But if we are going to teach about Adam being Lucifer, I've got to do
some things at the beginning, because I don't want you spending your whole
time thinking, "Well, if Lucifer's not the devil, then who is the devil?"
Because we are really not teaching on the devil tonight; we are teaching
on Adam. We are really not teaching on Adam; I'm teaching about Christ
today. You are going to be so blessed today to see some of these
things that are related to Adam in his fall that you can see plainly that
Jesus restored to us. Before we are finished tonight, you are going
to see that everything that Adam really fell out of and brought us out
of are things that Christ has brought us into. But let me just dispel
a religious tradition by going by John 8 at the beginning.
How many of you have ever heard this thought that satan, the devil,
was a fallen angel? We all have. That he was really created
perfect in the beginning and he fell. Jesus is speaking here, and
I don't know how we've missed this. But Jesus is talking about the
devil and saying that he was a murderer from the beginning. That
just dispels this myth that he was perfect at the beginning and became
something. He was a murderer from the beginning. Now let me
just make some bold statements here, then we will go to some scripture.
I believe that my heavenly Father is too big, knows too much, and has too
much power to be deceived by some angel. The traditional idea that
satan was an archangel, that he was one of the three powerful angels in
the heavenlies, and he rebelled against God, drew a third of the angels
out of the heavenlies, and this was kind of a conspiracy going on in the
background, and then before you know it, you've got a third of the angels
who had rebelled, and somehow or other, God didn't know anything about
that. How many of you realize that that could not possibly be true?
I serve a bigger God than that. I choose to believe that. I choose
that my Father God knows … see, how could He be an all-knowing God and
not have understand that going on? It is not the case. If that
isn't the case, then we must assume that God created the devil in his present
state. The question is "why?" Again, I am not going to teach
on the devil, but I am going to get these things out of the way, because
it is a powerful … You and I today sit in the most powerful position that
believers have ever been able to sit in. We have more understanding;
we have more revelation; we have more authority. We are in union
with Christ, and we are learning more about that than ever before.
There has never been a time when …nobody that has ever believed in God
has a better time to live than today. So don't worry about this as
we begin. Let me tell you that the devil was created in his state.
What does he do? If we had the time, and if I was going to teach
on him, and I hope this doesn't end up being that, I would go over to Genesis
three and show you that satan is really designed to be a dust eater.
This serpent was cursed to eat dust all the days of his life. His
flesh was made of dust. Isaiah 65 tells us that satan will always
be a dust eater.
Let's look at these scriptures in the Amplified.
Adam is the dust man. Satan was built, produced, to eat up Adam. I don't want to make some bold statements like this without being able to get into this. He was created to destroy, Isaiah 54 says.
Here's the bottom line, where we are concerned: First John 3:8 says that Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil. He came to destroy the dust man. He came to produce a spiritual man. Did He do that? Did He destroy the works of the devil? Hebrews 2:14,15 tells us that when Jesus passed through death, He destroyed him that had the power of death, that is the devil. We are told in First Peter and in James and in Ephesians to give no place to the devil. We are told to put him underfoot. We are told to resist him and he will flee from you. Who is the devil? He is a created being that was created to be put underfoot; Christ has put him underfoot, totally defeated him, and your problem today is not the devil. Our problem is not the devil; it's what we think about the devil. He is a defeated foe. He is your adversary, but he is a defeated adversary. Today he works in the area of deception and tries to pawn himself off as some great something. But he is a defeated foe, an adversary.
One angel, whatever that is going to be, one messenger, one message,
and I believe we're just developing and being taught that message.
One message. A messenger has got to have a message. An angel
has got to have a message. One messenger comes and throws him in
the bottomless pit for a thousand years. An awareness of who we are
in Christ.
Now, having said that so clearly, … it is a sight the way we magnify the devil and fight the devil and wrestle the devil and war against the devil when the scripture says he's been defeated. He's been placed under the feet of Christ Jesus, and we are involved in the feet.
Ezekiel chapter 28 and Isaiah chapter 14 are the two prominent places that deal with this anointed cherub called Lucifer. It is not the devil. The devil did not fall. The devil didn't produce some rebellion in heaven that God didn't know about and take a third of the angels with him, like we've been taught all of our lives. If that is true, then I have to sit here and admit that our God is not omnipotent, nor omniscient. He's not all-knowing. But He is. The devil is a created being; he is created to destroy. Thank God, Jesus destroyed him. We ought to know that. He functions today in the realm of deception, and Jesus in bringing the light, and that light is dispelling darkness and deception is being driven away and we are giving him no place. That great city at the end of the book has a lot of things in it that it had in the beginning, except it has no serpent because we starve him to death. If he's a dust eater, we just quit walking in the dust. Every time at your house when you guys get in a fuss, you are just giving the devil a meal. Don't let your household be a Burger King household. He can have it any way he wants to at Burger King. He's a defeated foe.
Now let's talk about this anointed cherub that covers. Ezekiel chapter 28 has two individuals who are royalty of Tyrus. Verses one through ten speak of the prince of Tyrus, which I believe is a literal person. He is an individual who rules this place called Tyrus. When you study this, it is just amazing, because you realize all that Adam brought us to. When we look at everything that we are told to have in Christ today, we can see it symbolized in what is lost in Adam. The word tyrus means "rock." We are resting on the solid rock today. But here was a man in the natural. The first ten verses are talking about the prince of Tyrus.
Then in verse eleven it starts talking about the king of Tyrus.
There was a spirit that ruled this wicked prince. This spirit was
Adam. Adam rules and reigns in all wickedness. It is Adam that
needs to be destroyed; it is Adam that we need to recognize. It is
Adam that we need to see to be sitting as God in the house of God, so that
he can be destroyed by the brightness of His coming. The Lord comes
to us in a word, in a voice.
A lamentation is a funeral dirge or song. Let me sing a funeral song about Adam. Notice, this lamentation is upon the king of Tyrus, not the prince. "Thou sealest up the sum" tells us that in the person of Adam was sealed up the sum of what God wanted man to be at the beginning. He is saying, "I've got a word for you, you who were designed as a summation of what I wanted." Adam was like a prototype; he was formed. God breathed into him the breath of life. Notice what it says of him: he was full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty. Notice the word wisdom. First Corinthians 1:30 says that Jesus is made unto us wisdom. He is the wisdom of God. If we can see what Adam brought us out, then we can see what Christ brings us back into. Notice that he was full of wisdom. James wrote, "If any man lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not, and it shall be given him."
It says "perfect in beauty." The bride is going to be beautiful.
This bride is going to be decked out in beauty and perfection. That
was the way Adam was at the beginning.
This couldn't be a natural king of Tyrus here. "Every precious stone was thy covering." Hello, stones! The Bible calls us "living stones." This is symbolic of a spiritual place, but you see Adam in the midst of the garden, and He said, "All of these stones were your covering." Here we have the last Adam, Christ Jesus, the anointed, and He is being covered with stones. In other words, He is in us! You can take these garments of the high priest and show them as a picture of three stages of spiritual maturity. When the clothes get fixed, guess what happens? The high priest is going to come and get inside those clothes. The clothes will be his covering. It says about Adam, "every precious stone was your covering." That is good!
Then it goes on to list the various precious stones. "The workmanship
of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou
wast created." This ought to bless every person that has been brought
to the understanding that you are created to worship, because this speaks
of the fact that Adam was a man of worship. I believe the tabrets
were not tambourines. His hands were his tabrets; he was built to
clap. His pipes were his vocal cords. He was built to worship
and sing. God is desiring people today to worship Him. This
is brought back to us in the person of Christ; we have something to worship
God for. We are brought out of Babylon. The people of Babylon
told the children of God, "Sing us a song." They said, "We can't
do that," and hung their harps on the willow tree. We can't sing
when we are in confusion; the more we come out of confusion, the more we
should be loosed to worship Him.
Originally Adam was to cover or to protect or guard, to keep the garden. "You are the anointed blessing, the anointed cherub. You were the one." Do you see where we've been going all along? This is where we are headed; when we get this taught, we will be able to go back to the garden, and we can see somebody that is kicked out of the garden, but we can see God's plan is to produce a cherubim with a flaming sword to bring us back from where we were brought away from. That is where we are headed. Adam was the anointed cherub that covers. "I have set thee so." That word set means give. I have given you; I have made you the federal head of a race of people.
"Thou wast upon the holy mountain of God." The garden of Eden was on a mountain. Revelation 21:10 is talking about this church, and the angel said to John, "I want to show you the bride, the Lamb's wife," and he took me to a great and high mountain. Wonder if that could be something like this mountain that Eden was on at the beginning. Not a physical place, but a place in the spirit. All of the dwelling places of God are built on a mountain. Mount Zion, Mount Moriah, Mount Gibeon, Mount Ararat. Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration.
"Thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire."
Thou hast made thy ministers a flame of fire. I don't know what it
was like in the garden, but our heavenly Adam, the last Adam, will walk
in the midst of stones of fire.
Romans 5:12 says that by one man sin entered into the world. You
transgressed, Adam. You did what I told you not to do, Adam.
You were perfect until the force of the power of iniquity was found in
you.
Violence means "to do evil." Notice, "therefore I will
cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God." Adam was cast out of
Eden. "And I will destroy thee." That is good to me. If my
interpretation of stones and fire is a ministry on fire, then he said,
"I will destroy you right out of the midst of them." That is what
makes you stones of fire. Make your ministers a flame of fire.
"Thy heart was lifted up." I wonder if that is why Jesus went to the cross and had to be lifted up. "I will cast thee to the ground." You will become dust. That was a sad day when he went from the heavenlies to the earth, when he went from a heavenly man to an earthy man. "I will lay thee before kings." Hello, kings! I will make you kings and priests unto God; I will just lay you right before them, that they may behold thee. That is just now happening. The kings of the earth, the believers who have been made kings and priests unto God, are just now finding out who the man of sin is. The man of sin is not some physical man; it's Adam. Adam is the man of sin. How can the Bible say, "By one man sin entered into the world," and we not know that that one man is the man of sin?
Adam is the man of sin, but the kings haven't seen that. They
are still looking for an individual out there somewhere to be the man of
sin. The man of sin is Adam.
"Thou hast defiled thy sanctuaries." What would be Adam's sanctuaries?
All of his body; all of his dwelling places. "I am going to bring
you to ashes…" Every time I think about the burnt offering and I
think about that hunk of ashes laid at the bottom of that big barbecue
pit, I remember that's my old man; that's who I used to be. Adam
is said to be brought to ashes. That is what happened at the cross.
He said, "I will bring you to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all
them that behold thee." Let me show you almost the same terminology
used in Isaiah 52 about the Lord Jesus. The word Lucifer as
we look at it in Isaiah 14 means "to be clothed with light; light bearer,
the light of the morning." Jesus called Himself the morning star
at the end. Everything Adam forfeited, Jesus restored. Isaiah
52:14 is talking about Jesus in His death.
That word astonied means "to be stunned." They were stunned
at what happened to Jesus. "The kings will shut their mouths at him."
They will be so astounded at what they really see of Jesus, and I don't
think this is talking about natural things. I think it's talking
about in the spirit; they will be stunned at Him; they will have nothing
to say.
This is speaking of Adam. "And never shalt thou be any more."
No more Adam!
We have the same principle here in Isaiah 14, but we are not talking about the king of Tyrus; we are talking about the king of Babylon. Did you know that Adam was the king of confusion? Confusion originated with him. "How art thou fallen from heaven." This is the same statement as in Ezekiel, where Ezekiel said, "I will cast you to the ground."
There is a footnote in the Amplified translation on this word Lucifer. Most Christians, if you asked them how many times the word Lucifer is in the Bible, they would say, "Well, probably a lot. That's the devil." This is the only time it is ever used in the Word. Let me read to you the footnote. "The word meaning "light bringer" or "shining one" was originally translated "Lucifer," but because of the association of that name with Satan, it is not now used (in the Amplified). Some students feel that the application of the name Lucifer to Satan, in spite of the long and confident teaching to that effect, is erroneous. Lucifer, the light bearer, is the Latin equivalent of the Greek word "phosphorous", which is used as a title of Christ in Second Peter 1:19, and corresponds to the name "morning star" in Revelation 22:16, which Jesus called Himself. The application of the name has existed since the third century AD and is based upon the supposition that Luke 10:18 is an explanation of Isaiah 14. (Luke 10:18 was where he said, "I saw satan falling from heaven." It had nothing to do with this situation. It is the authority that those people used over him and his cohorts in the name of Jesus.) which some authorities feel is not true." It isn't true; Luke 10:18 is not an interpretation of what we are reading right here. What he is saying here is that Jesus used the same name. Adam was the first Adam; Christ is the second Adam. It is very likely that the first Adam was clothed with light; he was the light bearer at the beginning. Jesus, in the Transfiguration was clothed with light. Jesus is the last Adam.
Let's look at verse twelve again. "Which didst weaken the nations!"
Who weakened the nations? It was Adam.
Now notice the "I will's." Mark 7:21 says "Out of the heart comes wicked things." Often I hear people on tapes saying, "The heart of man is deceitfully wicked." That is an Old Testament statement that does not apply to a believer. Your spirit, your heart, has been purified through faith in Christ Jesus. Your heart is not wicked. But I hear people saying, "God's got to deal with this because our hearts are desperately wicked." No, the heart of a reborn believer is not desperately wicked. Your mind may be as carnal as it can be, but your heart is not wicked. But I don't care how spiritually minded you get, if your heart is still carnal, you are not going to be accepted with God. So what's the idea? You've got to be born again.
Notice the five "I will's" of man. We've got to get this out.
This is something that I think has been subtly incorporated into the church.
He said, "I will ascend into heaven." No, you won't. That's
what happened in Genesis chapter eleven when they wanted to build a tower
to heaven. Adam in his subtlety, in his own heart, said, "I will
make it. I will…I will…" Let me give you a little application of
this. God does not want your will to be broken; He just wants your
will to be conformed to His will. Adam was created so much like God
that he had a strong will. When he fell, his strong will went against
the will of God. God has a strong will. In Ephesians chapter
one, it says that He does everything according to His will. But He
has willed it, and it will happen. Can you see here that Adam in
his fall still had that kind of a trait. God wants you to be strong
willed. This would teach us about the virtuous woman. He wants
you to be willed toward maturity in Christ. Here is Adam in his fallen
state, in his degenerate heart, saying, " will ascend into heaven; I will
exalt my throne; I will sit also upon the congregation, in the sides of
the north; I will ascend upon the heights of the clouds; I will be like
the most High." Five things; isn't that interesting? Five is
the number of grace, and five is the number of things that Adam said
he would do. Grace brings us what Adam could never bring us.
This is the reason we need to get out of our carnal "I will's" and get
into His will, because Adam is brought down to hell. He said, "I
am going to make it," and he's not making it; he's going in the wrong direction.
He is going in totally the other direction. He will be brought to
hell in the person of Christ.
This is not an angel; notice that when they look on him, they say, "Is
this the man? Is this the man that made the earth to tremble,
that did shake kingdoms?" Is this the man? The church is going
to wake up and say, "Is that the one that caused the trouble?," and we're
going to say, "Yes."
Do you want to know what the wilderness wanderings of the children of Israel typify? It is walking through this world into the fullness of Christ. Who made this world a wilderness? Adam. You can put your own interpretation of "cities" there. I have an idea, but … you can say in the natural, but there are a lot of little gatherings around this country that have been destroyed totally by this one man. They are not all non-religious. They are just little social gatherings, little groups where we might get a lead on some sale of some kind.
"…that opened not the house of his prisoners." The body of a man
who is lost becomes a prison house.
That word lie means that they are asleep. That won't be
the case. What is he saying there? The church is asleep.
Christians are asleep.
"…like an abominable branch." That was the most degrading thing in the Old Testament, for somebody to not be buried, just to be thrown out. In fact that is the way they buried a wild ass. He had no burial; they just threw him out on the ground. It tells you a little bit about Adam, doesn't it?
"… as the raiment of those that are slain." Did you know that
Adam covers the dead man? I'm not talking about physically dead;
Adam becomes the raiment, just like Christ is in us; in those who are lost,
Adam becomes the raiment of those that are slain.
This is important. If we can get Adam located, confusion is on
its way to destruction.
The word bittern means "wild bird." We could take it over to Revelation if we wanted to and show you the pools of water. "I will sweep it with the besom of destruction…" I'm thinking of the woman who had her candle lit and took and swept the dust out of her house, swept Adam out of her house and found that lost coin.
Now what we are going to do now is go back into the Book of Genesis in the next couple of lessons and define the flaming sword that turns every which way.
We can see that Adam was the anointed cherub; we can see that he was kicked out. So God begins to develop a cherub company; He begins to develop a redeemed people who become a blessing, and who become as members of the body of Christ a covering. He is the covering, but he is a many membered man, who become people who can, in Christ, walk among the stones of God and bring brightness and light.
A people with a flaming sword. All the times that you see fire there, go back and think about this flaming sword, because on the way back from earth to heaven, on the way back from the natural to the spiritual, you must pass that flaming sword. God says, "I will destroy you, Adam, with fire." On the way through, Adam gets destroyed. It was this light bearing fall down into earth, restoration by Christ, another federal head today in the heavenlies in a way I believe Revelation 21 & 22 is a present condition that is available to us, and we are being brought back through there, but we must pass through a flaming sword that turns every which way. It is gonna getcha! How much of me? All of us! It gets us all. It gets your five "I will's." It gets your will. This is the reason I believe we've been majoring on this virtuous woman, and it gets your will. It gets it conformed to His will. It tells you exactly how much you are worth. Whatever is left of you when you go past that flaming sword is the valuable part.
I believe the truth will make us free. I believe if we spend our life fighting the devil who has already been whipped, we will end up fighting like shadowboxing. My real enemy is Adam. Jesus has destroyed him in His death. The more I know about Adam and his death, the less this deceiving spirit who has been ripped of all authority and power can come into my life and convince me that I am not what God says I am. The devil is as a roaring lion. It does not say that he is a roaring lion. It says that he is as a roaring lion, going about, seeking whom he may devour. That tells me that he can't devour who he wants to; he just devours who he can. He just knocks on our door and says, "Do you know anything about Adam?" In the Book of Revelation, there are three types of people present: the dust people, the sea people, and the heavenly people. The dust people are natural; the sea people are those that are double minded and waver between Adam and Christ. When we realize that Adam is dead, we become that heavenly people seated together with Him in the heavenlies, and there satan is under our feet. As long as you are trying to get rid of Adam, you may call yourself a heaven dweller, but you are really like a wave of the sea, tossed to and fro. Adam must be seen to be defeated. That is why these kings will behold him. They will say, "Is that the man? Is that the man that made this earth a wilderness?" Yes. "Well, didn't Jesus die as our…" Yes. Then why am I living this way? We are going to wake up. One of the greatest studies we can do is what is already true of us. What was accomplished when Jesus sat down at the right hand of the Father?
I think satan was defeated; I believe that Adam was destroyed.
I believe that sin was annihilated. I believe that death was overcome
and sickness was abolished. I believe that all of these things are
true of a people who live in the heavenlies. I believe we are going
to find out how to take what is true of us in the heavenlies and make it
applicable to us in the earth. Amen.