Living Faith

A couple of weeks ago, I went through some of the things that we see and find in the book of Luke, and how significant it is that he pointed out that Jesus was always in connection with his father in prayer. He was, like we're supposed to be, instant in prayer, and that, of course, should be a focus that we have, and we had that pointed out here in the sermon there.

In Luke 18, we saw a parable, and I want to go to that parable again. A parable that Jesus gave, it's only recorded here in Luke, but in verse 1 it says Jesus gave this parable about the need to pray always and not to lose heart. See, there's kind of a connection there, you know, that if we are actually instant in prayer, if we are continually bringing things to God, if we're continually asking for help, but if we're continually thanking God for the help, the intervention, the involvement in our lives, then we're not going to, that's kind of an antidote, we're not going to lose heart. We're not going to slide away. But what I want to focus on is not the parable itself, but what Jesus says in verse 8. Luke 18 verse 8, he says, I tell you, he will quickly grant justice to them. This was talking about the unjust judge, the widow who was persistently coming to him and says, you know, he would quickly grant justice to them. And yet, what does he end this verse with? It almost seems to be kind of off topic, but perhaps it's not.

And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth? It does kind of connect with being in communion with God in prayer, not losing heart, not giving up, not getting sidetracked not getting deceived in any way. And yet, he makes this statement, whenever I return to the earth, when the Son of Man comes back, will he find faith? Now, it's important, of course, for us to think about that because who on earth is able to truly understand faith in God?

Well, those who have been drawn by God to actually know Him and to be forgiven of their sins and to know about His kingdom and know about His nature and grow in the qualities that He tells us to grow in. And as you know, we've gone through a couple of different sermons regarding the weightier matters of the law. Judgment and mercy and faith. We went through judgment, judging, understanding some about that, or there's obviously a lot more that we could talk about. We went through mercy that's expected of the children of God. And I want to focus on the topic of faith today. And I realize that you could probably take your Bible and just open it up anywhere. And there would be something on those pages, no matter where you turn, that you could talk about faith. So this is kind of an expansive topic, and I want to narrow it down. I want to narrow it down so that we focus on why faith, and maybe what type of faith, is a weightier matter of the law. See, the fact is, our entire lives, from the time we become aware of God's purpose for us, maybe I can say, you know, looking back, I know that at that time in my life, I was 16 or 18 years old, as I came to know a certain amount about the truth. Before that, I really didn't. I was just stumbling around the farm. I, you know, thought things were pretty good, and actually in most ways I was pretty well off as far as the care that my parents provided to me.

I was greatly privileged and blessed in a lot of ways. But I didn't know what God's purpose was.

And yet, He revealed that. He made that known. And so for the last 50 years, I've been aware of the fact that I need to be living by faith. Now, that hasn't meant too much at times. That maybe means more to us as we go along, but I think we should think about the fact that our whole lives, at least our Christian lives, should be an example of living faith.

And so I want to talk about three different elements, three different elements of that living faith that God wants us. All of us know what the faith chapter of the Bible is. You could go and turn to it. I don't even have to tell you where it is. You would know where it is. Of course, it's Hebrews 11. And you've got numerous examples of Abel and Enoch and Noah and Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and Joseph and Moses and David and others that are listed there as paragons of faith. And we can read. That's why I said you could go almost anywhere. And you could read something that would involve the topic of faith. And yet, you know, I want to just discuss three elements of faith. The very first one is an enemy of faith. The second one is an action of faith. And finally, the third one is a definition of faith. So that's what we're going to cover today in the sermon. An enemy, an action, and a definition. And of course, this is not the total answer. There's far more information about faith and certainly each one of these areas could be discussed in greater detail than we can today. But the question is that Christ poses here in Luke 18 is, when He returns, will He find faith on the earth? And so that's asking us, are we going to remain faithful to the very end?

And we don't know what's going to happen in this world. It surely looks like, you know, the cataclysmic end of the age could easily arise over at least a relatively short period of time.

Not a few days or weeks, but years. It certainly would appear to be on the horizon. And yet we have the privilege of knowing God. We have the privilege of understanding His purpose and the privilege of living by faith. So let's look at the first one of these, an enemy of faith.

There may be several different things you could think of. I want to go to an example that I know we're familiar with, but it's one that it displays several different, even miracles, that were involved in a lesson that Jesus was teaching to His disciples. We find one account. This is recorded in several of the Gospels, but we find one account here in Matthew chapter 14. Matthew chapter 14 gives us insight into at least one of the enemies of faith. What is it that we should avoid? What is it that we want to get away from if we're going to have faith when Jesus returns? Now, as I mentioned, this is in chapter 14, starting in verse 22. It's an account of Jesus walking on water. Now, clearly, that's a miracle. And yet, when you think about this illustration as we're going to read through this in Matthew 14, that was not just the only miracle He did. In a sense, it was a miracle that He sent the disciples out in the boat in the middle of a storm, or sent them out pretty well knowing the storm was going to come because He was watching from the mountain. And yet, a miracle that He would walk out there and not when it was freezing and walking on ice, but walking at a time where He had to truly walk on water. But see, another miracle happened where Peter walked on water, too. He walked on water for, we don't know, inches, feet, yards. It doesn't say, it doesn't say, Jesus not only walked on water, Peter walked on water.

We find whenever Jesus discusses with His disciples, the wind and the waves stopped.

Another miracle. And in another account, I think, other than this one, they end up by the shore. Now, I don't know whether that means they're all of a sudden at the shore, or whether that means, you know, the wind and waves stopped so they could easily go where they needed to go. I'm not sure what that means, but they got to the shore rather easily. And of course, that's probably the case, that if without the big storm and the big problems, they could easily go where they needed to go. But let's read this account and think about this enemy of faith.

Here in verse 22, immediately, now this was after Jesus had fed thousands of people, bread and fish. He'd been able to feed them all with whatever they had.

Of course, He had performed another miracle there. But immediately after that, the disciples got into the boat and said, He made the disciples get into the boat and go ahead to the other side while He dismissed the crowd. Now, it appears, you know, He's kind of sending them off. He's sending them away. He's, I want you to be in the boat. I don't want to be in the boat. I want you to be in the boat. All of you. And see, it's interesting. Who would have been there if it was the 12 disciples?

Well, Matthew and John and James and Peter and Andrew and the others. You know, if they were 12 of them on there, maybe there would be more. I don't know if there were others who were with them. Maybe there was some ladies with them. I don't know. But at least you know that the disciples were there. It doesn't really say anybody else. And actually, you know, there's something kind of interesting about this because you see in Matthew and Luke, I believe those two accounts talk about it. I'm not thinking or remembering whether it's in John. I know it is in Mark.

But in Mark, there's a little bit of a deletion in it.

Mark doesn't record anything about Peter walking on the water.

Now, we ought to think about that because Mark was recording things in many ways from Peter. He was a disciple of Peter. He was younger than the rest of them. He surely wasn't there. He was writing down what Peter preached. Maybe Peter wasn't too proud of what happened.

Maybe he wasn't too impressed with his doubt. See, that's the enemy that he clearly displayed according to the Lord. He said, why did you doubt?

So here you see Jesus in a sense setting him up. And after he dismissed the crowd, of course he was taking care of people. He was sending them on their way. Maybe he needed to heal a few so that they could go on back to town wherever they were going. And he went up on the mountain by himself to pray. Again, what type of communion did he have with the Father?

And when evening came, he was up there alone. But by this time, the boat, being battered by the waves, was far from land and the wind was against them. They were out there struggling in the storm. It was raining. The waves, the wind was there. The waves were going, whether they were going to get overturned. You don't know. But it says in verse 25, early in the morning, so sometime in the middle of the night, sometime where it's dark, three o'clock, possibly three to six maybe as far as the time frame, early in the morning Jesus comes walking toward them on the sea. And when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified, saying, it's a ghost! They didn't know what to think, except, well, we can see who it is. We know he's coming out here, but look what he's doing. He's walking on the water. Now, that had to be impressive. That had to be kind of mind-boggling and maybe mind-numbing to experience that kind of a miracle. But of course, they'd just seen a miracle the night before where he had fed everybody with just a little bit of food. So again, Jesus was teaching them to have faith. He was teaching them living faith, and he was going to show them one of the enemies of faith. And so Jesus came, they were scared. They cried out in fear. But immediately Jesus spoke to them and says, take heart. It is I. I do not or do not be afraid. Now, the reference I think in the King James may reference that a little bit different. He pointed out who it is. I am. I'm here. You don't have to be afraid. You don't have to be concerned. I can take care of you. You don't have to fear.

And so in verse 28, Matthew, of course, was one of them who was there, and he was watching. And whether Peter was not really terribly proud of this or not, he was going to record what happened. Peter answered and said, Lord, if it's you, command me to come to you on the water. And he said, oh, come on, come on. You know, if you've got your eyes on me, then you're okay. If you are focused on who can help you walk on the water, now, why would Peter think he could walk on the water?

This doesn't even make sense. Why would he think that he might have thought I can swim out there where you are? But apparently, he had the idea, well, you know, if I'm looking at God in the flesh, if I'm looking at the one that he's told us numerous times who he is and what he's doing, what he's going to do with us, we never seem to get it. And certainly our memory seems to be quite bad because, you know, we happen to be human, like all of us. We happen to be human and we happen to be affected by physical things and physical limitations. And certainly, you know, I'm impressed by the one verse there in John where it talks about the Holy Spirit not only teaching us but reminding us of things that we need to be reminded of. I become more aware of the need for that as I go along. To be reminded, to be prompted by the Spirit of God, that He has blessed us with so that we're reminded. Yeah, we make mistakes. Yes, we sin, we seek forgiveness, but often if we weren't reminded of the things that we do that are limiting, then it would just, you know, kind of go over our head. Right past us.

But here Peter makes a ridiculous request. If it's you, Lord, command me to come out on the water, and he said, come. And so Peter got out of the boat and started walking on the water and came toward Jesus. Now, I don't know how far he went. It probably was a short distance, I would say.

And maybe Jesus was right up to the boat pretty close.

But of course, in verse 30, when Peter noticed that you can't really do this, when he noticed the strong wind, when he noticed the wind and the waves and the storm, and that when he focused on the physical things that were impossible for him to do, when he noticed the strong wind, he got scared. He became frightened and he began to sink.

And of course, he did the right thing. He cried out, Lord, save me.

And Jesus immediately reached out his hand and caught him.

See, immediately, as soon as he turned back to Jesus, he must have had his focus on Jesus to begin with. He must have had that connection. He knew, here he is walking on the water. He's walked all the way from the shore out to where we are and in the middle of the storm. Well, if he tells me, then I'll do it. But of course, once he got out there, then he got scared. He got to looking at the physical factors that were around him. And Jesus had to reach out and catch him and said, you of little faith, why did you doubt? He explained to him what the enemy of faith is.

Thinking, that's impossible. Because see, all things are possible with God. As it's very clearly written here, Jesus was able to do miracles. He was able to walk on water. He was able to heal the sick. He was able to cause the dead to come back to life. He was able to resurrect from the dead. He was able to resurrect from the dead. So there was nothing that Jesus could not do in order to help his disciples. And yet he was teaching them a lesson. He'd sent them out in the storm. I'm pretty sure he had an idea what he was going to do because he didn't go with them.

In order to get there, he was going to have to travel. And so he said, you have little faith, why did you doubt? And when they, Jesus and Peter, got back into the boat, and the wind stopped. The waves settled down. Everything turns calm, and the wind stops, and those in the boat, the disciples of Jesus Christ, those that he was going to use as the very foundational members of the Church of God. See, that was still going to be a little while, year or two, before they would actually fit that bill. But here Jesus was teaching them what it is to have faith in God, what it is to have living faith and not allow physical factors to interfere with a focus on Jesus Christ. So those in the boat worshiped him, saying, truly, you are the Son of God.

See now, did they keep that in mind at all times from then on? No. They forgot. They were perplexed by just the physical existence that they had, and that's what we struggle with, too.

And so we have to be reminded that, you know, doubt, and you could say fear as well here, because he became frightened, and he was afraid that he was going to sink, or he started to sink whenever he saw. You know, this is impossible. But, you know, this tells us that, you know, this particular enemy of faith, we need to be aware of it. We need to look beyond it. We need to ask God to help us see beyond it, because if we are going to live an example of living faith, well, then we know that God is clearly able to help us. So, how valuable and how precious are even the private miracles that we might see, because sometimes we might experience something that we can't explain. We can't explain the type of help that God may give us. Often we're asking for healing. Of course, we want that yesterday. We want it as soon as possible. And yet, sometimes we linger, and sometimes we labor with that. And sometimes, you know, there are a lot of other things. I mean, many times I'm sure we're driving around, and we may experience a miracle whether we know it or not, because I've been in some pretty bad situations that didn't really seem all that bad.

But somehow, we came out of them. So, you know, we don't want to dismiss or overlook the experiences that God makes available in our lives for our Christian growth. So, that's the first one that I wanted to mention about living faith, that we don't want to allow the enemy of doubt to override what God is able to do in our lives. The second thing I mentioned was in action. See, is it enough to have faith in God? Is it enough to believe God and to have faith in God?

And that's going to cause you to be in the kingdom? That's going to cause you to receive eternal life. There are many people who believe that today. I have faith in God. I believe Jesus. I believe in Jesus. He's the Son of God. Many people have a form of religion.

But see, what is it that living faith actually does? Well, it creates an action. Now, that action is not simply obedience, because we come to understand faith even by seeing that we need to obey. We need to turn from our sins, and so that causes us to be repentant and be obedient.

But what does it tell us here in James chapter 2? Now, there are a number of verses that we could go to, and I'm not meaning to go through all of these, regarding the topic of works and faith, because often, you know, that whole subject, it's a large subject and not one that we could easily cover. But I will point out for the sake of this sermon today that living faith, true faith, is going to produce works of service. Not just works, as people might think about as far as obeying God, works of service. So let's go to James chapter 2. And James talks about this. He actually talks about a lot of different subjects in the book of James, and, you know, he, I would think, had a pretty good insight into how it was that Jesus lived. He grew up with Jesus.

He was able to, you know, he didn't believe who he was for a while. And he says his brethren, his brothers didn't believe him. They didn't believe that he was the son of God. You read that in John 7. They didn't believe it, but eventually he came to believe it. And he came to know a lot about what we need to know about faith and living faith. Here in verse 14 of James chapter 2, he says, What good is it, brethren, if you say that you have faith and you don't follow that up with works, you don't, you're not moved to action. And I would say acts of service, because ultimately that's what God wants us to grow in. He wants us to grow in actions that positively affect other people, which could easily be described as serving other people.

He asks the question, can faith save you? And of course then he answered it by saying, well, if a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, go in peace, be you warmed and filled, and yet you don't supply their bodily needs, what's the good of that? What's the good of that? He says that's useless. He says that doesn't do much good at all, just to notice that someone has need of food or clothing. So he says in verse 17, faith by itself, if it doesn't have works, if it's not followed up with works of service as action, well, he says that's dead faith. That's not living faith. That's not active faith. That's dead faith. And so James compares faith without works to expression of sympathy without giving any help.

He says that's totally useless. And then the same way a faith that exists without works has no value at all. And so we want living faith. We want to understand that well, doubt is an enemy of faith, and so we move away from that or we're reminded of that. But also, we want to be actively living our faith and serving other people. Verse 18 says, but someone might say, well, you have faith, but I have works.

James says, show me your faith apart from your works, and I, by my works, will show you my faith. He says there's a connection here between faith, living faith, and active service toward others. It says you believe that God is one, and you do well, even the devil or the demons believe, and then they shudder.

Do you want to be shown, you senseless person, that faith, apart from works, is dead or barren? He goes ahead to use the example of Abraham, and in verse 21 he says, was not our Abraham justified by works when he offered his own son Isaac on the altar? You see, that faith was active along with his works, and faith was brought to completion by his works.

So, yes, Abraham was faithful toward God. He believed God. That's what we read. Actually, you see James talking about kind of two different elements of faith that Abraham had. One, that involved his belief in God, his faith toward God, his reliance on God, and the fact that God said he justified him. He reconciled him. He reckoned him to be righteous because of that faith. But then he followed that up, and that's what verse 20 says. Or, excuse me, verse 20.

Faith apart from works is barren, was not our, verse 21, Abraham, our ancestor justified by works when he offered his son Isaac on the altar. You see, faith was active along with his works, and faith was brought to completion by his works. And so, because he had faith in God, because he knew what God had said about his son Isaac, and it was going to be through him that he was going to have these incredible, numerous descendants, he said, well, I just simply need to do what God says.

He acted out of faith, and he did exactly what God says. And so, he says in verse 23, thus the Scripture was fulfilled that says Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness. And he was called a friend of God. See, James actually points out about Abraham that Abraham, you know, even in his active involvement in following God, which he did by going to a new country, he did what God said, even when he didn't even know what more God was going to do.

He just simply did what God said. And he says, again, and this is recorded in Genesis 15, his faith was accepted by God as righteousness. But he goes on here in verse 24, you see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. And so, you know, if we're going to have faith, if we're going to have living faith, then we're going to be motivated to act in service to others, in service to our husband or our wife, in service to our brethren, in service to others that we interact with, in service to other people that we're able to help.

You know, because James gave the example of, well, if people don't have things and you're able to provide them, then don't just say, go on. He said, give them something. Do. Provide a work of service. And so, you know, you see the example here that I think is important for us as we think about elements of faith, you know, we don't want to be doubting and frightened like Peter was.

We want to have living faith. We want our faith to motivate us to serve one another. That's what he's actually talking about here. You see, James is, in a sense, is not comparing faith and works as far as two different, completely different subjects. He's comparing two different kinds of faith.

One type of faith doesn't produce any work, and the other type of faith produces works of service.

And so that's what we need to do. So finally, then the third thing, I mentioned a definition. Now, what would you say the definition of faith is? Now, all of you can read Hebrews 11, verse 1.

Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Now, most of us can quote that, or at least we can quote parts of it, and I usually get it scrambled.

It's usually kind of different, you know, even after I say it, I think, what in the world does that mean? You know, I'm thinking, I don't... that doesn't... that's not real, real clear to me.

And yet, when you break it down, you know, the substance or the act in actual fact, something that you might hold in your hand, the substance of things that you hope for, the evidence, the... visibly see something that is invisible, that is not seen. So, yeah, that's a definition of faith. But I will... I will point out to you that there may be other definitions of faith. I think you surely see different examples. And I think one, at least another definition of faith is simply a trust that God will deliver us. A trust that God will deliver us. Let me explain how this... how this works. It actually involves our submission to God's authority. Does God have the right? Does He have the authority?

Does He have the prerogative to tell us how to live? Well, sure He does. He's the Creator.

He's the one who is able to, you know, give us life. He's the way... one that can take that life away. He's the only one that has eternal life to give. But how does this connect with submission to the authority of God? Well, I want us to look in 1 Peter, chapter 2, probably a page or two over.

Page or two over in the book of 1 Peter. Now often in 1 Peter 2 there are several verses that we commonly read. Actually, maybe some of that entire chapter we might be kind of familiar with.

Because we read some of these verses even at the Passover. We read 1 Peter, chapter 2.

Let's see, verse 21. We often read this at the Passover because it's connecting to the sacrifice that Jesus gave and the example that He set and that this is why, you know, He's allowed us to be in the church today. He says, for to this you have been called because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example so that you should follow in His steps.

Verse 22, He committed no sin, no deceit was found in His mouth. When He was abused, He didn't retaliate, He didn't return abuse when He suffered, He didn't threaten. Now again, you know, that connects clearly with what we study at the time of the Passover.

What we go over in thinking about, well, the example that Jesus set is the example that works to follow and the suffering that He endured, it might indicate that we would suffer at times during our lives. But what it says is that Jesus was willing to endure, He was willing to suffer, He did that without sin. So of course, that's obviously the example that we want to understand.

But He says in verse 23, when He was abused, He didn't return that abuse when He suffered, He didn't threaten, but what did He do? He entrusted Himself to the one who judges righteously. He simply said, you know, I'm going to be put to death, but I'm going to entrust myself to the one who judges righteously and I know is going to resurrect me from the dead. And because of what I know about what God is and what He's going to do, you know, I'm in full submission to His authority and rule in my life. That's what He said earlier when He was with the disciples, He was praying in the Garden of Gethsemane. He said, not my will, but your will be done talking to His Father.

See, He was desirous of being in full submission to the authority of God.

And see, in a sense, what He was doing, He was trusting God to deliver Him. Was He going to keep Him from dying? No. He was going to let Him die. And then after three days, He would be once again glorified with the Father at the Father's right hand, having eternally existed in the past and being at that position going into the future. And yet, what He was doing is that God, I have faith that God will deliver me. And that's the same thing for us. It's the same thing for us. Now, I want us to back up because we often read that section and we're, again, pretty familiar with that. But what was He talking about? What was Peter talking about before He uses the, obviously, the capstone of the example of who's the most perfect at doing this? Well, Jesus is.

Jump up to verse 11. What is it that He was talking about? He said, Beloved, I urge you as aliens and exiles to abstain from the desires of the flesh and wage war against the soul. So, we can think back to the sermonette again.

Now, that's exactly what we were reminded. Verse 12, conduct yourself honorably among the gentiles so that though they malign you as evildoers, they may see your honorable deeds and glorify God when He comes to judge. So, here He's telling Christians, even though things may go well at times, there will be times when they don't go so well, and yet you want to keep in mind that you are in submission to the authority of the Father. You're in submission to God's directive over your life, and you have faith that He will deliver you.

Now, this could involve our marriages, husband and wives, because there is a certain level of authority that God grants in that. It could involve even government officials, because God grants a certain level of authority there. See, now, whether that's misused is not the question.

It's a matter of, do I really believe that God will work things, that He will deliver me, no matter what? He says in verse 13, for the sake of the Lord. For the Lord's sake, accept the authority of every human institution, whether it's the emperor as supreme. Of course, at that time, Peter could look in Rome, whoever was Caesar, a pretty corrupt person, I imagine.

You know, he said, you are going to be subject to certain authorities in your life, whether of the emperor, whether of governors, so it would be a lesser ruler, as sent by him, sent by God, to punish those who do wrong and praise those who do right.

For, he says in verse 15, if it is the will of God, that by doing right you should silence the ignorant of the foolish. As servants of God, live as free people, yet do not use your freedom as a pretext for evil. Honor everyone. Love the brethren, the family of believers. Fear God.

Honor the emperor. And here he uses another example of being in submission to authority.

Slaves, accept the authority of your masters with all deference, not only those who are kind and gentle, but also those who are harsh. So here he said, you know, many times the authority might be administered properly, might be administered with concern for others or love. And that's clearly what husbands have to learn. You know, husbands have a certain level of authority given to them by God. They better not misuse it. They better not mistreat it. They need to obviously learn. All of us have to learn and then have to apply that administration of authority in a proper way, in a way that is godly, in a way that reflects knowing I am under the authority of Jesus Christ.

But here he uses the example of slaves and their masters, the good and the bad. In verse 19, for it is accredited to you at being aware of God. See, here he's mentioned the will of God for the Lord's sake. Here in verse 19, being aware of God, since we are accountable to the great God and we are in submission to his authority over us, it is accredited to you at being aware of God. You endure pain while suffering unjustly. And if you endure when you are beaten for doing wrong, well, what credit is that? But if you endure when you do right and suffer for it, then you have God's approval. See, the focus is on God's will, God's approval, being aware of God, understanding the will of God. So that's why I say faith can be defined as a trust that God will deliver us. And see, that's going to be living faith, living faith that he wants all of us to benefit from. So I want to go to another example here before we conclude. It's an example of one of the servants of God. Maybe you could say one of the premier servants of God in the Old Testament. The servant Moses, it says, was the meekest man on earth. And most everything you read about Moses is pretty positive. He did a lot of wonderful things. He obviously understood as God brought Israel out of Egypt. He was willing to be used as a tool by God to follow what God says, to believe that God is going to deliver him even in face of the Red Sea. Even in face of, we're out here, there's no water, what are we going to do? We're out here, there's no food, what are we going to do?

You know, most of the examples you read about Moses, sometimes you see God kind of upset with people, and Moses pleading with God, don't kill him, don't kill him, kill me.

So most of the examples are pretty positive. But there was one in Numbers 20, one where Moses forgot that I am in submission to the authority of God. See, in a sense, and this is an account of Moses and the people complaining about not having water, they're actually going through much of the 40 years of wandering, and they're going to go into the Promised Land pretty soon.

Maybe Moses was exasperated. Maybe he was worn down after 40 years of wandering around with these you know, kibitzers all the time, and the young folks, you know, they didn't pay attention like they should, but at least all the others died off. You know, they were going to go into the Promised Land.

And yet, here's an account of something that we want to keep in mind, because I bring this up in connection with realizing that when we are in submission to God, submission to his authority, then we are living a life of faith that believes that God will deliver us regardless.

Now, we may not know exactly how he will deliver us, but the fact is, if we are living a life of faith, then he will deliver us.

Here in Deuteronomy, or I guess it's Numbers, chapter 20, they're at the waters of Maribah. They're at a location where they had been before.

And the Israelites, in verse 1, were traveling there. They came to the wilderness of Zinn.

People stayed in Kadesh, verse 2, there was no water for the congregation, so they gathered together against Moses and against Aaron. The people complained, or choral, with Moses and said, you know, would we have died with our kindred? You've brought us. Why have you brought this assembly of the Lord into the wilderness for us to die with our livestock? Why have you brought us out of Egypt to bring us into this wretched place? It has no grain, figs, and wine, and pomegranates. See, that's what they remember. They told us we were going to a real fruitful place. He told us we were going to go to the feast in Branson. He told us that's what we were going to do, but here we are on the verge of it, and there's no water, and all there is is this stupid man.

You know, we've been eating it for 40 years, and we don't like it. We don't like it. We hate quail. There's no other way of fixing it. And besides that, maybe even more important than that, we're thirsty. We are really thirsty. So Moses, in verse 6, Aaron went away. They fell on their face. Glory, the Lord appeared to them, and the Lord said to Moses, and I said, okay, this is what you need to do. Take the staff and assemble the congregation. So do this in front of everybody. Now, there had been an account similar to this in the past, where they got water out of the rock, and he said he'd only taken the elders. You know, he'd only, you know, they saw what happened. But now he said, let everybody see.

So they take the staff, assemble the congregation, you and your brother, Aaron, command the rock before their eyes to yield its water. So that's what they were supposed to do.

And thus you shall bring water out of the rock for them, and thus you shall provide water for the congregation in their livestock. And so Moses, I'm sure, may be overjoyed with the fact that, well, thankfully, we're going to have some relief here.

He took the staff from before the Lord as he had commanded him, and Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly together before the rock, so he got everybody around. And yet, in a sense, Moses kind of forgot that I'm under the authority of God. I'm in submission to God. I do exactly what he says. And he didn't do what God said.

It says in verse 10, he got everybody around the rock, and he said, listen, you rebels, shall we bring water out of this rock for you? I don't know exactly how he said it, but it would appear. That's kind of the tone. Maybe the idea, again, he was forgetting, I'm in submission to the authority of God. I need to do what he said.

I need to follow his instructions. I need to give him the glory and the credit.

And so then, whack, whack! Two times he lifts his hand, strikes the rock twice with his staff, and amazingly, water came out abundantly, and the congregation and their livestock drank.

Problem solved. Got water out of this rock. It's the right place. Good thing to do.

But it says in verse 12, the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, because you did not remember that it's not you who's to take any credit, it's to give me the credit. Look to me and understand that you were in submission to me and my authority, because you did not trust in me to show my holiness before the eyes of the Israelites. Here, he didn't follow instructions for one thing, and it appears he took the credit for the water coming out. Now he was fed up with the people, and yet because of that, God says, you shall not bring the assembly into the land that I've given them. You're not going to go over it in the land. He later showed him what it was, but he says, you're not going in there, because you didn't do what I expected you to do. I expected you to show my great power. Now, see, Moses had done that before. He did that at the Red Sea. He did it with the water and the quail and manna before. He had probably done it many, many, many times, but at least this time he forgot he was under the authority of God. And he forgot that I have to live by faith, and I have to be an example of faith, believing that God will deliver us. See, it's almost like this went to Moses' head, and he said, well, don't you know who I am?

See, that's more common, perhaps, for us to think, don't you know who I am?

God says, yeah, I do know who you are. And yeah, I'm going to give you the water, but you're not going into the Promised Land. See, I want you to live by faith at all times.

I want you to trust that I will deliver you, and that is living faith.

So, you know, there's a lot more on this topic that I think we could benefit from studying, because, like I said, this affects us in our interactions within the government of the country that we live in, even within the state, within the church, within our homes, in our marriages. There's a lot to learn from that. So, actually, what God was pointing out to Moses was you need to humble yourself before God in order to exemplify living faith. And that's actually the way you see the weightier matters of the law described here in Micah. In the Old Testament, you see the weightier matters of the law described here in Micah chapter 6, wherever Micah is over here, page 757. That's where it is in my Bible. But it says in Micah 6, verse 8, and again, as we think about the weightier matters of the law, judging, mercy, and faith, and the fact that regarding faith, you know, we want to avoid being doubting. We want to be sure that we act in serving others, and that we understand that trusting that God will deliver is actually living faith. And here in verse 8, he has told you, old man, what is good and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, to do justly, and to love mercy, and how is faith described here? To walk humbly, to walk in submission before the authority of God, to walk humbly with your God. See, that's what, you know, we want to keep in mind. We want to think about, we want to perhaps meditate on, reminding ourselves of things we should know, things we certainly have heard, but things that we want to continually have rehearsed for our benefit because we don't want to be like Moses, not go into the Promised Land. We want to go into the Promised Land. We want to go into the kingdom of God. But Jesus tells us, well, you need to obey and keep the law, but the weightier matters of the law, which the Pharisees didn't follow, truly understanding judgment and mercy and faith, walking humbly with their God.

That's what we have the privilege of doing, a blessing in doing as the children of God today.

And so, hopefully we can think about how it is that we are following our God in a humble manner under His authority and that we are living by faith, actually living faith, not dead faith, but living faith before God.