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Transcript 235C
Can Satan Still Seek Audience Before God?
HC: Good evening. Welcome to Open Forum.
CALLER: When Satan was given an audience with the Lord, accusing Job, when Jesus died on the cross did Satan lose his right to an audience with the Lord at that point?
HC: The question that has been raised by our caller is: In the Book of Job we read that in the counsels of God up in Heaven Satan appeared. And there he accuses God that the reason Job is able to walk so holy is that God has put a hedge around him, and has given him every blessing. And so Job has every reason to live the obedient life to God that he lives.
Now the question is, at the cross was Satan cast out of Heaven, so that he no longer can accuse the brethren this way, that he no longer can have this kind of conversation with God? And the answer is, yes, I really believe this is so.
Remember when Jesus sent out the seventy, to bring the Gospel? And this was just before He went to the cross. This was anticipating the victory of Christ on the cross. And what did Jesus say? "Behold, I saw Satan falling as lightning from Heaven." This particular truth is strengthened if we turn to Revelation 12. We see in verse 7: "A war arose in Heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon [the dragon is Satan]. And the dragon and his angels fought, but they were defeated, and there was no longer any place for them in Heaven. And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world. He was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. And I heard a loud voice in Heaven saying, 'Now the salvation and the power and the Kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ have come. For the accuser of our brethren has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God. And they have conquered him by the blood oŁ the Lamb.'"
Now this again is emphasizing that Satan and his fallen angels were thrown out of Heaven. And I'm going to speculate for just a little bit. But when Christ went to the cross and successfully endured the wrath of God for our sins, proving that God meant what He said, that hell is to be paid for our sins, by the same token claiming a people for Himself, in view of the fact that He had taken their sins and paid for them, this guaranteed hell for Satan. And this guaranteed that God's justice would be done with regard to Satan.
And I can see in Heaven, right at that point in time, that Michael and his angels are given the task of throwing Satan and his angels out of Heaven: "You can't be here anymore! Throughout the Old Testament period you could still be here and accuse the brethren, as you did Job, because Christ had not in time gone to the cross as yet. But now Christ has gone to the cross. And He has shown that God means what He says, that hell must be paid. And Satan, you no longer have any access into Heaven." And so Satan goes about as a roaring lion, as the prince of the power of the air, seeking whom he might devour.
But he can't come into God's presence any longer, to accuse us.