The Cosmic Crash; The Eternal Burn - Part A

I've discovered over the years that people make many mistakes, but two significant equal, but opposite mistakes regarding Satan. Mistake number one is that he doesn't exist at all.

Mistake number two is they become obsessed with him. Today on Connect with Skip Hyten, we'll kick off a new series titled, Crash and Burn, with a message from Skip that looks at who the devil was before he fell and who he is now. Hi, this is Pastor Skip, and we have prepared a package about seeing this life through the eyes of eternity.

Here are the details you'll need to receive this resource. Hell, here's what C.S. Lewis said about this subject.

C.S. Lewis wrote in his book, The Problem of Pain, these words, There is no doctrine which I would more willingly remove from Christianity than this, if it lay in my power. But it has the full support of Scripture and especially of our Lord's own words.

It has always been held by Christendom, and it has the support of reason. Ecclesiastes says God has put eternity in our heart. To help you understand what awaits both believers and unbelievers in eternity, we've put together an exciting resource called the Eternity Package, featuring Skip's booklet, Hell, No, Don't Go, and seven of his strongest teachings about eternity, including the truth about hell and what most people don't know about heaven. This powerful new resource package is our thanks for your gift of $50 or more to support the broadcast ministry of Connect with Skip Heitzig. So get your copy of the Hell, No, Don't Go booklet and the Eternity Package on CD or as a digital download today when you give a gift of $50 or more.

Give online securely at connectwithskip.com slash offer or call 800-922-1888. This eternity package is some of the most powerful information for you and to give to family and friends. See, if there is no hell, then the Bible is a book of myths. If there is no hell, then Jesus was just a misguided soul. If there is no hell, then the crucifixion was pointless. There's no significance in dying to save us from what? If there's no hell, then you should sin as much as you possibly can because it's not sin. It's just fun, right? It's just all about you getting pleasure in this life, sucking it like an orange, dry at every drop of enjoyment you can. So get your copy of the Hell, No, Don't Go booklet and the Eternity Package on CD or as a digital download today when you give a gift of $50 or more.

Give online securely at connectwithskip.com slash offer or call 800-922-1888. Okay, we're in Isaiah 14 as we begin today's teaching with Skip. So there was a worker who was laying carpet in a house and he finished earlier than he projected. He felt really good about that and thought he did a great job, but he looked over and surveyed his work where the carpet had been laid in the corner and he noticed a lump in the carpet. He goes, huh, I don't know what that is. He didn't want to rip it all out and start again.

And he also noticed that he was missing his pack of cigarettes. So he thought, okay, I'm not going to rip it up. I'm just going to fix it. So he goes over to the lump with a hammer and hammers it down nice and flat, right?

Just fix it and then I'll walk away from it. So he goes out to his truck and two things happen. Number one, he finds his cigarettes on the dashboard of the truck. Number two, the lady of the house shouts out to the worker and says, have you seen my parakeet?

Now, I can't tell you if that was a second pack of cigarettes or that was a parakeet underneath the carpet. All I know is that I would rather read about that mistake than make that mistake. And that is what this series is going to be all about, Crash and Burn. We're going to read about mistakes that have been made in biblical history, people in the Bible who made wrong choices, and we're going to learn hopefully not by making them but by reading about it and learning from it. This past week I was reading an article about a young businessman who makes a habit of studying successful entrepreneurs. And he said this, what I search for are the mistakes which set them back years so that I can identify if I have begun down a similar path and make adjustments to avoid a similar fate. So what we want to do is look out people in the Bible who have made choices and see the end road and the mistake that they made so that we don't make it. Everywhere around us, people are making choices.

Happens every day. Some people make great choices and we want to emulate them. But other people, frankly, make a mess out of their lives by the choices that they make.

But even those people provide for us opportunities to see what is the end result of the choices that they have made. And by the way, Paul the Apostle said that we ought to do that with biblical characters. In 1 Corinthians 10, he talks about the failure of the children of Israel in the wilderness. And he says, all of these things happened to them as examples and were written for our admonition. So if you are tempted to have sex out of marriage, you may want to read about David in the Bible or Samson in the Bible.

What happened to them? If you're inclined to just party your life away and make it all about gaining material wealth, it would be good for you to study Solomon's own journal in the book of Ecclesiastes to get wisdom. If you struggle with jealousy and envy, you might want to check out Genesis chapter 4 and what happened to Cain in the Bible. Or if you struggle with greed, go to the book of Joshua and look at what happened to Achan.

All of these are examples. It's wise to learn good lessons from bad examples. By the way, you know when you read the Bible, one of the most striking features is how honest it is about the heroes that are written about.

It tells you all about their failures as well as their good points, all about how they fall and make mistakes. Even the heroes have flaws. And by the way, not everybody written in the Bible is a hero. Years ago, when we used to have our annual fall fest right around this time, around Halloween, we'd provide an alternative for kids and make a big party out of it. But we'd always go to the Bible. We'd go to the Bible. We'd always tell kids, dress up like a biblical character. And it always gave me pause of what they're going to end up dressing like because after all, Satan is a biblical character.

It really wouldn't bode well to have a bunch of kids running around church with demon costumes on, but that is a biblical character. And that's the character we want to look at today in the book of Isaiah is Satan and his crash and burn because what happened to him provides the basis for all of the other subsequent people who have crashed and burned throughout history. By the way, when Satan fell, Jesus was there to witness it.

You know, he said that in Luke chapter 10. He said, I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. So in Isaiah 14, we want to kind of trace the biography, a biographical sketch of where Satan was, what happened to him, what his end is going to be, and what caused it. So we want to begin in Isaiah 14, and I'm going to draw your attention to verse 12, where we find out that Satan's dwelling was in heaven.

Verse 12, how are you fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning? How you are cut down to the ground, you who weaken the nations, for you have said in your heart, I will ascend into heaven. I will exalt my throne above the stars of God. I will also 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. Yet you shall be brought down to hell or Sheol to the lowest depths of the pit. Those who see you will gaze at you and consider you, saying, Is this 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 his prisoners?

I do need to give you a little bit of the backstory of this chapter without reading it all because of time. The chapter opens up with Isaiah addressing the ruler, the earthly ruler of the kingdom of Babylon, who would be judged. What's interesting about that is that when he wrote this to the king of Babylon, Babylon wasn't even on the radar screen historically.

It wouldn't even rise as a nation of any substance for some time. But Isaiah anticipates that one day it would rise, it would be a world governing power, the ruler would be cast out and would be judged. But then we get to verse 12. In verse 12, there is a shift, there is a change. It clearly changes in scope and it becomes conspicuous even to the most casual reader.

As you read, you go, huh, something has changed here. So in verse 12, how are you fallen from heaven, O Lucifer? Now Isaiah's gaze goes beyond a king who ruled on earth to some being who fell from heaven. And notice he's called Lucifer. The word Lucifer means light bearer or shining one. And if you're a Bible student that immediately causes you to think of a passage in Genesis chapter 3 where the Genesis passage opens up and says, Now the serpent was more cunning than any of the beasts of the field which the Lord God had made. And that word serpent is an unfortunate translation of the Hebrew word nachash which literally means shining one. Now the shining one translated serpent was more cunning than all the other beasts of the field which the Lord God had made. I'm bringing this to your attention so that you know that before Satan became the prince of darkness, he was the angel of light. He was the light bearer.

He was son of the morning, some terrific angelic being dwelling in heaven. I've discovered over the years that people make many mistakes but two significant equal but opposite mistakes regarding Satan. Mistake number one is that he doesn't exist at all. Mistake number two is they become obsessed with him.

Now those are at opposite end of the mistake spectrum but I discovered a lot of people make those. First of all there is denial. Most people don't even believe there is a devil. Most people around us in the world would just scoff at the idea saying he's a mythological character. It's ridiculous to think that one actually exists but you know you can't have a more powerful enemy than one you don't even know is there.

That's part of his strategy. Satan would love for you to see Genesis 3 as pure myth. He would love you to think of him as purely mythological rather than being a sophisticated knowledgeable resourceful being with a huge organization aimed at your destruction. That's what the Bible describes him as but that sounds so medieval, so antiquated. I began reading a book this week by George Barna.

It's his newest book called America at the Crossroads. He looks at the belief system of Americans and he said and I quote, barely one quarter of Americans believe Satan is a living entity. A similar proportion believes that Satan is merely the symbol of evil. The other half of the public are not sure what to make of the idea of the devil. Overall Satan is not a being or a spiritual concept that most Americans take seriously.

Close quote. However did you know Jesus took Satan very seriously? Very seriously and when the Bible speaks of the devil or Satan it always calls him a he, a him, never an it. It always describes personality to this being. So that's mistake number one, denial of his actual existence.

Mistake number two is to overreact. To be obsessed with him. An unhealthy fascination with the devil and even to think of Satan as the opposite of God which is ludicrous. That's what he would love you to think as well. He's not the opposite of God.

God created him and God is going to undo him in the end. But some become so obsessed that they even fancy themselves getting together and taking authority over the powers and principalities. They are fond of having meetings, seminars. I call them Satan fests where they get together and they identify and take power over the prince of this city and the power of that country and they even talk directly to the devil in these meetings and I've never thought it's good policy to pray to the devil. I'd rather talk to God about the devil than to talk to the devil about God.

But they love to do this. I think it's important that you simply understand in this series Crash and Burn that he fell from the height of heaven itself. And why is that important? Because no matter how close you are to God, that's never a guarantee that you won't make bad choices. No matter how close you walk with the Lord, you are still capable of making a poor or a series of poor choices. So his dwelling was in heaven. Then let's follow his biography.

What happened to him? His dwelling was in heaven, but his domain is on the earth. Verse 12, how are you fallen from heaven O Lucifer son of the morning?

Notice what it says after that. How you are cut down to the ground. See the word ground?

It's the heat of the Hebrew word Eretz, which literally means the earth. That is why modern translations will say you are cut down to the earth. I already mentioned that Jesus said in Luke chapter 10, I saw Satan fall like lightning, just instantaneous. He was kicked out. I saw him fall like lightning from heaven. The question is where did he fall from heaven to?

The answer is earth. He fell from heaven to the domain of the earth. He is called the God of this world. So the rebellion that began in heaven moved to the theater of the earth and you and I happen to be in the cross hairs of that invisible war. That war, by the way, is described in Revelation 12 briefly. It's described by saying so the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old called the devil and Satan who deceives the whole world. He was cast to the earth and his angels were cast out with him. In fact, it says 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 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 one, 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 an effect, the entire world, in his lap.

Did you know that? First John chapter five, 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, et cetera, 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 him?

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, 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. That's Skip Heitig, with a message from his series, Crash and Burn. Find the full message, as well as books, booklets, and full teaching series at connectwithskipp.com. Now, here's Skip to tell you about a trip to the Holy Land coming up in 2024. This is Pastor Skip, and we still have space on this trip that Lenya and I are hosting. We will be touring Israel from May 1 through May 12. I hope that you'll join us firsthand to see some incredible sites like the Sea of Galilee.

I'm sure you've always wanted to see that. The Temple Mount in Jerusalem and the Garden Tomb, the place many people believe is where Jesus rose from the dead. The final deadline for registration is December 31st, so there's still time to take action and join Lenya and I for the trip of a lifetime.

Find full Israel information at connectwithskipp.com. Be sure to tune in tomorrow for the conclusion of Skip's message and the answer to the question, Where Did Sin Start? 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. That's not where sin began. Sin began in the heart of Lucifer. It began in his thought processes. Connect with Skip Hyton is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never changing truth in ever changing times.