“Hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, saying, ‘This people draws near to Me with their mouth, and honors Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me. But in vain they worship Me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men’” (Matthew 15:7-9 MKJV).
The state of the world today is such that one considers it the height of virtue to believe in God. Of what value is believing in God? We shall see.
How is it people are so proud of their spirituality because they believe in God?
Asylums and prisons are filled with those who believe in God. Serial killers, rapists, schizophrenics, crime gangs, and ruthless armies, like the Lord’s Resistance Army in Uganda, who kidnap, pillage, rape, maim, and kill believe in God.
Almost all peoples believe in God. All major religions, though living in disagreement and opposition with one another, believe in God. Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Jews, spiritualists, aboriginal nations, New Agers, and even Satanists believe in God. Many pagan religions have believed in God.
Most, if not all, Christian denominations believe in God, yet many of these have selfishly taken up the sword against one another. So where is the virtue in believing in God? How is it people are so proud of, or satisfied with, their spirituality simply because they believe in God?
Many religions kill in the Name of God. In His Name, Jews persecuted and executed new believers in Jesus Christ. Indeed, they crucified their own Messiah in the Name of God. Since then, for nearly two millennia, Jews have been sorely persecuted by those who believe in God, even Jesus Christ. The earth is in turmoil today because millions of Muslims are killing in the name of Allah, their God. They have been doing it since their 7th century beginnings by Muhammad.
Throughout their history, true believers in God have been and are persecuted by those who also claim to believe in God and Jesus Christ. Throughout much of nominal Christian history, the Catholic Church has slaughtered millions in the Name of Jesus Christ. Calvinists, Lutherans, Presbyterians, Baptists, Congregationalists, Anglicans, and so many others professing to worship and serve the Lord Jesus Christ have persecuted and put to death many for their faith, because their victims were not in doctrinal agreement with them. Jesus said to His disciples:
“They shall put you out of the synagogue. But an hour is coming that everyone who kills you will think that he bears God service” (John 16:2 MKJV).
“He who has My commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves Me.”
James said to those who believed in Jesus Christ: “You believe that there is one God, you do well; even the demons believe and tremble” (James 2:19 MKJV).
One may believe in the existence of God, but so what? Satan truly believes in His existence as well! People seem to think they deserve recognition or credit for believing in God. They seem to be of the opinion that they are virtuous and valuable members of society because they are not atheists and because they love their families and have some kind of religious affiliation.
But what does Jesus say about true faith? Here is His definition of true faith and fidelity toward God, which alone has value for mankind:
“He who has My commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves Me. And he who loves Me shall be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will reveal Myself to him” (John 14:21 MKJV).
No, “belief in God,” by the popular use of that expression, means nothing, nothing at all! The vast majority of those who think they have somewhat to treasure or of which to be proud because they believe in God have nothing at all. They are dangerously, tragically deluded!
Hear more of what Jesus has to say about the fruit of true faith:
“Jesus answered and said to him, If a man loves Me, he will keep My Word. And My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him” (John 14:23 MKJV).
Multitudes who believe in God and call themselves Christians don’t even know what Jesus meant when He said, “If a man loves Me, he will keep My Word.”
Do you “have the Son,” or do you merely “believe in God”? Hear this:
“He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life” (1 John 5:12 MKJV).
“He who believes on the Son has everlasting life, and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides upon him” (John 3:36 MKJV).
One cannot have true faith in God while rejecting the Son of God.
Muslims “believe in God,” yet deny that God has a Son. Adding error to error, they deny that Jesus Christ, the Son, is God. Indeed, with opportunity, they will even slay those who believe Jesus Christ is the Son of God. Yet Muslims “believe in God.” Their problem, and the problem of all those who believe in God, is that they have no idea Who God is and His definitions of true faith and worship, just like the devils who, as James declared, believe in God.
Of God, Jesus said to His disciples, His anointed ones:
“I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life; no one comes to the Father but by Me” (John 14:6 MKJV).
Many are they who say, “I don’t know if I believe in Jesus, but I believe in God,” as though they have something of value spiritually. But here is what Jesus said to His disciples about that:
“The one hearing you hears Me, and he who despises you despises Me; he who rejects you also rejects Him Who sent Me” (Luke 10:16 MKJV).
One cannot have true faith in God while rejecting the Son of God.
On the day of Pentecost, Peter and about 120 others received the Spirit of God. At this time, he said to the multitudes gathered (referring to Jesus Christ):
“And there is salvation in no other one; for there is no other Name under Heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12 MKJV).
The apostle John said this: “Who is a liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? He who denies the Father and the Son is antichrist. Everyone who denies the Son neither has the Father. The one confessing the Son also has the Father” (1 John 2:22-23 MKJV).
Your best is not good enough, never was, and never will be.
So, sinners, it is not enough to believe in God. Your sins will take you down to complete destruction with that belief. It will avail nothing for you, nothing at all. You must…repent. You must turn from your self-righteous stance of believing in God according to your definition and begin to fear God according to His definition.
“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge. Stubborn fools despise wisdom and discipline” (Proverbs 1:7 GW).
There is the carnal man’s definition (or the devils’ definition, as James says) of believing in God, and then there is God’s definition of believing in Him. Which belief do you think is going to be of any value to Him (and to you)? If yours is error, and it is, according to the Scriptures, why should He value your definition? “I do the best I can,” you reply. According to the Word of God, that isn’t good enough! Hear what Isaiah says:
“But we are all as the unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as a menstruation cloth. And we all fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away” (Isaiah 64:6 MKJV).
Your best is not good enough, never was, and never will be, unless you think a soiled menstrual cloth is acceptable to the Lord. Only His best, only His righteousness, will do, because man is utterly bankrupt of righteousness – on that point, the Bible is crystal clear.
What does the First Commandment (not a mere suggestion or a guideline, by the way) require of you? Here it is:
“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment” (Matthew 22:37-38 MKJV).
Break that Commandment, and you are dead; all your belief in God is useless chaff. You say you really love God. Do you? Again, who is it who loves Him?
“He who has My commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves Me. And he who loves Me shall be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will reveal Myself to him” (John 14:21 MKJV).
The judgment of God is upon you, if you profess faith in Him carelessly.
So you regularly go to church, are a member in good standing of same, give people rides to church and religious functions, sing hymns, hug and shake hands with your fellow congregants, invite them for dinner after church, testify, witness to others, read your Bible, memorize Scripture, teach Sunday School, conduct Bible studies, give alms, tithes, and offerings, serve as usher, choir member, or director, serve as pastor’s assistant, deacon, elder, or even as a pastor, bishop, or evangelist. So you preach, prophesy, pray, fast, and even cast out devils and perform other miracles.
Did you know that none of these things are primarily the things He is talking about when He speaks of having His Commandments and keeping them (though He did command some of them)? Did you know that the Pharisees also did most of these things, and more?
If you believe that those things are what Jesus was primarily talking about, then you are most likely still in your sins and alienated by those sins from the One you presume to love and please.
Professing faith in God carelessly is serious business. There is one Commandment of the Ten that spells out particular consequence when one breaks it:
“Never use the Name of the LORD your God carelessly. The LORD will make sure that anyone who carelessly uses His Name will be punished” (Exodus 20:7 GW).
Even now the judgment of God is upon you, though you likely don’t know it, if you are professing faith in Him carelessly and nonchalantly.
What, then, is the answer for you?
“And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the Name of the Lord shall be saved” (Acts 2:21 KJV).
Romans 10:6-11 MKJV
(6) But the righteousness of faith says this: “Do not say in your heart, Who shall ascend into Heaven?” that is, to bring Christ down;
(7) or “Who shall descend into the deep?”; that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead.
(8) But what does it say? “The Word is near you, even in your mouth and in your heart”; that is, the Word of Faith which we proclaim;
(9) Because if you confess the Lord Jesus, and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved.
(10) For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth one confesses unto salvation.
(11) For the Scripture says, “Everyone believing on Him shall not be put to shame.”
If you call out to Him in all earnestness, persistently, in due time He will hear you and reach down to you, and when He does, you will know it; make no mistake and have no fear of that.
“And you shall seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart” (Jeremiah 29:13 MKJV).
You will be changed, not because you change yourself, but because He changes you:
“For by grace you are saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to good works, which God has before ordained that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:8-10 MKJV).
Belief in God is not enough. Faith coupled with obedience is the only way.
“Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, cultivate your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God Who works in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure” (Philippians 2:12-13 MKJV).
Then will you have the true faith of God. Then will you believe the way God intends for you to believe, and when you do believe, this is what you will say, after you have done all the things commanded of you:
“We are unprofitable servants, for we have done what we ought to do” (Luke 17:10 MKJV).
You will have begun the process of salvation, and enduring to the end, you will be saved:
“And you will be hated by all men because of My Name: but he who is strong to the end will have salvation” (Matthew 10:22 BBE).
Remember, Jesus spoke the following words to those who were rather satisfied with their mediocre spirituality and services:
“I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I would that you were cold or hot. So because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth” (Revelation 3:15-16 MKJV).
Perhaps you once began in genuine faith and somehow wandered astray. Perhaps you can be restored now. Seek the Lord and find out.
Perhaps you went too far and cannot be restored now because you have spurned the Lord beyond redemption in this life (you foolishly thought you could get away with it):
Proverbs 1:24-28 BBE
(24) Because your ears were shut to my voice; no one gave attention to my out-stretched hand;
(25) You were not controlled by my guiding, and would have nothing to do with my sharp words:
(26) So in the day of your trouble I will be laughing; I will make sport of your fear;
(27) When your fear comes on you like a storm, and your trouble like a rushing wind; when pain and sorrow come on you.
(28) Then I will give no answer to their cries; searching for me early, they will not see me.
Perhaps you have not strayed, but have been ignorant of the fact that your state is not nearly satisfactory to God without total abandonment and commitment to Him. Perhaps you know and perhaps you don’t. This I know: Belief in God is not enough. Faith coupled with obedience to Him, forsaking all for His sake, is the only way.
Romans 12:1-2 BBE
(1) For this reason I make request to you, brothers, by the mercies of God, that you will give your bodies as a living offering, holy, pleasing to God, which is the worship it is right for you to give Him.
(2) And let not your behavior be like that of this world, but be changed and made new in mind, so that by experience you may have knowledge of the good and pleasing and complete purpose of God.
Victor Hafichuk