Robert McLaughlin Bible Ministries
Satan wants the glory, but doesn’t have the ability.
Friday, August 8, 2003
The only reason that Satan can flex his muscles today is simply because God permits it as part of the angelic conflict.
EZE 28:15 “You were blameless in your ways From the day you were created, Until unrighteousness was found in you.”
At the end of the Millennial reign of Jesus Christ, we have the third fall of Satan, REV 20:10.
LUK 10:18 “I was watching Satan fall from heaven like lightning.”
Satan – Satanas = to gossip, to malign, to slander, and to accuse.
Star – heylel – Lucifer = the shining one or the star.
ISA 14:12 How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning!
– NKJ
ISA 14:12 How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning!
– TLB
ISA 14:12 How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning!
– KJV
Lucifer – Latin – light bearer = the shining one, the translucent one, the simulating one.
Two creatures throw out light which made them ultra attractive –
Heylel – Satan
Nachash – Gen 3, serpent.
The serpent was attracted to one half of all mankind.
From the middle of the Tribulation period and for the rest of his existence, Satan has to stay on the earth.
He has the greatest mind that any creature has ever had – only one mind is more intelligent than his which is made available to creatures, and that is “the mind of Christ,” 1CO 2:16, PHI 2:5.
REV 12:9 And the great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.
REV 13:14 – he deceives those who dwell on the earth because of the signs which it was given him to perform.
REV 18:23 – he deceives the world by using a very popular church in Rome.
REV 19:20 – he deceives those who had received the mark of the beast.
REV 20:3 and threw him into the abyss, and shut it and sealed it over him, so that he should not deceive the nations any longer, until the thousand years were completed; after these things he must be released for a short time.
Nations – divine institution number 4 = nationalism.
Nationalism is the belief that nations will benefit from acting independently rather than collectively, emphasizing national rather than international goals.
The first great attack on nationalism came with the tower of Babel, the first United Nations organization.
1. He divided them by race.
2. Geographically.
3. Linguistically.
I will ascend into heaven = the third heaven where God is, 2CO 12:2.
I will raise my throne or exalt my throne above the stars of God = the angels, JOB 38:7; Jud 13, REV 12:3-4, stars are angels.
I will sit on the mount of the assembly in the recesses of the north = rulership over the government of the earth,ISA 2:1-4.
Clouds = the divine presence of God or His glory.
Jehovah appeared in cloud, EXO 16:10.
Jehovah rides upon cloud, PSA 104:3.
JOB 1:6 Now there was a day when the sons of God [angels] came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them.
JOB 1:7 And the Lord said to Satan, “From where do you come?” Then Satan answered the Lord and said, “From roaming about on the earth and walking around on it.”
REV 12:10 “the accuser of our brethren who accuses them before our God day and night.”
MAT 24:30 and then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory.
REV 1:7 Behold, He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him; and all the tribes of the earth will mourn over Him. Even so. Amen.
Since clouds refer to divine presence, the fourth “I will” refers to Satan’s ambition to take over the functions of God.
Satan has neither the character nor the personality to control all types of creatures, bringing them into eternal compatibility with God; and there is where he fails.
Satan wants the glory, but he does not have the ability, and that same spirit is manifested everywhere in the human race.
God’s principle in dealing with the human race is grace, which means that man can neither earn or deserve it.
Man cannot of his own ability or his own talent do anything that glorifies God.
Satan wants to set up principles that promote creatures getting credit!
Here is Satan with his own talent and own ability, which was God-given, trying to supersede God in function as well as in person.
There never was, there never will be a believer whoever earned or deserved anything from God.
Anything we are by way of success, any victory we have depends entirely on who and what God is, never on who and what we are.
We get in God’s way; we start helping God and then He stops working.
Since he could not reproduce any part of the character of God and he still wanted it, the only thing he could do was to imitate or to counterfeit God.
Any believer with a little bit of smarts and doctrine in the frontal lobe can do what Satan always wanted to do and never could, imitate God!
EPH 5:1 Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children;
GAL 4:19 My children, with whom I am again in labor until Christ is formed in you —
GAL 5:16 – humans can “walk by means of the Holy Spirit” – Satan cannot!
EPH 5:18 – humans can “be filled with the Spirit,” – Satan cannot!