FTGC-20 – The Rise Of Satan – God Of This World, King Of The Demons & Adversary Of God And His People

Transcript

Another week has gone by. For me, it’s been a phenomenal week studying the book of Isaiah and looking forward to having this small group coffee table talk with all of you. First of all, Bonnie and I, Bonnie who’s over there recording, all the lights, and sound checks, and cameras; we would like to thank you for your encouraging notes. You all are sending notes. Some of you on Facebook and some of you on YouTube. You keep saying, we’re out there, we’re in the small group, we’re praying. I’ve had everything. One this week, I heard from one lady. She said, I work all night, I go into work at midnight and by two o’clock, whatever she does, has her work done. She said, I start watching the playlist on YouTube. She said, so I listened to you all night at work. I thought, thank you. Thank you for listening, for praying, for encouraging us.

Let’s get to Isaiah. See where we are? We’re in week 20. Let me get my stylists here. Week 20 of going through the Bible’s 52 Greatest Chapters. That’s what you’ve tuned in to. We are on our first passage in the book of Isaiah. As we go to Isaiah, you’re looking at one of the most fascinating books in the Bible. For one thing, Isaiah covers the greatest time period of any book of the Bible. It goes from eternity past, talking about the universe before sin entered the universe, that’s one mile marker. There are only a couple other parts of the scripture that talk about life before sin entered the universe. That’s one thing that’s in Isaiah. The second thing, the most far reaching event is after all of time is over and what we would call eternity and life in Heaven begins to unfold. Isaiah covers that. So, before sin, and fall, and Satan, and the devil, Isaiah gives us an insight there. After all of it’s over and Satan is forever in the Lake of Fire with all those who followed him and we are with God, Emmanuel, God with us as Isaiah talks about, that event takes place. Isaiah has the longest span of any book.

Isaiah is also called by the ancient’s, what we would call the church fathers, they called Isaiah the fifth Gospel. Isaiah writes so much about Christ’s coming, the prophecies, his fulfillment of the branch, the location. Especially Isaiah 53, which is next week, there is more about Christ in His titles, and His prophecies, and His promises, and His work on the cross in Isaiah than any other Old Testament book. It’s just a great book. I’m not going to teach the whole book of Isaiah, but I’m just saying, wow, I’ve been excited this week.

Part of the goal of this study is to get an overview of the whole Bible. If you use our Grudem Systematic Theology, if you use our MacArthur Study Bible, and if you actually follow through with the cross references… see, my Bible has all these notes at the bottom. This is just a normal Bible with cross references. If you follow even a few of those in our study, you’ll get an overview and a mastery of the big message, the mega themes, the key doctrines of the Bible.

Look what we’re covering, the Rise of Satan – god of this world. We can attribute to Satan, every sickness, every sorrow, every pain. Every deterioration that you see in your own body and in the world around us is all because of Satan. We’re going to see the rise of Satan, actually the decline and fall of Lucifer, which is the rise of Satan. We’re going to tie together, Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28. These are the two chapters, that when you merged them together, give us the complete picture of the pre-fall glory around the throne of God, with Lucifer who may have been the worship leader of Heaven, and his internal thoughts that only God would know. God writes them down in Isaiah 14, five of them. I will. I will. I will. I will. I will. Instead of, if God wills I will. I’m going to do this, and that was the start of Satan’s fall, by the way.

Look at the next slide. This was my original title. I always title everything multiple times. The one on the first slide, The Rise of Satan, was my last time reading through Isaiah 14. On my last time through, as I titled the passage, I thought it’s really the rise of Satan. Look at the day before. Lucifer’s Fall. Satan’s Power. Demon origins. God’s Plan and the Cosmic War Swirling All Around Us. Another title, which I have in my journal, is the Origin of Evil.

I want to explain for you the question that for years and years and years, when I did every Sunday night, Q and A, that would come up. Those were fun years of our life. Bonnie, I remember, she prayed me through. I would be spending the whole afternoon reading the scriptures and asking the Lord to help me be ready for whatever question would come. Then, the staff would put out the microphones, three microphones in the auditorium which seated 1,200 to 1400 people. There would be those microphones and we never knew who was going to go to one of those microphones. Sometimes we had people stumbling off the streets because we were on one of the main roads in town and just went in with the crowd. When they realized a microphone, they’d go up there and talk. We never knew what was happening. Do you know what? Over all those years was a very common question. I’ll ask and answer it for you right now. It’s probably one of the great questions of humanity, the origin of evil. Where did Satan come from? Why does God allow evil? Why does God allow suffering? Questions like that. Those are the ultimate questions, right?

Let me show you. Here’s Lucifer. See my white stylist? My hand represents the hand of God. This is Lucifer, you see him, he is perfect in all his ways, the most powerful being that God ever created in this universe. Watch what happens to Lucifer when God stops holding him. Whoop, he fell, almost broke my stylist. You say, what are you trying to say? That the origin of evil is when God’s stops holding things. When God stops holding us, we deteriorate. We go our own way. We fall away from His glory. Only God is self-sufficient, perfect, righteous, holy, and just. Everything else can be sinless as Adam and Eve were, but while they were held by the power of God they would not fall into sin. When God lets go, boom, down we go. What did God do for just an instant? As we see in scripture, by the way He demonstrates this, He pulls away from people His sanctifying presence and power to see what they will do. It reveals what’s really in their heart. It revealed in this chapter what was in Lucifer’s heart.

In fact, do you want to see what was in Satan’s heart? Look in verse 12 of chapter 14. “How you are fallen from Heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How you were cut down to the ground.” Verse 13, “For you have said,” what does it say? “in your heart.” Only God can read our hearts. Only God knows the thoughts of every human and every being in this universe, all the angels, and all the fallen angels, the demons, and the greatest creature Lucifer’s thoughts. “I will ascend into Heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of congregation on the farthest sides of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds.” Look at verse 14. “I will be like the Most High.” Do you know what’s interesting proof of the inspiration of the Bible, this verse and back in Genesis when Satan, after this event said, “I will be like the Most High,” went down and immediately tempted Eve, talking to her in the garden. Do you remember what he said? He said, if you take this fruit that’s forbidden, you will become what? Greater than God? Equal with God? No, “like God.” Satan could not conceive of anything greater than God. He didn’t say I will be greater than God, or you’re going to be greater than God. He just said, you can be like Him, which is one of his lies.

That’s how Lucifer fell. That’s where Satan began to rise into his adversarial position and power. That’s where the origin of the demons comes from. All this is circumscribed and surrounded by God’s plan. It triggered what we call the cosmic war. Let’s start our study.

Right here we are, we’re on week 20, Isaiah 14, the fall of Lucifer. We’re looking in the series of five weeks in a row, some of the most fascinating chapters in the Bible. We go from this week to looking at the Holy of Holies of the Old Testament, the actual council of God in offering God the son, His son, our savior, the Lord Jesus as our atoning sacrifice. Next week, I’m so excited about jumping into that chapter and looking at the wonders of what God did for us. Then, we’re going to look at the restoration of Israel and the final conflict. Like Iran, which is in the news, and Russia, which is in the news, and all the Islamic countries marching on Israel. That’s amazing. Then, Daniel 9, what I call the greatest prophetic passage. This is fascinating, Zechariah 12 to 14, Israel’s role in the end times.

Back to Isaiah, and since we’ve talked about the evil one, the adversary, the devil, the liar, let’s just ask the Lord to bless our hearts because this chapter may more deeply influence how you look at life, your struggles, thoughts that just come out of nowhere, like when all of a sudden you fly into fear, or rage, or some horrible lust and you wonder how God? How is that possible? This is how it’s possible. That’s the cosmic war. We’re going to look at a big picture of what’s going on. Let’s ask the Lord’s blessing.

Father in Heaven, open our eyes to behold wonderful things from your word. We pray that you would bless your word to our hearts, not for knowledge, but for us to hear it and to become doers of what you want us to do. For your glory, in Jesus’ name, Amen.

Real quickly. The book of Isaiah was written by Isaiah. You say, why did you even say that? Because half of Christendom, Christendom is the public manifestation of Christianity, half or more of Christendom does not believe that Isaiah wrote Isaiah. They believe that we don’t know who wrote the Bible books and we’re not sure they’re inspired. Most very learned theologians think there were two Isaiahs, one who wrote from chapter 1 to 39, and one who wrote from chapter 40 to 66. What’s fascinating is, they say that because the tone changes so powerfully between these two sections. It goes from doom and gloom, 1 to 39, to hope and glory in 42 to 66. They say, couldn’t be the same. What’s interesting is when they found the Dead Sea Scrolls, they found the Isaiah Scroll. Guess what? The oldest known copy of the scriptures that go back closest to the original handwritten autographa, we call them, there isn’t space between Isaiah 39 and 40, it flows together. The Hebrew letters are just like this, 39 ends, 40 begins. There isn’t even a line, it’s just one. In fact, you can see it if you go to the Shrine of the Book. If you go in Israel to the Israel Museum and go to the Isaiah Scroll, it’s actually a facsimile the real one is kept in a vault, but if you go there, they’re actually displaying it. You can see there’s not even a space. Isaiah wrote that. Jesus said that. Jesus quotes from both halves and said Isaiah. He believed, that’s all that matters.

He writes from 740 BC to 680 BC. He writes over a 60 year period of time. He mentions that in chapter 6, verse 1. You might ask, how do I know that? Because, he mentioned the historical event, the death of the king, Uzziah. Then, he talks about the Senacherib the Assyrian conqueror that comes down and the death angel. Isaiah is full of fascinating events, but that event took place, his assassination, in 680 BC.

Real quick. We’re talking about history. That everything happens some time. We’re talking about the Bible, it’s the only 100% accurate history of humanity, the world, and the universe. There’s no other history that compares to this because God breathed this one out. Every word of God is pure. Where we are at, Isaiah is right here. Isaiah was a prophet to Judah. He’s prophesying during the time period, right about here. He’s living between 1 & 2 Kings and into 2 Kings, near to the end of 2 Kings, running up to the captivity. Assyria has already taken the Northern tribes. From 740, he lived through the Assyrian deportation to 680, he’s within 94 years, right here, of the Babylonians coming. That’s where he fits in history.

Right here is Jerusalem on the map. This is the largest Israel ever got. By the time we’re looking at Isaiah the enemies that are coming from the north and coming from the east are coming like this. They’re whittling away at the kingdom, and they’ve already hauled away the Northern part of Israel, all the way down this whole part. They’ve captured all this. They’ve hauled away the Northern kingdom that went all the way over to here. These have been deported. Now, it’s only the southern kingdom, right here. That’s the geography of what’s going on.

Isaiah’s right here. Assyria took the north, the northern kingdom, Assyria. Babylon’s coming to take the southern kingdom. Right here is Daniel and he is right at the front end of the Medo Persian Empire, and so is Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther. That just shows you, that the book of Isaiah is in this tumultuous time between the Assyrian Empire and the Babylonian Empire, and the Dawn of the Persian. Of course, into the Bible speaking of the Greeks and the Romans.

Now in this chapter, look down at verse 22. It says, “Cut off from Babylon.” Look here on the map right in front of you. There’s Babylon. Go down a little bit further to verse 24 and verse 25. “I will break the Assyrian in My land.” There’s the Assyrian’s right there. Keep going to verse 29. “Do not rejoice, all of you in Philistia.” There’s Philistia. It’s this area right here, along the brown area, along the coast. This is the Assyrian Empire. Look at this in Isaiah’s time. The Assyrians are this purple area that are expanding and they’re expanding this way down toward Babylon. Then here toward Egypt and catching Israel in the process. Notice, as you look at Isaiah 14, you’re looking at Babylon, which is talked about in verse 4 and talked about again in verse 22. The whole 14th chapter is surrounded by the physical, geographic locations on this map in front of you. You see, that’s something for you to realize.

The Bible is talking about real people, in real places, that had real problems. Only the Bible talks about how to solve those real problems which are internal. Most of them are, most of our problems have to do with how we feel and think, our fears and anxieties, struggles and guilt, and all of that. God is dealing with that, with His people.

Another thing and we’re going to see this more in the weeks ahead. This empire, from God’s perspective, this is the Daniel 2 image. Remember Nebuchadnezzar had a dream and saw this? Daniel interprets his dream that no one tells him, but God. This is God’s view of human history. Have you ever thought about that? How does God look at all of the civilizations of the world? There have been Mayan, and Incan, and the Indus Valley, and the great Chinese empires. There were huge African empires and cities of gold, and all kinds of things we found in history. But look what God says. From My perspective, because all of history revolves around the city of Jerusalem to God. He doesn’t say other things aren’t happening, but everything, even the directions of the compass in God’s description of reality. He says, now watch, if I’m sitting in the Holy of Holies in Jerusalem looking out the Eastern gate. The Hebrew word for east is, in front of or before my face. The word for west is, behind my back. North, is my left hand. South, is my right hand. That’s how God looks at human history from Jerusalem, from His holy presence in the Holy of Holies over the top of the lid of the Ark of the Covenant, the Shekinah glory. He reference points Jerusalem.

You know what he says? The beginning of world empires wasn’t Egypt, wasn’t China, wasn’t India. It was Babylon. Where’s Assyria? Assyria is not even on there. Yeah, because God says they did not impact my plan for the end of the world. Do you know who does? Babylon, the Medo Persians. By the way, Babylon just swallowed Assyria, so Assyria is assumed. Then, Medo the Medes and the Persians swallow the Babylonian empire. Then, Alexander comes along and swallows, and then the Romans come along. Look where we are. This is what’s called the feet of clay and iron, which are called the end days. You might’ve heard the revived Roman empire. We’re going to get into that when we get to Ezekiel. I’m not going to cover that anymore.

One of the things we’re going to see all the way through the book of Isaiah, when we go into Daniel, and when we go into Zechariah is this near and far view in the scriptures. Look down at what it’s talking about. In our chapter, chapter 14, verse 1, “The LORD will have mercy on Jacob and will still choose Israel.” It’s talking about the house of Jacob then all of a sudden, verse 12, “How you are fallen from Heaven, O Lucifer, son of the Morning!” Then, it talks about, in verse 3, Babylon. It talks about Babylon again, and Assyria being destroyed. Assyria being destroyed? Assyria hadn’t been destroyed when Isaiah was writing this. What we see is, here’s the prophet and he is looking at events all the way forward and back. Remember Isaiah would have to look both ways.

Isaiah looks to before the fall of Satan, all the way to here, life in the new Heavens, and the new Earth, and new Jerusalem. He sees, look at this, the Anti-Christ, he sees the Kingdom. A lot of the book of Isaiah is about the Kingdom period. In fact, we call this the Millennial Valley. 20% of the Old Testament is about this period of time right here called the Millennial time. This is not even seen at all. Why? Because he could only see that there was this Redeemer coming. He didn’t see the Redeemer starting what we call the Church and then taking the Church out of the world and again picking up. The tops of these hills are Israel, and this is the Church. We’re actually this little parenthetical event between there. God’s plans and program for Israel are temporarily set aside, He works with the Church, takes the Church home, goes right back to working with Israel there.

Now you see the key difference between covenant theology and dispensational theology. Covenant theology says, that God was working with Israel and God says Israel, I’m through with you. As Martin Luther said, you can get rid of Israel, we don’t need it anymore. He believed covenant theology. Martin Luther, I’m talking about the reformer, and he believed that God had no plans for Israel. You know what? 1/5 of the Old Testament is meaningless unless you have a nation called Israel that the Anti-Christ makes a covenant with and breaks the covenant, and that Jesus comes to rescue in the middle of the climactic events of that Day of the Lord. We’re going to cover all that in Daniel.

The key chapters of Isaiah, the throne of God, remember “high and lifted up.” This is our Christmas verse, that he is the “Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father.” Here’s where we are right here, Doom of Babylon. The tribulation. Remember how we covered in the 24th Psalm the Day of the Lord? It’s all described right there in Isaiah 24 to 27. The greatest prophecy in Isaiah is right there in the letter to Cyrus. Unbelievable. Naming Cyrus by name 200 years before he’s actually the king of the Medo Persian empire. This is next week, wow. Messiah. Then of course, Isaiah ends with the second coming and the millennium.

That leads me to this. What if some of those topics are interesting to you? Look at this, we have courses on all those.

See this right here? This is a course, 15 class hours, a course you can take with all the notes, with all the outlines, with everything you need. You can watch these 15 classes. Do I explain the homework? There is everything. Class zero is how to do the homework, and then it goes class 1 through 15. We do the same for Leviticus, Samuel, Psalms, Proverbs, the Minor Prophets, Hebrews, the books of 1 & 2 Peter are actually in 2 Peter and Jude, and Revelation. Those are all on YouTube and they’re available to you.

Let’s get into our devotional study. I need to get through this for you. Bonnie and I have had a very long day, and I know that whenever you’re watching this, you want to get to the study. So, let’s get to the study. We’re using the devotional method, which I described in class zero of this class too. You write titles, you’ve already seen a lot of my titles. You find lessons, and trues, and doctrines. Then, you write the application prayer.

This is my journal. Right here is the page. Of course, I’ve been scribbling on this and on every scrap of paper. I’ve typed it all in for you. Here’s what it says.

We’re on week 20, Isaiah 14, the origin of Satan. That was my first title. The start of the final war, thinking about the endless rebellion against God. Here’s another day, Lucifer + pride = sin. Then, the origin of evil. (Remember, like the tipping of my pen) Here’s a summary of this chapter. The proud kings of nations are the illustrations God uses to introduce us to Lucifer’s fall and the rise of Satan – god of this world. You say, whoa, why are you calling Satan the god of this world? God is the God. Notice I say, god. He’s not the real God, but he is right now, the prince of the power of the air, that it says in 2 Corinthians 4:4. The apostle Paul said, “whose minds the god of this age,” Satan, “has blinded.” Satan has blinded the minds of everyone in this world.

That means you and I are like Jesus said in John chapter 8, verse 44. Jesus said, John 8:44, “You are of your father the devil.” Every one of us were born into this world with our father as Satan. That’s why we’re sinners. We’re sinners by nature because of our birth. By choice, as soon as a child makes choices, it’s mine, me, my, fighting anger, selfishness, vengeance. Also, so by nature, by choice, and by divine decree God declared when Satan deceived Eve and Eve led her husband, Adam into sin through telling him to take and he chose. He, Adam, chose to sin. He wasn’t deceived. Eve was snookered by the devil. Adam, the Bible says, wasn’t. He chose to go with Eve rather than to obey God. That rushed the entire human race headlong into sin, and death, and destruction. We call that the fall of mankind. If you want to read more about that, that’s what Romans 5 is all about. Romans 5, that’s a future chapter we are going to cover.

This amazing chapter, now we’re back to Isaiah 14 covers verses 1 and 2, mercy on Israel. Verses 3 to 11, fall of the kingdom of Babylon. The fall of Lucifer, the destruction of Babylon, Assyria, and Philistia. Remember I showed all those to you on the map. Each of these entities and nations were in their day, awesome, powerful, and seemingly invincible. God set their limits, their times, their boundaries. Remember Acts 17? Which is another great chapter. We don’t cover it, but I refer to it a lot. It says, God set the boundaries, and times for all the nations on the Earth. Finally, all of them are judged in God’s perfect time.

Here are the lessons I found. The context of Isaiah 14 starts in the branch prophecy which is chapter 11. Backup in your Bibles to Isaiah 11 and the branch prophecy is this. “There shall come forth a Rod from the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots. The Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon Him.” This is a prophecy of Christ, His coming. “The Branch,” actually, it’s the word nēṣer. That’s why Jesus is called, the Nazarene. Jesus is the one who came from Nazareth. Not the Nazarite. You remember Samson? Don’t cut your hair. Don’t drink alcohol. Don’t touch dead animals or people. That’s a Nazarite. That’s a vow. No, Nazarene means that he was from Nazareth and Nazareth was the nēṣer, the branch.

Here’s an olive tree and out of the ground at the bottom of the olive tree, little shoots come out like this. Just little tiny shoots. That’s called a nēṣer. It’s a little branch. Look at verse 1, “There shall come forth a Rod from the stem of Jesse, and a Branch.” Jesus was described as a branch. By the way, when we get there, let me go to Isaiah 53, He’s called that again. It says, verse 2 of Isaiah 53, “He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant, as a nēṣer out of dry ground.” Jesus was the branch.

Then, chapter 12 and I don’t want to talk too much, we’re not covering these, but they’re so important. Look at chapter 12 of Isaiah verse 2, “God is my salvation, I will trust and not be afraid.” “The LORD, is my strength and song. Therefore,” verse 3, I’ll “draw water from the wells of salvation.” That is the idea of the branch coming, Jesus coming. Chapter 11 is followed with the hymn of praise, chapter 12, and flows into chapter 13 of Isaiah. Do you know what that is? That’s the tribulation. That’s the day of the Lord. It says right there, verse 6 of chapter 13, “The day of the LORD is at hand.” Whenever you see that “day of the LORD” that’s code for the end. It’s the period of time we call the second coming, that’s Psalm 24, that’s the tribulation. Chapter 6 to 18 culminating in the second coming in chapter 19 of Revelation. We go Branch, hymn of praise that the branch has coming, and then this horrible judgment, chapter 13, is coming. Why? Chapter 14. How did it all start? That’s the flow, and all of these near and far, distant events are sewn together in Isaiah’s writings.

Second lesson, God’s sovereign election of Israel as part of this forever promise. Look at chapter 14:1-2, “The LORD will have mercy,” because He has all these plans. Did you notice what it says, He chose Israel. Do you know what the theological term for that is? Sovereign election. God made an unbreakable promise to Abraham and said through you, I’m going to bless the whole world. I’m going to give you this land. I’m going to bring you back to this land after you disobeyed me and are scattered to the winds. I’m going to bring you back and no one will ever scatter you again. I’m going to come and rule over you in person. That’s what Matthew 1 is about, that Jesus will sit on the throne of His father David, has he ever done that? Have you ever seen Jesus sitting on any throne while He was here for 33 years? No. When is He going to? At the second coming? It’s going to usher what 1/5 of the Bible is about, the Kingdom age with Jesus ruling on Earth.

The doom of Babylon. By the way, in chapter 14 when it talks about Babylon, look what it says in verse 11. “Your pomp is brought down to Sheol.” Look at verse 15, “You shall be brought down to Sheol, to the lowest depths of the Pit.”

Look at this chapter is the key source of the biblical doctrine about a place called Sheol, the Pit, the Grave, Hades. It’s not Hell it’s part of death and the underworld. What is that? I’ll show you in just a minute. Fascinating. Then we have what I’ve already talked about. The fall of Lucifer. I’ve already said all that to you.

The fifth lesson, look at verse 15-21, it talks about all these people going down. Look at verse 19. “Like an abominable branch, like the garment of those who were slain, thrust through with the sword, who go down to the stones of the pit. Like a corpse trodden underfoot.” Really gross stuff. What is this talking about? It’s talking about this place called the Pit.

Every human that’s ever lived on this Earth is still alive on Earth in this gigantic holding place called, look on your notes there, it’s called the Pit in the Bible, Hades in the Bible. Sometimes Hades is translated Hell; not Gehenna, Lake of Fire, it’s a mistranslation. The translators saw Sheol, and they called it Hell. Nobody’s in Hell right now. The first two in Hell are going to be the beast and the false prophet. The third person in Hell is going to be Satan. Then, at the great white throne, one by one, each human that rejected salvation and refuses to bow to God’s truth will be cast in the Lake of Fire. Nobody’s there now.

The Pit, Hades, the Grave, the depths of the Earth, Sheol. That’s what this is talking about. Every human is consciously there right now. All the pharaohs. All the great kings of all these kingdoms of Assyria, and Babylon, and Philistia, and everybody. Even your neighbor that died last week, if they didn’t know Jesus Christ. By the way, no one goes to Hell for not knowing about Jesus. They go to Hell because they are sinners. In fact, Ezekiel, we’re going to get to that in a couple of weeks, Ezekiel says every time we sin, it’s sticking to us, it’s like a sticky bomb. Every sin sticks to us. When people die, they’re covered with sin, and they sink forever into the wrath of God as He judges that sin that they’ve committed.

That’s why salvation is so amazing. That’s why Isaiah 53 says, Jesus pulled all the sticky bombs, the napalm of sin off of me and put it on Himself and suffered like He committed my sins. Jesus explains there’s a waiting room for the judgment, the great white throne, which is coming in Revelation 20. That’s all described in Luke 16, and He talks about this place of judgment that’s coming. It’s all tied together there. You can read that. All the proud nations are going to end up there. I love this, that God has said that He wants us to drink water from the wells of salvation. Those were all my lessons.

After all those lessons early this morning I finished this up before I share it with you and then launch it. I always launched these for you on Sundays. Before I launched this for you today, I read, and one last time went through all this. Then, I looked at all my notes and combed through them, all the lessons. This is my application prayer. This isn’t facts to be proud of, but truths to change me. This is called sanctified by the truth of the word of God. Here’s my prayer.

How awful was Lucifer’s pride as he asserted his way over Yours. Pride is the root of all sin and my sin. I submit humbly to You. I want Your humility clothing me as Colossians 3:12 says. May Your grace empower me as Titus 2 says, to deny all ungodliness and to walk humbly with You. May I see all nations and tyrants as passing.

Look up from your prayer for a second. There’s some Christians that are needlessly, hyperventilating, nervous and worried, and spending all their time trying to do something to reverse the direction of our country. God has not called you or me to save our country. Countries can’t be saved. People get saved. The way they’re saved is, individuals coming to faith in Christ. The more people that come to Christ, it will slow down the growth and permeation of evil, and it will cause God to tarry with His wrath that is coming on America. We don’t riot, and what you saw in January, we don’t do that. That is un-Christian, and ungodly, and wrong. What we do is, we live the godly Christian life, and then we share it with others. We deny ungodliness. We walk humbly. We see nations and tyrants as passing.

Lord, you’re forever. I want to do Your plan and be Your servant. Help me to trust Your leading, follow Your way, and clothe myself with the apron of a servant, as Peter said in 1 Peter 5. Thank you for opening the past and explaining the future, so I know I can hope in You. For Christ’s sake, Amen.

I came away from this study this week, so hope filled for my generation. I will tell you from our perspective, from Bonnie sitting over there, and my perspective, do you know what we’re seeing? I have never in four decades of ministry, 30 years of teaching as senior pastor of local churches. All of my years, I have never personally seen more people responding to the gospel, and getting saved, and responding to the word of God, and seeing their lives change.

I just got a note this week and I shared it with Bonnie. A woman wrote to me and said, I wish you would help me, my husband has changed. She said, all he wants to do is study the Bible and she said, this is different. She said, I want you to help me. I would like to know whether you would help me get him a gift, something he would like, because all he wants to do is study the Bible. She almost sounded alarmed about that. Probably her husband, wasn’t doing as much sports as he used to do, and not doing as much with the buddies as he used to do, and not doing as much television watching, movie watching, and gaming. God changes our appetite. That’s what sanctification is all about. That’s what this prayer in front of you is. God is changing my appetite because I’m seeing more people than I’ve ever seen before responsive.

By the way, I got a note from a dear friend of mine that lives in the Middle East. He is a Palestinian who’s been displaced from his home by one of the wars in Israel. In the Palestinian conflicts he was displaced. He was living as a refugee from his home. By the way, he came to America, went to UCLA to study to be a doctor. His father is a medical doctor. He goes to UCLA and a campus crusade missionary knocked on his dorm room door, leads him through the scriptures to Christ, he gets saved. He writes home and says, mom and dad, I don’t want to be a medical doctor anymore. He transfers, early finishes at UCLA his undergrad, and transfers to Dallas seminary. Becomes their star Arab pupil they’ve ever had, plants the Arabic church of Dallas, which now has hundreds of people. He led so many of them to the Lord and launched that church. Now, he’s moved to the Middle East, and he personally says they’ve never seen more people coming to Christ. He personally is in touch with evangelists that are doing tent meetings in Syria. He’s talking to pastors that are doing evangelism in the streets of Cairo. All these are Arabic speaking people. He has church planters in Iraq. He has church planters in Sudan. He has church planters all over. You understand what I mean? All across Dar al-Islam, all the 21 nations of the Arab speaking world. He said more people are being saved every day, these days, than we’re saved each century in the first six centuries of Islam. More people are being saved today than we know that came to Christ in a hundred years, in the past centuries.

Chapter 14 covers Lucifer’s pride and rebellion. That’s what we’re studying.

We’re answering the question, where did Satan come from?

This is a picture of my Bible. Whenever there’s a place mentioned I highlight it because I’m very interested. That’s how I studied about Sheol and the Pit right here. That’s how I talked with you about Babylon.

Then, look at this, Babylon again. Assyria. Philistia. You understand? Just to give you a little idea, I’m constantly, every time I’m reading this, I keep highlighting, even chapter divisions. This isn’t part of the inspired text, but this is little notes that the Bible puts in for you. See, there’s more places. I just keep track of all those.

The cross-reference for those of you that want to study more, Ezekiel 28 has the very same event. Only God, this time, goes from the king of Tyre, and in chapter 14 God uses the king of Babylon.

How has all this fit together? If you follow the cross-reference in your study Bible, you get to Revelation 12. Revelation 12 says the dragon of Revelation is the serpent of Genesis 3, the devil of Matthew 4, Satan of Revelation 20, who deceives the whole world as I read to you from 2 Corinthians 4:4, is cast to the Earth and his angels were cast out with him. That’s a future event. Satan is going to be thrown out of being able to go anywhere he wants and accuse us before the throne of God. He’s going to be confined to Earth. That’s what the tribulation is about. You think things are bad? We’ve had what? 43 mass slayings in America so far this year. Did you see the map? I don’t know which news outlet carried it, but it showed a map of the U.S. There was a red dot on every city that’s had a mass shooting, so far in 2021, it’s horrible. Satan came to kill, and steal, and destroy. When he’s totally focused and unable to do anything else, it’s going to be the worst it’s ever been. In fact, Jesus said if he didn’t stop it, Satan would end up causing humanity to destroy itself.

What happened in chapter 14? Let me give you the theology, angelology it’s called. God created all the angels. When did He do that? It was a part of creation week. He started in the beginning. God started creating before that there was nothing. He made everything from nothing. At the beginning of creation week, God began creating. Somewhere in that time, He created the angels. How do we know that? Because Job says that, while He was shaping the Earth, the angels were rejoicing. They actually came before He started the shaping process. 2/3 of the angels still obeyed and served the Lord. 1/3 rebelled during this event of Ezekiel 28, Isaiah 14.

Of those, there are a portion who are right now incarcerated, I’m going to show you a map of this in just a second, in prison, demon prison. It’s called Tartarus. Most of them, most demons, fallen angels, are not incarcerated. They’re quite active.

When the demon prison is open, by the way that’s coming when we get to Revelation, there’s relentless terror.

Here is the demon prison, it’s called Tartarus and the Abyss. Satan is temporarily bound there. God casts him in there, in Revelation 20. Right now, Satan’s running all around. In Revelation 12, he’s confined to the Earth. In Revelation 20, he’s put in the Abyss, at the end of Revelation 20. Look at this. He’s put in here, that’s Hell, Gahanna, the Lake of Fire. Notice it’s not on Earth. This is Earth right here. This is the empty tomb. This is the cross. This is Paradise, Garden of Eden. Remember all those things? God takes Paradise to Heaven. Here’s the throne of God. Satan right now is able to be on Earth and actually come, Job says, and appear before God’s throne to accuse us.

Right here, look at this, Sheol. I told you everybody that’s ever lived on Earth is right now, consciously, right there in Hades, a place of torment. There was a happy side of Hades, right here. That’s called Paradise. That’s where Luke 16 says that Moses was and Abraham was, and that’s where Lazarus went. Remember the rich man and Lazarus? He could see the rich man over here. You see what this chart is? This shows what Jesus did. Jesus went from the cross, for three days and three nights, in the Grave. Peter tells us on the way to resurrection, He goes by telling all imprisoned demons that He conquered death. He steps out of the tomb. He ascends up to glory. He’s seated at the right hand of God. This place, Jesus swooped up all the saints and took them with Him. That’s called the led captivity captive and takes them all up here to Heaven with Him. That’s God’s tour of the underworld. We cover that, of course, both in the Isaiah course and in Revelation.

Back to angels, because chapter 14 is about Satan. The angels that we read about in God’s word have power the exceeds anything that we can understand within the laws of the physical world.

But God, that’s the whole point of this chapter, God is greater than everything that’s anywhere. That’s the lesson we’re going to learn.

Angels are supernatural. They are indestructible. They can’t be killed. They don’t need spaceships. They don’t even rest. They don’t even, as far as we know, need to eat.

God says, I’m greater. I made the universe. I made the Earth. I made the spiritual world. I’m greater than the sum of everything I created.

There are many levels. Lucifer was the highest angel. He was the guardian, the anointed cherub. He was the one that stood over the throne of God reflecting back the glory, it appears, from what it says in Ezekiel. Then there are other special angels that are always around the throne. The Cherubim, four of them. The Archangels, appears, to be seven of them. Then, there are the Seraphim, the flaming ones we see in Isaiah chapter 6. Then, there are just normal angels.

Among the normal angels, Satan became the angel of light, Lucifer fallen. Then his chief commander is called the Destroyer. There are a whole host of horrible monsters under the Destroyers command. Those are the ones that are in the Pit. There are doomed angels that never get out of the Pit. Daniel tells us there are nation’s princes. There’s a prince of Greece. There’s a prince of Persia. These are all high ranking demons that influence world affairs, like we see going on in the book of Job. Paul introduces us to principalities, powers, and rulers of darkness, spiritual host of wickedness. Then, there’s just a whole bunch, all the way through Christ’s ministry. These demons that just act up at all times.

One of the fallen angels, the Destroyer, shows up and goes through Egypt. He kills, in one night, the firstborn of man and animal. He knows which one’s the first born of man and animal. Wow. He shows up again. He’s put back in the Pit. Then, he’s let out and he kills 70,000 Israelites, just like that. He’s talked about by the apostle Paul. We see him coming out and destroying humanity until God stops him. His name is the Destroyer or Abaddon, or in Greek – Apollyon.

God is absolutely powerful. He says, don’t fear but resist the powers of darkness. Why? Jesus has already triumphed. We, [Romans 8:37], “are more than conquerors through” Christ our Lord.

God says Satan is alive and well, that’s what we need to realize.

That’s why we studied this, the rise of Satan, the god of this world. The one that wants to distract you from spending time in the word. The one that wants to take the Gospel that you share with people. He plucks it out before that word of God can take root in their life.

That’s why we need to understand this. The big picture is Ephesians 6. That’s a key chapter we’re going to cover in a few months. “Be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.” How? “Put on the whole armor.” What’s the key part of the armor that I want to show you? The offensive weapon. How do we resist and stand against the devil? By the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. The prince of darkness is powerful.

God is all mighty, He’s greater than the sum of all he created. Only God can protect us from the Devil, the Destroyer, and the demons of Hell. How does he do that?

Martin Luther, in Wartburg castle, felt the most direct attack that he had ever felt in his life, by Satan. He wrote a hymn. You all know it. It’s called A Mighty Fortress.

“Our helper he, amid the flood of mortal ills prevailing.” Sometimes you feel like our ancient foe powerfully is attacking you. What do you do?

Luther said this, even though there are all these demons that are against us, and the prince of darkness, Satan, “his doom is sure; one little word shall fell him.” What’s that? The sword of the Spirit. What’s that? It’s the word of God wielded in faith by a believer.

Jeremiah says, we find God’s words. That’s what we’re doing, we’re in this study, we start meditating on them. God starts transforming our hearts. We identify as being God’s children and start walking with this boldness because we know we belong to Him.

Our only weapon is our verses that we memorize. Here’s the program I follow. I have verses on my phone, and in my pocket, and little cards that I’ll show you in a minute. I actually memorize and meditate on the word of God every day. For $7 on Amazon, you can buy a used MacArthur Scripture Memory System, or you can get the navigator system. I also use that. In fact, any system it’s like an exercise machine. What’s a good one? One that you use.

Here are the passages I learned from the MacArthur System. There are 52 of them. One for every week of the year and I review these every other day. I go through navigator verses, MacArthur verses, navigator, like that.

This is one of the MacArthur Memory System cards. They’re perforated. You tear them out. They have the reference, one for each week. You saw the weeks on that chart. This is the verse. This is how I memorize. The first letter of each word. See, “The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul.” I use the first letter method. It really helps.

Would you consider adopting us? How? Maybe be like that lady that works all night, have another friend that’s a security guard and works all night. Would you think about praying for us? What we’re doing right now with you is what we actually do full time with next generation students. We’re teaching two weeks, we taught Bibliology, now we’re teaching theology. You know what? We’re seeing God moving unusually.

Thank you for joining this class. Jump into Isaiah 14. Log everything you can find into your journal. Then, on a daily basis, distill that down into a prayer. Say, God protect me. Fill me. Seal me. Clothe me with humility. I want to resist the adversary, the Destroyer, the Devil who wants me to be doing everything but that.

Have a great week. John and Bonnie saying, God bless you and we hope you have a wonderful time in God’s word this week.