Names of Satan (2)

Good to see you tonight. Our schedule has been so interrupted with weather the last few weeks and we've had trouble maintaining any continuity in our study. I had to try to figure out where we were in our study tonight as far as our study on the subject of Satan, what the Bible teaches about Satan. We have been talking about the existence of Satan, the personality of Satan that he is a person. We've talked about his nature, that he is a creature, a spirit being, a cherub, a highly-ranked angel, and then last time we were together we talked about some of the names of Satan and we only got through five of them. We had a great time together and but we only got through five of them last time, but they were all names that describe his position. You see them on the screen, anointed guardian, cherub, the prince of this world, the prince of the power of the air, the god of this age, and the ruler of demons. All of those names, given in the scriptures, have to do with with his position. You can see guardian, cherub, prince, prince, god, ruler. All those have to do with his high position in the demonic world as the ruler of the demons and of this world system. We're going to look at some other, a couple of other categories of names tonight. First of all names reflecting his character and then names that indicate his activity. And we have eleven names on this list. Hopefully we'll get through most of them tonight. But seven names that deal with his character, the first one, and actually I'd like to have you open your Bible to Revelation chapter 12. This is not where the first one is found, but we will find several of them here. And so that is the passage we'll keep open and occasionally look at something in Revelation 12. But the first name that we want to look at is the name Lucifer. You'll see the verse on the screen, Isaiah 14, verse 12. And we're putting it in the King James because that's where the word Lucifer comes from. It says, how are they all fallen from heaven? Oh Lucifer, son of the morning, how are they cut down to the ground, which did weaken the nations? If you have a more modern translation, you will not find the name Lucifer. Here's the reason why. The Hebrew word here that's translated in the King James Lucifer is a word, it's actually a word which means a shining one. The word is hell-ale. And it means a shining one or a star that shines brightly. The brightest star in the sky, which is the one that shines even after sunrise. And so the Hebrew word literally means shining one. And that's the reason why all the newer translations will translate something like the NIV does, morning star, the New American standard star of the morning, the ESV has day star. And so all of them reflecting the actual Hebrew word. You say, well, how do we get Lucifer there? Well, actually the word Lucifer comes from the Latin translation of the original Hebrew text and the Old Testament and Greek text and the New Testament. One of the first translations of the Bible ever made was made around 400 AD by Jerome. He was an early church preacher, they called an early church father, that actually lived in Bethlehem and there's a church. The church of the Nativity is the place where Jerome actually ministered. But he translated the Bible into Latin because obviously the Roman empire was across the Mediterranean world and Latin was the language that was so common to everyone. So he translated the Bible into Latin. The Latin word is Lucifer and it became a name for Satan. But it literally means shining one or bright morning star, the brightest star in the heavens. But Lucifer came down from the Latin translation and it became a popular title for Satan. And for that reason it's been latched on to. I mean, I've never seen this program but I've noticed somewhere in the newspaper or something that there is actually a TV program now named Lucifer. I have no clue what it's about. But it is a very common title for Satan but it's not really what the Hebrew word means. And we don't really know what Lucifer means. It just become one of the names for Satan. So really the more modern translations are more accurate with the Hebrew word morning star or day star or bright shining star. Now it is what we're talking about here is one who is a bright shining star. What does that say about Satan's character? These are all names that say something about his character. So what would you think that title or that name would indicate about his character? It would highlight a degree of deception because he really is not the true light. He is full of darkness. So he presents himself as light. Certainly that's a good way to look at this. Pride, okay? Kind of the bright shining, yeah, yeah. Get your attention. Look at me. I'm the shining star. Yeah. Kind of pride. Yes. Okay. You could say something about his pride. John, oh, plants, exuberant. Okay, exuberant. Okay. That may have that could be read into the name as well. I think all of those are good, good ways of looking at this name as it applies to his character. It also might have something to do with his character. Speaking of his original character, because remember he was originally created as a good angel, wasn't he? So he was in a sense an angel of light to start with a good angel, but then he obviously fell and hopefully we'll get to that next week and became as Bill was indicating really the example of darkness, the embodiment of darkness. So whatever light he presents today is a deception to counterfeit. All right. So Lucifer or shining star, bright, bright shining star is the idea behind that name. Any other thoughts about that one? There are some passages that refer to Christ as the morning star as well in the book of Revelation, for instance. And the idea there seems to be taking from the same concept, the brightest star in the sky, the morning star, which is a good description of his excellence, his glory, his majesty. So when it refers to Christ, it refers to his majesty, when it refers to Satan, probably refers to all of the things you mentioned as well as the fact that he originally was an angel of light, when he was first created. By the way, if you ever do any reading about people who slam the more modern translations that are King James only, this is one of the arguments they use that the Bible translates Satan by the same title it translates Christ. And so it's defaming the name of Christ. And that really is an argument, excuse my French, but it's an argument of ignorance. You thought I was going to say something else, didn't you? Sorry. Sorry. But it is actually ignorant because that is not at all the meaning of the Hebrew text, and it is not at all the purpose of any translation that uses this title for Satan to identify him with Christ. Exactly. Yes. I mean, his great counterfeit Messiah is called what? The in the tribulation, the anti-Christ. And so everything is the opposite. Anti is the Greek preposition against. Everything is against Christ or opposed to Christ or the opposite of Christ. So yeah, it certainly does. If both are called by the same title, yes, it simply indicates that Satan is trying to mimic the genuine article. Deception. Deception. Exactly. Yeah. And it's what we see about everything. I mean, the fact that he's a prince, a ruler, all of that is his desire to have his own kingdom like Christ has a kingdom. Well, I want to have my kingdom and my kingdom is going to be better than yours. It's all it's all a sham and deception. Okay. So that's really the concept behind the name Lucifer or shining one bright morning star, however you want to translate that. The second name is Satan that is on your list. And Satan is a very common name, obviously for for Satan for the devil. It's found 52 times in the Bible. So it's a very common name. Look at this verse on the screen. Zachariah 3.1. Then he showed me Joshua, a high priest, standing before the angel of the Lord. And Satan standing at his right side to accuse him. Now you have your Bible open to Revelation 12. Look at verse 9, where you find actually four names for Satan in Revelation 12.9. The great dragon was hurled down that ancient serpent called the devil or Satan. So there's the in the Bible, the most common and most popular proper name for the devil is Satan. That's his name. Now the word Satan actually means adversary or a poser. So what does that say about his character? He's against anything God has. That really nails it, Tommy. He is against. He opposes. He is the adversary of anything that God is or does. The other thoughts along those lines. And he is a he is a self-proposed adversary. He puts himself up against God. He wants to oppose God. He wants to be God's adversary or opponent. He wants to set up a rival kingdom. He wants to set up a counterfeit of everything that God does. God has his son Christ to come to save the world and rule the world. Well, the devil is going to have his anti Christ who will actually do miracles in the tribulation time. And I believe it depends on how you understand Revelation 13. But I believe he will actually have a mortal head wound and God will allow Satan to resurrect him from the dead. I think that's the best way to take the passage in Revelation 13. And so again, a mimic, a counterfeit of the resurrection of Christ. And the whole world wonders after him. And then there's the false prophet that builds him up just as the Holy Spirit's ministry is to exalt Christ. So Satan counterfeits everything God does. And so he's an opponent and adversary in the truest sense of the word. And that's really his most common name in the Bible. You mean the the anti Christ? Yeah, I don't think there's anything in Revelation 13 about how long he yeah. Okay, anything else about the term Satan? Okay, the next one is very common when devil and that's found 35 times in the Bible, very common. Look at Luke chapter four on the screen in the temptation of Jesus where for 40 days he was tempted by the devil. And then you see verse 13 when the devil had finished all this tempting. He let him up left him until an opportune time. Each of the temptations of three temptations are introduced by the devil came and tempted him. So it's a very common name for him. You see it again here in Revelation 12 verse nine. The great dragon was hurled down that great or that ancient serpent called the devil or Satan. So common name for for Satan. And the word literally means a slanderer or one who trips up. Another but the the basic idea in the term devil is a slanderer. So what does that tell us about his character? So the ultimate result of the temptation on the devil's part could have been to slander Jesus. Okay, what do you think of what does a slanderer do? And what does that say about Satan? What does a slanderer do? Tells lies about you. Okay. What else? Twist. Yeah, slanderer will twist the truth to shade it against the person they're wanting to make look bad. And as John is suggesting Satan does that with the gospel. Twist the gospel. Twist the message. A slanderer is is always out to damage someone else's reputation, right? To to slander someone is to say something bad malicious. Evil about someone to make them look bad in other's eyes. Now isn't that exactly what Satan does? Satan slanders God. He slanders Christ. He slanders believers. He tries to ruin the reputation of God. Everything in this world system that that speaks evil of God is coming from the slanderer from the devil. The one who slanders God. Every time people accuse God of being evil or unloving or unkind because he allows this to happen or this tragedy or this storm or this disaster in my life. And so blame God or criticize God. That's slandering the reputation of God. And that comes from the devil from the slanderer. Any opposition to the name or reputation of Christ comes from the devil. And certainly we ought to remember when we slander other people we're doing the work of the devil. We're acting just like him. So very important to remember that's a part of his character. Walt. Yeah. Do I even want to go there? I mean we're not going to start calling everybody a devil. Are we? We don't want to go that far but there certainly is a lot of mud slinging isn't there? A lot of trying to tear down the other people's reputation. Might be the same spirit. Yeah. Yeah. There's a lot could be said there. So but it is the spirit of the age. It is it is the world system which is under the rulership. Prince of the power of the air the God of this age. So a lot that goes along with this age pops up in obviously in those heated circles and debates. By the way, Satan also slanders us doesn't it's not just God Christ God's work he slanders us. He slanders us before the father when he accuses us. And we'll get to some of that in a little bit. Another one of the names for Satan. All right. So he is the devil the great slanderer and then the next one the serpent. That's a very picturesque title or name for Satan. You find it here in Revelation 12.9. If you still have your Bible open there the great dragon was hurled down that ancient serpent or serpent of old. What does that title or name tell you about Satan? Okay. Going back to the Garden of Eden. What's your say in Tommy? Okay. What did what did Satan use the serpent to do in the Garden of Eden? Full Adam and Eve or deceive them right. So the real concept behind the serpent is deception. Deception. That's the idea with the serpent. The Satan was disguised as a serpent right. He he used the serpent as a disguise a very attractive creature in that they believe it or not. And and use that to disguise his his purpose of causing the fall of man. So really emphasizes his crafty deception. Paul uses it that way in second Corinthians 113 the verse on your screen or on our screen. But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent's cunning. Your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere impure devotion to Christ. So Paul was concerned about the Corinthian believers being deceived just like Eve was. And it's interesting that he uses the name for Satan which best communicates that kind of deception that artful cunning scheming deception. And that is the serpent. Okay. The next one is the great dragon. And that's found here in Revelation 12. Looked all the way back at verse three. Another sign appeared in heaven and enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on its heads. Skip down to verse seven. War broke out in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon and the dragon and his angels fought back. And then verse nine. The great dragon was hurled down. Then he's identified. Who is this great dragon? That ancient serpent called the devil or Satan who leads the whole world astray. Now, dragon, that word picture, okay, you have one word picture of serpent that communicates one thing about Satan. What would a dragon communicate? Power? Did I hear someone say power? Yes. I mean, when you think of a dragon, you think of a terrifying beast that has great power. What else would you think of when you think of a dragon? Flaming fire coming out of his mouth. Of course. Yeah, that's part of it. He's a destructive beast who spews out wrath anger. That's exactly the reason why John uses that picture in Revelation 12 because Satan is cast out of heaven completely. He's not able to access the presence of God anymore to accuse believers. Verse 10. I heard a loud voice in heaven saying, now have now come salvation the power of the kingdom of our God, the authority of his Messiah for the accuser of our brothers and sisters who accuses them before our God. God, day and night has been hurled down. Verse 12. Therefore rejoice you heavens and you who dwell in them, but woe to the earth and the sea because the devil has gone down to you. He is filled with fury and he knows his time is short. When the dragon saw that he'd been hurled to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child in this very picturesque metaphor in Revelation 12. The woman is Israel. The male child is Christ. So Israel is given birth to Christ and he pursues Israel. Middle of the tribulation, the Antichrist proclaims himself to be God in the temple and begins to persecute the Jews and seek to exterminate the Jews. He is motivated by Satan. I am convinced actually in dwelt by Satan. When Satan is cast out of heaven, I believe he indwells the Antichrist and starts spewing out his dragoness venom against Israel. So it's a very fitting picture, even down in verse 15, from his mouth the serpent spewed water like a river to overtake the woman sweep her away with the torrent. Verse 17, the dragon was in rage that the woman went off the wage war against the rest of her offspring. So this picture of a dragon is a very apt picture for the concept of a wild, powerful, destructive beast that seeks to do harm to those that is chasing. That's his true character. The two animals were pictures? Yeah. And it's interesting you would mention that Bill. The two are very opposite ends of the spectrum. The serpent is the way he would like to present himself the cunning wise, tricky, but his real character is seen in the dragon. He's a beast and he's an angry, god-hating, Messiah-hating beast. That's what he really is. Okay, very good. The next one, the evil one. This is another title for Satan. Look at the verse, a couple verses on the screen. John 17, 15. My prayer, Jesus in His high priestly prayer in John 17 says, my prayers not that you take them out of the world, but that you protect them from the evil one. And then first John 5 verses 18 and 19, we know that anyone born of God does not continue to sin. The one who was born of God keeps them safe and the evil one cannot harm them. We know that we are the children of God and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one, the whole world system that we've talked about before. He's the god of this world, the prince of power, the heir, the prince of this age. This whole world is under the control of, and here he's called the evil one. Okay, what does that title tell you about Satan? Pure evil. He is pure evil. I mean, obviously the evil one. He is characterized as not just someone who's kind of evil. He is the evil one. He is the embodiment of evil. He is intrinsically evil. I mean, it's a part of his nature and character that he is wicked. But what else does this passage in particular tell you about him as the evil one? The whole world is under his control, which indicates that he's not content to be evil himself. He wants everybody else to be evil. He wants to have control over everybody else and he wants to drag them into evil. And that's the reason for the warning. Anyone who's born of God who's really genuinely saved does not continually live a lifestyle of sin. The one who's born of God Christ keeps them safe and the evil one cannot harm them. So it's a distinction between the children of God and the children of this age or the children of the world unsaved people. But Satan is not content to be evil in himself. He longs to corrupt others. He longs to extend his control of evil to the whole world system. And so it's just intrinsically part of who he is. He is the evil one who seeks to corrupt others as well. And then one other title or name that reflects his character. And that is the name destroyer. It's an interesting one. If you're in revelation, do we have a revelation 9-11 on the screen? Okay, it is on the screen. It's close here anyway if you want to turn to it. But this is a description of the demons that are released from the abyss or the pit. And they have the power to sting like scorpions and they inflict torment on people in the tribulation time. And these demons had as king over them the angel of the abyss whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon and in Greek is a pollyon and then it's defined for us in English. That is destroyer. So Abaddon and a pollyon mean destroyer. What does that say about Satan's character? Yeah, again, he wants to tear down anything that God does. He wants to destroy the work of God. Satan and his demons are always destroying people, tearing them down. Remember what Jesus said in John chapter 10 verse 10, the thief comes to what? To kill, okay, thief comes to kill, to steal and to destroy. But I have come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly. So you see the contrast between Jesus who wants to give life and not just not just life that lasts forever, but abundant life. Real meaningful purposeful, joyful, blessed life. Okay, but not so Satan. Satan's whole purpose is to steal your joy, to steal meaning and purpose in life, to kill you, to destroy you. That's his purpose. He's a destroyer. The exact opposite again of Christ, the anti Christ is really who he is. So those are all names that reflect Satan's character. Any question come in about that one? That's a good point. Good point. The two aspects of the serpent and the dragon really reflect the two halves of the tribulation. First half of the tribulation, the anti Christ is everybody's hero. Right? I mean, he wins everybody's adulation by being a great peacemaker. And he even makes peace between Arabs and Jews so that the Jews can rebuild their temple on the temple mountain. That's a stroke of genius politically. And so he's hailed as the great peacemaker, the great world ruler. Everything looks great. I mean, there's obviously some wars going on at that time and so forth. But he's hailed a world savior. Middle of the tribulation is when he shows his true colors, his true character, like the dragon. And goes about to kill every believer he can and kill every Jew he can. Okay. Good point. Let's move on to the names that indicate activity. There are four of these that we'll mention and all of these indicate some kind of activity that he does. The first of those is tempter. He actually is called the tempter. Look at these two verses. Matthew chapter four and verse three. The tempter came to him and said, if you are the son of God, tell these stones to become bread. This is Matthew's account of the temptation. We saw Luke's earlier and in Luke's account, Luke uses the word devil over and over again. Jesus or Matthew uses the word devil in verse two. If I remember correctly, that Jesus is driven out into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit and the devil came to him to tempt him. But then the next verse, verse three, calls him the tempter. The tempter came to him also. First, Thessalonians three, five. For that reason, when I could stand it no longer, I sent to find out about your faith. I was afraid that in some way the tempter had tempted you and that our laborers might have been in vain. Paul was concerned about the church at Thessalonica that they may have been actually tempted by Satan to leave the faith, to turn their back on what they believed and what they committed themselves to. So the tempter is an activity that Satan does. He is involved in combat against us at all times, moral combat, not literal warfare, but moral combat, trying to do battle against our soul, enticing us to do evil. He is constantly at it, constantly at it. And that's the reason why the Bible says we need the armor of God that we may stand against the schemes and strategies of the devil as he seeks to tempt us. Alright, comments, questions about the tempter, Walt? Yes, in fact, if you really look at the temptation of Christ, Christ was tempted three times, right? And those three times perfectly mirror the three things that John says in 1 John 2, 16 are in the world. All that the devil has at his disposal in this world system, summarized by the lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, proud of life, lust of the flesh, the bodily appetites. So Satan says, you're hungry. I know you're hungry. Turn these stones into bread. That's lust of the flesh. You can satisfy your physical appetites by doing your own thing, apart from the world of God. That's a huge temptation for us today too. And then the one you mentioned, Walt, lust of the eyes, taking them up on a place where you can see the kingdoms of the world, all these things I will give to you. If you'll bow down, worship me, lust of the eyes. The desire to have what you see, possessions, materialism, tremendous temptation. And then the pride of life, pride, the desire to be recognized, desire to be honored, seen as someone spectacular, takes them up to the press. The temple casts yourself down. The angels will bury you up. And that what Psalm 91 says, surely they will do that. And so everybody will oon you. That really is Satan's heavy artillery, those three temptations. And we face the same ones today. Exactly right. He's the tempor. And he knows how to get at us. Okay. Anything else on the tempor? Okay. Second name that reflects an activity is the accuser. And we've looked at this one a little bit before, but you find it in Revelation 12. After those four names in verse nine, we read verse 10 a little bit ago. Then I heard a loud voice in heaven saying, now have come the salvation of the end of power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Messiah. Why for the accuser of our brothers and sisters who accuses them before our God day and night has been hurled down. What is Satan do? What kind of accusations does he make? How does he accuse us? Okay. Yes. And that seems to be what's happening here. What's being referred to here is that he actually appears in the presence of God as an accuser. Do you remember someone that that happened to in the Bible? Job. Yes. That's exactly what Satan was doing. The angels are gathering together in the presence of God. Satan walks in and starts accusing Job. This man that is in your estimation so godly, yeah, he's doing it for the wrong reasons. If you take away all of his blessings, he won't serve you anymore. That's an accusation. So he's accusing Job. There's one other person in the Bible he does that too. You remember where that was? It's in the Old Testament toward the end. It's on the left hand page, left column, two thirds of the way down. Zachariah 3. Zachariah 3 where Joshua the High Priest is actually accused by Satan. Satan comes into the presence of God and accuses him. But the indication here in Revelation 12 said he's still doing that up until the middle of the tribulation time. So that means there are other people. I don't know that he accuses all of us whenever we sin or he would never leave the presence of God. But he does at times accuse the brethren it says here. Our brothers and sisters accuses them before God day and night. So he is the accuser. So he accuses us before God. Are there any other ways he accuses us to ourselves? Yeah. In fact, I think it's one of the most misunderstood, maybe one of the most deceptive tactics of Satan that we don't recognize. And that is Satan fills our own hearts and minds with doubts and accusations. Maybe even guilt from things that we've confessed to the Lord in the past. God's forgiven. But we continue to heap accusations on ourselves. Really that's coming from the devil. He's the accuser. So sometimes he he causes us to accuse ourselves. Live with what the right. Yeah. I don't think it's just you, John. I think it's all of us. I think all of us fight battles like that every day. Of doubt, fear, anxiety, any kind of temptation of the mind and heart obviously originates from Satan. But in this one in particular, he accuses us. He beats us down with accusations that we heap on ourselves. At least that's what we think we're doing. Really, it's engineered by Satan to keep us from rejoicing in our position and freedom that we have in Christ and the forgiveness that we have in him. Satan will keep beating us down with accusations.