The Cosmic Crash; The Eternal Burn-Part B

Where did sin begin?

If you say, well, it began in Genesis chapter 3, I would say that's the wrong answer. That's the fall of man. That's where Adam's sin began.

Those are the repercussions we all feel. That's not where sin began. Sin began in the heart of Lucifer. It began in his thought processes when he said these, I was going to say famous, but infamous, I wills. I will, I will, my will, my will, my will, above God's will. Sin began when a creature set itself against the Creator. And the essence of that sin, the root of it all, is pride.

The Bible tells us, let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, let not the mighty man glory in his might, nor let the rich man glory in his riches. Today on Connect with Skip Heitzig, Skip examines the destiny and downfall of Satan, revealing the consequences of pridefulness and how you can cultivate humility in your life. But before we begin, here's a resource that will nourish you spiritually. Holidays and special days of celebration wake us up from the daily grind and provide a backdrop for creating memories. But beyond traditions, time off and intentional family time, holidays can illuminate spiritual truths, as we hear from Skip Heitzig. You may not know that Valentine's Day has Christian roots, but time and secular culture have transformed what was a great celebration of those who would stay true to the Christian faith. It has turned into simply a celebration of romantic love. You can find spiritual significance with Happiness, Holiness and Holidays, a four DVD collection of celebration messages from Pastor Skip. And it's our thanks when you give $25 or more to help keep this ministry on the air.

Here's Skip with a strong thought on another holiday on our calendar. Because God is our Father, we never have to fear. Because God is our Father, I don't have to live selfish, myopic life.

Because He is our Father in heaven, there is no limit to His power from heaven toward those of us who are on the earth. It's an incredible phrase, our Father in heaven. Call now to request your copy of Happiness, Holiness and Holidays. Our thanks for your generous gift, 800-922-1888.

Or give online securely at connectwithskip.com slash offer. Okay, we're in Isaiah chapter 14 today as we get into the teaching with Skip Heitzig. One third of all of the angelic hosts of heaven went with Satan in that great rebellion and they become known in the Bible as demons. And this bothers some people. This bothers Christians who think, oh, I've got a lot of demons against me. A whole third of all the angels are now demons.

Man, I've got so many enemies. What you fail to realize is the meaning of that passage. One third fell, two thirds are left, they're outnumbered two to one.

They're outnumbered two to one. You've got God the Holy Spirit living in you and you have at your disposal dispatched for your protection and God's purposes and will. Two thirds of the holy angels guarding His people.

And the Bible says you are guarded by them. So Satan has fallen from heaven. His domain is the earth. But interestingly, he still seems to have some sort of access to heaven even to this day.

In Job chapter 1, we are told that there came a day when the sons of God, that's an Old Testament rendering for angels, the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord and Satan was among them. And God said to Satan, from where do you come? And he said, from going to and fro on the earth. So his domain is the earth. Excuse me, he's kicked out of heaven.

But he has some sort of access to heaven as there's this accountability of being presented before the Lord. So what does he do on the earth? What does he do? He runs it. He's called the God of this age or the God of this world. And when I say he runs the world, I don't mean that he runs the world in the sense that God runs the world. Of course, he is sovereign. God is sovereign over all. And the earth is the Lord's. However, he runs the world system.

The Bible talks about the world, and I'm putting quotes around it, meaning the evil system that includes all the unregenerate people. He works through them to enact his will on the earth. He has, in effect, the entire world in his lap.

Did you know that? 1 John 5, it says, We are of God, little children, and the whole world lies under the sway, or in the lap, of the wicked one. What does he do exactly? Well, he has four principal targets, and I'm only going to mention them because of time. He has four principal targets, and you're not number one or two.

Don't flatter yourself. His principal target has always been, and still is, the Lord Jesus Christ. Number two, holy angels. There's always the battle in the heavenly realms. We get insights into it in books like Daniel, etc., Zechariah. The holy angels that do war, Revelation chapter 12, against Satan and his minions. So Jesus Christ, holy angels. Number three, the nation of Israel, God's covenant land that he will enact his plan through throughout history. And number four, believers, you and I, are a part of that realm. And what does he do to us?

Well, we could do several studies on that, couldn't we? But one of the things he does besides tempt you, besides use the world in your flesh, is he accuses you before God. He's called the accuser of the brethren, Revelation chapter 12, who accuses them before God day and night. You're saying Satan accuses me before God? What does he tell them?

Just the truth. He's got the dirt on you. He knows what you think, what you do. He knows you.

He studied you. And the thing is, all the accusations he brings, I think are accurate. What he fails to understand, however, is the power of the blood of Jesus Christ, which cleanses a man or woman from all sin. So all those accusations may be right, but he fails to see the judicial sentence that has been passed in your behalf. But he accuses you before God day and night.

And I dare say, you've heard some of those accusations in your own little head. You call yourself a Christian. You shouldn't be at church. What are you doing here? Answer, I'm here with all the other sinners. We all need God. But he tries to accuse you and make you feel so bad and so guilty and so unworthy. And of course the answer is, I am guilty. I am unworthy. Thank you, Lord, for saving me. Thank you for the blood of Jesus Christ.

Next, move on. So his dwelling is in heaven. His domain is the earth. Now, I did mention this, and I'm going to have you turn, if you're daring enough, to Ezekiel chapter 28, because the corollary to what we just read in Isaiah 14 is in Ezekiel 28. And as you're turning there, let me say to you that Ezekiel does exactly the same thing Isaiah does. Ezekiel begins with an earthly ruler of his day, in this case, the prince of Tyre. Tyre is on the sea coast of Lebanon, ancient Phoenicia of that time. And he addresses this earthly ruler, and it's a straightforward polemic, a verbal attack against the prince of Tyre. And we know who that was. It was a guy named Ito Baal II, who was puffed up with pride, and judgment is pronounced against him.

But then, again, there's a shift in the text. And in Ezekiel chapter 28, verse 11, it says, Moreover, the word of the Lord came to me, saying, Son of man, take up a lamentation for the king of Tyre. Now I want to talk about somebody even more powerful than the earthly ruler of the Phoenician empire, the king of Tyre, and say to him, Thus says the Lord God, You were the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. Now who is he addressing? Well, it doesn't sort of sound like it's the prince of Tyre.

It doesn't sound like it's Ito Baal II with this language. Look at the next verse. You were in Eden, the garden of God.

Okay, so who's he talking to? Who was in Eden? I mean, the population was pretty limited, right? It was Adam and Eve. And a shining one, the serpent, Lucifer, Satan.

There was only three. You were in Eden, the garden of God. Every precious stone was your covering.

The sardius, topaz, the diamond, the burl, the onyx, jasper, sapphire, turquoise, an emerald with gold, the ancient way of describing color. The workmanship of your timbrels and pipes, those are musical instruments, was prepared for you on the day you were created. You were the anointed cherub, that's an angelic being, cherubim, a cherub who covers.

I established you. You were on the holy mountain of God. You walked back and forth in the midst of the fiery stones.

You were perfect in your ways from the day you were created until iniquity was found in you. He's speaking to an angelic being, a cherub. You were the anointed cherub who covers.

He was covering or standing guard, presumably on God's throne. But then something happened. Verse 15, until iniquity was found in you. Iniquity was found.

That's the fall. The very next verse, verse 16, says, and you sinned. And then verse 17 tells us how.

Your heart was lifted up. Instead of covering the throne of God, now he's coveting the throne of God. This being was numero uno, minus the uno. And it was that minus the uno that bothered him greatly enough to think he could actually stage a coup against God, as we saw in Isaiah.

I will be like the Most High. Here's something interesting. Did you know in the Bible there are only three angels given names? Only three. Gabriel, he's associated with the nation of Israel and messianic prophecy shows up in the New and Old Testament. Michael, he's a warrior angel, and Lucifer.

Those are the only three given names. But the one in charge of them all was this one. The anointed cherub who covers, perfect in beauty. You're at the peak.

You're at the very top. So his dwelling was in heaven. His domain is on the earth.

Now let's follow his biography into the future, where he's going to end up. Back to Isaiah 14. In verse 15, it says, Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol. That's a Hebrew word translated in the New Testament Hades or hell. It's the abode of the dead.

It's the grave, often translated hell. You'll be brought down to hell. Here's a shocker.

This shocks most people. Did you know that Satan is not in hell? Wait a minute. All those cartoons said he is. All those stories people told me said he is. He's not in hell. Second shocker, he has never been in hell.

That shocks most people. Now that's not to say he won't be, because he will be in hell. That's his destiny. That's his destination. He will be in hell. And when he gets there, he's not going to be like all the cartoons and all the stories portray him as the chief tormentor of hell. No, no, he's the chief target in hell. He's the chief victim, not the victimizer. He's the chief victim. Jesus said that hell was made for the devil and his angels.

So what's going to happen to him? Revelation chapter 20, I'll read it to you, not the whole chapter, a couple of verses. Then I saw an angel coming down, don't know which angel, but what a great job. I saw an angel coming down from heaven, having the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand, and he laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him. That's when Satan is bound. Goes on to say, the devil who deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever. Yeah, amen to that hand clap.

I'm looking forward to that day. I mean, he's bound, he's incarcerated, he's there forever and ever, tormented day and night forever and ever. My mind goes to that great theological work, The Wizard of Oz. And the line which says, ding dong, the witch is dead. Right, it's a happy day when that happened. We don't know which angel this was, maybe Michael, that warrior angel, but what a great job to be the dude to handcuff the devil and incarcerate him.

Love it. Now back to our passage in Isaiah 14, did you notice the 16th verse? It says, those who see you will gaze at you and consider you, saying, is this the one, translated here, the man who made the earth tremble, who shook kingdoms, who made the world as a wilderness and destroyed its cities, who did not open the house of the prisoners? The reader here gets the impression that there will be a day when we are allowed to have some kind of viewing of the devil, some access to Satan, and when we do, we'll be amazed at how limited he really is, even how beautiful he really is. Remember what it said in Ezekiel 28, you are perfect in beauty. We have a misconception that because Satan is evil, he must therefore be ugly. But if that were true, we wouldn't be tempted. If evil were ugly, we would never be tempted.

We are tempted because evil looks so alluring and so beautiful, that's the draw, man. Right? We're going to look at him and go, that's the dude? That's the guy who caused all of the heartache?

Him? I mentioned the Wizard of Oz, do you remember the scene in the Wizard of Oz when Dorothy and Toto and the gang show up at the palace of the Great Oz and that big moving head on the wall speaks, I am the Great Oz. And a big fireball comes out and they cower back and just then Toto, the dog, goes over and pulls back the curtain and there's this little old man hunched back with a microphone and he notices them and says, Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain. See, what we discover is the great and powerful Oz is just a dude from Omaha. I think it's going to be like that.

If indeed there is a viewing and we see this Lucifer, this Satan, this god of this world, as he is called, is just a fallen angel who has been very, very powerful in his work. His dwelling was in heaven, his domain is on the earth, his destiny will be in hell. Now, let's consider as we close why. What was the problem? What was the essence? Since this is a crash and burn series and we don't want to repeat anybody's mistakes if they're the wrong choices, let's look at why. Verse 13, for or because. How are you fallen from heaven, O Lucifer? You've been cast down to the earth. For or because you have said in your heart. Now we're hearing the innermost thoughts of Lucifer.

This is what made him Satan. You said in your heart, I will ascend to heaven. I will exalt my throne above the stars of God. I will sit on the mount of the congregation on the farthest sides of the north. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds.

I will be like the most high. And yet you will be brought down to Sheol, to the lowest depths of the pit. This brings up a question. Where did sin begin? If you say, oh, it began in Genesis chapter 3, I would say that's a wrong answer. That's the fall of man. That's where Adam's sin began.

Those are the repercussions we all feel. But that's not where sin began. Sin began in the heart of Lucifer. It began in his thought processes.

When he said these, I was going to say famous, but infamous I wills. I will, I will, my will, my will, my will, above God's will. Sin began when a creature set itself against the Creator. And the essence of that sin, the root of it all is pride. Pride. No wonder the Bible says God resists the proud, but he gives grace to the humble. Pride is the oldest sin in the universe.

And it shows no signs of weakening with age. Still a problem. Like that cowboy from Texas who was visiting Niagara Falls. And his host, his buddy in New York knew that, you know, everything's bigger and better in Texas, but they don't have anything like this. So he said, hey, cowboy, do you have a faucet that big in Texas? Cowboy said, no, but we got plumbers who can fix it.

Yeah, whatever. Pride has always been a problem. And because of the pride of Lucifer, he goes from the shining one, the angel of light, to the prince of darkness because of pride. His desire was to be on the throne. His destiny is to be in the pit.

His ambition is to go up to the heights. His destination will be in the depths. Now what a difference, what a contrast this is to our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who said, I'm going to go down.

I'm going to humble myself. Philippians says, who being in the same likeness, the form of God, being God himself, he emptied himself. He poured himself out. He took upon himself the form of a servant and came like a man. And then it says, wherefore God has highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name, that in the name of Jesus Christ every knee should bow and every tongue should confess.

See the difference? Satan says, I'm going up. God says, no, you're going down. Jesus said, Father, I will go down.

And the Father said, therefore I will exalt you. So the way down is up. The way up is down. Get down, lower yourself. Humble yourself, the Bible says, underneath the mighty hand of God and he will exalt you in due time. Go low. Don't do this.

Do you know who I am? Go low. Listen, if God hates pride and if pride is a barrier to God's blessing, then what's the antidote? Be humble. Be humble. Humble yourself under the mighty hand of God. I'm going to close by giving you four exercises you can do every day if you wish that will cultivate humility in you and be the antidote to pride we all face. We all face it. So are there things I can do that will help cultivate humility?

Let me suggest four. Number one, prayer. Prayer. When you pray, you're depending on God. You're voicing your dependence on God. Why people don't pray?

Because they don't think they need to. I got this, God. I don't need to pray about this.

This is so small. I can handle this. And why is it that we have the attitude that says, there's nothing left to do except pray? Why didn't you start the day with that? Pray about everything. People don't pray because they're proud. Prayer voices your dependence on God. A second exercise, praise, worship. When we worship, our focus is not on us, it's on God. It's a selfless exercise. Even when you sing a song, you shouldn't be thinking, I don't like this song.

This song is too loud. It's not about you. You're using the song to talk to Him. You're giving Him your praise.

You're focusing on Him. Prayer, praise, or worship. Here's a third exercise. It'll work. Encouragement. Find somebody and encourage them.

Give someone else words of encouragement and lift them up and push them along. Again, the focus now is not on you, but it's on others. So prayer, worship, encouragement, and a fourth are acts of service. Acts of service. Perform a task that is not assigned to you. It's not my job. It's not in my job description. It's below my pay grade.

Well, do it anyway and watch what happens. As you not focus on you, but you focus on serving somebody else, watch what that does to you and does for you as well as for others. Prayer, worship, encouragement, acts of service.

D.L. Moody, I think, summed it up quite nicely. Be humble or you'll stumble. Doesn't that wrap it all up beautifully? It sort of ties a bow on the whole thing. It just sort of takes this whole message and boils it down to one sentence. You say, Skip, you could have just began and ended with that.

Be humble or you'll stumble. That concludes Skip Heitzig's message from the series Crash and Burn. Right now, here's Skip to tell you about how you can keep encouraging messages like this coming your way as you help connect others to God's truths. We want to connect more listeners like you to God's never-changing truths in these ever-changing times. So we would love for you to consider partnering in this work today so that many others can continue to know God's truth and be transformed by His love. Here's how you can take God's word to more listeners like you around the world. Visit connectwithskip.com slash donate to give your gift today. That's connectwithskip.com slash donate. Or call 800-922-1888.

Again, that's 800-922-1888. Coming up tomorrow, Skip Heitzig explains what happened when Satan took his evil scheme from heaven to earth and reveals how you can defend yourself against him. His strategy is to get you to think that what God said isn't the truth, but that He, Satan, will tell you the whole truth. God can't be trusted. His word can't be trusted.

And if His word can't be trusted, then you might as well replace the Bible with whatever you feel is right for you at that time. Make it up as you go along. Make a connection, make a connection at the foot of the cross and cast all burdens on His word. Make a connection, connection. Connect with Skip Heitzig is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never-changing truth in ever-changing times.