Confession #2i
We're going to continue teaching on the subject called " God's Laws of Faith and Confession." I just want to quickly go over the few things that we covered last time because it ties and with the rest of the message.
I) If you have your Bibles with you turn with me to Mark 4:14.
A) The seed that the man is sowing is words.
1) And we know from this parable that Jesus is talking about the Word of God.
a) In (1st Peter 1:23) the Bible refers to the Word of God as being the incorruptible seed.
b) If there is an incorruptible seed then there is a corruptible seed.
(i) Every negative Word or every word that is and contrary to the Word of God is a corruptible seed.
(ii) That means that every word we speak is a seed.
2) Look at Mark 4:15.
a) There's many things that we can get out of this verse, but what I wanted you to see is that the Word is sown in the heart.
b) Turn over to Romans 10:8.
(i) This verse tells us 3 things.
(ii) 1st it says that the Word of God is in your mouth.
(iii) 2nd it says that the Word of God is in your mouth and in your heart.
(iv) And 3rd it tells me, through this verse and other references we've already covered, of the importance of us putting the Word of God in our mouth so that it will be in our heart.
II) Speaking the Word of God does several things.
A) When you speak the Word of God out of your mouth, then you are planting seeds.
1) And the more you speak the Word, the more you believe it. The more you believe it, the more you speak it.
2) 2COR 4:13.
a) I like it how t NIV puts it (2COR 4:13). It is written: “I believed; therefore I have spoken.” With that same spirit of faith we also believe and therefore speak, (NIV)
(i) Paul said, “We also believe, and therefore speak;” (KJV)
b) To say it one more time, “What you believe, you will speak. If you believe the Word, you will speak it. If you speak it, you will believe it, and if you believe it you’ll speak it.
(i) This is God’s cycle for producing faith as well as planting seed for harvest.
(ii) This is the way that you get the process going. It’s in your mouth and it’s in your heart.
B) Jesus said in (MAR 4:26) That the kingdom of God, is as if a man should cast seed into the ground; (KJV)
1) You need to understand this that God is not sowing seed for you.
a) He said a man should cast seed into the ground.
b) Your harvest depends on your seeds sown.
2) The earth does not produce anything good to eat by itself. You have to force it to produce things good to eat.
a) Otherwise, all you will get are weeds.
b) You have to do the planting of good seed.
3) There are times that we have unwanted seeds.
a) Unwanted seeds are statements of doubt and unbelief.
b) Things like, “Everything I do ends up a mess.”
(i) “Everything I do turns out bad.” Or, “It’s flu seasons. I’ll probably catch it.”
III) When Adam and Eve were created they were placed in the Garden of Eden. It supplied them with everything they needed.
A) But Adam sold out to Satan, and Satan became the God of This World.
1) Through the work of Jesus we can now have God’s best again.
2) The born again spirit, which God has placed on the inside of you, is a garden, which will produce everything you need in this life.
a) 1COR 3:9.
b) The word “husbandry” means “Field or Garden.”
c) You are God’s garden and that garden will produce everything that you will need.
B) (GEN 2:15) And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the Garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. (KJV)
1) The words “dress it” means “to work it, labour over it, to till it.”
2) And the words “Keep it” means to “guard it, protect it, and to attend to it.”
a) The Lord is telling us to labour over and till our heart, to keep it, guard it, protect it, and to attend to it.
b) To speak out things like, “Everything that I do is a failure,” is planting the wrong seeds in that garden.
3) PSA 141:3.
a) We need to guard our heart.
b) Don’t let the things that are contrary to the Word of God come out of our lips, but speak the Word of God.
IV) MARK 4:26-29.
A) In this passage of scripture Jesus is telling us that you are t one that is planting t seed.
1) That's why you need to take God's Word & put it in your mouth.
2) When you speak it, it becomes a seed, it goes into t heart - t human spirit - & there it begins to grow & produce.
B) Notice that Jesus said, in (MAR 4:28) "For the earth (t heart of man) bringeth forth fruit of herself; first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear."
1) We know that t word "earth" in (V 28) is t heart of man or his spirit because of what Jesus said in V 15. (Look at it).
a) The last part of that V says that "The word that was sown in their hearts."
b) So again Jesus is saying in V 28 that, "For the earth (t heart of man) bringeth forth fruit of herself; first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear."
2) Sometimes people give up before t harvest.
a) Probably all of us have done that & don't even know it.
b) There is such power in words that you may have said something that stopped t growth process.
c) (MAR 11:23) For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith.
(i) This is a law of Faith.
(ii) Let me put that V. little clearer to you. "Whosoever shall say, shall believe, & shall not doubt in his heart, but believes what he says will come to pass, he shall have whatsoever he says."
(iii) That's how it works.
d) Some people think, "It's going to happen just because I say it.
(i) But it won't happen just because you say it.
(ii) People get a hold of (MARK 11:23) and run off into left field with it.
3) It won't work just because you say it. But saying it is involved in working it. (Repeat).
a) One of t key points that (MARK 11:23) makes is that when you confess t Word, you must believe it in your heart & not doubt.
b) Faith is very much involved in confessing t Word.
V) Turn to GEN 1. In this chapter we see something that is called t law of Genesis. This is something that God put into existence in t book of Genesis & it is still so today.
A) This law that God put into motion is the law of seed time and harvest.
1) GEN 1:11-12.
2) Now look at GEN 8:20-22.
a) God says that this is t method He has chosen for this planet, & it will be that way as long as this planet is in existence.
b) God's law of Genesis is that everything produces after its kind.
(i) The seed is in itself.
3) The seed of strife is in strife itself.
a) If you want to create more strife than sow words of strife.
b) If you want to reap love sow word of love.
B) The Bible has already told us that words are seeds. Those words will produce whatever they are seeds of.
VI) You have probably heard t statement, "just tell it like it is."
A) That is not a Bible method.
1) The Bible method and the law of faith is that you say it the way the Word of God says it.
2) When you see lack and problems in your life, speak abundance and peace.
a) Go to the Word of God, find the promise, and plant that seed.
B) What the problem has been with confession is that people have planted a few good seeds and gone off left them.
1) 1st of all, when you find t promise of God, you don't just plant one seed. You continue planting seeds, you continue to confessing t promise.
2) 2nd you need to care for that seed.
a) You need to stay in faith over that promise of God that you have been confessing.
C) Look at LUKE 17:5.
1) Wouldn't it be great if all we had to do is ask for more faith. But that's not how God does it.
2) Look at V 6 & we end w/ this.
a) The KJV says, "If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye might say...
b) But in the Greek it's a little different.
(i) The Greek interlinear says, "If you had faith as a seed you would say..."
c) T ASV bears this out. It says, "And the Lord said, If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye would say unto this sycamine tree, Be thou rooted up, and be thou planted in the sea; and it would obey you.
(i) Faith speaks & when it does t circumstance will change, it must obey you.
TFC 8/8/90 WED PM and W. O. L. C. C. Thursday, January 21, 1999. This sermon is taken from Confession # 5. 8/15/90 WED PM Thursday, 2/17/99