Well, just for a break before
we go away for three weeks, I wanted to bring you to Luke chapter
11. I often quote Matthew chapter 12 verses 28 and 29 about the
strongman taking over the stronger man taking over
from the strong man of the house. It's something that Jesus said.
And last week, I had cause to quote the verses after that about
blasphemy against the Holy Spirit by not believing the gospel.
And whilst we're there, the preceding verse caught my eye again. We
were thinking about God justly forgiving sins for the salvation
of his people in Isaiah, where God, in the midst of all sin,
makes the statement that he is the one who forgives the transgression
of his people. And this made me think, looking
at that verse in Matthew, it made me think about Satan's role
in the reality of sin, in the reality of just condemnation,
in the reality of hell. And so I started to read, looking
into Matthew 12, 28, and 29. And then that took me, because
in Luke chapter 11, there's actually a somewhat clearer rendering
of that incident. And reading around the subject,
I've been, I think, taught of faithful men from the past. So
perhaps what Paul said to Timothy, you know what Paul said to Timothy?
He said, the things that you have heard of me, among many
witnesses the things that I've taught you the same commit thou
to faithful men go and teach them to other men and teaching
them to other men they other men shall be able to teach others
also so I feel as though I've been taught something from reading
what others have had to say about these verses faithful men in
the past and I hope I can pass on to you and maybe one day Somebody
might pass it on to somebody else. What is Satan's role in
sin and the separation of man from God? How is Satan subdued
and defeated? Here's our text this morning.
It's Luke chapter 11. Peter read it to us earlier.
Verse 21. Verses 21 and 22. He said this, When a strong man
armed, keepeth his palace, his goods
are in peace. But when a stronger than he shall
come upon him, and overcome him, he taketh from him all his armour
wherein he trusted, and divideth his spoils. Now, if you remember
from the passage we read, Christ had been casting out a demon,
And some there had said, well, how's he doing this? How's he
casting out this? He's somebody who's clearly demon-possessed,
and there the devil's gone out of him, and he's there, sane
and in his right mind again. How is he doing this? And some
said, oh, he's doing it by the power of Satan, the chief of
the devils, by Beelzebub. And Jesus said to them, a house
divided against itself will not stand. You don't cast out devils
by the power of the devil. You know, everybody knows in
politics in these days the worst thing that a political party
can be is divided amongst itself. Unity is the thing that people
look for. No, and he said it's the same with the kingdom. If
I was doing this by the power of Satan, Satan's kingdom would
be divided against itself. That's stupid. That's just illogical.
No, if I, with the finger of God, cast out devils, no doubt
the kingdom of God has come upon you. That's how I'm doing it,
with the finger of God. It's the kingdom of God. It's
a manifestation of the coming of the kingdom of God. Because
God's perfect purpose in this creation is to overthrow the
kingdom of Satan, which this world has become, at the fall
in the Garden of Eden, and restore his own kingdom, triumphant over
everything. So he says, when a strong man
armed keepeth his palace, his goods are in peace. The strong
man's situation, let's think about that first of all. This
strong man is Beelzebub. It's Satan. Satan. Other names
for him you'll find in scripture are Lucifer, Lucifer, this idea
of this glorious being that was created by God but rebelled against
God and was cast out of heaven, as we'll see in a moment. His
name is Lucifer, son of the morning, Beelzebub. Other names for him
that we find in Revelation are Apollyon or Abaddon, and he's
called the dragon. He's One who was, it is thought,
one of the highest, if not the highest creation of God. And
yet he rebelled against God. A heavenly rebellion against
God. And he was cast out of heaven.
Isaiah chapter 14 tells us this. In verse 12, in Isaiah 14, we
read this. How art thou fallen from heaven,
O Lucifer, son of the morning? How art thou, this is speaking
about the devil, being banished from heaven because of his sin.
How art thou cut down to the ground which didst weaken the
nations? For thou hast said in thine heart,
This is what Satan said. Look at the pride of it. I will
ascend into heaven. I will exalt my throne above
the stars of God. I will sit also upon the mount
of the congregation in the sides of the north. In other words,
I will take my place of power and authority in what is really
God's kingdom. I will ascend above the heights
of the clouds. I will be like the Most High.
But this is what God says. Yet, Thou, Lucifer, shalt be
brought down to hell to the sides of the pit. You'll be brought
down. He's cast out of heaven. He came into God's creation in
Eden, in the Garden of Eden. And there in the fall, in the
Garden of Eden, you read about it in Genesis chapter 3, where
God had created everything and that all good and he'd created
Adam and from Adam he'd made Eve and all things were good
and there was no sin and it was the perfect kingdom of God there
and God had delegated the rule of the kingdom of God to Adam. But Eve, whom Adam loved, let
Satan into that kingdom. He let Satan in. So we read in
the scripture, we read in Romans chapter 5 and verse 12, by one
man, he's speaking of Adam, by one man, sin entered into the
world. and death by sin. And so death
passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. That's the case. As a result of that fall in Eden,
all of us, without exception, are sinners before God. We're
judged as sinners. We have that streak of rebellion
against the living God in our hearts. And now, Satan exerts
his power over all of the human race. That's the way it is. the
Prince of the Power of the Air. He's the God of this world. It
says in 2 Corinthians 4 and verse 4, he says, the God of this world.
Who's that? It's Satan. The God of this world has blinded
the minds of them which believe not. And we see it today all
around us, in humanity all around us. What do we see today? We
see the blinding that Satan has caused. We see that Everywhere,
rather than the faith of God, rather than the faith of God's
elect, everywhere we see trust in rationalism and materialism. That's the spirit of this age
in which we live. We see that. Why do we see that?
Why do we see eminent people, greatly loved people in the public
arena, who are bowed down to as the great gurus of our age,
you know, highly professional, responsible people, and they
say they have no knowledge of God, and as far as they're concerned,
they see no evidence for God. Why is that? Why is that? I don't
care how clever and renowned they are, their minds have been
blinded by the God of this world. That's it. Even the most eminent
of them, I won't name names but I'm sure you can think of who
I'm thinking of, they are so highly respected and yet they're
blinded by the God of this world. And then we see, what other tricks
does he use? There's heathen idolatry. There's
literally billions of people in heathen idolatry. They're
religious, but they have no knowledge of the true God. Why? Because
Satan has blinded the minds of them which believe not the truth.
And then there are the religious fanatics who in the name of their
religion will kill and maim and commit terrorism and all sorts
of terrible acts in revenge for that and so on and so forth.
It's just a realm of complete turmoil. Religious fanaticism. Why is there that? It's because
Satan has blinded the minds of them which believe not. And religious
superstition is everywhere, is it not? And there's, now you'll
be shocked when I say this, Christian delusion as well. Because there's
an awful lot of so-called Christianity in this world, but it's a deluded
Christianity. It's the delusion of Arminianism.
which believes in the free will and the ability of the natural
man to save himself. There is the delusion of so-called
Christian Romanism, Catholicism, and everything that goes with
it, of all of the sects, all of the false sects that peddle
falsehood concerning the truth of God, who add to the Scriptures
and take away from the Scriptures. There's the delusion, the Christian
delusion, of legalism, which though they say they believe
the true gospel, the religion that they peddle is a religion
of works, and of bondage, and of legalism. There's the delusion
of antinomianism, which to the other extreme says you can live
as you like. It's all there because the God of this world has blinded
the minds of them which believe not. And all of it displays Satan's
power over mankind. It's also even true, I've been
talking about that which isn't true, but there is a true church
that preaches the true gospel, and there's even discord there,
isn't there? Yes, there is. Paul said, even
in his day, writing to the Philippians, he said, some preach Christ of
envy and strife. I rejoice that they preach Christ,
but they're still doing it out of wrong motives, envy and strife. And we see that today. What do
I mean? I mean, there are those in this country of ours that
preach the true gospel of God's sovereign grace in Christ alone.
They preach particular redemption. They preach the gospel here,
and yet they'll have nothing to do with us. because of secondary
matters, like women's head coverings and closed communion and things
like that. They make those secondary matters
matters of primary separation. And it's envy and strife. Why
do they do it? Satan. Satan. Satan. Even amongst the true Church
of God, Satan is there, causing division. He's mighty to deceive. Let's be in no doubt, He's mighty
to deceive me. I'm deceived by Him. Individual
believers, He trips me constantly with snares and temptations.
He has a go at my flesh and the weakness of my flesh and tempts
it. He's much stronger than man.
He's much stronger than any of us. If I asked you which book
did John Bunyan write, you would say, well, The Pilgrim's Progress
and the sequel of it for his wife, and yes, we know and we
love it well, but he also wrote a book called The Holy War, in
which he depicted the war for the for the fortress which is
mankind, or individual man. And he calls the place Mansoul. And he pictures it as a castle,
a fortified castle. And in the center of the castle
ruling there is Satan. He's in his palace. It's his
palace. This is how Bunyan describes,
it's very vivid. You ought to get the book if
you haven't already. It's really good because he hits the nail
so on the head about so many things about us. And is it not
exactly what verse 21 says, when a strong man armed keepeth his
palace, his goods are in peace. Satan is in the natural heart
of man. It's his palace and he defends
it with all his strength. And what does it say? He's suitably
armed, a strong man armed. What's he armed with? What is
it that he armed? Remember, we're not talking about
physical battles. No, no, no. We're talking about
spiritual battles. What is he armed with, this strong
man that is Satan? In mankind, you look at the swathes
of mankind and virtually everyone you see has Satan in his palace,
strongly armed and at peace. What's he armed with? He's armed
with the armor of human fleshly weakness. Let's think about some
of the elements he uses as his armor to defend, to keep his
palace, his palace of Manso, as we are by nature as we're
born. Number one, This is a good defense
mechanism that he uses. He uses human ignorance. Human
ignorance. Most people are completely ignorant
about the things of God. Not only do they have no knowledge
of it, they rejoice in their ignorance about it. Even the
cleverest people you will come across have a sort of a rejoicing
spirit about the ignorant state that they're in regarding the
things of God. They want nothing to do with it. Why? Because 2
Corinthians 4 verse 4, again, the God of this world has blinded
the minds of them which believe not. Their understanding is made
ignorant. The natural man is incapable
of perceiving the things of God. We know this. Paul tells us elsewhere,
he says, the natural man doesn't receive the things of the Spirit
of God. They're foolishness to him. Neither can he know them.
Why? Because they're spiritually discerned. And what does the
natural man not have in his natural state? Spiritual discernment.
Why? Because the God of this world,
Satan, has blinded his mind, so he doesn't see these things.
He has no knowledge. of the character of God, the
existence of God, the character of God, the holiness of God,
the law of God, the justice of God. You see, when a soul who
has been overcome by the Lord Jesus Christ and has been subdued
by the Spirit of God, looks out on a sunny morning like this,
you see it everywhere. We used to sing a hymn, we haven't
sung it for a long time, but it says, something, what is it? Earth above is deeper green,
sky above is brighter blue, something shines that Christless eyes have
never seen. I can't remember the words exactly,
but you see what I mean. I look out there and I just see
the handiwork of God in everything I see. I just see everything
is fearfully and wonderfully made. Just everything speaks
to me. It's got the fingerprints of
God all over it. And yet the God of this world
has blinded the minds of men and women in general. And through
ignorance, their ignorance, Satan keeps man's soul numb to God,
insensitive to... They say, oh, I've got no feelings
for God. No, that's because Satan keeps you in that condition,
insensitive to the things of God. That's a solid piece of
armor he uses, is mankind's ignorance. Secondly, he uses unbelief, doesn't
he? Unbelief, he uses that. What
did he say first of all in the Garden of Eden to Eve? What was
the first question? Has God really said? Has God
really said? Surely God hasn't really said. No, no. And Eve says, well, God
said we can eat of all the trees in the garden, but of the fruit
of the tree that's in the middle of the garden, we must not eat
of it in case we die. No, he didn't say in case we
die. He said you shall surely die. and so Satan sowed seeds
of doubt and Eve clutched at those seeds of doubt and believed
him and disbelieved God and believed his lie and took the fruit and
ate it because it looked good to her and Satan's proposition
convinced her and deceived her and because she'd eaten it and
because I believe this anyway that Adam loved Eve and out of
love for Eve he knew what he was doing it tells us the reason
I believe it is because it tells us in the New Testament Adam
was not deceived Adam knew what he was doing. For love of his
wife, Adam took that fruit and ate also. And in the process,
as we've already read, he plunged all of the human race into sin
and separation. And what's the evidence for it?
All have sinned. We cannot deny it. Which of you,
said Jesus to that accusing crowd with the woman taken in adultery,
and they said, the law says she should be stoned. and he wrote
down on the ground in the dust, and I think he was writing out
elements of the law, I don't know what he was writing, but
they all looked down at him writing, and then he looked up at them,
and he said, write then. Yes, the law says she should
be stoned. Let whoever of you is without sin cast the first
stone at her. All of them. All of these hypocritical
accusers, every single one of them, none of them was able to
stand. They all turned and left because
they knew that when they examined their own hearts, they were those
sinners. They have all sinned. And God
uses unbelief. Sorry, Satan uses unbelief. to
doubt the existence and the truth and the gospel of God. He uses
that unbelief. Do you remember the man who Jesus
said to him, do you believe? And he said, Lord, I believe.
Help thou mine unbelief, because I know in my flesh I am weak,
and I need help to believe truly. As the gospel is preached, Satan
puts up his shield of unbelief. Maybe there are some listening
to this or the recording, and you're thinking, And Satan puts
up that shield from within his citadel in Mansoul. He puts up
his shield of unbelief, that you don't believe it because
it doesn't quite ring true for me. Alright for you lot, but
not for me. Thirdly, Which armor does he
use? He makes people numb to God's
word regarding sin and judgment. You know, when the word cries
out about sin and judgment coming, he makes people numb to it. That's
another element of his armor. He makes them so that they don't
feel. You know how the Philippian jailer
in that night, that rough, rough man, and he was keeping Paul
and Silas in prison. and the city was in an uproar
against them and his job was to keep them safe to be brought
before the magistrates in the morning and no doubt they were
going to do violence to them if not kill them and there was
an earthquake Paul and Silas were singing hymns and praying
there was an earthquake and that man suddenly saw, by the grace
of God, the condition that he was in, the peril that he was
in, that he was going to die for not doing his job properly,
but it was going to cast him, I don't know what the hymns were
that they were singing, but the message was used of the Spirit
of God to have a powerful effect on that man, and he knew the
peril that he was in. The numbness that the natural
man has as one of Satan's pieces of armor to defend against the
truth, that numbness was taken away in a moment and he cried
out, what must I do to be saved? I'm in peril, what must I do
to be saved? Satan does that, he makes people
numb to that. And he makes people naturally
opposed to the truth of God regarding the gospel. Are we not? You preach a God that people
in their natural state will like, and they'll all become religious,
and they'll all gather together in their crowds, and sing their
choruses, and do all the things that they want to do, and have
their outreaches, and all the rest of it, and try to do all
of their good works. But you preach what the Scriptures
teach about the gospel of God, that it's a gospel of particular
redemption, that it's a gospel of sovereign grace, that it's
a gospel that says at its heart what God said about Esau and
Jacob. He said, Jacob have I loved and
Esau have I hated. And you preach that and the majority
will say as the crowd did to Jesus, In John chapter 6, when
he was preaching the truth of God, no man can come to me unless
the Father draws him. This is the will of the Father
that sent me, that of all he has given me, I should lose nothing,
but should raise it up at the last day. All of these things
he was saying, none of you can come unless the Father draws
you. It's all of sovereign grace,
he was saying. And what did the crowd say? in their natural defense
against it, with Satan lifting up his armor against it, they
all said, this is a hard saying. Who can bear it? Who can believe
this? This is a hard saying. The natural
man doesn't like this. When Jesus said to his disciples,
the world will hate you, And we all think, oh no, it won't. We all need to be tolerant. Religious
freedom is what our society wants. We all need to be tolerant of
one another. No, no, the world won't hate you. You preach that,
and you watch the reaction. You preach that and you watch
the reaction. The world hates the gospel of Jesus Christ because
it's a gospel of sovereign grace and particular redemption. And
it's the gospel revealed in this book without any shadow of a
doubt. Absolutely, from front to back,
that is the message of this book. Absolutely. He puts up as another
piece of armor, he puts up a shield of pride. Isn't the human heart
a proud thing? Isn't it proud? Was that not
Satan's original sin, his pride? We read about it in Isaiah 14,
you know, I will exalt myself to such and such a position.
I will take the place of God. He puts up a shield of pride.
Oh, that means that I get down off, if I believe this, I have
to get down off my high horse. I have to bow to what God says.
Ooh, no, I'm not doing that. Shield of armor. Puts up a shield
of armor. And he fills his palace with
worldly logic. About what? What am I talking
about? He fills his palace, think about this carefully, He fills
his palace with worldly logic about life's ambitions. The things
you've got to do to have a good experience in this life, the
things you've got to do, the places you've got, oh you must,
oh you've just got to do it. And don't you get rather annoyed
when you get this, oh you really must go there, and Lord willing,
we're going to do it. No, no, no, you get in your own
way you're going to do it. You get in your own way is how
you're going to do it. He puts the world's logic in
the heart concerning life's ambitions. Don't get me wrong, it's good
to have ambition. If you don't have ambition to do something,
you do nothing. But, you know, I was saying to Christine earlier
on, Because we're just about to do this trip, you know, people
say, oh, is that something on your bucket list? Do you know
I have a fundamental problem with the idea of a bucket list?
For believers, I really, really do. I have a fundamental problem
with the idea. The only bucket list I'm interested
in is God's bucket list for me. And if his bucket list for me
is I stay here and don't go more than 20 miles from home, that's
his will. I'll cope with it. I'll cope
with it. You know, the whole concept of it is no more than
50 years old, is it? Since the days of modern jet
travel, it's only been possible. The vast 99% of people on the
planet never went more than about 10 or 20 miles from their home
a hundred years ago. That's just the way it was. Bucket
list? No, no. But Satan fills the mind
with the world's logic about life's ambitions, about the wealth
that you must have. Why is there all the fanaticism
about winning the lottery? Because everybody's utterly obsessed
that the one thing that will change their life for good is
winning the lottery. I tell you, it's the one thing
that will change your eternal life, it will ruin your eternal
life. Wealth. Career. You've got to do something. You've got to be responsible.
Don't get me wrong. Don't get me wrong. You've got
to do that. But all this stuff about life's thrills, and all
this stuff about you know, the tradition that we've inherited
and keeping it up and all the rest of it. You see, all of this
in Mansoul is what Satan puts there to arm his palace against
the truth of God. And his goods, what are his goods? What's Satan's goods in the palace? The soul of the people, that's
his goods, their hearts. My son, give me your hearts,
says the scripture. They're in peace. Why are they
in peace? Why with Satan there, and with
all this armor up against the truth of God, why are they in
peace? The answer is this. It's a false
peace. Because the divine light has
been switched off. It's in darkness. The people
that dwelt in darkness. They're not troubled by a sense
of God. They're not troubled by a sense
of sin. You know, people say, oh, you need to get rid of your
religion. It's causing you too much psychological disturbance,
all this thought about sin and guilt and all the rest of it.
No, people are not troubled by these things. They're not troubled
that there's such a thing as the justice of God and the judgment
of God and what He demands, what His law demands. They're content
to follow the broad way that leads, where did Jesus say it
leads? It leads to destruction, but
not so for God's elect. not so for God's elect. In verse
22 it says, when a stronger than he, stronger than Satan, shall
come upon him, upon man's soul, and overcome him, he takes from
him all his armour wherein he trusted, and divides his spoils. No, Christ has come And for his
people, he has overcome Satan. He's taken the armour away and
divided the spoils. How has Christ come? And how
has Christ's victory over Satan accomplished his purpose? How
has he overcome Satan? Well firstly, firstly and clearly,
Christ has overcome Satan at the cross of Calvary. when he
bruised his head. It says in Genesis 3.15, speaking
to the serpent, God says about the seed of the woman, which
is Christ, God manifests in the flesh, that when He comes, He
says, you will bruise His heel, and He did at the cross, but
He said, He will bruise your head. He will crush your head.
He will destroy your power. And He did. When Christ came,
when the child was born of the woman, Revelation 12, He came,
and by what He did when He came as a man in the body that was
prepared, when he lived this life in perfect obedience to
the law of God, when he established righteousness, when he honored
the law, when he did everything according to the righteousness
and justice of God, and then when he bore the sins of his
people, when he was made sin for his people on the cross of
Calvary, and there the law vented its wrath on him that was due
on his people, and thereby he paid redemption's price for the
sins of his people, so that the law of God was satisfied, so
that the books of God declare no debt outstanding against the
people of God, he disarmed Satan's accusation of the brethren. You
know what it says, don't you? In Romans chapter 8 and verses
33 and 34, who shall bring any charge against God's elect? Who
shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that
justifies. Who is he that condemns? You
see, Satan is called the accuser of the brethren in Revelation
chapter 12. He says, you're not entitled
to be in heaven, you're mine. You're man's soul and that's
mine. And by what Christ did, there's no accusation to bring
because he's completely disarmed him. Christ has died, yea rather
he's risen again, who is even at the right hand of God who
makes intercession for us. He led Satan captive, it tells
us that in Colossians chapter 2, Colossians chapter 2 and Verse 14, he blotted out on the
cross, in his death on the cross, in his shed blood, he blotted
out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us. That's the
broken law, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the
way, nailing it to his cross. and having spoiled principalities
and powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over
them in it. In the very moment when Satan
thought he was victorious over Christ and had destroyed the
seed that would come to take his kingdom away from him, there
at that very moment he found himself utterly defeated, utterly
disarmed, and absolutely furious, he comes down into the world
to persecute the children of the woman. No, Christ defeated
the power of death, Hebrews 2.14. Through death, through Christ's
death, he might destroy him that had the power of death, that
is the devil. And so he removed one of Satan's strongest defences
of man's soul. One of his strongest defences
is he says, you can't escape and rise up to God. But Christ
removed that. For the soul that's afflicted
with sin, the soul that's afflicted with its offence against God,
and feels nothing other than the condemnation, the just condemnation
of God, Satan says you can't escape. But in what Christ did,
there is the escape. By regeneration, by the Holy
Spirit coming and giving new life, Christ dispossessed Satan
of his palace. By Holy Spirit regeneration,
You know, you are dead in trespasses and sins, says Ephesians 2. Children
of wrath even as others. But Christ came and quickened
you, and made you alive, and gave you faith. By grace are
you saved, through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is
the gift of God. He quickened and gave repentance
and faith. And the Lord of life came into
that soul, that man's soul. And Christ is stronger than Satan
by virtue of what? Well, he's God. He's got to be
greater. He's got to be more powerful
and stronger. And also, not just that, but
by virtue of his accomplished redemption, which cancelled all
of the accusation that Satan could bring. God's light and
God's Spirit are what alone can dispossess Satan. People that
walked in darkness have seen a great light. This is the light
of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. 2 Corinthians 4 verse 6. He comes
and takes away that armour. How does he take it away? He
takes away ignorance. How does he take away ignorance?
He shines the light of divine truth on it, so that that which
once seemed false and nonsense to you becomes truth. You who
are converted, you tell me, you listening, you know that when
that light of divine truth came in and shined in your heart to
give you the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ, the darkness of Satan was dispelled then,
it was dispelled. You see things as God sees them.
His Word is alive. He dispelled unbelief. Satan
strove, whenever the Gospel is preached, Satan strives to strengthen
this defense. When Mansoul is attacked with
the Gospel light, he puts up his defenses. And so we see in
the Acts of the Apostles, Paul speaking to Felix, and Felix
is almost persuaded to be a Christian. But Satan successfully puts up
his barrier, puts up his shield. And does it not happen with so
many? But not with all. Not with all, no. For with his
people, God comes and by grace, you are saved through faith.
And that, not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. It removes
the unbelief. And the stony heart, you know,
the stony heart of flesh that has no time or thought, however
clever for the things of the living God. In Ezekiel 36 and
verse 26, God says to his people, a new heart also will I give
you and a new spirit will I put within you. And I will take away
the stony heart out of your flesh, the hard, cold heart. the stony
heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh,
and I will put My Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in
My statutes, and you shall keep My judgments and do them." What
are those statutes? They're gospel statutes. They're
the truth of the gospel of God's grace. The light of not-God coming
in takes the enmity that there naturally is, how people hate
the things of God, and replaces it with love. So Romans 5 tells
us, the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost
which is given to us. That coming in of the Holy Ghost
gives us the love of God, and so the natural enmity, that defense
of Satan against the truth of God is taken away. Pride and
self-confidence is taken away. We read it in Philippians 3 verse
3, we are the true circumcision, the true people of God. who worship
God in the Spirit, who rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence
in the flesh. The self-confidence of pride
naturally is taken away by Gospel truth. And God's people are made
willing, Psalm 110 verse 3, in the day of His power. He's stronger
than Satan. He's conquered by the Prince
of Peace. Thus Christ, the stronger man,
dispossesses the strong man of Mansoul. He dispossesses him.
But here's an interesting thing. Did you notice this right at
the end of verse 22? and divideth his spoils." Having won, you
know the spoils are what's left over after the battle, and the
triumphant army would go and would spoil the enemy. It happened
even in all wars now, Second World War, you know, they'd find
a place where A load of soldiers of one side or the other had
been destroyed and they'd be taking their watches and their
little trinkets and their mementos and their bits and pieces. It's
the sort of thing, the spoils. Well, it says here, he divides
the spoils. Why does he not have them all
to himself? Well, listen, what are the spoils of Mansoul? What are the parts of Mansoul?
Well, Christ takes most of them, but it says here that he leaves
some to Satan for now. Christ takes the understanding. Christ takes that. That's his
spoil, the understanding of Mansoul that he's conquered. The eyes
of your understanding being enlightened, says Ephesians 1.18. He takes
the heart. Proverbs 23, 26, my son, give
me your heart. He takes that. When Christ comes
in, he takes the conscience, the conscience. The conscience
is the thing that in many, many people is pretty dead and numb.
We see all the knife murders going on around us in our society
today, and you think, where is their conscience? And one of
the things that he's often said in court, there is no hint of
remorse. There is no hint of conscience, that what they've
done is wrong. But for the child of God, the conscience is made
alive to the things of God. Holding the mystery of faith
in a pure conscience, says Paul to Timothy. The affections, the
things we love. We used to love the things, you
know, that old hymn says, I hewed out broken cisterns. to hold
water. Broken systems, Lord, that can
hold no water. You know, none but Christ can
satisfy. There used to be broken systems. He's quoting Jeremiah.
Rather than the fountain of living waters, a system which just holds
stagnant water and it ends up broken and hot. That's the world.
That's how Scripture pictures the world. But now, the things
of God and His kingdom. They're the things that have
grasped the attention and the affection and the soul which
He redeemed. the soul which he redeemed with
his own blood. Psalm 71 verse 23, my soul which
thou hast redeemed, Christ has redeemed with his own precious
blood, paid for it, bought it with his own precious blood.
But some of the spoils of man's soul he leaves to Satan for this
earthly pilgrimage, as he did with Job. as he did with Peter. He said to Simon, Peter, Simon,
Simon, behold, Satan has desired to have you, that he may sift
you as wheat. But Christ limited Satan's power.
He said to Job, you can have a go at him, but save his life.
And for Peter, he said, but I have prayed for you that your faith
fail not. For his own purposes, For the
eternal good of his people, having repossessed them, Christ allows
Satan still to have some of the spoils, to work on the body,
as he did with Job, as he did with the woman with the spirit
of infirmity in Luke 13, as he does with us as believers today. What does Satan work on? What
are his spoils? Well, he has a go at the body
with health, doesn't he? Health, health problems, health
issues. We hear of dear friends who are
suffering the effects of Satan being allowed to have the spoils
of the body. He works on the nerves. I can't
understand what happened to me. Yeah, Satan having a go at your
natural nerves, at your senses, at your temptations, via the
ear, the eye, the tongue, but it's always limited. He lets
him attack the imagination. He lets him attack the lusts,
and the temper, and the pride, and the rebellion, and the moods,
all of these things, but only to the extent of God's permission.
We need to understand that that's how it is. In this life, how
is it with you? Is the strong man still possessing
you as his palace, or has the stronger man, Christ, dispossessed
him? How can you tell? Are things
all at peace with you? I'd be concerned. I'd be concerned. If things are all at peace with
you, you've got a problem. Because in the child of God,
in the child of God who is with understanding and all those other
things taken by Christ, if there's no concern with things that attack
the flesh, no conviction, no doubts, no fears, no sorrows,
it could be Satan's false peace. But where Jesus has taken possession,
Satan keeps trying to disturb the peace. It's because in this
life as believers, we're a camp of two armies. On the one hand,
the old flesh. On the new hand, the Spirit of
God. The new man of the Spirit of
God. And the flesh and the Spirit, they're contrary to one another.
But here's the thing, and I'll finish with this. That condition,
whilst we can understand it from this, it's only for this life. It's only in this flesh. There's
the good hope of the gospel, is there not? There's the hope,
the confident hope, that we will soon be released from this situation. We'll soon be released from it,
and there will be a heaven, and a new body, and a new heaven
and earth, and no sin, and no crying, and no tears, all things
made new. That's the prospect we have when
the stronger man has come and finally completes his kingdom.
Amen.