2002-01-01
Good Morning Fellow Believers,
Every fact that we can know from the Scriptures about Satan is another armament in our arsenal of weapons to use against him in spiritual warfare. On face value, it seems awfully negative of us to be spending time gathering information to use against him, but we must realize that Satan not only hates every believer in the world, but he is God's principle enemy. Satan has no interest or capacity to forgive; he is the personification of everything that is evil in this world. Sadly, the believers are greatly outnumbered by the non-believers. We, who are comfortable and happy in our church congregations, tend to forget that. Of those non-believers, there are two sub-sets, those who will eventually come to faith and those who will never come to faith. People don't come with tags on them, so the only way we can reach out to the ones who will listen to the truth of God is to engage with them and, if possible through relationships, help them to listen to the truth, so that the Holy Spirit can bring them to faith. That means we will also be in contact with those who will reject the truth and have to deal with their evil attitudes and behavior toward us. God simply wants us to have the best preparation He can offer us in view of the built-in difficulties we face, because He wants us to know that despite the odds, we can be on the winning side, His side.
Jesus, in JN 12: 36-43, spoke about the unbelief of the people. JN 12: 37-38, "Even through He had performed all these miracles in their presence, they did not believe in Him, that what the prophet Isaiah [in IS 53: 1] said might come true: 'Lord, who believed the message we told? To whom did the Lord reveal His power?'" We now know from JN 12: 40, which cites IS 6: 10, that there have been times when "God blinded their eyes and closed their minds," so that the people would be punished for their iniquity, but not so they would be permanently destroyed. What God was taking steps against was the people's willingness to respond to Satan's deceptions. Another case of this same thing is the veil which was placed over Jewish eyes that keeps them from recognizing that Christ is the Messiah. That too, is temporary at least for some Jews, as RO 11: 25 indicates. JN 12: 42-43 shows us another facet of mankind's unbelief. "Even then, many Jewish authorities believed in Jesus; but because of the Pharisees they did not talk about it openly, so as not to be expelled from the synagogue. They loved the approval of men rather than the approval of God." I suspect Nicodemus, the Pharisee who came to Jesus in the night with questions about being born again [JN 3: 1-21] would fit into this category.
When Christ was speaking about death amongst a crowd of people, He said to the Father, "Father, bring glory to Your name.' God's voice, which some said was thunder and others said was an angel speaking to Him, was heard saying, 'I have brought glory to it, and I will do so again." JN 12: 30-31, "But Jesus said to them, 'It was not for My sake that his voice spoke, but for yours. Now is the time for this world to be judged; now the ruler of this world will be overthrown." Remember that Christ and the Father deal with what theologians call "God's time," something quite different from our concept of time. Peter refers to this in 2 PET 3: 8-9, "But do not forget one thing, my dear friends! There is no difference in the Lord's sight between one day and a thousand years; to Him the two are the same. The Lord is not slow to do what He has promised, as some think. Instead, He is patient with you, because he does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants all of you to turn away from your sins." We can take the Son at His word. Satan and his followers will be judged, and no believer should be foolish enough to want to be on the losing side, the side that is overthrown. With what has been revealed to us through the Scriptures, we really have no excuse for disobeying, rationalizing, and rejecting God, for being duped by the adversary's lies. For those of us who endure in our faith and remain daily in the Scriptures and in prayer will find ourselves suited well and armored with the weapons we need not to be a part of that worldly majority that are headed for certain spiritual death.
There is more to say about unbelief, which will be the subject of tomorrow's message. Suffice it to say that we must be alert to what Satan is trying to do, keep our eyes on God's most important objective for us (salvation and eternal life), and remain trusting, obedient, and faithful even when are facing pain and loss. Many before us have done that, which is why God wants us reading about them in the Scriptures, so that we don't get the idea that we are the only ones who are dealing with pain and suffering. People like Moses, Elijah, Job, David, Jeremiah, John the Baptist, Paul and the other apostles all did the same and held to their faith. I witness to you today, that I believe they are all in heaven with the Father for eternity as His esteemed and blessed friends. Each of us should hold dear the goal to eventually join them.
PRAYER: O Lord, You inspired Isaiah to utter profound words that should be treasured by all of us. IS 40: 31, "But those who trust in the Lord for help will find their strength renewed. They will rise on wings like eagles; they will run and not get weary; they will walk and not grow weak." While You encourage us by reminding us of the strength You give us when we are suffering, You also nourish us with Your word, help us to understand it by the Holy Spirit, draw us close for comfort like a father would to his hurting child, and guide us without destroying us when we err. Our thirst for Your presence is quenched when You tell us through John in JN 7: 38 [citing EZK 47: 1 & ZECH 14: 8], "Whoever believes in Me, streams of life-giving water will pour out from His heart." This power was seen in physical terms when You brought the Jews in the desert to the place where You commanded Moses to EX 17: 6 to strike the rock in the presence of Israel's leaders, and water flowed from it. David expressed the thirst we have in PS 42: 1-2, "As a deer longs for a stream of cool water, so I long for You, O God. I thirst for You, the living God. When can I go and worship in Your presence?" Dearest Abba, we come before Your throne to confess our sins and to pray as the Psalmist did in PS 51: 10-13, "Create in me a clean heart, O Lord, and put a new and right spirit in me. Do not banish me from Your presence; do not take Your Holy Spirit away from me. Give me again the joy that comes from Your salvation, and make me willing to obey You. Then I will teach sinners Your commands, and they will turn back to You." Our love for You runs deep and is eternal. We pledge You our adoration, worship, loyalty, diligence, glory, honor, praise, and thanksgiving. In Christ' name, amen.
Today and always, we can remember that God is present with us when we are in pain. I suspect He even feels our pain, because He loves us so much. If we look at the suffering caused by Satan's arrows as being used by God to strengthen and perfect us, then we do not need to feel unloved or abandoned in our darkest hour. Satan will lose, if we allow God to lead us to victory. That victory means that we have accepted God's invitation to join Him in His work. We have turned from sin in our lives. We have lived up to our covenant pledge to trust, honor and obey the Son, and we will be given the rich reward of eternal life with the Father that He has promised us. We never go through another day in our lives that we aren't able to bask in the warm glow of our Abba's love for us. Peter and I send you our love too.
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn