This land was wild, and it could be cruel. It was not a place where you could travel without being constantly on guard. Dangers lurked everywhere. Only the hardy could survive here.”
–William Wayne Dicksion (Sagebrush)
“And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death.”
“And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death.”
–Revelation 12:11(NKJV)
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How to Live in a Pagan, Apostate, and Foolish World
Key Verse: “We know that we are of God, and that the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.” –1 John 5:19 (NASB)
We saw where faith is passive. We abide in Christ and we grow. It is simple and profound; it is simply a matter of taking God at His word and trusting in Him. But faith is also active. Jesus is a prime example of faith. He trusted His Father in everything even to raise Him from the dead. For a minute let’s look at the reason that Jesus came into the world.
1) Because of the power of sin, the power of Satan, and the power of evil. The perfect Son of God came to not only defeat Satan, but to break the bonds and power of sin. Evil is abundant, but life in Christ is more abundant. Evil does not have the victory, but through our faith each of us can have the victory.
2) Jesus was the only way in which we could be delivered from the world. This world, as seen in the key verse, is under the power and control of the devil. He is evil to the core. All he does is evil. It took Jesus to overcome the power of evil and the devil.
3) People are optimistic about this world. In centuries past they made idols of gods, because they trusted more in wood and stone than in God Almighty. Today they have changed idols; they now have wealth, prosperity and entertainment to worship. The reason turn to these things is because man has never understood the nature of sin. Sin is deadly, not to this life, but it brings about the second death. Jesus broke the power of sin by taking all of the sin upon Himself.
4) When a person becomes a Christian they see through the world–they see the power and domination of sin that is there. Elections won’t solve it, new thoughts of culture won’t solve it, no actions of man can solve it. But the Christian knows that there is a solution and that is in Jesus. Jesus overcame the world. He, being tempted as man, conquered Satan, sin, and death. We see the problems and the forces knowing our weaknesses, but that outlook now has changed when we look at Christ who overcame.
As a Christian, being born-again, I belong to Christ. Therefore, I am a sharer in His victory. I can draw upon Him and from His power. If I stumble, if I fail, if I falter I can go to him (1 John 1:9) and have the assurance that He is faithful and will cleanse me.
“There is nothing, then, that so enables me to overcome as that deliverance from sin and failure, from that sense of despair that tends to overwhelm me when I feel I have gone down and cannot rise again. The blood of Christ will cleanse me, and I rise up and go forward on my journey.”
–D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones
I now go through life victoriously. I journey with my head held high and my feet secure as I walk in Christ. I know that my journey will lead me to heaven and life eternal with Christ. Ultimate joy and perfection awaits me. This world is not my home; I’m heading toward life eternal.
“For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself.”
–Philippians 3:20-21 (NKJV)
“This is how faith overcomes–I fly to Christ in utter helplessness, but I also work faith out. I reason out the implication of believing that ‘Jesus is the Son of God’; and fortified by all these things I overcome and am enabled to overcome. I triumph, and I find that the commandments of God are no longer ‘grievous.'”
–D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones
————————————–
How to Live in a Pagan, Apostate, and Foolish World
Key Verse: “We know that we are of God, and that the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.” –1 John 5:19 (NASB)
We saw where faith is passive. We abide in Christ and we grow. It is simple and profound; it is simply a matter of taking God at His word and trusting in Him. But faith is also active. Jesus is a prime example of faith. He trusted His Father in everything even to raise Him from the dead. For a minute let’s look at the reason that Jesus came into the world.
1) Because of the power of sin, the power of Satan, and the power of evil. The perfect Son of God came to not only defeat Satan, but to break the bonds and power of sin. Evil is abundant, but life in Christ is more abundant. Evil does not have the victory, but through our faith each of us can have the victory.
2) Jesus was the only way in which we could be delivered from the world. This world, as seen in the key verse, is under the power and control of the devil. He is evil to the core. All he does is evil. It took Jesus to overcome the power of evil and the devil.
3) People are optimistic about this world. In centuries past they made idols of gods, because they trusted more in wood and stone than in God Almighty. Today they have changed idols; they now have wealth, prosperity and entertainment to worship. The reason turn to these things is because man has never understood the nature of sin. Sin is deadly, not to this life, but it brings about the second death. Jesus broke the power of sin by taking all of the sin upon Himself.
4) When a person becomes a Christian they see through the world–they see the power and domination of sin that is there. Elections won’t solve it, new thoughts of culture won’t solve it, no actions of man can solve it. But the Christian knows that there is a solution and that is in Jesus. Jesus overcame the world. He, being tempted as man, conquered Satan, sin, and death. We see the problems and the forces knowing our weaknesses, but that outlook now has changed when we look at Christ who overcame.
As a Christian, being born-again, I belong to Christ. Therefore, I am a sharer in His victory. I can draw upon Him and from His power. If I stumble, if I fail, if I falter I can go to him (1 John 1:9) and have the assurance that He is faithful and will cleanse me.
“There is nothing, then, that so enables me to overcome as that deliverance from sin and failure, from that sense of despair that tends to overwhelm me when I feel I have gone down and cannot rise again. The blood of Christ will cleanse me, and I rise up and go forward on my journey.”
–D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones
I now go through life victoriously. I journey with my head held high and my feet secure as I walk in Christ. I know that my journey will lead me to heaven and life eternal with Christ. Ultimate joy and perfection awaits me. This world is not my home; I’m heading toward life eternal.
“For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself.”
–Philippians 3:20-21 (NKJV)
“This is how faith overcomes–I fly to Christ in utter helplessness, but I also work faith out. I reason out the implication of believing that ‘Jesus is the Son of God’; and fortified by all these things I overcome and am enabled to overcome. I triumph, and I find that the commandments of God are no longer ‘grievous.'”
–D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones