Power of Satan
So I said, ‘Who are You, Lord?’ And He said, ‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. But rise and stand on your feet; for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to make you a minister and a witness both of the things which you have seen and of the things which I will yet reveal to you. I will deliver you from the Jewish people, as well as from the Gentiles, to whom I now send you, to open their eyes, in order to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power (control) of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in Me.’ (Acts 26:15-18 NKJV)
Satan’s Purpose
Satan is the adversary of all that glorifies the Lord; and thus, he is an adversary of the born-again believer. He does his best to keep us from the salvation provided through the cross of Christ; and when he fails at that, he does his best to keep the born-again believer from walking in way that pleases the Lord. The born-again believer has a target on his or her back.
While Satan has demons that fell with him when he rebelled against God and while they do oppress Christians, I believe that his main tool today is deception. The Lord says that he is a liar and the father of lies (See John 8:44). So, when we see people lying when the truth would do better, we are seeing Satan at work.
The Rich Man
In Luke 16 there was a rich man who had it good in this life. But he died. The KJV says that in hell he lift up his eyes being in torment. Do you think the rich man expected this to be his portion after he died? I dare say, he got the surprise of his life. You will notice that death is not the end of existence. The rich man could see, hear, talk, remember, feel and reason. And he became an evangelist. He didn’t want his brothers to make the same mistake he had made. He had not believed what Moses and the prophets said about Christ. He had not understood the need for a lamb to be the sacrifice for his sins. He had not believed the prophecies connected with the coming Messiah.
Satan is still lying to people today. He is telling them that this place of torment does not really exist. He tries to convince people that this is a myth and that hell is on earth. I believed God before I was saved about this place and that is why I wanted to be sure that I was saved in the Bible way. I didn’t want man to tell me I was saved. I wanted God to tell me that though His written Word.
Evil
I had a Bible study recently where my friend was asking me how to convince an atheist that there really is a God. The atheist had asked, “How do we explain the evil in the world because if God is God, shouldn’t He be able to stop it?” I pointed out to him that we have two gods in this world. One is the creator God. He has made Himself known through the Lord Jesus. One is the god of this world or age. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 4:4, “whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.” The god of this world is controlling the world through his subtle and blatant lies.
Yes, God could eliminate the evil in this world and there is coming a day when He will do that. But right now, he is testing us to see if we will believe the liar or whether we will believe the Truth. Since most of us believe what we want to believe, and since Satan knows how to appeal to our fleshly desires, I am afraid that many people are going to lift their eyes in Hell, being in torment. They are going to get the surprise of their lives.
In addition, many Christians are going to find out that the Lord wants the church (both local and universal) built according to his instructions. Many preachers and evangelists who claim to be building churches are really building monuments to their own ego. They are going to be surprised when they do not receive the commendation, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”
Conclusion
The message of the Bible really is very simple. Do we believe God or don’t we? If we don’t believe the God of our Bible, we are believing one of Satan’s many lies. Just because we were able to “repent” (that Is, have a change of mind) so that we could believe God when He says Christ died for our sins, that doesn’t keep us from believing Satan’s lies when it comes to pleasing the Lord after we are saved. We need to quit finding reasons why God must not have meant what He said about moral issues and ceremonial issues. We need to get back to believing God.
Bruce Collins
Meditation for the week of September 15, 2019