VICTORY!
WHERE IS YOUR HOPE PLACED?
Anita Clark – PastorGrace Chapel, Carbondale, Kansas
I will start with an old hymn to help us to think about what Christ has done for us. “On Christ the Solid Rock I Stand.” “My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus’ name. On Christ the solid Rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand, All other ground is sinking sand.” The world is growing more and more evil and wicked. It is time to wake up and stand for the truth of God’s Word against all evil.
Apostle Paul said in Galatians 1:4-5 speaking of Christ Jesus, “Who gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father. To whom be glory forever and ever, Amen.” Let us especially emphasize the phrase, “..this present evil world.” As we see the news of the day, we see what terrible ungodliness is so predominant in our present time. Also in II Timothy 3:13, Paul says, “But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived.”
Jesus spoke about the endtime in Matthew 24:6-8. “And ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars: see that ye be nor troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom and there shall be famines, and pestilence, and earthquakes, in divers places. All these are the beginning of sorrows.”
Satan is having a “heyday” right now with all that is going on against Israel. We must look up and be ready for the coming of Christ at any moment for the overcomers of this Church Age.
What is the remedy - VICTORY! Psalm 98:1 gives us great hope - “O sing unto the LORD a new song; for He hath done marvelous things: His right hand, and His holy arm, hath gotten Him the victory.” We too can have the VICTORY. This word in the Hebrew language is ‘yaw-shah,’ it means - “to be free, safe, defend, deliver, help.” II Corinthians 4:16-18 tells us about the Victory we can have from our dear LORD. “For which cause we faint not, but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. For our light affliction which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.”
Our eyes need to be elevated. 2 Cor. 5:7 says, “For we walk by faith and not by sight.” 2 Cor. 10:7 declares, “Do ye look on things after the outward appearance?” Perhaps Apostle Paul was remembering a Scripture from I Samuel 16:7 “...for the LORD seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart.” In Jesus’ day He was going to heal a blind man. (Mark 8:25) At first he did not get full healing. Jesus told him, “Look up!” And when he did, he was healed.
VICTORY is given unto us by Jesus Christ as it says in I Cor. 15:57 -”But thanks be to God which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Victory defeats problems with our fleshly nature, the world, and Satanic powers. The word “victory” in the Greek means “conquest, and triumph” To be a “conqueror” means to “be able to take by force.” Romans 8:37, Paul says, “Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us.” I John 5:4 states, “...this is the victory that overcomes the world, even our faith.” To the seven churches of Asia, (Rev.1:20), were rewarded in the same way -if they were overcomers.
Most importantly of all was the promise in Revelation 3:21 - “To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcome, and have sat down with my Father in His throne. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.”
