This week Michael writes: God never honors fear. He always honors faith. The job of the Holy Spirit is to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable. The gospel is both good news to those who respond and bad news to those who do not respond. The Sermon on the Mount by Jesus is disturbing to the people of this world because it shines little into the darkness of sin, exposing it for what it truly is.
The beatitudes are Jesus’ call to change attitudes. From the attitudes of complaining about the affliction of this world unto God’s blessed beautiful attitudes. Jesus said, blessed are they when men shall revile you Believers and persecute you and say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake. Rejoice and be exceeding glad, for great is your reward in heaven. Jesus said to the multitude, consider the birds of the air and the lilies of the field. If God clothes the birds of the air and the flowers of the field, will He not much more take care of your needs. O ye of little faith. If our faith is believing in our own ability, then we are men and women of little faith.
After Jesus had ministered to the multitudes in Mark 4, he said to His disciples, let’s get into the boat and go over to the other side of the Sea of Galilee. As they were crossing, a violent storm arose. Even though some of the disciples were seasoned fishermen, their boat filled with water and they thought they would drown. Meanwhile, Jesus was asleep in the stern. They woke him up and said, “Sir, don’t you care if we perish?” Mark 4:39-40 says, “And he arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. And he said unto them, Why are you so fearful? How is it that you have no faith?” For God incarnate said that they would go to the other side of the lake, not drown.
We are all sinners, We all have inherited the sin nature from Adam’s original sin. The wages of sin is death and we all are dead in our trespasses and sins. In our own power, we cannot balance the scales of God’s righteous judgement against sin. Everyone is weighed in the balance and found wanting; nobody is worthy of life eternal. However, Jesus Christ ,who was without sin, paid the price to balance the scales of our debt of sin by is atoning death on the Cross in our place. Ephesians 2:8 “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God.”
There are four responses to God’s invitation to come to Christ for salvation. The first response is outright rejection. Atheists and non-Believers, those who worship the things of this world ridicule and reject outright Jesus’ invitation for salvation. The second category is those who attend church, but have never made a commitment to accept salvation on God’s terms; casual-Christian. They remain lukewarm regarding the message of salvation. They may have accepted a Christ but have not committed to Jesus Christ as a disciplined follower. These are the ones whom Jesus said, O ye of little faith. They do not back up their faith with believing action in obedience to Jesus Christ.
The third category is those who think they are saved but they really are not; false-Christians. They believe in a works-based salvation and think that their self-righteous life will earn them entry into the kingdom of heaven. The fourth category is those who have accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior; true-Believers. As Jesus said, my sheep know my voice and they know me, and they follow me and I give unto them eternal life. Hebrews 11:1 “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”
Let's continue Michael's message on "Faith" in the next post.
In Christ, Brian
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