#1996 0622 14P

            Jesus said Mark 9:19 "O faithless generation, how long shall I be with you?  How long shall I bear with you?”  The world today is faithless and unbelieving that God even exists or will do anything for them.  It is a faithless generation that becomes less and less interested in trusting God for anything.

            Serious warnings in Scripture about the serious consequences of unbelief, reminds us of the critical need for each believer to put faith in the Atonement Blood sacrifice Jesus made for us.  These warnings are given to a faithless world that refuses to believe unless it sees.

            When Jesus asked Mark 9:19 "O faithless generation, how long shall I be with you?"—it was the same lament and problem with God’s people centuries before.  Ezekiel 33:31-32 “They sit before thee as my people, and they hear thy words, but they will not do them: for with their mouth they show much love, but their heart goeth after their covetousness; they hear thy words, but they do them not.”  The lack of faith has not changed; just the unbelief keeps getting worse.

            If there was no unbelief; if there was no lack of faith; if there were no serious consequences, and if it were not possible to forfeit eternal life, then soft answers would suffice, but severe warnings are needed, so that a faithless and unbelieving world can know that their eternal souls can still be saved—but that is up to every individual.

            The apostle was sent Acts 26:18 ”To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me,” Isaiah 35.  He was Ephesians 4:15 ”Speaking the truth in love,” [so they could] “grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ.” 

            On paying of taxes, the religious leaders said Luke 20:21 "[Master], we know that You say and teach rightly, and You do not show personal favoritism, but teach the way of God in truth [truly].”  Even the guards said John 7:46 "No man ever spoke like this Man!"

            Jesus began His ministry in Nazareth—saying Luke 4:18-21 "The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, Because He has anointed Me To preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives And recovery of sight to the blind, To set at liberty those who are oppressed; To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord" [Isaiah 61:1-2].

            “Then He closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant and sat down.  And the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on Him.  And He began to say to them, ‘Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.’"

            At first Luke 4:22 ”All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his lips,” but when He added 23, "Surely you will quote this proverb to me: ‘Physician, heal yourself!  Do here in your hometown what we have heard that you did in Capernaum,’” they began to doubt, question, and disbelieve Luke 4:22 “And they said, ‘Is not this Joseph's son?’”

            Satan wanted them to think that Jesus was not divine; that He did not have authority to forgive sins, and He did not have power to heal.  Satan has deceived millions to think that God will not do things for them today.  When Jesus taught about faith in God for daily needs—referring to the widow in Zarephath Luke 4:25-26—or about trusting God for divine healing—like Naaman in Syria Luke 4:28 “all those in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath”—they tried to kill Him.

            The Sadducees asked a marriage question, to which Jesus replied Matthew 22:29 “Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God.”  Jesus told them Matthew 28:18 “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.” 

            He had said earlier Matthew 23:37  "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing.”  The world then refused to believe, and today unbelief is worse than ever.

            The dreadful spiritual condition of the world today is why Jesus must return.  He gave severe warnings because God’s severe judgment on the faithless will be even worse.  Serious consequences are in store for anyone who does not put God first in their life, and does not have divine love in their heart.  Unbelievers, Jesus said Matthew 25:46 “shall go away into everlasting punishment [everlasting fire 41]: but the righteous into life eternal.”  Believing trust on God is critical.

            Jesus said Matthew 7:11 ”If ye then being evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your Father who is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?”  The gift of His Holy Spirit enables us to know that God wants to give health, healing, provisions, protection, justice, and every other good gift.  We just have to believe and trust Him in faith to receive them—not trust on drugs, defense attorneys, insurance policies, saving accounts, or firearms.

            Jesus called the world faithless, adulterous, and unbelieving.  Looking religious on the outside, but having no faith on the inside, is the worst spiritual condition.  Matthew 23:27 "Alas for you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you are just like whitewashed sepulchres, the outside of which pleases the eye, though inside they are full of dead men’s bones and of all that is unclean.”

            Jesus told the religious-looking teachers John 8:44 ”Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do.  He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him.  When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.”  We are either a son of the devil, or a child of the Father—there is no middle position.

            Jesus said Matthew 5:44-45 “Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them who despitefully use you, and persecute you; That ye may be the children of your Father who is in heaven.”  If we hate our enemies; resent those who harm us; and get back at our persecutors, we make ourselves sons of the devil—by choice.

            An unbelieving heart will take us to the lake of fire.  If we do not repent; if we refuse to believe on the Atonement Blood of Christ for healing and victory; and if we do not allow God to take self out of our heart, we will suffer the fate of the unbelieving.

            Jesus did not spare delicate feelings when warning about the suffering in Hell.  Matthew 13:49-50 “The angels shall come forth, and sever the wicked from among the just, And shall cast them into the furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.”

            It is a very severe warning about an even more serious fate—for anyone who will not believe and trust God in faith in this life.  The Blood of Jesus sets us free from our sins—unless we refuse to believe.  Satan has invented millions of substitutes to deceive us, so Jesus said that Hell is Mark 9:48 "where ‘Their worm does not die, And the fire is not quenched.’”—it is a place of outer darkness, weeping, and gnashing of teeth Matthew 8:12; 22:13; 25:30.

            No evil on earth could compare to the horrors of Hell—that is why false teaching is so deadly.  Religious messages are everywhere—on the radio, printed in books, tracts, and online, but if the teaching does not emphasize trusting God in faith for divine healing, financial needs, avenging wrongs, protection from harm, and all other life issues, they are omitting Bible truths that cannot be omitted.

            False places of trust will defile anyone’s heart.  Israel Zephaniah 3:2 ”has not obeyed His voice, She has not received correction; She has not trusted in the Lord, She has not drawn near to her God.”  Religious teachers often quote verses promising salvation; such as John 10:28 “I give to them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand;” but they omit those who receive salvation 27 ”My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.”

            If we follow Jesus, by trusting on His Atonement Blood for healing and for every other need, no one could take us out of His hand; but if we choose not to follow Him, by not trusting in His Blood, we take ourselves out of His hand, and would perish through unbelief.

            Jesus says we must Luke 13:24 ”Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say to you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able”—because of unbelief.  Jesus had to give serious warnings about false teaching because on whom, or on what, we place our faith is a salvation issue.

            God’s great love gave us an important choice—a choice that includes whether we trust Him in faith, or turn away in unbelief—that responsibility and that choice can never be revoked.  Satan is always disguised, and wrong teaching always deceives.

            Jesus was crucified so John 3:15-16 ”that every one who is believing in him may not perish, but may have [eternal life], for God did so love the world, that His Son—the only begotten—He gave, that every one who is believing in him may not perish, but may have [everlasting life]” at His return.

            The one requirement for Heaven is to never stop believing in the Son of God—which means to keep on trusting God everyday—for daily needs without laid up cash, for divine healing without medication, for protection without guns, and for spiritual light by His Holy Spirit.

            The choice to believe God, and to trust Him for everything, will always be ours.  Malachi 3:7 “Return to Me, and I will return to you," Says the Lord.”  Hebrews 3:14 ”For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end”—the confidence we had that He will heal, deliver, protect, forgive, and save those who truly trust in His Blood.

            It is our responsibility to believe God; and it is our choice to trust Him in faith for these real-life issues.  This world is the only place where we can trust God; and this life is the only opportunity we have to prove our faith is in Him—not in something else.  Satan cannot win, if we are willing to believe and are faithful to trust God.