October 4
“God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Lament and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord and He will lift you up,” James 4:6-10.
Sin was brought into the world by the devils, the evil angels. The apostle Peter wrote, “God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved for judgment,” 2 Peter 2:4. The evil angels, or devils, were created holy, but they sinned and they are now forever rejected by God. They are spirits who are cunning, powerful, and of great number. They are enemies of God and of man. Jesus said that the devil is the father of lies, and the devil has a lot of company among people throughout the world, including people who are in high and low places.
When did the devils sin? Everything was perfect and holy at the close of the six-day creation. God rested on the seventh day. The almighty God did not get tired. He rested – that is, He ceased creating. The devils sinned sometime after the creation and sometime before the devil tempted Eve. While the Bible does not give a specific time, it indicates that it was not a long time after the creation. The apostle John wrote, “He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning,” 1 John 3:8.
What sin did the devils commit? Scripture does not tell us. However, some of the church fathers have said that the sin of the devils was pride. They wanted to be like God! What might have brought those church fathers to such a conclusion? Pride is a basic sin that lurks deeply in the heart of people by nature everywhere. Look and listen to all of the people who, in their pride, are trying to push God out of their lives. Look at all of the efforts that are made to get any and every reference to the true God out of our public schools, out of our government, out of our courts, out of our places of business, and, yes, out of our churches also!
God warns us against the sin of pride, and He tells us to resist the devil and he will flee from us. You can resist the devil with prayer and by giving heed to the Word of God. Resist pride with God-given humility. When the disciples, in their pride, were arguing among themselves as to who was the greatest, Jesus put a little child in their midst and said, “Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven,” Matthew 18:3-4. Peter wrote, “All of you be submissive to one another, and be clothed with humility, for ‘God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.’ Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time,” 1 Peter 5:5-6.
As penitent sinners, we come humbly into the presence of God, confessing our sins and pleading to God for His grace and mercy through Christ Jesus. God the Father accepted the sacrifice of His Son, who suffered and died on Calvary’s cross and washed our sins away. God has declared us forgiven for Jesus’ sake. We believe that Jesus has redeemed us. We humbly confess that God so greatly loved us that He sent Jesus into the world to save us from sin, death, and the power of the devil.
“O Lord, my God, to Thee I pray;
Oh, cast me not in wrath away!
Let Thy good Spirit ne’er depart,
But let Him draw to Thee my heart,
That truly penitent I be:
O God, be merciful to me!” Amen.