Grace Bible Church
Pastor-Teacher
Robert R. McLaughlin
Wednesday, March 29, 2017
In verses 4-15, a roster is given of the twelve spies - 10 of them are going to come back with a negative report and two of them are going to come back with a positive report.
Many times the names given, give us some insight into the character of the individual or the story behind the individual.
By analogy, offensive action is the only way to reach spiritual adulthood and spiritual maturity.
Offensive action brings victory, while defensive action can only avoid defeat.
The offensive increases the effectiveness of the force adopting it, raises morale, permits concentration of effort, and allows freedom of action to begin.
This has an analogy to Paul's goal to "press on" in Phi 3:14.
Defensive action has an analogy in our spiritual lives, because we can never get away from rebound and the faith‑rest drill, a part of defensive action.
The Church-age believer must know when to use offensive action and when to use defensive action in the Christian way of life.
Against Satan and all fallen angels, the divine commands usually call for defensive action.
The 12 spies were on the offensive when they were told to go on a reconnaissance, which we have noted is a military survey of enemy territory to gain information about the enemy.
Offensive action is related to the angelic conflict and is also related to the execution of the PPOG for the church.
All angelic creatures, including demons or fallen angels, are watching every Church-age believer putting on the full armor from God.
EPH 6:12 Because our struggle is not against blood [blood comes first in the original language, and it refers to people's souls] and flesh [their old sin nature], but against the rulers [these are the archons like Abaddon and Beelzebub],
against the powers [demon officers who have phenomenal authority], against the world forces of this darkness [kosmokratoras meaning demons who specialize in possessing or influencing the cosmos or world rulers]
against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places or against the spiritual forces of evil in the atmosphere around the earth, the stellar universe and in the presence of God.
By spies I am using typology, each of them representing certain characteristics in our soul like the ones mentioned in the names of the spies.
When it comes to our spiritual warfare, elect angels observe human history while fallen angels are designed to oppose human history.
a. Elect angels rejoice over the salvation of one person, Luk 15:7,10.
The elect angels rejoice when they see restoration and not condemnation.
In the dispensation of the Hypostatic Union, angels observed every part of the first advent and incarnation of our Lord, 1Ti 3:16 which says that He was "Beheld by angels"
In the dispensation of the church age, angels observe members of the royal family of God in their failure or success to execute and fulfill the PPOG, 1Co 4:9; Eph 3:10; 1Ti 5:21; 1Pe 1:12.
Spectacle = the nominative neuter singular of theatron which is where we get the word theater from and it means a theater, a place for public shows, a play, a pace for the performance of dramatic representations.
EPH 3:10 in order that the multi‑faceted or many-sides of the wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places.
Angels even observe the believers in the Church-age receiving commands from headquarters according to our main passage in
1PE 1:12 It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves, but you, in these things which now have been announced to you through those who preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven things into which angels long to look.
The word long is epithumeo which means to have a desire for something, to long for, to set the heart upon.
MAT 18:10 "See that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you, that their angels in heaven continually behold the face of My Father who is in heaven.
LUK 16:22 "Now it came about that the poor man died and he was carried away by the angels to Abraham's bosom;
In 1Co 11:10 angels observe the attitude that the woman has toward her husband and the symbol of authority that it represents.
The word judge is the fut-act-ind of krino which means to make decisions for, to conclude, to approve, to decree, to rule, to govern, to preside over with the power of giving judicial decisions.
On the other hand, Satan has organized a tremendous demon army to hinder Church-age believers from fulfilling the PPOG.
NUM 13:29 "Amalek is living in the land of the Negev and the Hittites and the Jebusites and the Amorites are living in the hill country, and the Canaanites are living by the sea and by the side of the Jordan."
Satanic observation is also in his organization of fallen angels to resist evangelism and the fulfillment of the PPOG.
Fallen angels are organized to resist and oppose positive believers, Eph 6:12‑17; Job 1:6; 2:1‑3; 1Pe 5:8.
Pe 5:8 Be of sober spirit [Attain S.S.E.], be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls about like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.
1. To blind the minds of unbelievers so they won't accept Christ, 2Co 4:3-4.
2. If they do believe in Christ, hinder their function and execution of the PPOG, distract them in every way possible, and keep them from making Bible doctrine their number one priority.
Cosmic 1 --- live for self. Cosmic 2 --- anti-grace, anti-doctrine.
Demons don't just sit in the stands and watch us as do elect angels; the demons are on the playing field observing and plotting against the people of God represented by the 12 spies from Israel.
a. Satan and his angels are the enemy of unbelievers, Luk 8:12; 2Co 4:3‑4; 2Th 2:7‑10; Col 2:8.
LUK 8:12 "And those beside the road are those who have heard; then the devil comes and takes away the word from their heart, so that they may not believe and be saved."
b. Satan and his angels are the enemy of the church age believer, 2Co 2:11; Jam 4:6‑10; 1Pe 5:6‑9; 2Co 11:3; Eph 6:10‑17.
Jam 4:7 submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.
c. Satan and his angels are the enemy of the Church, Rev 2:8-10, 12-13.
EPH 6:12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.
d. Satan and his angels are the enemy of Bible doctrine, Mat 13:19, 39.
MAT 13:19 "When anyone hears the word of the kingdom, and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart. This is the one on whom seed was sown beside the road."
MAT 13:39 and the enemy who sowed them is the devil,
e. Satan and his angels are the enemy of Israel, Rev 12:13-15.
f. Satan and his angels are is the enemy of the dispensation of the hypostatic union, Rev 12:4.
g. Satan and his angels are the enemy of nations, Rev 12:9, 20:3, 8.
h. Satan and his angels are the chief antagonists of the extension of the angelic conflict into human history, Heb 1‑2.
1Jo 4:4 "Greater is he who is in you [omnipotence of the Father indwelling us and the omnipotence of the Holy Spirit in the PPOG] than he who is the world [Satan and his cosmic system]."
a. The evangelism of mankind.
b. The function of the problem solving devices.
c. Understanding and using your very own assets of your escrow account.
d. The execution of the PPOG. e. The effective function of Christian service in the production of divine good rather than dead works.
The command for defensive action against Satan is found in Jam 4:6-7.
JAM 4:6 But He gives a greater grace. Therefore it says, "God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble."
JAM 4:7 Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.
When it says submit to God, submitting to God is part of your offensive action.
By being firm in your faith strong in doctrine.
Eph 6:13, "Therefore, pick up and put on the full armor from God, that you may be able to stand your ground in the evil day, even after you have done everything to hold your ground."
(1) The evil day is any time of demonic or satanic pressure on the believer from the strategies of the devil.
(2) The evil day is Satan attacking both the grace of God and the judicial decisions of God.
(3) The evil day is any time the believer's defenses are weakened because of negative volition toward doctrine.
(4) The evil day is the breakdown of the defensive system provided by God through the rejection of Bible doctrine.
(5) The evil day is the temptations from the arrogance complex of sins which duplicate the original sin of Satan in the prehistoric angelic conflict.
(6) The evil day is the believer being overrun by the cosmic system and Christian degeneracy.