God's Faithfulness & Demonic Attack
Satan brings allegations to discourage and discredit God's people because of their past sins, but God stands by the ones for whom Christ died.
God’s faithfulness to His people is astounding; His loyalty to His people is staggering for its unwavering character. God’s people do not earn this astounding, staggering loyalty and faithfulness; in fact, they do not deserve it at all. Even more remarkable is that God’s faithful loyalty to His people is also characterized by rich and deep covenant love. The Hebrew Church had a single word for this: hesed.
Because of God’s faithful, loyal covenant love for His people, despite their sins God does not abandon them. The Old Covenant Church sang about this reality:
Praise is due to you, O God, in Zion, and to you shall vows be performed. O you who hear prayer, to you shall all flesh come. When iniquities prevail against me, you atone for our transgressions. (Psalm 65:1–3)
And this truth remains precious to the New Covenant Church:
Praise waits for thee in Zion; all men shall worship there
and pay their vows before thee, O God who hearest prayer.
Our sins rise up against us, prevailing day by day,
but thou wilt show us mercy and take their guilt away.
(Trinity Hymnal No. 372)
The saints in the Old Covenant Church knew their sinfulness well. And the psalm suggests, they also knew well the attacks of the Devil and his minions: to remind the people of their sinfulness, unworthiness, and lack of deserving any good thing. When under such attacks by the Devil, God’s people can draw strength from the truths of Psalm 65.
Because the Accuser has a limited number of tactics to deploy against God’s people to rob them of their joy or entice them to sin, he uses those same, tired tactics frequently.
I. Old Offenses
God’s people were cast out of the Promised Land because of their sinfulness and covenant breaking, but God did not cast off His people. He brought them back to Jerusalem and provided the means for them to rebuild the Temple.
Although the people were physically in the Promised Land, yet for many of them their hearts had not returned to the Lord their God. But God still did not cast off His people; instead he sent Haggai and Zechariah to call them to repentance afresh.
To encourage His prophet and to demonstrate His unfailing commitment to His Church, God gave Zechariah a vision of the unseen realms.
Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the LORD, and Satan standing at his right hand to accuse him. And the LORD said to Satan, “The LORD rebuke you, O Satan! The LORD who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is not this a brand plucked from the fire?” Now Joshua was standing before the angel, clothed with filthy garments. (Zechariah 3:1–3)
The prophet saw Joshua, the High Priest who represented the Old Covenant Church before God and God to the Church, clothed in filthy garments, wholly unsuited for ministry. The garments were filthy because of the people’s sinfulness.
There stands Satan, the Accuser, ready to lodge all manner of charges against the High Priest regarding the past sins of the people, which have defiled him and should render him disqualified for his priestly duty.
One form of demonic attack is to stir up old transgressions to accuse us before our conscience, before God, and even before the world.
This is a common tactic of the Devil: bring up old sins to rob God’s people of our joy, to discourage us from seeking God’s grace, and to try to disqualify us in our own minds and the minds of others from God’s service by alleging: Behold, a sinner! Look how bad this person is! Look what he did! Look what he said! Behold, a sinner!
This demonic tactic is effective because what the Devil or his minions allege - in this regard - is often true. We have committed horrible sins; we have brought grief upon ourselves and others. We rightly deserve to be clothed in shame and filth.
But God’s people must not allow these demonic attacks to prevail in our minds or hearts; we must remember neither our sins nor the Devil’s accusations define us.
II. New Righteousness
Zechariah’s vision did not end simply with the Lord’s rebuke of Satan’s accusations. The Lord acted to overcome the defilement of sin, to overcome the truth of Satan’s allegations.
And the angel said to those who were standing before him, “Remove the filthy garments from him.” And to him he said, “Behold, I have taken your iniquity away from you, and I will clothe you with pure vestments.” And I said, “Let them put a clean turban on his head.” So they put a clean turban on his head and clothed him with garments. And the angel of the LORD was standing by. (Zechariah 3:4–5)
Satan was correct; the High Priest was entirely disqualified to stand in God’s presence. He bore all the sins of the people of God and the stink of their sins was unbearable. There was nothing Joshua could do to remove the stink and stain.
God acted, God provided, and God contended for His people, because God is faithful and loyal even in the midst of demonic attack or accusation.
God removed the defiled garments demonstrating to Zechariah that God indeed forgave the sins of His people and will not abandon His people despite what they deserve. The devil may attack with all manner of allegations, but God stands by His saints and has taken away their sin and given them new righteousness.
Zechariah is so thrilled with what he sees, he cannot hold back, but shouts, “Let them put a clean turban on his head!” Zechariah prayed for complete cleansing.
God provided completely for the need of His people to have their sins dealt with and taken away. He has left the Devil no room to accuse because God has completely removed His people’s sins and provided the righteousness they need to serve Him.
III. Present Standing
God’s people are not merely forgiven of their sins and made safe from the Devil’s attacks, but enabled to stand before God secure in His service:
…to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy; giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. (Colossians 1:10–12)
Such was Paul’s prayer for the saints in Colossae that they would walk in a manner worthy of their status. Their status is not because of what they had achieved, but because of what God did for them: qualified them.
God’s people are qualified not because they are good enough or have made themselves good enough, but because God has qualified them on account of His faithful loyalty to them.
The world does not understand this grace. The world decries the thought that people who were once living “in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind…” are now both qualified to serve a holy God and to call others to repentance and the saints to holiness. The world decries this as hypocrisy and the Devil uses it to attack God’s people and rob them of their joy and usefulness.
These attacks of the Devil remind us of the heinousness of our sin; our sins have consequences in this life for other people and for ourselves. We should grieve all the more when our sins injure others and because they provide an opportunity for the Devil to attack or discredit us.
But God has given His people a psalm to sing in such times:
Remember your mercy, O LORD, and your steadfast love, for they have been from of old. Remember not the sins of my youth or my transgressions; according to your steadfast love remember me, for the sake of your goodness, O LORD! Good and upright is the LORD; therefore he instructs sinners in the way. He leads the humble in what is right, and teaches the humble his way. (Psalm 25:6–9)
This is a psalm that reflects the progressive sanctification God’s Spirit works in His people: as we grow in holiness, we have sorrow for sin, we see the ugliness of our past transgressions, but we have hope for the future because of what God has done.
As God’s Spirit grows us in holiness, we look back with shame upon our youth. But God’s word assures us He remembers us not according to our sins, but according to His steadfast love.
God magnifies the greatness of His grace; He highlights His faithful, loyal character by showing mercy to sinful people, calling them to Himself and enabling them to walk in His ways more and more. This is what God declared to the High Priest:
And the angel of the LORD solemnly assured Joshua, “Thus says the LORD of hosts: If you will walk in my ways and keep my charge, then you shall rule my house and have charge of my courts, and I will give you the right of access among those who are standing here. (Zechariah 3:6–7)
The sins of the past would not disqualify the Priest from serving in the house of God. Rather, he was called to respond by walking in repentance and holiness before God, trusting in God’s continued mercy, loyalty, and faithfulness to His people.
We should not be surprised when Satan and his minions bring up the lurid details of our sinful past to attack us. But we should remember: God has removed the sin of His people completely and clothed us with new righteousness and enabled us to walk with increasing holiness and integrity.
Because of what God has done for us we are enabled to do two things. First, we are compelled to seek the forgiveness of those we have wronged. Second, we are able to examine our lives to see what sinful patterns still linger as we discover new areas in need of repentance and mortification.
Sometimes we must suffer a penalty for our sins in this life, as did the thief on the cross, yet that thief could nonetheless face eternity confident of God’s unfailing love and faithfulness to those who have turned to Him. But ordinarily, as long as God enables us to live in Christ, we can expect those old, sinful patterns to diminish, which gives us cause to praise God for His faithfulness in sanctification.
Our God is so kind to provide us an image of what He has done for us in Christ in the vision of Zechariah as the filthy garments are removed and replaced - head to toe - with new, pure ones. This comforts us in the truth of the gospel promises.
But where did those filth-covered garments go? Jesus, whose Hebrew name is Joshua, wore them:
For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:21)
Christ became sin for us. So if we have turned to Christ in faith, let us walk with joy in Christ and daily repentance. When the Devil calls to mind and charges you with the sins of your youth, remember: those are not your sins anymore; they belong to Christ. And if you belong to Christ, and He will keep you forever. So let us live in that way now.