Angelology, Part 17 - Satanology 13 (Matthew 25:41)



Andy Woods
Angelology, Part 17 - Satanology 13 (Matthew 25:41)
November 10, 2019


Opening Prayer

“Father, we’re grateful for this morning. We’re grateful for a lot of things—particularly Veterans Day. We’re grateful for those who have served and are serving.

I pray, Father, that today Your Holy Spirit would be at work illuminating the Scriptures to us. I do pray that we might all leave here changed. We will be careful to give You all the praise and the glory. We ask these things in Jesus’ name.” And God’s people said, “Amen.”

Go ahead and find 2 Thessalonians 2:3 as we continue our study on angelology. In the study on angelology we’ve taken a look at the good angels, and we’ve spent a lot of time—and I’m hoping to finish this today—on the chief evil angel who fell, Satan. You have to cover Satan when you study angelology because Satan is truly a fallen angel.

We’ve looked at Satan’s existence, his personhood, his names, and titles. We’ve spent a lot of time looking at his original state and first sin. What we’ve been working on recently is Satan’s works. What does Satan do?

We’ve divided this into three categories.

We talk a lot as Christians about God’s work in our lives, which is wonderful, but there’s another side to that; Satan wants to work in our lives as well. Most Christians are oblivious to it because they’ve never really given themselves to the study of satanology—what the Bible reveals about Satan.

We actually finished that last week, so what we’re going to talk about this morning is:

It’s interesting that you can go into the Bible and develop what we would call an eschatology of Satan. Eschatology is the study of the end. It’s difficult to understand the ferocity of the enemy—and it’s almost impossible to understand the things that are happening in our world—unless you understand the future works of Satan.

What will Satan do in the future? Here’s a list that helps. The first thing he will do is head up a world government. His goal in history is to reproduce a world government; essentially what he had at the Tower of Babel where he was ruling the world through a man. That man’s name in the Bible (you’ll find him in Genesis 10:8-10) was Nimrod. Nimrod’s name in Hebrew means “revolt.”

Satan was basically ruling the planet (or the known world at that time) through a man: Nimrod. That man was governing what we would call the new world order, which essentially is a system of economics, politics, and religion that excludes truth. It excludes the divine viewpoint, it excludes the Bible, but it’s got everything else. It’s got economics; it’s got politics; it’s got religion. Think about it. If you can control a person economically, politically, and religiously there is really nothing else to control, right? You completely control that person.

That project was stopped dead in its tracks at the Tower of Babel—Genesis 11—when God confused the language. Satan’s goal in human history is to bring back that system. We know that one of these days the Restrainer will be removed from the earth. The Restrainer, I think, is the Holy Spirit in the Church.

Once that Restrainer is removed—via the translation of the church in the Rapture—the net system will come right back into existence exactly like Satan set it up in Genesis 11. Obviously, if you have any spiritual perceptivity at all, you can see how the chess pieces are being orchestrated to push us back in that direction of one world government, one world economics, one world religion, etc.

There’s so much talk in our culture today about globalism, “Act locally, think globally.” Politicians can’t even get through speeches today without using the word “globalism” or “one-worldism” somewhere in the speech. It’s obvious that that’s the direction we’re moving in.

We know that he will perform counterfeit signs and wonders (2 Thessalonians 2:3-10). I had you in 2 Thessalonians, but you might want to go to Revelation 13. One of his big signs and wonders is that he’s going to bring back this new world order—or one-world government.

Revelation 13:3-4 says, “I saw one of his heads as if it had been slain, and his fatal wound was healed. And the whole earth was amazed and followed after the beast; they worshiped the dragon because he gave his authority to the beast; and they worshiped the beast, saying, ‘Who is like the beast, and who is able to wage war with him?’ ”

This is the beast—the Nimrod of the future—the antichrist that Satan will work through one day. I think Satan has always had somebody waiting in the wings throughout human history. Satan doesn’t know when the Rapture will occur. He’s not omniscient, so he’s always had somebody waiting in the wings to fill the position of Antichrist.

Some of our politicians today look like they’re almost auditioning for the part. But he’s always had somebody waiting in the wings, ready to fill the void once the Rapture happens. That’s why, when you look at world history, you see so many people and say, “Man, they would be a really good Antichrist!” Maybe they are the Antichrist if that were the generation where the Restrainer was removed.

Verse 3, “I saw one of his heads as if it had been slain, and his fatal wound was healed. And the whole earth [see the one-worldism there?] was amazed and followed after the beast…” Now watch this: “…they worshiped the dragon…” Who is the dragon? The dragon is Satan! We know that from Revelation 12:9 and Revelation 20:2. “…because he gave his authority to the beast; and they worshiped the beast, saying, ‘Who is like the beast, and who is able to wage war with him?’ ”

Everybody’s impressed with the beast because he receives his power from Satan. One of the things Satan does with this arrangement is he restores what was disrupted at the Tower of Babel. When you go down to verse 7, you have a description of his one world government.

It says, “It was also given to him [the beast] to make war with the saints…” Notice it doesn’t say the church. Why wouldn’t it say the church? Because the church isn’t on the earth when this happens. “It was also given to him to make war with the saints and to overcome them, and authority over every [here come four nouns] tribe and people and tongue and nation was given to him.”

In the Book of Revelation when you see those four nouns together it describes the planet—everybody on planet earth. In fact, those same four nouns are used to describe who Christ died for in Revelation 5:9. Christ died for the entire world. This is contrary to what you hear in some theologies today, that Christ only died for the elect. The Bible doesn’t say that!

The Bible says Christ died for the whole world, 1 John 2:2. If you believe that, and if you believe Revelation 5:9 is a description of everybody, then when those same four nouns are used in Revelation 13:7, it’s talking about the planetary, universal, one-world global influence of the Antichrist. That is in Satan’s future. That’s one of the works that he’s going to bring to its zenith one day. And I would say the chess pieces are very clearly being moved in that direction! Would you not agree with that?

Look at the second one. Here’s something else Satan is going to do—this boggles my mind— he’s actually going to go out and fight Jesus when He comes back. Now how smart, exactly, is that? Probably as smart as a created being rebelling against God in the first place.

Revelation 17:14 says, “These [the ten king confederacy under the authority of the beast] will wage war against the Lamb, and the Lamb will overcome them, because He is Lord of lords and King of kings, and those who are with Him are the called and chosen and faithful.” They’re actually going out—when Jesus Christ is physically returning to the earth—and they’re basically opposing Him.

Obviously, they’re not going to get very far because it says, “The Lamb will overcome them…” Why? Because He is Lord of lords and King of kings! Beyond that, He’s got folks with Him helping Him. I mean, it’s good enough to be the Lord of lords and King of kings, right? You can handle the battle on Your own!

But He seems to indicate His chosen ones are coming back with Him—which would be the angels. Who else would that be, do you think? I think that would be the previously raptured church in resurrected bodies who are actually returning with Christ under His delegated authority to subdue the armies of Satan himself. It just shows you the mindset of Satan, that he’s actually fighting Jesus.

It’s interesting. Today we look at the public-school system, for example, and it’s anything goes. Right? I was reading one article where Muslims now are coming in and having the kids dress up as Muslims. The article said they’re allowing the kids to stage their own jihad. I was like, “Wow! I’d like to be in the classroom to see that!” I’m thinking to myself, “Well, gosh, what if we decided that we’re going to have the kids dress up like Paul, Noah, Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John in our public school system? And instead of memorizing Quranic verses, we’re going to have people memorize Scripture.”

We know that’s been expunged from the public-school system a long time ago, but you can do it with Islam today—no problem. You can do it with humanism today—no problem. You can do it with the New Age movement today—no problem. But there’s a total hostility towards Jesus Christ! Who is causing that? Obviously, the same spirit that’s in the world today. 1 John 4 tells us that the spirit of the Antichrist is alive and well in the world, and one of these days that spirit will be embodied in a human being.

That same God hating—Christ rejecting—spirit that’s in the world will ultimately be embodied by the Antichrist, who will actually go out and fight Jesus Christ as Jesus Christ is coming back to the earth in His Second Advent at the end of the Tribulation  period. You’ll see another reference to this over in Revelation 19:19 which says, “And I saw the beast [who’s empowering the beast? The dragon] and the kings of the earth and their armies assembled to make war against Him who sat on the horse and against His army.” The Greek word for war there is POLEMOS, where we get the English words “polemic” and “polemical.” It’s the opposite of EIRENE, meaning peaceful or irenic.

This is the posture of Satan—his warlike attitude towards Jesus right to the point of Christ’s return. “And I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies assembled to make war against Him who sat on the horse and against His army.” Not only is Satan going to bring in a world government that totally excludes Jesus Christ, but he’s actually going to fight Jesus when He comes back in His Second Coming.

Taking a look here at number three—one of the things Satan is going to do in the future is he is going to attempt to annihilate the nation of Israel, and he’s going to attempt to destroy every single physical descendent of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob on planet earth. You say, “Why would Satan do that?”

I think the answer is pretty simple! If I were Satan (and that’s not a part I want) I would try to do the same thing for the simple reason that Jesus, in Matthew 23:37-39, conditioned His return to the earth based on the response of the physical descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob recognizing Him as their Messiah.

Jesus says, in Matthew 23:37-39, “ ‘Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling [First Coming]. Behold, your house is being left to you desolate! [temple] For I say to you, from now on you will not see Me until you say, “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!” ’ ” Who is He speaking to? Jerusalem, because verse 37 says, “Jerusalem, Jerusalem.”

He’s making a generic statement about the Jewish people. “…you will not see Me until you [generic “you,” Israel] say, “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!” ’ ” Which is a Messianic Psalm—Psalm 118:26. If you take that for what it says, what Jesus is saying is, “I’m not coming back to planet earth…” We’re not talking about the Rapture where His feet never touch the ground, right? We are caught up. That’s a totally different event that occurs at least seven years earlier.

He’s talking here about the Second Coming. Once the Second Coming happens, then His Kingdom materializes on the earth for a thousand years. He says, “…you will not see Me until you say, “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!” ’ ” In other words, “I’m not coming back to the earth to set up My Kingdom until the nation of Israel acknowledges Me as the Messiah.” You could literally win the whole world to Jesus Christ and yet if tiny Israel remains in unbelief, the Second Coming of Christ cannot happen.

Conversely, you could have the whole world reject Jesus Christ and yet if tiny Israel acknowledges Christ by exercising faith in Him, then the Second Coming can happen. That’s why the nation of Israel—the covenanted people—is such a big deal! God’s whole work in the world, right down to His return, is hinging on their response to Who they will call one day Yeshua—Jesus Christ.

While they are currently in unbelief, God does not leave the earth without a witness of Himself. He’s working today through the church. But the reality of the situation is we could have huge success as the church, and it will not trigger the Second Coming of Christ. What will trigger the Second Coming of Christ is the response of Israel to their own Messiah.

That’s why the Second Coming of Christ right now is in the state of postponement. That’s Paul’s whole point in Romans 11 where he talks about, “Gee, look what God did through the Jewish rejection of Messiah.” God took lemons and turned them into what? Lemonade! Because through that transaction the sins of the world were paid for.

Paul says, “If the Jewish rejection of the Messiah has turned out for your good, think what the world is going to be like when they’re actually in faith. If God can take a lemon and turn it into lemonade, just think of the total blessing that will come to the earth—i.e. the Kingdom—when the Jews are in faith again.”

If that all is true, what would you do if you were Satan? What I would do is I would kill every single Jew, right? Because Satan is the master chess player, and he thinks he can preempt the plan and program of God. Jesus made those statements to the Pharisees—Satan’s agents. No doubt Satan heard what Jesus said, and now Satan goes into overdrive to kill off Jews. No more Jews, no Second Coming. See how the game is played?

That’s why you have Revelation 12:1-5 in your Bible which talks about a Son—Messiah. I have the Scriptures there where you can look those up to validate what I’m saying. The dragon is Satan. Then there’s the woman clothed with the sun, the moon, and the twelve stars. Now who might that be? That’s Israel! We know that from Joseph’s dream.

Genesis 37:9-10 identifies the woman clothed with the sun and the moon and the 12 stars as Israel. That’s how you handle symbols in the Book of Revelation. If the immediate context doesn’t identify a symbol, you go into the Old Testament (primarily) and see if you can find the same symbol.

Revelation 12 is an amazing chapter of spiritual warfare where Satan—or the Dragon—is permanently cast out of heaven. I’ll show you in just a minute that he still has access to heaven even in his fallen state. Midway through the Tribulation  period—1260 days left—when the beast desecrates the temple (Matthew 24:15) Satan is cast out of heaven, goes down to the earth, and begins to pursue the woman (or Israel) with great wrath.

As you work your way through that chapter you will see the word ORGE used for passion or hatred, and you’ll see POLEMOS again—polemical—or war. He is going after the nation of Israel and the Bible says that he has but a short time.

What does “a short time” mean? It’s defined in the same chapter. He has exactly 1260 days left to gobble up the nation of Israel. Because if there’s no more Israel, there can’t be a Second Coming in his darkened mind. And he retains his authority over the earth. We’ve gone through that chapter, verse by verse, in our study on the Book of Revelation. But you can see that cycle happening in verses 13-16.

And God, as He typically does, shows up to protect Israel so that His prophecies can be fulfilled. People say, “Well everything’s going to be okay for Israel.” Well, you’ve got to look at the particulars! Through that exchange, according to the prophet Zechariah in Zechariah 13:8-9, two thirds of the Jews are wiped out.

Now, you talk like this in the synagogue today? Whew! They don’t want to hear anything about this because their philosophy is, “Never again! Hitler did the worst that can possibly be done!” Hitler killed a third. And if I’m reading my Bible correctly, the worst days of Israel’s future are yet future, where two-thirds will be killed.

In fact, I was in Israel with David Hocking and we had a Jewish tour guide. I think he was an unbeliever, and he was taking us to Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Museum in Israel. He was giving his speech about, “Never again—this will never happen again,” and he made the mistake of saying, “Andy, do you have anything you want to say?” I tried to be very nice and respectful, but I said, “Actually, the reality of the situation is the worst days for Israel are yet future where two thirds will be killed, not a third.”

If you could have seen the guy’s body language! His whole body language changed. He wanted to just shut me up as fast as he possibly could. He wanted the attention taken away from the things I was saying, and yet the reality of the situation is this is what your Bible teaches. You have to understand that the hatred and the animosity that exist for the Jewish people is actually satanically inspired. If you don’t believe me, go home today and read Revelation 12. You’ll see it as clear as a bell.

When you understand this, you start to understand why there’s so much Jew hating in human history. We can go back to Pharaoh, in the Book of Exodus, who had a policy of drowning the infant boys in the Nile. My daughter and I are reading a chapter a night in the Bible. We’re currently in the Book of Exodus, so I’m thinking a lot about the Book Exodus. It’s very interesting to me that God chose to drown the Egyptians in the Red Sea.

God could have killed the Egyptians anyway He wanted. He could’ve brought a plague, He could’ve brought an earthquake, He could’ve opened up the ground as He did in the Book of Numbers, but He drowned them. You ask yourself, “Why did He drown them?” The answer is that they were drowning His people, Exodus 1:22.

In Genesis 12:3, God is very clear that “whoever curses you I will curse…” What? In-kind. Then you get to the 10th plague and God kills the firstborn all over Egypt. You say, “Why did God do that?” The answer is in Exodus 4:22 where Israel is called God’s “firstborn.” “You kill My firstborn? I’m coming after your firstborn.”

Given the warfare that Israel would go through because of satanic opposition, God has given her certain promises in Genesis 12—the Abrahamic promises. It’s interesting that when you start reading some extra biblical Jewish material—like the Talmud and other sources like that—you can find some of the rabbis acknowledging the very points that I just made. God killed the firstborn because Egypt was destroying Israel’s firstborn. God drowned the Egyptians because Egypt was drowning the Israeli infants. Pharaoh tried to wipe out the Jews.

Haman tried to wipe out the Jews in the Book of Esther. And, as I like to say, every time someone has a plot to destroy the Jews, not only do the Jews survive, but they end up getting a holiday out of the whole thing. You have Purim, or Lots, to commemorate how God rescued Israel in the Book of Esther added to the Levitical calendar system. Israel, Leviticus 23, has about seven feast days. And one is added to the calendar in the Persian period to commemorate God’s protection of Israel during that very difficult time.

Around Christmas time a lot of your Jewish friends are celebrating what they call Hanukkah, or Feast of Lights. And that’s related to God once again stepping in miraculously to help Israel in the intertestamental period when a man named Antiochus Epiphanes was persecuting the Jews. Again, miracles took place there. So Hanukkah is another feast day that’s added to the Jewish calendar.

What are all of these things about? It’s about the angelic conflict. God moves His piece on the chessboard, and Satan moves his piece. It’s a giant chess match, and it’s called the angelic conflict. If you’re perceptive about it, and you read history through Revelation 12 ,you can see it happening all the way through the Old Testament. You can see it in modern-day people like Adolf Hitler, who sought to exterminate the Jews, as you’ll remember from the movie Schindler’s List.

In fact, before Schindler’s List came out, I had the chance to actually go to Germany before the wall came down. This would be the summer of 1988, I think. I was on a college basketball team, and we took a trip into East Germany—and all over West Germany for that matter—to play basketball. By the way, that’s when I first got disillusioned with communism!

All of my professors were going on and on about how great communism is—until you actually cross the wall into East Germany, and you see what communism has produced. You could walk into a restaurant, and they could care less if you’re there or not because they’re getting paid through the state.

You want to talk about choices? You go over here to McDonald’s—or whatever—and you’ve got multiple choices. There, there are like two items on the menu! The whole mindset is different in a communist country, for the simple reason that there’s no incentive to work hard because you’re going to get paid no matter what you do. So, your customers are there or not there—who cares! The money is coming to you via the state.

I wish some of our starry-eyed Millennial’s who are so high on all of this socialism and Bernie Sanders (and all these kinds of things) would actually take a trip, maybe, to a Marxist or Communist or Socialist country. I might recommend Venezuela and other places where the middle class… Well, they don’t have a middle class anymore—it’s been destroyed! What used to be the middle class is eating out of garbage cans, etc.

I have no idea how I got off on all that! Oh, I know what I was going to say. In Germany I went to a place called Dachau. You know about Dachau? It’s one of the most horrific concentration camps ever developed in human history. They actually take you to the showers where the Jews were herded into these boxcars; it’s very similar to what the movie Schindler’s List talks about.

They were told, “Run down this hill. Once you run down the hill, you’ll go into room. You’ll go into a shower, and you will be able to enjoy a hot shower.” So they’re panting as they’re running down the hill. You go into these showers. Of course, you know the end story. The Nazis didn’t turn on water. They turned on poisonous gas, and they had no choice but to inhale it because they were breathing so heavily. This is how Adolf Hitler, under the Nazi regime, just exterminated mass amounts of human beings and Jewish people. As you walk through there, it’s so eerie. No one says a word. Everybody’s very quiet. Because you’re looking at all this and saying, “I can’t believe this actually happened in human history!”

The smartest thing the Nation of Israel ever did—among many smart things, but this is one of the smartest—is build Yad Vashem, the Holocaust memorial, where it’s documented! The names, the people, and the places are documented! This actually happened in human history! Because today we have Holocaust deniers or Holocaust marginalizers.

You walk through this area in Dachau and everybody’s quiet. It’s so somber, and you can’t believe events of that atrocity happened here! As a young college student, I had no explanation for it. I was a believer at the time, but I had absolutely no explanation for it until I started studying Bible prophecy and I started understanding the angelic conflict as revealed in Revelation 12.

And you say, “That’s why it happened! That’s why there’s this bizarre, irrational hatred for the Jews that keeps percolating trans-generationally.” Here we are several decades after World War II, and now in our own country we’ve got people in Congress whom the President of the United States calls the “Squad.” And I am just blown away by the things the members of the Squad tweet about.

I’ve never seen so many Jew hating comments. Not coming from some professor at a university, not some kooky website, not some self-published book, but from people who are duly elected to the United States House of Representatives. They put up tweets such as, “The Jews are hypnotizing the world,” and all this bizarre stuff. And you say, “Really? Within a few decades after the Holocaust this is happening again?” And you scratch your head and say, “How can that be? How can any rational or sane person think that way?” The answer is Revelation 12.

The Middle East. I don’t have my map with me today, but you’ve seen me use it many times. Israel is about the size of Vermont. It’s this little, tiny nation fighting for its survival in a sea of hostile Islamic theocracies who have, in their own charters, “We’re going to drive the Jews into the sea.” You say to yourself, “How could this be?” It’s Revelation 12—that’s how it could be! It’s part of the angelic spiritual conflict.

By the way, that is one of the reasons why there is a move to marginalize or, in some cases, deny the Holocaust. Why did the United Nations vote in favor of the nation of Israel in 1947? I don’t think the United Nations would do that today, would they? They never vote for Israel!

Why did they vote for a Jewish State in 1947? Because the Holocaust was a recent memory, right? Just within a few years. So, they felt sorry for the Jews, and it made sense that the Jews would have a home of their own. And those who hate the Jews understand that. They understand that as long as the Holocaust is a memory in people, people have a natural desire to help the Jews.

You know, we like to side with the underdog. So, what better way to stop that political reality than to convince people that, “Maybe the Holocaust didn’t happen at all. If it did, maybe it wasn’t quite as bad as everybody has made it sound.” So, you have to understand that Holocaust marginalization—Holocaust denial— has a political ambition to shift the way people think about the Nation of Israel.

Today you’re going to send your kids and your grand kids to college. At some point they’re going to be exposed to the BDS movement, which stands for “Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions.” You say, “Against whom?” Against Israel!

I remember South Africa—apartheid. “Boycott South Africa because of their racist policies.” What they’re trying to do is they’re trying to say, “Israel is just like South Africa.” Even though, within the Israeli Knesset, you have Arabs (non-Jews) in the Knesset. How could that be if Israel is an apartheid state?

Actually, the non-Jewish population, when you look at it statistically within Israel, is not being chopped down; it’s actually growing. Now, how could that be if Israel is an apartheid state? The reality of the situation is that they’re trying to convince the youth that Israel is an apartheid state, so we’ll be involved in formal BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) against the Nation of Israel.

You say, “Well, I’m sure glad I’m tucked safely within Christendom where that kind of thing would never happen! I’m really glad that happens at the secular universities and never affects the church.” Well, think again! Because I could give you the name of one (probably two) mainline Christian denominations—right now as I speak—who are involved in actively boycotting the Nation of Israel. I’ve shown you before statements from some of the protestant reformers against the Jews and the Jewish people.

Where am I going with all of this? What I’m trying to say is that this is all part of a satanic strategy. And it has to do with the things that Satan is doing and will reach its zenith yet future.

Look at Revelation 20:1-3. Satan, at the beginning of this Kingdom age, will be bound. Now, if you knew that you were going to be bound because of the coming of the Kingdom, wouldn’t you try to stop the Kingdom from coming? And wouldn’t you try to stop the instrument through which the Kingdom will exist one day—Israel—try to wipe them out prematurely?

And if you knew that that Kingdom comes after Jesus Christ sets feet on planet earth, wouldn’t you go out and try to fight Him at His return? Satan is a pretty good student of prophecy, and he knows what’s coming during the Kingdom age. His authority over the earth is gone at that point, so that’s why he’s actively working, in his darkened mind, to prevent these prophecies from unfolding. But once the Kingdom comes, he is incarcerated for a thousand years.

In Revelation 20:1-3 John says, “Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding the key of the abyss and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold of the dragon…” Now, we don’t have to guess who the dragon is, do we? Because it tells us right there in the verse. “…the serpent of old, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years; and he threw him into the abyss, and shut it and sealed it over him, so that he would not deceive the nations any longer, until the thousand years were completed; after these things he must be released for a short time.”

Now, there are many people who are going to tell you, theologically, that he’s already bound right now. Which goes contrary to multiple Scriptures which say, “No. He’s a defeated foe, but he’s currently the god of this age!” There’s actually one theologian in print—a reformed theologian—and he says this, “Well, that’s true, but he’s on a very long chain right now.” So, he’s trying to argue that he is bound and yet wrestle with all the passages that call him the god of this age.

So, you have to get ridiculous and allegorical to argue that this is happening right now. In fact, it says there that when he’s bound, he will not deceive the nations any longer. Would you not agree with me that the nations are in a state of spiritual deception right now? Just read the newspaper and you’ll see it.

Obviously, the binding of Satan is not something that’s happened already at Christ’s First Advent; it’s something yet future. And when you understand that the binding of Satan is yet future, it saves you from a lot of what I would call evangelical “silly talk” in prayers and public statements. People pray, “I just bind Satan. Satan, I bind you!” And I’m always wondering, “If you really bound him, how did he get loose so quick?”

We don’t pray that way! Okay? We don’t bind Satan. I watch some of these so-called TV “evangelists.” They’re screaming at Satan, “I’m going to give him a black eye and run him out of town,” and all of these kinds of things. The reality situation is we are on defense! Why? Because we’re living in his world right now before the binding happens.

Instead of screaming at Satan, binding Satan… People say, “Well, didn’t Jesus bind Satan?” Yes, but are you Jesus? Jesus did a lot of things I don’t do, like walk on water. My wife will tell you I don’t walk on water! The reality of the situation is that we’re playing defense, and we have to develop an understanding of spiritual warfare that is (can I use the D word?) dispensational. Because if you get your dispensations confused and you think we’re in the Kingdom now, then that changes the way you do spiritual warfare.

But when you understand the dispensations correctly, and the concept of the future Kingdom correctly, you understand that it’s foolish to bind Satan right now. What we’re supposed to do is play defense!

As far as I can tell, when you get into the epistles there’s basically three Scriptures that help us. One is James 4:7. Another one is 1 Peter 5:8-9. Both of those say, “Resist Satan and he will flee from you.” When it talks about resisting Satan, the context mentions the sins of the flesh. We talked about how Satan will take ground that we give him when we pander to the old nature—which we still have as believers, Amen?

If you don’t believe that, just look at your own life this last week and you’ll see that you’ve still got a sin nature to go back to. Anybody agree with me on that? Look at all the hands that went up. Usually no hand goes up, and I say, “Well, you guys are exercising the sin nature right now! You’re not telling the truth!” So, “Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.”

Then you have Ephesians 6—which we’re going to be covering when we get to demonology—about putting on the full armor of God. You’re dealing primarily with defensive pieces of weaponry. So there’s no sense in binding Satan, yelling at Satan, screaming at Satan, and casting Satan out of Sugar Land.

I remember the height of the Peretti novels. I’ve met Frank Peretti, a really nice guy. Neil Anderson’s teaching was big in the 80s and the 90s. People were “praying down territorial spirits over Houston,” for example. Jack Hayford did that—prayed down the demons out of Los Angeles. I don’t think he was too successful over the course of time. Have you been to Los Angeles lately?

So, we don’t waste our time with all that stuff because we understand the dispensations correctly. The binding of Satan is yet future. Jesus will bind Satan when He comes back and establishes His Kingdom upon Israel’s repentance and conversion. In the meantime, until that happens, we’re playing defense.

Look at Jude 1:9. It says, “But Michael the archangel…” Michael is a pretty high-ranking guy; he’s not just an angel, but he’s an archangel. “…when he disputed with the devil and argued about the body of Moses…” Why would they be arguing about the body of Moses? You might have a hint in Revelation 11:6 where it looks like Moses is going to need his body again as one of the two witnesses. “…did not dare pronounce against him a railing judgment, but said, “The Lord rebuke you!”

So, not even Michael wanted to get into an open contest with Satan! Not even Michael wanted to bind Satan! He just turned the whole situation over to the Lord. Angels, of course, being much more powerful than us. If Michael himself, being not just an angel but archangel, had this posture in spiritual warfare, then why do I think that I’m going to bind Satan, give him a black eye, and run him out of town? So, one of the things yet future for Satan is he’s going to be bound for a thousand years.

Something else that’s going to happen is at the end of the Millennial Kingdom, when he’s let loose from solitary confinement after a thousand years, you will notice that he’s not rehabilitated. He comes out of solitary confinement—out of his imprisonment—just as he’s always been. His character never changed. He will lead a final rebellion.

Look at Revelation 20:7-9. “When the thousand years are completed, Satan will be released from his prison, and will come out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog…” Now, that has nothing to do with Ezekiel 38 and 39. The Ezekiel 38 and 39 situation has already happened in the Tribulation  period. I think, when he uses the expression Gog and Magog, it’s like a remembrance of a past battle. It’s like when people say today, “I fought my Waterloo today.” They’re not saying that the battle of Waterloo just got refought; they’re remembering a terrible conflict and analogizing their own circumstances to that terrible conflict. It’s more of a remembrance.

I have a book called The Middle East Meltdown that gives you all the differences between Gog and Magog of Ezekiel 38 and 39 and what’s being described here. Not the least of which is this rebellion comes from the four corners of the earth at the end of the Millennium. Gog and Magog come from the north and involves Russia and a total of nine specific nations that you read about in your newspaper all the time.

“When the thousand years are completed, Satan will be released from his prison, and will come out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together for the war…” Now, this is very depressing to me because you would think that people, after living under the authority of Jesus Christ for a thousand years, would be happy with the government of Jesus Christ! No human need is unmet. Poverty is gone. Prosperity blankets the whole earth. No sickness and disease. No death, except in very narrow circumstances.

You would think that people would vote for Jesus again! Wouldn’t you think that? But it says here, “…to gather them together for the war; the number of them is like the sand of the seashore.” In other words, if you can think of all the sand on the seashore, that’s how John describes the people who are enticed into this final battle at the end of the thousand-year Kingdom.

“And they came up on the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city…” Now what city do you think that would be? Jerusalem! Because Jesus has been ruling there for a thousand years. That’s why Satan, when he was let out of the abyss, or solitary confinement, immediately attacks Jerusalem because Jerusalem is head, again, over the nations.

People ask me all the time, “Should I travel to Israel?” My response is, “You’re going to get there one way or the other because in the Kingdom you’re going to have to go there to worship the King. Because that’s where He’s going to be! I would suggest going over there now just to get your real estate picked out.”

“And they came up on the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city…” This is interesting because you would think there would be a great conflict here, and God just immediately incinerates these people. “…and fire came down from heaven and devoured them.”

Now when you read something like this everybody wants to know, “Who are these people?” Christians are worried, “I hope I don’t get seduced and participate in this final conflict!” The answer to that is, if you’re a member of the church because you’ve trusted in Christ as Savior and you’re part of the body of Christ, you will be in a resurrected body at this point in time, without a sin nature. So, you have no opportunity to be involved in this rebellion.

The rebellion is basically put together by people who are the mortal survivors of the Tribulation  period. The Tribulation  period is going to be horrible! Half the world’s population (at least) is going to be wiped out. But Jesus said He will not let those days be prolonged for the sake of the elect. In other words, He’s got purposes He wants to accomplish through humanity and through Israel. Meaning, He’s not going to allow mankind to be totally exterminated.

So, by the time you get to the end of the Tribulation  period, there will be people who survive it. That’s the whole significance of the sheep and the goat judgment. All these social justice people today are running around saying, “We need to be compassionate to the least of these our brethren because that’s what Jesus said to do in the sheep and goat judgment.” Total allegorical nonsense!

The sheep and goat judgment has a specific context to it. You can read for yourself; it’s in Matthew 25:31-46. It’s when Jesus returns to the earth at the end of the Tribulation  period and He is seated on His throne. What throne would that be? That’s the Davidic throne that’s promised in the Davidic Covenant—2 Samuel 7:12-16—and there are before Him a bunch of Tribulation  survivors.

Some are sheep; some are goats. The sheep are determined to be believers on the evidence that they helped Christ’s brethren during the Tribulation period. This is not salvation by works; this is allowing your faith to be productive because those who are true believers during the Tribulation  period will have a natural inclination to help Christ’s brethren.

Any guess as to who the “brethren” might be? Satan has been trying to eradicate Israel, particularly during the second half of the Tribulation period. So, if you’re a Christian during that time period—a believer in Christ—you have a natural inclination to help the Jews who are going to need an awful lot of help.

It’s what Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center, calls the “Righteous Among the Nations.” They have special trees and all kinds of things set up for the righteous Gentiles, people like Oskar Schindler, who had a desire to help the Jews during one of the most difficult times in their history.

As I’ve been trying to explain, it’s going to get worse for Israel, and they’re going to need more righteous Gentiles. The righteous Gentiles evidenced in that very unique time period are actually believers in Christ. They’re called sheep, and they enter the Kingdom not in resurrected bodies but in mortal bodies.

The unbelievers are called goats, and they’re cast off the earth to Hades. That’s the whole context of the sheep and goat judgment. It has zero to do—I don’t care how many times Jim Wallace or whoever repeats this—with social justice on the earth today. Zero! You have to completely demolish the context of the Scripture to make the social justice interpretation of that passage work out.

By the way, according to Ezekiel 20:33-38, there is a parallel judgment for the surviving Jews of the Tribulation. Sheep and goat—surviving Gentiles. Ezekiel 20—surviving Jews. Apparently, there are going to be people who enter the Kingdom as believers after it’s now been established. Jesus is on David’s throne, the Davidic Covenant is being fulfilled, and they’re entering the Kingdom in mortal bodies.

They have children; their children have children; and their children have children. Eventually the earth gets repopulated. And what do you think just got passed down through the bloodline? The sin nature. Why is God allowing all this? One of the things to understand about God is this: history is pedagogical.

God allows eras of history to elapse to teach humanity lessons which perhaps can be learned no other way. Because what’s the great debate in our society when a mass murderer happens? Why did they do it? Is it nature or nurture? Is it their nature or is it the environment?

The liberals and the progressives all think, “We’ve got to fix environment. We’ve got to fix the educational system. We’ve got to guarantee everybody universal healthcare. We’ve got to have a certain income for all people that has to be equal. And if we can pull all this stuff off, evil will disappear.”

Okay, how do you explain Wynonna Ryder? She’s got money to burn, and there she is a few decades back, on camera, going into Beverly Hills department stores stealing stuff! She’s not stealing stuff because of poverty! She sees more money, probably, in a day than I’ll see in my whole lifetime.

Obviously, the environment is not the problem here. There’s something inside her heart that’s corrupted. Didn’t Jesus talk about that in Mark 7:20-23? “…out of the heart of men, proceed the evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries...” There’s something in her heart that’s causing her to do that; it’s called the sin nature.

The Millennial Kingdom proves once and for all where evil comes from. It’s not coming from the environment; they’re living in perfection for a thousand years. It’s coming from the wickedness of the human heart! So God pedagogically allows this time period to elapse to prove once and for all, “You see what the problem is with humans?!”

The solution for evil is a new nature, right? Jesus is about changing people internally. That’s why we get the Holy Spirit when we receive Christ. We receive the new nature when we receive Christ. Jesus calls it the new birth in His dialogue with Nicodemus in John 3:3-6.

We could sit there and argue with God forever and say, “No, evil comes from without.” God says, “I’m going to prove to you that it doesn’t. I’m going to allow the whole Millennial scenario to elapse so everybody can see once and for all where evil is coming from!”

By the way, look at Zechariah 14:16-18. You’ll see in that passage hatred for Jesus in the hearts of some people. Where they won’t want to go to Jerusalem to worship the King before Satan is even released. Satan is released just to expose what’s happening in people. That’s why he’s unbound, this terrible rebellion takes place that’s massive, and God destroys it by fire. Then, Revelation 20:10, Satan is cast into the Lake of Fire.

Now here’s something really interesting, and with this I’ll stop. The beast and the false prophet are thrown into the Lake of Fire a thousand years earlier—Satan is not. He’s put in solitary confinement in the abyss. You say, “Why doesn’t God just take the unholy trinity—the beast, the false prophet, and the dragon—and throw all of them into the Lake of Fire?” Because God has one final purpose yet for Satan. Which is to do what?

He is using him pedagogically to prove a point. God keeps Satan around long enough as a teaching device. That’s how much sovereignty God has over Satan! His very existence continues because God is so sovereign that He’s actually using His arch enemy to teach humanity a lesson about their true nature! Isn’t that amazing?

Closing Prayer

“Father, we’re grateful for today, grateful for this doctrine of satanology. I pray You’ll be with us during the main service as we take a look into Your Word. We’ll be careful to give You all the praise and the glory. We ask these things in Jesus’ name.” And God’s people said, “Amen.”