Every Enemy Defeated

Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father, after destroying every rule and every authority and power. (1 Corinthians 15:24)
 
How far does the reign of Christ extend?
The next verse, 1 Corinthians 15:25 says, “He must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.” The word all tells us the extent. 
So does the word every in verse 24: “Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power.”
There is no disease, no addiction, no demon, no bad habit, no fault, no vice, no weakness, no temper, no moodiness, no pride, no self-pity, no strife, no jealousy, no perversion, no greed, no laziness that Christ will not overcome as the enemy of his honor. 
And the encouragement in that promise is that when you set yourself to do battle with the enemies of your faith and your holiness, you will not fight alone.
Jesus Christ is now, in this age, putting all his enemies under his feet. Every rule and every authority and every power will be conquered. 
So, remember that the extent of Christ’s reign reaches to the smallest and biggest enemy of his glory in your life, and in this universe. It will be defeated.
– John Piper
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Heavenly Wisdom

What a man is on his knees before God in secret, that will he be before men: that much and no more.
-Fred Mitchell

We must deliberately seek to meet with God absolutely alone, and to secure such aloneness with God we are bidden to ‘enter into the closet.’ God absolutely insists on this ‘closet’ communion with Himself. One reason, no doubt, that He demands it is to test our sincerity. There is no test for the soul like solitude. Do you shrink from solitude? Perhaps the cause for your neglect of the ‘closet’ is a guilty conscience? You are afraid to enter into the solitude. You know that however cheerful you appear to be you are not really happy. You surround yourself with company lest, being alone, truth should invade your delusion.
– Gordon Cove

I want deliberately to encourage this mighty longing after God. The lack of it has brought us to our present low estate. The stiff and wooden quality about our religious lives is a result of our lack of holy desire. Complacency is a deadly foe of all spiritual growth. Acute desire must be present or there will be no manifestation of Christ to His people. He waits to be wanted. Too bad that with many of us He waits so long, so very long, in vain.
– A. W. Tozer

I should like to allude to a point in the character of Mr. Hudson Taylor which impressed me personally, and which I think had something to do with the blessing that God granted to his efforts on behalf of China. First his prayerfulness; he was of necessity a busy man, but he always regarded prayer itself as in reality the most needful and important part of the work.
– D. E. Hoste

Out of a very intimate acquaintance with D. L. Moody, I wish to testify that he was a far greater pray-er than he was preacher. Time and time again, he was confronted by obstacles that seemed insurmountable, but he always knew the way to overcome all difficulties. He knew the way to bring to pass anything that needed to be brought to pass. He knew and believed in the deepest depths of his soul that nothing was too hard for the Lord, and that prayer could do anything that God could do.
– R. A. Torrey.

All great soul-winners have been men of much and mighty prayer, and all great revivals have been preceded and carried out by persevering, prevailing knee-work in the closet.
– Samuel Logan Brengle

The Good Shepherd of Psalm 23

This week’s blog is an audio recording of a sermon I recently preached. The address is The Good Shepherd of Psalm 23. There is nothing new that can be said about this great psalm, but its lush green pastures and still waters always provide needed rest and refreshment. May you find both as you listen. I ask that you pray for me as I prepare for what I am calling my “fall campaign.” Starting early September through mid-November, I will be preaching in five countries delivering almost 60 sermons. May the Good Shepherd be lifted up!

The Good Shepherd of Psalm 23 Sermon

 

 

What Kind of Faith Do You Have? Part 2

 

 

“Our fathers in Egypt did not understand Your wonders; They did not remember the multitude of Your mercies, But rebelled by the sea–the Red Sea. Nevertheless He saved them for His name’s sake, That He might make His mighty power known. He rebuked the Red Sea also, and it dried up; So He led them through the depths, As through the wilderness . . . Then they believed His words; They sang His praise. They soon forgot His works; They did not wait for His counsel, But lusted exceedingly in the wilderness, And tested God in the desert.” (Psalms 106:7-9, 12-14)

Israel left Egypt triumphantly. There were no shamefaced pilgrims leaving the Nile Valley and entering the wilderness. The Exodus was victoriously jubilant; God had crushed Pharaoh and his kingdom. However, their tune changed abruptly when they were hemmed in by the Red Sea on one side and Pharaoh’s able army on the other. It takes little faith to rejoice when God answers prayer. The question is can you rejoice in faith when the answer is not apparent?

The Hebrews’ lament was as loud as Pharaoh’s trumpets.

Because there were no graves in Egypt, have you taken us away to die in the wilderness? Why have you so dealt with us, to bring us up out of Egypt? Is this not the word that we told you in Egypt, saying, ‘Let us alone that we may serve the Egyptians?’ For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than that we should die in the wilderness. (Exodus 14:11-12)

Fear turned faith into fainting. Nevertheless, graciously, the Lord made a way for them when there was no way. He parted the sea. And when the pursuing army followed into the watery highway, the Lord made the walls of water tumble down; drowning the entire army.

What was Israel’s response?  The psalmist tells us, “Then they believed His words: They sang His praise.” What interesting phrases! Faith was restored, and they returned to rejoicing.

What kind of faith starts and stops depending on circumstances? Did they really believe? Was faith exercised? The answer depends on your understanding of faith. There is a biblical kind of faith that endures in spite of environment, and there is a natural or human faith that only believes the empirical. Israel could trust God as long as the senses: sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch were satisfied with the evidence. But once the senses experienced something different, faith evaporated and fear entered. Fleshly faith works on the principle, “seeing is believing.” But that kind of faith is not blessed, “Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed” (John 20:29).

The only kind faith that honors God is the faith that can believe God and does not require observable proofs of His power. It’s the kind that can see Red Seas and Egyptian armies and does not panic but rests confidently in God and His Word.

Why else would the psalmist follow up the report of faith and a worship service with the words, “They soon forgot His works”? Once again, after perhaps the second greatest miracle of all time (second to the resurrection of our Lord Jesus), Israel could not believe the Lord. Three days, not three weeks or three months, but only three days after the great miracle at the Red Sea, Israel again murmured in unbelief at the bitter waters of Marah. How could they forget what they saw three days earlier? Because natural faith can only believe what it momentarily perceives.

Supernatural or biblical faith, on the other hand, puts trust not in what it sees, but in a Person who is “eternal, immortal, invisible,”—the one the One who is Spirit and not material. The faith that saves, sanctifies, and supplies every need is not a faith founded on the tangible. All that is physical is ever-changing. Godly faith is focused on the never-changing God. It does not set its sight so much on what God does, but on who God is. Faith’s eye is on the Person of God, His character, and revealed will.

Therefore, if new challenges assault you, all you need is to look at Him who is faithful. There is no need to comb circumstances looking for a sign that God will intervene. You do not need empirical data to assure your heart. To remember the Lord’s works is to remember who God is. Israel’s fault lied in the fact they did understand what the works of God told them about the Almighty. They never saw the connection. Their faith was of the wrong kind.

What kind of faith do you have? Spiritual or natural? Can you rest in the One who is unchanging, having learned by His works that He is as His Word proclaims? Or with each trial must you once again go through all the same emotions of fear and doubt because all you can see is the obstacle? The “blessed” faith relies not on the senses but sees another opportunity for God to display His goodness.

What Kind of Faith Do You Have? Part 1

 

“Our fathers in Egypt did not understand Your wonders; They did not remember the multitude of Your mercies, But rebelled by the sea–the Red Sea. Nevertheless He saved them for His name’s sake, That He might make His mighty power known. He rebuked the Red Sea also, and it dried up; So He led them through the depths, As through the wilderness . . . Then they believed His words; They sang His praise. They soon forgot His works; They did not wait for His counsel, But lusted exceedingly in the wilderness, And tested God in the desert.” (Psalms 106:7-9, 12-14)

It is known as one of the greatest miracles of the Bible. Moses lifting the rod, the blast of God’s nostrils ripping through the sea; created a dry passageway for God’s people to safely travel between two towering walls of water. The crossing of the Red Sea was omnipotence on display.

But there was a hitch. The psalmist said, “They . . . rebelled by the sea.” How can it be that rational men and women who watched God decimate the greatest empire of their day by ten supernatural plagues, ever doubt God’s intention or power? Ten times, the prophet of God had spoken and prophesied what was to come. And not once, did the Word of God fail. The plagues fell like a hammer shattering Egypt.

God’s people stood between sea and soldier; between life and death—and they believed death. They spoke their words of unbelief with tears and loud lament, “Because there were no graves in Egypt, have you taken us away to die in the wilderness? Why have you so dealt with us, to bring us up out of Egypt? Is this not the word that we told you in Egypt, saying, ‘Let us alone that we may serve the Egyptians?’ For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than that we should die in the wilderness” (Exodus 14:11-12).

The psalmist tells us the root of their problem—they neither understood nor remembered, that it was by the mighty hand of God, rather than the feeble hand of man, that rescued and delivered them. “Our fathers in Egypt did not understand Your wonders; they did not remember the multitude of Your mercies (Psalm 106:7).

They did not have a grasp of the ways of God. They were not in tune with the redemptive program of God. All they could see was today. They lived by a nature that could not see the trajectory of God. They lived by isolating each moment into the tyranny of the present. They did not connect the dots and come to see what God was doing. In short, they didn’t understand God because they didn’t know God.

Many of us claim to know God. But if we don’t understand His ways, we prove we don’t understand Him. How can you claim to know someone and not understand them? Perhaps the argument of incomprehension would be sensible if the person we are trying to comprehend is deranged and psychotic. However, that argument cannot be leveled against the Lord God. He has given us 66 books to explain Himself to anyone who wants to know Him. If you’re going to understand the Lord, then start studying His Word. In addition to the Bible, He has given His very Spirit to teach us the Bible and reveal Himself to us.

I don’t mean to imply you will know all there is to know about God, because that is impossible. Finiteness cannot contain infinity. Nor do I suggest that you will always discern what God is up to in your life. What I mean is that even though you may not grasp the next step or your last step as you follow God, you will be able to know His heart and that He is trustworthy; even when it doesn’t make sense. How can God’s people have such assurance? Because we know the character of the Person we call the Lord God Almighty.

If you know Him, you will trust Him! The question is, do you truly know Him?