Calvary Road Baptist Church

“THE VICTORY IS ALREADY WON!” 

We live in interesting times. That, of course, is an understatement. Today we are celebrating Easter, after a fashion, in very unusual circumstances. Throughout the country, Churchgoers are subjected to a stifling of worship, such as has never before been seen in Christian history. And yet, just yesterday, I learned that the United States Department of Justice, headed by Attorney General Barr, has threatened to take action against pandemic crackdowns on religious ceremonies.[1] My heart aches for Christians caught in this dilemma.

For 2000 years, the forces of darkness, and this wicked Satan-dominated world, have sought to stifle Christian worship, Christian witness, and the ongoing proclamation that Jesus saves. However, for the last couple of weeks, our local governments (think of that for a moment, our governments) have succeeded where all before have failed.

The Roman Caesars failed. The Inquisition of the Roman Catholic Church failed. The general secretaries of the Soviet Union failed. Adolf Hitler and the Nazi regime failed. Chairman Mao and his successors in communist China failed. And even the imams and mullahs in the Muslim world fail to prevent Christians from gathering, worshiping, studying the Word of God together, and doing what was necessary to reach the lost with the Gospel.

However, because of the current health care crisis, people have become so frightened of a previously unknown virus, and so concerned about the behavior of their neighbors, as well as our understandable concern about endangering the lives of others, and taking appropriate precautions in light of our preexisting health concerns, that we have all but forsaken our constitutionally guaranteed liberties in favor of a nationwide lockdown. I will admit to you that I am stunned at these developments.

We now have reports of a police officer arresting someone who was paddleboarding at the beach in Malibu, though he was hundreds of yards from the nearest person.[2] We also have a report of a father playing T-ball with his six-year-old daughter in a park in Colorado being arrested by two police officers who were without gloves or masks and handcuffing the dad in front of his daughter.[3] Thus, the officers violated health mandates to arrest him for presumably violating health mandates. What have we come to?

Can anyone tell me what is currently being done in our town about the homeless population, or throughout the rest of Los Angeles County, whose entire existence is a health care nightmare? I ask because until authorities address the most severe health risks in a society, it is tough for me to understand the apprehension of a paddleboarder, or a T-ball dad or people sitting in their cars with family members and windows rolled up as enforcement of a law to protect people’s health and welfare.

Yesterday I was made aware of a federal judge in Louisville, KY issuing a Temporary Restraining Order against the local police chief, preventing the police department from interfering with the parking lot worship of a congregation whose people would gather in their Church parking lot, with windows rolled up, obeying all social isolation rules, but who the police department still wanted to either ticket or arrest.[4] Again I wonder, what have we come to?

While you are pondering these issues and deciding about your compliance with these restrictions in the future, you might wonder why law enforcement agencies are moving in this way against that portion of the population that is historically most supportive of law enforcement agencies. Why is action taken against people in a Church parking lot but not a grocery store parking lot, with people in the grocery store lots getting out of their cars?

While I wonder about the strategic thinking of law enforcement officials and other government authorities who seem to be deaf to the pleas of their most loyal constituencies, the Churchgoers of our nation, I 1reminded of First John 5.19: 

And we know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness.” 

I would caution everyone in uniform to remember that although those wielding authority in the lives of others are stated to be God’s ministers, Romans 13.4, “For he is the minister of God to thee for good,” it is also true that uniformed officers work for organizations that are part of a world system that is described as wickedness. Anyone in law enforcement is advised to recognize that the likelihood of being someday called on by their higher-ups to take actions that are not only unlawful and unconstitutional but also immoral and unscriptural. Being in law enforcement is a dangerous and sometimes a thankless position, but all the more reason that anyone who wears a badge and carries a pistol should be a God-fearing and wise individual who seeks to know God’s Word as much as he knows the law.

May I caution everyone under the sound of my voice to exercise wisdom and discretion whenever you deal with anyone who wears a uniform and carries a weapon? You do not know what kind of day that person is having, or what threats must be dealt with. Therefore, I urge you to be courteous, soft-spoken, and as respectful as possible. That individual wants to go home after the shift is over, and you should never intentionally create tension in any law enforcement official’s life.

These things said I want to bring a message to you from God’s Word that is related to our celebration of Easter Sunday. But before I proceed any farther, I want to shine a light in your mind on a consideration of some patterns related to the conduct of this evil world in which we live, and how much of what is valued in this culture is, in fact, a counterfeit imitation of what is set forth in God’s Word.

We have a movement in the United States known as the LBGTQ movement. It is a very powerful political faction seeking to coerce our culture into not only tolerating their lifestyle choices but also coercing as many people as they can actually to approve of their conduct. Almost any observer would conclude their efforts have been very successful, and any cries by them that they are a vulnerable and helpless minority is propaganda hyperbole. Anyone who knows me recognizes that I have no desire to harm anyone in the LBGTQ community, physically, materially, or emotionally. I seek only their conversion to Christ, as I seek the conversion of all who do not know the Savior.

However, as much as those in the LGBTQ community may deny Bible truth about their chosen lifestyle, it is a lifestyle that is, in fact, a counterfeit in many respects of the institution God initially created in Genesis chapter 3, which we know to be the home. God’s ordained family unit is comprised of a husband who is a man and a wife who is a woman, typically producing children as a byproduct of their physical union.

The counterfeit conduct engaged in by some members of the LBGTQ community has been to go so far as to engage in what they term marriage. Others, by various means, arrange for the conception and delivery of children in those cases where adoption is not chosen. But understand, it is all a counterfeit of the genuine, the real, and the legitimate home as God has designed it.

Other examples, this time related to both the family and the Church. Some of you know the camaraderie associated with playing on sports teams, which includes the love and brotherhood that is developed on baseball teams, basketball teams, football teams, lacrosse teams, volleyball teams, and just about every other team sport. So important is the team aspect of these activities, that even individual sports such as track and field, gymnastics, swimming, and golf, are frequently organized in such a way as to promote the concept of team and team spirit.

Yet other examples that are even closer to the biblical model are the various military and paramilitary organizations, such as the Armed Forces and uniformed law enforcement agencies. These are also replicas of a concept whose origin is found in the Word of God, and they approximate in their bonding and lifelong friendships what God provided for in the family, the extended family, and the Church congregation.

When you have an opportunity, read First Corinthians 9.24-27, where the Apostle Paul provides instruction about Christian discipline using the analogy of a runner in training or a boxer in training. Consider also the Apostle Paul’s comments in Second Timothy 2.3-4, where he writes to Timothy about enduring hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ, or Second Corinthians 10.4, where he refers to his evangelistic philosophy in terms of military strategy.

A final example is various types of clubs and gangs, where the trust and social cohesion demanded in those organizations serve as a substitute for both family and Church life.

The point that I seek to make to you is that so much of this life in the world in which we now live has embraced as their concepts that find their origin in the proper practice in the Word of God. Whether it be a marriage as God designed, the family unit and the rearing of children as God planned, or the living of the Christian life in the Church community in the nonviolent and inoffensive conduct of spiritual warfare, that has been transformed by both nature and necessity into military and paramilitary activity by individual members of the Armed Forces, our national government, our state government, or local law enforcement agencies.

In each instance, there is social bonding, friendships, camaraderie, and the development of trust that is highly treasured and enduring. However, these are secular versions of the spiritual institutions God has provided for His children in our homes and Churches. The reality is that what those individuals prize in those various groups and social structures is incomparable to the reality provided for us by God.

You might be wondering at this point, what in the world does this have to do with Easter Sunday? It has a great deal to do with Easter Sunday because Easter Sunday was the beginning of something that will have its conclusion at the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus Christ in power and great glory.

There is a reason why the Lord Jesus Christ is identified as the King of Kings and Lord of lords.[5] There was a reason why the Lord Jesus Christ rode into Jerusalem on the foal of an ass in fulfillment of Zechariah’s prophecy, in what is termed His triumphal entry.[6] At that time, the Lord Jesus Christ arrived on the scene in typical Middle Eastern fashion, as a king coming to His people in peace. His peaceful intentions toward His people was displayed by Him riding on that donkey colt.

Several days later, when my Savior was taken into custody in the Garden of Gethsemane, not only the religious establishment in Jerusalem but also the reigning world secular and military power, Rome, escalated their vicious, cruel, illegal, and profoundly unjust assault upon the Lord of glory.[7] The restraint He displayed in the face of such insults is impossible for creatures to comprehend. Nevertheless, He endured the cross, despising the shame, Hebrews 12.2-3.

Three days later, of course, He rose from the dead, putting on display for the world and the angelic host to see His conquest, His domination, and, yes, His victory over sin death, Hell, and the grave. I declare to you on this Easter Sunday that the victory is already won. That is why at the conclusion of my message, brother Cyril will lead us in singing “Victory In Jesus.”

How can anyone deny that the Lord Jesus Christ won the victory? He voluntarily succumbed to death, and then won the victory over death by rising from the dead. He defeated the Devil at every turn, avoiding the slaughter he orchestrated in Bethlehem,[8] thwarting his temptations at the beginning of His earthly ministry,[9] always standing against his minions (the chief priests, scribes, and Pharisees, who sought to oppose Him at every turn), and whose last gasp effort to defeat Him was Judas Iscariot’s betrayal.[10]

Little did the Devil know that though he meant Judas Iscariot’s betrayal for evil, God’s grand and wise Providence overruled Satan’s devices to achieve what had been ordained from the foundation of the world by the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.[11] Did the Lord Jesus Christ not thwart the evil intentions of the ungodly religious rulers? Did He not accomplish His goal despite the opposition of the Roman governor Pontius Pilate?

By every measure, using every standard, the Lord Jesus Christ’s victory was complete and untarnished. He then rose from the dead, victorious, gifted His disciples with the indwelling Holy Spirit, and ascended to His Father’s right hand on high, where He currently reigns in majesty supreme.[12] He is, by any notion of victory, the Victor.

Turning to the future, we see, in Revelation chapter 19, John’s vision of our Lord’s glorious Second Coming in power and great glory. We notice in Revelation 19 that He is shown in verse 11 to be riding a white horse, and is described in verse 16 as the King of Kings and Lord of lords. To be sure, the Lord Jesus Christ’s return to this earth will be for the purpose of taking possession of that which is rightfully His, which was surrendered by Adam to Satan on the occasion of the fall.

However, there is another sense in which the Lord Jesus Christ is preparing to do something that conquering kings and victorious generals have done in the past. That is to lead a victory parade. Whenever a Roman general achieved a great victory, he would return to Rome and lead a procession through the streets of the city, giving the soldiers who experienced victory with him the opportunity to march in triumph before the cheering crowd.

Such has been done from the time of Caesar down to our present day. In the United States, we had ticker-tape parades through New York City, where we honored our generals, where we celebrated our heroes, and where we cheered their accomplishments. So it will be at the second coming of Christ. Only when the Lord Jesus Christ comes back, and we who are His in formation behind Him, there will be a celebration such as this world has never seen. Never before will the angelic host behold what the Lord Jesus Christ and His own will put on display to celebrate His great victory won on the cross of Calvary.

All of the ticker-tape parades in New York City, all of the celebrations in Rome, in Berlin, in Paris, in London, in Moscow, or Beijing will be trifling in comparison to the majesty and pageantry that will be put on display by our glorious Savior.

“All right,” you might say. “Okay,” you might be thinking. We have the victory that was won on the cross of Calvary and the resurrection of Christ, occurring 2000 years ago. And, we have the celebration of victory that is predicted to occur in Revelation chapters 19 and 20 and is made possible by resurrection’s parade in First Corinthians 15.20-28.

The question before us today is what has been happening for these past 2000 years? That is what is truly exciting for the believer in Jesus Christ, for those of us who have been rescued from our sins by this glorious Savior to whom we have committed the safekeeping of our souls, who has made possible by His sacrifice the forgiveness of our sins, our adoption into the family of God, and our ultimate salvation and deliverance into His presence in glory before He brings us back to earth at the time of His Second Coming as His bride.

So, what is happening now? And what has been happening for the last 2000 years? What has been happening can be explained in three ways, by focusing our attention on the activities, distinct as to description but inseparable in reality, of the three persons of the Triune Godhead: 

First, GOD THE FATHER, THE FIRST PERSON OF THE TRINITY 

As for God the Father, we are told of His activities in several different passages, beginning back in Psalm 110.1, where we read, 

“The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool.” 

This verse is echoed in Matthew 22.44, Mark 12.36, and Luke 20.43 by the Savior, in Acts 2.35 by Peter in his Pentecostal sermon, and by the writer of Hebrews in 1.13.

David referred in that psalm, and it was referred to by the Lord Jesus Christ in three Gospels, was rehearsed to the multitudes by Peter in his great Pentecostal sermon, and mentioned again in Hebrews 1.13, to God the Father’s activity during this era in which we live. He is making Christ’s enemies His footstool.

Picture that in your mind, while attempting to see it with an oriental perspective. There is no position that is more humiliating to the oriental mind of old than to be treated as someone’s footstool. Yet that is what God the Father is doing during this era.

If you do not come to Jesus Christ, if God the Father does not draw you to His Son,[13] He is then preparing you to be His footstool. To be God’s footstool is not good for anyone. 

Next, THE LORD JESUS CHRIST, THE SECOND PERSON OF THE TRINITY 

We now turn to the activities of the Lord Jesus Christ during this era in which we live. There are three activities the Lord Jesus Christ is involved with while He sits on His throne at the Father’s right hand: 

First, from His throne on high, the Lord Jesus Christ is saving souls. Yes, He’s doing that at a great distance, which is why the justification of a sinner has to be accomplished by the means of faith. Think about it. From where He is, and from where you are an impassable gulf, of not only great distance but also a tremendous spiritual gulf, separates the defiled from the Holy, the unrighteous from the Righteous, and the dead from the One who is life. Yet from so far away, Jesus saves. If you, a condemned sinner in the sight of God, will simply trust Him, will look to Him in faith, He will save you as surely and as securely as though you were standing in front of His throne.

Next, what the Lord Jesus Christ is doing for us during this present era, specifically what He’s doing for those of us who know Him as personal Savior, is to intercede for us as our advocate on high. This He is declared to be doing in First John 2.1: 

“My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” 

Then there is the third thing the Lord Jesus Christ is doing during His enthronement in heaven. He is functioning as the Head of the Church. He provides leadership for the various Churches of Jesus Christ that have been constituted to worship God, to submit to the leadership of the Holy Spirit of God, to function as the temple of God, and to seek to fulfill the Great Commission our Lord Jesus Christ has given to us. At the same time trying to obey His commandment that we love one another.[14] 

Finally, THE HOLY SPIRIT, THE THIRD PERSON OF THE TRINITY 

We turn now to the Holy Spirit of God. What is He doing, in general terms?

First, for believers in Jesus Christ, He indwells us, He teaches us, He guides us, and He works in our lives to consecrate us for service and sanctify us so that we will be gradually conformed to the image of Christ.

Second, for unbelievers, the ministry of the Holy Spirit is to convict of sin and righteousness and judgment to come, working in unsaved people’s lives so that they will consider the claims of Christ. Of course, the Spirit of God is also the agent of regeneration, and no one passes from death to life who has not been born again by the Spirit of God.

Third, the Holy Spirit also serves as the Restrainer of evil in this world, and there will come a time when He will be removed from that aspect of His ministry here among men and evil will be manifested as it has not been manifested since before the flood. Then the Lord Jesus Christ will come.[15] 

There you have it. The war has been won. You might think to yourself, “But there has been spiritual warfare for the last 2,000 years.” Yes, but wars are almost always won before the fighting stops, before the enemy surrenders or is subdued.

Think back to World War Two. The war in Europe had been won more than a year before the fighting stopped. The war against Japan was won months before the atom bombs demanded that the Japanese Empire admit defeat.

I could provide other examples, but the fact remains. Jesus Christ secured victory when He died on the cross and rose from the dead three days later. At His Second Coming, the victory parade will celebrate what has been a foregone conclusion for two thousand years.

So, what have these last 2,000 years been about? What is our present distress all about? It’s about two things, really: On one hand, it is about securing for Christ a bride, those who turn from their sins to trust Him so they will not be made by God into His footstool, a prelude to an eternity in Hellfire. On the other hand, this time is our time to worship and serve our time to demonstrate that we are soldiers of the cross, thereby positioning ourselves behind our conquering King during His glorious return to reclaim this world as His own. And, remember, Romans 13.11: 

“And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.” 

So, where are you in all this? Are you one of Christ’s own, worshiping, and serving Him as a prelude to your home going as preparation for your return with His entourage as a member of the bride of Christ? Or are you footstool material, preparing yourself and everyone you can influence to reject the Gospel, earning your reputation as God’s footstool, all the while merrily skipping your way to the lake of fire?

I urge you to consider the claims of Jesus Christ, the victor in this long but already decided war.

__________

[1] https://justthenews.com/government/courts-law/doj-signals-possible-intervention-pandemic-crackdowns-religious-ceremonies-m?fbclid=IwAR1N8oOPUjSi3dYwM7h5A1UntJ_PN2zqS46v3zj8_NA3v7ivrr8lYJJxOrQ

[2] https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-04-03/paddle-boarder-arrested-in-malibu-after-flouting-coronavirus-closures

[3] https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/colorado-man-handcuffed-for-allegedly-violating-social-distancing-guidelines-by-playing-t-ball-with-family-at-park

[4] https://www.wave3.com/2020/04/11/district-judge-grants-restraining-order-against-enforcement-stopping-drive-in-church-services/

[5] Revelation 19.16

[6] Psalm 118.25-26; Zechariah 9.9; John 12.12-15

[7] John 18.1-12

[8] Matthew 2.16-18

[9] Matthew 4.1-11

[10] John 13.27

[11] Revelation 13.8

[12] Psalm 16.11; 110.1; Matthew 26.64; Mark 12.36; 14.62; 16.19; Luke 20.42; 22.69; John 3.13; 13.1; 14.2-4; Acts 1.9-11; 2.33, 34-35; 7.56; Romans 8.34; Ephesians 1.20; 6.9; Colossians 3.1; Second Thessalonians 1.7; Hebrews 1.3, 13; 8.1; 9.24; 10.12-13; 12.2; 1 Peter 3.22; Revelation 19.11

[13] John 6.44

[14] John 13.34-35

[15] 2 Thessalonians 2.6-7

Would you like to contact Dr. Waldrip about this sermon? Please contact him by clicking on the link below. Please do not change the subject within your email message. Thank you.

Pastor@CalvaryRoadBaptist.Church