THAT I MAY KNOW HIM (Phil. 3:10) The Doctrine of Satan We have no greater enemy than Satan. As we shall see, he has no difficulty in making sin look innocent. Calvin described him as an acute theologian. William Gurnall describes how the devil stops the ear from hearing sound doctrine before he opens it to embrace corrupt, and how he sometimes borrows God s bow to shoot his arrows from. Thomas Brooks wrote, Satan promises the best, but pays with the worst; he promises honour and pays with disgrace; he promises pleasure and pays with pain; he promises profit and pays with loss; he promises life, and pays with death. Within Christianity, there have always been those who minimize his impact, or even doubt his existence, but D.L. Moody put it simply, I believe Satan to exist for two reasons: first, the Bible says so; and second, I ve done business with him. Indeed, we have all done business with the devil. He is involved in our lives. He is involved in our church. He is involved in our families. He is involved in our world. He is trying to destroy our faith in the Lord Jesus. He is trying to distract and derail us. He is trying to dismantle our witness until there is nothing left. It is his purpose to destroy every vestige of Biblical Christianity. The Book of Job is the oldest book in the Bible, chronologically-speaking. Job lived during the times of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in what is known as the patriarchal period. In Job 1:6 we read, Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them. By this time, Satan had been cast out of Heaven but he continued to be required to appear before God. 7 And the LORD said unto Satan, Whence comest thou? God knew exactly where he had come from, but nevertheless, Satan has to give a personal account of himself to God Then Satan answered the LORD, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it. 8 And the LORD said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth [shuns] evil? 7 9 Then Satan answered the LORD, and said, Doth Job fear God for nought? 10 Hast not thou made an hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every side? thou hast blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land. You are protecting him, and I can t get at him 11 But put forth thine hand now, and touch all that he hath, and he will curse thee to thy face.
2 And for God s own purposes He permitted His glory to be portrayed through the sufferings of this most faithful and devout servant, Job 12 And the LORD said unto Satan, Behold, all that he hath is in thy power; only upon himself put not forth thine hand. So Satan went forth from the presence of the Lord. And this conflict with humanity has neither ceased nor lessened. We sometimes say the world is getting worse, and to a degree, it is easy to understand the sentiments behind that statement but the world is getting worse not because Satan is getting stronger the world is getting worse because, - with the greatest population ever, - he has more to do his bidding! That is why it seems to be getting worse, - with a larger population, he can do more evil! And he is the ultimate enemy with whom every saint throughout every age has had to contend. In fact, there are only four chapters in the Bible that have nothing to do with the devil, - Gen. 1 &2 and Rev. 21 & 22 they are devil-free, and in both cases, it is paradise. Every other chapter in Scripture contains something to do with Satan and his opposition to God. He is the embodiment of evil, and the word Satan itself means adversary. He is sometimes hostile, but he is at his most dangerous when he wears the mask of friendliness and charm. He promotes filthiness and sin in the most appealing ways. He makes himself desirable. For example, he presents the attractions of drinking and partying, but doesn t mention the alcoholics lying vomiting in the streets, or the broken homes their lifestyle often produces. He has redefined the concept of love into something sordid and seedy. He is far from a comic individual. He is a living, active, violent, disruptive, dishonest, deceptive, and cunning parasite and he is running and ruining this world, - it is a nonsense that ought to be accompanied with embarrassment if anyone was to say he s bound, for he s not because, - on the authority of God s Word, - he is like a roaring lion, [who] walketh about, seeking whom he may devour (I Peter 5:8). He is not simply an influence, or some sort of ethereal presence. Neither is he a human being but he is a person for he is a spirit, just as real as God is, as Christ is, and as the Holy Spirit is. He was involved in every stage of conflict with God and God s people. He is dangerous for he tried to stop the Israelites reaching the Promised Land, and he tried to stop them remaining in the land by using all the surrounding enemies and he is determined for he continues to try to do the exact same, even today! He tried to stop the preaching of the Gospel. He tried to stop its advance, - he could not manage it! He is trying to stop it today also, - and he will not be successful either!
3 He feared Christ, as we see, - for example, - when Satan s demons tried to escape from Him, only to be sent into the Gadarene swine and run headlong over the side of the cliff. They recognised Him as they cried with a loud voice, and said, What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of the most high God? (Mk. 5:7). The devil spoke to Jesus and Jesus spoke to him, - it was a person-toperson conversation, - and Jesus condemned him. Where did he come from? Well, he came from somewhere for he has not always been, - he is not eternal, like God. He began for he was created. Who created him? Obviously since God created all things, God created him and when God created him he was not evil, but perfect for everything God created was good and perfect, Jn. 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 The same was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. So, since he is evil, it is something that happened following God s creation? Yes, and Jesus described it, Lk. 10:18 I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven. Originally, he enjoyed the presence of God. To discover what happened to him we turn to Is. 14 where the immediate text relates to Isaiah prophesying judgment on the kingdom of Babylon (v.4), the first of the world empires, 4 That thou shalt take up this proverb against the king of Babylon, and say, How hath the oppressor ceased! the golden city ceased! 5 The LORD hath broken the staff of the wicked, and the sceptre of the rulers. 6 He who smote the people in wrath with a continual stroke, he that ruled the nations in anger, is persecuted, and none hindereth. This, - the prophesied fall of Babylon, - was welcome news to the Israelites, and, in v.11 the theme is developed, Thy pomp is brought down to the grave, and the noise of thy viols: the worm is spread under thee, and the worms cover thee. Then, from out of the prophecy initially relating to Babylon comes an important development, 12 How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! [or as Jesus put it in Lk. 10:18, Satan as lightning fall from heaven] how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! What is the connection between Babylon and Lucifer?! The king of Babylon is the epitome, - the representation, - of the defiled Satan as is exemplified by the origins of Babylon/Babel in Gen. 11 when the nations aspired after building a tower up to Heaven to replace and unseat God That is how this prophecy against the equally-deluded Lucifer is developed out of the prophecy against the king of Babylon... In Is. 14 the reality of the king of Babylon progresses into the reality of Satan.
4 This was a common form of progressing a prophetic theme in the Old Testament, for example, David relates his burden and suffering in Ps. 22 which then develops into the burden and suffering of the Lord Jesus on the cross In Isaiah 14, the prophecy which relates to the king of Babylon develops prophetically to Lucifer, who is Satan. Lucifer, - the son of the morning/dawn (v.12), - decided on a takeover bid of Heaven, Is. 14:13 For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: 14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High. But God responded, No you won t and He drove him out! A similar scene is presented in Ezekiel 28 where Ezekiel is initially prophesying against the King of Tyre, 1 The word of the LORD came again unto me, saying, 2 Son of man, say unto the prince of Tyrus, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Because thine heart is lifted up, and thou hast said, I am a God, I sit in the seat of God, in the midst of the seas; yet thou art a man, and not God, though thou set thine heart as the heart of God: 3 Behold, thou art wiser than Daniel; there is no secret that they can hide from thee: 4 With thy wisdom and with thine understanding thou hast gotten thee riches, and hast gotten gold and silver into thy treasures: 5 By thy great wisdom and by thy traffick hast thou increased thy riches, and thine heart is lifted up because of thy riches: 6 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Because thou hast set thine heart as the heart of God; 7 Behold, therefore I will bring strangers upon thee, the terrible of the nations: and they shall draw their swords against the beauty of thy wisdom, and they shall defile thy brightness. 8 They shall bring thee down to the pit, and thou shalt die the deaths of them that are slain in the midst of the seas. 9 Wilt thou yet say before him that slayeth thee, I am God? but thou shalt be a man, and no God, in the hand of him that slayeth thee. 10 Thou shalt die the deaths of the uncircumcised by the hand of strangers: for I have spoken it, saith the Lord GOD. Then, as God had done in Is. 14, He goes from prophesying against the earthly king, - the king of Tyre, - to the source of the king of Tyre s aspirations, Ezek. 28:11 Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, 12 Son of man, take up a lamentation upon the king of Tyrus, and say unto him, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty. 13 Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God Now, we know the king of Tyre was never in Eden, so this has to be a reference to someone else 13 Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created. 14 Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so: thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire. That is the Lucifer in Isaiah 14
5 Ezek. 28:15 Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee. 16 By the multitude of thy merchandise they have filled the midst of thee with violence, and thou hast sinned: therefore I will cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God: and I will destroy thee, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire. 17 Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty, thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness God created him perfect but the pride which developed out of the depraved nature within the chief of the angels brought him rebel against God and he has been in rebellion ever since. No matter how much of a rebel he is, though, he remains subject to God. He is only allowed to do that which God permits him to do, - he does not have free rein! Again, we could use the picture of the roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. In the Roman theatre Christians were herded into the centre and the lions were freed from their cages. Now, those lions were free to do whatever they liked within the confines of that restricted area but they were not free to harm any of the people anywhere else The devil, - like the lions, - is subject to God. He is in open rebellion against the sovereignty of God, but he is still subject to it. He is not bound, but neither is he free to do what he likes! He is not omnipotent, for he is not all-powerful. He is not omniscient, for he is not all-knowing. And neither is he omnipresent, - he walks to and fro throughout the earth (Job 1:7; 2:2) but he is not everywhere, as God is. He is not God and he never will be!! But every time something goes wrong, is it not the devil behind it making it go wrong? Well, since the devil cannot be everywhere, - and we must not give him any more credit than we need to, for only God can be everywhere, - sometimes it s the devil s demons that bother us, and sometimes it is our depraved human nature. Behind it all though, the underlying source is Satan. Yes, he is subtle. When he fell he lost his innocence, but he didn t lose his intelligence. A.W. Tozer described him as a better theologian than any of us! He has no difficulty in making sin look innocent, and he knows all about how God works and thinks, as Jonathan Edwards said, The devil was educated in the best divinity school in the universe [i.e. God s presence in Heaven]. Eve was deceived by theology but the wrong theology. Paul warns how, - especially in the end times, - there will be an increasing form of godliness
6 (euvse,beia, reverence, respect towards God) (II Tim. 3:5). It will become so loose it will deny His inherent power, - in other words, there will be an increase in wrong theology unbiblical and man-centred theology. If it is there to serve us, it is a wrong theology for the only right theology is the one that focuses on the glory of God. And Paul emphasised, Eph. 6:12 we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. That is referring to the demonic realm! While the devil is not all-powerful, he is still powerful. While he is not allknowing, he still knows more than you and I do. While he is not all-present, he is able through his principalities, and powers to pursue God s people in every corner of this globe. And above and beyond any other target, it is God s people he has in his sights. He is anti-christ, and he is anti-god, and he is anti the people of God, including the Jews and yet, he is all for becoming involved in religion generally but in the Church particularly. He is anti-gospel but he has never let go of religion, and the religion he festered and festers is blooming today. To a great degree, he has infiltrated the church right across the world. He has managed to settle himself, - as it were, into the temple of God, showing himself as if he is God. That is not only a future aspect of prophecy for he has been doing that right from the beginning! And it is him who is causing confusion within Christianity, hampering God s people, minimising their witness, and pouring doubt on the Word of God. He is busy, and getting busier as the return of Christ approaches. Obviously, he does not know the exact date when Christ is coming back but he knows the Scriptures and he can read and understand the signs so he knows it is not too far away! As a consequence, he has never been busier than he is today for these are dangerous times when he is trying to sway and distract God s people but we have an Intercessor Who is praying for us, that Satan will not have us and that is why Satan is not riding out of control within and among the churches for just as the Lord Jesus had prayed for Peter, - Lk. 22:31 Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat, - the Saviour is interceding on behalf of every individual believer.
7 However, while the devil is not bound, neither is he free to do what he likes for if he was free to do what he likes, this world would be totally out of control. Imagine a world in which God would be absent. Imagine a world from which the Holy Spirit would be removed Perhaps you find it difficult Well, consider this take a look at Syria, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, North Korea, the former USSR and Albania ( just to mention a few) nations that tried and are trying to outlaw the Name of Christ and what thoroughly evil places they are! That is what the world would be like if Satan got his way. Christians would be destroyed. Bibles would be burned. Preaching would not be allowed. That is what the world would be like if it was handed over to Satan But that will never be, because God will not allow it for He will never relinquish His authority. Whatever Christ is doing in the church, Satan is always trying to oppose Him and Satan knows how to do it, but he is confined within the sovereign will of Almighty God. His greatest defeat of course, - up until now, - was at the cross. He was powerless to stop it happening. The blood Jesus shed for the salvation of the saints sounded the death knell on Satan and his plans. He is defeated, although he continues to battle. He will not give up until the defining moment in God s plan when he is dealt with irrevocably. He cannot reverse Christ s victory, he cannot undo what Jesus did at Calvary, he cannot upset God s plan, and he cannot change what God is going to do to him. He will prove to be a failure for he cannot overturn God and His purposes. The story is told of Napoleon planning how to conquer the world. He stood in front of a large map, and painted a red dot on England, and he told his generals, If it wasn t for that red dot, I could conquer the world And if it was not for the red dot of the blood of Christ, the devil would conquer the world. As we conclude he seems to be in control but, - as we say, - it is only loaned to him. The world unsuspectingly is doing his bidding. God has handed them over, and the devil has taken them in hook, line and sinker. Satan was indeed dealt the greatest of defeats at Calvary, but he s not finished yet as is obvious all around us. Prophecy teaches he will come to full power (Rev. 13), and mid-way through his reign, - which will begin by being so successful and so popular in just about every area of life, - he will drastically change and vent what will seem like an unassailable attack upon God s people. Powerful as he will portray himself, at the specified time in God s plan, God will send an angel from Heaven Rev. 20:1 And I saw an angel come
8 down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. 2 And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, 3 And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled Consider the forcefulness behind each of those emphases he will be laid hold of, bound, cast into the bottomless pit, shut up, sealed in for the one thousand years During that one thousand years, he will not be able to peddle his power and influence, - there will still be evil, but Satan as its main protagonist will be incarcerated in God s prison, as Is. 24 also indicates, 21 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the LORD shall punish the host of the high ones that are on high, and the kings of the earth upon the earth. 22 And they shall be gathered together, as prisoners are gathered in the pit, and shall be shut up in the prison 23 when the LORD of hosts shall reign in mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, and before his ancients gloriously. During that period of one thousand years, the Gospel preaching will extend in unparalleled mighty power from Jerusalem, as the centre (e.g. Is. 2 and Micah 4) and Satan will not be present to stop it! And then at the end of that one thousand years period, Satan will be loosed Rev. 20:3 and after that he must be loosed a little season... In fact, it is so important it is repeated, 7 And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, and he will unleash all the forces of Hell one final time, 8 And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea. 9 And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them [cf. Zech. 14:3 Then shall the LORD go forth, and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle]. 10 And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are [Rev. 19:20], and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever. And that is where he will be for all eternity! The destroyer will suffer eternal and never-ending destruction! In these days, that is how we are to be confident for we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us (Rom. 8:37), and we know how the story ends and we know Who wins! The devil knows what the Word of God teaches. He may try to ignore or avoid it but I believe he knows, - from past experience he can do neither. What remains for him though, is to do as much damage to the cause of Christ and of God as he possibly can, within God s sovereign will. And that is where it is imperative for God s people to remain strong in the Lord, for every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure (I Jn. 3:3).
Satan s days are numbered! God has the countdown clock ticking! And it doesn t matter where the devil will be hiding when Christ appears for he will not be able to conceal himself. He will be a miserable failure crouched pathetically for fear of the Lord. As we noticed at the beginning of our study, the devil does not feature in the final two chapters of Scripture and that is because God is all-victorious, and He worketh all things after the counsel of his own will unto the praise of his glory (Eph. 1:11,14). Amen. 9