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2 Corinthians 2:12,17 -Always Triumphant- Pastor Rick Beaudry 2025-01-19
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Furthermore, when I came to Troas to preach Christ's gospel and the door was open unto me open unto me of the Lord. I had no rest of my spirit because I found not Titus my brother, but taking my leave of them, I went from thence into Macedonia. Now thanks be unto God which always causes us to triumph in Christ and make it manifest the savior of his knowledge by us in every place. For we are under God a sweet savior of Christ and in them that are saved and in them that perish. To the one we are the savior of death unto death and to the other the savior of life under life and who is sufficient for these things. For you're not as many which corrupt the word of God but as of sincerity but as of God in the sight of God speak we in Christ. Father, we thank you for your holy word and now as we open the book, Lord, we pray that we would be those who ascribe to absolute truth. That we would be those that have ears to hear and hearts to not just be hearers of the word, but doers of your word. We pray that we could speak the truth and love that we could seek the reason with people of the hope that lies within us. But Lord, I pray that we do it from a a place of victory, a place of triumph knowing you've already overcome. And no matter what kind of threats, no matter what kind of means of censoring or holding us back, Lord, I pray that we'd walk in the victory that's already ours. The fear of man's a snare. And Lord, we know that you're our general, that you're leading the way. And Lord, I pray that you give us an even greater boldness in these last days, Lord. That we wouldn't fear men, their threats, their lies, whatever it may be, Lord, to try and stifle us. But Lord, we'd be even bolder as the days approach, that we'd be able to rejoice, that we're counted worthy to suffer for your name's sake, that we would turn the world upside down, that we would be those who are rather than conformist to the world, that we'd be revolutionaries, That we'd speak of your coming kingdom and that we'd act like those that that are already dead men walking, that we're already crucified with Christ, that we have nothing to fear. The devil used the tactic of fear and lies. And with the second COVID coming in February or if there isn't enough eggs or butter or milk or food or whatever kind of scarcity in the weeks and months ahead, Lord, I pray that we not fear, that we continue to walk by faith and not succumb to the sigh up to the lies, the huffing and puffing of the big bad wolf. I pray, Lord, that our confidence be in you, that our faith grow, and that evermore, Lord, we just shout from the rooftops of your victory and you're coming again. You're coming soon. And Lord, we do pray for president Trump tomorrow and his swearing in that you bless him and his family and keep him safe. And Lord, we thank you for why you raised up government to preserve that which is good. And Lord, we pray that they would do good. And Lord, we do thank you for doctor Martin Luther King, the fight that he fought to get rid of the prejudice, the systemic prejudice against blacks and others in this country. And Lord, I thank you for the freedom that we enjoy. And I pray that we continue to be free Lord. And especially Lord, the freedom of religion, the freedom of speech, the freedom of assembly to proclaim the good news. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. Would you please be seated? We are always triumphant in Christ. God has given us three things. Number one, an open door. Notice verse 12. Furthermore, when I came to Troas to preach Christ's gospel and a door was opened unto me of the Lord. Troas means to the Troad. It's a district surrounding ancient Troy. And so what was the intention to preach Christ's gospel? When we go with the gospel, we're going out with our own good news, our own gospel, we're going with Christ's gospel. So we try and best we proclaim the gospel given to us by Christ himself. The message is not ours. It did not originate with us. Its author is Jesus Christ. How could you lose? How could you possibly lose if you continue to go with the gospel that Jesus has given you? Don't change it. Don't soften it. Don't move it around. Don't add to it. Don't take away from it. Just go with the gospel that he's given us. So we always try him. The gospel is found a 101 times in the New Testament. We have the good news. Gospel means good news. We have the good news of the kingdom. And in Mark four twenty three, what's the kingdom? His kingdom is not of this world presently, but his kingdom's covenant. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Especially at the end of the age now, the gospel, the good news is Jesus is coming and he's coming to set up his kingdom. I heard Billy Crone say this the other day and it really blessed me. When we talk about Titus two thirteen, the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and savior, I I tend to to I tend to look at that hope as the rapture. Right? The rapture is happening And and I stop there. But if we extend that hope, it's a hope on into the millennium. It's a hope of no more tears, no more sorrow, no more pain, no more death, no more sin. A hope of Jesus ruling and reigning for a thousand years with a rod of righteousness, a hope that my children won't be hurt, your children, your family, nobody's gonna be hurt by the devil and all that. It's a glorious hope. It's a glorious hope on into eternity. You know, he's not gonna throw us aside after a thousand years. He's gonna take us on into the eternal state of Revelation twenty one and twenty two. I mean, it's a glorious, glorious hope. And so many of us are holding on to this world, hoping in this world. How's that working for us? Know? Hope means a confident expectation. Do you have a confident expectation in the year 2025 with president Trump in there? Well, certainly better in Kamala. Right? So there's a little bit. But what if Jesus were to come back? You know? What if he's gonna come back in the next three weeks or four weeks? Boy, what a hope that is, you know? And and so vain is the hope in men, you know? They're feet of clay. They're just like us. We work with the best that we have to work with. But the gospel of our salvation. I'm a sinner. I'm I'm headed to hell, but I got the good news of salvation. I was lost now and found in Ephesians one thirteen. The gospel of peace. There's no peace without the rod of righteousness, without Jesus subduing all of our enemies, all the enemies. He's the prince of peace in Ephesians six fifteen. The gospel of the grace of God, not according to the law, the letter of the law that kills, but the grace of God is unmerited favor for me and his finished work upon the cross of Calvary that I don't have to work to have eternal life or salvation. The work is complete. It is finished. The talus died paid in full for by grace are you saved. Right? Through faith and so we're so thankful for his grace. And acts two twenty verse 24 says the gospel of his son or excuse me, the gospel of his son, Romans one verse nine. The gospel of the grace of God acts twenty twenty four. So good news for the condemned. God has judged you guilty and worthy of death, but he offers you a pardon. Hold out of people being pardoned. The j six is gonna be pardoned tomorrow? Hopefully. Right? Maybe they already are. Are they gonna be? I mean, that's horrible. It's horrible what they had to go through. The Obiden boy, they're pardoning all their buddies. Right? Yeah. Hunter and all of them and and boy, amazing. But our Lord and God, we know that we're guilty. We know that we're deserving of hell and he gives us a pardon. How glorious that is. You will never lose with Jesus if you believe and so I like to joke about being losers, know, l seven weenies they say and and we all are losers apart from Christ. As last week as I said, we all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. There's none righteous, no not one. So if I'm looking at the person in first Corinthians five that's sleeping with his father's wife, I look at that and I think, well, that that's pretty common thing, know, in the world in which I'm living, but I'm not gonna be tolerant of it. But I'm not a sin sniffer running around trying to figure out what everybody's doing, but if you prayed it, if you put it in our face, then we're gonna have to deal with it. Right? And that's what Paul had to do. He had to deal with it and it's a means of love trying to bring correction and so in in chapter second Corinthians two here, we see that that person came to repentance and that's the goal. If any man be overtaken of fault, you're a spiritual restore such one spirit of meekness. We wanna reconcile. We wanna be able to reconcile and win these people back to Christ and and not have them fall away and and and so the key issue as I mentioned on Monday night, it's rebellion. We're all sinners. The only ways we really lose is rebellion. When you continue sinning, then you force your dad to have to spank you and he may have to be pretty severe. He may have to give you over to Satan for the destruction of the body, for the saving of the soul and he loves you enough to discipline, you know. If he didn't discipline, then it means we're none of his and it it would mean that he doesn't love us. Now in Colossians two verse 13, it says, you being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, he has quickened. So you're being dead. You were dead. You were body and soul, not body soul and spirit when he came to you. And your flesh your flesh didn't have didn't have the the he didn't implement the circumcision of the heart to take away the fleshly aspect of your fallen nature at that point. You're still a demic in nature, but he has quickened. He's raised you from the dead together with him having forgiven all your trespasses, all all means all, past, present, future. He's taken your sins and transgressions and he's cast them the east to the west to remember them no more. There's no record of wrong anymore. So anybody that comes along to condemn you to hell, it's the voice of the devil. The devil's the accuser of the brethren. Someone that loves you might come to you and say, David, you're the man, you've sinned against God but they can't point you to hell And so faithful are the wounds of a friend, the kiss of an enemy or deceitful. We all sin. If we say we don't have sin, we're a liar. But positionally, your position before God is that of justified just as if you've never sinned. In your sanctification, working out your salvation with fear and trembling, we're gonna stumble and fall in sin. Right? None of us have reached perfection just yet. But positionally, in the record book, what the Lord sees, he saved you from the past penalty of sin, he's saving you presently from the power of sin. In the future tense, salvation means he's gonna save you from the very presence of sin. No longer a sinful fallen nature to battle against. Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross. So he took the charges against you. The charges, the indictment from the devil against us. The wages of sin is death, eternal, you know, damnation. Now in Revelation chapter 20, the wicked dead when they're raised from the dead have to give an account of what they did while they're in their bodies whether good or bad. We don't have to do that. All of the accusations, all of the charges against you, the indictment against us is nailed, blotted out and nailed to the tree upon Calvary and nailed it to his cross. And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a show of them openly triumphing over them in it. So what's happening here is the devil thinks that he can kill Jesus. He offered Jesus a shortcut. You don't need to go by way of the cross. If you bow down and worship me, you can have all these kingdoms of the world because I'm the prince of the power of the air. I'm the little g god of this world. And Jesus wasn't gonna take a shortcut. Jesus wanted to make sure that for the joy that was set before him that he would endure the cross. Jesus would go to the cross to redeem you and I. Thus, we remain in our sins had he given into the devil. It is written thou shall worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve. Begone Satan and Satan had to leave, but Satan in his insanity and we studied last week Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28 about Lucifer, son of the morning, the fallen angel and he was when he was made, he was perfect, finitely perfect and he was filled with wisdom, more wisdom than anybody but as time goes on in his fallen condition and being cast out of heaven, he's losing much of that wisdom and so he's what we would call when you resist the holy spirit, when you fight against the holy spirit, it produces insanity and in the devil's insanity in his mind, in his pride of wanting to be God, it produced within him a lie that he could keep Jesus as dead. When he's crucified, I'm gonna keep him down. He's not gonna be able to raise himself from the dead. He actually thinks now that he's resurrected and he's at the right hand of his father. In Revelation 12 when he's kicked out of heaven down to the earth and he knows his time is short, what's he do? He tries to destroy the Jews, all the Jews to stop the fulfillment of Jesus ruling and reigning, you know, over the Jews as as in Jerusalem, you know. He also tries to stop Jesus from returning. He and his armies are gonna converge toward Basra to stop Jesus. After the battle of Armageddon, after he destroys the antichrist and the false prophet with the brightness of his coming, the sword of his mouth, he has an angel grab hold of the devil and put him into the abyss for a thousand years. That's that fight. That fight's over. The blood is as high as the horse's bridle. Getting a little ahead of myself. So when he's crucified here, he that ascended in Ephesians four first descended in the lower parts of the earth. And we saw in the lower parts of the earth in Luke chapter 16 that hell or shield or Hades is a double compartment. On one side is the rich man, in a place of grievous torment and he's asking father Abraham to have Lazarus. He can identify Lazarus. He knows Lazarus. Lazarus is the one that the dogs were licking his sores and eating the food at the trash can of the rich man. And the angels came and carried Lazarus into Abraham's bosom. Jesus told the thief on the cross, this day you'll be with me in paradise. What was that compartment? That was the compartment of old testament believers waiting for the crucifixion, the payment for their sins. Salvation was imputed out of them the same way as you and I by grace through faith. They looked future in that it says that Abraham rejoice to see my day and he saw it and was glad. The gospel was before preached unto Abraham and we see a similitude, a picture of that in Genesis 22 where a father took his only begotten son Isaac to Mount Moriah which is Calvary which is Golgotha to offer them him as a as a burnt offering and God interjected and we see in Hebrews 11 that Abraham believed and we see in Romans four and five that Abraham believed and God imputed on him for righteousness because he believed. He believed that, Lord, if I bring this knife down, Ishmael can't live before you. This is the seed of promise and Isaac shall thy seed be called. If I bring this knife down, then God, you're gonna raise him from the dead. So he left the natural use of his mind of reasoning and by faith, he took a step of faith in that I'm gonna obey God no matter how much my reasoning is telling me not to. So he that ascended first descended into the lower parts of the earth and then we're told in first Peter chapter three verse 19 through 22 that, Jesus when he was there, within Abraham's bosom and the rich guy and all the wicked dead are on the other compartment, place of torment, hell. It says that Jesus preached under the spirits in prison. So what's that mean? Does that mean that that's really purgatory and he's given everybody a second chance? He went down there to preach the gospel to all these wicked people in that other compartment. If you look at a flat earth or at the word and you don't and you don't look at what words mean and look at a dictionary and come up with really what's said there, it's the word proclaim. He's proclaiming victory. It's a proclamation of victory, I won. I triumphed. That's what it's saying. And you miss it if you don't do word studies as you study through the bible. You should always always utilize, especially as you get older in the Lord growing, you wanna do an inductive bible study. You wanna have study helps and be able to look at these words, keywords, and have a dictionary and a concordance and treasure scripture knowledge and different versions of the bible. You don't have to be King James only. You can have a new King James and NIV. You can use ESV. Just get to know what the words mean. I don't wanna go through that again. And so he proclaimed under the spirits in prison, his triumph that he spoiled all principalities and powers he triumphed over them. So God gave Paul an open door in Detroit as to proclaim the gospel. God grants us an open door policy. Opportunities to preach the gospel. No power can silence. No power can censor the good news of Jesus Christ. Rome tried 6,000,000 Christians execute in the first two centuries. That didn't work very well for Rome. Persecution just causes the church to grow, to flourish. The devil tried a different plan in 03/13 when Constantine nationalized the church. Oh, that mess the church up. That produced the dark ages. That filled the true church, well, true church is always a remnant, but it filled the professing church with a whole lot of unbelievers and a whole lot of ungodliness and they became government type church leaders and and it wasn't It didn't do well for the church and a lot of persecution against the Waldinuses and others that had bibles and could read their bibles, the common people. And as the bible began to be translated by Erasmus into Greek and other languages and the common tongue of the people, the Greek, the Koine Greek and then Tyndale with English and in the English and a few years later, King James bible produced as a result of that. There are a whole lot of people that tried to get the bible in the hands of the common people and they were murdered for it. But the bible prevailed. The word of God prevails. Can't stop the word of God. Even in China today, even in Iran today, the fastest growing church in the world, it may be that if you get caught with a bible, you're gonna be executed. And guess what a lot of the people do there? They got just one page of a bible or two pages, they memorize it. Then they pass it to somebody else and they get another page because there's only one bible circulating among many of them. Right? And they memorize, they commit it to memory and that's and the government can't stop the growth. The growth just continues among the the persecution over the over over history. We know that over two thousand years And so China's tried, Europe, Canada's tried, the United States Congress is trying to censor you, to silence you. In what way, pastor? With hate speech. They're trying to censor you that you can't identify l b g t q fire captains in LA as being unqualified. Because if there are if you label them as unqualified in that they're incompetent, it might be thrown back on you that you're a homophobe, a hater, a bigot. You're unloving, you're angry. You gotta be real careful to step in that mess. Right? Hopefully, woke is in the president Trump ran against some of that insanity will cease. And as we're celebrating, you know, Martin Luther King Day and the the eradication of systemic, you know, prejudice, the government swings the other way and now it's white, old white European descent guys they're all against now. Now, they're prejudiced against us and it doesn't matter of competency, it matters of quotas. We'll put anybody into the military, anybody in these positions because we gotta get these ethnic quotas. Well, I thought it was supposed to be qualified, you know, competence, whatever whatever, you know what mean? But the insanity of of going too far the other way and and gotta have so many l b g t q's in your in your in your squad or or your prejudice, your homophobe, all that sort of thing and and if they come up to you and they and they ask you questions like, do you believe in abortion? You better be careful how you answer that because if you answer no, I don't believe in abortion. Oh, that might be hate speech or what do you think about two men being married or two women or you know, transgender. Oh, that could be hate speech. You get in trouble in the state of Washington if you, you know, go against that. So laws are changing. You need to be careful. What do you think about Jesus Christ? And so so it's veiled as hate speech but we always triumph. In Revelation three verse seven to the church of Philadelphia which was a suffering church, a church under persecution. It says of Jesus, he that opens and no man shuts and shuts and no man opens. Behold, I have set before thee an open door and no man can shut it. Nobody can silence you and I with the gospel. Nobody can threaten to sue you or throw you in jail or beat you or put violence to stop you from proclaiming the truth. The worst thing that could ever happen to me as a pastor ever ever ever is that for some reason I'd water it down so I could be wealthy, so that I get you to like me more because most of you hate me. Or, I mean, you want teachers with itching ears, that's why they do it. They're hirelings. They want the money. They want the nickels and noses. So they won't speak to you and offend you the way I'm offending you. They won't do it. So they're gonna be passive. They're not gonna point out sin. They're not gonna preach the full counsel of God. I don't even have to try. I'm not a sin sniffer. I don't even have a sin sniffing dog in here. The holy spirit convicts of sin. All I have to do is teach the bible. We're all sinners. And that's such such a comfort for me that I don't need to play the holy man and act like I'm better than anybody. That I can just be myself and knowing that it's his righteousness. I don't have to play the games. There's no hierarchy in that sort of thing. So we're always triumphant. He gives us an open door that no man can shut. So the second greatest thing would be for me to be filled with fear that somebody would incarcerate me. You're going to jail if you don't stop speaking to that man's name. Well, I'm a student of the book of acts, I see that they get thrown in jail. Sometimes they get executed like James did. Sometimes they get released like Peter did. I don't know who I am or where my time is or whatever, but all I know is they never feared death again after the resurrection. Before the resurrection, they did. Well, we're gonna beat you and we're gonna bring you before the magistrates and you better not speak in this man's name anymore or we're gonna sue you. We're gonna chain you. We're gonna cut you. We're gonna go after your children, whatever it may be. The fear of man's a snare. You can't operate in fear as a Christian. You can't tone it down because you fear, oh, I might go to jail. You gotta be bold and you gotta settle it within your heart that it's full throttle or no throttle. You can't do this half hearted. The devil's gonna send people to try and twist what you say and try and tear you down, intimidate. Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel four thirty five says, the inhabitants of the earth are as reputed as nothing and he doeth according to his will. I know God's sovereign. If God wants me in jail, Gary's got my bail money already. He always tells me that. Rick, I'm saving up your bail money. Praise the Lord. This is the first time I've said things that that cut. The word of God is living and powerful and sharpened any two edge sword. It cuts and it should be cutting in a good way to cut out the cancer, the poison, the tumor. The intention is to save the whole, to save us as a body of believers, to keep that junk out. Our God always triumphs. He provides open doors of service. Don't you love serving the Lord? I I love watching Rob the other day. Vicky and others and and learning that this flatter things much much bigger than than we ever knew and maybe that's why the lord gave us this trial so that we could produce some materials to help people in the future. But when he got on there and did his thing on astronomy and you gotta see it. He's a perfect guy to do that and, his his, knowledge of astronomy and telescopes and all those other sort of things. Was just so thankful, you know, was saying to to Vicky, you know, hey, I'm not alone. No, you're not alone. There's a lot of people in this body that serve the lord and we collectively, you know, we move forward with the gospel. We don't let anything stop us and a lot of you have gifts of evangelism and helps and so many different ways that we get to serve the Lord and we do it because we're triumphant, because Jesus is one against the devil. We can't let the devil, cower us in fear and feed us with lies and and cause us to become timid. Timothy had a difficulty with timidness, a fear and Paul told him, God hasn't given us a spirit of fear but a power of love and a sound mind and later Timothy got beaten by the Ephesians to death. He got beaten to death. He became the pastor of the church of Ephesus that Paul planted and tradition tells us that Timothy, spoke up against their greatest Diana of the Ephesians. They'd have a Mardi Gras type of celebration and Timothy spoke up against it and they took him out and beat him to death. Thank you very much. He got over his fear, didn't he? As he matured in his faith. Verse 13, I had no rest of my spirit because I found not Titus my brother but taking my leave of them I went from thence into Macedonia. So Paul was in Troas waiting for Titus to bring him word from Corinth. How are they responding to that first letter? Where was Titus? Did he make it? Is he well? Did Corinth cooperate with the rebuke and the instruction and so Paul, his spirit was stirred. What should he do? So this is Paul's second visit to Troas. In his first visit in chapter 16, Paul was of the book of acts. Paul was at Troas and the lord gave him an open door. The lord gave him a vision. The lord forbid him in chapter 16, closed the door that he wasn't to go into Asia, into Bethany and such. You can read in acts 16. Then he's in Troas and he's wondering what to do and then the Lord gave him a vision, the Macedonian vision of a guy in Macedonia saying, come over here and the apostle Paul wound up in Philippi. In this instance, Paul doesn't have that vision. The Lord's not given him that vision of to go to Macedonia again. I'm giving you an open door over here. No. He stirred in his spirit. He doesn't know what to do. He's like you and I. He's worried. He's worried. He doesn't know what to do. His spirit was stirred. What should he do? And, and so he went. He went by faith into Macedonia and in chapter seven, verses five through seven, you'll see in second Corinthians here five through seven that when he's in Macedonia, he caught up with Titus and it was a blessing, to catch up with him. And he, so this open door, the opportunities are everywhere and he's always triumphing and the answer comes back to who will go. In Isaiah chapter six, who will go? Here my Lord send me. Can you say that to Lord? Here my Lord send me. I'll go. I'll fight the fight. I'll stand up against the lies. I'll proclaim the truth. We are always triumphant in Christ. God has given us an open door and secondly, an open display. Verse 14. Now thanks be unto God which always always, you could underline that, always causes us to triumph. I've had some real failures in my life. I wouldn't call them triumphs but I would say that all things are working all things all things are working together for good for those who love God and are called according to my purpose, not his purpose. Eventually, it all works together for good and you didn't lose, you're in God's will. If you're in God's will, you didn't lose. You're not a loser. You share in his triumph and God's gonna turn it around and he's gonna change you within before maybe he changes the circumstances without. And so that's the loving touch of the Lord upon our our lives. Now thanks be unto God which always causes us to triumph in Christ. Now if you're in the faith gospel, the name and claim it blabbing blabbing whatever. A lot of you think that you know, in that heretical teaching that you can never be sick. You can never have a financial reversal and yet many of these guys have to go incognito with aliases in the hospital when they get sick. Right? Because they're supposed to have enough faith, the faith movement. So you could take a verse like this and you could misquote it and give people the idea that hey, you're never gonna be sick. You're always gonna be wealthy. So we gotta look at this. What's he mean? Now thanks be unto God which always causes us to triumph in Christ. There we go. In Christ, you're always gonna triumph and make it manifest the savior of his knowledge by us in every place. So the fragrance of Christ, the fragrance of Jesus is gonna emanate wherever you go. You could be led to prison and the fragrance of Christ, you're triumphing. So who's who's really in prison? If you're Christ's prisoner, who's, you know, who's putting you there? It's not Nero. You're a prisoner of Christ. You're in God's will. God put you there. And the gospel's not bound. The gospel's able to emanate to to rise from the prison cell beneath the palace and reach up into the palace so that many in the Palace Of Nero are coming to faith. The gospel's never bound. We're always triumphing. They can't censor us. They can't stop us. They they they can't stop us. And and one of the things also that we need to be aware of is the artificial intelligence is gonna be rewriting bibles. There's gonna be there's gonna be deception on a level we've never ever seen before and we need to be aware. We need to know our bible. We really need to know our bible the way that they're gonna be able to twist things and we gotta be able to stay on that straight narrow. For we are under God a sweet savior of Christ in them that are saved and in them that perish. To the one we are the savior of death on the death and to the other the saver of life unto life. What's that mean? It means that God always causes us to triumph. What is a triumph? Some say it's a motorcycle. Some say it's a car. I heard of somebody driving a triumph over the edge of the earth, broke right through the ice wall and just just over the edge. Triumph, it means an open display of conquest, a victory parade for a Roman general. If there's qualifications, If number one, I wanna say it again. If no. Number one, he must have been an actual commander in the field. So not a sofa general. Are you a sofa quarterback? A sofa general, your easy chair, you're looking at the game today and oh man, if they when have you been in the game? You know? When have you had your head rocked? When's the last time you had a concussion? You know? And I'm amazed. I'm amazed if you watch gladiators, some of those those shows like that. I'm amazed that the commander's the one leading the charge. I'm amazed when I read about Alexander the great leading the charge. All they gotta do is hit Alexander and all their morale's gonna go down, but he's so bold and he goes and he inspires, you know, expires the inspires the ranks, you know. So not one of these these soldiers that never seen combat. The campaign must have been completely finished. The region pacified and the victorious troops brought home. Number two, it needs to be 5,000 plus of enemy fallen. Number three, positive extension of territory secured. So you've gotta be able to secure Greenland. You've gotta be able to secure the Panama Canal, take it away from the Chinese, and you gotta get Canada to go with you, you know. You gotta be able to change the Gulf Of Mexico, the Gulf Of America, and you've gotta try it, baby. Right? You you are general. You are pulling it off. And I you know, who knows if the North American Union's gonna be formed or not at this time, but it's very exciting to watch prophecies be at least talked about. We'll we'll have to see. But victory over foreign foe, not a civil war. So in a triumph, here's a picture of it. The procession of the victorious general marched into Rome under the capital in sequential order. So the generals leading with the toward Rome from the foreign land wherever they were and so he's into the capital in sequential or first came the state officials and the senate, then came the trumpeters. No. It's not the last trumpet in the rapture. They misquoted that. The trumpeters followed by the spoils, pictures and models of the conquered citadels and ships of the foreign lands. So they'd make up models, smaller versions of what they overcame and these would be paraded in and the people you know, would would all be there to watch this conquering general, you know, to be entering into into Rome. And then the white bowl for sacrifice. So you got a white bowl that's gonna be sacrificed. Then the captive princess leaders and generals in chains. So the foreigners, the ones that you beat, the ones that you subdued, you're gonna bring in the princes, the leaders and the the foreign generals, your enemies in chains marching to public execution. And then would come the lictors. The lictors would be there with whips and rods. We're next with the musicians following. So they're playing a ditty, they're playing a tune. I don't know what the tune would be, but war. What good is it maybe? Something like that. And next, my I sing that with my grandkids. It's a catchy tune. So next came the priest waving their sensors with sweet smelling incense burning in them. And after this came the general himself standing in a chariot drawn by four horses, then his family, and finally, the victorious army decorated and none of them are wearing red high heels in this army, in this tribe. No more lipstick. We got a new general swearing in tomorrow. No dresses. That's right. No dresses. Although the Romans had a skirt they wear, guess. But I don't know. I would never tell them that. They're war hardened soldiers. And they're shouting, low triumph as they're going in. And so Jesus always triumphs. He always triumphs and causes us to triumph. Is Jesus your triumphant general? Are you asking Jesus to follow you into battle or you following him into battle? Because he's already won. I'm gonna always wanna keep Jesus between me and the devil. And sometime the devil appears as a devil with the blue dress on. I don't know but I always want Jesus to be there to help me between me and the devil. I'm not real big on, you know, like Christy, I said to her, how do you do that? How do you how do you how you around the dead guys, you know, and all that? That that's not my gift. She's got the gift and, I don't have the gift of exercising demons out of people. I don't want that gift. I don't like horror movies. I don't like Halloween. I don't like any of it. I like seeing people come to Christ and the demons flee. Yeah. That's what I wanna do. I wanna I wanna share Christ. So we try in every place bringing the knowledge of him, speaks of spiritual apprehension, recognition and bringing the knowledge of him in a person. Some of them can hear. He that has an ear to hear, let him hear what the spirit is saying. Verse 15, for we under God a sweet savor of Christ and them that are saved and them that perish. So the saved and the condemned are both marching. Verse 16, to the one we are the savor of death unto death and to the other the saver of life on the life. To the losers, the condemned, we are the saver of death. To the winners, the saved, the saver of life. Which side are you on? So here's the picture. The priests are taking this fragrances incense and you and I are walking in that procession and we're emanating where the fragrance of Christ is coming forth from our lives. And so that's why when I was on Facebook that Dee had to warn me that the fragrance of Christ isn't coming off of that interaction. It's starting to get stinky. There's a stench there, know, and you don't you wanna avoid that. So you can do a right thing in a wrong way. You can get caught in, sucked in there and kinda lose the beauty and and such of Christ. And so I appreciate that and I see the wisdom and next time never indulging in that way, but the fragrance of Christ is such that the those that are headed to hell and know they're headed to hell knowing they're going to execution. When you come into their room, their demons don't like you. You ever heard that phrase? Their demons know who you are. They see your eyes, that brightness. They see the smile. They see your countenance. They sense the vibe, the holy spirit, you know, and and hopefully you're wearing a real nice perfume they know. The fragrance of Christ is emanating from you. I don't wear perfume. Musk. No. I don't know. Elon Musk. But anyway, you the fragrance of Christ, you get the picture, the fragrance that's going up. And and they don't like it. They know it's a sentence of death, but you're triumphant. So you smell that smell and you say, hey, Jesus has come again. The rapture just took place. And I've been raptured up and I got my new glorified body on and now I'm coming to the earth again with Jesus and he's gonna subdue the devil, the beast, the false prophet, and all of the antichrist armies. And the blood's gonna be as high as the horse's bridle. And I'm gonna come with Jesus because he sets foot at Basra, at the Mount Of Olives. He's gonna come in like manner, words again, words again. Coming in like manner doesn't mean he puts his foot there at the Mount Of Olives. He steps foot at Basra to rescue the Jews who are at Petra, Southern Jordan, and they're crying out, blessed is he that comes in the name of the Lord. And he rescues them. And except those days be shortened, no flesh should be saved, but for the elect's sake, Jesus intervenes. And you and I, according to Jude are with him. He comes with 10 thousands and thousands of his saints. We as the saints have been resurrected. The dead in Christ arise first. At the at the beginning of the millennium, the old testament saints and the tribulation saints are resurrected. So it's only us there with them in our new glorified bodies. He's the first fruits of the resurrection. There's a sequential order. The dead in Christ arise first. So where they're with him, the church age, the raptured ones, and now we're gonna come with him as he as the blood is as high as the horse's bridle through Armageddon, a 200 mile square mile battlefield. The carnivorous birds have been called from all over the world to feast upon kings, to feast upon these these warriors and such and then we come through the Valley Of Jehoshaphat and as we approach the Mount Of Olives, we that's his triumphal entry. That's general Jesus, his triumphal triumphal entry into Jerusalem and we're there with him And the fragrance of Christ is just filling the air and that's the picture of us going into eternity with him. He's gonna rule and reign from Jerusalem with a rod of iron, of righteousness for a thousand years. We're gonna rule and reign with him. He's gonna subdue all his enemies. He already spoiled all principalities and powers. They know they're losers, but they're trying to take as many people as they can to hell. And God has entrusted the glorious good news of his kingdom, the glorious gospel to you and I that we might proclaim his victory, that he's coming again. He's coming soon. Look up knowing your redemption draws nice. Coming. He promised he's coming. The prophecies are being fulfilled. Look at all these prophecies. The more sure word of prophecy that we're able to try and use to convince people. Try and help them. Which side are you on? Which side do you wanna be on? Heaven or hell? Are you triumphant? In Luke chapter seven, there was a woman there and and it says she was a sinner. She was like you and I, a sinner, bad sinner. And there was Simon the Pharisee there and he invited Jesus over for dinner. And Jesus came there and and this woman, she knew it was Jesus and she began to weep and wash his feet with her tears. And then she began to dry his feet with her hair. She was kissing his feet repeatedly and all. Then she took an alabaster box just like Mary of Bethany did in John chapter 12 to anoint Jesus for the burial that he was about to be crucified and buried. Mary knew, but this woman a sinner. She kept doing this and then Simon said within himself. Now this Jesus, the son of man, the son of God, fully man, fully God, he could read people's minds. And he read Simon, the Pharisees mind and Simon was saying within himself, this Jesus must not be a prophet. He must not be what we thought he was because he wouldn't be commingling. He wouldn't be touching hanging out with sinners, would he? And then Jesus said a little parable to Simon the pharisee. Simon, there was a creditor that had two, people. One owed him 500p, another 50p and neither could repay and he forgave them both. Which of them do you suppose Simon would love him most? And Simon says, well I suppose the one that was forgiven the most. And Jesus said, you rightly gauge that. From the very moment I came here, this woman began to kiss my feet. You gave me no kiss when I came in. This woman began to wash my feet with her tears. You gave me no basin of water to wipe my feet. She dried it with her hair. You gave me no towel to dry or anything and she anointed my feet with oil. You gave me no oil for my head. Those that are forgiven much love much, Simon. Remember that those that are forgiven much love much and he told the woman your sins have forgiven you. Imagine how excited and how indignant the pharisees were. How could he forgive sins? Well, does and he did and he will. And maybe you're here this morning and you're sensing your sinfulness. Which side are you on? If you're on the side of Jesus, he's already won for you. He'll fight those Simon the pharisees. He'll fight all those enemies, all those detractors and people that are wanting to condemn you to hell and you'll emanate the fragrance of Christ in their presence and they won't know what hit them. Right? They won't know what hit them. We are always triumphant in Christ. God has given us an open door and open display and thirdly and finally, an open dialogue. 16 b. And who is sufficient for these things? Who's sufficient? Are you sufficient? Can you fulfill the calling that God's placed upon your life? I can't. Not without the help of God. Not without Jesus helping me. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Jesus said, without me, you can do nothing. And the great apostle Paul, greatest man probably ever besides Jesus, greatest evangelist and provident apostle, he said, who is sufficient for these things? How are we gonna fulfill the job he's called us to do? Life and death, heaven and hell, entrusted with the message of salvation, winning and losing, hope and despair, peace and destruction, there's no neutrality. There's no place of washing your hands and peacefully coexisting with sinners and saying that's love. No. It's heaven or hell. It's repentance or or feel for a looking to of judgment. No easy believe ism. You either believe or you don't. Who's sufficient for these things? Who can faithfully bring this message of salvation? Are you qualified? The answer is yes. You are qualified because Jesus is your triumph and Jesus makes you sufficient. He's the one that empowers you and I. You can be bold with the message. You're always triumphant through open dialogue, through submission and communion with with Christ. So you continue to pray, you submit yourself to God and you spend time in fellowship in communion with him and he's your triumph. Verse 17, for you're not as many, notice many, Man, I'm kinda overwhelmed with how many today. I really am. I'm getting overwhelmed. There's so few of us and one of the rants one of the rants that the devil kept saying over this past month is, I have people reporting to me that everybody's leaving your church. You better stop. You better stop. Everybody's leaving your church. That's the devil. Those that are supposed to be here here, those that wanna leave, leave. People vote with their feet. If I've done something wrong, then people come up to me in a loving way and say, you know, don't do it that way next time. Okay. Why would I be a fool? But I'll tell you, I'm never gonna stop. Not gonna happen. For we are not as many which corrupt the word of God. I'm not gonna corrupt the word of God. But as of sincerity, but as of God in the sight of God speak we in Christ. So we are not as the false prophets deceitfully corrupting the word of God making merchandise of the word of God. Peter said the false prophets would make merchandise of people. Their marketing campaigns are simply doing their marketing to build their buildings, build their stuff and and it's all about the money. It's all about nickels and noses. It's a business, church incorporated. I want no part of it. I like that you can bring people here and they don't hear me three times, give them my marketing spiel for this month. Every time they talk, it's always about the money. It can be Christmas day and it's about the money. It can be the week after it's always about the money. They never finished begging for the money. Well, that's a near mark of a false prophet. They're gonna make merchandise of you. We should be emphasizing the blood of Jesus that paid for all of our sins and freely we receive, freely we give, you know. That should be the emphasis of our heart. We wanna give back unto the Lord. So they're corrupting the word of God. They're making merchandise of the word of God. How can I market Jesus? How can I market it with trinkets and shirts and hats and and songs even? How can I get a following? The word corrupt is the Greek word kappaluo. It's found one time in the New Testament. Isn't that great to have a computer program or a bible dictionary or strong concordance that I could come to this word corrupt. Well, what's that mean? I love it. I love my study helps because I'm not real smart but I'm smart enough to have study helps. Kapilu one time new testament means to adulterate. It's a hockster to retail is what it means. It's used in Isaiah chapter one verse 22, in the Septuagint version version of the bible. So the Septuagint was written in Alexandria Egypt by 70 proph 70 scholars in seventy days because the majority of the people were not the Jews were not speaking Hebrew anymore. They were being conformed or brought into the Greek speaking world. And so they translated the Hebrew into Greek, it's called the Septuagint and in the Septuagint version of Isaiah one twenty two, thy silver has become dross, thy wine mixed with water and so the Septuagint Greek is kapaleos and so the wine sellers, the bartenders, the false prophets are mixing water with the wine. They're watering down the wine. They're watering down the truth to please their audience to fleece the sheep for money. So in Kathy's in her home, her mom and dad had a bar. They had a bar in the family room over in the corner and that bar was filled with liquor, hard liquor. And my house, there was hot water, cold water, and beer. My dad put a keger out back and there was a thing there to pull it and all that nice beer come out. Well, Kathy's house, her mom and them would go play bridge and they'd go out certain nights and they'd go visit the with the neighbors and all that. So Kathy and the neighbors girls are over in that in that room there, the family room and they're experimenting as young girls with alcohol so they're drinking the alcohol and but they market first and then they take and pour water in there so that when mom and dad come home that none of it's none of it's missing, you know. They're watering down the alcohol. Right? And, I don't know I don't know if they ever got caught, but, my family where we roll, my dad would come home from work and he'd say, hey, draw me a cold one. And so you'd go to the free freezer and you pull out a frosty mug and you'd go over to the to the tapper and you'd pull it toward you and he'd go lay down on the couch. Sometimes he'd make you or ask you to scratch his back, the slimy back, all hairy back. Oh, it's just gross but you know, you have them oh, did your dads ever do that too? So you have to do that and they're laying down on the couch and my brother Bobby, he, got asked to do it and so he, poured my dad a one and you gotta tilt it you gotta get it so there's no head on it and get it get it nice, much beer as possible. And then you take it over to him and he's gonna ask you for another one a little while, but my dad fell asleep and and he woke up to the sucking sound of the c o two just sucking. And that meant that my brother forgot to push it back and so a whole keg of beer, not just watering down alcohol, a whole keg of beer went into the drain and my dad woke up with that sound. That's how our family rolled, Kathy's family. She she watered it down and these false prophets are watering down the word of God. They're not allowing the word of God to have a point. They're taking the word repentance and they're removing the point of metaneo and so they they just say it's a change of mind. But it's not just a change of mind, it's a change of mind that leads to a change of action. You know, you quit being the adulterer, you quit being the drug addict, you quit doing what you're doing and you turn a 180 back toward Jesus. But the false prophets, they don't wanna offend. There's no repentance, there's no sin, there's an easy believe ism and they need to be reminded that the demons say they believe and tremble. What's it mean to believe? We need to find our terms over and over and over again. We have to define every term with this culture. What's it mean to believe? It means that I'm turning from my sins. I'm crying out to God, God be merciful to me a sinner and there should be a fruit of repentance in my life. Doesn't mean I don't fall but it means that when I do fall, I hate being there. My nature's changed. I don't enjoy the sin that I once enjoyed. Deep within the Lord is changing me, transforming me from glory to glory in the image of Christ. But in contrast, for we are not as many verse 17 which corrupt the word of God, but as of sincerity, but as of God in the sight of God speak we in Christ and so sincerity means no wax and I've taught you this word before. The artisans, people that make pottery, they might put it through the fire and then there'd be a crack on it in the kiln and and that crack, they would take a little bit of wax and they put some wax in there and they might try to color it and to cause that vase to look really good with dark lighting. You know, that that woman looks real good in the dark, in the dark bar and especially after you drink a lot, you know. Wake up in the morning and woah, what happened, you know. So you take that thing out of out of out into the light and you look at it into the light and oh boy, and that's what they don't want. They wanna sell you it in the dark and that's what the devil does tries to bring you in the dark through the lies and such and deceive. We're not like them Paul said. We're sincere. We're genuine. We bring you the unadulterated pure word of God is what we're about and that's the way we need to be and you know, when the chips fall, it's incumbent upon you to decide what you'll do with the word of God. I don't sell the word of God. I don't change the word of God or water down the word of God. My job is to give the word of God. You're the hearer so the communication when you hear it, you have free will and you decide what you're gonna do with it. Holy Spirit can convict you and you can walk out of here angry at me or you can say, you know, Lord, I think you spoke to me today and, Lord, help me to change. Lord, I can't change myself. I I need help. Who is sufficient for these things? Lord, I need help. Would you please help me? Boy, he loves that prayer. He's been waiting for a long time for us to admit that we can't do it. Who is sufficient for these things and to just simply pray and ask for help. And so we don't do it halfway. We don't do it with corruption. We don't do it with scams or schemes or whatever. I don't know how to build a church. I've been trying for thirty years here. All I know to do is to bring forth the word of God. That's what God's called me to do. Just teach the word of God. Simply teach the word of God. Evangelize to the unbeliever and edify and build up and teach the word of God to the believer and healthy sheep reproduce. You guys do the evangelism. You invite people as you get healthy. In some of these churches, the watered down churches, you've been there thirty forty years, you don't even know the word of God. Everything's feelings. You don't know prophecy. Never been taught about the rapture or the second coming or any of it, you know. It's always been about you. It's always been psychology. And when you face a real trial, your psychology and your pills and your gummies and your alcohol, none of that can get you through it. You keep falling. But when you study the word of God and the holy spirit transforms and change it from within, you know you got Jesus there and he's gonna get you through it. You're triumphant and you're gonna make it. You're gonna get through it. The devil's not gonna destroy you. So we depend upon him dialogue, communing, praying, asking him to soften people's hearts. Always triumphing even when rejected, even when persecuted, we never quit. Rejection's part of it. You look up the word rejection, there's a picture of me. It's a part of it. I'm not a politician. It's not about being popular. It's about being faithful. And this is a tough nut to crack this place. Just go on Facebook and man, oh man, oh man, this is a tough place. Unbelievable inability to debate and argue and argue in the sense of come to the knowledge of the truth. The reasoning capabilities just not there. It's all about I think I think I think and it's it's bizarre. It's just it's just so bizarre. And so Revelation chapter twenty two eighteen and nineteen, there's a warning of adding or subtracting from the word of God. Don't add to it, don't subtract or these curses are gonna come upon you. So we depend upon him dialoguing, communing, praying, asking him to soften people's hearts even when we're rejected, even when we're persecuted. And if you're persecuted and rejected, you know you know that you're fighting not against flesh and blood, but against spirits and principalities of the air. We persevere through adversity. We know we've already won. We're operating from a a stance of victory. Jesus has already won. If God before me, who can be against me? We're more than conquerors through him that loved us, the cross, and so the cross speaks of our triumph. Always triumphant. He will abundantly pardon all who come to him. So come to Jesus right here, right now, right where you're at. Believe on him and you too will always triumph. Through all the adversity, through all the sickness, through all that the devil can throw at you. You remember Paul's calling, show him what things he must suffer for my name's sake and Paul, you look at his list of suffering, unbelievable list. You know, stoned, beaten with rods, cat of nine tails five times. I mean, persecution against him and yet he says, always triumphing. We're always triumphing. Believe on him. Why lose? Why be paraded into hell with Satan? The reverse of a triumph is being paraded into hell. It's the pride parade of the rebellious multitudes because broad is the way that leads to destruction, narrow is the way that leads to eternal life and few there be that find it. And it's not a party in hell, not at all. It's a place where the worm dieth not and the fire is never quenched. Jesus said it's a place of outer darkness. It's a place of weeping and gnashing of teeth. That don't sound like a party. That don't sound like a triumph. But you and I, there's rejoicing in heaven among the angels when just one sinner repents and that's just the beginning. Wait till we get to the marriage supper of the lamb and Jesus is serving us and Jesus is singing and Jesus is celebrating and you know what? You're gonna smell the fragrance of the fatted calf being cooked. To the sinner, to the prodigal, that's a beautiful smell. To the self righteous brother, the indignant brother, the smell of the fatted calf, the barbecue that's taken place filled his heart with resentment. Tragic. He was lost, now he's found. He was dead, now he's alive. Why aren't you rejoicing? When you can walk into eternity with Jesus triumphant, and let's change that a little bit. When you can walk into Jerusalem with Jesus triumphant, you're walking into eternity with him. You got your new glorified body. We're always always always triumphant. Father, we thank you. Lord, we desire to walk in that newness of life. We desire to have victory in our hearts and lives and our homes and work and abroad. Lord, there's so much attack, so much pressure against us, not as much as the early church, not as much as churches under heavy persecution. But Lord, for us, it seems to be escalating. We're we're not used to this. The deception seems to be escalating. But Lord you haven't left us without help and Lord we cry out and we ask for help. We ask that you continue to make us students of your word, that we spend the time in your word, that we hide your word away in our heart that we might not sin against you, that we study your word that we may be able to give an answer of the hope that lies within us to people that are searching today. And, Lord, that we proclaim the glorious good news, the glorious gospel of the kingdom, and our sufficiency is of you, Lord, that we would experience that triumph, that victory that's ours that you wrought for us at the Cross Of Calvary. And Lord, thank you that we're in Christ. We thank you Lord that we're in the boat that nobody, nothing can snatch us from your hand or snatch us away. We're never gonna lose. We've already won. We thank you for so great a salvation, Lord. And while your heads are bowed and your eyes are closed this morning, if you don't know Jesus, salvation is knowing Jesus. He's a risen savior. He's not dead. God is not dead. Is the son of man. He's the son of God. He's a victorious savior of the world. If you want to know him, you can now by as many as received him to them gave he the power to become the sons of God. If that's the cry of your heart, cry out God be merciful to me a sinner. He hears that prayer of the penitent, humble, broken sinner and he'll turn you into a saint. You'll be triumphant, always triumphant. Anyone here this morning, just lift your hand up. We wanna pray with you. Father, you. Thank you for the sweetness this morning. May we may we, Lord, may people be able to see the fragrance of Christ in us. May the smell, the savor of our lives. May it spread Lord to those around us that they see the difference, that they see the light, that they see that the the love within our hearts, the love spilling forth from our lives, the brightness of the light of our eyes and our countenance. Lord, may we without words, may we share the gospel and use words when necessary. Fill us to overflowing today, Lord, we ask in Jesus' name. Amen.
About This Podcast
Calvary Chapel Bremerton - Sunday Service
Listen to Rick Beaudry, Pastor of Calvary Chapel Bremerton, teach the Word of God cover to cover, chapter by chapter, and verse by verse. Be edified and built up in your faith with solid Bible teaching. New episodes on Mondays in the Pacific Standard Timezone.
