satan and God in Conflict (subtitle)
God says that this satanic system is inherently "evil"; hopelessly "corrupt"; thoroughly "polluted"; irreconcilably hateful.
Galatians 1:4, "Who have himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father."
2 Peter 1:4, "Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises; that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust."
John 15:18, "If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you."
Thus God states His estimate of "the world." He speaks with equal clearness regarding its works.
John 7:7, "The world cannot hate you; but me it hateth, because I testify of it, that the works thereof are evil."
This satanic system, "the world," is like a colossal, octopus that has sent forth myriads of tentacles to lay hold upon every phase of human life and draw it unto itself. It has its grip upon the corporate life of mankind in its homes, marts, schools, politics, even its churches. It has penetrated into every relationship of the individuals life, personal, family, social, national and international.
"The world," which is human society with God left out, is satan's snare for capturing men and holding them in bondage. "What the web is to the spider: what the bait is to the angler: what the lure is to the fowler: so is the world to satan a means of capturing men." "The world" is the devil's paw with which he strikes men: it is his lair into which he entraps men: it is the devil's ally in fighting God for the sovereign control of men.
But is there anything within man that responds to satan and to his system? In the Bible we read they have an accomplice whose name is "the flesh."
Romans 7:5, "For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death."
Romans 8:12-13, "Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live."
In Scripture the word "flesh" has several meanings but in the verses quoted it it used in the ethical sense and means the whole natural man, spirit, soul, and body, living in self-will and alienated from the life of God. The flesh is what man became through the fall. It is man "without God" (Ephesians 2:12).
The "flesh" manifests nothing but antagonism to God and defiance of authority. It is irrevocably opposed to God and to His law.
Romans 8:7, "Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be."
The "flesh" then is the material in mankind upon which satan works to keep man a pat of his system. This trinity of evil, the world, the flesh and the devil, is organized into a diabolical combine against God and His saints.
satan has a cleverly thought out plan but God has a divinely wrought out purpose. God's purpose antedated satan's plan: God's purpose anticipated satan's plan: God's purpose annulled satan's plan: God's purpose was formed in the eternity of the past and reaches into the eternity of the future. "God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself."
Christ Jesus was the One through whom God's purpose was to be fulfilled. He constantly spoke of Himself as one who had been sent from heaven by the Father to do the Father's will, not His own. He did not belong to earth but to heaven and was here only to fulfill a special mission.
John 6:38, 40, "For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me. And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeeth the Son, and believeth on Him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him at the last day."
~Ruth Paxson~
(continued with # 27)
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