Seed Completes Your Faith Part 2 Dr. Nasir Siddiki Visit www.wisdomministries.org to receive free teaching lessons each week from Dr. Siddiki. www.wisdomministries.org 918.712.7122 Copyright 2009 by Wisdom Ministries
Seed Completes your Faith Part 2 C. James 1:5 If any of you is deficient in wisdom, let him ask of the giving God [Who gives] to everyone liberally and ungrudgingly, without reproaching or faultfinding, and it will be given him. 6 Only it must be in faith that he asks with no wavering (no hesitating, no doubting). For the one who wavers (hesitates, doubts) is like the billowing surge out at sea that is blown hither and thither and tossed by the wind. 7 For truly, let not such a person imagine that he will receive anything [he asks for] from the Lord, 1. Vs 6 You have to meet the qualification faith! 2. Faith is to believe you receive when you pray. 3. It is imperative to read James entire letter to get the whole picture. 4. You can ask God for wisdom, but you must have faith. 5. Faith is proven by your works. (James 2:17) D. James 2:17 So also faith, if it does not have works (deeds and actions of obedience to back it up), by itself is destitute of power (inoperative, dead). 18 But someone will say [to you then], You [say you] have faith, and I have [good] works. Now you show me your [alleged] faith apart from any [good] works [if you can], and I by [good] works [of obedience] will show you my faith. 19 You believe that God is one; you do well. So do the demons believe and shudder [in terror and horror such as make a man s hair stand on end and contract the surface of his skin]! 20 Are you willing to be shown [proof], you foolish (unproductive, spiritually deficient) fellow, that faith apart from [good] works is inactive and ineffective and worthless? 21 Was not our forefather Abraham [shown to be] justified (made acceptable to God) by [his] works when he brought to the altar as an offering his [own] son Isaac? 21 Was not our forefather Abraham [shown to be] justified (made acceptable to God) by [his] works when he brought to the altar as an offering his [own] son Isaac? 1. Works = ergon = corresponding actions of obedience. 2. Vs 18 If there are no works, there is no evidence of your faith. 2
3. Vs 20 Faith must be seen or it is dead. 4. Faith is what you have; works is the proof (evidence) of what you have. a. Without the proof, there is no faith. b. Works is the evidence of your faith. c. My works show God my faith. 5. Without faith and corresponding actions, it is impossible to please God! a. Walk by faith with corresponding works. b. If faith is ever separated from works, it is dead. 6. Vs 21 Your evidence is YOUR SEED! a. Abraham had to prove he believed God s promise to him. b. Your seed is the ONLY evidence of your faith. E. Genesis 22:1 After these events, God tested and proved Abraham and said to him, Abraham! And he said, Here I am. 2 [God] said, Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah; and offer him there as a burnt offering upon one of the mountains of which I will tell you. 3 So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him and his son Isaac; and he split the wood for the burnt offering, and then began the trip to the place of which God had told him. 4 On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. 5 And Abraham said to his servants, Settle down and stay here with the donkey, and I and the young man will go yonder and worship and come again to you. 6 Then Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and laid it on [the shoulders of] Isaac his son, and he took the fire (the firepot) in his own hand, and a knife; and the two of them went on together. 7 And Isaac said to Abraham, My father! And he said, Here I am, my son. [Isaac] said, See, here are the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt sacrifice? 8 Abraham said, My son, God Himself will provide a lamb for the burnt offering. So the two went on together. 9 When they came to the place of which God had told him, Abraham built an altar there; then he laid the wood in order and bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar on the wood. 3
10 And Abraham stretched forth his hand and took hold of the knife to slay his son. 11 But the Angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, Abraham, Abraham! He answered, Here I am. 12 And He said, Do not lay your hand on the lad or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear and revere God, since you have not held back from Me or begrudged giving Me your son, your only son. 13 Then Abraham looked up and glanced around, and behold, behind him was a ram caught in a thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up for a burnt offering and an ascending sacrifice instead of his son! 14 So Abraham called the name of that place The Lord Will Provide. And it is said to this day, On the mount of the Lord it will be provided. 15 The Angel of the Lord called to Abraham from heaven a second time 16 And said, I have sworn by Myself, says the Lord, that since you have done this and have not withheld [from Me] or begrudged [giving Me] your son, your only son, 17 In blessing I will bless you and in multiplying I will multiply your descendants like the stars of the heavens and like the sand on the seashore. And your Seed (Heir) will possess the gate of His enemies, 18 And in your Seed [Christ] shall all the nations of the earth be blessed and [by Him] bless themselves, because you have heard and obeyed My voice. 1. A car dealer is going to verify your check before he hands you the keys! 2. God checks out your check! 3. Your seed needs to correspond to your level of harvest. 4. Vs 2 God is testing Abraham s faith here. 5. God will know your faith because you will show your faith by sowing the seed that He directs. 6. Vs 5 The moment Abraham told his servants that he and Isaac would return, God sent a ram into the thicket. 7. Abraham climbed up one side of the mountain and ram climbed up the other side! 8. God will give you back your seed first, but it is only a blade for the rest. 9. Vs 14 He is only the provider of those who obey. 10. Jehovah Jireh provided Abraham with seed. 4
11. In the loins of Isaac were all the nations; therefore, Isaac was the seed. 12. Faith makes your seed grow, but seed makes your faith to show. F. Genesis 15:2 And Abram said, Lord God, what can You give me, since I am going on [from this world] childless and he who shall be the owner and heir of my house is this [steward] Eliezer of Damascus? 1. Childless = (Hebrew) seedless. 2. Isaac was meant to be the seed, not the harvest. G. Hebrews 11:17 By faith Abraham, when he was put to the test [while the testing of his faith was still in progress], had already brought Isaac for an offering; he who had gladly received and welcomed [God s] promises was ready to sacrifice his only son, 18 Of whom it was said, Through Isaac shall your descendants be reckoned. 19 For he reasoned that God was able to raise [him] up even from among the dead. Indeed in the sense that Isaac was figuratively dead [potentially sacrificed], he did [actually] receive him back from the dead. H. James 2:21 Was not our forefather Abraham [shown to be] justified (made acceptable to God) by [his] works when he brought to the altar as an offering his [own] son Isaac? 22 You see that [his] faith was cooperating with his works, and [his] faith was completed and reached its supreme expression [when he implemented it] by [good] works. 23 And [so] the Scripture was fulfilled that says, Abraham believed in (adhered to, trusted in, and relied on) God, and this was accounted to him as righteousness (as conformity to God s will in thought and deed), and he was called God s friend. 24 You see that a man is justified (pronounced righteous before God) through what he does and not alone through faith [through works of obedience as well as by what he believes]. 1. Abraham s faith became complete when he sowed the right seed. 2. Incomplete faith never produces. 3. Seed completes your faith. I. John 12:24 I assure you, most solemnly I tell you, Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains [just one grain; it never becomes more but lives] by itself alone. But if it dies, it produces many others and yields a rich harvest. 5
A. God gives you seed to sow, not eat. B. In your seed is hidden your harvest. C. God is not your delivery boy! Only seed will bring you a harvest. 6