Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/Sermons/zz20051106.htm

JOHN: TRUSTING JESUS AS MESSIAH AND GOD
Part XXV: Discerning Satanic Activity In Conservative Religious Realms
(John 8:43-44 et al.)

Introduction: (To show the need . . . )

On occasion, even in our own Church ministries, be they an Annual Meeting or a Sunday School class, etc., Christians in our body have reported their having seen unusual conflicts arise that progress with such speed and power into potentially destructive events that it is easy for them in RETROSPECT in light of passages like Ephesians 6:11-12 and Ephesians 4:26-27 et al. to realize angelic conflict was involved.

However, at the time such and event occurs, it has seemed hard for some of the witnesses to discern which party was being led of God and which party was influenced by Satan, and that to the harm of the unwary who might have sided with the Biblically errant party. Indeed, the Apostle Paul warned that even of men from within the local body would one day arise to divide the body, gaining an errant following to feed their own prideful lusts, cf. Acts 20:29-31a!



Accordingly, when a sudden, sharp, strong contention arises between parties in a RELIGIOUS or CHURCH FUNCTION setting where angelic conflict issues are clearly involved, for our OWN edification, HOW are we to DISCERN in the MIDST of the CONFLICT ITSELF just WHO is RIGHT and WHO is WRONG?



(We turn to the sermon "Need" section . . . )



Need: "I or other believers have faced swift, sharp resistance to their beliefs or acts in EVEN CONSERVATIVE religious settings that, in hindsight, I recognize arose due to Satanic pressure! Yet, when such events occur, the emotional and mental intensity entailed catches me off guard, and I don't recognize which party is right, upsetting my own Christian walk! How may I discern the truth in such times?"
  1. When Jesus taught the Old Testament believing crowd in John 7-8, they said He had a demon (7:20) and tried to kill Him (8:59).
  2. Jesus countered by charging the faithless crowd did the lying, murderous works of their spiritual father, Satan, cf. John 8:43-44!
  3. To DISCERN which CLAIM and thus which PARTY was RIGHT, we examine the FACTUAL EVIDENCES of the CONTEXT:
    1. We know from Jesus' words in John 7:23 that the strife between Jesus and the crowds at the John 7-8 Feast of Tabernacles began months before when He had healed a lame man on the Sabbath, cf. John 5:8-10, 16: that healing violated the rules the Jews had added to the Law, not the Law itself; Ryrie Study Bible, KJV, ftn. to John 5:10.
    2. Thus, at the John 7-8 Feast of Tabernacles, Jesus told His foes they did not keep the Law as they opposed His healing a lame man on the same day they condoned the circumcising of infants, Jn. 7:19a, 21-24!
    3. Jesus' charge against the crowd was validated by the crowd's reaction to Him, a fact that reveals Jesus was right and the crowd was wrong!
      1. Instead of answering Jesus' charge that they violated the Law, the crowd lied: they denied anyone wanted to kill Him in John 7:20 and yet countered this their own denial in both John 7:13 and 7:25!
      2. Instead of answering His charge that they violated the Law, the crowd tried to kill Jesus without a fair trial in John 8:58-59, an act of murder that violated the law at Ex. 23:1-2 with Deut. 16:18-20!
      3. Well, earlier in the exchange, Jesus said such sins of lying and murder were what Satan, the crowd's spiritual father, had done from the beginning, cf. John 8:43-44!
      4. So, the crowd's response to Jesus backed His charge against them!
    4. On the other hand, the crowd's charge against Jesus is proved to be Satanically slanderous by the events surrounding their very charge:
      1. The crowd's charges against Jesus were inconsistent with Jesus' personal behavior as well as with their own behavior (as follows):
        1. In John 8:48, the crowd charged Jesus was a "Samaritan," a claim He was an apostate Who functioned like those who had mixed paganism with Scripture, cf. 2 Kings 17:29, 32-34.
        2. Yet, in the context, JESUS had stayed close to the Scriptures: (1) it was Jesus Who had exposed the unbiblical rule of the throng against healing a man on the same day they practiced circumcision, John 7:19a, 21-24; (2) it was Jesus Who referred to Scripture to defend His healing the lame man (7:22-24) and (3) Who urged the crowd to try to find [just] sin in Him, 8:46.
        3. Then, it was the crowd that had failed to heed Scripture: in John 7:52, the Jews overlooked Isaiah 9:1-6 that verified Messiah would be associated with Galilee, and they failed to respond when Jesus hinted of this Isaiah 9 passage in John 8:12!
      2. The crowds' deeds against Jesus were consistent with the deeds of Satan and Jesus' deeds aligned with the righteous works of God:
        1. The crowd said Jesus was demon possessed in John 7:20 and 8:48, implying in the contexts of both claims that Jesus erred.
        2. Yet, Jesus is never shown to err though His claim that the crowd lied and wanted to kill Him in John 7:19b was supported as true by the crowds own deeds in John 7:13, 25 and 8:58-59!
        3. Also, the crowd's effort to kill Jesus without a fair trial showed they were murderous in view of the Law's requirements for righteous capital punishment in Ex. 23:1-2 and Deut. 16:18-20!
        4. Then, where the crowd thus groundlessly charged Jesus was demon possessed and apostate, an act typical of slanderous Satan (T.D.N.T., vol. II, p. 72), Jesus said the crowd did the lying and murderous works of their father, Satan, which charge was supported by their deeds in the context (Jn. 8:44 with 7:20, 13, 25 and 8:58-59 in view of Ex. 23:1-2 with Deut. 16:18-20)!
Application: (1) May we trust in Jesus, God's TRUE Savior from sin, to receive eternal life, John 3:16. (2) May we apply the insight of John 7-8 to know who is right in RELIGIOUS angelic conflicts!

Lesson: We discern from the context that the crowd heeded Satan and Jesus heeded God: (1) Jesus held to Scripture while the crowd exalted extrabiblical rules; (4) Jesus exposed the extrabiblical rules that the crowd could Biblically not defend; (2) Jesus' charge against the crowd was supported by their own acts where the crowd's charges against Him were insupportably slanderous as is typical of Satan's works; (3) Jesus spoke the truth and the crowd lied as Satan had long done and (4) Jesus was harmless while the crowd was murderous as Satan had long been.

Conclusion: (To illustrate the sermon lesson . . . )

 (1) Secular educators have long held up the Salem Witch Trials as an example of the alleged harm Christianity can do if unchecked !

However, noting WHY this event occurred reveals Satan worked in it to undermine TRUE Christianity with PAGAN ERROR: William W. Sweet's standard work, The Story of Religion in America, 1973, p. 61-62 reports that between March of 1692 and January of 1693, twenty people were tried, convicted of witchcraft and hanged by a court held in the Salem Congregational Church. As we can validate in viewing Sweet's work with other authorities [Ibid., Sweet, p. 59-61; John F. Walvoord, The Blessed Hope and the Tribulation, p. 7-13; Renald E. Showers, "An Evaluation of Christian Reconstructionism," Israel My Glory, April-May 1991, p. 22-25], the tragedy began with the unbiblical pagan Platonic Amillennialism of Augustine that was embedded in Puritan Calvinistic theology. This viewpoint promotes a non-literal interpretation of Bible prophecy, leading to a denial of the literal future 1,000 year rein of Christ and the belief Christ set up the Church to rule the nations NOW! Witch trials and capital punishment were felt by the Salem Puritans to be practices for the Church to use in expressing its God-given worldwide theocratic reign over the earth!

Yet, this belief is countered by 1 Peter 2:13-17: the Church is to function under human government! Satan then used the tragic Salem Witch Trials to cloud the Biblical beliefs the Puritans held by fueling their non-biblical, pagan impacted errors into full bloom, allowing room for true Biblical Christianity to be badly maligned!

(2) However, many Evangelicals NOW fall prey to the same Satanic trap the Salem Puritans did! The pagan Platonic Amillennial view behind the Salem Witch Trials leads many Evangelicals in the form of "reconstructionist theology" to push their political agenda on secular governments (Ibid., Showers, p. 23); this push clouds the Gospel of salvation by grace through faith in Christ to the lost who fear Evangelicals are trying to force an oppressive theocracy upon them! It's no wonder that in last week's television documentary on Evangelicals, "In God They Trust," Tom Brokaw voiced this concern!

May we like Jesus stick to Scripture alone, being harmless heralds of salvation by grace through faith in Christ! Then we will overcome the destructive wiles of Satan in RELIGIOUS realms!