|  Jesus asks:Nevertheless, when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth? Luke 18:8 Faith is important. We are justified by faith (Romans 5:1). We
are saved through faith (Ephesians 2:8). The disciples asked Jesus to
increase their faith (Luke 17:5), whereupon He tells them about a
servant's faithfulness to his master. That kind of faith is not just a
superficial "believing" with the mind, but rather a faithful obeying
from the heart. Faith and obedience shall never be separated. They
belong together. Faith obeys. Unbelief disobeys.
Faith purifies the heart (Acts 15:9). Believers are commanded to
continue in the faith (Acts 14:22) and to resist the devil steadfast in
the faith (1. Pe. 5:9). Faith is part of the armour of the Lord and is
compared to a protective shield "wherewith ye shall be able to quench
all the fiery darts of the wicked." Ephesians 6:16. Without faith you
can't please God (Heb. 11:6)! Those who showed great faith were always
commended by the Lord Jesus. Read about what Jesus says about the
centurion who came to Jesus for the healing of his servant. Matthew
8:5-13! Read about the woman of Canaan. Matthew 15:21-31. Jesus
commends faith, but rebukes unbelief und faithlessness with no
uncertain terms. Matthew 17:17! Faith is a great thing! Therefore, the
great New Testament motto to the lost people is this: Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house." Acts 16:31 Churches are started by people who have faith: "And Crispus, the chief ruler of the
synagogue, believed on the Lord with all his house;
and many of the Corinthians hearing believed, and
were baptized." Acts 18:8 I hope you know of a Bible-believing church in your
area that is not afraid of preaching the book, the blood, and the
blessed hope. A church that is not afraid to preach against sin, to
preach Biblical standards, to encourage holiness, and to preach that
through faith alone we are saved by grace. That will challenge and
strengthen your faith when you have other believers around you. Iron
sharpeneth iron (Proverbs 27:17) and we ought to consider one another
and provoke each other to good works the closer we come to the Lord's
return. Hebrews 10:24,25. But why call it solid-rock-faith? Because Jesus Christ is the solid rock upon
which our faith is anchored. Because our faith needs to be rock-solid.
If you only have little faith, then I hope you'll pray for rock-solid
faith that will carry you through all the misfortune and trials of
life. There are too many fair-weather "Christians" with little to no
faith at all. When the trials of life come, they're gone. They're back
in the world and back in sin. They won't show up at church. They won't
pray, won't study, won't obey, won't separate themselves from sin, etc.
They've betrayed themselves and the Lord. Jesus Christ wants us to
build on solid rock and not on sand. Study Matthew 7:24-27. That's why
we didn't call this website "sandfaith.com" but "solidrockfaith.com".
Amen! Let us hear the sayings of the Lord and do them. Let us be
faithful. Faith without faithfulness is a contradiction in itself.
Impossible! Have you ever noticed that God is always likened to
a rock in the Bible? The Lord is my rock (Psalm 18:2). It takes
solid-rock-faith to be able to say that. The Bible says that "He is the
Rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment: a God of
truth and without iniquity, just and right is he." This is a wonderful
description of the nature of God in Deut. 32:4. In verse 15 of the same
chapter He is called the "Rock of salvation" and when Israel forsook
God it is written that they were unmindful of the "Rock that begat thee
... and hast forgotten God that formed thee." So the solid-rock-faith
is also a creationist faith. We believe God formed things. It won't
compromise with man's lies. 1. Cor. 10:4 tells us that the Rock of the
Old Testament was Christ! So we're talking about rock-solid faith in
Jesus Christ. Faith in His death, burial and resurrection! A good example of such rock-solid faith is Job. He
patiently endured his trials by faith and finally realized that the
Lord is pitiful and of tender mercy (James 5:11). Job lost all his
property, his family, his livelihood and finally his health. In such a
situation it takes solid-rock-faith to be able to say "What? shall we
receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?" Job
2:10. Job's wife did not have solid-rock-faith! She foolishly accused
God for all the evil that has happened to them. Rock-solid faith in
Jesus Christ won't do that! Solid-rock-faith will say along with Job:
"Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him." Job 13:15. This kind of
faith is not the fruit of mere Sunday-morning Christianity. This faith
is the fruit of yielding to God as an instrument of righteousness.
Sunday-morning Christianity will make you a cold and complacent
Christian. Don't ever think that you do God a service by coming to
church once a week on Sunday morning. The church rather does you a
service by feeding you the word of God, if it is a Bible-believing
church. If you study the "Hall of Faith" in Hebrews 11, do you think
Sunday-morning Christianity would fit somewhere in there? There you
will find the people who voluntarily refused the ungodly things, chose
to suffer with God's people rather than enjoy the fleeting pleasures of
sin, esteemed the reproach of Christ and were fearless of kings and
their commandment. The faith of the first Christians was fearless. When
they were told by the authorities to quit preaching in Jesus' name,
they went right on preaching. Read about it in Acts 4 and 5! Study the
behavior of that church. Solid-rock-faith looks forward to Christ's second
coming! It is the blessed hope (Titus 2:13). Solid-rock-faith does not
get desponded over the events in the last days. No, it rather looks up
and lifts up the head for our redemption draweth nigh. Luke 21:28. True
faith is not afraid or ashamed of Christ's coming. It is confident! 1.
John 2:28. So we are confident that the Lord is going to come and catch
up His bride, the church, to meet Him in the air. Those who are
faithless will be left behind at the rapture and face a gruesome time
of tribulation during which God will pour out his wrath. True faith
knows that we are not appointed to wrath, but to obtain salvation by
our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep,
we should live together with him. 1. Thess. 5:9,10. That is the comfort
that solid-rock-faith will bring. Little faith or faithlessness will
not bring that comfort. Now you know why I called this website after this unusual name. Where does your faith stand today? Can I be of any help to you? Feel free to contact me through our contact form. |
