Seven Spirits Part 3

V. There was an overarching spirit in Israel which animated it against Christ, the apostles, and the church: the spirit of unbelief which accorded with death in sins. JOH 8:24. A. The spirit of deep sleep/slumber accords with blindness as does unbelief. ISA 29:10 c/w ROM 11:7-8; 2CO 4:3-4. B. This stood in contrast to the “...spirit of faith...” (2CO 4:13). C. Unbelief forbade them from recognizing Jesus of Nazareth as the Messiah and Son of God in spite of obvious fulfillment of Scripture and approving miracles. JOH 5:39-47; 15:24-25; ACT 2:22; 13:27. D. Unbelief forbade them from seeing the futility of works-righteousness. ROM 10:3-4. E. Unbelief forbade them from seeing the kingdom of God as spiritual. LUK 17:20-21. Seven Spirits 12-3-23 Page 3  F. Unbelief provoked them to envy, anger, contradiction, blasphemy, conspiracy, murder, etc., especially when Gentiles were being converted. ACT 13:38-50; 22:19-23; 23:12-15; ROM 10:19-21. G. Unbelief motivated them to infiltrate churches to deconvert believers. GAL 2:4. 1. Some were covetous, spinning lies for gain. TIT 1:10-14; 2PE 2:1-3. 2. Some promoted licentiousness as liberty. JUDE 1:4. 3. Peter alludes to Christ’s words in LUK 11:26 when he warns about these infiltrators and their “converts.” 2PE 2:14-22. H. Unbelieving Israel was as its type, Hagar, who could not see the refreshment. GAL 4:25 c/w GEN 21:19 c/w ISA 28:12. VI. Do not underestimate the power of the spirit of unbelief. If faith be the path to victory and freedom, what should be the expected path of unbelief? A. Consider some categories of unbelief. 1. There is unbelief of the one true God Who has left sufficient witness of Himself in Creation and reason. ROM 1:19-20; ACT 14:17. 2. There is unbelief of gospel truth owing to not having heard it. ROM 10:14-15. 3. There is unbelief in spite of obvious truth and proof. JOH 15:24; LUK 16:31. 4. A very consequential form of unbelief is having knowledge of the truth of the gospel but refusing to believe it in spite of clear evidence because a love of sin is more precious. 2TH 2:9-12. B. Unbelief can animate the unbeliever to justify himself and his sin, opening the door to further sin and judgment. ROM 1:18-32. C. It can cost the believer his place in the kingdom of Christ and turn him over to very powerful delusions and God’s alternative teaching method. 1TI 1:19-20. D. By contrast, faith gives victory without confounding or confusion. 1JO 5:4; 1PE 2:6; 1CO 14:33. VII. If Christ has the seven spirits of God (ISA 11:1-3 c/w REV 3:1) and Satan desires to be like God (ISA 14:14), he could have seven counter-spirits for the “...spirit of antichrist...” (1JO 4:3). Keep in mind that Satan’s spirit which works in the children of disobedience (EPH 2:2) is not limited to the occult or the grotesque. Consider the following as speculations based on ISA 11:2. A. The spirit of the LORD speaks of Deity (“LORD” translates “yehovah/jehovah:” the self- existent, eternal one). 1. The Satanic counterpart could be a spirit falsely claiming to be God, perhaps even “...shewing himself that he is God” (2TH 2:3-4). 2. The true LORD has “...his Christ” (PSA 2:2 c/w ACT 4:26). Satan has his Christs (MAT 24:24) and the one that best suits his purposes at the time will be used. 3. Unbelief of the true Christ is an open door to a belief in a false Christ, and that became a snare to unbelieving Israel then and now. JOH 5:43. B. The spirit of wisdom, Satanically, would not be the wisdom of God in Christ (1CO 1:24), but the “...wisdom of this world...” (1CO 2:6). 1. This wisdom is “...earthly, sensual, devilish” (JAM 3:15). 2. Humanistic philosophy, gnosticism and “...oppositions of science falsely so called” (1TI 6:20) represent a devilish trap to unbelievers. 3. “Salvation through science” is a hellish substitute for salvation through “...Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption” (1CO 1:30). 4. Israel’s unbelief of the cross of Christ was the perishing of their wisdom. Seven Spirits 12-3-23 Page 4  ISA 29:14 c/w 1CO 1:18-19. C. The spirit of understanding, Satanically, would not be the understanding of God through Jesus Christ (1JO 5:20), but more likely “...understanding dark sentences...” (DAN 8:23), a Machiavellian genius and/or wizard of occult arts who bought the lie “...ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil” (GEN 3:5). The Jewish leaders basically went this route in their covenant with death and hell. ISA 28:15. D. The spirit of counsel, Satanically, would not be an open magnifying of the Scriptures (for God's testimonies are the best counsellors, PSA 119:24) before all men as with Christ. JOH 5:39; 18:20. 1. The Satanic spirit of counsel would more likely be that of secretive, dark counsel hidden from God (ISA 29:15), conspiracy against the Just. PSA 2:2. 2. Such is the outgrowth of the spirit of unbelief that refuses God’s counsel and so adds sin to sin. ISA 30:1, 8-11. E. The spirit of might, Satanically, would not be as Christ Who was “...mighty to save” (ISA 63:1), Whose “...kingdom is not of this world...” (JOH 18:36) and Whose servants fight with spiritual weapons that are “...mighty through God...” (2CO 10:4). 1. The Satanic spirit of might could be brute force that can make a possessed man break chains and mutilate himself. MAR 5:2-5. 2. The Satanic spirit of might could force its opinions on others in violation of their conscience or threaten a believer to deny the truth of Christ (ACT 4:13-21; 5:28-29), things which did haste Israel’s destruction. 1TH 2:14-16. F. The spirit of knowledge, Satanically, would not be the “...light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2CO 4:6). c/w LUK 10:22. 1. The Satanic spirit of knowledge might be a false claim on knowing Moses when they didn’t even believe Moses. JOH 9:28-29 c/w JOH 5:45-47. 2. It might be a smug knowledge of the Law which is hypocritical. JOH 7:45-49. 3. Paul longed that Israel would abandon antichrist knowledge that they might be saved. ROM 10:1-4. G. The spirit of the fear of the LORD, Satanically, would not be the hatred of “...evil: pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, and the froward mouth...” (PRO 8:13) unless it perverted evil for good (ISA 5:20) and despised anything or anyone that countered its false standards. 1. There is a false fear of the Lord taught by the precepts of men. ISA 29:13. 2. Jesus said that the unbelieving element in Israel would despise and kill His followers in the name of God, which madness would fill up their sin to their own destruction. JOH 16:1-3 c/w MAT 23:31-36. VIII. Bear in mind that there were eight spirits in total in MAT 12:43-45; LUK 11:24-26. A. The last state of that man and of that generation wasn’t just completely full of unclean spirits (seven), it was bubbling over (eight). While Mt. Vesuvius was preparing to pop its cork (which it did in 79 A.D.), so was Israel. B. When the eighth unclean spirit entered the house, he was no better than the other seven. 1. Compare this with the final beast government system which goes into perdition (utter destruction). REV 17:10-11. 2. The unfettered spirit of antichrist unbelief never wins. IX. Again, do not trivialize the potentials that unbelief represents. Seven Spirits 12-3-23 Page 5