FAITH IN YOUR FAITH OR FAITH IN GOD?

We're all aware that Jesus didn't have a halo around His head. His face

did not shine like Moses' when Moses came down from Sinai. There was nothing about Jesus' appearance or the sound of His voice that gave any indication that this was God the Son. And yet, certain people recognized God in Him right away.

"Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come
from God."

"Lord, if you want to, you can make me clean."

"Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under
my roof; but speak the word only and my
servant will be healed."

While others absolutely couldn't stand Jesus. They hated Him. The very mention of His name made them angry.

“Who does he think he is!”?

"Why he's a blasphemer!"

"He casts out demons by Beelzebul, the prince of demons!"

"He's a madman!"

And the people who hated Jesus were not crooked politicians and men who ran the race track, but the religious people

- church members in good standing,

- christian businessmen,

- people who prayed and gave alms,
who went to the synagogue,
performed all the requirements of their
religion,

- people who had a testimony about how good God
had been to them.

Why was it that these religious people found Jesus so offensive?

Why is it that a man who insists that he has faith and who does all kinds

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of decent things which would seem to indicate that he has faith can't recognize God when God comes walking toward him in human flesh?

Why is it that people who say they love Jesus Christ,
who read their bibles,

who practically live at prayer meetings,
who can give the most beautiful testimonies can't recognize the voice of Jesus when Jesus calls them to deny themselves, pick up their cross, and follow?

The Eternal Word is speaking to these people, telling them exactly which road to travel. And what do they do? They turn their backs on Jesus, get down on their knees, and pray for guidance more to their liking.

They turn their backs on the Lamb of God who died for their sins, and go head long down a road that leads away from the Cross shouting, “Hallelujah. Praise the Lord!" all the while.

How can these children of the Kingdom, these enlightened ones be so blind? Don't they have any faith? You bet they have faith! They have so much faith it has turned in upon itself. So that now, instead of having faith in God, they have faith in their faith. Their real confidence is no longer in God's grace, but in their faith.

"Of course I'll make it, I have faith."

"Of course God is with me, I'm a man of faith."

"Naturally I'm qualified to tell you what your
problem is, I have faith."

"And if I should boss you around a little, consider yourself fortunate, I'm a spiritual man."

When we start thinking this way, beneath our humble masks, whatever faith in God we may once have had is gone. What's left is faith in faith.

It's like a man who had once been befriended by the King. The King had come walking through jail one day, talked to this man, and set him free.

At first the man kept telling all his friends how good the King was.

"0, we have a wonderful King!"

But as years passed, the man changed his testimony. It was no longer, "We have a wonderful King", but rather, "I have a connection with the King. Me and the King, man, we're tight! Why if I wanted to I could ask the King for ten grand and he'd give it to me."

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One day the King sends his son, the Prince, to the man's house with a message.

"The King wants you to join his army and
report for duty right away."

"What are you talking about fool? Get off my

porch before I kill you! Me and the King are tight."

When the Son of God came to Israel, He ran up against this again and again. "Who do you think you are, you fool? We're insiders! We're God's chosen ones!

And now as the church on earth enters into its hour of judgment, and the glorious Lamb of God walks amid the seven golden lampstands calling the saints to wake up and repent and get on with the work they've been given, His message is meeting with offense and rejection at every turn.

"What do you mean? Wake up and repent. Why we're people of faith! We're children of the Kingdom!"

I tell you many shall come from east and west

and sit at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in
the Kingdom of Heaven, while the sons of the Kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness; there men will weep and gnash their teeth.

Whether you sit at table with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom, or get thrown into the outer darkness depends not on whether you think you have faith, but on what your faith is really attached to. Is it attached
to itself or to God? Is your faith in your faith, or in God?

A few things about faith in God:

l. Faith in God recognizes Jesus immediately.

- It doesn't have to analyze Him.

- It doesn't put Him through a battery of tests.
- It doesn't run to the theologians to find out
what they think.

It discerns as directly as a sheep knows its shepherd's voice that this lowly one speaking to me is my Lord.

“Lord, if you want to, you can make me clean.” How did this leper know? Not because he read it in the Free Press, or heard it on WBFG.

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The leper had been sitting on a rock listening to the sermon on the

mount and he knew that this voice was the voice of his shepherd.

It doesn't take heavy meditation.

"Everyone who is of the truth hears my voice"

"He that is of God hears God's word."

The hour is coming and now is when the
dead shall hear the voice of the Son of
God and those who hear shall live.

Jesus Christ is speaking to the professing church in this city as never

before.

- There are those who listen.

- And there are those who go right on playing their spiritual games.

Those who listen and who change their lives accordingly have faith

in God.

2. Faith in God sees Jesus as holy.

There is a popular faith which believes that you can put Jesus in

your pocket and then everything you touch will turn to success.

Wrap Jesus around your stocks and bonds and see them grow.

The people who peddle this nonsense, and the people who swallow

it are going to be in for a surprise when they stand before the King.

For faith in God always holds Jesus Christ in awe.

"Lord; I am not worthy to have you come
under my roof; speak the word only and
my servant will be healed."

"Put your finger here and see my hands;
and put out your hand and place it in
my side; do not be faithless but believing."

And how did Thomas answer? "Just like I thought all along. Praise God! Hallelujah!" No.

"My Lord and my God!", said Thomas, and fell to his

knees trembling, shaking.

May God bring us to that kind of faith.

3. Faith in God is

continuously overwhelmed by God's mercy in Jesus Christ.

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It can't get over how good Jesus is.

"Lord, if you want to, you can make me
clean." "Of course I want you to be clean!"

"Speak the word only and my servant will
be healed" ..."Go, be it done for you as
you have believed."

Even when we go on with Jesus and find out what it means to have

a thorn in the flesh like Paul, or a wounded thigh like Jacob -

Even when God's Spirit leads us into the wilderness and baffling

things start happening to us - we still see Jesus turning our darkness

into light.

Lo, I am with you always.

I will never leave you or forsake you.
I will not leave you desolate.

4. Faith in God dies to itself and goes all the way with Jesus -

any faith in Jesus which right now is unwilling to go all the way

with Him will sooner or later turn from Him.

For this reason, Jesus never wastes time trying to disciple people who are holding something back. If you prefer not to go all the way with Jesus, that's your privilege, but don't get upset by the fact that Jesus doesn't coddle you and answer all your questions.

He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and he who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and he who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for my sake will find it.

5. Faith in God is a gift God has already given us. All that's needed to complete it is an act of will on our part moment-by-moment.

Some of us are forever moping around feeling cheated.

"O, if only I had faith! Some people find it so easy to believe while I find it so hard!'

No man ever waked this earth with more understanding than Jesus.

- He cares about us.

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- He knows what we're going through.
- He helps us.

But Jesus never sympathizes with our unbelief. He never says, "That's all right. I understand. You do have a little weakness here. Just bungle along in your unbelief as best you can" - Never.

On the contrary, Jesus says, "Where is your faith?
Why did you doubt?

Why are you so hard of heart?"

Because God, by His Spirit right now, is giving every person reading this the power to believe in His Son afresh,

- to discern who Jesus is,

- to see Jesus as holy and wonderfully good,
- to follow Jesus all the way.

Will you come down off your pedestal and move in that power?

Faith is not an issue we settle "once and done". It's an issue we settle every hour of every day. We commit ourselves again and again.

If you've followed Jesus for fifty years praise God for that. But are you following Him right now? Are you utterly sold out to Him.

Is Jesus your first love,
your supreme joy,
your life?

The Spirit of God is calling many of us to wake up and see what's been happening to us. We've been getting religious - which means we've got more confidence in our faith, or in the doctrine of eternal security, or in our Bible knowledge than we have in our Lord.

May God, this day, blast our religious sophistication to a million pieces until we get our eyes and our hearts on Jesus

and on nothing else.

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