Will you open your Bibles with
me to Hebrews chapter 11. Hebrews chapter 11. Verse 1. Now faith is the substance,
that word is confidence. It's the confidence of things
hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. We'll read some more
from that in a moment. Tom's going to come and lead
us in the hymn on the back of your bulletin. Would you please
stand? Hebrews chapter 11 will continue
reading in verse 2. For by it, this faith, which
is a gift of God. Faith is not something you stir
up or drum up on your own. It's a gift of God. For by grace
are you saved through faith, that not of yourselves. It's
a gift of God, not of our works. God has to give us the ability
to believe, doesn't He? He's got to give us a new heart,
a believing heart. For by this faith the elders,
He's speaking of the Old Testament saints, obtained a good report. They believed God and it was
counted to them for righteousness. 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." We
should believe that. There is a big religious group
that is real involved in creationism, you know, trying to prove that
God created, you know, they're trying to defend the creation
against evolution. And we don't have to do that. We don't have to do that. We
don't have to get involved in that. We just declare the truth as it's
revealed in scriptures. God's people know that this creation
came as a work of God's hand. They just believe that. By faith, Abel offered unto God
a more excellent sacrifice than Cain. What was the sacrifice
that Abel offered? A blood sacrifice, a lamb. What
was the sacrifice that Cain offered? The fruits of his labors, By which Abel obtained a witness
that he was righteous, God testifying of his gift, and by it he being
dead yet speaketh." Though Abel is dead, killed by his brother
Cain, yet his testimony still speaks. And that is that God
requires the shedding of blood for the remission of sins. without
the shedding of blood there is no there is no salvation by faith
Enoch was translated he was changed that he should not see death
and was not found because God had translated him for before
his translation he had this testimony that he pleased God he believed
God but without faith without faith It is impossible to please
him, for he that cometh to God must believe that he is. and that he is the rewarder of
them that diligently seek him. By faith, Noah, being warned
of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared
an ark to the saving of his house, by the which he condemned the
world and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith.
By faith, Abraham, when he was called to go into a place which
he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed. He went
out not knowing whether he went. We'll stop there. The faith that pleases God is
not to be measured by its strength. It's to be measured by the object
on which it rests. Jennifer Uranik's birthday is
today and she's home with a respiratory infection so not a good way to
spend your birthday. She's taking some antibiotics
I think but let's pray for her. Our Heavenly Father we're thankful that faith comes by hearing and
hearing comes by the Word of God and we ask Lord that as your
gospel is read, preached, declared, that you would give faith to
believe it. That we would believe Christ,
look to Him, find all our salvation in His accomplished work. We pray for Jennifer. We ask,
Lord, that you would cause her to recover quickly from her illness. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. Turn with me in your Bibles again
to 2 Corinthians chapter 9. I pray the Lord will cause each of us to
be sober minded in response to these two questions. Do you believe that God is able? Do you believe that God is able
to make all grace abound toward you? Do you believe that? And that you will, in that grace,
have all sufficiency in all things? Second question, which is a little
more difficult and more personal. Do you want God to show you His
ability? Do you want to experience the
power of God through His ability? Jeremiah chapter 32 verse 27,
Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh. Is anything too
hard for me? Is anything, anything too hard
for me? In Matthew chapter 9, two blind
men came to the Lord and cried, Son of David, have mercy on us. And the Lord looked at them and
said, believe ye that I am able to do this? Modern day religion doesn't believe
that God's able. They really don't. The message
you hear today in religion is God wants to save you, but he's
not able unless you let him. He's an impotent God. He's a
God whose hands are tied by your will. He's not the God that is. I am the God of all flesh. Is
anything too hard for me? Believe ye that I am able to
do this? And they said, Yea, Lord, we
do believe. And the Lord said, According
to your faith, be it unto you. According to your ability to
believe in my ability, so be it unto you. Do you believe? that God is able to cause all
grace to abound toward you and make you sufficient in all things
that's the verse you see it there in verse 8 right what we just
read in Hebrews chapter 11 without faith it is impossible to please
God for they that cometh to him must believe that he is able to reward them who diligently
seek Him." Do you believe that He is able? Now, if you say,
yes I do, know this, that God's ability begins where ours ends. To say that I believe God is
able is to say that I believe I am not able. You can't have one without the
other. The Lord told Paul in 2 Corinthians
chapter 12, My grace is sufficient for thee, for My strength is
made perfect in your weakness. And so Paul said, I'll glory
in my weakness, for when I'm weak, Then and only then do I
know anything about the strength of God. When I am without strength,
the ability of God is not a cooperative effort. God is not saying to
you and I, you do your part and I'll do my part. You take the
first step and I'll finish it. You exercise your will, you pray
this prayer and I'll reward you. You hear people say God helps
those who help themselves. That is just the opposite of
the truth. God only helps those who are
unable to help themselves. That's the truth. Do you believe
that he's able by confessing your faith in his ability to
make all grace abound towards you so that you are sufficient
in all things is a confession of your inability to do anything
for yourself. Why is the Lord made it to be
this way? So that no flesh should glory
in his presence. He said, I'll not share my glory
with another. I'm going to get all the credit.
And God's people like it that way. They just like it that way. The power of God is the ground
of our confidence. Romans chapter 16 verse 25 says,
now to him that is of the power to establish you according to
my gospel. God's the one who must give us
the power to believe. He's the one who must give us
the power to not believe in ourselves. Man by nature relies upon himself
in every way. It takes the power of God to
break that spirit and to cause us to lose all confidence in
our ability. Ephesians chapter 3 verse 20,
Now to him that is able. to Him that is able to do what? To do exceedingly abundantly
above all that we ask or think. Is He able to make all grace
abound toward you and to do even more than you could possibly
ask or think according to the power that worketh in us? Jude 24 says, Now to Him that is able to keep
you from falling and to present you faultless before the presence
of His glory with exceeding joy." If we're going to be presented
faultless before God, without blame before God, His ability
is the only thing that's going to do it. How are we going to
be able to present ourselves faultless and holy before God? How are we going to do that?
God's going to have to do it. We can't do it. He's going to have
to impute to us a righteousness that's outside of ourselves,
isn't He? The Lord Jesus Christ is going to have to be our advocate. Now my second question is, do
you want God to show you His ability? in every area of your
life. Do you want to experience the
power of God? I remember Michael, you preach
from John chapter 5 some years ago on the certain man who was
there at the pool of Bethesda, who the Lord singled out. You
remember he's the one that had been there for thirty and eight
years waiting for the stirring of the water. The angel would
come and stir the water and he couldn't get to the water in
time to be healed. And the Lord looked at that man out of all
the halt and lame that were there, the blind, the halt, the lame,
there was a lot of sick folk around that pool waiting to be
healed. And the Lord singled out one
man and said to him, Wilt thou be made whole? What kind of question is that?
38 years I've been like this. I'm sitting here by this water
waiting for the angel to come to stir the water. I have no
man to put me in. And you're asking me, do I want
to be made whole? Yes. That's what I'm asking you. Truth is, there is something
very comforting about that which is familiar to us. to be made whole, to experience
the ability of God takes us out of that comfort zone. We will do all sorts of painful
things in order to maintain the status quo in our lives. We will. Why? Because that which is predictable,
gives me a sense of control, gives me a sense of comfort,
regardless of how horrible it might be, at least I know what
to anticipate, at least I know what to expect. You're asking
me to leave a country and my father and my family and a land
and go to a place that I don't know where I'm going? Is that
what you're asking me? Who is Abraham? The father of
the faithful. Turn with me to Genesis chapter
12. This is a very important question. Do you want to be made whole? Do you want to experience the
ability of God in your life? Or is the proposition of that
radical change such that you'll say, no, I think I'll just stay
right where I'm at. Genesis chapter 12, verse one,
now the Lord had said unto Abram, Abram is called the father of
the faithful. So Abraham is the predecessor
of all believers. He's the pattern, He's the example. So God's not speaking just to
Abraham, He's speaking to you and me if we have any interest
in being a believer. God says to Abraham, get thee
out of thy country and from thy kindred and from thy father's
house unto a land that I will show thee. You know, most of the time when
a person says they want to know what God's will is, what they
mean by that is they want God to show them their will so that
they can evaluate it and then decide whether or not it's something
they want to do. That's not faith. Fear of the unknown. keeps us from really not wanting
to experience God's ability in our lives. The Lord didn't say, follow me,
this is what I have in store for you. No, He said just follow
me. Follow me. And Matthew left his
table and followed after Christ. What did the Lord say to Saul
of Tarsus after knocking him off his high horse? Telling him, Saul, Saul, why
persecutest thou me? Who art thou, Lord? I am Jesus,
whom thou persecuted. Saul was persecuting the church,
he was persecuting Christ. What would you have me to do,
Lord? What would you have me to do? What did Isaiah say? Lord,
hear my, send me. I don't know what all this is
going to be involved, but Lord, you've revealed yourself to me
and my response is just as Abraham, just as Isaiah, just as Matthew,
just as Paul, just as every child of God has ever said, Lord, hear
my. Hear my. Do you believe God's able? And
secondly, Do you want to experience the ability of God? Now, I want
to apply this to several areas of life, but the first one is
the context of our passage. As you know from our study in
2 Corinthians, Paul has been three chapters now talking about
this matter of financial giving. And so the immediate context,
although the application of these questions relate to so much more,
the immediate context has to do with giving. And he says,
God is able to make all grace abound toward you that you always
having all sufficiency and all things may abound unto every
good work. In other words, Believing that God is able and wanting
to experience the ability of God is to believe that which
seems contrary to the natural order of things. In other words,
if I give, I'm going to have less. If you give something, you'll
have less than before you gave. That would be the natural order
of things, isn't it? God saying, you give, you'll
have all sufficiency. All sufficiency. The liberal
and cheerful giver will always have something to give. That's what God, you see that,
you see that in verse, God delights in a cheerful, oh
verse 7, every man according as he has purposed in his heart,
so let him give not grudgingly of necessity, that's not how
we give, but willingly, joyfully. God loves a cheerful giver. That's
the context of what he's talking about here. To believe God means that the
natural order of things is turned upside down. The Lord said in Isaiah chapter
55, my thoughts are not your thoughts. You're not gonna reason
this out with human reason or human philosophy. My ways are
not your ways. As the heavens are higher than
the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts
than your thoughts. The natural man, the natural
way of reasoning is not God's way of thinking. There is a way
that seems right unto a man, but the end of that way, God
says, is death. God's ways are not our ways.
God's thoughts are not our thoughts. If we believe God's able, He's
going to do it just the opposite of the way man would do it. Is God able to supply all my
physical needs? Has He made me to believe that? Do I want to see the ability
of God? Do I believe God's able? Do I believe God's able? Or am
I going to hold on to what belongs to God anyway? You see? You see that? That's kind of where the rubber
hits the road, isn't it? Truth is our fretfulness, our unbelief, Our lust for a life of ease,
our carnal reasoning, our rebellion, our self-pity is what makes the
road of life difficult. To believe God doesn't make it
hard. Do you believe that God is able?
Do you want to experience the ability of God in your life. Nothing that God has ordained
for us, nothing that He wills for us, causes us consternation or fear. Whatever He calls on us to suffer,
we will face with abiding peace. if it's from God and He gives
us faith. Trial is no trial sweetened by
His smile. Sorrow is no grief if lightened
by His love. We sing that hymn, tedious and
tasteless, while blessed with a sense of His love, a palace,
a toy would appear and prisons would palaces prove if Jesus
would dwell with me there. If we believe God then Believing God is experiencing
His presence and His power in our lives. You see, you can't
say, well I believe in the ability of God, but I'm not willing to
experience the ability of God. You see, these two things go
together. Another thing that's contrary
to nature is God making his children to be humble and willing servants,
particularly among God's people. Well, if I humble myself too
much, I'll become, I'll be on the bottom of the food chain.
People will take advantage of me. I'll be walked all over.
And so the world says what? Be arrogant. Be proud. Stand
up tall. Take charge. See, God's way is
just the opposite, aren't they? They're just the opposite. The
Lord washed the feet of his disciples and said, I've given you an example
that you should follow by washing one another's feet. It's just
the opposite of the world's way of seeing things. God makes his grace abound in
a way that's contrary to nature. The Lord said, If any man desire
to be first, the same shall be last of all, and servants of
all. Whosoever shall humble himself
as a little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of God."
That's just the opposite, isn't it? If the Lord is going to reveal
the mystery of the gospel to us, through his word it will
be only by his ability. Turn with me to Revelation chapter
5. I love the passage where Philip
meets with that Ethiopian eunuch. Now the Ethiopian, he was the
treasurer of the Prince Candace of Ethiopia. He was a dignitary. He was somebody. He was educated. He was rich. He was able to travel
with an entourage on a chariot. You can imagine how he was dressed.
And here little poor Philip comes walking up to him and says to
him, Understandeth what thou readest? And most men in that
position would have said, Who are you? Who do you think I am? Look at me. Look at what I've
got. Look at my credentials. Here's my education. I can read.
I can figure this out. What did the eunuch say? How
can I unless a man should lead me? And Philip got on the chariot
and beginning in that very passage of Isaiah chapter 53, he preached
unto him Jesus. to the response of what the eunuch
said, what doth hinder me to be baptized? If thou believest
with all thine heart, thou mayest. I believe that that Jesus you
preach to me is the Christ, the son of the living God. I believe
that with all my heart, all of my heart. God's changed my heart. He's persuaded me. The Lord has to bring each one
of us there, doesn't he? You're not going to go into your
study and use your intellect and your credentials to figure
out the message of this book. You're not going to do it. The natural man cannot receive
the things of the Spirit. I don't care how much education
or how much ability you have in learning things. You're not
going to learn the gospel through your own effort. Now in Revelation chapter 5 verse
1 John said, I saw in the right hand of him that sat on the throne
a book written within and on the backside sealed with seven
seals. Now the books being spoken of
here is the book of God's sovereign decrees which had to be fulfilled
in order for God's people to be saved. It's also a picture
of the book of the word of God. It's also a picture of the Lamb's
book of life in which the names of God's people are. It's the
book. And John sees that this book
is in the hand of God and it's sealed with seven seals. That means it can't be opened. It's got God's seal on it. When
a king had a document and rolled it and put his signet seal in
the wax on that, you didn't open that until it was delivered to
the person it was made to be opened by. Here we have God himself
putting his seal seven times on this book. Who's going to
open it? Nobody. Look what he says. And I saw a strong angel proclaiming
with a loud voice, Who is worthy to open the book, and to loose
the seals thereof? And no man in heaven or on earth,
neither under the earth, was able to open the book, neither
to look thereon." Nicodemus, you cannot see the kingdom of
God. You can't perceive of it, you
can't understand it. Unless the Spirit of God comes
and causes you to be born from above, you're not going to figure
it out. Now do you, here's my question,
do you need God's ability to hear the mystery of the gospel? Do you want God to reveal to
you the truth of the gospel? Now you can read the Bible for
its historical value, You can read the Bible and come to all
the right conclusions doctrinally. You can learn theology. You can
learn lots of things from the Word of God. And the Lord told
the Pharisees, you search the scriptures. You search them out.
Diligently you search them. Because you think in them you
have eternal life. But you've missed the message
of the Bible. For these are they which testify of me." To see
Christ in the scriptures, the Lord Jesus Christ himself has
to unlock the seals. Read it. Look at the next verse.
And John said, And I wept much, because no man was found worthy
to open and to read the book, neither to look therein. And
one of the elders said unto me, Weep not. Don't be afraid. There is one, the Lion of the
tribe of Judah. the root of David, he hath prevailed. He hath prevailed. When he bowed
his head on Calvary's cross and declared that the work of salvation
was finished, he prevailed before God. He accomplished the work
that God sent him to do. The Lamb has prevailed and he
is worthy. He is worthy. And He's now going
to open the book and He's going to reveal the secret of the gospel
to His people. A message that they can't learn
on their own. All those disciples in Luke chapter
24, when the Lord walked along with them and expounded unto
them those things concerning Himself. And what did they say? Oh, did our hearts not burn within
us as He spake with us along the way, as He revealed Himself
to us? Are you able to learn the gospel
on your own? Is He able? Do you want Him? to demonstrate His ability and
His power in your life by showing you Christ. Revealing Christ
to you. Your life will never be the same.
Ever. And that's a good thing. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing
comes by the Word of God, the living Word of God. The Lord
Jesus Christ said, I am the Word. The Word became flesh and dwelt
among us. We beheld His glory. He's the only begotten of the
Father. He's full of grace, and He's full of truth, and He's
the Word that has to take this Word and reveal Himself to His
people. He's able. We're not. Do you want Him to open the eyes
of your understanding, to unstop your ears, and to make Himself
known to you? Most folks don't. That's just
too scary. You mean, if He makes Himself
known to me, I'll be bound to Him forever. I'm not sure I'm
ready for that. What would you have me to do
for you? That's what the Lord asked the man at the Pool of
Bethesda in John 5. What would you have me to do for you? Do
you want to be healed? Do you believe that He is able
to save you? And by saying, yes, I believe
He's able, means that you're not able to save yourself. It takes a miracle of grace to
save a sinner. Let me ask you a question. Do
you believe that it would take more of God's power to save you
than it took for God to create the universe? Create the universe? I'm talking about that seemingly infinite Space out
there that we look at, billions upon billions of galaxies stacked
on top of each other. Truth is, it takes more of God's
power to save a sinner than it did for Him to do that. It took the shedding of the Lord
Jesus Christ's blood on Calvary's cross And if you or I were the only
one that he died for, everything he did, everything he did would
have been necessary to save one. That's the power of God. If the
Lord ever shows us that, we'll see ourselves for what we are.
We can't bring anything to the table
of salvation. Nothing. Turn to me, 1 Corinthians
chapter 1. Don't bring your will. Don't
bring your works. You sin. That's it. It's not of him that willeth
nor of him that runneth. It's of God that showeth mercy.
He'll have mercy upon whom He'll have mercy. He'll have compassion
upon whom He'll have compassion. This is a work of grace. It's
a powerful work of grace. He's able. And we're not. 1 Corinthians chapter 1, look at
verse 27. But God, but God has chosen,
yes, God chose before the foundations of the world. And I'm so thankful
that He did. For had he not chosen me, I never
would have chosen him. I know that about myself. Do
you know that about yourself? That there's nothing in you that
would have sought after God. There's nothing in you that would
have chosen him had he not chosen you. But God hath chosen, what? The
foolish things of the world. Do you fit that description? It's who He chose. Lord, if you
leave me to myself, I'm nothing but a fool. To do what? To confound the wise.
Father, I thank Thee that Thou hast revealed these things to
babes. I thank You, Lord. God hath chosen the weak things
of the world to confound the things that are mighty, the base
things of the world, the things which are despised hath God chosen,
yea, the things which are not, to bring to naught the things
that are." In other words, God humbles His children and brings
them to naught so that they have nothing, they can do nothing.
God gets all the glory. That's what he goes on to say.
That no flesh should glory. Why would God do it this way?
So that no flesh could glory in His presence. Religion is
all about men glorying in their works. It's all about men glorying
in the presence of God and competing with one another about who's
got more glory. If God does it all, then no flesh
glories in His presence, but of Him. Verse 30, Of God Almighty are
you in Christ? If you're to be found in Christ,
not having your own righteousness, but that righteousness which
is of the Lord Jesus Christ, it's only because God put you
there. Of Him. That first pronoun is a reference
to God the Father. Of God the Father are you in
Christ? Who of God? is made unto us, wisdom, righteousness,
justification, and redemption. The Lord Jesus Christ is our
wisdom before God. He's our righteousness before
God. He's our sanctification, our holiness before God. He's
our redemption before God. He's everything. He's all and
he's in all. Look at verse 31, that according
that is written, he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. Do you believe that God is able
to save you and that you are unable to save
yourself? Do you want Him to save you?
Do you want Him to? Men by nature will not have a
salvation that cuts them completely out of the equation. It's offensive
to them. It offends their pride because
it says they're nothing. It offends their dignity because
it says they can do nothing. It offends their self-righteousness
because it declares them as being dead. It offends their intelligence. It offends everything about them.
That's what the gospel does. The gospel is offensive. It's
humbling. Our Lord said to those Pharisees
who depended on themselves for their ability to save themselves.
He said, think not to say within yourself, we have Abraham to
our father. For I say unto you that God is
able to raise up from these stones, children unto Abraham. You know
that's exactly where he got us from. That's exactly where he
got us from. Stones. That's what he said. I'm going to take out your heart
of stone. Your lifeless, cold, unfeeling,
indifferent heart that you have towards me. And I'm going to
put in a heart of flesh. A living heart. A loving heart. A believing heart. A bleeding
heart. Do you believe he's able? Do
you believe you're not able? You say, well, I'll lose everything. The only way to get life. Here
again, it's upside down. God's ways are not our ways.
It's upside down. The Lord said, if you try to
gain your life, you're going to lose it. But if you lose your
life for my name's sake, then you'll gain everything. You'll
gain everything. The natural man can't see that.
It's contrary to what seems natural, isn't it? Do you believe that God is able
to deliver you from the bondage of sin? Do you believe that He's able? Do you believe that He's able
to make you a willing servant of God? Do you want Him to? Do you loathe your sin? as the
Prophet said. Do you cry with Paul in Romans
chapter 7, O wretched man that I am? To will is present with me, but
how to perform that which is good I find not. When I would
do good, evil is ever present with me. Oh! Lord, deliver me! Deliver me! Do you believe that
He's able to deliver you? Or if something got a hold of
you that you've coddled and enjoyed for so long, you think, well,
you know, if the Lord takes that away, I won't be happy anymore. I won't be content anymore. The very thing that's destroying
your life and making you miserable is the thing He's able. He's
able. If I give up my pleasure for
sin, I'll be unfulfilled, I'll be unhappy, I'll be dissatisfied.
It's just the opposite, isn't it? Just the opposite. Do you believe that God is able?
Do you believe that you are not able to deliver yourself? He
came to set the prisoner free. We can't set ourselves free.
We can't overcome the passions of our own flesh. We can't conquer
our own sin. But He's able. Do you want Him
to? Do you believe that He's able
to bring you safely into glory? Safely. Paul said, I'm not ashamed
for I know whom I have believed and I'm persuaded that He is
able. to keep that which I've trusted
him with until that day. I've committed everything to
his trust, and I believe he's able. Abraham was fully persuaded
that what God had promised he was able to perform, and he sought
a city. He sought a city whose builder
and foundation was God, and he believed that God was able. He
didn't know where the Lord was going to lead him, but he trusted
God. Jude said unto him that is able
to keep you from falling and to present you faultless before
the presence of his glory with exceeding joy. He's able to cause us to trust
Christ to the end. Turn to me to our text and I'll
conclude. Verse 8, do you believe what God has said
in verse 8? In every area of life, whether
it be the salvation of your soul, whether it be deliverance from
sin, whether it be being made a servant for Christ, whether
it be your financial life, whether it be your marriage, your relationship,
whatever it is, whatever it is, do you believe that God is able? to make all grace abound toward
you, so that you in all sufficiency will have all things necessary.
Do you believe that? Do you want Him to? Most folks
don't. It's a, you know, this life of
faith, it's a completely different life. I think I'll just stay right
here. Don't say you believe God's able
if you don't want him to be to show you his ability. Let's pray together. Our Heavenly
Father we ask that you would give to your children the faith
of Abraham To believe, Lord, that all that
you have for your children is good and pleasing. Nothing can come to our lives
but from the loving hand of God. Lord, convince us of that. Cause
us to rest in faith in Christ. We ask it in His name. Amen. 120 and the Sop Actemna. Let's stand
together.