NT Framework - Why Satan is Still Free

Satan was defeated at the cross is what many Christians believe, but we still wake up to temptation and difficulty in a world that feels anything but free. What does Scripture actually say about Satan’s defeat? The big idea is simple and unsettling: the victory is real, but God unfolds it in stages, and the present stage is training ground.

More information about Beyond the Walls, including additional resources can be found at www.beyondthewalls-ministry.com 

This series included graphics to illustrate what is being taught, if you would like to watch the teachings you can do so on Rumble (https://rumble.com/user/SpokaneBibleChurch) or on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLtV_KhFVZ_waBcnuywiRKIyEcDkiujRqP).

Jeremy Thomas is the pastor at Spokane Bible Church in Spokane, Washington and a professor at Chafer Theological Seminary. He has been teaching the Bible for over 20 years, always seeking to present its truths in a clear and understandable manner. 

Transcript

Welcome And The Cheating Test

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Welcome to Beyond the Walls with Jeremy Thomas and our series on the New Testament framework. Today, the full lesson from Jeremy Thomas. Here's a hint of what's to come.

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The problem is we keep reading verses like 1 Peter 5.8 that say the devil is like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. And 1 Peter, of course, is written quite a bit after the cross. So I thought he was going to be cast out. I thought he was judged. What in the world is he still doing roaming around?

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I have cheated on tests, fearful of having my ignorance exposed. I've cheated on diets, eating food that I shouldn't eat or was unhealthy for me, and contrary to what I wanted to achieve. Why did I cheat? Because I did not have the strength or the faith to do things the right way. So I took a shortcut. And yet, Christ in his life on earth never cheated. He never went to his attributes as God Almighty, creator of the universe, the Son of the Living God, to do something. Instead, he relied absolutely upon the power of the Father in His physical life as a mortal human to win. His example of not cheating is for us. We cannot take the easy route. It never ends well for us. Consequences might be small or they might be big, but they are not good. And so we look to Christ, who gave us the example, to live by faith, not in our own strength, not by our own sight, and not to cheat. And in doing so, He won an absolute victory. And so can we, when we live by faith in God the Father, through Jesus Christ the Son, by the Holy Spirit.

Ahab And The Lying Spirit Question

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Okay, uh, well, we there was a question a few weeks ago that I wanted to, that someone had that I needed to answer. And this relates to the 1 Kings 22 passage, where uh you had uh King Ahab and King Jehoshaphat are sitting there talking about going to war against the Ammonites, and they bring in the 400 prophets, and the 400 prophets say, Oh, yeah, yeah, you've got them, go get them. And then uh they say, Jehoshaphat says, Yeah, well, do you have an uh another prophet? And he says, Well, yeah, we've got this one. I don't like this guy because every time he comes in here, it's never good news, and so I really don't want to hear from him, but he's pressed by Jehoshaphat, and he brings in this prophet named Micaiah, and um in this passage is when Micaiah explains that he sees a uh saw a vision, and in the vision you see the Lord sitting on his throne, and all is the angelic host, and the Lord says, Hey, uh somebody go and you know put a you know false prophet uh word in the mouth of all these prophets. Now, by the way, these prophets were these 400 prophets were actually true prophets, but they were all on the payroll of Ahab, so they had been uh compromised. They were now compromised and uh not truly really prophets anymore. So they were gonna give a false word to Ahab, and then Ahab was gonna go into battle and be killed. And so uh in that story where the Lord asks these angels, Hey, who's gonna go do this thing? Uh one of the it says a spirit said, I will go, and he said, Okay, and what's your plan, you know? And he says, I'll go be a uh lying or deceptive, you know, uh voice in the mouth of all these prophets. And the question becomes, okay, well, was this a good angel or was this an evil angel? Now, every Christian immediately has a response to that question. Uh they immediately usually have a theological response, not necessarily a biblical textual response, they have a theological response. It's like when we hear um a question about, like, well, what about what about babies? You know, do they go to heaven? Because they haven't believed. You know, so most people will have a knee-jerk reaction about what happens to you know on a question like that. And they'll say, well, they've got to be saved, you know, they just immediately respond, you know, out of a theological and they you this could be right, this could be wrong. Uh, but the important thing is to evaluate the text and see what the text says. So usually the way I answer these types of questions is I will start down a path and then I will be very interested to see where this path goes. I won't just have a knee-jerk reaction and say it's got to be this way. So here's my discussion of that. It's highly controversial, first of all. There are about seven or eight views. I'm only sharing three here. Some people say it was just a story that Mike I was telling. It wasn't didn't really happen. He's just describing something that tell the truth. Other people say, No, it was an evil angel. I mean, obviously, I mean, why would an evil angel, I mean, why would a good angel, you know, be a lying mountain give a lie to these prophets or whatever. And then that would be like Charles Rowry. Others say it was a good angel, for example, for example, somebody who taught at the exact same seminary as Charles Rowry, Tom Constable. So, at a very esteemed seminary, one of the most esteemed of the 20th century, Dallas Theological Seminary. And so two guys on staff held completely opposite views. My interpretation is actually that the Spirit was a good angel who stands by to serve the Lord. There are several reasons why. The first is in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, verses 11 through 12. So it's a different passage, but it's it gives an example. It says God will send a deluding influence. It doesn't say God will use somebody else to sending a deluding influence or anything like that. It says God in the last days will send a deluding influence on those who've been given the truth multiple times, but keep rejecting the truth. And the purpose, it says, is so they might be judged for not believing the truth, but for taking pleasure in wickedness. King Ahab certainly fits the bill. He never wanted to hear the truth from the prophet Micaiah. God sent him the truth over and over and over, and he kept rejecting the truth, and because of this, he was building up a situation where he was to be judged by God and ultimately ultimately be killed. Okay, this was God's will for Ahab that he be killed. Um, that's the first idea is that we see this in the Bible that God will do this to certain people who've been given truth over and over and over. Next, uh, God permits fallen angels to do certain activities. Yes, he permits them to do things. The story of Job is a good example where God permits uh fallen angels, well Satan, to go and cause problems for Job. But we have no examples in the Bible actually of God commanding an evil spirit to carry out tasks for him. We don't have one example. If there is one example, this would be the one example. So it'd be a lone example. So fallen angels are functioning under Satan in a hierarchy, and they are there to carry out his task. Third point. In Matthew 12, Jesus says, Hey, look, if Satan is casting out demons, which is what they accused him of doing, you are indwelt by Satan casting out demons. He says, Well, then Satan's kingdom is divided against itself, and it will certainly fall. In other words, Satan's demons don't carry out tasks that are contrary to Satan. They only carry out tasks that are in line with Satan's purposes. So if this was an evil angel, then what you'd be saying is that you have an evil angel who's going to do something for God to actually be against Satan's kingdom, which was, you know, why would Satan want to kill Ahab? Make no sense. He was being used as a puppet of Satan to carry out Satan's purposes. Uh so it wouldn't make any sense with that passage. It would seem contrary. Now, all that is just to do this. It's to say, it's to make you say, okay, okay, I hear what you're saying. I'm not really totally convinced of it. And so I reject it. That's what most they'll just stop right there. All I've said right now is to prompt you to say, okay, can you take me to second base now? Because that's just first base. We haven't even got into this issue yet. So you want to ask further questions. Okay, that's a good idea. So what we're going to do is talk about some more things.

Rahab And The Lesser Evil

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Uh, God and the story of Rahab and the two spies. You remember this story? The two spies come to Jericho, they go to this prostitute's home, Rahab, and she hides them on the roof, and the soldiers come and they say, Hey, did these two men come here? And she says, Oh, they came, but they went out this way. And uh yet she had them on the rooftop, right? Hiding them. Now, in the book of James, James chapter 2, God says that Rahab was justified because when the mess the spies came to her, she sent them out another way. All this involves the lie. Rahab lied. I mean, can anybody disagree with that? She lied. And yet God commends her and says she is justified by work, she was already a believer, but this is a justification by work seen, right? By doing that. And again, that sometimes bothers people. But if she had not lied and said, No, they're over here, then what would have happened? The king would have taken these two spies and he would have killed them. Here's the question Whose land was it? Was it the Canaanites' land? Or did the land belong to Israel, including those two spies? See, there's much more going on. The one who was they were actually going to be murdering these two spies because they were living on Israel's land. And so, in effect, this is like someone coming in your house and murdering you. Okay? So there's a lot more going on there. And so, of course, God commends Rahab. Rahab recognizes that the land belongs to these people. And so she lies to protect them because the alternative was murder would have happened. Sometimes we have to in a situation decide. Let's just say, I mean, you can be put at gunpoint, for example. And if you rat someone out, you know, this will happen to you, or if you don't, you'll you'll die. In other words, you have you have only really two decisions to make, and neither one of them is what you should do, really, ethically, biblically. Uh so which one do you choose? Well, the one that is of least harm. That's what you choose to do. Uh, you don't have really really any other choice. Okay? The one that causes the least harm. Um and God commends this over and over in the Bible. He sees that there's a lesser evil, and he says that's the thing you have to do in these types of cases. Um, otherwise, you're not you're not thinking right. Um, here's another one. God told Joshua to set an ambush in order to trick or deceive the army of I in Joshua chapter 7. God gave them a trick. He told them to deceive. Why? That's the question. We're not supposed to say, I doubt that. It says it. What we're supposed to do is ask why. And here's where we get to the ethics of war and the ethics of dealing with the criminal world. As a question, we could always put forth a question. Could a Christian function as a member of the CIA, the FBI, or a police force who is going to carry out an ambush to capture uh, let's say, uh, criminals who are working in sex trafficking or drugs and all of this? Can a Christian be involved in that because they're using a deception to capture criminals? Yes, 100%. Why? Because criminals have forfeited their right to function in the real world with the rest of us who want to live on the standard of truth by living in a world of deception. And so they don't have any rights in this world. And this is why I think at least the justification theologically is for God saying, okay, this person doesn't want to function in the world the way I've created it in terms of standards of truth and so forth. They want to live in that world, therefore they do not have access to those things, and those things can be used against them. It's the same thing in war. Why can a Christian serve as a soldier in the armed forces of the United States of America and can he kill enemy? Yeah, but when he kills those enemies, why is it not classified in the Bible as murder? Because the Bible has an ethics for war. And it's not the same when a soldier kills an enemy as it is when I would say go into your home and murder you. Those are two totally different things because there's different ethics involved. So some of these things challenge us, but I think if we work through some of them, we can at least get some satisfaction on a level. So I do think that that was a good uh angel who was carrying out a service on behalf of the Lord because Ahab had forfeited his rights uh to enjoy any more truth, and it was time for him to be dead. And so it is. Now, if you have a problem with that, that's okay. I mean, I'm not gonna divide over it personally. I mean, if you want to say it was an evil spirit, that's that's fine. But uh in other words, this is not an issue that to divide over, in my opinion. All right, um but tough, tough issue, no question. Tough tough issue.

When Deception Fits Justice And War

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Today what I want to do is go ahead and finish up some issues related to fallen angels. And um why it is there's still roaming around. If we look at Colossians chapter 2, verses 14 and 15, we see that uh at the cross God judged the fallen angels. And other passages like John 12 31 says that you know he will be cast out and things like that. Um that he's been judged. So Colossians 2 14 and 15 this creates a just a difficult weird thing about the Bible, different difficult story. Um verse 14 having canceled out the certificate of debt, that's our sin debt, right, consisting of decrees against us. A long list of decrees is against every one of us, okay? But he canceled, Christ canceled that out. He says this the certificate of debt, these decrees were hostile to us, and he's taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. Amen. When he had disarmed the rulers and authorities, now those are terms for the fallen angelic realm, the rulers and authorities. When he had done that, he disarmed them at the cross, right? He made a public display of them having triumphed over them through him. That is, the father triumphed over them through Christ's finished work. We also have John 12 31.

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Another interesting statement about what happened.

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Relative to Christ's work on the cross, Jesus answered, This voice has not come for my sake, but for your sake. Now judgment is upon this world. Now the ruler of this world will be casted, will be cast out. If I am lifted up, which is a reference to the crucifixion from the earth, I will draw all men to myself. So obviously, in connection with his crucifixion, the ruler of this world will be cast out. The problem is we keep reading verses like 1 Peter 5:8 that say, the devil is like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. And 1 Peter, of course, is written quite a bit after the cross. So I thought he was going to be cast out. I thought he was judged. What in the world is he still doing roaming around? Why? But we don't think that's the case. Um Corinthians 4 says, and this is again after the cross, 2 Corinthians 4, 4 says he's the God of this world still. So he's still here with us. If he's bound, he's not very tightly bound at all. Um doesn't seem like he's bound at all. But so this creates a question, like why? If Christ judged him on the cross, why is he still roaming around? Third, ultimately, they, that's the demons, will be cast out of heaven so they can no longer accuse believers, and that will happen at the middle of the tribulation. Revelation chapter 12, verse 7 through 10. That's when Satan is cast down, and he'll no longer be able to accuse the brethren. Remember that? And then he goes on a rampage to destroy Israel. He uh actually enters into the Antichrist and indwells him and functions through him for that supernatural uh period of the Antichrist's career, and his goal, of course, is to exterminate Israel. But at that point, then he loses his access right to heaven, and he's cast down only to the earth to carry out function. And then Satan and the demons will be cast in the abyss for the thousand years, for the thousand-year kingdom, Revelation 20, verses 1 through 6. So he'll be bound. Remember, he's bound in the abyss because there's a great chain, and of course it's some kind of spiritual chain because he's not a physical being. But anyway, you get the point. It's a metaphor for uh locking away and it limiting Satan's activity on the earth for the period of the 1,000 years. And then after the thousand years, Satan is released for a short time, and he gathers a great rebellion against Jerusalem and the saints, and he goes up against it in Revelation 20, verses 7 through 10, and fire comes down from heaven and destroys all of his enemies, and Satan at this time and the demons

The Cross And Satan’s Timetable

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will be cast in the lake of fire for all eternity. So that is the stages. There was a judgment at the cross, but he's still permitted to roam, which is the area we want to discuss. He'll be ultimately one day cast out of heaven so he can no longer accuse, locked away in an abyss for a thousand years, and finally, after that, cast in the lake of fire. So it's a series of steps to get to his final, let's say, demise. So we want to talk about why he's permitted to roam about. If Satan and his evil horde of angels have been defeated at the cross, why? There are several things that are happening here that are a setup for the church and for the Christian way of life. Like a new way of living before God that's distinct from Old Testament saints. Okay, in other words, the New Testament Christian way of life or the church, church's way of Christian way of life, is distinct from Israel Old Testament, uh, the way they were to live there. Let's just call it Christian life. Okay. Um, this is going to point out a distinction between what we call Israel and the church. And this is a major one. And so we need to back away and try to understand how the angelic uh fallen angels still being here are related in some way to the Christian way of life now that we are experiencing. Um, first of all, then Christ is forming a new race of men, beginning with the church. This new race of men is to rule with him in the future kingdom. What was God's purpose for Adam? When God created Adam, what did he tell him to do? When he made, let us make man in our own image to do what? To rule, okay, to rule over the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, you know, and so forth. It was to rule over the earth, right? And to cultivate and keep the garden and spread it over the face of the whole earth for the glory of God. Now, Adam failed in that, right? So, what is happening beginning on the day of Pentecost when we get into the church is a new race of men are being formed that will fulfill what Adam failed to fulfill along with our Savior Christ. This new race of men is generated through faith so that they are in Christ. In Christ. 39 times in the book of Ephesians, it says those who Believe in the church are in Christ. And we have the indwelling spirit permanently, right, as a basis for Christ's life being produced through us. This is a new way of spiritual life, distinct from Old Testament saints. So a new race created, being created to fulfill what Adam fulfilled. In other words, in the Messianic kingdom, we're going to do what he failed to do. We're going to rule over the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky. We're going to fulfill that mandate. The new race, of course, is generated through faith alone in Christ alone, right? So that we're in Christ and we have the indwelling spirit. Now, um, we can't go to all these, but 1 John 3.10, for example, says there's the children of God and there's the children of the devil. The children of God and the children of the devil. In other words, there's two types of children or two races. I'm just using the term race to refer to these two people groups. There's the children of God, and there's the children of the devil. And there's everybody is a member of one of these two, let's say, races, right? So if you're a child of God, right, you believed in Him, in Christ, then you are a part of this new humanity, this new race that is being prepared to ultimately rule in the kingdom with Christ. We also have the indwelling spirit, and he permanently indwells us, meaning he's taken up residence in us. Why has he done this? Well, it's to enable us to have a basis for Christ's life being produced through us. Let's turn to Galatians. Galatians 2.20. When we live, as Christians, when we live by faith, there's a manifestation of Christ's life through us. This is what Paul is saying here in Galatians 2.20. He says, I have been crucified with Christ. That's my old man that was in Adam. He's been crucified with Christ. So that's he's a part of a new humanity now, not the old one. He says, it's no longer I who live. You know, I'm not producing this anymore. He says, but Christ lives in me. Okay, so see, we're in Christ. The moment you believe you're in Christ, but as you live by faith, Christ lives in you. So you're in Christ, I'm in Christ, we're all in Christ. But then as we live by faith, guess what? Christ lives in us. And his life, his perfect, impeccable life, is produced through us. It says, so I no longer live. Christ lives in me. The life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself up for me. So the way that we're supposed to live, of course, of course, is by faith. And when we do, then Christ's life is reproduced through us. Now we learn more about this in chapter 5, Galatians 5, 22, when he talks about the fruit of the Spirit. Because it's Christ's life that's being produced through us

A New Humanity Formed In Christ

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by the Spirit who dwells in us. Right? It's Christ's life that's being produced through us by the Spirit. He says the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is no law. In other words, that is what Christ's life looks like when it is poured out through us. Because the Spirit produces his life through us, of course, as we live by faith. So that's uh what's going on with those of us in the church. We're a new race with the indwelling spirit designed to produce the life of Christ through us as we live by faith. Ultimately, one day we will uh reign with Christ. Now, so it appears that Christ wants to unseat Satan gradually by including those who defect from Satan's kingdom in the angelic conflict. In other words, um at the cross, when he judged Satan, he could have just that could have been it. He could have cast him in the lake of fire. I mean, that would have been it, right? No more Satan roaming about. But he didn't do it that way. He decided to allow him to persist and for this angelic conflict to continue between the new race of men that he's creating in Christ and the angelic, uh, fallen angelic beings. Okay. Part of this is our training. We're being put through training in the angelic conflict because one day we're actually going to judge angels. 1 Corinthians 6, verse 3. So part of our training is so we'll be in a position to judge angels, judge the fallen angels. And also, of course, some of the training is there to equip us to rule with Christ in his future kingdom. And so these are the passages that describe our battle armor, put on the armor of God, Ephesians 6, 1 Thessalonians 5, 8, and Colossians 2, 8. So we're in Galatians, let's just turn turn over one book to Ephesians.

Armor Of God And Holding Ground

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Why do we need this armor? Well, because we're in a spiritual conflict, because Christ has decided to let Satan continue to roam and us to enter into the angelic conflict so we can be trained to be prepared to judge angels and rule with Christ in the coming kingdom. So you see it here in Ephesians 6, verse 10. Finally, be strong in not yourself, right? Be strong in the Lord. And in the strength of his might, not our might. And how do we do that? We do that by putting on the full armor of God. We don't put on our own armor, we put on his armor. It's described in Isaiah. Isaiah talks about God's armor. We put that on. So you'll be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. To stand firm. So you can see that he has schemes that he's scheming, that he's trying to dismantle us. He's upset about the position that we hold in Christ. And we're going to explain why in a minute. He's extremely threatened by the position that you hold in Christ. Most people feel like Christians feel like they're threatened by Satan. No, Satan is threatened by you. And we're going to explain why. He says our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness. See, they're still there. Not like the Omillennialist says bound away, but they're still there. There are spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenlies. That's where this battle is taking place, because in Ephesians chapter 1, verse 3, I mean, the moment you believe in Christ, you are seated in Christ in the heavenly places. Okay. Chapter 1, verse 3. Chapter 1, verse 3. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us, that's believers, with every spiritual blessing where? In the heavenlies in Christ. Okay. And then he goes on to describe these various blessings. But we're seated in Christ in the heavenly places positionally. That's our position in the universe. And that's why it says when you put on the full armor of God, it's so that we may stand firm. Like we don't need to take any more ground because we're already seated on the high ground in Christ. Which this place where Christ is is far above the fallen angels. So we have the superior position, and Satan is threatened by this. And so part of this is all we're trying to do is hold that ground. Hold that ground in the spiritual conflict that we face. Part of our training. Satan, of course, is having to watch his kingdom dwindle as people in this world believe the gospel and they defect from his kingdom of darkness. And we've discussed this already. The moment any any time anyone becomes a believer, if you think of it like you know, second hand on a clock, and every time a person believes, let's just say the second hand moves. Well, every time it moves, he's more and more threatened. And the faster it moves, the more and more people come to Christ, then the boy, he really gets he really gets tense. So he doesn't like to watch that. The problem is he did not think, Satan did not think it was possible that there could be a race of men who could defeat him, but this defeat began with Christ. And now he knows that he's living on borrowed time. I mean, he's the God of this world. He came down here to Adam and Eve. He deceived Eve and she ate. She gave to her husband who was with her, and he ate. And at that point, what happened is the rule that they had, the rights to rule that they had, were transferred to Satan. And that's why he's called the God of this world, right? So he, ever since the day of the fall, has been the God of this world. And what happened in the incarnation, in the birth of Christ, is what you're what you're seeing is the last Adam, right? A second Adam, come into this world, a genuine human, with the goal of reclaiming what Adam lost, reclaiming it from Satan. Okay, so we have to go back, of course, and look a little bit at the at the Christ. So the background for our involvement in the angelic conflict through Christ is found specifically in Jesus' unique birth and in his unique life. The entire angelic conflict was fundamentally altered by Christ's birth and by his life, and of course, his death and ascension.

Old Testament Conflict And The Messiah

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So let's talk a little bit about the conflict, the angelic conflict in the Old Testament. What was it like? Well, we've already discussed it. We've been through these doctrines. So in the Old Testament, the conflict was in the spiritual realm between fallen and unfaint fallen angels that warred against one another for power above the nations. We use Daniel 10 as a great example. This angel trying to break through to get a message to Daniel, and he got hung up in the airspace over Iran for what ended up being 24 full days. And uh he had Michael, the archangel, come along, and together they fought off this demon, and he was able to get through with his message to Daniel. So you have this conflict occurring in the spiritual realm above nations. The most serious target in the angelic conflict of the Old Testament is the Messiah. In other words, destroy the Messiah at his birth. This is the um this is the main goal of Satan in the Old Testament, to destroy the Messiah at his birth. We have uh, for example, the story of uh the Hebrew midwives in the book of Ex uh of Exodus. You know, and the Pharaoh says, kill all the baby boys, right? And um these midwives say, Oh, we're not gonna we're not gonna kill the babies when they're you know come out of the womb. And so finally he set his Egyptian soldiers over it, and they were to go and you know murder every little baby boy. And uh there was one couple that hid their little baby boy in a little ark and floated him down the Nile River, and he was rescued. It turned out to be Moses. But um, so there are a number of uh obviously it's obvious at that time that Satan felt threatened that perhaps the one that was being born at that time was gonna be the Messiah. And so he was trying to destroy the Messiah. Moses wasn't the Messiah, but he was a picture of the Messiah. He was a deliverer, he delivered them from Egypt, but he didn't deliver them from the power of sin, which is what Christ does for us. But he was threatened. He doesn't know when he's coming. See, that's the whole point. Um, you remember when the kingdom, the the line of David got so thin that there was only one rightful heir to the throne, a little boy king named Josiah. And he got hidden away in the temple for a number of years. So Athaliah wouldn't murder him. W why did Athaliah want to murder? Well, because Satan was working through Athaliah to destroy the Davidic line so there'd be no Messiah. How does the New Testament open? After you have the virgin birth there in Matthew chapter one, you have Matthew chapter two. There's a story of Herod the Great. And uh the Magi come looking for him in Jerusalem, and he gets word of all this, of course, and he he sends his uh soldiers to just destroy every baby in in around Bethlehem that's two years old and younger. Why? Was that just Herod or was that Satan behind Herod working through Herod to destroy the Messiah at his birth? See, so this is the main goal of Satan in the Old Testament is to stop the Messiah from coming into the world, because the Messiah, the Messiah has to be a genuine human, and this is what he's trying to stop. If he can stop this, he can stop salvation, because then there's nobody who's a human who can die for humans, right? And so this is his main goal during the Old Testament, is to stop the Messiah from coming into the world as a genuine human. And of course, he failed to kill him through Herod the Great, right? So this introduced a problem. Satan doesn't know who he is until, strangely enough, he's baptized by John the Baptist and he's lit upon, and the words come forth from heaven, you know, my beloved son. He doesn't know until that point. So all those years in Nazareth, when he was growing up as a boy, Satan didn't know where he was or who he was. But he knew that he had failed at this point now to destroy him. And so now he's in big trouble because now there's a person in the world, a real human, who has the possibility of living by faith and dependence on God to produce obedience, which would enable that individual to be restored to Adam's original rule. And that would mean that Satan is dethroned and a member of the human race takes back over control of the earth. So this is the behind-the-scenes like schemes and plots and issues that are going on in the Bible. This when this happens, and Satan, or Jesus is born, and he gets through all the attempts in his life, and now he's entering his ministry under John the Baptist. At this point, Satan has to fundamentally alter his tactics. I mean, he can't he can't do things the same way anymore. So now there was a genuine human in the world, he could possibly live by faith and dependence upon the Spirit of God and produce obedience. This would earn him the right to regain Adam's lost rule. Satan was still, of course, the God of this world, but he's very threatened now. And so at this point, what is he going to do? Well, first of all, he wants to cause him to sin, because if he sins, he's just like Adam,

Luke 4 And The Temptation To Cheat

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and that's it. Okay, game over. So there's going to be the temptations. But one of the chief temptations, in addition to just causing him to sin, is to get him to utilize his divine attributes. That way, no genuine member of the human race actually lives by faith and produces obedience. Instead, he borrowed from his divine attributes, and so he would be cheating, so to speak. So part of what's going on in the temptations, let's just turn there to Luke chapter 4, is that not only is he causing trying to tempt him to sin, but he's trying to tempt him to utilize his divine attributes. That way he can't restore what Adam lost. Because he's not really functioning as a genuine human, you see. And that's our whole point with the life of Christ is that in the life of Christ, he has to 100% of the time entirely live by faith in dependence upon the Spirit of God in order to produce obedience. That's what he has to do. This was part of his mission. His mission was more than just coming and dying for the sins of the world. Yes, he came to do that. But it's more than that. His mission was more than just coming and offering the kingdom to Israel, and of course, in light of their rejection, then being crucified. It's more than all that. His mission was more than to come and you know heal the lame and make the blind see, which just showed basically his credentials, you know, who he really was, that he was the Messiah. But part of it was to be the test pilot for the Christian way of life. The test pilot to be to show us that the Christian life can actually be lived successfully. So Luke chapter 4, Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan. This is after he had been baptized, right? Now Satan knows exactly who he is. See, he did not know. He did not know. I mean, the guy lived about 30 years walking around, and Satan didn't know who he was. Okay, because he's not omniscient. And so he's being led around by the Spirit in the wilderness. Now he knows because of the John incident, for 40 days being tempted by the devil. Most people think he was only tempted for three temptations after 40 days. No, he was being tempted for the entire 40 days. But now we come to the end of those 40 days, and it says he ate nothing during those days. And when they had ended, he became hungry. Yeah, you think? And the devil said to him, and here we have what are typically called the three temptations. Through the lust of the eyes, lust of flesh, boastful pride of life, these three avenues. He uh works on all three of these. The devil said to him, Okay, if you are the son of God, and obviously Satan understood that son of God is a term that means he's equal with God. So Satan has better theology than Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses. If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread. I mean, because somebody who's less than God cannot tell a stone to become bread. I mean, they can, but nothing's gonna happen. Uh and Jesus answered him with Scripture. It is written, Man shall not live on bread alone. In other words, what he's saying is, men cannot live on just physical sustenance. They have to depend on God. And what was Jesus saying? I'm gonna depend on who? My Father. I'm gonna depend on him. In my true humanity, I'm gonna depend on him. So, second temptation, he led him up. That was the lust of the flesh, you want to eat, right? And he led him up, and he showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. And the devil said to him, I will give you all this domain and its glory, for it's been handed over to me, and I give it to whomever I wish. So there it is. See, he it's obvious that he is the one who is over this domain, that is the earth, because Adam handed it over to him at the fall. And so he's the God of this world, right? And he says, I can give this domain to whoever I want. So, verse 7, if you worship before me, it shall be yours. And Jesus answered once again with what?

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Scripture.

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It is written, You shall worship the Lord your God and serve him only. Now, uh, before we get too far, did you notice how in the first one you wanted him to utilize his divine attributes to make bread out of a stone? Why? Because that would be cheating. You wouldn't have to live in dependence upon God. Now we can't cheat, can we? If you get hungry, you tell, you know, just tell that stone to become bread and eat it. No, you can't cheat. You have to depend on God to provide the next meal. See? And so what's he saying there? I'm gonna live just like all of us in the church age have to live in dependence on God. Second one, he used both of them he uses scripture to refute the uh temptation, to overturn it and overcome the temptation. So now we come to the third one in verse 9. He led him to Jerusalem and had him stand on the pinnacle of the temple, and he said to him, If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it is written, and then he quotes Scripture. Now all of a sudden Satan's quoting scripture. He hadn't done that in the first two, but now he does, and it shows you that he knows scripture. I mean, Satan probably knows scripture better than me. I mean, he's been around for thousands of years. Very conversantly, he knows where the passages are. But so he's now going to use the scriptures, or let's just say, rest the scriptures, you know, that W-R-E-S-T type of rest. Rest them from their original context and misuse them. People do this all the time, right? And Satan does it too. He will command his angels concerning you to guard you, and on their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone. So just toss yourself off the pinnacle of the temple. Here, I mean, if that's the hap happens, of course, the scriptures say his angels will catch you and and e everything will be fine. And Jesus answered and said to him, Once again, he uses scripture, but he uses it correctly. It is said, You shall not put the Lord your God to the test. So you shouldn't presume on God like that. We don't use the scriptures to presume on God, and he's using the scriptures correctly. But all of this attempt here by Satan is, first of all, of course, to make him sin, to tempt him to s to the point of sin, but also to get him to utilize his divine attributes in one of these cases, so that he's not defeating sin in his true human nature, but he's cheating and using his divine nature. So Satan was extremely uh threatened, right? And um he realizes there's a genuine human in the on earth here who could possibly Trust the Lord and live in dependence upon the Spirit and produce obedience, and this will mean that I lose my position as the God of this world, and then he will have the right. So, this is the situation that's at place.

Hypostatic Union And Kenosis Explained

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Now, two doctrines, then from Christ's birth and life, were fundamentally involved in the conflict that he's having with Satan during his life. First of all, the hypostatic union, which is what we studied with his birth, it states that Jesus Christ is an undiminished deity united with true humanity in one person without mixture or separation forever. Okay? So you've got the creator and the creature in one person. Now they're not mixed together, okay, nor are they separated, okay, into two people. There's just one person. So 100% God, 100% man, united together in just one person, not mixed, okay, and not mixed and not separated, just one person. So what Satan is trying to do is appeal in God's court, because he still has access to heaven. So he is accessing God's court and he's saying, Hey, I want to show that Jesus Christ violated his true humanity and borrowed his deity to defeat the temptations. Because if that's the case, a human has never done what you require, God. And therefore, I get to maintain my position as God of this world. But Jesus secures his position as a genuine human through the temptations throughout his whole life, right? Because he 100% of the time did live by the Spirit of God in constant dependence and produced obedience. And he never borrowed his divine attributes to do it. So now Satan can't appeal. Okay, this is a legal issue between God and Satan. It's totally legal. I mean, usually legal stuff and lawyers don't really turn this on. But while it's technical and legal, it's extremely important. The kenosis is the other doctrine. So we've got the hypostatic union at his birth, we've got the kenosis in his life. We studied this when we looked at his life. This doctrine states that Jesus, as the God man, gave up the independent use of his divine attributes. Look at Philippians 2. Philippians 2, verses 5 through 8. Some of these passages, I know we read the Bible, we don't really realize the total picture of what's going on, so we're trying to fill in some of these maybe gaps and see a much bigger picture. This is called the canosis passage because the Greek word kana'o is used here where it says emptied. That's the word kana'o. But we're being taught how to be humble. I mean, it's a very practical passage about putting others ahead of ourselves. And he says in verse 5, have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus. So he he had this attitude in himself to put others ahead of himself. He says, who, although he existed in the form of God, and actually it's a present tense, he exists in the form of God, which is means the exact replica, meaning he is God. Exact replica of God. He's what God would look like if he came down here in human form, and he he was God. Did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped. But I love that word grasped because actually in the Greek it's the word asserted or utilized. He did not regard equality with God a thing to be utilized. In other words, while he was here on earth, he was not going to utilize his divine attributes. That's the whole point of this passage. If he had, he wouldn't have humbled himself. To humble himself is to actually be just like us and function just like us and not cheat, right? So he did not assert or utilize his divine attributes, but he says he emptied himself of that right that he had to use his divine attributes, and he took the form of a bondservant, like you and I, and being made in the likeness of men like you and I, being found in appearance as a man, like you and I, see, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

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That's what he did for us.

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You can't ever say, in other words, he has just knocked out the argument that uh somebody could come along and say, Yeah, well, Jesus had it easier than us. Because he was God. No, you can't use that argument because he never thought or used or asserted his divine attributes, but humbled himself and became like one of us. He says it three times. Like one of us, like a man, in appearance as a man, as a man, over and over and over. Now, all the way to the point of death, even death on a cross. Now, this is going to secure that his death is for the human race. And then look at the results in verses 9, 10, and 11. What happens as a result of this? For this reason also, God highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name. So that at the name of Jesus, every knee will bow, those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. In other words, what position does he take because of his obedience, genuine obedience as a human?

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He regains dominion over not just the earth, but everything. He restores what Adam lost.

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Now, this is going to get real practical in a minute because we're going to be in the Christian life. When we get into the day of Pentecost and the church begins, and we start to realize uh what we are exactly supposed to be doing and what is going on. So now a true human has lived by faith. The Lord Jesus Christ did it. He depended upon God. There's perfect obedience, and that is that is there. And Satan is now not very happy about this. Okay. Now, Satan lost a key battle then. Okay. Christ had been made a little lower than the angels for a while, Psalm 8, defeated him through his death, resurrection, now his ascension. At the ascension, he passes through the heavenly places and sits down at the right hand of the Father. At this point in history, and this is real, right? What kind of creature or species is sitting next to God the Father on the Father's throne? A human being. A real human being is sitting there. No, he's over all nature, including Satan, all the fallen angels. And now Satan, of course, is doing everything he can to stop more people from believing. Okay, because every time a human believes, of course, someone defects, they pass through the heavens too. They are seated in Christ in the heavenly places far above him, and now they have access to live a new type of life that can defeat Satan. And this is why I said he's threatened by you. Because you're seated above him. So don't forget your position. Now, Satan really did not want to lose his right to be the God of this world, but now he knows he's doomed. So he's limited in his strategies, right? All he can do is try to block evangelism, 2 Corinthians 4, 4. He can accuse believers in heaven, Revelation 12, 7 through 10. Um, and he can try to destroy believers through intimidation, persecution, physical death, martyrdom, and so forth. But he knows he's on borrowed time. So we're in this conflict. We're in this war. Now the question is, how do we win the war on a daily daily uh scale? This is where we enter in, okay? God or Christ is gradually unseating Satan's power by inserting us into this conflict. We are in Christ, right? Now we have the Spirit of God indwelling us. Did Old Testament believers have the Spirit of God indwelling them? I mean, some of them did, like kings and prophets and priests, but it was a temporary indwelling, right? David even said, Take not your spirit from me.

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Right?

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So it was a temporary. Saul had the spirit, but the spirit left him, and then he was bothered by demonic spirits, right? So they didn't have the permanent indwelling of the spirit like we have. Romans 8.9, Romans 8.13. If you don't have the spirit, you you're not a believer. So every believer has the spirit of God dwelling in them. Now, because he's indwelling us, there's a basis now for living the same life that Christ lived. Now that bothers people. You mean the same life? Yeah, I mean the same life. The same life that is a life of faith in dependence upon the Spirit, just as Christ did to enable us to be victorious over the demonic realm, just as he was victorious over the demonic realm, right? And so we can't argue, of course, that the Christian life doesn't work. And the reason we can't argue that, and a lot of Christians have said that, they give up on the Christian life. They say, I tried it, it didn't work. I tried to keep the Ten Commandments, it didn't work. Yeah, well, that's not the Christian way of life, dummy. That's why you can't do it because you're not trying the right way. Um, that's not how you live the Christian life. You don't say Operation Bootstrap, I'm gonna keep the Ten Commandments. Well, no, you're not. You're gonna fall flat on your face. Just look at Israel. There's an entire example of like over a thousand pages of people just failing. So, how did you miss that?

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Oh.

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So uh we have a new way to live the Christian life. It's exactly the way that the test pilot, Christ, demonstrated how to do it, right? To live in constant, constantly led by faith, in dependence upon the Holy Spirit, and this will produce obedience to God, and it's pleasing to him. So he already did it, okay? We're in a position to do it in him, and we're seated in him in the heavenlies. This is where we're waging our warfare from every day against the princes and principalities of darkness. So Satan, Jesus could have got rid of him entirely, but no, he's plugging us into this conflict. And now I just want to conclude with a good analogy that will attempt to try to show you what's

David And Saul As A Kingdom Picture

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going on. Okay? You have an analogy back from the life of David, who was anointed king while Saul was still on the throne, right? Remember those pages of 1 Samuel? David is anointed, he is authenticated by God by defeating the giant Goliath. And yet during this, Saul is still on the throne, so David can't sit on the throne. So what is happening here? Well, Saul wants to kill David, you remember? He has seven attempts at his life. Seven times he tries to kill David, and every time he's unsuccessful. And David is traveling around with his mighty men trying to stay out of reach of Saul. And on a couple of occasions he has the opportunity to kill Saul, and he doesn't. Remember? And you're like, why? And even his mighty men are saying, Come on, David, let me go kill this guy. They're in the cave, right? And Saul's over there relieving himself. They're like, David, this is a perfect opportunity. Can't you see that God set this scene up? And there's a psalm about this, I think it's Psalm 53, Al Tasheth. It means I shall not destroy. I shall not destroy the God's anointed. David was saying, it's not for me to remove Saul. I will wait. I will wait until God removes Saul. And then and only then will I take the throne. Well, what what is Jesus doing right now? I mean, he is the anointed king. He's the one who's the rightful heir and ruler of the world. But he's waiting while Satan, the God of this world, is still warring against him by attacking us. But he's patient, he's waiting. Psalm 110 says this, he will wait. He's waiting for the Father to subdue all his enemies under his feet. He's waiting patiently to take the throne. So there's a parallel here. Uh and along the way, we keep going. Just as David amassed a following of those who recognized his right to rule and defected from Saul's kingdom, so Jesus is currently amassing a following of those who recognize his right to rule and are defecting from Satan's kingdom. Remember the rest of the story, part of the story in the period of David and Saul was that as David uh tried to wait and stay out of Saul's reach, people who were a part of Saul's kingdom began to defect and move over to allegiance to David. And the same thing happens now. As Jesus is waiting to take the throne, what's happening? People are defecting from Satan's kingdom and they're moving over to allegiance to Christ. Amen. It's fantastic to watch what's happening in the behind-the-scenes uh story.

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Now another, and it's just remarkable who who became David's best friend Saul's son, Jonathan.

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The prince, the heir of the throne, defected from his own father's kingdom and became allegiant to David. And I find uh maybe a slight parallel in a guy in the book of Acts named Saul who was being used as the primary instrument of Satan to destroy the early church. And what does God do after the martyrdom of Stephen?

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But he takes that individual and that individual defects and moves over and becomes allegiance in allegiance to Christ. Remarkable parallels, right?

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So what's happening then, of course, is that God, through Christ, has brought us into a spiritual conflict. He very well could have put Satan away. But what he wanted to do in his life was demonstrate how to live the new spiritual life that would be enacted from the day of Pentecost forward. So who's our model for the Christian life? It's the Lord Jesus Christ. And produce obedience and please God and defeat the angel the fallen angelic realm. And all this is part of our training because you know what? One day the Lord Jesus Christ is going to lock Satan away in the abyss for a thousand years and rule and reign on earth. And guess what?

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We're in the process of training to be ruling with Him.

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Okay. Is that a much bigger picture now of what's going on and why we need our armor every day? What exactly is going on in the world in the conflict that rages between nations and the world, all basically against the church? We're a new race. We're uh called strangers, foreigners. We're just passing through. We're this strange race to people, though. They don't understand why we're not out there just for ourselves. You know, they don't understand the Christian ethic, you know, of serving. They don't understand why we're not selfishly motivated. Okay, but all of this is because we realize there's a conflict going on and that we're being trained so that one day we're going to reign. We're not always going to be, you know, just in the world as foreigners and strangers. Paul concludes 1 Corinthians 3 saying, everything belongs to you. Life, death, the world now, the world to come. He says, it's all ours. In the future, the tables are completely turned. And none of this trash is going on like now in the future. We will be reigning in our resurrection bodies with the Lord Jesus Christ. And then Satan and his angels will be locked away for that full thousand years. After that, they're released for briefly, right? But then they're cast in the lake of fire. And we go on to the new heavens and new earth. Okay. This is the plan of God through the angelic conflict for our Christian life, and hopefully you know how to live it now a little bit better and who to look for to for the example.

Final Takeaways And How To Respond

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Thank you for joining us on Beyond the Walls with Jeremy Thomas. If you would like to see the visuals that went along with today's sermon, you can find those on Rumble and on YouTube under Spokane Bible Church. That is where Jeremy is the pastor and teacher. We hope you found today's lesson productive and useful in growing closer to God and walking more obediently with Him. If you found this podcast to be useful and helpful, then please consider rating us in your favorite podcast app. And until next time, we hope you have a blessed and wonderful day.