Two Facts The Bible Teaches About Faith

This may explain why many Christians are not growing in the Lord, and why their lives are void when it comes to the blessings of God. We cannot read about a single individual in the Bible, and not see how his/her faith affected him/her in a positive way, or how the lack of faith affected him/her in a negative way. Something we all should be seeking God to do for us, is to strengthen our faith. I believe if Jesus was alive physically today, He would do just as He did so many years ago - Mark 6:6 - "And he marvelled because of their unbelief..." We need to recognize how our unbelief has robbed us of God's blessings that we so desperately need. Our attitude should be like that of the father who came to the Lord, who said, "Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief." This is one of the great needs of the hour, in every church and in every home. Faith cometh by hearing, so let's hear what God's Word says to us:

I. THE REALITY OF GOD

Hebrews 11:6, "But without faith it is impossible to please him; for he that cometh to God must believe that he is..."

Most folks do not know it, but there are two kinds of atheists.

A. THE SPOKEN ATHEIST

Psalm 14:1 says, "The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God."

Notice that this same verse tells us why the foolish state such a thing - "They are corrupt, they have done abominable works..." It is not a rare thing any more to hear a man say, "I do not believe there is such a thing as a God." The Bible tells us a man like this is trying to "fool" himself because he is CORRUPT, and has done ABOMINABLE WORKS. Sinners do not want to meet God with all their evil deeds. They will not repent of their evil, so they say, "I do not believe in a God." I remind you, God says these are only trying to fool themselves. There is no such thing as a true atheist. For a person to be a true atheist he would have to know everything there was to know about everything, and no one knows that. So, since no one can truthfully state he knows everything there is to know, then no one can be a true atheist. There are many foolish people on this earth, but the one who ranks as being most foolish is the man, or the woman, who states, "I do not believe there is a God," when all the while he is surrounded by evidence of a loving God.

Illus: This reminds me of a professor at a very large university who made no secret of the fact that he claimed to be an atheist. He would tell his students, "If you don't throw aside your faith in God, and act in your own knowledge and strength, you'll never get very far in this world." One day, during a class, the matter of "rain-making" came up for discussion. The professor quickly stated, hypothetically: "What help was faith in God during the recent drought? A lot of farmers got down on their knees and asked God for rain. What did they get in answer to their prayers? No rain! Do you know what they should have done? They should have sought help from science. Send a man up in a plane, drop some chemicals on a cloud, and you get rain. No need of God. Any questions?" "Yes, I have a question," one of the students said, "Who furnishes the clouds, if there is no God?"

Illus: Children voice more intelligence than a Ph.D. who says there is not a God. A Ph.D. said to a little boy one day, "I'll give you an orange if you can tell me one place where God is." The little boy said, "I'll give you a basket full of oranges if you can tell me where God is not."

We repeat, there is no such thing as a true atheist, only ungodly men and women who are trying to fool themselves because they are CORRUPT and have done ABOMINABLE WORKS.

The atheist displeases God with his unbelief - Hebrews 11:6, "But without faith it is impossible to please him; for he that cometh to God must believe that he is,.."

B. THE UNSPOKEN ATHEIST

Illus: This second kind of atheist reminds me of the preacher who went to a new church, and the church began to grow by leaps and bounds. In the church were two wealthy brothers who had always had their way, and, needless to say, held the church back. Soon after the new preacher arrived, one of the brothers died. The day before his funeral, the living brother came to the new preacher and said, "You know that new building that you want built for the church. Here is a check for the full amount. All you have to do is say tomorrow, at the funeral, that my brother is a saint." The next day, at the funeral, the preacher stood over the corpse and said, "Before us today is one of the meanest men that ever lived. He was a wife-beater. He cheated on his wife. He lied. He gossiped. He was one of the rottenest sinners that lived in this town, but compared to his brother, he was a SAINT!"