[Biblemat] "SATAN HINDERED US" -- CLEANSING FROM SIN

[J5827Sasser at wmconnect.com]

Brethren and Friends, Jim Sasser here.  A very good Friday morn-
ing to each and everyone.  May God bless you and yours.  Here 
are a couple of short articles from my ancient files:

"SATAN HINDERED US" -- CLEANSING FROM SIN

     "Therefore we wanted to come to you -- even I, Paul, time
and again -- but Satan hindered us" (1 Thes. 2:18).

     Though Paul does not tell how Satan hindered his coming
to be with the Thessalonian brethren, there is something we 
can learn about this being.  He is not some figment of the ima-
gination.  He is real; he is an enemy of the human race, and 
has proved himself so from the beginning.  He started his work of hindering 
when he placed his temptation before Adam
and Eve in the garden.  God had told both the man and the
woman that in the day they ate of the forbidden fruit they would surely die. 
(Gen. 2:17).  With a lie the serpent contradic-
ted God by telling them, "You will not surely die." (Gen. 3:4).
Unfortunately they believed the lie, disobeying God and were
cast out of the beautiful garden and away from the tree of life.  As God's 
Word is always true, they died (Gen. 3:3,24).

     With his lies and contradictions he continues to hinder 
people today from obeying God.  For example, God says, "...
now is the day of salvation" (2 Cor. 6:2).  Satan persuades
people with the lie, "There is plenty of time."  There is not 
plenty of time, for the only time we have to obey is NOW.

CLEANSING FROM SIN: -- Satan has been efficient in his work in leading people 
into sin from Adam to the present.  Sol-
omon made an observation: "For there is not a just man on
the earth who does good and does not sin." (Eccl. 7:20).  As
was true in the days of long ago it is true now, as we are
accountable to God under the New Testament.  "For all have
sinned and fall short of the glory of God." (Rom. 3:23).

     Job realized that washing the body would not cleanse from sin: "If I 
wash myself with snow water, and cleanse my
hands with soap, You will plunge me into the pit..." (Job 9:20,
31).  Jeremiah also recognized the futility of such an effort:
"For though you wash yourself with lye, and use much soap,
yet your iniquity is marked before Me, says the Lord God."
(Jer. 2:22).

     However, there is a washing that cleanses from sin: "But if
we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship
with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son clean-
ses us from all sin." (1 Jno. 1:7).  "Arise, and be baptized and
wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord." (Acts 22:16).

     We reach this cleansing blood by being baptized into Christ, in water, 
for the remission of our sins (Rom. 6:3,4).
------------- Billy Norris in Gospel Guide, Vol. 27, No. 10, Octob-er, 1995.  
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