Untouchable

Transcript

Alright thank you very much, and hello again dear radio friends. How in the world are you? Doing Alright today? Well sure, I wait for you to answer, you know that. Bless your heart. Hope everything’s alright at your house.

You and I’ve been looking at the book of Mark. We started now verse by verse through this wonderful book of the New Testament, and we’re trusting God to give us some great truths and some life changing perspectives from His blessed, inerrant, infallible, inspired Word. Put your faith in the Bible, even though the science, so-called, seems to disagree with it. Look back and see all the different things that have happened in the last, say, 50 years — where people said, oh it couldn’t possibly be true, something that was spoken in the Bible, and then the archaeologists spade would on earth, a bit of evidence that shows that that’s precisely what happened.

God’s Word is true. Let God be true even though every man turns out to be a liar. Put your faith in the Word of God beloved, stand firm on that rock. Churches, colleges, societies, organizations, individuals, all stand firm when they’re straight on the Word of God. When you begin to wobble on God’s Word, that’s when every other kind of uncertainty comes in. So, you stay firm on the inerrant Word of God, will you? And I’m with you, indeed I am.

Well, we’re looking at Mark 1, and our Lord Jesus has gone into Capernaum and on the Sabbath day He entered into the synagogue and taught. This wasn’t anything unusual because visitors at a synagogue were often asked to read the scripture and comment upon it, and so our Lord Jesus accepted that invitation, and it said, “They were astonished at His doctrine for He taught them as one that had authority, and not as the scribes”. The difference between authoritative preaching, dear pastor friend, evangelist, missionary friend, the difference between authoritative preaching and any other kind, is that if you get your message straight from God, from His Word, you can say this what God says.

If however, you’re going to comment on what Dr. so-and-so has to say about it, then you are quoting somebody else’s opinion, and the scribes often times would say, “Well the rabbis say that this is what that means”, or, “The tradition of the father say that this is what we ought to do”, and our Lord Jesus, when He came and read them sermon on the mount and hear Him saying, “You’ve heard that it has been said of old time, so and so, but I say unto you”, He talked with authority. Say, you can trust your blessed Savior because He’s the one that speaks with authority, He said, “The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life”.

Where does your authority come from believer? It’s to know Him personally. Oh, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, He may conform unto His death. Resurrection power, Calvary compassion, and Christ’s likeness of life, these of the things that are the evidences of knowing the Lord Jesus.

Authority means full of the Word of God, “Thy word have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against Thee. Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way by taking heed thereto according to Thy word?”

The Word of God, be full of the word and you’ll speak with authority, and then of course to have all of the rooms in your heart house filled with the Holy Spirit, “Be not drunk with wine wherein is excess, but be filled with the Spirit”, says Paul in Ephesians 5, and then obeying God. Your authority comes in direct proportion to your willingness to obey God. And so these things, this is all review, but I thought may we get a running start into our later comment here. These elements are that which constitutes your authority, believer, to know the Lord Jesus in that intimate and tender and precious and life transforming way, that He offers to be full of the Word of God, to be filled with the Holy Spirit, and to live a life of obedience to what you understand to be the will of God the minute He reveals it.

Instant, immediate, unquestioning obedience to God. Following Christ involves certain things. I think we were talking about that the last time we got together. “Come ye after Me”, said he, “and I will make you to become fishers of men”. What does it involve? It involves worship — they went into Capernaum. It involves the word — He talked the Word of God. It involves warfare — immediately Satan’s representatives made themselves known.

There was in their synagogue, a man with an unclean spirit and he cried out saying, “Let us alone”. The cry of the world, and of the unsaved, and of the demon world as well, is let us alone. Any time you want not to be bothered, just let the unsaved and the spirits who motivate them, just have it their own way. For many years, when the liberals, for instance, theological liberals and political liberals as well, were having their way in running this country, no one was bothering them. Why everything was wonderful, but when a few concerned people started to pray and work and try to change the way the country was sliding away into godlessness, well then, oh my, you’re threatening us.

There was a conference called not long ago, attended by many people from educational institutions and from other organizations. And the theme of that conference, believe it or not, was this: fundamentalism is threatening our rights.

Well, I’ll tell you, I used to say to the people who came to the college — your rights end where our statement of faith begins.

We have a statement of faith. We take our stand on the Word of God, and this is where we are coming from. And blessed God we stand firm on His inherent Word and on the faith once delivered to the saints. And if that makes a difference in the atmosphere of the community, let it. If that makes a difference at the ballot box on people go to vote their conscience, let it.

It’s time, it seems to me, for the people of God, not to become politicians, but to become Christians were standing for something on the basis of their faith in Almighty God. You agree with that? Well, I hope you do, because if you don’t, as my father used to tell me, “Boy”, he said, “We’ll be in Heaven one day and you’ll know I was right”.

He was a great one. I was arguing with you one day as a teenage lad, something that I wanted to do and he wasn’t going to let me do it. And he looked at me and smiles and says, “Boy, the only reason you disagree with me disagree with me is because you’re ignorant”.

He turned away and that was that. Oh, dear. When you get to Heaven I want you to meet him, he’s quite a character.

Well, worship, the Word, and the warfare that immediately showed up with the powers of evil, because the Lord Jesus Christ and His followers are always a threat to Satan.

Satan cannot stand the presence of the Lord Jesus. Satan cannot stand the mention of the precious blood shed at Calvary — because that’s what defeated him. And so you’re always a threat to the unbeliever, unspoken but real. That’s why Jesus said, “Marvel not if the world hates you, for it hated Me before it hated you”.

The dislike that people have for adherence to the Christian faith is not because they dislike us particularly. Although, I guess, some of us are dislikable — but because the Christian faith, with its implicit faith in God and in His Word and in the authority of God. The absolutes of God’s truth — they constitute a threat to the unbelieving heart.

Dave Marken said to me one day, he said, “Bob, the unbelieving heart cannot rest until it is organized in opposition to God.”

And that’s quite a statement, isn’t it? Well, the Lord Jesus wasn’t going to have any free advertising from the representatives of the lost, and so He rebuked this evil spirit and said, “Be quiet, hold thy peace”.

That’s our word: be quiet and come out of him. And when the unclean spirit had torn him and cried with a loud voice, he came out, and they were all amazed insomuch that they questioned among themselves, saying, “What thing is this? What new doctrine is this?”

For with authority there is the second time that that word is used, authority commands even the unclean spirits and they obey Him, and immediately His fame spread abroad throughout all the region round about Galilee.

Now let me just give this is as a little sidelight.

Christian, you represent the Lord Jesus Christ in this world, don’t you? Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us– be reconciled to God, ambassadors for Christ. He said, “Go ye into all the world, and lo, I am with you all the way.”

He said, “All authority is given unto Me.” He used that word exodeath, authority, “All authority is given unto Me, in heaven and on earth. Go ye therefore, and lo, I am with you, always”.

You, my friend, are a representative the Lord Jesus with His authority, and when you are in God’s Will, filled with the Spirit, obeying God, you are absolutely invincible and the devil can’t touch you. Remember that. Satan cannot touch you, and the forces of evil cannot harm you. And you are absolutely unsinkable when you are in the Will of God, filled with the Spirit of God, and obeying the Will of God.

Authority — you have it in Jesus. Now that’s not to be presumptuous and flaunt your own ideas. Some people mistakenly take their own ideas and transpose them over into the framework of the authority of Christ — in they go to nothing but disaster.

We’re not talking about something selfish, self-willed, or some wild idea that you will come up with, and then blame God for it. Let’s use… let’s use all the good sense God has given us. But when you’re full of the Word of God, and full of the Spirit of God, and He has made His Will known to you, so you’re doing the Will of God. My friend, you have the authority of the Lord Jesus, He’s going to stand with you all the way. Hallelujah!

Aren’t you glad that’s so? Oh, I am. I’ll tell you that. Will it said, “Immediately, His fame spread abroad”.

Oh, small thought here. Preacher, you know advertising is a great thing. I did all the advertising in the early days for Youth For Christ, and I have printers ink in my blood I guess. I enjoyed all of that. Wrote the promotional copy and wrote the copy for the advertising brochures and used to go around to the newspapers and give them the various stories. And if there wasn’t any news, we created some.

One time we needed a news story to alert the public to the fact that we were going to have a big rally in Chicago. So I borrowed a TWA constellation plane — remember the old constellations with the three fins on the tail? — I borrowed a TWA constellation plane through their PR department and we put 60 or 70 teenagers in the plane with a little piano that was bolted to the floor, and took off. We had a prayer meeting in the sky. Well, it made the papers. I don’t think God was any more impressed.

You don’t pray any better 2000 feet up than you do on the ground, but you know. Ao I believe in advertising. You can’t just sit by and that let things happen, because they won’t. Having said that, I believe that when God Almighty does something by way of victory over Satan’s forces in your life or the lives of your people, advertising is automatic.

The word gets around the. The old saying, “get on fire and people come see you burn” is not too far off the mark after all.

It said, “Immediately, His fame spread abroad throughout all the region, round about”. Why? Because Satan’s host had been backed down and the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ had been demonstrated, and people began to talk about it. You want people to talk about your church? Just make sure that something is happening according to the power of God and the power of the gospel as you preach at people getting saved and lives being transformed, and folk who have been bound by habits of sin are being freed. You be sure something’s happening and because of the power of God in your work, and you’ll have plenty of comment, I’ll assure you — all around the area.

Well, we’ll get at this again the next time we get together.

Dear Father, today, oh may we be victors in the warfare against sin and Satan, because of our trust in the Lord Jesus. We ask in His name, Amen.

Till I meet you once again by way of radio, walk with the King today and be a blessing!