Q&A 27-30: Angels: The good, the bad and the ugly

As measured by Earth time, angels have been around for thousands of years, at least as measured by Earth time. All right. We're going to compress all that into the handout that you hopefully have in your hand and into less than an hour. All right. So fasten your pew belts. Yeah, actually this was a somewhat unplanned question, but obviously a fairly reasonable one.

Last week we touched on a very kind of narrow, you know, question about who are the sons of God, and I said I believe that scripture lays out fairly consistently that they're angelic beings, fallen angelic beings, sons of God in Genesis 6. So anyway, from that, from several questions relating to angels and Satan, basically, tell me everything there is to know about angels in less than an hour, six pages. Now, we call this a Q&A class, but in fact, by the time we're done, I have no doubt there will still be more questions, right? But let's give it a try. Oh, some slides here just initially.

Angels and demons and Satan, those are things about which there's a great deal of mythology, cultural confusion, things of that sort. different church groups and other religious groups relying upon these angels. You know, the Koran was revealed by an angel. The Book of Mormon had angels involved. The various other groups had angels involved. Now, here are some depictions of angels.

Here's a female angel in the upper left and lower right. Here's this male angel who looks very proud and defiant, who has his hands bound. I don't know why it doesn't have anything on top, but anyway. And the wings are dark. You also have male and female angels.

It looks like some sort of romantic tragedy or something. So you've got that sort of thing. We have all sorts of ideas. You know, we'll see some little kid and, you know, if at the moment they're behaving well, we might say, well, you're a little angel. Well, anyway, that's even more confusing. Angels are often, what's interesting is they are often depicted as females and babies, and we'll take a look at that.

Then there's these demons, and I don't know if they're depicted as females and babies too, but anyway, you have demons, you've got Satan, you've got evil spirits, what are all these creatures? Here are depictions of Satan. It's funny, I looked at various depictions, it's all the colors black and red. Almost all the depictions of Satan are black and red.

And some of them are a little playful, kind of guys like this, you know, it's almost like a sort of guy that as long as you didn't meet him at the wrong moment, you probably wouldn't be bothered too much by meeting him. And then some other guys that are guys you just wouldn't want in your worst nightmare. So at any rate, amazing the variety that's come about. Let's take a look at what scripture Question 27 and 28 go like this. Are there good angels going about the earth? What do we know about them? And is the term demon and fallen angel the same thing? What do we know about them?

And so we'll start at the top here. Angels appear to have been created all at once in great number. Hebrews 12.22 and Revelation 5.11. And by the way, what I will do for the most part here is from here on out, I'll pass on reading out the scripture reference, but you have it there, unless I particularly intend to make note of it. One of the reasons why that would be is because Jesus' statement, they don't reproduce, is actually contrary to all the mythology and dramatic presentations, there's neither male nor female. They don't reproduce, therefore must have been created all at once. either before the present heavens and earth were created or possibly very early in the creation process.

The Jews have three different traditions about when angels were created. Three of them. And they're contradictory. One is that angels were created on the second day. The other is that angels were created on the fifth day. And the other tradition is that the angels are created new every day So I don't know those make much sense to me To me the only one that is is reasonably possible is the first one that they were created on the second day Anyway Job 38 1 through 7 says that says that the Angels sang when the Lord created all the different things, and it's not possible that they sang when the Lord was creating things when they weren't there until the very last.

So that doesn't make much sense. It appears that God allowed them a window of opportunity to choose for or against him, after which both their wills and their destinies were fixed. The angels did not appear to be given any chance to say, well, I'm not so sure I should have done that. It appears they had a choice, a time of choice, to follow the Lord or not. And once they made their choice, that was it.

And no opportunity of salvation. The eternal lake of fire has already been prepared for Satan and his angels. As a matter of fact, where we get that from? is that Jesus said in the perfect tense that the lake of fire was created, prepared for Satan and his angels at Christ's time, which is a completed past action, ongoing results in the future. So it's already that the lake of fire is not about to be prepared, it is already prepared and was so when Christ said it.

And what's evident is that the fallen angels know that that's what's their destiny. Multiple indications. They know what the consequence of their choice will be. They are waiting for or hoping for more time. Real interesting, at one point in time A demon-possessed man has the demon speaking out of him and begging the Lord not to start judgment now. You're not going to start yet, are you? So anyway, you can look up that in the reference there.

I think that's Luke 8.28. Scripture reveals no offer of nor provision for salvation for the angels. Real interesting, we'll take a look at it briefly. I brought it up when we went through the study of Ephesians.

Ephesians 3.10 says that the angels learn about God's wisdom by watching us. So one of the ways that I put it is that we are angel college. By their watching us, we are the actual training demonstration for the angels to learn.

Isn't that interesting? And so it's a matter of the angels being told, look at what I'm doing with these people. That will teach you about me. So the angels apparently do not automatically and completely understand everything about God's character. They too are learning. Okay? A tour in the learning process. Alright, second paragraph there.

During their window of opportunity to choose four against God, Satan led one-third of the angels in rebellion against him. That's from our study of Revelation, Revelation 12-4. We'll be looking more on Satan in the next page there. These were relegated to the earth and the earth's atmosphere as their domain until the final time of judgment. except for those who took on the human male form, as we looked at last week in Genesis 6, producing the Nephilim as offspring. The spirits of those fallen angels who carried out this perversion in Genesis 6, as we talked about last week, are held in Tartarus, also known as the Abyssos, translated the Abyss, until their final judgment except for five months during the coming tribulation period.

Yes? Last week we said that the Abbasoth was not the same as hell. How is it different? It is sometimes translated different. Basically the Abbasoth or Tartarus is the alternate name is a holding place that is a temporary holding place for fallen angels I believe that's also where Satan will be held, and it's not the same as hell, which is ultimately the lake of fire, and both human beings and the angelic creatures that are headed for the lake of fire won't be committed there until a future point in time, a later judgment.

The first arrivals of the lake of fire will come during the tribulation period. the latter part of the tribulation period. Question. Yes. Is the Lake of Fire now there? Yes it is. Is there such a place? Yes, yes there is. And I made the point that Jesus said that the Lake of Fire, the eternal punishment, has already been prepared. Perfect tense. So it's actually, it's there. Right now the Lake of Fire is present but unoccupied. Okay? Present but unoccupied. Okay.

Those fallen angels who presently remain on the earth, that is demons or evil spirits, also known as, are responsible for the ill and antisocial behavior of some humans, especially in the first century AD. This is recorded in the book of Matthew through the book of Acts.

By the way, there's an interesting thing, and that's that people sometimes have the idea that miracles and miraculous spiritual demonstrations, like in demons, are somehow uniformly spread. But when you look at the Bible, there are concentrations of miracles. And for example, around the time of the Exodus was a concentration of miracles. There was a concentration of miracles around the time of Elijah. There was a concentration of miracles around New Testament times. So miracles are not uniformly spread, and neither are these demons in the form in which they show up.

Like the miracles, like all the other miraculous demonstrations, they come in waves and concentrations of period of time, including New Testament time there. They're responsible for the ill and antisocial behavior of some humans, and we see that described in the Gospels and the Book of Acts.

For idol worship, that's attributed all the way from Leviticus 17.7, Deuteronomy 32.17, Psalm 106.37, and 1 Corinthians 10, 20 and 21, as we saw. So it's both an Old Testament and a New Testament teaching that what is behind the idols is demons. these fallen angels or evil spirits. And particularly the word demon is used for being behind idols.

In addition to that, for false doctrine, 1 Timothy 4.1 refers to doctrines of demons. So interesting, these demons don't just do one thing, they do a variety of different evil things. and are involved with those. Even now, though, the demons are subject to the Lord's authority and they know who he is. They recognize who he is. Not only is it stated as the demon-possessed man comes to Jesus and he says, Jesus, you know, and begins announcing who he is.

But it actually says here, when you give Mark 1.34, where the demons do, it says explicitly, the demons do know who he is. It's interesting that demons have knowledge of who he is, and they also have knowledge of what is going to happen to them.

So they're not just going about oblivious and without intelligence. They do have some degree of intelligence. They're not omniscient and omnipresent, but they do have a degree of intelligence and knowledge. And what's amazing is how they could make the decision that they've made, and even knowing what the consequence would be. Kind of amazing that they would choose to do that. Yeah. It is amazing, but on the other hand, don't human beings sometimes do things knowing the consequences? Yeah, but they're there in the presence of God himself. It is astounding.

Revelation 12.4 says that a third of the angels were persuaded to follow Satan. And that's a rather stunning thing to say, OK, here you are. You are before the God of the universe. You know you're a created being. And yet this temptation is dangled out there. You know, you can be like God. And they went for it. At least a third of them did. Yes, sir. Yes. What's the total number? I have any idea.

Actually, we have myriads and myriads. Myriads, that's the largest number in the Greek numbering system, which is 10,000. So myriads of myriads, you're talking about 10,000s of 10,000s. And I think it's kind of a way of expressing it's a huge number and we have no idea how many. And the reason why I say that is because 10,000 was the largest number you could give in the Greek numbering system.

So it's like you couldn't come up with anything more. So 10,000s of 10,000s is like, you know, it's another way of saying tilt, you know. You pin this thing all the way to the max and then you pin it again. So a massive enumerable number beyond counting basically is the way it's put. Myriads in Hebrews, I think it's Myriads in Revelation.

This is probably total conjecture, but when you think of Islam and Mormonism and some of those, is there some reasonable that they're created by demons? Ah, that's a good point. He was asking, is there a reason for believing that some of these false teachings, Islam, Mormonism, things like that, are created by demons. I would say that there is a basis for believing that that's likely the case.

We don't have an explicit statement from scripture. But we know that, here's 1 Timothy, it says, there is such a thing as doctrines of demons. And by the way, those doctrines of demons, you think, heavens, what's a doctrine of demons? You know what Paul calls doctrines of demons? Forbidding marriage and not eating certain things.

So, I mean, that's all it takes. So it's creating arbitrary laws is all it takes, and both Mormonism and Islam have that. By the way, one of the terms for Mormonism that I've heard is America's Islam. Mormonism is America's Islam. Anyway, religious in question. I don't know that we have a definitive answer, but I think the answer is it's likely that demons had an involvement with the creation of these false religions. Okay. Was there another hand here? Okay. Though angels who are faithful to the Lord, about two-thirds of the number, they create a number of angels.

Revelation 12.4, they have often been artistically and dramatically portrayed as infants or women.

When they appear in human form in scripture, they always seem to appear as human males. And the two named angels who are faithful to the Lord are given masculine names, Michael and Gabriel. both Old Testament and New Testament. Testimony to that. Both Michael and Gabriel are named in the New Testament and the Old Testament. They are the only named angels who are faithful to the Lord.

As we'll see in kind of the last chart here on the back of your handout, Satan has a great number of names based on his roles and activities over time. Angels who are faithful to the Lord do indeed come to earth as messengers and agents of God sent from heaven to carry out God's will by His command.

Example, remember Gabriel comes to Mary and informs Mary that she is by the Holy Spirit to conceive and give birth. And Gabriel didn't just kind of wander around and, oh, hey heavens, and stumble into Mary, right? He was sent explicitly. And one of the things you'll find is the angels are sent with explicit duties, explicit roles, and they come from heaven to do so. That's the pattern that we see for angels. They come from heaven to do so. They're not just roaming about.

And angels, in spite of all the mythology, don't fall into romance and fall in love with human beings and things like that, at least as far as those who are faithful to the Lord. Let's see, the appearance of angels who are faithful to the Lord can be either one of shocking brightness, such that angels caution the humans that see them not to be afraid, as has happened often. Be not afraid, or don't be afraid, or any of those things. Do not fear. That's a repeated thing, both Old Testament and New Testament, when angels are seen in this brightness. On the other hand, they can appear as plain human beings to the point where they're not recognized. And it's interesting, they can do either one, apparently it will.

How about Jesus with the strangers on the road to Emmaus? Jesus' resurrection was not 24 hours old yet, and he was there with the strangers on the road to Emmaus, and it wasn't until he determined to reveal himself that they knew that they were talking to him and not just some stranger. So it's very interesting, there's a spectrum of how they can appear. They can be perceived as human to the degree that nobody present realizes that the beings are angels, but instead assume that they're human strangers.

Now, something else, and that is that it is possible for someone to have contact with angels and not even know it. an example that we saw in Genesis, where here's Abraham prior to the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, and here's Abraham entertaining angels, as Hebrews puts it, entertaining angels unaware. That is possible. And so here's an interesting thing, too. We talk about angels can be bright and stand out, and they can also be very inconspicuous. Because of that, it is possible that people have encounters with angels and never even know it. Not have any idea. And in a lot of cases, we might say it is possible that something happened where an angel was involved, but we could never know for sure. And just like I think Pat appropriately used the word conjecture or speculation, some things need to stay in that realm.

In various accounts, Nancy and I read about in a magazine about a house that was in an area where a fire was moving through, and this was just north of Carson City. And the magazine account said that the person who lived there was gone from the house and they came there and everybody was along the roadway because the fire was moving through that area.

And this is an area where there's dry sagebrush and the fire just roars through quick. And some person came up to one of the house owners and said, don't worry, I've taken care of your house and, you know, it'll be safe. And there's no, this person didn't recognize the stranger and they went later and the house had all been watered down. with a hose, and how did the guy know that that was the person? The guy took off shortly thereafter. Nancy and I drove up by there, and yep, there it was, the whole field just black for miles, and there's the house standing there. Was it an angel? Might be, you know, who knows? Get you in just a minute, okay? Keep the thought.

Nancy was at one point in time going around a turn, when we were living in Mendocino County, and she said, I was headed for a wreck. There was this big giant truck, and I was headed for a wreck. All of a sudden, she felt some huge bump in the car and just all of a sudden lurched into the right place away from getting in an accident. Was it an angel? I don't know. I'm glad she got bumped, right?

However that happened. So there will be things like that. This fellow who saw the fellow on the road that said something about don't worry about your house, we've got you covered. You'll never be able to confirm that. Is it possible? Yeah. Can you confirm it? No. Yeah. Now Russ?

I had a good friend that was in Hawaii. where he realized he'd gotten out too far. And so he was struggling to swim back, and he just couldn't get there. And he knew he was going to drown. All of a sudden, this young girl puts her hand on him and says, there's a sandbar right over here. And she goes, which is important, the sandbar. And he stands on there, takes his breath, and there's no girl around. Yeah, yeah, and it's one of those things where you say, well, that's really extraordinary.

Will I ever confirm it's an angel? Probably not this side of heaven's gates. And the reality is, just like I told you a couple, Russ told, we probably, each of us might be able to come up with similar accounts where we've had some closeness to the situation. You know, just like Abraham, you know, in the account, it wasn't apparent that these were angels until later. We may indeed cross paths with angels and not know it. It appears, however, that they don't just roam around and just kind of see what's going on. From any appearance, they appear to be appointed by God to come here and do what they're told to do.

So, real interesting. And it's one of those things, oh, maybe, perhaps the Lord will lift the curtain on that when we pass through heaven's gates and, you know, some of the, one of the angels said, hey, remember that, you know? Yeah, I was there, you know. God sent me. And maybe we'll get some confirmation of that. It would be real interesting. So, anyway, one note I'll make here, I see I said, angels learn about God's wisdom by watching us in the church, the last line there on the third paragraph.

I neglected to put the reference, Ephesians 3.10 is the reference.

There is also quite a variety of mythology, false teachings, and idolatry regarding both the angels who are faithful to the Lord and those who are not. So we must turn to scripture regarding angels of any kind in order to know the spiritual truth. John, the Apostle, twice in the book of Revelation, once earlier and once later, began worshipping an angel there on the heavenly scene.

Isn't it interesting, John was so out of context that he looked at this angel, and it's not because he had any intent to worship angels, he just, there on the heavenly scene, had such a difficult time discerning you know, things. He was so out of his own realm that the angels had to correct him. You know, hey, wait a minute, I'm not God, I'm an angel. So, and it's interesting, as a created being, the glory of those angels was such that John had a hard time telling, is this an angel or is this God? Twice he made that mistake.

Okay, let's turn to the flip side, page two. Questions 29 and 30 read like this. For what purposes does Satan have access to heaven? Are our failings and sins and all the bad things that happen to us a result of Satan or servants being out there after me all the time? Let's start from the top. Satan, who both rebelled against God and led the rebellion against God, Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28 give us some historical parallels there, and then Revelation 12-4.

He retains an authority of sorts. This is an interesting and important thing actually. One of the things we'll make note of is it is a serious mistake to do what is happening in charismatic circles. I've been in prayer groups where I've seen it happen, where people go around rebuking or binding Satan. Serious mistake.

And the reason is that there are warnings, 2 Peter 2.10 and Jude 8, against reviling angelic majesties. It is profound foolishness and an evidence of serious error. to think that that's something that we ought to do. Even Michael the archangel, it says there in Jude, even Michael the archangel said the Lord rebuked you. He himself didn't take that upon himself.

So there's strong warning in both those passages. Is there any rationale why that would be a problem? Here's the interesting thing. It says angelic majesties, and then it refers to Satan. Satan has a place of authority, even though he has chosen to be disobedient. And we are not in a place to command him personally, or to order things about. The Lord is the one who is to do that.

And I think it's a matter of the same thing here on earth. We have recognized authorities here on earth. And scripture tells us to recognize those authorities, not to be flippantly defiant of the authorities that the Lord puts in place. The same thing is true biblically. And the Lord has his judgment for Satan. It's spelled out in scripture what's going to happen. Satan's outcome is not in question.

He will be ultimately pitched out of his access to heaven, which we'll hopefully address here shortly. He will be ultimately chained, held in the abyss or the Tartarus during the Millennium. He will be ultimately thrown in the Lake of Fire, where by the way he will not be king, He won't be the head of, you know, hell or anything like that. He will have lost all power and authority. He will get his judgment.

It is not our place to go and do that. On the flip side, we also do have explicit instructions on how to deal with them. So I think that's the other part of it is we have explicit instructions on what to do. We have warnings on what not to do. And so to step outside of that is to be ignorant and possibly even defiant of what God has revealed. So in response to that, the counterpart would be to pray to God. Yeah, and we'll look at that shortly because we have explicit instructions.

Satan sought to be like God and through the serpent in the Garden of Eden appealed to Eve that she should be like God and Adam who was with her heard this. Satan's realm, this is the second paragraph there on page two, Satan's realm as head of the fallen angelic hierarchy is now relegated to earth although he has access to heaven to accuse and to appeal to God to carry out his strategies.

Satan doesn't just go there and have free reign. He does not have the place he once had. He turned that down. He stepped away from it. But he does have access to heaven to accuse. One of his names is the accuser. And what happens if Satan accuses you before the Lord? How does the Lord handle that? Does the Lord go, oh no, what am I going to do now? Is that the way the Lord handles it? No, what's going to happen is that if Satan accuses you, the Lord says, he's in Christ. And guess what?

The price has been completely and fully paid. So you got no accusation. No accusation at all. Yes. So he's always there? Well, what's interesting, he does say that he's going up and down. So it doesn't mean that he is always there, but he does have constant access. I think that's, in the big picture, is probably the best way to look at it. He could be there at any time. He has constant access. But he does say, for example, in Job, that, you know, where have you been? Well, you've been going about the earth, you know. So he has constant access. I don't get the picture looking at the total of scripture that that means he is constantly present there.

The roles and activities of Satan as the accuser, as the one who carries out strategies, are part of the lengthy list of names. We have a chart on the very back page of your set there, page 404 of the supplement. that has a list of Satan's names, the emphasis and the biblical passage that applies. So you've got a list of the names.

Some of those relate to, particularly when you talk about his coming and approaching the Lord. The last one there is the accuser, that he approaches God to accuse believers of ill. Then we have there in the third paragraph right above the bullets on page 2, from a practical standpoint the believer has three enemies. Now I think this is an important perspective. The Lord directs that we deal with each enemy according to the way in which scripture reveals. Notice scripture has a prescribed approach for each of the three enemies.

The one is the sin nature. The sin nature is one that is attached and associated with this body, and so guess why we need new bodies? One reason for needing new bodies is not because these things get old and worn out, not just that, but because of the fact that associated with this body and attached to it is the sin nature, and we want to get rid of that one day. And sooner is better than later, perhaps, even, right? We want to get rid of that sin nature that constantly troubles us. When we walk through heaven's gates, we won't be tempted by the same things, in part because the sin nature will not be there to appeal to.

So we have that. This is the internal source of sin. That's where sin comes from internally. We are to reckon, consider, count ourselves dead to the sin nature and alive to God. That's the quick summary. Romans 6 has it. That's a truth that goes from Romans all the way into 1 Peter. 1 Peter talks about being dead to sin and alive to righteousness. Even Peter wrote this identification truth relationship here. The next one, the world system which is subject to Satan and appeals to the sin nature should be dealt with similar to the sin nature.

Galatians 6.14 and Colossians 2.20 both say that we have died to this present world and the world to us.

Yeah, that is a part of it. If you look at it, all the organizations that are about, whether or not they're global or even local, all the different systems that are about, and today I would even say advertising, is something that sits there and squeezes you in.

We're seeing more and more, for instance, the President has sent Hillary as our secondary state, to the United Nations, to bring forth the Second Amendment of our Constitution. I have my National Library Association. But the point being is that we would lose a lot of our rights as Americans to the United Nations. Let me, I think, make one clarification, and that is while there are certainly things going on that are on a big scale and quite true, the threat from the world system that actually Scripture appeals to is don't be conformed by this world. In other words, this world has a mold for us. And at times large-scale geopolitical things can happen, and that may be the case, but the reality is that however it takes its shape, and it may be something that some large strategic thing like you're referring to, but it may also be something that just comes in the form of peer pressure. I guess what bothers me more than this is, to take this over.

Then that opens up the ability for them to step in and direct the First Amendment, which would then tell us what we can read and not read, how we can see it, not state it, and so on and so forth. And that gets into, do we have Bibles in the future, or do we read the Koran? I think if you were to step into the time of the Roman Empire, there were no rights. You know, I mean, the bottom line, you didn't even have it.

But what's interesting is whether we have the Bill of Rights or not, the world's system, the world's pressure is there. And it's interesting, in Romans, there's two conformities going on. In Romans 8, you're predestined to be conformed to the image of the sun.

But there is in Romans 12, then, the caution not to be conformed to this world. And so there may be overt things that are kind of geopolitical and strategic things, but whether those things are present and apparent or not, it's where it touches us that that's where we need to be cautious. Don't be pressed into this world's mold. That's the caution for the world system.

So anyway, there's the sin nature, there is the world, And we basically, because of having died with Christ on the cross, that identification truth, we have died to the sin nature and died to the world. Is the sin nature dead? No. You're quite mistaken if you think that that's the case. Is the world dead? No. That's not going to happen either.

This world system will in various ways appear better or appear worse, but the reality is we have to be careful at any age, at any stage, at any part of history, we have to be careful that it isn't the world conforming us, but that we're instead appealing to the Lord to do His conforming. Caution about letting the world squeeze you into its mold.

The third one, Satan will appeal to us through the sin nature and the world. The sin nature is kind of the foundational enemy, isn't it? The world is appealing to the sin nature and then Satan is going to use the world and the sin nature and his ability to work through those. So what you have is the sin nature and the world are Satan's instruments for influence. And so we need to deal with those.

Satan can also appeal to believers as well as unbelievers through his hierarchy of demonic creatures, right? This is why Paul writes to Timothy and cautions him about these rules forbidding marriage and, you know, don't eat this and don't eat that and that'll save you, right? These are doctrines of demons. Real interesting, you wouldn't on the surface perhaps think that demons have come up with that, but that is a demonic strategy. Even submitting to these man-made rules is something to be cautioned about. Demons are behind it. So how do we deal with it? We know what's true, right? Our place is to stand in our position and to resist Him. Resist Him in that way, by standing in our position. That's how we carry out our resistance. Right below that, the paragraph reads this way.

The way to deal with all three of the above enemies is to begin by knowing who we are in Christ and who Christ is in us. You've got to know who you are. where it's easy to have somebody else tell you who you are. And as a believer, who you are is defined by who you are in Christ and who Christ is in you. That's basic. Is the world around us trying to tell us who we are?

It certainly is, right? It's trying to tell you how you can be happy. If you just buy our fast food, then you'll be happy. That's the secret to happiness, right? You've just got to get our fast food and you've got to go there for breakfast, lunch and dinner. And if you do that, you'll really be happy.

And it doesn't matter how deep you are in debt, if you get the right car, the one that's on the TV screen, let me tell you, there'll be endless bliss. Even beyond the first payment when the guarantees pass. When the warranty's over, you'll just be infinitely happy, right? That's the way the promise goes.

And so even this world's marketing system, even this world's advertising can present things that try to sell you something. And here's one other thing. Frequently, it's an appeal to the sin nature, right? It's an appeal to the sin nature. Here is how you can be joyous, loving, satisfied, peaceful without God. You just gotta buy our stuff. If you just buy our stuff, then let me tell you, you'll have no problems in life. Life will be endless bliss. It'll be heaven on earth as long as you buy our stuff. Yes, that's right.

A friend of mine who markets to Christian bookstores took me to the Christian Booksellers Association here in Denver a few years back. And I walked around with him and he just was shaking his head and kind of looking at me and I said, this is all junk. And he says, that's right. He says the term for it in the industry is Jesus junk. Yeah, you can buy Christian bubblegum, you know? Christian bubblegum and Christian popsicles and wrappers and you can take anything, you know, anything out there and put some sort of Christian stamp on it and sell it.

Oh boy, okay. We can recognize the sin nature, the world, and Satan, and deal with each by knowing and understanding what God's work tells us about these things, thus having biblical discernment. The gift of discernment from a New Testament standpoint, when the New Testament wasn't written, does no longer exist. The gift of discernment isn't, I've got feelings in me. If not, I feel spooky, so therefore that's the gift of discernment. No. Gift of discernment was a New Testament gift to fill in for the time when the New Testament was not completely revealed and finalized.

Now we are to use God's words, the means of determining what is true and what is false. If we do not clearly know the truth, we will be more easily subject to deception. While we are most certainly not to be ignorant of nor negligent about Satan's schemes, it is possible for believers to be so focused on Satan and his minions that we take our eyes off the Lord. I've seen Christians that have done this. Boy, anything that seems like it's going wrong, or anything uncomfortable, and Satan's at fault. So all of a sudden I'm pushing aside rejoice when you encounter various trials because God's allowing it and intends to use it and all of a sudden you're binding Satan and rebuking him and I have no idea who keeps letting him go.

If we take our eyes off the Lord If we are distracted in that way, we are no longer beholding the Lord and therefore no longer being transformed. Remember, there are two processes that make us into the image of Christ. One is the conforming process in Romans 8. The other is the transforming process in 2 Corinthians 3. Those two processes are bringing us into the image of Christ. If we take our eyes off the Lord, that cuts off one of the processes. And Satan can get us distracted. Even just focusing on the negative thing all the time, you know, watch out for Satan. He can get you distracted.

I'll tell you kind of a funny story that I think makes the point. I love my grandparents dearly. Nancy knew that I was serious about her when I went and took her over to meet my grandparents. But they did some funny things in their older years. My grandmother would always send my grandfather out to buy things.

And one of the things she would say is, whatever you do, Earl, don't get yellow toilet paper. Do not get yellow toilet paper. Guess what he came home with? Yellow toilet paper. That's right. Why? It's because you can get so fixated on the negative that that's what you're thinking about. He couldn't think about anything else but yellow toilet paper. And by all means, that's what he got.

So if we focus on Satan out of balance with anything else, that's where our attention gets distracted. Even if we consider him an enemy, we need to keep our eyes on the Lord. And that's why God's word is revealed what it has revealed. Should we be ignorant of Satan? Absolutely not. We do need to be mindful of Satan and essentially mindful of our enemies.

We have three of them. Scripture has a basis for us to oppose and stand against all three of these enemies. All three of these enemies are terminal. Your sin nature is attached to this body. When this body is done, it's gone. The world is stuck here.

He may continue on through the centuries, but there will come a time when he's in the lake of fire. He won't be the king of the dunghill. He won't be the king of hell or anything of the sort. He'll just be in misery for eternity, just like everybody else who's there.

He's not one to be disregarded. He's not one for us to look at flippantly. But by the same token, we're not to put undue focus on Him. We're to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus. We're to keep our eyes on the Lord. Romans 5, 1 and 2 says, Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand. That's where we stand, folks.

This grace in which we stand, grace so immense, Ephesians 2.7, God will take into the rolling ages of eternity to demonstrate and show His grace. Now that's worth looking at. That's worth paying attention to. That is an awesome and amazing thing. Satan will be history and we will still be amazed by grace.

Let's pray. Lord, as we see these things, as we see these truths, certainly we can ask more questions, but the truth is we will always be learning about some things. We need to know about these beings here. There will be a day when we will join with the angels faithful to you. and glorifying you in the heavenly places. We thank you for what you have revealed. We thank you that you have revealed it because you love us and you care about us so deeply. We pray that you draw our hearts and minds to behold you. We pray in