Saved from What? Victory through Death.

[Music] All right. So, today we are—there’s been—I’ve been thinking a lot about going back to the basics, the ground level of our faith and things like that. So, these next couple weeks we’re going to talk about this week we’re going to talk about what are we saved from. So, what it mean—what does it mean to be saved? What are we saved from? What is Jesus saving us from? What has he saved us from? Next week, we’re going to talk about what he saved us for. What are we supposed to be doing now that we’re saved? Now that we accepted him, now that we we we got this new life, what we supposed to be doing, you know, we don’t know.

So, um, what brought this up to me is I’ve been noticing in Facebook, YouTube, X—X is a big one—uh Facebook, all those places. Uh pastors seem to spend a whole lot of time trying to prove their bonafides to each other. So, uh they they use big words and all these other things trying to prove to other pastors around the world that they’re like, “They got it. They’re smarter than you. I got this. I understand what propriation mean. I I got the the inside out track of the apologetic and I got this theory and this theorem and all these things.” And they they talk over people’s heads. My goal—my goal—I believe this Bible—the Bible is earthy. And what I mean by that, it can’t be grasp. It’s it’s um easy to access. You don’t have to have a degree in theology to understand what the Bible is saying. I believe it’s an earthy thing. Um the guy in Cincinnati I like listen to calls it blue collar blue collar Christianity. I want earthy Christianity. Uh, since we’re downtown, I want street level Christianity. I want the common man to understand what the word of God is saying. All of Christ for all of life. Every aspect of life, elementary school to high school to college to to swimming team, whatever, all walks of life should understand what this word is saying.

So, we use these Christianese things like, “Don’t you want to be saved?” or don’t you want to be saved? Salvation and and justification and and and and and all these things. We use these big words and no one actually knows or can think about or can even articulate sometimes what are we saved from? What should I—why should I run to the Lord? Why should I run to Christ? Why—what is the point? What what is it? Why why—so today we’re going to talk about that. It’s going to be more topical. U we’re going to we’re going to do a whole lot of script—going from scripture to scripture. So, get your swords ready for uh quick movement and pairing and thrusting and things. That’s a sword pun. Sorry. Sorry, Brandon. Uh but before we start, let us pray and then we’ll we’ll we’ll thunder it out.

Dear God, in the name of Jesus, we thank you for this opportunity to come and open your word. What do you want to say? What is your word saying about what we are saved from? Lord God, those who don’t trust in you, I pray that you convict hearts. Um those who do trust in you, I pray that you strengthen them and strengthen their convictions uh so they may walk in the newness of life for your glory and your glory alone. In Jesus name, amen.

All right. So salvation, we know, we know on the cross, Jesus died on the cross for our sins. John 3:16, for God so loved the world, he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believe him shall not perish but have everlasting life. This is the one of the most popular scriptures in the Bible. It was on football. You see it on football things. You see it on Tim Tibo’s eye when he—I don’t know what he did that was so special. I guess he scored something. And uh even even in wrestling, you have Austin 3:16 and all these other things where they kind of make a mockery of it. But the scripture is very very important. The first thing that the cross saves us from is sin. Is sin. uh awtoer describes sin is a rebellion of and self-ruule. Salvation bring—uh sin is rebellion is self-ruule. You’re doing your own thing. You doing what you want to do and it’s rebellion against the king. Right? Salvation brings surrender and holiness. One of my other theologians I like reading is called—his name is intright—and he says sin is idultery and felling of the image of the image bearer. Salvation restores our true vocation. So makes us truly human through the cross. We we are made truly human. The Bible says it like this. Uh sin enslaves and separates us from God. This is a brief brief uh thing and then we’ll go into the scriptures. Um Jesus sets us free and reconciles us to himself.

All right. So, let’s go to—without further ado, let’s go to Romans chapter 6. Romans chapter 6. Yep. You can grab one if you want to. Ain’t no shame. Romans, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, and Romans. Between uh if you in Ephesians, you’re too far. [Music]

All right. So, this is Paul’s letter to the Romans, chapter 6. You got to say, “Amen.” Amen. Go, go, go. Always wanted to say that. My notes say start at chapter uh chap—start at verse 6, but I’m going to start at the first verse of chapter 6. What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin so grace may abound? Certainly not. How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? Or do you not know? Do you not know that many of us who were baptized into Jesus in Christ Jesus were baptized unto his death? Therefore, we were buried with him through baptism into death, that just as Christ has raised from the dead by the glory of his father, even we also should walk in the newness of life. For if we been united together in the likeness of his death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of his resurrection. Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him, and that body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. For if he has died—and I’m sorry—died—sorry—he has died—his death—sorry—what am I saying—oh—for he who has died has been freed from sin—now we—now if we died with Christ we believe that we shall also live with him—oh yeah—knowing that Christ having being raised from the dead dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over him. For the death that he died, he died to uh died to sin once and for all. But the life that he died, he lives in God. Likewise, you reckon yourselves to be—this is a New King James version if you don’t have a different thing—uh to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Jesus, in Christ Jesus our Lord. Um, therefore, do not let sin reign in your mortal bodies that you should obey it in in its lust, and do not present your members as instruments to unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being living from the dead, and your members as instruments to righteousness to uh of righteousness of God. Sorry, two different translations in my head while I’m reading. This is weird. For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law, but under grace. So the cross of God, the cross of Jesus, the cross frees us from the bondage of sin. We are no longer slaves to sin.

Now we want to turn to John, going backwards in the Bible a little bit. John chapter 8 and this is Jesus talking. We start at verse 31. Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed him, “If you abide in my word and you are my disciples indeed, you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” And they answered him, “We are Abraham’s descendants and have never been in bondage to anyone. How can you say you will make you have you you will be free?” Sorry. Jesus answered them, “Most assuredly I say to you, whoever commits sin is slave, is a slave of sin, and a slave does not abide in the house forever.” This is John 8:3 uh 35. And a slave does not abide in the house forever, but a son abides forever. Therefore, if a son—if the sun makes you free, you are free indeed. It’s not about just being free from sin and the the actions of sin, but it’s being free from—not just the actions—doing wrong things. Let me correct myself before someone says I’m being a heretic. It’s not just about being free from from from stealing, from robbing and all that stuff, but it’s a complete release from the slavery. Slavery—you’re in the uh prison that we are in as human beings. Once we commit sin, we become—it becomes the ruler of us. And well, what is sin? Well, have you ever stole? If you ever lied, if you ever cheated, if you ever commit uh committed uh um covetousness, you wanted something someone had and you wanted it bad enough to want to hurt them. If you ever hated your brother, if you ever hated your sister, if you ever—those things are sins and and the the ten commandments, if you just look at them, it’s a mirror to the fact that we can’t live this life without redemption, without someone coming in and and freeing us from these chains.

Colossians—I told you I’m doing a whole lot of Bobby flipping. Bible flipping. I don’t know what I just said, but I meant say Bible. He has delivered us is uh—if you want to look it up later is first—I mean it’s Colossians chapter 1 verse 13. He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of his son—of the son of his love. the son of his love. In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, the forgiveness of sins. So the cross—when he died on the cross, father forgive them. They know not—know what they do. The the uh—my God, my God, why have they forsaken me? All those things that Christ was saying on the cross. It was the cross was a—um—let me go backwards because this is a point I want to make. It’ll click to you what I’m talking about.

In Exodus, there was a time where the the children of Israel were being real rebellious in the in the desert. I mean, they were acting up. God gave them food. They was complaining about the food. I don’t want that food. I want this food. them. So God made—God made uh bread come down from heaven, right? God made bread come down from heaven and they was taking it. They was eating. Then one time they was like, “Well, we want meat. Give us meat. We want meat.” Meat. Now mind you, these guys just came out of Egypt and the scripture says they took the Egyptian—Egyptian was so happy to get away from them because the plagues—they gave them stuff like, “Huh, take this flock. Take these sheep. Take this goat. Take this. take my Xbox, take all this stuff up, right?” All these things and they were so—they had flocks, right? But they didn’t want that meat. They didn’t want to mess up their stuff. They wanted God to show something special. So God made quail come down from the sky. They just—quail came in. They were eating. They eating and the Bible describes it was eating and it was coming out of their nose. They were eating so much it was disgusting, right? Um but there’s one time where they were complaining again in the wilderness and God sent snakes—the snakes in the village and people got bit by the snakes and um Moses was like—stepped in—not really stepped in but like—God I want to help one. He said, “Look, take a bronze serpent and raise it up on a hill. Put it on a stick and raise it up. And whoever looks at that, they’ll be healed. Raise it up on a hill. Whoever looks at it will be healed.” Okay. What does this have to do with Jesus? Okay, here go. I’m about to tell you. I’m about to tell you. Stop asking those questions.

Um Jesus said, “If I be lifted up, I will draw all men unto me.” He was taking the picture of the bronze serpent that was in the wilderness and lift it up and whoever looks on them was healed from their disease and all the other stuff, right? It’s the same picture of Christ on the cross. If you look to him, if you believe in him, if you give—you you give yourself up to him, he will save you from destruction. He will save you from destruction. And that’s that—that’s the beautiful thing about the Bible that it’s not just a Old Testament. You cut it off and it’s a New Testament. They have nothing to do with each other. Jesus Christ quoted for Deuteron—Deuteromy. I always have a problem with that word. Uh that book—he he quotes from that. Paul quotes from Isaiah. Um there’s a whole lot of people—they crisscross through the scriptures. Um, but there’s a beautiful picture of God’s redemption for those who look on him and believe on him. And the death of Jesus on the cross was a picture of that. I’m dying for you. Not because I hate you, but because I love you. Not because I I dislike you and I want you to have fun. But the things that you consider fun because your mind is warped by the by the enemy is destructing to you. Destructive to you. It’s destructive. So I have—I have to step in. I will step in and conquer death by death. Cuz Jesus didn’t stay in the grave, right? He rose on the third day. Amen. He resurrected. That’s right. So he conquered death through death. Why? To release you from the power of sin because of the cross. And if you believe in Christ and you walk in—and you walk in, you can walk away from sin. You can just walk away. No, I don’t. No, I’m good. I’m good. If you believe that power is in you, you can walk away. Is it going to be easy? No. Because you’ve been kicking it with sin for a long time, right? You’re not going to be able to do it just that easy. But God gives you the power through Jesus Christ to be free. So, the first thing that we are free from is sin and its power.

All right. The second thing we are free from is death and corruption. Death is the result of sin. But Christ brings life both now and forever. Death is the result of sin. Uh in right again he kind of describes death being defeated through Christ’s resurrection. Salvation includes a bodily resurrection and a cosmic renewal. So, this is kind of right now. Later on, you’ll you’ll understand it later on. Like, this is like something that happens in the movie and then you’ll find out later, right? But there’s a—there’s going to be a bodily resurrection for all the people in Christ. A new heaven, new earth, actual bodily resurrection. Um, but Jesus is the first fruits of that. Yeah. So, let me go into the scripture so you won’t think I’m crazy. Even if you already do think I’m crazy. All right. Pro—not Proverbs. Romans—Yeah. Romans 20 uh 6 and 23. 6 and 23. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life. Before that, let me go up a little bit. For we know uh for we—oh—sorry—for when you were slaves of sin you were free in regard to righteousness. What fruit did you have then in these things? Which of you were—um—are ashamed—are now ashamed? But for the end of those to the end of those things is death. But if you—Yeah, that’s what I want to say. But now, having been set free from sin and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit in holiness and the end eternal—I mean everlasting life. Then it says, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life.” We’re going to—after this life is not the end of life. Now, we’re not talking about reincarnation. We’re not talking about you come back as a butterfly or you come back as a as a cuz you was acting bad. You come back your karma catches up with you. This is Hindu religion. Your karma catches up with you and you come back as a crayon that somebody uses to to scribble or whatever. Like, no, that’s not—that’s not—that’s not the way of the world. That’s not the way of God. That’s not how God made the world. But he did make the world. Physics talk about energy cannot dissipate, cannot leave. It stays forever. So if that’s the case, that means we live eternally either with Christ or away from Christ and that’s a choice that he gives us. But his—the salvation that he gives us saves us from the wages of sin, which is death. I’m not talking about you’re going to be etern—immortal and walking around like like uh like Dracula and and on all these. You’re not going to be that. But you’re—you die once and then is the resurrection. Without Christ, you die twice. You die and then you are in hell. This is how it goes. Right now—in Corinthians—chapter 1 Corinthians chapter 15. I got a whole lot of bookmarks. Look at this ribbons. 1 Corinthians chapter 15. I don’t know why I made that sound. Chapter 15 verse 21 and 22. [Applause] Now I know why people use tablets. Okay, let me do—go verse 20. But now Christ has risen from the dead and has become the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since by man came death, by man also comes a resurrection from the dead. For as in Adam all die, also even in Christ all shall made be made alive. And that’s where I wanted to stop there. But I’m going keep on going. But each one is in his in his own order. Christ the first fruits. Afterwards, those who are Christ at his coming, then comes the end. And oh, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father, when he puts an end to all rule and all authority and all power, for he must reign until he puts all enemies under his feet. The last enemy that will be destroyed is death. Death will have no more hold. It blows my mind. It blows my mind that there’s—there’s this uh hymn in the eastern Orthodox uh religion. It’s Christians, but they’re just in the east, so they do things a little different. But they say that Christ conquered death through death. And I was talking to my wife. I was trying to spit out kind of what this looks like. And um Christ conquering death through death is—is—let me put it this way. Rome—it was a Persians. But Rome mastered the art of crucifixion. I’m talking about you could not talk about it in Rome. You couldn’t mention it to a Roman. It was nasty. It was—don’t talk about crucifixion. It was a horrible thing. There was a slave rebellion in uh—let the history book said there was a slave rebellion in uh Rome and slaves rebelled and there was so much crucifixion that you could not go 20 ft for two miles without seeing someone on a cross. Now I have a point—I have a point—I’m trying to make. So in the mind of the Romans back in that day if you saw a cross you thought of who? Rome. Rome. Rome. You thought of Rome. You thought of destruction. You thought of death. You thought of pain. You thought of agony. You thought of all these things. Right now, this—how—this how slick the Lord is. We conquered death through death, right? He conquered death through death. Through the resurrection, he conquered death. We wear—When you see a cross now, what do you think of? You think of Jesus, you don’t think of Rome, you don’t think of Caesar, you don’t think of Nero, you don’t think of none of that. What comes to people’s minds when they see the cross, the instrument of death, they see hope, they see redemption. They see even the people that don’t believe it. I’m—I’m spiritual. I’m just—I’m not—I’m not religious. I’m just spiritual. But why are you wearing it? Because I’m just spiritual. I’m not religious. Just spiritual. They think of hope when they look at the cross. There’s something about the cross that the power of death broke away from it and now we wear it as a trinket. McDonald’s wish people walk around with a big old M around their neck, right? Just walking around with a McDonald’s M—smell like fries all day. They wish, right? Jack in a box wish that they will walk around with that big old weird—what is that? That weird clown with the clown head and nose. What’s that thing called? Yeah, whatever. Yeah. But we—God—Christ has put—put to shame death so much that we wear the object of the death as a trinket to point to Christ and our hope and our love. It no longer has a sting to it. Now when we think about it, oh yeah, Christ died on that for us. And it’s like embedded. It’s like—it’s like in our culture. It’s like in it, right? You can’t get away from it. It’s a rhythm. When December 25th, what we going to talk about? Jesus. And then in the spring, what we going to talk about? Jesus. You know what I mean? Like if I keep on going, it’s a rhythm. Jesus. Like right there. Uh but Jesus—through the cross, we are saved from death. We are saved from death.

Number three, we are saved from ourselves and our own idolatry. Uh awesome God alone and not ourselves. Uh in Wright, just guys I like to listen to, he describes it as idolatry corrupts humans and societies. Salvation restores true worship and humanity. He’s really big on us being like exactly who God calls us to be—the the viceroys of God, the images of God, the people who who are put on the earth to image God into in the earth, right? The Bible describes the heart being deceitful. Salvation renews the heart and reorients our worship from looking at oursel—from naval gazing—from looking at ourselves to looking at God. Looking at the—looking at what God wants—looking at what what God would be pleased with. Luke 9 verse 23. Luke chapter 9 verse 23. Matthew, Mark, Luke, New Testament. I don’t have enough bookmarks, so I have to do it manually. Chapter 9, verse 23. Am I on the right spot? No, I’m in—I’m in chapter eight. I would have read something totally different. All right, here we go. And he said to them all, “If anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow me. Whosoever desires to be saved—to save his life will lose it. But whosoever loses his life for my sake will save it. For what—for what—in my brain—cuz King James version—for what profit is it to a man to gain the whole world and lose and lose his soul—which is King James version—but himself destroyed or lost? What profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his soul? If you want to save your life, you have to lose it. Lose it. Lose what you think. Lose your your presuppositions. Lose all that and not give your brain. Not take your brain out and give it to your Lord and let the pastor and all them manipulate. No, none of that. But it’s losing yourself. What you believe yourself is—for who God says you are in the scriptures. Losing what direction you want to go to. Oh well—based on the scriptures—I should go this way—is giving up your will for the will of the father. God—the cross saves us from idultery which is sin but it saves us from I adultery. Now Romans 1 is a big one talking about this and since I don’t have a tablet or anything I have to do it manually. It’s all right. One day I have it on the screen and—but then—who—you won’t have no funny banter in between then—said—y’all—y’all miss out and I don’t want that for you—you know—now this talks about—um—you know—Romans 1 talks about a whole lot of things but this stands out—uh—oh—24 verse 24 of Romans 1—therefore God gave them up to uncleanness in in the lust of their hearts to dishonor their bodies among themselves, exchanging the truth of God for a lie and worshiping and serving or worship and serve the creature rather than the creator who lives—who is blessed forever. who is blessed forever. The cross frees us from the cycle of self-worship. The cycle of—um—all that’s in the world is the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. The cycle of—what’s in Galatians chapter 5. And you won’t have to look at it.

Just popped in my head if I can find it. What's in Galatians chapter 5 about?

Here we go. The fruits of the flesh or now that the works of the flesh are evident: Adultery, fornication, unclean, uh, uncleanness, lewdness, uh, idolatry. So, adultery and idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contention, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambition, dissension, heresies, envy, murder, drunkenness. Why? A rivalness or or reverence fighting each other. Uh, and like that which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in in in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. These are a list of not just of sins; is what people do when you're worshiping yourself. There's some, there's one part of the scripture says, um, being disobedient to parents, breaking oaths, uh, uh, uh, um, what was it, the jealousy, being, being covetous—all these things you will not inherit the kingdom of God, but it's really self-idolatry; you do what you feel right because it feels good to feel good; not there's no basis for it, there's no—all that you just do what you feel right, you, you, you worship the creature rather than the creator.

And there's a scripture, I think it's in Isaiah, that talks about one of the prophets that talks about when you worship an idol, you become like that idol. When you worship the idol, you become like that idol. Um, when you worship your, your, your identity, uh, sensually wise, lascivious, your, your, your sensual identity; if you worship that, you become like your idol, and you become kind of a monstrosity, kind of different, kind of twisted, kind of warped. Um, when you worship your money, you become empty and vain. And if you worship empty and vain things, you yourself become empty and vain. If you worship fame, which is just vanity, you yourself become vain. You got to make sure that your camera's right. You got to make sure this is right. You got to make sure your eyebrows are correct. You got to make sure, and, and all these things that we worship. We worship our emotions. Like our emotions are not supposed to be navigators of our life; they're supposed to be indicators, like, "Okay, that I, I feel something about that. Why do I feel?" are supposed to be backtracking into our, into the word about, you know, what, why I feel this way or whatever, but we allow our emotions to dictate, and we worship our emotions, so we become—instead of, "I feel anxious," what do people say now? "I'm anxious," "I feel depressed," "I'm depressed," right? "I feel scared," "That frightened me," "I'm scared," "I am that thing." You know what I mean? We live in a world that wants us to—also, if we don't—and this a, this is a weird thing I'm, I'm noticing too—when we don't—if we, the same people, people that, you know, worship the Lord and go—and if we don't bow down to their idol, they'll persecute you like you're supposed to be bow down to them. So, if we don't think that they should be a strawberry unicorn with sprinkles on top, and we say, "Hey, no, no, you're just a little boy. You're a little boy, or you're a little girl. You're not really a strawberry unicorn sprinkles on top," um, the, the government will come and, and rough you up like you're the crazy one. But they're really not. They really don't have sprinkles on them. I promise. And uni—they really are not unicorn. They're not, they're not a unicorn, but you're supposed to believe because they feel that way. Misplaced compassion, misplaced empathy, but you become—the Bible describes you, they become as the Bible describes as dumb and blind as their idols. But Jesus Christ came to free us from that; free us from our self-love, our, our self, um, uh, um, gratification, our self—that's not even a word—but all these things that have self—it's so weird that self-care, self-selfies, like there's a whole lot of things that Christ came to save us from—the selfie is the worst one. No, Christ came to—What's wrong with me? Christ came to save us from ourselves and hurting ourselves because sometimes left to our own devices. Have you ever—parents, have you ever been like, "Okay, we're going to put the baby in the tub, but now I'm going to go grab a towel, just a towel, and I'mma come back real fast," but in that time, your kid built a Furby airplane, all that stuff, bubbles sliding down, created everything. You walked away for two seconds and left to their own devices. This kid breeds destruction. It comes off the pores, right? You did it before, haven't you? I know you have. I'm talking to you. I know you did it before. Your mom has the, the war lines right now. But that's how we are when we left to our own devices. When we allow—rent sin to reign in our mortal bodies, we, we, we—left to our own devices. We will make idols out of things that God told us to make tools out of, right? You don't believe me? Think about, look about how many people have a rectangle in their hand all the time. Well, that's supposed to be a tool. That tool can, can calculate for you. That tool can give information for you; that tool can dictate your, your next assignment and things like that, right? But we have the block of blackness in our, in our hands and we just—All right. Now we are slave to the tool. What's entertain me next? To entertain me next. What's next for the entertainment? But Christ died to free us from idolatry, from, um, ourselves. Because without Christ, without looking to the heel, the bronze serpent, Christ on the cross, without looking to—we cannot be free. We cannot be free. Right?

Number four, Christ saves us from the powers. Now, spiritual powers and worldly powers. Now, this is going to get really spooky dookie, but it's all right. That's is what the Bible says. Jesus disarmed spiritual rulers and rescued us from the presence of this evil age. We're not just dealing with—um, there's a reason why certain music goes this certain way. There's a reason why, uh, certain media, the movies, go this certain way. There's a reason why. All right? 'Cause Ephesians chapter 6 says, "We don't struggle. We don't wrestle against flesh and blood, but against powers, against principalities, against"—I want to read it to you because it's good. I was trying to do it by memory, but I realized I was going to mess up another against, and I don't want to be against that. Uh, here we go. Chapter 6, verse 12. Oh, here we go. "Finally, brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand in the evil day, having done all to—having done all to stand, stand therefore. Stand therefore." And this is how you stand: "Having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace, above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked, and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints." Put on the whole armor of—Jesus died to break the power of principalities and demons and demonic forces. That's what the scripture is talking about. And the whole armor of God. It's funny that it talks about the whole armor of God because—who says, "I am the way, the truth, and the life," Jesus. Right? So, put on the belt of truth. Gird your loins up. Gird your body up with the truth of what God says. Who is our righteousness? Jesus Christ. So, put that over your heart. Protect yourself with Christ's righteousness. The preparation of the gospel of peace. Who brings peace? Who's the prince of peace? Jesus Christ is the prince of peace. So we walk in Jesus. Shield of faith that blocks us from the fiery darts of the wicked one. When, um, we were talking yesterday, me and, me and a—was talking about the scriptures and, um, she was talking about, um, shepherds. Um, I will—I will—was it pres, uh, present a feast before you, or, or was it in the presence of my enemies? What's that scripture? "I will prepare a table before you in the presence of your enemies." The shepherd knows. Sheep don't know that behind this wall over here is a raccoon house, or behind that is a den. Sheep don't really pay attention. There's eating, right? It's paying attention. They're not paying attention. But the shepherd knows what's around. And the shepherd—in the presence of your enemies, someone lurking in the background or whatever—will feed you, will clothe you. You don't have nothing to worry about, right? You're forever taken care of with the shepherd, with the, with the good shepherd. And it's the same thing, the shield of faith that quenches all the fiery darts of the wicked one. We have a problem in Christianity where we believe that we are not in a war for souls. We, we, we, we are so inundated sometimes in the world system that we forget that Satan is really, really trying to kill you. There's no ifs, ands, or buts about it. He don't like you when you're a baby. You could tell about Planned Parenthood and all. They don't like you when you're a baby. They don't like you when you're a little kid. He don't like you when you're a teenager. Think about all the pressure that you find—I'm talking about young men and young women—how much pressure do you find to conform to a, a beauty standard, to conform to a standard of strength, to conform—to push yourself into a box that is destructive to you, that—"Well, you don't look this way, you don't look that cute, you don't look that—"You should look like this, you should put on this, and you should put on this"—and that's all that is—a whole lot of pressure to destroy the image that God has given you. He says you're fearfully and wonderfully made, and I'm not talking about just women, I'm talking about men and women—you are fearfully and wonderfully made. You are made with a purpose. You're—there's a reason that you're here. But Satan wants to mar the image of God, and he'll try anything. And he starts when you're young. But through the cross of Jesus Christ, through the power of the Holy Spirit, we can defeat him. We can stand—after done all to stand. We can stand in the midst of it. Yes. Even if we're alone, we can stand. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego got thrown in the fiery furnace because they would not bow down to King Nebuchadnezzar's idol. It was when the music played, they were supposed to like bow down to this idol and everything. And they was like, "Yeah, we ain't doing that. We can't—we, we ain't doing—Well, if you don't do it, we're going to throw you in this furnace." Okay. Just know if, if, if God saves us, or if he doesn't save us, let it be known that we will not bow. Yes. Let it be known. Let it be known that we won't bow. So, you know, they throw him in the fiery furnace. All of a sudden, he's like—it was so hot that the people throwing them in there died, but they didn't. The scriptures describes them being in the fire untouched. Untouched. The fire's still going on, but they're untouched. And, and one of the guards from the back was like, "Wait a minute. Didn't we throw three people in there? Why is there a fourth person in the fire?" There was a fourth person in the fire, and they said it looks like the Son of Man. That is a christophany—big word—that means Christ in the Old Testament. An image of Christ in the Old Testament. The Son of Man is another word. Christ calls himself the Son of Man. One of them looks like the Son of Man. We have the power to stand against the powers and the forces of wickedness. You do not have to fall claim to lasciviousness or, or, uh, the things that the world's trying to get you to think about. Young ladies, you don't have to fall claim to, uh, uh, um, um, misogyny or massagery or all these other things that the false masculinity that the world's trying to push to you young men. You could be wholeheartedly man and love dirt, axes, grinding, and books and poetry and all that. Why? Because David was a person that can whoop your tail and write a poem about it and sing a song about it. King David was a man that will whoop your tail, write a poem about whooping your tail, and then write the music behind it 'cause he played the harp and he wrote poetry. This is, this is what's in the scriptures. Do not fall. We don't have to fall for Satan's devices because Christ has died on the cross and he's resurrected, and that's what we're saved from. If you are a believer in Jesus Christ, you are saved from the devices and the, and the, and the wiles of the wicked one. You do not have to fall prey to it. Sometimes we do, but the Bible says we have an advocate with the Father. We can be forgiven. He is faithful and just to forgive us of all our sins. But this is what the cross means. This is what we're saved from. He has—in Colossians 2:15, it says he has disarmed powers and authorities. In Galatians 4:1, who himself rescued us from the present evil age. The cross was not just a, a nice m—it was a, a beautiful, a beautiful picture of salvation and, and healing from sin, but the cross was a rescue mission for your souls. We, we serve a masculine—we serve a God that—that—"I'll handle it. I got it." He came to earth 'cause—"I got it. No man can handle it like Christ can. So he came to earth—"I got it. I'll save him." Satan thought—at Genesis chapter 3—Satan thought he made a death plow to God's plan because it was really supposed to be Adam and Eve in the garden. Think about it. Adam and Eve in the garden. If there was no sin, if they didn't take the apple or take the fruit or whatever, Adam and Eve in the garden would have just been—"Be fruitful and multiply," and then went into the—then, then, uh, had dominion over the earth, and everything would have been cool. Satan really thought he put a, a wedge in that plan by tempting Eve and then later on Eve tempting Adam, right? And they're succumbing to that. But in Genesis chapter 3, and you don't have to turn to it, I'm just going to read it to you 'cause I'm fired up, and that's your fault, Addie. Uh, curs—okay. Uh, the curse of the snake. The snake. The curse of the snake. Uh, "And the woman said, 'The serpent deceived me, and I ate.'" So the Lord said to the serpent, "Because you have done this, you are cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life. And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." This is a prophecy about what's going to happen to Satan in the kingdom of darkness on the cross. He conquered death through death. Satan thought he won. But he didn't. Amen. The resurrection, the cross—the Bible describes—if they knew what they were doing on the cross, if they actually knew what was going on, they wouldn't have crucified God. They wouldn't have crucified Christ. Jesus conquered death through death—through the cross. Through the cross, we have power over sin. Through the cross, we have power over death. Through the cross, we have power over—power over ourselves. And we can, we can submit ourselves to God. Through the cross, we have powers. We have power over the kingdom of darkness who wants to pull you back down because Satan ain't your friend. No matter what the TikTok witches say—Satan is playing with Ouija boards, playing with all these—is not, not good for your souls. It's not—It's playing with darkness. Trying to contact mediums, using crystals, using all these other things that God meant for us to look at. They're pretty. Crystals are pretty. But crystals have no power. Sage is tasty on—in sausage, but you're not supposed to burn that thing to get rid of demons and stuff like that. Who? What scripture says that? It's tasty though. Put it on sausages or deliciousness. Well, it's good on chicken. I didn't even know that. You know what I mean? People use anything and everything except Jesus Christ—your identity in Christ, who you—it's, it's a life and death. Either you are all in or you're not. Now, I like people that's searching. Give me the searching people. I can handle that. You know what I mean? We can handle that. But Christ wants all of you or none of you. And I'm—Let me end with John chapter 3. John chapter 3, which is one of the most famous chapters. You like John chapter 3? You laughing about it. Giggle. John chapter 3. Funny. All right, here we go. John 3:16. I'mma start at, uh—oh, I'm—John 14. "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up"—what?—"that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God." There's a choice here. The Bible says if you believe, you can be saved. The Bible says if you don't believe, you're condemned already. The, the, the thing—the onus of belief is on you. But God has already did the work. Jesus Christ has already did the work. The gospel is already here. It's up to you to make that choice. What are you going to do about this truth? Let us pray. Father God, in the name of Jesus, we are thankful for this time. We are thankful for who you are, Lord Jesus. And I pray, um, that you convict hearts, Lord God. Strengthen us for your glory, in Jesus' name. Amen.