10/30/21
(Ephesians 2:2 King James) Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:
All people beyond the age of accountability who have not believed in the shed blood, death, buriel and resurrection of Jesus Christ, i.e., the good news (gospel) of grace, that God gave specifically to Paul (1 Cor 15:1-4 KJ) to give to all of us in the dispensation of grace for our salvation, (Eph 3:1-3 KJ), or, that time period from Paul's salvation in (Acts 9 KJ) till now, are “children of disobedience.”
And a particular spirit “worketh" in all unbelievers. That spirit is the devil.
He is the “adversary" in several verses in the Scriptures, for example:, when God told Solomon that He was going to divide Israel into two kingdoms because of Solomon's violation of God's covenant, God stirs up a “satan" (Hebrew word for “adversary") to deal with Solomon:
(1 Kings 11:14 KJ) And the LORD stirred up an adversary unto Solomon, Hadad the Edomite: he was of the king’s seed in Edom.
Satan's plan that he put into action in his dialog with Eve, is his “course of this world.” That is, the “adversary” Satan, (i.e., more than just an enemy; one who has put into motion a concerted attack against his foe etc.), has had an ongoing plan for centuries that is hellbent on denying Jesus Christ His worship, authority, sovereignty, glory and headship over the heavens and the earth. Satan's plan is summed up in 2 words:
THE LIE
God had told Adam in (Gen 2:16,17 KJ), that he could eat “freely"of all the trees of the garden, but one,…a Word that God had said to Adam and that Eve omitted (Gen 3:2 KJ) in her dialog (not a good idea) with satan. That Eve ‘changed’ the Word of God was a major part of Satan's plan to deny God what only belongs to God.
See, if Satan could get mankind to be an adversary to God like he is, then God would be denied the glory only due Him, thus making Satan himself the “god of this world” (2 Cor 4:4 KJ).
How did Satan accomplish this?
THE LIE
The “LIE" : that man can live forever, with no eternal consequences, in a life of rebellion, enmity and disobedience to God.
Once Eve had ‘added’ to God's Word (God did not say that they could not “touch" the tree - Gen 3:3 KJ), ‘subtracted’ from God's Word, (she omitted the Word “freely," and she left out that there were 2 trees in the “midst" of the garden….the tree of life was also there - Gen 2:9 KJ); and she ‘watered down’ the word, (i.e., made God's promise of death less severe, as in,….maybe she would, maybe she wouldn't die,) when she said to Satan:
(Genesis 3:3 KJ) But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.
……..”LEST” ye die…….
Mankind has always sought a way to live forever apart from the Holy God. And Satan, from the very beginning, has traded in that vile traffick, even deceiving a third of the angelic creation to follow him in his rebellion against God. And God passed eternal judgment on Lucifer (Satan) and his angels when they sinned. Pronouncing judgment against Lucifer, God said:
(Ezekiel 28:18 KJ) Thou hast defiled thy sanctuaries by the multitude of thine iniquities, by the iniquity of thy traffick; therefore will I bring forth a fire from the midst of thee, it shall devour thee, and I will bring thee to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all them that behold thee.
Mankind has fallen for the LIE of Satan, from Eve and Adam till now. That man will die is evident to all. But that man will ‘eternally’ die is not. However, God's Holy Spirit breathed and preserved Word (Psalm 12 :6 7; 2 Tim 3:16 KJ) is clear:
(Revelation 20:14,15 KJ) And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. (15) And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.
…..”the SECOND death”….
The second death is eternal separation from God in the “lake of fire.”
Why? Because people chose ‘not’ to love God the Son Jesus Christ, the TRUTH, but instead were deceived, because they chose to love:
THE LIE
Satan is coming to the earth to deceive the unbelievers in Jesus Christ. The anti-Christ will be indwelt by Satan the adversary of God:
(2 Thessalonians 2:9,10 KJ) Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, (10) And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.
……”because they received NOT the love of the TRUTH,”
They, the unbelievers who chose not to believe in the shed blood, death, buriel and resurrection of Jesus Christ, that is, that gospel (good news), by which God only saves today (1 Cor 15:1-4 KJ), chose instead,.. and for this cause they will be deceived and eternally damned,.. to love:
THE LIE
(2 Thessalonians 2:11,12 KJ) And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: (12) That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
THE LIE has been and will always be Satan's greatest wile and deception. He presented himself as a competing ‘authority' to God's authority over Eve. And she chose to walk by sight, i.e., looking at her surroundings and making decisions based on her ‘opinion,’ of God's Word, instead of by faith in God's Word, and fell for:
THE LIE
(Genesis 3:4,5 KJ) And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: (5) For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.
Choose Jesus Christ today and live forever…….choose:
T H E
T R U T H
(John 14:6 KJ) Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.