Category: Satan and Policy of Evil

The Great Things The Lord Jesus Hath Done #4

Wednesday, October 9, 2013

“And he departed, and began to publish in Decapolis how great things Jesus had done for him: and all men did marvel” (Mark 5:20 KJV).

Who is this man, and what “great things” hath the Lord Jesus done for him?

The Gadarene of today’s Scripture, possessed by many unclean spirits, consequently pursues a rather bizarre lifestyle. When the Lord Jesus confronts him, and commands these evil spirits to leave him, notice what the unclean spirits desire of Jesus.

“Now there was there nigh unto the mountains a great herd of swine feeding. And all the devils besought him, saying, Send us into the swine, that we may enter into them. And forthwith Jesus gave them leave. And the unclean spirits went out, and entered into the swine: and the herd ran violently down a steep place into the sea, (they were about two thousand;) and were choked in the sea” (verses 11-13; cf. Luke 8:32,33).

The Lord Jesus commands these unclean spirits to leave the man, but He gives them permission to possess a nearby herd of almost 2,000 swine (pigs), animals God considered “unclean” for Israel’s consumption (Leviticus 11:7; Deuteronomy 14:8). These pigs then run into the sea and perish.

Notice how these evil spirits sought safety and solace in a body of water. They possessed and drove the pigs into the water. In fact, throughout the Middle East, evil spirits such as these still hide in various bodies of water (rivers, lakes, et cetera). During the future seven-year Tribulation, God will dry up these water masses to expose these evil spirits—these creatures will kill one-third of the human race (see Revelation 9:13-15, for example)!

“And they that fed the swine fled, and told it in the city, and in the country. And they went out to see what it was that was done” (Mark 5:14; cf. Luke 8:34). Those who fed the pigs are aghast. They have just witnessed 2,000 pigs wildly stampede into the sea and violently drown. As they flee for their lives, they spread the news to the neighbors!

A crowd is now approaching Jesus, and what they discover is quite shocking….

The Great Things The Lord Jesus Hath Done #3

Tuesday, October 8, 2013

“And he departed, and began to publish in Decapolis how great things Jesus had done for him: and all men did marvel” (Mark 5:20 KJV).

Who is this man, and what “great things” hath the Lord Jesus done for him?

Notice how Jesus addressed the unclean spirit in the Gadarene, “What is thy name?,” and how the spirit responded, “My name is Legion: for we are many” (verse 9). There are actually many unclean spirits within this man, so his condition is very serious.

Verse 10 is particularly noteworthy: “And he [the unclean spirit] besought him [Jesus] much that he would not send them [all the unclean spirits possessing the Gadarene] away out of the country.” Again, the unclean spirit admits that they prefer to stay in the land of Israel. If Jesus is to cast them out of the man, they at least want to possess the swine of the land. Those unclean spirits know the torments of hell, and they do not want to be thrown into it! In the companion verse, we read: “And they besought him that he would not command them to go out into the deep” (Luke 8:31). Understandably, they do not want to go to hell, but why do they want to stay in Israel?

Pay attention to how that chief evil spirit addressed Jesus as “thou Son of God most high” (Luke 8:28) and “thou Son of the most high God” (Mark 5:7). The title “most High God” implies “possessor of heaven and earth” (Genesis 14:19,22). Satan originally desired to be “like the most High” (Isaiah 14:14)—the devil wants to rule heaven and earth. In order to prevent Jesus Christ’s kingdom from being established on earth, Satan has possessed the nation Israel (which was to be God’s chief nation on earth; Exodus 19:5,6; Deuteronomy 7:6,7; Isaiah 2:1-4; et al.). Hence, Jesus Christ told apostate Israel, “But if I with the finger of God cast out devils, no doubt the kingdom of God is come upon you” (Luke 11:20).

So, now we begin to see that the Gadarene is a picture of the nation Israel in satanic bondage….

The Great Things The Lord Jesus Hath Done #2

Monday, October 7, 2013

“And he departed, and began to publish in Decapolis how great things Jesus had done for him: and all men did marvel” (Mark 5:20 KJV).

Who is this man, and what “great things” hath the Lord Jesus done for him?

Read an excerpt from the companion passage of the context of today’s Scripture: “And when he [Jesus] went forth to land, there met him out of the city a certain man, which had devils long time, and ware no clothes, neither abode in any house, but in the tombs. When he saw Jesus he cried out, and fell down before him, and with a loud voice said, What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God most high? I beseech thee, torment me not. (For he had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. For oftentimes it had caught him: and he was kept bound with chains and in fetters; and he brake the bands, and was driven of the devil into the wilderness.)” (Luke 8:27-29).

Jesus and His disciples meet this Gadarene (an inhabitant of Gadara, in northern Israel). Being possessed with many devils, this man acts very strangely—he howls, lives among tombs, cuts himself with stones, wears no clothes, and has bursts of amazing strength that enables him to break chains (Mark 5:1-5)!

Notice, the Lord Jesus says: “Come out of the man, thou unclean spirit” (verse 8). When the unclean spirit in the man sees Jesus, the spirit replies: “What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of the most high God? I adjure thee by God, that thou torment me not” (verse 7). The evil spirit audaciously commands Jesus “by God” not to “torment” him: the spirit does not want Jesus to cast him into hell. Instead, the evil spirit and the other unclean spirits want Jesus to allow them to possess a herd of swine grazing nearby (verses 11,12; Luke 8:32).

Why do these unclean spirits not want to leave the land of Israel? Let us see what will happen to the Gadarene, and what God is trying to teach Israel with this miracle….

The Great Things The Lord Jesus Hath Done #1

Sunday, October 6, 2013

“And he departed, and began to publish in Decapolis how great things Jesus had done for him: and all men did marvel” (Mark 5:20 KJV).

Who is this man, and what “great things” hath the Lord Jesus done for him?

In the context of today’s Scripture, Jesus and His disciples are sailing to the eastern edge of the Sea of Galilee, and they make their way into the country of the Gadarenes (verse 1). Once they leave the ship, a devil-possessed man who lives in the tombs comes out to meet them (verse 2). The following will be an experience that none of them will ever forget!

This Gadarene vexed with the devil is in a most pathetic state, and he has been in such a condition for quite some time. He is literally a wild man, one whom no one can control or arrest. He often breaks the chains and shackles meant to bind him, and day and night, he lives among the tombs and in the mountains, crying (shouting) and cutting his flesh with sharp stones (verses 3-5). In fact, as we will learn later on, this man was probably completely naked! (The many devils that possess him cause his odd behavior.)

“But when he saw Jesus afar off, he ran and worshipped him, and cried with a loud voice, and said, What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of the most high God? I adjure thee by God, thou torment me not. For he said unto him, Come out of the man, thou unclean spirit. And he asked him, What is thy name? And he answered, saying, My name is Legion: for we are many” (verses 6-9).

Notice this conversation Jesus is having is not with the man per se, but with the devils inside of the man. As we will see later on, actually, there may be as many as 2,000 evil spirits within him!

Let us see how Jesus Christ will handle the situation, thus observing some interesting parallels that teach Israel a lesson she will not forget, either….

Consider Your Ways, Saints! #5

Saturday, October 5, 2013

“I thought on my ways, and turned my feet unto thy testimonies” (Psalm 119:59 KJV).

Oftentimes, the Christian is apathetic to JEHOVAH’S desire to build a temple… using him….

The Christian—the one who is trusted alone in Jesus Christ’s finished crosswork as sufficient payment for his or her sins—is to allow the life of that Saviour to live in and through him or her. This is only possible if the Christian is primarily focusing on the part of the Bible written to and about us in the Dispensation of the Grace of God (which the Holy Spirit gave to the Apostle Paul; Ephesians 3:2).

Many true believers in Jesus Christ often struggle to do right and yet still fail. They have not learned the most basic principle of the Dispensation of Grace: “For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace” (Romans 6:14). Unquestionably, sin will triumph over us every time when we walk in our own strength, relying on our own resources, our own intellect, our own efforts (this is the system of Law, the enemy of God’s grace). Our works and our performance cannot save us from hell, so they certainly cannot save us from misery either!

Romans chapter 12, Ephesians chapter 4, and Colossians chapter 3 are great passages that deal specifically with daily Christian living. We read these verses, and most importantly, believe them, applying them to our lives by faith. God the Holy Spirit will then take those words and work mightily in and through us to accomplish those attitudes and actions, and it will literally be the life of Jesus Christ. It will be the same life that He lived on earth, and it will be the life He still lives today. This is the grace life that God wants for us Christians!

“For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world” (Titus 2:11,12).

May we, by faith, submit to the Lord Jesus Christ’s desire to build a temple, a dwellingplace—using us! 🙂

Consider Your Ways, Saints! #2

Wednesday, October 2, 2013

“I thought on my ways, and turned my feet unto thy testimonies” (Psalm 119:59 KJV).

Oftentimes, the Christian is apathetic to JEHOVAH’S desire to build a temple… using him….

Today, in the Dispensation of Grace, the Apostle Paul affirmed: “God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands” (Acts 17:24). It is scripturally incorrect to call any church building “God’s house.” However, God the Holy Spirit has chosen a special place to manifest Himself.

Paul asked the Corinthian Christians in 1 Corinthians 3:16, “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?” And again, “What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you…?” (1 Corinthians 6:19). Like many professing Christians today, they evidently did not know where the Spirit of God lived! Paul affirmed in 2 Timothy 1:14, “the Holy Ghost which dwelleth in us.” Once more, “for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people” (2 Corinthians 6:16).

Man has access to the God of the Bible via two methods: he can study the Holy Bible for himself and believe it, or he can find a Christian (whom the Holy Ghost indwells). Note that the term “Christian” is not a reference to one who has a particular denominational membership, or who has participated in rites, rituals, ceremonies, et cetera. The Bible’s definition of the term “Christian” is one who “believes in Jesus” without works (Romans 3:26-28), one who trusts alone in the Gospel of the Grace of God, how that Christ died for our sins, He was buried, and He was raised again the third day, as sufficient payment for their sins (1 Corinthians 15:3,4; cf. Romans 4:24,25).

The Holy Ghost then comes to live inside that person, that Christian, thus making a temple for God Almighty to live in and manifest His life to the world….

Consider Your Ways, Saints! #1

Tuesday, October 1, 2013

“I thought on my ways, and turned my feet unto thy testimonies” (Psalm 119:59 KJV).

Oftentimes, the Christian is apathetic to JEHOVAH’S desire to build a temple… using him or her….

The Bible makes it very clear in Ephesians 1:9,10 that God the Father’s overall purpose and plan for creation is to make the heaven and the earth operate in unison in bringing praise and glory to His Son, Jesus Christ. How God will accomplish this plan is summarized in 1 Timothy 2:4: “[God our Saviour] who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.”

Jesus Christ suffered, shed His precious and sinless blood, and died on Calvary’s cruel cross to pay for our sins (1 Corinthians 15:3), He was buried to put away those sins, and He was raised again the third day to give us a right standing before God (Romans 4:25), proving that He conquered Satan and sin (otherwise, death would have held Him; Acts 2:24; Colossians 2:15; Hebrews 2:14). When we trust alone in this finished crosswork of Jesus Christ as the fully-satisfying payment (propitiation) for our sins, we are “saved” from those sins, hell, death, the lake of fire, and Satan’s power (Colossians 1:13).

Howbeit, God’s will involves much more than people receiving salvation from their sins and receiving a place in heaven. He also wants those who do get saved—the Christians—to understand why He saved them and what He will do with them in the ages to come. This spiritual edification and maturity is what the Bible calls “coming to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:4; 2 Timothy 2:25).

How disturbing and extremely sad it is to see many Christians with very little to no understanding of God’s will for their lives. Using counterfeit modern “bibles,” being completely engulfed by religious tradition and denominational thinking, and neglecting personal Bible study are the three primary reasons for this dire state of affairs within Christendom.

Before we Christians can have the Lord Jesus Christ’s mindset, we must first learn it ourselves through the study of the rightly divided Scriptures….

Consider Your Ways, Mankind! #5

Monday, September 30, 2013

“Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man’s device. And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent” (Acts 17:29,30 KJV).

Mankind, in his natural state, is apathetic to JEHOVAH’S desire to build a temple… using him….

Ephesians 6:12 talks about “spiritual wickedness in high places” (the Greek word here rendered “high” is translated “heavenly” in Ephesians 1:3 and Ephesians 2:6). “Behold, he putteth no trust in his saints; yea, the heavens are not clean in his sight” (Job 15:15; cf. Job 25:5). Satan has corrupted the heavens (outer space) with sin, and he will not be banished from there and cast down to earth until a future date (Revelation 12:7-10).

“The heaven, even the heavens, are the LORD’S: but the earth hath he given to the children of men” (Psalm 115:16). God had given the earth to man in order to keep earth out of Satan’s hands, but Adam sinned and Satan’s policy of evil, which rebellion started in heaven, infiltrated earth. Both the heavens and earth are corrupted by sin. Until we come to the salvation and ministry of the Apostle Paul in Scripture, we only read about God’s purpose and plan for the earth. God, until revealing it to and through the Apostle Paul, was silent about how he would restore the heavens unto Himself (Colossians 1:16-21).

Through Paul’s epistles, Romans through Philemon, alone, we learn God’s purpose and plan regarding the heavenly restoration. The ascended Lord Jesus Christ will use the same pagan Gentiles He had given over to Satan back in Genesis chapter 11, He will save them from their sins and give them a place in heaven (Ephesians 1:3; Ephesians 2:6,7), even giving them bodies to function in outer space and replace Satan’s minions (2 Corinthians 5:1). This is the story of the pagan Greeks to whom Paul spoke (today’s Scripture)—it is our story, too!

No one would have guessed that God would use formerly idolatrous Gentiles such as us to be His vessels, His temple, to glorify Himself in the heavens forever…!

Consider Your Ways, Mankind! #4

Sunday, September 29, 2013

“Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man’s device. And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent” (Acts 17:29,30 KJV).

Mankind, in his natural state, is apathetic to JEHOVAH’S desire to build a temple… using him….

Satan’s rebellion against God, which started in heaven, then infiltrated the earth with the fall of man. Adam—actually all of mankind—was to be God’s vessel in fulfilling His will in the earth (Genesis 1:26,28), but Adam sinned and failed (Romans 5:12). God then created the nation Israel to do in the earth what Adam failed to do (Exodus 19:5,6), but Israel also sinned and failed (Jeremiah 31:32).

Once Israel reached the point where she adamantly and continually rejected God’s will for her—the culmination of her unbelief was Acts chapter 7 with the stoning of the prophet Stephen—God set into motion a plan for the heavenly places, a plan that He had kept secret during the entire time He was revealing to man His purpose and plan for earth (Romans 16:25 cf. Acts 3:21).

In today’s Scripture, the Apostle Paul is preaching in Athens to remind these lost pagans that their idols of silver, gold, and stone that they have invented and carved and molded, are the results of their spiritual blindness. God, having given these Gentiles over to Satan in Genesis chapter 11 (so He could form the nation Israel in Genesis chapter 12 with Abraham), is now reaching out to them through the fall of Israel and through Paul’s ministry (Romans 11:11-13).

Paul urged these Gentiles, whose spirits were dead in their trespasses and sins (Ephesians 2:1-3) and whose souls were darkened by Satan the god of this world (2 Corinthians 4:3,4), to receive the light of God’s Word that he is preaching to them. They are to recognize their error, change their mind (repent), and start thinking of the triune God as the living and true God, not as some worthless, inanimate idol.

By faith, they are to submit to the construction of JEHOVAH’S new temple….

Consider Your Ways, Mankind! #3

Saturday, September 28, 2013

“Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man’s device. And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent” (Acts 17:29,30 KJV).

Mankind, in his natural state, is apathetic to JEHOVAH’S desire to build a temple… using him….

When preaching about Jesus Christ returning to earth one day and bringing “the times of restitution [restoration] of all things,” the Apostle Peter confessed that this coming of God to establish an earthly kingdom was what “God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began” (Acts 3:19-21). From the time the Lord Jesus put man on the earth until the salvation and ministry of the Apostle Paul, the Bible’s focus is God’s purpose and plan for the earth. God wanted the earth to be His “temple,” His dwelling place!

In the book of the Revelation, the Apostle John wrote about the future: “And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea. And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God” (Revelation 21:1-3). This will be the fulfillment of Messiah’s title “Immanuel,” “God with us” (Isaiah 7:14; Matthew 1:23). Again, the hope of believers in Israel’s program was not dying and going to be with God in heaven, but being resurrected to have God come down to earth and live with them (Job 19:25-27)!

Daniel 2:35,44 speak of Jesus Christ’s kingdom as one that will “fill the whole earth” and will last forever and ever. Exodus 19:3-6, Isaiah 2:1-3, and Zechariah 8:20-23 demonstrate the earthly nature of Israel’s kingdom. Sin has continually delayed the establishment of this “temple” of God….