Delivered

CCI Fellowship is discussing the topic of faith in their podcast. They focus on Colossians chapter 1 verse 13, which talks about being delivered from the power of darkness and brought into the kingdom of God. They explain that the word "kingdom" refers to the domain in which a king reigns and has authority over. Belonging to the kingdom of darkness brings separation from God and a self-centered life, while belonging to the kingdom of light brings union with God and a God-centered life. They discuss the curse of the law and how Jesus has redeemed believers from it. They explore the blessings and benefits of belonging to the kingdom of God, such as financial provisions and victory over enemies. They emphasize the importance of obedience to God's commandments, particularly the commandment to love one another. Welcome to CCI Fellowships podcast. Thank you for joining us. At CCI Fellowship, we are reaching God, reaching each other, and reaching our community. We pray that this week's message challenges you in your walk with the Lord, causes you to grow in your faith, and encourages you in your love for the Word of God. We're continuing our series on the life of faith. So if you'll open your Bibles to Colossians chapter 1. Colossians chapter 1. We'll start in verse, well it's only one verse that we're going to read first. Colossians chapter 1 and verse 13. The title of this message is delivered. Colossians chapter 1 and verse 13. He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love. Notice that it doesn't say that He will deliver us. It says that He has delivered us from the power of darkness. Let's pray. Father, we come to You, Lord, recognizing that You are the King of kings and the Lord of lords of our lives. That You are the King of the universe, Lord, and we come in such an attitude of humility and awe and wonder as we approach Your Word, Lord. On this special day that Honduras has decreed to celebrate Your Word, to honor Your Word. And so we ask, Father, as we approach Your Word, that Your Spirit would unveil it unto our spirits, that You would give us understanding, that You would give us revelation, and that no person in this room today, Father, would leave, including myself. No person would leave in the same way that we all came in, that we would be refreshed, that we would be instructed, that we would be corrected, and most importantly, that we would be drawn closer to You as we ponder on the things that You have freely made available to us. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love. So before getting into what we have been delivered from exactly, I believe that it is important that we explore the meaning of the word kingdom. It's going to give us a better understanding, really, of the things that have been made available to us by the Lord. The word kingdom is the Greek word basileon, which simply means the king's domain. It is the realm in which a king reigns sovereignly. It means dominion, it means jurisdiction, and it denotes a permission to operate on or rule over. In other words, if you belong to a kingdom, the king of that kingdom has the authority and the permission to rule over you. This word for the believer, it means the rule of Christ in the heart of a believer. Now when talking about kingdoms, we know that kingdoms bring something with it. And we'll talk about the kingdom of darkness and the kingdom of light, but they bring something with it. The kingdom of darkness, in short, brings separation from God, it brings spiritual death, and it brings self-centered life. Whereas the kingdom of light, the kingdom of our dear Lord Jesus, brings union with God, it brings eternal life, and it brings lives that are God-centered. The account, the creation account in Genesis tells us that when God created everything, He looked at everything that He had just made, and the Bible says that God said that everything was very good. Not just good, He said very good. There was nothing evil, there was no sin, there was no lack, there was no fear, there was no sickness and disease. Everything was perfect according to how God had created it. Then Satan, the kingdom of darkness, enters into the scene, and when mankind had given in to temptation, sin entered the world, and when sin entered the world, as you already know, death entered the world with it. Genesis 2.17 says, Well, we all know that Adam and Eve did not die physically, they died spiritually. There was an interruption in the communion and the fellowship that they had with God up to that moment. And that is the kingdom of darkness, it brings about death and separation from God. Ephesians 2.1 says, When we came to Jesus, He made us alive and brought us to His kingdom. It says that we were translated from one kingdom to another, and the word translated basically means that God picked us up from this kingdom and moved us to that kingdom. In other words, we're not in that kingdom anymore if we have been translated and delivered from the Lord. Now, when we belong to a kingdom, we have or enjoy the benefits or the consequences that come with belonging to that kingdom. God moved us from the evil kingdom, in which is death, and moved us to the kingdom permanently, to the kingdom of Jesus Christ, in which is life. So let's talk about the kingdom of life for a minute. What are the benefits of belonging to the kingdom of life? What are things that have been freely given to us by God, or by God to those who belong to the kingdom of Jesus? What are these things that have been freely given to us that we still must receive by faith? What things does Scripture plainly afford us to be able to have faith for? And lastly, what role does obedience to the word of God have in all this? We're not talking here about a name-it-and-claim-it doctrine. We're talking about things that are clearly and undisputedly given to us by the Lord through His word. A tragic thing is to see somebody who has been translated to God's kingdom, but still allows Satan to have some type of rule over them in some areas of their lives, allowing Satan to put things on them that are contrary to the things that Jesus Christ died and rose again to give us. Now, the opening verse in Colossians is one of two key verses. Now, I want you to turn to Galatians 3. That is going to be our other key verse. Both verses are closely connected. In fact, they're talking about the same theme. So, turn to Galatians 3, and we'll read verses 13 and 14. Galatians 3, starting in verse 13. It says, "...and Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us. For it is written, Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree, that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of this Spirit through faith. Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law." What curse exactly is the Bible talking about here? What is the curse of the law? Well, the word law in this passage mainly refers to the Pentateuch, to the set of ordinances and commands that were given by God to His people in the first four or five books of the Bible. That's what is known as the Pentateuch. So, let's go to Deuteronomy chapter 28, and we will explore some of these things that God has freely given to those that belong to the kingdom of God. But we're also going to explore what is the curse of the law that Jesus has redeemed us from. So, go with me to Deuteronomy chapter 28. We're going to read a good portion of this chapter. Deuteronomy chapter 28, it's the fifth book of the Bible. We'll start reading in chapter and verse 1. This is God saying, Now it shall come to pass, if you diligently obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all His commandments, which I command you today. Let's pause there for a second, because you might be thinking, well, this is Old Testament. Aren't we in the New Testament now? Well, talking about the commandments, let's see what God says about the commandments in the New Testament. In 1 John chapter 3 it says, And whatever we ask, we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight. And this is His commandment, that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another as He gave us commandments. That is the commandment that believers in the New Testament, including you and I, have received from the Lord. We are not necessarily bound by the Ten Commandments. However, when we keep the commandment of love, we will not break any of the Ten Commandments. You shall not steal, you shall not murder, you shall not this or that. Because the Bible says in Romans 10, that love works no ill. In other words, does no harm to his neighbor. Therefore, love is the fulfillment of the law. So if I love you, then I'm not going to steal from you or murder you or do any of those things that the Ten Commandments say. So let's go to verse 1 again in Deuteronomy. Now that we know what God is talking about when He says His commandments is the commandment that Jesus gave us to love Him and to love one another. Now it shall come to pass, if you diligently obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all His commands, which I command you today, that the Lord your God will set you high above all nations of the earth. Wow, that's a strong rank. Verse 2, And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you. It starts talking about some of the benefits that come with belonging to the kingdom of God. The psalmist said, Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits. Can you guys still hear me? Barely? Louder. Okay. Alright. Because you obey the voice of the Lord your God. These are the blessings that shall come upon you and overtake you. Verse 3, Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the country. Blessed shall be the fruit of your body, that's talking about the children, your children and your family, the produce of your ground, and the increase of your herds, the increase of your cattle, and the offspring of your flocks. Blessed shall be your basket and your knitting bowl, that's talking about the work of your hands, it's talking about financial provisions. Blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out. Verse 7, The Lord will cause your enemies to rise against you, to be defeated before your face. They shall come out against you one way, and flee before you seven ways. In other words, you will not live in fear. That is part of the blessing that God has given us. Verse 8, The Lord will command the blessing on you in your storehouses, and in all to which you set your hand, and He will bless you in the land which the Lord your God is giving you. The Lord will establish you as a holy people to Himself, just as He sworn to you if you keep the commandment of the Lord your God and walk in His ways, loving Him and loving your neighbor as you love yourself. And all the peoples of the earth shall see that you are called by the name of the Lord, and they shall be afraid of you. And the Lord will grant you plenty of goods in the fruit of your body, in the increase of your life, stocking in the produce of your ground, in the land of which the Lord swore to give to your fathers to give you. The Lord will open to you His good treasure, the heavens, to give the rain to your land in its season. And to bless the work of your hand. You shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow. And the Lord will make you the head and not the tail. You shall be above only and not beneath, if you heed the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you today, and be careful to observe them. So you shall not turn aside for many of the words which I command you this day, to the right or to the left, to go after other gods, to serve them. These are the blessings that God has been made available to His people. Now, notice that this section started with if you diligently obey the voice of the Lord your God, and follow after His commands. Now we get to verse 15, and all this section, all the way to the end, talks about what the curse of the law is, and this is what Jesus Christ has redeemed us from, which is read in Galatians chapter 3, verse 15, But it shall come to pass, if you do not obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all His commandments and His statutes, which I command you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you. Curse shall you be in the city, and curse shall you be in the country. Curse shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. Curse shall be the fruit of your body, your children, your family, and the produce of your land, the increase of your cattle, and the offspring of your flocks, your finances. Curse shall you be when you come in, and curse shall you be when you go out. Verse 20, The Lord will send on you cursing, confusion, and rebuke in all that you set your hand to do until you are destroyed, and until you perish quickly, because of the wickedness of your doings, in which you have forsaken Me. The Lord will make the plague cling to you, until He has consumed you from the land which you are going to possess. The Lord will strike you with consumption, with fever, with inflammation, with severe burning fever, with the sword, with scorching, and with mildew. They shall pursue you until you perish. Jump to verse 61, because this is a very long chapter. And verse 61 says, Also every sickness and every plague, which is not written in the book of the law, will the Lord bring upon you until you are destroyed. Sickness and disease, according to Deuteronomy 28, is part of the curse of the law that Jesus Christ has redeemed us from. So thank God for being redeemed of this. So in short, what is the curse? Spiritual death, financial poverty, lack, fear, and sickness and disease. And I want to focus for a moment on sickness and disease. The curse that we have been delivered from. And the reason is because many people in the church today believe that, or not believe, many people in this church today have not resolved in their hearts what is God's will in relation to healing, to sickness and disease, and to healing. There's some confusion in the church today. And there's basically three different camps. There are some who believe that it is God's will to heal some, but not others. And if that's you today, that's a very tough spot to be in. Because the moment that you're sick, the first thing that the enemy is going to tell you is God wants to heal him, but he doesn't want to heal you. And you're not going to have any arguments, any biblical foundation to counteract that attack. You're stuck. Because you have allowed the enemy to tell you that God heals some people, but he doesn't want to heal other people. There's another camp of people in the church who are confused between the angry God of the Old Testament who put disease on people when they were not being obedient, versus the wonderful God of the New Testament and the person of Jesus who healed everybody who came to him. And there's a third camp of people who they just have such little Bible understanding or Bible literacy that they don't know how to form an opinion about this. There's even a fourth group of people who would say that God sometimes uses sickness and disease to teach his people a lesson. There's nothing further from the truth than that. But let's address the elephant in the room. Does God put disease on people? We just read Deuteronomy 28, the curse of the law, and it sure seems like it. Or is it God's will to heal always? There's something among Hebrew and Greek scholars that is called the permissive sense of active verbs. And Dr. Robert Young, who's the author of the Young's Literal Translation, if you have the U version app, the YLT version is in your app, he is the author of that, and also the author of the Hebrew and Greek Young's Concordance. When he published this concordance, he included an appendix that is called The Hints and Helps to Bible Interpretation, and he explains in his work that certain active verbs in the Old Testament used in connection with God are to be interpreted from the permissive sense and not the causative sense. In other words, God allowed something to happen, but He did not cause it to happen. Another scholar wrote, Scripture will allow us to comprehend that the majority of instances where it says that God produced an event that is at odds with His revealed character may be understood permissively if we let the Bible interpret itself. So let's go back to Deuteronomy 28. It says, In the part of the curse, the Lord will bring upon you extraordinary plagues and serious and prolonged sicknesses. He will bring back the diseases of Egypt. Also, every sickness and every plague which is not written in this book of the law will the Lord bring upon you until you are destroyed. So how do we approach a passage and understand a passage like this? Well, we need to do two things. Number one, we go to the beginning. What is God saying in the beginning? And in the beginning, in verse 15 that we already read, God said, If you do not obey the voice of the Lord your God and follow after His command. So there's a condition there. And the second thing that we need to do is, when we're reading, is what I'm reading in line with the revealed character and nature of God. And of course in these passages, in this passage in Deuteronomy, we see that all these curses came upon the people in response to the people not obeying the voice of the Lord, not keeping His command of love. So this passage could say, paraphrasing the Lord, If you choose to disobey and to reject the truth and follow after your fleshly desires, then God will allow, not cause, He will allow all these things to come upon you. Approaching scripture in this way will keep us from attributing to God evil actions that He would never do. Let's look at this from the logical standpoint. How many people here are moms or dads? Raise your hands. One question. Would you willingly put cancer on your child if you could? Then why do people think that God would? Even people inside the church. God being the perfect Father, God being perfectly good and perfectly just, why would we even entertain the thought that God would do such a thing? Pastor John has repeatedly told us that the best commentary to the Bible is the Bible itself. And thank God that we have His Word to give us insight. I want us to examine some passages so that we will see what God says. Not what I say. Not my opinion of what God says or somebody else's opinion. We're going to see what God says. So let's turn to Acts chapter 10. The Bible says the entrance of His Word brings light. So let's let the entrance of His Word bring revelation and light unto this matter. Acts chapter 10. Look at verse 38. I believe it's back there. How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power who went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed of the devil. In this passage, God calls Satan the oppressor and Jesus the deliverer. Who went about doing good and healing all. Jesus is the deliverer. All who were oppressed by the devil. Satan is the oppressor. Now let me ask you a question. Who anointed Jesus of Nazareth to do good and to heal? Was it not God the Father? The God of the Old Testament that we sometimes read some passages and we don't know what to do? It's the same God. It was God who anointed Jesus so that He would do good and to heal. And notice also that it says in healing... How many? All. All. How many is all? Every one of them. Every single person that came to Jesus to be healed was being oppressed by the devil by means of sickness and disease. Every single person. Sickness and disease is an instrument of Satan to bring about evil upon people. The Bible says in 1 John chapter 3 and verse 8 for this purpose, for this reason the Son of God was made manifest that He might destroy the works of the devil. But wasn't it God the Father that sent Jesus? For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son? It's the God of the Old Testament who sent Jesus to be manifested so that He might destroy the works of the devil of which sickness and disease is a part of it. So if it is God's will to heal in the New Testament as we have clearly seen doesn't it stand to reason that the God of the Old Testament it's His will to always heal? And doesn't it stand to reason that the God of today we were just singing a song that says that God does not change in fact, Malachi 3.6 says for I am the Lord and I do not change. Doesn't it stand to reason that the same God that healed in the New Testament and the same God of the Old Testament that is the same God today also has the same will to heal people? The last passage in this section that I want to go over is Luke chapter 13. It's a very familiar passage where Jesus was teaching in the synagogues and He came across this woman Luke 13 and verse 16 sorry, Luke 13 starting in verse 10 I don't know if the entire passage is there it's not, but I'll start reading in 10 and then we'll go to 16 It says that He was teaching, Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath and behold there was a woman who had a spirit of infirmity 18 years and was bent over and could in no way raise herself up but when Jesus saw her He called her to Him and said to her Woman, you are loose from your infirmity and He laid hands on her and immediately she was made straight and glorified God now we get to verse 16 it says, so ought not this woman in other words, should not this woman being a daughter of Abraham whom Satan has bound think of it, for 18 years be loose from this bond on the Sabbath Jesus calls this woman first a daughter of Abraham and we can say, wait a minute we're not descendants of Abraham this is only for the Israelites, right? well, one of our key verses Galatians 3 13 to 14 says that Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law becoming a curse for us for it is written cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith and then the last verse of that chapter in Galatians says that if you are Christ if you belong to Christ then you are Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise so this promise is for us too using New Testament language Jesus could have perfectly said should not this person who belongs to Jesus be healed from this disease another question in this passage who bound this woman was it God or was it Satan it was Satan it says, whom Satan has bound and how did Satan bind this woman well in verse 11 it says that there was a woman who had a spirit of infirmity with disease Satan bound this woman with disease and Jesus came to deliver this woman and so by examining these passages we see that it is clearly evident that God delivered those who were being oppressed by the devil through sickness and disease and that God came to destroy the worst of the devil and he is still in the business of doing that delivering people the Lord Jesus took the scroll we were praying up there this passage took the scroll of the prophet Isaiah and started reading the spirit of the Lord is upon me for he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor he has sent me to heal the broken hearted to set the captives free to open the eyes of the blind and to set at liberty those who are oppressed thank God that we serve the same God of the Old Testament and the New Testament and that he is a God who is still delivering people who come to him for deliverance now if it were true if it were true that God puts disease on people not saying that it is but if it were true then wouldn't God be working against himself he sent Jesus to heal but he was the one to put the disease on people and Jesus said a kingdom divided among itself will not stand it doesn't make sense but can you imagine having a God who makes you sick with cancer but also says to you I am the Lord who heals you and then you get cancer and you die if you want to know the will of God the Father you look at Jesus Hebrews says that he is the exact representation of the Father in fact everything that Jesus said and did was in response to the Father Jesus said in John chapter 5 the Son can do nothing of himself but what he sees the Father do for whatever he does the Son also does in like manner every time Jesus went to heal somebody Jesus had perceived in his heart that God the Father had done that and wanted to heal that person and so Jesus acted every time in response to what the Father was doing Jesus is the exact representation of God the Father of the God of the Old Testament Galatians chapter 5 verse 1 says stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made you free and do not be entangled again to a yoke of bondage but it is our choice God places a blessing and a curse before us we just read Deuteronomy the blessing and the curse they are before us and God says you choose if we choose the blessing then we are to walk with God and walk according to the commandment of love but if we choose to ignore God's word then we place ourselves under a curse God doesn't place us under a curse he never would we place ourselves remember in Malachi chapter 3 God was telling the people that because they had not brought the tithe to the storehouse they were rubbing God and as a result they had placed themselves under a curse in direct response to disobedience the people had placed themselves under a curse and talking about finances and tithing it is not the topic but if you want to be blessed financially and you are not tithing you need to get that in order with God we need to it is important that we honor the Lord with our finances and God says the tithe belongs to him it doesn't belong to us but why would a loving God allow tragedy to happen the most permissive sense of active verb says that God does not cause them but he allows them how can a loving God allow tragedy to happen the reason is because he gives us a choice blessing or curse we choose and whatever we choose he allows not because it is his will but because he respects our free will if somebody says I don't want Jesus to be my Lord and Savior God says I respect that God is never going to force his will upon somebody who doesn't want to receive Jesus now they live with the consequences of that it is not God's will that that person rejects Jesus and is condemned for all eternity the Bible says that God wishes for everybody to come to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ that he doesn't want anybody to perish that is his will but if somebody says no I don't want Jesus God the Father, God the Spirit and the Son say I respect your decision I will allow the consequences of your decision but it is important that we know and understand that Satan and not God is the author of death of lack, of fear and of sickness and disease or anything else that binds us now I do pray and hope that I have made more than evidence that all the blessings that are covered in Deuteronomy chapter 28 verses 1 to 14 they are yours because we belong to the kingdom of God and Jesus became a curse so that the blessing of Abraham might come upon us as well now as the worship team comes up let me close with this how then do we receive the blessings of Deuteronomy 28 do they just fall on our lap like a ripe mango falling from a tree they do not number one by faith just like everything else by acknowledging and believing that Jesus delivered us from the curse of the law so that we would receive the blessing that we read of in Deuteronomy get acquainted with this meditate on it, memorize it so that I will take root in your heart and so that you can enjoy the benefits and the blessings that Jesus paid that heavy price for us to have number two by walking in the commandment of love by doing no ill to our neighbor and number three by obeying his word the Bible says if you are willing and obedient you shall eat the good of the land being willing and obedient to the Lord brings about blessing by obeying his word, so by faith by walking in the command of love and by obeying his word it's like God's peace Jesus said my peace I give you but his peace we still have to receive it and hold on to it and the enemy is going to try to do everything he can to rob us from it the same applies to the blessings of Deuteronomy that God has given to us he has made them available through Jesus Christ and we receive them by faith that we need to not let the enemy rob us from them because he will if we let him the Lord Jesus said therefore whatever things you ask when you pray believe that you receive them and you shall have them believe that you receive them and you shall have them believe that you receive them and you shall have them and the only way that we can believe is if you get to know the truth of what God's word says about these things and when we do we can be sure that the truth will set us free let's pray, Father we thank you Lord that the entrance of your word as your word says brings light God we pray that the seeds that you have planted Father in the parable of the sower you said the seed is the word of God and you have planted these seeds in our hearts, Father I pray Lord with all of my heart right now that all these seeds Father that you have planted in our hearts that they will bear fruit 30, 60 and 100 fold Lord that if there is any area in our lives that we have allowed Satan to rule over us if we have allowed in our life things that Jesus has redeemed us from that we would not let it, let the enemy trample over us God that your word that we have read today will bring that freedom that Jesus died and rose again to give us Father we love you and we pray these things in the name of Jesus Christ Amen If you would like prayer or more information about our church contact us at fellowship.cci at gmail.com at fellowship.cci at gmail.com or follow us on social media We hope to see you or hear from you soon Blessings