The Duties of Demons (2)

You may or may not remember we're studying the doctrine of angels and we are in the part of our study which deals with the activities of demons what they're doing in the world today. And I would just want to clarify that we are not looking at the activities of demons in order to glorify demons or to stoke any interest in the occult. That's not my goal at all. In fact, I would shy away from that with everything in me. That's certainly not our purpose. But our purpose is to be aware of what the Bible teaches are the strategies of our enemy. Paul said to the Corinthians, and second Corinthians chapter 2 said we're not unaware of the devil's schemes. And so it's good for us to understand what the Bible teaches about what demons do so that we can be aware of the strategies, the schemes of our enemy so that we're not taken off guard by what he does. So we started the last time we were together three weeks ago or that I was with you talking about the duties of demons. They are quite diverse. They operate many different realms and of activity, but always directed toward the promotion of evil and the destruction of good. As regards Satan's program, we saw that demons are involved in promoting Satan's program. And they do so by extending his power. Remember that Satan is not on my present. He's not God so he can only be in one location at one time. So he extends his power with many demons who do his bidding across the world. And so they extend the power of Satan. They also express his philosophy. They are certainly in the lockstep with him as far as his philosophy. And they promote that. We saw in three ways in the lives of individuals in governments and also in the world system as a whole that world system that has as its foundation, the lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, pride of life, all of that is under the domination of Satan and demons served to express that and help him carry out that plan. So in relation to Satan's program, that's what they do. Now let's look at what demons do in relationship to God and his programs. That's where we're going to begin really tonight and pick up on our study in opposition to God and his program demons do several things. We look at five things they do in opposition to God. First of all, they promote rebellion. So promoting rebellion is a key element of what demons do to oppose God and his program. And obviously this started at the very beginning with Satan's rebellion. Remember when we were looking at the doctrine of Satan, we saw that he was created a good angel, a very high angel. The anointed cherub, Ezekiel 28 calls him. And so he had a very high position with a lot of responsibility even in heaven. And he rebelled against God and took a lot of angels with him, which would become his demons. So the concept of rebellion started with Satan's rebellion against God and he promotes that all the time. Where does Satan first promote rebellion against God in human history? Adam and Eve, yeah, with Eve in the very very first couple created God promotes, or Satan promotes rebellion against God on the part of Eve and Adam. And so it began right at the beginning and he has continued that program of promoting rebellion all through human existence started with Adam, but it will continue to get worse and will culminate and find its peak in the antichrist in the tribulation time who is the ultimate rebel against God. The antichrist is the ultimate rebel against God. Look at these verses in 2nd Thessalonians chapter 2 where Paul says this, don't let anyone deceive you in any way for that day will not come until notice until the rebellion occurs. And the man of lawlessness is revealed the man doomed to destruction. Now he is called man of lawlessness only this one time in the Bible, but it describes his state of rebellion and attitude of rebellion against God. He, that man of lawlessness will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God. So he opposes not only the true God, but over everything that is called God or is worshiped so that he sets himself up in God's temple for claiming himself to be God. The ultimate rebellion is to say there is no God but me and that's what the antichrist will do. In the middle of the tribulation, if you follow the sequence of events in the tribulation well by especially from Daniel 9 verses 24 to 27, you know that right in the middle of Daniel's 70th week or that period of seven years, the antichrist turns the tables on Israel. He has evidently allowed them to build a temple in the first half of the tribulation, made peace between Arabs and Israelis. But in the middle of the tribulation, he enters the temple, Daniel calls it the abomination of desolation. He enters the temple proclaims himself to be God and starts an all-out persecution against Israel and also against Christians. So his program, Satan's program started with rebellion. It will end with rebellion. In fact, as you know, Satan's last act before he has cast into the lake of fire in Revelation chapter 20 is to lead one last rebellion against God, against Christ. At the end of the millennium, Satan has been bound for those thousand years, but he's released and what does he do? He gathers an army. Remember, he gathers an army to try to one last dish effort to overthrow Christ and his kingdom. And of course he has immediately stopped and cast into the lake of fire. So Satan obviously promotes rebellion. So if demons are carrying out his program, extending his power, obviously that's a big part of what they do too. Now, it gets so bad in the tribulation time with Satan and his demons promoting this spirit of rebellion. It gets so bad. He blinds man so much that even in the midst of God's direct and powerful judgments, 21 of which are described in the book of Revelation, in the midst of those seal and bowl and trumpet judgments, unsaved people will not repent. Let me read for you a passage in Revelation chapter 9. You might want to turn there. If not just listen along, this is in the middle of the trumpet judgments, which are the right in the middle of the different judgments in the book, describing a lot of these judgments and plagues that befall mankind as a result of God's judgment. In chapter 20, if chapter 9 says, the rest of mankind that were not killed by these plagues still did not repent of the work of their hands. They did not stop worshipping demons and idols of gold silver, bronze stone and wood, idols that cannot see or hear or walk nor did they repent of their murders, their magic arts, their sexual immorality or their thefts. So man is so entrenched in his rebellion against God that even in the midst of God's visible, very direct judgment on mankind in the tribulation time, he still will not repent. That's how strong this spirit of rebellion is in the tribulation time. In fact, it goes even further than that. Satan in his rebellion against God will convince the armies of the earth together to fight against Christ, to fight against God in Revelation chapter 16 verses 12 through 14. The sixth angel poured out his bold, there are only seven bold judgments in the last one, so this is right near the end of the tribulation. Six angel poured out his bold on the great river Euphrates and its water was dried up to prepare the way for the kings from the east. Then I saw three evil spirits, three demons that looked like frogs. They came out of the mouth of the dragon, that's Satan, out of the mouth of the beast, that's the antichrist, and out of the mouth of the false prophet, that's the antichrist PR guy and religious leader, her 14. They are spirits of demons, performing miraculous signs, and they go out to the kings of the whole world to gather them for the battle on the great day of God Almighty. Verse 16 says that battle is called Armageddon, it's in a valley in northern Israel where the armies will gather to seek one last assault on Israel, and that's when Christ will come back and destroy them. But the whole point is Satan's whole program from beginning to end, starting with his rebellion and ending in the climaxing in the tribulation time, but ending after the millennium with his last rebellion, his whole program is about rebellion, and his demons no doubt extend that spirit of lawlessness and rebellion to all the ends of the earth. So, opposition to God in his program can be described very well that way, rebellion, Satan is involved in that. Questions, comments about this part of the work of demons in opposition to God? I think they are still, I think they are still, you know, I'm not sure, that's a good question. Good question, they may be cast into the abyss with him because they are cast with him into the lake of fire, and Jesus said in Matthew 2541 that hell was created for the devil and his angels. I would expect that whatever happens to him happens to them as well, and since kind of thinking this through, it's a good, great question. Since Satan, the purpose of him being bound is so that he will not deceive the nations anymore, that wouldn't work very well if all of his demons are carrying it out anyway, so I would assume they are bound with him. I think so, yeah, I think so. That would be my guess, that's not clearly stated in the scriptures, but that would be my guess. I think we could surmise that anyway. Yes, yeah. John is saying that the rebellion, you can even see today, and it will continue to get worse, and that really is exactly what Paul's talking about in Second Testelonians 2, because he says that day will not come, the day that the Antichrist is revealed and starts his deal on planet Earth, that day will not come until the rebellion comes first. So the rebellion is already here when the rapture occurs and Satan reveals the Antichrist and he starts his program. So the rebellion is already starting and progressing before Jesus returns at the rapture. So yes, I think what we see happening in our world today is the continued spread of that rebellion. Again, there are other passages that talk about the same thing. In the last days, perilous times will come and Paul first, Timothy 3 describes all of those characteristics of a culture that is rapidly rebelling against God. Children who will not obey their parents, ungrateful, unholy, all kinds of sexual perversion, I mean just read Second Timothy 3, and you can see almost the headlines of today's news and that rebellion is continuing to grow. Rebellion against God's law and God's way. God's word. I think you're right. I think Scripture does realistically paint a picture of man and culture getting worse until Jesus comes back that does not stop pockets of revival throughout the earth in places where God is still accomplishing that work. Certainly, I don't know that we can expect a worldwide awakening and coming back to the Lord, but we can certainly still pray for pockets of revival to take place. And here's the thing we have to keep in mind. Remember, God's program is much bigger than Satan's. In fact, it includes what Satan is doing because God's program is the one that's going to be fulfilled in the end. So even if it looks like Satan is winning, the rebellion is growing, it's getting worse, revival is not happening. We shouldn't panic and say, well, is God losing? No, not at all. God's program will ultimately win. He is sovereign. He's still on his throne. And all that's being accomplished now is going to play directly into his plan. So, you know, it's very easy to, and I'm not suggesting you're doing this job, it's very easy for us to kind of ring our hands when we see this rebellion growing and to think, wow, you know, this is awful. Well, yeah, it is, but we can't give up hope. God is still in control. Okay, very good. Good questions. Any others? Okay. So demons are in opposition to God in this program through promoting rebellion, but also secondly, through spreading slander. Did you know that the word devil, the literal word actually means slanderer. That's what the word devil means. One who slanders. And no doubt the demons, since they share Satan's character and evil intentions, are no doubt doing the same thing. Now, we know that Satan and his demons, first of all, slander God. Satan has always slandered God to man. Where did that start? Same place, right? Adam and Eve. But what was the first thing we hear in the Bible, the serpent saying to Eve, you remember? Did God really say you shouldn't eat of the tree, every tree in the garden? Did God really say that? He's raising question doubt. And then the next thing he says is, is blasphemously slanderous. He says, you will not surely die. God knows that when you eat of that tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you'll become wise like he is knowing good and evil. So in other words, God's a bad guy in this. He's trying to hide something from you. Hide what would be beneficial for you. He's slandering God. He's accusing God of being the bad guy in all of this. And so he begins at the very beginning, slandering God. He continues right on down through the ages. Is it any, should it be any surprise to us that people today still accuse God of all the bad things that happened in the world? Where's God when this happens? Why'd God allow that? Why did God come straight from the pit of hell? I mean, that comes straight from Satan himself. I understand he's not in hell right now. But that comes straight from Satan's way of thinking. God is not responsible for any of the evil in the world. Now he will overcome all of that in his plan, but he's not responsible for any of that. Man's fall and rebellion against God because of Satan's rebellion is what brought the curse which brings every natural disaster and the evil intention of man's heart because of man's fall brings all the sin in the world. All of that can be traced back to man's sin and Satan's rebellion. Not to God, but God gets the blame, doesn't he? It sounds like the work of a slanderer to me. Satan is a master slanderer. He slanders God, but he also slanders men. He slanders God to people and he slanders people to God. We find him doing that, at least on three occasions in the scriptures. Where did he slander men before God, people before God? Job, a great example. Job one, he accused Job before God, observing God only for the benefits that God gave him. So he was slandering Job. Then there's that one little hidden away passage in Zachariah 3 where he slanders the high priest before God, Joshua, the high priest. And then Revelation 12, when he's cast finally and completely out of heaven in the middle of the tribulation, you remember what has said there in Revelation 12, 10? Now the accuser of the brethren who accused them night and day before the throne of God is thrown down. So he's the accuser of the brethren even up until the time he is completely cast out of heaven in the middle of the tribulation time. So he's a slanderer. He slanders God before us and he slanders us before God. So he's a master slanderer. But I think he also slanders us to ourselves. I think quite often Satan is the origin of many self-incriminating, condemning thoughts that paralyze our spiritual effectiveness. We wallow in past sins, not accepting God's forgiveness, or we are bound by hatred and bitterness and animosity because of what others have done to us and Satan keeps throwing those thoughts at us, keeps shooting those darts right into our hearts and minds. So that he slanders us to ourselves and slanders others in our minds so that he paralyzes our spiritual effectiveness. It's a very effective tool of Satan. A slanderer. Very effective. So it's good to be aware of his schemes. The next time you hear someone blaming God for all the bad things in the world, just remember where that came from. And the next time you think of those condemning, self-condimming, or condemning of others' thoughts, remember where that kind of slander comes from? Be aware, alert to our enemy's tactics. So we know that Satan does that, certainly his demons are involved in the same thing. Comments, questions there before we look at the third one. Okay? He is in opposition to God in his program in the third way, and that is through promoting idolatry. Through promoting idolatry. This one really is quite intriguing. I think very interesting in the scriptures. Demons are quite clearly behind idolatry in the Bible. And actually, now get this. Demons actually receive the worship that people give when they worship idols. It's actually demons who receive that worship. And in so doing, in some perverse way, fulfill their desire and their lust to overthrow God. Remember what Satan wanted to do in Isaiah 14? I will ascend above the throne of God. I will overthrow God. And Satan and all his demons have wanted to be God since then. And so every idol that is worshiped, demons receive that worship. And fulfill their lustful desire to be God, to be worshiped. You say, John, where do you get a thought like that? Well, I'm glad you asked. Let's look at it. Deuteronomy 32-17, look at this verse on the screen. They sacrificed to demons talking about those who sacrificed the idols and worship false gods. They sacrificed to demons, which are not gods. Notice small G gods. They had not known gods that recently appeared. God's your fathers did not fear. And the same thing is found in the book of Psalms. There is a passage there in Psalm 106. They worshiped their idols, which became a snare to them. They sacrificed their sons and daughters. Notice to demons. So when they're worshiping idols and like the nations around them offering their children in sacrifices to God, the filth, like filth, and God, Mollek and others, what were they were actually sacrificing their children, not just to an idol of stone or wood, but to demons. Demons were receiving that worship. He goes on to say, they shed innocent blood, the blood of their sons and daughters whom they sacrificed. Remember it just said demons here. It says to the idols of Canaan and the land was desecrated by their blood. So I take these kinds of verses to mean that whenever anyone worships an idol, it is actually behind that idol or that pagan religious system, demons are actually reveling in that worship. They're receiving that worship. And you know what Paul says the very same thing in the New Testament, in 1 Corinthians chapter 10, he says no, but the sacrifices of pagans are offered to demons. Not to God and I do not want you to be participants with demons. This is in the middle of that passage on Christian liberty where he's dressing that issue, should we eat meat that sacrificed idols. And in the middle of that whole, close to the end, actually that whole argument chapters 8 through 10, he's talking about the fact that they should not become involved in pagan feasts and pagan worship things. Because those sacrifices are offered to demons and you shouldn't participate in anything like that. So they promote idolatry and they promote it so that they can receive the worship. So any pagan religion like we saw in Japan, we visited a Buddhist temple in the middle of Tokyo. And it's quite a sight. People walking by a place where incense is burned and they stop and try to get the smoke to come over toward them because there's the superstition. Pagan superstition that if the smoke from that incense gets on them, it will bless them and give them health. And then some of them are in an extra fountain of water trying to cleanse themselves. And then many go up into the temple and offer prayers and even food to the Buddha. And it's a sickening sight. But when you think about it, there's this huge stone statue up there that they seem to be worshipping but really behind that involved in that, according to the Bible, demons are receiving that worship. So any pagan religious system that promotes idolatry is really promoting demonism. And by the way, again, that will come to a culmination in the Antichrist, in the Tribulation. Remember Revelation chapter 13. They will promote the worship of the image of the beast. Remember that? The Antichrist, the false prophet, has an image of the Antichrist built in the temple and people will worship that image. And so the, again, the rebellion, idolatry, promotion of that large scale in the Tribulation time, Revelation 13, for says men worshiped the dragon Satan because he had given authority to the beast. Antichrist, they also worship the beast and asked who was like the beast, who can make war against him. And in verse 15, he was given power. The false prophet was given power to give breath to the image of the first beast, the Antichrist, so that it could speak and cause all who refused to worship the image to be killed. So if you don't bow down to this image of the Antichrist, you can be killed. That's the culmination of idolatry in the Tribulation time. So demons promote idolatry. Questions, comments? That's a great question, Joseph. In case you couldn't hear it at the back, was asking, would you limit this idolatry to the more pagan religions that worship stone and literal idolatry, or would you include other major world religions like Islam? And did you mention another Hinduism Hinduism? Which worship more spirits or other beings or teachings? Yes, I would include that. Any any false religion is promoted by demons. Remember what Paul said in 1 Timothy 4, 1, that in the last days men will give heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of demons turning away from Christ, they give heed to doctrines of demons. So any theological or doctrinal system that is not centered on the biblical Christ is demonic in origin. And I would say any religious system that does not give Christ his rightful place in both his person and his work. So that would be a major world religion or a cult are demonically inspired and demons receive the worship that's given in those systems. That's pretty scary, but I think it's consistent with what we're seeing here. Okay, good question. Any others? Okay, a fourth thing that they do in opposition to God in his program is rejecting grace. Obviously demons are incapable of salvation themselves. Remember we saw that once the angels made their choice in heaven, whether or not to rebel with Satan or stay true to God, they were confirmed in either their holiness or unholyness and evil angels not be saved. Good angels now cannot fall. There's not this transfer going on. Evil angels are permanently confirmed in their wickedness to where they cannot be saved. So what they want to do is try to blind as many people as possible, twist and hide God's grace so that they can influence as many people as possible to share their same fate. So they're very active in blinding people to the grace of God and blinding people to the message of the gospel. Look at a few verses that teaches this first of all second Corinthians four. And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing the God of this age. Now who is that? Satan, right? It's one of his titles, the God of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ who is the image of God. So Satan blinds people to the light of the gospel. How many times have you dealt with someone or talked with someone, a family member, a friend, a coworker, and you just cannot understand why they don't get it, why they can't see it, their need, what Christ did for them and the fact they cannot save themselves. And it's almost like what's wrong? Would you, can't you see this? Well, this is the answer right here. This is the reason it's it's satanic blindness to the gospel and the only the only person that can crash through that is the Holy Spirit. I'm not strong enough. Neither are you. No one is the only spirit is the only one who can crash through that demonic and satanic blindness to the gospel to help people see their need. And that's what the Bible speaks of is the conviction, the calling, the wooing of the spirit, which leads to salvation. So we know that Satan does that. He blinds people to the gospel and the grace of God. Paul uses an interesting expression in Galatians 3 of what Satan does in relationship to grace. You foolish Galatians who has, notice this word, bewitched you. Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes, Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified. See, remember the Galatians churches were in danger of adopting a works philosophy or a mixture of works and grace as the way of salvation. And Paul blatantly said in Galatians 1, that's another gospel, which is condemned by God. That's not the true gospel. And whoever is being persuaded by that is bewitched. Bewitched is a term of demonic blindness or in capacity to see the truth being fooled. So he's really talking about the same thing there. So any promotion of a works righteousness, any doctrinal system that promotes that you have to work or contribute something to yourself to get yourself to heaven is a part of Satan's master plan to deceive people. The only way anyone ever gets to heaven is purely by the grace of God through the death of Christ and receiving that by faith, nothing we do. And anything that mixes works with grace is a perversion, a bewitching blinding effect of Satan. So his demons are hard at work, rejecting grace and trying to convince people that they've got to do something themselves to get to heaven. And then kind of in line with that, let's go ahead and take number five, promoting false religions and cults. Demons encourage, as we've already seen, all false religions, whether they are primitive religions, where people are actually involved knowingly in the worship of spirits. You see that in many pagan cultures, many backward cultures, whether it's that kind of primitive religion or whether it's, whether it's actually a false religion or even a religion under the Christian name that denies the sufficiency of the work of Christ to save us. All of that falls under the same category of being demonically promoted. So anything that perverts the doctrine, work of Christ and the person of Christ promotes works for salvation is ultimately, it can ultimately be traced back to Satan and his demons. They're the ones that are convincing people that that's the truth. Exactly. That's a part of his slandering, isn't it? Slandering Christ, that what he has done cannot be sufficient for us. So Satan and his demons are very active in opposition to God and his program, aren't they? And at least these five ways. Okay. Other comments or questions there before we talk about how he oppresses mankind or how demons do that. Okay. The Bible talks a lot about the activity of demons in relationship to people. Demons deceive, degrade, destroy people. They oppress men and women in many different ways. We're going to look at at least eight, eight ways in which they oppress mankind, not tonight, but we'll get to them eventually. The first one is distressing them through nature. Now we know that the earth is under the curse. It does not function as it was intended to function because of man's sin and ultimately Satan's rebellion. But there are times when it appears that Satan and or his demons can actually use natural phenomena to afflict people. Case in point, Job. Right. Read Job chapters one and two. You'll find all the things that befell him after God gave Satan the permission to take these things away from him. And two of those were natural phenomena. One of them was the wind, probably a tornado that destroyed the house where his ten children were having a feast and all of them died at the same time. The other one was fire from heaven that destroyed all of his sheep. Now his camels and other animals were taken by raiders, but fire from heaven destroyed all of his sheep. Whether or not that was a powerful lightning storm or what it was, we don't know, but we know that it was some kind of natural phenomenon that that Satan was allowed to use to strike at Job. So that gives us at least the implication that demons might have the ability to power to sometimes use natural phenomenon. Now with all of these things, we're going to talk about these eight things. We have to be very careful that you don't extrapolate these instances to everything like that that happens. So every thunderstorm is not demons getting after you. Okay. And every high wind is not some demon chasing you. Okay. So be careful about that. There's a whole field of of theology that sees demons under every word. There's a lot of rock and everything that happens, that's not what I'm saying. There are lots of things that happen in this world just as the natural outflow of the curse. There are lots of things that God uses in natural phenomenon, but it is possible at times that Satan may use natural phenomenon to distress people, cause people distress and difficulty. Okay. Open a can of worms there. Any worms we need to chase? It's interesting. You would say that way, Jean, that he must be proud of how well he's doing. Pride was at the base of his rebellion. That's the reason he fell. And I'm sure that's what continues to motivate. I mean, you know, for some of the three six Paul describing the qualifications for spiritual leaders in the church says you can't be proud and thus fall into the condemnation of the devil. That which condemned the devil. It was Satan's pride. Those five I wills in Isaiah 5 or Isaiah 12, 14 that really described his downfall. And so I'm sure he's still motivated to pride and he probably does look around and think, man, look how well I've done. You know, I got control of a lot of stuff and he really ultimately doesn't. Yeah, God is still in control of all that. Kissed exactly. I think kissed you. It is a great point to keep in mind. And that is that even if Satan or the demons do use forces of nature that can only be under God's permission. And control. I mean, it's not that's always remember here. We're not talking about Greek dualism that that there are competing gods of equal power and nature. Satan is always under God's power and only able to do what God allows him to do. Now, he's given a lot of freedom within a certain realm to be able to act, but he has limits and those limits are set by God. Exactly. He's like a dog on a leash. You know, dog feels like he's doing great. He's got a lot of freedom. He's creating a lot of panic till he runs to the end of the leash and then he gets jerked back. You know, he realizes, I don't have quite the freedom of thought I did. And that's how Satan operates. Okay, good. I think we will stop there. It's almost eight o'clock. Kids will be getting out in just moments. So let's stop there. We'll pick it up next week with the next thing that he does to oppress mankind. So let's pray.