The people whose God is the Lord
are indeed a safe people. They are indeed a saved people. The people that the Lord has
chosen for his own, they're a people who are very secure and whose
everlasting destiny is guaranteed to be everlasting happiness and
glory with the Lord. After all, He has set us apart
for salvation. Would you think of that? Would
you give some consideration to the fact that the Lord chose
you unto salvation? If you're a believer, if Christ
Jesus is all of your hope, He's all of your righteousness, You
have no other hope of salvation except in the Lord Jesus and
his work of redemption and salvation. Remember, you're to trace all
that God has done for you back to God's eternal counsels when
he chose you unto salvation. It's like he told his disciples,
you didn't choose me, I chose you. That's the way it is with you
and me. He set us apart for salvation. He gifted us to the Son of God
with the purpose of redeeming us, of justifying us, of sanctifying
us, and someday glorifying us. Oh, how blessed it is to have
our names written down in the Lamb's Book of Life. You see,
a person may have their name written down in history, and
yet that person, though their name is written down in a history
book somewhere, yet that person may be lost forever. And whatever
good name they thought they had, as far as they're concerned,
it is no more. The person may have their name
engraved in stone upon a building or upon a monument or upon a
statue, but that person is still going to die. A person may have
his name written on his own house, on his own mailbox. And yet the
day is going to come when somebody else will live in that house
and there'll be another name on the mailbox. You see, all
of those writings are like writing on water. They're not going to
last. It's like writing on the sand
of the seashore. It's not going to last. But those whose names are written
in the Lamb's Book of Life, their names will be legible by God
forever. And nobody's gonna erase their
names out of the Lamb's Book of Life. The disciples of the
Savior, they came back from, they cast out these demons, all
these demons, and they did have unusual power. And they came
back rejoicing, and the Lord Jesus said, I saw Satan fall
from heaven. Indeed, you were casting out
demons. Nevertheless, in this, rejoice
not, but rather rejoice that your names are written down in
the Lamb's Book of Life. And David tells us this in that
passage that I read to us, that divine election is at the bottom
of it all. Lest it should be thought that
men obtain great blessings by their own efforts or by their
own industry, by their own works, David teaches us expressly, he
teaches us expressly that everything proceeds from the fountain of
God's sovereign grace. If you are indeed one who belongs
to Christ Jesus and you believe Him, trace your salvation back
to God's good pleasure. He chose you unto salvation. And what an ennobling choice
this is. We're selected to be the people
of God. As I read, His own inheritance
The people with whom he will abide with, he will dwell with
them. The people to whom he will reveal
his presence. The people he has predestinated
to be conformed to the image of Christ Jesus. These are the
people for whom Christ came into this world. He came to put away
our sins. He came to establish for us everlasting
righteousness. And David says we're his own
inheritance. We're his peculiar domain. We're the delight of the Lord. So being so blessed, let us rejoice
in our portion. Let us rejoice that We can say,
each one of us can say, I'm a child of God. We're blessed to have
been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb and robed in the garments
of salvation, born of the Spirit, brought by effectual grace to
the Savior. Thy people shall be willing in
the day of thy power is what David says. We're saved forever. They shall never perish is what
the Savior said. Now, while we are a blessed people
and we're blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places
in Christ Jesus, yet on this earth, as we continue our pilgrimage
toward the land of everlasting promise, we still face numerous enemies. And this is what the message
is about tonight. That God's people are gonna triumph
over all of our enemies. The triumph over all of our enemies. Psalm 91 and verse 13. Thou shalt tread. Now this morning
I took it as the first meaning of this. It has an application,
of course, to Christ Jesus, the Savior, the Messiah. But this
is also for us. Thou shalt, you will tread, walk
upon the lion and the adder, that is the asp. And the young
lion and the dragon, you will trample under your feet. This is a very promise of God. Now here are four descriptive
names for the evil one for Satan, the devil. John calls him Apollyon,
who is the destroyer. In Revelation chapter 9, John
saw the smoke of locusts coming out of a pit. He said they were
as scorpions of the earth. They had deadly stingers, these
locusts did. And they don't feed on vegetation.
They feed on the souls of men. And as we read in Revelation
chapter nine, the scripture says they had a king over them, which
is the angel of the bottomless pit. That's who battles us every
day. The angel of the bottomless pit,
whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon. that is ruin, destruction. That's what he wants to bring
about. But in the Greek tongue, his name is Apollyon, the great
destroyer. He destroyed one third of the
angels. He destroyed Eve. He destroyed
Adam. He destroyed the garden. He wrought
havoc throughout all the world and he's still doing that. He
is the personification of pure undiluted evil. There is absolutely no goodness
in him whatsoever. He was a murderer from the beginning
and he is a liar and he's the father of all lies. Here in the text, the enemy,
is set forth using four words to describe his hellish character. And we need to remember that
as long as we're walking in this world, we walk amongst wild beasts. Now, we don't walk alone. We've already learned last week,
if you were watching, the angels of God bear us up in their hands. And more than that, the Lord
Jesus himself, he indwells us by his spirit. And he hedges
us about. The angel of the Lord encampeth
round about them that fear him. The angel of the Lord, as it
were, he has pitched his tent all the way around us, all the
way around you. And that gives us great comfort.
But know this, the enemies are out there. and their goal is
to cause you to fall, to stumble and to fall. The scripture says, thou shalt
tread upon the lion. This reminds us of the king of
the jungle. Satan is said to be the prince
of the power of the air. The spirit that now worketh in
the children of disobedience. the prince of the power of the
air, the air where his malicious associates roam and where they
dwell. It is said that the roar of the
lion causes all the animals in the jungle to be fearful. Well,
I'll tell you, the devil has roared through these 6,000 years
at the people of God. And he has sent many a shiver
down the spines of even the bravest of the saints. We're aware of who he is. We're
aware of the fact that he goes about seeking whom he may devour. But we're also aware of this,
a greater lion. The lion of the tribe of Judah
has conquered this lion and he did so at the cross. Fulfilling
the promise of Genesis 3.15. The preface of this victory by
our savior as he did battle against Satan in the wilderness and then
in Jerusalem at the temple and then on top of a mountain. and
then where he crushed his head at the cross of Calvary. There
was an engagement of the enemy by our Lord Jesus. He went after
him in his might and in his strength, our Savior did. He, as it were,
rolled up his sleeves and he went to war for us to save us,
to redeem us, to reconcile us. This was an enemy that we could
not handle, but he could and he did. He is indeed the lion
of the tribe of Judah. Judah, the royal tribe. That's us. That's us. We're the people of God. We're
the royal people. And we had an able representative
who battled against this lion and he defeated him. And lo,
the lion of the tribe of Judah is the lamb of God, who laid
down his life for his people. Our enemy is referred to as the
lion, and he's referred to as the adder, the asp, the snake,
the snake in the grass. He made his way into the Garden
of Eden. And he presented himself in such
an appealing way to our Mother Eve. And he manipulated her. He put a question upon the Word
of God. And she listened. He got her
ear. Don't listen to him. He's a liar. and he knows the scripture way
better than you do and than I do. He manipulated Eve and then Eve
tempted Adam and he fell and the deadly poison of the asp
went into them and into us. and it is deadly because the
scripture says that this thing called sin, when it is finished,
when it's done with you, it brings forth death. This is the lion, this is the
adder, this is the young lion, powerful, energetic. It's like he never slows down. Psalm 17 verse 12 says, like
as a lion that is greedy of his prey, and as it were a young
lion lurking in the secret thereof. He lurks in secret places, even
where you wouldn't expect to find him. He's devious. He's clever. He's sneaky. He's deceitful. and his main sphere of activity
isn't at all where most people thinks that he works. Because his greatest work, his
biggest efforts are put forth in religion. Not in the bars,
not in the brothels, not in the red light district. So those
people are giving vent to their natural depravity. Satan is a
deceiver. Now, I would not dismiss the
fact that he is inactive in those places. He is active there, but
his greatest activity, his focus is in lurking where people don't
think he'll be. in a church building. Because his desire is to keep
people away from the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. That message
of substitution, that message of satisfaction, he wants to
keep you away from the truth. And he'll use false religion
to do it. That's where he deals his fatal
blows. It's where he's most active.
Like a young lion, always energetic. He never runs out of steam, as
it were. And then fourthly, he says, like
a dragon, breathing out fire, destructive. His very breath
is deadly. Moses therefore sets forth Satan
as being the deadliest and the fiercest of all the enemies that
we shall face. But our Lord Jesus, remember,
he's already conquered him. I preach through the book of
Revelation. Do you remember the theme of the book of the Revelation?
It is the victory of the lamb and his followers over the dragon
and his followers. Our Lord Jesus has won the victory. And here the promise of God is
given to all of his people. We're going to walk through this
world, through this wilderness, and all along the way, we're
going to be attacked and we're going to be pursued by the lion
and the adder and the lion and the dragon. But you will, in
the end, trample over all of them. Consider, let me give you three
questions to consider. Number one, what was our former
relation to this evil one? We had a relation to, we've always
had a relation to him. We've always had dealings with
him. What was our former relationship
to this evil one? Number one, we were his captives. We were his captives. And the
verse, if you wanna jot it down for reading later, 2 Timothy
chapter two, verses 23 through 26. He holds men captive at his
will. And one of the best illustrations
of that would be the Israelites in Egyptian bondage. They could
not free themselves. They could not liberate themselves. They could not get loose from
their captivity, though they wanted to be released from it.
But ours is a much more horrible captivity. Because you see, those
that Satan holds captive, they don't even know they're captives. They don't even know they're
held in bondage. They're quite happy being in
the condition that they're in. Never imagining, never thinking,
it never dawns upon them that they're a captive to the evil
one. But they are. Therefore the natural man has
no desire to be released from the captivity in which he's in
because he doesn't even know he's in captivity. And a good example of that would
be the Jewish rulers to whom our Lord spoke and who were so
opposed to the Savior. He said to them in John chapter
eight, if the son therefore shall make you free, you shall be free
indeed. You know what their response
was? We're Abraham's seed and we're never in bondage to anybody. and you talk about being made
free? Here's what they didn't realize.
They were not free. They were enslaved. So much so
that the Savior said to them, you are of your father, the devil,
and the works of your father you will do. What was our former
relationship to the evil one? We were his captives. Number
two, we were his servants. Romans chapter six and verse
16, know ye not that to whom you yield yourselves servants
to obey, his servants ye are to whom you obey, whether of
sin unto death or of obedience unto righteousness. You were
his servants. You served the cause of Satan. Now I know, and
you know, that over all, over Satan, over all of his activities,
over all of his purposes, there is the sovereign will of God. There's no question about that.
But God uses this evil one to accomplish his purpose. And we
have a responsibility to use the word of God and believe what
God has to say about salvation and about this devious enemy.
And the fact of the matter is we were his servants doing his
will, obeying his every command. That's the condition of the natural
man. Thirdly, we were his captives. We were his servants. Number
three, Our minds were blinded by him. And you can read 2 Corinthians
4, verses three and four. You see, Satan inhabits spiritual
darkness and he wants to keep us in the dark. He wants to keep
us in spiritual darkness. He despises the light. He who does evil always despises
light and Satan does. Light indicates truth. Light
indicates the presence of God. Satan hates truth. He hates the
presence of God. He loves darkness and so do his
captives and so do his followers. They love darkness rather than
light because their deeds are evil. And He blinds the minds
of men and keeps them in ignorance. He keeps them in error. He keeps
them in darkness. And I'll tell you, unless the
light of lights, even our gracious God, unless He penetrates that
natural darkness that Satan has cast over our minds, we will
never see nor believe the gospel of His grace. That's how much
power he's got. He blinds people's minds. That's why you can talk to your
neighbors or your friends or your relatives and you talk to
them about sovereign grace and how powerful the blood of Christ
is and what a glorious savior he is. And it just seems to go
right over their heads and they'll say, I just don't believe your
way. What is the problem? We try to
tell you of how glorious the Savior is, of His deity, of His
humanity, of the joining of the two together, and of the sufficiency
of His work of redemption that satisfied every demand of God. And you try to tell them of His
bloody work of redemption, His sacrifice, His righteousness,
freely imputed to everybody who believes. And they'll say, well,
I'm trying to do the best I can. I'm living by the golden rule.
I'm trying to keep the 10 commandments. And you say to yourself, maybe
you go back home, you say to your wife, I feel like when I
talk to my brother or my sister, whoever it is, I feel like I'm
just beating my head against the wall. You are. because they're in the dark.
Now don't get frustrated with them. They're blind. They're blind. Satan has blinded
their minds. Lest the glorious gospel of the
blessed God come to them. Well, here's the second question.
What is our current relationship to this evil one? We know what
our former relationship was, captives, servants, blinded by
him, the Lord overcame that and he gave us light, but what is
our current relationship? Well, we've been delivered of
this captivity by Christ Jesus himself. He has come in, he's
the stronger one. He has come in and He has driven
out the old enemy. And our Lord Jesus has staked
the claim to our hearts. Isn't that wonderful? He came
in and He drove the evil one out. He came in, He who is light,
and when light comes in, darkness vanishes. And our Savior came
in and He established His rule in our hearts. He drove out the unclean spirit. He talked about draining the
swamp. Draining the swamp. Our president said when he went
to Washington, don't drain the swamp. More power to you if you
can do that. As far as I can tell, there's
still a swamp. But our Lord, He comes in and He establishes
His rule. He drains the swamp of Satan. and all of his demons. Now, if
you try to clean yourself up, the devil may leave you for a
bit as you relax in your self-righteousness, and then he'll come back to you. But I'll tell you, if Christ
the Lord, if he comes in and he washes you in his blood, and
He robed you in His righteousness. And you're born again of the
Spirit of God. And you're given a new principle
that loves holiness and hates evil, that loves the Lord and
hates every perverse thing. You'll be an object of His work.
We're freed from bondage, we're freed from imprisonment. We're still pursued by these
horrible beasts. And though they cannot destroy
us, and that's good news, they can't destroy us. They can certainly
bring us a lot of pain and sorrow. After all, the temptations of
Satan, they're called fiery darts. Fiery darts. And the Lord's people
are the objects of these fiery darts of temptation. You say, well, why does he still
fool with us? Why would he think that he can
get anywhere with us? Because we still have sin, that's
why. We still have that nature of
sin. It's a mark that's on us till we die. I read something
interesting this week about the bricks that they built the walls
of Babylon with. And as the archeologists and
so forth, as they've been excavating and they find these bricks, they
find quite often the footprint of a dog in the brick. And here's what the Babylonians
did when they were making their bricks and as the bricks were
drying, they'd have dogs walk over them and the dog would leave
a mark on all these bricks. And they're excavating and they
find those bricks, still got a mark of a dog's foot. And that's
something, still got the mark of a dog's foot. Listen, we've
been saved by the grace of God. We're redeemed. We're the Lord's
people. We're quick and we're born again
in the spirit, but we still got a dog's foot on us. We still
got that imprint. That's what we are. The imprint
of sin is upon us. And that's why Satan, that's
why we're so vulnerable to him. is because we're still sinful
people. Now I know Satan has his way
with the wicked, just ask Cain. He'll tell you, I killed my brother.
Ask Esau, in his hunger, he sold his birthright for a bowl of
beans. Ask Judas. To satisfy his covetousness,
he sold out the Savior. Ask Demas. He was with the Apostle
Paul for a good while, listened to the gospel, seemed to believe,
and then Paul said, Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this
present world. There are a multitude of means,
just nearly numberless means at the disposal of Satan by which
he causes men to fall. But Jim, what about the people
of God? Well, he has nearly an infinite
arsenal there to use against us as well. Fiery darts, they're
called in Ephesians 6.16. He has many a sharp arrow in
his quiver. He knows your weak point. That's
the thing, he knows your weak point. He knows where you're
most vulnerable. I said this morning, he adapts
the temptation to the circumstance in which you find yourself. That's
the reason he tempted the Savior by saying the Savior had fasted
for 40 days. Well, you don't eat for 40 days,
you're just withering away. You gotta have food. So what's
the temptation involved? Food, food. Change these stones into bread.
You don't need to be dependent upon God. Exercise your authority. You're the son of God, aren't
you? He knows where you're vulnerable.
Now, Christ wasn't vulnerable, but we are. Here comes Noah out of the ark.
First thing he did was build an altar and worship God by means
of blood sacrifices, burnt offerings. God enters into a covenant with
him and it's a picture of the covenant of grace. And Noah becomes
a farmer. He grows some grapes. He gets
drunk. He overindulges and in a drunken
stupor, he exposes himself, bringing shame and disgrace upon him.
Here's Samson, mighty, powerful. Watch out, enemies of the Lord.
Here comes Samson. He'll whip you with the jawbone
of an ass. He killed many of the Philistines. But Satan knows his weakness. There's a Delilah waiting for
him. And with his head in her lap,
he reveals the secret to his strength. Was he a child of God? Sure he was. But he fell. He didn't fall from
grace, but he sure fell for that temptation. Here's David, a man
after God's own heart, that surely nobody can bring him down. He's
the sweet psalmist of Israel, but Bathsheba did. Adultery follows, and then murder. And then there's Solomon, the
wisest man who's ever lived. You know, I call him the royal
preacher. The royal preacher. And he fell prey to his own passions. Satan is brutal. He's ruthless. I tell you, he can do you a lot
of damage. And if it's the will of God, he'll do it even if you
don't follow. Just ask Job. Mr. Job, Brother Job, what's
Satan capable of doing? And he'll tell you, well, if it's
the will of God, he's capable of taking everything away from
you, you treasured, except God himself. He can take your children. He can take your health. He can
take your possession. He can take everything if God
gives him the, if it's God's will to do it. but he can't take
your soul. Job will tell you that. Well,
quickly, how are we to deal with him? Here's the third question.
How are we to deal with him? This fourfold enemy as he set
forth here in Psalm 91, 13, how are we to deal with him? Well,
I'd say, number one, be thankful Christ has gotten the victory
over him at the cross. We're more than conquerors through
him who loved us. Romans chapter eight says that.
He has won the victory for all of his people. He battled the
forces of evil. He battled darkness at the cross. He entered into the darkness
for us. There's no darkness for you and
me because Christ entered into it for us. And on the other side,
the sun came back shining again. While he wrapped a chain around
the neck of our enemy, he defeated all of our foes. And then let
me give you a few scriptures here as time permits. Look at
the book of James. How are we to deal with him?
Let me see if I can help you. Give you a few scriptures here.
First of all, James chapter four. The book of James chapter four. How are we to deal? with this
enemy of all enemies. James 4, look at verse 6. James 4, verse 6, but he giveth
more grace. Who does? God does, he's the
fountain of grace. And he's got to keep on giving
us grace. That E-T-H means this is something
that keeps on going on. You need grace for today. He
gives grace in our time of need. Isn't that what it says in the
book of Hebrews chapter four? He gives grace in the time of
need. When are you not in need? That'd be a good question, wouldn't
it? You're always in need, aren't you? Well, then he's always giving
you grace. He giveth more grace. Wherefore
he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble. Submit yourselves therefore to
God. Resist the devil and he'll flee
from you. Resist him. How can you do that? It's this grace here that enables
you to do that. You can't divorce this from the
grace of God. And as you submit yourself to
God, that is in prayerfulness. Lord, give me grace. Lord, give
me strength to resist the devil and resist him by the grace of
God. And he'll run from you because
he hates grace. He hates grace. Thirdly, use the same weapon
the Savior used. Ephesians chapter six, and you
can just read this, the word of God. You read Ephesians 6,
10 through 19. Feed upon the promises of God. Keep the cross of Christ ever
before you. It is the cross of the Savior
that Satan despises. He doesn't fear you. He fears
your Savior. He doesn't fear me. He fears
my Redeemer. So get into the Word of God,
the Word that tells us about Christ our Savior, and Satan
will flee from you. He despises the blood. He despises the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus. He's just not gonna stay around. And then don't give in to him. Ephesians chapter four, verses
25 through 27 says that. Don't give in to him. Scripture says, don't give place
to the devil. And in the context, he's talking
about Don't slander, don't speak evil of others. Satan loves for
us to do that. He loves for us to start getting
involved in bringing another believer down. Don't do that. Don't do that. Let your words
be seasoned with grace. Next time you start to say something
May the Lord help me to remember the next time I start to say
something negative about a child of God, I wanna be reminded of
this, that the scripture says in Ephesians 4, let your words
be seasoned with grace. And if there is a brother or
a sister who's done wrong, don't go talk about them to somebody
else, pray for them. Pray for him. Don't let anger, don't let malice
lay upon your heart. Satan will use that. He's getting
a foot in the door when you do that. And I'll tell you something
else. You're here next to first Peter.
Look at first Peter five. Be watchful. First Peter chapter
five. And this is interesting. 1 Peter
chapter five. And most people begin reading
at verse eight. Be sober, be vigilant, be watchful,
be attentive. That's what it means. Because
your adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about
seeking whom he may devour, whom resists steadfast in the faith. knowing that the same afflictions
are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world. At most
people just read those two verses, but they forget about verse seven. Casting all of your care upon
him, for he careth for you. What does that mean? Casting
all your care. The word care is anxiety. Cast all of your anxiety, all
your worry upon Him, for He cares for you, because if you don't,
if you let that worry and that anxiety lay within your heart
and fester, it's the adversary who has disturbed you, and He causes you to worry. Make
no mistake about it, worry is sinfulness. That's wrong. It's
wrong. And Satan, he will bring to your
mind, he will inject your mind with thoughts that will make
you worry, be anxious, kind of bite your fingernails as it were,
and pull your hair out, unless you cast all of your anxiety
upon the Lord. If you do that, he can't use
those anxieties against you. Be watchful. Because you see really what's
at stake here in this passage in 1 Peter 5, this anxiety business
and this worry business, we know what Satan's at, he's after your
faith. He didn't want you to believe
God. Our Lord said to Simon, Peter,
he said, Satan hath desired to have you to sift you like wheat,
but I prayed for you that your faith fail not. That's what Satan's
after. You see, he cast a doubt upon
the word of God. In Genesis chapter three, he
wants you to doubt the word of God too. And then let me give this to
you. And I've just got to give you
this. Turn to 2 Corinthians chapter
11. Be knowledgeable of his strategy. Be knowledgeable of his strategy. 2 Corinthians chapter 11. Here's what Paul says, would
to God, that ye could bear with me a little bit in my folly,
in my foolishness. He said, indeed, bear with me.
He says, for I'm jealous over you with godly jealousy. For I have espoused you to one
husband, I've given you in marriage as it were, to one husband that
I may present you as a chaste, a pure, a clean, holy, immaculate
virgin to Christ Jesus. But he says in verse three, but
I fear, And that is a very strong word. In fact, if you look this
word, fear of, you'll find that out of the original Greek, we
get our English word, phobia. He says, I've got a phobia. I'm
obsessed over this. Lest by any means as the serpent
beguiled, deceived Eve through his subtlety, So your mind should
be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. For if he
that cometh preaches another Jesus, whom we have not preached,
or if you receive another spirit, which you have not received,
or another gospel, which you have not accepted, you might
well bear with me." Paul, what are you concerned?
What's your fear? What's your phobia? He was afraid of false religion
being taught by Satan's ambassadors. He was afraid these Corinthian
people would be suckered into believing that. He had a phobia
about it. This is something always on his
mind. And he goes on to say this, look
at verse 13. For such are false apostles,
deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles
of Christ. And no marvel for Satan himself
is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore, it is no
great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers
of righteousness, whose end shall be according to their works." This is what concerned him. And every once in a while I have
people say, I don't know why you bring up false religion.
Why do you preachers warn us about false religion so much?
Because, well, we have a phobia about it as it were. Because
we've seen so many others be deceived by the lies of Satan
and leave the gospel and never come back. And we don't want
that for you. Don't leave the simplicity that
is in Christ Jesus. This was Paul's concern. Because
I'll guarantee you, Satan, if he gets you to believe a lie,
he'll be ever so happy. ever so happy. He despises the
gospel of Christ Jesus, the gospel of the sacrifice of the Son of
God. He doesn't want you to adhere
to the truth. He'd rather you said, well, you
know, Let's be more charitable, Jim. There are people around. There are a lot of people who
believe in God. They believe God. They believe
there's a God. They're our brothers and sister. Let's don't make this way too
narrow. I'm not making it where narrow the Lord did. He said,
it's a narrow way and few there be that find it. because broad
is the way and broad is the gate that leads to everlasting destruction. And many there be that go in
there at." Oh, yeah. I kind of got a phobia
about this. And here, I look at it this way. Just bear with me a couple of
more minutes. These people had the great apostle Paul. preaching to them. You know,
he stayed there in Corinth 18 months. In fact, he says this
in verse five, for I suppose I was not one whit behind the
very chiefest of apostles. And yet he's very concerned that
they forsake the gospel. and get suckered into believing
one of Satan's ambassadors who is masquerading as an angel of
light. Well, man alive, if the apostle
was, if his concern about people forsaking the truth he preached,
what about just us old ordinary preachers? I'm no apostle. I'm just a corn and tater-row
preacher is all I am. And I don't have the power to
keep you believing the gospel, but I know who does, the Lord
does. He's got to keep us focused on Christ Jesus. I tell you,
stay in the truth, stay in the word. That's how to avoid the
deadly traps of Satan, and I closed my Bible, but I want you to look
at one more verse with me, and that's in Romans 16. I want to
give you this. Permit me to read this to you.
Now remember, the scripture says, our text says this, thou shalt
tread upon the lion and the adder, the young lion and the dragon
shalt thou trample under feet. All right. Last verse, I promise,
Romans 16, verse 20. And the God of peace shall bruise
Satan under your feet shortly. And until then, the grace of
our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen. Amen. May the grace of God keep
us. Well, trust that the Lord will
give you a good week. And I hope that we'll get to
see you again Wednesday night as we're being dismissed. Remember,
social distancing, that sort of thing. So it's good to see
y'all. And I wish I could go to the
vestibule and greet you and shake your hand and hug your neck But
best not do that tonight, so I'll just bid you adieu. Good
night. God bless you.