Justified By Faith

John 3:1-21...

Have you ever been told.......... “you just got to have faith”...............especially when things are not going well in your life, many circumstances that are not good bombard you and someone tells you...... “Just have faith”

I am not knocking it, I am just asking.........Maybe we tell ourselves this very thing.

I saw a video of a preacher discussing his encounter with some mormon young men that were in a library. Eventually, he asked them how do they tell someone to believe in Jesus Christ.....

There was a list....

Have faith

Repent

Be baptized

Receive the Holy Spirit

Endure till the end

That sounds a lot like our talk in the world...........However, it is the wrong Jesus........

Anybody can say have faith........

That phrase can carry a lot of different meanings....

Pastor Adrian Rogers said:

Don’t put faith in faith, put faith in Jesus. The devil used to pull that trick on me. He used to say, “Adrian, how do you know that you really believe enough?” It shook me at first, but God taught me to turn the tables on him. Now I agree with the devil. I say, “You know, devil, you are right. My faith is weak, but Jesus is wonderful. I am not putting my faith in my faith. I am putting my faith in Jesus.”

Having faith in the true Christ, the Jesus of the Bible, without additions or revelations is where hope and salvation live!

In our times of trouble, in our times of weakness, our lives are fueled, exactly by what fueled our lives when times are not bad..........Faith in Jesus Christ

Romans 10:8–11 “But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach; That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.”

Romans 10:13 “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

Jesus used the word.......the idea of “believe” a lot when He spoke while on this earth.......the truth of believing in Him........and the apostles carried that same truth to the world, to believe in the True Christ!

Paul preached to the Jews at Antioch that said they believed in God......Acts 13:38–39 “Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins: And by him (Jesus) all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses.”

He went on to say Acts 13:40–41 “Beware therefore, lest that come upon you, which is spoken of in the prophets; Behold, ye despisers, and wonder, and perish: for I work a work in your days, a work which ye shall in no wise believe, though a man declare it unto you.”

They didn’t believe in Jesus and because of that Paul turned the message, as he was told by God, to the Gentiles.

Now, Jesus in John 3 speaks of the reality of our faith, our belief.......these are the same, faith and belief........In a conversation with a Pharisee, Nicodemus, Jesus tells us of this belief.......

John 3:1-21..........

Being born-again........Jesus tells Nicodemus that we must be born-again.........why?

We have fallen from the image of God.......Jesus Christ alone bears the image of God now and our rebirth is in His image not ours.....2 verses come to mind when I think of this...

Galatians 2:20 “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.”

2 Corinthians 5:21 “For he (God the Father) hath made him (Jesus) to be sin for us, (Jesus) who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him (Jesus).”

It is no longer I that lives but Jesus Christ lives in me..........we are made righteous unto God in Jesus Christ!

Hard concept for someone that believes they are inherently good!!!

By our choice we fell from God’s image, by God’s love we are born-again through Jesus Christ!

This is simple theology, but it gets muddied up because mankind loves darkness rather than light!

That is why they hated Jesus.......John 7:7 “The world cannot hate you; but me it hateth, because I testify of it, that the works thereof are evil.”

Jesus Christ’s life on this earth testifies to us a life lived solely unto God and in that life is revealed just how much we do not live unto God!

There has got to be a change for us to live that way, even just a little.......and that is Jesus Christ, His Person as reported in God’s Word and His Complete Work that is also reported in God’s Word!

Turn to Romans 5:1-9..........Justified by faith....Paul goes onto to tell us what faith justifies us......

Romans 5:9 “Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.”

Now go back to the beginning of the chapter........Everything in our life is about the Grace of God through Christ....

Even in our tribulations are building us in our trust in what God has done for us through Jesus Christ, building our hope of the Glory of God!

The faith that we have in Jesus Christ justifies us before God, it builds us........it reveals the love of God, over and over again and through that love being all over us through His Holy Spirit........we are fully confident in what God has promised and we will never be let down by God when we see Him!

Lastly, lets turn to 2 Corinthians 12:1-10........In chapter 11, Paul describes to this church all the things that he has been through for Jesus’ Name sake........Now he moves into speaking about his vision/revelation.........

Paul basically says....... “This boasting will do no good, but I must go on. I will reluctantly tell about visions and revelations from the Lord.” NLT

3rd Heaven, which is Paradise

Back in that day that is how it was referred....1st heaven the sky, 2nd heaven outer space.

Paul was caught up, how he does not know, but just that he experienced God’s Abode somehow, someway.....

Paul said that what he saw and heard, was not permissible to speak by no man.

Powerful experience that Paul was given......however, because of that Paul was given a thorn in the flesh.....Paul called a “messenger of satan”.....

Some folks argue over this but to me it is simple.......the efforts of satan are evil, but what satan means for evil, God uses it for His good!

A writer wrote.........satan was the intermediate cause, God was the ultimate cause.

This was given to Paul, that he would not be able to exalt himself......this kept Paul humble.....

We can get a little big for our britches, when we think “I got this....”

Paul boasted of some of what he saw, but only to get us to the reality of what we have faith in........

You see, we get hung up on experiences and stimulating things that come along in our life.......

Paul was doing good, showing out for Christ, if you will!

Why does this thorn in the flesh, satan’s messenger messing with him???

We get bound up in this world and we miss the glorious reason!!!

Paul prayed and prayed and prayed for this thorn to go away............

The answer to the plea came....it was simple and without a lot of human flashery....

Jesus came to Paul and said that His grace was sufficient for Paul........

The answer to what we have faith in is right here........we believe in Jesus Christ for exactly what He came to do........we trust in that Grace of God through Jesus Christ in all matters of life and it is through His strength do persevere.......being saved, being delivered from the wrath of God because Jesus took God’s wrath on our behalf........this faith is our reason for living......this faith is our strength because we have none.......

When I measure my moments in life and in all of the good things that I think I have done, in those good things I can find where I fell short of God’s righteousness.........that is when I see Christ

In this revelation that Paul had with Christ, he then realized that his continual trust in Christ regardless of circumstance, revealed his human weakness and declared the power of Christ.....

He was content in weakness.....think about that......content in our weaknesses.......Is that something that you put on your mirror when you wake up and read it to pump you for the day?????

When I am weak then I am powerful........Because I trust in the Christ the Son of the Living God........The paradox is based in Christ and his saving work. When Paul is weak, then he is powerful. The power is not his, nor does it become his, as the temporal limitation of his statement makes clear: “when I am weak, then I am powerful.” The power that comes to Paul remains the power of Christ