Okay, and there's several texts here that we can see but I just wanted to start out this morning that there is always a beginning There's a beginning here in Genesis chapter 1 verse 1 is this in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth all right, and so inside of the world world down and then the earth we have Satan okay And he's loose. He's out there, and he's going to try to tempt us and do different things. So anyhow, now there was a day when the Son of God came to present himself before the Lord. And Satan came also among them. And the Lord said unto Satan, whence cometh thou? Then Satan answered, and the Lord and said, from going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it. And that was found in Job chapter 1 and verse 6 and 7. If you turn your Bibles with me to Isaiah chapter 14, Isaiah chapter 14, Isaiah chapter 14 and if we look in verse 12 The Bible says How art thou fallen from heaven O Lucifer? So we see Satan has another name here is Lucifer son of heaven O Lucifer son of I'm sorry to start over. Sorry. I How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning? And I wanted to stop there really quick here, that son is not capitalized, because it's not the son of God, okay? Is Lucifer here? It says, how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations? For thou hast said in thy heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God. I will sit also upon the mountain of the congregation in the side of the north. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds. I will be like the Most High. Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell to the sides of the pit. They that see, they shall narrowly look upon thee and consider thee, saying, is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms, that made the world as a wilderness and destroyed the cities thereof and opened not the house of the prisoners. If we look over in Matthew, in chapter 4, I want to start in verse 2, it says, And when he has fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward and hunger. This is Jesus here, and he's being tempted by Satan. Anybody ever fasted for 40 days, 40 nights? We'd be very hungry, wouldn't we? Just imagine, here Jesus was 100% man, and he was 100% God. So as a man part, he did eat, and he drank and stuff to keep him going, right? So here, then was Jesus led up of the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. And when he had fasted 40 days and 40 nights, he was afterward in hunger. And when the tempter came to him, he said, if thou be the son of God, command that these stones be made bread. But he answered and said, It is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. Continues in verse five, then the devil taketh him up into the holy city and setting him on a pinnacle of the temple. And they said unto him, if thou be the son of God, cast thyself down. For it is written, he shall give his angels charge concerning thee, and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against the stone. In verse 7 of Matthew chapter 4, it says, Jesus said unto him, it is written again, thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God, And verse 8 says, Again the devil taketh him up into the exceedingly high mountain, and showeth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them. And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me. Do you think Jesus is smart enough to bow down to him. He was smart enough not to bow down to him, because he's God, right? It says in verse 10, then saith Jesus unto him, get thee hence Satan, for it is written that thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. Then the devil leaveth him, And behold, the angels came and ministered unto him. Now when Jesus had heard that John was cast into prison, he departed into Galilee. I think I just went one verse too many. OK. So anyhow, if we look at Matthew chapter 25 and verse 41, Matthew 25 in verse 41, we read it and it says, then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, depart from them on the left hand. Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels. And these words are in red, so that's Jesus speaking here. We see in Revelation chapter 20 and verse 10, it says, and the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone. Where the beast and the false prophets are and shall be tormented day and night forever and ever Try to try to use that verse on On these revelation and time conferences that people hold in these hotels by certain denomination won't mention They will say forever and ever is only a part time, a short time. It's not the literal meaning. Eternity is not forever. They tell you that you have to go to seminary to know what forever means, Pastor. You know what I'm talking about? These guys are trying to trip you up. Guys, when the Bible says forever, it means forever, everlasting. It's permanent, right? Never ending. The Bible gives the following descriptions of Satan's character, like proud. Satan is described as being proud. In 1 Timothy 3 verse 6, 1 Timothy 3 verse 6, Not a novice that is being puffed up, he fall into the commendation of the devil. A novice is newly planted. Somebody's newly planted. Fierce and cruel is number two. He is described as a lion who walks about looking for things to devour. 1 Peter 5.8 The Bible says, Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion, walks about Seeking whom he may devour Everybody's been to zoo right teenagers John you've been to the zoo before You see these great big lions. No, you haven't been to the zoo. Let's take him pastor Let's introduce them to the lions Isaac been to the zoo So we see the we see the lions and they're roaring lions and There was no cage there. I could see Brother Wilhelm running off really quick. Stories, memories of Dad going to the zoo and taking pictures of the lion. I guess you don't want to do that because you get a bad result. But I had pictures of lions probably on my phone. But they look hungry, don't they? You ever see their teeth? Brother Ramsey, do you have teeth like a lion? Are you roaring there? No. Seriously, when they see something, they're going to get it, right? You guys probably watched the geographic national, yes, National Geographic videos there. As I was growing up, we watched these out in the wildlife and how they attack other animals, right? And they're going to attack him. They're going to eat him. They're going to eat him. Guys, that's what the devil wants to do to us. He wants to disguise himself in different ways and different characters of things. And he's just like a lion. He's hungry to trip us up. Hungry to chew us up. So be sober, be diligent, because your adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour. Point three, today he is powerful. The devil is a powerful being. Even Michael, the archangel, would not rebuke him without calling upon the name of the Lord. And Jude chapter nine, yeah, Jude chapter nine, pastor. Everybody else, Jude chapter one verse nine. Yet Michael, the archangel, when contending with the devil, he disputed about the body of Moses. Dost not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke thee. For today is deceitful, he's deceitful. Satan's methods Consist and consist of deception Ephesians chapter 6 this series not too long ago and Bible study on Saturday mornings pastor has covered the armor of God Why do we need an armor of God for? For protection That's what easy to stand right and We need it and It helps to fight that the devil In Ephesians chapter 6 in verse 1 says put on the whole armor of God that ye may be able to stand Against the walls of the devil Are you guys standing today against the walls of the devil look like you're all sitting today Okay, so we need to put our armor on Because we're in that spiritual warfare. We're in that battle. We're fighting against that devil every day You know Reminded me of Jesus being tempted there and the garden and he used the Word of God Didn't Jesus put that armor on even though he was God Yes, sir Says in 2nd Corinthians 11 3 but I fear that lest by any means, as a serpent beguiled Eve through his supplicity, so your minds should be corrupt from the sympathy that is in Christ. I looked up the word subtle and it means, according to the Webster dictionary, subtle is an older English word that is positive and negative connotation. It means to dedicate and refine as a facial feature of art. It can also mean sly, artful, crafty, and cunning. King James Version has a different translation in several different ways in the Hebrew Words and I cannot pronounce any of them. I asked pastor if you brave enough to Go over him. He said to skip those so I want to skip them, but some of them Is a defraud or deal? Deal is suddenly and deceiving fraud or craftiness trickery It could be another word, we could say it's like be on decoy. So, we've got to be careful because he sets snares. So, today we examine the characteristics of the Bible attributes of the devil. We can attain much insight into his character. We can find the scripture saying that he is proud, ignorant, powerful, cruel, furious, deceitful, and subtle. In other words, he is total evil. But I know in the beginning and the garden he hid and was deceitful. Everything was perfect. It was good, very good. God said it and it existed. It was very good. It was pure and perfect and holy. This Satan had destroyed what was good. He's out to destroy us Christians that are supposed to be good for the cause of Christ. Right? We are to be example. We're not supposed to be in the characteristics of this world. We're supposed to be different. Supposed to be different. Whether, therefore, you eat or drink. Whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. Pastor, you've got a long time to cover. I don't have the mic on, so let's just use the pulpit mic. It's fine. So just a kind of a recap. Just as a kind of a recap, On our statement of faith, I'm going to read what the statement of faith says again here. He already mentioned it just briefly there at the beginning. So this part of the statement of faith is to deal with what we believe about the devil. It doesn't go into a lot of detail like we're doing in our landmark study and all that. I'll just kind of quickly break it down just as a recap. So, on the personality of Satan, it says we believe that Satan is a person. That's denoting personality, not humanity. That doesn't mean that we believe Satan is like your mother-in-law or something, okay? Satan is a person in the sense that he has personality, okay? And so we say that because there are many out there that do not believe in a quote-unquote personal devil. And now, when we say that, people get confused again, and they say, oh, wait a minute, you mean the one that's over here on my left shoulder, my personal devil? No, we're not talking about that. When we say a personal devil, meaning the devil who has personality, who is a person, not just a force of evil. See, that's the reason that we define that or state that. Maybe we should say that in our statement of faith, that He is a person, not simply a force. But we're also not trying to write a full dissertation, we're just giving basic statements of what we believe. So that first part there about the devil or Satan being A person it is as opposed to being simply a force. Right? Because there are some who believe the devil is just a force, the forces of evil, or the dark side, or something like that. Does that make sense? Okay. So, we don't believe that he's just some force. He's a person. Some people, on the other hand, they also believe that the Spirit of God is simply a force for good and not a person. But He is a person. And so, just the same. So that's not to say that they're opposites per se. Some other things that we didn't put down here that we might want to mention is the devil does not in any way have the attributes of God. The devil is not omnipresent. He's not omniscient. He's not omnipotent. The devil isn't everywhere. He's in one place at a time. He doesn't know everything. The devil doesn't know what everybody's thinking. Now, there is an aspect of spirituality or spiritual things that have to do with the devil's minions, all of the demons as we call them often today, but the Bible word for it is devils. And so, there are devils, many, but Satan himself, he's not everywhere. Now, in the sense that devils can do things, at various places in the world at different times and things, it might make it seem like Satan is everywhere, but he's not. He's not. He simply just has other fallen angels at his disposal. So, again, we don't mention that in our statement of faith there, but just as a side note to throw that in. And then the next point here, it says he is the instigator. of sin and the beguiler concerning the fall of man." So as Pastor G already covered, and he went there to Genesis, though we don't have that in our statement of faith there, Genesis chapter 3 where he beguiled Eve, it's mentioned later in a passage that he brought up there as the serpent beguiled Eve. But in Genesis 3 you'll find that the devil there beguiles Eve. He was the beguiler concerning the fall of man. He beguiled Eve and then Adam chose to sin as well there in partaking of the tree that God told him not to partake of. But being the instigator of sin, we have to balance that because Some folks will say, now when I was a kid, before I got saved, somebody had a card. I think it was a, it was like a joke thing, whatever. It was this little card, and it had a little, it was like a business card size thing. And it had like a little cartoon picture of the devil, just black and white, with a pitchfork, you know, and a little forked tail and the horns and all that. And the card said, the devil made me do it. And that was something back in the 80s that was, I guess, maybe a common thing, at least among people that I knew. They would say, you know, the devil made me do it. What's that? Yeah. Who? Okay, so that's probably where it came from. When was he? 60s, 70s, so it continued kind of the concept into the 80s. No, the devil doesn't make you do anything. He instigates, but he cannot make you do anything. At the end of the day, you have to choose. By the way, even if you're not saved and you're devil-possessed, you have to allow that. It's not 100% involuntary. Now, the activities that take place after you've been possessed of a devil may seem to be completely involuntary, but they're not 100% involuntary. You still share guilt in what's done, even if you're possessed by a devil. And I know that might make some people uncomfortable to talk about, but it is a real thing. But all that is, is there's an instigation or a stronger instigation towards sin. At the end of the day, you can still receive Christ and have the Spirit of God in you. You can still have the devil cast out and have the Spirit of God in you. But he's the instigator. not the performer. When we sin, we sin. Does that make sense? But He is the instigator of sin. In other words, not every time by the way, but often, Satan or his representative, one of the devils, instigates sin. but we're also pretty good at doing it all by ourselves as well. So we can't just blame it on the devil and say, what's that? Yep, exactly, exactly. We can't say the devil made me do it or I wouldn't have done it if it wasn't for the devil who instigated it. Sure, the devil instigates, but you have to make the decision at the end of the day. You're responsible for your own decisions. Yeah, oh yeah. Absolutely, so that's a good point. When people give that kind of power to the devil, and everybody looks at, oh the devil, he's so powerful, and they put him on a higher pedestal than he needs to be on, People try to make a big thing of it, but the thing is, we probably give them more credit than theirs do. In fact, as we went to Isaiah, we're going to look at him someday and say, is that the one? We're going to look narrowly upon him. Is this the one who did weaken the nations? Did all this instigation and stuff. Is that the guy? Really? We're going to be kind of confused about how is it that this guy was able to do that. Because people gave him more credit than he was due. So, there's that. Then, he is the open and declared enemy of God. And man, we've seen that all throughout. the lesson there. And he shall be eternally punished in the lake of fire. He's going to be eternally punished in the lake of fire. Looking forward to that day. There have been songs written about it. It's exciting that the enemy will perish. The enemy will perish. And no, he's going to lose there too. And really it has to do with the fact, I mean, the excitement about it is that that is like the, like I said earlier, we give him a lot of credit, you know? And so when he's cast into the lake of fire, there's no more deceiver. There's no more deceiver. There's already at that point, man has been redeemed by that point. As Brother Travis had mentioned last week when we were talking about the eternal state, man has already been redeemed. We're already out of the sinful world. We're already dealing with or enjoying heaven. that final thing there when Satan is cast into the lake of fire. Now, of course, there's the final judgment of man right after that where all who rejected Christ are cast into the lake of fire. Then there's new heaven and new earth. New Jerusalem. So that kind of covers that. Now, we kind of dealt with origin. We're not really... going to get deep into that because the Bible isn't very clear exactly when and exactly how. It's as far as like the creation matter of angels. We look at it and see that You know, in the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. But we also look at the book of Job where God refers back to that time there toward the end of the book of Job where He says, where were you, talking to Job, when I laid the foundations. I'm kind of paraphrasing. When I laid the foundations of the earth. He said, when the morning stars sang together. In other words, there were, and all the sons of God shouted for joy. we're talking about here when God made the earth, or laid the foundation of the earth, which could be referring to day one, or it could be referring to when He made the dry land to appear, which would be a little bit further on in creation. But either way, we know that God created the angels somewhere in that time frame. So, some people try to plug them in between Genesis 1-1 and 1-2, it would almost seem like they'd be somewhere in Genesis 1-1. Not in the middle, in between the verses, but just not mentioned in Genesis 1-1. When He created the heaven and the earth, it could be that they were made at that time. Again, that's all speculation. We don't know, absolutely. We will find out, I think, though. We can probably just ask the Lord when we get there in Heaven and say, alright, we were talking about this on August 4th, 2024, and we were just wondering. And we just all gathered there before the throne. When did you make the angels?