Transcription
So chapter 17 has three parts, if as you read it. The first six verses are exposing Satan's plan, explaining it, and then how God extinguishes it. So let's go through the big picture.
Now you can summarize the whole chapter. You know, if you pick this as the one you were writing your summary, this is what I wrote. I'm just reading you when I did the devotional study. This is what I wrote: Lost humanity wants to have a god that fits them. So, every culture has invented their own form of Cain's making his own way to God. Remember Cain, um, God wanted a bloody sacrifice from the flock, and Cain brought him a pumpkin or a squash. I don't know what he brought him, a cob of corn, something that he grew. He made his own way to God, not God's way, his own way. These false religions are based on some form of works. Remember Paul said, "If anybody preaches any other gospel to you, let them be anathema, let them be accursed, damned. If they have a works or human achievement form of religion." So what does God do in chapter 17? He destroys religion.
Now, how did we get to this point? Well, when you study Genesis, see, what's so interesting is the whole book of Revelation is finishing what Genesis started. Genesis starts it, Revelation finishes it. Okay? Satan's goal in Genesis was for humans, God's creations, to abandon God's way. Remember Genesis 3, we call this the fall. Creation 1 and 2 of Genesis, the fall, chapter 3 and 4. Uh, and then the flood, 6 through 8. You all know the the order of Genesis. Uh, I think Mark Stout teaches that. Uh, doubt God's word. Do you remember what Satan said to Eve? He questioned God. "Did God really say that?" That, remember I told you when I was at Michigan State University, my English professor smoking came out to the class and said, "You don't really believe the Bible, do you?" You know, he was an antichrist. He was making people doubt God's word. Then doubt God's goodness. Satan said to Eve, "God said you shouldn't eat." What? God's not good. That's good for you. You understand? Doubting God's word, doubting God's goodness, doubting God's authority. Satan says, "No, you won't die." No, no, no. God God doesn't have authority over you. Doubt God's plan. "Your eyes will be opened." He He had a new way for enlightenment, for knowing spiritual secrets. Doubt God's plan. So make your own way to God. That's religion.
Genesis 4:3, Cain became the first one. As it tells us in First John, he brought an offering of the fruit of the ground to the Lord, instead of what God wanted. He brought his own thing. That's religion. So lesson number one, Satan's first convert was Cain. 1 John 3 says, "Not as Cain who was of the wicked one." Remember I told you he's the only person mentioned in First John. Cain of the wicked one. That's one of the terms for Satan. He murdered his brother. Jesus already said in John 8:44, "Satan was a murderer from the beginning and a liar and the father of it." Why did he murder him? Because his works were evil and his brother's were righteous. See, the the lost hate the light and they want to extinguish it.
Um, Satan's church began officially at the Tower of Babel. Uh, Satan, his first follower was Cain, but the organized part began at Babel, the Tower of Babel. In Genesis 11, they said, "Let us build ourselves a city and a tower whose top is in the heaven. Let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth." We don't want to do what God said. God said, "Spread out, be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth." They said, "No, we don't want to. We want to stick together. We're going to build a cloud to heaven. I mean, a tower to heaven. We're going to we're going to do this this organized tower of Babel." Well, what happened? The final religion began back then, an anti-God idolatrous polytheistic what we see in all the religions of the world. This is what Paul said in Galatians. "But even if we are an angel from heaven preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached, let him be accursed. As we've said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel than what you've received, let him be accursed." [Music]