Simple Faith

Bill Henry: The testimony of someone who was saved from a self-destructive lifestyle is inspiring, but there are lots of other testimonies that are just as impressive. Here's Pastor Bill Henry.

Look, I'm telling you what, you want to hear a radical testimony? How about a kid who was brought up in the church? Good as always, "Oh, I'm so good, I'm nice, I'm this and that." And they realize when they hit 16, 17, 18, that they're not really a Christian at all, that they've been living on Mom and Dad's faith.

So they become a Christian, they fall down on their face, they weep over their sins and "Thank you Jesus for dying" and they own it. That is just as radical as a hooker coming to Christ. We need to understand this.

Guest (Male): The devil has successfully deceived many people and he’s led countless numbers away from the truth of the gospel. There’s a reason he’s called the Father of Lies and the master of deception because he’s really good at it. But as we’ll see today in our study of Revelation 12, his day of judgment is coming and it’s coming a whole lot sooner than we may realize.

You’re listening to Simple Faith with Pastor Bill Henry from Simple Faith Calvary Chapel in Vancouver, Washington. We’re glad to have you with us today as we continue our study in the book of Revelation. We’re going to be in Revelation chapter 12 today, but Pastor Bill begins with a quick glance at Romans chapter 8.

Bill Henry: Romans 8:1, "There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit." How about Romans 4:7 and 8? "Blessed and happy and to be envied are those whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered up and completely buried." Do you understand your sins have been covered by the blood of Jesus Christ?

They've been covered up, they've been buried. "Blessed and happy and to be envied is the person whose sin the Lord will take no account or reckoning it against him." Praise Jesus.

How about Colossians 2:13 through 15? Colossians 2:13, "You were dead because of your sins and because of your sinful nature was not yet cut away. Then God made you alive with Christ, for he forgave most of your sins." No, it doesn't say it. "He forgave some of them, but not those really big ones." He forgave all of your sins.

Notice in verse 14, "He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross. This way, he disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities." When those accusations come, bring them to the cross of Jesus Christ.

2 Corinthians 5:17, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new." And it goes, you could go on and on and on. These are truths of the word of God. So as these accusations come in, bring them to the word, bring them to the Lord.

I remember many years ago when I was a young believer, I had a hard time. The enemy was coming at me hard and he was accusing me of so many things I did before I was a believer and even sins I committed being a believer in Jesus Christ. I was so ashamed. I became almost frozen in my walk with the Lord, just kind of petrified if you will.

I couldn't move forward. I didn't feel worthy of him. I didn't feel worthy of his love. I didn't feel worthy of his shed blood. I didn't feel worthy of the forgiveness of my sins. And you know what? I was right. I wasn't worthy. I heard a study and even Satan again, by the way as he was accusing me, he was right too.

I heard a Bible study and I went to the scriptures and I started to read and I realized again that Satan was right and so was my own accusing flesh. I wasn't worthy of Jesus. I wasn't worthy of his love. I wasn't worthy of his shed blood and forgiveness.

But you know what? Even when I wasn't worthy, Romans 5:8, "But God commendeth his love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." Not because we're worthy. When Satan comes to you and starts accusing you, you might say, "You're right. That is me. That was me."

I love in the Amplified Romans 5:8, it says, "But God shows and clearly proves his own love for us by the fact that while we were yet sinners, Christ the Messiah, the Anointed One, died for us." Therefore, in verse 9, "Since we are now justified, acquitted, made righteous, and brought into right relationship with God by Christ's blood, how much more shall we be saved by him from the indignation and wrath of God." That's us. That's us today.

Even though the accusations of Satan may be true, even though the accusations made by your friends and family from old times may be true, even maybe today may be true, even as my own flesh may be true, here's the truth: I am not worthy, but he loves me anyway. You're not worthy, he loves you anyway. You are a great sinner, but he's a greater savior. I am guilty, but he paid my debt and has forgiven me.

This is who God is. Once we truly understand who we are as sinners, by the way, we don't stay there. Don't stay there in, "Oh, yes, I know I'm saved, but gosh, it's barely by the skin of my teeth." It's interesting, so many of us love to hear people who have these radical conversions and different things.

Here's the thing: we need to remember no matter what we've come from, as we go to the word, we read things like we've been made, though my sins be as scarlet, now they are white as snow by the blood of Jesus Christ. Yes, I've done these things and we need to admit that, we need to accept it. My sin put Jesus upon the cross, your sin put Jesus upon the cross.

But also above that, remember that through his shed blood, you are now his forever child. If you've been born again of the spirit of God, you are now his forever child, you are his bride, you are his great love. Go read Song of Solomon if you're not feeling good about God's love toward you.

So many of us were brought up in a false faith. I was brought up in a church that told me God was mad at you all the time. He's angry at you all the time. Then it's funny when I got older and started reading books and different things, and I read about Zeus and I read about all the Greek gods and everything.

I'm like, "The way that God the Father that I was brought up in this church, he sounds just like Zeus." He's always just waiting to hammer me. He has a lightning bolt, he's just going to strike me dead. That's such a lie from the pit of hell. God the Father loves you so much that he gave his only begotten son.

Jesus Christ loves you so much that he came to die for your sins. God the Holy Spirit loves you so much he's now living and abiding, again, if you've been born again, in you. Now, I just want to move away from this in just a moment about the accusations. Guilt can be a good and spiritually healthy thing in our lives. Do you understand that?

Sometimes we try to run away from guilt. No, look, guilt can be a very good, healthy, and spiritual thing in our lives if we deal with it biblically. When we sin as believers, God loves us enough not to leave us there. He loves us enough not to leave us there and the Bible says that his Holy Spirit living within the believer will convict us of our sins.

Why? Because he chastises those whom he loves. So here's the key and I pray you hear this this morning: If your guilt leads you away from Jesus into condemnation, that is not from God. If your guilt leads you away from the cross, leads you away from fellowship, away from prayer, away from reading your Bible, away from walking in loving obedience to the Lord, that is not from God.

But if your guilt leads you to Jesus, to the cross, confessing your sins, repenting of your sins, that is called the conviction of the Holy Spirit. So there's condemnation and there's conviction. Condemnation always leads you away from God. Conviction always leads us to God.

Condemnation always leads us away from God, puts a wall up between God and us. Conviction of the spirit of God will always lead you to God. And if you're a child of God, there is therefore now no condemnation. Remember this. So when those accusations come, you just say, "Yeah, you're right. That was me. You need to go talk about Jesus, though. He's my lawyer now. He's got it covered. He's my covering."

Now, it's interesting, look at verse 11, because we can overcome these accusations of Satan. But it's interesting here in the time of the tribulation, we're told how they overcome these accusations. Look at verse 11: "And they overcame him," Satan, "by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death."

So again, here during the tribulation, the Great Tribulation, around the middle of it, sometime probably a little further than that, what we call tribulation saints are going to be able to overcome this continual accusing as Satan comes down to the earth. Notice it says: by the blood of the Lamb, by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death.

Now, even though again this is happening in the future, we can take these biblical and eternal truths and apply them to our lives. You want more victory in your life over these accusations that are coming to us? Then what do we do? Well, first of all, we overcome them by the blood of the Lamb of God.

What does that mean? Well, we actually have this little counter of Lamb's blood that we keep up on the mantel and whenever somebody... no. You're reminded that Jesus Christ died for your sins. You're reminded the shed blood of Jesus for your sins and that you've entered into him.

You've repented of your sins, you believed in him as Lord and Savior, you believe God rose him up on the third day. You've been born again of the spirit of God. And so basically again, you overcome by the Lamb of God. Again, when Satan comes and he's accusing you or one of his devils or even anybody else: "I'm under the blood of Jesus." That's the first thing.

Notice the second thing: that by the word of their testimony. So we overcome these accusations, whether they be true or false, by seeing the changes that God has wrought in our lives by being Christians. Now I'm not just talking about changes like, "Yeah, I remember back in my pre-Christ days, in my BC before Christ days, and boy there was a huge change 50 years ago, 10 years ago, five years ago, two years ago, huge change."

Can I ask you a question? Is that change still happening today? Are you a lot different this year in Jesus than you were last year? Or are you about the same? "Well, I got it on spiritual cruise control. I just kind of hit that button and just kind of slide along. We still go to church and we do things, but growing spiritually, come on, Bill, that takes sacrifice. I'm getting older. I'm 30 years old now. I don't need to sacrifice anymore. That was only when I was a teenager, now I'm good."

We laugh, but sadly that's the truth for a lot of people. For some reason they are Christian for a certain amount of time and they forget that they need to keep growing. We need to, and by the way, it's a joyful thing, even though it can be painful to our flesh. It can be hard because here's the thing, notice that by the word of their testimony.

Now, the word of their testimony, I think this is so interesting. The church today, I honestly I hate it. I hate that all of a sudden let's say we have a gang banger that killed 15 people, they come to Christ. Dude, churches all over the country want to let's put them in the pulpit, dude. This is so awesome.

Or this rockstar, "Hey guess what, Justin Bieber became a Christian" or this person became... and it's like, listen to their testimony. This guy, I don't know if you remember 10, 20 years ago, there was a guy who was a hitman and he's going around to all the churches: "I used to work for the Bombino family. I hit some people and now I'm a Christian." And they would just be, "Oh, this dude, listen to this testimony."

Look, I'm telling you what, you want to hear a radical testimony? How about a kid who was brought up in the church? Good as always, "Oh, I'm so good, I'm nice, I'm this and that." And they realize when they hit 16, 17, 18, that they're not really a Christian at all, that they've been living on Mom and Dad's faith.

So they become a Christian, they fall down on their face, they weep over their sins and "Thank you Jesus for dying" and they own it. That is just as radical as a hooker coming to Christ. We need to understand this. It might be, like I said, a gang banger. Well, how about the lady who comes to church and is gossiping all the time? Or the guy that comes and is putting down people all the time?

And they come to truly, "Hey, I've been coming to church for 40 years, but there's something off with my walk." And they come to a true and saving relationship, born again instead of religiosity, and they enter in. That is just as beautiful as a murderer coming to Christ. Those testimonies to me are just as beautiful.

So whether wherever you are in that spectrum, you can overcome the enemy by the word of your testimony. And I believe that is mainly witnessing to us. Because I can look back and I remember when I was 19 years old. This will be hard for some of you to imagine, but sitting on a surfboard in Newport Beach. I was on top of the world, dude. I was the coolest dude on the earth.

And I was getting high every night, getting drunk and chasing after girls and that was my life, dude. I was just, "Bro, what's up, man?" I was just totally laid back. I don't laugh about it anymore, I weep. And that's what happened. I sat on my surfboard one morning just crying. It's like, "Lord, this is nothing. This is so empty. If you're real, I need to know it." And the Lord brought me to true and saving faith in him.

I still remember walking out of the water that day. I remember just like being... the weight of my sin was gone. I no longer went to get high. Nobody had to tell me, "Don't go get high with your friends. Don't go get drunk with your friends anymore. Don't go chasing after girls anymore and fornicating." Nobody had to tell me. The Lord just opened my heart and mind.

And then you know, again, there's other things that we learn in the word of God. But here's my point: I still look back to that point, even sometimes when I'm worshipping the Lord here with everybody, "Thank you Lord for saving me then." And then I go through my life and I remember other times of sin even as a Christian, "Thank you Lord for not leaving me there. Thank you for continuing to work in my life." And it's a beautiful thing, the word of our testimony.

It shows me that I'm not that same guy I was when I was 19 years old. Now some, I wouldn't mind my body back to be honest with you. I've still got some of my hair, that's okay. A little bit more gray, okay, but that's because of my kids, if you know them. And my sons-in-law now, wow. Just kidding. Where they at? They're back there. But by the word of your testimony, remember that. Remember from whence you've come and use that even as these false accusations.

Lastly notice, it says they did not love their lives to the death. Now again remember, we're in the Great Tribulation and we're going to see next week that Satan is here and he is angry. He knows his time is short, as we're going to see at the end of the study today, and he's coming after the Jews.

He's going to come after the Christians and so bad by the way with the Jews, like what the Bible says, it'll be like two-thirds of the Jews will be killed. But also with Christians, there's going to be millions and millions of Christians, again, it's awesome that they're going to be coming to faith, but they're also going to be martyred. So they're not to love their lives to the death.

To love their lives to the death. Look guys and gals, here in the United States, we don't have to really worry. We can come together here today and we don't have to worry that the police are going to come in and shoot us or send us to prison. But not so in much of the world today. I'd probably say actually most of the world.

You go to Africa, you go to Sudan, you go to Malaysia, you go to Russia, you go to China, you get thrown in jail if you're meeting in an unauthorized church that hasn't gone through Kim Jong Un. Kim Jong Un will just kill you. But here's the thing: they didn't love their lives to death.

Here's the point guys and gals, how many people are here right now? Raise your hand if you're actually here today. Okay, everybody's here. Keep your hands risen if you're actually alive. Good, good. Some of you are not doing too well, we'll have to pray for you. But look, here's the thing. Unless the Rapture comes, guess what? Every single one of us here's going to die.

Every single one. I can say with confidence, in 120 years not one of us here's going to be here. Maybe 130 if you live really long. But here's the thing: we're all going to die one day unless we're raptured, unless the Rapture comes. That could come, I think, any time, but it might be another 50 years or 100 years.

But here's the thing we need to remember: that one of the ways the Lord helps us to defeat Satan, the accuser in our lives, is remembering that we're going to die. That we're not to love our lives to the death. We're going to die and guess what? You're not taking anything with you. This includes your iPhone, okay? It includes maybe you have a Google phone. We're not taking anything with us.

Guys and gals, we have been bought by the blood of Jesus Christ. You are no longer your own. And gladly so. Oh, praise God for that. But what that also means, by the way, is that Jesus as your owner, nothing can snatch you from his hand. Nothing can separate you, the Bible says, from the love of God through Christ Jesus our Lord. Nothing.

So here's the beautiful thing to remember even if someone were to come in right now and kill us all: guess what? We'll be all up in heaven if you've been born again of the spirit of God. I always like to point that out, just because you come to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than walking into a McDonald's makes you a Big Mac. It just doesn't.

Look, man, here's the thing. We need to remember to love Jesus more than our lives, than we love our lives. Hey, I'll be honest with you. I think a good test of this was during COVID. I'm going to just be real with you. Some of us may have failed it here, some of us may have passed it here. But just learn from it is all I'm saying either way.

Because we're not to forsake the gathering together of the brethren. Now, we all stopped for a little bit. "Oh, there's going to be five million dead on the streets." But you know what? After three or four weeks we're like, something weird's going on because that strip club down the street's still open.

I'm sitting in my office and watching all these people going and buying booze across the street from my office. The pot shop down the street in Battle Ground's open. Something's off. Look guys and gals, we need to love the Lord our God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength above our own lives.

And by the way, this also means more than your wife or your husband, more than you love wanting to be married or to stay single, more than you love your kids or your friends. We need to love the Lord our God. What's a good way to know if I'm doing that? If you can think of one thing that if God took away from you that you'd be angry with him for, there's something off in your heart.

"Yeah, what do you mean? I can justifiably be mad if God takes my kids away." No, you can't. You can justifiably be sad and we'll weep with you and mourn, but if they're Christians, they're in heaven. You just have to wait a while to see them again. I don't say that glibly, by the way. I say that as one who's had great losses in my life.

Look, here's the thing: we need to love God more than we love all the things in our life, more than we love anything else and even, by the way, the sin in our life, so much more so. Now look, it goes on verse 12. It says, "Therefore rejoice, oh heavens, and you who dwell in them." So again, Satan's been kicked out. God's going to be ruling. The accuser of the brethren's gone and now all of heaven's told, "Rejoice! And all you in heavens that dwell in them."

Heaven's now rejoicing because Satan is gone. They're rejoicing with such a joyful occasion, but wait, not so on the earth. Look at verse 12 as it continues: "Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and the sea, for the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, because he knows that he has a short time."

Again, this is not now. This is during the Great Tribulation. Satan still has access to heaven, so do the other fallen angels, as far as we know. And so this is not now, but this will come. In Revelation 12:12 in the NIV, it says, "He is filled with fury because he knows his time is short." A paraphrase says, "For the devil's come down on you with both feet. He's had a great fall, he's wild and raging with anger. He hasn't much time and he knows it."

Guest (Male): I hope you were blessed by today's message from Pastor Bill Henry. This has been Simple Faith with Pastor Bill Henry from Simple Faith Calvary Chapel in Vancouver, Washington. And today we brought you a message from Pastor Bill's new series in the book of Revelation. If you'd like to hear today's message again or share it with a friend, it's available at our website to either watch or listen or download in MP3 format.

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