Morning Message Text: Hebrews 11: 1-3, 8-16
Faith in Action
1 Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.
2 This is what the ancients were commended for.
3 By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.
8 By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going.
9 By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise.
10 For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.
11 And by faith even Sarah, who was past childbearing age, was enabled to bear children because she considered him faithful who had made the promise.
12 And so from this one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore.
13 All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth.
14 People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own.
15 If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return.
16 Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.
Morning Message:
As we live out our faith in Jesus many questions can arise that we find hard to answer. I have found that the answers are attainable, but God reveals them to us slowly, much slower than we would like. I don’t believe that God thought it was necessary for us to have every answer to every question that we could possibly think of. God inspired his word for the purpose of saving mankind. The Bible, from Genesis chapter 1 verse 1 to Revelation chapter 22 verse 21, is intended to show mankind the way to salvation through Jesus Christ. It was never meant to be a self-help manual or a question-and-answer source. Some would have you believe that God’s word is like a crystal ball, or better yet, one of those magic 8 balls. Just ask it a question and the answer will appear. The devil loves to get us all tangled up in unimportant questions, and when we can’t find the answer, he uses it to make us doubt God. Here is a famous one that could get you all tied up in knots if you allow it. Where did Cain get a wife? The Bible tells us that after Cain killed Abel God punished him by exiling him to another land. He was alone, but we know that he had children because we read later about them. Let me ask you: Does it really matter when you consider the purpose of God’s word?
Now here is a question that you may have wondered about that there is an answer to. How were people saved in the Old Testament? Many Jewish people at the time of Jesus believed that salvation was a reward for keeping the law of God. In this view, salvation is something earned, not a gift of grace. If the keeping of the rules were a possible means of achieving salvation from sin and death, then Jesus’ sacrifice and resurrection—His atonement for our sins—would be unnecessary. People like Abraham had no scripture at all. The book of Genesis, which includes Abraham’s story was not written until hundreds of years after he died. If we pay close attention to Genesis 15 verse 6, just a few words, five Hebrew words are of importance. If we replace the pronouns, this reads: “Abram believed the Lord, and (the Lord) credited (his faith) to (Abram) as righteousness.” Abraham, and everyone before the time of Jesus was saved the same way that you and I were. By God’s grace and our truly believing God. Yes, Jesus paid the price for all sins, but salvation is given by the grace of God when we believe.
Abraham had faith, real faith, true faith. It takes faith for us to believe, and the only way to salvation is believing by faith. Salvation through believing in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ cannot be reasoned out in one’s mind or proven beyond a shadow of a doubt, it takes at least a mustard seed of faith. In the Bible, faith has the following three aspects:
Perception (The Mind). A person cannot have saving faith unless the mind embraces the content of the gospel. People must accept the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus as fact and then understand the personal implications of those events in their lives. Faith is not blind, but it is only as valid as the truthfulness of its object.
This question was asked of people in a survey: If you were going ice fishing this year on a frozen lake in the mountains, would you rather have a little bit of faith in a section of ice four-feet thick, or a huge amount of faith in a section of ice one-inch thick? Amazingly, many people choose to have faith in the thinner ice. The person taking the survey said, “Besides making a note to never go ice fishing with them, I love to point out that the object of faith must be worthy of their faith, or the amount of faith will not matter. Faith in Jesus must be worth it to you.
Persuasion (The Emotions). Although people may be under persuasion at the same time that they receive knowledge, many know the gospel but do not accept the gospel! Faith is a real conviction based upon the revelation of God: “Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ” (Rom. 10:17). Do you have a firm belief or just knowledge?
Volition (The Will). In this aspect, a person’s will responds with a personal commitment to and complete acceptance of Christ as the only hope for eternal salvation. Saving faith, then, consists of someone embracing all of Christ with their whole being.
Real faith does not bypass the mind and emotions. In a similar vein, intellectual understanding or warm feelings do not qualify as biblical faith if they do not lead to trust and action. Faith is an action word: Faith does. Faith works. The one real way to measure whether or not your faith is real and true is to take a good hard look at what you do with the new life that God has given you in Jesus.
In Christ’s Love and Peace,
Pastor Bob
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