God’s Devil - Points to Ponder, Part 4

THE TEMPTER

Although defeated by the Cross of Christ, the devil maintains all his treachery and is even more aggressive than before because he knows his time is short (Rev 12:12). His fury will reach maximum power before his final defeat:

2nd Thes 2:8:

“And then shall that Wicked be revealed whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth. And shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:”

Until then, Satan is untiring in dividing men from one another and doing the same to families.

What is the essence of his temptation? It is his pressing us toward evil as he pushes us toward sin and ruin, always of our own desire and choosing. He devises masterpieces of deceit, presenting evil disguised as good, so it will be freely chosen. Here is his great success and here is our most difficult battle. Here is the truth of how he comes to dominate souls, and not just for the lost. The more a believer becomes spiritually devoted, the more he is a target of aggressive persecution and seduction. If Satan leaves you completely alone it means you are inside his net. Never be fooled. He will continue his attacks until our final breath. This warfare is a commitment for every day and every hour. No man is so perfect and holy as not to have temptations.

Job 7:1:  “The life of man upon earth is a temptation.”

Paul's thorn in his flesh was a messenger from Satan to buffet him. The most humiliating temptations of attempted seduction to sin must not discourage us. God permits them so that we not become puffed up in pride (2nd Cor 12:7). The Lord has granted this prince of darkness a certain freedom of action even after he has been cast out. Why does God permit an experience that could lead us to spiritual defeat? He permits it so that it should be made manifest and clear what dwells deeply in our hearts, and to allow the interior man to grow and to develop spiritual virtue. In temptation is revealed who we are. Here is the point where grace allowed changes into the greater merit in our soul. It is through this struggle that we are conformed closer to the image of His Son, which is good. As a result, God permits temptation to arrange a greater good.

God not only permits, but also governs temptation's depth by Satan. Satan cannot do whatever he wants and he cannot lead us into evil if we do not want it. The when, the where, and the how of every temptation is under the eye of God. He lets us see for ourselves the face of evil so that we do not underestimate it.

1st Cor 10:13” “... God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able, but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it”. 

God’s Devil - Points to Ponder, Part 5

THE TEMPTATION IN THE GARDEN OF EDEN

There are two temptations shown to us, one at the beginning of each Testament. In both, God willed that we should see the evil one in action so that we understand the conflict of the daily spiritual warfare. There is no place on earth, even places protected, where Satan is not able to be present.

God does not love conditional freedom. He desires our choice to obey be found in the depth of our hearts. He concedes to Satan the allowance to lead us to evil so that our choice for good be a free decision, not allowing Satan to tempt us beyond our strength.

Adam and Even enjoyed a special relationship with God. They were not servants and their happiness was without shadow. But instead of full trust in God, they trusted Satan.

Jesus later told us Satan is “the father of lies”.  Satan knew the influence of woman upon man, therefore he tempted her alone. The first lie was twisting the command of God who said all trees except one were permitted. Satan asked about the one tree, not the others. The second lie was presenting God's command as a limit on human freedom. He said if the fruit was taken, Eve would not die. She then thought she was in control. The third lie was telling Eve that when she ate, her eyes would open and she would be like God. He basically said that God lies but I give you truth. His false vision presented control to Eve apart from God. In the crucial moment, Eve took and ate. She gave Adam the fruit and he made no objection and ate as well. Eve had fallen and Adam followed. 

They hid themselves and tried to hide their bodies for now they were no longer “naked and without shame”. The fig leaves were insufficient to conceal the sin when God called them. Satan led them into sin and they tried to hide it from God. If Adam, instead of hiding, had confronted God with confession and humility, the sin would have been forgiven and cast away. But Adam actually tried to blame God for his sin and Eve tried to blame the serpent. No one confessed. No one repented. 

The tragedy moves beyond the sin done. God knows full well that even after the Redemption of the Messiah man will still sin. It is the absence of contrition that condemns man. King David learned this lesson harshly and passed it onward to us in Psalm 51 as he confessed that God only wishes a broken spirit and a contrite heart. 

The final spiritual truth is that sin continues and evil is punished. Only repentance or punishment exist for man. The ultimate strategy of the evil one is to bring man before God, our Divine Judge, with an arrogant and hard heart that will neither confess nor repent.

God’s Devil - Points to Ponder, Part 6

THE TEMPTATION OF JESUS IN THE WILDERNESS

Temptation is a fundamental spiritual experience and it bears strongly on the outcome of each life. The first temptation (in Eden) caused a spiritual catastrophe, and began to flow the river of evil which has flooded the world. From the second temptation, of the Messiah in the wilderness, flowed the living water of good that makes alive the dry souls of the lost, giving them strength for the holy battles to follow. In the first one, man was defeated and from it man became a slave to sin and death. John told us in 1st John 5:19 that the world was placed under the power of the evil one.

In the second temptation, Satan is defeated and he then realizes that he will be driven away from dominion over mankind. The serpent raged against the Lord, and used all of his powers left to arrange the death of Christ. In the wilderness temptation, mankind found the long awaited redemption promised long before in Genesis 3:15.

One of the limits God places upon Satan is his inability to command the will of man. If man does not want to sin, he can choose not to do so. Satan can urge the will toward sin by seduction but cannot bend it to evil himself. We freely choose sin.

It took the Incarnated Word to face down and defeat Satan. No man could have done so. Because of that fact, we should remember that we deceive ourselves if we think we can defeat Satan by our own strength. We can do so only with the strength of Christ.

Satan knew he was in the presence of the Son of God. So he issued his three challenges to tempt Jesus to take one step toward sin. The Son of God prepared Himself by forty days of fasting, purifying Himself for the battle. The evil one waited until the end of the fast to begin his work, when Jesus was surely hungry and tired in His likeness of human flesh. 

He challenged Jesus with twisted logic, just as he had succeeded with Eve. He gave three temptations saying “if you are the Son” turn the stones to bread. He next took Jesus to a high point on the Temple and challenged Jesus to leap off since scripture said He would be protected from harm. Next he took Jesus to a place to show Him all the world's kingdoms, and promised them to Jesus for one moment of worship from Christ. In each case Jesus answered with scripture “It is written”. Jesus prevailed over Satan and cast him away from Himself. 

There is an end to each temptation we face. But Luke teaches us in 11:26 that the evil one rearms for greater tempting. After the victory of Jesus angels came to minister to Him. Each time we gain even a tiny victory over sin and Satan we become part of the victory of Christ.                 

BE READY FOR SATAN IS EVER CALLING

God’s Devil - Points to Ponder, Part 7

SATAN'S TRAP FOR US

Our last two points were based upon the two great temptations in the OT & the NT. After study of both it seems to be good to examine how Satan works against each of us in everyday life and engineers the daily tests we face in his temptations against us.

Assurance of faith must be part of the weapon arsenal we should use in our defense. First we must believe in our commander as we face the enemy. Even though we are fragile by comparison we have available all of the power of Christ to help us. Satan's objective is to cause our resistance to crumble in unconditional surrender by making us think the tempting will not ever end. The heart of the battle is our will. Victory over the demon ultimately will be decided by our “YES” or our “NO” to him. Even the grace that comes to help us depends on our will to operate it. Remember that in the Lord's Prayer, Jesus does not invite us to ask God to eliminate temptation from our lives for He knew well such a request would not be honored. God does not induce us to evil but He does permit temptation, so that when we cooperate with His grace sent, the outcome is glorifying to God and useful to our soul.

Temptation also produces an opportunity for stronger obedience in the saved.  Sin is Satan's seal upon us and our rejection of his temptation to sin clearly indicates the seal of the Spirit is stronger upon us. Therefore we must be grateful for each trial of our faith because each is an opportunity for victory. What does James 1:2 teach us?

“My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations...”.

Every faith battle is meant to strengthen our will and obedience. Satan's best hand-to-hand combat strategy is to make us discouraged and unwilling to continue the fight.

The greatest fear Satan has is that we will confess and repent. These are his doom. No matter how many sins a believer commits, if he does not surrender to evil but sincerely asks for forgiveness, God strengthens him and welcomes him home again.

The constancy of Satan's call every day is found first in our neglect of nurturing our souls in daily communion of prayer. He knows our prayer life and whether it may falter. When it does it becomes a signal to him that the time for attack is now. From that factor, Satan designs the best method to attack our flaws such as:

• ATTACHMENT TO MATERIAL THINGS    

• WORRY AND ANXIETY    

• LACK OF FULL TRUST

• LUST, IMMODESTY, AND INFIDELITY     

• GOSSIP AND LIES              

• DECEPTION

• DISHONESTY                                                 

• VAIN PRIDE                        

• DOUBTS OF FAITH

All of these low lights of life are either caused by his temptations or exploited by him to diminish us. The Lord knows these and understands and assured us that His power is made great in our weakness. Any strength we find is given by Him. ASK HIM!

God’s Devil - Points to Ponder, Part 8

HOW FIERCE IS THE DRAGON?

The ability of Satan (the dragon) to camouflage himself is one of his best deceptions. His work has brought immense evil and the wickedness of man is the reflection of hell on earth. The images in the Bible of this one as serpent, lion, and dragon complement each other. The serpent is said in Genesis to be subtle, and the lion and dragons are fierce images. We can verify from personal experience that once we have accepted his seduction, we quickly find ourselves in misery. Satan seeks to destroy while God constantly is building us with His love.

Satan sows discord in an untiring effort to incite men against each other, divide families, and provoke war. The river of blood that has flowed through the ages from the murder of Abel until today are the results of his work. His means of inciting discord are assisted by the human tongue, for that is where lies begin to be spread. There is never peace where Satan is present. The apostles had to struggle against false prophets who looked nice but were the voices of the dragon.

The evil one blows on the fire of our passions and he is very satisfied when he provokes our anger. He takes full advantage of those moments to inflame us more so that we lose control of ourselves and say and do things we should not. His breath further inflames even nations to become angry and at times makes enemies of those we should love, transforming them into hated peoples so that we find comfort in killing them. In war, all of the vices of man are magnified. Pride, violence, theft, lust, arrogance, and scorn are all aroused and spread abundantly among the hearts of men. It is in these arranged times of darkness that Satan is most fierce and is able to capture many souls.

Satan, having failed to seduce Jesus Christ, has spent centuries persecuting His church. His finest work comes when he rings the bell of false gospel and spreads it among the churches. Jesus was well aware of this undying work against His church and gave us final hope in Matt 16:18 when he promised the gates of hell will never prevail against the church. Rev 2:10 is a warning of Jesus to the church in Smyrna to beware that the devil is working to throw some of them into prison. The church navigates through the sea of history filled with the fierce persecutions of this dragon. To those he cannot capture (the saved), he intends to weaken and diminish. Our weapons of victory are sent to our attention in Ephesians 6 as we put on the whole armor. But the attacks are most fierce and we cannot retreat in faith. Our warning is given on this matter in 2nd Cor 4:4:

“In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ , who is the image of God, should shine unto them.”

HE IS FIERCE TO CAPTURE THE SOULS OF THE UNBELIEVERS AND DIMINSH THE SOULS OF THE SAVED 

God’s Devil - Points to Ponder, Part 9

THE FALSE ANGEL OF LIGHT

The continual deception by the evil one toward mankind is remarkably successful in the lost soul because there may not exist within that soul any understanding of scripture or preaching that allows defense. Prayer itself may not even be evident in the internal life of one lost. These are easy marks for the serpent.

The attacks of Satan against the saved are (and should be) much more difficult to succeed for those who have accepted Christ have generally sat under strong preaching and have at least some grasp of the holy commands of the written word. But, as Paul warns, all is not always well among the saved in this regard.

2nd Cor 11:14-15:

“... for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light … Therefore it is no  great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness.”

The great deceiver is not afraid to imitate God, to entice men to error, and draw them closer to himself for greater temptation to come. When it serves his purpose, the evil one does not hesitate to dress in religious clothes. The faithful must continue to refine their capacity to judge these moments  because the opportunities of deception are more numerous today than ever more. Explosions of false doctrine in our media world and the web are growing more dangerous. 

False prophets (preachers and teachers) were clearly evident in the days our Lord walked the earth. Jesus spoke of this evil one as the “father of lies” (John 8:44). These false ones then and now seek to lead believers away from revealed truth. The great liar has as one of his primary objectives to weaken the Word and to douse the flame of truth.

John was stronger in his warning of 1st John 4:1-3:

“Beloved, believe not every spirit but try the spirits whether they are of God  because false prophets are gone out into the world. Hereby know ye the spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God. And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist...”.

The very foundations of faith are eroding from the work of this evil one. The truth of faith is being obscured and commanded moral conduct is challenged. The enemy of light works intensely against the faith, attacking it both externally and internally with false teachers of every kind. Deception by camouflage remains a danger to us.

RESTING ON THE TRUTH OF GOD'S WORD IS OUR REFUGE  

God’s Devil - Points to Ponder, Part 10

DELIVERING US FROM EVIL

Satan's attacks can be dangerous to our faith journey because he appears many times in his various evil roles, murderer, liar, and false angel of light. The ways in which he works his evil cannot be underestimated. In our modern days, some cases of evil events are written off as just natural occurrences. His work is at times overlooked because he has convinced so many in our time that he does not exist, which can wreck the faith journey for those who ignore him completely. This position denies the redemption by Christ which itself delivered us from sin's penalty while not removing sin's presence.

The Gospels show a clear knowledge of the many areas in which the action of Satan is formed. Jesus taught us in Matt 13:19 that Satan steals the seed (His Word) from the good ground (our hearts) & that Satan sows tares into wheat in Matt 13:39 & Satan's pure possession of one's heart as in Mary Magdalene in Mark 16:9 & Judas in Luke 22:3 and Ananias in Acts 5:3. The teachings of Jesus on this matter are clear. Satan sows error through false prophets and hampers the plan of God while persecuting the church. All of

these evils are allowed by God and are within His eternal plan of salvation. The great light of Jesus Christ is designed to show us these activities so that we are more aware.

The presence of the Son of God in this world is the beginning of the ruin of the kingdom of darkness. In these later days, until the final defeat of the forces of evil, the power of our Messiah remains through His Holy Spirit within us, our Comforter. Jesus was kind enough to allow us to see His final mortal thoughts in John 17 and we should be careful to note that He did not ask the Father to remove believers from the world but to keep us from the evil one. Through His request and our prayers we can find the greater strength (His alone made perfect in our weakness) to say “NO” to the snares along our faith journey. Nothing is more important to our deliverance than prayer. When the Christian prayer life is strong, Satan is weakened.

The healings worked by Jesus and the apostles are many. The NT is filled with them because physical healing and spiritual healing (casting out unclean spirits) are visible signs from God to mankind that salvation has arrived. Even though sin seems to be ever increasing on earth which still remains under the power of Satan's rule, the light of faith shows us that everyday victories can be ours. Neither temptation, nor deception, nor persecution, nor any work of the evil one will ever be able to separate us from the love of Christ.     

God’s Devil - Points to Ponder, Part 11

THE LAST BATTLE / THE HOUR OF DEATH

Death is not a natural part of the life that was originally granted by God. It was only by the sin of man, under Satan's tempting, that death arrived. Spiritual death was immediate and physical death followed by aging. Before sin, there was no suffering or sickness, and no death. Death became “the wages of sin” (Rom 6:23) and it shall be the last of the enemies defeated and abolished (Rev 20:14).

Hell is mobilized around the death of man, where the souls of the lost are fully given over to it. However, death is also the great occasion of God's divine mercy. The obedience of Jesus has transformed the curse of death into a blessing (Mark 14:33-34). Man is alone and poor at the moment of death. He has no more future in front of him, except one coming in eternity. The decisions that count can be delayed no longer and it is at this moment that grace works it's greatest miracle. Heaven and hell face each other in that moment for the final duel for that one soul.

Death is the door to eternity. Whether it will be an eternity of blessing or curse will depend on spiritual decisions made before. There is the death of the one who dies in the Lord, which is filled with peace and hope, and there is the death of one who has lived a lifetime without the Lord, which opens up eternal darkness and regret. Whoever has behaved as if God did not exist can be saved in the final moment of life only by a miracle of undeserved mercy at it's finest.

The death of Jesus remains our best example. Having passed through temptations, tests, and unimaginable suffering, He dies completely entrusting Himself to the Father, whose will He fulfilled on earth. All the darkness of the world's sin was placed upon Him and weighed heavily on His heart. Here is the redemption from death's curse. Dying like Jesus (in complete trust in the Lord's grace and mercy as one does when born again) opens the door to eternal life of glorious blessing. One thief on a cross next to Jesus slipped away into the eternal darkness, welcomed there by Satan. The other thief, who had led a life of sin and knew it, opened his heart in contrition and followed Jesus into paradise.  In that moment grace knocked upon a hardened heart one last time and the answer to that knock changed the eternal destination of that soul.

When a soul comes to that moment unprepared, without faith, hope, or repentance, Satan rejoices. He has done all he can to assure the capture of that soul. He appears victorious.

But one last “YES” to the Lord  will bring the gift of paradise from Jesus, just as it did to the thief. One best definition of hell is appropriate here as we study:

HELL IS DISCOVERING THE TRUTH ONE MINUTE TOO LATE   

God’s Devil - Points to Ponder, Part 12

THE END TIMES / BE READY

God has not left us in the dark concerning the future. Scripture contains many prophecies about the end of days, most of which come from Christ Himself.

The first truth of faith on this subject is that it will conclude human history as we know it. It will begin with the rapture of the church and after that event, we are taught that the second coming of Jesus will follow. Matt 25:31 teaches us of the judgment of all men before the Lord. It is crucial that we as saved believers understand that for the elect, the last judgment is only a reward moment. Romans 8:1 is clear in teaching that there is therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. What we do not know is when these moments will happen. Jesus was strongly clear that we are not to know, therefore each generation must be ready and watchful. All of human time before these events requires that we prepare as the enemies are alive and working (the world, the flesh, and the devil).

The first coming of Christ, in the likeness of our flesh marked the beginning of the kingdom without, however, ending the rule of Satan as prince of this world. Until his final defeat, he still spreads his evil discord among us. We should always remember that we have been saved from the penalty of sin, but we are not yet saved from the presence of sin.

The Lord has allowed us to look slightly behind the curtain of the end of times when He gave John the Revelation. In that bookend to all scripture, He allows us a full understanding of the end of Satan and his demons. After the final rebellion at the end of the 1,000 year reign, Satan and all who are his will be removed from creation forever, as we see in Rev 20:9&15:

“fire came down from heaven and consumed them, and the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet were, and they were tormented day and night for ever and ever … and if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.”

The book of Revelation does not tell us how many were thrown in with Satan but it does tell us of the vast numbers of saved who will reside in heaven. Rev 7:9 speaks of a great multitude that no man could number … standing before the throne... .” 

Freedom was the risk God decided to take before the foundation of all things. Hell is not a failure of divine work in creation but rather a testimony to the wisdom of God in giving life and free will to His people. Satan served the purpose God had for him and as soon as the purpose ends, he will be removed forever.

HE WAS GOD'S DEVIL FROM CREATION ONWARD AND WAS NEVER FREE 

God’s Devil - Points to Ponder: Conclusion

CHRIST RULES OVER SATAN IN OUR PRESENT EVIL AGE

What does it mean to claim Jesus as our own in a world where terror, oppression, and death all seem to have the last word? Peter gave us our answer to this difficult question in 1st Peter 3:21-22:

“Jesus Christ … Who is gone into heaven, and is on the right hand of God; angels and authorities and powers being made subject to him.”

The NT is filled with words used to describe the powers at work in this world. We read of authorities, principalities, kings, demons, spirits, thrones and dominions. Then there are words to describe even higher forms such as Satan, sin, and death. Our new covenant speaks to us continually of these matters. For his arrogance, Satan and his angels were cast from heaven. God relinquished limited but very real authority to sin and death. Therefore sin and death currently enjoy a measure of control but only until that later day when all of creation will be freed from this bondage. Luke 4:6 teaches from the lips of Satan that power has been given to him. So from all of the holy Word we have studied we are able to conclude that while God might not actively plot evil He surely allows it.

Sometimes we see Satan portrayed as God's great enemy, serving no good purpose (1st Thes 3:5, Luke 8:12, 2nd Cor 6:15, 2nd Cor 11:14-15). Other times we see Satan portrayed as God's own servant, bringing about a positive result (1st Cor 5:5, 2nd Cor 12:7).

Christ remains at the right hand of God to assert His authority over the far lesser power given to Satan. The devil's role as the “prosecuting attorney” is clearly seen in Job 1 & Zechariah 3. The Revelation further clarifies this role in 12:10 when we see Satan is our accuser day and night before God. So for the saved, there may be accusations but there is NEVER condemnation (Rom 8:1).

Over the course of His earthly ministry which contained His constant struggle and control over the unclean spirits, Jesus showed Himself to be higher in power than all others while He shared the likeness of our flesh. The good news for us is that as His children we are united to Him as he works through His Spirit to elevate us also. He heals our spiritual blindness allowing us to see through Satan's temptations and to prevail against them. He strengthens us when sin and even death torments us. Finally and most importantly, when we fail morally Jesus forgives us in the instant of our repentance, again and again. He frees us from the dominion of sin (Romans 6:14). He does not hide these difficulties from us but sends us into the world of darkness to confront them and to show our love for Him each time we overcome them.