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08-Your Adversary, the Devil - Satan, the Imitator |
08-Your Adversary, the Devil - Satan, the Imitator
2 Corinthians 11:1-15
Satan is a liar and a deceiver. According to the eleventh chapter of 2
Corinthians, verses 13 to 15, Satan is also an imitator. In the third
chapter of Genesis it is recorded that Satan said to Eve: "In the day
that thou shalt eat thereof, thou shalt be like God [Elohim]." It was
Satan's avowed purpose, not to make Eve as ungodly as possible, but to
make her as godlike as possible without God. And Satan's plan and Satan's
program has always been to imitate God, to deceive men concerning his
plan so that as they follow his imitation they will be convinced they are
following God.
In 2 Corinthians 11:13-15 the Apostle Paul writes: "For such are false
apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of
Christ." Note that phrase, "transforming themselves into apostles of
Christ." "And no marvel for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of
light; therefore, it is no great thing if his ministers also be
transformed as the ministers of righteousness whose end shall be
according to their works."
When Paul writes to Timothy in 1 Timothy 6:16, speaking of the eternal
God, the blessed and only potentate, the King of kings, and the Lord of
lords, who only hath immortality, Paul adds these words: "Dwelling in
light which no man can approach into, whom no man hath seen nor can see."
The Word of God makes it clear that no man has been able to look upon the
unveiled face of the eternal God. Paul states it as a categorical truth
that God dwelleth in light which no man can approach unto, that God is
one whom no man hath seen nor can see. When Moses asked to look upon the
face of God, God reminded Moses, (as it is recorded in Exodus 33) that no
man could see His face and live. But God said that He would hide Himself
in a cleft of the rock and He would cover Moses with His hand; and He
would take away His hand and Moses would see His outshining, His
effulgence, His glory, even though Moses could not see God's face. Moses
beheld the glory of God and came away completely satisfied.
Based on this principle, we would conclude that, when Adam and Eve walked
with God in the garden in the cool of the day, as it is recorded in the
opening chapters of Genesis, Adam and Eve conversed with a God who was
clothed with light. They knew of God's presence in their midst in the
garden because of the outshining of His glory. On later occasions the
same thing was true in the tabernacle and in the temple. The nation
Israel knew that God dwelt in their midst because they beheld His glory
shining in the pillar of cloud or the pillar of fire in the tabernacle
and in the temple. The three on the Mount of Transfiguration knew that
God was in Christ and was revealing Himself through Christ, for they
beheld His glory, "the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full
of grace and truth."
God came to Adam and Eve clothed in light, and they rejoiced in His
presence in sweet and intimate fellowship. God spoke to them out of the
glory that surrounded His person. His voice became a familiar voice as
they communed with Him. But the time came when Eve was approached by
another blaze of light, a manifestation of glory, and, the voice that
spoke this time out of the glory was somewhat different than she was
accustomed to. This is evidently what Paul had in mind when in 2
Corinthians 11:14 he said: "Satan himself is transformed into an angel of
light."
It is our conclusion that the Apostle is telling us the form in which
Satan came to Eve. He did not come through the naked body of a beast of
the field. He appropriated that body and then veiled it in a blaze of
glory so that it would appear to Eve that God had come again into the
garden to speak with them. Eve was not suspicious at the approach being
made by this serpent because the serpent and Satan who occupied that
serpent were hidden away in a veil of light. Thus he appeared to Eve. And
Eve, accustomed to approaching the light to hear the voice of God and to
receive instructions concerning His will and His way, to enjoy fellowship
with Him, once again approached the light. The voice this time
contradicted what had been revealed previously, as the voice out of the
light commanded her to take and eat so that she might be like Elohim,
like God.
It was the presence of the light that convinced Eve that it was God who
was commanding her to eat. Satan deceived Eve because he had imitated the
mode of revelation through which God communicated with His creatures in
the garden. He appeared as an angel of light.
It never seems to have entered Eve's mind that God could not and would
not contradict Himself; and that God who just had said that "in the day
that thou eatest thereof thou shalt die" would not change and now say,
"thou shalt not die, take and eat and you will be like God." Eve's mind
was deceived by the one who transformed himself into an angel of light.
But Satan, who hid himself by imitating God in the garden uses the same
identical means of deception to perpetrate his lies today. Satan is still
transforming himself into an angel of light, and Satan's representatives,
his ministers, are also being transformed as ministers of righteousness
(2 Corinthians 11:15). While propagating that which brings death and
darkness to the mind and heart of the sinner, they profess to be
representatives of the God who is light and claim to be propagating
doctrines that come from the God of light, the living God. This is a part
of Satanic deception, the Satanic system that imitates the program of
God.
We can illustrate this from several incidents recorded in the Word of
God. You remember that, when Moses was sent to Pharaoh to tell Pharaoh to
let God's people go, Moses questioned how he could convince Pharaoh since
he could not convince the people of Israel. "Who shall I say sent me?"
And God revealed His name, "I am that I am," the Eternal Existing One. He
has sent you. But Moses, anticipating the hardness of the heathen heart,
asked how they would believe him and be willing to follow him? Thus God
gave to Moses the authority to work miracles and signs so as to
authenticate his mission, his person and his message. We read in Exodus
7:11, 12, that, after Moses had performed his first miracle, turning the
rod into a serpent, then Pharaoh called the wise men and the sorcerers.
". now the magicians of Egypt, they also did in like manner with their
enchantments. For they cast down every man his rod, and they became
serpents. ." And again in verse 22, the program is imitated: "The
magicians of Egypt did so with their enchantments." Will you notice what
has happened? God sent a messenger to bring deliverance and freedom to
the children of Israel. He authenticated his message with miracles and
signs. But Satan had his ministers, his sorcerers, his enchanters, who
imitated Moses' miracles, with the result that through this Satanic
imitation, Pharaoh's heart was hardened, "so that he did not let the
children of Israel go." He set his heart against Moses and against God.
Thus Satan imitated the miracles to deceive Pharaoh and the Egyptians.
We find another example in the experience of Paul. The Apostle was sent
to propagate the Gospel of the grace of God throughout the Gentile world.
When Paul started on his first missionary journey he went into Paphos. ".
they found a certain sorcerer, a false prophet, a Jew, whose name was
Bar-jesus, which was with the deputy of the country, Sergius Paulus, a
prudent man; who called for Barnabas and Saul, and desired to hear the
Word of God. But Elymas, the sorcerer, withstood them, seeking to turn
away the deputy from the faith" (Acts 13:6-8). Now, what happened? Paul
came to a man whose heart was hungry and crying out for a knowledge of
God. He introduced this man to the Gospel of the grace of God. But Satan
had his minister, who professed to be a minister of righteousness, there
to tell this burdened sinner that this was not truth, that it was a lie.
This principle is further illustrated in the thirteenth chapter of the
book of the Revelation. When the Beast is set up as the object of worship
during the tribulation period, that one who ministers to the Beast, the
False Prophet ". doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down
from heaven on the earth in the sight of men, [imitates the miracles of
Elijah], and deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those
miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to
them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the
beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live. And he hath power to
give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should
both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the
beast should be killed" (Revelation 13:13-15).
When God sends His two witnesses to pronounce judgment upon Jerusalem and
invite men to wash their robes to make them white in the blood of the
lamb (Revelation 11:3-12), Satan has one whom he transforms into a
minister of righteousness to imitate the miracles of God, the miracles of
Elijah, the miracles of Moses, to convince the world that what he is
saying to them is truth. God sent men with authority to proclaim a
message; and authenticated that authority by miracles. But Satan as an
imitator sent his representative to perform the same miracles to deceive
the minds of men and to turn them away from the truth.
We notice another area in which Satan imitates. In Acts 1:8 God said to
the Apostles, "Ye shall be witnesses unto me, both in Jerusalem, and in
all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth."
You shall be witnesses unto me!
As you read through the book of Acts you find the Apostles spreading out
all over the face of the earth to proclaim a Person; to tell men the
Gospel of the good news that Christ died for our sins. The message that
the Apostles brought centered in the person and work of Jesus Christ.
They knew nothing except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. But as Satan saw
the purpose and program of God to send men out to witness to Jesus
Christ, he sent out his men to deny that one central truth. Notice
several references to this in the eleventh chapter of 2 Corinthians. In
verse 3, Paul says to the Corinthians, "But I fear, lest by any means, as
the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be
corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. For if he that cometh
[now notice these words] preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not
preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or
another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him."
He preaches another Jesus by the power of another spirit that results in
another gospel. This same thing is anticipated in 1 Timothy 4 where Paul
says, "the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall
depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits [or seductive
teachers], and the doctrines of demons." Now this is not doctrines about
demons; it is doctrines that demons preach in imitation of the truth
concerning the person and work of Jesus Christ.
The devil is a preacher - don't forget it. He is diabolical in his
preaching but he is a preacher, and he has another gospel and another
Jesus and another power to perform that which he desires in the lives of
men. And his demons are preaching actively. In 1 John 4:1, John taught
the same thing. He says, "Believe not every spirit [or teacher] but try
the spirits, [measure them according to the Word of God. And this is the
reason] whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out
into the world. Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit [or
teacher] that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of
God: And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in
the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof
ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the
world."
Back in chapter 2, verse 22, John makes the same statement. "Who is a
liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist, that
denieth the Father and the Son. Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath
not the Father." Now Paul and John were anticipating the Satanic movement
that would thrust preachers out into the world with a doctrine that
denied the person and the work of Jesus Christ. Satan is willing to
concede any other doctrine that you insist on believing, but he cannot
and will not, under any circumstances, consent to have the death and
resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ preached to men. For the person and
work of Christ is the heart of the Gospel. Therefore, Paul and John
warned the church of the advent of these men who would come with another
gospel, preaching another Christ, by another spirit.
Now what is the significant fact to observe? That God's method of
reaching men is to preach; God's method of reaching men is to have men
herald forth the truth concerning Jesus Christ. And Satan has not devised
another program. He imitates the program of God and he sends his
ministers, whom he claims to be ministers of righteousness, into the
world to do what the saints of God are commanded to do, to preach. But
going with another gospel by Satanic power rather than by the power of
the Holy Spirit, they go out to deceive, to delude, to take away the
truth from the minds of men as they propagate a lie. This is the plan of
the imitator of God.
Paul emphasizes this as he writes to the Galatians. In Galatians 1:6-9,
he says, "I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you
into the grace of God unto another gospel: which is not another; but
there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ.
But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you
than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we
said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto
you than that ye have received, let him be accursed." The Greek language
knows no stronger word than the Apostle used here on two occasions (verse
8 and verse 9) when he said that the one who perverts the doctrine of the
gospel of the person and the work of Jesus Christ should be damned
forever. Paul, understanding the devices of Satan, knew that he would
imitate the program of God and deceive men by imitating God's commandment
to preach throughout the world.
We need to be aware of a general misunderstanding. Looking at a
gutter-bum, a derelict on skid row, we say, "Look at what Satan has done.
There is Satan's masterpiece." I beg to differ with you. Satan is as
nauseated and disgusted by that product as you are. Satan wants to wash
his hands of that bum and have nothing to do with him, even though he
belongs to him. Satan's masterpiece is the good, upright, honest,
honorable, respected individual in the community who feels that he does
not need Jesus Christ, he does not need God, that he can work out his own
salvation without God's help. The man concerning whose character there is
no question, against whose reputation there is no flaw but who leaves God
out of his life is Satan's delight. That is Satan's masterpiece. Satan is
trying to make his children as much like God as it is possible for them
to be without their ever putting faith in the Lord Jesus Christ as a
personal Saviour.
Satan is striving for perfection. He is seeking to produce a perfect man
apart from Christ. Then he can say, "You are like God; by following me
you have become like God." What is the goal of evolution? By natural
processes and by control of environment and heredity, to produce a
perfect specimen of humanity. Man is viewed as moving toward perfection
by his own effort apart from the help of divine grace. Evolution is the
theory that Satan propagates in order to accomplish his designed end of
making men think they are as much like God without any actual knowledge
of God or relationship to him whatsoever.
We read recently of a Satanic wedding in California, complete with a
bride dressed in scarlet. On the altar was the body of a nude woman,
symbolizing devotion to indulgence rather than to abstinence. The two
individuals came together to be married by Satan. The distinguishing
feature of this new Satanic religion is that it has no concept of sin;
hence, it evokes no guilt. The founder of this religion is writing a new
bible that will be a Satanic bible. Who is not shocked by the report? Do
you think that Satan is proud of this? No. He is ashamed. He is as
ashamed of it as any right thinking man of God would be ashamed of it,
for that reveals Satan for what he is. That is not what Satan wants
revealed. He wants to disguise what he is. Satan would seek to hide that
sort of devotion because it exposes him.
Of what movements then is Satan proud? Those in which his ministers
appear as ministers of light. In one of the major hotels in Dallas,
Texas, men posing as ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ met together
to discuss Christian Education. One leader stood up to tell the assembled
delegates from all over the United States that the most dangerous thing
you can do is to send your child to Sunday school because he will be
taught the myths of the Bible, and, when he gets older, he will realize
he has to throw out those myths, and he will throw out God along with the
myths. Therefore, it is dangerous to send your child to Sunday school.
That man is not a minister of righteousness; he is a minister of the
devil. A bishop publicly denied every cardinal doctrine of the Word of
God, so much so, that his denomination couldn't tolerate him any longer.
He came to one of our Texas universities and told the young people:
"Don't let anything or anyone tell you what is sin. You decide for
yourself what is sin. And a thing is only sin if you decide it is sin for
yourself; and, if you decide it is not sin, then it is not sin." They
call that man "Bishop," "shepherd of souls." He is an emissary of the
devil, disguised as a minister of light.
Another man, who calls himself the discotheque priest, wanders from
cocktail bar to cocktail bar, professing to reach men with the gospel,
publicly says, "I don't want to use the word Jesus Christ. I can't
understand a god come in the flesh. I want to talk about Jesus because I
can understand a man who sweats." Although posing as a minister of light
he is speaking as a child of the devil. Those who know the Word of God
and who reverence the authority of the Scriptures need to examine anyone
who professes to be a minister of Jesus Christ to see if he can pass this
primary test: what is his attitude toward the person and work of Jesus
Christ? There is danger in indiscriminate listening to your radio,
because Satan who is the prince of the powers of the air can appropriate
the airwaves to disseminate his godlessness through those who profess to
be ministers of righteousness.
The Word of God commands that you try (or test or assay) everyone who
professes to be a minister of the Gospel of Christ. Test him according to
God's Word, because this is the standard, this is the authority. A man
who questions the authority, the integrity, the infallibility and
inerrancy of this Book has no guide to his doctrine and has become an
emissary of Satan. One who denies the sufficiency of the death of Christ
for the salvation of the sinner, regardless of his affiliation or
position, is an emissary of Satan, a transformed angel of darkness, who
is appearing as an angel of light. One who denies that Jesus Christ is
the eternal Son of the eternal God come in the flesh to redeem sinners,
no matter how pious his phraseology, no matter what his ecclesiastical
endorsement, is an emissary of Satan. Satan is at work to deceive, to
perpetrate a lie, and he does it by the subtle imitation of the truth.
Maybe there are some of you who have trusted yourselves in days past to
ministers of darkness, thinking they were ministers of light. We call the
authority of the Book to witness that there is only one Saviour and that
is Jesus Christ; only one plan of salvation, that is that Christ died for
our sins; only one way that you can receive God's salvation, and that is
to accept Jesus Christ as your personal Saviour. That is the message of
light that is in Jesus Christ. We offer such a Saviour to you. Will you
trust Him for your salvation?
Pentecost, J. D. (1997). Your adversary, the Devil. Originally published:
Grand Rapids, MI : Zondervan, 1969. (66). Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel.
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