Some of you may wonder, why did God create Lucifer? If he knew he would rebel, why doesn't he just destroy him? Luckily, the Bible tells us all of these details and exactly how and why Lucifer fell, became Satan and tricked mankind into the same lie that he believed. That got him and his angels forever banished from heaven. At one point in the past, Lucifer was a high ranking angel. Some people believe an archangel, while some believe maybe even a degree above that. Ezekiel 20 812 through 14 describes him as a powerful, beautiful being unlike any other. You were the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. You were in Eden, the garden of God. Every precious stone was your covering. You were the anointed cherub who covers. I established you. You were on the holy mountain of God. You walked back and forth in the midst of fiery stones. God created Lucifer to be a high ranking angel. Some translations of Ezekiel 20 813 allude to him being in charge of the worship or the music in heaven. This would make sense with what we're seeing in the world these days and how much music is used to lead people astray or to promote different types of evil. The workmanship of your timbrels and pipes was prepared for you on the day you were created. When God created Lucifer and all the angels who rebelled with him, he didn't create them to be evil. God knew that this would happen with Lucifer and mankind as well. But God's original design was that everything would be good. Then God saw everything that he made, and indeed, it was very good. So the evening and the morning were the 6th day. But God did create every living being with free will. This is how Lucifer, the anointed cherub, turned from being one of, if not the most trusted, high ranking angel to God's absolute enemy, Satan. How you are fallen from heaven, o Lucifer, son of the morning. How you are cut down to the ground. You who weakened the nations. We can see how Satan's pride led him from worshipping God to worshiping himself. And he convinced one third of the angels that they were better than God as well. And for this, they were all banished from heaven. For you have said in your heart, I will ascend into heaven. I will exalt my throne above the stars of God. I will also sit on the mount of the congregation on the farthest sides of the north. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds. I will be like the most high. Yet you shall be brought down to shoal, to the lowest depths of the pit. So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world. He was cast to the earth and his angels were cast out with him. This is when Satan became an enemy of mankind, leading as many people away from the truth of Jesus as possible. We saw it in the story of job, and of course we saw it in the garden of Eden. God didn't only want to have angels and cherubs, the anointed cherub, Lucifer and heavenly beings. He also wanted to have beings that were created in his own image. This is when he created mankind. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God, he created him. Male and female, he created them. God created humans with the same thing. He created the beings in heaven with free will. The same thing that caused Lucifer to turn his worship from God to himself is the same thing that caused humans to listen to Satan. In the garden of Eden, has God indeed said, you shall not eat of every tree of the garden? God has said, you shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die. Then the serpent said to the woman, you will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate. And the Lord God said to the woman, what is this you have done? The woman said, the serpent deceived me and I ate. God doesn't want the beings that he creates to just blindly follow him. He wants them to be loyal. Forced love or friendship isn't real. The free will he gave Lucifer caused him to rebel and become Satan. Free will is what caused humankind to listen to Satan in the Garden of Eden when sin entered the world. But that same free will is what gives us the option to accept Jesus Christ and what he did on the cross to make him Lord of our life and to have eternal salvation through him. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. Jesus came to this world for the sole purpose of bringing people to salvation through him and to destroy the works of Satan. He who sins is of the devil. For the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose, the son of God was manifested that he might destroy the works of the devil. Some people wonder, why doesn't God just destroy Satan. Well, since sin entered the world in the garden of Eden, we're now on the timeline of Bible prophecy. God has been very gracious and long suffering to put up with so much evil in the world. His hope is that as many people as possible will choose to accept Jesus Christ, his son, as Lord before the fulfillment of all things. The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some count slackness, but is long suffering toward us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. And the good news is that God will destroy Satan. This is his ultimate end. After the 1000 year millennial reign of Jesus Christ, Satan will be released one last time on the earth. But after this, he will be destroyed forever. And the devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet are too. And they will be tormented there day and night, forever and ever. If anything relating to God or his ways is ever confusing, we need to remember the extremely important point mentioned to us time and time again in his word. And it's that his ways are far above our ways. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. Lucifer had a favored position in heaven. Then pride came in and Satan was banished from heaven. Now he's the enemy of God and mankind. Hell was designed for Satan and his angels. This place of torment is not somewhere you want to go. We have the gracious gift of salvation through the son of God, Jesus Christ. Accept him and what he did on the cross for our sins, and we won't have to ever experience that place of torment and can live with him in perfect harmony for eternity. Jesus was so kind to leave perfect heaven at the right hand of the father, enthroned forever, and come to this fallen world and be treated so harshly by his own creation. But he did it out of love. And through that, through accepting Jesus, we can have eternal salvation, never have to see hell. And it's through the gracious gift of Jesus Christ and him alone. So I hope you'll put your faith in him. If you haven't yet, I hope and pray you're well. Thanks for watching. And God bless. .