Episode Transcript
Speaker 2 00:00:04 Okay. Um, so it's my privilege. Um, and if you were here when I spoke last time, you'll know that I, I, I can preach long time if, if I'm not careful. Um, so I'm gonna get going and I'm know when I've gotta stop. But I just, I love preaching and I love preaching to people who want to hear because I think the word of God is just so powerful and just so important. Um, and the cry of my heart. And is, if the word of God is so important, why do Christians know so little of it? Why do they spend so little time in the word of God compared to sitting in front of screens? And if you've got an answer to that, then please let me know. But, um, anyway, this morning my title is, are You Ready? My title is The Day That God Failed His English Test,
Speaker 1 00:01:05 <laugh>
Speaker 2 00:01:06 The Day that God Failed His English test. And I want to start you off. I want to start you off by thinking, um, about the word eternal. So here's my little test view to start off with. I want you to think about the word eternal for about 10 seconds. Don't shout it out. Don't tell me. And what do you think the word eternal means? If you had to define the word eternal, what would it be? Have a think. Eternal. What does eternal mean? Okay, you're about, about run out of time now without end. And I sorry, without
Speaker 1 00:01:47 End.
Speaker 2 00:01:47 Ah, right. I guess that most of you would be thinking that it means without a beginning and without an end. Is that right? Yep. And that's true of God, isn't it? That God is eternal. We can't really understand what eternal means in relation to God. But it does mean yes, that he is without beginning. There was never a time when God wasn't. And he is without end. There will never be a time when God isn't. So he has no beginning. He has no ending, but he also has no middle. So he doesn't think like we think. So he doesn't think about tomorrow or yesterday or two o'clock or yesterday afternoon or what time it is dinner. He doesn't think in terms of time because he always was always is, always will be. Time is irrelevant to him. We can't really understand that 'cause we live by the clock. Now you might say, well, why, why is that important to realize that God has no beginning, no ending, no middle. He just is eternal. Well, I'm gonna show you this morning that it is important and it's important that we understand that God is outside of time. He doesn't live in time like we do. And in order to show you, I'm gonna take you to the plane of Jericho this morning, and there's a conversation going on
Speaker 2 00:03:32 Between God and Joshua. You won't find this exactly in the Bible. This is a little bit more of imagination, but the principles are there in the scriptures and there's a conversation going on and it goes on like this. God, you said that you would give me the city of Jericho. That's right, Joshua. But you haven't. Oh, yes, I have. No, no, no, no. God, with deepest respect. You haven't given me what you promised. I would have. Oh yes, I have
Speaker 1 00:04:15 <affirmative>
Speaker 2 00:04:17 God, let me just show you. Just look down there. Can you see this whacking great big city with two foot thick walls? That's Jericho. You said you would give it to me
Speaker 1 00:04:32 And
Speaker 2 00:04:33 You haven't.
Speaker 1 00:04:35 How
Speaker 2 00:04:36 About I have God with respect? Do you speak English? Well, yes, I speak all the languages of the, of the earth. Well, lemme just explain some English to you, God, with respect.
Speaker 1 00:04:55 Okay?
Speaker 2 00:04:59 I am now giving this gentleman, I am now giving you this book I am giving you. I give it to you. That's the present tense,
Speaker 1 00:05:12 Correct
Speaker 2 00:05:15 Tam, tomorrow I will give it to you. That's the future tense. But yesterday I gave him, that means it's already done. And if you had already given to me the city of Jericho, it would be in my hands. God, not in this. Joshua. I think I understand the problem.
Speaker 1 00:05:49 I
Speaker 2 00:05:50 Think I get the misunderstanding
Speaker 1 00:05:54 Standing.
Speaker 2 00:05:54 You think something's true when you see it, but I think something's true when I say it.
Speaker 1 00:06:10 Wow. Wow.
Speaker 2 00:06:12 I think the word is boom. Joshua was about to learn the greatest lesson of his life. But what God says in his word is more real and true than what we ever see with our eyes. In other words, God's truth. What God says is to be trusted more than what we see. Now, that's important because I'll tell you why it's important. One of the reasons it's important is because you could be today, you could be praying for something, you could have been praying for something really passionately and, and, and really urgently and desperately you could have been waiting for God to answer your prayer for a long time and not realize that in fact, God has already given it. Wow. Wouldn't that be a waste of time?
Speaker 1 00:07:32 In
Speaker 2 00:07:32 Fact, what if Jesus had said on one occasion, when you pray, when you pray, believe in your heart and you shall have it. Except of course that he didn't use exactly those words. He said, believe when you pray that you have received, and you will have it fancy going to prayer, believing that you've already received it before you start praying. But that's what Jesus said. When you pray, pray in faith in such a way that you believe as you are praying, that you have already received it. Because you serve a God who is eternal. He's outside of time. So maybe when we pray, here's a little tip. If you are praying for something really significant, it might be, it might be for healing, it might be for the salvation of a loved one. It might be for a neighbor. It could be for a partner, a spouse. You're looking for a partner or a spouse. If Jesus said, believe in your heart that you have received it, maybe when we come to prayer, we need to do a lot more thanking God for what we have received rather than just praying to God for what we might receive.
Speaker 2 00:09:30 God says, it's not what you see, it's what I say. What an amazing thing that will be. You know, Anna and I, we, we were, we've been married maybe 50 years, I can't believe it. I dunno how she's put up with me for 50 years nearly. But she has, and were courting at Bible college and we would meet in the morning. In the morning, Anne and I, we would just meet together for some close fellowship and, um, close fellowship with the father. And, um, Anna had been praying for her brother. Her brother. She had three brothers and all of them were in the Navy. And boy did they lead the life of a, of a sailor. This brother was forever drunk. He was, um, overweight. He, he was just a, a he lived a, a, an awful life, just a typical life of a sailor. But alcohol. He was absolutely drunk most of the time. And Anne began to pray for him. She began to pray, pray. And we prayed together at Bible college. And then she came to me one day and she said, Brian, she said, I believe the Lord said that he's heard and that I don't have to pray any longer.
Speaker 2 00:11:00 David saved. Now, we had no idea, we had no knowledge. No one had sent us any word. But the next time that David came home from his ship for leave, he had an amazing testimony of having been completely delivered from alcohol and saved and by the name of Jesus. And, and you know, it, it was that time God said to us, don't pray anymore. Believe, believe that you have received, get ahead of your prayer and start thanking God for those things that you've not yet seen. But God has said, okay, I'm gonna give you three things this morning. I could preach an hour on each of them, but I'm gonna try and keep to about six or seven minutes on each of them. <laugh>. So we'll, we'll kind of dip into them rather than three things that God has said
Speaker 1 00:12:02 That
Speaker 2 00:12:03 You need to receive. You see, God can say things and God can give us things, but we've not yet received them because we don't understand we are waiting,
Speaker 1 00:12:15 Whereas
Speaker 2 00:12:16 In fact, God's waiting for us. Yeah. First one. Oh, this is a biggie. First one is healing is a done deal.
Speaker 1 00:12:29 Healing
Speaker 2 00:12:29 Is a done deal. Let's not going to scripture shall we about healing. Isaiah 53 says that by his stripes, we are healed. How amazing in one Peter, chapter two, that scripture is repeated but slightly differently where Peter says, by his stripes, you were healed.
Speaker 1 00:13:08 Wow.
Speaker 2 00:13:10 Now I'm be absolutely honest. I I I've been in ministry, pastoral ministry for over 40 years. I have prayed for hundreds of people, most of them as far as I could understand, never got healed as a result of my praying. But I never, ever during that time stopped believing that God's intention and heart was that the sick will be healed.
Speaker 1 00:13:39 Mm. Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:13:43 I tell you, if ever I could have allowed what I have seen to influence what I believed it was in the area of healing, I would've given. In fact, a lot of people do. Have you ever heard, my wife doesn't like me to use the word nonsense when I'm preaching, but have you ever heard, I'll, I'll talk this side. Have you ever heard the, have you ever heard the nonsense that Christians talk about to excuse the fact that people often don't get healed when they're sick or they say it's not the will of God. God's will. Is that your sick? And in fact, that sickness is doing you good? Yummy. In that case then don't ask me to pray for you. When you're sick, you go to God and ask him for more sickness. And well, when, when Isaiah's talking about, and when Peter's talking about by his stripes we are healed, he's talking about not physical healing. He's talking about spiritual healing. He's talking about we are healed from our sins. Let me show you an amazing scripture. You'll know it already many of you. Matthew chapter eight, Matthew chapter eight, think of that passage from Isaiah. Think of the verses from to Peter one, Peter chapter two. And then Matthew says this,
Speaker 2 00:15:23 When evening had come, they brought to Jesus many that were demon possessed. He cast out the spirits with a word and he healed all that were sick. He's not talking about now those that needed salvation for the soul. He's not talking about those who needed deliverance from demons. He's talking about people who had physical ailments. He said he healed all that were sick, that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet 800 years before saying he himself took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses. Matthew is making it very plain there that when Jesus died on the cross, it was not only to pay the penalty for our sin, it was to bring the offer in for our healing from our, our physical ailments. Wow. I want to just say to you this morning, it may be that you have prayed for people and they've not been healed. It may be that you are asking God for healing for yourself, and somehow that healing is being delayed. I want to tell you and say to you and urged you this morning, whatever you see, whatever your doctor says, however you feel, hang on and confess day by day the scripture
Speaker 2 00:17:18 That Jesus took our sins and our sicknesses on the cross, and by his stripes we are healed. It's not what you see, it's what God says. Now. Say I am healed is not the same. Are you, you get this, I probably do my seven minutes now on this one saying, I am healed, confessing, I am healed on the basis of what God says is not the same as saying I am not sick. How I think of that confessing I am healed is not the same as saying I am not sick. I had a lady once in hospital, a very sad case, she had very serious cancer in hospital. And the doctors came to her and she kept telling them that she wasn't sick. They said, you are sick. In fact, you're dying. No, no. She said, um, I'm not there. So they brought her the x-rays. I said, look, no, no. She said, I'm not sick. She misunderstood. You see that while her confession was that she was healed, she had to not be in denial of the fact that she was actually at that time sick. This is this, this is this kingdom that we live in, folks
Speaker 2 00:19:01 That we could be. The doctor can tell us we have a serious sickness and we can confess and say, well, on the basis of what God says, God says, I am healed and you are healed. And so what about those who don't get healed?
Speaker 1 00:19:28 Hmm.
Speaker 2 00:19:29 I'll tell you what I think this is, this is not in the scripture. This is, this is Brian. You can believe this or you can reject it. I believe that those who are sick and are not healed and who die as a result of their sickness, I believe that they catch up with their healing in eternity. Not one person ever goes into the presence of God's sick. I'm not quite sure about the words of that song today where we talked about, you know, when we get to heaven, it's this, this conflict, this battle with pain. Not quite sure. I think the pain's gone every per. So you know when you are, if, if sickness takes you or it takes a loved one, and we've all gone through that, many of us just believe and thank God and say, Lord, I'm confessing on my deathbed that I am healed because God says it even when I can't see it. Number two, I've gone along a bit longer on that one. Oh sanctification. Galatians chapter five of verse 24 says this, those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with all its passions and desires. Wow.
Speaker 2 00:21:11 So if you belong, let's put it this way, you cannot belong to Christ Jesus according to the scripture. Unless you have already crucified this sinful nature with all its passions and desires, you can't do it. You see a lot of us during our Christian life, we try to put, I've heard people talk about be put to death, put things to death in your life. When Paul writes to the Romans, he says that those who are Christ have been crucified with him. Wow. I remember there are three stages to being a Christian to being saved. One is that when you receive Christ as your savior, you put faith in him. Saving faith. First thing is, is that the penalty of sin is canceled. Amen. All the past, all the past, all the, the penalty of all that sinful past is gone. Hallelujah. And then going to the other end of the spectrum, there is the assurance of the presence of Christ or the presence of Christ and the, and we are delivered from the presence of sin. So we delivered from the penalty of sin. We delivered from the presence of sin. But during our lives, we have to be delivered from the power of sin. And boy, I dunno about you, but that ain't easy.
Speaker 2 00:22:58 How many of you, you know, remember the day when you got came to Christ and you've got saved, you put your hand up in a meeting, you, you confess Jesus, you saved you, you prayed the sinner's prayer. You went to bed the next morning you got up and you never ever sinned again. It doesn't work like that, does it? It's a whole process in our lives of being delivered from the power of sin in our life. And I, I, you know, I dunno about you, but my life has been a life where at times I've just wept almost in the dirt because of the sense of failure. Even though I, as a pastor of many years, the sense of failure that, that you're overcome by sin. Sinful thought, sinful acts, sinful motive, sinful ambitions. Self-centeredness. Yeah. Sin is something that we battle with throughout our lives. So why do we try to defeat sin when Jesus says we've already been crucified with Christ? Already been crucified with him.
Speaker 1 00:24:18 Huh?
Speaker 2 00:24:19 It's like baptism. You, you're probably weird. I, I could be, I could be very intolerant of people. I love people. I love truth, but I hate, I hate error. And I hear people talk about baptism as time when you die to sin.
Speaker 1 00:24:41 I,
Speaker 2 00:24:44 It's nonsense. Baptism is not a time when people die to sin. It is a time when people are buried. Baptism is a i when I'm doing, you know, getting people ready for baptism. I say, now sit down. You gonna really enjoy your baptism. It's a funeral service.
Speaker 1 00:25:09 There
Speaker 2 00:25:10 Come you, it's what? It's a funeral service. Well, that doesn't sound very wonderful. You wait till you're baptized and you come up having buried all that is of the old nature and you rise to the new nature in Christ. I said, that's wonderful. Baptism is a burial. Now I have performed many burials and funerals obviously in ministry over the, over the years. I never yet buried somebody who wasn't dead. I mean, I don't think they'd like it.
Speaker 1 00:25:44 <laugh>.
Speaker 2 00:25:46 You know, normally people prefer to be dead before they're buried. When you go into a baptismal tank, it is, you go in there having been crucified with Christ, the old nature is crucified. Even though you see the effects of it still in your life, you've gotta continue to confess. God, when I'm battling sin in my life, I'm confessing what you say. And you say that, I have been crucified with Christ. See the way to become more like Christ, I need to move on to MA's point, the way to become more like Christ is not by trying to battle with your sin, you'll fail miserably. Paul says, reckon, reckon that you have received the righteousness of Christ. <laugh>. It's wonderful isn't. That's why we can, that's why we can sing these songs about every chain in our lives being broken <laugh>. And as we're singing it, we think, well that's not true of me. It's a, it's a good job. Nobody knows that. But the person next to you is saying the same thing. Bbc, we are confessing what God says, not what we are seeing in our lives. And sometimes we can see things we don't like to see. But God says, if you are in Christ, you have crucified the old nature. And I'm gonna carry on believing what God says, not what I see.
Speaker 2 00:27:23 And then he says, the other thing is don't just recognize the righteousness of Christ. You've got to bring your body as an instrument, uh, uh, of surrender to God. That's how, that's, that's the answer. If you wanna get sanctified, if you need more wholeness in your life, don't battle against your sin. Bring every part of your life. Heard once of a minister who was not not happy, a Baptist minister, were not happy with his life as he was living it. And so he spent six months and every morning he would bring a part of his body, his his mind, his hands, his feet, even his sexuality. He would bring all of those things before God and he would lay before God and he would offer those things to God. Did that for six months. After six months, the church took off as the power of God just ripped through the place because people had submitted their lives to Christ instead of spending time uselessly trying to destroy their sin. Number three,
Speaker 1 00:28:31 Ah, are we okay? Are we okay?
Speaker 2 00:28:41 Esther
Speaker 1 00:28:43 <laugh>,
Speaker 2 00:28:46 My favorite scripture in the New Testament, John 5 24, whoever hears my words
Speaker 1 00:28:54 And
Speaker 2 00:28:54 Believes on him, who has sent me, will not come into condemnation,
Speaker 1 00:29:03 But has
Speaker 2 00:29:05 Passed, or as one version puts crossed from death unto life. I've met a lot of Christians who are waiting to, to die before they can start living
Speaker 1 00:29:20 <laugh>.
Speaker 2 00:29:24 Jesus says, if you believe you have passed from death,
Speaker 1 00:29:31 Come on
Speaker 2 00:29:31 And to life,
Speaker 1 00:29:34 You
Speaker 2 00:29:34 Are as alive now eternally as you will ever be.
Speaker 1 00:29:40 So,
Speaker 2 00:29:41 So if you don't en, if you're not enjoying it now
Speaker 1 00:29:44 <laugh>,
Speaker 2 00:29:51 I'm just finishing with this.
Speaker 1 00:29:55 Don't
Speaker 2 00:29:55 Take too much notice of that, but just it just a couple of weeks ago, LA last week we went to the Butterfly Museum. Fascinating. Seeing all the butterflies, reds, browns, yellows, fantastic. But the thing that absolutely fascinated me was rows and rows and rows of caterpillars lying in their chrysalis, waiting for the day when they would come forth from their chrysalis as beautiful butterflies. They didn't look much sort of like a gray kind of color. They didn't do much. They just stood. They just hung there. They're waiting for something to happen, to come forth into their new life. It's called metamorphs. I put the diction down. Their definition down is what? Metamorphosis is a profound change in form from one stage to the next stage in life. Imagine those caterpillars coming forth from the chrysalis into the beauty of being a butterfly. Do you think they missed their body afterwards?
Speaker 1 00:31:36 No.
Speaker 2 00:31:39 Tell you what, yes, we've gotta go through death unless the Lord comes, we've gotta go through death.
Speaker 1 00:31:48 But
Speaker 2 00:31:48 That in itself is a small thing. You have already passed from death to life. So you've nothing to fear from death. All you've got is to wait for the metamorphosis of the coming of Christ or of the going into the presence of Christ. When you will go from one form, it says, it says a change of a form of character and of circumstances, that's gonna be us. So why is there so little joy in Christians' funeral services? Well, it's because we grieve. We grieve because we feel lost. You know, you can have joy and you can have grief together. It says of Jesus that he endured the cross for the joy that was set before him. Because of that, he endured the cross. Joy helps you to cope with grief. The assurance of what is to, I've told my kids, it's the next stage. I've told my kids at my funeral, there better be joy. There'd be joy in the house. I said, I told 'em, if there's no joy, I'm not turning up
Speaker 1 00:33:30 <laugh> joy.
Speaker 2 00:33:36 We won't be quiet. Joy. Because God says, if God says you have passed from death to life, you have no right to live in death any longer. You have the absolute certainty and joy and expectation
Speaker 1 00:33:56 Of
Speaker 2 00:33:57 A new life in Christ Jesus. Bound prayer with me. Yeah, please. I, I could have gone on to say that, you know, it didn't all land in Joshua's lap. There are things that he had to do. Yeah. There are times when you've gotta confess that you are healed. Even when you know you are sick. There are times you've gotta confess that you have been crucified with Christ. Even at times when you sin, there are times when you have to declare that you pass from death to life, even when you're surrounded by death. It's a faith thing. Brothers and sisters, let me just sort of bow, I want you just to, can you see something that you've taken from the sermon this morning? Even the weakness of the presentation. Can you take something this morning and above all just reaffirm in your heart right now that you are going to go from this place believing what God says, not what you see. See for the person, we sees things with the eye of faith. There's always more to see than what you can see. We can see what God has said.
Speaker 2 00:35:28 And so Father, I want to thank you, this body of people this morning. I want to thank you for your grace upon their lives. I want to thank you, thank you for this church that you are building. I wanna thank you, Lord for your word that we know Lord is the, is the central text of this house. And I pray for every single one here this morning, Lord, that their lives, their fellowship, that their ministries shall be pervaded with the grace and the oil and the sweet perfume of your spirit. And Lord, I pray for a confession of truth. No matter what the world says, no matter what the doctors say, no matter what our neighbors say, no matter even sometimes what our families say, Lord, we will. We will live on the authority of the Word of God in our lives. And we thank you for that in the name of Jesus. Amen. Amen. Man.
