1. HOLY SABBATH -2 The Plan

2. REBELLION AND SIN began in heaven; of all places, right beside the Throne of God! Lucifer, the Son of the Morning, the Light- bearer, became proud and then jealous of his own Creator. In subtle and deceptive ways, he sought to sow discord among the Angels of God. Professing to be starting a New and Better form of Government, he got over 1/3 to follow him into rebelling against God.

3. Finally after all had been done to win the loyalty of the rebels back to their loving God, there was no choice but to send them out of heaven.

4. And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven. Revelation 12:7,8

5. Revelation 12:9 And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. No sooner did the rebel leader arrive on the newly created planet earth, than he began laying plans to get the first created pair to join him in rebellion against the Law of God. Let’s look at his subtle plan of attack…

6. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said …God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the woman,Ye shall not surely die: Genesis 3:1-4

7. 5 For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. 6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.

8. It is important to give deep study to these verses as they contain the framework of THE PLAN of Satan. He knew what he wanted; and that was the Throne of God! His battle plan is outlined here. Notice his “I” trouble:

9. Isaiah 14:13,14 For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.

10. He knew the best way to capture the newly-created pair was to get them to want the same thing as he did! To cause a rebellion, one must first create dissatisfaction; so Satan said, “Yea HATH God said?” “Did He tell you THAT?” The subtle hint was, “Surely you don’t believe that? He’s lying to you!”

11. Now for the second thrust, more boldly now he directly contradicts the Word of God! Genesis 3:4 And the serpent said unto the woman, “Ye shall not surely die:” “What you have been told is false; You won’t die; In fact you can’t die, you are immortal!”

12. Genesis 3:5 For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. Not only has God lied to you, but He is keeping you from having what is rightfully yours! He knows this tree is special and it will make you into a God like He is and so He doesn’t want to share it with you! Why if you eat this fruit, you will experience ‘Enlightenment’, you will be able to be god yourself and know what is right and wrong for yourself. You do not need to obey God, YOU can be YOUR OWN GOD!

13. Notice a few points in the attack: 1.God does not tell the truth. 2.God has lied to you to prevent your development, 3.God is selfish and does not care about you. 4.God is your rival and you can out-do Him. 5.You won’t die, you are immortal! 6.You can do your own thing and become as smart as God. 7.You can figure out right and wrong for your own self. 8.You can be your own God! 9.Doing whatever you feel like – is Freedom!

14. How did Eve take this philosophy course? Did she remember that God had always told them truth? that He had shown them only kindness and love? No, she listened to the voice of the stranger rather than the true Shepherd. Why? Because he had succeeded in getting her to want what he wanted: To be GOD! Genesis 3:6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.

15. Notice: She used her senses to decide whether or not to obey God. She wanted that which she had no right to have. She loved the stranger’s alluring fantasy more than she loved God’s Word.

16. Did she gain? Were the serpent’s words true? Well one part was; their eyes WERE opened; and they saw that instead of gaining, they had LOST everything! The Creator whose love they had despised and whose Word they had doubted, pronounced the sentence: Genesis 3:19 In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.

17. But in love, He added a promise of hope in the sentence of the serpent: Genesis 3:15 “And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.” He would step in as man’s surety He would pay the redemption price. His power would be exerted to allow them to be able to choose to return to obedience and someday, if faithful, to Eden restored.

18. In the beginning the conditions for immortality were perfect obedience to the will of God. After the fall the conditions were: Perfect obedience to he will of God through FAITH in the promised Saviour. Now the conditions are: Perfect obedience to he will of God through FAITH in the Saviour’s atonement. There will never be an immortal sinner!

19. But Satan has kept working in the same way. Through the years he has sold man the same lies and had amazing success, as reflecting the pride and arrogance of Satan, Man wants the same things: To exalt himself above others. To do as he pleases. To live forever in sin. To be his own God.

20. Satan knows if he can keep man from the Saviour, he can destroy man. God knows that too - so he put the Sabbath Commandment right in the center of the Law to keep constantly before man the fact; He is Created He is not immortal He owes obedience to his Creator! As long as this was brought before man constantly: it would be much harder for Satan to deceive man.

21. There was only one way Satan’s Plan would work. It was not enough to tell man not to worship the Creator; man had a need to worship. Satan had a Proud Desire to be worshipped; so very early he began to develop in man a counterfeit religion. We see it in the first man born on earth, Cain. He wanted to worship, for sure! But he wanted to do it his own way!

22. The race of Cain continued to be pupils in the school of Satan to learn false religion. Satan would copy God in everything but would subtly change it to turn man away from God, to worship self and in this way his allegiance was to Satan. Man thinks he can be his own god; but it doesn’t work that way! Unless The Spirit of God controls the life – the spirit of Satan will! All man has – is the choice!

23. Satan led man to worship just about anything except his Creator. But the most successful object of worship was the SUN! We don’t know a lot about the false religious worship before the flood, but very soon after, sun-worship became well established in Babel. The Sun was declared to be the source of all life and the 1 st day of the weekly cycle was the day to worship the sun god. It is interesting that of all the days of the week, only the 1 st day could not possible be the Sabbath of the Creator! Why is this? Well, God could have created everything in 1, 2 or 3 days and THEN rested. But the 1 st day would not be a rest day as He began the work then! Nothing is an accident in the Great Controversy between Satan and his Creator. Remember, Lucifer claims to be the ‘light’ and so sun-worship honors him!

24. Very early too, men found out it was not very easy to RULE over other men. If one would be king he was kept busy most of the time just putting down rebellions and forcing his will on others. There was an easier way though; and it seems that Nimrod was the first to really tune in to it. It was to convince all, that the King was either a god himself, or a special agent of that god. A priesthood that used tricks and magic to deceive and enslave the populace in fear and subjection quickly grew up around this concept. It worked! Men that could not be conquered by force, could be kept in grovelling submission by religion! Don’t laugh – it is still being used today! Lies and legends; symbols and idols; all part of the legacy of Sun-worship.

25. Look again at what led to Eve’s fall: She was attracted by the beautiful sight of the serpent, and his musical voice. The fruit appealed to her appetite. Satan’s words were flattering to her ego. Power was promised her if she partook. Feasting and banqueting; as well as music and dancing; everything to regale the senses and dull the mind’s higher perceptions has been part of the worship of the Sun. Pomp and splendour, ritual and ceremony, celebrations and holidays, imposing edifices and pagantry, all fastened the false religions firmly to the desires of the natural heart of man.

26. The Proud ‘God-Kings’ of Babel and Egypt claimed to control not only what happened to a person in life – but after death also! The concept, that things wrong in themselves, were OK and even honourable if done in the name of religion or at Special Holiday celebrations was a big part of sun- worship mystique. Above all, the promise of immortality and evolution to the level of god-hood is found in all branches of Satan’s counterfeit religions. The cross in various forms was from early times a symbol of the sun-god The serpent and vulture showed the Pharaoh claimed the power of life and death!

27. Subtly and serpent-like, Satan wove his concepts in and around the true worship of the Creator. The sacrifice of the lamb which was to point to the Saviour, was instead made to be a way of ‘buying favor’ with the gods. Even human sacrifices were made to the Sun! After the death of Nimrod, his Queen had to do some fast thinking to stay at the head of the power-structure of Babel. She produced an illegitimate child and claimed he was the reincarnation of Nimrod the Sun-god. Satan knew man was waiting for a Redeemer to be born of a Virgin and so counterfeited this with the worship of ‘Mother and child’ with the child said to be the son of the Sun-god. The Queen of Heaven

28. Let’s summarize what we have learned. Satan introduced: A counterfeit religion. Another God – the Sun etc. A false Sabbath – the Sun-Day. False sacrifices – to earn favour with heaven. A false virgin and false Son of God. False plan of salvation – man can earn his way to the godhead by his works. False feasts and holy-days. And behind it all, the great lies: You shall not surely die; your eyes will be opened; you will become your own god. The Creator and His Law are not real but only allegorical. Man creates himself!

29. In all this Satan’s biggest nemesis is the 7 th day Sabbath, which points man to the Creator and thus to the Redeemer. He HATES it and wants to blot it from the memory of mankind – then his evil triumph will be complete!