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Two You Cannot Fool -- God
and Satan!
And they arrived at the country
of the Gadarenes...And...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...And Jesus asked him,
saying, What is thy name? And he said, Legion:
because many devils were entered into him. And
they besought him that he would not command them
to go out into the deep. And there was there an
herd of many swine feeding on the mountain: and
they besought him that he would suffer them to
enter into them...Then went the devils out of
the man, and entered into the swine: and the
herd ran violently down a steep place into the
lake, and were choked. When they that fed them
saw what was done, they fled, and went and told
it in the city and in the country. Then they
went out to see what was done; and came to
Jesus, and found the man, out of whom the devils
were departed, sitting at the feet of Jesus,
clothed, and in his right mind: and they were
afraid. They also which saw it told them by what
means he that was possessed of the devils was
healed. Then the whole multitude of the country
of the Gadarenes round about besought him to
depart from them; for they were taken with great
fear: and he went up into the ship, and returned
back again. Now the man out of whom the devils
were departed besought him that he might be with
him: but Jesus sent him away, saying, Return to
thine own house, and shew how great things God
hath done unto thee. And he went his way, and
published throughout the whole city how great
things Jesus had done unto him. Luke 8:26-39
(see also Mark
5:1-20). Please note: this was
a "real" experience. Also, I want you to notice
one thing: the devil RECOGNIZED Jesus
immediately! He knew EXACTLY Who Jesus was. Note
how he addressed Jesus: "What have I to do with
thee, Jesus, thou Son of God most high?"
The devil wanted to know why Jesus had come to
torment him "before his time". If you don't get
anything else out of that, it SHOULD prove THREE
things to you:
- The
devil believes in God (Thou believest that
there is one God; thou doest well: the devils
also believe, and tremble. James 2:19);
- The
devil recognizes Jesus and knows Who He is
(And devils also came out of many, crying
out, and saying, Thou art Christ the Son of God.
And he rebuking them suffered them not to speak:
for they knew that he was Christ. Luke
4:41);
- The
devil knows that there is coming a time of
torment for him and his own (And, behold,
they cried out, saying, What have we to do with
thee, Jesus, thou Son of God? art thou come
hither to torment us before THE time?
Matthew 8:29 --all emphasis is
mine).
We read in the
Scripture where Paul went forth preaching the
Gospel and he cast out all kinds of spirits.
Certain of the vagabond Jews said, "Hey, we can
do that. We are going to try this thing." So
they put their hands on a man and began "We
adjure you in the name of Jesus, that Paul
preaches, come out of this man." And the devil
talked back and said, "Now Jesus I know, and
Paul I know, but who do you think YOU are???"
And he jumped on them, beat them up and tore
their clothes off! (It should never be a
surprise to us when the devil beats us up
because we try to use our own authority!
We MUST operate under God's Authority or
we will fail EVERY time!)
Perhaps, right
here lies the reason why the ministry over the
land is not attacking this thing of casting out
devils. If they're convinced within their souls
they've lost their power over Satan; there isn't
any need of them commanding him to leave BECAUSE
THEY KNOW HE WON'T GO! Some might say that's a
big statement. Well, let's LOOK AT GOD'S PLAN of
redemption and SEE JUST EXACTLY WHERE THE DEVIL
FITS INTO IT! We go back to John 10 where Christ
gave us a great lesson here on the shepherd and
the sheep, and remember He was provoked to this
parable by the happenings in John
9.
There was a man born blind from birth,
and Jesus came upon him. In the midst of
unbelief, (these fellows didn't want to believe
that He created us) He reached down and SPIT,
that's right, SPIT in the dirt. He made up some
mud and put it on that man's eyes. Now how many
of us would allow something like that today?
"You're not going to touch me with THAT
stuff!" He told him to go wash (submit to the
teachings of the law there yet) and he came
"seeing." Now the disciples asked the question,
"who did sin that this man was born blind, he or
his parents." Who sinned? Jesus said, "Neither
one, but that the works of God MIGHT BE MANIFEST
in him. Notice that he had more than his natural
eyes opened. He got his natural eyes opened up,
(that was the FIRST WORK!) and he came back
there praising God. He had an experience that
didn't "fit" the theology of the day, so he was
thrown out! He came back telling about this, and
the lawyer (great learned man that he was) said,
"Now don't say that. Jesus is a sinner." The man
who had been blind said, "This is a marvelous
thing, indeed. You fellows say he is a sinner. I
don't know if he's a sinner or not--I don't even
know who he is or anything about him. I'm
ignorant of the whole thing. but one thing I do
know, I ONCE WAS BLIND, NOW I CAN SEE!" They
threw him out of their midst. That's good! You
know why? Because Jesus then paid him a personal
visit! The Scripture says Jesus came to
him.
Why did Jesus come to him? He was a
sheep. Then Jesus wrought the the SECOND WORK.
John 9:35-37 says, Jesus heard that they had
cast him out; and when he had found him, He said
unto him, "Dost thou believe on the Son of God?"
He answered and said, "Who is he, Lord, that I
might believe on Him?" And Jesus said unto him,
"Thou hast both seen Him, and it is He that
talketh with thee." And he said, "Lord, I
believe." Jesus told those Pharisees and
Sadducees and said, "I want to set you straight!
You are NOT the DOOR of this thing! What ever
got into your heads that made you think you
could put sheep out? I am the door of the sheep.
You can't take anyone in, and you can't put
anyone out!!" Glory to God, our eternal
destinations are NOT decided by mankind! Whether
we ever measure up to what their
"standards" are or not, if we are born again by
salvation through Jesus Christ, we ARE heirs
of God and joint heirs with Jesus Christ!!!
May God help us to see that He never intended
for us to take on the responsibility of setting
men in, setting them out, setting them over, and
setting them up! Lord, help your ministry to get
a hold of all these sheep that have been thrown
out. Jesus said, "I am the door, by ME if any
man enter in, he shall be saved." John
10:9.
God Had A
Plan!
Well, so who did this
sin that this man was born blind? Jesus said it
was neither of his parents, "but that the works
of God might be manifest in him." God let that
man be born blind, He let him grow up blind, He
let him be right at that particular place where
the works of God could be manifest in the right
hour. Lord, help us to see, that it is a great
program, this furthering of God's kingdom, and
we just fit into a small part of it. We need to
see that God is working something of a vast
nature all around the world and things are
happening to His glory. IF we will go on and
walk with God and submit ourselves to Him, we
CAN stand in this evil day!
The Devil In His
Rightful Place
Hindering Christians
is the devil's favorite place. He doesn't have
to worry about hindering sinners--he already has
them in his grip! Yet all that the devil does is
a part of God's GREAT Plan for mankind. God
wants His people to see that the devil is in his
rightful place in God's Plan. First of all, we
have to understand that God knows E-V-E-R-Y
thing. God knew that man would sin before He
made man. Otherwise, we can no longer claim He
is all-knowing. Now we all know that it's been
told that God created man to live (physically)
forever on this earth! He did NOT do it! Then
those who spout this foolishness say God made
man both divine and human. Wrong again! They say
that from that point, the devil entered the
scene, spoiled God's plan, God stepped on the
stage of action and brought forth the plan of
redemption and redeemed man. It is NOT so! How
in the world can we believe that God is
omnipotent if He made a product and the devil,
by surprise now mind you, overthrew it in it's
infancy? Yet the same ones preach from Old
Testament prophecy and the Revelation, telling
people that God in His wisdom saw everything in
these last days and knew everything that was
going to happen. Would you not call it strange
that He knows everything that's going to happen
in the last days, when He didn't know what was
even going to happen in the first
days??
If the devil walked out and
overpowered our foreparents as soon as God
created them. then God is not a supreme being
and He is not omnipotent. Nail this thought down
forever: the devil has FOREVER been chained by
God! God has never allowed the devil to have
unlimited power! Jesus did not come to earth to
chain the devil! God is ALWAYS in control of
everything!
Oh folks don't like to think
that way! They whine, "So why did God
send this on me? Oh poor me, poor poor
me!" He allows things to happen to us so that
(1) we can learn and come forth stronger for it,
and (2) He can get the glory out of it. God
wants us to worship Him. He wants us to magnify
HIM, but we want to "magnify
ourselves"!
God Made A Plan of
Redemption Before He Made
Man
Let's go to the 45th
chapter of Isaiah. God will show us that He knew
that man would sin. In fact, the fall was in His
plans. We will see that Adam didn't ordain it.
GOD DID! He subjected man, and it's a necessity
to bring man to a place of choice. (Otherwise,
all you've got is an automaton. God didn't want
that--He wants us to choose Him. The fact is
that God made a plan of redemption before He
ever made the man. If we can get that clear in
our mind, then we will know that HE KNEW THAT
MAN WAS GOING TO SIN! If He didn't, He wouldn't
have made a plan of redemption for him. We've
got enough sense to carry a spare tire -- let's
give God a little credit! We put the spare in
before we ever have a blow-out. Yet we teach
that God (Who is so much smarter than we will
ever be), messed up at the very beginning. We
say that God's creation blew up on Him and He
had to make a spare. NO! This plan of redemption
is something more solid and sure than that. It
was settled on in the Council Halls of Eternity
long before this world was even made! God saw it
all, and it is all "going off" according to His
plan.
Isaiah 45:5-7 tells us, I am
the Lord, and there is none else, there is no
God beside me; I girded thee, though thou hast
not known me; that they may know from the rising
of the sun, and from the west, that there is
none beside me. I am the Lord and there is none
else. I form the light, and create darkness; I
make peace, and CREATE EVIL; I, the Lord, do ALL
these things. You mean God made evil? IT was
a necessity! In Isaiah 46:9,10 we read,
Remember the former things of old, for I am
God, and there is none else; I am God, and there
is none like me, declaring the end from the
beginning, and from the ancient times the things
that are not yet done, saying My counsel shall
stand, and I will do all my pleasure. The
devil would like us to believe that he surprised
God and upset His plan back in the garden. If he
can get us to believing that, then we will doubt
much of the rest of the Word (and WORKS) of
God!
Jesus Christ, the
Lamb: Slain From the Foundation of the
World
We are told in
Revelation 13:8 that Jesus Christ is the Lamb
slain from the foundation of the world. Someone
might say, "That was right back in the garden of
Eden when man sinned; then the Lamb was slain
for our redemption." Yet we can go back a little
further than that. Ephesians 1:3 lets us know,
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all
spiritual blessings in heavenly places in
Christ, according as He hath chosen us in Him
BEFORE the foundation of the world, that we
should be holy and without blame before Him in
love. "It just means that He chose that we
should be holy." I agree with that
wholeheartedly, but He chose us in Him BEFORE
the foundation of the world.
Who hath
saved us (speaking of Christ) and called
us with an holy calling, not according to our
works, but according to HIS OWN PURPOSE and
grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus BEFORE
THE WORLD BEGAN. 2 Timothy 1:9. Forasmuch
as ye know that ye were not redeemed with
corruptible things, as silver and gold, from
your vain conversation received by tradition
from your father, but with the precious blood of
Christ, as a lamb without blemish and without
spot, who verily was FOREORDAINED BEFORE the
foundation of the world. I Peter 1:18. God
wants us to know that His plan of redemption is
NOT A MAKESHIFT or a SPARE or an AFTERTHOUGHT
that He brought forth when man failed. The fall
of man was in His mind, and also the plan of
redemption, before He ever made the world and
put mankind in it. WHY?
God Wants Us To
Choose Him--He Wants Us To Be His Sons and
Daughters
Let's examine this
for a moment: why did God let Israel go
into Egypt? So that they would come out by
choice. Then He would get the glory out of
delivering them. There are two things that God
wants out of us: He wants us to CHOOSE HIM, and
He wants us to GLORIFY HIM.
Now think
about this VERY carefully: consider it
thoroughly. If Adam had not sinned, his sons
would not have been sons of God, they would have
been sons of Adam! He couldn't give us a Savious
if we had not sinned. Someone may ask, "Are you
saying that God is the author of sin?" Let me
put it this way: God created our adversary. And
our adversary is what? EVIL. Why? There is NO
victory without an adversary. Think about it!
There can be no victory, God can get NO glory,
unless there is an adversary! He wants us to
have a one-on-one relationship with Him. He
wants us to know Him as Father. He wants us to
draw from HIS strength. He wants us to be
overcomers through HIM.
If Israel had come
out and there had been no Pharoah to fight them
and make it hard for them, they would have said,
"We delivered ourselves." But God raised up an
adversary, and made it hard for them. He put
them in such a pinch that they had to get down
and humble themselves and admit that the only
deliverance they had would be in God. If He did
not deliver them, there would not be any
deliverance. When God backed up that old Red Sea
and delivered them, instead of coming out and
saying they delivered themselves, they wrote
songs and praised God, giving Him the glory.
There had to be an ADVERSARY! And where did it
come from? GOD RAISED IT UP! GOD CREATED
EVIL!
You don't believe it? Who made that
tree that He told them not to touch? He said, "I
set before you good and evil." Who sat it there?
God. Why did He set before them good AND evil?
What good would it have done for Him to make a
creature of choice, if he didn't have a choice?
Let's reason a little. If we teach that God made
man a creature of choice--what good would it do
to make a man a creature of choice if he had no
choice? Therefore, God would not have gotten an
ounce of glory out of Israel's deliverance if
there had not been an adversary to put the heat
on them. So He said, "I raised one up." God is
so powerful, there is not a thing in the world
can fight Him unless He allows it.
If we
had our way, we would NEVER have another
temptation! We would NEVER be sick again! We
would NEVER have anyone cross us and make us
feel bad! Why, that would be wonderful! But you
know what would happen? If we never had another
temptation, another trial, another battle to
fight, there would never be another prayer
meeting. There would never be another "shout!"
You can't "shout" unless you have a battle, and
you can't have a battle without someone to fight
you. AND YOU WOULD HAVE NO ONE TO FIGHT IF GOD
DID NOT LEAVE THE DEVIL HERE! Do you think we
need straightening out on our understanding? We
sure do! Let's quit praying for God to remove
something through which we can have
victory.
You know what the problem is
already, don't you? (1) We don't want to have to
give up anything. (2) We want to be on "Easy
Street". That's right. We claim God ought
to make ALL our decisions for us, but would we
be content with that? Are you kidding? Of course
not! We say the Lord's Prayer and have no idea
what it means!
God's Will MUST Be
Done
Jesus taught us how
to pray: "Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name, Thy kingdom come, Thy will
be done in earth as it is in heaven." GOD'S WILL
IS DONE UP THERE! Angels don't "fuss" over God's
Word! There is not any raising up against it.
Only God's will is done up there. And He wants
it done down here! Angels never felt the joys of
salvation; even though God had myriads of
angels, they did not worship Him by choice--they
were created holy beings. So God created mankind
and gave him a CHOICE: "Choose ye this day whom
ye will serve...".
From the beginning God
wanted sons of God. He has countless angels
(created beings) to worship and adore Him. Yet
they are without choice! He created us, you and
me, that we might CHOOSE HIM! No where in the
Scripture does He call any angel THE APPLE OF
HIS EYE, but you are! Why are you the apple of
His eye? Because God gets 10,000 times more
glory out of you living right, down here in the
midst of temptation and trial, saying NO to the
devil and choosing Him, than He does all the
angels walking the streets of heaven where there
is nothing to tempt them. You are the apple of
His eye!
A
Mortal and A Spiritual Body In God's
Plan
If God intended man
to live forever, why did He give him a MORTAL
body? He did not make us a mortal body after Eve
ate of the fruit. We got our mortal body before
she found that tree. In Gen. 1:28 we find that
long before man ever sinned, just as soon as He
made a male and a female, God said, "Go out and
be fruitful, multiply and replenish the earth."
The word replenish means to "put another
generation in place of". If God had expected us
to live forever, He would not have given us a
mortal body! This mortal body is not God's
eternal plan! God's eternal plan is a SPIRITUAL
BODY, not made of the dust of the earth, but
spoken into existence by God's mighty power. It
will be as eternal as the spirit within us is!
Paul said in 1 Cor. 15: that there is a
natural body and there is a spiritual body. It
is sown a natural body and is raised a spiritual
body. This mortal body was given us for NO OTHER
REASON but to live in it long enough to make a
choice for eternity. That is the plan from one
end to the other! This world is not our home!
That is why the Scripture keeps telling us not
to get tied up to the things of this life. Don't
let the spirit of this world get a hold on us!
We're just living in this body long enough to
make a choice for eternity. That's all we're
here for! It is God's plan of salvation,
ACCORDING TO HIS OWN PURPOSE, Paul told
Timothy.
Victory Over Battles Brings
Shouts
May God help us to see
that we are what we are because of the choices
we make. Every day that we live, God puts before
us good and evil. If we want victory over the
devil, we must submit ourselves to God and the
devil will be as bound. If we are willing to
stay submitted to God, the devil can't be
anything but be an adversary and put us in a
position where we can shout and praise and
glorify God. Someone said, "I wish the old-time
shouts would come back in the camp." We aren't
going to get them by good choir singing. We
aren't going to get them by someone preaching
the Gospel straight. The real shouts will come
back in the camp when some Saints will go out
and go through some tests and WIN SOME
VICTORIES! Let me tell you, the REAL shouts come
from a people who have gone through a hard
place. Right down in the most despairing hour,
God reaches down by His mighty power and
delivers them. We won't have to sing four verses
of a song to get someone to shout; they'll be
shouting when they come through the door! God's
done something for them!
Remember this:
we cannot have victory if we have no battles.
And we cannot overcome evil if there is no evil
to overcome. All that has been created TRULY has
been created for the Glory of God. Even evil.
That's right, that's what I said. Even evil. Not
that evil glorifies God--but our victories
(through the power of the Holy Ghost) over evil
glorifies God! Even today, we can see that God
is letting the Church be TRIED and TESTED AND
PRESSED AROUND with works of darkness, yet it is
ONE OF THE GREATEST OPPORTUNITIES FOR VICTORY
THAT WE HAVE EVER HAD! God give us people who
will stand on the sea of glass, mingled with
fire, (stand on the Word of God, filled with the
Holy Spirit) with victory! We can't have a
VICTORY WITHOUT A BATTLE, and we can't have a
battle WITHOUT AN ENEMY! So the adversary IS
NEEDED! He has a place in God's Plan. That same
PERFECT plan that includes OVERCOMING POWER for
each of us who are followers of
Christ!
Thank You! for considering these
thoughts. And may God richly bless you as HIS
ETERNAL PURPOSE IS
FULLFILLED! |
