Lord, help us in this sin sick dying world

Rom 6:13  Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.
Rom 6:14  For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.

We talked about some of this yesterday- the fact that we have to YIELD ourselves to become instruments of unrighteousness to sin.  We also have to YIELD ourselves to God, to be instruments of righteousness. 

There are two choices. 

We yield, there is NO neutral ground, there is NO non-yielding.   We will yield either to one or the other- to God or to Satan, to Righteousness or to Sin.

When we are NOT yielding to Christ, we are yielding to Satan- we choose.

Sin will NOT have dominion over us, why? Because we are no longer under the law-  and what does that mean? We are under grace. To be under the law alone means to have no hope.

You see-- it's like this--

The law says we are guilty of sinning.
The law says the punishment for our sinning is death.
Only grace can save us from that death.

If we do not put ourselves under grace, then we have no hope at all.

Sin will NOT have dominion over us because we aren't lost in a well of hopelessness having only our death to look forward to. We have to live with the hope that is found in Christ, who alone has the power to save us. Christ saves us - we do NOT save ourselves! We yield our lives to Christ. We make the conscious choice to yield, it must be conscious, it must be on purpose.

Rom 6:15  What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid.
Rom 6:16  Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?

Right away we are told that knowing we are not under the law does not mean we should sin!  We can't hold up the law, the ten moral commandments and yell, see, we no longer have to follow these, because it is a lie.

Sin is the transgression of the law.

1Jn_3:4  Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.

If you yield yourself to be a servant of sin, then you are yielding yourself to transgressing the law.

If you yield yourself to be a servant of righteousness, then you are yielding yourself to keeping the law by the grace of Christ.

Yielding ourselves SERVANTS to obey.

We have two masters to choose from, only two.

We choose.

The choices we make have consequences.

Sinning isn't something that is done without our knowledge.

We know we will face CONSTANT temptations to sin, to pretend otherwise is to fool ourselves.  We also know what sins we are vulnerable towards. Satan will do all he can to entice us. He'll stop at NOTHING to make us believe that our sins are not sins at all.

You read that right.

Satan disguises our sins as not being sins so that we feel no need to repent, no need to ask for forgiveness.  Once Satan has done this and we've allowed ourselves to be deceived then there is little hope for us because not recognizing our need to seek forgiveness leaves us vulnerable.

We HAVE to pray that our eyes are open, that our spiritual eyes are wide open and able to recognize all the sin that affects us.  By the grace of God we will NOT be blind to our own sins.  By the grace of God we will submit ourselves, our lives to Christ and allow Him to work in us, to use us as His instruments for His righteousness.

Maybe I'm going on and on a bit about all this but it's truth and I fear we don't want to confront the sin in our lives, we'd much rather sugar coat it, paint it in a false covering of unrighteousness. We want to be deceived so we don't have to carry any sort of cross, or deny ourselves anything.

We can't imagine living a life as we truly believe our Savior would have us live, can we? Yet we must never give up! Never stop HOPING in HIM.

Please Lord, help us!  Please Lord,  save us!  We do believe, help our unbelief! Be the LORD of our lives! In this sad, sin sick, dying world filled with Satan's evil everywhere we turn, please, be the LORD of our lives, be our all in all! Please!

Do not yield to unrighteousness

Rom 6:13  Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.

Let's take a look at this closely- 

We are told NOT to YIELD ourselves, our members.

In order NOT to yield something you have to be in possession of something that has the possibility of yielding. 

We have the ability to CHOOSE.  That ability becomes compromised when we entertain sin. It's like adding oil to a very squeaky clean wheel that without the oil has a lot of resistance, in fact it's almost impossible to move that wheel without oil. You add a little oil and it moves a tiny bit, you add more and more oil and soon that wheel is turning smoothly, easily.  In most cases we want the wheels we oil to move, but in this case we want it never to move in the slightest. Choosing to give into a temptation is the oil dripping onto the wheel.  Each time we yield to sin oil drips, drips, drips. Soon that sin wheel is turning faster and faster until it seems as if it will never stop and our lives depend upon that wheel turning, that sin being committed.

That ability to yield is ours. 

God's word says … neither yield our members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin.

Don't allow our bodies to be used to commit anything that is unrighteous that leads to sin. Instruments- things that are used.  When you have an instrument it's something that can be used for a purpose. No instrument exist that does not serve a purpose. Why have an instrument that cannot be used? It would be pointless to have an instrument that you couldn't use. So if we allow our members (our hands, feet, anything that we consist of) to be used for unrighteousness we are accountable for that because we have CHOSEN to yield, we make the conscious choice to yield.

Rom 6:13  Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.

… but YIELD yourselves to GOD.

As one who is alive from the dead.   Imagine that… someone who is as good as dead is alive once more, someone is given a second chance at life, how would it feel to be that person? We all know the stories we've seen on tv, in movies, or read in books- some fiction, some not fiction-  that show the incredible new zest for life people have after such an experience.   And we are to YIELD ourselves to GOD with that sort of zest for life, because truthfully we have been given a new life in Christ when we accept Him and choose to give our lives to him, our old life being dead and gone and rising to new life in Christ.

Our entire lives- our bodies, our minds, need to be yielded to God. Instruments of righteousness to God, we must choose to use ourselves for God, to allow Him to use us for HIS righteousness. Not to become righteous on our own, we have no righteousness apart from God.

When we sin- we yield.
We all face temptation on a constant basis.
Facing temptation will never end.
We will never reach a day where we can say- today I will not be tempted, today I will not have to face a single temptation, not even a tiny one, today is temptation-to-sin free day.

Sinning is not being tempted, but letting that temptation  become lust and that lust is sin.

Jas 1:14  But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.
Jas 1:15  Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.

Sinning is a process.  Sometimes that process happens so fast we barely blink and it's been done. Other times we contemplate sinning for a long time.  The temptations vary and are endless.

By Christ alone we can be forgiven when we sin and repent, seeking forgiveness.
By Christ alone can we keep from sinning.
We yield ourselves to Christ.
We recognize that we are Christ's servants.

By the grace of God more on this tomorrow…

All through His love, His righteousness!

Faith does the impossible

'Practical Illustrations of Deliverance From Bondage Pt. 2…

'Again, if we have yielded ourselves to be servants of God, we are His servants, or in other words, are instruments of righteousness in His hands.

Read Rom.6:13-16.

Rom 6:13  Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.
Rom 6:14  For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.
Rom 6:15  What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid.
Rom 6:16  Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?

 We are not inert, lifeless, senseless instruments, such as the agriculturist uses, which have no voice as to how they shall be used, but living, intelligent instruments, who are permitted to choose their occupation. Nevertheless, the term "instrument" signifies a tool, -- something that is entirely under the control of the artisan.

The difference between us and the tools of the mechanic is that we can choose who shall use us, and at what kind of service we shall be employed; but having made the choice, and yielded ourselves into the hands of the workman, we are to be as completely in his hands as is the tool that has no voice as to how it shall be used.

When we yield to God, we are to be in His hands as clay in the hands of the potter, that He may do with us a He pleases. Our volition lies in choosing whether or not we will let Him work in us that which is good.

This idea of being instruments in the hands of God is a wonderful aid to the victory of faith when it is once fully grasped.

For, notice, what an instrument will do depends entirely upon the person in whose hands it is.

Here, for instance, is a die. It is innocent enough in itself, yet it may be used for the basest purposes, as well as for that which is useful. If it be in the hands of a bad character, it may be used in making counterfeit coin. It certainly will not be used for any good purpose. But if it be in the hands of an upright, virtuous man, it cannot possibly do any harm. Likewise, when we were the servants of Satan, we did no good (Rom. 6:20),  (((Rom 6:20  For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness. ))))but now that we have yielded ourselves into the hands of God, we know that there is no unrighteousness in Him, and so an instrument in His hands cannot be used for an evil purpose. The yielding to God must be as complete as it was formerly to Satan, for the apostle says:

I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh; for as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness. Rom. 6:19.

The whole secret of overcoming, then, lies in first wholly yielding to God with a sincere desire to do His will; next, in knowing that in our yielding He accepts us as His servants; and then, in retaining that submission to Him and leaving ourselves in His hands.

 Often victory can be gained only by repeating again and again, “O Lord, truly I am thy servant; I am thy servant, and the son of thine handmaid; thou hast loosed my bonds.”

This is simply an emphatic way of saying, “O Lord, I have yielded myself into Thy hands as an instrument of righteousness; let Thy will be done, and not the dictates of the flesh.”

But when we can realize the force of that scripture and feel indeed that we are servants of God, immediately will come the thought, “Well, if I am indeed an instrument in the hands of God, He cannot use me to do evil with, nor can he permit me to do evil as long as I remain in His hands. He must keep me if I am kept from evil, because I cannot keep myself.

But He wants to keep me from evil, for He has shown His desire, and also His power to fulfill His desire in giving Himself for me.

Therefore I shall be kept from this evil.”

 All these thoughts may pass through the mind instantly, and then with them must necessarily come a feeling of gladness that we shall be kept from the dreaded evil. That gladness naturally finds expression in thanksgiving to God, and while we are thanking God the enemy retires with his temptation, and the peace of God fills the heart.

Then we find that the joy in believing far outweighs all the joy that comes from indulgence in sin.

All this is a demonstration of Paul's words, “Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid; yea, we establish the law.” Rom. 3:31. To “make void” the law is not to abolish it, for no man can abolish the law of God, yet the Psalmist says that it has been made void. Ps. 119:126. To make void the law of God is something more than to claim that it is of no consequence; it is to show by the life that it is considered of no consequence. A man makes the law of God void when he allows it to have no power in his life. In short, to make void the law of God is to break it; but the law itself remains the same whether it is kept or not. Making it void affects only the individual.

Therefore, when the apostle says that we do not make void the law of God by faith, but that, on the contrary, we establish it, he means that faith does not lead to violation of the law but to obedience.

No, we should not say that faith leads to obedience, but that faith itself obeys.

Faith establishes the law in the heart.

“Faith is the substance of things hoped for.”

 If the thing hoped for be righteousness, faith establishes it. Instead of faith leading to antinomianism, it is the only thing that is contrary to antinomianism. It matters not how much a person boasts in the law of God; if he rejects or ignores implicit faith in Christ, he is in no better state than the man who directly assails the law.

The man of faith is the only one who truly honors the law of God. Without faith it is impossible to please God (Heb. 11:6); with it, all things are possible (Mark 9:23).

Yes, faith does the impossible, and it is just that which God requires us to do.

When Joshua said to Israel, “Ye cannot serve the Lord,” he told the truth, yet it was a fact that God required them to serve Him. It is not within any man's power to do righteousness, even though he wants to (Gal. 5:17)(((Gal 5:17  For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. )))); therefore, it is a mistake to say that all God wants is for us to do the best we can. He who does no better than that will not do the works of God. No. He must do better than he can do. He must do that which only the power of God working through him can do. It is impossible for a man to walk on water, yet Peter did it when he exercised faith in Jesus.

Since all power in heaven and in earth is in the hands of Christ and this power is at our disposal, even Christ Himself coming to dwell in the heart by faith, there is no room for finding fault with God for requiring us to do the impossible; for “the things which are impossible with men are possible with God.” Luke 18:27. Therefore we may boldly say, “The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me.” Heb. 13:6.

Then “who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness or peril, or sword?” “Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.” Rom. 8:35, 37. “For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

(((Rom 8:35  Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
Rom 8:36  As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.
Rom 8:37  Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
Rom 8:38  For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
Rom 8:39  Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. ))))

Christ and His Righteousness -  E. J. Waggoner

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(((Rom 8:35  Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
Rom 8:36  As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.
Rom 8:37  Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
Rom 8:38  For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
Rom 8:39  Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. ))))

Christ's love for us is absolute.  We should never question God's love for us. Those who desire to question the love of God toward mankind should rather ask  this-- whether or not THEY love God.

The criteria people have for God to prove His love is a very selfish one. Give me everything I believe will make me happy and content in life and then I'll believe you love me. The opposite is true as well, if you give me only heartache, pain, and defeat I will believe you don't love me. Forget all about the end game- it's here and now that matters most. The end game calls for me to have FAITH, believing in something unseen, in something unknown.  The end game is asking me to endure all sorts of evil directed at me now, while still believing the end game that is unseen. We're asked to believe that you can control everything, and then to believe that when you choose not to control the evil raining down on us that you are loving and caring, what is that?

Again I say, Christ's love for us is absolute.

There is no doubting the love of God- He has more than proven His love for us. He has revealed the entire plan of salvation to us- we've seen the beginning, witnessed throughout history, the middle, and the end will follow right on through to all that He has revealed. We aren't left in the dark to know how it all will end for us. We know the outcome of life, the end game has been revealed. We have spoilers.  We aren't left to wander aimlessly under the impression that we can't know what the future holds. We have been told. We have been given this gift of foretelling.

And it's Satan's aim to get us to not believe what we've been told, to not believe in the One who has revealed the future to us, to doubt.

How often do we do things with the expectation of being rewarded for our effort?

We go to our jobs with the expectation that we are earning money for that effort.  Most people would stop working if they were not being paid to do so. You go to school with the expectation of gaining knowledge to enable you to live life as an informed human being. You go to a school of higher learning to gain even more knowledge - how frustrating it is when you enter into something with an expectation of a rewarding outcome and it never materializes.  We do the same with our relationships with others, don't we? We become friends with people with the hopes there will be mutually beneficial consideration for one another. We marry in the hopes of having a life long companion.  It's truthful to say then that we spend a lot of our lives with expectations.  When those expectations are unrealized we are filled with disappointment.  However, when those expectations are met, any hard work, any sacrifice we've made towards that expectation is deemed worth it, at least most times. You'll find some parents who have sacrificed everything for their children and are rewarded by their children succeeding in ways they only dreamed and hoped for. Some people suffer through a lot to make a success for themselves and then turn around and say it was ALL worth it, everything they endured.

If people can feel this way about success that is fleeting, if they can feel this sort of emotion towards things that will never endure for death is everyone's promise, then how much more should people be willing to endure to obtain eternal life?

Nothing can separate us from the love of Christ, nothing, but we can separate ourselves. We can take our love from Him.

We are asked to believe.

We are promised a life we can never fully imagine, it's too wondrous for our minds to entirely comprehend.

Yet there are many people willing to simply throw it all away because they choose not to believe for some misguided reason, thinking it benefits them in this life not to believe.  Fools.

Nothing can separate us from Christ if we believe in Him, nothing!

Satan will truly throw everything he has in his spiritual arsenal at us, and he will never give up, he will never sleep, he will never let an opportunity pass by to get us on his side of eternity- which is the side of limited existence, not unending existence.

Under a constant barrage of spiritual evil we only have hope in clinging to Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior, our God, our High Priest, our King.

Truly we are servants to the one we choose to obey.  And if we are not obeying Christ then we are obeying Satan, there is no other option, it's one or the other and one offers love the other evil. While a person might wrongly believe they are choosing their own side by not picking a side, whenever we choose our own side we are in effect saying we are our own creator, and when we say that we are choosing the side of the one who wants you to believe that you are your own creator.

All of it has been explained in the Word of God.

Please Lord, let us be Your servants! We choose You even if that means suffering beyond our wildest imaginings. You are our ALL in ALL.

You can't shut off Satan's surveillance.

Truth. Faith is the substance of THINGS HOPED FOR. Faith is the evidence of THINGS NOT SEEN. (Heb.11:1)

Can we see our victory over sin? Can we? Aren't we all too often prone to listening to the unseen evil seducer who tries to convince us that there is no hope in us, we who are constant sinners, constant rebels, constantly doing that which we don't want to- WANT to- do?

That's right- we don't WANT to...want sin.  We find ourselves wanting sin and because we have that want of it, we in turn are led to believe that we have no hope against something we find ourselves wanting. Because we tell ourselves (listening to the evil seducer of mankind) that the wanting to sin proves that we aren't God's, because if we wanted to be God's we wouldn't even want to sin.  He yells at us that we are evil, pure evil, we are hopelessly caught up in our evil ways. The web of desire is so strong, the snare so tight we have little hope of ever getting free.  He makes the cycle a vicious one and truly it is a cycle. We sin, we feel guilty, we ask for forgiveness, we sin again, we feel guilty, we ask for forgiveness… we sin...we sin...we sin… the guilt grows and all the while Satan is right there whispering to us that we are too entrenched in our sinful ways to ever hope we can be God's. He wants us to DESPAIR of ever being Christ's, of ever believing that we, as sinners, can truly be forgiven.  Satan wants us to believe that we must attain some measure of righteousness all on our own, only then when we've managed to lose our wanting to sin can we be Christ's. Satan is a tempter, he knows our every weakness and he will exploit every single one of them. He wants us to believe that even the act of being tempted is SIN!  He does! He wants us to believe that being tempted is SIN, as if Jesus when He was tempted by Satan in the wilderness could ever have been guilty!  Was Jesus hungry when Satan tempted Him to change that stone into bread? We know He'd been fasting, so was He hungry? Did He desire to eat?  Tell me this… would it have been a temptation at all if Jesus wasn't hungry?  To tempt the man who has just consumed a five course meal- with a plateful of food would have very little affect, right? But to tempt a starving man with a plateful of food would be a REAL temptation!  A TEMPTATION. Satan wants us to believe that every single temptation we face is really us sinning. But the truth is, the temptation IS NOT the sin! The sin comes when we are drawn away by the temptation.  Satan will NOT stop tempting us! He tempted Christ while He was hanging on the cross!

Luk 23:35  And the people stood beholding. And the rulers also with them derided him, saying, He saved others; let him save himself, if he be Christ, the chosen of God.
Luk 23:36  And the soldiers also mocked him, coming to him, and offering him vinegar,
Luk 23:37  And saying, If thou be the king of the Jews, save thyself.

Save thyself.

Could He have saved Himself?

Betrayed into the hands of the soldiers--

Mat 26:50  And Jesus said unto him, Friend, wherefore art thou come? Then came they, and laid hands on Jesus, and took him.
Mat 26:51  And, behold, one of them which were with Jesus stretched out his hand, and drew his sword, and struck a servant of the high priest's, and smote off his ear.
Mat 26:52  Then said Jesus unto him, Put up again thy sword into his place: for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword.
Mat 26:53  Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels?

Yes, He could have saved Himself.

He didn't …

Mat 26:54  But how then shall the scriptures be fulfilled, that thus it must be?
Mat 26:55  In that same hour said Jesus to the multitudes, Are ye come out as against a thief with swords and staves for to take me? I sat daily with you teaching in the temple, and ye laid no hold on me.
Mat 26:56  But all this was done, that the scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled. Then all the disciples forsook him, and fled.

We will be tempted, that won't go away. Temptation to sin will never disappear and just when you think you've conquered a sin it will return and bite you even harder, or another temptation will rise up different from the one you've managed to subdue by the grace of God.

We have to own up to this! We have to get it straight in our heads! We have to realize that we will always be tempted and we are tempted if it's something we don't want in some fashion.

Satan truly is the enemy with super eavesdropping spy abilities. He's watching our every move and looking for the tiniest of signals that might indicate he can use something to tempt us to sin. He won't stop. You can't shut off Satan's surveillance.  

Remember this…

Joh_17:15  I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil.

As long as we are in this world we are going to be subjected to Satan's surveillance, his scrutiny. Jesus prayed that we should be kept by God the Father from evil. 

Going back to what I started out to say, 'Can we see our victory over sin? Can we?'  Our victory only comes by our faith in Christ to redeem us. Our victory only comes to us UNSEEN. Our victory only comes to us by being HOPED FOR.

If we expect to see ourselves perfect in this world, without even the slightest temptation, we will be lost as time goes by and we are caught up in temptation believing that even the temptation itself is sin. If we expect to despair, to live without true hope, without real hope in Christ to save us, then we are lost.

We won't SEE our faith- it's UNSEEN!

1Jn_5:4  For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.

1Co_15:57  But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Our faith, our belief in our LORD JESUS CHRIST! Believing! Hoping!


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'Deliverance from bondage'   -  Christ and His Righteousness-  E. G. Waggoner-


'Practical Illustrations of Deliverance From Bondage  Pt 1….



Now let us take some illustrations of THE POWER OF FAITH TO DELIVER FROM BONDAGE. We will quote Luke 13:10-17:



And he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. And, behold, there was a woman which had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bowed together, and could in nowise lift up herself. And when Jesus saw her, he called her to him, and said unto her, Woman, thou art loosed from thine infirmity. And he laid his hands on her, and immediately she was made straight, and glorified God. And the ruler of the synagogue answered with indignation, because that Jesus had healed on the Sabbath-day, and said unto the people, There are six days in which men ought to work; in them therefore come and be healed, and not on the Sabbath-day. The Lord then answered him, and said, Thou hypocrite, doth not each one of you on the Sabbath loose his ox or his ass from the stall, and lead him away to watering? and ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound, lo, these eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath day? And when he had said these things, all his adversaries were ashamed; and all the people rejoiced for all the glorious things that were done by him.



We may pass by the carping of the hypocritical ruler, to consider the miracle. The woman was bound; WE THROUGH FEAR OF DEATH, HAVE BEEN ALL OUR LIFE-TIME SUBJECT TO BONDAGE. Satan had bound the woman; Satan has also set snares for our feet and has brought us into captivity. She could in nowise lift up herself; our iniquities have taken hold of us, so that we are not able to look up. Ps. 40:12. With a word and a touch Jesus set the woman free from her infirmities; we have the same merciful High Priest now in the heavens, who is touched with the feeling of our infirmities, and the same word will deliver us from evil.



Psa 40:12  For innumerable evils have compassed me about: mine iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that I am not able to look up; they are more than the hairs of mine head: therefore my heart faileth me.



For what purpose were the miracles of healing recorded, which were performed by Jesus? John tells us. It was not simply to show that He can heal disease but to show His power over sin. See Matt. 9:2-8.



Mat 9:2  And, behold, they brought to him a man sick of the palsy, lying on a bed: and Jesus seeing their faith said unto the sick of the palsy; Son, be of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven thee.

Mat 9:3  And, behold, certain of the scribes said within themselves, This man blasphemeth.

Mat 9:4  And Jesus knowing their thoughts said, Wherefore think ye evil in your hearts?

Mat 9:5  For whether is easier, to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Arise, and walk?

Mat 9:6  But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, (then saith he to the sick of the palsy,) Arise, take up thy bed, and go unto thine house.

Mat 9:7  And he arose, and departed to his house.

Mat 9:8  But when the multitudes saw it, they marvelled, and glorified God, which had given such power unto men.



But John says:



And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name. John 20:30, 31.



So we see that they are recorded simply as object lessons of Christ's love, of His willingness to relieve, and of His power over the works of Satan, no matter whether in the body or in the soul. One more miracle must suffice in this connection. It is the one recorded in the third chapter of Acts. I shall not quote the entire account but ask the reader to follow it carefully with his Bible.



Peter and John saw at the gate of the temple a man over forty years old, who had been lame from his birth. He had never walked. He was begging, and Peter felt prompted by the Spirit to give him something better than silver or gold. Said he, “In the name of Jesus of Nazareth rise up and walk. And he took him by the right hand and lifted him up, and immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength. And he leaping up stood, and walked, and entered with them into the temple, walking, and leaping, and praising God.” Verses 6-8.



This notable miracle on one whom all had seen caused a wonderful excitement among the people, and when Peter saw their astonishment, he proceeded to tell how the wonder had been performed, saying:



Ye men of Israel, why marvel ye at this? or why look ye so earnestly on us, as though by our own power or holiness we had made this man to walk? The God of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, hath glorified his son Jesus; whom ye delivered up,...and killed the Prince of Life, whom God hath raised from the dead; whereof we are witnesses. And HIS NAME THROUGH FAITH IN HIS NAME HATH MADE THIS MAN STRONG, whom ye see and know; yea, THE FAITH WHICH IS BY HIM hath given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all. Verses 12-16.



Now make the application. “The man was lame from his mother's womb,” unable to help himself. He would gladly have walked, but he could not. We likewise can all say, with David, “Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin  did my mother conceive me." Ps 51:5 As a consequence, we are by nature so weak that we cannot do the things that we would. As each year of the man's life increased his inability to walk, by increasing the weight of his body while his limbs grew no stronger, so the repeated practice of sin, as we grow older, strengthens its power over us. It was an utter impossibility for that man to walk; yet the Name of Christ through faith in it gave him perfect soundness and freedom from his infirmity. So we, THROUGH THE FAITH WHICH IS BY HIM, MAY BE MADE WHOLE, and enabled to do the thing which hitherto has been impossible. For the things with are IMPOSSIBLE with man are possible with God. He is the Creator. "To them that have no might He increaseth strength." One of the wonders of faith, as shown in the cases of the ancient worthies, is that they "out of weakness were made strong."



By these instances we have seen how God delivers from bondage those who trust in Him. Now let us consider the knowledge of how freedom is maintained.



We have seen that we by nature are all servants of sin and Satan, and that as soon as we submit to Christ, we become loosed from Satan's power.

Says Paul: "know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?" Rom. 6:16.

So we become the servants of Christ. Indeed, the very act of loosing us from the power of sin, in answer to our faith, proves God's acceptance of us as His servants.

We become, indeed, the bond-servants of Christ; but he who is the Lord's servant is a free man, for we are called unto liberty (Gal. 5:13) and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty (2 Cor. 3:17)

 (((Gal 5:13  For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another. ))))

(((2Co 3:17  Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. ))))

And now comes the conflict again.

Satan is NOT disposed to give up his slave so readily. He comes, armed with the lash of fierce temptation, to drive us again to his service.

We know by sad experience that he is more powerful than we are, and that unaided we cannot resist him.

But we dread his power, and cry for help.

Then we call to mind that WE ARE NOT Satan's servants any longer.

We have submitted ourselves to God, and therefore He accepted us as his servants.

So we can say with the Psalmist, "O Lord, truly I am Thy servant; I am Thy servant, and the son of Thine handmaid; Thou hast loosed my bonds." Ps 116:16.

But the fact that God has loosed the bonds that Satan had thrown around us-- AND HE HAS DONE THIS IF WE BELIEVE THAT HE HAS -- is evidence that God will protect us, for He cares for His own, and we have the assurance that He that has begun a good work in us "will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ." Phil 1:6. And in this confidence we are strong to resist.

Christ and His Righteousness -  E. G. Waggoner

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Our faith, our belief in our LORD JESUS CHRIST! Believing! Hoping!

Deliverance From Bondage

'Practical Illustrations of Deliverance From Bondage  Pt 1….

Now let us take some illustrations of the power of faith to deliver from bondage. We will quote Luke 13:10-17:

And he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. And, behold, there was a woman which had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bowed together, and could in nowise lift up herself. And when Jesus saw her, he called her to him, and said unto her, Woman, thou art loosed from thine infirmity. And he laid his hands on her, and immediately she was made straight, and glorified God. And the ruler of the synagogue answered with indignation, because that Jesus had healed on the Sabbath-day, and said unto the people, There are six days in which men ought to work; in them therefore come and be healed, and not on the Sabbath-day. The Lord then answered him, and said, Thou hypocrite, doth not each one of you on the Sabbath loose his ox or his ass from the stall, and lead him away to watering? and ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound, lo, these eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath day? And when he had said these things, all his adversaries were ashamed; and all the people rejoiced for all the glorious things that were done by him.

We may pass by the carping of the hypocritical ruler, to consider the miracle. The woman was bound; we, through fear of death, have been all our life-time subject to bondage. Satan had bound the woman; Satan has also set snares for our feet and has brought us into captivity. She could in nowise lift up herself; our iniquities have taken hold of us, so that we are not able to look up. Ps. 40:12. With a word and a touch Jesus set the woman free from her infirmities; we have the same merciful High Priest now in the heavens, who is touched with the feeling of our infirmities, and the same word will deliver us from evil.

Psa 40:12  For innumerable evils have compassed me about: mine iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that I am not able to look up; they are more than the hairs of mine head: therefore my heart faileth me.

For what purpose were the miracles of healing recorded, which were performed by Jesus? John tells us. It was not simply to show that He can heal disease but to show His power over sin. See Matt. 9:2-8.

Mat 9:2  And, behold, they brought to him a man sick of the palsy, lying on a bed: and Jesus seeing their faith said unto the sick of the palsy; Son, be of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven thee.

Mat 9:3  And, behold, certain of the scribes said within themselves, This man blasphemeth.

Mat 9:4  And Jesus knowing their thoughts said, Wherefore think ye evil in your hearts?

Mat 9:5  For whether is easier, to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Arise, and walk?

Mat 9:6  But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, (then saith he to the sick of the palsy,) Arise, take up thy bed, and go unto thine house.

Mat 9:7  And he arose, and departed to his house.

Mat 9:8  But when the multitudes saw it, they marvelled, and glorified God, which had given such power unto men.

But John says:

And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name. John 20:30, 31.

So we see that they are recorded simply as object lessons of Christ's love, of His willingness to relieve, and of His power over the works of Satan, no matter whether in the body or in the soul. One more miracle must suffice in this connection. It is the one recorded in the third chapter of Acts. I shall not quote the entire account but ask the reader to follow it carefully with his Bible.

Peter and John saw at the gate of the temple a man over forty years old, who had been lame from his birth. He had never walked. He was begging, and Peter felt prompted by the Spirit to give him something better than silver or gold. Said he, “In the name of Jesus of Nazareth rise up and walk. And he took him by the right hand and lifted him up, and immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength. And he leaping up stood, and walked, and entered with them into the temple, walking, and leaping, and praising God.” Verses 6-8.

This notable miracle on one whom all had seen caused a wonderful excitement among the people, and when Peter saw their astonishment, he proceeded to tell how the wonder had been performed, saying:

Ye men of Israel, why marvel ye at this? or why look ye so earnestly on us, as though by our own power or holiness we had made this man to walk? The God of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, hath glorified his son Jesus; whom ye delivered up,...and killed the Prince of Life, whom God hath raised from the dead; whereof we are witnesses. And his name through faith in his name hath made this man strong, whom ye see and know; yea, the faith which is by him hath given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all. Verses 12-16.

Now make the application. “The man was lame from his mother's womb,” unable to help himself. He would gladly have walked, but he could not. We likewise can all say, with David, “Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin  did my mother conceive me." Ps 51:5 As a consequence, we are by nature so weak that we cannot do the things that we would. As each year of the man's life increased his inability to walk, by increasing the weight of his body while his limbs grew no stronger, so the repeated practice of sin, as we grow older, strengthens its power over us. It was an utter impossibility for that man to walk; yet the Name of Christ through faith in it gave him perfect soundness and freedom from his infirmity. So we, through the faith which is by Him, may be made whole, and enabled to do the thing which hitherto has been impossible. For the things with are impossible with man are possible with God. He is the Creator. "To them that have no might He increaseth strength." One of the wonders of faith, as shown in the cases of the ancient worthies, is that they "out of weakness were made strong."

By these instances we have seen how God delivers from bondage those who trust in Him. Now let us consider the knowledge of how freedom is maintained.

We have seen that we by nature are all servants of sin and Satan, and that as soon as we submit to Christ, we become loosed from Satan's power. Says Paul: "know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?" Rom. 6:16. So we become the servants of Christ. Indeed, the very act of loosing us from the power of sin, in answer to our faith, proves God's acceptance of us as His servants. We become, indeed, the bond-servants of Christ; but he who is the Lord's servant is a free man, for we are called unto liberty (Gal. 5:13) and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty (2 Cor. 3:17)

And now comes the conflict again. Satan is not disposed to give up his slave so readily. He comes, armed with the lash of fierce temptation, to drive us again to his service. We know by sad experience that he is more powerful than we are, and that unaided we cannot resist him. But we dread his power, and cry for help. Then we call to mind that we are not Satan's servants any longer. We have submitted ourselves to God, and therefore He accepted us as his servants. So we can say with the Psalmist, "O Lord, truly I am Thy servant; I am Thy servant, and the son of Thine handmaid; Thou hast loosed my bonds." Ps 116:16. But the fact that God has loosed the bonds that Satan had thrown around us- and He has done this if we believe that He has-- is evidence that God will protect us, for He cares for His own, and we have the assurance that He that has begun a good work in us "will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ." Phil 1:6. And in this confidence we are strong to resist.

Christ and His Righteousness -  E. G. Waggoner

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Not spared the ravages of our spiritual war

'Bond Servants and Freemen

The power of faith in bringing victory may be shown by another line of Scripture texts, which are exceedingly practical. In the first place, let it be understood that the sinner is a slave. Christ said, “Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin.” John 8:34. Paul also says, putting himself in the place of an unrenewed man, “For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin.” Rom. 7:14. A man who is sold is a slave; therefore, the man who is sold under sin is the slave of sin. Peter brings to view the same fact, when, speaking of corrupt, false teachers, he says, “While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption, for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage.” 2 Peter 2:19.

The prominent characteristic of the slave is that he cannot do as he pleases, but is bound to perform the will of another, no matter how irksome it may be. Paul thus proves the truth of his saying that he, as a carnal man, was the slave of sin. “For that which I do I allow not; for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I.” “Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) dwelleth no good thing; for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would I do not; but the evil which I would not, that I do.” Rom. 7:15, 17-19.

The fact that sin controls proves that a man is a slave, and although everyone that committeth sin is the bond-servant of sin, the slavery becomes unendurable when the sinner has had a glimpse of freedom and longs for it, yet cannot break the chains which bind him to sin. The impossibility for the unrenewed man to do even the good that he would like to do has been shown already from Rom. 8:7, 8 and Gal. 5:17.

(((Rom 8:7  because the mind of the flesh is enmity towards God; for it is not being subjected to the Law of God, for neither can it be.
Rom 8:8  And those being in the flesh are not able to please God.

Gal 5:17  For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another; lest whatever you may will, these things you do))))

How many people have in their own experience proved the truth of these scriptures. How many have resolved and resolved again and yet their sincerest resolutions have proved in the face of temptation as weak as water. They had no might, and they did not know what to do, and, unfortunately, their eyes were not upon God so much as upon themselves and the enemy. Their experience was one of constant struggle against sin, it is true, but of constant defeat as well.

Call you this a true Christian experience? There are some who imagine that it is. Why, then, did the apostle, in the anguish of his soul, cry out, “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” Rom. 7:24. Is a true Christian experiencing a body of death so terrible that the soul is constrained to cry for deliverance? Nay, verily.

Again, who is it that, in answer to this earnest appeal, reveals himself as a deliverer? Says the apostle, “I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” In another place he says of Christ:

Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; and deliver them who through fear of death were all their life-time subject to bondage. Heb. 2:14, 15.

Again, Christ thus proclaims His own mission: The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound. Isa. 61:1.

What this bondage and captivity are has already been shown. It is the bondage of sin--the slavery of being compelled to sin, even against the will, by the power of inherited and acquired evil propensities and habits. Does Christ deliver from a true Christian experience? No, indeed. Then the bondage of sin, of which the apostle complains in the seventh of Romans, is not the experience of a child of God, but of the servant of sin. It is to deliver men from this captivity that Christ came, not to deliver us, during this life, from warfare and struggles, but from defeat; to enable us to be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might, so that we could give thanks unto the Father “who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son,” through whose blood we have redemption.

How is this deliverance effected? By the Son of God. Says Christ, “If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed, and ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.” “If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.” John 8:31, 32, 36. This freedom comes to everyone that believeth, for to them that believe on His name, He gives the “power to become the sons of God.” The freedom from condemnation comes to them who are in Christ Jesus (Rom. 8:1), and we put on Christ by faith (Gal. 3:26, 27). It is by faith that Christ dwells in our hearts.

(((Gal 3:26  for you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.
Gal 3:27  For as many as were baptized into Christ, you put on Christ. ))))

--Christ and His Righteousness  E.G. Waggoner

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My thoughts-

Read this again--  ' It is to deliver men from this captivity that Christ came, not to deliver us, during this life, from warfare and struggles, but from defeat; to enable us to be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might, so that we could give thanks unto the Father “who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son,” through whose blood we have redemption'

We are NOT going to be delivered during THIS life from WARFARE and STRUGGLES.

We are actually admonished to put on ARMOR.  Why would we be told to put on armor if we were in no need of it? If we weren't going to be in a war there would be no need for armor.  If we weren't going to fight why give us a sword? If we weren't going to have to be protected, why have a helmet on, why bother with a shield, or a breastplate, and who needs to have our loins girt and our feet shod with special footwear? We would have NO need of any armor at all if this life was supposed to be carefree and easy. 

We are to deny self, we are to take up our crosses.  What sort of cross? A real wooden cross? Do we all need to have one of those to carry around?  This life is a fight! This life is WAR.  So to think that we would have an easy life, sin free and carefree is to have our thoughts askew.

Eph 6:10  Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.
Eph 6:11  Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
Eph 6:12  For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
Eph 6:13  Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.
Eph 6:14  Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness;
Eph 6:15  And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace;
Eph 6:16  Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.
Eph 6:17  And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:
Eph 6:18  Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;

Be strong in ourselves?  NO.
Be strong in the LORD? YES!
Be strong in our own power, by our own will? NO.
Be strong in the power of the LORD and His will? YES!

Truth.
Righteousness.
Peace.
Faith.
Salvation.
Spirit (Word of God).
Praying in the Spirit.

That's our armor right there.  That is what we fight with in this spiritual war.  

Are you warring? Are you fighting? Are you struggling constantly?

You can NEVER be defeated as long as you claim Christ Jesus as your Savior. 

You can be beaten black and blue (spiritually bruised and bloody within an inch of your spiritual life), but you cannot be killed spiritually as long as you accept Christ as your Savior- He keeps you spiritually alive!

We make a grave error if we believe that we aren't supposed to be in a war, a real war, a very real spiritual war.

We are NOT going to be delivered from the spiritual war, not in this life.  But we can be clothed with spiritual armor- Christ's armor.

Faith - in God

'The Victory of Faith

The Bible says that “the just shall live by faith.” The righteousness of God is “revealed from faith to faith.” Rom. 1:17. Nothing can better illustrate the working of faith than some of the examples that are recorded for our learning, “that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope.” Rom. 15:4. We will take, first, a notable event recorded in the twentieth chapter of 2 Chronicles. Let the reader follow the running comment with his Bible.

“It came to pass after this, also, that the children of Moab and the children of Ammon and with them other beside the Ammonites, came against Jehoshaphat to battle. Then there came some that told Jehoshaphat, saying, There cometh a great multitude against thee from beyond the sea on this side Syria; and, behold, they be in Hazazontamar, which is Engedi.” Verses 1, 2.

This great host caused the king and the people to fear, but they took the wise course of gathering together, “to ask help of the Lord; even out of all the cities of Judah they came to seek the Lord.” Verses 3, 4. Then follows the prayer of Jehoshaphat, as leader of the congregation, and it is worth special study, since it was a prayer of faith and contained within itself the beginning of victory:

And Jehoshaphat stood in the congregation of Judah and Jerusalem, in the house of the Lord, before the new court, and said, O Lord God of our fathers, art not thou God in heaven? and rulest thou not over all the kingdoms of the heathen? and in thine hand is there not power and might, so that none is able to withstand thee? Verses 5, 6.

That was an excellent beginning of a prayer. It starts with a recognition of God in heaven. So the model prayer begins, “Our Father who art in heaven.” What does this signify? That God, as God in heaven, is Creator. It carries with it the recognition of His power over all the kingdoms of the world and of the powers of darkness; the fact that He is in heaven, the Creator, show that in His hand there is power and might, so that none is able to withstand Him. Why, the man who can begin his prayer in the hour of need with such a recognition of God's power, has victory already on his side. For, notice, Jehoshaphat not only declared his faith in God's wondrous power, but he claimed God's strength as his own, saying, “Art not thou our God?” He fulfilled the Scripture requirement, “He that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.”

Jehoshaphat then proceeded to recount how the Lord had established them in that land, and how, although He had not suffered them to invade Moab and Ammon, those nations had come to cast them out of their God- given inheritance. Verses 7-11. And then he concluded, “O our God, wilt thou not judge them? for we have no might against this great company that cometh against us; neither know we what to do; but our eyes are upon thee.” Verse 12. It is nothing with the Lord to help, whether with many or with them that have no power (2 Chron. 14:11), and since the eyes of the Lord run to and from throughout the earth to show Himself strong in the behalf of those whose heart is entire towards Him (2 Chron. 16:9), it well becomes those who are in need to trust Him alone. This position of Jehoshaphat and his people was in keeping with the apostolic injunction, “Looking unto Jesus the Author and Finisher of our faith.” Heb 12:2. He is the beginning and the end, and all power in heaven and earth is in His hands.

Now what was the result? the prophet of the Lord came in the power of the Holy Spirit, “and he said, Hearken ye, all Judah, and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem, and thou King Jehoshaphat, Thus saith the Lord unto you, Be not afraid nor dismayed by reason of this great multitude; for the battle is not yours, but God's.” Verse 15.

And then came the command to go forth in the morning to meet the enemy, and they should see the salvation of the Lord, for He would be with them. Now comes the most important part:

And they rose early in the morning, and went forth into the wilderness of Tekoa; and as they went forth, Jehoshaphat stood and said, Hear me, O Judah, and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem: Believe in the Lord your God, so shall ye be established; believe his prophets, so shall ye prosper. And when he had consulted with the people, he appointed singers unto the Lord, and that should praise the beauty of holiness, as they went out before the army, and to say, Praise the Lord; for his mercy endureth forever. Verses 20, 21.

Surely, this was a strange way to go out to battle. Few armies have ever gone to battle with such a vanguard. But what was the result?

And when they began to sing and to praise, the Lord set ambushments against the children of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir, which were come against Judah; and they were smitten. For the children of Ammon and Moab stood up against the inhabitants of Mount Seir, utterly to slay and destroy them; and when they had made an end of the inhabitants of Seir, everyone helped to destroy another. And when Judah came toward the watch-tower in the wilderness, they looked unto the multitude, and, behold, they were dead bodies fallen to the earth, and none escaped. Verses 22- 24.

If there have been few armies that have gone to battle with such a vanguard as did the army of Jehoshaphat, it is equally certain that few armies have been rewarded by such a signal victory. And it may not be amiss to study a little into the philosophy of the victory of faith, as illustrated in this instance. When the enemy, who had been confident in their superior numbers, heard the Israelites coming out that morning, singing and shouting, what must they have concluded? Nothing else but that the Israelites had received reinforcements and were so strengthened that it would be useless to try to oppose them. Also a panic seized them, and each one looked upon his neighbor as an enemy.

And were they not correct in their conclusion, that Israel had received reinforcements? Indeed they were, for the record says, “When they began to sing and to praise, the Lord set ambushments against the children of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir.” The host of the Lord, in whom Jehoshaphat and his people trusted, fought for them. They had reinforcements and doubtless if their eyes could have been opened to see them, they would have seen, as did the servant ot Elisha on one occasion, that they that were with them were more in number than the enemy.

But the point which should be specially noticed is that it was when Israel began to sing and to praise that the Lord set ambushments against the enemy. What does that signify? It signifies that their faith was real. The promise of God was considered as good as the actual accomplishment. So they believed in the Lord, or, more literally, they built upon the Lord, and thus they were established, or built up. Thus they proved the truth of the words, “This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.” 1 John 5:4.

Let us now apply this illustration in a case of conflict against sin. Here comes a strong temptation to do a thing known to be wrong. We have often proved to our sorrow the strength of the temptation, because it has vanquished us, so that we know that we have no might against it. But now our eyes are upon the Lord, who has told us to come with boldness to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. So we begin to pray to God for help. And we pray to the God that is revealed to us in the Bible as the Creator of heaven and earth. We begin, not with a mournful statement of our weakness, but with a joyful acknowledgment of God's mighty power. That being settled, we can venture to state our difficulty and our weakness. If we state our weakness first and our discouraging situation, we are placing ourselves before God. In that case Satan will magnify the difficulty and throw his darkness around us so that we can see nothing else but our weakness, and so, although our cries and pleading may be fervent and agonizing, they will be in vain, because they will lack the essential element of believing that God is and that He is all that He has revealed Himself to be. But when we start with a recognition of God's power, then we can safely state our weakness, for then we are simply placing our weakness by the side of His power, and the contrast tends to beget courage.

Then, as we pray, the promise of God comes to our mind, brought there by the Holy Spirit. It may be that we can think of no special promise that exactly fits the case, but we can remember that “this is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ came into the world to save sinners” (1 Tim. 1:15), and that He “gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present world, according to the will of God and our Father” (Gal. 1:4), and we may know that this carried with it every promise, for “He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?” Rom. 8:32.

Then we remember that God can speak of those things that are not as though they were. That is, if God gives a promise, it is as good as fulfilled already. And so, knowing that our deliverance from evil is according to the will of God (Gal. 1:4), we count the victory as already ours and begin to thank God for His “exceeding great and precious promises.” As our faith grasps these promises and makes them real, we cannot help praising God for His wonderful love, and while we are doing this, our minds are wholly taken from evil and the victory is ours. The Lord Jesus sets ambushments against the enemy. Our ascription of praise shows to Satan that we have obtained reinforcements, and as he has tested the power of the help that is granted to us, he knows that he can do nothing on that occasion, and so he leaves us. This illustrates the force of the apostle's injunction: Be careful for nothing [that is, do not worry about anything]; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. Phil. 4:6.'

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My thoughts-

Rom 1:17  For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.

Rom 1:17  for in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; even as it has been written, "But the just shall live by faith."

Living by faith.

Living by belief.

We can choose to live without any faith, without any belief in God. We can choose to believe we did not have a creator and are in no need of a redeemer.  These are choices we can make, and choices people really do make.  They think their minds are too superior to succumb to a fantasy. They think to believe in a creator would mean there was an awful being who created this awful world and there is nothing good in that creator. They think that the creator should have simply made a perfect world to begin with, or wiped sin out before it ever took root, they believe that there had to be a better way than what exists.  There are many schools of thought out there about God- existing and not existing and these thoughts are permitted because we have that power of choice. 

A person who has no belief in a Creator and a Redeemer from the evil of the world, somehow believes themselves to be free to live as they please, having to answer to no one but themselves.  They fully expect that the life they live is all there is and there is nothing more. They live in a state of misplaced hope believing that somehow mankind will straighten itself out and become a good thing. All evil will stop through man made intervention, through a slow process of man evolving from their barbarian heritage. In fact they'll point to history and show its horrors and the very slow progress of man evolving from animalistic chaos to where we are today with our laws, our justice, our prisons and such as we seek to contain the evil and not let it run rampant among us. They fully believe that one day something will happen that will create a perfect world to live in.  Or, they believe things are what they are and it's pure survival of the fittest/smartest and it will stay that way forever without end.

These people offer no hope for any sort of real perfection in people or life, just a matter of survival- that is life. And in surviving getting as much happiness as you can while you are surviving because that's it. The end.  No more.

They would rather have no faith- no belief in the evidence not seen, no substance of things hoped for yet unseen.  They demand to see, not letting history as its own witness stand as a testimony to the truth in God's word.  They demand to see, and yet refuse to believe the testimony of those who saw.  They want their own 'Road to Damascus' experience, their own 'parting of the sea', their own finger to touch the holes in the palms of our Savior's hand.   These do NOT want to believe as if believing some how makes them weak, and easily duped.

The world is filled with unbelievers.
The world is filled with false believers.

Satan would have us all doubt.

And once more I have to say that one of my favorite scriptures is the following-

Mar 9:15  And at once all the crowd seeing Him were greatly amazed. And running up, they greeted Him.
Mar 9:16  And He questioned the scribes, What are you arguing with them?
Mar 9:17  And one answered out of the crowd, saying, Teacher, I brought my son to You, having a dumb spirit.
Mar 9:18  And wherever it seizes him, it dashes him; and he foams and gnashes his teeth. And he wastes away. And I told Your disciples, that they might expel it. And they were not able.
Mar 9:19  And answering them, He said, O unbelieving generation! How long will I be with you? How long shall I endure you? Bring him to Me.
Mar 9:20  And they brought him to Him. And seeing Him, the spirit immediately convulsed him. And falling on the ground, he wallowed, foaming.
Mar 9:21  And He questioned his father, How long a time is it while this has happened to him? And he said, From childhood.
Mar 9:22  And often it threw him both into fire and into water, that it might destroy him. But if You are able to do anything, help us, having pity on us.
Mar 9:23  And Jesus said to him, If you are able to believe, all things are possible to the ones believing.
Mar 9:24  And immediately crying out, the father of the child said with tears, Lord, I believe! Help my unbelief!

I BELIEVE! HELP MY UNBELIEF!

Jesus said-  O UNBELIEVING generation! 
Jesus continued- How long will I be with you?
And yet more- How long shall I endure you?

These were those who were witnessing the miracles, the many, many miracles of Jesus. These were those who were allowed to see first hand as the inexplicable occurred. They watched as those who had been sick or maimed since birth be healed completely!  They saw it happen! People they knew all their lives who had been blind, never seeing- were given sight!  People who could never walk were able to run! They watched this first hand and they still DOUBTED!   Much like those who witnessed the miracles of Moses turning from their awe in witnessing and experiencing the miracles first hand to complaining and no longer believing.  We sit back and shake our heads unable to imagine how these people could doubt after  SEEING firsthand, yet they did.

We are called to believe. 

The disciples were called to believe and yet with this kind of evil spirit they weren't able to cast it out, they weren't able to heal and the man wanted his son healed. They tried, the disciples tried to fix the boy. They didn't understand why they couldn't heal him as they had others.  They stood there as their Savior who had given them the power to heal said those words, 'O unbelieving generation how long will I be with you? How long shall I endure you?'   He told them they were UNBELIEVING!  The very ones who were given power to heal and cast out demons, they believed but…  did they?   This demon didn't come out easily like they expected, like they were used to the demons doing. They were confused. They thought they believed.

Jesus then told them this…

Mar 9:28  And He entering into a house, His disciples questioned Him privately, Why were we not able to cast it out?
Mar 9:29  And He said to them, This kind can go out by nothing except by prayer and fasting.

They needed to PRAY and to FAST.   They needed to pray and what is prayer? It is belief, pure belief in the power of GOD. Fasting, what is fasting? Fasting is denying self.

We are called to believe.

Jesus asked the Father of the boy if he believed, and the father responded- He believed.  He believed if that's what it would take he would believe, and right away he added-  Help thou my UNBELIEF.  He asked Jesus to help his unbelieving. He knew that Jesus was the source of his ability to believe and we too have to recognize that Jesus is our source of believing.

We need to choose to believe.  We have the evidence of history and a lot of it. We have to believe, we have to have faith. And may our Savior help all of our UNBELIEF!

Please Lord… Please heavenly Father, Creator, Redeemer...please help our unbelief.