Hope Of Deliverance

"Thy God whom thou serves continually, He will deliver thee." (Deut. 6:16)

Mary Tyler Moore said something that was profound…simple but profound. She said, "No one gets out of here without dying." Obviously, she was right. Even in the rapture that we Christians just hope we are available for will have to go through a death experience…instantaneously, but none the less these bodies are going to have to be dropped behind and we put on a new body fit for heaven. In death for the believer Paul says, "To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord." (II Cor. 5:8) 

Luke 4:18 says, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised," This is the Deliverer Himself, Jesus Christ speaking. We pastors don't preach any kind of deliverance in and of ourselves. We point you to the one and only Deliverer, Jesus Christ the Lord. Without Him there is no deliverance. 

First, notice in Deuteronomy 6:16 that it says "Thy God whom thou serves continually…" This is not for a disobedient world, but for a world of believers who are serving God. Notice also that there is no "might" or "possibly" will deliver you, but "He will deliver you."

To many are too free to declare "I am a Christian" today. Too often they don't know the definition of "Christian." Look it up. It means to be like Christ. They are someone who is awakening everyday with the goal of obeying God in thought, speech and action, just like Jesus Christ did.

Do you know anyone that doesn't need deliverance daily and around the clock? Of course not. They may say, "I've got this!" But check back with them later. They are as human as anyone else. Don't let them kid you. They've asked for help before. Oh, maybe it didn't come to the level of calling upon God, but they have asked for help.  Let's go to that level.

Jesus said that He has come to deliver the "captives." Captives in what? How about Romans 3:23 "For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God." Or Romans 5:12 "Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:" It appears clear to me that the first issue is the cause of every problem, including the fact that we all have an appointment with death. Hebrews 9:27-28

"And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: 28 So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation." Look to Him for what? Deliverance from sin, and deliverance from sin is deliverance from death. John 5:24 "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life." So, death is always coming but where is deliverance that keeps us from being swallowed up in death and hell? It is obviously in a person named Jesus Christ the Lord.

Between now and the death of my body I have many other things to be delivered from, and that is only in Jesus. Jesus said in Luke 4;18 it says that my eyesight is restored from blindness. Sin blinds people to the truth of Jesus. That's why they stumble around and try everything else and either finally come to Jesus or stumble into eternal darkness through death, never knowing the Deliverer. II Corinthians 4:4 says, "In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them." So, those who are unbelievers are blinded to the way of deliverance in their lives by Satan, "the god of this world." They may stumble from religion to religion and church house to church house, but never find deliverance and only become more confused to Satan's pleasure.

Between now and the death of my body life is going to beat me up here and there with persecution, sickness, family problems, relationship problems of different kinds, monetary loss that brings its own bruises, and you fill in the rest of the blanks that you have found yourself trapped in and being beat up. Luke 4:18 "…to set at liberty them that are bruised," At 75 years old, I have lived long enough to have experienced them all. From a child I can list more hardships and disappointments than you and I have time for. 

At 19 years old I met the Deliverer from sin and death, sickness and trials. I met Jesus. Oh, sickness and hardships have found their places in my life, and the death of this body is on the horizon. He has delivered me from sickness many times. I wasn't even supposed to live when I was born. Currently He has delivered me from lung cancer twice, more recently stage 4 lung and melanoma cancers and the hardships of the battle against that. I have lost family just because. Yup…just because. My Deliverer, Jesus, keeps giving me uplifting deliverance time and again from that. 

My Deliverer from day to day, and it's only one day at a time, never leaves me nor forsakes me, as He promised. He is always available to gripe and praise with…not necessarily in that order. He is patient with my griping times and rejoices with me in the praise times. Peter wrote, "He is long-suffering (patient) with us." I am living proof of that. Jesus remains always my one and only source of deliverance from anything painful, discouraging or death defying. One day my last enemy, death, will be defeated as it takes my body but not me. Jesus said that He has angels watching over me and they are given charge of delivering me into the presence of Him and my Father God.

Hope Of Deliverance, when you get worn out trusting others and stuff or self, even to deliver you from "broken heartedness," being "captive" by self and sin and so much else, being "blind" to the source of deliverance and trying to find it in self, others and things, healing from being "bruised" and beat up by family, "friends" and work associates, and you name it, it's time you turn to Jesus from sin and being lost (a wanderer from pain to pain, disappointment to disappointment).

Charles Empey is the Pastor of Cove Baptist Church, Orange, TX.