“SATAN HAS DEMANDED TO SIFT YOU…”- PART 2

 

SATAN- NAMES AND ACTIVITY-{And Spiritual Ignorance} “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded permission to sift you like wheat; but I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail”-Luke 22:31-32

SPIRITUAL CAPTIVES; – Pride is twisted, perverted thinking that shows in these cases the heart is spiritually bankrupt- and in need of true salvation through repentance towards God and faith in Christ Jesus! Satan is subtle and doesn’t mind how he keeps a man, woman, boy, girl, thinking and living for anything or anyone other than God. These are spiritual captives, slaves to unrighteousness. 2 Tim 2:24-26 says they “… are held captive by the evil one to do his will.” Think on that verse for a while. People you see may be well educated in this world, academically, athletically treasured, socially accepted and lauded, financially secure and seemingly without any cares, “BUT GOD…” shows us they “… are held captive by the evil one to do his will.” They are to be pitied, prayed for and shared with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Look at this passage and pick out the qualities needed for them to escape the bondage they are held in by satan – “The Lord’s bond-servant must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to all, able to teach, patient when wronged, with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition, if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, having been held captive by him to do his will.”{2 Timothy 2:24-26} Satan has them, while they think they are in control of their lives, they are in bondage to sin and satan! Ignorant of God, His Word and ways, prisoners of war- “spiritually captives!” Many will die in their sin,- the worst thing a person can die of is to die in their…sin! Satan has deluded them, deceived them. The father of lies, they have embraced. My God, how terrible it is! God help us to awaken from our slumber and playing with our toys and be diligent to seek the welfare of the soul’s of people!

THE BELIEVERS ARE NOT IMMUNE FROM DEMONIC ATTACK – But as we see from this passage in Luke, the believers are not above the attack of the evil one. He cannot have our souls, so he temps with discouragement, doubts, distress, to divert the believer’s thoughts of the Lord and act independent. His attack is on our “faith.” For this is the core of our being, trusting God, His Word, His character, His promises. So satan and his demons sows “seeds” of questions and doubts regarding God, His character, His Word, seeking to snatch away what we have heard from it. He also uses QUESTIONS and DOUBTS as he did with Eve in the garden. Question God, “Does He mean what He says? DOUBT GOD, “will He be faithful to you?”… can He be trusted? Doubt His promises, His character. He attacks and accuses God to our thinking, seeking to tempt us to act independent of God’s Good Word He attacks our faith in God! He is a fierce, loveless, lying, slandering, hateful being, who hates God and His people. The disciples were in his eye view and Peter in particular. The leaders of the Lord Jesus who would pass on the truth from one generation to another. His desire is to sift them like wheat, violently so. Seeking to destroy them. But note his limitation in the passage, he cannot touch Simon and the other disciples without permission of Jesus Christ. satan is not Sovereign, he is a created being who is subject to the authority of Jesus Christ!

Some do not believe in such a wicked evil foe. Life is too busy, they see him as a cartoon character with a cloak and horns and a pitch fork, where the Bible describes him as a hateful, cruel enemy of God and His people. Jesus does not paint the picture of such a cartoon character to Simon when he says “Simon, Simon satan has demanded to sift you as wheat..”

 

SATAN AND ACTIVITY!

Note;

The REALITY of Satan.

1. – “SATAN” – Jesus acknowledges his existence. The NAME “satan” means “Adversary.” (opponent of God and His people.) as is revealed in {Job 1-2; Zach 3:1-2.} The New Testament give him several titles including,

2. -“DEVIL”- means “SLANDERER,” -“ACCUSER,” of the brethren – ” The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him. Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say: “Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Messiah. For the ACCUSER OF OUR BROTHERS AND SISTERS, who ACCUSES them before our God day and night, has been hurled Down.” – {Rev 12:9-10}

3.- “DESTROYER,”- “Apollyon,”- means, “Destroyer,”- “They had as king over them the angel of the Abyss, whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon and in Greek is Apollyon (that is, Destroyer).- {Rev9:11}

4. – “THE TEMPTER”- ” Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be TEMPTED by the devil. ” – {Mat 4:}

5. – “THE EVIL ONE”- “We know that anyone born of God does not continue to sin; the One who was born of God keeps them safe, and the EVIL ONE cannot harm them. We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of THE EVIL ONE.”-{ 1 John 5:18-19}

6. – “A LIAR”- He is the father of lies, all deceitful ness and falsehood – ” When he LIES, he speaks his native language, for he is A LIAR and THE FATHER OF LIES.” – {John 8:44}.

7.- “A MURDERER”- …. “You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was A MURDERER from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him.”- (John 8:44 }

8.- DECEPTIVE – “But I am afraid that just as Eve was DECEIVED by the serpent’s CUNNING, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ.”…( 2 Cor 11:3) –” The great dragon was hurled down–that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him. ” – ( Rev 12:9).

9.- THE WICKED ONE – “When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the WICKED one comes and snatches away what was sown in their heart. This is the seed sown along the path.”- When God’s Word is spoken the wicked one seeks to snatch the seed of it from the hearer- It can be through trivial conversation, anyway to keep the person from thinking on and obeying God’s Word!  -{Matthew 13:19,}

 10. -“AN ANGEL OF LIGHT” – Satan appears as “an angel of light. – ” And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as AN ANGEL OF LIGHT.”- (2 Cor 11:14)

11.- DEMONIC TEACHING – “DOCTRINES OF DEMONS.” – satan has teaching which is opposed to the infallible Word of God, which people embrace – “But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to DECEITFUL SPIRITS and DOCTRINES OF DEMONS.” -{1 Timothy 4:1}

12.- DEMONIC WISDOM – “But if you have bitter jealousy and [a]selfish ambition in your heart, do not be arrogant and so lie against the truth. This wisdom is not that which comes down from above, but is earthly,natural, demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every evil thing.”- James 3:14-16 

13.- “SHARERS IN DEMONS,” • Behind Every Idol is a Demon!  Satan Deceives people into Idolatry- To worship anything or anyone other than God is demonic! Some deceptively are worshipping demons – ” “What do I mean then? That a thing sacrificed to idols is anything, or that an idol is anything? No, but I say that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God; and I do not want you to become sharers in demons. (1 Cor. 10:19-20),- “They offered sacrifices to demons, which are not God, to gods they had not known before, to new gods only recently arrived, to gods their ancestors had never feared “-{Deuteronomy 32:17} – “[the Israelites] served their idols, Which became a snare unto them. Yes, they sacrificed their sons and their daughters unto demons” {Psalm 106: 36,37} – ” Demons behind false religious worship – A false god is an idol, and God did not condemn idolatry throughout the Bible for no purpose. False gods are clearly associated with the demonic… The word translated “idols” in Psalm 96:5 (“all the gods of the nations are idols”) is daimonia or “demons”}

14.-“A ROARING LION.”- 

 “Be alert and of sober mind. YOUR ENEMY THE DEVIL prowls around like A ROARING LION LOOKING FOR SOMEONE TO DEVOUR.” – {1 Peter 5:8.}

15.- SPIRITUALLY IMPRISONS PEOPLE – “…and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, having been HELD CAPTIVE BY HIM TO DO HIS WILL.”- {2 Timothy 2:26}

16.- WORKS THROUGH PEOPLE- ” …And you [a]were dead [b]in your trespasses and sins, 2 in which you formerly walked according to the [c]course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that IS NOW WORKING IN THE SONS OF DISOBEDIENCE.”- {Ephesians 2:1-3}

“Simon, Simon SATAN has desired to sift you as wheat…”

As the above sprinkling of verses show, satan , is powerful- though not all powerful, He is Evil, Wicked, a Liar, a Murderer, a Thief, controlling and Imprisoning souls, full of Hatred, Deceptive, Doctrines of Demons he has people espouse and embrace, is working through people, Accuser, Slanderer… these are but a few of his names and works. While many in the wealthy part of the western world give no Biblical thought to the activity of satan, and are lulled into the pride of self sufficiency and in doping so are pawns of an evil foe to their very soul – THE LORD JESUS Warns Simon, to as some translations speak of the seriousness of what is happening in the unseen realm where satan had drawn close to the disciples without their detection and had sought to destroy, tear them apart from their faith in Jesus Christ, without their awareness! “Behold…has DEMANDED…”

“Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded permission to sift you like wheat; but I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail…”- Luke 22:31-32

JESUS assures them the attack is real, their destruction is sought…

IN the next lesson, let’s look at… HOW DID JESUS RESPOND TO HIS OWN BEING UNDER SUCH DEMONIC ATTACK… AND WHAT DOES IT MEAN FOR YOU!