In this sermon, the preacher discusses the fall of Lucifer and the contrasting path taken by Jesus. He highlights how Lucifer's ambition and pride led to his downfall, as described in Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28. The preacher emphasizes that while Lucifer sought to exalt himself, Jesus humbled himself and became a servant, even unto death on the cross. The sermon also mentions the bustling activity and diverse personalities of the angelic beings in heaven.

Okay, the next section of Isaiah we're going to address will be chapters 13 to 23. Don't worry, we're not going to go over all those chapters. Let me just tell you in a nutshell what they are. They are a series of denunciatory messages that Isaiah gave to the surrounding nations of Israel and Judah. So, you know, all the different nations and also nations extended that would have dealings with God's people at one time or another are included in that. And it actually culminates in Isaiah's apocalypse, which is what we're going to deal with next week. Isaiah 24 to 27 is his apocalyptic message. He begins this section by addressing Babylon. Now, keep in mind, this is 150 years before Babylon becomes a world power. They're just a kind of a second rate country way over in Mesopotamia right now in Isaiah's time, Syria is the world power, the dominant power. And you would think that if he was going to address the dominant power, that that would be the nation he addresses. But no, it begins with Babylon in chapter 13 and then in chapter 14, the king of Babylon. Now, I think that that is exactly right, because Babylon all the way through scripture represents the anti-Christian, anti-God forces of this world. And of course, the king of Babylon is a moniker for Satan himself. He is the God of this world. He is the king of all the anti-God forces in this world. So, it's only right that he would address them first. Now, let's give them just a sight of the situation. You've got this tiny little country, Judah. Really, the northern tribes of Israel have already completely given over to paganism by this point. They will never recover. They are, within a few years, are going to be carted away up to Assyria. They're gone. They are just gone spiritually. So, really, God's people are confined to two tribes, Judah and Benjamin. So, this tiny little speck of a country surrounded by all these different pagan people groups, Ammonites, the Moabites, the Edomites, etc. What's the picture here? This little nation, Israel, that began as nothing more than one family that went down to Egypt and came back with all their descendants. That is the nation of Israel. That's it. And actually, when you think about it, only one-fifth of them, or one-sixth of them, I should say, two tribes of them is all that's left. But the Jewish people are the people that were entrusted with the oracles of God. That is enormous in God's economy. It may not be much in the world's economy. They're just a nothing little people. But in God's economy, it's enormous. The first three descendants of the Jewish people were Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And all three of them had revelations of God. God appeared to them. Or, I should say, Jesus Christ appeared to them in a theophany. And that established something in this line of people, the Semitic tribe that became Judah. So that tiny nation is very significant from a spiritual standpoint. Now, the countries around them are totally given over to demon worship. And they are sacrificing their children. They're given over to all kinds of perversions. In fact, it's so bad that when God sends His people in to destroy them, even the children and the animals have to be destroyed. They're so given over to the filth of the fertility cults. So that is what's surrounding God's people. You have this tiny nation, and it's the same thing today, isn't it, really? You've got Israel over there, and all the Arab countries that hate Israel want to drive them into the sea, was Arafat's great statement. Why is it that way? It's because Satan, who is the being behind these nations, hates God's people, hates the Jewish people because of what they represent. All right, so it's right that this whole thing begins with Babylon and then the king of Babylon, which is, of course, Lucifer. And I want to say also that it's appropriate that these two are judged together, Babylon and its king, because really, as goes one, so goes the other. So intricately connected is Babylon with its king, its ruling spirit, that one can't survive without the other. It's almost like the world as we know it, the spirit of the world, if you will, or Babylon is the extension of the personality of Satan. It's a personification of who Satan is, and it works itself out in the millions and billions of people in the world. All right, now I was going to make this message revolve around Lucifer's four falls, and I decided to go a different route, and I think will be better. But let me go over them real quickly with you. But the first fall is when he was thrown from heaven to the atmosphere of earth, and we'll see that in Ezekiel 28, verses 16 and 17, and also Jesus refers to it in Luke 10, 18. And the second fall is he's thrown from the atmosphere of earth down to the ground, and that's covered in Revelation 12, and also it's mentioned in Isaiah 14, 12. The third fall is at the end of time, as we know it, is when he's thrown into the bottomless pit or the abyss, and that's covered in Revelation chapter 20, the first three verses, and also Isaiah 14, 9 through 11, and it's also mentioned in Isaiah 24, verses 21 and 22, and Jude 6. Again, all this is in the And the fourth fall, after the millennial period, whatever length that is, assuming it's a thousand years, then after he's allowed to come out for a while and tempt the nations, then he is thrown into the lake of fire, and that's referred to in Revelation 20, verse 10. All right, let's go over Isaiah, and what I'm going to do is I'm going to go over Isaiah 14, this section of Scripture. I'm going to have to get through this quickly to do this in an hour, and then I want to go over Ezekiel 28, which also is another site of the same thing, and they really complement each other. You see what Isaiah saw, what the Lord showed him in a vision, and then you see what the Lord showed Ezekiel regarding the same thing that happened. It really begins in verse 4. The Lord tells him to take up this taunt against the king of Babylon, and you know, I just want to stop here and say that regardless of anything said in this chapter, even if there wasn't anything that you could say, that definitely is speaking about Lucifer, even if there wasn't anything like that, this section of Scripture could still be at least indirectly applied to Satan because he is the king of Babylon, and because Babylon represents the anti-God forces of this world. Throughout Scripture, it's that way. So even if there was no allusions to Lucifer, which there are, you know, we have here another example of the double reference. It is talking about the king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, but it's also extended to Satan, and it kind of goes, shifts back and forth as who's being talked about most in different passages. All right, let's look at verse 9. We'll start with that. Sheol from beneath is excited over you to meet you when you come. Now this is referring to, just so you know, this is referring to when he is thrown into the bottomless pit, the third fall, and we'll maybe touch on that a little bit more later, but that's what's being referred to here. Sheol from beneath is excited over you to meet you when you come. It arouses for you the spirits of the dead, all the leaders of the earth. It raises all the kings of the nations from their thrones. This is the typical way the NAS translates things. It's probably accurate to the original language, but it's bland. Let me give it to you in a couple of other translations that are a little more colorful. The Living Bible says it this way, the denizens of hell crowd to meet you as you enter their domain. World leaders and earth's mightiest kings, long dead, are there to see you. And then the New American Bible says it this way, the netherworld below is all astir preparing for your coming. It awakens the shades to greet you. So we see something happening here. When Lucifer is thrown into the abyss, there is a huge uproar amongst all these human inhabitants. They can't believe it. Well, in fact, look here at verse 10, they will all respond and say to you, even you have been made weak as we, you have become like us. In other words, they're looking at him and this is the God of this world, this weak thing. You're nothing but a creature like us. You're nothing great. You know, that's what they're saying when they see him thrown into the abyss. Verse 11, your pump and the music of your harps have been brought down to shield. Maggots are spread out as your bed beneath you and worms are your covering. And again, let me just get a first part of that verse with a couple other translations. The Jerusalem Bible says your magnificence has been flung down to shield with the music of your harps. The net Bible says it this way. Your splendor has been brought down to shield as well as the sound of your stringed instruments. It seems as though one of the functions of Lucifer when he was in heaven was to be heavily involved in leading of the worship. I mean, when you go through the book of Revelation, you can't help but see all the worship that's going on. It astounded me when I did that study back in 93. And I thought when I went through that, that it was going to be all judgment and all about the Antichrist. And it amazed me how much is taken up with the worship of God all the way through the book of Revelation. It's just something that goes on all the time. And I believe that Satan, well, Lucifer at that point was very involved in that. And, you know, he used different instruments. In fact, in the Ezekiel passage, at least in the King James, it refers to timbrels and pipes, you know, something like an organ, I suppose. But anyway, he was heavily involved in it. If you've ever seen that video series called Hell's Bells, they sold their soul for rock and roll. Man, if I ever doubted the existence of Satan, I sure didn't doubt it after watching that thing. You see how powerful and how demonic music can be. So I don't know exactly what his job was or how he was involved with it, but it seems as though it was part of what he did in heaven. You know, this thing about stringed instruments, it's just kind of a funny side note. A couple of weeks ago, I was listening to a Leonard Ravenhill message, and he made the comment that guitars were nothing but backslidden harps. Now, I don't know if that's true or not, but I mentioned it to Jeff. He didn't appreciate that much. And he ran to his Bible and got into Psalms and said, look, look, it says here, praise the Lord with stringed instruments. And I said, okay, all right. All right, moving on, verse 12, how you have fallen from heaven, O star of the morning, son of the dawn. Literally, that means the bright one. And you know, it's interesting too, when you see later on in the New Testament, Paul mentions, don't be surprised when Satan comes as what? An angel of light. Now it's instead of reflecting the glory of God, which is what the angels and the cherubim do. Now he's got a false light of his own. That's how he comes as an angel of light now. But anyway, this was also part of what he was like in heaven. O star of the morning, son of the dawn, you have been cut down to earth. You who have weakened the nations. All right. So we see the first two falls touched on here. How you have fallen from heaven is the first fall when he was driven out of heaven. And then here we see him in the second fall, when he's cut down to the earth. Verse 13, but you said in your heart, now let me just stop there for a second because this was apparently one of his first wayward thoughts. And we are going to look into what happened to him here in a few minutes. But let's go through these. I will ascend to heaven. Now he already was probably part of a member of the council of the holy ones referred to in Psalm 89, no doubt. And so, and he also had access to the very throne room of God is one of the cherubim, but that isn't good enough for him. Now he's aspiring to have something more. I will ascend to heaven. He says, in other words, he wants to live in the holy of holies. He wants to be in that kind of an exalted position. I will raise my throne above the stars of God. I'm pretty sure that Lucifer had any vast army of angelic beings under his command. I don't know if it was a third of them because a third of the angels followed him into rebellion, but I don't know if that's how many were under his charge or not, but definitely he had a lot of angels under him, but that wasn't good enough. He wanted to rule over all of them. I will sit on the Mount of assembly in the recesses of the North. Again, he's looking to be the center of attention and receive the glory due to God alone. I will ascend above the heights. I will continue to rise even in heaven until all see me in my bright shining glory. That's what he's saying. He just wants to be the center, the exalted one. I will be like the most high. One translation says, I will scale the cloud banks and rival the most high. You know, that's what he started thinking like. That's where his mind took him. All right, but I want to continue on. Well, let's just look at verse 15 here to see the outcome of it. Nevertheless, you will be thrust down to Sheol to the recesses of the pit. That's where that thinking will take you. All right, why don't you flip over to Ezekiel 28 and let's go through these verses. I'll start with verse 11. Again, the word of the Lord came to me saying, son of man, take up a lamentation over the king of Tyre. Now I want to just allude to something because in verse two, he says, the Lord says, son of man, say to the leader of Tyre, thus says the Lord God. And the next, however many verses there up to verse 10 definitely refers to an actual man. And then in verse 11, it starts up again, but now it's no longer the leader of Tyre, but the king of Tyre. Apparently what's this is all about. The difference in these words is he's now going to address the real power behind the throne of that northern kingdom of Tyre and Sidon. And so, you know, he's, he's been dealing with the king, the man, and now all of a sudden he starts to deal with the principality Lucifer behind that kingdom. All right. In verse 12, son of man, take up a lamentation over the king of Tyre and say to him, thus says the Lord God, you had the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. Now, obviously that can't be said about any man who's ever lived other than Jesus. Uh, but it's interesting that he says that about Lucifer. Let me read it in a couple other translations. New living translation says you were the model of perfection, full of wisdom and exquisite in beauty. The new English Bible full of wisdom. You were an altogether beautiful, the Moffat. You were the very father of wisdom, the perfection of beauty. That's what he was like when he was in heaven. And I think we forget that we were so accustomed to thinking of Lucifer as being this foul thing that he is now that we forget that there was a time when he was perfect, absolutely flawless. Is there anyone here that could claim that? Not me, but he was. He was flawless. Verse 13, you were in Eden. I don't know if that means he was in paradise on earth before Adam and Eve were created, or is this just some kind of reference to some region in the realms of heaven? I don't know. I don't know exactly what that means. You were in Eden, the garden of God. Every precious stone was your covering. The ruby, the topaz, and the diamond, the barrel, the onyx, and the jasper, the lapis lazuli, the turquoise, and the emerald, and the gold, the workmanship of your settings and sockets was in you on the day that you were created. They were prepared. Wow, that's amazing. He was one of the most spectacular beings God created. When he started to create the angelic host, Lucifer was right at the top. He was one of the most astounding creatures God ever created. Verse 14, you were the anointed cherub who covers, and I placed you there. You were on the holy mountain of God. You walked in the midst of the stones of fire. The anointed cherub who covers. Boy, that's a truckload of information there. The anointed cherub who covers. Now, the cherubim is a class of some kind of super angels that have access to the throne of God. We know that because the references all throughout Scripture, you see it over and over again. For instance, one of the phrases that are repeated over and over is the phrase, God who is enthroned above the cherubim. There's some 70 direct references to the cherubim. Cherubim is just plural for cherub. You understand that, right? But most of those references are found in Ezekiel chapter 1 and Ezekiel chapter 10. It's very fascinating reading those chapters. They really are describing the same thing again from different sites of it. He was given two different visions of the throne room of God. And in those revelations, he calls them living beings. It's definitely a direct connection to the living creatures in Revelation 4. So Revelation 4 is John's perspective of the same thing that Ezekiel saw. Now in Isaiah 6, which we talked about a few messages ago, Isaiah saw the throne room of God and he saw seraphim. It's a different name. I don't know if it's the same beings or not. It very well could be. That word means the burning ones. I don't know if it's the same. My guess is it is that he also saw the same sight. And the Lord calls him the anointed cherub. So here he is anointed by God. And the Lord says, I placed you there. I placed you there. It reminds me of what the Lord said through Samuel to King Saul. He said, is it not true when you were little in your own eyes, you were made the head of the tribes of Israel and the Lord anointed you King over Israel. And Lucifer was, you know, he began humble. He was humble. He had no thoughts of himself when he was created. And for however long, I don't know how long do you, I don't thousands of years, maybe who knows how long bustling activity was going on in the vast realm of heaven before this great insurrection occurred. Who knows how long it went on, but he was humble little in his own eyes for however long that was. He says that he is the anointed cherub who covers. And also that same words used in verse 16 calls him the covering cherub. The literal meaning is to cover something, but it can be extended to mean to guard something or to protect something. So some translations, instead of saying that he's the cherub who covers, call him the guardian cherub. I think the NIV calls him the guardian cherub and that's right too. That's a perfectly correct translation because it does mean that it means to guard and to protect in some situations. In fact, in Psalm 91, 4, it's talking about the Lord. This word is used. He will cover you with his pinions and under his wings, you may seek refuge. That's a direct allusion to protection, God's protection of his people. Well, what was he covering or protecting? I don't know. One thing that's interesting to me, and this is probably a stretch, but I just want to mention it, is the first reference to the cherubim is in the Garden of Eden in Genesis 3. Remember Adam and Eve were cast out when they sinned. And what was placed at the entrance of Eden to keep them from coming back in to the tree of life? Two cherubim. And it says that he was in the Garden of Eden. Maybe that was his position before he fell. I don't know. But two cherubim were placed there to keep man from re-entering the Garden of Eden. Some commentators think that he was protecting God's holiness. I could see that, I guess, but I don't understand it really. But they very well may be right. All right, let's continue on. Verse 16, By the abundance of your trade, you were internally filled with violence, and you sinned. Therefore I have cast you as profane from the mountain of God, and I have destroyed you, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire. This is again referring to that first fall. And this is what Jesus was referring to when he said he saw Satan fall from heaven like lightning. It's the same reference, you know, Luke 10.18. All right, but let's keep going. We'll get back to some of this here in a minute. Verse 17, Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty. You corrupted your wisdom by reason of your splendor. I cast you to the ground. That's that second fall. I put you before kings that they may see you. By the multitude of your iniquities, the multitude of your iniquities, in the unrighteousness of your trade, you profaned your sanctuaries. Therefore I have brought fire from the midst of you. It has consumed you, and I have turned you to ashes on the earth in the eyes of all who see you. Two phrases that stand out in these two verses is what happened to him. You corrupted your wisdom, and you profaned your sanctuaries. Now I understand wisdom becoming corrupted. That I can understand. You know, it's like someone who has really walked with the Lord and backslides, and he still retains the framework, if I could put it that way, of the knowledge of God, although he's lost the reality of God. He still has the framework of that knowledge, but it's been so corrupted and twisted by sin and perverted into something it's not. That's what I would imagine corruption of wisdom would refer to. But what does this mean? He profaned his sanctuaries. Lucifer had sanctuaries in heaven? I don't know. Maybe he must have. His sanctuaries. So again, I don't know what that means, but what I will say is I look this term up, profane, and it's used in connection with God's sanctuary, man, probably at least a dozen times in the Old Testament. It's referred to in, you know, the books of the law, and then it's referred to in the prophets a number of times. And the Lord usually talks about when he uses that word profane, it's either his people profaned his name amongst the nations, or they profaned the Sabbath, or they profaned his sanctuary. That's how it's typically used. So I'm assuming that that's what is meant here, that Lucifer, by rebelling against God brought dishonor and something very corrupt into God's kingdom. I think that would be right. All right. In verse 19, all who know you among the peoples are appalled at you. You have become terrified and you will cease to be forever. So here is the king of terrors who ends up as a frightened little coward who Michael grabs by the nap of his neck and flings him into hell. That's the end of Lucifer, and that is coming. Praise the Lord. All right. Now, let me just take a few minutes and talk about what it was like for Lucifer in heaven. What in the world went wrong? You know, what happened? Let me just say, first of all, that it's very clear that there was a probationary period, just like man's time on earth in the temporal zone is a probationary period. You and I are living in probation right now. We are going to decide what we are going to do with our lives. Are we going to submit ourselves to the authority of God in our lives, or are we going to go into self-will and rebellion to that authority like the rest of mankind? That's the big question about our lives. That's what we're under probation to find out. And so there was a period of probation for the angels as well. And this thing happened inside of Lucifer, and it spread. Well, let's just look at that. Verse 15, it says that he was blameless. This is a word that is used to describe some of the godliest men in the Bible, blameless. It's referring to the innocence of a child. It's not exactly the same as righteousness, which is God's imputed righteousness, something outside of yourself. Blameless is more of kind of a negative term, if I could put it that way. It's saying you are without blame. You know what I mean? There was nothing in him in the way he lived, talked, interacted with others. There was nothing wrong with him. He was perfect. In all that period of time, however long that period of time was, Lucifer was perfect. But something happened. It says in the NAS that unrighteousness was found in him. The NAB says it this way, until your iniquity came to light. Now, both of those, you know, they're close, but I don't feel like they really tell the whole truth of it. Because the inference there is that there was unrighteousness in him when he was created. And I don't believe that. He was created perfect by God. But he had the capacity, because of this probationary period, he had the capacity to do wrong. He could choose to do wrong, but there was nothing in him that he was doing wrong, if that makes sense. I want to just change it. Now, this is just, what do I know? But this is my rendition of it. Until rebellion sprouted and emerged from your heart. I think that's how I would say it. Until that seed of rebellion sprouted, came forth, a thought emerged from inside him, I can do my own will. I don't have to obey God's will. You know, before this occurred, there was only one will in heaven. It was God's will. And every living being lived in harmony to that will. But now when this happened, now there's two wills. And soon there will be many wills. And that will spread into mankind eventually, that rebellion and self-will. Well, anyway, this was the birth of the kingdom of darkness right here. Once that thought emerged forth, something different happened. Something very evil started to come forth within God's pure, pristine kingdom. Now, why did it happen? I'm going to just touch on four things real quick. Ezekiel 28, 17, it says that his heart was lifted up because of his beauty. That's how the NAS says it. The Jerusalem Bible says, your heart has grown swollen with pride on account of your beauty. In other words, he's going through life and God is the great figure in the realms of heaven. And, you know, all the angels just lived their lives with a sight of him and an adoration of him, a reverence for him. In other words, their eyes are fixed on him and all that they do in life. And his was. But one day he looked down at himself and he realized, I'm a beautiful creature. I'm beautiful. Look at me. He compared himself to other angels. That's where that would come from, a comparison. In other words, instead of comparing himself to God, which he would have been a flea, he started looking around at the other angelic hosts around him and he was the super angel. Man, look at how beautiful I am. I am awesome. He says, I'm sure. And, you know, Paul kind of referred to this later in first Timothy three, six, when he mentions the devil's conceitedness. That's what it is, is being aware of your own beauty. The second is all of the recognition and fame that he was receiving in his position. He was anointed to be the covering cherub. He was probably a member of the council of holy ones. He may have been the worship leader of heaven, and he was certainly privy to the throne room of God. And he may have been over a vast army of angelic hosts. You know, he was famous. You have to stop and realize that heaven was a place. It is a place with bustling activity, millions, if not billions of these angelic beings, you know, vast armies or vast groups of angels who are workers doing different things, you know, and there's a whole group that do nothing but worship God and so on. So there's all of these beings. Well, they're personalities, they're individuals and they interact with each other and they have different giftings and abilities and types of personalities. They're not a bunch of Ottomans up there. They're not some kind of spiritual robots just going through the mechanics of doing whatever their function is. They're actual. I don't want to use the term people because that sounds too human, but they're individuals, personalities, beings. And he was one of the leaders out of the millions or billions. He was one of the leaders. And apparently it just went to his head. All right. Now, another possibility, this was suggested by one commentator. I don't know if it's true, but it wouldn't surprise me. He suggested that at least partly what went wrong was when Lucifer began to understand that God was going to create this other race of beings, human beings, and that they would be exalted above the angels in the grand scheme of things. At first they would be lower than the angels, but once it was all said and done, they would be above the angels. And that it was some kind of fear of losing his position as being the great one. And I could see that playing into his thinking. I don't know if that's true, but it's possible. And the fourth is definitely true. He became filled with ambition, selfish grasping ambition. And we already went through the five I wills in Isaiah 14, which really exposed how that attitude took over inside him. And can I just mention also that Philippians 2 is the diametric opposite path of the path that Satan took. He said, I will be this and that. I want this. I want that trying to exalt himself. And what did it say in verse 15? It said, nevertheless, you will be thrust down to shield to the recesses of the pit. But look at the path Jesus took who humbled himself in the form of a man or in the form of a servant, and even to the death on a cross. But God has exalted him, praise the Lord. All right, now let me just talk for a minute about the insurrection itself. Look at verse 16 and verse 18. There's a word there, trade, by the abundance of your trade. And then verse 18, the unrighteousness of your trade. This word, according to Wolvard of the Dallas Theological Seminary, comes from a verb that means to go about from one to another. And it came to mean kind of like a traveling merchant. And that's what that term means, trade. But really what it's describing is someone who just simply goes around and has interactions with many different people. And again, heaven is a vast empire. Lucifer is one of the great leaders in this empire who had interactions with who knows how many different angels. And I think that that probably played a part in that insurrection, that he was able to start whispering in the ears of different ones and setting a rebellion in motion. Now, of course, he thinks he's doing it in secret. I don't know how he could think that. He lived in the regions of God. How could he not know that God would instantly know what he was thinking and doing? I don't know. He was on the council of holy ones, I believe, which means, you know, that probably Michael, the archangel, Gabriel, Lucifer, others that we don't know about. And I thought about this, you know, I think about the senior staff here at Pure Life. You know, I don't mean to make some big comparison in that way, other than this, that each of those senior leaders, Tom has his realm of responsibility with people who report to him and work under him and so on. Brad has his, Rose has hers, Mike has his, Ed has his, you know, and then they come together for a staff meeting, however often they do it, once a week or whatever, and they have the interactions that they have. And there's a level of fellowship that those six people have with each other that isn't the same with people who work for them and others and so on. There's a depth of fellowship there. Think of the fellowship that Lucifer had with Michael and Gabriel. They were probably best friends. I don't think it's too much of a stretch to say that. They were probably best friends until iniquity was found in him and he became something different. And God had to tell Michael, you have to drive him out. It's really quite a thought. And we've had that here at Pure Life, as corrupted as we are in a sense, you know, being fallen human beings, we have a very powerful work here. And there's a pretty pure fellowship amongst the leadership in this ministry. But occasionally over the years, something has snuck into the heart of someone or another, and they have to be asked to leave. You know, it's a horrible, horrible loss when that happens. All right, look at the moral fall that Lucifer experienced. Let's go back to his beauty for a second. He was created as a beautiful being. I'm sure that that meant, in fact, the word splendor is used. But I believe also there was a moral beauty to Lucifer. I believe that God imparted to him his moral perfections, not his physical attributes, as it were, his omniscience, omnipotence, and so on. But his moral perfections were put into Lucifer. In other words, he was full of love and mercy and compassion and kindness. He was full of that. That's the way he was. He was righteous and good. You know, if you could have a conversation with him somehow, the way he was then, you'd walk away saying, you would just be overwhelmed by Lucifer's goodness. He was humble and meek. He was utterly truthful and loyal and faithful. But look at where that path takes you. His love and mercy eventually became hatred and cruelty. His righteousness and goodness eventually became evil and perversion. His humility and meekness became pride and rebellion. His truthfulness and faithfulness became deceptiveness and disloyalty. Again, I can't help but think about the Lord of the Rings and what happened to Smeagol that turned him into Gollum. You know, you see the 500 years in the cavern. He goes in, just a regular hobbit, one of the river folk, I guess is what they say, and he did something wrong, and he took that ring, and for 500 years, a corruption set inside of him. And to where, when the story takes place, you see this hideous, deformed creature that looks nothing like Smeagol, where you can see a bare resemblance, but that's where sin takes you, isn't it? And I guess that's the application of this talk, is, you know, people out there complain about the whole death to self teaching and that we should humble ourselves and all that, and we, you know, we sing that tune pretty loudly at Pure Life and try to live it, but this is why, because when self is able to thrive, this is where it's going to take you. This is why we subject ourselves to the process of allowing God to crucify our flesh, because if we don't, if we allow our flesh to have its way, this is where it's going to take us. It's that process of inward corruption that ruins and destroys the inner man. And I don't want any part of it. Whatever the price is, I have to pay for God to keep me on the path towards Christ likeness. I'm just going to pay it. I don't care, you know, because I don't want to go in that direction. Okay, that's it for this week. God bless you. You're dismissed.