God's Plan of Salvation, Part 6

God's annual festivals give us a unique view of His plan of salvation. That plan is not known to man. The plan of salvation through the festivals is something that comes largely through participating in them. And then putting the scriptures together, and through a process of living the scriptures and keeping the feast, one begins to see the plan of salvation unveiled.

After the opening of the feast season with the Passover, as we celebrate Jesus Christ's gift, or the Father's gift of His Son, depending on how you want to look at it, two gifts there, two individuals giving to us, they're all. So that we could be released from slavery to sin comes another festival of unleavened bread that then allows us and encourages us and in fact commands us to begin to journey, to march, to go on a path that we of ourselves could not know, could never see.

A path that is hard for anybody else to ever even understand unless they're invited to it. Hard for those invited to it to even go down if they don't follow the one who knows the way. He is called the way. He is the truth. He is the life. He is also the light of that path, the lamp to our feet. And so it is a journey, a progression, a transformation, a conversion that we are invited and commanded to journey on as we go forward toward the next festival, the next festival which is often called by various names in Scripture. One is the festival of harvest.

Another speaks of it as the festival of the first fruits of your harvest. It is also called the Feast of Weeks. In the New Testament it is called Pentecost. We are told to count 50 weeks, seven weeks of seven days. So it's a complicated festival in one way. And coming to understand all that that festival that we are approaching and those days that we are counting now requires us really to study into God's Word, to really see the importance of this time that you and I have as participants in a harvest of first fruits that is to take place at the return of Jesus Christ.

We find that the festival ahead of us also contains a complexity of components. It was the wheat harvest as opposed to Jesus Christ being the first of the first fruits who was the barley harvest. This is more the wheat harvest that takes place and is completed by that time of year. It also contains things in the Bible that might have included the giving of the Ten Commandments on that day. It certainly included the Holy Spirit coming in a fullness and a power to the twelve apostles. As it says in Acts 2, they were filled with the Holy Spirit, which Jesus Christ had breathed on them previously.

On that day also, the New Testament church, the New Covenant church, was begun in Jerusalem. You and I have been invited to develop into what is called the Bride of Christ and to be ready to participate with Him in a greater harvest that will take place, represented by other festivals later in the season involving all of humanity. I remember growing up that Mr. Armstrong would speak of the festival of harvest or Pentecost as the important thing to know is it's the little harvest.

That's the importance of it. Great importance. It's so important that it's a little harvest because it involves those who will be prepared to help with a big harvest later on. God needs a helper for His Son. He needs a bride for Jesus Christ. He is depending on the first fruits of those that He has called and is developing into the body of Christ being ready. For this plan to succeed in its first phase, or I wouldn't call it the first phase, but an early phase in the development of children for His family.

We can see in Revelation 20, verse 6, a great rejoicing that takes place. It simply says, Oh blessed and holy is He who has part in the first resurrection. Over such the second death has no power. Those individuals will face no more judgment. They cannot die. They cannot lose their salvation. But they shall be priests of God the Father and of Christ and shall reign with Him for a thousand years. That's a very important next phase, we might say, that's coming quickly to planet earth, coming quickly to fulfill that portion of God's plan of salvation.

You are here today because you have been invited to participate in the first fruit harvest. God wants you to succeed. God is pulling for you. He is giving you all that He possibly can from His side within this process. But the real choices that are involved in your success are up to you, and they're up to me as individuals.

God cannot make you. God cannot force you. God cannot create in you that holy righteous character, that agape mindset that His children must have in order to be given sonship in the eternal phase of His kingdom.

The real choices are up to us. So much of the work, so much of the effort, the planning, the structure, even the components God provides. But we have to choose. We have to make daily choices, moment by moment choices. And those choices have to get better.

They have to be proper and fitting and right so that they can begin with God's Spirit to develop in us that holy righteous character that comes from choices made and hearts changed.

There is a hidden challenge involved in this process that may sway your decisions, your choices, in approaching the kingdom of God.

You and I not only have the choice to do things good and right and choose this fabulous future and receive the gift that God wants to give us, but we also have the opportunity to choose that we don't want it.

That we really want something else. And as silly as that may seem, the moment by moment choices that we are allowed to make will take us in one or the other direction.

So today, let's examine this in God's plan of salvation, part six, the opposition. The opposition.

Do you like a good challenge? This doesn't have to be a negative thing. It can be a very positive thing, as we'll see in one of the scriptures.

Some people don't like challenge. They like rocking chairs. They like to watch challenge being done by somebody else. There's no risk to themselves. That's why people tend to like ballgames.

How many different types of balls are there? They range from everything, probably from marbles to giant things you could roll around.

And people like to get involved in ballgames. Usually, they're non-lethal. There are other games that are more lethal.

But people like games of challenge where you have an opponent. Usually, this ball is supposed to do something, and you have another side that tries to prevent you from doing that.

And then it's their turn to do something. It's your turn to prevent them from doing that.

So, within any competition, there is some type of an opponent that's trying to prevent the person or team from winning or scoring.

And so it is with you and me. Do you like a good challenge? If so, you are in the challenge of your life for your life.

You are to become a true child of God. Have the agape mindset.

Now, we do have a tendency to fall back to our old carnal-minded mindset of the past, which is not what God wants us to have.

It's incompatible with the kingdom of God. Let's notice in Romans 8 and verse 7, the thing that sets us up for this challenge.

Romans 8 and verse 7 through 8. I'll read this from the New International Version.

Breaking into the middle of verse 7 in Romans 8, the sinful mind is hostile to God.

It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so. Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God.

Now, that's where we came from. We tend to have a pull to go back to it once we've been baptized and received God's Spirit, or to stay in it before we're baptized.

We kind of like that sinful mindset, but it's hostile to God. It's hostile to our future.

It's hostile to us succeeding as the divine children in the kingdom of God. It doesn't submit to God's law, nor can it submit to God's law. Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God.

Now, let's notice in Romans 8 and verse 6, for to be carnally minded is death.

So, you see, there's a challenge with that. The challenge is we're not going to make it into the kingdom.

It's not okay to have that mindset and say, well, I'm in the church. Or, I really like Jesus. Praise the Lord.

No, to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Peace being Irene. Peace being to join.

Peace being harmonious with God and His family.

So, you and I, then, have a challenge. It's a good challenge. It's a great challenge, in fact.

If you accept the challenge to get away from the human carnal sinful nature and move to a nature that is like God's, everything is good.

Every step is good. Every relationship, every deed brings you honor, peace with people. It brings you happiness along the way.

In the end, it says, in verse 6, it tends to life. Great! There's nothing wrong with that. We like a challenge, right?

We could say, at the top of the mountain is a beautiful view.

Every step you go up gets better. The view gets better, the temperature gets better, the humidity gets better, you feel better, and at the top is just out of this world bliss.

So, no matter how far you go up the mountain, you see, the better it is.

People say, that's a great concept, but I like it here in the rocking chair. I like it here in the smog. I like it here in the humidity.

I'm comfortable here. I've been here a long time. I should go up there, but there are some things that are holding me back.

If you don't like a challenge, it's going to be difficult to be in the kingdom of God because this is put before us.

We are to become true children of God, not wannabes. We are to convert. We are to put off the old self, the old nature, and change.

Yet we are prone to be of this different mind, and that's where the challenge comes in.

You and I, in our sinful mind, are incompatible with the kingdom of God, and we will not be in it if we don't change.

Real children of God the Father have to overcome. We have to win our challenge. That's what overcome means.

There's nothing wrong with winning. Being on the winning team, getting to the top, getting the medal, getting the reward.

Look in Revelation 21 and verse 7.

He who overcomes shall inherit all things. That's everything, I guess. Sounds like all things. Everything.

That's pretty good. That's pretty good, and that's a great reward.

So you see, the challenge is good, and succeeding is good. There's nothing bad anywhere.

I will be his God, and he will be my son. That's the good part.

But the challenge here is that each person pursuing this goal has opponents. It has opposition. It has resistance.

Just like going up a mountain has gravity, and it has thinner air the further up you go, and less water as you go up a mountain.

And more tired muscles, and more blisters.

The farther up the mountain you go, it seems the more difficult it is to summit.

As Jesus said about the kingdom, there are few who find the way, and few who find the door at the end of the way.

Few who find it. Many are called. Few are chosen.

Now, God doesn't put that out to us to defeat us, or to discourage us, rather to encourage us. I'll give you an example. This came to mind.

Most people who get a degree, whether it's a master's degree or a doctorate degree, do everything ABD or ABT.

Now, I didn't know that when I started a master's degree at the University of South Dakota, but I was sat down by the dean, and he told me, he said, Listen, before you get into this, I want you to realize that 80% of people who come here never get their degree because they're ABD.

I'm like, wow, maybe I shouldn't try. This sounds like a big deal. This is a huge obstacle.

Well, if 80% fail, why should I even try? I have my degree, by the way. What's the difference?

He said ABD means all but dissertation. Or with a master's, it's all but thesis.

You've done everything, done all the coursework, taken all the tests. You might have got a 4-0, but you didn't do your thesis or your dissertation.

See, that means research and writing, original things you've got to put together. There's a deep research and put it all together, package it. It has to go through reviews, and then it has to be accepted. It has to be accepted when you start so that it is original and you really are doing something that can be accepted later.

It's fairly complicated. And so it's one of those things that people just don't get around to doing. They're busy.

Here we have a challenge that we can't be ABD, all but something. We have challenges, we have opponents, we may put in a lot of work, but we can't stop along the way.

God wants you to succeed.

In verse 8, it says, but the cowardly, unbelieving, cowardly, uh-oh, somebody got afraid. Somebody got afraid of the persecution, the threats. If you do this, I won't like you. If you do this, I'll slander you. If you do this, I'll make you embarrassed. If you do this, I'll make you walk naked in public, or I'll hang you on a stake, or I'll kill you, or whatever, you see. Cowardly, the unbelieving, those who, they didn't trust. They believed there is a God, and they liked this, but when it came right down to it, they didn't trust God, so they had to take things in their own hands and save themselves.

Murderers, abominable, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars. You can probably come up with a pretty good excuse from time to time for lying. They will have their part in a lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.

So you and I have been invited to participate in something that we can win, just like the Dean told me. He said, you can do this. You really can do this, but I'm wanting to tell you up front. There are challenges, and most people don't make it. Now, Jesus Christ loves you, and He tells us right up front, listen, there's going to be a few challenges along the way. I'm never going to leave or forsake you.

You can do this, but I'm going to be real open with you and honest with you. We're going to take a look at a little of that in a minute.

The author of the opposition, of course, is Satan. One of his greatest ploys is to entice us to make the choice to sin, to not reach the target, but to do something else.

The agents, then, of the opposition are therefore any and all who would advocate sin, including those that Jesus said, you're of your Father the devil, those humans. All of us who would advocate anybody at any time, oh, don't worry about that. Just let's go sin. You know, when we're kids and teens and, you know, we're growing up or we're feeling worldly or whatever, we would be an advocate, then, of a different Father, the devil. Our human nature, in fact, advocated sin before conversion. That we opposed ourself, as it were.

Our human nature retains some latent pull on you and me because we used to be there, old habits, old things that were comfortable. We're sympathetic with our sinful nature and sometimes we want to justify it. And if we ever hear a little word, especially maybe from a minister that says, you don't have to work so hard, you don't have to be so strict, you don't have to be so careful, relax, take it easy.

You know, we're like, yeah! I'm right there because, you see, I have sympathies for my old selfish nature. And that's what false teachers are. So let's begin with recognizing our nearest opponent. Who is the nearest opponent that we have to work with to resist? Jesus himself explains to us in Matthew 18, verses 7-8. Matthew 18, verses 7-8. This is a very important passage where he's talking about the precious work and the precious potential children for his family.

And we're not to be offending them. Matthew 18, verses 7. After saying that, he says, woe to the world because of offenses. For offenses must come. Yes, you and I are not perfect. There will be offenses. But we're in a process of not being perfect right now, but a process of making choices to develop into the children of God. But woe to that man by whom the offenses come. If your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you.

Who's the first opponent here? It's me. That's the first one we've got to worry about is me. And he's saying, look, in your choices, you've got to get yourself away from those things that you associate with or that you participate in.

Even the things that you yourself are used to doing. He's not advocating here to cut off your hand and your foot or pluck out your eye, but he's saying, you've got to put away these things. Notice, it's better for you to enter into life lame or maimed or without those things that we tend to justify.

I'll accept this career. I know it requires me to work till 8 o'clock every Friday. And I know in the wintertime that's going to be difficult, but I'm sure I can duck out or call in sick at 4 o'clock. I can work this. I can work this. But if it so happens that in this job you're having to lie to get off, or you're actually constrained to stay a little longer into the Sabbath, you see what happens?

It's better that you cut yourself off from that good paying job and go out and dig ditches than to stick with something that's going to keep you in sin and may keep you out of the kingdom of God. It's better, verse 9, if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you, or remove that which you're looking at even better. Quit looking at those things. If you live in a certain area or you work in a certain area or around certain people that causes you to have certain feelings because of that environment, it's best for you to rise out of that environment, be it a drug scene with all the old relationships or whatever it might be, sin of any kind.

It might be better for you, like Lot, to pick up lock, stock and barrel and move out of Sodom. Go live somewhere else than to be around those things that might weigh down what you see, what you hear, those influences. It's best to get away from those. It is better for you to enter into life with one eye, or not seeing and being in all of that, rather than having two eyes and be cast into Gehenna fire, into the lake of fire. So you and I, first of all, have to work at those things within us and immediately around us and make choices if we're serious about wanting to be the children of God.

In 2 Timothy 2, verses 24-26, we find here something else about ourselves that we need to be fully aware of. We can be our own opponents. I'm going to read this from the King James Version, 2 Timothy 2, verse 24, where it says, The servant of the Lord must not strive. Here Paul is teaching the pastor Timothy some things pastorally. It's one of Paul's pastoral epistles. But be gentle or meek with all men, apt to teach, persevering. Notice this. In meekness, instructing those that oppose themselves. We can oppose ourselves and do probably more than any other factor.

We can be Saturday Christian and weekday sinful nature people. We can do this little shift. We're on the Sabbath. Oh yeah, this is holy time and around God's people. And then, as soon as nobody's looking, we slip back out and we can be very self-centered sales or people who perform things but don't really care about the customer and make things go our way. We can lie and we can do a little cheating and we can make the balances inaccurate. And then come back to church.

Oh, hi! I'm back to my Sabbath self. We need instruction from the ministries what Paul is saying here to Timothy so that we get past opposing ourselves. If God, per adventure, will give them repentance to acknowledging of the truth, and that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil who are taken captive by him at his will, there's a problem. You see, this internal thing also has an external link and a draw.

We have a choice of fathers and sometimes we like our old father, the devil, more than we like the new heavenly father. We have to make the right choices. Now, the field of opponents begins to expand from there. Beside myself, we've just seen that Satan is involved. There are also seducers, those who would come along and seduce you into making a decision, a choice, let's say, a choice or a decision to do something that is not according to the will and the Word of God.

But they will seduce by words that are really sweet. Just read in the Proverbs 2 through Proverbs 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. You can read about the seductresses, not just women, but all types of humans there that are typified by this loose woman.

We also have temptors, those who will come along and tempt us with things, put things in front of us, get us to make choices. There are persecutors, those who will come along and say, if you do that, this is going to happen to you and I'm going to come after you. Besides persecutors, there are simply bad examples. People that are very likeable, but they're very bad examples and they will tempt or seduce us into sinning. The Bible uses the term, flee fornication. The word flee, it means if you think about flee, those who are in Jerusalem and see the armies surrounding Jerusalem flee into the mountains. We can understand that one. We don't want to die by the armies. We don't want to get trapped in some tribulation or siege of Jerusalem if you're there. Everybody's on board with that. The fornication? Somebody likes me and I like what I see and we like and it's mutual and there's all this stuff going on. Run from that! Well, the only way you're going to run from that is if your heart is really here. If this is where you live and this is what you really stand for otherwise, the decision is going to be very difficult. So you and I are to guard against everything through which we could become entangled into sinning. To flee those things, separate ourselves, come out of the world, come out of that whole process and the environment as much as possible. These are real choices that you and I have to make. If we don't, we're going to be dangling right there like Lot in downtown Sodom and just exposing ourselves to every seducer and tempter and bad example and even the persecutors. You and I need to abandon simple-mindedness. We can't, oh, you know, I don't really know what's going on. I'm just, you know, showing up here. That's simple-mindedness. We can't even be simple-minded in the church. We've got to guard against anything, everything. I would say the Adam and Eve were simple-minded. They chose to be seduced into temptation, something that didn't make any sense at all, actually. It made no sense whatsoever. And, you know, you've got a piece of fruit. It's like, what? It doesn't make any sense. But it's presented in such a way that if I don't do that, if I don't take that, if I don't accept that, I'm going to be missing something so important to me. How do you get there? How does that happen? Well, through temptation. Adam and Eve did it. Their son Cain did it. You just go right down through Scripture, the various times, like David was tempted to number Israel. Jesus himself was tempted, and tempted, and tempted, and tempted. He was tempted 40 days. And when he was finished with 40 days of temptation, he was tempted some more. There's two ways of reading that. He fasted for 40 days. There also may have been some ongoing other temptation than just the three events that we read about. We'll check that in a little bit. The New Testament church was tempted. Many people were tempted. Many people left. Some remained. The goal of the opposition is really one thing, to get you to choose lawlessness. Get you and me to choose lawlessness. That's the goal of the opposition.

If our goal is righteousness, and our goal is to be given this gift and reward by God, for following Him and doing as He says, the opposition's goal is to prevent us from that. Get us to do what He tells us not to do. Don't become Israel's true children. In 1 Peter 5, verses 8-9, is a passage that I guess you might say would be remiss if we didn't read in the context of the opposition that we face in pursuing God's plan of salvation. We often pluck this out, which I will do. Then we'll come back and take a look at context in a moment.

In 1 Peter 5, verse 8, says, Be sober, be vigilant. Part of this challenge that you have, because your adversary, the devil, walks about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. Resist him. Steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world. That shows very clearly what the opposition is like, part of the challenge that you and I face.

In James chapter 1, just a few pages back, James chapter 1, we'll begin in verse 2. My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials. King James version says, when you fall into diverse temptations. Oh, great! Now remember, you like a challenge, right? I hope you said yes. So now, as part of this calling that you and I have, count it all joy when you fall into diverse temptations. We think of that as, oh no.

Oh no, no. You've hit the tennis ball really well over the net, and the other person has just been able to catch it with a back hand on the tip of the racquet and pop it back barely over the net. Uh-oh, and you're at the back. Can you get all the way to the net before that ball bounces twice on the ground?

Well, this is part of the challenge. This is why the game of tennis is so exciting. Count it all joy when various temptations come upon you. We look at some of the words here. When you fall into... So you and I will be prone to going back, won't we? We have a pull to our old nature. We have an affinity, unfortunately, with the sinful nature, unless we have really grown away from that.

Diverse or various. Also has the implication of unexpected. You weren't expecting that ball to... You were expecting the person maybe to miss, and then while you're saying, oh, I made such a good shot, you'll never get this away. Here it comes back. But you're in the wrong place. See, this was an unexpected return, and now you've got to do something with it. Temptations. The Greek word here is, parasmus, means tested by evil, persuaded through persistence.

Are you good enough to get that tennis ball? That's what it all comes down to. And what are you going to do with it if you can hit it to put it back to your opponent on the other side in such a way that they don't just bury you now that you're up against the net and a long shot to the back line, which you probably could never get back to.

Tennis is a very engaging game. Persuaded through persistence. You know, you and I know what's right, but somebody can push us. Oh, come on. Come on. Come on. You can make this unexpected thing that you weren't planning on. I mean, when you got up this morning, you weren't expecting everything that can happen to you today on the highway going home. It can be unexpected when somebody cuts you off.

See? That's unexpected. And maybe the person starts yelling at you and making gestures. What encouraging you, in fact, to participate. What do we do? What do we do in those things? Testing is an important part of our character development. Again, it says, consider it all joy when? Because.

We didn't read the because part yet. Verse 3, knowing that the testing of your faith produces, as the margin says, endurance or perseverance. This is good for us if you do it right. If we do it right, this is very, very good. It says in verse 4, But let perseverance have its perfect work, that you may be complete, mature, as the margin says, complete, lacking nothing. If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God. It's a real game changer, you see, when God is your coach, and he is also the referee, and he is pulling for you, who gives to all liberally without reproach, etc.

We are assisted in this progress. Now let's go back. Let's go back to 1 Peter 5. You and I have testing, and testing is an important part of our development. In fact, part of the test here is, who do you want to be like? You will become like that person. Jesus tells us to beware of false prophets in Matthew 7, 15. Why are we warned so many times about false teachers and false prophets? Because they're very alluring to us to go to the other nature. They're often full of pride, full of vanity. They may have a certain look that we like.

Smart, a little cutting, a little savvy, successful, maybe iconic. The person himself is an icon. You think, oh, I want to be like that. I want to be impressive. I want to really... and that person is telling me this and telling me how to do that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's what I want to do. Like a diatrophys who wanted the preeminence. You could go back and look at people down through time who have been big and large, larger than life, and have led people off in a lifestyle that the carnal, sinful nature really liked.

Ananias, Sapphira, ooh, yeah. They had it all, didn't they? Is that what we want to be like? Or do we want to be humble in serving and sacrificing? Oh, ooh, humble, serving, sacrificing, agape nature, maybe giving to others, and not having so much herself, and being looked down on and disrespected by other human beings. Paul, for instance, a very despised apostle, said, Imitate me!

What? I imitate Paul. Imitate me, he says, as I imitate Christ. Christ? Oh, humble, serving, sacrificing, giving of himself, no reputation, died, embarrassing to be associated with, all the disciples ran away. Here in 2 Peter 5, we read, Be sober, be vigilant in verse 8, because your adversary, the devil, walks about. We often lift that off the page, but what is the context of that?

Let's go back to verse 1 and see. He says, The elders who are among you I exhort. Paul is almost having to defend himself, in some cases, in his writings. He says, verse 2, Shepherd the flock, serving as overseers, not by compulsion, but willingly. It's serving, you see. Not for dishonest gain, it's not for which you can extract out of this, but eagerly. Not as being lords over those interests, it's not about power and position and authority, but being examples to the flock. Is this the kind of person you and I want to be like, or we'd rather have the icon?

And when the chief shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that does not fade away. Likewise, you younger people submit yourselves to your elders. Yes, all of you be submissive to one another and clothed in humility. Is that what your nature wants? For God resists the proud and He gives graciousness. He gives conversion. He gives all good things. If you take the word, Cheris, and you look at the many manifold meanings and apply the right one here, God gives good things to the humble.

Therefore, humble yourselves unto the mighty hand of God. Is that what you and I want to do? Be careful. Verse 8. Be sober. Be vigilant. Be careful in your choice because your adversary, the devil, wants you to make the wrong choice. He wants you to get your eyes on the wrong thing. He wants you to fail.

Notice what Jesus has promised us as far as opposition in Matthew 10, verses 16-33. Matthew 10, verses 16-33. He says, Behold, I send you out of sheep in the midst of wolves. He's talking here to the apostles, the disciples who would be the apostles.

Many times, this is what those who are the spokesmen, the ministers, the front face, as it were, of a religion that's not respected, have to go out and be part of. And also those who are part of their family, sheep in the midst of wolves. Therefore, be wise as serpents and harmless as doves, but beware of men, for they will deliver you up to councils and scourge you in their synagogues. You will be brought before governors and kings for my sake. It's a testimony to them and to Gentiles. But when they deliver you up, don't worry about what power or what you will speak for it will be given to you in that hour. In verse 21, now brother will deliver up brother to death. This is not just the ministry anymore.

Father is children. Children will rise up against parents and cause them to be put to death. And you will be hated by all for my namesake. Now there is part of the challenge. Now we do like challenge, remember? We're all in this to succeed. We like the challenge. But you see that sometimes the challenges can get really, really challenging. He who endures to the end will be saved.

Going up a mountain is not easy. Some parts are easier than others. Mountains tend to get steeper the higher you go.

The difficulties are stronger. But he who endures to the top will get to see the view. He'll get the reward.

So it is with any type of race or any type of challenge, it seems like getting to the end of it.

The race cars, it's hard for them to endure to the end and still be running. Those who are runners, they tend to fall out and their bodies give up.

Swimmers get tired. The one who endures to the end in first is going to be the winner.

Temporary opposition that Jesus is mentioning right here is actually good for us.

1 Peter 1, verse 3. Let's go back there again. 1 Peter 1 and verse 3. 2 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you.

There's the plan of salvation. You're invited into it. Now we have the challenge to go forward and succeed, and God is with us. We are kept, verse 5, by the power of God through faith for salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time. The harvest of the first fruits is about to take place. You and I are about to be judged. 2 Peter 1, verse 6. In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while if need be you have been grieved by various trials. Yes, we do have the opposition, and it's an important opposition.

Here's why it's important that the genuineness of your faith being much more precious to God than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ. That's the bottom line. God has got to make sure you and I are the real deal, the genuine article, 24 karat gold, that's had the impurities melted out of it. He wants us to be 100% true children of his family. So you and I are tested. We have opposition. Opposition is good for us.

You right now in your own body have opposition. Part of it is gravity. Without gravity your body would soon essentially destroy itself. But you have opposing muscles. You have gravity, and you have a certain skeletal system that actually benefits from the gravity. You have muscles that if you don't use, not only atrophy, but you need to use them, especially if you're young, in order to grow. Actually, kids, in running and playing and bumping and falling and all the energy, are actually damaging their tissues so that those tissues are replaced with new tissues. If they simply sat and did nothing, they would themselves not grow and develop into strong adolescents and then into adults.

So the opposition is good for us. It is actually very, very helpful. We are called from darkness to light. It's a big transition. We come from darkness and a father of darkness. We're going to the father of lights, and we are ourselves to become light and eventually burn as bright as the sun in the kingdom of our father. In Colossians 1 and 15, we can try to plot ourselves along this course of development.

It's not an instantaneous thing. It doesn't happen, for instance, at baptism. We're not on autopilot. We're not suddenly stamped with approval, and you're done. Now it's a waiting game. Colossians 1, verses 15-18. Talking about Jesus Christ, He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. Notice, the firstborn. For by Him all things were created in the heaven and that are on earth visible and invisible. Verse 17, He is before all things, and in Him all things consist.

He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that He may in all things have the preeminence. You and I, see, are called to become like Him. The fact that He is the firstborn indicates there are others to be born. Are we becoming Christ-like? Are we growing to be like Him? It's time for a personal test. Let's take a personal test here and see where are we along the trail.

If we go to 2 Corinthians 11, verses 13-15. Let's invent a little test here. 2 Corinthians 11, beginning in verse 13. How well are you and I doing at judging others' fruits? Jesus said that there will be many false teachers come among us and by your fruits you will know them. It's the only way we'll know them is by their fruits. How good are you at judging the fruits of other people? Now, those are opponents, and He said they will be in the church.

How do you know I'm not one of them? How do I know that I'm not one of them? He's the one that told us, by your fruits you will know them. Fruit only grows on a certain tree and some of it's good and some of it's bad. I'm telling you there's going to be a lot of this. There's going to be a lot of temptation, a lot of encouragement for you to, oh yeah, I can identify with that way.

I can identify with the application of God's laws to favor myself and my condition, you see, and sort of bending and excusing, etc. while claiming to be law-abiding, but actually become lawless. 2 Corinthians 11, verse 13, God transforms himself into an angel of light. Do we see Satan in his angel of light, personal transformation, for what he is?

Do we see his religion or religions? Do we see his world's systems? He's the God of this age. Do we see those systems for what they are? Do we tend to buy into them and say, oh yeah, yeah, no, no, that's good. Oh yeah, that's good for society and that's a good tenant. Yeah, I'd pick up a gun to defend that and, you know, oh yes, that teaching, yeah, that Christian concept, that's a good concept. Do we see that?

Then how good are you at judging those who transform themselves into agents of that which appeals to you, that which you want to be? Just like Eve said, yes, serpent, I can see your point. I want to be bright in thinking like you and self-determining and free and liberated in a type of God like you are.

See? Some of these things can be very appealing.

It's a good test because that's a test Jesus Christ himself went through.

As soon as his ministry began, we see in Luke chapter 4 verses 1 through 13, this very thing that he warns us against because that's exactly what he had to do. And it wasn't necessarily something a human being would have been able to see clearly on their own.

So he's trying to teach us.

Luke chapter 4, we just look at the whole section here, verse 1 of chapter 4, then Jesus being filled with the Holy Spirit. Now there's a good spot to begin with. When you and I are going to take a look at anything, we need to be looking through God's lens, not our sinful nature's lens. We need to be filled with his Holy Spirit.

He returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, being tempted for 40 days by the devil.

That's a lot of temptation.

And in those days he ate nothing. And afterward when tidy he was hungry.

And the devil said to him, If you're the son of God, command this stone to become bread.

And Jesus said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God. I would have said, blublublublublublublublublublublublub.

He was led by God's Spirit. He was right there in tune. He had a character that he had developed. He knew the Word of God and he spoke the Word of God. He pulled out the sword of truth and he used it in that situation.

And then the devil, taking him up on a high mountain, showing him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time, the devil said to him, All this authority I will give to you and their glory, for this has been delivered to me, and I will give it to whomever I wish. Therefore, if you will worship me before me, all will be yours.

Well, that was a lie, number one. Number two is very appealing to a person who would be crucified.

A person who just, it was the greatest trial that he even asked to be delivered from. Here was a deliverance right here. Just say the Word and you can be over everything now.

I'll just make you over everything. You can be the God of the whole world right now.

You can skip all of that. Just jump right to the conclusion. You don't have to do the salvation thing for everybody else. Just be selfish now and all will be yours.

Jesus answered and said to him, Get behind me, Satan, for it is written, You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.

He brought him to Jerusalem and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it is written, He shall give angels charge over you to keep you, and in their hands they shall bear you up lest you dash your foot against the stone. You can use for false religion. You can take the words of God and twist them just a little bit, misapply them a little bit, and make them say just about anything you want carnal human nature to want to hear.

But Jesus said, it's been said, You shall not tempt the Lord your God.

Jesus set us a very good example. In verse 13, we see, Now when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from him until an opportune time. It's not that this is just going to be short-lived. You're going to have one little challenge in life. No, Satan is going to keep working. The opposition always works and keeps working, hoping to get you to quit, get you to fail.

Jesus was tempted. This was the start of his ministry. He was tempted, he was tested, he was threatened for three and a half years, he was persecuted. But he knew the essential components. God's kingdom versus the opposition. God's kingdom, and there would be opposition.

And he teaches it to us. God's kingdom, repent, the kingdom of God is at hand, but beware, there's going to be an opposition. There's opposition all the way through. But you can make it. I'll never leave you or forsake you.

Jesus was also armed with a certain knowledge and a memory. Remember, at one point, he said, I saw Satan fall from heaven.

The memory of Vince's past seemed to be with him. He knew what had happened. He knew that Satan had fallen. He knew what the score was. You and I need to understand that this little serpent that's offering this little fruit is fake. There's no future in it. He's going to be ended, terminated. There's no future there. No matter what somebody says, if you do this or if you do that, you'll be better off. We know that the opposition will end and there's no future in it.

I'll give you an example. Remember when Job was being persecuted severely by Satan. Let's go back to Job 19 and notice something that helped him as well. Job 19, verse 1.

Just start with his frame of mind here. You know what Job had lost? His state with the boils and scraping him with a potcher. Absolute misery. He had all this temptation around him. He said, curse God and die. Do this. End it. I'm sure you've been in a position, perhaps, or heard of somebody that's been in a position where they just hoped they could die. I've not known anybody that's been in a worse position than Job.

Loss of family, loss of property, loss of physical health and sheer pain. Now, he says, Job answered and said, chapter 19, verse 1, How long will you torment my soul and break me in pieces with words? He's being worn down here. What helped Job get through it? What kept him focused? We see it in verse 25. For I know that my Redeemer lives, and he shall stand at last on the earth. That's beginning and end of it.

Job knew the score. Job knew that his Redeemer lived, and he would stand. He would be there. That's what you and I have to absolutely know, trust, keeping our mind through any and everything. Just like Stephen, when he was giving his discourse after the church had begun. And they stoned him with stones for what he was saying. He knew. He was absolutely resolute, and the Holy Spirit was inspiring his words. And he could look up, and he could see heaven, because he got in his throne in heaven.

He just kept going, and he died right there. You find that faithful in Hebrews 11. Son and tent, blah blah blah, all these things they went through. But they never quit looking up. They were of a different country. They were pilgrims on earth, and they were riveted to Jerusalem, a heavenly country. Now, you and I were planted as a seed. You are intended to be growing as grain for the harvest, the wheat harvest. What has your seed done to date?

Let's look in Luke 8, verse 11. Luke 8, verse 11. We're supposed to develop fruit. We're supposed to produce a lot. We're given this much. We should have five, tenfold for the harvest. Luke 8, verse 11-15. Now, the parable is this. The seed is the Word of God. Some of it fell on various types of soil. Those, by the waysides, are the ones who hear, and then the devil comes and takes away the Word out of their hearts, lest any should believe and be saved. In this process of salvation, some are offered God's Holy Spirit, but they're talked out of it.

He takes it away and says, Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Let's do something different. But the ones on the rock, or you feel like you're on the rock? The ones on the rock are those when they hear, receive the Word with joy. These have no root, who believe for a while, and in time of temptation fall away. They were founded on the rock as soil, not Jesus Christ. They sprung all up and got all excited, but they had no root.

They weren't into the rock, they were just on dry rock. They didn't have water, they didn't have soil. Then you have those, verse 14, that fell among thorns. They surrounded themselves and the society, and with the issues and the things that the eyes and the ears and the mind could see and do. They went out and are choked with cares and with riches and with pleasures of life, and bring no fruit to maturity. Yes, they grow up and they have the stalk and they look like wheat, but the little wheat pods are empty, no mature fruit.

But the ones that fell on the good ground are those who, having heard the word with a noble and good heart, keep it. They observe it, they obey it, they do it, and they bear fruit with perseverance. You and I have been given this commission to bear fruit, bear fruit for the harvest. That harvest is coming.

Jesus has already been harvested. He is the first of the first fruits we find in 1 Corinthians 15. Now it's for us. Now is our time. I'll give you another good example. David. David was called. David was tempted by his own desires. David was persecuted. He repented.

He got wiser. He matured spiritually. He grew in fruit. He became a man after God's own heart, and he learned the components. And the components he writes in the 23rd Psalm. Here are the components of the 23rd Psalm. God is in charge. I follow him in his law. I don't fear trials and testing. I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. That's pretty much what you and I have been called to understand. These are the components of the opposition and understanding how that fits in the plan of salvation. You can say, I follow God. I do what he says. I understand there will be opposition and trials in the valley of the shadow of death.

But I'm not going to fear that. I'm going to go and follow God. And eventually I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever in New Jerusalem. And we can be confident of that, no matter what.

Let's go to Ephesians 6, verse 10. Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and the power of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. So our opposition here and our opponent are named for us, in part, because he is the Father, the mindset of that. As many agents, including our own nature, that we used to follow his way, as it says in Ephesians 2.

We used to follow that course that he encouraged us to take. So in verse 13, take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all to stand. We see here, as we read on through, and you can do a Bible study on that. We've had sermons on this. You can see how Jesus Christ used these very things in suppressing the effect of the opposition and winning, overcoming the opposition.

Jesus was raised as the first of the firstfruits, fifty days before the festival that's coming up. He is the cornerstone of the church.

The disciples were trained by him for three and a half years. Then on the day of Pentecost, the disciples transitioned to something else. We find in Ephesians 2, 19, and 20 that they became the foundation of the church. They weren't beginners then. They actually were teachers. They helped raise up a new era with Christ.

We are called to be taught by them through Jesus Christ. We are preparing to teach the next generation. It says in 1 Corinthians 15, 23, that we are then to transition into the bride of Christ, the firstfruits, in our order. We then will work with future generations. But just like him, we must first be proven. We have to be proven and tested by the opposition. We have to resist the opposition. We have to resist the author of it. And if we do so, we're told he'll flee far from us. He'll go further and further away the more we don't even succumb to that kind of temptation. That stuff is so foreign and odd that the first time we see a forbidden fruit, we're like, No, please. We are so far from society that our nature, our character, is being developed enough to where some of the things where simpletons would go in and fall. We have developed and been given a wisdom by God to where those things are not even appealing to us. The threat from the opposition is real every day, many times a day. It's appealing, it's dangerous, it's alluring. Paul told Timothy, for some have already turned aside after Satan. Some in the church have already turned aside after Satan. He's a master at trying to get us to go away. When I was in Kenya this last time, next to a property that we purchased for a new feast site up near Mount Kenya, the government had put in a substation for power. Rural electricity had come there. As the workers were working on it, they actually left for lunch and left their tools and wires all over the ground. Having some electrical, electrician background, I went over and looked at everything. They had nailed signs to the wooden power poles. And on them were scary things. It said, "'Hatari!' And, you know, a bar of electricity with a skull and crossbones. "'Hatari!' means danger. You and I need to realize the opposition to us is hatari. It is dangerous. It will kill us if we let it. It's a real danger." Paul said in 1 Thessalonians 3 verse 5, "'Less by some means the tempter had tempted you, and our labor might have been in vain.'" He's always there. Relief is coming, but it's not coming until after our death or after our change. Right up to the end, the pressure will be on. A game is not over until the bell rings, until the decision is made. And whether it's wrestling or boxing or running or driving, it's right down to the wire, and then the decision is made. Paul says in Romans 16, in the middle part of verse 19, he says, "'But I want you to be wise in what is good and simple concerning evil, and the God of peace will crush Satan under your feet shortly.'" That time is coming. You will eventually judge those who tried to oppose you and get you to fail.

And God will crush even Satan under our feet shortly at the end of the race. We need to be focused on doing right and absolutely persevering, persistent, patiently enduring all that we go through in becoming the children of God. The choices you make are vital. They're vital to your future in God's family. You have to make the right choices. It's a wonderful calling. It's a fabulous future. But just remember, the opposition wants you to fail. If you don't get to be in the brightness of the kingdom of God, where the Father and Christ provide all the light and there is no sun or moon to provide light, they are the light and the children, the sons of the kingdom, shine as bright as the sun, if you're not there, Jude tells us we'll be in the blackness of darkness forever, essentially. In other words, we won't exist. We'll miss all of the light. We just won't be there.

The choices we make have great consequences. Great consequences. To help us and to help you make the right choices. There's a daily recipe Jesus gave us. I'd like to conclude with that. It's in Luke 14, verses 2-4. If you don't do this already, please begin doing it on a daily basis. This is a recipe for success that will help guide you along the path of salvation and all of its complexities. It will help avoid the sway of the opposition. Luke 14.

I'll tell you what we'll do. We'll just do this a little differently since it's not Luke chapter 14. Let's go to Matthew 6 and verse 9. We'll read it there instead. The wording is a little bit better in Luke but didn't have it.

It was actually Luke 11, verses 2-4. Luke 11. Luke 11, verses 2. So He said to them, when you pray, say, or when you pray, do it in this manner. It says back in Matthew 6. Our Father in heaven is not our Father the devil anymore. We've got a new Father. We've got a new mindset. We've got a new agape, humble, serving, lawful, godly mind that we're developing. Holy is your name. When you begin to look at the holiness of the name of God and realize that you are a son and a daughter of that family, you need to live in holiness and be holy as He is holy. Your kingdom come today, this day, now, in my life. Your laws, your ruler, the things that you will for me as your servant to do, your kingdom come today, in the future, millennium, second resurrection. And finally, with new heavens and new earth, all levels of the kingdom, let it come. And your will be done today on earth in my life, just as it is in heaven. Give us day by day our daily bread, that unleavened bread of sincerity, of truth, of Jesus Christ, of the Word of God. Let that come into me in my mind every day. And forgive us our sins, putting away sin, for we also forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And now, for the competition, do not allow us to be led into temptation today, because I know there's going to be a lot of it. I know that my own mind, my own self, my own past, my own desires, and everybody out there and Satan himself are going to want to lure me away from what your will is and deliver us from the evil one. Because, for some reason, by what he's telling us, we have some relationship, some link, if not some bondage, that we can put our self under through temptation back to the evil one, to Satan the devil. He is there. He wants us dead. He's trying to sway us. He can tempt us through religion. He can tempt us through all manner of things, pride, personal, through doing the work, all levels. Deliver us from that link to our previous Father. Deliver us from the evil one, because he's very, very real. If we follow that daily recipe, you will have good success in your path forward to the kingdom of God.