Measure of Faith
Rom.12:1-3 KJV “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of
God, that Ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God,
which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye
transformed by the renewing of your mind that ye may prove what is that good and
acceptable, and perfect, will of God. For I say, through the grace given unto me,
to every man that is among you, not to think more highly of himself than he ought
to think; but to think soberly, according as God has dealt to every man the measure
of faith.”
What have the forces of evil in this world done to the
measure of faith which God has promised anyone who trusts Him?
They who are opposed to the Lord’s will would have you believe
they have destroyed faith. Thoreau said over 100 years ago that the
Bible would be replaced in people’s homes in a short time. He was
wrong. While the influence of God’s Word has lessened, there is
still a great number of people who believe that the King James
bible is the word of God.
We who are in that number realize that we are a small group,
and yet that fact never blurs the truth. In 1974, coming face to face
with the question, “where is the word of God?” I was forced to
either accept some so called expert or study for myself this faithdriven
issue. After considering that I was not going to be able to
take these “experts” with me when I faced the Lord, I decided to
check out as many versions of the Bible as I could. When I really,
really compared the versions, the unmistakable conclusion is that
the King James Version is how God wanted His word said in
English.
Which brings me to the 21st century distracters. Satan’s plan
of replacing the Bible with naturalism or existentialism having
failed, the world’s system turned to “improving” the word. In an
attempt to convince people that the old KJV was archaic, the
publishers found dozens of new translations to publish. To date,
there have been around 50 “new” bibles in the 20th century; So,
King James believers examined these new bibles and found what
was missing, what was mistranslated, in short, the errors. And the
KJV lives on.
Why? Because when one believes, studies, rightly divides,
and applies the KJV, he has a power in his words and message that
cannot be withstood. Unbelievers get away. Believers get saved
and understand. It is not the messenger’s power, but the power of
the words of life. The world cannot understand because the world
is faithless. But faith is the key to our relationship with our
Heavenly Father. Not our ability to learn; not our emotional
outpouring....but faith. So let’s examine faith from whence it comes,
the Word of God, the King James Version bible.
Because we are weak in the flesh; and because we really
don’t like to admit that; the Lord determined by His own counsel
that mankind cannot, shall not, will not bring about their own
salvation. The Lord Jesus Christ took upon Himself “...the form of
a servant..”, humbled Himself, taking on the sin/sins of proud and
haughty mankind on the cross; died because of these putrefies;
suffered the payment, that awful three days(or some portion
thereof) in hell and paid the cost of all of mankind’s sins for them.
(Rom.5:6,8,10,11)(Rom.4:24,25)(1Cor.15:3,4)(Eph.1:12,13,14)
With all the words spoken about faith by our Lord while on
earth, He then took the highest form of faith to a new high; He died
for our sins believing that He would be raised from the dead.
Believing the Father in all things. Our justification comes by that
faith, His faith, and there are 7 verses of scripture to show that:
ROM.3:22; GAL.2:16(twice); GAL.2:20; GAL.3:22, Eph.3:12;
PHI.3:9
The Bible definition of faith is clearly found in Heb.11.1;
“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of
things not seen.” Equally as clearly, then, is an opposite definition
of doubt found in Rom.14:23; “and he that doubteth is damned if
he...”(whatever).
If one attempted to have faith in a thing or a person, he
would base his attempt on what he heard, saw, or inherently knew
about the object of his faith. Therefore, if influences other than
those which are positive toward the object of his faith comes his
way, doubt in the validity of his faith is formed. One of the greatest
causes of this happening-this negative influence-is individual pride
in one’s own ability to discern how to have faith and in what or
whom to put this faith. Jesus never carried this pride in His earthly
life. His reliance was solely on the Father. Therefore, when they
would have made Him their king, He withdrew. When Peter would
have prevented His death, He said, “Get thee behind me, Satan” to
Peter. And, when facing the council and Pilate, He opened not His
mouth in any attempt to stop the prophecy of His death, burial, and
resurrection being carried out--full and utter faith in the Father!
Now the new versions of the Bible(every one of them)
remove the full and utter faith which Jesus Christ exhibited by
simply changing a two letter word--of-- to another two letter
word--in. Those seven passages above say “faith in Christ”
instead of the “faith of Christ” in all the new versions. Subtle,
huh? The devil wants people to believe something different for
salvation than what the Lord wants people to believe. Interestingly,
the translators of modern versions have to make that change
themselves. For even their corrupt Greek text(Nestles) agrees with
the KJV and the Textus Receptus(TR)
Folks, that requires having a different agenda. If a
translator(s) won’t follow either available Greek text, but rather,
puts in his own interpretation, he has become, not a translator, but
an interpreter. He should in all honesty present himself as such and
not as he actually does. What, then, is this agenda? It is the same
one that Thoreau and the existentialists of the last century had--
replace God’s Word with man’s view and get people attempting to
save themselves for the next life, etc.
How then do we fight this fight of faith?(1Tim.6:12) We take
a stand for the real word of God. Where is it? They all say
something different, what shall we do? Try the following, it won’t
take long:
1. Believe that God has preserved His word for us as He
promised in Ps.12:6 and magnified it above even His name as He
said in Ps.138:2.
2. Study in obedience to 2Tim.2:15
3. Compare versions, all of them you can find. When doing
this, do not worry about understanding so much as the words used
and word changes, missing verses, the name of Christ being
diminished or removed, and the humanizing of the doctrine of God.
4. Expect the Lord to show you His will and His truth. He
will.
“But without faith it is impossible to please God: for he that
cometh to him must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder
of them that diligently seek him” Heb.11:6
Jerry Lockhart
Berean Bible Church
888 Landa St.
New Braunfels, Tx. 78130
830-620-4704 www.graceforall.net
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