singer so I'm very grateful for
that and as you go to our back to our text we've been working
from Psalm 91 I'll just say happy Mother's Day to you dear moms
and I hope that you have a very good day I'm thankful for my
mother who took the time to raise us in the nurture and admonition
of the Lord, and took us to the scriptures, and much of my, at
least, surface knowledge of the Word of God, where the books
of the Bible are and so forth, is due to the instruction of
my mother. I have missed her now for several
years, but I'm grateful to God for her, and I'm thankful for
you dear moms as well. We're back in Psalm 91, and I'm
going to consider just one verse this morning, and then go back
to the very same verse again this evening. And that is verse
13. And here is, first of all, the
word of God to the Lord Jesus Christ. And then here is the
word of God to all of God's people, to all of his children. Verse
13, thou shalt tread, thou shalt walk on, I shall tread upon the
lion and the adder. And the young lion and the dragon
shalt thou trample under feet. Our Lord Jesus was sent into
this world on a mission of mercy. The scripture says the angel
spoke to Joseph in a dream and said, thou shalt call his name
Jesus for he shall save his people from their sins. Now that was
his mission. That's what he came to do. This was the job, the work that
the father gave him to do, a work which he voluntarily entered
into. There was no reluctance on his
part. He was certainly willing to do
this because as was with the Father and the Spirit, so it
was with the Son of God, that God loved us with an everlasting
love. Now, in order for that love to
bring about and accomplish salvation, There had to be one who would
be made willing, who would be willing to leave heaven's glory. and indeed come to this world,
and that was the Son of God. He was the suitable one. He was
the one that God appointed to be our Savior, and He's the one
who wanted to be, and He has always been our Savior. You know,
when we talk about things like the covenant of grace and what
God purposed to do, actually, what God has willed to do, it's
always been His will. There was never a chronological
order to the way God did things. His elect have always been His
elect. And His love to us has always
existed. We've always had a savior. We've
always had a surety. But the scripture, in order to
accommodate our very feeble understanding, it has to present things to us
in somewhat of a logical order, because that's, we can't understand. We can't enter into eternity.
We can't comprehend that which had no beginning. nor can we
comprehend that which has no end. And so the Word of God sets
it forth as God chose us unto salvation, but actually there
wasn't a specific period or time when God chose us. This is an
everlasting, the everlasting decree of God of election. And so God has always, he's always
had a people and he's always purpose that those people would
be saved and that they would be saved by the Lord Jesus. And by his entrance into this
world and by taking on him our flesh, our nature, so that he joined himself And
to us, and that joining will never be interrupted. There will
never be a divorce. There will never be any separation
from our savior's deity and his real humanity. He came to save the people of
God's choice. We read it this way in 1 Timothy
1. This is a faithful saying and
worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the world
to save, what, sinners. And Paul says, of whom I'm chief. The Lord Jesus said after going
to the home of Zacchaeus, the Savior said, for the Son of Man
is come. What's the reason for his coming?
Well, he tells us to seek and to save that which was lost. So we know his mission. We know
why he came into this world. It was to save. It was to rescue
God's people. It was to deliver us from every
enemy against us. and to ultimately bring us unto
the Father in heaven's unending glory. Having been washed, these
people having been washed in the blood of the Lord Jesus and
robed in the garments, the glorious garments of salvation. And these
people would stand forever as the great trophies of his grace,
of his work of redemption. Now, if he's going to save people,
there are several things that had to happen. Number one, he
had to honor God's law. The scripture says he was made
under God's law in order to save or deliver those who were under
God's law. Well, this involved his life
of obedience. He wasn't, The master did not
come into this world when he was age 33 and then just lay
down his life for us. He was born into this world,
born of a virgin, yes, but he came into this world through
the womb of a woman. And he faced everything that
we have to face. every trouble, every trial, every
temptation, all of those things, they faced our savior because
he had to be proven to be that perfect man, a righteous man,
a good man, a good man. Good as examined by God. Good
as examined by God's law. So he lived for us. Isaiah 42, 21 says, the Lord
is well pleased for his righteousness sake, he will magnify God's law
and make it honorable. You see, Adam had dishonored
God's law. and all of the family of Adam,
all the sons and daughters of Adam, we dishonored God's law,
but lo, one came to this world, he lived under the law of God
and he made it on. He honored God's law again. Secondly, not only must he honor
God's law, he must satisfy justice. His life of obedience was wonderful,
special. Immaculate. He was the impeccable Savior. He lived a life of obedience
for us, but we disobeyed God's law and divine justice has been
awakened against our sins. And therefore the penalty of
breaking God's law, it had to be executed upon somebody because
God's law demands death. There's a penalty involved for
breaking God's law. And I know Christ didn't break
God's law. He kept God's law and he kept
that law for us. But we've broken God's law, therefore
that just and righteous penalty, it must be kept. It must be honored. It must strike out against the
offenders. The Bible says, the soul that
sinneth, it shall die. The wages of sin is death. There's
no deliverance. There's no salvation. There's
no everlasting life apart from the death of a suitable sacrifice
and substitute. After all, how can God be just
and justify the ungodly? Only through the death of the
Son of God. His life was wonderful, but didn't
put any sin away. His life was perfect, but it
didn't bring in everlasting righteousness. It's his death that did that.
The just died for the unjust. That's what Peter said, 1 Peter
3, in order to bring us unto God. For he is the propitiation
for our sins. It's what the scripture says.
And then, not only must he honor God's law and satisfy justice,
he's got to destroy death. And the death of the Lord Jesus
was the death of death, and it was the death of sin. And he
arose. And because he lives, because
he destroyed death, believers don't die. We fall asleep in
Jesus. Listen to the words of our Savior
in Hosea chapter 13 and verse 14. I will ransom them from the
power of the grave. I will redeem them from death. Oh death, the Savior says, oh
death, I will be thy plagues Oh, grave, I will be thy destruction. And then he says, repentance,
it shall be hid from mine eyes. I'm not gonna change my mind
about this is what he says. That's the same meaning as in
2 Timothy chapter one, verses nine and 10, God had saved us
and he's called us with an holy calling, not according to our
works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was
given us in Christ Jesus before the world began, but now is made
manifest by the appearing of our Savior, Jesus Christ, who
hath abolished death. Did you hear that? He hath abolished
death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. Our savior robbed death of its
authority over us. He put an end to death and he
did it by his own death. This was the great determination
of God. And he would not be diverted
from that goal. The death of the son of God meant
the death of death. He killed death by his death
and resurrection. And he ever lives to make intercession
for his people. It's like our savior said to
Martha there in John chapter 11 and verse 26, he that liveth
and believeth on me shall never die. So he kept God's law. He satisfied divine justice. He killed death and he killed
sin. But there's something else the
mighty Savior had to do in order to save his people, the people
of his choice. The enemy, the enemy of our souls,
that evil one, Lucifer, who fell, that is Satan, He had to be triumphed
over. The devil had to be conquered. You see, the Savior had to not
only defeat death and not only defeat our own sinfulness, but
he had to defeat that one who had the power of death, that
is the devil. Therefore, we read in 1 John
3, in verse eight, he that committed sin is of the devil, for the
devil sinneth from the beginning. Now listen to this, for this
purpose. Boy, if words mean anything.
This is a declaration of the purpose of the Lord Jesus in
coming and dying. For this purpose the Son of God
was manifested that He might destroy the works of the devil. That's why He came. He came to
save His people. Yes, He came to live under the
law. He came to be the perfect man. He came to satisfy divine justice
by his death upon the cross. He came to kill sin and death,
but also he came to destroy the works of the devil. Now, what
do we know about the devil? Well, he's one of those invisible
spirits that the Lord created. But this one that we know as
Lucifer from the book of Isaiah chapter 14, through pride, he
fell, he fell into sin. And he led one third of the angels
in rebellion against him. Someone might ask, maybe you're
thinking, where did sin come from? Well, how did sin enter
into God's beautiful creation? After all, on the sixth day,
after God had made all things, did not the Lord, upon surveying
all that he had made, did not the Lord say that everything
he had made was very good? Very good? Well, of course he
did. And it was good as it came forth.
Everything was good as it came forth from the hand of God. But
Lucifer, one of these angels, it would appear that he was an
angel of great rank. He had the audacity to go against
his creator and to defy him and seek that position that God had
ordained for the Son of God. He sought to be God himself. He sought to be the ruler. He
sought to have dominion. I will establish my throne, Satan
said. Evil ambition was found in his
heart and he was expelled from heaven. Not content, however,
to merely recruit and lead a third of the angels in rebellion with
him, this vile serpent, he slipped into Eden's garden. And he went
after the very crowning jewel of God's creation, that is man. He tempted the woman and was
successful. But the woman was not the representative
of mankind, Adam was, her husband. And then the woman therefore
approached her husband as a tool in the hand of Satan. And very
soon, that marvelous man created in the image of God, he was ruined. Satan, he slithered into Eden. And all of a sudden, as a result
of his work at paradise, was lost. A garden of beauty was spoiled. And the glory of God's creation
was instantly ruined and contaminated by sin. But that That sin just
didn't contaminate Adam and Eve. It contaminated you and me. For you see, Adam represented
all the human race. That garden which was filled
with everything beneficial and everything delightful to man,
suddenly it was overcome with briars and thorns. And man, being a sinner, was
cut off from God, cut off from heaven. He was cut off from divine
acceptance and from everything that is good and holy. Wherefore, as by one man, you
know what entered into the world, this thing called sin. entered
into the world. That's where it came from. And
as a result of sin, death by sin, physical death, spiritual
death, unless God intervenes, it's gonna be the second death.
It'll be a death that won't end. Death passed upon all men for
that all sin in Adam, who was our representative. Now, here's what we see in Psalm
91 in verse 13. This is the enemy of our souls. His defeat is declared. This is, and here's
the title of the message. This is our Lord. This is Christ's
victory, his victory over Satan. He had to, as a man, as the perfect
man, as the God man, as the law-abiding man, as the man who bore the
penalty of our sinfulness, as this one who was our representative,
as this one who died for us, as this one who put death to
death by his own death, who put death to sin, he must himself
conquer this awful lion This awful lion, he set forth here
the lion who goes about seeking whom he may devour. And the adder,
that is the asp, the serpent, the snake, for he has poisoned
and he's poisoned all of us. He's the young lion who is sneaky and he comes out to devour. He
is the dragon who breathes out fire. Everything he breathes
out is deadly. He's the father of lies. He's
a father of death. And our Lord Jesus came into
this world to defeat him. And he did that. Yes, he had
to live under the law, Christ did. Yes, he had to suffer the
penalty. of the broken law. Yes, he had
to kill death and kill sin, but he's got to conquer this one. And we're no match for him. We
never were and we aren't now. But I'll tell you what, when
our Lord Jesus came to this world, Satan met one who was up to the
task and he defeated him. This is
our Lord's victory over Satan. Now, let me give you four things
real quick. Number one, here's the promise of victory. That's the first thing. Here's
the promise of victory. I'll ask you to go back with
me to the book of Genesis chapter three. Go back to Genesis chapter
three. Here's the promise of victory. Now, you know, everything recorded
in Genesis has far more than, well, we'll call it a local significance. This extends way beyond just
these two individuals. This is such a key chapter. Here
we have the origin of sin, We have the deceitfulness of Satan. We have the failure of the representative
man. We have the evidence that no
man seeks after God. We have the announcement of the
coming of the Savior. And we have the gospel of substitution
and satisfaction illustrated at the end of chapter three.
Here we see the sentence is pronounced upon the serpent in the presence
of our fallen parents. Genesis chapter three, look at
verse 14 and 15. And the Lord God said unto the
serpent, he said to Satan, he said, because thou hast done
this, thou art cursed above all cattle and above every beast
of the field. Upon thy belly shalt thou go,
and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life. And God says,
and I will put enmity. I will. I will put, the I wills
of God. When God says, I will do something,
you can just mark it down. It's as good as done. God says,
I'm gonna do something. And I'll remind you, he is first
of all speaking to the evil one, to Satan, to the serpent, but
it's within earshot of Adam and Eve. And it is recorded by Moses. Moses wrote this many years later,
most likely toward the end of the wilderness journeys. But
God, the Spirit, He inspired him what to write. And God says
to Moses, write this, I will, I'm gonna do something. I will
put, and that's a powerful word. I will set something in motion. I will appoint. I will appoint, I will set something
in motion. What is it? Enmity, hostility. And it will be between thee,
Satan, and the woman, thee woman, not Eve, not Eve, but another
woman, Mary. and it shall bruise. That word
bruise, it's, you know, you hit yourself and you get a bruise
and you say, well, that's sore. That's not the meaning of this.
The word bruise here really means to go after, to strike out against,
to go on the offensive. He says, and it shall bruise
this one who is the seed of the woman. He's going after you,
he's coming. That's the message of the whole
Old Testament, isn't it? Somebody's coming, somebody's
coming. You read in the book of Malachi
chapter 3, it's like Malachi, the last of the Old Testament
prophets who writes. He says, he shall come. That's
the message of all the Old Testament. And God the Father here says,
and it shall bruise, it shall strike out against you. He's
coming after you, Satan. You see, Satan's presence in
the Garden of Eden was no accident. This is all under the purpose
and will of God. Everything is under the will
of God, you know that. Could not God have put a stop
to this? Could not God have kept Adam
in his pristine condition? Well, sure he could have. But
then God's greatest glory would not be made manifest. His greatest
glory being the salvation of a numberless people through the
redemption of the Lord Jesus Christ. That is the salvation
of sinners. This is God's greatest glory. The heavens declared the glory
of God, I know that. and divine providence, it manifests
the skill and the wisdom and the infinite intelligence of
God in directing everything to the end that He has ordained.
But listen, His greatest glory is in saving you, in saving you,
you. These two, these three back here
and me and everybody who's a believer that's watching, that's his greatest
glory. And the way he did it, he did
it through this one, the seed of the woman. You see, here's
the promise of victory. Here's a glorious promise. And
isn't it interesting that here in Genesis chapter three, before
the Lord pronounces judgment, Before he says to man, to woman
that in sorrow she'll have, she'll bring forth children. And before
he says to the man that you'll earn your bread by the sweat
of your brow and that the earth is gonna bring forth thorns and
thistles and so forth and so on. Before he says that and before
he illustrates judgment, that will be exercised or poured
out upon the seed of the woman, judging our sins." Before that,
he has good news of grace. The first thing he did, he sought
out our parents. And then, so that they could
hear, he announced the seed of the woman is coming. And he's
going to be victorious over the enemy. The seed of the woman,
we all know, We came forth from the seed of
our fathers. But our Lord Jesus, he was not
at all contaminated with sin. He was born of a virgin, the
seed of a woman. And our Lord says, the seed of
the woman. He's coming after Satan. And now watch it. It says, and
it shall bruise thy head and thou shall bruise his heel. And
Satan is coming after Christ Jesus. And they met together
and the battle ensued. But here's the very promise of
victory to our Savior. He shall strike out against the
head of the serpent. When you think of head, you think
of that which takes the lead, that which is powerful. That's
what the meaning is. He's going after your power.
You see Satan, Hebrews chapter two, he had usurped power over
mankind, especially the Gentiles, keeping them in heathen darkness. And our Lord Jesus, he came to
break that power, to remove from him that authority he had in
keeping men's eyes blinded to the gospel, especially the Gentiles. Savior, here's the promise. He's coming after you. He's coming after you. and he's
gonna bruise your head. He's going to defeat you. It's going to be a death blow. Where do you think that took
place? At the cross. At the cross. And it would mean
his own heel would be bruised. Satan would go after his life,
but by the wounds of our Lord Jesus Christ, He saved his people from our
sins. So there is first of all, the
promise of victory. Now go with me to Matthew chapter
four, and here I've called this the preface to victory. And that's because I wanted to
kind of have them all start with a P. The preface to victory. I wanna make it easy for you
to remember. Here's the promise of victory. That's the first
thing. And isn't it marvelous and wonderful that one of the
first things in the Bible that we're told after creation, and
then we get to Genesis three and we find the fall of man,
the Lord promises victory. The victory of the Lord Jesus
over the enemy. Now go to Matthew chapter four.
Here's the preface. Now, we know God deals with men
through two representatives. Adam, the first Adam, and the
last Adam. Two representatives of two covenants. The first man, Adam, who sinned,
he represented us in the covenant of works. Summed up this way, this do and
live. Disobey and die. Adam didn't
obey. He disobeyed and he died. And
we all died in him. He failed. He failed. When he was put to the test,
he didn't pass the test. And it wasn't just that he got
just barely below passing grade. I mean, he got zero. He lost. In Adam's fall, we lost
everything. There's nothing left. There's
no goodness in us. There's no soundness in us. Zero. You understand what that
means, don't you? Zero. No righteousness, nothing beneficial. But our Lord Jesus, to him was
promised the victory. And we overheard the promise
of God there in Genesis three. And then we get here to Matthew
chapter four. And here we have the, what I
would call the preface to victory. That first man, he failed. But what about this next man? Is he gonna fail? Now wait a
minute, he can't save us unless he's successful. He's got to
pass the test. And I mean, not just merely pass,
he's gotta have perfect, he's gotta have a perfect life, and
he's gotta have a perfect reaction to all of the fiery darts of
the enemy. And we see here that he did.
In Matthew four, look at verse one. Then was Jesus led up of
the spirit into the wilderness. Interesting, Mark puts it this
way. He was driven of the spirit. He has been anointed by the Holy
Spirit in his baptism, which preceded this. The father has declared, this
is my beloved son. This is my beloved son in whom
I am well pleased. Spirit of God came down and anointed
him. And now verse one of chapter
four, the same spirit. He didn't have the spirit by
measure. He had the fullness of the spirit
of God. He was anointed for the work,
anointed as the prophet. anointed as a priest, anointed
as a king. And he's led up, he's driven
of the Spirit. The Spirit of God drove him,
pushed him, directed him, this perfect man. He drove him into the wilderness
to be tempted of the devil. You see, here's the issue at
stake here. Will he stand up to the devil?
First man didn't. So what? He didn't fall to Satan's
temptation. No, Satan used his wife to get
to him. But he died. He's a failure. You remember I read there to
begin the service from Isaiah 42 verse four, he shall not fail. That's what's said of Christ
Jesus. I know there is the promise of his victory. Here's the preface
of his victory. He meets him in life. And then
I'm gonna show you gonna meet him in death too. He's going
after him. You see, I said the word bruise
means to go after. and the spirit of God drives
him into the wilderness. You got to deal with this evil
one. I'm no match for him. I can't
deal with him. I'm like Michael when there was
a difference of opinion over the body of Moses. The Lord rebuked
you. I can't deal with him, but my
representative did. And here we have it. Watch it,
verse two, and when he had fasted 40 days and 40 nights, he was
afterward hungry. You read the other accounts,
he was tempted 40 days and 40 nights. And I think those temptations,
I know those temptations are not recorded. What we do have
here happened right there at the end of the 40th day. And it says in verse three, and
when the tempter came to him, he said, if thou be the son of
God, Satan knows who Jesus of Nazareth is, all the demons did. They said to him at one time,
are you come to torment us before the time? They know who he is. He's the judge, he's the son
of God. We know who you are is what they said. So what he's
saying is, since you're the son of God, command that these stones
be made bread. And here is the temptation. And
don't ever underestimate the craftiness and the deceitfulness
of this evil one. He adapts the temptation to a
suitable circumstance in which you find yourself. His goal is always, when it comes
to God's people, his goal is always to get you to either deny
God or to call into question the purpose of God. or to murmur
at God's providence or to disbelieve his word, that is his promises.
When he approached the Savior, it was to tempt one who was hungry. He's hungry. What he wants to do here is if
he can destroy the son's confidence in the father's provision. He
tries, the temptation is to get the Son of God not to trust the
Father, to take matters into his own hands. And boy, we failed
right there lots of times, haven't we? To take matters into his
own hands and exert independence from the one who sent him. But you see, our Lord Jesus was
always fully dependent upon the Father. He came to do the Father's
will. If the Son of God, let me just
keep reading here. When the tempter came, he said,
if thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.
But he answered and said, it is written, man shall not live
by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the
mouth of God. The temptation is to be independent
of God. If you're the son of God, you're
the son of God, perform a miracle for yourself. You don't have
to depend upon God. And our Lord Jesus answers him
the correct way, using the word of God. Remember this, child
of God, and I'm gonna be addressing this more specifically this evening. But remember this, no weapon
will ever prevail against the evil one except the Word of God. That's what you use. That's what
the Savior used. There's a marvelous authority
and power about the sword of the Spirit that will even defeat
the evil one when he tempts us. The Father who sustained our
Lord Jesus during these 40 days of fasting would continue to
hold him up. The Savior believed God. Then
there's the second temptation, verse five. Then the devil taketh
him up into the holy city. Now, God, this is part of the
humiliation of our Lord Jesus as well, this perfect man, because
the first temptation took place in the wilderness, in the desert.
And then Satan just whisks him away into the temple in the holy
city of Jerusalem. He sets him up on a pinnacle
of the temple. He changes location. And then
he says to him in verse six, here's the second temptation,
if thou be the son of God, cast yourself down, for it's written,
and it's written in that very Psalm that we're studying, Psalm
91. He shall give his angels charge
concerning thee, and in their hands they shall bear thee up,
lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone. The first temptation was not
to trust the Father's care. This one is designed to tempt
him to presume on God's providence. Give evidence of your deity before
all these people in and around the temple. And boy, there were
a lot of people coming and going in the temple, of course. You
just hurl yourself off of this pinnacle After all it is written,
he'll give his angels charge over you and they'll hold you
up in their hands. Well, it is true that God promised
protection and provision for his people. But our Lord shows
us, you must not be rash in your behavior. Don't be presumptuous. Don't trifle with divine providence. You see, if the devil, he's so
wise, if he can't cause us to fall by distrusting the Lord,
he'll turn the tables and suggest, well, maybe you ought to experiment
with God. If you're really there, Lord,
do this for me. I'll believe you if you'll do
this. No. Don't put God to the test. It's
a sinful thing, presumption is. And again, in verse seven, the
Lord Jesus answered using the word of God. Jesus said unto him, it is written
again, thou shall not tempt the Lord thy God. And then here comes
the third temptation. Again, the devil taketh him up
into an exceeding high mountain. Got the picture? In the wilderness. And then he takes him immediately
to a pinnacle in the temple in the holy city of Jerusalem. And
now he moves him from there to an exceeding high mountain. And
he shows him all the kingdoms of the world and all the glory
of them. And he says to him, and here
Satan shows he's a liar. And he's the father of lies.
All these things will I give thee. Really? They're not yours
to give. You see all of the earth, the
Lord owns the earth and the fullness thereof. Psalm 24 verse one. He says, all these things will
I give thee if thou will fall down and worship me. And our
Lord answers him, verse 10, get thee hence Satan. For it is written,
thou should worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou
serve. Three times, answer him, use
the word of God. Use the word of God. Use the
word of God. Verse 11, then the devil leaves
him. Behold, angels came. Good angels. They came and they ministered
unto him. Our Savior proves he's the perfect
representative of his people. This is a preface to his victory. Can he withstand the temptations? Behold our perfect savior. He never flinched. Never flinched. Driven into the
wilderness to duel with the enemy of our souls. and he came out
unscathed, our perfect, spotless, sinless
Savior. This defeat was critical because as our representative
man, had he failed, all would have been lost. After all, that
first representative man failed and look what kind of shape it
left us in. So here comes this second representative
man. But he didn't fail. He was up
to the task. Now go with me to John chapter
12. Here is what I call the performance
of victory. The performance of victory. We've had the promise of victory,
we've had the preface of victory, and now we have the performance of victory. John chapter 12, look at verse
30. 31, Christ says, now is the judgment
of this world. What does that mean? Now is the
crisis of this world. Now the world is gonna show its
true colors. The religious world and the heathen
world. They're gonna show their guilt. They're gonna manifest their
state before God and how they hate me. Now is the judgment
of this world. And they did. At the crucifixion
of our Lord Jesus, they showed what they thought of the Son
of God. And then he says, now, now shall
the prince of this world be cast out. This is a time of judgment
for him. You see, when our Lord Jesus
died upon the cross of Calvary, He's going to deal with sin,
that's true. The judgment of God demanded
that because the wages of sin is death. The scripture says,
1 Corinthians 15, he died for our sins according to the scriptures.
He's gonna deal with death, but he's gonna deal a fatal wound
to Satan. He's going after him. You see, our Lord Jesus at the
cross of Calvary, He's on the offensive. He's going after every evil thing
and He's going after all the enemies of His people. You know, the old timers used
to divide the work of our savior. They talked about his active
obedience being his life and his passive obedience in his
death. I don't see anything passive
here. I see our Lord going on the offensive. I see him engaged in a warfare. And He goes to battle against
all of our enemies and chiefly the enemy that has been our mortal
enemy ever since He dealt the fatal blow to us in the garden. He goes after Satan. And He says,
now, now shall the Prince of this world be cast out, cast
out from His power. Cast out from his authority.
Let me give you a couple of other references to this. Look with
me in the book of Revelation. Look at Revelation, first of
all, chapter 20. Yeah, chapter 20 of the book
of Revelation. Chapter 20. Here's Satan cast out. Look at
verse one, and I saw an angel come down from heaven. This is
our Lord Jesus. Remember, he's the angel of the
covenant. And here's the incarnation of the Son of God. And I saw
an angel come down from heaven. Here's his incarnation, having
the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand.
He's on the offensive. He's going after somebody or
something. He laid hold on the dragon. Does that sound like passiveness
to you? Does that sound like one who's
not active? That's one who's on the offensive.
He went to war for us. What's it going to take to save
God's people? It's the Son of God going to
war. He's trodden the winepress of
God's wrath Himself, by Himself. He put away our sins by absorbing
all the wrath of God, and He's going to deal with our enemy
too. And He laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which
is the devil and Satan and he bound him a thousand years. That is, he crushed him. He put
him in chains. And until a thousand years where
the Jews was considered to be a long, long time, not specifically
1000 years, but a long, long time. He's been in chains for
these 2,000 years, dragging them about. And at the end of time,
the Lord is going to release him for just a short while. And
then will come Armageddon and the end of all of our enemies. Here's where the defeat happened.
It happened at the cross of Calvary. Go back to Revelation chapter
12. Revelation chapter 12. Here is indeed the performance
of victory. Revelation chapter 12, look at
verse seven. There was war in heaven. Michael,
that means one who is God, that's Christ and his angels fought
against the dragon. And the dragon fought in his
angels and prevailed not. Neither was their place found
anymore in heaven. And the great dragon was cast
out. That's what it says in John chapter
12, what the Savior said. That old serpent called the devil
and Satan, which deceives the whole world, he was cast out
into the earth. And his angels were cast out
with him. And I heard a loud voice saying
in heaven, now is come salvation. That's how I know this is talking
about Calvary. It's talking about the performance
of victory by our Savior. Now, now in His death has come
salvation and strength and the kingdom of our God and the power
of our Christ. For this accuser of the brethren
is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night,
and they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, by the word
of their testimony, that is by the gospel, and they love not
their lives unto the death. Here's the performance of victory.
Remember what the Savior said on the cross, it is finished. That's a performance of victory
right there. It is finished. Thou shalt tread
upon the lion and the adder, the young lion and dragon, thou
shalt trample under thy feet. And here we see it happens at
the cross of Calvary. And our Lord Jesus, who died,
arose again the third day, and He ever lives for us. Now, finally,
and briefly, here's the proof of victory. In Genesis 3, you
keepin' up in Genesis 3, we have the promise of victory. Matthew chapter 4, in the temptation
of our Savior, we have the preface of victory. That shows us how
things are going. And then we have in John 12,
the performance of victory. And then fourthly, here's the
proof of victory. And I'll just give these to you. How do we know he was victorious?
His resurrection, that's proof, isn't it? That's proof he defeated
Satan. That's proof that he trampled
all enemies underneath his feet. His resurrection, His ascension,
His enthronement, the gift of the Holy Spirit. People talk
about the gift of the Holy Spirit. The significance of that was,
the declaration of the gift of the Spirit was this, the Son
of God has done what He came to do. The Savior had said, the
Spirit will not come if I'm not glorified. He was glorified by
his death. That's where he got the glory.
And his resurrection, therefore he sends forth his spirit and
his universal reign. That's proof of his victory.
And the final judgment, the final judgment. Go back over with me
deeper into Revelation again in the chapter 20, and I'll read
this to you and then I'll quit. Look at Revelation chapter 20.
Look at verse number 10. We've already got the defeat
of the false prophet, the beast and the false prophet.
Now look at verse 10. And the devil that deceived them,
he was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone. where the
beast and the false prophet are. He shall be tormented day and
night forever and ever." Our Savior did that. And I say did that, it's as good
as done. This is talking about the end
of time. And then our Lord Jesus, here's
the proof of His victory. Every knee's gonna bow to Him.
And every tongue's gonna confess that He's Lord to the glory of
God the Father. Ah, this is the victory. This
is our Savior's victory. This is Christ's victory over
Satan. Aren't you thankful? Don't you
rejoice in your heart? He didn't fail. He couldn't fail. He's done the work the Father
gave Him to do. He lived under the law. He satisfied
justice. He killed our sins. He killed
death. He honored God in every way.
And he dealt a fatal blow to our enemy, old victorious Christ. Let's close in prayer. Father,
we thank you for our great warrior, that one who battled all the
forces of evil for your people. And in the course of the battle,
in the course of going after this evil one, yes, our Savior's
heel was bruised, it was