Study Page – Lessons 10 – 12

Lesson 10: The Enemy of God

Matthew 13 has an important parable of Jesus.  A farmer goes out to sow seed.  Jesus indicates that the seed falls in one of four places; 1) the path; 2) the rocky ground; 3) among the weeds; and 4) into fertile soil.  

The seed also has four results depending on the ground:

1. Seed cast upon the path has no chance to grow as the birds come and eat it.
2. Seed cast upon the stony ground grows up quickly but wilts under the sun because the roots can’t go deep.
3. Seed cast upon the weeds grows but gets choked out by the weeds.
4. Seed cast on the fertile soil grows and produces a bumper crop 30, 60 or 100 times the original seed.

Let’s look at the meaning of the parable provided by Jesus to the disciples.

• The seed is the message of God (especially about Jesus Christ).
• The farmer is the one who brings the message of God.
• The path (or hard-packed ground) represents those don’t understand the message – typically, they have closed their minds to the message.
• The stony ground are superficial hearers of God who like the message but melt away at the first sign of trouble.
• The weedy ground are people who hear the message but are distracted by the worries of life.
• The fertile ground are people who hear the message, believe the message, and produce more “messages of God” for others because of their salvation and relationship with God.

Let’s examine three primary questions for those people who don’t produce a fertile crop.

• Who takes away the message of God by producing the lies that brings non-understanding?
• Who provides the persecution which leads to the loss (wilting) of God’s word in the “stony ground” people?
• Who encourages the distractions of “the worries of life” so that the word of God gets deprioritized?

The answer is: Satan, or the devil.  This is the enemy of God.  

I wrote an earlier draft on this lesson that I was going to use instead of this one.  It was too much.  Like C. S. Lewis, who wrote The Screwtape Letters, explained the reason his book was not longer – “I never wrote with less enjoyment. . . though it was easy to twist one’s mind into the diabolical attitude, it was not fun, or not for long.  The strain produced a sort of spiritual cramp.  The work into which I had to project myself was all dust, grit, thirst, and itch.  Every trace of beauty, freshness, and geniality had to be excluded.  It almost smothered me before I was done.  It would have smothered my readers if I had prolonged it.”  (pp. xv – xiv, C. S. Lewis: The Screwtape Letters.  Macmillan Paperback Edition – 1977, 24^th printing.)

So let us not look too long at Satan himself, but let’s be aware of his role.

He is the father of lies.  Jesus castigates the Pharisees stating,  “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. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.”  (John 8:44 NIV)

He is the tempter of sin.  He tempted Adam and Eve, and Cain, and everyone else including Jesus.  “The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”  (Matthew 4:3)

He is the accuser of mankind.  The name Satan literally means, “accuser.” “’Does Job fear God for nothing?’ Satan replied. ‘Have you not put a hedge around him and his household and everything he has? You have blessed the work of his hands, so that his flocks and herds are spread throughout the land. But now stretch out your hand and strike everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face.’”  (Job 1:9 – 11 NIV from biblegateway.com)

He is the spirit of evil.  “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”  (Ephesians 6:12 NIV)

He is the dragon of Revelation.  “Then war broke out in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven. 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.”  (Revelation 12: 7 – 9) 

In the end time, as God pours out his judgments on the earth, the devil will be allowed wide latitude to cause pain and suffering on mankind, both on the saints and on the lost.  The devil will seem formidable and impossible to defeat.  But the good news is, you won’t have to defeat the devil.  Christ already did that for you.  You just need to trust in Christ.

“Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come 
Let this blest assurance control 
That Christ has regarded my helpless estate 
And hath shed His own blood for my soul (from It Is Well with My Soul)

Lesson 11: Jesus is the Only Way

“Jesus is the only way to God.”

Many don’t believe the above statement.  We live in an age where “Truth is relative.  If I don’t recognize it as truth, then it is not true.”  Sorry, but the idea that “truth is only true if I believe it” is a lie.

Do you believe in gravity?  If you chose to deny gravity what would happen to a pencil if you let it go from your fingers? Would it float in the air because you deny the existence of gravity?

What is 2 + 2 in an arithmetical formula?  If I add 2 apples and 2 oranges will I have collected 5 pieces of fruit?

Regardless of how much “relative truth” you think exists, “your truth” and “my truth” are always going to be compared to “truth” which exists outside our beliefs.

So, I say once again, “Jesus is the only way to God.”

How do I know this is true?  “I am the way, the truth, and the life.  No one comes to the Father except THROUGH ME.”  (John 14:6)  In this passage, Jesus is talking to His disciples and makes the bold claim himself.

So, you have a couple of choices on how to react to this statement.  You can deny the truth of it.  You can get mad at the people who believe it and who repeat it.  Or you can recognize it as the truth that it is.  

I once had a conversation with a Christian from France who asked a pointed question:  “What is the most important difference between God and any other god which people claim?  It’s very simple, ‘God is Love.’  No other God has done for us what Jesus did for us on the cross.”

John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

Romans 5:8 says, “But God shows His love for us in this, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”

“God so loved the world” means that when Jesus died, he died for the sake of EVERYBODY and he did it because God is love.

“While we were yet sinners” means that while we were still in rebellion against God and being His enemy, God, in his love, allowed Jesus to be sacrificed to pay the penalty for our rebellion and enmity.

“But what about those who never hear of Jesus?  Doesn’t that nullify the ‘No one comes to the Father except through me’ statement?”

Of course not.  Abraham did not know all that Jesus was going to do and yet Jesus describes Abraham as being in Paradise in a parable.  He even refuted the Jewish leaders who stood against him by claiming, “Your father Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day; he saw it and was glad.”  (John 8:56)

Also, Romans 1 and 2 seem to indicate that God revealed Himself in His creation and yet was rejected by the sinners.  It would appear that those who truly come to God as He is revealed would also have their sins paid by Jesus.  (Thanks to William Lane Craig for the video on this subject.)  Or as one theologian I know answered, “I’m not sure what happens to those who never hear of Jesus, but I know that God is good and that He is just.”

Peter said, “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.”  (Acts 4:12 – Peter is talking about Jesus.)

So, we are all going to get to heaven, right?  No.  Only those who accept the sacrifice and Lordship of Jesus will get to heaven.  

Look, it’s quite simple, we are all sinners – meaning that somewhere in our lives we separated ourselves from God.  (“For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.”  Romans 3:23)

The penalty for that sin is death.  (“And the wages of sin is death” Romans 6:23)

So here is the judgment of God on our sin.  It has to be paid for.  Jesus did that.  (“God made him who knew no sin to become sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”  1 Corinthians 5:21)

It’s like God says, “Look, you committed a crime and the penalty is severe.  It has to be paid.”  And of course, we are all destined to pay that penalty.  But then God says, “Instead of you having to pay that penalty, I will place the payment for your crime on my own Son who is perfect in every way.  Will you accept His substitution?”

And we have two choices at that point.  “Yes, thank God, I accept the substitution.”  Or, “No, I don’t believe I’ll take the substitution.”

What has any of this got to do with End Time Prophecy Study?  “Anyone whose name was not found in the Book of Life was thrown into the lake of fire.”  (Revelation 20:15)

Great meme I saw the other day, “If the living knew what the dead know, the whole world would follow Jesus Christ.”  

I forgot one question people might ask in relation to my initial statement, “What about all the other ways to God?” None exist. Let me repeat that another way, “No other way exists where people can come to God except through Jesus Christ.”

How do I know that? “that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
    in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
 and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,
    to the glory of God the Father.” (Phillipians 2:10 – 11)

That means literally everyone, the living and the dead, those who, when living, heard about Jesus and those who had not, those who followed Jesus and those who tried every other way will all acknowledge that Christ is Lord – some to their great joy and others to their great sorrow.

So here’s the only question of relevance you need to answer.  “Who is Jesus?”  

Think carefully before you give your final answer.  

Lesson 12: Israel rebels against God

God promised Abraham – “To your offspring, I will give this land.”  (Genesis 12:7)

God promised Isaac – “For to you and your descendants I will give all these lands and will confirm the oath I swore to your father Abraham.”  (Genesis 26:3)

God promised Jacob renamed Israel – “The land I gave to Abraham and Isaac I also give to you, and I will give this land to your descendants after you.” (Genesis 35:12)

Moses repeated to God the promise God had made – “I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and I will give your descendants all this land I promised them, and it will be their inheritance forever.”  (Exodus 32:13)

So, the people of Israel which had been rescued from Egypt and now had the tabernacle, the sacrificial system, and manna in the wilderness, came to Kadesh Barnea which will (eventually) become the southern border of the promised land of Israel.

God directs Moses to send out twelve spies to explore the promised land and to deliver a report to the people of Israel.  One member from each of the twelve tribes is selected to spy out the land.  They return forty days later bringing some of the fruit of the land as well as a cluster of grapes which had to be carried by two men on a pole.  Then they gave the report.

“We went into the land to which you sent us, and it does flow with milk and honey! Here is its fruit. But the people who live there are powerful, and the cities are fortified and very large. We even saw descendants of Anak there. The Amalekites live in the Negev; the Hittites, Jebusites, and Amorites live in the hill country; and the Canaanites live near the sea and along the Jordan.”  (Numbers 13:27 – 29)

And so, the spies have given a factual report of the makeup of the land and the disposition of its peoples. Caleb, from the tribe of Judah and one of the spies, then exclaims to all the Israelites, “We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it.” (Numbers 13:30)

And this is when the problem began.

The other spies (besides Joshua from the tribe of Ephraim, which we’ll hear from in a moment) give a different commentary about their experience, “’We can’t attack those people; they are stronger than we are.’ And they spread among the Israelites a bad report about the land they had explored. They said, ‘The land we explored devours those living in it. All the people we saw there are of great size. We saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim). We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them.’” (Numbers 13:31 – 33)

Here’s what should have happened at this point: the entire Israelite community should have remembered God’s promises to the patriarchs of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob where God reiterated, “I will give this land to your descendants.”  At the very least, they should have remembered the God of judgment who used the plagues against Egypt to redeem them from bondage and brought them to the doorstep of the promised land.  They should have remembered the God who gave them manna from heaven, who chastised them when they rebelled, and took them through the Red Sea to escape the Egyptian army.  And they should have remembered the God who was present with them through everything.

That’s not what happened.

Instead, they wanted to chuck God aside along with Moses, their leader, and Aaron, their high priest, and choose another leader to TAKE THEM BACK TO EGYPT AND SLAVERY!  (Numbers 14:2 – 4)  They were going to choose the miserable past that they remembered and give into the fear of the future because they didn’t trust God.

Moses and Aaron fell face down in front of the community, and Joshua and Caleb tore their clothes (expressing extreme grief) and stated, “The land we passed through and explored is exceedingly good. If the Lord is pleased with us, he will lead us into that land, a land flowing with milk and honey, and will give it to us. Only do not rebel against the Lord. And do not be afraid of the people of the land, because we will devour them. Their protection is gone, but the Lord is with us. Do not be afraid of them.”  (Numbers 14:7 – 9)

And the Israelites, reminded of the power of God, decided in their wisdom that they should stone these men to death.

Then the glory of the Lord appears, and He asks Moses, “How long will these people treat me with contempt?”  In fact, God decides to wipe out the nation of Israel and to make Moses into a new nation.  But Moses speaks to God and tells him that it would not be a good witness if God destroys Israel (as much as they deserved it).  Egyptians would say, “Their God was unable to bring them into the promised land, so He slaughtered them in the desert.”  (Numbers 14:13 – 16)

Then Moses asks God to forgive the people and God does.  However, the sin of Israel’s rebellion has a consequence.  “Nevertheless, as surely as I live and as surely as the glory of the Lord fills the whole earth, not one of those who saw my glory and the signs I performed in Egypt and in the wilderness but who disobeyed me and tested me ten times—not one of them will ever see the land I promised on oath to their ancestors. No one who has treated me with contempt will ever see it. “  (Numbers 14:21 – 23)

Then God tells them to turn back.  The adults are condemned to wander a year for each day the land was explored – forty years in total.  The only adults who will be allowed to enter the land will be the two spies, Joshua and Caleb, who encouraged the people to take the land.  (Numbers 14:25 – 35)

The ten other spies who stirred up the people against God die from a plague God inflicts on them.  Their names are recorded in Numbers 13, but Joshua and Caleb will be the ones remembered.  (Numbers 14:36 – 38)

And when Moses reported what the Lord had said to the people, they rightly mourned bitterly.  However, they refused to listen to God to turn back from the land and decided they would try to correct their mistake by going into the land as the Lord had originally intended.  Disaster overtook them as they had failed to heed the words of God.  They were beaten back by the inhabitants of the land because God did not go with them. (Numbers 14:39 – 45)

The only good thing that came out of all this is that those condemned to die in the desert faithfully taught their children who entered the promised land to respect the Lord.  (As recorded by the actions of the “children” who finally enter the land in the book of Joshua)

Why should we study this episode of history as an End Time prophecy lesson?  Because we see evidence of a rebellion against God today and know that at the end time, a people will also rebel against God, refuse to heed His words, rely on His promises, and then suffer the judgment that He directs.

Let’s talk about one area today.  When does life begin?  Some would have you believe that it begins when the baby is born.  After all, we do celebrate “birthdays.”  However, the Bible presents a different viewpoint – “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.”  (Psalm 139:13)

Just because a baby is not yet born does not mean that life hasn’t already begun.  It’s still a crime when a pregnant mother is murdered such that the criminal can also be charged with the murder of the unborn baby.  (See the Unborn Victims of Violence Act of 2004)

If that doesn’t convince you then let’s take it to a further extreme.  Suppose the initial birth of Jesus were to happen in the present day.  By rights, Mary, having been informed that the Holy Spirit was to conceive a child in her womb, could conceivably change her mind and then could have the “right” to terminate the fetus, Jesus.  What if she chose to do just that? 

We might as well just bring the baby to birth and then throw them into the fire like the pagans and the Israelites did when they offered their children to Molek.  (Leviticus 20:1 – 5; 2 Chronicles 33:6)

God’s judgment will come in due time.  Just because something is lawful doesn’t make it right.  Just ask the people sent to concentration camps and murdered by Nazi Germany.  Just ask the Ukrainians who starved to death when the Soviets took their grain to feed the Russians.

So, what am I trying to tell you?  Do not rebel against God – you won’t like the consequences.