Participants: Gordon Arruda (Host)
Series Code: FC
Program Code: FC000283
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00:32 Welcome once again to Faith Chapel. My name is Gordon Arruda
00:36 I'm the head elder at the Roseville Seventh-Day Adventist 00:38 church in Sacramento. Today's topic is one that I think is 00:43 worthy to be mentioned and its called genuine faith. Why do I 00:48 mention genuine faith? Its because there's many kinds of 00:52 faith out there in the world today. Even people who go to 00:56 church who claim to be Christians they have a faith 00:59 they say they believe in God but is it biblical genuine faith? 01:04 Before we get into this study I'm going to ask God's blessings 01:08 to be upon this study as we open His word. Lets bow our heads for 01:12 a word of prayer. Our Father in heaven it is only through 01:17 the Holy Spirit that your word becomes clear it is only through 01:20 personal presences of Jesus that we can understand and so Jesus 01:25 dwell in the hearts of all the listeners today. Empower us 01:29 with insight so that we might behold and believe. 01:32 And thank you for this opportunity to share with those 01:36 who hunger and thirst after Your righteousness. Be with us now 01:41 and our efforts we ask in Your name. Amen. 01:44 To begin this study lets turn to the gospel of John 14 02:15 This is a fascinating teaching and statement by our Lord 02:18 He says the reason why individuals cannot receive the 02:24 Holy Spirit is because they do not behold and they do not see 02:29 the glory of God. You see to understand the character of God 02:36 is to know Him and to believe upon Him and when faith has 02:41 taken hold it opens up to the Spirit that comes to represent 02:47 the very love and the very God of whom they've come to believe. 02:51 That's the missing ingredient here is people do not receive 02:55 the true Holy Spirit because they do not believe or behold 03:00 the one who gives it. In order for the Holy Spirit to truly 03:06 open the heart one must believe that God is that good and that 03:12 purposeful in His plan for you. The Holy Spirit endeavors to 03:17 reveal to us the love of Jesus Christ. Tenderizing the heart 03:22 and making it ready to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit. 03:27 Until the revelation of God explodes in our hearts until 03:33 it is made clear, something only the Holy Spirit can do, faith 03:38 will not take hold and when faith cannot take hold 03:42 we cannot receive the Spirit either. Genuine faith 03:46 receives the Holy Spirit because genuine faith is based upon the 03:51 truth of God and the Spirit has come to represent and reveal God 03:57 Genuine faith is so powerful because it never asks what can I 04:04 do it will only now what God can do and puts our trust in that 04:09 reality and that fact and so this thing of beholding 04:13 and believing is not something of merely gazing upon something 04:18 of idle curiosity it is something that arrests our 04:23 attention and grabs our hearts and opens our mouth and says 04:28 can this be true? Does God love me this much that He would go 04:35 through what He went through and give up what He gave up 04:38 to reach me? Oh brothers and sisters this kind of faith that 04:44 beholds and believes is the kind of faith that will receive that 04:48 testimony and that life within your heart. The first thing that 04:53 the scripture brings out is that genuine faith receives the Holy 04:58 Spirit and genuine faith puts no confidence in the flesh. 05:02 Another thing that genuine faith does is bring conviction. 05:10 Lets turn to 1 John 4:16 05:32 One of the powerful elements of genuine faith is it believes 05:37 that God truly loves you. This love is so powerful and 05:43 overwhelming it has the ability to turn and over power a human 05:48 heart a sinner seeped in darkness and self and transform 05:53 him to a God centered human being. The belief that God loves 05:59 us is not based on fantasy, is not based on wishful thinking 06:04 but its based on the solid evidence of the gospel of Jesus 06:07 Christ that it is brought to us by the Holy Spirit. The Spirit 06:12 drives deep into our hearts and helps us to see that all the 06:17 activities of Jesus Christ all the activities and the humbling 06:21 and the turmoil and the toil He went through is because He loved 06:25 you. When such faith beholds the person of Christ and 06:30 realizes this is who the God of heaven is this is the God who 06:34 loved me this is the God who sacrifices for me, when we 06:40 believe this to be true it has a transforming effect in our life 06:45 we will never be the same. This faith cannot be intellectual 06:49 and it cannot originate in our thinking remember the scripture 06:54 that says, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses 06:58 knowledge, and so this faith goes beyond human thinking 07:03 is because it didn't originate with human philosophy 07:06 and so the Holy Spirit now teaches us the depth and the 07:13 width and the breath and the length of the love of God. 07:15 As He fills it for us. When faith embarrasses this truth 07:21 nothing else matters, our life will be transformed and nothing 07:27 will ever be the same. This is what Satan doesn't want us to 07:31 know once a soul is grounded into belief that God loves them 07:36 and that God puts such a value on us that He gave His only son 07:40 nothing now can stop us. We welcome the Holy Spirit we 07:46 welcome His judgments we welcome His work and His 07:49 insights and His truth we welcome everything that He 07:52 wants to do. Why? Because He loves us. Genuine faith believes 07:58 that God loves you. Another element of genuine faith 08:04 is found in the gospel of John chapter 16 08:26 This scripture clearly shows us genuine faith embarrasses 08:29 the Holy Spirit and what the Holy Spirit comes to bring 08:33 in conviction. The conviction that He brings is the conviction 08:37 concerning sin righteousness and judgment. If there is an 08:43 experience religiously speaking that does not bring and come 08:47 with these convictions chances are its not brought about or 08:51 prompted by the Holy Spirit. Jesus clearly said that these 08:55 convictions are absolutely necessary to convict the heart 08:58 of its condition and to receive Him as Lord and Savior 09:03 The conviction of sin here is the conviction of unbelief. 09:08 When all the evidence of scripture of the Holy Spirit of 09:13 personal witness and testimony has been presented and 09:18 individuals harden there hearts to the gospel that hardening 09:22 will darken their souls and only further entrench them in their 09:26 ways. Their hearts will have even more access to the realm of 09:31 darkness and to Satan and his temptations rejecting the 09:32 gospel is a serious issue. It is the only way that God can save 09:41 you. It is rejection of God himself and everything He is 09:46 We are essentially saying we do not care if you love us 09:51 we do not care what you did for us, we don't need you 09:55 and we don't need your truth we want to be who we are. 09:59 That rejection is called unbelief. It hardens the heart 10:04 and it darkens the mind. This is a very similar situation to 10:08 what happened to many of the Jewish leaders after the 10:11 resurrection when He ascended into heaven. Steven gave 10:15 a pointed testimony of their history and there current 10:20 condition. They were so enraged their minds were completely 10:24 darkened and their hearts were hardened cause of unbelief 10:27 The Holy Spirit has come to convict us of the danger 10:31 of unbelief and to turn us around and provoke us to belief 10:36 this is the first thing that the Holy Spirit convicts us of 10:41 is our unbelieving hearts and the hardness of our hearts 10:45 Jesus also said when He comes that He will convict the 10:48 world of righteousness this is because He said I go to the 10:55 Father. Jesus is no longer with us in the flesh. While He walked 11:00 with the disciples He constantly showed them what constituted 11:04 true righteousness. He pointed to peoples hearts so that they 11:09 could see their need of salvation. True righteousness 11:13 was revealed and practiced by Christ but it was also taught 11:17 and pointed out in His teachings Jesus was constantly revealing 11:22 the righteousness of God and bringing the conviction of 11:26 righteousness to His hearers and to His followers. But when Jesus 11:30 has left who will take His place this is where the Holy Spirit 11:35 now comes to fill the void that happened when Jesus went back to 11:40 heaven. The Holy Spirit faithfully takes up the same 11:43 witness of Jesus Christ and bares out the righteousness 11:46 of God and points us the way of righteousness when He abides in 11:50 the heart. The conviction of righteousness that it is so much 11:54 higher than any human achievement that it is a quality 11:58 that resides in the heart of God and Him alone. This conviction 12:02 brings humility to the soul and opens the eyes to see how much 12:07 we need the God of heaven and the provision of salvation He 12:12 offers last but not least is the conviction of judgment. 12:17 The judgment here that Jesus is talking about is the judgment of 12:21 the world. And the judgment of Satan because he has been cast 12:26 out. People in the world do not see this perspective. Many 12:32 people don't even believe there's a devil. But for those 12:35 who do they see the devil as a very formidable foe. 12:39 This is why many movies that portray the devil have a 12:43 horrifying affect on people because they feel the power of 12:46 evil, they fear it and they believe that it is encompassing 12:51 but with the crucifixion of Jesus as He died for our sins 12:55 as He revealed the perfect and pure character of God and 12:59 His system and government of love conviction revealed to 13:05 those who beheld the crucifixion that God was the 13:10 God of love and Satan was a liar from the beginning. When we 13:16 beholding the gospel through the power of the Holy Spirit 13:20 we also see in our convicted that Satan is a defeated foe 13:26 He now longer has any power for those who believe. We now longer 13:31 think that his kingdom will go on forever. We no longer 13:36 believe his kingdom has a future we believe exactly what it says 13:40 in the word that the god of the world, Satan, has been cast out 13:45 he has faced the judgment and he has lost. Praise God 13:51 that through faith we can know that Satan is a defeated foe. 13:55 In the struggles that we go through in life, the struggle 13:58 with faith the struggle to believe the struggle to live our 14:03 life in submission to the Holy Spirit we can always have the 14:06 assurance and the conviction that Satan is defeated and he 14:11 has been cast out to the carnal eye this does not seem to be the 14:15 case. We see the works of Satan all over the world through wars 14:19 and through famines, hatred, and prejudices, brother rising up 14:24 against brother, nation against nation, where does it end? 14:27 And to the eye it seems that it is only evil that pervades in 14:32 the world but faith helps us see past that and knows that the 14:37 end of all things are near. Jesus has brought the truth to 14:40 our hearts as well as His kingdom and has cast out the 14:44 evil one and judged him for eternity. Faith now through the 14:50 power of the Holy Spirit genuine faith brings the conviction of 14:54 sin, righteousness, and judgment. These three elements 14:58 need to be together for the faith to be genuine. Moving on 15:04 the next thing that genuine faith does is that faith 15:09 enters into rest. Lets turn to the book of Hebrews 4 15:42 This is probably one of the most profound activities of genuine 15:46 faith. The process in which a believer learns to enter into 15:52 rest and to place his heart his mind and his life sourly in the 15:58 hands of Jesus Christ. When we enter into rest we learn to 16:03 to give up the works of the flesh also for righteousness 16:06 and hypocrisy. You see there's two things Satan tempts us with 16:11 He can tempt us to sin or he can tempt us to be good. 16:16 Its the flip side of the same coin because on both self 16:21 is at the center. When we sin of course we encore judgment of 16:26 righteousness but when we do good but only in the name of 16:32 self when self is in the center of it, it does something very 16:35 dangerous. It builds up self righteousness and pride 16:40 and spiritual arrogance. Many people because they know a lot 16:46 about the Bible are very prideful about their knowledge 16:49 this is not what God had in mind the word was supposed to lead 16:54 us to the truth in Jesus Christ but instead we accumulate 16:57 the knowledge in order to make ourselves look better. This is 17:01 not what faith is supposed to do. Many people who purport to 17:07 half faith. Really only have a head knowledge of faith 17:11 similar to what it says in another portion of scripture 17:14 the devils also believe and tremble. Such a faith is not 17:18 genuine. That's why genuine faith enters into rest. The 17:26 process of entering to rest is also the process of letting go 17:30 of self. Rest by its very nature means letting go of work and 17:36 relaxing and resting. Where does faith lead us to rest in? That 17:42 only can be to rest in Jesus Christ. He is the one who offers 17:47 us rest He is the one that will give us rest and He is the one 17:51 that will sanctify us in our rest. And so the Holy Spirit 17:56 never tries to provoke an individual to try to use his 18:01 human energies to produce a righteous life. Faith does not 18:05 motivate self Faith trusts in God and God then resurrects the 18:11 heart and motivates the heart and empowers it. Faith will 18:15 always lead us to trust ourselves even our works in the hand of Jesus Christ. 18:20 this is the process of sanctification that quite 18:24 frankly escapes many people. Some people are under the belief 18:28 that Christ forgives me and now as I ask the Holy Spirit to 18:32 empower me I'm going to live righteously. Faith leads you 18:37 to give up the works of the flesh and leads us to 18:42 rest and abide in Jesus Christ. From this place of deep trusting 18:47 in Jesus the Holy Spirit is now given freedom to act and work 18:53 in ways He could not before when we try to be righteous on our 18:57 own. We interrupt and obstruct the work of the Holy Spirit 19:01 The Holy Spirit is not going to bare witness to our own 19:05 righteousness, He's not going to bare witness to our pride 19:08 He's not going to reinforce spiritual arrogance and so 19:12 the way in which He deals with pride and deals with self 19:17 righteousness is through us entering into rest which is a 19:22 deep trust in abiding in Christ alone. There we confess 19:26 and there we realize and know that our works mean nothing 19:30 that is only the working of Jesus Christ as He empowers 19:34 the heart something beautiful will happen and that is the 19:38 works that we do now come from a heart that had been 19:42 sanctified by Him. They do not come from a heart that's trying 19:46 to establish ones own righteousness. The only way we 19:50 can get rid of and separate ourselves from self 19:52 righteousness into truly righteous acts is by entering into rest. True faith 19:58 leads us there. Faith will always lead us to a trusting 20:03 and dependant relationship with Jesus Christ. And finally 20:09 the last thing that genuine faith does is it produces 20:14 genuine works. Lets turn to the book of James 2 21:06 Martin Luther as some of you may know had difficulty excepting 21:11 the book of James in Canaanite scripture because it appeared to 21:15 contradict his contention that righteousness was by faith 21:20 alone apart from works. Indeed Paul says such a thing in 21:25 his apostles but there is no contradiction in the word of God 21:29 and there is no contradiction here. James was railing against 21:34 workless faith and Martin Luther was railing against faithless 21:41 works. They both have a place and they both are intricately 21:46 tied together. Genuine faith does work, genuine faith 21:51 does result in manifesting the works and the doings of Jesus 21:57 Christ. But remember why this works happen and who is the 22:01 originator of them. It is Christ working in the heart. We can 22:07 only be assured that the works that we do are a produced of the 22:12 grace of Jesus Christ renewing our hearts is when we give up 22:16 our works as it says in Hebrews 4 and rest in Jesus Christ and 22:23 depend on Him to do the work He has promised to do in the new 22:27 covenant from that renewed heart comes forth an energy new 22:33 aspirations new desires that the Holy Spirit Himself plants 22:38 there. Those feelings and new aspirations to do good and to 22:42 bless are the very inklings and impulses of Christ Himself. 22:47 It is from these impulses and from these desires and yearnings 22:52 now to be a blessing to give rather than receive that are 22:58 constituted the works of faith. It has been said that faith 23:03 produces works. I'd like to say that its faith that trusts in 23:09 the works of Jesus and that will produce the works that will be 23:14 consistent with the faith that we profess. It is only such 23:18 works that truly give genuiness and authenticity to the 23:22 witness that we claim to believe When people see our generosity 23:27 when people see the willingness to give and to help even when it 23:33 does not give us recognition or credit but comes from a pure 23:37 heart of love that can only be from the heart of Jesus Christ 23:41 then people know that the faith is genuine. Isn't this what God 23:46 wants? God does not want the right hand knowing what the left 23:50 hand is doing. God wants our works to be pure and Holy. 23:55 There are two places in scripture one in Revelation and 23:58 one in Isaiah that describes the righteous works of the saints 24:02 the one in Revelation describes the works of the saints as a 24:06 pure and white garment that is given for them to wear. 24:10 Quoting it says for they are the righteous acts of the saints 24:14 but then in Isaiah it talks about a garment of filthy rags 24:19 that represent the good works of the saints. You have good works 24:23 in Isaiah and you have good works, righteous works in 24:26 Revelation but one is a filthy garment, the other one is a 24:31 righteous garment Holy and pure and clean. What makes the 24:35 difference? Its when Jesus Christ is the originator and the 24:39 actuator of the works because now our souls have received the 24:44 heart of Christ and allow that to reign therein with the 24:49 reigning heart of Christ it provokes you to the works 24:52 that He desires to do. A heart of love a motive of love 24:58 a labor of love. When we do not enter into rest but try to work 25:04 out our own works try to be good try to be righteous 25:09 try to show or to prove to people that we do have faith 25:13 that is not genuine faith. Faith causes us to abide and rest in 25:20 Christ so that the works that come from that heart are genuine 25:25 and truly reflect the heart of the father now have you ever 25:32 noticed individuals who are very active in the church and they do 25:37 a lot of good things but say somebody this shouldn't happen 25:43 but it does, says something of a criticism against that person 25:47 and that person now hears of it. If the works in the ministry 25:54 that one does is generated by Christ working deep in the heart 25:59 we will take no offence because of the criticisms of others 26:03 it is because of pride when we take pride in what we do when 26:10 we take pride in the good things we do that we're so subjected 26:14 to the criticisms of others it is pride that responds to that. 26:18 God doesn't want our works to be a product of our self 26:22 righteousness and pride He wants good works but He knows that the 26:26 only works that truly bring a true witness and a true glory 26:31 and honor to Him are the works that He Himself inspires and 26:36 does in the heart and so genuine faith works genuine faith 26:43 reveals the life of Christ in solid identifiable acts of love. 26:50 and charity. Isn't this demonstrative to the heart of 26:56 God and His generosity? Isn't this exactly what God is looking 27:00 for in His people? Works that truly reveal Him and His 27:06 character? Oh I can't tell you how much God is looking for 27:10 people who can do the works of Jesus Christ without taking 27:13 pride in it. Faith allows us to do that because faith brings us 27:19 into rest and trust in Jesus Christ and in Him alone and when 27:24 the works come forth from that heart sanctified by His graces 27:27 in our works that we will never take credit for and we shouldn't 27:32 The only time works come into play is if its to glorify and 27:38 honor God or if its for the blessing of another. It is never 27:42 about us, its never about us to look good and the only 27:46 way we can separate and get pride out of what we do 27:48 is by fully trusting in Jesus Christ. Thank you so much 27:54 God bless you. |
Revised 2014-12-17