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Colin Smith: Somewhere in your journey you're going to meet these three thieves. Faint-heart will threaten you, Mistrust will want to rob you, and Guilt will attempt to beat you up. And when you meet these thieves, you're going to have to exercise faith.

Steve Hiller: Welcome to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith. I'm Steve Hiller, glad you're with us today. Colin, today we're looking at a band of thieves?

Colin Smith: Yes, this is from John Bunyan's wonderful book, Pilgrim's Progress, in which he sketches these different characters. One of his characters is a person called Little Faith. And Little Faith gets beaten up by three ruffians who are Mistrust, Guilt, and Faint-heart.

Now, when you think about our own Christian experience, faint-heartedness, feeling like giving up—I know what it is to be beaten up by Faint-heart, and what it is to be beaten up by Guilt, what it is to be beaten up by Mistrust. I read the promises of God and then I think, can I really believe this? These are the experiences of our lives.

So what we're going to look at today is, what do you do, Little Faith, when you get beaten up by these thieves? They try to rob you and take away even what you have. There's a response to that, and we're going to look at that in the scriptures together today.

Steve Hiller: Well, let's look at that from the book of Luke. We're in chapter eight, verses 22 to 25 as we continue our message, "Applied Faith." Here is Pastor Colin.

Colin Smith: Some of you will know the book, Pilgrim's Progress, by John Bunyan. Bunyan pictured the Christian life as a journey. His main character was called Christian. Christian left his hometown that was called Destruction in order to go on a journey to the Celestial City, which was Bunyan's way of referring to heaven.

So his book, Pilgrim's Progress, is really a description of what happens in a life of faith, pictured as a journey from the City of Destruction to the heavenly or Celestial City. The main character, Christian, has many adventures on the way and meets with many fascinating characters.

One of Bunyan's characters is called Little Faith. I'm sure he took that directly from the fact that, as we've seen, Jesus said, "O you of little faith," on no less than five occasions. Little Faith lived in a town called Sincere. Like Christian, he decided that he needed to leave this town called Sincere in order to begin a journey to the Celestial City.

At one point in the story, Little Faith went down an alley that was called Dead Man's Lane. It had been given that name because of the many murders that had taken place there in the past. While he was in Dead Man's Lane, Little Faith was confronted by thieves. There were three of them, and their names were Faint-heart, Mistrust, and Guilt.

Faint-heart was the first to speak. In a very threatening way, he demanded that Little Faith give the thieves his wallet. Little Faith was so terrified he didn't know what to do. He just stood there, absolutely frozen to the spot. So Mistrust stepped forward and seized Little Faith's wallet out of his pocket.

At that moment, Little Faith shouted for help, "Thieves! Thieves!" At that, Guilt stepped forward with a big stick in his hand. He hit Little Faith over the head and then beat him down to the ground. Then the three thieves ran off, leaving Little Faith bleeding in Dead Man's Alley.

Bunyan here is giving to us a profound insight into Christian experience. Somewhere in your journey, you're going to meet these three thieves. Faint-heart will threaten you. Mistrust will want to rob you. And Guilt will attempt to beat you up. When you meet these thieves, you're going to have to exercise faith.

First, then, exercise faith when Faint-heart tries to scare you. You know what this is like in your own experience. You have perhaps an opportunity to serve. There's something good that you would like to pursue, but Faint-heart holds you back. Fear grips you. You don't want to fail, and so you don't step forward. You don't take a risk. You want to guard yourself at all costs against any possibility of failure.

What are you to do when Faint-heart crosses your path and tries to scare you? The answer is you must exercise faith. Faith responds to Faint-heart by affirming the strength that is yours in the Lord Jesus Christ. "I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength."

When you come to something that seems beyond you, exercise faith. Christ will bring you to places in your journey where you have no alternative but to depend upon Him. Faith grows when you see that what He calls you to is indeed beyond you, and you have to trust Him to give you what you do not have.

Tell Faint-heart that Christ is yours and in Him is all the strength that you need. Your Savior is with you. He who guards you will neither slumber nor sleep. His strength is made perfect in your weakness and His grace is sufficient for you.

Secondly, exercise faith when Mistrust attempts to rob you. In Bunyan's story, remember Little Faith was beaten up by Guilt, but it was Mistrust who robbed him. Of the two, it was Mistrust who did the greater damage. Little Faith recovered from being beaten up, dusted himself off, recovered from his wounds, and then pressed on in his journey to the Celestial City.

But since Mistrust had taken his money, Little Faith had a much more difficult journey. To be clear, Little Faith was and is, without question, a child of God. Even with little faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, you belong to Him. God indeed is your Father, and by His grace you will make it home.

Despite being beaten up in Dead Man's Lane, Little Faith at last arrived in the Celestial City. But here's the thing with Little Faith: his journey was not a happy one. Bunyan says he was forced to beg as he went and that he went with many a hungry belly.

That is a great description of a believer who is robbed by Mistrust. As a believer, you are rich in the Lord Jesus Christ, but Mistrust can make you live as if you were poor. Mistrust took away Little Faith's joy. It was Mistrust that made Little Faith's life and journey so difficult and often quite miserable.

What are you to do, then, when Mistrust tries to rob you? Faith responds to Mistrust by affirming the riches that are yours in Jesus Christ. You are blessed with every spiritual blessing in Jesus Christ. Even if you only have a little faith, you are loved. You are called. You are forgiven. You are redeemed.

The Holy Spirit of God lives in you, and you are destined for a life of eternal joy in the glory of the Lord's immediate presence. So tell Mistrust that Christ is yours and that all the riches that are yours in Him can never be taken away. Tell Mistrust, "My God will supply all that I need according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus."

Steve Hiller: You're listening to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith, a message called "Applied Faith," looking today at Luke chapter eight, verses 22 to 25. It's part of our series, "Grow in Faith." If you've missed any of the programs in the series, you can listen online. Our website is openthebible.org.

There you can stream the broadcast or download an MP3 for free. You can also listen through the Open the Bible app, which you'll find for free at your app store. Or again, listen online at openthebible.org. At the website and through the app, not only can you listen to this daily radio program, but also our weekly broadcast. You can check out our daily devotional, our blog, and a lot more. So again, find the app, Open the Bible, for free at your app store, or come to openthebible.org. Back to the message. Again, here's Pastor Colin.

Colin Smith: Exercise faith when Faint-heart tries to scare you. Exercise faith when Mistrust attempts to rob you. And then thirdly, exercise faith when Guilt wants to beat you up. Bunyan says repeatedly in his remarkable story that Little Faith was a good man. He came from a town called Sincere.

Like the rich young ruler, he was the kind of person who had sought to live his life according to the commandments of God. But when he started out in his journey to the heavenly city, he was confronted by this thief called Guilt. I don't suppose that Little Faith had ever been confronted by Guilt before. But when he started out on his journey, Guilt found him.

That may be your story, too. You're a sincere person. You've lived a good life. There's no wild rebellion in your story. You were always a good student, always got good grades. But now since you have begun a serious journey of faith and you're seriously seeking to follow the Lord Jesus Christ, suddenly you find in a new way that surprises you that your own conscience is awakened.

You see sins in your life that you never saw before. You're beginning to discover, to your own shock and horror, that you're actually not the little angel that you once thought you were. What do you do when Guilt is ready to beat you up? You exercise faith. Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Faith in the promise of God that as far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us. You exercise faith in the promise of God where He says to you in scripture, "Your sins and your iniquities I will remember no more."

Faith responds to Guilt by affirming the grace that is yours in the Lord Jesus Christ. Tell Guilt that Christ is yours and that in Him you are washed. You are cleansed. You are forgiven and you are reconciled to God forever.

So here are three thieves, and you will encounter them in your journey through the Christian life. Faint-heart will try and steal your confidence, fill you with fear. Mistrust will try and take away your joy. Guilt will attempt to rob you of peace.

Resist these thieves by exercising faith. Tell Faint-heart that Christ is yours and in Him is all the strength that you need. Tell Mistrust that Christ is yours and that the riches that are yours in Him can never be taken away. Tell Guilt that Christ is yours and that in Him you are forgiven.

God does not give us faith as a kind of toy to play with. He gives us faith because we're going to need it and because He wants us to use it. Faith involves an intentional engagement in which you trust the Lord Jesus Christ in regards to the realities of the experience and circumstance that you're actually facing now.

"Where is your faith?" That's the question Jesus asks us. Where do you most need to apply your faith today? In what do you need to trust Him? I want to end today with three encouragements for believers with little faith. I want to encourage those who feel that you're only at the beginning and that your faith is really quite small.

First encouragement for you is that little faith is infinitely better than unbelief. Infinitely better. God invites us to believe. He says, "Turn to Me and be saved, all the ends of the earth." But He not only invites us to believe, He commands us to believe. Did you know that God commands us to believe?

First John chapter three and verse 23: "And this is His commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son, Jesus Christ." His commandment. Unbelief, you see, is not only a refusal of God's invitation, it is a defiance of God's command.

John tells us that God did not send His Son into the world in order to condemn the world, but in order to save the world through Him. Then he adds these words: "Whoever does not believe is condemned already because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God."

Unbelief puts you on a collision course with God. So beware of a heart that becomes hardened in unbelief. If that is your position, repent of it and ask that God would have mercy upon you. "Take care, brothers," says the writer to Hebrews, "lest there be in any of you an unbelieving heart leading you to fall away from the living God."

An unbelieving heart is a terrible thing because it not only refuses God's invitation, it actually defies His command. And so I want to say that if you have just a little faith, you are in an infinitely better position than someone who refuses to believe. Thank God for that little faith. That's the first thing.

The second encouragement is this: that not only is little faith infinitely better than unbelief, but little faith can grow. That, of course, is the whole point of this series. You may ask the question today, well, what hope does little faith have against these thieves?

How can he stand up or she stand up when his or her faith is only small? What can little faith do? The answer to that question is little faith can do more than he or she thinks. Exercise the faith that you have and God will give you more. Why should God ever give you more than you actually intend to use?

This is how it works: God gives more faith to those who use the faith that they already have. We have therefore seen seven strategies for growing in faith. You grow in faith as you seek God's kingdom, as you get to know Jesus, as you worship, as you're nourished by the word, as you persevere, and as you ask of Jesus.

All of these are ways in which you actually exercise faith. Little faith is infinitely better than no faith, but no believer should ever rest content with little faith. God calls us to grow in faith, and as we pursue these strategies by His grace, we will. So be encouraged.

The last thing is this: that little faith is saving faith if it is faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. So if through this series you've felt, "Yeah, my name really is Little Faith," the good news is if your name is Little Faith, then your name is written in the Book of Life.

Jesus saves all who believe in Him, even if their faith is little. There's been a long debate in the history of the church about faith and assurance. Is having faith the same as being sure that you will be in heaven? Is it possible to have faith without being sure?

I think that our Lord Jesus' repeated reference to little faith should make us cautious about identifying faith with assurance. Some believers will be surprised to find themselves in heaven. "I had so many unanswered questions. I had so many doubts and so many fears. My faith was never as strong as I would have liked it to be." And yet here I am.

Little faith will arrive in heaven because we are not saved by the strength of our faith, but by the strength of our Savior. For those of us who feel like our faith is small, not like what we want it to be, that is such good news, isn't it? We're not saved by the strength of our faith, but by the strength of our Savior.

Steve Hiller: You're listening to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith and a message called "Applied Faith," part of our series, "Grow in Faith." If you ever miss a broadcast in the series, come and listen online. Our website is openthebible.org.

There you can stream the broadcast or you can download an MP3 for free. You can also listen on demand with the Open the Bible app, which you'll find for free at your app store, or again, come and listen online at openthebible.org.

Open the Bible is listener-supported. We're able to bring you Pastor Colin's teaching because of your generosity. As you give a gift of any amount this month, we want to send you a copy of Pastor Colin's new 30-day devotional book called Grow in Faith. Colin, who is this book for?

Colin Smith: Well, it's for everyone who wants to grow in their faith, and hopefully that's every Christian believer. You know, the disciples at one point said to Jesus, "Lord, increase our faith." They'd been following Jesus for some time when they said it.

They'd left everything in order to follow Him, but they came to a place at one point where they realized, we're going to need to grow in faith. I think every Christian comes to a place like that. "I've been trusting Jesus for some time, but now I'm facing circumstances where I'm really going to have to trust Him. Lord, increase my faith."

So this 30-day devotional book is designed to help and encourage growing in faith. I have loved working on this and am very excited about the opportunity of sharing it with you.

Steve Hiller: Well, we'd love to share a copy with you as our thank you for your financial support this month. You can give online at openthebible.org or when you call 1-877-OPEN-365. That's 1-877-673-6365 or openthebible.org.

For Pastor Colin Smith, I'm Steve Hiller. Thanks for listening, and I hope you'll join us next time. This program is a listener-supported production of Open the Bible.

Colin Smith: Hi, this is Pastor Colin again, and I want you to know about "Watch Your Doctrine." "Watch Your Doctrine" is a six-session course that is geared for leaders but accessible for every believer.

The six sessions will introduce you to six central truths of the Christian faith: how we know God, how God speaks to us, how sin affects us, how God's Spirit brings new life, how we're made right with God, and what Jesus accomplished on the cross.

There are questions at the end of each session, and you can use them on your own or you can discuss them with a friend. For more information or to begin this free online course, visit openthebible.org/courses. That's openthebible.org/courses.