Discipleship (Luke 17:1-10)

by | Nov 4, 2018

Luke 17:1-10

1

Then said he unto the disciples, It is impossible but that offences will come: but woe unto him, through whom they come!

2

It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he cast into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones.

3

Take heed to yourselves: If thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him; and if he repent, forgive him.

4

And if he trespass against thee seven times in a day, and seven times in a day turn again to thee, saying, I repent; thou shalt forgive him.

5

And the apostles said unto the Lord, Increase our faith.

6

 And the Lord said, If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye might say unto this sycamine tree, Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea; and it should obey you.

7

But which of you, having a servant plowing or feeding cattle, will say unto him by and by, when he is come from the field, Go and sit down to meat?

8

And will not rather say unto him, Make ready wherewith I may sup, and gird thyself, and serve me, till I have eaten and drunken; and afterward thou shalt eat and drink?

9

Doth he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded him? I trow not.
 

10

So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do.
There are four things I want you to look for. One is some teachings of Jesus about what true disciples are really like. In times past, we’ve talked a good bit about discipleship from the gospel of Luke. We’ve had several messages about discipleship and then there were some interruptions in what Jesus was teaching by Pharisees and others and now in chapter 17 he is back on that great subject showing the tremendous characteristics of a true disciple.
He is going to teach a word about offending others or offenses.
He is going to speak a word about forgiveness when people trespass against us.
He is going to say a word about living faith, to be able to do this.
And then, humble service.
Those are the four things that I want to talk about tonight. These are the characteristics of a real disciple of Jesus Christ.
 
First of all, the characteristic of a true disciple is that he endeavors with all of his heart to have a good positive influence on other people, especially young converts. Jesus says it is impossible to keep from having offenses to come. We live in a world of human beings and as a result of that regardless of whether we are mature Christians or not, regardless of our spiritual journey and experience, sometimes we may make a mistake and offend somebody very seriously. He says woe be to that person from whom the offense really comes. Especially if this offense if one against one of the Lords’s little ones, meaning a new convert – someone who is just beginning in his walk with Jesus Christ and suddenly somebody has an offense toward that person that really causes hurt. Now I’m sure that everyone of us at some time or another in our life have had real hurt come from someone who is very close to us in the church; a brother or a sister, and it hurts so terribly bad. If somebody from the outside would do the same thing, we would probably shrug it off and just say well that doesn’t matter. But when it’s an offense that comes from a brother or a sister it hurts worse because it is a sin against love, the love of God. It brings into account not only our hurt feelings, but it brings to bear the grieving of the Holy Spirit when an offense has been made. When that grief of the Holy Spirit is united with our own hurt within, then that is a grievous kind of experience for sure. He is saying to us as true disciples to be very careful about this, about offending. We know that offenses will come. You can’t expect to live a totally perfect life and never make a mistake and never hurt anybody’s feelings. I have done that, even in the pulpit hurt people’s feelings. Sometimes, I realized it immediately because of the witness of the Spirit and the grieving of the Holy Spirit.
He said it would be better for a person if he had a millstone hanged about his neck and cast into the sea, meaning you can’t swim. It would be better than for you to offend somebody. This word ‘offense’ has to do with that same word we’ve seen in Scripture time and time again called ‘stumblingblock,’ to cause that person to stumble and fall and go into sin. Now if something happens a young convert to stumble and fall and go into sin and then maybe even be lost, what a tragedy that really is. That’s the reason Jesus gives such a solemn warning to us and says the kind of judgment a person deserves that does that is to just be eliminated and put out of the way completely so that he would not do that anymore. Jesus is talking with such language and such strong terms so we will take it seriously, not to offend anyone of our brothers and sisters, and especially a young convert – one of His little ones.
Instead, He wants us to be a positive and loving influence on others, setting an example that gives encouragement. Setting an example that gives stability. If it’s anything that new converts need to see, they need to see the real genuine Christian life, Spirit-filled life modeled after Jesus Christ. They need to see that so they can look with confidence and say there is a genuine reality to a Christian and his faith in Christ and his following the Lord, that is a serious thing in this world to follow after Jesus and model the life of a Christian.
I remember in my childhood and when I surrendered to the Lord, people I know and I can recall them and their stability and their faith and their faithfulness and their kindness. I remember pastors, some who have already died and gone on to their reward in Mississippi who had such a positive influence on my life when I was trying to get started to preach. I remember the ones who gave me opportunity to preach when nobody else dared risk a 17 year old boy in the pulpit. You never forget people like that. You never forget people who reach out to you in love and show confidence in you. They say I’m praying for you and you’re going to be alright, and God is going to help you. You never forget people who have a positive influence on your life to help establish you in the faith and in following Jesus Christ.
So here is the first mark of a true disciple of Christ. He endeavors with all his heart to have a strong positive influence on others and especially the little ones of the Lord.
 
Then, Jesus just turns the thing over and He says I’m talking to you about not offending a little one, but what about if you are the one who gets offended? If your brother offends you, now that takes on more talk. I’ve heard people talk and apologize and say if I hurt you well so and so and you knew they weren’t serious about making things right. But when you are the one who is offended, he says there are a couple of things you need to do. In the first place, you need to go to that person and rebuke him. That takes  nerve. You don’t know when you are going to start a fight. That takes courage and strength. But this is the teaching of Jesus. Go to the person and let him know that he has offended you, that he has hurt you. That’s the first responsibility of a real disciple. Go to him and rebuke him. It doesn’t mean “bless him out” and I’m using the word bless advisedly instead of some other word. It doesn’t mean that you lower the boom on him, but you tell him Look, here is something you may not be aware of, but it hurt me and it offended me and I’d just like you to be aware of it.
So here is the first mark of a true disciple of Christ. He endeavors with all his heart to have a strong positive influence on others and especially the little ones of the Lord.
 
Then, Jesus just turns the thing over and He says I’m talking to you about not offending a little one, but what about if you are the one who gets offended? If your brother offends you, now that takes on more talk. I’ve heard people talk and apologize and say if I hurt you well so and so and you knew they weren’t serious about making things right. But when you are the one who is offended, he says there are a couple of things you need to do. In the first place, you need to go to that person and rebuke him. That takes  nerve. You don’t know when you are going to start a fight. That takes courage and strength. But this is the teaching of Jesus. Go to the person and let him know that he has offended you, that he has hurt you. That’s the first responsibility of a real disciple. Go to him and rebuke him. It doesn’t mean “bless him out” and I’m using the word bless advisedly instead of some other word. It doesn’t mean that you lower the boom on him, but you tell him Look, here is something you may not be aware of, but it hurt me and it offended me and I’d just like you to be aware of it.
Then He said if he repents, forgive him. Now I don’t know if I’ve seen these conditions laid out anywhere else in the Scripture. Usually we’re just taught to forgive everybody for whatever they do and just mark it off and whether the come and repent and ask for forgiveness or not. But Jesus makes this real clear. He said if he repents, if he says I’m sorry and I want you to forgive me, then forgive him. I don’t think any of us would have a problem forgiving somebody who comes and says I was wrong, I did you wrong, I hurt you and I want you to forgive me. Jesus says here you go talk to the person and if he repents, if he is real sincere and honest about his apology and repentance, then forgive him.
 
He said you need to be prepared to go further than that. Here’s where the line gets pretty thin about what a real Christian really is. He said even if your brother does this seven times in one day, but each time he comes back, seven times and says ‘I repent. Will you forgive me?’ You are to forgive him. What He is saying here is that a true disciple lives in an attitude that he wants to be forgiven and he wants to forgive and he does not want anything, any grudge or hurt feelings in his own heart between him or anybody. He lives with a determination in his mind that he is not going to allow hurts to be bottled up within me and close up the avenue of the Holy Spirit and the love of God coming into my own heart.
 
A grudge, a hurt can absolutely block the flow of the love of God and the Holy Spirit into your own heart. In fact, when Jesus taught us to pray forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors, then He comes back at the end of the Lord’s Prayer, that’s the only one that he elaborates on and discusses further. He says for if you forgive not men their trespasses, then you don’t get forgiveness from your Father which is in heaven. That is stronger language. It is still in Luke and it is in the other gospels as well. Here he is teaching the disciples to live in an atmosphere that you hold nothing in your heart that would hurt you and block you from receiving God’s best. Because after all, that’s where the damage really comes.
 
I think the way most of us probably feel if somebody did you wrong seven times in one day, about the seventh time you would begin to question whether or not his repentance was really sincere. Jesus puts that in the condition. If he really repents, then forgive him. You see, offending somebody else is one thing, but being offended by somebody else, that is another thing. Jesus brings up two sides of the same thing to teach us what a real Christian is supposed to do and how he is supposed to live. He is supposed to forgive a repentant brother.
 
Now if the brother doesn’t repent, if he never says I’m sorry, if he never says I’ve done you wrong, then according to this passage you are not under obligation to worry all that much about forgiveness. You just leave it up to that person.
 
I mentioned last week that when you come right down to the fact that you are faced with your own mortality and you think you might die, you tend to do some soul searching and praying perhaps a little deeper than you have done in a while. Wouldn’t it be nice if we didn’t have to wait til we are weak and in the bed sick and maybe facing serious affliction or even death to have to smooth things out? Jesus is showing us the way here.
 
As I mentioned earlier, it might have seemed to the apostles that this was a little much that Jesus was asking so they said Lord, we’re going to need more faith if we’re going to live this way, so Lord, increase our faith. Jesus answered them in a round about way and said it is not more faith you need. It is the right kind of faith, even a little bit, you don’t need a whole lot of faith, you just need the kind of faith that is alive that has life in it like a grain of mustard seed. He said it can start out so very, very small and it can grow and grow and grow. He talked about it in another place. The tiny mustard seed can produce a large plant with big leaves so that even the birds can come an find a place to roost on this plant. That is the way faith grows if it is a living faith, if it’s got life in it. Somehow each seed has life in it. When it is connected in the soil and with moisture, it sprouts and comes forth. It comes alive and produces a plant that also reproduced. It grows and grows. He said that’s what you need. You don’t need Me to increase and give you great mountains of faith. You just need a little faith as a grain of mustard seed that has life in it.
 
I read a story the other day that took place in Italy about a man who was an atheist. He said they talk about resurrection coming, the resurrection of the dead. But I’m going to get ahead of them so he ordered a huge boulder, several tons of marble block. He said I want that put on my grave after I’m buried and I won’t be coming out of there for any resurrection. But before they got the stone in place, a bird flew by and dropped an acorn. They just happen to put that stone right over where there was a little crack with the acorn in it. It reproduced. It came to life and started growing an oak tree. In a few years, that who huge marble stone was split open with a tree growing up the middle of it. I think this illustration is of what faith can do, how it can grow and burst open a whole huge weight of some sort that stands in our way. He said you could even say to a sycamore tree or mulberry tree if you had this kind of faith that has life in it so that it grows, you could say to a tree to be uprooted and cast into the sea and it would be gone. It would obey you.
 
I wish we knew how to cultivate living faith and allow it to live and grow. I know that one way faith grows is by hearing the word of God. Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. I know faith grows when we hear testimonies of answered prayer. I know faith grows when we hear people give testimony of the provision and power and presence of God and His protection and all the wonderful things He does. Faith grows. So living faith builds on the word and it grows and it solves problems. He said that is the kind of faith you need. Not for Me to pile more faith on you, that is not the way it comes. It comes by having a mustard seed-like living faith and allowing it to grow in the soil of God’s Word and His holy presence. After a while it solves problems because it grows.
 
Lord, give us living faith!
 
Finally, the last thing He talks about here is humble service. He said you know when a person has a servant, he has contracted with that person to work for him for a set price. That servant goes and he labors in the field with the cattle or whatever, When he comes in, the master of that servant doesn’t run out and make on all over him real big and say come on in and sit down and eat and be fed. No, he just recognizes that the person serves according to his contract and you don’t heap upon him a great amount of praise just for doing what he has agreed to do and what he is supposed to do. He said Now you take this to heart for yourselves. Here is where you really look deep inside and understand about humble service. There are things that we are just supposed to do because we are disciples of Christ, because we are children of God. There are things that we are just supposed to live. It becomes part of our life and our contract and our contract with the Lord, following Him. We don’t need to try to make on any big deal or any praise or honor or glory just for living the Christian life. I know it’s nice to be recognized and be honored and all that for things that we do, sure. I think it is nice once in a while to be honored for whatever ministry you have and whatever function you have in the church. I think that is alright, but He is saying your service to God and service to other people, living in an attitude of positive influence on others, you don’t need big credit and honor for that like the Pharisees are always wanting to get. If you live with an attitude of forgiveness toward others, you don’t need to have great publicity about this and say Look what a great child of God this is because they have forgiven. No, this is just common, ordinary things that come out of the Christian life. Don’t make a big deal about it. I would say to you indeed, the Lord Himself is the one who keeps the record on all that we say and all that we do. He is the one who decides the rewards and what they will be when we come down to the end of our journey.
 
Let me encourage you tonight, if you have served God faithfully and you have not received recognition that you thought you should have, remember, that is just part of your lifestyle as a Christian to do what you know to do and serve the Lord and serve the church and other people in a spirit of humility and love and let God continue to work through you , knowing full well that the Lord Jesus Christ Himself is the one who keeps the record. One day He will say well done, thou good and faithful servant.
 
I remember once after I had left southern Illinois as pastor at West Frankfurt, they called me and told me about Brother Ernest Hammers who had died. He was the janitor, custodian. He did his work so well. You never had to worry if the church was open, lights on, church heated in winter or cooled in the summer. He did it. He took care of everything. You never had to worry if the kids sat on the back seat and wrote paper notes and then tore them all to pieces and scattered gum wrappers and papers all over the floor. He didn’t come fussing and whining at the pastor saying I wish somebody would straighten these kids out. He just cleaned it up with a smile and went on. They called me at his death to come preach his funeral. I immediately prayed and ask the Lord to guide me in what I should say at his funeral. Immediately, the Holy Spirit brought to my attention that part of the verse I just quoted to you where Jesus would say ‘Well done, thou good and faithful servant.’ I talked about those four things. What he did for God and the church was well done. He was a good man. He was a faithful man. He was a servant and the Lord would say to him, ‘Welcome. Enter in to the joys of the Lord.’
 
When we have a positive influence on others and serve in humility, the Lord will remember the reward. When we are forgiving of a repentant brother or sister, the Lord will remember that kind of life. When we have a faith that is alive that grows, the Lord will remember that and understand it. When we serve in humility, one day we too will hear Him say ‘Well done, thou good and faithful servant.’ He said you should take the attitude that you are an unprofitable servant and you are not due any special reward. But you know our Lord Jesus is not like that because He bestows rewards upon people who have been obedient to Him.
Please stand together for prayer.

Devotions

Power Of God

g

JRadio

Listen Live

Need Prayer?

Shout Jesus Saves

Youtube

Click here to visit the Shout Jesus Saves Youtube

 

Vimeo

Click here to visit the Shout Jesus Saves Vimeo

 

Network Sites

Jesussaves.cc

Global prayer Network

faith library

Deliverance From Demon Possession (Luke 8:26-39)

by | Nov 4, 2018

Luke 8:26-39

26

 And they arrived at the country of the Gadarenes, which is over against Galilee.

27

And when he went forth to land, there met him out of the city a certain man, which had devils long time, and ware no clothes, neither abode in any house, but in the tombs.

28

When he saw Jesus, he cried out, and fell down before him, and with a loud voice said, What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God most high? I beseech thee, torment me not.

29

(For he had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. For oftentimes it had caught him: and he was kept bound with chains and in fetters; and he brake the bands, and was driven of the devil into the wilderness.)

30

And Jesus asked him, saying, What is thy name? And he said, Legion: because many devils were entered into him.

31

 And they besought him that he would not command them to go out into the deep.

32

 And there was there an herd of many swine feeding on the mountain: and they besought him that he would suffer them to enter into them. And he suffered them.

33

 Then went the devils out of the man, and entered into the swine: and the herd ran violently down a steep place into the lake, and were choked.

34

 When they that fed them saw what was done, they fled, and went and told it in the city and in the country.

35

Then they went out to see what was done; and came to Jesus, and found the man, out of whom the devils were departed, sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed, and in his right mind: and they were afraid.

36

They also which saw it told them by what means he that was possessed of the devils was healed.

37

 Then the whole multitude of the country of the Gadarenes round about besought him to depart from them; for they were taken with great fear: and he went up into the ship, and returned back again.

38

Now the man out of whom the devils were departed besought him that he might be with him: but Jesus sent him away, saying,

39

Return to thine own house, and shew how great things God hath done unto thee. And he went his way, and published throughout the whole city how great things Jesus had done unto him. 

This is a very familiar story to most of us. It is the story of the deliverance of the demoniac from Gadara. In our studies in the gospel of Luke already we have looked at this whole thing of demon possession, especially as we talked about the man in the synagogue that Jesus delivered and healed. We talked about the characteristics of demon possession, how the evil spirit controls the person, how he is able to speak through that person. We are talking about real, genuine demon possession, not just some kind of oppression or some other thing. How he is able to control to a great extent the individual person whom he possesses, and how the evil spirit is disturbed, tremendously disturbed when his conqueror draws near. He usually puts up a fight and makes a scene, creates a scene that will bring on a show-down. He attempts to use the conqueror’s name and he seems to know his identity and he cries out his name in an attempt to strike up a conversation with the conqueror and gain some kind of advantage. But as we know in the case of Jesus and the apostles and others, the evil spirit has to be quiet. He is quieted. Then he has to come out and he is spoken to directly and the evil spirit must come out. Oftentimes the person is torn and convulsed when that takes place, but the evil spirit must come out no matter how much he resists. And then, such a change takes place in the life of the individual who has been set free and all the people are amazed as they see the miraculous power of God at work against the forces of evil.
 
This story has all those characteristics because Jesus and His disciples are going across the lake and they come to this place of Gadara and on the way there is a great storm that strikes down upon them. It is a perilous time and the disciples are sorely afraid and they wake Jesus up and He rebukes the winds and said, “Peace.” Then He tells the sea, “Be still.” And there is a great calm. I imagine that this demoniac was a witness to that great storm that was taking place out there on the sea. I imagine he saw and he may have been delighted as he saw the storm and the winds and the clouds and the darkness. But when he suddenly saw it vanish and a great calm, I imagine he was greatly impressed so that by the time the boat was touching the edge of the land, he was there running and falling down, whether in pretense or whatever way, before Jesus because he seemed to recognize Him.
 
What I want us to see tonight as we look at this story is the vivid contrast between a life that is bound by Satan and then that life that is loosed and set free from the power of Satan; such ugliness that is suddenly turned into such beauty. It takes the transforming power of God to do that kind of thing.
 
Let’s look first of all at the description of this man’s life as he is bound by the power of Satan. Then look at the power of Jesus Christ who is Master of every situation. I remember hearing Brother Wade Horton preach about an hour and a half about four stories, these miracle stories that are put right back-to-back here: the storm on the sea, this man here, the healing of the woman with the issue of blood and then the healing of Jairus’ daughter. He talked about Christ, the Master in every situation; the Master of disorder of the storm, the Master of demons, the Master of disease, and the Master of death. He preached the whole thing at once.
 
Our witness to people who are bound in sin is enough to burden our hearts as we just see people who are simply not born again and they are unsaved and our hearts start reaching out to them because we consider them to be lost. I don’t know if we have had a great amount of experience with people who are not only lost, but for some reason in some way, the door of their life has been opened to receive unwelcome visitors, evil spirits that have come in and taken up abode in their lives and literally taken control. I know that there are a lot of ways that people open the doors to the demonic. I would think drugs and alcohol and many other things and constantly giving place to the devil would allow entrance of evil spirits to come in. And then to live in a place like this man lived where there was a lot of pagan religion, in this section in particular. All around Palestine, centuries and centuries of pagan religions where people worshipped the devil, and in those situations, there is a great amount of demon possession. Our missionaries tell us constantly of conditions that they face in different countries and I know that certainly one of those places where there is a great amount of demonic activity is Haiti, where our pastor served for a long time. I don’t know if we here in America, and so-called ‘Christian America’ have seen a great deal of it because we usually don’t see examples of it coming around the Church of God in North Cleveland or a lot of other places. But I think we need to be warned and we probably already are really warned and are praying about it, that the rise of Satan worship in our land is startling. It is just astonishing the activity that is going on now and it may call on all of us to stand our grand and stand on the Word and be filled with the Spirit as we face the challenges of demonic powers that come against us in these last days. But I’m glad, indeed, as Brother Horton preached, that Christ Jesus is the Master in every and all situations when it comes to the power of Satan. Can you say Amen! And He certainly was in this case.
Let’s look at this man and a description of him for just a minute. First of all, because of the influence of Satanic power controlling his life, he was a social and moral misfit, perverted. He went around naked. He wouldn’t live in his own house. He lived among the tombs out in the night. He rambled, crying out. He was an incurable kind of man because they had attempted all kinds of things to take care of this man. They had locked him away, bound him with chains and fetters. But somehow I want to tell you, there are no natural means for the taming of a person who is under the influence of Satan. Medication won’t do it. I’ve heard people talk about trying to rebuke demons if you had a headache. Well, a demon might be able to cause you to have a headache, I don’t know. But if you do, well, a couple of aspirin will handle it. You don’t usually handle demons with aspirin.
 
Natural means of trying to help this man, there wasn’t any psychologist who ever cornered this man and said, “Now we’ve got to talk about this.” He never had the chance. He never had the opportunity to try to straighten him out. The Bible says no man could tame him. Evidently, people had tried. He was an incurable, hopeless case. I’ve worked with some cases in my ministry that seemed incurable and hopeless as people were bound by the power of sin, alcohol or some other thing, drugs perhaps. And sometimes the warfare grows long and hard and you grow weary of trying to re-do or re-capture the same ground that you seemed to capture a week ago and somehow it doesn’t stick. It doesn’t stand. I’ve known also the joy of seeing people who are ultimately and finally and gloriously delivered and oh! What a victory and a joy that was when the real deliverance comes.
 
This man was also self-destructive. When you start to think about how Satan does and what he attempts to do, he can only torment and aggravate and trouble. He wants people to self-destruct. He wants to take them out of their right mind as this man, and they cannot think clearly. Values that maybe one time they knew and held dear, this man may have had great values in times past, but they are gone now. He is not in his right mind and he is calling out and he is cutting himself.
 
One of the characteristics of this man and of demon possession is the great fear of the presence and power of Jesus Christ. I’ve known people who would stay away from church because of the convicting power of God when it came down, and the presence of the Lord. They got afraid. They knew if they stayed, they would find themselves rejecting God and they were afraid to keep on rejecting God. So a lot of people just didn’t come to church. But there are some people who have that much respect for the presence of God and the prayers of the saints and the true worship of the church that they would rather stay away than be confronted with Jesus Christ and have to again and again have to walk away. This man, the evil spirits within him were fearful because he came running up to Jesus and said, “Don’t torment me.” You see, the things that are good and beautiful and right turn out to be torment for someone who is under the control of Satan. We see it manifested in so many ways. The kind of music that Satan likes would drive you and me up the wall. The kind of music and singing we like would drive him up the wall, so to speak. You take singing of gospel songs, especially about the blood of Jesus Christ, would drive the devil crazy if he had to listen to it. He just takes off. He can’t stand it. In Pentecost, we do a lot of things, but one thing we’ve always done is sing the power of God down. Some people kind of fuss at you in saying it like that, but you can. You can sing the power of God down because when people praise God with the anointing of the Holy Spirit, Jesus said, “I am dwelling there in the praises of my people.” When you praise him in music and singing, He is there! He comes there in a very special way. It drives the devil crazy. Or even somebody like David strumming a harp out on the hillside could drive the devil away from King Saul. I don’t know what he was singing, but just strumming the harp and singing some beautiful song caused the evil spirit to take its flight. He couldn’t stand it. What the Christian thinks is music and harmony and beauty, Satan can’t stand. He likes discord and dissonance and weird sounds that have been distorted and racket and noise. Satan has a way of tearing things down. He has a way of getting in and wanting to control things and certainly control people who want to possess things, and use them…use them.
 
When he uses people it is for destruction and for their own destruction. It is to cause them to be abnormal and pervert the truth and pervert the right way. When Jesus uses you, it is for your good and for the good of many others. So we are glad to sing “Jesus use me, and Lord don’t refuse me,” because when He uses you, He is working something beautiful and wonderful through your life and blessing you and helping you to be a blessing. But not so with Satan, as we can see in this description of this man who was bound.
 
I want us to look at him after he is delivered. I can think back in my memory now of people who have turned to God. The beautiful things that happened to them when they became delivered and they were free. I can think of people who were bound by drink. I can think of people who were bound by all kinds of things and what a life, what a beautiful life! We used to sing a lot the song “He made something beautiful of my life.” That’s what Jesus does. He moves right in where there has been destruction. Right in to the burn-out lies where there is nothing but ashes left, so to speak, and yet, from out of that He can raise up new life that is beautiful and wonderful. He has that power. Thank God, He has that power!
 
So He commands the evil spirits to come out. This is one of those occasions where Jesus allowed them to speak. They said, “Don’t send us away into the deep.” Now that gives you some kind of insight as to what probably happens in casting out devils. That perhaps they need to be consigned to hell or sent to the deep or something because that is what they seem to fear. He said, “Don’t send us,” and Jesus allowed them to go into a herd of swine. Now, I’ve never been able to figure that out. I’ve just had to guess and your interpretation is as good as anybody’s on that and I’d be glad to hear it. You sort of have to guess as to why Jesus allowed that to happen. It seems to me that the most logical answer is that He wanted us to understand that grunting, rooting, earthy pigs  wouldn’t put up with what a lot of people would. Because when the evil spirit came into them, they took off for the water right away and they were drowned. They would rather die. They would rather run into the sea than to be controlled or governed by an evil spirit.
 
But then, look back at the man. Let’s look at his description of a man who’s been delivered from the power of Satan. The legion, the thousands of the evil spirits are gone! What is it like to be bound for a long time? That’s what the Bible says. He had had these devils for a long time. What is it like to suddenly feel brand new and light as a feather and the weight of all the confusion and evil is gone? Your mind suddenly comes back into clear focus about yourself and your family and your friends and everything that is around you. There are people all over our land today and around the world who are not in their right mind. The touch of Jesus Christ and the presence of His power could bring about a miracle of bringing them to their right mind. That lets me know that you are only in your right mind when you’re right with Jesus Christ, when you are in harmony with the Word of God, when you are in harmony with the Holy Spirit. Only then are you in your right mind. Praise God!
 
Then the man was sitting at the feet of Jesus. He was sitting peaceably, not a raving maniac any more. He was sitting at the feet of Jesus! Oh, the storm is over! I guess he was able to see it clearly now. That storm he saw earlier and suddenly the clouds rolled back and the light burst through and the peace and calm came. That’s exactly what it is like to be delivered from the power of the devil. Confusion is gone. Doubts and fear are gone. Storms within are gone. The peace of God reigns. Oh, thank God for His peace! Amen! The man is clothed and in his right mind. No longer is he ready to resort to animal-like behavior. He is clothed. He has sensibilities toward morality and decency. I think a lot of people could use a double dose of that kind of spirit for these days. And then one of the most beautiful things of all is the man wanted now to stay in the presence of Jesus! Oh, that’s what happens to you. When the past is gone, you want to follow Jesus. You want to stay with Him. You want to go with Him. You want to be in His presence all the time.
 
Jesus taught us something here. The best way you can stay in His presence and in harmony with him is just to simply do what He tells you to do, to obey Him. Not just following Him and keeping Him in sight, so to speak, but look what He told this man. He told him to return to his own house. You talk about a homecoming! When this man comes walking up, he is clean now and he is dressed and that awful snake-eyed stare is gone from his face and countenance. He walks in and he recognizes his family and friends and is able to talk to them in a beautiful, clear way. What kind of testimony, what kind of a message, what kind of preaching is that going to be when he returns to his own house? I imagine when they see him coming back to the little village, some of them are afraid. They get ready to run but they stay long enough to see that he even walks differently, and he’s got clothes on and look at his face and he’s not screaming and blaspheming! The first thing you know, he is the center of attraction. Jesus said, “No you go back and return to your own house and you show – you demonstrate how great things God hath done unto thee.” I think the greatest preaching the greatest testimony of all time is when people demonstrate by their changed lives what the mercy of God has done for them and how they have been delivered and set free.
 
This is what Jesus calls upon every delivered person to do. Go back to your own house among your own people and tell them what God has done for you. That is being a witness of Jesus Christ. The Bible said he went his way and published throughout the whole city how great thing Jesus had done unto him. Oh, if you had come out of a thousand dungeons of nights and stepped into the beautiful light of God’s love, you would want to publish it and tell it everywhere. If you had been bound by the unseen clutches of evil spirits for a long time and devils directed you and suddenly you were free, you would want to tell it. You would want to tell it! We may not often hear the testimony of a person who was demon possessed, but oh, it’s just as real and just as wonderful to hear the testimony of a person who has repented of his sins and come to God and been brought into the family of God and the Kingdom of God. In fact, Jesus said there is great rejoicing in heaven over one sinner that repents. Anybody who turns from sin and comes to Jesus Christ creates such an excitement and gains the attention of both heaven and earth and perhaps hell, itself. Thank God for the delivering power of Jesus Christ!

Devotions

Power Of God

g

JRadio

Listen Live

Need Prayer?

Shout Jesus Saves

Youtube

Click here to visit the Shout Jesus Saves Youtube

 

Vimeo

Click here to visit the Shout Jesus Saves Vimeo

 

Network Sites

Jesussaves.cc

Global prayer Network

faith library

Dealing with Demon Possession (Luke 4:33-37)

by | Nov 4, 2018

Luke 4:33-37

33

And in the synagogue there was a man, which had a spirit of an unclean devil, and cried out with a loud voice,

34

Saying, Let us alone; what have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth? Art thou come to destroy us? I know thee who thou art; the Holy One of God.

35

And Jesus rebuked him, saying, Hold thy peace, and come out of him. And when the devil had thrown him in the midst, he came out of him, and hurt him not.

36

And they were all amazed, and spake among themselves, saying, What a word is this! For with authority and power he commandeth the unclean spirits, and they come out.

37

And Simon answering said unto him, Master, we have toiled all the night, and have taken nothing: nevertheless at thy word I will let down the net.

I want to talk to you tonight about dealing with demons. I want to just simply look at this passage and this story, because here is the account of Jesus delivering a man from actual demon possession. The man was in the synagogue. I don’t know how often he attended, or how long he had been going or whatever. But one day, something changed about the synagogue atmosphere and program and Jesus was present! And it was enough to disturb the devil. You know, Satan even likes to go to church. Sometimes he can go and just feel very comfortable and never get the least bit upset. But in this case, he must have really got upset. What we see in this story and what I believe is really taught from out of this passage is two facts. First of all, that Jesus Christ has absolute authority over all demonic power. And I believe also what we can learn from this is that you and I in the power of His name and His authority can also overcome the powers of evil that would come against us individually or against us as the church.
 
So let us look at that tonight because in the first place, I would like for us to notice some of the characteristics of real demon possession. And then in looking at that, we can also see the way that Jesus used in order to deliver the man from the demonic possession.
 
The first characteristic of demon possession that we can see from this passage is that the demon is always disturbed when his conqueror comes into his presence. There is a fearful uneasiness that comes to the forces of evil when the presence of God is there, when it’s real. There is a kind of condemnation that comes down. There is a kind of authority that holds sway. There is a kind of presence that brings trouble to forces of evil. That’s the reason why, not only in demon possession, but any kind of sin when people come into the presence of God, there is an awesome fear of God that brings conviction upon anybody. It even brings that kind of conviction upon saints of God. I’ve heard people tell of Isaiah and preach and say Isaiah was about backslid and he went to church. No such thing! Here was a great man of God who, when he saw the vision of God, fell down on his face like Ezekiel and others and confessed his unworthiness. That’s what happens when you come into the presence and power and authority of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. You feel like saying like Simon Peter, Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man. You feel like falling on your face and wanting His divine blessing and power to be at work in your own life and heart. This is multiplied many-fold when the power of Satan in the form of demonic activity comes in touch with the authority and power of Jesus Christ. What happens is, there is a disturbance. When Satan goes to church, if anything is going along, he wants to disturb it and tear it all up and get people all in a confused state of mind, and cause distractions and trouble and upset everybody and fill people with fear because the main tactic of Satan is to rule with fear.
 
I know he is conniving and deceiving and he can be like a wolf in sheep’s clothing. But after awhile the wolf is going to bear his fangs and try his scare tactics and he tells all kinds of lies to people and he’ll come and try to talk to you and tell you lies. But his main kind of business is creating a disturbance and troubling people and causing trouble anywhere he goes. And he cried out with a loud voice.
 
The next characteristic of real demon possession that I see here in this passage is the fact that the evil spirit can speak through the person he possesses. Now, I think we need to distinguish between the attack of Satan and the oppressions that come and the kinds of things that where Satan attacks, there is a lot of difference in that, and possessing a person. Because when he is in control and he is residing within and he controls and he possesses a person, he is literally able to speak through that person’s vocal chords. He knows how to take over. Sometimes the voice is changed. I know Hollywood’s done a pretty good job of displaying this kind of thing in films like ‘The Exorcist’ and others and it seems like the devil is making a heyday in Hollywood these days because they are showing so much of the occult. But we’re talking about reality here, not something that may be portrayed on a screen somewhere. We’re talking about an actual power of evil force that takes over a person’s life and causes them to do things that they would not do if they were in their right mind, so to speak, and literally speak through them.
 
I think that some of the things that we see, I don’t think that you can explain a Jeffrey Dahmer without knowing that there is Satan worship in his background and that he was bound to be under the control of an unclean spirit. I don’t know of any other way. You can’t explain that psychologically or whatever, I don’t believe. Able to speak…he cried out and said, ‘Let us alone. What are we to do with thee?’ Man, he really started talking and talking to Jesus.
 
The demon also has a kind of supernatural clairvoyant power so that he can identify and understand and he knows about the identity and power of his conqueror. He is able to recognize the power and the authority that comes through the name of Jesus Christ. Now that means that it takes more than just saying words or saying a formula. The formula of working and casting out devils in the Name of Jesus Christ, that is a wonderful approach, but it takes more than saying the words. It has to be that Satan recognizes the power and the authority of the person who is being used of God. As in the case you remember the story in Acts of the seven sons of Sceva who thought they could just enter in to the deliverance ministry and they would make a big team you know, seven of them, and they would just do all kinds of things. It’s strange, but they knew exactly where to go to find a special candidate that they knew to be full of the devil. They went and found him and they started in on him and they had the formula right, they had the words right: We adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preaches, come out of him. But the evil spirits in that man did not recognize them as being a conqueror with authority and power even though they used the right names and the right formula. But he said, ‘Well, Jesus I know and Paul I know, but who are you?’ And you know the result of that story. This one man empowered by these demon forces whipped seven men and sent them running off naked and in shame and in absolute failure because they had thought they could just manipulate demonic powers just by using a formula. 
 
But in this case, this unclean, the spirit of an unclean devil said, ‘I know thee who thou art, the Holy One of God.’ I’m glad to know that the presence of God disturbs the devil. I’m glad to know that the Holy One of God disturbs the power of evil and the forces of evil. I’m glad to know that the infilling of the Holy Spirit disturbs the power of Satan. I’m glad to know that the Word of God can disturb the forces of Hell! Amen! 
 
Another characteristic of demon possession is that the demon tries to gain some control over the conqueror by talking to him and using his name. He wants to get on talking terms and he says, ‘I know you. I know your name. What have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth?’
 
One of the slickest tricks that Satan has is to try to get you engaged in conversation. If he can get you to start listening to him, and then especially if you start talking back, he’s got you going and headed in the direction of real trouble. I was pastoring the Delta of Mississippi years ago and I had a man who drove a butane gas truck and delivered fuel all over the delta, the farms and farm tractors that ran on butane and all that, and to other places and people who heated and all. One day he said to me ‘I tell you, it looks to me like the devil has been giving me the roughest time. Every morning when I go out and climb in that truck, I look over and it looks like the seat sinks down where he gets in to ride with me.’ I told him, ‘Well, I’ll tell you what, if I were you I wouldn’t give him a ride! Because the Bible says Satan walks to and fro up and down in the earth. So don’t give him a ride. Let him walk.’
 
He tries to get on good terms, but he’ll ride with you in the car. He’ll come to visit you just before you get ready to come to church if you’re not careful. When he rings up your number, you better learn how to slam the receiver down. When we lived in Louisville, all of a sudden we started getting some obscene telephone calls. If I answered the phone, they just hung up. If one of my girls answered the phone, well they started talking some horrible, terrible kinds of things. I finally told my wife and daughters that if somebody calls on the phone and it’s a man and he doesn’t identify himself and state his business, just hang up. Don’t you despise these people who want to play tricks on you? It’s one of my pet peeves. I shouldn’t be up here unloading them in a message. But these people who call and say ‘You know who this is?’ You feel like saying ‘No, and I don’t care!’ [laughter] Pray for me, saints! Help me, Lord! [laughter] I may have one of those telephone demons knocking on my door here, so pray for me!
 
There comes a time when you have to cut him off. That’s exactly what Jesus did. The demon is a source of evil speech and he must be muzzled. He must be silenced. The greek word used in this passage literally mean ‘to muzzle’ just like you put a muzzle on a fierce dog to keep him from biting. By the power of God he must be muzzled so he does not speak. That is exactly what Jesus did. He said ‘Hold thy peace.’ And to put that in more country Mississippi terms, that means ‘Shut up!’ Amen.
 
You see, Jesus had some conversation with Satan during the time of the temptation in the wilderness. They did some talking then. And He listened to Satan say ‘If you’re the Son of God, do this and do that…’ But after He came out of that temptation victorious and full of the Holy Ghost and power and began His ministry, He didn’t carry on conversations with the devil anymore. When they started to speak out, He said ‘Hush! Shut up!’ And He spoke directly to the evil spirit. He didn’t abuse the man. You know, sometimes we want to grab the person and half kill him and beat him and try to cast the devil out. That’s not the way it happens. But the first thing Jesus does is say ‘I’m not listening. You can’t talk in My presence. Just hush.’ I’m glad that there is an authority and a power that comes from God that can quieten the voice of Satan. Sometimes when he rings your number, that’s all you’ve got to tell him is ‘Shut up. I’m not listening to you!’ Amen! Amen! Oh, praise God!
 
You don’t have to listen. You don’t have to carry on a conversation. You don’t have to hear him talk. His words may sound so soothing. My grandbaby’s got a video she’s seen 847,000 times more or less. I’ve had to see it with her and I’ve had to tell her the story and read the book. It’s called ‘Jungle Book’ and in that picture is first of all the snake that comes slipping up and he’s got this nice little voice. He sees this little boy and says, ‘Ssssay…’ He’s even got the hiss. He starts out so nice and sweet and all the time he’s wrapping himself around that little boy and he’s ready to swallow him. What a nice, juicy meal he will make. Well, the kid has a friend who comes and whacks him on the head and knocks him about half crazy and he falls out of the tree and he runs off. Sometimes, that’s the way Satan does. He comes in so soft. But if you listen carefully, you can almost hear the hiss in his voice. You learn to recognize him when he talks to you and tries to tell you some kind of lie and tries to put some kind of fear in you. What if this happens? What if that happens? The first thing you know, you are imagining things that may never in this world happen because he is disturbing. He has to be told to shut up. That’s the way Jesus did. He would not tolerate the evil speech in His presence. 
 
The demon must come out. He must come out of that place where he is dwelling and Jesus says, ‘Come out of him.’ Oh, hallelujah! I’m glad that when He speaks with such authority that Satan hears and he trembles when he sees that authority of the Lord Jesus Christ. I wish that we in Pentecost could come to the full realization of what it is like for us to march as soldiers of the cross, full of the power of the Holy Ghost standing on the Word of God, covered by the blood and living with the authority of the Name of Jesus Christ and being able to go on the offensive of the power of Satan. Because that is exactly what the Lord Jesus meant when he told the disciples ‘Don’t do anything. Don’t preach. Don’t witness. Don’t go anywhere. But you stay here in Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high.’ Because He knew that it was going to take the power of God operating in their lives for them to push back into Satan’s territory.
 
Thank God there is a power like that operating in the lives of people today in spite of the fact that occultism and Satan worship may be on the rise in this country in ways that would shock us perhaps if we understood it fully. Yet, at the same time, the Holy Ghost is being poured out in an unprecedented form and power and force in these days. There are more people receiving the baptism of the Holy Ghost every day now than at any other time in the history of the world, and there is a revival power and glory and miracles of deliverance all around this world. A lot of it is in the Church of God. Thank God for the power of the Holy Ghost and the power of the Word of God! I believe in the authority and power of the Word. I believe in the authority and power of the Holy Ghost. I believe in the divine anointing of God that touches people’s lives and drives the power of sin and Satan away from them and they find deliverance. Praise God! Deliverance through the blood of Jesus Christ, the Son of the Living God. Hallelujah! Oh, praise God!
 
I feel that Holy presence in this place tonight. Hallelujah! Thank you, Lord. We worship you, Lord. We praise You.
 
It is customary in casting out devils, that oftentimes, and the Bible describes some of these pictures, oftentimes when the evil spirit is coming out he is so resistant to this until he convulses the person, throws him down, tears them, wretches them, just tries to destroy the house rather than come out of it. In this case, He had thrown him down in the midst. I want you to look at the rest of that verse. Praise God. In verse 35 ‘…he came out of him, and hurt him not.’ Oh, hallelujah!
 
You know Saddam Hussein sort of had a devilish idea when he saw he couldn’t stay in Kuwait and he left and tried to destroy everything behind him. That’s the way the devil operates. If he can’t stay there in the house, he will destroy it. I’ve seen one or two people who rented houses that felt that way, too. If they got evicted, they felt like destroying the house before they moved on away. That’s the way Satan operates. But there was such a controlling power on this unclean spirit of a devil. That’s the way Luke describes it…unclean spirit of a devil. Such a controlling factor. Even though he threw the man down, he came out and he didn’t hurt him. I want you to notice that Jesus spoke directly in casting out this evil spirit. He spoke directly to the spirit. As I said earlier, He didn’t try to abuse the man, but He had pity and compassion on the man. We don’t know who this man was. It is not described, but he would not have been in the synagogue if he hadn’t been a Jew. He probably had attended that synagogue for no telling how long and nobody ever knew, perhaps, that he was going around with the unclean spirit of a devil in his life. But one day the presence of Christ found him out and he was delivered and set free. That’s what conviction power is all about. Not to show people up, but to get them delivered. You see, if the Lord comes to you in conviction and touches your heart, it is a gesture of His mercy and grace in wanting to set you free. If He comes to you and just speaks a word of condemnation for something in your life, it is not an effort to make you uncomfortable. It is an effort to convict you, yes, but to show you the way out to deliverance.
 
Oh, I’ve had Him do that to me. Haven’t you? When the condemnation comes, when He speaks to us, you see, there is this thing of warnings in the Scripture for us to not give place to the devil. Some people have done that and when they have started to give place to one little thing well then, the first thing you know it’s another little thing and then it’s a bigger thing. And then the next thing you know Satan feels welcomed to just move right in. It may be a gradual process. But Jesus spoke directly to the evil spirit because He wanted to see that man delivered and set free. And indeed he was. And the people saw it. They saw it in such a way – and that may be the reason why – He allowed him to throw him down, so to speak, so that the people would have a clear cut witness to the delivering power of God. The man was set free and the people were absolutely amazed. They said, ‘What a word is this!’ Please underline that statement. Because it was done with the Word of Jesus Christ. Speaking the Word did it. What a word is this! For with authority and power He commandeth the unclean spirits, and they come out. He does it with His Word! He just speaks and you better believe that this same Lord, who in the very beginning was used as an instrument in creation and spoke the Words – yes, He has the power to liberate people and set them free. As I mentioned earlier in the beginning, He has the power to come to people who have made a mess out of their lives and change that around so that they make a life out of the mess by His grace. By His power. 
 
There are many cases of deliverance like this in the gospels and we will doubtless look at others in this study of Luke. But I think here is the Biblical pattern of what actual demon possession looks like, but also the pattern of ministry and authority and power in dealing with the demonic. It is through the authority of Christ and His Name, through the anointing and power of the Holy Spirit standing upon the Word, and we too because Jesus has said it, we too can overcome.
 
I want us to pray in a special way tonight. It may be that Satan is trying to speak to you or to someone you love or he is trying to attack. I hope that somehow this message, this Word from the Lord, would help you to take new boldness and new faith and new strength and stand on the Word of God and in the fear of God. Because when you have the fear of God, you don’t have to fear anything else. I hope you’ll find the courage and the strength to just speak to the problem and the trouble through the Word of God through the power of the Holy Spirit. I want us to pray tonight that God will enable us first of all to resist the devil that he may flee from us and draw nigh to God that He may draw nigh to us. And then where there are those of our loved ones and friends who are being tormented and troubled and worried,  that we would really be a hand reaching out to show the compassion and love of Jesus Christ.

Devotions

Power Of God

g

JRadio

Listen Live

Need Prayer?

Shout Jesus Saves

Youtube

Click here to visit the Shout Jesus Saves Youtube

 

Vimeo

Click here to visit the Shout Jesus Saves Vimeo

 

Network Sites

Jesussaves.cc

Global prayer Network

faith library

Dangers of Discipleship – Part 3 (Luke 12:35-53)

by | Nov 4, 2018

Luke 12:35-53

35

 Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning;

36

And ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their lord, when he will return from the wedding; that when he cometh and knocketh, they may open unto him immediately.

37

Blessed are those servants, whom the lord when he cometh shall find watching: verily I say unto you, that he shall gird himself, and make them to sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them.

38

And if he shall come in the second watch, or come in the third watch, and find them so, blessed are those servants.

39

And this know, that if the goodman of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched, and not have suffered his house to be broken through.

40

Be ye therefore ready also: for the Son of man cometh at an hour when ye think not.

41

Then Peter said unto him, Lord, speakest thou this parable unto us, or even to all?

42

And the Lord said, Who then is that faithful and wise steward, whom his lord shall make ruler over his household, to give them their portion of meat in due season?

43

Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing.

44

Of a truth I say unto you, that he will make him ruler over all that he hath.

45

But and if that servant say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming; and shall begin to beat the menservants and maidens, and to eat and drink, and to be drunken;

46

The lord of that servant will come in a day when he looketh not for him, and at an hour when he is not aware, and will cut him in sunder, and will appoint him his portion with the unbelievers.

47

And that servant, which knew his lord’s will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes.

48

 But he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes. For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more.

49

 I am come to send fire on the earth; and what will I, if it be already kindled?

50

But I have a baptism to be baptized with; and how am I straitened till it be accomplished!

51

Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, Nay; but rather division:

52

For from henceforth there shall be five in one house divided, three against two, and two against three.

53

The father shall be divided against the son, and the son against the father; the mother against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother; the mother in law against her daughter in law, and the daughter in law against her mother in law.

We have mentioned in the last two services (“Dangers of Discipleship” Part I and Part II) that evidently the things that Jesus discussed in this chapter must be very important because He was aware of the dangers that would rise up and the stumbling blocks that would come. Therefore, He gives very serious warning to the disciples about these matters or attitudes or actions or temptations that might cause them to set aside their following after the Lord, and set aside their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. In most cases, what we have talked about has to do with a pattern for living in this world in the here and now. So also does the rest of this chapter, but it has this distinction that when you are really looking for the Lord to come, when you are believing in His return, then you live in a state of readiness and preparedness because you don’t know when it will happen but you are looking for His return. So let’s talk about it tonight.
 
He said, first of all, you are to strengthen yourself, your loins be girded about. He means to strengthen yourself to stand and stand up and stand out for truth and righteousness in these last days, and to be strong in faith. He said, ‘Let your lights be burning.’ He intends for us, the church, to be like lights upon a hill that cannot be hid. These lights are shining out and pushing back the darkness. The church with its many lights shining and its strength of faith plays a tremendous part in our whole world in these days. If suddenly the church would be taken out of this world, then all hell literally could break loose unhindered upon this world. It would be a time that would finally develop such as people have never know and never experienced and it would bring down the judgment of God and the wrath of God to try to turn people back to God.
 
In the Bible, especially in the prophets, and also in the book of the Revelation, anytime God allows judgment to come upon any part of this world it has redemptive purposes. It is like discipline to turn people. It is not that God wants to beat up on people, so to speak, but it has the definite purpose of turning people to God in repentance and humility so they may once again honor Him and serve Him. Even the Great Tribulation will serve that kind of purpose. We hear John saying over and over again in the book of the Revelation ‘and yet they repented not of their evil deeds.’ After certain plagues, certain judgments had come and yet they did not return, showing us the exact purpose for such a thing. Jesus here is teaching, ‘Strengthen yourself and be alert. Let your lights be burning.’ You don’t know when your Lord is going to come back as if a man was returning from a wedding and he had been gone for some time. He says ‘Blessed who are the people that He will find watching and looking and waiting for His coming.’ He said it may be in one watch of the night or another watch of the night. We don’t know for sure, but it sums it u p in verse 40 by saying ‘Be ye therefore ready also; for the Son of man cometh at an hour when ye think not.’ We would think that someway, somehow there would be a divine communication to our hearts to alert us to the fact that the moment has arrived, the trumpet is about to sound. Somehow I think that surely the Lord will deal with the members of His body. He will deal with the Church in such a way to quicken our state of alert before He comes. But, He warns us very specifically that nobody knows the day nor the hour. You don’t know the watch of the night when it will be. The only thing to do is to continually, constantly, absolutely be ready because you don’t know when the Lord is coming. Just rest assured He is indeed coming!
 
Then He goes further to talk about some of the kinds of dangers that could creep in when people are not really ready. He talks about this whole thing of losing faith and becoming unfaithful. In verses 41-53 He talks about who is going to be that faithful and wise steward in verse 42, ‘whom the Lord will make ruler over his household…’ Look at that for a moment because it is extremely important. He is talking about a steward over God’s property. A steward is a person who is hired to look after, to manage, to oversee someone else’s property. It may be a great farm. It may be a business. It may be a household. Whatever it is, the person is to oversee it and take care of it. He says ‘I am looking for someone who is a faithful and wise steward; somebody who manages with wisdom, somebody who oversees with good judgment and wisdom.’ The Lord is looking for that kind of person to later on become a ruler over His household. The thing that the Lord is looking for is the persons that He will place in places of responsibility in the fulfillment of His kingdom.
 
Simon Peter talked about being good stewards on one occasion in I Peter 4:10. He says that as every man has received the gift of God, meaning that every one of us in the Body of Christ receives certain gifts and talents from the Lord. He says that as every man has received that gift, let him oversee it. Let him use it. Let him work with it as a good steward of the manifold grace of God. Now when you really look at what that verse means, it means that God has brought to us certain gifts of His marvelous grace and we are to manage them, and oversee them, and use them for the glory of God; these manifold gifts of the many-sided grace of God. He is saying that God has turned over these grace gifts for individual people to use. They are to use them in spiritual wisdom and understanding. That literally says ‘if there is a soul that needs to be saved, God has turned over to somebody the grace of God to bring them the good news and bring them into the kingdom of God.’ If there is somebody whose life needs to be healed, God has distributed gifts in His Body that somebody can manage and use that grace to bring healing love to a life. What is God using you for in this world for? What are your gifts? What mixture of gifts do you have? I’m of the opinion that if we follow the admonition of Jesus here and become a faithful and wise steward of whatever gifts God gives us that He will add to. When you are faithful, when you are obedient, when you don’t quench the Spirit, God adds other gifts to your life and literally after awhile gives you a total mixture of spiritual gifts so that you are a minister unto God overseeing that portion of His grace that He has entrusted to you to bring to bear upon the lives of people in this world. Hallelujah! The most important thing you can do is to oversee the grace of God that the Lord has put into your power. Use it to bring healing, to bring love, to bring salvation, to bring encouragement, to bring uplifting and edification to the members of the Body of Christ and ministry to the world itself. He says that the person who is this faithful and wise steward, the Lord will make him ruler over his household.
 
Let me mention the downside of that for a moment. The Bible teaches that the gifts and callings of God are without repentance. The person who fails to perform the kind of ministry gift that God has given is going to come up lacking in the day of judgment. On the other hand, Jesus says that the person who is faithful and wise is the person that God is looking for to be an administrator in His great kingdom when He comes to rule and reign. I don’t know what God has in store for us during the millennial reign, but I want to tell you that on the authority of this Word that if you are a faithful and wise steward of what God has given you, He is going to look for you to be a part of the administration in His great kingdom. I believe that is what this says.
 
He continues, then, to talk about this terrible tragedy of people who lose sight of the fact that the Lord is coming. He talks about people who feel in their heart and say in verse 45 ‘My lord delayeth his coming;’ There are certain kinds of attitudes and certain kinds of activity that begin to take place in a person’s heart when he ceases to look for the Lord to come. One good sign that a person has lost the vision of the soon return of the Lord is he begins to mistreat others. He talks about it like this; they begin to beat the men servants and maidens and to eat and drink and be drunken. The whole attitude is one of carelessness and indifference as to what is really going on in this world when a person loses sight of the coming of the Lord. Another way you could say this is that people have a tendency to backslide and lose their joy, lose their faith, lose their expectancy of the Lord to come. When they start to say in their heart that there is no need to look for the Lord to come, He is delaying His coming. We don’t know if He’ll even come or not, and you start to putting if off to some day way in the future. Jesus says this is dangerous because it starts to create in your own heart something that He will judge, and that is the mistreatment of  other people.
 
He goes on to say in verse 46 that there will be tremendous judgment and punishment upon that kind of person. As a matter of fact, he will be cut in sunder and he will appoint him his portion with unbelievers. Let me say something out of my heart that I believe is based on this verse. I think one of the greatest sins in this world is to wound or afflict or trouble a child of God. One of the reasons it is such a great sin is because it’s a sin against love. Now, if somebody that you don’t know well, you don’t necessarily love them, if they say something mean to you or they mistreat you, you can shrug that off. But if a good brother or sister in the church does that, my how it hurts. If it happens between companions in a family, just a little action or a little word, how it hurts. It is a breach of love. I think that is why Jesus places such a strong premium upon this action because a sin against love of members of the Body of Christ is a dangerous and dreadful kind of thing to perform. You may have been a victim of mistreatment, but one thing for certain, that person who is looking for Jesus to come will certainly want to be sure of how he talks and how he acts to brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus especially, and then to the rest of this world. One good sign that somebody has lost his vision and the urgency of the return of the Lord is when he begins to mistreat others and especially those who are in the household of faith.
 
Then Jesus uses some illustrations to talk about His coming. In one of them, He rebukes the people because they can discern the times and seasons and the weather, but they can’t discern the fact that the Lord is coming. He is concerned about that because anything can happen in the world in a moment’s time. I think we should be today because as you know in a moment’s time we know where there is storm out in the Pacific Ocean, or if there is one in the Atlantic Ocean or weather patterns that are coming. We are bombarded all the time with information and just think what Jesus would say about all of this instant information if He were living here right now. He might say, ‘You’ve got all these signs and all this information that lets you know it’s going to rain or the sun is going to shine. Why is it you can’t discern the signs of the time of His coming?’ I think we need to renew in our own hearts and in our own thinking just how close it could be and the number of signs that are so evident all around us.
 
Today the Pastor was preparing one of the television programs for next week that is shown in the early morning and we were talking to two of the brothers from Russia. They were telling us how dangerous it was to preach the gospel before Communism fell, but now how open it is. He said that they are asking us to come into the schools and into the colleges to preach. They have opened the doors everywhere. We can preach in public parks. We can preach anywhere we want to out in the open. He said their big problem is that they need trained people because they’ve had to witness and preach privately and quietly in somebody’s house somebody’s apartment all hidden away until very few people know how to preach out publicly and preach to mass groups and give invitations. He said they need people to do that because there is so much freedom. You know, it was startling to realize that there is more religious freedom right now in Russia than there is in the United States. That ought to be a sign that would trouble our hearts. That ought to be a sign that would drive us to our knees. We can expect now a greater enlargement of attitudes of that sort, that fight against religious freedom, and powers that come and try to take prayer out of everything and religion out of everything. One of these days there will be somebody who will try to pass a law to take In God We Trust off of our money to let the whole world know that we no longer need God.
 
Jesus is saying in this chapter that you can read the signs of everything else that is coming, especially in the weather, but what about the signs that point to the coming of the Lord? Another thing He talked about was the danger that when some people of the family believed (verses 49-53) that there would be division. Jesus Himself said ‘My coming is like fire and I have a baptism of fire…’ meaning there is going to be fiery persecution and trial upon the church and upon disciples. He said during that time there would be divisions in families and some will accept and some will not and there will be children against parents, brothers against brothers and we have seen that. We have testimonies all around this world and especially in countries that have such a resistance to the gospel  and where it has been against the law to preach the gospel, we’ve seen families divided like that. He is saying here ‘I want you to be faithful even in those times, even if your family turns aside.’ Jesus is saying that in the last days you have to take a stand and regardless of if people won’t go along with you, even your family, you still ought to be faithful to the Word of God and faithful to the Lord Jesus Christ and faithful to your work for Him in this world.
 
Finally, in the very last part of this chapter, He uses a very unusual kind of illustration. It is an illustration of our attitude toward the coming of the Lord. He said in verse 58 ‘When you go with your adversary to a magistrate, as you are on the way, give diligence that thou mayest be delivered from him; lest he hale thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and the officer cast thee into prison.’ Now what He is talking about literally in His own time were people who had judgments against others and they took them to court. He is saying it is far better if you settle things out of court and you come to an agreement before you get there because if you take the chance of being brought up before the judge, it may be that the judge will rule in somebody else’s favor and you will be delivered to the officer who will take you and cast you into prison. What was He saying to us and to the church about being ready? He was saying that we better settle everything out of court before you are brought to judgment. Don’t think you can run the risk of taking your chances and say I’ll plead my own case before the judge. Oh no. No such hope of being able to argue your case. The only man I ever knew in the Bible who attempted to do that, he did it quite well and that was Job. He said I wish I could find him and I wish I had a lawyer that would stand between me and God so that I might plead my cause and plead my own case. He knew in his own heart that he had not sinned against God and yet all this trouble was coming upon him and his comforters were gouging him and saying there must be something wrong, something mighty bad for all of this trouble to come upon you. They were spouting out all the popular Jewish theology that if you were good and right you prospered and everything was alright. But if you did some grievous sin then great judgment came upon you. He said I abhor myself and I repent in sackcloth and ashes. No way could even a righteous man like Job stand face-to-face with God when the Lord comes to speak to him. There he saw things very clearly.
 
Jesus is teaching us if you want to appear before the judge and not be condemned and not be cast out and not be punished, settle your case before you get to court. Settle it now. Be sure that all is prepared and ready and the account is settled so that when you stand before Him it will be without condemnation of disobedience and sin. I like that old song ‘The Old Account Was Settled Long Ago.” How many of you remember the day and the time when you settled your account and you settled it out of court before you came to judgment? Through the blood of Jesus Christ, you took upon your soul that redeeming, cleansing price and tonight you stand free.
 
Please stand to your feet and worship Him because that account is settled and you don’t have to face judgment with any guilt in your life. Let us praise Him.

Devotions

Power Of God

g

JRadio

Listen Live

Need Prayer?

Shout Jesus Saves

Youtube

Click here to visit the Shout Jesus Saves Youtube

 

Vimeo

Click here to visit the Shout Jesus Saves Vimeo

 

Network Sites

Jesussaves.cc

Global prayer Network

faith library

Dangers of Discipleship – Part 2 (Luke 12:13-34)

by | Nov 4, 2018

Luke 12:13-34

13

And one of the company said unto him, Master, speak to my brother, that he divide the inheritance with me.

14

And he said unto him, Man, who made me a judge or a divider over you?

15

And he said unto them, Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth. 

16

And he spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully:

17

And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits?

18

And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods.

19

 And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry.

20

But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided?

21

So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.

22

And he said unto his disciples, Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat; neither for the body, what ye shall put on.

23

The life is more than meat, and the body is more than raiment.

24

Consider the ravens: for they neither sow nor reap; which neither have storehouse nor barn; and God feedeth them: how much more are ye better than the fowls?

25

 And which of you with taking thought can add to his stature one cubit?

26

If ye then be not able to do that thing which is least, why take ye thought for the rest?

27

Consider the lilies how they grow: they toil not, they spin not; and yet I say unto you, that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.

28

 If then God so clothe the grass, which is to day in the field, and to morrow is cast into the oven; how much more will he clothe you, O ye of little faith?

29

 And seek not ye what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink, neither be ye of doubtful mind.

30

For all these things do the nations of the world seek after: and your Father knoweth that ye have need of these things.

31

But rather seek ye the kingdom of God; and all these things shall be added unto you.

32

 Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.

33

Sell that ye have, and give alms; provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where no thief approacheth, neither moth corrupteth.

34

For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

I really believe in my heart that the Lord Jesus in His teachings outlines here a special formula for helping us to overcome anxiety and worry about our daily life in this world. He warns us, first of all, of this thing of covetousness, of greed reaching out with grasping for everything that we might be able to get and keep and hold onto in this world. He says very clearly a man’s life, a person’s life, is not made up of the things that he possesses. This is not what makes like, Jesus is saying. This is very difficult teaching for us to grasp and to receive, I think, because we are so oriented to this earth. We are indeed earthlings. We are a part of this world. It is very difficult for us to focus our attention on the spiritual reality that is beyond where we live and what we can see and experience through our natural senses. Perhaps one of the hardest things for us to understand as we look at the Word of God is the reality of the spiritual world and what is beyond this life and this earth. It is so difficult for us to look away from it, yet the Bible is filled with all kinds of injunctions and instructions that would teach us not to become adjusted to this world. This world is not our home. We are on a pilgrimage. We are travelling. We are walking. We are following the Lord Jesus Christ. Anywhere you look in the Scripture the life of the Christian is portrayed as a pilgrimage, as a journey. We are passing along. We are moving. We do not stay here.
 
The apostle Paul would indicate that we just camp out temporarily in our earthly house. He describes it in 2 Corinthians 5, we know that if the earthly house of this tabernacle, this body that we live in were to dissolve, we have a building of God that is reserved for us in the heavens. Do you know? Do you realize? Can you rejoice over the fact that once you fold up this tent of this body that you really become released to go and receive the building that God has reserved and prepared for you? That is what the transformed, resurrected life is like over there. It is taking on a building. I think I would rather live anytime in a building that God has made than a tent as Paul mentioned it that folds up, concerning this earthly body. Jesus, in His teachings, is reaching out to us so that someway, somehow we draw our hearts and our faith and our attention away from so many things that people clamor after in this world. We come to face the facts of the reality of what’s beyond. The dying testimonies of people in Scripture and our own loved ones indicate what it’s like over there and the glory and the beauty. To be absent from this body is to be present with the Lord. The Lord Jesus tries desperately to get us to understand that so that we will not become so in love with this world. He said your life is not made up of just things that you possess and things you have, not even the physical body that you possess. That is not life. It is something else, far beyond that.
 
Then He gives us this illustration that we’ve heard about so many times and talked about. We’ve taught about it and preached about it, the rich man. The man who was greatly blessed by God and he had an abundance of harvest. So much so that he had no place to store them. That’s wonderful. That’s marvelous. I think about this man who got to the place that he had such a harvest, such an abundance he didn’t have places to contain it. In my lifetime, I have built huge grain bins and had crews that built grain bins to store beans and wheat and barley and corn. I’ve seen people with bumper crops and it is a marvelous thing how God blesses. This man is wonderfully blessed of God, but he says that he has to do something to take care of everything. He says I’ll tear down my barns and build bigger ones and build bigger graineries so that I can keep it. He is perfectly in order to this point. There is not a thing wrong with what he has said up until this point. But then he said, ‘Then I will say to my soul, soul thou hast much goods laid up for many years. Take it easy now. Eat and drink and be merry.’ I think sometimes we need to talk to ourselves. I used to preach and refer to old man self. Here is this man and he is saying, ‘Self, you are going to feed yourself with the material things you’ve got. You can do almost anything you want to.’ Here is where he made his dreadful mistake, thinking that he could satisfy his soul on the material abundance that he was being blessed with. People have shown us that riches cannot buy happiness, cannot buy health, cannot buy life, cannot satisfy the inward spiritually. Now I cannot testify to all of that personally because I’ve never been rich enough to know how to experience that kind of thing, but there are some who have and they give testimony to the fact that you cannot your soul with the things of this world.
 
 Then God spoke to him, ‘Thou fool.’ Look at this. Here is a person that God refers to as a fool. Somebody who tries to satisfy his inner self on outward things that he possesses, the Lord refers to that person as a fool. He doesn’t say a thing that it is sinful to be rich and make a lot of money. He does say if you try to feed your life, your soul, on this, then He says ‘Thou fool.’ And then He said, ‘Your soul, your life is going to be required of you this night and then whose will these things be?’ I think probably the greatest worry about being rich would be having to die and leave it all. Don’t you think? Seems like it would worry you to death. In this case, God says, ‘Tonight you are going, and then who is going to be?’
 
So then, after giving this great illustration, He launches in about the danger of anxiety and worry over how you are going to live and the material things in this life. He says some words that are difficult for me to grasp. I have confessed to you time and time again that it is harder to preach the teachings of Jesus than anybody else in the Bible. I can wax strong with the prophets and the apostles and what they say. But when you start talking about what Jesus said, that is a whole different kind of weighty teaching that cuts deep into our hearts and minds and thinking. I don’t know if I can practice this or not, when He says ‘Take no thought for your life, what you shall eat, neither for the body what you shall put on because your life is more than meat and the body is more than raiment.’ It is right at this place that some preachers would launch out into meddling about how some people look and what they pay for clothes and everything, but He said, ‘I want you to consider the ravens. They don’t sow. They don’t reap. They don’t have storehouses and barns and God feeds them. If he takes care of the ravens, how much more are you better than the fowls?’ He said if God looks after them and even the little birds and the flowers and they grow and are beautiful and healthy, God knows how to clothe you. He knows how to take care of you. He knows how to really cover everything you need in your life. And then He says, ‘Oh ye of little faith.’ What Jesus wants us to do is to understand that we put top priorities in first place of trusting God, relying upon Him and He takes care of the rest. That is difficult to do. But some way, somehow when we come to that place where we can take the managing of our own lives out of our own hands and put it in His hands then He knows how to take care of us.
 
Now I believe that the Bible teaches some laws and rules, laws of God that if you live by, ordinarily you would prosper and be in health, God would bless you. There is a tremendous foundation for a powerful prosperity gospel in the Bible, especially in the wisdom literature. I think of the first Psalm which is a wisdom Psalm and it talks about that man how blessed he is and it goes on to say that in everything he will prosper. That’s the idea that if you live in harmony with God and His Word and His will, things will go better for you. If you try to break the laws of God, you will break yourself. There are some great teaching in that regard, but where the trouble comes in is when you start trusting in those things instead of keeping your trust in God and your focus there.
 
Jesus is talking to disciples who live in a time worse than any recession we’ve ever know, I suppose. He is talking to people who are dominated by cruel and wicked government, the Roman Empire. They have very little hope of tomorrow. Some of them will soon be killed for their testimony. Some of them worry about how they are going to get along in their families. He wants them to cut loose and trust in Him some way, somehow. It is very difficult for them to grasp this. But He said for them not to seek about what they are going to eat and drink and neither be of a doubtful mind. Here is part of the bottom line of this message; this idea of a doubtful mind. The Bible is quite clear that when you approach God with doubt, you automatically limit yourself as to what God will do for you. When you approach Him with fearfulness and anxiety and worry after He has said so much about fear not and don’t worry and don’t be of a doubtful mind. He said in verse 30 that your Father knoweth that you have need of these things. Now that leaped out at me as I was studying for this message. I don’t think I had seen that just like that before. But God knows, your Heavenly Father knows what you need. He knows you have need of the things that you need. He is aware of it. Whatever you need, He is aware of it. He wants us to come to Him in trust.
 
I heard one of our chaplains speak this week in our chapel service and it just set my soul on fire as he talked a little bit about being totally dedicated to the will of God. He said something I never had thought of quite like he said it. He said the Lord wants a whole lot out of you. When he got through talking about that, just how much God wants out of us and he explained. His sermon touched me deeply. He said God wants unconditional love from us and God wants absolute obedience from us and God wants us to be servants one to another to serve in love. That cuts across all ambitions and desires because he is saying God wants this condition in our hearts where we trust Him completely and give Him first place. Our faith and our trust in Him is number one. Our obedience to Him is unquestioned. He can lay any claim upon us and we don’t argue. There have been some times that I argued at His leading and His direction. Some of those times I suffered because I didn’t obey. I want to tell you that every time I have obeyed Him and responded in obedience to the leading of God and what He wanted out me, He rewarded me greatly and wonderfully. There is nothing so wonderful and real as simply being at the place where you give yourself to the will of God in obedience.
 
He says, ‘Your Father knows you have need of these things.’ That doesn’t mean He doesn’t want us to tell Him about it. Jesus said in His great prayer to pray and say, ‘Give us this day our daily bread.’ Just say it to Him. The Father knows.
 
I want to ask you to think with me for a moment, what is it you need tonight? I mean a real need in your life. Will you think about that? Once you have settled on the main thing, would you raise your hand as a testimony that there is a need? The Father knows you have needs. And then He said – and this is the heart of this entire message tonight, in verse 31, “But rather seek ye the kingdom of God; and all these things shall be added unto you.” Putting the kingdom of God first, saying ‘Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done’ is the assurance that He takes care of the things. He says, ‘Fear not, little flock; for it is y our Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.’ The kingdom which is not of this world. He puts eternity in our lives now. He gives us the absolute guarantee of a tremendous inheritance that is to come. The gift of the Holy Spirit is the guarantee of the inheritance to come. He says, ‘Build up treasures in heaven because where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.’
 
I’m asking you tonight. Where is your heart? I have to ask myself, where is my heart? Is it bound up in my children, in my family, in whatever things of the work I do, the ministry I have? Where is my heart? It is wherever your treasure is. Wherever your treasure is, that’s where your heart is, He says. I think Jesus said a whole lot about this life, about money, about worry, about all our cares because He knew of the dangers that would come to us because of greed or worry and anxiety over our concerns for wealth or for things in this world. We have just seen in our voting a demonstration across this country of the tremendous amount of people, the vast majority of people in the United States who perhaps are more concerned with the economy and have hopes that it will change for the better with the new administration. They are more concerned about that than they are about the kingdom of God. As a matter of fact, some of them are fighting desperately hard against the kingdom of God. Regardless of what comes and goes with nations in this world, the kingdom of God still stands. As was said earlier, regardless of what happens to the economy, the laws of God still stand. What Jesus said is, ‘Your Father knows what you need and if you put God first, He will take care of the rest.’ You seek first His kingdom and all things will be added unto you.
 
If you believe that, I want you to stand to your feet and let’s worship God together. I want you to thank Him because of His great blessings and let us see if we can seek first the kingdom of God. Let’s pray.

Devotions

Power Of God

g

JRadio

Listen Live

Need Prayer?

Shout Jesus Saves

Youtube

Click here to visit the Shout Jesus Saves Youtube

 

Vimeo

Click here to visit the Shout Jesus Saves Vimeo

 

Network Sites

Jesussaves.cc

Global prayer Network

faith library

Dangers of Discipleship – Part 1 (Luke 12:1-53)

by | Nov 4, 2018

Luke 12:1-53 

1

 In the mean time, when there were gathered together an innumerable multitude of people, insomuch that they trode one upon another, he began to say unto his disciples first of all, Beware ye of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.

2

For there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; neither hid, that shall not be known.

3

Therefore whatsoever ye have spoken in darkness shall be heard in the light; and that which ye have spoken in the ear in closets shall be proclaimed upon the housetops.

4

And I say unto you my friends, Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do.

5

But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear: Fear him, which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you, Fear him.

6

Are not five sparrows sold for two farthings, and not one of them is forgotten before God?

7

But even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not therefore: ye are of more value than many sparrows.

8

 Also I say unto you, Whosoever shall confess me before men, him shall the Son of man also confess before the angels of God:

9

But he that denieth me before men shall be denied before the angels of God.

10

And whosoever shall speak a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but unto him that blasphemeth against the Holy Ghost it shall not be forgiven.

11

And when they bring you unto the synagogues, and unto magistrates, and powers, take ye no thought how or what thing ye shall answer, or what ye shall say:

12

For the Holy Ghost shall teach you in the same hour what ye ought to say.

13

And one of the company said unto him, Master, speak to my brother, that he divide the inheritance with me.

14

And he said unto him, Man, who made me a judge or a divider over you?

15

And he said unto them, Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth.

16

And he spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully:

17

And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits?

18

And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods.

19

And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry.

20

 But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided?

21

So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.

22

And he said unto his disciples, Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat; neither for the body, what ye shall put on.

23

 The life is more than meat, and the body is more than raiment.

24

Consider the ravens: for they neither sow nor reap; which neither have storehouse nor barn; and God feedeth them: how much more are ye better than the fowls?

25

And which of you with taking thought can add to his stature one cubit?

26

If ye then be not able to do that thing which is least, why take ye thought for the rest?

27

Consider the lilies how they grow: they toil not, they spin not; and yet I say unto you, that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.

28

Consider the lilies how they grow: they toil not, they spin not; and yet I say unto you, that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.

29

And seek not ye what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink, neither be ye of doubtful mind.

30

 For all these things do the nations of the world seek after: and your Father knoweth that ye have need of these things.

31

But rather seek ye the kingdom of God; and all these things shall be added unto you.

32

Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.

33

Sell that ye have, and give alms; provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where no thief approacheth, neither moth corrupteth.

34

For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

35

 Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning;

36

And ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their lord, when he will return from the wedding; that when he cometh and knocketh, they may open unto him immediately.

37

Blessed are those servants, whom the lord when he cometh shall find watching: verily I say unto you, that he shall gird himself, and make them to sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them.

38

And if he shall come in the second watch, or come in the third watch, and find them so, blessed are those servants.

39

And this know, that if the goodman of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched, and not have suffered his house to be broken through.

40

Be ye therefore ready also: for the Son of man cometh at an hour when ye think not.

41

Then Peter said unto him, Lord, speakest thou this parable unto us, or even to all?

42

And the Lord said, Who then is that faithful and wise steward, whom his lord shall make ruler over his household, to give them their portion of meat in due season?

43

Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing.

44

Of a truth I say unto you, that he will make him ruler over all that he hath.

45

But and if that servant say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming; and shall begin to beat the menservants and maidens, and to eat and drink, and to be drunken;

46

The lord of that servant will come in a day when he looketh not for him, and at an hour when he is not aware, and will cut him in sunder, and will appoint him his portion with the unbelievers.

47

And that servant, which knew his lord’s will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes.

48

But he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes. For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more.

49

 I am come to send fire on the earth; and what will I, if it be already kindled?

50

But I have a baptism to be baptized with; and how am I straitened till it be accomplished!

51

Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, Nay; but rather division:

52

 For from henceforth there shall be five in one house divided, three against two, and two against three.

53

The father shall be divided against the son, and the son against the father; the mother against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother; the mother in law against her daughter in law, and the daughter in law against her mother in law. 

Chapter twelve is filled with a series of special instructions of warning and also of encouragement to the disciples and to others, as well. They have to do with warnings against the danger that Christians face in following the Lord, Jesus Christ and developing real relationship to the Lord in discipleship. There are always challenges that we face as we follow the Lord. In particular, if we make any attempt to draw nearer to Him and have His marvelous grace at work through us, then there are attacks that come, there are dangers that come, there are temptations that arise and Jesus names many of them in this chapter. I reading verses 1-12, this will include three of the paragraphs and statements of warning and instruction that Jesus gives to His disciples.
 
I want to talk to you about the “Dangers of Discipline.” As I have said, in this chapter Jesus sets out upon a series of statements and teachings to His disciples what they can very well expect as they follow Him in this world. The kinds of challenges and dangers they will encounter. Jesus gives warning and He gives encouragement and He gives instructions to the disciples in regard to these things that they and indeed, all Christians must face as they become disciples of our Lord Jesus Christ and live a life of following Him and believing on Him. Let’s look at three of things that I read in verses 1-12.
 
The first one is the danger of hypocrisy. Last week we talked in chapter 11 about six woes upon the hypocrisy of the Pharisees and scribes in Jesus’ day. It was kind of a heavy word that the Lord delivered to the religious leaders of his time. We saw in categories the principles of hypocrisy that Jesus was condemning. He said to His disciples ‘The first thing that you want to keep in mind as you follow Me and as you live the Christian life in this world, you want to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.’ These people have such subtle ways to teach and talk about hypocrisy that before you know it, they may have you trying to follow their style in being what you really are not, and pretending to be more than you are. In hiding behind certain acts and certain things while at the same time you do not measure up within.
 
One of the great dangers that faces Christianity even in our time is this danger of substituting the outward form of ritual for the inward reality of God’s presence and power, which is indeed like the leaven of the Pharisees. Hypocrisy. I don’t intend to name those six things we talked about last week, but here Jesus is saying to them just understand this one principle that God has set forth and that is everything that is covered over is going to be exposed. What you say in a closet in the darkness and you think it is hid will be shouted and magnified from the housetop. Jesus is saying to us that there is a divine principle at work that God has established in His spiritual order and that is sooner or later people have to come face-to-face with whatever they have tried to cover in their lives and they have failed to get it under the blood of Jesus Christ.
 
The positive side of that is when we come to the Lord and we confess to Him and our lives are covered by the blood of Jesus Christ, then those things are cast from us never to be remembered against us anymore. That is a marvelous thing! That is a glorious thing! But when people try to cover things in their lives and they pretend and they live a life of double standard and they say one thing publicly and do something else secretly, when they cover their lives to cover up deficiencies and times of disobedience and even sin and still try to make the platter and the cup clean on the outside as Jesus said in chapter 11, the He said that God has a principle at work through His glorious knowledge and understanding and His Spirit that one day the cover is pulled off and there is the exposing of all that is deep within the inside.
 
Then He continues. In verses 4-7 He talks about the danger of fear. I want you to look on in your Bible as we talk here because it is helpful for you to look at the Word as we talk about it. He said don’t be afraid of people who can kill and cause you harm. Don’t live in a state of anxiety and fear because of enemies. Don’t even fear Satan himself. He said if you want to fear, you need to have the wholesome, pure, holy fear of God – the One who can not only kill, but can cast your soul into hell fire itself. The One who controls your life, the One who has the power to be the judge and to bring condemnation, He said that is the One that you are to fear. The fear of God, as taught in the Old Testament and throughout the New Testament, is the most healthy attitude that a Christian can have in his life in this world. That humble, holy reverence to come into God’s presence is a kind of paradox. When you have the fear of God, you don’t have to be afraid of anybody or anything else. When you have the fear of God, you can come right into His presence without fear and without condemnation. When you have this holy reverence and respect for Him, it does something to you within so that there is indeed a boldness to come into His presence. You enjoy coming into His presence. People who are filled with condemnation, they are miserable in the presence of God. I have seen people in church services when the power of God would fall and the fire of God would burn and the manifestations of the Holy Spirit would be at work and there would be some people to get very uneasy and very miserable because of the very presence of God in such a powerful way. But when there is no condemnation and you are standing with your heart open and clean before God, oh how you welcome the visitation of God’s presence. How you rejoice in the moving of His Holy Spirit. How you rejoice in worshipping Him and seeing the manifestation of His glorious power. Nothing like it in the world, is it folks?
 
So, His last word there is fear not. He said God keeps up with you. He keeps account of you. He knows all about you. He takes care of the fowls, the birds and flowers and everything. And He keeps up with you, too. Even the hairs of your head are numbered. Now that’s getting pretty close attention to you and your life, wouldn’t you think so, that God Almighty keeps you in clear focus all the time, wherever you go and whatever you do, He sees you. He is watching over you. Sometimes it doesn’t feel like it. Sometimes we may wonder where He is. But He has His eye upon you all the time. Thank God He is there with His glorious presence and His glorious protection and His glorious power and His glorious provision and His great peace. He is there. Thank God, He is there! So you don’t have to fear.
 
I think that is a message that we need to hear again and again and it is a passage that we need to look at again and again in these days because there are many, many fears that plague people in their lives. There are all kinds of fears; fears of growing old, fears of what is going to happen to us physically, materially, spiritually. But Jesus is saying here ‘Fear not, therefore: for you are of more value than many sparrows.’ Amen.
 
Then He continues and He comes to a very, very serious kind of danger that would threaten the people of the early church in a very serious way. The gospel writers knew about the extreme pressures that were being placed upon Christians of their time. The persecutions that came, especially in that transition from the time people were being weaned away from the temple and the synagogue, and especially after the temple was destroyed and people were afraid of being cast out of the synagogue. They went through a time there of great jeopardy when at times, if you stood up as a witness for Jesus Christ, it might very well mean the giving of your life. There were people who were fearful and there were people who would deny the Lord Jesus Christ. He starts, first of all, by talking about the positive confession of faith that we are to make in Him. He said ‘Whosoever shall confess me before men, him shall the Son of man also confess before the angels of God:’
 
Sometimes I get to imagining things and this is one of those pictures that I like to think about. You have lived your life in this world. You have confessed Jesus Christ wherever you have gone. You have been a witness for Christ. You have been a witness of His saving grace and power. You have told other people about it. And then one day you come into His presence. He calls you home and as you go walking in, there are the angels standing. He says ‘I want you to look. Look at this one coming in now. I want to tell you, angels, this is one who confessed me before men in the world. This is one who did not lose his testimony nor his witness. This is one who was not silent nor backward. He stood up and out in his day and confessed My Name and confessed Me as his Saviour and Lord. Now I want to confess to you, angels, that he/she is one of My own redeemed, one of My flock. Welcome in!’ Oh, my Lord! What a welcome sight. What a welcoming event that would be for the Lord Jesus Himself to say “Come on in! This is one of Mine!” Oh, hallelujah!
 
Then He gave a negative side of that. He said ‘But he that denieth me before men shall be denied before the angels of God.’ That is the gruesome, awesome scene, especially for people who may have tried to cover their lives and they come up before Him and He says ‘Depart. You don’t belong to Me.’ Some, He will say, even after they have tried to in a sense present their own case and they say ‘Didn’t we do some great things in Your Name?’ And some He will say ‘Depart from Me. I never knew you.’ Oh my God. To think of being denied before the angels of God and being sent away disappointed and broken hearted all because somewhere on this earth there was that failure of lifting up Jesus, being turned away because of the denial of His name. This was a danger and Jesus knew that His disciples would face it.
 
Simon Peter himself would deny the Lord three times. You say ‘No, I would never deny the Lord Jesus.’ I think all of us would have that kind of testimony and determination, but I would say to you that greater people than we have fallen into that danger and into that temptation. In time of stress and sorrow and disappointment, Simon Peter being the great example, but oh thank God there was restoration for him. And the time came when he would not deny Jesus when it really counted, even if it meant his life and he gladly gave it and he learned what suffering was all about. He learned it so well. As a matter fact, he learned it so well that when he wrote his first great letter, he mentions the word to suffer, pasco, where we get the pascal lamb, the suffering lamb. He mentions it fourteen times in the book of 1 Peter. Seven times it has to do with the sufferings of Jesus Christ. Seven times it has to do with the sufferings of Christians. You can put up these sufferings in categories. Some of them are voluntary and they show examples to others. Some of the sufferings that Peter writes about are vicarious. They are in behalf of others to bless others and some of them are victorious because they look toward the great reward of being faithful to the end. Simon Peter knew that well about suffering and what it took to stand up with boldness and not deny the Lord Jesus Christ.
 
And then He goes on. In this same vein, very sober moment He begins to say in this denial, in this falling away, in this apostasy a person is most likely to start speaking a word against the Son of man. He said that is alright in the sense that he can get forgiveness for that. To speak a word against Jesus, to fail to honor His Name, He said you can get forgiveness for that. But He went on to say if you blaspheme against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven you. I think Matthew adds in this world or in the world to come. When the other gospel writers talk about this blaspheming against the Holy Ghost, it is in the context of the critics of Jesus seeing Him cast out devils. They said He cast out devils by Beelzebub, the prince of devils. That horrible name ‘Beelzebub’, is really a rendition of ‘Ba’al’, which means “lord” and ‘Zebub’ which means “flies.” They are accusing him of being the lord of flies that he operates in the power of this unclean spirit. It was in that context that Jesus in Mark and Matthew said if you blaspheme the Holy Ghost you cannot be forgiven because when you attribute the work of God, the work of healing, casting out devils, whatever you do through the anointing of the Holy Spirit, when you attribute that to the work of Satan that is blaspheming. That is apostasy in its worst sense. Why can’t you be forgiven of that? Because when a person has gone that far, he has gone to the place that he cannot even receive forgiveness. He is not even wanting forgiveness, neither can h e receive it and he is out of touch of the mercy of God. Because, you see, you might talk about God the Father, or God the Son, but when you blaspheme God the Holy Spirit you have reached the end of your blaspheming. There is not another name coming that you could talk against. That is why there is such a penalty placed upon this as Jesus talks about.
 
Then Jesus one again turns the thing right around. I’m glad that He presents both sides of the issue, negative and then the tremendous positive. That’s what I want to end with tonight, this great positive message of the power of the Holy Spirit. He is saying in the time when there is a danger of denial, in the time when you might be so pressured that you would start speaking a word against Christ or even blaspheming the Holy Ghost, He said the other side of that is in that same time if you will look for it you will receive tremendous help and authority from the power of the Holy Ghost. He says as a matter fact, when they bring you up in the synagogues – and oh my, the Bible has some examples of how they brought Christians and put them through the third degree of persecution and trial. I think of the man who was born blind in John 9 and how by himself he had to stand up and do his own testimony, right by himself. Even his parents who were afraid of being cast out of the synagogue wouldn’t stand and help their own son. You would think that the woman who had carried the shame upon her and her husband all these years, that perhaps they sinned a great sin, the reason their son was born blind and deformed, and now then he is healed and that is lifted from off her. You would think that they would stand with boldness with him, but no, he had to do it all by himself. But in that very process of them putting him through the mill and grilling him three times saying, “We know. We know. We know.” And three times he says, “I don’t know. I don’t know. I don’t know.” You don’t have to know everything. When you are in the middle of trial and trouble and tribulation the Holy Spirit will come to you there and teach you and show you the way. This man rose in levels of faith and enlightenment and understanding. He started out talking about Jesus, just a man called Jesus told me to wash. The next time you see him after they pounded on him, he said, ‘Well he must be a prophet.’ He moves a little higher and said, ‘He is a man of God. Are you going to serve Him?’ And they get so angry at him that they cast him out of the synagogue. But Jesus came to him. The last time we see that man who was healed of blindness, he is on his knees before Jesus saying, ‘My Lord and my God’ and he is worshipping Him.
 
In the time of trial and persecution when they bring you up, you can rise to top-level faith. You can rise to top-level enlightenment and understanding of the gracious will of God. Jesus said don’t worry about it. When they bring you up that way, don’t try to figure things out. Take no thought, don’t even try to prepare your own defense. Don’t try to prepare any speech. Don’t try to prepare any argument. But what will happen in that time when you just lean on Me, the Holy Ghost will teach you in the same hour what you ought to say.’ How many of you have ever been in a tight spot and the Holy Ghost revealed to you the right thing to say and the right thing to do? Thank God for the guiding power of the Holy Spirit! Thank God that the Holy Spirit can come into our hearts and lives and can give direction. He can lead us. He gives us the words of wisdom to say. All kinds of gifts and fruits can come from Him. Jesus said when you come up against tight spots and troubled times don’t worry about it because the Holy Ghost will teach you in the very same hour what you should say. I thank God tonight for the baptism of the Holy Ghost, don’t you? Thank God for the guiding power of the Holy Spirit. I’m going to ask you to stand to your feet and praise Him tonight. Let’s give glory and honor to the Lord!
 
Hallelujah! Hallelujah! We thank You. We praise You, oh God. We magnify Your Holy Name. Oh Holy Spirit, we thank You. Thank You, oh Lord, for the Word of the Living God, for the power of the Holy Spirit. Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!

Devotions

Power Of God

g

JRadio

Listen Live

Need Prayer?

Shout Jesus Saves

Youtube

Click here to visit the Shout Jesus Saves Youtube

 

Vimeo

Click here to visit the Shout Jesus Saves Vimeo

 

Network Sites

Jesussaves.cc

Global prayer Network

faith library

Experience with the Living Lord (Luke 24:13-35)

by | Nov 5, 2017

Luke 24:13-35

13

And, behold, two of them went that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was from Jerusalem about threescore furlongs.

14

 And they talked together of all these things which had happened.

15

And it came to pass, that, while they communed together and reasoned, Jesus himself drew near, and went with them.

16

But their eyes were holden that they should not know him.

17

And he said unto them, What manner of communications are these that ye have one to another, as ye walk, and are sad?

18

And the one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answering said unto him, Art thou only a stranger in Jerusalem, and hast not known the things which are come to pass there in these days?

19

And he said unto them, What things? And they said unto him, Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, which was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people:

20

And how the chief priests and our rulers delivered him to be condemned to death, and have crucified him.

21

But we trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel: and beside all this, to day is the third day since these things were done.

22

Yea, and certain women also of our company made us astonished, which were early at the sepulchre;

23

And when they found not his body, they came, saying, that they had also seen a vision of angels, which said that he was alive.

24

And certain of them which were with us went to the sepulchre, and found it even so as the women had said: but him they saw not.

25

Then he said unto them, O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken:

26

Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory?

27

 And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.

28

And they drew nigh unto the village, whither they went: and he made as though he would have gone further.

29

 But they constrained him, saying, Abide with us: for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent. And he went in to tarry with them.

30

 And it came to pass, as he sat at meat with them, he took bread, and blessed it, and brake, and gave to them.

31

And their eyes were opened, and they knew him; and he vanished out of their sight.

32

And they said one to another, Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures?

33

And they rose up the same hour, and returned to Jerusalem, and found the eleven gathered together, and them that were with them,

34

Saying, The Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared to Simon.

35

And they told what things were done in the way, and how he was known of them in breaking of bread.

As we try to recount the experience of these disciples on the road to Emmaus, I want you to see three different scenes in this episode. One, they are walking away from Jerusalem. They are walking in a sense away from Christ. They are walking apart from the Lord, talking to themselves. But there is part of the journey where they are walking with Christ and what an experience that turned out to be. Then, we see them finally as they are walking for Christ.
 
That outline sort of sets the outline for the Christian life because there is a time when we walk apart from Christ and where we need to walk with Him more closely and have things revealed to us, and then that automatically brings to our hearts the idea or determination to live for Him and walk for Him and His glory.
 
Let’s look at that experience for just a minute. As they are walking apart from Christ, we note that they have saddened hearts and they are discussing, sort of a theological discussion and reasoning that is going on, and it leads to sadness and disappointment and even disillusionment to their hearts. There are some things you simply cannot figure out in your own reason. That is the problem with a lot of people in this world and their acceptance of the gospel because the claims of the gospel, the glorious good news and truth has to be accepted on faith in Jesus Christ, not human reasoning. There are so many things that are unreasonable about the Bible that we cannot comprehend with the natural mind, with our natural selves. It takes faith in the Word of God for us to understand and receive divine revelation. Some things we never understand until the Holy Spirit and there is indeed divine revelation through the Word and through the power of the Holy Spirit. That is one reason why we can have a world filled with theologians who reason among themselves and perhaps do not an experience with the living Lord and they come up with sadness and disappointment and can sometimes go to the extreme as some did in Atlanta, Georgia a few years ago to say that God is dead. They started out perhaps with a fairly good commentary by saying that the way Christians are acting and living in the world, it’s as if God is dead. They don’t seem to pay Him any attention anymore. They don’t pray with Him anymore. They don’t walk with Him much anymore. It looks as if God died. But they went on in a process of theological reasoning and came up with the absurd idea that God Himself was dead. Some of you remember what all we went through, and the testimonies that came forth and it built a fire under most of us and we began to see slogans and bumper stickers ‘My God is not dead. I talked to Him this morning.’ And the first thing you know that sounding out of human reasoning caused us to become more intimate with our Lord and to build up the experience and a wonderful relationship with Him.
 
Just trying to figure things out in their minds, they could not comprehend. They couldn’t understand the ways of the Lord and the ways of the Word. They were not yet rooted and grounded and founded in the Word as it related to Jesus Christ. They probably were familiar with the Word, the Law and the prophets to some extent, but were not able at that time to connect it with Jesus. As they were talking and reasoning together, then Jesus joined them. They were unaware that He was even approaching, that He was close by. When He joined them, they didn’t know who He was. Let me ask you a question. Has the Lord ever come to you in a special time and you didn’t even recognize Him? Has He talked to you and you didn’t know who He was at first? You weren’t sure who the voice was or you weren’t sure what was happening to you. It’s my opinion that we perhaps miss some of the greatest moments of communion with Him, which would be moments of enlightenment, if we could just recognize Him when He approaches and welcome Him and spend some time in communion walking with Him.
 
Some of the greatest experiences I have ever had as a Christian and as a minister of the gospel were when I earnestly sought out those times to draw close to the Lord and prayed long enough and stayed with Him and the Word long enough until He would begin to disclose Himself, reveal Himself to me and make known His will and speak to my own heart. Those are the most treasured experiences of our lives when the Lord has revealed Himself to us. Especially if you were desperate and you needed to know God’s will and you needed an answer to prayer and suddenly, He moved in and answered it sooner than you expected. Have you ever been surprised at how quickly the Lord answered one of your prayers? That is a wonderful experience when the Lord surprises you with how quickly He moves on the scene and moves in your behalf.
 
As Jesus began to talk with them and walk with them, He began to ask them questions. What is this communications that you’ve got going together with you that’s leaving you so sad? Now that is a whole point to preach right there because I think that somehow or another we need a renewal of our experience with the Lord and the power of the Holy Ghost. Somehow it erases some of the sadness from our countenance, especially when we are thinking in terms of our Lord and Savior and our salvation. It ought to bring joy, absolutely, pure heavenly joy to our hearts. I think sometimes we miss these experiences of great joy.  The Bible talks about joy in a lot of different dimensions, about six different ways. It talks about plain joy, then more joy, great joy, full joy, exceeding great joy and it just keeps on. In other words, when the gospel writers begin writing about the joy that we can have, they just describe it in different dimensions and different amounts, so to speak, and when you are walking with Christ and when you are in His Word and you are communing with Him, it is a source of divine joy that can erase the sad countenance and put a smile on our faces.
 
So many people are uptight and frustrated that they are not leaning on the joy of the Lord to give them strength. Oh God, help us to somehow when we are talking about Jesus, to radiate a countenance that is filled with the joy of the Lord instead of sadness.
 
They expressed their disappointment. They said he was supposed, and we had thought (verse 21) we had even trusted that He was the One who would redeem Israel. What all they meant by  redeeming Israel, well, it may not be exactly what we think about it, but I’m sure like other disciples, they were disappointed that He did not deliver Israel from the hand of the Romans. That’s what the disciples were so interested in. We saw it earlier, even on the night that Jesus ate the Last Passover with them and instituted the Lord’s Supper. They were arguing over a literal kingdom and who would be the greatest. They wanted Jesus to come and overthrow the Roman government. As He established His kingdom on earth, to include them in the arrangements of who would sit on His right and on His left and be the greatest.
 
It was hard thing for people to get their minds away from a kingdom of this world. And it still is. It is still difficult for us to keep in mind that we are citizens of another world. This world is not our home. We are passing through here. We belong to a different kingdom and our King is not visible on this earth yet, but He soon will be. Soon, He will come in clouds of glory. Soon He will return and every eye will see Him when He comes in glory. Every knee will bow and every tongue will confess. That is the kind of faith and idea to keep burning in your heart as you live out our days in these last days because many people have no hope, have no  joy, they have no living experience with our Lord Jesus Christ.
 
They expressed their disappointment and then Jesus rebuked them. It was a gentle rebuke. It doesn’t sound like it from the way the King James translates it, but He is almost saying to them – not what we ordinarily think of as fool – but foolishness as children may have. He is saying slow of heart to believe, all that the prophets have spoken.
 
Does the devil ever come to challenge you about your faith and what the Scriptures have said about your salvation, about eternal life? Is there ever a time when he comes and says ‘Oh, what’s all this you believe?’ These men were slow in their hearts to believe what the Bible said. Some of you would agree and testify the same way that the more you go back to this Word, the more it comes alive and the more it builds faith and the more heaven becomes real and the blood of Jesus Christ becomes powerful and the power of the Holy Spirit becomes more real the more you live and dwell in this Word. After awhile it’s not hard to  believe what the Scripture says. It’s not hard for you to believe what the prophets have said. I’m glad that Jesus is so loving and so kind that He would take the time with two disciples and He will take the time with you and me, too. In the times of our sadness, in the times of our disappointments, in the time of our lack of faith, our failure to believe fully and completely, He will take the time to erase the doubts and push back the clouds if we will just walk with Him. You stay with Him awhile and the longer you stay with Him the more clouds of doubt roll away because He took the time.
 
I hope you notice what I read in verse 27, ‘And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning Himself.’ Can you imagine how long that took? I don’t know how far their journey was to the place, but it sounds to me like they had quite a good walk and it must have been that Jesus talked to them. They probably stopped once in awhile and Jesus must have talked to them for hours. If He covered all the prophets and the Law beginning in Genesis with the Pentateuch and all the prophets, my goodness, He pinpointed in all those passages, and that thrills me, too, to know that Luke says that there are passages beginning with Genesis, through all the Law, and all the prophets in the Scriptures, there are passages that refer directly to Jesus. If you want a Bible study that will keep you busy for awhile and be exciting, why don’t you read the Bible through and somehow make note of every passage that deals with our Lord Jesus Christ, prophetic of His first coming and His second coming and whatever? I tell you for sure here is one of the fundamental foundations that the apostles will stand on for years to come. They will stand on the Word and they will go to the Scriptures again and again to explain about Jesus, His life and death. In fact, there are some translations of Scripture, like the New American Standard in particular, that every time there is a quotation from the Old Testament, it is written in capital letters in the New Testament. It’s amazing when you start thumbing through that particular translation to see at the many, many, many different references that are in the New Testament that are coming our of the Old Testament about many things. Many of them are about Jesus Christ.
 
The greatest experience you can have in this world is to walk with Jesus and have Him teach you from the Word of God. What a wonderful experience it is when you’ve prayed up against a wall and there’s no way to see through it and all of a sudden, the Lord opens a door and you see what a beautiful entrance right there all the time you just couldn’t see it. There is life, transforming power, it is quick and powerful in this Word. When God gets in the arrangements to show you this Word and let it reveal to your heart and you begin to see it through the power of the Holy Spirit. It starts breathing life into your very being.
 
I’m talking about when you’re with Jesus and you’re in the Spirit, and you’re in the Word and He lets you see things you’ve never seen and He opens up your understanding, Ah! That is the richest treasure and the richest experience you can ever have in this world. He talked a long time. Their hearts were burning. You cannot be in the presence of the Lord without something happening to you. When  you are communing and talking to Him and He is talking to you, your heart is going to burn and there is going to be a dynamic move of the Holy Spirit reaching into your very soul.
 
Then they got to the place where they were supposed to stay. Jesus made as if He would just go on. Still, like a stranger, He is still like a stranger to them. They had not recognized Him yet. But they constrained Him. They began to just simply press on Him, ‘No, you must come in. You must come by.’ Here’s what He did. When they sat down to eat, He took bread and He broke it. He blessed it and broke it and gave to them to eat. Hallelujah! If you want divine revelation, if you want spiritual understanding, sit at the table with Jesus and let Him break the bread of life with you and bless it and give it to you. Your eyes will be opened. Your understanding will be opened. The Bible says in verse 31 ‘their eyes were opened, and they knew him;’ What an experience with a living Lord that they have not recognized Him before, but now when they see His hands blessing bread and breaking it. They know that is His pattern. That’s the way He always did. That’s the way He did on the day of the miracle of the loaves and fishes. He blessed it first and then he broke it. That’s the way He works with you and me. When He gets ready to give us out like bread, the first thing He does is bless us real good and then He starts this breaking process. He doesn’t break us first. If He did, we couldn’t stand it. But He blesses us first and then He starts breaking and we can handle it then.
 
If you’ve come from heaven’s blessings upon your life, then when the hand puts the squeeze on your life to break your will, you don’t mind it nearly as much. You’re in a lot better attitude then. That is one reason why some people never get broken. They won’t let God bless them. You talk about quenching the Spirit, I think there is a spirit in the world in these days that somehow gets hold of people that they don’t want God to really bless them. I am hungry to see the Holy Spirit fall on people and them forget about where they are and allow God to work in our hearts. So He blessed it, broke it, and gave it, and their eyes were opened. If there is something you are having a hard time seeing, sit down and sup with Jesus. Jesus knocked on the door and He is knocking on the door of the Church in the Book of the Revelation and He said ‘Behold I stand at the door and knock and if any man hear my voice and will open the door, I will come into him and sup with him and he with me. We will eat together.’ In that process, there will be divine revelation and divine experience that changes your life. It did them. It sent them with gladdened hearts walking for Jesus, going back to Jerusalem with a new vision, a new understanding. They left Jerusalem in sadness, with questions and disappointment, and human reasoning. But they are returning with gladdened hearts burning with the power of the Holy Spirit. They had moved from saddened hearts to burning hearts to gladdened hearts and now they are walking for Him back to Jerusalem in renewed faith and renewed joy and power.
 
This kind of experience inspires us to be His witness in any and everything that we do for His glory. I would dare say this that none of us are ready to do that very well until we have had such a life-transforming experience with the resurrected living Lord. Like those disciples, we may not can see Him and recognize Him with the natural eye tonight, but we can listen to Him and His Word and look at all that the Scriptures have said about Him and let our hearts burn with the living truth until indeed He is revealed to us in a most gracious way.

Devotions

Power Of God

g

JRadio

Listen Live

Need Prayer?

Shout Jesus Saves

Youtube

Click here to visit the Shout Jesus Saves Youtube

 

Vimeo

Click here to visit the Shout Jesus Saves Vimeo

 

Network Sites

Jesussaves.cc

Global prayer Network

faith library

Forward in Faith – 03/24/2002, Forgiveness From the Cross – Luke 23:32

by | Nov 6, 2016

Listen To This Sermon 
Forward in Faith presents a powerful message of the word of God. Now in his 12th year as speaker, Rev. Loran Livingston brings a message of hope and inspiration from the pulpit of the 6,000-member Central Church of God in Charlotte, NC.

Devotions

Power Of God

g

JRadio

Listen Live

Need Prayer?

Shout Jesus Saves

Youtube

Click here to visit the Shout Jesus Saves Youtube

 

Vimeo

Click here to visit the Shout Jesus Saves Vimeo

 

Network Sites

Jesussaves.cc

Global prayer Network

faith library

Humility and Prayer (Luke 18:9-14)

by | Nov 8, 2014

Luke 18:9-14

9

And he spake this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others:

10

Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican.

11

The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican.

12

I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess.

13

And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner.

14

I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.

I suppose that there is such a thing as a pastor coming to the platform with his Bible, sitting there as he watches people come in and gather around and then choosing a text for a certain group. Here is a case where Jesus literally brings a message to a specific audience. You can rest easy tonight because we are going to preach to the Pharisees! We don’t have any here tonight so He is taking aim at the Pharisees. It says very specifically that He spoke this parable, He gave this great illustration and He spoke it to certain people. We know it is the Pharisees because He uses one of them in the illustration and we know what He has just been talking to them about in times past in the gospel of Luke. He is addressing this to people who trusted in themselves, that they are righteous. It is clearly understood that these are people who are so built up in their own religious knowledge and understanding and so devoted and dedicated to sets of principles and guidelines that they do in order to put their religion on display so that others can see it that they trust in themselves for their righteousness. They don’t look any place else. They don’t look to God for grace or mercy. They apparently don’t need God’s grace or mercy. They don’t seem to look to Jesus. They certainly don’t accept Him and the kind of teaching that He gives. He brings new light on specific teachings of the Law. You can keep the Law from an outward appearance standpoint and still be guilty of doing wrong by the Law within your heart.
 
Jesus internalized things. He looked upon the heart and He understood. He would say to the Pharisees on some occasions, You look like coffins on the outside, but you are just full of dead men’s bones, no life within you on the inside. He is addressing this message to them, people who trust in themselves that they are righteous and people who also in their pride at being so good and so righteous they despise others.
 
Two real strong attitudes that Jesus is striking out at here are these: one is the attitude of pride and self-exaltation that says I am good enough and I don’t need anybody’s help. I don’t even need God’s help. The other attitude that looks down on other people to despise them and say well they are nothing, they don’t do as I do and they don’t live like I live. What deception. What deception that people can get involved in, especially when we look back on what the Pharisees were – who they were and what they did and what they said.
 
To illustrate these great truths here, the truth that self-exaltation is going to lead to a shame and abasement. Self-righteousness is going to lead to severe disappointment when one stands before God. On the other hand, humility in God’s presence leads to exaltation. It is a strange thing. Jesus deals in paradoxes all the time and it is not some kind of theological double-talk, but it is the living truth that He sees in the lives of people. People who humbled themselves before God in reverence, God exalts them in His own way and in His own time. That is a wonderful and glorious thing. These are some of the truths that we want to see come up out of this story.
 
So let’s look again at contrasting examples. Let’s look at the contrast here between the Pharisee and the publican. First of all, let’s look at the Pharisee. Let’s look at his prayer. Now you can tell a whole lot about a person if you know what he prays, if you know how he prays and how he thinks, how he approaches God. I think that’s one reason why Jesus made it quite clear to give us a divine spiritual pattern of prayer; to begin in reverence and begin in worship to the Father and His great Name and to ask for His kingdom to come and His will to be done before we ever begin to ask for our own personal petitions and for guidance and direction. The prayer ends again with giving glory to God forever.
 
Let’s look at this Pharisee’s prayer. He started off real good. He said I thank God. It’s pretty good to start off your prayer by thanking God, isn’t it? Especially if you are thanking Him for the right things. He said I thank God, but he began to thank God not for what God was, nor for what God did, nor what God had done for him, but for all the things that he was not! We learned a long time ago that you can’t build a case from silence or from nothing. He said I thank God that I am not as other men are. Boy, right then, his prayer really takes a turn. We understand the turn it takes because the Bible says before that that he had prayed with himself. He wasn’t quite concerned if God heard him or not. If some other people heard him that was fine because Jesus described the Pharisees on many occasions and how they prayed standing with a loud voice so that people around could hear them bragging on themselves and he is praying thus with himself. He said I thank God that I am not like other people. I am not an extortioner. I don’t threaten people and cause people problems in order to collect money out of them. I’m not a thief in the way of extorting money from people. I don’t do business like that. He said I am not unjust. I treat people justly. I do what is right. Both of those things are very commendable. Then he said I am not an adulterer. I don’t break the commandments and he went on to say I’m glad I’m not even like this publican that is standing here, this tax collector, this despised and hated person.
 
Well, I’m not this, I’m not that. I’m glad I’m not this. I’m telling you there are a lot of things in this world we can all be glad we’re not. There are a lot of people we can be glad we’re not like them. I’d hate to be like some folks in this world who have completely turned their lives over to Satan. I think there is a sense of gratitude that we could all have in our hearts that by the mercy of God we are not like somebody else. But he doesn’t include the mercy of God. He is depending on his own strength, his own self.
 
This man not only gave a list of things that he was glad he was not, but I want you to look at his good works. I doubt that there is a church in all of Tennessee, Church of God included, that would not welcome this man in as a member because he said I fast twice in the week. Now the law and regulations had said something about once a week and here he was doubling up on it. He was heaping double righteousness upon himself to say out loud I twice in the week. You hear me, God? He’s praying to himself. God is not really listening, but Jesus understands. Then he says I pay tithes on all that I possess. Man! He doesn’t figure out certain expenses and then tithe and do all kind of adjustments. He didn’t even know what an adjusted gross income was. He paid tithes on everything he possessed, he said. Now keep in mind that this man might not have been telling the whole truth, but we will take for granted that he is. What a good person, what a great man! He’s not this, not this, not this and he does this and this and this and all these wonderful and glorious things that are Scriptural and beautiful. But we find out sadly that this man was not justified before God because he was trusting in himself and in his good works. The Bible teaches us that when it comes to our salvation and being justified in the sight of God that good works won’t do it. At the same time, the Bible teaches that when you are transformed by the grace of God, then by His mercy and by His grace and by His blessings and by His provisions, you are blessed and you do a lot of wonderful things. There are some agreements and covenants that God enters into with us after we have been transformed and justified by the blood of Jesus Christ.
 
Let’s look at the other contrast. Let’s look at the publican. Look at his prayer. Both of them have come to pray. One comes up front and center and brags on himself and prays with himself. Somehow we feel sorry for him, putting out all the efforts that he is doing and trying to maintain such a life and still knowing that he is going home condemned and not justified in God’s sight. But here’s another person who comes and he comes in humility. This would indicate that what the other man had must have been pride and haughtiness. Pride is just the absence of humility. It is the opposite of humility, I should say. Do you remember the small book of Obadiah? The whole message is to the pride of Edom. They have become so strong and the dwell in the mountains and the cliffs of the rocks. They think that nobody can overthrow them and they have done some things against God’s people and they have become settled down in their own ways. The Bible said the prophet says the pride of your heart hath exalted you. But God says from there from your self-exaltation I will bring you down from the mountain and your safe places in the caves and the cliffs of the rocks. Even if you are sent to heaven, I will bring you down from there. Then there is long list of things, 18 items I think, that the prophet lists against the people of Edom. You should not have done this, you should not have done that. All of these things witnessing to the fact that they had pride in themselves and had no regard for God. So humility is the opposite of pride. Pride says to God I can handle this job all by myself. Sometimes we get a touch, a feel of the whip of the Lord, so to speak, the chastising rod. The Bible teaches that whom the Lord loves, He chastises. The reason when that chastising rod comes and bites, it is to humble our hearts and cause us to turn to God. You cannot go into Scripture anywhere and look at judgment or chastisement with any other reason or purpose from God than to humble people and turn them around and turn back to God. Even if you read the Book of Revelation at the time of the great wrath of God and the outpouring of the wrath upon the peoples of this earth, it will say again and again ‘And yet they repented not of their evil deeds.’ Which even then in the great tribulation judgment is used as an instrument to turn people to God. I’ve known a good many people in my life who might not have ever turned to God if it had not been for some chastening hand of God upon them, facing things that they suddenly couldn’t handle by themselves. Sometimes we experience things like that. We face things that we know we can’t handle by ourselves. It has an humbling effect to cause you to fall on your face and seek God for mercy.
 
This man came in humility and he was not brazen or bold as we are taught to be as blood-washed children of God. He stood afar off in reverence and in respect. He had such reverence, in fact, that he wouldn’t even so much as lift up his eyes toward God. Now when you balance off what the Bible teaches about the children of God who are blood-washed and we are invited to come with boldness to the throne of grace to obtain mercy, that is a beautiful and encouraging and wonderful picture, isn’t it? But even then the approach must be with humility. The boldness of faith, yes, but with humility, not with pride that brags on self. It is a fearful thing to come before God with any kind of boasting in yourself.
 
In reverence he wouldn’t lift up his eyes and then he smote his breast. Among Jewish people this has always been an expression of extreme agony of pain of what the suffering is going on in a person’s life. They had other expressions like shaving their head and putting ashes upon it and sitting in sackcloth and ashes and saying I deserve to be dead and be covered with dirt and ashes. One of the saddest lines in the prophet Amos when he talks about when the Syrians would come to Israel and take people away and what mourning it would be. It would be like the mourning for an only son. He said there would be baldness upon everyone. Not meaning that the hair would come out, but that they would shave their heads as the utter sign of mourning and wailing and weeping. You add to that the smiting of the chest to indicate the suffering you are feeling and that is what he did. In his heart he felt unworthy. In his heart he knew he was not like that Pharisee. In his heart, he knew he was afar off. He stood afar off, he was a long way off. I’m glad that we have seen in looking at Jesus, that Jesus hears people who are a long way off and Jesus receives people who are a long distance from Him spiritually. Jesus hears the cries of people who are crying out for mercy. Aren’t you glad it’s so? He trusted only in God’s mercy, confessing his sin. He said God be merciful to me a sinner.
 
Now that’s how a sinner prays, gets his prayer answered and goes home justified. He doesn’t pretend. He doesn’t boast. He doesn’t rely on pride, but he opens up his heart and he lays it bare and lets the sight of God look right in and he confesses what is there. You talk about therapeutic and cleansing! A lot of people these days would do well to cleanse themselves by simply opening up their hearts and confessing and making it known to God. He already knows. You say He knows what’s there already. I know that, but the fact that God knows your heart doesn’t do you any good as far as justifying you. But confession of it to Him and pleading His mercy, that’s what does bring the purging and the cleansing. That is one reason Jesus wouldn’t let people who had been blessed stay quiet about it and He would draw them out and open confession. The very act of  confessing it with the mouth – this whole thing of salvation and following Christ is not a matter of something you believe in your heart and you keep your mouth shut. No, He draws you out. Paul even said confession with the mouth is made unto salvation. Faith in your heart, repentance and your mouth saying words of confession.
I think I told you once that I had started out in one church to preach every Wednesday night on prayer. Every time there was a case about prayer, where somebody prayed about something I was going to go straight through the Bible. I didn’t think it would take too long. I went two years and just go to the book of Esther. I moved from that church and didn’t continue it, but I never got to the great laments and prayers of the psalmist and I never got to the great prayers of the prophets and certainly didn’t get to the New Testament to the great prayers recorded there. Folks, this Book is a Book of prayers and in those 70-something sermons I did just getting to the book of Esther, I found that every conceivable problem that you would ever face in this world, you will find a prayer for it there.
He has gone to the word of God, Jeremiah, and he is reading the scroll of Jeremiah. He looks around at his times and situations and he realizes that what Jeremiah prophesied has already come to pass, seventy years in exile in Babylonian captivity. But he looks at the situation and nobody is aware of it. Nobody seems to be doing anything about it. Nobody seems to be praying. Nobody seems to be concerned about going back to the homeland or rebuilding worship in Jerusalem and he sets himself to seek God in fasting and prayer and sackcloth and ashes and in confession. If you look down through chapter 9, here is a model prayer for a saint of God who is praying in behalf of a backslidden nation that is in exile and has grown accustomed to captivity. Some people can be in captivity and not be aware of it and not even be disturbed by it. He prayed because of the confusion among the people. He prayed for the kings and princes in verse 8. He prayed, calling what they had done rebellion, and he prayed about the curse in verse 11 that had been put upon them. As he kept praying finally, I want to read a little bit of his prayer from verse 16, “Oh, Lord, according to all thy righteousness, I beseech thee. Let thine anger and thy fury be turned away from thy city Jerusalem, thy holy mountain. Because of our sins and for the iniquities of our fathers Jerusalem and thy people are become a reproach to all that are about us. Now therefore Oh our God, hear the prayer of thy servant and his supplications and cause thy face to shine upon the sanctuary that is desolate for the Lord’s sake. Oh my God, incline thine ear and hear. Open thine eyes and behold our desolations and the city which is called by thy name for we do not present our supplications before thee for our righteousness.” See the difference in this prayer and the prayer of the Pharisee? He said we don’t come on the basis of our righteousness, Lord, but for thy great mercies. We are depending on mercy. Hallelujah! He goes on to pray. Gabriel was caused to fly swiftly. I like the idea that God has the power and He has the will to get your answer to you quickly and immediately. That is when he received the divine touch to give him understanding of the future. That’s when he begins to give that great message concerning the future.
 
Daniel received five great touches in his life. That’s another sermon in itself. Maybe we will preach it again. Even such a righteous man as Daniel, he comes bringing the sins of his people before God and confessing them and saying to them God, we do not come to you on the basis of our righteousness because we don’t have any to claim. We are throwing ourselves upon your mercy.
This is humility and expressions of confession and the opening up of the heart and revealing what is inside, not only by doing that but by confessing it. You see the door of answered prayer is closed until we open our hearts with confession. Every great outpouring and manifestation of God’s grace and power came by first of all, people humbling themselves and turning to God and repenting and confessing and seeking God with their whole heart. That is how revival has always began. There is no outpouring. There is no great move of God’s presence and power until his people humble themselves and call upon His name and seek His face. Hallelujah!
 
This man, the publican, didn’t know a lot, but he quickly and openly confessed that he was a sinner and he asked for God’s mercy. Jesus said to these Pharisees who trusted in themselves that they were righteous ‘This man went home justified, rather than the other.’ Then He ended this parable by giving one of the greatest truths that is a preaching text itself and I will use it to conclude tonight. He is not speaking parable now, He is speaking truth that is coming out of this story. ‘…every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.’ Those are the words of Jesus. How sad it is that you and I know people who were exalted in self and they were abased and crushed and they’ve never risen from the ashes of their burned-out life, so to speak. At the same time, we have seen others so insignificant and yet they humble themselves before God and He laid his hand upon them and lifted them to heights that were unbelievable. I have known people when they started out in ministry and thought to myself looking at it through my eyes ‘Oh, will they ever make it in ministry?’ only to see them in a few years with a great anointing and deep in the Word of God and mightily used by the hand of God. God was just lifting them higher and higher and higher.
 
Please stand to your feet and let’s get ready to pray.

Devotions

Power Of God

g

JRadio

Listen Live

Need Prayer?

Shout Jesus Saves

Youtube

Click here to visit the Shout Jesus Saves Youtube

 

Vimeo

Click here to visit the Shout Jesus Saves Vimeo

 

Network Sites

Jesussaves.cc

Global prayer Network

faith library

Healing of the Lepers (Luke 17:11-19)

by | Nov 8, 2014

Luke 17:11-19

11

And it came to pass, as he went to Jerusalem, that he passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee.

12

And as he entered into a certain village, there met him ten men that were lepers, which stood afar off:

13

And they lifted up their voices, and said, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.

14

And when he saw them, he said unto them, Go shew yourselves unto the priests. And it came to pass, that, as they went, they were cleansed.

15

And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, and with a loud voice glorified God,

16

And fell down on his face at his feet, giving him thanks: and he was a Samaritan.

17

And Jesus answering said, Were there not ten cleansed? but where are the nine?

18

There are not found that returned to give glory to God, save this stranger.

19

 And he said unto him, Arise, go thy way: thy faith hath made thee whole.

Tonight I want to talk to you about healing, the healing of the ten lepers in particular, and the healing power of God in general. How many of you have experienced divine healing in your life in just recent weeks? Would you as a testimony raise your hand? Oh hallelujah! How wonderful to see.
 
The dreaded disease of leprosy in the time of Jesus or any time brings together unusual kinds of people. It seems that political divisions or religious divisions or racial divisions do not make any difference when it comes to leprosy. I’m sure we could say the same kind of things these days in regard to the plague of aids or other terrible diseases. Here are evidently nine Jews who are now associating with a Samaritan and they are in a group of ten together and they are leprous men, all ten of them. They are together. Jesus passed through the borders of Samaria and Galilee. They had heard about Him and they met Him. They were careful to keep their distance because of being lepers and they cried with loud voices saying Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.
 
I want us to look at their story tonight and I think there are some points that we can apply from this passage and from this story. It’s a simple message, but when I was preparing this message, being interested in healing myself it spoke to me and stood out to me in a very special way. I want to bring to you some lessons we can learn from this story and hopefully we can apply them to our own hearts.
 
First of all, I want to remind you of something you already know. Jesus receives people who are afar off. People may be afar off from God in more ways than one. In this case they had to stand afar off because they were lepers and because of that terrible disease. It was the custom of the time to keep their distance and stand at a distance from Jesus. Other people may have a long distance from Christ because of being unclean, maybe not with leprosy, but with sin. With Jesus Christ, distance does not matter. He receives people who may be a long way off from Him. People who at one time may have been close to him, but now are afar off are still received by Him. Jesus receives people who have never been close to Him and have always been afar off, where there are great distances between them and His love and compassion. Here is the reason He receives them. They cried with a loud voice. They recognized Him first of all as Jesus and then as Master. As you know, His Name, Jesus, represents His saving, redemptive office because the angel said You shall call His Name Jesus for He shall save His people from their sins. His Name or title, Master, has to do with His Lordship. Somehow they recognized this. I can’t begin to tell you how important this is. When people are received even though they are a long way off from Christ they recognize Him as Savior and as Lord.
 
A lot of people only want to look at Him as Savior, but it really touches our Lord as Master and Lord. Some people just want His blessings instead of making Him Lord and Master of their lives. That’s not the way it works all the time. There may be sometimes that Jesus will simply bless people whether or not they accept Him as Lord and Master. Most of the time, that works together, receiving what Jesus is and His blessings, because you see Jesus is what He gives. He can give bread in a miraculous way, but He said I am the bread of life. He is what He gives. He gives light into a darkened life, because He said I am the light of the world. Jesus is what He gives and if you receive His blessings and what He gives you must also receive Him as Lord and Master. If you keep His blessing, if you keep His gracious gifts of blessing and healing and love, then you have to recognize Him as not only Jesus, but as Master and Lord as well.
 
Jesus receives people who are afar off and a long way from Him because they cry out for mercy. In their crying out, they recognize who He is. There is no way for us to know how many people have missed what they needed because they didn’t ask and they didn’t cry out. Our Lord has made it perfectly clear to ask and to seek and to knock. He means by that to keep on asking, and keep on seeking and keep on knocking.
 
Jesus receives people who are a long way off when they cry out to Him for mercy with real sincerity and they recognize Him as Jesus and Master. I don’t know exactly what God is doing when He impresses my heart with certain messages or certain applications in particular. But I need to tell somebody here tonight and I don’t know who you are, that you may feel like you are a long, long way from Him and His will. But I need to tell you that a cry for His mercy will bring you close. It will bring you to His delivering power and His healing virtue. This ought to be the time that you cry out to Him with all your heart. He will hear.
Jesus then receives people who cry out for mercy. They lifted up their voices. They called out Have mercy upon us, Jesus Master. They recognized Him and the Bible says that Jesus saw them. Think about that for a moment, what it means for Jesus to actually see – to look your way, to understand your case and to see you right where you are.
 
We have a little granddaughter that lives here in Cleveland. One of our regular routines when she is at our house is after we have eaten, she says Papaw, tell me a story. She climbs up and sits at the end of the table, on the table facing me. She will say Look at me, Papaw. She wants me to look at her. She wants my undivided attention while I tell her a story. I’ve told her all kinds of stories about when I was a boy. My wife has told her similar stories and she always wants to hear the stories, but she wants undivided attention. And, of course, we delight in giving her undivided attention.
 
It is wonderful when Jesus looks at you because He sees and He understands. Let me give you another illustration of another great healing from John chapter 9. Jesus and His disciples walked out and they saw a man who was born blind. Look what the disciples saw. They only saw a subject of theological debate to discuss. Who sinned? This man or his parents that he should be born blind? What difference does it make if you lay the blame either way because the man is blind? But the Bible says that Jesus saw a man. He saw a man, yes, a blind man. He said this particular situation is presented to us so that the works of God may be made manifest in him. His deformity was not caused from himself or from his parents, either, but that the works of God might be made manifest in his life. I need to tell somebody here tonight that if there is something wrong in your life regardless of the kind of need, if you can get His attention and He looks straight at you and He understands, He will see it as an opportunity for the works of God to be made manifest in your life. Oh, hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
 
If there is a special need tonight, why don’t you say Look at me, Jesus. Look at me, Jesus. I’m crying out to you. Will you look at me? He will understand. Praise the Lord! Do you feel like you’ve got His attention? Do you feel like He’s looking right down in your life? Do you feel like He is just zeroing in on you and it’s just you and Jesus in this house tonight and you are seeing Him and He is seeing you?
 
[Message in tongues.] Interpretation: Keep your eyes focused upon Me, saith the Lord. Let your faith reach toward Me. See Me in My glory and power because I bestow upon you the gifts of My love. I bestow upon you healing mercies tonight. I bring My healing presence in this house to make you every whit whole. Look unto Me, saith the Lord.
 
When Jesus saw them, He then just gave them simple instructions. A number of the miracles that we read of Christ, most of them there is some instruction given to individual people. The miracle takes place when they act upon it in obedience. I’ve been praying lately, Lord instruct me. Lord, I’m reporting for duty on my knees. Will you please direct me? If there is a lesson I need to learn, let me learn it well now, Lord. If there is something You want to say to me, Lord, say it to me through Thy spirit or the Word or someway somehow. This message tonight is an answer to one such prayer. You can look at so many miracles and Jesus just simply asked people to get involved with the simple act of obedience. Sometimes it comes as a challenge and they don’t respond but make excuses. Then He brushes excuses away and then He gives a command. If obeyed, it brings a miracle. The man at the Pool of Bethesda, Jesus challenged him. Jesus asked him if he wanted a whole life. The man started to make excuses, then Jesus pushed it aside and said Rise, take up your bed and walk. When he started trying, the miracle came.
 
I’m lifting this up as a special spiritual principle that may very well work in our lives. When we are needing something from the Lord, we should also listen to His instructions because there may be something He wants us to do in response to His direction. I can just pretty well rest assured of this one this that if you disobey His instructions, don’t expect a miracle. On the other hand, there have been so many that He instructed and they obeyed and the miracle did indeed come until there is a strong precedence set in the Holy Word for the Lord to act that way in our behalf. He didn’t say to these men You’re healed or anything like that. He said Go show yourselves to the priest. They don’t argue. This is strange, but they just take off in a hurry to go see the priest. The Bible says as they went, they were cleansed. Now I think you could accept this as a principle tonight…as we obey. This sets in force His divine power and His gracious love for our lives. If we are rebellious and stubborn, it blocks the work of His Spirit in our lives. But when He instructs and we obey, it releases His glorious power because we are acting in faith. Simple obedience to what He directs is the greatest expression of your faith that you can have. You don’t have to get a big bank account of grace and faith and say Oh, I’ve got it here. That may not be the way it works, but just simply obey.
 
Sometimes He instructs us to do the impossible. In many of the miracles in the Scriptures, He told the people to do what was impossible. This time they could go and show themselves to the priest. As they went, they were cleansed. As we obey, we unleash the power of His grace and His glory. There is nothing in all the world like receiving word from the Lord and you get up and obey it and you have the manifestation of His presence and power. There is nothing like that in all the world.
 
Bible tells us about one of the people in particular who was healed. This was a very special message when Jesus told it, in particular to the Jews who were so filled with prejudice against the Samaritans. In Luke we’ve already studied the story of the Good Samaritan. There is a strong emphasis in the gospel of Luke in particular people who are not from the chosen line and background, but nevertheless, who have great character and great faith and who obey Christ. When the Lord looks at faith, He doesn’t see the name written on that faith. He doesn’t look at the background. He doesn’t have to decide if the person is worth. When He sees faith and obedience, it simply turns His power loose regardless of who we are. This Samaritan, when he saw that he was cleansed, it overwhelmed him and he turned and ran back and with a loud voice, the same kind of loud voice when he cried Jesus, Master have mercy on us, now it’s a different sound but still a loud voice and he is glorifying God. Our Lord Jesus Christ honors people who glorify God and people who are humble, who come and fall on their face and people who have a thankful heart. That’s one reason why there is so much in Scripture about us giving glory to God and humbling ourselves and giving thanksgiving and praise to the Lord. Not that it builds Him up in any way, so to speak, but He knows what it will do for us when we live in such an attitude. He honored such a person. Samaritan or not, it didn’t matter. Here is a person who comes back with a loud voice. He is thankful and he glorifies God. You would be, too, if you were facing a terminal disease and suddenly you realized you were cleansed of it and it was gone. You wouldn’t mind lifting your voice and crying out and praising God and giving the glory to God.
 
Then in humility he fell on his face before Jesus. Even at this point, he does not dare to rush up and grab hold of the Master. Even at this point, he bows in the presence of divinity. He bows in the presence of divine deliverance. He bows in the presence of divine healing. He bows on his face in the presence of the Son of God who brings life to deadness. Jesus honored him. He honors faith. He honors humility. He honors thanksgiving. He honors lifting up our hearts and praising Him and thanking Him. He honored him. He said Arise, go thy way. Thy faith hath made thee whole. What words of reassurance. What words of comfort. What words of gracious love.
 
Let me just summarize again. Jesus receives people regardless of the distance, regardless of how far off they are, regardless of how unclean or in their condition when they cry out to Him for mercy and recognizing Him as Jesus and Lord, He sees them. He sees them for what they are; people who desperately need life and help. He gives instructions and when obeyed, the obedience unleashes the power of God. Then He honors us when we give Him the credit and we give Him the glory and we give thanksgiving and we give praise to Him.
Will you please stand.

Devotions

Power Of God

g

JRadio

Listen Live

Need Prayer?

Shout Jesus Saves

Youtube

Click here to visit the Shout Jesus Saves Youtube

 

Vimeo

Click here to visit the Shout Jesus Saves Vimeo

 

Network Sites

Jesussaves.cc

Global prayer Network

faith library