3月8日 撒但拣选的使者
撒但拣选的使者
君王怎样设立国务卿去执行自己的旨意与喜好，撒但也照样差遣特别的使者去成就牠的计划。
撒但知道，牠的国若要兴盛，就必须得着牠所有臣民的配合；但牠尤其乐意使用最邪恶的人。君王怎样设立国务卿去执行自己的旨意，撒但也照样差遣特别的使者去成就牠的计划。牠也有牠拣选的门徒，如以吕马，保罗称他为“充满各样诡诈奸恶，魔鬼的儿子”（徒13:10）。撒但正是把不法的奥秘与败坏沦丧的最低处，传授给了这群黑暗之心的“核心圈”。
但即便对这些被选中的少数人，撒但也不会分享一切。牠总是紧紧攥着自己的钱袋，也攥着罪人的钱袋，好让自己一直做幕后的投资人，而罪人不过是替牠交易的经纪人。到头来，所有不义之财都落入了魔鬼的口袋。罪人所拥有的一切——时间、精力、才智等等——全都被耗费在维持魔鬼的宝座上。
你或许会问：“这样一个卑贱的受造物，怎能掌握如此强大的领地呢？”你可以确信，这绝非合法得来的，尽管撒但足够狡猾，能摆出一份看似“正当”的凭据。
首先，牠声称世界是牠征服而来的。在某种程度上，撒但确实通过权势与诡计赢得了牠的冠冕，并以同样的方式维持统治。然而，这所谓的靠“征服”得来的产权，不过是一纸存有瑕疵，站不住脚的契据。小偷把钱包从受害者手中夺走，放进自己口袋并宣称那是他的，这并不能让他拥有任何合法权利。同样，罪行也并不会因为时间的流逝就变成公义。即便小偷在多年后才被发现，他在被捕之日仍与作案当天一样有罪。坐在王位上的强盗，与混迹街巷的强盗并无二致。撒但确实长久霸占着牠偷来的“主权”，但比起牠起初诱骗亚当背离神的那一天，牠现在的罪犯身份并没有丝毫改变。
麦琴（麦克谦）读经计划进度
家庭敬拜：出19章，路22章，
个人灵修：伯37章，林后7章
MARCH 8, SUNDAY
SATAN’S CHOSEN EMISSARIES
As princes appoint ministers of state to enforce their whims and wishes, so Satan sends out special emissaries to carry out his plans.
Satan knows he must have the cooperation of all his subjects in order for his kingdom 10 thrive, but he is especially pleased to use the most wicked. As princes appoint ministers of state to enforce their whims and wishes, so Satan sends out special emissaries to carry out his plans. He too has his chosen disciples like Elymas, whom Paul called “full of subtlety … and child of the devil” (Acts 13:10). It is to this inner circle of dark hearts that he imparts the mysteries of iniquity and the depths of degradation.
But even with these chosen few he does not share everything. He always holds his own purse and the sinner’s too, so that he is the investor and the sinner only the broker to trade for him. In the end, all the ill-gotten gains drop into the devil’s pocket. Everything the sinner has—time, strength, intellect and all—is spent to keep the devil on his throne.
“How,” you may ask, “did such a low creature come to hold such a mighty principality?” Not lawfully, you can be sure, though he is clever enough to show a claim which appears legitimate.
For one thing, he claims the earth by conquest. It is to some degree true that he won his crown by power and politics, and that he keeps it the same way. Yet “conquest” is a cracked title.
A thief has no legal right to the wallet he takes from his victim simply because he puts it in his pocket and claims it is his own. Nor is the wrong thus committed ever made right by the passing of time. Years may go by before he is discovered; he will be as guilty on the day of his arrest as on the day he perpetrated the crime. Now a thief on the throne is no different from one in the alley. Satan has indeed kept his stolen title a long time, but he is no less a criminal than on the day he first took Adam’s heart from God.