Everybody Ought To Know

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(3) Satan Fallen

1. Satan’s rebellion cost him his job and brought eternal banishment from the kingdom of God. A created mortal being, unlike his infinite Creator, Satan would spend part of his several millennial destiny some other place other than in heaven. Because God has omnipotence, omniscience, and omnipresence throughout His universe, God knew what Satan’s final destiny would be. The total annilation of Satan and his evil forces and the wicked at the end of earth’s allotted time of sin. Though fallen, he still retains all that God built into him. He is still mighty.

2. Instead of destroying Satan immediately and his forces, God would Salvage something from the huge investment. The Lord God of Romans 8:28 would take what was invested in Satan and use it for His glory. He would still accomplish His first intention.  Now that sin was available, He would Exploit it. Instead of discarding Satan, his great powers would be used to provide a competitive god, making possible a genuine test for man’s affection. Sin would be useful in developing a race of Tested citizens. It wasn’t available until Satan’s fall.

3. Satan’s greatness is now perverted. His wisdom is turned to guile and deceit. His tremendous intelligence produces craftiness and treachery. His fantastic genius has turned from bringing glory to God, to gratifying himself. His former dwelling in holiness gives him a knowledge of both “good and evil.” Thoroughly schooled in righteousness, he now plumbs the depths of wickedness. Once a peer of holiness, he is now a personification of evil. He is able to make evil look good and good look evil, since he has lived on “Both Sides of the Tracks.”

4. Satan is over-qualified to tempt man. He operates in the spirit. He has at least several thousand years of experience in dealing with human weakness. He can give temporal rewards to those who serve him. He has lost none of his powers, retaining even his rank. He is the supreme being of the evil world. His great wisdom makes it easy for him to deceive and delude those not illuminated by God’s Word. He can distort truth so masterfully even those who desire to live for Christ are easily manipulated even when they “watch and pray.”

(4) God Of This World

a. Adam was placed on the earth with authority over it. He was told to subdue it and exercise dominion over everything that moved (Genesis 1:28). When Adam was tested, he knew clearly, what was involved.

The test began in a beautiful garden with Adam’s wife, Eve (what better way to get to a man?). The serpent spoke, “Yea, hath God said, ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?” (Genesis 3:1). Poor Eve. She couldn’t know what was taking place. No one had told her about a personal devil.

Did that innocent girl suspect a gallery of powers; an audience of spirit beings,

was listening to her conversation with Satan? She didn’t know a world of danger

hovered unseen.

Were not her sight limited to the eyes that came with her body, she could have

beheld a multitude of spiritual dignitaries holding their breath. A great host

watched. Satan was demonstrating how easy it is to trick people. The spirit

world was getting a training lesson.

Doubtless Eve was startled with this beautiful serpent that spoke. It had the power of

speech, likely surpassing that anything she had seen in the Garden of Eden. This crea-

ture was presenting the most noble thing a man can consider – being like God.

Had she looked closer, she might have beheld the devilish glint in the serpent’s eye. No longer was this a marvelous creature of the field speaking, but a cardinal of Heaven. The disguise was perfect. Eve was impressed. The Generalissimo of Evil was at work. In addition, his forces were ready to pounce on the world as soon as he made the kill.

Much was at stake. If Satan could get this first pair, he could get the world. The divine plan called for children to be born of their parents. This is how the earth was to be filled. If Satan could get the first parents, he would inherit their offspring. If Eve would fall for Satan’s suggestion, the human race would become the devil’s property.

It was a critical moment. The spirit would be poised in breathless anticipation. Then it happened! Eve did eat. Moreover, she gave it to Adam. Satan got Adam without a word. The natural force of family devotion captured him without a shot. He was not deceived (1 Timothy 2:14). By a single act, he joined the rebel gang. In addition, since that gang already had a chief, Adam forfeited his position as ruler of the world. When Adam disobeyed, the control of mankind passed to Satan. He is the king of the disobeyers. When the first man forfeited his dominion, Satan became ”god of this world” (2 Corinthians 4:4). He was already a god. Adam’s rebellion simply gave him control of the world.

b. The fall of Adam and the fall of Satan were identical. Both exalted their sovereign wills against the known will of God. The only difference in Adam’s sin verses Satan’s sin, was the fact that Adam’s sin even though deliberate, was not totally defiant against God. Because of Satan’s defiance against His Creator, Jesus and the Father, the majesty of the universe and the Holy Spirit, a plan of salvation could not be given to Satan and his evil host, because they committed the unparable sin. Satan and his forces passed any redemption that could be given; no grace or mercy was left for them, only The Lake of Fire at the end of the thousand years in Heaven and total annilation of all sinners including the Root - Satan and his branches, the wicked of this earth.

No sooner did Adam fall it was announced Satan had an enemy mightier than he. Satan was to meet defeat at the hands of the Seed of the woman. This Seed, It was promised, would “bruise thy head” (Genesis 3:15). Satan’s newly gained kingdom was threatened by a Person Who would arrive in the world via the birth process. This accounts for Satan’s slaughter of the infants when he found Herod a cooperative tool. It also led Satan to think that physical death could destroy Christ.

Satan exercises his control over fallen men by virtue of his dominion over all disobeyers. It is written, “All have sinned and fell short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23), thus all join the gang of which Satan is head. There is no escape from the dominion apart from outside help.

Satan is the author of all evil, sickness and suffering in this present world. He has a hand in the viciousness of the animal kingdom, the pestilence, floods, vegetable blight and tragedy. God uses all these things, even as He uses Satan, to provide the stresses needed to bring His sons to maturity.

(5) Satan’s Blunder

a. Satan really goofed when he engineered the death of the Lord Jesus. He didn’t dream that Christ’s obedience to the Father until death (Philippians 2:8) would provide a righteousness that could release people from satanic control. He thought he was getting rid of his enemy when Jesus died. Too late, he discovered it was an ingenious “escape hatch” out of his kingdom (1 Corinthians 2:7,8).

Remember, when Jesus said, “It is finished,” Satan’s fate was forever sealed and the way opened for mankind to be placed into the kingdom of God (Colossians 1:13,14).

b. When the Lord Jesus rose from the grave, it was demonstrated that man, “born of a woman,” does not die. He ‘brought life and immortality to light” (2 Timothy 1:10). Men could now see that physical death is harmless and life persists after the body ceases to function. The fear of death had been one of Satan’s prime tools in prompting men to get all they could while the getting’s was good. However, if life endures after physical death, God’s promises take on a new look. Lazarus’ experience further certified death’s harmlessness. Satan apparently disbelieved or discounted the resurrection plans.

c. Satan’s fate was again eternally sealed that day. The cross-heralded the end of his kingdom. His days were numbered. If he had any doubts about that, he could read it in the Scriptures for himself. The prophecies dealing with his fate would stand, now that the Son of God validated the Word of God by His resurrection. In the time remaining, Satan takes out his bitterness on mankind. He lives to hurt, with the children of God special objects of his hatred. His way of retaliating against the Lord is laying waste to the lives of God’s people. He prosecutes every opportunity with determination. He knows any loss suffered by Christians in this life is eternal.

d. Satan’s rage mounts as his end approaches. His fury will be greatest when he is cast from the spirit world (Revelation 12). He will be forced to occupy a physical body stripped of his unseen ability to reach and influence the minds of men. He will indwell the body of his selected world ruler and offer himself to mankind as the true God. He will sit in the temple posing as the Most High (2 Thessalonians 2:4), something he coveted from the beginning. His reign will be brief, terminated by the personal appearance of the Lord Jesus and the Father in the Second Coming….

“… whom the Lord shall consume with the Spirit of His mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of His coming” (2 Thessalonians 2:8 KJV).

(6) Satan’s Limitations

a. Inasmuch as Satan blundered by executing the Lord Jesus, it is safe to say he does not have all-knowledge. Paul mentions a hidden wisdom “Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory” (1 Corinthians 2:8). It is certain that Satan knows not the “day nor the hour” of the final revelation. Not even the Son was permitted to know that (Matthew 24:36).

b. Most authors state that Satan is not omnipresent. Yet all agree he has access to people, either directly or indirectly. No one seems to be beyond his reach. However, he is not allowed to make direct attacks upon human bodies, except as he is permitted to engineer circumstances. Those also must be severely limited, since he could use the freeways to get rid of many of us. His blows against our bodies appear to be limited to the power of suggestion and the resulting psychosomatic disorders. When GIVEN PERMISSION by any individual, he is able to possess that person in both mind and body.

c. He is therefore not omnipotent. Obviously he cannot take lives at will otherwise we’d all be dead. Since Christians are the “salt of the earth,” he has good reason to wipe them out. He would if he could. He seems to have power over the elements, the storm on the Sea of Galilee that Jesus rebuked. Destruction is written everywhere in the universe. Death is everywhere. Even bugs, weeds, deadly creatures, and floods appear to be under satanic control. God is hardly the author of the fantastic struggle to survive found in the world.

d. Satan’s contact with the believer is through the OLD NATURE only. He has no access to the NEW NATURE received at salvation. The Christian is ALWAYS FREE to choose between his two natures. Thus, Satan cannot touch the WILL of the believer. Consequently, any CONTROL over the Christian is by permission or individual surrender to him. His influence is limited to the intellectual and emotional pressures he can exert via the old nature. Please keep this fact in mind as you read this study.

If we can agree to this rather sketchy list of facts about Satan, or most of them, we will have a common basis for our focus on his attacks against God’s people. Studies in the background are fascinating. I revel in all the good things available. However, these ideas, selected from the FUND OF KNOWLEDGE will get us started.

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