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Apostasy or Reality: Where Are You? – Part 5 (Hebrews 10:31-39)

As believers, we must persevere in our faith despite hardships and attacks. We must resist Satan and temptation through faith, prayer, and obedience to God’s word.

Let’s read together everybody Hebrews chapter 10. I’ll begin in verse 32. Hebrews 1032. You’ll remember this.
I think we’re on part 5. Of this apostasy or reality. Why so many parts?
Well, look at the title, apostasy or reality. Where are you?
Very serious portion of scripture, but recall the former days in which after you were illuminated, you endured a great struggle of sufferings.
Attributions and partly while you became companions of those who were so treated.
For you had compassion on me in my chain, and joyfully accepted the plundering of your goods, knowing that you have a better and an enduring possession for yourselves in heaven.
Therefore, do not cast away your offense, which has great rewards.
For you have need of endurance so that after you have done the will of god, you may receive the promise.
For yet, a little while, and he who is coming will come will not carry.
Lord, please. Come now.
Now the just shall live by faith, but if anyone draws back, my soul has no pleasure in him.
But we are not of those drawbacks to tradition, but of those who believe the safety of the soul.
Verse 39 is beautiful, by the way.
If verse 38 or verse 37 scared you kinda kinda terrified you for a moment, then came verse 39.
Father in Jesus name, bless, we pray. And all god’s people again said, Amen. Amen. You may be seated.
As we’re looking at this, as we have been looking at this, we were very much brought to that place out of Hebrews chapter 10 we came to verses 29 to 31 that set this up.
It’s almost like putting the golf ball on top of the tee where there’s gonna be this incredible launch of deep biblical truth.
There are those in the world today that wanna criticize the Bible, and they think, well, you know, that book’s just a fairy tale book, or that book is is so strange.
It’s so weird. Now first of all, I don’t know if you you had the experience that that I had, but At one time in my life, I don’t remember when it was.
It was before I heard the gospel.
I remember picking up a Bible somewhere, and I remember opening it up and trying to read it, and it seemed to be insane to me.
It made no sense whatsoever.
And then the night I got saved, I picked up the Bible, and it seemed to be flooding me with sense, with reason, with logic, with purpose.
It came alive. And of course, you know the answer to that, that while we are in our sins, we are blinded to the truths of god.
But when we repent, and come to the knowledge of Jesus Christ as lord and savior.
When the Holy Spirit moves in, that’s the word in the ephesians sealed into the day of redemption, then everything opens up for us.
And it’s beautiful because there can be a season, saints, of great biblical knowledge and a brand new believer.
And the brand new believer will walk over to the season saying and and stump them with a profound deep question that comes right out of the heart of god himself.
And then the whole dynamic of fellowship begins to go under way.
And the Bible taught us here in Hebrew is 10 verse 29. How much more punishment? Listen.
Do you suppose will he, this is the person that walks away, goes back to the world that he left, be worthy of who has trampled the son of god under foot counting the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing and insulted the spirit of grace verse 30.
For we know him who said vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the lord.
And again, the lord will judge his people.
Verse 31, last time we were here, it says, it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living god.
He’s talking about those who claimed to know Jesus walked with us, so to speak, to the house of god, they looked like us, they talked like us, they carried a Bible like us, But over time, remember the book is called the book to the Hebrews.
These were Hebrews who had become followers of Christ.
And the argument is this, but it applies to all of us.
You better make sure that your walk is right with the lord and that it’s real.
That there’s a reality to it so that you avoid and stay clear of the most remote possibility of apostasy.
Apostasy is to look like us, talk like us, do everything like us, look Judith did miracles.
There are false apostles. The Bible says. There are miracle workers who are instruments of Satan.
The Bible says who parade themselves as angels of lights.
But notice that he says in verse 39 that this great vote of confidence is that’s not who we are.
And so we always wanna make sure church family listen.
You know that the world around us is going in the direction that it’s going.
Be that as it may.
God’s on his throne, and he’s watching over every little thing that’s taking place. Nothing gets by him. Nothing.
You know how stuff gets by you and I? That’s because we’re finite.
A little bird of parrow itself cannot fall to the ground.
The Bible says, without Jesus knowing about it, without without god knowing about it.
So why am I saying this to you?
Because no matter what happens from this moment forward, nothing happens without being filtered by god.
And you can rest in him. And we saw this.
When he warned us about trampling under the foot of men, the salvation that comes through Jesus, He’s actually talking about those who don’t even know Jesus, and here’s what they do.
They go back to their old religious system. In this case, they go back to Judaism.
Give me the 613, the 613+10 commandments. Give me all the rules and regulations.
I tried that Jesus stuff. It didn’t do it for me.
I’m going back to, listen, fill in the modern day blank. I’m going back to the the rigors of religion.
Give me the rules, the candles, to light, to penance uh, to perform.
Give me the box to check. Tell me what to do.
And you get caught up in a in a works based relationship.
And the the book of Hebrews is patently against that.
The bible tells us that there’s one priest that we have now.
One priest, his name is Jesus Christ, and he’s the high priest.
The bible tells us that every priest on earth has to go for for their own sins before they can listen to your sins.
And the book of Hebrews says, why go to somebody who’s got sinned themselves when he can go directly to Christ?
Yeah. Man, that’s that’s incredible stuff.
But to be so close and then to turn away, Listen to what William Grenell had to say.
This is powerful. None syncs so far into hell as those that come to the nearest to heaven because they fall from the greatest of heights.
That’s almost being a Christian. Is the danger.
And so here’s where we left off.
When we talked about insulting the spirit of grace, The insult would be this, and I’m gonna hopefully settle something in your heart here or the word of god will settle something in your heart here in a moment.
That if you were to approach the fact that you know this, you know that Jesus died on the cross for your sins.
You you know it. You can tell me that. You can tell your neighbor that.
And that you’ve read in the Bible.
In fact, that’s exactly what it says, and that Christ rose again from the dead, and you could even teach a course on it.
And be very good at it, but yet still be unconverted within you. It’s remarkable.
You ought to read the lives, the the the the, uh, life stories of of 3 men, uh, George Whitfield And John and Charles Wesley, did you know that these three guys were degreed in theology?
That they were incredibly influential in the world around them in England.
And They didn’t wind up getting born again until, uh, later when I say later in their lives, they were young, but I’m I I don’t remember their ages, but let’s say, like, 30, They were in they were preaching sermons and in the pulpits of England.
And then they found out that they were not preaching the life of regeneration through Christ that you need to be born again to enter the kingdom of heaven.
And when one got saved, then the other one challenged the other one, challenged the other one.
And the and, look, those two names went down in history.
The Whitfields and Westleys, By the way, they greatly affected the Eastern Sea Coast of America and Georgia specifically, and George Whitfield went on to be a profound influence on our founding fathers, especially Benjamin Franklin, who funded his ministry in America, quite remarkable.
But to but to know and then to walk away by whatever allurements is danger is death.
It doesn’t mean you lost your salvation.
It means you were so close to having it, and you turned away.
The spirit was on the door knocking, but he was never allowed in. Are you with me?
Do you understand? Look at Matthew chapter 12. On the screen, Matthew chapter 12 verse 25.
But Jesus knew their thoughts. So the the scribes and pharisees had been attacking Jesus. You know this already.
Every time Jesus did something. The religious hierarchy would go after him. But Jesus knew their thoughts. Why?
Because he was god. How do you do that?
And said to them, every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, and every city or house divided against itself will not stand.
If Satan casts out Satan, he’s divided against himself, how then will his kingdom stand?
And if I cast out demons by Beelzebub.
They were they were accusing Jesus of being Satan or working for Satan. Because Jesus was casting out demons.
So they couldn’t cast out demons, so they’re pretty envious.
So because they couldn’t do it, can you imagine?
They can’t do this, and they’re supposed to be the ones.
And the nations looking to them as being the guys to tell us what’s up in Jesus is casting out demons raising the dead, open the eyes of the blind.
Can you imagine the people going? Can you guys pull up a few of those things?
So they began to curse him by attributing his powers to Satan.
That’s what you do when you don’t have an answer.
And if casting out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your sons cast them out, therefore, they shall be your judges.
But if I cast out demons by the spirit of god, surely the kingdom of god has come upon you.
And how can one enter as strong man’s house and plunder his goods unless he first binds the strong man.
And then he will plunder his house. To awesome statement. Jesus is invading the Jesus is the strong man.
He’s invading the house of Satan, so to speak, and he’s robbing Satan of souls.
Don’t you love that? Satan’s got people blind. He’s got people miserable. He’s got people wounded.
He’s got people dine from you you name it, whatever resource he can use to destroy your life.
And if he if the hardcore stuff doesn’t work, then he’ll lose he’ll use really sweet, beautiful looking subtleties.
He doesn’t care. He just wants you dead spiritually.
And, oh, by the way, he’s not necessarily out to take your life not an immediate now.
Satan is out to sterilize you so he can use you until the end of your life.
I think that’s a powerful hand a tool in Satan’s hand is to get a a cardinal Baxelid and Christian to be in their misery.
What a horrible witness. Right?
We’ve often, maybe, in life, played into that lie of his, And I think Satan would let you live a long, old life as long as people could say, yeah, that that’s Christianity right there.
That guy, kinda like Samson. You know? Read about Samsung’s life? What a mess.
But, uh, he died given glory to the lord, but boy, what a hard road he had.
What what what a hard road he made for himself.
And so, uh, he was not with me, he’s against me, and he who does not gather uh, with me scattered abroad.
Therefore, here it comes. I say to you, just as Jesus speaking, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the spirit, that’s the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven men.
Anyone who speaks a word against the son of man that’s Jesus, it will be forgiven him.
But he who speaks against the Holy Spirit, It will not be forgiven him either in this age or world or in the age or the world to come.
This is what’s called blasphemy of the Holy Spirit or the unpardonable sin.
You ever heard of that before? Some people say, oh, it’s this. It’s that. It’s the other nope.
You just read it. The unpardonable sin is attributing the ministry of the Holy Spirit to Satan.
Jesus said, look. You wanna you wanna cuss me out?
You wanna use my name as the number one customer around the world at all times always?
You wanna drop my name all the time? I can forgive you for that.
But we’ll what you you will not be forgiven is when the spirit of god does do a work, And the spirit of god is at work, and you say that he’s not is to commit blessing of the holy spirit, but more specifically, it’s this.
When the Holy Spirit speaks to every human being inside and says Jesus is the 1.
Jesus is the king of kings and lord of lords.
And you sin against that and you die in that condition? No hope. That’s it.
That’s what he’s talking about. Very, very powerful.
John chapter 10 verse 26 is but you do not believe he’s speaking to them at another occasion because you are not of my sheep.
As I said to you, notice this, but you do not believe the the new English translation uses a word that I think is excellent where right here, it says, but you do not believe.
They use the word. You refuse to believe. That’s a very accurate statement. You refuse to believe.
That I’m the shepherd of the sheep. That’s you you refuse to believe that.
You can say all you want, but Jesus says this.
Everything that you know when it comes down to it all, you’re refusing to have be be the shepherd of your life.
And somebody might say it this way.
I’m not gonna I’ll follow Jesus to a point, but I’m not going that far.
No one’s gonna tell me exactly what to do.
I only go along with what I approve of, but when when things come up, this that’s why I draw the line with Jesus.
You’re very much still in control. It’s still very much your show.
And that’s something you wanna be very, very careful about.
So church, as we look at this market down, it’s strengthening those things that remain.
We touched on this last week, and I got into a uh, I think a a journey in testimony on this, but it served its purpose.
But here’s the study. It’s remembering when, uh, he first came to you in your Christian life.
And remember we taught we talked about, uh, the man, the demonic act that was in the caves and in the graveyard, and Jesus came, and the guy was demon possessed.
And and when he saw Jesus. He ran to the shore, and he makes confession.
What what have we to do with you, son of god? Jesus, son of god. And he’s possessed.
And Jesus cast out the demon that resided within this man.
In fact, it was legion, if you remember, and all of these pigs, all of the swine went running over the cliff.
And then I ended that with a personal, uh, bit that I shared for my own life out of March chapter 7.
So we pick it up now, uh, in this new territory, and that is versus 33 to 34, and that is remembering when the attacks began to arrive.
This is important to us today in our time.
Remember this, it says in verse 33, And partly while you became companions of those who were so treated, in other words, Christians in the world, I know this sounds radical.
Like, what? Christians in the world traditionally for 2000 years have been very poorly treated. Did you know that?
Christians being accepted is a relatively new thing, or it was a new thing.
And now it’s starting to go back to kind of like a 1st century era.
Christianity now could cost you your life certainly in many parts of the world, and it’s certainly heating up in America.
Don’t let that derail you. Are you listening to everybody? Don’t let that scare you.
Don’t let that derail you. It’s truly yet again, one of the signs of the end times.
An Antichrist spirit. That’s what’s going on.
He said, what are what are those people who hate me like this? What’s the deal they did? Listen.
They may not have any reason to hate you because you’re a Christian.
They may not be believers, of course, but they don’t really have a reason to hate you.
But all of a sudden, in the last couple of years, the the the believer, you and the unbeliever, them, the relationship is weird now.
What’s going on? This is what’s going on.
Imagine me, like, throwing sand out of a bucket or a bag. I’m just casting sand out there.
Imagine if that sand, wherever it lands, is the influence of the Antichrist. That’s what’s happening.
We’re living in an age now.
There’s a spirit of I’m not seeing the anti crisis walking around LA right now.
I mean, maybe USC tonight for sure. Right? No.
But the spirit of Antichrist is at USC tonight. Right?
Uh, you wouldn’t wanna go to USC tonight and say, I’m a Christian.
Not with all the Islamic uprising and rioting that’s taking place. You wouldn’t wanna do that right now.
Why is that happening? The spirit of Antichrist is stirring useful tools for satan’s advantage.
It’s the spirit. It’s not the antichrist. He’s coming, but it is his spirit. And attacks will come.
And there’s a text that come to the Christian life.
And I’m sure this is not gonna help people make a decision for Jesus.
But if you hear the Holy Spirit speaking to you, by all means, obey him, but people who sign up to follow Jesus in this day and age, they’re gonna pay a price.
You’re you’re somebody might not they might def what’s it called? Defend you? Unfriend you?
I said something not too long ago on social media platform.
I forget which one it was, and I left over a thousand people.
It went And they and they were they’re not my friends anymore. You know what I did?
I’d laid around all day and I cried about it. No. I’m just joking. Yeah.
1000,000, you know, make a post. Then, like, 1000 people go away.
I never knew they were there in the first But I, you know, I say something than Jess, but, you know, sad to say some people take that very seriously, but uh, when the things get hot and heavy and the streets and in this world that is quickly uh, becoming very anti Jesus.
Just know that god will never abandon you no matter what happens. Uh, Pastor Jack.
Do you remember that Wednesday night you said that government never abandoned me?
Well, there’s guys across the street with machetes, and they’re walking toward my house.
And I would say to you, uh, defend your home. Defend your home.
Uh, but you you are born again. Right?
Actually, I would say I’d I’d say it this way.
Before I tell you to defend your family in your home, Tell me the gospel.
So I know you got it down.
Because If there’s a probability of you dying, I wanna make sure I see you in heaven.
And you say, oh my goodness, Pastor Jack. Who? Wow. Oh, hey. Listen. It could happen at the next intersection.
Be ready to meet Jesus. Be ready to enter heaven.
Be ready to have that incredible greeting. That he’s promised to all of us.
And look, you and I do not belong in this world anymore. Did you feel it? We don’t belong here.
It doesn’t make any sense to us anymore. Why? Because truly our passions are in heaven now.
And because of that, we suffer, and we suffer here now gladly because we’re suffering for Jesus’ name.
And for Jesus’ sake. And he says in verse 34, for you had compassion on me. I’m sorry again.
I believe this is Paul. You had compassion on me in my chains. It makes sense.
Sounds very Pauline in the architecture of it all. And joyfully accepted the plundering of your goods.
Some people debate. What does that mean? Does it mean that they’re actually robbed for being Christians?
Could be. It could be that because they were Christians, they gladly gave other goods to help other people.
It doesn’t matter. Either way, god’s in the midst of it. It doesn’t matter.
Either way, god’s there doing a work because when you come to Christ, that’s when the attacks begin.
Many of you would have a testimony of everything was fun in my life, had been married 7 years, had 2 kids, went to church one day, heard the gospel got saved, went home and told my wife, god just changed my life.
And some months later, she packs up and takes the key and leaves you.
Yep. This really happens. This goes on in life. Didn’t Jesus say it would? Sebastura.
I don’t know. This is incredible encouragement tonight. This no. This is encouragement tonight.
When the world turns on you, I believe they don’t even know what they’re doing.
I believe there are honestly sincere That woman might have thought, oh, I’m so sorry.
Kids, I gotta save you from daddy. He’s turned into a Jesus freak.
She’s probably very sincere about that. Didn’t Jesus say father forgive them?
They know not what they do. But you know what’s going on.
John 16 verse 33 tells us these things I’ve spoken to you that in me, you will have peace.
In the world, you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer. I have overcome the world.
You see the qualifier? I’ve overcome the world.
You’re gonna have peace in the midst of a storm. Oh, that’s good. Yeah. I love that.
I find it interesting. I find it beautiful.
If you’ve ever had a chance to be in an area where there’s a big storm, especially if it’s a like, if you’re in Texas, Oklahoma, that’s scary.
They have scary storms, man. I’m telling you right now. You know what’s really weird about it?
Birds will be singing, sun’s out, breeze starts blowing, then everything starts blowing.
And then there’s no more birds. No more birds. Tornado blows by. No more house.
5 minutes after the tornado blows by and sucks the house away, The parts start singing.
Amazing. I mean, think about that from what, well, you’re saying that they’re just birds.
We’re we’re people. Honestly, the truth is they’re just birds. And we are his children created in his image.
And we live in a fallen world.
I highly encourage you to start blaming Satan Yes.
For all the bad that’s in this world. Put credit where credits do.
Jesus came down, do all that. And he starts with your soul. And don’t worry.
He said, well, what about a world without storms? Oh, it’s coming.
When he comes, when he sets up his kingdom in Jerusalem, he sits on the throne of David, You’re gonna hear some birds singing.
In fact, Isaiah, what does Isaiah said? Isaiah says the trees.
Now I’m I’m This is what it says.
And I’m a I’m I’m a premillennial futurist, literalist, when it comes to biblical interpretation.
When the Bible says, that’s what it says. That’s what it says.
And when the Bible is poetic, it says so.
And when the Bible is given an analogy, it says so.
But Isaiah says, when the lord returns and sets sets up his kingdom, the trees of the fields will clap their hands.
Now I’m thinking their hands are leaves. Yep.
Have you ever been under a big tree or a big grove of tree when the wind’s blowing and you hear that almost sounds like an ocean.
The Bible says that’s how it’s gonna be when Jesus comes back.
And it’s gonna be amazing. The lion is gonna lay down with the lamb.
Instead of the lion laying down with the lamb inside of them.
The the lion’s gonna lay down with the lamb, and they’re gonna you know, be all YouTube, cute, and cuddly, little animals.
You see the you watching little animals? It’s gonna be amazing. Not now.
Later, but it’s quite powerful, quite remarkable church, as we mentioned before, be careful because when these warnings come out and what this author, and again, I believe it’s Paul is saying, is that you cared, you had compassion, even in my chains as a believer.
And you you weren’t embarrassed.
We wanna always be careful that we’re not embarrassed of the name of Jesus.
Are you talking real loud at the table at the restaurant?
And then somebody says, oh, here comes the food. It’s time to pray. Oh, lord Jesus.
I mean, you were mouthing up. You were the big mouth in the whole room.
And then you Don’t do that, man.
I’m not saying stand on the table and pray either, but you should pray at the same volume you were talking about the Rams about or the Seahawks now.
No. No. No readers. I I just wait.
Wait. I just take I’m take I’m being I’m convicted right now. I take that back.
God bless the Raiders. I believe wait. Wait. There’s a reason for this.
It has nothing to do with the bible study. Wake to hurry up.
What’s his name? Who owns who owns the, uh, is it Davis? Mark. Yeah.
Mark. You want you guys wanna know something that nobody knows about yet? Yeah.
You wanna know something about this?
So it turns out Mark Davis, uh, loves veterans, and wants to encourage them and wants he wants to reach them and help them.
So he had an idea. And it’s happening pretty soon, this summer, uh, Allegiant Stadium.
Is that where they play? Yes. Yeah. So they’re gonna have a gigantic event for veterans. Oh, yeah.
And he put he’s putting that on.
A bunch of people are gonna be speaking from all kinds of walks of life.
There there’s just all kinds of people.
And I was super honored to be asked if I would take the stage and speak.
And it’s so cool because it’s not a Christian event. It’s not a Christian event.
Professor, would you speak at a at a non Christian event? I’m speaking at a non Christian event.
You bet. Listen. If the pope said, can you come and talk to me?
Oh, I’m coming. And and I’m gonna I’m gonna let the pope know.
But but he didn’t call me, so I’m not going to the Vatican.
I’m going to Allegiant Stadium. And, uh, and what’s so cool is that the NFL, uh, the NFL is interested now because whoever owns the Packers No.
No. No. Sorry. The Chicago bears. Whoever owns the bears, they said, wait a minute.
You’re gonna do this for the vets in Vegas? We’re gonna do it at soldier field.
And this is this is gonna catch on the NFL to say, hey. Wait a minute. We need this.
We need this stand for America’s veterans. And I thought that’s awesome. Yeah. You bet.
Second Timothy chapter 1 verse 15.
This, you know, that all those in Asia having turned away from me, says, Paul, among whom were phagilis and hermogenes.
The lord grant mercy to the household of onisaphores.
For he often refreshed me and was not, what’s the word, ashamed of my chains.
Think about Paul had a crime record. He had a rap sheet. The apostle Paul.
He got arrested all the time. What would you think of me?
Oh, we heard we saw in the news that you pastor was arrested. Oh my gosh.
I can’t believe it. Listen, to be a pastor in the 1st century, You had to have a an arrest record.
You had to have gotten arrested for preaching Jesus. Think about that.
What an honor. Why are we you’re under arrest for what? You believe in Jesus.
There used to be a song way back when If you are arrested for being a Christian, would they have enough evidence to convict you?
That’s cool. But he he goes on.
And he says you were not ashamed of my chains, but when he arrived in Rome, he sought me out was very jealously and found me.
Paul speaking about brotherly love and care, and they weren’t ashamed.
In John chapter 14 verse 27, the Bible says peace. Jesus says peace. This is the shalom.
Of god. Shalom. I leave with you. This is powerful stuff. Shalom.
The witness of the Christian, listen, I I got good news for you might not think that you’re very courageous.
You might think you’re rather timid. Maybe you are timid. Guess what?
We learned from testimonies of those believers in Iraq and in Syria.
Do you remember when ISIS during Obama’s administration. Remember, Isis was sweeping and establishing the caliphate throughout the Middle East?
Do you remember that? Did you see the Christians dying? Remember they, like, filmed it?
Did you watch any of that stuff? You should watch it. How do these people didn’t even fight back?
These Christians that got on their knees, and they were beheaded? And they were listen.
There was the parents, when they told, they didn’t realize this.
The when they posted the video of the of the Christians being beheaded on the shoreline in Libya, on the coast.
And then I just put it up online, and it was the best thing that could ever happen because the parents of these workers.
They were contractors. They were working there in the oil fields. These young men, they were Christians.
And when the when Isis posted it, the parents got to see their sons.
It’s not that they were delighted about being beheaded. It’s what they heard. They heard in their own tongue.
They heard their sons praising Jesus as they were dying. And it backfired.
Isis stopped posting the beheadings because they might come across another Christian.
And you know what they found out? If somebody is unusually calm, they’re probably a Christian.
No. This is for real. I get it.
If you’re not a Christian, you’re pleading for your life, the Christian, so to speak, lays themselves down.
Where does that come from? Not from us. We don’t want that kind of courage.
He will give it in that hour of need. He will be there.
He will not leave your forsake you.
The peace of god will be upon you and I in that great moment. It’s guaranteed.
It has to happen. Jesus said he’ll be there with you. He will not he’ll never fail you.
I wanna encourage all of you. Wow.
Go read Fox’s book of martyrs. Yep. Please get it.
Get it on audio, get it in book form, whatever you want.
Fox’s book of martyrs, actual accounts, and your faith will soar.
When Christ shows up in that moment of difficulty and hardship, first Peter chapter 1 verse 6, first Peter 16 is, and this you greatly rejoice though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials.
Let’s say amen to that. Are you being greed right now by various trials? I am. I am.
And I’m tempted, like, various trials. And then I’m tempted to be poor me.
And then I realized, wait a minute. I’m a Christian. This is this is god at work.
Just hang on. And remember, he’s hanging on to you.
If need be, then greet by various trials that the genuineness of your faith being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire.
I believe this is what’s happening. It’s starting right now. From believers in America right now.
Our friends in Europe have already been going through it. We’re starting it now. Is your faith for real?
Are you are you or are you an apostate? Is it a reality?
Where are you in this vector? Are you gonna give up when it gets tough?
Here’s what you wanna say. Jesus, I’m afraid I’m gonna give up when it gets tough.
I’m afraid I’m gonna cave in. Please don’t let me cave in.
If that’s your prayer tonight, I got news for you. You will not be caving in.
He will see to it that you stand. That’s his business. That’s his business, and it’s marvelous.
The Bible tells us in 1st Peter, 58. Be sober.
That’s be that’s be, uh, uh, situational awareness.
Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary, the devil, walks about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour.
Look at verse 9. Resist him. Okay. Really? Come on.
The devil Jesus is can you imagine, hey, Peter.
Jesus Jesus is telling Peter, Peter writes it down.
Maybe Jesus told Peter earlier on. He’s certainly telling us now.
Satan walks around like a lion. Roming. You know how they roam?
They’re like this laying down. And He’s looking for those to devour.
And the according to god, the the answer to this problem is resist him.
Not run. He didn’t okay.
If I was writing this, I would say Siki Numi may devour, run like a maniac.
He says, resist them. You know what that looks like to me? You’re like this. Right?
I mean, you’re driving. You’re doing on the outside, you look a like a normal person.
But you’re a Christian. So on the inside, on the inside, you’re like this.
And sword out. Right? We’re like this. Spiritually speaking.
We’re looking for the enemy.
And Jesus says, oh, when you find that big cat, as it were, inch it up on you, resist them.
God tells us the human to resist Lucifer’s Satan.
We are no match for him unless the holy spirit dwells in you.
And now all of a sudden, it’s a David and Goliath moment.
Resist him steadfast in the faith. You hold your ground.
You should know scripture, Christian. You should know scripture.
Listen, if you ever encounter a demon possessed person or Satan shows up in your living room, if you say, oh my goodness.
It’s him. Uh, in the beginning, god created the heavens and the earth.
Satan will start laughing. Okay.
The demonic satanic world really knows the Bible really well.
Mikaira is the word for the sword of the spirit.
The the proper application of the sword is Mikaira, and it means that you take the right verse for the right thing in that moment.
And when all those fails, the name of Jesus of Nazareth.
The name of Jesus of Nazareth, the blood of Christ is upon my life. You have no right.
You have no authority. You have no jurisdiction. I belong to the lord Jesus Christ.
You have no power over my life. It is a lie.
You’re the father of lies, and that’s what you’re doing right now. You’re lying to me.
And then Satan will say to you, you’re such a you’re such a wicked Christian. You’re terrible.
You didn’t pray 10 hours today, and you’d you’d this and that.
And what whatever he said, And, again, I told you before, uh, tozer said this, just do this.
Satan, I am a terrible person. And everything I got about being a terrible and I learned from you.
Isn’t that a great line?
Oh, my my my resistance steadfast in the faith knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world, but may the god of all grace who called us to his eternal glory by Christ Jesus after you have suffered a while, perfect, established, strengthened, and settled you.
Yeah. That’s that’s just that’s excellent. Just fantastic.
The next thing is this is to remember when everything was about heaven in our lives, we need to get back to that simple thinking about heaven.
Heaven. I’m guilty. You’re guilty. We’re all guilty of not talking about heaven enough.
Now, pastor, you wanna be careful. You don’t wanna become so heavenly minded. You’re no earthly good. I wish.
That’s not gonna happen. We need to think about heaven more. It’s where we’re moving.
And we’re I don’t know about you, but, right, aren’t we spiritually packing up right now for heaven?
If you’re a good investor right now, you’re thinking this. How’s this gonna play out for heaven?
Verse 34 says knowing that you have a better and an enduring possession.
For yourselves where in heaven? In heaven, such a glorious truth.
Versus 35 to 38 is hanging on, friends. Hang on to those things that are true.
If there’s anything that we need to hear it is this right now, and that is to hang on to what is true.
I have, as you have discovered, And I’m still trying to process it regarding truth and the time in which you and I live in, how are we processing this?
I thank god. This is all I know for sure. I’m not kidding.
I was reminded of this not too long ago when I’ve got on one of those websites to find out about your lineage?
Have you ever done that to find out who who am I related to?
It turns out that wasn’t a good idea.
It wasn’t it wasn’t so much that I found out that I was related to bad people.
It said, I I couldn’t find couldn’t find many people unrelated to.
And then it began to think, am I me?
And, uh, the glorious thing about this is the fact that whatever your pedigree is in this world, You and I have a pedigree with god by the blood of Christ forever and in a forever family that What we know about him is true.
We’re not saying it’s true. We have been persuaded that it’s true.
We’re not in some let’s promote the Bible Club.
Why are Christians all around the world committed to the point of You’ll have to kill me.
I can’t lie. He changed in my life. We’re gonna behead you. Make it quick. No. Right.
Think about it. What are you gonna say? We’re not walking around trying to sell books.
This living book has persuaded our lives on the inside out.
And and what’s amazing about this Is that now today? Someone told me just yesterday.
I saw that on TV, he said, but I’m not I’m not sure it’s real.
And that that I thought to my because he was a young man.
I thought to myself, what a pathetic age we live in?
We can watch something now and not even know if it’s real or not.
I don’t know if you’ve seen any of our Spanish programming.
It’s it’s huge. You didn’t know how to spell Spanish.
Uh, very good it turns out.
And and I’m I I’m gonna be doing Arabic pretty soon.
I just thought I’d picked it up yesterday. No. It’s all ai.
The word of god’s truly coming out.
And my mouth is moving in in the right way. It’s not like, hey.
You know? No. It’s perfect. It’s scary. It’s perfect.
But now today, you can see something.
And then it’s not true. Hang on to your confidence that’s in Jesus.
Therefore, do not cast away your confidence.
Cherish it, my friend, which has great reward for you have need of endurance.
Notice the connection. You and I are going to endure the world that’s ahead of us because of our confidence that’s in Christ.
And we’re gonna nurture it.
You know how we nurture it?
We looked at the word of god more and more and more.
Personally, I cannot put into words just how true his truth has been in my life.
It’s fun. Listen, you young people. It’s wonderful getting old in Jesus.
Especially if you’ve been busy for Jesus, which is so cool because you’ve got lot of things.
My our daughters are always telling us, why don’t you write that down?
Lisa and I will tell them about something god did. Oh my goodness.
It was 1988, and it was summer. And this is what happened.
And these people, and they got saved, and we got baptized right there. And they did this.
It was like, why don’t you write that down? Never heard that down. Why don’t you write that down?
We should write that down. But I just love the fact that when god has been working in your life over time, young people listen up.
It’s a thrilled to get old.
You look back and you just go, god, you have been so faithful. Yeah.
And then the thing, by the way, I I thought that was absolutely nuts It was perfectly your plan.
Who would have thunk such a thing? God, you’re amazing. He’s so good.
Confidence. Confidence in Jesus. I’m not talking about sticking your chest out.
I’m not talking about acting. True confidence in this age.
Like our spiritual forefathers have had.
Confidence like Corey Tin Boone and the Boone family. Confidence.
Oscar Schindler. Confidence. So many in Russia when it went into the Soviet Union, and the Soviets came in and said, god’s dead, he He’s dead.
Some said he he was dead, and some said he never existed.
They came in to homes and took out the Bibles and took off the crosses from their homes. I know.
Because I had a ninety year old grandma come up and kissed me in 1992.
I was at a Metro stop teaching preaching the Bible outside of a Metro stopped in Moscow Russia with the translator, and this little Babushka all bent over carrying bags of mushrooms.
Her hands were black from the soil. She heard the gospel. She started crying.
She comes up to me, and she actually reaches up like this and grabs my my face.
And she kissed me in the face weeping. I don’t know what’s going on. I’m crying.
I look at my translator. Larissa is crying.
And she said when she was a little girl, the Soviets came into her home, took away their bibles, took away the cross, and said that god was dead.
And she said, I knew god wasn’t dead, but I prayed that god would come back to my country someday.
And she thought that god because she heard the gospel in the streets that god had come back with the with his word that was good enough for her.
Listen, that’s 1992 or 91. Some of you weren’t even born yet.
Well, what does that do? Bill’s confidence?
Let me give you an image of a man that we don’t often think about.
I love this. We don’t know what it was like. Nobody had a cell feed. There’s no photo.
We don’t know what it was like, but we know this.
They were hungry lions that were in a den, and they were preserved. How sad?
They were actually preserved in a state of starving because that’s where people went when you upset the king.
In this case, the king didn’t want Daniel to go there, but the king had made a note.
He can’t change his word. And so they throw Daniel in there.
So the king bolts to see if Daniel is still there in the early morning hours. Daniel, just standing there.
The king goes, did did god save you dear, Daniel? Did god save you?
Did no. Did your god save you? Did your god save you, oh, Daniel?
Daniel says, here I am king.
I believe we’ll see that king in heaven, by the way. I really do.
I really expect to see that king. I expect to see nebuchadnezzer also.
But, um, what did they do? I don’t even think that there’s a force fee.
I don’t think they’re going I don’t think they I don’t even know if it was like a force field around him.
I think they just I think this is, excuse me, this is my dream right now.
I think The moment Daniel walked in or got thrown in there, I think immediately, god filled up the tummies of those lions.
I just think they’re like, oh.
Because our god is amazing, and it is accidentally, abundantly.
I don’t think Daniel was in the corner. Like, King him right here. I don’t think so.
I think I I I bet you, Daniel, laid down probably with them during the night and slipped.
Wouldn’t be surprised. Resist the devil in your life. You can confidently do that.
Listen. Turn off meaningless music. And some of it’s Christian. Yeah.
When you can’t tell if they’re singing about their girlfriend or Jesus, turn it off.
Turn on praise and worship music.
Worship god if you are having some form of attack or manifestation in your home, Ask god to show you why.
Resist the devil. Are you a Christian?
You see, Jack, I’m a the only Christian in my house That’s all it takes.
Christ lives there in your home. And if something’s wrong, ask god.
I’m telling you right now, heads up everybody dead serious.
Just pray, ask god, why are these things happening? Strange manifestation, weird things.
Watch what god shows you. Write it down. Write it down.
When you go to pray, god, show me what’s wrong.
What’s going on in this home that has allowed these things access into my life and to this family?
Write down what god puts that thought in your head. You’ll be you’ll be blown away.
And by far, by the way, most of its pornography.
By far, that’s a demonic entry into a home. You think that you think that’s own? No.
It’s just private. All hell knows about it. And it’s a portal.
I know it sounds crazy, but if you got Ouija boards and those eight ball thingies, you better get them out now.
Taro cards. Oh, it’s that’s from my grandma. Ouch. D demonic entry. See, that’s silly.
Isn’t it? I agree. And state and uses that stuff. It’s absolutely crazy.
So guy, uh, will press on over to um, look at look at verse 36 so that after you have done the will of god, you may receive the promise.
That is a promise of a promise. Verse 37. For yet a little while, and he was coming. We’ll come.
Please. And we’ll not Terry. Hurry. Uh, verse 38.
Now the just shall live by faith, but if anyone draws back, my soul has no pleasure in him.
Don’t go backward. And finally, church verse 39, keep moving forward. Keep moving forward.
Don’t go back. And it’s this way. But we are not of those.
Notice the confidence. We are not of those who draw back to tradition.
We’re not like that. We will not be going back.
He says in verse 39, but that is we are, but of those who believe to the saving of the soul.
This is confidence. That for the believer, you’re not gonna draw back.
I’m gonna end with this. The believer Even when they try to wander, when we try to wander away from god, you can’t you you can wander, but he’s there.
If you say I’m gonna go from here because I’m upset with god.
It didn’t go the way I wanted, and and this and I’m I’m pouting.
And so I’m gonna throw down my stuff, and I’m going to go over there.
Like Jonah, I’m gonna go to the other side. Listen. You can’t escape him.
You can’t escape him.
You can have confidence he will never let you down.
And, listen, you said, Jack, uh, I don’t wanna I don’t wanna be one of those who go back.
The fact that you don’t want to be one of those who go back is proof that you won’t be going back.
I wanna be one of his kids. I wanna be one of his little lambs.
Because you care about that, you are. Have you confessed that?
Maybe you’ve never told anybody.
Tonight, you ought to tell somebody before you get to your car tonight. You should say to somebody.
Listen, I’m a Christian. I wanted to tell you. My name is Fred. Fred the Christian.
But you should confess it. You should say it.
But if you want to be in heaven, you’re gonna be in heaven based on the blood of Christ and the fact that you trust you what Christ did for you.
Friend, you do that. You trust him.
He’ll never let you down. Ever. He’s so good, and he’s so consistent.
The Bible tells us that when our hearts condemn us, He is greater than our hearts and knows all things.
Father, we praise you tonight, church. Let’s stand up and praise him. Thank him. Lord, we thank you.
For the god that you are. We thank you for what you’ve written to us.
This is the Bible we’re reading. You want us to be confident This is the Bible.
You want us to know salvation through Jesus Christ. This is the Bible.
You’re telling us, as your children, that you may suffer in this world, but be of good cheer.
I’ve defeated this world. The Bible. The Bible. God’s word to us. The Bible.
Thank you, lord. We praise you.
God, we commit tonight, maybe our a husband or a wife, who’s sick or hurting, or maybe they’re not saved.
Tonight, we would say Lord, save my wife or save my husband.
Maybe tonight, it’s your child, and your child needs healing. Have you asked them?
You, of course, I’m sure you have. But let’s ask them together.
Lord save this child, heal this child, deliver this child, lord, the home that is falling apart, looming, maybe divorce or something.
God heal the home. Lord, we pray now. Your child resides in that house.
Send your holy spirit’s healing power. Send the power of your word.
Cause those lord who are wayward against you to come back home.
And those that don’t know you at all, Lord to fall in their knees and say, Jesus is lord.
God, we pray for an outpouring of your Holy Spirit.
And lord god, I pray that every single one of us in the spirit realm, when we leave this place tonight, we would almost as it were begin to feel ourselves being layered with the armament of a soldier, of a warrior that we, tonight, all of us who named the name of Jesus here tonight, would resist the devil steadfast that we would call upon you, lord Jesus, to rebuke him, that he has no power over us He has no jurisdiction for we have been bought by the blood of the lamb of god in Jesus name.
We pray, and all god’s people said, Amen. Amen. God bless you.