Calvary Road Baptist Church

“HOW GOD PROTECTS HIS PEOPLE” Part 2 

Last time we dealt with God’s protection of His people in a very top-down and broadly general approach over the broad sweep of history, from the Garden of Eden at the beginning of human history to the Theocratic Kingdom at the end of human history before the eternal state. We agreed that there are several recognizable phases of God’s dealings with mankind in human history, beginning with the antediluvian era, meaning before the deluge, Noah’s Flood. During that time, we know God permitted Satan to employ a serpent to seduce Eve in the Garden of Eden, and we know angelic beings made headway in their efforts to oppose the plan and purpose of God by contaminating the human race with racial hybrids, Genesis 6.2.

Perhaps God protected His people via the ministry of the Holy Spirit in some way, since Genesis 6.3 opens with the words, 

“And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man.” 

The implication might be that the Holy Spirit worked during that era to oppose demonic activity. Still, that type of work would be terminated, with God finally protecting the human race in that era by wiping out the lost world and preserving humanity’s future in Noah, his wife, his sons, and their wives with the Ark that Noah built.

Next, there was the postdiluvian world, the world after the Flood. Recall that Genesis chapters 8-11 record the history of the human race from God’s deliverance of the eight with the Ark until He appeared to Abram.[1] Genesis chapter eleven records the building of the tower of Babel associated with the rise of idolatry and demonic activity,[2] which resulted in God’s judgment by the confusion of languages.

Idolatry did spread throughout the earth, and with idols, of course, demons. But God’s direct intervention into the affairs of the human race, by the confusion of languages that induced the worldwide scattering, doubtless impeded idolatry’s progress from what would have been the case with everyone speaking the same language. India is the most idolatrous region of the world. Imagine how much worse the idolatry of that region would be if those who lived there spoke a single language. As it stands, Hinduism claims ten million deities.[3]

This is not to say that those who speak the same language and who embrace only one god are not also subject to demonic activity. The Arab world is almost all Muslim, worshiping Allah and owning Mohammed as his last prophet. Yet my many Arabic-speaking friends born and living in the Middle East embrace the conviction that the Muslim Allah, and his description in the Quran, shows him to be Satan. Illustrating? Illustrating that a multiplicity of false gods is not the only kind of idolatry that afflicts the lost of this world.

Back to Babylon and the confusion of languages. Lost to the Pentecostal and Charismatic communities are God’s warnings by intervention in human languages that are always associated with divine judgment. I again get a bit ahead of myself, but consider God’s displeasure with mankind at Babel and the confusion of tongues, Genesis 11.7, God’s displeasure with the kingdom of Judah during the reign of Hezekiah for their wretched stupidity, Isaiah 28.11-12,[4] and God’s warning of impending judgment via the gift of tongues, First Corinthians 14.21-22, fulfilled when the Roman legions sacked Jerusalem in 70 AD and dispersed the Jewish people in what is now termed the Diaspora. Can you call it protection when God warns, but no one listens?

The third phase of God’s dealings with the human race could be termed the patriarchal phase. We read in the book of Job, the story of that Gentile patriarch. Still, the main emphasis during the patriarchal phase is the attention paid to Abram and God’s covenant promise made to him, restated to his son, Isaac, and his grandson, Jacob, and the nation from Jacob, now named Israel. Would securing the slave named Hagar have been a demonic attempt to introduce an Egyptian idolater into Abraham’s household? If so, it succeeded.

What about the idols Rachel stole from her father, Genesis 31.30-35? Though later discovered and removed, demons are always associated with idols, First Corinthians 10.20. Adding to our familiarity with the assault on Job by Satan, we touched on God’s intervention to protect Sarah and Rebekah, the angels sent to Sodom to protect Lot and his family, and the angel sent to protect Hagar and her son Ishmael. Perhaps demonic assaults against Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were preemptively muted by God in a way not done for Job.

The fourth phase of God’s dealings with the human race is unique in that God’s dealings over that span are almost exclusively with Israel, the covenant nation, from the time of Moses and under the authority of the Law of Moses given at Mount Sinai following the Exodus. Do not think the construction of the golden calf when Moses was atop Mount Sinai did not result from demonic influence or the subversion of the Jewish people at the direction of Balaam.[5] We will learn more of God’s means of protecting the children of Israel in the weeks ahead.

The fifth phase of God’s dealings with the human race shifted from the Jewish people as a covenant nation to the Church of Jesus Christ. This will be the focus of our attention, so I will say no more about it here.

The sixth phase begins after the Rapture of Church Age believers in Christ, when follows seven years variously referred to as the 70th week of Daniel,[6] the time of Jacob’s trouble,[7] and the time of Great Tribulation.[8] The Antichrist and the false prophet will come on the scene during that time.[9] As well, a peace treaty will be signed and a new Temple will be built in Jerusalem. All will seem well.

Then, midway through the 70th week of Daniel, the Antichrist will desecrate the Temple, referred to by the Lord Jesus Christ as “the abomination of desolation,” and the worst persecution ever visited upon God’s people will begin.[10] What about Divine protection during that phase of God’s dealings with the human race? He will provide complete protection for the souls of His own, but seemingly little protection from physical assault, torture, and martyrdom. Millions will be given the privilege of dying rather than denying the Savior.

Then comes the Second Coming of Christ in power and great glory to take possession of this world and establish His millennial kingdom.[11] With the Devil (and presumably the demons) bound for a thousand years and the Lord Jesus Christ ruling with a rod of iron, the Theocratic Kingdom will be a relatively benign time.

Babies will be born sinners, to be sure. Sinners will need to repent and trust Christ to be saved. But the environment will be the most conducive to righteous living since the Garden of Eden. Imagine it. The glorified Christ seated on the throne of His father David, ruling in righteousness. Overt sinfulness will be dealt with immediately and justly. In short, the Kingdom will be characterized by righteousness, obedience, holiness, truth, the fulness of the Holy Spirit, peace, joy, glory, comfort, justice, knowledge, an absence of the curse, removal of sickness, healing of the deformed, protection, freedom from oppression, maturity, childbearing, prosperity, and so much more.[12]

You couldn’t imagine a better situation this side of eternity, yet when the Devil who was bound for a thousand years is loosed a final time, he finds willing participants among the unconverted human population to join his short-lived revolt that will end in him being cast into the lake of fire and brimstone to be tormented day and night for ever and ever. The protection of God’s people by Christ’s majestic presence during His millennial kingdom will not be enough of a deterrent to prevent the unsaved offspring of millennium believers from siding with the Devil and vainly seeking to overthrow the Son of God. They and the Devil will fail, completely, miserably, damnably, and eternally.

Let us now circle back, to borrow a phrase from President Biden’s frequently unprepared and typically dishonest press secretary, to drill down on the way God protects His people during the era of human history in which we live. What do we generally know about our era from the Bible, the Age of the Churches? A number of things: 

To summarize, for each individual, it can be said that God is not willing that you should perish, but that you should come to repentance and faith in Christ. When you come to faith in Christ, it is God’s will for you to be baptized by the authority of a duly constituted Church of Jesus Christ. That makes you a member of the Church, where you are to be trained to serve God effectively and within the accountability structure of a divinely instituted authority whose head is Christ.

To state the issue from another angle, there is no instance in the New Testament where it can be definitely ascertained that a Christian is not properly, eventually, in a Church relationship. In other words, there is no plan B for Christians other than membership and involvement in a local Church congregation. 

Next, SOME OBSERVATIONS RELATED TO GOD’S PROTECTION OF HIS PEOPLE DURING THIS ERA, THE AGE OF THE CHURCHES 

Let us order our considerations to five main topics:

First, concerning Satanic assaults. We know that while Satan attacked Eve in the Garden of Eden, he did not attack her directly. He used an intermediary tool, the serpent, to entice, seduce, and deceive Eve.[21] There is no doubt that Satan attacked Job directly, without the use of an intermediary. He attacked Job’s prosperity, killed Job’s children, and ruined Job’s physical health. However, because of God’s sovereign and omnipotent restraint, he could do no more than that. Job’s life was spared.[22] The Devil also went after David, “And Satan stood up against Israel, and provoked David to number Israel,” First Chronicles 21.1. What is meant by the word “provoked?” The Hebrew word two means to incite, to allure, to instigate.[23] What was Satan doing at the high priest Joshua’s right hand, in Zechariah 3.1? 

“And he shewed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the LORD, and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him.” 

The Hebrew word is Satan, but it is also the Hebrew word translated resist. Thus, Satan was sataning the high priest Joshua. But that occurred in the previous era of the Mosaic Law period, as did the Devil’s temptations of the Lord Jesus Christ in the wilderness.

During the Lord’s earthly ministry, and after He brought into existence the institution of the Church of Jesus Christ, we read of a Jewish woman’s affliction, in Luke 13.16: 

“And ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound, lo, these eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the sabbath day?” 

Here we have an indication of what Satan can do in our era if permitted to do so by God.

What else does the Devil do in our era, during the Church Age? We know he seduced Judas Iscariot, luring him to betray the Lord for thirty pieces of silver, which fulfilled an Old Testament prediction,[24] and actually entered him at some point, Luke 22.3 and John 13.27. First Peter 5.8-9 warns us, 

8  Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the Devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:

9  Whom resist stedfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world. 

Does it not appear that the Devil can sometimes attack a person’s physical health, sometimes resulting in a chronic condition that is debilitating? And sometimes, he can so influence a person’s thoughts that he succeeds in seducing a person to sin. Would these incidents and this warning not suggest that some physical maladies are the result of a spiritual attack? Would this not also suggest that some mental issues are the result of a spiritual attack? Yet, have you ever heard of a psychiatrist who addressed spiritual matters with their patients? Not likely, because psychiatrists categorically reject the notion of a spiritual anything. And when was the last time you heard of a health care provider addressing the possibility that a patient’s physical problem had a spiritual origin?

Next, concerning demonic activity. Suppose Satan, originally known as Lucifer, was the first of God’s creatures created before He spoke the physical universe into existence. In that case, it is no reach to suppose that Lucifer was the most powerful, most beautiful, most intelligent, and most capable of the angelic host of whom he was but the first. Scripture seems to support this.[25] When Lucifer rebelled against God, it seems he succeeded in persuading one-third of the angelic host to follow in his rebellion. I am persuaded Revelation 12.4 speaks to this: 

“And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth.” 

Understand that I am operating with the assumption that “the stars of heaven” in Revelation 12.4, and the phrase “the sons of God” in Genesis 6.2, 4 and Job 38.7, and the phrase “the morning stars,” also in Job 38.7, refer to angels created by God before Genesis 1.1, brought into existence as nonphysical beings before God created time, space, and matter.

What happened to those originally holy angels who followed in the Devil’s rebellion against God? They became sinful angels when they rebelled against God’s rule. As Lucifer became Satan, the Devil, they (at least those who are presently among us at this time) are demons, foul spirits. Though we will pursue this more thoroughly in the future, we are agreed that demons are capable of doing two kinds of things to people, after the fashion of their leader, Satan: First, they can physically afflict them in various ways. Second, they can mentally influence them in multiple ways.

Physical affliction can occur in a variety of ways. On the East side of the Sea of Galilee is a region known as Gadara. The Savior encountered a man who possessed thousands of demons, possibly because incorporeal beings like angels and demons occupy no physical space.[26] Mary Magdalene was possessed by seven demons.[27] Shortly after His transfiguration, the Lord Jesus Christ rebuked a demon afflicting a boy he indwelt so as to cause seizures. The seizures stopped when the demons were cast out of the boy.[28] These things still occur in our day.

What about the mental influencing of people? This is alluded to by the Apostle Paul in First Timothy 4.1, where he writes to Timothy saying, 

“Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils.” 

The seducing spirits are demons, fallen angels, minions of Satan. What do they traffic in besides physically afflicting some people? The “doctrines of devils.” The teachings of demons.

What is essential to notice that is of particular significance is the end game of demonic doctrine. “Some shall depart from the faith.” This is the direct result of being seduced into believing what the foul spirits propagate as truth, as okay, as not harmful, or as an inconsequential exercise. And since we know that the Devil’s sins are always and only pride and lies, it would not be presumptuous for us to expect demonic doctrine to, #1, be untrue, and, #2, to be accompanied by pride. And do not those who hold to various errors usually suppose themselves to be superior, typically suppose themselves to be lofty, routinely think of themselves as sophisticated, and suppose themselves to be urbane?

“Believe the Bible? That’s for children.” “Be wary of Eastern religions? Ha! I am well-educated.” That’s where they get you. Play with Ouija boards. Imagine occultism is harmless. Convince yourself there is no danger. But the conviction that there is no danger is a demonic doctrine, and evidence that you have already been seduced by the Devil’s agents.

If the whole world lies in wickedness, First John 5.19, then anything that has a non-biblical origin is dangerous. No wonder the Apostle Paul described his spiritual warfare strategy as a campaign for people’s thoughts, revealing it to be a matter of one’s mind, and likened to a fortress to be taken, Second Corinthians 10.4-5: 

4  (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;)

5  Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. 

Third, concerning angelic ministry. We remember noting the activity of angels protecting Lot and his family, Hagar and Ishmael, and their special ministry to the Savior after Satanic temptations, both in the wilderness at the beginning of His earthly ministry, Matthew 4.11, and in the Garden of Gethsemane before His arrest, Luke 22.43. Then there was the activity of the angel Gabriel, mentioned in Daniel 8.16 and 9.21. He also made appearances to Zecharias, the father of John the Baptist, Luke 1.19, and the Virgin Mary, Luke 1.26. I suspect Gabriel was the unnamed angel of God who appeared to Joseph in his dream, in Matthew 1.20.

There was an occasion, shortly after the deaths of Ananias and Sapphira, that God dispatched an angel to free the apostles who had been arrested, Acts 5.18-19. An angel directed the deacon Philip to leave Samaria and go to Gaza, where he subsequently brought the Ethiopian eunuch to Christ, Acts 8.26. Recall the incident of the angel speaking to the Roman centurion, Cornelius, Acts 10.3. That led to the Apostle Peter’s arrival at his home and his witness that the Gospel had spread to the Gentiles.

Remember when Herod martyred the Apostle James and imprisoned Peter? Peter was guarded by four four-person squads, Acts 12.4.[29] While he was sleeping in his cell between two of those soldiers, chained to them, God answered the prayers of the congregation for him by dispatching an angel, who shined a light on him in the dark cell, smacked him on the side to wake him up, and directed him put on his clothes and sandals and follow him to freedom. For most of that series of events, Peter thought he was dreaming.[30] That same Herod was later killed by one of God’s angels for not giving the glory to God, Acts 10.23.

Then, in Acts 27.23, Paul spoke to his shipmates, telling them of an angel that appeared to him and encouraged him, providing directions to preserve their lives through the terrible storm. Hebrews 1.13-14 reads, 

13 But to which of the angels said he at any time, Sit on my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool?

14 Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation? 

This passage is misunderstood by those who think this refers to a so-called guardian angel in the life of a believer. “Rather, the pronoun (in verse 14) is collective and refers to the fact that believers are served by angels in general. These angels are pictured ‘always’ watching the face of God so as to hear His command to them to help a believer when needed. It is extremely serious to treat any believer with contempt since God and the holy angels are so concerned for their well-being.”[31]

This compliments First Peter 1.12, which reads, 

“Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things, which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven; which things the angels desire to look into.” 

The word “themselves” refers to the prophets mentioned in the previous two verses, being very careful in their inquiries, diligent in their searches, who prophesied the Gospel message, which men with the Holy Ghost now preach sent down from heaven. The last phrase of verse 12 informs us that the angels, also, are still keenly interested in this matter.

Has God used, and perhaps does God still use, angels during this era in which we live? Most assuredly, even though His use of angels in His dealings with His people seems to be quite infrequent. That said, I recollect no New Testament examples of angels being used during our era to protect Christians from Satanic and demonic attacks. 

Time constraints require that we stop here. Lord willing, we will resume our consideration of God’s protection of His people during this era in which we live next time.

I plan to address the protection of God’s people within the context of Church congregations and congregational shepherds, which are pastors.

__________

[1] Genesis 12.1-3; Acts 7.2-3

[2] First Corinthians 10.20 shows the connection between idolatry and demonism.

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Hindu_deities

[4] Matthew Henry, Matthew Henry’s Commentary On The Whole Bible, (Bronson, MI: Online Publishing, Inc., 2002), bible@mail.com

[5] Numbers 22-24; 31.8, 16; Deuteronomy 23.4-5; Joshua 13.22; 24.9-10; Nehemiah 13.2; Micah 6.5; 2 Peter 2.15; Jude 11; Revelation 2.14

[6] Daniel 9.27

[7] Jeremiah 30.7

[8] Matthew 24

[9] Revelation 13-17; 19.20; 20.10

[10] Matthew 24.15

[11] Revelation 19.11-20.10

[12] J. Dwight Pentecost, Things To Come, (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Publishing House, 1958), pages 482-490.

[13] Matthew 10.1-4; Luke 6.13-16; 1 Corinthians 12.28

[14] Matthew 16.16-18

[15] Matthew 18.15-22; Romans 16.17-18; 1 Corinthians 5.1-13; Titus 3.10-11

[16] John 20.22; 1 Corinthians 3.16 (Church congregation is the temple of God); 1 Corinthians 6.19 (Christian’s body is the temple of the Spirit)

[17] Matthew 28.18-20

[18] Mark 16.15; 2 Peter 3.9

[19] Acts 2.41, 46; Romans 6.3-5; Ephesians 4.5; 1 Peter 3.21

[20] Ephesians 4.11-16

[21] Genesis 3.1-5; 1 Timothy 2.14

[22] Job 1-2

[23] Francis Brown, S. R. Driver & Charles A. Briggs, The New Brown-Driver-Briggs-Gesenius Hebrew And English Lexicon, (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 1979), page 694.

[24] Zechariah 11.12-13; Matthew 26.15; 27.3, 9

[25] Ezekiel 28.12-19

[26] Mark 5.1-15; Luke 8.26-39

[27] Luke 8.2

[28] Matthew 17.14-18

[29] John F. Walvoord & Roy B. Zuck, General Editors, The Bible Knowledge Commentary: New Testament, (Colorado Springs, CO: David C. Cook, 1983), page 384.

[30] Acts 12.5-11

[31] See footnote for Hebrews 1:14 and Matthew 18:10 from John MacArthur, The MacArthur Study Bible, (Nashville: Word Publishing, 1997), page 1426 and page 1898.

Would you like to contact Dr. Waldrip about this sermon? Please contact him by clicking on the link below. Please do not change the subject within your email message. Thank you.

Pastor@CalvaryRoadBaptist.Church