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[0:00] Well, I must confess I do feel a little bit apologetic about the study today on two different counts. One is I like to bring studies that preferably are more loaded with answers than they are questions.

[0:18] But I don't know that this morning will be that way because of what is involved and you'll see what I mean. And the second reason for which I feel at least a little bit apologetic is I do not appreciate giving the devil his due.

[0:35] By that I mean I would just as soon ignore him because I don't think he's worth the time and effort. On the other hand, we are admonished in scripture that we are not to be ignorant of his devices.

[0:48] And the word devices there literally means we are not to be ignorant of Satan's strategies. He is a strategist and he is brilliant and neither your mind or my mind combined are any match for him.

[1:09] He greatly exceeds humans in intelligence, in wisdom, and certainly in power. And we can only be grateful that his power and his range is limited because God has placed limitations upon him.

[1:27] I must confess I have at times wondered why God sees fit to give Satan the latitude that he does. Because he obviously has great latitude.

[1:40] But that too we have to simply submit to the wisdom and the greater strategy and power and intelligence of our God. He really does know what he is doing.

[1:52] And he really is in charge. So in this particular study, actually the thing that kind of piqued my interest in it and got the intellectual juices flowing to bring this study is what we've been reading in our ongoing chronological examination of the Bible.

[2:14] So if you'll turn first of all to 1 Chronicles chapter 21. 1 Chronicles chapter 21. And I must admit that we do find the adversary here in a rather extraordinary place.

[2:30] You just would not perhaps think of looking for him in Chronicles. But here he is. And let me advise you that even before Genesis 1-1, Satan was very much alive and well.

[2:48] He may not have been on planet Earth at the time as he is now. But he was very much active and he has an agenda that he is very aggressive and fulfilling.

[2:59] And of course his number one job is to thwart any way that he can the plan and program of God. And if he could, he would usurp the throne of God and displace him.

[3:11] So in 1 Chronicles chapter 21, the verse begins, Then Satan stood up against Israel and moved David to number Israel.

[3:28] Immediately the question that comes to my mind is, how did he do that? How does he work his methodology?

[3:39] So he stood up against Israel and he moved David to number Israel. Now earlier, God had required David to number Israel.

[3:54] Let's take a census and determine how many fighting men, for instance, there are. And at the Lord's order, he did that. But this is the second census that he took that God did not require.

[4:11] And David did it anyway. And there was a very significant consequence, a negative consequence, as a result of it. And we note that it was instigated by Satan.

[4:26] Now, question of course comes to mind, if Israel is God's chosen people and he loves the people of Israel, and Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and their descendants, etc.

[4:39] Why did God permit Satan to do this? What rationale would he have? I don't have the slightest idea.

[4:51] But as we mentioned in our class last Sunday, regarding the wherewithal and the motivation of the Almighty, we made, I think, a very significant statement, and we would all do well to keep it in mind, and that is this.

[5:11] God does not do what is right. It's very important to know this. God does not do what is right. But what God does is right.

[5:25] You see the difference? It's very significant. It simply implies, of course, that God is his own standard for what constitutes right and wrong.

[5:38] So, this being that we can scarcely appreciate, and we get a much better appreciation of him, because he has principally revealed himself through his son, the Lord Jesus, who identified himself as being one with the Father.

[5:53] And that gives us a better picture of the Father than anything else that we have, and that is the Son. And it might well be said that the Son is the image of the Father.

[6:05] So, if you know the Son, you know the Father, and they are very much alike, same character, essence, character, quality, nature, and makeup, and so on. So, whatever it is that God does is right according to his standards of righteousness, which are, we believe, without question.

[6:27] And we simply submit ourselves to that authority, because he is the north star of the universe for right and wrong, etc.

[6:39] And why God does the things that he does, in some cases, is a complete puzzle to us. Probably the best clue we have, and I don't want to spend too much time on this, but probably the best clue we have is in Revelation 4 and verse 11, a very significant telltale verse.

[7:01] And to the best of my knowledge, this is the only place where this kind of information is given. It is when the four and twenty elders bow down and worship him, and they ascribe power and honor and glory, wisdom and majesty unto him, for or because thou hast created all things, and by thy good pleasure they were and are created.

[7:27] And all we can say, and the limit to what we can say, is that God has brought all into being that he has because he was pleased to do so.

[7:42] God did not create anything out of a sense of need. Understand that, please. Because God meets all of what we would call his needs within his own person and nature.

[7:57] So God does not have to go outside himself to meet any perceived need that he might have. He is a self-sufficient God in every respect.

[8:09] And that's quite the opposite of us. Every few seconds, we take a breath. We go outside of ourselves to stay alive. We take a breath.

[8:20] And if you don't take a breath, you're not going to be alive. But God doesn't concern himself with that. And we need air and we need water. And without these things, we're going to perish, of course.

[8:33] But God is completely self-sustaining and self-existent, which is a concept that is completely beyond us. So when he chooses to do something, he simply applies his own good pleasure and will to the situation, and he does whatever seems good in his sight.

[8:55] That's the basis, the only basis that I can come to as to why he created angels and humans. Away with the nonsense that says, well, God was lonely.

[9:08] And God created angels and men to keep him company because he was lonely. That's such nonsense, such dribble. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit existed from eternity past.

[9:20] And within that threesome, they had perfect fellowship, perfect love, perfect cooperation, perfect union, perfect everything. There was no need for him to do anything to go outside. And besides, how far back do we go with this being called God?

[9:36] Well, the psalmist tells us that he inhabits eternity. And that means before Genesis 1.1, there was God. Before there was a creation of the first angelic being, there was God.

[9:48] There was the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit who existed from eternity past. They did not exist in time because time didn't even exist. Time is a creation of God that is designed to accommodate material objects.

[10:05] But God is immaterial. And this is a concept that just blows my mind and I can't get away from it. God is immaterial. He's not made of stuff. Neither the Son, neither the Holy Spirit.

[10:20] They are spirit beings, which is what Jesus was referring to in John 4, woman at the Samaritan well, when he said, God is spirit. They that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

[10:32] And so on. And this simply means that God, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, never was, and here I betray myself because I'm going to use the word, there never was a time that they did not exist.

[10:47] They were just in eternity, always was, spaceless and timeless. And the heavens and the earth were created because God designed and decided to bring materiality into existence.

[11:06] And before that, there was no matter, no stars, no planets, no anything, no substance of any kind. Got that?

[11:18] If you do, explain it to me. No substance of any kind, yet there was this being. And this being satisfied any and all desires that he had within himself.

[11:32] And according to his good pleasure, here we go again. Say one day. Well, you're talking about time again.

[11:44] But at one point, we'll call it, he decided to make physicality, materiality. And as best as we can determine, and we don't know this for sure, but it seems like he started with creating other spirit beings called angels.

[12:06] Angels are immaterial beings who have the ability, apparently, of assuming human-like forms, and so appeared to a number of people in the Old and New Testament in such a way that they were identified as men.

[12:27] But they were not men at all. And we'll see some examples of that, Old and New Testament. And then at some point, God also decided to create heavens and earth that we call the universe.

[12:42] And he placed human beings upon that earth. He made them material beings. He made them after his own likeness and his own image.

[12:55] And I don't want to get too far afield here, but I think this was a Christophany. And that this was nothing other than a pre-incarnate appearance of the Lord Jesus. This is way before Bethlehem when he appeared.

[13:10] And it was he who walked with Adam, if you will, in the cool of the day. And he, this theanthropic person, this Christophany, I believe, formed and patterned Adam after himself.

[13:26] And it was the own body that he had assumed, a body in which he would become fully human later with the incarnation. But in this particular form, whereby he creates man in his own likeness and his own image, there is within man something of God that is immaterial.

[13:53] We call that the human spirit. And then something of the Christophany that was material, which was physical. And these two together comprise the soul.

[14:06] As the text tells us in Genesis, that God created Adam from the dust of the ground. And he breathed into his nostrils.

[14:19] Now that is, to me, that is stunningly remarkable. He breathed into his nostrils. I, I know some would say, and some scholars and some commentaries would say, you're getting too literal there.

[14:38] I don't know any other way to do this. I think it is literal. He breathed into his nostrils. There's no indication that out of all of the animal life that God made, buffalo and horses and everything else, there's no indication that he did anything of a personal nature to them.

[15:00] But he breathed into the nostrils of Adam. And the text says, and Adam became a living soul.

[15:13] If my understanding of this is correct, and I'm not willing to die on this hill, but I think it is. This means we do not have a soul. It means we are a soul.

[15:25] We are a soul that possesses an immaterial part called the human spirit. And we are a soul that possesses a physical part called our body.

[15:38] And everyone who is a human being has a human spirit. Even an atheist has a human spirit. And please understand, this spirit, this human spirit, has nothing whatever to do with religion.

[15:54] Okay? We're not talking about spirituality. We're talking about essence and character and nature. And when I say spirit, we have a human spirit in us.

[16:06] I mean we have an immaterial part of our being that has nothing to do with anything spiritual or religious. So everybody has one.

[16:17] It's part of our identity as a human being. And in this being, he created one who is different from the angels, made a little lower than the angels, as it were.

[16:31] And we've got two different species here. We've got an angelic being who is able to assume physicality and spirituality. By that I mean immateriality.

[16:43] And yet, he's created these human beings who have an immaterial spirit and a physical body. But we cannot separate one from the other without dying.

[16:58] And when we die physically, that spirit is separated from our body and goes to be with the Lord. Now here is the real dynamic, and if you want to call it the crux of the issue, I guess that's what we would call it.

[17:15] With both angels and humans, God deigned to bestow upon them, us, a thing called free will or volition.

[17:28] That gives angels and humans latitude. That gives them choices so that what is required in order to be obedient to God is revealed, but it is not, what shall I say, it is not automatic.

[17:50] We are a free moral agent, and Satan and the angelic beings were free moral agents as well. They had the capacity to obey the Creator and worship the Creator, they also had the capacity and ability to rebel against Him.

[18:11] And philosophers for centuries have asked the question, you know, if God created and if He knew what a mess everybody was going to make, and if He knew what Adam and Eve were going to do, then why did He make them that way?

[18:23] And to me, the answer is simple. God had no choice unless He was going to create them as robotic beings. And as robots or automatons, they would simply automatically obey God, never cross Him because they are programmed to do so, and they can't do anything else.

[18:45] It would almost be like a human computer where you cannot exercise a will because you don't have a will. You just do everything you're supposed to do automatically, and that would be true of the angels as well as humans.

[18:59] But God did not do that. And when He did not do that, He set Himself up for an enormous conflict.

[19:10] And this is going to be the name of the game. It is called the romance of redemption. And what we've got in the Bible is a story of romance involving redemption, involving the Redeemer, involving the purchase, the buyback, the restoration, the salvation, the rescue of that which fell because our first parents were given the thing called volition, and they exercised it, and everything came crashing down.

[19:48] And this is what we call the fall. Folks, this is so basic and so important and yet so little understand, I want you to know that 99.9% of the population of the world does not have a clue of what we're talking about right now.

[20:05] They don't have a clue. But this is the stuff of which creation is ultimately made. And when I've used the phrase and tried to talk about this in the past of what everything is all about, this is it.

[20:22] It is the restoration, the reclamation, the refurbishing, the restitution of all of that which was lost. Because when Adam and Eve, when Adam and Eve disobeyed God using their volition to do so, they created in themselves something that God did not put there.

[20:45] And we call that a sin nature. They took this thing under themselves which is going to contaminate their being and make it inevitable but that they will pass it on to the next generation and so on.

[20:58] And every generation is under this sentence of death that comes from disobedience. So, when Adam and Eve rebelled against God, they got fired.

[21:15] They were removed from their position. Now, we've got a little problem here because of what happened to it. You see, part of his creating them was, he told them that they were to exercise dominion over the earth.

[21:36] That means Adam and Eve were put in charge of the planet. Everything was under their control. All of the animal kingdom, all of the vegetable kingdom, everything was under their control.

[21:48] There were no wild animals. In fact, there were no weeds because everything was under their control. To exercise dominion means to be, means to dominate, to exercise authority.

[22:05] And when they rebelled against God, they forfeited their dominion so they no longer had it. And that new state that they took upon themselves is going to be revealed in bold relief in the first generation that they produced when you realize that the first human being born on the face of the earth murdered his own brother.

[22:33] And this is the beginning of human carnage that is going to take its toll throughout all of history so that in World War II we will be able to say, we will have to say, that 50 million people died.

[22:54] Most of them civilians. Now, I'm going to say something that might be a little hard for you to believe and I understand that but I am convinced that it is true. World War II as well as World War I as well as the Civil War as well as the Revolutionary War as well as the War of 1812 as well as the French all the wars all the wars in the past and all the people slain the blame of which can all be laid at the feet of this individual we're talking about right now.

[23:27] This is Satan. Satan loves a high body count. Satan is the destroyer. The very word Satan means the adversary and he is all about deceit, confusion, and destruction.

[23:46] He is the father of all conflicts. Jesus referred to him as a liar and a murderer from the beginning in whom there is no truth. He is, well, let's look at some references if we may.

[23:59] Let's go first of all to John chapter 12. John's Gospel chapter 12. Now you realize, of course, that our Lord early on in his ministry had a confrontation with Satan in the wilderness that lasted for 40 days and probably I wouldn't be surprised but what the majority opinion today is that there is no actual person called the devil.

[24:36] Most people would say he's not a real person, he's a mythological character. And they picture him with horns and a tail and wearing a red suit and all of this nonsense.

[24:51] And many would say that actually there is evil in the world and Satan and his caricature is nothing more than a kind of a visual representation of evil but he doesn't exist as a natural person.

[25:09] Well, I think our Lord Jesus would contest that because he did battle with him if you will in just before he was introduced as the Messiah of Israel by John the Baptist.

[25:24] So he's very real, there's no question about that. And we've got a number of references but I want you to look here first at John's Gospel chapter 12 and verse, let's start with verse 20.

[25:38] Now there were certain Greeks among those who were going up to worship at the feast. These therefore came to Philip who was from Bethsaida of Galilee and began to ask him saying, Sir, we wish to see Jesus.

[25:51] Philip came and told Andrew, Andrew and Philip came and they told Jesus. Jesus answered them, the hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.

[26:02] Now what is he talking about? Actually, his glorification is going to be in connection with his crucifixion. Because, and the crucifixion is essential because it is the crucifixion that will lead to his death.

[26:20] And his death is essential because it is his death that will lead to his resurrection. And his resurrection is his glorification. That is yours too.

[26:32] Christ is in us the hope of glory. That means we have the guarantee, the confidence of glory that these bodies are going to be glorified even as the Lord's.

[26:43] And here, of course, when he said this, he's just, he's just a very short period away from being arrested and the crucifixion and everything that went with it. Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains by itself alone.

[26:58] But if it dies, it bears much fruit. Well, what's that all about? It's about him. He's saying he is a grain of wheat. He is like a grain of wheat. And by his death, out of his death, many shall live.

[27:14] Just like in a grain of wheat when it goes into the ground it's just one solid little grain, but the nutrients from the soil and the moisture produces something that is manifold from that one little thing.

[27:27] And that's what he's talking about here. Of course, he's referring to himself. He who loves his life loses it. He who hates his life in this world shall keep it to life eternal. If anyone serves me, let him follow me.

[27:39] And where I am, there shall my servant also be. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him. Now, my soul has become troubled.

[27:51] He knows what's coming. He knows this is leading up to his experiencing something that he has never throughout all eternity past experienced.

[28:09] There is going to be a cleavage between the Son and the Father that never existed before.

[28:23] That is the cup that he doesn't want to drink. The physical suffering and the nails and the crown of thorns, that's all significant, excruciating.

[28:35] But none of those things will compare with the ordeal he is going to experience in being made sin and have his Father forsake him.

[28:48] It's going to produce all kinds of visual effects. Earthquakes and lightnings and thunders and it's going to be horrendous. And this is what he's talking about.

[29:01] What shall I say? Save me from this hour but for this purpose I came to this hour. He's not praying to get out of it. Because this is the very reason he was sent.

[29:13] John tells us in his first epistle that the Father sent the Son to destroy the works of the devil. Father, glorify thy name. There came therefore a voice out of heaven.

[29:26] I have both glorified it and will glorify it again. The multitude therefore who stood by and heard it were saying that it had thundered.

[29:39] Others were saying an angel had spoken to him. Jesus answered and said this voice has not come for my sake but for your sakes.

[29:50] Now judgment is upon this world. What did he mean by that? He's talking about his impending death when he is going to serve the sentence of death that will demolish the works of Satan.

[30:07] now why that has not happened is another issue and it is tied to the nation of Israel and we cannot now get into that but this situation is held in abeyance right now and it has not yet come to pass but of course it is going to be and I want you to notice verse 31 judgment is upon this world now the ruler of this world shall be cast out who is Jesus calling the ruler of this world well there's I don't think any question about that he's referring to Satan and I if I be lifted up from the earth will draw all men to myself but he was saying this to indicate the kind of death by which he was to die and this is such an enormous concept in this statement it's nothing more than a kind of a repeat of the reality that as in Adam how many die all die in Christ shall how many be made alive all made alive and that is the totality of the quality of his redemption in other words

[31:30] Jesus in his death and in his payment for sin it was just as pervasive and just as what shall I say as comprehensive as was the fall that brought everything down in other words in other words the price that Christ paid for our redemption was equal to and covered the damage that was done with the fall and that's what Paul is talking about canceling out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us it's a beautiful concept and he's talking about the extent of redemption which is going to be full and complete the extent of redemption is just as full and complete as was the fall alright so that's exactly what

[32:33] Christ was able to accomplish in chapter 14 let's move along quickly chapter 14 in verse 30 Christ says and this is all by the way chapters a portion of chapter 13 of John and 14 and 15 and 16 and part of 17 all took place in less than 12 hours now that's a peculiarity for John's gospel that's one of the things that makes it really different from the synoptics Matthew Mark and Luke you have things more spread out but in John's gospel we have several days actually many many hours several chapters where just hours are covered and this is one of them from the time that he meets with the disciples in the upper room and in verse 30 Jesus said I will not speak much more with you why for the ruler of the world is coming same person he's referring to here this this is

[33:48] Satan and he has nothing in me which is another way of saying and there's absolutely nothing in common between us they are as far apart as they can be at polar opposites and here once again he is referring to him as the ruler of this world and in chapter 16 over just a page or two and verse seven I tell you the truth it is to your advantage that I go away for if I do not go away the helper shall not come to you but if I go I will send him to you and when he has come he will convict the world concerning sin righteousness and judgment concerning sin because they do not believe in me concerning righteousness because I go to the father and you no longer behold me and concerning judgment because the ruler of this world has been judged how so well

[34:48] Christ was sent to this earth by the father to destroy the works of the devil and he is speaking of it here of course as an accomplished fact and that's precisely what it is going to be and before we leave the new testament I want to go to passage that I know you're familiar with or you should be and if you're not I would suggest you memorize this and it is 2nd Corinthians chapter 4 it explains so very very much 2nd Corinthians chapter 4 a very very revealing passage really puts things in perspective beginning with verse 3 and even if our gospel is veiled that means obscured if something is veiled it prevents you from seeing clearly if a woman well even a bride coming down the aisle if she has a veil over her face she has to look at everything through that veil and she does not see as clearly through that veil as she would as if she lifted the veil and this is a spiritual veil that is over the eyes of people that keeps them from seeing things as they really are and it is an intellectual veil it is an intellectual impediment it is that which confuses and confounds our think well let me put it this way you've heard me refer to man thinking with a fallen intellect thinking with a skewed logic this is how it is so easy for us to reach really stupid conclusions about a lot of things

[36:45] I don't know about you but I look back on some of the things I have done in the past that were so dumb and I am so embarrassed by them now I'm not going to tell you what they are they're too embarrassing but I reached I did those things based on the faulty logic that I was using but you know what it was the only logic I had and it allowed me to do really stupid things like well okay for instance I took up smoking at the tender age of what maybe 15 and I did it I did it to impress the girls I wanted to show them how grown up I was and how mature I was you know and I was using faulty logic using stupid skewed reasoning that caused me to reach wrong conclusions and the problem with using faulty logic is we tend to act on it and then the consequences follow the actions and it's all kinds of problems so here

[37:54] Satan Satan is an expert Satan is an expert at confounding and confusing and distorting reality and this is why he's called the deceiver he is he is the ultimate at making people think things are other than they really are and they operate under that veil thinking all the while that they're right and they're dead wrong and the text goes on to say our gospel is veiled it is veiled to those who are perishing this gospel this good news this good news is is a gift that is provided that was paid for at incredible cost by our creator and it is presented to you and to me as a free gift and all we have to do is accept it and the world will not go along with that because they see something like that as depending on human merit and the only corrective to that kind of thinking is this thing called the gospel the scriptures and it gives us the real scoop and it tells us that salvation is by grace through faith etc not of yourself that is completely do you realize do you realize that biblical

[39:31] Christianity is the only faith and I hesitate to use the word religion because I don't like the word but the world uses it and classes Christianity as a religion so for their sake let's think of it as a religion but Christianity is the only faith or the only religion in the whole world out of 2500 different kinds of faiths religions called sects you name it 2500 of them biblical Christianity is the only one whereby an individual is put in good stead with his creator on the basis of what the creator has done not on the basis of what the subject has done everybody else is working earning trying harder pushing harder giving more praying more and all the rest of it because that's human logic that's his skewed thinking that we're talking about and that is the veil that is over man's eyes he just can't get away from that and you can preach to people to your blue in the face that salvation is a free gift that it was paid for by

[40:41] Jesus Christ and they nod their head yes and they don't get it at all and it isn't until you get it and it to come to Christ so our gospel is veiled is veiled to those who are perishing in whose case the God of this world it's the same one that Jesus was talking about the God of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving what is a blinded mind a blinded mind is one that is unable to think straight we think of blindness coming through the eyes but this is using an analogy of blindness it is a short circuit in the mind that keeps us from thinking right thoughts it allows us to look at situations and assess them but we often don't understand what we're looking at therefore our assessment is incorrect and that makes our conclusion incorrect and that makes our acting upon that conclusion incorrect and we're a mess this is the human race and you know what all of this produces among all of us conflict conflict people people at each other nations at each other and confusion is reigning supreme all because of this blinded intellect and everybody has one and the only thing in this world that can straighten out our confused thinking is the entrance of thy word gives light and nothing else does and this is the principal reason that we have this book to give us the real scoop because you won't get it from the world all you get is distortion from the world because that's all they can give you and you won't get it from satan that's for sure so in whose case the

[42:55] God of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ who is the image of God I do not know how many times after I became a believer I would talk to some of my friends I remember and and when I came to Christ when I got saved on my wedding day back in 1956 we were living in Washington State I was still in the army and we had come all the way back to Ohio and I was pre-enrolled at Wittenberg College and was going to go to Wittenberg and pick up a couple of years and then go to Western Reserve up near Cleveland and study to be a criminologist I was fascinated with that and Christ came into my life and interrupted all of that I ended up at Cedarville College that I never even heard of you know and long story short after I came to faith and understood sins forgiven and the gospel and how wonderful it was

[44:05] I could not wait to get back to Springfield Ohio and get all my old buddies together the old gang I used to run around with and have them line up and I was one after another and I thought that's how naive I was I mean I had found the greatest thing in the world or anybody in their right mind would want the same thing but do you know what your right mind will let you down your right mind is not right your right mind is wrong and do you know those that I met and sat down with and explained the gospel to do you know what I got from hey wise man that's cool yeah I I'm really glad for you I'm glad you found something that you know that you that satisfies you that's that's great that's not for me understand I mean I'm not I'm not particularly interested in this religious stuff but

[45:05] I'm glad for you and I was crushed I thought how could they how could they not how could they not say tell me more give me more let me and you know what it was just like bouncing off of you know it didn't sink in at all they were they were actually not interested in the greatest thing that ever happened in the world and they were not even interested I don't mind telling you that took the wind out of my sails and I had a while to recover from that and eventually I learned things like like verse 4 about the blinded mind and so on so oh for Pete's sake let's run run if you will let your fingers run to the book of

[46:06] Job we're going to have to scoot on along here book of Job probably the greatest Old Testament example we have that reveals the wiles of Satan and here is a perfect example of him having a certain amount of latitude but it is also an example of God putting the brakes on Satan and he won't let him do his ultimate and you know what his ultimate is always the same death death as God is the giver and sustainer of life Satan is interested only in death only in killing only in that high body count and the story of Job is priceless because it explains so much and I'm not going to begin reading all of it but we'll just jump in to verse 7 if we may verse 6

[47:09] I'm sorry Job chapter 1 and verse 6 there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord now when the testament when the old testament especially in fact I think it's probably true of the new also uses this term sons of God it always refers to angelic beings and they of course as far as we can determine were created before any humans were and the sons of God came to present themselves or report in if you will before the Lord and Satan also came among them and this of course is after his fall and the word Satan literally means adversary he is adverse to everything that God is about he is the opponent he's the other side he's the enemy Satan also came among them now this indicates of course that Satan has access to heaven and he still does he does because in that capacity one of his chief things is to be the accuser of the brethren

[48:19] I don't know how that works and I don't know which brethren he is accusing but that's the statement that is made regarding him and he has to have access to God in order to be the accuser of the brethren and we know that even so we have an advocate with the father and that is Jesus Christ the righteous and it is because of the finished work that he accomplished that the accusations will not stick but at any rate he has access to heaven and we won't get to it in today's session but we will look prophetically into the revelation when Satan will no longer have access to heaven and he will be cast down and he will be cast down to the earth well that's where he is now yes but then he's going to be confined to the earth and we are told that he will come with great fury and rage because he knows he has but a short time and that short time is the 70th week of

[49:28] Daniel the time of Israel's great tribulation the world's tribulation but principally Israel and this is when the focus will turn on the Jewish people and the 144,000 will become active and Satan will do his very utmost during this tribulation period and do you know the body count in the tribulation period will not be millions it'll be billions and he will be behind it the world's population now is between six and seven billion that's with a B and you don't have a billion until you've had a million a thousand times now that's a lot you know we in this country we are flush in millionaires but billionaires are harder to come by to be a billionaire you have to have made a million dollars a thousand times that's a pretty tall order so we've got six to seven billion people and during the tribulation period at one instant one third of the world's population is going to be eliminated and satan will be behind it it's going to be eliminated through disease through conflict and through starvation and everything that satan can bring into the picture and that's exactly what's going and two thirds of the

[51:28] Jewish people on the planet are going to be eliminated by the antichrist when adolf hitler had his way with the jew in world war ii in the concentration camps and the gas ovens he succeeded in eliminating one third of the jewish people that live on the face of the earth over six million the antichrist is going to destroy two thirds of the jewish people and what will remain is that small group that we call the remnant that will be there in Petra that's where they'll be when Christ returns for the second coming and we'll look at that later in Revelation 19 so this activity that is taking place here whereby God is allowing Satan to have his way with Job but not to take his life and this by the way ought to be the greatest single example in the universe for

[52:33] Christians who are looking for the whys and the wherefores of what's happening in their life and they don't understand it the book of Job is the linchpin for all of that and if you get a good solid fix on Job and what it is all about and the theology involving it it will enable you to see and understand and really believe in your heart that God actually does work all things together for good for those who love him who are the called according to his purpose and it doesn't matter what kind of difficulty you're facing clear up to and including death you are in a win-win position if you understand this stuff because this makes all the difference in the world and Satan is given a lot of latitude but God will not allow him to take Job's life and Job is confused he's perplexed he doesn't understand I've tried to do the best I can I've tried to raise my kids right I've tried to see to it that the sacrifices were made and I crossed all the T's and dotted all the I's and all of this stuff this negative stuff is happening and I don't understand it and I cry out to God and I ask what's going on and I get nothing by way of an answer and it drives me up the wall and his wife caved in before well actually he never did but he was close he was close and his wife threw in the towel and she told him to do the same don't you know when you've had enough get it over with curse God and die get it over with you know this woman was suffering too you know any wife who sees her husband going through what Job went through remember Dr. Lutzer talking about death being a gift it would have been a gift to Job wouldn't it sitting on a pile of ashes scraping his skin that is all popped out with boils from head to toe miserable and his wife best advice was curse God and die and Job had the fortitude to say you're speaking as a foolish woman shall not we who have received good from the Lord receive adversity also

[54:56] God has given and God has taken away blessed be the name of the Lord that ought to be our mantra that ought to be the Christian mantra God has given and God has taken away taken away what whatever mate help job money whatever blessed be the name of the Lord he really does know what he's doing even when your roof is caving in and you look for answers and there aren't any can you trust hey this is what faith is this this is this is believing when the chips are down and when adversity comes it is then that you have an opportunity to see if you really believe what you say you do boy well do we this great conflict this is the conflict the cosmos conflict of the cosmos that's what we're in right now and it is going on it is raging around us and for the most part we're not even able to see it but it's present and what we're going to examine the next time to the best of our ability and I'll tell you right up front it is not as not as not as good as I would like for sure how this thing actually works and I want you to be thinking about it too because

[56:30] Satan has influence and we know that he is to be resisted and Paul said resist the devil and he will flee from you and what do we resist him with we resist him with the truth when Christ was tempted how did he resist him it is written it is written thou shalt love the Lord thy God thou shalt serve him only and man is not living by bread alone but by every word so we answer with the word of God and this brings us right back to the source of truth which is the only adequate thing that we've got to combat the wiles the strategies of the devil is the truth and we've got access to the truth in this blessed book so I want you to think in terms of Satan's opposition and how that works in whatever light you can come up with I would appreciate it and I'll just give you these things if you're jotting down notes

[57:30] Paul said in 2nd Corinthians chapter 2 and verse 11 we are not ignorant of his devices of his strategy in other words Paul is saying I know the way Satan works and in chapter 12 in verse 7 Paul talks about the thorn in the flesh was a messenger of Satan to buffet me and then in 11 14 also and in 1st Thessalonians 2 18 Paul told the Thessalonians that he intended to and he preferred he was planning to come to them on multiple occasions but Satan hindered me how did he do that we aren't told in the text how it was done but and then in Acts 16 and verses 6 through 10 we have a divine hindrance

[58:30] Paul said we were at a crossing point we wanted to go up into Asia and preach the gospel there but the spirit forbade me would not let me go that way and then we wanted to go in another direction and the spirit said no and how was that countered and then he had the Macedonian vision come over into Macedonia and help us and then they perceived that that was where the Lord wanted him so we've got a whole lot of things in the fire here and I want you to just kind of mull over and meditate on these things that we've talked about if you can and bring your best brain because we need your best session next time and we'll kick this around some more and maybe we'll just end up pulling our ignorance any comments or questions before we close Marla I just had a thought about you know Paul said he couldn't go I can't remember where but he said

[59:31] Satan stopped him but then he said that the Holy Spirit prevented him I understand the Holy Spirit preventing him because he had a good relationship with the Lord and all that how did he know it was Satan and not just his own should I do this shouldn't I do this I don't know that's one of your assignments for the next time you work on that Marla I'm sorry if I knew I probably would have told you but anyway you know I'll tell you more than once in the past I have been confronted with a situation and I ask myself now is this the Lord enabling me to do this or is this coming from the adversary you know and sometimes you're not real sure because

[60:31] I don't have an Urim and a Thummim you know the Israelites on the on the breastplate of the high priest they had little lights an Urim and a Thummim and the Urim said yes and the Thummim said no and whichever one lit up that was your answer but I don't have one of those I don't know anybody that does and it's well it's a it's a mixed bag this is fascinating stuff we are we are up to our eyeballs in a lot of things that we don't understand but but the entrance of his word gives light and other comments or questions anyone okay tell you what I'm going to do yes I do have a comment she well you spoke to me supremely today and I thank you for that but we missed I missed last time because I was at Harvard law school graduation for our and everything you said about intellectualism and that I mean it's it's crazy because everything that I heard from the stage even the commencement speaker was Roberta Kaplan who won the case before the Supreme Court for the lesbian couple and then that opened the door for gay marriage yeah yeah all that was spoken about was transgender homosexuality women's rights it was just a celebration of everything evil oh yeah everything evil with great applause absolutely and I looked at the at the population there which is well over 5,000 sitting there a much foreign population with Sikhs and Muslims and all different cultures and they were applauding too yeah and I know that goes against everything that their supposed religion teaches them but they have their liberals too it was it was just all you could do was just pray yeah yeah it was sickening yeah and these are the intelligent people these are the people who are running you're so right these are intelligent people intellectually intelligent people

[62:36] I'll tell you today and it's been this way for quite some time what is the epitome of authority in the United States think about it you could say it in one word you could say it in one word psychiatry psychiatry that is the standard that is the ultimate that psychiatry is the altar at which America worships that is their ultimate authority psychiatry now I know wherever I speak but I would be willing to argue with anybody about it it is psychiatry and this is not to put down mental health or anything of the kind I'm you know I know there's legitimate mental health and there's treatment for it and all the rest of it and I respect that and I'm not saying that there's no place for Christian psychiatry but I'm talking about the kind of psychiatry that is generally practiced in this nation rules the roost for acceptable behavior unacceptable behavior this kind of thing and it is in addition to that it is rooted in our institutions of higher learning where atheism is a real hotbed

[64:06]  I mean it is just rife in our and I'm talking about dear old OSU just 45 miles away the place is saturated with atheism and people pay good money to send their kids there to be indoctrinated with this stuff and many of them have no idea what's going on but I don't want to wax eloquent regarding that so okay I'm going to let you go but if you will give these things some thought and we'll pick up where we left off next time we get together and it'll be the 30th of July can you believe that right now the year is half gone isn't that amazing wow time does fly well thank you all for being here today