Robert McLaughlin Bible Ministries
Meet the servants and ministers of Satan in the AngelicConflict. Part 8.
Sunday, October 13, 2002
The purpose of this deception is to imitate the real ministers of Christ and to blind the people from true righteousness, which is imputed at the moment of salvation as a gift from Gods grace and cannot be earned or deserved by man.
Napoleon Bonaparte -“History is a set of lies agreed upon.”
Unbelieving - apiston = faithless, or those lacking faith or doctrine, those with NVTD, 1TI 5:8, JOH 20:27 - also use the word for believers.
These false ministers cannot appear as ministers of Christ unless they gather into their message every available “form of godliness” and cover their lies with the most subtle hypocrisy.
2TI 3:5 holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; and avoid such men as these.
“The value and delusion of a counterfeit are increased by the nearness of its likeness to the real.”
These ministers will be very well respected in society and their lives will be undoubtedly free from the great scrutiny and temptations which come from the kingdom of darkness.
These false ministers do not necessarily know the real mission they have.
Their gospel and teaching is based on human viewpoint and appeals to human resources.
1CO 2:14 A natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.
They are ministers of righteousness, which message should never be confused with the doctrine of grace.
Any counterfeit system of doctrine which omits the power of God and the grace of God, is used by the strategy of Satan to blind the believer from the real truth.
Notice his subtlety and deception using the word Elohim translated God, which is a recognition of a supreme being, but denial of the Savior, Jehovah Elohim, the Lord God.
Satans evil policy is recognition of God but not of The Lord Jesus Christ, the only Savior.
JAM 2:19 You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder.
Satans ministers of righteousness focus in on the dos and donts, they bring in standards that even God does not have.
Both good and evil is Satans policy, and Satan is the inventor of good or creature credit.
Satans first weapon was neither terror nor intimidation, nor threatening, Satans first and most brilliant weapon has always been conversation.
Satan is a master of twisting the Scriptures, distorting the Scriptures, misinterpreting the Scriptures.
Evil came first, not sin.
1. He out-rightly contradicts the word of God when he says, “Has God said?” and then, “You surely shall not die!”
2. As a part of his policy of evil he distorts and misquotes the word of God.
3. He adds to and subtracts from the word of God.
4. He ridicules, mocks, and attacks those into doctrine.
2CO 7:10 For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation,
They will teach that it is Gods 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.
Satan will allow and even promote some of the great scriptural subjects, but he will distort them.
Tongues, physical health, life after death, morality, unfulfilled prophecy, the baptism of the Spirit, etc.
They declare others ineligible by judging them, ridiculing them, and criticizing them.
He knows that the true spiritual leaders will be His disciples, who, after He ascends to heaven, will be filled with the Spirit and will go everywhere teaching doctrine.
They are denounced publicly in the presence of the multitude and in their own presence also.
The Pharisees were the religious spiritual leaders. The Sadducees were primarily into politics. The scribes guarded the O.T. Scriptures and were considered the experts or the theologians of the law.
1. They lack authority. 2. They lack integrity. 3. They lack compassion. 4. They lack spirituality. 5. They lack genuine humility.
Robert R. McLaughlin All Rights Reserved 2002