1) When satan learned that he would be “crushed” by

the seed of the woman,   (someone who would be born through

Eve), it makes sense that he would strike at Eve’s offspring.

B) Imagine what you know of Old Testament history as a telling of

the story of how the Evil one tried to stop the coming of the

offspring who would crush his head

He uses two methods:

1) Kill the seed

2) Corrupt the seed

II. The serpent is crushed!

On one front satan is planning his biggest coup of the centuries; He is going to bring about the murder of God’s deliverer. (Christ)

On the other side, the deliverer himself is saying; I’m going to voluntarily give up my life, in so doing I will crush the power of the evil one!

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Satan is converging on a point in time when he can bring about the murder of the Son of God.

The Son of God is moving toward a time when he will voluntarily give up his life.

Both are going to end up at the same place at the same time.

Had satan been as smart as he would like you to think that he is, he would not have been trying to bring about the death of Christ; he would have been trying to stop it!

 Imagine satan’s frustration a few days later to find out that it was his actions that opened the way to the redemption of mankind!

Now we are trying hard to peel away the myths and misinformation that surrounds satan and see him for who he really is... or more accurately who he is not!!!

I’ve spent a lot of time trying to establish that satan is a liar and a deceiver and that any thing he does is an attempt to mislead us away from the truth.

If you look closely at what we have just discussed you will discover another very important piece of information.

Satan is not just a deceiver of mankind.... He himself lives in deception.

You know how it is when you are dealing with someone and they tell you something that obviously doesn’t line up with other facts as you already know them. You’re shocked that they would look you in the eye and tell you a lie. As you begin to dig around you find something even more shocking. In spite of however far removed from reality what they are telling you seems to be, they have for whatever reason come to believe it to be the truth.

That’s one of the issues you run into when you are trying to uncover satan’s web of deception. What is he telling us that he knows to be untrue and what has he convinced himself of even though God’s word says otherwise?

In this matter of Christ coming to the earth , specifically to die in place of the sins of all mankind. There weren’t just a few vague clues in the Bible, It had been clearly stated and Jesus himself continually kept spelling it out.

Yet in satan’s sin-sick mind he was not able to see the forest for the trees....

That should help us all to understand how limited satan is!!!!!

In some sectors of Christianity satan’s influence is all but ignored. People don’t expect satan to cause them to sin so they all but ignore his existence. That’s a dangerous mindset.

...but I’ll tell you what another dangerous mindset is....

There’s another sector of Christianity that paints satan’s power as being overwhelming and all consuming. If you grow a corn on your toe you need to cast out the demon of corns and the problem with that kind of mindset is that it elevates satan’s proposed power in the minds of people. Rather than inspiring people’s faith it gives them a sense of being in the crosshairs of an enemy that is well nigh all- powerful. Oh yes, God will win in the end...but in the meantime satan has free reign to do anything and everything he wishes and even though we know from scripture that God will win in the end , the reality is that both God and satan will strain right down to the very end and you will have to see a slow motion photo finish at the end (seeing whose nose was slightly out ahead of the other) to find out who the real winner is.

Why didn’t he simply annihilate him and eliminate all the pain mankind would experience?

If God’s going to banish satan to the lake of fire eventually, why didn’t he do that when satan rebelled; then he would have been no where near the garden of Eden?

When God did cast satan out of heaven why did he cast him to earth; the very planet where he had just planted Adam and Eve?

Why did God create Lucifer; then Adam and Eve; when in his foreknowledge He had to have known that one after another, they would both rebel against him?

What is clear is that God allowed satan, his moral enemy, to have access to mankind!

After Adam and Eve’s fall in the garden God continued to allow satan to have access to mankind!

After the crucifixion and resurrection God continued to allow satan to have access to mankind!

Think about this..... what does all this tell you????

If you ponder it you have to draw certain conclusions......

God could have eliminated satan... he didn’t....

God could have banished him to hell immediately... he didn’t...

God could have stopped satan’s temptation of Eve... he didn’t...

God could have beamed satan out after the fall and forgiven mankind... he didn’t...

God could have stopped satan, at any point, at any second, throughout all of history.......

He hasn’t..... to the surface thinker it may seem like God planned poorly...

To him who really understands what God is attempting to do in our lives,

God has planned very well and everything is going exactly according to plan!

I want to ask you to allow your mind to stretch as much as it needs to in the next few minutes... I can’t fully explain the why’s of what I’m going to tell you, but I can explain to you the only possible explanation for the paradox that sits in front of us here...

The devil; satan; fallen Lucifer; is just as much answerable to God’s will now in his rebellion as he was when he was an archangel in heaven.

Even now he can not act without God’s permission.

I know that raises lots of questions about all the evil and suffering in the world. I also know that To the Christian, the more sure we are that the devil is not capable of acting independent of God’s permission the more faith we will have that we can resist him.

I’m taking something of a chance here in introducing questions into your mind that you may not have thought of but I’m doing it to help you to understand that you are not helplessly at the mercy of an enemy that is way out of your league.

Satan is running all over the world trying to bring about the collapse of Christianity and trying to bring the personal destruction of everyone who claims Christ as their personal Savior.

What he’s totally missing is that God is using him as a pawn to bring about the growth of his people, his church, which was the whole reason God started this whole thing called human history to start with.

1. God uses satan to judge the unbelievers.

2 Cor. 4:4 ...in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving, that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

Mk. 4:15 These are the ones who are beside the road where the seed is sown; and when they hear, immediately satan comes and takes away the Word which has been sown in them.

Do you see the depth of what is happening here? The God of all grace is calling the world to himself, he has already paid the price for their sins, He is drawing them with love and compassion..... At the same time he has given satan permission to pull them in the other direction!!! Why?

2. God uses satan to refine the obedient.

Job 1:8 Have you considered my servant Job? For there is no one like him on earth, a blameless and upright man, fearing God and turning away from evil.

Job 1:12 Behold all that he has is in your power, only do not put forth your hand on him.

Job’s trials...

*immediate cause.... satan

*ultimate cause.... GOD

3. God uses satan to discipline the disobedient

1 Sam. 18:10 ...an evil spirit from the Lord came upon Saul...

Martin Luther- The devil is God’s tool, like a hoe that is used to cultivate God’s garden. The hoe might take pleasure in destroying the weeds but it can never be taken out of God’s hands or hoe where God does not wish. It will always do what is necessary to build a beautiful garden. The devil always does God’s work. (whether he wants to or not)

4. God uses satan to purify his chosen ones

2 Corinthians 12:7 To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, My power is made perfect in weakness.