Sermon: Satan

Description: In this introductory sermon of the Satan series, John Ritenbaugh explains the origins of our foremost adversary, Satan the Devil. And his host of fallen angels or demons (Revelation 12:3-12; Isaiah 14:12-15; Ezekiel 28:12-19). In our precarious situation of sharing a prison cell with these formidable wicked spirits, we need to take heart in: 1) the tremendous numerical advantage of the good over the evil angels; 2) the hopeless division in the demon world, preventing them from "getting their act together"; 3) as with Job, God has set limits on Satan's ability to harass us (Job 2:6); and 4) God has provided us with adequate spiritual armor to withstand the wiles of the Devil (Ephesians 6:10-12). Even though with our own limited strength, we could be easily annihilated, God has promised us protection if we yield to Him and keep His commandments.

We're going to be dealing with a subject today that we are very familiar with, and on the other hand, frequently, woefully ignorant of. The original motivation for this sermon came for an article by Mr. Herbert Armstrong, which appeared in the August 28, 1978 issue of The Good News Magazine. It was entitled "What You May Not Know."

It covers some principles that we need from time to time to review, or in some cases, cover for the very first time. The article was about Satan and his deceptions. Humanly, we have a tendency to go to extremes about him. Either we blame him for everything (Flip Wilson and "The devil made me do it"), thus absolving ourselves, or the other extreme is to ignore him, and thus become easy prey for him.

The answer is somewhere in between, with Satan, assuredly, being the unseen influence responsible for a major portion of man's troubles, not because he made us do things, but because we are ignorant of or careless in regard to him and we thus do his bidding.

Of major concern to us is that baptism and the receiving of God's Holy Spirit do not exclude us from Satan's influence. Indeed it may intensify it (and probably does so) because he then pays a great deal more attention to us. I want us to understand, as we lay the foundation here, that when I say Satan, I am usually also including his vast army of demons as well.

One of Satan's masterstrokes of deception has been to succeed in getting most of the world educated to believe that he doesn't even exist—that he is merely used in the Bible as a symbol or a figurative emblem to explain the presence of evil. But the Bible, on the other hand, shows him not only to exist, but also to be the chief of a huge army bent on destroying God's plan.

Revelation 12:3-4, 9 And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great, fiery red dragon having seven heads and ten horns, and seven diadems on his heads. His tail drew a third of the stars [notice stars] of heaven and threw them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was ready to give birth, to devour her Child as soon as it was born. . . So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan [there he is identified], who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.

In verse 4, stars is used—a symbol of angels—and we find that the angels were cast out with him and the devil and his angels were cast to the earth. We have insight here of a major battle that took place in heaven and that Satan and his angels lost it, and they were cast to the earth. Unfortunately, that's where we live.

Revelation 12:12-13 "Therefore rejoice, O heavens, and you who dwell in them! Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and the sea! For the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, because he knows that he has a short time." Now when the dragon saw that he had been cast to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male Child.

Revelation 1:20 "The mystery of the seven stars which you saw in My right hand, and the seven golden lampstands: The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands which you saw are the seven churches."

Revelation 9:1-2 Then the fifth angel sounded: and I saw a star fallen from heaven to the earth. To him was given the key to the bottomless pit. And he opened the bottomless pit, and smoke arose out of the pit like the smoke of a great furnace. So the sun and the air were darkened because of the smoke of the pit.

Here we continue on our explanation of what has occurred on this earth long before us. Another step is clarified in regard to the positions that the angels (or demons, if we want to call them that) are holding at this time.

It's interesting that in Greek mythology, Tartarus was the lowest hell. It is described as being so far below Hades that it was as far below Hades as heaven is high above the earth. So, at least in Greek mythology, we can understand that these angels were cast so far down—you might say they would be out of sight. They would be in a place of restraint from which you would think they would never be able to crawl out. Again in mythology, Tartarus was the place where the Titans (who rebelled against Zeus) were restrained.

What God is trying to get across here is that the angels have been cast down—cast down from heaven, down to the earth, as Revelation 12 very clearly shows. We find that the earth is a place of restraint for them—that it is a prison. To add to that imagery, you see the words in the New King James "chains of darkness." This just emphasizes or amplifies the thought that Peter is getting across to us. The demons are in a place of restraint.

There is some disagreement among the scholars as to whether Peter used the word that is translated here "chains" or "silo." Almost every one of us understands what a silo is. It is a long, cylindrical object in which grain is stored. To the Greek, a silo was an underground pit—something dug in to the ground in which grain (after the harvest season) was stored. Whether it's a chain or it's a silo it doesn't matter. God is trying to get across to us that the demons have been restrained.

The idea is that they are being restrained because they are facing judgment. Unfortunately for you and me (maybe I shouldn't use the word unfortunately), they are restrained in the place where we live! The earth is the silo. The earth is the storage bin. We are sharing this place with them. And, as they would look on it, we are the intruders into their space. Isn't that interesting? We are the invaders.

This clarifies something that we only saw a part of in Revelation 12 and II Peter 2. Another piece of the picture is added and we find that the angels did not keep their proper domain. That can also be translated, "They did not keep their positions of authorities." It shows that God assigned them a stipulated responsibility, a set place, but they left it.

Now the pieces are beginning to fall together, and that is, the set place, the stipulated responsibilities were on the earth. They left it. They mounted up an attack against God in heaven. They were defeated; they were cast down and the place that they were originally given, the place of their domain, instead becomes a prison, a place of restraint.

Let's go back to Ezekiel. I think most of you are familiar enough to understand that Ezekiel 28 goes back and forth within its context between the king of Tyre and another personality that is going to be introduced in the sermon in just a bit named the covering cherub, or the anointed cherub.

Ezekiel 28:12-13 "Son of man, take up a lamentation for the king of Tyre, and say to him, 'Thus says the Lord God: "You were the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone was your covering: the sardius, topaz, and diamond, beryl, onyx, and jasper, sapphire, turquoise, and emerald with gold. The workmanship of your timbrels and pipes was prepared for you on the day you were created."

We're dealing with a very unusual being of very great beauty, which was in the Garden of Eden. He had precious stones as part of his covering. I take that to mean they were part of the clothing that adorned him. He was a created being, not one who was born. In addition to that, he was full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. Obviously, God is not speaking of a human being. This personage was the sum total of all that God could create by fiat and put into a living being. In verse 14, He identifies him more clearly.

Ezekiel 28:14 "You were the anointed cherub who covers; I established you; you were on the holy mountain of God; you walked back and forth in the midst of fiery stones. You were perfect in your ways from the day you were created, till iniquity was found in you."

Isaiah 14:12-15 "How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground, you who weakened the nations! For you have said in your heart: 'I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation on the farthest sides of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High.' Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol, to the lowest depths of the pit."

Isn't it clear how all of this fits together now, especially with those verses that we saw in Peter and in Jude; how clear it becomes when putting this together with Revelation 12, that what occurred was that God assigned the angels to the earth, that they were under their commander, Lucifer, who was the sum total of all that God could create by fiat and cram into a created being; that he was perfect in his ways until iniquity was found in him. We see a picture of a being of awesome beauty, of awesome power, of tremendous intelligence, also though a creature of free moral agency.

Something happened to that great being and he began a campaign of deceit. He began to separate from God a number of the angels, undoubtedly using the reasoning that they should have more; that God should treat them better; that God was being unfair; that they didn't have the liberty, the freedom or the power that was due them, because he said, "I will be like the Most High."

There are some commentators who say that what the Hebrew says in reality is, "I will be God;" not just like God, but I will be God. You can see what he wanted. He wanted to have complete power, authority, and control. He did not want to be under another. He did not want to be submissive. He did not want another being pulling his strings or controlling him.

He wanted to sit, as it were, on the mount of the congregation. So he said, "I will make war. I will ascend into heaven." So they left their first estate. They left the realm of their authority and they mounted up a war and attacked God, but were defeated and they were cast down. Their first domain became a place of restraint, a silo, a pit. They were now chained there, giving an indication that as a result of their rebellion, they no longer had the liberty that they had previously, but were now held in restraint. A great deal of their free moral agency was taken away from them.

Like a great lightning bolt streaking out of the sky, this brilliant angel, shining with all of his glory (glory that had been given to him by God) was cast to the earth. Where did he fall? He fell right where we are and now we have to deal with him.

What are we up against? I hope that when I get done with this next section in this sermon in laying the foundation, that you will not be depressed or frightened. But I think that it's necessary for us to deal with the reality of one aspect of the situation. I don't think that God wants us to hide from these things. Once you begin to see what is arrayed against us, you are going to know that it is by grace that we are saved. If we had to fight Satan and his demons without God being on our side, we would lose in the blink of an eye. It would be that one-sided.

Let's go to the book of Daniel. After watching the awesome vision that Daniel had been given of the four beasts, I am sure that Daniel was pretty much traumatized. So God gave him a peek into something, I am sure in order to encourage him, to bolster him, to help him to understand what was going for Daniel, and (you might say) Daniel's side.

Daniel 7:9-10 "I watched till thrones were put in place, and the Ancient of Days was seated; His garment was white as snow, and the hair of His head was like pure wool. His throne was a fiery flame, its wheels a burning fire [Daniel had a vision right into the very throne room of the universe, where God Himself was seated and ruling everything that He has created.]; a fiery stream issued and came forth from before Him. A thousand thousands ministered to Him; ten thousand times ten thousand stood before Him. The court was seated, and the books were opened."

I went to this because I want us to have some sort of an idea of the number of demons that there might be. You will recall that in Revelation 12, the dragon dragged with him one-third of the stars of heaven, that is, he got aligned with him, won the loyalty of, one-third of the angels.

Whether these were one-third that were scattered between earth and heaven, or whether this was the one-third that maybe he had been assigned by God to help him to govern, to develop, to use the earth in the way that God intended, I do not know. I only know the indication is from Revelation 12 that one-third of the angels went with him.

There are two ways that we can go about this: number one is that here in verse 10 where it says, "A thousand thousands ministered to him and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before Him. The court was seated and the book were opened." I think we need to understand that I don't think God intended these be exact figures. But they are figures that help us to understand that there was one group that was closely associated with the throne of God and a figure is given by Daniel (under the inspiration of God) of a thousand thousands.

That means one thousand times one thousand at least. If we say one thousand times thousands (plural), then maybe it is one thousand times two thousand or one thousand times three thousand. But, let's keep it at a conservative figure—one thousand times one thousand. That is one million that are associated very closely right at the throne of God.

That's not too hard to understand. We have cities on earth where there are millions of people in them. The population of Los Angeles is about six million people; the metropolitan area is about twelve million people. That's a lot of people. Why can't God have that many beings around Him carrying out His bidding all over this universe?

There is another group associated there: "A thousand thousands ministered to Him; ten thousand times ten thousand stood before Him." There is a question here. What are we looking at? Why did He separate and stake one group from the other? There are two ways I think we can go with this.

Number one is the second group is also spirit beings, angelic beings. If that is so and just to multiply this out, you will find that ten thousand times ten thousand is one hundred million. That's a sizable figure, is it not? But again, let's ask ourselves is this too much? There are roughly two hundred and sixty million people in the United States. There are about two hundred and eighty million people in Russia; one hundred twenty million people in Japan; over five billion on earth. What should be so amazing about God having one hundred million spirit beings around Him? It doesn't cause me any trouble.

The second possibility is that what we are looking at in verse 10 actually prefigures the Great White Throne Judgment. Notice how similar the wording is: "Ten thousand times ten thousand stood before Him. The court was seated, and the books were opened." Maybe that's a possibility and if that is correct then what we have here is two groups—one consisting roughly of about one million spirit beings who are ministering spirits; the other group being a prefiguring of the Great White Throne Judgment that is coming. These people are standing because the books are open and judgment is about to begin on them.

The third possibility is that they are all spirit beings. This leaves us at least to do a little bit of calculating. If the one in which only the one million that are around God's throne is a true figure, if Satan (Lucifer) was able to get one-third of them away, they could not have been pictured here. Therefore Satan has somewhere around (again these are just guesses) three hundred and thirty-three thousand demons. How big is the church? How many demons are there for each one of us?

If we take the other figure in which the one hundred million are also angelic beings, one-third of that figure (because we would have to realize then that God must have created somewhere in the neighborhood of one hundred fifty million spirit beings in the beginning) then Satan has at his beck and call fifty million demons.

I think that we can say, regardless of what is correct, we know this: they are invisible; they know of and understand the use of God's laws better than we do; they have been around much, much longer on this earth than we have; they are formidable foes and they are not to be disregarded.

Let's go to Daniel 10 where we're going to read the first thirteen verses so that we get the flavor of the context. We won't be going through it in a great deal of detail, but in the first verse, he gives the time this message came to him.

Daniel 10:2-3, 5-6 In those days, I Daniel, was mourning three full weeks. I ate no pleasant food, no meat or wine came into my mouth, nor did I anoint myself at all, till three whole weeks were fulfilled. [Then after three full weeks were fulfilled . . .] I lifted my eyes and looked and behold, a certain man clothed in linen, whose waist was girded with gold of Uphaz! His body was like beryl, his face like the appearance of lightning, his eyes like torches of fire, his arms and feet like burnished bronze in color, and the sound of his words like the voice of a multitude.

Obviously, brethren, this was no man. He just looked like a man. The Bible does not name who this was, but he was undoubtedly an angelic creature. The best guess was it was the same angel that Daniel had dealt with before named Gabriel.

They didn't see it, but the hair on the back of their heads stood up and they got creepy and crawly all over, and they felt motivated to get out of there. They didn't know why, but something of awesome power was close to them and they were somehow—maybe the spirit of man within them was aware that something was around them, and they fled.

Daniel 10:8-13 Therefore I was left alone when I saw this great vision, and no strength remained in me; for my vigor was turned to frailty in me, and I retained no strength. Yet I heard the sound of his words; and while I heard the sound of his words I was in a deep sleep on my face, with my face to the ground. Suddenly, a hand touched me, which made me tremble on my knees and on the palms of my hands. [Can you imagine the humiliation? Here he was down on his hands and knees like a dog, shaking like a leaf.] And he said to me, "O Daniel, man greatly beloved, understand the words that I speak to you, and stand upright, for I have now been sent to you." While he was speaking this word to me, I stood trembling. Then he said to me, "Do not fear, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart to understand, and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard; and I have come because of your words. But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me twenty-one days; and behold, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, for I had been left alone there with the kings of Persia."

I want you to get the picture. This awesome being of power, that was so great that men (and I have to think that these were ordinarily strong, valiant men) were so frightened at something they could not see that they got up and ran, and yet something withstood this great being to his face and kept him from getting to Daniel for three full weeks.

I used the term wrestling match because I don't know what it was. But whatever it was that withheld Gabriel from getting there must have been awfully powerful. I want us also to see that this great struggle was going on without Daniel even being aware of it. Somehow or another a malignant demon tried to thwart Daniel's prayer from being answered. But it was answered and it was answered because, in verse 13, "Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, for I had been left alone there with the kings of Persia."

It wasn't until two of them ganged up on this other—two great, mighty archangels to subdue this other, whatever it was. I think the logical conclusion would almost have to be that the king of Persia that is mentioned here was none other than Satan.

There is really a great deal of encouragement that comes from this section in Daniel 10. You can understand why the Apostle Paul and also the psalmist said that the angels are ministering spirits. They are ministering to the heirs of salvation.

Brethren, they are protecting us! They are standing between very possible annihilation and us! You don't know how many times an angel has intervened to save your life, to deflect you from the power of these malignant beings. I am sure that it's happened over and over again in cases, not just where dramatic interventions took place, but where an intervention took place of which we were not even aware.

While we're back here, let's go to James 2. We'll begin to add a bit of encouragement to this. We saw in Daniel 7 that there is a possibility that there are a large number of demons. They're out to destroy the heirs of salvation. They want to retain the positions of authority and rule over this earth. They realize that we are the heirs of salvation and that the earth is something that has been promised to Abraham and his children. They know very well that we are going to replace them in terms of rulership over this earth. They are desperately trying to hold onto that. There are a lot of them and they use every means at their disposal to try to thwart the things that occur.

I think we have enough insight from James 2 to recognize, that even though we are the heirs of salvation, that God still allows the demons a great deal of liberty in dealing with us. But He has also appointed angels to go to bat for us; to be on our side; to minister to us, to serve us. Though we may not be aware of it, they are there and they are on the job.

They know God's awesome power and they, unlike man, tremble! Maybe the better English word would be shudder before God! They recognize His power. They are terrified at the thought of God. They are thoroughly convicted that God is!

This verse goes a long way toward helping us to understand that saving faith is not the intellectual acceptance of a theological proposition, that is, that God is, but rather a belief that expresses itself outwardly in a changed life.

Do you understand what I said? The demons believe. They tremble in fear, but they will not obey God. We, too, can believe that God is. We give intellectual assent to a theological proposition. "Yes I believe that God is." But we may not even shudder and most assuredly, most of mankind will not submit.

The faith that saves is the faith that not only believes that God is, but changes ones life according to that belief. That's what saving faith is. If we believe that God is, that puts us at least at the same level that the demons are. I don't know whether that's very comforting—maybe not too comforting, but at any rate it gives us a start.

Matthew 12:25-26 But Jesus knew their thoughts, and said to them: "Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, and every city or house divided against itself will not stand. If Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then will his kingdom stand?

Brethren, I am here to tell you that the demons are a kingdom divided against themselves. What Jesus was addressing was a challenge that the demon that he had just cast out of this person had been cast out by Satan. Jesus' argument was, "No, Satan would never cast out Satan." That would be stupid for Satan to cast out Satan. But He is not saying that under every condition that Satan or other demons will not cast out other demons. And indeed that does take place.

They are very capable of doing signs and lying wonders. They can make it look as though somebody has been healed, when God has not done the healing at all, but simply by the removal of one demon by a demon of greater power.

I go through this because I want you to understand that one of the things that saves us (if I can put it that way) is that the demons are divided against themselves. Because they are a kingdom divided against themselves they cannot stand—if I can put it in another way, they cannot get their act together because their character is such that they are always in competition with each other.

What fruit does that produce among men? Can men get along? They can't get along. The other side of the coin is that the beings who inspire (or guide and direct or motivate) men not to get along with one another can't get along with themselves either. The only thing that holds them in line is there is at the head of this organization a demon of such awesome power that he is able to whip them into line from time to time so that they will carry out his bidding. He does it by sheer force. It's not done by love of him.

They are a kingdom divided against themselves. They will fall and that, brethren, is something that is an advantage to us. They are rebellious and therefore they are disorganized. They can't really get their act together. Far more important is they know God exists and they tremble before Him. They are therefore restrained.

All of these factors are beginning to line up here: number one is that there are far more good angels than there are demons, at least 2 to 1. These angels, in one sense, don't have to look over very many people because the church of God has never been very big. They are ministering spirits ministering to the heirs of salvation.

Brethren, we have on our side a tremendous numerical advantage. Remember what Elijah said to his helper? He said, "God, show him that there are more on our side than on their side." Remember that? That's the way it is. We've got more going for us by far because there's not only this tremendous number of angels, there is God on our side!

Job 1:6-12 Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them. And the Lord said to Satan, "From where do you come?" So Satan answered the Lord and said, "From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking back and forth on it." Then the Lord said to Satan, "Have you considered My servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil?" So Satan answered the Lord and said, "Does Job fear God for nothing? Have You not made a hedge around him, around his household, and around all that he has on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. But now, stretch out Your hand and touch all that he has, and he will surely curse You to Your face!" And the Lord said to Satan, "Behold, all that he has is in your power; only do not lay a hand on his person." So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord.

Let's analyze this a bit. First of all, let's notice how evasive his very first answer to God was. "What have you been doing Satan? Where did you come from?" I think it would be good if we thought of him speaking in a flippant voice—taunting, like, "Why do you want to know," kind of thing, because what he says here suggests a vagabond. "Oh, I've just been going to and fro." It suggests a wondering, restless vagabond without roots who is (everywhere he goes) an outsider. And he is. He was cast down to earth, but obviously he still has access to God, at least in some way because he came before God with the other sons of God.

Yet, what did he feel like while he was there? He really didn't feel accepted. He felt like an outsider and indeed he was. Think about this, because it has something to do with the way he projects himself on others. There's a great deal to be learned about humanity here because human nature, carnal nature, comes from this being, primarily. He felt like an outsider, like somebody who (in a sense) wanted to be alone.

The next thing I want you to notice is how cynical his next answer was. "Have you considered My servant Job?" God here was in a sense bragging. "Look at this man, how righteous he is." God undoubtedly had something in mind. He understood Satan's mind and he understood Job as well. He was actually creating a situation that Satan just fell right into, but God was about to give Job the test of His life.

We know what it says in I Corinthians 10:13, that God never gives anybody a greater test than He feels that they can endure. Therefore God had absolute confidence in Job that he could defeat Satan even though Job did not know Satan was the one that was doing this! After the second chapter, Satan is never mentioned. He never comes into the story again, but he is used at the beginning to set the stage.

Notice Satan's attitude is cynical. "Well, does Job fear God for nothing? Hey God, he's only obeying you because of what he can get from you." Cynicism, skepticism, doubt. Satan did not think that there could be anybody who was genuinely good. Satan thinks everybody is like he is—cynical.

This is just the opposite of a child-like attitude. Remember that Jesus said, "Unless you become converted and become as a little child you shall in no wise inherit the Kingdom of God?" Cynicism is the evidence of doubt, of unbelief. It's not a good attitude.

Satan believes that everybody is playing the angles in order to take advantage to get the best for oneself. Remember what Paul wrote to Titus, in Titus 1:15? "Unto the pure all things are pure. But unto the defiled and unbelieving nothing is pure."

Brethren, we need to think about this because faith in God's goodness is the very heart and core of the reason for love, for hope, and for joy. Cynicism is its opposite. It is a studied—a meditated upon—disbelief. When it is evident in a human being it is clear evidence that Satan has had a great impact on that mind.

Anybody who is cynical—that kind of a person is very destructive to good relationships because people impacted by Satan who are cynics, will read things into what other people say and do. It destroys the person who thinks this way.

Notice what Satan read into this episode with Job: that Job was obedient to God out of selfish motivations. That's what he read into it. Satan plays the angles. He is cunning and deceitful, like no human being we have ever met. He can use flattery like nobody we ever met can use flattery. He can be charming. But he's always using it to see what he can get for himself, because he always reads into the other person that they are just like he is! It's a terrible curse and it destroys relations.

What he is implying here to God is that Job's godliness was artificial. He was implying it had never been tested. He is saying, "God, you've made it too easy for him." He is saying, "God you bribe him by all of these good things."

Can a man have faith in God when there are no benefits? Can a man have faith in God when things aren't going well? Can a man have faith in God when things don't turn out the way we thought they should? Can a man have faith in God when God allows the rug to be pulled out from under the person? We are all going to be tested in this way—some in greater measure, some in lesser measure, but we are all going to be tested and I hope we all do as well as Job did.

We see here a principle set that the rest of us can take great comfort in that as with Job, God also deals with us. God has set limits on what Satan or the demons are able to do with us. God deals with us according to the measure of our faith, our love, the measure of His Spirit within us. We have to deal with what He allows to occur by faith, understanding that we love God (He is generous and good), but we love Him for what He is and not because He has given us good things. That's an additional blessing.

Ephesians 6:10-12 Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.

He tells us in verse 10 to be strong. It actually means to clothe oneself with strength as with a garment. He is saying what we are to do is something that is part of a process. It is not something that we become quickly, anymore than we are clothed with clothing all at once. Rather, we put clothing on one piece at a time. Becoming strong in the Lord is part of a process that takes place in our experience in this relationship with God.

He tells us then in verse 11, "to put on." That is very interesting because it literally means in English "hide in" as though it is a place of safety. He is telling us that we are to hide in. It is very close to the English word "envelope." An envelope covers a letter.

So the armor of God, that is, being strong in the Lord, will envelope us. It means that every part of our body, from the soles of our feet to the top of our head, is to be covered with the armor of God, which He calls the panoplia. It doesn't appear in English, but it is translated "the whole armor of God." It is not just divine equipment, but the whole divine equipment that we are to be covered with.

If we were going to say this in modern English and we were the apostle Paul, today we would say, "Brethren, if you are going to do battle with Satan, with the principalities and powers, you better be armed to the teeth!" We have to do this because we have to understand that Satan is going to be coming at us from every direction. He has the powers, the abilities, to be able to do this. We have to be able to deflect all of the cunning art, the deceit, the stratagems that he is going to use and throw at us—all these fiery darts that the apostle Paul says.

He tells us in verse 12 that we are involved in a wrestling match and this is very interesting. It doesn't take a great deal to explain it, but a little bit of background will help us to understand. What he is saying is based on what happened in Greek wrestling matches, which is; very frequently the loser was blinded. He was not put to death, but his eyes were put out.

Now understand how that would incapacitate a person physically. Let's think of it in spiritual terms. A good understanding have all they that do His commands, right? In other words, a person who is doing the commands of God is going to be able to see spiritually. If we lose the wrestling match with Satan, the loss is going to be in the inability to see spiritual things. We begin to lose it. Isn't that a colorful description? What a metaphor! He is not saying we will die immediately. We simply begin to lose it.

Paul is not trying to frighten us and I am not trying to frighten us. But we have to fight this with understanding. People are not our real enemies! The principalities and powers will use people. He wants us to understand that the real enemies are these supernatural beings who are motivating these people to do their bidding and trying to get the heirs of salvation to be tripped up.

Now know this: victory is assured because our David, Jesus Christ, has already defeated their Goliath, Satan. He did it and he lives in us! But we will never beat them unless we acknowledge that they are real and that we have confidence that God will defeat them if we give God the chance to do it by being obedient to Him.

What this passage is, is a ringing call to arms. Notice he says, "Stand!" You know what he said in the Greek? "Hold your position. Don't back up. Hold your position. Don't give in to his deceitful persuasions in a life of pride, envy, covetousness—those kinds of attitudes and feelings that will lead us to break God's commands."

Description: In this second sermon on Satan, John Ritenbaugh reiterates that Satan and his demons regard us as invaders of their first estate, and have consequently have engaged us in a fierce spiritual battle to destroy our relationship with God and His purpose for us to be born into His Family. We fight our battle in the mind, in the subtle thought processes (II Corinthians 10:5). We need to be aware of Satan's modus operandi, including the stratagem of disinformation (subtle, plausible lies) spread through false ministers (wolves in sheep's clothing; Matthew 7:15), teaching the smooth, broad way to destruction, encouraging spiritual fornication and eventual enslavement to sin. The apostle John encourages us to test the spirits (I John 4:1-3), making sure that belief and practice are carefully aligned.

In last week's sermon, we saw that we have powerful, cunning, and (I might say) implacable enemies that are large in number. They are invisible. They are supernatural. They are occupying seats of authority over this earth to which they are restrained. Our spiritual struggle is largely with them and it is our responsibility to overcome them, even as Jesus overcame Satan.

3. They are a house divided. They cannot get their act together. This is certainly reflected in society when we understand that the governments of man are very largely influenced by these unseen, spiritual powers that are actually ruling over the nations. The nations are at one another's throats and they cannot get along with one another. They are simply reflecting the driving spirits behind them.

4. Most important of all is that God has set limits as to what they can do, as the book of Job clearly shows. Remember that Satan complained that God had set a hedge about Job and therefore Job was protected. God has done pretty much the same thing for you and me.

Today we are going to begin to look into the ploys Satan uses in his warfare. I use the term warfare because I want to emphasize that we (whether we realize it or not) have been thrust into a desperate struggle brought on by our calling from God.

Think about this: we are the heirs of salvation; our inheritance is the earth. But this earth just so happens to be the first estate of the original inhabitants—angels who have become demons. They look upon us as invaders and they are going to defend it even though God has already judged them as disqualified because of their behavior.

We are intruders into their space. Now, it's not really their space, it's ours. But yet they are acting like it is still theirs. God hasn't seen fit to get them out yet. We know from prophecy that it is going to occur, but they are still here, we are also here, and there is only so much territory to go around. They don't want us here, but we want to be here. Obviously, that is going to lead to clashes.

II Corinthians 10:3-5 For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.

We're not carrying on a "worldly" war, but the battle for us is no less real. We have got to understand that we are not fighting for material success, earthly power, or prestige; we are not even trying to make our enemies look bad. The real issue for our life is the victory or defeat of God's purpose for us.

We have to understand that we have merciless, implacable, and powerful spiritual enemies, so that such things as human cleverness, ingenuity, organizing ability, eloquent arguments, reliance on charm, or forcefulness of personality are simply not the answer. Those things may impress men, but believe me; demons are not impressed at all. Those things are the weapons of carnality.

We find from these verses that the enemy invades our mind, our imagination, and he does this with opinions, with convictions and feelings that exalt themselves against the knowledge of God. The words that are used in verse 5 in the New King James are "casting down arguments." Some Bibles say "reasoning." Others say "convictions" or "opinions." We could even inject here "feelings." Whatever the application is, they exalt themselves against the knowledge of God.

These things that they invade our mind with are designed to affect or alter our behavior. That's what Satan did in the Garden of Eden. The reasonings are the key to understanding. God created you and me with the ability to reason. But what line of reason do we follow? The key to following the right line of reasoning is this phrase, "against the knowledge of God," because the thoughts that invade our mind coming from this evil, wicked, subtle, deceitful spiritual leader are going to lead us to exalt our reasoning against the knowledge of God.

Why would he want to do that? Because we have a relationship with a person—He is a being with personality, character, and a wonderful wholesome way of life that produces every good thing. Satan tries to destroy that relationship by getting us to doubt either the Person and His goodness or the rightness and goodness of His promises and way of life.

I think it is the King James that translates devices as "wiles." We'll use some synonyms so that we get a clearer grasp. We could also translate devices or wiles as "contrivances, techniques, stratagems, plans, procedures, plottings, or schemes." He has devices; he has ways that are designed to achieve a particular goal.

A device, stratagem, technique, or contrivance might be thought of as being a tool made to carry out a certain function. But in this context (remembering what we just read in II Corinthians 10) the implication is that the device is primarily mental.

Now indeed they are. He is clever. He is crafty. He is the possessor of ingenious subtlety, but he also has a modus operandi that presents us with clues as to his influence and tends to give him away so that it can render much of his cleverness inoperative and make him easier to defeat.

The idea is to catch him as he is beginning to use his device, twisting us mentally to the line of reasoning that he wants us to follow. If we can catch it as it begins, we will not be entrapped by it. We know that Adam and Eve did not catch it and as a result they were led astray.

One of a Christian's primary defenses against Satan of course has to be a prior awareness of his modus operandi—particularly (I might say right in this context here) his evil desire to turn good into evil. Perhaps no cunning could be more devilish than to do such a thing. But right in this context, Paul is alluding that Satan can get a person through a spiritual quality that is good.

II Corinthians 2:6-8 This punishment which was inflicted by the majority is sufficient for such a man [The punishment was that the man was disfellowshipped, excommunicated. However, he had repented.], so that, on the contrary, you ought rather to forgive and comfort him, lest perhaps such a one be swallowed up with too much sorrow. Therefore I urge you to reaffirm your love to him.

When you put that together with verse 11, what Paul is saying is that a godly sorrow unto repentance can actually give Satan the opportunity to turn this person's feelings about his sin into an abnormal self-pity, which will destroy that despairing person's relationship with the church and with God by turning that person into a bitter cynic. He is that clever.

It doesn't end there. In addition to that, he can turn the righteous indignation of those who were offended by the man's sin originally into a bitter self-righteousness if they don't forgive and forget and go on. So he gets people going and coming unless they are aware that he is able to turn something that is good into a ploy by which he destroys that person's relationship with God and with the church.

These are not the only weapons that Satan has in his arsenal. Remember that we are involved in a war and in warfare; a general will employ every kind of ploy, device, tool, or contrivance to rout the enemy. A general will use decoys, infiltration, subversion, propaganda, rumors, misleading leaks of information, and sometimes a frontal attack with diversions on the flanks.

Now Satan is no different, but we are especially warned of his subtlety. He creates distractions and allusions to deflect us from reaching our goal. He has the ability to make things that are in God's purpose unimportant (like material things or vanity) seem important, while eternal, spiritual things he makes seem unimportant, unnecessary, and unrealistic.

This knowledge of what he is like would be unnecessary if he could not affect us after baptism. Despite his earlier defeat at the hand of God and (I might also add to this) his defeat by our David, Jesus Christ, he is still seeking to destroy God. Even if he fails at that, he still wants to destroy God's purpose of having us born into His family. Now how?

Let's go back to I John 4. Satan's major public effort is through (what we call today) disinformation. He also uses attitudes, but for the purpose of this sermon, we are mostly going to be concentrating on disinformation. Disinformation is a lie that is plausible enough on the surface, it seems as though it might be true.

One of John's methods of teaching is to present contrasts by which one can see the truth and make right decisions. He uses terms and contrasts such as the evil one against God, or the spirit of error against truth, or the false prophet (the anti-Christ) against the true.

I John 4:1-3 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the anti-Christ, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world.

The definition of a prophet is simply "one who speaks for another." You might recall in the book of Exodus that God designated Moses as His prophet. In other words, Moses was going to speak for God. A little bit later (believe it or not), Moses was designated as God before Pharaoh, and Aaron was Moses' prophet.

The indication here is that the prophet was going to have words given to him by another that he was then going to speak before those to whom he was sent. In the case where Moses was appointed as God before Pharaoh, Moses would say the words to Aaron and then Aaron in turn would say the words to Pharaoh. We have Moses putting the words into Aaron's mouth and Aaron then speaking them to Pharaoh.

Put that back into I John 4. The unspoken implication in chapter 4:1-3 is that the prophet is inspired or motivated by one for whom he speaks. At the beginning of verse 1, John literally says in the Greek, "Stop believing every spirit." Now wait a minute. I haven't had any spirits speaking to me. Have you?

We have to understand the way in which John used the word spirit. I don't know whether you are aware, but the word spirit is used eight different ways in the Bible. According to Thayer's Lexicon in this context it refers to, "One in whom a spirit is manifest or embodied, hence one actuated by a spirit whether divine or demonical."

These spirits then, in this context, are thus human beings actuated by demons or the Holy Spirit of God. It could be either. These spirits that John is talking about would be the teachers, the pastors, or the evangelists who were circulating around the local churches of God. I want you to notice these anti-Christ; these false prophets were speaking to the congregations of the true church. That's clear right in the context.

The exhortation to you and me and to those people in that day is that they were to test whether these spirits are so. It is a positive testing just like was given to the Bereans in the book of Acts. They tested whether these things were so.

He is saying to these people, "Don't treat the teacher, the preacher, the pastor, the evangelist as a heretic until he shows himself to be one." But they are supposed to put the person to the test. We have to take this advice because John's powerful warning here is that though the inspired teacher or speaker is the means by which the revelation, or the word, or the preaching comes, we must know that the supernatural one behind that speaker may not be divine.

The spirit is revealed by the message or the doctrine of the prophet. Remember Thayer's definition. I'll quote that to you again. "Spirit refers to one in whom a spirit is manifest [it's a human being] or embodied, hence one actuated by a spirit whether divine or demonical." It is up to you and me to make the test as to whether this person is speaking the truth.

We're going to go back to Deuteronomy, because I want you to see this is exactly parallel to what God warned through Moses in chapter 13. God expects His people to be as well informed as they possibly can be from His word and to use His word to evaluate what they are being taught.

Deuteronomy 13:1-3 "If there arises among you a prophet or a dreamer of dreams, and he gives you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or the wonder comes to pass, of which he spoke to you, saying, 'Let us go after other gods'—which you have not known—'and let us serve them,' you shall not listen to the words of that prophet . . .

Do you see what's coming out of the prophet's mouth? Something that is false. Who is that prophet speaking for, what spirit, what supernatural spirit? It is not the spirit of God, but rather it is a demon speaking through a human being inspiring and motivating that person. God is permitting it and He expects His people to put that person to the test.

Deuteronomy 13:3-5 or that dreamer of dreams, for the Lord your God is testing you to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. You shall walk after the Lord your God and fear Him, and keep His commandments and obey His voice; you shall serve Him and hold fast to Him. But that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death, because he has spoken in order to turn you away from the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of bondage, to entice you [Doesn't that line right up with Satan's devices?] from the way in which the Lord your God commanded you to walk. So you shall put away the evil from your midst."

This is serious business, brethren, very serious business as the context here shows very clearly. The important thing is to see that God expects us to be able to discern who the spirit is that is motivating the speaker. The test is to see whether we will remain loyal to God—loyal in terms of keeping His commandments.

What that means is that the listener better have a pretty good working knowledge of God—knowledge of God takes us right back to II Corinthians 10:5, where Paul warned that the reasonings will exalt themselves against the knowledge of God. It's beginning to become very clear the devices that Satan is going to use to turn us aside. It is also beginning to become very clear what we need to be able to thwart those devices. We need to have a good working knowledge of God—not things about God so much (that's certainly included), but the knowledge of God the Person, the Being, with whom we have a relationship.

Also here, Deuteronomy confirms that these false prophets (some of them, but not all of them) will be able to do miracles, which is what Paul confirmed in II Thessalonians 2, which is also what John confirmed in Revelation 11. We see that what is in the New Testament is built upon what God had already showed in the Old Testament—that the modus operandi is going to be something that is carried through from one covenant to the other.

We have to understand that such signs—the ability to do miracles—are not of themselves indications of authority from God. What they do must be combined with teaching that is in agreement with God's already revealed will.

Deuteronomy 13:6-9 "If your brother, the son of your mother, your son or your daughter, the wife of your bosom, or your friend who is as your own soul, secretly entices you, saying, 'Let us go and serve other gods,' which you have not known, neither you nor your fathers, of the gods of the people which are all around you, near to you or far off from you, from one end of the earth to the other end of the earth, you shall not consent to him or listen to him, nor shall your eye pity him, nor shall you spare him or conceal him; but you shall surely kill him...."

Let's go to Jeremiah 14. I'm going to be reading a great deal from the first sixteen verses from this chapter, because I want to show you why this is so important to God. We want to see what the affect of turning away from God through the acceptance of a message from a false minister might be. There are other chapters that I could have used, but I think this is abundantly clear.

Jeremiah 14:2-6 "Judah mourns, and her gates languish; they mourn for the land, and the cry of Jerusalem has gone up. Their nobles have sent their lads for water; they went to the cisterns and found no water. They returned with their vessels empty; they were ashamed and confounded and covered their heads. Because the ground is parched, for there was no rain in the land, the plowmen were ashamed; they covered their heads. Yes, the deer also gave birth in the field, but left because there was no grass. [Wildlife is affected.] And the wild donkeys stood in the desolate heights; they sniffed at the wind like jackals; their eyes failed because there was no grass."

Jeremiah 14:7-9 O Lord, though our iniquities testify against us, do it for Your name's sake; for our backslidings are many, we have sinned against You. O the Hope of Israel, his Savior in time of trouble, why should You be like a stranger in the land [God's far off], and like a traveler who turns aside to tarry for a night? Why should You be like a man astonished . . .

Jeremiah 14:10-14 Thus says the Lord to this people: "Thus they have loved to wander; they have not restrained their feet. Therefore the Lord does not accept them; He will remember their iniquity now, and punish their sins." Then the Lord said to me, " Do not pray for this people, for their good. When they fast, I will not hear their cry". . . . Then I said, "Ah, Lord God! Behold, the prophets say to them, 'You shall not see the sword, nor shall you have famine, but I will give you assured peace in this place.'" And the Lord said to me, "The prophets prophesy lies in My name. I have not sent them, commanded them, nor spoken to them...."

The spirit that was speaking to them was not divine. It was supernatural though. The people submitted to it because they did not put the prophet to the test to see whether or not his teaching was in harmony with what had already been revealed through God's messenger Moses.

Jeremiah 14:14-16 ". . . they prophesy to you a false vision, divination, a worthless thing, and the deceit of their heart. Therefore thus says the Lord concerning the prophets who prophesy in My name, whom I did not send, and who say, 'Sword and famine shall not be in this land'; 'By sword and famine those prophets shall be consumed! And the people to whom they prophesy shall be cast out in the streets of Jerusalem because of the famine and the sword [It was going to get worse. They were going to be invaded.]; they will have no one to bury them [you might say the ultimate in shame], them nor their wives, their sons nor their daughters, for I will pour their wickedness on them.'"

God blames the plight of the nation on the false prophets who were listened to. What did they do? They lulled the people into complacency, which led them to believe that all was well when it wasn't well. They preached to them smooth things because the people had itching ears. They liked the things that were taught to them, but it was not the word of God. God says they were lies given in His name. If one listens to them, then it's the same thing as the blind leading the blind and they both fall in the ditch.

Matthew 7:15-20 "Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thorn bushes or figs from thistles? Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Therefore by their fruits you will know them."

The description here is very apt—wolves in sheep's clothing, that is, they appear on the outside to be something they are not. I am convinced that when Jesus uttered this He was thinking of the church and false ministers who would be, in the future (that is from the time of Jesus), insinuating themselves into the church by appearing to be sheep within the sheepfold.

Jesus used that terminology in regard to His relationship with the church. He was the Shepherd; we are His sheep. Here we have wolves (false ministers) who look like sheep, but it's hypocrisy. They only look that way on the outside.

He tells us we will know them by their fruits. The fruit that is produced is not something that necessarily will appear very quickly. But Christ guarantees that over a period of time the church will be stripped of its true spiritual vitality in terms of the character that will be produced within the flock.

What is He saying? The implication is (right in the context) that Jesus is connecting belief with practice. You believe a certain set of doctrines and you are going to practice something because of the teaching. Another way of putting it might be connecting creed, that is, the religious creed or the dogma that a group is following, will produce a certain kind of conduct by the people. Belief and practice, creed and conduct—Jesus is saying here are vitality connected. In other words, the teacher cannot hide what he is going to produce. Eventually it will come out.

Their false philosophies, no matter how attractive at first sight they may appear, will in the long run be exposed for what they really are. That's why I read those verses in the New Testament. All I did was leap from the warning in Deuteronomy 13 to just one series of verses that clearly show the effect of following the teaching of a false prophet.

The land was in drought. How many people would carnally connect a drought with obedience to a false minister? Not very many people would do that because those people would be thinking carnally anyway and they would say, "It's just part of the cycle of things. It happens every so many years." They're not thinking that there might be a spiritual cause to it, that God is concerned about the well being of His people, that He had brought the drought in order to make them think about why this is happening, and the cause for concern is spiritual in nature.

Do you think any of the Presidential candidates here in the United States are going to make an appeal to the United States citizens that the cause of our problems in the United States is spiritual in nature? The closest they dare come is this flap over family values.

If President Bush or candidate Clinton said before a group of people that the reason we are having troubles in the United States is that we need to repent and get back to our God, they would be laughed into shame and contempt. The reason we are seeing the immorality in the United States is the effect of listening to false ministers!

To those of us who believe God, we can make the connection easily. My point here is not to point the finger of scorn at Americans or Canadians or anybody else, because we understand their disobedience and Satan blinds them. My concern is that Satan doesn't trip us up by falling into the trap.

I think we need to examine, just briefly, what Jesus was talking about here in terms of what the false minister would not preach. He does not explicitly say what their teaching will be. But brethren, look where this was placed by Matthew and I have to believe God inspired Matthew to remember what Jesus' words were right after He uttered that thing in verse 12—which is the golden rule. Verse 13 admonishes us to:

Matthew 7:13-14 "Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it."

That leads right into the teaching about false prophets. To me, reading that right in its context, I would have to say that what Jesus said about false ministers demands that the false ministers will neither acknowledge or teach the narrow way that leads to life; the narrow way that is going to lead to persecution. Instead they will do just what God shows the Old Testament false prophets did and teach peace, peace—the smooth, easy, and broad way.

In other words, "You don't have to make any sacrifices in your obedience to God." I think that it is so interesting that in the last five or six years in the church so many things have been liberalized. Do you think we're getting away from the straight and the narrow, the difficult and the sacrificial way?

II Corinthians 11:1-2 Oh, that you would bear with me in a little folly—and indeed you do bear with me. For I am jealous for you with godly jealousy. For I have betrothed you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.

We're going to begin to see here that Paul's concern was that these people would be led aside, deceived by Satan, away from their spiritual purity. They would lose their chastity. They would begin fornicating, spiritually fornicating with the world.

Here we are beginning a section that must be the ultimate of not being what one appears outwardly to be. My reference is to the wolves in sheep's clothing, to false prophets or false ministers, but here the title used is apostle instead of prophet, but the sense is the same.

Paul is not speaking about a prophet who foretells the future, but simply a minister (an apostle he calls them) who speaks under inspiration. He, like the apostle John, is warning the Corinthians that the inspiration may not be coming from God.

It seems pretty clear that the teaching of these false prophets, false ministers, and false apostles is right inside the church. That's kind of mind boggling, but these people are hearing them. Paul's fear is that they might be diverted from the simplicity. His fear is well grounded because Satan is always there and there is therefore the possibility of attack—an attack against our single-hearted devotion to Christ.

Remember the parable Jesus gave of the sower and the seed? The sower went forth to sow, he cast his seeds out, and some of them fell in reasonably good ground. Others fell on stony ground. But in at least a couple of cases, the seed germinated, took root, and then things began to happen. In one case it was the cares of the world, another the deceitfulness of riches, and another the lust of other things entered in and they choked the words.

Those things of and by themselves are not sin, but they can be turned into means, contrivances, tools, devices by which Satan is able to use them to deflect us away from the simplicity that is in Christ—the straight and the narrow way.

What has been pointed out to us from God's word is that the most obvious characteristic of Satan is his subtlety. Doesn't it follow then that subtlety will also be the major characteristic of the ones that he is using—wolves in sheep's clothing. We see the parallel appear in different contexts.

Satan set the pattern and he did it in the Garden of Eden, but he will use a multitude of circumstances—like the parable of the sower and the seed, it doesn't have to be the same thing that is used all the time. But if he can create the illusions, the distractions, the ploys, whatever we might call it, to get our reasoning, our minds focused on something that is of less or minor concern to God than the purpose God has called us for, he has us. He at least has us going in the wrong direction. It does not mean that we cannot turn from it, but at least he has caught our attention where he has then the possibility of destroying us. It will not happen all at once. In one sense of the word, he is very patient that way. But he will, nonetheless, work to lead us step by step in that direction.

If we would follow through with the examples Jesus gave in the parable of the sower and the seed, what he would lead people into would be things such as houses, furnishings, clothing, cars, status, prestige, being well thought of by certain people, having a prestigious job, living in just the right neighborhood, entertaining the right people, pampering the palette with rich and unhealthy foods, the ears with wild music, the eyes with pornography, the mind with drugs—those things gradually become more important than yielding to God.

It's not something we leap into. It's something that he gradually leads us into because there is something about sin that is addictive. We need to be aware, because the addiction eventually leads to the place where we are completely and totally enslaved by it.

We could look at things that are maybe more serious than that. You can see these things at work in society, and in history. The true church began in the first century with purity of doctrine. Jesus Christ began it that way. But how long was it before false ministers began to be insinuated within the church? You can tell by the writings of the apostles that it happened almost immediately.

Thinking of it historically, it was not very long before people began to reason that keeping the Sabbath strictly was not that important. The next step was not to keep it at all. Sunday was just as good, because after all, isn't it one day in seven? The reasoning begins to be led step by step by step.

The same process happened with the Holy Days. The first thing you know, the church, which began with purity, is being led toward the acceptance of the Saturnalia. The solution to this is to never allow yourself to step back in the first place, to never fall for his ploys to be led away from what is truly important.

We can look at the churches around us. Some of them are filled with idols. They reason, "We're not praying to the statue. We're not praying to the idol. Its simply a means to trigger things to remind us so we can pray more fervently to Mary."

People can begin to reason that abortion is all right because the fetus that is there is not really human. These are things that you and I can see clearly, but people were led into this step-by-step, tiny increment by tiny increment, in much the same way drugs capture a person's mind. The person reasons, "What would be wrong with really getting into the spirit of the party?" And so he starts with something innocuous like marijuana. But isn't the person led, step-by-step, and the first thing you know he is on to something that is harder; something that began with the simple reasoning, "I want to have fun at this party. I want to be mellow. I want to be with it."

That's what Satan does! It's inch by inch. Satan uses our imagination that is born of desire. Desire of and by itself is neutral, and we can imagine, and we can reason. But it is that very process that Satan takes advantage of. This is why I said, "Which line of reasoning are we going to follow?"

He uses our imagination, born of desire to weave a fanciful screen around some evil thing to make it look acceptable. He creates an illusion that evil is good. So fornication becomes merely the satisfaction of a natural appetite, or it is the expression of a beautiful, romantic love, or a means of enlarging experience before one gets married. That's what happens.

We in America have been conditioned to be very tolerant of other people's views and actions. But the Bible is not tolerant at all about these things! It is not tolerant at all about false ministers and false teaching, because toleration of their teaching makes clear cut distinctions between what is right and wrong almost impossible.

We don't know in the United States what is right and wrong. The reason is because we have been tolerant of false teaching. It blurs the distinction. Everywhere in the Bible God states very clearly what false ministers are. They are a threat to your well-being and so is their teaching. They are perversions of Christianity and what they teach is never presented as partial understandings of Christianity. It's like saying, "Well, a little bit of poison isn't too bad."

The Bible denounces both the teacher and his teachings as destructive of truth and unclean and to be avoided, not even to be touched! Don't tempt yourself, God says. It is something to be shunned. Remember in Isaiah 5:20 where Isaiah said, "Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil."

John 8:42-43 "If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded forth and came from God; nor have I come of Myself, but He sent Me. Why do you not understand My speech? Because you are not able to listen to My word."

Just as surely as a person on drugs wants eventually to take the drug because he is enslaved by it. Sin has an addictive quality and Satan knows very well that if he can get us to sin once, there is a very strong possibility he can get us to sin again, again and again until eventually we are enslaved by it and we cannot help ourselves.

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

Satan's lies produce death through sin and they are deliberate attempts to wipe us out. Satan is a cold-blooded life destroyer and I mean life in two ways: life in terms of ending in death and life in terms of the quality. What is so sad is that he seems to have such an easy time of getting people to swallow that some how or another it is going to be better to disobey God than obey Him.

Genesis 3:1-5 Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, "Has God indeed said, 'You shall not eat of every tree of the garden'?" And the woman said to the serpent, "We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, 'You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.'" Then the serpent said to the woman, "You will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."

I'd like to change the word "cunning" here just for the sake of this sermon, because I think that it's a little closer to our English word "shrewd." It means sharp, clever in a selfish way. I don't mean to say that cunning is wrong, but somehow or another shrewd has a little bit clearer connotation to me.

If we were talking about a human being, we would say that he was cunning or shrewd. But in the case of Satan the serpent, we have to think of whom it is we are dealing with. To be cunning and shrewd like Satan indicates malevolent brilliance—with the emphasis on malevolent. He is seeking to kill. His cunning is like that of a cat—I don't mean a house cat. I'm talking about a tiger or a lion that is silently padding through the forest with eyes malevolently staring out looking for something to eat, to kill, to feed on.

Look how clever his tactic, his device; his contrivance was in this case. First he moves to subtly make a suggestion rather than an argument to discredit God's authority by casting doubt about God's credibility. "Has God indeed said, 'You shall not eat of every tree of the garden?'"

It must have been said in such a way that the implication that was in his voice carried with it enough of a tone, enough of an inflection, to indicate that there was some doubt that God was telling the truth. I think that we can say this with assurance because of the way that Eve replied, because she corrected him. She knew from the inflection that was in his voice that he was really asking a question (that was casting doubt) and when she replied she actually over corrected.

What did that do? Well like a good salesman, the serpent was getting his victim to agree with him—getting the victim to say yes, yes, yes, and the first thing you know the person says, "Yes, I'll buy it." She was already in the flow when her reply came along because her reply was an over correction.

So what has he succeeded in doing already? He has succeeded in magnifying in her mind (through the answer that she gave) God's strictness. You see, the way is narrow. You can see if she is beginning to agree with him, what kind of thought is she beginning to have toward God? She's agreeing; she is saying yes, yes, yes to this salesman's ploys.

He immediately minimizes the penalty. "You shall not die," which was an outright lie. Then to clench the sale, he offers her a reward—"You shall be like God." "If you buy this, this is what you're going to get out of it." What a price she paid. But I'll tell you, that reward that he offered to them must have seemed to Adam and Eve like something so big that they could not afford to reject it, because what he said was enough to reorient their lives.

They caught the significance of it—not the full significance, but they knew he was offering them something big. Do you know what it was? The self became the dominating focus of life—"You shall be God." He completely reoriented life by turning their focus away from obedience to God to obedience to the self, because after all, you're going to be god, so you have the right to choose, to set the standards as to what is right and what is wrong. They bought it hook, line and sinker. That was heady stuff. That was big.

The effect was that from that point on God came to be viewed by mankind as a rival, a competitor, rather than a friend—somebody to be competed with because now they were gods too! It was really slick. God came to be somebody who was to be outwitted, not cooperated with.

Let's look at it again, only this time we're going to take a little bit different tact. It's good to look at this in as many ways as we possibly can because God put it right at the beginning of the Book where we would be confronted, right after the creation, with the foundation of the way man thinks and why he thinks the way he does.

First of all, Satan made a seemingly gentle suggestion against God's word and God's work by presenting them in a mildly, negative light. Remember, God had spoken to Adam and Eve, thus He had given them His word and they (with their own eyes) could see much about God's person, about His personality, about His mind, by the things that He made.

They were in a beautiful garden. That garden reflected the mind of God. They could see the beauty of that Mind. They could see that Mind was providing for them and what He had provided for them was beautiful to taste. They knew a great deal about the mind of God simply from what they were able to observe. They knew about the mind of God and the personality of God as well because of what He had said.

Second, he made it seem as though obedience, submission to God, was in reality servility. "You mean God is withholding that from you?" He made them begin to feel as though God's way was restrictive; that God was holding back from them good things. The natural thought that goes from that is that much more could be had from life if we just followed our body and our mind's natural inclination.

Third, he played his trump card—they not only would not die, but they would be in control and free to determine what is right and wrong. They, in short, would be equal to God. They would be god! Isn't it interesting that this is almost exactly what Isaiah recorded that Lucifer's desire was.

Lucifer/Satan succeeded in bringing into them a spirit of competition against God. Thus Romans 8:7 — the carnal mind is enmity against God. He indirectly lied about God Himself, and he directly lied about the penalty while giving them disinformation about the reward.

Yes, he told them the truth that their eyes would be opened and that they wouldn't die, immediately that is. Yes, their eyes were now opened. They now looked at things through the twisted perspective that saw evil in almost everything. Now they were ashamed of their nakedness. Before in their innocence there was no shame there at all. The effect of following the false minister began immediately.

Brethren this is important because right thoughts precede right actions; right thoughts determine the release of emotions and our thoughts express themselves even in our most casual relationships in daily work, and most importantly, in our intimate relationships in our home and family. And most of all, they express themselves in our relationship with God, and false beliefs about God and His purpose for man are far more destructive than alcohol and drugs. Far more. They confuse, they divide, and they bring on warfare.

Satan's lies, his counterfeits, his devices are usually so subtle that only someone trained can spot them when they occur. Brethren, that is what God is teaching you and me to be able to see. He is training us to be able to spot the ploys, the contrivances, and the stratagems of our enemy so that we will be able to overcome and defeat him.

Description: In this third sermon on Satan, John Ritenbaugh reveals that the spirit in man God has given us is initially good, but capable of being molded, influenced by the spirit of this world, and surcharged with Satan's negative attitudes. Consequently, God makes available His Holy Spirit to discern those things we cannot detect by our five senses. Angels are continually working within our environment, stirring up the human spirit, and making sure God's purposes are being established. By God's Spirit, we can detect the subtle influences of Satan, the god of this world (Ephesians 2:2-3), who concentrates on the lusts of our flesh, broadcasting self-indulgent impulses to those who are tuned in. The only way to block this signal is to tune him out (Galatians 5:19-21), discerning the bitter, sullen fruits of his thinking.

We're going to continue in our series regarding Satan the Devil, and from the first two sermons, we have found that we have powerful enemies in positions of rulership on the earth at this time. We also found though that the struggle we have against them is heavily weighted in our favor. I gave you four reasons why that is so:

1. The good angels, the ministering spirits, (the flames of fire as the apostle Paul called them) far outnumber the bad demons. If we can get any kind of general figure from the scriptures, we find that they out number the bad ones at least 2 to 1.

2. The demons are hopelessly divided and a kingdom divided against itself cannot stand. They can't really get their act together because they are operating out of self-centeredness, self-indulgence—it's every man for himself. Once in a while they'll get their act together for a little while, they'll cooperate, but only because there is a commonality they want to accomplish. But most of the time they are hopelessly divided.

4. God has set limits on what they are permitted to do. We found that this is highly individualistic—that a demon might be able to do one thing to one person and not the same thing to another. God is considerate of our strengths and weaknesses. He tells us He will not allow us to be tempted by anything that is more or greater than we are able to bear. We have this going for us and it should give us assurance. God (though He is permitting us to go through these things) has not cut Himself off from us and there really is no need to be terrified of the demons. Deeply respected, yes, but to be afraid of them, no.

I think it's good to note that mankind was not perfect, but we were very good. It does say in the context that mankind was created very good for the purpose (this has to be understood) God was going to carry out. This also tends to indicate something about Satan as well, and that is that he is not necessary to God's purpose. He is here; we have to deal with him; but he is not necessary to God's purpose.

Since we know that he is going to be confined to the abyss, to the pit—he is symbolically chained during the millennium and God's purpose is going to be carried out during the millennium—we then understand that God is able to carry through with His purpose of reproducing Himself without Satan around. You might say it's an added bonus for us to have to deal with Satan. Because this added bonus is here, I think the rewards are going to be greater as well.

We find in Genesis 3 that Satan intruded himself into the scene; he is here and therefore we must deal with him. God permitted it; He didn't chase him away; He permitted Adam and Eve to be tested by Satan and we understand then that He is going to permit Satan to test us.

I Corinthians 2:6 However, we [the "we" undoubtedly speaks in its broadest sense to all of the people who are part of God's church, but in its narrowest sense it is the ministry he is talking about] speak wisdom among those who are mature [those who are mature are the church members], yet not the wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing.

He is setting the stage for something here. He is going to make a comparison between one group of people and another group of people—those who are mature and those who are not, those who are converted and those who are not converted.

I Corinthians 2:7-8 But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory, which none of the rulers [meaning the leaders] of this age knew; for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

They didn't realize He was the God of creation. They didn't realize He was the Savior. They could not discern the things that He was saying and doing. They did not put them in the right context. They didn't understand what He was doing and saying from the right perspective.

I Corinthians 2:9-10 But as it is written: "Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him." But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God.

You see now the comparison. The reason the rulers of the world did not understand, did not put into the proper perspective, why they didn't grasp what they saw in the Lord of glory was because God had not revealed to them who Jesus was, what He was doing, or why He was doing what He was doing. The reason is because those things cannot be discerned by physical means—eye, ear, nose, mouth, the senses—but rather these things have to be revealed. There has to be a spiritual miracle that takes place for a person to understand and to see these spiritual things.

I Corinthians 2:11-12 For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.

God created us physical and mortal. He created us very good, but He also placed within us a spirit. That is really the key to this entire sermon. We are building on the understanding that we have been given a spirit. That spirit is not an immortal soul. It is not the man. It is a non-material element within the man that imparts to the man the power of intellect so that he is able to grasp, to understand, the physical things of this world. It is what separates man from an animal though an animal may have a brain similar to men, yet the animal does not have a spirit. It did not have imparted to it a spirit giving it the intelligence, the intellectual capacity, which a man has. Man is different from those other physical beings that also have life.

This non-material element does not possess life of itself. The Bible very clearly says that our life is in the blood. (It says that a couple of different times.) The spirit did not impart life to us—the spirit is dependent upon the body for use or for carrying out its functions.

There's a very simple way this can be proved. If a person's eyes don't work, the spirit can't see. If a person's ears don't work, the spirit can't hear. This is necessary in order to carry out the other functions of the spirit as well as we are able to understand it.

The illustrations that I use here may not be entirely adequate to the situation, but the spirit does impart to the human brain the power of intellect, but it needs the brain. It cannot function without it. But it has an additional capacity in that it is able to use the brain to be a receptacle for the information that it processes—and apparently also be of use to draw upon that information that is our memory and then use it.

I have read in news magazines, other publications, things entirely apart from the Church of God, that seem to indicate (at least this was the conclusion that these experimenters reached) that by prodding different areas of the brain with small charges of electricity they were able to induce the person to recall things that were stored in the person's memory. Their conclusion was that the brain never forgets a single thing that ever happened in your life.

We see two clear functions that apparently are functions of the spirit in man—one is to impart the power of intellect using the human brain and the other organs of the body; and the second is to facilitate the brain in recording the experiences of life so that they can be recalled upon. We need this desperately to be able to recall. If we cannot recall, what good is information? Both functions are absolutely necessary.

God therefore not only created us mortal, but He also created us with a spiritual capacity. In fact, understanding this in the light of Genesis 1, we can begin to understand another angle why He used the term "very good" and that is that we were incomplete. We were good as far as we went, but there was much more to come. We were incomplete because we understand from other parts of the Bible that man needs another spirit joining with his spirit so that he can then have the capacity to make use of, to see, to comprehend spiritual things as well as the things of a man.

This is what I Corinthians 2 is explaining as causes of separation, a difference between those who are unconverted, those who are converted, those who are the immature, and those who are the mature. The only difference is those who are mature, those who are converted, have this second spirit that has joined with their spirit in order to impart to them what we might call a spiritual, intellectual capacity. That then becomes a part of their life and they can use it when others (for whatever God's purpose) have been denied the use of that.

The word "mystery" is not the same as our English usage of the word mystery. (Remember this was written in the Greek.) Mystery to the Greek meant not a puzzle that was difficult to solve, but a secret impossible to penetrate. Mystery to them was something that was hidden; it was unintelligible to those who were not initiated, as into a secret society or as into a religion.

Most of you have heard of the mystery religions. What they did was unintelligible to those who were on the outside, but to those who were on the inside, it made clear sense to them—what was being said or enacted in their ritual or whatever it was they were doing.

That's what we're dealing with here. It was a secret impossible to penetrate, not a puzzle that was difficult to solve. What is crystal clear to those who were on the inside was unintelligible to those who were on the outside.

In like manner, to those who have received the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit has joined with the spirit in man and it has added a dimension to man's life that he previously did not have. So then, things that are crystal clear to him are unintelligible to those who do not have this added dimension. We find that it (meaning the things of the spirit) have been revealed by God.

Again remember Genesis 1:31—God Himself said that we were very good. This is an expression of pleasure. He was pleased with what He had accomplished. If we were very good when He created us, then that must include the nature He created us with.

Does God take pleasure in a nature that is enmity against Him (Romans 8:7)? I don't think He would take pleasure in that at all, which indicates very strongly that as He created us and as we are born, we do not have the nature that we later come to have that is enmity against Him. It is something that develops. And it develops because God put a spirit in us that other spirits, either God Himself or the spirit of this world, is able to communicate with.

If the spirit that He's talking about in Genesis 1:31 was very good, then how come human history has been a recording of violence, disease, anguish of spirit? Why is there so much bitterness, anger, prejudice, resentment, doubt, self-pity, vanity, envy, greed, jealousy, pride, and lust? Can you find anywhere in God's word that these are called good or even acceptable?

Those things did not come from God. He did not create us that way. God is love. God is kind. God is generous. God is good. God is merciful. I think that we can honestly conclude that they didn't come from man either as he was created by God, because God judged man to be very good. Yet, mankind expresses these very attributes.

Again, would something God pronounced very good produce what we see? I think then that we can reach the conclusion that they must have come from the spirit of this world; they must have come from Satan who is invisible, soundless, but is able to communicate with us.

Ezra 1:1 Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and also put it in writing saying.

We needn't go any further there because it says very clearly that God was able to stir the spirit of Cyrus. There is no indication that Cyrus was aware that God was stirring him up. He just somehow was motivated to issue this proclamation. He may have thought the idea really came from him. He may have thought the idea came from one of his advisors. But for some reason, he all of a sudden had this inclination that he wanted to give the Jews the opportunity to go back to their own homeland.

It's very clear from this verse that our spirit can be communicated with without our being aware of what is going on. I want to make sure you understand that I do not say that we will not always be blind to this or insensitive to it. I think that it is God's intention that we become very sensitive to the fact that something, someone, is trying to communicate with us on a level that is not discernable by the eye or the ear. Nonetheless, our spirit is being stirred to go in a certain direction for good or for bad. I think that's where we need to begin to realize that we may or may not be aware that (we all have to agree at this time) our spirit can be communicated with.

Let's go to II Kings to see some examples of times when the human spirit was being communicated to by spirit beings. The first one we're going to look at is not one where there was necessarily a communication, but I'm using this series of scriptures because I want to show that there is an awful lot of activity going on on earth that we are not able to physically discern. God shows us in His word that these things are happening and He wants us to be well aware that this activity is going on.

II Kings 6:8-10 Now the king of Syria was making war against Israel; and he consulted with his servants, saying, "My camp will be in such and such a place." And the man of God [who was Elisha] sent to the king of Israel, saying, "Beware that you do not pass this place, for the Syrians are coming down there." Then the king of Israel sent someone to the place of which the man of God had told him. Thus he warned him, and he was watchful there, not just once or twice.

What we see here is that the king of Syria wanted to do some dirty deeds against Israel, but God was stirring up the spirit of His prophet Elisha (this was in the northern ten tribes) so that he would understand what was going on in the secret councils of the king of Syria. Elisha would send a message to the king of Israel and say, "Don't go here, don't go there, because if you do you're going to run into this huge army and they're going to attack you."

The king of Syria became totally frustrated because he could not spring any kind of surprise. He got his advisors together and asked what was going on. "We've got a spy in the ranks. Who is it?" His advisors said, "No, there are no spies here. Nobody is being disloyal to you, it's just that the king of Israel has this prophet that keeps telling him what you're saying in your bedroom."

They decide to lay a trap to catch Elisha. They surround the city that Elisha is in, the city of Dothan. (Dothan is about ten miles from Samaria.) Elisha's servant gets up in the morning and he goes out to do whatever he was going to do and he sees this huge army of Syrians who are surrounding the city. That's where we come into the story.

II Kings 6:14-17 Therefore he sent horses and chariots and a great army there, and they came by night and surrounded the city. And when the servant of the man of God arose early and went out, there was an army, surrounding the city with horses and chariots. And his servant said to him, "Alas, my master! What shall we do?" So he answered, "Do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them." And Elisha prayed, and said, "Lord, I pray, open his eyes that he may see." Then the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw. And behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.

Elisha could not literally see with his eyes all of these spirit beings that were out there on the mountain. But by faith, through the eyes of faith, because he knew God, because he was close to God, he understood that God was with Him always, and here was this tremendous army of angelic beings protecting His servant Elisha.

Whether that army was always there is a moot point. They may have been there simply because the Syrian army was there. It didn't matter whether there was one or many; it was really an indication of God through Elisha, through the vision to this young man, that wherever God is, it's weighted in your favor. We have