A Life That Could Not Be Conquered pt 2

SPEAKER A You once to every time in the sight of the good or evil sky don't break on you that I choice of life forever with that darkness. And. SPEAKER B The Bible assures us in Ephesians two, verses eight to ten, for by grace you have been saved through faith. And that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Welcome to faith to faith Here are your hosts, Ettienne McClintock and Braedan Entermann. SPEAKER C Greetings and a warm welcome. Thank you for joining us again on the program. We are delighted to have your company. And just before Braedan and myself start the program, we just invite you to bow with us for a word of prayer. Gracious Father in Heaven, we are so grateful that we can know you the only true God in Jesus Christ whom you have sent. We're grateful that through this knowledge we can receive eternal life. And Father, this morning, as we spend time in Your Word and unpack more about this beautiful knowledge of salvation through Jesus Christ, this unconquerable life, we're going to discuss now we pray for a fresh measure of Your Holy Spirit to be poured out upon us. Lead us into all truth as You've promised. And may Jesus be lifted up. And by this uplifting of Jesus, Father, may everyone that hears this program be drawn closer to you is our prayer in Jesus name, amen. SPEAKER D Amen. SPEAKER C Well, brethren, this is part two of a program we started last week. And it's called a life that could not be conquered. So in the previous program, we spoke a little bit about Jesus'life and that the Bible tells us in the first chapter of John, the Gospel of John, that in Jesus there was life and that life was the light of men. And it also talks. The Bible spoke about the concept that the whole world will be covered in darkness and gross darkness will cover the people, but the glory of the Lord will be revealed. And we discovered that this glory, this revealing of light is actually that unquenchionable life, that everlasting life that Jesus Christ inherently possessed because he is God and he was God manifest in the flesh. Now, we know that as we go through this life, we'll experience some good and some bad. Matter of fact, some people go through exactly the same life. They seem to experience a lot of good. And there are other people who seem to experience a lot of bad. Now, I've always wondered, how is that possible? Because some people have a lot to complain about and some people have a lot to be happy about. So I was just wondering, is it maybe a mindset? And we're going to talk about that little mindset as we go through this program today. But whether your mindset is one that's positive or by nature, you lean towards the negative side. We want you to be of good cheer. Now, why do we want our you, dear listener, to be of good cheer? Because Jesus tells us in John, chapter 16, he said, Be of good cheer. Now, we've spoken on these programs many a time when God speaks something, if we believe it by faith, that Word has within itself that creative energy to create the thing that It speaks into existence. Now, here Jesus as Creator, as Redeemer. He speaks, he says, Be of good cheer. But then he gives us a reason why we are to be of good cheer. He says, Be of good cheer, for I have overcome the world. SPEAKER D Wow. SPEAKER C That is incredible. Our program today is dealing with an unconquerable life, the life of Christ that could not be conquered. And here he tells us that we are to be of good cheer, which suggests that cheerfulness is positive and God wants us to be cheerful because Jesus Christ has overcome the world. SPEAKER D I love it. How at the beginning of that verse, so verse 33, it says, these things I have spoken to you. So he's saying all these things I've been communicating with you through my life and through our ministry, these things I have spoken to you, that in me you may have peace in the world, you will have tribulation or trouble, but be of good cheer, because I have overcome the world. And what I love about this verse here is it identifies the source of our peace and consolation. It's the things that he's said to us. SPEAKER C Yes. SPEAKER D The things that he's told us about, he's told us in his ministry if we were the disciples, he's told them that the Father loves them. He's told them that he loves them. He's told them that there is a coming comforter, that there's a day when all things will be made new. He's told them that he will be with them and will never leave them or forsake them. And based on the authority of His Word and depending upon His Word, they've got every ground for peace and for joy. And furthermore, Jesus said, I've actually overcome the world. SPEAKER C Yes. SPEAKER D And he's saying this in faith because he hasn't yet died on the cross. But so deeply laid is the plan of salvation that no matter what the devil threw at Jesus, he could not overcome Him. Now, when he says, I have overcome the world, it's very easy to go, well, that sounds great, and then move on to the next verse and not really dig into what that means. Yes, let's have a look first at what it doesn't mean. And we can find that out in chapter 18. John, chapter 18. And looking at verse 36, jesus is speaking to Pilate, the Roman governor, and Jesus has now been arrested. And that doesn't sound like a great situation when the Savior is now on trial and arrested. But he says this my kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would fight, yes, so that I should not be delivered to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from here. It's interesting when he says, I have overcome the world. When we think of overcoming the world, we might think of Napoleon or Hitler or some of the like Alexander the Great, some these great Charlemagne who were overcoming the world, defeating the world in some way. Jesus says, my kingdom's very different from that. If my kingdom were like this world's kingdoms, then my servants would pick up swords and we'd start to fight. But that's not how we operate. And so what Jesus is actually warring against is not people conquering nation after nation. It's actually a spiritual warfare fighting against the kingdom of darkness. And so the kingdom of darkness, which has the devil as the king, he's the one who has spread all the lies about God's character. He's the one that deceives human beings into active rebellion against God. And he says, I've overcome this world. I have dispelled the lies of the devil. I have been faithful and I've shown the love of God. Even under temptation, even when I'm hungry and starving in the wilderness, even when everyone is trying to take my life. I've been faithful and I've revealed the glory of God. It's a life that could not be conquered. SPEAKER C It's remarkable. You know, I have been thinking about that over the last few weeks, how Jesus conquered the devil. Now he is God manifest in the flesh. He is the second person of the Godhead. Nothing can conquer God. I mean, God, just by a thought, can annihilate nations, planets. By his word, he can create planets. We know that God is not into destroying. God is in actually saving and delivering people. That's what Jesus'mission demonstrates to us. But how the Son of God overcame the devil was not in his divinity. He took on humanity at its weakest point. After 4000 years of sin, he took on that humanity. Now, you take that weak humanity, which is our fallen humanity, right? So he knows how to feel cold. He knows how to feel hungry. He's hungry now. He's in the wilderness. It's not going into the wilderness on day one when the devil comes to tempt him. It's after not eating for 40 days. When he's at his weakest point, there's not much left. There's not much energy left in him at his weakest point. The devil comes to tempt him. And somehow in that humanity, he conquers the devil at his weakest point. And that just blows me away. So it's not about the strength of humanity that the conquering comes. It is through the power of God, because he had just been baptized by the Holy Spirit and filled with the Holy Spirit and says, the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God led him into the wilderness where he was tempted for 40 days. So humanity doesn't matter how weak you are, dear listener. Christ in our weakness, his strength will be made perfect, and we see that demonstrated in the life of Christ. We see Him on the cross as well, exactly the same thing. He has not drunk any water for a long period of time. The last time we heard him drink anything was grape juice when he said, this is my blood, the blood of the New Covenant. Then he's arrested at midnight at Gethsemane. He doesn't get anything to drink all the way through until he's on the cross. And they offer him this vinegar wine to try know, make his mouth so he could speak properly because he was so dry and thirsty at that point. You think at his weakest point, he chose to stay on the cross, his back lacerated, being beaten, the weight of the sins of the world crushing out his life. He could have just wiped that sweat, that blood sweat off his brow and. SPEAKER D Said, I'm out of here. SPEAKER C I'm out of here. But at the weakest point in his humanity, he came through as a conqueror. Based on what? Based on the revelation that God had given him, that he was the Son of God, regardless of how he looked at that time. SPEAKER D And a beautiful thing with that is that Jesus did all of those things because of who he was. It wasn't because he had to grit his teeth. Sometimes we have to grit our teeth to do something. It's out of character for us to be selfless and to give our lives for others. Unfortunately, it's actually out of character. We by nature are selfish human beings, as you talked about that sinful human nature. It's out of character for us to do selfless things. It's out of character for us to hang in there even when it hurts and when we're getting nothing good, no benefits from it. But for Jesus, this is not affected. SPEAKER C Character in our humanity. SPEAKER D This is not out of character. SPEAKER C Yes. SPEAKER D This is his character. SPEAKER C Yes. SPEAKER D And it's interesting how character is revealed in a crisis. In a crisis. And Jesus says, a good tree does not produce bad fruit, nor does a bad tree produce good fruit. A tree is known by its fruits. You can't have an apple tree, bear watermelons. It's impossible. And it's interesting, Jesus with this character that has been grown and matured and developed in him, it just gets revealed in this time of crisis and thinking about the fast as well. Sometimes we can think, how in the world could I ever be like Jesus? When we go through hard times and when we're dragging our feet and we're hanging our head in despair and sadness, how in the world are we meant to do what Jesus did? Well, let's have a look at what he did when he was in the wilderness. For that 40 days and 40 nights. Look, I've done a few days of fasting. I have no idea what it would be like to do 40 days without food. Your body is under so much stress and strain. And then the devil comes along and questions him, that same kind of tone that he gave to Adam and Eve. He says, if you're the Son of God, command these stones to be made bread. He's trying to get Jesus to use his divine power for his own benefit, to be selfish and to try to help himself out. SPEAKER C If he was an angel of light, as he was masquerading, he wouldn't have said if. Because 40 days earlier, jesus had heard the words you are my beloved Son. SPEAKER D That's right. And so he clung. He heard God speak. He took the word of God, which said, you are my son. And he wouldn't allow anyone, anyone in the world to throw doubt or darkness on that statement. That's a truth statement. Jesus said, I am the Son. I am God's child because God said so. And the devil says, if you are the Son of God and he discerns immediately. He discerns that this is not a voice of faith. SPEAKER C That's right. SPEAKER D This is a voice of doubt. And even though he's hurting so much, this is not the first time Jesus has had to learn to depend on the word of God. He's done it his whole life. SPEAKER C Amen. SPEAKER D And so he doesn't have to go, oh, where's my little manual? What do I do here? What do I do to get out of this situation? He's been from childhood claiming the promises of God, living by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. And he's seen the enemy give way over and over and over again. And now the devil comes with a very, very fierce temptation. And what does Jesus do? He just thinks, what has God said? And he goes, that is true. SPEAKER C That is true. SPEAKER D That is true. And I'm gonna even though he looks around him and it's desert, he looks around him and there's no beauty. It's all, like, dark and drear and it's just terrible and dry. But his soul is refreshed because he's like even though my eyes and my body is telling me a different story, even though it's hurting, even though I don't feel like the Son of God right now, I am the Son of God. Why? Because God said so. SPEAKER C That's right. SPEAKER D And when we learn to walk by faith, learning to trust God, whatever he says, it's the fact of truth. We come to a place where even our whole life can be falling apart. Our friends can turn away from us. We could lose everything that we hold dear to us. And all we're asking the only thing we're interested in what has God said? And that is true. SPEAKER C We cling to it. Yeah, that's powerful. And I like how Jesus actually overcame the know with that temptation. He said, It is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. Then the second temptation, Jesus conquers that again with it is written, it's the word of God continually. And then the third temptation he know says, it is written you shall worship the Lord your God and him only. You shall serve Satan seeking worship he was trying to conquer and an unconquerable life. And just going back to that text that you mentioned before there in John chapter 16 and verse 33, we read there that it says that these words I have spoken to you. So Jesus speaking these words I've spoken to you that in me you may have peace. Now, God the Father had spoken to his Son and he said, you are my beloved son. Then the devil comes there and says, if you are the Son of God. So he wants to throw doubt on the word that God had already spoken. We also have jesus has spoken those words to us. We also are by faith to hang on to those words regardless of what happens around us. It says these words I have spoken to you that in me you may have peace. So what does Jesus offer us here through his Word? SPEAKER D Peace. SPEAKER C Now, we just spoke about conflict a little bit there. We are told that by nature we are the children of wrath. I think it's Ephesians chapter two, verse three, that tells us and that the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God. And that's James chapter two, that says that to us. So we know that by nature we are the children of wrath. But most people like peace and they want peace in their life. Unfortunately, by nature we're not like that. Now, if you are the bully on the playground and you are the one that's bullying everybody else, typically you'd probably be bigger and stronger than the other kids. That's why you're engaging in that, because you're winning the battle. But everybody that's on the receiving end does not want to be bullied. They want peace. SPEAKER D That's right. SPEAKER C God offers each one of us peace. Matter of fact, some of these bullies, when they go to another school, they might find someone else is a little bit stronger than them. Again, there's always someone else that wants to bully you. Now, the bully in this world is the devil. He wants to continuously bully us. But Jesus says in spite of all this bullying that you may even experience, you can have peace. And he goes on to say in verse 33 there that in the world you will have tribulation. So we're not promised an easy path, but in spite of that, by cleaving to the word of God, we might be able to have peace. And then he says those beautiful words, be of good cheer. I have overcome the world. SPEAKER D That's a very vital point you've brought up there. In the world, it doesn't say you might have. It says, in the world, you will have tribulation. SPEAKER C Yes. SPEAKER D And that's a word when it used too much, it basically means trouble. Yeah. Trouble challenges heartaches and heartbreaks, and we were never promised anything else. And yet somehow I'm speaking about myself. I've, in my Christian experience, assumed that things should be otherwise. When I face a challenging circumstance, I'm like, what's going on? This is not right. And what's going on? Jesus said, no, no, you will have tribulation. And we need to it's hard for us, but we need to embrace that and go, okay, this is not heaven yet. This is not heaven yet. We will face tribulation. However, the tribulation doesn't need to break us. SPEAKER C Amen. SPEAKER D The tribulation doesn't need to break us. The evil in the world does not need to chill our souls. Our hearts can still be filled with the warmth of God's love. And it reminds me of Romans, chapter eight. SPEAKER C Yes. SPEAKER D The Apostle Paul writing and being someone who faced a lot of hardship for Christ from being a persecutor, he became the persecuted. Doesn't seem like a really nice deal. No, but he says in verse 31, what then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? Who shall bring a charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of the Father, who also makes intercession for us. And then now, verse 35, who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Think about things in our lives that threaten to separate us from God, to cause us to give up hope. He lists some things here shall tribulation distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or know, sometimes we think, wow, if all of those things happened to me, that would cause me to give up hope entirely. SPEAKER C Yeah. And we know that the Apostle Paul was persecuted and suffered many things many times. He was a persecutor himself first, but when he gave his life to the Lord, it wasn't a prosperity gospel that brought him to the Lord. He was told the things that he would suffer when he was actually given the baptism of the Holy Spirit and received his eyesight back. And we see in two Corinthians, chapter six. And I just want to add to that. I don't want to distract from where we're going there, but Paul says this but in all things we commend ourselves as ministers of God in much patience, in tribulations, in needs, in distresses, in stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults. In labors, in sleeplessness, in fastings, by purity, by knowledge, by long suffering, by kindness, by the Holy Spirit, by sincere love and by the word of truth, by the power of God and by the armor of righteousness on the right and on the left. Beautiful. So God doesn't offer us that easy path necessarily. He talks about tribulation, he talks about all these things. But in spite of that, we can still have the presence of God in our life, we can still have peace, and we can still be filled with the love of God, which I think is the greatest power in the universe. SPEAKER D Praise the Lord. After making that list of things about tribulation, distress, persecution, et cetera, he goes on to say, in all of these things, we are more than conquerors. I would kind of feel like if I'm starving, naked, persecuted, distressed and in trouble, you'd almost feel like you're defeated. Yes, but it's interesting. He says, yeah, our bodies might be defeated, but he says, there's a victory to be gained. That is so much better. He said, in all these things, we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I'm persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. SPEAKER C That is powerful. SPEAKER D So all of these things, are they bad? No one likes to be persecuted. I don't think anyone likes to be persecuted for fun. It's not fun. It's hard. It's challenging. It's not nice to be distressed or in trouble. But these things, according to Paul, are not powerful enough to separate us from our close relationship with God. That's the good news, that no matter what we go through, we have an anchor that keeps our soul steadfast. And sure, though the billows roll fastened to the rock, that which cannot move yeah. Grounded, firm and deep in the Savior's love. And so we come to a place in our walk with God where the storms of life, just, sure, they're scary, sure, they're cold and terrifying, but they just cannot break the relationship apart, because we've learned to depend upon God's Word, we've learned to trust Him. We've learned to believe that whenever he says something, he means it, and he will keep his promise. SPEAKER C That's right. SPEAKER D And it brings a peace and a security, and nothing can separate us from his love. SPEAKER C Now, there's a parallel verse which says the same thing. It just uses slightly different language, and it approaches the same topic, just from a different perspective. And the Apostle Paul writes this in Ephesians, chapter three, and he speaks from while verse 14. But I'm going to start reading from verse 15, where it talks about how intimately we are all known by God, and that knowledge that God has of each one of us. It says there from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named. So God knows john, Mary, Steve, whatever your name is out there, Lucy, God knows you. And it says, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that he would grant you according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might through his spirit in the inner man. Now, we know that Jesus was baptized with the Holy Spirit. He was strengthened with might in his inner being. He was filled with all the fullness of God in his humanity. And then he went was led by the Holy Spirit in the wilderness, and there he conquered the devil, but he also conquered him at the cross. But we'll keep on unpacking this a little bit so you might be strengthened through his spirit in the inner man. Now, verse 17, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. So this believing the word of God, faith comes by hearing and hearing the word of God that you being rooted and grounded in love. You just spoke about being grounded on that rock, grounded, firm and deep in the Savior's love. Here we have the text saying the same thing, that you being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to now watch this. Now comprehend with all the saints. So that rooting and grounding and love gives us an understanding that we don't typically, naturally would have. So comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height. Now comprehend what then in verse 19 says, to know the love of Christ, which passes knowledge that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Wow, that is absolutely powerful. So love conquers all. And we are told that God actually demonstrated his love, that self sacrificing love. Romans, chapter five, verse eight. But God demonstrated, or some translation says even commended god commended his love toward us, that while we were yet sinners, so weak, sinful, dependent, helpless, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. So God demonstrates his love through that sacrifice of Christ. And why is the sacrifice of Christ so important? Because it demonstrated what God was really like, that he is a God of love. God is love. And also it actually throws the whole lie of Satan, that whole counterfeit of Satan, where he says that God was self seeking, that God's law was an enemy to freedom and self expression. It actually demonstrates that God is exactly the opposite of what Satan claimed him to be. SPEAKER D That's right. SPEAKER C Matter of fact, Satan was taking his own personal attributes and throwing it on other people. You know, they say in life, quite often we don't get on with people who are very much like ourselves. They're too much like us. We see our own weakness in them. And quite often there can be conflict because they demonstrate some of our inherited weaknesses. However, subconsciously, we're not aware of it. We see it in them. We don't like it. But meantime, we could have the same character traits ourselves. So what Satan was doing here was taking his own attributes and trying to throw them on God and telling the world, but God is like this. He's selfish, he's self seeking. The reason why he says, you shall have no other gods before Him. E because God is selfish. He's egocentric. It's all about him. But the law of God, which says that we have to love God with all our heart, mind, soul, and sense, is simply a response, a natural outflow of responding to the love of God. And then, of course, if we love God that much, we naturally love all those people he has made our fellow beings, and we will love our neighbor as we used to egocentrically love ourselves. SPEAKER D That's right. There's a question that we can all consider, is how are we building our lives? Because Jesus, sometimes we can think, oh, he was just someone different from us. But we got to realize that in Luke 612, for example, it says he spent all night in prayer. SPEAKER C Yes. SPEAKER D He was someone who, through his whole life was developing and growing in strength and maturity in a relationship with the Father, and he's calling us to do the same. So how are we building our lives? The Bible says Jesus speaking in Matthew, chapter seven. Therefore, whoever hears these sayings of mine, in other words, whoever hears my words, whoever hears these sayings of mine and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who builds his house on the rock. And the rain descended and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock. SPEAKER C Amen. Now, I like the fact that it talks about us building on the rock. And Jesus says that whoever hears these sayings of mine so hears his word, it comes back to the word of God again, hears these sayings of mine and does them. I'll liken him to a man who builds on the rock. Now, we know that Jesus Christ is that rock. SPEAKER D That's right, Peter. SPEAKER C When Jesus asked the question, who do you say I am? He said, you are the son of the living God. You are the Christ, the son of the living God. Then Jesus used that understanding that he was God in the flesh. He said, on this rock, on that knowledge of knowing that I am God in the flesh, on that rock, I will build my church. Amen. So Jesus says, if we hear his words and they do them, these are the words that will serve us well and keep us faithful even when temptations and trials and difficulties come. SPEAKER D What we have here is a metaphor. This building on the rock, it's a metaphor of the unconquerable life. The winds are blowing, the floods are rising, and. It just cannot shake it, cannot knock it down. The winds are still powerful, but not powerful enough to cause that structure to crumble. And why? Because it's built on the rock. And if we apply it to our lives, our lives are built on the words of God. The Truth About God dear listener, we. SPEAKER C Have come to the end of our program. I see we've just run out of time Braedan. But we thank you for joining us today. We pray that God will bless you as you continue to build your life also on that solid rock. So when the winds come and the storms come, you will be immovable in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Until next time. God bless. SPEAKER B Thank you for joining us on Faith. To Faith. If you would like more information about today's program or if you have any questions, please contact 3ABN Australia Radio by Phoning. 02 4973 3456. Or you can send an email to [email protected] You can also contact us on our 3ABN Australia radio Facebook page. We'd love to hear from you.