Let's be honest, most men drift. We wake up, we scroll, we work, and then we just rinse and repeat. And we know we're softer than we should be. That's why I built the 31-day resilience reset. This is not a devotional, it is a field manual for men ready to stop drifting and start fighting back. So, for 31 days, you'll train your spirit, mind, and body with scripture, prayer, and daily challenges that forge real resilience. Go to www.undaunted.life/31days to download this resource for free. That's undaunted.life/31days. Start your reset today. This is Undaunted Life, a man's podcast. I'm your host, Kyle Thompson. Let's get into it. Now, an angel of the Lord said to Philip, "Rise and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza. This is a desert place." And he rose and went. And there was an Ethiopian, a eunuch, a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of all her treasure. He had come to Jerusalem to worship and was returning seated in his chariot, and he was reading the prophet Isaiah. And the spirit said to Philip, "Go over and join this chariot." So, Philip ran to him and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and asked, "Do you understand what you are reading?" And he said, "How can I unless someone guides me?" And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. That is Acts 8:26-31. So, guys, uh a little bit of a different episode than what you're probably used to. Again, on this show, Undaunted Life, a man's podcast, we cover faith, culture, politics. We don't normally do them in that order. It really just depends on what I'm wanting to talk about, what God is wanting me to talk to you about specifically. And usually on the forging table, that's where we get into some longer descriptions of some things that we see in scripture. As of course, we're going through Romans right now. But the beautiful thing about scripture is the interconnectedness of scripture. Right, so a lot of you have seen that image that's been made famous by Jordan Peterson where you see all the cross-references. So, it has the entire Bible and then it shows with all these big, beautiful, colorful lines all the different cross-references that we see in the Bible. But, there's just something that has happened for me recently where I've read some passages and I'll get more into this in a second where this the words have been there the whole time, but I just missed something. And so, I've been working through some ideas as it pertains to a very specific subject matter and that's what we're going to get into today. But, as always, I want to say so much that we're just so thankful for our donors because guys, if you're wondering how we're able to pull off this show, how we're able to pull off the Forging Table, how we're able to bring in people into studio, it's because we have donors like you. We don't have these private donors that are just writing a six-figure checks. It's guys like you doing 20 bucks a month, 50 bucks one time, 100 bucks a month, whatever. And so, we're so thankful to you guys. If you want to hop on board and be a donor and support the work we're doing with this ministry undaunted.life/donate. undaunted.life/donate. We need you guys. And also, if you've not left a review of this show, please leave us five stars if you think we deserve it, which guys, we work hard. I think we deserve it. But also, don't keep this a secret. Share this with a friend. And I know I've talked about quick hitters a lot and how we're going to bring them back and blah blah blah. I mean, we're not done with quick hitters. But for the last several, the last handful of the intro, not intro, but solo episodes, there's just been one subject matter that has taken a whole lot of my time. And so, as opposed to putting, you know, some research into a main topic and then a lot of research into a bunch of little topics, I've just put in, you know, a buttload of research into one main topic. So, we're going to do that again today, but I promise we will do quick hitters again eventually. So, we're going to take a quick break so you can hear from one of our awesome companies that we partner with and then we'll get into today's subject matter. Hey guys, real quick. So, I remember back in high school, I was training with these guys and they all got super jacked. But, they were training and using these supplements that they were buying online and a lot of them had crazy side effects. These were not good things. There's no telling what all was in these supplements. And so I've always kind of been scared about what supplements I'm going to put in my body. And I decided when I do start taking supplements, I want to make sure I'm using products that are certifiably clean and also using only high-quality ingredients. And that's why I want to remind you guys that I have started taking and that we are partnered with Jocko Fuel. So, Jocko Fuel is Jocko Willink's American-based supplement company. So, what are they known for? What are some of my favorite products that they make? They make a lot of whey protein powder. Their cookies and cream flavor is ridiculously good, especially with milk. And if you want to make some like peanut butter protein snack balls that a lot of people are making out there, that is a key ingredient. Also, they make the cleanest energy drinks that I've ever found. And my new favorite flavor is actually their latest flavor, which is Nitro Pop. Guys, it's incredible. They also have Jocko Hydrate drinks that are awesome because they are electrolyte drinks that aren't full of added sugar and artificial coloring and dyes and things like that. They also have the best-tasting greens powder that I've ever had in my entire life. So, you guys definitely have to check that out. But I also use their krill oil, I use their fish oil, creatine, vitamin D, magnesium, joint warfare, and their sleep aids. And they have new stuff coming out all the time. Guys, if you take your health and wellness seriously, then you simply cannot afford to put cheap and inconsistent and dirty supplements [clears throat] inside your body. Try Jocko Fuel out today by going to jacofuel.com. That's jacofuel.com. Use the promo code Undaunted to get 10% off your order. Again, that's jacofuel.com. Promo code Undaunted to get 10% off your order. All right, let's go. Let's get into it. So, recently, uh I was just thinking about this concept of And you you've heard this before. You have people that are like rewatch a movie or they'll rewatch some sort of television show or they'll reread maybe a classic novel of some kind. And after they've viewed it, and it could be for the second time, it could be for the 20th time, whatever. They notice something different. And so, as I've talked about a billion times on this show, I love Gladiator. That's my favorite movie of all time. It clearly is the best movie of all time. I won't hear any other arguments. And the thing about that movie is I've watched it so often, there are things where my brain just kind of tunes out. But then there are other parts of the movie where my brain kind of kicks on and maybe sometimes even in higher gear because I've already consumed Just think about the first time you watch Gladiator, like, you know, strength and honor and, you know, the the first kind of gladiatorial scenes that you're exposed to. You know, when Maximus sees the Colosseum for the first time. There's these big epic moments, right? You know, Commodus [clears throat] doing the thumbs up, thumbs down. There's these big, big epic moments you have, you know, Maximus' great speech whenever it's revealed to Commodus that Maximus is still alive and, you know, he's saying his name and that he's going to have his vengeance. I already know all that's coming. So, it's the little things that are kind of picking around the edges where I'm like, "Oh, wait, wait, there's something there. There's something deeper to the story that I wasn't really aware of." Guys, the exact same thing happens with scripture. Because one thing I want to just get through your heads, and I didn't come up with this quote, but basically it's not how many years you've been a Christian, it's how many hours. And when you start ticking off the hours of being a Christian, it's you're doing things that Christians should do. You know, you're sharing your faith, you're get doing evangelism, you're taking care of the widows and the orphans, right? You're spending time in prayer, but also you're spending time in God's word. And that's the one thing that we get in this culture, and I've talked about a lot on this podcast, is we have a lot of people that own Bibles. >> [snorts] >> They own one of these. They might have a one in their trunk. They might have one sitting on their desk in their office, but they don't ever open it. They don't ever open it and start reckoning with what these words say and what they mean. And that was very apparent for me recently, which kind of sent me down this crazy rabbit hole. Because I was reading 1 Samuel 16. And well, I'll just go ahead and get into what I was reading. Okay, so before we get up to 1 Samuel 16 and kind of what I noticed there, let's kind of, you know, recap what leads up to it. So, we see Samuel growing as a prophet. Eventually, Israel demanded a king, which, you know, rejected God's direct rule to them. And then God instructed [clears throat] Samuel to anoint Saul, right? So, he was a Benjamite, and that was going to be Israel's first king. So, Saul did well to start off. He won a bunch of military battles and campaigns, but then he gradually started to disobey God's commands. He got further and further away from what God wanted him to do. And most critically, Saul failed to completely destroy the Amalekites as he was commanded to do by God, and instead, he decided on his own to keep their king, to keep their livestock as plunder. And so, this direct disobedience from Saul led God to reject Saul's rule and reign, okay? Then God directed Samuel to anoint another, to anoint David, so the shepherd boy from Bethlehem to be Saul's successor. So, Saul, of course, was unaware of this at the time. When Saul, or sorry, when Samuel anointed David with oil, the spirit of the Lord rushed upon him, we see the scriptures say. He rushed upon David. We see that in 1 Samuel 16:13. But now let's get to the part that I was alluding to earlier. This is a part of a story that I've read before, that I've seen depicted before, but I just missed something incredibly important, okay? So, I got us through 1 Samuel 16:13. Let's go go ahead and go to 1 Samuel 16:14 here. Now the spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and a harmful spirit from the Lord tormented him. So, you've read that before, right? If you've done any Old Testament study, I'm sure you've gone through 1 Samuel at some point. Obviously, this is a very famous story of the the interplay between Saul and David and all these different things. You've read that before. >> [clears throat] >> But then I read it much closer. Back to verse 14. Now the spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and a harmful spirit from the Lord tormented him. So, this entire time, I knew it was a demonic spirit that was tormenting Saul. But for whatever reason I missed that short phrase from the Lord. From the Lord. Not from the pits of hell, not from the evil places, not from Satan, from the Lord. And And the word Lord here is that all caps version of the Lord, which is Yahweh. That's the proper you know covenant name of God. So what this text explicitly says is that the demonic spirit that began to torment Saul was from God. And for me, it just stopped me dead in my tracks. Okay, it's like wait wait wait a minute. Like I know there's good and evil and there's this interplay and you know, but God's in control and there's sovereignty, but maybe there's limits. Like like wait what you know, what are we thinking about here? But those three words just absolutely stopped me in my tracks. And if you keep reading the narrative of 1 Samuel, this keeps getting affirmed. So after 1 Samuel 16:14, we see David serving Saul in Saul's house. We see David slay Goliath. Then we see David and Saul's son Jonathan become really good buddies. We see Saul become jealous of David. And then we see this in 1 Samuel 18:10. The next day a harmful spirit from God rushed upon Saul and he raved within his house while David was playing the lyre as he did day by day. Saul had his spear in his hand and Saul hurled the spear for he thought I will pin David to the wall, but David evaded him twice. So there it is again, right? A harmful spirit from God. Then we see Saul offer up his daughter Michal to David, right? And he had to bring Saul foreskins of 200 dead Philistines, one of the funnier parts of the Bible. I guess you can call it funny. And Saul thought that David would be killed in the process of getting the foreskins of 200 dead Philistines, but David was successful in this. So he was able to marry Michal, and then Saul recognized that God is with David, and that his daughter truly loved him, and this made him even more afraid of David. And from that point forward, Saul was a mortal enemy of David. And then we see David grow in stature and renown. Saul plans to kill David, but Jonathan steps in and keeps that from happening. Jonathan eventually even, you know, gets David and Saul back together in peace, so he thought. And then we see this in 1 Samuel 19:9. Then a harmful spirit from the Lord came upon Saul, and he sat in his house with a spear in his hand, and David was playing the lyre. And Saul sought to pin David to the wall with the spear, but he eluded Saul, so that he struck the spear into the wall, and David fled and escaped that night. There it is again. A harmful spirit from the Lord. And this is what just hit me right upside the head. The situation being described in 1 Samuel wasn't just demonic chaos outside of God's purview. Like this was God giving divine permission to Satan and Satan's demons to operate within God's purpose. So, this establishes that demonic activity at the activity of demons, right? Requires divine authorization. I mean, guys, again, for me, maybe I'm dense, it's been there the whole time. But I I just never seen it for some reason, right? Something kind of I guess kept me from seeing it. So, this really got me thinking, and it sent me down a [clears throat] big-time rabbit hole considering this very, very important subject, which is the sovereignty of God. And how far that stretches. And so, this caused me to go back to biblical depictions of the fall of Lucifer. So, I actually started in Ezekiel 28:11-19. I'll start in verse 11 now. Moreover, the word of the Lord came to me, "Son of man, raise a lamentation over the king of Tyre and say to him, 'Thus says the Lord God: You were the signet of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty.'" Okay, so we need to dig in here before we go any further. There's actually two things happening here in these passages, okay? But I will say for me, the first time I read it, I thought there was only one. That's why it was so confusing, but there's two things happening. The first is there is a literal judgment of a literal earthly king, and that's the king of Tyre. And the second thing is there's a deeper spiritual reality that unveils Satan's origin and subsequent fall. Okay? So, let's go back to the first thing. There is a literal judgment of the earthly king of Tyre. So, the passage begins as a lament of the king of Tyre. So, it addresses his pride, it addresses his corruption. It says that he was the signet of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. And so, because of that, he was able to generate a lot of wealth. We see that uh earlier in Ezekiel 28 verses 4 and 5. But, this caused him to become proud, okay? And this leads him to declare in We see this in Ezekiel 28:2, "I am a god. I sit in the seat of the gods." And so, because of his arrogance and blasphemy, God judges him. And God would uh you know, we see this again. This is uh Ezekiel 8 uh or 28, I think it's verses 7 and 8, that he would allow foreigners to destroy the king of Tyre and to throw him into a pit, okay? But, in the like as we're reading through that narrative, we see a shift in the text, okay? And this gets to the second thing I was talking about, a deeper spiritual reality that unveils Satan's origin and subsequent fall. So, let's actually go to verse 13. "You were in Eden, the garden of God. Every precious stone was your covering: sardius, topaz, and diamond, beryl, onyx, and jasper, sapphire, emerald, and a carbuncle. And crafted in gold were your settings and your engravings. On the day that you were created, they were prepared. Okay, so again, there's a shift in the language here. So, it goes from describing the earthly king to transcending the earthly king. Really, any earthly [clears throat] king, not just the king of Tyre. So, what's happening here is that it is placing the figure being described in primordial time. So, not not the timeline of Tyre's history. So, we don't really use the word primordial anymore, but this just means like happening first in a sequence of time. So, think original or primary, kind of like the earliest origin. That's what primordial means, okay? So, let's go to verse 14. You were an anointed guardian cherub. I placed you. You were on the holy mountain of God. In the midst of [clears throat] the stones of fire you walked. So, it should be pretty clear by now that God is not talking about the king of Tyre here. Like he's referring to an anointed angel, a cherub, and that cherub's name is Lucifer. And we see from the text that this isn't just any cherub. Okay? This is an anointed guardian cherub. We see different kinds of angels and they're described throughout the Bible, Old Testament, New Testament. But this is an anointed guardian cherub. Okay? This this is like a supremely high office and calling for Lucifer. But the position that he was placed in by God was not enough for Lucifer. He wanted more. Let's go to Ezekiel 28:15. You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created till unrighteousness was found in you. So, what unrighteousness? Well, actually, if we go over to Isaiah, we get an answer for that. So, if you go to Isaiah 14:12-15, guys, I'm trying to, you know, go fast, but also go slow enough to where you can at least write these down and maybe go check for yourself later. So, Isaiah 14:12-15. "How you are fallen from heaven, O day star, son of dawn! How you are cut down to the ground, you who laid the nations low! You said in your heart, 'I will ascend to heaven; above the stars of God I will set my throne on high. I will sit on the mount of assembly in the far reaches of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.' But you are brought down to Sheol, to the far reaches of the pit. So, it seems pretty clear from the text that at some point Lucifer grew tired of being looked through in order to see God. He wanted to be looked to instead of God. Now, let's actually go back to Ezekiel 28. We're going to read 16 through 19 now. "In the abundance of your trade you were filled with violence in your midst, and you sinned. So I cast you as a profane thing from the mountain of God. And I destroyed you, O guardian cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire. Your heart was proud because of your beauty. You corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor. I cast you to the ground; I exposed you before kings to feast their eyes on you. By the multitude of your iniquities and the unrighteousness of your trade you profaned your sanctuaries. So I brought fire out from your midst; it consumed you. And I turned you to ashes on the earth in the sight of all who saw you. All who know you among the peoples are appalled at you. You have come to a dreadful end and shall be no more forever." So, the fall of Lucifer was decreed and executed by God. So, Lucifer didn't somehow escape divine control. He didn't escape divine judgment. And in order to see how that went down, right? Again, we just keep going down the rabbit hole. We need to go to Revelation 12. So, I'll start in verse 7. "Now war rose in heaven, Michael and and angels fighting against the dragon. and the dragon and his angels fought back, but he was defeated, and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent who is called the devil and Satan and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world. He was thrown down to the earth and his angels were thrown down with him. So, war breaks out in heaven, Michael and his angels versus Lucifer and his angels, but Michael and his angels prevail and Lucifer and his angels, that's about a third of the angels that God created are cast out of heaven. So, Lucifer was his given name when he was the anointed cherub, you know, created by God and placed in that position, but now God changes his name to Satan, right? The deceiver of the whole world. And don't miss this. Lucifer's expulsion from heaven demonstrates the sovereignty of God. So, Lucifer's rebellion wasn't a surprise. It was foreseen by God. God actually allowed this rebellion and subsequent war to happen. You know, Lucifer and the angels that fought with him were then judged by divine action. And this was all part of God's plan, all of it. So, let's actually go back to Revelation 12 and I want to finish the rest of that chapter, right? So, we'll start in verse 10. And I heard a loud voice in heaven saying, "Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God. And they have conquered him by the blood of the lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death. Therefore, rejoice, oh heavens and you who dwell in them, but woe to you, oh earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath because he knows that his time is short." So, Satan is enraged here. Why? Because he knows that his time is short. Why? Because he knows that his dominion is temporary. Why? Because his time is limited by God's decree. And this text also reveals the primary function of Satan, which is accusation. So, he is the great accuser of believers, and his primary weapons are guilt and condemnation. Starting to make sense? And we see through Satan being, you know, thrown out of heaven and the arrival of, you know, through that we see the arrival of God's salvation, God's power, God's kingdom, and also Christ's authority. So, right? So, that's the answer to Satan's accusations. Because of the blood of the lamb, which is a description of Christ's redemptive and finished work on the cross, Satan is stripped of his primary accusation, which is that we are condemned, right? We have a pathway away from that. And so, believers in Christ are no longer condemned because we are now covered by the blood of Christ. And then if we go back to Revelation 12, I want to start in verse 13. And when the dragon saw that he had been thrown down to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child. But the woman was given the two wings of the great eagle, so that she might fly from the serpent into the wilderness to the place where she is to be nourished for a time and times and half of time. The spirit poured water like a river out of the mouth after the woman to sweep her away with flood. But the earth came to help to help the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed the river that the dragon had poured from his mouth. Then the dragon became furious with the woman and went off to make war on the rest of her offspring, on those who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus. And he stood on the sand of the sea. So, a lot going on there. What does it all mean? So, the woman described, starting in verse 13, represents the church, right? This is the church of God. Satan tries to get to her, but he can't. So, even God's creation, we see even like his creation, what we see on Earth participates in thwarting Satan's plans. So, she actually receives divine protection. Satan can't touch her. And because of that, Satan gets really mad, okay? And he changes his plan in order to go after individual believers. And this actually explains the persecution of individual believers throughout human history, right? Because Satan can't defeat the capital C church of God corporately, so he's going to go after the individuals instead. And that actually gets into Revelation 13, where God allows Satan to make war against his saints. And you know, there it is again. Satan is not operating out of some inherent power. He's operating out of the authority that is given to him by God. And so, one thing that you need to realize is everything that I just talked about, all of this took place before what we'd see and describe described in Genesis 3. This all takes place during that time. So, I mean, I just want you to think about it. Like, think about everything that has happened. You know, the angels were created before the Earth was. This means that Satan's sin, his rebellion, his expulsion from heaven, that took place in that primordial period. Like, this is before human history. So, the fall of Satan preceded the fall of man. That's important for you to kind of get through your head and realize. And so, Satan was already a fallen angel before we see him appear and before we see him do what he does in Genesis 3. And so, if we go to Genesis 3, like most of you know the story well. You know, Genesis 2 ends with Adam and Eve living together. They're married. They're naked. They're unashamed. Everything's great. And they were previously told by God that they could eat of every tree in the garden, but that they were to not eat of this one tree, right? The tree of good and evil. So, now let's go to Genesis 3:1. Now, the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. So, we see the word serpent used here in verse one. That's what we see in the English. But, if you go back to the original Hebrew, the word used means dragon. So, keep that in mind. So, Satan took the temporary form of a dragon before talking to Eve. So, back to verse one. He said to the woman, "Did God actually say, you shall not eat of any tree in the garden?" And I just got to tell you, this is one of the greatest lies ever from the father of lies. Because there are lies that are kind of easy to spot because they're statements, right? They're statements of falsehood. We we kind of know what's true or we definitely know what's true when someone makes a statement, and then it's like, "Well, that's clearly not the case." But, when you ask it in the form of a question, it's especially pernicious. Because it's making you doubt just by considering the question. And the temptation that Satan is using here, what what he's kind of tempting Eve and Adam who's apparently just standing around this entire time, he's tempting them to do the same thing that got Lucifer kicked out of heaven to begin with. Which was what? Trying to be like God. Trying to be in the same place at the same level, if not above, the creator. That's the entire really kind of fusion and then the entire thrust of the temptation is, "Don't you want to be like God? Did God actually say, right?" And many of you know where this goes. So, Eve eats of the apple, then she gives some to Adam, again, who's apparently just standing there like, "Uh, what's going on here? I'll take a bite." And so, instantly both of their eyes are open. They realize that they're naked. Uh, you know, they sew some fig leaves together to cover up their bits, and then they hide from God, and God, of course, found them. Adam blamed Eve. Eve blamed the serpent, you know, the dragon. And then we see God address Satan directly. Okay, so this is Genesis 3:14 and 15. The Lord God said to the serpent, "Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field. On your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel." So, God punishes Satan further. And again, this supports the idea that Satan took the form of a dragon and not a snake because it wouldn't be much of a punishment for a snake who already moves around on its belly to be forced to continue moving around on its belly, right? Would it? And then we get to, you know, Genesis 3:15. Like this is where we get what's called the protoevangelium, right? Or it's the proto-gospel or the first gospel. So, the woman in verse 15 prefigures Mary, who will bear her son named Jesus, right? And you know, the virgin birth does matter, and Jesus is fully God, yet fully man, and born of that woman who was a virgin. And Jesus is the one that will crush the head of Satan. So, this gospel, the proto-gospel, foreshadows the cross at Golgotha, where Christ gets his ultimate victory over Satan. But here's the thing. Satan doesn't know any of that at that time. He doesn't realize it. So, under God's [clears throat] sovereignty, he establishes perpetual hostility between Satan and the human race. And while Satan knows that his time is limited, he clearly knows that, he doesn't know exactly how much time he has, nor does he know exactly how his head will be crushed. He just knows that it will be at some point in the future. And as far as he is concerned, it's game on. Right? Like, you don't know how long you have, you know, you got some time, so you might as well get after it. So, the war between Satan and the saints of God marches on. And all of this that I've been talking about leads to a very, very important question. Why would God allow Satan to make war against his saints? Why would God allow Satan to make war against his saints? And look, we have examples all throughout scripture. We see a stark example in the book of Job. So, in Job 1, we see God, Yahweh, talking directly to Satan. And this is post-fall of Lucifer, right? Of course, this is also post-fall of man. And this brings up a really interesting and and really key theological point. During Job's lifetime, again, the book of Job, that's the oldest book that we have in the Old Testament in terms of like when it was written, Satan apparently still had access to heaven and could approach God's throne in some kind of a way, I like potentially like moving freely between heaven and earth and addressing God face-to-face. So, he's still communing with God and communicating with God. And so, this suggests that, you know, whatever expulsion of Satan from heaven had occurred, it just wasn't final or complete yet in this Old Testament era, okay? So, in Job 1 and even in Job 2, we see God grant Satan permission to test Job. To jack with him, right? I mean, in Job 2, we see Satan attack Job's health. Uh but, he does so because God allowed it to be so. So, he essentially tells Satan, "Hey, do whatever you want to Job, just don't kill him, right?" That's what we see in Job 2. So, Satan was literally operating with God's permission and under God's sovereignty. Again, as we said earlier, Satan's power, it's granted, not inherent, okay? So, why would God allow Satan to make war against his saints? The the question is still important. And the answer is because it's all part of God's plan. And to get into that further, I mean again, I super went down the rabbit hole on this one like connecting dots all along the way, but to get into this entire thing further, we need to go to the upper room. Okay? So, if we look at the upper room discourse or the narrative described in the Gospel of John, we have to realize for a lot of Christians, you've probably spent a lot of time in John, right? The first entire, you know, book of the Bible that I read was the Gospel of John. I remember being in, you know, I think this was even before I became a Christian. I was in like this, you know, middle school youth group thing at First Baptist West in Lawton, Oklahoma, and the youth leader gave everyone a little like purple, you know, version of the Gospel of John, right? All right, here's a copy of the Gospel of John. Go and read it and you know, keep track in the back how many times you do it. And I pretended like I'd read it more than I had just for whatever reason. And you know, wanted to be first, wanted to be the winner. But that's the first book of the Bible that I read in its entirety. But recently when I was reading through John, I had a very similar experience to what I talked about at the beginning of the podcast, rereading 1 Samuel 16, right? And so, let's go to John 13. I actually want to start in verse one here. Now, before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. During supper, when the devil had already put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray him. Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things into his hand, and that he had come from God and was going back to God, rose from supper. Okay. So, we're in the upper room. Jesus and his disciples are about to have what, you know, we'll end up calling the Last Supper. And Jesus is about to lower himself to wash the disciples' feet. But we see here that Satan has already been hard at work, right? So, he's actually already laid the groundwork for Jesus to be murdered, okay? It's going to really kick off with Judas betraying Jesus. So, Jesus gets on with the festivities, he washes the disciples' feet, and then we get these words from Jesus starting in verse 16. "Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them. I'm not speaking of all of you. I know whom I have chosen. But the scripture will be fulfilled, he who ate my bread has lifted his heel against me." "I am telling you this now, before it takes place, that when it does take place, you may believe that I am he." Did you get it? Did you catch that? Jesus said this in verse 18, "He who ate my bread has lifted his heel against me." Okay, so, this is Jesus directly quoting from Psalm 41 verse 9. But the lifted his heel phrase, it's very distinct. Like, this is a rare phrase in all of scripture. And look, Jesus is using that language, that specific phraseology, deliberately when addressing Judas. So, this doesn't seem to be like an accident or just something that Jesus said randomly, right? No one else sitting there knows that he's referring to Judas yet, but Jesus certainly knows. And Judas' forthcoming betrayal is Satan's attempt to bruise Christ's heel. Like, this is the moment when Satan thinks he has achieved victory through human treachery and murder by crucifixion. But let's actually go back to the upper room. Let's go to John 13. I want to start in verse 21. After saying these things, Jesus was troubled in the spirit and testified, "Truly, truly, I say to you, one of you will betray me." The disciples looked at one another, uncertain of of he spoke. One of his disciples, whom Jesus loved, was reclining at table at Jesus' side. So, Simon Peter motioned to him to ask Jesus of whom he was speaking. So, that disciple, this is John, leaning back against Jesus said to him, "Lord, who is it?" Jesus answered, "It is he to whom I will give this morsel of bread when I've dipped it." So, when he had dipped the morsel, he gave it to Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot. Now, guys, before I read verse 27, buckle up, okay? Because I missed this for so long and it's mind-blowing, okay? So, verse 27. Then after he had taken the morsel, Satan entered into him, Judas. Jesus said to him, "What you are going to do, do quickly." Okay? So, there's some drama here, obviously. So, we've seen this scene depicted over and over in films and TV shows, and most recently and expertly done by The Chosen. And the drama seems to be that Jesus is directly revealing to Judas that he knows what he's about to do. Okay? Like, hey, you're you're not slick. I know what you're about to do. So, Jesus is essentially telling Judas, "Okay, dude, go ahead and get on with it." But, I don't think that's what's happening here at all. At all. Again, I'll read verse 27 again. Then after he had taken the morsel, Satan entered into him, Judas. Jesus said to him, "What you are going to do, do quickly." No. Jesus isn't talking to Judas. He's not talking to Judas. He's talking past Judas. So, Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the son of God, right? The serpent crusher, the dragon slayer. He's talking directly to Satan. When he says, "What you are going to do, do quickly." Again, guys, just really sit in this. Jesus, part of the Godhead, is literally giving Satan permission to kill him. I mean, guys, if you don't have chills right now, I think you need to check your pulse. He's giving Satan permission. He's talking through Judas to Satan. >> [clears throat] >> And so, we need to kind of continue back with the narrative of the upper room. So, Judas eventually leaves to begin the process of betraying Jesus. You know, during the Last Supper, Jesus foretells Peter's denial. He makes an exclusive salvific claim that he is the way, the truth, and the life, and that no one comes to the Father except through him. He promises the Holy Spirit. He gives the high priestly prayer, and he shares a lot more instruction and insights. It's, you know, it's a it's a long narrative, and I think it's very important. And sometime after the Last Supper, Jesus goes to pray in the Garden of Gethsemane with Peter, James, and John. That is where Judas betrays him with a kiss. Jesus is arrested. He is taken before the high priest and questioned. He's taken before Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor, and he's questioned. Peter does eventually deny Jesus. Uh he denies being a disciple of him on three occasions. The same people that welcomed Jesus into Jerusalem earlier that week with shouts of Hosanna have now become a mob demanding Jesus' crucifixion. Jesus was scourged with a cat of nine tails. He has a crown made of acacia thorns, thick three or four-inch acacia thorns, and it's rammed onto his head. Jesus is delivered over to be crucified. He was forced to carry the own his own cross beam outside of the city walls all the way to Golgotha, the place of a skull. Nails were hammered through both of his hands and feet. They stood his cross up in between two criminals that were also being crucified. And it was on that cross where Jesus eventually gave up his spirit. And he died. And after they confirmed Jesus had indeed, died, he didn't swoon, he died, he was placed in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea. And that was supposed to be that. And so, I want you to imagine what Satan had to have thought at that very moment, right? He had tortured and afflicted humans for the entirety of humanity up to that point, including the first man and the first woman. He tried to coordinate the murder of Jesus when he was just a baby. He tried to tempt Jesus away from his calling for 40 days and 40 nights in the desert. And then, he took what he thought was his best shot yet. He had convinced someone in Jesus' inner circle to betray him. And it worked. Jesus was betrayed. And then, Satan used the Jewish elites, the Romans, the citizens of Jerusalem, right, to ensure Jesus' death on the cross. And when that stone was rolled over the face of the tomb where Jesus' body was placed, I bet you Satan thought, "Checkmate. Checkmate man. I played the game and I won." And so, back to the question I posed earlier, why would God allow Satan to make war against his saints? So, I already said that it's because it's all part of God's plan, but I need to add to it a little bit. God allows Satan to make war against his saints because it's all part of God's plan A. Plan A. God does not have a plan B, okay? God wasn't and is not locked in some kind of, you know, back-and-forth battle with a fallen angel. God has a leash on the dragon the whole time. And it was all of it and all that it will be, all of it is part of God's plan A. Because guys, look, Satan knew all the scriptures, but he didn't understand them. He didn't know that Genesis 3:15 was foreshadowing exactly what would happen at the cross and the empty tomb. Satan had no clue that getting Jesus crucified was the culmination of prophecy. Satan did not know that getting Jesus crucified would end up being his biggest mistake. Like he thought that he was disrupting God's plan when in actuality, he was ensuring God's plan would take place. Let's go to Luke 24 starting in verse 1. But on the first day of the week at early dawn, they went to the tomb taking the spices they had prepared and they found the stone rolled away from the tomb. But when they went in, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were perplexed about this, behold two men stood by them in dazzling apparel and as they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, "Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen." The crucifixion was part of the plan all along. Because the resurrection of Jesus was part of the plan all along. So, this realization must have been absolutely shocking to Satan. I mean, try to somehow get yourself into his perspective. I mean, imagine that Satan was kind of confused when he heard Jesus quote Psalm 22 from the cross, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" Like Satan knew the Psalm, of course. He knows all of scripture, but at some point after the resurrection of Jesus, Satan had to have realized that Psalm 22 fully predicted the crucifixion of the king of glory. So, Satan eventually must have realized this, but he had to have also realized he was too late to do anything about it. Satan had done precisely what God wanted him to do. Yet, and and we see this, Satan bruises Jesus' heel with the crucifixion, but when God raises Jesus from the dead, it revealed that Genesis 3:15, the proto-gospel, the first gospel, promised all along that Jesus of Nazareth is the serpent crusher. He's the dragon crusher, right? And Satan's apparent victory became the instrument of his own destruction. And look, there's no happy ending for the dragon, either, right? So, if we go to Revelation 20 starting in verse 1, "Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven holding in his hand the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain. And he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent who is the devil and Satan, and bound him [clears throat] for a thousand years, and threw him into the pit and shut it and sealed it over him, so that he might not deceive the nations any longer until the thousand years were ended. After that, he must be released for a little while." And then we get to the defeat of Satan starting in verse 7. "And when the thousand years are ended, Satan will be released from his prison and will come out to deceive the nations that are at the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them for battle. Their number is like the sand of the sea, and they marched up over the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city, but fire came down from heaven and consumed them. And the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever." So, guys, throughout scripture, God demonstrates complete sovereignty over all things, including Satan and his minions, okay? So, from Genesis to Revelation, we see the same principle. Satan's power is limited by God's sovereign reign. So, I know it's taken a while for us to get here and we're about to wrap up. So, what does all this mean? So, establishing the extent of God's sovereignty, what does it mean? What are we to do with that information? I can tell you this, it means that we can trust him. So, if you're experiencing demonic oppression of some kind right now, you can trust him. If you're suffering from some kind of thorn in the spirit, uh some thorn in the flesh like Paul, you can trust him. If you just got a bad diagnosis from the doctor, you can trust him. If you don't know where the money is going to come from to feed your family next month, you can trust him. If someone you loved and trusted betrayed you, you can trust him. If your child has distanced themselves from God, they've gone prodigal, you can trust him. If you think the best thing for you to do right now is to give in and to take yourself out, you can trust him. God is all-knowing. He's all-present. His power has no limits. And nothing and no one can thwart his plans. So, he is in complete control of every circumstance for everyone everywhere at all times, either causing or allowing them to happen so that his good and perfect plan can be fulfilled. So, if you're listening to this and you're a believer and you're experiencing some kind of dark night of the soul or even if you find yourself currently in the darkest part of the valley of the shadow of death, you can trust him. Don't run away. Don't try to hide. Lean into him. And if you're listening to this and you're not a believer, God had a rescue plan ready to go for humanity before the first humans were placed on Earth. So, he sent his son Jesus down to this Earth to pay the sin debt that everyone owes him, a holy and just Father God. And when Jesus died on the cross, his death counted for you. And our justification is guaranteed by grace through faith. There's nothing that we can do to earn it. And when we accept that free gift, we are imputed with the righteousness of Christ. So, if you have not accepted God's free gift of grace, if you have not given your life to him, I compel you to do so now. Thank you everyone for listening to this episode. Wherever you're listening to this, please subscribe, rate, and leave us a positive five-star review. If you want me to come speak live at your event or on your podcast, just shoot me an email to info@undaunted.life. Follow us on Instagram and like us on Facebook, and check out our website for everything else, including how to donate to keep more content like this coming. www.undaunted.life. The music on this podcast is the song Conqueror by the Christian metal band Void Awaken. Be sure to stream their music on Spotify, Apple Music, and wherever else you get your music. I'm your host, Kyle Thompson. Remember, keep pushing back darkness, keep forging spiritual, mental, and physical resilience, keep seeking the lion of Judah. >> Void Awaken >> [music] >> Woo!