Hey friends, welcome back to the Semi -Seminarian.
We continue with another installment this week
of our Bible study series. We're calling the
Bible for Grown -Ups. We continue looking at
the spiritual realm. Last week, we looked at
angels. We discovered that angels do not have
wings. And that's more than just a Bible nerd
joke. It definitely is a Bible nerd joke. But
it taught us something pretty important, that
there's a lot more going on to the spiritual
realm than just little babies with wings flying
around on clouds with harps, that there's actual
spiritual warfare that goes on, that although
we may not always be able to see, to perceive
it, it's definitely there, and it affects our
daily lives. So this week we look on the other
side, the side of darkness, and we find that,
ironically, maybe it's the devil that has wings.
I hope you'll enjoy. But I do want to start off.
So tonight there's devils and there's demons,
but you see this funny picture up here. This
is what we often think about the devil. I'll
describe for those that might be listening. You
know, we've got horns on the head. We've got
a pitchfork. What do you guys think? This is
a bit of a trivia question. What's probably the
only thing that might be actually an accurate
representation? His wings. His wings. That's
right. Why? Because he's a seraph. Because he's
a seraph. That's exactly right. God was the chief
of the angels. Remember last week? When we talked
about the levels and we talked about how the
angels are actually at the very bottom of the
spiritual being ladder. And they're just one
step above humans. And they're also beings that
don't have wings. Right. But there are classes
of angels above them. They're not angels. They're
spiritual beings who do the cherubs and the seraphim.
And the seraphim we learned from Isaiah actually
exists within the holy of holies. With two eyes,
they fly. With two eyes, they cover something.
And with the other two wings, did I say eyes?
Sorry. With two wings, they fly. Two wings, they
cover one thing. Two wings, they cover the other.
And I'm sorry, I can't remember that part. I've
got this stuff loaded into my brain right now.
And all they do, their job, is to fly around
the throne of God and to sing, Holy, holy, holy.
Holy, holy, holy is the Lord. Holy, holy, holy.
Their job, their existence, their nature is in
worshiping within close proximity to the Creator.
That's their, in military terms, that's their
MOS, right? That's their job title, okay? Or
their job description, rather. Well, this guy
that we're thinking of here, Lucifer, the devil,
Satan, we'll talk about all these different names
here in a second. Probably the one thing within
the mythology drawings that probably is true
that is Satan. So I got to do my title for my
podcast right now. So listen, here it comes,
right? The devil does have wings. So tonight's
episode is called The Devil Does Have Wings.
So I also want to start off with a quote from
a famous philosopher and writer, Charles Baudelaire,
who says the greatest trick ever pulled was convincing
the world he didn't exist. I have to agree with
that. So what I'm also going to do, as we kind
of point out some clarifications here, is I want
to explain to you, this is probably a distinction
that is of no consequence to you. Because you
probably, it probably just doesn't matter what
the differences are for you, and that's okay.
When I'm talking about the devil and the devil's
demons tonight, I'm going to be teaching from
a perspective of Christian faith. Okay? The reason
why I'm saying that is the conceptualizations
of the accuser. When we hear the word Satan,
Satan is not the devil's name. Satan, devil,
right? Satan is actually a title. And when you
see Satan written in Hebrew, it's actually written
like this. Hasatan. Hasatan, that's the Satan
part, but the ha means the accuser. It's a title,
right? It's a title. So Satan's not the devil's
name. Satan is a title of what this character
in the story does. He is the accuser. He is the
opposer, okay? He is the deceiver, is another
translation of Hasatan. The deceiver, okay? So
that's where we get Satan. But the conceptualizations
of Satan within the Jewish faith are in very,
very, very complex ways different than the way
we conceptualize the devil in the Christian faith.
I'm not going to make any attempt to try to draw
distinctions between those two things tonight
because I don't even get it. So I'm talking about
the devil tonight. through the lens of Christianity.
And what the devil is, is the personification
of and the author of sin and evil. The devil
is someone who rebelled against God in an attempt
to become equal with God himself. Satan, or the
devil rather, is depicted as a fallen angel who's
expelled from heaven at the beginning of time,
before God created the material world, and is
in constant opposition to God. Time. That's a
definition of the devil. That's the character
we're talking about tonight. It's important for
us to agree that that's who we're talking about.
The devil is a being, right, who was a fallen
angel who was expelled from heaven at the beginning
of time before God created the material world
and is in constant opposition to God. So the
devil as a fallen angel was kicked out of heaven
before there ever was an earth. Okay? The spiritual
beings exist before the material beings do. So
this is going to be important in a second whenever
we start to think about and ask ourselves these
questions like, why is there a devil? If God
is good and God is great and... You know, all
this stuff. Then why is there a devil? If God
is love, what's the devil? OK, so we're going
to get to that here in a second. But it's important
for us to understand who the devil is in this
way before I try to get it answer those questions.
So today we're going to look at the devil and
his demons, the devil who does have wings to
get to kind of a broad overview of what the demons
can do first. Let me show you guys a story in
Mark chapter 5. I've got almost all of these
Bible verses written on in notes there. I couldn't
fit the Ezekiel one on the page. And I guess
I could have just did duplex, but sorry. I tried
to make it one page long. So if you'll look along
there, we're going to start in Mark. Chapter
5, Scripture says, When Jesus got out of the
boat, a man with an evil spirit came from the
tombs to meet him. This man has lived in the
tombs, and no one could bind him anymore, not
even with a chain, for he had often been chained
hand and foot. But he tore the chains apart and
broke the irons on his feet. No one was strong
enough to subdue him. So here we see a regular
guy who's become possessed with a demon and now
is so strong, he is so powerful that even chains
can't subdue him. Okay, verse 5 says, Night and
day among the tombs and in the hills, this man,
he would cry out and he would cut himself with
stones. Now I just... Sidebar here, I think this
is kind of interesting. Isn't that interesting
that over 2 ,000 years later, here we are? And
what do we see, unfortunately, a lot of people
who are hurting doing? They're cutting themselves.
They're inflicting pain on themselves. It's interesting
how that doesn't seem to change with time. Why?
Why does that not seem to change with time? Because
our spiritual enemy, right, who's been here before
the material world, his mission is to steal and
to kill and to destroy. It's interesting to me.
Reading on, verse 6. When he saw Jesus from a
distance, he ran and he fell on his knees in
front of him and he shouted at the top of his
voice, What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of
the Most High God? Swear to me that you won't
torture me. Verse 8. For Jesus had said to him,
Come out of this man, you evil spirit. Now, if
you'd like to read the rest of the story, it's
rather interesting. I'm just trying to get to
the evil spirit part. As Jesus casts out the
evil spirit, the spirit revealed himself and
says, hey, there are many of us. That's why our
name is Legion. There's many of us, right? And
then the Legion negotiates to deal with Jesus.
He says, hey, cast us into something else, please.
And so Jesus actually takes these legion, these
multitude of demons, and casts them into a herd
of pigs. Had there been cats, I hope that Jesus
would have cast them into the cats. But there
weren't any cats around, so he went with the
pigs. Ran over the cliff, and a thousand of these
pigs ended up drowning as Jesus cast out the
demons. So it is so that it had so possessed
a man. this demon, remember that he was greater
than humans can even recognize. Now, some people
ask me, right, because I'm a federally liberal
Christian, you know, do you believe in demons?
Absolutely, I believe in demons, right? You think
people might say, you think you ever encountered
demons? And I'd have to say, yeah, probably.
Probably more than I even recognize. That's probably
the reality. So if that's the case, and you're
like me, then let's start today by trying to
look at the answer, where did Satan come from
in the first place? Okay. Scripture teaches us
that Satan wasn't always a bad guy. In fact,
years and years ago, Satan was actually an angel,
one of God's best and most beautiful angels,
was known as Lucifer or the Morning Star. Here
you see this in Latin. That's Luciferos right
here. That means morning star. Whenever they
talk about the morning star, they're talking
about Venus. You get up early in the morning,
you look in the sky real low. You can see Venus.
It's a super bright star. Think about what that
was like before streetlights, before electricity.
So they saw these bright stars and they thought
of them as these heavenly beings in the sky.
And the morning star, which is actually the planet
Venus, has a name, the bringer of light. The
morning star, then the day comes, right? Luciferos,
light bringer. That is the Latin name. In Greek,
that name is Diablos. Diablos, from Greek to
English, is devil. Okay, that's where that all
comes from. And so Satan, in his beauty, Because
he was the light bringer, as the story goes,
became jealous of God and wanted to be like God.
Instead of like Jesus, right, who says, Father,
thy will be done. Lucifer, the morning star,
the beautiful angel said, I will. I will. Five
times in scripture, we see this angel wanting
to be like God. Here's the account. I've got
it for you there. Isaiah chapter 14, verse 12.
The prophet says this, How you have fallen from
heaven, O morning star, son of dawn. You have
been cast down to the earth, you who once laid
low the nations. You said in your heart, I will
ascend to heaven. I will raise my throne above
the stars of God. I will sit enthroned on the
mount of assembly. I will ascend above the tops
of the clouds. I will make myself like the most
high. And God said, no, you won't. I'm the creator.
No one can ever be like me. And when this beautiful
angel says, I will be like you, God, God casts
him out of heaven. And a third of the angels
followed him. Most people. In the Christian faith,
what we're kind of using is a basic understanding
about this stuff. Today, most people believe
that that's kind of where the demons come from.
Okay? Let me give you another example. You just
have to listen to this one, I'm afraid. I didn't
have, again, didn't have room to put this on
the page. But this is Ezekiel talking. He's actually
talking about the king of Tyre, which is a Mediterranean
coastal area that is in today Lebanon. OK, in
the Middle East. And so he's actually talking
about the king of Tyre. But the king of Tyre
is so evil that whenever he looks at him, he
actually sees the accuser. He sees the devil.
And so seeing the sinful nature of the king of
Tyre was so incredibly sinful to Isaiah that
he actually prescribes. He gives a description.
of the character we're talking about, this fallen
angel, the devil. It says, you were in Eden,
the garden of God. Every precious stone adorned
you. And then carnelian, crystallite, emerald,
topaz, onyx, jasper, lapis lazuli, turquoise,
and beryl. Your settings and mountings were made
of gold, and on the day you were created, they
were prepared. You were anointed as a guardian
cherub, for I so ordained you. You were on the
holy mount of God. You walked among the fiery
stones. You were blameless in your ways from
the day you were created till wickedness was
found in you. Through your widespread trade,
you were filled with violence and you sinned.
So I drove you in disgrace from the mount of
God. I expelled you, guardian cherub, from among
the fiery stones. Your heart became proud on
account of your beauty, and you corrupted your
wisdom because of your splendor. So there I threw
you to the earth. Lucifer's beauty and wisdom
and might, all these good things created by God,
lent to his pride of himself. His pride. led
to his rebellion and fall. But he never lost,
and thus therefore still retains, his powers
and traits. We believe, generally speaking, that
he is leading a cosmic revolt against the Creator
to see who will make the choice to be with God
or against God. His strategy is to enlist mankind
to his side to succumb to the same choices that
he had made. To love ourselves instead of God.
To make ourselves, because of our own pride,
autonomous from God. To defy God. The heart of
this and of Adam's test of will. This test of
will between Satan and this test of will that
through mankind we see of Adam, right? That is
the same test of will. They're just dressed in
different clothes, right? And they both chose
to be God themselves. So again, I mentioned we
have this issue, not this issue, but we have
this understanding in our interpretation that
Satan, Lucifer, the devil, this morning star
character is a heavenly being, an angel. that
was born pre -human creation. Okay? So at some
point, before the creation of the material world,
at some point the heavenly angels, the heavenly
beings rather, were created. We don't have a
lot of info on that. And this isn't my, I didn't
discover this, but this is a really great way
to use literary criticism to find these things.
I don't, oh my gosh, I don't think I have the
Job in there either. Listen to Job 38, 1 through
7. This is so cool. Then the Lord spoke to Job
out of the storm. He said, where were you when
I laid the earth's foundation? Tell me if you
understand. While the morning stars sang together
and all the angels shouted for joy. It's neat.
Because if we read that, we go, oh, what God's
saying here. actually has something to say about
these heavenly beings. Because he's saying, well,
Job, where were you at the foundation of creation?
Right? You weren't here yet. Where were you when
the morning stars, the Luciferos, and the angels
sang together and shouted for joy? Ah, okay.
So, that's a pretty good argument there. At some
point, these angels existed, these heavenly beings
existed, before humans did. So, hang with me
and just dig. Picture Lucifer being created and
becoming conscious sometime during the creation
week. Right? At some point during the week of
creation, early, early on, certainly, in the
cosmos. And all he knows, this is at the instant
of creation. All he knows is that he exists and
he's self -aware. And now, let's also add to
this picture that there is also this other being
who claims to have created him and all of the
cosmos. Right? But how does Lucifer know that's
true? It's Lucifer and this other being that
says, oh, by the way, I created you, and not
only did I create you, I created all this. But
this is so early on in the story here, guys,
that Lucifer's kind of looking around and not
seeing much going on. How do I know that we didn't
just pop into existence at the same time? Right?
Who's to say? that this person who claims to
be the creator is just making it up. Perhaps
this alleged creator popped into existence in
the cosmos just before Lucifer popped into the
cosmos, but he wasn't the creator. But since
he was there first, he was able to say, hey,
I'm in charge. And because the creator arrived
earlier on the scene, so to speak, perhaps he
was more powerful. Perhaps he was more knowledgeable.
Than he, Lucifer, was. Or not. Maybe he's not
as more powerful. Or maybe he's not more powerful
than I am. Lucifer could only accept God's word
to him that he had created him and God himself
was the eternal and infinite. It's only in his
faith to choose to believe it. Now that we start
to see that this question of seeing God for who
God is and believing that God is who he says
he is, seems to not only be an argument, a fight
of contention for each and every one of our personal
spiritual lives, but it also seems to be the
heart of the matter, the spiritual warfare in
heaven as well. I mean, if this hypothesis is
true, you could kind of see. You could kind of
see how Lucifer perhaps might be skeptical that
just because this guy told me he's the creator,
that he is. And maybe Lucifer's pride was just
so strong that he was able to choose to believe
the fantasy that he created in his own mind.
That he was as equal to this other being. Even
though he sees God. In other words, friends,
seeing is not always believing. Lucifer would
have seen and conversed with God, but he still
would have had to accept it by faith that God
had created him. Right? Many people tell me that
if God would just appear before them, you know,
if God would just show up even for just a second,
I'd believe. But throughout the Bible, many people
saw and heard God. That was never the issue.
The crux of the matter was whether they would
believe him or not. From Adam and Eve to Cain
and Abel to Noah to the Egyptians at the first
Passover to the Israelites crossing of the Red
Sea all the way to those who saw the miracle.
miracles of jesus for themselves seeing didn't
always equate to trust and the fall of lucifer
is just another consistent example of that revelation
12 i want to try to get as much where do we talk
about the devil and all demons and stuff i want
to try to throw as much of this as i can without
just getting too bogged down into one particular
thing right this is just Devil 101 here tonight.
Revelations 12 gives us this account. 7, 8, and
9. Verses 7, 8, and 9. The Bible says, And there
was a war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought
against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels
fought back. But he was not strong enough and
they lost their place in heaven. Verse 9 says
the great dragon was hurled down. The ancient
serpent called the devil or Satan or Lucifer
who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled
to the earth and his angels with him. When Lucifer
said I will be like God, God said no you won't.
Because there will be none other like me. He
was cast down to the earth and now. We have to
deal with that force of darkness, right? And
so this character, Satan, Lucifer, the devil,
and then demons. Let me show you also another
story from the Gospel account of Mark. Again,
don't think this is in there. I tried to add
a bunch more Bible here, right? This is a parable.
It's called the parable of the sower. This is
Jesus, right? Listen, behold, the sower went
out to sow, and as he sowed, some seed fell along
the path, and the birds came and devoured it.
Other seed fell on rocky ground, where it did
not have much soil, and immediately it sprang
up, since it had no depth of soil. And when the
sun rose, it scorched, and since it had no root,
it withered away. Other seed fell among thorns,
and the thorns grew up and choked it and yielded
it no grain, and other seeds fell into good soil.
and produce grain, growing up and increasing
and yielding thirtyfold, and sixtyfold, and a
hundredfold. And he, that's Jesus, says, he who
has ears, let he or she hear. The explanation
about this parable given by Jesus later on in
Mark. And when he was alone, Those around him
with the twelve asked him about the parables.
And he said to them, To you has been given the
secret of the kingdom of God. For those outside,
everything is a parable, so that they may indeed
see but not perceive, and may indeed hear but
not understand, lest they should turn and be
forgiven. And he, that's Jesus, said to them,
Do you not understand this parable? How then
will you understand all of the parables? The
seer, Sorry, the sower sows the word. The word,
the truth of God. And these are the ones along
the path where the word is sown. When they hear,
Satan immediately comes and takes away the word
that was sown in them. And these are the ones
sown on the rocky ground. The other ones who,
when they hear the word, immediately receive
joy. and they have no root in themselves, but
endure for a while, and then when tribulation
or persecution comes, and it always does, arises
on account of the word, immediately they wither
away. Jesus is pretty much explaining to us how
the devil works in the world, right? The word
of God, the truth of God, the love of God is
sown into our lives, and yet... At times, because
of our rocky soil, Satan can very easily come
along and pluck those seeds out. Right? That's
what we're talking about here. Now, as we talk
about this today, we need to recognize this truth,
friends, this reality. Again, this is called
the Bible for grownups. Not every bad thing that
happens in your life is because of demons. For
example, if you have a bad hair day, that does
not mean your hair was possessed by demons. Come
out of me, you demon, bad hair demon. If your
kids are acting up, maybe they need a nap. They're
teenagers, whatever. Not every bad problem is
because of demons. But what we want to do this
evening... is we do want to look at a few of
these things that demons do do. Let's look at
four. Bible for grown -ups, right? If you're
taking notes, the first one is this. We need
to recognize that demons do, in fact, influence
the leaders of nations. Demons. If you're going
to try to influence somebody, one of the greatest
places you could make a dent would be within
the leaders of nations. And regardless of what
side of whatever team you're on, you can watch
the world news. It doesn't matter what side.
And you're going to watch the news and go, what's
going on? It just seems so dark here, there,
other places, right? Behind those leaders, I
believe one of the things that demons do, demonic
forces trying to bring about the will of Satan.
Daniel, the Old Testament prophecy of Daniel
in 10 and 13 helps illustrate this. Daniel had
prayed. We talked about this last week. Really
cool story. Daniel had prayed for 21 days. Remember,
for three weeks and nothing had happened. And
then finally, the angel shows up. The angel of
the Lord came to him and he said, but the prince
of the Persian kingdom resisted me 21 days. What
is this? This is an evil prince, an evil spirit
who's doing battle, spiritual realm. Scripture
goes on to say, then Michael, one of the chief
princes, came to help me because I was detained
there with the king of Persia. Behind the scenes,
what I believe in the spirit world. We can see
demonic forces trying to influence the heads
of governments. That's why I think when we look
throughout history and we see horrible events,
genocide, the Holocaust, right? We think about
those kind of things in places all over the world
where leaders of governments persecute. They
take the lives of people, right? They persecute
and they take the lives of Christians. For the
sake of proclaiming Christ. Right? What do we
see here? We see the forces of darkness. Demons
at work trying to influence the leaders of nations.
What else do demons do? Demons also desire to
inflict suffering on you. They desire to inflict
suffering on you. I'll show you a story in Scripture.
And as we read this story, if you have kids or
grandkids or neighbors with kids or whatever,
I want you to think about a six -year -old, seven
-year -old little boy or girl. Imagine this little
child doing stuff like throwing themselves into
a fire, trying to jump into a swimming pool so
that they might drown themselves. Okay, this
is what's going on here in this story in the
time of Jesus. We pick up that story and it tells
us this in Matthew chapter 17 and 15. That the
father who was beside himself, as we can imagine,
says to Jesus, Lord, have mercy on my son. Right?
He has seizures and he's suffering greatly. He
falls into the fire, into the water. Why? Again,
because this evil spirit is trying to kill this
little boy. What happens? Jesus says, bring the
boy to me. And Jesus does this. Jesus rebuked
the demon and it came out of the boy. And what
happens from this little moment on? This little
boy was healed. Here we see Jesus confronting
a demon, right? Who's trying to destroy the life
of a little child, this kid. And if you can recognize
what... What demons might do to little children,
what do you think they might want to do to you?
Right? They want to kill everything that matters
to God. I heard in all of my research this. One
of the cool quotes that I heard just this afternoon
was, the devil isn't for anything. Even bad stuff.
The devil isn't for anything. The devil is only
against everything in God. The devil isn't for
anything. He's against everything. Demons, the
princes of darkness, try to influence the leaders
of nations, and they will try to inflict suffering
on you. Another thing is that demons scheme to
lure us away from God. Demons will study you.
Another funny quote I heard was like, man, if
you'd lived for a thousand years, you'd be pretty
good at something too. Well, how good do you
think the devil is? The devil's been around forever.
I thought, hey, that's kind of clever, right?
Demons scheme to lure you away from God. They
will find and they will know your weaknesses
and they'll do anything possible to lure you
away from God. Maybe you like shiny things. Right?
Look at this little shiny thing. Maybe you're
vulnerable to skin. Temptation. Right? Could
pursue. Maybe it's something that isn't something
like the big sinful thing like that. But maybe
it could be that you like to pursue intellectual
ideas that might take you away from a relationship
with God. Demons will use anything possible to
lure you away from the truth of God. Here's how
it's described in Scripture. In 1 Timothy, the
fourth chapter, first verse, the Spirit clearly
says that in the later times, some will abandon
their faith and they will follow deceiving spirits
and things taught by demons. What are they trying
to do, demons? Trying to influence the leaders
of nations? They will try to hurt anyone and
everything that they can. And they are trying
to lead you away from. They're trying to steal
you from the truth of God. And they're very,
very active. The fourth thing, any notes, is
demons want to paralyze us with fear. They want
us to go through life worried, in agony, always
concerned about something, constant anxiety.
Some of you, you might live right there, right
now. You're in agony about your kids. You're
worried, sick about school. You're paralyzed
with fear about your health or maybe the health
of somebody that you love, right? You're worried
about what's going to happen, what's going to
happen to my marriage. You're in agony, maybe
even about your own spiritual condition. Why?
Because Satan, through his demons, is trying
to paralyze you with fear. Here's what Scripture
says in 2 Timothy. Chapter 1, 6 and 7. For God
has not given us, we know this, a spirit of fear,
but of power and love and of sound mind. The
spirit of fear is a very real spirit coming from
the evil one who wants to paralyze you with it.
Understand this, friends, and never forget it.
That Satan and his demons, they hate you. They
despise you and they want to take you out. They
want to destroy you. And we must be ready to
do battle and to do battle with them God's way.
Okay? So if we're going to do that, three things
we need to know. The first one is this. We never
treat our enemy lightly. Right? Let's look at
what Scripture says in the letter of Jude, verse
9. But even the archangel Michael, when he was
disputing with the devil about the body of Moses,
did not dare bring a slanderous accusation against
the devil, but said to the devil, the Lord rebuke
you. Michael is an archangel. Michael is a very
powerful being, even compared to the devil. Even
compared to the devil. And he knows. No, no,
no, no, no. I'm not going to fight you in Michael's
power. Even the archangels, like I'm not going
to use my power. No, no, no, no. The Lord's power
rebuke you. The creator God's power rebuke you.
Even when the glorious archangel Michael was
battling against the devil, he didn't trash talk
the devil, right? He's not over there going,
you are U -G -L -Y. You ain't got no alibi. You
ugly. No, he's not doing any of that stuff. Do
not treat your enemy lightly. It's a great story.
You might want to read sometime in Acts chapter
19. It's about the seven sons of this high priest
by the name of Siva. And they thought that they
were able to cast out demons in the name of Jesus,
even though they didn't really know the name
of Jesus. One time... These seven sons of Siva,
they found a demon -possessed man and they approached
him and they said, In the name of Jesus Christ,
whom Paul preaches, come out of him. Now let's
check this out. And a demon inside of this man
looked at the seven sons and said, Hey, we know
who Jesus is. And we know who Paul is. But who
are you? And scripture says that this one demon
-possessed man Whipped those seven other dudes
so badly that they came out of the house naked
and bleeding. The story teaches us, friends,
the principle that we should never, ever, ever
treat the enemy lightly. Second principle, don't
flirt with darkness. Don't flirt around with
the things of darkness. Right? Maybe as a kid.
Right? You guys probably did stuff like I was
when I was a kid, right? Light as a feather,
stiff as a board. Light as a feather, stiff as
a board. Right? Or seances. Or you turn the lights
off, you play with a Ouija board. Right? Spirit,
will she go out with me? No. Right? We do all
sorts of things like that. Scripture teaches
us that we should never ever have anything to
do with the forces of darkness. Don't mess around
with that kind of stuff. Consulting mediums and
spiritualists, right? We don't need to look at
tarot cards and Ouija boards. Look, I get it.
I know that a Ouija board is created by Milton
Bradley. I understand that. But why, you know,
why do you take your horoscope as a serious...
Do you treat a horoscope like this is serious
divine intervention in my life? It's a horoscope,
right? Okay. Teletubbies? If you're watching
the Teletubbies, I'm only kidding. I'm only kidding
about the Teletubbies thing. Just joking. Here's
what the Bible says. The first thing I could
think of, what kind of music to listen to. If
you're listening to that ACDC rap music. Deuteronomy
chapter 18, sorry, 10, 11, and 12. Let no one
be found among you practices divination or sorcery,
interprets omens, engages in witchcraft or casts
spells, or who is a medium or a spiritist or
consults the dead. Anyone who does these things
is detestable to the Lord. We do not take our
enemy lightly, and we should never flirt with
darkness. Finally, the third thing. In your notes
there. We need to remember this. We don't fight
with our power. We fight with God's authority.
We never fight with our own power, but instead
in the authority of God. There is a humongous
difference between authority and power. Our power
is not great enough, right? Matthew 10 and 1,
the Bible says that Jesus called his 12 disciples
to him and he gave them authority to drive out
evil spirits and to heal every disease and sickness.
Jesus didn't give... the disciples His power,
He gave them authority to do it in the power
of Jesus. And there's a big difference, and let
me explain. For example, right? If I jump out
here into the middle of the street and start
waving at cars trying to get them to stop and
to go, I might get run over. Right? But if I
go out there in a uniform and a badge, and I
now have the authority to use that power, that's
an entirely different thing, isn't it? That's
an entirely different thing. We don't fight with
our power. We fight under God's authority. Right?
When we do spiritual battle, we must remember
that we cannot, we should not, and it is not
designed that we should battle with our own power.
We battle in the authority of Jesus Christ, who's
greater. Right? Than any of us. And his authority,
by his power, we can have victory over forces
of darkness. There is a battle. There is a spiritual
battle. Right? It might not be a sci -fi movie
or something crazy like that. Some, you know,
fantasy kind of idea. But the battle is real.
The kingdom of light against the kingdom of darkness.
So what do we know? Number one, we don't treat
our enemy lightly. Number two, we don't ever
flirt with darkness. Number three, we don't fight
on our power, but God's authority, right? And
we need to recognize that there is an evil force
that is more wicked than you could ever imagine,
that wants to rob and to steal and to kill and
to destroy everything that matters to the heart
of God. The demons want your family. They want
your marriage. They want your children. They
want your finances. They want your health. And
they want your relationship with God most of
all. How do you fight? We fight with spiritual
weapons of warfare. Right? How did Jesus do battle?
Kind of rounding the bend here. How did Jesus
do battle with Satan? Perfect, perfect example
for us, right? How do you fight? How did Jesus
fight? When Satan tempted Jesus after 40 days
of fasting, Satan came up to Jesus saying, hey,
geez, you hungry? You want some Twinkies, right?
And what does Jesus do? Because he says, hey,
if you want, big man, you could just turn these
rocks into bread. How does Jesus respond? Listen
carefully, listen carefully. Jesus said, It is
written, man shall not live by bread alone, but
by every word that proceeds from the mouth of
God. Even Jesus does battle with Satan with the
written word of God. Even Jesus uses the word
of God in his battle with Satan. Satan comes
back a second time and says, hey, right, do this.
Why don't you just throw yourself off the edge
of the cliff? You know you'll have angels come
along and catch you. Let them catch you. God
will do that for you. Again, how does Jesus do
battle? He says, it is written, thou shalt not
put the Lord your God to test ever, ever. With
the word of God. He defeated the life of the
evil one and Satan comes back a third time. Lies.
Why? Because Satan doesn't give up easily. Right?
So he says, Jesus, oh Jesus, why won't you do
this? Jesus, deal of the century. All you have
to do, all you have to do is bow down. Bow down,
Satan says, and worship me. And when you do,
I will give you everything your eyes can see.
And then Satan fled. I'm sorry. And Jesus fought
back and said, it is written, you shall worship
the Lord your God and serve him only away from
me, Satan. And Satan fled. Scripture goes on
to say, then the angels of God came and ministered
to Jesus. Right? Now, one of the things I think
that is kind of interesting is not just in that.
Jesus, you're doing battle with it is written,
but I want you to see something about the power
of the devil. Not one time in this encounter
with Satan does Jesus ever say something to Satan
like, why would you say that, oh serpent buddy?
Why would you say that? You know you can't do
that. You know you don't have the power to give
me all that. He doesn't say that. Jesus believes
he... If he did what Satan asked, he would be
given. Satan does have the power to do that.
It's important. Even Jesus understands how powerful
the devil is. And it's only through his word,
God's word and God's truth, can that be fought.
There's another world and it is real, even more
real than you might see with the eyes around
you. So how do we do battle? Never in our own
strength, but in the authority of God. Right?
Says who we are in Christ. James chapter 4, closing,
4, 7, 8. Right? We're going to do battle. How
do we do battle? Scripture says submit yourselves
then to God. To some of you right now, if you
were honest, you'd say, I'm not submitting my
life to God. Maybe partially. Maybe kind of.
Not all the way. Here's what you have to do.
To get into this authority, in this power business,
to be equipped for this battle, you must submit
yourself to God. And Scripture says, and then
you'll do what? You'll resist the devil. And
what will the devil do? He will flee from you.
You submit yourself to God, you resist the devil,
and he will flee from you. Scripture says he's
out the door. And the Bible says when you come
nearer to God, God will come nearer to you. That's
what I hope that we're all able to do tonight.
In the name of Jesus, Satan has no place, no
right in our lives. So may we draw near to God
and may we let God win the battle for us. Any
questions? I started out tonight's Bible study
with a famous quote. by Charles Baudelaire, something
that goes along the lines that the greatest trick
the devil ever pulled on humankind was convincing
us that he never existed. I think there's some
truth to that. Sometimes I feel like whenever
we talk about things that we can't necessarily
see, things we can't necessarily interpret, fully
understand, we shy away from them as if they
don't exist, as if the consequences. of the spiritual
warfare that takes place in our life isn't real.
But unfortunately, that's just not the case.
And in the end, where you fall on the whole who
is the devil spectrum, one thing I think that
tonight's discussion definitely showed us is
the importance of our faith. Even a spiritual
being like Lucifer, seeing God for himself, was
troubled, was stymied by his own pride. And that
same problem holds true for us. Can we see God?
And if we can't see God, can we choose to believe
who God is? How much He actually loves us. And
that it's not our lives, and it's not our wills,
but it's God's will that be done. Can we actually
live that? Can we actually do that? Well, that's
the question. See you next week, and until then,
be blessed, friend.