Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not: whosoever sinneth hath not seen him, neither known him. Little children, let no man deceive you: he that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous. He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.
(1 John 3:6-8, KJV)

Satan’s Work Has Been Destroyed

Although there is a price to pay for it, for Jesus’ sake I want you to see from God’s Word what the enemy’s troops desperately want to hide from the Church today. We zero in on verse 8 above— The reason [Jesus] the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work. The Greek word translated destroy here is luo and it means, “to loosen, undo, break up, destroy, dissolve.”

If you were to read this verse in the original Greek you would understand it to mean that by His coming to earth as both God and Man, Christ Jesus broke up and destroyed the Devil’s work, and since the construction of the sentence is actually in present tense, you’d also understand that even now the Lord continues to undo all that Satan is trying to do. This verse teaches us the great truth about what Jesus did on the Cross, as well as, what He continues to do now by the power of His Resurrection from the dead!

As the great scholar of Greek Dr. A.T. Robertson has written about this verse — “There is eternal conflict, with victory over Satan certain.” Fellow soldiers, let us take heart from this and fight on through this growing apostasy in the American Christian Church for the Kingdom of our precious Lord. Although we’ll lose some of the individual battles along the way—the Lord be praised—our great God and Savior Jesus Christ has already won the war!

We need to understand that occasionally we will stumble, and so we must also be patient with one another. And that’s yet another reason why our Sovereign Commander tells us — Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day [of Christ’s return] approaching (Hebrews 10:25). Men and women, we need to meet together in our local churches with likeminded believers to learn the ways of God; to draw strength and encouragement from each other; to plan strategy, and for our nurses to tend to the wounded.

Some of you who have been Christians for a while have no doubt had people ask you: How do you keep going with all the setbacks you’ve had? I know I’ve certainly had a few. The only answer is because of our relationship with the living God through Christ Jesus of Nazareth. Somehow He just won’t let these helpless little “swallows” fall to the ground. And what is more, we take courage from our Lord’s great love for His precious Church. He always protects us, even though without question some of us have not always been all that we should have been, having made some mistakes along the way, which ended up wounding other Christians.

What you need to remember however, is that once you have confessed your sin, and done what you can to move forward, God is faithful to forgive you. So rather than letting some past mistake hinder you, today we encourage you to forgive yourself and get back up into the glorious battle for the glory of our great God and Savior!

Sin Is Missing In The Message

Here is 1 John 1:7 — But if we walk in the Light, as He is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, His Son, purifies us from all sin. This verse itself is also written in the present tense and shows us that the blood of Christ’s sacrifice continues to cleanse us of all our sin as we repent. Now let me clear up a huge misconception, which is at the root of why the evangelical camp today is currently following so many satanic deceptions; and, why the average person who would call themselves “evangelical” is no more Christian than Pontius Pilate—but at least he made a stand.

The reason why secular America is now courting so-called evangelicals such as President Bush and Purpose Driven Pope Rick Warren is that the Cross and sin have been surgically removed from the presentation of the false seeker sensitive non-gospel. And as such, the “Christianity” they would speak of is truly no different than the self-help rubbish spewed by Joel Osteen, who is only echoing the pathetically shallow psycho-philosophical and vain babblings of Robert Schuller.

How many of you reading this are old enough to remember having to study Schuller’s “theology” in Bible college, seminary and/or Sunday School at your local church? Then why don’t you stand up; and why don’t you begin to speak out as Schuller’s cynanide recycles from Rick Warren the new Charles Finney into the Emergent Church through Rob Bell? Some of us are crying out to those of you still on the sidelines — “Stand up for Jesus!” Do you really think this comes without a price for us?

For us to understand what God the Holy Spirit is saying through His Apostle John, you must define sin properly according to Scripture, and not according to the Devil's multitudinous man-pleasers of today’s tepid and timid generation! Sin in the Bible is the breaking of any of God’s law, and all unrighteousness is sin. Now to actually see what Scripture means by righteousness you must understand that anytime we do anything that falls short of what Christ—the perfect righteousness of God in human flesh—would do, we sin. So how self-righteous do you feel now; and now how quick will you be to look down upon brothers and sisters as they struggle and grow in Christ?

So, based on this proper understanding of what John means when he speaks of sin, to truly appreciate the amazing grace of the LORD God Almighty you must understand that Satan does not want Christians to know; here it is, although we will still sin at times—Christ Jesus died for all of our sins—past, present, and future. And on the Cross the Lord knew you personally, and everything you would ever do. Yet His great sacrifice cancelled the debt of all of your sin! This is absolutely no excuse to sin; but, as it was well-said elsewhere, when you teach the Gospel of God’s grace correctly it almost sounds this way.

Christ Paid The Price

My main point is John 19:30 — Jesus said, “It is finished.” As I mentioned on other occasions, the Greek word here is tetelestai, and is what Roman tax collectors would stamp on your receipt after you paid your taxes: It means “paid in full.” When you put this together with 1 John 3:8, which we looked at above, now you’ll understand what the whole host of Hell doesn’t want you to know.

You see, by sacrificing Himself on the Cross, and with His literal bodily Resurrection from the dead, our Sovereign Commander, the Lord Jesus, gained a victory for us over Satan that “paid in full” our debt of sin to a holy and righteous God. And further, our Lord continues to “loosen, undo, break up, dissolve, and destroy” the Devil’s work—every time without fail—whenever Satan’s demented forces are able to get a hold of something around us.

So you see by living out this truth, our faith that the Bible is reliable; that it is indeed the Word of the one true and living God, our trust in Jesus will just continue to grow stronger. As His Christians, the fact that we have lived through God’s undoing of Satan’s work time after time—sometimes even in spite of ourselves—gives us the courage to go back in and fight the good fight of faith (1 Timothy 6:12). O, how I pray that this part of the Body of Christ will get “fired up”; will fully arise; will be inspired to go on the offensive and begin to attack the Devil for a change. Beloved, hasn’t the thief had his way in our churches and in our communities long enough!

Christians; let’s be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes (Ephesians 6:10-11). Soldiers of the Cross, let us take up the shield of faith and the sword of the Spirit as the time has come for us to go to our knees for Jesus because the weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ (2 Corinthians 10:4-5).

Men and women, let each of us make it our goal to start setting some time aside each day to specifically pray for our communities, we are not living where we are by accident (see—Acts 17:26). And let us pray for our leaders in Christ’s Church; for they are primary targets of the powers of this dark world. No doubt you have heard the old saying: Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. I say the following with a spiritual smile. Certainly a woman’s wrath can get quite rugged, as most of us fellas can testify; but those who face the wrath of God in a literal place of eternal conscious torment of the wicked dead that Jesus Himself referred to as Hell—it is as the song goes, “you ain’t seen nuthin’ yet!”

I will share something that I once heard the Lord speak into my soul as I was out walking one day. He said, “Ken, I don’t like it that you have to suffer sometimes. But if I just ‘zapped’ you full of faith, you wouldn’t be able to look back to see all that I’ve taken you through.” Now more than ever, I know this is true because God has caused me to survive—and if He grants me strength I will continue to survive—situations that were simply impossible for me to have gotten through on my own. Ah, but here’s the truth of God’s Word again; Luke 18:27 where we read — Jesus replied, “What is impossible with men is possible with God.”

Endure Hardship As This Apostasy Grows

So troops, why must a Christian soldier be willing to follow Jesus, even if it means we have to endure hardship on occasion? Let me quote one of the greatest generals of Christ’s Army; the Apostle Paul, who was literally blown off his horse by the Risen Lord Himself when he tried to oppose God’s Church. The reason we must trust Jesus is because the good soldier needs to obey his orders immediately; and without question, for his commander to accomplish the objective which has been laid out.

If we are not spending time with God each day, then how will we even receive our orders? The reason the Lord doesn’t need us asking Him “why” we are to do something is that God is fully aware that on our own we’d be too frightened to even attempt what He wants us to do. Because remember, these things are impossible for us, but not for the Lord.

In 2 Corinthians chapter 1 beginning with verse 8 the Lord’s Apostle Paul put it this way – We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about the hardships we suffered in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure to endure, that we despaired even of life. Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead.

When non-Christians see your life rebound from a situation that is humanly impossible, in effect to see your life “rise from the dead,” you are then an instrument that God the Father is using to show the world His reality. Since our world puts so much faith in the power of human reason, by bringing His soldiers who are really willing to live out their faith in the Lord through “impossible” situations, God gives unbelievers an opportunity to come to Jesus by faith, when there is simply no other rational explanation why many who are Christians actually rejoice in—and through—unbelievable trials.

It is a most powerful testimony to this skeptical postmodern pagan culture that God has chosen to place us in, when His true children faithfully serve Him in gratitude, even if we must endure hardships. Your life as a Christian just might be the only way for a loved one to see Jesus. Then I exhort you let them see Him in you!

As one famous preacher was fond of saying — “The Christian is the world’s Bible. What is it they read when they see you?” Now do you see why you are so very precious to God? And if the Lord cares for even the tiniest of creatures in this vast universe, then how much more, as His dear child, will He delight in you beloved of God?

For in Christ you are God the Father’s specially chosen vessel to share His love with those He’s placed around you. Not only does the Lord forgive us of our sins, but as His Christians, the Lord’s given us the unique joy of serving along with Him as soldiers in this spiritual war, where we get to share God’s joy as He loves another dead person back to life!

If you’ve never let the Lord use you to lead someone to Jesus, then you’ve missed out on one of the greatest feelings we human beings can have this side of Heaven. And the great news is that this feeling is addictive; it is non-fattening, and will last through all eternity. So beloved—just go for it!