Hello everybody, welcome to this week's edition of the Focus of Freedom. So glad you've joined us. I've got a blessing here to me personally, if you've never heard of Jeff and Susan Wisnitz, the Wisnitz from out of Morganton, North Carolina, I believe you're going to be blessed. Their sons are joining them on this particular song that they're going to be singing, and it's a joy to introduce to you from Morganton, North Carolina, the Wisnitz.
And I just believe that we're going to have a good time here for a few minutes, worship in God with the Wisnitz. Oh my little baby, baby, the world's born and bad with hell. She got to the high school of their glory in the story. And God is so good.
God is so, and I love Him. Before you sit down sing, I'll praise your name. And I'll praise your, is your, your, your, your, and all God's people say it. Ooh, amen.
It's already been good to be in the house of the Lord, amen? I appreciate Jeff Wisnitz and any sons, his wife Susan, they just, this group has been a blessing to me down through the many years that I've known them. And if you're a pastor and you're interested in having the Wisnitz come and sing for your congregation sometimes, you can look them up online, they're everywhere, they've got a pretty good following, the Wisnitz, and we just appreciate them so much singing for us today. Now we're going back to the most important thing we can go back to, and that is the word of Almighty God.
Last month, the month of February, I felt God encouraging all of us as His people to humble ourselves, finally to humble ourselves. You study that word humble like we taught last month. It is very much again, if not synonymous with, self-denial, death to self. Where is that at the cross?
Galatians 2, 20, I'm crucified with Christ. That means that old nature and spirit of Adam died with Christ on that cross. And now we live and know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings. We know not only the power of the resurrection, but our partnership with His sufferings, He's suffered and died.
I wonder, I ask myself often, how often do I allow myself to be broken at the foot of the cross? In full recognition of what He did, all He went through, just for me. He loved me so much that in Philippians 2 He made Himself of no reputation and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Then, running over to 1 John 4, we love Him because He first loved us.
He deserves our utmost allegiance. He deserves our obedience. And as I often say, our obedience to Him brings omnipotence from Him. If we as God's people in America could really finally, truly humble ourselves, dying to ever bastion of Adam's spirit in our life, that the shame of our neck and this wouldn't appear.
Again, they go back to Revelation 3, the seventh church of the seven churches of Asia Minor. And if you're looking at them chronologically, prophetically, then that's right before the trumpet voice sounds in chapter 4, come up here. Could it be the end time or end the last of the grace dispensation? Where we, as a church, the church of the Laodiceans, would be so burdened with pride that we would say we're rich, increase with goods and have need of nothing.
And yet we don't even realize that what the truth said, Jesus said, you're poor, blind, miserable, wretched and naked. So I advise you, church, the by of me, gold tried and fire, so you'd be rich, not poor in the human spirit of Adam, but rich through the Holy Spirit of Christ. And white rain that the shame of your neckiness wouldn't appear, not letting people see our carnality, the behaviors and the conduct of Adam, because we've reverted back and allowed our old human spirit to have preeminence and dominance and operational force in our life. So if the character of Adam is operational in my mind, I'm carnal minded, and then the conduct, that's why we find fault, we judge, we criticize, we do all those things that are so grievous to the Holy Spirit.
So I say that you can see through the eyes of Christ, he died for this world, he suffered for this world. He desires that all would come unto him and be saved. He's not willing that any should perish through the pen of Peter. But that all should come to repentance.
How do they hear through the preaching of the gospel of the Son of God? He said, as many as I love and rebuke, I chasten, and therefore be zealous and repent. Just agreeing with God and turning around and changing course, not a 360 flip at little confession in a church, the world would just turn around 360 and we're still going in the same direction, but a 180 abrupt about face. That's what repentance is.
And now we're not poor, but we're rich, we're not blind, but we're seeing. And we're not showing the shame of the nudity of the Adam spirit, but we're showing with grace the righteousness that is by faith in the grace of God. Yea imputed righteousness of Christ that has been imputed to us. He who knew knows him was made, said that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
1 Corinthians 5 verse 21. So here we were talking about humility, then repentance that would bridge us to unity, that we could pray together, believe God without doubt, and then simultaneously seek his face, follow his word, be engaged in his will, active and effective in his work, and simultaneously turning from our wicked ways, seeking his face, turning from our wicked ways. If that's not true biblical, holy sanctification, then what is it? Then that's where we need to be as God's people.
Then he would forgive us, cleanse us, refill us with the power and the function of the Holy Spirit, and then as we finally immediately go out into this world with the gospel instead of preaching to the choir, building up our own self, boasting in our little thing, criticizing every other church and every other ministry, that's got to stop. We need humility, not pride. We need unity, not division. And then a recognition of who our victory is.
Christ is our peace, He is our sufficiency, and He is our victory. Thanks be unto God which gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. So we've been talking here from the Gospel of Luke chapter 8. I've told you a couple of times, a couple of weeks ago, you Bible students, it's in Matthew 8, and in Mark chapter 5 and in Luke 8, the great stories here that all come together, these four events that happened in the life of Christ.
When He calmed the storm, when He conquered the spirits, when He cured the sickness, and now we're going from storms and spirits and sickness to sores. We mentioned it last week, I told you we were going to come back to Jarius. Hope if you're able, you got your Bible open, and probably we will zero in and try to emphasize verse 49, all the way down to verse 56, this is the last of the four events that we're looking at here in Luke chapter 8. We said last week that He cured the sickness of that dear lady who could not be hit, and once you get saved, you can't be hit.
You become a child of God on a mission for the Master to proclaim His mercy with His might. That's who we are. It's not so much what we do, but it is our identity. It is who we are.
We are the royal priesthood. We are a holy nation. We are a chosen generation. We are the general assembly of the firstborn.
We are the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the head. We are members, one with Him, and therefore as we learn through the six chapters of Ephesians, we are together with each other, and we are one with each other, because if you're one with Christ and I'm one with Christ, your brother, sister, then inevitably we are one together. Why can't we see that?
And why can't we just know that we are a family of faith? We were talking about that several weeks ago back in February from Ephesians chapter 4. Look at it again. We're one where the family of faith and how we ought to strive to maintain the unity of the Holy Spirit and the unity of the faith.
So Jesus shows that He can calm storms and He still can. He can conquer these spirits out here. He's still can. He's God beside Him.
There is none else. He's the witness of hatred, variance, strife, division. He can heal all of that and put it to rest because He can forgive. He already has through His provision on the cross.
You see, Christian brothers and sisters, the central entity of Christianity is Christ, and His centerpiece is His cross, upon which He died and paid the debt. And He died as the test tater, putting the new covenant in force. He arose to be the administrator of the new covenant. Every covenant in the Old Testament was broken by man.
The Adantic Covenant, broken by Adam. No addict, broken by Noah. The Abrahamic, what Abraham did. The Mosaic, what Moses did.
The Davidic, what David did. But when it comes to the new covenant, He is God who become man. So He holds up our end of the covenant and He holds up His end of the covenant. One mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus.
He is God. Inside Him there is none else. And He is your most intimate and best caring friend. First Peter 5 cast all you care on Him.
He cares for you. He still can calm the storms. He still can conquer these old principalities, these spiritual wicked entities in high places. He can still cure the sickness of sin and the sickness of selfishness and all the rest of it.
And are we going to have Saurus? Of course. God said, Dust you are in the dust you shall return. You eat that fruit, Adam you are going to die and all of the human family will die into the darkness of sin.
And there was a payment demanded for sin. That payment eternal. No one finite person could pay that. Joseph as good as he was could do it.
Moses could do it. Elijah could do it. Isaiah could do it. Micah could do it.
Zachariah could do it. But Jesus came and did it. He is the only one that had the price of our redemption. Which was eternal life.
Eternal blood. That is why without the shedding of bloods no remission of sin. Blood equates to life. Life is in the blood.
It is what the scripture teaches in the book of Leviticus. So Christ gave his eternal life for us. He descended down into the bowels of death, held in the grave, defeated sin and satan and rose. He died as test tater as I said to put the wheel in the new covenant in force.
Then he arose by the left and he lives forever as the grand administrator of God's estate. So he guarantees his grace. And he is able to keep that which we have committed to him against that day. Storms will come, yes.
But he can calm them. Spirits will rage against us. But the Holy Spirit is greater than any and all spirits of the devil in hell. Sickness will come against us.
But we have the cure living on the inside of us and the spirit of Christ. Well, Sorrows come, sure. You may be there facing Sorrow. Now let's close talking about Jarius.
The dear man who had this little 12 year old daughter who was seriously sick. He knew something was wrong. The wife knew something was wrong. They were desperate.
Now if you want to be filled with the spirit, God's greater than any obstacle. God's greater than any opposition. But you got to look away from the storm and see the Savior. You can't believe the lies of the devil.
It'll say you're dying and Jesus doesn't care. You got to know that Jesus is. He that comes to God must believe that he is and he's a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. I want you to see this scenario unfolding in Jarius's life.
Christ is his hope for the life of his little girl that's dying. He's leading Jesus home to help his little girl. They didn't live too far away there in Capernaum. Now here they're in route.
Now here comes this woman older. Been sick 12 years. I said last week she'd been sick a number of years. If the little girl had been alive on planet Earth.
Now she grabs on to Jesus and the crowd is all around. And now Jesus is spending time with this older woman. Don't you think the same old spirit that told Peter, James and John out in that storm that Jesus didn't care? Do you not think that Jarius might have the thought shooting through his mind?
Jesus doesn't care enough. I've got a need and he's stopping to take care of this old woman. And my little 12 year old girl and I watch this. It's right here.
When the woman gets healed and Jesus says go in peace. Here comes someone from Jarius's house. And says in verse 49, your daughter is dead. Forget about Jesus.
That's my interpretation of that verse. You have trouble not the master. Now somebody said, well that's him referencing or showing reverence to Jesus. But I see that passage and maybe I'm wrong, maybe I'm right.
But I think what the guy said, your daughter's dead. Forget about it. No need to even don't bother him anymore. But Jesus said, don't you be afraid you believe.
It's like the disciples were so afraid because they didn't have faith. If I'm fearful, I'm faithless. If I'm faithful, perhaps I can be a lot less fearful. I may not get to that desired point of being absolutely fearless.
Then I can try my best to get there. And the best way to combat my human fear is to put the faith of Jesus in the Holy Spirit. To have the faith of Christ in me through the Holy Spirit, operational and functional. And that's the victory that overcomes the world.
Jesus said, don't be shook up, Jarius, don't get aggravated. Don't let your human spirit take over things here. Just only believe she's going to be made whole. I'm going home with you in your darkest hour.
Jesus is with you in your greatest moment of turmoil. Jesus is with you. When you get upset, Jesus is still with you. And I'm glad to report to you.
Even when we go through anger, even directed at him. He doesn't get mad at us. No more than we would get mad at our little child. That if we didn't give them that lollipop, they stumped their little foot at us.
You be honest in your grief. Be honest in your sorrow. Mrs. Joe was in such a state of calamity.
People often make fun of her. People often say, well, the only thing Joe had left is the only thing you didn't know. You didn't even have a nagging wife. Hold on right there.
Mrs. Joe had just lost ten children to death. She had lost all of her, but she didn't really care about her bankruptcy. She didn't really care about losing all the real estate and the jewelry and the money and the deposits and the investments and all of that.
Her heart was shattered as a mother. She lost all of her children in one catastrophic event. Now the love of her life lays in a homeless junkyard. And she didn't even have the money to buy him a little tube of Neo-Sporin.
She's so overcome with grief and sorrow. Then she says to Joe when he said, oh, bless it, be the name of the Lord. She said, cuss God and die. Now don't be so critical of Miss Joe.
Do you get all the way back over there to Chapter 42 in the end of the book? She's still standing, ain't she? When her and Joe didn't have anything else to give, they gave themselves from that old asheep out there. And God bless them.
And at the end of their life, when at the end of the road there in 42, when Joe prayed for his friends, oh, things begin to turn around. And God gave them ten more children and that little girl, they named her Jemima a new day. You hold a whole, a whole, jarius didn't let himself be overwhelmed by the negativity of his human spirit. But he held fast his profession and dared believe Jesus.
They got down there to jarius his house and there's all morning weeping, wailing, mogginess. And Jesus shocks the whole crowd. He said, y'all quit crying. She's not dead.
She's just asleep. Boy, that brought doubt and hostility out of all of them. So he put all of them out of there. And he took her by the hand, just Jesus back our net bedroom where they had that little precious corpse.
And he says a term of endearment here in verse 54, little darling arrives and her spirit came again. And she arose straight away. And he said, give her something to eat. And jarius and his wife were astonished.
But then he charged him, don't tell nobody what was done. You see, it ain't so much what I spout out with my lips. It's what I show with my life. What about that crowd after the yard when mama come walking?
Oh, about to shout. When mama come walking through the yard holding that young and that they all knew had been a corpse just a few minutes before. But when the resurrection and the life walked in the room, the brother I'm telling you, the power of God took over all the dread and gloom and changed the situation. He can comfort saris.
Right there in 1 Corinthians, to the Corinthian church, he's the father of all mercies and he's the God of all comfort. In the world you'll have tribulation Jesus said in John 1633, but be of good cheer. Be of good comfort. He is peace in your heart.
And Psalms 119 165 will close with this. Great peace have they which loved I law and nothing shall offend them. Can you imagine how easy it would have been for jarius to have been quite offended by Jesus? Taking time for that old one and then letting his little girl die?
He didn't believe that lie. He didn't believe what the devil told the disciples in that storm either. The devil will lie. He'll tell you you're dying when you're living.
He'll tell you Jesus doesn't care when nobody cares like Jesus cares. The same God that calmed the storm, conquered the spirit, secured the sickness, comfort to the sorrow. And I know what I'm going to close by this real statement right here. He's the same God now as he always has been and always will be.
And he's right there where you are right now. Would you let Jesus be the savior of your soul if you're not a Christian? Could we as God's people truly see that he is our victory and that we can humble before him and die with him on that cross we already have? If anyone wants to be my disciple, then die themselves.
Take up the cross daily and follow him. 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 Baptist 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, f-t-ministries.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.