Month: October 2023

MID-WEEK MANNA FROM PASTOR NAT’S DESK:
October 25, 2023

God’s Saving Enmity
Part 41

SATAN’S AGENCIES CARRY FORWARD HIS ENMITY AGAINST CHRIST TOWARDS HIS FAITHFUL FOLLOWERS

  “REMEMBER the word that I said unto you, the servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept My saying, they will keep yours also. . . . he that hateth Me [and His faithful agencies, followers] hateth the FATHER also.” John 15: 20, 23, KJV (emphasis provided). 

In these most solemn, closing hours of earth’s probation, I thank and praise God for mercifully and wisely giving us the final “Testimony of Jesus which is the Spirit of Prophecy” (Rev. 12; 17; 19: 10). Through the inspired pen we obtain advancing spiritual enlightenment regarding what the great controversy and the plan of redemption of the gospel, including specifics on what “putting on the whole armor of God” in order “to fight the good fight of faith” and “overcome even as He overcame” (as produced by the enmity God Creator first put between Satan and man in the garden of Eden)—comprehends, not merely doctrinally and intellectually, but in practical, real-life spiritual application:

 “Satan’s agents are CONSTANTLY WORKING under his direction” —- [while the ‘ten virgins professing to be waiting for the Bridegroom’s grand appearing have fallen asleep in the midnight of the prophetic-parable of Matt. 25]—“to establish his authority and build up his kingdom IN OPPOSITION for the government of God. 

“To this end they [Satan’s agents] seek to DECEIVE Christ’s followers, and ALLURE them from their allegiance [to God and His law]. Like their leader they MiSCONSTRUE and PERVERT the Scriptures to accomplish their object. As Satan endeavored to cast REPROACH upon God, so do his agents seek to MALIGN  God’s people. 

“The SPIRIT [attitude, motive, character] which put Christ to death moves the wicked to DESTROY His followers. All this is FORESHADOWED in that FIRST PROPHECY, ‘I will put enmity between thee [the serpent, Satan in his first disguise, medium] and the woman, and between thy seed  and her seed.’ [Gen. 3:15]. 

Such is the WORK that will be carried out in the great controversy between Christ and Satan [and their respective ‘seed’ agencies and followers] to the CLOSE OF TIME.” – E. G. White, Spirit of Prophecy, vol. 4, Great Controversy, 1884 original edition, Pacific Press, Facsimile Reproduction

To be continued next week, God willing. Bless all, NMF.

MID-WEEK MANNA FROM PASTOR NAT’S DESK:
October 18, 2023

God’s Saving Enmity
Part 40

SATAN’S ENMITY WITH CHRIST, THE ANOINTED ONE

“He is despised and rejected of MEN; a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief: and WE hid as it were our faces from Him; He was despised, and WE esteemed Him not.” Isa. 53: 3, KJV (see vs 1-9; cf. Acts 8: 31-40). 

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made [created] by Him [the Word]; and without Him was not anything made that was made. . . . He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the WORLD KNEW HIM NOT. He came to His own [the Jews and the Jewish nation], and His own RECEIVED HIM NOT.” John 1: 1-3, 10, 11, KJV. 

“The ANTAGONISM [enmity, hatred, rejection] that exists between the spirit [character] of Christ and the spirit [character] of Satan was most strikingly displayed in the WORLD’S RECEPTION of Jesus. [Satan claims fallen earth and sinful mankind his own kingdom. He offered it to Christ in the wilderness of temptation, Matt. 4:1-11.

“It was not so much because He appeared without worldly wealth, pomp, or grandeur [see Isa. 53], that the JEWS were led to reject Him. They saw that He possessed power which would MORE THAN COMPENSATE for the lack of these outward advantages [of wealth, pomp, grandeur]. But to the [sinless / PURITY AND HOLINESS of Christ called forth against Him the HATRED [enmity] of the ungodly.

His LIFE [not merely words and professions] of SELF-DENIAL and SINLESS DEVOTION was a perpetual reproof to a PROUD, SENSUAL PEOPLE. It was this the evoked ENMITY against the Son of God [the very promised Seed of the woman, the Messiah, the Lamb of God, Immanuel, God in the flesh].

SATAN and EVIL ANGELS joined with EVIL MEN [the deadly desperate confederacy of evil against truth and righteousness and defined by God’s law]. All the energies of APOSTASY conspired against the Champion [Author and Source] of truth.” -E. G. White, Spirit of Prophecy, Vol. 4, Great Controversy, original 1884 ed., pp. 325-6.

On whose side are you? Against whom and what are you directing and waging your enmity (hatred, animosity, war) against? “By their fruits ye shall know them.” The evidence is stark: either the “fruits of the Spirit” or the “works of the flesh.” (Gal. 5: 15-26).

To be continued next MWM, God willing. Bless all, NMF.

MID-WEEK MANNA FROM PASTOR NAT’S DESK:
October 11, 2023

God’s Saving Enmity
Part 39

GOD’S SAVING GRACE IMPARTS ENMITY, NOT LOVE TOWARDS SATAN AND SIN

“Ye adulterers adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is ENMITY with God? Whosoever will be a friend of the world is the ENEMY of God. . . . But He giveth MORE GRACE. Wherefore He saith, God RESISTS the proud, but gives GRACE to the humble. SUBMIT yourselves therefore to God. RESIST the devil, and he will FLEE from you. Draw nigh [near] to God, and He will draw night to you. CLEANSE your hands, ye sinners; and PURIFY your hearts, ye DOUBLE-MINDED. Be afflicted and mourn, and weep [not celebrate!]: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness. HUMBLE YOURSELVES in the sight of God [not men!], and He shall lift you up [exalt before men and angels].” James 4: 4, 6-10, KJV. 

The first souls who needed to be saved were the first couple, the father of mankind. It is by God’s enabling, empowering, amazing grace that all sinners—beginning with Adam and Eve to the last rational persons alive before mankind’s second and last probation closes—have and will be saved.

Saved from what? From being deceived, yielding to, and being ensnared by Satan’s consummate craftiness in any of his unnumbered schemes, fierce temptations targeting man’s sinful propensities, inordinate desires, love of self, weaknesses and vulnerabilities of the carnal mind and nature. Hence, God’s messenger emphasizes this fundamental saving truths (all emphases mine and words in brackets mine]:

The grace that Christ implants [through the Holy Spirit] in the soul [of the humble and penitent sinner who ‘hungers and thirsts for Christ’s perfect righteousness] CREATES the enmity against Satan. Without this CONVERTING GRACE AND RENEWING POWER, man would continue the CAPTIVE of Satan, a SERVANT ever ready to his bidding. But the NEW PRINCIPLE [of enmity] in the soul creates CONFLICT [as part of the great controversy of the cosmic drama of the ages] where hitherto had been PEACE.

The power which Christ imparts enables [fallen, sinful, helpless] man to RESIST the tyrant and usurper [Satan working through his evil spirits and human agencies, individuals and institutions].

Whoever is seen to ABHOR SIN [the transgression of God’s law], whoever resists and CONQUERS those passions that have held sway WITHIN [the person’s mind and heart], displays an operation of a PRINCIPLE wholly from above.” E. G. White, Great Controversy, original 1884 ed., p. 325.

To be continued next MWM, God willing. Bless all, NMF.