Sermon
Why One Third of the Angels Chose to Follow Lucifer_ (No Ads)
Publisher transcript
Transcript
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Welcome back to the Bible Stories. You may notice there
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QR code to donate directly. Thank you for helping us
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keep these Bible Stories going. A third of the Angels
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followed Lucifer for a reason that is easy to say
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and hard to accept. He offered them a bigger version
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of themselves than the one God had given them, and
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they decided to trust his voice more than the voice
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of the God who made them. They were not dragged
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away against their will. They looked at what they already had.
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They listened to what Lucifer promised, and they made a
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choice about whom they would believe. The same decision they
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made is a disas decision you are quietly making every day.
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Whose voice will you trust about who you are, what
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you are worth, and whether God is truly good to you.
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The angels answered that question wrong, and a third of
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Heaven fell. But their story was written down so that
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you would not have to fall the same way. So
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let us walk carefully through what the Bible actually tells us,
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not to satisfy our curiosity about the invisible world, but
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to understand our own hearts, because the pull that took
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them is the same pull that reaches for us. Long
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before there was an earth to stand on, there were
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already voices singing. The Bible does not open the story
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of the angels with a chapter of its own. It
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lets us catch sight of them in the middle of
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another conversation. When God finally answers Job out of the storm,
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he asks him a question that open a window into
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a world that existed before ours. He says, where were
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you when I laid the foundations of the earth, And
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then he describes the moment when the morning stars sang
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together and all the sons of God shouted for joy
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Job Chapter thirty eight, verse seven. Something in those words
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stands out there was already a crowd when the earth
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was made. There was already singing before the first sunrise,
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before the first human breath, before the first tree or ocean.
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God had made another kind of being, and those beings
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watched him work and could not contain their joy. The
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morning stars sang, The sons of God shouted. This was
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the world of the angels, and it was full of worship.
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These were not vague shapes of light. They were persons.
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They could see and understand, and love and rejoice. They
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had minds that could think, and hearts that could feel,
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and most importantly, wills that could choose. That last part
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matters more than anything else in this story. God did
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not make the angels as instruments that play the same
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note forever, whether they mean it or not. He made
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them able to love Him freely, which means he also
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made them able to turn away. A love that cannot
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say no is not really love, and a heart that
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can say yes to God can also tragically say no.
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That single detail should change how we think about worship.
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When those angels sang, it meant something because it was
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not forced out of them. Every note was a choice.
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The joy in Job's picture is not the joy of
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machines doing what they were built to do. It is
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the joy of persons who had looked at their maker
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and decided he was worth their gladness. That is what
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made their worship beautiful, and it is the same thing
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that made their fall possible. The freedom that let them
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love God with all their hearts was the same freedom
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that let a third of them close their hearts against him.
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There is one more thing about that first world that
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we usually miss. Each angel had a place. The order
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around the throne was not a crowd shoving for position.
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It was a design, a structure of service, where every
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being had a role given to him in love. To
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have a place assigned by God is a gift, though
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it does not always feel like one. Remember that word place,
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because when the fall comes, the Bible will describe it
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as angels who refuse the place they were given. The
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rebellion at its route was a quarrel with the goodness
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of where God had put them. So picture that first world,
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a vast company of power, powerful, brilliant, joyful beings, all
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gathered around the throne of the one who made them,
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each with a place given by love, and every one
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of them able to choose whether to stay for a time.
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They all sang the same song, then one of them
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stopped singing. To understand why a third of the angels
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followed him, we first have to see what he was
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before he fell, Because he was not always the enemy.
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There are two places in scripture, where the language starts
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by describing an earthly king and then rises far past
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any human being until we realize we are no longer
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reading about a man at all. The first is in Ezekiel,
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speaking of a being who was in Eden, the garden
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of God, covered in beauty. The prophet records these words
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about him. You were perfect in your ways from the
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day you were created till iniquity was found you, Ezekiel,
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chapter twenty eight, verse fifteen, perfect from the day he
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was created. This was no small angel. He was a masterpiece.
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Beauty and wisdom were poured into him beyond any other creature.
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And for a while that beauty pointed straight back to
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the God who gave it. But then the same passage
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tells us what went wrong. Your heart was lifted up
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because of your beauty. You have corrupted your wisdom by
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reason of your brightness, Ezekiel, chapter twenty eight, verse seventeen.
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His beauty was real, his wisdom was real. But he
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began to look at the gift instead of the giver.
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He studied his own brightness until he forgot who had
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made him bright, The very things that were meant to
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make him worship God became the things that made him
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worship himself. The same chapter gives him a title that
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tells us how close to God he once stood. He
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is called the anointed Cherub that covers a being who
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walked among the stones of fire on the holy mountain
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of God. Whatever the exact picture, it places him near
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the throne, in a position of honor and nearness that
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most angels did not have. This is important. His fall
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did not come from being overlooked or forgotten. He fell
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from the very top. He had more than almost any
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creature ever had, and it was not enough. That should
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teach us something about the hunger that fueled all of this.
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It is not lack that breeds this kind of pride.
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It is abundance, mishandled. The heart can be surrounded by
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glory and still convince itself it is being cheated. And
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notice what is missing from his fall. There was no
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serpent to tempt him. There was no outside voice pouring
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poison in his ear. Nothing hurt him, no enemy attack
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at him. The whole rebellion started inside a heart that
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had everything, in the middle of a world with no sorrow.
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The iniquity was found in him. The Bible says as
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though it grew up from within, like a weed nobody planted,
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and that is what makes his story so searching. If
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a perfect being in a perfect place could talk himself
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into rebellion with no help from any one, then none
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of us should feel safe simply because our circumstances are good.
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The second passage in Isaiah lets us hear the words
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that formed in his heart. For you have said in
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your heart, I will ascend into heaven. I will exalt
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my throne above the stars of God. I will be
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like the Most High, Isaiah, chapter fourteen, verses thirteen and fourteen,
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and a few words earlier comes the name the church
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has remembered for centuries. How you are fallen from heaven, O, Lucifer,
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son of the Morning Isiah, chapter fourteen, verse twelve. Listen
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to what he wanted. Not to destroy God, not at
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first to be evil. He wanted to be like the
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most High. He wanted the throne. He had spent so
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long admiring what he was that he could no longer
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accept being a creature. He wanted to stop receiving and
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start ruling, and that desire, once it took root, could
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not stay quiet. A heart that wants a throne, will
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always start looking for followers. Here the story turns from
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one to many, and here the title question truly begins.
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Lucifer could have fallen alone. His pride was his own,
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his ambition was his own. But he did not fall alone,
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and that is the part we most need to understand.
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The Book of Revelation, in its picture of a great dragon,
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shows us the scale of what happened. His tale drew
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the third part of the stars of Heaven and did
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cast them to the earth Revelation, Chapter twelve, verse four.
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In the language of that book, stars stand for angels,
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and the number is staggering. Not a handful, not a
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small circle of the discontented, a third of the shining
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host of heaven went with him. The same chapter tells
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of war breaking out in heaven, Michael and his angels
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standing against the dragon and his angels until there was
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no longer any place for them there. Consider that number
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for what it reveals. A third means Lucifer was persuasive.
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It means his pull was strong enough to move an
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enormous company of beings who had seen the glory of
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God with their own eyes. Whatever he offered, it was
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not a clumsy lie that only a fool would believe.
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It reached beings of great intelligence and moved them to
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abandon everything. And so the real question sharpens, not merely
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why did Lucifer fall, but why did so many follow
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him down? There is a strange comfort and a strange
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terror in that number. At the same time, the terror
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is obvious. If a third of the angels could fall,
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then no created being is beyond the reach of this temptation.
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But there is comfort hidden in the fraction two. It
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was a third, not all. The rebellion was real and vast,
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yet it did not empty Heaven. Most of the host
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held firm. We will return to those who stayed, because
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their faithfulness is one of the most encouraging truths in
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the whole Bible. But first we have to face the
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harder half of the number, the ones who left, and
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we should be honest about how mysterious this is. The
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Bible does not hand us a diary of the rebellion.
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It does not give us a transcript of what Lucifer
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said or a list of names of those who followed.
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It gives us fragments scattered across different books, written by
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different hands in different centuries, and when we gather them,
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the outline is clear, even though many details stay hidden.
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What is clear is enough. A leader rose, a message spread,
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and a third of Heaven changed sides. The why is
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what we are after, and for that we have to
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look not only at what Lucifer offered, but at what
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was already stirring in the hearts that received it. This
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is the center of it, So let us slow down.
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To follow someone is to trust them. When you follow
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a leader, you are saying, in effect, that you believe
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this person sees something you want and can take you there.
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Following is not first an action, It is first a
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transfer of trust. And that is exactly what happened in heaven.
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A third of the angels moved their trust off of
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God and on to Lucifer. Why would they They had
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never known hunger, they had never known pain or death
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or loss. They stood in the direct presence of God.
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What could possibly have made them restless? The answer is uncomfortable,
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because it is the same thing that makes us restless
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in far poorer surroundings. They began to compare. They began
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to wonder whether what they had been given was really
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all they deserved. Lucifer had looked at his own beauty
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and decided he was worth more than his place, and
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he offered that same feeling to the others. Imagine the
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quiet appeal of it. You are powerful, but you serve.
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You are brilliant, but you bow. What if your bowing
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is beneath you? What if the God you worship is
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holding you back from something greater you could be? That
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whisper does not sound like hatred. It sounds like ambition.
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It sounds like self respect. It sounds like being finally
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seen for your true worth. And that is why it worked.
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Lucifer did not invite them to become monsters. He invited
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them to become more than servants. He dressed rebellion up
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as promotion. Understand how comparison does its work, because comparison
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was the engine of it all. As long as an
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angel looked only at God, there was nothing to want.
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God is the highest good, the fountain of all beauty
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and joy, and a heart fixed on him is a
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full heart. But the moment an angel started looking sideways,
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measuring himself against others, weighing his place against the places
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around him, a gap opened up. Why does that one
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stand closer? Why does that one carry more honor. Why
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am I here and not there? None of those questions
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can be asked of a heart at rest in God.
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They can only be asked by a heart that has
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started to look away from him. Lucifer taught the angels
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to look away, to look at each other, and to
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look at themselves, And once they were looking in those directions,
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dissatisfaction was only a matter of time. There is another
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pull in this that we should name, because it is
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one of the strongest forces in any created heart. It
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is the pull of belonging. When a third of the
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host began to move, following became easier, not harder, for
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the ones still deciding. It is one thing to stand
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alone against your maker. It is another to join a
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great and rising crowd that makes the rebellion feel less
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like sin and more like a movement. The angels did
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not only follow Lucifer in a sense, they followed each other.
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Each one who left made it a little easier for
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the next one to go, until leaving looked less like
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abandonment and more like belonging to something new. We know
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this pull from our own lives. It is far easier
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to walk away from God in company than in solitude.
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The crowd does not make the wrong thing right, but
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it does make the wrong thing feel normal, and feeling
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normal is often all it takes. Notice what he had
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to do first before an angel could follow him. That
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angel had to become a little dissatisfied with God. The
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trust had to be loosened before it could be moved.
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A perfectly contented heart cannot be recruited. So the fall
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did not begin with a grand act of war. It
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began with a small crack of discontent, a willingness to
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entertain the idea that God might not be giving them
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everything he could. Once that idea was welcomed, the rest followed.
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The heart that believes it deserves more will eventually go
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looking for someone who promises more. And here is the
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sobering thing. They were not deceived in the way a
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victim is deceived. They were persuaded. They weighed what Lucifer
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said against what they knew of God, and a third
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of them decided he was worth following. They chose. That
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is the terrible dignity of a creature with a will.
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It can look at the truth and walk away from it.
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We tend to soften the fall of the angels by
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imagining they must have misunderstood something. Surely they did not
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know what they were doing. But scripture will not let
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us comfort ourselves that way. These were beings of full knowledge.
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They had seen God. Clearly they understood exactly whose voice
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they were rejecting, and exactly whose voice they were choosing instead.
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That is why the Bible speaks of their judgment with
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such finality. Jude writes, and the angels, which kept not
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their first estate but left their own habitation, he has
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reserved in everlasting chains under darkness, unto the judgment of
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the Great day Jude six. Peter says the same, that
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God did not spare the angels when they sinned, but
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delivered them into chains of darkness, waiting for judgment. Tewod Peter,
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Chapter two, verse four. They kept not their first estate,
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they left their own habitation. In other words, they were
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given a place, a good place, a place assigned by love,
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and they refused it because they wanted a different one.
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Their sin was not that they reached too low. It
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was that they reached for a throne that was never
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theirs and abandoned the post that was. There is a
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weight here we should not rush past the angels fell knowing,
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and that is part of why their fall reads so final.
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They did not stumble in the dark. They walked into
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the dark with their eyes open, choosing it over the
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light they had always known. When a creature sees God
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as clearly as they did and still turns away, there
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is a terrible completeness to that choice. This should not
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make us proud, as though we would have done better
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standing where they stood. It should make us tremble a
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little at what a will can do, and then it
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should make us grateful, because our own story, thank God,
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does not end the way theirs did. When the rebellion
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was cast out of heaven. It did not simply vanish.
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The fallen angels did not repent, and they did not disappear.
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They were removed from their place, but they were not
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removed from activity. And the New Testament is honest about
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the fact that their war continues on lower ground. Writing
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to ordinary believers who felt weak and pressed on every side,
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Paul told them plainly that their real struggle was not
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only against the troubles they could see. For we wrestle
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not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers,
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against the rulers of the darkness of this world. Ephesians,
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chapter six, verse twelve. The same beings who whispered against
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God in heaven now whisper against him on earth. The
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rebellion that began around the throne comes down into ordinary
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human hearts, into ordinary days, into the quiet moments when
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you are deciding whether God can be trusted. This is
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not said to frighten you into looking for a demon
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behind every difficulty. It is said so that you will
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understand what is really happening when the old suggestions come.
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When you feel a nudge to believe that God is stingy,
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that you deserve more, that you would be freer without him,
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you are hearing an argument that is older than the
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human race. It failed in heaven only because two thirds
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of the angels refused it. It can fail in you
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for the same reason. And here is the hope buried
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in that hard truth. You are not fighting to win
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a war that is still in doubt. The outcome was
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settled long ago. The rebels were cast down, their leader
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was defeated at the cross. What reaches you now is
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not the strength of a rising kingdom, but the noise
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of a losing one. The whisper is loud, but it
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is not powerful. It can only do to you what
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you allow it to do by believing it. Here the
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good news breaks in, and it is greater than we
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usually realize. The Bible draws a line between what happened
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to the fallen angels and what God has done for
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fallen human beings, and that line is the mercy of
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the Gospel. When the Son of God came to rescue,
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he did not come as an angel to rescue angels.
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He came as a man to wrestle you, men and women.
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The Letter to the Hebrews states it plainly. For verily,
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he took not on him the nature of angels, but
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he took on him the seed of Abraham Hebrews, Chapter two,
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verse sixteen. He rapped himself not in the glory of
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the beings who fell, but in the flesh and blood
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of the people he came to save. Think about what
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that means for you. The angels who fell were greater
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than you in power, in beauty, in knowledge. They stood
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closer to the Throne than you have ever stood. And
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yet no rescue was sent to them, but to you,
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a creature of dust, weaker and more easily tempted, God
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sent his own son. He came down into your weakness.
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He lived the faithful life you could not live. He
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carried the judgment you could not carry. And he rose
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so that everyone who turns to him could be brought home.
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The angels fell from a great height with no ladder back.
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You fell too, But into that fall God lowered a rescue.
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This is why the story of the Angelic Rebellion is
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not just a dark chapter. It is the dark backdrop
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that makes the mercy of the Cross shine. Once you
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understand that a third of heaven fell and was not caught,
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you begin to understand what it means that you can
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be caught. You were never the strongest creature in the story,
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but you are one of the ones he came for.
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Why did God do it this way? Why offer rescue
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to the weaker creature and not to the greater one.
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The Bible does not give us a full answer, and
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we should be careful not to invent one. Part of
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it may be that the angels fell with complete knowledge,
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seeing God clearly and rejecting him anyway, while human beings
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fell under deception, drawn away by a line from outside.
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Part of it may lie in how humanity is bound
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together as one family, so that one who came as
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a man could stand in the place of many. But
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we do not need to solve the mystery to receive
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the mercy. The plain fact is enough to change a life.
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There is no rescue held out to the fallen angels,
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and there is a rescue held out to you. And
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there is something in this for the person who feels
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they have already fallen too far. The angels fell from
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perfection and were lost. You may have fallen from a
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life you are ashamed of, and yet you are still
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within reach. As long as there is breath in you,
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the door is not shut. The very fact that you
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are drawn to this, that something in you still wants God,
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is a mercy the fallen angels no longer have, do
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not waste it. The pull you feel toward him is
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not an accident. It is an invitation, and it is
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one they will never receive again. We have spent our
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time on the ones who fell, but there is another
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number in this story that we almost never talk about,
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and it may hold the most hope of all. If
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a third followed Lucifer, then two thirds did not A
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great company of angels heard the same whisper, stood in
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the same freedom, faced the same choice, and stayed. They
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are still serving. The Bible describes them in a single
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warm line. Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth
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to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?
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Hebrews Chapter one, verse fourteen. The angels who kept their
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place are not distant and cold. They are sent out
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to serve the very people God is saving. They are
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still doing the thing the others thought was beneath them,
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and they are doing it with joy. What kept them
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not that they had less freedom they could have gone,
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not that they were less intelligent. They understood the offer
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as clearly as anyone. The difference was simply this. They
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treasured the giver more than any gift he could add
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to them. When the whisper came that suggested God was
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holding out on them, they did not believe it, because
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they knew him too well. They had looked at God
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long enough to know that there is nothing better than God,
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that no throne offered by a rebel could ever be
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worth more than a place near the true King. That
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is the quiet heroism of the faithful angels. They watched
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a third of their own company turn and leave, and
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they did not follow. They kept their trust exactly where
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it belonged. And they have been worshiping without interruption ever since,
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and they will be worshiping in the new Heavens and
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the new Earth, when every rebel throne has crumbled. They
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are the living proof that a creature can be free
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and still be faithful, that the whisper can be heard
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and refused. Picture for a moment what it must have
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cost them to stay. These were not strangers who left.
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They were companions, fellow servants, the faithful angels had worshiped
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beside since before the world had a morning. To watch
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a third of the ones you have known and served
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alongside turn and walk away, and to feel the pressure
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of that great departure and still to stand is no
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small thing. Staying is often harder than leaving. Leaving can
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feel like courage in the moment, like breaking free. Staying
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looks like nothing. It draws no attention, it wins no crowd.
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It is simply the daily, unglamorous decision to keep trusting
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the God you have always known. And yet in the end,
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it was the ones who stayed who kept everything, and
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the ones who left who lost it all. There is
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a lesson here for anyone who has ever felt that
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faithfulness goes unnoticed. The angels who kept their place were
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not celebrated for it in the moment. No fanfare marked
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the ones who simply stayed at their posts. But Heaven
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remembers them still, and they are serving still, and their
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quiet trust turned out to be the wisest choice any
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creature ever made. If you have been faithful in a
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hidden way, in a life, no one applauds, you are
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standing in their company. So we come back to where
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we began. Only now the question is heavier because it
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is no longer only about them. A third of the
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angels followed Lucifer because they let their trust be moved
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off of God and onto a voice that promise the more.
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The same voice is still speaking. It does not come
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to you with horns and fire. It comes as a
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thought that sounds almost reasonable. God is holding out on you. You
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deserve better than this. There is a fuller life waiting
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for you, just outside his will. We would like to
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think we are stronger than that, but the truth is
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that we hear this voice in the smallest and most
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ordinary moments. It comes when you compare your life to
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someone else's and feel the sting of it. It comes
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when you have prayed for something for a long time
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and Heaven has been silent, and a thought slips in
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that maybe God does not really care. It comes when
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obedience is costing you something and disobedience looks easier, and
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no one would ever know. Every one of those moments
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is the same ancient offer in modern clothing. It is
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the whisper that lured a third of Heaven, brought down
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to the size of your Tuesday afternoon. You will hear
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it when you are tired, and it will tell you
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that God has forgotten you. You will hear it when
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you feel small and overlooked, and it will tell you
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that your worth is being wasted. You will hear it
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when you are lonely, when the house is quiet and
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the people you love are gone or far away, and
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it will tell you that God has left you to
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carry this by yourself. You will hear it as the
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years press down and your strength fades, and it will
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whisper that you have been faithful for nothing. That voice
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is old. It emptied a third of heaven, and it
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is a lie, because the truth is the opposite of
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the whisper. God is not holding out on you. He
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held nothing back. He gave his own son. He did
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not send you a promise from a safe distance. He
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came down into your weakness and your weariness and your shame,
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and he stayed. The two thirds who did not fall
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knew a secret that is available to you right now.
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There is nothing better than him. Every throne the enemy
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offers is smaller than the place you already have as
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one he loves. So you do not have to be
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strong like an angel. You only have to keep your
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trust where it belongs. When the whisper comes, and it
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will come, you can answer it the way the faithful
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ones did, not by arguing with the darkness, but by
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remembering who God has proven himself to be. When you
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feel forgotten, remember the cross, where he proved he would
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rather die than lose you. When you feel worthless, remember
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that He came for you, and not for the mightier
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creatures who fell. When you feel too weak to hold on,
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remember that you were never asked to hold on by
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your own strength, but to keep trusting the one who
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is holding you. You are not an angel, You are
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something the angels never got to be. You are a
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fallen creature who was chased down by grace and offered
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a way home, a home that a third of Heaven
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threw away and can never get back. Do not follow
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the voice that emptied heaven, Follow the one who filled it.
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Refuse the whisper, treasure the giver, and one day you
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will stand among the redeemed, beside the ones who never fell,
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in the presence of the God who was always always
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worth staying for. If this video helped you grow deeper
-
in God's word, I want to personally invite you to
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be part of what we are building here. Every video
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on this channel takes many hours of study and careful
-
research to make sure we bring you content that is
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faithful to scripture and worthy of your time. If you
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would like to support this mission and help us keep
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making these, you can find a link in the description
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below to give a one time gift or become a
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monthly supporter. Every gift, no matter the size, goes directly
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not in a position to give right now, that is
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completely fine. The best thing you can do is subscribe,
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Share this video with someone who needs to hear it
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and keep studying God's word with us. Thank you for
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being here, and may God bless you richly.