The Ancient Serpent – The Angel Who Became a Demon
VBC Albuquerque · Aug 31, 2024
The sermon explains Satan's origin, sin, and schemes, identifying him as the ancient serpent who deceived Eve in the Garden of Eden. Satan is a perfect angel created by God who became a demon because of pride and the desire to equal God, resulting in his expulsion from heaven. Satan's primary goal is to cause humans to reject God's lordship by tempting them to worship false gods such as money, power, fame, and beauty.
The sermon presents Satan as a real and dangerous figure, not a symbolic representation or product of imagination. Although the Book of Genesis does not explicitly explain Satan, Revelation 12:9 confirms that the ancient serpent is indeed Satan, the demon. Scripture addresses Satan throughout both the Old and New Testaments, and Jesus Christ himself mentioned Satan 25 times out of 29 references in the four Gospels, confirming Satan's reality and danger.
Satan's origin is explained through three key biblical passages. In Job, Satan appears as an angel capable of appearing before God in heaven. Zechariah shows Satan standing among other angels with the intent to oppose God's messengers. In 1 Chronicles 21:1, Satan is described as a power that incited King David to commit acts forbidden by God. Satan possesses characteristics like humans: intellect, emotion, and will. However, Satan is a created being and therefore not equal to God; it remains under God's sovereignty and cannot act without God's permission. A clear example is when Satan wanted to test Job, it required God's permission and could only act within the limits God allowed.
Satan's sin and fall are explained through two passages in Ezekiel 28:11-19 and Isaiah 14:12-19. Before sinning, Satan was a perfect angel, full of wisdom, completely beautiful, anointed as a cherub for protection, dwelling on God's holy mountain. Satan's reason for sinning was pride – pride in beauty, wisdom, and high status. From a radiant angel, Satan became a cunning, deceptive, and evil demon. The consequence was that God expelled Satan from heaven and cast it down to earth.
Satan's primary scheme is to cause humans to worship false gods instead of worshiping God alone. Satan disguises itself as an angel of light to deceive people. It tempts humans to worship other gods such as money, material wealth, beauty, love, intelligence, fame, power, and sexuality. Those who possess these things often proudly believe they are conquerors, but in reality they are slaves to these gods. Satan uses pride to lead them to hell. Humility is the key element: God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. Human pride causes people to reject salvation in Jesus because they do not believe they are sinners or need to be saved, thinking they can change themselves or save themselves.
Salvation through Jesus Christ is presented as a gift of grace, not a result of works or merit. The hardest thing for humans to accept is humility – admitting that they are sinners, cannot save themselves, and must trust Jesus as Savior. This is the invisible spiritual battle between Satan and God, between opposing powers, between those bearing the mark of Jesus and those bearing Satan's mark.