-Transcript-
00:35 Amen. Glory to God. Welcome to the cafe today.
00:39 Good to be here today. Another wonderful day to get into God’s Word. I hope you’re ready.
00:45 Whether you’ve been having a great week, whether you’ve been struggling, whether you’ve been somewhere in between, we’ve always got something in God’s Word that we can look at to help us understand the life that we live in. We’re today in 1 John 4: 4. 1 John 4: 4, discussing how God’s love is greater than all your problems. Do you believe that today that God’s love is greater than every problem that you have? Certainly it is.
01:14 And I love the Lord. I love God so much and I’m thankful that He’s allowed me to preach on the radio here. And so often I believe He guides my research in His Word, my study towards these practical applications, these things that you can hear and take a hold of and use.
01:33 And no greater than God’s love. Amen. 1 John 4: 4,Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them because greater is He thatis in you than he that is in the world.
01:47 Now oftentimes we’ll hear that last part or we’ll think on that last part. Greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world. And that is so true.
01:54 But also we are of God and we are like little children and we have overcome the things of this world. And so we’re going to kind of parse through that a little bit. 1 John 4:4, Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them because greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world.
02:13 So let’s start by looking at how we are of God. Because here 1 John, I believe, is speaking here to those that are saved, those that believe in Christ as Lord and Savior. And when that happens, we are essentially purchased
.02:28 We are not our own anymore. We become property of God. We are of God.
02:35 1 Corinthians 6:20, For ye are bought with a price, therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s. Now let’s look at this for a second. How do we become under God’s ownership? You know, here Paul was writing about being bought with a price.
02:54 Other times he writes about being a prisoner to Christ, a bond slave to Christ, literally a slave to Christ. What does that mean? How are we purchased? Well, first of all, when we’re born, we are born without the Holy Spirit living within us. So we are born in a earthly way.
03:11 Now you want to get into the technicalities of creation. It is all of God. So we’re all created by God, but we’re not all God’s children because not everyone has been born again.
03:22 In fact, many have not been born again. But when we’re saved and when we get born again, we accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. Then all of a sudden, we get the Holy Spirit living within us and everything changes.
03:34 Paul writes about this idea of us being buried with Christ and risen again with Christ as a new creature. All things become new and the old things are passed away. And so part of that is that we no longer are in bondage to this sinful world
03:50 But if we’re not in bondage to the sinful world, then who are we in bondage in or for? Well, that would be the Lord because the Lord bought us. The Lord gave his life for us because there was a debt payment that we couldn’t pay. And so God paid it on our behalf through the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross so that we could be free.
04:15 And when that happened, all of a sudden, we became God’s. I hope that makes sense here today. Now, slavery, there’s obviously a lot of bad connotations around it and so forth.
04:23 And you know, it’s hard to get past that in these days and times looking back at the slave history of even America. But going back to Bible times, there’d be a slave market and the person that bought the slave at the slave market was the rightful owner of the slave. And there’s scripture in there about in the Old Testament, Hosea buys Gomer back from slavery.
04:52 And then even though Gomer had been adulterous, he still buys her back at the Lord’s command. And we see that that’s what the Lord has done for us, that we were living sinful while we were yet in sin. God bought us with the blood of Christ, the perfect sinless spotless lamb, because Christ had no sin and was perfect.
05:13 It was God in the flesh and obediently died on the cross, was buried three days and risen again so that whosoever believeth on him shall be saved. And when we have that understanding, that we have that sin debt, that we believe on Christ because we realize we have a need and we trust the Lord Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, we realize our place, that we’re just from the dirt and we’ll go back to the dirt, that we’re just a worm, that we’re nothing good, that our righteousness is like filthy rags. When we realize that, we become children of God.
05:41 Amen. We’re saved. We’re gloriously transformed.05:45 And there’s so much good about it. And one part of that is that we become God’s. We are God’s children.
05:52 We are his property, so to speak. Amen. And now there’s a lot of great promises that come with that, that God will provide for us, that God is not going to be an absentee father, that he will be present in times of need and that he will meet our need, singular, maybe not plural, maybe not all our needs, but the need that we have.
06:12 He’ll meet it. He’ll be there. Amen.06:15 We are his to the end. We’re kept his till the end. Amen.
06:19 Until heaven, when we live with him for an eternity, we can’t be lost. We can’t be plucked out, the Bible tells us, out of his hand. But we become his.
06:29 And so we are his property. And therefore we have to understand that in our life, when we are saved, we no longer are entitled to live out these sinful lusts that we might have in the past. We are a peculiar people now.
06:42 We are different. We are God’s. And because of that, everything else good starts happening
.06:49 So we are of God, right? We are bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s, right? We glorify him in our body and our spirit, how we live and how we pray and how we worship and praise Him. We are glorifying God because we are His.
07:04 We’ve been bought with that precious price of Jesus Christ’s sinless, spotless blood. We are like little children. So year of God, little children.
07:13 That’s 1 John 4, for the beginning of it here. Psalm 44:22. Yea, for thy sake, we are killed all the day long.
07:21 We are counted as sheep for the slaughter. And so we are like little children in the same way that we are like sheep, that we are basically ignorant in a lot of ways. We are not sure of where to go.
07:33 And we don’t hold a lot of power or strength on our own. And so if you have little children, how much so do you use your power and strength as the parent to care for them and to guide them, to give them rules to follow, to help them grow. And all these rules and these guidances, they’re for their benefit, the children’s benefit to bless them and to help them.
07:57 Well, that’s what Father God is doing in a much higher magnitude. He is guiding us and blessing us and helping us and giving us rules to follow. He gives us many commandments in the scripture that he expects us to live by.
08:07 People think the commandments were just for the Old Testament. Jesus Christ himself said, if you love me, follow my commandments. I mean, that’s Jesus Christ saying, if you love him, you’ll follow his commandments.
08:18 So, we are of God and we are like little children. We’re very vulnerable. We are like sheep headed for the slaughter.
08:24 And that shows God’s strength because the enemy would say, they’re so vulnerable, I can wipe them out. But nay, will not happen as long as we are God’s, which we are his forever when we’re saved. He has a plan.
08:39 Look, even Jesus Christ was like a sheep. He was obedient to his father, Isaiah 53:7. He was oppressed and he was afflicted. Yet he opened not his mouth as he brought as a lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep before his shearers is dumb.
08:56 So, he openeth not his mouth. And we see that prophecy coming true in the last days and moments of Christ’s life here on earth. His earthly life before he was given a resurrection after three days by God, the father and walked the earth 40 days and 40 nights and ascended up to heaven where he is today at the right hand of the father.
09:15 We see that he too, obediently, willingly was like a sheep headed for the slaughter. He didn’t open his mouth. He didn’t speak.
09:24 Amen. And we know that there’s a lot of power. There’s all power in the words of a mighty God.
09:29 Amen. A God, he did not speak the earth into existence, did not speak life. And when he speaks in, in, uh, uh, the book of revelation, battle of Armageddon, the enemy is defeated.
09:41 The word has much power, but Jesus Christ was obedient and didn’t say anything because he knew he was going to do the will of the father as we’re called to do the will of the father. And so we see here that we are of God, that we are like little children, that we must be obedient to God, but then this is the beauty of it. We overcome the world greater as he that is in you.
10:02 That’s the Holy spirit than he that is in the world. Well, who’s he that is in the world. 2 Corinthians 4:4 in whom the God little G of this world has blinded the minds of them, which believe not less the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God should shine unto them.
10:20 So, the little G God of this world, who’s blinding the minds of the unbelievers is the devil. That’s the little G God of this world. And then we see the Holy spirit, Ephesians 4:30 and grieve not the Holy spirit of God, whereby you’re sealed unto the day of redemption.
10:35 And so we see the Holy spirit is what’s living him. It’s a, he, he is living within us. That’s part of the fullness of God, the Godhead, the triune God, or the three in one God, God, the father, God, the son, God, the Holy spirit.
10:49 And you can all see all three in a picture of salvation. God, the father sent God, the son to save us. When we believe on God, the son, we get the Holy spirit living within us.
11:02 And then we have the fullness of God to try and God. And what the scripture here is telling us in 1 John 4:4 is that greater is he that is in you greater is the Holy spirit that’s in you than he that is in the world. So God’s love for you and your salvation experience.
11:16 When you believe on Christ as savior and realize your need, realize your sin debt, realize it’s only paid by the blood of Christ. Jesus himself said, no man cometh unto the father, but by me, we understand that we accept Christ as savior. All of a sudden we have that Holy spirit living within us.
11:31 And all of a sudden we are now God’s, we are bought with a price and the little G God of this world, the devil cannot get to us, cannot kill us. I’ve heard preachers say this before. I think it was Adrian Rogers said, if the devil could kill you, wouldn’t he have killed you already? And I think that’s a great point
.11:47 You know, if you’re living for the Lord, the devil would have taken you out if he could, but the devil can, the devil’s power is very limited. God is completely sovereign. God can do all things.
11:56 Everything that happens, uh, is allowed by God. God is completely in control as, as difficult as that is to reckon sometimes or calculate as we look around the earth, we must reckon and calculate what Christ did for us and understand that God is all powerful and that he has a plan. And as you look at the old Testament, Alistair big, I think it was did a sermon on this.
12:17 When you read it, some, some of these scriptures in the old Testament at the time that they’re happening, they look very chaotic, but looking back on it, they, they weave this story together about God’s power and God’s love and forgiveness and grace and mercy and his chosen people and all of these things. But at the time when people were living in it, it looked very confusing and troubling. And so we must trust God that he has a plan and his plan is great.
12:40 And God’s love is greater than all of your problems that you are bought with a price. And it’s a beautiful transaction because now you’re his and he’s amazing and he’s not going to leave you. And we’re of God and we’re like little children.12:56 We just need to be obedient. The Bible teaches us that obedience is greater than sacrifice. We don’t have to do some incredible thing for God every day, other than just get up and dedicate our lives to him.
13:08 Keep our heart, soul, and mind completely saturated in his word and who he is, and he’ll do the rest because he has all power. And we don’t have to worry about overcoming the world through our own works because Christ did that on the cross, overcoming the enemy. Christ did that on the cross.
13:23 God’s love is stronger than the enemy, including the devil and God’s promises are sure. We are sealed into the day of redemption, as Ephesians 4:30 puts it. So we shouldn’t grieve the Holy Spirit.
13:35 We have God living within us. We truly do. If you’ve been saved, you have God living within you.
13:40 Why sin? Why depart from His ways? Why grieve the Holy Spirit? Why not instead pray, seek the Lord, repent, live for him wholly and fully, and watch as that Holy Spirit is renewed within you and that you have a new kind of love and peace enjoying your life, knowing that even though we’re little children
14:00 God’s overcome the world, and he will deliver us unto that last day when we are with Him in heaven forever in peace, harmony, and unity.
14:08 Thank you so much for listening. Take care. God bless and Amen