Welcome to Pilgrim Talk Radio, I'm Reverend Lee Johnson and with me the Canadian Mountie, Darryl Kingswood. We are still on question fifty-one about what does this glory of Christ our head prophet us, of course the glory being his ascension into heaven, his victory over death, his sitting at the right hand of God the Father Almighty, his being the head of the church, uh... and the answer is that first by his holy spirit he bestows the heavenly gifts upon us as members then by his power he defends and preserves us against all enemies we talked a little bit last week about his gifts uh... so this week we are going to jump into that by his power he defends and preserves us against all enemies Sid Sterl doesn't want to go first Scott who are the enemies that this is talking about the enemies of christ any of anybody that is opposed to the church is an enemy of jesus christ but uh... particularly i i'd like to look at uh... when he uh... the by his power defensive preserves against all our enemies the the uh... stall of tarsus a great example of one who comes against the church of christ persecutes the church, putting Christians to death, a hater of the Lord Jesus Christ, and he's on the road to Damascus, and the Lord strikes him down, he falls to the ground, and the Lord comes to him and says, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? And he says, who are you, Lord? And he says, I'm Jesus, whom you're persecuting. Now, who was he persecuting? He was actually persecuting the church of Jesus Christ. And in that one text in Acts chapter nine, we see the organic union of Christ and his church. We see the close proximity to come against Christ is to come against his people, to come against the people of God is to come against Christ. And basically, Jesus says you can't win. You persecute my people, you persecute me. And as James says, you know, whoever makes himself a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. And it's used there of God setting his arrows against you. God coming against you so the Lord protects his people He guards his people you find that right from the beginning even Noah and his family eight people saved through the flood God kept his people he preserved them By his power he has all power and all authority has been given unto Jesus Matthew 28 and by his authority he rules and reigns by the word of his power he casting down his enemies and everything that comes against his church. He's the one who provides for his church. He's the one who defends and preserves us. I think that, individually and corporately, you find that also in Romans chapter 8. where the Apostle Paul said that I am persuaded in either life, nor death, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor heights, nor depths, nor any other created thing shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. It's God who keeps us and preserves us. Jude 1, Jude writes that we are preserved in Christ Jesus. We are kept by the power of God and he defends us against all those Satan, and every enemy of God that would come against the Church, Christ protects His people, He guards us. And that's a great blessing to know that nothing can separate us from the love of Christ. So let me just ask you this then, Darrell. We'll just keep using the Saul of Tarsus illustration here. If Christ defends us and preserves us against all the enemies, at which that time Saul of Tarsus was, coming against the Church of God. He got Stephen. He's dead. Well, he died. Darrell Bock Supplanted all men to die once, but he didn't perish. No. Look, I agree, but the point here is the question. There are going to be people who say, wait, I prayed to be protected. I prayed that I wouldn't lose my job. I prayed that my husband wouldn't die. And they didn't. But the Lord doesn't promise those earthly, temporal things. I mean, we look at it from a wrong perspective. You know, we look at it from all the temporal. I'll tell you something that's promised. I asked Darrell this question. Well, I got to answer that. He sounds like he's going to answer it just fine for me. You know, you got to understand, you like wrestling. Sometimes it's the tag team. And if he got in the ring, And he doesn't want to die. He's not tagging out. He's not tagging out. He's ready to go. One of the things, you know, and Darrell, you've preached a lot of funerals services, and when we preach the funeral service, and we're preaching to the family, and we're bringing comfort to those of the family who know Christ, and those who don't, we're confronting them with the promise of the gospel. And one of the things that we look for is a text of Scripture that will provide that comfort for the family. And I think we often miss the fact that we want the promises of God, and we overlook those hard promises, that it's appointed unto every man to die once, and then comes the judgment. And we forget about that our life on this earth, as the psalmist says, teach us to number our days, that we might have a heart of wisdom, that we might know how to live our lives because it's fleeting. James says in James 4, our life is like a vapor. It's here today and gone tomorrow. Get it through your head. You're only going to live on this earth for a short time. It's a vapor. It's just a blip in the map as far as life and eternity. It's just a little blip. It's a temporary time that the Lord has put us here on this earth. And it's not for your pleasure. It's not for you to amass great wealth. It's not for you to have some great status. It's to serve the true and living God in the vocation, in the sphere that He's gifted you and placed you. And whether I die today, you know what, it makes me no difference. Because here's the promise that's given, is if we live, we live to the Lord. If we die, we die to the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or die, we are the Lord's. What a great comfort to know that I am in Christ, Christ is in me, and I can never perish eternally, because as Jesus said in John 10, I give them everlasting life, and they will never perish. He didn't say you're never gonna die. That's right. He says you're never going to perish. And to perish, I mean, there's something worse. People who read their Bible, there's something worse than dying. And it's dying and going to hell. Which is perishing. That's perishing. Right, exactly. And that's the reality. It's our whole perspective on what is God's promise to the believer, to his own child in terms of life in this world. And it's one, Romans chapter 8, you quote it from the end portion of Romans chapter 8, earlier on. There's no condemnation. Well, there's no condemnation, but if you go to Romans chapter 8, we'll turn to it. Paul has said before, he goes through the glorious promise of all things working together for our good. All of that skyscraper promise based upon God foreknowing and those whom He foreknew, He predestined to conform us to the likeness of Christ and the promise of the question, what then shall we say to these things if God is for us? Who can be against us? Derek Thomas in his book, The Gospel Brings Us All the Way Home, points out the first thing we need to understand is that who is first and foremost Satan? Who can be against us? Is Satan really against us? Can he be really against us in a final, full sense? But before all of these wonderful promises begins with the no condemnation in Christ Jesus, ends with the no separation from the love of God in Christ Jesus, in the midst of that chapter, Paul makes this statement, if children, then heirs, heirs of God, joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with him, that we may also be glorified together. That is the part we don't like there. We want the glorified together with them. We want the crown, but we don't want the cross. Right. We want a theology, as Martin Luther talked about it, a theology of glory, not a theology of the cross. And then Paul, from verse 18 to where he gets to the glorious promise of knowing all things work together good to those who love God, who are called according to his purpose, he says, I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be paired with the glory which shall be revealed in us. And then he says the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God, so on and so forth. We eagerly wait for the hope of our salvation, the redemption of our bodies. And in fact, the spirit helps us in our weakness. We don't know what we should pray for as we ought, but the spirit makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. And so it's our perspective, like you say, our expectations of what has God really promised us as Christians between the time of our conversion and our death when we're translated, when we're absent from the body, present with the Lord. And I think it's clear from Scripture that it's one of suffering in this world. Because this isn't the way it is to be. And so it's a way of suffering. Paul said, all those who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. Jesus said, in this world you will have tribulation. Yeah, the world will hate you. But be a good chair. Right. So it's not your best life now is what he said. No, and that's part of the thing. That's why those things are – that kind of teaching is so popular. Health, wealth, prosperity, gospel. Hold on a minute. It may be. now. It may be for some their best life now. Yeah, that's true. Because I tell you, it's not a book that teaches you that your hope is in Jesus Christ. It teaches you about riches and fortune and fame and amassing the things and being happy now. And it may be your best life right now. Because if you're not trusting in Christ, if you're not looking unto Him, if your life is not about Him, if your aim and goal and desires in this life is not to bring glory to the King of kings and the Lord of lords, the very one who holds your breath in His hands, your best life might be right now. Because after this life, it's just eternal damnation. It's just suffering and torment. Right, so let me get back to you. We've alluded to, you know, Your Best Life Now, popular book, and then Every Day Friday. Remember when we were in Barnes & Noble? Joe Osteen, okay, for you listening, Joe Osteen, be careful with this dangerous garbage that'll pollute your soul. There you go. Well, Lee and I were in Barnes & Noble once, and we're looking at books, and Lee sees a book, Every Day Friday, and Lee made a good point. Why not Every Day Sunday? It's a worldview. It's a perspective. Working for the weekend. Working for the weekend, for this world, the good time now, rather than what Sunday represents in terms of the glorious resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the promise of eternal life in Him. He calls us to the Via Dolorosa, to take up our cross, to follow Him, to deny ourselves. There's the way of suffering, self-denial. So we're dealing with a perspective here that is a biblical perspective. It's not seeing with our eyes. I can't remember who said it this way, but as Christians, and this was with Eve, she saw with her eyes rather than seeing with her ears. Rabbi Zachariah says most people, rather than looking through their eyes, look with them. And so they lean upon their own understanding, their own interpretation of things in a fallen condition. Rather than seeing with our ears, faith cometh by hearing, trusting God's promises. As Paul says, Romans 8, again he says, Now, we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves, groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption and the redemption of our body. For we are saved in this hope, but hope that is seen is not hope. For why does one still hope for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance. Just a little piggyback on what you were saying about the hearing with your ears things. Revelation 1, John says, then I turned to see the voice that spoke to me. Seeing with your ears. There you go. We'll be back to do more talking about seeing with your ears after this. Welcome back to Pilgrim Talk Radio. Rev. Darrell Kingswood, Rev. Scott. Well, it's good to be back, Lee. I'm glad you're back, too. We were a little worried. So, I was not. No, Scott doesn't care about confidence. Right, okay. All right, so let's get on with the discussion here. Okay. We're talking about Christ defending and preserving us against all His enemies by His power, the power therefore being Him being at the right hand of the Father and as the head of the Church. and what exactly it meant there about to be defended. Darrell Bock So it immediately calls our attention to the fact that it's not going to be a cakewalk, the life of this world. And for the Christian, it's not going to be a bowl of cherries and easy street. That's what we've got to understand. In the first half, Scott alluded to the fact that In Romans 8, the question is, who will separate us from the love of Christ? So obviously there are things that are perceived to be threats, right? That this is going to separate me. This is such a traumatic situation, whether it's the death of a loved one, as you mentioned, or whether it's a loss of a job or a child, or whether it's some other form, a chronic disease and suffering, whether it's a form of depression, you know, is this going to separate me? So there are things that threaten. our union with Christ. There are things that come against us. Jesus promises nothing can snatch you out of my hand. I've got to hold you. Darrell Bock But they're legitimate. They're rules for us. Darrell Bock They're legitimate. Oh yeah, that's the point. Who shall separate us in the who? As I pointed out, Derek Thomas in his book, The Gospel Brings All the Way Home. We need to understand first and foremost that the who here is Satan. That's what Satan wants to do. Satan wants to separate us or he wants us to believe we could be separated or something's going to separate us from the love of Christ. So the threat is real. The suffering, the heartache, the pain, The confusion, the bewilderment, the difficulties, the trying circumstances are real. And we're not insulated from that in Scripture. The Scripture says, you quoted, persecution. The world hate at me, they hate you. All who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. Don't be surprised by the suffering, Peter says, as if something strange were happening to you. But rejoice. And so that's the first thing, a biblical realism, the honesty. Did you read verse 36 of Romans 8? He did not. That's what I was just getting to right here. Because that's us. Yeah. So Paul says, who shall separate us? Will tribulation separate us? So we're going to experience tribulation. It's a threat to us. Distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword, as it is written. And he quotes Scripture and what's it say, Scott? For your sake we are killed all day long. We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Sheep for the slaughter. I mean, that's not a pretty word if you think about it. Slaughter. In our day and age we'd think about the slaughterhouse, you know, where there's just a conveyor belt execution. of animals or the slaughter in war where, you know, an army goes into battle often as the South did in the Civil War. I say that for Lee's sake, you know, and there was not a Southern boy left standing. I was still thinking about those pigs being turned into bacon and so on. Right. And so you have that. And yet, you know, we got to get the force. We need to be hit with the next word, yet. Okay, so where does this false theology come from? Where does this constant navel-gazing upon the temporary dainties of this life of amassing the fortune of of that we deserve them and we should have them. And this is what Christianity is all about. And our dad's the king and he owns everything. So if I don't have a mansion or a Rolls Royce or if I have glasses on my face, something must be wrong with me. I'm not experiencing the fullness of joy. Where did all this nonsense come from? Because you don't read that when you read the gospel accounts. You don't read it when you read the book of Acts. You don't read it in the epistles. You don't read it when it comes to the book of Revelation. comes from the greed and the covetousness of a fallen sinful heart. All the way back to the temptation in the garden. You cut yourself off from God. You're alienated from God. Let's go back. What I want to say is this. How can 30 or 40 or 50 or even more thousands of people be so bamboozled by a guy standing up there saying, this is your best life now, and that things are about the things of earth, and about your comforts, and your pleasures, and your amassing homes, and cars, and money, and spending, and vacation, and all of this garbage that's nowhere taught in scripture. How is it that so many people who are naming the name of Christ, are so deceived by a charlatan like that. Because it's easy to name the name of Christ, and yet Christ warns there are many whom he will say, I never knew you. And so again, it comes down to their whole understanding of what it means to be a Christian is probably based upon not God's sovereign grace and God's sovereign work, but the own decision that they made. And then they just recast, remold, and redefine what it means to be a Christian, what God's promises are on an earthly level, because they're still living according to the flesh and the desires of the flesh, the lust of the mind and the lust of the eyes. So it's worldliness. And John warns about that. Love not the world, nor the things of the world. If you love the world, the love of the Father is not in you. Continually, Jesus, I mean, I alluded to it, Jesus warned about the narrow way and the broad way. And we think that the broad way is just like a worldly way. In fact, if you look at it, it's in context. There are false prophets, false prophets of Christ, those who are teaching, saying, this is the Christian way. This is what it means to live as a Christian. They're deceived. They're still on the broad way. And Jesus says, many of those people are going to say, Lord, Lord, don't we do this in your name? They're going to hear his word, but they don't really build upon his word. They build upon the sand. And they're destroyed. And so it comes down to that fundamental deception, the ongoing deception, and this is where we get to our enemies, our enemy, the devil. Darrell Bock Yeah, and I think it's important to remember that the devil doesn't come and work where he's trying to get people to sacrifice pigs to a statue of him and to slaughter everything. Satan comes as an angel of light. He comes deceiving in a way that he's not afraid to invoke Christ to deceive people. So let's see, this is not unprecedented. You know, in the early church, Paul's writing to the Corinthians in 2 Corinthians 11, and he has a concern, he has a fear, he says, He says, I'm jealous for you with godly jealousy, for I betrothed you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. He goes on to talk about false prophets, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ. And no wonder – Satan himself did the same thing. Satan himself, for Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light. Therefore, it's no great thing if his ministers also transform themselves into ministers of righteousness, whose end will be according to their works." And so you see that this is – I was thinking about it when we first started this broadcast and I was going to say, and I'll say it, Scott was talking and my head's reeling. Where do I go with this? He's saying so many things. Where do you begin with this? And we always have to go back to Scott, when Scott was talking at the opening of this broadcast, I was thinking of Genesis 3.15 and that cosmic warfare, the seed of the woman, the seed of the serpent. Divinely imposed. Right, exactly. And it's going on. And you were describing that warfare, our enemies. And I was also thinking of You know, as Christ taught when he was asked by his disciples to teach them how to pray, the sixth petition and the need to pray to be kept from temptation, the temptation of the evil one. And the catechism explains that. First of all, in terms of what we need to understand, we're so weak in ourselves, we can't stand for a moment. And our deadly enemies, the devil, the world, and our own flesh assail us without ceasing. And so we need the strength of the Holy Spirit. We need the preserving of the Holy Spirit that we make firm stand against them and not be overcome in this spiritual warfare until... complete victories are. So there it is, spiritual warfare. Yeah, and I think when you bring those two together, that catechism and 2 Corinthians 11 and the Lord teaching the disciples to pray, you know, I think that it makes it very clear there when Jesus teaches them to pray and he says, you know, keep us from evil, defending us from evil. or protecting us from evil. It's actually, it's in a nominative case there in a Greek, and it's Pani Ross, not Pani Ru, and so it's not referring to some generic evil, it's referring actually to Satan himself. It's a person. The person, the evil one. I think Luke is... And so think about it. So think about the tactics of Satan. You see it where Peter makes a confession, thou art the Christ, son of the living God, right? Flesh and blood hasn't – blessed are you, Peter – said flesh and blood hasn't revealed this to my Father in heaven. But you're not going to the cross, Lord. But no suffering for you, no suffering for the Christ. And so what do we have that translated into? We have it translated into for the Christian. No suffering for the Christian, get thee behind me, Satan. Right? You have – and read the words. You are an offense to me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men. So being mindful of the things of men – we don't want to suffer. Right? We think it's the worst possible thing. And this makes me think of a book I just recently finished reading, if I can keep track of them. I think I read about five books in the last seven days. Those Berenstain Bears books don't count. I know, they don't. Exactly. But what about Spider-Man? Spider-Man counts. Spider-Man counts. Tulien Chubijan has a book out called Glorious Ruin. And the subtitle is How Suffering Sets You Free. And it's all about a biblical approach to and an understanding of suffering and how. And there's another series, a DVD series, and a book by Paul Tripp that's called Forever, How You Can't Live Without It. And the third message deals with our understanding of how God gets us into positions, situations that are his messy situation. And he uses the example of the boys, he says, the disciples are in the boat rowing for about eight hours and get nowhere. And he says, and why are they in that predicament? Why are they in that circumstance? Because Jesus told them to get in the boat. And what they needed, they didn't necessarily need to know what about suffering or the how about suffering or even the why, but the who. who was with them in it, who ultimately had entered into suffering, God himself in the person of his son. And so we're dealing with the reality that if we don't expect opposition, if we don't expect, you know, a warfare, we're just out of touch. We're just out of touch. This world is not our home. Our minds and our... We've been raised up with Christ Jesus. He's seated at the right hand of God the Father. He's finished the work. We're blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Him. There's where the treasure is. We're supposed to be storing up treasures in heaven. And so we set our minds, Paul said, set your mind on things above. Not on things of the earth. And that's the key then. If you look at that in Colossians chapter 3, I'll turn to it here, that's the key then to being able, you know, as Paul says, therefore, verse 5 of Colossians 3, put to death your members which are on the earth. And what are they? Fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. the worship of the things of the world rather than the worship of the true and living God. And that's why they love it. And if it's in the name of Jesus, I mean, it makes it all the better. If you can baptize our covetousness and our idolatry in the name of Jesus and you still think you're a Christian, you've got the best of both worlds, don't you? Darrell Bock Yeah, I mean, it's amazing because idolatry, the prophets would teach in the Old Testament that you become like what you worship. Darrell Bock Exactly. Darrell Bock Psalm 115. Exactly. Dumb. Stupid. You've got ears that you can't see. Wait a second. What? Well, that goes with what I was talking about. You've got ears that you can't see. And we're out of time. We are. So, join us again here next Saturday, AM 660, KCIO.