Do You Really Believe?

Do you leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men?

In Mark 16:17-18, The KJV Bible quotes Jesus as saying, “And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover”.

Shall is one of the strongest words in the English language. It means something CERTAINLY WILL or MUST happen.

If these signs haven’t followed you, and you profess to be a disciple of Christ, then you don’t believe what God has revealed in his Word.

One verse prior in 16 it reads, “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.” 

Now, I’ve never heard a single Christian argue that verse 16 doesn’t mean exactly what it says. Have you?

But here we are one verse later and suddenly it doesn’t mean exactly what it says!!? In the exact same conversation with the disciples just prior to His return to Heaven, Jesus managed to say something that is true for all time in one breath, and then something that is not true for all time in the next…all on the same subject of what it means to believe?

That reasoning is absurd. It defies common sense!

If you DO believe then these signs WILL CERTAINLY follow you.

It’s that simple.

Either you believe God means exactly what He says because it’s in his Word.

Or you believe that God doesn’t mean exactly what He says in his Word… because someone failed to teach you or someone taught you “something else”.

That “something else” would make God a liar, by the way.

You can twist yourself into doctrinal pretzels if you’d like, but in the end you will either believe the oracles of God or believe the doctrines of Man.

Does this make you feel uncomfortable?

Good! If you’re a “believer”, I mean to provoke you, poke you, and make you think deeply about things you claim to believe.

Decide today. 

Will you CHOOSE to believe what God’s Word says unequivocally?

Or

Will you CHOOSE to follow the doctrines of men?

The choice is yours, but only one choice leads to the true Christian life. The Way looks like what the first Christians experienced in the Book of Acts.

If the Holy Spirit is convicting you about putting the teachings of men over what the Lord has said, the remedy is simple.

• Repent of your unbelief and ask God for forgiveness. He is merciful and gracious, and most certainly will hear and answer that prayer!

• Commit to believing God. Renounce false doctrines and the false teachers that have taught them.

• Read and study the Word. Believe it. Do what it says.