FAITH
PART 5 – Biblical Faith
First Baptist Church of Tawas City Michigan
Rev. Bruce A. Shields – 11-27-2005
www.tawasbaptist.org
WELCOME
• Visitors (Visitor Cards & Prayer Request Cards in pews)
• The Teen Youth will be having a special offering at the end of the service today to help raise money for the Christmas Drive this year for single mothers. Also, the 4 ½ pound one of a kind chocolate snowman is downstairs, put your donations with your name into the can and whoever donates the most for the Teen Youth Group will receive the snowman.
• If someone feels lead to head up the 12 and under group please see me so we can get that started as well.
PRAYER FOR THE HOLY SPIRIT
Genesis 6:6-13
“The LORD was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain. 7 So the LORD said, "I will wipe mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth—men and animals, and creatures that move along the ground, and birds of the air—for I am grieved that I have made them." 8 But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD.
9 This is the account of Noah.
Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked with God. 10 Noah had three sons: Shem, Ham and Japheth.
11 Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight and was full of violence. 12 God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways. 13 So God said to Noah, "I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth.”
Some of the roadblocks to our faith that we’ve talked about include unforgiveness, not reading God’s word, and not being thankful.
This week I want to talk about Biblical Faith, what the bible says it is and the different levels of it.
The New Testament as many of you already know was originally written in Greek.
The Greek word for faith in the Bible is “pistis”, which simply meant trust.
I believe there are 5 steps to having the faith that can move mountains.
With each of these steps you can usher in the next, and thus your faith will grow and with greater faith you can better serve the Lord.
Hebrews 11:6
“But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.”
The first step in faith is simple, you must believe that He is.
The scripture say that faith comes by hearing the word of God.
But when you hear it, you must believe it as well.
For you to have faith, you must believe what God is saying to you.
God speaks to us today, regardless of what people may say.
I believe the Word of God over scholars, teachers, preachers and the like.
Do you remember the series we had on hearing from God and the 5 or 6 ways the scripture says He speaks to us?
We must believe what God is telling us either through His Holy Word, or His Holy Spirit.
Here is an example from the scriptures;
Noah is sitting there minding his own business, and God tells him;
“Noah, I’m going to destroy every living thing with a flood. So I want you to build an ark to preserve yourself, your family and some animals.”
Now, Noah had never seen a flood. But He knew God.
He recognized God’s voice. This can only happen if you have a relationship with God.
If you go on vacation, and call home, do you have to tell your spouse who you are when they answer the phone? No.
If you do, perhaps you and your spouse need to spend a little more time talking together.
No, you don’t have to tell them who you are. Why, because they know your voice from spending so much time with you.
This is how it is supposed to be with God.
God is speaking to each one of us everyday, but most of us don’t hear Him because we don’t know Him.
His voice is lost among the daily tasks and hustle of the day.
His still and quiet Holy Spirit is buried beneath the sounds of the kids, or the radio or TV, as He patiently tries to reach us.
He even speaks to those who don’t belong to Him, He says to their heart “Come to me.” Remember it is God’s will that ALL be saved.
And we see that when Noah preached the flood during the years it took to build the Ark.
God gave the people a messenger, with a message of coming Judgment, but they did need listen.
Noah knew God, and heard God, and although he didn’t know what a flood was, he knew that if God told Him to do something to be saved from certain death, he should do it.
Why, because he believed God, he trusted the Word of God.
And Noah preached the flood for as long as it took to build the Ark.
And he was mocked, and laughed at, made fun of, but did he stop believing God?
Absolutely not!
He continued to believe God for many years!
How quickly some of us doubt when at first we believe we heard God’s voice.
We don’t know how many years it took Noah, but I know this wasn’t a weekend project.
A lot of people believe it was 120 years, and that may be, but the Bible does not tell us exactly.
There is nowhere in Scripture that supports the 120 years for the construction of the ark.
That span of time concerns the time God allowed mankind to live, from the time He made His pronouncement, to the flood - Genesis 6:3.
God set a time limit (120 years), just in case humans would repent.
God has used this principle of repentance again and again.
Jonah 3:9-10 is a good example.
“Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish."
10 When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he had compassion and did not bring upon them the destruction he had threatened.”
God prefers repentance over judgment.
So we don’t know exactly how many years it took to build the ark and preach the flood.
But does it matter how long it took Noah to build the ark? NO.
What’s important is that we learn the spiritual lesson derived from it.
I Corinthians 10:11
"These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come."
See, we are living in the fulfillment of the ages.
We have Christ and the New Testament which shows understanding on the Old Testament.
Each of us who come to Christ receives the Holy Spirit and can have understanding.
So we can read the scriptures and see the lessons God has given us.
What’s the warning here for us today in the story of the flood?
The earth’s destruction is coming, this time by fire, and unless you be saved by God’s grace, in essence you will miss the boat.
Hebrews 11:7 (NIV)
“By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear (reverence of God) built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world (he passed judgment and sentence on the world’s unbelief) and became heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.”
Noah became heir because of his faith in God’s word.
Because of his faith, he escaped the judgment on the worlds UNBELIEF.
There’s another judgment day coming, and the only thing that can save us from it is our belief in the word of God. We know that Jesus Christ is the word who became flesh.
We can see here that there are 2 kinds of judgment.
God judged Noah’s belief and made him heir to the world.
And God judged the world’s unbelief, and destroyed them.
God is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.
Noah did, and received life.
The world did not and was destroyed.
So we see that the first step in having the faith that can move mountains in your life is to TRUST or BELIEVE the word of God.
Another example of this type of trust in God’s word is found in Exodus.
Exodus 14:16, 21
“Raise your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea to divide the water so that the Israelites can go through the sea on dry ground.”
“Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and all that night the LORD drove the sea back with a strong east wind and turned it into dry land. The waters were divided, 22 and the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left.”
Moses heard the Word of God.
Moses believed the Word of God.
Then, Moses trusted the Word of God and did what He said.
But it was not an instant result of Moses’ obedience to God’s word.
In verse 21 it says, “and all that night the LORD drove the sea back with a strong east wind and turned it into dry land”
Moses had to wait on God’s timing for the fulfillment of His Word.
This is where your trust is tested.
This is where your faith is stretched.
This is where your faith grows.
Not in hearing the Word of God.
Not in obeying the Word of God.
But in faith, trusting the Word of God to do what He said He would do.
This is where the faithful stand.
This is walking by faith.
Isaiah 55:11
“So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.”
We can believe God’s word and have trust in it because He says here in His word “It shall accomplish and proper the thing I sent it out to do.”
Our first step in faith is trusting the word of God.
Believing what God says.
If you are having a hard time in trusting God, believing His word, come forward and the Elders will pray with you.
If you do believe and trust the word of God and you want to receive a healing or you have a special prayer you would like the Elders of the church to pray for, come forward and they will pray for you.
If you want to have the faith to move mountains, come forward and we will pry that God increases your faith.
We are instructed in James to go forward and let the Elders pray for you anointing your head with oil, and you will receive your healing.
Trust in the word of God, believing that God will do what He says, what His Word Says, and you will inherit righteousness and avoid the judgment which will fall upon the unbelievers of this fallen world.
