The Second Step — Believers with a Stumbling-Block Faith

1He brought me back to the door of the house; and behold, waters flowed out from under the threshold of the house eastward, for the front of the house faced toward the east. The waters came down from underneath, from the right side of the house, on the south of the altar. 2Then he brought me out by the way of the gate northward, and led me around by the way outside to the outer gate, by the way of the gate that looks toward the east. Behold, waters ran out on the right side. 3When the man went out eastward with the line in his hand, he measured one thousand cubits, and he caused me to pass through the waters, waters that were to the ankles. 4Again he measured one thousand, and caused me to pass through the waters, waters that were to the knees. Again he measured one thousand, and caused me to pass through waters that were to the waist. 5Afterward he measured one thousand; and it was a river that I could not pass through; for the waters had risen, waters to swim in, a river that could not be walked through.

While you are in the flower-garden faith you cannot let go of the world’s habits, so you often close the door of faith that stands open toward God. Fail to leave the flower-garden faith, which is a child’s, and in the end you are cut off from God and can only walk an empty and confused road.

The second step of the stairway of faith is the faith in which everything that becomes a stumbling block in the life of faith has to be picked out by faith. While I was looking for what might be a stumbling block, I came across a piece of writing — I could not find out the author — about the bad habits that people who fail have in common. The first is self-deception, that is, a person who deceives himself: someone who does what goes against his conscience without thinking about it, or who pushes ahead even while his conscience pricks him. Pushing ahead while knowing that a thing is sin is defying God, and it is deceiving oneself, so it must be turned from. Believers who have to walk the narrow road must clear away the stumbling block Satan has set the moment they see it; if they are lazy and will not do the work, they will not get out of the world.

The second habit people who fail have in common is repeating unproductive behavior. That is, a person who wastes a precious life, because it is evidence of not living by the Word.

Proverbs 24:33-34

33a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep; 34so your poverty will come as a robber, and your want as an armed man.

Knowing the good way and not doing it is sin. Turn the moment you think a thing wrong, and you will not waste the rest of your life; be diligent, and poverty will not come like a robber and want like an armed man. The reason believers must keep away from lewd and disorderly conduct is that sexual sin is a sin against one’s own body, which is why it bears no fruit of the spirit. Such people cannot experience the work of the Holy Spirit. That the law laid down stoning for the sexually immoral shows how greatly such sin hinders God’s work.

Believers are mirrors reflecting the light of Christ, so their lives show up very clearly against a dark world. It is like the way people both rebuked and respected the disciples who were beside Jesus. So the people of the world do not live well themselves and still say that believers ought to live well, because they believe in God. They press drink on you and hope you will not take it; they mock God and hope that believers at least will keep a good conscience. They behave this way because the conscience God gave is inside them.

Believers carry a commission to preach the gospel, so if they hold a bad habit that becomes a stumbling block they must throw it away for God. Diligent people do well at the life of faith too; the lazy know a thing in their heads and do not carry it into action, so their faith does not grow either. The diligent succeed because they use the time given them well and build themselves up through ceaseless self-training. Setting a goal and running toward it is hard, but the goal is reached because there is diligent effort that never stops. How much more, then — believers who are lazy cannot carry their calling. If believers clear away stumbling blocks for the sake of the truth and live humbly and wisely, they will climb the stairway of faith with long strides.

The third is a person who behaves without manners, insists on his own ideas, and takes a negative and critical attitude toward everything. However close a relationship is, there is a line in it that must be kept. People without manners nearly always hold negative thinking and a critical attitude. Stubbornness and self-will set a person back, so you must listen to what others say. To have manners, a good character has to be formed in childhood. If you watch your child behave without manners and think you will teach him later because he is still small, that becomes the cause of missing the moment. Children grow up watching their parents’ conduct and judgment and decisions, so care is needed; and only when husband and wife think the same thing and say the same thing is the child not confused.

God is always showing us the unchanging word of truth and a holy character. And thinking about it: wherever believers call on God he answers with an unchanging love and leads them by good ways, so you too must carry the calling he gave you whole.

The fourth is a person who lacks the ability to set priorities and so makes needless arguments and problems; the odds are high that such a person will fail. If you do not know what comes first in a task, you have no ability to judge rightly whenever a problem comes and you become a wearying person who makes arguments. With wisdom, however high the problems pile up, you know the order of the work and handle it accurately and quickly. But a dull person does not even understand what others handle wisely, and so makes the problem over again. Dull and lazy, a person misses the chance to grow and wastes time, and in the end such a person can only fail. If even the world fails when it holds conditions this bad, how much more — a believer with these conditions will not come to a mature faith.

The stumbling block in faith is not letting go of human righteousness. It is trusting your own judgment and acting as you please rather than obeying the Word. So a person throws away all of God’s grace with feeling and temper and stops growing, and will in the end live a failed life. When you do not know what comes first, simply copying or obeying the faith of those ahead of you in faith can bring you to a similar step. Letting go of pride and stubbornness and human righteousness and listening to the Word will help greatly in throwing away stumbling blocks, so you must open your heart.

A believer can see his own sin and weakness only by standing before God. Only by grasping through God’s eyes how utterly empty a life is can you hold a humble faith. So you must have the wisdom of the Word that can go around the stumbling blocks. Though you pound a fool in a mortar with grain and a pestle, his folly will not be taken from him — so may you have the wisdom to look at yourself by the light of Jesus Christ.

Genesis 19:25-26

25He overthrew those cities, all the plain, all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew on the ground. 26But his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.

The classic person who died because she could not let go of the world in her heart is Lot’s wife. She heard the angels’ word of salvation, that Sodom would be destroyed so get out quickly, and she was a blessed person who was taken out of the place of judgment by angels. In just this way we have been told beforehand that the world will certainly meet Christ’s wrath and be judged, so believers who live knowing the future must not make the choice Lot’s wife made. Lot’s wife was being taken along the road of salvation by an angel, against her will, but her heart had not yet come out of Sodom. She knew God’s judgment was coming and still fell over the stumbling block of possessiveness, because of the property and the jewels and the relationships left behind in a city about to be destroyed. She knew that living meant running forward with the judgment behind her, and in the end she committed the sin of looking back and became a pillar of salt.

Look at the judgment that fell on Lot’s wife, and you see that faith is not a thing that happens by being dragged; it can only grow if the person believes and follows. On the day Jesus Christ returns, believers with an honest faith will meet the Lord in the air, but a faith that is not true will be left on this earth under judgment.

God holds a true faith more precious than an outward performance. When Jesus rose on the third day Thomas was not there, and he said he could not believe what the disciples told him. But Jesus had been telling Thomas his plan for three years, and had he listened to that word sincerely he would have believed his brothers. That he did not trust them when the disciples and many others said they had met the risen Jesus is evidence that he had not been listening to Jesus’ words all along. Thomas, always negative and self-centered, said he would believe only when he saw the nail marks in his hands, and that he could not believe without putting his own finger into them. Humanly he can look like a very precise and reasonable man. But God is not believed by human certainty.

John 20:29

29Jesus said to him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen, and have believed.”

Thomas did not believe because he could not truly trust Jesus. Looking at him, Jesus said, have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed — telling us that God’s plan and its fulfillment are not something human common sense and knowledge can understand. Faith is not held by human common sense and knowledge and understanding. Once God’s existence is believed spiritually, you can find his providence in every event that happens in the world.

Do you believe in the risen Lord because you saw him with your eyes? You believe because it is written in the Bible, you believe because the Holy Spirit made you believe, and you came to faith by hearing the gospel from someone who preached it. Believing in the Christ seated on the throne is a faith no one can ever hold without letting go of human righteousness completely. Trusting Jesus Christ is the only road to obedience, and a believer who trusts the Word will not have his faith shaken in any situation. Believers who work at clearing away every stumbling block in order to obey Jesus’ words will grow into the faith God wants.

When Lot’s wife entered Sodom, beautiful as Eden, she probably gave thanks that her husband’s good faith had brought them the world’s blessing. A faith like this woman’s, thankful only while life is comfortable, has no strength to overcome when suffering comes and falls easily. When she heard the angel say Sodom would be judged, Lot’s wife frankly could not believe a city as great as Babylon could disappear. Had she been obeying God’s word all along, she would have believed without doubt when the angel told her. But she was grieved to see her possessions disappear, and she looked back.

If I tell you to let go of greed and not to live for the world, your mind will fill with thoughts. People who have lived for the world will not believe the words about Jesus’ return and the world’s destruction. But Lot’s wife doubted to the end, and though she heard the sound of Sodom being destroyed with her own ears and saw all she owned burn with her own eyes, she was not saved. That you are hearing a sermon about Lot’s wife now may well be an opportunity. Saying you will turn after you have seen it with your eyes leaves you no opportunity, as it left her none.

Many churches preach a faith that seeks blessing, that living well is God’s blessing, so believers hold faith as a tool for living well. But that faith is not true faith, so it must all be thrown out of the heart. The very thought that your children succeeded and got on because you believed God well is the heart of idol worship, and it is the same faith Lot’s wife had. Of course being rich is better than being poor, and succeeding is better than failing. But a success with no God at the center of life is a failure, so you must know what comes first and hold your faith accordingly. Lot’s wife looking back at the Sodom where she left her property, and believers today wanting worldly success as the price of believing God, are the same thing. Keep in mind that if you cannot let the world go and fall over the stumbling block of destruction, as Lot’s wife did, there is no second opportunity.

The believers who are taken up into the air on the last day, hearing the trumpet that praises Jesus Christ, are those who received Jesus Christ purely. Being caught up into the air and living as people of heaven is the reason a believer lives a life of faith, so without living by an honest faith there is neither resurrection nor eternal life. Holding the most basic true truth is itself the road to salvation.

Believers have gone on hearing that if they give well there will be no room to store what is given back, and so they give hard in order to be blessed. But that comes out of a wish to be repaid, and that is why when suffering comes they complain as though it were God’s fault and leave the church. It is because they hold their faith for their own profit rather than out of thanks for the sacrifice of the Jesus who pulled them out of death. Believers must obey Jesus Christ in any situation, and must not bargain with their faith for worldly success. God is not, like an idol, someone who exists for a person’s blessing. He does not give blessing because someone put their heart into an offering. A person who cannot tell God apart from the gods of the world and works at getting what they want should know that in the end they hold a faith that has nothing to do with God.

Joshua 6:18

18But as for you, only keep yourselves from what is devoted to destruction, lest when you have devoted it, you take of the devoted thing; so you would make the camp of Israel accursed, and trouble it.

The spiritual world and God’s will are not hidden deep, so you can receive an answer by asking and knocking and seeking, without doing evil as Achan did. Israel was one body, so if even one person committed the sin of taking what belonged to God, all Israel was counted as having done wrong and disaster came. This is the same principle by which the whole human race became sinners through the sin of one man, Adam. When Jericho was conquered, the command not to take plunder as they pleased was given in order to teach that this was a war God had entered.

But Achan heard God’s word and could not overcome human greed, and hid a robe and silver and gold in his own tent. It was not that he had not heard the command; he could not step over the stumbling block of greed. Achan thought, humanly: it may be a war God won, but we could win because I marched around Jericho, and I fought with everything in me, so I am entitled to all of this.

Pride like this goes before destruction, so it does not fear God. Achan could not shake off Satan’s temptation — God cannot be seen, so it is enough to deceive Joshua — and he fell. There was no reason to give it up when deceiving Joshua alone would let him keep it. But there was one thing Achan did not know: Joshua was a man of faith who heard God’s voice directly and lived by that word. Achan overlooked the fact that he could deceive Joshua, who was a man, but could never deceive the God who walked with Joshua.

A believer is a holy being who came into the world carrying a load of sin and enters heaven by faith as God’s child. When God calls you to take off the body and come, heaven is a place where even a person who owns a great deal can carry nothing, as Lot’s wife carried nothing. Not your possessions and not even your abilities are yours. A human being is a frail thing who borrows a moment like a dot in history and puts it back where it was and goes. God sent you into this world and gave you grace because only by receiving Jesus within a lifetime can you enjoy the eternal blessing of heaven.

2 Samuel 11:4

4David sent messengers, and took her; and she came in to him, and he lay with her (for she was purified from her uncleanness); and she returned to her house.

The tools Satan uses most on pastors and believers are blocking wisdom so that spirits cannot be discerned, and giving a greed for lewdness and money and honor. Bound by Satan, even a wise person judges foolishly and does not fear God; and David too had let his guard down, since Israel was always winning its wars.

Second Samuel 10 shows David winning a great victory, killing seven hundred Aramean chariots and forty thousand horsemen, and after that staying in the palace instead of going out to war. But looking at the sin David commits through this event, I found myself thinking it would have been far better for him to go out to the battlefield with his life on the line.

David was a man who did his utmost to lean on God alone and live by faith. But once God drove out the enemy and made his circumstances good, he fell into the world’s pleasure and committed an offense. The time when David committed his most wicked sin was exactly when he was living comfortably, without a care. God gave him peace to give him time to mature further while there were no stumbling blocks, and once the great problems disappeared he went looking around at the world. Walking on the palace roof, David saw Bathsheba bathing. Seeing how beautiful she was, he lost his discernment and his self-control, married woman though she was. David, who had always led Israel to victory by wise judgment, let his guard down for a moment and lost the spiritual battle with himself.

The war with Satan is a battle with oneself. Hard as it is, overcoming Satan’s thinking and craving is winning against Satan. But David, after taking Bathsheba, went on to commit the sin of killing her husband Uriah, who had been loyal to the country and to the king. David, praised so highly as a man after God’s own heart, could not clear away the sexual stumbling block Satan set and committed the sin of lewdness. This event is recorded as the most wicked sin of David’s whole life because he could not stop when he should have stopped.

God sent a fearful discipline on David, who had committed murder and rape. The son Bathsheba bore died for his father’s sin as soon as he was born, and among the children born to his several wives there was no end of violation and revenge and killing. His third son Absalom raised a revolt and, not content with driving his father out, committed the outrage of lying with his father’s concubines. David’s sin carried on into the misfortune of his descendants. Remember that this happened after a great victory in the war with Aram.

Even a godly person, if he grows proud as David did, as though the victory won in war were his own ability, falls without fail over the stumbling block Satan set. What we must grasp from David is that defeat and refining are not the only failure — joy also becomes a crisis, and victory and success can be the beginning of pain. If we cannot clear away the stumbling blocks of sexual temptation and pleasure and bad habits and pride that come when we are most at ease, we too can fall as David did.

There will be several stumbling blocks in your heart right now. If you can see a stumbling block now that you could not see in the flower-garden faith, it is evidence that the Word is at last colliding with your human nature, and you have grown that much. So believers can grow spiritually only by clearing away that stone, without fail, every time one comes into view.

Going along clearing stumbling blocks, it can feel wearying, as though you were falling behind others. But being shown the stumbling blocks in your heart — the greed for money, sexual desire, ambition for honor, pride, the pull toward idols — is God’s voice saying you can grow only by clearing them.

The step where a person is most likely to fall in the life of faith is the stumbling-block faith. It is the season that needs much patience and a resolve to live by faith, if you are not to fall to the temptation of the splendid garden. It is the season when it is easy to sin by compromising with the world because a stumbling block was not cleared, and the season when Satan tempts most. Of course, every step has the pain of letting go of greed and denying and giving up your own righteousness.

But if you lay your own weakness before God and pray, you will taste the great joy of the stumbling blocks that were stopping your faith disappearing. God blesses a believer who works this hard to live by faith always, so may you resolve boldly.