Lightly edited for readability while preserving the speaker’s meaning and substantive statements.
believers lord we thank you that you sent your spirit to live and indwell in us that we can be filled to overflowing that we can be full of your presence of your power god is just a wonderful thing lord there's nothing better than your presence there's nothing better than your glory there's nothing better than being with you lord in worship being with you and the fellowship with other people lord you said where two or three are gathered together in your name there you are in the midst lord but it's great when you manifest your presence when you speak to us god when you lead us by your spirit and by your word we thank you for that this morning jesus name we pray amen you may be seated it's good to worship the lord i sense his presence here this morning got a lot to cover uh going to be talking a little bit about faith this morning faith's an important thing amen i want everybody to turn with me to hebrews chapter 11. we're going to start there but we're going to go to quite a few places this morning i'm calling this message unbelieving believers unbelieving believers there's a lot going on in christendom or the christian world the church world that blows my mind but we need to define faith what faith is you know people have a lot of different ideas about what faith is a lot of people think faith is uh having some religious code or religious belief system some people think faith is just believing that there is a god that there's an afterlife a lot of people think faith is their own moral code that they've come up with and then we've got to even have people out there that think they're spiritual and have faith but they deny jesus and they deny the word of god but we need to look at the term this is a term that god came up with this is a term that's in the bible amen and we need to know what bible faith is not oprah faith not deepak chopra faith not hindu faith not buddhist faith but true faith the true faith of god the creator amen we need to define that now we're going to look at a bunch of scriptures but let's just look at this
this morning first hebrews chapter 11 verse 1. i'm going to read down through verse 6 right now but he says this now faith is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen for by it or by faith the elders of god almighty the elders obtained a good report through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of god so that the things which are seen were not made of things which do appear by faith abel offered unto god a more excellent sacrifice than cain by which he obtained witness that he was righteous god testifying of his gifts and by it he being dead yet speaketh and by faith enoch was translated that he should not see death and was not found because god had translated him before his translation for he had the testimony that he pleased god now verse 6 but without faith it is impossible to please him or god for he that cometh to god must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of those that diligently seek him so without faith it is absolutely impossible to believe god now or to please god and if we're going to please god then we're going to have to believe that he is and everything that he is and that he's a rewarder of those that diligently seek him now i'm not going to read all of chapter 11 here in hebrews but i want to skip down and read some in verse go down to verse 32. now he gives this long list of different people who operated in faith and there's so many aspects to what it means to live by faith and to walk in faith in the faith of god and to have faith in god and i i could spend all morning just on hebrews 11. but i want to show you something here he gives this long list going through all these different individuals and then he said in verse 32 and what shall i more say for time would fail me to tell of gideon and barack and samson and jephthah and of david and of samuel and of the prophets who through faith subdued kingdoms wrought righteousness obtained promises stop the mouths of lions quench the violence of fire escape the edge of the sword out of weakness were made strong waxed valiant in fight turned to flight the armies of aliens women received their dead raised to life again and others were tortured not accepting deliverance that they might obtain a
better resurrection and others had trial of cruel mockings and scourging j mover of bonds and imprisonment they were stoned they were sawn asunder were tempted were slain with the sword they wandered about in sheepskins and goat skins being destitute and afflicted and tormented of whom the world was not worthy they wandered in deserts and in mountains in the dens and caves of the earth all these or these all rather having obtained a good report through faith receive not the promise and the promise he's talking of here is the final resurrection of the body because he said god having provided some better thing for us that that with they without us should not be made perfect but he's talking about true bible faith can i just say something to you this morning true bible faith is more than just believing god exists true bible faith is more than just believing that jesus is the messiah god in the flesh and that he died on the cross for your sins and rose from the dead now that's a good place to start but faith is far more than just believing something in your mind or just in your heart just saying i believe that you know a few weeks ago i talked about it from james chapter 2. you can turn there if you want to but i'm not turning there at this moment but james chapter 2 he said thou believeth there is one god thou do as well but the devils also believe and tremble and then he talked about faith without works is dead being alone so true bible faith he's trying to tell us something there true bible faith is not just believing something about god it's not just believing in god it's not just believing in jesus or in the cross or in the resurrection true bible faith will result in actions in your life they will result in faith will result in change in the way you think in the way you live and the way you act true faith will change you amen true faith will change others around you because they will see your faith amen that's what james was talking about he said you know what show me show me your faith without your works he said i'll show you my faith by my works see right now we've got a lot of people that claim to have faith in god faith in the lord jesus christ they claim to be christians but their actions do not agree with that nor do their words even their belief system is flawed so we have a lot of unbelieving believers and what's sad about that
is that they think they're gonna be okay when it's all said and done i'm going to read some scriptures first of all let's look at the definition of faith from the greek dictionary this is from the strong's greek dictionary here is the definition of faith it says persuasion that is credence moral conviction of religious truth or the truthfulness of god can i say that again it is moral conviction of religious truth or the truthfulness of god or religious teacher now when we say god and of course the god we're talking about yahweh jehovah elohim adonai the lord jesus christ of nazareth who died and rose from the dead the everlasting father the prince of peace the mighty god so faith is moral conviction of the religious truth or the truthfulness of god especially reliance upon christ jesus for salvation and the constancy in such profession and life notice what it says here it says it is the ex and it's also a definition the system of religious gospel truth itself with the assurance that you believe it that you believe that you have faith and that you are fidelity meaning you are loyal to that truth that you believe right now i've given you this many times oh boy it's gonna jump it boy it really jumped now here's some scriptures we're gonna look at this morning because this is important now we've quoted i'm just going to quote this verse but it's up here on the screen for those watching first timothy 4 1-2 the holy spirit gave paul this morning says now the spirit speaketh expressly that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith okay some shall depart from the faith giving he deducing spirits and doctrines of devils speaking lies in hypocrisy and having their conscience seared with a hot iron now that's first timothy 4 1. so we we we have a warning that many people are going to depart from the faith not a faith the faith today i was looking up uh when i woke up this morning we got the uh the huffington post had an article let me turn let me let me just show it to you real quick here but the huffington post had this article i found interesting
well i guess i need to go here don't and this is just from this morning 7.5 million americans have lost their religion since 2012. every stat on people departing from the church departing from prayer departing from their faith in jesus all statistics are going up many many are departing so we're seeing this fulfilled this scripture that we just put up here where paul warned that in the last days some will depart from the faith giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils now this all not surprise us okay but again i want you to focus back on the fact that i'm talking about today people who believe or say they believe in jesus all right this is what jesus said you can turn in your bibles if you want to matthew 7 21-23 probably one of the most important things that jesus ever told us here okay because he said not everyone that saith unto me lord lord shall enter into the kingdom of heaven but he that doeth the will of my father which is in heaven many will say to me in that day lord lord have we not prophesied in thy name and in thy name have cast out devils and in thy name done many wonderful works and then will i profess unto them i never knew you depart from me ye that work iniquity so here we have jesus right we have jesus saying many will say to me in that day lord lord have we not prophesied in your name we've we've cast out demons even in your name we've done wonderful works in your name we've had orphanages and charities and we've done all kinds of things but the lord will say i never knew you now we need to define this because a lot of people say well see they never were saved so you can't say they're departing from the faith well how is it possible for god almighty to never know you he knew us all before we were ever conceived in our mother's womb right jeremiah chapter one god almighty the creator is omniscient meaning he's all-knowing he knows everything in eternity past present and future he knows it all right right so obviously it's not talking about he never knew you at all i'm going to give you the verse of
scripture where it hopefully makes sense because also an unbeliever can't cast out demons he doesn't have the power he doesn't have the authority we see that in in uh acts chapter 19 when the sons of the high priest skeva tried to cast demons out of the man that was possessed and they were not able to do it even the disciples at one point were not able to cast demons out of a boy because they had let too much unbelief creep in them so don't tell me that an unbeliever who's never been born again can cast out demons not possible he says here and this is in ezekiel 33 verse 13 just a little hint about this he said when i say to the righteous that he shall surely live if he trusts to his own righteousness in his own standard he's got his own ideas of what right and wrong is we've got a lot of christians like that they think they can fornicate and drink party lust be full of bitterness and unforgiveness have abortions everything else they think they can do all this stuff and they'll be all right with god so they have their own standard of righteousness well he says here in ezekiel 33 13 when i say to the righteous that he shall surely live if he trusts to his own righteousness and commit iniquity all his righteousness shall not be remembered uh-oh all his righteousness shall not be remembered but for his iniquity that he hath committed he shall die for it now of course ezekiel is talking about revelation 20 the second death in the lake of fire for all eternity death is not that you will cease to exist or be annihilated death means you're separated from god who is life do you remember jesus said i am the way the truth and the life no man cometh to the father but through me so to be separated from life is death but you will eternally exist in heaven with life or an eternal separation from god in hell death eternal damnation right but he says here when i look it's pretty strong all his righteousness if a righteous man turns and commits practices iniquity practices sin habitually everything he's ever done that was righteous confessing jesus is lord may be living a few years for god may be given to the poor all that he's done that was good and righteous will not
be remembered so jesus could literally look at a person who had lived for him at one time but who fell away walked away departed from the faith chose to live in sin made up on his own excuses and his own standard of righteousness he could honestly he's going to look at that person on judgment day and say who are you i never knew you depart from me you who work or practice iniquity so as we see here it's possible to believe in the lord it's possible to call upon the lord jesus it's possible to prophesy in his name and cast out demons and do many wonderful things and in the end for him to say that you were an unbelieving believer you are a disobedient believer you are a worker of iniquity you did not do the will of the father and so all your righteousness will not be remembered nothing you did not that prayer when you were nine years old in the baptist church not when you got baptized not when you got sprinkled not when you got confirmed not when you sang in the choir nothing not when you gave tithes and offerings nothing righteous you did will be remembered now let's keep going here's what here's here's the way the apostle john put it first john chapter two we're gonna read first john two one through five here's what he said my little children these things right i unto you that you sin not the commandment from god is to not live in sin the commandment from from god is to not have practice some lifestyle of sinful behavior can somebody say that with me because the church has all this completely backwards now because now we have grace that says we've got a grace teaching it says oh it doesn't matter what you do all your sins are forgiven past present and future people like joseph prince charles stanley andy stanley then you have others that take it to an even greater extreme like rob bell who even say that that you're not going to go to hell that everybody's going to end up in heaven in the end there's no eternal judgment there's no eternal separation there's no consequences for sinful rebellious disobedient behavior and lifestyles there's no there's there's no consequences we were warned by jesus that the day would come that people would deceive you and people would turn the grace of god into lasciviousness or a license to sin this is exactly where we're living right now now don't get me wrong you guys know how i have preached the the balance to this i don't believe a christian will live a sinless life but it should be the exception and not the rule if there's a habit if there's an ongoing sin that's unto eternal damnation you better take it seriously
and you better repent confess it and forsake it and deal with it you better put it to death or it will put you to death this is serious he says here my little children these things i write unto you that you sin not and if any man sin we have an advocate with the father jesus christ the righteous and he is the propediation for our sins and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world so he's saying hey guess what there's good news if you have sinned and he's talking to the believers my little children he says if you've sinned thank god that jesus became our propitiation or our sacrifice he paid a price so that we could be forgiven but then he goes on and this is completely contrary to the just believe crowd in the church world because he goes on and say and says this and hereby we do know that we know him if we keep his commandments oh you mean i can't just believe and do whatever i want no you can't this is how you know whether you are in the true faith of jesus walking in faith living by faith and in a relationship with him you keep his commandments i didn't write this this is the apostle john and hereby or this is how we do know that we know him if we keep his commandments he that saith i know him and keepeth not his commandments is a liar and the truth is not in him uh oh so there's a lot of people out there who are liars they say i know jesus but they do not keep his commandments and i'm not talking about just the two commandments love the lord thy god with all thy heart soul mind and strength and love your neighbor as yourself no jesus had some other ones the new testament apostles by the holy ghost had some other ones don't live in fornication pre-marital sex don't live in homosexuality don't live in idolatry don't live in hatred or pres prejudice or racism or unforgiveness or bitterness don't be a liar don't be a thief some people think that god some some people have this concept that the new testament just did away with all commandments no the old testament the only thing the new testament get away with is we don't have to sacrifice animals we don't have to keep particular feast days and we don't have to go through all the rituals but the commandments to morality and righteousness and obedience to god did not get thrown out i see them all over the new testament
and there is no true faith unless you are obeyed you're not walking in faith if you're walking in disobedience know you're walking in unbelief if you walk into me let me you know why because if you believe what the bible said you'd be scared to death to walk in disobedience and sin and disregard god's commands if you believed it see the problem is nobody believes it anymore so they don't feel bad about it i can commit adultery i can watch pornography every single day of my life i can do whatever i want because the bottom line if they believe god and they believe god's word and i'm going to get to this in a minute but i'm going to say this there is no true faith that does not believe all of god's word if you don't believe all of god's word you're an unbelieving believer how in the world can you tell me you believe in a god who is powerful enough to create heaven and earth in the universe but he's not powerful enough to give us a book and make sure it's correct and it stays pure and it stays right how can you be a believer and tell me why i believe this part of the book but i don't believe this part how can you be a believer in this powerful all-powerful supernatural god and not believe that he still does miracles and heals the sick and cast out demons and and how can you disregard the supernatural aspects like the parting of the red sea i mean we've got a bunch of unbelieving believers actually they're professors in bible colleges now a lot of them and i'm sorry i'm a little fired up about this but here's what you know i love this verse 5 in first john 2 says but who so keepeth that means habitually ongoing and presently whoso keepeth his word in him verily is the love of god perfected hereby know we that we are in him but now the one i want to really get to is everybody turn to titus 1 15-16 and this is just the introduction this is a salad now we're about to get into the meat of it here here's another verse that exactly says what i'm trying to say this morning to the letter it's so descriptive it's it's quite disturbing he says here unto the pure
and can i just say the only way anybody's pure we have all sinned and come short of the glory of god amen the only way anybody's pure is that they have come to jesus and said forgive me lord for my sins and has said i repent and i'm turning from them and i'm going to follow you and that repentance brought forth the remission of the forgiveness of sins that's the only way you're pure nobody's pure out of their own goodness not saying that but nor are you can you claim the blood of jesus and live any way you want to live that's what unbelieving believers do he said unto the pure all things are pure but of them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure but even their minded conscience is defiled now he's saying that there are people who are defiled and unbelieving and then he says this about them they profess that they know god but in works they deny him being abominable and disobedient and unto every good work reprobate you know what this means here and what's interesting let me scroll down a little bit here it's just not working what's interesting is this word profess here in titus 1 16 is the word it means to ascent to covenant to acknowledge confession is made to give thanks to promise this is the greek word homologo or however you say it but anyway it's the same word greek word that's in romans 10 9 it says that if you will confess with your mouth the lord jesus and believe in your heart that god's raised him from the dead you shall be saved so we're saying there are people who profess who ascent that covenant that acknowledge jesus god they profess to know god but in their works they deny him now the word deny we get the word deny is pretty intense here the word deny means to contradict disavow reject abnegate refuse they profess that they know god but in their works their actions they deny him this is the definition of an unbelieving believer they say i believe in god they say jesus is my lord and savior they say i want to go to heaven i'm going to heaven they
say i'm a good person they say i go to church and i give tithes and i sing in the choir they say they profess oh i know god and he understands my heart god understands they say they know god but their works in their works they deny him and this is where it gets they deny him being abominable meaning the word abominable means they do things god detests they are disobedient to his commands to his word and even when they try to do good works they are still looked at by him as reprobate now i know a lot of people like this i hear from them all the time i hear from them nearly regularly i watched a video uh there's a campus preacher open air preacher named jesse morell whose friends i'm friends with him on facebook he was preaching at some he preaches at you know big events and he'll go mainly to college campuses and preach needs to come to auburn alabama y'all see the headline this morning that i posted auburn in alabama ranked the in the top five of universities in america with stds sexually transmitted disease alabama ranks number four and auburn ranks number five and of course this is not something you want to win right but how in the world i said this morning how in the world are two bible belt universities in the heart of the bible belt in alabama my state how do we rank number four and five in sexually transmitted diseases in all universities in america four and five my first amazement was how uga was number one but we won't go there just or the university of florida florida state was in the top five but i sat there and i realized well when the majority of churches in the south southern baptist methodist presbyterian when most of your churches in the south for decades now have preached to people and young people and they have preached that once you're saved you're always saved no matter how you live no matter what you do you're you're eternally secure no matter what this is what you get you get a generation that has no moral compass no moral conviction no conscience even to the point of they don't even obviously they don't even care about you know condoms i mean i hate to be so blunt this
morning but but we've got a bunch of people and i put it on facebook i'm sorry but i said you know what the bible says that fornicators and whoremongers will not go to heaven galatians 5 ephesians 5 revelation 21 but yet we've got churches telling them phds at first baptist and first methodist and everywhere else telling them no you're okay god understands your struggles no if you practice habitually the sin of premarital sex you are a fornicator if you practice the sin of adultery you are an adulterer if you practice the sin of homosexuality you are a homosexual and if you practice these things you are not saved and going to heaven i don't care how many times you've been born again to the altar said a prayer or how many times you've been dunked in baptism no you can profess to know god but if your works your actions your lifestyle denies him you are lost and headed for eternal damnation you are an unbelieving believer you acknowledge you say you believe in god you profess to know god you say you can say i was saved in the baptist church when i was 9 or 10 years old or i was saved at the assembly of god youth camp but nothing in your life matches what you say so well i go to church pastor i pray once in a while yeah when you're in trouble but i go to the boys home i go help i go help i go help feed the poor at the soup kitchen well good for you sweet darling that's not going to make up for your sexual sin it's not going to make it listen and people people you know what people can talk about homosexuality people being born with it you know there's not one scientific study that proves that that you're born with homosexuality not one matter of fact there's studies that prove that's not especially with identical twins so homosexuality is not genetic never has been never will be it is a it is a sexual lust it is a sexual urge and guess what everybody has lust and urges toward things that are sexually immoral and perverted right we're all tempted right the flesh wants to sin well what you choose not to you resist it
in the name of jesus that means this people i've wanted to punch in the mouth i had an urge and a desire and great feelings for punching them in the mouth even recently but i choose because of jesus and i know that it is sin i choose to resist those urges even though it would probably do them some good just because i have the urges does not mean i have to act on everybody now in the world thinks if you have urges you suppose you can act on them because you got to be happy you know you got to do whatever feels good to you whatever's right in your own eyes no that's not the way it works the church world right now is filled with unbelieving believers they got one foot in the kingdom of god and one foot in the world and i'm just going to tell you that in the end if you die that way you will be lost forever this is a serious matter you can say lord lord you can say i prayed you can say i was baptized you can say that you know i've been sprinkled you can say i try to do good it's going to come down to do you believe all of the word of god and do you believe that you have to repent of sin so you you can only believe one of two things you're either going to believe that you have to repent and obey god and live a holy life or you're going to believe that god's grace covers it and i can do what i want and it's okay maybe you see the and the baptist got it well you'll lose a few rewards at the judgment seat of christ but you still go to heaven that's completely wrong too but we won't that's that's another sermon on another day why am i saying this because the falling away i mean when i saw that this morning that the university of alabama and auburn university rank four and five in sexually transmitted diseases and here we are in the belt buckle of the bible belt the heart of dixie right we're the center of the south i mean we're and we've had our good aspects and we've had our bad aspects but we are alabama
i mean when over 80 percent of of alabama voted to say that marriage is between a man and a woman obviously there's some true there's some religious conviction and belief out here in alabama but from this statistic we find out yeah on a big moral issue out here everybody professes what god's law says but on friday and saturday night i got to be in bed with my honey and we ain't married deceived deceived deceived deceived and oh let me tell you the pastors the evangelists the prophets the apostles the sunday school teachers the deacons the elders that preach this crap have blood on their hands and will stand before the judgment seat of christ under a greater judgment and there's going to be a special place in hell for the preachers and the so-called ministers of the gospel and the theologians that have told people you're okay when you're not okay it's the same thing that the old prophets used to do the old false prophets they would say peace peace when there is no peace god talked about promising them life when there wasn't life for them do you know there were prophets in old israel back in the days of jeremiah and ezekiel [Music] that would tell people who were in idolatry and even committing adultery and having uh sexual orgies with the temple prostitutes would tell them ah you're okay just just go make this offering go do this little religious deed you're okay and jeremiah's message in ezekiel's message the message of any true prophet down through the ages has always been no you cannot live in idolatry sexual sin and immorality you can't keep doing it come out of it stop it turn back to the lord obey him worship him serve him follow him do his commandments right if the message has never changed not old testament or new
people have always wanted to have god to have eternal security people have always wanted eternal life but they don't want to obey they don't want to live for him they don't want to obey him they don't want to surrender they don't want to give up anything they don't want to sacrifice anything they don't want to suffer anything they want to do what they want but still go to heaven no this is this is the lie of satan really the ultimate lie and it's the lie that's taken over the last several generations especially of the western church world europe is dead the church in europe is dead the church in america most of it is dead now before we go on [Music] i do want to say this if that's your life that's been your life you've been a belief you believe in jesus but you're a habitual drunkard you get drunk every weekend are you believing jesus but you're still smoking marijuana or taking the pills you shouldn't have if you're in sexual sin or mri the good news is this you don't have to keep believing the lie you don't have to be deceived and end up in hell when you're judged you can actually get forgiveness now you can say god you know what [Music] i know you're merciful and you'll forgive me god's just looking for people to humble themselves and say i've been wrong god you're right i'm wrong forgive me wash me help me but i'm gonna do everything i can do to walk away from this stuff some of you need to understand these sins are like rattlesnakes you go run away from them get away from them get out of range so they can't bite you and inject you with the poison are you going to cradle them and love on them until they until they get you and trust me they'll get you you can't keep playing with fire and not get burned right look at a few things about faith here i read this number one without faith it's impossible to please god right so what is faith if it's impossible to please god what is it well let's first of all let's see where it comes from romans 10 17 here's where faith comes
from true faith originates from the word of god hearing the word of god hearing the word of god so then faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of god romans 10 17. it's interesting but this word cometh is not in the original language it would just read so then faith by hearing but they put that in there just for us to understand the word by there means it originates it says so then faith originates by hearing and what are you supposed to hear the word of god so the origin of faith there can be no faith we got oprah we got deepak chopra we got everybody's got their their ideas of faith and spirituality but the bible tells us right here that no true faith in the one true god originates by hearing the word of god the written word of god which we have the bible genesis to malachi matthew to revelation and by hearing the voice of the true spirit of god speaking only things that go along with the written word of god everybody say this with me there is no faith outside of the word of god the bible people say i'm spiritual i have faith i believe in the afterlife i believe in angels i don't believe in jesus though i don't believe the bible's true i don't believe that story about the flood i don't believe that story i don't believe god made adam and eve i believe in evolution but i believe there's a god no no you're an unbelieving believer you don't have faith you believe what man has told you i love how they like to point at us and go men wrote the bible well let's just take that for a second it's true that god didn't inspire these men to write the bible what do they believe it other men so what makes your men superior to my men well i just can't buy those stories well then quit calling yourself a believer quit saying that you're spiritual and that you have faith and yet you believe because look quit being a hypocrite either believe in the true god and the word of god that's proven to be expired inspired by him or just be an atheist but quit playing this game there is no faith faith true faith
originates by hearing the word of god that's its origin there is no faith outside the word of god and can i tell you this all of god's word let's keep going and that brings me to my third point here true faith must also accept the supernatural aspect of god and his word he said this jesus answered and said and this is matthew 22 29 jesus speaking to the pharisees and the sadducees now you gotta remember the pharisees and the sadducees were the religious leaders of israel they believed in the god of abraham the same god they believed he existed they believed in the exodus story right so they believed in a god in the god of creation and in what he did in the past but they started asking jesus this thing about a woman who was married to several husbands and and then she passes away in the resurrection they said who's whose wife will she be because they didn't want to they didn't believe in the resurrection so they believed in this supernatural god who created the heavens and the earth they believed genesis 1 1 but but they don't believe in the resurrection of the dead now that makes a lot of sense but this is what unbelieving believers do they don't make a lot of sense right and jesus just rebuked them and said you do air or you're in error not knowing the scriptures nor the power of god now i can say this to a lot of preachers today you believe in this god who created the heavens and the earth you say you believe in the in the in in the exodus and the plagues upon egypt and you say you believe the bible but you don't know if you believe that jesus can heal someone dying cancer today you don't believe this you don't believe the holy spirit can still feel somebody and they can speak in the tongues of of angels you don't believe the dead can be raised or a demon can be cast out in jesus name i i listen i recently had a conversation with a baptist i guess he's bad this they some of them are taking their baptist names off but they're still baptist but i had this discussion no no all that all that ceased for the apostle so you believe in a god whose supernatural power beyond anything we can comprehend but he can't do it today because of your theology he can't he won't
you're an unbelieving believer my friend you're a devil with reverend in front of your name jesus through the apostle paul the holy spirit said in the last days they would be having a form of godliness but they would deny reject the power the dunamis supernatural miraculous power of the holy spirit and then he tells us from such turn away meaning if a preacher comes up to me or a christian comes up to me and says you know i believe in jesus their little sour puss i believe in jesus i believe in i believe in god i go to church but i don't believe in that healing stuff and that tongue stuff and that demon stuff the bible tells me then to get away from you because you're an idiot because you're you you are that crazy to believe in this say you believe in this god who made the heavens and the earth out of nothing but he can't heal the sick cleanse the leopard raise the dead drive out demons what you're really an atheist you're an atheist in christian clothing you don't believe it then you you either you never had faith or you've departed from the faith because faith in god and the word of god cannot deny the power of god it can't faith cannot say that god's word has changed or that god has changed you see the reason we don't see a lot of miracles today is this reason right here jesus goes to nazareth right his hometown where he grew up and he goes there and he was going to do some powerful things there but they got offended at him because they said he's not is is this not the son of joseph and mary and not his brothers and sisters here who is this guy who does he think he is and it says they were offended at him and jesus made this statement this is mark 6 4-6 jesus said unto them a prophet is not without honor but in his own country and among his own kin and in his own house and he could there do no mighty work save he laid his hand upon a few sick folk and healed them and he marveled because of their unbelief
unbelief the atmosphere of unbelief the lack of faith of the people made it where jesus could not do mighty miracles now you know we in the pentecostal realm and we want to see mighty miracles again but the problem is the atmosphere of unbelief in which we live now even among pentecostals we don't believe see it's one thing see the problem is always this we will say we believe god can do it the real issue of faith is believing that god will do it for me now if i ask him and i believe it he will do it that's faith faith refuses to look at the natural realm and accept the lies no i don't care what the natural realm says true faith believes that god is the same yesterday today and forever jesus christ is the same yesterday today and forever he hasn't changed amen well i prayed for somebody and they didn't get healed so what maybe it was your lack of faith maybe it was their lack of faith maybe it wasn't time yet but they didn't change that god is still the same god that wants us to believe how many times you know i looked up i looked up just the word faith in the new testament in the king james version 245 times it's used that's not counting the other place where the same greek word is therefore believe and believeth i mean so it's it's it's there hundreds upon hundreds of times how many times in the ministry of jesus when he healed somebody when a mighty miracle was done the blind seeing the woman with the issue of blood for 12 years the woman whose daughter was demon possessed the paralyzed man that was let down through the roof how many times i don't even know how many times i need to go count but over and over again jesus said according to your faith be it unto you see the the modern church where they don't hear that they don't want to hear that possibly the reason there are not healings and miracles and gifts of the holy spirit is because they are unbelief
yeah but it's on you sometimes according to your faith be it unto you the jesus the the four men when when they let down the paralyzed man they broke up the roof and they lowered him down where jesus was it says jesus it says this i believe it's mark two but it says it's just plain as day when jesus saw their faith i mean these guys so believe jesus would heal that man right then that day if they could get that man to jesus and they were willing to carry a paralyzed man on a roof break the roof somebody tore up somebody's roof and lowered this paralyzed man down in front of jesus jesus was like wow these people want this they didn't let the obstacle of the crowd why couldn't they get to jesus there was such a crowd in the house and around the house they couldn't even get through so they didn't let the obstacle of the crowd they didn't let the obstacle of the house they didn't let the obstacle of the roof i mean they had to get prepared they had to get ropes and i'm probably some some uh you know some hammers or some some pickaxe or something they had to break the roof up see faith will do something faith will say i'm getting to jesus i'm going to get there and he's going to do this for me he hadn't changed and let me just encourage you if you belong to him if you are his child you believe him you've turned from your sin you love him you're following hard after him he will do what you ask but you have to operate in faith and it's not always going to be right the first moment you ask sometimes you're going to have to fight the good fight of faith i'm a moonwalk you hear what i'm saying god if we would believe it i told somebody this week faith true faith when you need an answered prayer when you need a miracle when you need god to supernaturally provide for you or to to fix a situation that's bad even if you messed it up or or to heal you or to heal somebody around it's in deep trouble that's it's when this happens god wants you to believe and faith believes that it has the answer before it sees the answer oh see i said a minute ago there is no true faith without the word of god and believing the word of god because that's where it originates from but there's no true faith
without believing the supernatural come on now i don't understand people i've been in atmospheres where where you know you you couldn't have seen a stump toe get healed and i've been in atmospheres when anything is possible because people are believing i remember in africa in nigeria in 2002 i was preaching two three times a day most of the time i didn't know where i was going they wouldn't even tell me where i was going to preach all i knew every day was i would go preach at the pilgrims university the seminary there i would go teach the college students for about two hours the seminary student and then who knows we'd go eat sometimes there would be somewhere to preach after lunch and then at night but i usually didn't know what was happening after lunch or at night um you want to talk about be ready i mean this was 30 days you know month of doing this and i remember one morning i was there got through with the students close to noon and the bishop and the president of the seminary came up to me and he said we're going to go across town and you're going to you're going to do a healing service this was i say it was noon it was probably earlier noon you know i guess it was around 10 or 11 on a wednesday morning in auburn nigeria 2002 i was tired no air conditioning so i had soaked my clothes through with sweat preaching that morning teaching went into the pastor's office they prepared me a little snack and something to drink drank that jumped in the car ran across town i get across town there's a church and the church is there a lot of them have a roof and they're just open they've got poles that go around and they're open except for the back part and they had hundreds of chairs set up and every chair was full and people were standing all around the church building i mean there were probably six seven hundred people there on a wednesday morning and you'll walk up and i'm walking through the crowd i'm walking through the crowd and i'm seeing people sick people very sick people people holding sick babies that are burning up with fever i've seen demon possessed people chained
to trees because they don't know what else to do with them they don't they don't have a lot of them can't get to medical care most of them can't afford medical care they don't put the people a lot of people that have the demon possessed that are gone that have gone crazy they don't put them in mental institutions they can't afford that and so they take them to a church and drop them off in the church until they can fast and pray and deal with the demons and then they'll chain them to a tree so i walk through an area of people chained to trees for their safety and the safety of others don't talk about crazy stuff gets real see this is new testament stuff you want to talk about feeling weak and powerless i was worn out tired felt empty felt nothing can i just tell you something you don't go by how you feel because if i went by how i felt that morning i would have just taken off running down the street and they'd had to find me later on that night because i'm sitting here going yeah i'm ready for this i hadn't even prayed about this i didn't know this was going to happen i didn't know i was going to be encountering all this i haven't been able to fast i haven't been able to really you know pray about this i don't have a message ready well guess what word of god says be instant in season out of season kevin be ready at all times because you never know what's going to happen so i walked in that church they did a little praise and worship had to have an interpreter that morning and you know what i did is complete faith i shared the scriptures about believing for the impossible all things are possible to him that believes remember jesus saying that and i began to share testimonies from my past of when we prayed and seen people healed of terminal cancer when we saw a boy who was paralyzed in an unconscious healed instantly when i said three ladies three ladies three times in the church i pastored in montgomery we had women that were pregnant even up to six months pregnant and the doctor said no heartbeat after ultrasound and three out of three times the babies came back to life so i began to share these testimonies i didn't feel a thing but i believed god i believed god's word i saw people hurting and in need and i knew i didn't have it so i better step in if i had a choice either step into faith or step into doubt and fear when you see women holding their little babies burning up with fever knowing they're either going to suffer brain damage or might die
you better do something you better be believing something you better have faith for something so i preached my heart out sweat again i'm talking about like i had got in a pool i have the video i still have the video of that day you can see when i my hair that i didn't i hadn't shaved off yet my hair was soaking wet i remember laying my hands on people when i gave the altar call who needed healing almost everybody came forward i thought oh lord gonna be here a while so i started going through the crowd praying with all my heart i remember laying my hands on some babies and i'm going to tell you i so hot they they felt like my hand was on fire people with blood disorders and all kinds of problems i mean it's africa people power of god is hitting people and a lot of it i didn't i didn't see i just i just and there's so many i was just having to just lay hands in the name of jesus and laying hands on them praying name of jesus healed healing lord heal rebuking fevers rebuking the demons rebuking the sickness and spirit of infirmity went through there got to the end god gave me some prophetic words over the last several people i was through i was a wet dish rag but let me tell you got back that night went somewhere else to preach got a little break got some dinner went somewhere else to preach that night what i said bishop i said did you hear anything about the service i said what happened and basically he said everybody got healed all these people got healed he said every report i heard was somebody got healed of this or that or whatever blown away but see if i hadn't believed it if i hadn't had faith enough to step out and preach it step out and share the testimonies and step out and lay hands on the sick and rebuke the demons and pray for healing believing it would happen even when i i was exhausted it had no feelings you see what i'm saying faith steps out of the boat listen unbelief is is is safe and comfortable because you can just sit there with the rest of the dry boat riders and just try to ride out the storm right
the people who walk in faith say you know what jesus you're out there walking on the water i want to do that too and you know he gave us this scripture and i'll give it to you this church ought to memorize this scripture john 14 verse 12 jesus said this very verily i say unto you whosoever believeth on me the works that i do shall he do also and greater works than me shall he do he didn't say some of them that believe he didn't say some of those in the first century that believe folks in the days ahead not only will christians not be able to buy or sell unless we take the mark of the beast the days ahead they're going to deny us everything right now you got your obamacare you still may not be all right if you go to the hospital the day's coming for christians we're going to be shut out of all that we're gonna be shut out of going to the doctor what are you gonna do some of you that are dependent upon medication what are you gonna do when you can't get it see christians ought to be believing god we ought to be believing that our god is supernatural that he's able if we need healing when we need it he will do it we got to believe he will do it or when there's no food that he'll multiply the food like he did before see i believe in the same jesus that was in the in the new testament when he was on the earth i believe to say i believe he's the same he hadn't changed amen so are you going to be an unbelieving believer sounds like an oxymoron doesn't it it's not an oxymoron it's just morons my wife gets mad at me when i do that but i'm sorry babe i know you're listening don't tell me you believe one part and you don't believe the other part don't tell me the god of creation in the universe couldn't give us a book that's right you know you get into danger when you choose not to believe certain parts of it i'm gonna quit this morning i had much more oh let me end with this i'll give you my last point true faith and we read this in hebrews 11
at the end of hebrews 11. we saw where faith except women had their dead raised he said they put to flight the armies of aliens they quenched the sword and they quenched the fire but it said also some of them refused deliverance and were tortured and were killed for their faith true faith will endure persecution it will endure trials and suffering true faith that endures to the end will lead to eternal life i'll give you this verse first timothy 6 12 he told him he said fight the good fight of faith lay hold on eternal life wait a minute now i have eternal life i'm eternally secure i already have it no you don't when the apostle paul is telling timothy his godly like-minded protege to fight the good fight of faith and to lay hold on eternal life trust me you better fight the good fight of faith true faith true faith what believes all of god's word there is no faith outside of god's word true faith believes in the supernatural aspect of god true faith will see miracles and true faith will bring you into a real and interactive relationship with jesus i like that word interactive it's not one way folks there's a lot of people out there the unbelieving believers they don't have an interactive relationship with jesus but true faith will also lead true faith in the word of god true faith in the lord jesus true faith in the supernatural true faith in what is right and wrong and what is what are god's commandments and what is god's morality and what does god demand true faith will lead you to eternal life it will enable you to lay hold upon it it will enable you to fight and lay hold upon it why do you have to fight the good fight of faith because many are going to depart from the faith many are leaving the truth of god's word many are leaving the relationship many are leaving the moral demands of god you're going to have to fight you hear what i'm saying you're going to have to fight if you're going to have a miracle you're going to fight for it fight the good fight of faith and lay hold upon these things if you need healing lay hold upon it quote the word of god
speak the word of god believe the word of god don't believe the report of the doctors or the or the or the tests they ran believe the word of god believe what you're asking for you receive if you're going to have eternal life you're going to have to stay true to the doctrines of the bible [Music] you're going to have to stay true that jesus christ is god in the flesh you're going to have to stay true that jesus christ is the only way to heaven you're going to have to stay true to only the blood of jesus can wash your sins away you're going to stay true to the resurrection that he is the resurrection and the life and that he rose from the dead the third day you're going to have to stay true that the word of god is true from genesis to the maps even if you don't understand some things in it i remember years ago 28 years ago there were a lot of things i didn't understand in the bible but i trusted god his character his love his nature even if those things were harsh and difficult to understand i trusted god that god has given me explanation and understanding of those things now but even if he didn't i don't even have to understand it all i just believe and trust him if he says it if he had it written down in the scriptures i believe it is true just the way he said it and yet yes if he went in and had to wipe out an entire village of evil people or evil half-breeds he knows best we got people right now saying oh moses and joshua miss god by destroying jericho we got people saying oh i believe they believe in the jesus of the new testament but they they believe the prophets like elijah and moses and jeremiah were off so they don't believe the bible so they're they're unbelieving believers this is a guy by the name of blaze floret the foray who just came out of ihop and he left ihop because of error and he went from the frying pan into the fire now he's further in there but that's what he believes he believes that the elijah and moses and joshua they didn't represent god correctly that they got off and that god didn't really command them to fight those wicked nephilim half-breeds but see he doesn't believe that he doesn't believe that the sons of god the fallen angels had relations with the daughters of men and created a race a very evil supernatural half-human half fallen angel creatures that had to be destroyed he doesn't accept that but that's what the bible teaches so now he's in the error saying he doesn't believe the scriptures see what i'm saying you either believe the scriptures and trust god about all supernatural aspects and his
righteous judgment or you decide that you got it figured out and that your little girly man emotions can figure it out better than god's word and yes i said girly man i mean this guy i've read his blog and i have to say this i read his blog the other day and i reread some of it yesterday but the bottom line is this he tries to do away with the warfare and bloodshed and and things that god had to command and deal with in the old testament he tries to say well jesus is is you know the way jesus was when he's on earth is the only way god is but then he has to i don't know what he does yet with the stories of revelation and second thessalonians and all this when jesus comes the second time to judge wicked mankind i guess you throw that out too so we'll throw out the old testament and we'll throw out parts of the new testament and we'll only take this one little part here that we like no he's a deceiver he's been deceived now he's deceiving others this blaze foray i guess he's french but see because he couldn't he can't just believe the word of god and trust god now he's fallen into deeper deception and deeper error because he's got little girly man emotions little effeminate little effeminate boys that have been created now that are in the church have an effeminate gospel have an effeminate god who doesn't judge anybody or do anything no ask ananias and sapphira i wonder what he does with that part can i say this god gave you life and if you tick him off enough and become a problem he can kill you if he wants and he can put you in hell you don't like that part [Music] sorry it's in the book it's in the same book that says jesus wept jesus loves me god is love you can't take that part [Music] and not say ananias and sapphira lied to the holy ghost and dropped it right in the church meeting and he wasn't the devil see some folks haven't figured out that all of their attacks they call
attacks it's not always the devil sometimes it's the lord's chastening oh yes better figure that out there's people right now rebuking the devil sick and suffering and being tormented in their mind christians i'm talking about and they're rebuking the devil and they're under god's judgment and chastening because of they won't deal with the sin or the unforgiveness or the bitterness or whatever is in their life or they open their mouths and run their mouths against other true believers so god has to bring the pain that's why rebuking the devil doesn't work when you're under god's chastisement sometimes you need to ask him hmm god am i getting a weapon or is this the devil all right all right pastor dean's going to quit this morning first timothy 6 12 fight the good fight of faith lay hold on eternal life whereunto thou are also called and has professed the good profession before many witnesses endure to the end don't depart from the faith don't give up don't draw back don't stop believing his word don't stop believing the supernatural don't stop believing in heaven don't stop believing in hell don't stop believing in god's love and don't stop believing in god's wrath you got to believe it all because if you don't you are an unbelieving believer you're half in and half out and you're going to get torn in half jesus died on that cross he made a way he is the word made flesh amen the good news is that he will save you he will forgive you he will give you eternal life if you are willing to live by faith what the bible say the just shall live by faith he says we walk by faith not by sight right it's a continual walk of believing speaking and acting on what you believe the word of god says and what it believe what is true amen and if you walk by faith mark my words down if you walk by faith if you speak faith if you act and do your actions
match the word of god you will see miracles you will have a true interactive relationship with jesus christ and you will know that you are in him and he is in you and that you will inherit eternal life you will have assurance of your salvation if you walk in faith and walk with him amen amen you will see supernatural things listen we're we're we're we're on the the verge here i've seen more and more of the supernatural power of god amen amen go back and read the gospels again let the word all his miracles stir up your soul amen let's pray father we love you we are grateful lord that you have not changed you're looking for us to change lord you want us who are weak in faith to become great in faith you want us o lord to take you at your word to ask you for mighty things to believe everything you say in the scriptures to ask you for things and believe that we receive them god we can see mountains moved the dead raised the sick healed the crippled walk the blind seed the death here the lost and deceived brought out of darkness into your marvelous light lord let us be a people of faith and not a people of doubt not a people of unbelief i ask you lord to touch everyone here everyone listening everyone who will listen to this message there's a word for somebody the day is coming that you will need the supernatural power of god you will need to raise the dead you will need healing you will need a miracle the lord says for me to tell you prepare yourself now prepare to step out prepare to pray and ask and believe that you receive the dead raised the crippled to walk the blind to see the death to hear expect it to happen and it will happen
jesus name we pray amen