(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

And the title of the sermon tonight is the purpose of the devil, the purpose of the devil. This scripture in Ezekiel 28 goes into detail about the devil, his creation, his beginnings in the garden of God and so forth. And we're going to come back to this, but for now, if you would flip over to first Corinthians chapter number five, the first thing I want to point out is that the devil is a created being created by God. A lot of people get this wrong idea that Satan or the devil is actually the opposite of God. Like there's God over here and Satan over here and that they're in some kind of a battle with one another and they're both struggling against each other almost as if they are equivalent in power, but they aren't. God is the one who has all the power. God is the almighty and the devil is simply a created being. And even when there is a great battle in the end times between the devil and someone, it's between the devil and Michael, the archangel, right? Someone who's on his level, who's a created being like he is, Michael and his angels in revelation chapter 12 fight against the dragon, the dragon fights and his angels and so forth. So we need to understand that the devil is a created being. He's a creation of God. He's not on the same level with God. He does not have the same power that God has. Now he does have great power, but nothing like what God has. He's at a lower level. Now the Bible says you're in first Corinthians five. I'm just going to read from Genesis chapter three, the first mention of the devil. It says in verse one, now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field, which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, yea, hath God said, you shall not eat of every tree of the garden. Now notice that serpent is the devil and Satan. The Bible tells us that repeatedly and notice he is a creation of God and because he is a created being by God, we have to understand that the devil ultimately fulfills God's purposes and God's will. Now don't get me wrong. Obviously the devil is bad. He's evil. He's wicked, but God allows him to exist. God could have just destroyed him in the first week of this planet's existence. God could destroy him right now and get rid of him whenever he wants, but yet he allows him to exist to fulfill God's purposes. Ultimately having the devil around fulfills a purpose to God, and that's why the sermon is called the purpose of the devil. Now here's a perfect example of God using the devil for his purposes. Look at first Corinthians chapter five verse one. It is reported commonly that there's fornication among you and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles that one should have his father's wife and you're puffed up and have not rather mourned that he that had done this deed might be taken away from among you. For I verily as absent in body but present in spirit have judged already as though I were present concerning him that had so done this deed in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. When you're gathered together and my spirit with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ to deliver such and one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. So here we see they're praying that this guy who's in this grievous sin of fornication that he would be delivered unto Satan. Basically, you know, turn him over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, why? That his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. So that's a good purpose. This guy getting saved and in the short term, what it was going to take to get this guy's attention is that he had to be delivered over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. Go to first Timothy chapter one toward the end of the New Testament or something similar in first Timothy chapter number one, you say, what does that mean to deliver such a one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh? Basically praying that bad things would happen to this guy in his physical life on this earth that it would get his attention and wake him up and he would realize the error of his ways and get right with God. Something that would shake him up and the devil would fill that role of, of physically attacking this guy, physically destroying this guy. Of course, we know in the book of Job, the devil ends up physically attacking Job by bringing in the heathen hordes, the Sabeans and others to come in and steal his cattle and kill his servants and so forth. Of course, the devil causes Job to get boils on his body and brings all this destruction into the life of Job. But remember, the devil was restrained in the book of Job by God, where God put limitations on what he could and could not do. When the devil wanted to attack Job, he had to get God's permission and then God set a boundary of, well, you can attack everything that he owns, but you cannot attack him personally. So the devil comes and causes him to lose all his wealth and he causes even his children to die and he caused him to lose all of his possessions and all of the things that he held dear, but he was not able to touch his body. Then the devil comes back to God, they talk again and then God gives the devil permission to actually attack his body. But again, he puts a limitation on it in Job chapter two and tells him, you cannot kill them though, right? So that shows that the devil's power is very limited and that the devil operates within a parameter where God allows him to operate, where God says, this is how far you can go and no further. Look at first Timothy chapter one, verse 19, just to show you that first Corinthians five is not just an anomaly. It's not just some verse that's out of the ordinary. Look at chapter one, verse 19, holding faith and a good conscience, which some having put away concerning faith have made shipwreck of whom is Hymenaeus and Alexander whom I have delivered unto Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme. Now them learning not to blaspheme would be a good thing and Paul has delivered these people over to Satan that they would learn not to blaspheme. These are people that are just far gone into deep sin where Paul had literally just prayed and said, you know, God, just deliver these people over to Satan. Let bad things happen to these people that it would wake them up from the error of their ways. Go to second Corinthians chapter number 12. So here's the evidence. First Corinthians five, deliver such and wanted to Satan. First Timothy chapter one, delivered them unto Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme. The book of Job, Job is given over to Satan even though he's the most righteous man on the earth at that time. He's a godly Christian. Why did God deliver him over to Satan that he might go through trials and tribulations and Job said, when I'm tried, I shall come forth as gold, right? Job went through those experiences and he became an example unto believers after him. He became a role model and a pattern for suffering tribulation patiently. Even to us today when we suffer, we look at the book of Job and it gives us strength and comfort and an inspiration. Also Job personally came out of that stronger and came out a better person and God bless the latter end of Job more than the former. So God used the devil to fulfill his will in the book of Job. Look at second Corinthians chapter number 12 verse seven. It says, unless I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me lest I should be exalted above measure. Now Paul here is saying that because he'd received so many revelations from God and because he was doing such great work for God, there could easily have been a temptation for him to be puffed up and prideful just because he'd done so much for God. And this could be a danger for you too when you start serving God and maybe you're winning a lot of people, the Lord, you've got to be careful not to get puffed up or prideful or think that you're a really great person. And Paul was in danger of being exalted above measure. So God allowed him to have this thorn in his flesh. Now the Bible doesn't tell us exactly what that was, this thorn in the flesh. But when we talk about a thorn in the flesh, we mean some bad thing in our life that's irritating. It bothers us. We wish it would go away. And Paul had something like that in his life, a thorn in his flesh to keep him humble, to keep him from getting too high and mighty. And it calls the thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me lest I should be exalted above measure. Verse 8, for this thing I besought the Lord thrice that it might depart from me. So it seems to be some kind of a physical ailment probably, but we don't really know what it was. And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly, therefore, will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then am I strong. So here's an example of God allowing the devil to cause problems in Paul's life to give him some kind of a thorn in his flesh for his own good, so that he wouldn't get too prideful, so that he wouldn't get too arrogant. Now go, if you would, to 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. There's a lot of scripture on this subject, isn't there? I mean we're seeing a lot of scriptures that are showing us the same thing. The devil being used by God to ultimately fulfill his will. Even though the devil has his own wicked agenda, in reality he's just a tool used by God. And he's just someone that God allows to exist for his purposes and that God can get rid of any time he wants. And eventually he will get rid of him when it's time for him to be gotten rid of. Look at 2 Thessalonians chapter number 2. And this is talking about the end times, the anti-Christ, the tribulation, it's talking about the abomination of desolation, etc. But look at verse number 8. The Bible reads, And then shall that wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming. The context is referring to the anti-Christ. It says, Even him whose coming is after the working of Satan, with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness, in them that perish, because they receive not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. So this man, the anti-Christ, is going to deceive. The devil is the one who's going to give him his power and his seed and his great authority. The dragon is the one behind the anti-Christ. But look what the Bible says in verse 11. And for this cause, God shall send them strong delusion that they should believe a lie. And here's where God's purpose is fulfilled in verse 12. That they all might be damned who believe not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness. You see, God cannot lie. The Bible's real clear about that. The Bible says, In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began. The Bible also says in Hebrews chapter 6, verse 19, that by two immutable things in which it was impossible for God to lie. We might have a strong consolation who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us. See, God can't lie. It's impossible for God to lie. But God allows the devil to exist, and he allows the devil to tell lies and deceive people. And as a punishment from God, God will allow people to be deceived by the devil. You see, it's a blessing from God when our eyes are open and when he leads us in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. When he reveals great truths unto us, when he guides us into all truth, when he opens our eyes. You know, that's a blessing. And it's a curse from God to be deceived. To fall for the devil's tricks and his lies. Now of course, we have free will, and this is part of why the devil exists. Part of why the devil exists is to give us free will, because God does not just eliminate all evil from the world. He doesn't just get rid of all evil people. He doesn't even get rid of the devil himself. He allows the devil to be on this earth. He allows evil people to be here. He allows the wheat and the tares to grow together until the end of the world. And part of that is that he wants us to make a choice, and he wants us by faith to follow him and not to follow after the devil. Now in the Garden of Eden, God placed the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. He could have just as easily not created such a tree. Or he could have easily just put the tree somewhere else. Put it outside the Garden of Eden. Put a fence around it, build a wall around it, whatever. But instead he allowed it to be there, but he gave man a choice. He said, are you going to obey me or not? You know, here's the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Don't touch it. Don't eat it. In the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die. And then he gives man free will. And by giving man free will, he opens up the possibility of a lot of evil and wicked things when man makes the wrong choice. But if God didn't allow evil and wickedness to exist, then God couldn't really give man free will at that point. If he just only gives options that are good options, well then that's not free will. You see, man is not a robot. Man is not a puppet. But rather, man is made in the image of God, and man has the ability to decide for himself what he's going to do. What he wants to do. Is he going to choose life or choose death? Is he going to choose the Lord or is he going to choose the devil? Now Calvinism is a doctrine that is so foolish, I can't even understand how anybody can believe in it. How anybody can be deceived by it. Because not only is it completely unscriptural, there are many scriptures that could easily destroy Calvinism. I've done many entire sermons where I chewed up that stupid false doctrine and spit it out. Let me say this, even besides just being completely 100% unbiblical, Calvinism also just defies logic and common sense. I mean, if we just use our brains that God gave us and we just look at the world around us and look at our lives, we know that we choose every day what we do. I mean that's just as obvious as the sky being blue. That we make choices. And that every day I decide what I'm going to do, what I'm going to say, where I'm going to go. And that I'm not being controlled by someone else. I mean it just doesn't make any sense folks. To not realize that we have free will, I mean everybody knows, even unsaved people know, everybody knows that we make our own choices as human beings. That's what separates us from a machine. Now this is important because we're living in a day where sci-fi is becoming reality. We're living in a day of the brain scan technology and the artificial intelligence and transhumanism and all of these things that were sci-fi in the past, they're actually rapidly approaching and rapidly coming upon us and there are robots and all kinds of things that are being developed and created. I'm not just up here trying to sound like a crazy person. I mean it's really happening. These technologies are being invented. I mean the personal computer was barely even around in the 80s. Barely anybody had it even in the late 80s. And then the internet wasn't around until the 90s. Did people actually really log on the internet? And it was a super slow internet. You know it was dial-up. It's like, get off the internet, I need to make a phone call, right? Okay and then even when the internet got faster, you didn't have it with you 24 hours a day on your phone, the smartphone. I mean the smartphone is really what, that it really became common. It's really like the last 10 years that everybody had. I mean I had one when I first moved here, so that was like 10 and a half years ago that I used for business, but most people didn't have one at that time. Now everybody's got one. Now five-year-olds have them, you know, I'm not recommending that, you know. You don't have one? At this point, I think you might as well just go to the grave without one. No, I'm just kidding. It's too late for you to learn it. We're going to get you one of those phones with the big buttons on it. No, I'm just kidding. What do they call that thing? What is it? The jitterbug. Yeah, yeah, the big phone. But anyway, most people have it. I mean, okay, who has a smartphone in here? Put up your hand if you have a smartphone. Look around. Yeah, everybody's got one. And I mean with that smartphone, I mean you can pull up, I mean and if you want to, you can talk to the thing. I find that creepy. This week my computer's like, hey, do you want to install Siri? I'm like, what do I need that for, you know? Is that what, I mean, who has it? Who has Siri? What does it, what's the point? You just talk to it. Siri, would you make me a cup of coffee or what do you do with it? I mean, you might, what's the difference between that and just Googling stuff? It's just the same as Googling something except it's just kind of feels like you're talking to somebody, like you have a secretary or something, right? You can actually talk to, Siri, what's the weather like in Tempe right now? I guess that's just like, you might as well just Google weather in Tempe. It's kind of the same thing, right? But it just feels a little more personal. But pretty soon, I mean, people are going to try to get romantically involved with Siri. I mean that's the way things are going. In Japan, that's, I mean I did a whole sermon on, in Japan that's what they're doing. They have these cyber girlfriends and it's not even, some of it's not even in a perverted way. It's just someone to talk to. But they're talking to a machine. It's not real. But what differentiates a human being from a machine? It's just one word, folks. And don't try to tell me this is two words because in the Bible it's one word and it's mentioned 17 times. Free will. 17 times the King James Bible uses the word free will. Free will is what separates me from a machine. You see, they could create an artificial intelligence. I mean, look, it's not very advanced right now when you call and they're like, oh, well, what can I help you with today? You can say anything from check my balance to make a deposit. You know, it's like, well, that doesn't seem very convincing. You know you're talking to a machine. But pretty soon it's going to be the point where you call and you're going to think you're talking to a person and you're not. It's going to be a robot talking to you. Okay. Well, what's the difference though between a human being and a machine? The difference is that the human being has free will. That's the difference. Because a human being makes decisions based on what they want to do. They have desires of what they're going to do. A computer is only going to do what you tell it to do, what you program it to do. Now, you could program it to do things at random, but you can't program it to do what it wants to do because it doesn't want to do anything. It doesn't have any desire because it has no soul, okay, because it doesn't have free will. Does everybody understand? So this doctrine of Calvinism teaches that basically everybody on this planet is literally like a robot being controlled by God, that God is controlling everybody like a puppet master and everything everybody does is part of God's will and he's controlling them. First of all, there are so many people who do so many sick things, that would make God sort of a sick individual if he's controlling all these evil, wicked, sick people. Whereas in the Bible when it talks about evil people doing sick things, God said that didn't even come into my mind. He said they did that because of their own evil imagination. That was out of the lust of their own heart, out of their own wickedness, okay. God doesn't have any wickedness in him. God is light and in him is no darkness at all, the Bible says. God is incapable of lying. He cannot lie. It's impossible for him to lie. He is good. He is righteous. He is holy. He does not have any sin or iniquity in him. Therefore, he does not lie to people. But there are times when it's his will for wicked people to be deceived as a punishment. He doesn't want them to know the truth because they're wicked and he wants them to be blinded so he just turns them over to Satan. Satan is the one who lies to them and leads them down a dark path that God would never lead anyone down. But he just turns them over to him and he does all that, okay. So human beings have free will. Yes, God created the devil. The devil made his choice. He chose to do wrong. You see, God created him perfect but he ended up rebelling against the Lord as we read about in Ezekiel 28, being puffed up and prideful and desiring to be God and so forth. So he ended up falling from grace, you know, falling from his good standing with God and he is now a wicked evil creature who God allows to exist because God has certain purposes that are fulfilled by the existence of the devil. And God gives us free will and part of that free will that he gives us is that he allows temptation to exist just like the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and just like all of the evil things and the wicked things that are in this world to tempt us. God's will is not for us to be removed from this world and removed from temptation. It's God's will that we live soberly, righteously and godly in this present world. We're to be in the world but not of the world, okay. That's why God doesn't eliminate the devil. That's why God doesn't tell us to go live out in the middle of nowhere somewhere or in a monastery or in a cave or on a ranch somewhere, just secluded, no. God wants us to be amongst the world, amongst the sinners and to just resist temptation, to resist the devil that he might flee from us. So that's important to understand that distinction. Now go to Revelation chapter 20 in case you're not convinced. Revelation chapter 20, I know this is kind of a deep truth and so I don't want anyone to become confused but this is important doctrine that we should understand so that when we read our Bibles and when we live our lives we understand the world that we live in. What are some of the things that we've established so far? Number one is that God created the devil. He's a creation of God. He is inferior to God in every way. He's not on the level with God. He's not the opposite of God. He's not somehow a competitor for God. God looks at him as, you know, obviously nothing compared to his own power and might. The devil is on a much lower level. He's more on the level with like Michael the Archangel, okay, which is just a created being. Okay. Secondly, we see that the devil is allowed to exist because he fulfills God's purpose in the end. Although God never lies or does anything evil and of course God would never tell the devil, hey, do this bad thing for me. Hey, do this wicked thing for me. The devil is going to do bad stuff so he allows him to do that stuff and he allows people that are not in his favor to be victims of it for whatever reason. Look at Revelation chapter 20 verse 1. It says, and I saw an angel come down from heaven having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand and he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent which is the devil and Satan and bound him a thousand years and cast him into the bottomless pit and shut him up and set a seal upon him that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years should be fulfilled and after that he must be loosed a little season. Now in case you're asking yourself, you know, well why would God allow the devil to fulfill his purpose or why would God have any purpose for the devil? The devil is just an enemy of God. You know, why would God do this? And some people might even listen to the sermon and think, you know, Pastor Anderson is teaching blasphemy because he's teaching that the devil is good or something. You know, that he's fulfilling the will of God. No, the devil is not good. The devil is evil but he does ultimately fulfill God's will. Now the proof, if there hasn't already been enough proof, is right here in Revelation chapter 20. Why would God let the devil out of hell after he already put him there? I mean think about this. God has the devil. He's chained up. It's not that God doesn't have enough power to put the devil into hell whenever he wants to. I mean God doesn't even have to do it himself. God sends this angel down from heaven with a great chain in his hand. He doesn't even battle the devil himself. He just sends someone else to just grab the devil, chain him up, and throw him into hell. It doesn't really seem like it's that hard for him here. Don't you get that picture in Revelation 20? That any time God wants to, he just sends his errand boy to throw the devil into hell and lock him up and chain him up for a thousand years. And after that, he must be loosed a little season. Look at verse 7. And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison and shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to the battle, the number of whom is as the sand of the sea. So the question is, why on earth would God let the devil out of hell after having him locked up there for a thousand years? And the answer is quite simple, in order to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth. That's why he's released, to fulfill that task that ultimately fulfills God's word. Why? Because he wants to wipe out the last of the wicked people that are on the earth. And so this is how he does it. He lets the devil out, the devil deceives these nations, he gathers them together to a battle, that they're stupid enough to think that they can go and fight this battle and win because they fall for the devil's lies. And when they show up, the Bible says in verse 9, and they went up on the breadth of the earth and compass the camp of the saints about in the beloved city and fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them. And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night forever and ever. So this is where the devil is ultimately put in the lake of fire to be tormented forever and ever. He's done at this point, okay? But before he goes there, he fulfills God's will. Now God allows him to exist as part of his will. During the time after the millennium, it's going to be the same thing. Go back to 2 Samuel chapter 24, verse 1. And actually, I'm going to have you turn to two places in the Old Testament. Go to 2 Samuel 24, 1, and 1 Chronicles 21, 1. Now the Bible does call the devil our adversary, okay? Our adversary. Another word for that would be our opponent, right? He is someone who is against us, right? The devil is our enemy. The devil is our opponent. The devil is our adversary. The devil is fighting against us, right? So he's not our friend, okay? He's not our ally. He's someone who's fighting us. But what we have to understand is that God allows him to be there as an opponent, as an adversary, as an enemy, partially to help make us stronger. As we withstand temptations, as we go through trials and tribulations, the devil is pushing against us and he's there for a reason, okay? Now look, this is a scripture that some people have pointed out and they said, oh, this is a contradiction in the Bible. But it's not a contradiction at all. Look at 2 Samuel 24, verse 1. It says again, the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel and he moved David against them to say, go number Israel and Judah, okay? So everybody see that? God's angry at Israel. He moved David against them to say, go number Israel and Judah, which was something that they weren't supposed to do and ends up bringing the judgment of God on the nation. But look at 1 Chronicles 21, 1. It says in verse 1 there of 1 Chronicles 21, and Satan stood up against Israel and provoked David to number Israel. And some people looked at it and said, well, who was it? You know, was it God that caused David to number Israel or was it Satan that caused David to number Israel? But here's actually what happened. God was mad at Israel because of their wickedness and wanted to bring judgment upon them. So he basically allowed Satan to come in and tempt David into this sin. Because Satan is the one who does that kind of dirty work, God would not provoke his child to commit sin. Okay? It was the devil who did that. But the reason that God allowed it to happen was because his anger was kindled at them. Not for no reason, but because of their sins and iniquities. So that's a pretty clear example, again, of Satan fulfilling the will of God in a certain situation. Now go, if you went to John chapter 13, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, John chapter 13. We're looking at a lot of scripture tonight just to really drive in this point. Because it's a very biblical point that we see over and over again. And we want to make sure that we understand the devil because the Bible says that we're not ignorant of his devices. We don't want to be ignorant of who the devil is or what his devices are. If God didn't want... I heard some preacher say before, hey, we shouldn't have a Bible study on the devil. We shouldn't study the devil. We shouldn't preach about the devil because that's just giving him too much attention, they said. I've actually heard multiple preachers. Has anybody ever heard a preacher say something like that? Or is it just me? I've heard multiple preachers say, hey, we don't want to do a study on the devil now. But if God didn't want us to read up on the devil, he wouldn't have given us all these scriptures about the devil in the Bible and then tell us that all scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine. So we need to learn everything that the Bible has to teach us. And part of that is to understand who the devil is. The devil is basically pure evil. The Bible says that there's no truth in him. Now God can't lie. The devil, on the other hand, there's no truth in him at all. He is wicked. This is not defending the devil in any way, this sermon, because the devil's rotten to the core. He's pure evil, pure wickedness. Okay, but God allows him to exist for a reason. And being in his hand is not a good thing. And being deceived by him is not a good thing. But ultimately, it's not the devil that we should fear. It's only God that we should fear, because God has the devil on a leash. And God, if you ever are attacked by the devil, or if the devil does anything in your life, it's only going to be because God allowed him to do that. So he's the one that you ought to worry about keeping happy, God, and not have some fear of the devil separate from that. Now look at John chapter 13, verse 2, the Bible reads, And supper being ended, the devil, having now put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray him. So the Bible tells us here that the devil is the one who put it into Judas Iscariot's heart to betray Jesus. Okay, look down at verse number 18. I speak not of you all, I know whom I have chosen, but that the scripture may be fulfilled. He that eateth bread with me hath lifted up his heel against me. So it's the devil who provokes Judas to betray Jesus. But in verse 18, it tells us that that had to happen in order for the scripture to be fulfilled, that Judas needed to betray Jesus to fulfill prophecy, to fulfill scripture, which is why Jesus chose a guy like Judas as his disciple, an unbeliever. Jesus in John chapter 6 made it clear he knew that Judas believed not. He handpicked 12 disciples. He said, Have not I chosen you 12 and one of you is a devil? So he specifically picked a disciple that he knew was bad, that he would fulfill the purpose of betraying Jesus that the scripture might be fulfilled. Look at verse 26. Jesus answered, He it is, to whom I shall give a sop, when I have dipped it. And when he had dipped the sop, he gave it to Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon. And after the sop, Satan entered into him, then said Jesus unto him, That thou doest do quickly. Notice Satan entered into him and caused him to perform that. Look at John chapter 17 verse 12. John 17 verse 12 says, While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name. John 17 12, Those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of Perdition, which is Judas Iscariot, that the scripture might be fulfilled. It says the same thing in Luke 22, Then entered Satan into Judas, surnamed Iscariot, being of the number of the twelve, and he went and communed with the chief priests and captains that he might betray him unto them. Now go back to Ezekiel chapter 28. Now that we have all that background, Ezekiel chapter 28. So clearly the devil is a created being. He has no power at all, except that which God allows him to have. God allows him to temporarily exist and to work all of his wickedness, ultimately fulfilling God's plan and God's will. God does not dream up wicked things or lie or do evil, but the devil does and God allows him to operate that people might be punished and that people might be cursed when they don't believe the word of God, when they don't obey the Lord. Now look at Ezekiel chapter 28. This is a scripture on the devil. Clearly it's not just talking about the literal king of Tarsus or Tyrus, I'm sorry. Now the reason why it's characterized this way is because in verse number two, it says, one of man say unto the prince of Tarsus, the prince there is the foremost leader of Tarsus, the ruler, I keep saying Tarsus, I'm sorry. The ruler of Tyrus there is being referred to as the prince of Tyrus. Look what the prince of Tyrus says in verse two, thus saith the Lord God, because thine heart is lifted up and thou has said, I am a God, I sit in the seat of God in the midst of the seas, yet thou art a man and not God, though thy set thine heart as the heart of God. So the physical literal ruler of Tyrus was a man who thought I'm God. Now a lot of rulers throughout history have had this idea that they're God and people worship them and they actually go crazy and think that they're like God or that they're a God or whatever. So this guy has that attitude. So who does that remind you of somebody who wants to be God or sits in the place of God or wants to, obviously that's what the devil is like. And we can see that in Isaiah chapter 14, 12 through 15. We can also see that in second Thessalonians chapter two where he puts himself in the place of God or in revelation where everybody's worshiping the dragon and worshiping the Antichrist. So because this man is like the devil, God then starts to talk about the devil. So when it's talking about the prince of Tyrus, it's talking about the literal physical ruler on the earth. But then when it talks about the king of Tyrus, which would be like a higher rank, this is the guy who's really running Tyrus and that's the devil. Look down if you would at verse number 12, it says, Son of man, take up a lamentation upon the king of Tyrus. And I'm going to show you this is clearly not talking about a physical human being because it says, say unto him, thus sayeth the Lord God, thou sealest up the sum full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. Thou has been in Eden, the garden of God. Now obviously this literal guy in Tyrus was not in the garden of Eden, but who was in the garden of Eden? The devil. So he says, thou has been in Eden, the garden of God. Every precious stone was thy covering, the Sardius, Topaz and the diamond, the barrel, the onyx and the Jasper, the sapphire, the Emerald and the carbuncle and gold. The workmanship of thy tablets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou was created. Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth and I have set thee so. So again, God has created this being known as Satan. Thou was upon the holy mountain of God. Thou has walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire. Thou was perfect in thy ways from the day that thou was created till iniquity was found in thee. By the multitude of thy merchandise, they have filled the midst of thee with violence and thou has sinned. Therefore I will cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God. I will destroy thee, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire. Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty. Thou has corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness. I will cast thee to the ground. I will lay thee before kings that they may behold thee. So it's not going to get about the devil's ultimate destruction. He started out in the Garden of Eden, a very beautiful creature. His heart is lifted up and he sinned and he's going to be cast out and destroyed eventually. Now here are some things I want to point out about the devil in this passage. One of the first thing that's brought up is of course his beauty and the precious stones and the gold and just his magnificent appearance. In fact, that's why his pride was so great, was because of his physical appearance and beauty. Then the second thing that we see about the devil here at the end of verse number 13 is where it says the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that that was created. Tabrets and pipes are musical instruments, especially when we think of organs. They have great pipes attached to them, gigantic pipes, a pipe organ, right? Then, as we go down further, he says in verse 16, by the multitude of thy merchandise they have filled the midst of thee with violence and thou hast sinned. So some themes that we've seen here are beauty, music, merchandise, violence, wisdom, that he has great wisdom, that he's very intelligent. The Bible says in verse number 17, thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty, thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness. At the beginning of the chapter it says thou art wiser than Daniel in verse number 3. But in verse 17 it says I will cast thee to the ground, I will lay thee before kings that they may behold thee. Look at verse 18, thou hast defiled thy sanctuaries by the multitude of thine iniquities. Now, sanctuaries, that word means holy places. You can actually define this with the Bible itself because the Bible in the tabernacle had a place called the holy place and the most holy place, and in the New Testament the holy place is called the sanctuary, and the most holy place is called the holiest of all. So sanctuary literally means holy place. So the devil, according to this scripture, has holy places, right? Because it says here thou hast defiled thy sanctuaries by the multitude of thine iniquities, by the iniquity of thy traffic, which is another word for merchandise and selling things. Therefore I bring forth a fire from the midst of thee, it shall devour thee, and I will bring thee to ashes upon the earth and the sight of all them that behold thee. And they that know thee among the people shall be astonished at thee, thou shalt be a terror and never shalt thou be anymore. So eventually we know the devil is permanently destroyed by being cast into the lake of fire and being tormented forever there and never to return. So what we see in this passage is some of the ways that the devil deceives man. And when you look at this, we can see that the devil uses deception, of course, and he uses religion to deceive people. This is a huge aspect of the devil. The Bible says that the devil himself is transformed into an angel of light. So is it any marvel that his ministers are transformed into the ministers of light? So the Bible warns us that the devil will come to you as an angel of light and that his ministers will come as ministers of light. See he's got his holy places. It's called the United Methodist Church. It's called the Roman Catholic Church. It's called the Lutheran Church, you know, where they have all the beautiful pipes and the tabrets and the beautiful music. And of course, there's nothing wrong with pipe organs, but there's nothing wrong with tabrets either. But the point is, though, that through beautiful music, through gold, silver, precious stones, through physical beauty, through merchandise, and through lies and deception, the devil gets people into false religion. And he has all these corrupted sanctuaries all over these holy places, so-called. I mean, think about how much false religion is in this world. It's everywhere. And not just the Hinduism and the Buddhism and the Islam, the devil's behind all of that too. Make no mistake about it. The devil is behind all of those Eastern religions. But not only that, the devil is behind apostate Christianity as well. The devil is transformed into a minister of light. And so he will deceive people with fair speeches and people walk into these religious institutions and they're just blown away by the beauty of it. I mean, you can sit here with the Bible in hand and preach against the Orthodox Church, all of its lies and heresies and false doctrine, as I've done in multiple sermons. But then people will tell you, well, have you ever been to an Orthodox Church, though? Because oh, the moment that you walk in, oh, just the beauty. And you'll hear the chanting and the singing and the music and the stained glass. And it's just, oh, you'll just feel the presence of God. No, that's the devil. And he's very convincing. He's very convincing. Very impressive. Gold, silver, precious stones. Look, the devil comes to you richly arrayed. I mean, look at the Bible in the book of Revelation when it talks about, for example, the great whore in Revelation 17. All decked in gold and silver and precious stones. Looking good. I mean, look, the casino looks pretty good, too, doesn't it? You know, I mean, we have a brother visiting from, you know, outside of Las Vegas. You know, that Las Vegas strip with all those, I mean, it looks fun, especially to a kid. The kid were to look out the window of an airplane or drive by, they, ooh, look at the lights and the glim and the glam and the sight. But it's evil. The devil's there. The devil's at the casino. The devil's at the Catholic Church. The devil's at the Orthodox Church trying to entice you through the lust of the eyes and the lust of the flesh and the pride of life to make you feel good with all of this illusion of holiness, illusion of beauty and righteousness and that which is good. You see, men of God in the Bible, they did not wear gold and silver and precious stones. That's not what they wore. The men of God in the Bible wore a rough garment. Okay. They're wearing sackcloth. They're wearing leather. They're wearing just normal clothing. I mean, Jesus wore normal clothes. They didn't wear all of these fancy outfits. I mean, when Peter and John go into the temple and they see the beggar there and he asks them for alms, they say to him, silver and gold, have I none, but such as I have, give I unto thee in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, you know, rise, take up thy bed and walk. Could the Pope really say that? You know, mister, the successor of Peter. I mean, the Catholics want us to believe that the Pope's are somehow an apostolic succession from Peter and the rest of the apostles, but they go around decked out in super expensive shoes and expensive dresses and expensive purses and expensive garments and they have all the gold. I mean, look, the Catholic church is so wealthy. Is that what Jesus said? No. Jesus said, lay not up for yourselves, treasure upon the earth. Are they following Christ? If they're laying up all this treasure, you say, well, the faithful word lay up treasure. Nope. We have no treasury here. We don't even have a treasure. No, I'm sure that, but the point is there's no safe here filled with all the precious stones and gold and silver and all the wealth of faithful word Baptist church. Why? Because all the money that comes in, we spend it. We spend it all on the furtherance of the gospel. We don't just hoard a bunch of money and live rich lavish lifestyles and just hoard it all up like the Catholic church does, like the Orthodox church does with all their treasures and all their collections and relics and all their fancy things. God didn't tell us to do that, but you know, the devil's all about that. I mean, think about that. The devil's all about appearances and gold and silver and precious stones and pearls and all these things. That's how the devil is going to, according to Ezekiel 28, that's what he's all about. And he's all about fancy music. And he's all about deceiving you through these carnal physical things. Instead of just the word of God being preached from a guy in regular clothes, clothes that any poor person could wear, clothes that any normal person would wear, we as preachers shouldn't dress fancy. And here's the thing. I'm not dressed fancy right now. Yeah, but anybody could put on a shirt and tie. Just go to court and look at all the derelicts on the defendant's stand in a shirt and tie. How'd they get there? Every derelict throws on a shirt and tie to go to court. Well, you know what? All my clothes are from the thrift store. Hey, we as God's people aren't supposed to wear fancy, expensive clothes. We need to be humble. And yeah, we should wear our Sunday best. But we shouldn't go out and buy a bunch of fitted, tailored Italian suits and a bunch of super expensive purses and jewelry on the ladies. And these televangelists, that's what they do. They're all decked in gold and silver and precious stones, everything. Why? Because that appeals to the flesh. But God's people aren't into that stuff. But the world is deceived by that stuff. The world, when they see that stuff, the world's impressed. I don't know about you, when I see fancy clothes, I'm not impressed at all. It's meaningless. But those who are carnal are impressed by that. And they seek after that and they desire that. And so they go to those churches where they're going to find that, whether it be the orthodox Catholic in all of his fancy garments and fancy schmancy building, or whether that's the giant charismatic TV preacher type church where the pastor's making a million dollars a year and drives a fancy car and has all the gold rings and all the gear and everything like that. But you see, people, they often will come at you with this argument that says, well, if God's real and if Jesus is real and if the Bible's real, they'll say, why is there so much pain and suffering in the world? Why are there so many horrible things in the world? I just can't believe that there's a God if there's all these bad things that are allowed to happen. You've heard that before. But the answer to that question is that God allows that to be there because he wants us to seek after him and choose that which is right. And you say, well, you know, I mean, what, come on, all these, there's all these different religions. I mean, there's all these different denominations. I mean, you know, which one's right? I mean, you expect me to figure out which one's right. But here's the thing. Jesus says, seek and you shall find. It might seem like it's so hard to figure. I mean, you got the Baptist or the Methodist or the Presbyterian, you got the Mormons, you got Jehovah's Witnesses, you got Catholics, you got Orthodox, you got Pentecostals, you know, oh, it's just too much. I just, I just, I give up. Well, then you miss out and you go to hell. It's not faith. It's impossible to please him. For he that cometh to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. And you know what? It's not hard at all because everyone that asketh receiveth and everyone that seeketh findeth and to everyone that knocketh, it shall be opened. Every single one. Anybody who truly wants to know the truth in this world will find the truth, anyone. There's nobody in this world who just with a sincere heart from the bottom of their heart just wants to know the truth and they cry out to God, God, show me the truth. I just want to know the truth. And they're actually sincere and they actually mean that and it's like, oh, sorry, you idiot, couldn't figure it out. Too complicated for you. No, no, no. If you seek, you'll find. It's not complicated at all. Everybody acts like there's just so many religions in the world. There's not even that many religions in the world. If you break them into their categories, there's pretty much like five major religions in the world. It's really not that complicated, right? I mean, there's pretty much like Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, Christianity, and paganism, right? I mean, those are the big major religions. I mean, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, paganism. And if you count atheism, we'll throw that in as a number six. I mean, those are the big religions. Is it really that overwhelmingly complicated? Especially not when you can kind of group Buddhism and Hinduism into the same category. They're both just kind of a reincarnation, Eastern death worshiping religion. Okay. Then you can even kind of group Islam with Christianity that Islam is a perversion of Christianity. It's a perverted form of Christianity. It's a guy who came along and said, oh, well, Jesus is not the son of God. He's just a prophet and I'm a better prophet and it's a spinoff, right? And it's pretty easy to see through that stupidity. I mean, is anybody here struggling with whether Mohammed was really a prophet of God? Guy's a pedophile. Yeah. Of course you're not. That's apparently it's illegal to say that in the United Kingdom, according to that document that's pinned over there to the wall, I'm banned from the United Kingdom for saying that he's a false prophet. It's right over there. You can go see for yourself official document that I received in the mail from the United States embassy from the United Kingdom. But here's the thing about that is that, you know, once you realize that Mohammed's a pervert false prophet, once you easily see through the junk of Buddhism and Hinduism, I mean, that's not really that hard to rule those out, folks. And then you're like, okay, Christianity. Then you look at Christianity. It's pretty easy to figure out who actually follows the Bible and who's just got a bunch of hocus pocus and walking around the platform emptying out a dust buster and putting on a bunch of weird garments and funny hats and walking around with big golden canes and all this craziness. And you know, look, it's not that hard to figure out, folks. People who want to go to a church that believes the Bible are going to end up in a Baptist church period. That's where they're going to end up. They're going to see through the glim-glam televangelists. Eventually they're going to see through. I mean, look, it's not that complicated, but the devil is there to deceive the people who are too lazy or don't care or they're just wicked and they don't want to know the truth. He's ready to welcome them into his perverted sanctuaries. And God allows it to be so. So let me just close on this one thought. Go if you would to Revelation 2 10. This is the last place we're going to turn to. Revelation chapter 2 verse 10. The devil's out there to deceive. He's out there to trick you. He's out there to, to, to tempt you into sin. I mean, even he even tempted Jesus to sin, right? He came to Jesus and tried to tempt him to sin. He's going to come to us or his minions will come to us and try to tempt us into sin. The devil's behind Hollywood. He's behind the TV. He's behind false religion. He's behind Madison Avenue. He's behind all these things to deceive the foolish and to deceive the simple. And what God wants from us is for us to make a conscious effort with our free will to overcome all that junk, to ignore all that stuff and to seek after him, to believe him, to believe the truth and to eschew all the lies. But the last point I want to make is that we should have no fear of the devil. Now of course the Bible does tell us not to be disrespectful toward the devil in the sense that we should not bring against him a railing accusation. We shouldn't just blow off our mouth about the devil because the Bible tells us that angels and devils and things of that nature are things that we don't quite have a strong understanding of as human beings. These things are a little beyond our grasp and so we should not speak evil of the things which we know not. And so the Bible says that we should not revile the gods, talking about false gods, talking about the demons and so forth and that even Michael the Archangel didn't bring a railing accusation against the devil. So we shouldn't get up and yell at the devil like sometimes Pentecostal preachers will yell at the devil and, hey devil, come on, you know, come on, take me on devil, you know, and stuff like that. Obviously we shouldn't communicate with the devil. We shouldn't make just these outlandish statements. Like one time I went to a service and they wanted to play a music CD in the preaching. Hey, they're going to play us some touchy feely Christian song to try to elicit an emotional response from us in the middle of a sermon. And the CD started skipping and he said, that CD was in perfect condition. The devil doesn't want to hear that song, you know, obviously, come on. I mean, you can't really accuse. I mean, CDs, if you look at them wrong, they get scratched. I hate CDs. That's why I hate CDs because that's, we're better. You can throw them around and they're fine. But the point is to sit there and make a railing, I can say the devil scratched my touchy feely Christian contemporary CD. No, he didn't. The devil probably was in the studio when they recorded some of that, but anyway, but the point is, you know, Oh, the devil's scratch, but to sit there and say, look, we don't know. We don't know necessarily what the devil did and didn't do. So we can't just say the devil scratched my CD. The devil scratched up my car, you know, can't just accuse the devil of things, right? So we need to have a certain healthy respect for just not talking about things that we don't understand. We should limit what we say about angels and demons to what we read in the Bible. Just kind of limit it to that and leave it at that and not speculate. But there are people who go deep into angelology and demonology and, and they go into the book of Enoch to get a little more information about the demons and every, you know, look, we need to not intrude into things that, that we have no place talking about, right? God has given us what we need to know about the devil, what his purpose is, what his role is. We should be aware of him. We should be sober, be vigilant, watch out for him. Okay. But here's the thing. We should be afraid of the devil. We should have a respect that he's there, he's powerful. We shouldn't just blow off our mouths about him unscripturally, but we don't need to fear the devil. We shouldn't fear. The Bible says, fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul, but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. Look at Revelation chapter two, verse 10. The Bible says, fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer. Behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison that you may be tried and you shall have tribulation 10 days. Be thou faithful unto death and I will give thee a crown of life. The Bible is saying, look, don't fear anything that you could go through, like for example, the devil casting you into prison. If the devil cast you into prison, it's because God allowed the devil to cast you into prison because if God wants you to stay out of prison, you'll stay out of prison and if God wants you in prison or if God wants you in jail, Paul, you're going to jail for 30 hours with crackheads, but the point is, you know, hey, 30 hours better than 10 days, right? You thought you were going to be there for 14 days, but the point is, you know, God allowed that to happen. You know, God allows things to happen for whatever reason. If God wants to spare you from that, he can spare you from that. If God wants you to go through that, then there's a reason why you're going through that and you have to trust God and at the end of the day, it's God who controls the fate of his children. I mean, if his children are serving him, the Bible says the steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord. Notice it doesn't say everybody's steps are ordered by the Lord, everybody, every, every weirdo, their steps are, but no, no, no, the steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord. So if you're a good man, if you're a Christian and you love the Lord, then all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. So we don't need to be in fear of, oh man, I hope the devil doesn't get to me and do bad stuff to me and you know, look, God is the one who we need to fear. God's the one that we need to keep happy. God's the one we should concern ourselves with because look, if he sends the devil into our life, it's either going to be as a punishment because we have disobeyed God, or it's going to be a job situation where he allows the devil to have a bit of a go at us. But in the end, when we're tried, we'll come forth as gold. You see, the devil can't destroy us. The devil can't destroy this church. Say, what if the devil just decides to take down faithful word Baptist? Not possible. The devil can't destroy faithful word Baptist church. Only one person can destroy faithful word Baptist church. And that's faithful word Baptist church can destroy faithful word Baptist church. Only one person can destroy pastor Anderson and that's pastor Anderson. And the only person who can destroy you is you. I mean, if this church is destroyed, we're going to destroy it. If I'm destroyed, it's because I destroyed myself. No weapon that's formed against me is going to prosper. You understand what I'm saying? Only we can self-destruct. If God's for us, who can be against us? We're invincible. I'm invincible. You're invincible. This church is invincible. The only way for us to be destroyed is from within. And so we just need to worry about staying right with God. And then we have nothing to fear. Even if we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, the devil doesn't have that kind of power. The devil's just going to shut down our church. Now when the devil seems like he gets a victory, sometimes in our lives, we'll feel like, man, the devil got the victory. He destroyed that church, but things aren't always as they appear. Number one, if the devil destroyed that church, it could be that number one, that church was already being destroyed from the inside. We just didn't know that. And that's why God allowed the thing to go under. Or number two, what seems like a victory for the enemy could be God allowing something to die that something even greater could be born. Like when he allowed Stephen to get killed, it was because there was a whole movement of soul winning that he wanted to start all over the world. And Stephen's death caused them to be scattered everywhere preaching the gospel. And eventually the apostle Paul would be greater than Stephen, et cetera. So we don't always see what God's doing. But honestly, there's no fear of the devil. The devil doesn't have the power to come in and destroy us unless we let him. That's why we should be sober, be vigilant, and know that our adversary, the devil, walketh about seeking whom he may devour. And whom may he devour? Only whom God lets him devour. Or those who say, hey, come devour me. And they open themselves up to that instead of resisting the devil. The Bible says resist the devil and he'll flee from you. He didn't say resist the devil. He might flee from you. He said if you resist the devil, he will flee from you. He does not have the power to destroy you or me unless we allow him to. So just always remember this one thing. If you only take one thing away from this whole message, you are the only person that can destroy you. I mean, you say, well, what if somebody just kills you, Pastor? Killing me will not destroy me. That wouldn't destroy me at all. For me to live is Christ and to die is gain. No one can destroy me. Only I can destroy myself by getting backslidden, going into a life of sin, neglecting to serve God. That would be my choice. That would be your choice if that happens. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, thank you so much for your word, Lord. And Lord, I thank you for the fact that you've given us free will. Those simple minded people known as Calvinists who think that they're so smart and they love to drop all these fancy words all the time because they think that they're so smaller are actually such imbeciles that they don't even know the most simple fact, such as the sky being blue, that we all have free will and that we make our own decisions. Something that should be obvious to any living, breathing person over the age of four or five, that they make their own choices, that they make their own decisions. And Lord, thank you for giving us free will, Lord. Thank you that we're not robots or puppets or computers or machines, Lord. Help us to make the right decision and not to be so foolish as to follow after the devil, Lord, and help us not to displease you to the point where you would get upset at us and just turn us over to Satan, Lord, for the destruction of our flesh, Lord. Help us to be wise and to walk in the light, Lord, and help us to live godly lives that would please you, and in Jesus' name we pray, amen.