ACBC Counseling Exam 8 - The Operations of the Devil

00:00:00.000 | online community and I trust that you're doing well and walking in the joy of our Savior Jesus Christ.

00:00:08.640 | Thank you again for your faithfulness to this training. I trust that our study has been a

00:00:14.000 | blessing to you and we just look forward to a wonderful time tonight as we study the next

00:00:19.200 | topic in the ACBC counseling exams. Tonight we're looking at counseling exam number eight

00:00:28.000 | which is an exam question on the operations or the activities of the devil.

00:00:34.400 | And I'm not sure why this question is under the heading of the counseling exams rather than the

00:00:41.040 | theology exam questions. I do think that this particular question would have fit in nicely with

00:00:47.680 | the theology exam questions, but it is a good question and one that we need to think through.

00:00:56.400 | What are the activities of the devil, the demonic realm, how do they show up in a counseling

00:01:03.520 | situation, and how do we as counselors engage in spiritual warfare in the true biblical sense?

00:01:12.800 | For those of you who are with us in the online ACBC national conference held this prior year,

00:01:21.040 | you know that the theme of that conference was spiritual warfare, destroying strongholds. And

00:01:27.360 | we were looking at what is true spiritual warfare and how do we as counselors, how are we to be

00:01:34.000 | aware of the spiritual warfare in our counselees hearts and how are we to engage in that warfare.

00:01:43.200 | We do want to strike a balance in this discussion. On one hand, we don't want to underestimate

00:01:50.400 | Satan's power and activity in this world. We want to be aware that the Bible teaches us that

00:01:55.760 | Satan is real, the devil is real, that Satan is very active in this world. 1 Peter 5 verse 8 says,

00:02:05.440 | "Be sober-minded, be watchful. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion,

00:02:12.160 | seeking someone to devour." So we do want to be watchful and aware of the activities of the devil.

00:02:22.560 | Satan is a real personal being who exercises great influence in this world.

00:02:31.200 | On the other hand, we don't want to overestimate Satan's abilities either.

00:02:39.040 | Not every temptation to sin comes directly from Satan. You can't blame a demon for every temptation

00:02:46.480 | to sin. Sometimes, in fact, it is just the counselee's own flesh or it is the own sinfulness

00:02:56.480 | of the counselee's heart that is drawing the counselee to sinful behavior. And so, while on

00:03:04.880 | the one hand, we don't want to ignore the fact that Satan may have an influence and an activity

00:03:10.480 | that will show up in counseling situations, we don't want to, on the other hand, overestimate

00:03:19.040 | Satan's influence. We don't want to fall into the mistake of blaming Satan for everything when,

00:03:28.000 | at times, it is the counselee's own heart that he or she needs to deal with.

00:03:33.920 | If a counselee says to you, "Well, I'm being mean to my wife because

00:03:38.160 | it's Satan's fault. Satan's making me do it," or "I have the demon of anger," you may want to ask

00:03:47.840 | the counselee to re-evaluate that assessment. It's probably that this person is just being selfish

00:03:56.560 | and needs to repent and submit his heart to the lordship of Christ.

00:04:02.160 | The Bible teaches that Satan is not omnipotent. James 4 verse 4 says, "Resist the devil and he

00:04:10.560 | will flee from you." Satan's influence is not greater than the influence of the Holy Spirit,

00:04:17.360 | and the Bible teaches us that the Holy Spirit lives in the true believer in Christ, that our

00:04:24.000 | bodies are literally temples of the Holy Spirit, that we've been baptized into the person and into

00:04:30.960 | the power of the Holy Spirit, and so we don't want to be overly intimidated by Satan's activity.

00:04:40.080 | So, how is it that we come to a biblical view of the operations of the devil? How can we be

00:04:49.600 | equipped to counsel well? How can we be wise in our understanding of this topic and its application

00:04:57.440 | to counseling ministry? And that's what we're here to study tonight, so let me pray for us,

00:05:03.840 | and we'll devote this hour to the Lord in prayer. Let's pray. Father, we thank you that you have

00:05:09.920 | sent your Son to die on the cross, to rise again from the dead, and Lord, we thank you that through

00:05:18.400 | Christ's power that we are no longer under the power of the evil one. We thank you that you've

00:05:25.280 | given to us your Holy Spirit who lives in us so that Satan can tempt us from without, but he cannot

00:05:33.760 | indwell us from within. He cannot take power over our bodies because our bodies are temples of the

00:05:43.040 | Holy Spirit, and we just pray that you would make us wise as we look at this topic. Thank you for

00:05:48.720 | each of my brothers and sisters joining us tonight in this online class, and I pray that this will be

00:05:54.640 | a blessing and a benefit to each of their lives, and we ask this and pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.

00:06:01.680 | Well, let's look at the counseling exam question together. The question is this. Describe in

00:06:09.280 | biblical categories the operations of the devil. Is there a difference between believers and

00:06:15.760 | unbelievers regarding the activity of the devil? What is a biblical methodology for responding

00:06:24.800 | to the demonic in the context of counseling? And the short answer is that it isn't really

00:06:34.480 | that complicated. We'll see how that works out in just a moment. Just a technical note,

00:06:43.040 | I have been asked on this question what does the word "operations" mean, and I would just take that

00:06:49.600 | to mean what it says in the next sentence. Is there a difference between believers and

00:06:55.040 | unbelievers regarding the activity of the devil? And so, "operations" would just be another word

00:07:02.880 | for "activity." We're asking the question, how does Satan operate in the world today?

00:07:07.200 | What are the activities that he engages in? And we will see in our study, Satan is a very busy

00:07:16.160 | character who does a lot of things in the world today. The question is asking you to describe in

00:07:23.520 | biblical categories the operations or the activities of the devil. If you look at your

00:07:32.400 | handout, I've listed some good resources that will help you in your study of this topic. As I mentioned,

00:07:37.920 | this is more of a systematic theology question, and so some good selected readings from the

00:07:45.600 | systematic theology books will help you in your study of this topic. If you haven't written the

00:07:52.640 | theology exam questions yet, you will want to purchase Paul N's The Moody Handbook of Theology,

00:07:58.880 | Charles Ryrie Basic Theology, and Wayne Grudem Systematic Theology. You will need those resources

00:08:07.440 | to help you for each of the 24 theology exam questions. Those are very standard works,

00:08:13.440 | very reputable works, and they will serve you well in your study of this topic, as well

00:08:20.640 | as in every other topic as it relates to systematic theology. There's a very good

00:08:28.480 | systematic theology textbook dealing specifically with the issue of angelology and demonology.

00:08:34.720 | That is C. Fred Dickinson's Angels, Elect, and Evil. That's a standard theology textbook on

00:08:42.720 | the subjects of angelology and demonology, and there's a good section on the subject of Satan

00:08:52.080 | in that textbook, and I would recommend that resource for you. And then, as I mentioned,

00:08:59.920 | anything by David Powelson is worth reading, and the last book that he wrote before he went to go

00:09:06.800 | be with the Lord is on the subject of spiritual warfare. It was entitled Safe and Sound, Standing

00:09:14.320 | Firm in Spiritual Battles. I haven't read the entire book yet, but I've gotten a start, and

00:09:22.000 | it is just a very good biblical wise treatment of the subject of spiritual warfare. I believe

00:09:31.360 | Powelson's last book was the inspiration for the theme Destroying Strongholds at the ACBC National

00:09:40.640 | Conference, and I would also recommend that you look up the audio for that conference from the

00:09:46.560 | ACBC National Conference Destroying Strongholds in year 2020. Many good lectures and main sessions

00:09:56.640 | devoted to the subject of spiritual warfare from a biblical perspective and how it relates to

00:10:03.840 | the counseling ministry, and I would encourage you to make use of those resources.

00:10:10.000 | Well, with that said, let's look at page two of your class notes, and I like to begin with

00:10:17.520 | this statement. I can bring it up on the slide here that Martin Luther has said that the devil

00:10:27.280 | is God's devil. I like that statement. I like Martin Luther's perspective on Satan and spiritual

00:10:37.280 | warfare. The devil is God's devil. If you read Luther's works, you will see that Luther saw the

00:10:47.440 | Christian life was a great spiritual battle with Satan himself. He said this in one of his

00:10:56.240 | commentaries that Satan is by nature such a wicked and poisonous spirit that he cannot tolerate

00:11:03.680 | anything that is good. It pains him that even an apple, a cherry, and the like grow. It causes him

00:11:10.560 | pain and grief that a single healthy person should live upon the earth, and if God would

00:11:15.680 | not restrain him, he would hurl everything together in ruin. But to nothing is he a more bitter enemy

00:11:23.680 | than the dear word, because while he can conceal himself under all creatures, the word is the only

00:11:31.040 | agency that can disclose him and reveal to everyone how black he is. If you read Luther's

00:11:39.680 | works, you will see that Martin Luther struggled greatly in his spiritual life. He wrote, "When the

00:11:48.960 | devil throws your sins in your face and declares that you deserve death and hell, tell him this,

00:11:56.880 | I admit that I deserve death and hell. What of it? For I know one who suffered and made

00:12:03.040 | satisfaction on my behalf. His name is Jesus Christ, Son of God, and where he is, there I shall be also."

00:12:12.240 | Luther understood the spiritual battle with the enemy, but he also understood that the Christian

00:12:21.040 | could be victorious in his or her own battle with Satan and demonic realm. You remember the great

00:12:30.160 | stanza of Luther's hymn, "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God," where he wrote, "And though this world

00:12:38.480 | with devil's fill should threaten to undo us, we will not fear, for God has willed his truth to

00:12:45.120 | triumph through us. The prince of darkness grim, we tremble not for him. His rage we can endure,

00:12:54.720 | for lo, his doom is sure. One little word shall fell him." So Luther understood that Satan is

00:13:06.320 | influential in this world. Luther understood the great spiritual battle against Satan and the

00:13:13.360 | demonic realm, and yet he also understood that a mighty fortress is our God, that God is sovereign,

00:13:22.560 | not Satan. God is the authority over Satan. Satan cannot act one inch outside of what God has

00:13:32.160 | sovereignly prescribed for him, that the devil is God's devil. When Satan does his worst,

00:13:40.800 | God accomplishes his best. At the cross, Satan thought that he was nailing the Messiah to the

00:13:50.640 | cross and putting him to death, and at the same time, God was using the activities of Satan to

00:13:57.200 | accomplish salvation for the world. William Gurnall has written, "When God says, 'Stay,'

00:14:05.520 | Satan must stand like a dog by the table while the saints feast on God's comfort. He does not

00:14:12.080 | dare to snatch even a tidbit, for the master's eye is always upon him." This is why I would think

00:14:23.280 | that Satan is probably the most frustrated character in the world today. Every time he

00:14:30.640 | thinks he has accomplished evil, God uses that to accomplish something good. Satan is always scoring

00:14:39.120 | goals only to find that he is racking up points for the other team. The devil is God's devil.

00:14:48.160 | Erwin Luther has said this, "Let us boldly affirm that whatever mischief Satan is allowed to do,

00:14:56.640 | it is always appointed by God for the ultimate service of a benefit to the saints.

00:15:02.720 | Satan always loses even when he wins. The greater our God, the smaller our devil."

00:15:11.440 | So, there's a balance here, and I understand the grief of a pastor or the grief of a parent who

00:15:21.280 | sees a sheep or sees a person who once professed the name of Christ go astray and go into the

00:15:30.160 | world. I don't want to underestimate Satan's influence. It's a grievous thing that Satan does

00:15:38.000 | in snatching away the Word of God from the soil, as it were, in Mark chapter 4. It is a grievous

00:15:48.080 | thing that Satan does in blinding the minds of unbelievers, and yet we understand that Satan

00:15:55.440 | is not sovereign. God is sovereign, and God uses Satan to accomplish God's perfect and holy will.

00:16:05.200 | So, we see on your handout there that Satan is a real, personal,

00:16:12.640 | living being who is active in the world today. We see Satan's activity in the Garden of Eden,

00:16:21.120 | do we not? In Genesis chapter 3, verse 1, "Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast

00:16:27.120 | of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, 'Did God actually say,

00:16:35.280 | 'You shall not eat of any tree in the garden?'" I mean, right there you see one of the primary

00:16:43.760 | activities or operations of the devil today, which is to cast doubt on the truthfulness of the Word

00:16:52.160 | of God. Satan is crafty, but he is doing the same thing today that he did in the Garden of Eden. He

00:17:03.360 | hasn't changed his tactics from that day when he came to Adam and Eve all the way to the United

00:17:13.360 | States of America in 2021. Satan wants to cast doubt on the truthfulness of God's Word. Did God

00:17:24.880 | really say that? Now listen to Martin Luther commenting on this passage. Luther says this,

00:17:34.880 | "Therefore Satan here attacks Adam and Eve in this way to deprive them of the Word

00:17:41.840 | and to make them believe his lie after they have lost the Word and their trust in God.

00:17:49.840 | Unbelief is the source of all sins. When Satan brought about this unbelief by driving out or

00:17:58.000 | corrupting the Word, the rest was easy for him. The chief temptation was to listen to another Word

00:18:07.760 | and to depart from the one which God had previously spoken." I'll end Luther's quote there.

00:18:17.680 | Oh, the implications of this truth for counseling ministry.

00:18:24.240 | One of the primary ways that Satan is going to show up in the counseling room in your meeting

00:18:32.240 | with a counselee is not by so much possessing the counselee and making the counselee speak

00:18:39.200 | demonic voices, but one of the primary ways that Satan is going to show his influence is that the

00:18:48.080 | counselee will be tempted on a daily basis to doubt the authority and the truthfulness of God's Word.

00:18:58.560 | And I know we need to talk about the issue of demon possession, and I know we need to talk

00:19:02.960 | about how does a Christian respond to demon possession, and can a believer be demon possessed,

00:19:10.800 | and what to do if there are demonic influences in that way showing up in a counseling situation.

00:19:18.400 | That is a legitimate topic in this field of study, but in 24 years of pastoral ministry,

00:19:24.160 | I can tell you that I have yet to deal with a person in my church who comes to me and says to

00:19:30.000 | me in a demonic voice, "I am of Satan," or "I am of a certain demon." I know that may happen. I'm

00:19:37.920 | not saying that never happens, but it's not the primary way that Satan works today. I believe

00:19:50.080 | that Satan is a little too intelligent for that. He knows that if people were showing up in every

00:19:55.200 | church today speaking in demonic voices and saying that they are of the devil, then that would

00:20:02.080 | simply serve to wake churches up to pray and to read their Bibles and to see that the spiritual

00:20:10.720 | battle is real, and there would be churches spending all night in prayer and fasting for

00:20:16.880 | the souls of people in the communities because there would be a reminder of the great spiritual

00:20:24.400 | battle that is all around us. Satan doesn't want to do that. He wants to lull us to sleep

00:20:29.360 | so that we become complacent and comfortable. He wants to work with subtlety and craftiness.

00:20:38.640 | He disguises himself as an angel of light. And so the primary way that Satan works, or at least

00:20:49.040 | one of the primary ways, is he tempts the counselee to doubt God's Word. And in 24 years of pastoral

00:20:59.760 | ministry, I haven't seen someone come to me and speak in a demonic voice, but I have had plenty

00:21:04.800 | of counselees and plenty of members in my churches who have said to me, "Did God really say that?"

00:21:14.160 | Or, "I don't really believe that God would actually call me to do that."

00:21:20.240 | Or, "Is this truth in the Bible really true?"

00:21:29.120 | I've met with plenty of counselees when we open the Bible and I give them God's Word,

00:21:35.520 | that they are resistant to the truthfulness and the authority of God's Word. Satan is pretty crafty,

00:21:42.320 | but he's also very consistent. His primary tactic is to cause people to doubt the truthfulness of

00:21:50.320 | the Word of God. Genesis 3, verse 2, "And the woman said to the serpent, 'We may eat of the

00:21:56.000 | fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, 'You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that

00:22:01.120 | is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it lest you die.'" So, Eve responds, "Yes,

00:22:06.560 | God did actually say that. That is the Word of God. God said, 'You may not eat of the tree that

00:22:13.040 | is in the midst of the garden.'" Verse 4, "The serpent said to the woman, 'You will not surely

00:22:21.280 | die.'" Satan goes from casting doubt on the truthfulness of God's Word to blatantly

00:22:33.040 | contradicting the truthfulness of God's Word. Now, brothers and sisters, I hope you see this is

00:22:41.120 | nothing new. This is what's going on in the world today. What is Satan doing in the world today? He

00:22:48.880 | casts doubt on the truthfulness of God's Word. He says to our culture, "Did God really say that?"

00:22:57.360 | And then he moves to blatant contradiction.

00:23:04.640 | He goes from saying, "Did God really say that marriage is a covenant between one man and one

00:23:15.760 | woman? Would God really be so restrictive?" And then he moves to blatant contradiction.

00:23:27.920 | "God didn't say that. Why would He say that?" And he says, "Marriage is not a covenant

00:23:36.320 | between one man and one woman." You can draw out the applications from there. You understand

00:23:42.160 | what's going on in the world today, from casting doubt to blatant contradiction.

00:23:48.560 | Verse 5, "For God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be open and you will be like God,

00:23:54.080 | knowing good and evil. So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was a delight

00:23:58.960 | to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate,

00:24:04.160 | and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate." What a sad narrative and

00:24:14.080 | what a sad state of affairs. Sad for Satan, who, if we piece the accounts of Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28

00:24:26.000 | together, we learn that Satan was once an anointed cherub who fell from heaven. He who once was a

00:24:35.920 | beautiful angel is now filled with hatred and rage toward the living God and God's people.

00:24:42.960 | Satan knows that his doom is sure. Romans 16, verse 20 says, "The God of peace will soon crush

00:24:50.080 | Satan under your feet." Satan knows that his future eternity is to spend all of eternity

00:25:00.320 | in the lake of fire, and he opposes God's people. He operates by casting doubt upon the Word of God.

00:25:11.200 | We see Satan's activity in the story of Job in the Old Testament. This account is sobering. It

00:25:18.960 | also gives us assurance that God is sovereign over Satan. Satan's activity was limited in the

00:25:26.080 | life of Job. God set the boundaries for Satan's influence. Job 1, verse 6, "Now there was a day

00:25:34.720 | when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them.

00:25:39.840 | The Lord said to Satan, 'From where have you come?' Satan answered the Lord and said, 'From going to

00:25:46.960 | and fro on the earth and from walking up and down on it.'" So you see that Satan here is a very busy

00:25:53.120 | character, moving to and fro on the earth, and yet we also see that Satan is not omnipotent.

00:26:00.880 | Satan is not omnipresent. He is not everywhere at one time.

00:26:06.240 | Job 1, verse 8, "The Lord said to Satan, 'Have you considered my servant Job,

00:26:14.240 | that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man who fears God and

00:26:19.520 | turns away from evil?' Then Satan answered the Lord and said, 'Does Job fear God for no reason?'"

00:26:27.200 | The name "Satan" actually means "adversary." The name "devil" literally means "slanderer." So we

00:26:36.560 | see that the devil is always accusing God's people. This is another one of the operations

00:26:42.480 | of the devil. He accuses God's people. Verse 10, "Have you not put a hedge around him in his house

00:26:50.240 | and all that he has on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands and his possessions

00:26:54.560 | have increased in the land. But stretch out your hand and touch all that he has and he will curse

00:27:00.080 | you to your face." Satan says to the Lord, "The only reason why Job loves you is because you are

00:27:09.200 | nice to him and you give him good things. If you take away his blessings, he will curse you

00:27:17.120 | to your face." Verse 12, "The Lord said to Satan, 'Behold, all that he has is in your hand. Only

00:27:24.240 | against him do not stretch out your hand.' So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord."

00:27:29.360 | And you know the story from there. Job endured a season of great suffering.

00:27:34.560 | Never did Job curse God to his face. Instead, Job said, "Naked I come from my mother's womb and

00:27:42.640 | naked shall I return. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord."

00:27:48.320 | And all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrong. So here's the main point.

00:27:53.120 | Satan's activity, where Satan sought to do Job evil, only ended up in producing this good.

00:28:03.760 | Job's testimony of godly faith is recorded in scripture now as a testimony to the world

00:28:16.160 | throughout centuries of time. That the true saints of God love God for who he is,

00:28:23.040 | not only for what God gives to them. When Satan was seeking to do his worst, God was working to

00:28:32.160 | accomplish his best. God used Satan's activity to bring about this amazing testimony of godly

00:28:41.680 | character that is still impacting lives today. We see in the gospel records, Jesus said to Peter

00:28:52.560 | in Luke 22, verse 31, "Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you that he might sift

00:28:59.680 | you like wheat. But I prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again,

00:29:09.360 | strengthen your brothers." God can use the activity of Satan to strengthen the testimony

00:29:20.080 | of a believer. We see this happen in the life of the apostle Paul, where Paul was given a thorn in

00:29:30.480 | the flesh in 2 Corinthians chapter 12, literally a stake that was ran through his flesh. And he

00:29:37.760 | called this thorn, this painful trial, a messenger of Satan to harass me, literally to beat me black

00:29:47.040 | and blue, to keep me from becoming conceded. And Paul pleaded with the Lord three times that the

00:29:53.760 | thorn in the flesh would be removed from him. And God essentially said, "No." He said, "My grace is

00:30:00.320 | sufficient for you." God sovereignly allowed this messenger of Satan to beat upon Paul, causing him

00:30:09.120 | painful affliction in order to produce this good end in Paul's life. Paul needed to be rescued

00:30:17.600 | from being conceded. Paul needed to be rescued from spiritual pride. He'd been given all of these

00:30:27.520 | great privileges as an apostle, and he had a temptation to exalt himself because of his great

00:30:34.960 | privileges. And so God sovereignly allowed this messenger of Satan to harass him in order to keep

00:30:43.120 | Paul humble. Now the point is that Satan was seeking to beat Paul black and blue. Satan thought

00:30:50.960 | that he was causing Paul pain, but all that he was accomplishing within God's sovereign plan

00:30:56.800 | was to produce this good end in Paul's life, to keep him humble so that he could continue

00:31:04.960 | to be in the place of God's blessing and God's grace. God limited the activity of Satan. He

00:31:15.680 | didn't remove it, but he did use it in order to produce the fruit of godly character in Paul's

00:31:24.480 | life. Going back to your handout, we see that Satan was active in the life of Jesus.

00:31:32.240 | I mean, the audacity of Satan to seek to tempt the Son of God himself,

00:31:41.120 | the temptation to be self-sufficient. Matthew 4 verse 3, "If you are the Son of God,

00:31:47.680 | command these stones to become loaves of bread." The temptation to be spectacular.

00:31:54.240 | Verse 5, "The devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to

00:31:59.760 | him, 'If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, 'He will command his

00:32:04.720 | angels concerning you, and on their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against

00:32:10.080 | a stone.'" The temptation to shortcut God's plan to go to the cross.

00:32:22.240 | "The devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world

00:32:28.800 | and their glory. And he said to him, 'All these I will give you if you fall down and worship me.'

00:32:37.200 | Then Jesus said to him, 'Be gone, Satan, for it is written,

00:32:40.800 | 'You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve.'

00:32:44.400 | Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and were ministering to him."

00:32:50.720 | Jesus fought every temptation using scripture.

00:33:01.440 | He used a different passage of scripture for each specific temptation.

00:33:07.520 | And here I just want to plead with you to not make this whole subject of spiritual

00:33:18.400 | warfare overly complicated. This is all we're trying to do with our counselees.

00:33:25.760 | We are seeking to equip them to use scripture to fight temptation,

00:33:34.160 | to battle for sanctification. We want them to use different passages of scripture for specific

00:33:44.800 | temptations, for specific seasons of life. And we just want to bring people to use the

00:33:53.760 | sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, and to enter into this battle for sanctification

00:34:00.400 | and holiness. It really isn't any more complicated than that. We want to use

00:34:07.120 | the Bible to fight our spiritual battles.

00:34:11.680 | Some other passages there, John 8, 44. Satan was active in the life of the Pharisees,

00:34:21.520 | the religious leaders. Now that's interesting because the Pharisees didn't look like

00:34:25.760 | Satan worshipers. They didn't dress in black and have pitchforks and have horns on their heads.

00:34:33.760 | These were religious people. They were clean-cut. They were moral externally.

00:34:42.960 | Yet Jesus said to the Pharisees, "You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your

00:34:50.640 | father's desires." He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth because

00:34:57.440 | there is no truth in him. We see Satan's activity in the life of the early church, Acts 5, verse 3.

00:35:06.080 | Peter said, "Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back

00:35:12.000 | for yourself part of the proceeds of this land?" 2 Corinthians 11, verse 14. "No wonder, for even

00:35:18.720 | Satan disguises himself as an angel of light."

00:35:22.480 | Satanic activity shows up at your door. It will most likely not look like a person

00:35:32.400 | dressed in black with a pitchfork, but it will mostly look like the form of a clean-cut person

00:35:43.440 | who is wearing a tie and holding a Bible and yet preaching a false gospel of works salvation.

00:35:53.040 | Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.

00:36:00.800 | So Satan is very active. We see that both in Old Testament and New Testament scriptures.

00:36:08.400 | We see that in the world and the church today. Moving to page 3 of your handout,

00:36:12.880 | and let me find myself where I'm on the screen here. Ian Bounce has written this,

00:36:22.080 | "That the devil is a very busy character. He does a big business, a very ugly business,

00:36:29.920 | but he does it well. That is, as well as an ugly business can be done,

00:36:34.800 | he has lots of experience, big brains, a black heart, great force, tireless energy, and is of

00:36:40.960 | great influence and great character. All his immense resources are used for evil purposes."

00:36:47.200 | Satan is indeed very busy. What are his activities or his operations? Number one,

00:36:56.880 | he's active in deceiving the nations. Revelation 20 verse 2 says that he sees the dragon, that

00:37:06.640 | ancient serpent who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years and drew him into

00:37:11.520 | the pit and shut it and sealed it over him so that he might not deceive the nations any longer.

00:37:18.640 | Implication, what is Satan doing when he is not thrown into the pit? He is active in deceiving

00:37:27.680 | the nations. He is the father of lies. Satan speaks lies. 1 Timothy 4 verse 1 says, "The

00:37:33.920 | spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves

00:37:39.840 | to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons through the insincerity of liars whose consciences

00:37:46.400 | are seared, who forbid marriage and require abstinence from foods that God created to be

00:37:52.880 | received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth." Just note there that on the

00:38:00.400 | surface that may look really spiritual. Asceticism, denying yourself from that which God has declared

00:38:10.480 | to be good. These people aren't speaking in demonic voices. They're saying if you have a

00:38:23.680 | really, really strict diet, then you will be really, really spiritual. Now just be balanced

00:38:32.880 | with that. I'm not saying all diets are wrong or all diets are evil. I'm saying a diet that is used

00:38:39.680 | as a means of works righteousness to make yourself acceptable to God

00:38:44.480 | is a form of satanic influence, a form of works righteousness.

00:38:50.880 | And it looks really spiritual, but this is the activity of demonic

00:39:05.280 | influence. Paul says in verse 5, "For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be

00:39:12.080 | rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, for it is made holy by the word of God in prayer."

00:39:18.640 | 2 Corinthians 11 verse 3 says, "I'm afraid that as a serpent deceived Eve by his cunning,

00:39:25.920 | your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ." So just to be clear,

00:39:32.480 | if someone in the church says, "I'm going to go on a diet because I think that diet's going to

00:39:36.640 | improve my physical health," then that may be a way of expressing your worship and obedience to

00:39:43.280 | the Lord, of exercising self-control, of manifesting the fruit of the Spirit. And there may be something

00:39:48.320 | that is very good in that. But if a person is teaching a form of legalism, that we must eat

00:39:57.920 | only certain foods because by denying ourselves from all that God has given to us, we will somehow

00:40:08.000 | make ourselves more acceptable to God, then that is a form of a works righteousness system.

00:40:14.480 | Satan loves to deceive others into thinking that because they are adhering to a works

00:40:22.720 | righteousness system, they have made themselves acceptable to God when Scripture says that it is

00:40:27.360 | only through Christ and it is only through His perfect work on the cross, His life, His death,

00:40:33.280 | and His resurrection that we are made acceptable to God and that God has given to us all things

00:40:40.160 | to be enjoyed and to be received with thanksgiving. Everything is created by God

00:40:46.880 | is good. But you see, when you adhere to a works righteousness system, that system

00:40:53.760 | will become the focus instead of Christ.

00:40:56.480 | And you will be led away, led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ.

00:41:05.360 | Thought life is where you see satanic influence in the counseling room. What a Christian thinks

00:41:17.760 | about, how a counselor thinks about himself, about the world, about the truth, about Christ.

00:41:26.560 | Thoughts that lead away from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ. This is the pastoral heart

00:41:36.320 | that I hope will characterize every biblical counselor that's trained in our ministry.

00:41:43.840 | The pastoral heart just to pray for our counselees, that they would love Christ,

00:41:49.600 | that they would have a sincere and pure devotion to Christ. In their hearts, there would not be

00:41:55.440 | the worship of Christ plus something else, and that we would labor and work with our counselees

00:42:01.760 | to experience the purification of their hearts that comes through the Holy Spirit's work in

00:42:10.240 | their lives. That if their joy is tied to anything else other than Christ, that the Holy Spirit would

00:42:18.800 | purify them and lead them to a pure and sincere devotion to Christ.

00:42:25.440 | So, Satan is active in deceiving the nations. Number two, Satan is active in opposing Christ.

00:42:35.280 | 1 John 2, verse 18, "Children, it is the last hour, and as you've heard that Antichrist is coming,

00:42:42.240 | so now many Antichrists have come." The word Antichrist literally can be translated against

00:42:50.320 | or in the place of Christ. 1 John 2, verse 22, "Who is the liar, but he who denies that Jesus

00:43:00.320 | is the Christ, this is the Antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son."

00:43:06.720 | Chapter 4, verse 3, "And every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God, this is the

00:43:15.360 | spirit of the Antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already."

00:43:22.880 | So, let's again not make it any more complicated than it is.

00:43:28.720 | Satan's influence is to oppose Christ, is to diminish Christ.

00:43:34.640 | How will you see satanic influence in the counseling ministry? As you meet with a

00:43:42.160 | counselee, you will see it in the counselee's diminished view of Christ,

00:43:47.600 | or the removal of Christ as the center of the counselee's life.

00:43:56.000 | So, Satan's influence is to oppose Christ, this spirit is the spirit of the Antichrist.

00:44:05.440 | So, if Satan's activity is to oppose Christ, then how do we as biblical counselors combat

00:44:12.880 | satanic activity? Isn't it very simple? We are to make much of Christ.

00:44:21.840 | We are to make Christ the center of our counseling. Biblical counseling is Christ-centered

00:44:29.600 | counseling. We want to lead our counselees to Christ, that they would love Christ, that they

00:44:36.080 | would see that Christ is better than their marriage being the way that they want it to be.

00:44:41.200 | Christ is better than their children turning out the way that they want it to be. Christ is

00:44:46.720 | better than their business succeeding in the way that they had planned. Christ is

00:44:51.520 | better than all of these things. We want our counselees to treasure Christ.

00:44:56.240 | As A.W. Tozer has well said, the best way to keep the enemy out is to keep Christ in.

00:45:05.360 | Many of our counselees are allowing satanic influence

00:45:15.520 | to be brought upon their lives because they are not worshiping Christ.

00:45:19.840 | They are not making much of Christ. They are not dwelling upon Christ and all that he is.

00:45:26.800 | And so, the tactic of spiritual warfare is very simple.

00:45:33.840 | If you make much of Christ, then you keep satanic influence out. In Paul's letters,

00:45:44.160 | Mark Hitchcock has observed the word Satan is used 10 times, the word Devil is used 6 times,

00:45:51.760 | and the name Jesus is used 291 times. The title Lord is used in 272 verses, and

00:46:06.320 | the name Christ is used in 389 verses. He observes that clearly we are to focus

00:46:15.760 | on Christ, not Satan. We are to be Christ-centered, not Satan-centered.

00:46:22.960 | So, we see that Satan is active in opposing Christ. Let me move you to the fourth page

00:46:32.080 | of your handout. A third activity is that Satan is active in ruling over this present world system.

00:46:41.680 | John 12, verse 31, "Now is the judgment of this world. Now will the ruler of this world be cast

00:46:51.040 | out." 2 Corinthians 4, verse 4, "In their case, the God of this world has blinded the minds of

00:46:56.400 | the unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ,

00:47:02.320 | who is the image of God." 1 John 5, verse 19, "We know that we are from God and that the whole

00:47:09.120 | world lies in the power of the evil one." The world system referring

00:47:18.320 | to the orderly system that functions apart from God. As Charles Rowley writes,

00:47:27.600 | "The world is that system organized by Satan, headed by Satan, and run by Satan,

00:47:34.080 | which leaves God out and is a rival to him."

00:47:41.440 | Satanic influence will be seen in a counselee's doubting the truth of God's word,

00:47:47.760 | in a counselee's distraction from devotion to a pure and sincere devotion to Christ,

00:47:55.920 | and satanic influence is seen in a love of the world. 1 John 2, verse 15, "Do not love

00:48:04.720 | the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not

00:48:10.720 | in him. For all that is in the world, the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and the

00:48:18.080 | pride of life, is not from the Father but is from the world." The world system, which is opposed to

00:48:28.640 | the will of God, and the scripture says you cannot love God and love the world at the same time.

00:48:37.520 | Number four, Satan is active in blinding unbelievers to the truth. That's 2 Corinthians 4,

00:48:43.120 | verse 4, "The God of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers."

00:48:48.720 | And this is why Paul says in 2 Timothy 2, verse 24, "That the Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome,

00:48:59.200 | but be kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with

00:49:07.360 | gentleness." Why? God may perhaps grant them repentance, leading to a knowledge of the truth,

00:49:14.640 | and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil after being captured by

00:49:22.480 | him to do his will. How do you and I as biblical counselors engage in spiritual warfare? How do we

00:49:32.640 | engage in a battle against satanic influence in our counseling ministry? Here it is. If we are to

00:49:41.760 | fight the influence of the devil, we must be kind, we must be patient, we must be gentle,

00:49:51.680 | we must have compassion and mercy to know that if the counselee is being resistant to God's word or

00:50:02.080 | being resistant to biblical counsel, that it may be that he or she is being captured by him that is

00:50:11.040 | Satan to do his will. The anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God. Listen,

00:50:20.800 | biblical counselors in training, your sinful anger against your counselees will be of no help

00:50:29.760 | in this spiritual battle. Your impatience with your counselees will be of no help in this

00:50:36.560 | spiritual battle. You raising your voice in a counseling session because you want to hammer

00:50:43.680 | home a truth so that a counselee will really get it will be of no help in producing the fruit of

00:50:51.040 | righteousness in that counselee's life. If we are to engage in the spiritual battle, we must engage

00:50:58.320 | in the character qualities of gentleness, patience, kindness, must be in prayer, we must patiently

00:51:08.880 | endure evil, we must turn the other cheek when we are wronged, the Lord's servant must not be

00:51:18.640 | quarrelsome. Lastly, Satan is active in opposing believers and this is adapted from Dickinson's

00:51:27.840 | work, Angels Elect and Evil. He wages warfare, he accuses and slanders, he plants doubt,

00:51:36.400 | he attempts to sin. You know the great lyrics of that great praise song, "When Satan tempts me to

00:51:44.560 | despair and tells me of the guilt within, upward I look him there who made an end to all my sin."

00:51:52.720 | That's a wonderful statement on how we are to fight the influence of Satan. It is

00:52:00.080 | by looking to Christ that we combat the influence of the evil one. So, the question would be this,

00:52:10.240 | and I think this is on your last page here on page five. The exam question asks the question,

00:52:17.920 | "Is there a difference between believers and unbelievers regarding the activity of the devil?"

00:52:24.800 | Is there a difference between believers and unbelievers regarding the activity of the devil?

00:52:36.320 | Now, I hope if you've been with me up to this point that you understand that the answer is very

00:52:44.480 | simple. The answer would be yes. It has to be yes, right?

00:52:50.080 | Why is there a difference between believers and unbelievers regarding the activity of the devil?

00:52:57.520 | Because a believer has been filled with the spirit. A believer has been redeemed by the sun.

00:53:07.040 | 1 Corinthians 1 verse 13 says that the believer has been transferred from the domain of darkness

00:53:14.240 | into the kingdom of his beloved son in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

00:53:20.640 | The believer can be tempted from without but cannot be possessed from within. 1 Corinthians

00:53:28.800 | 6 verse 19, "Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you whom you

00:53:36.160 | have from God? Greater is he who is in us than he who is in the world." And so, an unbeliever

00:53:47.440 | can be possessed by a demon. We see that in the gospel records. We see that in Mark chapter 5,

00:53:57.040 | there was a man who was possessed by a legion of demons. There's no guarantee for an unbeliever

00:54:04.320 | that a demon would not be able to come into that person's life and take complete control of that

00:54:10.800 | person's body. As I mentioned, I believe that Satan probably doesn't act in that way in a

00:54:18.400 | general sense because it would just awaken people up to their spiritual condition. But that's

00:54:24.400 | possible, demon possession. By the way, in the Greek language in the New Testament, there really

00:54:32.320 | isn't a difference between the word used for demon possession and a word used for demon influence.

00:54:39.600 | The Greek term demazomai refers to both possession and influence, and so there

00:54:46.480 | isn't this sharp distinction of internal possession versus external oppression or

00:54:52.080 | external influence. But we do see descriptively in the New Testament that there were some who,

00:55:01.200 | in the gospel records, were possessed in the sense that a demon took complete control over

00:55:06.880 | their bodies. Now, we would just argue from Scripture that if the Holy Spirit dwells

00:55:15.120 | permanently in the body of a believer, that it would be impossible for a demon to come and take

00:55:21.280 | control of that body. But we do see demonic influence in a believer's life. Scripture

00:55:32.560 | even promises that in Ephesians chapter 6. It describes Christian life as a wrestling, as a

00:55:39.040 | hand-to-hand combat with the demonic realm and calls us to be strong in the Lord and in the

00:55:46.640 | strength of his might, and to put on the armor of God, and to pray, and to wield the sword of

00:55:52.560 | the Spirit, which is the Word of God, and to engage in this great spiritual battle,

00:55:57.520 | and to be engaged in praying for other believers as they engage in the spiritual battle.

00:56:02.080 | But there's no secret passage in the New Testament that tells us how to cast out a demon.

00:56:12.720 | There's no specific instructions, step-by-step how-to manual. If you come across a

00:56:22.000 | demon-possessed person, this is how you cast out that demon.

00:56:25.120 | So, we just want to strike a balance with this.

00:56:32.320 | Some related questions would be, "Can a believer be demon-possessed?"

00:56:40.640 | I believe that believers can be accused and tempted by Satan from without, but cannot be

00:56:47.200 | indwelt or possessed by Satan or demons from within. "What should a counselor do if a

00:56:55.200 | counselee appears to be demon-possessed?" As I mentioned, Scripture does not give us

00:57:02.240 | step-by-step instructions on how to cast out a demon.

00:57:10.080 | But I would just give this perspective. If a counselee appears to be demon-possessed,

00:57:14.960 | it would be likely that that counselee is an unbeliever.

00:57:19.600 | And if a counselee is an unbeliever, then what do they need more than anything else?

00:57:27.040 | They need the gospel. Romans 1, verse 16, "For I am not ashamed of the gospel,

00:57:35.920 | for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes." So,

00:57:39.360 | while there is not a step-by-step instruction manual on how to deal with demon possession,

00:57:44.960 | I would say a good general tactic would just be preach the gospel to that unbeliever.

00:57:52.960 | The same thing you would do to any unbeliever.

00:57:59.760 | "What should a counselor do if a counselee who is a believer appears to be in conflict

00:58:06.800 | with a demon?" My answer would be, don't be surprised. We're not surprised if

00:58:15.920 | counselees are engaging in intense spiritual warfare with demons because that's what Ephesians

00:58:21.920 | 6, verse 12 tells us is going on in our lives, whether we know it to be true or not.

00:58:27.680 | Paul says, "We do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers,

00:58:31.600 | against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness,

00:58:36.720 | against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places." If a counselor says to me,

00:58:41.840 | "I don't know what to do. My counselee appears to be in a conflict with a demon." My response would

00:58:47.120 | be, read Ephesians 6. That is exactly what Paul tells us is happening in every believer's life.

00:58:55.760 | Tell that counselee to put on the armor of God,

00:58:58.880 | the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the shoes of the gospel of peace,

00:59:07.040 | the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God,

00:59:13.040 | praying at all times in the Spirit with all prayer and supplication, and tell that counselee

00:59:19.280 | to stand firm and be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might.

00:59:25.360 | And tell that counselee that even if that person is like Paul, being beaten black and blue

00:59:36.000 | by a messenger of Satan with a painful stake or thorn in the flesh,

00:59:44.080 | that God will give sufficient grace to endure that trial and will sovereignly use even the worst

00:59:51.680 | that Satan can bring to bring about the good and holy purposes that God desires.

00:59:58.800 | Luther says, Erwin Luther, not Martin Luther, spoke of Martin Luther, and he said that Luther

01:00:12.160 | points out that the devil is God's tool, like a hoe that is used to cultivate God's garden.

01:00:19.760 | Though the hoe might take pleasure in destroying the weeds, it can never move out of God's hand

01:00:25.440 | nor weed where he does not wish nor thwart his purpose of building a beautiful garden. Thus,

01:00:30.480 | the devil always does God's work. The devil is as much God's servant in his rebellion as he was

01:00:36.720 | God's servant in the days of his sweet obedience. And so, let us take comfort in the truth that

01:00:45.920 | Satan is a defeated foe. Colossians 2, verse 15 says, Christ disarmed the rulers and authorities

01:00:55.280 | and put them to open shame by triumphing over them in him. Markitchcock writes that we live today in

01:01:04.400 | the interval between the achievement and the announcement of victory at the cross in the empty

01:01:09.200 | tomb and the actualization of that victory at the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.

01:01:15.520 | Satan will be bound for a thousand years at the second coming of Jesus Christ.

01:01:22.480 | He will be judged eternally in the lake of fire. And Revelation 20 says this, that the devil who

01:01:32.880 | had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false

01:01:37.760 | prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever. The best way to keep the

01:01:48.720 | enemy out is to keep Christ in. And I think this is just a long way of saying, brothers and sisters,

01:02:00.000 | training for counseling ministry, that our approach as biblical counselors is actually very

01:02:07.440 | simple. We want to minister the Word of God. We want to make Christ central.

01:02:15.040 | We want to pray the Spirit of God would use the Word of God in the lives of our counselees. If

01:02:22.960 | our counselee comes in and that person looks like an unbeliever, then we want to take that opportunity

01:02:29.200 | to preach the gospel of Christ, the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ and Christ's

01:02:36.960 | sacrifice, which is sufficient to cover over all of our sins. The counselor is a believer engaging

01:02:44.560 | in spiritual warfare. We want to give that counselee the Word of God, train that counselee

01:02:50.880 | to use the Word of God to fight temptation as Jesus fought temptation using the Word in the

01:02:57.280 | wilderness. We want to be aware of Satan's activity, but we don't want to overestimate

01:03:07.120 | his capability. We want our understanding of the satanic influence in the world today

01:03:16.080 | and the demonic realm to lead us to a greater embracing, a greater reliance upon the truthfulness

01:03:23.920 | of the Word of God. We want our understanding of Satan and demons to lead us to a greater study

01:03:31.600 | and reliance upon the scriptures. And that's all that we do as biblical counselors.

01:03:39.680 | We just minister the Word. We just point people to the scriptures. We just point people to Christ,

01:03:48.480 | and we pray that the Spirit would use His Word to do a work in our counselee's lives.

01:03:56.880 | This last week, I received a very sweet note from a counselee who had been ministered to by

01:04:07.600 | a biblical counselor in our ministry, and I was overwhelmed by this note. The counselor who was

01:04:18.080 | spoken of in this note had been in a class just like this not long ago, writing these essays,

01:04:26.080 | laboring in doctrine, seeking to understand the 24 theology exams and the 20 counseling exams,

01:04:33.520 | and then got into phase three and just started applying the things and the truths that she had

01:04:41.120 | learned, just giving the Word, just giving the truth of scripture, just meeting with a

01:04:48.000 | counselee, opening the Word, and to hear this testimony of a counselee who said how much change

01:04:56.400 | she had experienced through the Word of God simply being ministered to in the context of a one-on-one

01:05:05.600 | one-on-one setting in the counseling ministry. It was a great affirmation of the simplicity

01:05:14.000 | and the power of biblical counseling. Brothers and sisters, you don't need to go chasing down

01:05:20.960 | every demon. You don't need to find some manual on how to cast out Satan or all of these. You

01:05:30.400 | don't need to find magical words to say in order to be successful in overcoming spiritual darkness.

01:05:37.200 | What you need to do and what I need to do is to get busy studying, learning, obeying, applying,

01:05:46.800 | and then communicating the all-sufficient Word of God, the 66 books of the Bible, and I pray that

01:05:54.160 | God will be gracious to you and give you His sufficient grace as you do just that this week.

01:06:01.040 | Well, thank you for joining us tonight for the study on the activities or the operations of the

01:06:06.960 | devil. I pray that the study would lead you to a greater understanding of Christ and greater

01:06:14.160 | understanding of the sovereignty of God. Join us next week on April 18th at five o'clock Pacific

01:06:22.400 | Time. We're going to be looking at counseling exam number 10, which has to deal with such

01:06:28.640 | subjects as the chemical imbalance theory, the biogenic theory of mood disorders, the 12-step

01:06:39.920 | recovery programs, cognitive behavioral therapy, and electroconvulsive therapy. That's one of the

01:06:49.600 | more interesting and complicated questions in the ACBC theology exam questions, but we trust

01:06:56.480 | that next week's session will help you and equip you to write a good essay on that topic. Let me

01:07:02.960 | pray for us and we'll be dismissed for tonight. Father, thank you that Satan is a defeated foe,

01:07:10.320 | though he is influential, that as Luther said, his doom is sure. We thank you that

01:07:18.080 | we can sing with Luther, a mighty fortress is our God, and we can know that as we simply study and

01:07:29.440 | learn and communicate the word of God, that the word is powerful, living and active, and able to

01:07:38.240 | transform people's lives. May our study of Satan and the demonic realm lead us to a sobriety and

01:07:49.040 | greater understanding and reliance upon the sufficient word of God that you've given to us.

01:07:56.240 | I thank you for each of my brothers and sisters here tonight and ask that you would bless them

01:08:02.880 | in their studies this week. We pray all this in the precious name of Jesus. Amen.

ACBC Counseling Exam 8 - The Operations of the Devil

Chapters