Jesus Christ defeated Satan already on the Cross, and in the glory of the Resurrection. He is risen from the dead and is Son of God with power by resurrection from among the corpses. He has said, “All power belongs to Me, in heaven and in earth.” He has said, “Go into all the world and preach the Gospel.”

He has breathed on us the power of the Holy Spirit! We are not to turn around in the face of the enemy; or in the face of false doctrine, we are to arm ourselves with the whole armor of God and march right into it!

Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Amen. It’s about time [circa 1985] we did a little more resisting. It’s about time we were prepared. Finally, I began in the Gospel of Matthew, I want to end there. Matthew, chapter 10, beginning at verse 34. “Do not think that I have come to send peace on the earth. I did not come to send peace, but a sword! I have come to set a man at variance with his father; the daughter against her mother, the daughter-in-law against the mother-in-law. A man’s foes shall be those of his own household. He that loves father or mother more than Me, is not worthy of Me. “He that loves son or daughter more than Me, is not worthy of Me.”

And, one of the most potent words in Scripture, “And, he that does not take up his cross and follow after Me, is not worthy of Me. He that saves his life will lose it. And he who would lose his life for My sake will find it.” Jesus Christ is Price of Peace; Jesus Christ is Son of Peace; Jesus Christ is King of Peace, but He said, “I did not come to bring peace to the world. I came to divide; as a sword divides.” Of course our Lord gives peace to those who trust Him. Of course Christ says, “My peace I give you, not as the world gives.” Of course we have the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding; but this is all to the believer.

Don’t you understand, as a believer, you must reach the place where taking a stand for Christ may cost you your wife, your husband, your children, your family, your in-laws, and everything else, because He’s worth it! Well, how much more; how much more His honor, and His Word. Jesus Christ [is] the Living Word; but God says, “I have exalted My Word (pats the Bible)—Scripture—above My Name. So if somebody speaks lightly of Holy Scripture; if somebody says, “It doesn’t make any difference if you’re a sinner or not, everybody’s basically good.” Then you must remember the Word of the Lord, “The heart of man is deceitful above everything and incurably sick; who can understand it.”

Nobody; only Christ can heal the sick heart and the sick soul. You don’t get people to heaven by telling them they’re getting better and better every day. You get them to heaven by telling them the truth as it is! I’m gonna tell you something, all you have to do is tell people the truth, and they’ll wanna lynch you almost on the spot. The trouble with us is, we don’t want people to dislike us. We don’t want people to speak evil of us… We want…all kinds of people to speak well of us; while we listen to the Words of Jesus Christ,“Woe unto you when all men speak well of you.” Woe…that’s an implied threat and a direct warning.

And Christ said, “You want everybody to think you’re ‘Mr and Mrs Christian; that you’re the nice guy with the sunny smile, and the lapel button, and the question marks, and the doves going up and down, and the crosses flopping around—you want everybody to say, ‘Aren’t they religious’; Woe unto you,” says Jesus. You don’t want everybody to think well of you—if everybody speaks well of you, something’s wrong with you. John the Baptist came neither eating nor drinking, They said, “Who is this lunatic?” They cut his head off. Jesus Christ came and they said, “Behold a gluttonous man, a winebibber, and friend of publicans and sinners.” And they crucified Him.

John couldn’t make it as the greatest of the prophets. Jesus couldn’t make it as God Himself—what makes you’re going to? The Book of Hebrews says, “Let us go outside the gate.” Do you know what that means in the Jewish mind? It means you go outside Jerusalem; outside of its moral—its ethical structure, outside of its religion, outside of its politics, outside of everything that was sacred—eternal—you die on a miserable Roman cross as a common criminal forsaken even by your closest disciples. The Apostle says, “Let us go forth, to Him, bearing the marks of the cross. Part of the marks of the cross, is telling it like it is.

Part of the marks of the cross is counting it all loss for Jesus’ sake. Part of the marks of the cross is to says, “Jesus said it; I believe it. Argue with Him; not with me.” You and I are messengers to deliver the message. Christ is the message; it’s never changed. On Calvary’s cross the Prince of Glory died, that we might have peace with God. The love of God was shown beyond anything man would ever comprehend to the present day to the end of eternity. But the Love of God, if it is rejected, does not bring second chances. [Those] who will not accept love, invites justice. [Those] who will not have Jesus, must face Moses.

And [those] who would be His disciple, let him deny himself; let him take up the cross, and come after Him. That means, whatever it costs; it’s Jesus. You and I have that decision before us today. There are evangelicals in the camp; men in our theological seminaries, who don’t believe the Bible is the infallible Word of God. We should point them out so everybody understands what they believe. There are people sowing discord in the Body of Christ, and schism. We should point to the schism wherever it surfaces and we should say, “This is not of God.” We should do it in love. We should speak the truth in love; but for God’s sake, the time is long past, let’s speak it.

Walter Martin

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End notes:

[1] Walter Martin, The Annihilation of Hell, CD Rom).