Psalm 85:8 I will hear what God the Lord will speak: for he will speak peace unto his people, and to his saints: but let them not turn again to folly.

Make no mistake, I am still talking about being lost, but we must address the issues of warfare in order to completely understand the concept of lost. We were lost to God through no fault of our own, having been born into a realm not of our own making. We grow up in it not fully recognizing it is a battle zone.

Romans 8:20-21 For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope, Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.

It is God’s desire to set us free even though we do not yet recognize where we are being held captive, or who is the jailer. The chains of bondage for the lost is sin. We do not see them, we do not immediately feel them, but they are real.

Revelation 20:1-3 And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season.

In the truest sense, from God’s eternal viewpoint, Satan is a defeated foe, having lost his battle for the souls of mankind at the Cross. We shall get into that in greater detail later, but for now the issue is that we are born into this world on the losing side. The issue at hand now is how many souls he can hang onto without losing them to Christ. That’s his game, the spoiler.

Genesis 3:14-15 And the Lord God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life: And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.

The serpent, that old snake, the dragon, the devil, Satan himself is the first one lost. He is cast out from the presence of God but because he is an Archangel, one of the named, an eternal creation, Satan cannot die a physical death. In this sense being lost means no longer being in the presence of God, in paradise. Then came Adam and Eve into the world, cast out of paradise, into this same world into which Satan was cast. Since we were created to be loved, and to love, being lost is losing that intimate relationship with God.

Ephesians 2:2 Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:

Skipping forward here a little, we find Satan once again in the description, the prince of the power of the air. Note carefully the influence of this prince of darkness as he influences mankind in his realm. Now quickly refer back to the opening verse and look at one particular word, enmity. Its meaning here is hostility, hatred, Satan hates all mankind. Another word associated with hostility is war. We will find another word soon associated with these thoughts called rebellion.

Ephesians 6:11-12 Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

Armour (armor) is used in warfare.