A contest is what we are in. We are victorious in Christ, we overcome the wicked one through faith, active faith. The seed of the devil remains in this world and we cannot be neutral. Jacob feared the hate he saw in Esau. He acted on the promises for Jacob believed what God said of doing good to him. (1 John 5:4; Genesis 32:9-12; Romans 16:20)

Speaker(s): Thomas Schaller, John Love
Sermon 12392
7:00 PM on 10/19/2022

P. Schaller –

There’s a verse in 1 John. 5. Good evening everyone. We have a family here from Finland that came in for the
wedding and that’s…would you like to stand everyone in the family? There we go. There they
are. This is Sirpa’s brother. And Sonia is getting married to Steve on Saturday, right? On
Saturday. Wow. We’re happy for you.

“Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world.” Turn to 1 John. 5:4. Let’s say that
together. This will be fun. We’ll have a little bit of fun here, okay. Very clearly, let’s read vs. 4.
Say it with me, one, two, three. 1 John. 5:4, Overcomes! Loud. Overcomes! The world. We are
born of God and overcomes the world. We are drinking the Spirit in our worship, 1 Corinthians 12:15.
We are the anointed of God.

When we come together and we are singing and worshipping, we are drinking in the Spirit that
has overcome the world. We are victorious over the world. More. Over our sin nature. We are
victorious over our sin – we have a sin nature. It exerts itself. It lives. When we are not
reckoning it to be dead, we have a lively sin nature. We also have a grave in front of us. Turn to
your neighbor and just say, there’s a grave waiting for you. There’s a grave waiting for you.
Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Maybe the Rapture happens before we die. Oh, yeah! Turn to
your neighbor and say, there is not a grave waiting for me! Okay.

Okay. Okay. Wait a minute. Now, the devil is under our feet, our sin nature crucified and Christ overcame the grave. What spirit are we of? I have to admit sometimes a spirit of defeatism. A spirit where I am down or a
spirit of unbelief. I want to show you a short story in the Bible that illustrates that principle, and
how we are overcomers and how we are called to live as overcomers. To put on the Lord Jesus
Christ. In the Body of Christ, this is the assembly tonight. We are members of the Body of Christ
and we are a small part of the family of God that is in heaven and on the earth.

Today, I was reading in the book of Acts about the growth of the church with the Gentiles.
Cornelius’ house. How it was shocking to Peter that they spoke in tongues. That the Gentiles
spoke in tongues the same way that they did at first in Pentecost. That was a proof to Peter that
God has received the Gentiles the same as the Jew. This was astounding, amazing that the
Gentiles without covenant, without the law, without circumcision, are born again just by
believing. That they are justified by faith, anointed of the Spirit, filled with the Spirit so much
that they spoke in tongues and the evidence of their life, their love, their conversion, their
repenting of sin, their turning of Christ was the evidence of Christ’s resurrection.

Constantly, the disciples and apostles were preaching the resurrection of Christ from the dead.
And the church was overcoming. Overcoming the lies of the pagan culture saying that those
gods are not any gods. You can burn them for firewood. They don’t mean a thing. They are
empty. They are vain. They are foolish. So, this spirit that we have is important.

Let’s go the very beginning of our Bible, Genesis 3, for a prefatory note if that’s a word. I think it is.
Genesis 3:15, this is in the very beginning when man fell. Chapter 3 of Genesis, that chapter is
incredibly profound. As you’ve been in our ministry, we refer to this chapter a lot in Bible
psychology, in our theology of free will and love. In our understanding of the fall of man. So,
man is fallen. He has sinned. God has a plan and he mentions in vs. 15. He’s talking to the
serpent, vs.14. Conflict. Enmity. Contest. Struggle.

Opposite polls like with magnets, right? How do they go? It is the same they repel? Opposites attract. Is that it with magnets? Yeah. In this case, we have the evil, the devil and the seed of the woman. The seed of the woman is
the Messiah. The seed of the woman that would save. The Messiah who would contradict the
evil. Always be in battle with the evil. Always confronting the evil. Don’t you love Jesus in the
gospels? It’s just so much fun to read how he was able to speak and there were Pharisees that
were listening and it contradicted their understanding. It challenged them. It disturbed them
and they started to hate him.

Because there are two seeds. There is the seed of the serpent in this world. Here’s the seed of
the serpent. Isn’t that seed spiritual? Yes. How does the seed of the serpent cause he’s not a
physical being but he puts his lie in the heart of people. So, people are born and they have a
seed of evil, and when they die, the spirit goes to another person and it goes on through
generations. There is a seed of the devil that through human history has been going on and on
and on and not stopping. It’s always been like that. Cain murdered his brother. After he
murdered his brother and Cain eventually died, the same spirit continues on to another and to
another and to another.

But there is the seed of the woman which is Christ and he is with us tonight. We have the Spirit
of Christ. We are of Christ. We’ve been born of Christ, and we are in a contest with the evil that
is in the world. We are in contest. We are there in Christ’s place. We are here with the Spirit of
Christ. We are victorious over the lie. We are confrontational in an appropriate way. It just
happens. Maybe even without our awareness of it we are just in contradiction to the world that
we live in. They may smell it, discern it, recognize it, listen to you and know that you are
different. This is a good thing.

My message tonight is simply that we want this. We are part of this. We are enjoying it. We are
aware of it. My message tonight is to encourage you in it. For you to recognize that you are not
a neutral party. You are not indifferent. You are born and victorious over the world, over the
evil, over the ideas, the ideology, the conversations, the discussions. You are different. This is,
this leads us to the story.

Many of you are aware of the battle between Esau and Jacob in the womb of their mother. You
remember the story. they were twins. Did I get the names right? Their father, Isaac. They were
twins in the womb. One was called, one was born coming out second holding onto the heel of his brother. The heel is here in chapter 3:15. I understand that word means crushed. That the
heel of Christ would crush the head of the serpent, virtually killing it. And then you will bruise
his heel cause it took some force for him to crush the head which wounded his heel so to speak.
Which I think is a simple injury recovering easily from bruising the heel. Christ was tortured,
crucified, buried, but rose and is victorious over the evil, the seed of the woman. I’m sorry. The
seed of the serpent.

Now, if you look at this story in Genesis of the two wrestling in the womb, we have – where do
we find it, in 26 is it? No, before that. Twenty-five? Thank you. Nineteen. You’re doing the work
I should have done. I was going to kind of pass over this but – Genesis 25:22-23. You can read the
story and digest it. It’s a beautiful story actually of this contest. Again, I don’t want to say, you
can’t live a neutral life. You are one or the other. You cannot live in this world and just say I’m
going neutral. You can’t. That’s not the way to live. There’s something a lot better.

As the story progresses, Jacob steals Esau’s birthright and Esau decides he’s going to kill his
brother, Genesis 27:41. Esau hated Jacob. You know, that’s – a lot of people don’t live in the hate
zone. They jus kind of in a natural way, but these two seeds are, they are powerful. Both lines
are. This line is powerful with hatred. This line is powerful with righteousness, with God, with
love, with grace. Be aware of it. Be aware of what spirit you are of. Be aware of where you land
in regards to issues in life and be encouraged. That’s why our local assembly is so important.
I want to make something clear. We don’t think too highly of ourselves.

I don’t think we do. We don’t think too highly of ourselves as people. We aren’t anything particularly special. We don’t
think highly of ourselves in some way that is of the flesh, but we are studying life and we
understand how weak we can be, how wrong we can be, and how much we need God. That’s
the point of this seed, Christ. It’s him, isn’t it? It’s his Spirit. It’s him who will help me. It’s him
who will uphold me, bless me, carry me. If there’s anything good that happens in my life, any
love out of my heart, any joy in my life and thanksgiving and worship that comes in our life is
because of him. That seed. That when we were born again, we were born again of God. And it’s
Christ in us that we are glorying in.

Notice vs. 41. This will be just a few minutes here but look at it. I will kill him. And for Esau, not
a problem. He was a hunter. He was a tough guy. He was a naturally minded guy and he doesn’t
even realize – maybe he does. I don’t know. I’m just saying this is strong. I will kill my brother.
Jacob knew this. He knew this. That’s our last point here. He knew this, and he went to God.
And he was afraid. You read it in vs. 32 and how he managed and how he tried to, he wanted to
pacify Esau with the animals going out in waves. Didn’t he have three waves of animals? A lot of
animals as gifts to his brother to try and appease his brother. Tone it down. Try to win his favor
and Jacob was coming up at the back. But there were waves of animals as gifts to give to his
brother cause he was afraid of his brother and he knew his brother could kill him.

That is where we land now with this prayer and this is the point. Chapter 32:9. l by the way, I
really believe in our heritage as Christians that we have fathers in our faith. And that our fathers
have walked with God. Our fathers are righteous men. Our fathers – though imperfect, but our
fathers were ordained of God in the work of the ministry. Our fathers lived before us. They gave
us secrets or another way of saying it, the Holy Spirit used them to speak the Bible into our
hearts and we receive secrets from God. Jesus said you are my friends because I tell you my
secrets in John. 15 and Deuteronomy 29:29. And to us and to our children and our children’s children.
Jacob is in trouble and he’s saying this prayer.

He says in vs. 10, vs. 9. So, the Lord told Jacob to go back to your country and he said I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies, vs. 10-11.
He’s afraid. it’s real. He’s like a man like us. We are living in a world that does sometimes bother
us like that. It does. It’s here. We are in a world that oppresses, intimidates, puts down,
discourages.

But this is what he said, vs. 12. Now, I want you to underline that part. “And you said.” God, you
said you will do me good and that’s what I think prayer is. That this spirit we are of here is when
we say to God, you said. We’ll put here in big letters, “YOU SAID.” That’s where we live. What
did he say? Vs. 12. That’s what he said. How do we pray? We could be in the world and feel it.
They’re against. They’re against. They’re against. They’re against. Then we have another spirit
and we say you said, Lord. That greater is he that is in me than he that is in the world.

And you said that by faith we overcome the world. And you said your Son was raised from the
dead and we were raised with him. And you said you are for me and not against me. You’ll
never leave me, never forsake me. You said ask and it shall be given you, knock and it shall be
open; seek and you will find. You said it. I believe it. We are embracing it. That’s the spirit of our
church. It’s the spirit in your life. It’s the spirit when you are home in the garage or in your
home. It’s the spirit when you get up in the morning.

I got to say it again. I think I made it clear. This is not a neutral battle. This is not where you can
just float. No, it’s engagement. Cause Esau is out to kill me. I fear him. I know he will do it and
my wife and my children he will take us out. But you said to my father Abraham, my
grandfather Abraham and my dad, Isaac, that you would bless our seed and multiply us and
that we are a great nation. We are a great people. So, you have to protect us. You deal with my
enemy, Esau. And the seed of the serpent and whatever he is doing cause that’s the nature of
life for us. We have to learn what God has said, stand in it, and overcome our enemies by faith.
And “this is the victory that overcomes the world, even our faith.” And our faith is coming from
what God has said. What God has said.

Remember that great message, “Throne Words?” That’s really what – it’s the same message.
What God has said is what we have built our lives on and the result is that as a Body we have
the spirit of overcoming. Sometimes when I’m by myself I have a spirit of fear or a spirit of anxiety or a spirit of unbelief or a spirit of confusion. When I am in fellowship with you or in my
prayer life, the Lord anoints us. Or in doing his will you find the anointing of God with you in
what he is doing and you have the spirit that is overcoming the world.

That’s all. That’s a good message. I want you to take that and put it in your pipe and smoke it. I
want you to have that kind of smoke. I want you to take it in your heart and believe it and be
built up in it and not take any other position in it because in Romans 16 it says and “God shall
bruise Satan under your feet shortly.” Let me find the exact – 16:20 I think. Let me put it up on
the screen. Yeah, there it is. Romans 16:20, okay. Let’s study that for a second.

Why does he say “bruise?” it’s the same word, isn’t it? Bruising the heel. But under Jesus’ heel
was bruised and he rose and went. He sent the Spirit to us. We are his Body. And now we are
the one that is putting Satan under our foot shortly. It sounds like anticipating the victory over
Satan. That we anticipating the victory over him and over the false prophets and the heretics
and the teachers of law in the Christian life where we would live by law which is false teaching,
false doctrine. And we are victorious over that curse that came upon us through the law. Now
we are living in a world where we are saying, yeah, it hurts sometimes. Yeah, there’s fear. Yeah,
we know all about it but that’s not our spirit because God said and that’s what we are
embracing.

Okay, P. Love is going to say a word and pray for the offering. That’s it for me. I’m with you
guys. Praise the Lord!

P. Love –

P. Schaller said we could smoke a pipe! No, I’m kidding. Wow. What a great word.
What a great thought. “Greater is he that is in you…” I love that verse. Shortly, amen. And when
he talked about the Rapture earlier, he said we just anticipate and everyone cheered. It sounds
like we want to go, amen? I mean young people think no, we got to get a chance to live. You
won’t be singing that song for a very long time before you say, Lord, come quickly. Amen. So,
wow.

Just a quick thought tonight maybe just to tack on to what we just heard. And just to consider
this thought. How quickly – remember when Paul wrote to the Galatians, he opened this epistle
and the first thing he said was I marvel that you are so soon removed from him that called you
into the grace of Christ and moving in the direction of another gospel, which he said is not
another gospel at all. Notice the words he used. How quickly it happened.

Because apparently it was a matter of a few months before Paul had gone, preached the gospel
of grace, declared the finished work of Christ and then the trouble makers came in behind him
and troubled these believers and they went quickly from trusting completely in the grace of
God and now in the third chapter he wanted to know by asking this question, who cast a spell
upon you? Who bewitched you? Because you began by faith. You began trusting God.

You began in the Spirit. Now, do you think that you’re going to be brought into maturity by the
works of the flesh?
Think of how quickly this can happen. In Exodus 15, the children of Israel are delivered by the hand
of God through the Red Sea. Miraculous. Absolutely miraculous. What do they do when they
get on the other side of the Red Sea? They sing the praises of God. The song of Miriam is
declared by the whole company of Israel. And yet, how long did that last? That celebration, that
dependence upon God, that manifestation of his power, his mercy and his ability to redeem his
people? How long did it last? Till Exodus 16. Quickly. From Exodus 15, singing, worshipping,
praising God.

Just thinking we went through that sea on dry ground. Think about that. Dry ground. To me, I
imagine sometimes going through the Red Sea and thinking dry ground. It’s dry. Listen, when
we get a big rain here in Baltimore, my backyard doesn’t dry out for four or five days. It’s still
muddy. It’s still wet. The children of Israel saw the sea open and the ground was dry and they
passed through. And they celebrated it when they got to the other side. How long did it last?
Not even a chapter when they began to murmur before God and say, listen. God, why did you
take us up out of Egypt? We know the answer. It’s hypothetical. Because there was not enough
graves to bury us in Egypt so you brought us out here. How quickly.

Then think about it. Acts 2, what happened in Acts 2? The Spirit of God descended. Grace was
proclaimed and again just a few chapters later, the 15 th chapter, what do we read? Now grace is
questioned. That’s how quickly it happens.

I think the message is clear to us. God wants us to realize – sometimes it’s not as though we
don’t say God it’s not that I don’t believe in grace at all. The problem is that we don’t believe
that grace does everything. And that’s what God wants to declare. That’s what God is trying to
tell us because that heel that crushed the head of the serpent giving the devil a PHD,
permanent head damage, right? The work of the cross accomplished that. It has delivered us. It
has set us free, and now we should just continue to trust in that same great grace that saved us
and delivered us.

It’s like Paul spoke about it in Romans 15. He described our condition, every one of them. He
said remember, remember when you were without strength? No strength at all. Remember
when you were ungodly? Remember when you were actively sinning against God? Remember
when you were his enemies? Remember that?

And then what did God do? Well, he delivered us. He saved us while we were in that condition.
I love the use of the words “much more.” If while we were enemies we were reconciled to God
by the death of his Son, much more now that we are his children what do you suppose he’ll do
for us? What do you suppose? He’ll keep us. He’ll preserve us. He’ll carry us. He’ll get us through our present crisis or difficulty or whatever it may be. In other words, the same grace
that delivered us, is the promise from God – and by the way. It’s even greater. It’s even greater.
The same grace that delivered us, what does it say? Even when sin abounds in our lives what
does grace do? It superabounds. Much more. That’s what God promises us.

I think that the devil would love nothing more than to allow us to acknowledge our deliverance
but then take us from a place of worship and praise and celebration and say okay. You’re saved.
Congratulations. Now get back to work. Get back to delivering yourself. Get back to good
behavior. Get back to right living. And what we have to fight off is the tendency to live that way
and say I’m trusting in the same grace that brought me through the Red Sea to get me through
the rest of my life. I’m trusting in the same grace that delivered me from my sinful condition or
even more than that, while I was sinning Christ died for me. I’m trusting in that kind of grace
and God says I will do that for you.

I think he devil wants to make sure – he can’t take away our salvation and he knows that.
Unfortunately, believers don’t believe what he already believes. But he knows he can’t take
away our salvation, so what does he want us to do? He wants to make sure we go through life
without rest. God’s promise is I’m here to give you rest. And then when you function and you
serve and you love and you win souls, we do it from a position of faith rest because the work is
done.

So, Paul said I marvel that you are so quickly, so soon removed from the grace. In the book of
Acts, grace came and they believed it. But after a while it was like we can’t expect that grace
will do everything. And yet Acts 15, after that great counsel they said, yes. Grace does. It saves
you. It keeps you. It’s going to teach you to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts. Just keeping the
same God who delivered you, who is gracious to you, and expect from him much, much more.
Amen. Amen.

P. Schaller – One short word. As they were singing, I was thinking about how – what a great,
beautiful worship song. This thought came to me from Acts 15 and how there was a contest
about the gospel and the leaders were talking. Apostles and elders. They were talking together
to consider this matter in vs. 6.

You’ve been sitting here a long time and listening very well, but I just got to get this out. I think
it might speak to you. Acts 15:6, do you see it? And then there was disputing, right? Vs. 7. Much
disputing. When there had been much disputing, Peter rose up. I want to say it’s very easy for
us to have disputes, to have differences, to have different opinions and to be talking and talking
and talking. And there is a totally, a total potential for some kind of chaos and disagreement.
But Peter rose up. The matters were not simple. They were very profound about the gospel.
Were they to be circumcised or not? Were they to keep the law or not? And so on. If you read vs. 15, you can see that. Peter rose up. I just praise God for the authority of God that is on
certain people that they can rise up and say something and it’s clear. And the Spirit speaks to
you and you get built up in the faith.

Cause without that, there’s so much room for people to be talking and listening and to be divided. To be wandering around like sheep without a shepherd. But this is a good example.
Look at 15:7, Peter rose up and then skip over to James being in charge, vs. 13. He gave the
summary and he gave the conclusion and made things clear. And that was the end. It’s over. It’s
done. And the people rejoiced. It goes down to vs. 22. You’ll have to read it. I don’t want to get
into a message here. I just want you to see. People rejoiced. Vs. 15. It goes down through, is it
vs. 30? Verse 31.

I just want to say that I think God has ordained ministries so there would be a voice. It’s up to
you to read your Bible and to be in the Spirit to get the same message. The same message.
Finally, I was saying to a brother recently, you have to have an outer voice in your life. You have
an inner voice. You have God and an inner voice, but you need a church so that you have an
outer voice. You need an outer voice. You need a pastor-teacher. You need somebody that’s
speaking with authority from God. That you’ll get God focused, God orientated and really,
simply oriented to the living God. Cause that’s where we find our unity and our agreement and
find the grace and love and the joy.

Alright. So, you’ve been a great audience tonight. Would you stand with me. Turn to your
neighbor and say this has been a beautiful time. I got something out of it I’m taking home. Jesse
Feyers is going to do the announcements and then say a prayer.

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