The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1904, Page 50

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50 The Lutheran Pioneer.

Dear reader, have you ‘‘drunk it up just as God
sent it??? . I mean His Word as you find it in the
Bible and as you hear it in every true Gospel ser-
mon. That Word is no broken cistern which holds
no water. It is the full; deep well of God’s love to
you. Itis the ‘‘sincere, pure, unadulterated milk.’’
Drink it up, just as God:sentit! Trust in that Word
which tells you that ‘‘God so loved the world’? —
that means you, for you surely belong to the world
—‘‘that He gave His only-begotten Son, that who-
soever’’?— mark that word whosoever —‘‘believeth in
Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.’’

Trust in God’s Word, and in the face of the devil
and all the enemies of your soul you may trium-
phantly say:

5 “Since God’s Word cannot deceive me,

My salvation is to me
Well assured eternally.”’

Turn at Once.

If it is the sense of sin which does not let you be
comfortable, turn at once to ‘‘Him with whom you
have to do.’? Remember, it is not with Satan that
you have to do, nor with your accusing conscience,
but with Jesus. He will deal with all the rest; you
only have to.deal with Him. And He is your great
High Priest. He has made full atonement for you,
for the very sins that are weighing on you now. The
blood of that atonement, His own precious blood,
cleanseth us from allsin. Cleanseth whom? People
that have not sinned? Thank God for the word,
‘“cleanseth us’’—us who have sinned. And you
shave to do with Him who shed it for your cleans-
ing, who His own self bare your sins in His body
on the tree.

Love not the World.

‘When visiting a gentleman in England,’ says
a pastor, “I observed a fine canary. When I ad-
mired its beauty, the gentleman replied, ‘Yes, he
is beautiful, but he has lost his voice. . He used to
be a fine singer, but I was in the habit of hanging
his cage out of the window; the sparrows came
- around with their incessant chirping; gradually he
ceased to sing and learned their twitter, and now
all he can do is to twitter, twitter.’
‘*How truly does this represent the case of many
Christians! They used to delight in the songs of
Zion, but they came into close contact with those

whose notes never rise so high, until, at last, like

the canary, they do nothing but twitter, twitter.’

Christ Has Redeemed Us from the Power of
the Devil.

From Holy Scripture we learn that we all were
born into the devil’s kingdom. Our first parents,
in hearkening to the voice of the Tempter, did not
only sell themselves to the devil, but also us.
Through sin Adam and all the children of Adam
became the devil’s slaves, bound to him by chains
which none of them could ever expect to break.
Every person by nature lies fast bound in Satan’s
chains. Such is Satan’s power over man since
Adam and Eve succumbed to his temptation, that
even if one desired to resist him, such resistance
would be perfectly hopeless.

' Deep guile and great might

Are his dread arms in fight,
On earth is not his equal.

Such is his power over men, to such an extent does
he steep the minds of men in delusion, that they
imagine their slavery to be liberty, and kiss the
hand that whirls the lash over their heads. Most
deplorable was the condition of Israel in the bond-
age of Egypt, but far worse is the lot of man
in the slavery of the devil. The slavery of Israel
could but last, at most, for the period of life, but
he that is a slave of the devil dare expect freedom
neither in time nor in eternity; for the reward of
the faithful slave of Satan is eternal bondage in the
prison of hell.

From this power of the devil Christ has re-
deemed us. Immediately after the fall the prom-
ise already was given that the woman’s Seed would
destroy Satan’s power over man. “‘I will put enmity
between thee and the woman, and between thy
seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and
thou shalt bruise his heel.’?’ Thus spoke God to
Satan. And this promised Conqueror of Satan is
Christ. ‘‘For this purpose the Son of God was
manifested that He might destroy the works of the
devil,”? 1 John 3,8. Through His death Christ de-
stroyed him that had the power of death, that is,
the devil. Jesus’ suffering and death were a con-
flict with Satan; and in this battle Satan was de-
feated, his head was bruised, his armor taken, and
nothing left him but his grim visage. While Satan
may bark at us like a dog and go about like a hun-
gry, roaring lion, he dare not bite nor devour us.
He is a chained dog, a caged lion. Though his
barking may frighten us and his Ecos cause our
hearts to tremble, yet

He can harm us none,
He’s judged; the deed is done;
One little word can fell him.

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