January 11, 2026 | Origins of Sin and The Fall of the Adversary

All right. Well, we are starting a new series today, or not necessarily a new

series, but a study that has really,

not that you want to know, but I have been like so anxious about this for the

last several days, like sick to my stomach, just because it's who we're studying about.

And the origins of sin. This is pre-Garden of Eden.

So we are going to take our time and understand just these origins or this origin

of sin and the fall of the adversary.

And so part of that, one of the things we've been looking at as part of our

kingdom vision is just when we put our faith and trust in Christ,

we are called to just realign our old way of thinking with the way that Christ

has set up and God has recorded his word for us as Ron was sharing.

And so as we venture here, my challenge for us is that we respect the power of the adversary.

Sometimes I hear people talk flippantly about the evil one.

And even if, as I was thinking about it, some of these songs that we sing as

little kids, you know, like if the devil doesn't like it, he can sit on tack

or whatever, right? You've sung that song before.

So it kind of trivializes who Satan is.

But I want to look real quick here before we dive too deeply into what does God say?

So if you go in your Bible.

There is a short, short letter written by Jude.

So we're going to look at Jude, verse 9. Jude, verse 9.

So now this is talking about Michael, the archangel, right?

And so we're going to see what the fear and understanding that,

we're not fear, but the respect that he had. Verse 9.

Yet when Michael, the archangel, was disputing with the devil in an argument

about Moses' body, he did not dare utter a slanderous condemnation against him,

but said, The Lord rebuke you.

But these people blaspheme anything they do, not understanding,

and they don't understand by instinct, like the irrational animals,

by these things that they are destroyed.

Woe to them, for they have gone the way of Cain, they have plunged into Balaam's

error for profit, they have perished Korah and have perished in Korah's rebellion.

So Jude is talking here, he's warning about a mindset.

And there is some wrong teaching going on.

And what he says here in verse 9 tells us that even Michael the archangel was

very careful in how he approached Satan. He was never in his own power.

He said he did not dare utter a slanderous condemnation against him personally,

but instead, what does he do?

Who does he defer to? What does it say there?

The Lord, right? The Lord rebuke you. Yahweh rebuke you. So it was never in his own power.

So then our challenge then is to respect the power of the adversary and submit

to our God's power. It's not our own.

We want to submit to God's power.

It cannot be in our own strength. You can't fight the evil one alone.

That's what's super obvious.

As you study out scripture, those who think they can do it in and of themselves and their own power.

And so we're going to look at these origins of sin today and where they stem from.

And just to kind of, we're going to really dive deep and just kind of pull it

out and understand more and more about who our adversary is.

So what do we know of Satan? What do we know of him?

We know that he was created with a purpose.

He had a task.

So if you go in your Bible, we're going to start at Ezekiel.

We're going to start Ezekiel,

depending on what on the screen, I'll have the ESV.

And I'm actually going to read here and use the CSB.

So it'll let me. All right.

So now this is, this is again getting into, there, there are two meetings here.

We have the actual King of Tyre that's going on.

And then we also have what theologians over the years have agreed that as they

look at this passage, it's not just talking about an earthly king,

but it's actually talking about Satan.

So, let's start in verse 11.

The word of the Lord came to me, saying, Son of man, lament for the king of

Tyre, and say to him, this is what the Lord says, the Lord God says,

you were the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect beauty.

You are in Eden, the garden of God Every kind of precious stone covered you,

I'm going to try to pronounce all these things Carnelian, topaz, diamonds, beryl,

onyx Jasper, lupus,

lazululi, turquoise, emerald I know I did pretty bad there Your mountings and

settings were crafted in gold,

they were prepared on the day you were created you were an anointed cherub i had appointed you.

So just looking at let's read the first 14 to start right all.

You were an anointed cherub, for I appointed you.

You were on the holy mountain of God. You walked among the fiery stones.

Okay, so we're just going to look at this passage right now here.

So you have Satan being described.

You're full of perfection. You were the signet or like the seal of perfection.

Full of wisdom and perfect beauty.

You were in Eden, the garden of God. Now note here, if this is the Eden that

we're talking about with Adam and Eve, or a different Eden.

There are some theologians that think it was a different Eden.

It was like a mineral garden, as was described later on.

You were in the garden of God.

Every precious stone was your covering. So you have all these precious stones,

and crafted in gold were your settings and your engravings.

On the day that you were created, they were prepared.

And this word here in verse 14, and you were anointed guardian cherub.

The first thing that we need to understand is a cherub that we think of,

right? What do you think of a little cherub, right?

Little pot belly, little fella, right? Wearing a diaper and he's got an arrow,

right? That's what you think of when you think of a cherub.

But that's the exact opposite. Actually, the cherubim, right?

So these cherubs, they're called the cherubim.

They were appointed as guardians of God's glory.

Where else do we hear about the cherubim? Whether you're an Indiana Jones fan

or... The Ark of the Covenant.

What do we have described there on the Ark of the Covenant?

Fire, right? We have these two cherubs,

it's described as they were, the cherubim were focused in the center where God's

holiness would come down, and they were the guardians of it.

So there's a symbol of that.

And so this goes back to the beginning of time, actually before time even began in our, in our sense.

And we have this battle now that, or this, this creation, this created one.

Who was created with a purpose. He goes, you were anointed guardian cherub.

I placed you, and you are on the holy mountain of God.

When we think of the holy mountain, when we think of God's presence,

what is one example in the Old Testament that kind of pops in your mind where

someone couldn't even handle the presence, the backside of God? Remember?

Moses, right? Moses couldn't even handle it when God passed by in the backside of him, passed by Moses.

So much so that what happened to Moses when he came down?

What's that? His face is going so much that what?

You got to put a cover over it. You have to put a veil over that because it's

too bright. It's too great.

So when we think our little finite minds are going to struggle with understanding this whole thing.

And I'm telling you, I've been doing this for two weeks now or more,

and it's mind-boggling.

So when you're, like, just to visualize what's going on here in God's presence, who God is.

And now you have these cherubim that were created with the purpose of guarding God's holiness.

That was their role They were created with a purpose Let's continue on.

Described. You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created.

Now, does this make sense about Satan? When you think about Satan,

you don't think of them pre-fall, do you?

Does anyone else say, I guess I never think of Satan when I think of the evil

one. I just think of the evil one.

But when the day that you are, you are blameless in your ways from the day that

you are created. Again, he was created.

Till unrighteousness was found in you.

In the abundance of your trade, you were filled with violence in your midst, and you sinned.

So I cast you as a profane thing from the mountain of God, and I destroyed you.

O guardian cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire. Your heart was proud because of your beauty.

You corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor.

I cast you the ground. I exposed you before kings to feast their eyes on you.

Jesus, I pray as we slowly and with caution and understanding of who you are

and who our chief adversary is.

God, I pray that you would help your word now just come alive.

Please help us see who we are battling and his fall and just these origins of sin where.

The first signs that we have through Scripture going against your way.

May we understand it better.

May we not get proud. May we not get full of ourselves.

So please help us to understand our adversary today.

And Jesus, not just understand it, but actually learn from these things that

you have recorded for us.

Jesus, I ask this with much fear and trepidation that you would just please

do something today and that you would build within each one of us a healthy fear of our adversary.

Not a fear that we're going to lose, but maybe it's better, an understanding of who our enemy is.

So Jesus, I pray today, just please, please work and help us see your truth.

In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. So look here in verse 13.

What do we see here?

First off, we see all of these things. He was created as a guardian of God's holiness.

And we'll look at it even more in the coming weeks.

But God created Satan or this guardian cherub because Satan means adversary.

So right now we're going to call him Lucifer.

So God created Lucifer now to guard and to watch over his holiness and who he

was, be a guardian of that.

And we see that he was covered with all these precious things.

Aidan and I were talking about this the other night. So all of these,

like diamonds and all these things, what do they do?

Like at a basic level, what do they do? They embellish. They shine. What do they shine?

Light. Yeah. They reflect light. They reflect.

Now if there is complete darkness are they beautiful no you don't see them right you,

don't see their beauty but now god's describing look you are literally created

to reflect my glory to guard it and reflect my glory all of these things here

in this what what these theologians and i would challenge you if you want to

like study this it's it's pretty cool study,

whether it's this mineral garden or actually exactly what it is,

the holy mountain of God.

But all we know is God's presence was there and his glory was there and it was mind boggling.

And these cherubim were created to reflect God's greatness.

They were created to reflect the holiness of God, the Shekinah glory.

That's what they were created for.

So when we focus on the end of verse 13, on that day that you were created,

you were created, they were prepared.

So when you think about this, we have now the establishment that,

okay, this cherub, he was created.

He wasn't his own God. He didn't create himself. He was created.

It says, you are anointed or appointed this guardian cherub.

And God is saying, look, I placed you.

You are on the holy mountain of God in the midst of the stones of fire you walked.

So this is where he is. He's walking amongst the presence of God.

And so we see that. you

were blameless in your ways that from the day you're created and then

we have this this switch now we have

this switch now till unrighteousness was found in you in the abundance of your

trade you were filled with this violence in your midst you sinned so I cast

you as a profane thing from the mountain of God,

and I destroyed you, O guardian of cherub,

from the midst of the stones of fire.

Then we have verse 17, a kind of understanding the heart of the evil one, our chief adversary.

Your heart was proud because of your beauty.

You corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor.

Your heart was full of pride.

He saw the presence of God. He was in the presence of God.

And you'll see throughout Scripture, at his core, he has a deep jealousy.

He has a huge jealousy. We'll look real quick here to kind of see what I'm talking about.

If you go in your Bible or your Bible app there, I don't have it.

I'm not going to have it on the screen.

But if you go to the Gospels, we're going to look at Satan when he tempts Christ.

We'll just look at one of the passages there that's... We'll go to Luke chapter 4, if you would, please.

Luke 4 · chapter mention

Luke chapter 4, starting verse 1.

Luke 4 · chapter mention

Luke chapter 4 verse 1 Then Jesus left the Jordan full of the Holy Spirit and

Luke 4:1

was led by the Spirit in the wilderness for forty days,

to be tempted by the devil He ate nothing during those days and when they were

over He was hungry So now we have this interaction with Satan with the evil one,

The devil's chief adversary says to him You get the flavor here.

If you are the son of God, tell the stone to become bread.

And Jesus answered, it is written, man must not live on bread alone.

So then we see in verse 5, the power of Satan, because he was able to take him up.

So verse 5, so he took him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world.

And the devil said to him, I will give this to you.

I will give you their splendor and all this authority because it has been given over to me.

And I can give it to anyone I want.

If you then will worship me, all will be yours.

And Jesus' response to him was, It is written,

Worship the Lord your God And serve him only,

So he took him up to Jerusalem And had him stand on the pinnacle of the temple

And said to him Once again If you are the son of God Throw yourself down from here For it is written,

He will give his angels orders concerning you and protect you,

and they will support you with their hands so that you will not strike your foot against the stone.

And Jesus answered him and said, it is said, do not test the Lord your God.

And after that, the devil finished every temptation. He departed from his time for a time.

So do you do you see what's what's through that what do you see as far as like satan and his,

jealousy who's he jealous against that's not a trick question.

It's Christ. If you are the most high, if you are the son of God,

if you are the son of God, because Jesus wasn't created, Satan was.

Satan, Lucifer was a created being assigned with a task and Jesus,

on the other hand, was not created.

He was there at creation and he is equal with God. And so now we have this huge

difference now between Satan and the evil one.

He was consumed with himself. He had wisdom, but his pride corrupted it.

So when you think of Satan and his ways and his tactics, he is so full of himself,

so full of his own splendor, of his own glory.

We see here that he was beautiful, right?

God created. So these views that kind of Hollywood has created of this menacing

guy with a big old tail, he's red, he's got big old ears,

or like a serpent man, lizard man or whatever, that kind of stuff.

That's not really what you see throughout Scripture describing Satan.

Now, he is called the dragon.

And you'll see in Revelation that the battle that took place.

And we see the serpent in Genesis. But when you think of Satan at his origin,

at his creation, he was given a task.

He was given a task, and he was at that point, we see in Revelation,

Say the Lord, you were the signal, the seal of perfection.

You were the seal of perfection or this standard. You were the standard.

That's what he's talking about here. That's the Hebrew word there.

So you were the standard, but he was not satisfied to stay there.

Now, brain stretching, so from

a theological, like a study of God perspective, what do we see here then?

What conclusion can we draw about angels and these created heavenly beings?

What can we conclude?

They were able to choose because it wasn't just Satan, right?

Who else went? Who else went?

Yeah. Others went with them, right? So they weren't just mindless robots.

So God created Satan for the purpose of reflecting his glory, guarding his glory.

And yet he was so consumed. You were created. You were prepared.

You were anointed. But that wasn't good enough for you. He said,

I literally placed you there.

And yeah, verse 17, your heart was so proud because of your beauty.

This is where the unrighteousness comes into play here. You were so self-consumed.

You were so focused on self and that pride and that arrogance of how I created

you, that you thought so much that you were better than me. We see it in Isaiah, which we'll look later.

It wasn't just, you know, I want to be like the most high. I want to dethrone God.

No, he wanted to even go higher than God. He wanted to establish himself as a God.

There's so much arrogance here in Satan.

So much arrogance. And then we contrast that with, And this verse isn't on there

But if you go to Philippians chapter 2 The opposite would be Christ, right?

Philippians 2 · chapter mention

So let's look at Philippians chapter 2.

Philippians 2 · chapter mention

Paul, in talking to the church at Philippi here, is like, look,

you know, we're going to talk about Christ and his humility.

So he starts, if there is any encouragement in Christ, if any consolation of

love, if any fellowship with the Spirit,

if any affection and mercy make my joy complete by thinking the same way,

having the same love united in spirit, and don't be selfish.

Let's skip down to verse 5. This is incredible.

Paul says here, look, adopt the same attitude as that of Christ Jesus,

who existing in the form of God did not consider equality with God as something to be exploited.

But instead, he emptied himself by assuming the form of a servant,

a created one, taking on the likeness of humanity.

And when he had come as a man, he humbled himself.

And what did he do in verse 8?

What's the contrast? What does it say there?

He humbled himself, becoming what?

Obedient to the point of death.

Jesus was God. But yet Jesus submitted himself to the Father and his role that

God had laid out for the purpose of saving us,

for the purpose of saving our sorry behinds so we don't have to spend eternity in hell.

He took on the form he was obedient what was Satan what was Satan.

Right he's like i will i will

be this i am this i am

great i i i i i so humility

isn't walking around like e or like what was me like oh i'm so no it's actually

the removal of self altogether and just obedience to god it's not walking around

like you got like you're constipated or something You walk around with an understanding that, you know what?

I'm okay being obedient to God. God created me for a purpose.

He set me in Eckerman, Michigan for the year 2026 thus far.

And this is where I am. This is where God has me. And I'm going to be okay with

that. I'm not just going to be okay with it. I'm going to be happy with it.

Life may not be going exactly as I was thinking as my mind I would have.

Right? right but instead you know like i'm just gonna be obedient to you god

i'm gonna be obedient to you no matter what i would love a better job but i

don't have a better job i would love that like you can start comparing right

you see later on satan's comparing i want to be like the most high.

I want to be the one that people reflect me i want people to reflect me instead

of him being okay with just.

You get to reflect the Shekinah glory of God.

You get to do that.

Think about it, folks. Whether you're a teenage fella or an older senior,

no matter where God has placed you in this timeline.

God created you to reflect Him.

Not yourself, not your own wisdom.

God created you to reflect.

Paul talks in 1 Corinthians 10.31, whether you're eating or you're drinking

or whatever you are doing, even down these little things,

do all to my glory, the glory of God,

where we are reflecting who God is.

Does it matter how small it is? It could be the way you talk to your kid,

the way you talk to your wife, the way you talk to that rude neighbor that you want to throw eggs at.

You have to reflect God. It's not about our will and I get to do I, I, I.

It's about the process of removing I from a vocabulary altogether.

Because Jesus, we see here, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death.

Even the death on the cross for this reason now

okay so he submits to god he submits

to his plan and then this is what god's response is

for this reason god highly exalted him and gave him a name which is above every

name even the name of satan that so that at the name of jesus every Knee will

bow And here we go Who is he talking to?

Whether you're in heaven Or you're on earth Or you're under the earth Every

tongue will confess That Jesus Christ is Lord.

Joint with God, to the glory of God the Father.

That's the opposite. That's the opposite of what the evil one wants.

And he doesn't want to confess, but he will be forced to confess for eternity

that Jesus Christ is Lord.

And he will no longer have his pretend control over this planet,

because it's going to be gone.

And a new earth will be created, and he will be banished forever.

But right now, we are living in this world under his rule and control.

Again, he was given that. And we'll look later at how he is our chief adversary

in here, chief, the accuser of the brethren,

or the one that's constantly going to God, bringing up all of our shame,

all of our things that we've done.

And Jesus is our chief advocate saying, nope, Autumn, when she has shame of whatever it is, nope.

Jesus says my blood was enough for that. So Autumn no longer has to live under

the rule of shame and guilt.

Josh no longer has to live under the shame of all of these things,

all of these things, all the sin that I've done, I don't live under that anymore.

And it causes me to worship God. It should cause you to worship God because

God doesn't just take you, but he actually doesn't just forgive you.

He actually allows you to reflect who he is.

We are given the opportunity to reflect the glory of God in this world that's super dark, Right?

You look everywhere The world is dark Right?

But you, you get to shine God's glory wherever God has your behind.

That's where God has you for the opportunity for now to shine his glory.

So my challenge for us this week is to look, this is for all of us,

not just you, but all of us.

Look at our lives to see if we see any patterns of the adversary.

And as you as we study out this i encourage you to dig dig and study this this is the,

this is a major when you think of theology studies this is huge but to look

look for patterns in our life maybe it's that we have these patterns of i will

i will i will i will i want i want i want You know.

Jesus, who was actually the created one, put himself under and said, God,

if it's possible for this cup of punishment to pass from me, please.

But if not, it's never. So it's now, it's like, it's not my will, but yours.

So it's not, I will, it is yours.

We were called to subject ourselves to a holy God.

I pray today. I pray for us as a body.

The evil one is constantly attacking us. He's working his way around.

As you recorded for us, he's this roaring lion.

He wants to pick out and pick off that weak little doe.

He wants to take her out. He wants to take him out. He doesn't stop.

He wants to discourage.

He wants to make you, God, look small.

And that is not true. Because, God, you are not small.

You are the creator of all things.

And everything exists and continues to exist by you, including him.

So Jesus, please show us areas in our life where we think that we are all that.

Please show us in areas of our lives where we are showing patterns of the evil

one. Help us to really look.

Because part of his patterns is pride, like he's good enough. He's better.

He is full of his own wisdom.

And Jesus, so often that's how we are. We are full of our own wisdom.

Jesus, if there's one today that has never made you Lord, would you please help

them to see the folly of following after God?

Guardian of your holiness who decided to be like you, wanted to be like you

and to go against you and sinned and was full of his own self and his own wisdom.

And he violated your righteousness.

Jesus, I pray that that one would realize and see the power of the gospel and

Jesus that your Holy spirit would enlighten each mind.

And if that one is, if there's one here that's just questioning and not understanding,

God, I pray that you would shine the light of your gospel in their heart and

mind so that they would see a need and to reject the way of Satan and submit like you, Jesus.

And then for my sister my brother today you know

exactly where they're at and your holy spirit does what your holy spirit does

and we're so grateful so jesus i only ask that you have your holy spirit work

in each in one of our hearts whether we're a man or a woman or a teen or child,

Jesus, I pray that you would use your Holy Spirit,

to bring to our minds, to bring to our heart any patterns of the great deceiver,

any patterns whatsoever.

And Jesus, I pray that we would walk in the confidence that you have overcome

the evil one and that we are not under his control I don't know.

Not obligated to subject ourselves to the evil one.

But we can say with Jude, who is your brother,

Yahweh rebuke you, not in our own power, but yours.

So Jesus, help us to put on the full armor of you through the power of your word.

I ask this in Jesus' name, amen. Let's stand and sing.

That first song we did, notice the word.

If as for a hold rely upon the power of his blood,

there is no condemnation for

jesus paid it all so praise the god of mercy your men's sword But we said,

On the cross He stormed the prison, By His death He broke the bars,

When He rose He freed His children from the dark sea,

And He bound the great deceiver, And He leads me in His love,

Praise God in Christ He took the love.

Bombs is a future where joy will never cease and there are no a home awaits

from Well that's not what we see it!

On the past he's always risen by his dead he broke at bars when he rose he freed

his children from the dark,

Praise God in her suit that rolls and call.

On the cross, on the cross, he stole music by Sam, he wrote it,

when he rolled the razor To rank for all the rest against it And he bound on the grave to see birth,

And he eats me and he is a Praise God and Christ to chew and I hope for Kong,

He is risen, he rags,

it is, this city is done, so take off,

he is so, oh,

yes, a victory, he is a victory.

Gretchen, would you close in prayer? Lord, we thank you so much for the privilege

that we have of being able to come together and worship you.

We thank you for each one that is here, and for those that aren't.

Maybe we just be with each of us and encourage us in a lot of relationship with you.

For those who don't know you, I ask that you would soften the hurt.

Just minister them in a special way. Remove scales from eyes so that they can

see truly Unplug ears so that each year you treat and with a softened heart

realize who you are and be for you that they would accept you as a word in a sayer.

Just thank you so much for the privilege of being called the children and for

the privilege of being able to pray you and worship you and come to you whenever it is needed.

We thank you for your love and just pray that you would go with us this week

and just work at each of our cards and lights and strengthen each of us in our

relationship with you. Yes, this is in Jesus' name.

Amen. Have a great week!