Today I would like to share the grace of God under the title, “The Master.” The Master of all things in the universe and of time is our God the Trinity consisting of God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Therefore, God is the only one who determines good and evil in all things and also in all beings. Also, judgments of good and evil of all existence depend on the sovereignty of God. Adam and Eve were created to serve God under His ruling on good and evil. If we suggest our opinion on good and evil before God, saying, “You said this is good, but I think it is not good. You said that is bad, but I think it is good,” we compete against God and claim equal status with Him. Only God can determine good and evil so we presume equality with Him if we insist to determine good and evil. It can’t be done. More often than not, some people ask about the origin of the devil. Theologically they ask why the devil come to exist. The Bible does not plainly explain this yet we can deduce the reason. Today I want to explain the existence of the devil abstractly. In the beginning the devil was created to serve God as one of the good archangels. However, by an unknown motive greed corrupted him and he began to challenge God’s own judgment on good and evil. He tried to determine good and evil on his own. As he dared to challenge God’s absolute sovereignty on good and evil, he became a rebel and ended up as the devil. All those angels that participated in the devil’s rebellion became evil spirits and demons. Revelation 12:9 says, “The great dragon was hurled down--that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him.” God created the expanse between the kingdom of God and the human world. There exists the devil as the ruler of the kingdom of the air between the kingdom of heaven and the human world. Thus the devil tries to obstruct our prayer in the air. And also he keeps God’s answer to our prayer from coming down to us. In the Bible, Daniel prayed for 21 days, but the devil resisted his prayer for twenty-one days. So the angel who came in response to his prayer was detained there by the devil in the air for 21 days. Then God sent Michael, one of the chief princes, to come to help him so he finally came to Daniel with God’s answer. Therefore, when we pray, we must penetrate the resistance of the devil who is the ruler of the kingdom of the air. The devil did his best to tempt Adam and Eve, who were created in God’s image and likeness to rule over the world, to become an enemy of God. How is God’s heart hurt the most? When humans become an enemy of God, it hurts Him the most! When parents raise their children, and if their children rebel against them, it hurts their parents the most. The devil that holds authority in the air and evil spirits that follow the devil are behind every evil that takes place in this world today. Ephesians 2:2-3 says, “in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath.” All our sins in this world: unrighteousness and filth are masterminded by the devil who works behind them. Humans did not rebel against God and commit sins on their own. Behind their rebellion Satan worked to tempt them to commit sins anytime and anywhere. Even today the devil is doing everything to tempt us to confront God. Therefore, to live a successful life of faith, we must understand the world of the devil. The devil enters into human thoughts and minds to corrupt them. You know, a legion of demons can occupy one person! When Jesus cast out the demons, they came out of the man, they went into the pigs, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and drowned. You know, Judas Iscariot did not betray Jesus on his own. The Bible says that Judas Iscariot opened his heart toward the devil. “The devil had already prompted Judas Iscariot, son of Simon, to betray Jesus.” Therefore, Judas did not betray Jesus by himself, but rather the devil entered into his heart to sell Jesus. Satan also aroused greed in the hearts of Ananias and his wife Sapphira to deceive Peter. They sold a piece of property and kept back part of the money for themselves, but brought the rest and put it at the apostles' feet. However, the Holy Spirit notified Peter of their deception. So he said to them, “Ananias and Sapphira, didn't it belong to you before it was sold? And after it was sold, wasn't the money at your disposal? Why do you lie to God?” If they had said, “I want to offer a part of our wealth to God,” it would have been amazing. Nevertheless, they hid some part of it and lied to the apostles, saying, “This is all we have!” Then Peter said, "Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit and have kept for yourself some of the money you received for the land?”(Acts 5:3) Peter clearly said in the Bible that Satan prompted them to lie to God. When God created Adam and Eve, He warned them, “but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die." However, Adam and Eve were deceived by the devil to take the forbidden fruit. As a result, their spirits were dead right there and their spiritual beings turned into mere physical beings. Once humans’ inner beings were alive as spirits in them, but as they sinned, they became dead. Next, Satan entered into them and has lived until now. The whole world became ruled by Satan and humans lost their freedom and independence. Satan freely enters into their hearts and minds to mastermind them. People are living a tragedy by being robbed, killed and destroyed by Satan. Romans 3:10 says, “As it is written: ‘There is no one righteous, not even one.’” After the fall, God declared a strict judgment on Adam and Eve. As they took the forbidden fruit, they were judged by God very strictly. Genesis 3:16-19 says, “To the woman he said, ‘I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing; with pain you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.’ To Adam he said, ‘Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, 'You must not eat of it,' ’Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.’" At that time God cursed our circumstances. Now we are living a hard life because the ground was cursed so people have to live by the sweat of their brows. God also added the pain of childbearing for women. But then Jesus paid all our debts of sins on the cross. It is called redemption. Ephesians 1:7 says, “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace.” When humans sinned against God and died spiritually and became enslaved to Satan, Jesus came to the earth to be crucified on the cross because of our sins before God. Jesus did not die because of His own sins but took all our sins in our place. Redemption shows that Jesus’ death is my death. Jesus died the death of redemption so we receive forgiveness of our sins from God and our old person died in Jesus and we are resurrected as a new person with Christ. Now we don’t need to live with double personalities any more. The devil can’t occupy us anymore. We don’t belong to the devil, but become united with Jesus Christ as one. Therefore, we are not enslaved to sins any more. Our master is changed! Whosoever believes in Jesus will be changed from having an enslaved life to the devil to the life of serving God. Apostle Paul confessed his changed life with the new Master like this, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”(Galatians 2:20) We no longer belong to the devil so we must resist him definitely. We once had dual personalities as we were enslaved to the devil. One is a human personality the other is the devil’s personality and people are all abandoned. Then Jesus died in our place to make us stripped of our old self and born again to become a new person instead. Now Satan has no room in us. The wages of sin is death, but Jesus settled the world of sin by His death on the cross. Now Jesus is our Lord in this worship place and Satan is no more our lord. Therefore, we must resist him in the name of Jesus and not follow him, as he can’t be our lord anymore. Before Jesus came to the earth, the devil played the ruler of the world. This evil enemy and the ruler of the kingdom of the air, Satan occupied us. Ephesians 6:10-11 says, “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes.” We must put on the full armor of God to resist the devil. Our struggle is manifested in Ephesians 6:12, “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” Now we are saved and struggle against the devil, not any humans. Satan, the ruler of the kingdom of the air, is our archenemy whom we must conquer. “Our struggle is not against flesh and blood.” Here ‘flesh and blood’ means humans. They become enslaved to the devil so their spirits are dead and they live only in flesh and blood. Now their flesh and blood is not our enemy. Rather we should struggle against the devil who steals, kills, and destroys us through the flesh and blood of humans. The devil and demons rule the dark world and hold authority in the air and bring despair and frustration and pain to the world. It is our job to struggle against them. We should be fully armed. Ephesians 6:14-18 says, “Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist.” We should not stoop down and compromise and give false witness, but study the Word of God and buckle the belt of truth around our waists with boldness. “…with the breastplate of righteousness in place.” We must put the breastplate of righteousness over our hearts as a bulletproof jacket and with our feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the promise of the blessing of God and take up the shield of faith, “…with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.” We must put on the full armor while we confront our enemy with prayer and the Word of God. When we resist the devil with the shield of faith, we can win over him. Faith is to believe in God. Only those who have the shield of faith can extinguish all the flaming arrows of our daily worries and troubles. Jesus said, "No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money. Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes?”(Matthew 6:24-25) When we believe in Jesus, He will become our Lord and we His servants. So we don’t need to worry about what to eat and what to drink and what to wear. In the past while we were enslaved to the devil, we had to worry about these things. But now God solves our life problems such as what we will eat or drink or wear because we belong to Him. With God as our Master, we don’t have to worry about what to eat or what to drink or what to wear because God our Master takes full responsibility for our livelihood. Therefore, Jesus promised, “So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.”(Matthew 6:31-32) When we love our God and trust in Him and serve Him, He will bless what our hands and feet do in our life. What can He withhold from us after He says, “Dear friend, I pray that you may enjoy good health and that all may go well with you, even as your soul is getting along well.”? When we pray to Jesus with faith, He will answer to it. If our God can’t take care of our fundamental needs such as what to eat, what to drink, and what to wear, He is not qualified to be our Master. Ephesians 6:17 says, “Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” The word of God is the mightiest weapon against the devil. Its most vivid example can be found in Jesus. When He was tempted by the devil in the wilderness, He resisted the devil with the word of God. Therefore, we should drive out the devil with the word of God. If we meditate on and memorize the word of God all the time, we can be more than conquerors as we confront the devil. Even if the devil threatens us and brings fear to us, we can win over him with ease if we resist him with the word of God in the Bible. The devil comes to us and threatens us, saying, “You are deserted. You will be in big trouble.” Then we can resist him saying, “The Bible says, ‘And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.’ ‘For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them.’ Satan! You can’t deny this! All these are written in the Bible. Get away!” Then he will flee from you. “For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow.” With this word of God we can overcome the temptation of Satan. Ephesians 6:18 says, “And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.” To win over the spiritual warfare, above all, we must pray! The word of God and prayer are our main weapon in our life. We must confront with the word of God and resist the devil with prayer; then he will flee from us in seven ways even if he comes in one way. First of all, we must pray hard to conquer the devil in a spiritual warfare. We should be always alert and faithful in prayer. Prayer is the powerful weapon to resist the devil; it is an awesome authority given to believers by God. Korean churches have been marvelously developed in the world churches because of their earnest prayer. Therefore, we must be fully armed with the Holy Spirit and cast out the devil through the Word of God and prayer in our daily lives. Who is our Master? The Lord is our only Master. Then the devil follows behind Him to steal, kill, and destroy us. I bless you in the name of the Lord that you cast out the devil to the end and live a life filled with the grace of the Lord in your daily lives. Conclusion To eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is to declare being equal to God. No matter what we face, God who is the master of all things is the one who should make judgments on good and evil, not human beings. We are not masters. We should believe in and serve God who is the only master.