Notes of Faith July 3, 2023 Part 2
Just a note from Amir Tsarfati that I mentioned on Sunday, a true man of God!
One of the biggest problems of the church today, for the most part, is the lack of the Holy Spirit. I will be honest with you, when I hear on certain platforms either apathy or actual encouragement to choose a political platform and social platform, financial platform, and mostly religious spiritual platform, that is so anti-God. And to encourage that, there has to be a lack of the Holy Spirit because the Holy Spirit upon you and in you and through you can never ever contradict the Spirit of God. This is the Spirit of God. And so the people here did not have the Holy Spirit. That was obvious. But the one that had it could not stand what he was seeing and hearing.
That’s us today. If you’re apathetic to what is going on in the world and you are indifferent to the horrific reality that we have both in America and Europe and other parts of the world, something is wrong. And, so, here David is not willing to take that and he’s willing to actually go and fight – of all the people of Israel. And, remember, Saul always gathered the most brave and the strongest people in the nation. He did not come here with a bunch of wimps. He came here with brave soldiers, and none of them was willing to fight Goliath. None of them had the courage and the guts to do anything. And David, a little boy who just left his sheep and goats and ran for about 20 miles and came all the way and was so happy, was ridiculed by his brothers that he's prideful and arrogant. See, they told him.
I can tell you one thing, you will always be accused by the world for doing the wrong things. They will always tell you that you are the wrong person. That you are the radical, that you are the arrogant, that you are the revolutionist, that you are the problem of the world. David is coming and he’s the only one who is willing to fight Goliath. Yet he is the one at which the brothers of David show their anger, not Goliath. They’re afraid of Goliath, which they shouldn’t be, and they are angry with David. The people of the world today are afraid of evil and afraid of all the evil manifestations. Yet who do they accuse and who are they against? The people of God.
Amir Tsarfati: Stand Like David
There are two biblical stories with which most people are familiar, including those who have never read the Bible. Those stories are David and Goliath and Daniel in the lions’ den. Both are remarkable stories of men who had faith in the true and living God and trusted Him completely in the face of great adversity. For David, they know about Goliath. For Daniel, they know about the lions.
These two great men also shared another thing within their distinct experiences:
1 Samuel 17:28
Now Eliab his oldest brother heard when he spoke to the men; and Eliab’s anger was aroused against David, and he said, “Why did you come down here? And with whom have you left those few sheep in the wilderness? I know your pride and the insolence of your heart, for you have come down to see the battle.”
Daniel 6:3-5
Then this Daniel distinguished himself above the governors and satraps, because an excellent spirit was in him; and the king gave thought to setting him over the whole realm. So the governors and satraps sought to find some charge against Daniel concerning the kingdom; but they could find no charge or fault, because he was faithful; nor was there any error or fault found in him. Then these men said, “We shall not find any charge against this Daniel unless we find it against him concerning the law of his God.”
The old adage “some things never change” is appropriate here as we note that David, a man after God’s own heart, was insulted and verbally attacked by his own family. Daniel, a faithful man without error or fault as it pertained to his job, was attacked and falsely accused by his coworkers. These things are often a part of a believers’ life experience today. Some things never change.
We live in a time when the world sees Christians as the problem. Some of these people may be in our own families, and certainly many are coworkers or fellow students.
Luke 21:16-19
“You will be betrayed even by parents and brothers, relatives and friends; and they will put some of you to death. And you will be hated by all for My name’s sake. But not a hair of your head shall be lost. By your patience possess your souls.”
The word “hated” means “to detest”, and the world today detests those who hold Biblical truths as facts. When we stand on God’s word and continue in it, the world sees us as the problem. God, however, sees us as the faithful. David was in the right and his own brother verbally attacked him. Daniel was in the right and he wound up in the lions’ den.
What we need to remember from this is that thousands of years later, people in the world today, many of whom have never read the Bible, still know about David and Daniel. Who they don’t know about is Eliab or the governors and satraps (a satrap was a provincial governor). In these two famous accounts, the world remembers the faithful, not their adversaries.
Proverbs 24:10
If you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is small.
David didn’t faint when he saw Goliath, and Daniel didn’t faint when he knew his coworkers had it out for him. We live in a time of adversity today where all manner of evil is spoken against us falsely. But we must not faint or lose heart. We need to be strong in the Lord and the power of His might.
Romans 8:11
But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.
Remember, David and Daniel were just men. It was their faith in God that made them mighty. If you want to leave your mark in this world, let it be that you were found faithful even in the face of adversity. The ability to do so is already in you. For the same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead dwells in every born again Christian giving them the power to face adversity in the strength of the Lord.
Those who have done so in the ancient past are still known presently in our day. Let our names be found among them in the future.
Even so, come quickly Lord Jesus,