Introduction: Gratitude for Exposure to Truth
I give thanks to the Eternal God, to the Almighty, for granting us one more day that He permits us to expose ourselves before His word. I thank Him for each one of us who expose ourselves before the truth that brings freedom to our lives. Thus it is written in the word: “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” Therefore, every time a man, every time a woman of faith exposes herself before the word, we are not only bringing knowledge or greater knowledge about the Holy Scriptures, we are bringing freedom.
This is cause for gratitude because it is not for everyone, not everyone has the opportunity to expose ourselves before the truth of the Lord’s word. You find in various texts, not only of the New Testament but of the Old Testament, in which it is manifested that not everyone is exposed to the truth of the Lord’s word. Only those are those of whom the Lord has had mercy on their lives.
The Prophetic Context: The Scarcity of Faith in the Last Times
The Question of Jesus the Christ
Today’s teaching will study the theme of why a man of faith, why a woman of faith can lose faith. I base this precisely on the word that Jesus established in the Gospel of Luke, chapter 18, verse 8: “I tell you that He will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?”
This question is suggesting that faith, at the coming of Christ Jesus or in the final days of this generation, just before the coming of Christ Jesus, faith will be one of the virtues that will be scarce in men and women who have confessed themselves as children of God.
This is a theme that applies exclusively to men who have believed in Jesus, exclusively to women who have believed in the Lord. We cannot see this theme applied outside the Church, we cannot see it in men who have never known the Lord. It is very important that it is necessary that each one of us can understand it because none of us is exempt from it.
Apostolic Confirmations
In the first epistle of the apostle Paul to Timothy we also find other expressions that are similar to what Christ Jesus established. In chapter 4, verse 1, it says: “Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons.”
The word “apostasy” is a word that is used in the New Testament to indicate divorce. This, I repeat, is not a word that applies to men or women who are outside the Church. No, this is a word that applies to those who are part of a congregation, or rather, in general terms, those who make up the body of Christ.
The word “apostatize” has the meaning of divorce. If we were to present it in the meaning of the word, we would say: “Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will divorce from the faith.” And you know precisely the meaning and implication of what the word divorce has. Boyfriends don’t get divorced, spouses get divorced, that is, those who have established a bond of communion.
Therefore, when the apostle, by the Spirit of God, is establishing that some will divorce from the faith, he is referring precisely to men and women who were part of a congregation, but at a given moment, not necessarily leaving the congregation, but decided not to walk according to what is established in the doctrine of the Gospel of the kingdom of heaven.
The Shipwreck of Faith
Also in the first epistle to Timothy, Paul writes to him in chapter 1, verse 19: “Having faith and a good conscience, which some having rejected, concerning the faith have suffered shipwreck.”
We have three texts, and they are not the only texts that are establishing to us—not suggesting, they are establishing to us—a reality. The reality of the last times is a reality of scarcity of faith, a reality of crisis of faith, a reality where, despite men and women being part of a congregation, they would not be walking according to what the Lord’s word establishes.
Why? Because it is precisely much easier to follow human, philosophical and religious proposals than to follow what the Lord establishes through His word.
The Narrow Way
In the Gospel of Matthew, you have surely read in what is known as the sermon on the mount, that Jesus said that the way of life is narrow and strait and difficult, and not everyone, not everyone decides to walk on it, precisely because the way of life is the way of faith. And if a man is not willing to walk by faith, and a woman is not willing to walk by faith, it is very likely that they will decide to walk in the opposite direction to what the Lord has established.
The Fundamental Purpose of Faith
Before examining the causes of the loss of faith, it is essential to understand what the purpose of the life of faith is. In the Old Testament it is established, and this text can be practically the summary of what is established in the Old Testament. Jeremiah 9:24 says: “But let him who glories glory in this, That he understands and knows Me, That I am the LORD, exercising lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth. For in these I delight,” says the LORD.
The purpose is that man may know God, that man may understand God. I repeat: that woman may know God, that woman may understand God. This is the purpose.
You go to the book of Deuteronomy, in chapter 6, it is established: “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one! You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.”
In the New Testament this same thing is also established. If you go to the Gospel of John, in chapter 17, verse 3, it presents this word and says: “And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.”
What is the purpose of the life of faith? The purpose of the life of faith is that man and woman may know God, may believe God and may understand God.
First Cause: Not Understanding What God Is Doing in Our Environment
The Main Reason for Faith Crisis
Therefore, why do many people enter into conflict of faith? Why do many people enter into crisis of faith? Why do many people even get to the point of abandoning faith, of denying faith or of making shipwreck of faith, as we read in First Timothy, chapter 1?
Why? Because they cannot understand what God is doing in their environment. This is the strongest reason we find in Holy Scripture: because there are men who cannot understand what God is doing in their environment, because there are women who cannot understand what God is doing in their environment.
The Example of Prophet Jonah
I want to present a case so that we can see it graphically in the book of prophet Jonah. See what it says in chapter 4, verse 2: “So he prayed to the LORD, and said, ‘Ah, LORD, was not this what I said when I was still in my country? Therefore I fled previously to Tarshish; for I know that You are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, One who relents from doing harm.’”
Remember Jonah’s story. Jonah’s story consists of a prophet who fears God—because he himself declares it in chapter 1—but he is a prophet who, despite knowing—because here we are seeing it, despite knowing—he flees from the presence of God and also flees from the assignment that God had entrusted to him.
He sends him to Nineveh to proclaim freedom, to proclaim deliverance, but nevertheless, he decides to flee and escape toward a region or a people called Tarshish.
You know the story perfectly. I won’t go into those details, but note one thing: when he is praying before the Lord he tells him: “Is this not what I had said?” You send me to preach: “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown,” and he preached for three complete days.
And what happened? That all the population, all the people, all the city, everyone without exception, everyone humbled themselves, came before the presence of the Lord and repented of their wickedness. God, based precisely on their repentance, decided not to punish them, decided not to destroy them.
But for Jonah that was very hard. For what reason? There is a reason in all of this: because Jonah would appear as a false prophet. Yes, that’s exactly what I’m telling you, because in everyone’s eyes, Jonah would appear as a false prophet.
The Prophet’s Prestige
When you go to the book of Deuteronomy, you can read, for example, in chapter 13, where it is established that the way to know a true prophet is that what the prophet has said is fulfilled. If what the prophet has said is not fulfilled, then everyone considered him as a false prophet, and this also applies to dreamers of dreams.
So Jonah is upset because in everyone’s eyes he appears as a false prophet, saying that in forty days Nineveh would be destroyed. And if you follow the continuation of the story account, you realize that after Jonah preached, Jonah went and sat to watch the destruction of Nineveh.
That’s where the plant emerges that covers him, that protects him from the sun, but then the same plant is destroyed, it is eaten by a worm. He sat to watch the destruction of Nineveh. Why? Because his prestige as a prophet of God was at stake, his prestige was at stake. So now that God decided not to destroy Nineveh, he appeared as a false prophet.
God’s Response
The same chapter 4, let’s go to verses 9 to 11, and see what God responds to him: “Then God said to Jonah, ‘Is it right for you to be angry about the plant?’ And he said, ‘It is right for me to be angry, even to death!’ But the LORD said, ‘You have had pity on the plant for which you have not labored, nor made it grow, which came up in a night and perished in a night. And should I not pity Nineveh, that great city, in which are more than one hundred and twenty thousand persons who cannot discern between their right hand and their left—and much livestock?’”
The Lesson from Jonah
Why is faith lost? Because there are men, because there are women who have crisis of faith. The main reason for all this: because they don’t understand what God is doing in their environment.
How many times have I found people who have confessed: “I was once behind a pulpit establishing that at a given moment they had to leave because they could not continue in that position, because they entered into the incomprehension of: ‘How is it possible that if I am serving God, how is it possible if I am working for God, how is it possible if I am doing everything and I am even sacrificing my life for and for God, that I obtain these effects as a result?’”—speaking of adverse effects, including even the loss of a family member.
How is it possible? Because there are people who lose faith, because there are people who enter into crisis of faith, mainly because they don’t understand what God is doing in their environment.
It happened with Jonah. The prestige of a prophet was at stake, the prestige of one who could go down in history as a false prophet was at stake, and that prevented him from being able to see God working for the benefit of a large population: 120,000 people mentioned in verse 11.
Not Measuring God by Results
Because we lose faith: because we cannot see what God is doing in our environment. And you know, I have to tell you something, and it is very important that we understand this: We cannot measure God by results, especially by those that are adverse to us.
There is an idea that is running, that is running very strongly in ecclesiastical circles, and it is the idea that good comes from God and bad comes from the devil. This idea is doing great harm in the life of many men, in the life of many women.
Why? Because when we say that good comes from God, when we receive good things, we can then say: “God is with me.” But what happens when we receive adverse things? Immediately that concept that we have entered into our lives, which is precisely part of a religious philosophy, leads us to the conclusion that God moved away, that God departed and that the enemy is taking occasion in our lives.
I want to tell you: that concept that has been introduced and that many are living precisely because of it, we have to eradicate it because it is not what the Lord’s word establishes.
Job’s Testimony
I want to take you to the book of Job, in chapter 2. We are going to find in verse 10: “But he said to her, ‘You speak as one of the foolish women speaks. Shall we indeed accept good from God, and shall we not accept adversity?’ In all this Job did not sin with his lips.”
There is something very important that each one of us, men and women who are walking in faith and who are building faith in Christ Jesus, it is very important that we understand it: We cannot measure God by results.
Let’s not get accustomed to measuring God by results: that good is or means that God is present and that adverse means that God moved away from us. This does not proceed. We just saw it. This does not proceed because God is present at all times.
God’s Constant Presence
God is present at all times. You go to Matthew chapter 28: “I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” The Lord’s word: “I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
You go to the Old Testament, to the book of Psalms: “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies… Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.”
The good and the adverse also comes from God, and this is something that we have to know how to integrate into our lives and know how to walk according to what the Lord’s word establishes.
Divine Judgment Processes
For what reason? Because many times there are men and there are women, or we have men and we have women who enter into processes of judgment from God. Judgment processes are necessary because through them the Lord cleanses us, the Lord purifies us and the Lord relocates us to a more excellent position.
You go to First Peter, chapter 4, verse 17. The apostle, by the Spirit of God, establishes: “For the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God.”
And this is something that men and women have to understand. Men and women of faith, men and women who have recognized Jesus as Lord and Christ, it is important that we understand it.
Divine Protection and Authorization of Trials
Do adverse things represent an attack from the enemy? Not always. In fact, it is important that we understand that the enemy cannot approach the life of a man of faith. The enemy, Satan, cannot approach the life of a woman of faith without God giving him permission to do so.
Right here in the book of Job we can see it. Satan, when he comes the first time, tells him: “And how can I, if You have hedged him around?” “The angel of the LORD encamps all around those who fear Him, And delivers them,” is established in the word.
But when God gives permission, as happened in the case also of the apostle Peter, the night that Jesus was delivered, Jesus told the apostle: “Satan has asked for you, that he may sift you as wheat.” Satan has asked us, has asked for authorization, has asked for permission, and Jesus’ response declares to us that permission had been given precisely for it: “But I have prayed for you, that your faith should not fail.”
A man of God, a woman of God has to have the assurance that our lives are in the hands of the Lord, and that nothing, however adverse it may be, nothing comes in the absence of God’s knowledge.
It is very important that today, as we expose ourselves before this word, we can recognize: The enemy has no authority or authorization over a man who is walking according to the truth of the Gospel of the kingdom of heaven, over a woman who is walking according to the truth of the Gospel of the kingdom of heaven.
And if even so the case would occur, it is because the Eternal God, the Almighty, in His sovereignty, in His power, gave him permission for it.
Job’s Restoration
In the book of Job, you find precisely that the enemy obtained permission to come against him, but I want to take you now to chapter 42, the last chapter of the book of Job. Please go to verse 12: “Now the LORD blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning; for he had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, one thousand yoke of oxen, and one thousand female donkeys.”
If you compare this verse with the verses of chapter 1, you will realize that Job’s latter end was precisely double what it was at the beginning.
Job’s Process
Why are there faith crises? Because there are men who lose faith, because there are women who lose faith: because they have not understood what God is doing in their environment.
If we review Job’s life again, we will realize that he had lost his children, he had lost his property—review chapter 1—he had lost his children, he had lost his property, he had lost everything. And the last thing that came, the last thing that came was a very serious disease to his skin, so much so that when he scratched to relieve the itching and pain that it produced, the skin fell from his body, to such a degree that there came a time when he began to see his bones, he himself to see his bones.
But you know, that wasn’t the only thing. Three of his friends came, three of his friends who, instead of knowing how to establish confidence and security in the Eternal God and the sovereignty of the Almighty, established: “You are in that situation because you have sinned. The Almighty has visited you and is punishing you.” This is what they established.
Observe the whole process: through which, in the midst of all that process, Job was able to establish wisdom by establishing to his friends and telling them: “No, this is not the product of a sin. No, this is not the result of something before which I failed. I am not more righteous than God. This is the result of God’s work,” and he maintained himself precisely in it until the moment when, at the end, in chapter 42, you see God telling the friends that Job pray for you so that then I can have mercy on you.
Reflection on the Divine Process
Why is faith lost? Why does one enter into faith crisis? Because there are many men, there are many women, and as time is advancing we will see it with much more insistence: because there are men of faith, because there are women of faith who do not understand what God is doing in their environment.
“Why me? Why did this happen to me? Why did I have to go through this situation? Why do I have to be going through this situation?” And that “why” never gets an answer.
The question is wrongly posed. The Eternal God, the Almighty, has established in your life a process of growth, a process of development, a process of maturity, a process of judgment. Yes, because there are surely things that have to be removed: knowledge that you entered into your life that is the product of philosophy or that is the product of religion that does not apply to you for the calling that the Lord has established in your life.
It is a cleansing process. Haven’t we read perhaps in the Holy Scriptures that God comes for a people without spot and without wrinkle? We haven’t read. Therefore, then, do you know how wrinkles are removed? Do you know how wrinkles are removed? With a hot iron, and that hot iron that is going to produce a pleasant effect when seeing the garment after ironing. In the process, the garment was not as comfortable as possible because it receives the heat and the steam that is removing the wrinkles brings discomfort.
How are stains removed? Stains are removed by rubbing, and in some cases with force, and in some cases with some detergents that are strong. How are they removed?
Therefore, because there are men, because there are women who have entered into faith crisis: They are not understanding what God is doing in their lives, in their environment. Their sight has been deposited in the discomfort of not having what to eat. Their sight has been deposited in the discomfort of knowing that there are children and that there is no provision to give them. Their sight has been deposited in the inability to change the environment that is affecting us.
But haven’t you realized that within that process it is a process of God? It is God’s work. God is doing something in your life. It is not seeing the process, it is seeing the end of the process, as in Job’s case.
Second Cause: Fear
The Parable of the Sower
I want to move to a second reason. I move to the New Testament, please, together with me to the Gospel of Matthew. Look for chapter 13. I want to read the first eight verses at the beginning, and then I want to move to a verse further ahead.
Chapter 13 of Matthew: “On the same day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the sea. And great multitudes were gathered together to Him, so that He got into a boat and sat; and the whole multitude stood on the shore. Then He spoke many things to them in parables, saying: ‘Behold, a sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seed fell by the wayside; and the birds came and devoured them. Some fell on stony places, where they did not have much earth; and they immediately sprang up because they had no depth of earth. But when the sun was up they were scorched, and because they had no root they withered away. And some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up and choked them. But others fell on good ground and yielded a crop: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.’”
I now move in the same chapter 13, I move to verse 20: “But he who received the seed on stony places, this is he who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; yet he has no root in himself, but endures only for a while. For when tribulation or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he stumbles.”
The second cause, the second reason why there are men and women who lose their faith: Fear. Out of fear.
The verse we just read says, “They received the word with joy.” They received the word with joy, meaning they were men and women—because they represent men and women of faith—who were legitimate men and women.
They were men and women who delighted in the Lord, who delighted in the grace and mercy of the Almighty, but there was something they couldn’t overcome. There was something they couldn’t bear, and that was fear. They were afraid. They had fear.
Fear of what? Fear of what people might say. Fear of losing friends, fear of losing a job, fear of what might happen: “If I lose my friends? What will happen to my life if I continue with this? What will happen to my life? What will happen to my career? What will happen to my job? What will happen to my studies? What will happen to my family?”
Fear. Fear paralyzes many people because they don’t know how to face it, they don’t know how to resolve a situation. Faith is lost because of fear, fear of what might happen, fear of the consequences it might bring to my life.
It’s very important that we understand this. The Word says that God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and self-control so that we can face everything that comes against our lives.
I was afraid. I was afraid—afraid that something would happen to my children, afraid that the enemy would come against those I love and attack them. I was afraid.
How many people have not been able to develop a ministry precisely because they were afraid? They were afraid.
The Parable of the Talents
I want to go now to Matthew chapter 25, where we find another parable quite similar to this one, presenting the same situation. Matthew chapter 25, I want to read from verse 14 onward:
“For it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted to them his property. To one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away. The one who had received the five talents went at once and traded with them, and he made five talents more. So also the one who had the two talents made two talents more. But he who had received the one talent went and dug in the ground and hid his master’s money.”
“Now after a long time, the master of those servants came and settled accounts with them. And he who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five talents more, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me five talents; here, I have made five talents more.’ His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’ And he also who had the two talents came forward, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me two talents; here, I have made two talents more.’ His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’”
“And he also who had received the one talent came forward, saying, ‘Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed, so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here, you have what is yours.’ But his master answered him, ‘You wicked and slothful servant! You knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed. Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest. So take the talent from him and give it to him who has the ten talents. For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’”
Something I want to highlight about these servants: The word “servant” means slaves. These were not just any slaves. To understand this text, to grasp this scenario, we need to go back to the Old Testament.
Slavery was prohibited. Slavery was forbidden. This passage that Jesus presents has to do with a scenario within a Hebrew family, not someone from outside—it’s about a Hebrew family.
In the Old Testament, it was forbidden to permanently enslave Hebrews. Some, due to debts, became slaves to others, and we’re talking about Hebrews enslaving Hebrews.
But what happened? Every seven years, there was a remission. Every seven years, there was a release, and when the Year of Jubilee arrived, there was a total remission, a complete release. Slaves who had become enslaved due to debts they had accumulated were completely forgiven, their debts canceled, wiped clean, and they returned to their properties. This is established in the Law of Moses.
But it happened that those who had entered this system of servitude could choose, of their own accord, to continue in that state. And that’s where the Word declares that those who chose to remain as servants of another master would have their ear pierced and become lifelong slaves, lifelong servants.
That’s why the New Testament doesn’t use the term “slave” because it wasn’t slavery as we understand it today, but rather a servitude—a servitude they themselves accepted. They had chosen to be servants.
This is the case we have here in Matthew chapter 25: they were servants. In other words, trusted servants. Trusted servants—that’s why you can now understand how it’s possible that their master entrusted them with talents. Talents mean money, a large amount of money. He entrusted them with his possessions because they were trusted servants.
They themselves had chosen to remain in service to that master. Therefore, when you see that he gave to each according to their ability, understand it as according to the trust the master had in them.
To the one he gave five talents, he had great trust in him. To the one he gave one talent, he had trust, though not as much as in the one who received five talents, but he still had trust in him.
When we get to the end of the parable, the servant says, “I was afraid.” Fear paralyzed this man who, at one point, had chosen to continue serving that master. Fear didn’t let him move forward. Fear didn’t allow him to keep believing in that man.
“I knew,” notice what he says, “I knew that you are a hard man, reaping where you did not sow,” and I was afraid.
Many times, knowledge doesn’t help us much. It doesn’t help if we don’t clearly understand what God is doing in our surroundings. Many of us can say, “God is great.” Many of us can say, “God is almighty.” Many of us can say, “God can do all things.” Many of us can say, “Nothing is impossible for God.”
But when it comes to understanding the adversities or challenges in our surroundings, we can’t comprehend that those too are from God. And that’s where people enter into a crisis.
Fear paralyzed him. And you know what happened to this servant: “Take it from him.” They didn’t just take his money; they took away the trust. And finally, as verse 30 says, “And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth,” they took away the trust that had been placed in him.
My brother, my sister, I don’t know the situations you’re going through today, but don’t let fear paralyze you. Don’t let the fear of what might happen in the future, what tomorrow might bring, or what will happen to your life paralyze you in such a way that you stop believing in God, because ultimately, faith is about believing in God.
Equal Opportunities
Why do we lose faith? Because of fear. Fear paralyzed this servant, a trusted servant—not one with great trust, but a trusted servant. They withdrew their trust from him.
Do you notice the three servants? None of them is greater than the others. Because when we read this text, there’s a tendency to see the one with five talents as superior. If we wanted to identify with one of them, it would be the one with five.
If you look at what the one with five talents did: 100%. If you look at what the one with two talents did, you see he also achieved 100%. The one with one talent could have also achieved 100%. We have to see it in percentage terms. None of them is greater than the other: 100%.
Let’s not allow fear to paralyze us and hinder what God wants to do with each of our lives.
Third Cause: Listening to Demonic Doctrines
The Apostolic Warning
I’m going to a third cause, and we find this third cause in the first epistle of the Apostle Paul to Timothy. I already read one of those texts. Look at what chapter 4, verse 1 says: “Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons.”
The third cause of why faith is lost: Listening to doctrines established by demons.
The Necessary Precaution
Not everything, not everything, not everything, even if the word “God” is used, is safe to listen to. Not everything. This is where many people are careless. They’re careless.
If you review Matthew chapter 4, the temptations of Satan to Jesus, you’ll find that Satan can approach through the Word: “Throw yourself down, for it is written.” Satan can also use the Word, and he does, in fact.
But just because it’s presented doesn’t mean we should ignore the doctrine being established. We must remain firm in what we have learned.
The First Example: Genesis 3
In Genesis chapter 3, we have the first example of what the Apostle is establishing here: many will abandon the faith by listening to demonic doctrines.
Genesis chapter 3: The serpent came and changed the Word. “Did God really say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” God had said, “You shall not eat of it, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”
A demonic doctrine seeks to change the Word and give you another in its place, and this other one has the characteristic of benefiting you. It benefits your person or your actions. That’s what we see in Genesis chapter 3: “You shall not eat of it.” “God knows you will not die, but you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
And that’s what sparked the interest in the serpent’s word.
Characteristics of Demonic Doctrines
When a word seeks only to benefit you, be aware: there’s a demonic doctrine behind it.
The Word of God will speak of judgment, the Word of God will speak of reproof, the Word of God will correct you. Let’s not seek only benefits, let’s not seek only promises, because we might be listening to demonic doctrines.
This is very important for us to understand, but there’s a tendency today among men and women to move from one place to another, from one place to another, searching and searching, and never settling on anything. And in that searching and searching and searching, you’re exposing yourself to demonic doctrines.
The Deceptive Nature of Demonic Doctrines
A demonic doctrine won’t talk about perverse or evil things. It can use the Word. But its characteristic is that it offers only benefits.
It’s not the Kingdom of Heaven, because if you go to Hebrews chapter 11, it lists the men and women who walked by faith. You’ll find that many of them didn’t receive what God had promised them.
Because faith doesn’t necessarily lead us to gain benefits for ourselves, but to establish God’s work in the place where God has placed us, where God has positioned us.
Summary of the Three Causes
Why do we lose faith? Because many don’t understand what God is doing in their surroundings, they don’t understand what God is doing in their midst, because their eyes are set on the inconvenience, the adversity, the scarcity, the illness, the problem, and not on God.
“Let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord.” This is the purpose of faith in Christ Jesus: to bring us to the Father so that we can see that, even if the Father says, “Sacrifice your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac,” we can see that in the midst of it all, God is not withdrawing His promise, but quite the opposite. God is placing us in a process of understanding to establish His work in the land where He has made us dwell.
Let’s not allow fear to paralyze us. Let’s not let fear of what might happen paralyze us. Let’s allow the Spirit of God to guide and strengthen us, even when we walk through the valley of the shadow of death.
And finally: Let’s not walk in demonic doctrines that only seek to present benefits, benefits, but not responsibilities, not commitments before the Lord.
Conclusion: Remaining in the Truth
The Certainty of the Teaching
I want to finish by reading what Luke, the writer of the Gospel, writes in chapter 1, verses 1 to 4: “Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the things that have been accomplished among us, just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word have delivered them to us, it seemed good to me also, having followed all things closely for some time past, to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, that you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught.”
If something pulls us away from the truth in which we have been taught, it doesn’t come from God. That’s why it’s very important that we understand this final point: demonic doctrines and errors.
The Divine Call
The Word has been presented to us, and it has been presented in the grace and mercy of the Lord. But it’s a decision that each of us must make. It’s not about imposition. It’s about a responsibility before the Lord, a commitment to the Lord.
“If anyone puts his hand to the plow and looks back,” said the Lord, “he is not worthy of me.”
Words of Encouragement
Were you called? You weren’t called to be exposed today to losing your faith. You weren’t called for this. You were called to present yourself before the Lord with joy, with praise, with glory.
If on the journey you must go through difficulties, whatever they may be, even to the point of losing your life, understand: In the midst of it all, the Lord is there, and you have never been alone, nor will you ever be forsaken by the Lord.
Don’t let fear paralyze you.
Final Prayer
Father, tonight I pray for men and women who are going through very difficult situations, very difficult. You didn’t say, Lord, that we would be spared from difficult situations. You didn’t say, Lord, that we would be spared from situations and occasions, even persecution.
Your Word even says, “If they did this to the green tree, how much more to the dry?”
Lord, tonight I pray for so many men, so many women, Lord, who are going through scarcity, illness, difficult situations, persecution, Lord, that their faith may not falter. May none of them, Lord, fall into such a crisis that they abandon their faith.
I ask this, my Lord, in the name of Jesus. Amen.
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May the peace of the Lord be with you, His grace, His mercy accompany you and yours at all times. Amen.
