True Faith: Rooted in Scripture, Not Spectacle

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It gives us a very interesting insight into the character of God, for on the one side God is very gracious, slow to anger, merciful, loving, but on the other side God is bound by inflexible holiness and righteousness, and the merchants fleeing from the flashing eyes of Jesus and his upraised hand with a whip are really a foreshadow of the wicked who will be standing before his throne of judgment. [00:07:22]

His zeal for the house of God was a sign in itself of his messiahship. John points out that when they saw Jesus so agitated and upset, driving the commercialism out, that they thought of the scripture, the prophecy of the messiah that said the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up, and thus they identified Jesus, they identified that as one of the signs of his messiahship. [00:10:17]

Now today the Jews are looking for the messiah, and the sign that they are looking for is a man with a zeal for the house of God. If you ask a Jew today how they will recognize their messiah, they will tell you he will help us build our temple, the zeal for the house of God, and so the zeal that Jesus had for the house of God was the sign that he was the messiah. [00:11:26]

Jesus answered and said unto them, destroy this temple, and of course remember now he was in the outer courts of the temple, he had just upset things, and so the officials come out, and Jesus said destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. Then the Jews answered him, we've been building on this temple for 46 years and you say you will rear it up in three days. [00:15:46]

They realized when Jesus rose from the dead that he was talking about his own body, the temple in which he lived. Now the Bible says ye are the temple, your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, and Jesus was talking about his own body, destroy it, three days I'll raise it up, and so John adds his commentary, and many times through the gospel of John, because he wrote so many years after the fact. [00:21:42]

Jesus is declaring that the only sign you're going to receive is his death and resurrection on the third day. That's the sign, his resurrection from the dead is the sign that he was indeed the messiah. That's what they're running show us a sign that you're the messiah, they wanted something spectacular to stand in awe of but Jesus said hey, the sign you're going to get is my death and resurrection on the third day. [00:25:35]

The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is really the cornerstone truth of the church. It is the heart of the gospel, not his death only, the death of Christ can only be interpreted through the resurrection if it were not for the resurrection from the dead, his death would be meaningless, everybody dies, but it is the resurrection that gives hope to man today. [00:25:58]

Jesus knew that the faith that was established upon miracles was not a viable faith, a faith that came as a result of seeing miracles was not a viable faith and thus he didn't commit himself to those he didn't really believe in them because their faith was established on miracles rather than upon the word of God. [00:33:12]

The faith that he commits to is that faith that is established in the scriptures and in the word, that's the strong faith, that's the faith that will see you through the darkest night, the deepest valley, faith that is only developed as a result of seeing something that you can't explain, some kind of a miracle, can be transferred to something else or someone else when you see someone else performing some kind of a of a unexplainable phenomena. [00:34:47]

The true faith, the real faith is a faith that has been established in God's word, the scriptures, that's why we teach the word of God so that your faith might be established in something that is substantial, something that will last, the excitement of a miracle can pass, but the word of God will abide forever. [00:35:56]

We can fool man and that's probably one of the worst things in the world because when we it has the effect of I begin to deceive myself I think hey I'm putting it over, nobody really knows the truth about me, and the fact that I can snowmen is a dangerous thing because then I start to snow myself, I begin to deceive myself I think I'm getting by with it. [00:41:06]

In Psalms we are told that God knows the secrets of our hearts, and so many believed in him when they saw his miracles, but he couldn't believe in them, they didn't have the kind of faith that could be trusted, their faith was based upon miracles and experiences, the Lord commits himself to those whose faith is based upon his word. [00:41:39]

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