2002-01-01
Good Morning Faithful Ones,
This present series of messages is looking at the different faces of the question: Should we believe Satan’s lies? The Lord leads me today do share what He has told us in the Scriptures about how we can be freed from Satan’s domain and adopted as His children. As God’s co-partners in the Covenant of Grace, we have responsibilities and blessings. This will be more evident than ever when we examine the truths He has given us. We will also have a better understanding of the power He has given us, if we will exercise it, over Satan. We now look at EPH 2: 1-13 in this context.
When we were part of the “walking dead,” God’s spiritually dead enemies, God brought us to life in Christ out of the love He has for us. It is by God’s grace that we have been saved from certain spiritual death and destruction [EPH 2: 1-5]. EPH 2: 6-7, “In our union with Christ Jesus He raised us up with Him to rule with Him in the heavenly world. He did this to demonstrate for all time to come the extraordinary greatness of His grace in the love He showed us in Christ Jesus.” The books of John and Romans offers us all kinds of confirmation of the truth of this amazing grace given us. JN 14: 2 and 6 are Christ’s own words. “There are many mansions in My Father’s house, and I am going to prepare a place for you. I would not tell you this if it were not so…I am the way, the truth, and the life; no one goes to the Father except by Me.” RO 3: 24-25, “But by the free gift of God’s grace all are put right with Him through Christ Jesus, Who set them free. God offer Him, so that by His death He should become the means by which people’s sins are forgiven through their faith in Him.” RO 5: 10-11, “We were God’s enemies, but he made us His friends through the death of His Son. Now that we are God’s friends, how much more will be saved by Christ’s life! But that is not all; we rejoice because what God has done through our Lord Jesus Christ, Who has now made us God’s friends.” RO 8: 15-18, “For the Spirit that God has given you does not make you slaves and cause you to be afraid; instead, the Spirit makes you God’s children, and by the Spirit’s power we cry out to God, ‘Abba!, my Abba! God’s Spirit joins Himself to our spirits to declare that we are God’s children. Since we are his children, we will possess the blessings He keeps for His people, and we will also possess with Christ what God has kept for Him; for if we share Christ’s suffering, we will also share His glory.”
How do we know this salvation is through His grace? We know it, because this is nothing that we could have done for ourselves. People who are fooled by Satan into thinking that they can buy their way into heaven through good deeds or any kind of act on our part are not exercising the power God gives us through faith. EPH 2: 8-10, “For it is by God’s grace that you have been saved through faith. It is not the results of your own efforts, but God gift, so that no one can boast about it. God has made us what we are, and in our union with Christ Jesus He has created us for a life of good deeds, which He has prepared for us to do.” That helps us to understand that the good deeds, what in Hebrew is known as “mitzvehs” are a natural outgrowth of being saved, but don’t bring the salvation itself. Only God through Christ does that. And where is Satan in this whole equation? We have the choice to thwart any power he thinks he has over us.
These two citations reveal that God’s power is given to those who believe to fight Satan successfully. DT 20: 3-4, “Men of Israel, listen! Today you are going into battle. Do not be afraid of your enemies or lose courage or panic. The Lord your God is going with you, and He will give you victory.” JN 10: 27-30, “My Sheep listen to My voice; I know them and they follow Me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never die. No one can snatch them away from My Father’s care. The Father and I are One.” When we endure our trials with obedient and trusting faith in God, He will bring us to victory, make us useful in joining Him in His work, and enables us to become joint-heirs for eternity with Christ to rule in His Kingdom. Let me close with the words to a praise hymn by Geoff Bullock which mean so very much to all of us, “This Kingdom”:
Jesus, God’s righteousness revealed,
The Son of God, the Son of Man, His Kingdom comes;
Jesus redemption’s sacrifice,
Now glorified, now justified, His Kingdom comes.
Chorus:
And this Kingdom will know no end,
and it’s glory shall know no bounds;
for the majesty and power of this Kingdom’s King has come.
And this Kingdom’s reign, and this Kingdom’s rule,
and this Kingdom’s power and authority,
Jesus, God’s righteousness revealed.
Jesus, expression of God’s love,
the grace of God, the Word of God revealed to us.
Jesus, God’s holiness displayed, now glorified, now justified,
His Kingdom comes.
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Praise the Lord for all He is to us!
PRAYER: O Lord, we began our earthly lives help apart from You by the sin we inherited. You have given us through Paul, the message of EPH 2: 12-13, so that we will meditate on the extraordinary nature of Your grace. “At that time [before we came to faith] you were apart from Christ. You were foreigners and did not belong to God’s chosen people. You had no part in the covenants, which were based on God’s promises to His people, and you lived in this world without hope and without God. But now, in union with Christ Jesus you, who used to be far away, have been brought near by the death of Christ.” We offer You our heartfelt gratitude for extending this most excellent grace to us, despite the fact that we don’t deserve it. Being close to You, adopted members of Your chosen people, saved from certain death and eternal torment, means everything to us. We are sinners who seek You, knowing that without You our spirits are impoverished. No longer empty, our spirits are at one with Yours and our desire is to join You in Your work as Your obedient servants. When we endure in our faith, You give us the power to defeat Satan, the same power You used to raise Christ from death to life [EPH 1: 18-20]. We know that we can still sin, but the faith You have given us motivates us not to do so. We also know that there is still subtle sin in us that we must confess and expunge. We are dedicated to doing that. We are Your children, and we love and praise You. We join the Psalmist in PS 108 : 1-4 in saying, “I have complete confidence, O God! I will sing and praise you! Wake up, my soul! Wake up, my harp and lyre! I will wake up the sun. I will thank you, O Lord, among the nations. I will praise You among the peoples. Your constant love reaches above the heavens; Your faithfulness touches the skies.” For all that You are and all that You do, we humbly offer You our adoration, worship, loyalty, diligence, glory, honor, trust, obedience, praise, and thanks. In Christ’s name, amen.
As we can see, we don’t have to believe Satan’s lies. The Lord, through the Scriptures, gives us the discernment to recognize the truth from a lie. With tomorrow’s message, we will begin a new segment of this series on spiritual warfare, “Satan, the Accuser.” I am led to begin discussing the comparison between the future of the lost with that of the redeemed. I am awed by the number of ways that God blesses His children. Making us His friends, giving us the power to work with Him in defeating Satan, and giving us the faith to endure through whatever challenges our faith are just three of these many gifts of His love. Take comfort in knowing that . Peter and I send you our love too.
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn