Bridge and Buffer

Summary: The speaker starts by expressing gratitude to God for various blessings and for His faithfulness. They emphasize the importance of saying thank you and being grateful to God and others. They then introduce the topic for the evening, "Bridge and Buffer," which refers to the completion of Jesus' mission on earth. The speaker reads a Bible verse about Jesus saying, "It is finished," and explains that this signifies the fulfillment of Jesus' assignment on earth and his return to heaven. Praise the Lord! Hallelujah! God's people praise the Lord. Well, we welcome you to another evening in God's presence. For the Ark of God's presence is with us this evening. And we are expectant as always to hear a word, to hear wisdom, to be transformed and to be enlightened tonight. We are trusting that God by His Spirit will release fresh nuggets, even prophecy, unto His people tonight. And today is Sunday, the 5th of November, 2023. It's a brand new month. It's the first Sunday of the month of November. We are grateful for life. We are grateful to be numbered amongst the living. Not only the living, but also the thriving. And so this evening we are going to take out some time. We're going to take out some time to be grateful to God. We're going to take out some time this evening to just say, Father, thank you. Thank you for a new month. Thank you for the end of 2023. It was only yesterday that 2023 began. And you have been with us through the ups, through the downs, through the vicissitudes of life this year. We are not unmindful to say thank you. We thank you for the many battles that you have fought and won for us this year. We thank you because you have disappointed the devices of the enemy concerning us this year. We thank you because you have fed us this year. You have closed us this year. You have been our banner this year. We thank you, Lord Jesus, because even with all the issues, even with all the wars, with inflation, with all the sadness, somehow you have been our joy. You have kept our joy. You have built a fortified wall of fire round about us, round about our families. You have kept us out of harm's way. You have been good. You have been good. You have been faithful, and you have been committed to your name in our lives. You have been our shield. You have been our buckler. You have kept our minds sane, and you have given us hope for tomorrow. Above all, Lord, we thank you for your word, your word which is our safety net. We thank you because of the steadfastness of your word. Because we can always be sure that your word, which we have now, will never change. We thank you for the stability in your word, the stability of your word. Because your word is ever sure, we have confidence to say, if God said it, then God will do what God said. And how do we know if God said it? We go to your word. You exalted your word above your own name to give us security in this life that is ever shifting, that is ever changing. But your word is ever sure. Just like you, your word is ever sure. But because you know that no man can see God and live, you have given us a version of yourself that we can see and live. And that is your word. So we thank you for the reality of your word. We thank you for the creativity in your word. We thank you for the assurance of your word. Father, we thank you. We know that we are always asking, give me, give me, give me. And we don't take time to just say, Father, thank you. Thank you for tolerating us. Thank you for loving us the way you do. Thank you for your mercy, oh God, that is new every day, every morning. Thank you because you look at us and you see your son Christ. You don't look at our frailties. You honor the price paid by your son and we are beneficiaries of the finished work on Calvary. Christ paid the price for us and that price is still speaking for us. Thank you for your faithfulness to your son Christ. Thank you for your faithfulness to us because of your son Christ who came and paid the price. Thank you. Father, thank you. Father, thank you. Father, thank you for the shelter that you allow us to continue to have. Thank you for the vehicles that you allow us to have. Thank you. Thank you that we are not out in the cold. Thank you that we are not begging for where to live. We are not begging for what to eat. We are not begging for what to wear. Thank you for our family. Thank you for your hand that keeps us and keeps our families. Thank you, Lord, because thou art God. Thank you because you don't allow the enemy to make a mockery of our Christianity. Thank you, Father. Thank you because even when the enemy has completed his plan to bring disgrace and shame and reproach, you reverse the works of darkness. What they mean for evil, you mean for our good. And we say thank you. We want to just take time tonight to say thank you. We are always in a rush. We are always in a hurry. Always trying to get to the next thing. Always trying to ask for the next thing. But right now tonight, Lord, we want to say thank you. We want to say thank you. That we have a hope in eternity because of you. Thank you. That we are not amongst those who have no hope. We say thank you. We thank you for peace in our land. We thank you that even in the midst of war, because there are countries right now in the middle of war. We thank you because even in war, you are still God. You change not. We thank you because in wartime, you are God. We thank you because in peacetime, you are God. We thank you because in plenty, you are God. We thank you because even in lean times, you are God. We thank you for abundance when you give it. We thank you for leanness when it comes because in all things, we thank you. That is our reasonable service. We thank you, Lord, for the lessons that you teach us. We thank you for the lessons that you teach us with plenty. We thank you for the lessons that you teach us with little. We thank you because you teach us not to despise the days of small beginnings. And so when we don't have very much, you teach us to be contented with what we do have and to be grateful. We are grateful. Father, we say thank you. We thank you in the mighty and everlasting name of Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God. Amen. Saints, it's always a good thing to say thank you. It's a great thing to say thank you to God. It's a great thing to say thank you to man. It's a great thing to say thank you. Gratitude blesses the heart of Almighty God. We cannot be so unmindful as to always be in a rush for the next thing and not learn to stop and say thank you to God and thank you to the vessels that he uses from time to time to be a blessing unto us. Many of us have a bad habit of not being grateful. I know people who can't say thank you to save their own lives. That is a sense of entitlement. If you get to a point where you feel so entitled that when people bless you and they do good to you, you don't feel it's necessary to say thank you. That is a sense of entitlement, and God isn't pleased with that. In fact, that comes from a place of pride because a humble heart is always grateful. A humble heart is always grateful, so we must learn to consistently say thank you to God, thank you to people. We must learn to be grateful. Amen. On tonight, we are going to discuss a very important subject as we always do because Holy Spirit always has something special to say to us every evening. Every Sunday evening when we come here, Holy Spirit always has something to say and something very important and very transformational. Holy Spirit, in Jesus' name, we invite you to come and do what you do. Speak to our hearts. Breathe on your word. Breathe on the speaker the grace to speak even as the oracles of God give to me. Open our eyes tonight, Holy Spirit, to see greater illumination in the word of God. Break open the seals in God's word that we may enter into a higher understanding of the mysteries of the kingdom. In Jesus' name, amen. Tonight, we're going to speak on a subject that I have titled, Bridge and Buffer. I have titled my subject this evening, Bridge and Buffer. Now, my text, my main text for this evening comes from the book of John. The book of John that's in the New Testament because some saints are not very familiar with their Bibles. We're in the book of John in the New Testament, and we are going to chapter 19. We're in John chapter 19, and we are in verse 30. Usually, we work from the King James Version, but for our conversation on tonight, we are going to read from the English Standard Version. The English Standard Version. That's our subject, our version for tonight. But before we do that, I'm going to read the King James Version first. The King James Version is almost... I mean, if you haven't read the King James Version, almost like you haven't actually read the Bible at all. And so, we're going to read the King James Version first. So, the book of John chapter 19, verse 30 says, This is Jesus now, speaking... The Bible now is speaking of Jesus. When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished. And he bowed his head and gave up the ghost. Again, John 19, verse 30 says, When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished. And he bowed his head and gave up the ghost. Amen. So, the English Standard Version, ESV, reads thus, When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, It is finished. And he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, It is finished. And he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. Amen. So, this text is really talking about the culmination and the fulfillment of Jesus' mission on earth. The verse really pretty much encapsulates the completion of the assignment of Jesus on earth as God incarnate, as God in the flesh. And once his job got done, when his assignment was complete, Jesus would return after this. He would return to rule and reign with God in heaven as he is doing right now. Sat on the right hand as one part of the triangle. As we know, God is God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit, God the Holy Spirit. Jesus our Christ is one part of the Triune God. And so when Jesus got done with his work on earth in the flesh, and he drank the sour wine, he received the sour wine and drank it, he said, It is finished. And then gave up his spirit and then went back to heaven from whence he came. He was already one part of the Triune God before he came, wrapped himself up in the womb of a woman and came as flesh on earth for his assignment sent from God. So this verse is a record of the very end of his assignment in the flesh on earth. So what was the assignment of Christ on the earth? What was the assignment which Christ came to carry out on the earth? There are twofold. When Jesus came on the earth, he came with a mandate. He came with a mandate. He had an assignment. And the assignment was twofold. The first part of the assignment, on the one hand, Jesus came as a bridge. He came as a bridge to connect man to God. Jesus came as that bridge to connect man to God. He came as the Lamb of God who would be slain and who would pay the ultimate price one time to facilitate access, direct access between God and man. Because before Christ came, man had to access God through prophets, through priests, with sacrifices of goats and bulls and rams. But Christ came as the Lamb of God to effect the ultimate sacrifice once and for all. So that as many as would believe that he did this would have access via himself as the bridge to God the Father. So no longer do believers have to go in search of priests, in search of prophets. No longer do believers have to kill goats and rams and bulls to access God. We now have a direct link, direct access to God through Christ. So regardless of man's sin, when Christ received the sour wine, he drank the sour wine. When he drank that wine, what he was actually drinking was the cup of the wrath of God for all time against man. So Christ came to drink once and for all the cup of God's wrath. That wine was made up of two things. It was made up of the wrath of God. So when Christ drank that wine, he drank the wrath of God for all time. So that regardless the sin of man after that, there was not going to be any sin that would inculcate such wrath from God that man would be unable to access God except for the sin against the Holy Spirit. That's what the Bible says. Except for the one who sins against the Holy Spirit. The one who blasphemes the Holy Spirit. That sin wasn't in that cup. So once Christ drank that wine, our sin, the wrath of God against us was removed for all time. Because Christ took that wrath upon himself at the cross. This is why he declared that the wrath of God is finished. What was actually finished was that wrath. There will no longer be any occasion that God's wrath will prevent man from accessing God. Because now Christ is the bridge. Christ has drunk that cup and Christ has paid the price. Christ has answered for that wrath for all time. Once and for all. As many as will believe now, regardless what you do, as long as you repent in the name of Christ, in the name of Jesus, once you repent, you enter in as a beneficiary for the work that Christ did by drinking that cup again, except for the sin of blaspheming the Holy Spirit. So, man, as we are right now, the veil, the veil of separation is forever torn. There is nothing that can prevent us. If we want to access God and we believe Christ paid the price, we have the access. We don't have to go looking for an apostle. We don't have to go looking for a man of God. We don't have to go looking for bulls and rams. All we need to do is come before the throne of grace, which is where Christ is sitting right now with God the Father, the Triune God. Come before God in the name of Jesus and we have access. Voila! That's all it takes. Knowledge of the finished work of Calvary's cross. Acceptance of that finished work. Surrender of your soul to Christ who paid that price on Calvary and access to God in the name of Jesus. That's all it takes. Simple. Really and truly that's all there is to it. Now that cup, the cup of God's wrath only required that Jesus drink it once. Only once. And once he drank that cup, the price was paid forever. There is now no condemnation against any believer. There is nothing Satan is going to say. There is no accusation Satan is going to rail against us because the Bible says he is the accuser of the brethren. There is nothing Satan is going to bring against us. No railing accusation against the believer can nullify the finished work of Calvary. Jesus replied on Calvary's cross what will ever happen afterwards. He said it is finished. It is finished now. It is finished tomorrow. It is finished for all time. Until he, Christ, comes back in glory, it is finished. He paid the price. So regardless of what Satan comes and says, which he might actually be right in saying, because you know, usually when Satan comes and he accuses the brethren, he usually has his facts. Because Satan knows that God is a God of order. Satan usually has, he's not, Satan isn't going to come and accuse you of something you didn't do. Even though Satan is the father of lies. But when he comes before God and brings a railing accusation against God's children, he's coming with things that God's children actually did and are guilty of. This is why Christ had to go and pay the price because it's not something that didn't happen. This is something that God's people are going to do. So Christ paid the price in advance for any railing accusation that Satan might bring. Christ paid the price once and for all. Amen? And so the second part of Jesus' assignment, for which he came to the earth, is that Jesus came to be a buffer. Remember, our subject is the bridge and the buffer. So Jesus came as a bridge to be access, to effect access, unhindered, unimpeded access between us and our God. So when the Prince of Persia tries to stand in your way, remember you have a bridge in Christ. And you know how to bypass the Prince of Persia. So that's the first assignment that Jesus came for, to be a bridge for man to access our father, God, in his name. In the name of Jesus, we have access to God through the finished work of Calvary. When Jesus said, it is finished. Now, the second phase, second part of the assignment that Jesus came for, is that Jesus came as a buffer between man and the devil. Jesus came as a buffer between man and Satan. You see, God created Satan. God created Satan. All the power that Satan has, all the abilities that Satan had. Remember, Satan led worship in heaven. Satan was so spectacularly created by God. Satan was, he was a marvel. All the power that he had, and still has, all that power was created by God. Obviously, for a different reason. God created Satan to worship. He was actually Lucifer, that was his name. So, his power, when he was created, his abilities, when he was created, were all created by God. When he fell, God didn't remove his powers. He fell with his powers. Those powers he still uses today for evil, but God created those powers. God created the power that Satan uses against you. So, that means God has the blueprint for the powers that Satan uses against you. God knows how to regulate the powers that Satan uses against you. Why? Because God created Satan. God created the powers that he uses against you. Now, man in his own strength. Because the Bible says, God created man in his image and in his likeness. So, man is an embodiment of the power of Almighty God through Christ. God created man, the Bible says, God said, let's make man in our image and in our likeness. And God made man in his image and in his likeness. With his abilities to create with the word of the mouth. To create mentally. To imagine a thing. To have free will. To have a soul. To have power to carry his spirit. God created man to be an incubator of his spirit. However, that power is through Christ. The fullness of that power is through Christ. So, man in his own strength is no match for Satan. Because Satan fell with functioning spiritual powers. While our power is through Christ. Satan's powers are in his hands. That he can use them as he wishes. Only he can use them when there is opposition from God. So, man in our own strength, we are no match for Satan. But Satan, in all his strength, is no match for Jesus. Why? Because it is written. Matthew 28, 18, speaking to his disciples. Jesus says, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. And Satan understands this. How does he understand? Because he knows that his power was created by Christ. Who is a part of the Triune God. He knows his master. He knows his master. So, a believer who understands this dynamics and this hierarchy, this spiritual hierarchy, can never ever be afraid of the created thing. When you, as the believer, you have access and you have the authority of the Creator. What I mean is this. If you understand the dynamics, the hierarchy, that Lucifer, Satan, of whom you are so afraid, is a created being of Christ the King, in whom you have all authority. There is nothing else the believer needs to be protected from the works of Satan, except Jesus. Jesus is our one and only defense. The name of Jesus Christ is our strong tower. In Christ we live, in Christ we move, in Christ we have our being. So, Jesus is our defense. He is the one, the buffer, who stands between us and any harm from the kingdom of darkness. All we need to do is to believe it and to stand in him. If you abide in me and my words abide in you, then you are my disciples indeed. Our place is in Christ, in his word. Once we understand this and we find our way into the safety place, which is his word, Jesus is already there to absorb any and all arrows, any and all devices from the enemy. There is nothing to fear. Christ already drank the cup. Christ already paid the price. Christ by his word already declared it is finished. If he says it is finished, it is finished. We are here now because the work is already finished. Imagine if we didn't have the finished work of Calvary as our shield. The enemy would have devoured us all, because he has the power and the ability to do so. But because he knows who his master is, once Jesus is on the scene, Satan has no authority over the one who has called upon the name of Jesus, the one who has tapped into the finished work of Calvary and has drawn down the shield of the name of Jesus. For the name of Jesus Christ is our strong power. The righteous run into that name and we are safe. So for the righteous in Christ who understands the power in the name of Jesus and understands that Satan knows the power of the name of Jesus Christ, for the believer who understands, you should not be afraid. You should go about your daily life in Christ, keeping your mind constantly on Christ. The devil is already defeated and he is aware of this. He is only counting on the possibility that you don't know this. And if you don't know it, you won't utilize the provision already made for your victory, which is the name of Jesus. But as you hear me now, because faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God, as you hear me now, know this. There is absolutely nothing that you can do to save your own self. There is nothing you can do to save your own self. You can't win. In the things of the spirit, you can't win, because like I said earlier, you are no match for Satan. Satan will defeat you every time. He has been doing this a long time. He is equipped to do it today, tomorrow, every single day. In your own strength, in your own power, in the things of the spirit, you can not win. That's why we all need Jesus, because Jesus is the power given to us by God to win against Satan. And Jesus is always willing and always available to do what he alone can do for us, which is defeat the enemy every day, every minute, every time. That's his assignment, and he knows his assignment. Jesus never fails in his assignment. But do we know this? Are we willing to run to Jesus? Are we willing to call on his name? Are we willing today to surrender our lives, surrender our burdens to Jesus? Are we willing to let Jesus do what Jesus only can do in our lives? Are we willing to let go and let God? There is no use carrying your burden, carrying load that you don't have the capacity to carry. There is one already on standby, waiting to just pick up your burdens, if only you will let them go and let him do his job. Call on the name of Jesus today. Call on the name of Jesus and he will answer you. That's his assignment, to answer when you call. Amen? Amen. Praise God. And so we're going to end this broadcast, as we always do, with a word of prayer. We are very grateful to God each time we come on this platform. Holy Spirit always really reveals himself, very simply, but deeply. And at the end of every meeting on Sunday, even I am blessed, because very often what we came trying to say, sometimes Holy Spirit just says something else. And we're open to Holy Spirit. So tonight, in Jesus' name, Lord, we thank you. We thank you for your word. We thank you for your presence. We thank you for teaching us tonight. We pray, oh God, that that which you have spoken to us tonight will become life, for your word is life. We pray that your word will go deep in our hearts and your word will transform us. We pray that your word will take root downward and really go down and do what you intended, what you released this word to do. Let your word do it in our lives. The grace to call on the name of Jesus Christ given to us. We pray tonight that even in this coming week, you will be our shield. You will be our buckler. You will be our buckler. We pray that you will hide us in you, oh God. We pray that if the enemy dares to raise his head against us in this week, you will fight for us. That the enemy and all men may know that you are our God. We thank you. We worship you. We honor you. In Jesus' mighty name, amen. So people of God, praise God. Thank you for tuning in. Until next time, stay blessed. Amen.