Our Adversary The Devil: His Manifestations, cont.

[0:00] Good morning. Good to be in church in the morning.

[0:14] Let's see. There we go. All right. Let's find our starting point here for this morning's Sunday School lesson. We're in 2 Corinthians 11, so please get your Bibles open there.

[0:27] 2 Corinthians 11, continuing our study on the manifestations this time of our adversary, the devil.

[0:39] We've wrapped up some interesting stuff, I guess, last week with those creatures, those beasts mentioned in Job 40 and 41.

[0:57] So studying his manifestations thus far, we've covered that he's the anointed cherub that covereth in the third heaven originally created as that being, glorious and beautiful and wise and very capable and powerful.

[1:13] And then there was iniquity found in him, and the Lord said, I'm going to cast thee out, and I'll destroy thee, O covering cherub. And so we see a second manifestation in the second heaven as a great red dragon, and ran the references over and over throughout the scriptures.

[1:32] It's all in there. It's revealed in there. If you study, he's called that old serpent, and he's the devil and Satan. And that serpent, as we'll even come across a little bit today here, that serpent is identified as Leviathan, that crooked serpent, and Leviathan, that piercing serpent.

[1:52] And he's called the dragon that's in the sea. And there's some truth that's being revealed there about our adversary and about what's out beyond our realm and our firmament.

[2:04] But in that second heaven, the manifestation we studied, we're finished with that. Now we're coming down to earth, down to where man dwells, and how does he manifest himself in our realm.

[2:19] And we'll see what we can get out of the scriptures this morning. So we'll start in verse 13, 2 Corinthians 11, verse 13. For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ.

[2:36] Why are they doing that? To deceive people, to make people think they're something they're not, so they'll be received. And so people will let their guard down, as in the people of God, good people.

[2:48] We'll say, oh, that's a good minister. That's a minister of righteousness. He's okay. And they're false apostles. They're liars. In verse 14, and no marvel, for Satan himself, himself, is transformed into an angel of light.

[3:06] Therefore, it's no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness, whose end shall be according to their works. So Satan himself is not an angel of light, but he is transformed into an angel of light.

[3:23] Now, what exactly does that look like? We would imagine some glorious or great, shining, powerful being. And you get that because you probably read some of that in the Bible.

[3:37] But let's see what the scripture will reveal to us. And so go to Matthew 28. And I want to give you two spots here to grab. Matthew 28 and Mark 16.

[3:50] And so last Sunday being the day we celebrated the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

[4:01] This is a passage that we were in a little bit. In Matthew 28. When the ladies came to the tomb, what did they see?

[4:15] In verse number 2, Matthew 28, verses 2 and 3, it says, Behold, there was a great earthquake, for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone from the door and sat upon it.

[4:31] So sitting upon that stone is the angel of the Lord. His countenance was like lightning and his raiment white as snow.

[4:41] So it sounds like he's bright and shining and glorious. Easy to identify as an angel. Or at least, I can't say that. I've never seen one.

[4:53] I've never been startled by one. But that's the description. Lightning and white as snow. Now, come over to Mark chapter 16. And the angel, he startles the keepers.

[5:17] Verse 4 in Matthew says, For fear of him the keepers did shake and became as dead men. And so these Roman soldiers are knocked out cold and they're scared to death. And the angel sitting there on the stone looks around.

[5:30] The soldiers are all just laying there. The stone's rolled away. His job's been done. And so he gets up and he goes and he walks inside and sits down inside a tomb. And at Mark 16, verse number 2, Very early in the morning, the first day of the week, they came unto the sepulcher at the rising of the sun.

[5:47] They said among themselves, Who shall roll away the stone from the door of the sepulcher? And when they looked, they saw that the stone was rolled away, for it was very great. And entering into the sepulcher, Now the young man says the same thing that Matthew records him saying.

[6:10] He's not here. He's risen. Go tell his disciples. So this is an angel. This is the angel of the Lord referenced in Matthew 28. But Mark doesn't say anything. You won't find the word angel anywhere in the chapter.

[6:22] He's called a young man. That's an interesting thing to consider. He's called a young man. Now, in Acts chapter 1, when Jesus Christ ascends to heaven, they're all gathered together and he is taken up out of their sight.

[6:40] And they're standing there gazing up into heaven. And two men in white apparel, or white raiment, I forget the word, are standing there with them saying, Why gaze you up into heaven?

[6:54] This same Jesus which is taken up. He's going to, in like manner, return. Who are those guys? Just two buddies out for a walk that day?

[7:05] Clothed white apparel? Oh no, they're angels. They're giving prophetic information about the second coming of Christ. Asking his disciples. I mean, how would two strangers know any better than his disciples as they're watching him go up and received into the clouds and disappear and they're just standing there waiting.

[7:24] Is he going to come back down? What just happened? And they give them some prophetic thoughts. Now, angels are called men, or they're referred to as men.

[7:37] Now, come back to Genesis chapter 18. Bearing in mind with this study that Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.

[7:47] So, what's an angel of light look like? Well, every description we get of an angel has, sometimes has light and has the white raiment and things like that, but not always.

[8:04] But they always are referenced as men. All right, Genesis chapter 18. And verse number 1.

[8:15] The Lord appeared unto him, that'd be Abram, in the plains of Mamre. He sat in the tent door in the heat of the day. And he lifted up his eyes and looked, and lo, notice the words, three men stood by him.

[8:27] It doesn't say that he saw them from afar off and walking toward him. They just showed up. And when he saw them, and I believe he knew they just appeared out of nowhere.

[8:41] Something's up. He saw them. He ran to meet them from the tent door and bowed himself toward the ground and said, My Lord, if now and then he goes on and he gets water and he gets food. And one of these characters is the Lord.

[8:56] Now, flip over or continue in the passage. I'm going to skim here. He tells them that Sarah, his wife, is going to have a son in verse number 10.

[9:07] And Sarah, she heard it and she didn't believe it. She laughed in verse 12. And notice 13 says, And the Lord said unto Abraham, Wherefore did Sarah laugh?

[9:20] So one of those men of the three is, in fact, the Lord. And the rest of the chapter, it says, the Lord. Verse 16 says, The men arose from thence and looked toward Sodom.

[9:30] And Abraham went with them to bring them on the way. And the Lord said, Shall I hide from Abraham? Think which I do. And so he speaks to Abraham a little bit further. Verse 22, The men turned their faces from thence and went toward Sodom.

[9:43] But Abraham stood yet before the Lord. Okay? Three men. Two of them take off toward Sodom. One still standing and talking to the Lord. You did notice that when we started this chapter in verse 2, this is not Abraham's words.

[9:59] This is Moses writing by inspiration of God. The Holy Ghost said three men stood by him. So it's not up to interpretation of the day or the culture or the heritage or the story being passed down.

[10:15] This is the Holy Ghost under, through Moses, the instrument, writing and saying three men. One's the Lord and the other two are angels. Look at chapter 19, verse 1.

[10:25] So we fast forward through the conversation Abraham had with God as he stood yet before the Lord. And then in chapter 19, there came two angels to Sodom at even.

[10:37] First time angels are mentioned. Not mentioned at all in chapter 18. But three men, one being the Lord, the other two are identified as angels that show up in Sodom.

[10:48] And on you go with that story with Lot and his family and the men of the city and all that. So angels are called men. And when you see the word men, when we use the word men, we think of human beings, humankind, mankind.

[11:06] And yet the Bible uses it to refer to angels. And here in this case, even God himself, an appearance. They call it a theophany, an appearance of God. All right, look at Revelation 21.

[11:24] Revelation 21. Angels are compared to men in size and in stature. Revelation 21.

[11:38] Here is an angel that is taking John on a trip. And showing him some things, this holy city.

[11:50] In verse 9, there came unto me one of the seven angels. And so this goes, he carries me in verse 10 away into the spirit of a great and high mountain. And the angel does some measuring.

[12:03] You can see through the passage, he talked with me and had a golden reed. In verse 15, to measure the city and the gates and the wall. And so he does the measuring. In verse 17 is where we want to land here.

[12:14] It says, he measured the wall thereof, and hundred and forty and four cubits, according to the measure of a man, that is, of the angel.

[12:25] He's equating a man and an angel, as if there's no difference. He's giving measurements of a cubit. And he doesn't say, well, it's according to the way a man would measure it.

[12:39] But he says, that is, of an angel. The angel's doing the measuring. So they're being equated, again, not just in term, as in they look like men, but here he's saying in size, in stature, in measurements, same.

[12:56] Nothing to differentiate there. In other words, an angel's not 20 feet tall, showing up and just scaring the pants off of everybody. Okay, now I'll come back to Judges.

[13:08] Actually, look at Hebrews 13. We'll go there first, on our way back to Judges. Get the book of Hebrews chapter 13. An angel is referred to as men, oftentimes.

[13:26] They're identified as men. They're compared to them in size and stature. And they're also confused as men. And so look at chapter 13 and verse 2.

[13:40] Be not forgetful to entertain strangers. For thereby some have entertained angels unawares. So how are you going to entertain an angel unawares unless supernaturally they're veiling your eyes and understanding?

[13:59] Or they're just going to appear as a normal human being that you wouldn't see anything different in their appearance, in their size, stature, etc.

[14:10] Some have entertained angels unawares. Now that could be a reference back to Abram initially or even to Lot when they showed up.

[14:20] Or it could be to some things that we don't even have access to. Could even be a reference to this. Come back to Judges 13. Judges 13.

[14:33] An angel can appear as a common man. And to do this, like I said, there's, in my opinion, it's just the way I see it.

[14:45] There could be other options here. But either he is veiling your eyes with his supernatural power that you cannot perceive and get it, which I wouldn't put past it.

[14:56] That's something that's, you remember when God opened Elijah's eyes and he saw surrounding all over. So there's definitely things to behold that were restricted from seeing.

[15:10] And so possibly, but at the same time, it might be that the angel has the ability to just kind of turn off his glory, the brightness.

[15:21] Sometimes they're shining and they're knocking people down to the ground and you're afraid of them. And other times you're talking to them and don't know the difference. And such is the case here. It could be that the angel has the ability to conceal his glory when needed or necessary or decides to.

[15:38] And then man is unable to discern his true identity. Judges 13. There's a man identified as Manoah. And his wife is barren. Verse number 2.

[15:48] And this is Samson's parents. And so in verse 3, The angel of the Lord appeared unto the woman and said unto her, Behold now, thou art barren and bearest not, but thou shalt conceive and bear a son.

[16:02] Now therefore beware. He gives her some instructions about the son being a Nazarite. And in verse 6, So the woman goes and gets her husband. She came and told her husband, Notice, a man of God.

[16:14] Now pause. What does that term generally mean in the Bible? Or what do we think of when someone says, A man of God came and did this or said this?

[16:26] You think of a prophet. Elijah the man of God. Oh man of God. That's the term. And what she says is, A man of God came. Did she say an angel of God yet?

[16:37] Not, not, We'll follow this yet. Verse 6 says, A man of God came unto me, And his countenance was like the countenance of an angel of God. Very terrible. But I asked him not whence he was, Neither told me he his name.

[16:52] So she's definitely seeing this as something more than just a prophet showing up. There's, His countenance, It was turned on, In a sense that, She said his countenance was terrible.

[17:06] Alright. So Manoah entreats the Lord that he would come back. In verse 8, He asked God to let the man of God, Which thou didst send, Come again unto me, Or unto us and teach us.

[17:18] And God hearkens. And verse 9, The angel of God came again unto the woman, As she sat in the field. It's interesting, Coming to the woman first. And he wasn't there. So she runs and gets him.

[17:30] And in verse 11, Manoah arose and went after his wife, And came to the man, And said unto him, Why doesn't he say the angel? He's identified in verse 3, The angel of the Lord appeared unto the woman.

[17:40] But it's always after that, The man, The man, The man. And so where are we at? Verse 11, Are thou the man that spakest unto the woman? And he said, I am. And Manoah said, Now he gets some instruction.

[17:53] Verse 13, And the angel of the Lord said unto Manoah, Okay, Now we know for sure this is the angel. Verse 15, Manoah said unto the angel of the Lord, And there it's the angel from here on out a little bit.

[18:07] The angel of the Lord in verse 16. Now watch this, Verse 16, Okay, I'll read the verse. The angel of the Lord said unto Manoah, Though thou detain me, I will not eat of thy bread. And if thou wilt offer a burnt offering, Thou must offer it unto the Lord.

[18:20] For Manoah knew not, That he was an angel of the Lord. Why didn't he know? His wife said, The countenance of this guy is like an angel of God.

[18:32] Very terrible. And he says, Are you the guy that spoke to her? And now he's not sure, Because he's not seeing this very terrible countenance. He didn't even know that he was an angel of the Lord.

[18:45] And in verse 17, Manoah said unto the angel of the Lord, What's thy name? That when thy sayings come to pass, We may do thee honor. The angel of the Lord won't give that to him. Now in verse 19, So Manoah took a kid with a meat offering, And offered it upon the rock unto the Lord.

[18:58] And the angel did wondrously. And Manoah and his wife looked on. For when it came to pass, When the flame went up toward heaven from off the altar, That the angel of the Lord just stepped in and disappeared.

[19:11] He ascended in the flame of the altar. And Manoah and his wife looked on. It fell on their faces to the ground. But the angel of the Lord did no more appear. Then it says at the end of verse 21, Then Manoah knew that he was an angel of the Lord.

[19:25] And now he's scared to death. He said, We have seen God. Now Manoah, up to that moment, Had no idea that this in fact was an angel of God.

[19:36] He was a man as far as he could tell. He was a stranger. He was someone that he'd never met before. And he's speaking to. And he's following his instructions. Because he showed up to his wife.

[19:46] And he said, I'm the same guy. And you're going to have a son. And what do we have to do? He's a man of God. He's talking with that authority. He's not second guessing himself. And he's telling him, Okay, I'm not going to sit and eat your bread with you.

[20:00] If you want to offer something, Offer it to God. Okay, let's do that. And then poof. He's out. So an angel, They're called men. They're compared to men.

[20:12] They appear, They can appear as common man. And somebody like Manoah couldn't tell the difference. As mentioned back in Hebrews 13.

[20:24] Now, back to our adversary, the devil. Come to Genesis chapter 3. So Satan Was a cherub.

[20:37] A glorious, covering, anointed cherub. That was destroyed into a serpent. Or this dragon being that we looked at.

[20:50] But this man, or this being Satan, Can transform himself into an angel of light. And in the context of where we studied that, Or read that this morning, It's about deception.

[21:03] It's about tricking somebody. It's about making them just like his ministers. He's compared to his ministers. They're trying to make themselves look like ministers of righteousness. So he's going to appear as an angel of God.

[21:15] To appear to be sent from God. An angel's a messenger. He's going to show up and appear that God sent me. I'm one of his. You can trust what I say and believe every word.

[21:27] And so Genesis chapter 3. He has the ability, I don't doubt for a minute, To even appear, If he wants to appear as an angel of light, I bet he can appear as an angel not of light.

[21:40] Or as a common man, Like we see in the Bible. That's why we did the study of angels. I bet he can show up, And you wouldn't be able to tell the difference. Now I'm not suggesting that when you have a visitor come in here, Be careful.

[21:55] But let's just piece this together. Now from here on out, This is pure speculation. Let me declare that. Everybody heard that.

[22:06] I'm not teaching this as doctrinally true, And I can't verify what I'll suggest, Any further than I already did with the Bible, Setting this up.

[22:16] He can transform himself to an angel of light. But I'll leave this up to you, To make your own conclusions, Or to further your own studies. And I'll be honest with you, When I got into this, Into some of this, I got hung up, And I got stuck on some passages, This week.

[22:31] And I was studying it out for hours, And days. And then I was on the phone with some other preachers, And talking it out with them. And one of them just kind of concluded by saying, It's tricky, Tricky stuff.

[22:44] And that's just where it ended. Anyway, We'll get into this thought here. Genesis 3, Verse 1. The Bible says, Now the serpent was more subtle, Than any beast of the field, Which the Lord God had made.

[22:56] And he said unto the woman, Yea, Hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? Now, Based on what we studied, With the angel of light, And what an angel is, And can appear to be, We're introduced to this being as a serpent.

[23:15] And in the chapter, In chapter 3, That's all it ever says, Is the serpent. Never says the devil, Never says Satan, Never says anything but the serpent. Based upon other scripture, We know who the serpent is.

[23:31] And the scripture reveals his identity as Satan. But it's not in the chapter. So we know who it was, But how was he manifest, Is the question.

[23:42] Was he a talking snake, Like all the cartoons will depict, Or like, You know, Anybody will depict, Many will say. Was he a talking snake? I'll read you the note here, That I have in my study Bible, From C.I. Schofield.

[23:57] And, I'll just read it to you first here. It says, The serpent, In his Edenic form, Is not to be thought of, As a writhing reptile.

[24:07] That is the effect of the curse. From verse 14. The creature which lent itself to Satan, May well have been the most beautiful, As it was the most subtle, Of creatures less than man.

[24:22] Traces of that beauty, Remain despite the curse. Every movement of a serpent is graceful, And many species are beautifully colored. In the serpent, Satan first appeared, As an angel of light.

[24:36] Now what he says is, In the serpent, He appeared. And he says, The creature lent itself to Satan. As if Satan needed a body, Or needed to get in something, That he could manifest himself, Or speak to the woman.

[24:51] And that thought, I don't buy that. I don't think he needs a body. He doesn't need an animal, To communicate with man. So, I don't buy that.

[25:04] That's just, That's his take on it. I wanted to throw that out to you. Was he a talking snake, Is the question. Or at least, Introduced to the thought. I say no. I say, To me that's highly doubtful, And here's one reason why, Snakes don't talk.

[25:20] They don't. And furthermore, Because of that thought, I've heard it from, I don't know how many people, Just, You know, They read their Bible, They get thinking, And this is good stuff.

[25:31] And then they'll say to me, Do you think, That back in the Garden of Eden, That Adam and Eve, Could talk to the animals? I've heard a ton of people, Think this way, Or kind of like, Go this way, Because they see the serpent, And they, They see the speech, And they say, I kind of, And then they just kind of, Go off into this fantasy.

[25:51] I think that's neat. I think that's great. Oh man, Could you imagine, That he's talking to the animals, Or talking to him, And that's the way, God originally created us, To commune with animals? And I think, Stop.

[26:03] You open a door, That's not really there to be open, But you fantasize, And then you just went into this, Enjoying land of nonsense, Because of, What I think is a misinterpretation, Of the past, Or which is taking place.

[26:19] I spoke to Brother Andrus, This week, And he made this comment, That I liked, I think he gave Dr. Ruckman credit for it, But what he said was, That when Jesus talks, In John, I guess John 10, Or elsewhere, He says, We're sheep, And my sheep hear my voice, Or refers, Likens believers to sheep, He said, Does that mean, That we're literally sheep?

[26:41] To go a step further, John said, Behold the Lamb of God, Does, You say, No, You know why you're not, You don't have four legs, Sheep have four legs, That are covered with wool, So you're not, Literally, The animal, You're likened to it, With good reason, And that happens quite a bit, We saw that with Leviathan, Being, Or behemoth, Being likened to the ox, Eating grass as the ox, You are not, A sheep, And Satan is not, An animal, Or a snake, That walked, On his legs, And had hands and legs, And then was cursed, And had to be on his belly, That's, I don't think that's at all, What's happening here, So, I believe, That he approached the woman, Appearing as a peaceful, As an objective, As a reasonable man, An angel of light, Perhaps, Without the light, Maybe with the light, I don't know that the light, Would have thrown her off at all,

[27:42] Being in innocence, And before sin, And so I believe he shows up, As that being, She's not alarmed, He speaks to her in verse one, And she, Answers without even thinking, She's not alarmed, Her radar of creeper, Is not up, She's not reaching for the spray, She's fine, Talking to this thing, Whatever it is, Now if that makes you want to say, That Eve is talking to all the animals, And Adam's talking to all the animals, You have nowhere else, That I know of, To base that off of, If you want to go to Balaam, And his ass speaking to him, It says the Lord opened the mouth of the ass, That's a far stretch, To try to say that the animals, And guard of Eden talked, So I believe that, She's speaking to a man, And she was not, She never felt in danger, She was, He was agreeable, He was convincing, And on with the conversation,

[28:42] It carries through, Part of this passage, Now the question comes up, Look at verse 14 then, And this is, This is where I've been wrestling, So the woman, The man says, The woman that you gave me, She gave me of the tree, And I did eat, The woman said, The serpent beguiled me, And I did eat, And so the Lord then, In verse 14, Said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, Thou art cursed above all cattle, And above every beast of the field, Upon thy belly shalt thou go, And dust shalt thou eat, All the days of thy life, So it introduces, That thought, But notice it ends in a colon, And the words continue, In verse 15, And I will put enmity, Between thee and the woman, And between thy seed, And her seed, It shall bruise thy head, And thou shalt bruise his heel, And then he goes off, And there's conversation, With the woman, Now in my, I know you might think, I'm just trying to pull something, Out of here, I don't know, But, Verses 14 and 15,

[29:45] It seems in the narrative, That they're all just standing together, Having a conversation, But it doesn't say that, And I tend to believe, The serpent, Is not standing beside Adam and Eve, Adam and Eve went and hid, God calls them, They come out, And they have this conversation, I think verses 14 and 15, Are inserted into the narrative, Because it all took place, And he doesn't need to backtrack around, But I think from 13 to 15, God speaks to the woman, And then God speaks to the man, Curses them, And what happens with him, Speaking to the serpent, That he's not necessarily, Just pops up there to say, Hey, Are you going to curse me too, Got more curses for everybody, I don't think he's looking for that, At all, But, That, I cannot, I'll just throw that out there, It doesn't need to be, In a chronological form of speech, I'll address the serpent, Then I'll address the woman, And Adam, You're last, I'll address you, But, It takes some study, It takes some thinking, To realize, It doesn't describe the passage,

[30:45] Saying the way we kind of, Just read through and assume, All right, Now, The question is, Did God curse the animal, The snake, Is that what God cursed, A snake, It says that, Upon thy belly, Shalt thou go, So, People then speculate, Oh, Snakes walked around, They had feet, And hands, And, And they could speak, And, Did he curse the animal, Or did he curse the, Quote, In quote, Serpent, That is that being, That is the devil, Or is it both, Well, Where I've, Rested, Without fully resting, Is that, Is that, Verse 15, Is without a doubt, Prophetic, And you're looking at prophecies, That have nothing to do, With a cobra, Or, An anaconda, Or some rat snake, Or black snake, Or python, We're not talking about, An animal with verse 15, At all, While he's speaking, To the serpent, So to say that,

[31:46] God curses the animal, And then, Then turns to the devil, And separately, I don't think that's really the case, And the way I've, Concluded, Is that 14 and 15, Are both prophetic, And they're in one, Group to God, Talking to Satan, The serpent, And I know, It talks about cattle, Which isn't that interesting, He mentions that, The beast of the field, In verse 1, He mentioned being cursed, Above all cattle, Which we've, Made some connection, To the cherub, And the ox, And things like that, And now he's, One way to look at it, And again, This, I've wrestled, And wrestled, And I don't have something, That I really landed on, To say, This is what I like, And I believe, But that as God, Kicked out Satan, He kicked out Lucifer, And destroyed him, Into something else, Now that being, Came down, And messed with his,

[32:46] New creation, Of man and woman, And God then, Cursed him, In above and beyond, In a way that he hadn't before, There's, There's something that, I really wrestled with, At the end of verse 14, If you want to just say, It's a snake, And that he, Inhabited the body, Of a snake, And then, Then God curses the snake, Which just doesn't make sense to me, He says at the end of the verse, Upon thy belly shalt thou go, And dust shalt thou eat, All the days of thy life, Now I thought to myself, So that's, If that's the snake, That's got to be some kind of, Figurative thought, Yeah he's on his belly, But he doesn't eat dust, He's a predator, He snags rodents, He doesn't, Eat dirt, And I thought, But what does, Dig in the ground, And eat, What's in the dirt?

[33:47] A worm, And as soon as I thought a worm, I thought, Oh boy, Because now there's scripture, To start considering, And as I talked to one preacher, We went down the road, And we went down this path, And then it went into this, And it went into dust, And it went into worm, And it started splitting off, And we kept going, And going, And going, And it went 45 minutes, To where we were like, I said to him, I said, I can't teach this, For doctrine, Because it hasn't come back around, To where I started, If it would come back, To the beginning, Then we got something here, But it just keeps going, And I said, I just can't, I just don't know, I'll let it go, And the one guy said, Yeah, But it sure is fun, And another preacher said, He's like, He's like, Brother, You can teach, What you can teach, You can give as much as you got, And leave it up to them, To study it out on their own, It's edifying, He said, That's what Dr. Uckman, Used to do all the time, Was go as far as he could go with it, And then,

[34:49] Say, I don't know, But, I'm not really prepared, To run references, About the worm with you, However, I will say this, Jesus Christ said, I am a worm, In Psalm 22, Prophetically speaking, And, In Mark 9, Their worm dieth not, And I, A quotation of Isaiah 66, And, For just to whom it may concern, If you can, Handle this one, The Bible says, That he break the heads of Leviathan, And that he, His heads, That they were pieces, That came down to feed, His children in the wilderness, In Psalm 74, And I think Psalm 78, There's two mentions like that, Manna being angels, Food, And the other one being, That it's, The heads of Leviathan, Being broken, And I thought about that, Manna, When it sat for a day, What happened to it, It bred worms, And maybe that's no big deal, Like everything does that, But, There's the worms, And if that in fact, Has to do with that creature, It's just, Okay, I'll bring it back to here, So Genesis 3,

[35:50] I think we're talking about, An angel of light, A man, Whether he's light or not, I believe, That the serpent, Is in fact, The one we know, Who the serpent is, That old serpent, That dragon, The devil, And that's just a term, Now, One thought that kind of struck me, In verse 13, Was when God, Asked the woman, What is this, That thou hast done, The woman said, The serpent beguiled me, And I did eat, And so she refers to him, Not as the angel, Or the man, But the serpent, And to me, To that I would say, Well, Her eyes have been opened, Since she ate, Now she knows exactly, Who that is, Or what that is, And so I don't have any problem, With her using the language, That the chapter has used, All the way up till now, Let's take a look, At another instance, We'll get off of this one, Come to Matthew chapter 4, Now if you want to believe, The snake thing,

[36:51] Go ahead, It doesn't bother me a bit, And I won't argue with you about it, I'll just, Tell you what I've given you, And I'll keep studying it out, Matthew chapter 4, In verse 1, Then was Jesus led up, Of the spirit into the wilderness, To be tempted of the devil, When he had fasted 40 days, And 40 nights, He was afterward and hungered, And when the tempter came to him, So how did he come to him, How did he appear to him, What do you think, Was it as a serpent, Or as a, As a magnificent, Intimidating being, And beast, Was it some, Seven headed red dragon, He said, He said in verse 3, If thou be the son of God, Command that these stones, Be made bread, And Christ, Doesn't budge, Gives him scripture, Verse 5, Then the devil, Goes to another level, He taketh him up, Up into the holy city, And setteth him on a pinnacle, Of the temple, And saith unto him, If thou be the son of God,

[37:53] Cast thyself down, For it is written, He shall give these angels, Charge concerning thee, And now he's quoting, A scripture to him, And Christ quotes it back, Then verse 8, He literally, Takes him to another level, Altogether, In verse 8, The devil taketh him up, Into an exceeding high mountain, And showeth him all the kingdoms, Of the world, And the glory of them, And this is, Hard to fathom this, But he's outside of time here, And he's in a spiritual realm, Showing him, The kingdoms of the world, I think it was Luke, That said in a moment of time, If you want to cross reference, Luke chapter 4, You'll see that he showeth him, The kingdoms of this world, In a moment of time, And in verse number 9, He saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, If thou wilt fall down, And worship me, So the question I have is, In the temptations of Christ, How do you suppose, Satan manifested himself, Again, This is speculation, I don't have a verse, I don't have anything, That I can say for sure, I can't nail it down, But I can go off, What the Bible says he can do, And presume,

[38:55] Of all the possibilities, That I understand, That the scripture reveals, The most likely one, Is that he's an angel of light, He is a being, That in his temptation, To Jesus Christ, Here at the end, Christ would, Hopefully, Bow down to, He's got to be worthy, Of somebody bowing, Of Christ bowing to him, You think he's going to be, Some dreadful, Horrifying creature, He speaks to Christ, In a non-intimidating manner, He doesn't come across, As scary or powerful, In the context, He spoke cordially, He reasoned with him, From the scriptures, I think he's an angel of light, I think that's the manifestation, Here on earth, In Genesis 3, And in Matthew 4, And Luke 4, As he's, Interacting with mankind, Much like angels do, Like a man, And it seems reasonable to me,

[39:55] That he appeared, As an angel of light, You don't have to believe that, Draw your own conclusions, We'll stop here, But there's one more place, Job chapter 1 and 2, Where Satan, The sons of God, There came a day, When the sons of God, Came to present themselves, Before the Lord, And Satan, Also among them, Satan came also among them, How do you think, He appeared there, Among the sons of God, Their angels, And he's among them, As in fitting in with them, Or just tagging along with them, At any rate, Do you think he's some, Leviathan, Making the deep, To boil like a pot, On his way, I think he's appearing, As the sons of God, As an angel, And that to me makes sense, I think that's reasonable, But again, Those passages I'm talking, Job, Matthew, And Genesis, That's speculation, And, Nothing wrong with doing that, If you've got a better concept, Love to hear it, So, That's on earth,

[40:56] The first form, Is as an angel of light, There'll be one more manifestation, We'll study next week, And that is, In the spirit realm, Or unclean spirits, And, I have a teaching on that, I believe it, But I also, I want to, Tell you what most people think, And I'll, Be happy to, To say that I don't know, For 100% sure, But I'll give you what I believe about that, About Satan, And how he can manifest himself, In one more form, So we'll, Save that for next week, And now let's take a break, And now let's take a break,