Take your Bibles now and turn
with me to Hebrews chapter 11. Hebrews chapter 11. As we have been studying in this
verse 33, we've been looking at the feats of faith. The feats
of faith. Not specifically one individual
now in the Old Testament, but rather multiple individuals,
multiple saints of God who exhibited the characteristics of true faith
and the accomplishments of true faith. The accomplishments of
true faith. We read that by faith, through
faith, they subdued kingdoms. Subdued kingdoms. We went over
how that God promised them the land of Canaan and yet by faith
in obedience they did those things which appeared to be contrary
or unillogical. God said to march around the
city, blow trumpets at Jericho, and the walls will fall. And
by faith they did these things, and by faith these mighty kingdoms
were subdued. These mighty kingdoms that by
no feat of their own, by no strength of their own, were toppled because
of God. They had faith in God, and it
was God that did these things. Yet God always does these things
through faith and obedience of His children. And we talked about
this, that these things are not just outward, but spiritual.
And so then we don't subdue earthly kingdoms, but we, as believers
in Christ, we subdue the ungodly kingdoms of the flesh, of our
nature, the ungodly kingdom of this world. These are our foes,
and how are we to overcome them? You struggle with that flesh
every day, and you wonder, how is it can I overcome this flesh? By what means has God prescribed
for us to overcome this enemy that is constantly at warfare
with our new man? How shall we overcome him? Not
by means of the flesh, not by determination. That's the human
wisdom. That's human wisdom. You know, I read this to you
before, but David, I think in Psalm 39, he said, I will shut
my mouth. He said, I'm not going to speak
evil anymore. He determined with everything in him. He said, I'm
not even going to speak good because I know sin's mixed with
it. I'm just going to be silent from now on. You know what happened?
He said, I began to burn within. In other words, the sin began
to well up within him and his determination failed. Anybody have any experience with
that? Your determinations not to sin? And yet what comes out
is sin. And what was the conclusion?
He said man at his best state is altogether vanity. That's
what determination gets us. So what's the remedy for the
flesh? It's this. Faith in Christ. Looking to Christ. Calling on Christ. Trusting in
Christ. Waiting for Christ. turning away and mortifying the
deeds of the body and turning to Christ for our righteousness,
turning to Him for our acceptance, looking upon Him, not taking
your eye off Him. That subdues that kingdom and
the world. The world is the kingdom against us and we subdue this
by the same means, faith. Faith. Faith is the victory that
overcomes the world. And we saw this, that they wrought
righteousness, which was that they established the righteousness
or the law of God and the worship of God in those old kingdoms. And this is what happened when
Christ came and established His kingdom in our heart. He wrought
righteousness within us. He wrought righteousness. He
subdued that old kingdom, cast out our enemy from us, and He
implanted, imparted a new nature, the righteousness of God in us. The new man. And that law is
established. What does Paul say about the
law? It's good. Is that not what you say about the law of God?
It's good. There's nothing wrong with the law. Matter of fact,
I by looking to Christ have established the law. What a wonderful thing. There's
therefore no condemnation of them which are in Christ Jesus.
Why? Because God condemned sin in
the flesh. God took away our sin and wrought
righteousness and now has taken that righteousness and through
faith implanted it in us, imparted it to us. What a wonderful thing
this is, wrought righteousness. How? By faith. By faith. Anyone
need righteousness? Then how is it wrought in you,
who have no righteousness? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,
and thou shalt be saved. This is where the righteousness
of God comes in, through faith. Obtain promises. Oh, we obtain
the promises. We obtain the promises, how?
Through faith. There are many promises in there
in Scripture, many promises. Righteousness, peace with God.
Eternal life? How shall you obtain the promises
of God? These promises are only for the
elect, aren't they? They're only for Israel. How
then shall you, being a sinner, a stranger from the covenants
of promise, obtain these promises? Only through faith in Christ.
Do you have faith in Christ? Do you believe on Christ alone?
Then, you may obtain the promises as yours. I tell you, you may
claim all the promises that are in Christ. If you're in Christ,
they're all yours. He said, I give unto my sheep
eternal life, and they shall never perish. Now is that not
a promise you can hang on to? How shall I receive it? By faith. Through faith they obtain promises.
And this is the one we're going to look at this morning. Stopped
the mouths of lions. Now you listen. True faith. True faith stops
the mouth of lions. I know this, there are no lions
in Louisville, Kentucky, I imagine, or in Indiana, except in the
zoo. I don't know of any wild lions running through the forest
of Indiana, do you? I haven't heard of it, maybe.
But I don't, I'm not really worried, are you? I go to the park, I
may be worried about a snake, I'm not really worried about
running into a lion. But there were men in this part
of the country that did encounter lions, real lions. And through faith, they overcame
this vicious enemy, this vicious attack of the wild beast, the
lion, the king of the jungle. And we have three instances of
men in the Old Testament who literally, through faith, overcame
these lions. These lions. They are Samson, Daniel and David. These are the three
that come to mind. And as we look at these, I want
us to see this, and you can get this from the get-go. I'm not
talking about physical lions, although they did. We're talking
about spiritual lions. What is a spiritual lion? In
the scripture, there is one who is represented as an old lion,
or a young lion, in many ways. It is Satan. Satan is the enemy
who is known as a roaring lion. A roaring lion. How then shall we overcome such
a powerful foe? Make no mistake. He is powerful. He is more powerful than you and in our own strength we could
never subdue or stop his mouth from devouring us. Let's look at these examples
and we'll see how this, through faith, we may be able to stop
the mouth of this lion, Satan. Now look at Judges chapter 14.
Let's look at this example together. Judges chapter 14. This example
here is one of Samson. Samson, that Nazarite. That one chosen of God before
his birth. The one that had the miracle
birth. It is Samson. It was the one that God had given
him the spirit and strength and power. In Judges 14, we see Samson then
is a picture, a type, of the Lord Jesus Christ. Who else is the great Nazarene
but Christ? Who else is the one chosen of
God in the miracle birth of the virgin-born Son of God? And here
we see Samson choosing a bride. Look at this. And Samson went
down to Timnath, and saw a woman in Timnath of the daughters of
the Philistines. And he came up and told his father
and his mother, and said, I have seen a woman of Timnath of the
daughters of the Philistines. Now therefore, get her for me
to wife. And his father and his mother
said unto him, Is there never a woman among the daughters of
thy brethren, among all my people, that thou goest to take a wife
of the uncircumcised Philistines? And Samson said unto his father,
Get her for me, for she pleaseth me well. And his father and his
mother knew not that it was of the Lord that he sought an occasion
against the Philistines, for at that time the Philistines
had dominion over Israel." Here's Samson. sees a woman, not just
any woman, he sees a woman of the uncircumcised Philistines. A daughter of the heathen. A
daughter of the heathen. And he has affection for her. He has moved for her. He desires
her. He said, that woman pleaseth
me. Get her for me to wife. Now tell
me, is this not a picture of our Lord Jesus Christ? Our Lord Jesus Christ has a bride. You know who it is? The daughter
of the ruined race. The church, the elect, are pictured
in scripture as a harlot. We're pictured as a harlot. We're
pictured as unclean by nature, and yet it is the affection and
love of Christ. And listen, he chose this woman
because it was the will of God. God sought an occasion against
him, and that's why Samson chose this bride. Why is it that God
would choose such a wretch as we are by nature? Because he
sought an occasion against his enemy. He sought to get himself
glory. And notice how he does it here.
And Samson went down, and his father and mother to Timnath,
and came to the vineyards of Timnath. And behold, a young
lion roared against him. And the Spirit of the Lord came
mightily upon him, and he rent him. Tore that lion apart as
he would a goat. It was nothing to him. Tore through
him like a man would tear through wet paper. With what? He had nothing in
his hand. And he told it not to his father
and mother as what he had done. He went down and talked with
the woman and she pleased him well. Pleased him well. See the picture? Our Lord has
eyes only for His bride. He has eyes only for His bride.
Go to Hosea. Look at this in Hosea and see
if this is not the same thing, a picture. Remember Gomer, that
prostitute. He said, Hosea, go down and marry
a woman of whoredoms. Why? Because it's a picture of
what God would do for His church. God would do for His people.
Look what he says in verse 14. This is what he's doing. Hosea, being a picture of our
Lord, his wife had left him and went after other lovers. And
what he had done is he had left her corn and wine at her door
daily. And she thought it was her lovers
doing this. She didn't know it was from him.
And he says in verse 9, "...I will return and take away the
corn in the time thereof, and the wine thereof, and the season
thereof, and will recover my wool and my flax given to cover
her nakedness." And now I will discover her lewdness in the
sight of her lovers, and none shall deliver her out of mine
hand. I will cause her mirth to cease, her feast days, her
new moons, her Sabbaths, and all her solemn feasts. And I
will destroy the vines of her fig tree. whereof she hath said,
these are my rewards of my lovers have given me. And I will make
them a forest, and the beast of the field shall eat them.
And I will visit upon her the days of Balaam, wherein she burned
incense to them, and she decked herself with earrings and her
jewels, and she went after her lovers and forgot me, saith the
Lord. Is this not what God did to you
as He sought you? You had all of your sin, all
of your pleasures, all of the things of the world, and then
you thought the pleasures were because of sin. You didn't realize
that God had given you everything you'd had. And by grace, God,
if He allures us, He's going to take these things away. He's
going to show us and expose us of our sin. Verse 14, Therefore, behold,
I will allure her. I will bring her into the wilderness
and speak comfortably to her. I will give her the vineyards
from thence, the valley of Achar, for a door of hope. And she shall
sing therein as in the days of her youth, as in the days when
she came up out of the land of Egypt. And it shall be at that
day, saith the Lord, that thou shalt call me Isha, that means
beloved husband. And no more call me Belali, which
means master. For I will take away the names
of Balaam out of her mouth, and they shall be no more remembered
by their name. In that day I will make a covenant
for them with the beasts of the field and the fowls of heaven,
the creeping things of the ground, and I will break the bow and
the sword of battle out of the earth and will make them to lie
down safely. Listen, I will betroth thee unto
me forever. Yea, I will betroth thee unto
me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in lovingkindness, and in
tender mercies. I will betroth thee unto me in
faithfulness, and thou shalt know that I am the Lord. See the picture? This is exactly
what happens. God comes in and He allures us. How? By law? No, by grace, by
mercy. We're exposed to be harlots and
yet God says, I'm going to lure you. I'm going to lure you by
the cross. That's what the Valley of Achar
is. Remember that man Achan who stole the treasure and he was
killed in the stead of Israel in the Valley of Achar? It's
a picture of Christ. He allures us by the gospel and
brings us into himself. This is a picture of Christ,
His bride. He comes to get us. But how shall
He get His bride? Just as Samson came to get his
bride to speak to her that well pleased him, how did he have
to do it? He had to destroy the lion. As he went, there came upon him
a lion. Now tell me, is that not exactly
what happened to our Lord Jesus Christ as he came into this world?
Is it not put in the heart of Herod to seek his destruction
from the beginning? Was it not at the beginning of
His ministry that He was thrust into the wilderness and tempted
of the devil? A roaring lion came upon Him. But this is why He came. He came
in the Spirit of God to deliver us from the works of the devil.
to turn us from the power of Satan to the power of God, to
the grace of God. And how should he do this? How
should he rend this lion? I'll tell you how. He believed
God. That's how he rend this lion.
Isn't that his answer in the temptation? His answer was God. to believe in God. Turn these
stones into bread. He said, look, man's not going
to live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out
of the mouth of God. He had faith in God always. The
Lord rebuked him. He had faith in God all of his
life. This is how he should rend the
enemy and tear him to pieces. By his obedience to God. And not only by this, but by
his death. by his death. They who fought to defeat the
Lord by death, they did not realize that this is how he should devour
them. How he should overcome them through
his death. And behold, as Samson had nothing
in his hand, so did the Lord Jesus have nothing in His hand.
No sin. He had no sin in His hand. He had no guile in His
heart. Our Lord Jesus Christ came with
nothing in His hand. No merit of death, and yet God
did this because He sought occasion against our enemy. And so then, it is by the death
of Christ, we have the death of death. By the death of Christ,
we have the death of death. It's gone because Christ has
victoriously consumed it. By His one offering wherein God
hath made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, He hath made
us who believe in Him to be the righteousness of God." The righteousness
of God. One preacher wrote, a Samson
is a type of Christ. Do we not see the emblem of Jesus'
triumph over the powers of darkness? when he was led of the spirit
in the wilderness, tempted of the devil, and see him triumphing
in the victory over our sin, death, and hell upon the cursed
tree. Behold now how the lion, the
lion that accused the brethren, has been cast out from the presence
of God by his one feet. You should recognize this, you
who are in Christ, that enemy has been forever cast out of
the presence of God so that he cannot accuse us before God anymore. Cannot accuse us. Go to Revelation
chapter 12, see this in the picture in Revelation 12, see the defeat
of our enemy. Look at verse 7. And there was war in heaven.
Michael and his angels fought against the dragon. The word
Michael means prince. Christ, our prince. Fought against
the dragon and the dragon against his angels and prevailed not.
Neither was there any place found for them anymore in heaven. And
the great dragon was cast out, the old serpent called the devil
and Satan, which is deceiveth the whole world. He was cast
out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. And I
heard a loud voice in heaven saying, Now is come salvation,
and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of
his Christ. For the accuser of the brethren
is cast down, which accuseth them before God day and night.
And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, by the word
of their testimony, and they loved not their own lives unto
death. See how he was defeated was by
Christ. He is defeated by Christ. And
how did he overcome him? By his blood. By the blood of
the Lamb. by the Word of God. So how then
are we as His people now to overcome this same foe, this same enemy
that roars against us? Because Satan is not destroyed.
Make no mistake about this. Our enemy is not destroyed. He
is very real. He is very real. And to think otherwise is very
dangerous. Very dangerous for you. He is
defeated. He is angry. He is cruel. But He is not yet destroyed or
cast completely into hell. He is... Where is He? Look at
verse 12. Therefore rejoice, you heavens,
and you that dwell in them. Now look to those saints who
are in heaven. Rejoice! Your war is over. There's no more way he can get
to you. But woe to the inhabitants of
the earth and the sea, for the devil has come to you, having
great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.
And when the dragon saw that he was cast in the earth, what
did he do? He persecuted the woman which brought forth the
man-child. Who is that? The bride. The church. Satan has come to
you. Woe to you. He has come to you. And what is he doing? In anger,
and vengeance, and hatred, and cruelty, he is set to persecute
the church. What is our hope? of ever overcoming
this lion, stopping his mouth. Look, to the woman was given
two wings of great eagle that she might fly to the wilderness
into a place where she is nourished for a time, times, and half a
time from the face of the serpent. And the serpent cast out of his
mouth a flood after the woman. He might cause her to be carried
away by the flood. The earth helped the woman. The
earth opened up his mouth and swallowed the flood of the dragon
cast out of his mouth. And the dragon was wroth with
the woman and went to make war with the remnant of her seed,
which kept the commandments of God and have the testimony of
Christ. Who is that? That's you. That's you. You're the woman
and you're the seed. What is this flood? What is this
flood? Accusations. The flood of accusations. The flood of subtlety and subject... The flood of accusations, the
flood by His subtlety to move you from Christ. That's what
He desires to do. to drown you. Believer, our foe is defeated,
cast out from heaven, but not destroyed. He is here, and with
anger and cruelty, he desires only to hurt you. Have you ever had any experience
in this? Because anybody with true faith has had some experience
with this foe. I remember reading Luther having
such a battle with him, he threw the inkblot at him. Like that
would help. Have you ever done that? I've
been so upset that I'm sure that we thought that we could get
rid of him by that. How then shall you defeat this
enemy? How shall you overcome him? Listen, to overcome him
you must first understand he's defeated. Not by you. That's altogether
important. Remember, who it was that defeated
the lion was not the bride, it was Samson. Who has defeated your foe is
not you. But Christ, your Savior, has
defeated him. Your Savior has cast him out. Your Savior has delivered you
from his power. What shall you do when you are
faced with him? Because you will be You will
be. Go to 1st Peter. 1st Peter, chapter 5. 1st Peter, chapter 5, and look
at verse 6. He says this to us who are believers.
Humble yourselves, therefore. Because God resisted the proud
and giveth grace to the humble. Who needs grace? Who needs grace? The humble need grace. Humble
yourselves, therefore, unto the mighty hand of God. Listen, that
He may exalt you. When? When it's His time. Anybody
need to be lifted up? Don't lift up yourselves. Humble
yourself and wait. Wait for Him to lift you up. To Him to exalt you. Casting all your care upon Him,
for He careth for you. He careth for you. Let us humble
then ourselves and submit unto the mighty hand of God and cast
all our cares upon Him. Trust and love for Christ. Cast all our cares upon His work
of grace. And listen, be sober and vigilant. How are you to humble yourselves
and cast your care? Sober and vigilantly do it. Do it with all sobriety of mind,
recognizing who you are, recognizing what God has done for you, with
all vigilance, with all determination and dedication. Humble yourselves
and cast your care upon Him. Why should you do this? Why should
you be so sober and vigilant to do this? Because you have
an enemy, a lion, Satan, who walketh about as a roaring lion,
seeking who he may devour. We have an enemy that seeks to
devour our souls. How then shall he enter in to
do that? His entering in surely comes
by our murmuring are covetousness and discontent
with the circumstances in God's providence. Isn't that an entering
in for the lion? Aren't you allowing the door
to be opened for him to enter in by your murmuring and complaining
against God? We are. Be sober and vigilant
to humble yourselves so that you would not murmur and complain
against God. Cast all your care upon Him because
if you don't, you'll become covetous. Isn't that what you found in
your experience? You look around, and you see
this person's having a good time, this person's doing well, there's
no problem over here, and what do we do? We say, instead of
taking our care and casting it on him, we just try to fix it
ourselves. It allows him to come in. It's
an entry. Are you in trouble? Are you suffering
affliction? Listen, this is common among
saints. It hasn't happened to you that
it hasn't happened to saints before you. This is not something
new. This has happened to all our
brethren in some measure. We've all just had this same
experience before. They've had it. Remember, remember as Peter said, resist the devil. Steadfast, how? In the faith. In the faith. Knowing that the
same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in
the world, but the God of all grace who hath called us unto
his eternal glory by Jesus Christ, after that you have suffered
a while, make you perfect, establish, and strengthen, and settle you.
To him be glory. Believer, your suffering is not
accidental. And the moment you think it is,
he says this, Yea, hath the Lord said. Our mother What was she even doing around
the fruit? What is her purpose around there?
Many trees, and yet she decided to hang around this one. And sure enough, the temptations
become in. The temptations to blame God, to set God at variance,
to put evil upon God, as though what we're experiencing is some
evil thing. Now it feels evil to the flesh. But what does faith say? Faith
says God is good. And all God does is good. And if we don't see that, if
we don't humble ourselves under that, sure enough the enemy will
come in and make his case. He'll roar against you, resist
him in the faith. Not argue with him, who's done
that. Not quote scripture to him. You
listen, Satan's been around for over 6,000 years and he's pretty
good at this. He's good at this. Better than
you. If he quotes scripture to our
Lord, do you imagine how he'll quote it to you? I remember reading Bunyan. He had
this thought that he said was of the devil to sell the Lord.
and he couldn't get it out of his head for a year or so, he'd
sell him, sell him, sell him, sell him, sell him. And one thought
came to him, he was so oppressed with his afflictions, the thought
came to his mind, I must sell him. And what did Satan do? He turned around and said, aha,
see, there's no way you could be a child of God. He tempted
him, and then when the thought came in, he accused him. He accused him. Friends, Satan knows how to work
you. How to manipulate you. He quotes scripture, and he used
that scripture, Esau sought it carefully with tears. Sought
repentance. He said, you're nothing but Esau. And friends, we're not to debate
with Him, not to argue with Him. We will fail miserably. But we must look by faith to
Christ and let Him alone plead our cause. Plead our cause. Are you tempted of Him? Are you
accused of Him? The best thing you can do to
resist Him is to leave your cause with Christ. Isn't that what Newton did when
he said, "'Tis a point I long to know. Oft it causes anxious
thought. Do I love the Lord or no? Am
I His or am I not?" What a case! What a struggle! He said, Lord,
decide the doubtful case. He left it in the hands of Christ. Lord, you tell me if I am or
not. I desire to hear from Him, don't
you? I don't want to be deceived.
I don't want to be left alone. I don't want to be without Him.
When the enemy comes, that's what he does. You're without
him, you're without him. I don't care what you say. What does
he say? What does he say? Lord, look to him by faith to
plead our cause. You remember that man, the prophet,
the high priest, Joshua? He stood before the Lord in those
filthy garments of sin, and Satan stood at his right hand ready
to accuse him. But what stopped his mouth? Was
it Joshua who stopped his mouth? No. Joshua stood before the Lord
to plead his cause. By faith he stood there in his
filthy garments, hoping only in the word and verdict of the
Lord to plead his case. And you know what he found? He
found power to resist. It wasn't his power, it was the
power of Christ. The angel of the Lord said, shut
up. The angel of the Lord stopped
his mouth and said, who are you to make accusations of this?
Is this not one of the brands plucked from the burning? Is
this not My sheep? Have I not suffered and died
in His stead? Who are you to accuse My sheep
of anything?" The Lord said, take off those filthy garments
and you put on My garments. Put on My robe of righteousness. The one I purchased for Him.
He resisted Him. How? By looking to Christ. Looking
to Christ. You see, we have a greater advocate
than our foe. And His blood and righteousness
is greater than all our sins. I like this. John said this,
believers sin not. But when you sin, you have an
advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, who is
the propitiation Not for our sins only. Now he's showing the
greatness of our advocate and his death. He said, not just
your sins, but the sins of the whole world. All of his people
he died for. His sacrifice was so great it
not only covered all your sins, but all of the sins of his people. I think of Hezekiah. Remember
that king, that great king of man of God, surrounded by the
Assyrian army? That Assyrian came out and he
said to Israel, don't you trust in your God. Don't you let them
tell you your God will deliver you. Don't let them tell... All
the other gods were not able to deliver them. How shall the
God of Israel deliver you? Is that not a picture of Satan
roaring against us? How shall God save you? You're not worthy to be saved. There's no way God could love
you. You're not worthy of His love. "...to which Hezekiah took the
letters that they wrote." And what did he do? He spread them
out before the Lord. Is this not how the lion's mouth
is shut? We spread our complaint before
the Lord. And God said, you don't worry
about him. He'll come back the same way he came. I'll destroy
him and his army with him. And this is how the mouth of
our enemy is stopped. Faith in Christ. Trusting Christ. Only Christ. Always Christ. That is the only way this enemy
is stopped. It's the only way his mouth is
shut. Remember Daniel? Daniel was shut
up in the den of lions. But what did Daniel do, really,
to shut the lions' mouths? He just believed God. And the angel of the Lord shut
the mouths of the lions. David, when that sheep was taken
from his fold, remember he told this to Saul before he went out
and slew Goliath. He said, the bear and the lion
had taken the sheep in their mouth. And he said, I grabbed
the lion by his beard and slew him. Is that not exactly what the
Lord did for us? We were in the mouth. We all, like sheep, have gone
astray and turned everyone to his own way. And we were in the
very teeth of our enemy. The only thing that separated
us from hell was one hare's breath. You mark this down, my Savior
grabbed him by the beard. and slew Him and took me from
His mouth and saved me. And I tell you this, He does
this every day of my life. He saves me. You see, I've not
just been saved in the past. I am being saved in the very
present. How then are we to quench his
fiery darts of accusations against us? Now, he can't accuse us before
God, but he does accuse us in our own heart. How is it we escape?
Faith. Believing God. It is the shield
of faith that quenches the fiery darts of the wicked one. So, believer, we have a real
enemy. And how is his mouth stopped? Humble yourself. under the mighty hand of God.
Cast all your care on Him. Got any care? Where you put it? On Him. He careth for you. He careth for you. Be sober and vigilant to do this,
and you shall resist Him who seeks your destruction. And the
wicked one shall not touch Him. I pray God bless this to you.