Believe Christ, Not Satan (The Bruised Reed)

 

   

Believe Christ, Not Satan  

     I chose this title out of Richard Sibbes book  The Bruised Reed. Which in my own opinion next to the Bible is one of the greatest encouragements to struggling Christians, and a honest revealing of the frail weakling each Christian really is. Although frail and weak Jesus is their righteousness their fill (see John 4:13-14), Sibbes often reminds readers that Satan frequently deceives turning many away from Jesus, and that as a Christian though admittedly weak the divine all sustaining grace of God holds him or her aright. 
    Satan is an accuser of the Church, desiring to cripple Her with condemenation."And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God." (Revelation 12:10). Which for the true Church these accusations is seen as a mere delusion and a lie. What are the accusations that Satan is making against the brothers? That they do not belong to Christ, "You see Billy down there look at him he said the most vile words to his coworker is he really Yours? He's not acting like it, he looks more like one of mine!" What does Satan hate more than anything? God and God's people. As in the words of Matthew Henry "The conquered enemy hates the presence of God, yet he is willing to appear before him to accuse the people of God. Let us take heed that we give him no cause to accuse us; and that, when we have sinnned, we go before the Lord, condemn ourselves and commit our cause to Christ as our Advocate."  
 
        

 

 

 

 

God's children struggle with ongoing sin and at times feel a great sense of lostness, then questions regarding their assurance in Jesus come to mind. Seeing Jesus as a most severe judge "And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man." (Luke 18:1-2). This judge eventually gives in,"a while he refused" (v.4), and God's response time to His children is speedily  "I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?” (Luke 18:8). What does this tell you about your downcast sin ridden soul? To not give in to the accuser! "for the accuser of the brethren has been thrown down." Jesus casted Satan out via the cross, and through Jesus there is salvation. Oh Christian do not be downcast for Jesus is the kingdom. In the prior chapter Luke wrote of the pharisees encounter with Jesus,"Being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, he answered them, “The kingdom of God is not coming in ways that can be observed, nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There!’ for behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you."(Luke 17:20-21). The Kingdom is not a place but a person, earthly kings can not be trusted, but Jesus can be. 
  
    Guilt feeling does not mean you are in a forever state of guilty. This faith Jesus speaks about, "will he find faith on earth?" exists inside you, and an enduring trust O believer. What was the state of this woman in the parable? Continuous rejection and hopelessness. This judge although he was not good, he had at least the decency to grant the woman's request. Satan is not so, the feelings of ostracization will never cease. Hope, Satan does not know. Christian, I urge you to stay near to Jesus never cease coming to Him.

    Long suffering and Spirit-led prayer will keep the Christian in an upright posture as he or she walks through the death valley (see Psalm 23). "We are weak. but we are His; we are deformed, but yet carry His image. A father looks not so much at the blemishes of his child as at his own nature in him; so Christ finds matter of love from that which is his own in us." (Sibbes, Richard The Bruised Reed p.67). I want to use Sibbes's illustration to highlight another point. The father sees his child and rejoices in the similarities. Then Papa notices something worse, a disturbing quality he finds in his child. Tantrums erupt at the supermarket as you push your cart by the toy guns or the sweets near the checkout counter which will make the child wild. 
    
    Some sadly in contrast take Luke 18:1-8 and use this parable to bolster their own pursuits, wants, and dreams without any regard to what God wants, and when circumstances don't turn out how they like them they too throw a tantrum. Doing everything possible to not accept God's present will for them. Well-meaning Christians who lack a right understanding of doctrine will say something like "I refuse to believe in a God who will allow suffering in my life." "I refuse to believe in a God who is_____________(insert phrase). Starting off a sentence like this is more than not a rejection of God's authority over their lives. Jesus suffered, arent we as Christians called to emulate Jesus? Then how is the Christian ever going to experience the fruits of The Holy Spirit? When suffering produces His satisfying character in us? This suffering will strip the Christian of his or her pride, and bring about humility with an utter and complete joy-filled reliance upon Jesus. 

"Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us." 
(Romans 5:1-5)

"He sees His own nature in us: we are diseased, but yet His members. Who ever neglected his own members because they were weak or sick?" 
(Sibbes, Richard The Bruised Reed p.67)

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular Posts