Let's turn in our Bibles to Ephesians
chapter 2. Our text is found in the second
half of verse 2. Wherein in time past you walked
according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit
that now worketh in the children of disobedience. In time past you walked according
to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now
worketh in the children of disobedience. Are you possessed Men, as they are born into this
world the first time, are under the power of the devil. And he
keeps sinners living in disobedience to God. Are you possessed? The text says, in time past you
walked according to the prince of the power of the air. The
spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience. God says the children of disobedience
right now have the spirit of the prince of the power of the
air effectually working. That's what this word means,
now worketh. It means effectually working. of the prince of the power of
the air effectually working in them. Are you possessed of Satan? That's a frightening thought.
It's a very frightening thought. Every unregenerate sinner that's
sitting here right now, or that's listening to this message right
now, is under the power of the devil. and every believer that's sitting
here now or that's listening to this, in time past we were
under the power of the devil. Wherein in time past you walked
according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit
that now worketh in the children of disobedience. I want to look
first of all at some of the ways that Satan works. And then secondly,
the advantage he has over sinners. And then thirdly, how he's overthrown. How he is overthrown. First of
all, let's consider some of the ways that Satan works. Satan
uses worldly influence. He uses worldly influence, the
course of this world. Read verse 2 again. In time past
we 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. The devil's title here is prince. And it means ruler. That's what
it means, ruler. The ruler. Now, it does not mean
he has power over God. We noted this on Sunday that
it's by God's permission only that Satan does anything. We
saw that in Job. We saw that in 1 Peter where
he said he seeketh whom he may devour. God restrains what does
not bring glory to him. He restrains it. Now the devil
had no power to make Christ do anything when he walked this
earth. Christ said, Hereafter I will not talk much with you,
for the prince of this world cometh and hath nothing in me. He could not make Christ turn
from faithfulness to the Father. He couldn't do it. He tried,
but he couldn't. The devils had to ask Christ for permission
to go wherever he would have them to go. Remember when he
cast those devils out, he commanded them to come out of the gathering.
And the scripture says, So the devils besought Christ, saying,
If thou cast us out, suffer us to go away into the herd of swine.
They had to ask him permission. Only when Christ gave himself
to be nailed to the cursed tree was Satan given power to inflict harm upon our Savior. That was the only time. And now
Christ is risen. And the scripture says there
in Ephesians 121, He's far above all principality and power. All might, all dominion ever
named this name not only in this world but in the world to come.
Christ is over all. He's over all. Now in the context,
this title Prince means the devil is ruler over unregenerate men
throughout the world. That's who he's the ruler over.
In Revelation 12, in verses 9 and 10, this is what he's called.
He's called the great dragon, he's called that old serpent,
the devil, Satan, and listen to this, which deceiveth the
whole world. the accuser of our brethren,
which accused them before our God day and night. Now, he doesn't
deceive those that are born in the Spirit of God. God doesn't
permit that. Christ doesn't permit that. But
he's the deceiver of the whole unregenerate world. He's the
deceiver. Satan, by God's permission, rules
unregenerate sinners. He rules them. And by that, the
devil rules the course of this unregenerate world. Over Him is God. He can't do
anything but what God permits Him to do. And God only permits
Him to do that which glorifies God. For of Him and through Him
and to Him are all things to whom be glory forever. Amen.
That's our God. That's who He is. But Satan rules
unregenerate men. He's called here the prince of
the power of the air. It doesn't mean that he has power
over the air. It signifies his power over sinners. All through the book of Ephesians,
the same word that's translated power is used, meaning a superior
power over men. And it's used mostly about God. But over in Ephesians 6, look
over there at Ephesians 6 verse 12. There it speaks of the powers
of evil. He says, Ephesians 6 verse 12,
he says, we wrestle not Ephesians 6, 12. We wrestle not against
flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers. You see that? Against the rulers
of the darkness of this world. Against spiritual wickedness
in high places. Wherefore, take unto you the
whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the
evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand, therefore, having
your loin skirt about with truth, having on the breastplate of
righteousness, and your feet shod with the preparation of
the gospel of peace. And above all, taking the shield
of faith, whereby you shall be able to quench all the fiery
darts of the wicked, the helmet of salvation, the sword of the
Spirit, which is the Word of God, and pray in all ways, in
prayer and supplication in the Spirit, watching thereunto with
all perseverance and supplication for all saints. But you see there
that word power, the prince of the power of the air means he
has the rule. He rules over men and his power
is superior to men. The devil is not omnipresent.
Like God is. That means he's not everywhere
at once. And he can't be everywhere at
once. God's omnipresent. He can be everywhere at once.
But Satan can't be. But the devil doesn't have to
be everywhere at once. He doesn't have to be. And I'll
show you why. You take an illustration of a
spider web. A spider weaves a web. And it's almost invisible in
the air. You can't hardly see it. But
the spider weaves this web and then she doesn't have to be present
to catch her prey. She can catch her prey even though
she's not even present. As soon as she catches her prey,
immediately she's there on her prey. As soon as she catches
her prey. Well, the spider would be more like Satan if she could
get the flies to weave the web. If she could get the flies to
weave the web in which she catches more flies. Because the devil
is able to persuade unregenerate sinners to weave themselves into
an unbreakable bond with him. A bond they can't break anyway.
And he uses that as the course of this world. That's how the
course of this world is set and running and flowing by that power
that he has so that he entangles more and more and more sinners
in that course, in that stream, in that current, in that flow,
in that well. He plays upon what sin has already
done to sinners. That's what He plays upon. One
of the great fears that's produced by sin is this. Now listen to
this. One of the great fears that is produced by sin is a
fear of not fitting in with the majority. That's a fear that's
due to sin. It's caused by sin. And sin makes
us envious of others. It makes us want to have what
others have and to be like others. And sin makes us crave the applause
of men. That's what sin does. And Satan
plays upon this sinful fear and he plays upon this sinful envy
that's already in men because of the fall, because of our sin
nature. You take trends for example,
worldly trends. Who makes trends? You ever wondered
about that? You ever wonder how did that
get to be popular? And sometimes you look and it's
just like the whole world just seems to all of a sudden just
go after, just all together just go after this certain trend.
When you were young, when we were young, trends Trends like
music and dress and homes and cars and decoration, how things
are decorated. Trends in business, trends in
politics, even in fleshly churches. They go by trends too. They'll
do one thing for a while and then it doesn't become popular
anymore and they stop doing it and pick up something else. But
all those trends seem new to you when you were young. They
all seem new. And this is the best thing never
been anything like this. And then, and they are new, while
you're young, they're new to the youngest generation, that's
who they're new to. But after 30 or 40 years, you
realize there's nothing new. There's nothing new. And then
you start realizing the same old trends are being marketed
to a new generation. They're just dressed maybe a
little differently, changed a little differently, but they're marketed
to a new generation. And by this, the course of this
world is steered, it's directed, it's turned. And the devil entangles
the next generation of young sinners in the course, in the
flow of the world, so that they can't get out of it. And it goes
on from one generation after another generation, just like
that, keeps going, the course of this world. And you take an
old sinner, he's seen it all. He's seen all the trends. An
old unregenerate sinner, he's seen all these trends. He knows
it's just the same old, same old stuff, just over and over. But does he try to get out from
the current? Does he try to get out of the
flow of the course of this world? No, not at all. He doesn't have
anything better to occupy their minds than just whatever the
latest trend is, whatever the course of this world is. Once
my friends are into cooking, I'll take up cooking and occupy
my mind with that. All my friends right now, they're
all into motorcycles. I'll get me a Harley and I'll
occupy my mind with that. All the old friends of mine are
making a bucket list. I'm going to make a bucket list
and do all these things before I kick the bucket. Just something
to occupy the mind. And Satan entangles men in the
course of this world. And a lot of people when they're
young get so entangled in this world they can't get out of it.
They cannot get free. The devil, that's one way, but
the devil doesn't only use the course of this world. He personally
steers individual sinners. He personally does. Verse 2 says,
The spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience.
The devil and evil spirits are crafty. They are very crafty.
Look over Genesis chapter 3. The serpent. Genesis chapter
3. Stay there in Genesis. I'll have
you look at a couple of things. The serpent, look here in Genesis
chapter 3 and verse 1. The serpent was more subtle than
any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. More subtle,
more crafty. You think about it. You and I
sit every day and without noticing what we're doing, without any
effort, we breathe air. We just breathe air. Breathe
it in and we live by it. The devil, The devil, Satan,
is called the prince of the power of the air. And with very much
subtlety, without even us noticing what's going on, without raising
the slightest suspicion, evil spirits are able to influence
a sinner just like the wind. Just like the wind. Just like
air. Just like air. In 2 Timothy 2.26 it says, it
talks about the snare of the devil. trap of the devil whereby
sinners are taken captive by him at his will. At his will. That means he has a stronger
will than a man does. They're taken captive. A snare.
You think about a snare or trap. That's not something... A snare
or a trap is not something you set so that people can notice
it and see it. A snare is something that's set
so that people don't see it and they don't notice it and they
get trapped in it without knowing they're trapped in it. That's
the purpose of a snare. And these subtle snares are by
the evil spirits provoking the desires of the flesh and of the
mind. That's what they are. He can
enter in and provoke the desires of your sinful flesh and of your
sinful mind. And turn you. Just turn you whichever
way He wants to. I guarantee you this. I guarantee
you that evil spirits are whispering into the minds of somebody that's
listening to me right now. And they're whispering to you
saying, don't believe there's a devil. Don't believe that He
has power over you. You're free. Your will's free. And somebody's having that. Somebody's
thinking that. Somebody has that thought pop
into their mind. Where'd it come from? Where'd
it come from? You get my point? How He can
just... It's like you breathe air. And by that the devil maintains
power over your mind, over your lust, over your will, keeping
you deceived, keeping you believing what he wants you to believe.
And what he wants you to believe is that you're free. That's what
he wants you to believe. That you're free. And that you're
wise. And that the course you're going
on is a good course. Stay in this course. That's what
he wants you to believe. That's our first point. He has
much influence. Now here's the second thing.
Let's look at the advantage that the prince of this world has
over a sinner. First of all, Satan has an advantage
over us because by the fall, sinners became the most easily
deceivable creatures that exist. We're not smart. We're weak. And we're deceivable. Very deceivable. Very easily. By the fall we became
haters of God and lovers of that which is ungodly. And so when
we lost the wisdom of God, sinners became utter simpletons. We became utterly simple. Easily deceived. Satan has that
advantage. And then he has this advantage.
In addition to our ignorance, Satan has advantage over us because
he's a master liar. Christ said the devil abode not
in the truth because there is no truth in him and when he speaketh
a lie he speaketh of his own for he's a liar and he's the
father of it. He's the father of lies. He's
the master of lies. Our Lord is the author and finisher
of faithfulness. Satan's the author and finisher
of lies. That's what he is. The Scriptures
teach that Satan is able to transform himself into an angel of light
and his ministers are too. I read that in 2 Corinthians
11, 13-15. He can transform him to make
himself look like he's an angel of light, an angel of good. And
his ministers can do the same thing. Satan has ministers. He
has ministers. The devil works in a pulpit.
Paul said they're false preachers. This book says that salvation
is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth. And God
said, if they speak not according to this word, it is because there
is no light in them. And Satan whispers in a man's
heart and he says, that's not so of all preachers. That's not
so of those preachers who are sincere. That preacher who stands up and
says a sinner has a little spark of life in him and it just needs
to be fanned is all it needs so it can energize into a strong
will and he can seek God. That's a lie. That's a lie. If the devil wants you to believe
that God, A false teacher preaches that God gives man a will. And
then that man can choose Christ or he can reject Christ so that
ultimately salvation hinges on what you do. That's not offensive. That takes the offense completely
out of the cross. That takes salvation completely
out of the hands of God and puts it squarely upon the shoulder
of a sinner. And the devil would love for
you to believe that gospel. He would love for you to believe
that. That's good news to the devil. That's bad news to a man
who's been taught something about what he is. But that's good news
to the devil. He loves that and he wants you
to believe that. And his ministers can transform into an angel of
light and make you believe that's what the gospel teaches. The
course of this world is all for religious tolerance. to the God
of their minds. Have you noticed that? They're
all for religious tolerance as long as it's a false God. But when you start presenting
the truth of the gospel to men, they call you a bigot, they call
you narrow-minded, they call you shallow, they call you backwards,
they call you every name they can think of that they can try
to slander you with. Men are all they're so tolerant
and loving to any God but the true and living God. The God
who loves all men one day, and then casts them into hell the
next day? That's the God natural man loves,
and so does the devil, because that God's at the mercy of the
sinner. That God is the sinner. That
God is the sinner. An idol is just a man. It's what a man's made. It's
his God that he's made, that he's crafted, that he's imagined.
Christ said, as soon as sinners hear the truth, and they hear
the gospel, Look at Mark 4.15. Here's what happens. Look at
Mark 4.15. As soon as the gospel goes forth, verse 15. The sower soweth the word. The
preacher comes along, he preaches the gospel. And he says, and
these are they by the wayside, verse 15, Mark 4, 15. These are
they by the wayside where the word is sown. You see, they're
not in Christ the way, they're just on the side. They're just
there, but they're not in the way. They're not established,
not rooted and grounded in faith. But when they have heard, Satan
cometh immediately and taketh away the word that was sown in
their heart. That's what he does. He convinces
men that God is treating men unfairly and unrighteously. That's right. When you start
saying God is not in the midst of the free will bunch of garbage
and dung that's going on, Satan flies right in real quick and
says, Oh, don't believe that. That man's got a bad spirit about
him. Don't believe that. That's what Satan does. Listen, that is unfair. All men
deserve a chance. I don't know how many times I've
heard that. That's the number one objection that men use whenever
they hear that before the foundation of the world, the works were
finished. God chose whom He would and gave
them to Christ. He elected the people unto salvation
in Christ Jesus. And men will say, that's unfair. Everybody deserves a chance.
Do you want salvation to be by Russian roulette? Do you want
chance? Do you want salvation to be a
crapshoot? I don't want salvation to be
a gamble. I want salvation that's ordered and sure in all things. And that's how God saves sinners.
That's how Satan keeps back the truth that all sinners are worthless and not worthy
of the least of God's favors. He keeps back the truth that
if God had not elected a people unto salvation before the foundation
of the world, God's justice would have shut the door of salvation
the moment Adam sinned in the garden. But election kept the
door open. He doesn't tell sinners that.
He don't want sinners to know that. He just wants them to think
God's dealing with them unfairly. Go back to Genesis 2. He did
this from the beginning. Go back to Genesis chapter 2.
From the beginning, in the garden, the devil's first words were
crafted to make God appear as if he was being unfair and unreasonable. Look at Genesis 2.16. This is what the Lord said. Look
now at Genesis 2.16. The Lord God commanded the man
saying... Now pay close attention to what
God said. Of every tree of this garden
thou mayest freely eat. That's what God said. Of every
tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat. That's how God started
off His statement. Look how Satan started off his
statement. Go down to Genesis 3 and look at verse 1. And he
said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, You shall not eat of
every tree of this garden. You see the difference? If I
say, Art, you can eat of every tree of this garden and another
man comes along and he says, of all, see all these trees in
this garden? You can't eat any of them. That's
a big difference. That's not what God said. That's
not what God said. That would have made God be unreasonable. I got to eat. But God didn't
say that. But see what Satan did? He made
God seem unrighteous and unreasonable. He does the same thing in the
minds of sinners as soon as they hear the gospel. When they hear
the gospel of divine predestination. Look at Romans 8.29. Romans 8.29.
When they hear this, Romans 8.29. Whom he did foreknow. Look at verse 28. We know that
all things work together for good to them that love God, to
them who they are called according to His purpose. For whom He did
foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image
of His Son. that he might be the firstborn
among many brethren, moreover whom he did predestinate, them
he also called, and whom he called, them he also justified, and whom
he justified, them he also glorified. What shall we then say to these
things? If God be for us, who can be
against us? Now men predestinate every day
of their lives, men predestinate. But the devil wants men to call
God unfair for doing it. God's sovereignty to work His
will. When men hear that in whom also we've obtained an inheritance
being predestinated according to the purpose of Him who worketh
all things after the counsel of His own will. Now men, men,
Satan wants men to think that their will is free, that their
will is free, but they condemn God who is the one who truly
is the only one who has a free will. when they hear particular
redemption. When they hear that Christ said,
I laid down my life for the sheep, and then He turned around and
said, but you believe not, because you're not of my sheep. As I
said unto you, my sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and
they follow me, and I give unto them eternal life, and they'll
never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.
Every day, fathers provide particularly for their sons and daughters.
Every day. And yet the devil wants you to think it's unfair
for God to do it. See what I'm saying? There's two different standards
with unrighteousness. When they hear of irresistible,
invincible grace, when they hear that no man can come to me except
the Father which has sent me, draw him and I'll raise him up
at the last day, because it's written in the prophets, they
shall be all taught of God. Every man, therefore, that hath
heard and hath learned of the Father comes to me. He said,
they will all come to me, because it's written, the Father will
teach them all, and all therefore whom the Father teaches, they
come to me, He said. That means they're all going
to come. Irresistibly, invincibly, by God. And Satan says, He knows
God won't share His glory with another. He knows He won't. So
He wants to persuade a sinner to glory in something you did
to bring yourself to God so that you won't ever worship the true
and living God. You think you are. You think you are. A man
thinks he is, but he's going around talking about how he did
something. Or how God saved him some way
other than this scripture declares. How God says He does it. Sinner,
you hear the gospel, but immediately Satan enters and he tells you
the lie that you love. He tells you your will is free
when he's got you bound in chains so that you can't hear God. In
addition to our ignorance and Satan's craftiness, a third advantage
the devil has is that he's able to convince sinners that true
wisdom is found by doing things God expressly forbids. He convinces a sinner that true
wisdom is doing exactly the opposite, or doing what God expressly forbids. I'll give you an example. He
told Adam, in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely
die. If you eat of this one tree, you're going to die, Adam. And
Satan came along and he said, you shall not surely die. For
God doth know in the day that you eat thereof, then your eyes
shall be opened and you shall be as God's knowing good and
evil. Now sinner, you be honest. Be honest with me. As you hear
the truth right now, is there not a voice inside of you objecting
and telling you that you'll become a wiser man by being a man of
the world and by experimenting with things of the world, by
befriending the world? God says just the opposite. He
says, you adulterers and adulteresses, know you not that the friendship
of the world is enmity with God? And whosoever therefore will
be a friend of the world is the enemy of God? God says to the believer, you're
not under the law, but you're under grace. And men come along,
and this is what their conscience just starts grating on them when
they hear that. You're not under the law, but under grace. And
men come along and they say, but now, listen, except you keep
the law, you can't be saved. That's exactly what men did.
They came down, certain men which came down from Judea, and they
talked to brethren and said, except you be circumcised after
the manner of Moses, you cannot be saved. Paul said, when they
told us accept you, we didn't listen to them even for an hour.
That the gospel would continue with you. That the gospel would
continue. Because the moment that you start
putting an accept you on a man do something and telling a man
he's got to do something in order to merit salvation, salvation
ceases to be of the Lord and becomes of a man. And God won't
have that. God will not have that. God says
salvation is not of him that willeth nor of him that runneth,
but of God that showeth mercy. And in a man he hears a voice
within him and he hears, he says, I think it is by my will. I think
it is by my works. God says to the believer in Christ,
you're completing Him. Period. Nothing to add to Him. But a man, I hear his voice inside
him saying, there's some things that I've got to do though. I've
got to do something by my flesh to make myself more holy and
to make myself more sanctified and to make myself more perfect.
There's some things I've got to do by my flesh. Are you so
foolish having begun in the Spirit? Are you now made perfect by the
flesh? Trust that God will perfect that which He's begun. Trust
that God will perfect that which He has begun. If He's begun a
good work in you, in the Spirit, in the Spirit, by the Spirit,
through the Spirit, He will perfect that which He has begun. And
the fact of the matter is, He says, in Christ, at the right
hand of the Father, you're complete. You're complete. Don't listen
to any other voices. No other voices. How Satan overthrown. Let me read you this. Shall the
prey be taken from the mighty, or the lawful captive delivered?
But thus saith the Lord, Even the captives of the mighty shall
be taken away, and the prey of the terrible shall be delivered.
For I will contend with him that contendeth with thee, and I will
save thy children. That's what God said. How does
Christ accomplish the deliverance for his people? Threefold manner. Here's what he does. It's by
redemption, regeneration, and resurrection. That's how God
saves his people from Satan's bondage. First, redemption. Justice has got to be paid for
our sins against God. That's got to be settled. By
making Adam transgress the law of God, Satan lawfully took Adam
as his captain. He is just captive lawfully.
If he would have just broken the garden and stole Adam away
from God, it would have been unlawful. But he made Adam sin. And Adam sinned, so he became
Satan's lawful captive. And all men by nature did too.
We did too. Our chains of bondage are as
strong as God's holy law which we violated in Adam. How strong
is that? God said, I will by no means
clear the guilty. He said, the wages of sin is
death. The soul that sinneth it shall die. Therefore, every
sinner shall die. Every sinner shall die. I don't
mean just this physical death and that's it. The physical death
is opening up the door for eternal death, eternal misery. You know,
we looked at resurrection a few weeks ago. There is some respect
in which the wicked are going to be raised with a more perfect
understanding and a more perfect body and a more perfect body
than that which they went into the grave so that with a full
understanding of what they missed and what they gave up and what
they rebelled against they can suffer and they can have all
those desires more so than they have them now but never fulfilled
and constantly that worm that never dies that fire that's never
quenched but all men are going to die either in your sins or
in a substitute, but all men are going to die. The holy justice
of God demands that. And Christ's people died in Him.
That's the reason God sent His Son. Look at 1 John 3.8. 1 John 3.8. For those who by His grace shall
believe on Christ, that's who He died for. They will by His
grace believe on Christ. They will. He died for those
the Father gave to Him. He sent him to pay what his people
owed to his own justice, and that was death. Look at 1 John
3.8. He that comitteth sins of the
devil, and for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this
purpose the Son of God was manifested that he might destroy the works
of the devil. That's why he came. Hebrews 2.14. Can you get there? Hebrews 2.14. 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 the power of death, that is the devil, and deliver them
who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to
bondage. Satan tried to prevent Christ coming into this world.
He tried to prevent it. He tried to destroy the children
of Israel and prevent him from coming into this world. Satan
even tried to destroy Christ as soon as he was born into the
world. That's right, use inherit. The
dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered
for to devour her child as soon as it was born. But finally the
devil thought he had him. He thought he had Christ finally.
And he inflamed the lusts of men in the course of this world
and they nailed Christ to a cursed tree. And Satan watched as Christ
bore the sword of justice. He watched as his sheep were
scattered. He watched and he thought he had won the day. But
Satan and his wicked hosts were doing what God before determined
to be done. Because this was written. Now
listen to these two scriptures. In Zechariah 13, 7. Awake, O
sword, against my shepherd, and against the man that is my fellow,
saith the Lord of hosts. Smite the shepherd, and the sheep
shall be scattered, and I will turn my hand upon the little
ones. Now listen to Jeremiah 31, 10. Hear the word of the
Lord, O you nations, and declare it in the isles afar off. Go
and spread this word as far as you can and say, he tells us
what to preach, he that scattered Israel will gather him. He that scattered his sheep will
gather them and keep him as a shepherd does his flock for the Lord because
the Lord hath redeemed Jacob and ransomed him from the hand
of him that was stronger than he. The Lord scattered his elect
and the Lord will gather his elect because the Lord has ransomed
his elect and has delivered his elect from him that was stronger
than he. That's so. That's so. He, by
suffering faithfully unto death, Christ put away the sin of His
people, He satisfied justice, He brought in everlasting righteousness
for His people, He crushed the serpent's head, and by His gospel,
Christ is gathering out His sheep, and by His gospel, He's keeping
His sheep. That's the second thing, regeneration.
Acts 26.18. I want you to see this and I'm
going to wind it up. Acts 26.18. Through the Gospel, Christ delivers
His people from Satan's power by regenerating them and continuing
to keep His people through the Gospel. He never stops saving
us through the Gospel. This is the very reason that
Christ sent forth His messengers with the Gospel. Look at Acts
26 and look at verse 18. God said, you go tell Paul, this
is why I've called him to go preach. to open their eyes, and
to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of
Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins,
and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that
is in me." That's why he sent him. And look back at our text
now. And through that gospel, you
can't hear nothing while you're dead. You'll be sent here one
day to preach, just to preach, and you don't care a thing in
the world about it. And all of a sudden, a word will come into
your heart and what's happened is Christ has entered in. Look at verse 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. Verse 4. But God... Who is rich
in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when
we were dead in sin, has quickened us together with Christ. By grace
you are saved. And He has raised us up together
and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ. The entrance
of Christ to life conquers death. The entrance of Christ to light
conquers darkness. The entrance of Christ's power
conquers Satan's power. And when he enters in, he doesn't
ever leave. He keeps his child and he keeps
on saving us through this gospel. That serpent casts out of his
mouth water as a flood after the woman, after Christ's bride.
He just keeps throwing out heresies all into the world like a flood.
And the course of this world goes after it, whatever's new.
He's trying to cause Christ's bride to be carried away with
the flood. This is found in Revelation 12,
15. He's trying to get her to be carried away with the flood.
with the course of this world. And the earth helped the woman.
And the earth opened her mouth and swallowed up the flood which
the dragon cast out of his mouth." Listen to me. As sad as it is
that we see this world going after false gods and heresies
and all the things that they do, know this, God uses the reprobate
of this world to save His people. He causes them to swallow up
Satan's flood, hook, line, and sinker so that His people are
saved. You think how much better this
world is because sinners are trying to work their way to heaven
and do good works to present themselves to God. That makes
this world a much better place for us to live in. That's right.
They're drinking up the flood that's thrown out by Satan and
protecting God's people. And God does it. The Lord Jesus
promises, I will feed them that oppress thee with their own flesh
and they shall be drunken with their own blood as with sweet
wine. That's what He promises. And
then thirdly, once He's regenerated, one day He's going to raise us.
He's going to raise us finally. Then we'll completely be free
from Him. He said there in Ephesians 1.10, Ephesians 1.10, in the
dispensation of the fullness of time, He's going to gather
together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven
and which are on earth, even in Him. in whom also we've obtained
an inheritance being predestinated according to the purpose of him
who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will that
we should be to the praise of the glory of his glory who first
trusted in Christ. In that day the accuser of the
brethren is finally going to be cast out forever. Finally
cast out forever. He'll be in hell that's been
made for him and reserved for him and his angels and all the
wicked of this world. So here's three things, brethren.
Listen to this. How do we overcome? How are we going to overcome?
The way God's people overcome is by the blood of the Lamb.
By the blood of the Lamb. Believe on Christ. Take refuge
in Christ and hold on to Christ. He's going to have to hold on
to you for you to hold on to Him. But hold on to Him. And then we overcome by the Word
of our testimony, this Gospel. By the Word of Christ, the essential
Word, holding us, teaching us in our heart, by the Word of
these Scriptures, and by the Word of our Gospel that's preached.
It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them from
that bleep. That means from the first hour to the second hour
to the 24th hour all the way to the last hour. That's how
He's going to save His people. Continue hearing this word. Don't
ever forsake the assembling of yourselves together. And here's
the third thing. We overcome by not loving our
lives unto death. That's right. A man will hear
it for a while and sit there and all of a sudden out of the
blue he hears something hits his refuge, and he's really got
his trust in, and this powerful sword discerns what his heart
has really been all along. And it reveals that he's really
been trusting in himself. And he leaves. And he won't have
anything else to do with the gospel. Because he loves his
life. and he's not willing to lay down
his work and his will and his profession and his church going
and his church attendance and all his good works and everything
he's done for Christ alone. And so Satan conquers him and
he'll die and go to hell. But if you lay down your life
not allowing anything that competes with you in Christ to interfere,
lay down your life, lay down everything you've ever done,
the very best deeds you've ever done and trust Christ alone,
Christ will conquer Satan for you and you will overcome. That's
so. Love not your life unto death.
They overcame by the blood of the Lamb, by the word of their
testimony, and they love not their lives unto death. Amen. Let's stand together, brethren.