If we could do this for the land
of old How proudly we'd wave, wave, wave God to the land of
the free Let's turn to Luke chapter 11
now. Luke chapter 11. I want to deviate from our study
on the Sermon on the Mount tonight and look at a passage of Scripture
that has been with me all week long. I want to read it now. Luke 11, verses 21 and 22. Now, our Lord said this. The context of this is when the
Pharisees accused him of casting out devils
through Beelzebub, the chief of the devils. Our Lord had just
cast out a devil of a man who was dumb. And our Lord says this in verse
21 and 22. 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. concerning the false preachers
of their day and of our day. They said that these false preachers
speak evil of dignities or higher powers, dignities meaning spiritual
powers, particularly the devil and his demons. They said that
these false preachers speak evil of dignities, whereas angels,
which are greater in power, greater than men, they bring not railing
accusation against the devil or his demons before the Lord. And Jude says, even Michael The
archangel, the highest, most powerful, most glorious angel
of God, when disputing about the body of Moses, apparently
there was some sort of battle or argument that took place over
the body of Moses, who would get possession of it. Now, this
is deep stuff here. But even Michael, the archangel,
when disputing about the body of Moses with Satan, Scripture
says, Jude says, dare not bring against him, against the devil,
railing accusation, but said, the Lord will rebuke thee. The
Lord will take care of you, knowing something of his power. But Jude and Peter said, but
these filthy dreamers. These foolish and ignorant imbeciles, and you hear them all the time,
they act as if they could whip the devil single-handedly, don't
they? As a matter of fact, they brag
and boast about it all the time. And they don't know it, though,
Nancy, but all the time they're doing his bidding. They're pawns
in his game. Now, in our text, the scripture
is talking about Satan. Verse 21 is talking about Satan. There's no doubt about this in
context. Now, I would, when I first read
this out of the context, I thought it was talking about us or the
old man within us. It would certainly apply, but
that's taking it out of context. This is talking about Satan.
And he describes Satan. I want to give you some descriptions.
of Satan from the scriptures. And our Lord calls him in verse
21, he says, A strong man armed. A strong man armed. Satan is strong. He is powerful. And these fools who talk about
him in such flippancy and such carelessness, they don't know. He's so powerful that he's using
them. Let me give you a few descriptions
from the Bible of Satan. And this is scary business even
talking about it, this subject. I knew a man, I knew a preacher
one time. And my father related this story
to me, how that he did an in-depth study of demons and devils, a
grace preacher. And so much so that in the privacy
and quiet of his study one night, he began seeing them and hearing
them. And he quickly dropped his study. I'm not sure that dropped him,
though. terrible thing happened to that man. But Satan is strong. The scriptures, Christ himself
said, Satan, your adversary, your arch enemy, walketh to and
fro in the earth as a roaring lion. Would any of us like to
face a roaring lion? or in a spiritual sense, he's
a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. He said to Peter
one time, Satan desires you. Peter was one of the leaders,
and the Lord said he desires you. He desired Job one time,
didn't he? And the Lord let him have him.
And you know what happened. In Ephesians 6, he's called several
things. He and his cohorts, or devils,
are called Principalities Power. That's as high as you can get.
Principalities Power. Rulers of the darkness of this
world. Spiritual wickedness in high
places. He's called the Prince of the
Power of the Air. We read in Luke over in Luke
chapter 4, the prince of this world. He's called the God of
this world. And then our text says he's a
strong man. Every word is significant here.
Verse 21 says, "...when a strong man armed keepeth his pallet." I
believe the reason the Lord says this is because Satan principally
works within men. He principally does his work
within mankind. Spiritually speaking, he is defeated. He is in chains, he and his demons,
only doing what the Lord allows him to do, but he seems to have
some free run. among human beings. But he does
his principal work in man, and man is his principal subject. In 2 Corinthians 11, verse 14,
Paul said, Satan has transformed himself into an angel of light, an angel
of light. And he said his ministers, or
his demons, his devils, the ones that work for him, are ministers
of righteousness. They're not what you see today
on the movies, in the science fiction movies, the horns and
the grotesque faces and all. They're beautiful. They're nice
to look at. They're tempting. Satan was that
way in the garden. else Eve would not have had anything
to do with him. She was attracted by this person,
this serpent. Satan has his run in men. Saul,
King Saul, who was the most beautiful man on the face of the earth
at the time. The people were drawn to Saul.
He had such charisma. The Lord let an evil spirit go
into that man. Judas, the devil entered him.
Peter, even Peter. You remember when our Lord turned
to Peter, John? And he said, Get thee behind
me, Satan. And I've looked in the mirror
and seen him. Have you? I've looked in the
faces of other human beings when they've gnashed their teeth and
become ugly and evil and angry and hateful, and I've seen the
devil. Have you? I've seen it in myself. He works
in men, a strong man. Now look at it again. It says
in verse 21, a strong man armed. You know, he's strong, he's powerful.
And he works in men. That's our Saviour. And he's
armed. He's armed. He's armed with many
things. He's armed with a multitude of
spirits, an army of demons and devils which no man can number. Satan is not omnipresent. He cannot be everywhere at the
same time like the Lord. He has demons and devils that
do his work for him. He's not omnipresent. The Lord
is. He's not omnipotent, all-powerful. He is powerful, but he has powerful
armies. He has a host, a host of demons
and devils that do his bidding. And he's armed with power and
might, strength and might. He's a spirit. That which is flesh is flesh.
You can cut it. You can hurt it. You can maim
it. You can defeat it very easily,
especially spiritual forces. He's a spirit. He can do mighty
feats. He can do mighty things. He can
overcome flesh. He's a spirit. Mighty feats. And I contend that
many of his feats are in the realm of religion. That the feats
that he's doing is not necessarily causing people to go crazy and
so forth and are insane asylums, which I do believe they are demon
possessed. I believe some of his feats and
his workings are right in the midst of religion and all of
this stuff you're seeing going on today. Healing. There may
be some reality to that. You see these people falling
to the ground after people touch them and speak to them and so
forth. He's armed with malice and revenge. Malice, that's hatred. He hates
God, he hates God's people, he hates God's kingdom. This is
the reason he got started. He said in Isaiah, he said, I
will exalt my throne to the stars. I will, I will, I will. God said,
no you won't, and cast him down. And ever since then, he said,
I'm bound and determined. He's armed with anger, malice,
and revenge. He wants to get back at God for
putting him in a lower sphere than what he once was. Lucifer, son of the morning,
and he's angry like a wounded animal. They say an animal is
at his most dangerous when he's wounded. He's armed with success. You know, success makes a man
more bold and courageous. You give him a few conquests,
you let him be victorious in a few conquests, let him defeat
some foes and do some strong and mighty things, and he feels
like he can rule the world. And he's armed with success because
he has defeated much better than anybody that's standing. He's took on the best of them.
Adam took him on and whipped him. It is, Noah. It wasn't shortly
after such a great deliverance that Noah was laying drunk and
naked in his tent. Abraham played the part of a
madman, remember? Refused to acknowledge his wife.
Moses, Moses, David, Peter, great men, mightier men than we. He's
armed with success, he's armed with sin. Now this is his greatest
tool, sin, his greatest weapon. The lust of the flesh, the lust
of the eyes, and the pride of life, and we're no match. And he knows how to use it. Oh,
he can turn us inside. Those are the three things that
plague us within, without, and all around, and we cannot overcome
them. We can't. He's armed with wisdom
and subtlety. He's crafty, he's full of devices,
he's full of schemes, he's full of plans, plots, strategies,
traps, snares, enticements, temptations, trials, you name it. He's got
them up his sleeve. Paul said in 2 Corinthians 11,
he said, lest by any means, as Satan beguiled Eve, as the serpent
beguiled Eve through his subtlety, he says, I'm afraid, I'm afraid
they can do it to you. And he'll use any man. And do you know he's even armed
with the law of God, the word of God? You and I talked about
that today. Satan, I guarantee you this,
people, he used the Word of God and the Son of God who wrote
it. Satan can quote the whole Bible. He's wise. He's been around millions of
years. He can quote the whole Bible. And he'll use it to twist, to
turn, to distort, to sway, to corrupt, to accuse. the brethren
even with the scriptures. A strong man armed. I forgot
your attention. Look at verse 21 now. He says,
Now when a strong man arms, keepeth his palace. His palace. What is this palace? Satan's
palace. Well, I said it a moment ago,
Satan's palace, or the principal sphere in which he worked, Where
he dwells is the heart, the mind, the soul, and sometimes the body
of mankind. Paul said it in Ephesians 2.
He said, The prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now
worketh in the children of disobedience, among whom we all had our conversation. There was a time when your father
was the devil himself, and you did his bidding. And I did mine. That's what he said, Ephesians
2, 2, among whom we all had our conversation in time past. But you know, Satan is a usurper.
He works in the minds, the soul, the hearts, the bodies sometimes
of people. But you know, he's a usurper,
Ellen. He doesn't have this right. He doesn't have this right by
nature. He has no rights to man's mind
and man's body. God said in Ezekiel chapter 18,
he said, all souls are mine. All souls are mine. And bodies. Now listen, this is interesting.
Even bodies. You know, Satan even now cannot
enter into a body unless the Lord permits it. Not even the
body of an animal, do you remember? They sought to enter into the
swine. And the Lord allowed it. Satan
can't have bodies now, men's bodies, unless the Lord allows
it. Why? How do you know that? Because
if they could, this would be a literal hell on earth right
now. We see it. I think we see it.
We're seeing more and more of it. You just turn on your TV,
turn on MTV, and you'll see it. Satan has to take these things
by permission. And Satan took Adam and Satan
took man by permission, God's permission. God's permission. And he took it by subtlety. He
didn't take it by strength. He did not take Adam by strength.
You know why? Because Adam was just as strong
as he was. Adam, the first man, was created
in the image of God. He had all of his faculty, all
of the God-given faculties that man has now, except in perfection. He had a mind. He had discernment. He had love for God. He had communion
with God. Adam was a brilliant, glorious,
wise, powerful, strong, mighty man in word and deed and truth
and thoughts, in God's image. Satan couldn't tackle him like
that in his strength. He had to do it with subtlety.
And what did he do? He got the weaker vessel. That's
true. Paul said that, didn't he? He
said, Adam was not deceived in the transgression. Eve was. Somehow
or another, the Lord allowed Eve, even then, coming from Adam,
to be the weaker vessel in the transgression. And Eve, or Adam,
Satan tempted her, and she was deceived. Adam wasn't. Adam wasn't. Adam, now this is
important. Adam stood back and considered
this whole thing. He saw what had happened. He
saw the foolishness of his wife, and he saw what had happened.
And he calmly, carefully, thoughtfully considered what had happened,
and he said, Now, I know what God said, and God can't lie,
and the consequences are great. I don't believe he knew what
the consequences were, because he didn't know sin and evil then. But he calmly and carefully made
his decision. He said, I'll side with my wife. You see, that aggravated the
transgression. You see, that brings out the
exceeding sinfulness of sin. It wasn't just an eating of a
fruit. It wasn't just a man and a woman
in a helpless situation and unavoidable circumstances, and they were
weak and frail. No, Adam willfully, obstinately
rebelled against God and said, I choose this woman over God. and this devil over God. And God said, You see the exceeding sinfulness
of sin? And thus all of the terrors and
hell and torment and wickedness and evil and sorrow and travail
that mankind knows just rushed in like a flood. Man's heart, soul, and body is
called a palace because—and I need to hurry, I need to run through
these things—a palace because it's well fortified. He calls
this a palace. It's well fortified. We have
high walls now of presumption and pride, particularly pride.
And hardly anything can get over these walls of pride in our palace. There's the will, there's the
affections, there's the judgments, there's the conscience, there's
the appetite. I don't expect you to get all these things,
but I'm giving them to you anyway. There are many doors through
which you can enter into a palace, and man's mind, body, soul has
many entrances. There's the five senses, there's
the eyes, there's the ears, there's the nose, there's the mouth,
there's the touch, and Satan uses them all. Bunyan's Holy
Wars, any of you have read it? You remember this. If you haven't,
read it. In Bunyan's holy war, there were two gates, two entrances
to the town. One was called the ear gate,
one was called the eye gate. Typical of man's soul, the soul
of man, things enter in the ear and things enter in the eye.
And when Diabolus the devil came to man's soul, wanting to enter
into it, he enticed them. He spoke smooth things in the
ear gate. Spoke smooth things, enticing
things, lovely things. And at the eye gate, he appeared
to be beautiful and glorious and looked good to them. And
what happened? The people in the town of Mansoul
let down the gates and said, Come on in. And they shut the gates, and
then Diabolus the devil set up his reign in the heart, right
in the midst of the castle. Then when Emmanuel, God's son,
came to the palace, God said, that's my soul. Man's soul is
my soul. That's my town. I made it. It's
mine. Diabolus is not going to have
it. And he sent his son and said, you go take it back. And when
Emmanuel came, do you know what happened? He came to the ear
gate and he talked. They wouldn't open it. And he
talked some more. They wouldn't open it. You know
what he did? He knocked it down. He came to the eye gates. There
was nothing beautiful about him that they deserved. No comeliness
in him. They didn't see anything in him.
What'd he do? He knocked it down. He said, I'm coming in. Coming
in. So Satan uses the heart, the
soul, and the body of man as his palace. Now, listen to this
deception. Look at verse 21 again. When
a strong man arms, keepeth his palace, that's the mind, soul
and heart and sometimes even the body of man, his goods are
in peace. His goods are in peace. I've crammed five messages worth
of material into this one. I hope you'll bear with me. There's a grand deception on
the part of Satan. It's his deception. and it's
ours. His goods are in peace. He is
deceived into thinking that, and we are deceived into thinking
that. God in his wisdom—listen to this, this is good—God in
his wisdom, in his power, in God's subtlety—you know, God
is subtle—in God's subtlety, he makes Satan think he is independent. He makes Satan think Satan is
doing what he wants to do, and he is, but he's doing what God
intends for him to do. See, not only in us is the strength
of sin the law. When you tell us not to do something,
we'll try to do the opposite. If you tell us to do something,
we'll try to do the opposite. It doubly holds true with Satan.
But you tell him, you can do this. When you make him think he's
doing what he wants to do, he's wringing his hands. All the time
he's doing what God intended for him to do. Satan thought
he had defeated God's creation in Adam. Satan stood back. Now, he'd been defeated. I don't
know how many thousands of years he'd been defeated before the
creation of man, but he'd been defeated. He was reserved in
chains. He was a whipped devil. But nevertheless,
he saw this creation of God, and God saying, This is good.
I like this. This is good. And God displaying
his power and his glory and his creative powers and so forth.
This is good. And creating that greatest and
most glorious of all creations, man! In the image of God, a physical,
bodily presence of God, man, God stood back and said, That's
good. And Satan, he was thinking. And Satan said, I'll get him
now. I will destroy his creation,
I'll get at his prized possession. And Satan, when he caused that
man and that woman to fall, he thought he had destroyed God's
creation. Yet God used the fall of man
and another man to display his greatest power and glory yet.
God allowed that to happen. As if it were, God turned his
back and Satan said, Now. And Satan did his work and God
said, Now. Satan thought, I've done it now,
and God said, yeah, you've done it. You just wait and see. Just wait and see. Another 6,000
years, you just wait and see. He didn't tell this to Satan.
Satan thought he had done it. And Satan thought he had acted
independently and successfully at Calvary. At Calvary, the Son
of God And Satan thought he had really messed things up then,
didn't he? But God, in wisdom, he must have laughed. He must
have laughed at Satan as he destroyed himself. Satan makes us think. You see,
that's Satan's deception. Strong men, armed, keepeth his
palace, he thinks his goods are in peace. And Satan makes men
makes man think all is well. Goods are in peace. This is his greatest deception.
Now listen. Satan's greatest deception and
his greatest ploy is, God loves you. Jesus died for you. If you act moral, if you
act religion and do the best you can, God will accept it.
You'll have peace with God. Everything will be all right.
God is well pleased with you. And thus he makes a man, a woman,
self-righteous, makes a man, a woman, self-trusting, makes
a man, a woman, wear a suit of religious armor and think, my
goods, my soul is in peace, peace, until they sleep a spiritual
sleep of death and are cast into hell itself. But God. But God. And such were some of
you. But God. Sleep in the sleep of
death, all safe and secure in your... Church membership, and so forth. All safe and secure, as sure
for heaven as if you were already there. Right? A good Christian,
a good, moral, upright, good citizen, about to sleep the sleep
of death. But God says, He said this in
His scripture, He says, Thou art mine. That one is mine. You know, God, I've said this
so many times. God does not have to predestinate
anybody to hell. God doesn't have to maneuver
and manipulate and make a man and push him into hell. All he
has to do is leave him alone. That's what he did with Adam. Left him alone. And he fell. A much higher man than us. And
all God has to do is leave us alone, and we'll be easy pickings
for the devil. But in order to save us, God's
got to lay hold on us, doesn't he? And some people, God says
that about them. He says it to Satan, he says,
You can't have that one. That one's mine. That one's mine. And in order to have you, Terry
Kinsley, now this is too big. We don't want to look at any
of it. In order to have your soul—see, we're children, babies,
we're ignoramuses, we're blind, deaf, and dumb to the Spirit.
We're sitting around. We don't have any idea what's going on
in heaven, what went on on Calvary, what's going on right now, even
around us. We can't see. We can't see flesh. To have your
soul, it took an all-out war. Christ said it, he said, I'm
come not to bring peace, but a sword. I'm come to bring a
sword. A sword to slay the giant. The
son of David had to slay that three-headed giant, sin, Satan
himself. And a sword to operate on your
old heart. Do a transplant. Brain surgery. Yes, do brain surgery. Heart
surgery. Brain surgery. Regeneration. A mighty conqueror, a valiant
prince, a strong man," look at verse 22, "...but when a stronger
than he," you see who he's talking about? A strong man, armed, keepeth
his palace, he takes his goods and peace, "...but when a stronger
than he comes upon him." What's he coming
for? He's got some of his own. He's
got some of his little sheep. He's got some of his people.
He'd come for his own. He said he came to his own. His
own received him not. But he's going to lay hold of
his own. A stronger one than he. You see, Satan is powerful.
Christ is all-powerful. Satan is wise. Christ is all-wise. Satan is a king. He's a god. Christ is king of kings. He's
king over Satan. Satan is a little lord in his
own sphere. The scripture says Christ is
Lord of lords. See, kings answered this king.
Lords answered this lord. He's ruler over all. He's reigning
and ruling over heaven and earth and even hell itself. Hell itself. And our text says, when a stronger
than he shall come upon him and overcome him, divide and conquer,
a stronger than he. Did you pay attention to Martin
Luther's song? Did we in our own strength confide? Our striving would be losing. We're not the right man on our
side, the man of God's own choosing. Just ask who that may be. Why,
Christ Jesus it is he. Lord Simon is his name, from
age to age the same. And he must win the battle. He must. To have your soul, John
Davis. This is no light matter, except
Jesus as your personal Savior. This took a battle. God Almighty,
in all his wisdom, sent a mighty man. down to this earth to accomplish
something, to accomplish redemption, our redemption. You see, the
first Adam was of the earth, earthy, and he failed. He showed what he was made of.
Even though he was strong and had tremendous faculties, he
was made a little lower than the angels or the spirits. And Satan overtook him. Oh, but there's another man.
Another man's coming on the scene. The second Adam, the Scripture
says, he's not just a man. Satan thought he was. He made
it. Somehow or other, Satan was deceived
into thinking that just because the Son of God was in a body
that now he could take Him. Oh, no. He's the Lord of glory.
the Lord of Glory, and that strong man came, a stronger than he. Satan came. Satan came face to
face with another man. He stood face to face with Adam,
that glorious and beautiful man called Adam, face to face, and
he defeated him. And now he comes to this second
Adam, and he says, no, he doesn't look as good as the He doesn't
look as powerful as the first. As a matter of fact, he looks
weaker than the first. I can take him, no problem. You
see what I did? And filled full of this pride
and presumption and success in all his battle. I got Moses,
I got Abraham, I got Noah, I got Lot, I got Job, I got all these,
but I'll get this one now. And ran into a brick wall. Christ said you can't find anything. and tried everything within his
power, all his subtlety, all his craftiness. He didn't yet
have to use it all on Noah, on Abraham. Both didn't have to
use it all, just a little bit of it. All his devices, all his
wisdom, all the power he could muster, all of his enticements,
all of his temptations, didn't gain one pinch of ground on this
man's soul. Forty days and forty nights he
tried. Forty days. All the wiles he
could muster against the Lord Jesus Christ, but none worked.
He couldn't find anything in him. Nothing. He must have been
carrying his hair out, that's it. Isn't there anything I can
do? Anything? One old writer said, I think
I hear God laughing. Holy hilarity. I'll tell you about that old
man down in Sylacauga I used to hear years ago. I'd go to
these conferences with Brother Henry Breedlove, and as a boy
about Hannah's age, I'd hear this old man behind me, and the
man was preaching, and I'd hear him laugh. And I'd turn back, and nobody
else was laughing, but he was laughing. I thought, I didn't
hear a joke. Mommy, what was a joke? It was
holy hilarity, rejoicing in the Lord, what the Lord was doing.
And I think I hear God laughing as Satan tries all he can, all
he can. And then for thirty-three years,
that strong man tempted and tried to God-man, but couldn't agree.
Thirty-three years. Then finally, Satan mustered
all his resources for one final charge. He drew up all of his
craftiness, all of his power, all of his influence, and turned
everyone he could on the God-man. Even the God-man's friends turned
them on him, and got them to lay hold on the Son of God physically,
literally, take him out on Golgotha's hill, nail his body to a tree,
and watch as his life expired, and then Satan stood back and
must have said this, I've done it. And I hear God
laughing. You've done it now, all right.
You've defeated yourself. Satan, you don't remember Genesis
3.15, do you? I ought to call it to your mind. He shall bruise thy head, but
you shall bruise his heel. your heads crushed. You put God's
lamb on the altar. You sacrifice the sacrificial
lamb. You turn the multitude of captives
of your own free. You let the doors of your own
prison loose, and your own people are let out. Set free. Does he turn his hair out now?
Oh, no. Oh, no. And then three days later,
three days later, somebody, a preacher, said that, over to 2 Peter, where
Peter said that he went and preached to spirits in prison. He said,
I saw this in a different light. He said, Christ, after he was
crucified, went down into hell and proclaimed to all the demons
in hell and everybody that would listen, He preached not salvation, but
proclaimed his lordship. You're done. You're dead. You're
a goner, our Lord. And then three days later, he
walked out of that grave, rolled the stone back and said, Where
is he? Where is he? Satan, come here. Kiss my feet. I'm Lord. I spoiled the principalities
in power, and he tells us, and one day, people, you're going
to see me make an open show of them, parade them through the
halls of glory, and change all of your adversaries, all of your
enemies. Satan himself is going to be
at the head of the line, and you're going to watch. as I kick
him into the lake of fire, never to torment you again. I'm Lord. Satan's my devil. He's under
my feet. And in closing, let me give you
a few points that'll be a real help to you. We feel like at times, though,
that Satan has dominion over us. Not so, believer. Not so. Take heart. Christ said, Fear
not, little flock. Oh, no. Oh, no. He can't do anything but what
God allows Him to do. Anything. And we think at times,
He's got me now. Lord, He's sifting me like wheat.
He's just doing what I allow Him to do. But it's going to
work out according to my purpose. Christ spoiled, look at verse
22, it says, he takes away all his armor wherein he trusted,
his devices, and divided his spoils. Takes away his Christ-spoiled
Satan and removed his armor. He removed his armor, his power. He's in chains. Like I said,
he's not all-powerful. He only does what God lets him
do. Read the book of Job. first two
chapters anyway. He has to present himself to
God and say, what will you let me do? Even now. Now, the world would call that,
they think Satan is alive and well on planet Earth, that Satan
is running free. No, he's on a chain. God has removed his fangs, his
teeth. You remember Bunyan and Pilgrim's
Progress when he was walking up that hill, and he saw in the
way, he saw two lions. There was a lion on one side,
a lion on the other side. It looked like they were guarding
the way, the pilgrim. And he thought, I can't get,
what am I going to do? I can't get by. These lions will devour
me. And the closer he got, he saw
that they were on chains. They could only go so far. And
he passed through the midst of them. God has removed, Christ has spoiled
Satan, removed his wisdom. He hath not God made foolish,
the wisdom? He's opened your eyes, Henry
Sword, to see his craftiness. Not all of it, but to see most
of it. His, the world, the world is
taken captive in him by his, at his will. Aren't they? You
see the world, I think at times I think, how can any rational,
reasonable, thinking Human beings follow these idiots, all this
nonsense that's going on. How could they follow these people? Satan? Not you. You've been given eyes to see,
ears to hear. God has given you a faculty.
Here's faculty. Here's wisdom. He's removed and
shown you the wisdom of Satan to be foolish. Now, this is great. He has destroyed the power of
sin. Now, this will help you. Do you
know what the greatest source of the power of sin is? What
the greatest thing that afflicts us in this thing of sin is? The guilt of it. the guilt of it. We're all sinners.
We're going to be sinners until the day we die. Do you know what
plagues us? Do you know what brings us down? Do you know what
causes unbelief? Do you know what causes despair?
Do you know what causes us to think, I'm going to be damned?
Do you know what causes us to sin all the more? Guilt. Guilt. Causes you to sin more? Yeah. If you think you're guilty,
you say, well, I'm done for anyway. I might as well go ahead and
do it again. Huh? Guilt. Jesus Christ has removed
the guilt of sin. The guilt of sin. And this is
what Satan uses. Listen to me now, this will help
you. Guilt now, if you're a believer,
guilt should drive you to Christ. Not away from Him. Drive you
to Him. Did you ever have a child, let
me illustrate that. As a child, Satan uses guilt. Did you ever,
as a child, do something and were afraid that you were going
to get caught? You were guilty? And another child found out about
it? Your brother and your sister?
Uh-huh. It's called blackmail, you know. I call it blackmail. It's just
what Satan does with us even now. You're guilty, aren't you?
Yeah, I am. Don't let anybody find out about
it, please. I remember, I remember as a child you were caught doing
something and your brother or friend or somebody knew about
it and they say, wait till I tell Dad. You better watch out. I'll tell.
I'm going to tell on you. Huh? Oh, and it could fill you
for a whole dump. Please don't. Don't do that.
Oh, anything. I'll do anything for you. You
can have my lunch money for a week, you know. Anything. Huh? You
ever do that? Satan brings the same thing.
You're guilty. But you know what? Dad already
knows. You ever think about that? Huh?
What if you went to your father and said, Dad, before your brother
found out about it, said, Dad, I did do that. I'm sorry. Son,
you shouldn't have done it. You don't have to. That's OK. I forgive you. And your brother
comes up to you and says, What did you do? I know. Will I tell dad? Go ahead. Well, I won't tell him. Go ahead. I'm
not worried. You catch the meaning? You catch
the illustration? Guilt. Satan says you're a guilty
sinner. Christ died for sinners. Yeah,
but you're the worst of the bunch. Can't say the truth, sir. But you're nothing but sin. But
Christ was made sin for me. He knew no sin that I might be
made the righteousness of God. He can't use that. He can't use
it anymore. Pulled the fangs out of that.
Christ sends his illuminating spirit to despair, and Satan
uses this tactics, darkness, ignorance, superstition. Christ
dispels that. The gospel dispels all that.
You see clearly in Christ, don't you? And he gives us an armor. That's not all. He not only takes
away Satan and all his armor, he gives you one. Ephesians 6. Ephesians 6, girdle of truth,
breastplate of righteousness, shoes of the gospel, shield of
faith, helmet of salvation. sword of the Spirit, and a flag
to fly. Jehovah-Nissi. What does that
mean, Deborah? Saint! Jehovah-Nissi. Christ our banner. Jehovah God
our banner. An armor to wear, a flag to fly. Somebody else lives here now. And that's the only way. How
are you going to rebuke the devil in your And if you, in your own
strength, confide, your striving would be losing. We're not the
right man on thy side. Do you ask who that may be? Jehovah-Nissi. Hold up your flags. The only
way you can... Satan, you're defeated. And if
this sounds much like what's going on today, They didn't preach
the other 44 minutes. Christ our banner. Christ our
strength. Christ our victor. Christ our
redeemer. Christ our savior. Christ our
Lord. Christ our surety. Christ our strength. Christ our captain. Oh, captain,
my captain. Christ our victor. Vicarious, victorious Lord. All
right, stand with me. We praise the name of the Lord
Jesus Christ for all He is and all that He has done. Dear God,
we thank You for the eternal covenant of grace, sending Your
Son down to take on all the forces of evil for us. We especially
praise and honor and glorify Thee your mighty power, reigning
and ruling victorious over all these things. And now, dear Lord,
we ask that you be with us the rest of this week. And surely,
after a message as this, after words like this, surely our adversary
will ounce upon us afresh. And let us remember, let us fly
high that great banner, that flag the Lord Jesus Christ, our
banner, in the face of all our foes. In the name of the Lord
Jesus Christ, we pray and are met together tonight. Amen.