Lord, we just want to say to You that You are such a wonderful Lord to serve, that You are gracious in all that You do. You truly are the God of righteousness.
And Lord, we just again are bowing our hearts before You in love and adoration. You have been so merciful and kind towards us, O Lord.
And Lord, we trust You even now as we look into Your Word, that as You had promised in the sending of Your Spirit, He would be our Teacher. Lord, that You would teach us; that we would see You more clearly than we have ever seen You before; that we would fall in love with You more deeply than we have experienced; and that we would be changed.
We do love You, dear Lord, and we trust You for this time.
I am sure you are all familiar with some of these lawn chairs that they make out of fiberglass or plastic. We see them around.
We were having a meeting at my home one time, and I was sitting on one of these chairs in the living room, just sharing the gospel, sharing out of the Word of God. The meeting was going along, and it was coming to the point I really wanted to make—the place that I had sort of been building to.
Then, all of a sudden, this plastic chair broke from underneath me. I mean, it was like a cartoon. The legs went out from under it, the arms went out, and I landed on my backside. But I never missed a beat. I just kept on preaching.
The saints there who were listening—you could just see them. Everybody wanted to bust out laughing, but it was one of those times.
But, you know, I put my faith and my trust in that chair to hold me. I sat in that chair confidently that it was going to hold me up, and it did not.
Really, the point of that is this: What do we really put our trust in to hold us, to keep us, that we would be secure?
Well, I will tell you, my dear brothers and sisters, that there is nothing, nor is there anyone, outside of the Lord Jesus.
I was really touched last night by the thought of this: Who do we have beside Him? Without Christ, what meaning is there to this life? Without Christ, how good is marriage? Without Christ, how good is the relationship with children? Without Christ, there is no purpose to life.
We go about, no matter how much we have, how much we have in the way of substance. It is like Jesus, when He spoke of those Pharisees: “You are like whitewashed sepulchres.” Everything looks good on the outside, but inside there are rotting bones. Sometimes, isn’t that the way it is without life? We have so many things, so many pursuits, all these dreams, but it is real emptiness when it comes down to our life.
Because Christ is the only One who holds this up. He is the only One who is always faithful. He is the One who never changes in His love toward us.
The circumstances of life change. Relationships change. But Christ remains the same: faithful, loving, and true.
He is the joy of His people. Do we understand? If we come to know our Lord Jesus as He is in His character, then we will know the joy of the Lord.
Do we know that Jesus is the peace of His people? Peace is not a commodity or something God gives us by way of some token, but it is Christ Himself. He is our peace.
When it talks about Him being the bread of life, He is the One who really sustains us—nothing else. Not a savings account, not your retirement, none of those things.
For those who come to know Christ, they find out what contentment is all about. It is not in what you have or what you do not have. It is Christ and Him alone.
Now, this Book, from beginning to end, is a revelation of the eternal purpose of God. That eternal purpose is realized in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Jesus is the fulfillment of the heart and mind of God. This Book, from beginning to end, is a revelation of Jesus. Now, we have all heard that, but that is what this Book is. It is a revelation. It is a description of a life—not speaking in general terms, but a description of a particular life, a unique life, a specific life. It is a description of the divine life as we see it in the Lord Jesus.
Now, sometimes what has happened—and I hope no one misunderstands me when I say this—is that this Book has been elevated to a position to which it should not be elevated.
We see this Book placed on podiums in the center of buildings. We see it placed on altars, almost as if to be worshiped. It is given a place that I think it should not be given.
We even hear churches named “The Bible Church” of so-and-so. It is not the Bible church. There is a church, but it is a church whose Head is Christ, and we are members. It is Christ’s bride. It is Christ’s church.
If you turn to the fifth chapter of John’s Gospel, verses 36 through 40, Jesus is speaking and making reference to John the Baptist.
“But the witness which I have is greater than that of John;
for the works which the Father hath given Me to accomplish,
the very works that I do, bear witness of Me,
that the Father hath sent Me.
And the Father that sent Me, He hath borne witness of Me.
Ye have neither heard His voice at any time, nor seen His form.
And ye have not His word abiding in you,
because whom He sent, Him ye believe not.
Ye search the scriptures, because ye think that in them ye have eternal life;
and these are they which bear witness of Me;
and ye will not come to Me, that ye may have life.”—John 5:36-40
Life is not found in this Book, but life is found in Christ and in Him alone. Jesus says, “You do not have His Word abiding in you because whom He sent, Him you do not believe.”
The Spirit of God wants to translate these words into experience. That is what the Spirit of God wants to do. He wants to make these words incarnate once again in my life and in your life. But the way that happens is that we have to believe in Him.
In Hebrews 4, starting in verses 1 and 2, and then verses 6 through 9:
“Let us fear therefore, lest haply, a promise being left of entering into His rest,
any one of you should seem to have come short of it.
For indeed we have had good tidings preached unto us, even as also they:
but the word of hearing did not profit them,
because it was not united by faith with them that heard.Since therefore it remaineth that some should enter thereinto,
and they to whom the good tidings were before preached failed to enter in because of disobedience,
He again defineth a certain day, Today, saying in David so long a time afterward
(even as hath been said before),
Today if ye shall hear His voice, harden not your hearts.
For if Joshua had given them rest,
He would not have spoken afterward of another day.
There remaineth therefore a Sabbath rest for the people of God.”—Hebrews 4:1-2, 6-9
Now, he is referring, as we know, to the people in the wilderness. This Sabbath rest spoken of in the Old Testament is a shadow pointing to Christ, who is our Sabbath rest.
We do not have to strive anymore to be holy. He has become our holiness. When Christ hung on that cross and said, “It is finished,” that was it. That was the end. We can enter into the fullness of the completed work of Christ.
In other words, we do not have to attain to God. God has come to us and has made a way. He has walked this way. He is the victorious One. He gained the victory, and we can come into rest in His completed work.
It takes the struggle out of this life, my dear brothers and sisters. It just takes the struggle out of this life—this trying to be good, trying to be good. Five steps forward and four steps back seems to have been the pattern of my walk for so many years. Maybe you have experienced the same thing.
Do we ever get better? Does this thing really work? Yes, it does really work, but it only works for Christ. He is the only One who could live this life. But the solution to that problem was taken care of on the cross.
When He said that we were in Christ on the cross, we can live out of the victory of Christ. That is the rest. That is the Sabbath rest.
In this eighth verse he says, “For if Joshua had given them rest.” You see, when they came into the promised land, God was saying, “When you cross over that river, you are going to go into a land where you do not even have to build the houses; they are already there waiting for you. You do not have to plant fields. The vineyards are there. Everything is there for you.”
And we know, again, that is pointing to Christ: that in Christ we have the fullness. We have everything that pertains to life and godliness in Christ. When you go into this promised land, there is everything waiting for you—fullness.
They came and went across that land, but though they had possession of the land, they did not believe in Him who gave it to them. They began to take up things on their own. They began not to believe that God was able to sustain and keep.
They wanted, you might say, the shackles of His leadership taken off from them so that they could live their own lives. And they ran into trouble.
Now, in the same way, if this Book alone were enough, God could have sent it down from heaven, written in gold and platinum letters, set it in the middle of Jerusalem, and said, “Memorize this Book and do everything just as is in this Book, and you will have eternal life.”
But He did not do that. He did not send the Book. He sent His Son. He sent His Son.
Sometimes we think that if we were to memorize this Book—not that memorization is not good; memorization is good—but sometimes we think that if we could just devour this Book and learn everything in it, we would be good people.
This Book has to be translated by the Holy Spirit into our lives and into experience. This Word must be united by faith.
There remains a rest for the people of God. Now, that rest is ours, but we have to come into it by faith. We have to unite our faith to this Word for it to be efficacious, for it to become life-giving to us.
You see, we are not to have faith in the Word, but to have faith in the One who has given the Word—the Word-Giver. That is where our faith is supposed to lie.
This is not an instruction manual. In other words, if we were to look at this as an instruction manual and go to 1 Corinthians 13 and say, “Okay, let us read about love,” we would read about love and the characteristics of love that we find in the Lord Jesus.
Then we might set our will to love that way—to be kind, gracious, gentle, and forbearing. Some people have very strong wills. But I will tell you this: your will can only take you so far. It will only take you so far, and you will come up short.
Because this is not an instruction manual. If it were, then we could live it out of our flesh if we had strong enough wills. But it is not that way at all. It is not an instruction manual. It is a description of a life.
And so when we read that, we say, “Ah, this is the love that I saw demonstrated in my Lord. That is what I want. Lord, I am not able to do this. I have tried, Lord, and I have come to the end of myself in the trying. Now, Lord, I surrender to Your victory. I surrender to Your life, Lord.”
And you know what? There is a miracle that can take place there. I refer to it as a miracle because it is so beyond our understanding. It is so simple that it eludes us. It is simple faith in the completed work of Christ.
If we simply put our faith there, simply believe that what He says is true, something takes place. All of a sudden, you find that you are able to love in a way that you were not able to love before.
How does that happen? I do not know how it happens. It is God working. It is God doing it, because I have tried, and the harder I tried, the further behind I got. Have we not all had that experience to one degree or another?
It is a miracle of God’s grace, and it takes a simple laying down of our effort, believing that when Christ said, “It is finished,” it is finished. Believe in Him, He says, and you can come into a rest. You do not have to sweat through this thing. “I have already done it, and you can live out of My life.”
Then there is this miracle of grace that comes, and you are able to love.
Or you can look in Acts 2 and say, “Okay, this is it. They sold everything they had. Nobody was in need. They met daily, breaking bread from house to house. Okay, we are giving up the building, and we are going to start meeting at Jerry’s house one day, at Brother Stevens’s house another day, at my house, and at everybody else’s house, because it is right here. Let us get to it.”
But that is not it. It is not a matter of imitation. You may have heard me say in the past: it is a matter of revelation.
It has to come out of the very life of the Lord Jesus within the assembly, as the Spirit of God moves us. It is out of the life of Christ that these things become real.
We have to believe the Lord. In Hebrews 11:6:
“And without faith it is impossible to be well-pleasing unto Him;
for he that cometh to God must believe that He is,
and that He is a rewarder of them that seek after Him.”—Hebrews 11:6
But what kind of faith is he talking about here? Without faith, it is impossible to please God.
Some of us may say, “I wish they had not used that word impossible. Without faith, it is impossible. I wish they had not used that word impossible. Maybe without faith it is difficult to please God.” That I could maybe deal with—but impossible?
But without faith it is impossible to please God. For he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.
When I think of that—that we must believe that He is—it says to me that we need to understand Who He is. We need to see Him as He really is and believe in Who He is.
Now, this is not a very great analogy, my brothers and sisters, but it is the best I can come up with. If we hear about a particular fruit that, if you eat it, will enable you to live to at least 120 years old, that would be a very nice thing.
We may not be sure whether we believe it. But suppose we discover that in a particular place everybody is eating this fruit and living to 120 years old. They did not know about this fruit before, but there was a man who told them about it—a man who himself is 140 years old. The 300 people on this island to whom he brought this fruit are all at least 120 years old.
Well, you know what? It would cause me to somewhat believe in this guy, because not only has he said it, but I can see it in his life. I might start to eat that fruit. We would all be like Dick Clark.
What I am trying to say is this: if this man’s life was a testimony to what he said, I would likely believe that if I ate this fruit, I would live to at least 120 years old.
Somehow, we have to know the Lord Jesus in His character. He is the One who, over these years, from the moment we came to know Him, has proven His faithfulness.
We just have to look at our own lives. He has been faithful to bring us to this very moment today, with all our faults, all our failings, and all the sin that has crept into our lives. He is the One who has kept us.
Have you kept yourself? I have not kept myself. I am not able to.
You know, Satan is against us. The world is against us, and our own flesh is against us. There is everything against us. How could we possibly stand today? Because of the living God.
He is able to keep us. It is by His power. It is by the strength that He has within Himself. It is His resurrection power. He is able to keep us, and He has kept us. He has been faithful.
He has been faithful to me and my family and my children. He has been faithful to each one of us—always faithful. He never fails us, and He is the only One who will never fail us.
Now, as we get to know Him in His character like that, we know that He is good. He is righteous in all He does. We will not be those pointing fingers at Him and speaking of Him in a disparaging way when the trials of life come upon us.
Because we know that everything that enters our lives is either ordained by Him or permitted by Him, and it is always for our good. We are able to say that—or hopefully we are able to say that—because we come to know Him in His character for Who He really is, and that He really loves us. Sometimes we do not believe that, but He really loves us.
And so, if we know Him that way, then we are able to believe His Word.
When it says in this Book that we were crucified with Christ on the cross, that this body of sin of ours was crucified and put to death, that we were in Christ on the cross, then I can say, “I died with Christ.”
When it says that I was raised up with Christ, I can say, “Yes, I believe it because He said it.” He said it, and He has proven Himself faithful to me.
When He says that I am now seated in heavenly places with Christ Jesus, I can say, “Yes. I can now live from a place of victory,” because He said it.
It is nothing I strive for—not trying to make myself better, because I cannot do it. I have discovered that. But He is able, and we can live in the good of that victory.
In other words, we attach by faith to the promises of God and what the Word of God says because we have faith in Him. It is not faith in the Book. It is faith in Him.
As we have faith in Him, we are able to take the Word of God because He is the One who has said it, and we can believe it.
This faith is a simple faith. It is the faith of a child. We have heard Brother Stephen sharing something of this—childlikeness.
Now, what is this childlike faith? Sometimes I have heard that often in the past, but it somehow eluded me. What is childlike faith? Is it the kind of faith that can move mountains? That is exactly what it is: the childlike faith that can move mountains.
It is a four-year-old little boy and his father. The father says to him, “I noticed up in this oak tree a branch that is formed perfectly, and I am going to make you a slingshot out of it.”
This little boy loves his father. His father has been around him, taken care of him, nourished him, played with him, changed his diaper, done the whole thing. This little boy hears him and gets excited: “Yeah, I am going to get a slingshot.”
The father begins to walk off to climb sixty feet up into this oak tree, because that is where the branch is that has the shape for the slingshot. He starts to walk toward the tree.
That little four-year-old who loves his father never wonders, “I do not know if you can do this. That is a very big tree. I do not know if he is going to make it. Besides that, he is not in that great shape.”
Those thoughts never enter that child’s mind. He has all the faith in his father that what his father says, he will do. That is childlike faith. That is the faith that moves mountains.
The first verse of Hebrews 11 says:
“Now faith is assurance of things hoped for,
a conviction of things not seen.”—Hebrews 11:1
Faith is the realization of things hoped for, the confidence or the evidence of things not seen.
And just briefly, in my own life—and maybe in your life too—you sometimes see such lack. Such lack.
For you, for me, it may be something different. Maybe you are one who has a critical spirit. I can remember, for myself, I could be very, very critical of people.
I did not see any way of not being critical, to tell you the truth, my dear brothers and sisters. I just did not see any way of not being critical. Maybe it is something else for you. You look at it, you have worked at it, and you have willed it to be better, but it just does not seem to get better.
But faith is the realization of things hoped for. How does that become real? How does that change take place? How is it that all of a sudden, you who are so critical or so unloving one day find yourself not being so critical? One day you find yourself able to love those whom you could not love before. How did that take place?
It took place because of the working of God, of placing my faith in the God who was able to change. It is not faith in yourself. It is not building up your faith so that you can move mountains. It is simply having simple faith and saying, “Lord, this is who I am. I just cannot do this, Lord. I am not able, but I will trust You.”
“You have said that You will present me one day complete before the Father, holy and blameless. So this is Your work, Lord. I am going to trust You because I cannot do this.”
If we would, with childlike faith, abandon our plan to make ourselves holy, then God can do what He needs to do in our lives. All of a sudden, one day you begin to realize, “Though I was not able to love this person, now I have affection and love for them. I am not so critical of them anymore. I have compassion toward them.”
How did this happen? It happened through the working of God. It is God’s work as we place our faith in His ability to actually transform us.
There is a secret and mystery to all of this, but it is a mystery that has been revealed: Christ in you, the hope of glory. We realize it, and then there is evidence of it in our lives.
Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. We had not seen it in our lives before, but now there is evidence. Now I can love those who were so unlovable to me before. Now there is evidence that where I used to be so critical, I have become tolerant.
How did that happen? It is through the working of God.
In 2 Corinthians, he says, “We walk by faith, not by sight.”
In Matthew 4, when Jesus was in the wilderness and approached by the evil one, we know the story. The evil one said, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.” Jesus said:
“Man shall not live by bread alone,
but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.”—Matthew 4:4
There is a proceeding Word of God, a Word that is current, a Word that is vital for the day, a Word that is daily given.
How do we hear and understand the proceeding Word of God? The only way that can happen is that we have a daily, ongoing, abiding relationship with the Lord.
Recently I was talking to some of the young people, and I was saying that it is essential—essential. I do not know what more forceful word I can use—but we need to have a hidden life. We need to have a hidden life with the Lord.
An intimate life with Him, set apart from everything else, so that we would learn the voice of God; that we would come to know Him, as we were saying before, in His character, for Who He is; and that we could sit with Him and listen and let Him make these changes in our lives.
But sometimes we become so busy with activities, even good activities, that we do not have enough time to sit with Him.
This proceeding Word of God, I really feel, comes from a relationship that is intimate with the Lord, so that we can hear the daily Word of God coming to us.
Now, this is not something that comes outside of this written Word. No. Everything that God would speak into your life and mind corresponds with the words we find in this Book. But the Spirit of God enlivens them to us, makes them real to us, and brings them to our attention. Then we say, “Ah, yes. I see what You are saying, Lord.”
We have plans to go and talk to someone. We want to get something off our chest. We are going to go to that brother, and we have had it up to here with him. He is just going too far now.
We are all puffed up, ready to go, and all of a sudden the Spirit of God comes. He says, “Make sure your speech is seasoned with salt. Every word that comes out of your mouth needs to be done with gentleness and kindness, because that is the way I am.”
Now, that is the proceeding Word of God for that situation, for that time. It is not something that just sort of comes from nowhere. No, it is the Word of God that the Spirit of God has enlivened to us and now wants to make our experience.
We are ready to go, all puffed up and saying things to get it off our chest. And what does that do?
But there is a way in God where there can be peace, where the unity of the Spirit is maintained, and where love can grow when we go with humility, gentleness, and kindness to the brother and say, “I have to tell you, I love you dearly. I am hurt, and I just want to tell you, I cannot live like this anymore. But I want us to be mended, and I want our relationship to be whole. What can I do?”
Oh, there then is healing. There is where Christ comes, and He is the Healer and the Peacemaker. It is the Spirit of God that takes this Word, brings it back to us, enlivens it, and translates it into experience.
In Romans 8, that is what it talks about when it speaks of the law of the Spirit of life. Let me just read this.
“There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus.
For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus
made me free from the law of sin and of death.”—Romans 8:1-2
That is what we are talking about. There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. As I referred to before, when we know where we are in Christ—our place in the Lord Jesus and what He has done for us—we do not have to walk around in condemnation.
We are set free. We are free then to walk by the Spirit, not being dominated by the flesh.
That is how the Spirit of God enlivens and translates this Word to us. He takes what we have been reading and studying and makes it life to us. It becomes incarnate within us. Now we can be those who can love, forgive, embrace, and heal.
In John 6, verses 26 through 29, Jesus says:
“Verily, verily, I say unto you,
Ye seek Me, not because ye saw signs,
but because ye ate of the loaves, and were filled.
Work not for the food which perisheth,
but for the food which abideth unto eternal life,
which the Son of man shall give unto you:
for Him the Father, even God, hath sealed.This is the work of God,
that ye believe on Him whom He hath sent.”—John 6:26-29
And verse 45 says:
“And they shall all be taught of God.”
—John 6:45
The Pharisees asked Him, “What must we do to do the works of God?” He said, “This is the work of God: that you believe in Him whom He has sent.”
We need to put our faith in Him, in the Word He has spoken.
It is very interesting, because when we read Exodus about the manna given to them in the wilderness, they were to collect one omer per person in the family per day for five days. On the sixth day, they were to collect twice as much.
They went out and gathered. It was a wonderful provision of God. But many of them said to themselves, “This is great. We have the manna. God has provided. But just in case it does not show up tomorrow, I know I am supposed to get only one omer per person in the family, but just in case, I am going to get a little more for myself today.”
The Word of God says that what was left over was filled with worms, and it stank.
That is the way we are sometimes. We will believe Him to a certain point. “I can believe God is going to provide for me because I have a secure job. I can believe God is going to meet my needs because I have a retirement account like I cannot tell you about.”
“So what I am going to do is work sixty hours a week—well, seventy hours a week—and in the meantime my family is going down the tubes and all these things are happening. But yes, I believe that God will fulfill all my needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.”
Just in case. Just in case.
Sometimes that is where we are when we are talking about faith in the Lord.
Sometimes, when we walk up here to share something with the brethren, we are going to study for the whole week ahead of time. I am not saying that is bad, but this is what I am saying: we are going to study, get everything written down, get the whole thing memorized, and have it down so well that we do not even have to look at a note.
Just in case the Spirit of God will not inspire when I am up here or will not give me the words to say. In other words, I am going to trust in my ability to study and learn. I am going to get it down pat, and I am not going to leave any room for the Spirit of God to move in any direction.
“I am going to worship this way because this is what is comfortable for me. I am going to do it this way because I have it down pat. I have done it like this for so long.” And we do not trust for the Spirit of God simply to come in and move.
Because sometimes that is what it takes. Sometimes it just takes, “I do not know where I am going to go.”
There is a Scripture that has meant a lot to me over the years, where Jesus says there will be a time when you are brought before judges, princes, and governors. But do not worry about what you have to say, because “I will give you the words at that time.”
Sometimes that is the way our lives have to be, brothers and sisters. It is fun living on the edge, believe it or not. Living on the edge of faith is exciting.
It puts you out there where you cannot rest on your past laurels. It puts you out there where you cannot just rest on your own strength, your personality, or your ability.
You get out there, and you trust the Lord because He has said it, and He will do it. When you are out there and experience that, that is exciting. You are living on the edge. You are living by faith.
We walk by faith and not by sight. We walk by faith, not by our own natural abilities or our own ways of doing things because they worked in the past. We walk by faith for this particular time and this particular day. It is the proceeding Word of God.
That is exciting. That is the Christianity we should want—to live that way and to expect God. We need to expect Him.
In Ephesians, Paul prays that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.
In Colossians 2, verses 2 and 3, Paul prays:
“That their hearts may be comforted,
they being knit together in love,
and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding,
that they may know the mystery of God, even Christ,
in whom are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge hidden.”—Colossians 2:2-3
And in verses 6 and 7:
“As therefore ye received Christ Jesus the Lord,
so walk in Him,
rooted and builded up in Him,
and established in your faith,
even as ye were taught,
abounding in thanksgiving.”—Colossians 2:6-7
And verse 12:
“Having been buried with Him in baptism,
wherein ye were also raised with Him
through faith in the working of God,
who raised Him from the dead.”—Colossians 2:12
“As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him.” Remember when we first received the Lord Jesus? Where were we? What did we know?
Some of us knew absolutely nothing. I was one of them. But in that instant, by God’s grace, He supplied that initial faith. We heard the Word, and it did something in us.
By faith, we received Christ into our hearts. What had we done in the way of preparation for that? Nothing. It was the work of God. It was the gift of God.
It was by God’s grace, and we very simply received it. All of a sudden, we realized, “Wow, something has happened.”
Something had happened. What? It was God. It was the resurrection power of Christ coming into our lives and transforming us.
We knew of His forgiveness. We realized He was the God who had loved us all along. When we did not know Him, He was still loving us. In His kindness and mercy, He drew us to Himself—to that particular place where He found you or found me.
He drew us to that place, that moment in time, and poured out His grace to us. We received Him by the faith that He supplied, and we took hold of that and said, “Yes, Lord. I need a Savior, and I want You to be the Lord in my life.”
In that simple way, we are to walk. But sometimes we get so complicated. We think faith is more than that, but it is not. He wants us to walk just as we came to Him—simply believing Him at His Word.
That is exciting, and it is freeing. It is freeing and liberating.
As you received Him, walk in Him. And the wonderful thing is that as we walk by faith, our faith is increased—not because of what we do, but because of what we witness of His faithfulness.
My faith only increases as I witness the enduring, ongoing faithfulness of Christ. It emboldens me.
He was faithful to me here, I remember. Now He has called me here, in this particular time, to do this particular thing. I can remember His faithfulness, which causes my faith to rise up to do what He is now asking me to do.
It is not because I build my faith up, but because I witness the ongoing faithfulness of Christ. Because of that, my faith has increased in Him.
In 2 Timothy 3, some may be asking this question to themselves as I am sharing. The point of all of this is simply that we need to place our faith in the Word-Giver.
Paul, speaking to Timothy, says:
“And that from a babe thou hast known the sacred writings
which are able to make thee wise unto salvation
through faith which is in Christ Jesus.
Every scripture inspired of God is also profitable
for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for instruction which is in righteousness:
that the man of God may be complete,
furnished completely unto every good work.”—2 Timothy 3:15-17
From childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.
You have known the Scriptures, and they are able to make you wise for salvation. This salvation is more than just our initial salvation. It is this whole, full, and complete salvation—a salvation that is so complete and encompasses everything.
He is able to make us wise unto that. We need to move beyond just being saved. We need to know what this full salvation entails, what it includes, the beauty of it, the fullness of it. Again, it encompasses everything, and we are saved to the uttermost.
He says the Scriptures are able to do that, but they have to be enjoined by faith in Jesus Christ. That is where they become alive. That is when they become efficacious.
It is not merely memorization. It is not merely knowing it. You can know it, beat people over the head with it, point Scriptures out to them, and lead them to death rather than life.
But when it is enjoined by faith in Him, and we really know Who He is, then it is life-giving.
When you go to instruct, it is being presented in the Christ who has loved them, who has cared for them, who, even when they did not know Him, went out to them.
When it comes to reproving, it is still done in the love of Christ. Sometimes we want to reprove people with the Word of God, and it is like we have beaten them up. We leave them lying mercilessly on the ground and say, “Get up, get up,” but they cannot. They are so beaten down.
People—brothers and sisters—will have gone off. We write them off sometimes.
But the Word of God can be used to instruct and to encourage. Unless it is enjoined by faith in Christ, it can become a whip in our hands rather than something that can be so good, nourishing, and food.
And so I pray that all of us will say with Paul the apostle that we want to have our lives hidden in Christ. We want to place our faith in Him. He is the faithful One.
It is by the Spirit of God that these words in this Book can be translated and become life to us as we join faith to them.
That we would say with Paul:
“I have been crucified with Christ;
and it is no longer I that live,
but Christ liveth in me:
and that life which I now live in the flesh
I live in faith,
the faith which is in the Son of God,
who loved me, and gave Himself up for me.”—Galatians 2:20
Paul came to know this wonderful love of the Lord Jesus. Because of Jesus’ wonderful love toward Paul, His wonderful faithfulness toward Paul, Paul was able to say, “I live by faith in Him. I have placed my faith because He is trustworthy.”
Dear heavenly Father, we are just so thankful to You for the wonderful gift of Your Son, the Lord Jesus, and for how He has become to us our life, our wisdom, and our provision. We so thank You for Jesus.
And Lord Jesus, we just tell You that we are so grateful for the perfect way that You love us.
Amen.