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#1589 1023 11P We live in a very unbelieving world that just becomes more unbelieving and unfaithful to God every day. Serious warnings in Scripture, of worldwide unbelief and its consequences, remind us of the critical need for believing faith in the Atonement sacrifice God made for us. These warnings are from divine love, and are given to a world that refuses to believe unless it sees. When a man asked for the healing of his son, Jesus said to the crowd Mark 9:19 "O faithless generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you?" It was the same lament concerning God’s people centuries before. Ezekiel 33:31-32 “They sit before thee as my people, and they hear thy words, but they will not do them: for with their mouth they show much love, but their heart goeth after their covetousness; they hear thy words, but they do them not.” If there was no unbelief; if there was no lack of faith; if there were no serious consequences, and if it were not possible to forfeit our eternal life, then soft answers would suffice, but severe warnings need to be heard by a faithless and unbelieving world—it is the only way their eternal souls can be saved. The apostle Paul was converted and sent Acts 26:18 ”To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of [obedience to] Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me,” [Isaiah 35]. The apostle was Ephesians 4:15 ”Speaking the truth in love,” [so they could] “grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ.” On the paying of taxes the religious leaders asked Jesus Luke 20:21 "Teacher [Master], we know that You say and teach rightly, and You do not show personal favoritism, but teach the way of God in truth.” When the Pharisees wanted to seize Jesus, the guards returned saying John 7:46 "No man ever spoke like this Man!" In Nazareth, where Jesus began His ministry, He said Luke 4:18-21 "The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, Because He has anointed Me To preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives And recovery of sight to the blind, To set at liberty those who are oppressed; To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord". “Then He closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on Him. And He began to say to them, ‘Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.’"[Is. 61:1-2] At first Luke 4:22 ”All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his lips,” but when He added 23, "Surely you will quote this proverb to me: ‘Physician, heal yourself! Do here in your hometown what we have heard that you did in Capernaum,’” they began to question "Isn’t this Joseph’s son?" Satan suggested that Jesus was not divine; that He did not have authority to forgive sins, and did not have power to heal. Satan has deceived a faithless world that God will not do things for them today. When Jesus began to teach about faith in God for daily needs—like the widow in Zarephath Luke 4:25-26—or about believing trust on God for divine healing—like Naaman in Syria Luke 4:28 “all those in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath,” and tried to kill Him. The Sadducees asked Jesus a marriage question, to which He replied Matthew 22:29 “Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God.” Jesus said Matthew 28:18 “All power [and authority] is given unto me in heaven and in earth.” He had said earlier Matthew 23:37 "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing.” The world then, and more so today, refuses to believe and be saved. The dreadful spiritual condition of the world makes the coming of Christ a must. Jesus spoke in severe warnings because God’s judgment on the faithless will be even more severe. Serious consequences are in store for anyone who does not put God first in their life, and does not have divine love in their heart. Such faithless people, He said Matthew 25:46 “shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.” He added it is Matthew 25:41 "everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels.” It is all about believing trust on the living God. Jesus said Matthew 7:11 ”If ye then being evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your Father who is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?” God wants to give health, healing, pardon, provisions, protection, justice, and every other good gift, but we will have to believe and trust Him in faith to receive them—not trust on substitutes like medication, law suits, insurance policies, trust funds, or hand guns. Jesus said the world was adulterous, unbelieving, and of little faith. Looking religious on the outside, but having no faith on the inside, is the worst situation. Matthew 23:27 "Alas for you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you are just like whitewashed sepulchres, the outside of which pleases the eye, though inside they are full of dead men’s bones and of all that is unclean.” Jesus offended religious-looking teachers by saying John 8:44 ”You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.” We are either a son of the devil or a child of the Father—there is no middle position. Jesus told us to Matthew 5:44-45 “Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them who despitefully use you, and persecute you; That ye may be the children of your Father who is in heaven.” If we hate our enemies; resent those who harm us, we make ourselves sons of the devil—that is the choice everyone has. An unbelieving heart will take us to never-ending punishment. If we refuse to repent; refuse to believe and trust on the Atonement Blood of Christ, and refuse to allow God to cleanse our heart from self, we would suffer the fate of the unbelieving. Jesus did not spare delicate feelings when warning about the horror of Hell. He said Matt. 13:49-50 “the angels shall come forth, and sever the wicked from among the just, And shall cast them into the furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.” It is a very severe warning, about a very serious fate—for anyone who will not believe and trust God in faith for things in this life. The Blood of Jesus sets us free from the hold of a world that refuses to believe. Satan has a million substitutes on which we could depend—so Jesus said that Hell is Mark 9:48 "where ‘Their worm does not die, And the fire is not quenched.’”—it is a place of outer darkness, weeping, and gnashing of teeth Matthew 8:12; 22:13; 25:30. No evil on earth could compare to the horrors of Hell—that is why false teaching is so deadly. There are many religious messages on the radio, printed in books, and on-line today, but if the teaching does not emphasize trusting God in believing faith for divine healing, financial needs, avenging wrongs, protection from harm, and all other faith issues in this life, they are omitting essential Bible truths that cannot be omitted. The Israelites defiled themselves by having false places of trust. Israel”has not obeyed His voice, She has not received correction; She has not trusted in the Lord, She has not drawn near to her God. Zephaniah 3:2” False teachers quote assuring verses John 10:28 “I [Jesus] give to them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand,” but they omit the condition to receive those promises 27 ”My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.” If we follow Jesus, by placing our trust on His Blood sacrifice for physical healing and for every other need, no one could take us out of His hand; but if we choose not to follow Him, by not trusting in His shed blood, we take ourselves out of His hand, and would perish through unbelief. Jesus said to Luke 13:24 ”Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say to you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able.” Jesus had to give serious warnings about whose message we listen to, what teaching we accept, and where we have placed our faith—because faith in Christ is an eternal life issue. God’s love gave us a very important choice, and that choice includes whether we trust Him in faith, or turn away in unbelief—that responsibility and choice cannot be revoked. Satan is always disguised, and false teaching always distorts, God’s Truth. Jesus said He would be crucified John 3:15-16 ”that every one who is believing in him may not perish, but may have life age-during, for God did so love the world, that His Son—the only begotten—He gave, that every one who is believing in him may not perish, but may have life age-during, [everlasting life]” when He returns. The one requirement for Heaven is to keep on believing in the Son of God—which means to keep on trusting God in faith for everything—for daily needs without laid up cash, for divine healing without medicine, for protection without guns, and for spiritual light without uninspired religious books.
The choice to believe God, and to trust Him in faith for everything,
will always be ours.
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