“ Our Biblical Worldview” (7) Our dealings with the devil” 10/24/2021

First Baptist Church Leominster

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In chapter 1, Paul's second epistle to this church in Thessalonica, they were rather confused, they were false teachers talking about the resurrection as being only spiritual in nature, not bodily, and so they were in error and confused and so Paul wrote this epistle to help straighten them out.

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And we also have some details in this epistle about events before the second coming of Christ, an apostasy and a man of sin being revealed.

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We'll cover that next week in chapter 2. Second Thessalonians chapter 1. Paul, Sylvanius, and Timothy to the

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Church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace to you and peace from God our

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Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. We ought always to give thanks to God for you brothers, as is right, because your faith is growing abundantly and the love of every one of you for one another is increasing.

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Therefore we ourselves boast about you in the churches of God for your steadfastness and faith in all your persecutions and in the afflictions that you are enduring.

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This is evidence of the righteous judgment of God that you may be considered worthy of the kingdom of God for which you are also suffering, since indeed

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God considers it just to repay with afflictions those who afflict you and to grant relief to you who are afflicted as well as to us when the

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Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire inflicting vengeance on those who do not know

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God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction away from the presence of the

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Lord and from the glory of his might when he comes on that day to be glorified in his saints and to be marveled at among all who have believed because our testimony to you was believed.

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To this end we always pray for you that our God may make you worthy of his calling and may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by his power so that the name of our

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Lord Jesus may be glorified in you and you in him according to the grace of our

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God and the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we do pray this prayer for one another.

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We pray that you would make us worthy of the calling to which we have been called.

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We pray, Lord, that we would fulfill your will, that we would walk in the good deeds that you have predetermined.

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We thank you, Lord, that you use us even though we are sinful, even though we are flawed. You use us to accomplish your purposes and,

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Lord, this shows us that you are a good God, you are a gracious God, you are a faithful God, and your hand of providence guides us and leads us.

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And so we pray, Lord, that we would walk in this truth, that we would walk according to the calling to which we have been called.

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Lord, we pray that we would understand your word, help us to understand the sermon that is about to be preached.

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We pray that you would take this word from our ear to our hearts, that you would teach us how to apply it, and that we would live in your truth.

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We thank you, Lord, that we could be here this morning to hear your truth and to proclaim your might and glorious name.

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Thank you, Lord, in Jesus' name, amen. Well, we're going to give our attention again to Genesis 315.

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You want to turn there. Well, this is what, our seventh

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Lord's Day? We're giving attention to our biblical worldview. I don't know where this has taken us.

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I don't know how long it's going to last. It was really not until Thursday that I finally determined that we would deal with this subject today.

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Last Lord's Day, we addressed, of course, the entrance of sin into God's world, which resulted in the fall of man from his privileged, exalted position, responsible position, as God's co -regent in his creation.

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God created man and woman to reign on his behalf in his world. And at that time, of course, we were introduced to the source of Adam and Eve's temptation, that being a serpent who is animated by the devil.

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And so in one wrong step, Adam transferred the willing submission of all of God's creation from God to its creator onto the devil.

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And so with Adam's sin, Satan became the king over a kingdom.

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He enthroned the devil, in effect, also referred to as the kingdom of darkness.

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And so our biblical worldview recognizes this reality of a malevolent, powerful opposer to God and his people.

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We believe the Bible speaks about the devil, and it would be wise for us to consider this reality.

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And so this knowledge renders us conscious and vigilant of his power, his presence, his practices in the fallen world, or at least it should.

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And so we live knowing that there is a spiritual realm in addition to the physical realm, and they coexist and intermix with one another.

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And within this spiritual realm, there are actually two kingdoms, the kingdom of Satan and the kingdom of God.

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And since the fall of Adam and Eve, all of their physical offspring, all humanity, have entered this world as subjects to the devil.

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He is their God, and they follow all their days unless and until God sets them free by Jesus Christ, bringing them into his kingdom.

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And we just probably ought to reiterate at this point, the way the devil reigns over his people is he tempts them to serve themselves.

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When you do what you want to do rather than what God wants you to do, you are serving as the servant of Satan, because that's what he would have you do, live independent of and in defiance of God who created you.

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The Apostle Paul wrote to the Christians in Colossae of the debt the Christians owe to God the Father for his mercy and grace, for he has delivered us from the power of darkness, there's the kingdom of Satan, and conveyed us into the kingdom of the

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Son of Islam, the kingdom of Jesus Christ, in whom, in Christ, we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins.

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And so we are damned in our sin, we're in the kingdom of darkness by natural birth, but God the

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Father, through a spiritual birth, a new birth, brings us out of that kingdom of darkness and puts us into the kingdom of his dear

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Son, and that's what it is to be and to live as a Christian.

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Now we referred to this verse, Genesis 315, a couple times, which is commonly called the

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Protoevangelium, in other words the first message of the gospel in the

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Bible. It contains the first promise of redemption from sin for the people of God, and so here is

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God pronouncing judgment upon Adam and Eve and the serpent, God also declares a promise, and so here

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God is actually speaking to the serpent, but it was in the hearing of Adam and Eve, and so it was a curse upon the devil even as it was a word of promise and blessing for Adam and Eve to hear this.

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God declared to the serpent, I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your seed and her seed, he shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel.

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Here are the words of Matthew Henry respecting this glorious promise of salvation, the first one in the Bible, a gracious promises here made of Christ as the deliverer of fallen man from the power of Satan, though what was said was addressed to the serpent, yet it was said in the hearing of our first parents, who doubtless took the hints of grace here given them and saw a door open to them, else the following sentence upon themselves would have overwhelmed them, the sentence of death of course.

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Here was the dawning of the gospel day, no sooner was the wound given than the remedy was provided and revealed, here in the head of the book, in other words the beginning of the

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Bible, as the word in the beginning of the Bible, it is written of Christ that he should do the will of God, and by faith in this promise we have reason to think our first parents and the patriarchs before the flood were justified and saved and to this promise and the benefit of it instantly serving

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God day and night they hoped to come. God gave this promise and those who believed in it were justified before God through faith alone.

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Now God made mention of this seed, your seed, speaking of the serpent, her seed, speaking of Eve, in one sense the word seed in this verse is to be understood in a collective sense, not as an individual but seed as descendants, it's speaking of both the offspring of Satan and the offspring of the woman, these are two peoples, one is all people who live and die in their sin, these are the seed of the serpent, the devil has his people, again everybody born into this world is in his kingdom, the other seed are all the people of God that God redeems from their sin, here identified as the seed of the woman and from this point forward in the story of Genesis we have two peoples that are vying against and struggling against one another, there's hostility between them and so here

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I thought was a helpful footnote from the Reformation Study Bible on these words your seed and her seed, humanity is now divided into two communities, the redeemed who love

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God and the reprobate who love self, the division finds immediate expression in the hostility of Cain against Abel, Cain kills his brother

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Abel in the next chapter, this prophecy finds ultimate fulfillment in the triumph of the second

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Adam, that would be Jesus Christ and the community united to him over the forces of sin, death and the devil, the rest of Genesis traces the woman's offspring beginning with Eve's son

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Seth and ending with the sons of Jacob, ultimately this line of descendants leads to Jesus Christ as indicated in the genealogy recorded in Luke's Gospel and so this verse

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Genesis 315 alludes to both spiritual kingdoms, the first being the devil's dominion which is defeated by the promise of the seed of the woman, that is

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Jesus Christ who is the ruler over his kingdom, this prophecy not only declares the deliverance of the seed of the woman but it pronounces the deposing of the devil from his position of authority over the seed of the woman, first it declares that God himself will cause a distinction and separation between these two seeds or peoples,

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God said I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your seed and her seed,

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God preserves his people as distinct from all others down through history,

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God then pointed to one particular seed or offspring of the woman saying to the devil he, there's a singular pronoun, he shall bruise your head, again talking to the serpent, this speaks of a fatal blow that results in the utter defeat and deposing of the devil over God's people, the head is an emblem for his authority,

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God then foretold how this would be accomplished, you shall bruise his heel, this is a prophecy of the devil's successful effort to injure but not totally vanquish the individual seed of the woman who is

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Jesus Christ and so an obscure granted veiled prophecy of the devil's successful effort to crucify

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Jesus Christ, you shall bruise his heel putting him to death on the cross but in that very effort an act to conquer

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Jesus putting him to death on the cross bruising his heel, Jesus would through that event deliver the fatal blow which deposes the devil from his former dominating reign over the

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Lord's people, here's some more words of Matthew Henry it's a longer quote but I thought it was very helpful valuable accurate, notice here, notice is here given them of three things concerning Christ, first his incarnation, he would be the seed of the woman, the offspring of Eve, the seed of that woman therefore his genealogy

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Luke 3 goes so high as to show him to be the son of Adam but does but God does the woman the honor to call him rather her seed because she it was whom the devil had beguiled and on whom

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Adam had laid the blame and herein God magnifies his grace and that though the woman was first in the transgression yet she shall be saved by childbearing as some read it he's given an interpretation of the passage in 1st

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Timothy that is by the promised seed who shall descend from her he

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God was likewise or pardon me Jesus Christ was likewise to be the seed of a woman only of a virgin it wasn't the seed of Adam and Eve it was the seed of Eve that he might not be tainted with corruption of our nature he was sent forth made of a woman

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Galatians 4 4 and this promise might be fulfilled secondly his sufferings and death pointed at in Satan's bruising his heel that is his human nature

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Satan tempted Christ in the wilderness to draw him into sin and some think it was

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Satan that terrified Christ in his agony to drive him to despair garden of Gethsemane it was the devil that put it into the heart of Judas to betray

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Christ of Peter to deny him of the chief priests to prosecute him of the false witnesses to accuse him and of Pilate to condemn him aiming in all this by destroying the

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Savior to ruin the salvation but on the contrary was by death that Christ destroyed him that had the power of death a reference to Hebrews 2 and then third his victory over Satan thereby

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Satan had now trampled upon the woman insulted over her but the seed of the woman should be raised up in the fullness of time to avenge her quarrel and to trample upon him and to spoil him to lead him captive and to triumph over him

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Colossians 2 15 he shall bruise his head that is he

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Christ shall destroy all his politics and all his powers and give a total overthrow to his kingdom and interest

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Christ baffled Satan's temptations rescued souls out of his hands cast him out of the bodies of people dispossessed the strong man armed divided his spoil by his death he gave a fatal and incurable blow to the devil's kingdom a wound to the head of this beast that can never be healed as his gospel gets ground

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Satan falls and is bound and by his grace he treads Satan under his people's feet and will shortly cast him into the lake of and the devil's perpetual overthrow will be the complete and everlasting joy and glory of the chosen remnant there's a lot conveyed in Genesis 3 15 isn't there again the first gospel the proto evangelium and so for anyone who believes the

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Bible to be the Word of God denial of the existence and personality of the devil is not an option this is a main feature of a biblical worldview and so we had to address it the

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Word of God reveals the devil to be a personal fallen spirit being who is altogether evil who possesses and exerts great authority in this fallen world who is opposed to God and his kingdom in the world the fate of the devil and his cohorts demons and all his people is certain we read in the revelation that the day will come when he's removed from God's new creation he'll be consigned forever in punishment in the lake of fire that burns forever the

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Lord Jesus himself spoke directly of this when he pronounced the fate of all the damned on the day of judgment then he will say to those on his left depart from me you cursed into ever eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels and so let's consider this foe and his kingdom from which we have been delivered have been delivered through Jesus Christ first let's answer the question in a little bit more detail who is the devil well one of the best ways to determine who the devil is by considering as many names that are found throughout the

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Word of God these include Satan Beelzebub Belial adversary dragon serpent he's also referred to as the prince of the power of the air the

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God of this world he's in control of the nations of this world he's an angel of light in other words he appears to be righteous that's deception in fact there are at least a hundred and seventy four references to these names and titles in the

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Bible he is a character that's found throughout all of Scripture and so these names suggest a personal being not a mere force or symbol of evil the names of the devil reflect his navel evil nature and his intention toward everything destroying everything good and righteous in God's creation

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Arthur Peck wrote a rather short book on the subject Satan and his gospel actually collection of articles from his monthly studies in the scriptures and so he wrote this paragraph regarding the names of the devil and their meaning 35 times he is denominated the devil which means the accuser or slanderer the

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Christian has a real guilty conscience it may be due to the devil accusing accusing the

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Saints before God introducing or misrepresenting the character of God before men 52 times he's called

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Satan which means enemy or adversary he is God's enemy and man's adversary

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Satan refers to his character the malignant adversary of all good in God or his creatures devil the name devil refers to his mode of carrying out his evil design by lying slanders false accusations evil producing again misrepresentations he is termed the prince of this world which defines his position in relation to our earth he's named

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Beelzebub which regards him as the head of demons he is spoken of as the wicked one which refers to him as the prime mover of all wickedness he is styled

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Apollyon that is destroyer which links him with the bottomless pit he's referred to as the prince of the power the air which points to his present home and sphere of operations he is termed

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Lucifer which means morning star a title which seems to have belonged to him before his apostasy pink puts in the word seems because there is some question about that he's called the god of this world because he's the inspire and director of all spurious religion all false religion is satanic he's termed liar and the father of it because he's the inveterate opposer of the truth these and other titles of Satan are meaningless unless he is a personal being so the characteristics of Satan that are set forth in the scriptures present him as a being of great power and capability however

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Satan is not as God for God is infinite Satan is finite it is limited Satan is powerful but he's not all powerful he's not omnipotent as God only is

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Satan is wise but he's not always omniscient as God is omniscient but the scriptures do speak of him as one who deceives the whole world he is intelligent powerful malevolent spirit being who hates

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God and hates all mankind he has no good design or desire for any human being because every person is the image of God Satan is able to perform miracles just because a miracle happens doesn't mean it's of God it was

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Satan who enabled the magicians and sorcerers of Pharaoh to mimic many of the miracles that God wrought through Moses next to seven then

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Pharaoh summoned the wise men and the sorcerers and they the magicians of Egypt also did the same by their secret arts

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Paul wrote that the man of sin will read about that next week pastor

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Jason second Thessalonians 2 the man of sin would be according to the working of Satan with all power signs and lying wonders their wonders but they're deceptive

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Satan is able to enable some to foretell future events we read of Paul casting out a demon that enabled a young woman to prophesy that it is to foretell the future he cast out the demon and she was no longer profitable to her masters and so they persecuted

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Paul for ruining their business Satan has the power to cause sickness and other physical infirmities not all sickness is caused by the devil but some sickness is there was a woman who had a physical malady for 18 years whom

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Jesus healed when she touched the hem of his garment and Jesus said of her that Satan had bound her with this physical condition the devil had done it

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Satan had afflicted Paul with some form of physical malady or so it seems

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Paul wrote about it in 2nd Corinthians 12 now it was in God's purpose to keep

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Paul humble he had so many visions and understandings of the glory of God the will of God he was in danger of being puffed up with pride

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God would keep him humble and so he let Satan be at him so to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations a thorn was given me in the flesh and he described it as a messenger of Satan to harass me why to keep me from being becoming conceited three times

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I pleaded with the Lord God doesn't always answer prayer three times I answered with her

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I pleaded with the Lord about this that he should leave me but he said to me my grace is sufficient for you my power is made perfect in weakness and then

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Paul concluded therefore well I will boast all the more gladly of my weakness weakness says so that the power of Christ may rest upon me say if he didn't have these troubles he would have been exalted in pride and he will lost the power of God in his ministry and so he recognized the value of these infirmities and so for the sake of Christ I'm content with weaknesses insults hardships persecutions and calamities for I when

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I am weak then I am strong and if you and I were thinking rightly that would probably be our attitude when we are struggling with these kinds of things too if we could see or at least in faith understand

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God's going to glorify himself through this I don't know how or when but I know he will so that is who the devil is now let's consider

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Satan's authority over the fallen world Satan is called the god of this age he is the prince of the power of the air

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Satan is the ruler of all unregenerate people that is all those are not born again they are born physically into this world as subjects of his kingdom and so they do his bidding and again to do the devil's bidding is to do your own bidding to do what you want to do instead of what

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God wants you to do you serve in the devil Paul expressed the reality that all natural -born people are subjects to the devil in his kingdom unless and until God sets them free by his grace only

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God can do that Satan's too powerful for you to break for me to break under from under his control

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God has to act and that's what he did in bringing a salvation of the

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Christians at the church at Ephesus Paul wrote these words and you Christians in the church at Ephesus God made alive who you were once dead and spiritually dead and trespasses and sins in which you all in which you once walked according to the course of this world according to the prince of the power of the air all non -christians do so the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience all those living lives in defiance of and disregard of the will of God are sons of disobedience among whom and notice

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Paul includes himself among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the loss of our flesh that is according to our own desires fulfilling the desires of the flesh and mind whereby nature children of wrath just as the others we were no different than anybody else but God is what he said

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God took action he took the initiative it wasn't because you had free will to come to him it's because he had free will toward you but God who is rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us even when we were dead and trespasses made us alive together with Christ he created spirit it's a spiritual resurrection when somebody becomes a

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Christian he made us alive together with Christ what my grace had been saved and he raised us up together positionally he made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus he's sitting on the throne of God and we're reigning with him as his people and why did

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God do this a purpose clause verse 7 so that in the ages to come that is in eternity he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us in Christ Jesus we're never going to finish learning about how good and kind and merciful

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God has been to you and me in this lifetime through Jesus Christ and so when

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God converts a sinner to Jesus Christ God snatches that soul out of the kingdom of the devil and picks him up and puts him down as it were into the kingdom of his son this is what

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Paul stated to the Church of Colossae he has delivered us from the power in other words dominion of darkness that would be the kingdom of the devil and conveyed us into the kingdom of the son of his love in whom we have redemption through his blood the forgiveness of sins again he took the action

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Satan works through unbelievers to accomplish his will in the world again we read in Ephesians 2 that the devil controls all unconverted people but in addition

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Satan is the ruler over a vast army of evil spirits who are fallen angels demons who have rebelled against God and choose to serve the devil and although Satan is a spirit being he's not omnipresent the devil can't be everywhere he can be only in one place at a time but he extends his rule his influence through multitudes of evil spirits or demons who do his bidding

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Satan is the father of lies the Lord Jesus said of him when he speaks a lie he speaks of his own resources for he is a liar and the father of it everybody who tells a lie is doing the devil's bidding all error respecting religious beliefs ultimately owes their origin and spread to the devil all false religion all false doctrine owe their origin their appeal to people's minds and to their and to the continuance of their error to the devil

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Paul wrote to the Christians at the church at Corinth I imply that what pagan sacrifice they offer to demons not to God and I do not want you to be participants with demons

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Paul wrote and then Paul wrote to Timothy now the spirit expressly says that in latter times that's this entire church age in latter times some will depart from the faith these are apostates who once professed to be

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Christian they'll depart from the faith why giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons they embrace heresy error

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Satan is the ruler of darkness this conveys the idea is the author of error and falsehood and keeps his own people captive and helpless he blinds unconverted people to the gospel so they cannot understand it and they can't see its relevance and they and the devil does this so they cannot respond to the gospel but the

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Lord in his sovereign grace defeat Satan's efforts to blind his people to the truth when he intends to save them from sin

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Paul wrote of his own confidence in the gospel because Satan was powerless to prevent it from saving the

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Lord's people when the Lord purposed to save them by it we read in 2nd

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Corinthians 4 but we have renounced the hidden things of shame basically

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Paul says I don't use trickery around here like some of those false teachers to trick people into embracing what we believe

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I don't use those those methods not walking and craftiness nor handling the

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Word of God deceitfully telling half truths truths that we think people would be responsive to and not maybe declare the whole truth but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God but even if our gospel is veiled even if people do not see it they don't understand it they don't see the glory of it it is veiled to those who were perishing all unsaved people they're perishing and then in verse 4 he says why they can't see the glory of the gospel the light of the gospel understand the gospel whose minds the

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God of this age that is the devil has blinded who do not believe lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ who is the image of God should shine on them the devil will make see make will see to it that unbelievers and non -christians will not understand and see the glory of the gospel and respond to it and then he declared for we do not preach ourselves but Christ Jesus the

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Lord ourselves bond servants for your sake and then he tells how these people have caught in spiritual blindness blinded by the devil are brought out of their blindness it's the same work of power when

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God first declared in Genesis 1 let there be light and there was a light this is what happens when every soul is converted to salvation in Christ for it's the

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God who commanded light to shine out of darkness Genesis 1 who has shown in our hearts to give the light understanding of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ and so we're to preach the word as true and make it as clear known but it's

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God himself that has to turn on the lights and all of a sudden there's a wild moment I watched a video the other night of a sociopath who the

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Lord saved through his power and at the end of the video he was going to sit down and and talk to this

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Frenchman about he was an atheist who came to Christ and this man talked about it and how he had started going to church because he he liked this girl who was a

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Christian and how he listened to he was an atheist and he was a had gone to MIT he was a mathematician he was a you know he was top of his class but it didn't make sense to him he couldn't understand why did

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Jesus have to die on the cross and then one day in church the light turned on now here was this vastly intelligent person credentialed person in the realm of science and mathematics and he was clueless but the

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Lord opened his eyes to see it and understand it and it transformed him and that's what happens when people become

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Christians the Lord rescues them out of darkness revealing the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in Christ Jesus Christ in the face or presence of Jesus Christ and so there's we've addressed

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Satan's authority over the fallen world let's continue or consider for a few minutes Satan's origin and this is somewhat difficult because the

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Bible is not principally a book telling us about angels and demons it's a book about Christians but they're obviously they are creatures and God employs them in service to us and obviously the devil is a fallen angel and his minions and so the

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Bible speaks about it but probably Revelation 12 speaks of the original rebellion of angels that joined forces with the devil you know again

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God did not create them evil they became evil Revelation 12

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John saw another sign appeared in heaven behold a great fiery red dragon having seven heads and ten horns seven diadems on his head hideous apocalyptic beast of representation of the devil his tail drew a third of the stars of heaven angels are often referred to metaphorically as stars in heaven a third of them and threw them to the earth apparently they followed the devil and the dragon stood before the woman who was ready to give birth speaking about the birth of Jesus Christ to devour her child as soon it was born and so that speaks probably about the devil and a third of the angels who basically agreed with his assertion

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I should be God rather than God the Creator they were clueless as to the nature of God that was before history really it began to take place and they apparently adopted and embraced him as their king

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Ezekiel 28 records evidence to suggest Satan's origin here

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God through his prophet was denouncing the historical king of Tyre the kingdom of Tyre a political person an actual human being and Tyre was an ancient maritime kingdom on the

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Phoenician coast however the manner that Ezekiel describes the king of Tyre seems to speak of more than just this historical king it really speaks about the devil who empowered and used the king of Tyre and so the manner

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Ezekiel describes the king of Tyre really speaks about the devil

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I believe because he speaks about the king of Tyre or the spirit that that animated the king of Tyre moved the king of Tyre empowered the king of Tyre to abandon the

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Garden of Eden the Garden of God and so it seems to be speaking beyond this historical figure

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Ezekiel 28 11 through 19 more with the word of the Lord came to me saying son of man that was a reference to the prophet

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Ezekiel take up a lamentation for the king of Tyre because you're gonna be overthrown in judgment and say to him thus says the

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Lord God you were the seal of perfection full of wisdom perfect in beauty you were in Eden the

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Garden of God this would have been the devil before he fell into sin every precious stone was your covering the sardius topaz diamond barrel onyx jasper sapphire turquoise emerald gold the workmanship of your timbrels and pipes was prepared for you on the day you were created you were the anointed share of another word for angel who covers in other words he had responsibility and authority

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I established you God put him in authority you're on the holy mountain of God the kingdom of God you walk back and forth in the midst of fiery stones you were perfect in your ways from the day you were created till iniquity was found in you there's

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Satan's fall by the abundance of your training you became filled with violence within you sin therefore

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I cast you as a profane thing out of the mountain of God that is you know out of the presence of God the kingdom of God cast to the earth as well as it were and I destroyed you

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Oh covering share from the midst of the fiery stones your heart was lifted up because of your beauty you corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor

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I cast you to the ground I laid you before Kings that they might gaze at you you defiled your sanctuaries by the multitude of your iniquities by the iniquity of your trading therefore

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I brought fire from your midst I devoured you I turned you to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all who saw you now again he's talking about the king of Tyre directly but metaphorically it's speaking about the end probably of the devil all who knew you among the people's are astonished at you you become a horror and shall be no more forever and so God had created this holy angel had given him authority over the world which

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God had created and when the fall of this foremost angel occurred God did not immediately remove his authority from the world rather continued and since that time the devil has sought to frustrate the purposes and plans of God in his creation he did so with Adam and Eve which probably occurred either at his fall or right after his fall in his pride he did that however

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God in a sovereign rule over the fallen world uses even the evil of Satan to glorify himself he said a pharaoh you know

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God said a pharaoh that evil ruler who oppressed the people of God in Egypt for this purpose

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I raise you up that I might display my power throughout all the earth so God even uses the devil to glorify himself and one day

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God will greatly glorify himself and greatly overthrowing Satan in his final defeat his consignment to eternal hell when did

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Satan instigate this rebellion against God when did this glorious chair become Satan although the

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Bible does not speak directly of this event it can be concluded I think quite clearly that Satan had originally sinned against God after the creation week of Genesis 1

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God had created the heavens and the earth and then over the course of six days

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God created all that exists in the physical world and we would say also in the spiritual realm although that's not the focus of Genesis 1 after God created all things when he rested on the first Sabbath it said of the creation

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God saw everything that he had made indeed it was very good so the evening and morning were the sixth day everything was good that angel could not have fallen yet and become

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Satan God could not would not have pronounced everything that he made is very good if the devil and his minions were within his creation at this time

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Satan fell into sin I suspect even as he sought to tempt Eve to transgress

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God's law in the garden I suspect but that's speculation now let's consider

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God's authority over Satan there been some in history and rather in Greek mythology and whatnot down philosophy down through history and there's some today who believe that God and Satan are two co -eternal beings and some of the wildly

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Pentecostal people the way they teach and preach you'd think so God being all good

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Satan being all evil but that they're eternal principles they've always existed they basically infuse qualities of deity to the devil and that's evil that's heresy as we've already asserted

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God is the infinite creator but Satan is finite he's but a created being a similar common idea is that God's will desire is one thing but Satan's will desires what's opposite and sometimes

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God wins and sometimes the devil wins that is blasphemous

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God never has lost a battle he's never been frustrated in his effort when he purposed to do something

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God always wins the devil always loses though it may not appear so initially as Luther once said the devil is

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God's devil he's on a chain and he lets him out to the length that he wants to do his own biddy

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God's own bidding ultimately God is over sovereign over all that he allows the devil to do though God is not the chargeable author of the evil that Satan does an example of this may be seen in the parallel passages in the

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Old Testament 2nd Samuel and 2nd Chronicles they both speak of the same event apparently King David sinned when he sought to number the people of Israel I don't know if it was a matter of pride or whatever but in 2nd

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Samuel it says in the anger of the Lord was aroused against Israel he God moved

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David against them to say go number Israel and Judah and then God's judgment came upon David for doing so but you go to the passage in Chronicles and you read now

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Satan stood up against Israel and moved David to number Israel and so you ask the question was it

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God or the devil well we would say it was God who allowed the devil to go tempt

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David in doing so in doing so God tested David God cannot and would not tempt people to sin

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God is not the author of sin or the temptation to sin but he will in his sovereign purposes permit the devil to tempt them in order in doing so God tests his people to reveal and manifest the true nature of their hearts before him are you being tested maybe the devil is tempting you

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God is testing you do you love him will you resort to him the scriptures clearly display the devil is being subject to God though Satan is an evil creature he's not so when he wasn't so when

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God first created him God created him as holy but then he fell into sin through his own pride and rebellion but though the devil is opposed to God has attempted to thwart the glory of God in history particularly through mankind made in the image of God the devil remains under the authority of God God as a creator has always been the sovereign king of history we won't read the passage but Job 1 clearly shows

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Satan had to get God's permission to afflict Job God said this far no more yeah you can afflict

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Job take his children take his goods you know take everything but don't harm him and when

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Job came or Satan came around to God in the next time it was God that put

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Job up before the devil the devil have you considered my servant Job none like him yeah it's only because you you preserve his health take away his health and he'll curse you and then

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God again gave the devil permission all right you can have his take away his health too and yet in all this

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Job sin not nor did he God charge God foolishly Job recognized the sovereignty of God in this he didn't know why

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God was doing it but he recognized ultimately God was sovereign in it the fact is

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God limits the devil this far and no more the devil is

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God's devil the devil could only do what God allowed him to do well let's consider

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Satan's ability to influence and torment people I needed to get to this it's clear that the authority that God has given unto

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Satan is far greater than any authority is given to a man or woman remember

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John MacArthur rightly talking about you know the Pentecostals who you know when they're preaching and whatnot start claiming and demanding and commanding the devil do this get out of this go there you know what not and MacArthur rightly say you can't even get your kids to obey you you think the devil's gonna obey you and he was absolutely right you know the devil's too powerful and so man doesn't have authority over the devil now

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God does grant authority at times he gives it to people but certainly he's given all authority superior authority to Jesus Christ over the devil and by extension the

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Lord Jesus gave authority to his apostles over all the forces of the devil and his demons whom they would encounter but thankfully because the

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Christian is in Christ and Christ is in the Christian every Christian is protected and preserved from destruction and ruin that the devil would would bring upon them and so the scriptures declare by this you know the

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Spirit of God every spirit that confesses Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God see you've got to believe in the divine nature and the human nature the incarnation every spirit that does not confess

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Jesus Christ has come in the flesh it's not of God there were some people who claim to be Christian but they denied his humanity he just looked like a man they would argue this is the

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Spirit of Antichrist which you've heard was from the beginning now in the world you are of God little children and have overcome them because he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world that shows you that the devil in no way oh he can afflict you we'll talk about that he can make your life miserable but there's no way in the world he can defeat you when the scriptures say of the

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Christian that the wicked one does not touch them it's referring to Satan's ability to direct that soul into a state of damnation the wicked one does not touch him we know whoever is born of God does not sin that is practice sin live in sin we all sin but you know you're you live as a

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Christian you don't live as a liar or a cheater an adulterer or drunkard you're

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Christian but he who is born of God keeps himself and the wicked one does not touch him we know we are of God and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one non -christians again when the scriptures say of the

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Christian that the wicked one does not touch him it's referring to Satan's ability to direct that soul into a state of damnation the wicked one cannot do that the wicked one touches him not it's not a declaration that the devil does not afflict or trouble the

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Christian he does all the time in different ways or will John Gill wrote of this he the wicked one cannot come at him that is the

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Christian so as to wound him to the heart or destroy that principle of life that's in him or so as to overcome and devour him he may tempt him sift him buffet him greatly afflict and grieve him but he cannot touch his life or hurt him with the second death nay sometimes the believer is so unable to wield the shield of faith or to hold up Christ the the shield by faith and turned it every way in such a manner that Satan who is here meant by the wicked one because he is notoriously so cannot come near him nor in with him cannot work upon him at all with his temptations

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I'm not saying that's the case with everybody all the time you say sometimes that God can enable people to live in that way nor in the least hurt his peace or joy or comfort the

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Saints know their perseverance from the promises of God and the declarations of Christ amen we are supposed to be wise recognizing and responding biblically to the devil's wicked and deceptive ways the biblical command put on the whole armor of God why so that you may be able to stand against the wiles the trickery the seat of the devil

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Paul wrote that he was not ignorant of Satan's wiles but it's important that Christians respond in faith and obedience lest the devil take advantage of us the devil take it takes advantage of Christians Paul wrote now whom you forgive anything

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I also forgive for if indeed if indeed I have forgiven anything

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I have forgiven that one for your sakes in the presence of Christ why lest Satan should take advantage of us for we are not ignorant of his devices of his wiles in what ways does the devil afflict people well

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Christians too not just non -christians and I listed a number of ways the devil is able to place evil thoughts into our minds now before the feast of Passover when

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Jesus knew his hour had come to part out of this world to the father having loved his own who were in the world he loved them to the end during supper when the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot Simon's son to betray him the devil put it into Judas's mind now it was

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Judas's desire and intention too but it was initiated by the devil secondly the devil is able to cause forgetfulness of the

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Word of God that's been taught to us Jesus taught those by the wayside are the ones who hear then the devil comes and takes away the word out of their hearts lest they should believe and be saved for someone to say today this morning to be saved that the word that we've spoken about better last longer than when you walk out the door ponder it think about it pray about it otherwise the devil just take it out it'll just fall by the wayside you know all those crazy kooks down there yeah what he said was interesting but I don't care doesn't influence me third the devil is able to move people to do what he desires for them to do

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Jesus said of the unsaved you are your father the devil the desires of your father you want to do these were the religious leaders of the day the

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Pharisees he was a murderer from the beginning he does not stand in the truth there's no truth in him when he speaks a lie he speaks of his own resources he's a liar the father of it this is also true however professing

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Christians Paul was equipping Timothy for pastoral ministry in the church at Ephesus in humility correcting those who are in opposition if God perhaps will grant them repentance so that they may know the truth and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil having been taken captive by him to do his will

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Christians can be deceived persuaded be very sincere and yet they're not doing the will of God and Timothy was called to correct them for the devil is able to oppress people acts 1035 speaks of how

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God anointed Jesus of Nazareth the Holy Spirit with power who went about doing good healing all who were oppressed by the devil fifth the devil is able to cause one to experience disgrace or reproach sometimes this is called a snare of the devil of a potential church elder it said moreover he must have a good testimony let's talk about a

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Christian among those who are outside in other words non -christians lest he fall into a reproach and the snare of the devil six the devil is able to lead a person to practice sin

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John wrote he who sins is of the devil and again we all sin you don't go through a day without sinning you don't do everything as sincerely as you ought to with as much love you ought to with much effort as you ought to we sin in everything we do and don't do thankfully

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God sees us in Christ but this is talking about living for sin rather than living for righteousness he who sins is of the devil for the devil is sin from the beginning but for this purpose the

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Son of God was manifested for what purpose that he might destroy the works of the devil seven the devil is able to persecute

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Christians through the use of civil authorities we may be experiencing some of that in a measure it's only going to get worse but we shouldn't fear what they might do to us do not fear any of those things which are about to suffer indeed the devil is about to throw some of you into prison that you may be tested you'll have tribulation ten days you read about the pastor in Canada just yesterday was it all right he was arrested he's they told him out that judge told him you could be released if when you're preaching in your church you give the scientific evidence to what the state here is purporting he refused

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God bless him state persecution it's not it's happened through history it'll happen again as our nation continues to depart from the ways of God the devil is able to deceive people even the whole world so the great dragon was cast out that sermon of old called the devil and Satan who deceives the whole world and he was cast to the earth as angels were cast out with him nine the devil is able to entice or tempt people to sin he tempted

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Jesus in the wilderness if he can tempt Jesus he can tempt you ten the devil is able to exalt people in the world system making them rich and powerful that's what the devil offered to Jesus fall down worship me

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I'll give you the kingdoms of the world 11 the devil has power over physical death from which the

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Lord has delivered his people and speaking specifically about the fear of death the devil can cause a whole lot of terror in people who about ready to die if those are

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Christians however are thinking rightly and whatnot they can be completely delivered from that fear of death the devil distorts truth and promotes error certainly 13 the devil is able to cause sickness in people now not all sicknesses of the devil but some can be

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Jesus said of the woman who was suffering physical infirmity so ought not this woman being a daughter of Abraham in other words a believer a

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Christian whom Satan has bound think of it for 18 years be loosed from this bond on the

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Sabbath he healed her 14 the devil is able to cause physical disasters

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Job won that wind coming crashing down killing all of Job's kids 15 the devil is able to cause people to lose faith if the

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Lord did not prevent him from doing so the Lord said Peter Simon Simon indeed Satan is after you that he may sift you as wheat he wanted to destroy

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Peter's faith but Peter said don't worry I prayed for you and after your return strengthen the brethren the devil actually again attempted to destroy

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Peter's faith the Lord prayed for Peter turned it about it actually increased

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Peter's faith he became qualified to be an apostle after he went through that and the

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Lord prays for all of his people he's our high priest devil's not going to destroy you he can do whatever he can to harm you but the

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Lord is going to preserve you there's no curse for the people of God the devil can lead people to covet to lie to steal as x5

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Ananias why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit keep part back of that price to live yourself they pretended and claimed they gave everything when they didn't 17 the devil is able to see people by presenting himself as an angel of light

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Paul warned of those who seem to be true preachers for such are false apostles deceitful workers transforming themselves into apostles of Christ no wonder for Satan himself transforms himself into the angel of light similar 18 the devil is able to produce and promote false shepherds false pastors of churches

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Paul wrote therefore it's no great thing if is the devil's ministers also transform themselves into ministers of righteousness they look like good preachers they sound like good preachers at least most of what they say but whose end will be according to the works and so the

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Lord has his ministers in his churches and the devil also has minutes his ministers in churches

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Arthur Pink wrote the apostles of Satan are not saloon keepers and white slave traffickers but are for the most part ordained ministers in Sunday school

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I remember the quote from Charles Burge and he says I know the church is of God because it survived so many preachers he was so clever and the way he would spend things the devil is able to hinder the noble plans of Christians Paul said

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I wanted to go to you repeatedly but Satan hindered us the devil can enable men to perform miracles of the

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Antichrist 2nd Thessalonians 2 the coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan with all power signs and lying wonders just because a miracle takes place doesn't mean that that's a authenticating that man or woman is of God may just be the opposite in fact the

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Lord Jesus warned of the people with signs and wonders if that's how you identify a false prophet a false teacher not how you identify a true one the way you identify a true one is if the words are in accord with the

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Bible with the Word of God and then lastly the devil is able to incite people to commit murder again

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Cain why shouldn't we should not be like Cain who is of the evil one the devil and murdered his brother and why did he murder him why did

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Cain kill his brother Abel because his own deeds were evil and his brother's righteous but he was of the evil one the devil moved him to do this through jealousy and whatnot and then we can thankfully conclude with a certainty of the devil's doom at the cross

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Jesus Christ vanquished the devil conquered him deposed him our

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Lord's obedience unto death resulted in Christ the God -man to be raised from the dead ascended to heaven at which time

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God the Father gave him authority and thrown him over the devil and so essentially the devil was cast down out of heaven and what that means is he was deposed of the authority he once had he doesn't have now before Christ's resurrection the devil had authority over all the nations after the

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Resurrection Ascension and Throwman of Christ the devil no longer had authority over all the nations that he could keep all the

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Gentiles blind to the gospel and that's why the gospel in the New Testament goes out throughout all the world because King Jesus is sending out the gospel and the devil couldn't stop it and that's what the scriptures speak about 1st

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Peter 3 22 of Christ Jesus Christ who's gone into heaven is at the right hand of God angels and authorities and powers that includes the devil having been made subject to him and those angels and authorities included the defeat and subordination of the devil to the rule of the

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Lord Jesus indeed the devil continues to plague and frustrate the people of God but he can't destroy them he can make them miserable but he can't defeat them rather we are assured that our victory will be over him we need not fear him but we should be wary of him he's as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour and Peter wrote those words from experience and so we may have confidence that we will come forth as the victors regardless of all the devil's efforts to defeat discourage us

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Paul wrote to the church at Rome concluding his epistle the God of peace will crush

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Satan shortly under your feet the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you amen and so we're to have be wise about these matters we shouldn't be terrorized however but rather we ought to have a great deal of confidence and boldness he cannot in any way frustrate the

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Lord Jesus Christ and the expansion of the kingdom and we as the Lord's servants may have assurance and joy as we move forward we may go into great battles but we'll always come out the victor ultimately now maybe going through difficulty even to death that's okay but that's how the

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Lord Jesus overcame the devil through obedience even unto death and his obedience his faithful obedience to God as father resulted in my being highly exalted and that's what we're supposed to go through in this life obedience regardless of the consequences and then we'll receive glory we'll be glorified with him and to the degree that indeed we suffer with him thank the

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Lord for his word let's pray thank you father for your word help us to have a biblical view worldview and help us our

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God not just to have this when we're reading our Bibles or with one another as Christians or on Sunday but help us our

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God to see this world from your perspective from the perspective of the Bible your word that you've given us help us our

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God to be attentive to the wiles of the devil trickery of the devil and help us are not not to be yielding to him in any way but help us our

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God to always resort to Jesus Christ who alone can and will deliver us but we do pray in Jesus name