Speak the Word Only

SPEAKER A You once to every time in the sight of the good or evil sky don't break on you that I choice of life forever with that darkness. And. SPEAKER B The Bible assures us in Ephesians two, verses eight to ten, for by grace you have been saved through faith. And that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Welcome to faith to faith Here are your hosts, Ettienne McClintock and Braedan Entermann. SPEAKER C Dear listener, greetings and a warm welcome. Thank you for tuning into the program again today. Braedan and myself are delighted to have your company. We are now getting to some interesting aspects of faith and today we're going to do Faith 101, if you can call it that, or the ABCs of Faith. We're going to try and simplify it as much as we can through this program and also the subsequent programs as we unpack from scripture what faith really is and how, once we understand the simplicity of the concept, how easy it would be for us to also exercise faith, to know what we got to put our faith in. SPEAKER D Because it's very interesting that often the simplest things in the Bible are the most misunderstood things. The word love, for example. Yes, it's a word that is so misunderstood. The word faith is something that is so misunderstood and it is so crucial for us that we understand what faith is and how we can experience faith and live by faith. SPEAKER E Amen. SPEAKER C So just as we start, we invite you to bow your heads for a word of prayer and ask God to bless our study. Gracious Father, once again we dedicate this program to you ourselves and also our listener. We just pray for a fresh anointing of your spirit guide and lead us into all truth as you promised, we receive this by faith and we thank you for making this available to us and we pray this in Jesus name. SPEAKER E Amen. SPEAKER D Amen. SPEAKER C Now, that great chapter on faith, hebrews chapter eleven, where it talks about all those people who subdued kingdoms, who did all these incredible things by faith, who received strength. It tells us in Hebrews eleven, verse six, that without faith it's actually impossible to please God. Now why would that be? Why is faith so important? It sounds like it is an essential in regards to salvation for me. Because if you don't know what faith is, well, you don't know what you have to exercise to please God. And without it you can't please God. So you need it. SPEAKER D That's right. SPEAKER C It sounds like an essential element in regards to the plan of salvation. SPEAKER D That's right. And as we've explored in our previous presentations, the word faith is the meaning of it is trust. And trust is a relationship word. So faith is actually a relational term? SPEAKER E Yes. SPEAKER D And so here we have the word please. And sometimes we confuse that with appease. Unless you have faith, you have faith to appease God. And that's not the case. SPEAKER E Yes. SPEAKER D Trust in any relationship brings pleasure and joy. And we cannot have a close relationship with God. We cannot bring joy to the heart of God while we are constantly living in doubt and fear of Him. We could probably think of many people around us, or sometimes even in our own lives, where the relationship is not built on faith, it's not built on trust. And people are not expressing trust and dependence, just really trusting the other human being. And it doesn't bring joy, it doesn't bring pleasure. It brings fear and pain. And so it's impossible for us to please God while we are constantly doubting Him, doubting his goodness, critical of his decisions. And so I think this is what is being addressed in this chapter. Okay, how much do we value God? How much do we trust Him? And it is an amazing thing that our trust depending on God. It brings joy to the heart of God, and it brings joy to our relationships on earth as well. SPEAKER C It's reciprocal, isn't it? Yeah, that's beautiful. Now, the thing about faith is we read in Romans, chapter 14 of verse 23, that whatsoever is not of faith is sin. So if you put those two texts together, without faith, it's impossible to please God. And what is not of faith is sin. You can see why God cannot be pleased with something that is based on unbelief. Now, sin is the thing that separated us from God. When Adam and Eve sinned that first time they went and hid themselves, god came in searching of them. He went, Adam, where are you? You didn't see God hiding. And then Adam going, Lord, where are you? He feared God. That fear element came in as well. And as we dealt with in the previous program, perfect Love cast out it all fear. So now what happened is unbelief settled into them. They started thinking of God in a different way because the relationship was impacted by what they did. Not that God had separated from them, but they had separated from Him. Your sins have separated you from God. SPEAKER D And the original problem was them doubting the word of God. And when you doubt someone's word, that's not an abstract thing. It's actually doubting their character. If I doubt something that you say, I'm doubting your intrinsic trustworthiness, that's true. I'm doubting your character. And so in doubting God's word, they were doubting his character. SPEAKER C And that spread. It just started with that small doubt, and then all of a sudden, it just grew to the point where they actually hid from God and misunderstood his love for them. SPEAKER D And the whole business of the plan of salvation is to restore that relationship of trust. And it's amazing we can bring joy to the heart of God by trusting him. And that's the plan that God has for our lives. SPEAKER E Yes. SPEAKER C That's beautiful. So really, this is a very essential knowledge for us to acquire to understand what faith is. SPEAKER D That's right. And Romans, chapter ten and verse 17, it says, now, faith comes by hearing. Interesting. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. SPEAKER C Okay? So that's the first part of unpacking what faith is. So we want to know how it comes and how to exercise it. So what it is, how it comes and how to exercise it. So how does it come by the word of God? SPEAKER D By hearing. It starts by listening to what God has to say. Yes, it's interesting. He doesn't say faith comes by listening to what everyone else has to say. He says, Faith comes by hearing what God says. And when we start to process and evaluate what God says, we realize that he's making some amazing promises, and we realize that these are good promises. And as faith is awakened, this desire to trust God is awakened as the Spirit of God works in our lives, that there is where faith comes from. We're willing to step out. SPEAKER E Yeah. SPEAKER C And I think as we look at the Scriptures, god actually makes it very plain in the Scriptures what faith is. So we want to try and take some examples out of the Bible, and we want to take a story that relates to Jesus in the New Testament. And I want to go to Matthew, chapter eight, and I just want to read this incredible story of the centurion who approaches Jesus to come and heal his daughter. And we read this from verse five, matthew eight. From verse five, it says, now when Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him, pleading with him, saying, lord, my servant is lying at home, paralyzed, dreadfully tormented. And Jesus said to him, I will come and heal him. The centurion answered and said, lord, I am not worthy that you should come under my roof, but only speak a word. Or as the King James said, speak the word only and my servant will be healed, for I also am a man under authority, having soldiers under me. And I say to this one go. And he goes, and to another, Come. And he comes and to my servant, do this, and he does it. When Jesus heard it, he marveled and said to those who followed, assuredly, I say to you, I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel. And I say to you that many will come from east and west and sit down with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, but the sons of the kingdom will be cast out into outer darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then Jesus said to the centurion, go your way, as you have believed, so let it be done for you. And his servant was healed that same hour. SPEAKER D What an amazing story. SPEAKER C It's an incredible story. And what makes it so incredible is this is not a person who was brought up in the Jewish faith. He was obviously a good man because he'd done many wonderful things at Capernaum. He'd even helped them with their synagogue. But here we have someone who would perhaps be looked at as an infidel or an unbeliever by some he's a Gentile. SPEAKER D That's right. SPEAKER C But Jesus looks at the faith of this Gentile and says that he had not seen such great faith, not even amongst his own people, not even in Israel. SPEAKER D And it's so interesting. In verse ten, it says, when Jesus heard it, he marveled. Another word. It's amazement. It's just being dazed, almost from something. SPEAKER E Yes. SPEAKER C You don't read that often in the Gospels, do you? Jesus marveled. SPEAKER D When do we see Jesus marveling? Just going, wow. What made Him marvel was the faith of this man. He just said, hey, please, I'm not worthy for you to come under my roof. That would be too much of an honor to have you visit my house. He said, But I've got another idea. Just speak, just say some words, and that'll be enough. SPEAKER E Yeah. SPEAKER C So Jesus pronounced here, this is what faith really is. And he said not only this was ordinary faith, but this was great faith. So if we find out what Jesus is referring to here, we will actually be able to understand exactly what faith is. And knowing what that faith is, as we discussed before, is absolutely essential in regards to us being saved. SPEAKER D That's right. That's right. And so what was his great faith? He just said, Speak the word only and my servant will be healed. Full confidence that when Jesus opens his mouth, anything that comes out of the mouth of God, it's good, it's accomplished. It's going to be accomplished. SPEAKER E Yeah. SPEAKER C That is incredible. So he had some understanding in regards to authority, because he said, Look, I'm a person that's responsible for many soldiers. If I say to one come, he comes. They've got no choice because it's a command, come. If I say go, they got to go. And if I say do this, he does that. The people have to do it because they have to listen to his authority. He's been given authority by, I guess, the people above Him. Now, what was it about his understanding regarding the authority in His Word at a natural level that made him understand the authority of Jesus'word in a supernatural or at a spiritual level? SPEAKER D It's interesting. He must have heard many stories about Jesus and heard the different things that he was doing and the kind of person that he was, and he was convinced that this person was not an ordinary person. This is a divine being who has divine power, and he basically was saying, well, look, I've got a little bit of authority and my servants obey me when I say things. Yes, you've got great authority, you've got great authority. And when you open your mouth, I know things will happen, so just say something and it's going to happen. And Jesus is looking at this man and going, you trust me that much? You trust me that much? And Jesus was overwhelmed with amazement at the trust of this man. SPEAKER C Yeah, absolutely incredible. He understood that when Jesus spoke, he had authority over elements. I mean, even that time when they on the sea and there's this great storm that comes up, jesus sleeps a sleep of peace, tranquility, and then they wake him up because they said, master, don't you fear lest we perish, because these waves are about to consume our boat and we're going to sink. And then he says to them, o ye of little faith. So that actually shows us unbelief and a lack of faith. Then he commands the wind and the waves, and immediately they are calm and. SPEAKER D They, Peace, be still. SPEAKER C Peace, be still. That's right. And immediately when this has happened and they look around them and the storm has just gone, instantly they marveled and wondered, who is this man that even has authority over the winds and the waves? But this centurion recognized that Jesus had authority over many things. His Word had power within itself to accomplish what it said. That reminds me of that text in the Old Testament we read in Isaiah, chapter 55 and verse eleven, where God says, so we see now God manifest in Christ, god manifest in the flesh. We see these words in verse eleven says, so shall my Word be that goes forth from my mouth, it shall not return to me void. In other words, when the Word comes back, it will not come back empty handed. And how would that happen? It says, but it shall accomplish so. This is the word itself. It shall accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper in the things for which I sent it. Now, did this centurion believe that Jesus had to be physically present to heal his servant? SPEAKER D Not at all. He was so humble, this man. Isn't that interesting? Humility and faith go hand in hand. The Pharisees were proud and they didn't show faith. This man was humble. He said, I'm not even worthy. And it's interesting, this centurion was a Roman, and the Romans were actually in charge. The Jews were subjugated, they were down the rung a few. And Jesus was not a rich man, he was more of the peasant class. And he says, I'm not worthy to have you come into my house. He's a centurion, he's someone who was respected. He's got power, he's got authority, he's got the power of Rome on his side. He's not a Jew, he's not captive yet he says, I'm not worthy. He shows this beautiful humility that comes from God. And that humility is then followed by an implicit trust in what God says. An implicit trust in what Jesus says. SPEAKER C It's absolutely incredible. He's able to look beyond what people typically would consider greatness, the way Jesus is dressed. Is he coming with an entourage? Is he coming on a horse? Is he dressed like a king? SPEAKER E No. SPEAKER C Jesus comes in the harmful garb, wearing sandals and wearing just ordinary clothing. He only had one item that was really of great value, and that was a seamless garment that he wore, which we read about when he was crucified, and they cast lots for it. But it says that he was a man that looked like he had come out of dry ground, like a root coming out of dry ground. And this is in Isaiah 53, verse two. It says that when we see Him, his form, there's no comeliness, and when we see Him, that there's no beauty, that we should desire Him. So Jesus was just an ordinary looking person. He wasn't even a very attractive person. Yet this man comes to Him recognized greatness, because he recognized the authority of Jesus'word that when he speaks, things happen, and he's able to look past the external and able to assess the internal power of Christ. SPEAKER D I think in our next presentation, we'll be looking a little more into this, but I do want to touch on it briefly. In Psalm chapter 33, it says, by the word of the Lord, the heavens were made, and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth. Verse nine, it says, for he spoke and it was done. He commanded and it stood fast. Often we forget the power of God's word. It was the word of God back in Genesis, chapter one, that created everything. This planet, the stars, the galaxy itself was spoken into existence. SPEAKER E Yes. SPEAKER D And I've said this before when I'm sharing with people, when God opens his mouth, a miracle happens. SPEAKER E Yes. SPEAKER D And so here we have the Creator of the universe, and we find this in John chapter one, that the word who is God who made all things, becomes flesh and dwells among us, and we behold his glory. And Jesus, the Creator, God walking undercover, as it were, is walking around, and he comes to visit this centurion. And this centurion recognizes that he's in the presence of someone that is out of this world. Yeah, he's of a different caliber. And he says, I'm not worthy to have you come under my house. Just say a word. Just say a word. The very being who said, Let there be light and there was light is now standing in front of this centurion that day. And he says, Just say a word, and my servant will be healed. SPEAKER C That's incredible. SPEAKER D He says, Be it unto you. SPEAKER E Yeah. SPEAKER C So, I mean, the centurion recognizes Jesus doesn't even have to be present. I'm not worthy. Don't come into my house. I'm not worthy. Now, what was it about what he said that Jesus marveled? What was the thing that the centurion expected would actually accomplish the request and fulfill the request? SPEAKER D Speak the word only. SPEAKER C Speak the word only. So it is his faith in the Word of Christ, in the Word of God, his faith in that, and believing that that Word would accomplish what it said it would, that actually made Jesus marvel. SPEAKER D And it's interesting going back to what we were looking at before, words like if God says something, it reflects his thoughts and his heart. He's basically saying, when you open your mouth and speak, I trust everything that comes out of your mouth. If you say something, it's going to happen. SPEAKER C If you say the Word, I will expect it to do what you said and I will depend on it to do what you said. SPEAKER D And that there is what's emerging out of here, the definition of faith. Faith is expecting and depending upon the Word of God, that it will do what it says. If God has said something, it will happen. And we can cling to it with everything that's in us. If we go over a few pages to Matthew, chapter 14, and we have touched on this briefly, but it's worth going to it again. This is the story of Peter walking on water, right? And when Peter fell beneath the waves, jesus, he called out to Jesus, Lord, save me, I perish. Jesus picked him up out of the water and said these words in verse 31, o you of little faith, why did you doubt? So we can contrast these two stories. In Matthew chapter eight, jesus says, I've not seen so great faith. And now we have. In Matthew chapter 14, he says, O you of little faith. So by contrasting these, we see the definition of faith emerging again. The centurion, he said, Speak the Word only. Yes, the Word is enough and my servant will be healed. Jesus, did he say a word to Peter? SPEAKER C Yes, he did. Peter actually asked him, Lord, if it's you, kababi to come out of the boat. And Jesus said to him, come. SPEAKER D One word, come. He said come. And he steps out in obedience to that Word and experiences a miracle. But then the waves and the wind are howling. He turns around, perhaps to see his friends with self confidence. He then falls. He ceases to trust in Christ to keep him above the water. He falls beneath the waves. Jesus picks him up and says, oh, you of little faith, why did you doubt? Why did you doubt? SPEAKER C He didn't doubt initially, did he? He didn't doubt the water out of the boat in the first instance, but then got distracted and he lost sight of in his mind, he actually lost sight. And I'm thinking about it, not in a literal sense, but he forgot about the Word that initially commanded him. SPEAKER D That's right. SPEAKER C Because if he could take one step, he could have taken two and he could have taken three and he could have kept on looking to Jesus, but he got distracted. SPEAKER D That's right. SPEAKER C That's beautiful. SPEAKER E Yeah. SPEAKER C So why did you doubt? So here we see a man that understands that Jesus is not just an ordinary man. He may look ordinary, but there's nothing ordinary about him. Now, we are told that Jesus is actually the person that authored faith. So when we exercise faith, it's not dependent on us to try and create or fabricate or make up this faith. This faith is something that we get from God as a gift. And in Hebrews, chapter eleven, that beautiful chapter of faith is obviously followed by chapter twelve and chapter twelve. And verse two of Hebrews, we read this. It says that we are to look unto Jesus. Now, if Peter did that all the way through, he wouldn't have sunk. Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. Now, if you have a King James and you came Bible, whenever a word's added to explain the text a little bit better, it's in italics. And you can see that the word our is there. So you look unto Jesus, the author and finisher of faith. Now, our faith is correct as well, because that is the faith that is gifted to us. Author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despised the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. So Jesus actually authored faith for us. He wrote it for us so that when we follow Jesus, we're simply walking in his steps by faith as well. SPEAKER D That's interesting. He's the author of faith. And if we look at that definition, that faith is trust. SPEAKER E Yes. SPEAKER D He's the one who inspires trust. And he inspires trust because he himself is trustworthy. SPEAKER E Yes. SPEAKER D If we look in history how God has interacted with people of all ages, he's never, ever failed. And his trustworthiness inspires trust. It's the thing that awakens trust. Like you don't trust someone who's not trustworthy. And it's by seeing someone who demonstrates over and over again that they're faithful. That's what inspires, that's what begins trust. And I think of a verse in Philippians, chapter one and verse six. It says, being confident of this very thing, and before I continue, there's a lot of things in our world that we cannot be confident in. There's so many things that are uncertain in this life. But it says in verse six, being confident of this very thing, that he who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ. You've got this. As you brought out there, there's this jesus is the one who begins and he's the one who finishes. SPEAKER E That's right. SPEAKER C So faith in the beginning and faith in the end and we have examples in the Bible of people like Peter who exercised faith in the beginning but lost faith in the middle. And then Jesus says, Why did you doubt? Oh, you have little faith. The interesting thing is though, even in his unbelief, jesus didn't leave Him and say, well, you deserve what you're getting, because he started sinking. And we just read that in that verse there when he saw the wind and it was boisterous and he was afraid. So fear kicked in. And at the previous program we spoke about how perfect love casts out all fear. The love of Christ poured out in our hearts. He was afraid and beginning to sink. He cried out, Lord, save me. So in his unbelief, all he could do is Jesus help me. And what did Jesus do? Immediately he responded, it says and immediately I don't know how far Jesus was from Him at that time, but it says immediately Jesus stretched out his hand. In an instant, Jesus was right beside him as He'sinking stretched out his hand, caught him and said to Him, oh, you have little faith, why did you doubt? So even in our unbelief, God is willing to help us and put us back on the path again, put us on top of the water so we don't no longer sink. SPEAKER D It reminds me of a verse. It says the steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord. Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down, for the Lord upholds him with his hand. SPEAKER C Beautiful. And we see that in the story of Peter. Now there's another text that comes to mind and we'll probably deal with this more. But now what? We're just touching on the fact that Jesus, the author of faith, that the centurion, exercised the right faith in what Christ was able to do by His Word, only he expected the Word to do it. We read in the book of Romans, chapter twelve, where Paul says for I say through the grace given me to everyone who is among you. So this text is for every person not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think. Now we have the centurion said, I'm not even worthy for you to come into my house. Ordinary looking man, but he recognized greatness in Jesus regardless, I'm not even worthy for you to come into my house. So don't think of yourself more highly than you ought to think, but to think soberly as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith. So here we are told that God has given each person the ability to respond to the word of God and to believe just like the centurion believed. Now, this measure of faith is not restricted by any borders. It's not restricted by any religion. The centurion wasn't even part of the Jews. I don't even know if he was circumcised, probably not. So they would have looked down on this man. But of course, because he had authority and he was a soldier, they would have shown a certain level of respect for him. However, they respected Him more because of the great things he'd done. So he obviously was a believer. And the faith that Jesus gives to everyone here went beyond the boundaries of Israel. So, dear listener, regardless of where you find yourself at the moment, christ, through His Word, has given you also a measure of faith. This faith is not one that you authored. This is the faith, as we discussed before, that Jesus authored. He is the author of faith. He is the finisher of the faith. So we don't finish the faith. Jesus doesn't start and we finish. Jesus starts the faith and he finishes the faith. SPEAKER D And this makes sense because the Bible says that God is love and that God created human beings in his image. And trust is central to love. God made us to trust. God made us as relational beings. And trust is central to that. And so no wonder we like to trust so many different things. There's no one I've ever found who doesn't trust something. Yes, they'll put their trust in this or that or this or that. We are built to trust. And God has put that within our hearts. We are longing to trust something that is dependable, something that is immovable. And unfortunately, everything that we generally turn to is movable and not permanent. But by putting our trust in God, that's where permanency is. SPEAKER E That's right. SPEAKER D And I think about a verse in and we've looked at it before, but I think it's a brilliant way to close Genesis, chapter 15. And so God said, god brought Abraham outside one night and he said, look now toward heaven and count the stars if you are able to number them. And he said to Him, so shall your descendants be. He's speaking to a man who can't have kids. He's tried over and over and over again. He just cannot have kids. And he says, look up. Can you count them? He says, that's how many kids you're going to have. Verse six, it says, So Abraham believed the Lord and it was accounted to him for righteousness. He looked up and said, I have no idea how that's going to happen, but I believe that when you open your mouth, when you say something, it's going to happen. And so Abraham and Sarah again tried to have kids and this time they did. SPEAKER E Amen. SPEAKER C So, dear listener, if you want to know how to find faith, it says, Faith comes by hearing and hearing the Word of God. We pray that this program today has encouraged you to spend more time in the Word of God so that you can increase your faith by looking at how Jesus has authored our faith for us in His Word. We look forward to catching up with you next time. Until then. God be with you. SPEAKER B Thank you for joining us on Faith. To Faith. 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