Consider Satan

Presented to:

Bethel Chapel Pentecostal Church

Auditorium Sunday School Class

Granite City, IL

4 February 2018

Updated: February 3, 2018

By:

Boyce Belt

Consider Satan

Opening:

• (Slide) “The Bible isn’t just a book about how to be nice and good.  It’s your greatest offensive weapon wielded against the devil in spiritual war.” —Craig Groeschel^[1]
• Prayer

Text:

Isaiah 14:12-17 (KJV) How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning!

how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!  13 For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: 14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High. 15 Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.  16 They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee, and consider thee, saying, Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms; 17 That made the world as a wilderness, and destroyed the cities thereof; that opened not the house of his prisoners?

Introduction:

The Name Satan has by no means been lost.  It has, however, been associated with a most unscriptural fancy.  Without reference to revelation the world has imagined a grotesque being, fitted with strange trappings.^[2]

1. Past — Ezekiel 28:11-19 (KJV) Moreover the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, 12 Son of man, take up a lamentation upon the king of Tyrus, and say unto him, Thus saith the Lord God; Thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty. 13 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: the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created. 14 Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so: thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire. 15 Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee. 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. 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. 18 Thou hast defiled thy sanctuaries by the multitude of thine iniquities, by the iniquity of thy traffick; therefore will I bring forth a fire from the midst of thee, it shall devour thee, and I will bring thee to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all them that behold thee. 19 All they that know thee among the people shall be astonished at thee: thou shalt be a terror, and never shalt thou be any more.

1. Created — The general interpretation is that Satan was created as a guard or protector to the throne of the Most High.  Like the golden cherubim covering the visible mercy seat in the holy of Holies of the earthly tabernacle, he was created a guard and covering cherub to the heavenly center of Glory.^[3]

1. Perfect
2. Full of Wisdom
3. Beautiful — 2 Corinthians 11:13-15 (KJV) For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. 14 And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. 15 Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.
4. Position of Authority
5. Musical
6. Since he was created, he is not self-existent, and never can be free from his dependence on upon the creator.^[4]
7. Satan was a free moral agent; capable of choosing evil, but not obliged to do so.^[5]

2. Conspiring
3. Catapulted

1. Luke 10:18 (KJV) And he said unto them, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven.

2. Present

1. Accuser

1. Revelation 12:10 (KJV) And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night.
2. Job 1:9-11 (KJV) Then Satan answered the Lord, and said, Doth Job fear God for nought? 10 Hast not thou made an hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every side? thou hast blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land. 11 But put forth thine hand now, and touch all that he hath, and he will curse thee to thy face.
3. Job 2:5 (KJV) But put forth thine hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse thee to thy face.

2. Adversary

1. 1 Peter 5:8 (KJV) Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:
2. Zechariah 3:1-2 (KJV) And he shewed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him. 2 And the Lord said unto Satan, The Lord rebuke thee, O Satan; even the Lord that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee: is not this a brand plucked out of the fire?

1. Satan “the adversary” stood to oppose him, signifying that the hindrances and opposition to the rebuilding of the temple were really coming from Satan.^[6]
2. Ephesians 6:12 (KJV) For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
3. Luke 22:31-32 (KJV) And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat: 32 But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren.

1. Job 1:7 (KJV) And the Lord said unto Satan, Whence comest thou? Then Satan answered the Lord, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.

1. The fact that Satan is not omnipresent is proven by the fact that he was said to have been “going to and fro in the earth.”^[7]
2. Satan is not free to act in the affairs of mankind.  He cannot cause affliction nor can he cause a person to commit sin.^[8]
3. James 1:14 (KJV) But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.
4. Satan needs only one uncommitted or unresolved area of the believer’s life to gain a foothold and lead him or her away from God.^[9]

1. Anti-Truth

1. John 8:44 (KJV) Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.
2. Lying is specifically mentioned as a characteristic of the devil; he is the source of all falsehood.^[10]
3. An indifference to the sin of lying is one of the most unmistakable symptoms of an ungodly condition and being under the influence of Satan as his or her spiritual father.^[11]

1. Future

1. Tied

1. Revelation 20:1-3 (KJV) And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. 2 And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, 3 And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season.

2. Tormented

1. Revelation 20:10 (KJV) And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.

3. Terminated — not in the since of total annihilation but rather as all who will be cast in the lake of fire, an eternal state of diving and torment never to be heard from again.

Conclusion:

Next Week: Consider Things to Come

I am watching for the coming

Of the glad millennial day,

When our blessèd Lord shall come and catch

His waiting bride away.

Oh! my heart is filled with rapture

as I labor, watch, and pray,

For our Lord is coming back to earth again.

Refrain

Oh, our Lord is coming back to earth again.

Yes, our Lord is coming back to earth again.

Satan will be bound a thousand years;

We’ll have no tempter then,

After Jesus shall come back to earth again.

Jesus’ coming back will be

The answer to earth’s sorrowing cry,

For the knowledge of the Lord

Shall fill the earth and sea and sky.

God shall take away all sickness

And the sufferer’s tears will dry,

When our Savior will come back to earth again.

Refrain

Yes, the ransomed of the Lord shall come

To Zion then with joy,

And in all His holy mountain

Nothing hurts or shall destroy.

Perfect peace shall reign in every heart,

And love without alloy,

After Jesus shall come back to earth again.

Refrain

Then the sin and sorrow, pain and death

Of this dark world shall cease,

In a glorious reign with Jesus

Of a thousand years of peace.

All the earth is groaning, crying

For that day of sweet release,

For our Jesus shall come back to earth again.

Refrain

Prayer