Our Adversary the Devil: Intro and His Making

[0:00] It's likely to go for several weeks. I don't know how long it'll go, but we're going to do a study on Satan.

[0:13] And I don't want that to sound spooky to you or alarming. In no way are we trying to overemphasize or give too much credit or anything.

[0:25] But I'll give you, by way of introduction, what the scriptures will look at here just to introduce the entirety of the thought and the reason why we ought to study.

[0:39] So look at 1 Peter chapter 5. Let's begin in 1 Peter chapter 5. And so there's just a few verses before we even get into, I have a six-point outline that we'll cover.

[0:53] We'll cover about Satan. And before we ever get anywhere near that, let's just introduce a few thoughts so that we're on the same page and so that we understand the necessity for such a study and the benefits of it as well.

[1:14] So 1 Peter chapter 5, and notice in verses 8 and 9, the Bible says, Be sober, be vigilant. These are commands.

[1:25] That's an imperative command to the believer. Be sober, be vigilant. Here's the reason why. Because your adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about seeking whom he may devour.

[1:38] Whom resist steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world. So he's called your adversary.

[1:50] And he's likened to a ferocious beast that's on the prowl seeking to devour some prey. Obviously you are that prey that he's seeking to devour.

[2:01] And it's accomplished in your brethren in the world. And so he's successful at what he seeks to accomplish. He's very wise, very crafty, very powerful.

[2:13] No one to be trifled with. I remember watching a documentary of some missionaries in Papua New Guinea and in a third world country dealing with a lot of witchcraft and spiritism and things that we don't generally see.

[2:29] Maybe you see a little hints of it here and there. But there it's alive and part of the culture. Part of what is expected in each village is this witch doctor.

[2:40] And this missionary was getting attacked, so to speak, condemned by a certain village person. And they were really, it was creating a big division.

[2:54] And they were losing credibility. And he said, I've got to deal with this. And I don't want to, but I have to go deal with this. So I have to go meet with this person, this soothsayer, this witch doctor person.

[3:06] And he was in the documentary. He was addressing it to the cameraman saying, I don't want to do this. I don't even want to get anywhere near this place. And he said, the devil is no one to be trifled with.

[3:19] And I don't want to step into this world. But, and so he shows him praying, pleading the blood of Christ, and just going in as a child of God, trying to maintain and salvage and defend the ministry that the Lord has in that town.

[3:36] Anyway, we don't see a whole lot of that kind of stuff in our world here today in America. But understand, it's very alive in other nations, in Africa. I know in Haiti, voodoo, witch doctor, it's live.

[3:48] It's, it's expected. All right, now anyway, get back to the, that's, I'm just saying that because it says it's accomplished in your brethren, which are in the world. And the attacks are very much in their face and obvious there.

[4:00] Now, this verse here in chapter 5, verse 8 and 9 is a warning. It's a warning that we're to pay attention to. And telling you, keep your guard up, because Satan's real. He's very real, and he really desires to devour and to destroy.

[4:17] And if God takes pleasure in something, then he's going to be against it. And if God's going to take pleasure in you, then he's going to be against you. And I don't think he's playing a game at all.

[4:28] Now, he's called your adversary. Why is he your adversary? What did you do to him? Why did, why is he your adversary? Like, you know, I got some people in this world that may not like me too much, and it's probably, they have reasons.

[4:43] They have their list of reasons. Why? Because I said this, or I did this, or I'm this way, or I beat them at arm wrestling. That was a joke. There's people in this world, you know, you can be at odds with for certain reasons.

[4:59] But why is the devil your adversary? What did you do to him? You didn't do personally anything to him, did you? But the Bible says he's your adversary. You need to know that. You need to understand that.

[5:10] You've got somebody against you. If you're for Christ and right with Jesus Christ, somebody's against you. And you may not have done anything. He's against you if you're a child of God.

[5:20] And it says in this verse that he's seeking whom he may devour. That's an action verb. He's actively engaged in this activity. On the prowl, looking for, we might call it a meal.

[5:33] So, first of all, let's understand he is our adversary. Now, come back to Matthew chapter 13. And so, as introduction to this study, the reason or one of the reasons is because he is, in fact, identified as our adversary.

[5:51] We ought to know something about him. And if God's going to give us any understanding or light, then we ought to take it. Don't be afraid to study this. Don't be afraid that if I study and say his name, he's going to come and get me.

[6:03] You don't have to be afraid of him. You don't have to fear him in that sense anyway. You're protected by the power of God. But we can and should study our adversary. If God gives us something in the scriptures, then we ought to understand it and know it.

[6:16] And as you know, we don't sit around this church talking about the devil and fearing the devil and speaking his name or doing weird things like that. But here we are. We're going to study it while we're here.

[6:28] Matthew 13. Here's a parable. Start in verse 24 and 25. We'll just kind of pick it up in the middle of this or at the beginning of another parable. 24. Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field.

[6:44] But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way. His enemy came. Sowed tares and went his way.

[6:55] Now move toward verse 39. Here's the explanation of this parable. Verse 39, he says, The enemy that sowed them is the devil.

[7:08] And so the devil is called the enemy. He's called your adversary. Here in the parable, he's called the enemy. And notice the timing that we read earlier in verse 25.

[7:18] The timing of his activity is while men slept, his enemy came and sowed and then went his way. You know what? Those men were sleeping. They weren't being sober.

[7:30] They weren't being vigilant. They weren't on caution and having their eyes open for the enemy to show up. And the enemy showed up when they weren't expecting it and did his business and went his way.

[7:42] And so he says that our enemy, the devil, our adversary, our enemy is God activity. He's seeking whom he may devour.

[7:54] And he knows how to do it. Now, another verse we're going to turn, last one by way of introduction, 2 Corinthians chapter 11. 2 Corinthians, oh wow, chapter 2.

[8:12] That's a lot better. 2 Corinthians chapter 2. All right.

[8:30] I'm just kind of picking this up right in the middle of Paul speaking about forgiving somebody, one of their own. And he says in verse 11, this is all we want to do is catch something from this verse.

[8:44] Lest Satan should get an advantage of us, for we are not ignorant of his devices. So he's forgiving, he's trying to get things settled and keep everybody in unity because he doesn't want Satan to get in.

[9:00] He's walking about seeking whom he may devour. He doesn't want him to find a way into the local church and use some drama to create an explosion and a split and no glory to God.

[9:11] Satan blows things up. So there's forgiveness. But the point we're getting to is verse 11, that we are not ignorant, Paul says, of his devices. And Paul's saying we know how he operates.

[9:23] We know he's looking for a way in. We know that he'll use bitterness within the local church to destroy the work of God. And I'd have to say, Paul might be able to stand up and say we are not ignorant of his devices.

[9:38] But today's church, are we ignorant of his devices or not? Are we fully aware of when he's active and when he's working and that it's his hand that's working against us or seeking to manipulate something or anything like that?

[9:59] I'd say we probably are pretty ignorant. I think a lot of Christians today are very ignorant of the work and the ministry of Satan on this earth today. When you think of him, you think of satanic activity, where does your mind go?

[10:14] It probably goes off into this weird realm of something you've heard of or seen. Like I've mentioned the missionaries in Africa and the witchcraft and the voodoo. And you think of Ouija boards and seances and Halloween and sacrificing cats or just something stupid.

[10:34] And is that his device? Is that his realm? Is that really where he's going to operate? Is that where he's going to show up in your life? And so if that's all you think of, then you're ignorant of the operation of the devil.

[10:48] And so I think Christians today are very ignorant of his devices, of his working. And the less Bible that you know or the less Bible that you care about, the more you're going to open yourself up.

[10:59] And the less truth you have inside of you. And the less truth you have inside of you, the less knowledge you have, the less understanding you'll have of spiritual things.

[11:10] You don't get understanding of spiritual things but from the Spirit of God and the words of God. 1 Corinthians chapter 2 will give you some of that. And that's what we need.

[11:21] And without this Bible, which is a foreign thing to a lot of Christians today, they're opening themselves up to deception. And they're ignorant of his working and of his activity.

[11:33] Now, if Satan is truly your adversary, and if he's truly your enemy, like the Scripture calls him, then I think you'd be wise to know as much about him as you can.

[11:46] It doesn't say that you're worshiping him. It doesn't say that you're exalting him above anything or intrigued or stepping into some realm you shouldn't, that you should avoid. No, studying the Bible is the best thing you can do in your life.

[12:00] And understanding the truth of God's Word, you're not going to find anything better than that. And if this is something that God teaches and he reveals, then we ought to know it.

[12:10] We ought to pick up what he's laying down. And if he's your enemy, you know what they say, you keep your friends close, but you keep your enemies closer. And of course, we don't want Satan close to us, but the concept is very accurate because you want to know what to expect.

[12:26] You want to be prepared for them. You want to know their next move. You want to be ready. And I think that the more we study the Bible, the more we'll see that he's very active.

[12:39] And he's very able and capable of doing some things. In war, in wartime, they do two things, not just in war, but in any military operation, they're offensively thinking to prepare the troops, to train the troops, to get them ready for anything, to know their weapons, to be physically fit, and to work as a unit and follow orders.

[13:07] They're all offensively minded, but at the same time, maybe it's not the soldiers on the ground, but the enemy's being studied. And they want to know what's he capable of.

[13:18] What's their tactics that they've used in the past? What kind of military power do they have? And how can we prepare ourselves best to defend and to stand against this enemy?

[13:30] And so this study is to help us to arm ourselves, prepare ourselves, to know what we're up against, because just because we don't talk about him very often and we don't give him too much credit doesn't mean he's not real and he's not been messing with you.

[13:46] And he will be before you know it. He shows up in Genesis, the very beginning of the book, and he's around at the end of the book in Revelation and everywhere in between.

[13:58] He's not a strange character in this Bible. He might be one that we feel is a little bit taboo that we can't talk about, but we're going to talk about him. So one thing I want to take away from you, if I can, is I hear this.

[14:12] Sometimes it's legitimate, but most of the time it's nonsense, is people saying things like, well, the devil's really attacking me today. Or it's been a hard day.

[14:23] Pray for me. The devil's really attacking me. Or they'll say, oh, I messed up and the devil made me do it. And those little lines, there might be a few others. I don't want to put too much emphasis on him and by any means put too much attention on Satan.

[14:42] But I think you get the idea by now. He's an adversary. He's an enemy. And we need to be prepared and understand him. Now, as always, our study is going to be from the King James Bible.

[14:54] You understand that. You know that. But there's real, real, real good reason for that. Number one, because I believe this book is the perfect and preserved, pure words of the living God.

[15:06] And for this language today, I don't find any air from cover to cover. But on top of that, the other versions, the newer versions of the Bible have concealed Satan and his activity.

[15:20] He's missing. We did a study here on Wednesday nights a few months back, and I showed you some charts on the screen and showed you some numbers of how the new versions, his name, Lucifer, is mentioned one time in your King James Bible, and you can't find it on the new versions.

[15:38] It's a rare thing of all the 300, 400 different new versions that are out there that you'll find one that has his name in it. He's concealing himself. More than that, the term devils is mostly, devils is pretty much missing in every version except the King James Bible.

[15:55] They all change it to demons. And now you don't really know what that is. But the King James Bible gives you, we'll discuss this later on, there's a very strong connection to be made with that.

[16:08] The word devil and serpent and dragon and devil, those words that are identifying his being or the manifestation of Satan, those words are at least cut in half in all the new versions.

[16:26] For instance, where it shows up about 50 times in the King James Bible, it's only 25 times in the other versions. He's been pulling, retracting his information from the text. Now, the new versions conceal him, they conceal his activity.

[16:40] And as far as I'm concerned, that is a genius move on his part. Absolutely genius move. To manipulate the scripture, the content of the Holy Bible, to manipulate the words of God, and to his advantage, and put it in the hands of man, and on the cover it says, Holy Bible, and it says, The Word of God.

[17:05] And for men to hold a book and believe it's the Word of God, yet have things missing in it about their adversary, that's a pretty slick move. And preachers are standing in pulpits, preaching from books.

[17:17] They believe, they think, it's as best as they can have. It's what God gave them to preach from. And the whole time, there's things missing all over that book, perversions in that book. So that's some things, beyond those changes, you probably studied this, or if you haven't, you ought to, the distorted doctrinal changes of salvation, of the deity of Christ, of the promises about the Word of God.

[17:43] There's so much missing in those new versions. We're going to do our study out of the book, the old book, the truth, the King James Bible. Now here's the six-point outline, by way of preparing you for what we're going to deal with.

[17:55] The first point that we're going to study in this study of Satan, is his making. His making. What I mean by that is, the being that he was originally created as. God created him as something.

[18:09] And it wasn't the devil. He was created originally as something else, before his rebellion, before his fall. We're going to study that, so you understand that.

[18:20] Then secondly, we'll study his might. That is his ability. What he is capable of. It's quite a bit. He's a very powerful, very wise being.

[18:32] That, that's, that's an intriguing thought. We're studying about his might. When we see that, you'll, you're, you ought to know that he's limited. Only, I'd say only by God himself.

[18:45] I don't know what for limitations he, as a being, possesses. But when it comes to this physical realm and physical creation, I don't see much he can't do. Unless, God says no.

[18:58] Now verse, or sorry verse, the third portion of this study of the outline is his manifestations. And the way we'll do this is there's three heavens. I'm trusting you're familiar with that.

[19:09] Paul says, I was caught up to the third heaven. And so, there's three heavens. And we'll study his manifestations in the third, in the second, and then down here on earth. How is he manifest here on the, in the third heaven?

[19:22] I think that's the best way to look at it. That's why we'll do that. Then the fourth is his mission. His single, and his ultimate goal. What drives him?

[19:33] What is he after? What is his mission? If we could put it in one thing, what would that be? And I think it's displayed probably in a very broad spectrum. But nevertheless, I think it's a singular goal that we can nail down.

[19:46] And it's not just evil or deception. It's, it's a little more refined than that. Then fifth, his methods, how he goes about fulfilling his mission. And finally, the last portion of the study will be his ministers.

[20:00] And the Bible talks about his ministers. What do they look like? How can we spot them? Are they fallen angels that have come down to earth? People teach stuff like that. I don't think that's the case. So we'll study from the Bible, his ministers.

[20:14] And if we, I don't know if we'll get into it. There's a, like a tack on lesson at the end of this, that it would just be food for thought.

[20:24] I don't know if we'll get into it though, because it's a little bit, I don't know that I can teach the last part, for doctrine, but let's go to Ezekiel chapter 28.

[20:35] And we're going to begin with the first lesson on Satan, his making, his making, the being that he was created as.

[20:49] There is no way that we're going to get through this at all this morning, this first point, but we'll at least get it started, get it going.

[21:15] And then Lord willing, come back next week and continue on. So you want to just kind of take notes on it if you do, or, or plug this away so that you don't lose it in a week's time.

[21:29] So Ezekiel, like other prophets, pronounces these, these judgments or these woes upon people and lands.

[21:40] In his case, it's a lamentation against, uh, kings or cities or lands. He pronounces judgment against certain nations or kingdoms. And here in this chapter 28, he's dealing with the king of Tyrus.

[21:55] We're going to move ahead to the middle of the chapter in verse number 11. And Tyrus is the city of Tyre is a, uh, a coastal city on the Mediterranean sea to the north on the Western edge of Israel, but north of that, north of Galilee.

[22:11] It's today, it's modern day Lebanon. And he's, he's pronouncing a lamentation against this king in verse number 11. Moreover, the word of the Lord came unto me saying, son of man, take up a lamentation upon the king of Tyrus and say unto him, thus saith the Lord, thou sealest up the sum.

[22:30] Now, I don't have a lot of comment on that statement, but that's an, that's an interesting way of wording something. I think today's vernacular, we say, you're all that.

[22:41] And a bag of chips. If you're from the nineties, thou sealest up the sum. Sorry, that is the nineties coming out of me. Thou sealest up the sum. It's an interesting phrase.

[22:55] It's, it's a pretty heavy statement too. If you can understand it or even just try to grasp, there's a lot to say there. That's pretty high lofty praise. Thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty.

[23:12] Verse 13, thou has been in Eden, the garden of God. Really? The king of Tyrus was in Eden, in the garden of God?

[23:26] Why? Why? The garden of Eden, from Genesis chapter three, was two cherubim, or cherubims were placed, keeping the way of the garden, and a flaming sword, which turned every way, keeping anybody from getting in, or close to the tree of life.

[23:49] But this king has been in Eden, the garden of God. So the, either you're, you're going to have to say that the garden of Eden was still around on the earth.

[24:01] In this age of, I mean, we're, we're moving through all of Abraham and, and after the flood, you understand how that doesn't really add up with scripture.

[24:16] So what's happening here? Well, I don't think we're talking about a normal king here, right now. I think something else is going on here.

[24:27] And what we will find out in this, is that God is addressing, not the man, but addressing, Satan, that's in the man. And if you think that's a wild thought, I know it is to start off this morning, but let's back it up with a little bit of scripture, before we just, try to just move, you know, plow right past that.

[24:47] This, this isn't just some wild singular case. Look with me to Matthew 16. We're going to come right back to Ezekiel, but go to Matthew 16. Let me show you two places.

[25:02] Matthew 16. Jesus Christ speaking with his disciples, and he's even telling the apostle Peter that he's going to give him the keys of the kingdom of heaven.

[25:15] And then just a few verses later, Peter rebukes Jesus Christ. When Christ says, I'm going to be killed and raised again the third day.

[25:26] And Peter took him in verse 22, began to rebuke him saying, be it far from the Lord. This shall not be unto thee. So Peter's telling Christ, no, what you just said is going to happen. It is not going to happen.

[25:37] And he might mean well, but that doesn't make much difference. He's dead wrong. Not only one in what he's saying, but two in his attitude toward, to rebuke the Lord Jesus Christ.

[25:48] What is he doing? Verse 23. But he, Christ turned and said unto Peter, get thee behind me, Satan, for thou art an offense unto me. Now, Jesus Christ didn't walk around calling people Satan.

[26:03] He didn't call little kids Satan. He didn't call them the devil. But here, the only time we'll ever see it from his lips toward a man is when Peter rebukes him.

[26:14] And he's even denying the word of God. And Jesus Christ calls him by name, Satan. Why? It sounds like he's addressing Satan.

[26:27] He is. And Satan, whether Peter likes it or not, I'm sure Peter was like, what? What did you just call me in front of all these guys?

[26:38] How embarrassed he must have been? How much just shock? Everybody probably just stopped and thought, what? What is he talking about? What's going on? Look at John chapter 13.

[26:53] John's gospel. This is the night where Christ is with his disciples again in the upper room. And he's at the beginning of the chapter.

[27:05] He's going to go around and wash the feet of the disciples. In verse number two, John 13 verse two, And supper being ended, the devil having now put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray him.

[27:20] So the devil's been working with Judas Iscariot, putting something into his heart. Now fast forward toward verse 20, 26. Jesus answered, He it is to whom I shall give a sop, when I have dipped it.

[27:34] And when he had dipped the sop, he gave it to Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon. And verse 27, And after the sop, Satan entered into him. Then said Jesus unto him, that thou doest do quickly.

[27:48] He's talking to a man, has Satan inside of him. So come back to Ezekiel. It's not so uncommon or so rare or far-fetched that Satan is inside of a man.

[28:00] Understand he's a spirit. And we'll tie this together with some unclean spirits and devils later on. But for now, the Lord, through his prophet Ezekiel, is pronouncing a lamentation, a judgment upon a king.

[28:20] And it goes far beyond the king. I'll show you why we say that. So come back to Ezekiel 28. If you're not sure yet, then let's continue reading in verse 13 a little bit further and go to verse 17.

[28:37] Thou hast been in Eden, the garden of God. Every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold.

[28:52] The workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou hast created. Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth. Are we still talking about a king?

[29:03] Thou, king of Tyrus, art the anointed cherub that covereth? Come on now. This has gone somewhere way beyond the king of Tyrus as a man ruling over a city.

[29:17] Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth, and I have set thee so. Thou wast upon the holy mountain of God. Not no king of Tyrus wasn't. Thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire.

[29:30] Again. Verse 15. Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee. He is absolutely addressing Satan.

[29:43] Verse 16. By the multitude of thy merchandise, they have filled the midst of thee with violence, and thou hast sinned. Therefore, I will cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God, and I will destroy thee, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire.

[29:59] Last verse, verse 17. Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty. Thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness. I will cast thee to the ground. I will lay thee before kings that they may behold thee.

[30:11] Thine heart was lifted up because of thy This is going back into some things that it's like Paul said one time.

[30:44] In Hebrews, the writer says, talking about the ark or whatever he was talking about, he says, we cannot speak.

[30:56] I just lost the phrase. It was there a second ago. Can't speak about it in detail, basically. And there's things here that it seems like I understand that he alludes to that I surely can't speak in detail about where this timing of this thing really falls and what it was like.

[31:16] The holy mountain of God. The only time, there's only one mention of a holy mountain in the Bible, and that's Jerusalem, Mount Zion. But that's on earth, and that's after the kingdom is brought to that place, and it's established, and it's going to be the holy mountain in the kingdom age when Christ comes back and establishes his kingdom and his throne of David there.

[31:39] And he says, who shall ascend in the holy hill? And before that, you're not going to find references to some holy mountain of God.

[31:51] Now, I'm going to steer clear of going any further because it'll just get confusing of what this may have looked like back then. But let's learn what we can learn here about this being.

[32:03] We're talking about his making, our adversary, the devil, and how he was originally created, and some things God says to him about himself when he was created. Notice, first of all, he is a created being.

[32:16] We saw in verse 13, look at the very end of the verse. It says, in the day that thou wast created. In verse number 15, thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created.

[32:29] So, our adversary, the devil, is a created being. Now, keep your place and let's turn to John, chapter 1.

[32:42] John, chapter 1. Satan is a created being.

[32:58] Who created him? Verse number 1. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

[33:08] The same was in the beginning with God. Where was he? Look at verse 18. No man hath seen God at any time, the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.

[33:24] Jesus Christ, in the bosom of the Father, he was begotten, he came forth out of the Father. He's the only begotten Son of God.

[33:36] And now, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God. The Word was in the bosom of the Father. And then he came forth and created.

[33:47] In verse number 3, all things were made by him. And without him was not anything made that was made. Now, Jesus Christ, the Word, that when verse 14 was made flesh, and we don't have to discuss this too much, I don't believe.

[34:04] Jesus Christ is the Creator. Look at Colossians chapter 1. Colossians chapter 1.

[34:18] Now, this is important to get this. It doesn't sound like much, but it really, it carries some weight. And it's important to start here. This is biblical teaching that Jesus Christ is the Creator of all things.

[34:32] That sets a stand, that sets him up, and where he belongs, and everything else underneath him. And that's where it belongs. So look at Colossians 1, verse number 14.

[34:45] In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins, who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature. For by him were all things created, that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible.

[35:00] Whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers, all things were created by him and for him. And he is before all things.

[35:12] And by him all things consist. He's before all things. And he's the firstborn of every creature. So before all things, he was in the bosom of the Father, comes forth from the Father, creates all things.

[35:28] In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. And we understand he did it by Jesus Christ as he came forth from the Father.

[35:38] The Word, the everlasting, eternal Word, created all things. And he says that he did it for him, for himself. Everything that was created, principalities, powers, visible, invisible, in heaven and earth, all of it was created by him and for him.

[35:54] And he is before it. He's before all things. And remember this in verse 17, by him all things consist. So all of it, from the lowest to the highest, only consists, only exists because of Jesus Christ.

[36:10] Now this is a biblical teaching and doctrine that's important because it refutes and kicks out certain teachings of false religions. For one, the Mormons teach that Jesus and Satan are brothers.

[36:22] They're spirit brothers, both with the same Father God, but the two, and they really, they just, they deduce this, that, well, everything's created by God, and Satan was created by God, and Jesus, they believe, is a created God.

[36:38] And so they put together, Satan and Jesus are spirit brothers. And their, their wicked doctrine, matches some wicked doctrine, in Eastern religions, where they teach this good and evil in the universe, just work together in harmony.

[36:56] The yin and the yang, inside all good is a little bit of evil, and inside all evil is a little bit of good, and they just work together in harmony. And the universe and its energy, it's sickening, it's wickedness.

[37:10] And this good and evil, together, holding hands, making all things in balance, that's not Jesus and the devil. That's wrong. That's dead wrong.

[37:21] Jesus Christ, is up here. Satan is a created being, and he's been cast down by God. Now, he's a created being, that's just a simple thought, but it goes further than you think.

[37:35] And it kicks some doctrine, that's unclean and wicked. He had, he's been trying for a long time, to bring himself up. And in Isaiah, we'll read it at some point, that he wants to exalt his own throne, and himself, above the stars of God.

[37:48] He wants to be up. He wants to be lifted up. And if you see anywhere, him getting elevated, he's getting elevated, to be an equal with Jesus Christ, that's a problem. And that's an unclean spirit behind that.

[38:00] And the same thing is true, in these new Bibles, where it eliminates his name, and gives him a name, that Jesus Christ says, I'm the bright and morning star. And then in Isaiah, he takes his name away, and says, I'm the morning star.

[38:12] That's another thought there, but it's satanic. So he's a created being. I really want to keep going, but we're going to run out of so much.

[38:23] This next point, just, it goes a little bit further. Back in, I'll just introduce it, back in Ezekiel 28. Let's go back there. So he's a created being.

[38:36] What kind of being is he, or was he created as? It gives us that information here as well. Verse 14, thou art the anointed cherub, that covereth.

[38:51] The anointed cherub, and in verse 16, toward the end of that verse, I will destroy thee, O covering cherub. So he's created as a cherub. Specifically, as we read, the anointed cherub, that covereth.

[39:07] And there's several things to note here about that, and things to say, and then some references to run, to try to understand that. And I'll do my best with it, but we're going to have to wait until next week for that one, because this is just a little bit expanded.

[39:23] So, there's our introduction, to what we're going to do over the next several weeks. We're going to study our adversary, and our enemy, Satan.

[39:34] And I hope this is helpful to you. I hope you're not just intrigued by something. We're kind of stepping into something heavy right away. It's not going to stay heavy the whole time. It'll be more practical even shortly.

[39:45] But for now, let's try to understand as much as we can. We'll take a break right there, and I'll give you a little bit extra time. There's Krispy Kreme donuts out in the foyer, and Brother Mark and his wife brought a pile of K-cups along today, so help yourself to get some coffee if you need it, and take a 15-minute break there.