Isaiah 14 - Lucifer

We are surrounded by the most amazing technology, aren’t we? Imagine
trying to explain to someone just 30 years ago what a “cell” phone is …
or explain the “internet.” Technology is changing so quickly that it’s nearly
impossible to keep up with it. Now the rage is 5G … I couldn’t tell you the
difference between 4G and 5G because I have no idea what the
difference is between 3G and 4G is … I don’t even know what the “G”
stands for, to be honest. We’ve gone from floppy discs to hard drives to
the “cloud” … from “kilo” bytes to “mega” bytes to “giga” bytes and “tera”
bytes.
Now it seems like the computer or the internet is able to read or
anticipate your thoughts. I start to type a sentence in an e-mail and
before I’ve typed two words it’s finishing the sentence for me. The same
thing happens when I start typing a search on the internet. I start typing
“hurricane” and it immediately asks me if I’m looking for the latest
information on Hurricane Ida … and it’s right about 85% of the time.
What’s a little bit creepy to me is how it … whatever “it” is … keeps track
of my inquiries and selections and then makes recommendations. “Hey,
Paul, you like this movie, we think that you might want to watch this
movie or these movies?” YouTube does that … and sometimes they’ll put
up a little teaser. “Hey, Paul, you want to see who wins in a fight between
a lion and hippo?” They got me with that one.
I wish I hadn’t watched it for two reasons. One, it was pretty brutal. Lions
are pretty tough but the hippo in the video just decimated that poor lion. I
felt guilty for watching it. I don’t like to watch anything die … and I
especially don’t consider it to be “entertainment.”
I wish I hadn’t watched it for another reason. Because I watched it,
YouTube began flooding me with more videos of wild animals attacking
other wild animals … the combination was staggering. “Jaguar attacks
crocodile” … “Tiger attacks python” … “Python attacks tiger and then a
lion, a water buffalo, a crocodile, and another python.” If you’re interested
in that kind of thing, they have tons videos of crocodiles attacking every
creature you can think of. They’ve got videos of octopi attacking sharks
… bears attacking mountain lions … Baboons attacking lions … and
hippos attacking [pause] … you guessed it … crocodiles.
The outcome of these “encounters” can be quite surprising. Sometimes
the predator wins … and sometimes the prey wins. As I said, it’s usually
pretty graphic stuff. I only watched that one video of the hippo and the
lion and they finally stopped sending more of them after about six or
seven months … I don’t remember exactly when they stopped … I’m just
glad that they stopped … well, almost stopped. Every now and then
they’ll try to tempt me something like a “chicken versus a rhino” video or
a “duck versus a crocodile” video but I don’t take the “click bait” as they
call it.
There was … or still is … I don’t know if it’s still on the air or not … a sort
of human version of this show called “Deadliest Warrior.” The purpose of
the show is … or was … to scientifically discover who would win if they
ever faced each other in combat: A Roman foot soldier versus a Viking
warrior … a Japanese Shogun warrior versus a medieval knight … a
ninja versus a cowboy. It turns out that no matter how good you are with
Chinese throwing stars, a bow and arrow, or num-chucks … a Colt. .45
wins every time.
Lions, bears, hippos, crocodiles, Roman soldiers, or ninjas … as one
king in the Bible found out … nothing on this earth is a match for “El
Elyon” … “The Most High God.”
“El Elyon” is probably not a name that many of you are familiar with but
… like all the other names that we’ve studied so far … it is another one of
those interesting and unique names for God. You should recognize the
first name or word … “El” … the generic Hebrew word or name for “God.”
“Elyon” is a qualifying noun that means “high.” It comes from the Hebrew
verb “alah” … which means “to ascend” or “mount up.”
This is the “follow me and pay close attention” part of my sermon. “El
Alah” means “God Ascending” but when you turn “alah” from a verb into a
noun … “elyon” … it means “God Most High” … “God Supreme.” God is
not “alah” … “ascending” up the hierarchy of gods … He is the top God.
There are no other gods above Him. He is the one that the other gods
aspire to … who wish to rise above. The other gods may try to “alah” …
to “ascend”… to His height but there is no other god where He is and
there is no other god higher than Him. “El Elyon” … “The God Most High”
… the supreme God … the one that all the other gods are trying to
surpass but cannot because He is so high above all the other gods that
they have no hope of ever getting close to reaching Him … let alone over
take him and surpass Him.
So far it sounds like the name “El Elyon” is suggesting that there is some
kind of hierarchy of other gods out there. We know that there is not … but
you have to keep in mind when this name … El Elyon … first appeared.
Besides Judaism, all the other religions around the Middle East were
pagan. Judaism alone was unique in its belief that there was only one
God … but it was a concept that was new and difficult for a people with a
pagan background to grasp. When God challenged the gods of the
Egyptians, He knew that it would be no contest because there were no
Egyptian gods … no Ra … no Isis. God’s purpose was two-fold … to
show the Egyptians the power of the One True God of Israel and, at the
same time, to show the children of Israel that their God, Yahweh, is their
God … that Adonai, the Lord, is One!
When the prophet Elijah went to Mt. Carmel and challenged the priests of
Ba’al, Elijah could chide Ba’al without fear of retaliation because there
was no Ba’al … never has been … never will be. God’s victory over Ba’al
was assured from the start … but again, Jezebel, the followers of Ba’al,
and the children of Yahweh needed to be reminded of the reality and the
power of “El Elyon” … the One True God.
This is the year 2022, am I right? America! One nation, under God … in
God we trust, amen? Everyone knows that God is “El Elyon” … God
Most High … God Supreme … because there are no other gods, right?
Oh, if you believe that, you are oh so wrong, my sisters and brothers.
You don’t believe that God is “El Elyon” if you’re a wiccan. Wiccanism is
the modern or updated version of witchcraft … actually a mixture of
witchcraft, paganism, and deism. They believe that “the spirit of the One,
Goddess and God, exists in all things … in trees, rain, flowers, the sea,
and in each other and all of nature’s creatures.” This from their official
website. You heard what I just said, didn’t you … they have an official
website. On their “official” website they state the following: “We
acknowledge the cycles of nature, the lunar phases and the seasons to
celebrate our spirituality and to worship the divine.” Wiccanism, they say,
is “a belief system that allows for the witch to work with” … listen very
closely … “it is a belief system that allows the witch to work with … not in
supplication to … deities with the intent of living in harmony and
achieving balance with all things.” Did you catch it? They work “with” …
not in “supplication to” … deities. In conjunction with … not in
supplication with their deities … making them co-equals with their deities
… which means that their deities either aren’t any better than mere
morals or that witches have powers equal to their deities … or that the
goal of wiccanism is to learn how to become a co-partner with their gods
… either their gods are not “elyon” most high or wiccans are “elyon” most
high.
Millions of people around the world practice santeria. Most of you
probably don’t know anything about santeria but it was developed as a
clever way for African slaves in Cuba and the Caribbean to practice their
pagan religion while practicing Catholicism at the same time. Instead of
calling one of their African gods “Bablú Ayé,” who is associated with
disease, they call him … or it … “St. Lazarus.” The priest is happy that
they have a statute of St. Lazarus enshrined on a table in the corner of
their house but, in reality, it is both St. Lazarus and Bablu Aye. By the
way, if the name “Bablu” sounds familiar, Ricky Ricardo … you know …
Lucille Ball’s husband on the Lucy Show … was from Cuba and the song
that he made popular, “Babalu,” is, in fact, a song about the santeria god
“Bablu Aye.”
This is a very cursory explanation of santeria. Basically, santeria is a
polytheistic religion practiced fairly widely in Latino countries and in
Latino communities, like Miami, in the United States. Their gods are
called “orishas.” According to some of the websites that I read, there are
hundreds of “orishas” or gods in Africa but within santeria, there are only
seven main orishas. Hear that? There are only seven “main” gods … with
many, many lesser gods.
According to their official North American website, “each orisha has its
own distinct personality and a wide range of strengths, weaknesses, and
interest.” Hummm … a god with weaknesses. They go on to say in their
website that “in many ways, understanding an orisha is like
understanding another human being.” So, within the complex hierarchy of
santerian gods, there are some gods who are higher or stronger than
others and some that are lesser or weaker. To a santerian, the divine
creator “Olodumare,” would literally be “El Elyon” … the God Most High
… of the hundreds of santerian gods who are “Elohim Alah” … or “gods
ascending” as they try to over-taken each other and rise in the hierarchy
of santerian gods. According to Encyclopedia Britannica, “It is likely that
Orisha traditions will continue to grow and be recognized as one of the
principal African contributions to world culture” (https://
www.britannica.com/topic/Santeria).
Satan … one of God’s angels … aspired to be “Elyon” … the “Most High.”
Listen to what God said about Satan in Isaiah 14:12-14: “How you have
fallen from Heaven, O Star of the Morning, Son of the Dawn! You have
been cast down to earth, you who weakened the nations. But you said in
your heart, ‘I will ascend’ … alah … ‘to heaven; I will raise my throne
above the stars of God, and I will sit on the Mount of Assembly in the
recesses of the North. I will ascend” … ‘alah’ … above the heights of the
clouds; I will make myself like ‘Elyon’ … the Most High.’”
TRAITS
1. A Liar
You are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father you will do.
He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth,
because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks of his
own: for he is a liar, and the father of it. John 8:44
He who commits sin is of the devil; for the devil sinned from the
beginning. For this purpose, the Son of God was revealed, that he might
destroy the works of the devil. 1 John 3:8
In this the children of God are revealed, and the children of the devil:
whoever does not righteousness is not of God, neither he who does not
love his brother. 1 John 3:10
2. A Thief
The thief comes only to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. John 10:10
3. Quotes God’s Word
While tempting Jesus, the devil quoted scripture.
The devil brought him (Jesus) to Jerusalem, and set him on a pinnacle of
the temple, and said to him, If you are the Son of God, cast yourself
down from here: For it is written, He shall give his angels charge over
you, to keep you: And in their hands, they shall bear you up, lest at any
time you dash your foot against a stone. Luke 4:9-11 (also Matthew
4:5-6)
How Satan Works
1. Deceives Us
But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his
subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in
Christ. 2 Corinthians 11:3
2. Advantage and Devices
When writing to the Corinthians about the need to forgive others, Paul
wrote, “Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant
of his devices.” 2 Corinthians 2:11
3. Tempts You
Paul wrote to couples, “Don’t cheat one another, except it be with
consent for a time, that you may give yourselves to fasting and prayer;
and come together again, so that Satan does not tempt you for your
incontinency.” 1 Corinthian 7:5
Paul meant “Do not deprive one another sexually — except when you
agree for a time, to devote yourselves to prayer. Then come together
again; otherwise, Satan may tempt you because of your lack of selfcontrol.” (HCSB)
4. Transforms
For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves
into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel; for Satan himself is
transformed into an angel of light. 2 Corinthians 1:11-12
5. The Snare of the Devil
a. Pride
Paul wrote: Not a novice, lest being lifted up with pride he fall into the
condemnation of the devil. Moreover he must have a good report of them
which are outside the faith; lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the
devil. 1 Timothy 3:6-7
b. Commits sin
He that commits sin is of the devil; for the devil sinned from the
beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he
might destroy the works of the devil. …In this the children of God are
manifest, and the children of the devil: whoever does not righteousness
is not of God, neither he that loves not his brother.
6. Accuser of Our Brethren.
In Revelation 12:10, Satan is called “the accuser of our brethren.”