"Neither Give Place to the devil" (continued)
There is a solemn warning about this in Revelation 13:7, "And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them." Revelation 13:4 tells us it was the dragon, "that old serpent, called the devil, and satan," that gave power unto the beast, that gave power unto that which is antichrist; remember, this power is a limited power, for only God is Omnipotent, all-powerful. This limited power that satan gave to that which was antichrist was to be used to make war with the saints (the redeemed) and to overcome them. Now how was the beast to overcome the saints? He could not take away their salvation, for only those "whose names are not written in the book of Life of the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world" shall worship the beast. We have also seen that he cannot take away from that which God has brought forth of Christ in the lives of the saints. So how does that which is antichrist overcome the saints? There is only one way. Only as we yield to the natural man does that which is antichrist have the ground it needs. But God is faithful, and just as He did with Abraham and Sarah. He will place us in a situation where only the reality of that Which Christ Is, and that Which He Accomplished, will get us through.
It seems that Sarah was the first to realize that Ishmael could not live before God as "The Seed," and she began to realize this when, "by faith even Sarah herself received ability to conceive, even beyond the proper time of life" (Hebrews 11:11). So Sarah bore Abraham a son exactly at God's "set time." Then, as she watched Isaac grow, she knew that "in Isaac" was the Seed - the "Seed, Which Is Christ." She began to realize that she and Abraham had allowed the desires of their natural man to mix into the things of God; and she came to know that only that which the Lord produced could be this promised Seed. Galatians 4:22 tells us that Abraham had two sons, one born after the flesh, and one born after the Spirit; and "He that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit" (verse 29).
When Sarah came to understand these things, this time she submitted unto the Lord, not unto Abraham's natural man; and she told Abraham that Ishmael must go. This was "grievous" to Abraham, but God told him to listen to Sarah, and Abraham obeyed God. Sarah had learned that she could be a vessel for "The Seed" of promise; but she had also learned that she and Abraham could not, out of themselves, produce that which was of God. Sarah learned this "through faith," which means she became wholly dependent upon the Lord through the work of the Cross in her life.
Sarah seems to have gradually learned this over a period of about five years; from Isaac's birth until he was weaned, she had begun to see the difference between that which was born of the flesh, and that which was born after the Spirit, and she saw this because of the work of the Cross in her life. Galatians four confirms that Sarah was not just jealous because her son was not Abraham's only heir; no, she had come to realize that the flesh could not be an heir of God. However, this revelation came to Abraham like an ax blow, a blow that cut into the depths of his being; for he had either not been conscious of this, or he had closed his mind to the fact that which was born of the flesh could not be heirs with that which was born of the Spirit. Some of us learn this gradually as we yield to God's dealings; and some of us learn as the ax is applied to the roots of our natural man.
~T. Austin-Sparks~
(continued with # 45)
No comments:
Post a Comment