Good evening. Let's open tonight's
service with hymn number 37 from your Spiral Gospel Hymns hymnbook,
number 37. And let's all stand together.
? Approach my soul the throne of
grace ? In every time of need ? There's mercy for the needy
one ? Who Jesus' name shall please Though I'm a weak and sinful
wretch, I will approach the throne. I'll lean upon Christ's mighty
arm and plead His blood alone. The blood, the precious blood
of Christ has opened up the way by which I can draw near to God
and to my Father pray. ? Though Satan tempts my heart
to sin ? I'll call upon my God ? And if I fall, he'll lift me
up ? And cleanse me in the blood ? The way is open, God will hear
? My groans and cries of grief Nothing can keep me from his
throne but my own unbelief. Oh, Lord, my unbelief remove
and turn my heart by grace. Compel me to approach your throne
and there spread out my case. Please be seated. I'm reminded in that last stanza,
that hymn, what the prophet said when he said, turn me, oh Lord,
and I shall be turned. And that's always our hope. The
Lord will turn our hearts to Christ. Let's open our Bibles
together to Psalm 93 for our call to worship, Psalm 93. The Lord reigneth. He is clothed
with majesty. The Lord is clothed with strength,
wherewith he hath girded himself. The world also is established
and it cannot be moved. Thy throne is established of
old. Thou art from everlasting. The
floods have lifted up, O Lord. The floods have lifted up their
voice. The floods lift up their waves. The Lord on high is mightier
than the noise of many waters, yea, than the mighty waves of
the sea. How do we know that? Because
thy testimonies, or thy word, are very sure. Holiness becometh
thy house. Oh, Lord, forever. Let's pray together. Our Heavenly
Father, what hope and comfort we find in knowing that our God reigns sovereign with
full authority over heaven and earth. And what great comfort we have
in knowing, Father, that that you are a loving God who only
has that which is good and profitable for your Children. Lord, we pray
tonight that you would turn our hearts. We pray that you would
enable us to to look upon Christ to believe thy testimonies to
rest our hope in the in the surety of your word and your promises
and the fulfillment of all that the Lord Jesus has accomplished. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. Number 268 in the hardback temple. Let's all stand together again.
268. you. ? How firm a foundation he says
of the Lord ? Is laid for your faith in his excellent word ?
What more can he say than to you he hath said ? To you who
for refuge to Jesus have fled Fear not, I am with thee, O be
not dismayed, For I am thy God, I will still give thee aid. I'll strengthen thee, help thee,
and cause thee to stand, Upheld by my gracious, omnipotent hand. ? When through the deep waters
I call thee to go ? The rivers of woe shall not thee overflow
? For I will be with thee thy troubles to bless ? And sanctify
to thee thy deepest distress When through fiery trials thy
pathway shall lie, My grace all-sufficient shall be thy supply. The flame shall not hurt thee
I only design, Thy draws to consume, and thy gold to refine. The soul that on Jesus has leaned
for repose, I will not, I will not desert to his foes. That soul, though all hell should
endeavor to shake, I'll never, no, never, no, never forsake. Please be seated. Let's open
our Bibles to the first chapter of Mark, Mark chapter 1. such a comforting hymn that we
just sang. Words of it are so... They're
experienced by every believer and my hope tonight is that the
Lord will speak comfort and hope and peace to our hearts as we
struggle in our flesh and in our walk of faith. We have the
third miracle recorded in scripture in Mark chapter 1, and I've titled
this message, The Authority of Christ. The Authority of Christ. We know that our God reigns.
We know that he's sovereign. We know that he's omnipotent.
We know that he's Lord over the living. and over the dead, but
what great comfort there is in being dependent upon him for
that and rejoicing that he is that God. It's like all men are
sinners, but only some are conscious of it. And only sinners are conscious
of their need to have a loving sovereign reign over their lives
and bow to that and rejoice in that. And tonight we have a revelation
given to us in God's word of the Lord Jesus revealing himself
as sovereign with authority over all spiritual powers All that
would be at enmity with Him. He has power over our sin. He has power over our flesh.
And what hope we have in knowing that our Lord is so. We've looked at the first two
miracles recorded, the first one being where our Lord turns
the water into wine at the wedding feast at Cana. And we see that
the Lord reveals himself as our righteousness. He came in order
to fulfill all the demands of God's law. That's the point of
that miracle. Christ, our righteousness before
God. In the second miracle, we looked
at Sunday morning, the healing of the nobleman's son. And we
see in there the Lord revealing himself as the living word, able
to give not only physical healing like he did to the nobleman's
son, but more importantly, spiritual life to the nobleman himself
and to his family just simply by speaking the word. Go thy
way, thy son liveth. and he believed the word that
was spoken unto him. And that's the power of our Lord,
to be able to speak his word so powerfully and so effectually
to our hearts that we just believe him. We have no choice but to
believe him. And that's always our hope, that
the Lord would make his word effectual. in our hearts and
cause us to be like that nobleman and to believe God. In this third miracle, we have
the story of our Lord going back to Capernaum. He's performed
some other miracles in Jerusalem. The scripture says that he performed
many miracles in Jerusalem, but none of them are recorded because
the people didn't believe. And the Lord left and went to
Galilee. And now he's back in Capernaum
where the nobleman was from, and he goes to the synagogue.
And when he's preaching in the synagogue, a man who is possessed
with a devil cries out. Well, the devil cries out and
the Lord rebukes him and cast him from the man. And we see
in this miracle a great truth concerning our Lord's authority
in being able to subdue to himself, being able to subdue to himself
all that would be at enmity with him. And this is important for
the believer because we know that by nature, by nature, we're
at enmity with God. We come into this world lost.
We come into this world unable to believe. We come into this
world spiritually blind. And if we don't have a God who
has authority over that evil spirit, then we have no hope
of being saved. That spirit is too great for
us. And now, even as believers, we
bear about a body of flesh, and everything about that body of
flesh is that enmity with God. It doesn't believe God. That's why that man cried, Lord,
I do believe. I believe everything you've said.
Help thou mine unbelief. My new man believes everything
God says. But I'm carrying about this unbelieving
flesh that must be subdued. He can't be improved, but he
must be restrained. He must be restrained. And if he's to be restrained,
I need a Lord that loves me and that has authority over me. to subdue me and to restrain
me and to save me. That's the message this evening. And let's read these verses together,
beginning at verse 21. And they went into Capernaum,
and straightway on the Sabbath day, he entered into the synagogue
and taught. And they were astonished at his
doctrine, for he taught them as one that had authority. and not as the scribes." Oh, I love that, don't you? When
our Lord spoke, he spoke with absolute authority. And when
he speaks now, when he speaks to our hearts, it's in authority. And it's not the opinions of
the scribes. It's not, well, you know, it
might be this way or it might be that way, or it's not... you
know, politically correct speech that's left up to you to interpret,
it is a clear declaration of truth. And when faith hears truth,
faith rejoices in that truth, and faith believes that truth,
and faith rests in that truth. And so our hope always is that
the Lord would speak with authority, not as the scribes. And there was in their synagogue
a man with an unclean spirit, and he cried out saying, let
us alone, what have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth? Art thou come to destroy us?
I know thee who thou art, the Holy One of God. And Jesus rebuked
him saying, hold thy peace and come out of him. And when the
unclean spirit had torn him and cried with a loud voice, he came
out of him. And they were all amazed in so
much that they questioned among themselves saying, what thing
is this? What new doctrine is this? For
with authority commandeth he even the unclean spirits and
they do obey him. With authority he commandeth
the unclean spirits and they do obey him. And immediately
his fame spread about throughout all the region about Galilee." Our Lord always speaks with authority. I think about when he met that
Judas and the Roman soldiers in the Garden of Gethsemane,
and our Lord looked at them with complete authority and no fear
whatsoever. Whom seeketh thou? Jesus of Nazareth. What did our Lord say? I am.
That's all he said, that I am. and they fell backwards, fell
to the ground. They stumbled over each other
and fell. The power of his word. Once the Sanhedrin met and they
sent their officers, the scripture says, they were basically police
officers out to arrest the Lord. And they came back empty handed.
And the Pharisees said to the police officers, where is he? And what'd they say? Never a
man spake like that man. We had no power. We were there. We heard him. We were stripped
of our authority. We were stripped of our power.
We couldn't lay a hand on him. We couldn't bring him to you.
Oh, isn't that the authority we need? for the Lord just to
speak peace and comfort and truth and hope and light to our hearts. Well, that's who he is. And that's
the purpose of this miracle. There's no enemy of him that
can resist him. And there's no circumstance or
sin in our lives that can resist his authority. When he speaks,
We're left to bow. And there's the difference between
those who have faith and those who don't. Unbelief hears what
he says and they don't believe. You believe not because you're
not mine. You're of your father the devil.
And here's the example of that performed in a miracle. The very
first experience we have of this in the scripture is when the
earth was without form and void and darkness was upon the face
of the deep. That's a picture of us spiritually
before the Lord says, let there be light. He just spoke, let
there be light. And there was light. And the
same thing is true for us. Oh Lord, speak those words to
my heart. There's so much darkness, there's
so much fear, there's so much without form and void in me. Say to me, Lord, let there be
light. Let the light shine in my heart. Reveal the truth of who you are
and enable me to set my affections on things above rather than the
things of the earth. How oftentimes I find myself
looking at the things of this earth with bewilderment and confusion
and darkness. And Lord, I need you to say,
let there be light. The leper came to the Lord and
said, Lord, we know that you can. I know that you can heal
me if thou will. And that's how we come. Lord,
I know you can. I know you can. You can deliver
me. I know you can save me. I know
you can help me. I know you can speak comfort
and hope. I know you can save me, if you
will. And when the Lord say, I will,
I will, be thou clean. And immediately, his leprosy
left him, immediately. That's the power. the authority
that he has to speak. Peter, James and John, they had
a very lucrative fishing business. I assume there's indication in
scripture that their father had some means and so they were part
of that business and follow me, I'm gonna make you fishers of
men. And immediately they left their nets. They left Zebedee,
they left the father and they followed Christ. Why? The authority
of his word. And believers want the Lord to
speak to them with that kind of authority. Lord, I need for
you to overrule and override all the other voices and all
the other things and speak to me with authority. "'Cause me,
Lord, to hear thy voice.'" Disciples were on the Sea of
Galilee in a great tempest. Lord cares not that we perish.
Oh, they thought they were gonna die. These were experienced fishermen. They've been on the Sea of Galilee
many times. And yet the storm was so bad that they thought,
this is it, we're gonna die, and the Lord's right here with
us. Peace be still. And all of a
sudden the wind stopped blowing and the sea became like a glass. And disciples looked to themselves
and they said, who is this? Who is this that even the wind
and the rain, the seas are subject unto him? They obey his voice. Who is this? He's God. Here he
is in the synagogue in Capernaum and there's a man who has a demon
who cries out and the Lord shuts him up. The Lord rebukes him. The Lord cast the demon from
him. Just like that. Only the Lord Jesus Christ has
the authority to say at the end of his life, It is finished. Only he has the authority to
declare to God and to the world that everything God sent him
to do, he had accomplished. You and I don't have that authority. We, when we lead this world,
we're looking to what he finished for the hope of our salvation.
We can't depart this world with any hope in what we've finished.
We can't depart this world and say, well, you know, I've done
everything. You know, I've done what God sent me here to do.
You haven't heard people talk like that. You know, he's accomplished
his purpose in life. And so, you know, it's time for,
we can't say that. So many things the Lord would
have would have willed, but so many things we didn't do that
we should have done. Let me just put it like that.
But he was able with authority to say, it's finished. I crossed
every T, I dotted every I, I did exactly what the father sent
me here to do. And I can leave this world knowing
that into my father's hands, I will commit my spirit. He's
the only one who's able to die like that. We have to depart this world
looking to him for his finished work, for our hope. And that's
what faith does. That's what faith does. Once he was in the Gadarenes
and a man there who was naked and chained and cutting himself
with stones and possessed with a legion of demons. And I thought
about what a contrast there is between that demoniac and this
man. This man's in church. There's no indication in the
scriptures that anyone there would have known that he had
a demon. He wasn't wild and crazy until the Lord Jesus walked in.
And then all of a sudden that demon is Is it gonna reveal himself? By irresistibly speaking the
truth about who Christ is. What a difference. Tells us something
about the power of Satan. He doesn't really, Satan doesn't
have to make people wild and crazy in order to have dominion
over them. He has blinded the eyes of them
who believe not. Our eyes were blinded. He had
dominion over us. We're like that man in the church. Don and I were talking yesterday,
I think it was, about there used to be a witch that lived in this
house right here. She came over one time and she
said to me, she said, you know, I'm a witch. She'd already had
all the other people around here scared of her. And I said, well,
I'm a saint and I'm an angel too. And I preach the gospel
and you should come over. And you know, and she, on that
corner over there, we have a Muslim mosque. And on this corner right
over here, we have a free will Baptist church. There's no difference. No difference. Satan's got control
of all of it. You see, he doesn't just manifest
himself in some sort of crazy demonic behavior. He's called an angel of light,
a minister of righteousness, he presents himself He deceives
more people through morality than he does through immorality.
He deceives more people through religion than he does through
irreligion. He's happy to do that. It doesn't
matter to him. It doesn't matter which camp
you fit into. As long as you don't love Christ
and believe on Christ, he has power. And the Lord Jesus Christ
is who he hates. And here's what our text is telling
us. Our God has power over him. Power that was given to him from
heaven. Power that was given to him by his heavenly father.
Turn with me to John chapter five. John chapter five. I need a sovereign with that
kind of power. I've got to have it. I have no power over the evil
forces of my flesh and of this world. I need a sovereign to
control me. I need a sovereign to subdue
me, to have authority over me. I need him to speak a word to
me. John chapter five, Look at verse
25, barely, barely. When the Lord says that, you
know, there's not one of God's words that's more important than
another of God's word. All God's words, perfect and
powerful and effectual and true. And I mean, it's all God's word. But when the Lord says barely,
barely, what he's saying is I'm, Pay special attention because
I'm about to summarize for you a lot of the other truths that
I've been speaking to you. I'm gonna bring it all together
now. Barely, barely. I say unto you, the hour is coming,
and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of
God, and they that hear shall live. We are spiritually dead
when we come into this world. Now here's the promise of God.
The dead are gonna hear the voice of God, And they that hear, they
that have been given ears to hear and rejoice in what they
hear, they're gonna live. That my word is gonna be spoken
with power. For as the father hath life in himself, so hath
he given to the son to have life in himself and hath given unto
him authority, authority to execute judgment also because he is the
son of man. And so when the spirit of God
comes, And he convicts us of our sin because of our unbelief.
He convicts us of our unrighteousness because the Lord Jesus Christ
is our righteousness in the heavens. And he convicts us of judgment
because the prince of this world has been judged. When the Lord
Jesus Christ bowed his head on Calvary's cross, all judgment
and authority over Satan and those that he held captive was
executed to its fullest extent. So that now what has he done?
He leads captivity captive. He takes those who are in captivity
to darkness and makes them captive to himself. That's the authority
we need. That's what he's doing here.
He's casting the demon out of this man that's in church and proves his authority. Proves
his authority. Lazarus, come forth. And Lazarus came out of the grave. All his enemies are subject unto
him. And that's such good news to a sinner because we know that
by nature we're at enmity with God. And even in our current
state, we have things in our lives that stand contrary to the things
of God and we need those, we need to be subdued. All of his
enemies are subject unto him. He is not in the least bit threatened. I don't even know any other way
to say it. How could the Lord? Let's go
to Psalm 2. That's probably the best way
to say it is by God's word, Psalm 2. Clearly it is the best way to
say it. Psalm 2. Look at verse one. Why did the
heathen rage? And the people imagine a vain
thing. The kings of the earth set themselves
and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against
his anointed. All world standing in opposition
against God. They're refusing to bow. They will not believe. Is he
threatened? Is he moved at all by that? They say, let us break their
bands asunder and cast away their cords from us. We'll not have
this man reign over us. He that sitteth in the heavens
shall laugh. The Lord shall have them in derision. Then shall he speak unto them
in his wrath and vex them in his sore displeasure. And here's
what he's going to say. I have set my king upon my holy
hill of Zion and I will declare the decrees, the decree the Lord
has said unto me, thou art my son this day, I have begotten
thee. "'Ask of me and I shall give
thee the heathen for thine inheritance "'and the uttermost parts of
the earth for thy possession. "'And thou shalt break them with
a rod of iron "'and thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's
vessel.'" The Lord Jesus went to the father and asked for the
heathen, those who were held in darkness and in blindness
and the father gave them to him.
Then he comes with a rod of the gospel, crushes our hopes, puts
us to death with the sword of the Spirit, causes us to see
that we are helpless and hopeless without his mercy and without
his grace. The gates of hell shall not prevail
against him. Isn't that what he said? Whom
do you say that I am? Thou art the Christ, the Son
of the living God. Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona,
flesh and blood. Did not reveal this unto you?
My Father, which is in heaven, has made it known unto you and
upon this rock, the declaration that you just made, that I am
the Christ, the anointed one, the Son of God, the one who's
come in full authority. Based on that, I'm going to build
my church. I'm gonna say to my people, come,
and they're gonna come. I'm going to say to them live
and they're going to live and they're going to rejoice in my
authority. The heathens going to rage and they're going to
think they can break my band asunder and they're not going
to bow, but I'm in the heavens holding them in derision. I laugh
at that, at that sort of opposition. It has no effect on our God. Why? Because he has all authority,
all authority. The Lord said, upon this rock,
I'm going to build my church. And the gates of hell shall not
prevail against me. Not going to prevail. I'm going
to be like Samson, that Nazarite. I think in our text, doesn't
this demon call him Jesus of Nazareth? I know who thou art. Yeah. In
verse 24, look at verse 24. Let us alone, what have we to
do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth. Nazareth means separated. That's
why Paul in Acts chapter 21, what he was about to do in taking
the Nazarite vow was so egregious because of all the Old Testament
types, the Lord Jesus Christ is the Nazarite. He's the separated
one. He's the one who's holy, harmless,
separate from sinners, and higher than the heavens. He's the one
who possesses all authority and all power. He's the one who,
like Samson, that Old Testament type of him, who was a Nazirite
from birth, took the gates of Gaza, the two gates of Gaza,
and carried them, I forgot how many miles it was, carried them
out, opened up the city to destruction. Here's the Lord Jesus Christ.
He judged Satan at the cross. He carried away the gates of
hell and he said, hell shall not prevail against me. I'm gonna
go into the very pit of hell and I'm gonna bring my people
out. I have authority over them. Nothing's gonna change that. All power has been given unto
me. in heaven and in earth. Therefore you go, make disciples
of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the
Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever
commanded you. And lo, I am with you always,
and I have all authority and all power." Nothing, nothing
can limit that. This is what this miracle is
about. It's a miracle of such hope and
comfort for those who see that they need a loving sovereign
to have authority over them, to command them, to control them. to speak to them, to comfort
them, to provide for them, to save them, to have authority
over their sin, to put it away, to have authority over their
unbelief, to cause them to believe. 1 John 3, verse 8, for this purpose, Here's what God's Word says,
for this purpose was the Son of God made manifest. What purpose? That he might destroy
the works of the devil. That's what he came to do. Hebrews
chapter 4, turn with me there. I'm sorry, Hebrews chapter 2,
verse 14. For as much then as the children
are partakers of flesh and blood, that's what we are, and that
which is of the flesh is flesh, and the flesh profiteth nothing.
You know that about yourself, don't you, brethren? Your flesh
profits you nothing. It's a dead man that you're bearing
about with you all the time. You need a loving sovereign to
subdue him and to restrain him. For as much then as the children
are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took
part of the same, that through death he might destroy him that
had power over death, that is the devil. That's what he came
to do. For this purpose was the Son of God made manifest that
he might destroy the works of the devil and that's what he
did. That's what this third miracle is telling us. That the demons
have no, they're subject to him. This man was doing fine until
the Lord came in. And then the demon was forced
by the presence of God to speak words that he never would have
spoken on his own. He was forced to expose himself
and to reveal who Christ was, the Nazarite, the Son of God,
the Holy One. Genesis chapter three, verse
15, the very first reference to this after sin came. And we fell. We fell out of fellowship,
we fell out of favor with God as a result of our sin. And the
Lord slew a lamb and clothed us with that righteousness of
the Lamb of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. And he said to the woman,
I will put enmity between He said to Satan, I will put enmity
between thy seed and the woman's seed. I will put enmity between you
and the woman and your seed and her seed. And it, the seed of
the woman, we know that's Christ. He's the seed of the woman. And
it, the seed of the woman, shall bruise the head of the serpent. and the seed of the servant is
gonna bruise the heel of the seed of the woman. And there
we have the very first prophecy of what the Lord would do in
destroying the works of the devil and delivering them who all their
lives were in bondage to death. We didn't read that in Hebrews
chapter two. You still have your Bibles open to Hebrews chapter
two? Here's what he's going to do.
He's going to deliver them, verse 15, who through fear of death
were all their lifetime subject to bondage. For verily, he took
not on him the nature of angels, but he took on him the seed of
Abraham. Wherefore, in all things, it
behooved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might
be a merciful, and faithful high priest in things pertaining to
God to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. For in
that he himself hath suffered, being tempted, he is able to
succor them that are tempted." He's able to help them. He knows. Tried in all ways that we are,
yet without sin, he experienced the full the full temptation
of sin when he bore our sins in his body on the cross and
put them away by the sacrifice of himself. That's what he did. He's a merciful high priest.
He understands. He came to destroy the works
of the devil. That was the fulfillment of the
prophecy that was from the very beginning of the fall. from the
very introduction of sin. That's what the Lord Jesus came
to do. He came to conquer death. He came to put away our sin.
And believing His Word, believing His Word and looking to Him through
His Word and through the eyes of faith, we know that the second
death we have no fear of. That's the casting into eternal
judgment. No fear of the second death.
Why? Because we took part in the first resurrection. When
the Lord Jesus was raised from the dead, we were raised from
the dead. He conquered the grave and he
put away sin. That's what he came to do. He
did it with authority, with the authority of God. And nothing,
nothing could restrain him. Nothing could limit him. You know, the other thing about
this man, and Delphus was asking me yesterday, we were talking
about this passage and back to our text in Mark chapter
one, if the Lord ever cast demons
out of a man, it didn't save him. There's not any clear evidence
of that, I guess, in our text. But I feel like it's implied. I mean, he never would have had
the demons cast out of him had he not been there. And he was
delivered from that. Oh, Lord, the Lord set him free, and that's what That one last thing I want us
to see in this, well, no, two last things, but one of them
is that how many people passed by the Lord Jesus on the
street and how many there were in the synagogue who didn't know
who he was, but this demon knew who he was. What is that a testimony
of? It is the testimony of our depravity. It's the testimony of how much
control Satan really does have over the unbeliever. That they would be blinded to
who Christ is though the demons themselves know who he is. They have more understanding
of who the Lord Jesus is than those who they hold in darkness
have. What a grip. What a power. Lord, they would
have that power over me if you didn't have authority over them,
if you didn't cast the demon out. I wouldn't know who you
are. The demons know more about, look
what he said. called him Jesus of Nazareth,
Jesus the Nazarite. He wasn't just using the word
Nazareth as a place where he was from. He was talking about
the Lord Jesus Christ being holy, being the separated one. Art
thou come to destroy us? He knew the Lord Jesus had power
over him. He knew that whenever the Lord
The Lord was pleased to destroy him. That's what those, the legion
of demons in the Gadarenes, have you come to destroy us? Or to,
before our appointed time? They knew who he was. I know thee who thou art. You're
the Holy One of God. You see, these demons know things
about the Lord Jesus that those who they hold in darkness don't
know. They know things that we didn't
know before the Lord set us free. And Jesus rebuked him. And James put it like this, you
believe that there is one God, you do well. The demons also
believe and they tremble. They know who God is. They don't bow to him. They don't believe on him. They don't rejoice in him. They
just know who he is. And there's the difference. We believe who he is And we rejoice. The Lord put
it like this in 2 Thessalonians 2. He said, God has sent them
a strong delusion that they might believe a lie. Why? Because they
have no love for the truth. They have no love for the truth.
They don't love a sovereign who has authority over them. Faith
loves having a sovereign God who loves them and has absolute
authority over them. They see they need that and they
rejoice in having that. My flesh is still at enmity with
God. It refuses to believe God. Its
lusts and its passions are contrary to God. It's weak and wretched
and I can't subdue it. It is subject to the tempter
and easily swayed by the power of his suggestions. The only
way that Satan can be resisted is in the faith. That's the only
way he can be resisted. What does it mean to resist the
devil in the faith? It means to look to the Lord
Jesus Christ as the only one who has authority to subdue him. The scripture says in the end
he will cast him into the lake of fire and And that'll be the
final death. But in the meantime, we want
him subdued, don't we? We want him resisted. We cry out to Christ to deliver
us, that the Lord would restrain
our old man, all those things about us that are so subject
to Unbelief. Say, preacher, are you suggesting
that we can have the flesh improved? No. No. Never improved. But restrained. Restrained. And only the Lord Jesus Christ,
who has authority, has the power to do that. And we come to Him
daily for that, don't we? All right, let's stand together,
Tom. Number 34, number 34, let's stand
together. ? It is finished, sinners hear
it ? Hear the dying saviors cry ? Hear the Lord himself declare
it ? Justice has been satisfied ? It is finished, go proclaim
it ? Two poor sinners far and wide ? Holy Spirit, make them
hear it ? Jesus Christ, four sinners died ? It is finished,
all is over ? Jesus drank, damnation dried ? What a Savior, what a
Savior ? See Him now exalted high ? It is finished, look behold
Him ? Seated at His Father's side ? Yonder on the throne behold
Him ? Christ our substitute who died It is finished, hear him
pleading, as our advocate on high, his own blood's great merit
pleading, pleading justice satisfied. It is finished, can you hear
Him? All the work is fully done. Now believing, looking to Him,
we are saved by God's own Son.