The Relatedness of the Bible (continued)
Well, how much shall we touch and how much shall we leave? All the covenants, the covenant of the Sabbaths, the seventh day, the seventh year, the seven sevens of years, all bear down upon this matter of giving God His place, bringing God into His place, bringing God into His place, and God having His rights. I will not go further with that, we have so much ground to cover.
satan, who is termed "the god of this world" (2 Corinthians 4:4), is active all through the Bible deceiving and, be deceit, corrupting: taking sides - afflicting where his godship and worship are not acknowledged, murdering Abel; supporting wherever he finds that he is going to get what his heart is set upon. Tempting, accusing, oppressing - what is it all about? One thing only. All satan's antagonistic activity all his work, is with one object in view, and that object is the turning of the heart of man away from God unto himself. he will even tempt you to wrong, seduce you, and when he has done it, accuse you and, in accusing you, malign God; bring a charge against God of unfaithfulness and un-love; draw away from God; put God in a wrong light. You know how he does that under duress, strain, suffering, pressure - questioning God's love and faithfulness, and so on. he is always there on the spot at a weak moment. Well, everything we are saying is bound up with this one question and issue the worship of God. That is the Bible.
The Relatedness of Christian Life
Let us come to the matter of Christian life. Christian life begins with what we call, comprehensively, salvation, being saved. We look at that more closely, and we speak about justification by faith, or righteousness through faith. That spiritual truth throws us back to the Old Testament, the spotless Lamb, the Lamb without spot, without blemish. That is very blessed as our experience, as our joy, our salvation. But let us get deeper. What does it mean? Well, first of all, quite simply, it means that satan's ground has been taken away; a situation has been has been brought about in which satan has no standing. The spotless Lamb has been presented, and by faith hands have been laid upon its head, and that spotlessness has been attributed to that faith as the spotlessness of the believer, and his sin has been removed. He believes that, and enters into life and salvation. It is a tremendous thing that has been done. The real basis of the salvation of the believer is that God has got His rights, and satan has been robbed of them all. Now lay hold of that. That is simple as a statement. God has got His rights. What are they? Absolute incorruptibility, holiness, righteousness, purity. satan's ground, the ground of his power, authority, which is unholiness, unrighteousness, evil, sin, has been dealt with. God has provided Himself a Lamb, and in that Lamb satan has no place, no power, God's rights are secured in the Lamb, and satan's rights are ruled out. That is the basic fact, but we know well enough that satan never ceases to try to make it as though it were not so. To the end of our time, he is always seeking to bring us back on to the same ground as before, our own ground; the ground of what we are in ourselves, our own sinfulness and corruption; to have ourselves in view, and, bringing ourselves into view, to accuse our consciences, and thus to nullify the great fact of justification and righteousness through faith, to counter it; and whenever we cede him one little bit of that ground, recognize it, accept it, what have we done? We have taken God's rights from Him and given the rights back to satan. This whole question of worship comes into the realm of suspense, there is no way through. While the question remains as to our justification by faith, our righteousness through faith in Jesus Christ, satan is in the place of power, and we are in the place of defeat, and God is being robbed. It is something much more than just a personal matter between ourselves and the Lord, between ourselves and the devil. It is touching this ultimate question of God's rights, and all worship gets right down there. We must settle this thing, and we must not open up the matter as a matter for questioning; it must never arise as a matter of question that through faith in Jesus Christ we are justified, and righteous before God. satan can keep his battle going in us, continual conflict between ourselves and God, while we allow a question to arise in this matte. He is getting at the ultimate thing. When you come to the end, where this question of worship is fully and finally settled, it is this - "The Lord God the Almighty, and the Lamb, are the temple thereof." Worship unquestioning toward God, is related to the Lamb. God gets everything through the Lamb; satan loses everything through the Lamb.
~T. Austin-Sparks~
(continued with # 9)
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