Faith Factor | James Rafferty

[Music] free angels broadcasting network is pleased to bring you something better a faith-inspiring picture of a loving god from the book of hebrews welcome to 3abn's virtual homecoming camp meeting hello happy sabbath and welcome back to 3abn's virtual homecoming fall camp meeting 2021 where the theme is something better and i hope that you have been blessed by the messages that you've seen here presented and you know what i hope that you're not only taking this knowledge but you're applying it to your everyday life i'm looking for ways to apply what i'm hearing and learning to my life as well and the speaker for the hour is going to be pastor james rafferty he is 3abn's director of discipleship james rafferty is an ordained pastor evangelist and author of several books he has been in full-time gospel ministry for 37 years with a special focus on daniel and revelation and i can attest to that i have spent 112 episodes with him on salvation and symbols and signs and he definitely has a special focus in daniel and revelation god has opened doors for james to share the everlasting gospel in america africa asia europe south america and the south pacific he has been married to his wife reeci for 32 years they make their home in central california and are blessed with two adult children his sermon will be entitled faith factor but just before he blesses us with the spoken word we will be blessed in song by tim parton and he'll be singing i will cherish the cross thanks jay [Music] i remember the day mercy saved me trembling i knelt down in prayer there at the cross love forgave me exchanging my sin for his grace i will never forget the burden he lifted and the peace that flooded my soul i will cherish the cross so precious to me the place of my pardon where i was redeemed no more a sinner i'm a child of god i'm free and forgiven that's why i cherish the cross wherever this journey may lead me whatever road i may walk my heart will always be clinging to the treasure i found in the cross it is foolish to those who don't choose to believe but to me it's the power of god i will cherish the cross so precious to me the place of my pardon where i was redeemed no more a sinner i'm a child of god i'm free and forgiven and that's why i cherish the cross i will cherish the cross till my trophies at last i lay down oh i will cherish the cross and exchange it someday for a crown i'm gonna cherish the cross so precious to me the place of my pardon where i was redeemed no more a sinner i'm a child of god i'm free and forgiven and that's why i cherish the cross [Music] amen amen i will cherish the cross so precious to me the place of my pardon where i was redeemed i love that powerful song it just reminds me when i first accepted jesus christ as my savior and the continual dependence we have on christ from day one forward he is the author and he is the finisher we're gonna be talking about that in our last meeting the sabbath right now we're going to be looking at hebrews chapter 11. the title of this meeting today right now is faith factor the faith of jesus we began with an emphasis on the languages of love god's love languages and we looked at them in the book of hebrews because it's a relational book and then we looked at how god communicates through those languages to us so that we would actually be able to communicate those languages through those languages to others we noted that god's gift of love is his first love language in hebrews chapter one and then we went to hebrews chapter two and we looked at physical touch and we talked about how jesus christ has connected himself with the human race for all eternity so the two love languages that we focused on in hebrews 1 and 2 were god's gift and physical touch two of the five but then we discovered two more making seven altogether in the book of hebrews i'm just reviewing a little bit for us because we wanted to connect the book of hebrews with the book of revelation you know in the book of revelation we're told about the everlasting gospel and the everlasting gospel has to go to all the world because the everlasting gospel is what brings babylon down and babylon is a code word for confusion spiritual confusion confusion about god confusion about how god saves confusion about how god feels about us and the only thing that can bring that spiritual confusion down is the gospel and the gospel is in essence a revelation of the love of god revealed to us on calvary and so hebrews is also talking about god's love but it's using love languages revelation focuses on god's love symbolically hebrews focuses on it relationally we talked last night about heart transplanter and how that god's love toward us comes into us when we receive and it transplants us it changes us it transforms us so that out of us his love can flow out to others we end up loving god with all our heart mind and soul and loving our neighbor as ourselves so in revelation the everlasting gospels preach and it produces a people who keep the commandments of god and that's the love of god in us and the love of god flowing out of us to others so it's the same basic principle in hebrews and in revelation indeed the book of revelation is like a summation of the entire bible revelation speaks about this mostly in symbolic or theological terms the book of hebrews speaks about this in relational terms and that's not new to the bible you know back in the day abraham was called a friend of god abraham was the father of faith right he was called a friend of god and god called him out of ur out of the land of the chaldeans out of babylon and when he came out of babylon we're told in genesis 26 5 abraham kept god's laws and his statutes and his commandments and his judgment so we see here this relational experience going all the way back to the very beginning of god's call to his people the old testament like the book of hebrews talks about the gospel in this relational language rather than the strictly theological or even symbolic language of a lot of the books of the bible and the book of revelation so this relational focus of how god relates to us in the languages of love has been our emphasis so far and we're going to continue to focus on this but this time we're going to focus on it in the book of hebrews chapter 11. so again the title of our message is faith factor and we could actually parallel that to revelation chapter 14 and verse 12 where it says here are those that keep the commandments of god and have the faith of jesus faith factor is the faith of jesus let's pray as we get started and ask god to be with us father in heaven we just want to thank you again for this opportunity to study this beautiful theme of something better in the book of hebrews thank you for each of the presentations thank you for the the light and the truth that shelley has brought forth to us thank you for each of the musicians and the blessing and power and influence of music that reminds us in song of the plan of salvation and the sacred work that you've been doing in our lives and hearts and father don't stop that work now we've been sitting in a number of meetings today and we've been taking in the messages but we want more we don't want to be satisfied we need we have a great need especially in the world in which we live and we have a great need for ourselves and for others so please send your holy spirit to guide and direct us right now to speak through me in spite of myself and please help us to be receptive and open all of those that are here all of our listeners to your words for we ask it in jesus name amen well we are so thankful that you have joined us for this homecoming camp meeting here the fall camp meeting at 3abn it is a blessing to fellowship together there's just a small number of us here in person but i know there's many more of us out there viewing and i'm just thankful that you've chosen to give god this time remember this is not my time with you this is god's time with you and we're going to be right into god's word in studying this faith fact you know god loves us the bible says that god loves us faithfully which actually causes us to see ourselves and others through the eyes of faith it is god's faith manifested toward us that actually causes us to have faith in the first place he is the author of our faith you know we've turned from god and yet he's continued to pursue relationship with us in the garden of eden adam and eve were hiding from god but he was pursuing them this relationship pursuit by god has been with every person on planet earth and it is an evidence of god's faithfulness toward us even though we've been unfaithful to him the bible says that god draws everyone jesus said i if i be lifted up from the earth will draw all men unto me john chapter 12 32 the bible says that that christ ransomed all in 1st timothy chapter 4. the bible says that jesus christ died for all we read that in hebrews chapter 2 and verse 9. the bible says in acts 17 that god gives life to all the bible says in john 1 verse 9 that god gives light to all the bible says in titus chapter 2 that god's grace has appeared unto all men we know in john 3 16 that god loves the world god loves all mankind and we know of course that god gives every man a measure of faith that's what we have we have a measure of faith and that's romans chapter 12 and verse 3. so the faith of jesus is not just human faith it's not just faith in christ the faith of jesus the faith of jesus that's talked about in revelation chapter 4 12 or 14 verse 12 is also perhaps and we should say it could primarily be christ's faith manifested toward humanity because christ has been far more faithful god has been far more faithful the faith of jesus has been far more faithful toward us than our response to him has been as we see throughout all of the scriptures have you ever believed in someone when no one else did have you ever believed in yourself when it seemed like there was nothing to believe in you ever had those experiences i remember when i was a young man i was again by myself at 16 years of age i was working in a hospital part-time in fact danny and i have something in common we both were orderlies he was making 80 cents an hour when i became an orderly or nursing tech i was making three dollars and 21 cents an hour so minimum wage had gone up or you know there's a little that tells you how many years we're apart but anyway i was working in this hospital and i had um failed to come into work now the reason i failed to come into work was because of my party lifestyle i'd woken up too late and i just didn't make it into work and that's an automatic fire you don't you don't even have to show up you just get your stuff you leave you just you know so i came into work to go to my locker to get my stuff and the supervisor heard that i was on the premises in the hospital and she came to me and she said the boss wants to talk to you scott wants to talk to you then the name was not changed to protect anyone there his name was scott and i said why i said i know i'm fired i know i just need to leave and she said you just need to go talk to scott so i went in to talk to scott long story short scott told me that i wasn't fired he said i still have my job now this was so unusual i had given up on myself but this man exercised faith in me and i'll tell you what i was never late for work again i never missed another day of work again because the faith and the confidence the belief that he placed in me motivated me to do a better job and it never failed again i remember my car broke down one day it was pouring down rain and i walked to work to make sure i was there on time and this is what the bible tells us about god in first corinthians chapter 13 the love chapter it says that that love that god that love bears all things believes all things hopes all things endures all things faith hope and love continue god sees hope where we see none god believes in us we can hardly believe in ourselves god is love so that's the bible now your thoughts your feelings maybe even other people society at large they're going to tell you different things but we need to be directed by the word of god we need to follow the word of god and we need to look at god's love as something that is active god's love is a verb it's not just a principle that sits by itself alone it actually impacts us in a powerful way we need to also understand that faith and belief are pretty much synonymous you know if you if you study this this word faith and belief you're going to find that it's used a lot in the word of god synonymously in fact i don't know if you knew this but the book of john the gospel of john never uses the word faith not one time instead it uses the word belief that's the only word that's used in the gospel of john the the only time faith is even mentioned in the gospel of john is when jesus says to thomas put in your finger and into my side etc be not faithless but believing and matthew mark and luke emphasized the word faith instead of belief but john so emphasizes the word belief that he uses that word believe more times than the word faith is used in all the other three gospels combined together so john was really into this word believe and i think it's powerful because i have faith in you i believe in you i know you can do this that's what god is saying to us that was that's what god is communicating to us before we get into hebrews chapter 11 we're really going to see this explode out we want to look at romans chapter 3. this is where we find a definition if you will of the faith of god or the faith of jesus so that we can understand it in the context of revelation chapter 14 and verse 12. romans chapter 3 beginning with verse 3. here's what it says for what if some did not believe shall their unbelief make the faith of god without effect so there's the phrase the faith of god this is not our faith this is god's faith it's the faith of god and paul's asking the question if people don't believe in god if people turn away from god if they reject god if they reject him as their savior if they reject god's love does that unbelief that they have that lack of belief that lack of faith does that make the faith of god without effect and you know his answer to that is god forbid yes let god be true and that every man be a liar as it is written that thou mightest be justified in thine sayings and mightest overcome when thou art judged that's powerful language when god when paul says god forbid he wants us to take note of something that's really powerful so but then he goes on to say that god can overcome when he is judged what is god going to be judged for i thought we were the ones who were going to be judged why would god be judged well god is going to be judged primarily for what he's being judged for right now believing that fallen sinful human beings who hurt and hate will respond to his love and allow the holy spirit to change them believing that human beings can be transformed by a heart transplant that's what that's what god is on trial for he he's on trial for believing in us for having faith in us for holding out for us which by the way the side effects of that is evil and pain and suffering and sorrow and death god is holding out first god is long suffering to us with not willing that any would perish it was long suffering of god towards saul that made him paul right it was the longsuffering of god toward the thief on the cross that made him that promised him paradise it was a long suffering of god toward manasseh that caused him to be converted and saved god is holding out for us and because of that we see evil and pain and suffering and because of that we see god on trial if you will god is being judged if god is a god of love why is he allowing all this pain and sin and suffering when he's allowing it because you don't believe in god and he's holding out for you every time a sinner like me accepts jesus christ as their savior god's faith and belief toward us is vindicated every time a sinner accepts christ as savior all of heaven rejoices they throw a party that's what jesus says they thought the prodigal has come home let's have a party cook up the roasted cat the fatted calf and even if some do not believe does that make god's faith in us god's belief in us void god forbid paul says god forbid it doesn't make it without effect god's faith in us holds fast it holds true hebrews chapter 11. let's just look there it's a powerful book it picks up the same same theme of faith but it's really interesting because hebrews chapter 11 is speaking about our faith what we don't realize sometimes when we read hebrews chapter 11 is our faith is actually response of god's faith toward us and god's faith toward us in hebrews chapter 11 is the power that is actually carrying god's people through all of the experiences that are described here we're going to see that hopefully really powerfully as we read these scriptures the first verse we want to read is hebrews chapter 11 and verse 1. it says now faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen right there you see a kind of a confirmation here god is exercising faith toward humanity even though he sees how wicked we are how unrighteous we are for 21 years god exercised faith toward me and i know that he saved my life several times he sent people to speak to me he sent people to sow seeds into my life and into my heart and then at 21 years of age those seeds were watered that faith paid off and i accepted jesus christ as my personal savior praise god and jesus is telling us here excuse me the bible is telling us here that faith by definition is the evidence the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not not seen then he goes on to describe the faith experience of god's people and by the way i want to just emphasize here we're still on the theme of biblical language our languages of love this is going to be the language called words of affirmation words of affirmation now that's probably my weakest language my wife will will tell you that i'm i'm a perfectionist by nature i try to get it out of my system but i just oh it's so hard and so i can come home and the house is all clean but one thing isn't done and i'll point out that one thing that isn't done i'm making myself very vulnerable here before you all but i just want you to know that i'm working on this words of affirmation we have strong love languages and we have weak love languages and this is my weak love language and i want to make it my stronger love language because i believe that god speaks through all of the language equally through all of the languages equally and i know he wants us to do the same thing so i can naturally be in acts of service mode and do things for people etc etc but sometimes it's i have to put forth an effort to affirm to lift up and encourage people this chapter is dedicated to the love language of words of affirmation and you're going to see why here in just a second let's just go through it we'll just move to verse uh verse seven by faith talking about noah noah being warned of god of things that were um not put my glasses on here it's going to be easier noah being warned of god of things not seen as yet moved with fear prepared an ark to the saving of his house by which he condemned the world and became the air of righteousness which is by faith wow noah you're amazing look at him exercising faith preaching preparing an ark but you notice it doesn't mention anything about noah getting drunk in his tent it's not in the text now this is not the first time we're going to see this omission of the failures affirmation of the successes and omission of the failures you know we're more inclined to be critical if someone just makes a misstep you know we're just on it god is giving us a picture of how he sees us through the eyes of faith when we put our faith in jesus christ all of our failures all of our missteps all of our sins are cast into the depths of the sea that's what we're told in micah chapter 7 cast in the depths of the sea and before god leaves that location he posts up a bunch of no fishing signs that's what god does and we know that because of hebrews chapter 11. let's continue on by faith it says in verse 8 abraham when he was called out to go into a place which he should after have received for an inheritance obeyed and he went out not knowing whether he went by faith he sure joined in the land of promise in a strange country dwelling in tabernacles with isaac and jacob heirs with him of the same promise a tabernacle is like a tense this is this is camping this is a modern day version of this would be go camping and my wife and i our family loves to go camping we've gone camping for years and we kind of uh we um you know went from a tent and hard surface to a tent an air mattress to a little motorhome and that was really nice that that transition you know that graduation to to more comfortable uh camping situation as you get older you feel the need for that i guess right well abraham was in a tent he never got a motor home my wife had you know certain requirements for camping and one of the requirements was yes we can go camping as long as we're going to a campground that has flushed toilets and showers i don't think abraham had flushed toilets and showers and of course we knew where we were going we loved to camp at cottage grove lake it was right about 15 miles maybe 35 40 minutes from us and we could always run back to the house and get whatever we forgot and boy do we forget some things and we just run back to the house well abraham wasn't running back to the diet of chur over to the land of the calgary chaldeans he wasn't running back there to get anything he was done he was gone he was camping permanently no flesh out toilets no showers and no opportunity to go back that was it for him of course he did send back for a wife for his son isaac but no supplies he was on his own and he wasn't out there you know my wife and i will go camping maybe for three days or four days if we hit five days my family's going home without me but i just sit out there and look into the fire at night and i just love camping abraham went out there for five days 10 days 20 days a year two years three the rest of his life was spent in a tent this was abraham's faith but it doesn't say anything here about how abraham lied and told the egyptians that sarah was his sister that's not in the text god removes from the life of abraham all of his failures and god is going to do the same thing for us god sees us through the eyes of faith and jesus christ covers our failures god believes in us and he speaks into us these words of affirmation continuing on look at this this is really amazing it goes on in the next on the next page here and it says i just want to move to another another person because we have so many here by faith jacob when he was dying blessed verse 21 blessed both of his sons and worship leaning on the top of his staff doesn't say anything about jacob deceiving his dad pretending to be esau and stealing the births right nothing there in other words god is omitting again all of the failures let's let's continue on here it says here by faith let's go down to moses moses when he was come of years refused verse 24 to be called the son of pharaoh's daughter choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of god than to enjoy the pleasure of sin for a seizing a season esteeming the reproach of christ greater riches than the treasures in egypt for he had respect under the recompense of the reward it doesn't say anything about moses killing an egyptian and burying him in the sand doesn't say anything about moses striking the rock twice and bringing the glory to himself all of that's gone it's all scrapped this is how god sees us by faith his faith motivates us to live by faith when we know that god forgives us as abraham knew as moses knew as jacob knew as noah knew when we know that god forgives us when he you know we know that he covers us we know that he puts our sins in the depths of the sea it motivates us to live for him his faith toward us motivates us to live for him that's why in revelation 14 12 it says here are they that keep the commandments of god and have the faith of jesus because it's the faith of jesus that motivates them to keep the commandments of god it's the faith that jesus has in us that motivates us to live for him and that's why the two go together because the commandments of god is the law and the faith of jesus is the gospel and the law and the gospel go hand in hand and sometimes we oh put all the emphasis on the law and all the emphasis on what we're supposed to do and all the emphasis on our obedience all the emphasis is on us god doesn't do that he never does that and of course when we do that sometimes we'll you will react to that and the reaction that will be to put all the emphasis on grace and all the emphasis on god's love and all the emphasis on what god does and leave out the obedience to god's commandments we're creatures of imbalance naturally that's why isaiah 30 21 says you will hear a voice behind you saying this is the way walking in it when you turn to the left or when you turn to the right and sometimes we just go we just focus on one extreme we say that's extreme that's bad that's wrong and we don't realize that in order to balance out an extreme you you yourself of necessity have to become extreme god doesn't want us to be balancing out another extreme god wants us to be balanced and as we're balanced that example which is the example of jesus christ will help others to be balanced in christian experience then it goes on here and it says and you know paul's running out of time in hebrews i mean he's running out of time and so he says here by faith verse 31 the harlot rahab perish not with them that believe not and i think the only reason why that word harlow is in here it's not a negative it's just to remind us of who what rahab this was who this was she exercised faith in god and then it goes on to say verse 32 what shall i more say for time would fail to tell of gideon you remember gideon yeah a sword for the lord and for gideon who ended up leading his people into idolatry that's not mentioned in the text don't mention that by faith gideon right and barack remember barrick i'm not going out there unless you go with me right and samson and delilah i guess that's all we need to say about that right i mean i didn't even bel well i wasn't even sure that samson was saved i mean the guy basically committed suicide right i wasn't even sure he was saved until i read hebrews chapter 11. wow god is amazing the faith and the belief he exercises toward us that motivates us to live for him is phenomenal and so he kind of summarizes it all right here and basically says if you're getting the picture this is your life and this is my life as seen through the eyes of jesus this is what it looks like when we enter into the investigative judgment you know a lot of us are scared to death of the investigative judgment hebrews chapter 11 is the investigative judgment it's the time when our lives are investigated and if we have faith in jesus and if we stand with jesus and if he stands as our mediator all of our failures and sins are blotted out and our life record stands just like hebrews chapter 11 without one stain or sin recorded all of it is gone praise god that the investigative judgment is the gospel it's good news that's why the everlasting gospel says fear god give glory to him for the hour of his judgment has come and that word fear that phrase fear according to psalm 147 verse 11 means to trust or hope in god's mercy the lord takes pleasure in those that fear him that hope in his mercy we hope in his mercy through the investigative judgment we hope in his grace because through his mercy and through his grace our sins are blotted out we stand perfect before god and with that revelation to our minds we live for him we're settled so we can't be moved and that's what god is wanting for each one of us so the faith of jesus sees us as we can be in him this faith is actually gifted to us through the word of god this is what i see in you if any man is in christ he's a new creation all things are passed away and all things have become new that's the faith that's gifted to us in jesus christ jesus christ keeps us through this faith we become recorded in the hebrews hall of fame you know a lot of people want to be recorded in some hall of fame well we every single believer has the opportunity to be recorded in the hebrews book of fame the hebrews hall of fame notice what it says here in verses 38 or 39 and 40 of hebrews and these all having obtained a good report through faith through the faith of jesus which was manifested in their response to that faith having their own faith because of his faith in them these all received a good report having obtained a good report excuse me through faith receive not the promise god having provided some better thing for us that they without us should not be made perfect or complete god has provided some better thing for the final generation and i can only imagine what that is can you imagine living a life through the gift of god's faith and belief in us that actually overcomes the beast his mark his image his name all the characteristics of the beast his anger his deception his judgmental accusations his control coercion we overcome all of that we actually do that by following the lamb wherever he goes and we're going to look at that more closely in our last meeting today so how do we have this faith how do we have this faith how do we actually experience the gift of faith that god is exercising toward us the belief that god is exercising toward us because it's one thing for god to exercise that there's one thing for god to believe in us but is that belief going to actually vindicate his character is it going to vindicate his government is he going to be able to say even though there's a lot of people that don't believe it doesn't make my faith of none effect god forbid how do we do that well hebrews chapter 12 we move right into that chapter it tells us how that works hebrews chapter 12. it's kind of a summation if you will of what we've read in chapter 11. look what it says here wherefore seeing we also are compass surrounded with so great a cloud of witnesses what are these people witnessing to their witnessing to the faith of jesus christ they're witnessing to the belief of god in them and that witness is proven to be genuine it actually it actually develops it actually produces people who are obedient to god and walk with god like he did with abraham abraham lied and he didn't lie once he lied again and yet god's faith toward him god's belief in him caused him to keep god's commandments and his law and his statutes to follow him wherever he's he he led so how do we do this well hebrews chapter 12 seem we're surrounded with so great a cloud of witnesses let us lay aside every weight and that sin that does so easily beset us and run with patience the race is set before us and we can say well if we stopped right there we could say okay so based on the experiences of all these other humans we need to overcome our sins and especially that special sin all the things that weigh us down in that special sin if we look at all their experience that's what we need to do no that's not actually it because even we will make excuses for our present failures by looking at the lives of others oh yeah well david you know remember hypnothese but it's okay god look at what david did he was a man after god's own heart the verse is not actually telling us to look back at these witnesses as a motivation for us to overcome sin the bible is telling us to look back at these witnesses who end up recorded without sin even though they were sinners to look at them as an example of what god can do to us if here's verse 2 hebrews chapter 12 verse 2 if we look unto jesus the author and the finisher of our faith see the key is looking under jesus not looking unto people god can do for us what he's done for abraham and moses and noah and jacob and samson and gideon and barack and rahab he can do for us what he did for them if we're looking under jesus the author and the finisher that's going to be our next meeting the finisher our last meeting this evening the finisher of our faith he authored our faith how did he author our faith he gave us a measure of faith he had belief in us he had faith toward us that's how he offered our faith and that faith grew in us a little mustard seed of faith grew up in us and we responded to that faith his faithfulness to us caused us to be faithful back to him it always starts with god it doesn't start with us for by grace you are saved through faith is that what it says ephesians chapter two verse eight for grace you are saved through faith and that not of yourselves it is the gift of god is that talking about grace or faith it's talking about the faith in verse eight it's actually talking about the faith the faith is the gift of god the grace is too of course as we read in romans chapter 12 and verse 11 as well as in hebrews chapter 12 and verse 2 here he's the author and finisher of faith but we know the grace is a gift too titus 2 11 says that the grace of god has appeared unto all men teaching them that denying ungodliness they should live righteously and soberly in this present world he's the author and the finisher of faith who for the joy that was set before him endure the cross despising the shame and is set down at the right hand of the throne of god for consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds consider him consider him jesus endured a contradiction of sinners against himself what was the contradiction that he endured well he's on the cross he's believing in the world he's dying for the world and no one is believing in him that's such a contradiction he says on the cross father forgive them for they know not what they're doing that's faith that is the exercise that is the faith of jesus father forgive them and you know we're going to need that faith in the end of time we're going to need to gather want from the coldness of others courage from their cowardice and people are going to be converted if we can do that that's god's purpose for us you know when we love the world as christ loved the world then for us his mission is accomplished we're fitted for heaven because we have heaven in our hearts that's god's goal for us because there are going to be souls in the very end of time there are going to be people who are going to be persecuting us and they're going to be people standing by looking on and they're going to be converted by our response or lack of it this is god's purpose and it was fulfilled ultimately in jesus christ who endured this contradiction of sinners against himself people who refused to believe in him while he was exercising belief in them people who refuse to have faith in him as the messiah while he came to exercise faith toward them christ manifested so much faith in those who are crucifying him that he could say father forgive them for they know not what they do but if we don't accept that gift of faith we won't be forgiven nothing will change we'll be guilty of crucifying the son of god only the lowly thief was saved that day by faith christ not even christ's disciples were responding with faith nobody but the thief and yet jesus followed through he loved us john 13 1 says unto the end to the very end this is the faith of jesus and this is the faith we need to keep according to revelation chapter 14 verse 12. notice that word keep you can only keep something that's been given to you right god is giving us this faith and he's giving us his commandments he promised to put his commandments in our hearts and in our minds he's going to write them and he says keep them he's promising to give us this measure of faith to be the author and finisher of our faith and he says keep it and we keep it because god has given it to us to keep we don't produce faith we don't produce the faith of jesus god does and we keep this faith we hold on to this faith we hold on to the faith of jesus even though the devil tries to rest it from us and he will he will press upon us our sins the enemy of souls will try to make us lose hold of the faith of jesus oh he doesn't have faith in you he doesn't believe in you you're no good you're not worthy to be saved there's no way that god is going to take you to heaven look at you look at your life look at how you live you know people are going to help the devil out church people are going to help the devil out the devil is out to destroy the faith of jesus in your life he wants to take that gift he wants to rip it from your hands and there are a lot of professed church people are going to try to help him to do that they are the devil's helpers they give out their rendition of your lives they tell you as they look at you how it is with you and god that's what job's friends did you remember they looked at him they had the onlookers assessment a heartless assessment because humans can't read the heart only god can so they step in to judge and when we step in to judge others our judgment is based on the outward appearance what's happening to us i remember in 2003 i was diagnosed with cancer thyroid cancer and it was difficult it was hard for me i remember my mother called me up and said you are a seventh-day adventist you follow the health message you have cancer i drink i smoke i don't have cancer but you've got cancer it was hard but the hardest blows came from church members some of them would call me up and they would say so have you been following the health message what did you do that caused god to allow you to get cancer now i ultimately found out that thyroid cancer is is is primarily produced by exposure to radiation and i had a lot of it working in the hospital living in certain areas and so that was probably how i got the thyroid cancer i finally got the thyroid taken out my thyroid was removed through surgery and i've been cancer-free ever since that surgery took place but i remember one man saying to me you don't have a thyroid i said no i don't have a thyroid so what do you do because you know without the thyroid you can't you can't survive without a thyroid your thyroid regulates your body said well every day i take a little thyroid pill you know and that pill is what that's why i can't eat chocolate i did eat some chocolate chip cookies today i just will confess that i had more than one chocolate chip cookie but i can't really usually do that because i'm on this medication that regulates my body and when i eat chocolate just a little bit of caffeine oh it just gets me going just gets me i can't sleep etcetera but i i justified eating chocolate because i have two meetings this one and i follow when i thought i'm going to need some energy when i need some energy i think i can overrule that caffeine before i go to sleep tonight and so i have this medication that i take every day and i was talking with a brother about this and he was saying well how are you going to make it through the time of trouble and he said well i guess god can perform a miracle but he said but i'm not sure since you're the one that decided to get the thyroid cancer and take your thyroid out these are the kind of thoughts one guy said to me why did you go to the gods of akron you know in other words go to a hospital have the surgery i said well the reason why is because i did a lot of research and 80 percent of the people that don't have the thyroid out when they get thyroid cancer die and 20 of the people only 20 of the people that get their thyroid taken out die i've got an 8 chance of living if i get my thyroid taken out that's why i had the surgery and i don't think it's going to the gods of ekron anyway the point i'm trying to make is the devil is going to do everything he can and i remember when i was diagnosed with thyroid cancer and i started getting these calls and this different attitude around me that my mind was spiraling down into darkness it was just dark dark dark it was depressing and i could really relate to the story of job i mean literally and there was a pastor a young pastor friend who was in seattle we lived in washington state at the time we were about seven or eight hours from seattle and he heard about my experience he had been at camp meeting we've been you know working out together and became friends and he came he drove all the way over to our place on a friday evening we had uh a anointing service for me and he came all the way over from from seattle he couldn't get out of a sabbath sermon so he drove all the way over that day the anointing service was part of the anointing service and then after the 19th service at about seven or eight o'clock he drove all the way back to seattle that night so he could do his sermon the next morning and it touched my heart god was working through that pastor to tell me of his love and that's what we need when people are dealing with cancer you know i always felt uncomfortable you know what i hear about people dealing with cancer i hear about people dealing with disease what do you say and now i go back to that experience and and the thing that people want to hear is something like just simple stuff not details how do you go just we just want you to know that god loves you that we love you and that we're praying for you just that simple the other thing we need to remember here is that we don't have to accept how others define us we don't have to believe their narrative of our lives we need to believe god's narrative of our lives and we see that in the experience of job you know job was a perfect man he was faithful to god he hadn't done anything wrong he was on track with with his father doing everything that god wanted him to do but but he was involved in this great controversy you know satan comes in and satan starts accusing god of favoritism with job the big picture is what we see job didn't see it so he lost everything he lost his health he lost his wealth he lost his kids his wife was struggling he put his arm around her and said don't don't speak like a foolish woman we we can get through god has blessed us and we need to also know that we need to get through these these hard times when it seems like god is taking everything away from us and so his friends come and they sit with him for a week in silence and that's really i mean i just have to say praise god that they did that but then they started talking and it wasn't that they were trying to hurt job sometimes the things we say to people we're not trying to hurt them but sometimes our theological understanding of the bible is it's just kind of shallow we just don't understand and joe's friends were of the mindset because they all went to you know seminary together that if you are wealthy and you have a lot of children and you're doing well god is blessing you but if you're poor and you don't have a lot of money you don't have children god is cursing you there must be something wrong in your life you need to repent you need to repent and so they looked based through their theological glasses they looked at job they looked at the fact that he lost all of his wealth he lost all of his children he lost his health and they said job come on man you can talk to us you can talk to us what's up what are you doing what what how was your relation they stigmatized job and they at first they kind of beat around the bush you know they kind of was really subtle and careful they kind of just kind of said this and they kind of said that but mentally they were pummeling him their theology wouldn't let it go they couldn't let it go because they were convinced that job had some secret sin in his life and so over and over again they came at him they came at him they came at him one self-righteous attack after another under the guise of trying to help him until finally job said to them if you would just be quiet that would be consolation enough you ever felt that way about people sometimes you know oh i hope i don't hear from this person again right if you would just be quiet and these were job's friends but you know all through this experience job held on his faith in the one who was faithful to him didn't waver verse 25 of job chapter 19 for i know that my redeemer lives that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth and that though my skin after my skin and worms destroy this body yet in my flesh shall i see god whom i shall see for myself and my eyes shall behold and not another though my reigns be consumed within me isn't that powerful job held on he held on to his belief in god he held on to his faith in god because god had faith in him that's where it started there was a man in the land of us whose name was job and this man was perfect job didn't say that job says in chapter 9 if i say i am perfect my own words will condemn me god said that god says job's my man he's my man i have faith in him i have confidence in him and satan says okay let's see about this and god is saying the same thing about his remnant church that's my church i have faith in them i have confidence in them and satan's saying okay let's see joe bless lost all of his wealth all of his money the remnant church in the end of time aren't going to be able to buy or sell and then job's life was threatened he was afflicted with sickness to the point of death god's church in the end of time are going to have a death decree written against them we are going to go through a similar experience that job went through we're going to be hated i think that's what the word job means but double check that look it up for me in the hebrew in other words everything joe went through is a type pointing forward to what we're going to go through in the end of time and the final onslaught that we're going to experience according to job's life friends are going to come to us and friends are going to try to convince us that god isn't with us that we're sinning against god that all of the calamities that have come upon in our lives and all the things we're experiencing are our faults just like it was with job and what is god calling us to do what did god call job to do do you remember job chapter 42 verse 10. god shows up on the scene and in god's presence job is humbled he confesses the struggles he's been going through the things that he's been saying he repents we're told and of course we're told that that our repentance will deepen that the more we see jesus the deeper our repentance experience will be and then it says in verse 10 that job prayed for his friends you could insert the words in there his miserable comforter worthless physicians just be quiet and that will be my consolation friends right you could say his frenemies job prayed for his frenemies and that's what god is calling us to do that is probably going to be our highest calling in the end of time to pray for those who persecute us to bless them and to ask god to work in their lives and joe 42 verse 10 says and the captivity of job was turned when he prayed for his enemies isn't that amazing so in summary we need to look at this as god loving us by faith not because of who we are or what we are but because of who and what god is and because of who god is he sees us by faith because he is faithful and he will never stop being faithful god believes in us even if we don't believe in ourselves god exercises faith toward us and this faith leads god to give himself through jesus christ for our sin and to say when no one is believing in him father forgive them for they know not what they do jesus is bidding us he's encouraging us right now to keep that which he has given to us to keep this faith his faith because it's his faith that holds us fast we need to believe what jesus says about us not what people say about us and not even what you say about yourself we can't believe that we have to believe what god says this is how jesus was tempted in the wilderness god had said to jesus at the baptism this is my beloved son in whom i'm well pleased and you know who god was speaking to when he said that to jesus he was speaking to every son and daughter of adam he was speaking to the whole world who believe in christ this is my beloved son you're my beloved daughter you're my beloved son and satan came to him and satan said if you're the son of god prove it if you're the son of god turn these stones into bread and satan comes to us and he says well if you're really a child of god prove it by what you do no we need to believe we're the child of god with a son and daughter of god because god says we are his children we need to believe that based upon his word we need to believe that we are who god says we are we need to accept his rendition of our lives we need to see ourselves through his eyes standing in his righteousness affirmed by his perfect life and his penalty satisfying death and in so doing we will live a life of obedience to him in fact one of the reasons why we haven't produced the life of obedience is because we do not have the faith of jesus we do not have this gospel to combine with our law keeping to motivate us to law keeping so my appeal to you today is will you say yes will you say yes to the faith of jesus christ will you choose to believe what god believes about you today will you choose to see yourself as god sees you will you choose to be forgiven and justified in jesus christ will you accept the gift of god's salvation by faith today i pray that you will do this that each one of us will do this and i pray in jesus name amen father in heaven as we close out now we just want to thank you for the faith of jesus we want to thank you for the love that you've manifested toward us even in our unbelief and we want to ask that you would make that faith ours and that it would motivate us to live for you but let each one of us father say amen to this wonderful gift in jesus name amen [Music] you

Channel: Three Angels Broadcasting Network (3ABN)

Views: 2,665

Rating: 4.9191918 out of 5

Keywords: God's faithfullness, God is faithful, eyes of faith, James Rafferty, 3ABN Virtual Homecoming Camp Meeting 2021, God is love

Id: DHYNZCzLCYY

Length: 58min 0sec (3480 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 26 2021