The Faith of Jesus

1
The Faith of Jesus

• The Pioneer and Perfecter of Faith
• Fred Bischoff

2
Review of Study 4

• The "faith of Jesus" is vital for Adventists,
  those living in the final day of Atonement just
  before Christ's second coming.
• This faith can be seen in each of the six
  messages that have come "in their order" to
  prepare for the end of this world's kingdoms, and
  the final establishment of God's everlasting
  kingdom.

3
Review of Study 4

• The "faith of Jesus" is explicitly stated in the
  climax of the Third Angel's Message, on an
  equality with the commandments of God.
• In Advent history, this faith was overlooked and
  not understood. It was not presented with equal
  importance as the commandments, "the law and the
  gospel going hand in hand."

4
Review of Study 4

• The Loud Cry message was given to unite the faith
  of Jesus with the commandments of God, but the
  light was resisted and to a large degree kept
  from the world.
• This faith is still Adventism's missing landmark,
  which alone will reverse the unbelief and
  insubordination that has delayed Christ's return.

5
Summary of Study 4

• The faith of Jesus
• Adventism Missing Landmark

6
Key Text

• Heb. 122 Looking unto Jesus the author and
  finisher of faith who for the joy that was set
  before him endured the cross, despising the
  shame, and is set down at the right hand of the
  throne of God.

7
Introduction

• Now as never before we need to keep the faith of
  Jesus, to see things as God sees them.
• Because His word is completely trustworthy, by
  flooding our minds with Scripture, interpreted by
  the Spirit, with our hearts sensitive and
  submitted to Him, we can come to grasp how God
  views us, His initiative, His purpose, His plans,
  His joy, His heart.

8
Introduction

• We have no hope of an eternal future without
  gaining this perspective.
• By beholding Him, by perceiving His faith working
  by love, we are changed into the same image.
• At this time in earth's history there is a
  special work Christ is doing to accomplish this
  goal, in a final way.

9
Introduction

• He has called everyone who has an ear to hear, to
  the glorious, joyful mission of spreading this
  word.
• Have you heard Him? Can you see what He sees?
  Have you entered into His joy?
• Let us spend some time listening and looking. He
  longs for us to do this more than we do.

10
Overview of Studies

• 1. "endured the cross" gospel
• 2. "looking unto Jesus" seeing
• 3. "for the joy set before" future
• 4. "finisher of faith" end-time
• 5. "endured the cross" endurance

11
The Faith of Jesus

• 5. Enabling End-time Endurance

12
Purpose of Study 5

• How did faith empower Jesus to endure?
• 122 says He "endured the cross"
• The cross was God's clear judgment against sin.
  Can we learn how to endure by the faith of Jesus
  the "hour of His judgment" in our day?

13
Purpose of Study 5

• So how will this faith give us strength to
• 121 "run with patience/endurance the race"
  during this Day of Atonement (noun form of verb
  in verse 2)?
• 1036 have "endurance" (same noun)?
• 1038 "live by faith" -- "not draw back"?
• The faith of Jesus results in enabling end-time
  endurance.

14
Faith During Judgment

• We have noted that each time the "faith of God"
  was mentioned (Mark 1122 Rom. 33), it was in
  the context of judgment.
• We saw how Jesus counseled His disciples to have
  this faith to avoid the fig tree's fate.

15
Faith During Judgment

• We saw that in this judgment God's faith will be
  vindicated as effective as He is justified as
  true and faithful.
• We began to see that it is by keeping both the
  commandments of God and the faith of Jesus that
  those endure when the Three Angel's Messages are
  proclaimed during "the hour of His judgment."

16
Basics of Judgment

• In order to understand better how the "faith of
  Jesus" is the essential element for this final
  judgment, let's explore the basic elements of
  judgment.
• The pattern for judgment is seen first in Gen. 3,
  as God came to Adam and Eve after they sinned.

17
Three Phases

• 1. Questions (opening the books / investigation)
  Gen. 39 where? 11 who? 13 what?
• 2. Decision (verdict / sentence) 14 Serpent 16
  Woman 17 Adam
• 3. Execution 21 blood covering 23, 24 out of
  garden

18
Judgment on City

• What is the city that is judged in Revelation
  that had fallen once in Bible history?
• Babylon
• What is the other city in Revelation that fell
  twice in Bible history?
• Jerusalem
• We considered it in the fig tree story in "Seeing
  as God Sees" study.

19
Jerusalem's Falls

• Just as 2 of the final 6 messages, so the story
  of Jerusalem's falls are for those people who
  have identified with God.

20
Jerusalem's Falls

• Daniel lived through the first fall of Jerusalem.
• John lived through the second fall of Jerusalem.
• Both understood what was happening.

21
Jerusalem's Fall 1

• Recorded in 2 Chron. 3612-21. Observe the 3
  phases
• 1. Mocked the messengers (who had opened the
  books on them) 12, 16
• 2. No remedy 16
• 3. King of the Chaldees, destroyed 17

22
Jerusalem's Fall 2

• Recorded in Matt. 2329-36 Acts 751, 52
• 1. Witnesses 2331, 32 resist the Holy Spirit
  751
• 2. Left desolate 2338
• 3. (not recorded in Bible)

23
Why Jerusalem Fell

• In a spiritual sense, we could say that Jerusalem
  had identified with Babylon (Matt. 2335 cf.
  Rev. 1824 John 1915), and that is what led to
  her fall.

24
Why Jerusalem Fell

• That which Babylon has come to symbolize (pride,
  self-exaltation, self-salvation, the confusion of
  mixing truth with error, the amalgamation of the
  truth with the lie), had so become the spirit of
  Jerusalem, God's own people, that Jerusalem fell.

25
Why Jerusalem Fell

• Jerusalem, the city whose very name means "the
  teaching of peace" and that was intended through
  her sanctuary and people to reveal
  self-sacrificing love, became filled with the
  strife, unrest and violence of self-exaltation,
  of self-love.

26
The Fall of Babylon

• In between the two falls of Jerusalem we find the
  history of Babylon's fall.

27
The Fall of Babylon

• Dan. 5 very clearly outlines these same 3
  elements or phases of judgment in describing the
  fall of Babylon. Recall the story--Daniel did not
  immediately interpret the handwriting!
• 1. opened the books (history) 18-23
• 2. verdict sentence (handwriting) 24-28
• 3. execution (Belshazzar killed Darius took
  kingdom) 30, 31

28
The Fall of Babylon

• This is why Dan. 5 is so important to our
  proclaiming effectively the Second Angel's
  Message and its context. We must explain the
  issues and the process of judgment--tell and
  demonstrate the missing, essential dynamic.

29
Faith of Jesus Stands

• Since we are studying what it is that enables
  end-time endurance, in other words, what empowers
  us to stand and not fall, it is vital that we
  understand that the "faith of Jesus" is the
  opposite of the spirit of Babylon.

30
Faith of Jesus Stands

• As revealed to us in Jesus Christ, this faith is
  the spirit of self-sacrificing love. Those "that
  keep the commandments of God and the faith of
  Jesus" are those who have come out of Babylon,
  who have allowed God to take Babylon out of their
  hearts. It is only those who will endure, and
  whom God can use to proclaim these final messages
  of mercy.

31
Who is Judged

• The first and the last of these six judgment-hour
  messages are explicit regarding who is being
  judged. Now it is not just a local city in
  Chaldea (Babylon) or a local city in Palestine
  (Jerusalem). The message is to go to "every
  nation, kindred, tongue, and people" (First
  Angel's Message)--"the earth" (Loud Cry).

32
Advent Mission Phase 12

• Adventism's mission is to preach the everlasting
  gospel, thus explaining what will stand
  everlastingly, and what will fall. God has raised
  up messengers to begin proclaiming phase 1 2 of
  judgment against the global system that has
  developed as the final incarnation of Rome.

33
Why Babylon Falls

• This system is called the 4th kingdom in Daniel
  and Babylon in Revelation.
• The Advent Movement mission is to show that it is
  falling as did Babylon of old and due to the same
  issues that caused the fall of Jerusalem twice.

34
Why Babylon Falls

• These issues, which manifest an absence of the
  "faith of Jesus," can be summarized as
• 1. Did not humble the heart
• 2. Resisted the Holy Spirit

35
Fall Out of the Circuit
Patience, Endurance, Stand (Saints)
God
Keep the commandments of God and the faith
of Jesus
God's faith working by love.
Did not humble the heart
We
Resisted the Holy Spirit
Fall (Babylon)
36
Judgment in Messages

• In this light of understanding the core character
  issue of sin, and how God uses these three phases
  of judgment to deal with sin, we see that the 4
  angels (Rev. 14 18) which picture the final
  messages to the world are all involved with
  declaring parts 1 2 of this 3-phase judgment on
  the final Babylon

37
Judgment in Messages

• 1. The First Angel's message announces the hour
  of judgment, and opens the books back to Gen. 1,
  revealing God's faith working by love from the
  very beginning. He is declared worthy fear Him
  and worship Him!

38
Judgment in Messages

• 2. The Second Angel's message declares the
  verdict on Babylon and opens the books on her,
  showing the absence of the faith of Jesus and its
  resultant law-keeping.

39
Judgment in Messages

• 3. The Third Angel's message explains the
  sentence against the final human phases of
  Babylon. It is in the context of this message
  that the endurance resulting from the faith of
  Jesus is highlighted to John. The burden of this
  message is to highlight a people who avoid the
  sentence against Babylon.

40
Judgment in Messages

• 4. The Loud Cry ("of the Third Angel" per our SDA
  pioneers) repeats the 2nd Angel's message in an
  entire chapter, declaring again the verdict and
  opening the books on Babylon by describing at
  length her spirit of self-glorification (vs. 7)
  with its oppressive merchandising (vs. 13) and
  violent coercion (vs. 24), and the executive
  judgment that comes against such faithlessness.

41
Who will Stand?

• 6th seal Rev. 617 "For the great day of his
  wrath is come and who shall be able to stand?"
  And so in our day, God is preparing a people to
  stand in the "great day of His wrath" when the
  devil will throw everything he can at them, and
  they will stand.

42
How Will They Stand?

• And God Himself will hide His face from them for
  a moment, and they will stand.
• And God will bring judgment against great Babylon
  which falls all around them, and they will stand.
  
• How does this happen? It is not a miracle saved
  just for some future end-time crisis.

43
How Will They Stand?

• He is now restoring to the human race the
  understanding and experience of how He designed
  them to function. The description of that ideal
  is law, and the method of restoration is gospel,
  revealed to us in "the faith of Jesus."

44
How Will They Stand?

• Those who
• -receive these two gifts (law gospel) that have
  been given at infinite cost
• -keep them
• -cherish them
• -internalize them by the Spirit, come what may,
  --
• It is those who will endure. (Rev. 1412)

45
How Will They Stand?

• They have received the two judgment-hour messages
  given especially to the messengers--

46
Judgment for Messengers

• Midnight Cry--
• They have received abundantly of the oil of the
  Spirit, becoming wise virgins (cherishing His way
  of seeing and doing)

47
Judgment for Messengers

• Laodicean Message--
• They have purchased from the True Witness (not
  from other merchants like the foolish virgins
  did) the gold tried in the fire (which clothed
  them with His perfection and enabled them to see
  what He sees).

48
Endurance for Mission

• It is with such an endurance that the messages of
  enduring love and falling self-love are
  proclaimed to the world.
• Consider again this endurance connected to the
  final preaching of "this gospel."
• Matt. 2414 is frequently quoted, but the context
  is ignored.

49
"This Gospel"

• "And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached
  in all the world for a witness unto all nations
  and then shall the end come." What is meant by
  "this gospel"?
• We need the previous two verses--
• "And because iniquity shall abound, the love of
  many shall wax cold.
• "But he that shall endure unto the end, the same
  shall be saved."

50
"This Gospel"

• The self-sacrificing love of many will sadly wax
  cold as the demands increase of iniquity
  (lawlessness resulting from self-love). But those
  who endure (those who choose to continue to
  express faith working by love in the face of
  abounding lawlessness) to the end will give a
  witness to the entire world of this gospel they
  will be saved. Then the end will come.

51
Love Waxing Cold
Love wax cold
We
Our faith and love expressed to others
Their faith and love response
Iniquity abound
Others
52
Love Enduring to End
We
Our faith and love expressed to others
Their faith and love response
Iniquity abound
Others
53
"This Gospel"

• "This gospel" that will go to all the world as a
  witness, is the preaching and living of the cross
  at the end time. "This gospel" will be enduring
  love in the face of abounding lawlessness.
• "This gospel," this love is that expressed by
  Christ Himself who by faith "endured" to the end.
  (Heb. 122, 3 uses the same word as in Matt.
  2413.)

54
Advent Mission Needs FOJ

• Don't forget the explicit connection of this to
  our history as we saw in our last study. Here are
  two more powerful connections that show this
  end-time setting, and what God is attempting to
  do, described 127 years ago

55
"John Sees a People"

• "Elder E. J. Waggoner had the privilege granted
  him of speaking plainly and presenting his views
  upon justification by faith and the righteousness
  of Christ in relation to the law. This was no new
  light, but it was old light placed where it
  should be in the third angel's message. What is
  the burden of that message? John sees a people.

56
"John Sees a People"

• "He says, 'Here is the patience of the saints
  here are they that keep the commandments of God,
  and the faith of Jesus' (Rev. 1412). This people
  John beholds just before he sees the Son of man
  'having on his head a golden crown, and in his
  hand a sharp sickle' (verse 14)." (1888 p. 211)

57
"Our Strength"

• "God has opened to us our strength, and we need
  to know something about it and be prepared for
  the time of trouble such as never was since there
  was a nation. But here is our strength, Christ
  our righteousness.

58
"Our Strength"

• "Let us ask Isaiah who is to be our strength.
  Well, he answers, and it comes echoing down along
  the lines to our time 'For unto us a child is
  born, and unto us a son is given and the
  government shall be upon his shoulder and his
  name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the
  mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of
  Peace' Isa. 96.

59
"Our Strength"

• "Is not that enough for us? Cannot we cover
  ourselves all over with it? Do we need any of our
  own self esteem? No, we cannot have that. We must
  hide in Christ, and we can hide in the mighty
  strength of Israel's God.

60
"Our Strength"

• "Thus we work to meet the powers of darkness. We
  fight not against flesh and blood, but against
  principalities and powers, and spiritual
  wickedness in high places. And it is only in
  Christ that we can meet them." (1888 p. 347)

61
Prophecy and Parable

• Let's look at a sampling of Bible texts,
  prophecies, parables, and other counsels that
  show the need of faith (the faith of Jesus)
  during the judgment in progress and coming
  against faithlessness.

62
"When Judged"

• Rom. 33, 4
• "faith of God without effect?" - "mightest
  overcome when Thou God art judged"
• God's faith is not made ineffective by a response
  of unbelief by His faith God will be justified
  and will overcome when judged.
• If you keep God's faith you will also be
  justified and overcome in the judgment.

63
"Withered Away"

• Mark 1121-25
• "the fig tree which Thou cursedst is withered
  away" - "have the faith of God"
• If you have God's faith, you will not wither
  away.
• If you have God's faith, you will say, you will
  believe, you will forgive.

64
"Take Account"

• Matt. 1823-25
• Take account judgment (23)
• No Faith insist on payment tormentors "if ye
  from your hearts forgive not" (26, 28, 34, 35)
• Faith compassion, forgiveness (27, 33)
• Keeping the faith of Jesus to you means you will
  demonstrate it to others. Without it, you reject
  the King's gift.

65
God's Faith Covers

• In this Day of Atonement God wants to cover us.
  This is what His faith does. If we reject the
  covering, how can we expect to stand in the
  judgment?
• The covering is not given merely to clear our
  debt, but to make us like Him. If we don't treat
  others like He treats us, we have rejected His
  gift and insisted on our own measure.

66
"To See the Guests"

• Matt. 2211-13
• "... the king came in to see the guests, he saw
  there a man which had not on a wedding garment"
• "Friend, how camest thou in hither not having a
  wedding garment?"
• See, "Friend, how?" investigation
• Cast sentencing
• No Faith no garment provided by king

67
Receive and Give

• This shows also the importance of continuing the
  process. We can accept the invitation to the
  kingdom, but if we reject putting on the garment,
  this is the same as rejecting becoming like the
  King. We are rejecting God's faith, which see us
  in His image again.

68
"If Any Man Draw Back"

• Hab. 24 in the LXX says this. This is quoted in
  Heb. 1038.
• "Now the just shall live by faith but if any man
  draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in
  him."
• Don't draw back. Keep the faith! Don't let it go.
  Wear it. Treat others the same way.

69
"Cast Not Away"

• Earlier Heb. 10 said
• "Cast not away therefore your confidence." (35)
• The faith of Jesus is our confidence.
• Eph. 312 "boldness and access with confidence by
  the faith of Him."
• He has given it to you. You have accepted it.
  Don't cast it away!

70
"Need of Patience"

• "For ye have need of patience" (Heb. 1036)
• Same word as is in Rev. 1412. It comes from
  keeping the faith of Jesus.

71
No Patience

• If we give up the faith of Jesus, God will still
  be shown true by His faith and love, but the
  judgment will show us faithless liars who spurned
  His faith and love and gave a false witness about
  Him.
• Let's consider the basis of our confidence and
  endurance in the words of one of the messengers
  from the 1890's--

72
Enduring Confidence

• "You have been, and you are, thankful that you
  have confidence in God. This is well for it is a
  great thing to have doubt and uncertainty
  removed, and confidence in God established in the
  mind and heart. It is, therefore, a thing really
  to be thankful for, that you have confidence in
  God.

73
Enduring Confidence

• "Yet there is a greater thing than this to be
  thankful for, and that is that God has confidence
  in you. Indeed, it is God's confidence in us that
  is all the ground of our confidence in him.

74
Enduring Confidence

• "Considered solely upon the merit of the
  question, it is indeed a very little thing that
  we should have confidence in him while it is a
  thing great beyond all comparison that he should
  have confidence in us.
• "Just think what we were,a people laden with
  iniquity, alienated from God, and enemies in our
  minds, by wicked works.

75
Enduring Confidence

• "Yet when we were all this, God deliberately
  invested in us all that he had,the great 'price'
  of his dear Son, in whom dwelleth all the fulness
  of God. this is a marvelous display of
  confidence....

76
Enduring Confidence

• "And thus is established and illustrated the
  divine principle that confidence begets
  confidence yea, that confidence to the extent of
  what seems recklessness will beget confidence
  even to what seems recklessness

77
Enduring Confidence

• "for no person can fairly and seriously
  contemplate the marvelous confidence that God has
  shown in us, without being won to a confidence in
  God that is a perfect abandon of trust,a trust
  that holds firm and stead through every
  vicissitudefire, flood, suffering, persecution,
  death itselfthat this world can possibly know."
  (A. T. Jones, RH, January 4, 1898, p. 8)

78
"Before to Judgment"

• If we keep the faith of Jesus, we will see more
  and more what God sees, and there will be less
  and less hidden. We will hide less and less. This
  is the very process of judgment in its first
  phase.
• 1 Tim. 524 "Some mens sins are open beforehand,
  going before to judgment and some men they
  follow after."
• Are you willing to face you sins now?

79
"Saved" then "Destroyed"

• Jude uses Israel's experience to warn us against
  not continuing to keep the faith of Jesus.
• "...The Lord, having saved the people out of the
  land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that
  believed not." (Jude 5)

80
Rejecting the Gospel

• Rom. 116-18 describes what will happen if we
  reject the faith revealed in the Gospel.

81
"From Faith to Faith"

• "For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ
  for it is the power of God unto salvation to
  every one that believeth to the Jew first, and
  also to the Greek. For therein is the
  righteousness of God revealed from faith to
  faith as it is written, The just shall live by
  faith.

82
"Wrath" Judgment

• "For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven
  against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of
  men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness."

83
"Hinder the Truth"

• The righteousness of God has been revealed in the
  gospel, "from faith" seen there. But if it does
  not lead to our believing, "to faith," it means
  we have chosen to "hold the truth in
  unrighteousness." God's wrath is revealed against
  that. He will give us up to what we have chosen.

84
Worship the Creature

• The end result is that we will have "worshipped
  and served the creature more than the Creator."
  (vs. 25)

85
"The Lie"

• Rejecting the gospel, not keeping the faith of
  Jesus, refusing to let God's faith become my
  faith, means I am changing the truth of God into
  the lie. This is what the devil did when he
  "abode not in the truth" and thus speaks "the
  lie." (Connect Rom. 125 to John 844.)

86
Unbelieving Christian

• If I am a Christian, but persist in unbelief, it
  means I am a foolish virgin with "no oil" (Matt.
  253) I am a Laodicean who rejects the "True
  Witness" and His merchandise (gold, white
  raiment, eyesalve).

87
Without FOJ at the End

• As we face the gospel, the choice we have is to
  believe, receive, and keep the faith of Jesus
  revealed there, or not.
• Without keeping the faith of Jesus, the only
  alternative will be to worship the beast and
  receive his mark.

88
To Endure

• In contrast, to endure against the dragon, the
  beast and his mark, and the false prophet and his
  image to the beast (that is, to be part of those
  that do not worship these fallen powers Rev.
  152 204) my identity must be deeply and fully
  settled by two marvelous gifts of God

89
Keep the Two Gifts

• His description of how He created me to function
  (law) and
• His confidence in me (faith), revealed through
  Jesus, that I can be restored to the original
  ideal, His image (not the beast's).

90
Boldness in the Judgment

• I will then be with those who keep the
  commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. His
  love which He, the Finisher, has perfected in me
  will give me boldness to stand in the judgment
  events, as it frees me from a self focus, and
  enables me to be consistently focused on His
  vindication. (1John 417-19).

91
"As He Is"

• 1John 417 "Herein is our love made perfect, that
  we may have boldness in the day of judgment
  because as he is, so are we in this world."

92
Summarize

• The "faith of Jesus" will solve the sin problem
  
• The "faith of Jesus" (as expressed on the cross
  and as spiritual eyesight) enables the sinner to
  see the consequence of sin leads to death with
  no hope of resurrection (John 1232 judgment of
  this world).

93
Summarize

• 2. The "faith of Jesus" (as expressed on the
  cross and as spiritual eyesight) enables the
  sinner to see how God views him (condemns sin not
  the sinner) and thus gives him security to allow
  God to open the books on him (face your sins)
  during the investigative judgment.

94
Summarize

• 3. The "faith of Jesus" (as spiritual eyesight
  and as joy set before) clarifies the fallenness
  of this world's system (Babylon with its
  self-exaltation is judged), so the sinner leaves
  it and calls others out of it, for a life of
  humble service and suffering for others.

95
Summarize

• 4. The "faith of Jesus" (as spiritual eyesight
  and as the joy set before) empowers the Advent
  Movement for its mission, and enables its
  individuals to stand against abounding iniquity
  and chaos, trusting God even when He appears to
  abandon us.

96
Summarize

• 5. The "faith of Jesus" (as expressed on the
  cross, as spiritual eyesight and as the joy set
  before) restores the principle upon which God's
  everlasting kingdom is based, the gold standard,
  and thus prepares people to live forever with Him
  who is self-sacrificing love.

97
Summarize

• For the "faith of Jesus" endures through the end,
  knowing that no matter how things appear, He is
  with us "even unto the end" and "forever." (Matt.
  2820 John 1416)

98
Q A

• Q "When the Son of man cometh, shall he find
  faith on the earth?" (Luke 188)
• A "Here is the patience of the saints here are
  they that keep the commandments of God, and the
  faith of Jesus." (Rev. 1412)

99
Appeal

• Are you committed to be in that group of people?
• Do you choose to receive the faith of Jesus by
  studying it?
• Do you want to tell God your plan is to keep
  these two gifts, come what may?

100
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