The mark of true faith is that someone takes God at His Word and believes what the Bible says.
To expect God to do what He has promised us, that’s never presumption. That’s faith. And you should take what He has said in the Bible and you should memorize it, you should know it, you should plead it, and give God no rest until He does what He promises to do. Live your life on what God has said in the Bible. Rest in these promises.
This is the mark of true faith: Are you living your life, I mean all of it, is invested in what God has said in this word. This is your life. This is where it rests. This is where your hope is. It’s in the words God has spoken in this Book. You’ve rested your soul here. You’ve rested your all here. Your trust. Your confidence. It’s all on the words that God has spoken. It’s on what this Book reveals, in words, about who God is, and who Christ is. Your trust is there. Your rest is there. You live your life banking on the realities of this Book.
You’re not like John 2:23-24. You’re not like those that crossed over the Red Sea, the vast majority of them, with whom God was not pleased. You only believe what you can see. You’re only going to believe God that He is going to give us a building after we get one. You only believe God that people actually get saved in this world, at this time through the preaching of the gospel, after you see them saved. You only believe that God will take care of your financial needs once you have money in your pocket. But before that you are full of anxieties and you are full of worries, distrust, you’re grumbling. “Look at this, all we’ve got to eat is this manna! It would’ve been better off the way it was before.”
Listen. You listen. There is opportunity, like we talked about before, there is opportunity to return. If you really believe what is in this Book you won’t go back. Because what it says in this Book… it’s outstanding. It’s the most glorious. It has the most magnificent truths. It presents the most beautiful, precious Christ; the most glorious salvation; the most anticipated eternity.
But in this life it promises that God will be our God and He will take care of His people. He will not forsake His people. You may get sawn in two. You may die by the sword. You may have to live in a cave. But you can do it trusting the Lord.
Brethren, we are people who are called believers for a reason. I mean, make decisions in your life that put God to the test, and the promises here. That’s never presumption to put God to the test based on what He said. It’s presumption when you trust God, when you expect God to do what He has never promised to do. Those people that went into Canaan after they were told not to, that was presumption. Jesus Christ, if He would’ve jumped off of the pinnacle of the temple, would’ve been presumption. But to expect God to do what He has promised, that’s never presumption – that’s faith.
And you should take what He has said in this Book and you should memorize it, you should know it, you should plead it, and give God no rest until He does what He promises to do. Live your life on this. Rest in these promises. Trust that that Red Sea is going to open up. Trust it. This is an example for us upon whom the end of the ages has come.
