♪ (Music playing) ♪ <i> Good morning, class.</i> Class: Good morning, Brother
Keith. Hi. I'm Keith Moore. This is Faith School. Welcome to Faith School. Faith School is the place where
our faith gets fed, our Spirit grows stronger, and we learn how
to be overcomers, praise God. And that's God's will for us. His will is not that we struggle
and struggle through life, not that we be confused, or that we
be defeated, but that we be victorious. Faith pleases Him, and faith is
the victory that overcomes the world. So, we have saved you a seat
right here on the front row, so, get your Bible, get something to
take notes with, come right on into the class and join us. And let's pray today and release
our faith. Only He knows exactly what we
need and exactly how to say it to us so that we get it. You know, sometimes people
think, well, you know, I didn't do that well in school and I
don't consider myself to be that smart, so it's hard for me to
get things. No, no. You underestimate your Teacher. The Teacher we have knows
exactly how to get it across to you to me. He speaks your language and He
knows exactly the illustrations and the phrases and the right
word to use at the right time. So no, He makes it easy to get
if you pay attention, if you'll give Him your focus and open
your heart to receive. So, let's do that right now. "Father, in Jesus' name, all of
us together here in the Faith School and everybody joining us,
watching from many places, we ask You for utterance, for the
anointing, for Your Spirit teaching us, and helping us,
giving us answers, and giving us direction and help. Do what only You can do
ministering to all of us individually at the same time,
exactly what we need. And we purpose not to be
hearers, only nor forgetful hearers, but we will be, with
Your help, doers. We'll act on it, put it into
practice, and as surely as we do, You'll watch over it and
perform it, and that'll result in miraculous things happening
in our life. And we, in advance, we give You
the glory for it, hallelujah. Amen. Thank You, Father." Well, if you would turn in the
Textbook, the Bible, to the Book of Hebrews. Hebrews the tenth chapter. Hebrews ten and verse thirty-
five. If you haven't been with us, we
have been on the subject of faith. And we've talked about Why
Faith? And we talked about What Faith
Is, and we've talked about How Faith Comes. And these are really important
things to learn and know. And if you missed those lessons,
go back and get them. They're available to you and
they won't cost you anything. And it's helpful, because we're
building on each week things we've learned. Then we build on that and go to
the next week. And one of the things that we
learned in Hebrews, well, in fact let's just let's do it this
way. Hebrews 11:1 is the definition
of faith in the Scriptures here. It says, "Now faith is the
substance of things hoped for, it is the evidence of things not
seen." That describes, you know- that's
a definition of what faith is from God. The Young's Literal translation
says it like this. It says, "Faith is of things
hoped for a confidence, it is of matters not seen a conviction." And so, here two words are used:
confidence and conviction, to describe faith. describe faith. Another word is the word
"persuasion." Another word is the word
"assurance." The Bible said Abraham, "Was
fully persuaded that what God had promised, He's able also to
perform." So think of those words
together; he's fully persuaded, you could say he's fully
assured. You could say he's convinced. You could say he's confident,
that what God had said He's able, well able, to perform. So, understanding that
confidence is a word that is used interchangeably with faith. If you back up in the tenth
chapter, where we mentioned earlier of Hebrews, into the
thirty-fifth verse, you'll see that he was already talking
about that when faith was defined. Hebrews 10:35 starts by saying
this. "Cast not away therefore your,"
what? "Confidence, which has great
recompense of reward." This was not written in chapter
and verse, so there is not this big break between chapter ten
and chapter eleven. Eleven one, "Now faith the
substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not
seen," it's a continuation of this passage, and he was talking
about confidence. And He admonished them; the
Spirit of God tells them and us, "Don't cast away," you could say
it like this: don't throw away, don't turn loose of your
confidence which has great recompense of reward. Now if you skip down to 11:6,
just a few verses later, and again this wasn't written in
chapter and verse-chapters and verses were given to help for
reference and help find things, but this was all written
together, one flowing revelation. Verse six says, "Without faith
it's impossible to please Him: for he that comes to God must
believe that He is," that God's real, that He exists, that He's
God, "and," you also must believe, "that He is a rewarder
of them that diligently seek Him." You see how these thoughts are
flowing together from verse thirty-five all the way to
eleven six. He was talking about, "Don't
cast away your confidence; it has a great recompense of
reward," and then a few verses later is when He says, "Without
faith it's impossible to please God." You got to believe among other
things that, "He is a Rewarder of those that diligently seek
Him." So, there are obviously
wonderful benefits called "reward" of those who trust God. In other words you can say like
this: does it pay to walk by faith? Does it pay? Does God reward those who trust
Him and who walk and live by faith? Yes, there is. In fact, back up to verse
chapter ten verse thirty-five. There is great recompense of
reward and the Lord doesn't exaggerate. If He says it's not just a
reward, it's a great recompense of reward. And if you've truly walked by
faith any length of time, and I know Phyllis my wife, and
myself, we've been walking by faith now for almost forty
years. And looking back and seeing
where God brought you from, and how ignorant you were, and you
know, how little resources you had, all the way to today-for
instance, I'm preaching to you right now, hallelujah, and it
takes a lot of resources to do that. And He had to put a lot in us to
even have something to preach. I call that great reward. And He'll do the very same thing
for you. He has a plan for every one of
us that far exceeds our greatest thoughts and dreams and
aspirations. But, we'll only access it by
this wonderful thing called faith. And another way it's described
is "confidence." Confidence. In fact, back up to the third
chapter of Hebrews. Hebrews chapter three and verse
six. Hebrews three and six, it says,
"Christ as a Son over His Own house; whose house are we, if we
hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope," or
expectation, "firm unto the end." He admonishes us not just to
begin in confidence, but just like we read again in chapter
ten verse thirty-five, "Hold on to your confidence." If you skip over just a few
pages to the-excuse me, chapter three and six, same chapter
right here in verse fourteen, Hebrews 3:14 says, "For we are
made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our
confidence steadfast to the end." We're made partakers of Christ
if we hold the beginning of our confidence. And an interesting thought for
those of you that look up the words, and you should sometime,
this word "confidence" here is the exact same word that's
translated "substance," in Hebrews 11:1 where it says,
"Faith is the substance of things hoped." For that same Greek word is
translated here "confidence." Confidence. Which is why Young's Literal and
other translations translated it that way to say, "Now faith is
the confidence of things hoped for, it is the conviction of
things not seen." But he says here in verse
fourteen, "We're made partakers of Christ, if we hold the
beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end." Now, he goes on to describe
here, and we may read it again today or later in the week, look
at it some more, but he talks about Abraham and about how
Abraham who is obviously a father of faith, how that he
inherited the blessings and promises of God through faith
and patience. And we see that's what he's
saying here. "We are made partakers, if we
hold on to the beginning of our confidence." You know, it's not enough to
just get excited about something that you read in the Bible, or
something that God quickened to you, or you heard in a good
service, or a good sermon, or message, and got excited for a
little while and expect some things to happen for a little
while and then get weary and get tired and quit. You get the same results as if
you hadn't started believing God at all. You can't just believe God and
try it for a little while and then give up and quit. You've got to a hold the
beginning of that confidence, the beginning of that excitement
steadfast to the end, which is why our faith needs to be fed on
a regular basis. It's why we saved you this seat
here at Faith School. It's why you need to read your
chapter every day. That's why you need to be in a
good church where you are getting fed not just political
viewpoints, not just popular opinion, not just somebody's
theory or idea, but nourished up in the Words of faith, anointed
Words that feed your spirit. Why? Because it's difficult to
maintain that initial excitement of receiving if you're not fed. In fact, you'll get weaker and
weaker and you'll get more and more discouraged until you will
cast away your confidence. You'll just let it go. You'll say, "Well, I don't know. I thought that was right. I felt like God heard me. I thought that was going to
work, but I guess not." And so, it can seem that the
lack of results confirms what you think about it, but the
thing is, if you had held on to your confidence, if you had held
on to how you started, you would have had a completely different
outcome. Say it out loud: "Let us hold
the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end." Yeah. Now, that's just another way of
saying stay in faith, stay in- remember this word "confidence?" It is used interchangeably with
the word "faith." Faith is the confidence of
things expected, it is the conviction or evidence of things
not seen. So faith, one of the big
characteristics of faith, is that it is confident. Now, another way I can say this,
and I think maybe this will help drive it home for us even
better, what does it mean to be confident? One way you can say it is "being
sure." If I'm confident about
something, then I am convinced, I am assured, I am persuaded,
I'm sure. I'm sure. And the enemy of faith, one of
the big enemies of faith, is this uncertainty. If the enemy can get in your or
my thinking, a question mark about this. Well, is it or is it not? You know, could it be? Maybe it is? Maybe it's not? Maybe it's God's will? Maybe it's not God's will? Maybe that's what He meant? Maybe it's not what He meant? And this is the dreaded place of
wavering. And the Scripture warns us that
if we waver we won't receive. In fact, let's turn there right
now, and look at it; you're close by. But go to James and look in the
first chapter and let's read it again and see what he said about
that. In James 1:5, James 1:5 he says,
"If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that gives to
all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be
given him." And every time I read this it,
it comforts me and blesses me. Why would the Lord upbraid you
if you asked for wisdom? Why would need to say that? Because have you ever heard
somebody say, "Well, I know this is a dumb question, but..." And sometimes people are afraid
to ask the question because they're going to think,
everybody's going to look at me and think they don't know that? Everybody knows that. Well, it's not true. And the Lord won't treat you
like a dummy. Does that comfort you, too? The Holy Spirit is the
Comforter. He won't treat you like a dummy. He won't-if you ask Him and say,
"Lord, I could use some wisdom on that. I'm asking you for some wisdom." He won't say, what? You don't know that? You're such a dummy. No, He won't upbraid you. He will just do what? Give it to you and give you some
extra. Give you liberally wisdom. And it'll be given him. Now, this is all wonderful, but
you don't need to stop here because He cautions us in the
very next verse. Verse six, "But let him ask in
faith," now what's another word we could use right there from
what our studies are today? Let him ask in confidence, or
let him ask confidently. Confidently in faith. "Nothing wavering. "For he that wavers is like a
wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed." Next verse, "For let not that
man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord." Well now, this is serious. This is how we ask. Whether we ask confidently or
waveringly determines whether we receive or whether we don't. This is no small thing. And the very next verse says it
again. It describes it again. "A double minded man is unstable
in all his ways." So, this this thing of
wondering, wavering, I guess so, I hope so, I think so, maybe so,
maybe not, doesn't work when it comes to receiving things from
God. We have to search the
Scriptures. We have to seek God until we get
the thing settled. Until we get it settled and
we're no longer asking questions: maybe so, maybe not. And we can ask in faith. Now, let's back up verse five
again here in James. "If any of you lack wisdom, let
him ask of God," so can you see the prerequisite here for being
able to successfully receive wisdom from God? And the great thing about what
we're studying here, if it'll work for wisdom, it'll work for
all kind of things. And the principle works the same
way. Basically anything we need or
desire from the Lord. This is just talking about
wisdom here. If I lack wisdom. It'd be the same thing if I
lacked healing or strength, if I lacked peace, if I lacked money
and provision for my life, if you lack something, ask of God
and He won't upbraid you, He'll give it to you liberally. It'll be given. Verse six, the next verse, "But
let him ask in faith, nothing wavering." Wavering about what? About what? What would you be wavering
about? Well, it would come back to
whether it's God's will for me to have the wisdom or not. If the enemy can introduce in my
thinking some idea of questioning, well, God will get
more glory out of me not knowing, out of me fumbling
through. Maybe somehow another this is
His plan. If there's any thought of that,
you can't be in faith asking for the wisdom. And He goes on to say, "If you
don't ask in faith, don't let that man think he'll receive." And see here he shows he's
talking about more than just wisdom. Anything. So, not only could we get
wisdom, we could get anything. But if we don't ask in faith,
you won't receive. Not only you won't receive
wisdom, you won't receive anything. Well, I'm not interested in not
receiving. I'm interested in receiving. But, we need to know how to keep
from not receiving. And tell me what the culprit is
here. What would keep us? Back up to verse six again,
verse six. What keeps you from receiving? "Wavering." Wavering. We might, today's vernacular, we
might call it "waffling." The Scripture says it makes you,
"Unstable in all your ways." That is one of the most
frustrating, one of the most torment things in life is not
knowing, not being sure. And you will hear so many people
when it comes to God act like that His will is unknowable. And you hear people say all
kinds of phrases like, "Well, you just never know what God's
going to do..." Well, I don't know if people,
well I do know, they're not thinking through what they're
saying. But, if you said that about me
is that a compliment? If you say, "Well, what about
Brother Keith?" "Well, you just never know what
Brother Keith is going to do." "Yeah, but what if he if he said
he was going to come, and going to help work on this project, he
was going to give money to help support it, and he said that,
several people heard him, so what about it?" They said, "Well, I know he said
it, but you just never know what Brother Keith's going to do." That's an insult. That's a big insult. You're saying I may keep my
word, I may not keep my word, I may be honorable about it, I may
be dishonorable, I may remember, I may completely forget. Is God forgetful? No, He is not is. He's faithful to do what He said
He would do? Then if He said He would do
something, we should never say, "You never know what God's going
to do." If He said He would do something
in His Word, you can count on Him to do that. And if we believe it, it
eliminates wavering. It eliminates the
second-guessing. It eliminates the vacillation. You know, there was a showdown
in the Old Testament during the prophet Elijah's time, and so
many of the people, God's people, had left him and were
worshipping a false God named Baal. And it was terrible. So much of the country had back
slid. And the Lord sent the prophet
out and he challenged the people and he said, "If God is God then
worship Him. If Baal is Baal, then worship
him. How long halt you between two
opinions?" In other words, make up your
mind. Right? Make up your mind. Is God God or is Baal god? Is God right or is all this
other stuff right? Because conflicting,
contradicting things like that both cannot be right. And sometimes people are so
concerned, you know, about offending somebody, or upsetting
somebody, and they want to be socially acceptable and
politically correct, and so they want to embrace everybody's
opinion, and it just doesn't work that way. You've got truth and you've got
what is not truth. You got right and you got wrong. You've got good and you've got
evil. And to get things from god
you've got to agree with Him one hundred percent. If He says this is the way it
is, and then you say, "Well, it might be that way, it might not
be that way," you won't receive anything. If you will agree with Him, and
that's one of the definitions of the word "confession." It means literally "saying the
same thing." And if the Lord says He has
washed us from our sins, then we need to say, "He has washed us
from our sins." He says, "I've made you a new
creation in Christ Jesus," we need to say, "He's made me a new
creation in Christ Jesus." If He says, "I've made you
righteous and holy," that's where you lose a lot of people. But you need to agree with Him
and say, "He's made me righteous and holy." Then you got to quit saying,
"I'm just a dirty old sinner, hope, maybe saved by grace, I
hope... we'll see when I get to heaven. Maybe they'll let me in..." No, no, no. If you're saved by faith you got
to stop this waffling, and wavering, and maybe so, hope so. No, you got to come back to "I
know in whom I've believed, and I'm persuaded about what He has
said," hallelujah, like Abraham, fully persuaded, "that what He's
promised, He's able to perform." Well, we're out of time again
today. That's it for today's class. Let's say it again like we do:
"I walk by faith. I live by faith. I overcome the world by faith. I'm strong in faith, giving
glory to God." We'll see you next time.
