think, however, that Mencken was demonstrating his animosity to genuine faith when he defined it that way. Because if you'll stop and reflect on it, what he defined was not faith, but gullibility. Gullibility is an illogical belief. Gullibility does believe that things happen which are improbable, but faith doesn't. And we'd like to look at that as we consider Proverbs 14:15, where we read that the simple believes every word. The simple here is a way of referring to the fool. It's one of the Hebrew expressions used in the Book of Proverbs for the fool. The fool, as you may remember in that sermon that I preached on the Rogues Gallery from Proverbs, the fool has a lot of different aspects to his character, and there are many ways of designating him, and simpleton is one of them. The simpleton, the foolish man, believes every word. The wise, on the other hand, the prudent man looks well to his going. We learn from this that if faith is going to be a true blessing to us, faith must be placed in the right things. Faith must be placed in the right people. Otherwise faith becomes a gullibility which is eternally disastrous. As a matter of fact, indiscriminate faith is a risky business. It's beset with mischief and misfortune in our lives. As one commentator on this passage Bridges put it, to believe every word of God is faith. To believe every word of man is credulity, gullibility. And so the person who will believe anything, as the text says here, the person who will believe just anything is a fool who lacks discretion. Prudent men think things through. Prudent men think before they accept claims as true. Prudent men reflect on matters and gain confirmation about claims before they will act upon them. They they don't act upon mere hearsay. They seek verification of what others may say. The simpleton believes every word, but it's the prudent man who looks well to his going. This morning. From this text, I'd like us to see the need to develop a critical mind. Secondly, I'd like us to reflect on the gullibility of our age. Thirdly, on the simple mindedness of many Christians, and then finally on the nature of true Christian faith as we will see it in God's Word. First, the need to develop a critical mind that we not become those who believe just anything, like simpletons who believe every word. What is a genuinely critical mind? Let's make sure we get rid of one misconception at the very outset. A critical mind. What I mean by a critical mind, a genuinely critical mind, is not the carping, arrogant, self centered mind of people we call critics. I think we probably all know in our experience, people who have a negative thing to say about everything, I mean, they could find something wrong, and no matter what it may be, they can find something wrong in it. We call them critically minded sometimes and we sometimes are harsh about them being critical. But that is not at all the meaning of the word critical minded as I am approaching it this morning. The critical mind is not the arrogant mind. It is rather the mind that is trained to think cautiously. The critical mind learns to cross examine claims that are made not in an arrogant spirit, but in a cautious spirit. The spirit that attempts to be principled and consistent in arriving at its conclusions. I don't often quote Socrates from this pulpit because I haven't got a great deal of respect for the philosophy of Socrates. But he did once say something that I think we can agree with, at least formally. Socrates said the unexamined life is not worth living. As Christians who read the Book of Proverbs, we can see that long before Socrates in his minimal wisdom caught on to that, God in his maximal wisdom was telling us this. The simpleton believes every word. It's the wise man who has a reflective critical mind. The life worth living cross examines, claims, stops and thinks about the meaning of life. What is true, what is false, doesn't act precipitously, but rather acts on good, firm evidence. And so we need to develop critical minds if we're going to be God's people. You're going to hear some things now from this pulpit that I dare say you don't hear in many pulpits in Our land. One of the things this teaches you is that you probably all should buy a book on logic and study it. What? Christians study logic? No. We're governed by faith, right? We're governed by emotion. We're just kind of lifted by the spirit of God. We don't need to take such dry academic things like logic seriously. Oh, yes, you do. If you're going to be anything like the Apostle Paul, you'd better know some logic. If you're going to be anything like the Lord Jesus Christ and the way he dealt with his opponents, you need to learn some logic. Now, I don't believe that the only way to gain a knowledge of logic is by buying a textbook and going through it. I don't mean to suggest that, but for many of us, that may be the most convenient and most efficient way to do it. If you do not think logically as a Christian, that is not a virtue. We may kid one another about that. It's all right to be good natured and to spur one another along with that. But we should never take seriously the idea that you could accept an illogical mind as being a Christian virtue. It is not. Is God illogical? No. God, of course, is the highest expression of logic, clarity and truth. And we are supposed to think God's thoughts after him if we are his people. And therefore we should learn to think logically. Does God tell lies? No, there is no lie in him. The Bible tells us we need to understand that when we do not reason in a logical way, we are participating in error. We're participating in a lying form of reasoning. When I say, here's a premise, here's another premise. Therefore we can draw this conclusion. I'm saying you may rely on this conclusion on the strength of the premises I gave. And that is a lie if the conclusion does not follow from the premises. If I have been illogical in my thinking, I have not honored the truth. I have not honored the very character of God. What do you think Paul was getting at when he said in Second Corinthians, chapter one. But our word to you was not yes and no. We did not come preaching contradictory things to you. It is important that we be consistent. It is important that we speak the truth. It is important that we say things which have good evidence for them. And therefore, let's not be simpletons who believe every word. Let's be those who have a critical mind that thinks cautiously and consistently and therefore is interested in logic. Now, for those of you who haven't had courses in logic, you're not going to get it this morning in this sermon, although wouldn't that be unique to have a course in? Maybe we ought to have a Sunday school class in logic. We've talked about that. There's nothing unchristian about that, and many Christians could benefit from it. But I just want to say one or two things about logic as we touch on this in passing. First, please be aware that that not all logic is what is called formal logic. Formal logic is that logic that deals with language translated into a formal or symbolic language. You'll sometimes open a logic book and be scared off because you'll see things like if P, then Q, not Q, therefore not P. And you're going, oh, what is all this about? Well, that's because P's and Q's and R's and S's and A, B's and C's and X, Y's and Z's have all been put in there and as place markers for propositions or premises or whatever the case may be. Sometimes classes that are denoted by those things and you may fill in the blanks as you wish. Please don't be scared off by the formality of a logic textbook. Now we learn formal logic so that we're able to take many different kinds of mistakes and reduce them to just that, one formalized expression or many types of good lines of reasoning and reduce them to one formalized expression. It saves a lot of time to do that. It's valuable, and I think every Christian should know probably 6, 7, 8 of the formal laws of logic, the ones that are most commonly used in our expressions day by day in our conversations with people. And if you want, there are people in this congregation, and your own pastor would be glad to reduce those laws of logic to those six, seven or eight informal terminology that we all should know. I think it's also important that we understand that apart from formal logic, there is what's called informal logic, reasoning not in a symbolic language, but reasoning in a natural language, be it German or French or English, which is probably of more interest to us. And there are a lot of fallacies that are committed, just not so much in terms of the structure of one's reasoning, but rather in the kind of reasoning he engages in. For instance, if I say, you had better believe what I'm saying today or else I'm going to come punch you in the nose, that is a logical fallacy. It's an appeal to force, which is irrelevant to the merits of the case, whether you get punched in the nose or not. Has nothing to do with the truth of what I'm saying now. The informal fallacies all of us can understand, regardless of our adversity to that formalized language that's so scary in many logic books. If nothing else, each of you should at least pick up a book that deals with informal fallacies. It may also have formal fallacies and read that section. Know what it is to appeal to someone's background as though that had anything to do with the merit of their argument. How that's fallacious. Know what it is to reason on the basis of everyone says it's true, and therefore I believe that it's true. Those sorts of mistakes in reasoning can be easily discerned by all of you. You don't need to be a college graduate or a PhD in philosoph. And so I want you to take me seriously. Christians, if they're not to be simpletons, should learn some logic. But there's more to this as well. If we're going to develop a critical mind, as we need to, we need also to understand how experience and expertise plays a part in believing the things that we do. Sometimes we believe things on the basis of our own experience. We have found them to be true, and we've observed things to be true for ourselves. But we can't observe everything, can we? Not every experiment that takes place in a scientific lab is something that I have watched, that I have verified. When someone tells me, as a surgeon, I'm able to cut open your chest and do work on your heart. I don't know for certain, on the basis of my own experience, that that can be done. And so I trust the expertise of people I have to learn who is in a position to have had enough experience to know what he's talking about. So that my limited observations can be extended beyond the realm of my own thinking and rely upon some observations and some learning of others. But I'd be a simpleton if I believed everyone, wouldn't I? You see, the fact that I'm going to trust a surgeon's expertise about the ability to perform an operation doesn't mean I should believe just anybody when he says, hey, I can cut you open and do something interesting. We distinguish between surgeons and quacks. And Christians shouldn't be so filled with faith, understood as an illogical belief in the occurrence of the improbable, that we think anybody can do the work of a surgeon. And so we need to have experience and let that play a role in our reasoning. And we need also to extend trust to Others who have expertise, but not to everyone. And so we recognize that in some people, there is no experience or confirmation that backs up their claims. But beyond that, even in those who may have experience of something, we need to learn to have a healthy distrust of individuals who don't have a requisite objectivity about what they're saying. If I go into a store, let's say I want to buy a video recorder, I go into a store. I believe that the man behind the counter who's talking to me about my purchase has a lot of experience in these matters. I believe, on good evidence, I may believe he knows a great deal about VCRs. However, if I believe everything he tells me about the VCRs in his store and the price and the quality and so forth, I would be a simpleton, wouldn't I? And it's not just in that area. It's just about in every area when sales are being performed. You need to recognize that salesmen have other motivations than simple truth. That doesn't make them liars, it makes them salesmen. There's a difference. Right? The salesman wants you to buy his product not just because he thinks it's the best, but sometimes because he wants to make some money. Right? And that's why we take with a grain of salt what salesmen tell us. Now, I hope everyone's learned that lesson. I'm not telling you anything new. My point is there's a general principle involved there. Not only do you look for logical expression and expertise in what people are saying, but you also look for what we would consider requisite objectivity. What motives play upon this person to make them say what they're saying, or to exaggerate or to overemphasize what they're saying. Then one more thing. On the need for a critical mind. We really must, as Christians, avoid what I consider parallel errors. The first I'll call the error of leaning on the intellectual elite. One of my members, the members of our church, told me this week that it was his conception that many people, perhaps most people and Christians included, are not able to think things through for themselves and end up believing what some trusted individual tells them. And those trusted individuals, those who can actually think issues through and debate and reason and do research, they're, as he said, the intellectual elite. Well, I have to agree with him to this degree that there are those who are more intellectually minded and are respected for it might be considered an elite, and that many people do rely on them. They say, well, I just wait and see. What so and so says. And then I follow that because, I mean, I don't know anything about this. I can't think for myself in this issue. People do that. And it's a great error. God doesn't want you to be that kind of person. God doesn't want you to be someone who leans on the intellectual elite. But you see, the opposite error is just as mistaken, and that is resting in intellectual skepticism, saying, well, then no one can really know for sure. Since I'm not one of those intellectual elite, then I won't ever be dogmatic about anything because I can't think it through for myself. Christians are not simpletons who believe every word. They are people. This verse assumes that God's people, because of their righteousness and the wisdom that is given them from God, are able to develop a critical mind which is logical, which rests upon experience and verification, that recognizes expertise when there is expertise and authority to be seen, that look for objectivity in the things that they are told, that don't lean on an intellectually lead or rest in in an intellectual skepticism. They do believe things, but they believe them after cautious reflection, cross examination, consistent thinking. So we learn this from our verse. We must be critically minded. But there's something else that this verse leads us to reflect on today, and that's the gullibility of our age. Mencken said that faith is an illogical belief in the occurrence of the improbable. Doesn't that describe our age? When you stop and think about it, our age is indicted by this verse before us simpletons who will believe just about anything. You know, often it is said that Christians are against free thought. I debated an atheist once, many of you know, who held high the banner of free thought. He was the representative. He thought of free thought. And in my conversations and writing with this individual, I tried to make clear that we believe in free thought. Our problem is not free thought, but the lack of free thought. The difficulty with unbelievers is the dearth of genuinely free thinking among them. Today's students. In most of our universities and colleges across the board, today's students and our general populace along with them are like so many sheep led blindly to slaughter. That's the problem, is they don't stop and think freely. They listen to a professor, and because the Professor's got the PhD, they believe whatever he says. How many students have you met? I've met hundreds, I'm sure, who've gone off to college and because some anthropologist told them, you can't believe what The Bible says. They said, well, that's it for the Bible. You call that free thinking? I call that slavery. I call that simple mindedness. If they would stop and think freely and cross examine claims and do some research, they'd find out that the Bible holds up very well under cross examination. The difficulty Christians have with our age is not the spirit of free thinking. We wish there were more free thinking. The difficulty we have is with the blindness that Satan puts into the hearts and minds of people. And they follow blindly like so many sheep. They're professors to the slaughter. Look at the foolish fads of our age. Look at the inconsistent trends of our age. If you want to have some fun, you have a free afternoon. We all have some of those, right? Go pick up some magazines from the 1920s, the 1930s, the 1940s, 1950s, 1960s. You can stop about there because you'll have enough to laugh about. And just look at the ads and look at the sorts of things people write about and compare decade by decade by decade, the general mentality, what we might call the zeitgeist, the spirit of the age. In the 20s, what sorts of things did people believe about health then? What sorts of things did people believe about business then? And compare what they thought about health and business in the 20s to what they think about health and business in the 50s and then in the 60s? Of course, the 60s is the wildest period of all. But my point is, what is taken as the common sense of an age fluctuates incredibly, it fluctuates radically. And we're supposed to believe that. That our age is so mature, so intellectual, simpletons who believe any word that comes along. Just imagine the foolish things that our culture today believes. Maybe foolish things we believe about the Soviet government and its intentions toward us. I mean, we are like so many fools sometimes, as so often as put into newspaper editorials, it seems like we'll believe any dictator as long as he speaks of peace. It makes no difference whether his actions never support peace. It makes no difference whether his actions never support human rights as they're understood democratically. As long as he speaks the language, we'll listen, we'll invite him in, we'll hear him. I suppose that has a topical relevance in our day this week as we're entertaining one of these dictators who is guilty for the murder of people around the world under Soviet domination. But it's not just the Soviets. It's our own government too. It's our own doctors too. It's our own advertisers. Too. Our age is a gullible age. We'll believe just about anything. We like to say that, you know, Hitler, this terrible man, is the one who mastered the big lie. Say it enough times, say it loud enough, and people will believe you. But we practice that. We may condemn Hitler for doing it, but that's our general practice. You make enough claims as a politician or an advertiser or what have you, you make that claim enough times with enough emotional fervor to it, and you're going to have the vast majority of people willing to believe you because they are lazy, because they are slaves and they do not have a critical mind. Our age is a gullible age. And the gullibility of our age is perhaps best expressed in the failure to of the non Christian worldview. We have people all about us in the universities that will tell us Christianity is implausible, that will tell us Christianity is illogical, that will tell us Christianity cannot be believed and followed by anybody who's intellectually mature. And yet in these same universities you'll have people who are making these claims about Christianity unable to explain why they believe the most fundamental things about their own field, why they believe human nature is something special. If you're a psychologist or if you're not someone who holds to the uniqueness of human nature, if you're a behaviorist, you believe human nature is just an expression of animal behavior, why it is we accord dignity to human beings instead of treating them simply like animals. Just about any behaviorist will tell you that you should not experiment upon a human being without their permission. Well, stop and think about that. Why should a behaviorist ever say such a thing? We don't ask monkeys their permission to experiment upon them, or dogs or rats or amoebas. The fact of the matter is, when the behaviorist grants that you must get a consent form from somebody to do an experiment upon them, either physical or psychological. The fact is he is saying there's something special, special about this creature that we call human. And yet by his own philosophy he says there isn't anything special. He's just a complex expansion of what we know about animal behavior in general. Now you see, we should be critically minded enough to stand back and laugh at that like Elijah laughed at the priest of baal. This is preposterous. It is worthy of ridicule and sarcasm, these inconsistencies. We have philosophers who will tell us there is no God, you cannot believe in God. It is illogical. And then when you ask them, well then what's the foundation for the laws of logic, their necessity and universality, they'll give you nothing at all. And that's supposed to be logical, to have no foundation for logic at all? What I'm getting at is the Christian worldview can explain the dignity of man. The Christian worldview can explain the success of science. The Christian worldview can explain the necessity of the laws of logic. And yet those who are involved in dealing with human beings, science and logic, so easily discard it and have nothing to put in its place the failure of the non Christian worldview all around us. And yet that non Christian worldview, in whatever version or flavor you see it is preferred by people to humble submission to the revealed word of God. You see, so many intellectuals, so many professors, so many writers could have these problems dealt with in their philosophy of life if they would just once take the humble step of saying, God, you do exist, your word is necessary. But you see, that's so hard for those who pride themselves in their thinking to ever stop and say, I don't know everything. It's not dependent upon my research. I must believe. And something that goes beyond me, that transcends my experience and transcends my authority and control, calls for too much humility. Pride goes before a fall. And the pride of our age is seen in the failure philosophical, psychological, literary, all around us. And yet people still prefer the failures of our age to Christianity. The simpleton believes every word, but the prudent looks way well to his goings. We don't live in a prudent age. But you see, the indictment this morning can't end with the gullibility of our age. Sadly, we must speak thirdly now of the simple mindedness of so many Christians. There is a kind of mindless naivete in many professedly Christian circles. A mindless naivete that simply says have faith. You've heard this, you've seen this, haven't you? This kind of I don't want to think about anything. I just have faith. I think of the song that I believe was first published about 30 years ago. I don't know the exact date, but made very popular by some vocal groups. The lettermen have a very reverent rendition of I Believe. Yes, I Believe. I believe. For every drop of rain that falls the flower grows. Now there is an intellectual conviction. I believe, Yes, I believe. You know, you listen to that song. How many times have I listened to that and tried to analyze this? I believe. What, apart from these preposterous things like there's a flower for every Raindrop. I mean, why do I believe? In what do I believe in whom do I believe? Nothing, just I believe in faith is what it amounts to. It's faith for faith's sake. And the sad thing is that song was so popular in what was generally called a Christian culture because I think that is generally the theological outlook of so many churches. Faith in faith. Faith is a virtue regardless of where you place your faith. In fact, if you don't have anything to place it in, you still have faith. We're told simple mindedness which refuses to think long and refuses to think hard about issues. A simple mindedness that wants an uncomplicated doctrinal content or better, no doctrinal content to our Christianity. And it comes under the indictment of Proverbs. The simple minded believes anything, faith in just about anything. Well, not really faith gullibility. God requires us to be discerning in our thinking. And especially, especially does he require us to be discerning in our religious convictions. And you know why that is? Because we are not free to imagine just anything we want about God. When you go to a Bible study or religious discussion with people and they say, well, I'd like to believe about God, or it seems to me that this is the way God would be, you should recognize and perhaps even call down the affliction, offensiveness of that procedure that says what I want to believe about God has any authority at all or any relevance. It makes no difference what you wish to believe about God because you're not God and you don't frame him after your own imagination and he's not subject to your own whims. God is God and we are his creatures and we must think his thoughts after Him. We must think what is true about him based on his revelation period. In religious circles that have an open mindedness to just about anything people want to say about God offend the Almighty, they don't recognize his prerogatives, they don't recognize his sovereignty, they don't recognize his transcendence. There's no virtue to be simple minded as a Christian about religious matters and about doctrine. And I want to make clear that only the Protestant mindset can achieve what God expects of us as we see it in this verse and elsewhere in the Bible. Only the Protestant mindset is able to do that. And we're going to step on some toes, as I say this, but they need to be stepped on and stepped on hard. The Roman Catholic mentality that does not follow Sola Scriptura as its operating method, that does not Say only Scripture is the basis for what we believe about God. The Roman Catholic mentality cannot create the intellectual independence that God wants us to have as we cross examine all claims. It creates rather an authoritarianism that tyrannizes the minds of men. The Protestant mindset that is committed to sola scriptura also guards us against the looseness and the relativism of men in liberal churches who say you can believe just anything you want. No, you can believe only what the Bible says, only what God says about himself. And so we have the authoritarians on the one side, we have the relativist on the other, and the Christian cannot accept either one of those. Only the Protestant mindset that says every believer is a priest before God and every believer can open his Bible and see whether what you're being told is true or not. Only the Protestant mentality can achieve the kind of critical mindedness that God requires. And I have to tell you, as sad as it makes me, even in the Reformed churches in our day, we need to hear again and to follow more consistently the Protestant principle. How often have I run into people who believe things in the Reformed churches or take stands on doctrinal issues because a favorite professor or writer has said so? Is that supposed to be Protestant Reformed Christianity at work? When we see this, I see this in our presbyteries, I see this in our General Assemblies, I see this in what passes for Reformed literature that is published today. We pride ourselves in being Reformed and we act like Roman Catholics. We pride ourselves in being Reformed, we act like liberals. It's incredible. You couldn't tell the difference sometimes if you were to watch this deliberative assemblies, if you were to read the sorts of things that are published. And yet way back in 1846, when Bridges wrote his commentary on Proverbs, I find this quotation I have to share with you. He says the novelties of fancy accredited by some favorite name, readily pass for the revelation of God. Wow, he could have written that today. He goes on, never said a great name against the divine testimony. Even in the Reformed churches we need to hear that today the Protestant mindset says only Scripture. And I have the ability, because I am enlightened and born again by the Spirit of God, to open God's word and to test the claims that are made in 1st John 4:1. The apostle requires us to do that. He says, test the spirits which, whether they are of God. John doesn't say, believe everything that's said to you, even in the name of religion. There is a fascinating story which I Can't expound today. It will take another sermon to do that. But I want you to study it. In First Kings, chapter 13, maybe you'll remember a little bit of this story, how God raised up a prophet. We don't know his name. The prophet went to indict the false worship of the northern tribes. I think it's good. And the prophet was told by God to put the northern tribes under interdict, to excommunicate them, to use our terminology. You are not to eat with them. You are not to drink with them. You are to pronounce my condemnation, and you are to leave. As he went and pronounced the condemnation of God very faithfully and was tried to be stopped, a miracle was performed. I mean, there were all sorts of amazing things going on in the life of this prophet. That king tried to entice the prophet to stay and discuss this with. I mean, it's like the spirit of our age. I mean, we can negotiate anything, can't we? I mean, come on, let's talk this out. Can't we be buddies? And the prophet said, absolutely not. God had commanded him to leave without eating or drinking in the Northern territory. He was to go back to Judah. But there was one prophet that had stayed with the Northern tribes, who, when he heard about this, sent his son after. The prophet from Judah, encountering him, tells the prophet from Judah that he wants him to come home and eat and drink with him. He says, no, God's told me not to do that. And the claim is made. An angel of God told me to tell you otherwise. The prophet from Judah goes, and because he does so, on his way home, a lion attacks him and kills him with one blow. The story is elaborate. There's many more details to it. Fascinating. Like I say, a whole sermon could be given on that. But stop and think about that. God says, test the spirits, whether they are of God. Someone claims an angel of God told me that this is what you should do. Don't believe it. Just because he says that. Doesn't Paul tell us in Galatians, the first chapter, if even an angel from God were to preach another gospel other than what we've given? Don't believe him. Let him be anathema. Let him come under the curse of God. You see, that prophet of God who had done such a faithful job before the king of the Northern tribes should have realized that any other prophet who had stayed up with the idolatrous worship of the north was not worthy of his confidence. He should not have believed somebody who had already compromised his religious integrity by staying with the idolatrous tribes. And yet when he did so, he preferred what he knew in his heart of hearts to be the revelation of God. He preferred the claim that an angel told somebody else something contrary to what he knew to be the word of God. So you better believe. The Bible calls for critical mindedness about religious and doctrinal matters too. Test the spirits whether they are of God. Not every claim to be from God passes the test. Hebrews 13:9 says, Be not carried away by diverse and strange teachings. I sometimes get upset because, you know, in our circles there are individuals who seem to want to believe just every strange thing that comes along. They almost pride themselves in having weird beliefs. Hebrews says, don't believe every diverse and strange teaching that comes down the pike. Test the spirits whether they are of God. Because Ephesians 4, verse 14 says, no longer be children tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men and cross, craftiness after the wiles of error. Don't believe every wind of doctrine that comes blowing through the church. Don't believe every little breeze of a new idea that comes into your life. Test the spirits whether they are of God. You know what the Berean Spirit is. You know what the attitude of the Berean Church is as we see it. In Acts 17, verse 11, Luke tells us that the Bereans were more noble than those in Thessalonica. Because when Paul, who was an apostle of God, God came and preached to them, they tested everything he said according to the Scriptures. Whether it was so, can you imagine that the Bereans had the audacity to cross examine an apostle? And the Bible says good for them. You test the spirits. You take God's word and make it your absolute standard. This is what we call the Protestant spirit today. And we need more of it against the simple mindedness of so many Christians. Christians of our age. Well, let's conclude then. What is true faith? Mencken didn't understand it. He confused faith and gullibility. We've seen the need to develop a critical mindset. We've looked at the gullibility of our age and the simple mindedness of many Christians. What then, positively speaking, is the nature of true Christian faith? I'm going to give you seven different premises here for those of you who are taking notes that would be worthy of study and reflection beyond just the few moments we have today. First of all, if you're going to understand true Christian faith, you should see that we may not despise the intellect as a tool. We may not despise the intellect as a tool. In fact, you turn back in Proverbs to chapter one. What is the very purpose for which the book of Proverbs was given? Verse 2. To know wisdom and instruction, to discern the words of understanding, to receive instruction in wise dealing, in righteousness and justice and equity to give prudence to the simpleton, to the young man knowledge and discretion that the wise man may hear and increase in learning, and that the man of understanding may attain unto sound counsels. That's the whole point of the book of Proverbs. God's given us a whole book in the Bible to say, use your intellect, learn, grow mature intellectually. Don't despise the intellect as a tool. That's what fools do. Look at Daniel the first chapter. Turn with me in your Bibles to Daniel the first chapter. Remember, of course, that Daniel is one of the godliest men of the Old Testament. We learn about Daniel and his friends, for instance, in verse 4. For they were youths in whom was no blemish, but well favored, and skillful in all wisdom, and endued with knowledge and understanding, science, and such as had ability to stand in the king's palace, and that he should teach them the learning in the tongue of the Chaldeans. They didn't despise intellect, they exercised it, and they exercised it in a Godly way. Verse 17. Now as for these four youths, God gave them knowledge and skill, skill in all learning and wisdom, and Daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams, and at the end of the days which the king had appointed for bringing them in, the prince of the eunuchs brought them in before Nebuchadnezzar, and the king communed with them, and among them all was found, none like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. Therefore stood they before the king, and in every matter of wisdom and understanding concerning which the king inquired of them, he found them 10 times better than all the magicians and enchanters that were in his realm. What a testimony. Let it be said of us as Christians, that when we are cross examined, we're found to know 10 times as much as unbelievers in the same field. Don't despise the intellect as a tool. Jesus said, you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind. It is no testimony to Christianity when one we despise God with our minds. Let's love him with our minds. Let's not put the mind down. So the first Point is, don't despise the intellect as a tool. Second point, even in theological matters, even in religious worship, the intellect is vital at just the point where we might think it's alright to become mindless, just kind of float along emotionally, to become very spirit filled and in a frenzy, as it were, and to deprecate critical thinking and understanding in just that place. Paul tells us you must use your mind. First Corinthians 14, verses 15 and 16, First Corinthians, the 14th chapter, where of course you remember the problem in the Corinthian church. The charismatic gifts that are splitting the congregation are being used to abuse. And Paul says in verse 15 of that 14th chapter, what is it then? I will pray with the Spirit. Yes, I'll be enthused when I pray. Spiritually, I'll pray, but I will also pray with the understanding. I will sing with the Spirit. I will sing with the understanding also. Else, if thou bless with the Spirit, how shall he that fills the place of the unlearned say the Amen at the giving of thanks? Seeing that he knows not what you are saying, Paul says the understanding is crucial in worship. Even in worship, even when the charismatic gifts are being practiced. He says, you must pray with the understanding. You must sing with the understanding. Look at verse 20 of the same chapter. Brethren, be not children in mind, yet in malice be babes, but in mind be men. Where are the men among us intellectually? Where are those who will be mature with respect to their minds? Paul says, right when he's talking about religious worship, right when he's talking about the life of the church, don't despise the intellect. Be a grown up intellectually, be a man. So don't despise the intellect as a tool. Secondly, not even in theological and religious matters should intellect be put down. But thirdly, don't trust autonomous intellect. As a final standard. Your mind is a wonderful tool. It's a terrible standard. Think of it this way. The mind can be like a hammer, it cannot be like a yardstick. The human mind is a tool. It is not a final standard. In First Corinthians, chapter one, verses eight to 25, I think we have the most eloquent testimony to that fact. Beginning at the 18th verse, Paul says, for the word of the cross is to them that perish, for which foolishness, but unto us who are saved. It is the power of God, for it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of discerning will I bring to nothing. Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world, foreseeing that in the wisdom of God the world, through its wisdom knew not God? It was God's good pleasure, through the foolishness of preaching, to see save them that believe, seeing that Jews ask for signs and Greeks seek after wisdom. But we preach Christ crucified unto Jews a stumbling block, and unto Gentiles foolishness. But unto them that are called both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. Verse 5. Paul concludes that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. The intellect is not. To operate autonomously. Independently of God is a law to itself. The intellect is not a final standard. It is only a tool. It is a hammer, not a yardstick. In Colossians 2, verse 8, Paul says, Beware then, lest anyone should make spoil of you through philosophy and vain deceit. After the tradition of men, after the elementary principles of the world, and not after Christ. Paul says, be on the alert that you not get robbed of the treasures of wisdom and knowledge that are in Christ. And you'll be robbed if you follow a philosophy that's after the traditions of men, that takes its ABCs from worldly learning. And it's not a philosophy founded on the presuppositions of God's holy word. Beware of that. Well, you know this. You should know this, because in Proverbs we've read and we've said many times what Proverbs 3, 5 says. You're not to trust your own understanding, are you? You're not to lean upon your own understanding, but rather what? Lean upon and trust the Lord. And so the intellectual is not a final standard. That's something we have to say about the nature of true faith. Fourthly, we may not pride ourselves in our intellectual achievements. None of us can pride ourselves in our intellectual achievements. Back to First Corinthians, chapter 13, verse 2, the chapter on love. There Paul says, and if I have the gift of prophecy and know all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so as to remove mountains but don't have love, I am nothing. Intellectual achievement is nothing when it's not powered by godliness. 1 Corinthians 8. 1 Paul says, now, concerning things sacrificed to idols, we know that we have all knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, love edifies. See both do something that builds up Knowledge has a tendency to build yourself up in your own estimation. Love edifies others. Let's remember that those of us who do take seriously what the Proverbs and the whole Word of God says about having a critical mind and thinking doctrinal issues through and having truth at our disposal should never pride ourselves in that. Intellect is not a basis for us to puff ourselves up. It must be powered by godliness and be used to edify. And so fifthly, our minds must be controlled by the Word and the Spirit of God. That's the nature of true faith, to have a mind controlled by the Word and the Spirit of God. For the beginning of knowledge is the fear of the Lord. But fools despise wisdom and instruction. Proverbs 1:7. The beginning of knowledge is the fear of the Lord, a holy reverence and awe before him. Romans 3:4. Paul says, Let God be true, though all men are liars. We are so controlled by the Word of God that if the whole world were to conspire against what God said, we'd say, let God be true. Everyone else is lying about it. That's how confident we must be, not swayed by human opinion or majority votes. Let God be true, though all men have to be deemed liars. Romans 12:2 tells us we must be transformed by the renewal renewing of our minds. We have to have minds renewed by the power of God's Holy Spirit. In Second Corinthians 10, verses 4 and 5, Paul says, We're able to cast down strongholds and everything lifted up against the knowledge of God because we bring every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. That is the attitude of faith. Christ controls my mind. I believe his every word. His Word and spirit are my standard, My motivating power. Every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. First Corinthians 2, verse 16, Paul says, For who has known the mind of the Lord, that he should instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ. Isn't that an amazing claim for those who are Christians? We have the mind of Christ given to us by the power of His Spirit to think his thoughts after him. The mind of Christ is used in another famous passage in the New Testament. Do you remember it? Philippians chapter 2. Have this mind in you, which was also in Christ Jesus who humbled himself. Those who have the mind of Christ have great intellectual power. Those who bring every thought captive to Christ can throw down strongholds. But to have the mind of Christ means also to have a humble mind, because we recognize that our every achievement is based upon the Word. And the power of God and not our own ability. Sixthly, the nature of true faith. We must understand that what we've been talking about is a gift from God. It's not an achievement that we can attain and our own strength and our own wisdom. Remember Ephesians 2:8. For by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves it is the gift of God. That faith that you have is not your accomplishment. It's not your good work. It's God's gift. If you have faith this morning, praise God for it. If you have a foundation for thinking that I've been telling you about from God's word, it's not because you thought it through and you're smarter than others. It's not because you're more holy than others. It's not because you're more righteous than others. It's because God in his mercy favored you. Because God in his mercy gave you a gift in the greatest of those gifts is faith. Philippians 1:29 puts it very well. I'll read that for you as we move on. Paul says in that verse, Philippians 1:29 because to you it hath been granted in behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer in his behalf. But listen to that. To you it's been granted on behalf of Christ to believe in him. God gave that to you for Christ's sake He gave you faith. And lastly, what is the nature of this faith we've been talking about, which is not our achievement, but is God's work in our life, that he makes intellect a tool, not a standard? The nature of faith is trusting God's word on his say so. Trusting God's word on his say so. Three passages and then I'll bring this to an end this morning. Hebrews 11:1. Now, faith is the assurance of things hoped for, a conviction of things not seen. Does that mean faith is just faith? In faith, believing for believing's sake? Not at all. Look at verses 17 to 19. By faith Abraham, being tried, offered up Isaac, yea, he that had gladly received the promises was offering up his only begotten son, even he to whom it was said, and Isaac, shall thy seed be called. How could he do that? How could Abraham give up the son that had been promised to him, that was going to be the source of a great family and inheritance for him? Verse 19 accounting that God is able to raise up even from the dead, from whence he did also in a figure, receive him back. By faith Abraham operated, and by faith Abraham obeyed Accounting God able to keep his promises even to raise the dead if he had to do so. Abraham's faith is spoken of in Romans the fourth chapter as well. Looking now just at verses 18 to 21 of that glorious chapter, Paul says of Abraham, who in hope believed against hope to the end, that he might become a father of many nations according to that which had been spoken, so shall thy seed be. He believed according to what God said, against hope. He believed the word of God, and without being weakened in faith, he considered his own body now as good as dead, he being a hundred years old and the deadness of Sarah's womb. Yet looking unto the promise of God, he wavered not through unbelief, but waxed strong through faith, giving glory to God. That's faith. Believing God's word on his say so, Abraham's considers the deadness of his own body and the promise of God. And he says, I believe it. I'll have a soul. I do believe it. Against hope. He believes in hope according to what had been promised. One final passage, 2 Corinthians 11:3, that well known passage about simplicity. J.L. mencken may have hated it, but in God's sight it's of great value. Second Corinthians 11, the third verse, Paul says, but I fear lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve in his craftiness, your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity and the purity that is toward Christ, the simplicity that is toward Christ. You know what that word simplicity means? Childlike faith, very simple mindedly saying, if Christ says it, I believe him. Paul says, I worry that your minds will be corrupted. Like Eve was beguiled by the serpent, thinking she should become the final standard, that she should judge between God's word and Satan's word. He says, I'm afraid that you'll get like that. And when you do, when you start thinking your mind can start exercising control over our judgment of the word of God, you will lose the simplicity that is toward Christ, that childlike faith that says God is. So. How gullible are you? How easily duped are you? Those who believe God at His every word are deemed wise and prudent. And because they believe God at his every word, they don't believe everything men tell them. Because they believe God at his very word, they have a final standard by which to judge all the other opinions of men, all the way from religious claims of what angels might say, down to whether you can believe a salesman in the VCR store. Because God is the only final authority we are not simple minded with respect to the words of men, but we have a simplicity toward Christ. Those who refuse to trust God's word, on the other hand, become fools, the Bible tells us. Fools who are easily misled by the opinions of others. They are the ones, contrary to J.L. mencken, who are hopelessly gullible. Let's pray God this morning save us from gullibility and yet make us true men and women of faith, for we pray in Jesus name. Amen. I think that's not only that's not even a gracious misunderstanding, that's just lame.