Hello again everyone and welcome into this another edition of the focus of freedom. As always, let me just express to you the content of my heart. I appreciate you watching. I really truly do.
And it's a blessing. It's not a burden for me to come in front of this camera because I just try to imagine who may be out there watching and participating. And there wouldn't be a bit of use of me being here if you weren't there. And I thank you.
I love the church of the Lord Jesus, don't you? All of our fellow pastors and brothers and sisters in the Lord and in the faith, the unity of the faith, the unity of the spirit that we were talking about a couple of broadcasts to go from Ephesians chapter 1. It is the Holy Spirit that creates that unity. And we've been talking about humility and unity within the church.
It's difficult sometimes for us old human beings to admit that we've been wrong, that we've done something wrong. But the only person that ever walked a planet that didn't do anything wrong was the Lord Jesus. When he was born of the Virgin and he lived an earthly life and according to the opening chapters of the book of Hebrews, he did that so he could save us of course. But he was acquainted with our sorrows and griefs.
Like in for example Hebrews chapter 4, we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities but was in all points tempted like as we are yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly under the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. These programs have been recorded in advance. In other words, when you're looking at me right now and I'm talking to you, this was probably some weeks back.
I don't know what's been going on in America in regard to when we're together right now. But I do know this that we are in a time of need and we cannot bombard the throne of grace boldly because we're good or because of our successes or because of our accesses. We can only boldly approach the throne of grace because of the goodness and the finished work of our great high priest, the head of the church, the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the propitiation of our sins.
He is the sole mediator between humanity and God Almighty. So through Him in this time of need, we can boldly approach the throne of grace and obtain mercy. It's not a disgrace to say I failed. Why do we allow the human spirit that we talked about the last time, the old flesh, to create a carnal mind in us?
That's why in Philippians 2, let this man be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, to be spiritually minded his life. Jesus lives to forgive. He died to save us, he arose again to maintain on over in Hebrews, he talked about the death of the testator to put the will in the force. Now get this little tidbit right here, the new testament, the will of God, that whosoever is called upon the name of the Lord, shall be saved and can become an heir with God and to join heir with Christ through our faith in Him.
Now Jesus died as testator of the Father's eternal estate. The death of the testator put the will in force. Here's the wonderful sweet precious blessing. If you've been an administrator of an estate, then you know that you've got to go by the law and you've got to go by the dictates of the person's wishes that made the will.
The reason why I'm greening, I'm being blessed here. I've been an administrator of estates before, I win families have asked me, and the chore can be complicated, can be simple, but I'm getting off now. Let's get back to the main point. Jesus died as the testator of the eternal estate, and that put the will in absolute force.
But now get this, every other covenant throughout the Old Testament, whichever one you want to talk about, was flawed and messed up and broken because of a man, because of a human being. Well, Jesus became a man, the man Christ Jesus, our mediator. He identified with us, he assumed our sin and the consequential results of our sin, which is eternal separation from God, inhaled. So on the cross, he is testator of the Father's estate, died.
Now the consequences of sin is a Christless eternal eternity in the bowels of death, held in the grave. Now, Jesus soul was made an offering for sin. I say 53, and he, according to Ephesians 4, he descended with our sin, with our condemnation into the place of the part of the human spirit, the consequence of sin. And the will of God right there became in effect because we had a perfect sacrifice without sin, no sin, yet he was made sin.
Now he shows up in the prison house of the devil in Abraham's bosom paradise, which two compartments were there, and he took the keys of death and hail the authority off the devil, crossed that gulf delivering the Old Testament saints, and he arose on the third day. Now, with the will being enforced, when he destroyed the devil for us, paid the full death and consequential price of sin for us, now he tells Mary, don't touch me, I'm not yet ascended to my Father. Now he goes to glory and satisfies his Father for us. When he went down below, he probably told the devil, hey, oh, my God, I say to you, all those blessed people, they can't get down here and whip you.
So I'm here for them in their estate, swept that dude upside to head just like Genesis 3.15. When God told the devil, the seed of the woman's going to bruise your head, and Satan lost the authority of death and hail. Jesus said in Revelation 1, I am he who lives and was dead, and to hold on the lie forever more. So on the third day, it wasn't Abraham that became my administrator and our administrator.
It wasn't David, it wasn't Joseph, it wasn't Elijah, it wasn't Abraham, it wasn't Esther, it was God himself in his son who died as test tater to enforce the will, then arose as the administrator, and he's seated for ever at the right hand of the Father, he's the head of the church. That means anything and everything he says in this book is real, every promise is sure, every guarantee is by his grace, and when you get in your end because of him, give him all glory, like the two verses there in Isaiah, 44 and 48, I'll share my love, mercy, grace, goodness, everything, but of my glory, I ain't going to give it to nobody, I'm going to keep that. So all glory goes to the test tater who died to put the will in force. Now simultaneously he is the grand administrator of the Father's estate.
That means if you call the phone his name, you can be saved. If we operate in his name, we can do all things through Christ, and it's not a shame or a disgrace when we say, I'm sorry, Lord, I failed you. That's a dependency upon him when old pride of the human spirit wails up and said, I'm not anything wrong. That preacher may not tell me I've done anything wrong.
I've not done anything wrong. Well, yeah, books said, oh, a L L have sin. So when I repent, like Jesus said to the lay of the sea of church in Revelation 3, you're lukewarm in our heart of cold, and you say, I'm rich, increase with goods and have need of nothing. Pride and division is the opposite of humility and unity, and to be so blinded by self, to be so blinded by pride that we wear our shoulders back, denominationally and say, as the lay of the sea of church, I'm rich, increase in goods, have need of nothing.
And Jesus said, you don't even realize your true condition, your poor, blind, miserable, wretched and naked. I advise you to buy of me gold, tried in the fire so you can be rich. That's his attributes. That's his character.
That's the Holy Spirit's power. You don't try to fire to make me rich. I say of that you can see. Can't you see why we've been playing church for the last 40 years and throwing stones at one another?
The devil has got our children the next generation by the throat. And now they're being told that 1776 was not the American birthday. It was 1619 when the first enslaved people came to America and America's built on slavery. We've been playing around with our stuff.
The devil has created that destruction of pride while he's going around here and actually destroying our nation. You're blind. But I've got I say of, I don't know what you're eyes so you can see. The shame of that old, damnit nature and nakedness by me, white raiment.
So the shame of your nakedness won't appear as many as I love. I rebuke. He said, be zealous therefore. Zealous, do it, do it strongly.
Purpose, you say, be zealous therefore and repent. He loves us. He loves us with an everlasting love. He loves us unconditionally.
Thank God he loves us. He's not going to throw the clay away. He's given us a little space for grace church. But when we're controlled by that old human spirit, the most difficult thing in the world for the Adam spirit to do is to say, I've fumbled a ball.
I've failed. And the lion devil says, oh, that's an admission unnecessary now. No, no, no, no. You don't want to do that.
See, that's a subtle trick of the devil, his wiles in Ephesians 6, to make us really think that we're glorifying God through our self efforts. That's exactly what the devil pulled on Eve. That's exactly the same psychological lie that he tells sinners. But when we repent like Jesus said, that doesn't glorify us.
It glorifies him because of his forgiveness. The power of his blood, if we can, and repentance translates, agreeing with God. All of sinned even me. And if I can admit my failures, then God can increase my faith.
Because when I'm forgiven, my appreciation levels skyrocket. You remember in the Gospel of Luke, it all signed in the Pharisees house. And he told his compadresis, he said, get Jesus come over my house. I'll get some kind of error in his doctor.
And Jesus was sitting at Simon's table. And Simon was sitting across the table there. I personally think it's Mary Magdalene, it might not have been. But there was a frantic knock on the big door out in the portico.
And the butler probably said, madam do you have an appointment? Well, I don't know what I've heard Jesus is in here and I just want to see Jesus. Well, Jesus is with the master of the house in the dining area. She said, thank you.
You don't need a man-made invitation to get to God. You just come to God. Jesus said, Matthew 11, come unto me. She ran in there and she fell down at his feet and she is a sobbing tears of joy.
And getting her tears on his feet. She's wiping, trying to wipe the tears off his feet with the hairs of her head. She's just praising him and thanking him. Oh, Simon reared back over across the table and thanking him.
He said, now I know he's not a prophet. He wouldn't let that thing touch you. Hey, Simon, that ain't a thing. That's a soul who Jesus loved.
Broke the power of sin in her life and she became a follower of Christ. Jesus lifted Simon and listened to what he said. He said, I walked up to your door. I noticed you'd removed the pan.
You didn't wash my feet or give me opportunity. All your other constituents. It is, you customarily greet one another with kiss. But you didn't kiss Machique.
Simon, I know you've disrespected me and I know you don't even believe in me because your problem is you've never recognized that you needed forgiveness because pride is going to chain around your heart all your life. But this woman here, since she come in here, she didn't need to base in the water ceremonially or richly. She's made my feet with the tears that she's cried out of gratefulness and thankfulness. You didn't kiss Machique with a welcome.
But she's just look at her. She's still kissing the feet. I tell you, he walked to where I was. I was lost without God.
No hope. One day, though nobody or nothing could help her. One day love came to Magdala. One day grace came to where she was.
And she recognized her condition and she realized and recognized who her salvation is and as Jesus and her appreciation level shot up. As long as I'm proud and as long as I'm singular with just the ones that are just like me, I'm going to be like old Simon. But the more I depend upon the forgiveness of God, the more it seems that he increases our faith in God. Jesus ran into some and they had no faith.
He ran into others that had little faith. But then that soldier boy, that centurion, Jesus said he had great faith. And then that little old sirel Phoenician woman, whose little old girl was bad off. And Jesus and him got went up there out of the borders of Israel.
And that woman said help us, Lord, help us, Lord. It's something wrong with the daughter. And the disciples said, we can't give a bread to the children of the dogs, which was a racial slur, an insult to her. Boy, I didn't bother that girl when you really got a heart to believe in Jesus.
You can make your way through the mazes of all the obstructions and the oppositions to get to him. It doesn't matter what they say, you know, in your ear, it may shatter that little human spirit and make us all discombobulated, but the Holy Spirit is solid and true and strong. And she said that's true, but even the dogs eat the crumbs, which fall from the children's table. Jesus said woman, great is your faith.
Be it unto you according to your word and the little young and recovered. We need faith in America. Faith comes from the word of God. That's plain in Romans 10 17.
Faith comes by hearing by the word of God. And then I think in Hebrews, chapter 11, without faith we can't please God. And then the victory over the world, 1 John, chapter 5, down to verse 3, the victory that overcomes the world is our faith. Now follow the progression there.
If we're not in the word of God, studying the word of God by 2 Timothy 3, 15, to show ourselves approved unto God, then according to this book, we don't have faith because faith comes by hearing of the word of God. And if we don't have faith, then according to this, we are not pleasing God. And if we're not in the word of God, substantiating and increasing our faith, then it is inevitable and it is a fact. We may be pleasing one another in our little selected groups, but we're not pleasing God.
And then in 1 John 5, we are not overcoming the world because faith overcomes the world. Even the disciples on that stormy sea that night. When Jesus told them that the docks of Capernaum, let's go over to the other side. And every preacher watching me, you've probably preached on the stormy sea and Jesus common the storm.
And he being asleep in the stern and the disciples struggling out there. And we all have said this and it is true, absolutely undebatable, undeniable. When Jesus said, let's let us go over. There was no way that they were going to go under.
Jesus said the scripture can't be broken. Hebrews 618, it's impossible for God to lie. When Jesus said we're going over, boys, we're going over. He didn't talk about the circumstances because when he said that, the skies are blue, they got out there, the seas were tranquil.
But in the middle of the night up there, the storm came. And they got to do what they could do according to their knowledge. And they got scared to death. And they finally remembered.
Jesus is on board here somewhere. Where is he? He's right with you. He's right where you are.
Perfect love casts out fear. Fear hath tore me at first on floor. 2 Timothy 1, 7, God had given us the spirit of fear, but of power and of the sound man. So of love and of the sound man.
Fear level goes up when the faith level comes down. It's that simple. Faith level goes up, fear level goes down. Now they went back there like grounded little petrified rats with their hearts beating out their chest and said, nice, we're dying and you don't care.
And that's something. Who told them they were dying? They're on mine. And the devil exploits the human mind, the natural mind, the carnal mind.
And you don't care. We're dying and you don't care. Jesus didn't even respond. I don't believe he just got up out of his little bed.
There he was, warms and other undercover, sleeping through the storm because he had faith when he was on this earth in his own self and his own power. The object of our faith is not us. It's not our little boat. It is the Lord Jesus Christ who is the author and finisher of our faith.
He walked by and went out there on a bow that boat, stretched his hands out there. And the creative God of glory said, peace be still. All those eight to 14 feet high waves, laid right down. The clouds rolled out, stars come out.
The sea God is tranquil as glass. Those guys looked at one another and said, what matter of man is this? That even the winds and waves obey him. Now Jesus, right after he had rebuked the storm, the dilemma if you will, turned right after light, we get in a lot of bad dilemmas in this world.
But who you going to trust? Who you going to believe? Who you going to remember the word of? Self-society Satan or the Savior?
He turned around and rebuked them and he asked them a twofold question. Why were you guys afraid? And then he followed it with this question. Where is your faith?
I imagine old boisterous Peter probably chirped up there and said, why were we afraid? Timbers were cracking his thing was rolling. We almost barrel rolled two or three times. Why were we afraid?
And then Jesus said, where's your faith? And I personally believe, you know, we'll find out when we get to heaven. But I believe it was John. We often ladies read, head on Jesus' breath.
And I said, fellers, the reason why we were so afraid like he's asking us, we displaced our faith from him to us. And when we did that, we got petrified. We got all agitated. We was growling at one another elbow and one another falling over one another, cussing one another.
We just got so afraid of the storm and the circumstance. We forgot about him. If you keep your faith in him, you won't be afraid because you know that Satan is a lie and the Father of lies. And when he tells you you're dying, how can you be dying?
When Jesus said, I'm coming to you may have life and that you may have it more abundantly. It's a dangerous thing to forget his word. It's a dangerous thing to start trying to do our thing our way because you can't stop the storms of life. We've got political upheaval.
We've got political wrangling. We've got all kinds of storms going on in America. And I'm afraid sometimes church, we're kind of like the disciples. We think we're dying.
If Trump or Biden is your hope, you don't have hope, your hope is God. If the Democrats or Republicans, either one is your hope. And you've broken on it. You've depended on a broke stick like my granny used to tell me.
But if your hope is in God, he's solid. This foundation will never crack. It's the foundation of truth. Solid eternal.
The canopy, the pavilion over us, the God's love will never collapse. And his everlasting arms around us will never, ever, ever grow weak. Jesus said, boys, you all were afraid because you lost your faith. And you say, off, you're going to have fear.
Put your faith in me. I'm going to bring that fear level way on down there. A long time ago, fellas, you could have just come on back here where I was and slept through this storm instead of struggling against it. That's faith.
That's trust in his word. Because let me say it again, when the man Christ Jesus said, let's go over to the other side. I don't care if a tornado in a hurricane and a tsunami hit Galilee, that little boat was not going to sink. And I've got news for you today.
The Church of the Lord Jesus Christ is not going down. We're going over to the other side. Christ's hand is on the hill. He knows the way.
We're going to get to New Jerusalem Harbor one of these days for sure and forever. But right now, we have a high calling and a great commission to preach the gospel. Please, Church brothers and sisters, let's get to that point of humility where we can't pilot his ship through these storms, but we can be his passengers and crew and he's going to get us through. Die to self, live to him, true humility.
And be an answer to his prayer, the intercessory prayer that we would be one with him. And because of that, Philippians 4, we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us. Heavenly Father, would you seal your word upon the hearts and minds of we as your people? In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen. Join us on our website, ftministries.org. You can download the app, Freedom Tabernacle app for many apps going to join us on Facebook at Freedom Tabernacle Ministries, Atkins, Virginia. Spend time with us there.
It's just been a joy to just talk scripture with you today. And so may the goodness and grace of God be to you and may all glory be unto our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Thanks for watching. Till our next time together, may God bless you richly, then may He use you for His glory and to be a real blessing to someone else.
I have the privilege of pastoring and being the director of Freedom Tabernacle Babbard's Church and Freedom Tabernacle Ministries in Atkins, Virginia. And we are going to get to know one another a lot better through the weeks and months to come. It's my prayer. But right now, you can join us on our Facebook page, Freedom Tabernacle Ministries, Atkins, Virginia.
Or our YouTube channel, Focus of Freedom, Atkins, Virginia, our website, ftministries.org. Or you can download our app, the Freedom Tabernacle app, download it for free from any app store and we can stay in contact that way. As we labor together with our Lord for His glory and for the advancement of His glorious gospel of grace.