======================================================================== FROM FAITH TO FAITH - PART 4 by Lance Lambert ======================================================================== Summary: Living faith is the key to overcoming difficult circumstances and trusting in God's power and presence in our lives. Duration: 1:13:20 Topics: "Faith And Victory", "Gods Power" Scripture References: Psalm 23:4, John 15:4, John 16:33, Romans 1:16-17 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ DESCRIPTION ------------------------------------------------------------------------ This sermon emphasizes the importance of living, active faith in overcoming challenges and tribulations. It highlights the need for believers to understand that God dwells within them, providing everything they need for victory. The message encourages a deep reliance on God's power and presence to navigate through life's storms and difficulties, ultimately leading to a life of overcoming through faith. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CONTENT ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Shall we turn to the passage we've been looking at in Romans, Roman Letter of the Apostle Paul chapter 1, and just these two verses 16 and 17, I am not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth to the Jew first and also to the Greek for therein is revealed a righteousness of God from faith unto faith as it is written but the righteous shall live by faith. I am not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth to the Jew first and also to the Greek for therein is revealed a righteousness of God from faith unto faith as it is written but the righteous shall live by faith. And then if you will turn to the gospel of John and chapter 16 and verse 33 these things have I spoken unto you that in me he may have peace in the world he hath tribulation but be of good cheer I have overcome the world. We are living in very troubled times, and we need you Lord, we need a living, daily experience experience of yourself. Lord, we want to thank you. You have provided an anointing for the speaking and the hearing. And into that anointing, we stand now by faith. Let the speaking be anointed. And let our hearing be anointed. And we shall be careful to give you all the worship and thanksgiving and praise of our hearts for answering this, our prayer. Which we ask in the name of the Messiah, our Lord Jesus. Well, I think you all know, at least those of you who've been with us in these few days, that we've been talking about what term, living, working, active faith. Not academic faith. Not theological faith. Not head faith. But living, active, working faith. The faith that is the gift of God. That living faith that brought us into his salvation. That caused us to be born again. We've also talked about the need to go on from faith to faith. It is meant to be an unending experience until we arrive in the presence of the Lord. Every step we take is by faith. The word of God says, walk by faith. But what do you do when you walk? I will show you, if I don't fall over. You walk by taking one step after another, after another, after another, after another. As you take those steps, you progress. What kind of believers are we? We are stuck at the point where we were converted. What do we mean? What do we understand? By walk by faith. Walk means you're moving. Walking means you're progressing. Walking means you are arriving. The gospel is utterly simple. I don't know what we've done with it theologically and academically. We have made it so involved, such a confusion. Shall I tell you something? It is an incredible thing when a person is born of God. It is a miracle, a divine miracle. It means that God, in all his power and all his grace, has broken into a human life and saved that life. If you believe that, nothing is impossible. Is there anything too hard for the Lord? Is there anything too difficult for the Lord? Is there any difficulty so involved that he cannot solve it? God brought down the walls of Jericho and they walked round them once a day for six days and seven times on the seventh day. Those walls seemed massive. And I can imagine the inhabitants of Jericho on the walls looking over them and watching this rag-taggle group that had got out of Egypt walking round and round once a day. No talking. That was so wise of the Lord. Because many of them would have said to one another, knowing the Jews, I am one, so I understand it. They would have been saying, these walls will never come down. Then they would have said things like, these walls are going to come down, why didn't they come down the first moment we began the walk? Six days we have to go round in the heat of Jericho. What's wrong with it? And seven times on the Sabbath. I call that work. We shouldn't be working on the Sabbath. But the moment they ended the seventh walk, with the blast of the shofar, the walls fell down. So it is with every child of God. So it is with every servant of the Lord. When you face impossibilities, listen to God. If he tells you to do something, if through his word the Holy Spirit enlightens you, obey. Obey to the last letter. Because the walls of Jericho are a small fry for God. There is nothing to him. He created the whole universe. And all the planets, the constellations, everything. He created you and me. He created all the animals in the forest, birds, reptiles, fish, everything. They came out of nothing. He spoke, and it was done. What's wrong with us? If God saved us by a divine miracle, there is nothing impossible with him. There is nothing in your life that he cannot deal with. Now he may leave some of those problems, you might wonder, forever. He doesn't rush to remove them. Because he's doing something in you. He is proving your faith. Whether it is pure gold, or whether it is academic, theological, something just to do with the head. The biggest problem we have is that most believers do not live the Christian life. They live the normal kind of life that they've got. It is not eternal life. It is not the Christian life. Let me put it another way. It is not the life of Christ. When the Lord saved you, a new life came into your being. The Bible calls it eternal life. It's not something you get when you die. So you have to wait for eternal life. One day you're going to have it. One day you will have it in fullness. But when you got saved, Jesus, who is the life, stepped into you. He became your Savior, your Lord, and your life. If we only understood it, we need eyes. The eyes of the heart to open. It would transform us. We would walk with the Lord. We would commune with the Lord. We would hear the Lord. Not with these physical ears, but with our spiritual. When you were born again, God put into your spirit a spiritual receiver. That receiver can hear the Lord. That receiver can receive what the Holy Spirit enlightens in this book. When you were born again, the Lord Jesus gave you spiritual eyes, eyes of your heart and your spirit. With those eyes, you see the Lord. Just as it says about Moses, he endured as seeing him who is invisible. The marvel of our salvation. The marvel of the new birth. It is the greatest miracle that God could have ever worked. It cost the Lord Jesus his life. But we treat it in some sort of almost contemptuous way. We have no idea what it cost God. Why then don't we live in the good of it? Whatever is wrong with us, what is wrong with us? As I've said in all these evenings past, J.M. Darby made a marvelous comment on this word, the just shall live by faith. He said, if you want to understand it, you have to understand it like this. The justified shall live on the principle of faith. Who is it, listen to me, who is it that has broken into your life? What was your life? Flesh and blood. That's all. When you die, you're from the dust, you go back to the dust. That's you. Then the almighty God broke into your life. He gave you understanding. He gave you a vision, as it were, of himself as the savior. And you trusted him. You received him. Do you know what you've done? Do you know that it was God, the Father, who was in the Messiah, reconciling the world unto himself? Did you ever realize that the Lord Jesus, at this moment, is enthroned at the right hand of the Father? Have you ever remembered the words of the psalm, most quoted psalm, in the New Testament? The Lord said to my Lord, sit thou at my right hand until I make your enemies the footstool of your feet. He said, let the sector of your strength, of your power, go forth from Zion. Roll thou in the midst of your enemies. When Jesus entered your heart by the Holy Spirit, the enthroned Christ came into you. So are you telling me that your circumstances are too difficult for him? Are you telling me that the relationships you have are far too difficult for you, and he can't cope with them, he's a thousand, thousand miles away? It's nonsensical. Have you been saved, or are you merely religious? Religious in a Christian way. Or do you realize that the enthroned Christ has linked you to himself? Do you remember what he said? I think they're the most amazing words. Abide in me, and I in you. So we abide in the enthroned Christ, and the enthroned Christ abides in us. Now tell me, is there anything too hard for the Lord? Is there anything too difficult for him? Are you the most extraordinary human being? You're too much for the Lord. He holds his head and says, Oh, what am I to do? So-and-so is impossible. Are you saved? Then listen. God, who said, I am that I am, is dwelling in you. Therefore, there is nothing in the whole world that he cannot do. Now all that is a preamble. I want to ask, what is overcoming? I want to talk this evening about overcoming and living faith. Without living, active, working faith, there is absolutely no overcoming. It is the one absolute necessary requisite to overcome. And God has already given you the faith. It is clear in the word of God. By grace have you been saved through faith and that of yourselves. It is the gift of God. So when the Lord broke into your life, he did everything. He not only died to save you, but he rose again that he might share his resurrection life in you. What is overcoming? Some people have got the idea that if you are an overcomer and you've got friends that are overcomers, it's an elitist, superior group of Christians who are right up there and we are down here. But every child of God is designed by their spiritual birth to be an overcomer. Overcomers are not perfect. They have besetting sins. They fail. Sometimes they fall. But then God picks them up and they go on. I once asked Brother Theodore Austin Sparks, what is overcoming? And he thought for a moment and he looked in the fire. It was in his home in Kilcregan in Scotland. He looked into the fire and then he looked at me and he said, overcoming is that you are in the center of God's will at the end of your human life. Perhaps some of you are shocked by that. But you don't know your Bible. You have a whole chapter devoted to people who by faith overcame. It's the Hebrew letter chapter 11. And when you look at some of these there's Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham. Abraham, as I said the other evening, Abraham lied. Oh my goodness, we would say, oh dear, dear, dear. Not once. Twice. It got him into a lot of trouble. And it was the Lord who got him out of the trouble. But he's an overcomer. Or you think of Moses. When he got so angry that he smacked the rod and broke it. And the Lord was so displeased he said you will not enter into the promised land. But when it came for Moses to die there is an extraordinary little word that you can only really understand in the Hebrew. The English translators couldn't understand it. So they said, they translated it and Moses died by the word of the Lord. But in the Hebrew it says but Moses died on the lips of the Lord. And the rabbis say God loved him so much that when it came for him to go he kissed him and he died. It's not only Moses. There are many others. They've all had their families. David he murdered a faithful soldier in his employ in order to obtain that man's wife. Yet David incredibly was restored and the most extraordinary thing of all was that Bathsheba's two sons are both in the pedigree of the Messiah. Well not Solomon but Nathan. I've got it wrong but it's still you can check it yourself. Read through Hebrews 11 you'll find it's all there. What about all the others? What about Samson? Good gracious. I would think that Samson would be run out of every Christian church and assembly that I know. They wouldn't have anything to do with him. He was disgusting. But he's there. It was Samson who in his death by faith brought down the whole temple on the Philistines. And himself. So overcomers are not perfect. They are not without any failing. Without any blemishes. Now I don't know how that helps you. It helps me. I think I thank God. God is in the business of straightening every one of us out. And it may take him a long time to do it. And that's why sometimes we have difficult relationships that we have to suffer. Or we have difficult circumstances we have to suffer. It is through many tribulations we enter the kingdom of God. Now sometimes those tribulations are not anything to do with our faults and failing. But there are other times when we bring a lot of tribulation on ourselves by our own works, our own doings and failings. This means that every person here who is born of God is meant to be and designed to be an overcomer. Isn't it amazing what the Lord Jesus said? He said, In the world you shall have tribulation. Well, we know that. But in me you have peace. I think we know that too. Then he said, But be of good cheer. I have overcome the world. When I first read the Bible, when I was 13, thereabouts, 13, 13 and a half, I'd never ever read the Bible. I'd never been in a church or a synagogue. I knew nothing. I remember a wonderful old school teacher, she was the head mistress, who I believe now I look back must have been a believer. And every day she knelt on the floor, on the wooden floor, and prayed to God and made us all kneel. And I used to think what is happening? Who is she talking to? I remember when I was in middle school, there was a woman headmistress. I remember now she must have been a believer because every day she knelt down and asked us to kneel together and she prayed to God. But it is, I think, amazing how the Lord leads us. So, it was a shock to me when I, nobody ever gave me a Bible because they all thought every person who lived in England must have a Bible somewhere. So no one said do you have a Bible? So I had no Bible. But I had a little Gospel of John just about that size and I read it and read it and read it until it fell to pieces. And to this day the Gospel of John is written in my heart. But I remember the first time I read these words In the world you shall have tribulation but in me you shall have peace but be of good cheer I have overcome the world I thought that was a terrible thing for the Lord to say as he was saying no matter about you I have overcome the world so much for you Now I understand what the Lord was saying what he was saying was this if I am in you I am the overcomer and I will make you an overcomer by my indwelling Now isn't that tremendous? Just think in your poor little body the Lord Jesus dwells and he is the overcomer so he is really saying in this verse you may feel perfectly hopeless but be of good cheer I have overcome the world and where am I? I am in you Now I don't know our dear friends across the border in America speak the most incredible English sometimes it's very difficult for us sometimes to understand I don't know about you on this side of the border but I wonder if you've ever seen those things that sit in the sea the Americans call them buoys how they ever got that I'll never know B-U-O-Y now I don't know if in Canadian English you say buoys we in English English say boys you tie boats up to buoys and those buoys it doesn't matter how rough the waves are they always come out on top in America they have some buoys so you tie the boats to those buoys no matter how rough the waves are those buoys are all buoyed their design is able to overcome sometimes they go into the water you can't see them but they come up they go down again but they come up it's their nature to be on top it is their nature they're designed to overcome dear child of God you have been designed to overcome and this is not of yourself it is because the one who is the overcomer is dwelling in you now that's why you need living faith if you try to face those problems and difficulties yourself you become depressed you begin to sink you feel hopeless but if there is living faith it joins you to the Lord Jesus and He is the overcomer there is nothing too difficult for Him I say it again and again and again Jesus said sorry God the Father said I am when Moses said what is your name He said I am that I am I remember a little old Irishman who was one of the greatest evangelists I have ever seen he only came up to this height he had a wonderful stomach which I'm in the process of losing he had a wonderful stomach and when he preached he put his little Bible on the stomach and he would flip the pages over as he read whatever it was his name was Johnny Cochran to this day there are people all over Ireland especially the south that came to the Lord through him and they have stood and grown Johnny Cochran used to come with his fellow worker to Halford House and we would always ask him to preach it was always an experience to hear him preach when he was saved through W.P. Nicholson another Irish evangelist he couldn't read or write although he was twenty years of age but when he got saved he taught himself to read and write so that he could read the Bible I shall never forget one Sunday morning at the Lord's table he opened his Bible resting on his stomach and read this passage from the burning bush when God said I am that I am and he said I have heard many wonderful sermons on this verse but they have all left me cold the greatness of the Lord the sovereignty of the Lord the power of the Lord but he said it was very helpful but what about me the life I'm living and so he asked the Lord why did you call yourself I am and God said to him Johnny I am a blank check fill in whatever you need do you need power I am your power do you need resurrection life I am do you need wisdom I am wisdom do you need grace I am grace what do you need fill it in I learnt more from that one message than from many many others God who is the great I am is everything you need he will be it in Christ in the Messiah he is everything think blessed with every spiritual blessing where in the Messiah Jesus every need met where and God shall meet every need of yours in Christ Jesus do you need fullness I am your fullness the fullness of God dwelleth in the Lord Jesus and you are complete in him you see once you get hold of this you begin to understand overcoming now don't look at me in a depressed way but think for a moment no wonder the Lord brings us into difficulties no wonder the Lord gives us problems we are so lazy we want him to just cuddle us the whole time up and down give us little toys to play with cuddle and all the rest of it that's what we want the Christians we want to be molly cuddled till at last we come into his presence the Lord loves us so much he will not allow it so he says no you're going to have a difficulty and if you're the kind of person who can get over the difficulty easiest I will give you a very great difficulty so into our life come all kinds of circumstances all kinds of problems and all kinds of difficult people now the Lord says can you overcome what is the honest answer no I cannot overcome but you are the overcomer in me in this difficulty in these difficult circumstances in these difficult relationships and you will do something in me through them and through me maybe you will touch the difficulties all the difficult people is this not amazing the Lord loves us so much that he won't allow us to daydream he brings these tribulations so that we are driven into the Lord so dear child of God overcoming is for every believer but without living working active faith there is no overcoming it is that kind of faith which is the gift of God which joins you to the risen Messiah and joins him to you by the Holy Spirit and enables you to come out on top then you will hear those words well done thou good and faithful servant I must end I say that every time don't I go on for a little longer I must end I find these pews very difficult to sit on for too long I think pews are designed to torture stop you from going to sleep and sort of help you in the old days it was the collection that they wanted you to keep awake for but nevertheless that's another thing here we come to something when you read your gospels carefully there are two events on the sea both of them to do with the Lord Jesus and the disciples the first you all know very well Jesus told them to get into the boat because they were going to go over to the other side of the lake of Galilee and then he got on the boat and it's very interesting it says expressly in the record he went immediately to the stern lay down and fell fast asleep personally I believe it was deliberate I don't everyone says these lovely words about oh he was this is his humanity he was worn out poor man he got touched on the boat went straight to the back of it put his head down and fell fast asleep this shows how human the Lord Jesus the Lord Jesus was wearing his humanity he was too tired so as soon as he got on the boat he went to sleep it may be true but I don't think so I think the Lord Jesus deliberately went to sleep he couldn't possibly faked sleep so then they took the boat out and a colossal storm hit the boat the disciples was were all bailing out the water as quickly as it came into the waves and finally they went to the Lord and shook him and said don't you care we're about to drown and when they and when the and when the Lord saw the panic in them all not one not just a few but all of them he stood up and said and immediately the storm ceased it makes me think that the Lord deliberately faked sleep because of the way he's ended the storm then they all said who who is this that even the stormy winds and waves obey him that's a tremendous thing when the Lord stops the storm in your life with a word what have you learned a very real lesson he is all powerful he only has to speak the word and immediately it happens the second is even more interesting this time the Lord Jesus ushered them all into the boat and said I'm not coming with you you go over to the other side while I send all the multitudes away you go over to the other side and I'll go right around the lake and I'll meet you on the other side and off they went a huge storm hit them they were terrified no Jesus then suddenly someone said his spirit walking on the waves so they all gathered and looked he's a ghost they said that made them all afraid they thought that the spirits would come they would all be drowned and the spirits were waiting for them and then Peter said do you know I think that's the Lord no said the other yes I think it's the Lord and so he said Jesus through the wind and through the sound of the waves is it you and the voice came back yes it's me then Peter said tell me to come to you and Jesus said one word come Peter had never been to a bible school or a theological seminary to learn the six steps of how to walk on water without thinking he saw the Lord he heard the Lord he clambered over the boat onto the water and began to walk towards Jesus at some point a wave a great wave came between him and Jesus he lost sight of him the gale was so strong he couldn't hear the Lord's voice and he began to sink and Jesus was there in an instant now this is my little heresy what do you think was the greatest to learn how he could stop a storm or to learn how to walk on it and through it I say by far the greatest lesson was to learn how to walk through a storm to walk through it with Jesus in a storm now you may never ask me again because of what I've said about these two stories but let me say just to enforce it I think in the first case if the boat had only gone down sunk and all the disciples were floundering in the water Jesus would have said he would have been there follow me and they would have all fallen but they were so panicked so the Lord had to stop the storm same with us often he stops the storm because we panic so much with the side out of our mind sometimes Jesus has to stop the storm because we are so afraid you know when we go through the greatest storm and we go through this storm this is the greatest lesson all believers need to learn do you remember that beautiful little psalm that when David was just in his teens he wrote it the Lord is my shepherd I shall not want he leads me but then he says not only still waters not only green pastures not only in the sheep tracks of righteousness he says though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil for thou art with me thy rod and thy staff comfort me now dear brother sister you cannot have a shadow without light so that valley of death was what the Lord called the valley of the shadow of death there was the light of his presence casting a shadow and what a wonderful thing it is to say your rod and your staff comfort me your authority your strength your protection means everything to me dear child of God you and I are meant to be overcomers every single thing we need has been made available where in the Lord Jesus in the Lord Jesus do you need grace he is it do you need power he is it do you need the ability to die in a situation he will give it do you need wisdom he will be it do you need life he is it everything you could possibly need God has given you in the Messiah and even more amazing he cares for you he will not lose you in his great prayer in John's gospel he says everyone you gave me except one I have kept I think that's exactly what the Lord Jesus says of you and me I've kept you I will keep you but you see you and I need living faith that's the problem when we have this living faith it joins us to the world in one sense it joins us to his word it enables us to do the unbelievable to work the impossible that is living faith the justified shall live on the principle of faith there is nothing else and that faith is the gift of God and it belongs to you use it use it again and again and again thank you let's pray Lord your word has taught us to be overcome for this is your will Lord keep us till the end that we indeed will live by your word each step we live by the Lord we pray in the name of our Lord Jesus amen Brother Lance will be leaving tomorrow morning going through Boston and then he will go to England he has promised that if the Lord will him he will be coming to us again next fall we will all continue to pray for our Lord our brother ======================================================================== Video: https://sermonindex2.b-cdn.net/K7bUg6gF-Ro.mp4 Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/lance-lambert/from-faith-to-faith-part-4/ ========================================================================