#PaulEss #Stylianou #Living #Jesus #2026 #Sermon #chess #Strategy #checkmate #endgame #Christian #God #ChartridgeMissionChurch #chesham #thefriendliestfellowship #LearningTheBibleTogether
Popular International preacher Paul Ess delivers a strategic sermon on living for the Lord Jesus in 2026, using a slideshow to illustrate who and what blocks us from having the mind of the Holy Spirit. Paul Ess brings together various strategies from the Bible to help us walk in The Spirit in 2026 and beyond. And like a Chess tutorial, Paul's plan-of-action sermon will give you the strategic moves needed to win your opening, mid-game, and end-game against the wiles of the devil. Checkmate!
Paul Ess YouTube Playlist:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLeLtfVhcCUFv0kkvZEUAaIBTVjT8NptRx
Chartridge Mission Church, a beacon of faith, was founded in 1844 and remains in the village of Chartridge, just outside Chesham, in the picturesque Chiltern Hills of Buckinghamshire, England, UK.
We are a warm and welcoming fellowship and would be delighted to have you visit us in person. Join us for our Sunday service at 6 pm, followed by refreshments.
Our Church is fully accessible, with wheelchair ramps and an accessible toilet, ensuring everyone can participate in our services.
Chartridge Mission Church, Chapel Lane, Chartridge, Chesham, Buckinghamshire, HP5 2TH
The village Church with an international audience.
Support our work at Chartridge Mission Church:
Donations via Stewardship.org.uk:
https://www.stewardship.org.uk/partners/20005300
Cheques can be made payable to Chartridge Mission Church and sent to the above address for the attention of Pastor Barry Kempson.
Recorded on Sunday, 8th February 2026.
Join us for our Sunday service at 6 pm.
www.Chartridge.UK
The Friendliest Fellowship.
Popular International preacher Paul Ess delivers a strategic sermon on living for the Lord Jesus in 2026, using a slideshow to illustrate who and what blocks us from having the mind of the Holy Spirit. Paul Ess brings together various strategies from the Bible to help us walk in The Spirit in 2026 and beyond. And like a Chess tutorial, Paul's plan-of-action sermon will give you the strategic moves needed to win your opening, mid-game, and end-game against the wiles of the devil. Checkmate!
Paul Ess YouTube Playlist:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLeLtfVhcCUFv0kkvZEUAaIBTVjT8NptRx
Chartridge Mission Church, a beacon of faith, was founded in 1844 and remains in the village of Chartridge, just outside Chesham, in the picturesque Chiltern Hills of Buckinghamshire, England, UK.
We are a warm and welcoming fellowship and would be delighted to have you visit us in person. Join us for our Sunday service at 6 pm, followed by refreshments.
Our Church is fully accessible, with wheelchair ramps and an accessible toilet, ensuring everyone can participate in our services.
Chartridge Mission Church, Chapel Lane, Chartridge, Chesham, Buckinghamshire, HP5 2TH
The village Church with an international audience.
Support our work at Chartridge Mission Church:
Donations via Stewardship.org.uk:
https://www.stewardship.org.uk/partners/20005300
Cheques can be made payable to Chartridge Mission Church and sent to the above address for the attention of Pastor Barry Kempson.
Recorded on Sunday, 8th February 2026.
Join us for our Sunday service at 6 pm.
www.Chartridge.UK
The Friendliest Fellowship.
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00We have an anchor that keeps the soul.
00:05Stand fast and sure while the billows will roll.
00:10Fasten to the rock which cannot move.
00:15Granted firm and deep in the Saviour's love.
00:22Amen.
00:23Good evening all.
00:24Just want to read Romans 8 verses 1 to 17.
00:29Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
00:39Because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death.
00:48For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh,
00:53God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering.
01:01And so he condemned sin in the flesh in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us
01:08who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
01:12Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires.
01:19But those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires.
01:25The mind governed by the flesh is death.
01:28But the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace.
01:33The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God.
01:36It does not submit to God's law nor can it do so.
01:40Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God.
01:44You, however, that's the believers, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit.
01:53If indeed the Spirit of God lives in you.
01:57And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ.
02:03For if Christ is in you, then even though your body is dead because of sin,
02:09yet your Spirit gives life or is alive because of righteousness.
02:16And of course our righteousness isn't our own.
02:19It's God's righteousness.
02:21And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you,
02:27he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies
02:33because of or through his Spirit who lives in you.
02:38Therefore, brethren, we have an obligation, but it's not to the flesh to live according to it.
02:45For if you live according to the flesh, you will die.
02:48But if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live.
02:53For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God.
02:58The Spirit you received does not make you slaves so that you live in fear again.
03:05Rather, the Spirit you received brought about the adoption to sonship.
03:09And by him we cry, Abba, Father.
03:13The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children.
03:19If we are children, then we are heirs, heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ.
03:26If indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.
03:33Hallelujah.
03:35A couple of months ago, I was speaking here on Satan's schemes against us.
03:44We were just sort of going in general terms.
03:48And a number of people said, you know, be really nice.
03:52The people who've heard this online, friends of mine,
03:55had said that it'd be really nice to take it even further
03:59and apply it much more directly for ourselves
04:04and what we can learn from it when we were discussing it
04:08after they'd heard it and so on.
04:10I said, yeah, great, I'll try that.
04:13So I've put something together here.
04:16And please, I apologize,
04:18because some of this tiny little bits here and there will sound familiar
04:23because I've drawn from a number of places to try and base this
04:29in real terms for our life here and now today in the 21st century
04:38based on everything that's going on around the world.
04:42And I call this living for the Lord Jesus in 2026,
04:47recognizing what and who blocks us from having the mind of the spirit
04:52and walking in the spirit.
04:55You see, all of us who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus in 2026
05:01need to be aware of what and who is looking to hinder us,
05:07to block us off from that, or even stop us if they can.
05:12Unless we understand and acknowledge what and who can do that,
05:16we can't stand against it and fight it.
05:20The Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 2.11 warns us of this,
05:26and he says,
05:27we are to be aware of Satan and his devices, he says,
05:31in order that Satan should not outwit us or take advantage of us,
05:36for we're not ignorant or unaware of his schemes.
05:40So we do need to understand who the enemy is,
05:44how he works, what his devices are.
05:48Otherwise, he will outwit us every step of the way if he can.
05:54So in order to understand this better,
05:57I thought we would kick off with Titus 2.11-14.
06:04For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people.
06:10It teaches us to say no to ungodliness and worldly passions or lusts,
06:16and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age,
06:22while we wait for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Saviour, Jesus Christ,
06:30who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness,
06:36and to purify us or sanctify us,
06:39make us holy for himself,
06:42a people that are his very own,
06:44eager and zealous to do what is good.
06:48So really, Titus here is saying what Romans was just saying in the verses that we read there.
06:58And what he's really saying,
07:01he's giving us a description,
07:03Titus is giving us a description of how we can recognize our willingness.
07:08Now note willingness there.
07:11This doesn't mean,
07:12it doesn't mean that we're going to achieve it every time.
07:17It doesn't mean that we're going to be victorious every single time.
07:21But God wants us to be willing,
07:24wants us to have a willingness to have the mind and spirit of God
07:30and look to walk in that spirit of God.
07:34In those verses that we just read there,
07:38we see first we have to accept the grace of God with the salvation it brings.
07:44So first we have to be saved.
07:46And I believe everyone in the room at the moment is a believer in Christ Jesus.
07:52So we've taken that first step.
07:55Perhaps many who are watching are not believers yet,
07:59haven't taken that step of obedience yet in following Christ.
08:03And that has to be the beginning of our journey always.
08:09The second thing is we need that willingness to say no to ungodliness and worldly passions
08:15and an aim to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in the present age.
08:21Again, as I said before, this is a willingness and an aim to do it.
08:26It doesn't mean that there's an expectation that we will succeed every single time
08:32and always be absolutely victorious every single time.
08:38We can build on this as we go.
08:40And thirdly, he says we have to have that expectation of the coming of the blessed hope,
08:47the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ.
08:52Dear friends, do you have that expectation?
08:56Are you in anticipation of the Lord's coming?
09:02Are you holding on in the hope?
09:05That is the expectation that keeps you going.
09:10We need to understand that he has already redeemed us from all our wickedness.
09:17That's our sins.
09:19And that he is now working, purifying, sanctifying us, making us holy for himself.
09:27This is an ongoing work after we become Christians.
09:31Every day of our life is a part of the sanctification process.
09:36It's going on, looking to walk in the Lord, to serve the Lord, to be holy,
09:43because only something holy can be with the Lord ultimately.
09:48So he's preparing us for heaven.
09:51And he wants us to be eager and zealous to do what is good.
09:56That's our bit.
09:57That's a bit that we do.
09:59To have that eagerness and that zeal to do what is good, to do what is right.
10:05Again, we will not always succeed.
10:10We will fall from time to time.
10:12And again, we can build on that as we go.
10:15But that's our bit, to have that eagerness, that zeal to do what is good.
10:21Now, remember what Romans 8.5 warned and recommended to us.
10:28It said, those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires.
10:36But those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires.
10:42And it doesn't matter whether we look at Romans, Galatians, Ephesians, Colossians, lots of other scriptures.
10:50They all encourage us to have the mind of the Spirit and to walk in the Spirit.
10:56So thousands of years, the enemy has been attacking us, attacking the purposes of God.
11:04If you're a child of God and in God's will and are looking to fulfill his purposes, the enemy will want to attack you.
11:16He'll always look to distract us, to put obstacles in our way, to attempt to block us off from anything of God.
11:24He's going to look to divert us in every way he can.
11:29A good example of that, if we look in a general sense, as a nation, is the Temple Mount, the holiest site of Judaism.
11:40And yet, it's all controlled by Islam.
11:44It's the first holiest site, as I said, in Judaism, but only the third holiest site in Islam.
11:51And we begin to see and understand some of the enemy's tactics just by looking at Israel for a start.
11:58If we go to the Temple Mount today, in Jerusalem, what you'll see there on the Temple Mount is a dome.
12:07There it is.
12:08A Muslim dome on a Muslim mosque, right around where the Holy of Holies would have been.
12:14Very close to where the Holy of Holies would have been.
12:17So why is it there?
12:19Because you can't build the Jewish temple with that thing already there.
12:26Satan is looking to block Israel off from being able to do anything which is written in the Scriptures.
12:34You know, Satan understands these things far better than even we understand them.
12:40James 2.9 warns, and he says,
12:43You believe there's one God, that's good, but even the demons believe.
12:48And they tremble.
12:50Do we tremble?
12:50They have an insight, they understand, they know God, they've faced up to God, they've seen God face to face, they've been thrown out of heaven by God, and they tremble at what they know is coming.
13:08Then if we go to the east side of there, we see the Golden Gate, and that's again in Islamic control, the Golden Gate.
13:19You see there on the east side there, this is the gate that we're told in prophecy that in the final days, when Christ returns, the Messiah is going to enter through that gate.
13:35But it's all walled up.
13:36Why?
13:37Because the Muslims heard that that's what the prophecy says, and that the Messiah has got to come through that gate, so they decided to block it off so that can't happen.
13:51The Bible contains prophetic passages suggesting this in Ezekiel 44, 1 and 2, and it says,
13:58Then the man brought me back to the outer gate of the sanctuary, the one facing east, the Golden Gate, and the Lord said to me,
14:06This gate will remain shut, it must not be open, no one can enter through it, it's to remain shut, because the Lord, the God of Israel, has entered through it.
14:16He will have entered through it, that is.
14:18So this gate has been sealed shut.
14:22In 810 AD, when the Muslims took control of Jerusalem, they blocked it off.
14:28In 1102, the Crusaders then took Jerusalem, they reopened it.
14:33Then Saladin in 1187, he regained Jerusalem, he blocked it off again.
14:39And he remained blocked off until the Ottomans took over, Sultan Suleiman, and he rebuilt a lot of the walls,
14:47and he made sure that it remained walled up.
14:53And just to be absolutely sure what they did, this is an actual picture of the Golden Gate in 1900,
15:02they put a cemetery right in front of the blocked off gates.
15:09They wanted to be sure that the Jewish Messiah, when he comes, could not walk through the Golden Gate,
15:16so they put the cemetery there in an attempt to defile and pollute the ground,
15:21because their thinking was, this ultra-holy Messiah that's going to come can't walk on that sort of polluted ground with dead bodies.
15:32That's the level of their fear.
15:35Are you as convinced of the prophecies as the enemy is?
15:40Are you convinced of the prophecies?
15:42But you know there's a lot more there, because when you go to the Temple Mount,
15:47you're not allowed to pray there, you're not allowed to read from the Torah or the Bible there,
15:55and they restrict everything that happens there.
15:59So why is the enemy so sensitive about all that?
16:03It's simply because Satan knows exactly what is coming.
16:08All this that's happening is an illustration of hell's fury against God right now.
16:15And he's against God, against God's people, because the enemy knows what's happening.
16:22So the enemy will always seek to attack the plans and purposes of God in order to prevent them from being fulfilled.
16:31So the enemy will also do his best to hinder them, to stop everything from happening.
16:40And you are part of these purposes of God.
16:48Well, think about what happened in Daniel, the book of Daniel.
16:51In Daniel 9, we saw that Daniel had just received the great prophecy of the 77s, the coming of the Messiah.
17:01There was an exact countdown to when the Messiah would come, and he did when he came.
17:09And it all worked out mathematically.
17:12It was worked out, and that's why, of course, the wise men, the magi, knew the dates and the times,
17:20because it had all been worked out in Babylon with Daniel.
17:25Daniel had had this revelation from the angel, and so on.
17:29And so he explained all of that in Daniel, in the book of Daniel.
17:34And in Daniel 9 and 10, we can read all of this.
17:37The temple of God that was to come, and all sorts of other things about the end times.
17:43And all of this happened seemingly in the first nine chapters of Daniel,
17:49with very little resistance, spiritual resistance to Daniel.
17:54But at that point, it's almost like the spiritual resistance of forces of hell
18:00suddenly realized that they couldn't afford to let such an important revelation
18:06come through yet again.
18:09And so they determined the next time, things, they would be blocking things off.
18:14So from Daniel 10 onwards, you see that there's spiritual oppression all the way,
18:21right through to the end of the book, fought over.
18:24Everything is fought over by the principalities and the powers.
18:29And now that Israel is back in their promised land,
18:32all hell has opened up against them.
18:36They're fighting to the bitter end in the hope of blocking God's purposes for the end.
18:41And we get a glimpse of that spiritual battle in the unseen realm of heavenlies
18:46in Daniel 10 verses 12 to 13.
18:50The angel says to Daniel,
18:53Do not be afraid, Daniel, since the first day that you set your mind to gain understanding
18:59and to humble yourself before God, your words were heard,
19:03and I've come in response to them.
19:05But the prince of the Persian kingdom resisted me for 21 days.
19:11Then Michael, one of the chief princes, the archangel, came to help me because I was detained there
19:17with the king of Persia.
19:19That's interesting, isn't it?
19:21This spiritual battle going on in the heavenlies all the time.
19:26It's going on.
19:27It will continue to go on right until Christ Jesus comes to take his rightful place on the throne
19:36and to cast these, all of Satan's demons into the pit where they belong.
19:43And we see all of this.
19:47And so I find it really interesting that it's the prince of Persia
19:51because Persia, of course, is Iran, isn't it?
19:56Now think about it.
19:59Where are the Philistines?
20:00They're gone.
20:02Where are the Ammonites?
20:04They're gone.
20:04The Amorites, they've gone.
20:06All the otherites, they've all gone.
20:09But Persia is still there
20:11because this is a mighty spiritual battle.
20:18Persia is working.
20:20Iran is working.
20:21And is the greatest threat to Israel right at this time.
20:26The mullahs of Iran are funding their many, many proxies.
20:30People like Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis and so on.
20:34And so you see these powers and authorities, they don't change.
20:38The people may change.
20:40They come and go.
20:41But these, the same principles continue.
20:45The enemy is still exactly the same as he was two and a half thousand years ago
20:50when this prophecy came through.
20:53But when the archangel came to Daniel,
20:56he had to fight his way through, as he said,
20:59and was held up fighting for 21 days.
21:02That must have been an amazing fight.
21:05But do remember that it's not just the enemy that's against Israel and God's plan,
21:13which will lead to the ultimate total defeat of the enemy at the end.
21:17God's plans will always defeat the enemy at the end.
21:21But the enemy is also against each and every one of us as followers of God in Christ Jesus.
21:30Because we are part and parcel of God's plan for Satan's defeat.
21:37And Satan knows that.
21:38That God doesn't only have a special plan for Israel, but he has a special plan for every one of our lives as well.
21:48At the same, this is the same enemy who's against God is also against us.
21:56The enemy knows that God has a purpose for your life.
22:00He devised that purpose before you were even born.
22:03But the enemy doesn't know everything.
22:06But he does know that if you're a child of God, you're special to God.
22:11And God will have a special plan for your life.
22:14So he's trying with his demons to stop you, to block you, to obstruct you, to divert you in any way he can.
22:24The same power as that prince of Persia who tried to stop or delay Gabriel from bringing God's message to Daniel will seek to delay and block God's word from you and to block your walk with God.
22:41He'll look to hinder God's plans in your life.
22:44He will look to prevent God's plans for your life.
22:48And if he can't prevent them, he'll look to distract you in any way that he can.
22:53The enemy will try to block your access to the Lord as he thinks that by bricking up the golden gate will block your access to the Lord.
23:04He'll try to build alternate structures in your life where God's holy temple should be.
23:11He'll try to do anything he can to distract and block you off from the Lord and from hearing the word of God and hearing his voice.
23:23However, as doom and gloom as it all sounds, we as children of God can say, but God, but God, because we know that our Heavenly Father, the Almighty God, has said to us, I know the plans that I have for each of you.
23:41Satan knew that God had a plan for Moses, so he tried to have him killed, didn't he?
23:48He tried to have all the babies killed because he didn't want Moses to be able to free the people of Israel.
23:57Satan knew that God had a plan for Joseph, so he tried to have his brothers kill him before God could raise Joseph and save Israel.
24:08Satan knew that God had a plan for Jeremiah, so he had a go at him as well.
24:14Satan knew that God had a plan for the Messiah, so he tried to have Herod kill him when he was a baby.
24:21When he couldn't stop all that and he failed to have him killed as a baby, he then tried to keep on, he kept on trying throughout the Gospels, we can read it, to have the Lord Jesus killed.
24:35Anything to stop, and Satan knew that God had a plan for Israel, and so for thousands of years, he's been trying to have them wiped off the face of the earth.
24:49He's been trying to put an end to them over and over, because he must stop the plan, he says.
24:58But, very importantly, Satan knows that God has a plan for you.
25:04So, he has tried many times over in your lives, I don't know the details of your life, but one thing I do know is that Satan has tried to stop you.
25:17He would have tried before you came to the Lord, and when you did come to the Lord successfully and the Lord brought you through, he tries to keep you from the purposes of God.
25:27He tries to divert you, he tries to do whatever he can, for some of you even tried to literally kill you ahead of coming to the Lord.
25:36I know he did me, and he failed the very night that I came to the Lord.
25:42Satan would try, if he could, to have you wiped out or neutralized in any way.
25:49And he'll continue to try working against you.
25:56But God's perfect plan for us prepares us to be with him.
26:01What God is doing in us is he's preparing us for heaven.
26:06Nothing unholy can be in heaven.
26:09We've read that.
26:10It has to be, we have to be pure and holy to be able to be with him, because we cannot be in heaven with him.
26:21And he desperately, God desperately wants us to be in heaven with him.
26:27You know, Satan continuously tries to outwit and take advantage of us.
26:35And he uses many different things.
26:37He used many different things before we were believers and even while we're believers.
26:42For some of us, he had us become self-destructive so we could destroy ourselves.
26:47He had us addicted, perhaps, substances, drugs, alcohol, pornography, sexual immorality, anything he could to distract us and entice us to draw us away from God, from even noticing God.
27:05For some of us, he wounded us emotionally.
27:09For some of us, he tried to break us while we were still children, in the hope that we can never be emotionally healthy enough to fulfill the purposes of God.
27:21For some, he looks and continues to look to misdirect us.
27:26He gives us idols.
27:27This is one of his favorites.
27:29He wants to fill our lives with idols, with other things, with the distractions.
27:35He wants us to redirect the gift that God has for us, to use it for something else, to follow the wrong things.
27:44Even while we're Christians, he can manage to do that.
27:50And for some of us, he tried to defile us, taint us, make us bitter, make us doubt, make us so ashamed of ourselves that we can't believe that God would even want to use us.
28:05I'm not good enough for God, we tell ourselves.
28:07That's what that little voice keeps whispering.
28:10You've done it again.
28:12You've fallen again.
28:14Think back to what you did.
28:16All those bad things that you did.
28:18Do you really think that God would be interested in somebody like you?
28:25But God.
28:27But God.
28:28He's freed us in Christ.
28:31Hallelujah.
28:31He promises that he will work all things together in our life for good.
28:38The enemy will try and make things all for the bad.
28:42But God.
28:42But God.
28:44Frees us in Christ.
28:46Not because of what we do, but because of what Christ has done.
28:51God will use everything that's happened to us in the past, all those bad things, all the experiences, all that list of things that we just saw on the overhead there.
29:05All of those things, God uses them to fashion us, to mold us, to build us up, to teach us, to direct us.
29:18And so we get to the point that we can be like Joseph in Genesis 50, verse 20, where he says, you meant it to me for evil, but God meant it for good.
29:33Isn't that wonderful?
29:34Isn't it wonderful that God can turn all things to the good?
29:39He promises that, and he will do it, and he is doing it throughout our lives as children of the almighty God.
29:49We have many but God moments.
29:52I'm sure every one of us can look back and think of things and see things and recognize things where God has interceded.
30:01And praise and worship our heavenly father for those moments.
30:07And that's what we need to do.
30:10Focus not on what we've done, but on what God is doing in us.
30:18Do we recognize those things?
30:20Do we recognize those things that God is doing in us?
30:24So we can say, praise you, Lord, we worship you, because this, but for the grace of God, I would have, I would have done this or be drawn into this or have done that or been that.
30:39We need to be seeing and recognizing the mighty hand of our Lord in our lives.
30:45And when we do manage to break through, as it were, in God and embrace that forgiveness of God in Christ Jesus in our lives, Satan, as I said, is really good at making us look back and paralyzing us with doubts or even fears of the Lord's rejection because of how we've fallen yet again.
31:12I know for myself, as I know for myself, as I look back at what I was involved in, what I did in my life, what things I was, I got into and so on, particularly before I became a Christian.
31:26Just as I think I look back now, I'm embarrassed.
31:30I'm ashamed.
31:32I just feel unworthy if I think on those and allow myself to focus on those.
31:40But what I've learned is that whenever something from the past comes to mind and makes me feel like that, I know it's not of God.
31:54My God is a God of the now and of my future.
31:58He doesn't want his children looking backwards.
32:01That's all being dealt with, all being forgiven.
32:04Only we can keep our past alive because God has taken it all away.
32:17A few verses of but God's forgiveness.
32:21Jeremiah 31, 34, and it's quoted again in Hebrews 8, 12.
32:25I will forgive their iniquities, their sins, and remember their sins no more.
32:32Then he adds in Hebrews 10, 17, their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more.
32:40Psalm 103, as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.
32:48How far is east from the west?
32:49Well, the further east you go, the more east there is.
32:53There's always another east, isn't there?
32:54Micah 7, 19, I love this.
32:57He casts them into the depths of the sea, our sins, into the depths of the sea.
33:03You see, in Christ Jesus, God hasn't just covered over my sins like the old sacrifices used to do.
33:14But he's totally removed my sins and my transgressions.
33:18Hallelujah.
33:19Isn't that wonderful?
33:20You know, the blood of Christ retakes away the sin of the world.
33:27The blood of the sheep and the lambs and the goats and everything else could only cover over the sins.
33:34They were always there.
33:35That's why the people had to keep going back and making sacrifices over and over and over.
33:40But Christ Jesus, the perfect lamb of God, has been sacrificed once forever for all.
33:49Isn't that wonderful?
33:54Satan may try and block up God's purposes for you, his plans for you.
33:59He'll try and wall up the golden gate in your life and attempt to cut you off from your Lord.
34:05He'll put up a dome of rock or some other substitute just where God wants you to be.
34:13And he'll look to do whatever he can.
34:16He'll even desecrate the blocked up gate by sticking a cemetery in front of it and so on.
34:25But God, but God, the Lord has already won the victory.
34:31When he hung on the cross, right at the end of his life, in that earthly body, he cried out,
34:38Dete l'este, it is finished, it is done, it is completed, it is perfect.
34:43That's what it all means.
34:45That's what Dete l'este means.
34:48It is all done.
34:49Christ did it once and for all.
34:52And he gained all power and all authority.
34:55He snatched back that authority from Satan.
34:58In Revelation 12, 11, they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony.
35:05You know, each and every one of us who know the Lord and Savior have been washed in the blood of the Lamb.
35:11We've been washed in that perfect blood of the Lamb.
35:14But we also have a testimony.
35:18We can share.
35:20We can tell what he's done for us.
35:23We can say that this is the one thing that Satan cannot dispute.
35:30Satan can't dispute what we've personally seen, what we've done, what God has done for us, what we've experienced in Christ.
35:40Satan may want to divert you from the fact that everything has already been done and completed perfectly by the Lord.
35:50Can you trust God who has done it all?
35:53Can you trust him?
35:55When the angel came to Daniel in chapter 10, he spoke of what the principality of the prince of Persia tried to do.
36:02He briefly tried to explain that.
36:05It was a principality which delayed him, but then he got right on with what he needed to tell Daniel.
36:13He made his apologies and got right on.
36:17You see, Satan can try and detract us, distract us.
36:22But we need to let the attacks focus us on even more, focus us on the plans of God.
36:32Get on with it.
36:33The enemy wants us to focus on him continuously through our lives.
36:38But we need, even as we said, to be aware of what his devices and schemes are and get on with it.
36:48We need to get on with our lives for Christ.
36:52Don't focus on the attack and the storm, but get on with God's plans for you.
36:57That's what the attack is really about.
36:58You know, he wants us to focus on the failure and our vulnerability and how easily we fall time and time again.
37:09But he can't discourage us.
37:13He can delay or stop us sometimes.
37:16There's that lovely verse in Proverbs 24, 16.
37:19For a righteous man may fall seven times and rise again, but the wicked shall fall by calamity into destruction.
37:28Isn't that wonderful?
37:30Notice that both the righteous and the wicked both fall.
37:35Both of them fall.
37:36It's not just the wicked that fall, but the righteous fall.
37:41But also notice the righteous is described as falling more than the wicked.
37:46The righteous falls seven times.
37:49And by that seven times, he means seven times 70 as ongoing, an unlimited amount.
37:56But the wicked only falls once to destruction.
37:59But remember, you can't fall if you're not standing up.
38:06You can't fall from a fallen position.
38:10You can only fall from an upright position.
38:15You have to get up in order to fall again.
38:20The righteous keeps falling.
38:22Why?
38:23Because they keep getting up.
38:25That's the important thing.
38:27We need to keep getting up over and over and insisting on getting up.
38:35I love that in Micah 7a.
38:37Do not gloat over me, my enemy.
38:40When I fall, I will arise.
38:43When I sit in darkness, the Lord will be a light to me.
38:46Hallelujah.
38:47Isn't that wonderful?
38:48And that's all that God expects of us.
38:51God just expects us to keep getting up.
38:56To trust him.
38:58As with Peter's brief walk on the water in the storm, the Lord is there to stretch out his mighty hand every time we fall, every time we sink, and take us back into the boat.
39:10Help us back into the boat.
39:12So to finish, we finish the way we started.
39:15Titus 2, 11 to 14, those same verses, for the grace of God has appeared, that offers salvation to all people.
39:25It teaches us to say no to ungodliness and worldly passions and lusts and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in this present age while we wait for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ,
39:43who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify us or sanctify us, make us holy for himself, for people that are his very own eager, zealous to do what is good.
39:58And in that, we can see, in that one verse 14, we can see the three tenses of salvation we should all be familiar with, I'm sure.
40:09We have been saved.
40:10That's our justification.
40:12That's a one-of.
40:13When we came to the Lord, we stepped over, the scriptures tell us, from death into life.
40:19It's a one-of, totally God's work, not our own work.
40:24And with yet, we are being saved.
40:26That's our sanctification.
40:28That's where he's making us, day by day, as his children.
40:32He's helping us grow to be the people that he needs us to be, holy for him, sanctified.
40:40That's a daily work.
40:42And the third tense is, we shall be saved.
40:47That's our glorification.
40:49That happens when we face Jesus, when we're finally with him.
40:55You know, Jesus said, I'm going to prepare a place for you so that where I am, you can be also.
41:05And that is where he wants us.
41:09But we can't be with him unless we've been through this process, have been saved, are allowing ourselves all these situations we go through in life.
41:19We can either let them destroy us and turn back from God, or we can let them strengthen us to build us up, to go on with God.
41:28That's our sanctification.
41:29And then ultimately, we have that blessed hope in Christ Jesus, where we will be saved, that blessed hope of glory.
41:40Wherefore, he is able to save them to the uttermost, that come unto God, by him.
41:46Have each and every one of us come to the Lord God by him.
41:52He can save us to the uttermost.
41:54If the time is 23.59 right now, midnight is the time when Christ comes.
42:03Are you ready?
42:05Are you ready?
42:07Amen.
42:08Will your anchor hold in the storms of life, when the clouds unfold their wings of strife?
42:19When the storm dries late and the cables stray, will your anchor drift or firm remain?
42:28We have an anchor that keeps the storm, steadfast and sure, while the billows roll.
42:39Fastened to the rock which cannot move, granted firm and deep in the Saviour's love.
42:50Will your anchor hold in the straits of fear, when the breakers roll?
42:58And the reef is near, and the reef is near, while the storm is raging, and the wild winds blow.
43:05Shall the angry waves take your bark or flow?
43:11We have an anchor that keeps the storm, steadfast and sure, while the billows roll.
43:21Fastened to the rock which cannot move, granted firm and deep in the Saviour's love.
43:33Will your anchor hold in the floods of death, when the waters cold, chill your latest breath?
43:43On the rising tide, on the rising tide you can never fail, for your anchor holds within the veil.
43:52We have an anchor that keeps the storm, steadfast and sure, while the billows roll.
44:03Fastened to the rock which cannot move, grounded firm and deep in the Saviour's love.
44:14Will your eyes behold, through the morning light, the city of gold and the harbour bright?
44:26Will your anchor stay by the heavenly shore, when the storms are past forevermore?
44:35We have an anchor that keeps the storm, steadfast and sure, while the billows roll.
44:47Fastened to the rock which cannot move, grounded firm and deep in the Saviour's love.
44:57Amen.
Comments