I apologize for being late to a thread (again) - and I still have company, so this will sadly be a hit-and-run.
Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life. John 5:24
But the Lord is faithful, who shall stablish you, and keep [you] from evil. 2 Th 3:3
This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth: But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. - I John 1:5-7
Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. - James 4:7
But the Lord is faithful, who shall stablish you, and keep [you] from evil. 2 Th 3:3
And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they [were] fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose. - Genesis 6:1-2
And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day. - Jude 1:6
For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast [them] down to hell, and delivered [them] into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment; - 2 Peter 2:4
For those interested, the pseudepigraphal book of Enoch goes into the story in great detail. In a nutshell, the angels were assigned to earth to watch after the banished Adamic men. Instead, they acted willfully having sex with human women and producing bloodthirsty giants. And more, they taught man all kinds of forbidden knowledge such as war and weapons.
The angels were seized and chained in darkness until the judgment and God took Enoch to be their advocate. Which he did, but their fate was sealed. The angels' plea was for their offspring. And, as I recall, the bodies of their offspring were destroyed by the flood but their spirits continued on the earth as the "demons."
And, behold, they cried out, saying, What have we to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God? art thou come hither to torment us before the time? And there was a good way off from them an herd of many swine feeding. So the devils besought him, saying, If thou cast us out, suffer us to go away into the herd of swine. - Mark 8:29-31
The bottom line, as always it seems, is willfulness - pride.
Crucial sobering Scriptures, imho.
Thx.
However, don’t most of us willfully sin . . . whether it’s an unfitting piece of pie, speeding on the highway, being resentful, . . . whatever.
We pray for deliverance; to Love God so much we only want to please Him in all things . . . yet we still carry this carcass of flesh around . . . as Paul spoke . . . doing what I wouldn’t and not doing what I would do . . .
Sigh.