{"id":18268,"date":"2019-07-21T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-07-21T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sugar-land-bible-church.local\/sermon\/angelology-005-satanology-01\/"},"modified":"2019-07-21T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2019-07-21T05:00:00","slug":"angelology-005-satanology-01","status":"publish","type":"sermon","link":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/sermon\/angelology-005-satanology-01\/","title":{"rendered":"Angelology 005 (Satanology 01)"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","book":[12],"series_event":[499],"sermon_service_type":[473],"speaker":[6],"class_list":["post-18268","sermon","type-sermon","status-publish","hentry","book-genesis","series_event-angelology","sermon_service_type-sunday-school","speaker-dr-andy-woods","no-post-thumbnail"],"acf":{"sermon_title":"Angelology 005 (Satanology 01)","sermon_date":"20190721","sermon_month":"7","sermon_year":"2019","sermon_notes":6897,"sermon_slides":6898,"sermon_mp3":6903,"sermon_id":"72119132307301","series_or_event":499,"service_type":[473],"speaker":6,"books_of_the_bible":12,"chapter_and_verse":"3:1","sermon_transcript":"Andy Woods\n\nAngelology Part 5\n\nJude 1:9\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 7-21-2019\n\nLet\u2019s open with a word of prayer.\u00a0 Father, we\u2019re grateful for today, this is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it.\u00a0 We weren\u2019t guaranteed today Father, but You saw fit to give us another day to serve You, to worship You, to learn of You, and with all the different activities going on this week at Sugar Land Bible Church I just ask that You will be the center in our thinking and in our study of Your Word this morning.\u00a0 We\u2019ll be careful to give you all the praise and the glory.\u00a0 We ask these things in Jesus\u2019 name, and God\u2019s people said\u2026 Amen!\n\nGood morning everybody.\u00a0 If you need a\u00a0 handout Ron, I think, will help you with a handout, that\u2019s not a financial handout, it\u2019s a paper handout.\u00a0 [Laughter]\u00a0 And we\u2019re continuing on in our study of the doctrine of the angels, Angelology, and as you remember the study of the doctrine of the angels has four parts to it: you have the good angels, and then Satan, and then the demons, and then following that is the Genesis 6:1-4 controversy.\u00a0 So if my math is right I think we\u2019ve done four lessons already in Angelology, and so we\u2019ve covered the good angels as best we can.\u00a0 So what we\u2019re moving into now is part 2, Satanology, the doctrine of Satan and we have to cover Satanology in angelology because Satan at one time was a high ranking angel.\n\nI remember back in my basketball days, when I was about\u2026 I don\u2019t know, 70 to 80 pounds lighter than I am today, and I could dunk the basketball with ease, believe it or not.\u00a0 I remember both in high school and college we would spend hours and hours and hours and hours and hours watching tapes, recordings.\u00a0 Now when you say \u201ctapes\u201d today the younger generation doesn\u2019t know what you\u2019re talking about but\u2026 use the synonym recordings of the other team that we were going to fact that week playing.\u00a0 And there was always a logic in watching that because if you watched the recording it revealed to you their strategy.\u00a0 Every basketball team has a strategy, who are their best scorers, who are their best defenders, are they man to man, are they zone defense, do they press you, do they trap you, do they pick you up at three quarters, etc.\u00a0 And so by the time you hit the floor that Friday night or Saturday night you know exactly what they were going to do because you had studied the opponent.\n\nAnd that\u2019s basically what you have in Satanology.\u00a0 Whether you realize it or not as a Christian you have a very real enemy.\u00a0 In fact, let me amend that, you don\u2019t have an enemy, you have three enemies, enemies plural, the world, the flesh and the devil.\u00a0 And one of the reasons that a lot of Christians get saved and they never seem to mature or they never seem to grow is because they really haven\u2019t studied their three enemies.\u00a0 And\u00a0 you can\u2019t really progress in your progressive sanctification, the middle tens of\u00a0 your salvation, until you know exactly who your three enemies are, what their strategies are, do they tag team on you.\u00a0 And then you have to know the Biblical prescription for overcoming each enemy.\u00a0 So that\u2019s sort of the logic in studying Satanology.\n\nAnd here we\u2019re not so much studying the world system of the flesh or the old man or the fallen nature but we\u2019re studying the angelic enemy that we have named Satan.\u00a0 And so here\u2019s sort of an outline, a very broad outline that we\u2019re going to use as we begin to look at Satanology over the next few weeks.\u00a0 We have his existence, his Personhood, his names and titles, and then under number four where did he come from so we dig into his origin and his first sin.\u00a0 And then finally number five we studied his works or what the Bible calls schemes or methods; how does he operate.\n\nSo let\u2019s just start off with our first one here, the existence of Satan.\u00a0 Do you all believe in the existence of Satan.\u00a0 I think it was the late musician Keith Green, I like sometimes listening to some old Keith Green music. \u00a0Do you guys ever listen to Keith Green?\u00a0 Not Steve Green, this guy was named Keith Green and he has a line in one of his songs concerning Satan, he\u2019s kind of imitating Satan and how Satan is gaining power by the hour because\u2026 and the line is \u201cno one believes in me anymore.\u201d\u00a0 So if you don\u2019t believe in the existence of Satan then Satan\u2019s already won, right?\n\nIt\u2019s like when you tell people there\u2019s an agenda in the United States of America to topple the United States of America and conform it to something that\u2019s outside of the original writings of our Founding Fathers, such as Sharia Law, or Marxism.\u00a0 And you try to tell people that there\u2019s that agenda at work and they just dismiss you as a conspiracy theorist\u2026 well, the other side has already won, right?\u00a0 How do you fight an enemy that you can\u2019t even define?\n\nSo you\u2019ll notice that even our State Department and our Government doesn\u2019t like to use the word terrorist, Islamic terrorism.\u00a0 They call it workplace violence or stuff like that, but if you can\u2019t define your enemy how can you win.\u00a0 You have to know the enemy exists and you have to understand what his strategies are.\u00a0 So that\u2019s, I think why Satan has worked so hard in church history in keeping most Christians ignorant of who he is.\u00a0 And so that\u2019s why the study of Satanology is so important.\n\nBack in my law school days I had not to be overly stereotypical but I had access to a lot of Jewish people around me, Jewish professor, Jewish students and I sometimes I would be brave enough to bring up the Bible, which is kind of dangerous in a law school environment, and I remember one Jewish person who knew the \u2026 what we call Hebrew Bible or Old Testament very well and she said to me, Satan is not mentioned in the Old Testament.\u00a0 And I was sort of startled by that because the Bible speaks very clearly of the existence of Satan, Old Testament and New Testament.\u00a0 Certainly Satan is not as prominent in the Old Testament as he is in the New Testament but very clearly he\u2019s there.\n\nAnd you might want to open up to Genesis 3:1 which says, and did you know we\u2019re going to be looking at many, many passages as we go through these studies on angelology. \u201cNow the serpent was more crafty than any of the beasts of the field which the LORD God had made.\u00a0 \u00a0And he said to the woman, \u201cIndeed, has God said, \u2018You shall not eat from any tree of the garden\u2019?\u201d So if you allow the Bible to interpret itself\u2026 you know, the Bible is its best interpreter\u2026 Amen!\u00a0 The Bible eventually will interpret itself and in the Book of Revelation, chapters 12, verse 9 and chapter 20 verse 2 the serpent is clearly called the dragon or the serpent of old, or Satan.\u00a0 [Revelation 12:9, \u201cAnd the great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.\u201d\u00a0 Revelation 20:2, \u201cAnd he laid hold of the dragon, the serpent of old, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years;\u201d]\n\nAnd as you kind of continue to move through the Bible you come to the Book of Job.\u00a0 The Book of Job is, as\u00a0 you probably know, the oldest book of the Bible that we have.\u00a0 The Book of Job doesn\u2019t necessarily record the earliest events in human history but in terms of date of writing the Book of Job is in existence, probably six centuries before you have the Book of Genesis. The Book of Job basically was written during the patriarchal time period, the time period of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, roughly 2000 B.C. or a little earlier, and Moses just didn\u2019t write the Pentateuch or Torah until the time of the Exodus, around 1446 B.C.\n\nBut you\u2019ll notice Job 1:6, the very oldest book of the Bible mentions Satan verbatim.\u00a0 It says in Job 1:6, \u201cNow there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came among them.\u201d\u00a0 So there\u2019s his name, very clearly.\u00a0 And when you flip over to Job 2:1 it says, \u201cAgain there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came among them to present himself before the LORD.\u201d\u00a0 So the whole issue in the Book of Job relates to suffering that Job had because of a conversation in heaven that Job knew nothing about.\n\nAnd it\u2019s sort of humorous to go through the Book of Job and to figure out what all of these so-called counsellors believed the root of Job\u2019s suffering was.\u00a0 Eliphaz, Bildad, Zophar, Elihu, all counsellors of Job who weren\u2019t privy to the angelic conversation are all blaming Job\u2019s suffering on some kind of sin in Job\u2019s life.\u00a0 So those folks would have fit right in today with what we call the prosperity gospel where God is obligated to prosper you financially and physically if you\u2019re in His will.\u00a0 And the Book of Job is supposed to be sort of a treatment on the finitudes of human understanding.\u00a0 You know, the fact of the matter is Job and his counsellors had no right to even speak and finally God will speak in Job 38 and God will give Job a pop quiz.\u00a0 How would you like to receive a pop quiz from God?\u00a0 And to show how limited his understanding is He asked him questions about creation that he wasn\u2019t there to see.\u00a0 So that will reveal human ignorance very quick, right?\n\nHumanity has no idea how this world started.\u00a0 Carl Sagan thinks he knew but he doesn\u2019t know; all Carl Sagan \u00a0and all of these secularist people do is look at patterns in the present and pretend those patterns have always been.\u00a0 But how would they know how the world started because they weren\u2019t eyewitnesses.\u00a0 And so that\u2019s the point that God is trying to communicate with Job and He\u2019s trying to get him to understand that there are things that are happening in your life that philosophy and human knowledge will not explain to you.\n\nAnd I think the reason that this is the first concept revealed in the Bible, Job being the earliest book is this is something we all struggle with\u2026 amen!\u00a0\u00a0 I mean this is an issue that we all wrestle with\u2014why is there so much suffering in the world, why do good people suffer, and the Book of Job, the earliest book, deals with that and basically the point of the Book of Job is you have to rest upon the sovereignty of God; you have to trust His character at the end of the day, which is very difficult for us.\u00a0 But you\u2019ll notice that Satan is a central actor there in the oldest book of the Bible.\u00a0 So clearly Satan is in the Old Testament.\n\nAnd then if you go over to 1 Chronicles, chapter 21 and verse 1 you see another reference to Satan.\u00a0 You know,\u00a0 you read through the Chronicles books and they kind of sound like the King\u2019s books don\u2019t they.\u00a0 And you ask yourself well why do I need two copies, isn\u2019t what\u2019s in Kings enough?\u00a0 Well what you\u2019ll notice is Chronicles is highly edited.\u00a0 Have you noticed that?\u00a0\u00a0 A lot of the bad stuff is left out.\u00a0 For example, David\u2019s decision to commit adultery with Bathsheba and murder is taken out of Chronicles.\u00a0 Now why is that?\u00a0 Because Chronicles is written later, it\u2019s written in the postexilic time period and has a different purpose, trying to encourage the returnees from the Babylonian captivity to rebuild the temple.\u00a0 And they had a lot of trouble with that and you can read the Book of Ezra to see the trouble they ran into, and also read the prophet Zechariah and Haggai, who showed up to sort of kick Israel in the backside to get them started with the temple.\n\nAnd during this same time period you\u2019ve got, not a new piece of history given to Israel but sort of an edited piece of history which is highly edited reminding them of God\u2019s faithfulness in the past.\u00a0 If God has been faithful in the past He\u2019s going to be faithful to you when?\u00a0 In the present!\u00a0 And so it\u2019s interesting that when David numbers the troops it doesn\u2019t blame David, David was probably at fault but it really doesn\u2019t blame David in Chronicles because Chronicles is written for a different purpose.\u00a0 A lot of the negative about the human kings is taken out and in the process it says this:\u00a0 \u201cThen Satan stood up against Israel and moved David to number Israel.\u201d\u00a0 [1 Chronicles 21:1]\n\nSo there we learn that the bad actor besides David is Satan himself, but that\u2019s just another passage in the Old Testament that clearly reveals the existence of Satan.\n\nAnd then slip over to the Book of Zechariah, chapter 3 and verse 1 and this is what it says about five hundred years before the time of Christ.\u00a0 \u201cThen he showed me Joshua\u201d now when you see that word \u201cJoshua\u201d that\u2019s not the same Joshua you\u2019re thinking of; you\u2019re thinking of the Book of Joshua, probably about a thousand years earlier.\u00a0 This is a different Joshua, not the conqueror of the land but the high priest Joshua.\u00a0 It says, \u201cThen he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the LORD, and Satan\u201d there it is again, :standing at his right hand to accuse him.\u201d\u00a0 This is why Satan is called the accuser of the brethren.\u00a0 So there\u2019s another instance where Satan is clearly mentioned in the Old Testament or Hebrew Bible.\n\nNow in terms of the existence of Satan you get into the New Testament and Satan is much more prominently displayed in the pages of the New Testament.\u00a0 Not every single book of the twenty-seven New Testament books that we have mention Satan but every New Testament writer is going to refer to Satan at some point.\u00a0 So as\u00a0 you probably know some New Testament writers wrote more than one book.\u00a0 John wrote five New Testament books; Peter wrote two, Paul wrote thirteen, etc. etc. etc.\u00a0 And as you go through all of the writers of the New Testament every single one of them at some\u00a0 point is going to refer to Satan or allude to Satan.\u00a0 And Jesus Christ Himself\u2026 is there a higher authority than Jesus Christ that you can think of?\u00a0 I can\u2019t think of anybody higher than Him.\u00a0 He is going to refer to Satan or either refers to him or he has full on conversations with him, one of the two, twenty-five times.\u00a0 I mean, when people say I don\u2019t believe in Satan, I don\u2019t believe in the devil basically what they\u2019re saying is they\u2019re smarter than God, smarter than Christ, because Christ no doubt believed in Satan.\n\nSo Satan\u2019s existence is sort of like the existence of God.\u00a0 You know, you read the Bible, the Bible is not going to sit and prove to you that God exists; there\u2019s a lot of proofs obviously that God exists that that Bible may allude to but that\u2019s really not what the Bible is doing.\u00a0 The Bible basically is telling us that God exists and we\u2019re to presuppose that to become wise.\u00a0 And it\u2019s the same with the existence of angels, the Bible is not going to sit there and try to prove to you that angels exist; it assumes they exist.\u00a0\u00a0 And the same is true with this character, Satan!\u00a0 If\u00a0 you have any respect for the Bible at all, which you obviously do or you wouldn\u2019t be here at this church this morning, you have to believe in the existence of Satan.\n\nThere\u2019s no doubt that Satan exists.\u00a0 Let\u2019s move on into his personhood and we\u2019ve been infected, haven\u2019t we, by a lot of Hollywood movies; remember Star Wars<\/em>, you know use the force, Luke and the light side and the dark side and the ying and the yang and\u00a0 all these kinds of things.\u00a0 And a lot of people take that mentality, which really comes from Eastern Mysticism, and they kind of drag it into their Christianity and they come up with a definition of Satan that\u2019s sort of impersonal.\u00a0 He just kind of is an impersonal force of evil.\u00a0 And that is not at all how the Bible explains Satan.\u00a0 It explains him as an actual personage, as an actual personality that\u2019s just as real as my personality and your personality.\u00a0 And how do we know that?\u00a0 Because Satan has all of the elements of person\u00adhood.\n\nRemember we looked at the personhood of angels; angels are not people obviously like human beings but they\u2019re God\u2019s image but they have the elements of what we would call person\u00adhood.\u00a0 The elements of personhood, most people agree, consist of three things; intellect, emotions, and will.\u00a0 And what you discover is Satan has all three.\u00a0 \u00a0Over in Ezekiel 28\u2026 now you\u2019re going to say well I don\u2019t believe Satan is in Ezekiel 28 and just file that in the back of your\u00a0 mind because I\u2019m going to be explaining to you very clearly why Satan is<\/u> in Ezekiel 28 down the road.\u00a0 But if you\u2019ll indulge me just for a minute that Satan is in Ezekiel 28, it says of Satan\u2019s mind, verse 12, \u201c\u201cSon of man, take up a lamentation over the king of Tyre and say to him, \u2018Thus says the Lord God, \u201cYou had the seal of perfection, full of\u201d what?\u00a0 what does it say there? \u201cwisdom and perfect in beauty.\u201d\n\nIt\u2019s interesting that this paragraph begins with an emphasis on Satan\u2019s wisdom that he originally had.\u00a0 And when you drop down towards the end of the paragraph, verse 17, about the middle of the verse, it says, \u201cYou corrupted your wisdom by reason of your splendor.\u201d\u00a0 [Ezekiel 28:17, \u201cYour heart was lifted up because of your beauty; You corrupted your wisdom by reason of your splendor.\u201d]\u00a0 So he had wisdom at the beginning.\u00a0 What is wisdom?\u00a0 The Greeks called it Sophia<\/em>, the Greek word for wisdom.\u00a0 Wisdom is just knowledge applied; that\u2019s what wisdom is.\u00a0 So if you\u2019re going to take knowledge and apply it to life that requires intellect, doesn\u2019t it?\u00a0 It requires rational faculties. and Satan at one time had those.\n\nYou remember what Genesis 3:1 said about the serpent?\u00a0 It says, \u201cNow the serpent was more\u201d what? \u201ccrafty\u201d he\u2019s a schemer in other words, and to be a schemer requires intellectual abilities.\u00a0\u00a0 [Genesis 3:1, \u201cNow the serpent was more than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, \u201cIndeed, has God said, \u2018You shall not eat from any tree of the garden\u2019?\u201d]\u00a0 Do you believe Satan had schemes?\u00a0 Do you believe that he actually has strategies that work to bring down God\u2019s people?\u00a0 Do you believe that he has strategies that work in your life right now as I speak, to neutralize you as a Christian?\u00a0\u00a0 Paul believed that very clearly because Paul says in 2 Corinthians 2:11, \u201cSo that no advantage would be taken of us by Satan,\u201d notice Paul believed in Satan, \u201cfor we are not ignorant of his schemes.\u201d\n\nSee, where is the body of Christ today?\u00a0\u00a0 Ignorant of Satan\u2019s schemes.\u00a0 They don\u2019t have any idea\u2026 there\u2019s hardly any teaching on this.\u00a0 But Paul believed in Satan and he believed in his schemes and you can\u2019t have a scheme unless you have a mind, an intellect.\u00a0 It requires a mind or an intellect to devise a scheme, any scheme, a retirement scheme or strategy, a business plan, a military plan, all of that requires intellect and Satan, in order to do that obviously has intellect.\u00a0 Over in the same book, 2 Corinthians 11:3, he says, \u201cBut I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds\u201d see the target of Satan there, the mind, you know the 9-11 hijackers, they didn\u2019t have to control the whole airplane did they?\u00a0 All you\u2019ve got to control is the cockpit where the pilot sits, if you control that\u2026 I don\u2019t know, what is the cockpit relative to a whole airline?\u00a0 10%, 5% if that, of the whole plane. All you do is control that and\u00a0 you control the whole plane.\n\nThe Bible says as a man thinks, so he\u201d what?\u00a0 \u201cso he is.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 If Satan has access to your mind it can influence the way you think, he basically influences your whole life.\u00a0\u00a0 That\u2019s why there\u2019s so much in the Bible about renewing the mind, putting on the helmet of salvation, these kinds of things, because the whole battle is the mind.\n\nBut look at verse 3, Paul says, \u201cBut I am afraid that just as the serpent deceived Eve \u00a0by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion<\/em> to Christ.\u201d\n\n[2 Corinthians 11:3]\u00a0\u00a0 So you\u2019ll notice that Satan had a crafty thought to deceive Eve and he has a crafty thought to deceive Christians.\u00a0 And one of the things he does for the Christian is he over complicates the gospel.\u00a0 Amen to that!\u00a0 There\u2019s a lot we could say there.\n\nAnd how good is Satan at these schemes.\u00a0 When you go to Revelation 12:9 what does it say there concerning Satan?\u00a0 Revelation 12:9, \u201cAnd the great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives\u201d what? It doesn\u2019t even say the world, I think the Greek there is oikoumene,<\/em> \u201cworld,\u201d but it doesn\u2019t even say the world, it says \u201cthe whole world; [\u201c\u2026he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.\u201d]\u00a0 I mean think of the \u00a0ability of Satan to deceive.\u00a0 Think of the generations that he\u2019s deceived in the past; think of the generations that he\u2019s deceived in the present.\n\nYou know, if Satan deceived Adam and Eve, who stood in the very presence of God, into rebelling against God, if Satan deceived himself into rebelling against God and became self-deceived and I would say also that in Revelation 12 he deceived a third of the angels into rebelling against God (more on that down the road when we get into demonology), what prayer do you have?\u00a0 I mean all those entities I just described didn\u2019t have a sin nature and they stood in the very presence of God.\u00a0 If Satan can deceive them what can he do to me?\u00a0 What can he do to you?\u00a0 I already have a sin nature.\u00a0 I\u2019m already alienated and separated from God.\u00a0 And yet what we learn in Ephesians 6 is God has given us the resources to overcome Satan\u2019s strategy but never underestimate the ability of Satanic deception and in order to do that requires intellect.\n\nSatan also has emotions, just like you do; angels have emotions don\u2019t they.\u00a0 What do the angels do when one sinner repents?\u00a0 Luke 15:10.\u00a0 [Luke 15:10, \u201cIn the same way, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.\u201d]\u00a0 They rejoice; isn\u2019t that an emotion?\u00a0 Satan, as a fallen angel also has emotions and if you look at Revelation chapter 12 and you look at verse 12 it says there, \u201cFor this reason, rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them. Woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has come down to you, having great\u201d what? what does it say? \u201cwrath,\u201d that\u2019s the Greek word \u00a0org\u0113<\/em> (\u1f40\u03c1\u03b3\u03ae), when you think of the word \u00a0org\u0113<\/em> you think of a lot of sexual terms that come from org\u0113; org\u0113<\/em> basically means passion that\u2019s not limited.\n\nBut here it\u2019s not being used in the sexual sense, it\u2019s being used in the emotional sense.\u00a0 It\u2019s the rage that comes over Satan when he looks at the woman clothed with sun and the moon and the twelve stars.\u00a0 Who\u2019s the woman clothed with the sun and the moon and the twelve stars?\u00a0 The nation of Israel, Genesis 37:9-10.\u00a0 [Genesis 37:9-10, \u201cNow he had still another dream, and related it to his brothers, and said, \u201cLo, I have had still another dream; and behold, the sun and the moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me.\u201d [10]\u00a0<\/sup>He related it<\/em> to his father and to his brothers; and his father rebuked him and said to him, \u201cWhat is this dream that you have had? Shall I and your mother and your brothers actually come to bow ourselves down before you to the ground?\u201d]\n\nWhen he looks at Israel it just helps you understand the Jew hatred in the world and why all these colleges and college students are involved in BDS, Boycott Divestment and Sanctions and why even some Protestant denominations, as I speak, are boycotting the nation of Israel; irrational hatred, where does it come from?\u00a0 [The Boycott<\/strong>, Divestment, Sanctions<\/strong> (BDS)<\/strong> movement works to end inter\u00adnational support for Israel's oppression of Palestinians and pressure Israel to comply with international law.]\n\nWell, it comes from the devil himself.\u00a0 But you\u2019ll notice that org\u0113<\/em> or rage is an emotion. It\u2019s like how you feel when your hammering away in your garage and you miss the nail and you strike\u00a0 your thumb and you\u2019re so mad you could be that stupid that\u00a0 you want to just take the hammer and throw it right through the window.\u00a0 Now come on,\u00a0 you guys are looking at me like you\u2019re very sanctified out there [laughter] that I\u2019m the only one that has that impulse.\u00a0 But I know you guys have it as well because you have the same sin nature that I have.\u00a0 Amen.\u00a0 [crowd says amen]\u00a0 j\n\nVerse 17 says \u201cthe dragon was enraged at the woman,\u201d that clearly is an emotion, so Satan has an emotional composition.\u00a0 And something else to learn about Satan is he has a will.\u00a0 Take a look at\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 2 Timothy, chapter 2, verse 26.\u00a0 We\u2019ve already studied concerning the good angels, Psalm 103:20 which says, the angels exist to execute God\u2019s will or they obey Him in other words.\u00a0 [Psalm 103:20, \u201cBless the Lord, you His angels, Mighty in strength, who perform His word, Obeying the voice of His word!]\u00a0 You can\u2019t obey someone unless you have a will, right?\u00a0 If you\u2019re following someone without a will that\u2019s really not obedience, that\u2019s just sort of being a robot.\u00a0 So the whole idea of being someone that can obey God implies a will in the angels.\n\nAnd when you go to 2 Timothy 2:26 what does it say here concerning false teachers in the church?\n\nThat \u201cthey may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil,\u201d a \u201csnare\u201d is a trap, \u201chaving been held captive by him to do his\u201d what? \u201chis will.\u201d\u00a0 Satan has a will for the church.\u00a0 God has a will for the church, Satan has a will for the church.\u00a0 And he actually uses false teachers to execute his will for God\u2019s church.\u00a0 It talks about Satan\u2019s activity in the church but very clearly when you look at this it\u2019s very clear that Satan apparently has a will.\u00a0 So if there are people in the church that have been taken captive, according to this verse here, to execute Satan\u2019s will, false teachers, at some point screaming at people, yelling at people, rationalizing at people over and over again, you eventually hit a brick wall with that, don\u2019t you?\u00a0 Because they\u2019ve been taking captive, their minds anyway, to execute Satan\u2019s will.\n\nAnd you reach a point with that with certain people where you just finally stop trying to reason with them or argue with them or yell at them or whatever it is you\u2019re doing.\u00a0 And the only thing that\u2019s going to break through is God and what moves God\u2019s hand is what?\u00a0 Prayer, the prayer of a righteous man or woman is powerful and effective.\u00a0 And so you look at Satan\u2019s strategies and the fact that He has a will and it shows you how to interact, why you interact differently with some people than others, because it\u2019s obvious as you deal with certain people that you can talk to them until you\u2019re blue in the face, they\u2019re just not going to see light because they can\u2019t.\u00a0 Satan is doing a number on them and so that\u2019s where you move into prayer.\n\nBut there\u2019s no doubt that Satan has all of the elements of personhood, intellect, emotions and will. And it\u2019s also interesting that the Bible refers to Satan with the personal pronoun \u201che\u201d or \u201chim.\u201d \u00a0It doesn\u2019t call him \u201cthat,\u201d it doesn\u2019t call it him \u201cit.\u201d it calls him \u201che.\u201d\u00a0 And notice how Jesus thought about Satan in Matthew 4:10. What is that, the third person, a masculine pronoun \u201che.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cThen Jesus said to\u201d what?\u00a0 it? Jesus said to that.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t say that, it says \u201cJesus said to him, Go, Satan!\u201d Now that\u2019s the exact same pronoun that\u2019s used to describe Christ\u2019s interaction with any other human being.\u00a0 You know, when Jesus talked to Peter it refers to Peter, or John, or anybody else as \u201che\u201d or \u201chim,\u201d and it\u2019s interesting that the same masculine pronoun there is used to describe Satan himself.\u00a0 And that\u2019s another clue that we\u2019re dealing with an actual personage or an actual personality.\n\nYou\u2019ll see that also in John 8:44, the masculine pronoun \u201che\u201d or \u201chim\u201d is applied to Satan and also in 2 Corinthians 11:14-15.\u00a0 [John 8:44, \u201cYou are of your<\/em> father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature<\/em>, for he is a liar and the father of lies.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 2 Corinthians 11:14-15, \u201c\u00a0<\/sup>No wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. [15] \u00a0<\/sup>Therefore it is not surprising if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness, whose end will be according to their deeds.\u201d ]\n\nAnd what God does with people or entities that have free will is He holds them accountable for their choices.\u00a0 Right?\u00a0 That\u2019s one of the most frightening things about being made in God\u2019s image is you have a free will and if you want to make a choice and you don\u2019t want to respond to the convicting ministry of the Holy Spirit you get to a point where God honors the choice.\u00a0 And if God is not going to honor the choice then He\u2019s overriding how He\u2019s manufactured you as an image bearer of God.\u00a0 And so the smartest thing a person could ever do with their free will is to do what with it?\u00a0 Give it right back to God!\u00a0 Isn\u2019t that what Jesus emulated for us\u2026 \u201cNot My will be done but\u201d what? \u201cThy will be done.\u201d\n\nI mean, if people want to reject God and go to hell then God eventually He honors their decision.\u00a0 And if you want to wreck and destroy your life in sin then God at some point, after a season of conviction, just lets you have your way.\u00a0 And that\u2019s why Romans 1 is so scary that \u201cGod gave them over.\u201d\u00a0 [Romans 1:24, \u201cFor this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural.\u00a0 [28], \u201cAnd just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper.\u201d]\n\nWhen you go through the Book of Exodus it keeps talking about Pharaoh, it says that six times, Pharaoh hardened his own heart against God. \u00a0I think it\u2019s around six times in the Exodus story and it says God hardened Pharaoh\u2019s heart. \u00a0In other words, God gave Pharaoh what he wanted.\u00a0 It\u2019s a frightening thing when you think about it.\n\n[Exodus 8:15<\/a>, \u201cBut when Pharaoh saw that there was relief, he hardened his heart and did not listen to them, as the Lord had said.\u201d\u00a0 Exodus 8:32<\/a>, \u201cBut Pharaoh hardened his heart this time also, and he did not let the people go.\u00a0 Exodus 9:34<\/a>, \u201cBut when Pharaoh saw that the rain and the hail and the thunder had ceased, he sinned again and hardened his heart, he and his servants.\u00a0 Exodus 10:1<\/a>, \u201cThen the Lord said to Moses, \u201cGo to Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart and the heart of his servants, that I may perform these signs of Mine among them,\u201d\u00a0 Exodus 11:10<\/a>, \u201cMoses and Aaron performed all these wonders before Pharaoh; yet the Lord hardened Pharaoh\u2019s heart, and he did not let the sons of Israel go out of his land.\u201d]\n\nSo if people have free will then they have to be held accountable for their actions and when you go to Matthew 25:41 you learn that Satan has a personage and is held accountable for his actions.\n\nThis is the Lord\u2019s description of the sheep and goat judgment and it says, \u201cThen He will also say to those on His left, \u2018Depart from Me, accursed ones, into\u201d what kind of fire\u2026 eternal, \u201cthe eternal fire\u201d and look at this, \u201cwhich has been prepared for the devil and his angels.\u201d\n\nAre you telling me that Satan has certain angels under his jurisdiction?\u00a0 Yes he does, and that\u2019s where we move into this subject later on down the road of demonology.\u00a0 But you\u2019ll notice very clearly here that the eternal fire was originally made for Satan.\u00a0 Satan made his decision against and God created the consequence for his actions called eternal hell, and you\u2019ll notice here as best I can tell that hell was never designed for people.\u00a0 I mean, when God created hell He never had the souls or the bodies of men and women in mind but if men and women align themselves against God and follow Satan then they share in his fate one day.\n\nSo there is a reality called hell and there\u2019s also a lot of misunderstanding, a lot of people think Satan is in hell right now.\u00a0 The lake of fire is vacant as far as I know!\u00a0 There\u2019s a place called Hades for the dead unbelievers but the lake of fire, the first two people into the lake of fire, Revelation 19, are the beast and the false prophet and the dragon or Satan is not thrown in there until after the thousand year kingdom.\n\n[Revelation 19:20, \u201cAnd the beast was seized, and with him the false prophet who performed the signs in his presence, by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image; these two were thrown alive into the lake of fire which burns with brimstone.\u00a0 [21] And the rest were killed with the sword which came from the mouth of Him who sat on the horse, and all the birds were filled with their flesh.\u201d]\n\nSo Satan is not in hell.\u00a0 Satan is ruling, as we\u2019re going to see, and running the world system but very clearly here, when\u00a0 you look at Matthew 25:41 you see that Satan\u2026 it was assigning him as moral accountability which you would expect from someone that\u2019s a person that has a will.\u00a0 [Matthew 25:41, \u201cThen He will also say to those on His left, 'Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels.\u201d]\u00a0 So you put all these things together and we could go a lot deeper on this but Satan is certainly a person, personage.\n\nSo we move away from the existence of Satan and the personhood of Satan and here is a large section I\u2019d like to include because these reveal so much about Satan; it\u2019s his names and his titles.\u00a0 You know, in the Bible when someone\u2019s name is given or when their name is changed you should really pay attention to that because the name in the Scripture reveals a character or a name in the Scripture often times reveals a destiny.\n\nYou remember the patriarch Abram, his name was changed to Abraham which means father of many nations, speaking of what was going to come forth from the genealogy of Abraham.\u00a0 The change of name is not just to give someone a new name; it\u2019s to reveal a destiny.\u00a0 You can see this many, many times in the Bible; Simon\u2019s name, Peter\u2019s Hebrew name was changed to Peter or Petros which means little stone, contrary to Roman Catholicism he\u2019s not the Petra (big stone) he\u2019s the little stone.\n\nAnd when Jesus gave him a new name that was the revelation of his new identity because a little stone or a rock is someone of stability.\u00a0 And you look at Peter\u2019s life and he was anything but stable.\u00a0 Right!\u00a0 He denies the Lord three times, one day he opens his mouth there in Caesarea Philippi and tries to give the Lord some career advice, keep away from the cross and Jesus says \u201cget behind Me Satan.\u201d\n\nAfter Peter\u2019s mouth was just used to reveal the identity of Christ a split second earlier, you know, Peter, I think like Ruben, Ruben, one of the twelve descendants of Jacob, I think it says of Ruben, if I remember right, it says he\u2019s as unstable as water.\u00a0 And that\u2019s what Peter was, he was unstable.\u00a0 I mean, this is the guy\u2026 Lord, let me walk out on the water and he gets out a little bit and then he starts to sink, etc.\u00a0 And it\u2019s so interesting to me that the Lord gave him the name Stone or Rock not a revelation concerning who he was but who he would become.\u00a0 And I love that about the Lord, that the Lord sees us not as we are, thank God, but He sees us as what we have the potential of becoming in Him.\n\nSo He gave him the name Rock and he became that, didn\u2019t he?\u00a0 He is the pastor or the leader of the Jerusalem church.\u00a0 In fact, if you\u2026 actually James was but when you read Acts 1-10 there\u2019s no more essential figure in the life and development of the church than the Apostle Peter.\u00a0 According to tradition it was Peter that when they wanted to kill him he said well crucify me upside down because I don\u2019t want to die the way Jesus died, I\u2019m unworthy.\u00a0 This is the guy that sunk and denied Christ and all that stuff and so that name Petros is so important because it\u2019s a revelation of not who Peter was but who Peter will become.\u00a0 So all of that to say names in the Bible are a big deal and\u00a0 your Bible reveals at least (by my count) twenty names of Satan.\u00a0 And as we look at these names just sort of mediate on it because each name reveals a different vantage or perspective concerning Satan.\n\nHis first name is he\u2019s called Lucifer, and that\u2019s over in Isaiah 14:12-15 and I know some of the younger theologians are saying Satan is not in Isaiah 14.\u00a0 Yes he is!\u00a0 And I\u2019ll demonstrate that to you, not today but down the road; you\u2019ll just have to indulge me for a moment.\u00a0 But if you look at Isaiah 14:12-14 it says, \u201cHow you have fallen from heaven, O star\u201d wee that word \u201cstar\u201d there; some of your translations say Lucifer.\u00a0 I had an Italian student once and she said Lucifer is actually an Italian name and it basically means light bearer and that\u2019s who Satan was.\n\n\u201cHow you have fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, star of the morning, son of the dawn!\u00a0 You have been cut down\u201d etc.\u00a0 So he is what we would call Lucifer or light bearer and of course, Paul gives that kind of description of Satan, doesn\u2019t he, over in 2 Corinthians 11:14?\u00a0 What does it say over there?\u00a0 Look at what it says here, [14] \u00a0\u201cNo wonder, for even Satan disguises himself\u201d\u00a0 you mean Satan has a disguise?\u00a0 Who does he disguise himself as? He disguises himself \u201cas an angel of light.\u201d\u00a0 And then look at verse 15, \u201c Therefore it is not surprising if his servants\u201d now some translations say \u201chis ministers\u201d you mean Satan has ministers?\u00a0 You mean Satan is in the religion business?\u00a0 Therefore it is not surprising if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness, whose end will be according to their deeds.\u201d\n\nBut it\u2019s there in verse 14, he\u2019s called not Lucifer but a light bearer or an angel of light, morning star, shining one.\u00a0 Now ever since I can remember back in the 70\u2019s, even before I was\u00a0 a saved born again Christian I\u2019ve always been fascinated and I remember my parents were kind of into this for a while, they had all these sort of books and things in our house about people having these out of body experiences.\u00a0 And one of the things you start seeing as a common thread in all these stories and people describe it this way:\u00a0 I was in a tunnel and I saw this beautiful light at the end of the tunnel.\u00a0 And they don\u2019t mention anything about Christ or sin or anything like that, but in the story they keep saying they were drawn to this light.\u00a0 And then the story goes something like this: the light spoke to me and said your time is not yet and so go back to the earth and preach tolerance and all that kind of stuffy, and unity.\u00a0 And then they would come out of their out of body experience.\n\nAll these out of body experiences that I was watching on TV or reading about in these books my parents had, they all had that sort of nuance to it.\u00a0 And so everybody thinks the light is God. I mean, if it\u2019s beautiful, right, and attractive, and draws you to itself and tells you to preach tolerance and unity it\u2019s got to be God\u2026 well, you get into Satanology and you learn that Satan masquerades as an angel of light.\u00a0 Why would\u00a0 you assume that that angel is God; it could very well easily be Satan.\u00a0 And people say well, that\u2019s not true because Halloween is coming up and I\u2019ve been in all of these department stores and I\u2019ve shopped for costumes for my kids and they all have a red pitchfork and a red cape and they all have masks with horns and things like that.\u00a0 And so everybody thinks Satan looks like that.\u00a0 Can you show me that in the Bible?\u00a0 The Bible never describes Satan that way.\u00a0 That whole caricature, where does it come from?\u00a0 It comes from the Middle Ages.\n\nThere\u2019s not a shred of biblical evidence anywhere that Satan is described that way.\u00a0 In fact the beautiful colors of the rainbow that Satan once was, I\u2019ll be showing you down the road in Ezekiel 28:12-17, it\u2019s almost as if he was the sort of thing that when you held him up to the sun or to the true light he would refract beauty and that\u2019s who Satan is.\u00a0 That\u2019s how he\u2019s able to deceive the whole world, because number one, the world doesn\u2019t even believe he exists and number two, they confuse him with God himself.\u00a0 But he is called there \u201cLucifer\u201d or light bearer.\n\nWe\u2019ve already seen Zechariah 3:1 here he is called Satan\u00a0 or adversary, meaning an opponent.\u00a0 [Zechariah 3:1, \u201cThen he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the LORD, and Satan standing at his right hand to accuse him.\u201d]\u00a0 He\u2019s called an enemy elsewhere, we\u2019ll look at that.\u00a0 His third name is the devil and take a look at Matthew 4:11.\u00a0 In the temptations of Christ, it says, \u201cThen the devil left Him; and behold, angels came and began to minister to Him.\u201d\u00a0 Notice Satan here is called \u201cthe devil.\u201d\u00a0 Now you look up what devil, what does devil mean in the Greek language there?\u00a0 Basically what it means is \u201cthe slanderer.\u201d\u00a0 Devil means slanderer.\u00a0 You say well what is slander?\u00a0 Slander is something you can actually get sued for in the American judicial system.\u00a0 It\u2019s speaking misrepresentations about somebody, lying in other words, to the point where it damages their reputation, it damages their business, etc.\u00a0 If you do it in verbal form it\u2019s called slander; if you do it in writing, which is more severe obviously, it\u2019s called liable.\u00a0 But that\u2019s basically what Satan\u2019s name means; it means a slanderer.\n\nAnd this is somewhat important because James 3 talks about how the Christian needs to learn to tame the what?\u00a0 the tongue!\u00a0\u00a0 Hung by the tongue, the two by two slab of mucous membrane between my gums has gotten me in more trouble than any single part of my body.\u00a0 In fact, James 3 says it\u2019s just a little small part of the body, yet it wields a disproportionate influence, just like a spark starting a forest fire, just like a little rudder at the back of the ship controls the whole ship, that\u2019s the power of the tongue.\u00a0 And the tongue can be\u00a0 used to edify but James 3 tells us that the tongue, can be set on fire by the fires of hell itself. \u00a0[James 3:6, \u201cAnd the tongue is a fire, the very<\/em> world of iniquity; the tongue is set among our members as that which defiles the entire body, and sets on fire the course of our <\/em>life, and is set on fire by hell.\u201d]\n\nSo if Satan\u2019s name means slanderer and I\u2019m going around gossiping and slandering other people all the time, then whose work am I doing?\u00a0 I\u2019m doing the devil\u2019s work.\u00a0 Now we have all this social media stuff where I can take my wicked thoughts and I can push a button and suddenly a thousand people or more can see those thoughts.\u00a0 And because it\u2019s electronic there\u2019s some kind of record of it somewhere.\u00a0 And I can get on social media and I can cause a whirlwind of trouble just by lying about people and tearing other people down and mistruths about people, misrepresenting people.\n\nAnd a lot of people do that.\u00a0 There\u2019s a lot of people in Christianity that do that; they call themselves discernment ministers.\u00a0 I\u2019m in favor of discernment but a lot of the stuff that gets said to me looks more like liable because it\u2019s written, or slander than anything else.\u00a0 And we have to understand that we, as fallen people, have the ability to give ourselves to that kind of thing.\u00a0 And when you give\u00a0 yourself to that you\u2019re actually doing Satan\u2019s work because Satan\u2019s name itself means slanderer.\n\nAnd he\u2019s also called \u201cthe serpent of old, Revelation 12: we were already there earlier.\u00a0 Let\u2019s skip Revelation 12:9, we\u2019ve already seen that but it says the same thing in Revelation 20:2 and it says, \u201cAnd he laid hold of the dragon, the serpent of old, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years;\u201d he\u2019s called \u201cthe serpent of old.\u201d\u00a0 The serpent, what does that communicate?\u00a0 Well, it communicates deceptive ability because it was when he took the role of a serpent that he deceived our forbearers.\u00a0 And when it says \u201cthe serpent of old\u201d to me that communicates the fact that Satan is not only crafty but he never changes.\u00a0\u00a0 I mean, he was the serpent in Geneses 3, he\u2019s \u201cthe serpent of old\u201d in the Book of Revelation.\n\nAnd after all of these thousands of years he\u2019s had all this time for rehabilitation as rehabilitation works\u2026 no it\u2019s not!\u00a0 It hasn\u2019t worked at all.\u00a0 In fact in the thousand year kingdom he\u2019s put into the abyss by an angel working for the Lord; a thousand years pass and you\u2019d think after having a thousand years in solitary confinement you would improve yourself some, you\u2019d be rehabilitated.\u00a0 But he gets right back out of the abyss a thousand years later and deceives the world just like he deceived them before he went into the abyss.\n\nThis is why Jesus called Satan, John 8:44, a murderer and a liar from the beginning when he speaks a lie he speaks his native language.\u00a0 How do you know when Satan is lying?\u00a0 His lips are moving!\u00a0 He\u2019s always been that way since his fall and he always will be that way.\u00a0 [John 8:44, You are of your<\/em> father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature<\/em>, for he is a liar and the father of lies.\u201d]\n\nSo the serpent of old shows you that he cannot be rehabilitated.\u00a0 The plan of salvation is not even open to him first of all because Jesus would have had to become a what?\u00a0 An angel to die for Satan\u2019s sins; He did not do that.\u00a0 So Satan is always going to be Satan, he always will be Satan, and that\u2019s how the Bible describes him.\u00a0 I mean, he\u2019s not someone to feel sorry for.\u00a0 I run into Christians that are praying for Satan\u2026 why would you do that?\u00a0 It\u2019s a total waste of your time because the Bible says he cannot and will not be rehabilitated.\n\nHe is also called the destroyer; take a look at Revelation 9:11.\u00a0 I\u2019m not sure if this is Satan here or a fallen angel; it might be a fallen angel working for Satan but at any rate it does reveal the character of the fallen angelic realm.\u00a0 It says, \u201cThey have as king over them, the angel of the abyss; his name in Hebrew\u201d now why would he have to tell me what the name means in Hebrew?\u00a0 Because the Book of Revelation, as\u00a0 you know, was written to the churches in Asia Minor, the seven churches, Revelation 2 and 3, a Greek speaking group.\u00a0 \u201cThey have as king over them the angel of the abyss; his name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in the Greek he has the name Apollyon.\u201d\u00a0 And when you look up both of those names it means destruction; it mean destroyer.\n\nI remember back in my days in Campus Crusade for Christ the way we were taught to evangelize people, you get into a conversation with folks and you say God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.\u00a0 I don\u2019t have too much of a problem with that, that part of it anyway, I mean that\u2019s not a bad conversation starter and they\u2019re getting that from John 10:10.\u00a0 It says, \u201c\u2026I came that they may have life, and have it\u201d what? \u201cabundantly.\u201d\u00a0 But what about the first part of that verse, ever read that, that juxtaposes the wonderful plan that God has for our life?\u00a0 \u00a0\u201cThe thief,\u201d that\u2019s Satan, \u201ccomes only\u201d because that\u2019s the only thing he knows how to do, \u201cto steal, kill and destroy.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 So does God love you and have a wonderful plan for your life?\u00a0 Yes He does!\u00a0 What\u2019s the opposite end of the ledger according to John 10:10?\u00a0 Satan hates you and has a terrible plan for our life.\u00a0 I mean there is a force at work out there whose sole object is to take everything good in your life, anything, anything that\u2019s of God, a relationship with God, financial provision, perhaps even physical health, relationships..\u00a0 And his whole goal is to take those things and wreck them and to destroy them.\n\nIn fact, what he wants to do now that you\u2019re a Christian and he can\u2019t touch your soul because of eternal security, his goal is to totally take your testimony and neutralize it and get you to a point where you have no credibility to say anything spiritual to anybody.\u00a0\u00a0 He wants to take\u00a0 your thought life, he wants to destroy that.\u00a0 He wants to take your financial situation and get you involved in all kinds of crazy financial things where your finances are tied up in\u00a0 know so you can\u2019t even serve the Lord anymore because\u00a0 you\u2019re indebted to this party or that party.\u00a0 I mean, this is all part of the angelic conflict that we\u2019re caught in.\u00a0 And you read these things, you say I don\u2019t want to be caught in this conflict.\u00a0 Well, the Bible never gives you that option.\u00a0 I mean, there\u2019s no opt out provision.\u00a0 It\u2019s like enlisting in the army; you\u2019re in a war, why do I want to believe a war is going on?\u00a0 Well, who gave you that option?\u00a0\u00a0 There\u2019s a war going on and by the fact that your enlisting you\u2019re in a war.\u00a0 When\u00a0 you trusted Christ as your Savior\u00a0 you got involved in the war.\u00a0 And then if you go further in the Lord and you want to start to actually become a disciple of Christ the war doesn\u2019t slow down.\u00a0 Have you noticed that?\u00a0 The whole thing picks up, and this is all brought out in Satan\u2019s name, \u201cthe destroyer.\u201d\n\nAnd one more, he\u2019s called the \u201cdragon,\u201d Revelation 12:9, basically meaning beastly, you know a beast, or a dragon or sometimes he\u2019s called the roaring lion, 1 Peter 5:8, \u201cThe devil roams about like a roaring lion seeking to\u201d what? Seeking to have a glass of iced tea with you\u2026 \u201cseeking to devour\u00a0 you,\u201d I mean all of these images of comparing him to an animal, an animal, the best I can tell, doesn\u2019t have a conscience.\u00a0 I mean, I\u2019ve sadly (as a youth) been attacked by dogs, if that\u2019s ever happened to you, they have absolutely, once they get the upper hand on you they have no sense of mercy whatsoever.\u00a0 I mean, they\u2019re in for the kill.\u00a0 And that\u2019s basically what you have in Satan; he is locked in for the kill.\u00a0 And that\u2019s what\u2019s brought out in this expression, beastly.\n\nSo we\u2019re only at what number, five or six, whatever that is.\u00a0 I mean look at all these things we can learn just by looking at his names. And we\u2019ve got this slide and another slide on this so we\u2019ll pick this up the next time we\u2019re together.\n\nFather, we\u2019re grateful for this time of equipping; we\u2019re looking very carefully at what Your Word reveals about our enemy.\u00a0 These are things that You have not been silent on but\u00a0 You\u2019ve chosen to disclose these truths, so make us good stewards of your truth and help us in our walk with You.\u00a0 We\u2019ll be careful to give you all the praise and the glory.\u00a0 We ask these things in Jesus\u2019 name and God\u2019s people said\u2026. Amen!","series_sermon_number":""},"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t