Satan is beating a dead horse

Who our real adversary is

I still commit a lot of sins.  Not so much the overt kind, although I still commit those too.   But I am noticing more and more the sinfulness that is associated with my thoughts and attitudes.  Questioning and doubting God and His word. Thinking evil of others.

And when I commit those sins, there are times when the enemy closes in and attacks.

Now I am not vain enough to believe that satan himself is following me around, but the Bible does identify satan as the accuser of the brethren. Satan - the devil -  is identified as our adversary.

1PE 5:6-11
6 Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time, 7 casting all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you. 8  Be of sober spirit,  be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. 9  But resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world. 10 After you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you. 11  To Him be dominion forever and ever. Amen.

So yes, mostly the attacks probably come from my flesh, or occasionally from thought projection, be it from the world or perhaps even from demonic sources. After all, the Bible also says our battle is against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. But I am going to use Peter’s shorthand for all these enemies and simply say “satan” in this essay.

 

Satan is an attorney

When I commit sins, especially the ones where I doubt the Lord, satan closes in and starts accusing me of the most fearsome things.    He attacks and attacks and attacks, trying to convince me that I really am wicked… that in fact I am a fraud and not really even a Christian.   And he is a master at using the Bible against me… but then again he even tried that with Jesus (see Matthew 4 and Luke 4).   The guy (and believe me I have worse names for him) has no shame.

Satan is an attorney.  That’s what his name means.  He is the opponent in a lawsuit, the prosecuting attorney, the accuser of the brethren. He is the adversary.  He accuses the saints before God in the hope that he can make something stick that would cause the Judge  to sentence us to death. 

His problem, though, is that he never listens to the Judge (God the Father), or the Advocate for the defense (Jesus Christ at the Right Hand of the Father).

Here is what God the Father and Jesus Christ have declared concerning us born-again believers in Christ:

2CO 5:17
17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
KJV

Satan is a defeated foe.  Christ defeated him forever at the cross.  So for us now he is a roaring lion, not a biting lion.  He can only get to us if we get spooked by the roaring.  But we are safe on the other side of the glass and when he roars all we have to do is look up into the faces of our Father and Older Brother who are holding our hand at the zoo.

But regardless of this verdict, satan the accusing attorney, blind with hatred, deaf to the truth,  keeps trying anyway, trying  to make as strong a case as possible to show the defendant is guilty and deserves the death penalty.  Oh, and by the way - we are the defendants. He loves to accuse the brethren.  God’s children.

REV 12:9-11
9 And the great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. 10 Then I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying,
“Now the salvation, and the power, and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren has been thrown down, he who accuses them before our God day and night. 11 "And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life even when faced with death.

This event will happen in the future, during the Tribulation Period, by the way.

The Lord unmasked satan when He told us that satan is a liar, a murderer, and a thief.

JOH 8:43-44
43 "Why do you not understand what I am saying? It is because you cannot hear My word.  44 " You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies. 

JOH 10:10
10 "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.

 

Satan is beating a dead horse

And this horse thief keeps using lies to try to kill me.

He doesn’t realize that he is beating a dead horse.

You see, the “me” he keeps trying to accuse and get sentenced to death  - that me  already died. Jesus died for all my sins, and the old man me died with Him.

Now, “beating a dead horse” is an expression that you don’t hear as much as you used to, so let’s take a moment to make sure we are all on the same page with it.

According to the Cambridge Advanced Learners’ Dictionary and Thesaurus,  to beat a dead horse means “to waste effort on something when there is no chance of succeeding”. 

That is what satan keeps doing when he accuses us and attacks us. He has NO CHANCE of succeeding.  Yet he does it anyway.  Blind hatred at work.

It means:

“To bring up an issue that has already been concluded; something that's considered to be pointless. “

“To continue to pursue an argument that has been previously settled."

It is finished!  Our sins and iniquities our Father remembers no more. By one offering we have been sanctified for all time.

This phrase - beating a dead horse -  may originate with horse racing, where horses are sometimes "beaten" by their riders to get them moving faster. Depending on the rules, a jockey usually has access to a riding crop, which is sort of  like a miniature whip, and this is used to slap the horse on the thigh. The horse responds either by running faster, or not at all if it's too tired.

While there is much controversy involved with how race horses should be treated, the purpose of "beating" horses during a race is to make them go faster.

On the other hand, if the horses were dead, then there wouldn't really be much of a  point in beating them. Thus, the pointlessness of beating a dead horse would eventually go on to apply to other things.

So what does any of this have to do with satan’s accusations against us when we sin?

Satan is a master at dredging up and harping on the most vile things about you and  me.

Here’s the kicker:  he’s right  - but he’s right about the old me, not the new me!    So you see where his deception lies.

He’ll scream at me and accuse me of being a liar.    He’s right - about the old me.

He’ll pick on the scab and reveal my unbelief.  He’s right - about my flesh.

He’ll show me all the ways that I have been a coward. He’s right - about the outer man, the old man.

And so on.

But here’s where he is dead wrong. Literally.

He’s beating a dead horse.

 

The verdict of the cross of Christ

He is constitutionally unwilling to accept the verdict of the cross.  He refuses to recognize the facts about me and you and the cross of Jesus Christ.

So he continues to beat a dead horse.

This is the verdict of the cross of Jesus Christ:

2CO 5:21
21 He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

Doesn’t the Bible say of us that we Christians already died? It sure does!

COL 3:1-4
Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2  Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. 3 For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.

ROM 6:1-7
What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? 2  May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it? 3 Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? 4 Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, 6 knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; 7 for he who has died is freed from sin.

We were freed from sin when we died with Christ at the cross.

Satan is beating a dead horse over there. And we are not riding that horse any more.  That horse - our old man - was crucified  with Christ on the cross.

Our  life is elsewhere.  Hidden with Christ in God.  Beyond the reach of satan.

 

God has clued us in about our flesh

Satan can’t handle that truth.

So he keeps on beating the dead old horse. The old us. 

And we’re crazy if we pay any attention to him.  His objective is to get us to stare at our flesh.  But we are given strict orders to keep our eyes on Christ instead!

HEB 12:1-3
1 Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2  fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

3 For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

Here’s a practical takeaway that you can use every day:

Every time we keep our eyes on our self...our flesh... it is going to end up being a MISERABLE experience.

Why?

Because in my flesh NOTHING GOOD dwells!

ROM 7:14-25
14 For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin. 15 For what I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate. 16 But if I do the very thing I do not want to do, I agree with the Law, confessing that the Law is good. 17 So now, no longer am I the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. 18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. 19 For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. 20 But if I am doing the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me.

21 I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good. 22 For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, 23 but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members. 24 Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? 25  Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!

You see, God in His word already clued me in.  You too.

He told me that nothing good dwells in me, that is, my flesh. The old me.  The outer man.  And by the way, the outer man is everything about me that the world can perceive.

God  gave me the heads up in His word about the wickedness of my flesh.

Now I didn’t know all the gory details about it.

But here’s the deal: We all have this plague called sin inside.  Sin is the rebel against God who cares only about himself.

And sin dwells in my flesh. Nothing good dwells there.  Sin dwells there.

And that means that I have a residue of the murderer in my flesh...

...and the slanderer

...and the blasphemer

...and the coward

...and the homosexual

...and the liar

And so forth.

And so the worst of us is better than the worst IN us - what our flesh is capable of doing.

Which is why -  whether we want to admit it or not - each time we see, hear or read about someone caught in the act of some horrible sin…..We react .

Maybe in judgment. 
Maybe in horror.
Maybe in a shudder

But that shudder contains in it  a  hint of recognition:

I am capable of that too - in my flesh, that is -the old me.

This is why our Lord warns us not to judge our brother or sister.  When we do, we rail against a splinter of sin that we can see in another... rather than face the telephone pole that is sin in OUR flesh.

 

Christ makes all things new

But our old man was crucified with Christ on the cross.  I am dead to sin, so how can I still live in it?  We are no longer slaves to sin.  This is why there are all those “but now” statements in the New Testament.

EPH 5:8
8 for you were formerly darkness, but now you are Light in the Lord; walk as children of Light
 

ROM 6:12-14
12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, 13 and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as  instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as  instruments of righteousness to God. 14 For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace.

Christ makes all things new. My outer man is decaying, but my inner man - the new me - is being renewed day by day.

I have laid aside my old man. Now I am putting him away, and putting on the New Man.

Now the Spirit indwells me and the Spirit wars against the flesh.  The Spirit is putting to death the deeds of the fleshly body. 

And we have Christ in us, and He is the sure hope of the glory that awaits us.

And sure, satan is happy to fill me in on all the gory details about the old me - the dead horse. He will try to accuse me and condemn me for all sorts of stuff that is in my flesh.

But it all comes under the thing called sin.  And Jesus died to sin itself .

And God condemned sin itself  - with all its gory details -  in the body of Christ on the cross.

ROM 8:1-4
1 Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. 3 For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, 4 so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

And I died to sin with Christ.

So that means that God put infinite distance between me and all the gory details that satan loves to keep bringing up and shoving in my face.

It’s true about my body where sin still dwells.

But it has nothing on ME.  The new me....seated with Christ in heavenly places.

GAL 2:19-21
19 "For through the Law I died to the Law, so that I might live to God. 20 "I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me. 21 "I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the Law, then Christ died needlessly."

 

Sorry satan - I already died

So when satan tries to accuse and condemn us, all he’s doing is beating a dead horse.

“You are a blasphemer. You are filled with unbelief. You are guilty of sexual sin. You have gossiped and maligned others with that tongue.  You’re an alcoholic. You have rotten thoughts about people. You are a hypocrite. You are self-righteous.   You are lazy. You are a bad father. You are a false teacher. You are a fool. You ….”

“You deserve to die!”, he screams, finally.

And I agree!

More than that, it’s already happened.

I already died.

I died with Christ on the cross.

Yet amazingly

I live....

Yet  not I

Oh no

Here’s the kicker

Not I but Christ lives in me!

And the life I live now I live

Not in trying to justify myself

Not in making excuses for myself

Or defending myself

But not in condemning myself either

No!

The life I live now

I live

By FAITH IN THE SON OF GOD

Who loved me

And gave Himself up

For me.

 

A new horse waiting for me

And the Lord  has made me a new creation, and given me a new life and a new identity and a new destiny.  I am in the Lord’s witness protection program!

1PE 1:3-6
3  Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, 5 who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

And the Lord  has a  new horse waiting for me.  You too.  It’s part of the inheritance that is reserved for us in heaven.

And one day soon, you and I will ride those fine white horses with Christ -

 

 

All the way to a renewed Jerusalem.  Imagine  the rejoicing that's going to break out  when Jesus Christ sits on His glorious throne!

REV 19:11-16
11 And I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and He who sat on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and wages war. 12 His eyes are a flame of fire, and on His head are many diadems; and He has a name written on Him which no one knows except Himself. 13 He is clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God. 14 And the armies which are in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, were following Him on white horses. 15  From His mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it He may strike down the nations, and He will rule them with a rod of iron; and He treads the wine press of the fierce wrath of God, the Almighty. 16 And on His robe and on His thigh He has a name written, " KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS."

Until the next time, we’re all ….

In His grip,

Pastor John

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