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Believe God’s Word

Believe God’s Word.

We hear that revival is needed for our country to get us back on track to return to being a nation under God. I agreed. So I prayed the prayer many use for a time such as this.

2 Chronicles 7:14 if my people  who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.

After praying this prayer many times for many months, I added to this prayer the following:

Lord, help us, Your people,  to believe what you say in Your word.

I was thinking maybe we’re praying this prayer but not really believing God will answer it. (Maybe it’s just me, the way I am. I’m told I overthink things.)

After praying this prayer with the added sentence I decided to add something else:

Lord, help us to believe what You say in Your word…and especially me. Please help me to believe what You say in Your word.

God answered that prayer! I believe He is answering the first prayer too. Praise God!

Today I want us to look at an example of someone believing God, believing His word and seeing the results of that belief.

Let’s look at Abraham. God made a promise to Abram in Genesis 12:1-3

Now the Lord had said to Abram:

“Get out of your country, from your family and from your father’s house, to a land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

What a great promise. This promise extends to us today! As you know, through Abraham and his descendants came Jesus the Messiah, our Savior.

Now Abraham didn’t start out as a great man of faith. The Lord worked with him bringing him into a greater faith and trust in Him. He works the same way with us.

Now Abraham was saved the same way we are today, i.e. by grace through faith.

Ephesians 2:8,9 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.

The Apostle Paul tells us that we are declared righteous by God when we place our faith in the completed work of Jesus on the cross which payed the penalty for our sins.  In other words, we believe God. But someone may ask, “Abraham lived before Jesus became a man and died for the sins of the world.So how was he saved? In Romans 4:1-4 we read, 

What then shall we say that Abraham our father has found according to the flesh? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.”

So in this first part of Romans 4, Abraham (and David) are used as examples from the Old Testament to show that they were saved by faith and not by the works they did. They believed God.

What Abraham wanted most was an heir. He and Sarah tried to speed up the process and try to do it their own way by having Hagar bear an heir, a son for them. But God used this time of unbelief  to grow their faith and trust in Him. God will do the same for us.

Now this is the section I wanted to focus on. The end of verse 4:16 Abraham is called the father of us all

4:17 (as it is written, “I have made you a father of many nations”) in the presence of Him whom he believed - God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did;

Here we see plainly - Abraham believed God! He believed in the One who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did.

4:18 who, contrary to hope, in hope believed, so that he became the father of many nations, according to what was spoken, “so shall your descendants be.”

This promise is found in Genesis 17:1ff

In verse 5 God told Abram: No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you a father of many nations. I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come from you.

The name Abram means Exalted Father. Abraham means Father of a multitude. God had made this promises to Abraham before and now repeated it when Abraham was ninety-nine years old. Notice Abraham’s response back in Romans

4:19 And not being weak in faith, he did not consider his own body, already dead (since he was about a hundred years old), and the deadness of Sarah’s womb. He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthen in faith, giving glory to God, and being full convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform. And therefore, “it was accounted to him for righteousness.”

He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief. In other words, he believed God and his faith was strengthened. Our faith and belief in God’s promises gives God glory. We become convinced or sure that God is able to do what He says He will do. We can join Paul as he proclaims in Ephesians 3:20, 21

 Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be the glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever, Amen.

Abraham believed God and received the promise. He became the father of many nations. All the families of the earth are blessed because through Abraham came Jesus the Savior of the world.

We serve the same God as Abraham did. God has made promises to us. We can receive them, believe God for them, and enjoy the benefit of them.

He has promised to never leave us nor forsake us.

He has promised to meet our needs. We are to seek Him first then these things are added to us.

He said those who live godly will suffer persecution, but He has overcome the world. In Christ we can be an overcomer too.

2 Peter 1:1-4

Simon Peter, a bondservant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have obtained like precious faith with us by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ: Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, as His divine power had given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

Unpacking these verses would be a complete study (or a few studies) in itself. But notice these promises have been given to us.  It is written in the past tense. They are already ours to use.

1. We have obtained like precious faith
2. We are given all things that pertain to life and godliness
3. We have been given exceedingly great and precious promises

We are to believe God, receive what He has given us, and act as if was so.

We do this with His power and strength and by staying in His word so we can be reminded of all these things. We need constant reminders. I’ll leave you with two last verses

Colossians 2:6, 7 As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving.

We received Jesus by faith and we walk with Him by faith.

There is great reward in believing God.

Synopsis

1. We pray using 2 Chronicles 7:14 asking for revival. But do we believe God will answer this prayer?
2. We should ask God to help us believe in His word and His promises.
3. Take a look at Abraham who believed God and received the promises, In Genesis 12:1-3 God made Abraham a great promise. Through this promise Jesus is given to us.
4. Abraham was saved as we are saved today - through grace by faith (Ephesians 2:8, 9)5.
5. Abraham believed God, was saved and received the promises of  God that he would be the father of many nations.
6. We serve the same God who has made promises to us (2 Peter 1:1-40)

We are to believe God for these promises. Our actions should reflect that we do believe Him, and walk by faith in Him. 

Dressed For Action

Luke 12:35-48

35 “Stay dressed for action and keep your lamps burning,36 and be like men who are waiting for their master to come home from the wedding feast, so that they may open the door to him at once when he comes and knocks. 37 Blessed are those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes. Truly, I say to you, he will dress himself for service and have them recline at table, and he will come and serve them. 38 If he comes in the second watch, or in the third, and finds them awake, blessed are those servants! 39 But know this, that if the master of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have left his house to be broken into. 40 You also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.”

41 Peter said, “Lord, are you telling this parable for us or for all?” 42 And the Lord said, “Who then is the faithful and wise manager, whom his master will set over his household, to give them their portion of food at the proper time? 43 Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes. 44 Truly, I say to you, he will set him over all his possessions. 45 But if that servant says to himself, ‘My master is delayed in coming,’ and begins to beat the male and female servants, and to eat and drink and get drunk, 46 the master of that servant will come son a day when he does not expect him and sat an hour he does not know, and will cut him in pieces and put him with the unfaithful. 47 And that servant who knew his master's will but did not get ready or act according to his will, will receive a severe beating. 48 But the one who did not know, and did what deserved a beating, will receive a light beating. Everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required, and from him to whom they entrusted much, they will demand the more.

In today’s passage we see Jesus encouraging the disciples to remain ready. In verse 35 it reads “stay dressed for action” what a stark reminder for us today. 

Many people have to dress for the type of work they are called to firefighters, police officers, construction workers, doctors, nurses and on and on the list goes.

We can relate to the truth of being “dressed for action and [to] keep our lamps burning”; so the call to remain alert for the work is clear, but are we truly ready? 

The Apostle Paul writes to us in the Epistle to the Ephesian church about putting on the whole Armor of God to be able to “stand against the schemes of the devil” (Cf. Eph 6:11). 

Here Jesus is encouraging the disciples and thankfully due to Apostle Peter (Cf verse 41) we know it’s for us as well; that we too must remain ready for the task before us. Jesus tells them when remain faithful we shall be “blessed whom the master finds awake when he comes” (verse 37). 

Christ has called us to specific task that only we can accomplish yet there is a penalty (verses 39-40) for our refusal to serve where He has placed us.

When you realize that Christ has redeemed us from death, hell, and the grave why wouldn’t we serve Him? To many times we get into a mode where all is well and we simply let things coast by us.

Christain never let it be said that we let the work of God pass us by but instead let us remain dressed for action; ready for the Son of Man and His glorious appearing - Amen.