Dealing With The Enemies of Life - Part One: The Enemies of Our Past Life

Dealing With The Enemies Of Life

Part One: The Enemies of Our Past Life

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Key Scripture: Psalms 18 New Living Translation

17 God delivered me from my powerful enemies, from those who hated me and were too strong for me.

18 They attacked me at a moment when I was weakest, but the LORD upheld me.

God has made a way for us to be free from all of our enemies:

The Enemies of Our Past Life

The Enemies of Our Present Life

The Enemies of Our Future Life

All of mankind, every man, woman, boy and girl, are freed from the dominion of satan, this world and every penalty of sin by salvation in Jesus Christ, God’s Son, the promised Messiah and Savior of the world.

However, just because a person has been freed from slavery does not mean that the old slave masters will cease their pursuits. Once we are ‘Born Again’, we have a past life and the enemies of our past life want to pursue us and recapture us, re-enslaving us to our past.

This is the way it always has been, all throughout the history of mankind’s struggle with sin, satan and self.

For every truth there is a parallel story in the bible. As we face life we can look into the God’s Word and draw strength, wisdom and guidance from the storehouse of eternal truth. God designed the bible to be our compass and our teacher, our comfort and our guide, our challenge and our hope. With God’s Word as our guide we can be free and succeed in life.

This morning we begin a three part series on Dealing With The Enemies of Life. Today we are going to take a look at The Enemies of Our Past Life and how we can be fully and finally freed from those enemies.

In the book of Exodus, God told Moses to go down into Egypt and tell Pharaoh to set the Children of Israel free that they might worship Him.

If you know the story you may remember that Pharaoh did not wish to cooperate with Moses and refused to release them from their slavery. As a result God sent 10 plagues of judgment on Egypt. The last one caused the death of every firstborn in Egypt. You see …

Exodus 12 NLT

22 Then take a cluster of hyssop branches and dip it into the lamb’s blood. Strike the hyssop against the top and sides of the doorframe, staining it with the blood. And remember, no one is allowed to leave the house until morning.

23 For the LORD will pass through the land and strike down the Egyptians. But when he sees the blood on the top and sides of the doorframe, the LORD will pass over your home. He will not permit the Destroyer to enter and strike down your firstborn.

24 "Remember, these instructions are permanent and must be observed by you and your descendants forever.

On a certain day God instructed the Children of Israel to take the blood of a lamb and smear it above and on each side of the door of their house and then to stay in the house until morning. That night the angel of death visited the land of Egypt, every home and every family where ever they were. When the angel of death came to a house which was covered by the blood of the lamb he passed over that home. This was the first Passover.

All of the firstborn who were not protected by the blood of the lamb died that night in all the land of Egypt.

The first Passover and the blood of the lamb speaks to us about Jesus, God’s Son, our Savior. He is the Lamb of God Who takes away the sin of the world.

John 1:29 ¶ The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, "Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!

This is how God frees His children from slavery to Pharaoh and bondage to sin. These are permanent instructions which we must all observe to enter into our new life free from our past.

Once set free, Israel left their slavery and went out of Egypt as free people headed for a new life in the Land of Promise. However, before they got very far they found themselves in their first crisis. Even though God had freed them, Pharaoh did not want to see them go in peace.

About the time that the children of Israel arrived at the borders of Egypt, at the Red Sea, and were faced with how to get across this deep water, Pharaoh changed his mind, he was mad and his army was in hot pursuit with orders to recapture or kill the Israelites.

The Israelites stood between the sea and the enemies of their past life. Free but not out of danger. Would these enemies ever stop pursuing them? What could rid them of the enemies of their past?

Turn to Exodus 14 and lets see.

God stood in the way between His Children and the enemies of their past life while He caused a great wind to divide the Red Sea so His Children could go across on dry ground. After all of the Israelites were across God moved out of the way and the Egyptian army went after them. When all of the army … well, lets read this part …

Exodus 14 NLT

22 So the people of Israel walked through the sea on dry ground, with walls of water on each side!

23 Then the Egyptians—all of Pharaoh’s horses, chariots, and charioteers—followed them across the bottom of the sea.

24 But early in the morning, the LORD looked down on the Egyptian army from the pillar of fire and cloud, and he threw them into confusion.

25 Their chariot wheels began to come off, making their chariots impossible to drive. "Let’s get out of here!" the Egyptians shouted. "The LORD is fighting for Israel against us!"

26 When all the Israelites were on the other side, the LORD said to Moses, "Raise your hand over the sea again. Then the waters will rush back over the Egyptian chariots and charioteers."

27 So as the sun began to rise, Moses raised his hand over the sea. The water roared back into its usual place, and the LORD swept the terrified Egyptians into the surging currents.

28 The waters covered all the chariots and charioteers—the entire army of Pharaoh. Of all the Egyptians who had chased the Israelites into the sea, not a single one survived.

This is a picture of what God will do to the enemies of our past life.

This story is a pattern example, a guide, if you will, a principle and a foundational truth of the Kingdom of God.

Just like the Children of God in Exodus, God delivers all of us from the enemies of our past life by the same way.

There are two things essential to being fully delivered from the enemies of your past: What will stop the enemies of our past life?

1. Blood

2. Water

First is Blood. The Blood of Jesus

Salvation comes no other way than by the Blood of the Lamb sprinkled on the doorposts of your heart.

When you believe the Word of God and act upon His Word in faith … just like the Children of Israel on that first Passover in Egypt, when they obeyed in faith, death passed over them and they were set free from the bondage of their past life. (Romans 10:9-13)

You can be saved today. Do you believe that Jesus is the Sacrificial Lamb of God? God’s Son, your Savior? If you believe, now is the time to receive. Ask God to accept the Blood of His Lamb as payment for your sins and come into His house today.

The Blood of Jesus will free you from eternal slavery to sin and hell, however, you are not completely out of danger. Sin wishes to recapture you and even though you will miss an eternity in hell, sin wants to give you as much hell in this life as it possibly can. Sin tries hard to capture, re-enslave and control the Christian.

Salvation is the first step but there is one other thing every believer must do to effectively deal with the enemies of their past life.

The Water! The Waters of Baptism

The Apostle Paul wrote about this in:

1 Corinthians 10 NLT

1 ¶ I don’t want you to forget, dear brothers and sisters, what happened to our ancestors in the wilderness long ago. God guided all of them by sending a cloud that moved along ahead of them, and he brought them all safely through the waters of the sea on dry ground.

2 As followers of Moses, they were all baptized in the cloud and the sea.

The Baptism of Moses, as it is called, is a baptism of deliverance … deliverance for the believer, but defeat for the devil.

The enemies of our past life are finally and fully dealt with by water baptism.

The waters of baptism are a grave to the enemies of our past life.

Have you been water baptized since you believed? Why continue to face those haunting enemies which are pursuing you into your new life. There is a power available to you, a power which comes by following Jesus into the waters of baptism.

Today as you leave this service there will be people at our information desk in the foyer with sign up sheets ready for you to say, “I want to be water baptized”. If you will only sign up today, our staff will contact you this week and invite you to a special Sunday morning Sunday School class which will answer all of your questions about water baptism and prepare you to be water baptized that same Sunday morning during our 10:30 service.

This is important. Don’t forget. If you have not been water baptized since you believed or if you are not sure you understood what you were doing when you were water baptized, sign up today and lets put an end to those enemies of your past life.

Now, for those of you who are not saved or who aren’t sure you if you were to die today that you would spend an eternity in heaven with God … it’s your time right now. As we stand together and our prayer partners prepare to receive you, won’t you come and give your life to Jesus right now.

And those of you listening to our live broadcast this morning … there are people standing by right now in our studio waiting to hear from you.

If you want to be saved please listen to me right now:

* If you are watching the live stream, IM us at the address on the screen. Prayerful and prepared people are waiting for your message. They will answer your questions, pray with you and make sure you are sure and on your way to heaven.

* If you are watching this archived online or over cable TV, email me at askcotr@cotr.com or call our offices at 409 722 1962. We want to make ourselves available to share with you the plan God has for your life and pray with you to connect you to God in a personal and eternal way.

If you wish to be water baptized, contact us over the web at cotr.com or at churchonline.tv or by emailing or calling us at the numbers on your screen and we will get back with you and find out about your particular situation and how we can best serve you to make sure you can effectively deal with the enemies of your past life through water baptism.

Don’t forget next week we will continue in this series, dealing with the enemies of life.

God bless you and until next time, Go in peace, don’t go in peaces … and remember, God has a plan for your life!