Latest / Pastor John Piper's answers / Why Satan Persists

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Why Satan Persists · Pastor John Piper's answers

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  Speaker 1: Welcome back to the podcast. Today's question incorporates a lot
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  Speaker 1: of Bible readings from the Navigator's Bible reading plan that
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  Speaker 1: we're working our way through right now. That's late in November,
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  Speaker 1: and Pastor John, over the next two weeks of our readings,
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  Speaker 1: we come across so much detail about Satan that it's
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  Speaker 1: really it's unreal and concentrated in just ten readings from
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  Speaker 1: November nineteenth to December third, so we're right in the
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  Speaker 1: middle of this. Here. We're encountering Satan's initial fall in
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  Speaker 1: Jude one six, his devastating power over one family in
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  Speaker 1: Job one and two, and over the whole world in
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  Speaker 1: John twelve thirty one and first John five nineteen we
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  Speaker 1: see him at work in his deceptions of this world,
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  Speaker 1: and second John one seven we see that he throws
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  Speaker 1: believers into prison and Revelation to ten and enters Judas's
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  Speaker 1: heart in John thirteen twenty seven. The church is called
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  Speaker 1: the resist Satan's hold over an entire city in Revelation
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  Speaker 1: two thirteen. Satan is rebuked by Michael the archangel in
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  Speaker 1: Jude one nine, and by Jesus himself in John fourteen thirty.
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  Speaker 1: As you scan over this high concentration of references to
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  Speaker 1: Satan and his works that we are encountering right now
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  Speaker 1: in our Bible readings. What stands out to you in particular.
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  Speaker 2: Well, what stands out tony is Satan exists. I mean
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  Speaker 2: this is I mean we a biblical worldview, is a
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  Speaker 2: wildly supernatural world views. Yes, he exists. He exists period.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, that's just shockingly real. He exists in spite
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  Speaker 2: of the fact. This is the second aspect of what
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  Speaker 2: stands out. He exists in spite of the fact that
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  Speaker 2: he is totally dependent on God for his existence. There's
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  Speaker 2: nothing in Satan himself that has any claim on God.
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  Speaker 2: As if God had to let him exist with his
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  Speaker 2: terrible influence. He doesn't and he won't. Revelation twenty ten
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  Speaker 2: says the devil who had deceived them the nations, was
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  Speaker 2: thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur, where the
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  Speaker 2: beast and the false prophet were, and they will be
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  Speaker 2: tormented day and night forever endeavor. He is coming to
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  Speaker 2: an end. The existence and activity of Satan among God's
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  Speaker 2: people will come to an end. God had authority to
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  Speaker 2: cast him out of heaven. Jesus has authority to command
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  Speaker 2: the unclean spirits to do whatever he wants them to do.
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  Speaker 2: God puts limits on Satan's ability to do his damage.
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  Speaker 2: As with job, you can go this far and no farther.
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  Speaker 2: Satan is not free, He has no right to exist.
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  Speaker 2: It is God's pure sovereign will that allows him to
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  Speaker 2: go on existing, and he will be put out of
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  Speaker 2: this world completely at God's appointed time. That's what stands out,
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  Speaker 2: and that's what cries out before an explanation, yes, like
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  Speaker 2: why God do you allow Satan to go on doing
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  Speaker 2: so much damage in this world when you are free
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  Speaker 2: to destroy him at any time. I looked back Tony
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  Speaker 2: through the archives and realized we've touched on this several
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  Speaker 2: times for decades. This has been a big issue for me.
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  Speaker 2: We've done as pastor John two thousand and eight was
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  Speaker 2: before we existed. We got Apj's before Abj's, before there
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  Speaker 2: wasn't APJ. I was trying to answer a question hit
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  Speaker 2: and miss, and then along came Maybe Jaysho twenty fourteen.
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  Speaker 2: We wrestled with this question why does Satan go on existing?
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  Speaker 2: But since those days there's several efforts to come to
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  Speaker 2: terms with this. I've written a big book on providence.
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  Speaker 2: In that book, published in twenty twenty, I gave my
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  Speaker 2: best effort, my most mature effort, to explain the meaning
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  Speaker 2: of Satan's ongoing existence. So let me try to condense
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  Speaker 2: into just a few more minutes what I said in
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  Speaker 2: that book about this crucial, crucial question. I argued that
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  Speaker 2: God is defeating Satan, not all at once, which he could,
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  Speaker 2: but through four fo r through four processes, all designed
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  Speaker 2: to reveal more of the greatness and beauty and worth
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  Speaker 2: of Christ. In other words, the progressive defeat is designed
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  Speaker 2: to show more of Christ. He's defeating Satan, and I
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  Speaker 2: use these four s's just for literary effect and memory.
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  Speaker 2: He's defeating Satan with showing. He's defeating Satan with suffering,
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  Speaker 2: He's defeating Satan with Satan himself, and he's defeating Satan
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  Speaker 2: with savoring. Let me just say a word about each
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  Speaker 2: of those. God is defeating Satan with showing. As Satan
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  Speaker 2: goes on existing, there are confrontations between him and Christ
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  Speaker 2: which show aspects of Christ's glory that wouldn't have been
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  Speaker 2: seen other ways. When Christ heals the woman who'd been
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  Speaker 2: bent over for eighteen years by Satan, it says Satan
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  Speaker 2: bent this woman over. She can stand up for eighteen years.
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  Speaker 2: And Luke tells us when Jesus heals this woman Chapter thirteen,
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  Speaker 2: verse seventeen of Luke, Jesus adversaries were put to shame,
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  Speaker 2: and all the people rejoice at all the glorious things
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  Speaker 2: that were done by him. That's a glimpse. I think
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  Speaker 2: that versus a glimpse into how God uses Satan to
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  Speaker 2: reveal more of Christ's glory. In chapter eighteen of Providence,
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  Speaker 2: my book Providence, I described ten ways that God is
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  Speaker 2: superior over Satan in the outworking of history. And I
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  Speaker 2: think every one of those ten ways could be unpacked
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  Speaker 2: as a way of God's displaying more of his glory
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  Speaker 2: because of Satan's ongoing existence than if he had simply
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  Speaker 2: snapped his finger and put Satan out of existence with
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  Speaker 2: a demonstration of his power all at once. So that's
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  Speaker 2: number one, by showing he's defeating Satan by showing more
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  Speaker 2: of Christ. Number two, he's defeating Satan with suffering, and
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  Speaker 2: by that I mean Christ's suffering. And then as an
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  Speaker 2: echo of this way of defeating Christ, the suffering of
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  Speaker 2: Christ's people. I know this is paradoxical because the suffering
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  Speaker 2: of Christ and the suffering of the Church throughout the
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  Speaker 2: ages looks as though Satan is getting the upper hand.
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  Speaker 2: It always looks that way, and the Bible emphatically says
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  Speaker 2: that's not what's happening. This is one of the most
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  Speaker 2: radical realities about Christianity. In Colossians two fifteen, Paul says,
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  Speaker 2: Christ set aside the record of our sinful debts by
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  Speaker 2: nailing the record of my sins and your sins to
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  Speaker 2: the cross. Thus he disarmed. This is crucial. He disarmed
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  Speaker 2: the authorities Satan, the rulers, the powers, and put them
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  Speaker 2: to an open shame by triumphing over them in him,
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  Speaker 2: which means, as I understand it, it means that by
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  Speaker 2: dying for our sins, Christ stripped from Satan's hand his
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  Speaker 2: only damning weapon, namely his ability to accuse us of
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  Speaker 2: unforgiven sin. He can no longer do that because our
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  Speaker 2: sins are paid for by Jesus. This is the decisive
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  Speaker 2: defeat of the devil. Oh, how we can preach this
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  Speaker 2: with power to our people. It means that all of
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  Speaker 2: the damage, all the damage that he can do towards
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  Speaker 2: Christ's people now is temporary. Since Christ covered all our sins.
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  Speaker 2: All the damage he can do is only temporary and
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  Speaker 2: cannot take away our victory in eternal happiness with God.
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  Speaker 2: That's a great defeat, glorious defeat. Then, the Book of
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  Speaker 2: Revelation teaches that even we, the people who enjoy this victory,
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  Speaker 2: the followers of Christ, triumph over the devil in the
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  Speaker 2: same way, namely by suffering and if necessary, dying. So
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  Speaker 2: here's Chapter twelve, verse eleven of Revelation. They have conquered
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  Speaker 2: the devil by the blood of the lamb and by
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  Speaker 2: the word of their testimony, for they love not their lives,
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  Speaker 2: even unto death. So God's path to ultimate victory over
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  Speaker 2: Satan in this world is profoundly different than the triumphalist
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  Speaker 2: notion that Christians will gain the victory by the weapons
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  Speaker 2: of this world, which is, I'm afraid, pretty rampant today.
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  Speaker 2: Number three, God is defeating Satan with Satan. When Satan
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  Speaker 2: put it in the heart of Judas to betray Jesus,
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  Speaker 2: he signed his own death warrant. God used Satan to
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  Speaker 2: defeat Satan because the death of Jesus defeats Satan. We
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  Speaker 2: see the same thing in Secwo Corinthians twelve seven, God
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  Speaker 2: appoints Satan to afflict Paul with a thorn in the flesh.
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  Speaker 2: He calls it a messenger of Satan. Then he uses it.
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  Speaker 2: God uses the thorn to sanctify Paul and deliver him
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  Speaker 2: from pride, the sin of pride, So Satan becomes a
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  Speaker 2: means of Paul's sanctification. I love to think about this.
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  Speaker 2: This is glorious. So for those who have eyes to see,
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  Speaker 2: what looks like the power of Satan to afflict is
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  Speaker 2: regularly the defeat of Satan, as God turns the affliction
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  Speaker 2: for the strengthening and the purification and the endurance of
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  Speaker 2: his people. Finally, number four, he is defeating Satan with savoring.
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  Speaker 2: This may be the most important, and what I mean
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  Speaker 2: by that is that by showing Christ to be more
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  Speaker 2: soul satisfying, God not only defeats the so called power
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  Speaker 2: of Satan, but he defeats the so called attractiveness of
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  Speaker 2: Satan and his ways. The climax of Paul's experience of
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  Speaker 2: the Satanic thorn in the flesh is when he says,
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  Speaker 2: I will boast all the more gladly in my weakness,
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  Speaker 2: so that the power of Christ may rest on me.
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  Speaker 2: That word gladly is the key defeat of Satan. Satan's
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  Speaker 2: effort to hurt Paul caused him to savor Christ. More so,
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  Speaker 2: Satan's design backfired. So my conclusion is that when God's
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  Speaker 2: people face Satan's temptations to prefer the world and to
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  Speaker 2: repudiate Christ those temptations, and instead of yielding to those
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  Speaker 2: Satanic temptations, they gladly boast in their weaknesses and losses
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  Speaker 2: because of the surpassing value, sweetness, savory, beauty of Christ.
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  Speaker 2: Satan is defeated at that moment in a most wonderful
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  Speaker 2: and thoroughgoing way. So, Tony, that's what stands out to
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  Speaker 2: me from all those texts that you cited. Satan exists.
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  Speaker 2: He opposes Christ with pains and pleasures, and every day
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  Speaker 2: in this world, as Christians faithfully bear those pains and
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  Speaker 2: prefer Christ over those pleasures, Christ is being magnified and
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  Speaker 2: Satan is being defeated.
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  Speaker 1: Amen Satan exists, which that's an amazing fact in and
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  Speaker 1: of itself. And he exists. God allows Satan to exist
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  Speaker 1: in order to progressively defeat him through Christ's glory. The
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  Speaker 1: Church is suffering Satan's own schemes and the soul satisfying
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  Speaker 1: supremacy of Christ over worldly pleasures. Wow, that has a
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  Speaker 1: lot to process in this episode. And to help you
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  Speaker 1: process it on paper, which is how I process things process,
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  Speaker 1: I have to see it on paper to process it.
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  Speaker 1: See again John Pepper's book Providence on the ten ways
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  Speaker 1: God is Superior over Satan in the Outworking of History.
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  Speaker 1: That's on pages two sixty to two seventy six in
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  Speaker 1: the Providence book. And see also the Asked Pastor John
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  Speaker 1: book on pages three point thirty one to three fifty
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  Speaker 1: three and that section on Satan, Demons and the Unforgivable Sin.
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  Speaker 1: And especially see that section on page three p. Forty
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  Speaker 1: five three about why Satan is not your greatest enemy.
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  Speaker 1: I think whenever we talk about the power of the devil,
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  Speaker 1: I think that needs to be mixed into the conversation
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  Speaker 1: as well. Satan is not your greatest enemy. See the
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  Speaker 1: as Pestrodohn book on page three forty three for that,
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  Speaker 1: alongside the Providence Book on pages two sixty to two
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  Speaker 1: seventy six. Well, how do we improve our body shape
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  Speaker 1: without getting fixated on body image? That's a tricky one,
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  Speaker 1: and that's up next time. I'm Tony Ranky will see
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  Speaker 1: you on Thursday.