ZECHARIAH 3<\/b><\/p>\n
Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right side to accuse him<\/i><\/p>\n
(Zechariah 3:1)<\/i>.<\/p>\n
One of the main ways Satan and his legions have of paralyzing the believer is through accusation. One way is for the Devil to get us to commit some public sin or indiscretion, and then accuse us and destroy us. But beyond this, Satan works with our guilty consciences to make us feel despair. Every Christian sins every day, and thus the problem of sin and guilt continues to be a roadblock to Christian holiness and health.<\/p>\n
We see a picture of this in Zechariah 3. This chapter is part of the \u201cnight visions\u201d of Zechariah, and in one of these visions, the prophet sees the current high priest, Joshua, standing before the Lord. It was the task of the high priest to minister before the Lord on behalf of the people.<\/p>\n
Zechariah saw Satan standing next to Joshua to accuse him. Of what was Satan accusing Joshua? We can see it in verse 3: \u201cNow Joshua was dressed in filthy clothes as he stood before the angel [of the Lord].\u201d<\/p>\n
Dressed in Beauty<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n
Normally the high priest wore \u201cgarments of glory and beauty,\u201d which symbolized his position as God\u2019s anointed and glorified leader. Now, however, Joshua was dressed in degrading garb. His filthy garments represented the defilement of his life and of his office. Satan was pointing these out to the Lord, and Joshua was standing ashamed. But then \u201cthe Lord said to Satan, \u2018The Lord rebuke you, Satan! The Lord, who has chosen Jerusalem, rebuke you!\u2019 \u201d (v. 2). The Lord refused to hear Satan\u2019s accusations, and instead stripped Joshua of his filthy garments and reinvested him with beautiful clothes (v. 4). This is how God deals with us as well. God refuses to hear Satan\u2019s accusations because He deals with us only through His Son.<\/p>\n
CORAM DEO<\/b><\/p>\n
This story in Zechariah 3 shows us what happens when we bring our sins and ourselves before the Lord. We shouldn\u2019t allow Satan to burden us with them. Rather, we are told to confess our sins, confident that God will forgive us and cleanse us of all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9). Has Satan been weighing you down with guilt over some sin? Confess it and forsake it, and then arise in the confidence that you are now once again robed in Christ\u2019s glory.<\/p>\n
For further study: Psalm 32, 51; Isaiah 50:7\u20139; Luke 22:24\u201334; Romans 8:31\u201339<\/i><\/p>\n
TABLETALK<\/p>\n
from ligonier ministries and teaching and encouraging believers \u2022 july 1989<\/p>\n
WHY STUDY THEOLOGY?<\/p>\n
Saint Augustine<\/i><\/p>\n
Daily Studies From The Teaching Fellowship Of R. C. Sproul<\/p>\n
publisher<\/b> Ligonier Ministries<\/i> executive editor<\/b> Ralph D. Veerman<\/i> editor<\/b> Robert F. Ingram<\/i><\/p>\n
marketing\/production<\/b> W. David Fox<\/i>; David K. Freeland; Gretchen Suskovic; Melissa Prichard<\/i><\/p>\n
circulation<\/b> Gwen Weber<\/i> writer<\/b> Sharon Anderson<\/i><\/p>\n
THE LIGONIER MISSION<\/b><\/p>\n
To teach biblical truth to adult Christians and to encourage them to achieve a world and life view that will yield mature, obedient godliness, thereby contributing to a reformation of the church and culture<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Published by Walk Thru the Bible Ministries, Inc. under license granted by Ligonier Ministries, Inc. \u00a9 1989 Ligonier Ministries, Inc. This Bible study is based upon teaching material by Dr. R. C. Sproul. Unless noted, all Scripture quotations in this publication are from the Holy Bible, New International Version. \u00a9 1973, 1978, 1984 International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Bible Publishers.<\/p>\n
On The Cover: \u201cSaint Augustine,\u201d by Botticelli (Scala\/Art Resource, N.Y.)<\/p>\n
coram deo \u2022 robert ingram<\/p>\n
Why Study Theology?<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy devote an entire issue of Tabletalk<\/i> on the need for systematic theology?\u201d Life is complicated enough, people contend. Why add to it the technical, cumbersome study of systematic theology?<\/p>\n
An astronomer once told R. C. that Christians ought to keep their faith as simple as the words to \u201cJesus Loves Me This I Know.\u201d \u201cWhy do you need to know anything beyond that?\u201d he contested. R. C. replied, \u201cWhy do you need to know anything beyond, \u2018Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star\u2019?\u201d<\/p>\n
Friends, life is fractured and disintegrating. Its broken bits and pieces are all too evident. Let\u2019s face it\u2014sometimes things just don\u2019t add up. Sometimes all we have are questions and answers that don\u2019t make sense.<\/p>\n
Theology was once called the \u201cQueen of the Sciences.\u201d Life was organized around its coherent perspective of the world. Its authoritative truth gave form and structure to all other scientific disciplines and pursuits of knowledge. It has been dethroned, however, resulting in an anarchy of unrelated facts and bits of data. At the same time all other pursuits of knowledge continue to move toward more complex systemization. Can you imagine a haphazard approach to nuclear physics, astronomy, or micro-processing? Yet, from within the church, we hear the cry to eliminate the complex structures of theology.<\/p>\n
If all of life is to be lived Coram Deo<\/i>\u2014in the presence of God, and under His authority\u2014then a systematic approach to understanding our faith is vital. At Ligonier we want to persuade people of this need. Christians need systematic theology to find the answers to the difficult questions of life, faith, and ethics. They need an integrating point that enables life to come together rather than fall apart. But more importantly, they need it to heal the brokenness of this fractured world and to live a life that is more and more pleasing to God.<\/p>\n
table of contents<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
ZECHARIAH 3 Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right side to accuse him (Zechariah 3:1). One of the main ways Satan and his legions have of paralyzing the believer is through accusation. One way is for the Devil to get us … Continue reading “GUILT AND THE CHRISTIAN LIFE”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10957","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10957","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10957"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10957\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10957"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10957"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10957"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}