Deliverance and Endurance (Part C)

Then the Lord said to Satan, Have you considered My servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth after the test?

A blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil, and still he holds fast to his integrity, although you incited Me against him to destroy him without cause. And then Job 2 10, we read this, In all this, Job did not sin with his lips. He endured.

He took the pain. This is Cross Reference Radio with our pastor and teacher Rick Gaston. Rick is the pastor of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville. Pastor Rick is currently teaching through the book of Hebrews.

Please stay with us after today's message to hear more information about Cross Reference Radio, specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching. And now here's Pastor Rick with the conclusion of his study called Deliverance and Endurance. Second Kings 13, Then Elisha died and they buried him.

The great prophet Elisha, one of the prophets who was used in the Old Testament to raise the dead back to life, to revive them. And yet, with all that faith, the day came when he had to go home. You cannot say, Well, he didn't have much faith.

He had more faith than anybody would make such a silly statement like that about him. So we may feel it empty. If God does not come along and rescue us, we may feel, What's the use of faith? This was the story at the end of the book of Malachi. We've tried trusting you.

We didn't get anything from it. So ours is to be faithful to the end. Otherwise, it's not faith.

So Satan, he understands that he can get people to leave the faith by attacking them. It's the story of Job. Yeah, Job, of course he doesn't curse you. Of course he's blameless. You give him everything. Take that stuff away from him, and I'll show you. He'll curse you to his face.

And of course, he attacked Job, and it didn't happen. So not accepting deliverance here. Others were tortured, not accepting deliverance. Matthew 10-22. We Christians need to hear this. This is about persecution. It's about suffering in life.

We need to hear it. It's in the Scripture, and it's not in there to be passed over or ignored. And just as all the rest of Scripture is not to be passed over or ignored, Jesus said, And you will be hated by all for My name's sake. But he who endures to the end will be saved. The one who endures to the end. And persecution is just that, endurance, not deliverance.

Not all the time. We must be ready for that. Others can suffer and die for their causes.

We are not to be an exception. So at the cost of faith, the devil demands that believers renounce Christ so that they can gain temporary relief and escape suffering. Denying Christ worsens death.

That's what it does. Faith embraces, God will not leave me. And that, he does not deliver me, does not mean he hasn't delivered me, because my relationship with him exceeds this life. It goes beyond this life.

It is not defined or limited to this life. This does not mean that he will spare us because he's always with us from the things that come against us. The New Testament is more concerned with preaching the gospel under all situations as led by the Spirit than protecting the righteous as with the armies of the Old Testament. The New Testament is more concerned with the message being delivered at any cost to those delivering it. And so again, our marriage vows, we being brides of Christ, for better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health, till death do us part. The thing is with the Christian, death will not do us part from Christ.

We are forever joined to him. Satan does not want pastors to preach these kinds of messages and he likes to make Christians uncomfortable hearing them so that he can continue to fortify his causes while we remain weak and not facing the facts concerning what we believe. So we have to understand if God is glorified by something that happens to us, then we receive it. We're not supposed to belong to a faith where talk is cheap. Yes, Lord, I'll serve you all my days anywhere you want me to.

And then the pressures come. I'm out. He didn't rescue me.

I'm done. The Bible doesn't work. The promises don't apply. Again, that's the story at the end of Malachi chapter 3, at the end of that chapter. That they might obtain a better resurrection. Though there are two resurrections. There is the resurrection of the just and there is the resurrection of the unjust.

Both will stand before God, one to condemnation, the other to address their service in this life, their rewards or not. And so by faith, the church in Smyrna, that is in the book of Revelation in chapter 2, that church was persecuted. And the Lord said, you've kept to my name in the face of persecution where Satan's throne was.

The source of power of Satan's darkness was upon them. Verse 36 of Hebrews 11, still others had trial of mockings and scourgings, yes, of chains and imprisonment. There are others, still others. There's more that we encounter.

Had trials of mockings. Is it true that someone can be brave in the face of violence and danger but can't stand being laughed at? I mean, I think it is true. I think that there are those that cannot bear it.

You're better if you're a Christian. Maybe you've been in the workplace or school and you've heard someone take a shot at Christ or some of you are very bothered when you hear someone use the name of the Lord in vain. Well, they're not under the covenant as we are. They're lost. They've got more problems than that. And if we can get to the source of the problem, they'll no longer take the Lord's name in vain.

But what I'm trying to say is we feel the pressure of that. Peter, he is writing again to persecuted Christians. He said, yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed but let him glorify God in this matter. So there are those that suffer not as Christians and there are those that suffer as Christians. One will get the crown, the other gets nothing.

And that makes all the difference. Who's king? Whose kingdom do you belong to? Which king are you subject to?

Because that king will be the victor and the other king will be vanquished. And so will his subjects along with him. He says here in verse 36 that they had received scourgings, yes, of chain and imprisonment. Jeremiah never backed down from his message.

All the junk that he had to endure from his family, from his countrymen, the ridiculed, being hunted, physically attacked. Jeremiah 38.6, so they took Jeremiah and cast him into the dungeon, which was in the court of the prison. And they let Jeremiah down with ropes and in the dungeon there was no water but mire. So Jeremiah sank in the mire. You know how miserable that was for him? It was just not, oh, this is a Bible story and there's some actor just carrying it out and afterwards they're all going to clean up and go to some restaurant and have a good time.

This really happened to someone and worse has happened. But he sank in the mire. How many times have I thought about that? Sinking in the mire of something like, God, why is this necessary? You know, the little things really get me, I think, more than the big things. You expect the boogeymen, the big ones.

It's those little fleas that just ruin it because they're so unnecessary but they're unstoppable. And so you find yourself saying, at least I find myself saying, I've got to work on my response to these things. I have got to stop being so hurt by things that in the scheme of heaven really are nothing. I'm right with Christ.

That is the major thing and I will keep that the major thing. And the hits that I take, well, I have armor enough to survive. Not to take the hit. You know, if you've ever had a shield, you know, growing up I had a friend that had a shield and of course what the boys do when you have a shield, you get something to hit the shield with you behind the shield. And if you've ever been hit, you feel it, your teeth shake.

If the guy is big enough, he'll knock you down. Yeah, you didn't get hit with the direct blow but you get hit. You feel the impact and that's Christianity. The shield of faith will take hits.

It's not a force field. Activate the Christian force field. That will happen when we get to heaven. Hebrews chapter 13, the writer of this letter is writing at a time when Christians are already being persecuted for being Christians. So he writes in the 13th chapter, remember the prisoners as if chained with them, those who are mistreated.

There's a euphemism for you. Since you yourselves are in the body also. This part of your body is being persecuted, being tortured. Remember them in prayer. Verse 37, they were stoned. They were sawn in two, were tempted, were slain with the sword.

They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins being destitute, convicted, tormented. Now he's emphasizing, of course, the Old Testament believers and the New Testament will have their share also. Where he says they were stoned, well that's Stephen and Paul, Acts chapter 7, and they stoned Stephen as he was calling on God and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. He didn't say, Lord Jesus, if you don't save me from this, I'm going elsewhere. He allowed himself to be stoned to death in faith, knowing that there are better things on the horizon when it comes to Christ. And so the Christian martyr dies a death of meaning. The rejecter of Christ may suffer and die meaninglessly.

It's this life that it is nothing after. That's how we have to preach it because that's what we're told to preach. The mercy of God is the mercy of God. That's his department. I cannot exercise the mercy of God on that level, on his level. I can exercise the mercy of God and the spear that he's given me to exercise it, but it will never reach the level that he has in dealing with those who have left this life without confessing Christ as Savior.

That is his department. And so while I am here, I have to preach it as he has given it to me. He says they were sawn into a prevalent form of execution in the ancient world. In Daniel chapter 2, we read about Nebuchadnezzar saying, we're going to, you know, cut them in two. Now, yeah, I have to say there is, outside of the Bible, there is some history that says Isaiah the prophet was ultimately martyred, a great man of God. We have the prophecies of Isaiah. Put in the hollow of a log and the log was sawn in two with him in it. That's a tradition of the Jews.

Whether it's true or not is irrelevant because it certainly has happened in other places. Now is a good time to read John Bunyan in Pilgrim's Progress. He gets to a scene where Christian, the character, is in heated dialogue with Satan, with Apollyon, the enemy. And he's winning the argument, so the enemy gets infuriated and attacks him physically. But one of the things that led to that was these words in the story about why God does not deliver his people from all sorts of things. He says, God's forbearing at present to deliver them is on purpose to try their love whether they will cleave to him to the end. And here's another part of that.

There are spectators. There are those watching the Christians, how they face death and how we face life. Have you ever lost your temper in front of an unbeliever? What is left of your testimony with that unbeliever after that? They were tempted.

Well, aren't we all? Adam and Eve, they were in the garden minding their own business. And here comes the one to bother them. Satan targets people minding their own business with temptation to seduce, to lure. Again, we go back to Job minding his own business, praying for his children, serving the Lord. Job chapter 1, when the Lord said to Satan, have you considered my servant Job that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil. So of course we don't want God boasting on us.

I don't know, we give him the chance though. Well, this word test here, word tempted is test. Pyrazo in the Greek, another word that you're likely not to hear later today. It means to scrutinize. It means to test, to try. Let's put this thing under the microscope or let's put it in a crucible and see if it can take the heat. And that is the meaning, others were tempted.

We're in this number, of course. Going back to Job chapter 1, Satan, dialogue in dialogue with God over Job, this is Satan's response, have you not made a hedge around him, around his household and around all that he has on every side. In other words, even his kids. He says, you have blessed the work of his hands and his possessions have increased in the land. And the point is, let's see you stop blessing what he has and let's see if you're still so quick to boast on Job about being faithful then. One of the lessons in the story is that Satan gets it wrong. He's not omniscient, he's not, he doesn't know everything, he's not perfect, he's a created being and he's a fallen created being. And then the Lord said to Satan, have you considered My servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth after the test, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil and still he holds fast to his integrity although you incited Me against him to destroy him without cause. And then Job 2, 10, we read this, in all this Job did not sin with his lips. He endured, he took the pain. Peter, writing to again the persecuted church in 1 Peter, he says that the genuineness of your faith being much more precious than gold that perishes through though it is tested by fire may be found to praise, honor and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

The genuineness of your faith. Sometimes I say, Lord, I set out to ministry with a bigger vision than what I managed to get and the clock is ticking away. I'm not getting any younger, I know I look it, but now please hold your comments.

I'm not getting any younger. Is this it? And if you've had any passion for something in life, it is just that, it is passion. It's not something you take lightly. It is it.

And everything else moves around that. And you want it to be this great big ball of fire and flame and victory. What are you going to do when it's not? You see, you're tempted now to be disgruntled, to be dissatisfied. All we have is this manna. Read that story in Numbers chapter 11 to see how that worked out for those who were bad mouthing the Lord's provisions. But you're being tested, I'm being tested all the time. May we never become so discouraged that we give up on our Savior, that we give up on our faith.

As a matter of fact, it should go the other way. The more discouraged we feel, the closer we draw to Him and to His eternity. In Job 19, he says, I know my Redeemer lives, and He shall stand at last on the earth. And after my skin is destroyed, this I know, that in my flesh I shall see God. When I am dead, I shall see Him because I will be alive. What a beautiful passage.

He paid for that verse. He says here in verse 37, we're slain with the sword. Remember, those early Christians that suffered persecution, they did not die for fictitious things when they said we saw the risen Lord.

Men don't die for such things if it's fake. They died because they could not lie about what they saw. They saw Christ crucified, they saw Him risen. They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins being destitute.

That's not adults only. You can find some of this in Judges chapter 6. They were afflicted.

The Greek word there is squeezed. They were tormented. Well, this life inflicts torment on the saints as well as the non-saints, but this is all that we're going to get. And verse 38, of whom the world was not worthy, they wandered in deserts and mountains and dens and caves of the earth.

I think that's an emotional and properly so. He inserts this, whom the world wasn't worthy. They're suffering these things. And he inserts that comment, the world wasn't worthy. The world wants us to stay on the reservation.

We come off the reservation when we begin to preach Christ in their world. Satan fears the church. That's why he hates it so much.

He fears it like nothing else on earth. This world really has very little to offer us. It is Christ that has what we want. And it is sad to see churches loading up their sanctuaries with heretics and church brats demanding this, demanding that, never subjecting themselves to the demands of Christ. And so Christianity goes on, but we need to remember that this trying and testing of the world is very serious. The world is an infectious disease to the life of Christ. It is all about influence, luring us away.

No, I mean, certainly there are things that are harmless that the world does. I'm not saying, they're not our enemy, but they're influences. If they're influence, which defines the world, causes us to depart from Christ in any form, whether it is from following him or just simply obeying him. Verse 39, when all these, having obtained a good testimony through faith, did not receive the promise. Those who had been scrutinized, he's now summarizing everything he's been saying, they did not receive the Messiah. They never saw Jesus Christ. They did not see the fulfillment of their prophecies.

We have. That's his point. He's writing to the Hebrews and saying to them, you cannot follow Judaism and Christianity at the same time.

They are irreconcilable. We now have the fulfillment of what the prophets spoke. It is now obsolete, the rituals that speak of salvation.

They're just that. They speak of salvation, but they do not offer it, only the blood of Christ. And so, he says, having obtained a good testimony through faith. Well, testimony is your story.

What's your story? Well, it's my life in Christ, hopefully. And faith makes possible the impossible, and that is to live the Christian life. The standards of Christ are always high.

And Christ says, I want you to reach this. I'm not going to lower it. He does not say, thou shalt not murder.

But it's a high standard for some of you, so I'll lower it a little bit, and you can murder sometimes. He doesn't do that. The standards are high, and he encourages us to go after them. And where we fail, he provides the grace, the mercy. It says he did not receive the promise.

That is the Messiah. How does the prosperity movement handle such a verse that says he didn't receive the promise? Are they willing to say all these heroes of the faith didn't exercise faith?

I hope not. Verse 40, God having provided something better for us, that they should not be made perfect apart from us. Well, the law did not save them. The law took them to righteous living in the direction of the Messiah that would come. But we have the Christ now.

We have the fullness of the prophecies concerning the coming of Messiah. Peter said, whom having not seen you love, though now you do not see him, yet believing you rejoice with joy, inexpressible, full of glory. He said that right after he said that thing about the genuineness of your faith being tested in persecution. He said, you haven't seen Christ, but you're suffering for him.

These Old Testament saints had not seen him, but they suffered under the righteous guidance of God. Then he says that they should not be made perfect apart from us. That word made perfect in the Greek is actually made complete. And too bad the translators, maybe your translation, another translation does use complete, but the New King James says perfect.

It's not an error. It's just not, I don't think, as close to the meaning as if you look up the Greek word and examine it, then you find out it means made complete. They were not complete. They were incomplete when it came to the Christ.

We have the fuller knowledge. And so I close with this verse, 1 John 1 7, the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin. We now know that it is not the blood of goats and bulls and sheep.

It is the blood of Jesus Christ, the Son of God that makes all the difference. You've been listening to Cross Reference Radio, the daily radio ministry of Pastor Rick Gaston of Calvary Chapel in Mechanicsville, Virginia. As we mentioned at the beginning of today's broadcast, today's teaching is available free of charge at our website. Simply log on to crossreferenceradio.com. That's crossreferenceradio.com. We'd also like to encourage you to subscribe to the Cross Reference Radio podcast. Subscribing ensures that you stay current with all the latest teachings from Pastor Rick. You can subscribe at crossreferenceradio.com or simply search for Cross Reference Radio in your favorite podcast app. Tune in next time as Pastor Rick continues teaching through the book of Hebrews right here on Cross Reference Radio.