Other Truths (3); Reality & Personality of Satan

Well, we are hopefully turning a corner in our study this evening. We will finish up a couple of loose ends on what the Bible teaches about angels and then we'll move into an extension of that study but focusing more on Satan. Now, obviously, Satan and demons are still in the realm of studying about angels because they are angels, they are evil angels. But we've been spending a lot of time on good angels and we'll turn the corner tonight begin to talk about Satan and his demons. We're going to make it a little more difficult for Jim to find hymns that go along with our study, aren't we? Although he found one tonight, didn't he? The Satan was in that first song we sang. I mean, his name was mentioned. I'm not saying he was in the song, but his name was there. All right, just tying together one loose end on angels. We've been looking at several other truths, just kind of miscellaneous, wrapping it up kind of truths about angels. We've looked at several things. Jean, go ahead and put that on the screen there because I've forgotten what we looked at. A number of angels, organization of angels, the ranks, our attitude toward angels. We saw last week that our attitude can be one of respect and gratefulness, appreciation for all that they do for us, but certainly not to worship angels. Then we looked at the identity of the sons of God in Genesis chapter 6 and wrestled with that issue and some of the different views that are taken on that issue. We're going to do a similar one tonight to finish up the section on good angels, although it's not near as controversial as the one in Genesis. This one in 1 Peter 3. The identity of the spirits in prison in 1 Peter 3. So open your Bible to 1 Peter 3. We're going to look first of all at verse 18 and read into verse 19 then in 20. Verse 18 says, for Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive in the spirit. After being made alive, he went and made proclamation to the imprisoned spirits or to the spirits in prison to those who were disobedient long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built and it only a few people ate and all were saved through water. Now who are these imprisoned spirits, are spirits in prison that Christ went and preached to or made proclamation to? Well there are several views as to who these spirits are, examine briefly three of them. Some people believe this passage is teaching that Jesus went into Hades and preached the gospel to all the lost. So they think these spirits in prison are the lost of all the ages and that after his death Jesus actually went to proclaim the gospel to those who were already in hell. That certainly is not the correct view of this passage. There is no indication anywhere in the Bible that after people die they are given a second chance to hear and receive and respond to the gospel. So the plan of salvation and a person's response to that is decided here while they are living on the earth, not after death. And so the Bible is pretty clear, it's appointed a man once to die after this the judgment. I mean death seals your destiny either in heaven or hell so this doesn't seem to be the appropriate way to look at this passage. So the spirits in prison in some place of punishment are probably not the spirits of lost people from all the ages past. The second view of this passage is that these are the men of Noah's day or the people of Noah's day. These imprisoned spirits, since he goes on to mention they were disobedient long ago when God waited patiently the days of Noah while the ark was being built. There are those who say, well this passage is referring to the spirits of people who died but they were people who lived in Noah's day and according to this view many believe that Christ preaching to them was not after his death but Christ was preaching to them through the ministry of Noah. In other words this way of looking at the passage is that Jesus went and made proclamation to the imprisoned spirits to those who were disobedient long ago during the days of Noah and this view takes it that Jesus actually proclaimed the gospel to them or preached to them through Noah while they were alive on the earth but now they are dead and their spirits are in hell. The difficulty with that view is that it doesn't really tie the proclamation of Jesus to his death and resurrection and this passage does seem to refer it to the death and resurrection of Christ. It's after being made alive that Jesus goes and makes proclamation to the imprisoned spirits not while they were still alive in Noah's day and they are now in hell but the proclamation of Christ himself seems to be after his death and resurrection. So those first two views are kind of sketchy. The third view is that what we are talking about here is the confined angels. The confined angels. Remember we saw earlier that there are some angels mentioned in 2 Peter 2 and Jude, the book of Jude. There are some angels that are confined in what is called Tartarus, a special place of punishment because of some grievous sin and we talked about that last week. I'm trying to see whether or not they were identified with the Genesis 6 story and it is my impression that those are not angels in Genesis 6 but the imprisoned angels are angels who may have been leaders in the rebellion of Satan against God's kingdom in heaven against God and they were overthrown. Well this may be referring to those confined angels. Those angels that are confined, they are spirit beings after Christ's resurrection. He goes and makes proclamation to them. What did he proclaim to them? Quite possibly if this is the right view, he may have announced the judgment that was accomplished at the cross to these imprisoned spirits announcing it in the sense of announcing his victory over them and then he is exalted over them when he ascends back into heaven. It is kind of like the Genesis 6 passage. All three of those views have difficulties. There are pros and cons to each of them. So it is hard to say for sure. I think we can say pretty certain there is no second offer of salvation to people who are in hell. I think we can rule out that view. But the other two, whether or not it was men and Noah's day, that Jesus preached to through Noah but they are now in hell whether it should be understood that way or whether Christ proclaimed his victory at the cross to the angels who were confined and tardorous, that to me seems to be the most likely choice, but a little difficult to tell. Someone want to kind of solve this for us. Yes. Yeah, that is a view that sometimes is connected with this passage. The term imprisoned spirit seems to indicate some kind of form of punishment though. And so for that reason there are many who believe it doesn't fit here. But that goes back to a whole other issue which is a great thing you bring up Bill. Whole other issue as to whether or not Ephesians 4 is really talking about Jesus descending into hell. There are many who believe and I am actually one of them that Ephesians 4 is talking about Jesus descending to the lower parts, not the lower parts in the earth, but the lower parts of the earth. It is in Greek it is an oppositional genitive which means the lower parts meaning the earth. And the dissension there means that Jesus just descended to the earth. It is talking about his incarnation. So really to tie this with Ephesians 4 depends on how you interpret Ephesians 4. But you are correct. Many who do see the Ephesians 4 passage as teaching that Jesus went into the side of hey days where righteous people were and released them and took them onto heaven. Those who believe that often tie those two passages together. And if that is the correct view of Ephesians 4 then this could be talking about the same thing. I have got serious questions about that interpretation of Ephesians 4 I guess. Another reason why I have questions about it is that Jesus told the thief on the cross today, when I die in Udai today you will be with me in paradise. Paul seems to indicate in 2 Corinthians 12 that it is the third heaven. He was caught up to the third heaven and then later he calls it paradise. So I think Paul saw the presence of God. I think Jesus went into the presence of God when he died. And so there is a lot of debate about whether or not Jesus actually did go into a place where Old Testament saints were supposedly held. And if that is true then this could be what first Peter 3 is referring to also. That is a very good observation. Many do take that view. Other comments or questions on a very difficult passage. All right? You ready for Satan? No. That is wisely answered. Let's talk about the reality and personality of Satan. At least introduce that tonight and we are going to begin with the existence of Satan. There is a great amount of scriptural evidence that Satan actually exists and that he exists as a person, not an influence, not a force, not an evil presence, but a literal person. Just like God the Father is a person, the Holy Spirit is a person, and good angels are persons as we have seen. They have personality in the sense of really being persons. Satan also is presented in the Bible as a real person, not just an influencer or force. Let's talk first of all about the existence of Satan for just a few minutes. Does he really exist? Yes, he does. And there is a good bit of evidence for it in the Bible. First of all, evidence from the Old Testament. Now again, the existence of Satan is kind of like the existence of God in the Bible. The Bible makes no effort to try to prove the existence of God. The Bible assumes the existence of God. In the beginning, God created, just starts out, assuming the existence of God does not try to prove it with all of our philosophical arguments and reasonings, but just assumes the existence of God. The writers in the Bible also assume the existence of Satan. There is no long detailed proof that he exists. He is just there. And what ways do you find Satan in the Old Testament? Where do you find it? Where does he show up in the Old Testament? The garden? Yes. Yes, that's where he seems to first show up on the pages of Scripture is in Genesis 3, the temptation in the garden. Where else would you find Satan in the Old Testament? Job, yes. Very prominent reference to Satan. And what's he doing in Job? He's accusing Job and seems to indicate that is a pattern of his because in Revelation 12, he's called the accuser of the brethren. So it could well be typical of what he does, but he actually goes into the presence of God and accuses Job of impure motives of following God for wrong reasons. Just calls God's been so good to him. You take everything away from him, God, and he'll turn his back on you. And so he's accusing him. All right. Tormenting Job, yes. Yes, because Satan is allowed to take his property, his family, even his health from him. Okay. Where else do you find Satan in the Old Testament? Do you remember in Chronicles where David numbers the army of Israel? And the Bible says in one of the accounts of that that it was Satan that moved him or motivated him to number Israel, the first Chronicles 21, I believe that's found. And there are other places where he's found Zachariah 3. He's a very interesting one, much like Job, where Satan comes into the presence of God and accuses Israel and the high priest Joshua and the Lord defends his high priest. But lots of other ways, Satan is seen, even though he may not be mentioned by name, he is seen as being behind idolatry, behind the powers of evil in the Old Testament. Satan is very involved and active in the Old Testament. Okay. Anything else you can think of that we haven't mentioned. Where Satan is mentioned in the Old Testament. All right. What about the New Testament? Where is he found in the New Testament? Evidence from the New Testament. Temptation of Christ, yes. Yes. Very clearly. In fact, we're going to look at that some as we go along. It's a very instructive, instructive, is that what you say? Mention of Satan in the Scriptures in the New Testament. Others. Yes, Revelation, he's found there a lot as well as good angels as we've seen. But Satan is very active in the book of Revelation, especially chapter 12, where he is finally cast out of heaven, never to be able to enter God's presence again. We'll be looking at that passage a little bit later too. Yes. Yes. Satan entered into Judas, didn't he? Literally, influenced Judas to betray Christ. A good example of Satan's work. Any others you can think of? His presence is quite frequent in the New Testament. His existence is recognized by every writer, every New Testament writer, although he has not found in every New Testament book. Satan is mentioned, Satan, or the devil, in some form, is mentioned in 19 of the 27 New Testament books. But every writer mentions him. So it's obvious that every writer of the New Testament certainly believed in the existence of Satan and communicated that in his writings. Of the eight books where he has not mentioned, four of them imply the existence of Satan because they do mention demons or evil angels. And so Satan is obviously implied there. So his evidence is from the New Testament is pervasive. He's all over the place. Then there's one final line of evidence for the existence of Satan that is the evidence from Christ himself, although obviously Christ is operating in the context of the New Testament. But this just kind of adds a bit of punch when you recognize how much Jesus referred to Satan. Satan is mentioned 29 times in the Gospels, 29 times in the Gospels. 25 of those are from the lips of our Lord. And so Jesus often talked about Satan. And an interesting feature of Jesus' interaction with Satan. Someone mentioned the temptation earlier, and that is so true, a very powerful evidence of the existence of Satan. When you think about it, the temptation account could only have been told by Jesus because nobody else was there. Nobody else witnessed that. So what we know of the temptation account was communicated by Jesus probably to the Apostles and they recorded it under the direction of the Holy Spirit. But no one else witnessed that. This was all alone during those 40 days except for the presence of Satan. So there's a lot of evidence from Christ himself. The existence of Satan is clear in the Old Testament. But let's talk a little bit about his personality, the personality and nature of Satan. As we did with Good Angels, we want to establish at the beginning of our discussion about Satan himself that he is a real person. Again, he's not the dark side of the force. All right, that's not Satan. He is not an evil influence or power. And he is not as dualistic religions teach. Like Hinduism and Buddhism. Dualistic religions basically teach there is a power of good and a power of evil. They have coexisted throughout eternity and they are equal powers and there's a battle between good and evil throughout human history. And by the way, that concept finds its way into the media and particularly entertainment world all the time which really shows us how much the entertainment world is steeped in ancient religions or Eastern religions, Eastern thought like Buddhism and Hinduism. But anyway, that's another story. Satan is not an influence or a force. He is a real person. And we know that in several ways. We're going to give you three basic overall proofs of that. First of all, Satan has the traits of personality. When you think of his person, he has the traits of personality, the qualities, the characteristics of personality or of being a real person. A few of those as we have looked before with other beings, intellect, emotion and will is a good place to start. That's not everything about human personality or a personal being, but intellect, emotion and will are a good place to start at least. Does Satan have intellect? Is there any evidence in the Bible that he thinks that he has a mind that he uses? Can you think of anything? Yes, he did. He actually, very cunning, wasn't very wily in using scripture from Psalms to try to tempt Jesus. So he's thinking, he's thinking all the time. Yes, yes, only a rational being can carry on a conversation like that with God about Job and other places where he appears like that too. We are to put on the full armor of God that we may stand against what? The devil, but something is mentioned in addition to just the devil there, that we may stand against the wilds, the wilds or the strategies or the schemes of the devil. So schemes, strategies, wilds, the King James word, that is all indicative of very careful thought processes to deceive people. You have to think through things. So certainly as a mind, one other passage you might mention along those lines is 2 Corinthians 11, 3. It's on the screen for you. Paul says to the Corinthians, I'm afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpents cunning and we know it was Satan who was using the snake in the Garden of Eden, deceived by the serpents cunning, to deceive through cunning means indicates he's thinking. So he has intellect, obviously, what about emotion? What indication is there that Satan feels or has emotion or expresses emotion? Yes, good one. When he realizes his time is short, he does have a sense of urgency. That's true in a couple of different ways. It's true in the ministry of Christ before the crucifixion and it's also true in the book of Revelation. And that's probably the one you're thinking of, Bill, is in Revelation. Fleeting from you, resist the devil and he will flee from you. James 4.7. Yeah, he to flee indicates at least implies some kind of fear, doesn't it? Yeah. Yes, a good example. And I think that kind of goes along with the one Bill was mentioning too, Revelation 12, where he realizes his time is short. He knows that he's been cast out of heaven for good. When that happens, if you read the end of Revelation 12, he rages against the nation of Israel, carries out his wrath against the nation of Israel, tries to destroy it. It's because he's mad at God. So yeah, he's expressing emotion for sure. Okay, so he is, yeah, John. Okay. Good point. If he plays on our emotions, which he does, yeah, to be crafty and cunning and doing that would indicate that he himself has emotions, understands how they work. Yeah. Okay, good. Okay, intellect, emotion and will, the will, the ability to choose or decide what indications in the Bible are, though, that Satan has a will. He wanted to be like God. We'll get to that passage. It's in Isaiah 14, but five times, and I believe the passage probably is referring to Satan, says, I will, I will, I will. It's probably the clearest, clearest example of all. But anytime you see him rebelling against God, he is exercising his will. Same is true in Revelation 20, when he is released from his imprisonment in the abyss after the tribulation, at the end of the tribulation, excuse me, into the millennium, and he goes to deceive the nations once more, one final time to rebelling against God. And again, he's showing his choice and his will. All right, very good. Thanks. That helps us to understand. Satan is a real person because he has the traits of personality. But another way you can see this in the Bible is that personal pronouns are used of him. Personal pronouns are used of Satan. He's not referred to as it or as a force, an impersonal thing. He's referred to by personal pronouns. Let me just give you a few passages. Let's turn to Ezekiel 28 because we're going to look at a couple of other verses in that chapter. Ezekiel 28. Now we'll get to this passage in some depth a little bit later when we talk about the fall of Satan and the rebellion of Satan. And whether or not Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28 are actually referring to Satan, I believe they are. But you have to kind of see Satan as being referred to behind in this passage, the King of Tyre, because this prophecy is addressed to the King of Tyre in verse 12. But some of the things that are said about the King of Tyre could not have been possible of a human being. And so there seems to be also kind of looking beyond him, kind of like Jesus, when he looked at Peter and said, get the behind me, Satan. This is kind of that kind of thing where the Bible seems to be looking through the King of Tyre at the real motivating force behind him, which was Satan. So having said that, I'm just going to assume tonight that Ezekiel 28 is talking about Satan. But look at how it refers to him in verse 14. You, there's a personal pronoun. You were anointed as a guardian, cherub. For so I ordained you. You were on the holy amount of God. You walked among the fiery stones. Verse 16 through your widespread trade. You were filled with violence and you sinned. All these use, these are personal, personal pronouns. He's speaking to a person, not an influence or a force. Another passage, and this one will be on the screen for you. 2 Corinthians chapter 11 verses 14 and 15. Paul's warning about false teachers and no wonder for Satan. Notice Satan himself, not itself. Satan himself, masquerades as an angel of light. It is not surprising then if his servants also masquerade a servant of righteousness, their end will be what their actions deserve. So he's referred to by himself and his, and then James 4.7, that familiar verse. Submit yourselves then to God, resist the devil, and he will flee from you. He, again, a personal pronoun. So the use of personal pronouns is a strong argument in favor of the fact that Satan is an actual person. But there's a third way to see his personhood as well, and that is his moral responsibility. Satan is morally accountable to God and will be judged because he is accountable to God. Only persons, only persons who reflect the moral character and capability of a creator, of a relationship of the creator, only persons who have the capacity to reflect God's image and have the capacity to obey him or not are held morally accountable. God is not going to judge your dog or your cat. Your dog will never stand before God in judgment, but every person will. Because we are morally accountable to God. Well, it's clear in the Bible that Satan will be judged by God. And so that would lead us to believe he is morally accountable to God. Thus indicating he is not a forester and influence or some kind of nebulous power. He is a person who will be judged by God. Couple of clear passages, Matthew 2541, then he will say to those on his left, depart from me, you who are cursed into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. He will be judged and sentenced to the lake of fire by God. And then John 1611 where Jesus says on the brink of his own crucifixion about judgment because the prince of this world now stands condemned. This is the night before Jesus is going to die on the cross and he's already anticipating the defeat of Satan at the cross and he says the prince of this world now stands condemned. His condemnation right on the cusp of that. So Satan is morally accountable to God. He will be judged by God, which indicates he is a person. So traits of personality, personal pronouns, moral responsibility. Satan is a person, but what kind of person? What is his nature? Let's let's try to cover these fairly quickly. And then if you have questions, we'll try to entertain those as well. It's important to understand as far as his nature that he is a creature. He is a creature. By that I mean he was created by God. Notice in Ezekiel 28 if you're still are there, look at verse 15. You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created to wickedness was found in you. So Satan was created by God originally created to be a good holy angel. As we'll see as we get further into the study. But the reason why I want to stress this now is. Satan is not an equal to God and that again is the fallacy of all dualistic religions. All Eastern religions have these two equal forces. Force of good, force of evil and they battle throughout eternity and they are coexistent. They go all the way back through eternity. That is not true. Satan was at a point created by God created as a good angel initially before he fell. But that means he is lower than God. He is not equal with God. He's lower than God. Every creature that God created is lower than him. All the angels are lower than him. And so it's important to understand that because that just that gives a death nail to all of the Eastern religions that that posits some kind of influence or force of evil that is equal to the force of good. In a biblical philosophy and worldview, God is above all of his creation, including angels, including Satan. So he's a creature. Secondly about his nature, he is a spirit being. Throughout the Bible, he is referred to as a spirit being without a body. He's invisible, although at times he has manifested himself like angels we saw have done in a temporary visible form. But he is a spirit being having said that he is finite and limited. Okay, just because he's a spirit being does not mean he's like God everywhere. You know, I'm not present or anything like that. He's remember he was created an angel first and just like good angels, Satan, although he's a spirit being is finite. He's limited to one place at one time and he is limited in his power. So he is not omnipresent. Okay, so he's a creature. He's a spirit being thirdly. The Bible presents him in his created form as a cherub. Now when you use the word cherub, what do we typically think of in our culture? Pardon me? Baby angels, little babies, little cute little cherubs. Well, wipe your mind clean of that because that's not at all in the Bible. Cherub is the singular form of cherubim. In Hebrew, the word the ending I am is like our ending S. It's just plural. Cherubim are many cherubs or several cherubs. A cherub is an angel. A cherub is one of the cherubim. So look at Ezekiel 28 verse 14, you were anointed as a guardian cherub for so I ordained you. And verse 16, at the end, I expelled you guardian cherub. Now do you remember when we looked at angels, we saw that the cherubim are angels that are specially concerned with exalting and glorifying God's presence. They are around his throne, they worship him, they are seen exalting God, glorifying his presence and magnifying his glory. Satan evidently was one of those cherubim. He was a cherub when he was created, which makes his rebellion against God all that more heinous, all that more worthy of punishment, all that more reprehensible. Because as the other cherubim, he is charged with exalting God's glory and worshipping him and he says, I want to be God. I want to take over from him so he leads a rebellion. What a reprehensible, horrible thing to do in light of his position. He's not just some little, you know, clearance sent down the jump in the river and helped save, you know, whoever it was, save that guy. Jimmy Stewart, that's who it was. Jimmy Stewart, he's not just some out back angel. He was a cherub, he had a high position and responsibility. In fact, that leads me to the fourth description of him as a person. He was a highly ranked angel because verse 14 says he was anointed as a guardian cherub. Now, to be anointed indicates a special position. In the Old Testament anointing is reserved for kings and for people who are royalty. So it indicates that Satan, even among the cherubim, had a high position, a position of authority and power, almost royalty, if you will. In fact, you go back to verses 12 and 13 and it may indicate that he was the highest of all the cherubim. Verse 12, you were the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect and beauty. You were an Eden, the garden of God, every precious stone adorned you and you list a bunch of them there. Your settings and mountains were made of gold on the day you were created. They were prepared. That seems to indicate like almost like a crown or a vestment of some kind of precious jewels. Satan evidently was not just a run to the meal cherub. He was anointed. He was had a high position and that helps us to understand why he still retains a sense of dignity, even in his fallen state. That's why he is the head of the demons. He is the Lord of the demons. See, he still has that sense of dignity and high rank. The demons rather are always called his angels. They are under him. They belong to him. For instance, a couple of passages, Matthew 2541. We saw it earlier. Jesus will say to the wicked, depart from me, you are cursed with eternal fire, prepared for the devil and his angels. So they belong to him. Same thing in Revelation 12, verses 4 and 7. His tale, its tale, the serpent, who is a representative of Satan there in Revelation 12. Its tale swept a third of the stars of the sky and flung them to the earth. The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth so that it might devour her child. The moment he was born. So he leads this rebellion. Verse 7, then war broke out and heaven, Michael and his angels fought against the dragon and the dragon. And here it is again, his angels fought back. You know, it is clear that even Michael, who as we saw, is the only angel named in the Bible as an archangel, as a high rank of good angel. Even Michael respects the authority and power and position of Satan. Do you know that? Look at these verses, Jude 8 and 9. We'll close with this. In the very same way on the strength of their dreams, again Jude's talking about false teachers. These ungodly people, pollute their own bodies, reject authority and heap abuse on celestial beings. In other words, they are always cursing demons. But even the archangel, Michael, when he was disputing with the devil about the body of Moses, did not himself dare to condemn him for slander, but said the Lord-rebuke you. You know what that passage tells me? It tells me that I better be careful about going around with beoking demons, because even Michael, the archangel, doesn't do that to Satan. He says the Lord-rebuke you, but he is very respectful of Satan's authority in his kingdom, in Satan's kingdom. So Satan was a very highly ranked angel and still carries that sense of authority in the demonic world. Okay, we've got to stop. It's five after eight, any quick question that we can... Okay, yeah, good point. One of his titles, Prince of this world, indicates his high rank and authority. Yes, we do. All of us have to fight against him every day. And that's why Paul says, put on the armor. Put on the armor so that you can stand against the strategies of Satan. Okay, let's pray and we'll go. Father, thank you for the opportunity to study your word, to engage in this great privilege together. We pray, Father, that we will understand our enemy better, so that we can respect his power, that respect his cunning, his deceptiveness, but also know that you've given us the tools with which to defeat him. And we pray that as we look more closely at our enemy, we'll understand what it means to live in victory in Jesus' name, amen.