Set it down that Satan's power lies in his ability to deceive. If he can keep us preoccupied with lesser things, then he can keep our minds off of God. If he cannot do that, he will attempt to persuade us that what we have IN Jesus Christ isn't really all that important. Either way he wins. Granted, he wins far, far more in the former, but . . . he wins. Continuing with Tozer's, "I Talk Back to the Devil," we get a glimpse of how he loves to intimidate believers. See if you have fallen prey to this device.
SATAN LOVES TO INTIMIDATE
Satan has been in this business of intimidating and silencing and oppressing the people of God for a long, long time.
The armies of Israel experienced this kind of fright in the valley of Elah when Goliath and the Philistines were camped on the opposite mountain. King Saul was leading Israel, but he was sour, fearful, intimidated because of Goliath, that giant of a man who daily shouted his taunts, “I defy the armies of Israel this day!” (1 Samuel 17:10). So the army cowered in fear.
But a little fellow by the name of David came along, and he was in right fellowship with the Lord. We are told that the spirit of the Lord came upon David, who said to the Israelites, “Let no man’s heart fail because of him; thy servant will go and fight with this Philistine” (1 Samuel 17:32). This was the first word of encouragement to come to these ranks of soldiers who had been able only to gaze in fascinated fear at that great giant who taunted them daily. David was confident and serene because he knew and trusted the Source of all strength! The recorded result was one of the great, miraculous “turn-arounds” of history, David and his sling disposing of Goliath in a way that brought glory to the God of Israel as well as victory to the armies of Israel.
I am sure that it is not glorifying to our God that Christians should be so intimidated and silenced in our day. It was Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, who came down and took our human body for Himself. He was a man, born of a woman, a man wearing our own nature—but He was also God!
He went to the cross and they sacrificed Him there. The Father, God Almighty, accepted His sacrifice as the one, last, final fulfillment and consummation of all the sacrifices ever made on Jewish altars. After He had been dead three days, He came forth—raised from the dead and out of the grave. After a few days He ascended as Victor over all the forces of death and hell and sat down amid the acclamations of the heavenly hosts!
There He sits at God’s right hand—a living man, our representative and advocate and great high priest. Believing this, we ought to be the most fearless, the most relaxed, the happiest and most God-assured people in the whole world!
But Satan is an old dragon who defies us to [this] hour. He is saying to Christians, “I defy you—what can you do about it?”
The following comes from the pen of A. W. Tozer. We have often remarked that despite the fact that he died in 1963, one would imagine him peering around the corner, nothing today catching him by surprise. He was God's gift to the church in the first half of the century. He continues to be today. Hear him well. Here, he speaks to the perennial issue of Satan's deceptive trap that keeps so many Christians entangled in the lies of ignorance. The truth indeed sets them free who believe in Christ.
“The devil makes it his business to keep Christians in bondage, bound and gagged, actually imprisoned in their own grave clothes!”
Why doesn’t the old Devil, Satan, give up and bow out of the picture when a person becomes a believing Christian?
Although he is a dark and sinister foe dedicated to the damnation of humans, I think he knows that it is no use trying to damn a forgiven and justified child of God who is in the Lord’s hands.
So, it becomes the devil’s business to keep the Christian’s spirit imprisoned. He knows that the believing and justified Christian has been raised up out of the grave of his sins and trespasses. From that point on, Satan works that much harder to keep us bound and gagged, actually imprisoned in our own grave clothes.
He knows that if we continue in this kind of bondage, we will never be able to claim our rightful spiritual heritage. He knows also that while we continue bound in this kind of enslavement we are not much better off than when we were spiritually dead.
This is one reason why the Christians in today’s churches are behaving like a flock of frightened sheep—so intimidated by the devil that we can’t even say “Amen”!
I admit that occasionally you find a few who are just childishly happy about everything, but that is not what I mean. Often these are just like children playing in the market places, having never been seriously engaged in the conflict on the spiritual battlefield.
Show me an individual or a congregation committed to spiritual progress with the Lord, interested in what the Bible teaches about spiritual perfection and victory, and I will show you where there is strong and immediate defiance by the devil!
Learn of the devil, that we must neither be dismissive of his trickery, nor daunted by his power. "The Lord will fight for you" was not just words of comfort for Moses (Exodus 14:14), but belong to us as well. Tomorrow, Part 2 . . .
You've got to read this wonderfully heart thrilling devotional from Octavius Winslow. Winslow spoke at the opening of Spurgeon's Metropolitan Tabernacle, London in 1861. Please read this slowly. You cannot help but to read it thoughtfully! It warmed my heart, and I think it would for any Christian with half a pulse! You may even decide to go to the site and have it delivered to your email. Now, be encouraged in Jesus Christ!
“And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there you may be also.” John 14:3
When heart and flesh are fast failing, and the trembling feet descend into the dark valley of the shadow of death, to whom shall we then look but unto Jesus? The world is now receding, and all creatures are fading upon the sight; one object alone remains, arrests and fixes the believer’s eye–it is Jesus, the Savior; it is Emmanuel, the Incarnate and now-present God; it is the Captain of our salvation, the Conqueror of death, and the Spoiler of the grave; it is our friend, our brother, our Joseph, our Joshua, loving and faithful, and present to the last. Jesus is there to confront death again, and vanquish him with his own weapons. Jesus is there to remind His departing one that the grave can wear no gloom, and can boast of no victory, since He himself passed through its portal, rose and revived, and lives for evermore.
Sick one! in your languishing, look to Jesus! Departing one! in your death-struggles, look to Jesus! Are you guilty?–Jesus is righteous. Are you a sinner?–Jesus is a Savior. Are you fearful, and do you tremble?–the Shepherd of the flock is with you, and no one shall pluck His sheep out of His hands. How fully, how suitably, does the gospel now meet your case! In your bodily weakness and mental confusion, two truths are, perhaps, all that you can now dwell upon–your sinfulness and Christ’s redemption, your emptiness and Christ’s sufficiency. Enough! you need no more; God requires no more. In your felt weakness, in your conscious unworthiness, amid the swelling of the cold waters, raise your eye and fix it upon Jesus, and all will be well. Hear the words of your Savior calling you from the bright world of glory to which He bids you come, “Arise, my love, my fair one! and come away.” Believer! look to Him–lean upon Him–cleave to Him–labor for Him–suffer for Him–and, if need be, die for Him. Thus loving and trusting, living and dying, for “Jesus only.”
Last Sunday, one of our Elders, Dan Zerbe, led us in a reading from Leo the Great (c. 400-461). We thank the Lord for Dan's commitment to lead us as a Church family in some of the well-known (and not so well-known) documents of the Church. This is vital for the Church of Christ in order that we may know whence faith in Jesus Christ has taken the true Church down through the last two thousand years. We are not disconnected from our forefathers, that "great cloud of witnesses" (Heb. 12:1) who have gone before us. In this reading from Leo the Great, the issue before the church was the person of Jesus Christ, specifically his humanity. Some were degrading the God/man union of Jesus, reducing him to divine, but only in an indirect way, human. It was vital then as now that Christ be 100% God and 100% man if he was to serve as a faithful high priest. As God, Jesus served as the perfect sacrifice. As man he took our sins to the death. This way, Christ paid the price for our sins and that eternally since he is the eternal God. The following reading (keying on these verses) accentuates the necessity and beauty of Jesus' perfect union as the God/man.
See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me, and see. For a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have. And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. And while they still disbelieved for joy and were marveling, he said to them, Have you anything here to eat? They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate before them. (Luke 24:39–43)
1
Accordingly, dearly-beloved,
throughout this time which elapsed
between the Lord’s Resurrection and Ascension,
God’s Providence had this in view:
to teach and impress
upon both the eyes and hearts of His own people
that, just as He was truly born, suffered, and died,
the Lord Jesus Christ might be recognized
to have as truly risen.
2
And hence the most blessed Apostles and all the
disciples, who had been both frightened at His death
on the cross and doubtful of His Resurrection,
were so strengthened by the clearness of the truth
that when the Lord entered the heights of heaven,
not only were they affected with no sadness,
but were even filled with great joy.
And truly great and unspeakable
was their cause for joy,
when in the sight of the holy multitude,
the nature of mankind went up,
above the dignity of all heavenly creatures,
to pass above the angels’ ranksand to rise beyond the archangels’ heights.
3
In its ascension,
our human race did not stop at any other height
until this same nature
was received at the seat of the Eternal Father.
Our human nature,
united with the divinity of the Son,
was on the throne of His glory!
And so, dearly-beloved,
let us raise our hearts’ eyes unimpeded
to those heights where Christ is.
Minds that have heard the call to be uplifted
must not be pressed down by earthly affections,
we that are fore-ordained to things eternal
must not be taken up with the things that perish;
4
We that have entered on the way of Truth
must not be entangled in treacherous snares,
and we faithful must so take our course
through these temporal things as to remember that
we are sojourning in the vale of this world, in which,
even though we meet with some attractions,
we must not sinfully embrace them,
but bravely pass through them.
5
Since Christ’s Ascension is our uplifting,
and the hope of the Body is invited
where the glory of the Head has gone before,
let us exult, dearly-beloved,
with worthy joy and delight
in the holy paying of thanks.
For to-day not only are we confirmed
as possessors of paradise, but have also
in Christ penetrated the heights of heaven,
and have gained still greater things
through Christ’s unspeakable grace than we had lost through the devil’s malice.
“All that the Father giveth me shall come to me.” — John 6:37
Many a curious soul has stumbled over the doctrine of God's electing grace. But with more consideration, they need not do so. Further, they will miss one of the most Christ-exalting, God-glorifying, and humanity-enhancing truths in all of Scripture! We need God's overwhelming grace to bring us to himself (1 Peter 3:18). Hear what Spurgeon pens regarding the above verse in John 6:
Oh! the power and majesty which rest in the words “shall come.” He does not say they have power to come, nor they may come if they will, but they “shall come.” The Lord Jesus doth by his messengers, his word, and his Spirit, sweetly and graciously compel men to come in that they may eat of his marriage supper; and this he does, not by any violation of the free agency of man, but by the power of his grace. I may exercise power over another man’s will, and yet that other man’s will may be perfectly free, because the constraint is exercised in a manner accordant with the laws of the human mind. Jehovah Jesus knows how, by irresistible arguments addressed to the understanding, by mighty reasons appealing to the affections, and by the mysterious influence of his Holy Spirit operating upon all the powers and passions of the soul, so to subdue the whole man, that whereas he was once rebellious, he yields cheerfully to his government, subdued by sovereign love [emphasis mine]. But how shall those be known whom God hath chosen? By this result: that they do willingly and joyfully accept Christ, and come to him with simple and unfeigned faith, resting upon him as all their salvation and all their desire. Reader, have you thus come to Jesus?
Spurgeon, C. H. (2006). Morning and evening : Daily readings (Complete and unabridged; New modern edition.). Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers.
Is this not why Paul, after penning those mighty words of Romans chapters 1-11 felt that he MUST exult: Oh, the depth of the riches andwisdom and knowledge of God!How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! (11:33) A saying my Dad had in his Bible many years ago, was: "They who know Him best, fear Him most." Well said, for those who know best their own depravity, do exult that much more in the face of God's magnanimity. Thus, "Amazing" grace!
Therefore "Come out from among them and be separate," says the Lord. "Do not touch what is unclean, and I will receive you." --2 Corinthians 6:17
The church's mightiest influence is felt when she is different from the world in which she lives. Her power lies in her being different, rises with the degree in which she differs and sinks as the difference diminishes. [Some set out to BE different. This is not what our Lord is commanding of us. Our differences lie in the location of our hearts which are firmly set on Jesus Christ. Naturally, in the process, we will fall out of line with a self-absorbed world system.]
This is so fully and clearly taught in the Scriptures and so well illustrated in Church history that it is hard to see how we can miss it. But miss it we do, for we hear constantly that the Church must try to be as much like the world as possible, excepting, of course, where the world is too, too sinful.... [Thus, aiming only to be different, many churches follow at a distance behind the world, yet ever moving downward in increasingly sinful tendencies. They accept compromise under the guise of difference, viz., "We're not as bad as they are." Instead, our eyes MUST be upon the Holy One of Israel. HE CHANGES NOT]
Let us plant ourselves on the hill of Zion and invite the world to come over to us, but never under any circumstances will we go over to them. The cross is the symbol of Christianity, and the cross speaks of death and separation, never of compromise. No one ever compromised with a cross. The cross separated between the dead and the living. The timid and the fearful will cry "Extreme!" and they will be right. The cross is the essence of all that is extreme and final. The message of Christ is a call across a gulf from death to life, from sin to righteousness and from Satan to God. [Yes!]
The Set of the Sail, 35,36.
[From: "Insight For Leaders," July 23rd, by A. W. Tozer. Comments in brackets are mine]
The following comes from the DGM blog. Author: Tyler Kenney
If God has already willed to send rain, then why pray for it? Or if God has chosen to save you, then why fight so hard against temptation?
Edwards gives his answer to questions like these in Miscellanies #29(reformatted for readability):
God decrees all things harmoniously and in excellent order; one decree harmonizes with another, and there is such a relation between all the decrees as makes the most excellent order. Thus God decrees rain in drought because he decrees the earnest prayers of his people; or thus, he decrees the prayers of his people because he decrees rain.
I acknowledge, to say God decrees a thing "because," is an improper way of speaking, but not more improper than all our other ways of speaking about God. God decrees the latter event because of the former, no more than he decrees the former because of the latter.
But this is what we [mean]: when God decrees to give the blessing of rain, he decrees the prayers of his people; and when he decrees the prayers of his people, he very commonly decrees rain; and thereby there is an harmony between these two decrees, of rain and the prayers of God's people.
Thus also,
▪when he decrees diligence and industry, he decrees riches and prosperity;
▪when he decrees prudence, he often decrees success;
▪when he decrees striving, then often he decrees the obtaining of the kingdom of heaven;
▪when he decrees the preaching of the gospel, then he decrees the bringing home of souls to Christ;
▪when he decrees good natural faculties, diligence and good advantages, then he decrees learning;
▪when he decrees summer, then he decrees the growing of plants.
Thus, when he decrees conformity to his Son, he decrees calling; and when he decrees calling, he decrees justification; and when he decrees justification, he decrees everlasting glory.
Thus all the decrees of God are harmonious; and this is all that can be said for or against absolute or conditional decrees. But this I say, it's improper to make one decree a condition of another, any more than the other a condition of that; but there is a harmony between both.
