We Are Not Ignorant Of Satan’s Devices Or Schemes – Part 11 Series

WE ARE NOT IGNORANT OF SATAN’S DEVICES OR SCHEMES – PART 11

[34]. GOD BUILDS UP BUT SATAN BUILDS DOWN

To build up is to edify. To edify is to improve, make morally stronger and sets one on the path to the goodness of God. Christians are to edify – to build up – not just themselves, but others. The purpose of Christians in the world is to serve and glorify the Saviour. That has a practical component where we assist the ones fallen because of sin, and assist our fellow Christians who are having a hard time.

We can have hard times because it is possible for a Christian to slip up and fall into sin. Don’t shun that person; help the one who has fallen. That is also the special role of a shepherd. We can have hard times because of testing that God allows. Why does God allow testing to encounter you; to smack you in the face? It is because He wants to demonstrate His faithfulness to you. The third reason we may go through hard times is Satan/demons buffeting us, attacking us because the evil hates the good. Those belong to Christ belong to the good. That is the side we are on. There are only two sides.

Christians must build each other up; to strengthen our common fellowship with the Lord. {{1Thessalonians 5:11 “Therefore encourage one another, and BUILD UP ONE ANOTHER, just as you also are doing.” 1Thessalonians 5:14 “We urge you, brethren, admonish the unruly, ENCOURAGE THE FAINTHEARTED, HELP THE WEAK, be patient with all men.”}}

Satan will destroy the striving for excellence and decent achievement. He pulls down especially the development for morality and justice and order and decency. His opposition is to all that is of God. The Holy Spirit indwells Christians for that is what the Lord promised when He sent the Comforter, but there is a sense where the Holy Spirit is “in the world” and His purpose is to hold back the evil, like a dam wall holding back a large body of water. Look at these verses – {{2Thessalonians 2:7-8 “for the mystery of LAWLESSNESS is already at work. Only HE WHO NOW RESTRAINS will do so until He is taken out of the way, and then that lawless one will be revealed whom the Lord will slay with the breath of His mouth and bring to an end by the appearance of His coming”}}

We are informed that lawlessness (iniquity – AV) is working in the world but the Restrainer is holding back the full onslaught of that evil. The Restrainer is the Holy Spirit for there is nothing, or any one else who can hold back satanic evil in the world. The Holy Spirit also holds back the revelation of “the lawless one” (that is the Antichrist) but when the Holy Spirit is “taken out of the way” when the Church is removed in the Rapture, then wickedness will burst on this earth and Antichrist will be revealed.

Satan strives to destroy decency and standards; to bring the world to ruin, but the Holy Spirit is holding back the full outbreak of evil. I heard a speaker say that if our eyes could be opened in a special way we would see a constant battle in the air above us, a spiritual battle in the angelic world were the good angels are at war with the demons for Satan is the prince and power of the air. The angels are on our side! There is nothing to fear, and the Restrainer dwells within you!

We are seeing standards fall away and the inferior replacing what is of quality; second rate replacing first rate; sinfulness replacing holiness and piousness. Wickedness is growing. Just look at the foul demonstrations against decency all around the world, and especially against Israel. Satan builds down and that affects everything now.

I had an incidence today that reminded me of this very thing. For those of us who are older, and I am 80, we remember when tools were made of the highest quality – highest quality steel and workmanship that often came from England. We remember products were made to last, not start to fall apart the moment they struggle out of warranty. I have kitchen knives my mother and grandmother had and they work perfectly (some of those are 100 years old). There are just so many examples I can quote.

I suppose no one knows this but the name “Kelso” was famous in wheelbarrows and I bought one in 1974. I still have it. I just can not imagine how much stuff I have carried in that wheelbarrow over the years in doing up two complete yards/properties and maintaining them. I would have mixed around 20 plus tons of concrete in that wheelbarrow and probably an equal weight of concrete blocks, gravel and sand and so much soil and stones. Yet it still is with me and is not pristine of course, but still performs well; the wheel is a bit wobbly like me, but still wonderful.