Saved but Stalled — Fred Tomlinson

The theme or the title for my message today is Saved but Stuck, but before I actually begin unpacking that, I want to remind you that, though this is, as I've said several times, so hard for me to believe, but I have my own YouTube channel now, and if you want to see it, the title is Turn to the Scriptures with Fred Tomlinson.

And even as recent as last night, I was told that we now have a podcast link. I think there's only one audio message on that yet, but that's going to change this week. If you'd like to investigate my site, I'd like you to do that, and if you enjoy, appreciate what you find, then I have to ask you to press the subscribe button, and this is all new to me, and ring the bell, I'm told, which means that if you do that, that each time there's a new video posted here that you will be notified about it, so please do that.

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Israel's Promise of Inheritance in Joshua

I'm going to read a couple of verses from the book of Joshua, and I'm reading in Joshua chapter 1, and the second verse of chapter 1 reads like this, Moses, this is God speaking, Moses my servant is dead, now therefore arise and go over this Jordan, thou and all this people, unto the land which I do give to them, even the children of Israel.

Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that I have given unto you, as I said to Moses from the wilderness and this Lebanon, even unto the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and unto the great sea, toward the going down of the sun, shall be your coast.

There shall not any man be able to stand before thee, all the days of thy life, as I was with Moses, so I will be with thee. I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee. I'll draw it away from the text now, there's so much more that flows on from that, it's all very wonderful.

Essentially what's happening, the children of Israel of course have been rescued by the Lord's grace and power from their captivity in Egypt, 40 years have transpired, so much has happened in between, but the fact is they have been told from God through Moses that he had another land for them, a land which he said by contrast to everything they'd known in Egypt would be flowing with milk and honey.

And so here they are, they're right on the threshold of entering into that land of blessing and provision of the Lord and Moses has been taken, Moses was not permitted to enter into the land of promise, there are a couple of reasons for that but primarily because he was the minister of the law and the law is that that brings us to Christ and it can't inherit the promises and he represented the law.

Also he had smitten a rock twice when he was told to smite it only once and there was a reason that that was incredibly significant that we can't take time to discuss right now but is very profitable to think about.

In any event, now it falls to Joshua, he's one of the two men that have made the entire journey from Egypt and they're about to go now into the promised land and God is speaking to him and reassuring him that he's with him and as you saw from the text there, God specifies the area of land and he basically says to them, this property is already allocated to you, it's already given to you, God says and the message here from the Lord is go on in and take it, no one is going to be able to stop you, as long as you keep me central you will have success.

So that was the basis for the next step and for what should have been an ongoing journey and process of entering into and enjoying the provision that God had made for them. What I'm going to do is turn over some pages into the next book here in the Bible which is the book of Judges and when I read here, things take a different turn.

Israel's Failure to Possess the Promised Land

I'm in the eighth verse of chapter one where I read, now the children of Judah had fought against Jerusalem and had taken it and smitten it with the edge of the sword and set the city on fire. Alright, I hope you've registered that.

God has made the promise that all this land is given already by God to them, just go on in wherever your foot steps, it's yours, no one will be able to stand against you, that was God's promise and God's provision for them and here in this eighth verse of Judges one, we've got the record that Judah take the city of Jerusalem which was of course central to the area that had been allocated to them as a tribe.

But then I'm looking further down in the chapter, chapter one still, and I look in verse nineteen and I read, and the Lord was with Judah and he drove out the inhabitants of the mountain but he could not drive out the inhabitants of the valley because they had chariots of iron.

And they gave Hebron unto Caleb as Moses had said and he expelled thence the three sons of Anab. And the children of Benjamin did not drive out the Jebusites that inhabited Jerusalem but the Jebusites dwell with the children of Benjamin in Jerusalem unto this day.

Amen. What a turn of events. God's provision, God's promise, they make a start and as you saw there, this particular tribe, they took the city of Jerusalem, the surrounding area, but when it came to Jerusalem they had chariots of iron.

But can you still hear the Lord's words ringing in your ears? No one will be able to stand before you. But they failed in that and there was a, at first there was this critical baton that had been fought and won but things were not going according to plan so to speak, man's plan that is, man's expectation.

And they failed to keep the land that they had taken and they were unable to defeat the Jebusites as is described there in that passage. And time goes on from there and I'm sort of taking a swift journey forward from there, covering a period of probably around 400 years and the focus is still on the city of Jerusalem which is referred to in another text I may read as Jebus.

But the people who were dwelling there, the Jebusites, they turned out to be a very militant people. So here's my point so far. The fact of the matter is, and this comes out of my own experience in my earlier life, it comes out of the testimonies of many I've heard and people that have opened their hearts to me, many over these decades now, there are so many who live here in this place, in this position where they're assured deep in their hearts that they are saved but they are indeed stuck.

The Danger of Superficial Christian Assurance

I'm swinging back through time now, not 400 years I promise you, but I was 15 years of age at the time and I was attending a Christian youth camp. It was an annual event in North Wales and a group of assemblies sent their young people to these camps and I remember very, very clearly this one evening in a big marquee where we'd been having a time of hearing the scriptures read and some singing and we were introduced to the hymn, How Great Thou Art.

I can remember the man who was leading that part of the service saying that this hymn had only recently really been brought into the UK, because he wouldn't have called it the UK back then, don't think.

And we sang it and somehow during that, hearing that hymn sung and trying to join in with it, God was doing something in my heart and the big marquee was surrounded by a number of many smaller tents, each tent had about 12 young fellows in them and I can remember after that event was over and I'd gone back to my tent, I couldn't rest at all and I remember standing up and other men, other young men of course were sleeping and I went to the doorway of the tent and I peeped out and across the open area I could see there was still a light on in the Padre's tent and I will never forget going over there and just tapping on the side of the tent and that man, I remember his name but I'm choosing not to mention it, he opened the flap of the tent and when he saw me he invited me to come in and I sat there in the tent and I remember so clearly saying, Tim Padre, I want to get saved and his response was this verbatim, he said, but Fred you are saved, I know you're Uncle Eric as a matter of fact he's still alive, he's in his 90s today and Uncle Eric of course a wonderful man and an elder in the assembly but really what did that have to do with my request that I was making and then I'm thinking of my younger brother, it was some years later if I'm correct he was attending the same camp and he had been moved upon in his heart and he went to talk to someone who was one of the leaders there and my brother shared his heart and his sense of need and I remember my brother saying to me that this man said to him, but Dave we all have these kinds of problems and then this didn't happen literally I'm sure but it's as though at the end of a talk and a statement like that he said okay well now let's get on with the next hymn, let's sing full salvation, full salvation, you know these were good men that I'm referring to but frankly they didn't know what needed to be said on that occasion.

It reminds me of a verse I've quoted many times over these years from Jeremiah chapter 6 and verse 14 where the Lord is speaking an accusatory word to the priests and the prophets of the nation at that point in time and he said this, he said you have healed the hurt of my people slightly saying peace, peace, peace, peace when there is no peace.

They'd been, I've been just given a drink, they had healed the hurt of the people if you like superficially but they'd not told them what needed to be said and the real issues had not been dealt with and there lies the real problem I believe.

If those who are the leaders are not presenting the message that needs to be heard by men and women we end up with a situation where within the context of our evangelical churches where we can be theologically orthodox but the message somehow leaves huge numbers of Christian believers struggling, struggling with a huge inward contradiction and basically they're being told as I was told that this is how it is, this is the normal Christian life.

The man I talked to that I mentioned a few moments ago, one of his questions after that was are you baptised yet? And I said well no I'm not. He said well when we get back home we'll arrange your baptism.

That was the best that he could do but that baptism didn't change me fundamentally and I'm not against being baptised in water by any means but we're basically being told this is the normal Christian life, this is the normal Christian experience and I'm here by the grace of God to tell you that that is not true.

It's not true. You know going back to the scriptures I told you that I was going to take a jump forward about 400 years, well that would take me into the story of David. Now just let me, I'll bring this together if you'll just stay with me just for a few minutes here but David had been at home with his family and the prophet Samuel had come to their homestead and he was there to anoint someone.

It was a very significant moment. Everyone would know this was very important, whatever it all would mean and you'll remember the story I'm sure how that the issue was he needed to anoint one of Jesse's sons and so Jesse files out his oldest son and the prophet says no it's not him and so the process goes on, I'd love to prolong the story but I mustn't, but the fact is it gets all the way down to David and we're led to believe that David was probably about 15 years of age at the time and Samuel the man of God anointed David.

He anointed him unto the call of God with the end result which was going to be that he would be anointed again, he was anointed three times all together, but he'd be anointed king over the whole nation of Israel.

There would be, there was a long period for this being worked out, it would demand that he spend probably about eight years with the sheep and whatever that involved. Probably there'd be time during those years when he would wonder back to what had actually happened when Samuel had anointed him, but in any event the good thing and it's to David's credit he didn't try and manipulate anything or try and work it out.

Sometimes we're in such a hurry if we have a sense that God is calling us to do something we need to get on and do something and in so many cases if that involves Christian ministry and very often it does, we end up going out with a truckload or a wheelbarrow load of wood, hay and stubble instead of gold, silver and precious stones.

But David waited and he was anointed over Hebron and finally by age thirty he was fully consummated into the role of king of all of Israel. Now here's my point with all of that. During those years these interesting time years, David had an opportunity to think and I'm sure he did an awful lot of thinking and meditating.

No doubt at all in my mind that he would meditate on the history that he was familiar with. He would meditate upon the Lord's dealings with his forefathers. No doubt he would meditate on words that God had spoken.

No doubt in my mind among those words that God had spoken he would be thinking of how God spoke to Joshua and how God mapped out the area with the various parameters to the land that God had allocated to this nation of people and promised to them.

No doubt at all in my mind that as his thoughts continued along these lines he would review the kinds of things that we just read in Judges chapter 1 and how in the specific case which was very relevant in this unfolding story that the folk had not been able to take areas that had been of course promised by God for them and they'd been defeated one way or another and in particular it was this area of Jebus or otherwise known later as Jerusalem.

I believe because of what we know about David from his Psalms and other writings of course but he had a heart for God. Do you remember how even God said I've found me David a man after my own heart. He really was after the heart of God wasn't he and he wasn't a perfect man but he had a heart for God and I'm sure as he anticipated that God was going to call him ultimately to this role of overall leadership for the nation.

He wanted to be familiar with the history and how God had worked with them and where they'd been defeated and how they'd failed and so on and you know I believe in my heart as I review it this kind of thing that David made a decision.

This is how I read this section of scripture. He made a decision in his heart that when I finally have the privilege and the honour of responsibility for this nation I will take that land, that area, that city of Jebus for mine.

It shall be mine and I believe he lived with that growing passion in his heart. You may feel struck that, can I just put it this way, we're familiar with the New Testament as we read these things and that keeps colouring our thoughts as we go forward but the fact is that David would not know at that time.

He's referred to in the scriptures as Great King David and then there's a reference to Great King David's greater son who of course is the Lord Jesus Christ and I want to inject this as we go forward here to our thinking that just as David set his heart on possessing that strong hold of Jebus, God in the person of Jesus Christ has set his heart upon you.

My beloved, whoever you are, whatever your story is, whatever you're up to, whatever's gone right, whatever's gone wrong, whatever you're feeling, whatever you're experiencing, the heart of God is set for you.

I love the way Paul says, if God before us who can be against us? And this is the exciting truth of course. Now let me just read a passage of scripture here from the book of, where shall I go to? I could go into 2 Samuel but I'm going to go into 1 Chronicles and in 1 Chronicles I can read, where shall I read from?

David Captures Jerusalem as a Picture of Christ's Victory

Let me just think here. My mind has not got it all together here. Alright, I'm in chapter 11 and I'm in verse 4. Then David and all Israel went to Jerusalem. David is now king. This is the very first thing he does that is recorded in scripture.

And David and all Israel went to Jerusalem, that is Jebus. And the Jebusites, the inhabitants of the land, were there. The inhabitants of Jebus said to David, you shall not enter here. Nevertheless, David captured the stronghold of Zion, that is the city of David.

And David said, whoever strikes down a Jebusite first shall be chief and commander. And Joab, the son of Zeruah, went up first and so he became chief. Amen. And we could also read, as I've mentioned already, we could read also in 2 Samuel and chapter 5 the same account with a little extra detail there.

But the fact is, picture this, that this group of David's army are there surrounding this stronghold called Jebus. They're being mocked by the inhabitants that you will never be able to enter in here.

Such were the walls, such was the sheer human impossibility of ever getting in. But somehow, I don't know how, David became aware that there was in fact a tunnel that led from a pool up right into the city.

It was the way that these people in the city got their water. And so David is basically commissioning his people, he says, if there's one of you here that would go up inside of that water tunnel and get into the city, I guess the plan was ultimately that he'd get the gates of the city open for the others to get in.

And it was Joab who was the man who went ahead and did that. And I want to stride forward quickly and just say here that not only is there a greater than David here, but there's a greater than Joab here.

And let me tell you about him, something you know really, I'm sure, but he climbed into that water tunnel, he climbed that dangerous, dark gutter, as it's referred to in Samuel's writings, and he climbed up that bloody hill and he agonised the transcendent loneliness in that grievous tunnel that he walked in and walked through that led him to the cross.

And there, he was, he was in the cross. He, this greater than Joab, this greater than David, our blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, he stood there, as it were, against the very gates of divine judgement that held his people captive.

And there, at those gates, which basically forbade the possibility of redemption and freedom and fellowship for the people that God had chosen, but with his own blood, as it were, he ripped off the locks and the chains, he destroyed the works of the devil, and he cried, finished.

Glory to God. The Apostle John writes, and he says basically this, that for this reason, the Son of God appeared, he appeared in our world, he appeared in our city, if you will, to destroy the works of the devil and to open that steel forbidding door.

He made a way for his people, as Joab made a way for his people back then. He made a way for his people. You know, the Apostle Paul writes, as he writes to the Colossians, and he reminds us that this Jesus, he disarmed the evil rulers and authorities, and he shamed them publicly, we read, by his victory over them on the cross.

The Apostle Paul writes again, writing to the Corinthians 15, 1 Corinthians 15 and verse, I think, 57, he triumphantly declares, thanks be unto God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Amen. Love found a way, and it was the only way, and it was the way of the cross. Amen. Now, today, there's you and me, and there's men and women that we're meeting, who have some kind of testimony of a beginning, but somehow they're not experiencing the freedom and the blessing of this full salvation that God has made possible through the Lord Jesus.

The Holy Spirit and Freedom from Spiritual Bondage

And I believe that I can say that this same Jesus, now through the ministry of this Holy Spirit of God, the Spirit of Christ, is focused upon your life right now, even as I'm speaking. I believe this.

And basically, he's saying, if you understand why I would say this, this city shall be mine. I believe that is how he looks at your life. Again, with whatever struggles and whatever is wrapped up in the bundle of your life, he is saying, this city shall be mine.

Amen. And it's a wonderful thing that he's not got in his mind that this being his is going to be a never-ending struggle against the impossibilities, and so this is a promise of the impossibility being acted out by the grace and power of the Spirit of God.

Amen. This is a word that sort of overrules the words of the preacher or of the counsellors that I've been referring to obliquely earlier on, and so many others in the day in which we live, who are basically saying, well, brother or sister, you prayed the sinner's prayer, didn't you?

You've been baptised, and we all have these problems. You need to read your Bible more. You need to sort of attend the meetings more. Essentially, they're saying to us, you really need to get your act together, and you'll make it, but this is how it is.

This is the Christian life. And we're left with a group of people who are precious souls who are trying to do their best, and they want to do that which is right, but they can't do it somehow, and they hate themselves for doing other things, but they can't stop doing them.

You know where those thoughts take me? It's at the end of Romans chapter 7 when Paul, having said so much along that line, he says, O wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from the body of this death?

The situation was hopeless. Who? He's saying. Who will do it? Amen. You know, there's a message that such people need to hear. I thank God that by his grace, I was able to hear it. Many of you that are listening to me have heard it also.

There are many, many more who need to hear it. And keep in mind as I proceed a little further here, that I am not a Pentecostal, and I'm not a charismatic. I am a Christian. But I read my Bible, and I love the Lord Jesus, and I love the Gospel.

And according to Scripture, I am able to say to you that the real need is for a true baptism in the Holy Spirit of God. Don't forget, I'm not pushing a line. I'm not doing. I'm really quoting what John the Baptist said.

Do you remember? He said the reason that this one who was coming after him was coming was so that he could baptise men and women in the Holy Ghost and fire. That's the old King James translation. And Jesus, as a matter of fact, authenticated that statement of John.

You'll read that in the first chapter of the book of the Acts of the Apostles. Amen. And you say, well, I believe in the Holy Spirit. Of course, we were all told that when we prayed that prayer, we received the Holy Spirit.

So that's it. That's the end of that issue. Well, yes, it's great, and we do need to believe the truth concerning the Holy Spirit. But you know, there's something else we need to face squarely. We need to receive Him.

You know, your doctrine may be orthodox, but it must include experience. God wants to do something inside of us. He wants to work mightily, we're told, inside of us. And the Spirit of life is here. And Paul says this, for the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.

You know, that's Romans chapter 8 and verse 2. It's interesting, in Romans chapter 6, as Paul has been working through some very important things, I find him making statements like this, for he that is dead is freed from sin.

Again, he says in the 14th verse, for sin shall not have dominion over you. But you are not under the law, but you're under grace. In the 22nd verse of the same 6th chapter, Paul says, but now, when is that?

Now, right now, he said, now in this life, he said, but now, being made free from sin, that is your slavery to sin, and having become the bond slaves of God, you have your fruit unto holiness, and you have a lasting life.

And then, of course, we've got the verse I've already quoted, for the law of the Spirit of life, the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made you free from the law of sin and death. These are gracious, mighty promises, or declarations of truth.

Amen. And this is the answer for us. This is that which is the solution. We hear the words of Jesus ringing in our ears from Acts chapter 1 and verse 8, but you shall receive power, you shall receive deunamis, after the Holy Ghost is come upon you, and you shall, he didn't say go and do witnessing, he said, you shall be witnesses unto me, wherever you go, and he mentions those different areas.

Glory to God. So the issue, really, before us is not that the Christian life is one of struggling to hold on, the message of the gospel is, God has chosen you, this is clearly taught, and he's apprehended you.

Christ's Pursuit and the Believer's Apprehension

You know, whenever I think of that, this is quoting Paul from Philippians chapter 3, but you know, I can remember the very first time I was on the street with a group of other police officers, and there was a gang of men standing quite some distance from us, we were in a car, and they needed to arrest one of those men, and I remember we were in plain clothes at the time, and the sergeant who was with us here, he said, look, 168, that was me, you need to get out and go and arrest that man, he knows us, but he doesn't know you, he knows this car, but you go, you get him, and we'll come down there after you.

So I can remember walking down, and as I got closer and closer, my heart's pounding, this is the very first time I was at training college and everything, I'm on the street, and as I get closer, because I had my short hair cut then, and whatnot, and there must have been something about me, because I remember one of them looking round and said something to the others, and they all just ran, and I ran, I ran like I couldn't run today, and I ran, and I ran, and I ran, and I apprehended him, I got hold of him, and you can be sure I got hold of him so tight, and the next thing, it seemed far too long than it really was, it was really only seconds, was the screaming engine of the car as it came racing up alongside me, and the other officers came out, and of course everything was easy from there on, but I had apprehended him, and the fact of the matter is, that he, Jesus, by the Holy Spirit of God, has apprehended you, he's got hold of you, and you remember what Paul said in that Philippians chapter three about this, he said, and I've got hold of him, for the reason that he originally got hold of me, he said he started it all, he got hold of me, and now I'm holding on to him, that's how it works, Amen, the Spirit of life is here, in Jesus' name, to bring men and women such as you and me, that he already has got his eye on, he has you in his cross hairs, you're in his heart, he's apprehended you, Hallelujah, Amen, and isn't this wonderful, this is the one who climbed that transcendent gutter that I was referring to earlier, by his Holy Spirit, he's got hold of you, even as I speak to you, wherever you are, and whatever your story is, Amen, and he's saying to you, whatever's gone on, whatever you're longing for, he said, but when the Holy Ghost comes upon you, you'll receive power from on high, Amen.

Beloved, maybe you who've made a beginning in Christ, but somehow you, like those of old, have been unable to maintain the victory, and the enemy is defying your progress, spiritually, and somehow it's causing your testimony to be contradicted by the very way that you're living, because it's not right, it's not godly.

You're travelling with baggage, you're travelling with baggage that might look like bondages and hang-ups, it might be fears, it might be insecurity, it might be pride, it might be impurity, it might be stubbornness, I don't know what it is.

And it reminds me of another verse of scripture in Ezekiel 36, in verse 2, where God says, I'm speaking to you, who hears the enemy say against you, Aha, even the ancient places are ours by possession.

That's how the enemy speaks to men and women today. He says, you want to be free, you think this is going to be the answer, no, no, no, it's not going to work, I have you in my hold. Glory to God. But God went on in that great 36th chapter, didn't he?

And he spells out wonderfully what he was going to do, never mind what the enemy's saying. His word eclipses all of the lies of the devil, the lies that he may be speaking into your heart, like, well, I've tried this, I've been here.

No, no, no. God, if God is speaking to your heart, if you sense him somehow whispering in your heart right now, it's because he's chosen you, it's because he's apprehended you, it's because he wants to do something more in your life, at this time.

Isn't that a wonderful prospect? I wonder if you, like David of old, are sensing that this is that day of destiny that you've looked for, some of you, for maybe decades and you just longed for that day to come when somehow the final, it's not the final thing in the ultimate sense, I understand that, but when that real work of God breaks the bondages and liberates you to live as a true son of God.

Amen. You know, you might say to, if you were able to do it, you might say to me, well, what do I do now? What do we have to do? Let me tell you what you have to do. You have to do nothing. At this point, all you have to do is believe his word.

Believe that this is the Lord speaking to you, that he loves you and he wants to fill you freshly with his holy life, with his Holy Spirit, and all you need to do, my dear friend, is fall into the arms of his love.

And lo and behold, the Spirit of Truth will set you free. Amen. Do you remember what I read before? The inhabitants of Jebus said to David, you shall not enter here. Nevertheless, David captured the stronghold of Zion, and so it goes on.

Isn't that wonderful? Just so matter of fact, I want to tell you this is how it works in the Spirit. It's not matter of fact, it's by the power and grace of God. But when we come to that point, it's the truth that brings freedom to us.

We hear that this is the truth of the Gospel of God. It's a Gospel of power. It's a Gospel that promises transformation of our inward parts and the prospect of a new chapter, a new phase in our lives, a phase of joy and fellowship with God and freedom from the slavery of sin that's held us and bound us for so long.

Isn't that wonderful? And I'm going to pray in just a moment. And if you're with me in your heart, you open your heart up to God, will you, even as I do that? Amen. Father, we thank you. We thank you for the grace of God and for our Lord Jesus Christ and for the blessed ministries of the Holy Spirit of God.

We thank you. We thank you, Lord. Thank you that you've not just sent us out into this world to try and believe mere words, but we thank you for the reality of the Holy Spirit of God that causes those words to find their fulfilment in the experience of your promise working in our lives.

Father, you know exactly who you're speaking to this morning. And I pray, Father, for each one whose heart is open to you, even as I've been speaking and sharing these thoughts and words, I believe you gave me to say, Lord, meet that precious soul right now, Father, by your Holy Spirit, come upon that one, Lord, and let them know this endearment of power from on high that makes everything new, Lord, makes everything fresh and, Lord, that unites the human spirit with that Holy Spirit of God and we find union and fellowship with you.

Father, answer this prayer, I pray, in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Amen. If you did respond in that way and continue to respond like that, be sure to let someone know. If you like, let me know. Comment on my site or communicate with me in ways that you'll find to do that, but tell somebody, share the precious truth that Jesus saves, he truly saves, and he loves you and me.

Amen. God bless you. Amen.