But look, we are there in Isaiah 14 and look at verse number 12.
How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning?
The title for the sermon tonight is Lucifer, son of the morning. We're introduced
to of course Lucifer or Satan as we know him and
the way we're introduced to Satan in this chapter is in parallel with
the king of Babylon. Now this is a continuation of chapter 13
which started with the burden of Babylon. Instead of continuing the same
prophecy and in this chapter just like the former chapter
Isaiah is all over the place. I mean it all makes sense when you understand the Bible as a whole
but he's speaking about Babylon of that day, he's speaking of Babylon of the future
he's speaking of the king of Babylon, then he's speaking of Lucifer, then he's speaking of the Assyrians
and then he's speaking of the Philistines and so in this there's a lot to break through this chapter and I hope I
can make sense of all this for you. But before we start commencing there
in verse number 1, we are in the 14th chapter of Isaiah so what's the 14th
book of the Bible? Second Chronicles, alright
so please keep your finger there and come with me to Second Chronicles chapter 6
come with me to Second Chronicles chapter 6, Second Chronicles chapter 6
and what we're going to read here is of King Solomon
after the construction of the temple, remember that was his responsibility he left by his
father to construct a new temple and so in Second Chronicles chapter 6
we have King Solomon do a sermon, he preaches a sermon
and then he begins to pray to the Lord, he
dedicates the temple to the Lord God and this is what he says in
Second Chronicles chapter 6, look at verse number 12 first, it says
and he stood before the altar of the Lord in the presence of all the congregation of Israel
and spread forth his hands, drop down to verse number 14
and said, O Lord God of Israel, there is no God like the
in the heaven nor in the earth which keepeth covenant and showeth
mercy unto thy servants that walk thee with all their hearts
and so, you know, he's speaking about their desire as a nation to walk with all their hearts
toward the Lord God, now drop down to verse number 36
now he says, look, if we as a nation don't have our hearts toward you Lord
alright, you know, then he speaks of being taken into captivity and all these things
but look at verse number 36, it says, if they sin against thee, for there is
no man which sinneth not, and thou be angry with them and deliver them over
before their enemies, and they carry them away captives unto a land
far off or near, and so he's speaking about this potential
this might happen because this was spoken of Moses, that if the nation were to turn
their hearts away from the Lord, they'd be taken into captivity, and of course
we're talking about the burden of Babylon, we're talking about the fact that Babylon took
Judah into captivity, but he says this in verse number 37, yet if
they bethink themselves in the land, whither they are carried captive
and turn and pray unto thee in the land
of their captivity, saying, we have sinned, we have done amiss
and have dealt wickedly, if they return to thee with all
their heart, and with all their soul in the land of their captivity
whither they have carried them captives, and pray toward their
land which thou gave us unto their fathers, and toward the city which thou has chosen
and toward the house which I have built for thy name, then hear
thou from the heavens, even from thy dwelling place, their
prayer and their supplications, and maintain their cause, and
forgive thy people which have sinned against thee.
And so this is a prayer that Solomon gives to God for the entire nation.
You know, Lord, if you're so angry with us and you take us into captivity, Lord, if we just turn back to you
with all our hearts and we pray toward your city, if we pray toward the land
which is what we saw of Daniel, remember Daniel was in Babylon captivity
and he prayed, he opened his windows, he prayed toward Jerusalem
and he says, look, if we as a nation did all these things, could you please bring us back
you know, back into the land and you'd forgive us
of our sins. So when we start Isaiah 14 and verse number 1, come back with me to
Isaiah 14 verse number 1, we have this prophecy being played out
it says, for the Lord will have mercy on Jacob
and will yet choose Israel and set them in their own land
and the strangers shall be joined with them and they shall cleave
to the house of Jacob. Alright, so this is
speaking again of the prophecy that yes, Babylon will take Judah into captivity
but there is a coming of time when God will allow them to return back into the land
70 years later. Now, just like last week
just like the previous chapter, we are going to see this
you know, speaking of Babylon of that day and the captivity of that day
and all of a sudden we're going to be transported to the millennial reign of Christ, okay
and we'll see that immediately actually. But before we see that in verse number 2
I want you to notice that it says here, and the strangers
shall be joined with them. And so this is speaking of people
that are not of the nation of Israel being joined together with Israel
as they come back into that land. Now keep your finger there, come with me to
Luke chapter 13, come with me to Luke chapter 13
in the New Testament, and while you're turning to Luke 13
I'm going to read to you from Ephesians chapter 2, we've got a lot to get through
in this chapter, okay, so if I speed through a little bit quickly, forgive me, you can always go back to the sermon
and listen to the references then. But you're going to Luke 13, I'll read to you from Ephesians
to 11, which says, Wherefore remember that ye
been in the time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called uncircumcision
by that which is called the circumcision
in the flesh, made by hands, that at that time ye were
without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of
Israel, and strangers from the covenants of
promise, having no hope, and without God in the world.
And so what we see here in the New Testament, the Gentiles before they were saved
they were called aliens and strangers. What we see in Isaiah 14
it says, the strangers shall be joined with them. And so this is why
Ephesians 2 continues in verse 13, it says, But now in Christ
Jesus, ye who are sometimes were far off are made
nigh by the blood of Christ. And so Jesus Christ
breaks the division between Gentile and Jew, brings us
as one people, shared people, shared of the commonwealth
of Israel, and that's of course in Ephesians 2, speaking of the spiritual
nature. That we, once we're saved, there is no difference between the Gentile
and the Jew, or the Greek and the Jew, or male and female, we're
all one in Christ Jesus, there's not like a better people versus a lesser
people in Christ Jesus, we're all made one. Now you're looking at
Luke 13 which doesn't speak of this in a spiritual
sense, but speaks of this in a physical sense. In Luke 13 28
Jesus Christ says, There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth
when ye shall see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob
and all the prophets in the kingdom of God
and you yourselves thrust out. That's speaking about the unbelieving Jews.
Then it says in verse number 29, And they shall come from the east
and from the west and from the north and from the south
and shall sit down in the kingdom of God. And of course this is
speaking of the millennial reign of Christ, when he reigns from Israel, when he reigns
from Jerusalem and Judea, strangers will be joined together with him
from the east and south and west and north in all places because
everyone that is in Christ Jesus will be part of that reign of Jesus Christ
we're going to rule and reign with him those thousand years. And so I want to show you
just how we go from modern day Babylon for Isaiah
to future Babylon and then the millennium because
just before Christ begins his millennium, future Babylon is destroyed in an hour.
Now come back with me to Isaiah 14 and verse number 2
and verse number 2 solidifies that we're talking about
the future millennium reign because it says in verse number 2
And the people shall take them and bring them to their place
and the house of Israel shall possess them in the land of the Lord
for servants and handmaids and they shall take them captives
whose captives they were and they shall rule
over their oppressors. This has never happened in history
where Israel became, took
their oppressors into captivity. And so God is saying here
there is coming a time when Israel is going to rule over their oppressors
and of course that's the millennium reign of Christ. Christ is going to rule from Israel
and he's going to rule over all the nations of the earth.
That's why it says in verse number 3
that thou was made to serve, that thou shall take up
this proverb against the king of Babylon and say
how have the oppressors ceased? The golden city
ceased. So the king of Babylon has been referenced here and you need to
just keep all of this in mind. Yes the king of Babylon here
is speaking of present day Babylon. This is a proverb, this is a prophecy
toward him but his fulfillment is in the millennial reign of Christ.
And when I talk about Israel in the millennium
just as a reminder from last week, I'm not talking about
modern day Israel, I'm not talking about Christ rejecting Israel
you know we certainly don't believe that when Christ comes on a white horse
they're all automatically going to get saved. That's not how salvation works in the Bible.
Salvation in the Bible is by hearing God's word and believing God's word.
Someone has to hear the gospel and put their faith and trust in the gospel
in order to be saved. No one gets saved by seeing Jesus come on a white horse
no they need to receive and believe the gospel of Jesus Christ.
The Israel that we're talking about in the millennium are the Old Testament saints
when there were twelve tribes of Israel and there were saints and those
that were saved of course they're going to rule and reign in the millennium with the
rest of us, with all the strangers in terms of the Gentiles
and the foreign nations in that time. But when Christ rules he's going to rule
from all the earth. Now notice that the king of Babylon here is referenced
as, or Babylon as the golden city, the golden city.
Now you may recall when the prophet Daniel of course was
in captivity under Babylon and he was able to interpret
a dream or a vision of Nebuchadnezzar and the kingdom
of Babylon was represented by a statue but also by the golden head
you may recall that vision or that dream. Well come with me now, keep your finger there
come with me to Jeremiah 51, I want to show you something else about how Babylon is
referred to as this golden city. In Jeremiah 51 please, Jeremiah 51
we have Jeremiah who's preaching against Babylon
how Babylon's going to be destroyed by the Assyrian empire
in Jeremiah 51 verse number 7
Jeremiah 51 verse number 7, the Bible reads
Babylon have been a golden cup in the Lord's hand
that made all the earth drunken. The nations have drunken
of her wine, therefore the nations are mad.
So we see here Babylon referred to as a golden cup and within that cup
of course it's an alcoholic beverage that makes all the nations of the earth drunk
because Babylon was a kingdom, he was a kingdom over many other nations
and of course the wickedness and the filth that was in Babylon they had
an influence over other nations and affected them in the same way.
And of course that should remind you if you know about the book of Revelation, I'll just read it to you
in Revelation 18 verse number 1 it says
A cage of every unclean and hateful bird. This Babylon
in Revelation 18 is future Babylon to come, but then it says
in verse number 3, for all nations have drunk of the wine
of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have
committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed
rich through the abundance of her delicacies. And so
end times Babylon, once again a world empire, the wickedness and the filth
is going to affect the nations and the kings of the earth that are under
the power and authority of Babylon. Now the reason I read
all of that is because to show you just the connective tissue
in the Bible, the golden city, the golden cup
and the wine that's within the golden cup, and again end times Babylon
referring to that woman, that whore with this cup that causes the nations
to keep fornication and drunkenness with her. And so
this is why Isaiah is such a tricky book, it's because you've got all these
layers that are coming into fulfillment, it's like, oh man, what are we
referring to here? We're talking about modern day or current day Babylon for
Isaiah, we're talking about future Babylon, like there are all these questions
that get asked, and again as your pastor, as the preacher, I hope I can
give a good indication of what God is speaking about, but
of course to show you the parallels in the Bible.
Because truly, when the Bible speaks in the book of Ecclesiastes
that there is nothing new under the sun. And when it comes to that idea
it's the fact that nations and people are the same.
Like I know technology has changed and we have cars
and we have the internet, but the heart of man is the same. And powers
are the same, powers rise and powers fall, kings become prideful
and then they get taken down, I mean we see a cycle all the time
throughout history again and again and again because we're still human beings, we still have a sinful
nature, and what the Bible just shows us is the fact that history
repeats over and over and over again. But there will come an
end to the wickedness of Babylon and that will come with the millennial reign of Jesus Christ.
So come back with me to Isaiah 14 in verse number 5.
Isaiah 14 verse number 5.
The Lord have broken the staff of the wicked and the scepter of
the rulers. This is referring to the millennium.
Where the Lord's going to have power over all the earth. It says in verse number 6
He who smote the people in wrath with a continual stroke
He that rule the nations in anger is persecuted
and none hindereth. So those that smote the people
in wrath with a continual stroke is Babylon. And the spirit of Babylon
It says here that that will be destroyed because in verse number 7
it says the whole earth is at rest and
is quiet. They break forth into singing.
This has never happened in the history of the world. There's never been a time when the entire world
is at rest and is that quiet. There were
wars and there were rumors of wars and this is going to continue until
the time of Christ. When Christ comes on his white horse, destroys the armies of
the antichrist, then he arches in the new millennium
and there will be peace on the earth. Thank God finally there will be peace
and quiet on the earth and it says they break forth into singing.
There will be joy, there will be rejoicing in the millennial reign of Jesus Christ.
Now even though we have Jesus Christ
ruling over former oppressive powers
or ruling over former Babylon's of old
It's not like when Christ reigns, yes he rules with a rod of iron, but it's not that
other people are going to be oppressed like the kingdoms of the earth.
There's rejoicing. We see people breaking forth into singing. At some point
the entire earth is going to be rejoicing. There is great peace,
great prosperity when Jesus Christ rules on the earth.
What I want you to think about in light of this is
our personal walk with God today, our personal walk with Jesus Christ today.
You know, Jesus is supposed to rule in our lives, isn't he?
You know, sometimes, and rightly so, we preach against lordship salvation.
We would say that you've got to make Jesus the Lord of your life.
In other words, you've got to obey every commandment in order for you to be saved.
Every instruction, that's a workspace gospel.
We know that salvation is a free gift paid for by Jesus Christ, his blood sacrifice.
But now that we are saved, Jesus Christ is our Lord.
Now you won't obey him 100% correctly, but
he expects us to obey his word. He is our Lord.
We are under his rule. We are his people. He has bought us with his blood.
But he doesn't rule us with oppression.
The Christian walk should not be something that just brings you downcast
and every time you fail, every time you say,
I'm a horrible person. The reason I say that is because
I've seen this in my life. I've seen Christians who
go to church and they're just always downcast and I've failed this
and I've failed that and I've failed my Lord.
So has everybody else in the church this week has failed the Lord.
There isn't anybody in the church today that will say, this week I never sinned against the Lord.
I've never done anything wrong. We've all messed up. We've all done something wrong.
Does God just want us to walk in oppression? No, God wants us to break
forth into singing. God wants us to be at peace.
He's our Lord. He's the Prince of Peace. He gives us a peace that the world
cannot understand. He gives us the ability to go before him in prayer
every time we're burdened, every time we go through difficulty, every time we sin against the Lord
and we fail him, we're able to go to him, speak to the Lord, the Lord doesn't turn
his back against us. He gives us peace. He gives us rejoicing.
That ought to be the Christian life. Not this oppression,
all these rules in God's Word, the Ten Commandments, there's so many rules
I can't obey. Of course you can't obey them all because you're not perfect.
But we're on a journey. We're trying to live a holy life. We're trying to serve the Lord
God with our life and truly if you are being led by the Lord
if you do view him the right way, look, Jesus does not oppress you.
He gives you clear instructions. He warns us against sin
so we can live a life that is pleasing to our Lord God, a life that will not
hurt us more than necessary. There are hurts in life
but of course if you sin against him you're going to add further hurts and further damage to your life.
He gives us direction. But let us be people that even though
we're under the command of our Lord God, that we're not walking around like
we're oppressed people. Being a Christian is such a horrible thing.
Being a Christian to me is the most liberating thing. I'm saved.
I know where I'm going. I know any time I mess up I can go to my Lord and ask
him for help. How liberating is a Christian life? I've got the
Creator to help me and to guide me on every step of my life.
And so that should be your Christian life, one of joy, one of rejoicing.
And of course we see that play out in the millennial end of Christ.
Let's continue to verse number 8.
Now the thee here is Babylon.
Let me explain to you in a minute why.
And the seeders of Lebanon saying
thou, that's Babylon, are laid down or destroyed.
No fella is come up against us. So nobody has come
to cut down the trees. Like the trees are symbolic of the
nations. And so ever since Babylon's been destroyed
we have no one, no nations that's oppressing us. We have no one against us.
No one's trying to chop us down. Now that can only be true in the millennium.
Because after Babylon was taken down it was the Assyrian empire.
And then after the Assyrian empire it was the Grecian empire and so on and so forth.
So again this is speaking of the end times. When Babylon
of the end times is finally destroyed there won't be nations oppressing
one another in the millennial end of Christ.
This is also speaking of Satan though.
And this is the thing that you need to understand. Babylon here is also
representative of Satan. Because look at verse number 9.
It says, hell from beneath is moved for
thee. Now I mentioned thee in verse number 8 is Babylon.
And yes, the thee in
verse number 9 may very well be the king of Babylon. I do believe that
is the, I guess the first application, but a secondary application
and the greater application as we keep going through these verses
it's speaking of Satan. It says, hell from beneath is moved for
thee to meet thee at thy coming. It stirs up
the dead for thee, even all the chief ones of the earth.
It hath raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations.
So just take my word for it right now that this is speaking of the devil.
Because we're going to get to that in a moment. But if this is speaking of
the devil and it says that hell is moving to meet the devil
at this point in time could you say that Satan has been
to hell yet? No. Because hell is
moving to meet the devil. Okay? So this is something that
must be understood and I'm sure our church understands it very well because I've taught it so many times.
But hell is not the kingdom of the devil.
The devil does not rule in hell. That's not his like power base.
That's not his kingdom. It's nothing like that. It's nothing like what you see
in the chick tracks. You know the chick tracks many times
I read them when I was young and I had the impression by the chick tracks
that when people go to hell they've been tortured by the devil and
by Satan and his devils. Because that's what chick tracks
show. Like someone gets cast to hell and you've got some devil with his
pitchfork tormenting that soul. No, no. In hell
is where the devil and his angels are going to be tormented. This is the punishment of
the devil. I actually used to think hell was like this
wicked ungodly thing but now I understand it's God's
wrath which is righteousness. Like it's right for the devil
to go to hell and to be tormented and for that to be
his end. That's righteous. That's God's righteous judgement.
And so when I understood that by God's word I had a completely different
idea of what hell is. That's God's anger. That's God's righteousness.
That's God's wrath. That's not Satan's kingdom.
So hell is preparing to meet the devil.
And yes you can express that to be the king of Babylon.
The king of Babylon would be probably king Belshazzar which is
Nebuchadnezzar's grandson. Because king Nebuchadnezzar believe it or not
got saved. Praise God for someone like that. But when Babylon
was overrun it was king Belshazzar. And so this may
from a first application or primary application be referring to
that king but as we keep going this is very clearly speaking
of the devil. Now let's keep going there. Verse number 10
it says, all they shall speak and say
unto thee. So who are all they? What we saw earlier.
The thrones of all the kings of the nations. So look
I guess you could argue to say this is poetic language or something like this.
But I think this is literal. Like I think when the
devil is cast into hell all the kings that have died and got to hell
are going to be looking at the devil.
And say these things to the devil. Verse number 10. All they that shall speak
shall say unto thee. Thou also become weak as we.
Thou become like unto us.
All these former kings, all these former oppressors
Hitler and everybody else down that line. Are going to be looking
at the devil in hell and going what? Are you just? You're suffering in hell like us?
Like you're being brought down to hell like us?
You've been made weak like us? What?
Like you know it wouldn't surprise me that on the earth they probably
accessed the power of the devil to have some level of pressure and
influence and now the same false god
that has given them strength on the earth is as weak as they are.
As destroyed as they are in hell. Verse number 11.
Now this is where you start to see well it's about the devil
but it's also about the king of Babylon because it says in verse number 11
Thy pomp. That's like the pride you know. Been lifted up
thy pomp is brought down to the grave.
So now we have a reference to the grave. Now a grave is where you put bodies.
Dead bodies right? Look Satan is a spirit.
Satan is not going to have a grave on the earth as such.
So we see it's sort of like the king of Babylon
and it definitely is the king of Babylon. Probably King Belshazzar. But it's also
about the devil because what we can gather out of this
is that the devil is the one that gave King Belshazzar or Babylon
a lot of its power. And so the Bible speaks of the devil or Satan
being the god of the earth. And we know that when Jesus Christ walked the earth and he was
tempted in the wilderness, the devil, remember that? He offered Jesus Christ
the kingdoms of the earth. How can the devil offer Jesus
the kingdoms of the earth unless he has power over those kingdoms?
For it to be a temptation. These are the temptations.
If the devil has no power and does not have the ability to give power on the earth
then how is that a temptation? Well we see the devil definitely has
power over the kingdoms of the earth. He's the god of the earth.
But the king of Babylon is also being brought down here to the grave.
It says, and the noise of thy vials, the worm is spread
under thee and the worms cover thee. This could be a reference
to worms in hell or this just could be a reference to maggots in the grave.
You know, eating away at the dead body. But then look
in verse number 12. If you just think this is just King Belshazzar
or some king of Babylon. Verse number 12 it says, how art thou
fallen from heaven, O Lucifer?
So this isn't just a king on the earth that's dying a grave. Now we see
again God speaking of the devil and using the king of Babylon as
a picture or a shadow of Lucifer. How art thou
fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning? How
art thou cut down to the ground which didst weaken
the nations? Now I need to point out that it's so important
that we read from a King James Bible.
Look, I went to a Christian school, it was a Baptist Christian school
high school, and I think I've shared it before, but they were NIV
only. Like they were NIV only.
Use whatever you want. They were NIV only.
I brought, because I had a King James Bible as well, I brought a King James Bible
once to a, because we had like, one of our subjects was
religion, so I brought it to the religion class by accident. I couldn't
find my NIV, I couldn't find it. So I grabbed my King James Bible, you had
to have a Bible in class. And I got in trouble by the teacher for having my King James Bible.
At that point I realized, oh, the school is NIV only.
But anyway, this is what made me take
that NIV, and I was attached to it because I read so much of it, and I was
given it as a gift by my parents or whatever it was, I can't remember if someone gave me a gift.
I had an attachment to the NIV, and even though I started to see all these problems
with that translation, it was this doctrine that made me finally just
take that Bible and throw it in the bin.
Now, I'm going to read to you from Revelation 12, 7. Sorry, I'm going to read to you not from there.
I'm going to read to you from Revelation 22, 16. You know where I'm going
with this. But Revelation 22, 16 says,
And the offspring of David, and the bright and morning
star. So according to Revelation 22, who
is the morning star? Jesus. That's a
title that is given to Jesus. No, that's fine.
When you read your King James Bible, Jesus is the morning star,
and the title that is given to Lucifer in verse number 12,
Oh, Lucifer, son of the morning.
So yeah, both have the word morning there, but one is the morning star,
and one is the son of the morning. So it's referring to
two different titles, one given to Jesus, the morning star, and
the son of the morning given to Lucifer.
But the NIV, when you read Isaiah 14, 12,
the NIV reads something like, How art thou fallen from heaven,
O morning star? That's how the NIV
reads it. So the NIV would correctly, in Revelation 22, 16,
call Jesus the morning star, just like the King James Bible does.
But in Isaiah 14, verse number 12, the one that is fallen
from heaven is the morning star, who is Jesus Christ.
And Brevin, even though I started to see all the missing verses and that worried me,
and I started to see the blood of Christ being removed, or the name of
Jesus being removed from the modern translations, it was not until I saw this
that I said, wow, the Bible that I'm trying to read from and the Bible that I've been appreciating
is of the devil. The devil doesn't want you
to think that he's been kicked out of heaven, but the devil would love
you to believe that Jesus has fallen from heaven.
And that woke me up. Now, I had a look at what
some of the most popular Bible translations
in English are as far as Bible sales. I don't know if you knew this,
but there's basically a new Bible that's very popular these days.
It's the Christian Standard Bible. Has anyone heard of that one before?
Okay, you've heard of it. It's pretty new. It was first produced, I think, in 2004,
and then it had a revision in 2017.
So it's a very modern Bible in terms of, this is probably why
I'd never heard of it before, but it's like, I don't know, like second or third bestseller
of last year, for example. And of course, the Christian Standard
Bible would of course have what here? Morningstar once again. Morningstar being kicked
out of heaven, Jesus Christ. And so that
translation is gaining speed, but again, it's just another translation of the devil.
You know, tricking you from thinking that it's, you know, Jesus being kicked
out of heaven rather than himself. Now, the ESV is another very
popular translation as well, the English Standard Version. The English Standard Version
doesn't refer to Lucifer here as Morningstar, but it
refers to Daystar, O Daystar. So
it reads something like, how they have fallen from heaven, O Daystar.
Now there's a problem with that as well. So come with me to 2 Peter
chapter 1, come with me to 2 Peter chapter 1, verse number 19.
2 Peter chapter 1, verse number 19, please. 2 Peter chapter 1, verse number 19.
2 Peter chapter 1, verse number 19. So the English
Standard Version wants you to believe that the Daystar is being kicked
out of heaven, okay, rather than the Morningstar. But then in 2 Peter chapter 1,
verse number 19, it says,
That's referring to the Word of God, the Bible and Jesus Christ.
Who is the Word of God?
Jesus, another title given to Jesus, is the Daystar.
So the English Standard Version goes, well, the other translations have
the Morningstar being taken down, let's take down Jesus by another title, the Daystar.
I mean, why would you read these wicked translations?
If you've got a copy at home, please just take it, burn it, don't sell it on eBay,
don't give it to someone else, just put it on the barbecue,
give it to Les, Les has a good barbecue, he's got a video
of all these Bibles being destroyed, give it to Les and he'll burn it for you on the barbecue,
okay, so please stay away from those modern English translations.
Alright, now,
what we saw in Isaiah 14 was Lucifer being, or falling from heaven.
Now, I'll give you some other thoughts here, if you come with me to
Luke chapter 10, come with me to Luke chapter 10 in the New Testament,
Luke 10, verse number 17, Luke 10, 17.
Now,
I don't know exactly where I stand on this issue,
but in Isaiah 14, with Lucifer falling from heaven,
I believe that probably already happened, okay?
But it depends on what you mean by falling, okay?
If you look at Luke 10, 17 for example, this is a time when Jesus Christ commissions
70 apostles to go out and preach the gospel.
And he says in Luke 10, 17,
So Jesus sees Satan fall from heaven.
Alright, now, come with me to Job please, Job chapter 1,
Job chapter 1, Job chapter 1. So the language that we see
in the book of Luke, the language that we see in Isaiah is Satan
falling from heaven, okay?
Now, I'm going to
share my thoughts with you, please, don't take my thoughts as God's word.
Okay, I'm just going to share my thoughts with you. But come with me to Job chapter 1,
verse number 6. Job chapter 1, verse number 6.
It says,
So they're presenting themselves before God in heaven. And who's in heaven
with them all? Satan, okay? So does Satan
have access to heaven? Yeah, he does, okay?
Verse number 7.
So where does Satan spend most of his time? On the earth. Walking around.
Trying to cause whatever havoc he can do, right? He's walking around, like going around
like a roaring lion, the Bible tells us, right? Seeking whom he may devour.
And so that's where he primarily is. But every now and again he has
access to heaven and he goes to heaven. The Bible also says that Satan
is the accuser of the brethren. That's another title given for Satan.
He accuses the brethren, believers, to God. And we see that
in the book of Job. Because in the book of Job, God speaks to Satan.
He says, oh, have you seen Job? He has a faithful man, you know, and all these great things
about Job. And then Satan, the accuser, says, well, that's only because you blessed him.
Right? If you take anything away from him, he'll curse you and all these things.
And, you know, so that's sort of Satan's role. He goes around accusing the
believers before God in heaven. And so the fact that
we see Satan falling, the word in there is falling.
It's not that he got cast out of heaven. And I'll show you in a minute
why that is. In fact, come with me to Revelation 12 now. Come with me to Revelation 12.
So, I'm probably
leaning a little bit more this way. That there are multiple times
that Satan falls from heaven. One of the times we're going to be reading
about that in Isaiah 14, most likely the very first time
that he fell out of heaven. But the idea that I get from this brethren,
again, this is just my thought. Please, you know, don't crucify me for something.
Is that Satan's going around causing problems, you know, being
a headache, finds sins and problems with believers, then goes
to God and, oh, did you see brother so-and-so do that? Did you see sister so-and-so?
Did you know I blessed up at the church last week this happened, right? Trying to accuse
whatever, you know, the brethren before God. And I get the idea that God's like, you know what,
just get out of here. Shut up and get out of here.
And it's just, he falls from heaven, like, time and time again. And he's back
on the earth again trying to cause problems. Then he goes back to heaven, like, again, and then,
you know, as the 70 are out there preaching the gospel and they have power
of the devil, of the devils and demons, again, Jesus says, look,
I saw Satan fall from heaven. And so you could take it one way
and I might lean more toward this way, that it could be that Satan
is doing that and God has enough of him in his presence and just, he falls from heaven
time and time again onto the earth. But then in Revelation chapter 12,
verse number 7, we have one final time when Satan
falls from heaven. But this time, instead of using the word falling from heaven,
it's been cast out of heaven, okay? And in Revelation 12
7, so this is still a future thing to happen. And there was
war in heaven, verse number 7, Michael and his angels fought
against a dragon and the dragon fought and his angels
and prevailed not. Look at this. Neither was their place
found any more in heaven. So again, the devil has access
to heaven, right? But now, no more place is found for them in heaven.
Verse number 9, and the great dragon was cast out,
that old serpent called the devil and Satan, which deceived the whole
world. He was cast out into the earth and his angels
were cast out with him. And so this final casting out
is not so much, again, the language is a bit different from falling from heaven, which was in Luke and
Isaiah to being cast out of heaven and again being reinforced that that means
no further place is going to be found for him in heaven. So
the other position that's out there is, well, this is all the one
and the same, falling from heaven. Is him being cast out of heaven in Revelation
chapter 12? And the way you would explain that is basically there are many
times prophecies of the future are spoken about in the past tense
because, and we've seen this many times already in the book of Isaiah, it's spoken about in the past
sense because as far as God is concerned, it's already happened. Because God is outside of time.
And we see God speaking prophecies like that many, many times. Things are still
to happen, but he speaks about in the past tense as though they've already happened.
And so that's the other position that's out there is that the falling from heaven is the casting
out in Revelation chapter 12. But if you were to ask me for my
personal opinion, I'd lean more toward the fact that the devil gets up to heaven,
God has enough of him and he falls from heaven again and again, whatever, how many times that happens
and then eventually God just, that's it, I'm done with it. And his
place is not found any more for him in heaven.
Okay, so that's a couple of ways to understand that passage. Come back with me to Isaiah 14
verse number 13. Isaiah 14 verse number 13.
So why did he fall from heaven? Well, verse
number 13 we get the idea here. It says, For thou hast said in thine heart,
I will ascend into heaven. I will exert
my throne above the stars of God. I will sit
also upon the mount of the congregation in the sides of the north.
I will ascend above the heights of the clouds.
I will be like the Most High.
So again, the pride, the attitude. Look, the devil, Satan,
you know, he was at the anointed cherub according to Ezekiel.
His desire is to be God. And this makes
perfect sense because, you know, when the antichrist
receives his power, he's brought out of the bottomless pit, the Bible
says he's given power by the devil. And immediately the antichrist,
what does it say? He wants to exalt himself above God. He claims
to be God. He has the same attitude, you know, as
Satan does. This pride, this loftiness being lifted up, you know,
thinking himself to be God. And you know, this attitude
exists in the world. Again, you probably come across this when you go
too soul-willing. Have you ever come across someone say to you, well, I am God.
Or I am my own God. Or we're all God. You know, you're kind
of God. You're God. I'm God. The tree is God. All of creation is God.
You know, that idea, that philosophy comes straight from the devil, from the
antichrist, you know, from the devil, from Satan.
But again, what we see there in verse 15, yet thou shall be brought down to hell
to the sides of the pit. Okay, so the devil
is going to hell. Okay, now come with me to Revelation 20.
Let me show you when this happens. Revelation 20 and verse number 1.
So what I'm trying to say to you,
brethren, is the devil spends most of his time on the earth and he has
access to heaven every once in a while, you know, whenever the Lord allows
him to do that. But he's not yet been to hell.
He will be brought down to hell. Okay, that will happen. And we'll read about
that in Revelation 20, verse number 1. It says,
Till the thousand years should be fulfilled, and after
that he must be loosed a little season.
So when is he brought down to hell? Just before Jesus Christ begins to rule
for that thousand years. That's when he's thrown into hell, or the bottomless pit.
At the end of the thousand years, he comes out of the
bottomless pit, he has one final attempt to overcome Jesus Christ
on the earth, and then God takes him and casts him into the lake of fire.
Okay, so that's going to be the end of the devil.
But, back with me to Isaiah 14, verse number 16.
Isaiah 14, 16. It says, They that shall
see thee shall narrowly look upon thee, and
consider thee sane. Is this the man that made the
earth to tremble? That did shake kingdoms?
That made the world as a wilderness, and destroyed the cities thereof?
That opened not the house of his prisoners?
So they're going to look at Satan in hell, you know, all these kings that have died
and gone before, you know, and they're thinking
of all the wars of the earth, they're thinking of the power they've been given by the devil.
They've got this idea of this powerful devil,
you know, this powerful influence on the
earth, and they're going to look at the devil in hell and go,
is that all you are? Like, you know,
the other false idea that, I've never had this idea, but the other idea that's out there in the world
is that the devil is just basically
like the yin yang of God or something like that. Like, you know, God is all
good, and the devil is all bad, and there's like this equal balance
of power on the earth, good and bad, and, you know,
look, it's not like that at all. Like, God doesn't even have to
deal with the devil. Like, what we saw in the book of Revelation there is God just sends
an angel, you know, which is a polyon or a baton, you know, a baton.
And that angel has the power to take a chain,
tie up the devil, cast him into Bolin's pit, you know, for a thousand years.
Like, the devil compared to God is so insignificant. Like,
he's truly nothing. Yes, he has power on the earth today,
but greater is he that is in you
than he that is in the world. Like, the devil's
going to attempt to throw temptations at you,
he's going to attempt to persecute you and hurt you, but you need to remember,
yes, I guess the devil has power, more is stronger than you in the flesh,
but we are saved people with the Holy Spirit of God living within us. We truly have
nothing to fear. That's what the Bible teaches us is just fear God.
Fear God, keep his commandments. We can't see the spiritual
realm. We can't see how the devil is trying to hurt us and attack us.
That's God's business. I'll leave it with God, you know, and truly
as God's people, we should be aware of the devil, we should
beware, we should understand he's out to hurt us,
but we truly should not fear him. Only fear God.
Only fear God. But these kings of the earth are going to look down upon him and go,
man, that's all you are. Like, you're nothing. You know, we
trusted in you, we depended on you, and here you are in hell
burning to hell with the rest of us.
What verse am I up to, brethren?
I think 18.
Yeah, 18. All the kings of the nations, even all of them,
lie in glory. Everyone in his own house.
Now, we're going from the devil back to the king of Babylon,
which is probably King Belshazzar. I'll explain to you what this means.
So the kings of the nations, it says lie in glory.
So it's talking about their dead bodies. And by lying in glory,
what it means is that they were given like, you know,
huge funeral parades and, you know, probably
a gold casket or something like that. They're given,
their death is one of glory. Then it says this,
everyone in his own house,
that's basically everyone in his own grave is the reference there.
Then it says this in verse 19. Again, speaking of the king of Babylon,
but thou art cast out of thy grave, like an
abominable branch. So of course, King Belshazzar, I believe
it's King Belshazzar. You know, the Bible doesn't make it crystal clear that it is,
but I just believe because it's speaking of the destruction of Babylon
and of course it was King Belshazzar at the time when Babylon was overrun by the Assyrians,
I believe it's speaking of, sorry,
by the Medo-Persian Empire. Sorry guys, if I've said Assyrians
instead of Medo-Persian Empire, forgive me. There's a lot of information
here. But it was King Belshazzar that was overrun.
And then he lost his life, you know, when that happened. And so what it's saying here
is that his body is going to be taken out of his grave.
Like later on. But thou art cast out of thy grave
like an abominable branch,
and as the raiment of those that are slain, thrust
through with a sword that go down to the stones of the pits
as a carcass trodden under feet.
So this is not uncommon where you might take the body of a dead king,
dig it up, take out the body, and just desecrate it further.
Okay, and they're going to take a sword and just, again,
just hit, you know, stab that dead body with a sword.
They're going to, it appears maybe being like
that body's been stoned. That carcass is going to be stepped upon.
Okay, and again, this is speaking of not the carcass body of the devil, because it's a
spirit, but it's speaking of the King of Babylon. But again, you can see how Isaiah's
prophesying of the Babylon that now is and the Babylon to come
and the King of Babylon as a type of Satan, and of course Satan then
being cast into the bottomless pit in the future. And then in verse number 20,
Thou shalt not be joined with them in burial,
because thou hast destroyed thy land and slain thy people.
The seed of evildoers shall never be renowned.
So the body's not going to be buried amongst the kings anymore. It's going to be just desecrated,
left to waste. And it says the seed of evildoers, again,
the seed of the King of Babylon, shall never be renowned.
Because they end up, you know, when one empire is destroying another empire,
not only do they kill the king, but they kill the families and the children of that king.
And so, essentially it's saying here that your children are never going to be remembered.
They're never going to achieve great things. And then verse number 21,
Prepare slaughter for his children, for the iniquity of their fathers,
that they do not rise, nor possess the land, nor fill the face
of the world with cities. For I will rise up against them, save the Lord of hosts,
and cut off from Babylon the name,
the remnant, the son and nephew, saith the Lord.
So the family of King Belshazzar is going to be completely destroyed,
completely wiped out, okay? Verse number 23,
I will also make it a possession for the bitten.
Now the bitten apparently is a type of bird.
But, the bitten might also be some type of rodent.
Okay? So bitten in our modern English is a type of bird.
But it could be, this is referring to some type of rodent, okay?
And then it goes, and pools of water, and I will
sweep it with the besom, that's a broom,
of destruction, save the Lord of hosts. So God again is saying I'm going to destroy
Babylon, it's going to be laid waste, and all that's going to reside on
animals, and I'm going to, like a broom, I'm just going to sweep it off
and it's going to be desolate, okay? So again it's very clear that we're speaking of
historic Babylon here. And then verse number 24,
The Lord of hosts have sworn, saying, Surely as I have thought,
so shall it come to pass, and as I have purposed,
so shall it stand. So what God is saying
will come to pass. Like nothing's going to change this prophecy that
he spoke of. Verse number 25, That I will break the Assyrian
in my land, and upon my mountains tread him under
foot. Then shall his yoke depart from of them,
and his burden depart from of their shoulders.
Now, this is going back to a time of King Hezekiah,
okay? When Assyria took the northern kingdom into captivity,
and then the Assyrians attempted to take Judah into captivity,
remember that, okay? And Jerusalem was besieged as a city,
okay? God is saying he's going to break the Assyrian off the land,
they're not going to overcome. Now what we saw,
we're looking at Isaiah 14, and the 14th book of the Bible is
2 Chronicles, okay? So come back with me to 2 Chronicles, and this
time chapter 32. 2 Chronicles chapter 32,
we've already seen this story in former chapters, I've already covered it before,
but I want to show you how we've gone from Babylon,
we've gone from Babylon in the future, now we're talking about Assyria,
which was before Babylon, okay? So it's one of these
challenges once again in the book of Isaiah. You've got to go through it slowly,
you've got to realize, what are you preaching about, Isaiah? Like, where are you going with all of this,
okay? 2 Chronicles 32, verse
number 20. 2 Chronicles 32, verse number 20, we're back
to King Hezekiah the king here, okay? It says in verse number 20,
And for this cause Hezekiah the king, who was a good king by the way,
and the prophet Isaiah the son of Amos, prayed
and cried to heaven, because they were worried about the Assyrians.
Verse number 21, And the Lord sent an angel
which cut off all the mighty men of valor, and the leaders and
captains in the camp of the king of Assyria. So he returned
with shame of face to his own land. And when he was
come into the house of his God, they came forth of his own
bowels, slew him there with a sword.
Thus the Lord saved Hezekiah and the
inhabitants of Jerusalem, from the hand of Sennacherib the king
of Assyria, and from the hand of all other,
and guided them on every side. Now, we
read this earlier in previous chapters in 2 Kings 19, it covers the same
story. But I just want to show you here that 2 Chronicles, the 14th book of the Bible
also speaks of the fulfillment of what God's speaking about here in Isaiah
14. So back to Isaiah 14 and verse number 26.
Isaiah 14 and verse number 26.
This is the purpose that is
purposed upon the whole earth, and this is the hand
that is stretched out upon all the nations.
For the Lord of hosts hath purposed, and who shall disanal it?
And his hand is stretched out, and who shall turn it back?
In the year that king Ahaz died was this burden.
Remember, previous chapter, the burden of Babylon is this prophecy.
And so all of this is sort of coming together, and once again God is
speaking that this is going to be fulfilled, nothing's going to change this,
the Assyrians are not going to overcome Judah,
Babylon will take Judah into captivity, but they will be delivered later on,
and again, all as a picture that
there is a Babylon of the end times that will oppress the nations
and oppress the people of God, but that same Babylon will be destroyed
and we're going to be resting in peace in the millennial reign of Christ.
And during that millennial reign of Christ, Lucifer is going to be in hell
for a thousand years, burning in the fires of hell.
So I hope you can kind of understand what is the purpose
of, like, we're going throughout history, different powers, and again
all of this is just God telling us that there's
come a time where God's people and the entire earth will not be
oppressed. Where kings will not be lifted up. Satan
will not be lifted up and esteemed. No, the one that will be lifted up on the
earth is Jesus Christ, on the earth, and all nations are going to be at peace
and rejoicing in his reign.
Verse number 29, please. Now, verse 29 is almost
it almost has nothing to do with, like all the rest of the verses,
almost have nothing to do with what we just covered, okay?
It kind of still does, though, because it's still about the topic of oppression, okay?
But, verse 29,
Rejoice not thou whole Palestina.
Now, the land of Palestine, or the nation of Palestine,
they do have the same root word, okay?
But, Palestina here is not modern day Palestine as we know it today.
Palestina here is the Philistines. Okay, we know that the Philistines
were, like, a main enemy of Israel
over the years, okay? So it's saying rejoice not
all Philistines, okay?
Because the rod of him that smelt thee is broken,
for out of the serpent's roots shall come forth a cockatrice,
and his fruit shall be a fiery flying serpent.
Okay, so let's understand what he's speaking about. In verse number 28, he mentioned that
King Ahaz died, okay? So during this time,
the Philistines are subject to
Israel. Okay, Israel had victory of the Philistines,
okay? But because King Ahaz died,
the Philistines are thinking, okay, is this our chance now?
Is this our chance to defeat Israel, or to defeat Judah,
all right? Is this our chance to come out of, you know, their
oppression, as it were, okay? And so that's why it's saying, look, don't rejoice.
Like, the Philistines, this is not
a time for you to have power and victory over Judah, okay?
Because out of the serpent's roots shall come forth a cockatrice, which is another serpent, which is King Hezekiah.
Okay, like, you're not going to, this is not your chance
to defeat Judah, okay? And then he says in verse number 30,
And the firstborn of the poor shall feed, and the needy shall lie down in
safety, and I will kill thy roots with famine,
and he shall slay thy remnants.
If you try to go up against Judah, you're going to be slain. You're going to be defeated.
So God's warning the Philistines not to rise themselves up
against Judah in this time. But they try, they do try,
okay? This is why, then we get to verse number 31.
Now, this coming from the north
as a smoke could be King Hezekiah.
Again, if you were to ask this from my opinion, this could be
Hezekiah, and you can read about this in 2 Kings 18.
But this also could be Babylon, because Babylon also
overran the Philistines when they grew their kingdom.
And many times in the Bible, when speaking of Babylon, it's speaking about the nation of the
north. And so the fact that it says here, for they shall come from the north a smoke,
it could be Babylon. But again, based on the previous verses,
this could also be Hezekiah, okay? You choose.
You read it, you let me know what you think, okay? Then verse number 32,
What shall one then answer the messengers of the nation, that the Lord
have founded, sorry, that the Lord have founded Zion, and the poor
of his people shall trust in it? So once
again, God is saying, look, my hand is upon Zion, which is Jerusalem, on Judah.
I'm protecting Judah. I've protected Judah from the Assyrians.
I'm going to bring back the people of Judah from captivity, from Babylon.
And you, Philistines, you think this is your chance? No. You try to go up against
these people, you're going to be destroyed as well, okay? So
in many ways, those last few verses from 29 to 32 are not really
related to Babylon directly, but the same idea is there.
God is showing that He wants His people to not be oppressed.
Okay? Again, many times in the Bible, God warns,
gives opportunities, chances, and the lesson that we want
to take out of this, brethren, is that God warns us in His word
about our lives, that we should be living lives that please God, that are holy,
okay? When we sin, it's very unlikely for you
to just be chastised by God immediately when you sin against the Lord.
He's long-suffering, He's merciful, He gives you chance and time and
time and time again. God does not want us to be under bondage of sin.
God does not want us to be oppressed by the world. You know, we have liberty
in Jesus Christ, and brethren, just the big lesson that
we can take out of this for us is that truly, the
devil wants to hurt us, he wants to accuse us, he wants to stop us
from serving the Lord, but brethren, if we just set our eyes on the Lord, and even when
we fail, just like we saw in verse number one, even if we're not
doing right, it says in verse number one, for the Lord will have mercy on Jacob,
and will yet choose Israel, and set them in their own land,
and the strangers, and look, that's speaking about all of us, shall be joined with them
and they shall cleave to the house of Jacob. And so brethren,
we have this wonderful opportunity when we do mess up,
when we do fail, when we do sin against the Lord, that we can go before our Lord and
confess our sins, and he's always going to forgive us.
He's so righteous, he's so forgiving, our Lord God is so loving, even when we spit in
his face and we sin against the Lord, he's so loving to forgive us, and
we need to remember that God gives us time. He gave the people of Judah
time. He warned the people of Judah. He told them about the powers,
the oppression that would come from these other nations, but every time they would
turn their heart to God, they would pray, they would seek his face, the Lord would deliver
his people. And brethren, I don't know what kind of oppression and difficulty you might be going through
today in your life, what kind of persecution and troubles and conflicts
and what sins might be, you know, have power in your life and you're struggling to
overcome that sin. Please, always have your face toward God.
Please have your heart always toward him. Like, don't get to the point
that I've seen in my life so many times, Christians get so discouraged,
so, I failed once again, and then they're far from the Lord, because they're
so ashamed to go before God and walk with him once again.
Brethren, look, our Lord is so merciful, he's so forgiving, like I said.
And if God is able to, even King Nebuchadnezzar gets saved.
You can look at this in another time. But even a wicked king, the king of Babylon,
where they're worshipping false gods and of course
Satan has given Babylon some element of power and control as well, even a king
like Nebuchadnezzar can get saved. Boy, the fact that we're saved, and
we're children of God, and God promises us that we're going to rule and reign with Christ
for a thousand years, doesn't that just encourage and motivate you to always be walking
in the Lord? Like, not only has he saved us, he has such a great future ahead
for us. And brethren, look, let's not blow our chance. Like, this is the life
that he's given us. Like, this is the life where we can serve him and
earn rewards. This is the life that God has given us to lay up treasures in heaven.
We are part of a kingdom. You know, the kingdom of Jesus Christ.
We came to that kingdom the moment we got saved. So, you know, let's appreciate
him. And once again, you know, when you're far from the Lord, look upon him.
He wants to forgive you. He wants to walk with you. And we just serve
such a wonderful, merciful God. And I just praise God that he's going to wipe out
these wicked kings and these wicked nations. And what an exciting time to live with
Jesus Christ in that thousand years. Okay, let's pray.