Gospel of John [16:12-15]. The Doctrine of the HS, part 66 - Satan. Joh 8:44; Rev 20:7-9; Isa 2:1-4.

Title: Gospel of John [16:12-15]. The Doctrine of the HS, part 66 - Satan. JOH 8:44; REV 20:7-9; ISA 2:1-4.

 

 

Satan attempts to impede our walk by the Spirit by accusing us of true wrongdoing and evil. We by faith claim the forgiveness of all sin through Christ.

 

He will not accuse us of that which is untrue, but of our true sins and our true acts of unrighteousness as a case for not deserving what God has given us through Christ, through redeeming grace. Satan is offended by this whole arrangement. In rejecting Christ's work as inconsequential and not an actual method of atonement he constantly opposes grace and demands that the human race earn whatever they get. He has energized and deceived many in the human race to demand the exact same thing.

 

A perfect example of this is found in the OT when Balak, king of Moab, who, through the prophet Balaam, desired to curse Israel as they camped in the Jordan valley, right on the edge of his own kingdom.

 

NUM 23:21

He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither hath he seen perverseness [labor in wickedness] in Israel: the Lord his God is with him [KJV]

 

Certainly there was sin in Israel. We know their history. In the Jordan valley they are on the verge of entering the Promised Land under the new command of Joshua. Their 40 years in the wilderness was wrought in sin and doubt and through Balak wishes a curse upon them in order to protect his own kingdom, God only sees the redeemed of Israel and the future cross that would remove their sin and Jehovah does not judicially see what the enemy has based his accusations on.

 

There was evil in this people, but, when attacked by the foe of divine grace, Jehovah delighted to declare that He did not see or behold their iniquity or perverseness.

 

God does not assert that these wicked things do not exist; He states that He, having covered them with redeeming blood, does not see or behold what the enemy points out.

 

As Satan moved Balak to curse them, Satan was showing his displeasure of grace. If Israel is to have the Promised Land, which was filled with idol worshippers energized by Satan, then they should earn it and since their track record before Jehovah Elohim has been one of rejecting Him and doubting Him, then why should He give it to them and why should He not take into account the wrongs that the people of Israel have suffered against Jehovah?

 

The evil that was condemned in Cain was not one of immorality at the outset, but rather the satanic ideal of self-worthiness as a basis for divine acceptance. The blood-sacrifice of Abel, looking on to the fruits of redemption, provided a perfect relationship to God to which no fallen being could ever attain by works of personal righteousness.

 

At the Bema Seat of Christ the saints are to be rewarded and there will be no talk or mention of sins already washed away by the blood of the Lamb. This is true because the accuser is cast out. He is not allowed to be at this Seat of evaluation and reward. Blessed is he who knows that all the accusations brought against him are forgiven and cleansed in Christ forever.   

 

Satan is a liar and murderer as Christ Himself bears witness.

 

JOH 8:44 "You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature; for he is a liar, and the father of lies.

 

It is clear from the Scriptural revelation that this enemy of God is also the enemy of every saint and that victory over him is impossible apart from divine power and protection.

 

The walk of the Christian in the will of God is impossible because of this enemy unless he walks by the Spirit.

 

Satan is the cause of war. During the Millennium when Satan is bound in the abyss, there are no wars. When he is released war immediately resumes.

 

REV 20:7 And when the thousand years are completed, Satan will be released from his prison,

 

REV 20:8 and will come out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together for the war; the number of them is like the sand of the seashore.

 

REV 20:9 And they came up on the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city, and fire came down from heaven and devoured them.

 

It is significant that mankind still rejects Christ in the perfect environment of the Millennium, even in the absence of Satan the deceiver. Yet war does not occur because of the word of the Lord and the absence of the deception of that word.

 

The word of the Lord received by the people of the Millennial reign of Christ will prevent all war.

 

ISA 2:1 The word which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.

 

ISA 2:2 Now it will come about that In the last days, The mountain of the house of the Lord Will be established as the chief of the mountains, And will be raised above the hills; And all the nations will stream to it.

 

ISA 2:3 And many peoples will come and say, "Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, To the house of the God of Jacob; That He may teach us concerning His ways, And that we may walk in His paths."For the law will go forth from Zion, And the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

 

ISA 2:4 And He will judge between the nations, And will render decisions for many peoples; And they will hammer their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not lift up sword against nation, And never again will they learn war.

 

It should be noted that when God sent Israel in to the Promised Land to war with the people and conquer it, the people were idol worshippers and evil at the energizing of Satan. If this were not true we could assume that God would not have called to have them wiped out and removed from the land. War always occurs when one or both of the sides are involved in evil.

 

Involvement in a war as a Christian civilian or a soldier, as it is an extremely adverse situation that not many experience, can become a hindrance to their walk by means of the Spirit if the truth and the way and the life of the Lord is rejected in favor or worldly coping mechanisms.

 

It is significant that Satan the arch deceiver has persuaded many that he does not exist, much less that he constitutes our greatest enemy.

 

This makes them easy prey. The conjure up a grotesque being fitted with strange features in fiction and in theater and then conclude that no such being could exist and so Satan must not exist.

 

In the light of the modern apathy regarding the field of Satanology, is it any wonder that there is little understanding regarding the issues of walking by the Spirit?

 

Yet, as we have noted extensively in our study of the Angelic Conflict, Satan has been judged and defeated on the cross. All things have been reconciled, either to salvation or judgment. Christ has triumphed over them, COL 2:14-15. At the cross the prince of the world was cast out, JOH 12:31. The prince of the world has been judged, JOH 16:11. He destroyed him who had power over death, that is, the devil. The fulfillment of final execution of judgment and triumph is yet future, yet in the eyes of God it is finished.

 

David and Saul are the perfect type of an anointed king [David/Christ] and a disposed king [Saul/Devil] who continues to reign as a usurper until his final banishment.

 

In this David and Saul are the perfect type. As there was a period between the anointing of David and the final banishment of Saul, in which Saul reigned as a usurper, though under divine sentence and David was the God-appointed king, in like manner there is now a similar period in which Satan rules as usurper, though under sentence, and the actual occupation of Christ's throne on earth is still future. In this period Satan, the rejected monarch, still rules, hunting all those who have allied themselves with Christ, the God-anointed King.

 

Satan opposes God in everything, but greater is He that is in us that he that is in the world. When the opposition to walk in God's plan becomes difficult or exceedingly difficult, we must claim by faith that the ruler of this world has been cast out and the Great Shepherd is far greater than the wolf. We simply need to continue to trust our Lord and His Spirit and we will be ok and eventually experience victory over such difficulties.

 

The sin nature. Every child of Adam possesses Adam's nature, with all its predisposition to sin.

 

The utter dependence of every soul upon the Spirit for victory is not only a result of the foes without, but is occasioned as well by the weakness within.

 

There are sins and the sin nature. The sin nature is the poison while the sins are the boils that are caused by the poison.

 

Designated as “sin” (singular):

 

ROM 5:12 Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned — 

 

ROM 5:13 for until the Law sin was in the world; but sin is not imputed when there is no law.

 

ROM 5:14 Nevertheless death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who had not sinned in the likeness of the offense of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come.

 

ROM 5:15 But the free gift is not like the transgression. For if by the transgression of the one the many died, much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abound to the many.

 

The victory of Christ is far greater than the defeat of Adam. Adam's curse can be broken in Christ. Christ's redeemed cannot be destroyed, for they are His, and His forever.

 

ROM 5:16 And the gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned; for on the one hand the judgment arose from one transgression resulting in condemnation, but on the other hand the free gift arose from many transgressions resulting in justification.

 

ROM 5:17 For if by the transgression of the one, death reigned through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.

 

God is a great transformer of lives. He turns slaves into kings. He deposes the dynasty of sin, chains it in the dungeon, and enthrones the dynasty of righteousness. He who take the beggar from the dunghill and sets him among princes to make him inherit the throne or glory, takes the child of Adam and lifts him to reign with Christ.

 

1SA 2:8 [Hannah]

"He raises the poor from the dust,

He lifts the needy from the ash heap

To make them sit with nobles,

And inherit a seat of honor;

For the pillars of the earth are the Lord's,

And He set the world on them.

 

The unsaved man is not master of anything that counts - he is a slave of sin and death.