Satan Is Real
Bible Study Time 10-8-06
Church links:
Bible Study Time 10-8-06
The other day I was talking to a young high school student who told me that when he lived in California, he went with his friends to what he called a “demon church.” He only went one time because he said “it really freaked him out” and he didn’t like being around it. He said that they had a figure of Christ hanging upside down on a cross, and they twisted the Ten Commandments so that they said the opposite of the Biblical Ten Commandments. This reminded me once again of the spiritual battle that is going on in our world. Paul said:
Ephesians 6:12 (NKJ)
12 . . . we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.
In the past couple of weeks we have seen that Satan is the true adversary of all believers. That he goes about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. But in reality, Satan is not just the adversary of believers. He is the adversary of all people.
The Lord Jesus said that the devil was a murderer from the beginning. It was Satan’s desire to kill Adam and Eve from the very day that they were created. God created Adam and Eve in His own image, and He loved them with a special love. The fellowship that they enjoyed together in the Garden was beautiful, but it stirred up Satan’s heart with envy and jealousy. God gave Adam and Eve dominion over all the earth and all that was in the earth, and Satan’s hatred for Adam and Eve grew stronger and stronger.
God told Adam and Eve not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and He said, “In the day that you eat thereof, you shall surely die.” When Satan became aware of this warning, he saw a window of opportunity to plot the death of both Adam and Eve.
However, Satan was unaware of the fact that God had chosen His words very carefully with Satan in mind. Satan heard the word of God and jumped to the conclusion that Adam and Eve would die in the same day that they ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, so he seduced Eve and she ate of that tree and then Adam also ate.
However, when God pronounced judgment upon Adam and Eve, He did not kill them that day. Instead, he pronounced the curse of death upon them. They went from immortal beings to mortal beings, and as a result, from that very day, they were sure to die. This was certainly in accord with God’s warning, but Satan had misinterpreted the word of God.
Without knowing it, Satan had actually opened the door for the procreation of man so that he would now have to deal not with two human beings but with the billions of human beings that would ultimately fill the earth. As would be the case with all Satanic activity throughout the ages, Satan had fit right into God’s perfect plan.
This speaks to my heart when I think about Satan jumping to quick conclusions about the word of God. As we read the word, and as we study the word, we need to pray that God will open our hearts to the truths that lie beyond the surface. We need to know the exact meaning of each verse and of each passage. Satan would tempt us to take a quick glance at the word and base our lives upon snap judgments because he knows the risks and the dangers that lie therein.
God never intended the Bible for light reading. God’s word is alive and powerful, but when we come to it, we must be prepared to search the scriptures, comparing scripture with scripture, and we must be prepared to open our hearts to the Holy Spirit so that we can receive the hidden treasures that lie beneath the surface.
God is not one to cast His pearls before swine, as Jesus said. If we seek the truth and study diligently, we will find ourselves approved of God, and God will make known to us the mystery of His will according to His good pleasure.
As we can see with Satan in the Garden of Eden, God often has very specific reasons for not revealing the mystery of His will to everyone. In I Corinthians 2, Paul said:
1 Corinthians 2:6-8 (NKJ)
6 . . . we speak wisdom among those who are mature, yet not the wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing.
7 But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory,
8 which none of the rulers of this age knew; for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
God very skillfully worded the Old Testament prophecies concerning Christ, just as He did His warning to Adam and Eve. The political leaders of Jesus’ day had no right to the hidden treasures of God. If they had known that Jesus was the only begotten Son of God and that He alone could provide eternal life, they would never have crucified the Lord of glory.
However, all through the centuries, those who loved and treasured the word of God were able to unlock the hidden treasures of the word of God. They knew that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem. They knew that He would suffer and die for the sins of the world. They knew that He would be buried and that He would rise again even before His body could decay. They knew that Jesus would be raised from the dead to sit upon the throne of David and rule over the Gentiles in a worldwide kingdom.
They knew all of these thing, but there was one mystery about which they knew nothing at all. That mystery was never hinted at in the Old Testament. It was not even hidden under the surface or between the lines of the Old Testament because it was a mystery which was hidden in God from the beginning of the ages. This mystery was the mystery concerning Israel’s rejection of the resurrected Christ and the subsequent calling out of the Church which is the Body of Christ.
The entire Bible, from the calling out of Abraham to the end of the book of the Revelation, is all about the promises that were given to Abraham except for those few books that reveal the mystery concerning the Church which is the Body of Christ.
God’s program for the Church, the Body of Christ, is separate and apart from the promises that were given to Abraham. All of the promises that were given to Abraham were intimately tied to God’s promise of an earthly kingdom.
The Church which is the Body of Christ reaps the spiritual blessings but without any hope of an earthly kingdom. We reap the heavenly, spiritual blessings but stake no claim to the promises that relate to this earth. We are grateful citizens of heaven, and we set our affections on things above.
This mystery concerning the Church was never revealed in the Old Testament or by the Lord Jesus, but one does not have to read between the lines to see this mystery fully revealed in Paul’s prison epistles. Paul plainly declared that the mystery concerning the Church was revealed to him and through him by the power of the Holy Spirit. He said in Ephesians 3:
Ephesians 3:2-6 (NKJ)
2 if indeed you have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which was given to me for you,
3 how that by revelation He made known to me the mystery . . .
5 which in other ages was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to His holy apostles and prophets:
6 that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs, of the same body, and partakers of His promise in Christ through the gospel,
In the program promised to Abraham, Gentiles were second class citizens with fewer rights and privileges, but in the Church, the Body of Christ, Jews and Gentiles are fellow heirs and of the same body.
This does not mean that God is through with national Israel. Someday, after the Church is caught up to be with Christ in the glory of heaven, God is going to start bringing together a group of Jewish believers who will go through the tribulation period and then rule and reign with Christ in the kingdom that was promised to Abraham.
But for now, during this particular age in which we live, the Jew holds no special place of privilege. Jews who are saved today have no claim to the land of Palestine because when the Church is raptured, saved Jews and saved Gentiles will all be taken up to be with Christ in heaven.
Today, God has brought many Jews back to the land of Palestine, and God is apparently preparing this world for the tribulation period. He has caused the Arab nations to unite for the ultimate conflict between the Jews and the Arabs which will play out during the tribulation period, but all of that will take place after the Church is caught up to be with the Lord.
In Ephesians 3, Paul went on to say that God had given him this special stewardship of truth concerning the Church, the Body of Christ. He said:
Ephesians 3:7-10 (NKJ)
7 . . . I became a minister according to the gift of the grace of God given to me by the effective working of His power.
8 To me, who am less than the least of all the saints, this grace was given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ,
9 and to make all see what is the fellowship (or the stewardship) of the mystery, which from the beginning of the ages has been hidden in God who created all things through Jesus Christ;
10 to the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places,
Paul says that he is preaching not only to the human beings of this age, but he is preaching to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places. God did not let Satan know the details concerning the curse of sin in the Garden of Eden. God did not let Satan know about the details concerning the death, burial and resurrection of Christ. These things were hinted at, but not fully revealed.
However, God did not even give Satan a hint about the mystery concerning the Church which is the Body of Christ. There was no hint until it was revealed by the Apostle Paul. The calling out of the Church, the Body of Christ, was a complete and total surprise to Satan.
From all of these things we see that God is in complete control of all events, and He is a total believer in information management. He controls who knows what and when. He is able to work all things according to the counsel of His own will. God is in complete control, and He does whatever He pleases whenever He pleases.
Now those who follow Satan may say that God is a selfish god. They may say that He doesn’t care about people; He only cares about Himself. Does that remind you of anything? How about Satan’s lie to Eve when he said, God doesn’t care about you, He just wants to keep you from being as smart as He is. He told Eve that if she ate of that fruit, she would be as wise as God. In other words, God was just being selfish, according to Satan.
Obviously, the devil was not only a murderer from the beginning, but he was a liar from the beginning, and Jesus said that when the devil tells his lies, he is the father of those lies. Those lies don’t come from God. Satan is the father of all lies, but God is wise enough to limit Satan’s access to pertinent information, and God uses every lie of Satan to accomplish His own plan and purpose and bring glory to Himself in the process.
God does whatever He pleases, but we can praise His name that He is always good. Nahum said (Nahum 1:7), “The LORD is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; and He knows those who trust in Him.”
God does not have to be good to us. He is bound by no law. There is no one to pass judgment upon His actions. There is no one stronger than He to keep Him from doing as He pleases. But still God is good. He is kind and compassionate, and it pleases Him to pour out His blessings upon those who love Him.
Satan, on the other hand, was a liar and a murderer from the beginning. Satan hates even those who love him, but God loves even those who hate Him. Satan’s goal is to steal and kill and destroy, and those who consciously follow him will fair no better than those who unwittingly follow his leading.
Since the resurrection and ascension of Christ, Satan has known that his fate is sealed. When Christ was raised from the dead, He disarmed the principalities and powers and made a public spectacle of them. Satan knows that someday he will be cast into the lake of fire, and his only goal at this point is to take as many people with him as he can.
Satan hates even those who love him, but the Lord loves even those who hate Him. While He was hanging on the cross, bruised from the rod and bleeding from the whip, with his hands and his feet nailed to the cross, He prayed that God would forgive those who had sinned against Him.
If you don’t know the Lord this morning, God loves you. In spite of your sin and in spite of your shortcomings, He loves you, and you can experience His love by simply putting your faith in His Son, Jesus Christ, and believing that Christ died for your sins and that He was buried and that He was raised from the dead so that you could have eternal life.
Thank you for listening to Bible Study Time this morning. I’ll look forward to being with you again next week at this same time.
Write me at: jimjoan77@juno.com
Ephesians 6:12 (NKJ)
12 . . . we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.
In the past couple of weeks we have seen that Satan is the true adversary of all believers. That he goes about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. But in reality, Satan is not just the adversary of believers. He is the adversary of all people.
The Lord Jesus said that the devil was a murderer from the beginning. It was Satan’s desire to kill Adam and Eve from the very day that they were created. God created Adam and Eve in His own image, and He loved them with a special love. The fellowship that they enjoyed together in the Garden was beautiful, but it stirred up Satan’s heart with envy and jealousy. God gave Adam and Eve dominion over all the earth and all that was in the earth, and Satan’s hatred for Adam and Eve grew stronger and stronger.
God told Adam and Eve not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and He said, “In the day that you eat thereof, you shall surely die.” When Satan became aware of this warning, he saw a window of opportunity to plot the death of both Adam and Eve.
However, Satan was unaware of the fact that God had chosen His words very carefully with Satan in mind. Satan heard the word of God and jumped to the conclusion that Adam and Eve would die in the same day that they ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, so he seduced Eve and she ate of that tree and then Adam also ate.
However, when God pronounced judgment upon Adam and Eve, He did not kill them that day. Instead, he pronounced the curse of death upon them. They went from immortal beings to mortal beings, and as a result, from that very day, they were sure to die. This was certainly in accord with God’s warning, but Satan had misinterpreted the word of God.
Without knowing it, Satan had actually opened the door for the procreation of man so that he would now have to deal not with two human beings but with the billions of human beings that would ultimately fill the earth. As would be the case with all Satanic activity throughout the ages, Satan had fit right into God’s perfect plan.
This speaks to my heart when I think about Satan jumping to quick conclusions about the word of God. As we read the word, and as we study the word, we need to pray that God will open our hearts to the truths that lie beyond the surface. We need to know the exact meaning of each verse and of each passage. Satan would tempt us to take a quick glance at the word and base our lives upon snap judgments because he knows the risks and the dangers that lie therein.
God never intended the Bible for light reading. God’s word is alive and powerful, but when we come to it, we must be prepared to search the scriptures, comparing scripture with scripture, and we must be prepared to open our hearts to the Holy Spirit so that we can receive the hidden treasures that lie beneath the surface.
God is not one to cast His pearls before swine, as Jesus said. If we seek the truth and study diligently, we will find ourselves approved of God, and God will make known to us the mystery of His will according to His good pleasure.
As we can see with Satan in the Garden of Eden, God often has very specific reasons for not revealing the mystery of His will to everyone. In I Corinthians 2, Paul said:
1 Corinthians 2:6-8 (NKJ)
6 . . . we speak wisdom among those who are mature, yet not the wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing.
7 But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory,
8 which none of the rulers of this age knew; for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
God very skillfully worded the Old Testament prophecies concerning Christ, just as He did His warning to Adam and Eve. The political leaders of Jesus’ day had no right to the hidden treasures of God. If they had known that Jesus was the only begotten Son of God and that He alone could provide eternal life, they would never have crucified the Lord of glory.
However, all through the centuries, those who loved and treasured the word of God were able to unlock the hidden treasures of the word of God. They knew that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem. They knew that He would suffer and die for the sins of the world. They knew that He would be buried and that He would rise again even before His body could decay. They knew that Jesus would be raised from the dead to sit upon the throne of David and rule over the Gentiles in a worldwide kingdom.
They knew all of these thing, but there was one mystery about which they knew nothing at all. That mystery was never hinted at in the Old Testament. It was not even hidden under the surface or between the lines of the Old Testament because it was a mystery which was hidden in God from the beginning of the ages. This mystery was the mystery concerning Israel’s rejection of the resurrected Christ and the subsequent calling out of the Church which is the Body of Christ.
The entire Bible, from the calling out of Abraham to the end of the book of the Revelation, is all about the promises that were given to Abraham except for those few books that reveal the mystery concerning the Church which is the Body of Christ.
God’s program for the Church, the Body of Christ, is separate and apart from the promises that were given to Abraham. All of the promises that were given to Abraham were intimately tied to God’s promise of an earthly kingdom.
The Church which is the Body of Christ reaps the spiritual blessings but without any hope of an earthly kingdom. We reap the heavenly, spiritual blessings but stake no claim to the promises that relate to this earth. We are grateful citizens of heaven, and we set our affections on things above.
This mystery concerning the Church was never revealed in the Old Testament or by the Lord Jesus, but one does not have to read between the lines to see this mystery fully revealed in Paul’s prison epistles. Paul plainly declared that the mystery concerning the Church was revealed to him and through him by the power of the Holy Spirit. He said in Ephesians 3:
Ephesians 3:2-6 (NKJ)
2 if indeed you have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which was given to me for you,
3 how that by revelation He made known to me the mystery . . .
5 which in other ages was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to His holy apostles and prophets:
6 that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs, of the same body, and partakers of His promise in Christ through the gospel,
In the program promised to Abraham, Gentiles were second class citizens with fewer rights and privileges, but in the Church, the Body of Christ, Jews and Gentiles are fellow heirs and of the same body.
This does not mean that God is through with national Israel. Someday, after the Church is caught up to be with Christ in the glory of heaven, God is going to start bringing together a group of Jewish believers who will go through the tribulation period and then rule and reign with Christ in the kingdom that was promised to Abraham.
But for now, during this particular age in which we live, the Jew holds no special place of privilege. Jews who are saved today have no claim to the land of Palestine because when the Church is raptured, saved Jews and saved Gentiles will all be taken up to be with Christ in heaven.
Today, God has brought many Jews back to the land of Palestine, and God is apparently preparing this world for the tribulation period. He has caused the Arab nations to unite for the ultimate conflict between the Jews and the Arabs which will play out during the tribulation period, but all of that will take place after the Church is caught up to be with the Lord.
In Ephesians 3, Paul went on to say that God had given him this special stewardship of truth concerning the Church, the Body of Christ. He said:
Ephesians 3:7-10 (NKJ)
7 . . . I became a minister according to the gift of the grace of God given to me by the effective working of His power.
8 To me, who am less than the least of all the saints, this grace was given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ,
9 and to make all see what is the fellowship (or the stewardship) of the mystery, which from the beginning of the ages has been hidden in God who created all things through Jesus Christ;
10 to the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places,
Paul says that he is preaching not only to the human beings of this age, but he is preaching to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places. God did not let Satan know the details concerning the curse of sin in the Garden of Eden. God did not let Satan know about the details concerning the death, burial and resurrection of Christ. These things were hinted at, but not fully revealed.
However, God did not even give Satan a hint about the mystery concerning the Church which is the Body of Christ. There was no hint until it was revealed by the Apostle Paul. The calling out of the Church, the Body of Christ, was a complete and total surprise to Satan.
From all of these things we see that God is in complete control of all events, and He is a total believer in information management. He controls who knows what and when. He is able to work all things according to the counsel of His own will. God is in complete control, and He does whatever He pleases whenever He pleases.
Now those who follow Satan may say that God is a selfish god. They may say that He doesn’t care about people; He only cares about Himself. Does that remind you of anything? How about Satan’s lie to Eve when he said, God doesn’t care about you, He just wants to keep you from being as smart as He is. He told Eve that if she ate of that fruit, she would be as wise as God. In other words, God was just being selfish, according to Satan.
Obviously, the devil was not only a murderer from the beginning, but he was a liar from the beginning, and Jesus said that when the devil tells his lies, he is the father of those lies. Those lies don’t come from God. Satan is the father of all lies, but God is wise enough to limit Satan’s access to pertinent information, and God uses every lie of Satan to accomplish His own plan and purpose and bring glory to Himself in the process.
God does whatever He pleases, but we can praise His name that He is always good. Nahum said (Nahum 1:7), “The LORD is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; and He knows those who trust in Him.”
God does not have to be good to us. He is bound by no law. There is no one to pass judgment upon His actions. There is no one stronger than He to keep Him from doing as He pleases. But still God is good. He is kind and compassionate, and it pleases Him to pour out His blessings upon those who love Him.
Satan, on the other hand, was a liar and a murderer from the beginning. Satan hates even those who love him, but God loves even those who hate Him. Satan’s goal is to steal and kill and destroy, and those who consciously follow him will fair no better than those who unwittingly follow his leading.
Since the resurrection and ascension of Christ, Satan has known that his fate is sealed. When Christ was raised from the dead, He disarmed the principalities and powers and made a public spectacle of them. Satan knows that someday he will be cast into the lake of fire, and his only goal at this point is to take as many people with him as he can.
Satan hates even those who love him, but the Lord loves even those who hate Him. While He was hanging on the cross, bruised from the rod and bleeding from the whip, with his hands and his feet nailed to the cross, He prayed that God would forgive those who had sinned against Him.
If you don’t know the Lord this morning, God loves you. In spite of your sin and in spite of your shortcomings, He loves you, and you can experience His love by simply putting your faith in His Son, Jesus Christ, and believing that Christ died for your sins and that He was buried and that He was raised from the dead so that you could have eternal life.
Thank you for listening to Bible Study Time this morning. I’ll look forward to being with you again next week at this same time.
Write me at: jimjoan77@juno.com
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