Come to Christ for Victory

Hebrews 12:1 “Wherefore, seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,”

What is weighing you down? What care? (2 Peter 5:7) What resentment? What grief?

“Lay aside” here means to roll it on to Jesus.

To really give it to Christ, means that you are not carrying it any more. It is gone….

And what is our besetting sin?

Our besetting sin is one which is so ingrained in our character….so intertwined in our personality….

….that it is like cutting off right hands and plucking out eyes….to deal with it.

Matthew 5:29-30 “And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell.

And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell.”

(Matthew 18:8-9, Mark 9:43-48. This is worth noting, for three times Jesus says this)

Sin is rebellion against God.

It is the desire to rule ourselves.

It manifests itself in lots of ways…..

….but our besetting sin is our “pet”…..it is first in our thoughts….often. It so “easily besets us”….because it has power over us.

God gives us victory through our faith in Him…..but it is a battle we must fight….or we will lose out on the best God has for us.

(And there are many who settle for something other than God’s best….because of their besetting sin.

Think of Demas, who after years of helping Paul….left the work, for love of this present world. 2 Timothy 4:9-10)

This “sin which so easily beset us” is a picture of being surrounded….

…..every way you turn….it is there.

You have to work harder to accomplish anything…….for it is always harassing you.

Galatians 5:17 “For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.”

This sin fights hard for preeminence in our lives…..but the Holy Spirit within us fights back….

Romans 8:13-14 “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.”

So there is hope against this formidable enemy……for we have the Almighty God in the person of the Holy Spirit within us, if we are born again…..

….which will give us the victory in Christ….

…and that victory is faith.

1 John 5:4 “For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.”

I have said this often,….Faith is a gift to us from God when we are born again….

….but God gives it to us,……intending for us to use it, to live in this wicked world….unspotted by it.

It is real, making God and His Word real to us, as His Word tells us [Hebrews 11:1].

Real means…..all things are what He says….whether I see it or not.

He will do what He says….whether anyone else believes it or not.

Faith weans us from our sin….pointing us to Christ….

….wooing us to leave all and follow Him….and enabling us to believe.

I knew a woman, who after years of defeat, told about her besetting sin:

She was a little girl, when she heard her parents talking….they did not want her….

…..a feeling of desertion and fierce anger came over her…..and she became determined to never feel alone again.

This led her down a path of self-exaltation….to make her “worthy” of being loved….she would not be “alone” again.

All her relationships suffered because of this….which led to back-and-forth emotions of self-pity and anger.

She was born again, and though she would try and deal with this besetting sin…..trying to commit it to the Lord; yet it always came back….bringing her into failure, again.

Finally,….the Lord dealt with her about the beginning sin of hurt and anger….lead her to reject the self-pity….and brought her….to take her place at His feet….alone! So that He could be her life.

Since then, she has had stronger relationships….she being in her place before the Lord in each of them.

Our besetting sin attacks each of us differently…..though it could be the same sin.

We are to “lay it aside”…..which means that the warfare with it, is personal……God does not do it alone…..nor can we do it alone….

….it is a combined effort of God and us.

Truly, faith….which always sees God….is the Victory…..God is real, He is Able and willing for me.

His Word is Truth. All the promises and threatenings in His Word is true.

That also brings the Victory, for we hang on to the Truth, when we believe and trust His Word….and deal with the root of the matter….which clears our way….back to Him.

We each have a besetting sin…..but there is victory in Christ.

Will we come and have it of Him?

To Walk Before God

Psalm 56:13 “For Thou hast delivered my soul from death: wilt not thou deliver my feet from falling, that I may walk before God in the light of the living?”

To “walk”, we need to have the ability to walk,…..and we need to have a way or path to walk in.

All this is stated here:

“For Thou hast delivered my soul from death…”

This is what Jesus Christ did on His Cross, for us, who receive Him as Lord and Savior.

John 1:12 “But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name:”

And since He has saved us, He has surely given us the “way” to walk with Him, and the ability (grace) to walk with Him.

“Wilt not Thou deliver my feet from falling”

This is what the Holy Spirit does in us, practically, as we deny ourselves, and seek His Will.

We are delivered in the circumstances of our lives from sin , self, the world, and the devil.

Jude 24 “Now unto Him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy.”

3 John 4 “I have no greater joy then to hear that my children walk in truth.”

1 John 1:7 “But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin.”

Ephesians 5:2 “And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given Himself for us an offering and sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savor.”

All of this is: “That I may walk before God in the light of the living”.

This is not heaven, but here on earth.

To go about our everyday life, walking with the sensible knowledge that:

Our Heavenly Father is working out His Will…..in us and for us.

Our Lord Jesus is interceding for us,…..that we may obtain all He has for us.

And the Holy Spirit is enabling us,….now; moment by moment.

We truly live, as we use the grace given, and walk with Him.

We each have a besetting sin….

Hebrews 12:1 “Wherefore, seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,”

What is weighing you down? What care? (2 Peter 5:7) What resentment? What grief?

“Lay aside” here means to roll it on to Jesus.

To really give it to Christ, means that you are not carrying it any more. It is gone….

And what is our besetting sin?

Our besetting sin is one which is so ingrained in our character….so intertwined in our personality….

….that it is like cutting off right hands and plucking out eyes….to deal with it.

Matthew 5:29-30 “And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell.

And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell.”

(Matthew 18:8-9, Mark 9:43-48. This is worth noting, for three times Jesus says this)

Sin is rebellion against God.

It is the desire to rule ourselves.

It manifests itself in lots of ways…..

….but our besetting sin is our “pet”…..it is first in our thoughts….often. It so “easily besets us”….because it has power over us.

God gives us victory through our faith in Him…..but it is a battle we must fight….or we will lose out on the best God has for us.

(And there are many who settle for something other than God’s best….because of their besetting sin.

Think of Demas, who after years of helping Paul….left the work, for love of this present world. 2 Timothy 4:9-10)

This “sin which so easily beset us” is a picture of being surrounded….

…..every way you turn….it is there.

You have to work harder to accomplish anything…….for it is always harassing you.

Galatians 5:17 “For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.”

This sin fights hard for preeminence in our lives…..but the Holy Spirit within us fights back….

Romans 8:13-14 “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.”

So there is hope against this formidable enemy……for we have the Almighty God in the person of the Holy Spirit within us, if we are born again…..

….which will give us the victory in Christ….

…and that victory is faith.

1 John 5:4 “For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.”

I have said this often,….Faith is a gift to us from God when we are born again….

….but God gives it to us,……intending for us to use it, to live in this wicked world….unspotted by it.

It is real, making God and His Word real to us, as His Word tells us [Hebrews 11:1].

Real means…..all things are what He says….whether I see it or not.

He will do what He says….whether anyone else believes it or not.

Faith weans us from our sin….pointing us to Christ….

….wooing us to leave all and follow Him….and enabling us to believe.

I knew a woman, who after years of defeat, told about her besetting sin:

She was a little girl, when she heard her parents talking….they did not want her….

…..a feeling of desertion and fierce anger came over her…..and she became determined to never feel alone again.

This led her down a path of self-exaltation….to make her “worthy” of being loved….she would not be “alone” again.

All her relationships suffered because of this….which led to back-and-forth emotions of self-pity and anger.

She was born again, and though she would try and deal with this besetting sin…..trying to commit it to the Lord; yet it always came back….bringing her into failure, again.

Finally,….the Lord dealt with her about the beginning sin of hurt and anger….lead her to reject the self-pity….and brought her….to take her place at His feet….alone! So that He could be her life.

Since then, she has had stronger relationships….she being in her place before the Lord in each of them.

Our besetting sin attacks each of us differently…..though it could be the same sin.

We are to “lay it aside”…..which means that the warfare with it, is personal……God does not do it alone…..nor can we do it alone….

….it is a combined effort of God and us.

Truly, faith….which always sees God….is the Victory…..God is real, He is Able and willing for me.

His Word is Truth. All the promises and threatenings in His Word is true.

That also brings the Victory, for we hang on to the Truth, when we believe and trust His Word….and deal with the root of the matter….which clears our way….back to Him.

We each have a besetting sin…..but there is victory in Christ.

Will we come and have it of Him?

Gethsemane

Matthew 26:36 “Then cometh Jesus with them unto a place called Gethsemane, and saith unto His disciples, Sit ye here while I go and pray yonder.”

Three times it is written of the battles, when our Lord Jesus faced the Adversary alone.

The first was in the temptation in the wilderness for forty days. (Matthew 4)

The second was in Gethsemane.

The third was on the cross.

Here, we will speak of Gethsemane, and the terrible mental and physical battle which was brought against Jesus, by the forces of darkness.

Jesus knew He would have to face the cross alone.

John 16:32 “Behold, the hour cometh, Yea, is now come, that ye shall be scattered, every man to his own, and shall leave Me alone: and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me.”

But at Gethsemane, He wanted His closest disciples to be near to Him as He wrestled against the devil’s suggestions.

(I believe the devil’s suggestions were: “He would be forsaken in death, and lose everything. Everything He has done was for nothing.”)

But they slept for sorrow.

He had told them He would be leaving them, and that one of them would betray Him, so they were sad, and sleepy. (John 16:5-6, 17, 28)

How many times have we failed to stay awake? We grow sleepy….when He says, “Watch ye”.

At Gethsemane, a garden which Jesus often visited for times of prayer,…..Jesus left eight of His disciples at a small distance,….and took the three closest disciples: Peter, James, and John further.

Then He went a little farther on to pray.

He asked them to wait with Him in prayer. He wanted them to pray for the trials that would be coming up.

For their own faith to be strengthened, and for their courage in the face of His leaving them.

Matthew 26:38 “Then saith He unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death: tarry ye here, and watch with Me.”

They had been told many times that He was going to Jerusalem, and that the chief priests and elders would kill him….and He would be raised the third day.

But they had not really heard what He said.

Luke 9:22 “Saying, the Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be slain, and be raised the third day.”

They were not prepared, as they could have been. And their sorrow at His leaving, was weighing down their hearts, and affecting their hearing.

(If you read John 15-17 , where He plainly tells them of things to come; you will understand that their “hearing” was not working right)

Jesus left them, and went and fell down to pray; His greatest comfort was the Father and Holy Spirit with Him.

But now the time for the Lamb of God to be slain for the sins of the world was very near.

Everything from the Last Supper, where Judas went out to betray Him, till He died on the cross,….was one continuous piling on of sufferings.

The horror of the coming attacks,…..from Judas’ betrayal……the chief priests and ruling religious body, the Roman soldiers beatings,…..

…..the rejection of the very people who had hailed Him: “Hosanna to the Son of David: Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord: Hosanna to the highest.” (Matthew 21:9) a few days earlier.

And the cross.

The agony of the nails, the thirst, the mocking crowds,….

…….and mostly: our sin being put upon His holy person, and the separation of the Father from Him for a time, because of this.

Sufferings He went through alone.

But here in Gethsemane the devil’s attacks mentally and emotionally were so severe: “even unto death”, Jesus said.

We are not permitted to hear what the devil says to Jesus, but the thoughts of being deserted forever:

“ God will not bring You out of the death of sin. Sin brings death, and if you go to the cross and become the sin bearer, You will forfeit God’s promise of life. It will weigh You down and You will never come out of death.”

Also…..the thought that with all these sufferings He would have to go through as man.

The devil berated Him with the thought that:

…. He would not be able to go through these sufferings without breaking down.

Then He would fail and He would not bring salvation to the world.

The devil’s attacks were so great against the Lord, that “being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground.” (Luke 22:44)

The first prayer:

Matthew 26:39 “And He went a little further, and fell on His face, and prayed, saying, O My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from Me: nevertheless, not as I will, but as Thou wilt.”

Mark 14:36 “ And He said, Abba, Father, all things are possible unto Thee; take away this cup from Me: nevertheless, not what I will, but what Thou wilt.”

Jesus came on the basis of relationship: “O my Father” and asked that if it were possible, according to His Will, that “this cup”, or……salvation through the cross,….might be changed to another way.

Jesus asked because “all things are possible unto Thee”. God could come up with another way of Salvation.

But Jesus would not have God’s Will changed.

He knew the Value of The Father’s Will, and yielded to it….and He has left us an example in everything in our walk to fulfill God’s Will for us.

His Father sent an angel unto him, “strengthening him.”(Luke 22:43)

The second and third prayers:

Matthew 26:42 “And went away again the second time, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if this cup may not pass away from me, except I drink it, Thy will be done.”

“Thy will be done.” “Not my will, But Thine be done”

Three times Jesus prayed. Once, for conformation of God’s Promises :to find out if it were possible to change the way of salvation—the cross.

When He received His answer, God’s Will was yielded to.

The other two were prayers that the Father’s Will might be honored in His sacrifice, and resurrection.

You see, by the end of the battle at Gethsemane, Jesus was confident in His Father’s love,

in His Father’s strength to help Him go through everything,

and in His Father’s Promises, to raise Him up and save His people from their sins by this.

Even though He would be alone; He trusted in God, and His trust was honored.

He went through everything,….

……He died on the cross for us, and was raised again the third day, in Victory over every enemy! Hallelujah, what a Savior!

His Salvation is a complete Salvation.

Do you have Jesus as your Lord and Savior?

God’s Vineyards

Isaiah 5:1-2 “……My well-beloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill:

And He fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and also made a winepress therein: and He looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes.”

Israel was God’s vineyard. He “planted” them…..expecting fruit.

For He had done all that was necessary so that they would bring forth fruit.

The fencing,…..to separate them to Himself….and away from the corruptions of the nations around them, by His laws.

Removing the stones,…..removing the inhabitants which were there……hinderances to receiving the grace through His Word, into their hearts.

He built a tower…..He sent leaders to watch over them.

He made a winepress….expecting fruit to flow from them….to give the joy of the knowledge of God….to others.

These were all external privileges…..means of coming close to Him….

….and opportunities for those blessings to be manifest out to the nations around them….and to the world.

But…

They brought forth wild grapes…..bitter and unusable.

Isaiah 5:7 “For the vineyard of the Lord of Hosts is the house of Israel, And the men of Judah His pleasant plant:

and He looked for judgement (discernment between good and evil in their dealings), but behold oppression;

For righteousness, but behold a cry.”

God goes on to tell of how their actions were going to send them into captivity.

He cries, “Woe, Woe, Woe….” (Isaiah 5:20-23)

Woe to them that call evil, good…and good, evil.

Woe to them that are wise in their own eyes….refusing God’s Word.

Woe to them that cause many to get drunk….on wine and money….giving bribes to get the wicked off….and prosecute the righteous.

Isaiah 5:24 “Therefore as the fire devoureth the stubble, and the flame consumeth the chaff, so their root shall be as rottenness, and their blossoms shall go up as the dust:

Because they have cast away the law of the Lord of Hosts, and despised the Word of the Holy One of Israel.”

God sent them into captivity, to be servants and slaves of the heathen…..because the refused His good law…..because they refused His Word through righteous leaders and prophets.

That was Israel…. but there is another Vineyard.

John 15:1 “I am the True Vine, and My Father is the husbandman.”

This shows that God is now placing all His purpose in the One True Vine…..His Son, Christ Jesus….and all that belong to this Vine.

He has given us the privilege of being…..in Christ Jesus,…..as branches, HIs life flowing through us.

John 15:5 “I am the Vine, ye are the branches: he that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit; for without Me ye can do nothing.”

The purpose for us here, is to abide in Him.

Some, He will have to “purge”….or trim the excess….that His life will bring forth fruit through us….to the full.

John 15:2 “Every branch in Me that beareth not fruit He taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, He purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.”

(My mother used to have a grape vine….Concord grapes….that was on a line next to the garden. Year after year, it would sprout more branches, and less fruit….for the excess leaves took away the life from the fruit.

One year, my mother took her pruning shears and went out, in the fall, and cut that vine back, till only the main vine and a few main branches remained.

Frankly, I thought she had done it in…..but it came back and produced big, beautiful clusters of grapes, the next year.)

Sometimes, like my mother’s vine….we need to be trimmed of excess things….to get back to the relationship of Vine to branches.

(And I believe this is really where Israel failed….they refused to be purged and pruned….and so became leaves only.)

Christ is the Vine…..we are the branches…..surviving from the life coming from Him.

He gives us fruitfulness as we “abide” in Him.

This stresses the importance of relationship…..fellowship….and worship of Christ.

For our life is in Him….and Him alone.

God’s Vineyards are for the producing of fruit to His honor, glory, and use.

Israel failed to bring forth fruit to God….then. (Although one day they will)

Christ will never fail, and we are to be abiding in Him….and bringing forth the fruit of His Spirit.

The Importunate Widow

Luke 18:2-7 “Saying, There was in a city a judge, which feared not God, neither regarded man:

And there was a widow in that city; and she came unto him, saying, Avenge me of mine adversary.

And he would not for a while: but afterward he said within himself, Though I fear not God, nor regard man;

Yet because this widow trouble the me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me.

And the Lord said, Hear what the unjust judge saith.

And shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them?”

Here is the story of a widow, a Jewish widow before a Roman judge. (Jewish judges were usually in threes)

He would not care about her, for he thought she could do him no damage, for she had no money, or influence.

But she kept coming back, she was often in his court.

“Avenge me of my adversary”, is not a request for punishment of her enemy;……..but for a court appointed decree that would give her protection from her adversary.

To keep him from harming her, like a restraining order today.

Now he feared not God, nor regarded man; so anything he did, he did out of personal motives.

Her cry of, “Avenge me of my adversary”, he ignored, till he thought that she might ruin his reputation, because she was often in his court.

He, therefore, looked for a way to get rid of her; because she “weary me”. In the Greek, this means that she gives him a “black eye”.

She will ruin his reputation, make him stand out to those in authority. She must be gotten rid of, before people get the wrong idea about this judge.

He cared for nothin but himself. Yet from purely self-involved motives he thought it best to give her the restraining order. Exactly what she asked for.

Jesus says that prayer is to be like this. We are to come to God our Father with the same importunate prayer as this widow came to this unjust judge…..

…seeking a restraining order for the Adversary of our souls.

“Avenge me of my Adversary, Lord!”

Luke 18:1 “And He spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint;”

We are not to give up on God, which is what “faint” means.

After all the widow came to an unjust judge;…..but we come to our Heavenly Father,……which for Christ’s sake hears our trouble and will “avenge his own elect.”