Satan's Rampage
Notes
Transcript
Handout
Do you know the difference between a rampage and an outburst of anger? I will be honest with you, I did not until I worked on writing this message.
An outburst of anger is something that is short lived. It builds up quickly because of some sort of trigger. The surest way to provoke an outburst of anger from me is to be disrespectful to my wife. My children, when they were disrespectful to their mother, experienced this first hand. But it is a short, momentary episode.
A rampage, on the other hand, is a long drawn-out affair. I believe we could put the riots which occurred the summer of 2020, as well as those which have been occuring since October 7, 2023 into the category of being a rampage. And I believe that the true instigator of this rampage is Satan himself.
This morning we are going to be looking at Satan’s Rampage, which is part three of The Doctrine of the Devil. We do not have a specific passage for this, but we will look at many passages as we go along. We will spend some time in the early chapters of Genesis, as well as the first chapter of Job. So if you want to turn in your Bible and put a bookmark in those passages you may feel free to do so. But all of our passages will be on the screen today for your convenience.
I have said from the outset of this miniseries that my goal in all of this is to help us to each stand strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. We need to stand strong because our spiritual enemy is very crafty and powerful. We have the ability to stand strong because greater is He who is in us than he who is in the world. We also need to be aware of Satan and his strategies so that we can be better prepared to stand firm when he attacks us.
This morning we will consider Satan’s limitations and aggression. My present plan is to wrap this miniseries up next week by doing a deeper dive in spiritual warfare as mention by Paul in chapter six of his epistle to the Ephesians. Let’s begin this morning by looking at
Satan’s History
Satan’s History
A few weeks back we looked at the passages in Isaiah and Ezekiel which refer to Satan and his fall. That is not what we will look at today.
Remember that Satan was a created being. He was a Cherub, which is a high ranking angel. Many believe that he was the highest of the Cherubim — the highest of all angelic beings. We do not know for certain when angels were created nor when Satan lead a third of the angels in a revolt against God. Some believe that they were created before the creation of the heavens and the earth as mentioned in Genesis chapter1. Others believe that they were a part of the six days of creation.
Theologian, Wayne Grudem, notes that “all of the angels must have been created before the seventh day of creation, for we read” ...
Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.
This would seem to indicate that that angelic beings were created during the six days of creation. Grudem went on to mention that “host” refer to “the heavenly creatures that inhabit God’s universe.” (Grudem, Systematic Theology, page 401).
As a part of the Ten Commandments Yahweh was even more explicit while giving the fourth commandment.
“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.
Six days you shall labor, and do all your work,
but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates.
For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
Look at
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.
Grudem contends that there is a hint of angelic beings being created on the first day of creation. He points to the fact that the earth was not yet inhabitable, but there is no mention of the heavens being uninhabitable. In other words, “the uninhabitable state of the earth is contrasted with the heavens where, perhaps, God had already created angelic beings and assigned them various roles and orders.”
Toward the end of the Book of Job, God steps into the narrative and confronts Job and his three good-for-nothing friends regarding speaking about Him without any real knowledge of Him.
Look at
“Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding.
Who determined its measurements—surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it?
On what were its bases sunk, or who laid its cornerstone,
when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy?
Obviously Job was not there when Christ created the world. But when God made the earth to be inhabitable the angels were there — referred to here as the sons of God.
It would seem then that Satan’s fall was after the seventh day, and most likely before the temptation of Eve. That is because God pronounce that all of His creation was good. Look at
And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.
If Satan had already rebelled then God couldn’t have said that all of creation was very good.
Since God did not reveal to us when all this occurred, we need to be content with not knowing for certain. What we do know is that before the temptation of Eve a number of angels sinned and rebelled against God.
For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment;
And the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day—
So, in summary, I believe that the angels were created on the first day of creation, probably before anything else. And I believe that Satan fell sometime after the seventh day. While it is an interesting thing to consider, it really isn’t that important to our faith and practice, nor to this series.
So, let’s move on to that which is important.
Note that
Satan has been on a Rampage Against the Son of God ever since the Garden of Eden
Let’s look again at God’s curse on that Serpent of old. Look at
The Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field; on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life.
Do you think that Satan was at all upset that because of him serpents from now on would have to crawl on their bellies eating dust? I don’t think he was upset by that at all. After all, Satan was not an actual serpent. He either possessed the body of a serpent in order to do his bidding, or he used his angelic powers to come in the appearance of a serpent. I lean toward the last since angels are spirit beings without bodily form, and yet they have frequently appeared to mankind in the form of a man.
Have you ever known someone who is a people user — as in they use people for their own purposes and then just move on not caring that they have brought harm to someone else? I see Satan as such a being. What did he care what happened to serpents. He was not going to continue in the form of a serpent, so why would he care.
While I don’t think that Satan cared about what was pronounced in verse 14, I believe that Scripture testifies to the fact that he cared a great deal about what was pronounced in verse 15. Let’s look at that verse.
I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”
While I am aware that there are a few people who like snakes, most of us have a nervous or revolting reaction to them. That is natural since God said that we would be enemies. Not only are we enemies of snakes in general, we are enemies of that Serpent of Old.
The term “offspring” or “seed” depending on your translation can be used both in a plural sense and in a singular sense. And it is used both ways here. In a plural sense, all human being are enemies of Satan — even those who still live under his rule. But the last half of the verse refers to a singular offspring — it refers to Jesus Christ. From this time forward Satan set off to make war with the offspring of the woman. How much he knew about who the specific offspring was we do not know. In a few minutes we will circle back to this, but first let’s look at
Satan’s Limitations
Satan’s Limitations
How many of you have read the book of Job? When I first became a pastor there was a lady in our church whose husband died on the very day the church was to vote on me to be their pastor. So, the vote was put off for a couple of weeks. Since I knew she was suffering, I decided to begin my ministry there by preaching through 1 Peter which is about suffering. Of course, it is about suffering for the sake of Christ as opposed to suffering for the sake of our own sin. Then, since we were studying about suffering I decided to preach through the book of Job, which is also about suffering. I would never recommend a new preacher preaching on the book of Job! Now that I have been preaching virtually every week sin May of 2010 I’m still not sure that I would want to preach again through the book of Job.
But we learn a lot about Satan and his limitations in the first two chapters of Job. Some believe that Job is the oldest writing in the cannon of Scripture — that is if it was actually written by Job, as most assume. Most conservative scholars see the content of the book as taking place some where between the life of Noah and the life of Abraham.
The book of Job begins with a summary of this blessed man, his family, and his possessions. It is an interesting summary, but we will skip over that for today since we are interested primarily in what we can learn about Satan from this passage.
Look at
Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them.
I believe I have already mentioned that the term “sons of God” often refers to angels. From this passage we can garner that
The Term Sons of God can Refer to Both Good & Fallen Angels
We also learn that
Angelic Beings are Required to Give an Accounting of their Works Before God
If Satan is required to give an accounting before God, then he is neither God’s equal, nor is he above the Most High as he boasted he would be.
Look at
The Lord said to Satan, “From where have you come?” Satan answered the Lord and said, “From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking up and down on it.”
When God asked Satan for an account of what he had been doing he said that he was roaming around the earth. After all, the earth is presently under his domain. Do you know what Satan is doing as he roams around the earth? He is looking for someone he can turn against God.
Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.
While Satan often devours those who are not in a covenant relationship with God, he takes special pride in devouring those who are in a covenant relationship with God through Jesus Christ. Otherwise Peter would not have mentioned this in his epistle which was written to believers.
Look at
And the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil?”
Then Satan answered the Lord and said, “Does Job fear God for no reason?
Have you not put a hedge around him and his house and all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land.
But stretch out your hand and touch all that he has, and he will curse you to your face.”
What we can learn about Satan is that
He has the Gall to Challenge God and Say that He is Wrong
Look at God’s response to Satan in verse 12.
And the Lord said to Satan, “Behold, all that he has is in your hand. Only against him do not stretch out your hand.” So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord.
I have to admit that sometimes it seems unloving to me that God would allow a righteous person to be tormented by Satan merely so that God can be proved right. And I will confess that this is the wrong perspective to take on this. God always has a reason for putting believers through fiery trials. But He is not required to give an answer to us as to why He allows these things to happen. That really is the story of this entire book.
What we can learn is that
God is Glorified in the Suffering of Believers
How is God glorified in this? I’m sure there are many ways, but one that comes to mind is that when believers are suffering they tend to draw closer to God. God wants that intimate fellowship with us.
Also, God, in His inexhaustive wisdom knows that just as gold is refined in the refiners fire, so are believers. I think it was Christine Wyrtzen that wrote this song:
I’ve been through a fire
And it has deepened my desire
To know the living God more and more
It hasn’t been much fun
But the work that it has done
In my life has made it worth the hurt.
You see sometimes we need the hard times
To bring us to our knees
Otherwise we do as we please
And never heed Him.
But He always knows what’s best
And it’s when we are at rest
That we really come to know God as He is.
Look again at verse 12.
And the Lord said to Satan, “Behold, all that he has is in your hand. Only against him do not stretch out your hand.” So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord.
Notice that Satan had to have God’s permission to do anything to Job. Notice also that God put a limitation on what Satan could do. “Satan, you can do anything you want to Job’s possessions, but you cannot touch Job himself.
IN the next chapter we find Satan once again appearing before God. And he said that the only reason why Job did not curse God was because he hadn’t been allowed to touch him physically. So God gave him permission to touch Job with physical sickness, but not to kill him. Again we see that there is a limitation to what Satan can do.
Let’s move on from Satan’s limitations to consider
Satan’s Aggression
Satan’s Aggression
Note that,
Satan was Determined to Crush the Offspring of the Woman Before the Offspring Could Crush Him
Remember that God had said that Satan would merely bruise the heel of the woman’s offspring. To have a bruised heel is very painful — I know from experience. But it is not fatal. However, to have a wound on the head can prove to be fatal. And that is what Satan had to look forward to. Ever trying to prove God to be wrong, Satan quickly went on a rampage against eh offspring of the woman.
Look at
Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, “I have gotten a man with the help of the Lord.”
It appears from Eve’s statement that she had “gotten a man with the help of the LORD” that she thought that possibly Cain would be the promised offspring who would bruise the head of the serpent. But boy, o boy, was she ever wrong. It seems to me like the full wait of depravity fell upon the one who was the first to ever open a human womb on planet earth.
Of course Eve was not done bearing children. Look at verse 2.
And again, she bore his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, and Cain a worker of the ground.
These two boys grew up and they were seemingly taught about the proper way to worship. That is, in order to truly worship their sins needed to be covered by the death of a substitute. Something had to die. Blood had to be shed so they could be forgiven. Note that
True Worship Must be done God’s Way and Not Man’s Way
Look at what happened.
In the course of time Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground,
and Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering,
but for Cain and his offering he had no regard. So Cain was very angry, and his face fell.
Some think that Satan saw Abel, and not Cain, as bein his nemesis. So, he worked in the heart of Cain. First he convinced him that there was more than one way to worship God. That the important thing is that we are worshiping, and not the manner in which we worship. Then he caused Cain to stew about his offering not being accepted. And this brought him to the point where he would do the devil’s dirty work and kill his brother. We know that Satan was behind all of this because John told us in his first epistle.
We should not be like Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brother’s righteous.
Was God’s prophecy wrong? Absolutely not! As a matter of fact, God knew all along that righteous Abel would die — but by faith Abel pleased God. And the blood of his sacrifice still speaks from the ground.
Satan may have thought that he had defeated God, but God raise up Seth in the place of Abel.
Fast forward about 2,500 years and we learn that the sons of God were cohabitating with the daughters of men. Remember that the sons of God can refer to angelic beings. Some believe the sons of God to be the line of Seth, while the daughters of men are from the line of Cain. Whichever be the case, they raised up an evil spawn. They were so evil that
The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
So, God determined to send a flood to wipe out all living creatures, including man, on the face of the earth. Did Satan, who was certainly behind the wickedness of this period, win the war against God? Absolutely not! For Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.
Time will not allow for me to go into detail about the many times in which Satan sought to defeat the seed of the woman. But let me list a few.
Satan sought to defeat God at the tower of Babel, by stirring up mankind to create their own religion which would reach up into heaven.
He sought to defeat the seed by causing Abraham to leave the land of promise and journey to Egypt where Pharoah took Sarah into his harem.
He sought to defeat the seed by causing Abraham to father a child by Hagar.
He sought to defeat the seed by causing Abimelech to take Sarah into his harem.
He sought to defeat the seed by having Pharoah kill all of the male children from Israel which were born in Egypt.
He sought to defeat the seed by having King Saul pursue David, for Saul know that the kingdom was being torn away from him and given to David.
He sought to defeat the seed when Athaliah killed all of the heirs to the throne — but the Lord preserved and his Joash.
He sought to defeat the seed when Haman plotted to kill all of the Jews in the kingdom of the Medes and Persians.
He sought to defeat the true Seed of the woman when he convinced Herod the Great to kill all of the boys, age two and under, in Bethlehem.
And he finally sought to defeat the true Seed when he convinced the religious elite of Israel to have Jesus executed. What Satan didn’t know was that his momentary triumph actually led to the fulfillment of that prophecy long ago — and Jesus, the Seed of the woman, crushed Satan’s head when He rose up from the dead bringing victory over sin and death.
Throughout postbiblical history Satan has launched many attacks which targeted Jewish people. The ones I am more familiar with are the ones which occurred last century under the direct of Joseph Stalin and Adolph Hitler. And of course, as already mentioned, the riots which have been going on since the October 7, 2023 attack by Hamas terrorists against the nation of Israel, and even in our own country against people of Jewish heritage.
Satan has been on an extended rampage ever since the events of Genesis chapter 3. That is by far the longest rampage the world has ever, or will ever know. But remember, even though it would seem like Satan is in control of this world, he is not. God is in control and Satan can only do that which God gives him permission to do.
What is the take home from all of this? First of all, if you are not a believer in Jesus Christ, then you are, whether you acknowledge it or not, under the domain of Satan. He is you ruler, lord, and master. And you are his servant.
The only remedy for this is to be delivered from the domain of Satan, and transferred into the domain of Christ. This happens when a person repents of their sin — both of the sinful nature which is passed down to us from Adam, and of your own specific acts of sin. The flipside of the coin of repentance is faith in the person and work of Jesus Christ. You must believe that Jesus is the eternal God, the Creator of this world who became man so that He could fulfill the law of God at every point. He lived a sinless life, and He died as the substitute for all who place their faith and trust in Him. Though Satan thought he had defeated Christ when He died on the cross, He rose again from the grave, triumphing over sin and death. And He is now seated at the right hand of the Father making intercession for His own.
Believer, we need to be aware of the wiles of the devil so that we can take our stand against him. I love the way Martin Luther put it in his beautiful hymn — A Mighty Fortress.
And tho this world, with devils filled,
Should threaten to undo us,
We will not fear, for God hath willed
His truth to triumph thru us.
The price of darkness grim,
We tremble not for him —
His rage we can endure,
For lo, his doom is sure:
One little word shall fell him.
That word above all earthly pow’rs,
No thanks to them, abideth;
The Spirit and the gifts are our
Thru Him who with us sideth.
Let goods and kindred go,
This mortal life also—
The body they may kill;
God’s truth abideth still:
His kingdom is forever.
Let’s pray.
Holy Father,
We thank Your for the time we have had in Your Word. May You help us to be aware of the enemies attempts to deceive us and to reek havoc on us. Help us to stand on Your Word, and in our union with Christ — for Satan has no power over Him.
Lord, I pray for any who are not believers, that Your Spirit would prompt them to respond positively to the gospel of Jesus Christ. May they not leave this place without giving their lives over to Christ.
In Jesus’ name. Amen.
Closing Song: #26
A Mighty Fortress
A mighty fortress is our God, a bulwark never failing: Our helper He amid the flood of mortal ills prevailing. For still our ancient foe doth seek to work us woe — his craft and pow’r are great, and, armed with cruel hate, on earth is not his equal.
Did we in our own strength confide, our striving would be losing, were not eh right Man on our side, the Man of God’s own choosing. Dost ask who that may be? Christ Jesus, it is He — Lord Sabaoth His name, from age to age the same, and He must win the battle.
And tho this world, with devils filled, should threaten to undo us, we will not fear, for God hath willed His truth to triumph thru us. The prince of darkness grim, we tremble not for him — his rage we can endure, for lo, his doom is sure: One little word shall fell him.
That word above all earthy pow’rs, no thanks to them, abideth; the Spirit and the gift are ours thru Him who with us sideth. Let goods and kindred go, this mortal life also — the body they may kill; God’s truth abideth still: His kingdom is forever.
