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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Restoration 2026: If God is Love...

Aron Crews

01 If God is Love... Why Suffering?

02 If God is Love... Why Satan?

A part 2 of the why suffering presentations.

Revelation 12 verse 7, war broke out in heaven.

Michael and his angels fought with the dragon and the dragon and his angels fought, but they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer." So here's this cosmic conflict.

Then we read that the great dragon was cast out of heaven, that, and then he's given 3 titles, 3 names, that serpent of old called the devil and Satan who deceives the whole world.

These 3 titles of the enemy will help us navigate through to further see what the nature of this conflict is all about.

The word Satan, the name Satan, I said it earlier this afternoon, means what?

It means enemy, enemy, adversary, or accuser.

The word devil, who here knows what the word devil means?

So if you hear 1 of your friends gossiping, say, cut it out, you little devil, Right?

Because what they're doing is the description of the name devil.

And then, Serpent of Old, what could this be a reference to?

This is, yes, a reference back to the Guard of Eden, where we read about in Genesis chapter 3, that the serpent led Eve into rebellion against God.

So these are 3 names that we're gonna follow to unpack who this character is.

Because my wife is a psychologist, we're gonna take a deep dive into the psychology of Satan, the mind of Satan.

In Isaiah chapter 14 we read about this fallen angel, how you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning.

And then we get an insight into his thinking, into his mind.

We read, for you have said in your heart, right?

This is the seed of the mind, I will ascend into heaven.

I will exalt my throne above the stars of God.

I will also sit on the mountain of the congregation on the farthest sides of the north.

I will ascend above the heights of the clouds.

Notice 5 times I will, I will, I will, I will, I will.

Clearly this is an exercise of Lucifer's free will that he was given because God is love and love requires freedom.

And notice what direction Lucifer's will is seeking to take him.

If you look at all these highlighted words here, these are all words which indicate an upward trajectory.

Ascend, heaven, exult, above, stars, farthest sides, north, ascend, heights, clouds, most high.

Here we have the mind, the mindset of Lucifer was to lift himself above all, including the Most High God Himself, seeking to put His, you see, where is it?

His throne, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God.

And he wants to put his government above God's government.

Ezekiel 28, the parallel passage, we read similarly, your heart was lifted up because of your beauty.

You corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor." Lucifer, we read earlier this afternoon, that he was 1 of the 2 covering cherubs there closest in proximity to the throne of God, right?

The Ark of the Covenant, the model for the heavenly throne of God.

And he began to feel that he and his position, that he was not good enough, that his position was not high enough, and that he wanted to take and have, not the character, but the position, the throne of God himself.

And he began to covet and envy that position.

I sometimes say that sin is a four-letter word and that is self.

The essence of sin and evil is ultimately putting yourself above others.

As Satan was seeking to go up, up, up, up, up, it was at the expense of putting others down.

And frankly, this is the way in which the world operates, right?

Put others down so that you can use them as a ladder to put yourself on top.

We read, you were perfect in your ways from the day you were created till iniquity was found in you.

This word here, iniquity, has more to do with a perverted, distorted way of thinking.

There's 3 primary words for evil in the Bible.

There's transgression, which is a willful rebellion.

Then there's iniquity, which is a distorted way of thinking, which leads to all of the others, right?

So something began to happen inside of his mind as he was beginning to think of himself as less than and needing, wanting to put himself above above others, even God.

We then read, it was by the abundance of your trading that you became filled with violence within and you sinned.

So here there was an inward violence that was filling the heart of Lucifer.

Jesus comments on this in John chapter 8 speaking to the religious leaders that were seeking to kill him because they were envious of him.

He says to them, you are of your father, the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do.

And you may have read the Bible and been like scratching your head.

Well, there was no murder in heaven, right?

Like, yeah, Jesus died, but that was a lot later.

Here's the thing we need to understand about sin.

Thou shalt not murder, sixth commandment.

Not all sin is murder, but all sin is murderous in its intent.

Because the essence of sin is selfishness, and self says, I want that thing.

And if you stand between me and what I want, I put myself above you.

And ultimately, if you need to get, you know, removed, killed, sin is willing to do that.

So maybe Lucifer right out of the gate wasn't thinking, like, I want to kill God, but he wanted his position.

And how do you get rid, or how do you get the position of God with God still being on the throne?

But we want to focus now, next, on this interesting word where we read that it was by the abundance of his trading, by the abundance of your trading, you became filled with violence within and you sinned, then a few verses later, by the iniquity of your trading.

Now, I guess this is a medical school, so I can't ask how many of you are business majors, right?

Going into trading or whatever, but what here was Satan trading, right?

So what's interesting is the Hebrew word here used for trading is Rekula.

And it's related to another word in Hebrew that's translated in Ezekiel.

I'm sorry, that should say Ezekiel 20 or 22, I believe.

20 or 22 verse 9, in you are men who what slander to cause bloodshed and again in Leviticus 19 verse 16 you shall not go about as a tailbearer among your people.

So in other words what Lucifer was Lucifer was trading in heaven were, was gossip, was slander, were lies about who God was and is.

Coming back to what Jesus said, we read the first half, picking up midway through, he was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him.

When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources for he is a liar and the father of it.

This is a way that Jesus is communicating that Lucifer, Satan, invented lies.

Like he created before that point in the universe's history, no 1 had ever said anything that was not true.

And Lucifer begins going around selling lies, selling ideas.

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Series

Restoration 2026: If God is Love...

02 If God is Love... Why Satan?

Transcript

Parent Series

Sponsor

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Sound Doctrine