Satan

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ, based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the Apostle Paul said, �But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.

In short, if you like smooth, watered-down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn�t for you. By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we�re called by the Divine Trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her King.

Here�s our host, Pastor Mike Avendroth. Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry. My name is Mike Avendroth.

I thought I was going to be on Wretched Radio. Couldn�t figure out this stuff here. Well, you try and you fail. That was going to be a recorded show. I guess it�s going to be live. Our slogan, always biblical, always provocative, always in that order.

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There�s a variety of things you could do if you�d like to get a book. Evangelical White Lives is the newest book and I�m excited about that, but probably the one that will catapult me into riches is Sexual Fidelity, 30 quick chapters to read once a day to get you to think rightly about that topic that the world is going crazy for.

What we do here is you call in. It�s a live talk show. My wife had texted me a little picture of a cute table and she wanted to know if I would let her pick it up and buy it. She could buy it, but I�d probably have to go pick it up, but it�s little.

Cute table for the sunroom, she said. Deal. My son gets in today. We�ll have him on No Compromise Radio soon. Today, we are talking about Satan. We�re talking about Satan today. The reason why I was considering this particular subject, it says in Hebrews 2 .14, �Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself talking about Jesus, �likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil.

Here, the writer to these persecuted Jews talks about the devil, Satan. People get all upset about Satan, how much power he has. Can he thwart the will of God? Can Satan oppress? Can Satan possess? Can people be demon-possessed of their Christians?

The passage here has to do with how Jesus is going to wipe out Satan, destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil. So, lots of questions today as we consider the subject of Satanology.

The subject, 1995 movie, Usual Suspects, I haven�t seen it, Roger said, �The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he did not exist. I would say when we consider the topic, this is probably what most people think of today.

When they think of Satan, he�s in the same vein as the tooth fairy. I cracked a tooth the other day in half and now I have to get it extracted, so that�s not really a good thing to talk about. Anything with teeth, our teeth, we don�t want to discuss.

Santa, Santa is made up and, you know, so is Satan. I think the same letters are used for those two words. Think about saying Satan isn�t real. Jesus had a different perspective. Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil, and after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry.

And the tempter came and said to him, �If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread. But Jesus answered, �It is written, �Man shall not live by the bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.

Jesus is not obviously talking to a force or a phantom or a tooth fairy or something made up. He was talking to an actual being, an entity. People have other misconceptions, of course, about Satan. He�s got horns and a tail.

I think I remember a picture of my father, a Halloween costume, dressed up like Satan. I thought you might consider Satan disguises himself as an angel of light in 2 Corinthians chapter 11, 14, and that would get rid of any thoughts that he�s got the pitchfork and the tail.

Let�s see, pitchfork, I�m just typing that in now, because if I think of something good, I type it into my computer. Normally when you do radio, you read something from your computer and then you talk about it.

But here, see, we do the opposite. I�ve got plenty of wiki articles to write. Kidding, kidding. I would imagine if you saw Satan show up sometime, you would be surprised. I think there would be beauty and light and small g�s, some kind of glory.

Not real glory, but you know what I�m saying. He�s not just the force involved with the struggle between good and evil. I think Satan these days, he gets accused of all kinds of things in a Christian�s life, alcohol or this, that, or the other.

We just need a better view, a biblical view of how to think about Satan. He�s in devil tormenting people and of course, he�s not in charge of hell. He�s going to be tossed into hell. What are some other misconceptions about Satan?

That he�s everywhere, right? He�s omnipresent, that he�s omnipotent, he�s as powerful as God. That would be something that many people would try to portray the devil as. It�s kind of this dualistic thing.

God on one side positive and whatever God positively have, Satan negatively has. If you want more conceptions of the Hollywood kind, maybe if you have some crosses or holy water or you have a few icons around, Satan wouldn�t like that.

What does the Bible say? There�s lots of miscommunication, misperception, lack of perception, lack of clarity on Satan. What does the Bible say? As you know, because you�re a listener of No Compromise Radio, that means your theology is tip-top shape.

Satan is a created being. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, right? Everything he created was good, right? At the beginning, God creates everything. That means he creates the devil.

That means the devil is a creature and he is finite. So already we should be thinking to ourselves, he�s not opposite of God in a dualistic way. He sins. He falls from his position and he is now, instead of being opposite of God, of course he is opposed to God and whatever he can do to try to stop God and thwart God�s purposes, he tries to do that.

We could study a little bit more about, okay, was his pre-fall name really Lucifer and was it pride in Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28 that led to his fall? That�s the common, I believe that in most days, interpretation of those passages and with all the I wills there, there�s some argument not for Satan and his existence, but how does Isaiah 14 and or Ezekiel 28 apply?

We do know this, though, for certain, that Satan is the ruler of this world and the prince of the power of the air. You have to say that because of John 12 and 2 Corinthians 4 and Ephesians 2, right? Satan accuses people, Revelation 12, he tempts Jesus, he tempts others.

He deceives and even if you look at his name, adversary, opposer, there�s another word, diabolos, slanderer, and we know that this adversary, this opposer, this slanderer will one day go into the lake of fire.

While he�s the God of this age and the prince of the power of the air, he has his doom sealed. We are, in 1 Peter 5, 8, told to be alert and of sober mind or be sober minded. Your enemy, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone or looking for someone to devour.

So any type of idea that you have with good and evil to equal to eternal forces is not going to work. Here�s what�s happening though. You�ve got this passage in Hebrews and it says, �Destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil.

How can the devil have the power of death? How does that work? Destroy the one who has the power of death. I think what you have to do early on as you think through this is, of course, God is sovereign over everything, but God uses means to accomplish his purposes or his purpose.

Anything that Satan does, it has to be under the purview of God�s sovereign will. God rules over Satan. Luther said, �Even the devil is God�s devil. What�s happening here in this particular book, Hebrews, the people need some encouragement and Jesus is greater than all kinds of angels.

I think when we�re thinking about the good angels in Hebrews, when we�re thinking about the good angels, he also brings this up to encourage the people that Jesus had to be human to suffer in order to die, and that is, destroy the one who�s got the power of death, that is, the devil.

Luther said, �Why should you fear? Why should you be afraid? Do you not know that the prince of the world has been judged? He is no lord, no prince any longer. You have a different, a stronger Lord, Christ, who has overcome and bound him.

Therefore let the prince and God of this world look sour, bear his teeth, make a great noise, threaten and act in an unmannerly way. He can do no more than a bad dog on a chain, which may bark, run here and there, and tear the chain.

But because it is tied and you avoid it, it cannot bite you. So the devil acts toward every Christian. Therefore everything depends on this, that we do not feel secure but continue in the fear of God and in prayer.

Then the chain dog cannot harm us. But this chain dog may at least frighten him who would be secure and go ahead without caution, although he may not come close enough to be bitten. We�re talking today on No Compromise Radio about Satan.

Satan, Jesus has to be a human to die, to have victory over death, and then of course when it says the one who has power of death, that is the devil. Now the passage says in Hebrews that Jesus shares in flesh and blood, okay?

To be a high priest he has to be like us, literally blood and flesh. What�s the focus there? Not the word �order� so much as just we�re weak and we�re frail, and humans, you can just imagine. You get to be my age and you have to go to doctors more often than you used to.

We are weak and we are frail, and to have Jesus as our brother, then we have to have the same father and he has to be human. Of course, Jesus is more than human, but he is certainly human, okay? So let�s go back and think about this.

Adam sins, God says to Satan that the seed of the woman is going to bruise his head and the devil is going to bruise the heel of the seed, and you know when that was fulfilled and you know what happened at the cross, right?

You know what Jesus actually did. He bore the sin of all those who would ever believe, right? And Jesus had, I mean this is obvious, but the incarnation demands that Jesus had to become a man, and he partook our flesh.

Now it says blood and flesh, but this interestingly, when the language of Hebrews 2 is to partake, that is to share the nature of those. It means with and have, to hold with, to have with, to share in possession, to share.

And what happens here, this, if you want to think about kinsmen redeemer kind of language, he had to be related to us, he had to be one of us, to be our representative, to be a priest, he had to be human, and he identified with us.

One of the commentators said, �If ever death appeared to be triumphant, it was when Jesus was executed by the imperial might of Rome and breathed his last on the cross. If ever a cause appeared lost, it was then, but he did not remain in its clutches, and within a short time his followers were joyfully proclaiming the crucified Jesus to be the conqueror of death.

So you think about the cross and you think about Jesus destroying the one that has the power of death, right? So let's think about that, this whole destroy type of language. When you think of destroy, it doesn't mean annihilated, it means to destroy, deprive of power, to overthrow, to break the power, one translation says.

And again, you're saying to yourself, how can Satan have the power of death? Now we said earlier that Satan can only do what God has allowed him to do, but I thought God's the one that has the power of death.

Deuteronomy 32, �See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no God beside me. I kill and I make alive, I wound and I heal, and there is none that can deliver out of my hand. That's God himself. Satan can only do what God permits him to do.

John MacArthur says, �The only way to destroy Satan was to rob him of his weapon, death. Physical death, spiritual death, eternal death. Satan knew that God required death for us because of sin. Death had become the most certain fact of life.

Satan knew that men, if they remained as they were, would die and go out of God's presence into hell forever. Satan wants to hold on to men until they die because once they're dead, the opportunity for salvation is gone forever.

Men cannot escape after death. So God had to wrest, W-R, from Satan the power of death, and for just that purpose, Jesus came. Satan's weapon is extremely powerful, but God has a weapon even more powerful, eternal life, and with it, Jesus destroyed death.

The resurrection of Jesus Christ provides the believer with eternal life. It is the only thing that could ever have done it. Death is the power of Satan's dominion, and when Jesus shattered Satan's power, he also shattered his dominion.

Now this concept in Hebrews 2 regarding Satan is also found in 1 John 3 .8, whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.

Now, power of death that Satan had, some explain it this way, okay, the wages of sin is death, okay, how does Satan have the power of death? Well, people sin, and now Satan demands death, right, God's holy, God's just, and Satan now, he's an adversary, and he demands penalty paid.

Maybe that's got something, some truth to it. Another writer said the devil can use to destroy us, what the devil can use to destroy us in death is our sin. Nobody goes to hell because they're oppressed by the devil or even possessed by the devil.

Nobody goes to hell because they're harassed by the devil or get shot at by the devil or given to hallucinations by the devil. They're all smokescreens to hide the one deadly power in Satan's artillery, namely unforgiven sin.

The only reason anybody goes to hell is because of their own sin. Now, Jesus dies on the cross, he bears sin, sin is now paid for in full, now what do you go to hell for? You don't go to hell if you're a believer because those sins have been paid for, and now ultimate death, eternal death, spiritual death, that's taken care of, it's rendered inoperative, right?

It says in Colossians 1, he has delivered us from the domain, we're talking about Jesus, domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved son in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of our sins.

Jesus takes on human nature and he dies on the cross for sins and he renders powerless, he destroys the one who has the power of death, he reduces Satan's power to inactivity, to idleness. Satan, of course, he's an adversary, he opposes God, but he doesn't have the power anymore.

The power and the focus really of the passage is on the Lord Jesus, and a side note here, if you like to think of annihilation as goes out of existence, here's that word destroy to annihilate, and of course Jesus didn't annihilate Satan to make him cease to exist because we're told he walks around, Satan does like a roaring lion, so you can't use just a verb to make your theology.

Why is the incarnation important? Well, because Jesus needs to destroy the one who has that power of death, he needs to make it inoperative, and so sin is no longer an issue, and the wages of sin is death, and there's no sin to hold over people's heads because they're believers, and so we now have, because of the death of Jesus, the death of the one who has the power of sin.

As Wisconsin said, the death of death by death gives death its death. The death of death by death gives death its death. The accuser, the slanderer, the adversary, because of what Jesus did, devil's grip, vice grip on men and women broken.

Acts 26, 15 and 16, and I said, who are you, Lord, and the Lord said to me, I am Jesus whom you are persecuting, but rise and stand upon your feet, for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to appoint you as a servant and witness to the things in which you have seen me and to those in which I will appear, delivering you from your people and from the Gentiles to whom I am sending you to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.

Eternal death, spiritual death has no grip on people who trust in Jesus Christ. Physical death cannot keep your body in the grave after you die if you're a Christian because of the resurrection of Jesus.

What he did on the cross, confirmed by the resurrection, there's all kinds of fighting going on between Jesus and Satan up to the cross, of course, but then at the cross we know Jesus has victory over death, and that is comforting to think of that very thing.

I mean, what's the worst thing that can happen to you? Of course, you die and go to hell if you're an unbeliever, but if you're a believer, what's the worst thing that can happen to you? You die and then you go to heaven.

Now is the judgment of this world. Now will the ruler of this world be cast out, and I, when I'm lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself. John 12. John 14, I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming.

He has no claim on me, but I do as the Father commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father. Rise, let us go from here. Ultimately, Satan, Revelation 20, the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the fire, the lake of fire and sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever, Revelation 20, verse 10.

Jesus shares our humanity. He becomes incarnate. He defeats the devil by dying on the cross. Satan has no more hold on us. The accusations are not true, not credible. Well, my name is Mike Abenroth. This is No Compromise Radio Ministry, and we're talking about Satan.

Satan's alive, a living being, rather, and what Jesus did on the cross was effective. If you have questions about Satan, one of the best things you can do is get a good Bible dictionary, Baker's Dictionary of Theology, and then look up Satan and find out what the Bible says versus what society says, and, oh, the church of Satan.

When I was even researching online just what people say and how they go about it, we need to tell ourselves, selves, what does the Bible say? That needs to be our driving force. Does the Bible say this, or is this from my own gizzard?

You can write me, info at nocompromiseradio .com. We'd love to have you tell your friends about the radio station. There was a while there I thought, do I keep on doing these shows? And then I thought, all right, we'll just quit crying and let's keep going.

Then I broke my teeth and it was a sign, the seal of the children of the covenant. Mike Abendroth, this is No Compromise Radio.

No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life-transforming power of God's Word through verse-by-verse exposition of the sacred text.

Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 1015 and in the evening at 6. We're right on Route 110 in West Boylston. You can check us out online at bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.

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