Jesus the Light 20 Delivered from Darkness
He delivered us from the power of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of the Son of His Love –Col.1:13
Ps.115:3-7: “Our God is in heaven; He does whatever He pleases. Their idols are the work of men’s hands. They have mouths, but they do not speak; Eyes they have, but they do not see; they have ears, but they do not hear; nor do they mutter through their throat. Those who make them are like them; so is everyone who trusts in them.”
Jer.10:2-5 exposes the folly of idolatry: “Their gods are like helpless scarecrows in a cucumber field! They cannot speak, and they need to be carried because they cannot walk! Do not fear them, for they can do no harm, nor can they do any good.”
True believers need fear nothing from the false prophets/priests of these fake gods. Omens, signs, enchantments, predictions, astrology, prophecies are all false messages from these deluding things of nothing. Do not fear them; they cannot harm the real believer and certainly can do no good at all.
1 Cor.10:14-20: “Therefore my beloved, flee from idolatry…What am I saying then? That an idol is anything, or what is offered to idols is anything? No, rather, that the things which the nations sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God. And I do not want you to have fellowship with demons.”
Many fear ancestral covenants and sins of their forefathers coming upon them. Others are fearful that the gods they abandon will harm them or their families if they forsake them because of love for Christ.
But these are needless fears for any true believer in Christ Jesus. Gods are things of nothing; they do not exist. There are no such thing as gods.
Jer.16:19,20: “Our fathers have inherited nothing but falsehood, worthlessness, and there is nothing profitable in them. Can man make gods for himself? Yet they are not gods!”
2 Kings 17:35-39: “The Lord charged them, saying: ‘You shall not fear other gods, nor bow down to them nor serve them nor sacrifice to them; but the Lord…you shall fear, Him you shall worship.”
Ps.96:4,5: “For the Lord is great and greatly to be praised; He is terrible above all gods. For all the gods of the nations are demons, but the Lord made the heavens.”
Persecution from the family and tribe often will result as it did in New Testament days. But there will not be persecution from the gods who have been forsaken; they are not real. They are nothing and can do nothing.
Isa.41:23-29: “Gods, do something, whether good or bad, so that we will be amazed and filled with fear. Indeed, you are nothing and your work is nothing; whoever chooses you is an abomination. See, all these gods are false and worthless! All your idols are wind and confusion!”
The Thessalonians “turned to God from idols to serve a living and true God” -1 Thess.1:9. Yes, they did suffer affliction from their people because of their faith in Jesus, but not from the gods.
1 Thess.2:13-3:4: “When you received the Word of God…you accepted it not as the word of men, but for what it really is, the Word of God, which also performs its work in you who believe. For you also endured the same sufferings at the hands of your own countrymen, even as they did from the Jews.”
Dear Listener, “All the gods of the peoples are non-existent things” -1 Chron.16:26. How can we boldly say that there are no gods, that they are deluding things of nothing, that no gods exist? Because the Almighty true and living God has told us so.
Isa.43:10,12: “Understand that I am the only God. Besides Me there is no other god; there never was and never will be. It is I who have revealed and saved and proclaimed. No foreign god has ever done this. I am the only God, says the Lord.”
The temptation is to compromise between idolatrous practices and the Gospel of Christ. You cannot maintain traditional practices so as to not offend the gods, ancestors, and family, while vainly holding onto a hope of eternal life from Christ. It cannot be done; we cannot serve both.
Though a man has two eyes, he can only look in one direction. His two legs can only walk upon one trail. Only one voice can be listened to at a time though his ears are two.
Serving two masters is an impossibility. “No man can serve two masters” -Matt. 6:24.
There must be repentance from all aspects of idolatry if the Gospel is to be received unto salvation. There can be no compromise between God and Satan.
Light immediately scatters darkness so that it disappears altogether. It must be one or the other, not both.
1 Pet.1:18,19: “Knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your empty way of life handed down by tradition from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ.”
Ancestral traditional rituals and practices are wholly based upon instructions passed down from the spirits of the ancestors through the fathers. The Word of God says that they are empty ways of life.
These are the very things that the blood of Christ has redeemed us from: false practices of false so-called gods. They must therefore be abandoned.
2 Kings 17:35-39: “‘And the…commandment which He wrote for you, you shall be careful to observe forever; you shall not fear other gods. And the covenant that I have made with you, you shall not forget, nor shall you fear other gods. But the Lord your God you shall fear; and He will deliver you from the hand of all your enemies.’”
Other gods are not to be feared by the true believer. They are powerless before the one true and living God because they “are nothing, and [their] work is nothing” -Isa.41:24. The Lord protects those who fear Him from all spiritual enemies, including the false gods of earth.
Ancestral curses and covenants are not to be feared or trusted. These ancestral covenants are powerless before the Almighty God. They will prove to be a false and empty protection from the sure wrath of God coming upon all who trust them and follow other gods. The only ones who will escape are those who are resting upon the unmoving Foundation laid by God Himself, which is Christ Jesus the Lord [1 Pet.2:4-6].
Dear Listener, “If the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed” –Jn.8:36. The evil one cannot touch you there. Col.1:13: “He delivered us from the power of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of the Son of His love.” There you are safe.
King Jesus encamps around all that have been delivered by the God of heaven. In His kingdom of Light and Life, the power of darkness no more holds you in bondage.
And if the enemy attacks, he must first meet Christ Jesus the Lord. Jn.10:28: “I give eternal life to them, and they shall never perish, and no one can snatch them out of My hand.”
Rom.8:38,39 triumphantly proclaims: “Neither angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Dear Listener, abide here and rejoice.