23 - Satan, Part 3

Well, welcome to the Striving for Eternity Academy's School of Systematic Theology. And I will say right up front, I have no idea what is going to happen in today's show. Somebody is trying to make a point that somebody is old.

There's been some gremlins in the studio and they've been playing around and they will not let me change things. So I have no idea what is going to happen on tonight's show. I've been told I may be embarrassed.

I don't know why, but we'll see. Anyway, we're going to try and be serious and have a show tonight, but tonight's class will be the continuation of the lesson we've been looking at on Satan and his devices.

Hmm, just saying. But we do want to welcome our new students with us that have enrolled in the Academy, those students who have received their syllabus previously. But with that, I strongly, strongly, strongly, strongly recommend that those of you who want to get the syllabus for the next class, you better enroll.

Otherwise, you don't get the syllabus. And so we are turning to the last lesson of the first book of the syllabus, which is the lesson on Satan. We're going to look at lesson number 15 on the lesson of Satan.

So we will start if there's no other practical jokes and pranks that will be played on the teacher. And so we shall see. But we are going to talk in this lesson. Let's review real quick where we've been.

We took a look at the description of Satan, and with that, we kind of looked at his origins. We looked at his personality, and then we looked at his character. From there, we went on to looking at his designations.

We saw some of his names such as Satan, and Devil, and Lucifer, and Beelzebub, and Satan. Then we looked at his dominion, and there we saw that he is the ruler of fallen angels, and that he is also the ruler of this world system, the current world system that we see.

Satan’s Abode, Access to Heaven, and Activity on Earth

This week, we want to start with looking at his domain. Where exactly does Satan live? And to those that try to argue that he lives in New Jersey, yes, we have the Jersey Devils if you follow hockey, but no.

He's not only, he doesn't like stay in New Jersey. Sorry. But where does he reign? Where is he? Well, one of the things that we're going to see as you look in your syllabus, and this is under number four, under dominion of Satan, we're going to see your first blank there is that he is abiding in the heavenlies.

He's abiding in the heavenlies. Let's look at Ephesians 6. Get that thing out of here. Ephesians 6, verses 11 and 12. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil.

For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over the present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

That is, as you see here, he is abiding here in the heavenlies, but we also see that he is in this world. He's busy in the world. And we also see number two, or letter B in your syllabus actually, is that he has access to heaven.

Now, I hope this doesn't destroy some of you out there that share the gospel incorrectly, and you say things that may sound really good, but they're not biblically true. We want to make sure we're biblically accurate in everything that we say.

And so, I want to help you so that you don't make the same mistakes that I've made. When we look at where Satan resides, sometimes we share the gospel and we'll say things like this. The reason that a sinner can't go to heaven is because God can't have any sin in heaven.

And there has to be a separation. As if the reason that we're sent to hell is because there's no other place for us that don't believe. Well, okay, I believe, but for those that don't believe. And the argument would be that there is a place of heaven, but because God can't have any sin there because of that, because sin can't be present there, therefore, we must go to some other place, and that's the place of hell.

As if that's like door prize number two, right? You didn't get door prize number one, you got door prize number two. That's really not what it is. And one way we know that's not is because let's look at Job chapter 1 verse 6.

Now, there was a day when the sons of God, remember from our lesson on angels, that's referring to angels. Now, there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them.

Now, what does that say? That means that Satan was in heaven. Satan was in heaven. And therefore, God, clearly Satan has fallen, and God clearly is allowing Satan in heaven, in his presence, to present himself with the other angels.

So when we look at that, what we see is that the angels, both holy and unholy, even Satan himself, has to present themselves before God. And in doing so, when they present themselves, we see that they are in the presence of God.

It's also because God is everywhere present. God's even present in hell. It's just that his presence and the knowledge of him is going to be different. I hope that kind of explains. What we have to look at when we look at Satan is that he actually has access to heaven.

That's letter B there. Satan has access to heaven. Now, we don't quite know how he comes and goes. We saw in that passage in Job that he has to present himself, and we don't know. Maybe he has to come to heaven to give an account for the things he's done.

But one thing we do know from reading later in that chapter of Job is that he must present himself and ask permission when he goes tempting people. He can't go tempting Job. He actually needed permission to tempt Job.

You know, I love what Luther said, that even the devil is God's devil. Even the devil cannot do anything without God's allowing him to do it. God is in full control. You know, some of the faith healers talk as if Satan is the king, as if Satan is God, and we need to get Satan out of the way so we can do God's work.

I got news for you. If you come from that background, God is sovereign. Go back to our early lessons on the attributes of God and the attributes of his divinity, and you'll see that God is sovereign. He rules this universe.

Not Satan. Satan doesn't rule the earth. He may be a ruler over the earth, but he is a sub-ruler. He can't do anything without God's permission. He can't do anything that God does not allow him to do.

And that could cause us the question, why does God allow Satan to roam the earth and do some of the things? And what we're going to see is the devices that Satan has in just a few moments. But one reason is, is because God wants to put his attributes on display.

And to those who would argue that somehow God is not fair or just by allowing Satan to have the will to disobey God, what would those same people do if God didn't give us a will to disobey him? I mean, they would say, God forced us to be puppets, and we don't have the right to disobey him.

Wouldn't they? I mean, they would cry because, well, they're mostly crybabies. But they would cry about God's injustice. Whether it's because God gives us a will to disobey him, or whether the fact that God doesn't give us a will to disobey him, they would still cry out that God's unfair.

Because that's their starting point. They start with that conclusion. So, we see that God, sorry, that Satan, that's a big mistake if I said that, that Satan, he is abiding in the heavenlies. We also see letter B, that he has access to heaven.

But we also see letter C there, is that he is active where? He's most active on earth. That he is active on earth. Let's look at 1 Peter 5, verse 8. We see there that it says, Be sober-minded, be watchful.

Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. This describes what Satan is doing. He's roaming around like a lion. Now, I don't know if you have ever seen a lion that roars live.

But what you end up seeing is that when a lion roars, sometimes it could actually be paralyzing. And that's often the case. That's what Satan would like to do, is to paralyze us with his roar. But I love how, even though he roams around like a roaring lion, I love how in the book, John Bunyan's book, Pilgrim's Progress, describes him as a lion with no teeth.

A paper lion. All roar, no bite. Because if we believe in Christ, and we are followers of his, Satan's roar has no bite. Oh, it may hurt for a little while. It may be a bother for some time. But guess what?

1 ,000 years from now, 10 ,000 years from now, 100 ,000 years from now, that sting will be long gone. He is a paper tiger. So we saw the domain of Satan. Let us start now and look at the devices of Satan.

Satan’s Counterfeits: Ministries, Gospels, Doctrine, Christs, Followers, and Miracles

The devices of Satan. When we look at these, we want to look in a couple different categories. First, we want to look in relation to God. In relation to God. Now, you say, well, what are the devices that Satan could have toward God?

Well, let's take a look at them. In relation to God, first we'll see him that he's a counterfeit. He's in the business of counterfeiting everything that God does. First, you see in your syllabus that he counterfeits false ministries.

False ministries. Let us take a look at that. This is in 2 Corinthians chapter 11. And it says, For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.

It is no surprise if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness, their end will correspond to their deeds. So, do you see there? We see here that the angels of darkness present themselves, how?

As angels of light. So, we should expect that there would be some activity that they do that is creating counterfeit ministries. They want to get things that look like the true gospel, but in the end are not because their goal is to try to create a counterfeit ministry.

And the reason for the counterfeit ministry is so that they can get people away from the truth. Not only do they create counterfeit ministries, many of those counterfeit ministries are also involved in not only false ministries, but the next one there is false gospels.

False gospels. Look at that in Galatians 1. In Galatians 1, Paul argues here, okay, I am astonished that you are so quickly deserted from him who called you in the grace of Christ. And turning to what?

A different gospel. Not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ, but even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed.

As we said before, so now we say again, if anyone preached to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed. That is an anathema. The most strongest curse you could do. Paul is saying here that there are some who have created a false gospel and that in his day, it was a gospel of works being added to the gospel of grace.

Which, oh by the way, that's Catholicism. That you have grace plus works to save you. Just saying. That's what it is. But what we end up seeing is that the gospel is counterfeited by Satan. And what you'll see is he counterfeits it by adding works every time.

Either replacing grace altogether with works or just having works. But he'll always add works. Well, there's also some that would add genealogy. How they're born. They're born of a certain family lineage.

So let us look. Not only does Satan counterfeit with false ministries and false gospels, but also false doctrine. With false doctrine. Paul says in 1 Timothy,. Now the Spirit expressly said that in the latter times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons.

Through the insincerity of liars whose conscience is seared, who forbid marriage and require abstinence from food that God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who would betray him. These are doctrines of demons.

Now, why did we read all that? Because we really could have stopped just in the first verse there. The reason I wanted to continue to verse 3 is because many people read that and they'd say, Oh, this is the Catholic Church.

No, it's not. Does the Catholic Church refrain people from getting married? Yes. Do they teach abstinence from certain foods? Yes. Was Paul telling Timothy to watch out for the Roman Catholic Church? No.

The Roman Catholic Church was hundreds of years away. It wasn't formed yet. Okay? So he wasn't warning them of something that didn't exist. He was warning them against the teachings of the Judaizers, those that did teach to stay away from certain meats, certain types of food because they weren't kosher.

Okay? So just keep that in mind. So you have false ministries. You have false gospels. You have false doctrines. You even have Satan trying to counterfeit with false Christs. That's right, false Christs.

Look at this in 1 John. Children, it is the last hour. He said that like 2 ,000 years ago almost, and we're still saying the time's coming, but he said it's the last hour back then. And as you have heard that Antichrist is coming, so now many, not one, many have come.

Therefore, we know that this is the last hour. In other words, when the Puritans used to argue for the Pope being the Antichrist, John says there were many Antichrists. There were many false Christs because Satan is in the business of trying to create false Christs.

He also creates false followers. Look in Matthew 13. The field is the world, and the good seed is the seed of the sons of the kingdom, and the weeds are the sons of the evil one, and the enemy who sowed them is the devil.

And the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are the angels. So he's explaining a parable that he had given, and in this explanation of the parable, he's now explaining it, and he's saying there are actually false followers.

We see that in Matthew 7, one of the scariest passages in all the Bible. Matthew 7, 21 -23. Many will come to me in that day and say, Lord, Lord, and this is Christ speaking, Lord, Lord, haven't we done many great miracles in your name, cast out demons and done great works?

And he's going to go, I never knew you. There's going to be people that are false followers because Satan is in the business of using these false ministries with the false Gospels and false doctrines, false Christs creating false followers.

And lastly, as I already hinted to in Matthew 7, 7 is false miracles. False miracles. Matthew 24 -24, we'll look at that one. For false Christs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders so to lead away, if possible, even the elect.

If possible. Those are great words. Here you have a false Christ, false prophets that will create false miracles trying to lead away the elect. But guess what? They can't be led away because it's God who holds them.

If you believe you can lose your salvation, you have to be stronger than God and Satan. Because Satan is trying to lead you away. But guess what? He can't. He can't do it because of the fact that it's if possible.

In other words, it's not possible for those that are elect to be lost. Those that are held in the hands of God to be lost. It's not possible because God is stronger than you and I. We can't sin in such a way that we lose that.

Alright, I'll get off that. So, Satan is in the business of counterfeiting. In relation to God, one of his devices is counterfeit. Second is rebellion. Rebellion. He's in the business of rebellion. Don't take the time to look it up but you can look up 2 Thessalonians 2 verses 3 -11 or you can look up Revelation 13, the first 18 verses there and you'll see there that he is in rebellion to God.

Alright, I think that one's not surprising so we'll move on to... In relation to God, Satan is limited. He is limited by God. Satan is limited by God. Do you remember the passage that we looked at in Job?

If we looked just in Job 1 -12, we'll see, and the Lord said to Satan, Behold, all that he has is in your hand. Only against him do not stretch out your hand. So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord.

Do you see that there? Satan needed permission but Satan was limited. He was not able to do anything that God did not allow him to do. Okay? We do not bow down to Satan as the faith healers do. It's amazing how much time they spend with these false doctrines and these false gospels and these false ministries bowing down to Satan as they claim that they're binding him and they're tying him and they're casting him out and they're throwing him out of their meeting and they're doing all this stuff but they're giving all the attention to Satan as if Satan is so powerful.

They even teach false doctrines as if Jesus had to present himself to Satan and had to go to hell for three days as if that was what he must do to have power over Satan. What? Jesus is God. He never had to submit to Satan.

Satan always had to submit to him because, well, he is God. Satan is not. Okay? He's limited. Also, the second one there is his defeat. Oh, this is beautiful. His defeat was promised by God and provided by the cross.

We don't have time to actually look at this whole thing but in Genesis 3, 14 and 15 we see there that Satan's defeat was promised and where was it fulfilled? Well, in John 12, verse 31. Now, this is the judgment of this world.

Now will the ruler of this world be cast out. Isn't that wonderful? Not only is Satan limited but his defeat was promised by God and provided by Christ on the cross. In relation to God, Satan is in the business of counterfeit.

He is in rebellion. He is limited. He's also judged. He's also judged. He's cast from his original position. Remember when we looked at Ezekiel 28? We see here in verse 16 that he was cast from his original position.

We also see in Revelation 20, 13 that he was cast out of heaven in the tribulation. Okay? The sea gave up the dead and those who were in it in death and Hades gave up the dead. So this was a time during the thousand years if you read earlier in the book of... earlier in just verse 2 you'll see he was confined at the beginning of the millennium.

He was seized by a dragon. This dragon, this ancient serpent who was the devil and Satan and he was bound for a thousand years. That's the millennium. If you're going to say and I'm sorry we'll get into some end times but if you're going to say that the millennium is now then you have to explain that Satan is not active anymore.

If we're in the thousand year millennium if that's a figurative thing then somehow Satan must be bound right now. I think he's pretty active. Just saying. But somehow during the millennium he'll be bound.

He'll be loosed. He'll be bound during the tribulation. He'll be there and then we can look in verse 10 of that same... He was cast into the lake of fire. He was cast into the lake of fire at the end of the millennium.

And so we see here that he was thrown into the lake of fire. Now notice it says the devil had deceived him was thrown into the lake of fire. Now the interesting thing is that this lake of fire is where we'll spend eternity.

We do not spend eternity in hell. So those that sometimes say that and see that we just want to make a point. It is in the lake of fire that people spend eternity. Now is it a literal lake? I don't know.

Could it be figurative? It could be figurative in the sense that the lake could be so far worse than the description of a lake of fire that we can't possibly get something that is a more graphic picture than that.

Alright? So that fire will somehow whatever it is however it's descriptive it's somehow going to be a consuming fire that doesn't consume. It's going to be one of torture that doesn't burn us up. And I don't really know how better to describe it other than the way the scripture describes it as a lake of fire.

So how can we when we're in hell it describes it as a place of torment and gnashing of teeth. We won't have our physical bodies in hell. Those that are in hell. And so the physical bodies I believe come later.

And so in hell there will be a way of feeling and understanding those things. So even angels will feel that in some way. Alright? Those unholy angels that is. Now that's in relation to God. Let's quickly go on to in relation to Christ letter B.

Satan’s Conflict with Christ, the Nations, and Christians

In relation to Christ there were personal there was their conflict was prophesied. Alright? Their prophet was prophesied. Take a look about Genesis 3 .15. Genesis 3 .15 and it says I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your offspring and her offspring he shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel.

So this is the earliest prophecy that we see of Christ and with that what we see in this prophecy is it's prophesied that there would be some conflict between Christ and Satan. Alright? So their conflict was prophesied.

The second one there is that he he being Satan tempted Christ. He tempted Christ. We see that in Matthew 4 verse 1. Matthew 4 .1 I'm not going to go into it because we're kind of familiar with that. So let's just skip that.

Alright? Thanks. Alright? We see there that he possessed Judas to betray Christ. And that's in John 13. Let's look at that one. That is then after he had taken the morsel this is Judas Satan entered him and Jesus said to him what you're about to do do quickly.

So not only did Satan enter into Judas to betray Christ but Jesus wasn't fooled by it. He knew exactly what happened. Alright. So we see that their conflict was prophesied that Satan tempted Christ. Now that means that temptation is not sin.

It's our response to temptation that's sin. Okay? Or could be sin. Alright? Number three there is he he possessed I did that one he possessed Judas. So those are the three in relation to Christ. Let's look in relation to the nations.

In relation to the nations we see that he was an instrument of their deception. An instrument of their deception. Look at that in Genesis sorry Revelation 20 verse 3. And he threw him into the pit and shut a seal over him so that he might not deceive the nations any longer until the thousand years were ended.

Again, we're not dealing with end times studies yet but what you do see is that if that thousand years is figurative and we're in that then somehow Satan is not being allowed to deceive the nations any longer.

Do you see nations that have been deceived? Yeah. Whole lots of them. Alright? They've been following after false doctrines for a long time. Alright? Even in America we have the false doctrine of atheism.

That's becoming our new religion. Just saying. And for you atheists out there that say it's not a religion. It's not a religion. It's the not belief of something. Yeah, even the Supreme Court ruled atheism is a religion.

Why? You have a belief system. Okay? You believe God doesn't exist. In face of all the evidence that you could ever see in the fact that you know He exists you still argue that He doesn't exist. That's a belief that you have.

It's not proven. It's not science because science can never prove that God exists or doesn't exist because it's a study of the material world and God's not material. That's why you guys always want to argue that way.

But it is a religion. Alright? So, let's move on. Let's move in relation to us. So we see that Satan when we looked at his devices we see in relation to God we saw in relation to Christ in relation to the nations and that was that he's an instrument of their deception.

He's also an instrument of their destruction. He's an instrument of their destruction. That's in Revelation 16 verses 13 to 16. Alright? Let's take a look at that. That's a little bit of a long passage.

I'm not sure if we have the time for it. But we see... Well, let's go through it. And I saw coming out of the mouth of the dragon and out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet the three unclean spirits like frogs.

I don't get that. Three unclean spirits like frogs but that's okay. For they are demonic spirits performing signs there they are making their false signs again who go abroad to the kings of the whole world and assemble them in battle on that great day of God the Almighty.

Behold, I am coming like a thief. Blessed is the one who stays awake coming his garments on that he may not go about naked and be seen exposed. And they assemble there at the place that is in Hebrew called Armageddon.

So what do you have? You have there that Satan gathers all of the nations together in their deception for their destruction. Okay? For their destruction. Alright? So we have Satan in relation to God in relation to Christ in relation to the nations now in relation to Christians.

Okay? In relation to Christians. First off, he slanders. This shouldn't be anything new to us because well we have already dealt with this when we looked at earlier but we looked at this passage Revelation chapter 12 verse 10.

And I heard a loud voice in heaven saying Now is the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come for the accusers. Accuser of our brothers has been thrown down who will accuse them the day and night before our own.

So what we have here when we look at this is we see that he is going about and slandering and accusing Christians. That's what he does. We saw it with Job. Let's not be surprised that he still does it.

Okay? He also hinders their service. We can see this in 1 Thessalonians 2 in verse 18. Because we wanted to come to you I, Paul, again and again but Satan hinders us. So somehow and I don't know how in all of the detail but somehow Satan is able to hinder the work of God.

He is able to hinder the service. And he hinders our service. He also attempts to thwart the efforts of evangelism. He looks to thwart the efforts of evangelism. Matthew 13, 19 When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it the evil one comes and snatches away that which has been sown in his heart.

This is what is sown in the path. He's talking here about the parable of the soils and the one on the rocky soil is the one where the seed is thrown out and Satan, he pulls it away. So we see that he tries, he attempts to thwart our efforts of evangelism.

Does that mean we should stop and give up? No. It means we should work even harder. Okay? He also attempts to sin. Let's look at Ananias. Peter said to Ananias Why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit?

To keep back part of the proceeds of the land. So who does he say is doing it? It is Satan. Alright? We also see not only that but he inclines he incites, sorry, to persecution. He incites to persecution.

This is in the seven churches of Revelation. Do not fear. When you have heard about you are about to suffer behold the devil is about to throw some of you into prison that you may be tested and for ten days you will have tribulation be faithful unto death and I will give you the crown of life.

So what you see there is that he inclines incites, sorry, I keep saying that he incites persecution. He's about that. And those of us in America get ready for it. It's coming. I mean this radical Islam and violent atheism that we see is coming for us.

And Satan is behind both. And he's going to incite persecution. Lastly there when it comes to in relation to Christians he infiltrates the church with false teachers and false doctrine. He infiltrates the church with false teachers and false doctrines.

Let's look at Jude verse 4. Certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation. Ungodly people who pervert the grace the grace of our God into sensuality and deny the only Master and Lord Jesus Christ.

Do you see that? We shouldn't be surprised when false teachers come into the church with false doctrines. That's where Satan is active. That's where he probably wants to be the most active. So that he can get to these people that know the truth and try to attack them and set them off course.

We have to be diligent to check to make sure that we're looking after that. Now lastly we saw the devices of Satan. Now let's look lastly in the remaining moments at our defense against Satan. Our defense against Satan.

We have a defense. Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. And so we have a defense. What is our defense? Well, our first defense This passage is way too long. We're not going to be able to read that whole thing.

Alright, we'll try. But our first defense is salvation. That is our first defense. Let's look at this. Ephesians chapter 2 the first nine verses. Let's see if we can get through this. And you were dead in the trespasses of your sins in which you once walked following the course of this world following the prince of the power of the air the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh carrying out the desires of the body and the mind and were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind but being rich in mercy because of the great love which he loves us even when we were dead in our trespasses made us alive together with Christ by grace you have been saved and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches.

See that? The immeasurable riches of his grace and kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved. That's so beautiful. For by grace you have been saved through faith and it is not a work of your own doing it is a gift of God not a result of works so that no one may boast.

Isn't that great? But do you see in there? Even in that passage it explains it explains in that passage that one of the reasons why God allows sin and allowed Satan to fall and Adam and Eve to fall and you and I to sin it is to put his grace his immeasurable riches on display things like his grace.

So the first defense that we have is salvation. That's the first defense. The second defense is is vigilance. I can't read my own writing actually it's my own typing. Even worse vigilance if you look in that first Peter passage that we looked at it says to be sober minded and to be watchful because of the fact that our adversary prowls around like a roaring lion seeking to devour.

We must be diligent. We must be sober minded. We must be diligent because we know that Satan is out there. Ok next we must be in submission. To who? Well to God. Look at James 4. Submit yourselves therefore to God.