Robert McLaughlin Bible Ministries
What it means to be initiated into the secret of the mystery. Part 60. What the ruler of this world really desires.
Friday, June 3, 2005
Satan is not only the original conspirator, but he is also the original counterfeiter.
The purpose of this deception is to imitate the real ministers of Christ and to blind the people from true righteousness which is imputed as a gift from God’s grace and cannot be earned or deserved by man.
These false ministers cannot appear as ministers of Christ unless they gather into their message every available “form of godliness” and then cover their deception with the most subtle hypocrisy.
“The value and delusion of a counterfeit are increased by the nearness of its likeness to the real.”
These false teachers are promoters of “good works and righteousness,” and they will be very attractive and deceptive since they are controlled by Satan.
These false ministers do not necessarily know the real mission they have.
They are usually sincere, preaching and teaching the best things the angel of light, their energizing power, is pleased to reveal unto them.
They are ministers of righteousness whose message should never be confused with the doctrine of grace.
One is directed only at the reformation of the natural man, while the other aims at regeneration through the power of God.
Any counterfeit system of doctrine which would omit the power of God and the grace and knowledge which accompanies that power, is used by the strategy of Satan to force some secondary truth which blinds one from the real truth.
Secondary truth = something that is true, however, it is not being taught or referred to properly.
It is God’s will that you live holy, but the holiness must be the result of doctrine in the soul and the filling of the Spirit not reformation of the flesh.
As a part of Satan trying to be like God and to control God’s people, Satan will allow and even promote some of the great scriptural subjects, but he will distort them.
For example, tongues, physical health, life after death, morality, unfulfilled prophecy, the baptism of the Spirit, etc.
MAT 23:24 “You blind guides who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel!”
A system of doctrine may be formed which includes every truth of the scriptures except one: exalting the real person and work of TLJC.
Satan will allow Christ to be worshiped providing that believers remain ignorant toward the power of God and the resultant glorification of God.
Throughout Christianity, secondary truths are elevated and the power of God is ignored.
2TI 3:5 “they hold to a form or system of godliness, although they have denied its power;”
Unbelievers, because they are naturally minded and they cannot understand the things of God; believers, because they are naturally minded not understanding how to be filled with the Spirit.
1. Satan’s major purpose behind these five “I wills” is to be like the Most High, not as the popular opinion presumes, one of attempting to be unlike God.
2. As a part of his strategy to become like the Most High, those under the influence of his false doctrine teach others how to improve human nature while ignoring the new creature created by God.
3. The presence of gross evil in the world is not due to Satan’s intention to have it so; rather it indicates Satan’s inability to be like the Most High!
JOH 18:36 “My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, then My servants would be fighting, that I might not be delivered up to the Jews; but as it is, My kingdom is not of this realm.”
MAT 26:52-53 Then Jesus said to him, “Put your sword back into its place; Or do you think that I cannot appeal to My Father, and He will at once put at My disposal more than twelve legions of angels?”
4. Satan’s ambition to be like God has led him to take on more than he can handle.
5. Satan deceives the world and even the Christian church into thinking that he is totally opposite of God, which is true inwardly, however, what makes his deceptions so great are the overt similarities that he has with God.
6. The one thing Satan is after is worship from man, so much so that during the Tribulation period he will demand the worship of the people of the earth or they will pay the penalty of death.
7. Any plans to clean up the world and make it a better place to live complement Satan’s evil goals and policies to be like God.
8. All the counterfeit systems Satan has simply reveal his desire to be like the Most High.
9. Religion is Satan’s counterfeit:
a. Counterfeit Gospel, 2CO 11:3-4.
b. Counterfeit Ministers, 2CO 11:13-15.
c. Counterfeit Doctrine, 1TI 4:1.
d. Counterfeit Communion table, 1CO 10:19-21.
e. Counterfeit Spirituality, GAL 3:2-3.
f. Counterfeit Righteousness, MAT 19:16-28.
The Mosaic Law is distorted into self-righteousness, which rejects faith in Christ for relationship with God.
g. Counterfeit Righteousness - self-righteousness, MAT 23:13-36.
h. Counterfeit Power and dynamics (miracles, healing, tongues), 2TH 2:8-10.
i. Counterfeit System of gods, 2TH 2:3-4.
REV 20:10 And the devil who deceived them was thrown [thrust] into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are also; and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.
Thrust down - Hophal imperfect - jaradh - Hophal stem with the passive form = he will receive this.
His prisoners are his fallen angels and he could not even release them from Tartarus.
ISA 14:12 - as the ruler of the world, he weakened the nations.
ISA 14:16 - as the ruler of the world, he made the earth tremble and shook kingdoms.
ISA 14:17 - as the ruler of the world, he made the world like a wilderness and overthrew its cities and he did not allow his prisoners to go home.
This earth becomes the theater of the invisible war.
JOH 17:4 “I glorified Thee on the earth, having accomplished the work which Thou hast given Me to do.”
It is true that Satan is still the god of this world and he still rules as a prince; however, we shall see this office taken from him when the Lord comes back to reign as the king of this earth.
Before Satan’s fall, there was one will in the universe - the will of God.
a. There was no previous example of sin and rebellion; this was the beginning of rebellion against the Most High God.
b. He was created beautiful and perfect; he lacked nothing as the greatest of all creatures - however, like many individuals, he was ungrateful and therefore started his conspiracy.
c. Satan’s sin is especially monstrous because his greatest of all intelligence gave him greater light and understanding of the greatness and goodness of the God whom he sinned against.
d. Satan’s sin is especially monstrous because his highest position gave him the privilege of the greatest service to God.
e. Satan’s sin is especially monstrous because in his perfection and holiness, he had the privilege of intimate fellowship with God.
1. In verse 12, there will be banishment from heaven, “How you have fallen from heaven,” says God to the one who desired to ascend to heaven.
2. The corruption of character - the one whose name was the “star of morning, son of the dawn,” now has become Satan, the opposer and adversary of all that God is.
3. The perversion of power - Satan’s power which was once used for God’s glory and the good of His creatures, is now turned to disruptive and destructive purposes.
4. The retention of dignity - though he was cast from his exalted position, Satan yet retains some of his great dignity - even Michael the archangel “did not dare pronounce against him a railing judgment,” Jud 9.
5. He is destined to the pit. He will “be thrust down to Sheol, to the recesses of the pit,”
ISA 14:15, REV 20:3,10.
Why did a holy and righteous God who is all powerful and all knowing allow the fall of Satan and his angels to occur?
a. God is perfect; therefore His plan is perfect and He allowed evil to come into being.
b. Perhaps He allowed angels to sin in order that He might give an explicit example of the wretchedness and degeneration of sin and rebellion.
c. He used the test to gain a group of angels to serve Him from their own free will and personal love.
d. It may have been necessary to allow the fall of angels to finally show the grace of God in the preserving of some angels and in the redemption of unworthy, sinful man who fell because of Satan.