back to index2020-10-4 Enduring Faith
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If you can turn your Bibles with me to Hebrews chapter 11. 00:00:09.500 |
I'm going to be reading verses 1 and 2, but actually I want 00:00:14.900 |
so that we understand his thought flow that got us 00:00:20.700 |
So I want to read it in context of verse 35 all the way 00:00:34.600 |
which has a great reward, for you have need of endurance 00:00:42.300 |
For yet in a little while, he who is coming will come 00:00:45.400 |
and will not delay, but my righteous one shall live 00:00:52.300 |
But we are not of those who shrink back to destruction, 00:00:54.800 |
but of those who have faith to the persevering of the soul. 00:00:58.400 |
Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, 00:01:07.700 |
Heavenly Father, we pray that you would ordain this time 00:01:12.400 |
to exalt yourself, your son, Holy Spirit, in your word. 00:01:17.700 |
Help us, Lord, to open our ears that we may understand, apply, 00:01:22.800 |
and to be obedient to all that you have given us. 00:01:25.500 |
Open our eyes that we may see a greater sight of your glory, 00:01:38.900 |
Let me ask you, how many of you guys have been following the 00:01:44.400 |
Okay, I heard the ratings have been down tremendously, 00:01:48.900 |
but you know, obviously, if you've been a Lakers fan 00:01:51.200 |
for a while, we haven't been here in a while. 00:01:54.200 |
So it's exciting to see what's going on, but you know, 00:01:57.400 |
I don't know if you've noticed, but one of the things 00:01:59.700 |
that they've been doing in order to gain an edge 00:02:07.100 |
the black Mamba jerseys, and then so after they win a game, 00:02:14.700 |
And they would say, "Yeah, you know, like the spirit of Mamba 00:02:18.500 |
was with us, and we were, you know, extra motivated, 00:02:24.600 |
but there's a video clip going around where, I think it was 00:02:27.600 |
from the Lakers Nation, where there's a video 00:02:30.200 |
of LeBron James scoring 81st point at the third quarter, 00:02:50.300 |
like those of you guys who have smiles on your faces know exactly 00:02:54.000 |
Eighty-one was Kobe Bryant's highest scoring game 00:02:58.100 |
that he had during his career against the Raptors. 00:03:04.800 |
Eight was the number he wore when he first came in, 00:03:06.900 |
and 24 was the number that he wore before he retired. 00:03:10.400 |
And so they were making a big deal about, you know, 00:03:18.400 |
And they would ask, you know, do you think Mamba had anything? 00:03:23.100 |
And the players would, you know, players who are loyal 00:03:29.900 |
You know, I believe his presence was with us. 00:03:34.100 |
He's helping us getting to the end of the finals. 00:03:38.700 |
Obviously, we don't believe that, or we're not Christians, right? 00:03:44.500 |
Because that term faith is being used, you know, 00:03:47.100 |
in the culture where it's about winning ball games or, you know, 00:03:50.800 |
about, you know, having Kobe in the presence and helping us out. 00:03:55.700 |
Because the chapter we're going to be looking at 00:03:57.800 |
for the next month and a half is, it's all about faith. 00:04:02.200 |
We're going to be on the subject about faith for about six weeks 00:04:08.200 |
Twenty-four separate times, just in one chapter, 00:04:13.100 |
In fact, in almost every verse, almost every verse 00:04:16.900 |
or almost every paragraph starts by saying, by faith. 00:04:34.100 |
First Corinthians chapter 13, we typically say that's a chapter of love. 00:04:37.800 |
So if you want to know the definition of love, 00:04:43.500 |
On the flip side, if you want to know about faith, 00:04:45.900 |
this is the chapter that you need to go to, right? 00:04:50.500 |
Not everything that you need to know about faith is written in this chapter, 00:04:53.600 |
but this is a go-to chapter if you want to do an exposition 00:04:59.800 |
Now, having said that, we can't emphasize enough, 00:05:03.800 |
we can't stress enough how important it is for us 00:05:06.400 |
to not only understand this faith, but to be practicing this faith. 00:05:10.700 |
Obviously, because you wouldn't be saved without faith. 00:05:15.400 |
We wouldn't be here. There is no Christianity without faith. 00:05:21.600 |
You cannot win a spiritual battle without faith. 00:05:27.200 |
he would see different people, and whether they were doing great works, 00:05:32.700 |
he would always describe it as having great faith, or little faith, 00:05:36.900 |
or having no faith, and that's how he distinguished people. 00:05:40.600 |
He distinguished people by saying, "You have faith, you have no faith, 00:05:43.700 |
you have little faith, you have great faith." 00:05:49.300 |
because that's what connected these people to him. 00:05:54.100 |
So, what we're going to be endeavoring in chapter 11 00:05:57.700 |
is as crucial as any other thing that we've been studying. 00:06:02.800 |
But understand, again, the reason why I read the last part of chapter 10 00:06:06.900 |
is to give you the context of why chapter 11 is here. 00:06:10.600 |
The purpose of chapter 11 is not simply to give us the idea, 00:06:18.000 |
The goal of it is, "Oh, this is so important, 00:06:24.800 |
that you're able to quote verse 1. That's not his point. 00:06:33.700 |
You need to endure, because the righteous shall live by faith. 00:06:41.400 |
is the accumulation of all the arguments that he's been making in 10 chapters. 00:06:47.400 |
That you are not enduring, you are drifting, you're not paying attention. 00:06:51.700 |
And if you aren't paying attention, and you think it's no big deal, 00:06:56.000 |
it's that there's a severe judgment that is waiting to take it seriously. 00:07:01.500 |
But once you've done that, and you recognize where you are, 00:07:04.200 |
realize that the only way that you're going to be able to persevere 00:07:12.000 |
and be connected to God, and persevere by this faith. 00:07:19.300 |
So he's going to give us the definition of faith, 00:07:23.100 |
and then how that was played out in Israel's history. 00:07:29.900 |
And then based on that, he's going to go to chapter 12, 00:07:35.100 |
that were saved by faith, that lived by faith, that died by faith, 00:07:41.900 |
And so that'll take us to chapter 12, and to the rest of the book of Hebrews. 00:07:45.800 |
So again, I want you to understand what we're doing in the context of where we're at. 00:07:50.100 |
So today, I want to look at just the first two verses, 00:07:53.700 |
and there's three things that I want to highlight in this text, 00:08:08.300 |
The second point of it is, what faith is not. 00:08:11.400 |
That's not clearly in the text, but we wanted to make sure, 00:08:14.400 |
in order for us to clearly understand what faith is, 00:08:23.500 |
And that will take us to the rest of the verses in chapter 11. 00:08:28.200 |
So what faith is, what faith is not, and what faith does. 00:08:32.200 |
So let's look at the first part, what faith is. 00:08:41.100 |
That was the last question that I asked, if you're on the Facebook, 00:08:43.800 |
and you look at, and again, hopefully, some of you guys are, 00:08:47.900 |
more and more of you guys are looking at that before you come to service, 00:08:50.900 |
because it will help you to be better listeners, 00:09:02.000 |
So the answer to that, at least according to this text, 00:09:17.300 |
Most of your translations have something to that effect. 00:09:24.900 |
And then it is the conviction of things not seen. 00:09:27.800 |
Well, I asked you to compare the translation of those words 00:09:32.600 |
in the King James and New King James versus the NASB. 00:09:36.100 |
I'm not going to ask you to raise your hand to tell me if you did it or not, 00:09:42.500 |
Maybe I'll be encouraged, but I don't want to take the chance. 00:09:46.000 |
The difference between the New King James or King James versus the NASB 00:09:50.900 |
is that in the NASB, this is how it's translated. 00:10:05.700 |
Let me read it in NASB, and then I'm going to read it in King James. 00:10:08.900 |
"Faith is"—this is the NASB—"assurance of things hoped for, 00:10:16.700 |
The King James version says, "Faith is the substance of things hoped for, 00:10:28.600 |
Okay, well, if you didn't, I'm going to explain. 00:10:32.300 |
If you read it in the NASB, it sounds like a subjective application of what faith does. 00:10:47.700 |
In the King James, it says, "Faith is the substance, 00:10:59.700 |
In the NASB, there is a subjective application of faith. 00:11:03.800 |
In the King James, it just describes the truth, an objective truth of what it is. 00:11:14.800 |
Okay, even if you didn't get it, this is what we're going to be talking about today. 00:11:21.900 |
If you read the NASB, it just reads it very plainly in English. 00:11:25.300 |
This is what faith—it's just describing what faith is. 00:11:33.100 |
Right? Okay, let me just leave that right there. 00:11:37.800 |
Well, the literal translation almost always is the King James version, 00:11:41.300 |
because the King James version did not make much effort to try to translate into our—the way we speak. 00:11:49.400 |
So if something didn't make sense in English, 00:11:51.500 |
they did the extra work of trying to use words that you and I are familiar with. 00:11:59.200 |
King James just kind of took what is in the Greek, 00:12:01.400 |
and if that's what it says, they just translated it. 00:12:03.400 |
So sometimes—you know, a lot of times, King James is hard to read, 00:12:06.900 |
because that's not the way we speak normally, right? 00:12:09.900 |
But if you want to know literally, word for word, how it is said in the Greek, 00:12:21.600 |
And though having said that, the word for assurance in Greek is "hupostasis." 00:12:29.400 |
And it is—the literal understanding of the "hupo" means to be under. 00:12:37.200 |
So the literal understanding of this is to "substance." 00:12:44.900 |
Because under, "sub," and then "stasis," it means to stand. 00:12:53.600 |
So the King James says, in translation of "hupostasis," "substance." 00:13:02.900 |
Which was basically, "substance" is the stuff that you stand on. 00:13:09.400 |
Whatever it is that you're building, it is the foundation in which something is built. 00:13:14.300 |
So the literal understanding of what faith is, just like we said earlier, 00:13:20.500 |
faith—everything that you and I know about Christianity stands on the foundation of this faith. 00:13:29.800 |
Faith is the substance of things hoped for, things that we desire about Christ. 00:13:34.900 |
Everything that he promised, we stand on that faith. 00:13:37.900 |
And then it is the evidence of the things that we don't see. 00:13:41.900 |
It is the proof of things that we do not see. 00:13:51.600 |
Well, the reason why is because the word "hupostasis," used in other parts of the Bible, 00:13:57.300 |
is used either way depending upon the context. 00:14:01.400 |
So in some contexts, this word is used subjectively to refer to assurance, having confidence. 00:14:09.200 |
And then there are some places where it's strictly just talking about the objective truth of something. 00:14:14.200 |
It is the evidence. It is the proof of something. 00:14:20.500 |
So if that context doesn't help, we have to look at the smaller context. 00:14:23.400 |
How does the author use it in the book of Hebrews? 00:14:27.100 |
Well, we have a problem with that because there's only a couple places where he uses it. 00:14:31.500 |
And in those places, one uses it subjectively, one uses it objectively. 00:14:38.500 |
So if we look at the immediate context of how he uses it here, 00:14:44.400 |
and you have to understand, he's taking where we are in the book of Hebrew. 00:14:54.500 |
Because what's happening in chapter 11 is he took 11 chapters of doing what? 00:15:01.500 |
Proving the superiority of Christ, of the objective truth that Christ is superior to everything that you know. 00:15:10.200 |
So he's been setting the foundation, correct? 00:15:21.800 |
Now he goes to chapter 11. What is chapter 11 about? 00:15:29.800 |
So we're right in the middle of taking the objective truth and then applying it to our lives. 00:15:39.600 |
And he begins by giving us examples of the men and women who went before us in the Old Testament, 00:15:45.600 |
how this objective truth was applied subjectively in their lives. 00:15:50.300 |
And then once he transitions, he gets to chapter 12, 00:15:53.200 |
and he's going to tell us, what does this faith look like in your life? 00:15:59.800 |
So having said that, which is it? Is it objective? Is it subjective? 00:16:08.200 |
Because without the objective faith, there is no subjective application. 00:16:13.200 |
And we happen to be right at that transition. 00:16:16.600 |
So let me go a little bit further, talking about what this means. 00:16:21.100 |
It is the substance of things hoped for. It is the evidence of things not seen. 00:16:28.600 |
In other words, he's saying, I've been telling you all this stuff about who Jesus is, 00:16:36.100 |
It's not just something that people say, it's like, you know, I have faith in this and I have faith in that. 00:16:42.800 |
And that's why Jesus looked at what was happening in the New Testament during his era. 00:16:47.100 |
He said, you have little faith, you have great faith, you have no faith. 00:16:52.900 |
And so he says, faith can be observed. It is the substance. It is the evidence. 00:17:04.100 |
In Thessalonians, Paul sends Timothy back because he was chased out of that town, 00:17:08.500 |
and he was worried that they were going to backslide because of all the enemy's work. 00:17:12.300 |
Timothy comes back with a good report. Remember what he says? 00:17:15.900 |
He says that we rejoice because your faith has become the model for all the other Christians, all the other churches. 00:17:26.500 |
Now, how did he know that? How did they know that they were thriving? 00:17:30.200 |
How did they know that he was becoming? Did he go there and count? 00:17:33.200 |
How many of you believe? And then people raise their hands. 00:17:37.300 |
15, 16, last time it was 16, so this time we have 18. So he said, they're thriving. 00:17:45.200 |
You know, I had an altar call and more people came. 00:17:54.500 |
He saw the tangible evidence of their faith and how it affected their life. 00:17:59.600 |
So when he said that they became a model citizen, 00:18:02.400 |
he wasn't simply talking about a subjective feeling inside, a confession, 00:18:07.700 |
like somebody confessed them more deeply, more articulately than before. 00:18:12.000 |
No, he was observing the application of their faith, 00:18:15.900 |
and he saw that even in the midst of persecution and danger, 00:18:21.000 |
that their faith radically transformed them, that they were known for their love, 00:18:28.700 |
So Paul, Timothy was observing tangibly what this faith looks like, 00:18:35.000 |
and he said they have great faith despite the persecution. 00:18:39.100 |
So when he says faith is the substance of things hoped for, 00:18:45.600 |
It's not just intangible things because, you know, these guys who he's writing to, 00:18:50.400 |
the author is writing to, were professing right doctrine, 00:18:54.500 |
but their life was drifting back to their old life. 00:18:58.200 |
So the problem that he was addressing is you're professing with your mouth, 00:19:02.800 |
but with your life you're drifting back to your old life. 00:19:06.700 |
So what he is saying in chapter 11 is you're professing objective truth, 00:19:11.900 |
but true objective truth is tangibly seen by how it is applied in the life of a believer. 00:19:19.900 |
We do not believe that we are saved by our works, 00:19:24.100 |
but works is evidence of our faith, whether it's little faith, 00:19:28.600 |
whether it's sliding faith, or whether it's great faith, or whether there's no faith. 00:19:33.900 |
That's what he means here when he says faith is tangible. 00:19:37.600 |
It is a substance of things that we cannot tangibly see. 00:19:42.400 |
Now let me give you an illustration of this to better make sense of this. 00:19:53.900 |
If you don't, how did you survive all these years, right? 00:20:00.400 |
So if you believe in gravity, okay, which I'm assuming 100% of you will say you believe in gravity, 00:20:30.700 |
Because without gravity, we wouldn't be stuck to the ground, right? 00:20:35.400 |
It's not certain people who are heavier, you know, 00:20:39.600 |
where we're stuck to the ground and everybody else is floating around. 00:20:43.200 |
He said we see the work of gravity by how everything else works. 00:20:58.400 |
If no one would build a building, no one would spend millions of dollars building a building 00:21:04.100 |
if they weren't sure if that building was going to fly away into the galaxy. 00:21:11.500 |
So everything, whether you and I are conscious or not, 00:21:15.600 |
everything is based on this belief that what we know, 00:21:21.100 |
even though we can't explain it, even though we cannot see it, 00:21:27.300 |
So this belief in gravity is the foundation upon which we build everything that we do in life. 00:21:36.600 |
So faith is the substance of things that we hope for, 00:21:49.700 |
Even though we can't see it, even though I can't clearly define it for you, 00:21:54.500 |
it says you can see faith because everything that we know about the reality of heaven 00:21:59.900 |
is based upon this truth of what Jesus has told us, 00:22:05.500 |
that our sins are forgiven, that because of this, 00:22:08.100 |
that when we die, we're going to be in eternity with Christ, 00:22:13.800 |
and we're going to be saved and be in heaven for eternity. 00:22:17.600 |
And so everything that you and I do as Christians 00:22:21.600 |
are based upon this set of truths that you and I believe, 00:22:40.100 |
Now having said that, I need to explain what faith is not. 00:22:47.800 |
even in the church sometimes, it confuses people. 00:23:00.100 |
So when LeBron James or whoever says, "Oh, I just believe," 00:23:30.800 |
And that is the mantra of the word faith movement. 00:23:40.300 |
which is the possibility is very high right now, right? 00:23:48.900 |
who just won the championship and say, "I believed. 00:24:00.400 |
Everybody said, you know, that the Clippers were going to win. 00:24:07.200 |
They didn't give us the odds, but we never stopped believing. 00:24:12.700 |
And because of their belief, they were able to win the championship. 00:24:28.200 |
You have some people who come up there to compete in a competition 00:24:35.600 |
For whatever the reason, I think as the years went by, 00:24:38.000 |
they got rid of more and more people who really don't belong there. 00:24:41.900 |
remember the beginning of that show, American Idol? 00:24:44.800 |
There are some guys like, how did he get up there, right? 00:24:53.300 |
There are some guys, they couldn't even hit a note, you know? 00:24:56.600 |
And they would come there and say, yeah, you know, 00:24:59.500 |
I was always told I'm no good and everybody tried to stop me. 00:25:16.700 |
And we were looking at that, and we said, no, he's true. 00:25:18.800 |
He's like, you know, maybe the way he said it was mean, but that's true. 00:25:23.100 |
Just because you believe doesn't make your voice better. 00:25:28.300 |
Just because you believe, you're not going to achieve. 00:25:30.800 |
So the best thing that he, somebody should have told him. 00:25:34.400 |
Somebody should have told him that you're not gifted in that. 00:25:48.900 |
So not only is it false, it's dangerous when it is applied in the wrong place. 00:25:56.100 |
In fact, you and I live in a world where the word faith is used by politicians. 00:26:03.200 |
Oprah, Joel Osteen, Benny Hinn, LeBron James, Lancy Pelosi. 00:26:08.000 |
These are all people that I've heard in the last few months saying how faith is so powerful. 00:26:22.800 |
In fact, there's a lot of songs out there, secular songs, that have nothing to do with Christ, 00:26:46.100 |
So a guy named George Michael, he had a song called, "You Gotta Have Faith." 00:26:51.500 |
Anybody who knows George Michael knows he's not a Christian. 00:26:54.000 |
I'm not going to get into what he got caught doing and all that background stuff, 00:26:59.800 |
But he has a song called, "You Gotta Have Faith," and let me read you his lyrics. 00:27:03.700 |
"Well, I guess it would be nice if I could touch your body." 00:27:09.000 |
"I know that everybody has got a body like you, 00:27:14.500 |
but I gotta think twice before I give my heart away, 00:27:17.200 |
and I know all the games you play because I play them too. 00:27:20.700 |
Oh, but I need some time off from that emotion, 00:27:26.000 |
Oh, when that love comes down without devotion, 00:27:30.700 |
but I'm showing you the door 'cause I gotta have faith, gotta have faith, 00:27:36.200 |
because I gotta have faith, faith, faith, I gotta have faith, faith, faith." 00:27:41.800 |
He's not talking about the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. 00:27:45.900 |
The way that the term "faith" is being used in our culture, 00:27:49.200 |
it's like, "If you believe, you can achieve." 00:27:54.600 |
It is not faith in faith that gives you power. 00:28:02.600 |
Jesus gives a parable of the sower and the seed, 00:28:06.000 |
and out of the four soils, only one soil endures and bears fruit. 00:28:11.800 |
The other three, either immediately dies, or after a little bit it dies, 00:28:16.600 |
or it looks like it's going to bear fruit, and then it gets choked, and it dies, 00:28:22.400 |
But the distinction between the one that lives and bears fruit— 00:28:28.100 |
versus those who seem to bear fruit and then they die is how they receive what? 00:28:40.900 |
And does the seed, when it lands on wherever you are, 00:28:51.400 |
It says, "So faith comes from hearing, and the hearing by the Word of Christ." 00:28:58.600 |
So faith is not faith in faith. Faith is in what? 00:29:04.000 |
Faith comes from hearing of the hearing of the Word of Christ, 00:29:06.600 |
because faith is what connects us to the unseen. 00:29:10.200 |
And what is the greatest of the unseen? God himself. 00:29:14.400 |
So faith is the evidence of what we hope for. 00:29:18.200 |
It is a substance or evidence or proof of what is unseen, which is God himself. 00:29:25.700 |
Some people ask me, "Why is your church so hooked on teaching the Bible, 00:29:31.600 |
memorizing Scripture, you know, expiatory preaching, and inductive Bible study? 00:29:35.800 |
You know, what about homeless? What about this? And what about that?" 00:29:43.500 |
But the Bible says that the central thing that connects us to God is faith. 00:29:50.500 |
Not your hard work, not organization, not older brothers, not good leaders. 00:29:58.000 |
He said it's faith. Faith is what connects you and makes things that aren't seen real. 00:30:06.500 |
So the greatest thing that you and I need to cultivate is faith. 00:30:11.000 |
And the way that we get faith, the way that the faith grows, is through what? 00:30:19.300 |
And you may sit here and sit all your life, hear the Word of Christ, 00:30:26.000 |
But no matter what you do the rest of your life, you're not standing on the right foundation. 00:30:34.600 |
Without the Word of Christ, it doesn't matter if you feed the poor. 00:30:37.800 |
Without the Word of Christ and our faith, it doesn't matter if we are doing social justice 00:30:46.800 |
Because faith is what connects us to this living God. 00:30:50.400 |
John 10.27, "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me." 00:30:57.700 |
That's what he's been doing. He's been spending ten chapters establishing Christ as what? 00:31:06.900 |
And chief cornerstone in modern English just means it's foundation. 00:31:10.600 |
That Jesus is the foundation upon which we build everything else. 00:31:14.100 |
So if you drift away from Christ, it doesn't matter what you build. 00:31:18.800 |
It doesn't matter how hard you work. It doesn't matter how well you educate your kids. 00:31:22.900 |
If we drift away from the foundation, Christ is a chief cornerstone. 00:31:28.600 |
In 1 Peter 1.20-25, "For you have been born again, not of seed, which is perishable, but imperishable. 00:31:34.700 |
That is through the living and enduring Word of God. 00:31:37.400 |
For all flesh is like grass, and all its glory like the flower of the grass. 00:31:41.000 |
The grass withers and the flower falls off, but the Word of the Lord endures forever. 00:31:44.900 |
And this is the Word which was preached to you." 00:31:48.600 |
Everything else, every other foundation is going to dry up, is going to rot, is going to die. 00:31:56.900 |
But only what's built, our salvation, our sanctification, our glorification, 00:32:01.500 |
that's built on the enduring Word of God will last forever. 00:32:05.800 |
So in other words, enduring faith is what's connected to the enduring Word. 00:32:14.700 |
So what faith is and what faith is not, and then thirdly, what faith does. 00:32:20.600 |
He says in verse 2, "For by it men of old gained approval." 00:32:27.200 |
He says in verse 6, "Without faith it is impossible to please God." 00:32:33.500 |
You can have knowledge, you can have passion, but he says without faith it is impossible to please God. 00:32:39.500 |
So he said this is what faith is, and here's all these people that I'm going to be mentioning, 00:32:43.400 |
and it is by faith that they endured, they suffered, and even died. 00:32:49.400 |
And by doing so, they found approval before God. 00:32:52.600 |
In other words, when they died, God said to each one of them, "Well done, my good and faithful servant." 00:32:58.800 |
Not simply because of hard work. Yes, faith caused them to have hard work. 00:33:02.400 |
Faith caused them to sacrifice. Faith caused them to do crazy things for God. 00:33:06.400 |
But it was faith that caused them to work, not work. 00:33:14.600 |
Now, all of this is basically what he was trying to tell them in Hebrews chapter 10, verse 34. 00:33:22.100 |
He says, "For you showed sympathy to the prisoners and accepted joyfully the seizure of your property, 00:33:27.100 |
knowing that you have for yourselves a better possession and a lasting one." 00:33:32.100 |
The reason why they were able to endure the first time when persecution came around, 00:33:36.600 |
and why now they're tempted to go back to their old life, 00:33:39.600 |
is because when it first came, they were anchored in Christ. 00:33:44.400 |
And they were able to see that there's a better possession coming. 00:33:47.800 |
Even if all of this gets stripped away, all of this gets stripped away, 00:33:52.100 |
he says, they saw clearly what was coming because of this faith. 00:34:00.100 |
Apostle Paul, that's what he means in Philippians when he says, 00:34:04.100 |
"In comparison to the surpassing knowledge of Jesus Christ." 00:34:09.600 |
The Bible says, "Satan blinds the mind of the unbelievers so they do not," what? 00:34:14.100 |
"So they do not see." How was our eyes open? Through faith. 00:34:19.600 |
So when faith caused us to see the eternal things as to be true, they had courage. 00:34:27.600 |
And that's why Paul says, "In light of what I saw in Christ, 00:34:31.600 |
everything that I knew here became rubbish in comparison." 00:34:37.600 |
So faith is what causes us to see that. Faith is what causes us to be connected to that. 00:34:43.600 |
And so he's trying to remind them to be re-anchored in Christ. 00:34:47.100 |
In Galatians 5.5, "For in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything." 00:34:56.600 |
How much time has Paul dedicated in the New Testament 00:35:03.100 |
to describe that circumcision is not necessary? 00:35:08.100 |
Is there a right and wrong with circumcision? 00:35:21.100 |
Paul, his whole second missionary journey was to go back to the churches and tell them, 00:35:30.100 |
That's his whole argument. He rebukes Peter and Barnabas because they wouldn't sit with the uncircumcised. 00:35:38.600 |
So is there a right and wrong answer with circumcision and uncircumcision? 00:35:47.600 |
Why does he say it doesn't matter whether circumcision or uncircumcision? 00:35:52.100 |
Because even your talk of right theology, if it is not coming from faith, is useless. 00:36:01.100 |
Even if you're theologically correct, if it's not faith, what does he say? 00:36:13.600 |
If it is not your faith in Christ that is evidenced by how you love, even correct theology is useless. 00:36:25.600 |
That's why this faith is so important because it's the foundation upon which we build everything. 00:36:30.100 |
So right theology has to come from right faith working itself out through love 00:36:39.100 |
1 Peter 1.7, "So the proof of your faith being more precious than gold, 00:36:43.600 |
which is perishable even through tested by fire, 00:36:46.600 |
may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ." 00:36:51.600 |
That even in the midst of suffering, that when you endure it, 00:36:56.600 |
it is proof that you are connected to the unseen, God himself. 00:37:11.600 |
This is how important being connected to Christ is. 00:37:17.100 |
And then he's going to show us what that looks like in the life of these believers. 00:37:22.100 |
Let me get practical and personal here for a minute in application. 00:37:30.100 |
The beginning of our salvation is faith, obviously. 00:37:43.100 |
If somebody off the street said, "You know, I want to be a Christian. 00:37:55.100 |
"Oh, I know this guy, this small group. Join that small group." 00:38:02.100 |
I'm talking about the very genesis of someone's connection to God. 00:38:11.100 |
"God died for you, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, died for you to take away your sins. 00:38:18.100 |
And he was resurrected that you may have a new life. 00:38:21.100 |
So if you believe that he died for you and that your sins are forgiven because of what he has done, 00:38:32.100 |
Now that will lead to teach them to observe all that I have commanded you, right? 00:38:38.100 |
But the first action, first thing that somebody who said, "I want to be a Christian," is 00:38:42.100 |
you need to confess and believe that Jesus forgave you of your sins. 00:38:50.100 |
But that's not the first and only time where that gets questioned. 00:38:58.100 |
It's like I raise my hand, I confess, and then we move on. 00:39:01.100 |
And there are many Christians living day to day in the process of sanctification 00:39:06.100 |
having a hard time believing that Christ forgave you. 00:39:11.100 |
There are people, tons of people that I've met, 00:39:15.100 |
who regurgitate what has happened in the past. 00:39:23.100 |
Maybe these things are happening because I did this in the past. 00:39:28.100 |
How many times could God possibly forgive for the same sins over and over again? 00:39:34.100 |
So even though we may profess it outwardly, inwardly, 00:39:39.100 |
there's a doubt whether he really forgave me. 00:39:43.100 |
And because there's doubts of his forgiveness, 00:39:47.100 |
that automatically trickles down to, "Does God really love me then?" 00:39:53.100 |
And so when we try to live out our sanctification without doubt lingering over us, 00:40:00.100 |
we have to prove ourselves to make sure that we are worthy of that love, 00:40:11.100 |
So the first and foremost thing that every Christian, 00:40:14.100 |
from the beginning, in the middle, and at the end, 00:40:19.100 |
is when Jesus says that if you confess your sins, 00:40:22.100 |
he is faithful and just to forgive you of all your unrighteousness. 00:40:28.100 |
You have to believe that with all your heart. 00:40:32.100 |
Because that's the only way that we have any connection 00:40:47.100 |
And when God says your sins are forgiven, he says it is forgotten. 00:40:53.100 |
He sees us as righteous because we're covered by the blood of Christ. 00:40:59.100 |
Jesus' righteousness was imputed in us, and that's what atonement is. 00:41:14.100 |
that his son had compassion and love and forgave. 00:41:20.100 |
That is the beginning point of our salvation. 00:41:24.100 |
and it is the only way that we can make it to glorification. 00:41:29.100 |
First and foremost, do you believe that you are forgiven? 00:41:42.100 |
how will he not along with him freely give us all things? 00:41:47.100 |
If you believe that Jesus died for your sins, 00:41:51.100 |
how do you struggle with the fact that he would give you anything that you need? 00:41:56.100 |
So many Christians, you know, accept that superficially 00:42:00.100 |
worrying that God's not going to care enough to take care of the things that I need. 00:42:11.100 |
It's illogical to believe that God would send his son 00:42:21.100 |
Whatever trials may be coming, be anchored in Christ. 00:42:25.100 |
What caused you to begin your relationship with God, 00:42:28.100 |
continue to anchor with him so that you may persevere in your faith. 00:42:36.100 |
because there are some of you who feel so weak in your faith, 00:42:44.100 |
Especially with this pandemic, and I was reading the statistics 00:42:47.100 |
of how many people have fallen out in their faith, 00:42:49.100 |
they said over a third of people who were attending church at one point 00:42:54.100 |
before the pandemic have walked away from their faith. 00:43:03.100 |
That's not something that any human being could have done. 00:43:07.100 |
And obviously from our perspective, we can see that as purification of the church, 00:43:12.100 |
but from another perspective, that's satanic work. 00:43:17.100 |
There are a lot of people who are barely hanging on. 00:43:19.100 |
Jesus said that if you have a faith of a mustard seed, you can move mountains. 00:43:33.100 |
You almost have to look at it and say, "What is that?" 00:43:50.100 |
So what he means by that is, that's how powerful that is. 00:44:01.100 |
that tiny little connection is more powerful than anything that you can think of. 00:44:11.100 |
The seed is the path that connects us to the Almighty. 00:44:19.100 |
He says, "Through faith that connects you to this powerful God, 00:44:31.100 |
Maybe you failed, and you have a hard time believing that God can possibly forgive you. 00:44:37.100 |
And you've drifted, and you've drifted, and you've drifted. 00:44:41.100 |
They say, "Well, mustard seed, I feel like it's even smaller than that." 00:44:46.100 |
My guess is if Jesus could point to something even smaller than a mustard seed, 00:44:50.100 |
he would have pointed at that, because that was his point. 00:45:02.100 |
Maybe some of you guys are out there right now. 00:45:05.100 |
Let me give you a powerful illustration of this, 00:45:18.100 |
Remember, today, if you have a crowd of 100 people, 00:45:25.100 |
Let's say if you got off the airport, and you're coming through International, 00:45:28.100 |
and there's 30 people with signs with your name on it. 00:45:44.100 |
This is at LAX, where there's millions of people that live here. 00:45:50.100 |
20,000 people are following him everywhere he goes. 00:45:54.100 |
So this is at the peak of Jesus' ministry, in John chapter 6. 00:45:58.100 |
And people are forgetting to feed their kids. 00:46:07.100 |
The disciples were constantly wondering, when the kingdom comes, 00:46:12.100 |
They didn't understand what Jesus came to do. 00:46:16.100 |
They knew him, but Jesus would say, "I'm going to go to the cross. 00:46:24.100 |
So imagine 20,000 people following their master wherever they go, 00:46:35.100 |
My guess is, every time the disciples stepped out, it's like, 00:46:41.100 |
They were probably celebrities because they were attached to Christ. 00:46:44.100 |
And so they were at the peak of their success. 00:46:52.100 |
We have 20,000 people and more who recognize who we are. 00:47:02.100 |
And then all of a sudden, Jesus has a conversation with these people saying, 00:47:06.100 |
"You're following me because you want bread." 00:47:19.100 |
That's the conversation that takes place in John chapter 6. 00:47:24.100 |
Jesus, recognizing that their hearts are hardened, 00:47:27.100 |
they don't really believe him, and then he says, 00:47:30.100 |
"If you want to follow me, you have to do what?" 00:47:32.100 |
"You have to eat my flesh and drink my blood." 00:47:38.100 |
I mean, that's the most sacrilegious thing that anybody can say. 00:47:42.100 |
They were told all their lives that if they drank the blood of animals, 00:47:48.100 |
But he's saying, "You've got to drink my blood and eat my flesh." 00:47:56.100 |
Because in John 6, 66, they said they turned away. 00:48:13.100 |
They're like, "Yes, we're the apostles of Jesus Christ." 00:48:19.100 |
They probably still have the baskets of bread and fish left over 00:48:23.100 |
that they're carrying around to identify who they were. 00:48:36.100 |
That's like having 10 million followers and waking up the next day 00:48:57.100 |
So after they left, Jesus turns to his disciples and he asks them, 00:49:11.100 |
"Simon Peter answered him, 'Lord, to whom shall we go? 00:49:18.100 |
We have believed and have come to know that you are the Holy One of God.'" 00:49:25.100 |
In other words, "I don't understand it either. 00:49:48.100 |
I don't know why you're causing all these problems 00:49:52.100 |
and why my life is so hard and why it's so difficult just to make it to the next day. 00:49:56.100 |
I don't know. I don't know what you're doing. 00:50:02.100 |
So their faith, that tiny little mustard seed, 00:50:12.100 |
There are times in our lives that our only confession is, 00:50:21.100 |
I don't know what's going on. I don't know why he's allowing this to happen. 00:51:22.100 |
Because persecution is here, and it is coming. 00:51:56.100 |
So if we're not grounded and connected to the Almighty God 00:52:02.100 |
if there's any time, confusion is going to come into the church, 00:52:11.100 |
to be connected to this Christ. Be in the word. 00:52:20.100 |
Heavenly Father, we thank you for your goodness. 00:52:36.100 |
even during the pandemic, it would only cause them to 00:52:42.100 |
But then there are also some of us who are just 00:53:12.100 |
Thank you, Lord. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.