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65B. Without Faith It Is Impossible to Please God

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  speaker icon   1. The Lion of Judah, chorus   (0:49)
  speaker icon   2. Without Faith It Is Impossible to Please God   (22:06)
  speaker icon   3. Rise Up, O Men of God   (1:37)
  speaker icon   4. A Charge to Keep I Have   (2:54)
  speaker icon   5. Onward, Christian Soldiers   (3:00)

Selected Verses:

II Corinthians 2:14.  Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savour of his knowledge by us in every place.

James 2:26.  For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.

Hebrews 11:1  Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

Hebrews 11:6.  But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

Luke 18:8.  I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?

Opening:

Without faith, it is impossible to please God,” the Bible says.  But it also says that “All things are possible to him that believeth.”  And where does faith come from?  Why, it comes from the word of God; it comes through preaching.  The Apostle Paul says, “Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints is this grace given to preach among the Gentiles”—not something that they can imagine, but “the unsearchable riches of Christ.”  He opened the treasury of Jehovah to them by his preaching because he himself had experienced it.  And that’s exactly what John and Peter had when they said, “Such as I have, give I thee.”  What did they have?  Well, they had what we have: they had Jesus, they had the presence and the indwelling Son of God through the power of the Holy Ghost, but they were not spoiled like we have been by false theology and false ideas and false thoughts.  They were so close to the resurrected Son of God that that life of Jesus flowed freely.  There was contact; there was no non-conductor in Peter and John.  There was no thought of self: “Why do you look on us as if through our own holiness or power we had made this man to walk?  This Jesus whom ye crucified is risen from the dead.  He is alive.”

Selected Quotes:

speaker icon Almighty God does not chide us for the fact that we are tempted to faint, but He does chide us for the fact that we do not persistently wait upon the Lord until He avenges us.  “Verily, I say unto you, He will avenge them speedily.”  That ought to be a rock foundation for our faith: I’m not going to give up.

speaker icon Unbelief is the open rear door through which the devil always comes in and steals the jewels of God.  The “unsearchable riches of Christ” are waiting to be received by humanity.

speaker icon Faith is to be “fully persuaded.”  That is faith.  Where does faith come from?  Not from looking at symptoms.  That’s where unbelief comes from.  Faith comes from looking at the word of God.

speaker icon Man’s extremity—that doesn’t make any difference at all.  The thing that does make the difference is that wonderful faith which is substance.

speaker icon Faith is different: faith is substance.  That’s why I ought to dwell upon the word of God and not upon my symptoms or upon my trials or my tests.  Those tests can be very severe.  But faith, as I dwell upon that word of God, as I take it into my heart, it is bound to sprout and bring forth fruit of righteousness which is by Jesus Christ unto the glory and praise of God.

speaker icon You and I are rich in faith because Jesus Christ has given us these “exceeding great and precious promises,” “unsearchable riches”—not just a little bit, not a little bit, not a little victory now and then, not to give us a little relief from our sufferings, but perfect soundness in the presence of all the enemies, perfect health—O God!—perfect victory over sin, over bondages.  We don’t believe God, else we would never give up.  We don’t have to give up, and it would make our fight very victorious and very glorious.

speaker icon There comes a time when God seemingly leaves you—not in the hour of testing and trial when the devil tempts you and tries to defeat you, but when you’re blessed, when you have a great victory.  “God left him.”  Isn’t that what’s happened to some of these great preachers, Dr. Dowie and others that failed just at the place when God used them very greatly?  And maybe if we searched our hearts, we would discover that our defeats stem from a root of pride that God sees and God wants to root out.

speaker icon Victory is inevitable.  Victory has already been won.  I don’t have to ask Jesus Christ if He is willing to heal me.  He has already borne my sickness.  He has already suffered “in His own body on the tree.”  That’s already finished.  But the question is: will I learn my lessons, and will I fight the good fight of faith, and will I be a true soldier of Jesus Christ?  “No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier.”

Illustrations:

The healing of a 15-year-old girl.  “When I came to this mother who was in her rocking chair just crying out her heart, I began to laugh.  The Holy Ghost began to laugh within me.  That was strange, but I laughed.  I said, ‘You know, man’s extremity is God’s opportunity.  Let’s do now what God says.’”    (from 8:04)

God leads us in triumph, like Jack London led his dog in triumph.    (from 12:07)

The example of sister Spatchel.  “‘Oh,’ she said, ‘that thing cannot come back.  Why, Jesus Christ healed me!’  She was rich in faith.”    (from 14:19)

Stories of those who boasted of their healing.  “When after a while that sickness came back and the man died, his wife said, ‘I think that was the right thing for God to do, because that man would have been unmanageable.’”    (from 16:55)

Martha Wing Robinson’s healing was just part of a larger victory.  “She said, ‘I don’t want God to heal me until I have learned my lessons.’”    (from 20:27)

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