The Master‘s Class, LifeChange Church Wichita

A DYNAMIC LIFE OF FAITH-PART I (Hebrews 11:8-13)

Charles Haddon Spurgeon said, “Little faith will bring your soul to heaven, but great faith will bring heaven to your soul.” How would you like to have great faith?  If you are a Christ follower, then I trust that you do.  When you came to Jesus Christ, God enrolled you in the School of Faith. Life is the classroom, the Bible is the textbook, the prophets and the apostles are the professors, and Abraham would have to be the Dean in the School of Faith.

Our message today is on the dynamic life of faith that Abraham led.  Hebrews 11:6 says, “Without faith, it is impossible to please God.”  This means that if you want to please God, then you must have faith.  If you please God, then it doesn’t matter whom you displease, and if you displease God, then it doesn’t matter whom you please.  There is no way to please God without faith.

Do you want to serve God?  Then, your chief duty is to believe Him. The supreme evil is unbelief. Unbelief is the source of all other sins.  Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden because they did not believe the Word of God that had been given to them. The Christian life, according to Hebrews 10:38, is to be lived by faith. The Bible says, “The just shall live by faith.” 

Now, I am telling you as clearly as I can that without faith it is impossible to please God. You will never, ever, succeed in your Christian life without believing God.  Not just in God, but God’s Word collectively in the Bible, and God’s Word that He has given personally to you.  

Click on the link below to hear a message on how to have a dynamic life of faith that pleases God.

This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.

Amen.

NOAH’S UNSINKABLE FAITH (Hebrews 11:7)

God tells us in the Bible that “faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”  This means that without a word from God on a matter, you cannot, you have no basis, for a Biblical faith. Faith is not a leap in the dark.  It is a step into God’s light.  You must hear from God.  Faith is not name it and claim it. The Bible is clear that You believe it and receive it, because God has named it, and you claim it. Now, that’s very important. You do not name it and claim it. You believe it and receive it, because God has named it, and you claim it. God does the naming. You do the claiming.

The Biblical word “hope” does not mean maybe, perhaps, or I wish. But hope means bedrock assurance. The Bible calls hope an anchor of the soul. It is solid, and the word “substance” or sub-stand means something beneath us that we can stand upon. Where do you get this assurance, this bedrock assurance, called hope? From the Word of God. God speaks.

Did you know that God speaks today? God has His written Word once and for all, settled. But then, God speaks to your own personal heart, and when God speaks to your heart personally, you have a rhema from God, that’s when you find faith growing in your heart and in your life.  You have to hear from God in order to have faith.  It is not just of God that you need to hear about, it is from God that you need hear.  You hear God. In order to believe Him, you don’t just hear about Him; you hear Him.

The apostle Paul says in 2 Tim 1:12, “I know whom I have believed.” He didn’t say, “I know in whom I have believed.”  Paul said that I have believed Him.  I heard from God, and I believed what He said to me.  Faith is believing God when He speaks personally to you. You must have faith that hears God.

Click on the link below to hear a message on how to have an unsinkable faith in God.

This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.

Amen.

HOW TO WALK WITH GOD (Hebrews 11:5-6)

The Bible tells us that we are to walk humbly with thy God, and it also says that the only way to walk with God is to be in agreement with God.  Agreement about what?  Agreement about how we live a life of faith in obedience with God’s will for our lives.  Now, it takes faith to walk with God. To walk with God, the first step is the step of faith.

So where do we get this faith?  God tells us that our faith cometh by hearing, and what we hear is the Word of God. You cannot have faith without hearing from God. You cannot. You must personally hear from God. God is speaking to you personally. God is speaking to you intimately. It may be through His Spirit, it may be through the Bible, but God has spoken to you.  For example, the Scripture you read will have a specific meaning to you.  It is personal.  Now, you’ll never walk with God, you’ll never have faith, until you hear, personally, from God. 

Why did God save you? Why did Jesus Christ step out of the glory, come to this earth, bathe this world with His blood—why are you redeemed? Why are you here today? Well, you ask the average person, why did God save you? And they’ll say, “To serve Him.” Listen, if God had wanted servants, He could have gotten a lot better people than us. Angels will serve Him much more obediently than we do. Angels are perfect servants, if servants are what He wanted. God is not looking for servants. God is looking for men, women, boys, and girls who will walk with Him, who know Him intimately.

Click on the link below to hear a message on how to walk with God.  How to have a life of faith that is so rich, so strong, so true, so God-centered, that you will be able to say Jesus Christ is a bright, living reality to me, and I walk with Him, and I talk with Him, and He tells me I am His own; and the voice I hear falling on my ear is His voice.

This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.

Amen.

ABEL’S SERMON ON FAITH (Hebrews 11:4)

In today’s message we will be talking about Abel.  You may not know it, but Abel was a prophet of God, and today we will be discussing his message on faith.  The central theme of the entire 11th chapter of the book of Hebrews is that God is to be worshiped, and if God is to be worshiped, then He must be worshiped in Spirit and in truth. 

The key to Abel’s sermon on faith is that there are only two religions in the entire world: the true and the false.  That may seem narrow to you, but that’s what this message is all about. There is the religion of grace and the religion of works. There is the religion of Cain, and there is the religion of Abel.

What is the way of Cain? It is to try to save yourself by your own good works rather than by the grace of God. It represents culture rather than Calvary. Most of the people in this world don’t need religion. They need to turn from religion to Jesus Christ. Most of the people in this world are egomaniacs strutting to hell, thinking they are too good to be damned.  They believe that modern man is good.  Yet, the Bible says that man is not good, and the news is not modern. It’s as old as the book of Genesis, and it is good news for bad man.  It is the gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. It is not salvation by works. Religion is what sinful people do for a holy God. The gospel is the good news of what a holy God has already done for sinful man.

The difference between Cain and Abel is the difference between righteousness and unrighteousness.

Click on the link below to hear a message on how we need to lay our pride and our good works in the dust, and trust Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior.  

This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.

Amen.

THE ONLY WAY TO LIVE-PART II (Hebrews 10:38 to 11:6)

Life is a journey. We are headed somewhere, and it is not a casual journey. It is a race.  The life of faith, the only way to live, is a life that has a destination. It is like a race. It has a goal. Now, faith helps us to find that goal, which is the will of God.  Do you know what life is all about? It is to find, to follow, and to finish the will of God. That is the destination of faith. That is what faith is all about.

God tells us “Looking unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith.”—looking unto Jesus.  This is telling us something very important.  It is not great faith in God that you need. Oh, we all want great faith in God. But that’s a by-product.  It is not great faith in God that you need.  It is faith, in a great God.  It is faith in a great God. 

Do you know what faith is? It is the by-product of looking unto Jesus, who is the author and the finisher of our faith. He’s the Alpha, the Omega. He’s the one that fires the gun. He’s the goal to which we run. He is the coach that coaches us as we run. Put your eyes upon Jesus Christ.

Click on the link below to hear a message on how to live a life of faith.  You will not live without faith.  The question you need to ask is, do you know Jesus?  You can exist without faith, but you will never live without faith. Jesus said, “I’ve come that you might have life.” You put your faith where God has put your sins: on Jesus Christ.

This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.

Amen.

THE ONLY WAY TO LIVE-PART I (Hebrews 10:38 to 11_6)

How to live a life of faith.  We live in an age where we have a lot of people who are called stars, these so-called movie stars.  We have a lot of people who are called idols, these so-called sports idols. In my humble opinion, we have too many stars, and too many idols, and not enough heroes. I’m going to be talking to you today about heroes, Bible heroes.  

Faith is a confidence that rests in hope. It is not a will-of-the-wisp sort of a thing. It is substance.  When we live by faith, it’s not smoke and mirrors.  There is, substance, there is confidence that rests in hope.  The word “hope” doesn’t mean perhaps. Nor does it even mean wish. Nor does it mean desire. The word “hope,” in the Bible, means “rock-ribbed assurance based on divine revelation.”  For example, the Second Coming of Jesus is called the what? The blessed hope.  Now, is that the blessed maybe? No. It is rock-ribbed assurance based on the promises of the Word of God.  Jesus Christ is coming again, and that is our blessed hope, our rock-ribbed assurance based on divine revelation.

Faith, therefore, is the title deed, the confidence, that what God has said is true, and God will perform it. There is no legitimate faith without hope. And there is no legitimate hope without faith. These cannot be separated. Faith is the substance of things hoped for. Faith enables the believing soul to treat the future as present, and the invisible as seen.  

Click on the link below to hear a message on how the Bible says that you are to live by faith, by a confidence that rests in hope.

This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.

Amen.

PATIENCE (Hebrews 10:32-37)

In today’s message we are going to be talking about patience.  Oh my, how many times have you heard the saying “Don’t ever pray for God to teach you patience, because He certainly will.”  Patience.  The Bible actually has a lot to say about patience.

Heb 10:36
36 For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise.
KJV

There is not a one of us that does not need patience.  Now, let me tell you something “With God, timing is more important than time.” So many of us, we want it, and we want it now.  We want instant credit.  We want instant food. Why do you think the fast food industry is so big?  Because we want what we want, and we want it now.  We want instant service everywhere we go.  Nobody likes standing in line waiting on the things we need.  We want instant gratification.  Tomorrow is almost a dirty word in today’s vocabulary. Yet, so many times, with God, there is a time of waiting between asking and receiving. 

The Bible tells us that, if we know the Lord Jesus Christ, our standard of living may change, but our standard of life will not.  You have need of patience, that you might inherit the promises of God.  

Click on the link below to hear a message on how to develop patience in your life as you look forward to receiving the promises of God.  First, remember yesterday’s provision. He saw you through then; He’ll see you through again.  Second, resolve today’s patience—not just hunkering down. Remember, it is not patience that solemnly waits in the dark; it is patience that gloriously anticipates the dawn. And then, rest in tomorrow’s promise: “though it tarry, it will come.”  Get a hold of the Word of God and never, never, never let it go. 

This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.

Amen.

WORSHIPING TOGETHER (Hebrews 10:19-25)

WORSHIPING TOGETHER (Hebrews 10:19-25)

The church in the 21st century has a genuine problem, and the problem is lagging and sagging church attendance.  Now, without a doubt some of this has been caused by the Covid pandemic.  In fact, it is still having an impact today, as there are those who have serious medical conditions that prevent them from being in large groups of people.  Nor is that the only reason people stay away from church, and I am not condemning anyone who is providentially hindered from being in our worship services.  But, our message today is about why attending a worship service with other believers is incredibly important to you as a believer, and to the other members who attend with you.  

People today have the idea that perhaps they’re doing God a favor when they come to church for a worship service.  I think one of the tragedies of this age in which we live is that there are so many who claim to know and love the Lord Jesus Christ, and yet they do not regularly attend the Bible study and worship services of their local church.  Yet the Bible teaches if you willingly forsake the assembling of yourself together, then you cannot claim to be true to Jesus Christ, if you willingly do that. Jesus Christ and the Church are not identical, but they are inseparable.

We need one another. We owe to one another a fearful loyalty in these days, to exhort and fire up one another. These are wicked days, lascivious days, evil days, and all kinds of mayhem and wickedness are in the world. That’s all the more reason we need to be faithful and loyal to our local church that God has given to us, and we must keep her lights burning brightly on Sunday and Wednesday. 

Click on the link below to hear a message on why attending worship services together as a body is not only a privilege, it is our solemn duty.

This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.

Amen.

THE POWER OF THE BLOOD (Hebrews 9:22)

There is within the Bible a scarlet cord that runs through the entire Bible, that highway of blood that we find from Genesis to Revelation. It is important for us to understand that Calvary was not an accident, and it was not an incident. It is not something that happened as an afterthought.  In Rev. 13:8 God tells us “the Lamb was slain before the foundation of the world,” which means that before God flung this world into space, before God scooped out the seas, and heaped up the mountains, and flung out the sun, moon, and stars, before all of that, before anything was that is, God had Calvary in His heart and mind. And Christ was slain in the heart and mind of God from the foundation of the world.

As you look through the entire Bible you will see the shedding of Christ’s blood as the sacrifice for our sins in picture, illustration, and typology.  God tells the same story with Adam and Eve, Noah, and then with Abraham, and with all of the sacrifices over thousands of years required under the Mosaic Law.  Yet, God tells us that none of these sacrifices were enough to make the people who offered them redeemed.  There had to be something more, for it was man who brought sin into the world, and so it would have to be a man who sacrificed His own life and shed His own blood.  Yet, it could not be just any man, it had to be the blood of the sinless, spotless, Lamb of God, Jesus Christ.  

If you’re an unsaved person, then you need to listen very carefully to this message because God put dark Calvary with its blood-drenched slopes, and with its uplifted cross, there as a roadblock to keep you out of hell.  And if you’re a saved person, then you need to listen because when you understand what Jesus Christ did to redeem you, to buy you, Oh, how you ought to love Him all the more.

Click on the link below to hear a message on the power of the saving blood of Jesus Christ.

This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.

Amen.

NOTHING BUT THE BLOOD (Hebrews 9:22)

Today our message is going to be on the wonderful, God blessed, subject of “Nothing but the Blood.”  Someone has said that you can cut the Bible in any place, and it will bleed because the Bible tells the story of what Jesus Christ did for you and me.  This is one of my favorite topics to teach on, because this precious blood of Christ is the reason that I have eternal life with my Lord and Savior in Heaven.  I honestly cannot think of a more important message to teach than this, Nothing but the Blood.

Actually, there are three cords that run through the Bible. One is a somber cord, a dark cord of sin and shame and degradation. The Bible teaches us about the sinfulness of man. The other is a bright, scarlet-red cord of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. From Genesis to Revelation, the Bible is a book about blood. And then there’s a golden cord that speaks of the second coming of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ which tells how He is going to rule and reign forever. The dark cord of sin, the red cord of redemption, and the gold cord of His Second Coming in glory. What a joy it is to read the Bible and find all of those things.  

Actually, the four ingredients of a great church are these: the book, the blood, the birth, and the blessed hope. That is what makes a great church. Those are the things that we just have to keep on preaching over and over again: the book, God’s holy Word; the blood, the sacrificial blood atonement of the Lord Jesus; the birth, the necessity of a new birth, to be a twice-born person; and the blessed hope that Jesus is actually, literally, visibly, bodily, coming back to this earth one of these days.

Click on the link below to hear a message on the prophecy and the provision of the saving blood of Jesus Christ.

This is a live recording of The Master’s Class Bible Study at LifeChange Church Wichita, KS.

Amen.