Morning, everybody. You'd like
to turn to Genesis chapter 25. That's not really our text for
this morning. That's where I'd like to begin. So I listened to a message. It
was a couple of weeks ago. It was a message that Greg Elmquist
preached probably six months ago. Bert, you all might have
been there for it. I'm not quite sure. Greg asked
a very, very interesting question, and I had to chew on it a while,
and I want to begin by asking you this same question here this
morning. Concerning every believer's relationship with his sin, is
it a war that has already been won, the enemy has already been
destroyed, and Christ is the victor, or is it a battle that
we fight every day? The answer is yes. Both are absolutely
true. Now I'm speaking to believers
right now. I'm speaking to people. You are a sinner. You have nothing
before God, and your only hope is that Jesus Christ died for
you, that He bore your sins in His body and He put them away
on that tree, and you stand justified before God simply because of
what He has done. And you have nothing else. I
speak to you, this is what Hebrews 1.3 says, when He had by Himself
purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the majesty
on high. Everybody he died for, this is
what the scriptures record, these are not my words, it's his, he
purged our sins. You ever purged somebody before?
It means to completely and utterly empty something, to purge it,
to remove it to where it is no more. The sins of everybody Christ
died for, they are purged. And what did he do after he purged
our sins? He sat down. He sat down because there was
absolutely nothing left for him to do. What his father had sent
him to do, which is single-handedly save everybody he sent him to
save, he did just that. And that means for you, believer,
there is nothing left for you to do. You are complete in Christ
Jesus teaching this book. And yet, the war rages on. Every single day we battle with
sin. In Romans 7, 24, Paul said this. This is how he referred to himself.
He said, O wretched man that I am. Not who I used to be. O wretched man, O sinful man,
O useless man, O unprofitable man that I presently am. How
was he presently? He was a saved man. He's a man
who the Lord had revealed himself to. This is a man who was brought
up into the third heavens and taught by God directly. This
man was saved by God. Does anybody want to dispute
that? No. And what is his conversation?
What is his confession about himself? Oh, wretched man that
I am. Did it sound like Paul was battling
the sin every single day? Yes, it did. The question is
this. If Paul's sin was put away, why
did he still experience it? It's a good question. I'm not
quite sure I can intelligently answer it. I know it has something
to do with the eternality of God. The fact that with him,
there is no time, that everything that ever has been, always has
been, everything that ever will be, is right now. He's without
time. He sees everything in the now. Every one of his people have
always been perfect and without sin before him in Christ because
he sees things right now in the present. Do I understand that?
Absolutely not. So I'm going to stop talking
about it. But I will give you an illustration. The question
was this, if Paul's sin was put away, why was he still experiencing
it? For you doctors out there, you're
probably familiar with this. There is a syndrome in the medical
community. It is called phantom limb pain. It applies to amputees. So let's
say you have a soldier who's going into battle and they have
to take off one of his legs. It is very common for these people,
these amputee patients, to report to their doctor that they are
experiencing pain in the limb that is no longer there. That's
a real thing. You can look that up in a medical
book if you'd like. It is very common for amputees,
people who have had their limb taken from them, it is gone,
it no longer exists, it is not a part of them anymore, to tell
their doctor, I still feel pain in that limb, even though that
limb's not there anymore. And that's about the best illustration
we can get in this world. Where is the sin? It's gone.
Christ took it away at his cross and on his cross, and yet, we
still have that pain of being a sinner that we struggle with
every day of our lives, all the way to the very day we die. Now, this is a paradoxical statement,
but yet it is true, and every believer in this room is going
to understand what I mean when I say this. For the believer,
the battle does not begin until the war is already over. What do I mean by that? The natural
man knows absolutely nothing about his sin. He has a conscience. The law is written on every man's
heart. He knows right from wrong, but he doesn't see himself in
the mirror of God. standing in the light of his
holiness, standing in the light of his righteousness, standing
in the light of his expectation. He does not see himself for what
it really is. Yes, his conscience burns when he does wrong, he
experiences shame when he is exposed, but he cannot see his
sin before God. He has no consciousness of it.
It is only until the Lord reveals himself to a man. He comes to
him and he reveals Christ to that man. It's standing in the
light of who God is that the man actually sees who he is,
that he is a sinner before God. Until the Lord teaches you who
Christ is and shows you that in him, your sins have been removed,
that he is your only hope of salvation, it's paradoxical. That's when the battle begins.
That's when the war begins and you say, I'm a sinner before
God. Now, why is it that way? We have an interesting illustration
of that in Genesis 25. This is Rebekah, Isaac's wife,
and she was barren. She couldn't have any children.
And Isaac entreated the Lord for her for children. And here's
what she said. Look at verse 22. And the children struggled together
within her. And she said, if it be so, if
I'm OK, if everything is all right, Why am I thus? And she went in choir to the
Lord. Two men were struggling inside of her. She had twins.
She didn't know it. But this was her question. She had this
great war, this great battle, this great struggle going on
inside of her. And she went to the Lord and she said, if everything's
OK, if I'm fine, if I'm healthy, if these babies are healthy,
if it be so, why am I thus? Why do I have this battle going
on inside of me? If you're a sinner right now,
you have no sin. Christ is your surety before
God. There is absolutely nothing to worry about. You have been
saved. Well, why do I have this battle raging in me? If it be
so, if it's okay, if everything is fine, why am I thus? Why am
I dealing with this sin problem still to this very day? Look
how the Lord answered in verse 23, And the Lord said unto her,
Two nations are in thy womb, And two manner of people shall
be separated from thy bowels, and the one people shall be stronger
than the other people, and the elder shall serve the younger."
He said, Rebecca, here's the issue. Here's the problem. You
now have life in you. You have two men, and these two
men are polar opposites. And right now, they are at war
inside of you. And this is what happens when
the Lord saves a man in his experience. He puts a new man. He breathes
life into him. The old man and then the new
man is given. The old man, who is he? It's
that dead, wicked, sinful nature that you and I are born with.
That one that hates God, the one that never believes, everything
he does is sin, everything he does is unrighteousness before
God, that's that first man. That's the older one, the one
we're born with. He never believes, he never loves God. Then you
have the new man. The new man in Christ Jesus,
the very spirit of God dwelling in a man, and he always believes.
He can't do anything but. He only does that which is holy.
He's perfect. He's in an immutable state. And
you know what this new man does? He exposes that old man. He stands
right there and says, he's a sinner. And then he turns the finger
on himself and he says, I'm a sinner. I'm a sinner. And that is the
confession of everyone who has this new man in Christ Jesus. He owns the sins of that old
man. I'm a sinful man before God. Is everything fine? Yeah,
that's the only healthy state for a man is to believe he is
a sinner before God, deserving damnation. That is the only healthy
state because in that state, Christ is his only hope of salvation. Now, why does the Lord do it
this way? say that's an interesting way
of doing business. Wouldn't it be better for him
to just take away that old man once he gives the new? Wouldn't
it be better if we were just holy without this old man? Wouldn't
it be better if we didn't have to drag him around with us? No,
it would not be better. I'll tell you why, because God
didn't do it that way. He'd do with all things, and
he'd do with them right well. That old man is a dog on God's
chain. He just does what God commands
him to do. He serves a purpose, and this is the purpose of that
old man, that elder. He gives us nowhere to look but
Christ alone. That's it. Now, the question. We're in a fight, we're in a
battle. Every believer currently right now is battling with sin,
battling with yourself. Do we fight? If we do, how do
we fight? What are the weapons of our warfare? Those are good questions. The
answer is yes, we fight. We absolutely do. But here's
what Paul said. 2 Timothy 4, 6, and 7, he says,
for I am now ready to be offered. Paul said, I'm ready to die.
And the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good
fight. I have finished my course. How
did you do that, Paul? How did you fight your good fight?
I have kept the faith. How do we fight this fight? How do we wage this warfare?
How do we conduct this battle? We fight the good fight of faith. We do what we did when the Lord
first saved us. We just keep on looking to Christ
alone and nowhere else. That is the answer. And let me
show you that from the scriptures. Turn to 2 Corinthians chapter
10. 2 Corinthians chapter 10 and pick
up in verse 3. For though we walk in the flesh,
we carry this old man around with us. We walk around with
his battle going inside of us, this man of sin. For though we
walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh. We don't
conduct a fleshly warfare. Verse four, for the weapons of
our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling
down of strongholds. Now, what does he mean a carnal
weapon? What is a carnal weapon, a fleshly weapon? Well, actually
this, what does the man's religion prescribe for a sin problem?
Got a sin problem, what does man's religion prescribe? The
law. You have a sin problem? Okay, here's what you need to
do. Start keeping the law. Start putting down sin, start doing
better, start keeping the law. And if you do that, if you're
real sincere and if you try real hard, you'll get more and more
holy, you'll get more removed from sin. That is the carnal
weapon. The law is that carnal weapon, what man prescribes for
a sin problem. But here's the problem with that
prescription, Romans 8, 3, for what the law could not do in
that it was weak through the flesh. No man can be saved by
the law. No man can be saved through the
do's and don'ts of the law. Not that there's anything wrong
with the law and we should be very reverent when we speak of
God's holy law because that's exactly what it is. It's holy.
The problem is with us. We cannot keep the law. We are
incapable of it. Furthermore, that's not the purpose
of the law. The law has never saved one man. It's not for a
righteous man. It's for sinners to expose sin. That's it. That is its only purpose. And if you put a man under the
law, the only thing it will ensure is that he will break that law. That's it. Claire, you're talking
about the gathering demoniac this morning, Mark chapter 5.
Y'all remember him? Man had an unclean spirit. dwelt in the
tombs, the land of the dead, crying all the time, cutting
himself, self-destructive, a complete and utter mess. And what did
the people of that island try to do? Time and time again, they
bound him with chains and fetters. Just handcuff him up, put him
in those chains. And for a little while, it worked. It corrected
the outward behavior for a little while. And then what happened?
Then that unclean spirit rose up with all its violence, and
he'd break those chains, and he'd break those fetters, and
he was worse off than he was before. You put a man under the
law, the only thing it will do is expose that man's sin. That's
it. And what is this mighty weapon?
What is this mighty weapon of our warfare? It's the gospel.
This is a faithful saying. and worthy of all acceptation
that Jesus Christ came into this world to save sinners, and not
just sinners, of whom I am chief, the chiefest of sinners. He saved sinners. You know what
that means? That means right now, and I don't care what you
think about yourself. I don't care whether you think you're saved
or not. Right now, if you are a sinner, You're a man who can't
stack up to the law. He can't take one step toward
God. He is completely and utterly
depraved in himself. He is completely and utterly
unable to do that which is pleasing to God. If that is you, Jesus
Christ died for you, and you are saved this very day. You
know what the weapon of our warfare is? Believing that, and believing
on Him who did that. That's it, that's how we wage
this warfare, believing on Christ. Let me give you another one. Turn over to 1 Timothy chapter
6. 1 Timothy chapter 6, and look at
verse 11. But thou, O man of God, 1 Timothy
6.11, Flee these things and follow after righteousness, godliness,
faith, love, patience, meekness. Fight the good fight of faith. Lay hold on eternal life whereunto
thou are also called and has professed a good profession before
many witnesses. Now I want to say something real
quick. I want to be very clear about what I'm saying. Sin is
not okay. There is never an excuse for
sin. Sin is a great evil. Flee from
sin. Do that which is right. Don't
do that which is wrong. But everything I've just said,
you know intuitively. You know that. You know sin is
bad. Flee from it. You know to do good. Do that. Absolutely. But is that how I
fight this good fight of faith? Is this how I follow after these
things like righteousness and godliness? No, absolutely not. This is what Arthur Pink said.
This is my favorite quote of his. He said, the great mistake
made by most of the Lord's people is in hoping to discover in themselves
that which is to be found in Christ alone. How do I follow
after these things? How do I follow after righteousness? I look to Christ. righteousness. This is what Paul
said, Philippians 3, 8, and 9, that I may win Christ and be
found in Him, not having mine own righteousness which is of
the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ. I am following after a righteousness,
but it is not mine I'm following after His. I'm looking His righteousness
that is my righteousness before God. My hope that I stand in
Him and as He is so am I right now in this world. He's righteous.
He's Therefore, I'm righteous in him. We look to Christ for
it. Godliness or holiness. Am I gonna look for that myself?
Because if you do, you're not gonna find it. But here's what
Hebrews 2.11 says, for both he that sanctifyeth and they who
are sanctified are all of one, for which cause he is not ashamed
to call them brethren. Where do I find my holiest, my
sanctification? I find it in Christ. that he
sanctified, therefore I am sanctified. I am sanctified and holy in him. That's how I follow after godliness,
looking to Christ. Faith. No one can believe for
you. You must come to Christ, and
you must believe on him, and you must trust him alone, and
the only reason you'll ever do that is if God gives you the
grace to. That's it. And I look to him
for my faith. I'm depending on him and looking
to him to give me this gift of faith so that I may believe on
him. But folks, I'm not looking to my faith. No believer is looking
to his faith, and I have no confidence in my faith. I have faith in
his faithfulness. that he was faithful in doing
exactly what his father sent him to do. His father sent him
to save a particular people. Those people are identified this
way, sinners, that's it. And he did exactly what he came
here to do. He completely saved his people. He's faithful to his father,
he is faithful to his people, and I'm relying on his faithfulness,
not my faith. Patience. I would love one day
to simply wait on the Lord. without worry, and without fret,
and without fear, but it hasn't happened yet, and I don't suppose
it's going to. But I'm not looking to my patience, I'm looking to
his patience. Only one man patiently waited
on God, and that's God, Christ Jesus himself. On that cross,
when he was suffering under the wrath of his father, being laden
with the sins of his people, he waited patiently on his father.
He never stopped believing his father. He had no communication
whatsoever from his father. All he had was his father's wrath
falling down upon him and never stopped believing that his father
would honor the covenant, that when he put away the sin and
all the sins of all God's people were removed, the father would
raise him from the dead. He just sat there and he waited
patiently on God. Something I've never done. I'm
looking at his patience. His meekness. Now, if you're
a believer, you are meek before God. You are a sinner before
God. But we never get low enough. We see just the tip of the iceberg.
We don't see the whole package of how bad we are. We wouldn't
be able to survive in this world if we did. But I'm not trusting
my meekness before him. I'm trusting that he made himself
meek before the Father. This is his meekness, God himself.
the creator, the sovereign one, the omnipotent one, that one
who holds all power. He confined himself to a human
body. He made himself meek. Then he made himself meek being
made the sins of his people. And then he made himself meek
in dying on a cross, but he was greatly exalted when the father
raised him from the dead. It is not my meekness I trust,
but I trust his meekness before God that he was made low only
to be risen again in great glory. That's it. How do we fight this
good fight of faith? How do we follow after these
things, righteousness, godliness? Folks, we look to Christ for
every bit of it. That's how we wage this war.
That's how we conduct this battle, looking to Christ alone. Now I want you to turn over to
Judges chapter four. Judges chapter 4 is an illustration
of everything we just talked about. I'll give you a little bit of
a back story. It's a long chapter, so we won't touch on every bit
of it, just some excerpts. 80 years, that's how long the children
of Israel had enjoyed peace and prosperity, 80 years. And it
said after 80 years, they forgot their God. It was always the
same cycle for them. It's the same cycle for you and
me. tribulation, the Lord would raise up a judge to deliver them.
They would be delivered, there was peace and prosperity for
a while, and they would always go back to idols. They would
always go back to forgetting their God. It happened this time.
And because of that the Lord sold them in the hand of a Canaanite
king, his name is Jabin. Jabin in this story represents
that old man, that old nature, that sinful, wicked nature. Jabin
has a general underneath him that conducts his battles for
him. That general is Sisera. Sisera represents my sin and
your sin, the sins of all God's people. The Lord in his mercy
raises up a judge and she's a female, she's a prophetess. Her name
is Deborah. She's a great type of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And she calls on her general. She's got a man
below her that she has called into the battle and his name
is Barak. Now, let's see what unfolds in
this story. Look at verse six. And she sent and called Barak,
the son of Abinoam, out of Kadesh Naphtali. and said unto him,
hath not the Lord God of Israel commanded, saying, go and draw
toward Mount Tabor, and take with thee 10,000 men of the children
of Naphtali, and of the children of Zebulun? And I will draw unto
thee to the river Kishon, Sisera, the captain of Jabin's army,
with his chariots and his multitude, and I will deliver him into thine
hand." What is the grounds of every believer's faith? What
God said. What was the command right now
to Barak? Barak, you go. You go down to
the River Kashan. You do battle with Sisera. You go right now,
and here's the promise, Barak. I'm going to deliver them in
your hands. The battle's already over. What
is the grounds of every believer's faith? What God has commanded
and what God has promised. That's it. What has God commanded? He's commanded sinners to believe
on His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what He has commanded.
And here's the promise. All that come to Him, they won't
be cast out. Every sinner who comes to Him
seeking mercy, they'll find it. Now come. That's the grounds
of our faith. What God has said, thus saith
the Lord. Now, look at Barak's confidence.
Look at verse 8. And Barak said unto her, If thou
wilt go with me, then I will go. But if I will not go with
me, then I will not go." He's talking to Deborah. And this
is more than just asking Deborah, we need more people. I need you
to come fight too. That's not what he's saying.
He's saying, Deborah, I can't win. I can't defeat Cicero. In fact, I can't do anything. Deborah, you have to go with
me. You have to go for me. You have to fight Cicero. If
you don't go, if you don't take on Sisera, if you don't fight
the battle, and if you don't win, I will be lost. If you go with me, I will go.
If you will fight the battle for me, I will go. But Deborah,
if you won't go, if you won't fight this battle, if you won't
take on Sisera, there's no reason for me to go, because I can't
defeat him. Look how Deborah answers in verse 9. And she said, I will surely go
with thee. Notwithstanding, the journey
that thou takest shall not be for thine honor. For the Lord
shall sell Sisera into the hand of a woman. And Deborah rose
and went with Barak to Kadesh. Deborah turns to Barak and she
said, I will surely go with you. Every sinner who comes to Christ
who says, I can't do it. I can't do anything about my
sin. I'm a sinner in need of mercy.
I need you to go for me and do something about my sin. He says
this, this is a promise, I will surely go for you. And here's
the one caveat. It's not going to be to your
honor. Deborah went to Barack and said, I'll fight. I'll take
on Sisera. I will completely and utterly
annihilate him. But Barack, guess what? You're
not going to get a speck of glory in this whole thing. I'm going
to get every ounce of the glory, because I'm going to do all the
battle. You know who was OK with that? Barack. Happiest man to
ever live. Deborah, you're going to fight
all my battles? Deborah, you're going to take on the enemy? You're
going to do away with Sisera? And you're gonna get all the
glory? It sounds right to me. But if Deborah's not getting
all the glory, that means there's some fighting that Barak's gotta do.
And Barak can't win. Look at verse 10. And Barak called Zebulun and
Naphtali to Kadesh, and went up with 10,000 men at his feet,
and Deborah went up with him. Now look at verse 13. And Sisera
gathered together all his chariots, even 900 chariots of iron, and
all the people that were with him, from Herashef of the Gentiles
unto the river of Kishon. And Deborah said unto Barak,
Up, for this is the day in which the Lord hath delivered Sisera
into thine hand. Is not the Lord gone out before
thee? So Barak went down from Mount
Tabor and 10,000 men after him." This is Deborah telling Barak,
the battle's already been won, Barak. The Lord's already gone
out before you. He's already waged war. Now go
take the field. He's gone before us. That is
the hope of every believer that Christ went before us. How far
before us? Revelations 13.8, he is referred
to as the lamb slain from the foundation of the world. How far back does my hope of
salvation go? It goes all the way back and
it can't keep going back far enough because it has always
been the purpose of God to save his people in this great Deborah,
in this great Christ. This is our hope that he went
before us. that God went before us in election, chose us. That
Christ went before us in the covenant of grace, agreeing to
be our surety. That Christ went to the cross,
bearing our sins. He all went before us, and because he went
before us, and he's already slain the enemy, now, take the field.
Believe on Christ, of course. You imagine being a soldier,
an infantryman, right? You're about to go into a hot
battle. And the unit commander comes up, and he says, all right,
we're gonna get in this battle, we're gonna take this field. By the
way, guys, I already killed everybody. None of the corpses on that field. Now go get in the battle. Go
take the field. How much confidence would you
have? Well, if you're a sinner right
now, your only hope is Christ and him crucified alone. The
enemy has been slain. It has been done away with. Now
take the field. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. It's that simple. Now, look at
verse 15, "'And the Lord discomfited Sisera and all his chariots and
all his host with the edge of the sword before Barak, so that
Sisera lighted down off his chariot and fled away on his feet. But
Barak pursued after the chariots and after the host unto Herasheth
of the Gentiles, and all the host of Sisera fell upon the
edge of the sword, and there was not a man left.'" Now, you
notice something here. Barack is both active and passive. He is passive. In this story,
does it record that Barack slew one person? It does not. Nowhere in this story does it
record that Barack flips over one chariot, that he kills one
person, absolutely nothing. It says it was all done before
Barack. That means he was just watching
as Deborah whipped all these soldiers. and got it done. Just
stood by as it was all taken care of. He didn't kill anybody.
And yet, he's still very active. He's pursuing after the army.
He's pursuing after Sisera. But I would point out that he
never catches him. Never once catches him. What do we take
from that? He is active. He's very active, but he is completely
and utterly passive. He doesn't do anything. Hebrews
4, 9 and 11, there remaineth therefore a rest to the people
of God. For he that has entered into
his rest, he also has ceased from his own works as God did
from his. Let us therefore labor, labor
to enter into that rest. What is it to fight this good
fight of faith? It's to rest in Christ. to rest in Him and
His finished work alone. But is this a passive thing?
No, the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence and the violent take
it by force. Violently we call to Christ.
Violently we enter into this rest and we believe on Him. That's how we fight this battle,
this good fight of faith. Now this next portion. If this
was a play, play has different acts, right? And they name the
acts. If you had a name for this act of the play, it would be
called the death of sin. Look at verse 17. How be it Sisera fled away on
his feet to the tent of Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite.
For there was peace between Jabin the king of Hazor and the house
of Heber the Kenite. And Jael went out to meet Sisera
and said unto him, turn in my Lord, turn into me, fear not.
And when he had turned in under her into the tent, she covered
him with a mantle. Here we have Sisera, he comes
along and just so happens that there's a woman there with a
tent named Jael. And she says, come in, come on
in. And she takes something and she puts it on him. And we're
starting to see a picture of the cross here. This is Christ
coming in, the Father taking the mantle, the covering of his
people, and putting it on Christ, putting it in him. He bore our
sins in his body on the tree. Look at verse 19. And he said
unto her, give me, I pray thee, a little water to drink, for
I am thirsty. And she opened a bottle of milk and gave him
drink and covered him. Cicera asks for water, he gets
milk. Our Lord from the cross, he asked
for water. He said, I thirst. They gave
him vinegar. What about this milk, though? What about it?
Why would she give him milk? You ever hear anybody drinking
warm milk before bed? Has a sedative effect. Makes you sleepy, makes
you calm. She wants Cicera to be good and
calm. She wants him to get nice and sleepy, because I can tell
you what she's about to do. She is about to take a tent stake,
a nail, and she is going to drive it into the temple of Sisera
and actually nail him to the ground. She is going to kill
Sisera. You know what this milk tells
us? This whole thing was premeditated. She'd been planning this out
all day long. She had put her tent in just
the right spot. She had that mantle just waiting,
just with an arm's length. The milk was already poured.
The hammer and the nail was all ready. All of this was according
to Jail's purpose and Jail's plan. It was always her purpose
to kill Cicera, just like the cross. We did that. That is our crime. We murdered
the Son of God. But please understand, this was
all according to the purpose and will of God. Why? That Christ
might be greatly exalted. His people would all be saved
and brought to this unchangeable state of holiness and righteousness
before Him, never to depart again. This was the purpose of God.
He was no victim of this thing. This was all according to His
divine purpose. That's what the cross is. Now,
look at verse 20. Again He said unto her, Stand
in the door of the tent, and it shall be when any man doth
come and inquire of thee, and say, Is there any man here? Thou
shalt say, No. Then Jael, Heber's wife, took
a nail of the tent, and took a hammer in her hand, and went
softly unto him, and smote the nail into his temples, and fastened
it into the ground, for he was fast asleep and weary. So he
died. Where do we find the death of
our sin? For every believer, where is the hope that our sin
truly has been put down and put away? We find it on that cross
with a man, a God-man, with nails in his hands and his feet. And
this is the song I thought of. My sin, O the bliss of this glorious
thought. My sin, not in part, but the
whole, was nailed to the cross in the person of Jesus Christ,
and I bear it no more. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord,
O my soul. That's my salvation, and that's
the salvation of every believer. This was Barak's salvation. What
about Jabin? What about that old man, that
old wicked nature? Sisera's dead. What about Jabin? Look at verse 23. So God subdued
on that day Jabin, the king of Canaan, before the children of
Israel. And the hand of the children of Israel prospered and prevailed
against Jabin the king of Canaan until they had destroyed Jabin
king of Canaan. That very day that Sisera was
killed, that Sisera was put down, what happened to Jabin? He was
subdued. Right now, folks, that old man that is in you, that
old man of sin that you hate so much and you do battle with,
he is just doing the will of God. That's it. leaving you nowhere to look but
Christ alone. He has been subdued. That's why
you believe the gospel. He has been put down, and he's
gonna be put down for good the day you die. The day you hang
your head for the last time and you take your last breath, you're
gonna put down that old man, you're gonna put down that old
Jabin, and you're not gonna have to bear him anymore. And you're
going to behold the Lord Jesus Christ in the eyes of the new
man alone. You're going to worship him as
you want to right now. You're going to love him as you want
him right now. You're going to believe on him as you want to
right now. All of that, all of that, perfectly, because David
will be gone just a little while longer. That's it. Now, are we in a battle? Every day. Every day. Is the war over and
the victory already been established? Yes, it has. Christ is the victor.
Do we fight? Absolutely, we do. How do we
fight? What are the weapons of our warfare? You do what you
did the very first time the Lord revealed himself to you, and
you just keep looking to Christ alone. That's it. I'm going to
leave you guys there.