Classic Christianity – A Closer Look at Faith, Hope & Love P15 (05-20-20)
Synopsis
Bob George shares foundational truth from God’s word concerning who Jesus Christ is and what he has said he has done for you and me. Jesus Christ is the object of our faith. He is the way, the truth and the life. He is God in the flesh, whom God sent to this earth to show us how man was designed to live. Even though he is God, he chose to live as man, living in total dependency upon His Father. Here was Jesus who was never anything less than God, finding Himself in appearance as a man, humbling Himself and walking in dependency or in obedience to His Father. He said the statement. “I do nothing on my own but I speak just what the Father has taught me.” We read that in John 8:28 and in John 12:49-50. “I do not speak on my own accord, but the Father who sent me commanded me what to say and how to say it.” He did his, so that we, who are not God, will know how to live, living in faith in what truth is, in listening to the voice of God, believing what He says and acting on that truth He reveals to us. When you come to know someone who loves and accepts you unconditionally, and has provided everything you need for life and godliness, then how hard is it to live by what He says, because you now trust every word that proceeds from His mouth.
The difficulty we have as fallen men is that we tend not to trust truth when we hear it. We tend to believe anything that any man says, yet fail to trust what is true when the Spirit is there trying to reveal truth to us. The Spirit of God is drawing all men to Himself. Are you willing to listen? Will you recognize your condition of spiritual death and come to receive this offer of new life in Christ Jesus. This same faith that enables you to invite Jesus into your life, to take residence in you, is the same faith we live as a child of God.
We come to Christ and yet error is in our heads from all the kinds of teachings we have heard, especially if you grew up in the various denominations that exist in today’s world. How many of you have heard that you need to keep short accounts with God? How many of you have heard that you need to ask God for forgiveness every time you sin? Have you been told that you need to come forward to the altar to get forgiveness of sins? Or that what Jesus did was positional forgiveness, but not actual forgiveness? Is that true? Can you walk by faith believing that? Are you walking by faith by believing such things? The first question you have to ask is, is that true? God says that His people shall worship Him in Spirit and in truth (John 4:24). So, first of all, do you have the Spirit of God living in you? He who has the Son, has the life, and not just any life, not temporal life, but eternal life. And he who does not have the Son does not have the life. Check out John 3. Is Christ in you and are you in Him? If not, be born again. Be Born Free. If you are in Christ, then are you believing what is true? Are you walking in truth?
Bob George goes to great lengths to unravel what people have believed to be true, but it is not. Let us look at just a few verses, and then ask the Lord to reveal to us what the word of God means, what He knows what it means and what He wants us to know, to know that we know we have eternal life. So, it is of utmost importance that you ask the Spirit of God to reveal truth to you for He is the only one who reveals truth to men.
Ephesians 1:7
7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins
John 19:30
30 When he had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.” With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.
1 John 5:12-13
12 Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.13 I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.
2 Peter 1:3-4
3 His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. 4 Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.
Now, just from the verse in Ephesians 1:7, what does it say? What does it mean? Does it say “in him we get redemption” or does it say “we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins”? You would very astutely say it says “we have”. If you have something, does that mean it is yours? Yes, it does. It means it is yours. What is yours is when you are in Him? Redemption. What else is yours? Forgiveness of sins. Does it say in there that in Him you have redemption if you ask for redemption? Anything there? No, it does not say that. It is something you possess as a result of being in Him. Knowing that in Him, you already have redemption and forgiveness, then would it be faith to be asking Him for what in Him you already have? No.
Now let us look at the passage in scripture in 2 Peter 1:3-4. What does He say we have already, when we are in Him? So, are we acting in faith when we ask Him to give us something we already have? What do we already have? Everything. Everything for what? For what we need or what we want? What do we really need? Life. God wants us to walk in an abundant life in Him, relaxing in Him, not straining to give something we already have or think we have, if we are not in Him. If you are in Him you have everything you need already for life and godliness. How? By the knowledge of Him. How well do you know Him? Are you convinced like the apostle Paul that nothing can separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus. Is not the unconditional acceptance and love of God the deepest need of the human heart, of your heart?
Think about these scriptures and ask the Lord if you are really walking in faith. What really pleases God is our faith in Him, just as Jesus walked as an example for us.
Transcript
This has been a fun study as we have been looking at this triplicate, faith, hope and love, to see how they flow together. You cannot have one without the other. As we say in regard to so many things, you cannot have one without the other, but do not mistake one for the other. They are three separate things yet they flow together in oneness together. As we walk in love, we are going to have to do so by walking in faith and walking in hope. It is something that all goes together.
We spent a lot of time on our programs last week in talking about the definition of what faith is, the fact that faith must have an object. That is, of course, our subject of our third chapter in our Closer Look at Faith, Hope and Love series.
We talked about what faith isn’t. Faith is not a feeling. Faith is based upon the object of our faith, who is Christ Jesus.
Hebrews 11:6
6 And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.
We are talking about faith, once again, having an object, who is the Lord Jesus Christ. Without faith, it is impossible to please God.
The issue is to know what true faith is. Someone asks, “Do I have faith in God to do something? ”, when the fact is He has already done it. Is that faith? Are you in Christ? If the answer is yes, then you have eternal life.
1 John 5:12
12 Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.
John 3:36
36 Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on them.
If you have the Son, you have life called eternal life. So let me ask you a question? Would it be faith, as a child of God, when you have been told that when you have the Son and the Son is in you, you have eternal life, then would it be faith to ask God to give you eternal life? Would it be faith that every time you sinned, that maybe you lost your life that He said you could not lose, and therefore, you are trying to get it back, would that be faith? No, that is not faith. Some people would construe that I have enough faith that I can get it back if I want to. I have enough faith to realize I blew it and I have faith in a formula to get my life back. Some people call that faith. The issue is if you are indeed n Christ Jesus, you have eternal life. That is your possession. It is not something you get. It is something you have gotten already. If I have already received something from God, then I am asking a question. Is it faith, therefore, to ask God to give you what you already have? What is that an indicator of? It is an indicator that you do not believe He says you have. Is it then possible to please God? No, it is impossible to please God. Faith is not faith in and of itself. It is faith in what God has revealed to us as truth.
1 John 5:9-10
9 We accept human testimony, but God’s testimony is greater because it is the testimony of God, which he has given about his Son. 10 Whoever believes in the Son of God accepts this testimony. Whoever does not believe God has made him out to be a liar, because they have not believed the testimony God has given about his Son.
As an example, in 1 John, this is God’s testimony about His Son. You are going to hear all kinds of men’s testimonies, but here is My testimony. Look people, you will listen to anybody under the sun. Somebody comes and tells you, “all your sins are put on the back of God, never to see them again, and I am standing there in the grace of God”, and you stand there and say, “Too good to be true”. Someone tells you that I have a bunch of handkerchiefs over in Israel, and I dipped them in the Jordan river, and if you send me anywhere between $25 to $50, I will send you the handkerchief and all your prayers will be answered, so you rush to the post office. What we are dealing with is man has the propensity to believe anything except the truth.
John 4:24
God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.
What God said is this. “I am Spirit and you must worship Me in Spirit and in truth”. If we are going to worship God, we are going to have to worship Him in truth. Find out what truth is and walk by faith in it. We are not born into this world with a knowledge of what truth is. That has to be taught to us. God has to teach us truth because He alone is truth. We go to the world. We go to theology. We go to religious tradition. We go to men. We go to churches. We go to all kinds of places to seek truth. But He said that you may find it there and you may not find it there. “But there is one place you will find truth and that is in Me and My revealed word to you”. When we approach the word of God, we approach it with this attitude. “Lord, I am going to read what it says, and I am capable of doing that and comprehending that it says something, but I do not have a clue what it means, and if I depend on myself, I am still not going to know what it means. In other words, what is your meaning of it. The best I will be able to do is to come up with what I think it means, and therefore, I have the potential of putting false meaning onto something, so therefore, not only deceiving myself but deceiving others as well. If I do not depend on you, Lord, to tell me what it means, then I will not know what it means. You know what it means.” That is what is important. Without that kind of faith, not only knowing what He says, but what He means. So you ask the Lord, “What do You mean when You said this?”, and let the Lord reveal that to you. Then you can walk by faith in the truth He has revealed to you.
So you see the importance of walking by faith, and seeking out from the Lord, not only what He said, but asking, “Lord, what do you mean by what you said?” and letting the Lord respond to you, “I am going to tell you what I am saying and I am going to tell you what I mean.”
He who has the Son has life, not temporal life. The life God gives is eternal. “The reason that the life I give is eternal is because who I gave is My Son and He is eternal. When you have My Son, you have life, the kind of life He possesses is now yours. It is called eternal life. He who does not have the Son does not have the life.” There are people in this world without spiritual life. You have people with spiritual life and those who do not. Those in Christ Jesus possess eternal life.
1 John 5:12-13
12 Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.13 I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.
Those who trust and rely upon the Son of God have eternal life. Does God want you to know that you know that you have eternal life? Absolutely. Why? You cannot walk by faith unless you know what you know. Otherwise, that is not faith, but presumption. I know that I have eternal life in Christ Jesus. I know that I am in Christ Jesus because I know that I am going to place faith in that and because I have faith in that truth. I am certainly not going to ask Him to give me what I already know He has already given me. If I do not know He has given it then I am going to keep asking. If I know that I know that I am in Christ and Christ has given me eternal life, then I will spend the rest of my life thanking Him for what I know to be true. If I ask Him to give me what I know what He says I already have, it means I do not believe it yet.
We are giving some illustrations as to what it means that the object of our faith is Jesus Christ and what He has done. The object of our faith is not if I do this then God will do that. The object of our faith is God has already done that and, therefore, I am going to access that and enter into it. That is two different viewpoints as to this thing called faith. In some of Christianity that we would know as a faith movement, their definition of faith would be I have enough faith to move the hands of God. “Boy, that is a bunch of faith. Well, then that means you are greater than the one you are trying to move.” So there is no other explanation for that than the cause of something is always greater than the result of something. Whenever you think you are the cause and He is the result you have now said “I am greater than God and I have what it takes to move His hands and to make Him do what I want Him to do.” You have now placed yourself in the position of being God. You never left the garden of Eden, eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. On that day they said, “I will be like God”. So here is the Trinity in heaven thinking about what man has done. “Man will think of himself as God. They will be determining the fact of what is right and wrong, not us. They are the ones determining what we ought to be doing instead of walking by faith in what we are doing. The whole world is turned upside down.”
A person believing their faith causes God to do something has the world and their lives turned upside down. That is not faith. That is total egotistical suppression of truth, nothing less and nothing more. God is God. God is not down here to be bossed around or told what to do by us any more than a parent is to be bossed around by their little child. We would not tolerate that. If we do, we are a wimpy person, if our children were there telling us what to do as parents. God put us in responsibility to look out after children and not to be bossed around by children. We know that in human experience but then we take that into a relationship with God. Instead of realizing God is there to protect us. We are not there to protect God. God is there to give us instruction. We are there to obey those instructions. We are not there to tell God what we want Him to do. We are there to access what He has told us to do. That is what faith is. When we do not understand that, we function in spiritual dyslexia and have everything in reverse. We think we are the initiator and God is the responder rather than God is the initiator and we are the responder.
Ephesians 1:7
7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins
As an example, it says in scripture, “in him we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins”. Once again, is that true or isn’t it true? We all can agree on what it says. If you ask any evangelical today they would say that it says, “in him we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins”. Now, I can ask a question. Let us be sure now. Does that say “in him we get redemption” or does it say “we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins”? You would very astutely say it says “we have”. If you have something, does that mean it is yours? Yes, it does. It means it is yours. What is yours is when you are in Him? Redemption. What else is yours? Forgiveness of sins. Does it say in there that in Him you have redemption if you ask for redemption? Anything there? No, it does not say that. It is something you possess as a result of being in Him.
The issue is not whether you have redemption or whether you have forgiveness, the issue is, are you in Him? If you are sitting there thinking that you do not have redemption or believing you do not have forgiveness, it could be that you are not in Him. The scripture says that if you are in Him, then you have those things. Then why are you doubting what the bible says you have, when, if you are in Him, this is what you have, but you stubbornly say, “No, I am not going to think I am a forgiven person?” Well maybe you should not think you are a saved person for it says if you are saved in him, this is what you have.
If I am going to walk by faith in truth, then am I going to spend the rest of my life thanking Him for providing that for me, and thanking Him for my redemption, thanking Him that I am a redeemed person, thanking Him for forgiving me, thanking Him that I am a forgiven person, or standing in His face saying, “I do not
believe what you just said”. So the person defensively responds, “I am in Him. I am saved. You ought to be able to see that. I go to church on Sunday. I am a saved person. I am in Him but I do not believe that I am a forgiven person. The proof of that is just watch me keep short accounts with God and just watch me to continue to ask God for forgiveness.” You can do that if you want to folks, but I want to say something to you. If you are going to walk by faith, thinking that is pleasing to God, and everyone I know thinks that is pleasing to God, saying “I am so pleasing to God because I keep short accounts with, and in fact, there is no sin in my life, period. Boy, I am pleasing to God.God“, then your very verbiage is proof you are not pleasing to God because you are not functioning by faith but by presumption. Faith says “I am a forgiven person“. The verse says, and quite frankly, surprisingly enough, that is what the verse means. It is the same thing Jesus meant when he cried on the cross, “it is finished”.
John 19:30
30 When he had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.” With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.
He did not say, “it is almost finished” or “I am just kidding. It really isn’t”. He said, “it is finished”. That is not a positional truth as some people teach. That is the most ridiculous statement I have ever heard. That is not positional, that is truth. I am a forgiven person. People say “that is up there but we live down here”. Where do you think He was when He died for our sins, up there or down here? It seems to me He was pretty close to us. He was just a few feet from us if we were in Jerusalem that day watching Him die on a cross. It was not pie in the sky up there. He was right down where we are. He said “it is finished” not up there, but right here. God in essence is saying, “I am the final sacrifice for the sins of the world. There is no more sacrifice. You can put away your confession booth, you can put away your day of atonement, you can put away your altar calls to get forgiveness. You can put away your 1 John 1:9 out of context in order to keep yourself forgiven. It is finished. If you want to walk by faith, which is the only thing that pleases me, then you need to learn to walk by faith, thanking Me for what I have already done instead of asking Me for what I have already done.” If you think you are pleasing God, then once again, you are saying “I do not like that verse that says without faith it is impossible to please God. I am not going to exercise that kind of faith. You do not understand, Lord. My faith is if I do something you will have to do something. Lord, you do not understand what my faith is. That is my faith and you are not going to jar that.” The Lord says, “Yes, I am. If that is the continual attitude of your heart, then I have got news for you. You have something wrong with your heart. Faith has nothing to do with you trying to get Me to do something. Faith is I have done it and I have given you the privilege of accessing it.”
2 Peter 1:3-4
3 His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. 4 Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.
His divine power has given us how much? Everything we need for life and godliness. Where do we get that? Through our knowledge of Him. So His divine power has given us everything through our knowledge of Him. So where does the power come from? Him. Where are the gifts of everything come from? Him. Where is our forgiveness from? Him. Where is our life from? Him. Where is our eternal destiny from? Him. Everything is in Him. In Him. In Him. In Him you have redemption. In Him you have life. In Him is everything. Christ in you and you in Him. The number of passages of scripture in the bible dealing with “in Him” is overwhelming. In Him is where we have been given everything.
If I have already been given everything, then what am I going to do to get God to do to give me something, if I have been given everything? If I think there is something more to get, then I have to deny this passage that I already got. Is that faith? That is not faith. That is presumption. Am I going to have to call God a liar one place or another. If through His divine power, He has given me everything I need for life and godliness through my knowledge of Him, then what am I doing asking Him for something for unless I do not believe that He has given me everything I need. Do you know any other explanation for that? No. I do not either. I am either going to walk in presumption, again saying, “You do not know my basis of faith. You have forgotten again that faith is saying ‘I have enough faith to get you to do or give me what I want’. I could not ever get that clear, Lord. We will be okay down here.”
God is saying, “No, I have already given you everything you need for life and godliness. Why would I want to give you what you do not need. In as much as I have already given you everything you need, most of your prayer is for the things you do not need. If you are asking continually, then it is obviously for what you do not need because what you ask for is what you do not need for everything you do need I have already given to you. Now you have not accessed that yet. You have not walked by faith at all in that truth. You are just trying to get either what you already have or to get what you do not need. Those are the only two options I know.” When I am asking God along those lines, then I am asking Him to give me something I do not need or asking Him to give me something I already have. So is that faith? No, that is not faith at all. And without faith, what is it? Impossible to please God. If you are going to walk by faith in the knowledge of Jesus Christ, realizing that through Him He has given me everything, so what does He want me to do? Access that, walk by faith in it, take advantage of it, look at it.
It is like a person saying, “I have already given you the painting of the Mona Lisa.” “What do you want me to do?” “Enjoy it? Look at it. Stare at it. Be proud of it. Be grateful for it. Walk in the room and thank me for the gift.” In other words, you cannot improve upon it unless you are an idiot and you want to get your paints out and mess around with the master’s work. You cannot improve upon it. It is already there. Enjoy it. What does God want us to do with our life? Enjoy it. I gave you life and I gave it to you abundantly. Now, enjoy it. We are dealing with this thing that is almost amusing as to what has happened in our lives and in our Christian life when we do not understand that truth that in Him we have been given everything we need. Therefore, what He wants us to do is say, “It is already in your bank, now enjoy it. Cash the check. ”
Last week we talked about this. Did Jesus give us any kind of example on this. He certainly did. His own life. Here was Jesus who was never anything less than God, finding Himself in appearance as a man, humbling Himself and walking in dependency or in obedience to His Father. He said the statement. “I do nothing on my own but I speak just what the Father has taught me.” We read that in John 8:28 and in John 12:49-50. “I do not speak on my own accord, but the Father who sent me commanded me what to say and how to say it.”
He not only told Him what to say but how to say it. “This command leads to eternal life. Whatever I said is just what the Father told me to say.” Here is God saying “I am walking in total dependency on my Father.” Why? In order to show you how to live. “I cannot show you how to live as God. You will never be God. God is the initiator of all things. You cannot live that way.” We just think we do. He was trying to show us, “I am God and you are not. As God, I am not the initiator of my own actions. I am not here to cause God to do something.” He never asked God to do something. “Father, it is not my will but your be done.” His prayer and His thoughts were always, “Lord, I am in your perfect will. I am there to do your will. You are the initiator and my will is to do what you initiated.” Why was He doing that? For our benefit. In John 5:19-20, 30, we read this. “I seek not to please myself but Him who sent me.” In John 14, we read “I am in the Father and the Father is in me. The words I say are not just my own. Believe me when I say it is the Father living in me doing His work. Believe me when I say I am in the Father and the Father is in me or at least believe me by evidence of the miracles themselves.”
Jesus life was a demonstration of what it means to walk in dependency upon what God has provided. Do you think Jesus was walking on this earth thinking the Father did not provide everything he needed, saying “I need to ask Him for more”? Never. He knew who he was because he knew who his Father was and he knew his mission on earth was to walk in dependency on his Father. Incidentally, “the Father sent me and so I send you”.
2 Peter 1:3-4 is a terrific verse for us to understand that his divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of Him. If we want to find out what we need, seek to know Jesus and through our knowledge of Him and His provision for us we come to realize we have been given everything I need. What did the apostle Paul say about that?
Romans 8:38-39
38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
What I need more than anything in the world is love. I have all the love of God available to me and nothing can separate me from that. That is a marvelous thing to know. It is the deepest need of the human heart to be loved and accepted unconditionally. How are we going to find out what has already occurred. We cannot make that occur. Yet people are trying to make God love him more by confession of sins, asking for forgiveness, and tithing and my keeping short accounts, and I am trying so hard. You are trying to do what? To accomplish what God says God has already accomplished. We think that is faith. It that was faith it would not be straining. There is no straining in faith. There is nothing to strain for. You are relaxing back and enjoying it. There is no straining and striving in faith. In faith there is no striving. Faith is relaxing. Faith is saying I have found out something in my knowledge of Jesus. I have been given everything I need.
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