Asking For A Friend - What does the Bible say about angels, demons and satan?
Heavenly father, Lord, I pray that this morning your name would be magnified, that your supremacy, that your, power and ruling over all things would be made clear. Lord, I pray that you would, be with pastor Cameron and, bless the the preparation that he has put into this message. I pray that it would have its the the desired effect among your people that you wanted to have this morning, That you would provide clarity and that your holy spirit would lead us into truth. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.
Pastor Cameron:Amen. Good morning, conduit. How are you? Good morning. Good.
Pastor Cameron:What's going on here? Yeah. Yeah. Can you hear me all the way back there? Outside the tent, even?
Pastor Cameron:Yes? No? Good? Okay. We'll try to keep the volume up for you.
Pastor Cameron:We've been praying, been praying that the rain would stay away today. We believe it's going to. The Lord gave us rain yesterday, so we don't need it again today. Right? So, we're we're in a series here, called Asking for a Friend, and the point of that series or the basis of that series is that for several weeks, we've asked for your, for your questions.
Pastor Cameron:Things that you're curious about, things that you questions that maybe you've had about the faith before, or questions that you've had about scripture, or even, principles of faith that you are interested in, and we've been preaching on those messages, preaching on those questions, as well as doing our Bible studies on Wednesday nights around them as well. And so this morning, the question the question that was we actually got kind of this question a lot, or questions like it a lot, we kind of lumped it all together, is, essentially, or to some to some effect, what does the Bible say, about the unseen spiritual world? In particular, what does the Bible have to say about things like angels, demons, and even Satan? Which is an interesting, it's an interesting message for me to preach, and you'll hear why here in just a few minutes. As we look at the scripture, it's what what is really clear is that the scripture as you read it assumes that the person that is reading it believes that there is an unseen spiritual world, of which we are all a part of in some way, but that we can't readily perceive with our eyes.
Pastor Cameron:It it it assumes that much. It it assumes that the 1 who is reading it has an understanding that, yeah, there's something going on in the world of the spirit, the spiritual world, and that you and I, even though we are in the middle of it, can't readily perceive it with our primary senses. We can't readily hear it with our ears, we can't readily see it with our eyes. Now when I say, that you and I, that we are a part of this unseen spiritual world. My hope is that you'll come to understand that we don't really sit in a reality that is separate from the world that we cannot see, which is sometimes the the common way that we think about it.
Pastor Cameron:Right? We have the an unseen spiritual world, and we have our world that we can see, that we can perceive with our senses, and the 2 are separate, and we're not a part of that world, and they're not a part of our world. So what I I wanna kind of address that issue, and and essentially say that that we that we are, even despite our ability to see or perceive, in a v very real way, we are living in the midst of a creation that has both seen and unseen dimensions. That we we live in a created world, a created universe that has the seen dimensions, the things that we perceive all all the time. Right?
Pastor Cameron:And we can feel the wind on our skin, and we can feel the sunshine on our bald heads, and and we can Yeah. Sorry, Benny. I looked right at you, and I couldn't resist. So yeah. We can smell the burgers cooking, right, for a picnic later.
Pastor Cameron:We can we can sense things around us, but we also are living in a world where there are things that we cannot readily see, we cannot readily hear, we cannot readily, feel or perceive. Now what is true, what the scripture declares, and that what what we believe by faith is that soon, in the return of Jesus, the veil that now exists between what is seen and what is unseen, will be lifted from our eyes and we will see clearly once we what we could only once see through the eyes of faith. See, we we believe in an unseen world through primarily through our eyes of faith. We have faith to believe that what we read in the scripture is true, and we have experiences that support that truth. But there will come a time, a time soon, at the return of Jesus, where the where the veil that has clouded what we what we cannot seen is be lifted, and everything that truly is will be seen in fullness.
Pastor Cameron:Pastor Luke preached about this a few weeks ago, at the end of our series on Ephesians. The apostle Paul wrote in Ephesians chapter 6 verse 12 that, that he he writes of he writes about this unseen spiritual world. That we struggle. You and I, we struggle against it as believers in Jesus. We struggle against this unseen world.
Pastor Cameron:Its rulers, its authorities, the powers of the dark world, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. It is against these things that our struggle exists. Our struggle exists not primarily against the things of the flesh, or what we can see, and what we can hear, and what we do experience. But especially for those of us who are sons and daughters of God, believers by faith in Jesus, we find ourselves in the midst of a battle with an enemy that we cannot always perceive with our eyes, with our ears, with our primary senses. So that what is the question?
Pastor Cameron:The question there then is, is what is behind the darkness of the world that we live in. And I don't even think I really need to qualify that statement at all, because I think we all senses, unseen, unseen world, son or daughter of God, we all have some sense of this extraordinarily this extraordinarily dark and broken aspect to our world, where it seems as though evil abounds and it cannot be escaped, that it pervades every aspect of life and society and relationships and personal health and mental health and physical health. So the question is what is it what is it actually that exists behind the dark what is behind the darkness of the world? And what Paul says, the apostle Paul says, is more than just meets the eye. That the darkness of the world is not is not just something that we can see, but something that we actually do not see.
Pastor Cameron:Now, as we gotta deep dive more into the scriptures this morning, I want to I wanna be clear about a few things. Much of what we have in the scripture is not, is not super descriptive of the unseen spiritual world. That's why I say that when we that when we approach this topic, it's it's as if we're approaching the topic, like, because the script the writers of scripture are assuming that there's a belief that an unseen spiritual world exists. He's not trying to make none of the writers in scripture are trying to make an an argument to try and convince someone that, hey, there are dark and evil powers at work in the world. You don't know we see them, you can't always perceive them, but our experience should tell us that this is indeed the case.
Pastor Cameron:So much of what we have in scripture is not descriptive of the unseen world. It's simply it's simply, it's exhortative. Meaning, meaning it simply states, hey, it exists. It's out there. It is true.
Pastor Cameron:What we do have are little bits here and there, some of it found in the narrative stories of Jesus. If you read the gospels at all, you see in the narrative stories of Jesus dealing with, demonic powers that both oppress and possess people that he meets in ministry. He goes about giving them healing and, and freedom from that. So we certainly see the the the evidence of it in the ministry of Jesus. Some of what we see in scripture is found in, what we call apocalyptic literature like the book of Revelation, and some books of in the book of Daniel.
Pastor Cameron:For instance, the book of Revelation, this vast and complex vision that the Apostle John has, it's it's full of full of symbolism and a weaving together of spiritual and prophetic themes. You've ever read the book of Revelation even a little bit, you can, you can agree with me when I say it's not it's not the type of thing that that kind of clearly defines a a plus b equals c type of spiritual themes. It's full of it's full of thank you, Aldo. It is, it is full of, symbolism, and prophecy, and things that are not exactly always clear. In other parts of the New Testament, we have description, of the kind of the unseen spiritual world, and the the, I guess, for lack of a better term, we'll call them the creatures that inhabit this unseen spiritual world.
Pastor Cameron:We have small little epistles, like the like the epistle of Jude, that 26 verse little letter right before Revelation that is just chock full of references to angelic beings and Satan himself. There, Paul writes quite a bit about powers and authorities and evil forces in what he calls the heavenly realms. But Paul, the New Testament, writes about the powers and the authorities and the heavenly realms and evil and the unseen spiritual world. He writes about it in 1 particular and unending context. Meaning, there's 1 environment that Paul takes all of what he writes about the unseen spiritual world, and he places it in this 1 container.
Pastor Cameron:Above all else, Paul says, Jesus is bigger. Amen. Jesus is bigger. Amen. And so before we go even a a single step further, and any kind of talk or sermon about the unseen spiritual world, namely what we're gonna talk about this morning, angels, demons, Satan, Let us together in 1 accord and in 1 spirit and in 1 faith, come together to declare by faith 1 thing amongst us.
Pastor Cameron:And that is this, there is no 1 and nothing that is higher than Jesus. Yes. Amen. There there is no 1 and nothing that is greater than Jesus. There is no 1 stronger than Jesus.
Pastor Cameron:There is no darkness so dark. There is no evil so evil. There is no brokenness so broken. There is no sin so vast. There is no death so final that it is not overcome by the lordship and blood of Jesus Christ.
Pastor Cameron:Yes. Let the rest of this morning and the rest of the rest of this message simply be bullet point information about the unseen world. But let us walk away with this 1 thing stirring our faith, this 1 thing and this alone. Whatever the enemy seeks to bring against us, the power and the presence of Jesus has already declared dead on arrival. Right.
Pastor Cameron:Whatever the enemy seeks to bring us, whatever evil is leveraged against us, whatever darkness is proclaimed in the world, that the power and presence of Jesus has already declared dead on arrival. Paul writes about it like this in Romans chapter 8 verses 35 through 39. He says, who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? No.
Pastor Cameron:In all things, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus, our Lord. That is our proclamation this morning. That no matter how high, no matter how evil the evil, no matter how dark the darkness, that nothing can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus, our lord. So as we move forward to talk here a little bit about, like, some bullet what I would call bullet point information about angels, demons, and Satan, let us, again, rest our, rest our faith on this thing and this thing alone.
Pastor Cameron:Jesus is bigger. Jesus is greater. So let's talk, let's talk a minute about angels. Okay? Angels are a popular topic in, in what I would call, like, pop or Hollywood Christianity.
Pastor Cameron:Meaning that they become, like a really primary part of the work and move of God. Angels, we don't have a definition of angels within scripture. There's not there's not 1 place where you can go and you can read an angel is this. An angel does this. Alright?
Pastor Cameron:And so you have to you have to kind of understand the whole corpus of scripture and then pull from it when it does talk about angels to understand maybe what they are. But but also understand this is that we, we live in a world that has seen and unseen dimensions. And what we don't know now, we will know 1 day. What we don't know now about them, we will know when Jesus returns, and that veil is torn, or removed from our eyes. Angels can best be defined as spiritual beings that have that have, fulfilled or are fulfilling their god given role.
Pastor Cameron:That they are that they are created by God, created specifically by Jesus, Paul says in Colossians chapter 1 that all things were created by Jesus and for him, both above the earth and below the earth. Right? But they were created for God and by God to fulfill a very particular role. The scripture says that their numbers are great. That they are that they are vast in number.
Pastor Cameron:Meaning there's not just a small amount of them. Jesus himself said in Matthew chapter 25 that if he wanted to, he could call down to save him 12 legions of angels, which is about 5, 000 members in a legion. So we're talking about I don't never do math publicly, but that's like 60, 000. It's like 60, 000 angels. Right?
Pastor Cameron:Revelation chapter 5 verse 11 is declaring the or or describing the throne room of God, and they don't they don't give a particular number number, but they say that there are angels around the throne of God singing holy, holy, holy to the Lord. And their numbers, Revelation 5, is 1, 000 upon 1, 000, 10, 000 upon 10, 000. So that their numbers are extraordinarily vast. How many? We do not know.
Pastor Cameron:We do see that in some portions of scripture, there are different seemingly different types of angels. Meaning that there's not a 1 size fits all cookie cutter version of an angel. They're grouped essentially into classes. There are, angels that are called cherubim. Now, if you want ever wanted to find a particular point in scripture where an angel is described.
Pastor Cameron:A cherubim is described in 1 particular part of scripture, and I'm gonna I'm gonna warn you as we read some of this. It's a little bit mind bending. K? Because what I mean, in your in your imagination, what does an angel look like? Go ahead.
Pastor Cameron:Give me some descriptions of an angel. It has wings, right? It's a baby. It's a baby? Okay.
Pastor Cameron:Like a little cabbage patch doll, Type of angel? Alright, I got you. Cartoons. Yeah. Cartoons.
Pastor Cameron:Okay. What color is an angel? White. It's white, right? And what color of hair do they have?
Pastor Cameron:White. Blonde or white. Right? And what color of clothing do they wear? White.
Pastor Cameron:White. And what do they look like? Do they look like a man or do they look like an animal? Yeah. They look like us.
Pastor Cameron:Right? Because we're the center of the universe, so obviously, angels must look exactly like us. I'm not gonna read this whole passage of scripture, but if you have a bible with you, I would encourage you to open up to the book of Ezekiel. Bonus points if you can find it. Ezekiel is kind of in the middle of the bible, and then you turn to your right and you can find it.
Pastor Cameron:Okay. And so Ezekiel, Ezekiel is a prophetic book, and, the prophet Ezekiel was having a vision. A vision of, what this angel Ezekiel chapter 1. Alright. So we look at Ezekiel chapter 1, and we see this description.
Pastor Cameron:Almost the whole chapter is a description of what Ezekiel, believes is a cherubim. Says I looked and I saw a windstorm coming out of the north, an immense cloud with flashing lightning surrounded by brilliant light. The center of the fire looked like glowing metal, and in the fire was what looked like 4 living creatures. In appearance, their form was that of a man, but each of them had 4 faces and 4 wings. Their legs were straight, their feet were like those of a calf and gleamed like burnished bronze.
Pastor Cameron:Under their wings and on their 4 sides, they had the hands of a man. So underneath their wings, they had the hands of a man. Their face was had 4 sides to it. And it wasn't just the face of a man, but faces of animals. All 4 of them had faces and wings.
Pastor Cameron:And their wings touched 1 another, and each went straight ahead, and they did not turn as they moved. Their faces looked like this. Each of the 4 of the, had the face of a man, and on the right side of each the face of a lion, and then the left side of the face of an ox, and each also had the face of an eagle, such were their faces. Their wings were spread out upward. Each had 2 wings, 1 touching the wings of another on each side, and 2 wings covering its body.
Pastor Cameron:Each 1 went straight ahead. Wherever the spirit would go, they would go. Without turning, they went. The appearance of the living creatures was like burning coals of fire or like torches. Now, he goes on and on and on and on and on to describe this, extraordinarily complex, what would be for us or for, like, a human mind, a confusing concept of what an an angel or a cherubim looked like.
Pastor Cameron:But a cherubim was they're they're seen as or believed to be the angels that that carried the presence of God. They were the they were the very throne of God. A second class of angels in the scripture is called seraphim, And we only see these described really once as well. These seraphim are described both in the book of Revelation, but also in the book of Isaiah, the prophetic book of Isaiah, where Isaiah, which is just left of, Ezekiel, if you're still there. Isaiah describes them as this.
Pastor Cameron:Isaiah chapter 6 verse 2 in verse 1. In that year, King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him were seraphs or seraphim, each with 6 wings. With 2 wings they cover their faces, with 2, they covered their feet, and with 2, they were flying. And they were calling to 1 another, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty.
Pastor Cameron:The whole earth is full of his glory. At the sound of their voices, the doorposts and the thresholds shook, and the temple was filled with smoke. It was the job of the Seraphim both here in Isaiah and later in the book of Revelation to be around the throne of God singing his praise almost singing his praise permanently. So angels were were, are creatures of worship. The 3rd class of angels is only mentioned a few times, and we're not even really sure it's a class as much as it is a description, is that of the term archangel.
Pastor Cameron:I've heard you've heard that before. Right? The term archangel. And, only twice in scripture are archangels defined. Archangels are they're kind of seen or believed to be like the chief princes of angels.
Pastor Cameron:Probably the most famous of all the archangels in scripture is the archangel who? Gabriel. Oh, Gabriel's a good 1, but there's 1 other. Michael. Right?
Pastor Cameron:And as an example of where, both gay or like, Michael exists in scripture, if you were to look at Jude chapter 6 or I'm sorry, Jude verse 6, Michael is said to have had an argument with Satan himself. Some argument about the body of Moses. We don't know what the argument was. We will find out about it someday in heaven, but what we do know is that the archangel Michael and Satan were having an argument. He's also described in Jan Daniel chapter 10.
Pastor Cameron:And so, while we don't know a whole lot about their descriptions, we knew do know that angels do exist, and they exist for the purposes of God. The very word that we use to describe angels in scripture, is defined as messenger. So when you see the word angel in scripture, you're talking talking about a word that is that literally is translated messenger. And most of our biblical references to angels in scripture are them as being messengers. For instance, it was the angels who heralded Jesus's birth both to Mary and also to the shepherds and the wise men.
Pastor Cameron:It was the angels who announced the triumph of Jesus as he overcame death and into resurrection in Matthew chapter 28. It was the angels who ministered to Jesus at critical points of his ministry in Luke chapter 22. It is the angels that it says in Matthew chapter 13 and Mark chapter 8, in the second Thessalonians and in Revelation. It is the angels who will accompany Jesus at his return to earth. It is the angels who have filled the heavenly court, who are praising, even right now the son of God.
Pastor Cameron:And so we see the angels have an extraordinarily wide and vast role in the creation of God. But if you were to talk not just about angels, but also about, their counterparts. We would have to talk about what the scripture defines and describes as demons. Demons, at least in scripture, are spiritual beings that have chosen not to live in accordance to God's divine purpose, and that they fail to fulfill their design. These beings are always and only and ever participating in the life and practice of sin.
Pastor Cameron:The word demon actually is used quite a bit in the new testament even more than the word angel. The word demon is used 63 times in the new testament, and it was always used to describe evil spirits or the messenger or ministers of Satan himself. In a few scriptures that we have, certainly read and studied before, we see the example of Jesus' interaction with demons. 1 particular example is in Luke chapter 8, where, a man is, a man is freed from the power of a demon that is over him. The healing of a demon possessed man in Luke chapter 8 verses 26 through 39.
Pastor Cameron:To read a portion of it, it reads that they sailed, they, the disciples, sailed to the region of the Gerasenes, which is across the lake from Galilee. When Jesus stepped ashore, he was met by a demon possessed man from the town. For a long time this man had not worn closed clothes or lived in a house, but had lived in the tombs. And when he saw Jesus, he cried out and fell at his feet, shouting at the top of his voice, what do you want with me, Jesus, son of the most high god? I beg you, don't torture me.
Pastor Cameron:What is interesting here is that, it's believed that the man, was not actually the 1 speaking at all. We talk about this kind of perceived break between the seen world and the unseen world. But what is clear here in the rest of this story as well as what is clear in other stories where Jesus is healing people from possession of demonic powers is that when Jesus approaches someone who is possessed by a demon, those demons almost always and immediately recognize the lordship of Jesus as being present around them. Meaning when Jesus approaches this man or this man approaches the 1 who is demonically oppressed, it is not actually the man that brings brings himself or, like, starts the conversation. It is the demonic possession or activity within him that says we know who you are.
Pastor Cameron:We know who you are. Says look at this, Jesus had commanded the evil spirit to come out of the man many times and had seized him. Though he was chained hand and foot and kept under guard, he had broken his chains chains and had been driven by the demon into solitary places. Jesus asked him, what is your name? Legion, he replied, because many demons had gone into him, and they begged him.
Pastor Cameron:They begged listen. They begged this is verse 31 1 of Luke chapter 8. They begged Jesus repeatedly not to order them into the abyss. And so, even in the midst of a person's extraordinary demonic, possession here, the demons who were possessing this man, immediately recognized that that they were not in power, and that they were not in control. That they that they, immediately, essentially bowed the knee to Jesus to say, Jesus, we're begging you, don't do the thing that you have the power to do.
Pastor Cameron:We know who you are, we know what you can do, please don't send us into the abyss. Instead, if you wouldn't mind, send us into that big herd of pigs over there. And And as the story goes, Jesus granted that request, and the demons went into the herd of the pigs, that which then, flew off the flew off the cliff in dramatic fashion. So, it's clear, right? Even in the scriptures over and over and over again, that in the midst or in the presence of Jesus, demonic powers had no power.
Pastor Cameron:Demonic evil had no power. That when Jesus was present, all demonic activity, even in the even in their own spiritual strength bowed before the lordship of Jesus. In Luke chapter 9 verses 12, we see that the driving out of demons or the exorcism of demons from people was a ministry that Jesus gave, to the disciples. But the primary the primary message of the gospel okay. The primary message of the gospel is this, the primary message of the gospel around demonic possession is never on the power of the demon.
Pastor Cameron:If you read all of the gospel accounts of all of Jesus' interactions with people who are possessed by demonic activity or with demons themselves, you will see that the that the focus of every bit of scripture on demons is not, thank you, is not on the power of the demon but rather on the demons absolute service and obedience to Jesus as lord over all creation. That every evil power even again even in their struggle against god and against those who would be son are sons and daughters of god, that they recognize immediately that they have no power in the presence of Jesus. The question, maybe appropriately, is, well, where did demons come from? Both second Peter chapter 2 as well as Jude chapter 6 or verse 6 describe demons as nothing more, but also nothing less than fallen angels. Spiritual beings who once had a place in heaven and who once had a divine purpose, and who, by their own willful choices, were cast out of heaven, and chose instead their own way.
Pastor Cameron:So they're described as fallen angels, once a part of the court of heaven or the hosts of heaven. Now, as 1 who is following Satan. It's clear throughout scripture that demons have influence in the deception of people. And that they are actively working to deceive people through the false teaching of men and women who proclaim faithfulness to the gospel, but instead, preach, preach heresy. 1st Timothy chapter 1 or 1st Timothy chapter 4 verse 1 says, the spirit clearly says, Paul says, that in the latter times, some will abandon faith and follow deceiving spirits and things that are being taught by demons.
Pastor Cameron:So that we know that demonic activity includes the ways in which they are influencing others to teach deceitful or deceiving things. Finally, this morning, we get to the adversary or whom to buy the the, the formal term or the proper name, the name of Satan. Now, Satan is not a proper name. It's not like John, or Joe, or or Bob. Right?
Pastor Cameron:It's not a proper name. Satan is actually a, it it means something specific. Right? Satan literally means the 1 who accuses or the adversary. And there's many ways that the adversary or the 1 who accuses shows up in scripture.
Pastor Cameron:And interestingly enough, he has a much different role in the Old Testament than he does in the New Testament. Now without getting too deep into the weeds, well, because we could get really deep into the weeds about this, we're gonna talk just kind of briefly about it, and then maybe we'll talk a little bit more about it on Wednesday night at bible study. Okay? In the, in the old testament, the Satan or the accuser, is is kind of introduced to us in the book of Job. And although Job is not the first book of the bible, Job is, most scholars believe the first written book of the bible, meaning it's the oldest book.
Pastor Cameron:And if you're familiar with the book of Job at all, specifically the first chapter of the book of Job, you will see something interesting. Is that Job was obviously, he was a righteous man, He was blameless in all his ways, the scripture says. And you would think that in a situation like that, that Satan would see someone who is being righteous and following God, and he would say, I don't like that. I'm going to because I'm evil. Go over, and I'm gonna, like, knock Joel, Job off of his righteous pedestal.
Pastor Cameron:I am gonna go do that all on my own, all my idea. No one's giving me that idea at all. But what is really interesting about the book of Job is that it's not Satan, it's not Satan who approaches Job all on his own. It is actually the lord who inquires with the accuser or the adversary whether or not he has considered his servant Job. If you read the book of Job, it says exactly that.
Pastor Cameron:Job is in the old testament. It's before, before the Psalms. So if you find the Psalms in the middle and you go to the left, you'll find it. If you read the first part of Job, in the land of Uz, there was a man whose name was Job. He was blameless and upright, he feared God and shunned evil.
Pastor Cameron:Right? He had many sons and daughters, he had a large number of servants, he was very wealthy. He would regularly, give offerings for, present offerings to God in the form of burnt offerings. Listen in verse 6. 1 day, the angels the angels came to present themselves before the Lord.
Pastor Cameron:So where would you presume that this would be? In heaven. Right? In the courts of heaven. The angels came to present themselves before the Lord, and the adversary, the accuser, the Satan, also came with them.
Pastor Cameron:Where was Satan in this time? He was in the courts of heaven. Right? He was he was there with the angels. The Lord said to Satan, where where have you come from?
Pastor Cameron:What have you been up to here, man? What's what's going on? Satan answered, Oh, you know, so when I asked my kids, What have you been doing in there? And they're like, you know, stuff. Man, I haven't I'm not doing anything in there, dad.
Pastor Cameron:Right? Nothing's not doing anything wrong. Nothing's nothing to see here. Satan kinda says the same thing. Well, I've been roaming through the earth, kinda going back and forth in it, you know.
Pastor Cameron:Then the lord said to Satan, have you considered my servant Job? Have you considered him? There's no 1 on earth like him. He's blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil. Satan is like, well, yeah, but does he fear God and shun evil for nothing?
Pastor Cameron:You you've have you not put a hedge around him and his household and everything he has? You've blessed the work of his hands, so that his flocks and herds are spread throughout the land. But stretch out your hand and strike everything he has, and surely he will curse you to your face. And so, what does Job essentially say? Hey look, or Satan says Job is righteous because you're protecting him like your little righteous pet.
Pastor Cameron:Take away your protection, strike everything that he has, and I bet that he curses you to your face. And so what does god say? Go for it. Go for it. Bring it at basically, what he was like this is what he says to Satan.
Pastor Cameron:Listen. It is your job because we must believe this. Right? I know this is a not not necessarily a foreign concept, but it's not 1 that we often think about. Satan is in service to the lord.
Pastor Cameron:Meaning that that they're like, Satan can do nothing that the lord does not allow. Right? Either either the lord is the lord, right, and everything else falls underneath him, or the Lord is the Lord, and Satan is kind of also the lord and gets to do whatever he wants whenever he wants to do it. Right? So we within our theology and our belief on the sovereignty and supremacy of God, we must also come to understand that that that look, as it's as it's communicated in the book of Job, that that that Satan, even at the, like, the beginning of creation had a role in creation.
Pastor Cameron:And it seems clear that 1 of his roles was to was to bring, was to bring trial or test to the righteousness of people so that their righteousness and blamelessness before the lord was proved pure. That it was a part of his job that he stood in the courts of heaven along with angels and his job was to bring accusation. Was to bring accusation against the people. I bet Job will do this. I bet Job will do that.
Pastor Cameron:I bet Job will do this. I bet Job will do that. And God says, okay, go ahead. Do those very things. So in the old testament, the the primary place where we see the work of Satan is here in Job.
Pastor Cameron:He acts in the interest of God by raising questions concerning the righteousness of the people. Rather than to be just someone who tests the right righteous, it's clear in scripture that Satan develops hostile intent towards tempting and enticing humanity towards sin, and in so doing, he becomes hostile to God and his purposes. Now, in the new testament we see, a different type of role of the of satan or the accuser, but it does still seem, at least in some ways, like Satan has some access to God. For instance, in Luke chapter 22 verse 31, Jesus himself says to Simon Peter, the disciple. Right?
Pastor Cameron:Says to Peter, Simon, Satan has asked. He has asked to sift you like wheat. So Jesus tells Simon, hey, Satan has asked for permission to sift you like wheat. And Jesus' response is that we like, you have you are being protected in this moment. The coming of Jesus changes the story of the accuser.
Pastor Cameron:He has now lost his place in heaven in the court of god. In Revelation chapter 12 verses 5 through 12, we see this. The vision from John, he says, now have come the salvation and power and kingdom of our God and the authority of his messiah. For, listen, for the accuser of our brothers and sisters who accuses them before God day and night has been hurled down. Has been hurled down, has been thrown out of heaven.
Pastor Cameron:They have triumphed over him by the blood of the lamb, and by the word of their testimony. They did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death. 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 because he knows that his time is short.
Pastor Cameron:Jesus in Luke chapter 10 verse 18 describes this scene where the accuser is thrown down or hurled down. The 1 who once sat in the throne room of heaven has been hurled down. He says in Luke chapter 10 verse 18, Jesus himself says, I saw Satan fall from heaven like lightning as he was hurled down in the ministry of Jesus. Listen. This is it.
Pastor Cameron:Satan loses his status. This is where it is like okay. It goes from bullet points to application for us. Satan loses his status as accuser because Jesus has made atonement for our sin and intercedes for us at the right hand of the father. Listen, Satan can no longer get a hearing with God to accuse those who are in Jesus Christ.
Pastor Cameron:Satan wants to bring accusation against us to God. And at 1 point, he had access to the father. But now, the accuser, Satan, has lost his position because of the defense that has been offered to us in Jesus Christ. He can no longer bring accusation against the people of God. He has been hurled down from his place of accusation in the courts of God, witnessed by Jesus himself.
Pastor Cameron:Paul talks about this very thing in Romans chapter 8 verse 33 and 34 where he says, who now, wherein Jesus Christ, who now will bring a charge against those whom God has chosen? Who's gonna bring a charge against those whom god has chosen? It is god who justifies. So who is it possibly that could condemn? Christ Jesus has died, and more than that, was now raised to life and is at the right hand of god interceding for us.
Pastor Cameron:A few more, a few more points of this is these are kind of like bullet point, little things about Satan that we see in scripture. Paul says in second Corinthians chapter, 11 verse, 14 that Satan masquerades as an angel of light. Jesus says in John chapter 8, verse 44 that the that the native language of Satan is lies, That that's his primary and only language. That when he speaks, he speaks only in deception and lies. And that John chapter 10 verse 10, Jesus says that, he, Satan, or he describes him as the thief, comes only into this world to steal, kill, and destroy.
Pastor Cameron:But that Jesus comes that we may have life and have it abundantly. Now, as we're kind of closing up here, we have kind of like 1, kind of corollary point that I think is important. It's this, Within within scripture or specifically within, a lot of the old, testament, we have, the practice of what is called, like, what we would generally call superstition, witchcraft, the occult, soothsaying, or fortune telling. And as, the Israelite people in ancient times were they were brought out of Exodus, they were brought out of Exodus in the in the land of Egypt, and God was leading them to the promised land, the land that he had, promised for them or had had designed for them. He warned them against the, against the spiritual practices of wicked people who would be, who are who are in the land that they would soon be occupying.
Pastor Cameron:And he warned them against the danger of involving themselves in the ungodly spiritual practices of those people, the Canaanite people. And he warned them, that doing so or kind of mixing and matching or or or intermixing with the spiritual practices of wicked people was a form of idolatry that would bring their absolute destruction. And he says this in Deuteronomy chapter 18, he says, when you enter the land the lord your god is giving you, do not learn to imitate the detestable ways of the nations there. Let no 1 be found among you who sacrifices their son or daughter in the fire, Who practices divination or witchcraft or sorcery? Who interprets omens or engages in witchcraft?
Pastor Cameron:Who casts spells or who is a medium or spiritist, who consults the dead. Anyone who does these things is detestable to the lord. Because of these same detestable practices, the lord god will drive out those nations before you. You must be blameless before the lord your god. The practice of superstition or witchcraft, sorcery, casting of spells, mediums or spiritists, those who are consulting the dead was 1 of the chief sins of the evil Canaanite people whom the Israelites dispossessed in the old testament.
Pastor Cameron:The first king of Israel, king Saul, his consultation with the witch of Endor was 1 factor contributing to his untimely death in first Samuel chapter 28 and first Chronicles chapter 10 verse 13. In Isaiah, Isaiah chapter 8 verse 19 describes the, the participation of the people of god in these kind of evil spiritual practices like witchcraft, sorcery, fortune telling, and soothsaying as, as a denial of the law the of the lordship of God in their own lives. When someone tells you to consult mediums and spiritists who whisper and mutter, should you should not a people inquire instead of their God? Why consult the dead on behalf of the living? Listen, I want you to hear this really clearly.
Pastor Cameron:Okay? Because it's not often said and we, live, continually, and more and more and more in an in an age and in a culture of, permissiveness and compromise when it comes to participation in what you might just call the spiritual world. But any form any form of witchcraft, the occult, spiritualism, fortune telling, sorcery can only scripture is unilaterally it it has a unilateral voice to the people of god in regards to this. It can only bring a person into the domain and presence of realities that are both hostile to God and hostile to you. The sons and daughters of God have 0, and when I mean 0, I mean 0 use for the wisdom or information that comes from anywhere except the holy spirit of god.
Pastor Cameron:We have need for no other spiritual intervention or wisdom into our lives other than the Holy Spirit and wisdom of God. This goes for tarot cards, astrology, Lily Dale, any of that. It is detestable before the lord and will bring destruction upon your life and it as it opens the door for demonic forces to bring deceit, deception, and destruction into you. Finally, we're gonna end with this. The New Testament declares categorically that whatever principalities, whatever powers, whatever evil forces there are in the spiritual realm, they are under the authority and reign of the risen Jesus Christ.
Pastor Cameron:And that because of our faith in Jesus Christ and the indwelling power of the holy spirit in us. We need not walk in a spirit or posture of fear over anything. Amen. That it is the holy spirit of god within us by faith in Jesus Christ that gives us the confidence to walk knowing that there is no power greater than the power of Jesus Christ. That there is no presence greater than the presence of Jesus Christ.
Pastor Cameron:We do not need to cower. We do not need to hide. We do not need to look for a demon behind every bush thinking that they're gonna come out and grab us and do some harm to us because we walk in the power and the spirit of the risen Jesus Christ. And in the power and the presence of the risen Jesus Christ, every evil power recognizes that they are without power in that presence. Colossians chapter 1, Paul says, for by him and through him, all things were created.
Pastor Cameron:Things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities, all things were created by him and for him. And later in Colossians chapter 2, he addresses these powers again by saying that Jesus Christ has disarmed the powers and authorities by making a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them on the cross. They have been defeated. We now simply walk in the reality of their defeat and our victory in Jesus Christ. Finally, just out of the book of Ephesians that we studied just a few months ago, Paul says this, he says, that power, or the same power that God used to resurrect Jesus Christ from the dead, that power is like the working working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age, but also in the 1 to come.
Pastor Cameron:Unequivocally, to go back to the very start of what we talked about, this morning. Whatever the enemy seeks to bring against us, the power and the presence of Jesus has already declared dead on arrival. There is no power. They have no power over the sons and daughters of God. They have no power.
Pastor Cameron:Father, what has maybe been unclear in scripture, lord, I pray that you would give us, eyes to see and faith to believe. Lord, maybe where we have lived in fear, maybe where we have lived in fear of the unknown or lived in fear of the unseen, or lived in fear of the evil that we know is around us, Lord, that you would replace our fear with a firmness of faith, that Jesus is greater, that Jesus is bigger, that Jesus is Lord, and that when we are in Jesus, we have no need or reason to fear. Thank you, Lord, for baptism this morning. Thank you for giving us, this sign, this symbol that we, that we can, participate and celebrate with our brothers and sisters this morning who are declaring their faith in Jesus. In your name we pray.
Pastor Cameron:Amen.
