LESSON 33 – SATAN – HIS WORK AND DESTINY
NO
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STUDY
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TEXTS
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TOPIC BOOK
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33
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Satan – his Work and Destiny
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Revelation 20:1-10
Isaiah 14:12-17
Matthew 4:1-11
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Religion
The Cross and Satan
Satan’s Destiny
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INTRODUCTION
Revelation 20 shows the fact that Satan's destiny is certain is a fact that believers should know and be aware of. When you know your enemy and that you are in a physical war you do not know who is going to win, yourself or the enemy but we do know in the angelic war that God will win. In Revelation 20:1-10 the Tribulation is over and the Lord has returned. Satan has been imprisoned and has no influence on the earth. Therefore the evil which came from him is not present during the Millennium. This is a very important passage for theology and prophecy.
The end of Satan is not that he is bound for a thousand years. It is after his release. At the Second Advent Satan is arrested and put under custody and placed in the bottomless pit. He is locked in Tartarus for the thousand years and is only released again to lead the final rebellion of mankind. He loses and finally is arrested and thrown into the Lake of Fire Lake of Fire
FALSE CONCEPTS ABOUT SATAN
There are false concepts about Satan:
[a] People do not believe that he exists. Some people think that his name is just a personification of evil. He however is a creature created by God.
[b] Others believe that Satan is the cause of all sin. Satan is the author of sin. He is the author of pride, arrogance and rebellion. He is more embarrassed about sin than most people are. Satan's push is not to get Christians and unbelievers to do nasty things. His big push is religion. He does not want people in the gutter. When they are they often realise their need of a Saviour. Satan's biggest push is religion, to encourage people in their self righteousness and so to rob them of the true reality of their sin. Satan seeks all means for people to be deceived into believing that they do not need a Saviour.
DIVINE GOOD - HUMAN GOOD
This policy of evil is Satan's major program, and is running parallel to God's plan of divine good. Satan is a great counterfeiter and is an angel of light but he is evil, and has a theology which he preaches as an alternative to that of God. Satan wants people to be the same as him, to be independent of God. He does not want them in gross sin because then they come to a point in their life when they require help. He wants evil yet respectable people who do not want God in their lives and do not feel desperate enough for help.
Isaiah 14 shows the expressed purpose of Satan, which is to overthrow God, as shown in the five I wills. To this end he will use his huge power and will weaken the nations which made the earth to tremble. He made the earth as a wilderness and destroyed cities. He is absolutely overwhelmed with pride. He wants people to worship him and follow him instead of God. Satan is the founder of false religion.
CHRISTIANITY AND RELIGION
Christianity is not a religion but a relationship with God through Christ. Religion is man trying to impress God by doing good things, saying good things and being respectable. More people are led to hell by religion than by anything else.
Satan would prefer to have people in churches who do not believe that the Bible is the Word of God, that do not believe you need to have faith in Christ to be saved. He would far sooner have people living in a liberal church thinking that they are far better than the fundamentalists. These people are following modern thinkers but they have pride.
People do not realise what total power Satan has in a religious organisation. The hardest opposition that we will have will come from religious people not the pubs. A lot of the people who wear dog collars are on Satan's team. You have to realise where the enemy is. This is shown by the fact that most of the prophets were resisted by the religious group of their days, the priests who were not doing their job, the false prophets that were organizing the Lord's death.
Satan wants people to be like him, self centered and self sufficient. The liberal calls the Lord Jesus Christ, the man Jesus, and say that they know more than He does, so did their father Satan. He thought he knew more than God and still does. Where is he going - to the Lake of Fire. Where are we going, we are going to heaven. His troops are going to join him. When you are being opposed by the religious crowd look at the Word of God and know where they are going. Do not deviate or be humbled by these people. Power the Word out and let the Holy Spirit loose, get people praying for you. The enemy will then slither away.
Every group from the old, now defunct Communists, the Socialists and the WCC which push the idea that you do not need a Saviour indicate the source of their thoughts. Satan has a strategy. Satan's religion is a humanly acceptable one, no salvation, no hell, no sin, no judgment. Analyze the theology that you come across. If they are not talking about sin, judgment, and say that any Saviour will do, and there is no hell, then they are in the camp of the enemy.
Many pastors in the church are helping Satan in this policy, knowingly or unknowingly. His policy to the unbeliever is to blind the minds of them whilst to believers it is to confuse them.
There are many false issues and sidetracks, the KJV only group is a side track as it gets the focus off Christ and gets them out of churches where God has blessed them and splits believers who would have otherwise walked together in the gospel.
Anything that does that is not from God but from the enemy. Satan promotes pride and legalism, idolatry. He is a counterfeit right the way through leading people on the wide way to destruction and for making things easy. God standard is to take his yoke upon us and learn of Him. Satan's people are generally popular whereas God's people are not. However we know our destiny.
OTHER SATANIC STRATEGIES
Satan has supplementary strategies. He is in power and politics. The temptation of the Lord is indicative of this. Satan's push was to avoid the cross and take the crown without the Cross. Satan said that he would make the Lord the ruler of the world. The temptation of the Lord was to accept the counterfeit and become religious rather than spiritual.
He still wants Christian churches to be religious rather than spiritual, anything as long as they are not walking in the power of the Holy Spirit in holiness and truth. There will be great temptation from the enemy’s people, for you not to teach the Word in the way that you do. They will say not to preach on sin because people are made nervous. Remember, you cannot have one foot in both camps. God will discipline you if you are half and half. Teach the Word and chase the apostate out of the church. Get some prayer warriors for support and preach the word. God will replace those who have left or the Lord will lead you to a place where you are able to teach the Word without opposition within. Do not compromise with the devil or his people; either leave the apostates with their empty building, or preach them out of it.
The Charismatic’s are all too often being used by the liberals, who are being used by Satan. We have known Catholic, Anglican, Presbyterian, and Uniting church ministers, who do not believe God's Word; to love having Charismatic’s in their church as they add life to what would otherwise be dead. They try to feed them false doctrine and slowly undermine their biblical faith and so spiritually kill them, and all too often succeed. If you stay in a place which has false doctrine for long enough you will go under. You must, as a bible believing pastor rescue the Lord’s sheep from the false teachers and get them to a place where they can grow.
THE CROSS AND SATAN
The Cross deals with Satan's certain final defeat. The Cross is God's grace provision. Teach the Cross and let the spirit destroy the pride in man. Teach Bible doctrine systematically. This is the only thing that destroys Satan's lies. Cults go out on Sunday’s looking for people who know a little bit about the Bible but not enough to tell it from the counterfeit. Every time you teach the Word you are inoculating them against evil.
You need to teach at Gods Word a number of times a week, maybe an adult Bible study before church, the morning and evening church service and the mid week meeting. All of it should be systematic teaching. Saturate God's people in God's Word.
Satan hates the message of the cross and empty tomb; you teach this every time the doors open! He hates the truth, but your job is to keep on teaching the truth. Teach systematically and often. The sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God is your weapon against Satan. Let the Spirit loose through the Word and Satan will flee from you. If you find someone who loves the Lord teach them the Word. Help them on with their armour. You are going to build them up and they will stand with you. If your church grows you have a whole lot of people standing with you. The fruit of the Spirit is one thing that Satan cannot counterfeit and stand. When meeting people who you are doubtful of always ask, what is their fruit? People may be able to do miracles, raise the dead and do other things that are amazing but may still be using the wrong power.
DOCTRINES
RELIGION
1. Satan's religion is a humanly acceptable one: no sin, no judgment, no Saviour and no Hell. Satan appears as an angel of light. (2 Corinthians 11:13-19, 26)
2. Many pastors in the churches are servants of Satan's policy, knowingly or unknowingly. (Isaiah 30:12, Jeremiah 2:8, 2 Peter 2:1-10)
3. Satan's strategy towards unbelievers is to keep them blinded to the gospel. (2 Corinthians 4:3-4, Colossians 2:8, 2 Thessalonians 2:9-10)
4. Satan's strategy towards believers is:-
a) To confuse by false teaching. (Matthew 7:15, Romans 16:18)
b) To appeal to pride. (2 Corinthians 10:12)
c) To promote idolatry. (Habakkuk 2:18, 19)
d) To promote legalism. (1 Timothy 1:7-8)
5. Satan's policy calls for counterfeit faith:-
a) Counterfeit gospel. (2 Corinthians 11:3-4)
b) Counterfeit pastors. (2 Corinthians 11:13-15)
c) Counterfeit communion. (1 Corinthians 10:19-21)
d) Counterfeit doctrine. (2 Timothy 4:1)
e) Counterfeit righteousness. (Matthew 19:16-28)
f) Counterfeit way of life. (Matthew 23)
g) Counterfeit power. (2 Thessalonians 2:8-10)
h) Counterfeit gods. (2 Thessalonians 2:3-4)
THE CROSS AND SATAN
SATAN’S DESTINY
1. Satan is called a "prince" indicating that he had his own power and followers. (John 12:31, 14:30, 16:11, Ephesians 2:2, 2 Corinthians 4:4)
2. Yet he is still a creature, and is still ultimately subject to God (Job 1:12)
3. At the cross, Christ defeated Satan, as his main power was through sin and death. (John 12:27-32, Romans 5:12, 1 Corinthians 15:54-56, Colossians 2:14-15, Hebrews 2:14-15
4. God purpose with the world is not yet complete - therefore the enforcement of Satan's defeat will not take place until the end of the Millennium (Hebrews 1:13, Revelation 20:10)
5. Satan's final judgment is sure:-
a) When he fell he was condemned, this was before (Genesis 1:2).
b) In the garden the certainty of God's judgment was announced. (Genesis 3:15)
c) The Cross was his final defeat. (John 12:31, Colossians 2:14-15)
d) In the midst of the Great Tribulation his access to heaven will be stopped. He will no longer be able to slander believers. (Revelation 12 :7-12)
e) At the Second Advent he is arrested and bound. (Revelation 20:1-3)
f) After the Millennium he is briefly released to lead the last great rebellion against God, and is finally cast into the Lake of Fire
g) There are therefore four falls of Satan
i) from his place in eternity past to the earth with access to heaven.
ii) then that access is denied causing him to be restricted to the Earth.
iii) he is then contained in Hades for a thousand years.
iv) then his final fall into the Lake of Fire
6. Satan has six abodes in his journey from the throne room of God to the Lake of Fire
a) The Throne of God - Ezekiel 28:12
b) The Mineral Garden
c) The Atmospheric Heavens - Ephesians 2:2, 6:12
d) The Earth - Revelation 12:7-12
e) The Abyss - Revelation 20:1-3
f) The Lake of Fire
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