Address—Bruce Anstey
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Turn in your handbook to 100 and 49149. In our hymn book third verse it says unto thy death baptized, we own with thee, We died with thee. Our life were risen, and shall be glorified from sin, the world, and Satan. That's the three things we want to speak about this afternoon we were ransomed by thy blood and here would walk as strangers alive with thee to God. Let's sing the whole hymn #149.
Lord Jesus, we realize.
All my soul forever.
Joy.
No the.
So I.
I strangers.
All right with the truth.
Of all.
Let's turn to the book that is illegal in 53 countries in this world.
The Bible.
Let's treat it as a privilege, as it really is to read a book that is so outlawed in so many places.
We can come here this afternoon and meet like this, no man forbidding as the scripture says, and to read the scriptures together. Let's treat it as a privilege that God has given to us in this land. Let's turn first of all to Ephesians Chapter 2.
Ephesians chapter 2.
Verse one, and you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins, were in time past. You walked according to the course of this world, according to the Prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience, among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind. And we're by nature the children of wrath, even as others were but God, who was rich in mercy for his great love, wherewith he loved us.
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Even when we were dead in sins, hath he quickened us together with Christ by grace are you saved, And it's raised us up together and made us to sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.
As I alluded to in the giving out of the hymn, I'd like to speak about these three great enemies of God and man, and that is the world, the flesh, and the devil. I read this passage here because we find all three of them together.
We find the course of the world, We find the Prince of the power of the air, which is Satan himself. And we see also in the third verse the lusts of the flesh, the three great enemies of God and man.
And we know in this passage here we see them working to hold men in their sins and in their trespasses, and at a distance from God and from Christ, dominating men in this world and bringing them onto a course that will lead to an eternal hell.
We've also read in this passage that God has been rich in mercy and grace and love, and he's reached out, and by his power and grace he has saved some. And I believe I'm looking into the faces of those who have been saved, something many of us, if not all of us here this afternoon, I believe have known. I do know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior. And so God has broken through and has delivered us from that course that would lead to an eternal hell. But we mustn't think that because we are saved that these enemies just run away or hide themselves or go away.
Not at all.
We might put it this way that these three enemies reinvent themselves and then seek to stumble the believer, and so the world, the flesh of the devil, are indeed enemies of the Christian as well as the man in his sins. And since our brother Bill is already communicated to us in his meeting with God's way of victory with regard to the flesh, I'd like to speak about God's way of victory in regards to the world.
And then the devil this afternoon. So let's turn first of all to 1St John, Chapter 2.
First, John chapter 2 and read a few verses with regard to first of all, the world. We want to talk about what it is and then talk about God's deliverance and his way of, or rather his way of deliverance.
So first John chapter 2, verse 15.
Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him, and all that is in the world. The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof, but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever or for eternity. So here we have a warning with regard to the world.
But I would say at the beginning here that the world is used in three different ways in the scriptures, and we need to look at the context of the passage in which it's found to understand which aspect it's referring to. So there are three aspects. First of all, the world is looked at as a place. Secondly, it's looked at as a society where Christ is excluded.
And thirdly, it's looked at as the people that are wrapped up in that society that where Christ is excluded.
Give me Let me give you a couple of examples. First Corinthians, first Timothy, chapter one, verse 15 comes to mind. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. Which aspect of the world would that be? Well, it would be the world as a place. He came here into this world, this very planet where we live and came to die for sinners that we might be saved. God so loved the world. He gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Which aspect of the world would that be?
Would it be this place?
No scripture ever tells us that God loves the hills and mountains and the valleys and so on of this world couldn't be that aspect, and it couldn't be this world as a system of things that man has built up in his alienation from God to keep himself happy. Because we're told right here that we shouldn't love it, and because it's an enemy of ours. So surely God couldn't love that. It would have to be God loving the people that are wrapped up in the world.
And so as you look at the various passages of Scripture that speak of the world, just take a little bit of time, look at the context, and you'll see whether it is referring to one or the other of these three aspects of the world. Now, of course, having said that, in our chapter here.
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The loving the world or love, not the world as it says here, of course, would be the world as a society where Christ is excluded. This had its beginning, a way back in the days of Cain, when he went out from the presence of God and he and his posterity did all they could to keep themselves happy.
And comfortable at a distance from God.
Built up a vast system of things over the many generations, and these things are all been fashioned by man for the purpose of trying to keep them happy and satisfied away from God. And it has not worked. And it is a very complicated system because there are many, many departments, something for every person in this world. No matter which way you're wired, which way you're built, whatever your interests are.
This world has something to attract you, to keep you in your sins if you're not saved, or to distract you as if you're a believer. And that's the aspect of things that we're warned about here, and where he says love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. And so we're enjoined as Christians, as children of God, that we need to watch our affections because the world is an enemy and we need to treat it as an enemy, as the word of God speaks.
And what I do like about the exhortations that are found in the New Testament, in the word of God, is that many times God will give us exhortations, if not always, and he'll explain why. So it's not just a duty or something we're supposed to do, and we really don't know why. That's a vast difference.
Approach to things than what you get. In the Old Testament, the children of Israel were told to do many, many things with regard to the sacrificial system and what they had to do and what they weren't to do and so on. I think there's 613 different injunctions given in the laws and the statutes and so on.
And many of them, no one in that those days even know why they were to do them. If they went to Moses and asked them, Moses, why does God want us to chop the sacrifice in this certain way and do this and do that? And he would have to say, well, I'm not sure, but he told us to do it. We'd better do it. But in Christianity, when God gives us exhortations, it's so nice. He explains why, so we can intelligently carry out the will of God. That's what's referred to in Romans chapter 12.
When he says we have an intelligence service, it's a reasonable service in the King James Version. But in Mr. Darby's translation and intelligence service, that is, we can intelligently enter into the service that we should render for God and be able to give a man a reason if anybody should ask. And that's what we have here. Love, not the things of the world. Why? Well, he goes on to explain why. And there are three very serious reasons that are given to us here, and it's important that we see that.
First of all.
It robs the believer of the enjoyment of the Father's love. Look what it says here. If any man loved the world, the love of the Father is not in him. This world has a way. If it takes a whole of a believer and the attractions that there are in this world take a hold of the believer in any certain way, it is going to rob the believer of the enjoyment of the Father's love. In other words, it's going to attack our communion with God himself.
Because God and this world are at variance and we cannot at the same time enjoy the things of this world and the things of the Father enjoys. It's just not possible. And so that's a very serious reason why we need to be very careful and wary of this enemy that we're going to speak about.
A second reason for all that is in the world is the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, and is not of the Father.
But is of the world verse 16. Here we have another reason, and that is because it excites the basest instincts of our fallen nature.
Of lust and of pride, and it sets the believer on a course and the flesh rises up as we say. It lifts us ugly, ugly head, and it can take control on a believer's life. We've already had that yesterday, and our brother's address.
And so that's another very serious reason why we need to treat the world as God sees it as an enemy of our souls, because it has a way, And let me say it again, of exciting the basis of our nature and lust and pride and all such things that are only going to lead the believer in a course that would be for the dishonor of the Lord Jesus Christ. Thirdly, the world passeth away and the lust thereof, but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever. That's verse 17.
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And here we have a third reason, and that is that it encourages the believer to live for passing things, for things that are just here for time. And that's not a thing that we want to be doing necessarily or at all, because the world, as he says here, will pass away. And everything that's connected with it, it's going, it's under judgment and it's going to be set aside at the appearing of Christ. He is going to judge the world.
In righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained. That's Acts chapter 17.
And so, worldliness, one person has put it, one of the old writers said. It is really just the love for passing things, things that keep us intrigued, promising satisfaction, but never delivering. And those who are wrapped up in that system are not enjoying the Father's love. They're in danger of the flesh taking over and ruling their lives, and they're wasting what could be preserved for eternity.
Because he that doeth the will of God, this verse says, abides for eternity. And so to waste our lives and the passing things of this world is a pity, is a shame, is a tragedy. To waste a Christian's life on such things, which we need to speak about now. Why is it that the enemy of our souls is so interested in getting us wrapped up in the world? Well, as I said, there are three enemies that work together like a coalition. Satan, we might say, is the commander in chief.
And what he does is he presents an attraction of the world where he knows that it will excite the flesh, and the believer gets rolling in that direction. And we've often spoken of the world, the flesh and the devil as being an one being an external enemy, the other being an internal enemy, and the third being an infernal enemy. Now you know what I'm talking about. The external enemy is the world. The internal enemy is in the flesh. And the infernal would be the devil himself. He's an infernal being.
They work together and they are seeking to trip up the believer, to draw the believer out of the path of doing the will of God. And why it's always because of this. Because he hates Christ and he wants to dishonor Christ. And he knows that the best way to bring dishonor on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ is to get his people who bear his name into a course of things and into a line of things that will dishonor the Lord Jesus Christ.
And so it's important to realize that the enemy is seeking to trip us up as believers, because he's really trying to bring dishonor to the glory that belongs to the Lord Jesus Christ.
So we have three reasons here. There's probably more.
But how is there to be deliverance from the power of these attractions? And it seems that the world is getting more and more complicated, more and more detailed, more and more things to intrigue every person that's out there. Well, let's turn over to the fifth chapter, and in keeping with John's style of writing, he presents the the answer to this question, how we can have deliverance from the power of the world in our lives.
But he gives it in, as I say, an abstract way, that is to speak of the the, the IT in its essence, without Speaking of any specific object. And we're going to look at it here first in its essence as far as the principle is concerned. And then I'd like to turn to a few other places in the Scripture that illustrate it to help us to understand the truth more clearly. First John, Chapter 5. Now and verse four and five.
Whatsoever we're all who are born of God overcometh the world or could be translated gets the victory over the world. And this is the victory that is that overcomes the world or gets the victory over the world. Even our faith, who is he that overcometh the world or gets the victory over the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God.
And so he gives the principle of it here and you can see that God's way of deliverance or overcoming the world is A2 fold thing.
One side of it is the sovereign side, the other side is man's responsibility.
And often the truth is presented in this way because God wants us to be responsibly exercised about those things in the past.
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On God's side, we have the thought of being born of God, and that is that he has communicated a new life to every believer, and that life has the capacity to enjoy things that are far higher and greater, the things of crowd and the things of Christ. And so each one of us have in us a life that delights in something that is far greater than what this world could ever offer and would be able to satisfy.
It's the life of Christ being born of God. But you find that there's more than that. Being born of God is not enough for us to have deliverance from the world. And so he goes on and speaks about how that this victory is also connected with our faith, our faith being in a person, Jesus, the Son of God. And so not only is there the need to have that new life that has the capacity to enjoy divine things and heavenly things which are better and sweeter.
And so on than what the world offers. But also we need an object for our hearts. The Lord Jesus Christ is the Son of God.
And so, as I say, he gives it to us in the most abstract way here without explaining anything more. He's not speaking about believing in Jesus as the Son of God for salvation. Very often we read scriptures like this and we think, well, he's talking about the gospel here. No, he's not. That's not the thought here. It's really having living faith in the person of the Son of God himself, who is the center of a whole other world that's far higher.
And over this world, and when our faith lays hold of him where he is, and those things that are at the right hand of God, that are ours in him.
This world will lose its power and its attractions, as simple as that, Mister Darby wrote. I think it's in one of his letters. Speaking of this in a hypothetical way, he said that, you know, you suppose a baby and he grabs something that's very dangerous. Perhaps a very sharp knife could hurt himself. What do you do? You present a brighter toy to him and he drops the knife and he takes the toy and you quickly remove the knife out of his hand. And he says it's just as simple as that God has set before the believer.
A brighter object and he would have our faith to lay hold of that object the person of his Son, the Lord Jesus. And when there is a laying hold in some degree to Christ, where he is at the right hand of God and the things that are ours in him, this world loses its power and its attraction. Let the soul lay hold of Christ the Son of God, and the world loses its power. And that's the secret of deliverance from the world.
Many have tried to.
Meet the dangers of the world.
By bringing in the principle of separation and making it the object or the goal of their life. And that's not God's way. I'm not saying separation isn't important. I'm saying that the principle of deliverance from the world is to have an object before the heart and the capacity to enjoy that object, and separation will come as a result, not an object. And many Christians have had to learn by experience that having separation as being the object, it doesn't work.
And we're going to speak about that in a few minutes here and demonstrate that.
But just to say that to if you and I were writing this, perhaps or many Christians.
If we were writing this, we would say, well, I know how to beat the world separation. We need to be separated believers and insist on strict separation from everything to do with this world. And there are dear Christians that are well meaning and earnest who are seeking to beat the world in that way. But it will never be a lasting thing, because it is not God's way. God's way is Christ. We need to have him before our souls in the way in which he can hear speaks. And so it's important to see that. Now let's illustrate it a little bit. I'm going to look at a few different lives.
And the Old Testament. First of all, let's look at Hebrews Chapter 11.
The life of Moses. I'm just going to lift out one verse here.
To illustrate my point.
By faith it's verse 27 Hebrews 11/27. By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king, for he endured as seeing him who is invisible.
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Isn't that interesting? He forsook Egypt type of this world because he saw something, he saw a person, an invisible person. But this invisible person was sold before his soul that he left Egypt behind. And that illustrates by way of the life of Moses just what it is to have Christ before our souls in this way.
He forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king.
For he endured seeing him who is invisible.
And so my point is this.
If we're going to have victory over the world, we absolutely have to be enjoying something better than the world, something higher.
And God has that for us as Christians, we absolutely have to be enjoying something in our souls that is better. If we put it another way around and put separation as our object, and it's going to break down and it'll often implode. And very often we've seen people who have taken up things like that, give it up and to go further into the world than they were before, because it's not God's way. He doesn't grant blessing in that way on that principle. So what's important that we are enjoying something.
And this means, I say this particularly for the younger brethren that are here. This means that we need to establish a quiet time in our lives every day where we get in the presence of the Lord Jesus with our Bible open and have a little time of fellowship enjoying Him and those things that are ours in Him and reading the Scriptures together. Because when we're enjoying Christ like that, there's going to be the soul being filled and we're going to have the displacement of.
The world and its attractions. It's as simple as that. Let's look at another passage now, this time in Genesis Chapter 14.
This is in the life of Abraham.
Genesis Chapter 14.
Verse 17.
And the king of Sodom went out to meet him. That's Abraham after he his return from the slaughter of killed Omar, and of the kings that were with him in the valley of Shava, which is the King's Dale or Kings valley. And Melchizedek, king of Salem brought forth bread and wine. And he was the priest of the Most High God. And he blessed him and said blessed be Abram.
Of the most high God, possessor of heaven and earth, blessed be the most High God, which hath delivered thine enemies into thine hand.
And he gave him ties of all. That's Abraham gave him ties of all. And the king of Sodom said to Abram, give me the persons, and take the goods to thyself. And Abraham, Abraham said to the king of Sodom, I will lift up my hand. And I have lift up my hand to the Lord, the most High God, the possessor of heaven and earth, that I will not take from a thread to a even a shoe latching.
And that will I not take.
Anything that is thine lest thou should say that I have made Abram rich.
Save only that which the young men have eaten, and the portion of the men which went with me inner eschol in memory, let them take their portion.
Abram had won a great, great victory that day with regard to those kings in the valley, and he was returning from the valley. He's returning from the victory and he's met by two kings. One is the king of Sodom, his name is Bira, and the other is the king of Salem, which is Melchizedek. And if we interpret this, and it's for its typical significance, we have a beautiful illustration of this principle that I'm seeking to establish here this afternoon.
Berra, the king of Sodom is a type. Sodom is a type of this world, and Bira is the type of God and Prince of this world.
And Melchizedek, as we know from Hebrews 506 and seven, is the type of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so we have this man that is met by two kings.
They both have something to offer.
And it's interesting to see which king met him first. It was Melchizedek, and he offered him the bread and wine that was from the Most High God, as he was a priest of the Most High God, and he gave Abraham that which when which would speak to us of fellowship with the Most High God. And Abram responded by giving ties of all to Melchizedek, and it's a little picture of having fellowship.
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With divine things with regard to the Lord Jesus Christ.
He took the bread and the wine. He speaks to us. So as I say, fellowship. The bread would speak to us of sustenance for the soul. The wine would speak to us of joy in the soul. And the giving of the ties wouldn't perhaps speak to us of giving or acknowledging the rightful what is rightfully due to God and to the Lord Jesus Christ. What a beautiful picture to see. Abram here eating the bread and the wine with this print this priest of the Most High God. That's what God would have us to do. Take a little time of fellowship.
With the Lord Jesus and to enjoy the joys that he enjoys. You know, there's a beautiful verse in Psalm 36. It just comes to mind here that I just love al shalt make him to drink of the rivers of thy pleasure. I just love that verse, you know, that's what God wants us to do is to enjoy the rivers of his pleasure. He has pleasures that are forevermore at his right hand. And he wants us to drink that river of his pleasures ourselves to drink and to feed on those things that he enjoys and he finds pleasure in.
And when we do that, there's going to be the moral power and strength in our beings to let those things of the world pass right by our nose because we've touched something better. So immediately upon this little time that he had with Melchizedek comes, along comes the king of Sodom, Bira. As I say, he's a type of Satan, the God and Prince of this world. He's called the God of this world because he is the head of its religious system. He's called the Prince of this world because he's the head of its secular system.
He is both at the head of both aspects of this world, and here we find that Bira comes to Abram.
And he says something. He says give me the persons and take the goods to thyself. He offered Abram the purse with a curse. He offered Abraham the purse. But there was a curse connected with it. And that's exactly what Satan is offering to every believer. He's saying take the world, take as much of it as you want.
But he wants the persons, the souls, and that's what happens. Satan brings souls into the system and they get people so wrapped up in it that you think there would be no deliverance. And how many dear believers not being careful of God's way of overcoming the world, have been drawn into it because of the offers that this world is making to and the devil is making through the of the world to them. And here we find them taking.
Of those things. But what did Abram do?
He refused it, didn't he? It says I have lifted up my hand to the Lord, the Most High God, the possessor of heaven and earth. He was in fellowship with the one who had possession of everything in heaven and everything on earth. He said, what do I need and what you've got to offer. And what became of those things that beer was offering him anyway? Well, you know the story. They were all burnt up in the fire that came down from heaven a couple of chapters later. It was only.
Reserved unto fire anyway. And so Abram, he got the victory that day, someone said he actually got two victories. He had the victory over the kings in the valley, but he had a victory over the seductions of Beira, the king of Sodom. He was able to refuse.
Was offered by the King of Sodom because he realized what he had in his connection with the Most High God. So he says I will not take a thread to a shoe Ledger. That's a strange thing to say.
But he's saying knock down to the even the smallest little thing. But it is significant that he should mention a thread and a shoe legend. What's a shoe latchet? I think it would be like a shoelace for us today. But the shoe, you know, is connected with the wok. And that's one of, that's one of the things that we need to be very, very careful of because this world has a way of saying, well, just take a little bit, you know, just a little string, just something. But it could be something that would could stumble us in our walk in one way or another. And Abram was careful not to even take to a thread or a shoe latchet of those things which Bira was offering.
And he did not want to bring any.
Credibility to beer of the King of Sodom. He wanted to give all the glory to the Most High God, the Lord himself, and so he was able to beat the world if he could put it that way, to get a victory in that sense. And again, it illustrates this point that we have to absolutely be found enjoying something that is higher and better if we're going to get deliverance in God's way from the attractions of this world.
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Now notice what it says in the last verse, save only that which was the young men of Eden, the portion of which was with me, and so on. Einar, Eshkol and Namri, these were young men that helped him in the battle. And it's very interesting to see that Abram didn't didn't legislate what was going to be taken by them. He left those young men with their conscience to be exercised before God as to what they would do in this matter. And so he said for myself.
I'm not going to take a thread to the shoe latchet, but for Rainer, Eskal and Mamrie, I'll leave them before God. They can take if they feel and they can work these things out themselves. And I think that's interesting and instructive for us here this afternoon, because the tendency for us is to see things in a certain way from a principle and immediately legislated across the board for all God's people. And they're not left to really be able to be exercised about the things, these things themselves, the strongest thing that Abraham could have done here for these two.
These three young men was to give them a good example and that's what he did. And I think that's what we need to do for our younger brother and our younger young people is to give them an example of what we know to be true with regard to these things and to make a warning. But we need to really let them to to be exercised about it themselves. You know, I remember reading of a a story long ago that captured my attention.
Way back in the days when there was these slave ships that would take these black slaves from Western Africa and bring them into America across the melantic ocean and Britain was a free land, they were the leading power in the whole world and the British Navy was the most powerful fleet in all the world. The HMS I think they called it, and they had their, I think they called their ships the men of war, Men of war. And they would sail the the oceans and they would very often.
Try to intercept these slave ships that were coming across, delivering these poor slaves to the West Indies and to America. And one of the things they would do is they would set out a chase. And of course the the slave ship would try to hightail it as fast as they could away from the British sailing ships. But those were men of war, were fast, and they would always catch them, and when they did, they would commandeer the ship. They would come on board.
And they would call all the slaves up to the top deck, and they would denounce to them that this is the British flag flying here, and every man that stands on British soil is a freeman.
And he said, all you slaves have to do is to make this step from this ship onto this ship, and you are a freeman.
But what had happened when the slave ship owners realized that they were in danger of being intercepted so many times at high seas that what they did is they had a way of handling that. They kept it away down in the hole, a couple of kegs of Brandy and a few cases of trinkets and fiddle things that the Africans were.
Captured their attention in their mind, as we know was part and parcel of their lifestyle. And when they realized that they were going to be overcome by the British men of war, what they would do is bring those things that they cracked the barrel of Brandy or whiskey, whatever it was, and give it to all the slaves. Get them good and drunk, and then give them all a few trinkets each. And they thought this was great. And so when the British would step on board and announce freedom under the British flag, the first thing that happened was they burst into laughter and thought this was crazy. Why would they want to do that? This was great. They had.
And they were also warned by their slave masters to.
To don't step on there because those people are going to beat you and maybe kill you and so on. And so they listen to the voice of the enemy. They remain captive in the captive ship. And the British could not take them aboard because they refused because of the attractions that were given to them. And you know, Satan is doing exactly that today. He's got more trinkets to attract the heart of man and believers.
Than he's ever had before. There are so many devices and things and it's amazing really. This world is so complicated with its departments that attract, whether it's you know, sports or music or art or politics or religion, you name it. There is part department after department all set up to attract our hearts and Satan is trying to give us his.
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These opiates to get us to believe the lie that we're happy in the things that we have and the trinkets. And I just mentioned that because, you know, we're not exempt from that. Let's not think that only the man in the world is lost in his sins and doesn't know Christ can be tripped up by the trinkets of this world. Let me ask you the question, this question Do you have a trinket in your life?
Do I have a trinket in my life that's attracting my attention? Let me tell you this, If you're exercised about such a thing, I want to tell you you won't be able to get rid of it unless you do it in God's way. If you try to get rid of something out of your life in that sense, it'll come back with vengeance later because of the fact that we're trying to do it by setting it aside, or at least by removing it without replacing it with what God has.
For our hearts. And I just want to emphasize that point here, because very often, and we've all tried it and many of us have failed, that you try to get rid of something, but it isn't long before the thing attracts you. Again, it's because it has not been replaced with Christ as the object. It is so very, very important that we get a hold of that. Let's look at a couple other principles, a couple other examples. I'm thinking now of Isaiah.
Just to show this principle, I want to have a hammer at home, but I want to emphasize it here.
Isaiah Chapter 7 and verse 15. Butter and honey. Shall he eat that he may know to refuse the evil and choose the good. That's the principle that I'm Speaking of here. Butter and honey. Shelly, what is butter and honey? Well, those are the fruits of Canaan, isn't it? And Canaan speaks to herself of the heavenly things that belong to us in Christ. And when we're eating heavenly things, when we're feeding on heavenly things, we're going to have the power to.
Refuse the evil and choose the good. Turn on to Jeremiah 15.
Jeremiah 15.
Verse 16 Thy words were found and I did eat them.
And thy word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart. For I am called by thy name, Oh Lord God, I sat not with the assembly of the mockers, nor rejoice. I sat alone because of the hand and so on. Isn't that interesting? He found the word of God. He took it in, He tasted of it. It was joy and rejoice into his soul. And the next thing we find I sat not with the assembly of the mockers. You see, that principle brought in over and over again. And if we turn over to the 11Th chapter of Luke, just to drive home this point again.
We find.
You know the story there about.
Let's read it. Luke 11, verse 24. The unclean spirit, when it's gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places and seeketh rest. Finding none, he saith I will return to my house whence I came out, and when he cometh he findeth that swept and garnished. But then he goeth and take us to him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there. And the last state of that man is worse than the first. See, there was a vacuum here, and what happened is the thing came back.
Now I know that in Matthew's Gospel where this comes up, it's really Speaking of the history of Israel, the Jews particularly that when they were engrossed in idols and spiritism and so on in the land of Israel, and God came in in judgment and he removed them to Babylon. And when they were released from Babylon, they came back to the land. They did not bring their idols with them, and we cannot accuse them when they came back, even to the time when the Lord Jesus came of the Jews in the land of Israel being marked by idolatry.
Idolatry remained out of their hands.
At that time when they had come back, and for those 400 years, even to the time of Christ, but they did not replace it with what God would have them to replace it, and that is Christ or the Lord himself. And then when he came and presented himself, they rejected him and would not have him. And he warned them that because the house is empty, swept and garnished, it is a house that is going to receive the the demons and the spirit worship, and so on 7 times worse. And we know it from Matthew's Gospel again, as it teaches the dispensational side of things, that there is a time coming.
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When the Jews are going to receive Antichrist and the land is going to be filled with that, and they're going to be 7 times more powerful. But in Luke's gospel, he takes up these things not with the dispensationalist aspect of things, but the moral lesson behind it. That's my point here. The moral lesson behind it and the moral lesson is if we try to get rid of those things that are not right and we put them out, but they're not replaced with Christ before the soul, there's a tremendous danger of having a vacuum. And when there's a vacuum in the Christian life.
There's the danger of these things flooding back in and seven times worse. And so I'm just emphasizing this point here this afternoon. Let us be careful that we take up with the God's way of deliverance from the power and attractions of this world by having Christ, the Son of God, the center of our attention, and tasting those things, the butter and the honey, so to speak, and the joy and the rejoicing, then the world.
Its attractions lose their power.
That's God's way of deliverance.
I'm not sure what time it is. Does that say 2:45?
Is it?
Thank you. Now for the next few minutes, let's look at God's way of victory with regard to.
Satan the Devil.
Turned back with me to 1St John where we get the abstract principle again and then we'll see an illustration of it elsewhere.
First John Chapter 2.
Verse 14 I have written unto you, fathers, because you have known him, which is that is from the beginning. I have written unto you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the wicked one. I still just a lot of words that I'm thinking of overcomes the same word as got the victory.
He's now Speaking of the young men. They had victory over the wicked one. That's Satan himself and how it was because the word of God abided in them. There was abiding in them.
I didn't say because the word, you know, the word of God or you can quote the word of God, but because the word of God abideth in you, that brings before us the thought of the word of God actually taking having a place in the person's life, the believer's life, in the sense of being an integral part of us being. And I think that if we receive the word of God, we learn the truth of God and it becomes part of our life, a part of us it is going to give us.
The wisdom that we need with regard to the various overtures of the wicked one, who is seeking all He can to do to take us out of the path he wants to present something to us.
That looks plausible. That looks very tempting. But behind it, it is to take us out of the path of faith. And as we know, he often uses the things of this world. That's why it goes on to speak about loving, not the world.
I don't think there's a better illustration of that in the life of the Lord Jesus himself, so let's turn to Luke chapter 4 for a few verses.
Luke's Gospel, chapter four. We have the temptation of the Lord Jesus, the 1St 13 verses, and you all know that there are three temptations. One was in the area of natural needs, the other is in the area of worldly possessions and glory, and the third was in their area of religious advancement.
And these are three areas that Satan particularly likes to bring people, or at least to deceive people and lead them into.
Out of the path of doing the will of God. And these three temptations, as we've all heard many, many times, were met by the Lord in perfection.
With the Word of God. With the Word of God, he came each time.
And each one of these things was the Lord had an answer for the situation, as to whether he should accept the suggestions of the enemy of our souls. Or should he? What should he do? And it was always given to him in the word of God. He had the word of God abiding in him. Now it says in Psalm 119, I believe it is thy word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee? And the Lord Jesus perfectly illustrated that, exemplified that.
You know Brother Bob was mentioning what did the Lord do through those 18 years in his life that we have no mention of really in Scripture? Well, there's one thing I can tell you, and that is in verse 16.
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He came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up to read. Notice what it says that his custom was. So now we know something. Anyway, what he was doing, he was taking a regular attendance to the meeting place in the land, because the synagogue is a meeting place. And he was handling the scriptures and reading the scriptures. And as I say from Psalm 119, he was storing that in his soul as he grew as a young man and through his life until he could say thy word, have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee.
And when these situations arose, he had the right scripture for the situation that gave him to know the will of God. And I believe that is illustrated here for us. You know, this temptations are mentioned in Matthew's Gospel as well, but it's a little different there in Luke. He set before us as a dependent man. He set before us as the one who would be our example. And the way in which the Lord met these, these temptations of the enemy, are what we are way we're to meet these things.
And the enemy is very, very subtle. And the while of the devil is just simply something that means that.
It looks fair and good, but behind it we are deceived, and the enemy of our soul wants to take us from doing the path, doing the will of God and the path of faith out of that path so he can dishonor the Lord Jesus. We're looking at this very carefully. You find, first of all, as I say, temptation in the area of natural needs, being verse two, being tempted 40 days of the devil. And in those days he did eat nothing, and when they were ended, he afterward hungered.
And the devil said unto him, If thou be the Son of God, command this stone, that it should be made bread. And Jesus answered him, and saying, it is written that man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God. I think this is instructive for us here. We all have needs. The Lord Jesus had needs, physical needs, natural needs. And we find that the enemy here comes in in A2 fold way. First of all he questions whether he's the Son of God, and then he suggests that he make a step outside of the will of God.
To complete what he needed for his natural needs. And he's doing the same thing with us. He's doing all he can to suggest these things. Isn't this interesting? Just prior to this, at the baptism of the Lord Jesus in the third chapter, heaven opens and God says thou art my beloved son. Next thing that happens is a long genealogy. And the next thing that happens, really, we come to chapter 4, which I've just read.
And he Satan comes and says, if you're the son of God, God says, thou art my son, He says, Well, if you're the son, if you're the son, he would look after you an awful lot better than what he's doing. Why, he hasn't even provided food for you.
I suggest that you make a step.
To satisfy that need.
After all, God doesn't want people to hunger to starve. He's a good God.
And of course the Lord had the answer. The answer was that man should not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. You know, men naturally speaking, are more interested in what goes in our mouth than what comes out of God's mouth. But we need to put God's claims 1St. And that gave the Lord the answer to this situation.
He didn't exactly quote the Scripture as some sort of a charm to ward off the power of the devil, but rather it gave him light for and wisdom for the path in which he was.
Faced with here and he realized that that of course or understood being the Son of God as he is, that he would never take that step. Being perfect as he was, he would never take that step. But has the devil not come and tempted us in that way?
He said, you know you have natural needs, you're a normal person that has needs. And you know if he would like to lodge a doubt in our hearts as to the goodness of God and that he's not really looking after us as he promised in his word, after all He would provide this or that natural need, something that we are maybe praying about and we would like to have. And it's not wrong from scripture and we find that God is not granted that at the time that we would like to see it.
And Satan comes along at times when there are these kinds of tests that come in our life circumstances where we're really tried as to our faith. And he comes along right at that time and says, well, you know, and he launches a dog in our hearts.
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A little suggestion that maybe God isn't looking after us as His word promises, and then suggests that we take a step that's outside His word, outside of His will. Well, what is going to give us deliverance from this is the word of God and we need to have it abiding in US. And so it means that we need to not only know the word of God, but we need to be guided by the word of God. And that takes some time along with God to learn the scriptures. As I was saying, the Lord hid the Word in His heart.
You know you're not going to be getting deliverance in this way if you're not a person that opens your Bible. The Christian that neglects his Bible is not going to know the principles of God's word. And when some suggestions are, some temptation comes along to take this step or that step in your Christian life, you may be ignorant as to these principles. And so it sounds good to me. And you make a step and you get let out of the path. And how many Christians have been misguided because a lack of understanding of principle in the word of God? So I want to enjoin everyone of us.
Learn the scriptures, hide the principles of the word of God in your soul so that you're able to meet these these deceptive suggestions that will come our way. Moving right along here, because we don't have much more time, we find that the next temptations in connection with worldly possessions and glory. He takes the Lord up to the top of the mountain and in a moment of time shows you how pitiful and how.
Thin the things of this world is, he could show it all to him in a moment of time.
And he tells him that he would give it all to him if he would just bow down to him. And it's interesting here to see in these verses here, verses 6 through 8, we won't read them because we're short for time that the Lord answered the situation again with the word of God. Now it says here in verse 8, get thee behind me, Satan. But you know, if you check the more critical translation that's not found in there.
If you correct the critical translation of Darby, it's not found in there, it's not in the text. And the reason for it is because the Lord has set before us as a dependent man as an example for us, and we won't have that kind of divine power to to dismiss Satan from our presence. And so we find that he beats the devil's temptation not by using his divine power, but by obedience to the word of God and knowing the word of God for the situation. I'm not saying he didn't say get thee behind the Satan because you go over to Matthew and there it's found, but he's found, there is the king who has the authority to.
Addressed the devil in that way, but in Luke's Gospel it's not found. As I say, it's an example for us.
And so he beat the devil as far as this demonstration was concerned, by the word of God, not by his divine power dismissing him. And so the temptation here, and it was very insidious. Each one of these are far more insidious than we realized. We find here that what he was saying was, I know that God has promised to you the kingdoms of this world that you can have. And he says you don't have to go to the cross and suffer for all that. I'll give it to you now if you just compromise and bow down to me.
You don't have to go to the cross and you can have it all now. And that's a real temptation that Satan is presenting before us in this world. He really is. He's saying, you know, you don't have to wait God's time for things in this world. You can have it now. It's a real habit now. Society and many people are taking these suggestions, compromising principles in their life to have things that God is not given to them in their life at such a time because they want it. Now let us be aware of this.
He met this by the word of God, again reading from the book of Deuteronomy, which is the guide for the child of God in the land.
Of Canaan, which is where the Lord was. He said thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou worship. He wasn't saying to Satan that you should worship God. God does not want the worship of Satan. He's saying that the word of God guiding a child of God is he should worship only the Lord God. Well then he couldn't worship Satan. He was only to worship God. So he got light and wisdom from the scripture here that told him that he should not be bowing to Satan and again he was delivered.
Now the next temptation we find Satan is a wily foe and we find here that he notices something. He says he cooled the scripture on the first one and that delivered him. He quoted the scripture in the second time and that delivered him. He's as much as said, I know what to do. I'll bring the scripture before him that'll do it. And so in the next temptation, which is in the area of religious advancement, he brings the word of God.
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Into the picture himself. He even quotes a scripture from the Bible to tell the Lord to make this false step. How insidious was this? But you know, he misquoted the scripture. He left out a part of it, you know, with regard to his feet falling at all times because he was suggesting or at least hoping that he would fall at this time. And so how careful we have to be when someone said Satan is never so Satanic.
Than when he has the word of God open in his hand. And that's an interesting statement. Satan is never so Satanic than when he has the scripture in hand. And I believe that Satan's greatest weapon is the scriptures misused scriptures. He has time and time again taken the word of God and caused the children of God to go the wrong direction when they heard the word of God.
How many Christians there are have been misled by some charlatans, some false teacher who has brought something from the word of God before them? And the enemy of their souls has LED them out of the path because they have misunderstandings. The description. Let me give you an example. I know a young man. You haven't seen him for years, but anyway he left the gathered Saints. He went amongst those who hold covenant theology. And when his explanation was, or at least his, his response was in talking to some of the younger brothers who reported it to me, he said, why they have a verse for everything?
Yeah, well, Satan has a verse for things too. But is it the right verse? The JW's have a verse for everything. Does that mean that it's the right path to take? No. This verse was greatly taken out of its context that Satan brought before the Lord Jesus. And you can see the insidious thing behind this temptation. It's time to close. And that is that he was to take him to the top of the temple, the pinnacle of the temple there, and he was suggesting that he jumped down and the angels would just give him.
Help him down. He could just float down into the middle of them, you say. Why would he tell him to do that? Well, what was behind it, you see, was this. The Lord had come to present himself as the Messiah of Israel. He wanted his people dearly to receive them. And you can understand that. And what is a tremendous disappointment to them when they rejected him, that's when he said, Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight and so on. And so he dearly desired that the people were receiving his Messiah. And so Satan says, well, I'll tell you how you can do it.
Show off a little. Just get up to the pinnacle of the temple and jump down, you know, and you'll float right down into the midst, and they'll see who you are. You can tell them I'm the Messiah, they'll say, Oh yes, and they'll receive you.
But it wasn't the will of God, no? And what would it produce in them? God would. The Lord would never take the Kingdom in that way as be reigned as their Messiah, because there was no faith involved. Remember in John Six, they wanted to receive him as a king.
And he wouldn't have it because there was number faith involved. And so the enemy is very, very subtle. And especially so in the realm of religious things. We have to be very careful. And his he uses the word of God.
I know I've gone overtime and I'm very sorry. I'll just bow my head down, pray.