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 hand to accuse him<\/i><\/p>\n
(Zechariah 3:1).<\/i><\/p>\n
One of the primary ways Satan and his legions paralyze the believer is through accusation. (Satan<\/i> means \u201caccuser.\u201d) One way is for the devil to tempt us to commit some public sin or indiscretion, and then accuse us and destroy us. Satan works with our guilty consciences to make us feel despair. He tells us we are not worthy to be saved. In ourselves we are not, but Christ is in us. 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
The Holy Spirit also brings guilt to our attention, but His purpose is the opposite of Satan\u2019s. Satan wants us to wallow in despair, while the Spirit wants us to confess our sins and get back to work.<\/p>\n
We see a picture of Satan\u2019s accusing work 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 God. It was the task of the high priest to minister before the Lord on behalf of the people.<\/p>\n
Zechariah saw the accuser standing next to Joshua. 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.\u201d This filth represented not only Joshua\u2019s own sins but also the sins of the whole nation, which he represented.<\/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.<\/p>\n
But \u201cthe Lord said to Satan, \u2018The Lord rebuke you, Satan! The Lord, who has chosen Jerusalem, rebuke you!\u2019 \u201d (v. 2). God 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
Ezekiel 20\u201321<\/p>\n
James 1<\/p>\n
Do not allow Satan to burden you with your sin. Rather, confess your sins, confident that God will forgive and cleanse you of all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9). Do not wallow in guilt over sin which God has forgiven. Trust His Word that His forgiveness is real and final.<\/p>\n
For further study: Psalm 51 \u2022 Luke 23:34 \u2022 1 John 1:7\u20139<\/i><\/p>\n
friday<\/p>\n
november<\/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 hand to accuse him (Zechariah 3:1). One of the primary ways Satan and his legions paralyze the believer is through accusation. (Satan means \u201caccuser.\u201d) One way is for the devil to tempt … Continue reading “THE BATTLE WITH GUILT”<\/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-11855","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11855","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=11855"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11855\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11855"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11855"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11855"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}