II Corinthians 4:3-4

We all know what it says in Revelation 12:9, that the dragon has deceived the whole world. But has the impact of that really sunk in? This doubtful resistance that is in every one of us does not go away easily. It remains in conversion. It is still there; it still needs to be fought against; it still needs to be overcome. And if we do not exercise ourselves to be aware and chose to go the right way, it will continue to very strongly exert its influence. Much can be done to lessen its influence.

What can be done, of course, is to continue to work to develop a relationship with God through study and prayer. As we continue to exercise His way, the influence of Satan the Devil begins to slip away. There is a kind of "bad" side to that, in that as soon as his influence starts to slip away, he tries harder to make sure that it does not leave us entirely. In other words, he steps up the intensity of his pressure on us as well.

But do not be disheartened, because remember: I Corinthians 10:13 is still in the book. God only gives us what we can handle and He provides a way of escape. God is always there protecting us, making sure that Satan does not increase the pressure to the place that we are unable to bear it. You can be sure that as you go along and Satan steps up the pressure—you are going to be equal to the occasion. Do you have faith in that? You better have faith, because the intensity of the pressure is going to get greater and greater.

I mentioned up in Chicago that the world has been hit with a flood of deception. Evelyn and I are wondering whether in reality this is not the flood that is being talked about there in Revelation 12. The flood that Satan spewed out of his mouth—the flood—and chased after the woman—the flood of deception, a flood of spiritual pressure. You connect this to II Thessalonians 2 and you begin to find that there is an apostasy taking place and people are being washed away from the truth. Moreover, it is only those who love the truth—those who do not believe the lie that is flooding out from Satan—who are going to be spared in the end. Again, God puts us in the middle where we have to make the choice.

The pressure is intensifying and it is going to get worse because we are only seeing the beginning edges of the flood. And you know that Revelation continues to prophesy that it's going to get greater and greater, so that when the false prophet comes on the scene and he does signs and wonders that are so great, maybe even the elect might be deceived. What it really means is that if it is possible for you to be deceived, you will be deceived.

So, deception is flooding the world. We have to be prepared for that. If we are not prepared, we are going to get swept away by this flood of deception that is coming on us.

Why does God allow Satan to blind this world? It is because God is working out His purpose of reproducing Himself through the creation of godly character by means of faith—faith working together with free moral agency. And until God frees us from our blindness to the truth, we are not really free to be able to exercise our free moral agency because we do not know where God is, we do not know what God's true purpose is, we do not know the way that is going to lead us to the completion of that purpose. And so He begins to open these things up, and then we have to exercise the free moral agency by faith.

And God in His wisdom decided that the best thing to do was to allow Satan to do his dirty work, and God would take advantage of that dirty work, and actually make it work for His betterment and ours. But something even greater could be created out of the mess that He allows Satan to create. We may not exactly like that, but that is the parameter within which we have to work.

God could see that, in reality, the cards are greatly stacked against mankind, because mankind has to deal with his own nature, which even by all itself has somewhat of a pull towards self-centeredness. In … . . .

II Corinthians 4:1-6

Let us turn over with II Corinthians 4, verse 1. In the moral realm, the development of these faculties depends entirely on the renewal of the spirit. Light is frequently used for spiritual illumination, especially the illumination that is effected in the mind by the indwelling of God's Spirit.

Verse 6 tells us that the same God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness at the creation is the One who illuminates our hearts and minds to truth. The apostle John recorded that Jesus said, He who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen that they have been done in God.

Throughout the Bible, light is the symbol of knowledge, purity, and truth. In contrast, darkness is a symbol of ignorance, error, sin, and misery. The idea here is that God removes ignorance and floods our minds with light and truth. So David asked God to send out Your light and Your truth! Let them lead me.

The truth is generally used as a symbol for what brings joy and prosperity, and is strongly associated with spiritual joy that results from the positive influences of the Spirit of peace.

We know that God is light and is gloriously associated with light.

In all of the Bible's references to light, light is not self-generated. It usually appears unexpectedly outside the earth and human realm, transforming that realm with divine radiance.

As a symbol, light represents both the transcendence and immanence of God; it is from above, but it permeates everyday life. So light is often used as a symbol of holiness and purity, and it represents an attribute of holiness and thus a personal quality of God.

Paul's description of the light of God's gospel to the faithful in Corinth best captures the various meanings of light.

So this is the link between physical creation and the new creation, between the Old Testament and the New Testament, between physical reality and spiritual reality.