Dear friend of mine, a man I've
known for close to 20 years, him and his family, came to hear me preach one time
during one of our conferences. He's been saying for years he'd
like to make it up here. And afterwards, he asked me a
question. He said, John? I get it, you got to tell people
about Christ. I understand that. He goes, but
everybody here seems to have already heard that before. Why
do you have to tell them about Christ again today? What is it? What's going on? I mean, I know
who the Lord Jesus is. He's God Almighty in the flesh.
He's sovereign ruler over everything. I know this. So, you know, in
your message you said it's why you come to church, you used
to hear that all the time. Why? Once you know who Christ
is, what do you need to be told who He is again for? I failed. I gotta be honest with
you, I failed hard. I was not able to come up with
an answer right off the bat for him. I had to sit there and think
about it for a while, and to be quite honest with you, time
went by. And to this day, I still have not answered him that question. Give me the strength, Lord. Give
me the wisdom to go to him soon and answer that question. What
is it? Why do we have to be continually
reminded. Why do we come to this table? Drink some juice, eat some bread. What is it? Why? Do you know who the Lord Jesus
is? Why do you have to be reminded
who he is all the time? Why does John need to be reminded
of this all the time. You know, I've been coming here
for 20 years. And those of you who have sat in this church with
me know that the message from this pulpit has always been and
will always be, Lord willing, the Lord Jesus Christ and Him
crucified. Why? What is it that John has
to hear that over and over again? A child of the true and living
God, as one who has been saved by the grace of God, yet lives
in the world of sin. And that's what this is all,
that's what everything is around us. The mountains are wonderful and
beautiful. There are so many wonderful things
that we can enjoy of this world, but here's the truth about everything,
folks. The very truth is this. It will all be burned up. When
Adam sinned against God, God cursed the very ground that we
walk on. The entire creation shall be
burned up in the end. It has to. There's sin in the
world. There's sin in everything around
us. Death. Do the animals not die? They die, don't they? Death is
the result of sin. To a child of God, the true and
living God, we need to hear, we need to be reminded daily
of who our Savior is. We've been reading in the book
of Galatians about how the battle that goes on within each and
every one of God's children. The battle that's going on in
our body, this body of death, our flesh is at war with our
spirit. The Apostle Paul puts it this
way, he says, for the flesh lusteth against the spirit, this is in
Galatians 5.17, for the flesh, that is our body, That is, what
we are lusteth against the Spirit. It's
at odds with the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh.
And these are contrary to one to the other, so they cannot
do the things that ye would. In Romans chapter 7, he puts
it this way, he says, For I know that in me, Paul speaking of
himself, that in me, This very man who wrote all these books,
who was influenced by God to go out and start all these churches
all around the places of the world at that time. God Almighty showed him what
he was that whole time. He had a thorn in his side, and
the Lord said, My grace is sufficient for thee. And you can sit here
and gasp and play the game of guessing what that thorn was,
but I won't play that. Doesn't matter. Whatever it was,
it was from God, wasn't it? That's what the Scripture says.
And we all have our thorns. We all have that thorn in us.
If we're a child of God, we all have that thorn in us that reminds
us it's not the flesh, it's our Lord and Savior and His grace.
And it continues to point us to that very thing. He puts it this way, he says,
For I know that in me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good
thing, for to will is present with me, but how to perform that
which is good I find not. Paul! Paul is saying that in
God's Word, isn't he? For the good that I would do
not, but the evil which I would, not that I do. Now if I do that
I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth
in me. I find then a law that when I would do good, evil is
present with me. For I delight in the law of God
after the inward man. He delights in the law of God.
We all who know the Lord Jesus Christ think the law is good. And we try to follow that law
as best we can because He who first loved us, and we follow
that law out of love for Him, not out of a bondage, like as
it was in the bondage of sin, not out of fear of death, but
because He first loved us. We want to do good. We want to
do what's right. We want to be blessed with the
things of God. Do we not? For I delight in the law of God
after the inward man, but I see another law in my members." In
my thoughts he's talking about. Warring against the law of my
mind and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in
my members. Oh wretched man that I am, he
says. We were speaking earlier about the Pharisees, and the Sadducees,
and the scribes, and those religious, righteous men who put on their
nice robes, and they walk out onto the street corner, and they
pray so that everybody can see them. They put on this big show
about how righteous they are. And you know something? They
really think they are. If you don't believe me, sit down for
a moment with our dear brother Mike Loveless afterwards and
ask him what he thought when he was of a different religion.
He'll be happy to share with you. They truly thought they
were righteous. But their righteousness was established
on what they were doing. It wasn't on what God, our Savior,
had done. It wasn't on the grace and the
mercy of God. It was on them. Paul knew exactly what he was
before God, as every child of God does. We know what we are
before God. Oh, wretched man that I am! Who
shall deliver me from the body of this death? Is what Paul wrote. And then he says this at verse
25, I thank God through Jesus Christ Here in 2 Samuel chapter 22,
David, and I want you to take this into mind as we read this. David is loved of God. He's a man after God's own heart
according to the Scriptures. God has brought this man through
thick and thin. He put this man before a giant
and then boldly gave him the ability to stand to that giant
and fling a sling at him and kill him. How dare that giant!
talk against my God." And then another moment, this very one
who was a man after God's own heart was running for his life
from a king, King Saul, who was trying to kill him. And after
the Lord delivered him from that, he was brought to another point
where He was in a battle somewhere, his people were in a battle somewhere
and he was looking down upon the roof of another building
and there lay a woman and he had to have her. What a picture of you and I.
What a picture of this battle that you and I fight in our own
bodies. David, a man after God's own
heart, who God had brought through thick and thin, and now for a
time God had brought peace to David. Look at verses 1 through
7 of Samuel 22. And David spake unto the Lord
the words of this song, in the day that the Lord had delivered
him out of the hand of all his enemies and out of the hand of
Saul. And he said, the Lord is my rock and my fortress and my
deliverer. And the God of my rock in Him
will I trust. He is my shield and the horn
of my salvation, my high tower, my refuge, my Savior. Thou savest me from violence.
I will call on the Lord who is worthy to be praised. So shall
I be saved from mine enemies. When the waves of death compassed
me, the floods of ungodly men made me afraid. The sorrows of
hell compassed me about. The snares of death prevented
me. In my distress, I called upon the Lord and cried to my
God. And he did hear my voice out
of the temple. out of his temple, and my cry
did enter into his ears." David cried unto the Lord, his
Deliverer. My title this morning is Delivered. And I have three points I'd like
to bring before you. The first one is, we have, as
children of God, been delivered. The second point I want to make
is, as children of God, we are being delivered. And the third point is this,
we shall be delivered. First, let us consider what it
is that we've been delivered from, and who it was that delivered
us, and then how we were delivered. As the sons and daughters of
Adam, we all come into this world born into the bondage of sin.
Our very nature is to rebel against the truths of God, to rebel against
the rule of the Almighty. That's what the free will religionists
do. They rebel against the rule. Folks, God Almighty is called
God because He rules over everything. Plain and simple. If He doesn't
rule over everything, then He doesn't deserve to be called
God. He rules over everything. In
Proverbs 6, 16, it says this, These six things doth the Lord
hate. I'll stop for a second, I want
you to hear this. These six things doth the Lord hate. Number one,
a proud look. Look what I've done. Look at
me, how good I am. Number two, a lying tongue. It's because of me that this
happened. Number three, hands that shed
innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked imaginations,
feet that be swift in running to mischief, a false witness
that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among the brethren. We come into this world from
our mother's womb speaking lies. That's what the Lord says in
his word. And if you say you have no sin, then you call God
a liar. In Jeremiah 17.9 we read this,
The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.
Who can know it? Or in Romans 6.23 we read this,
For the wages of sin is death. In Hebrews 9.22 we read this,
"...and almost all things are by the law purged with blood,
and without shedding of blood is no remission." Our blood, our death is tainted
in sin and can never pay the debt in full. That's why hell
goes on for an eternity. In eternity there will be crying, gnashing of teeth. Wait
a minute. What is this? How can you say
that I can't go to heaven? Look at all the things that I've
done in my life. How dare you say that I didn't
follow you? I made a decision for you at
one day. I got into the baptism. I got baptized. I said the prayer.
I did this. I did that. It's all about them. It's all about them. And folks,
you and I, we're just like that. There was a time when it was
all about our little world. Aren't you thankful the Lord
has come into the hearts of his children and shown them the truth
of the matter is it's Jesus Christ and him alone. We come into this world speaking
from our mother's womb, speaking lies. Our blood, our death is
tainted in sin and we can never pay the debt in full. There's
only One who is perfect in all ways, who can fully pay that
debt. Paul says, O wretched man that
I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? May I
tell you? May I tell you about this One
who shall deliver Paul? and all that the Father giveth
Him. More than you and I can ever count. So many that there's
more than the sand of the sea. There's not just a couple here
in rescue. There's not just a couple over in Marysville or in Kentucky
or whatever. There's more children of God
than we can count the sand of the sea. Now you imagine what
that would be like. I thought about that for a moment as I'm
sitting there thinking about that. Kathy and I spent a little
time at a place down in Fort Bragg called Glass Beach. It's where everybody used to
go dump their garbage and now it's fun to go through and see
all the stuff that people left years ago. But you sit there
in the sand and your feet get buried in it, and it's just,
man, I can't even imagine what it would be like to count all
the sands as a sea. That's the people of God. Our
Lord saved all for whom the Father giveth Him. He saved all whose
names were written in the Book of Life before the world began.
He is called Jesus the Christ, for He is the Deliverer, the
Messiah, and He shall save His people. We cannot deliver ourselves
from this body of death, but all things, all things, the Lord
says in His Word, all things are possible with God. You know, our Lord gives us an
example of that, doesn't He? The camel through the eye of
the needle. If God wanted to, He could stretch
that camel out, bring it through the needle and out the other
side and it'd be alive. You know how I can tell you that? Because
our God made a camel or made an ass talk. A donkey turned
around and spoke to the man behind it. Our God made the water stand
up on each side of the Red Sea so that His people could walk
through perfectly safe. A picture of our Lord and Savior.
A picture of our Lord and Savior as you and I walk through this
world. Yeah, all kinds of stuff is going on around us, all kinds
of chaos and things that happen around us, but our peace is not
in what we see in this world. Our peace is in our Savior who
rules all things. 9-11 was not an accident. Our
God was in control of everything then as He is now. We cannot
deliver ourselves from this body of death, but all things are
possible with God. He who is the creator of all
that is humbled himself and became flesh. As I had said in a Bible
study earlier this morning, He got down on His knees. Have you
ever stopped to think of that? Our Lord got down on His knees
to wash the feet of those that He had created. He does the very
same thing for each of you and I. He washes us white as snow. Our Creator came here to serve
His people. He humbled Himself and became
flesh. He who knew no sin was born of
a virgin, without the nature of man. And He lived the perfect
life, fulfilling every jot, every tittle of God's holy law. He
is God in the flesh, the God-man, and as a 100% God, He could not
sin. But as a 100% man, He was made
to be sin. Our sin was imputed to Him and
made to be His. He went to that cross as though
the sins of His chosen were His. He bore them in His own body
as though they were His sins, yet He never sinned. He was made
sin that we who were chosen before the foundation of the world would
be made righteous in Him. That those whose names were written
in the book of life, a book that was written before anything else
was created, would have salvation through Him, our substitute,
our perfect sacrifice, the perfect blood of God. And He delivered
His people from their sins. We stand before God Almighty
and all He sees is the perfect blood of His darling Son. Just
as the angel of death, as I said a week or so ago, passed by God's
people, those who had the blood on their doorpost of the sacrifice,
our Lord and God Almighty passes by the doors to these hearts
because the blood of Christ is shed on that doorstop. on that
door post. I knew I'd get it right. We stand
before God in the blood of his darling son, Jesus Christ, the
deliverer, the lamb slain from before the foundation of the
world. We were delivered by his works, in his works, in him we
are made white as snow. And next I want to bring to you
this second point. We are being delivered right
now. Turn to 2 Corinthians chapter
1 please. Our Lord didn't just deliver
us that day He called us out of darkness. He knew, this is
exactly why he started this ordinance the night before he was hung
on the cross with his disciples in that room. He knew that we
were forgetful people. He knew that his people could
be stiff-necked. He knew that we needed to be
reminded. Because you see, we walk around
in this flesh all day long. We only show up for church once
a week. We need to be reminded all the time, and sometimes when
He reminds us, it's a tough way to remember. It's called chastening. But Lord, chasten me when I need
it, please. Don't leave me to myself. We need to be delivered all the
time from this body of death. Not just once. The Apostle Paul,
who is declared to be an example to all who are saved, not an
example of righteousness, but an example of one who has been
saved by the grace of God alone, through Christ alone, revealed
in the Spirit alone. One who continues to struggle
with the flesh, just as all of God's children do. Remember my
words in the opening of this message. There is a war going
on between our two natures. The nature of our flesh and the
nature of our newborn spirit. Our new spirit desires to walk
with our Lord according to His commands. Yet we find our old
nature ruling the flesh and this battle would drive me to an end. I can't imagine knowing what
the Lord has laid on my heart of what I am and who He is and
having to deal with this battle. This battle of sin that's in
me. If I did not know who it was,
who it is, that has won this battle for me, I have no doubt
where my mind would go with that. Because of His sacrifice, folks,
the battle is won. Our Lord says this in His word,
Jerusalem, the battle is won, the conqueror
has come. In John 8 verse 36 we read this,
if the Son therefore shall make you free, you shall be free indeed. Isn't that good words? Yeah, we battle between the flesh
and our spirit, but our Lord has already won it. When we look
at what the flesh can do, we turn to what our Lord has done
and say, it is finished in Him. For the law of the Spirit, as
it says in Romans 8-2, for the law of the Spirit of life in
Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.
For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the
flesh, God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh,
and for sin, condemneth sin in the flesh. Look at verses 1-10
of 2 Corinthians 1. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ
by the will of God, and Timothy, our brother unto the church of
God which is at Corinth, which all the saints which are in Achaia. Grace be to you and peace from
God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be God,
even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies
and the God of all comfort, who comforted us in all our tribulation, There's our comfort. Folks, our comfort is not in
what we do. What we do cannot take away and
it cannot add anything to salvation. Salvation is of the Lord and
of the Lord alone. God help us to turn from sin.
But when we fall, when we stumble, There's One who will not let
us fall into that dark pit we were once on the path to. The Father of all mercies and
the God of all comfort, who comforted us in all of our tribulation,
that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble
by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted with of God. Are
you troubled today, folks? Look to Christ. When someone
comes to you with the trouble of the heart, what do you tell
them? Look to Christ. For as the sufferings of Christ
abounded us, so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ. And
whether we be afflicted It is of your consolation and salvation,
which is effectual in the enduring of the same sufferings which
we also suffer, or whether we be comforted, it is for your
consolation and salvation. And our hope of you is steadfast,
knowing that as ye are partakers of the sufferings, so shall ye
be also of the consolation. For we would not, brethren, have
you ignorant of our trouble, which came to us in Asia that
we were pressed out of the measure above strength and so much that
we despaired even of life. But we have had the sentence
of death in ourselves that we should not trust in ourselves
but in God which raiseth the dead, who delivered us from so
great a death and doth deliver. in whom this One who doth deliver,
we trust that He will yet deliver us. Ye also helping, together
by prayer for us, for that the gift bestowed upon us by the
means of many persons, thanks may be given to many on our behalf."
Oh, I read one verse too many, didn't I? That's okay. Never
hurts to read God's Word, does it? We stress so much about who the
Lord Jesus is. For this very reason. As God
Almighty in the flesh, He cannot fail. No matter what you see
going on in your life. And if it's something terrible,
God help you to turn it over to Him. But if you belong to
Him, He will not let you go and He will not fail. It's the blood of God that was
shed on that cross. Not some worthless thing that
we see on this world or that we've made with our own hands.
But God Almighty, His blood was shed on that cross. If you believe in a God who can't
do something, then you believe in nothing. For the God of Scriptures
does exactly what He says He shall do, and what He says shall
come to pass. Our God will not let us go. In
the 17th chapter of John, in the great prayer, the true Lord's
prayer, the one where our Lord and Savior gets down on His knees
and pleads for the cause of His children, He says this in verse
12, While I was with them in the world, I kept them in Thy
name. Those that Thou gavest Me, I
kept, and none of them is lost. That's the God we're talking
about in Scriptures here. One who doesn't lose anything.
He cannot lose one for whom His blood was shed. Or what would
that say about the power of God? In Romans 8, we read this, there
is therefore now no condemnation. No condemnation means no judgment. You can't lay anything to the
charge of God's people. to them which are in Christ Jesus,
who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. We don't
walk after that lust, that sin that besets us in our flesh.
It doesn't rule over us anymore. We turn from what we thought
of ourselves to what we think of God now. We think of Him as
God. One who rules over everything.
In Romans 8, 12, we read it this way. In fact, you know what?
Turn over to Romans 8 if you would. I want you to read this
with me on this. I know normally when we turn
to Romans 8, we go to those very familiar verses. And sometimes
we skip over these verses in between verse 1 and verse 28. So read along with me at verse
12, will you? Therefore, brethren, Paul, speaking
to each and every one of God's people throughout all time, Therefore,
brethren, we are debtors not to the flesh to live after the
flesh. For if ye live after the flesh,
ye shall die. But if ye through the Spirit
do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. For as many as
are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For
ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, but
ye have received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba,
Father. The Spirit itself beareth witness
with our spirit that we are the children of God. And if children,
then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ. If so
be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together."
Folks, If God be for you, if God be for us, the one who created
everything, can anything in creation come
against Him? What a weak God, if that's what
you think. Can anything stand in the way of your God? Can anything turn the hand of
your God? Not the true and living God.
Not the Christ, for all the fullness of the Godhead dwelleth in Him.
He is the Deliverer. Not maybe, not possibly, not
by anything man can do, but by Him are we made sons of the living
God. In Romans 9 verse 16 it says
this, so then it is not of Him that willeth, So then it is not of him that
willeth, nor of him that runneth." Meaning that it's not of our
works. It's not of anything that you
and I can do. And if you think it's by your
free will, then you call our Lord a liar, because it says
right there in that word, so then it is not of him that willeth,
nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. This is our only hope. And a
good hope it is. A hope that supersedes all the
chaos that we see around us. A hope that there is One who
rules and cannot fail. The fact that He is sitting on
His throne ruling delivers me from the dread of my flesh. 1
Peter Chapter 1, verse 3, Peter puts it this way, he says, Blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according
to His abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by
the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance
incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved
in heaven for you. You. who are kept by the power
of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last
time. And this brings me to my third
and final point. And we will yet be delivered. We have been delivered. We are
being delivered, kept by the power of God. We have been delivered
by Jesus Christ and His sacrifice. We are being kept by the power
of God through Jesus Christ. And we will be delivered in the
final day to stand with our Lord and Savior forever. We have an
incorruptible, as I just read, inheritance. Now we are made
the sons of God. not some later date, but now. Our Lord tells us He has gone
to prepare a place in heaven for us. Who will deliver us from
this body of death? Christ the Lord will. That's
who. Turn a few into Hebrews chapter
10. While you're turning there, allow
me to read this. Because you know I have to. I promised you
that this will be part of every message I ever give. John 6.37,
And all that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and him
that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. I never get tired of reading
that. And I never get tired of telling you that. That one verse
right there, along with many others, but that one verse right
there tells you who God the Father, who God Almighty is. He's the
one who has mercy on whom He will have mercy. And He will have mercy on whom
He will have mercy. Look at verses 14 through 25
of Hebrews chapter 10. This one sacrifice our Lord gave
on the cross. For by one offering He hath perfected. Did you catch that? God Almighty
says He's perfected you and I. Not by anything we have done,
but by that one offering that our Lord and Savior did on the
cross. Forever, them that are sanctified, those that are set
apart, those who have been made holy by our Lord and Savior. Wherefore, the Holy Ghost also
is a witness to us. For after that he had said before,
this is the covenant that I will make with them after those days,
saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in
their minds will I write them, Whoo, here it comes. And their
sins and iniquities will I remember no more. Folks, that battle that
we're going through, it's been won. That battle that we fight in
this flesh, the sin that's in us, it's been won. He remembers it no more. Verse
18, now where remission of these is, there is no more offering
for sin. That's because God Almighty is the one who made that offer.
He paid the price in full, and He did it perfectly. There is
no more offerings for sin of His people, having therefore,
brethren, boldness to enter into the holiness, the holiest by
the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which He hath
consecrated for us through the veil, that is to say, His flesh,
and having a high priest over the house of God." You know,
you remember what the high priest is, right? He's the one who goes
into the holiest of holies and makes intercession for the people
of God, for Israel, for Jerusalem, for us. Our Lord is sitting in
heaven right now making intercession for each and every one of us.
The battle is won. Jerusalem, your warfare is accomplished. Let us draw near, verse 22, with
a true heart and full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled
from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.
Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering,
for He is faithful that promised. And let us consider one another
to provoke unto love and to good works, not forsaking the assembling
of ourselves together as the manner of some, but exhorting
one another, and so much the more as ye yet see the day approaching."
Folks, we have been delivered. We have been delivered from this
body of death that we must travel through this world in. The flesh
must return to dust. But that's okay. I'm all right
with that. Because God Almighty has paid
the debt. And what that flesh could not
do, He has done. We are being delivered right
now. As we walk through this valley of the shadow of death,
Our Lord reminds each and every one of his children, you're mine
and I will never let you go. And we shall yet be delivered. There's a day coming when we
get to heaven and the roll will be called up younger and we'll
be there. Amen.