of Bibles to Ezekiel chapter twenty eight. The first verse of Genesis three introduces Satan. And we're going to speak on Satan this morning. Not much is said about him other than his introduction, but his slimy trail runs throughout the Bible. I would get a true picture of him in the text I want to read this morning. You have what he was before his fall, what he was when God created him. He must have been a powerful personality. Then you have him in what Isaiah tells us, how he fell. And then some of his characteristics, there are only fifteen verses and the four passages I want to read. that I so trust you'll bear with me, and jot down. If you can't catch the text, jot them down and take them home and read them. Ezekiel twenty-eight, now he's referring to Cyrus. Cyrus was a powerful king over a powerful kingdom. Much in this chapter refers to Cyrus, but then you come to some verses that go beyond Cyrus and refer to a powerful personality behind the throne. Verse twelve. Some man take up a lamentation upon the king of Titus, and say unto him, Thus saith the Lord God, Thou seest up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty. Thou hast been in Eden, the garden of God, Every precious stone was thy covering, the sardis, topaz, and the diamond, the burl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, gold. Nine of those gems were seen on the best freight of the high priest, so there seems to be a priestly capacity here. The workmanship of thy tablets and thy pipes, was preparing thee in the day that thou wast created. He was a created being. Thou art the anointed cherub that covered in the tabernacle, the temple, there were these cherubims that covered the throne of God. And this has reference to him. Thou art the anointed cherub that covered it. And I have said thee so or appointed thee so. Thou was upon the holy mountain of God. Thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire. And many times in Scripture that illustrates the presence of God. Thou was perfect in thy way from the day that thou was created till a necrote was found in thee. There you have a description. of this angelic being like the most powerful personality that God ever created. Now his fall in Isaiah chapter fourteen. Chapter fourteen and verse five. Here's his fall. How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning? How art thou cut down to the ground which did seek in the nations? Thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven. I will exalt my throne above the stars of God. I will sift upon the mount of the congregation, the tides of the north. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds. I will be light. the most high. Five times he says, I will, I will. Yet thou shalt be brought down to him to the sides of the Lord. There you have him in his pass before sin entered and when he sinned. Now there's another description in Revelation chapter twelve. Here you have some of the names and the characteristics of Satan. Revelation chapter twelve and verse seven. There was war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon and the dragon fought and his angels, and prevailed not. Neither was there found place anymore in heaven. and the great dragon was cast out, and that old serpent, now he's been called the dragon, now the serpent, the one who's referred to in Genesis three, one. Called the devil, there's his next day, and Satan, there's his form, which deceivered the whole world. He's a deceiver. He was cast out into the earth, that is angels, were cast out with them. The Lord Jesus said, I saw Satan as lightning fall from heaven. And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ. For the accuser, there's another name of him. The accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night. and they overcame him of the blood of the land, by the word of their testimony, and they loved not their lives unto the dead. Therefore rejoice ye heavens, and ye let dwell in them. O, to the inhabitants of the earth, and of the sea, for the devil has come down unto you, having great wrath, and this is not too far ahead, it's the future, because he knoweth thee hath. but a short time. My final text is John eight and forty-four. Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father he will do. He was a murderer. There's another description, a murderer from the beginning. And a bold but in the truth, because there is no truth there. When he speaks of a lie, he speaks of his own, for he is a liar, and the father of it. He is also an angel of light. He's a roaring lion. He's called the wicked one a number of times. He's called the adversary, and he's a thief. All these are descriptions of Satan. He's a thief, for you read over in Matthew thirteen when the seed is sown, then cometh the wicked one and stealeth it out of their hearts. And he's in that business every time you hear the gospel. He's been here every time I preach and any other preacher. And as the word of God is preached and sown in human hearts, then cometh the wicked one. catch it away, steal it away, the seed. He doesn't want it to take root. Now we've come to this character, this personality, this fierce personality known to us as Satan, and all these other words that we've been referring to. And if anything that should cause man to throw his whole weight upon the presence and power of God as of the doctrine of Satan. We are no match for Satan. We need utter dependence upon God. Sinner is no match for the wiles of the wicked one. Neither is the Christian. We need God's help and God's help alone. When you think of the conflict that's going on in the world today, a fierce conflict. There was a time when there was no conflict, when there was eternal calm and harmony and love. And the Lord Jesus refers to that time over in Proverbs eight, I think it was. He says, Then I was by thee as one bucked up with thee. I was daily by delight. basking always before thee. That was a wonderful scene. The Father rejoicing in the Son. There was no conflict then. Christ refers to the glory I had with thee before the world was. There was nothing then to mar that wonderful harmony and happiness. Nothing. in any way to impringe upon that glory. Then he speaks of the time when the morning stars, the angels sang together, all the sons of God shouted for joy. These are only three scriptures that tell us of that eternal harmony and happiness and love that existed until that broken and the conflict began. That was when Satan sinned and was cast out of heaven, as we read in Isaiah fourteen and Ezekiel twenty eight. Conflict means opposition. Ye shall be as God. We'll have something more to say about that next Sunday. How Satan deceived Eve. Yes, opposition to the Almighty. Conflict means rebellion, adversity, and adversaries are at work, and he's found as an adversary. So what happened to bring into this world someone who's opposing God? His object is to rebel against God. His object is to destroy God's marvelous universe. That personality was Satan, when sinned against God. He said, I will ascend into the hill of the Lord. I will be like the most high. He looked at that throne. He knew that mighty power, and he wanted it. And God passed them out of heaven, and he came down to earth. And he's been busy. ever since. When you stop to think of this conflict that's raising, if you want to know something of it, you should read the book of Daniel, especially chapter ten, where you have a fierce conflict of spiritual, powerfully spiritual personalities who had power over King. They seemed to dwell in a very capital's of the nations of the earth. God had them. Michael, Gabriel. You'll find them in combat in Daniel. Then you have the Prince of Persia, the Prince of Grecia, and they were Satan's personalities. They were fighting against, too. They were fighting against Gabriel and Michael. They even held Gabriel up for twenty-one days until Michael came to his assistance. And this is very solemn. Why was there so much satanic activity? Why do we find these powerful personalities, the devil behind the thrones of these men? They're trying to maneuver and control the power of that throne. not only in Persia and in Grisha, but in Babylon and also in Rome. You see it in Babylon when he tried to execute the three Hebrew children and had them thrown into the fiery furnace, but God saw they survive. Who was behind Daniel being cast into the lion's den? the devil. And Israel is the object of all this satanic activity. You find that in Revelation twelve. Where you have a woman clothed with a sun and the moon under her feet. And she's got twelve stars upon her heads, the twelve tribes of Israel. It speaks of the nation of Israel. And she's travailing greatly with child. And the great red dragon is waiting for her to bring forth the man-child that she might devour him. That's the children of Israel, the nation of Israel, who travailed to bring forth the Messiah, and she did. And the dragon persecuted the woman that brought forth the man-child. And all this fierce conflict in heavenlies. is Satan's hatred against the nation of Israel. Because God used that nation to give the world his word. And through that nation, the Messiah, the Redeemer, was to come. And let me tell you, that nation has few friends on earth today. Little Israel. These angels are working behind the throne in China and most of the third world, and the Russians especially, the PLO, and some of the Arab nations in the Middle East. Who are they after? Little Israel. Were it not for the United States and God's mighty angels, little Israel. would be wiped from the face of the earth. But God is protecting Israel till his mind, will, and purpose concerning that nation is oppressed. These are some of the things relative to what you read in Daniel. Relative to this personality, once one of God's greatest created beings, You say I'm not interested in these world empires and the power behind those souls. There you have those four world powers, Babylonia, Medial Persia, priests and rule. And there are the four great world powers and the devil's likely to be behind a lot that's going on in empires. not included in those four. But what about you today? I'm coming down to you. And if there's a mighty conflict going on, a struggle in world capitals between God's princes, and he calls them princes, and the devil's princes, the devil's princes are in control of the prince and power of the air, and that's Satan. but there's a conflict going on while I'm preaching. Not in a world capital, but in your heart. It's a conflict between God and Satan. God wants to reach you and rescue you from Satan's part. God would like to make your little heart disowned. The devil would like To do the same, make your heart His throne. And what a conflict goes on when the Spirit of God tries to speak to men and women about spiritual things and don't forget their mighty things. Things that are eternal, that which pertains to a soul that's going to live and last forever either in heaven or in hell. God is doing his best to see that you will be saved. The devil is doing his best to see that you are not. And so we will come now to the names and nature of the devil. First of all, he is the serpent, as you will see in Eden's garden. There are more to say about that next week. A serpent bites. It plazens. It's victim. Until it dies, and then it devours it. I was in a museum in Raleigh when I first came down south. A year ago, I didn't like it too much. But they had a big snake. They had several of them. I said, how do you feed these? He said, we give them rats. He said, I'll show you. and he threw a big old rat in there. And hadn't been there long, of course it went to the other corner, but the snake began moving, and he struck, and he drew back. And it wasn't long, the old rat just keeled over, and then the snake on. Yes, a snake bite. A frost bite is bad, a dog bite is bad, a snake bite. The devil's bitten you with sin. And sin is coursing through your veins, that awful poison, sin. Sin working in our bodies brings forth fruit unto death. And you've bitten. But you can't save. And the men and women get some pain, sometimes, and misery, because of that poison. Satan is a servant. I'll tell you he's doing his dirty business hour after hour day after day. And I trust you realize that poison that's running through your veins today, a nature that's against God. Sin. A sinful nature. Not only is he a serpent, he's a deceiver. The devil is constantly busy. Since he was cast out of heaven, he's been frightened to get angels and men to rebel against God, just like he did. He rebelled against the Almighty. And a lot followed him. Not only did he fall from heaven, there were many angels found with him. We read about the devil and his angels. Not only angels, but men have joined in this rebellion against the Almighty. Born in your little heart, there is rebellion. You see it in the little baby. If it doesn't want something, it'll let you know. He's a little rebel. And he'll cry and scream to get his way. That's part of the human nature, sin. But oh, the rebellious nature of the human heart, when it comes to salvation. God is trying to save you. He's trying to make you his own. He would like to put away your sins, give you peace and everlasting life. But you're a rebaric strange, isn't it? rebellion against becoming a Christian, rebelling against becoming a child of God, rebelling against the possibility of going to heaven, strange yet true. Rebellion in the human heart. Yes, Satan can recall many other names. Not only is he a deceiver, he's a rebel, He deceiveth the whole world. We'll mention that next Sunday when he says, Ye shall be his garments, O deception of the wicked one. You could say he's false. Also, he's untrue, and he's dishonest. All these things are true of Satan. Remember when I'm talking about deception, This man, he was evangelist. Naturally, he had a love for souls. He wanted to see people saved. And he noticed night after night people would come and go and didn't get saved. He was, why is this? And he had a dream. It's in the Traveler's Guide book. I have one somewhere in my library. I got it, brought it south when I came down fifty-one years ago. And here this man had a dream. of Satan sitting on this throne. And out for them were his angels. And the devil says, who will go forth to deceive the inhabitants of the earth? One angel spoke of I will go. And what will you tell them? I'll come and there's no God. I'll tell them that man just dies like a beast, and that's it. That won't deceive them. Another angel speaks up. What will you tell? I'll tell them there is a God. I'll tell them that he's a God of love. I'll tell them that he gave his son to die. To save man, the man must be saved. The table says that won't deceive him. You're telling him the truth. But he says, I'll say, put it off. Lots of time. Don't get saved now. The devil says, go. You will receive it. The demon of procrastination. If ever I've seen a demon operate in my fifty-one years of evangelistic work, it's that demon of procrastination. Never mind you know in the Gospel. allow it the gospel. He just doesn't want you to believe it. And you can know everything about the gospel and if you don't believe it, you're going to share the same hell as a Stalin and as a Hitler. Yes, he's a deceiver. Put it on. Do nothing about it. Wait till the future. He's a liar. What a lie. Tell you that in that verse in John chapter eight. He is a liar and the power of it. Yes, he is a liar. He'll tell you to forget this business of being saved. Don't get saved. Have a good time. Or you can do the best you can. After all, God won't punish you. Sin. There's no heaven. There's no hell. Through the message, join the church, be baptized. Christ is not enough. He's a liar. The Bible says he's a liar. How many men and women today are believing the lies of the devil? Rather than listening to the voice of God. He's the dragon. And he's called the great red dragon. He's brutal. He's remorseless. He's cruel. Christ refers to that old woman whom Satan abound though these eighteen years. Yes, he's cruel. He's fierce. He's red. He believes in sloth. He thirsts for blood. He's a revolutionary. The forces today that are revolutionary have a red flag of their insignia. Satan is a murderer. What does he care for the millions that die or killed or crushed or take their own lives?