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Ask Anything: Satan · Tabernacle Talk - A Bible Study Podcast with Pastor Bryon Self

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Welcome to Tabernacle Talk. Tabernacle Talk is a Bible study
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podcast brought from Tabernacle Baptist Church in Essex, MD.
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I'm your host Brian Self. We hope this podcast encourages
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you to know Christ, grow in his word and show his love to
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others. Let's dive right in.
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Welcome back to Tabernacle Talk. I am really looking forward to
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this episode today. This is an ask anything episode
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and going to be looking at one particular question today and
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that is the topic and person of Satan.
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And so I'm really, really looking forward to this study.
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This is something that I'm really passionate about
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something that I enjoy and you might go wait, why did why did
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Brian enjoy Satan? Well, it's not Satan himself
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that I have a particular thought on.
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Rather, it is what Satan is do what's coming to him and the
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fact that our God is just and he is good.
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And so I am excited for evil to be finally conquered and
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eradicated in our world. And so we're going to look today
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at the topic of Satan. And the particular question that
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had come in was that I had mentioned before that Satan is
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not currently in hell. And so the person wanted to know
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a little bit more about that. I'm going to give the the quick
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and easy answer right away, and it's because the Scripture never
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tells us that he is in hell. And actually, it doesn't mention
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that Satan will be in hell until after Jesus has returned.
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And in the final condemnation of evil, he will throw Satan into
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the lake of fire. So that's that's what Scripture
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says. I'm going to give you a little
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bit more back story though, 'cause that'd be a tremendously
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short Tabernacle talk. And so I'm going to tell you who
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Satan is, who he is, not what his purpose or what his identity
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is, who God created him to be, and then how we are called to,
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if you will interact with him or not interact with him, what we
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should be wary of as regards Satan.
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And so I believe this time we'll be edifying.
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I know in my heart, even as I was preparing some notes for
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this, I went, God, thank you that you are the one who is
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victorious, that Satan is nothing compared to you, and
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thank you that you give us victory through Christ Jesus.
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So going to start off first with this.
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Satan was created by God. Satan is not a rival to God.
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Satan is not a brother or Co created being with Jesus as many
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cults today have said, the Son and Father and Spirit they are
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one. There is one God who together is
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uncreated who is the cause of everything in existence.
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There is no creation of the Son or creation of the Spirit, but
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instead our one triune God has existed, did throughout all of
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eternity past and will exist to all eternity future.
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Satan is created and even as we look at perhaps the timeline of
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when did Satan come into existence, Genesis chapter 1
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would give us the indication through the creation of the
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heavenly beings. That is those sign.
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There's signs in the skies to indicate day and night and the
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time of year and the time of the month and all of those things.
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In the Old Testament when the heavenly beings are mentioned,
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and by that I mean sun, moon and stars, it's almost always
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connected with this spiritual reality as well the the
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spiritual beings, angels and what would later become demons.
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That is to say, not that the sun or the moon or something is a
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spiritual being in and of itself.
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It's not that you look at the sun and you go, OK, well that
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must be this particular, you know, spiritual being.
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This is Gabriel or this is, you know, Satan is Venus.
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It's not like that, but instead just as far away in control
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things, if you will, signs, planets, stars, shooting stars,
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comets, meteors, all that, that give indications to us that if
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you will, in the mindset of those in the ancient Near East,
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it was almost like they control some aspects of our lives.
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That when these things show up, it is now this time of year,
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when these things appear, we know that there will be, you
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know, a high tide or there will be this or that.
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And so in their mind it was there is a alternate reality.
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There is a place far and above us and there are other beings
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that are in charge of things that we have no control over.
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And so in one sense they are greater than us.
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And so it became a way to think about the spiritual beings, that
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is things that are unseen but yet have an impact on our world.
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And so a great way to talk about that was the celestial beings.
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And so you and as you look at, you know, ancient Greek and
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Roman, I almost said theology, I don't know if that religions,
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they thought that those particular items were the gods.
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So they said, you know, Jupiter, this is this God as opposed to
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when it's written in scripture, it's this is a picture of this
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other reality. We don't have some sort of
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concrete thing that we can point to and say just, you know, go to
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this location and you can meet Michael or Gabriel or whatever
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other Angel or demon. And so things were pictures of
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spiritual beings. And so Satan, when you look at
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the creation narrative, the seven day creation narrative in
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particular, you would look at day, day #4 when God had
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inhabits the space above the heavens with the sun, moon and
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stars that he places the heavenly beings in their
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location and they are called to rule over days and nights and
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seasons and times and all of that.
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You can look at Genesis one for some of that.
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So that would be the first kind of elements of it.
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And then in in Genesis chapter one on day #5 God puts the birds
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in the air, He puts the fish in the sea.
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And then it says, and he made the Teneen.
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Also several translations will have that as the great sea
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monsters. This would be in other religions
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in the ancient Near East. They would say there's like
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chaos creatures, normally some sort of sea serpent type thing
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that rules over the sea and the sea always wants to take back
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over the land and to destroy it. And so as the writers of Genesis
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are writing, they say no, anything that exists, God has
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put in place. And while yes, there are, if you
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will, chaotic elements to our world.
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You can think of hurricanes and tornadoes, you can think of
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floods, you can think of tsunamis, and these different
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things that destroy and take life.
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But everything that exists comes from God.
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Not everything operates in the way that God intended it to
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because of some choices of free will.
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And we'll look at that just in one second.
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But as as the writers are thinking about the sea and about
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the forces of chaos, one of the words that comes up over and
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over and over again in the Old Testament is tannin.
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It is the great sea serpents, those masters of destruction.
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Again, this was not Speaking of a literal creature, but a
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figurative spiritual being that is seeking the destruction of
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life and humanity. And so that became a way that
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all throughout the Old Testament, if you do a word
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search on the tannin or the Tanninim, you would you would
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have to go to like Blue Letter Bible or Lagos or one of those
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ones that works with the original languages.
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You can see this used as a picture of spiritual beings over
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and over and over again. So whether day four in the
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creation of the sun, moon and stars, the heavenly beings, or
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in day 5, those elements here on earth that are destructive and
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chaotic and seeking the destruction and death and
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eradication of life and of and in particular of humanity, this
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is where we would place the creation of spiritual beings
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from that particular narrative. They precede us.
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The spiritual beings are older than the physical beings.
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And so that would be when Satan would be created.
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And I also want to mention as well that Satan was within the
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Garden of Eden initially as a spiritual being.
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In Ezekiel chapter 28, God says that he was a guardian cherub.
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He was on the holy mountain of God in Eden, the Garden of God,
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and he was interlaid with every kind of precious stone, and yet
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he rebelled against God through in in many ways.
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When you look at Ezekiel 28 and Isaiah 14, it almost seems that
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it's not that Satan fell from heaven, came to earth to the
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garden, and then fell and then caused the fall of mankind
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there. It's almost conjoined that
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Satan's fall from walking with God, communion with God, that
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happened in the Garden of Eden. That was the choice in which he
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fell. Eden was that place, that
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mountain where you have, if you will, heaven and earth
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overlapping, where there are spiritual beings and there are
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physical beings that were both there.
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And so that would make some sense of even why Adam and Eve
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didn't have a reaction to a talking serpent.
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Because as you look at the rest of Scripture, look at Isaiah 6,
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you can read about the Seraphim. That would be Seraphim, the name
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it means like burning the burning ones.
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It would always almost be like flaming snake guardians that are
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within the the throne room of God.
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And so it wouldn't have been odd for them to see these incredible
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creatures that are somewhat like our creatures here on earth, but
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very different and with the ability to speak.
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And you can look at Revelation 4 and 5 for some of that.
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And even Daniels trying to remember, there's a portion in
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Daniel where it also describes these beings.
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So all the way as you go through, you have these
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spiritual beings that often have some physical tangible elements.
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I'll say this as well, in Genesis 1, you have the
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Tanneneem, the great sea serpents that are mentioned.
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And then in Genesis 3 you have a serpent that instead of it being
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in the ocean far away in the chaos realm, if you will,
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instead it is within the garden. And so there's all sorts of
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pictures within Genesis showing us this is not just any like
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regular snake, this is a spiritual being.
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And the rest of Scripture names him as Satan the Devil.
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I do want to mention as well, Satan's name is the he is the
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accuser. So Hasatan would be more or less
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the name that is given. And that's not a proper name.
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It's it's a title. It's a job title.
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The accuser or the prosecution that Satan's job within God's
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court. And he does have a job.
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He's not just, if you will, doing whatever he wants.
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He actually has something that he has been given to do by God,
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which is you are to point out when people have sinned and done
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wrong. If you will show me where I need
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to bring justice or if you will bring the hammer down.
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And so as you look at the story of Job in chapters one and two,
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you can see Satan doing that where he tries to accuse people
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that haven't even done anything wrong.
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You can look at Job and and God providing a defense that God is
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the defense attorney against Satan's accusations.
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And you can read in Revelation chapter 12 that Satan is called
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the accuser of the brethren of the brothers and sisters in the
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Lord, the believers, and he accuses them before our God
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night and day. And so that is Satan's role.
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He's not just wandering wild in the world, but instead he has a
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specific job that he has been that given by the Lord.
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And if you will, he is the accuser who knows that his day
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in court is also coming. And so he bears a hatred towards
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humanity and that was even part of why he caused mankind to sin,
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that this, if you will, this second born, this late Comer was
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exalted even above what the spiritual beings had.
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The God created mankind for relationship in a way that he
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did not create the spiritual beings.
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He did not create them for relationship.
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He created them to serve and he created mankind that he would
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love them and care for them. So Satan hates humanity and so
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he instead he wanted to be in charge.
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He wanted to be God. And you can look at Isaiah 14
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and Ezekiel 28 to look more at that.
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And he caused the fall of mankind through his temptation
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of Eve. But I'm thankful that in Genesis
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3, God promised Satan that he would eventually be crushed
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forever through a human descendant, through the seed,
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the offspring of the woman. That one from her lineage would
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destroy Satan forever. And you might go, OK, well, how
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are the humans going to defeat Satan?
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He is more powerful, He's more crafty, He's more intelligent.
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You can't just stab him with a sword.
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How in the world can you defeat Satan?
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Well, and it was through Jesus Christ and the one who was the
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perfect Son of God from all eternity past, and he was the
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one born 2000 years ago to the Virgin Mary, and he was the one
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that crushed the head of Satan through accomplishing
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redemption, that we were purchased back from the power of
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Satan. That just as Adam and Eve had
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listened to Satan and followed him, in one sense he became
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their king and their ruler, or as Paul said in Ephesians 2, he
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is the Prince of the power of the air.
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Or as Paul would also say in first Corinthians 2, that Satan
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is the God of this world. He's the one that's in charge.
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He's calling the shots and we listen to him before we come to
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Christ. Whether people know it or not,
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they are listening to Satan and they are accomplishing his will.
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But he was dethroned. He was crushed through what
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Jesus accomplished for us. That his power has been His
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power has been undone. And instead we now have a new
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King, King Jesus, the only worthy king, Satan.
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We can see in the Old Testament. He personally attacked key
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leaders like Moses and David. I want to encourage you, pray
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for your leaders, whether in your home, in your country, in
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your church. Pray that they would not fall
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into temptation, but that they would be delivered from the
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evil. 1 Even as we would read in the Lord's Prayer, Satan is
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considered the icon of sin and death and evil, personifying
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everything that is wrong with the world.
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The world is under the power of the Prince, of the power of the
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air, and those against God are, as we learn in Second Timothy
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chapter 2, they are captured by him to do his will.
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And so pray for people that they would be loosed from the
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blinding power of Satan and that they would realize the gospel.
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And we read about that in First Corinthians chapter 2 as well.
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I'm thankful that not only was Jesus crushed through, sorry,
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not only was Satan crushed through what Jesus accomplished,
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but Romans 16, the Apostle Paul tells us that the God of peace
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will crush Satan under our feet shortly.
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And that every, every time that we meet together, every time
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that we see someone except the Lord, every time someone follows
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the Lord and believers baptism, every time God's people are
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praying, we are crushing the head of the serpent that over
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and over and over again he experiences the loss of what he
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had or the loss of a soul that was following him because Jesus
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is victorious over and over and over again.
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And so I'm thinking thankful for that, that we don't have to fear
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Satan like perhaps people in the world might fear a evil
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malevolent being. No, he is powerless against
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Christ. And so the we are not personally
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arrogant against him. We realize that he is a defeated
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foe who suffers defeat every single day and will one day end
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up in hell. So I want to mention as well the
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question was, OK, well is Satan not currently in hell?
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No. We have nothing that says to us
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that he is in hell. And in fact, in first Peter
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chapter 5, we're told that the devil walks about like a roaring
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lion, seeking whom he may devour.
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Satan is looking for people that he can destroy the lives of that
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they would alienate themselves, they would alienate their
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friends and family, that they would be unlike God and all of
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their words and thoughts and actions that they would take
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life or that they would make life miserable for others.
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That is the way of Satan and Satan is looking for that.
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Even as we saw in Ephesians chapter 4, Satan works through
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the anger of people that through violence and and wickedness,
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evil, slander, all of those things.
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Satan accomplishes his will, which is why Paul told the
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Ephesian Ephesian church, don't let the sun go down on your
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anger. Be be angry.
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Have you know have some desire? For justice in your life, but
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don't allow that to run how you live because that will give
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place to the devil. So the devil works through your
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anger. So be wary of that.
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There can be a good anger, an anger that wants justice, but
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Satan is the accuser. He's the prosecution.
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He wants quote, UN quote justice as well, but he will lead you to
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not rely on God's sentencing and God's judgment.
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He instead wants you to be judge, jury, and executioner in
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the lives of those around you. As we close today, I want to
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look just very briefly at what is Satan's end.
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So we've seen Satan's beginning. We've seen what he does, how he
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operates in the world, his goals to attack leaders, to destroy
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people, to work through our anger.
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But he has a certain future. Satan will one day lead the
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whole world in rebellion through his kind of unholy Trinity.
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So Satan will have his false Messiah, the the Antichrist and
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his herald who's called the false prophet in Revelation
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making a sort of unholy Trinity with Satan kind of taking the
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role of the Father, mother, the Antichrist, taking the role of
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Jesus the Son and the herald. The false prophet will be like
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the Holy Spirit who tells people about the Son.
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And so he or Satan will make his his unholy Trinity and he will
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try and lead the whole world in opposition and rebellion to God.
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But we are told that upon Jesus's return, he will be
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thrown into the bottomless pit for 1000 years at the conclusion
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of the tribulation that Satan will be thrown into this
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bottomless pit. It's the deep he has not even
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during that time. So as Jesus returns at the end
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of the tribulation, the the Antichrist and the false
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prophet, they are thrown into the lake of fire.
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But Satan is not thrown into the lake of fire at that point.
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Instead, he's thrown into the bottomless pit.
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He is chained. He's he's, he's restricted and
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thrown into this pit for 1000 years.
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At the end of that thousand years, Scripture says that he
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will be released from his imprisonment for one final
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rebellion against God. He will amass an army of
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everyone foolish enough to follow him during the earthly
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reign of Christ in the Millennium.
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And as that army is totally destroyed from heaven by God
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himself, Satan will then be thrown into the lake of fire.
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That that fire is pulling from the fire of God's presence, and
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it it amasses in one place is kind of the picture that
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Daniel's going for from Daniel Chapter 7 and then Revelation
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1920 and 21. So Satan is then thrown into the
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lake of fire, and that fire is the fire from God's presence.
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It comes from His very throne, from His being.
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We read the verses in Hebrews. Our God is a consuming fire.
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This is His Holiness, His making right evil, and Satan is thrown
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into the lake of fire, and scripture says that he is
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tormented day and night, forever and ever with the fire of God's
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own presence. Some people, mostly from
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cartoons, honestly have thought of Satan or the demons as like
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being in charge of hell or that they are the ones doing
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tormenting of other people. Nothing could be further from
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the truth. In fact, what we read in I
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believe it's Matthew 25 is Jesus says hell the the lake of fire.
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This place of punishment is prepared for the devil and his
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angels, that Satan is the one that the lake of fire is created
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for, and that he will be punished day and night, forever
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and ever and ever as just punishment from a holy and good
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and righteous God. That Satan will not get away
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with anything that he has ever done, but for all of eternity
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he's going to be tormented, being in the presence of God.
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And on that day we will recognize the justice and the
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goodness of our God. That evil is destroyed.
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Or even as we read in Revelation chapter 20, that even death and
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the grave are thrown into the lake of fire and they are
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consumed. That for the child of God, for
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all of eternity, we experience God's goodness.
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We are in God's presence and we love it because we love being
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around Him. But Satan cannot stand it.
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And So what is blessed to us is torment to him forever and ever
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and ever. I'll give one illustration.
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This is a little silly, so I apologize.
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I love Hawaiian pizza. It's delicious to me and you
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could feed it to me once a week forever and I'd be super happy.
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I would love that. I have friends.
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I don't think my friend Mike or my friend Hannah ever listen to
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this. If you do, I'm glad that you're
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here. They hate Hawaiian pizza.
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They believe that pineapple doesn't belong on pizza.
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And so if you were to feed them Hawaiian pizza once a week, that
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would be their least favorite meal for years and years and
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years, because they don't love it.
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They don't want to have that in their life.
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So here, God's presence is good for us.
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We love it, we want to be around it, but because Satan hates God,
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he has no desire for God's presence.
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It is a constant source of torment for him, and I'm
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thankful that evil will be done away with.
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It is punished, Evil itself is tormented forever and ever.
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But we who are imperfect too, sometimes Satan can bring
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accusations to God of stuff we have legitimately done because
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of Jesus. We have been forgiven and
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restored forever that no one can bring anything to the charge of
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God's elect because it is Christ who justifies, who intercedes
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for us on the right hand of God. He is our defense attorney.
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And so I love, I love my God. He is a good and just and right
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and perfect in all of his ways. Satan is a defeated foe with
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eternal torment awaiting him. So today, don't listen to him.
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Don't give in to your anger. Don't give into the temptation
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to think that God's holding out on you or that you could have
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more joy if you were outside of the presence and will of God.
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Instead, pursue Jesus, the one who crushed the head of the
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serpent and through our life today, we can crush the head of
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the serpent again and again and again through telling him you're
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defeated. I'm not listening to you.
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I'm listening to the Lord. You know, I, I love the song.
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I thank God the the bridge of which goes the hell lost another
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one. I am free so no.
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This was a a bit longer of an episode so thank you for tuning
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in. I hope this was an encouragement
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to you. If you have any more questions
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about Satan or devils, the End Times, anything like that, would
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be happy to have another episode on it.
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Beginning next week, I'm moving to a weekly format for
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Tabernacle Talk. This will save me a ton of time,
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especially as I go into a really, really busy season of
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ministry. And so I appreciate I'm not
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going to do just weekly forever. There'll be times that I move
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over to doing weekdays. So I think I'm going to be
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completing book 5 of Psalms will be my next study.
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And so when I get to Psalm 119, I'm going to have that one be
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weekdays because there's 2222 sections in Psalm 119.
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And so I'll go through that one on weekdays, otherwise it'll
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take me, you know, a year to get through just book 5 of Psalms.
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So that's what's kind of on the road ahead.
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But thank you for tuning in. Have a wonderful day.