2002-01-01
Good Morning Fellow Believers,
This morning, I will continue discussing guilt that is caused by Satan and what God reveals to us on this subject in the Scriptures. We must remember that all sin is ultimately against God. That is one reason why David’s words in PS 51: 10-12 are especially meaningful to us. “Create in me a pure heart, O God, and put a new and loyal 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.” I can’t help but think of the picture IS 64: 6 [KJV] gives us of sin. “But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.” What comes to my mind is the sight of a badly stained rag after one has just cleaned under the hood of his car. All a person wants to do is to get rid of them. They are so filthy that even washing in the ordinary manner won’t do any good. And yet, David reminds us that God has the supernatural power to clean away even the worst of these sin-stains. Satan is forced to stand and watch God offer the humbled confessor the desire to repent from his sin and come to faith in Christ. David also brings up the truth that our eternal lives depend on God’s presence in them. It frustrates Satan to know that when God grants us the gift of the Holy Spirit, He is also granting us the power to defeat the enemy in no uncertain terms. No guilt trips or other kind of misery that Satan can deliver will change the outcome of his defeat. We need only look at the example of Job to know the truth of that.
We need to look at why Christ is such an effective and powerful adversary for Satan. That is revealed to us in HE 10: 10, 14-22. “Because Jesus Christ did what God wanted Him to do, we are all purified from sin by the offering that He made of His own body once and for all.” Christ’s sacrifice was complete and totally acceptable as a substitution for those of us who come to faith. “With one sacrifice, then, He was made perfect forever those who are purified from sin. And the Holy Spirit also gives us His witness. First he says, ‘This is the covenant that I will make with them in the days to come, says the Lord: I will put My laws in their hearts and write them on their minds.’ And then He says, ‘I will not remember their sins and evil deeds any longer.’ So when these have been forgiven, an offering to take away sins in no longer needed” (14-18). How many of us are willing to forget some wrongdoing done to us even when we have forgiven it? Satan would have us review what was done wrong to us over and over again until it drives us crazy. He would have us hold a grudge about it too. And yet, the Lord is saying He will not only not hold a grudge, but He will forget it ever happened. Now, that Dear Ones, is supernatural cleansing of the kind David deals with in PS 51. In (16) we see a repeat of JER 31: 33-34, and this is important. It reveals God’s consistency once again. These are not the only places in the Scriptures where this message about writing the laws on the hearts of believers and in their minds is repeated. Remember that when God repeats His will over and over again, He’s telling us this is really important to Him; it really matters. We should take it seriously.
HE 10: 19-22, “We have, then, my brothers, complete freedom to go into the most Holy Place by means of the death of Jesus. He opened for us a new way, a living way, through the curtain [inner veil]-that is, through His own body. We have a great Priest in charge of the house of God. So let us come near to God with a sincere heart and a sure faith, with hearts that have been purified from a guilty conscience and with bodies washed with clean water.” As children, we have the best chance of growing up to have functional lives grounded in a belief system in sync with God’s will when our parents: 1) use common sense, 2) present a simple set of rules which are enforced with consistency and compassion, 3) when they teach us to make wise decisions and 4) when they teach us to take responsibility for our own actions. That is the example that our Lord God sets for us in being our Father and encouraging us toward spiritual maturity as His children. Part of the stability that is engendered in God’s system is providing not only consistent teaching, but a way for us to have access to Him. Jesus Christ, by His death on the cross, became that Way. When we pray, the Holy Spirit “pleads to God for us in groans that words cannot express” [RO 8: 26]. We are too weak and ineffectual to do this for ourselves at times. God loves us and knows this. Our weakness often comes from guilt laid on us by Satan. In addition, Christ Himself threw open the Holiest of Holies, so that He could take our prayers directly to the Father in His position as our High Priest in heaven [HE 8: 1-2 & HE 9: 12]. The picture of our prayers being taken to the Father in REV 8: 4 confirms our access to Him. “the smoke of the burning incense went up with the prayers of God’s people from the hands of the angels standing before God.” Dear Ones, we can only conclude as Satan has that the devil is a loser!
PRAYER: O Lord, we are so blessed by Your compassion and justice. Satan may be working overtime right now to bring us pain, suffering, and loss, but Your power is greater than his. We join David in his words of thanksgiving for Your justice in PS 9: 1-1-6, “I will praise You, Lord, with all my heart: I will tell of all the wonderful things You have done. I will sing with joy because of You. I will sing praise to You, Almighty God. My enemies turn back when you appear: they fall down and die. You are fair and honest in Your judgments, and You have judged in my favor. You have condemned the heathen and destroyed the wicked; they will be remembered no more. Our enemies are finished forever; You have destroyed their cities and they are completely forgotten.” While David was referring to the Philistines, his words point forward to the ultimate victory that will be won by Your Son as He successfully wrests dominion over the earth from the devil and the latter is destroyed in the lake of fire and sulfur. Where are we in this equation? You have commanded us to be squarely on Your winning team, to believe in the power You have given us to battle Satan successfully. You have poured life-giving water over us and teach us how to trust and obey You through the Scriptures. To be sure that we would be equipped for victory, You have given us salvation through Christ’s Atonement and the gift the Holy Spirit. We come to You wanting the shuck off the filthy rags of our sinful past and to let Your living water deeply cleanse our hearts. We approach You with greatest humility, knowing that our eternal life depends on our obedience to You. We also offer You our utmost adoration, worship, loyalty, diligence, honor, glory, praise and thanksgiving. In Christ’s name, amen.
Tomorrow, the Lord leads me to delve into more wonderful citations that reveal Satan’s malevolent activity and the Lord’s wisdom and compassion given to us, so we can successfully combat it. While Satan tries to bring guilt into our lives to block us from accepting God’s blessings, we can choose to make him very unsuccessful in this pursuit. The ability to make that choice is a very special manifestation of God’s remarkable love for us. One which is extended even though we hardly deserve it. That is the nature of the unparalleled love that our Abba has for us. We can take comfort in that and in the fact that when we obey His commands, we are imbued with the power He gives us to uncover Satan’s evil and vanquish it. Peter and I send your our love too.
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn