Names of Satan

Appreciate it. The last song that we're saying, both of them actually, but the last one certainly focuses our attention on the fact that we are in a battle. We are in a warfare. Are we not? We are in a spiritual warfare. Remember that our our fight, our battle is not against flesh and blood as Paul says in Ephesians 6, but against principalities and powers and spiritual wickedness in high places. Speaking of demonic forces, satanic warfare against us and we are in a battle every moment of our lives against our enemy, the devil and that. That enemy is the one we're trying to understand. It's important to understand your enemy. It's important to understand what he's like, what he does, how he attacks, what his plans are. It's important for us if we're going to fight a spiritual battle well to be able to understand something about our enemy. This is a study, this part of our study on angels focusing on Satan and his evil angels, the demons is very applicable and appropriate for us in the day in which we live. Let's keep remembering that the forces against us, the battles we fight are not against people. They are against spiritual forces, Satan behind whatever is going on in this world that is opposed to God's work and God's kingdom, God's sovereign rule. Anything against that is engineered and motivated by Satan. Let's seek to understand our enemy since it's been a few weeks since we've been in this study and I appreciate Mike Molder, so capable of filling in last Wednesday evening. It's been a while since we've been in this study on the Bible teaches about angels and particularly on Satan. Let me just remind you that we had just started into that section of our study. We made the case with the fact that the Bible teaches very clearly the existence of Satan and that he exists literally as a person. Satan should not be viewed as some mystical form of evil or power or force of evil or the dark side of the force, if you will. That kind of Eastern mysticism which posits two equal powers, good and evil against each other is not at all what the Bible teaches. The Bible teaches that there is a literal person, a literal person named Satan and we talked about his person, his nature the last time we were together. Tonight we're going to look at his names. We're not going to look at all of them. In fact, we probably will not even look at all the ones on the list tonight to see how far we get, but there are about 40, 40 different titles used for Satan in the Bible. We're not even going to look at all those. We're going to look at some of the major ones and I've broken them down into three different categories to help us kind of put our minds around who he is and what he's like. We're going to look at first of all at names that describe his position. These are names that talk about what kind of authority he has, his position in the universe. We're going to look at a few of those first. The first one is the anointed guardian cherub. We have a verse for you on the screen and most of the verses we will put on the screen. If you want to go ahead and open your Bible because you just don't like to be in a Bible study with it closed, open the Revelation 12. It'll be a little while before we get there, but we're going to look at several names in Revelation 12. We'll kind of camp there a little bit. The other verses will put on the screen for you. Ezekiel 28, 14, whether or not this is actually spoken about Satan is a matter of debate. When we get done with the names of Satan, we'll start talking about his creation, his original state and his fall. We'll deal quite extensively with this passage in Ezekiel 28. For now, we're going to say yes, it does refer to Satan and not try to prove that in any way. This is what God says about him. 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 stuns. So Satan is referred to here as an anointed guardian cherub or he was anointed as a guardian cherub. Now remember when we were talking about his nature, and that's again been three weeks ago, we talked about the fact that he was a cherub. What is a cherub? Remember, right, one of the good angels. And what do cherubim, the plural of cherub, what do what do cherubim do? How are they viewed in scripture? What are they doing usually? Exalting, exalting, glorifying God, the cherubim typically when they are found in the Bible are found glorifying and praising and exalting God around his throne. Evidently, when Satan was first created, he was a cherub. He was anointed as a guardian cherub. And there's a sense in which as the angels are around God's throne, they are seen as guarding his holiness, his majesty encircling him, not as though God needs to be guarded or protected. But that kind of sense is given. But he was anointed, which indicates a high position. So it is quite likely that Satan may have had the highest rank or near the highest rank among the class of angels that were designed to lead heaven's worship around the throne of God. So again, the fact that he had such a high position serves to highlight even more the tragedy of his rebellion against God. So he's called the anointed guardian cherub. That indicates not his position now, but evidently his original position when he was first created. Okay. Any questions about that one before we look at another one that deals with his position, Tommy? That's a good question. We don't really know how the angels were created in the sense of where they created one at a time, or altogether, or in groups. We don't really know that. I would guess my inclination would be to say that they were all created at the same time, but we don't really know that. Certainly, they were given different positions and Satan evidently before his fall had a very high position. So he had a high position, whether or not that means he was created before others really can't say. Okay. Any other questions? Yes, is that appears to be the case? I'm not always aware of repeating questions because some of you in the back may not hear questions like what Tom and Kisti asked. Kisti was asking, does the role or the name cherub deal more with the role of angels rather than any distinguishing characteristics of those angels? I would say primarily, yes. Primarily the term refers to a role, a particular function that these angels would play, although they are described with characteristics in the Old Testament that are somewhat different from the seraphim. And so there may be something in the name that has to do with characteristics, but primarily it refers to a particular role. Okay. Good questions, others. So this name, the anointed guardian cherub evidently indicates Satan's very high position in his original state of creation before he fell before he rebelled against God. But the next four all have to do with his role, his position in his fallen state since he's fallen. So the next one is the prince of this world, a couple of places where that term is found on the screen, John 1231. Now Jesus is speaking just before his death. He says, now is the time for judgment on this world. Now the prince of this world will be driven out. And then later in chapter 16 verse 11 in the upper room the night before he dies, he says, and about judgment, he's talking about the Holy Spirit will, will convict about several things. One of those about judgment about judgment because the prince of this world now stands condemned. So Satan is called the prince of this world. What do you think that refers to? What's in mind there? He's in control of this world. Okay. What do you think is intended by the word world? What is he in control of? World system. Okay. It's not talking about the planet is it? He's not saying that Satan can, you know, he's in control of how much it spins and revolves around the sun or he's not talking about the planet. He's talking about literally a world system. So Satan is the prince of this world system or the ruler. He rules a world system of men and other angels, evil angels who are separated from God and have a way of looking at life and a philosophy and a way of thinking that is opposed to God and his rule and his kingdom. So in that sense, Satan is kind of the counterpoint to God's kingdom. God's rule. Satan is ruling his own kingdom, if you will. And and stands the reason, doesn't it? Because that was a part of his rebellion. We're going to see when we get to that in Isaiah 14 that Satan said five times, I will, I will, I will. And the last one was I will be like the most high. I'm going to take over. And so he wanted to throw God off his throne. He wanted a kingdom of his own. And when that was not able to be accomplished, it's no surprise that Satan says, well, if I can't have God's kingdom, I want to make my own. And so he devises his own kingdom, which is this world system composed of a way of thinking, a way of life, a world view that is opposed to everything biblical. So he's the prince or the ruler of this world system. Okay, comments, questions there? It's a great question. Yeah. What's, you know, we live in a fallen world, which basically refers to the world. And so he basically refers to the condition of this world under the curse that God placed on this world because of man's sin. That means the world nature, even our bodies don't function as they were intended by God to function. So it's different from the world system over which Satan rules that has to do more with ideas, ways of thinking, that issue, that result in in behaviors. It's a philosophy of life, a world view. It's, I think, biblically best described in 1 John 2, 16, where John says, all that is in the world, this world system. Everything that is in the world, and he lists three principles by which this world system operates, lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, pride of life. It is those three operating principles that govern this world system. Lust of the flesh is the desire to fulfill the longings of the sinful nature. Okay, that's a real strong pull of this world system. Lust of the eyes, lust in the Bible does not always refer to sexual desire. It just refers to any kind of strong desire. So the lust of the eyes is the strong desire to obtain whatever the eyes see its materialism, its possessions, its, I see something I wanted. I'll do whatever it takes to get it or to get to that point in life where I can have it. That's a major philosophy and world view behind this world system. The other is the pride of life, which, which basically is a self centered ambition that strives to be at the top. It strives to be number one, the best, most famous, most well known, most popular. People notice me that is a driving force behind this world system. You put those three things together and almost everything that goes on in the world that's opposed to God can fall into one of those three categories. So that really is a description of what we're talking about here. That world view, that philosophy that we have looking at things. And that's different from the physical world and our bodies and so forth that are under the curse. Really good distinction to make. Yes, we're leaving nature. Nature is not a... Yeah, out of this world system. Now obviously Satan uses the things in this world system, twists them to appeal to us in sinful ways. But the world itself, you know, the planet itself. And us as people, our bodies themselves are not inherently evil. It's the driving philosophies behind everything that Satan is involved in. Sure was those three things, those same three things. Lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, pride of life, lust of the flesh was what? In Christ's temptation. Turn the stones into bread, feed yourself. You're hungry. Satisfy your desires. Lust of the eyes. Takes them up on the mountain, looks over all the... shows them all the kings of the world. I'll give you all of these that your eyes see. Lust of the eyes. Pride of life. How did he tempt him that way? Remember? Took him up to the highest press press on the temple, said jump off of here. The angels will bear you up and everybody will go, wow! Look at that, wow! Who is he? Pride of life. And actually you can find the same three in the Garden of Eden with Eve as well. He used the same artillery with Eve, same three things. Lust of the eyes, lust of the flesh. She saw that it was pleasing to the eyes. She saw that it tasted good, it was good for food and it was desired to make one wise, pride of life. So all three things, Satan threw his heavy artillery at Eve and he threw it again at Satan. Eve couldn't stand up to it. You could add him. Christ did. It's a great study what you've brought up Bill is those three temptations really are what Satan focused on. Both in the fall of man and his attempt to get Christ to fall. That's the world system and that's the kingdom that Satan is ruler of. Yes, G? Yes. That's a great question. There's no simple answer to that. I think it's very similar, however, to the fact that God created us knowing that we would fall, knowing what would happen. All of God's creatures, including angels, were given the ability to choose to be locked into something without the ability to choose does not demonstrate love. So if you're going to love God, you choose to love God. You're not forced to. And so that's a part of the choice that God gives us and that choice was also true of the angels. Again, we've talked about this a little bit the fact that the way theologians didn't refer to it as angel, all angels were created in what's called unconfirmed holiness. They were all holy, but that was unconfirmed. They were able to choose whether or not to remain holy and loyal to God or choose to rebel against him. And there were many that chose to rebel with Satan. Once that choice was made, then the Bible seems to indicate that they were confirmed in that choice. So evil angels will never go to heaven. They're confirmed in their evil and good angels will never fall and go to hell. They're confirmed in their holiness. But they initially when they were created had that choice. So it's very similar to what we would say about us. God knows all things, but he creates all of his creatures with the capacity to either choose to love him or not. Yeah, God, God certainly takes great joy in the fact that we love him. We have to be careful that we don't go too far with that and say that God needed us because he didn't. And that's not what you're saying. I know Tommy, but he did not need us. God had perfect fellowship within the Trinity. So he didn't need to create us, but he does take great joy in the fact that we choose to love him. And we have committed ourselves to him. Yes. Yeah, there, there is that difference. We did not start out holy, although Adam did. And that's the difference. Adam started out holy. And once his choice was made, we were all dragged into it with him. He led us because we came from him into sin. But we the difference is we are not like the angels in the sense that we don't start out holy. And then we become evil by nature because of a choice. We are born with an evil nature before we even have the capacity to make a choice. That's good distinction. But now with Adam, it was different. Adam was created holy, perfect. And his choice did confirm his nature, which then has been passed on to all of us. Wow. You all been doing a lot of thinking the last couple of weeks, haven't you? This is great. I love it. Okay. Anything else before we get to the third title, third name. Third one is very similar to the second one, Prince of the Power of the Air. And that's really a title that comes from the King James translation of this verse and Ephesians 2, verse 2. In which you used to live, Paul says, to the Ephesians, when you followed the ways of this world and the ruler of the kingdom of the air, or the Prince of the Power of the Air is the way the King James says it. And that's the term that we're most familiar with. And I like to use that term because it reminds me of a great story that I just love. In the 1920s, the most famous liberal preacher in America was Harry Emerson Fosdick. He he pastored Riverside Church in New York City, the church built by the Rockefellers to be a bastion of liberalism and to try to deny everything the Bible taught. And Harry Emerson Fosdick was the pastor of that church and he was a rank out and out liberal, theologically. He denied the deity of Christ, the resurrection of Christ, the virgin birth of Christ, the inspiration of the Bible, everything, the resurrection of the second coming, he threw it all out. And so he was responsible, he had a very well known radio program that aired across the nation and he was responsible for deceiving many people with those thoughts and undermining the faith of many people. One program when his announcer was introducing him to preach, he was trying to think of the right words to say of this great radio preacher in his mind. And so he said, and now we have the prince of the Power of the Air. Harry Emerson Fosdick and probably was much closer to the truth than he realized what he was saying. And the Bible says the prince of the Power of the Air and the NIV translates it, the ruler of the kingdom of the Air literally it is the ruler of the Empire or Kingdom of this atmosphere, the air meaning the atmosphere, the literal air around the earth. The concept here is that Satan rules and empire a kingdom that is basically centered in the air. Do you remember when we were talking about angels earlier and we were talking about where they live, where they abide? Many angels reside in heaven, not all stay there, they are sent to earth and so they travel between heaven and earth. When it comes to demons, the most popular misconception about demons is that they all live in hell and that Satan lives in hell. That is not true. And Satan's kingdom is in this atmosphere, in the air. Now there are certain demons that because as we'll see later of maybe unique part in the role they played in the Rebellion of Satan are bound in a place called partarist, we've actually already looked at that. But not all demons are in hell. They are free to roam about throughout the earth as Satan himself is. Rooms about throughout the earth seeking whom he made of our first Peter 5.8 and his kingdom is in the air, the atmosphere, the spirit beings are all over the place. Remember that when one of the angels in Daniel 10 was sent to answer Daniel's prayer and he's traveling from heaven to the earth, he's intercepted somewhere in space, somewhere in the air by a demon who does battle with him. And so this title plays on that concept or keys into that concept that Satan operates in a kingdom that is centered in the earth's atmosphere. There is centered literally in the air. Satan is not in hell. He is not in hell. He will not be in hell. He will never be in hell. He will be in the lake of fire. Hell is a temporary holding place that all unsaved people go to now, but death in hell or Hades will be brought before the throne of God, Revelation 20, the Great White Throne, and the final judgment of all unsaved people will be to cast them into an eternal place of punishment called the lake of fire. And that's where Satan is cast at the end of Revelation 20. So Satan is not in hell now. He's freed Rome about his kingdom is centered in the air, but one of these days by God's judgment, he will be cast into the lake of fire. All right, questions, comments there. Fourth title, the God of this age, the God of this age, second Corinthians four, four, the God of this age, and again the King James has the God of this world, the God of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ who is the image of God. The God of this age, the world, the word age or world is not the word Greek word cosmos, which means world system or can also mean the earth. This is a different word. This is the word ion, which means an age or an expansive time. So really literally it's the God of this age, speaking of a particular time period, which emphasizes a philosophy or a spirit of the age that expresses everything that is opposed to God. It is very much like the world system, but the age has to do more with the philosophy of a particular time period in man's history that expresses a creature centered manner of life, religion that is that rejects God sets up a substitute, religion and unsafe people are dominated by that. So it's the spirit of the age, speaking of the time period where Satan is free to deceive people. There will be an age and expansive time where Satan is not free to deceive people. Do you remember? When is that? The millennium where he is bound for a thousand years specifically so that he cannot deceive the nations anymore, Revelation 20 tells us. But this we're living in the time period now where he is the God of this age, this time period where he is free to roam and influence people. He is this world systems and this age is God, little G, little G. He's not on the same plane as the real God. Any questions about that title, God of this age? The fifth and final one that has to do with his position and notice all these, you know, Prince of the world, Prince of the power of the air, ruler, God of this age, all of these have to do with a position of authority. And even the first one has to do with his original position as a good angel. But this one, the ruler of demons, talks more about those beings who are under his authority rather than the fact that he's over a kingdom. These are his subjects and they are called demons. Matthew 1224, the charge against Jesus by the Pharisees, when the Pharisees heard this, they said it is only by belesable the Prince of demons that this fellow drives out demons. Now belesable or belesable, depending on how you spell it, it can go either way, belesable was the chief God of the Philistines and the Old Testament. By the time the New Testament comes along, by the time of Christ, Jews used that term, which really was the name of the false God of the Philistines, they used that term to refer to Satan. And so that's how it's used here, it's used by Jews, by the Pharisees, who would use the term in the way that it was commonly used in their day as a title for Satan. So they call Satan belesable or belesable and they refer to him with this title the Prince of demons. So he is the ruler of demons. When Satan fell from heaven, as we'll see a little bit later in this study, when he fell from heaven, when he led the rebellion against God, the Bible seems to indicate that he pulled a number of angels, other good angels with him, maybe as many as a third of the angels followed Satan in his rebellion. Those who followed him became his subjects, his demons, and that's how we know them now, evil angels or demons. Again, he is ruling over them and uses them, orders them to do certain things for him to afflict people, bring people into spiritual bondage, attack believers and so forth. Blind the minds of the lost, all of that is a part of what Satan orders his demons to do. We're going to see in his Ezekiel 28, he literally, and the term literally is he sold them, he sold them a bill of goods. He persuaded them that if they would follow him, he would give them more power than they had. That's evidently what how it went down. So he merchandise, the idea of the Hebrew word, he actually merchandise and sold them on his plan. So he had a pretty persuasive plan and they followed him because of what they thought they could get out of it. Now Satan is still doing the same thing, and he does that to us all the time. He promises us something that looks good. You know, lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, prattle life, it looks great. It's enticing and that's part of his scheme, that's part of his deception. He still sells us a bill of goods too. He sure does. Okay, all of those names have to do with position or titles, if you will, that really are related to his kingdom, his sphere of influence, the kingdom and the subjects over which he rules. Now, the next set of names, we're not going to really have time to get into, but the next set of names have to do with his character. We're going to look at seven of those and you already have the outline, you already have the names there. So you might want to take a look at those and see if you can think, okay, what does this name, what does this title say about his character, about what kind of enemy he is because looking at these names, if we can figure out what that says about his character, it really gives us some insight into the ways that he works. And we can be more alert. You know, the Bible says that we're to be sober, vigilant, knowing that our enemy walks around as a rowing lion, and it says that we should be alert to his schemes in Ephesians 6. So we need to understand our enemy and know what kind of schemes he uses to trap us and a lot of those are found in his names. We'll see some of those next week. Okay, let's pray. Father, thank you so much for giving us this information, this knowledge that helps us to understand better our enemy and helps us Lord to understand what we're up against. Lord, we know that he is so cunning and so wise in how he tempts us and approaches us, that we cannot at all defeat him on our own. We need the power of your spirit and all of the armor that you've provided for us. And so we pray that as we understand better who our enemy is, it will cast us more heavily upon you so that we will depend upon you for the strength we need to overcome him. We ask this in the strong name of Jesus, amen.