{"id":18281,"date":"2019-11-17T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-11-17T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sugar-land-bible-church.local\/sermon\/angelology-018-satanology-14\/"},"modified":"2019-11-17T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2019-11-17T06:00:00","slug":"angelology-018-satanology-14","status":"publish","type":"sermon","link":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/sermon\/angelology-018-satanology-14\/","title":{"rendered":"Angelology 018 (Satanology 14)"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","book":[111],"series_event":[499],"sermon_service_type":[473],"speaker":[6],"class_list":["post-18281","sermon","type-sermon","status-publish","hentry","book-revelation","series_event-angelology","sermon_service_type-sunday-school","speaker-dr-andy-woods","no-post-thumbnail"],"acf":{"sermon_title":"Angelology 018 (Satanology 14)","sermon_date":"20191117","sermon_month":"10","sermon_year":"2019","sermon_notes":7293,"sermon_slides":7292,"sermon_mp3":7297,"sermon_id":"111719124659572","series_or_event":499,"service_type":[473],"speaker":6,"books_of_the_bible":111,"chapter_and_verse":"20:10","sermon_transcript":"Angelology #18\nFuture Works of Satan\nRevelation 20:10\nNovember 17, 2019\nDr. Andy Woods\n\nOpening Prayer<\/strong>\n\nFather, we\u2019re grateful for today. We\u2019re grateful for a lot of things, particularly this time of year where, in the month of November, we focus on our blessings. You\u2019ve blessed us with so many things, Father. I pray today would be a reminder of that, and that we would leave here people with an attitude of gratitude.\n\nIt\u2019s so easy to focus on what's wrong in our lives and not focus on the many things that You've done for us. Help us to have that frame of mind as we gather as Your people today and look into Your Word. We\u2019ll be careful to give You all the praise and glory. We ask these things in Jesus\u2019 name.\u201d\n\nGod's people said, \u201cAmen.\u201d\n\nLet's open our Bibles to Revelation 20:10. We are continuing with our study on angelology. Having covered the good angels, we moved into a key evil angel, Satan. And if time permits, we\u2019re going to actually be moving into demonology today. We\u2019ll have to see how it goes.\n\nWhen we looked at Satan, we looked at his existence, his personhood, his names and titles, his original state, and first sin. And from there we've been looking at his works in depth\u2014past, present, and future.\n\nWe\u2019ve gone through most of the things that Satan has done in the past. We've taken a look at the things he's doing right now in the present\u2014and that's a lot of stuff! Then last week we started to look at his future. What does the future have in store for Satan?\n\nUnless you understand the future of Satan, you really can't make sense of the world that we\u2019re living in, and you can't really make sense of the intensity of the hatred that Satan has for the human race. Why is Satan such a ferocious opponent of the human race? Why does he try to keep people in darkness? Why does he try to keep people from coming to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ? It really relates to his future.\n\nSome of the things he will do in the future we covered last time.\n
    \n \t
  1. Orchestrate a world government.<\/li>\n \t
  2. He will actually oppose the bodily return of Jesus.<\/li>\n \t
  3. He will attempt to annihilate and exterminate the nation of Israel.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\nYet what does the future say? The Kingdom of God through great warfare is going to come to the earth anyway, and it\u2019s during that time that Satan will be bound for thousand years. We see that the binding of Satan is yet future\u2014when the Kingdom comes. This helps us a great deal in spiritual warfare because a lot of people are binding Satan now in their prayer life, but this is an exercise in futility since we know from the Bible that only Christ is going to bind Satan permanently and that doesn't come until the Kingdom arrives.\n\nAt the end of that Kingdom Age he\u2019s going to lead a final rebellion. He comes out of his abyss, and he deceives the nations again. We talked a little bit at the end last time. I had to jam it in, unfortunately, that the rebels there in Revelation 20:7-9 are the mortal descendants of those who survived the Tribulation \u00a0period.\n\nThe Millennial Kingdom is an interesting time period where you have resurrected and non-resurrected people dwelling together. We as members of Christ's church who receive our resurrected bodies at the point of the Rapture will actually return with Jesus in<\/em> those resurrected bodies to rule and reign with Him as He delegates authority to us in the Millennial Kingdom.\n\nSince we will be in resurrected bodies, we won't be involved in that final rebellion. But you will have a different category of people who survive the Tribulation \u00a0period. Some of them are believers, deemed to be sheep, Matthew 25:31-46. They enter the Kingdom in mortal, non-resurrected bodies. They have children; their children have children; their children have children; the earth gets repopulated. And what just got passed down through the genetics? The sin nature.\n\nWhen Satan is released at the end of that thousand-year time period and incites a rebellion (Revelation 20:7-9), he's actually inciting mortals who have lived in perfection for 1,000 years. One of the points I tried to make last time is that this is one of the reasons God allows this era of history to elapse.\n\nOne of things to understand about God is that history is pedagogical. \u201cPedagogy\u201d is teaching. God allows eras of history to elapse to teach humanity certain lessons. God is always teaching. He teaches in didactic form in His Word, but He also teaches through allowing eras and epochs to transpire.\n\nOne of the things that\u2019s happening today is God is pouring out His grace on a group of people, and the grace is being poured out in a way that's unprecedented! And that's us\u2014that\u2019s the church! Ephesians 1:3 tells us that we have been blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.<\/em>\n\nSo many Christians try to come before God. They kneel and say, \u201cLord, I just want You to bless me. Bless me! Bless me! Bless me!\u201d And God is basically in heaven saying, \u201cWell, you need to read the owner\u2019s manual! You're already maxed out in terms of your blessings! I can't make you any richer than you already are,\u201d in other words. And that's what the Book of Ephesians\u2014particularly the first three chapters\u2014is about.\n\nYou ask yourself, \u201cWhy has God allowed this era of unprecedented grace to take place? It's been happening for 2000 years.\u201d Well, history is pedagogical. And one of the things that\u2019s happening is that God is using this era to fill out knowledge of the grace of God in the angelic world. That's why, when you read passages like Ephesians 3:10 and 1 Peter 1:12, you see that the angels are watching.\n\nThe angels are not omniscient\u2014they are created beings\u2014so they have to study and learn. If we have time, we'll get to this today related to demons; the plan of salvation is not open to angels. If it were, Jesus would have had to become an angel and die on the cross, which He did not<\/em> do.\n\nThe reason that the angels are studying us so intently is because they're learning something about God's character\u2014that they really don't know much about\u2014which is His grace, or unmerited favor. They know about His judgment because Lucifer rebelled and a third of their colleagues lost their positions in heaven.\n\nThey know about His Holiness because the seraphim say what around-the-clock? \u201cHoly, Holy, Holy, is the Lord of armies\u2026\u201d<\/em> (Isaiah 6:3). They know about His creative power, because Job 38:4-7 talks about the angels praising God as God was creating all things in six days.\n\nThey understand His creative power. They understand His Holiness. They understand His judgment. What they don't fully understand is His grace. One of the reasons for that is there is no plan of salvation for the angelic world. That's why the New Testament keeps portraying them as watching us all of the time, because history is pedagogical.\n\nAnother example of history being pedagogical is the Book of Judges. Have you read the Book of Judges lately? Kind of sounds like the United States of America! It\u2019s very, very depressing watching seven cycles of sin, leading to consequences, leading to God's people crying out for help, leading to God raising up a judge, leading to freedom from oppression, leading to prosperity, and then the whole thing happens again.\n\nThey go back into sin\u2014oppression\u2014and God raises up a judge after they cry out. This happens in the Book of Judges over a time period of 300 years. That's a lot of space chronologically! The United States of America is what? 243 years old. We\u2019re talking about 300 years there! And this cycle happens not once, not twice, but seven times!\n\nYou read the Book of Judges and it's so monotonous\u2014it keeps happening. And you say, \u201cGod, why do You keep allowing this to take place?\u201d Well, history is pedagogical. And it's not until you get to the end of the Book of Judges\u2014chapters 16, 17, 18, 19, 20 and 21\u2014and you start seeing the reason why God allowed that 300 years to happen. Because it says in that section, about four times, \u201cThere was no king in Israel in those days.\u201d What days? The 300 years I just explained. \u201cIn those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.\u201d<\/em>\n\nWhat God is explaining to Israel is, \u201cThe only way I can successfully govern you is through a King which you don't have yet.\u201d Of course, that King ultimately is going to be Yeshua, or Jesus Christ. But they have to have a king over them. God could come down and write on the sky or make some kind of audible expression, \u201cY'all need a king!\u201d The problem is, they don't understand that. They thought they were functioning fine under the Judges era. So God says, \u201cFine. Try it for 300 years and see how it works.\u201d God used history to teach. You see that?\n\nA lot of people\u2014it's sad to watch\u2014act like the Millennial Kingdom is no big deal. They allegorize it and don't treat it with the respect that it deserves, but the Millennial Kingdom\u2014like the Judges era and like the Church Age\u2014is an era of history where God is teaching humanity a lesson. The lesson is that evil does not come from the outside or the external; evil comes from the heart.\n\nNow, how does God communicate that point? These mortals and their descendants who have a sin nature He lets live 1,000 years in a perfect environment. Nobody during the Millennial Kingdom is going to be able to complain about climate change, lack of universal healthcare, minimum income for everyone, racial bias, lack of social justice, structural bias.\n\nNobody's going to be able to complain about that because the environment that humans are living in is perfect! It couldn\u2019t get more perfect. And yet, what do people do at the end when given the first opportunity? Satan is let loose from the abyss and he deceives the nations.\n\nIt's sad to read it because it says those involved in the rebellion are as the sand of the seashore. As that era of history transpires, God is saying, \u201cSee, I told you! Your problem is not your environment. Your problem is your wicked heart!\u201d You see that?\n\nSo, Christianity is not about fixing the environment. That's the mistake of the social justice movement! They\u2019re getting all of these churches involved in all of these projects and causes. And the reality of the situation is, you can bring in a perfect environment\u2014which man can't do anyway\u2014only Christ's Kingdom can do it. And people living in 1,000 years of perfection can be as mean and as rotten as they\u2019ve always been because evil emanates from the heart.\n\nThat's why the message of Christianity is: You need to be changed on the inside! That's the problem! The problem is that I\u2019ve got a nature that hates God, which I inherited from Adam. And until that issue is rectified\u2026 And no change in healthcare, education, the ozone layer, or whatever people are into, is going to fix that<\/em> problem! It's only the new birth.\n\nThat's why Jesus in His\u2014Nick at night I call it\u2014conversation with Nicodemus said that you must be born again to enter. So, being born again is a change on the inside that only the Holy Spirit can give as people receive the free gift of salvation through Jesus Christ. Jesus is all about changing people on the inside.\n\nSo, how does God end up communicating this? History is pedagogical. He lets the Millennial Kingdom transpire to prove that point once and for all before human history as we know it ends. This earth is then going to be replaced by a new heavens and a new earth.\n\nSo, our message today is totally different than what you're hearing from the politicians and liberal theologians who are always talking about fixing the outside. \u201cLack of education,\u201d people say. \u201cGosh! We could make crime disappear if we just educated everybody properly.\u201d Well, guess what happens when you educate a blue collar thief? He becomes a white collar thief. You give an education to a thief and the only thing you\u2019ve really done is you've enhanced his capacity to steal. See that?\n\nSo, more education\u2014pouring more and more dollars into education\u2014is not going to solve anything. In fact, it might even make things worse because you're giving wicked people more tools through which to engage in their wickedness. The world system does not understand this message at all. We understand it because we\u2019re Bible readers. God is going to prove it once and for all by allowing the Millennial Kingdom to elapse because history is pedagogical.\n\nThat is one of the reasons that when you read Revelation 19:20, what you see is when Jesus comes back, He takes the beast and the false prophet and He throws them into the Lake of fire. So they\u2019re done! You might even say they\u2019re well done. They're finished\u2014it's over for them.\n\nBy the way, they don't disintegrate and disappear. A lot of people today\u2014the Jehovah's Witnesses and even some Evangelicals\u2014are teaching annihilationism. Meaning that when you go into hell, you just disappear. No. Because when you get to Revelation 20:10\u2014which we\u2019re going to look at in just a second\u2014Satan is thrown to where the beast and the false prophet are<\/em>. It doesn\u2019t say were<\/em>; it says where they are<\/em>! That\u2019s 1,000 years later, and they're still in there.\n\nYou\u2019ll notice what God does. He takes the beast and the false prophet and puts them in the lake of fire, Revelation 19:20. They\u2019re the first folks that enter the lake of fire. But Satan is not put into the lake of fire. Satan is put into a different place called the abyss, Revelation 20:2-3.\n\nYou say, \u201cWhy doesn\u2019t God just come back and put everybody in the lake of fire?\u201d We call these guys the unholy trinity: the beast, the false prophet, Satan. Why doesn\u2019t He just throw all of them into the lake of fire simultaneously? Because history is pedagogical. God still has one more purpose for Satan before he joins his companions in the lake of fire.\n\nGod is going to actually use<\/em> Satan for the pedagogical purpose of proving the true nature of man\u2014that man is wicked from the inside. That wickedness is inside of people, and all they need is an opportunity to express it. Satan is like a slide (if you will) on God's PowerPoint. He's gotten through the part of the PowerPoint presentation dealing with the beast and the false prophet. God is finished using them as teaching devices, but He's got one more slide for Satan. So He keeps him around for 1,000 years in solitary confinement\u2014and then He lets him loose.\n\nIt's a fascinating study to see how sovereign God is<\/em> over Satan and how God is actually using Satan for God's own purposes. A lot of people have this idea\u2014we\u2019ve covered this between God and Satan\u2014that they're basically equally matched. That's called dualism. In other words, God has a rival. It's like Rocky and Apollo getting into the ring; we don't know who's going to win. A lot of people look at the battle between God and Satan that way.\n\nActually, what your Bible teaches is this is no contest for the simple reason that Satan is a created being. God, in fact, is so much in control of things that He's actually using His arch enemy as a point in His PowerPoint presentation. That's why Satan is not<\/em> thrown into the lake of fire immediately but is kept in this place called the abyss, because God has one more purpose for Satan.\n\nIt's a wonderful reminder because we see evil all around us, and we get somewhat despondent about that. And we lose sight of the fact that we\u2019re on the winning side of history. God is completely in control of everything\u2014even over His greatest adversary, the devil.\n\nThese are all the things Satan will do. He will lead a final rebellion. And then the last thing that will happen to him? This is where I had you open up to Revelation 20:10. When all this is over and history has taught its lessons, He takes Satan and He throws him into the lake of fire, finally.\n\nAnd that's what you're reading there in Revelation 20:10. It says, \u201cAnd the devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone, <\/em>[watch this now] where the beast and the false prophet\u2026\u201d<\/em> Now, how did they get in there? They were put in there 1,000 years earlier. What's the next word? \u201c\u2026are \u2026<\/em>\u201d They\u2019re still in there! So annihilationism obviously isn\u2019t true, or else these guys would've exploded, disappeared, or disintegrated a long time ago.\n\n\u201c\u2026where the beast and the false prophet are also; and they will be tormented day and night<\/em> [for how long?] forever and ever.\u201d<\/em> That's an awful long time! So, this is the end of Satan here. And we learn from many, many passages, like\u2026 Feel free to follow me around (at least in your Bible). Matthew 25:41, \u201c\u2018Then He will also say to those on His left, \u201cDepart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for\u2026\u201d\u2019\u201d<\/em> Those terrible human beings? It doesn\u2019t say that, does it? \u201c\u2026which has been prepared for<\/em> the devil and his angels<\/em>\u2026\u201d\n\nOne of the things to understand about hell is that it was never originally created for people. And yet, if people will willfully reject the grace of God and cooperate with Satan, they end up sharing in his fate even though hell itself was not originally created for them.\n\nLet me tell you something, this is probably one of the reasons that Satan doesn't want Bible prophecy taught in local churches. We get umpteen emails weekly from people saying, \u201cI can't find a church that teaches Bible prophecy.\u201d The reason for that is the devil doesn't want this book taught!\n\nThink about it for a minute. Would you want a book taught that spells out your demise prophetically? If there were some book that God wrote that spelled out how my life was going to end in tragedy, I wouldn't want anything to do with that book! I would do everything in my power not to let that book get into print\u2014let alone read!\n\nThis is one of the reasons why Bible prophecy\u2014people who teach it and churches that embrace it\u2014are in the minority. Because Satan is well aware of these prophecies. In fact, when you go to Matthew 8:29, something very interesting is said here.\u201cAnd they cried out<\/em>\u2026\u201d That would be the demons\u2014these are the demons talking. The demons have more theological awareness than most pastors, elders, and deacons. The demons have more theological awareness than most seminary professors.\n\nLook at what they say. If they submitted this comment to me for a grade, I\u2019d have to give them an A+ because what these demons say is completely accurate. Matthew 8:29, \u201cAnd they<\/em> [that\u2019s the demons] cried out, saying, \u201cWhat business do we have with each other, Son of God?\u201d<\/em> Now look at that! That's a pretty high Christology there! They know exactly who Jesus is: God in human flesh.\n\n\u00a0\u201c\u2018What business do we have with each other, Son of God?<\/em> Have You come here to torment us before the time?\u2019\u201d<\/em> What time? The time in history where God prophetically fulfills His Word. Notice that they believe in prophecy. They believe in the deity of Jesus Christ. They may even have a belief in the Trinity. They believe, very clearly, there is a coming day of judgment, and they know they're going to be judged.\n\nThey just concede these things openly and matter-of-factly. And when you understand this\u2014that you\u2019re dealing with a foe that is defeated\u2014you understand his total hatred for the human race and why he does everything within his power to keep people from coming to a saving knowledge of Jesus. Because why would he want any created being\u2014humanity included\u2014to enjoy something throughout eternity that he will have no part of? See that?\n\nThe most desperate people in the world are people who know they're going down. They know<\/em> they're going down. So their mindset is, \u201cOkay. If I'm going down and that can't be reversed, I\u2019m going to pull as many people with me as I possibly can.\u201d That's the mindset of the enemy, and you can't understand that mindset unless you become a student of Bible prophecy.\n\nThat completes our list of the future of Satan. One of the things I want to communicate is this list which shows you\u2026 I preached a sermon on this; it\u2019s in our sermon archives, and it deals with the sevenfold defeat of Satan.\n\nA lot of people have this idea that Satan is defeated in one fell swoop. They think he's defeated in Revelation 20:10. No. That\u2019s stage seven of a sevenfold variety in which Satan's defeat is accomplished by God in seven stages. And if you want to understand where we\u2019re living\u2014we\u2019re living in between number four and number five.\n\nWhat are those seven stages? Stage number one was his initial eviction from heaven. We\u2019ve studied those passages, Isaiah 14:12-15 and Ezekiel 28:12-17. He is cast out of heaven.\n\nNumber two. After the fall of man he's defeated in Eden. Because in his presence a prophecy was given which is sometimes called the protoevangelium, meaning \u201cfirst gospel.\u201d This is your first formal proclamation of the gospel to the fallen human race, ever<\/em>! That's in Genesis 3:15.\n\nIn fact, Genesis 3:15 may very well be the most important verse in the whole Bible because the rest of the Bible is an unpacking of Genesis 3:15. Everything that happens in subsequent Scripture is related to a conflict that God explained would take place with Satan in Genesis 3:15, ultimately leading to his ultimate demise. So, right out of the gate, his doom is announced.\n\nYou remember Genesis 3:15. What does it say there? God speaks to the serpent who had just beguiled Eve\u2014and ultimately Adam. God says, \u201cAnd I will put enmity between you and the woman\u2026\u201d <\/em>[the woman is Eve],<\/em> and between your seed and her seed\u2026\u201d<\/em> In other words, we have \u201cseed,\u201d or descendants of Satan, and then we have \u201cseed,\u201d or descendants of Eve.\n\n\u201c\u2026He shall bruise you on the head\u2026\u201d <\/em>Now, Who would this \u201cHe\u201d be? This would be the coming one, the Messiah, Jesus Christ, Who is going to take Satan's head and crush it. And we all know that when your head is crushed, you\u2019re finished. Right?\n\nBut along the way, Satan, you're going to be able to inflict a lot of what we would call \u201ccollateral damage\u201d because the rest of the prophecy is, \u201c\u2018\u2026and<\/em> you shall bruise him on the heel.\u2019\u201d<\/em>\n\nIn other words, there is coming One into the human race Who\u2019s going to take Satan's head and crush it. And Satan is going to do everything within his power to try to stop that One from being born. And once He is born, \u201cI'll try to do everything within my power to prevent Him from accomplishing His mission.\u201d Such as, for example, offering Him all the kingdoms of the world, and other things that Satan did with Jesus.\n\nIt's like going to a movie and you're five minutes late. Actually, this day and age being five minutes late to a movie doesn't hurt much. I went to a movie recently, timed the commercials, and they went 27 minutes. So, if you\u2019re late to a movie today, no big deal!\n\nBut let's say you arrive 35 minutes late. You missed the first eight minutes of the movie, and you miss some kind of critical piece of information given at the beginning. Has that ever happened anybody? So, everything is happening in the movie and you're not connecting the dots. You don't know why things are happening. Whereas, if you\u2019d been present at the beginning, the rest of the movie would\u2019ve made perfect sense. That, basically, is Genesis 3:15.\n\nMost Christians are on their one year reading plan\u2014which is not a bad thing. You know, \u201cThrough the Bible in a year.\u201d They\u2019ve got to get through a certain number of chapters that day, so they\u2019re really just rushing to get through it to mark it off their spiritual list. \u201cDid that today!\u201d\n\nThey\u2019re reading Genesis 3, and it seems odd to them. They just read right over it and don't understand it. Therefore, they don't understand what's going to happen in Genesis 4 where Cain kills his brother. \u201cThat's weird! I mean, why would Cain just rise up and kill his brother?\u201d\n\nWell, 1 John tells you exactly why Cain did that! He was being influenced by the evil one. And Cain did that as an outworking of Genesis 3:15 because Satan was using Cain to kill Abel to stop the birth of the Messiah.\n\nDo you remember? Abel\u2019s sacrifice is accepted; Cain\u2019s sacrifice is rejected. So, Satan probably figured at that point, \u201cWell, this Messiah, Who I know is coming because He is announced in Genesis 3:15, is going to come through Abel's line.\u201d So, Satan uses Cain, through jealousy, to murder his brother.\n\nAnd God, as He always does, gets around the satanic strategy with an alternative plan. In this case it was the birth of Seth. See that? And your whole Bible is going to start reading this way. Genesis 4 is just the first example of it, but you have multiple examples of what I'm talking about as you move through the Bible. Genesis 3:15 lays out the script, and the rest of the Bible is just filling in the details. It's announced\u2014right at the beginning\u2014that Satan is defeated. Number two:\u00a0 Satan is defeated in Eden.\n\nNow, we\u2019re not going to get into details about this because we have a whole series of lessons coming on this in our angelology study, but one of the things Satan tried to do in Genesis 6:1-4 is he tried to impregnate human women to contaminate the genetics of the human race to prevent the birth of Whom? This Messiah that\u2019s announced in Genesis 3:15.\n\nHe created what's called the Nephilim\u2014which means fallen ones\u2014because he knows from this passage that this Messiah is coming from the seed of the woman. Who is the woman? The woman is Eve. Therefore, the Messiah must be fully human. Right? In addition to being fully God.\n\nSatan says, \u201cWell, I\u2019ll fix this problem! I'll create a race of people that aren\u2019t fully human\u2014a hybrid race\u2014partly angel, partly human. That's why they're called the Nephilim\u2014the fallen ones\u2014because he's trying to lock the human race into a permanent fallenness.\n\nHe's trying to create a genetic climate whereby the Messiah can never<\/em> come. Do you see that? And that's why there's all this information in Genesis 6:9\u2014how Noah was \u201ca just man, perfect in his generations<\/em>.\u201d (NKJV) Everybody looks at that and says, \u201cWow, what a great guy Noah was!\u201d When Genesis 6:8 says, \u201cBut Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.<\/em>\u201d (NKJV) Noah was a sinner just like anybody else.\n\nAfter all, it was Noah in the post-flood world who was in a drunken state. So, when it says Noah was blameless and \u201cperfect in his generations,\u201d it's not a statement about his morality<\/em>. It's a statement about his genetics<\/em>.\n\nIn fact, when we get to that section, I\u2019ll show you that one of the Hebrew words used there is used of the genetic purity of the Passover lamb in Exodus 12:5. The Passover lamb had to be genetically pure\u2014no spots, blemishes, etc. So, we\u2019re not talking about the morality<\/em> of the Passover lamb; we\u2019re talking about the genetic<\/em> purity<\/em> of the Passover lamb in Exodus 12. One of those words is used of Noah. So, Noah and his family, apparently, were one of the few that were uncontaminated by this genetic experiment.\n\nSo, when God brought the Flood, He did it to first of all destroy the hybrid race\u2014the Nephilim. And He did it to preserve Noah genetically because through Noah's descendent, or son, Shem, is going to come who? The Messiah\u2014or the fulfillment of Genesis 3:15.\n\nWhat's going on in Genesis 6 is another outworking of the seed of the woman, seed of the serpent conflict announced in Genesis 3:15. So, if you don\u2019t understand Genesis 3:15, you don\u2019t understand Genesis 4. If you don\u2019t understand Genesis 3:15, you don\u2019t understand Genesis 6. I could make the case that you can\u2019t understand almost anything<\/em> in the Bible without understanding Genesis 3:15.\n\nSo, it was one of Satan\u2019s strategies to prevent the Messiah from being born. God, just like He got around the Genesis 4 issue through the birth of Seth, got around the Genesis 6 issue through the protection of the genetic purity of Noah. So Satan lost round two.\n\nOne of the things that happened is the demons involved in that particular Genesis 6 sin, were put in prison. When we get to demonology, I'll show you very clearly that the Bible tells you that some demons are in jail. Some are free because Ephesians 6:12 says, \u201cFor our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.\u201d<\/em>\n\nSo, you\u2019ve got some demons in jail, some free, and if you don't have angelology in Genesis 6, you don't have any explanation as to why some are incarcerated and some are free. That's why, when the Bible mentions those demons in jail, it connects it with the days of Noah. Which I won't be going into today, but I'll show you that when we get to that particular section of teaching material.\n\nThe angels that were involved in the Genesis 6 sin were not all<\/em> of Satan's demons but some<\/em> of them. And because they left their natural abode and did something completely heinous\u2014in this case, trying to contaminate the genetics of the human race\u2014they went into immediate incarceration.\n\nJesus Christ, in between His crucifixion and resurrection, went to where those incarcerated demons\u2014who sinned in Noah's day\u2014are, and He preached victory over them. (1 Peter 3:19-20) Now, when people see that word \u201cpreach,\u201d they think, \u201cWell, Jesus went to evangelize people in hell.\u201d And they come up with all these explanations. It\u2019s not talking about humans in hell; it\u2019s talking about demons in incarceration because of what happened in Genesis 6.\n\nAnd the verb there in Greek is not EUANGELIZO, which is the verb for evangelism. The verb that\u2019s used there is KERUSSO, which means to herald or proclaim. So, what Jesus did in between His death and His resurrection is, He descended to where these demons are in jail and He proclaimed<\/em> to them that they lost.\n\nThey lost what? They lost in their attempt to prevent the birth of the Messiah\u2014because that's what's happening in Genesis 6. The Messiah was<\/em> born! We\u2019re coming up on Christmas, and that's what we ought to be thinking about at Christmas time: that God somehow, despite all of these satanic attempts, allowed His Messiah to be born. It's a miracle!\n\nJesus, in between His crucifixion and resurrection, descended to where these spirits\u2014\u201cspirits\u201d is always angels or fallen angels\u2014are locked up, and He proclaimed to them that they lost! So, that's round three that Satan lost! See that?\n\nThe number four\u2014we know what Jesus did on the Cross, that His sacrificial death bridged the gap between fallen humanity and a holy God, making the opportunity for human salvation possible<\/em>. So by believing the gospel as a human being, I (Hebrews 2:14) am delivered from the fear of death that has haunted human beings their whole lives.\n\nAll of those passages I have there on number four\u2014I wish we had time to look at every single one of them\u2014show the defeat<\/em> that Satan experienced through the death\u2014the sacrificial death\u2014and then authenticated\u2026 Because anybody can die, right? It's quite a different deal if someone says<\/em> they\u2019re going to die\u2014and says they\u2019re going to rise from the dead\u2014and then says, \u201cI'm attaching the weight of the sin of the world to My sacrificial death.\u201d Anybody can say that, but only<\/em> God<\/em> can actually rise from the dead and authenticate the whole thing. So, Satan suffers defeat number four at that point. Now, that's all in our past.\n\nDefeat five is where Satan (Revelation 12:9) is evicted from heaven permanently. You say, \u201cWait a minute. In point number one, you said he was initially evicted from heaven?\u201d And he was! But apparently, he can still go into heaven\u2014not to worship and serve as he once did as a high-ranking angel, but to communicate and accuse.\n\nJob 1 and 2\u2014the earliest book of the Bible that we have\u2014talks about how Satan made his presence to God amongst the other sons of God (angels) and made an accusation against Job. So, obviously, Satan can go into heaven to do this.\n\nWe know this from the New Testament because Jesus said to Peter in Luke 22:31, \u201cSimon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded permission to sift you like wheat\u2026\u201d<\/em> That would be a pretty scary conversation. But then Jesus says, \u201cbut I have prayed for you\u2026\u201d<\/em> I\u2019d be like, \u201cWhew! Thank You!\u201d\n\nSo, clearly, he has some kind of access to heaven. But what you learn in Revelation 12:9 is that access disappears. When does it disappear? It disappears the moment the beast desecrates the temple\u2014exactly 3 1\/2 years\u2014or 42 months\u2014into the Tribulation period.\n\nThat's why Revelation 12 portrays Satan\u2014beginning around verse 9\u2014as plummeting to the earth knowing he has but a short time. What short time are we talking about? Well, the Tribulation period is seven years. The beast desecrated the temple midway through the Tribulation \u00a0period. So how much time does Satan have left? Three and a half years. Or sometimes the Bible uses the synonym, \u201c42 months.\u201d Sometimes it\u2019ll use the synonym, \u201c1260 days.\u201d\n\nSometimes it\u2019ll use the synonym, \u201ca time, times, and a half a time.\u201d A \u201ctime\u201d is a Jewish year; \u201ctimes,\u201d plural, two Jewish years; \u201chalf a time,\u201d half a Jewish year. What is 1 + 2 + 1\/2? That's 3 1\/2 years, right? So, these are all synonyms that are being used. These are all synonyms that are essentially being employed to explain that second half of the Tribulation period.\n\nSo, midway through the Tribulation period Satan loses the access that he had to communicate and accuse. And he does\u2014as desperate people do\u2014the only thing he\u2019s got left in his playbook, which is to gobble up Israel. Because he knows that through Israel the Kingdom will come, but he suffers a defeat there.\n\nThen, when he fails to gobble up Israel, one-third of the Jews acknowledge Yeshua as their Savior and Jesus returns at the end of the seven year Tribulation period to rescue the nation of Israel and consequently sets up His Kingdom. Moving us into Revelation 20:1-10.\n\nThe sixth part of Satan's defeat is that he's incarcerated in a place called the abyss for thousand years, while the beast and the false prophet are thrown into the Lake of Fire. Now why, once again, is Satan incarcerated and yet the beast and the false prophet are put into the Lake of Fire? Because God has one more purpose for Satan, which we\u2019ve explained earlier. Because history is what? Pedagogical. God still has one more point on His PowerPoint slide to make, and He needs Satan around long enough to do it.\n\nBut once God finishes the lecture\u2014hit click\u2014you don't need the PowerPoint slide anymore. Satan is thrown to where his companions are. <\/em>Not were\u2014are<\/em>! That takes us to number seven, Revelation 20:10, where he will then be thrown into the Lake of Fire. So, all of this is explaining that Satan, throughout biblical history, is not destroyed in one fell swoop; it happens progressively.\n\nWhen you read Genesis 3:15, you have to see in it not just one whack and it's over! What you have to see in it is a progressive defeat. Satan is trying to stop this process from happening\u2014and that's the significance of the heel being bruised. Now, if your heel is bruised, you can recover from that, can\u2019t you?\n\nBut if your head is crushed, can you recover? You can\u2019t recover! So, \u201cSatan, you\u2019re going to be able to cause your problems. And you\u2019re going to be able to inflict momentary damage. But your ultimate defeat\u2014the destruction of your head\u2014is on the horizon.\u201d\n\nSo, where are we<\/em> living today? Because everybody always wants to know, \"How does this relate to me?\u201d Right? Here's how it relates to you. We\u2019re living after number four but before numbers five, six, and seven. So, we\u2019re living in between the fourth and the fifth stage.\n\nHere's an analogy that I like to use from the legal world. It's the only one that makes sense to me, probably because of my training as a lawyer. And those of you who like this, fine. If not, just discard it. But we\u2019re living in between conviction and sentencing. That\u2019s what we\u2019re living between. Because when someone is accused of a crime, then they\u2019re tried by a jury of their peers. And if they are convicted by that jury beyond a reasonable doubt, they become a \u201ccon\u201d at that point. They are convicted. So, they are defeated.\n\nAnd if you've actually watched someone in a courtroom\u2026 I did jury duty not long ago; I was on a case. And the defendant? You just look at his body language when the jury comes in with their verdict. The guy just slumped over in his chair, and he was just the most despondent person visually I could think of at that moment.\n\nAnd that's where Satan is\u2014he's convicted! The conviction is in, which means the only thing the convict has left on his horizon is what? The sentencing.\n\nThe conviction stage\u2014or what we call the guilt phase\u2014and the sentencing phase are typically (at least this is how it worked in California) two different parts of a trial. So, after the accused has been convicted, then you have a separate phase of the trial called the sentencing phase where the judge assigns sentence.\n\nSo, what has happened to Satan is that he has been convicted, but we don't have the sentence yet imposed. The sentence won't start getting imposed until numbers five, six, and seven. See that? Which helps you understand the mindset of Satan. He's going down, so his goal is to take as many people down with him as he possibly can.\n\nNow, the analogy in the Bible that's given to us by the Holy Spirit to show us typologically of the time period that we\u2019re in\u2014between conviction and sentencing\u2014is the Saul\/David narrative. If you understand the Saul\/David narrative, you will understand exactly where we are in human history.\n\nYou remember that David was anointed as the next king of Israel, 1 Samuel 16:13, and he didn't immediately take the throne, did he? Because someone else was on the throne. And who was that? Saul, who had the Holy Spirit withdrawn from him (1 Samuel 16:14). So, Saul is governing the nation without the anointing of God.\n\nSaul is consequently an illegitimate usurper for the simple reason that the kings are supposed to come from which tribe? Judah (Genesis 49:10). What was Saul's tribal heritage? He was a Benjamite; he never should've been on the throne to begin with (1 Samuel 9:21).\n\nSo, here's the scenario. David is anointed as king but is not yet ruling. Saul\u2014an illegitimate usurper\u2014is running the nation. So why did God allow that weird era of history to take place? Because history is what? Pedagogical! God was putting the nation through its paces, so to speak.\n\nIf people walked by faith, they followed David. That's why there's all this information about, \u201cGod doesn't look at the outer appearance; God looks at the heart.\u201d If you want to align yourself with David, you\u2019ve got to walk by faith.\n\nA minority within the nation of Israel did that; they\u2019re called, \u201cDavid's mighty men.\u201d But if you walk by sight, you followed who? Saul. That's why the Samuel books, particularly 1 Samuel 9:2, keeps commenting on Saul's appearance. You read that and say, \u201cWhy do I care what the guy looks like?\u201d Because that's the basis on which you followed him: You followed him by sight. And, sadly, the majority in the nation of Israel during that transitionary time period followed Saul.\n\nNow, take exactly what I said and transfer it to today. That\u2019s exactly what's happening right now. Jesus\u2014like David\u2014has been anointed as king of this earth. When did He get that anointing? I would guess at His resurrection or ascension (Psalm 2:7, Psalm 110:1). So, Jesus is<\/em> the anointed king, but He is not<\/em> now<\/em> ruling the earth because an illegitimate usurper is on the throne\u2014a Saul like character\u2014called who? Satan.\n\nAnd Satan should've never been given authority over this earth to begin with. He\u2019s an illegitimate ruler. Why? Because God originally assigned the authority over the earth to Adam.\n\nSo, here I am in the exact same situation! Jesus is the anointed king, and I\u2019ve got an illegitimate ruler on the throne. So if I follow Jesus, I walk by\u2026? Faith! That\u2019s the only way you could do it! Because you don't see anything in your eyesight that would give you the impression that Jesus is ruling now. And He's going to rule one day!\n\nSo, if I come to Christ and accept Him as my ruler now, I have to do it completely by faith. Just like David's men had to trust that God was going to one day raise up David\u2014and they did that totally by faith. And there is a minority of people today that are doing that. That's why Jesus talked about the narrow road (Matthew 7:14). Just like a narrow<\/em> group of people accepted David, a narrow<\/em> group of people are accepting Christ today.\n\nBut if I follow Satan, I'm walking not by faith. I'm walking by what? Sight. This is why you run into all of these kinds of statements in the Bible like 2 Corinthians 4:18 which says, \u201cwhile we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.\u201d<\/em>\n\nSo, in David\u2019s and Saul's time period, if you walked by sight<\/em>, you followed Saul. If you walked by faith<\/em>, you followed David. If you walk by sight<\/em> today, you ignore Jesus and you walk according to the pattern of this world\u2014what you can see. But if you walk by faith<\/em>, you follow Christ.\n\nThe majority\u2014just like back in the nation of Israel\u2014was on the wrong road because they were walking by sight. A minority was on the right road, and that's what's happening today. A majority is on the wrong<\/em> road; a minority is on the right<\/em> road.\n\nGoodness gracious, I was about as excited as anybody when I started to discover this typology. I don't think it's unique to me; I think I found reference to this in Alva J. McClain\u2019s book The Greatness of the Kingdom<\/em>. I just didn't see it fleshed out the way I think it needs to be fleshed out as revealed in this chart form.\n\nSo, understand where we are in human history. We\u2019re right in between the anointing of David\u2026and yet we haven't had the dethronement of Saul yet. We are living right in between the anointing of Christ\u2026but Satan hasn't been dethroned yet.\n\nBack to my original point. Why is God allowing this era of history to transpire? Because history is pedagogical. He's forcing. See what God is doing? He's forcing every person to choose. And every person\u2014whether they know it or not\u2014whether they\u2019re following Christ or following Satan\u2014is making a choice. If you ignore Christ\u2014just like if you ignored David's anointing\u2014that\u2019s a choice<\/em>! See that? It's fascinating!\n\nSo, that takes us to the end of Satan\u2014his existence, personhood, names and titles, original state, first sin, and works. The next week I'm with you we\u2019ll be moving into demonology. Let's pray.\n\nClosing Prayer<\/strong>\n\n\u201cFather, we\u2019re grateful for Your truth and the things that it reveals to us. Help us to understand the season that we\u2019re in according to Your Word so that we can be all that You\u2019d have us to be in this age. We\u2019ll be careful to give You all the praise and the glory. We ask these things in Jesus\u2019 name.\u201d\n\nAnd God's people said, \u201cAmen.\u201d","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