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Faith |
What I’m going to be talking about today is Faith and what it is. It is the act of the intellect, when it is sensed to divine Truth under the influence of your will that has been moved by the grace of God. A will cannot turn to Christ without the Grace of God. There is nothing that you can do to earn salvation in any way. There is no way. Only God can earn your salvation. Only He can give you salvation. You can respond and you can reject. But you cannot earn it. The way I hear faith anymore is that somehow people earn what they get. I do believe there is a reward in how we live but you still don’t earn it. It’s just a blessing that comes from God. And we need to get it out of our heads that we earn what we get from God. Like I say, if you don’t walk Gods way, there’s going to be a different kind of reward come your way, but it’s just a result of the way you walk. And as you walk in the Lord, there is a blessing that comes with it, but it’s just God giving you that blessing. It’s from walking God’s way that you have that blessing. It says in Genesis 15:6, Abraham believed in Yahweh and He counted it as righteousness in him. He believed in Yahweh. I believe there’s coming a time – Jesus says "Will I find faith when I return?" He’s not talking about if you believe in healing or if you believe in this or if you believe in that. He’s talking about if you believe in Him. He says there’s a time coming that people will not believe in him. You won’t believe the Gospel. He’s talking about the Gospel. And when the Lord talks about the Gospel he’s talking about the whole New Covenant and the Whole New Testament - what Paul writes about, what Timothy writes about, what Peter writes about, it’s not just the four gospels. Matthew, Mark, Luke and John; it’s not just that. He’s talking about the whole body of truth, the whole body of truth. Do you believe in it? Do we believe in it? And I’m going to tell you something people. I think there are things that can cause us to quit believing. There is a study going on now, I guess, there was a documentary put out I’m hearing through James Kennedy where scholars are believing that "Was Jesus Really There? Did this really go on?" And it’s a proven fact that it did. And there’s another set of scholars who are battling this now. But I believe that there are a lot of Christians falling away on account of that documentary. You have to be careful what you hear. You have to be careful what you read. Because I’m going to tell you something; it has an effect upon your mind. It has an effect upon your heart. If there’s anything against the Word of God, don’t read it and don’t listen to it because it will cause you to doubt. And it also says in the latter times that there will be a great falling away. You can’t fall away unless you’ve been there. So it means falling away from believing… from believing who Jesus is, because He is our salvation. Without Jesus there is no salvation outside of Him so there’s no salvation under any other name. So I believe that this is a fake. And I looked it up. I have this set of Anchor Bible Dictionaries which are excellent. And I looked it up and this is what it says about Faith. And I want you to see this. It says that Abraham believed in Yahweh and He counted it as righteousness in Abraham. Because when it says he believed, to believe means there is a right standing in Abraham; not that he earned righteousness. It just means that something has come to Abraham to where all of a sudden he looks at Yahweh and he looks at what He’s done and he says "This is wonderful – this is good – this is great" and he turns around and he starts to follow Yahweh. And what God calls that is right standing; in right standing with Yahweh. And right standing has something to do with the heart of man. Now we’ll look at these different men, especially David and Abraham. We’ll look at David and Abraham today. Because David and Abraham are the two that we need to look at as having faith; as having faith in God; and also in their chosenness. God chose them. God chooses you. You don’t choose Him. He chooses you. And what I’ve found out is that Satan is going to find a way, he’s going to find your weak spot. You have one. You have a weak spot. You may think the devil can’t see it. But he’s watched you for a while. He’s going to find your weak point and he’s going to start working on that. But what I see is that there are many people…you just don’t quit believing. Usually you get offended. You either get offended by somebody, or you get offended by God. He doesn’t do what you think he should do for you. So all of a sudden that little crack in the armor where Satan can come in and he can turn you away from God. What I see is, people, we do not realize … I was looking at it last night and I thought when I became filled with the Spirit and walking with the Lord as an adult that everything people asked me to do was a great privilege. It was a great privilege. Everything that people asked me – cleaning the church became a great privilege. I mean I loved going down to that church, cleaning that church. And then all of a sudden I got a little upset because I looked around and thought, "I’m the only one cleaning this church." And you know what happened. I didn’t like cleaning that church anymore – soon as I looked around. And that’s what we do. We look around and we see, well this one’s not doing that and that one’s not doing that, and this one’s not doing that. Is that your business? That’s God’s business. They’ve been chosen for that. If they want to treat their job that God’s given them in their chosenness as if it doesn’t mean anything, that’s between them and God. But what about your chosenness? What are we doing with our choices? What are we doing with the job that God has given us? Is it a privilege or a burden? Because if we count it as a burden, God will take it away and He will give it to someone else who counts it as a great privilege. Do you think that Peter liked being hung upside down? Do you think that Paul liked going back into Rome and dying because of the baby Christians that were there? Do you think that Jesus Christ liked dying on the cross? But He counted it a privilege. And He didn’t become offended because there were some people who didn’t like Him. He said, "Father forgive them." You know, I want to tell you something, people. Do we want to walk God’s way or do we want to walk our way? Because, if we walk our way, we miss God. Because somewhere in between is God. Somewhere in between is God. And that’s what I want to show you today. We need to count what God has given us as a great privilege. To get up and sing a song before people is a great privilege. To get up and preach the Gospel is a great privilege. Does it take work? Yes. Does it take labor? Yes. Everything in the Kingdom of God takes labor, it takes work, it takes commitment and it takes you saying, "OK, I’m not going to let anything cause me to be offended with anybody or with God"; because if you get offended with people you’re offended with God. I’m going to show you that. I’m going to show you that in just a minute. I’ve heard different people like Karl Coke and Roy Blizzard say, you know, if you don’t have contact in the community, if you’re not in the community, if you’re not part of the community then you’re not in right fellowship with God. So let’s see how. This is what is says in the Anchor Bible Dictionary. It says in Isaiah 7:9:.. If you do not believe you will not endure. You won’t make it. You won’t make eternal life. Because what you do is you lose your hope, you lose your expectation, you lose that connection to God and you begin to walk a different way. Some people say, "Well, you can’t lose your salvation". Well I’m going to tell you one thing for sure. Don’t count on it. You’ve got to keep close to God. You’ve got to keep your connection. So we’re going to look at the Old Testament and see how they see faith. Then we’re going to look at the New Testament. The word Amen is Faith. It means to sustain – now listen to this – Faith means to sustain, to support, carry, a sense of firmness, stability, confidence, to hold something to be true. If you don’t hold God and His ways to be true, and we’ve got to admit that we don’t know everything. I sure know I don’t know everything. I’ve come to that conclusion recently. Haven’t you? Maybe you haven’t come to that conclusion recently but you will by the time this sermon’s over. OK. Communities of faith (are about) faith in God, not only faith in just Truth, not only in just His Truth, but all His characteristics. And this is what God is doing in us, as we believe. He’s developing in us His own characteristics. And people, I’m going to tell you something. You’re not just going to get His characteristics bang!… magic. It’s going to be by testing. And we’re going to see how he tested these men. But all of His characteristics and His attributes which are Truth, Consistency, Goodness – God stays the same all the time. He doesn’t change with how people treat him or do him or whatever. Like Dwight Pryor says that God is the most tragic figure that has ever been. (People) have done Him so bad that you would think he would just destroy all the people in the earth. And He doesn’t. Because God is not like that. He turns around and the very person that has been the meanest to Him, He loves. And He turns them around. And He works with them until He turns them around. Now that’s a characteristic of God. Do we want to be like God or do we not? It’s going to cost you. But what it’s going to cost you is yourself. And sometimes self is the hardest thing there is to give up. So here it is. His attributes are Truth, Consistency, Goodness, Love, Justice, Holiness; His claims on humanity - in a word everything that makes God, God. That’s His characteristics…steadfastness, reliability; truth is founded upon divine faithfulness and the covenant relationship, which sets it up. Steadfastness, reliability, truth, founded upon divine faithfulness and the covenant relationship is how you receive it…. to make covenant with God; with this beautiful being; this beautiful being that’s not like us. We are in a fallen state. God is so much higher and thinks so differently than we do. Faith is described, not defined in the Hebrew Bible. The description of faith is used in two different ways in the whole Hebrew Bible. The first one is the relationship of Israel to Yahweh. Listen to this. The relationship of Israel to Yahweh is described. That’s number one. Number two is the relationship of certain key figures to Yahweh. So God is going to begin to show me by pictures and words and revelation, the relationship that Abraham and David had with Yahweh. What kind of relationship did they have? And also the other key figures of the Bible, the Old Testament, are Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Ruth, Deborah - these are the ideal figures. Yet as we study their lives, we will begin to see the relationship that Yahweh had with these people - called Faith. The first one is Israel to Yahweh. What kind of relationship did Israel have to Yahweh? It’s called Faith. It’s called the Faith Covenant. The common characteristics between the two, Israel and Yahweh, between Abraham, David and Yahweh are these. The common characteristics of the two are their unswerving, unswerving, unswerving, unswerving, loyalty to Yahweh. Even in the face of what appears to be insurmountable obstacles, they went on. They did not deter from their relationship with God. They did not turn aside. And second is the purely free character of their chosenness. They were tending some sheep out in the field. The prophet could not pick any… well actually he picked some of His older brothers first... God said "No. See that boy out there? See that young one out there? That’s the man I want." Did David know that God was going to pick him? No. Was he overly religious? Probably not. He had a lifestyle of believing in Yahweh. How did God pick Abraham? God called him out of an idolatrous situation. And what Abraham did, though – what God does with someone is he reveals a part of himself and you can’t get over that. You can’t get over that – that revelation that you see of God. Abraham saw something that there wasn’t anything he’d ever seen before that even compared to that. And he said, "I know there’s a God. I’m going after God." And he did not turn aside. There were times that Abraham lied. There were times that Abraham kind of messed up a little bit. When he and Sarah tried to work out the promise of God. Sometimes we get into trouble when we try to work out the things of God, too. But you know what? God didn’t set him aside because of that. God led him along. And God is working, even with our mistakes. God is working with them. So. It says in Deuteronomy 26:5. This is the oldest statement in the whole Bible, Deuteronomy 26:5. It is believed, that is. Deuteronomy 26, verse 5. I’m going to tell you people, you’ve got to set your eyes on the Lord. The way I do with God I say, "God, you aren’t turning me loose because I’m not turning you loose. I’m going to get my hands around You and I‘m going to hold on to you and I don’t care what I have to go through I’m going to hold on to you." God loves that. He just loves it! Because he doesn’t want to let loose of you either. And he might not like your ways at times, but he’s not going to let loose of you. And you’re going to be so miserable, so stinking miserable, that you’ll finally turn around and do it His way. But you’re going to do it His way. No matter who you are, you’re going to do it His way. Believe me, you’re going to do it His way. You may do it kicking, but you’re going to do it. God’s going to see to it. And he’ll drag you in kicking if he has to. But he’s going to get you, unless you absolutely set your face against Him and decide you don’t believe in Him anymore. In Deuteronomy 26:5. He says "And thou shall speak and say before the Lord thy God 'A Syrian ready to perish was my father, and he went down into Egypt; and sojourned there with a few, and became there a nation, great, mighty, and populous.' " This translation says the oldest statement of faith is the Wandering Aramain Story. If one examines the life of Abraham, Chapters 12-15, (you need to read that) the whole emphasis is on the notion of Testing. This is where we fail greatly. This is where we fail. If you are in a testing God is showing you something. It’s a privilege to be tested. Do you realize that? I’ll tell you what, I don’t like to be tested and at the moment I’m going through it I don’t count it as a privilege. But I notice years up the road, twenty years ago, the testings that I went through, that I am a different person because of those testings and that I would never be the person that I am today. The good part of me would never be there if it hadn’t been for the testing because God was bringing something up to me and he was showing something to me about myself that needed to die. All right. So if we examine the story of Abraham the whole emphasis is on the notion of testing. Leaving aside the three characters of the trinity, what is uppermost in these stories is that this is a test almost like Job. You will go through the test of Job your own way. Abraham is given divine instructions and was expected to fulfill these instructions without questioning. I’m going to tell you something, if you met God as Abraham met God you wouldn’t have a question. Because we look at God as someone around us and God is a being that when we stand in His presence that there is nothing left of you. There is no protest, there is no, well people say that when I stand before God I’m going to ask him everything that didn’t get done here on Earth. No you’re not. You don’t know whom you’re talking about when you talk about God that way. Because what you’re going to do is you’re going to feel like a tiny little being, a tiny little person. And here is the great wonderful beautiful God that is unbelievable to you because you’re nothing like Him. And it puts your perspective of yourself in a different way. We see ourselves as too important, we see ourselves as too big. So here’s what he says, he says here that this is a test almost like Job. Abraham is given divine instruction without explanation and is expected to fulfill these instructions and not question God. This he does over and over despite the pressure that he receives from his wife. We’re talking about Sara and how she put pressure on Abraham. In commanding Abraham to offer up Isaac, listen to what happens here. . . Abraham had waited 20 years for this boy. His wife could not have a child. And all of a sudden God promises him, "I will give you out of your own bowels, out of your own self; I will give you an heir." I will give you an heir. So, when it didn’t happen they tried to work it out their self but God said, "No, this is not the way, this is not the way," so God gave him his son, finally, in His very old age. Think of how proud he must have been of that. Think of how he had waited and prayed and asked God for that child. And God is asking him to give His child up. Has God lost His mind? Who is this God that would do such a thing? How cruel this seems to be! But listen to what happens here. In commanding Abraham to offer up Isaac, God is apparently destroying, to Abraham, he’s destroying His promise. There’s nothing left of the promise if he offers up Isaac. It’s the same with Jesus. If God offers up Jesus, where does the promise go? But you can’t see ahead. You cannot see beyond what you can see. Listen to this. All the blessings that God had promised to bring about were bound up in Isaac. Every promise that God had made to Abraham rested on that son. And yet he was told to offer him up to God, to kill him. This trial goes beyond any previous trial that Abraham had gone through. God himself rises up as His enemy. And I want each of you to look at your lives. Look at your lives because you’ve gone through a tremendous testing, some more than others. But something is happening; beyond what you can see. And this is where Faith is the relationship that God is building within you. He is doing something within you. If you had everything your way all your life, you’d be nothing but spoiled brats. Thinking that you were very, very strong and very, very mighty and very, very capable. But God wants you in a place where you don’t feel so capable. That is when he can do something with you. Listen to this. This trial went beyond previous trials that Abraham had. And he had a lot of them. He waited 20 years. God himself rises up as the enemy of His own work with men and he does it with you. Listen to what I’m saying. God himself rises up as the enemy of His own works with men and hides himself so deeply for the receiver of the promise, which was Abraham. Only the way of utter forsakenness by God seems to stand out in this account. Abraham thinks he’s forsaken by God. God has forsaken Abraham. The promise he had made to Abraham is going down the drain. And here he stands a forsaken man. Abraham is tested. Now listen to this. What better testing. Abraham, are you going to fire me? Are you going to still follow me now? Abraham, can you be the father of this nation? Can you lead these people into Faith? Abraham, is your faith going to go down the drain now with this test I’m placing upon you? Abraham felt forsaken for a moment, but yet, do you know what he did? He took Isaac, he took him up that mountain, he walked through there to get to that mountain and he got up on that mountain and he had Isaac tied up and Isaac let him do it because he was a man of about 35 years old. He wasn’t a kid. Abraham was tested and the testing it would seem was not just something out here. Not just something out here somewhere where somebody is kind of shooting darts at you. But it was the foundation for the relationship. Let me tell you something people. There is going to be a foundation for your relationship with God and you know what it’s going to be. Testing. Testing. Testing. Testing. And when you get through that test and you believe God and you hang onto the Faith of God something inside of you is going to be the image of God. Something inside of you died that needed to die - that needed to leave. So the foundation for the relationship that God has chosen for each one of us has to go through a test. The foundation. In Genesis 16:6 this word is only used twice in the Hebrew scripture. Faith. The most astonishing aspect (now we’re going to look at David, of David’s story) is the free gift of this relationship that God chose him. Just as astonishing that God chose me. I can’t get over it. I was in my study last night - almost scared me because I felt the presence of God come in and it scared me because it was so strong. And I said, you know, "Lord!". Bill was here Friday night and the presence of God came over. Bill had never felt the presence of God like that before and it moved His heart. It got ahold of him. It moved his heart and he said, "I’ve never felt anything like that before." I’m going to tell you something, people. After being in the presence of that great being called God (and I’m going to tell you something I’ve never felt anything like it - - nothing) it absolutely lets you know that there’s nothing here on earth worth keeping. All of it is to be given up for God. I’m talking about selfishness. I’m talking about falling away from God. All of this should be given up. We should make our dedication so strong and set our face like flint just like Jesus did and head to the Lord. But we will be tested. You will be tested, and re-tested. And sometimes I wonder if it wouldn’t be easier if we were being fed to the lions. And we were being killed. And our heads taken off and burned in fires than it would be to work in a church. Think about it. Because what you have to do is work out your relationship with one another. Whether you like each other or whether you like what the other person is doing or whatever is going on. Because when you’re being fed to the lions it’s forever. But you know, it takes a courageous person to renew a relationship after you’ve been offended. That’s pretty rough. But it’s a trial. It’s all a trial to test our faith and cause us to be changed into the image of God. It’s all a trial. It’s a test. Look what Job went through. He lost His whole family. And I’ve thought of this time and time again. Yes God, even His children. But you think about that. Lord, how can that be? How can that be right? How can it be right, he watched His children die. The other kids wouldn’t have replaced the ones that died. God didn’t say they would. And you know what Job says? All of His friends said, "Oh yeah, Job, you’ve sinned against God. This wouldn’t have happened to you had you not sinned." People always do that because they haven’t been through those trials. But when they go through the trials it’s a different story. And you know what? God didn’t tell him, "I’ll give you your other children back again." (He said,) "I’ll give you new children." Job said, in the midst of all this, "I will serve you." That’s where we should be. We’ve got to make that statement, we’ve got to make that dedication to God or we’re not going to last. You’re going to fall away. OK. now. So the most astonishing aspect of David’s story is the feature of relationship. And the way of his chosenness supplements testing as the central piece of God’s work. So chosenness and testing go together. If you are chosen by God you will be tested. Is it terrible? It’s terrible when you’re going through it. But after you get through it you see the reason for it. And people, we need to be more personal with ourselves than we are with anybody. We need to look at what God is trying to show us. Not the other thing or the other person or the other situation that is going on – but what about us. God is working with you. There are two distinct covenants in Israel. The Sinai covenant is a relationship based on mutual relationships and promises. "You shall be my people and I shall be your God": Exodus 19:5. "You only have I known of all the families of the earth", God said. "Therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities." Amos 3:2. The second covenant is an unconditional covenant or a covenant of a grant. This is the covenant that was made with David. The promise made to David did not depend upon David’s future responses or those of His descendants. The oath, which Yahweh takes on behalf of David, is the result of David’s previous activities. It is the ancestor who is the human partner in the covenant and that ancestor was Abraham. David’s actions are clear enough. He is called. Are you called? Have you been called? God said many are called but few are chosen. You’re called. I‘m telling you, everybody sitting in this room that I know of is called. You’ve been called to covenant. You’ve been called to Faith. It says here, that David’s actions are clear enough. He is called and he responds. He serves Yahweh’s purpose. He is the agent of a historical change in Israel. And if David hadn’t been the one; if God couldn’t have gotten David to do what He wanted him to do, God would have chosen someone else. Look at Saul. Tragic figure; David’s intense loyalty; his unswerving devotion to the cause of extending the land which God had promised to Abraham. He listened. He obeyed without question. Did David sin once in awhile? Did David make mistakes once in awhile? You bet he did. He never got over them. He never got over them. He lived with those all of His life. He achieved goals and the goals that David achieved made real God's divine promises. He promised them a land. They received the land through David. Of course he didn’t conquer the whole land, but those promises were made real through David. As in the binding of Isaac, David, too, was tested. Not so much in specific acts but in the whole thrust of His life. His life’s actions are a response to the call that he’d received. Our actions are many times a response to the call that we’ve received. As the result of His faithfulness to the call of Yahweh, he is made the bearer of unconditional promises from God. He brought forth Jesus Christ. There are two poles of the life of faith, and it’s not obstacles, but it is one side and then the other of the same truth that’s going to be shown to us about faith. There are two poles to the life of faith in the Hebrew Bible which is the Old Covenant: Abraham which was obedience and faithfulness. Abraham obeyed God and he was very faithful to God. In David it was chosenness and a reward. He was rewarded. This illumines or makes it come to light now one side, and then the other. The one side is obedience and faithfulness, and the other is chosen, freely chosen and rewarded. Do you see it. This is Faith. The Faith of Israel was seen primarily in the context of community. Now listen to this. This is very important. This is what I’m telling you. If anything gets out of order with our relationship with one another as a community of people, believers, it needs to be straightened out; because this is what happens. To Israel the faith of Israel was seen primarily as a relationship between the faithful community and Yahweh. The faithful community and Yahweh. It was not a conversion experience in the Old Covenant that brought individuals to Faith. It was their involvement in the community of Yahweh, the people of the Lord, that brought them to faith. The core of Israel’s faith was and is in, listen to this: The core of Israel’s faith was and is in - Can anybody tell me what it would be in? Their faith. What is it in? Does anybody know what Israel’s faith is founded on? The Seder Meal. The Meal of the Covenant that Jesus Christ said, "you must drink my blood and you must eat my body." But with the Jewish people it was being brought up out of Egypt - the Passover Meal, which is Christ himself, the Lamb of God. So it says here, it was their involvement in the community of Yahweh, the People of the Lord. The core of Israel’s Faith was and is in the Seder Meal and the celebration of the Passover. The focus of their faith was in remembering; remembering what God had done. Sometimes I think we forget what God has done. I really do. The History of Israel is not past; you don’t look to the past all the time, but you look to the future. And I thought about that a lot. And it says that Israel believe that they live on through their ancestors eternally. I believe that there is a resurrection. And some Jewish people do and some Jewish people believe that they just live on in the memories of their children, which I do not. I just don’t believe that at all. I believe we do live on in the memories of our children. It says, for the focus of their faith was in remembrance. God is not predictable except in one way. You cannot predict God except in one way. Hesed -Mercy. God is Merciful. This freedom that God gives in this relationship that he’s founded on a relationship with God: Faith, it’s called Faith. This freedom is founded on a relationship. And this relationship is described in a significant way through the analogy of a covenant that God made with man. I love that. Prophets reveal the eternal in the temporal. They proclaim the future against what is going on now, and make their remembrance of God real now. God can’t be real in the past. God has to be real now. |