The Falling Star Bites The Dust Part 2

Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith.

He first appeared in the Garden of Eden as the Serpent of Paradise. Now he's targeting every believer who runs the race of life toward God's goal. Today, we're about how Satan got his infamous start.

Stay with us. From the Moody Church in Chicago, this is Running to Win with Dr. Erwin Lutzer, whose clear teaching helps us make it across the finish line. We're now in an eight-part series on God's devil. Pastor Lutzer, why did God think it necessary to create the devil? You know, Dave, one of the things I love about your questions is that they are seldom simple.

And this is a good example of asking a question that is very difficult to answer, at least in a few moments. But what we must recognize is that God created angels for his glory. Lucifer was a part of the angelic realm. He apparently acted like a choir director, making sure that God got the glory, but then unrighteousness was found in him. And this is critical.

What God wanted to do now, he could have banished Satan, he could have put him out of existence, but God wanted to allow Satan to roam the world for God's glory and, yes, to serve God's purposes, even though that's the last thing Satan wanted to do. So as we listen to these messages, I need to remind you that I've written a book entitled God's Devil, and for a gift of any amount, it can be yours. Here's what you do.

Go to rtwoffer.com, or if you prefer, call us at 1-888-218-9337. And of course I'll be giving you that contact info at the end of the message once again. Now let us listen. He can say to himself, I can do my own thing. I can rebel against God. I no longer have to look to the Almighty for my orders, or at least that's what he thought was going to happen.

Now I find this to be a scandal beyond irony, because just think this through, folks. Satan rebelled that he might no longer have to be God's servant, but he is still God's servant even today. A different kind of a servant, to be sure. Before he served willingly, he served voluntarily. Now he serves non-voluntarily, but he serves nonetheless. He can only exercise that independence within the circle of God's divine providence, and he cannot step outside of those bounds without the express permission of the Almighty.

Sure doesn't sound like independence to me, at least not much. He wants to harass God's servant Job, and he can't do it, except God says, all right, you've asked us about Job and we've talked together. Go ahead and you can do thus and so to him, but you can't touch his life, but you can do A, B, C, but you can't do E and on and on.

So what does he have to do? He has to get permission from God. He can take one of God's servants and he can debilitate him.

He can also give him perhaps dizziness, but in the end, if God chooses to raise him up as a result of the prayers of God's people, God's will always triumphs. And so Satan with his will, with his independence, it turns out he's not very independent at all. Somebody asked me the question, they said, in this series of messages, are you going to show that God actually uses the devil toward God's own ends?

And the answer is yes. Doesn't seem like independence to me, but he was limited, therefore, in what he could achieve. You know, Milton says that Satan would prefer to be a king in hell than a servant in heaven. And actually, as Satan discovered, there is no king in hell.

There is no king in hell. What a disastrous decision. Number two, he was limited in what he could foresee. Now, I've already hinted at that, but let me explain what I mean by this second limitation. He was limited in what he could foresee. He could not foresee the consequences of his decision for one good reason.

There was no other example of rebellion in the universe. You see, you and I today, you can say to somebody, now, if you don't obey God, there's this possibility and this possibility because we've seen these options played out so often, but there was no example of someone who had defied God. So he was limited in being able to foresee the consequences. He couldn't foresee that only one third of the angels would side with him, according to the 12th chapter of the book of Revelation. Possibly, he thought that when I rebel against God and when I say I will be like the Most High because all of the angels were under my authority and I had the responsibility of making sure that worship got to God, they all will side with me.

And now, just think of it. For every fallen angel that rebels and curses God, there are two who still sing God's praises. He could not have predicted that it would turn out that way. He didn't know anything about the lake of fire and brimstone in which he is going to be tormented and humiliated forever and ever and ever.

That was beyond his ability to project and predict. All that he knew was that there was this doorway that he was going to go through, hoping that it would be a new kind of existence, a new kind of freedom, a new kind of life. And suddenly, he discovers that it is God who keeps the last cards.

It is God who writes the last chapter. And now, suddenly he finds himself trapped in a decision that he can't get out of. And that is the third limitation. The third limitation is that he was limited in damage repair.

He was limited in damage repair. I have no way of proving this from the Bible, but it is my own strong suspicion that he deeply regretted his decision the moment it was made. When he began to see how corrupt he became, when he began to see that no matter how he spun the wheel, it was always God who controlled the outcome, when he began to understand that now suddenly he was taking on the Almighty and some of the effects of sin became clear to him, he might have regretted his decision. But at this point, there was absolutely nothing that he could do about it, nothing from now throughout all of eternity.

Nothing could possibly change it. Oh, you say, well, what if he would repent and no chance for two reasons. Number one, he could not repent. He would have no desire for repentance.

Now follow this carefully. When he was a creaturely creation with all of the beauty and the perfections with which God created him, at that moment, he had the capacity also for evil, as we learned. But now that he had chosen against God, he would never again have the capacity for good ever. He was thoroughly and totally corrupted. There is no truth in him. When he speaketh, he speaketh alive. He is in darkness at all times. He is thoroughly corrupt and totally evil, irredeemably evil. That's one reason. The second reason is because there's been no provision made for his forgiveness.

We won't take time to do it, but you can do this on your own. Read the second chapter of the book of Hebrews where it says expressly that when Jesus came to this earth, he took not upon himself the form of an angel, but he took upon himself the form of a servant and of the seed of Abraham that he might redeem of those who are the seed of Abraham. You see, God just can't say, well, he made a bad decision but I'm merciful, therefore I forgive him. No, the question is who would provide a sacrifice for his sins? It was not covered with Christ's death. Your sin was covered by Christ's death.

My sin was covered by Christ's death, but not Lucifer's sin. And therefore, there was no possibility ever that he could rectify the mess he had created. And he learned a very important lesson. And the lesson is that God's creatures can create a mess, but God's creatures cannot clean that mess up. And that's why we who are human beings are so fortunate, is because God chose to clean up the mess through the coming of Jesus Christ, an event which again Lucifer could not possibly foresee.

But, and the conflict of that will of course become apparent in future messages in this series, but at this point all that he could do is make the mess. He could not take that mess and he couldn't put it together again. Humpty Dumpty sat on the wall. Humpty Dumpty had a great fall. Humpty Dumpty, how does the rest of it go?

At any rate, whatever happened to Humpty Dumpty, I do remember this about the guy. Nobody could put him back together again. He was limited in damage repair. Number four, he was limited in his understanding of God. He was limited in his understanding of God. Now folks, I believe that he miscalculated. I believe that Lucifer miscalculated. I don't think that he understood something.

He did not understand how thoroughly God hates sin and is going to judge it. I've been thinking about this series of messages for a long time and I've been trying to imagine what it would be like to be Lucifer. And there you are, you see God in his beauty. All that you see is love. All that you see is grace. All that you're acquainted with is mercy. You have never seen one single example of his justice because there was no need for that.

No need for it. As long as everyone did the will of God, as long as there was harmony and beauty and symmetry, there would be no need whatever for God's justice. There would be no way that he could possibly predict that God was going to be so exceedingly careful and judgmental of sin. He did not know that that lake of fire lay ahead. And nor could he have known that in God's economy, the higher a person ascends to go and exerts pride, the more we aspire to be like God, the more we need to be crushed and will be humbled. He did not know that.

I think he miscalculated just like people today. They think to themselves, well you know God is a God of love, God is a God of mercy and because he's a God of love and mercy, why indeed there's no possibility that he is going to have any human beings in hell and they miscalculate because they trade on the good side. Well all of God is good but from our standpoint, they trade on the mercy and the compassion and the love and the grace of God. And there's a whole other part of God's character of justice and judgmental reactions and a hatred for sin that is unknown. I think that he was limited in his understanding of God. He had no idea he'd judge sin so severely. Number five, he was limited in his understanding of the difference between time and eternity.

The difference between time and eternity. You see, there's no doubt that Satan, now that he is Satan, he does receive worship. That's what he wanted. My dear friends today, no worship on earth can ever make up for eternal humiliation in hell. He desired honor and exaltation and he has some honor and exaltation today but there's no way that this little sliver of time in which he receives honor and exaltation, there is no way that that is ever going to be made up by eternal contempt in hell. The contempt in hell simply will prove that the gamble, this cosmic gamble was not worth it. Imagine a proud being who just seeds independence and authority, biting the dust of humiliation and contempt forever and ever. Will you remember something today, folks, that I hope that you never forget? No decision on earth can ever be good if it is not good also in eternity.

Let me say that again. No decision on earth can ever be good unless it is good in eternity. And whatever benefits may have accrued to him in this small segment of time because of the disastrous consequences of eternity, he would have been so much better off to simply believe God. If he'd have simply said, you know, God has told me to be obedient, I'm going to be obedient, I'm not even going to question whether or not he knows better than I, I'm not going to try to get out there and to test to see whether or not rebellion is as bad as it might appear to be. If only he had chosen to do that, what a different story we would have to tell today. But within himself, he said, I have to try it for myself, just like some people today who say I have to try it for myself. And the consequences are disastrous.

Now I have a question I have to ask you. What were God's options? Well, he could have exterminated the devil, could have crushed him with raw power. He could have banished him to another planet and let him contemplate his fate. He could have thrown him into the lake of fire immediately and that would have been just and true. But God did not do that.

Here's what God decided. He said, Satan is now going to continue to be the prince of this world. He will be known as the prince of the power of the air and the prince of this world. So he's going to continue. Earth will continue to be his sphere. But secondly, I'm going to give him time to see whether or not he can organize his kingdom, whether or not he can bring order out of chaos. I'm going to give him time to see whether or not any good can possibly come out of his decision.

I'm going to give him time to test his abilities, to see exactly what his limits are, and to know what will be accomplished as the result of his rebellion. And God says I'm not going to win a victory over him with raw power, which I could do immediately just like that, but rather I'm going to win on the basis of righteousness. There's going to be a whole class of beings created, which Lucifer knew nothing about. They're going to be human beings. And they are going to side with Lucifer, but out from among them I'm going to purchase some for myself and exalt those beings higher than Lucifer himself was exalted.

Oh, how that hurt, that proud being. And so what God decided to do was to allow earth to become a drama, which would be played out good versus evil, righteousness versus unrighteousness, darkness versus light. And in the end, when the final curtain call comes, God is going to be completely victorious.

Indeed, he is already victorious, and all that is still needed is for the end time to be wrapped up until the whole universe agrees that God is victorious. Now where do you and I fit into this? The Bible says that we are born into the kingdom of darkness. We are born under the condemnation of sin, as we'll learn in the next message.

We are born, really, under Satan's dominion in the sense that we are born rebels. But the scripture says that he has translated us from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of his dear son, and that's something that only God can do. You can't do that by living a good life.

You can't do that by saying, well, I'm as good as the neighbor next door. You need a miracle to translate you from the kingdom of darkness with all of its prideful intentions into the kingdom of God's blessed son, and that's what redemption is all about. And today, God gives you and me the wonderful opportunity to believe on Christ so that he might do it.

He might do it. If there's anything that's clear in the Bible, it is that nobody ever saves himself. Nobody ever says, I'm good enough now, finally, for God. It is something that God must do. And God can now do something for you and for me that he could never do for Lucifer and never will do for Lucifer, and that is to translate us into the kingdom of his blessed son. We come under new ownership. Jesus Christ becomes our owner.

We are given a new nature. Our sins are forgiven, and we are reconciled to God, and that's only what God is able to do. But remember, if you don't let God do that, you will die as a member of Satan's kingdom with all of the awfulness and terror and shame and humiliation connected with it.

That's clear. Just two kingdoms, just two kingdoms, the kingdom of darkness, kingdom of light, kingdom of God, kingdom of Satan. And today, every one of us who's listening to this message is in one kingdom or the other. If you're in his kingdom, Satan's, let God do in you what only God can do, and let us pray. Our Father, we thank you today for the triumph of Jesus Christ. We thank you, Father, that Satan's decision, though terrible, is not irreversible for those of us who know Christ as Savior. We thank you that Satan is a model today of the disastrous consequences of disobedience, and we thank you that his doom is sure. We pray in these moments, Lord, that you will speak to every heart, and for those who have never believed on Christ, may they do that, that they might be in the kingdom of light. We pray in Jesus' name.

Amen. Well, my friend, this is Pastor Luther. I love to emphasize the fact that if you belong to the kingdom of light, just as I mentioned in the sermon, if you belong to the kingdom of light, you can be assured that as a believer, you are going to be exalted above the angels.

No angel has ever been an heir of God and a joint heir with Jesus Christ. And I think that this is the reason why Satan is so angry with us. I've written a book entitled God's Devil. You might be surprised at the subtitle. It is the incredible story of how Satan's rebellion serves God's purposes.

Let's remember that Satan would have never been able to roam this earth and do what he does unless God allowed him to do so. This book was written to build faith in your heart, even as we pray against our enemy. For a gift of any amount, it can be yours. Here's what you do. Go to rtwoffer.com.

That's rtwoffer.com. Or if you prefer, call us at 1-888-218-9337. Pick up the phone right now.

Call 1-888-218-9337. It's time now for you to ask Pastor Lutzer a question about the Bible or the Christian life. Pastor Lutzer, many churches today are far different from those our parents knew.

This has Catherine concerned. She asks, What are your thoughts about contemplative or emergent churches? I'm very interested in your answer, so I hope you can respond.

Yes, I can respond, Catherine. The emergent church, what a topic. First of all, let me say that among emergent churches, there is great diversity. There are some that are quite evangelical.

There are others that are way out there, so to speak. So it's always a little dangerous for us to generalize, but sometimes we have to generalize and to make some comments that are applicable to a number of different churches. One of the things about emergent churches is they downplay doctrine. In fact, one of the founders, the one who originated the whole idea of the emergent church, he said that someday theology will be like the architecture of a medieval church, interesting to a few but irrelevant.

That's a dangerous statement so far as I'm concerned. So theology oftentimes takes second place. Secondly, there's a great deal of emphasis on this life. They say that the whole emphasis on heaven and eternity is misplaced.

We need to know how to live here. And then, of course, in addition to that, you have a lot of emphasis on relationships, and that might be good, personal relationships, but unfortunately those relationships often take precedence over worship, over devotion, over diligent Bible study, and over theology. Bottom line, I'm concerned about the emergent church. Now, many churches that have gone that way, it may be too new to predict exactly where they will end up, but I would say that they are on a dangerous trajectory. Yes, there is much that we can learn from them, but at the end of the day, theology, corporate worship, the belief in absolute truth, all that must be dearly held by the church.

And so I need to say that as a word of caution, that we must be very careful when we abandon these for a contemporary kind of worship and church service. Some wise words from Dr. Erwin Lutzer. Thank you, Pastor Lutzer. If you'd like to hear your question answered, you can. Just go to our website at rtwoffer.com and click on Ask Pastor Lutzer, or call us at 1-888-218-9337. That's 1-888-218-9337.

You can write to us at Running to Win, 1635 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, IL 60614. Running to Win is all about helping you understand God's roadmap for your race of life. Each of us has a sin nature, a tendency to rebel against God. By eating the forbidden fruit, Adam and Eve fell victim to sin with catastrophic results. Why did the first couple in paradise feel the need to disobey God? For the answer, tune in for our next broadcast. For Dr. Erwin Lutzer, this is Dave McAllister. Running to Win is sponsored by the Moody Church.