Here is the third principle. In working out His own plans, God uses everybody, even the devil. Now at first that shocks some people: "What! God uses the devil?" That is exactly right. Everybody, even the devil, serves God's purposes. Now a servant may serve through gritted teeth, and he may hate his servitude; but he is, nonetheless, a servant. So it is with the devil. The devil has never done one thing out of love or obedience to God. He has never done one thing in order to knowingly bring glory to God. Everything the devil does, he does because he hates God and because he is trying to frustrate the purposes of God. However, in the end, everything the devil does will surely further the purposes of God. If ever there was a born loser, it is the devil, himself. In the final day, it will be shown that the devil never won a single time. And that includes the Garden of Eden!

Let us see this truth set forth in Isaiah chapter ten:

"But this is not what he [the Assyrian] intends, this is not what he has in mind; his purpose is to destroy, to put an end to many nations. "Are not my commanders all kings?" he says. . . . "As my hand seized the kingdoms of the idols, kingdoms whose images excelled those of Jerusalem and Samaria--shall I not deal with Jerusalem and her images as I dealt with Samaria and her idols?" Isa. 10:7-11

The text is very clear; the Assyrian does not have the same thing in mind that God has in mind. In fact, it is perfectly obvious that the Assyrian is not thinking at all about God. All that the arrogant Assyrian is thinking about is destroying another nation and robbing it of its riches. However, totally unbeknown to the Assyrian, God is the One directing the whole situation. God is moving the Assyrian's mind and emotions. The sovereign Lord is directing the Assyrian's every action in order to accomplish His own purposes of judgment upon Israel.

Verse 10 of Psalm 76 is a very interesting verse and illustrates what I am saying. The verse says, "Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee. . ." and then goes on to say, "and thou restraineth the residue thereof." In other words, man is filled with wrath against God and His authority. God did not put the wrath in man, nor is God responsible for either the wrath or the actions of man that express that wrath. Man's "free will" is 100 percent responsible for both every ounce of wrath and sin in man's heart and for every act produced by that wrath and sin. Nevertheless, God totally controls and directs the man's heart. All of man's wrath that will further God's purpose is allowed to surface and is used and controlled by God for His own ends. However, there is a lot of wrath in man that does not fit into God's purposes, so He puts a cork on "the residue thereof" and does not allow that to express itself. God controls man's wrath both ways. God decides when and how much of man's wrath will be expressed, and He also uses each expression of that wrath to accomplish some specific part of His ordained plan.

"The devil is the hardest working servant that God has!" I remember how astonished I was when I first heard that statement. However, the moment God showed me the truth of His absolute sovereignty, I immediately saw how true the statement was. Granted, the devil does every single thing that he does out of pure hatred; nonetheless, God controls and uses it all to accomplish His own foreordained plan. Perhaps an illustration will help us to see this point.

A very wealthy man we will call Mr. Rich had a beautiful estate covered with every kind of tree. Mr. Rich did not like women, so he was a bachelor; he could not stand animals, so he had no pets. He treated his trees the way some people treat their pets. He even gave each tree a name. Mr. Rich had one particular tree that was his favorite. Unfortunately, he also had an enemy (we will call him Mr. Evil) that hated him and desired to hurt him; however, the enemy could not find a way to carry out his evil desires. One night Mr. Evil thought up a way to deeply hurt and wound Mr. Rich. Mr. Evil climbed over the fence into the orchard and proceeded to chop down Mr. Rich's favorite tree. The very thought of how hurt Mr. Rich would be when he saw his favorite tree destroyed made Mr. Evil work all the harder. Finally the tree began to fall. Mr. Evil was so excited that he ran the wrong way. The tree fell on him and pinned him to the ground.

Shortly after daybreak, Mr. Evil saw two men walking toward him and the fallen tree. "I know I am caught, and I know I will be punished, but I do not care. I ruined your favorite tree!" The poor man was so filled with pathological hatred that he kept saying, "I ruined your tree! I ruined your tree!" Mr. Rich looked at him and said, "The man with me is a building contractor. I must cut down one of my trees to build a summer house for my parents, and I had chosen this spot right here. I brought this gentleman out to show him which tree we would have to cut down, but I see that you have saved me that trouble. Thank you!"

I am sure that you see the point. Everything the devil does will always, in some way, further God's purposes. We need to remember that God must accomplish His purposes in a world of sin; because of that fact, there is a lot of awfully dirty work that has to be done. God will never get His hands dirty, because the devil will (unknowingly) take care of all the dirty work. Joseph's brothers may do what they did out of hatred, but "God meant it for good to bring to pass. . ." what He had ordained (Gen. 50:15). The Assyrian and the Chaldean may be motivated entirely by lust for power and booty, but God is in charge of their every expedition.