The Deliverer by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Mar 25, 1897

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 23, No. 12.

The Deliverer

By Editor

Editorial

The Deliverer.—Jesus Christ came to save men; Satan came to destroy them. The motive of the one is love; that of the other selfishness, and selfishness is hatred of all things which thwart selfish schemes. God placed man on earth that he might forever be happy in the willing, free service of love to his Creator. He created man in the divine image morally as well as physically. God was incarnate in humanity.

But man sinned. He yielded himself, and Satan the usurper came in and took possession. Man became possessed of another spirit; another being possessed him. Sin and Satan became incarnate in humanity. But God did not allow the usurper full control. In the man who had yielded himself to Satan God still preserved to him the power of choice, the consciousness of evil, the “enmity” against evil. Gen. 3:15. God appeals to man through these that he may live. It is by holding these in bondage through the weaknesses and lusts of the flesh that Satan maintains his hold upon humanity.

SATAN controls men in varying degrees. Many are his willing agents to do his bidding. They use the life and strength and faculties of mind and body given of God in the service of God’s adversary. Of these victims who have thus yielded, oftentimes solely for their own selfish pleasures, Satan so perverts the faculties and controls the mind as to make the victim insane. Thus it was in the time when the Son of God took upon him human form. Satan came disputing his supremacy by every means, in every way, in every field and avenue of life, among all classes. He sent his fallen angels, the demons, into the land of Judea and Galilee to dog the Saviour’s footsteps, to thwart his work, to turn aside the minds of men from the great and important teaching of the Word of God, the way of salvation. Where possible, he obtained control of the minds of men and women, driving them into hopeless insanity.

It was such an one that met our Lord on that elsewise quiet Sabbath day in Capernaum. The teaching of our Lord had been with power. He taught them not in the scholastic equivocal way of the scribes, with his teaching based on the traditions of the elders; he taught as one having authority, one having a message from God to them. God’s Spirit bore witness to the words, and hearts were reached by its power. One possessed of an unclean spirit—the “spirit of an unclean devil [demon]” says Luke—had come with the people into the synagogue. In the little remnant of reason left he discerned the presence and power of One able to deliver. He essayed to speak, but the demon, alarmed in the presence of the Conqueror, controlled his victim’s voice and shrieked out in fear: “Let us alone; what have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth? art thou come to destroy us? I know thee who thou art, the Holy One of God.” And Jesus rebuked him, saying, Hold thy peace, and come out of him. And when the unclean spirit had torn him, and cried with a loud voice, he came out of him,” and Luke adds, “and hurt him not.” There are precious lessons in this brief record for all. Among them are the following:—

THE demon thought if he could only make the man ask that Jesus should depart, his bondage of his soul would be complete. But Jesus hears the desire. He could read the longing of the heart of the man before him, in which yet struggled a few rays of the light of reason; and the divine Sympathizer answered the prayer of the man, not the words of the demon. Oftentimes the words of him that prays, the sinner seeking pardon, the disciple seeking power, seem uncouth and theologically incorrect to the cold critic; but Jesus hears the heart, and responds to its overwhelming desire. It matters not what the broken imperfect words are, the Lord knows the heart, and its desire for him and him alone is more eloquent than the most finished speech which does not tell the language of the heart.

2. THE power of Christ is greater than that of Satan. Jesus won the battle for that poor demoniac, and for all other souls oppressed and bound, in his conflict with the enemy; and as soon as the poor soul desired the freedom, Jesus had it to give. He has it for all; he won victory and freedom for all. He possesses it in himself, in his word, for all; and he who will may go free. O, the blessed freedom of Jesus Christ! No bonds are so strong but that the power of God in Jesus Christ is sufficient to break the bonds. Sinner, he would break these bonds for you now. Satan may seek to destroy you, but if you will leave your case in the hands of Jesus Christ, he will break the chains of the enemy, he will cast out the demon, and life and healing will come to the trusting soul.

3. THE devils believe and tremble; but they do not have the faith that saves. They knew Christ’s power; they admitted it; but belief went no farther than this. So it will be with many. They will assent to the doctrines of Christ, they will admit his power in others; but they will not admit him into their hearts, because they do not desire him.

4. JESUS told the demon, “Hold thy peace.” God is not honored by being confessed by devils. It is the life that tells. When the heart is right with God, the words have power to reach hearts and glorify God; but when the

heart and life belie the words, God does not need them.

5. ONE more suggestion, and a blessed thought it is: Jesus takes us just where we are. When he redeemed mankind, he purchased it all corrupted and weakened and marred and bruised by sin as it is. He took upon himself all the infirmities of humanity, and gave himself even to the weakness and nothingness of death that he might save every soul appointed to death who desired to be saved. Oftentimes human judgment decides that this one does not know enough mentally to accept Christ; this one is too deeply sunken in sin to ever be reached; and a third is so under the control of the devil that there is no hope for him. Aye, there is hope for all. We tell it to you now, sinner. Man may have cast you off; to your dearest earthly friends your case may appear hopeless. You may be bound by the iron bands of Satan; but look to Jesus, the Deliverer. He does not ask that you shall plead in cultured words your heart’s needs, or that you should come with a retinue of saints or one saint, or that you should get free and then come; nay, but Jesus will come if you want him alone. The most eloquent plea is the cry of a hungry heart and a thirsty soul. “All the fitness he requireth is to feel your need of him.” He says, “Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth.” “He is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him.” “Tho your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; tho they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” Jesus Christ is the mighty Deliverer. He is able to save from all the power of the enemy, and none shall deliver those who trust in him out of his hand. John 10:28, 29. O soul, are you bound by the enemy, sunken in sin? It is you that Jesus came to save. May he be your Deliverer.