If Satan Is Bound, Why Is He Described as a Lion, Seeking Someone to Devour?

Ms. Brown why is he described as a roaring lion, seeking to devour someone that is one of the questions will be answering on today's edition of core Christianity hi this is Bill Meyer along with pastor Gabriel Sanchez and this is the radio program where we answer your questions about the Bible and the Christian life every day. Our phone lines are open right now you can call us with your question.

For the next 2025 minutes or so, here's the number it's 833 the core that's 1-833-843-2673. By the way, you can also watch a drill live in the studio right now on our YouTube channel and you can send us a message. That way you can also email us anytime at questions@corechristianity.com now one of the voicemails we received recently has to do with Santa Claus. So before we listen to that voicemail just a little heads up for parents if you got young children listening you don't want to hear this particular response, then you might want to keep them occupied elsewhere. Here is call we received from Carolyn in California. My handwriting.

When you try to write about because admin brought up under case. Not real Easter Bunny not real backlight is real down a figure in the long run to find out if they didn't really either how in the world about approaching this problem not funny that confusing and difficult. Thank you. I take Carolyn thank you for that question. I love these questions, you know, related to raising our children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord in the first thing I would say is if the way in which we talk about Jesus is similar to how we talk about Santa Claus and the tooth fairy that will lose the first problem right there. If we only talk to our kids, you know once a year about Jesus is a sort of distant individual who is there and that we were not talking about Christ, the risen Lord who is impacting every single middle part of our lives in every single day of our life that that that's part of the problem that you said there's a lot of confusion that kids have about Jesus and I think they think of that can be true. One thing I want you to know is that the gospel is for little children, Jesus welcomes the little children to himself. In Matthew chapter 11 when he's praying said thank you, father, Lord of heaven and earth. You hidden these things from the wise and the prudent and you've revealed them to the little children, that is the gospel message of Jesus who Jesus is what Jesus has done is for little children, one of the things that I think is amazing throughout Scripture that we oftentimes overlook is how God oftentimes works in and through the littlest among us. I was just thinking about that that the text in Matthew chapter 21, where you have Jesus cleansing the temple we read in verse 14 the blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them.

But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he did and the children crying out in the temple. Hosanna to the son of David, they were indignant and they said to him, do you hear what these are saying. And Jesus said to them, yes.

Have you never read, out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies you have prepared praise God is at work in our children revealing himself to them and how does he do that. This is the key here. Carolyn is through the word Paul told Timothy you know that from from childhood you've you've known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation, and so we need to be raising our children up in the word, exposing them to Jesus through the Scriptures through the Gospels reading the Bible together, going to church together as a family. This should be a part of our everyday life, and if it is it'll be very clear.

This is totally different than you know the Santa Claus thing than the tooth fairy to work talking about Jesus Christ, who is a real person who came to earth, was sent to earth, for the salvation of our souls for the forgiveness of our sins suffered diet rose again and is alive today. Right now we need to be communicating that to our kids that we can approach the Lord in prayer.

One quick story I remember years ago my daughter was four. I was looking at pictures of space on my computer. You stars and nebulous is these beautiful pictures really.

I think they were put out by NASA and my daughter was looking at the computer screen and she had this trouble look on her face and I looked at her said you know what's wrong baby is everything okay and she said how come Jesus is in any of these pictures and that sort of struck me because we would talk to her about how Jesus ascended into heaven as she was imagining she so believe that Jesus is real, that he really ascended into heaven that she's expecting to see him floating by Jupiter or something like that and I explained Terry will that's not what we mean when we say that Jesus ascended into heaven, but there is this childlike faith as we talk about the word. As we communicate who Jesus is and what he did, God opens the hearts of our children and so we need to be. I think persistent and faithful as parents is grandparents to model that and to expose our children to the word of God. It's to the word that he works. Thanks.

Request great question. A great response. Thanks for that intro. By the way, at the very end of yesterday's program.

We had a call from one of our listeners named Mason in Missouri and get a question which which actually didn't get a chance to answer because around the time but I want to repeat that for you a drill. He said my work supports LGBT Q groups and other progressive communities but never religious ones, how to why remain faithful in this work environment. Yeah, I'm really sorry we got that question at the end of yesterday's broadcast and is a great question and we just did have enough time to get to and maybe Mason will give us a call back I not talk to a lot of brothers and sisters in the Lord were in these kinds of work environments and in their concern is you know might you be asked to do something or to sign something that would compromise you know Mike, my faith, my beliefs will first and foremost, we have to be faithful to the word of God to our convictions were called to love all people you know and all kinds of sinners. People that disagree with us, to be charitable, but loving people doesn't mean affirming everything that they believe or supporting everything that they believe as we have to be. We have to be wise and discerning her night and I don't want to just paint with a broad brush.

I think every sort of an example or instance needs to be observed and thought about and prayed about I and certainly anything that would go against the word of God for being called to disobey God's word in any way. We always stay faithful to the Scriptures, but it seemed like Mason's question was hey there there all the support groups for for you know the these different types of of you know whether it's LGBT or something else but but there's not really a lot of support for Christians and those who identify with the Christian faith and and frankly, this is something that were saying more and more in broader society. So how do we how do we respond will I think were called in the midst of that to continue to be faithful if there is an opportunity to start a Bible study in your worker that Connecticut's graph seen that happen before. In some environments and it can be a real blessing. If there very much against those kinds of things you having like a Christian group, I think it's fair to ask questions and say you know it sort of feels like some groups are are being privileged here and other groups may be the ones that you disagree with were not allowed to get together and to and to talk about what we believe in, and so on and so forth and so I think that you can have an honest and respectful conversation with your superiors about ultimately were called to be faithful to the Lord not to be good workers in whatever it is that that were doing faithful in our vocations and serving not as as though we were serving men, but that's as though we were serving God himself by doing all things to honor the Lord and so I want to encourage you Mason to continue to do that in your work environment and and you know, pray that the Lord allows you to do that peaceably and if ever there is an instance where you're being asked to compromise your beliefs well and in that situation are called brother to be strong and to be faithful to the word, and so God bless you and may God. May God use you.

It's you know in in in your work environment is like you even advanced there in in a position and I think that's wonderful. May God use you there to be an encouragement to others who score Christianity with pastor Israel Sanchez's our phone lines are open right now. If you have a question about the Bible, Christian life, doctrine and theology or just like Mason do questions about how your faith intersects with today's culture.

Some of the difficult points there would love to hear from you. Here's the phone number it's 833 the core that's 833-843-2673 way if you have kids or grandkids at home. We have a wonderful book available that will help them understand the richness of God's creation and how he made each of us unique and special. Yeah man. There is so much I think conversation today around the church and just broader culture about what it looks like to talk about issues of culture diversity so on and so forth. We often don't know how to approach this from a Christian perspective, a biblical perspective, we often don't know how to approach this in terms of having conversations with our children and then that's one of the reasons we wanted to offer this resource. Creative God colorful us by truly a new bell it really is a wonderful resource getting into the Scriptures. The story of of the fall, redemption how God is made us uniquely as you know human beings in his image and and what were called to get up before the Lord and before each other. This is a great women were just talking about the importance of raising our children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, and if you're looking for resources and help you get into the Scriptures with your kids and asked some of these questions. This is a great one. So head over to core Christianity.com and get your copy of creative God colorful us for a donation of any amount. There really is a fantastic resource that will not only help parents and kids learn about how God created us, us human beings to be unique can help, but also how each of us is incredibly special, you can get a copy of creative God colorful us by truly at Newburgh new Bell excuse me@corechristianity.com/offers also calls for that or any one of our offers at 833. The core lateral. Here's a voicemail we received from one of our listeners. The question about Satan. Israel I am a longtime listener of the show. I heard you refer to before on the show as being bound and I'm just curious, or how would you act when being in the same world as Satan being described as like a roaring lion, but is walking about speaking through you made about. I'm just curious as Satan bound what an actual is it like more metaphorical. Does that mean and how does it relate to his status right now.

Thank you and love this question. And thank you for being a longtime listener, so there are two passages that you bring into play here. The one is the text that speaks of the binding of Satan in Revelation chapter 20 verses one through six. There you know John has a vision.

Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding in his hand. The key to the bottomless pit and a great chain and he sees the Dragon, the ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years and threw them into the pit, and shut it and sealed it over him so that he might not deceive the nations any longer. Now that that verse there verse three. The second part of that verse is a purpose clause there. This is the purpose behind the binding of Satan that John witnesses so that he might not deceive the nations any longer, so you have this this language here Satan being bound and then you also have the other text that you brought into play is in first Peter chapter 5, where it talks about the devil you know roaming around seeking to devour verse eight be sober minded, be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. And so it sounds like your question is well is he bound.

Is he on a leash and it's a long leash any sort of roaming around you. What exactly were to make of this great question everything.

I'll say is yes. Satan is bound now. John's prophecy there. In Revelation chapter 20 raises visionary prophecies as I saw he he's giving you being given these visions and often times in the book of Revelation the these visions are highly symbolic. It doesn't mean that this didn't actually happen in history is just painted in a in a very colorful way for us to to get this imagery and understand what what's happening. So we have to be careful how we read this, but it's clear that Satan is presently bound. One thing that's helpful for us to think about here is a principle of Bible interpretation that basically goes like this, we let the clearer passages of Scripture help to interpret the less clear ones, are there any clear passages of Scripture that speak to the evil one being bound here and now today will, yes, certainly. And we find those passages in the Gospels in places like Matthew chapter 12 verse 29 or in Mark chapter 3 verse 27 where Jesus talks about himself as binding the strongman binding Satan so that he might plunder his house. Jesus made it very clear that through his earthly ministry as he's going up about casting out demons and then ultimately culminating in his death and resurrection that he has definitively defeated Satan in this in this powerful way you see this also. And in the book of Colossians in Colossians chapter 2 verse 15 Hebrews chapter 2 verse 14 talks about being of the Lord Jesus through his death and resurrection, rendering the evil one powerless and so over and over any of these clear New Testament passages that speak to what Jesus is done in his earthly ministry is having dealt this definitive blow to Satan for what purpose so that he may no longer deceive the nations. That's the point.

There, in Revelation chapter 20 verse three as of the idea here is that while Satan is presently bound.

The gospel is advancing in a way that it never has before.

Whereas before under the old covenant was only really Israel that received the light of God. Now it's it's the nations, the Gentiles are being welcomed in the gospel is going out Christ by his work is definitively bound Satan, if you will. Doesn't mean that he is not. Still, you know, deceiving and working and obviously right under God's rule and authority, but that there something unique that happen through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus that we have to account for one other passage parallel passage that I think is really important for us to go to is in the gospel of John, and I think again when one of the clear passages of Scripture help to interpret the less clear ones and John also but wrote the book of Revelation and in John chapter 12 in verse 31.

This is Jesus speaking about his death. He says in verse 31 now is the judgment of this world now will the ruler of this world be cast out these talking about Satan there and I when I am lifted up from the earth. Speaking of his is going to the cross when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself that is I'm in a draw the nations to myself. Satan is no longer permitted to deceive the nations as he once did.

Now all people are going to be drawn to me through what I've done through my Mike cross through the resurrection and that that's a great parallel text to what John also wrote and saw there in Revelation chapter 20 and so so the way we talk about this is is yet Satan is still real a real force in the world today deceiving individuals you know bleeding to to tempt individuals and lead them astray. But we know that he is a defeated foe that Christ through his work is definitively bound him, destroyed him, if you will. And now the nations are coming in through the proclamation of the gospel and so that's understand that. Thank you for your question and appreciate you listening the program your listing to core Christianity with pastor Adm. Sanchez. Just a reminder we have that great book available for parents or grandparents talking about the richness of God's creation, helping your kids understand how God has designed us each unique and special. It's called creative God colorful us threatened by truly a new bell and you can find that book out our website for donation of any amount by going to core Christianity.com/offers.

Let's go back to the phone lines. Donald is on the phone from Bakersfield, California Donna, what's your question for pastor a drill will so no and you agree will will know all of your story.

I can say that the fact that you're calling right now concerned about. This is a good sign to me and I think individuals whose hearts are so hardened that you know that it's beyond repair. You know, if you will live there totally rejected the Lord that they don't care they're not concerned with the state of their soul and so I would just say one the fact you're calling. I think is a is a positive thing. I'm grateful that you have. I want to first pray for you and I want to read a passage of Scripture to you. So father I lift Donald up to you. We don't know what in is going on in his life, his history, his background, but I do know he's way down by this question of if he's too far gone and got.

I know that there are many believers who have wrestled with the same question wondering if they have extinguished your grace if you're through with them. I pray that you would soften our brother's heart that you would give him eyes to see your great mercy and your great love found in Jesus and that he would just see that you know is is a general truth, but that he would see it for himself.

He would see God. Your love for him in Jesus your son and that he would receive it, and rested and so would you please be with Donald now in Jesus name, amen the checks I wanted to bring up to Donald is in Hebrews chapter 3. Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, today if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion. On the day of testing in the wilderness where your fathers put me to the test and saw my works for 40 years.

Therefore, I was provoked with that generation is that they always go astray in their hearts they have not known my ways as I swore in my wrath, they shall not enter my rest and then the other. The Hebrew says this. Take care brothers, lest there be any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God, exhort one another, day by day as long as just as it is called today. None of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

We have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end. One exhort you brother to Riley right now as it is called today to rest in the truth of the gospel of who Jesus is not harden your heart and as we hear the spirit of God speaking to us through his word with those promises of the gospel instead of saying that that's not for me. I'm too far gone. I don't believe brother received the sure promise of the gospel for all those who turn to Jesus Christ and believe in him, your sins are forgiven. If you are turning to the Lord.

Sincerely confessing your sin, the devil doesn't want you to believe that God would have mercy upon you, but I know I know that God is abundant in mercy and grace that he extends that grace to all who turn to him. As of today. If you hear his voice speaking to the Scriptures. I would say receive that word for yourself receive that word for yourself that you are not too far gone in and of yourself, you might be.

But guess what were talking about the Lord here who has a long arm to reach down and grab sinners broken people who have sinned and fallen, and he can lift you up and when we turn to him.

He does lift us up.

And so may the Lord grant you that grace to turn to him and I want to encourage you one book for you to to read through and to meditate upon is this book. The book of Hebrews because it's that question that often comes up in the book of Hebrews is question of hardening and trusting in Christ, clinging to Christ, who is greater than everything else at the church. What you need to focus on right now is Jesus's grace is mercy his gospel for you and I pray that the Lord blesses you and grant you the grace to do that.

Thank you. Give us a call. This is core Christianity with pastor Israel Sanchez. We received this call this question through our YouTube channel from Kristin and April. She says this could you explain Hosea 32.

The text says that Gomer was worthless. Yet Jesus paid the ultimate price for what are your thoughts on that. Well, the Hosea is one of the minor prophets in the Old Testament, and it really is a sort of this story. This picture parable almost of God's love for his unfaithful people Israel. Hosea chapter 3 verse one begins and the Lord said to me go again love a woman who is loved by another man and is an adulterous, even as the Lord loves the children of Israel, though, they turn to other gods and love cakes of raisins. So I bought her for 15 shekels of silver, and a homer and a lead tech of barley and I said to her, you must. Well, as mine for many days you shall not play the harlot or belong to another man so will I also be with you. So, it's what you have here Kristin is.

It's not that it didn't what what's happening here is you know it was.

Not denying that this this woman was made in the image of God and has dignity, but but she was a sinner.

She came to commit adultery against Hosea this profit and got a sing. This is exactly how Israel is with me now one of the beautiful things that we see in the book of Hosea is the promises of God to restore his people to call them back to himself. A sort of unfailing unending love those who were not his people were to be called his people once again and so we see here on display. The sinfulness of humanity. Our our propensity to commit spiritual adultery to turn our backs on the true and the living God to go and worship other things to worship idols for them back then it was little figurines for us today could be money could be sex. It could be power position work whatever it is things that we put before God and treat his ultimate weed we do it and and because of that were guilty in the sin, and yet you look at the story of Hosea and how God is merciful toward his spiritually adulterous people how he calls them back to himself.

It's precisely what he did for us in his son Jesus. And so we rejoice in the mercy of God. Thanks for listening to core Christianity request your copy of today's special offer. Visit us at core, Christianity.com and click on offers and the menu bar or call us at 1-833-843-2673. That's 833 when you contact us.

Please let us know how you been encouraged by this program and be sure to join us next time. As we explore the truth of God's word together