Have you ever made, or ‘created’ a meal or dish where you really were not sure what you set out to make, but just started throwing in a little bit of this and a little bit of that, adding various ingredients along the way until you settled upon something that tasted reasonably good to you and you found filling? Yeah, we ‘Christians’ tend to do that with our church doctrines as well.

No, really...I’m serious. Take this topic we have been studying of late pertaining to serpents and devils and demons and such. We can be all over the place when it comes to explaining our personal views and beliefs on such an important subject matter. I’m sure you’ve heard and maybe even espoused some of them yourself. Things like:

...”Christians can’t have demons!”; or ...”the devil has really been after me which means I must be doing something right and he’s just mad!”. Or when we unknowingly ‘give place to the devil’ (yesterday’s message), instead of running to God in repentance seeking mercy, we just start tossing out verses and quotes about how ‘greater is He that is in me than he that is in the world’, while tossing in a few “I rebuke you Satan and plead the blood of Jesus!” for good measure.

So when you consider the words of Jesus who plainly tells us what this ‘thief’ comes to do, as in ‘steal, kill, and destroy’ (John 10:10), and then we hear God explain why “His people... are destroyed”, (Hosea 4:6), is it any wonder that so much needless suffering is taking place today? And I’m not talking about out there in the ‘world’; I’m talking about why there is so much needless suffering taking place in our churches today. It’s time for some ‘plain talk’ and all I can do is offer up scripture for you to examine for yourself. (Acts 17:11)

Continuing on from yesterday, do you have any idea what ‘gives place’ for the ‘devil’ to come in and destroy? (Eph. 4:27). Sin does. Sin gives Satan (and demons) ‘legal ground’ to ‘come in’ and torment us, wreak havoc, bring pain and suffering, and yes, even death. You can talk all day long trying to explain why such things happen and how we live in a ‘fallen world’ and there’s ‘a reason for everything’ (even if we don’t understand), but I’m telling you in Jesus’s Name that there is great clarity and explanation offered up for us in scripture. You might want to take some time and read your Bible yourself, providing all those NFL games and movies and Netflix shows don’t get in the way.

The majority of sincere, professing believers today will tell you they continue to be...’sinners saved by grace’, which means they will always be ‘sinners’. This idea of getting set free (John 8:32-36) so one can truly ‘go and sin no more’ is silly ‘pie-in-the-sky heresy’.

And yet John would write in his first epistle, these words: “We know whoever is born of God no longer sins...and the wicked one cannot touch him.” (1 John 5:18). Jesus even tells us why Satan was unable to touch Him – because He did whatever the Father commanded Him to do. (John 14:30-31). And how are those who abide in Jesus supposed to be walking? Just. Like. Him. (1 John 2:6). And those who are ‘abiding in Him’...no longer what? (1 John 3:6). And what ‘gives place’ to the devil’? Sin does! Join me tomorrow?