Participants: Mark Howard & Jim Howard
Series Code: GBOTB
Program Code: GBOTB00005B
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00:05 Welcome back to Books of the Book.
00:07 We have been in the book of Galatians and we are studying 00:09 about the hearing of faith. 00:11 In Galatians 3 the apostle Paul talks about how the 00:15 Galatians had been obedient while they had the hearing of 00:18 faith but they turned from that to the works of the law. 00:21 Jim you had said before the break where you went to 00:26 Romans 23:23 where it's said the faith establishes a law. 00:30 Now I want us to look at an interesting passage in 00:32 the book of Romans 1:5. 00:36 It depends on which translation that you are reading 00:39 whether you will pick it up right away, but the language 00:43 of this is very interesting in the original language and 00:46 it is expressed in different versions. 00:47 I'm reading in the new King James Romans 1:5 and the 00:50 apostle Paul is talking about the Gospel of Christ and in 00:53 verse five he says, "through him" speaking of Jesus, 00:56 " we have received grace and apostleship for obedience to 01:00 "the faith among all nations for His name, among whom 01:04 "you also are the called of Jesus Christ;" and he goes on. 01:09 Now what this translation does not bring out, 01:12 but for example if you were to read it in the King James 01:16 Version or in the English Standard Version for example 01:20 it says, "for the obedience of faith. " 01:24 The NIV says, the NIV actually says, 01:29 the obedience that comes from faith, and that is 01:33 the sense that is given in the original. 01:34 So the idea being conveyed from the apostle there is 01:40 that obedience is a result of faith, that actually faith 01:45 exercising your faith is obedience. 01:48 Obedience is simply the exercise of faith. 01:50 Right, so obedience is evidence of faith, true obedience 01:53 that goes from the inside and finds its way into your 01:55 outer life. - that's right it is true there is an 01:58 outward obedience that you can render from the heart of 02:00 Bible faith is a living principle in the life 02:04 of a Christian that responds to God. 02:07 That is right, that is right Amen. 02:11 Well it makes me think about, when you talk about the 02:14 hearing of faith in Romans chapter 10. 02:17 Because in Romans 10:17 it says "that faith comes by 02:20 "hearing and hearing by the word of God. " 02:24 The component of faith that we need to remember is that 02:27 a lot of talk about how I have faith. 02:29 I'm a person of faith, but if we just have faith meaning 02:34 we believe certain things about God, if we do certain 02:37 things because we think it is what would be the right 02:40 thing to do, that is not necessarily faith. 02:42 Faith is responding to the word and if we want faith 02:46 we have to be in the word. 02:48 We have to understand the word, to see the God that is 02:51 revealed through the word and that is ultimately what 02:55 gives us the faith. 02:57 Faith exercised it's believing in the promises of God 03:01 and responding to them. 03:02 Now there is another aspect of faith that we need to 03:04 look at too and I thought maybe we can look at it in 03:09 Hebrews 11:6 it says something very interesting about 03:14 Faith. It says, "but without faith it is impossible 03:18 to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that 03:22 He is, and that He is a rewarder of those of 03:26 who diligently seek Him. " 03:28 Now this is a very powerful verse that helps us to 03:33 understand that God wants us to diligently seek Him. 03:38 If we diligently seek Him, He will reward us. 03:42 Faith is believing that God will reward you when 03:46 you diligently seek Him, not halfheartedly but if 03:49 we put our heart into it, that is what faith requires 03:53 then we will find Him. 03:55 You do remember Jeremiah says that. 03:57 If you seek Me you will find Me when you search for Me 04:00 with all your heart. 04:01 So we have to recognize that faith isn't something that 04:04 just comes easy or naturally per se. 04:07 Faith always has obstacles, in fact if something is 04:11 humanly possible and seems very easy humanly, 04:14 it doesn't require faith. 04:16 Faith is always something that we have a principle 04:19 that overcomes obstacles. 04:22 Faith is believing that God can overcome the 04:24 impossibilities of life and the reality Jim is that 04:28 faith only exist in the realm of the impossible. 04:31 If you are in the realm of the possible what is faith 04:34 needed for? You could see everything but the Bible says 04:38 we walk by faith and not by sight, it contrasts the two. 04:41 So faith is dependent on those impossible situations and 04:44 the problem I think is that there are too many Christians 04:47 who want to live in the realm of the possible. 04:50 That is where we find the rub with the law of God because 04:53 when you put the law of God is an impossibility for man, 04:56 unless he has the power of God, and it becomes a rub for 05:00 those who do not want to receive that new birth 05:03 experience. They want to have their proverbial cake 05:06 and eat it too. 05:08 If I might say it, what they are doing is they are 05:12 living in, what we call, a comfort zone. 05:14 So many Christians they live in a comfort zone even though 05:18 God may be calling them to this variety of areas, 05:21 if they have weaknesses in these areas they will avoid 05:23 them and stay within their comfort zone. 05:26 That is what the works of the law also mentally does. 05:28 It causes us to feel confident in that we are okay with 05:31 this and that substitutes for that. 05:33 So we need to be able to see that those impossible areas 05:37 that God is calling us in, those are the ones that 05:40 test and require faith. 05:42 I can think of some Bible examples when you really look 05:45 at the life of Christ you see it full of examples of 05:48 living faith and I'm thinking of one right now 05:51 with the paralytic. 05:53 You remember there was a paralytic where four friends 05:56 took him to Jesus for him to be healed. 05:59 When they got to the house where Jesus was, it was full 06:03 of people, there was the obstacle. 06:05 They could have just turned around and gone home, 06:08 but they climbed up on the Roof, they tore up the tiles, 06:13 sounds pretty radical. 06:14 They tore the tiles of the roof and they lowered 06:17 him down and the Bible said when Jesus saw their faith, 06:22 how was it that He saw their faith? 06:23 Jesus saw that they had such confidence in Him that they 06:27 were not going to let any obstacle stand in their way. 06:31 They were going to go straight to Jesus. 06:33 Then there is the story that comes to mind of blind 06:34 Bartimaeus, here is a man who was on the side of the road 06:37 and he is crying out, he hears Jesus coming his way. 06:41 He said son of David have mercy on me and the crowd 06:44 tells him to pipe down. 06:45 The Christian crowd tells him to pipe down because he is 06:49 making too much noise and so there you have the obstacle. 06:52 Here he is a blind man and he doesn't know how to get 06:55 to where he is going. 06:56 He has this crowd milling around, but when they tell him 06:58 to be quiet the Bible says he cries all the more. 07:02 When he cried all the more and pushed beyond that barrier 07:06 then we see his Faith rewarded in Jesus and He heals him. 07:10 We see a similar story with Zacchaeus. 07:12 Zacchaeus wants to see Jesus and the Christian crowd 07:15 around Jesus was too tall and some people say it is 07:18 Zacchaeus could not see Jesus and so what does he do? 07:20 - he could have gone home. - he could have gone home 07:23 it said there was no way I will ever be able to make it 07:26 to Jesus, but instead he presses through and goes ahead 07:29 actually gets himself up in a tree so he could just 07:32 happen to see Jesus come by. 07:34 And Jesus sees his act of faith and calls him down and 07:38 says this day salvation has come to your house. 07:41 Amen, I can think of the story to a woman who had a flow 07:46 of blood, for all she had she tried to find healing. 07:51 She went to every physician she could find and 07:54 she spent all her livelihood and still nothing. 07:56 Well she heard that Jesus was coming through town. 07:59 Jesus was her only hope and she went to see Jesus and 08:02 guess what she ran into? An obstacle! 08:04 The crowd was too big and she couldn't get to Him. 08:07 She thought to herself if I can only fight through and 08:10 reach the hem of His garment I will be healed. 08:12 So she reaches the end and grabs the hem of His garment 08:14 and Jesus stops on the spot and He says, 08:17 who touched Me? Of course the disciples were like 08:20 what are you talking about? Everybody's touching and 08:23 they are bumping up against you. 08:25 He said no I perceived virtue gone out for Me. 08:29 Who touched Me? That is a real good lesson for us. 08:32 If we have a casual experience where we just bump up next to 08:37 Jesus, we go to church and put in our time but we are not in 08:42 earnest and not we're not wholehearted like that woman. 08:46 If we do not have that kind of faith, then Jesus doesn't 08:50 recognize it, Jesus knows the difference between an 08:53 intentional wholehearted faith, a casual halfhearted experience. 08:58 That is absolutely true and it reminds me that we all face 09:02 those situations where if we truly give ourselves to Christ 09:05 we face obstacles, sometimes they are impractical situations. 09:08 I remember when I first became a Christian. 09:11 The Holy Spirit came to my heart and convicted me of something 09:15 I had stole from my employer prior to becoming a Christian. 09:18 I was convicted that I needed to go and tell my employer and 09:22 I was so petrified because it was a fairly expensive item and 09:26 I could lose my job and I knew I'd lose my job. 09:28 And I thought Lord, this was before I was a Christian 09:30 I confessed all that, I'm newborn, why couldn't 09:33 I've done it before, now it is going to ruin my witness 09:36 in all these things but the conviction was there. 09:39 I knew it was something I had to go and make it right, 09:41 despite the obstacle and I'll tell you what, when I did. 09:44 I went and talked my employer about that thing because I knew 09:47 it was the right thing to do and I did it for the sake of the 09:50 Lord that I gave my life to. 09:52 God worked that out with my employer, not only did I not 09:56 lose my job but he was impressed with the level of 10:01 integrity that he saw from me willing to able to something 10:04 because I had gotten away with it. 10:06 So at any rate I had fought, I had seen the obstacles and 10:10 made them bigger than they really were, but the Lord 10:12 carried me through when I exercised faith. 10:14 He compelled you by His grace and you had turmoil but when 10:19 you received His grace by faith you received peace. 10:22 Grace and peace is in harmony with God and there is nothing 10:26 like overcoming that sin or obstacle and finding peace. 10:29 There may be somebody watching today, and you have got 10:31 something that you know God is calling on you to do. 10:34 But you are struggling with how you are ever going to do it. 10:37 Perhaps you learned you should return a faithful tithe to God. 10:40 You are thinking to yourself I have expenses and 10:44 there is no way I can overcome. 10:45 I have a family situation that requires more than I can do. 10:50 You are thinking that would be impossible, that is when faith 10:54 comes in, faith is not needed for that which is easy. 10:57 Faith is only needed for that which is seemingly impossible. 11:01 So God is calling on us to be faithful, to obey when it seems 11:06 impossible and that is the exercise of faith. 11:08 To obey and trust God when it seems impossible. 11:11 There could be somebody who has learned that the Seventh 11:14 Day Sabbath is something that is still valid for Christians. 11:17 They are thinking but I've got this work situation 11:19 I have to figure out. 11:21 I have too many barriers that couldn't possibly be 11:26 overcome, the same situation, faith is when we trust that if 11:31 God is asking us to do it. God will honor us if we honor Him. 11:36 If we obey God He will honor us. 11:39 That is right and we could go to Hebrews chapter 11, the faith. 11:42 Chapter and one fascinating thing about it is over and 11:46 over, I'll give you a few examples Hebrews 11:8. 11:48 It says, "by faith Abraham obeyed. " 11:51 You go ahead to verse 17 and it says, 11:54 "by faith Abraham - offered up his son Isaac. " 11:57 Verse 20, "by faith Isaac blessed Jacob. " 11:59 Verse 22, "by faith Joseph, - made mention of the 12:06 "of departing the children of Egypt. " 12:07 Verse 23, says "by faith Moses - was hidden by his parents" 12:12 These people found their faith, every time you find that 12:16 word faith it's followed by a corresponding action, 12:20 an exercise of the belief that they had. 12:23 That is Bible faith, the hearing of faith. - Amen! 12:25 Speaking of the hearing of faith, 12:26 let's go back to Galatians 3:2 to conclude 12:30 because here we were reading, "this only I want to learn 12:33 "from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the 12:36 "law or by the hearing of faith?" 12:39 The works of the law had caused them to 12:41 stop obeying the truth. 12:43 The hearing of faith caused them to obey. 12:46 We need to remember though different from what is often 12:51 misconstrued, this is what the Bible teaches. 12:54 Those that go by the works of the law do 12:57 not obey the truth. 12:58 Those that have the hearing of faith do obey. 13:01 We are hoping that as you've listened to this presentation 13:04 and as we have studied Galatians together that you have 13:07 caught a glimpse of how you can be more faithful. 13:10 May God bless you until next time. |
Revised 2014-12-17