 Since the beginning and even now, it has always been about one thing, dominion. Dominion is the establishment of one's kingdom, the sphere of one's influence. When God has dominion in a life or in a place, God has His kingdom rule reigning in that place. When the dominion of God takes precedence in a home, that home is filled with people who obey the word of God and trust the Lord and worship Him and His presence is allowed to move freely there. When there is a church that is dominated by the presence of God, everything about that church, though it may not be perfect, is at least aimed toward the word of God. Dominion is the fight. In Acts chapter 26 verse 18, this is what the Scripture says, to open their eyes so they might turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, then they will receive forgiveness for their sins and be given a place among God's people who are set apart by faith and mean. Now watch this. When someone is born again, they are taken from darkness into light. And I love what some of the other biblical translations say. They say that those individuals were translated or quite literally taken from one realm and transported to another. When you were in sin, when you lived without Christ, you were under the dominion of another power. When you lived in your sin, you were under the dominion of darkness and deception and the enemy had his way in your mind and in your heart and in your body and in your sphere of influence. But when you came to Christ, you were snatched from hellfire, rescued from darkness and set on a path toward the destiny that God has for you. You were rescued from darkness. The Scripture says in Ephesians chapter 2 verse 2, this battle is also being referenced in this verse in Ephesians. Ephesians 2 2 says, where in time pass you walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now work is in the children of disobedience. Colossians 1 13, the King James version says, who hath delivered us from the power of darkness and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear son. Since the beginning, it's been about influence. It's been about dominion. And I want to show you where this all began. Go to Revelation chapter 12. Revelation chapter 12. For those of you wondering, I primarily read out of the new living translation, but I do cross-reference it with King James and sometimes the NASB, but primarily new living translation. We're talking about spiritual warfare. Revelation chapter 12. Go down to verse 7. I'm going to show you something and then we're going to walk this through and we're going to unveil why it is the enemy fights you the way he fights you. Revelation chapter 12 verse 7 says this, then war broke out in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon and the dragon and his angels fought, but they did not prevail. Nor was there a place for them in heaven any longer. The great dragon was cast out that ancient serpent called the devil and Satan who deceives the whole world. He was cast down to the earth and his angels were cast down with him. So when did this occur? When did this happen? When did Satan fall? Remember Jesus said, I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. So Jesus was present to witness this great war. And we know that because of the reference that Jesus gave that this is not some metaphor describing a spiritual dynamic rather this is something that quite literally happened in the heavenly realm. The enemy rebels against the heavenly father. There's a war that breaks out in heaven and he's cast down to the earth. Yes, we believe in angels and demons. Yes, we believe in heaven and hell because the Bible teaches it. It's time to wake up. It's time to wake up because demons are not metaphors for evil as some of the secret friendly churches teach today. Demons are actual beings that exist in another realm that are bent on your destruction. They've been around for thousands of years. They are highly trained spiritual assassins and they have one purpose and that is to destroy your faith. They exist. Now we know that this was after the creation of the earth. Why do we know that? What does the Bible say? We just read it. Satan was cast down from heaven to from heaven to. So if he's cast down to earth, the earth has to be there. Simple. Okay. We also know that it was after the creation of the earth because look at what Job 38 says. Go to Job chapter 38 verse number four. Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell me if you know so much. Who determines its dimensions and stretched out the surveying line? What supports its foundations and who laid its cornerstone? Verse seven. Watch this. This is Morning Stars is another name for the angels of whom Satan was among as the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy. So this tells me when God created the earth that the morning stars sang in celebration over what they were witnessing. What a beautiful thing to witness. God forming the galaxies and the earth. And as the Lord is forming the earth, the angels are singing in celebration over what God is doing. Satan among them. He was one of the morning stars. They sang in celebration. And this tells me that the enemy was not yet in his fallen state. Look at Ezekiel chapter 28. As I said, we're going to be all through the scriptures. So those of you with the Bible app, you'll be able to keep up. Those of you with the pages, I'm not so sure. Ezekiel chapter 28. I'll try to pace myself here so everyone can follow along. But in Ezekiel chapter 28 verse number 13. Ezekiel is rebuking a wicked man. But while he is rebuking a wicked man, he is comparing him to Satan. And in comparing him to Satan, he's basically revealing where his power comes from. So this is what you would call a dual text or a text with the dual meaning. In that it applied to the wicked man that Ezekiel was rebuking, but it all couldn't apply as we're about to see. In other words, Ezekiel is using the devil as an analogy, as an example to say this is what you're like. Ezekiel 28, 13. Because we definitely know that this man was not in the Garden of Eden. Ezekiel 28, 13. You were in Eden. The Garden of God. Your clothing was adorned with every precious stone. It lists the stones, jumped down to where it says, all beautifully crafted for you and set in the finest gold. They were given to you on the day you were created. Now, if you look at this portion of scripture, it becomes clear that Ezekiel is not describing someone in their fallen state. He's describing the enemy as beautiful. He's describing this angel as clothed with what God clothed him at the beginning of creation. So we know that Ezekiel is describing the enemy, or not then the enemy, but now the enemy. He's describing Lucifer in his glorified state. And what does he say? He says, you were in Eden. That tells me that not only was the battle between Satan and the Father, well, if you can even call it a battle, not only was that disagreement between the Father and Satan something that took place before the creation of the earth, but looking at this portion of scripture, I can see that Satan was in his glorified state in the Garden. Therefore, Satan fell after man was created. Some would say, well, what about the gap theory? If you don't know what that is, don't worry about it. If you do know what it is, I would ask you, how is it possible that death could come before sin? Yet we see that Satan fell to the earth after he battled with the Lord, and then he's seen in a glorified state in the Garden of Eden, which means he had access to the Garden, heaven and earth, in his glorified state. Of course, we know when Jesus was crucified, when he died on the cross, and when he rose again from the dead, Satan lost that access to heavenly places. But watch this now, because this got me thinking. We see another example of this in Isaiah 14, where the enemy is described in his glorified state. But this got me thinking. Okay, so here is a marvelous angel of light. He's worshiping the Lord. In fact, he's one of the three archangels. He has a place in heaven. He has a glorified state. He has access to heaven and earth. If you possibly ever want or need, he gets to worship God and see his glory. What was it that entered into his heart that caused him to fall? Some would just say pride, and yes, that was a part of it. But think about the fact that nothing had ever triggered this pride in him before. I mean, if I could word it this way, and we know that time doesn't apply to eternity, you'll see that the enemy coexisted with God in a unified state for as long as that was. And then suddenly he just decides that he's going to be like the Most High. Suddenly he just decides that he wants to overthrow God. Suddenly he just decides that he wants that throne. What was the triggering event? What was it that gave Satan the idea that he could be like God? I'm going to show it to you. Genesis 1.26 And God said, Let us make man in our image after our likeness and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the fowl of the air and over the cattle and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. It wasn't just pride that took the enemy out. It was jealousy and he was jealous of man. This is where the enemy got it in his mind. I can be like God. Now watch this. When Satan was cast from heaven, where was he cast? Who had dominion in the earth? Man. Some asked me, David, will God ever give the devil a second chance? I say he already did. He was cast from heaven to earth. He was just supposed to humble himself and serve. But he didn't. So Satan knows that he could never again ascend to heavenly places. Satan knows that he could never again acquire that place that he once had. But Satan does know this. That though he cannot ascend, he contempt man and cause him to descend. When you live in sin, you lose your dominion. When you disobey the word of God, you lose your dominion. Now I want to show you, are you receiving this tonight, church? In Genesis chapter 2 we see that God sets up a tree in the garden of Eden called the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Now somebody asked me, David, why would God punish Adam and Eve for eating of a tree, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, if they had no knowledge of good and evil? Was it fair that God would judge them without them having known right from wrong? Well, this is a misunderstanding of what the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was. If I say to you, ladies and gentlemen, I'm describing everyone. Well, at least that's what we Christians believe. Today there's like 30, 40. So if I say, ladies and gentlemen, I'm describing. If I say, I searched far and wide, I'm saying I searched everywhere. If I say, I'm committing to you in sickness and in health, it means whatever the circumstance I'm going to commit to you. Basically, this is what you would call a merism. And a merism is an opposite of two words, two words with different meanings on the opposite ends of the spectrum that give an idea or describe completeness. So when the scripture describes the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, it's not teaching us that Adam and Eve ate of the tree and knew right and wrong. You would say, well, how come they felt shame? They felt shame because of their sin. They were only ashamed of their nakedness because they lost the glorified body and had come into a fallen state. And so this wasn't necessarily something that they were ashamed of before why they were in a glorified state. They lost that glorified state when they sinned. So the tree of the knowledge of good and evil quite simply was a literal tree with literal fruit that they would eat and when you ate of that fruit, it would give you all the knowledge there was to have in the world. This is why God prevented them from eating of the tree of life. Imagine now, man in a fallen state with vast amounts of knowledge who knows everything living forever. God rescued man from that eternal state. Had they eaten from the tree of life, they would have sealed their fate in that fallen state.