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Satan, the Enemy of Our Souls
BD17-01© Berean Memorial Church of Irving, Texas, Inc. (1971)
We began
this study of basic Bible doctrine many many months
ago. If you have been with us from the
first, you will remember that the first thing we dealt with was an
explanation of the problem that exists between God and man, and how God has removed
the wall that separated us from Himself. This
wall is made of several different factors. We
went on then to show that one of the things we take surprisingly into the Christian life is the old sin
nature—the propensity to evil. Everything we were
in our unsaved days, the most despicable type of thing we were when we
were not Christians, we still are now that we are Christians. We therefore learned what God has provided us
for us in order to control this quality of the old sin nature which
seeks to dominate our being. We learned how,
instead, God the Holy Spirit who indwells us may dominate and control
as a result of confession of sin.
We went on to explore how God has made
provision for us to be able to grow spiritually—not only to be spiritual, which is to
have your sins confessed, but now to mature and develop into spiritual maturity. We saw that God gave us a grace system for
perceiving spiritual things, a system that is not dependent upon human
IQ, but is entirely dependent upon receiving the Word of God and responding to
it with positive volition. We found that God has
provided the local church, the completed Bible, and the authority of a
pastor-teacher led of the Spirit of God to explain the Word of God, and
thereby to feed the flock.
All of this has been provided as a
base of doctrine, and on
the base of doctrine, we build in our souls a spiritual maturity
structure. We do not have this by our
new birth. This is something you
develop, and something that you work on. I
trust that you now have a pretty good idea of what
constitutes being a spiritually mature Christian. What we
are trying to do is to gather together, from one place or another,
terminology that helps to convey spiritual truth to understand and perform. These are not just words that are nice or
words that are inspirational, but words that we can now come to grips
with and perform in our experience.
So, here’s this structure, and
God has given us the means for
development. One way of looking at it is
a pentagon in our soul because it is a structure for defense, and it is
a structure from which we conduct our spiritual combat: grace orientation; a relaxed mental attitude;
mastery of the details of life; the capacity to love; and, inner happiness.
Now the reason we said it is important to develop this
spiritual maturity structure in your soul is because now that Jesus
Christ has gone to heaven, He is no longer the focal point for satanic attack. But you, the individual believer, are now the
brunt of all of Satan’s attacks. He
is out to do you in. He is out to frustrate
your service. He is out to frustrate your living.
So, this morning we move to a new phase of study in basic
Bible doctrine. We are going to study
this personality, Satan, who opposes our soul. We’re
going to study about Satan. We’re
going to study about demons. We’re
going to study how all of this fits into
the age in which we live. This of course is going to be in
the nature of an expose. Immediately we
can expect quite a few distractions. We
can expect quite a few children who decide that this is washroom time. Satan doesn’t want to be exposed.
We may have a couple of screens fall off our
windows, and any number of other things before the service is over
because Satan is not keen on exposes about himself.
The first thing I would like to impose upon you is that
Satan is a real being. He is ever-conscious as to what’s going on among believers who are
dealing in genuine truth and doctrine. This may come as a
shock and a surprise to you as you think about the oppositions to your
soul.
The Three Sources of Opposition to God’s Plan
Most of your know that the Bible indicates that we have
three sources of opposition to the plan of God within us. The first one is the world. Worldliness
is an attitude of mind. It’s a viewpoint of our hearts. It’s not
something that we do or don’t do. It’s the viewpoint of our hearts
which results in what we do or don’t do. The second one is the flesh, which is the flesh for
the old sin nature. And the third is the devil. So, we have the world, the flesh, and the devil.
I’m here to tell you that for most Christians, the devil is
the least of their problems. Most people
think that when they do something wrong, “the devil made me do
it.” The devil didn’t make you
do it. The devil couldn’t be less
interested with most Christians. The devil doesn’t
go around bothering with most Christians because most Christians are so
ignorant of divine viewpoint that they’re not a problem to him at all. Why would he waste his time on a church full
of dunderheads that are not going to present any problem for him?
Satan is preoccupied with the
Christian who has built up his
spiritual maturity structure. Now that
Christian becomes a problem to him. That’s
the Christian that begins to get the
brunt of his attention—the
priority of his attack. But most
Christians aren’t a problem to him at all. The
miseries that you have in your life, the
troubles, the trials, and
the difficulties don’t come from Satan. They
come from your worldliness. They come from
the world about you and the attitude
of your mind toward the world. They come from the old sin
nature. These are self-induced
miseries—things we have created for ourselves.
But I guarantee you that Satan is too
busy to waste his time on most Christians because most Christians are no problem at all.
They pose no threat to evangelism. They’re not running around getting the
gospel out to people. They pose no threat to
informing Christians of God’s ways of doing things and of
God’s thinking. They’re not
running around cranking out Bible
doctrine. Even most preachers, I’m
sad to say, are no concern to Satan. Satan’s
not preoccupied with most preachers. They’re
no problem to him at all. Most of their
cute little inspirational talks that
they give people aren’t going to bother anybody, so Satan’s not bothered either.
But he’s going to be bothered by what you hear in the next
few weeks here. He’s going to be very
much bothered by it because you’re going to get some straight
biblically-oriented information upon the archenemy of God, the master
“opposer” of your soul. He is the one who makes it
so necessary for you and me to get with it in this new year for
building spiritual maturity in our souls.
Satan
So, we begin by looking at the nature of Satan. Genesis chapter 3 opens the
Bible record concerning man, and immediately upon the scene of history we see a
personage who is the bitter enemy of God. Now
there is no explanation for the presence of such an evil character as
we look at the six days of creation. The
creation story, as we read of it in the opening chapters of Genesis,
does not indicate the creation of any kind of being of the evil dimensions that
constitute Satan. As a matter of fact,
Genesis 1:31 looks back upon God’s six days of creation, and God
says, “… it was very good.” This indicates that
Satan was not part of that creation at that point because what God did
was very good but Satan is very bad.
Genesis 1:1-2
Consequently, Satan must have been on the scene before these
six days of creation. As a matter of fact, this six-day story that you have in the opening chapters of
Genesis is a story of re-creation of an original creation that Genesis 1:1 tells us
about. Genesis 1:1 says, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”
Jeremiah 4:23
In Jeremiah chapter 4, beginning at verse 23, the prophet
here is looking back upon the condition of the earth before man was
created and before the historical record we have in Genesis 1. He
says, “I beheld the earth and behold it was
without form and void.” This indicates her
that we are back there to the condition as the earth existed before God
proceeded with His six days of creative work.
Here’s an earth which is chaos. This sets the time as being
Genesis 1:2. Jeremiah 4:23 says, “I beheld the earth
and behold it was without form and void; and the heavens, and they had no
light. The words “without form and void”
are the identical words that you have in Genesis 1:2, where we read,
“… and the earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the
deep.” In the Hebrew, this is “tohu wa bohu.” Now these are
the identical Hebrew words that
you have in Jeremiah, quoting what you have back in Genesis 1:2. The earth was “tohu wa bohu,”
without form and void. It was chaotic.
Isaiah 45:18
The prophet sees a vision of the earth in this
condition. God didn’t create it this way. You may ask, “How do we know
God didn’t create the earth in this condition?” I’m glad you asked that. Isaiah
45 verse 18 gives you the answer. Here again, by revelation, the prophet says, “For thus says the Lord
who created the heavens (God who formed the earth and made it), He established it and
did not create it a waste place (in vain), but formed it to be inhabited)
…” Guess what you have. He created it not “tohu.” He didn’t create it in a chaotic
condition. He formed it to be inhabited. “I am the Lord. There is none else.”
So, Isaiah says God did not create the world, originally “tohu
wa bohu,” without form and void, in a chaotic condition. He created it, as all that God creates, so
that He could look back and say, “It’s very good.” It was a perfect desirable creation when God
finished with it. But, here when we start reading about this in Jeremiah 4, we see there’s darkness
on the earth. There is no light. “I beheld, and lo it was without form and
void; and the heavens, and they had no light. This
is the very condition that we have at the
beginning of Genesis 1:2. The sun is shut off. Something has happened to this beautiful
creation, this gem of the universe. It’s
covered now with a blanket of darkness. The sun cannot come through. It
cannot warm the earth. Now what do you think is going to happen under that kind of condition to an earth that
has moisture on it?
Well, the moisture is going to condense. It’s going to pile up.
It’s going to build up. Without the warmth of the sun’s rays,
what’s going to happen to the temperature? The
temperature is going to drop off. The
result is that an ice pack is going to develop. The
earth in time, geology tells us, was covered by
an ice age in which an ice pack covered the earth as a result of this
precipitation. The waters froze under this blanket of
darkness. All over the face of the earth
today geologists find traces of glaciation. They
find evidence of ice caps even in equatorial Africa.
Verse 24 of Jeremiah 4 says, “And I beheld the mountains,
and lo they trembled, and all the hills moved lightly.” This indicates that something was happening
to the earth before man came on the scene. There was violence of earthquakes of gigantic
proportions. Geologists find evidence of great upheavals
all over the earth where you see twisted and contorted strata of rock
that are evidence that something great had taken place in the earth in the form
of convulsions of the earth’s surface.
Verses 25 and 26 say, “And I beheld and there was no
man…” (So, we’re out someplace before man
was created when this condition of catastrophe was hitting the earth.) “… and all of the birds of the
heaven were fled.” Now you’re notice there
is no human life, but there is life. There is
animal life—birds specifically mentioned. Apparently,
this is where the prehistoric dinosaurs
came in. This is where the gigantic life
existed, in this pre-Adamic earth, before man came on the scene. But something happened to this life. It was destroyed.
“… I beheld and lo the fruitful place was a wilderness.” There
was vegetation, and this was destroyed. “... and all its cities
were broken down at the presence of the Lord by His fierce anger.” What made God so angry? He
who had spoken this beautiful earth into existence, with all the universe surrounding it—now something had
brought forth the wrath of God and the earth was put into a deep freeze, under an ice pack.
Verse 27 says, “… for thus saith the Lord, ‘The whole land
shall be desolate, yet I’ll not make a full end.’” In other words, “I have made my earth
desolate, but I’m not through with it. I’m not abandoning it.”
Now what do you think happened? Well the Scriptures indicate that only the
earth had come under this “without form and void” condition. The earth everywhere bears the marks of
physical catastrophe. In Genesis 1:2, the Hebrew scholars tell us, that the translation here “and the
earth was without form and void” can be translated equally well, “and
the earth became without form and void.” So, it conveys even more specifically that
between the first verse of Genesis 1 and the second verse of Genesis 1,
something very big took place that changed the face of this earth.
The phrase “tohu wa bohu” is used only in two other
places. It’s used in Isaiah 34:11 and it’s used in Jeremiah 4:23. These
two places, outside of Genesis, indicate God acting in a divine judgment.
So, what caused the chaos in the original creation? It seems that this is
where Satan comes in as the archenemy and adversary of God who’s on the scene prior to
the earth’s restoration. Before Satan had sinned and
rebelled against God, his position was that of the archangel, and his
place was in the very throne room of God. It seems
that angels do not have access to the throne room of God. The four living creatures of Revelation are
spoken of as having access and being in the presence of God. Satan had access to the throne room and the
very presence of God. The other angels
seem to be limited to the second heaven, the area of their abode.
In time, Satan rebelled against God,
as we shall see. When he rebelled against
God, he was removed from his permanent residency in the throne room of God. He now needed a headquarters. Therefore,
it seems that this beautiful gem
in the universe, the earth, became the scene of his headquarters. He moved in, and we’re told in the book
of the Revelation that one-third of the billions of angels that God had
created went with Satan and joined him in his rebellion against God.
So, now one-third of the angelic host,
along with Satan their leader, moved into this earth. There was
no man here, but it was a beautiful creation of God. And they throw one big wild party. And the earth, under their presence and under
their activity of sin, goes downhill. It
enters the state finally under God’s direction and command of
being “tohu wa bohu,” and put in a deep freeze. So
everything that Satan touched, right before his very eyes, was going to
destruction. This creature who said, “I’ll be like God,” can’t even hold together
and maintain what God had already created.
So, we don’t know how long the earth was in this condition,
but they finally destroyed what God had created. God
hates sin so he judges sin. His judgment against the earth reveals how
impotent Satan was and how powerful God was. God
simply spoke this original creation into being. Satan
moved in to confiscate the earth for
himself. Then God spoke again and
toppled the world into chaos. Satan was
doomed to defeat. He must have been
stunned, I would imagine, to see the earth go to wreck and ruin as he
took it over. He must have discovered that his
wisdom, though very great, was not omniscient; and, that his power was
tremendous, but not omnipotent. No
matter what he tried to do, he could not prevent what was happening to
this earth that had been invaded.
So, he tried to organized things. That’s what he has been doing ever
since—trying to organize society without God, and trying to
organize the angels with God. Satan with all of his demons ended up being frustrated. Here’s
another thing you want to learn about this personality. He is not running around trying to turn all
hell loose, and you might as well get over that idea.
There are two things you should have learned this morning
among other things. First, he is not preoccupied with getting Christians to do wrong. Most
Christians are no problem to him, by and large, because they don’t know doctrine. Those
who do become the brunt of his attack. Secondly, Satan is not running around trying
to create evil. He’s trying to create a
world without wars. He’s trying to get
peace. He’s trying to get internationalism. He’s trying to get
the United Nations to operate in some peaceful way. He’s trying to
get things so that people have all that they need in life. He’s trying to get a lot of material things
for people. He’s trying to produce everything that communism promises. But
he’s frustrated. He cannot cope with the evil sin nature within man.
Satan wanted to be somebody. You can just imagine seeing him sitting there
in the darkness, sitting on a block of ice on the frozen earth, brooding over his hurt pride,
and looking over what he had invaded and taken over, and what it had come
to under his leadership. Now that’s a
terrible blow to anybody’s pride, to begin with something like that. And he ran around raving in this chaotic
darkness, trying to command things into existence, and all he got back
was the mocking echo of his own voice. Anyone
who cuts loose from God, dear friend, and from His doctrine, is doomed
to have Satan’s experience. God judges sin. He judged it in Adam. He
judged it in the flood. He will judge it in the tribulation
period. Ultimately he will judge it in hell in the lake of fire and brimstone. Make
no mistake about that.
This leader of evil appeared as a
serpent in the Garden of
Eden. One day, all of a sudden, Satan
was sitting around, and he said, “Did you see what I saw jus
then?” Because yonder on the horizon
flickers a little flash of light. Then he saw a
magnificent expanding daylight scene. Satan
said, “Oh-oh, something’s
happening down on earth.” He sees
the icepack moving back and
melting. He sees the waters come to the
place where they cover all the earth. Suddenly
he sees the earth heaving and moving, and
he sees dry land
appearing, and he sees the seas receding and taking their places. He sees the sky above break open, and a blue
sky appears for the first time, and there’s the sun now, back in
right relationship and phased in once more to the earth. The moon phased in at night. The
stars were back up there.
Then he begins to notice that the
waters begin tom teem with
life. The land animals appeared. The vegetation appeared. Finally,
of all things, he sees an entirely
new being—a human being, with a physical body that flows with blood and breathes
breath and that has a mind and is an intelligent creature. Satan recognizes him as like himself, but
different. Satan recognizes him as being
a little lower than himself. Satan’s
body is better. Satan looks at this
creature, and immediately he makes his plan. God
has re-created the world. He
has restored it to its original beauty. The
marks of the chaos are still there. But
it’s a functioning world, and here’s
a man in a beautiful garden
with nothing to do except to exercise positive volition, which is what
God had asked Satan to do.
So, Satan moves in and says, “Now
I’m going to take this
over.” He appears in the Garden of
Eden as a serpent. He’s identified in
Revelation 12:9 and Isaiah 14:12 as the devil, Satan. Satan’s rebellion and spiritual warfare are
carried into the garden. You know the
story. Man sins and Satan once more
takes over the world. God removed him
from the control of the earth. He
restored it in six days of recreation and restoration, and then he
handed it over to man. Now man was number one on
the earth. Satan, by leading man into
sin, has restored himself to his headquarters position. To this day he runs the world and he runs the
nations of the world. He conducts his
business among humanity, trying to organize tis world so it will stop
fighting, so it will stop being greedy, and so it will stop doing all these evil
things, and it will start acting so that he can appear to be like God.
Unless you understand Satan, this personality, you have no
perspective or understanding of sin, of illness, the economic and
social problems that we faith, of sorrow, and of death. None
of these things will have any point to
you unless you understand this personality.
Ezekiel 28:11-14
So, here’s the position of Satan, going back to Ezekiel
chapter 28 verse 11—this is the position of Satan in this new
creation. Man has fallen, and this is the position he
holds. But let’s go back—back before
there was any problem in the universe—back before there was a
single sin, when Satan was a perfect angel tuned in to God. “Moreover
the Word of the Lord came unto me…” “The Word of the
Lord” indicates here that it is a revelation from God. It is an
authoritative statement about the one who has become the leader of evil
in the universe.
Verse 12 says, “Son of man, take up a lamentation upon the
King of Tyre.” This means to take up a
sad song concerning the King of Tyre. However,
this is not concerning the physical King of
Tyre alone, because the prophet, as often happens in prophetic vision, leapfrogs from the
immediate issue, the King of Tyre, who is a demon possessed satanically directed
man, and goes beyond him to the person who’s running this show. That, as you see the Scriptures here
unraveled, the prophet envisions again and leapfrogs beyond the person
who is in front of him, and he goes to the person who is behind. He is addressing the King of Tyre, but he’s
indirectly speaking to Satan.
When Peter came to the Lord Jesus and recommended a course
of action that was contrary to the plan of God, Jesus turned and looked
Peter squarely in the face and said, “Get the behind me Satan.” He was talking to Peter, but he was really
addressing the person who was moving Peter. That’s
what you have here. The King of Tyre is moved by Satan, and this is being addressed to him. He is behind the activities of this man. Satan himself is running this. As we have indicated, we have this indirect
address in Genesis 3:14-15 and Matthew 16:23.
Behind every political, therefore today, is Satan who is
seeking to glorify himself through the spirit of rebellion. Tyre, the actual city, was the center of
idolatry in the ancient world. It was
the center of all the demonic cults, the phallic cults. It was a degenerate place, and because it was
a place of idolatry, it was naturally the place of demon worship
because when you worship idols, you are worshipping demons who are behind those
idols. 1 Corinthians 11:19-21 calls this
“Satan’s communion table.”
Tonight we’re going to gather at
the Lord’s Supper table. We’re going to share our
testimonies and praises concerning what God has done. We’re going to gather at the Lord’s
communion table. Satan counterfeits everything. This was his communion table, through idols.
Tyre was under divine judgment. Finally, Alexander the Great conquered
it. Ezekiel’s description of the King of
Tyre then goes beyond the King of Tyre, to Satan who is behind him. This same Satan was once the archangel. This information, we’re told, comes from
the Lord God. “Thus says the Lord God.”
Here’s a very important name for God. In English, it’s “Lord
God,” with a capital “GOD,” and small letters on “lord.” In
the Hebrew, it’s “adonah” which means master, or the
one who is responsible for directing service—the one who is in charge. The
word for “GOD” is the most sacred name in Scripture for God. It is
“jehoah,” or “Jehovah.” This
is God as the self-existent one. Actually, this name for God “Jehovah,” was so
sacred that the Jews wouldn’t even pronounce it. Every time they came to it, they would call
it “Adoniah,” giving it a different pronunciation
altogether. They would never pronounce name. It’s called a Tetragrammaton. “Tetra” means these four Hebrew
letters which constitute the most sacred name for God. It
is simply “the eternal one.”
Actually it’s made up of the
Hebrew verb “to be.” It’s
the verb to be put together twice,
connoting the emphatic existence, the eternal existence, the perfect
existence. This word is often used for
God the Father; many times of God the Son; and, a few times for God the
Holy Spirit. But it is the primary name for God.
So, it is the eternal existent God, who is the master and
director of service, who is revealing this information concerning the
angel He created, the archangel Satan. This is
the creature that we’re dealing with by the sovereign master who made him.
This revelation from the Lord God in Ezekiel 28:12 says then,
concerning him, “You sealed up the sum.” This is a Hebrew idiom. It’s
just the way of saying a thing. “You sealed
up the sum,” referring to Satan means “You are the
greatest.” And then it spells out specifically in what
respect he is the greatest: full of wisdom. Satan is an angel, in the cherub
class of angels, we see in verse 14, which was the highest class of
angels. Satan has a body. His body, as all angel bodies, apparently is
made up of a light-like substance.
It is interesting that science is still pursuing what light
is made of. What is this stuff that comes into a dark room? It is a
substance? Does it come as a wave, or does it come as a point action? Scientists
aren’t quite sure what makes light—what this substance is
that light is. But Satan and the angels, both the elect and the evil angels, have a body, and their bodies are
made up of this light-like substance. For this
reason, they can travel through space at the speed of light. They’re not visible to human eyes.
We have an indication of what would
happen if people could see angels because a few times in the Bible we have the experience of
people who suddenly see angels—angels manifest themselves them. What do they do? They
start worshipping them. For this reason, if God were to let you see
the angels that are in this room right now, almost every one of you
would become idol worshippers. And if you
could see Satan as he’s walking up and down the aisles with his
hands behind his back, you’d become quite a few other things as well.
So, fortunately, usually we can’t see angels, but they do
have bodies. They also have a soul. Angels have a soul, and we can deduce this
from certain things that we read here. For one thing, we read, “You sealed up the sun
full of wisdom.” Let’s look at wisdom a minute. What is wisdom? Wisdom is mentality. This
means IQ. Satan is the smartest creature that God ever
made. There is only one human person who had a higher IQ. Because He was the Son
of God, Jesus Christ, because he was God-man had a higher IQ than Satan. But Satan had the highest in all the angelic
realm, and he had the highest IQ among humans, including everybody in
this room. His mentality also had
self-awareness. He was aware that he was
different from all the other angels. When
he looked at himself, he not only knew that he
held the office of archangel (number one), that he was a cherub—in the highest class
of angels, that he with perhaps just a few angels alone could enter the throne
room of God, but every place he looked, he saw that every other angel was not
as smart as he was, nor were they as good looking. Every
place he looked from the moment he came to consciousness, he didn’t
know a moment in his existence when he wasn’t number one. From the very moment that God brought life to
him and he became conscious of himself, he realized that he was supreme.
Satan was very much aware of himself. He distinguished himself from other
angels. He also had a conscience. His conscience at the time had the perfect
values and standards of God. He had God’s values. He had God’s
viewpoint. He also had a will as we shall see from Isaiah 14 where he said five times, “I will
…” We also see that he had emotions, for we read
in Revelation 12:12 when he is finally cast out of even reporting into
heaven, as he now does, and has access to God’s throne room in heaven to
accuse you and me—when he is finally thrown out of that, he has great wrath. He is capable of intense emotions. We have an old sin nature, but he has an evil
nature—evil, as a more general broad term. He has a deep-seated evil propensity.
Verse 12 also says he was perfect in beauty. He was the most in outward
appearance. He is not a grotesque-looking freak with red
skin, cat-like thin eyes, pointed ears, a long nose, and hoofs on his
feet. You’re thinking of some of your
friends. He is a handsome personality. He was the epitome of
beauty in this universe, and he still is.
Verse 13 says, “You have been in
Eden, the garden of God.” This is not the Eden on
earth. This is the garden of God, the
third heaven. He was in there in the way
of service in the very presence of God. As
a matter of fact, he was the personal angel who
was in attendance upon Jesus Christ. The cherubs served
the Lord Himself. We have him described
as clothed in every precious stones. In
verse 13 we have a list of these stones. These
apparently were translucent, probably, to
transmit light. In any case, they convey
the beauty of his appearance.
At the end of verse 13, we read about
his “timbrels” (“tabrets)”
“and the workmanship of your flutes (‘settings and
sockets’) was prepared in
you in the day that you were created.” This
refers to the voice that Satan had. He had
a beautiful mellifluous voice. He has a
very attractive voice.
Now you know this is important. I have read about people who were very great
movie stars in the days of silent movies. They
could express themselves with good facial
expressions, and then the motion pictures added sound. So, they put
these same stars up, and here was this fellow who was playing a really
virile role, a real personality, a real lady-killer, and they would give him
his first line. (He would speak in a very high
voice that didn’t sound like it was coming from that virile man.) Right away they knew they were in trouble
with a voice like that for a guy to play those virile roles. Some people who were great actors in the
silent movies just went out because they didn’t have voices that
didn’t have voices that could carry that role on the screen.
God made Satan so that he had a magnificent voice. He was number one in
the universe and he had a voice to go with it. His “timbrels”
means his voice, his larynx, his whole voice mechanism. The “flutes” indicate the pitch and the
quality of the voice as he spoke, the melodious quality of his voice.
But you notice that it says in voice 13 that he was created. He is a super creature but he
is still a creature. He’s a work of God,
but believers have the capacity to put him down. As
big as he is, you put him down. How? With your super wonderful spiritual maturity
structure, with fulfilling of the Holy Spirit, with doctrine, you can put down this awesome. Doctrine brings out the ugliness of
Satan. His appearance and his voice are
deceptive, but God says His Word brings out his deceit. Psalm 138:2 tells us that God exalts His Word
above all else. Matthew 4:4 says that we
shall live by every word that He has spoken.
Verse 14 says, “You are the
anointed cherub that covers, and
I have set you so.” Anointed means
as equal to messiah. “You were the
messiah’s cherub.” “The
one who covers” means his wings were outstretched—a shielding, as it were, at the
throne of Jesus Christ. He is the angel who
personally attended the pre-incarnate Christ in heaven.
We are told, “I have set you
so.” It is something that God appointed him to by
creation. “You were upon the holy
mountain of God.” The holy mountain
refers to the third heaven. “… and
have walked up and down amid the stones of fire.” The
“stones of fire” apparently refer to
the pavement, so to speak,
before the throne of God—that which surrounds the throne.
In Exodus 24:9, we read, “And
then went up Moses and Aaron
and Nadab and Abihu and seventy of the elders of Israel, and they saw
the God of Israel: And it was under his feet as
it were a paved work of sapphire stone, and as it were the body of
heaven in its clearness.” Then verse 17 of
Exodus 24 says, “And the site of the glory of the Lord was like
devouring fire on the top of the mountain in the eyes of the children of Israel.
Here in this vision of God were these
stones, glowing—the impression of fire. This apparently
refers to the ground, the floor, on which the throne of Christ stood,
and upon which was the holy place where Satan moved as the cherub. Verse 15 says, “You were perfect in your ways
from the day that you were created.” Satan
never knew a lesser moment than the one which
he came to consciousness in. He was at God’s
throne and he saw himself as being more than anything except God himself.
Now this led to some inner thoughts where he decided to
oppose God. “You were perfect in your
ways from the day that you were created until iniquity was found in
your heart.” Satan began on positive volition. His will now went negative
toward God, so evil originated in the universe. Sin
was on the inside. It was “in
you.” Now his soul was changed. His mind was now on self-exaltation to be
like God. His self-awareness was
converted into pride over himself, probably the first mental attitude
sin. His conscience was now on false values and
standards, which today has been converted into human viewpoint. His will went negative, acting independently
of God. He took the role of the rebel. His emotions were now hatred toward God.
What was the result of this? It says, “… by the multitude of
your merchandise,” that is the things he
has handled, his plans for angels and humanity. “By
the multitude of your merchandise, they
have filled the midst of you
with violence.” Satan, because of
his negative volition, became a violent creature. So
God in this verse pronounces his eventual doom. “You
have sinned. Therefore
I will cast you as profane out of
the mountain of God (out of the third heaven), and I will destroy you,
o covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire (I will destroy
you from walking in this sacred place in the third heaven.”
This is to be exercised in the middle of the tribulation
period. Revelation 12:10 tells you about
that. Now he has access to heaven to
accuse use. He will be destroyed by
casting him into the lake of fire.
Verse 17 days, “Your heart was
lifted up because of your
beauty.” The heart is the soul. The beauty of Satan led him to arrogance to
oppose God. “You have corrupted your
wisdom by reason of your brightness.” His
breathtaking quality caused him to go negative
and to corrupt his
mentality. “So, that I will cast you
to the ground. I will lay you before kings
and they may behold you.” So, God
says that Satan is going to be cast to the ground. “You’re
going to bite the dust.”
I think it is interesting how in the
Garden of Eden God used a serpent to do his work. God placed
judgment upon the serpent, who apparently walked upright at that time,
that he would forever crawl on his belly and eat the dust of the ground. Every time you see a snake, and you see that
thing creeping on the dust of the ground, and you see him covered with
dust, and you see that dirt coming into his mouth as he crawls along,
remember that it’s a symbol of Satan, about whom God says he is going to bite
the dust someday when God is through with him, because of sin. Sin
over what? Sin because God
made him such a tremendous character to begin with. He gave him such tremendous abilities and
such tremendous talent. There was nobody
equal to him. He picked up pride, and he
has transmitted this to you and me. We
face the same problem and the same difficulty.
One thing more before we close: What was his sin, specifically? If you turn back to Isaiah 14:12, we can see
exactly what he did. “How art thou
fallen from heaven O Lucifer, son of the morning!” The word “Lucifer” means “bright
and shining one.” God’s name for him was
the bright and shining one. “Son of the
morning” means “son of brightness,” referring to his beauty. “… How thou didst weaken the
nations?” “Weaken the nations” refers to the fact that
he is for internationalism. It is the
plan of God for people to be protected by national entities. It is the plan of Satan to bring controls by
international one-world controls over all humanity. He is constantly seeking to weaken
nations. Verse 13 says, “For thou has
set in thine heart (that is, in his soul—expanding now what we
read over in Ezekiel), (first) ‘I will ascend into the heavens.” Here is his negative volition. He says, “I’m going to ascend into the
heaven.” That is, he’s going
to move into where God is, and he’s going to take over.
Secondly, he says, “I will exalt my throne above the stars
of God.” “The stars of God” refer to the
angels of God (Job 38:7, Revelation 12:3-4). “Stars”
refers to the angels. He said, “I’m going to take over the angelic hosts.
Number three, as he sits there mulling this over in his own
mind, thinking this over: He said, “I
will also sit on the mount of the congregation.” This refers to the earth, as viewed from the
north. “The mount of the congregation”
is the place where God has placed humanity. He’s
going to rule over humanity (in the sites
of north). Verse 14 says, “I will
ascend above the heights of the clouds.” “The
clouds,” very frequently in Scripture refer to the presence of God. What he is talking about is that he’s going
to move, not only above angels and above creatures, but he will be
above God Himself.
Finally, the epitome of his goal, “I will be like the most
high.” “I will imitate God.” A power madness has now taken
over Satan. As we shall see, he knew doctrine
and he knew it well. He knows it well
now. He knows what’s going on and he
knows how to operate against you and me with what we know. Now we’re going to see, in the days which lie
before us, how, on the basis of the doctrine that he knows, he has now
created techniques—his wiles and his procedures by which he operates, and
how he tries to get you and me to operate in order that he can counterfeit God. That’s what he’s trying to
do—to be like God. Do you see why I warned you to
begin with that you should get over the idea that he’s trying to
raise hell? He’s not trying to do that at all. He’s trying to be like
God, not to create some kind of a hell-hole situation out of the earth. He’s trying to make everything just great for
us. There are millions of people all over the earth who have devoted themselves and given their loyalties to
him. He is the archenemy of God, a fascinating personality, and we’ve only scratched the surface in
introducing this to you this morning.
John E. Danish, 1971
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