Copyright © 2006 by The Voice of Prophecy

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JESUS' TOP TEN WORDS OF ADVICE #1

RESIST BY BEARING WITNESS

Cecil Adams made quite a name for himself as “the world’s smartest human being.” His nationally syndicated column advertised: “All major mysteries of the cosmos . . . explained.” Cecil could answer questions like, “Do turkeys really drown when they look up during rainstorms? And, “Do you get better gas mileage with the air conditioner on or with the windows open?” But, when it came to a question like, “How can I be happy?” Well, Cecil was a bit short on advice.

Great words of advice don’t fall on us that easily. When we want something beyond, “Always eat your spinach,” or “Do one thing at a time,” things get pretty fuzzy. But, you know, something quite different happens when you look into the New Testament. If you want to know what it’s all about, the pages of Scripture tell you in plain language. God’s Word doesn’t play coy. He doesn’t wrap His message in a riddle.

Here's Jesus putting all of life in a nutshell. One day His religious rivals, the Pharisees, asked: What is the greatest commandment? Now the Pharisees liked to multiply their advice; they offered thousands of regulations. Jesus condensed His into a single verb: love.

“‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart . . .’" He said. "This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” (Matthew 22:37-40)

If you look at the New Testament carefully, you’ll discover ten things which Jesus and the apostles urge us to do the most. We can actually come up with the New Testament’s top ten words of advice. And that's exactly what we're going to be talking about in the next two weeks. We're going to lay out what are, essentially, the New Testament’s Ten Commandments. These are simple, basic commands that show us how to fulfill the essential law of love. But so much life, so much wisdom, is packed into those phrases.

What we're going to do is have a countdown, from number ten to number one. We'll cover them one by one, all the way to next Friday when we'll discover Jesus' number one word of advice, about the Way of Love. Maybe you and your family can start guessing what that might be.

OK let's get started. Right now let's look at number 10.

A woman with an SUV full of noisy youngsters was so distracted that she rolled right through a stop sign.

Another driver had to slam on his brakes to avoid a collision. He leaned out his window and yelled, “Lady, don’t you know when to stop?”
She glanced at the back seat and replied indignantly, “What makes you think they’re all mine?”

Stopping is important. Sometimes we don’t really get that message because we’re so distracted. Strategic stops help us avoid crashing.

That's particularly true when it comes to problem behavior. Sometimes we just need to stop. Sometimes we need to resist, to say, “No.” And, as it turns out, the New Testament emphasizes that point in various ways. It includes self-control in almost every list of essential virtues. It urges us to flee from sinful desires and avoid every kind of evil. It promises that if we resist this roaring lion of a Devil, he will flee from us. It calls us to “Put to death whatever belongs to your earthly nature.”

And that's why "resist" makes it into the New Testament's Top Ten words of advice. It's the tenth most emphasized admonition. But, as we'll see, it's how we resist that makes all the difference.

You know, if we never resist, we’ll never confront the Tyranny of Now. Psychologist Rodger K. Bufford explained it this way: “Choosing to be thin next week rather than to eat candy next week poses no problem. The difficulty occurs when we must choose between eating candy now and being thin next week.” Oscar Wilde put it more simply: “I can resist anything except temptation.”

Fortunately, the New Testament doesn’t just tell us to take two tablets of self-control and call in the morning. It shows us how to resist successfully.

Listen to how the Apostle John says we can overcome the whole world: “And his commands are not burdensome, for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.” 1 John 5:3-4 NIV

We need to resist evil. But it’s our faith that overcomes the world. How do we put these two things together? Well, by resisting in a way that expresses faith. In other words, our success is determined by this: expressing positive beliefs about God as we say “no” to evil.

You can see this point in the book of Revelation. It describes those who overcome Satan, in this way: “They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony . . . ” Rev 12:11 NKJV
How do we get the upper hand over the world, the flesh, and the devil? By the power of Christ. And by the word of testimony. In other words, by talking back! We’re not silent before that Accuser. We don’t huddle on the defensive. We are witnesses for the prosecution. We give counter-testimony. We speak boldly for the truth.

Friends, we resist best by bearing witness against the enemy. That’s a life-changing promise.

One gloomy day, a young writer named Albert was trying to crawl out from under yet another defeat. He'd fallen again. He'd blown it. The same old habit. The same old addiction. Everything was blurry. He wanted to confess. He wanted to acknowledge before God that he'd done wrong. But everything rang hollow.

How do you express repentance meaningfully---for the fiftieth time? How do you feel anything? How do you find some handle for the will, some inspiration for resistance?

Albert tried to pray. He tried to ask for help. He tried to lay out his miserable condition before the Lord. But his words kept bouncing off the ceiling.

Then he started looking in the Bible for something that might wake him up. And his eyes fell on Luke’s account of Pilate, Pilate dealing with an innocent Jesus and an angry mob. The Roman governor couldn’t get an answer to his repeated question, “What crime has he committed?” The crowd just kept chanting, “Crucify him! Crucify him!” (Luke 23:21) Pilate suggested a halfway measure: How about if we give the Nazarene a good whipping and then let him go? The mob wanted no part of that. Luke tells us: “But they were urgent, demanding with loud cries that he should be crucified. And their voices prevailed.” (Luke 23:23)

That last sentence fell on Albert like a gavel. “Their voices prevailed.” That was what had just happened to him! Temptation had been urgent, demanding and loud in my head---the chant of the old habit. And he knew exactly what it required of him. He had to deny the Lordship of Jesus over this area of his life (temporarily, of course). He had to turn his back on Christ. Yes, the same ugly shout had prevailed over him too.

Well, words just sort of electrified Albert's resolve. What he'd discovered was a personal battle cry. It was a way of talking back. The next time this destructive habit tried to get cozy, he would hear the echo of a bloodthirsty mob, “Crucify him!” And he would bear witness: There’s no way I’m going to let those shouts become the last word.

“Their voices prevailed.” It became for Albert something like “Remember the Alamo.” And that little phrase helped him overcome a tendency to go limp whenever temptation bullied. It inspired him to take a stand; it fired up a statement of faith: I want to honor the Christ who gave up his life. I want to choose him above the voices of the crowd.

Friends, fighting back on your own doesn't cut it. It’s like bragging that your dog can lick anyone. When it comes to temptation, the size of the fight in the dog shrinks pretty quickly. What we need instead is the spunky faith of David who cried out, “You have come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.” (1 Samuel 14:45, NIV)

It’s good to affirm our faith in the heat of battle. It's good to know that the Almighty is a Victorious Warrior who exults over us with shouts of all. It's good to know that Christ's love can find us wherever we are and help us make a stand. Even when we feel overwhelmed, we can lift up our affirmation of faith, and see God Himself ride down to the rescue.