630-2 THE HIGH ADVENTURE OF FAITHSeptember 13, 1981
Pastor Henry F. Kulp
Hebrews 11: 1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
Faith is basic to the Christian life, without faith it is impossible to please God, and we are saved by faith, and the Christian life is continued by faith, therefore we live by faith, and then we die by faith. Faith is basic to receiving grace. Without faith we cannot have the grace or mercy of God.
1/ Faith is the title deed to things hoped for, it is evident, or proof of things not seen. Christianity today is devoid of outward evidence. Every step is by faith. No one has seen Jesus Christ, has any idea of what He looks like, no one has been to Heaven, and no one in our day has gone to Heaven and come back and told us about it. What we know about Christ and what we know about God and about Heaven is all by faith, because faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.
Romans 10: 17 So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
2/ To show you how men hate living by faith, Oral Roberts said he saw Jesus standing 900 feet tall. We know he did not see Jesus Christ standing 900 feet tall. He is either lying, or he has been grossly deceived by Satan. First of all, Jesus Christ is not 900 feet tall, and the body of Jesus Christ is in Heaven seated at the right hand of God the Father.
Ephesians 1: 20 Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places,
Notice, talking of His resurrection power which He wrought in Christ when He raised Him from the dead, and set Him on His right hand in Heavenly places. So Christ is seated. The physical Christ is seated and He will not get up until He comes to rapture away His Church.
3/ Psalm 110: 1 The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool.
Here the Lord said unto My Lord, sit through at My own right hand until I make thine enemies Thy footstool. He is a royal exile, until His enemies shall be made His footstool. If Jesus Christ was standing as Mr. Oral Roberts told us, the outlook for this world and its religious masses would be dark indeed, for the time of Jacob’s trouble would be here.
4/ So you can see how the world, and even those who claim to be His own, do not want to walk by faith. They want to see, how many people are thrilled by the so-called testimony of this faith healer.
5/ Romans 5: 3 And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience;
James 1: 3 Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.
In both of these Scriptures we see that the testing of your faith worketh patience. God
permits testings, sufferings, pain, and in all tests you’re walking by faith.
6/ THE WORD, PATIENCE, IS LITERALLY THE WORD, ENDURANCE. IF THERE IS ONE THING THE BELIEVER NEEDS IN THIS WORLD, IT IS ENDURANCE. YOU DON’T HAVE MUCH OF A TESTIMONY IN THIS WORLD IF YOU DO NOT HAVE ENDURANCE.
7/ I Thessalonians 1: 3 Remembering without ceasing your work of faith, and labour of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of God and our Father;
In our next step in our study, we must see that patience and hope, endurance and hope go hand in hand. You can’t have endurance, you can’t have patience unless you have hope or expectation.
8/ I remember as a boy and then a young man wondering if there was a God in Heaven, why does He let men suffer as He does? And people are asking that question on every side. I must admit it bothered me as I saw people suffering, go through trials and tribulations and know the utmost agony. I can’t see much of a loving, tender- hearted God by my sight. Why is there so much suffering and trial and tribulation in this world? For the saved and the unsaved both suffer.
9/ We have a book of the Bible that answers these questions and brings out the principles I gave this morning, and that book is the Book of Job.
10/ James 5: 11 Behold, we count them happy which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy.
I am sure you have ask God, why did Job suffer? For he went through what many in this earth would call hell on earth. Why? There is no question that he walked by faith, there is no question that he endured.
11/ Job was the first book written in the Bible as far as we know. If you do not understand Job, you will not understand who Satan is, because Satan appears in Genesis as if out of nowhere. But Job tells us who Satan was.
12/ The Book of Job should be studied first, then Genesis. This may sound strange, but I am sure it is true. Also the Book of Job gives us the reasons for the sufferings of man.
13/ Job 5: 11 To set up on high those that be low; that those which mourn may be exalted to safety.
The word, Job, is very interesting. It means, THE ONE ATTACKED, or ENMITY. Turn to Genesis 3: 15 and you will notice, I will put enmity between thee and so-forth.
The word enmity is Job, and Job means the attacked one.
Genesis 3: 15 And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy
seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.
14/ Here we see there are but two seeds—the seed of the serpent, and the seed of the woman. Job suffered because Satan attacked him. Of course, the serpent wants to get at Jesus Christ through us. So suffering is related to two seeds and the attack of the seed of the serpent upon the seed of the woman.
15/ James 5: 11 Behold, we count them happy which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy.
We read in James 5: 11 about those who endure are happy, and he says, as an illustration, you have heard of the endurance of Job and have seen the end or the goal of the Lord, that the Lord is very pitiful and of tender mercy.
16/ Job had endurance and hope, for he saw God’s goal in the midst of all his pain, his suffering and his trials.
17/ The Book of Job is a picture of God permitting Satan to touch Job because of hatred between the two seeds. Job did not suffer because of his own wrong doing. He did not suffer because God was chastening him. The whole idea was Satan’s and Job was the recipient of the hatred of Satan.
18/ All through this, Job had a hope and he had endurance. God did not ask Job, do you mind? Without the consent of Job, God permitted Satan to touch his body, and that which he had. And Job is a picture of a suffering world, especially the suffering believer. God doesn’t ask us if we want to suffer, but He permits Satan to touch us.
19/ The word, hope, is throughout the Book of Job. Job, in the midst of all his suffering had hope, and this produced his endurance.
20/ Job 14: 12 - 14 So man lieth down, and riseth not: till the heavens be no more, they shall not awake, nor be raised out of their sleep. O that thou wouldest hide me in the grave, that thou wouldest keep me secret, until thy wrath be past, that thou wouldest
appoint me a set time, and remember me! If a man die, shall he live again? all the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come.
Here was Job’s hope that produced endurance. And his hope was a change. I shall be changed. I can wait until my change comes. But Job also gives the time when that change will be—when the heavens be no more. When is that? That is to be with the new heaven and the new earth. As you know after the 1,000 year reign, we will have a time when the heavens and earth shall flee away. There will be the Great White Throne Judgement and a new heaven and a new earth. So Job was not looking for a resurrection until that time. This tells us the people before Israel will be resurrected for the new heaven and earth. Job longed for this day when he would be changed.
21/ This is true of us in Romans 8: 18 a day when we will be with the Lord and be like the Lord, but our hope is in the Heavens.
For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.
22/ Job 1: 13 - 19 And there was a day when his sons and his daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother's house: And there came a messenger unto Job, and said, The oxen were plowing, and the asses feeding beside them: And the Sabeans fell upon them, and took them away; yea, they have slain the servants with the edge of the sword; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee. While he was yet speaking, there came also another, and said, The fire of God is fallen from heaven, and hath burned up the sheep, and the servants, and consumed them; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee. While he was yet speaking, there came also another, and said, The Chaldeans made out three bands, and fell upon the camels, and have carried them away, yea, and slain the servants with the edge of the sword; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee. While he was yet speaking, there came also another, and said, Thy sons and thy daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother's house: And, behold, there came a great wind from the wilderness, and smote the four corners of the house, and it fell upon the young men, and they are dead; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee.
Here we have the calamity, if you can call it that, of Job. His oxen and his asses are all killed, and his sheep were consumed, and his camels, then his sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother’s house, and there came a wind from the wilderness and smote the four corners of the house and it fell upon the young men and they were dead. Then God permitted Satan to touch his body. What suffering! But he kept his eye on the future.
23/ Job 42: 10 - 13 And the Lord turned the captivity of Job, when he prayed for his friends: also the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before. Then came there unto him all his brethren, and all his sisters, and all they that had been of his acquaintance before, and did eat bread with him in his house: and they bemoaned him, and comforted him over all the evil that the Lord had brought upon him: every man also gave him a
piece of money, and every one an earring of gold. So the Lord blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning: for he had fourteen thousand sheep, and six thousand camels, and a thousand yoke of oxen, and a thousand she asses. He had also seven sons and three daughters.
In the 10th verse we have something very important. Job was rewarded in this life. The Lord returned the captivity of Job when he prayed for his friends, and the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before. The 12th vs. The Lord blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning, for he had 14,000 sheep, 6,000 cattle and 1,000 yoke of oxen and 1,000 she asses. Then also notice, he had 7 sons and 3 daughters. That fits in with all things working together for good.
24/ Isaiah 1: 5 - 7 Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more: the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment. Your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire: your land, strangers devour it in your presence, and it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers.
I wonder if you realize that Israel is also pictured, like Job in his suffering. How Israel suffered. God said the whole head is sick, the whole heart, even from the sole of the foot unto the head there is no soundness in it. The wounds and bruises, and putrifying sores. Your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire, your land foreigners devour in your presence. Israel throughout its history has suffered tremendously, and it is because of Satan’s hatred for the seed of the woman, and Israel is caught in the middle.
25/ Isaiah 61: 4 - 7 And they shall build the old wastes, they shall raise up the former desolations, and they shall repair the waste cities, the desolations of many generations. And strangers shall stand and feed your flocks, and the sons of the alien shall be your plowmen and your vinedressers. But ye shall be named the Priests of the Lord: men shall call you the Ministers of our God: ye shall eat the riches of the Gentiles, and in their glory shall ye boast yourselves. For your shame ye shall have double; and for confusion they shall rejoice in their portion: therefore in their land they shall possess the double: everlasting joy shall be unto them.
Here we have a beautiful portion of Scripture. Here we read about the kingdom, and God says for your shame ye shall have double and for confusion they shall rejoice in their portion, therefore in their land they shall possess the double; everlasting joy shall be upon them. Like Job they, too, can have a goal in view, a double portion of what they ever had.
26/ Zechariah 9: 12 Turn you to the strong hold, ye prisoners of hope: even to day do I declare that I will render double unto thee;
We have this same promise when final deliverance comes. Turn you to the stronghold ye prisoners of hope, even today do I declare that I will render double unto thee.
27/ Let me show you something about the word, hope, it is very interesting.
Joshua 2: 18 Behold, when we come into the land, thou shalt bind this line of scarlet thread in the window which thou didst let us down by: and thou shalt bring thy father, and thy mother, and thy brethren, and all thy father's household, home unto thee.
Here we have the story of the spies and Rehab. You will remember that she welcomed the spies, cared for them and watched over them, and they said, when we come to take over the city, we will deliver you. What you have to do is bind this line of scarlet thread in the window by which you let us down. They departed and she bound the scarlet line in the window. The word, line, is literally the word, hope, translated hope, many times in the Old Testament. Of course it wasn’t a thread, she couldn’t let them down by a thread. It was a rope.
28/ Ruth 1: 12 Turn again, my daughters, go your way; for I am too old to have an husband. If I should say, I have hope, if I should have an husband also to night, and should also bear sons;
Here the word, translated line, is now translated hope.
Zechariah 9: 12 Turn you to the strong hold, ye prisoners of hope: even to day do I
declare that I will render double unto thee;
Here we have the same word translated hope. This red rope in the window became hope to the household of Rehab. This had to be by faith. She put the rope in the window by faith. She couldn’t see that she was going to be delivered. All she could do was hope she would be delivered, and this is what faith does for you and me.
Hebrews 11: 1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
AMEN
Ref: 9/13/81 / 630-2 THE HIGH ADVENTURE OF FAITH / 2/192021
No comments:
Post a Comment