Ron Dunn Podcast - Living In Victory (Ron Dunn Podcast)

Episode Date: July 6, 2022

Ron Dunn begins a new sermon series "Life Of Victory"

This book opens with God reaffirming his promises that he made, and he says, As I was with Moses, so I will also be with you. And so we're going to look at this first chapter because it sort of sets the stage. And I think it will help us if we will remember that the Christian life could be divided into what we might call two stages. As I mentioned last night, especially the epistles of Paul make it very clear that everything that happened to the Israelites happened as an example for us. In other words, you go back and see how God dealt with the people of Israel, and that is a kind of object lesson. That is in picture form of what the Christian life is about.

It's brought out in principles and precepts in the New Testament, but you'll find it in pictures in the Old Testament. And so God is giving us an object lesson, and everything that happened to these Israelites and the way that God dealt with them and led them is a picture of how God will deal with us and works with us. And so I think it can help us if we look at the Christian life in two stages, what we can call the Red Sea stage and the Jordan River stage.

It was that way with Israel. First of all, God led them out of Egypt, out of the bondage of Egypt and across the Red Sea. That would correspond to our initial conversion experience. What the Red Sea was to Israel, the cross is to us. Just as Israel celebrated the Passover, we celebrate the Lord's Supper. Both of them look backwards, you see, to that time of redemption. And when Jesus instituted the Lord's Supper, he was in fact doing away with the Passover. And so we as Christians don't celebrate the Passover any longer. We celebrate the Lord's Supper. But when Israel passed over, when the death angel passed over the folks that night, all those that had the blood applied to the doorposts of their home, that was redemption.

And then God led them out of Egypt and crossed the Red Sea. That was that initial act of redemption. And that, as I said, corresponds to Calvary, the cross to us. So there is the Red Sea stage. Now, as I think I made reference to it last night, in Deuteronomy chapter 6, verse 23, Moses says to the people, And the Lord showed signs and wonders, great and sore, upon Egypt, upon Pharaoh, and upon all his household before our eyes. And he brought us out from thence, that he might bring us in, to give us the land which he sware unto our fathers. And in the 23rd verse, you have there the two stages. Moses says he brought us out in order that he might

bring us in. And so there is the Red Sea stage, and then there is the Jordan River stage. And as I said last night, the Jordan River and passing into Canaan does not in the Bible symbolize death as it does in many of the hymn books, but rather it symbolizes the simple fact of moving into the fullness of salvation. Somebody has said, Egypt is salvation and Canaan is sanctification. And that's close enough to be accurate enough for us. So there is the Jordan River stage. First of all, we crossed the Red Sea initially in salvation.

But that just sets the stage, that just clears the deck so God can do in our lives what he wants to do. The initial act of salvation is not the whole business. It's just like building a house or building a church. You first of all lay the foundation. But nobody would say that the foundation is the completed structure. You lay the foundation in order that you can erect upon that foundation a structure. And so Paul says that a foundation has been laid in 1 Corinthians 3. He says that foundation is Jesus Christ. And then he says, take heed how you build thereupon. And that if any man build with wood, hay, or stubble,

in the day of judgment, it's going to be put to the test. God is responsible for laying the foundation. We're responsible for building the superstructure. And in the day of judgment, you and I will be judged on the basis of the materials that we have used in building our Christian life. So first of all, we pass through the Red Sea, that is the initial act of salvation. But that is only in order that we might cross over the Jordan River into the Promised Land, into the fullness of salvation, so that we can experience all that God wants us to experience. And that's what the book of Joshua is about.

It is the picture of how God finally got his people out of the wilderness into the Promised Land. Now, we're going to see during these mornings that there was what you could call a legitimate wilderness experience. Most of the time when you and I think of the word wilderness or we talk about it, we automatically assume that that was altogether unplanned and that it was wholly because of the disobedience and disbelief of Israel. But that's only partially true. There was a legitimate wilderness experience.

God just didn't intend them to spend 40 years there. He intended them to spend a few days there in order to prepare them for Canaan, but he didn't intend for them to spend the whole generation there. There is a legitimate wilderness experience. And I tried to do some research on this a few years ago, reading biographies and such. I have not been able to find any Christian who has written their biography that I've been able to get hold of who did

not have at least one wilderness experience in their life. I don't know that that is necessarily imperative today. I think a person can be saved and from that moment go on to live a consistent life of daily victory. But while that is possible, I don't believe it's probable. I don't know of anybody who has not gone through some kind of wilderness experience. There is that initial flush of victory. There is that initial flush of salvation.

And when everything is easy, when temptations seem no longer to exist, and it's easy to read the Bible, it's easy to pray, and there's plenty of joy, and there's an abundance of peace. But after a while, the flush of that experience begins to wear off, and suddenly we encounter difficulties and temptations that begin to assault us, and there comes into our life a spiritual dryness, and there may be some doubting, and we're harassed by the enemy. We go through what is best described as a wilderness experience. And then God deals with us and works with us in such a way as we discover that there is far more

to our salvation than we realize when we first believe. And we begin to see all that God has for us, and we enter into that fullness of salvation or enter into victory, whatever you want to call it. I find it difficult to just come down on one label because there are so many different terms. But you know what I'm talking about, whether I use the language of victorious life or abundant life, we all know what we're talking about. It is that experience of salvation, that fullness of salvation, where you know that you're living

where God wants you to live. So there is a wilderness experience. Between the Red Sea and the Jordan River, there lies a wilderness. And there is a legitimate wilderness. God can teach you some things only in the wilderness. It takes the valleys to make you appreciate the mountaintop. If it were not for old age, you wouldn't appreciate youth. And if it wasn't for sickness, you'd never appreciate health. And if it wasn't for death, you'd have no value to place on life. It is the negatives in life that make us appreciate the positives. I was talking this morning, took me over to the dentist. I wouldn't know what to do if I wasn't going to some doctor. At one time, I did a series of tapes on does God

heal a couple of years ago and ever since, and I've been sick. And I had a friend to mention that to me, and I appreciated that very much. But I said, you know, up until about two or three years ago, I never was sick, never had any physical problems at all, and just took everything for granted. And I said, suddenly, I guess, you know, it's the age you begin to fall apart. The warrant is run out on my body and they're not making any more parts. And suddenly I appreciate health. I'm like the fellow said, if I'd known I was going to live this long, I'd taken better care of myself. And I've never appreciated health and feeling good as much as I have in the past two or three years. But it takes sickness to make a person really appreciate health,

and it takes old age to really appreciate youth. It takes death to appreciate life. God uses the negatives in our lives in order for us to appreciate, as we ought, the positives. There is a legitimate wilderness experience in every life. And that's why that I take issue with any teaching that says to me that if I will just do such and so and live in such a way or exercise certain kind of faith, that there will never be any rough waters, that there will never be any obstacles.

I don't think that's spiritual or scriptural, and I know it's not natural. God uses these things. There are legitimate wilderness experiences because some things God can teach us only in the wilderness. Now there is also an illegitimate wilderness experience. God may take us through some valleys and may take us through some rough waters, but it's only to get us to the other side. It's to teach us something. It is to deepen our faith and deepen our commitment. What happens so often is you and I lengthen the stay in the wilderness beyond what God originally intended.

So there is the Red Sea and there is the Jordan River, and in between there is a wilderness. Now what we want to do, of course, is to get out of the wilderness and into the land of Canaan. I want to say three things this morning about this life, this victorious life, the spiritual life, whatever you want to call it. And it's all found right here in these first nine verses of chapter 1. First of all, I want to say that the victorious Christian life is the goal of the Christian life, that is, the purpose for which God saved us.

When I first became a Christian, I thought that the primary purpose of salvation was simply to save me from hell and take me to heaven. And later on, as I studied the Bible and came to understand more of what the Bible was about, I realized that that was not at all the primary purpose of salvation. For instance, in Ephesians chapter 1, Paul says, For he hath chosen us before the foundation of the world, that we might be holy and without blame before him. And in Romans 8, 28, he says that he predestinated us that we might be conformed to the image

of God's Son. Over and over again you will find statements such as that. It doesn't say that God saved us or chose us or predestined us in order that we might go to heaven. Now that is true, we are going to heaven, but he chose us, he saved us, he redeemed us in order that we might be holy, that we might be shaped into the image of God's dear Son. The primary purpose of salvation is not to get us out of hell and get us into heaven, but rather it is to recreate within us the image of God so that here and now on this

earth you and I will be vehicles of God's will and expressions of God's character. That is the primary purpose. In the beginning it said that God created man in his own image. That's because God has the desire to extend himself, just as we do. Every person has a desire to extend themselves, to express themselves. What is the use of being born and living and dying if there is no footprints left, if there is nothing left, if there's no trace that you ever existed, everybody wants to extend themselves. And we do it in different ways.

Some people say that's why we have children. That's why we want to have children, because we see them as an extension of ourselves and as an extension of our life and proof that we've been here. And it's nice to know that we like to see ourselves and our children, and everybody is always fighting over who do they look like, the mother or the dad. Well thankfully, most of us don't look like either one, but that's an extension of ourselves. We want to do something, write a book, make a tape, have a monument erected, do something to extend ourselves, our beliefs, our personality. That's what it means when it says we're created in the image of God. That's how God wanted it to be. That's what God wants to do. He wants to express himself.

And so he created man in his own image. Now, the purpose of God creating us is so that God might have a way of expressing himself. God always does this. And when man fell, that image was not annihilated, it was marred. You've seen these pictures of bombed out buildings. You watch the newsreel and see as they show scenes of Beirut, Lebanon, and you see those bombed out buildings. You can tell that they're buildings. A wall may still be standing, but it's certainly not in its original condition, not fit to live in. That's the way the image of God is. We are still made in the image of God, but we're like a bombed-out building. Through the fall, through sin, that image became marred. And what God is trying to do in salvation

is restore us to the image of Jesus Christ. So the Bible says that we have been predestined to be conformed to the image of God's Son. Now, he's doing this in two ways. Number one, he's going to do it finally, ultimately, at the end. If you read over in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, it says that you and I are going to be changed in a moment in the twinkling of an eye. This corruptible shall put on incorruptible, and this mortal shall put on immortality. So I know that's going to happen. One of these days, if you are saved, you are going to be just like Jesus Christ.

One of these days, if you are truly saved, you are going to be changed into the image of the Lord Jesus Christ. You will be absolutely perfect, and that is in the future. Now, God, though, is not content to wait until then. He wants to do it right now. And so if you read in 2 Corinthians chapter 3, I think it's the last verse, about verse 18, Paul says that we are being changed into the same image from glory to glory. What that means is from one degree to another, bit by bit, we are being changed into the same image as we look into the law of liberty. He's talking about the Word of God. What he's saying is that as believers, you and I, as we gaze into the Word of God and focus our heart's attention upon the Lord, what God is doing is bit by bit changing us into the image of God's Son. Now, what ought to happen is that when the second coming occurs,

or when the Lord takes us home and changes us into his image, it won't have to be such a traumatic experience. We ought to be far enough down the road, a lot more like Jesus, so that when he finally has to change us, it won't be that big a change. They call it the rapture. I think for a lot of Christians it's going to be a rupture more than a rapture because it's going to be such a drastic change. We're so far

behind in our sanctification. We're so unlike the Lord Jesus that when he does finally change us, it's going to be a traumatic experience. But what God is working at is two levels. There's the future change that's going to take place, but God isn't satisfied to wait until then. He wants to change us right now, bit by bit, day by day, from one degree of glory to another. This victorious life is the goal of the Christian life. This is why God has saved us. Other writers in the scriptures will put it in different terms. For instance, the writer of Hebrews uses the word holiness. Where Paul would talk about the image of Christ, the writer of

Hebrews would talk about holiness. He says that God has done all of this that we might be partakers of his holiness. Peter says, be ye holy even as God is holy. First John puts it this way, that just as Jesus is pure, so we ought to be pure. And Wayne was talking the other day, yesterday, about preaching on that fourth chapter. He says, Beloved, behold what manner of love hath the Father bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of God. And it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we do know this much, that when we see him, we shall be as he is, for we shall see him as he is, and everyone that hath this hope in himself purifieth himself, even as he is pure. And in that very verse, you have these two stages. When we see him as he is, we'll be just like him. Now, if I have that hope within me, what am I doing now?

Well, I'm right now purifying myself, even as Jesus is pure. So this is the goal of the Christian life. Now, the second thing I want to say is that it is a gift of the Christian life. It is a gift of the Christian life. This victorious Christian life, living in victory, is not something that we achieve by our own merit or by our own struggle, but rather it is a gift, it is something that is given to us. For instance, let's look at the third verse in that first chapter of Joshua. He says, Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that have I given unto

you, as I said unto Moses. Notice he says, I have given that unto you. Over in chapter 6, in the second verse, And the Lord said unto Joshua, See, I have given into thine hand Jericho and the king thereof and the mighty men of valor. It is a gift. There's an interesting little passage over in the second chapter of Joshua. You remember when they sent in the two spies and Rahab the harlot hid them in her house, and they get into a conversation about the Lord and what's going to happen. And Rahab says this in verses 9, 10, and 11 of the second chapter, and she said unto the men, I know that the Lord hath given you the

land, and that your terror is fallen upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land faint because of you. For we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did unto the two kings of the Amorites that were on the other side of Jordan, Shiloh and Og, of whom you utterly destroyed. And as soon as we had heard these things, our hearts did melt. Neither did there remain any more courage in any man because of you, for the Lord your God, he is God, in heaven above and in earth beneath. Now, what's so interesting about this is that the things she mentions are things that happened

forty years before. When these two spies, Joshua and Caleb, get to talking to Rahab, she said, Oh, we know, we know that you're going to take over this land. We've known it for forty years. Forty years ago when we heard what the Lord did for you, drying up the waters of the Red Sea, and how he delivered the kings into your hands, at that moment our courage left us and we didn't have any heart to fight. We knew that.

What I'm saying is that the people of Israel didn't even know that. They went over, you know, the original twelve spies went over to that land. They saw the giants and they came back and made their report. They said, there are giants over there and we're just grasshoppers. There's no way we can occupy that land. And so for forty years they wandered in the wilderness. All the time the people of Canaan knew that they had already been defeated.

They had more faith in God than God's own people had in them. And so forty years later when Joshua and Caleb come over, or these two spies come over rather, and talk to Rahab, she said, Oh yeah, we know that, we've been knowing that for forty years. It's interesting sometimes that the world has more faith in the power of God than some Christians. Have you ever noticed that? The world believes more in God's power and God's ability to do things than a lot of Christians do. I've found that normally the world has a higher standard for Christian living than most Christians do. It's embarrassing at times to realize what the world expects from us when we say we're a Christian, and we expect far

less. That's the way it was with Rahab. They had known for 40 years that they had been whipped. Israel didn't know it, and I'm afraid that may be much of the case today. The devil knows he's defeated. The devil is a smart fellow. He knows that his days are numbered. He knows he's already defeated. The trouble is, we don't know it. And so we react out of fear because we do not realize the victory that has been given

to us. It is a gift. God said to Joshua, Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that I have given unto you, as I said unto Moses. It's already given. It's already given. I may have mentioned this when I was here before, but spiritual birth is a great deal like physical birth. We've had three children, and it's interesting that children, normal children, come equipped with everything they'll need to live their physical life.

You don't have to add feet and hands and all of that stuff when they get old enough to walk. They're born with legs. They're born with hands. They don't know how to enough to walk. They're born with legs, they're born with hands. They don't know how to use them, but they're born with them. And it's always something that parents love to do to watch that baby as he first learns how to hold something and grip something with his hands. And then it's a terrifying thing when they learn how to walk. And you wish for the good old days when they were confined to a baby bed, when they suddenly learn how to walk, and then your life is never the same again. And all physical growth is, is simply discovering what God gave you at birth and learning how

to use it. That's all physical growth is. And that's all spiritual growth is. Spiritual growth is simply discovering all that God gave you when you were saved and learning how to use it, learning how to appropriate it. Because when you were saved, God gave you everything he had to give. And you have everything right now you'll ever need to live your Christian life. It's just a matter of discovering what you have in Christ and learning how to appropriate

it and use it. So the Christian life, this victorious life, is a gift. It's something that God gives. Now, the third and final thing may sound a little bit contradictory. The Christian life or this victorious life must be gained by the Christian. I just got through laboring the point that it is a gift, it is something that God gives us, but then on the other hand, it's something you and I have to achieve, it's something we have to gain. And there is no contradiction there if we see it in the right light.

For instance, I was reading this morning, over in Matthew chapter 11, I think it is, yes, Matthew chapter 11, verses 28 and 30, that familiar verse where Jesus says, Matthew 11, 28-33 Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and you shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. Now, notice in verse 28, he says, You come unto me, and I will give you rest. In verse 29 he says, Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me, and you shall find rest.

You see, there's a twofold rest. There is the rest that is given just by coming to Christ, and then there is the rest that is found by coming after Christ. You see, you come to him and then you come after him. First of all, he said to the disciples, come to me. They came to him and then he said, follow me, come after me. Just coming to Christ initially in salvation, he gives us rest. But there is a rest beyond that. It is a rest that is earned,

a rest that is found. It's a deeper rest. Same thing that we're talking about this morning, just different terminology. And if you think about it for a moment, you'll recognize this. We all know this. There is a rest that is immediately given to us when we come to Jesus. It is the rest of knowing that our sins have been forgiven and that we have become children of God, and that if we were to drop dead on the spot, we would immediately go to be in the presence of the Father. And we thank God for that peace and that rest.

But there is still a lot of unrest in our hearts. There is still a lot of unrest in our hearts. There is still a lot of troubling in our spirits. And we get anxious and uptight. And as we learn of the Lord, take his yoke upon us and follow him and we become his disciple, we discover that Jesus is able not only to save us, but he's also able to save us. Not only able to save us for eternity, but he's able to save us day by day, that he's able to sustain us, he's able to meet every need, that he's able to bear our burdens and care for us. And in learning that, we find a different rest, we find a deeper rest. So there is a rest that is given, and there is a rest that is found. And that's basically what God is saying to Joshua.

He says, I have given the land into you, but you are going to have to walk over it. He says, every place you put your foot down, I have given that into your hands. He said, I've given it to you, but you are going to have to go in and walk over it. It's just like drinking out of a water fountain. I'd go back here at this water fountain, and if I stand there in front of that water fountain and beg and plead for a drink of water, and nothing will happen. And you might come up to me and say, Preacher, it's really very simple. All you have to do is just bend over and push this button,

and the water will come up, and you drink. You do have to do the drinking. God may spread a banquet table before you, but he won't feed you. You'll have to feed yourself. God may lead you to a fountain of living waters, but you've got to do your own drinking. See, this is what Jesus says in John chapter 7. He says, all you that are thirsty, come unto me and what? Drink, you see. God gives it to us, but we have to take it. We have to appropriate it.

So there is a sense in which the victorious Christian life is given to us, and then there is a sense in which we have to gain it given to us, and then there is a sense in which we have to gain it, we have to achieve it. Now there are three ways that we do this, and I'll just mention these briefly. First of all, we do it by faith. We simply accept it, and I've already talked about that. You have to first of all realize that God has given to us, and it is our birthright as children of God to have everything that

God promises in his Word, to have his power and to experience his presence, and to know his grace is sufficient for each trial. You accept that by faith. And the second thing is we do it by obedience. It says an interesting thing in verse 6 and 7, I just want to point this out in passing. If you read that carelessly, you think that God is repeating himself, but he is really not. In verse 6 he says to Joshua, Be strong and of a good courage. And then in verse 7 he says, "'Only be thou strong and very courageous.'" Now I'm reading from the King James, and the King James uses the word very in order to

show the distinction between those two words in the Hebrew. In verse 6, the word courage there refers more to physical courage. It's courage to face an enemy, a physical enemy. Now God is saying to Joshua, I'm going to lead you into the land of Canaan, and there are going to be giants there, and there are going to be enemies there. But he says, I'll not forsake you, I'll not let you down. He said, you just be strong and of good courage. There he's referring to physical courage, courage to face an enemy.

But in verse 7, it's a different courage, a different kind of courage. Only be thou strong and very courageous, that thou mayest observe to do according to all the law. Now, this is a different kind of courage, and it's significant to me that there's one courage that enables me to face a physical enemy, but it requires a deeper kind of courage to keep God's law and to follow God's will and to obey God's word. It's sort of like Peter in the garden. Jesus said, Will you watch and pray with me for one hour? And he fell asleep again and again.

And Jesus said, Well, the spirit's willing, but the flesh is weak. And then when the girl at the fire said, aren't you with Jesus? He was so afraid, so intimidated that he denied ever knowing Jesus. But when the soldiers came into the garden, Peter had enough physical courage to pull out a sword and go at them, chopped off the ear of one of the guards. How do you explain that? Here is a man who has courage, physical courage, to face an enemy, that he knows Jesus Christ. I've made men twice my size run.

Wayne's a pretty big fellow, and I'm sort of small, short. I used to be real skinny. I was a 97-pound weakling. But I've made men twice my size hide from me. You know how I've done that? I've just gone up to the door and rung the doorbell, and they saw that there was a preacher. And they didn't want the courage to acknowledge that they know Jesus.

And what God is saying to Joshua is, you need two kinds of courage. You need the courage to face the physical enemy, but there is another courage that you need, and that is the courage to obey all my law and follow it. I want to tell you something, folks. It takes more courage to obey God and to follow his word and will than it does to go out and fight an enemy physically. And while we may be heroes physically, most of us are coward spirits.

And so he says, I want you to follow obedience. There is no substitute for obedience. Notice how strict that obedience is to be in verse 8. He says, This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth, but thou shalt meditate therein day and night. Ruminate. It's like a cow chewing its cud, which they tell me really doesn't, but that's an expression. But it has an idea of humming.

There was a popular singer a number of years ago who was constantly humming all the time. He was humming, and his biographer asked him while he was working on his story, he said, Why are you always humming? He says, To keep my vocal cords warmed up and in tune, and if I'm called upon to sing, I'll be ready. There is a sense in which you and I need to be constantly humming the Word of God, meditating on it. The idea of meditating there is the idea of ruminating on something, humming it like a cow chewing its cud.

So you're always ready, always warmed up, meditating on the Word of God. It said, It shall not depart out of thy mouth, and meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein. And notice in verse 7 he says, Turn not from it to the right hand or to the left. In other words, there is to be no compromise. By the way, the Hebrew word there for law is really a word that is the word Torah, but it means directions. It's God giving directions. When God lays down the law, those are not haphazard, capricious laws, but rather they are directions.

It is God directing us into a successful life. So by faith and by obedience, and then number three, we gain this life, we enter into this life by conflict, by fighting. Over in verse 14 of that first chapter, he says, Your wives, your little ones, and your cattle shall remain in the land which Moses gave you on this side, Jordan. But you shall pass before your brethren armed, all the mighty men of valor, and help them. God says, I've given you the land, but you're going to have to fight for it. And I mentioned to you earlier that there was a legitimate wilderness, that God could have taken Israel straight from Egypt right into Canaan, but he didn't. And here's why. In Exodus, let me just

read it. In Exodus chapter 13 and verse 17, we find these words, And it came to pass, when Pharaoh had let the people go, that God led them not through the way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near. For God said, Lest peradventure the people repent, change their mind, when they see war and they return to Egypt. But God led them, led the people around about through the way of the wilderness of the Red Sea. See, the reason that God didn't lead them directly into the land of Canaan is they'd have to pass through the land of the Philistines to get there, and the Philist Canaan is, they'd have to pass through the land of the Philistines to get there, and the Philistines were enemies. And these Israelites had been nothing all their lives but brickmakers,

for the Egyptians, they weren't fighting men, they'd not been trained to fight. And God says if they see those Philistines, they'll get scared to death and they'll run back to Egypt. They're not ready to fight. So I'm going to lead them around by the other way, the longer way, and give them time to prepare themselves. ready to fight, so I'm going to lead them around by the other way, the longer way, and give them time to prepare themselves. And what he was doing was giving them basic training. Boot camp is what he was putting them through, learning them to fight, teaching them to fight.

That's why there was a legitimate wilderness experience, and that's why there's always a legitimate wilderness experience for God's people. Because when you're first saved, you don't know how to fight the enemy. Did you realize that they never had a fight while they were in the wilderness? Forty years they were in the wilderness, and they never had a fight with anybody except among themselves. But they never went to war, they never had a fight, never had a battle. But the moment they crossed over the Jordan River into the Promised Land, they never had a fight, never had a battle, but the moment they crossed over the Jordan River into the Promised Land, that's when the fight started. That's when the battle started.

I had a member of my church one day come to me, and he had been a Christian for years and years and years, but he was saved and stuff, and never grown, just, you know, drifted along. And God began to deal with him, work with him, and he made some new commitments, and God changed his life. And he came to me one day and he said, I've been a Christian for 27 years. And he said, all that time, he said, I've never had any problems. And he said, only when I got into this victorious life stuff. He said, I've had one problem after another, one battle after another.

He said, I want to know what in the world is happening. I want to know what in the world is going on. And I said, well, let's just suppose that you were in the Army and had been a career soldier all your life, and that you were a mess sergeant, and you spent all of your career in the mess hall cooking. You were a cook. And then one day they decided to transfer you to a fighting unit

and they put you out on the front lines and put a rifle in your hand. Would you be surprised that suddenly everybody was out there trying to kill you? I said, what you've been doing all of your Christian life has been in the kitchen. You've not been where there was any conflict or warfare, and now suddenly you've got on the front line. That's why you're having difficulties. That's why you're having problems. If you've ever done any bird hunting,

you can always tell the dog goes after the live birds, not the dead ones, if you've ever noticed that. And first, if there are two birds out there, one is dead and not moving, and one is wounded and limping off, he's a good dog. He'll always go after the live bird first. And that's sometimes how you can tell if you're a live Christian or not. The devil doesn't bother some of us because we're no bother to him. But if you become a bother to him, he'll certainly become a bother to you. No self-respecting thief would ever rob a bankrupt bank. You can always tell a good

thief because he knows exactly where to strike. And that's the way the devil is. He's a master strategist. And the very moment you get on the front line and start living for Jesus and become serious about this business of being a Christian, you are going to find that the enemy is going to be aroused. You gain this life by fighting. There is a conflict. I mentioned earlier that when a person is first saved, I think he is sort of borne along. Or when God sends revival, you're sort of borne along. It's easy to pray, easy to witness, and everything seems effortless. But that doesn't last. After a while there are conflicts and there are temptations and there are battles to be fought. And you're going to find that much of your Christian life will be according to Ephesians chapter 6 where he says, Well, we wrestle not with flesh and blood, but against the

powers of darkness. And therefore we have to put on the whole armor of God, and we have to be strong in the Lord. And so this victorious Christian life, whatever you want to call it, is a gift from God, but it is something that has to be obtained by the Christian, and we obtain it by conflict. You enter the kingdom of God only with much conflict or violence. Do take it. Jesus says, I've come not to bring peace but a sword.

There is a certain amount of violence connected with the kingdom of God. And we enter the kingdom of God through much persecution and through much conflict, the Bible says. It is a spiritual war. There are enemies and we are opposed. And that's why Paul says, everyone that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer opposition. So God gave to Joshua the way and the word of how to do it. He said, I've already given it to you. Now all you have to do is go in and take it. And so the next morning, tomorrow, the next day, we'll look into that a little bit more in detail.

How do we go about taking it? What does it involve? What does it mean? The Ron Dunn Podcast is available only for personal edification, not to be duplicated, uploaded to the web, or resold without prior written consent. It is managed and operated by Sherwood Baptist Church. If you would like to listen to additional Ron Dunn messages, visit sherwoodbaptist.net slash bookstore and search Ron Dunn. For more Ron Dunn materials, including sermon outlines, devotions, and scanned pages from a study Bible, please visit rondunn.com.