the enemy within

The Word for today:
Psalm 55


mark this: Psalm 55:12-14 --
If an enemy were insulting me,
I could endure it;
if a foe were raising himself against me,
I could hide from him.
But it is you, a man like myself,
my companion, my close friend,
with whom I once enjoyed sweet fellowship
as we walked with the throng at the house of God


Psalms 52 through 55 present pictures of the enemies of our souls.

Yesterday we saw that Psalms 52, 53, and 54 were pictures of the deceiver in our midst, energized and directed by the spirit of antichrist.

The deceiver in the midst of the Garden of Eden was in the guise of a serpent.

The deceiver in the midst of King David's court was Ahithophel, the brilliant political strategist who deserted David, joining David's son Absalom in civil war. Like the serpent in the garden, Ahithophel's words were smooth as butter. But war is in his heart (1).

The deceiver in the upper room, at Jesus' Last Supper, was Judas Iscariot. Judas' betrayal was the unkindest cut of all:
If an enemy were insulting me,
I could endure it;
if a foe were raising himself against me,
I could hide from him.
But it is you, a man like myself,
my companion, my close friend,
with whom I once enjoyed sweet fellowship
as we walked with the throng at the house of God (2).

As we saw yesterday, this pattern will persist when the Antichrist will betray the nation of Israel. He will pretend to be their friend, he will make a covenant with them, and then he will betray them.

So we see evidence of this pattern yesterday and tomorrow. But what about today?

The deceiver is in our midst today--just as he was in the Garden of Eden, in King David's court, and in the upper room. There are churches with steeples -- even wth crosses atop those steeples -- which deny the saving power of the blood of Jesus Christ:
There will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them (3);
and which deny the power of God's Holy Spirit:
having the appearance of godliness, but denying the power thereof (4).

The most harmful enemies of the church have not attacked from outside her walls. They have craftily, subtly betrayed God from within. That is why we must diligently and constantly study God's Word--or else we, like Eve, will be deceived by smooth words, subtly twisted.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(1) Psalm 55:21; (2) Psalm 55:12-14; (3) 2 Peter 2:1; (4) 2 Timothy 3:5