In Matthew 4:9, Satan showed Jesus all the kingdoms of the world in their glory in a moment of time, and said, "I'll give you all these if you fall down and worship me." That's what he has always wanted, and that's what made him the devil. He was the head of the angels, created by God, beautiful, full of wisdom, with the highest position in the universe, long before man was created. We read the history of this highest angel in Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28. We don't know his name, only that he is called the morning star (Isaiah 14:12), which is translated as "Lucifer" in Latin. So that title stuck to him, but that's not his name. We don't know his name, but this head of the angels wanted the angels not to worship God but to worship him. That's what he says In Isaiah 14, "I will make myself like God." Remember that this is how sin originated: When someone wanted worship, when someone wanted to rebel against God, and when someone's heart was lifted up with pride and wanted the angels to admire him.

This is the origin of sin. The first sin in the world was not murder or adultery; it was the desire to get other people to admire you. If you have that desire, whoever you are, even if you call yourself a Christian or a preacher, if you want people to admire you and not Christ, you are walking in the way that Satan walked. It's a dangerous spot because it finally leads to hell. Satan couldn't get it then; he was cast out from heaven, but now he tries to get it again. "Fall down," Satan says, "and worship me." But Jesus said, "Be gone Satan," Matthew 4:10, "for it is written you shall worship the Lord your God and serve Him." There is only one Person we must worship. We can make the mistake of worshipping glorious beings and great servants of God. In Revelation 22:8, even the great apostle John made this mistake. He saw an angel and he fell down to worship him after he saw the wonderful things that were revealed in the book of Revelation. Imagine, if the Apostle John, at 95 years of age, who had known the Lord for so long, could make the mistake of admiring a mighty servant of God, any of us can make that mistake. We must not admire some mighty servant of God to the point that our contact with God Himself becomes through that servant.

Wherever a preacher or a pastor seeks to be a second mediator between God and men, you've got to be careful. The Old Testament prophets were people who communicated God's will to men, but in the New Covenant, there's only one Mediator between God and man, and that is the Lord Jesus Christ. You don't need a pastor or a preacher or any man of God to be a second mediator between Christ and you. You don't need Mary. You don't need anybody else. You can go directly to Jesus, and through Him, to the Father. But we can make a mistake, just like John did. In Revelation 22, we also see the faithfulness of this mighty angel. He says, "Don't do that; don't worship me." 

Where are the preachers and pastors and Christian leaders who will not allow other Christians to be attached to them, who will push them off and say, "Don't get attached to me; seek to be connected to Christ Himself"? That is a true man of God whom you can follow without any fear - the one who refuses to allow you to be attached to him and refuses to find God's will for you but tells you, "God is your Father. Go to Him directly, and He will show you His will." Because God's New Covenant promise in Hebrews 8:11 is, "They shall not teach every man, his brother saying, 'Know the Lord,' but all shall know Me from the least to the greatest." That means that even the one who's newly born again, a baby in Christ, all the way up to the greatest, the mightiest servant of God, all can know Him personally. So the angel says, "Don't worship me. I'm one of your brothers, I am a fellow servant, and you need to worship God."