Mf Sept 3 2018 0vercoming Evil With Good

[background music] Church Jesus Fellowship cannot be more spiritual than the individuals and families that constitute them. God greatly desires a godly home. These are words of restoration and instruction in righteousness from Family Test Ministries. May you be blessed as you listen. [Speaker 1] So let's pick it from there for today. One thing that is very important for us to see is that God is not man. Do you understand what I mean by that? What I mean is that if Mr. Comfort says something now that "this I want something to be," you can still come and meet Mr. Comfort and say, "You see, look at it like this again. Look at it like this again." And then she can say, "Okay, you see, maybe alright, alright, alright, you can have your way with that or you can." But you know God is not a man. God is not somebody you want to change his mind. When God says, "I hate divorce," nothing can make God say in some case I may like it. In some cases, I may like divorce. When he says he hates divorce, he hates divorce. I don't know if you get the point I'm making. When Jesus said that he that put away his wife and marry another commit adultery, and he who marry her that is put away also commit adultery. Nothing can change it. Nothing can adjust it. [Reference: Matthew 19:9]. I don't know if you get the point I'm making. There is no way you can adjust it that will now change it. God don't tell us fact. God speak truth that are unchangeable. And just things we should get clear because sometimes we are tempted to look at it that if some things happen, God can change his mind on a matter. God can adjust his teaching and his principles. No, he doesn't. He remain where he is. When all of them were busy picking two wives, three wives, everything, you will think God have changed his mind. But when he appeared again on earth, he said he made them male and female. Have you not read that he who made them from the beginning did not make them male and female, or males and male and female, emphasizing one man, one wife? [Reference: Matthew 19:4]. So despite all the thing we saw in the Old Testament, you look as if God permit, God have changed his mind when it was Leah and Rachel and they were and you have the 12 tribe of Jacob and it look as if God have changed his mind. I hope you get the point I'm making. When someone was having wives upon wives upon wives and he had about 300 wives, 700 wives, 300 concubines and all those things, the only thing you find that God spoke about was because he turned his heart or was worshipping idols. You will think that God has changed his mind that into having 300 then no problem. You know that's what you will be thinking. You know that's how some people draw their lessons from. Because they will be thinking that God is only making us to see the life of the saints that were gone by so that from their life we can learn lessons. God is not saying everything they did was approved. Like when Abraham lied and God went to defend him. No, God, he told a lie, collected bride price, took it in his pocket, collected property on his wife. Pocketed it. And then he had problem. God now went to defend him again. Does that mean that God is saying that what Abraham did is right? I hope you get the point I'm making. It does not mean when God wanted to speak, he said all liars shall have their part in the lake of fire. [Reference: Revelation 21:8]. It never meant so when God defended Abraham, God was not saying that we can now lie and he will defend us. It's only showing us the life of Abraham and how the faithfulness of God can speak for his saint. But he's not telling the saint that I hope you get to point I'm trying to bring out. Now, the reason I have to give that background is because these things that they said, because somebody asked a similar question in a church one day when we were handling "Husband love your wife as Christ loved the church, wife submit" and all of that. And he now asked that if you are in a marriage, one of them loves God and he fears God and he want to live for God, the other one is not like that. The other one does not fear God, does not love God. And I said, "Okay, maybe the person is an unbeliever." You get the point I'm making. They said they might count the person as unbeliever although it's a Christian. Let's even take unbeliever. They said, "What should the other person do? Should he still keep following Jesus Christ or he should look a way to with wisdom manage the situation?" You get the point I'm making. Now, so let's now relate it to the question that if you are in a marriage situation, let's take two believers situation with one knowing the Lord and the other one not knowing the Lord. You know that's a possibility. And that is the major problem we are having today in the church. People are born again but they are not growing in grace and knowledge of the Lord. So they are not different from unbelievers. Bible says the heir as long as he remains a child is not different from a slave. [Reference: Galatians 4:1]. Have you read that scripture before? He's not different from a slave as long as he remains a child except he grows. He's not different from a slave. So we have Christians who are not different and that is why we are discussing divorce inside the church today. If not, a heart that has been regenerated because it's a matter of the heart should not be that matter should not be raised. So what will happen if we have in a marriage one is growing in the faith, one is growing in grace, the other one is not growing? And one who is not growing in grace is the one wanting to put away. What should the other person do? The answer is very simple. The answer is that if we use the truism of English, two wrongs don't make a right. You get the point I'm making. It's like trying to say that Jesus should have changed his mind when the people that he came to save were the one that are planning to kill him. Did he stop saving them? The people he came to save, they are the one that conspired. The people he did all the miracle for, they are the ones that said, "We want Barabbas." The people he came to save are the one that led him to the cross. He should have changed his mind. He should have just said, "Father, despite all my love, all my miracle, look at what they are doing. Then let me in fact don't forgive them." You get the point I'm making. You see, the point remains that you are not light because another person is light. Do you understand what I'm saying? I am not living a godly life because some other person is living a godly life. I'm living a godly life because of my relationship with God. So whether my partner is godly or not godly, it has nothing to do with my own relationship with the Lord. You get the point I'm making. It's like you have a boss who is always cheating you and is over at the city you tell lies do everything. You now say, "Heh, I'm also going to start tell lies." You begin to steal his money. Does that now justify the stealing? It does not justify the stealing. That's why the Bible tells us, "Fret not thyself because of the evildoer. Because of the man that bringeth evil to pass." [Reference: Psalm 37:1]. It says, "Trust in the Lord and do good. Verily you shall be fed." [Reference: Psalm 37:3]. Have you read that scripture before? "Trust in the Lord and do good." He says, "Delight yourself in the Lord and he will bring to pass your desire." [Reference: Psalm 37:4]. He will make your innocency to shine like the daylight. [Reference: Psalm 37:6]. He says, "Forsake anger, fret not yourself. It will only lead you to do evil and evil doers will be cut off." [Reference: Psalm 37:8-9]. So it doesn't matter what makes you to do evil. When you do evil because your spouse is doing evil, you too you have become an evil doer. So that if I if you look at this case in which there was a marriage situation and it was the man the man became a trance to his marriage and just went off with one other woman. Went off and off and off like that. But the woman was not persuaded to remarry. She was just she kept on waiting that the man will come back. And you know that after so many years, the man came back. The man came back home to apologize to the woman, to beg her that he wants to return. And eventually they returned and the man was back again. You know you get the point I'm making. You see, many times we have tried to we have tried to act too speedily. You see, there's what the Bible says, "In all your ways acknowledge him and he will direct your step." [Reference: Proverbs 3:6]. If a man goes for about five years, seven, eight, nine, ten years, you would have felt that the woman he has some justification. After all, Jesus Christ said, "Except it be for adultery." [Reference: Matthew 19:9]. This was not as if he's committing adultery. It's not as if he fell into sin. This one is an adulterer. You get the point I'm making. It's not as if the man was repenting. But the woman felt that no, something tells me to wait. And she waited. Eventually the man came back home repenting, weeping and crying. Who will believe after about ten, twelve years, a man will repent and come back home weeping and crying? You see, the point I'm making is this. If you are in a relationship in which one is growing and the other one is not, the other have a heart that tends towards divorce and please don't forget. I don't like using the word divorce. I prefer using "putting away." Before divorce will take place, there have been several putting away, putting away. As that person is putting away, what is your own action? Are you also putting away? He put away, you too you put away. You put away, he put away. But if somebody is putting away and the other is not putting it back, it takes two to fight. [background noise] It's easier when it is the woman that is putting away and the man is putting. It's easier because the man has authority. It's more difficult when it is the man putting away and the woman is the one that is dragging like. It's more challenging. But I can tell you of a marriage situation where the man was even a staunch unbeliever. I tell you they married as unbelievers. So along the line, the woman now became converted and was growing in grace. The man now began to mock the Christianity. When the woman want to go to church, woman have to go to church, the man said that in fact, it cannot be better. It is what I want to be. The man will stop the church. Go and put yam on fire. Pound the yam, put it. You say okay, you can go now. After she has shown almost about another almost about one hour in the church before the woman will now go. He was just trying to frustrate God out of the woman. Deliberately again at a time, he now came with her friends, with his friends, with the hope to frustrate the woman Christianity that Christianity don't be this and all that you get. You know after several other provocations that the woman is just putting in her just holding her marriage. Godly friend, the plan is that if she's done cooking and everything, no matter what she cooks, they will just pour it away that she cooks nonsense. You know she will now get up and disgrace her in front of her friends. The man arranged that. So when they got home, they danced and everything turned. You know everything poured away. The man said, "What nonsense? What is this? This and this and this. You are so stupid." And poured everything on her. She began to cry including the husband and that was when all of them became born again that day. But you see, it takes a lot of God. It takes a lot of God. That's why I said that the deeper we go in God. But that thing is not by it's a woman who herself have died. Who was deliberately denying because we all have this tendency. But she has deliberately put away self, forget self, renounce self and was following the Lord. And eventually, just like the Bible says, that through good works you might put to silence the ignorance of foolish men. [Reference: 1 Peter 2:15]. She put them to silence by good works. So what I'm saying is that it's possible. There could be a scenario like that. There could be a scenario like that. So if one is putting away, it behooves the other one not to put away. It behooves the other one to understand the principle. One thing we don't understand is that light is stronger than darkness. It's a principle when it comes to spiritual things. Light is stronger than darkness. When darkness is becoming dark and light is becoming brighter, darkness will give way. Light will take over the way. Darkness will be diminished. Try to push darkness and light together. The light will always displace the darkness. These are principles you see. When it come to Christian principles, we are losing it today. We are losing Christian principles. We want Jehovah Sharp-Sharp. We want sharp-sharp, you know. Like we just go by, things just happen. Go and check salvation. It was not like that. Go and check the kingdom of God is like a mustard seed which a man sowed but at the end will become the mightiest of all sure. [Reference: Matthew 13:31-32]. It begins small and then begins to, it begins to, it begins to, it begins to form and then becomes something great. But that principle is lost today. That is the principle now. But patience has profit. He said with patience, possessing your soul. [Reference: Luke 21:19]. Have you read that scripture before? With patience. The promise, he said we will not become slothful but followers of those who through patience, hope and then patience obtained the promise. [Reference: Hebrews 6:12]. Some people make it an impression that people don't patiently enter into what God want to do. Yes. But it's a different scenario today there's a kind of teaching going on, there's a kind of thing going on today that somehow we are losing the fact that when you look again in Hebrews, it said after you have done the will of God, you now have need of patience. [Reference: Hebrews 10:36]. Not before you have done the will. But today we don't even want to do the will. Before we have done the will, we want to, do you understand me? We have not even done the will. You have not done the right thing before we now wait. We don't even want to do the will, but we want to obtain the promise. We are not even doing any will and we want to obtain a promise. Mind you, after you have done the correct thing, you now need to now wait before you now get it. If not, things might happen. God can fast-track certain things, but sometimes God doesn't fast-track. And if we check the reason, these things they are properly recorded. Check the Bible. It says, "Count it all joy when you fall into divers tribulation and trouble." [Reference: James 1:2]. I hope you know where I'm quoting. Count it all joy when you fall into divers. Divers means various things. Divers tribulation. One translation says, "Are your trouble increasing? Then be happy." James 1:2. [Speaker 2] James 1:2. [Speaker 1] James 1:2. You see, when we don't even have it one by one today. Happiness has gone. If you don't do it, I'm not going to do it too. And that is why today you are not seeing victory by virtuous life. You are not seeing lasting fruit of Christian faith because we are losing something very fundamental. Knowing that the trying of your faith worketh patience. [Reference: James 1:3]. Your faith needs patience. But let patience have her perfect work. Let patience, let patience have her perfect work. [Reference: James 1:4]. Do you see that if God don't work faith into patience, we cannot be perfect? You cannot be complete. You see, there's a kind of something I tell people. "In fact, I've tried. For the past six months, I've tried. I've endured." You think that you don't understand Christianity and that is why many of us don't know God. We don't know God. Can you imagine that God tell a priest, a priest of God, to wait when they had already passed childbearing years? When you have prayed and your prayer has been answered. Answered how? He had forgotten. God was not feeling that he came late. God was not feeling that he came late. But God was saying that because you did not even agree, Bible says after they have been stricken with years, Zachariah and Elizabeth. God want to give them a child and look at, do you know when they would have been praying? Please, how many years is Isaac and Rebecca prayed before God gave a child? Isaac, I think he married at the age of 40 and they were praying and they were God's people. [Reference: Genesis 25:20-21]. That was the heir of promise, the heir. You'll be thinking that for the heir, fast-fast, Esau who is not heir, fast-fast he was having children. You see, when you look at what some of the things that kept me stable when I was that twenty-one years of waiting for lecturers. The things that kept me stable. You know, some times we want it fast because of the kind of foundation we think we have. They are the one that things will stay, things will stay, go want to work patience into their faith. Why are those one that God don't have anything to do with? Look at Ishmael, he married fast-fast. Look at Esau and Jacob. Who was first settled between the two of them? Esau. Esau has been settled with army with everything. Jacob is still busy pursuing gold in Laban's house. Who is the heir? Who holds the promise? Jacob. So it is important for us to see some of these things. I hope I'm trying to answer your question. But I think it's very germane that we we make us see all of these things within the Christian faith. I don't know which version, there's a version that says "be happy." What is that version? What is this one saying? [Speaker 2] Dear brothers and sisters, whenever trouble comes to your way, yes, let it be an opportunity for whenever trouble, no says troubles. Whenever trouble, whenever trouble. Diversity of trouble. [Speaker 1] There's a transition that says, I read it and I was just laughing. I said this kind of translation, The Message Bible. Okay, what does Message say? James 1:2-4. Consider it a sheer gift. Consider it a sheer gift! A sheer gift when what? When tests and challenges come at you. When tests and challenges, not a challenge. When tests and challenges come at you from all sides. Count it a gift that God is giving you a gift. Does that sound like what we preach today? And that is why people are losing out. Any small thing in their marriage, they want to divorce. I haven't seen a child within 15 years, I will put her down and go and marry another one. Because we are losing the power of Christianity. People feel that everything about God is that everything is rosy, things are fine. God never created that impression. Look at the Bible. What God said is that all things work together for good. [Reference: Romans 8:28]. That is, everything that I will do around your life will eventually be for your good. And what is the good that God is working towards? He says to make us conform to his image. [Reference: Romans 8:29]. What God is doing with everything in our life is how to make us conform to his likeness. That is the good that God is working towards. How to make sure we become more like him. So being rich or not rich, whether marriage or no marriage, all these things is not God primary focus. But God arrange he arranges all those things in a way that we can become more like God depending on his purpose and plans for our life. There's another transition that says be happy. I read it and I said this one is interesting. "Be happy." But if you look at it, when you say you count something, what is a gift? A gift is something to make you happy. Dear my brothers and sisters, be very happy. Be very happy when all kinds of tests happens to you. Be very happy! Happy is a conditional thing. You know he's not talking about joy. Happy. Be happy when all kinds of tests happens to you but he now gave the reason. What is the reason? You are continuing to fight these troubles and you know that your faith will become stronger then. You see, what was God's focus? To make my faith stronger. God focus is that faith to build up your muscles. That is God focus in our life. So he can arrange things, arrange them, arrange them, arrange them to build us up. Today we don't have a faith that can face anything. Small problem, we are going to look for another way to escape. That kind of Christian life you have to be.