“Solid Footing” Part One
Broadcast #1633
January 21, 2024
Transcript of message from TV Broadcast 1633 -- taken from Closed Captioning Text
Phil: Well, I’m just gonna trust the Lord in weakness this morning, but I wanted to – and I believe this will certainly tie in with what’s been said and what’s been sung.
But you know, last week we kind of took a devil’s eye view of the Christian life and the warfare. In other words, how does the devil work on us and what, if he’s doing his job, what are his tricks and what do we need to be watching out for and be aware of, ‘cause part of knowing how to serve the Lord is realizing what the devil’s up to and how to be alert and aware and what to do to counter it.
And of course, we focused as a starting point on Paul’s words about the armor of God and how we need it all so that we could stand up to his strategies. And I think we realize, if you’ve known the Lord at all, the devil has been studying you and me all our lives and learning how to work on us, learning what our weaknesses are and how to use them against us to accomplish his purpose.
And we often use the expression about somebody “pushing your buttons.” Well, the devil, I believe, is the one who probably has installed those buttons. Having studied us and knowing, again, our weaknesses he’s learned how to provoke the reaction that he’s looking for in us.
And I believe in all my heart, the Lord wants us to be aware and learn how to stand up. I mean, he tells us to stand, doesn’t he? Tells us to be awake and alert. Well, it would be good if we understood the things that we need to know to be able to do that.
And when I first began to think about this, my mind went to two of the aspects of the armor. Obviously, truth is critical. We’ve gotta know what’s true. And this is a world that we live in that doesn’t believe that there is such a thing as absolute truth. But anyway, we’ve talked about that before. If there’s no absolute truth, then the statement, there is no absolute truth, can’t be true. So it’s kind of a self-defeating idea, isn’t it? There is absolutely truth. And that truth has been revealed in the person of Jesus Christ who declared, I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father, but by me. So, the beginning point is knowing what is true.
And then we talked last week about righteousness, how that comes about, but also maintaining it, so that our relationship is free and right between us and God. And Satan is, as we are told in Revelation 12, the accuser of the brethren. That’s basically what he’s got to work with. He doesn’t have truth, but he knows how to lie. He knows how to accuse us.
And the very fact that we are still walking in these bodies of flesh and have weaknesses that God is working on, it was referred to, brother Doug was talking about that, he shows us things that are needful, but the very fact that we have those weaknesses and that we still are learning and “works in progress,” give him an opportunity, if we’ll listen, for him to accuse and for that accusation to turn into a place of weakness and vulnerability, where suddenly we’re not able to really, we’re not so sure of where we stand and what’s going on.
And the Lord wants us to come to that place where we know how we stand. We understand, number one, that we stand 100% because of what Jesus did and nothing to do with what we did. We have to abandon all hope and trust in ourselves if we’re ever gonna know what salvation is about, because we are the ones that we need to be rescued from. I don’t need to be rescued from other people and from mistakes and wipe out my mistakes and all is good. No, I need to be rescued from what I am, not just what I’ve done.
And that’s what salvation is about. It is a miracle. And it’s a miracle that I need, and you and I need it every single day. And then, of course, we talked about walking, learning to walk out that righteousness, and the fact that we’re gonna be learning all the way we go of how many things in us that don’t really, aren’t really an expression of his righteousness, but an expression of our own nature.
And rather than being discouraged or rather than the Lord shining the light on those things to discourage us, we need to understand that He’s shining the light to help us, so that we can immediately turn to Him and find the cleansing and forgiveness and the freedom. So the righteousness doesn’t have to be interrupted, if you will, by what we are and the mistakes that we make and the shortcomings that we find in ourselves.
Oh, I just pray that God will help me to get this, because we are so prone to see, to have the devil focus our attention on ourselves. And that seems to be the focus of our lives. Am I measuring up? Am I what I’m supposed to be…? And it goes on and on and on, when yes, we need to see ourselves. Yes, we need an honest heart that’s not afraid to look in the mirror, as it were, and see our need. But God never means to use the mirror to condemn. It’s always to deliver. It’s always to turn our attention from self to Christ and the cross and the blood that absolutely avails, so that we do not have to be separated.
We have this defense against all of Satan’s lies. And yes, we need to raise the shield of faith. We need to use the Word, all of those things. But we’ve got to have that basic protection. Because if I’m going into battle with the devil on my own merit, good luck with that. And I’ll tell you, people are living based upon what they are. They are in delusion. Satan’s lies have taken root in the mind and in the heart, and people are in strong delusion today if they don’t know Jesus Christ.
And I just pray that God will become so real to us that we will begin to... I mean, where the world is going this way, we will definitely go this way and stand together and learn how to stand in a world that hates God and is going the wrong way as fast as they can. So anyway, that’s kind of where we focused a little bit last week. And I’m just trusting the Lord to bring out what He wants.
But you know as I started to say, when I first began to think about the elements of the armor that the devil specifically attacks, one of them was righteousness, but the other one was peace. That’s pretty important, because we know that there is no way peace can happen on earth. Very simple. If everybody on earth is motivated by self-will, you automatically got a war going. You lock two people in a room, and sooner or later you’re gonna have a war. Because I want what I want and they want what they want.
And self will just makes this impossible to have ever have any kind of real peace on earth. People can have something that feels good for a little bit, but sooner or later the truth is gonna come out. And we know the prophet Isaiah, I believe, in more than one place that there is no peace to the wicked. That’s just simply a condition that the world is in.
But here we are called to have a peace, to experience a peace. It’s not just some theoretical theological truth, but it is something that you and I need to learn, need to be brought to a place where we experience that, and he likens peace to the footwear that we need to be in battle.
And, of course, you know the imagery that he was using, battle in those days was pretty much a one-on-one thing where people were hand-to-hand combat. And what kind of fighter would you be if your feet were not steady, you were standing in an uncertain place, or you had footwork that was kind of giving away and you didn’t have solid footwork, basically?
How many of you have solid footwork every day and the devil could never throw you off balance? Now I can’t lift my hand either. But you see, the Lord wants to bring us to a place where we learn more and more what His peace is about. Thank God.
There’s so many scriptures we’ve used in the past. I know a scripture that I used several years ago now, actually we had three different messages out of it. That’s rare. But the one in Isaiah 26 comes to mind. And it’s this one: You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast. Why? Because they trust in you. God seeks to bring every one of us, not just to a salvation experience. We need that one. We need to have something that’s real, that needs to come a point where we have passed from death to life and we’re on the inside of the door, not the outside.
But having done that, God, as I say, wants to bring us to a place where peace is the characteristic of our heart. We’re not constantly upset and wondering, boy, the devil has all kinds of things he can do in a heart that’s just not at peace. And the first thing we’re gonna have to have is a peace in our relationship with God.
Think about the condition when He calls us to Himself. Are we not enemies? Folks, if we’re just born into this world following our nature, we are by definition enemies of God. We are absolutely opposed to His rule, His rightful rule, His purposes and creating us in the first place. And we need to be brought to a place of humility and surrender where we absolutely change sides from the world to Him. And there’s a peace that comes, and we recognize, now we’re on His side and we’re in harmony with Him. And our lives are meant to be brought into perfect harmony with His purpose.
And so you see, this perfect peace that God desires that every one of us have. I mentioned the original it’s peace-peace. And they, they express that as perfect peace. You’ll keep in peace-peace, those whose minds are steadfast. Does not steadfastness come up over and over again in our relationship with God and the need that we have to be able to stand against the devil?
We’re gonna have to have a mind that isn’t uncertain, And today I feel good, the next day I don’t feel good and I’m uncertain, I don’t know what’s going on. We need to have minds that are so fixed on the truth of God and the nature of our relationship with Him, that the devil just can’t get in there. We can stand, he can attack us, but we have the ability to stand, and does not Paul encourage us to, having done all to do what? - Stand. - Well, what am I standing on? I’m gonna have to be standing on a relationship with God that’s defined by peace. Peace is central to His nature.
Oh, I’ll tell you, do you think there’s gonna be any conflict in the new heavens of the new earth? You think people are gonna be fussing, I want this and I want that? None of that. That’s all gonna be gone. Every bit of that. We need to be delivered for it from it more here. Do you really think that God wants, it’s okay with God for us just to be fussing and fighting and upset all about this and about that all the time and just have something other than peace dwell in our hearts? Is that really what he wants for us? There’s no rest in that, is there?
You know, I think about what Jesus said, Peace I leave with you. My peace I give you, not as the world gives and so forth. I forget the rest of that, but it’s in John 14. Not as the world gives, but... But anyway. Don’t let your heart be troubled. Neither let it be afraid, is the rest of that.
But here is Jesus, and now, do you remember when this was spoken? Do you remember when he said that? It was the night he was arrested. It was early sometime in the evening when he was talking to his disciples. Later on that very night, in the early morning hours he was arrested, and all the events began to unfold. By the end of the day, he was in a tomb.
So, here’s Jesus saying, My peace I give you. How many of us would be peaceful, knowing what’s coming? It’s not just like this came out of the blue. He had been telling his disciples what he was there for, what was coming. And there he is saying, My peace I give you. Whoa. We have our ideas about what peace really is, and to a human being, peace is me feeling good and getting what I want, experiencing pleasing things, soft breezes and tropical, you know, whatever, all the imagery we conjure up where basically we’re pleased with ourselves and our surroundings, everything is going great.
But here’s Jesus facing the cross. What was it that gave him peace at a time like that? He was not there to do his thing. He wasn’t there to seek for some personal, selfish end for himself. He was there to lay down his life for everyone who’s sitting here this morning and everyone who hears this. He knew what the Father’s plan was. And he was so in harmony with that. It’s not like he could reluctantly say, I don’t like this, but I go along with it. It was, This is why I came. I’m here willingly.
And so there’s no war going on between me and him. I’m a hundred percent on board with everything that He says, everything that He has planned for me. But it’s not... That’s great. I’m so thankful for the peace that I can have in the middle of something that is horrendous from a human point of view. But I want you to have this, I want you to come into this kind of a relationship with God and His purpose, where it’s okay. However God plans it, however it works out, it’s more than okay. It’s what I want more than my own way.
Now, did that mean it was just easy? There was no war? There was a major war that happened right after that, when Jesus got in the garden and he prayed for three hours and the prayer was so intense, that there were, he sweat drops of blood. You know, it sounds like... Doesn’t it sound for a minute, like how is peace compatible with war? You’re talking about warfare and then now you’re talking about peace. How does that go together?
But the fact is, I have got to be in a place of peace with respect to God, His heart, His purpose. If I am going to take a stand against the forces of darkness and have any chance of prevailing and standing, I have got to know where I stand, and I’ve got to stand there. I’ve gotta agree with it. And that’s what Jesus was doing. He was looking for divine strength there. He came in knowing God’s purpose, but knowing he did not possess the strength in himself to do it. That’s what he was crying out for.
And yes, he said, Father, if there’s any other way? but that wasn’t a disagreement, that was just an honest question. But he said, nevertheless, Not my will, but yours be done. What happened at the end? What was the result of that at the end of that prayer? Angels came and did what? Strengthened him.
Folks, you and I need strength, don’t we? We need to have a position of peace with God and completely on board with His purposes. But there are times of battle when the devil will pour everything on in your heart and your mind and make you afraid about this and afraid about that, and What about this?, and This is terrible and He’s against you, and Look what you did and 1,001 lies and 1,001 darts that will come at us.
But God wants us to be in a position where we can stand fast in that and say, God, you know what my life’s purpose is. You know what it takes. And so I just surrender into Your will. We are going to have peace. Gonna be no conflict between You and me, and what I want and what You want. I am absolutely in Your hands.
But I also know that in order to do this, I got to have strength that I don’t have. And that’s what Doug was talking about. We don’t have what it takes, but we have a God who has promised us that by His, look at 2nd Peter, the beginning of it, by His divine power, He has given us everything we need for life and godliness. That’d be a message sometime, everything we need. What an awesome expression that is.
So what do you and I need today? I need it all. And every time there’s a battle, every time there’s an attack of the enemy and I’ve called to stand, it’s a reminder that I have got to go to the throne of grace, I have got to have the strength that I need. But God is more than willing to give it to me. He doesn’t say, You messed up. You’re gonna have to do this on your own. He’s right there.
How many times have we pointed out the throne of grace? The first thing we get there is not grace. What is it? It’s mercy, isn’t it? We can go there freely to find mercy. That’s what I need. But then it goes to grace, that divine help that alone can carry me through the battle. Praise God! Praise God!
There’s so many scriptures I thought of, and I don’t want to get bogged down in one of ‘em, although, you know, sometimes that’s the Lord’s will. I mean, we had three messages on that one little passage. But I did think of a scripture that I think I can just mostly refer to. But anyway, if you wanna look it up as in Romans 5 that we’re very familiar with, ‘cause Paul is unlocking the gospel.
And what it’s really about, it’s not about obeying laws, it’s about God. Every human being being in the same condition. Not only have we sinned, but we fall short. This is an ongoing.... We have sinned and we fall short. So we need something that, we need a divine miracle again, like we’ve said. And so what we do, we, we are brought to a place where our hope, our trust is invested 100% in what Jesus did and what God has promised. And like Abraham, God says it, I believe it. That settles it. And I am putting myself in his hands and I’m trusting his promise.
And so Paul begins chapter five, Therefore, since we have been justified, that is made right in God’s eyes, we have been justified now through faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand.
Boy, there’s a lot in that, isn’t there? How do we stand? By our own strength? No, we stand because God’s grace gives us. We have access, God has given us an access to divine power to be able to live for Him. That’s what he’s saying. I don’t have the power. Do you? But He gives it to us by mercy.
And His grace is certainly undeserved. That’s part of the meaning. But one thing that brought this back to my mind is the fact that some of the manuscripts, some of the ancient copies of this have a slightly altered version of the verb there. It doesn’t just say, we have peace. That’s true enough. That’s a simple statement of fact. We have peace.
But it says, let us have peace. Now you’ve moved it from simply a theological truth that we can look back and say, Yeah, that happened and now I’m now this is this case. But now God wants us to have this ongoing sense of peace with Him. Now think about what he’s talks about. Immediately he goes into the fact that God has to put us in a school where tribulation works patience and so on. All those wonderful scriptures that we all know and love.
But we know that in order for God to produce in us what He wants, we’re gonna have to come through a way that is challenging. Now, one of the other things that, I’ll just drop this in, one of the other things that Jesus said on that same occasion, right before he was crucified, he said, I’ve told you these things, so that in me you might have peace. In the world, you will have trouble. But take heart, I have overcome the world.
