The Falling Star Bites The Dust Part 1

Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. We who run life's race face an adversary. He's called the Prince of Darkness and the Devil, but we don't have to let Him block the track. His weapons, lying in deceit.

What's our defense? Today, we begin a probing look at Satan, God's Devil. 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. Pastor Lutzer, many people think God and the Devil are like two equals facing off in a boxing ring, but the truth is far different isn't it?

You know, Dave, the truth is indeed far different. The reason for this series of messages is to help people to understand that moment by moment the Devil can do nothing without God's permission. You know, I believe very deeply in spiritual warfare, but oftentimes it is undertaken with a lack of faith.

We forget the fact that God is absolutely sovereign. And during this series of messages, we're going to understand the blunders that Satan made. We're going to understand the victory of Christ. We're going to have a better grasp of how it is that we can walk in the Spirit confronting the evil one with the resources that God has given to us. I think that this series of messages is going to be transforming. So now let us listen to the first in this series, and let's learn about the Devil, God's Devil, because after all, he is under God's authority.

Listen carefully. You were in Eden, the garden of God. With that statement, we are thrown into a world with which you and I are not familiar. It is a world of beauty, a world of harmony, a world in which there is only one will in the universe, and that will is the will and the purpose of God. It is a world that we can scarcely imagine. But it was in that world of all places that one of God's creation, one of God's creatures decided that he would take a cosmic gamble, which in the end backfired.

He actually tripped over a series of dominoes, and he did not understand how those dominoes were interrelated, and he could not fully appreciate the consequences of his decision. Who was this being that stood against God? Who was this being who decided to trade peace for war and to take on the Almighty? The Bible says that his name was Lucifer. That word Lucifer means light bearer or shining one. Now, he did not have any natural light of his own, but he was supposed to reflect the glory and the light of Almighty God. Just like today, the moon has no light of itself, but it simply reflects the glory and the light of the sun, so Lucifer was to reflect God, and evidently he did. Take your Bibles and turn with me to the 28th chapter of the book of Ezekiel.

Ezekiel chapter 28. What a description there we have of Lucifer before he became Satan. Now, you need to understand that God would never create a being who was as great and wonderful as God himself is.

That's unthinkable. God would never create a being that was omnipresent, omnipotent. God would not do that, but he will create a creature with creaturely perfections, and evidently Lucifer was the very best that God could do. He represented the apex, the strong apex of God's remarkable creation. Now, let's go through this passage of scripture, first of all finding out who this creature really was.

Who was he? Now, I need to tell you that in the 28th chapter of Ezekiel, there is a lament or a judgment against the king of Tyre in the first verses. And then beginning in verse 11, the prophet continues to speak against the king of Tyre, and now Bible interpreters come to a problem.

What shall we do? The prophet is saying things that could never possibly be true about a human being. And that's why throughout the centuries commentators have always seen in this a description of Satan who was really controlling the king of Tyre. And it's as if the prophet Ezekiel is going back and not only seeing the career of Satan, but even going through the corridors of time and seeing those days when Satan was really Lucifer, son of the morning, the shining one. And what we need to do is either begin to interpret the Bible very figuratively at that point, or if we want to interpret it literally in any way, we must understand the text that way. Because now what follows could not be a reference to the king of Tyre, but must be a reference to Lucifer himself.

Verse 12, son of man, take up a lamentation over the king of Tyre and say to him, thus says the Lord God, you had the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. You were in Eden, the garden of God. This is not the garden of Eden, about which we shall speak in the next message. This is a mineral Eden, a garden filled with beautiful stones.

Notice it says every precious stone was your covering, the ruby, the topaz, the diamond, the burl, the onyx, the Jasper, and it lists other stones. And what it is saying is that Lucifer was in effect the apex of God's beautiful creation. All of the beauty of God, the creaturely perfections as it would be possible, were poured into this one creature. Now it's very interesting as we read this text of scripture that we find that he was God's masterpiece, but notice not only the creature he was, but the duties that he performed.

What was he doing way back when? Well, let's pick up the text in verse 14. You were the anointed cherub who covers and I placed you there. You were on the holy mountain of God and you walked in the midst of the stones of fire.

What was he doing? That expression, the anointed cherub which covers could be a reference to the fact that he was simply a servant, but a scholar by the name of Barnhouse many years ago makes a suggestion which I find plausible, and that is that Satan, before he was Satan in the days when he was Lucifer, actually had a priesthood if you please. Because you'll notice in verse 18 in the middle of the verse it says you profaned your sanctuaries.

What was that priesthood? Evidently he had the responsibility of taking the worship of all of the angels that God had created and taking that worship and making sure that it got to God. He was to make certain that all the praise and the adoration of which God was so eminently worthy would make it to the throne of the almighty to which it all belonged. That was his responsibility. Now when you stop to think of it, you realize that he was doing this, but from what point in the universe?

Possibly the earth, possibly the earth. And now it's true that he had access to the very throne of God. He could enter into the presence of God as evidently can all the angels. But the sphere of his activity was the earth.

That was his abode. That was his assigned position. Later on we'll see that he is still given that responsibility even after the fall and the entrance of sin. And so we have here someone who was the cheerleader of the almighty. He operates from an earthly base.

He has access to heaven and his responsibility is to coordinate all of the singing and the glory and the wonder of the angelic choir leading it to make sure that God got praise. Well so far so good. How long did he do that by the way? We don't know. It could have been millions of years.

But now let's look at the gamble that he took. Verse 15. You were blameless in all your ways from the day in which you were created until unrighteousness was found in you.

What a statement. You were blameless in all of your ways until unrighteousness was found in you. What was the manner of that unrighteousness? Well we know it to be pride. It was pride. It was jealousy. God was getting all the glory. Notice it says in verse 16, by the abundance of your trade you were internally filled with violence and you sinned.

This was pride at its worst. Just like traitors who traded in Tyre. You see what happened is here was Lucifer who was supposed to take the worship of all of the created creatures and make sure that that worship got to God. That was his responsibility. But he allowed some of it to stick to his fingers. Just like there are traitors who all of the money that goes by them they keep a portion of it because they're cheating. In the very same way Lucifer must have thought to himself it's okay for God to get the honor and the glory and the praise.

That's no problem. But does he have to receive it all? Why can't I take some of it? Maybe at least 10 percent. Now we come to a theological problem that no theologian to my knowledge has ever been able to solve. Here's the question. You've thought about it.

That stunning statement. You were perfect and blameless in all of your ways until unrighteousness was found in you. And the question is why would a perfect being suddenly have unrighteousness erupt from inside of him? Or to put the question differently, why would a being who had all of these creaturely perfections, who supposedly was satisfied, how would it be that he then would become dissatisfied? Certainly the origin of evil was to make a choice. But why would he want to choose against God? Was not serving God the greatest honor that any creature could ever possibly have? Was not the responsibility of being the highest of God's creation and making sure that he would get all glory and honor?

Was that not a privilege of wonder and incredible grace? Why be dissatisfied and why choose unrighteousness? Well the answer to that is that for us as human beings there is no answer. There is no answer. Only God knows the real answer.

All that we know is that explosive statement. You were blameless in all of your ways until unrighteousness was found in you. He decided to make a decision and that decision based on pride and arrogance and jealousy landed himself in a situation from which there would be no escape. Your Bible is open to the 28th chapter of Ezekiel. Could you now turn to Isaiah chapter 14? It's always remember, easy to remember these passages because 14 has to be multiplied by 2 to get 28. Isaiah 14, you have the very same story except this is against the king of Babylon and once again we face an interpretive question.

Either we interpret it literally in which case we have to apply it to a being other than a human being or else we try to see all kinds of symbols that don't make a whole lot of sense. Isaiah 14, we pick it up in verse 13 where there are five I wills, the five I wills of Lucifer. I will ascend to heaven. Well he already had access to heaven but now he's saying I want to ascend into heaven because I want to take the place of God. That's what he means by ascending into heaven. I will raise my throne above the stars of God.

Who are the stars of God? The angels and now what does he want to do? He wants to raise his throne above them. He already was above them but that's not what he wants. It's because he was above them but that was a derived responsibility. That was something that was given to him of God. He wants to be above them by virtue of his own nature, by virtue of who he is. He wants to be among them so that he can really control them according to his own way. That's what he meant when he said I will exalt my throne above the stars of God. I will sit on the mount of the assembly. Wherever you have mountains in the Bible it has to do with kingdoms. He's saying I want to sit up there and I want to rule the kingdoms of the universe and then he says I will ascend above the heights of the clouds and perhaps there it is even a reference to the Shekinah glory which is spoken of in the Old Testament as being a cloud and then finally you get to the bottom line. I will make myself like the most high. I will be like God.

There you have it in a nutshell. Now I want you to know today that the decision that he made was the most colossal disaster and failure that one could ever possibly do. This was the mother of all foolish gambles. What was the chance that he could take on God and win? Less chance than there would be that I could win the lottery. Did you know that?

And I want you to know that I don't buy so much as a single ticket. Lucifer's chance here was nil. It wasn't one over a hundred trillion and googolplex is there a word like that? There is now. There was no chance like that.

It was zero. To take on God meant undoubtedly that he would lose. No matter how he spun the wheel, it was God who controlled the outcome. No matter how he threw the dice, it was always God who determined how those dice landed.

Colossal mistake. Now what I'd like to do today is to give you five limitations that Lucifer had, five limitations that guaranteed his doom. And you might want to write these down somewhere. Five limitations, five reasons why this gamble was absolutely doomed to fail and became an unmitigated disaster for him and for those who follow him.

Number one, think this through. He was limited in what he could achieve. He was limited in what he could achieve.

Now you just think of that statement, I will be like the most high. In what sense could he be like almighty God? You know theologians have certain words that they use to describe the attributes of God and there are many attributes but a few of those words are words such as omniscience. That word om means all, all-nition, all-knowing, omniscient, knowing all things both actual and possible. Could Lucifer ever be like God in the sense that he would know everything? The answer is no.

N-O, no. Satan can know that somebody in Dallas, Texas is planning the assassination of the president. He may have access to the perpetrator's mind, assuming that the perpetrator was not a believer in Jesus Christ and therefore not having any protection over his mind. So he knows what is being planned. He sees that the gun is being loaded but he has no assurance whatever that it's really going to come off.

Maybe percentages but he can't know it for sure. The gun might jam, the man might be caught before he goes into the Dallas school bookroom depository building, the motorcade might take a different route than was planned. There are all of these options that Satan cannot control and therefore he can have some probability in terms of predicting the future but he cannot predict the future infallibly.

Only God can do that. And that's why most of the predictions that President Kennedy would be assassinated in Dallas, if you remember, were made after the assassination rather than before. Now, this is why the Bible says in the Old Testament that the difference between a prophet of God and a false prophet is this, a false prophet may be right nine out of ten times but he will not be right all the time because there are too many factors that he cannot control, Satan cannot see into the future and therefore he may be wrong. But a prophet of God, speaking under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God, can never be wrong. He is infallibly right because only God knows the future with certainty, apodictic certainty.

I use that word because I don't get a chance to use it very often. Apodictic certainty, there's something about it that I love so there you have it. I'll say it one more time, apodictic certainty. That's God, but not Satan. So he can never be omniscient. Can he be omnipresent? God fills the whole universe simultaneously.

The answer is no. If Satan is fighting a battle in Korea, he cannot be fighting a battle in Chicago at the same time. He can through his demons as we'll be learning in this series of messages, but he himself personally cannot be present. He can travel through the earth at a very quick speed and around the earth, he has that ability to be suddenly present over here and then present over here, but he cannot be two places in one time. He can never be omnipresent like God. Can he be omnipotent?

No. God apparently has given him the ability to actualize himself in a physical way. All angels seem to be able to do that. But he cannot create something out of nothing in and of himself. He cannot create ex nihilo. He cannot create human life. He cannot create the sun, the moon, the stars. So in that sense, he can never be like God. Well, let me ask you a question then.

In what sense then can he be like God when he says I will be like the most high? Only in one regard. Only in one. And that is independence. Independence. 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 ABC, 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 a 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. My friend, this is Pastor Lutzer. Isn't it interesting that Satan rebelled that he might be totally independent? And as I've just pointed out, he is now totally dependent again because he has to look to God for his very existence and he can do nothing without God's permission. I've written a book entitled God's Devil. Now, you might find that title somewhat provocative, but Lutzer is quoted as saying, even the devil is God's devil. Now, the subtitle of this book is The Incredible Story of How Satan's Rebellion Serves God's Purposes.

Let me tell you, my friend, that if God did not have a purpose in allowing Satan to do what he does, then of course Satan would be allowed to run amuck, so to speak, and do his own will when moment by moment he is under God's control. Now, I wrote this book because I deeply believe in spiritual warfare, warfare praying, but at the same time we have to pray from a position of strength to realize the sovereignty of God. For a gift of any amount, this book can be yours. Here's what you do. Go to rtwoffer.com. This is so important I'm going to be giving you that address again, rtwoffer.com, or if you prefer, call us at 1-888-218-9337. Ask for the book God's Devil, The Incredible Story of How Satan's Rebellion Serves God's Purposes.

Call us right now at 1-888-218-9337. Ask for the book God's Devil. You can write to us at Running to Win, 1635 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois, 60614. Running to Win is all about helping you understand God's roadmap for your race of life. The Devil 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. Next time, more about how Satan got his infamous start and how he can do nothing apart from the permission of God. For Dr. Erwin Lutzer, this is Dave McAllister. Running to Win is sponsored by the Moody Church.