Lesson Four.

     I'm going to begin by quoting once again the same passage.  I
am going to use the * before and after all the words we will be
talking about.


Mark 11:22-24
22  And Jesus answering *saith* unto them, Have faith in God.
23  For *verily* I *say* unto you, That *whosoever* shall *say*
unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the
sea; and shall not *doubt* in his heart, but shall *believe* that
those things which he *saith* shall come to pass; he shall have
whatsoever he *saith*.
24  Therefore I *say* unto you, What things soever ye *desire*,
when ye pray, *believe* that ye *receive* them, and ye shall have
them.

     Let's start with two things.  First, a list of all the words
I indicated.

Saith, Verse 22

Verily, Verse 23
Say, Verse 23
Whosoever, Verse 23
Say, Verse 23
doubt, Verse 23
Believe, Verse 23
Saith, Verse 23
Saith, Verse 23


Say, Verse 24
Desire, Verse 24
Believe, Verse 24
Receive, Verse 24

     Secondly, let's get something cleared up right now.  the
word "saith," is not pronounced, "sayeth).  The word "saith" is
pronounced as in the name Seth.  Yes, there is a difference as
you will see when we look at the very words used in our text.  By
the way, the word people pronounce "sayeth<" isn't even in the
Bible but they think "saith" is pronounced that way.  No, this
isn't theology.  It is just a hobby horse of mine.

     This passage of Scripture has four main points that stick out
like a sore thumb right off the bat.  they are:

A.  Saying It.
B.  Praying It.
C.  Believing It.
D.  Receiving It.

     Let me offer some other ways of viewing these points.  For
example, Saying It, and Praying It, could be called Confession and
Conception.  Believing It, and Receiving It, could be called
Commitment and Contentment.  Once again, Saying It, and Praying
It, could be called Vocalization and Verbalization.  Yes, there is
a big difference but we'll talk about that later.  Once again,
Believing It, and Receiving it, could be seen as Visualization,
and Validation.

     woe, horse!  No, I am not talking about the eastern religious
practice of meditation which involved visualizing what you want, a
peaceful seen, a fancy car you want, or a beautiful woman.  Well,
I guess it could be a handsome man, too, for that matter.  Yes, if
you are thinking, some evangelical, Charismatic, and Pentecostal
movements have recommended this very methodology as Biblical, you
would be right and they would be wrong.  Unfortunately, New Age
philosophy has crept in into our churches undetected.  We have
some psychology in our churches which we have to thank for that
because this is a commonly used tool, visualization, that is,
practiced by many therapist and yes, even Christian therapist.
Honestly, we don't have to believe everything that comes across
the Christian television or Christian radio program just because
some big, well known preacher, or some Christian psychologist,
said it.  Don't even believe it just because I say it.  Get a life
and start thinking on your own.  We will be discussing more of
what I am talking about at a later time.

     Now, about this time, somebody out there is saying, ""This
sounds like faith and confession."  Yep, you'd be right.  "This
sure sounds like the name it and claim it crowd."  Right again.
"Well, it sounds an awful lot like positive thinking to me."  No,
fooling?  You mean, you'd rather find out Jesus was teaching us
about negative thinking?  Come on here!  "Well, I'm a little
concerned that this might be brain washing."  Bingo!  I can't
think of anything more descriptive than being brain washed with
the Word of God to the point that we just can't think any other
way.  Wow!  No telling what might happen when that type of bible
based faith is at work.  "Well, I don't know.  This could be mind
control."  Congratulations!  You are 100 percent correct.  Nothing
like having the mind of Christ when it comes to faith.  God bless
you, my brother and sister, for getting it right.  "Well, I am
just worried that you are trying to teach that we can get
something from God although He really doesn't want us to have it."
Do you know just how stupid that sounds?  I mean, for crying out
loud, don't give me this ungodly, unholy, unbiblical bilge that we
are going to talk God, the God of the universe, into doing
something He doesn't want to do.  Stop that right now.  That's
dumb and if you even remotely believe such a thing, you know
absolutely nothing about the sovereignty of God.  Finally, I hear
someone saying, "Well, this sort of thing makes me nervous."  Me,
too.  I mean, living by faith is just something most Christians
flat out don't want to do.  why?  It means getting closer to the
Lord.  It means making Jesus, not just the Savior of your life,
but the Lord of your life.  It means more spiritual responsibility
as a Bible Believer.  Nobody said it was going to be easy.  You
want to go back to living by rules and regulations?  You want to
live by the Old Testament law for your daily life and your
relationship with God?  How about sticking with the legalism you
were raised on?  You want to stay there with your list of things
you do which are good and the other list of bad things you don't
do as a Christian?  If so, go right ahead and stop reading right
here.  From this point forward, you will be responsible for what
the Holy Spirit shows you about living by faith; like it or not.

     The real problem at this point is our flesh.  Our minds, and
our physical bodies, called the flesh physically and spiritually
in the New Testament, isn't saved or Born Again.  It must be
disciplined by the Word of God or it rebels.  Read this next verse
carefully.

Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness,
and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to
save your souls, "James 1:21).

     I could write a book just on this verse alone.   If you read
it carefully, on the other hand, it becomes pretty clear what the
verse means.  I suppose, however, that I should be pointing out a
couple of things we need to know.

     the word rendered "engrafted" is used just this one time in
all of the New Testament.  That's right.  It never appears any
place else in the Bible but in this single verse.  It must be,
therefore, mighty important.  It, in fact, means what you think it
means, that is, implanted, as in, the implanted Word of God.  My
dictionary defines "implanted" this way.  (To establish
permanently, as in the mind or consciousness).  That's what it
means biblically, too.

     The word "save" means saved.  No, why should it be any more
complicated than that?  The Greek word is "sozo" which refers to
the totality of the salvitic experience.  It means way more than
being spiritually saved or Born Again.  Study the word for
yourself if you doubt what I have said.  I know the first time I
studied the word, I was totally amazed, and overwhelmed, when I
learned all that Jesus gave His life for and confirmed it through
His bodily resurrection.  It isn't, "saved" that is, a
metaphorical term the Bible uses.

     The word for "soul" is a Greek word from which we get the
English word (psyche"  Yes, this is a psychological term but where
do you think they got it?  It means the real you, in simple terms,
and we don't need to complicate things by launching off into some
psychological study when the bible speaks for itself.

     So, the interpretation of the passage is simple.  The Word of
god is used to discipline that part of our psyche, our individual
human makeup, which is not yet redeemed, regenerated, or in more
simple terms, born again.  That literally means, the part of us
which is not saved.  If our minds were saved, we wouldn't have bad
thoughts.  If our physical bodies, were Born Again, we wouldn't be
dying, having high blood pressure, or tooth decay.  Does this make
sense?  Am I getting the message across?

     My point is this.  Yes, our spirits have been created anew at
the moment of salvation.  This is what the Apostle Paul was
talking about.  "Therefore if any man [be] in Christ, [he is] a
new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are
become new," 2 Corinthians 5:17).

     Not wishing to stray to afar from the topic of faith, let me
return to the important words in Mark's Gospel.

     I am going to begin quoting the same passage again, step by
step, I said it might be tedious but such is the nature of
systematic Bible study, and as we continue through the passage,
I'm going to explain the Greek meanings of the important words
necessary to gain the needed understanding to the application of
faith to which Jesus referred.  We will also be following the four
subpoints of the outline.

     Before a closer examination of this verse.  Perhaps it would
be more sensible to explain the difference between two Greek
words.  One is "lego" and the other is "rhema."  These two words
are often translated to be, (say, saying, saith, spoken, speaks),
and a lot of other words which we will examine shortly.  Why?
Well, it isn't because they mean the same thing.  It is due to the
King James translators and what they thought as they used old
English terminology to apply to what they felt was the true
meaning of the passage.  If you do not believe what I am saying,
just use a Strong's concordance and pick out just about any word
in the New Testament and look it up for yourself.  You will
discover, often times, dozens of different words used by the
translators which all mean the same thing.  I'll demonstrate
exactly what I mean by this as we continue our study of faith.

     For now, the Greek term "Lego" basically means the totality
of a Statement.  For example, we may say, "I spoke to John
yesterday."  What we mean is, most likely, we have had a
conversation, long or short, with John.  The word "lego" means all
of the conversation collectively.  The Greek word for "rhema," on
the other hand, is mostly used as a singular, short and to the
point, succinct statement.  For example, a statement that is sort
of a one liner but carries with it finality.  For example, "Your
bank balance is 150 dollars and 29 cents.  When the bank teller
tells you this, you don't say, "Are you sure?"  Unless, of course,
you were expecting it to be twice that amount.  "She, or he, is
reading it right off the screen by accessing your bank account and
stating a fact.  You can, sort of speak, bank on what they have
said.  You know they are right and it isn't a conversation you are
having.

     Another way of looking at it may be that "rhema" generally
refers to a promise; a stated, vocalized, promise.  The Bible is
full of them.  How about, "For whosoever shall call upon the name
of the Lord shall be saved," (Romans 10:13).    That's just the
beginning.  If you are unable to recognize the difference between
"The Word" of God verses "The Promise" of God, then the rest of
what I have to say on the subject of faith, as Jesus taught it,
will have little, if any, meaning to you personally.  These may
not be good examples but, as I said, I will show you precisely the
difference between "lego" and "rhema" as we progress.  I thought
it prudent, however, to make mention of this before we get into
the details of additional Greek terminology.

     End Of Lesson Four.