Gospel of John [16:12-15]. The Doctrine of the HS, part 64 - Satan. 1Pe 5:8; Isa 14:17; 61:1; 1Co 7:5.

Title: Gospel of John [16:12-15]. The Doctrine of the HS, part 64 - Satan. 1PE 5:8; ISA 14:17; 61:1; 1CO 7:5.

 

Announcements/opening prayer: 

 

 

Christians are exhorted to be alert to Satan's desire to devour.

 

1PE 5:6 Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time,

 

1PE 5:7 casting all your anxiety upon Him, because He cares for you.

 

1PE 5:8 Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls about like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.

 

1PE 5:9 But resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world.

 

1PE 5:10 And after you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you.

 

1PE 5:11 To Him be dominion forever and ever. Amen.

 

In Eze 28 he is depicted as the king of Tyre. Tyre was the merchant city of the ancient world, as was Babylon the Great. This emphasis suggests the promotion of the world's ideal of success. As in the world today, to leave everything here and take nothing into the next world is deemed success, but to leave nothing here and take all into the next world is failure. Tyre is the symbol of a mammon-loving world.

 

As long as man's sins were not taken to the cross mankind would remain a captive of Satan.

 

ISA 14:13 "But you said in your heart,

'I will ascend to heaven;

I will raise my throne above the stars of God,

And I will sit on the mount of assembly

In the recesses of the north.

 

ISA 14:14 'I will ascend above the heights of the clouds;

I will make myself like the Most High.'

 

ISA 14:15 "Nevertheless you will be thrust down to Sheol,

To the recesses of the pit.

 

ISA 14:16 "Those who see you will gaze at you,

They will ponder over you, saying,

'Is this the man who made the earth tremble,

Who shook kingdoms,

 

ISA 14:17 Who made the world like a wilderness

And overthrew its cities,

Who did not allow his prisoners to go home?'

 

However, in referring to what Christ would do by His sacrifice, the same prophet speaks of a release of the captives.

 

The same passage was read by Christ in his home synagogue when He began His ministry.

 

ISA 61:1 The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me,

Because the Lord has anointed me

To bring good news to the afflicted;

He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,

To proclaim liberty to captives,

And freedom to prisoners;

 

ISA 61:2 To proclaim the favorable year of the Lord,

 

The next line in the prophecy concerns the Second Coming.

 

This is beyond the world and human governments because those who are imprisoned are guilty. The bondage of the human race came from the sentence against its head Adam. We are not only bondslaves of sin, but are in bondage to the evil one who energizes the sons of disobedience, EPH 2:2.

 

The Jewish woman who was bent double for eighteen long years is a type of this. How blessed she was to know that her long sickness was used by God to teach this most wonderful principle.

 

LUK 13:16

"And this woman, a daughter of Abraham as she is, whom Satan has bound for eighteen long years, should she not have been released from this bond on the Sabbath day?"

 

Satan is offended that a plan of salvation has been put in to action by which his victims can be rescued and lifted to heights of glory to which no angel will ever attain.

 

Satan promotes independence from God in a self-directed life. Man is in need of divine guidance. When rejected man is attempting to fulfill his satanic desire to resemble God.

 

We were not given a guidance system.

 

JER 10:23

I know, O Lord, that a man's way is not in himself;

Nor is it in a man who walks to direct his steps.

 

There is little wonder at the bulk of misery in this world when it is recognized that almost every human life is lived without any conscious reliance upon God. How independence inflicts anguish on fallen angels is not revealed.

 

There is one source of truth and that is God. His way is the only way of truth. To continue with Him in the course He has designed, is the highest destiny possible for any creature.

 

Satan attacks physical tenderness in marriage so that one or both of the spouses will feel deprived of an innate desire for warm, amorous, tender, affection.

 

1CO 7:5 Stop depriving one another, except by agreement for a time that you may devote yourselves to prayer, and come together again lest Satan tempt you because of your lack of self-control.

 

God has made the family to be the bedrock of any nation, especially a client nation. The family depends upon the devotion of the husband and wife to one another in divine establishment for the unbeliever and in divine love and divine virtue for believers. Every person has been given a desire for warm, amorous, tender affection. By perverting the sexual relationship in a society Satan attempts to deny mankind of this fulfillment so that they will be easily tempted, looking beyond Christ, beyond the graciously given spouse, and into the world for fulfillment, and in which it does not exist. The temptation doesn't just come from illicit sexual relationships or fantasies, though it often does, but also from anything that is offered to fulfill this desire. This is not to mean that everyone or every believer has to get married, but few have a genuine gift of celibacy. If a believer is single he must trust God to fulfill this desire in his relationship with Christ, waiting for the perfect timing of God. The high divorce rate and amount of sexual perversion, premarital sex, fornication, and adultery reveals that Satan has been very successful in deceiving mankind into a way of thinking that only denies this basic need. It's not just sex or the sexual act but the tenderness, warmness, affection with complete vulnerability between two members of the opposite sex who have devoted their lives to one another. People who sleep around never get that and they continue on the hunt for it when they don't even know where it is. It has been graciously given by God from the beginning.

 

After stating that it was not good for the man to be alone, God said:

 

GEN 2:20

For this cause a man shall leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave to his wife; and they shall become one flesh.

 

It is significant that this is quoted by Christ when asked about divorce by the Pharisees and also by Paul when using Christian marriage as an illustration for the relationship between Christ and the Church.

 

Denying a spouse of this for whatever petty reason is to increase the temptation of that spouse to his/her greatest enemy. For sure, there are reasons for separation as in physical abuse or abandonment, but that is between the victim and God.

 

For all of us, this has been supplied by our Lord Jesus Christ and it will not exist in Christian marriage without Him, for it demands sacrifice, denial of the trends of the OSN through the power of the Holy Spirit, and virtue love. It is perhaps the greatest witness of Christ on the earth if both spouses become invisible heroes. While single we fulfill this need through Christ alone. For He was put to sleep on the cross when He gave up His spirit, and His side was pierced so that the flow of blood and water [atonement, forgiveness, and cleansing] would come to His bride, the Church, in essence, made from His rib, the fulfillment of Him who fills all and who is in all. It was not good for the man to be alone but no believer is alone, for he is the bride of Christ.