A lot of the commands in the Bible
relate to how we are to deal with
each other as believers, and God deals with
us pretty much in the same way we
deal others.
He treats us as we treat others.
For example, you know that verse which says,
Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive
mercy.
So, mercy is not going to be received
by those who are unmerciful to others.
When somebody slips up and we are very
hard on him, don't be surprised if God
is hard on you when you slip up.
But when you see somebody slip up and
you're merciful to them and say, It's okay,
God will treat you the same way.
And it's wonderful to have a life's testimony
where we have experienced that again and again
and again, that we have sought to be
merciful to others and experience the riches of
God's mercy towards us.
We all need God's mercy.
How to get it?
I'll tell you.
Be merciful to people around you.
Don't be hard on them.
Forgive quickly, easily, and don't wait.
Don't even wait for them to apologize.
Forgive before they apologize.
Jesus forgave people on the cross who never
apologized.
That's our example.
I want to turn to Zechariah.
There's a great lesson we can learn in
the book of Zechariah chapter 3.
Here, Zechariah sees Joshua the high priest.
He's a picture of a believer standing before
the angel of the Lord and Satan standing
at his right hand to accuse him.
Now, in the Old Testament, Satan appears very
rarely.
He appears in the form of a serpent,
you know, in Genesis 3 to tempt Adam.
And then in the book of Job, he
appears as one who comes to trouble Job,
and God uses him to test Job.
And then he appears once in the book
of Samuel, where he tempts David to do
something wrong.
And here, we find Satan again in Zechariah
chapter 3.
Now, the reason why Satan does not appear
too frequently in the Old Testament is because
he was not yet defeated on the cross.
When you come to the New Testament, we
find very many mentions of Satan frequently because
he's already been defeated on the cross.
And during Jesus' lifetime, of course, Satan was
tempting him from the beginning.
But that's significant.
God does not allow us to be tempted
beyond our ability.
So here we see Joshua standing before the
Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand
to accuse him.
Throughout the scripture, Satan is an accuser, quick
to find fault, looking for something to find
fault in God's people.
And the Lord is standing by there to
defend us.
We see here in verse 2, the Lord
said to Satan, the Lord rebuke you.
I want you to see this picture of
Joshua, the high priest, is a picture of
a believer.
And on one side, Satan is there to
accuse him because there is something wrong in
him because it says very clearly in verse
3, Joshua was clothed with filthy garments.
That means there was sin in his life.
And so Satan had grounds to accuse him.
But the Lord still rebuked him in verse
2.
The Lord stood by Joshua and said, the
Lord rebuke you, Satan, because this is a
brand that has been plucked from the fire.
And so the Lord comes down on the
side of Joshua, picture of the Lord coming
down on our side against Satan, and saying,
remove the filthy garments.
And see, I've taken away your iniquity away
from you.
That's how the Lord treats us.
And I'll clothe you with the righteousness of
Christ.
Now listen to this.
This is the best part of it.
Zechariah, young man, was watching all this.
He pitches in.
And he says, not only that, Lord, put
a clean turban on his head as well.
And the Lord did that in answer to
Zechariah's request.
Now the point I want you to see
here is it's a similar situation we face
today.
Satan is always there to accuse.
And you see that mentioned in Revelation in
chapter 13.
In Revelation 13, we see Satan is first
of all called, in verse 9, the deceiver
of the whole world.
Sorry, Revelation 12, not 13.
Revelation 12, verse 9, Satan is called the
deceiver of the whole world.
That's a title given to him.
And that is what he does.
He deceives people.
But he's also called, in verse 10, the
accuser, middle of verse 10, the accuser of
the believers.
He deceives the world and accuses believers.
He's called the accuser of the brethren, just
like we saw in Zechariah.
As soon as he sees someone, he's there
to accuse him.
And it says here, he accuses them not
only to themselves, but to God.
Day and night.
We can say Satan has got a full
-time job, 24 hours, always looking for something
wrong in some believer in some part of
the world and accusing that person.
God, see what that person did there.
See that chap, he doesn't do that for
the worldly people.
No.
There he's just deceiving them.
But wherever he sees a believer, particularly someone
who claims to be following the Lord, that's
you and me, and he sees something wrong,
he immediately picks on that and says, God,
see that.
He claims to be your child.
See how he behaves.
See what he did.
See how he spoke.
See the wrong thing he did there.
And this is a 24-hour job, day
and night.
Now, there's something else that Jesus does, day
and night.
Do you know a verse in the Bible
which says that?
Satan is the accuser day and night, it
says in verse 12, 10.
In Hebrews, in chapter 7 and verse 25,
we see something that Jesus is doing day
and night.
It's the opposite.
Hebrews 7, 25.
It says here about Jesus, he's able to
save forever those who draw near to God
through him because he always, always means day
and night, he's praying for them.
So think of these two ministries going on
in the heavenlies.
Satan looking out to find something wrong in
somebody and immediately talking about it and telling
God about it.
And Jesus also seeing it and immediately praying
for that person.
Father, forgive him.
Deliver him.
Set him free from that habit.
Now, what I want to say is all
of us believers are on one of these
two sides.
We are either co-workers with Satan or
co-workers with Jesus.
And what do I mean by that?
When you see something wrong in a fellow
believer, maybe your husband, maybe your wife, maybe
somebody else in the church, and if you're
quick to pounce on that or remember it
and pass a judgment, he claims to be
a great believer, but look how he behaved
there, look how he spoke, you know immediately,
at least from today onwards, you know immediately
whose side you are on, who you are
a co-worker with.
Certainly not Jesus.
You're a co-worker with the one who
is looking out to accuse believers day and
night.
And how many times you and I have
been co-workers with the devil.
Okay, we didn't have light till today, but
you got light today.
Now you have no more excuse.
From today you have no more excuse for
being a co-worker with Satan.
So it doesn't mean we stand neutral.
We say, okay, I won't judge.
That's not enough.
What did we do, see Zachariah do?
When Zachariah saw the Lord cleansing Joshua, the
high priest, he pitched in and said, oh,
do something more, put a good, clean turban
on him.
He made his brother glorious.
And that's our calling, to cooperate with Jesus
Christ, to be a co-worker with Christ
in making our brothers and sisters glorious.
They're not perfect.
The Lord knows they're not perfect, so we
are not perfect either.
So there's something that this is very practical
because we have many opportunities, particularly those who
have a very sharp mind, quick to see
things wrong in other people, quick to condemn,
and slow to appreciate.
We have to change our whole way of
thinking.
And the Holy Spirit has come primarily to
help us in this matter.
The reason God, Jesus, gives us the Holy
Spirit is so that we can have His
nature.
You know, we're told that we are made
partakers of God's nature, of the nature of
Jesus Christ, and this is spiritual growth is
not increasing in knowledge of the Bible.
If knowledge of the Bible could make a
person spiritual, then the devil would be the
most spiritual person of all because he knows
the Bible better than you and me.
He knows every verse.
He could even quote verses to Jesus.
So don't ever think that knowledge of the
Bible or increased knowledge of truths in the
Bible like we receive in this church makes
us spiritual.
No, it's partaking of Jesus' nature that makes
us spiritual.
Just because we can be excited when we
learn something new in the church, praise the
Lord, but that doesn't make us spiritual, no.
In area by area, we must partake of
God's nature.
I mean, we've thought of partaking of the
Lord's nature in purity and humility and many
other areas and loving people, but one area
of loving people is this, where when we
see something wrong, we're not quick to find
fault, not even neutral, but quick to join
hands with Jesus and be a fellow, I
mean, a partner with him in his ministry.
So I see these two ministries going on
all the time, and we lose a lot
when we have this pointing the finger attitude.
What is the first thing that Adam did
when God asked him a simple question?
Did you eat from this tree?
That was only a yes or no.
It's one of those yes, no questions.
But he didn't say yes or no.
He pointed his finger, you read that in
Genesis 3, at his wife and said she
was the one.
You see how as soon as he had
partaken of that tree and disobeyed God, he
had also partaken of the devil's nature.
And you see that immediately.
They were a wonderful couple, but as soon
as he contacted the devil, he got that
spirit of accusation, she's the one.
And you find that that spirit has carried
on throughout all the marriages in history, where
husbands and wives point fingers at each other.
Remember, Adam did it first, and you're following
in fallen Adam's footsteps when you point the
finger at your marriage partner, saying you, you,
you, you did it, you made me do
this.
And we see these things in Scripture.
I want to ask you, are we going
to pray to God that God will help
us to finish with it today?
Help me, Lord, that by your grace, the
power of your Holy Spirit, I will never
again point a finger, beginning with husband and
wife, saying you did this, or even inwardly
without saying it outwardly, to have that attitude.
I'll tell you what we are missing by
having that attitude.
Turn with me to Isaiah chapter 58.
There's a great promise in Isaiah 58 that
the Lord will make us like a watered
garden.
It's a beautiful promise.
Isaiah 58 and verse 11, the Lord will
continually guide you.
Think of the many promises in just this
one verse, or those one or two verses.
The Lord will continually guide you in every
situation where you need and don't know what
to do.
The Lord will guide you.
And when you're in a dry situation in
your life, the Lord will satisfy your desire.
He'll refresh you.
And when you're weak spiritually, he'll give you
strength, and you will not be dry.
You'll be like a watered garden, and you'll
be like a spring of water that can
satisfy the need of anybody who comes to
you.
What a wonderful promise.
And you will rebuild the ancient ruins.
The Lord will use you to build his
church.
You'll be called the repairer of the breach
and the restorer of the streets in which
to dwell.
But there's a condition.
You know what the condition is?
Turn to verse 9.
If you want to be like this, you
will call verse 9, Isaiah 58, 9.
The Lord will answer.
You will cry, and without any delay, the
Lord will say, Here I am.
If you stop putting a yoke on other
people, stop putting a burden on other people,
and stop pointing the finger like Adam did.
You see how seriously the Lord takes this
business of pointing the finger?
And it's an inward thing.
An inward pointing the finger.
That was you.
It wasn't me.
It was you.
It was your fault.
Because you did this, that's why this happened.
And that is speaking wickedness.
So there's a lot that the Bible speaks
about this whole area of accusing the brothers
or interceding for the brothers.
Accusing the believers or interceding the believers.
There are two ministries going on all the
time.
And the Lord is inviting us to join
the right one.
Amen.