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[0:00] All right, amen, amen. Let's get into the Word of God this morning, and I guess we should just quickly review where we started last week in Hebrews 11, so please grab Hebrews 11.

[0:19] Began a message last week that will conclude this week, and we introduced and covered by this thought of faith, and that faith comes first, and that faith, when a man exercises faith in the Word of God, then understanding follows faith.

[0:40] Last week, the thought was that there's one of the greatest revelations of this Bible is that God is a spirit, and He's approached by faith. He cannot be approached in person.

[0:52] You cannot physically see or feel Him. You cannot detect His person with your physical senses. But when a man approaches God by faith, then He rewards that man with understanding.

[1:03] Hebrews 11, verse number 6 is our verse that we began with. But without faith, it's impossible to please Him. For he that cometh to God must believe that He is.

[1:15] There's the man exercising faith in the existence of God, and as he approaches God, he that cometh to God must believe that He is. It's not just a head belief, oh, I think you're out there somewhere, but He's approaching Him.

[1:29] He's coming to Him in faith. And then the Bible says that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. And what does God reward the man with? It was in verse 3 where we started our study.

[1:42] For through faith, we understand that the world's refrained by the Word of God. And so we looked at creation. And it makes a whole lot more sense when you have the understanding that God created this world, that it was by the Word of God.

[1:59] And God said, let there be a light. A scientist looks at it, he doesn't get it. A man without faith does not understand how it's possible for a God to create a world. He rather looks and says, oh yeah, well, where did God come from then?

[2:12] Who's God's dad? How did He have a beginning? Man can't understand that. But when He exercised faith, the understanding comes. We saw it in the incarnation of God.

[2:23] Jesus Christ becoming a man and how the Jews looked on Him but didn't understand that this was God. They thought He was just a man. But when they exercised faith in Him, the understanding followed. The same with salvation.

[2:35] The Bible says that salvation to them that believe is the power of God. But it's foolishness to someone who doesn't receive the preaching of the cross.

[2:47] It's foolishness to them that perish. You're either on one side or the other. And if you're lost, you hear about somebody dying on a cross, it doesn't mean much to you. It doesn't make sense to you how that can forgive your sins.

[2:59] What makes sense to you is doing your best. I'll do my best and God will be pleased with me. You talk to people and witness to them, tell them about their need for a Savior, one of the first things that comes out of their mouth is I never killed anybody.

[3:11] And how does that make God happy with you? Because you didn't take another man's light. But that's their rationale. I didn't do anything really, really bad. And they lack the understanding.

[3:25] But when a man trusts Jesus Christ as a Savior and he exercises faith in the gospel of Jesus Christ as death, burial, and resurrection, boy, can we ever see it clearly. On this side of Calvary, we see how God doesn't accept our best because there's still this thing of our sin that has to be dealt with.

[3:42] But when that sin is dealt with and taken away and under the blood of Jesus Christ, boy, it makes perfect sense that he is our righteousness. And through faith we stand. Exercising faith produces understanding that can otherwise not be obtained by your natural senses.

[4:01] Now, today I want to continue with these thoughts. We saw it in those three ways. Creation, incarnation, and salvation. And today I want to look at it in two more ways. And let's go to Colossians chapter 2 to begin this fourth item.

[4:21] Colossians in your Bible, chapter number 2. Exorcising faith produces understanding.

[4:32] It's a spiritual interaction that's going place where God is opening your eyes. David prayed, Open thou mine eyes, that I might behold wondrous things out of thy law.

[4:43] The wondrous things are in there. But it's the prayer for God to open the eyes. And it's exercising faith that allows that to take place. It's believing what God said.

[4:55] Believing the book. And then the understanding comes to know that it's true. So Colossians chapter number 6. Faith comes first.

[5:06] You know, faith, this goes against man's way of seeing it. What man says is, I'll believe it when I see it. And that's the mindset of most men. As I need to discern by my senses first.

[5:19] Then I'll exercise my belief in it. Colossians chapter 2. Notice verse number 6. The Bible says, As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him.

[5:35] How did you receive Christ Jesus the Lord? For by grace are ye saved through faith. You received Him by faith. And now the command is to walk that exact way.

[5:46] Exercising faith in Him. As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him. Now I want to be highlighting here this word walk. And our walk of faith.

[5:57] In 2 Corinthians 5 verse 7, the Bible says, For we walk by faith, not by sight. We walk by faith. This speaks of how a Christian ought to live their life.

[6:08] The Christian life. But faith in what? Faith in what exactly? This is not about salvation. This is about after salvation. Walking by faith. Look at Ephesians chapter 5.

[6:19] Just a few pages back. Ephesians 5. And we'll begin in verse number 15. Ephesians 5 verse 15 through 17.

[6:34] Wherefore be ye not unwise, but notice understanding what the will of the Lord is. I started in verse 15, sorry.

[6:45] See then that ye walk circumspectly, walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the times of days are evil. Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding.

[6:56] The context here is of the walk of the believer. It starts back in verse 2 or verse 1. Followers of God walk in love. And it carries all the way through here to walking circumspectly.

[7:08] And God's in instructing us about our Christian walk, He tells us to understand. Understand what the will of the Lord is. Through faith we understand. So there must be an element of faith.

[7:19] Come back to Romans 12 and see this a little stronger as we build to this point. Romans 12. As always, trying to let the Bible do the talking this morning.

[7:35] Romans 12, first three verses. I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.

[7:48] And be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.

[8:12] Now, Paul is instructing us to think soberly, according to the measure of faith given to us by God. And the thought here is presenting your bodies a living sacrifice, is consecrating yourselves to God and to the will of God and to the service of God and to walk by faith.

[8:33] God has not, we're turned from this thought of reaching for the stars, of seeking for something greater for ourself, dreaming of success and fantasizing about fame and of fortune and letting that be, that's the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life.

[8:50] And Paul says, no, think soberly through the eyes of faith. And we're challenged in that passage to present our bodies a living sacrifice, to prove and to perform what the will of God is for our life.

[9:02] That's walking by faith. So let me say, by the way of number four, faith comes first. Through faith we understand that we ought to walk according to the will of God in this life rather than fulfilling the lusts of our flesh and walking according to our flesh.

[9:19] Exercising faith opens our eyes to submitting to God's ways and to submitting to God's will for our life. We make a decision then that pleases God and it's made in faith.

[9:30] And so I'll call this consecration. Through faith we understand consecration. That is living the Christian life, of consecrating your life to the will of God, to the Lord Jesus Christ who loved you and gave himself for you.

[9:43] If you say words like this, I gave my life to Christ. Or someone says, you need to surrender to God. What does that mean to a lost man? What does that mean?

[9:55] You need to give your life to God. You know what they think of? They think of some religious devoted act. Oh, I'll become, I'll join the sisterhood. I'll become a nun. Or I'll become a monk.

[10:06] Look, I'll isolate myself from all of society and all worldliness or like the Amish, I'll stay so secluded that we won't partake in any of these worldly ways and I'll go live my life off the grid like that.

[10:18] That's dedicating yourself to God. Is that what God means by presenting your body a living sacrifice, holy, except one to God? Consecration to the world, they don't get it.

[10:30] Separate yourself from, sell your home and go live where you just pray and read your Bible 24 hours a day. They don't understand. You know why? Because something's missing.

[10:42] It's faith. Through faith we understand. The world would tell you, you need to go for fame. You need to go after fortune and money. You only live once. You're only young once.

[10:53] Live it up. Do it while you can. You do you. It's up to you. It's up to you. It's your life. Live it to the fullest. The world says you, you, you but when a man exercises faith in the word of God, he reads that book and it's saying, yet not I, but Christ.

[11:11] Paul said in Galatians 2.20, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me and the life which I now live, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. In the end of Paul's life, he said, I have fought a good fight.

[11:25] I have finished my course. I have kept the faith. He didn't chase riches. He didn't chase a position. He didn't seek to be the CEO and work his way until he gets to the top.

[11:37] He didn't seek to run the world. Paul seeked to serve Jesus Christ. Through faith we understand how to walk according to the will of God, how not to walk according to the lust of the flesh.

[11:49] The world has no idea what that's all about. The world doesn't get it. They just see it as, oh, you go be devoted. You go surrender to something else. God says, or through faith we understand what consecration is.

[12:04] As a hymn writer wrote this, he said, not I, but Christ be honored, loved, exalted. Not I, but Christ be seen, be known, and heard.

[12:15] Not I, but Christ, in every look and action. Not I, but Christ, in every thought and word. Christ, Christ, Christ, only Christ, no idle word, air falling.

[12:27] Christ, only Christ, no needless, bustling sound. Christ, only Christ, no self-important, bearing Christ, only Christ, no trace of I be found.

[12:38] Oh, to be saved from myself, dear Lord. Oh, to be lost in thee. Oh, that it may be no more I, but Christ, that lives in me.

[12:49] Not I, but Christ, Paul said. Through faith we understand why that's the way to go. Through faith we understand that God has a better way for us than chasing the lusts of our deceitful heart or following the worldly ways of searching for success and happiness.

[13:08] But it's when a man exercises faith in the word of God that that becomes evident, that he understands that. Through faith we understand that living for Jesus Christ produces joy.

[13:20] Living for Jesus Christ produces peace in your heart. A sense of eternity, which, by the way, Christian, for every single one of us, eternity is far closer than we imagine.

[13:34] It is far, you're closer today than you were yesterday to eternity. You're getting closer every moment of every day to eternity. And through faith we understand why living for Jesus Christ now is the best thing we could ever do.

[13:50] And anything we waste on ourself is wasted. It gives us a sense of eternity. Living for what matters more. Look at 2 Corinthians chapter number 4.

[14:01] 2 Corinthians chapter number 4. And come to the very last verse of this chapter.

[14:17] Through faith we understand consecration and what it is to consecrate our lives to the Lord Jesus Christ and why it matters. But a man that doesn't exercise faith and doesn't believe in this book he doesn't get it.

[14:33] Verse 18 says, While we look at all at the things which are not seen I can't read. While we look not at the things which are seen but at the things which are not seen. That's faith.

[14:44] That's through faith we do this. For the things which are seen are temporal but the things which are not seen are eternal. That verse right there screams this point.

[14:56] That through faith we understand that that's true. That that is true and we need to set our affections on things above not on the things of the earth. We need to live our lives for the Lord Jesus Christ and do something something that will get through the judgment seat of Christ.

[15:12] That will get through the fire. Through faith we understand that. Without faith it doesn't make sense to live the only life you have. This vapor this little bit it doesn't make sense to live it for God to live it for somebody you can't see to live it devoted to some religion it just doesn't make sense to the world without faith.

[15:35] Through faith we understand that pleasing God is the right choice. We understand that we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ and we understand that the best is yet to come for the believer that follows Jesus Christ.

[15:49] I hope you realize that in your life. I hope you've come to a place where you made a decision it's either pleasing God or pleasing self and I want to please myself but is it going to be worth it?

[16:02] I hope you've come to the place already that you've consecrated your life and given your heart and settled and are fixed like David said that my heart is fixed oh God that you're fixed upon the word of God and on serving Christ and enjoying the worth of it in the future.

[16:21] Through faith we understand consecration. You know sometimes in school you have subjects that you don't quite get the first time it's presented.

[16:34] Sometimes at work there might be a process that you just don't quite see until you work at it work at it and you have it explained and explained and then you get it. But that's not the way it works with God.

[16:45] God doesn't offer you the explanations and the facts and the proofs. No, he operates in the realm of faith. Through faith we understand and what God does is expects a man to exercise his faith in the written word of God and that pleases him.

[17:06] That pleases him. Otherwise the consecrated life doesn't make sense. My lost grandfather when he when my parents told him that they were moving from the United States to move to Poland.

[17:20] He couldn't understand it. He was a Catholic priest. He couldn't get why they would go to Poland. The Pope was or the Pope was Polish back then. The Pope was Catholic I almost said.

[17:35] That's true too. The Pope was Polish. They adored and loved the Pope. Why in the world would his son-in-law and daughter move to Poland?

[17:49] I mean, that place was saturated with Christianity, with Catholicism they thought. They couldn't understand why they would leave America to go do that.

[18:00] It blew their minds. They didn't understand living the consecrated Christian life. They didn't understand salvation for that matter. But through faith we understand whether it's creation or as we studied the incarnation, salvation and today consecration, faith comes first.

[18:22] Without it it just doesn't make sense. Come to 1 Thessalonians chapter 2 and I want to get to the fifth point here and the final one and this is going to take a little time here.

[18:35] But I hope that I've built this up enough that you see it, that you get it, you realize this is Bible, this is the way God operates, you come to Him in faith, then He'll open your eyes to understanding a truth.

[18:50] He's not going to prove it to you first and then you can check the boxes and say, okay, it all adds up, I'll believe it. God will not operate that way. And the same thing is going to be true about this book in your lap.

[19:02] The exact same thing is true. God operates in faith. So I hope I've made my case strong enough there. And now in 1 Thessalonians chapter 2 verse 13 such a strong statement in this verse.

[19:16] 2 13 For this cause also thank we God without ceasing because when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, men, ye received it not as the word of men but as it is in truth the word of God which effectually worketh also in you that believe in you that believe that you have the word of God in you that believe that this is in fact the word of God that thing comes alive.

[19:46] That thing can effectually work. But when someone looks at it as the word of man it's just the words of men it's flawed. It's just some religion they don't get it.

[20:00] You'll never believe it never understand it but when somebody looks at it as the word of God without doubt without question and receives it by faith I mean what reason would these men have to believe that what Paul wrote with his hand was God's word.

[20:17] It was a letter from the apostle Paul. He even said his name at the very beginning. What reason would they have to believe that it was actually the words of God given to them?

[20:28] I don't know that that would perfectly make sense to any man but when you exercised faith and said oh this came from God through his minister Paul and these words are God's words these words have power then they have the ability to work and through faith lastly through faith we understand the inspiration as well as the preservation of the Holy Scriptures and that the Holy Scriptures have been presented to us in pure and in powerful form in the English language of the King James Bible.

[21:10] I didn't pick this Bible to say this is the one out of the other oh it's probably up to 500 by now versions in English or around the world. I didn't pick it I recognized it.

[21:21] I didn't decide oh I like that one because it suits no I didn't pick anything but I recognize something about this one through faith we understand that the word of God came by inspiration and it's been preserved preservation I may not understand the work of it I may not understand the process I may not fully understand the history of it all but I do understand the truth of it that I can hold in my hands the very words of God and not question one word that these words are pure that these words are without error throughout and to know that I've got to exercise faith because understanding follows faith come back to Psalm 19 well let's while we're back there you might as well get Psalm 12 first that's pretty pretty important we'll do

[22:22] Psalm 12 men today insist upon going to the Greek language that this was translated from or going to the Hebrew language that the Old Testament was translated from searching for light searching for getting closer to truth they suppose and those men miss something they miss understanding because they don't exercise faith they don't believe they have the words of God and they've got to go search to find more find truth somewhere else in Psalm 12 verse number 6 the Bible says this the words of the Lord are pure words now that statement right there you've got to make a decision is that true or is that false if that's true and you just believe what the Bible says then you believe that the words of the Lord are pure words and notice they're possessive they belong to someone they're the words of the Lord and his words are pure words as silver tried in the furnace of earth purified seven times verse 7 says thou shalt keep them oh Lord thou shalt preserve them from this generation forever here's a promise to not only protect but also preserve the words no the pure words forever and who's going to do the protecting and preserving the keeping and preserving thou shalt keep them oh Lord the Lord's words have been given and the Lord promised to protect and to keep and to preserve those words pure forever look at

[24:16] Psalm 19 Psalm 19 verse number 7 notice the descriptive language about God's word Psalm 19 verse 7 the law of the Lord is perfect converting the soul the testimony of the Lord is sure making wise the simple the statutes of the Lord are right rejoicing the heart the commandment of the Lord is pure enlightening the eyes the fear of the Lord is clean enduring forever the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous all together cover to cover the word of God is clean it's pure it's right it's true and righteous it's perfect that means complete it's sure and it's pure Proverbs 30 verse 5 says every word of God is pure is that true or is that false is every word pure

[25:24] Jesus Christ said my words shall not pass away is that true or is that false you make the call I believe the words I believe what the Bible teaches I believe what God promised I believe that prophecy forever I believe that Jesus Christ was telling the truth I believe the word of God is pure and that it's been preserved now that's a that's a statement of faith based on what the Bible says now an in-depth study of history of the word of God of its original giving and it's where it's given by inspiration through the mouths of the prophets and an in-depth study and tracing the lines and the families of manuscripts over history an in-depth study of that will lead you to an understanding or at least a conviction that the

[26:28] King James Bible is the best that's inevitable if you study it out honestly you look into it and study it it'll point right to this one it'll just come to a climax and right there it sits never has an in-depth study brought you to the new international version it'll never do it it's impossible to take you that direction it'll never lead you to the new King James version it won't do it a true in-depth study and I'm not just talking about some preacher at some college I'm talking about you go do the research and see for yourself the lines and the families and the men and the hands and what took place over history to get it to where it is today it'll show you that this is the best and I mean that specifically it'll show you that it's being the best and it's worth being informed about the history of the Bible by the way and there's plenty of resources there that you can personally take and I can help you with that if you're interested but it takes faith it takes faith to understand that this

[27:35] Bible the King James Bible are the very words of God that have been preserved and given in the English language that this book is the Holy Scriptures in English it takes faith to understand why wouldn't it why wouldn't it take faith why would this subject be something that we can prove in the classroom but everything else it takes faith this one is no different than the rest Christ said the words that I speak unto you they are spirit this is a spiritual thing going on before you this book is real and it's quick and powerful it's alive it liveth and abideth forever the study can show you that it's the best all the evidence if we were in a courtroom and we put all the evidence we could upon the table brought it all logged it all and said here's all we can describe about the translators of this Bible here's all that we can understand and tell about the text that they used and how they were the best that they had available the manuscripts the readings that matched and coming from all the sources they could from the church fathers and their records from the received text from the manuscripts and the mountain of evidence for this book we could put all of the evidence together we could provide statistics for how

[29:02] God has used this book for revivals for conversions for missionaries sent out and we could compare it and actually contrast it to how God seemingly is not using the other versions what little comes of them doesn't come anywhere near the mountain that has been produced by this book and if we put all that together and say God bless this book all the evidence points to this I want to submit to you that that alone in the court of law it's not enough to prove it it's not enough to prove beyond reasonable doubt that every single word in this book is pure and right there's something missing there's a little bit of evidence that's missing to make the case foolproof that evidence is faith it's the evidence of things not seen in Hebrews 11 verse 1 it's the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen without faith it's impossible to please him

[30:14] God operates in faith God demands our faith but when we comply when we believe he rewards us with understanding he takes the blinders off Paul prayed in Ephesians that the eyes of your understanding being enlightened the truth is there the truth is available but it's men that are blinded to the truth as I said earlier David prayed open thou mine eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law it takes faith the carnal argument is well God gave me a brain and he expects me to use it so I'm going to do that I'm going to rationalize and I'm going to reason and that's a carnal argument because God demands faith he always has he always will he's approached in faith I've proved it to you with these other four categories and now with the fifth when it comes to understanding the purity of the word of God the King James Bible it's going to take faith after faith when the understanding comes the truth becomes so clear it becomes so clear that this book is the words of

[31:27] God and that I don't have to look anywhere else and that after faith my understanding grows and by position then solidifies it becomes concrete that the King James Bible is not just the King James version of the Bible it is the Bible it is the only book that should have holy on the cover the position becomes very concrete after faith and as a matter of fact the other positions the other beliefs start to look awful crazy they don't make sense anymore they're erroneous they're simple they're they lack understanding they're ignorant now to to go back to creation somebody looking for evidence doesn't get it comes up with some some just ludicrous theory of how we came to be but someone when they are born again and exercise faith in the word of God that in the beginning

[32:39] God created heaven and earth it just makes so much clearer sense and on that other side after faith evolution which seemed to be the best explanation now becomes just ridiculous so absurd it's not even funny it's not even it's laughable but not funny that you would chase that one and believe that one and argue that one and fight that that one's the truth and promote it and push it upon the world but that's after faith do you have that understanding salvation doing your best makes sense but now after faith you understand how it can't make you clean how doing your best can't atone for your sins but you didn't see that on the other side and so it is with the Bible after faith when the understanding comes when someone says well the Bible is written by man really after faith that book is so powerful and so alive in my heart and my life it's changed me don't tell me that's written by man don't don't waste my time with that argument because it's become so alive to me after faith another argument is that there's no

[34:06] Bible that's perfect there's no Bible that's perfect and some of them will go so far as to say this all take all the Bibles together all the translations together and they contain God's truth collectively because God preserved his word and where is it well it's in all of them and that's a strange argument to me it makes sense to them because they don't exercise faith and don't have the understanding that it exists in one book but when you understand it when you have faith you understand it oh it becomes very clear that argument is such an uninformed logic such shallow reasoning to say that it exists in there somewhere it's someone who hasn't ever looked at it and studied it for instance there are cases where the King James Bible says that one says one one says direct opposites one says it increased their joy another one says it did not increase their joy how can those how can the truth be in all of them when they're completely opposite in one case

[35:13] Israel is an empty vine in another case another version Israel is a spreading luxurious vine how can the truth be in all of that what is the truth they're opposites only one can be right or maybe they're both wrong but they can't both be right the point is to say that God's truth is contained collectively in all of the translations is ridiculous but you don't see that until you exercise faith until the word of God becomes alive to you imagine if you were going to tune an instrument with that same logic you're going to tune an instrument and one tuner says that note is an F and that other tuning instrument says that's an F sharp and another one agrees with the F sharp but another one just says it's a C what are you going to go by when they're different you can't say that the truth is contained in all of them collectively when they're all so very different in what they say the truth is you need a standard you need a standard when you have a standard that's never been proven wrong that's a good place to start and such is the case with the

[36:29] King James Bible all of the versions have their glaring errors obvious they're so inferior to anyone that studies it and cares think about a tape measure measure a board and it comes up 47 and 7 8 grab another tape measure it comes out 47 and 3 quarters grab another one it's 5 8 grab another one it's 23 how can they all be different how can any of them be right how can you know which one's right how do you know the truth you gotta have a standard look at Jeremiah chapter 23 Jeremiah 23 faith comes first understanding follows Jeremiah 23

[37:32] I just want you to see a statement here in verse number 9 mine heart within me is broken because of the prophets all my bones shake I am like a drunken man and like a man whom whineth overcome because of the Lord and because of the words of his holiness now I'd love to talk about the passage a little bit and what's going on but I don't want to take the time to do it God is holy the word of God proclaims God is holy my question is why would the Bible not be holy right you'd expect it to be holy if it's God's word I mean how can God holy and pure give something that is not holy and not pure it's against his character it's against his nature he uses the phrase because of the words of his holiness that is such a great description of anything that comes from God by means of the word of

[38:39] God it is a reflection of his person the book is going to be just as pure as the author of the book if it's in fact the words of God it will be the words of his holiness how could it not be anything but pure and holy how is it even possible for God to allow an error into his words into his books it's not possible it goes against logic it goes against his nature if you have a version of the Bible with an error in it I can tell you one thing it's not it is not the words of his holiness but if you have a standard a book that has never been proven wrong ever no matter what men attack or say or put up against it whether they suppose an error or propose an error they haven't yet proven an error we've got a standard we've got a standard already but it's going to take your faith exercised in those verses we've read and in these words themselves for you to understand for the eyes to be opened that this is the truth these words are the truth and I can trust it when Jesus

[40:01] Christ said that heaven and earth shall pass away but my words shall not pass away do you believe that and if you do then where are his words that haven't passed away where are they do you have confidence in this book right here some men read it they don't have confidence in it and because of their lack of faith the word of God cannot effectually work in them they don't know that what they're reading is true or they've read some other man's description of how it should be this or change to that and now they don't know what to believe thank God for the scholars who've taken the word of God away from us I say that in jest God help us to exercise faith because God operates in faith he's a spiritual being his words though we have them in a physical presence they're spiritual words and they contain spiritual life and the only thing that limits them is when man doesn't exercise faith the word of God is no different so I hope you get this here this principle this revelation that God operates by faith is one of the greatest revelations this book gives us otherwise we wouldn't know how to contact or connect with him we wouldn't get it but now that we get that now it's on us to exercise faith in what he said whether it's for salvation whether it's for understanding how these worlds came to be or whether it's that you can put your finger and your hands on the very words of God which I don't know if there's a more important topic and that's why we're spending a little bit stronger of a time on it this morning to conclude these thoughts

[41:50] God operates in faith he rewards a man with understanding and that's true about everything that we know about spiritual things the word of God is no different so whether it's creation versus evolution whether it's salvation by grace versus salvation by works and religion whether it's the inspiration and preservation of the words of God in the King James Bible or the modern versions that are out there understanding God's truth follows man's faith we believe it because God said it and then he opens our understanding so through faith we understand it's a Bible principle we've examined it displayed it in several ways faith comes first understanding follows now I hope personally you can exercise faith in what God said and if this is something that you're not settled on I'd love to talk to you I'm not going to beat you over the head and say you've got to believe what I believe I'm just going to take you to the word of God

[42:51] I'm going to try to get you to exercise faith in the Bible and in God not in my opinion my opinion is no better than yours it never will be but if I can take you to the book and take you to what God said and make you decide did he lie or did he tell the truth and then go from there we're going to be dismissed here in a moment I hope that the principle that's been promoted here the last two weeks something that you received and understood I hope I made it clear that it's obvious with creation it's going to be the same thing with the word of God you need to exercise faith in the written word of God by way of backing up us for a moment Christian can I challenge you to consecrate yourself as the scripture calls you to to living this life for the Lord Jesus Christ can I challenge you to realize exercise faith in what the Bible says that we will stand before the judgment seat of Christ and that what's done in this life if it's not going to get through that then what's the point if it's not going to get through that fire that he tries us with then it's vanity you want to be standing there empty naked and ashamed consider that you need to exercise faith in the scriptures and walk by faith and please him please him let's bow together and we'll be dismissed

[44:14] Lord this is kind of a large topic I guess over these last two Sundays and it's a simple one yet it has its depth to it as well God I pray in my heart that you be glorified through our response to this teaching and to these truths God it's hard for us sometimes we do want to see it before we believe it and yet you've never ever approached man in that way you ask us to believe you ask us to walk by faith I know one day it'll be sight one day the walk of faith will be put on the back burner and we'll just be able to see and believe and go forward but God help us to exercise faith in this life help us to be above the worldly way of seeing God we've been born by the faith of the Son of God there's no reason we shouldn't walk accordingly

[45:17] God I want to thank you for giving me this King James Bible and giving it to me in a way that I can believe and understand and have its purity and know its power and feel it working in me I thank you for the understanding and God I pray that if anybody here doesn't have that understanding that they committed to you and that you'd open their eyes that they'd seek it with an honest heart seek the truth Lord not so that we can boast ourselves of being different than others or argue with and debate with others but that we can rest and have complete confidence in you it ultimately points to you it draws us to a better relationship with you a better confidence in you and you keeping your word and being who you are we thank you for the words of your holiness we thank you for the salvation that you've given us through the Lord Jesus Christ and God I pray that if anybody here is not certain of their eternity and if they're not sure that the way they're living their life is going to make it through the fire and God I pray that you'd address that in our hearts this morning help us to be a people that are purified and prepared unto every good work we pray these things in Jesus name amen amen

[46:34]  I'm going to leave you go again