Faith Makes The Difference

The difference between the world and the Christian is his faith, not his life.  Some believer's lives don't always measure up to Christ's standards.  But the Christian's faith can change situations.  That creates a big difference.

The difference between the Christian and his condemnation is his faith.  "He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God," (John 3:18).

The differnce between the sinner and eternal life is his faith.  John 3:36 says, "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that beieveth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him."

It is by faith we become  children of God.  Galatians 3:26 says, "For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus."

It is by faith we have peace with God.  "Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ," (Rom. 5:1).

It is by faith we are purified.  Acts 15:9 says, "And put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith."

It is by faith Christ dwells in our hearts.  Ephesians 3:17 says, "That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith that ye, being rooted and grounded in love."

Faith is not a feeling.  Faith is a decision we make.  We make that decision for the rest of our lives.  We may backslide in our living, but we still believe that Christ is our eternal life.  That faith never changes.

Why Does God Allow Sickness?

One reason for sickness is that we are all sinners.  Sin in our bodies makes us naturally weaker.  God is perfect in every way and neither of the three of them ever gets sick.  But in our sin-weakness in our flesh we are more susceptible to diseases that travel from person to person.  When we get perfect bodies we will never again get any disease of any kind forever.

But we are weak sinners in our flesh.  One reason we get diseases is that some diseases are contagious and stay with the individual in our flesh perpetually.  It continues until we die.  There are several diseases of that nature.  Cancer does not kill.  It weakens certain organs so that the organs fail to function and quits.  So with some other diseases.  Not ever person gets those diseases.

Many of us get colds and we get over them.  We can get some diseases and take certain medicines and conquer that disease or diseases.  That's good.

One reason we get a certain disease is in what we eat.  We can eat non-nutritiously.  We can eat some foods that produce very little health.  Over time we can break down our healthy systems and become sick.

Sometimes sickness is to keep us humble and increase our faith.  That happened to Paul and many others.  Some sickness produces a heaviness and trial of our faith (I Peter 1:6, 7).

Some sicknesses produces a complete surrender of our will, as with Catherine Marshall, wife of a Chaplin of the U.S. Senate.  She became well.

Some sickness produces humility (II Cor. 12:7).  Some sickness is allowed to make us more perfect in our weakness (II Cor. 12:9).  Some sickness produces greater faith in God.  Sometimes God sends some sicknesses to bring a saint back to God (Psa. 119:67, 68).  Some sickness leads us to become stronger, stablished, strenghtened and settled (I Peter 5:10).

Praise God, the day is coming soon when we will be perfect in body and spirit.  That's when Jesus comes for us.  We will never become sick again.  Forever!

What Do We Do When We Believe?

Believing in Jesus Christ is the greatest decision a person can ever make in his or her life.  In our early years as children we were safe.  Had we died in those early years we would have been taken to Paradise.  We would have then been adult people.  There are no babies in heaven.

But the time came in our boyhood or girlhood days when God held us accountable for the sins we commit.  After that, if we had died, we would have gone to hell.

But, the day came when, as a teenager or somewhere in our adult life, we accepted Jesus Christ as our personal Saviour.  And that simple decision changed our lives completely.  It turned us around.  Our old sins were dropped.  Cursing, lying, adultery, stealing, and all other sins; we turned loose of them.  Nothing else we have done has caused such a change.

We opened our Bibles and began reading it.  We started going to church.  We began seeking Christians as our friends.  We began understanding the Bible.  We understood what the Bible teacher or pastor said as they explained it.  We grew in knowledge and that knowledge changed our way of living.  We accepted positions in church.  Some of us became Bible teachers.  All of us were changed for the better.  And just because of the fact that we accepted Jesus as our Saviour.

What Do We Do When We Repent?

Repentance is one of the two essentials to being saved.  The second essential is faith.  But today I want us to examine repentance.

The word repentance means "to change one's mind."  There can be no salvation without it.  We must have an afterthought about our sinfulness.

First, we cannot hide from our sins.  We cannot bury ourselves in activities.  We cannot ignore our sins.  We can't jump to faith and neglect repentance.  We just must face our sinfulness and admit we have sinned before God.  There should be, as Pendleton said, "a deep sense of shame."  If there is no shame, there is no repentance.  Repentance shames self.

There should be a hatred for sin.  We see ourselves as we really are: sinners before a holy God. 

Then in repentance we should feel sorrow for our sins.  We need to regret that we have sinned.  This can be different in different people.  No one can feel the same about one's sins.  But we must have some degree of shame.

Then we agree within ourselves that we want to forsake our sins.  We see our sins as God sees them.  We want to rid ourselves of them.  We confess to God that we have sinned and ask God to forgive us of them all.  And he does!

That's repentance of our sins!

Have you repented?