The History of the Battle

Even though you don't have angel ability, if the lesser creature will trust God, he'll go further than an angel in heaven that won't trust God. Dr. Tony Evans says it's better to have little and be aligned with God than to have much and be at odds with his plans. God created us for showtime that the lesser may demonstrate to the greater the glory of God.

This is The Alternative with Dr. Tony Evans, author, speaker, senior pastor of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in Dallas, Texas, and president of the Urban Alternative. The history of mankind is a history plagued with pride, power struggles, and treachery. And Dr. Evans says it's a reflection of the spiritual warfare that's been going on behind the scenes from long before humans took the stage. Right now, he's here to chronicle the events that have played a role in spiritual warfare and explain what that means for us today.

Let's join him. Many, many years ago, God created a body of beings called angels. He created them like himself in that they were created spirit beings, and God is spirit. In fact, when God manifests himself in history, you always see him manifesting himself as a bright light, a bright light. The Shekinah glory was always tied to light, because at the core of God's being is some imaginable power that shines. And so when you read about these angelic beings all through Scripture, you see light tied to them. There was one angel in particular, his name was Lucifer.

That means the brilliant or shining one. We are introduced to him in Ezekiel 28, one of the passages, because the spiritual battle that occurred way, way back originated in the angelic realm before creation. Before creation is when the battle.

So the battle is really outside of earth. It goes way back when God simply had his angelic host. We're introduced to the king of Tyra, this man who is being condemned by God, and then we're introduced in chapter 28 to the power behind this king, Lucifer himself, because when you find evil people, they're always under evil control, so you have to understand that. In fact, when you find evil in your own life, it's being influenced by evil control.

You can't excuse your action and your cooperation, but behind it, there is another activity pulling some strings. Behind this king was just the same thing. Now stick with me here as we go through this. The description of this being is magnificent. We find out in chapter 28, for example, in verse 14, you were the anointed cherub, the one selected above all of them because of what God endowed him with. He was placed on a holy mountain, and it becomes important, verse 13, the name of this mountain that had a garden surrounding it, the name of it was, verse 13, Eden.

And oh, what a sight he was to behold. That is, according to verse 15, until unrighteousness was found in you. Now that gives us our first problem. How can you have a perfectly created being with unrighteousness being found in him? That's not just an angel problem, that's an Adam problem. He's created perfectly in the Garden of Eden. How can God create a perfect being and then the perfect being come up bad? It seems like a contradiction.

You've got perfection, but there's something wrong with the perfection. In order for God to create a perfect being that could never become imperfect, he would have to recreate himself, but if God could recreate himself, then it wouldn't be one God, there'd be two gods, or three, or how many gods he created. Since there's no room in the universe for more than one God, even though God creates a perfect being, God gave those perfect beings volition or the ability to choose whether they would relate to him by their choice, not by their creativeness. So what God put in Lucifer and all the angels, and what he put in Adam, was the ability to choose him by choice because God could not recreate himself. That's one thing God can't do. You want to know what God can't do?

Make a twin. He cannot reduplicate himself. God giving this perfect being the right of choice, that is, to serve him by choice, not simply by mandate. God was not going to hypnotize him because God wanted worship by willingness, not worship by mandate only. Unrighteousness was found in this cherub.

Now, I won't go today into all of the detail, but just so you know the basis of it, so I can make a very important point here, just so you know the basis of it. You were internally filled with violence, verse 16 says, and you sinned. Therefore I cast you down from the mountain. What made you sin, Lucifer? Verse 17, your heart was lifted up because of your beauty.

You corrupted your wisdom by reason of your splendor. Satan looked into the mirror and said, you bad boy, you looking good. He looked into the mirror and saw the beauty of his creatureliness. And pride wound up in his heart, so that he began to raise the question, why do I need God if I'm this pretty by myself? Unrighteousness was found in him, and then by a choice of his will, he chose to rebel against God. When Lucifer wound up with this pride, he began a plan of rebellion, a coup d'etat, if you will, in heaven. He led a revolt of the angels, and God, not willing to share his glory, Satan and his hosts were evicted from heaven, because God will not have any challenges to his authority in his presence.

And they were cast to a place called earth and sentenced. But God decides, no, I'm not just going to kick you out of heaven, I'm not just going to create your own place called hell, I'm going to show you something. I'm going to demonstrate to you, I'm going to let you and all the angelic world see, I'm going to let you and all the angelic world experience not only who I am, but I want to let you watch me unfold a plan right in front of your eyes that will demonstrate God is not to be trifled with. God was going to create somebody less than the angels to demonstrate, here it is, that even though you don't have angel ability, even though you don't have angel strength, even though you haven't had an angel experience, if the lesser creature will trust God, he'll go further than an angel in heaven that won't trust God. He wanted to demonstrate and show Satan, give me less ability that will trust me, and it will outdo you with more ability who won't trust me.

You say, where you get that from? You come in heaven with stuff I ain't never heard before. Let's let David do some talking for us in Psalm 8. In Psalm 8, here's what David says. David says in Psalm chapter 8, beginning with verse 3, describing as he looks up into heaven and he's just overwhelmed with the thought of God, when I consider the heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars which thou hath ordained, I have a question. What is man that thou art mindful of him and the son of man that you did care for him? Yet thou has made him a little lower, some of your Bibles say God, others say angels, made him a little lower than God and just crowned him with glory and majesty, verse 6, thou dost make him to rule over the works of thy hand, thou hast put all things under his feet.

Now, follow this. God comes down to Satan's home. It's like a team visiting another team in their home, in their house. God comes into Satan's house that's a garbage dump. He ought not live there anyway. He comes to this garbage dump and God says, now let me take this old rundown garbage dump and do some gentrification.

Let me put my handiwork in it. And all of a sudden, the birds start going tweedly-dee. There were no birds, because where Satan is, birds can't sing, they lose their tune.

Birds start to meander, fish start moving all in the water and all manner of light burst forth, flowers are budding and all this, why? Because God re-enters the garbage dump. And then with Satan listening, he tells man, I will make man in our own image.

Why? Because he made angels in his own image. But I'm going to tell you what I'm going to do, devil and angels, I'm going to make man in charge of your house, for he will have dominion and he will rule over the birds of the sea and he will rule over the fish of the water.

Man will run this show, in spite of the fact that you live here. When the serpent comes up to the woman and says, hath God said, Satan wants his planet back, and Adam and Eve gives it back. And guess what you and I are in the process of doing, taking it back. That's the angelic conflict. The angelic conflict is God creating man to take it from Satan, Satan coming at him, to take it back.

I'm getting too far ahead of the story. But the story says the second Adam came, Jesus Christ, born of a virgin, you ain't praying with me, Jesus Christ comes. That's why the issue is that a man comes on the scene. God had to become a man because a man had to take it back.

So a man had to take it back. One brother hit me the other day, he says, I never noticed this before, wherever you're reading the Bible, angels are everywhere, they're all over the place, they are, because they're involved. But the angels were curious, they wonder, how are you going to do this? This is a weak man. I mean, this is a weak man, how is he going to do this?

And that's why you read so many times in the Bible, 1 Peter 1.12 says an angel's appearing down trying to understand. How's he going to do this? How is a weak man going to be able to defeat this angelic foe with all of his angels called demons that have gone berserk?

How is he going to do it? God paralleled the exact situation with man that he had with Lucifer. Lucifer was created a perfect being with choice. Adam was created a perfect being with choice. Of all the trees in the garden you may freely eat, but of the tree in the midst of the garden you may not eat it, lest you die, why?

Because I had to give you what I gave Satan in order for the battle to be even-steven. Adam's homestead was called Eden. Ezekiel 28 says Lucifer's homestead was called Eden. Adam was the one who was to oversee all of God's then creation. Lucifer was the one who was to oversee all of God's angelic creation. He was the one who was to oversee all of God's human creation. Just one thing, right after another, Lucifer had direct access to God in the mountain of God.

Adam and Eve walked with God in the cool of the day in the garden, an exact parallel. Dr. Evans will come back with more of our history lesson on spiritual warfare in just a moment. If you're finding today's message intriguing and want to get a look at the whole picture, I encourage you to check out the complete two-volume, 12-message series that today's lesson is drawn from.

It's called Spiritual Warfare, and in it you'll not only learn about the nature and history of spiritual battles, but also how through God you have all the power you need to stand firm against any attack the enemy can mount against your marriage, health, career, or finances, virtually any area of your life. You can get your own copy of Spiritual Warfare on CD or digital download as our gift. Just visit tonyevans.org before time runs out, make a contribution, and we'll say thanks by sending it your way. Again that's tonyevans.org.

Or call 1-800-800-3222, where resource team members are standing by around the clock. I'll have that information for you again after part two of today's lesson, and this. If you're like most Christians, there are people in your life who know you but may not know Jesus. You really want to do something about that, but don't feel equipped to share your faith effectively.

In other words, maybe if you knew more, you could do more. Well, that's where the Tony Evans Training Center comes in. It's an online Bible school with classes that'll take you deep into the most important core concepts of the faith. You can start with our free introductory course on evangelism, then move on to subjects like spiritual warfare, marriage building, maturing in the faith, and many more. The content is challenging, but you can move through it at your own pace any time you're online. There's also lots of custom content from Tony and an online forum where you can get your specific questions answered.

Go to tonyevans.org and follow the link to the Tony Evans Training Center. It's like having a seminary on your smartphone. The Bible says there are two classifications of angels, fallen angels and elect angels. There will be two classifications of men, saved and unsaved, elect and fallen. What I'm telling you is what you're experiencing on earth has to do with something that has nothing to do with you, and that is God wanting to demonstrate it.

Now I know you have a question, it's a fair question, but it's one I can't fully answer. That is, if God is greater than Satan, in fact, let's have a test. What's the opposite of good? What's the opposite of up?

What's the opposite of right? What's the opposite of God? No. No. Now you don't understand, God doesn't have any opposites. There are no opposites.

No. See, that's the mistake most people make. Most people say, when they say God, they say Satan, as though that is the opposite.

Those two can't even be pronounced in the same sentence. Satan can only be one place at a time, God is omnipresent, all places at the same time. Satan has limited knowledge, finite knowledge, God has absolute knowledge. Satan is a created being, Ezekiel 28 says, there has never been a time when God is not.

He is an eternal being. Don't ever say Satan in the same sentence with God. So you say, but if God is God then, and he's greater, why does he allow, why did he allow Satan to do what he does? God wanted to show him, I'm so great that I can get somebody less than you and do better. I am so great.

Yeah, I could squash you out, I could get rid of you at a moment's notice, but I am so great that I can take less and make more. And by the way, as true of your life and my life too, I believe his name was Goliath. I believe it was a young shepherd boy named David.

I believe the story says he didn't know how to use all his fancy equipment, that he couldn't even wear the battle gear. But I believe the story says David stepped out and says, who is this Philistine dog who would taunt the armies of the living God and God took the lesser in order to kill the greater. When I was over in Israel, I was talking to the Jews and you remember in 1967, Syria and Jordan and the armies of Egypt and the armies of the Middle East and the six day war came down on this little country, the size of New Jersey.

And in six days they set them on the flight. I was asking one of the army personnel, how in the world was this little country the size of New Jersey able to defeat in six days all the countries of the Middle East that were made up of millions of people. He looked at me and smiled and he says, mister, have you ever heard the story of David and Goliath? God takes the lesser to embarrass the greater. And so what Paul said is, look at yourself, not many wise, not many noble. Most of us don't have that much to brag about, but God had taken the nothings of this world. In fact, I don't even know what I'm doing up here. Well, I'm just an inner city boy with nothing to show, but God reached down in the keyword grace.

That's the word. He reached down in grace and said, hey, there's a nothing down there. There's a nobody down there.

There's somebody that can't talk, that stutters when he talks and stammers when he talks. There's a guy that made deeds all through middle school and high school. There's a guy that's going nowhere. He's nothing.

He's nobody. But I gave my life to Jesus Christ and he reached down and took a nothing and raised him up and made somebody out of him. God takes the nothings of this world. On the other hand, he takes the somebodies and makes them nothing. He takes the Nebuchadnezzars who stand up and say, look at the great Babylon that I have built and say you're nothing.

And that's why in the angelic conflict, the keyword is grace. How many of us would go to the game if there wasn't another team coming to the game? It would be boring and it would be dull.

It would have no life. We need to see somebody resisting in order to appreciate the whole team. God said, Satan, I could squash you, but it won't be no fun. I want to throw TD passes and run through the line.

I want to do sweeps. I want to, I want to, and see, I want to give a reason for the crowd to shout, all but when the Pittsburgh Steelers come or the Colts come or the 49ers come and a touchdown is thrown. You jump out of your seat.

Why? Because they demonstrated with opposition how glorious they are. So God says, I'm not going to squash you. I'm going to demonstrate to everybody watching the game, greater is he that's in you than he that's in the world.

I'm going to demonstrate why, why are we going to demonstrate so that he gets more glory. Satan and his angelic believers spurned grace. Some theologians even believe they were offered an opportunity for salvation prior to history and rejected it, but at least they spurned the grace of their creatureliness. God is going to show them the glory of his grace when people yield to it. God allowed sin, although he doesn't cause sin, Isaiah 45 seven, just as a composer of music may include discords in his song in order to create an overall pleasing effect.

God is going to allow discord. He allows sin in order that his grace may be greater. Another reason is that God wants to show his hatred of sin.

He must show his justice. He wants all of us to see through this angelic conflict that he is a holy, perfect God. And he does judge sin. He wants us to see his wisdom, Ephesians three 10. It says that God does what he does so that the manifold wisdom may be made known to the angels in heaven.

He wants the angels to see that he's brilliant. He can take nothings and overcome the somethings. God also wants to demonstrate his power. You don't know how powerful he is until there's opposition. Romans nine verse 17 and 18 says, what if God, wanting to demonstrate his power, raises up Pharaoh?

Same principle. God says, okay, per Pharaoh, you're in a rebellious mode. Okay? Well, I'm not going to just kill you. I'm going to show you something before I kill you, okay?

I'm going to let you see who I am because, see, if I just destroy you, you won't feel it like I want you to feel it. So come on. Come on. Come on.

Follow Israel out here. Keep coming. Keep coming. Come on. Come on. Come on, Pharaoh.

Come on, Pharaoh. Yeah, you're bad. You're bad. You're bad.

You're bad. Come on. Come on. Keep coming.

Keep coming. But then he wanted his elect children to see him too. And so they carted between the Red Sea and Pharaoh and his army. Moses says, stand back and see the salvation of the Lord. And the waters start to part. Now, if I was Pharaoh, when I got to those parting waters, I'd have to stop and think. I'd have to meditate or something and say, maybe we ought not go through here. But you know what?

He didn't have a choice because God said, come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. A little further. A little further.

No, you got one guy in here yet. Bring them all in here because I'm going to wipe out the whole kit and caboodle of you. I'm going to demonstrate it to you and then I'm going to let my people see what I can do when they live by grace. So God not only did that, but he wanted to demonstrate the key, here's the key, that love can only be expressed through grace in order to simultaneously satisfy his demand for justice.

That's a deep one. That love can only be expressed through grace in order to simultaneously address his demand for justice. God can't skip sin, yet God loves you. So if he can't skip sin and yet he loves me, how can he satisfy his justice that must deal with sin and also satisfy his love? He must have a plan of grace.

And so in grace, God has provided salvation for people which means that he can justly deal with his holiness while at the same time expressing his love and that is the manifold wisdom of God. God wanted to demonstrate that there is no life or meaning or hope apart from him. When you walk out on God, I don't care how bad things are, when you walk out on God, you walk out on the only one who can help you. Some people get mad at God, I'm mad at God and I'm never going to serve him anymore.

Now like he's worse off, like he's going to be less, oh, I'm going to be nothing, she left me. The worse your life is, the faster you run to him because there is no life or meaning or hope apart from him. And finally, God wanted to secure service out of love, not out of fear. God didn't want people serving him just because he created them and he was going to jump on them. That's why he gave Adam the tree.

Do you love me enough and trust me enough to obey me or do you want to find your own way? So beloved, here we are. God created us for showtime that the lesser may demonstrate to the greater the glory of God. Dr. Tony Evans, encouraging you to trust God's power and presence and do your part for the kingdom of God. If you'd like to get a full-length copy of today's message, it's called The History of the Battle, and it's just one installment in Tony's series on spiritual warfare, a collection you'll find yourself going to often for hope and encouragement during your own personal battles. Don't forget this powerful 12-lesson series is yours as our thank you gift when you make a contribution to support Tony's ministry.

Just visit tonyevans.org to get the details and make the arrangements. And that's where you can also find out about streaming the popular film Journey with Jesus. In Journey with Jesus, Dr. Evans travels to Israel along with Crystal, Priscilla, and Anthony Evans to experience firsthand the places Jesus walked, taught, and ministered while on earth. More than just a captivating travelogue, the Evans family discusses the biblical and historical significance of each stop along the way and what it means for us today. For a limited time, you can stream Journey with Jesus right into your own home. Plan on making it part of your preparation for Easter this year. Find out more about the film or the spiritual warfare audio collection when you visit tonyevans.org. Or call us at 1-800-800-3222, and one of our helpful team members will assist with your resource request. Again that's tonyevans.org, or by phone at 1-800-800-3222. You wouldn't think of leaving home without your clothes on, but many believers go out into the world spiritually naked on a daily basis. Join Dr. Evans next time as he explains how to suit up for a showdown with Satan. The Alternative with Dr. Tony Evans is brought to you by the Urban Alternative and is made possible by the generous contributions of listeners like you.