Let Us Be Firm in What We Believe

"Let Us Be Firm in What We Believe" – Proverbs 21:2 Every way of a man is right in his own eyes. Whatever we think and whatever we have done seems to us the right and perfect thing, because that is how we were raised and what we have been taught all our lives. But we are not valid judges of our own life nor of our service, because we judge by outward appearances; and the LORD weighs the thoughts and motives of the heart. That is why we must be rooted in the true beliefs, which are everything the word says, and not in what I think it ought to be.

I. Every way of a man is right in his own eyes (Proverbs 21:2).

A. God created us all different.

1. Tell each of us to imagine something, and we will all imagine it differently.

2. Life is very complex; with every year one lives, one sees it is not as superficial as we think.

3. How complex it is before a situation: what to think, what not to think, how to act, how not to act.

4. And sometimes we act more by impulse than by what God has done in us and what we ought to have learned from His word.

B. Are we clear about what we believe?

1. We love Jesus, we came to know Him, we were converted, we were baptized; we already have a pattern as believers.

2. We are one of the strongest churches in what we believe: we know what is good and what is evil.

3. But when we see other people's situations, it comes easily to us to comment on how they should have acted.

4. It is always easier to look at the other than to look at oneself: how one reacts and how one speaks.

5. Because our own we see as natural: that is how I explode, that is how I talk, that is how I am.

6. We do not even take in how we ourselves answer in a circumstance or in a simple conversation.

C. We are not valid judges of our own life.

1. We are not the ones who can say whether we are right or wrong; we have no such authority over ourselves.

2. And we think we do, because we judge by outward appearances.

3. It is not what I think ought to be, nor what I think is perfect or just.

4. We must be rooted in the true beliefs, which are everything the word says.

II. But the LORD pondereth the hearts.

A. The LORD weighs the thoughts and the motives of the heart.

1. Sometimes we do not know why we say a thing nor what the intent is.

2. And the matter is that the LORD is always weighing our heart.

3. Though deep down we sometimes do know why we say it and are aware of the intent.

4. But we think that what we do is right and that our way of speaking is the correct one; and I can justify myself.

B. He sees us alone and before people.

1. We are not the ones who weigh our own heart.

2. It is not the husband nor the wife; it is not our mother nor our father. The one who weighs our heart is God.

3. Of that we must be conscious: of our gestures, of our acts, of how we speak and how we answer.

4. God is seeing our intentions all the time in what we speak and in what we say.

5. Sometimes we go about as though we did not know the greatness of our Lord, and that is a great problem.

6. For what He wants is that we walk firm in what we believe.

III. We like to live without commitment.

A. The less we have to do, the better.

1. I am in the church, but from a distance, without much commitment; better not to get into trouble with anyone.

2. And we prefer to avoid it, so as not to have problems.

3. Life will always bring circumstances, to see what we are made of and how we act.

4. We want things to suit us all the time, because it is what I think is right.

5. Why not hold the service at eleven, so we can sleep a little longer?

6. It is hard to owe oneself to someone; we want total freedom, with nothing binding us.

B. God has placed something in our hands.

1. Each one may ask: what has God placed in my hands for me to do?

2. And am I taking care of it, or am I doing it my way, to suit me, in the easiest manner?

3. This life is hard, it brings much work and much hurry; one lives run ragged.

4. The only thing that should give us reason and importance is that this life ends.

C. What account will we give?

1. If God decides today that I die, what could I take to heaven, if not what He gave into my hands?

2. God will not ask me whether I was a good student, nor whether I was successful, nor what I managed to own on earth.

3. God will simply ask an account of what He put in my hands.

4. But we think we have a hundred years ahead, and that maybe someday I will do it well and give my all.

5. May God give us a long life, of course; and life is to be enjoyed and lived. But according to what God put in our hand.

6. Not letting it pass nor taking it lightly because today it suits me or because I have much work.

IV. To what are we anchored?

A. The questions we must ask.

1. What do we hold as the firm anchor of the soul? To what are we truly anchored: to this world or to God?

2. Above all things God must be put first; and we leave God in third or fourth place.

3. Do we hear any voice of God? Are we faithful to that voice? Does the word of God give us strength?

4. These are the questions, so that we may die to our own convictions: to what I am and to how I think things ought to be.

5. The word of God gives us strength, because it is the only way to rise above and crush what life brings.

B. Often we do not recognize when God speaks.

1. We say: why so much fuss? I see everything quite normal at home.

2. And we do not hear the voice of God when it comes, because we see everything as normal.

3. Sometimes we are told something and we are astonished: how can that be, if I see it all so normal?

4. Let us hear it; let us be meek and let us be humble.

5. For when time passes, things blow up in our face; and then we humble ourselves and weep, but there are consequences that cannot be undone.

6. We must wake up, speak, teach and correct; from small things to deep things we see and treat as though they were normal.

C. Without prayer there is no intimate communion.

1. The trouble with not hearing God's voice is that there is no firmness nor intimate relationship with Him.

2. The only way to have that intimate life is by praying and reading the word.

3. If we do not pray, that self of ours grows greater and what we think is right weighs more.

4. One gets used to it as one prays; no one prays an hour the first time.

5. But to make the gesture of kneeling and taking a moment in the day; and God sees the gesture, and the whole being is moved.

6. If the exercise is not done, it is not attained; for then our own beliefs grow stronger than the belief in the mighty God written here.

V. Conviction is keeping what was promised even in adverse circumstances.

A. We made a commitment with God.

1. Here many adverse circumstances arise, because we are all very different and we all think differently.

2. It does not matter what the situation is, nor that I got upset with this brother or the other.

3. I made a commitment with God and I must do what He asks of me, and do it well.

4. Not with attitudes, not with rudeness, not as though I were the one who is right and all of them wrong.

5. It is I who must take care of myself and see how I act and how I react toward that brother.

6. What does the other matter? My heart matters; how I give back what is given to me matters.

B. We like to give evil for evil.

1. Since he does not look at me, I will not look at him either; since he was rude to me, I will be rude back.

2. And we say: you will see next time how I answer him.

3. If someone comes with rudeness and you say, forgive me if I made you feel bad, every argument ends.

4. But we tend to the opposite: that the just thing would be to answer in kind, because he treated me badly.

5. That is life; but that is not life in Jesus.

C. Firm and sure convictions.

1. Our life must be according to what we have decided to believe.

2. We have told the world that we have Jesus in our heart; then let us act as though we truly had Him.

3. That nothing and no circumstance will move me to act as I should not act.

4. I must act as Jesus would act, not as I would act; how Jesus would answer someone speaking to me.

VI. If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled (Colossians 1:23).

A. Grounded and settled in what we have believed.

1. And Paul was made a minister of that gospel, for he left it all written.

2. This is what has been preached since Jesus came, and even before, by the great prophets.

3. It is remarkable: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John all say the same thing.

4. And they were all in different circumstances when they wrote, and they were different people; and they wrote exactly the same.

5. He will be with us all the days of our life if we root ourselves in these beliefs in truth.

B. And if God told us today that we are no longer His people?

1. It would be to die of it. And yet we take the liberty of thinking what we please and saying what is good and what is evil.

2. If God said: I gave you my beliefs and you would not take them, would we go on with our life as normal?

3. Or would it throw our life into chaos?

C. What have we taught our children?

1. Have we taught them enough that in such a case they would say: wait, this cannot be?

2. Or do they do things out of obedience, because mother and father do them, and that is all?

3. The great blessing we have is only from God, not from ourselves; because it pleased Him to give it.

4. It is not that I strive and by my own strength I achieve it: God is pleased to give what He is pleased to give to each one.

5. There is much one did not understand when young, but they told us; and it settles in, and that belief grows stronger.

6. If it is not said, there will be no belief; they will learn it at school or from someone ungodly, and that will be the belief they take to heart.

VII. Why the heart hardens.

A. We do not like spiritual things.

1. We like superficial things: success, a new job, a new car, a new house.

2. And they must be lived, of course; but all of that is far too fleeting.

3. Youth lasts very little: quickly you marry, you are an adult, you have children, and it is gone.

4. How vain life is; yet we prefer to root those beliefs more than what is written here.

B. A hardened heart cannot hear.

1. When the heart hardens, our mind is troubled; and a troubled mind cannot understand what is spoken to it.

2. We root ourselves so much in what we think things ought to be, that we root ourselves in my belief and not in the true ones.

3. And as I make my belief stronger, without noticing, what I am doing is hardening my heart.

4. Today one thing vexes you and tomorrow another; today you give an opinion on one and tomorrow on another.

5. It is very easy to harden the heart: from one single thing someone did to you, from that clash with that brother.

6. And we grow hard and rude without noticing, and we answer with rudeness and with sarcasm; and those are not the marks of Jesus.

C. We justify ourselves by blaming others.

1. We know it and we hold the conviction in our mind; but when we face a situation we forget it.

2. And we say: I am right, because he was the one who answered me that way.

3. It is very easy to justify oneself; but the trouble is that it is not the others' fault.

4. The trouble is that each one will give account to God for his own.

5. If we say we serve God, the first thing is to hear His voice and be attentive; not to harden the heart saying that word is not for me.

VIII. Hearken unto me, my people (Isaiah 51:4).

A. Only through God is the heart set free.

1. But without noticing we harden and we grow angry, and we say: I did not deserve this, when I am doing everything right.

2. God weighs our heart and sees the intent in the depths, though we put on a show before people.

3. Though we say that was not my intention, that is not what I meant.

4. We can deceive anyone, but God we cannot deceive.

5. In us there should be the longing to hear His voice: to stop in silence and ask whether it is His voice or my own intent speaking.

IX. Blessed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it (Luke 11:28).

A. We need the Scriptures to know what God says.

1. We are happy if we hear the word of God and keep it in the heart.

2. Not what is ours, not my intent, not my conviction: the word of God.

3. We can be happy if we read the Bible every day; if not, the exercise is quite different.

4. On Wednesdays and Sundays the word brings us a study; but that little word we read at home is a daily teaching, like going to school every day.

X. Love your enemies; be ye therefore merciful (Luke 6:27-36).

A. It sounds far too hard to do what it says there.

1. It is easy to say I believe that and I will keep that.

2. But before a real circumstance, will we? Before that brother who rose against one, will I do that?

3. For it is easy to love those who love; that is easy.

4. We must hear the word of God and make of that a belief, my belief.

5. To live rooted in the belief of what God is, not of what I am; for if it were I, I would say: he did this to me and he does not deserve it.

6. Plainly this does not speak of any kind of abuse; what the Bible says is understood.

B. What is not read is not learned.

1. If today that passage fell to you to read, there is the teaching; but if I did not read it yesterday, I did not learn it.

2. And if tomorrow another chapter falls to me, I did not learn that one either; and another day blank.

3. And there goes how I root my belief and form my life in God.

4. And how what I believe dies and what is written here is sown in my heart.

5. We find it easy to skip the day and say: today I had no time to read the Bible.

6. If we do not do it, we will not go on learning; and we deceive ourselves deciding what is just and what is not.

XI. Their minds were blinded (2 Corinthians 3:14).

A. What happened to the people of Israel.

1. They were left behind to this day, though they read and heard the prophecies of Isaiah and what David spoke.

2. They did not believe in Jesus; they would not believe.

3. They were left stranded because they hardened their heart and decided that what they say is what is right.

4. And there they hold a hard heart, that the Messiah has not yet come.

B. We, who are of grace.

1. We have been grafted in; how are we going to harden our heart?

2. We are so proud and so overbearing that we plant ourselves on what we believe.

3. And we cannot bend and say: I must die to my self and believe more in what is written here.

4. And what are we before God? We are nothing; how many billions of people have existed on the earth.

5. And what great things they achieved; and the person died, and nothing remains: the success, the achievements, the prizes.

6. What can we achieve so great that we cannot humble ourselves and say: God, what I want in my heart are your beliefs?

XII. A sweet and wonderful voice.

A. The word comes when there is faith and when there is peace.

1. When we manage to be humble and meek enough to hear the voice of God, it is beautiful.

2. What do we gain by being strong and hard before people, saying you will not convince me?

3. Why does our neighbour drive people mad? What can the other give you? What matters is oneself with God.

4. It is a bad thing not to be ready to hear the voice of God: a voice that is constantly delivering us from evil.

5. Though the words seem hard, though they seem a sword piercing the heart.

6. And one may take two attitudes: that of the victim, or that of saying, I must open my eyes and fight for what is being told me.

B. Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you (John 14:27).

1. Those are sweet words our God speaks to us.

2. At the moment it is a word that pierces us, but it will give us peace at the end of the road.

3. For that is what He seeks: to stop the evil that would come upon our lives.

C. Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden (Matthew 11:28-29).

1. Learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.

2. If we are meek and humble, He is the one who carries all our burdens and our circumstances.

3. That is why we must have the ear ready to hear what God has prepared.

4. With that good attitude a passion arises in hearing His voice; and there is great joy in heaven when someone wants to hear it.

XIII. The danger of tempting God with our hardness.

A. When we are not willing to be broken.

1. It is because we think we are right; and so we tempt God with our hardness.

2. It should frighten us: God is a sweet and wonderful voice, but God is a consuming fire and a just God.

3. And He weighs our heart and our intentions: why we answered this way and why we answered that way.

B. The example of Israel.

1. They were constantly seeing God: they ate the manna, a cloud shaded them by day and a pillar of fire led them by night.

2. They saw how God revealed Himself on the mountain and saw Moses come down with his face shining.

3. But the heart is dangerous and deceitful, and they said: Moses is long in coming, let us make a calf and worship it.

4. Unbelief comes and can reach far beyond our lives, and the voice of God is passed over.

5. The hardening of the heart paralyzes us, and sometimes we do not notice that ours is hard.

6. We must take a moment and ask: is my heart hard? Am I being meek and humble, or have I hardened under my circumstances?

C. The danger of ceasing to see who God is.

1. There have been brethren who let their heart harden: they grew upset with this one and that one, and hardened little by little.

2. And where are they today? When they rise on a Sunday and say I have nowhere to go, they have no place to come to. They threw it away, they lost it.

3. And it is not that we prefer it: it is that God ends up hardening our heart.

4. What do you do on a Wednesday at six in the evening if you left because you hardened? Go to the mall? Will that give you peace?

5. How can we lose the greatest thing we can have in life? There is nothing greater than the family of faith.

6. Money does not give happiness and work even less; family does give happiness when we have God.

XIV. Let us not wander as the people in the wilderness.

A. That people was not settled toward their Lord.

1. And what did they do? Wander forty years in the wilderness, waiting to die, because they could not enter the promised land.

2. And shall we live our life so, with so much knowledge and with teaching service after service?

3. Wandering through this world the years we have left, wondering whether this is right or wrong because it is what I believe.

4. Instead of being formed in what the Scriptures say, so that when that day comes I go with Him.

5. Wandering, without purpose, without convictions, without being settled in truth.

6. And then neither one thing nor the other; that is why God says He spues out the lukewarm, neither hot nor cold.

B. Let us bring our heart to the Lord.

1. The heart likes to wander; but let us bring it to the Lord, to keep the ear attentive.

2. When we pile up so much evil in our heart, it sickens; and that is dangerous for our life.

3. To keep unbelief is dangerous and it is evil for our life.

4. Let us take care. If one day we draw near to God, we must believe Him.

5. Let us be conscious of what we have truly believed, and that God weighs our heart in every act and in everything we say.