The Bible Reader vs The Bible Believer
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Intro
Intro
Last week while i was preaching i just has such a deep growing sence of urgency on the topic.
An urgency thats strangely enough did not settle down after i had finished. I felt disturbed, unsettled, like the message was incomplete, that something was left unsaid, undone.
Well, i said to the Lord that iu would flog this horse till its dead if thats what He wanted me to do, so here i am.
Back with the same general topic as last week. Driving home the point of the absolute neccesity of faith and belief in trhe Word of God.
My subject today is to show you and ask you the difference between a bible reader and a bible believer.
Well are not they not one and the same pastor? No, they are not.
Many people who read rthe bible, who hear the voice of God, do not believe the Word of God.
Judas heard the voice of the Lord, he sat right under rthe teaching of the Savior, and yet he did not believe.
King Saul was the king of Israel, he heard the voice of God and heard God speak though the Prophet Samual, yet he was possesed by a demon and did not believe.
Demas heard the word of God, he even poreached the Word of God but he did not believe and ultimatly was forsaken.
Jesus made the distinction very clear:
24 Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock:
25 And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock.
26 And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand:
27 And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.
In BOTH of these scenarios BOTH of the men HEARD the voice of God, but only ONE believed and acted upon it.
Here is my question: Could it be that the reason for your attitude, outlook, your weakness, your lack of joy, peace and strength all boils down to a problem of belief?
Like we looked at on Good friday, Thomas was afraid and look at what the Lord said to him:
27 Then saith he to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side: and be not faithless, but believing.
Be not faithless in your attitude towords my Word, But Believeing!
Again I ask: Are you a Bible Reader or a Bible Believer?
Do you know what the difference between a joyful and a misrible christian is? Its NOT circumstance! I have seen joyful christians in the most difficult of circumstance and i has known mirsible christians in the most idle and serene circumstances.
The difference between joy and misery is Belief.
13 Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.
Not only joy but also notice: Peace.
All joy and all peae is NOT found in circumstances, it is found in believing the Word of God.
As absolutly neccesery as reading the bible is, if your reading is not followed up by beleiving then you are not going to profit from it.
Look at this:
2 For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.
Notice that unless the Word is mixed together with faith - there is no profit.
If i take all the ingrediants of a cake: The eggs, flower, suger, baking powder and put them al in a bowl BUT DO NOT MIX THEM, i can put that in the oven and i will not get a cake.
For each of those individual ingrediants to make a cake trhey must be mixed together.
Well you can take all the ingredients to make a good, victorious, profitible chrisrtian: Church attendence, bible reading - but unless these ingrediants are misex together with faith - you will get zeri growth, zero proifit.
We are Studying Abraham in our wednesday bible study.
Abraham heard the word of God, was given the promise of God, but none of that profited Abraham at all untill:
6 And he believed in the LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness.
A truth which Paul repeated in Roamsn:
3 For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness.
So we have to ask:
What is hindering my belief?
always same 3:
The world, flesh devil:
The World says the bible is old and outdated.
Its old fashioned, its morals and principles no longer apply to a progressive world.
The biblical truth that marriage is between a man and a woman are now hate speech.
The biblical truth that there are only 2 sexes Male and female are now hate speech.
The bibliucal truth than animals only reproduce after their kind and that evolution is a lie is now mocked and scoffed at by intelectals.
The flesh tells you that the bible is an insult to your inteligence and that its silly to believe the stories.
Its rediculous that every kind of animal got into Noahs ark.
Its rediculous that a man was swalled by a fish, lived in its stomach for 3 days and was then vomited out without injury.
Its rediculous to believ that one day at the sound of a trumpoet we will all fly through the air superman into the sky.
Its rediculous to believe that a donkey actually spioke in a human laungage without having the vocal chords to do so.
Its rediculous to actually believe that a man walked on water, its rediculous walking on water is a scientific imposibility.
And lets not forget the Devil, since the begining he has cast doubt on the truthfulness of God word, when he said to Eve “did od really say...”
So between the world teachging us lies since we start school, the flesh rebelling against God’s word and Satan constantly casting doubt on its truthfulness - im surprised there is anyone left who actualy does believe every word of the bible.
Those who do, what is the secret? How do we maintain a belief an “outdated”, “intelectualy insulting” and “obviously missguided” book?
The Answer is simple:
3 And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.
Children believe in the rediculous all the time.
They believe in magic bunnies, tooth faries, fat jolly old men. Why? Are they stupid?
No, they are trusting. They believe the ridiculous, not because they dont know better, they believe the ridiculous because of their trust in those who told them the rediculous.
Do you honestly thing that i dont know how utterly rediculous these evnts are? I know for a fact that a man cannot live ina fish. And i know for a fact that it is impossible to walk on water. I know for a fact that a steel axe head cannot float and that a few loves andf fish cannot feed 5000 people.
But, i also believer something else:
26 But Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible.
Because I believe God i also believe that the bible is never out of date. I believe that God inspired this book perfectly and preserved it perfectly.
And because i believe in God, I believ in every word of Scripture.
I believe:
5 Every word of God is pure: he is a shield unto them that put their trust in him.
35 Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.