Good morning. Let's all stand
together. We'll sing hymn number 228. 228. My faith has found a resting
place Not in divides or creed I trust the Ever-Living One His
words for me shall bleed I'll be no longer a burden ♪ That Jesus died and that he died
for me ♪ ♪ Enough for me that Jesus saves
this ♪ ♪ Ends my fear and doubt ♪ ♪ A sinful soul I come to be
♪ ♪ He'll never cast me out ♪ It is enough that Jesus died
and that He died for me. My heart is leaning on the Word
of Return. In my Savior's name Salvation
through His blood I need no other, I do need I need no other plea
It is enough that Jesus died And that He died My great physician feels the
sin of this deep pain to sing. For me his precious blood he
shed, for me his life he gave. Be seated. We'll sing hymn number
355. 355. From every stormy wind The calm, the sure retreat is
found beneath the birds. There is a place where Jesus
sheds the oil of badness upon our heads, a place that all ♪
Besides more sweet ♪ ♪ It is the blood of mercy ♪ ♪ There
is a scene where spirit lives ♪ ♪ Those fellowship ♪ ♪ They build
♪ ♪ Lord, sunder far ♪ ♪ Thy faith they meet ♪ ♪ Oh, never
♪ ♪ One cometh ♪ ♪ Mercy ♪ sea. Oh, whither could we flee for
ain't it dim, dim, desolate? of hell defeat and suffering
saints no mercy. ♪ All their unequal means be seen
♪ ♪ And since it's fullest known ♪ ♪ When it comes down our souls
to green ♪ Mark chapter 3, Mark chapter 3. Start in verse 31, go to the
end of the chapter, verse 21, excuse me. Verse 21, we'll go
to the end of the chapter. And when his friends heard of
it, about him being in such a house and so many people there that
they couldn't even eat bread. And when his friends heard, they
went out to lay hold on him for they said he is beside himself.
And the scribes which came down from Jerusalem said, he hath
basil bub, and by the prince of the devils he cast out devils. And he called them unto him and
he said unto them in parables, how can Satan cast out Satan? If a kingdom be divided against
itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house be divided against
itself, that house cannot stand. And if Satan rise up against
himself and be divided, he cannot stand, but hath an end. No man can enter into a strong
man's house and spoil his goods, except he first bind the strong
man, and then he will spoil his house. Verily I say unto you,
all sins shall be forgiven unto the sons of men. and blasphemies
wheresoever they shall blaspheme. But he that shall blaspheme against
the Holy Ghost hath never forgiveness, but is in danger of internal
damnation, because they said he hath an unclean spirit. Father, in the blessed name of
your beloved son, the son of your love, the Lord Jesus Christ,
we come into your presence thankful that we can come, come with boldness,
come with liberty, come with confidence, come with assurance
that you'll receive us and hear us, not for our sake, but for
Christ's sake. For what he did and who he is,
what he accomplished, what a blessing it is to be able to approach
into the presence of the holiest of holies, because we have a
high priest that preceded us, our forerunner, entered into
the very presence of God for us. And Lord, I bless you for
this day. Oh, what a day! Every day is
your day. Every day is a day that you made.
And every day is a day that we are preserved by you and kept
by you and upheld by you. saved by grace every single day
of our lives. And, oh, Lord, we thank you for
that, that we have this assurance that you'll never, ever leave
us nor forsake us, that you'll keep us in your hand and nobody
can plug us out of your hand. And, Lord, we pray for those
among us that are never yet trusted Christ. Lord, would you be pleased
to open hearts, open the understanding, And Lord, we've gathered here
to worship you. Enable us to worship in spirit
and in truth. Enable us to hear the gospel
and enable me to preach the gospel. And Lord, we pray for those who
are not with us through your providence that are traveling,
that are not here because of their bodies and the frailty
of their body. We pray for them and ask for
your great and abundant mercies. Be given for Christ's sake. Meet
with us today. Bring glory to yourself and do
it for Christ's sake. Amen. M number 268. 268 How firm a foundation these saints
of the Lord What more can he say than to
you he hath said? ♪ And with thee be not dismayed
♪ ♪ For I am thy God ♪ ♪ I will still give thee aid ♪ ♪ Thou
stricken in hell ♪ ♪ And calls me to stand ♪ ♪ Upheld by my
creatures ♪ ♪ Our biblical head ♪ ♪ When through the deep waters
I go ♪ The rivers of gold shall not be overflown,
For I will be with thee thy troubles through. ♪ Dictify to thee thy deepest distress
♪ ♪ When through fiery trials thy pathway shall lie ♪ My grace, all-sufficient, shall
be thy supply, and we shall not hurt thee. The soul that all Jesus had paid
for repose We'll stand together as we sing
the hymn of the day in the bulletin. Hark how the gospel trumpet sounds
Christ in free grace therein abounds Free grace to such as
sinners be Why not for me? The Savior died, and by His blood
The crippled sinner's near to God. He died to save Jesus came to Eternal life by Christ is given
And sinful men are raised to Him In sin of grace so rich and
free All right, I hope you're still
in Mark chapter 3. I want to talk about a kingdom
divided, a kingdom divided. But I want you to start looking
there at me with me in verse 21. Now our Lord had went into
a house and He couldn't even eat. They couldn't even eat because
they had such a crowd in that house and around that house,
such a multitude together. And when it says His friends,
if you ll look in the margin, it says His kinsmen, His kinsmen. He had brothers and sisters from
Mary and Joseph that He was born of God, but they was raised with
Him, and this is what they said. And when His kinsmen heard, they
went out to lay hold on Him. They went out and said, ìWe need
to bring him to the house.î Why? ìBecause heís beside himself,
heís lost his mind.î He said, ìThese crowds and all these miracles
that heís been doing, and these big crowds just went to his head,
and heís beside himself, heís lost his mind, and we need to
apprehend him and take him home with us.î And thatís what theyíre
saying. Now hereís people that was raised
with him. They saw his sinlessness. They
never saw anything out of Him but nothing. In fact, our Lord
never bumped His foot against a rock. Our Lord never stubbed
His toe. Our Lord never hurt His hand
when He worked in a copper shop with a hammer. That would mean
that He was imperfect in some way. He was as perfect from the
day He was born to the day He hung on a cross. And these family
members here, his brothers and sisters, and Jude later became
a brother, I mean a believer. But anyway, they thought that
this man, they never saw his sinlessness. They didn't see
his perfections. They never saw how obedient a
child he was and how submissive he was to his mother and father.
They never saw the wisdom of God in him. but yet all they
saw was that he's got this great multitude of people following
him, and so it's gone to his head, he's got proud, and he's
got full of imaginations and things, and we need to get ahold
of him and take him somewhere where he won't hurt himself,
because he's lost his mind. Could you imagine people thinking
that about Christ? Thinking that about Christ? But
oh my, he's lost his mind. And then the next verse says
this, verse 22, and this is where I'm going to deal with, down
to verse 30, And the scribes which came down from Jerusalem
said, He hath basil bub, and by the prince of the devils casteth
out devils. Now let me tell you something
about the scribes. They were interpreters of the
law. They wrote it out in Johnson
Tittles, and they were interpreters of the law. But the Pharisees,
they were enforcers of the law. They was always the one that
got upset when they broke the law. Scribes interpreted it,
and then the Pharisees enforced it. And that would be, that'd
be like why you have a bunch of folks in church, you know,
the preacher does what he's supposed to do, and then when folks need
to be straightened out, we got a committee that's gonna straighten
you out. And that's what this was about. That's what this is
about. But oh my, and they make an awful,
awful, absurd charge against the Lord Jesus Christ. And they
said he hath basil bub, and that's the prince of the devils, that's
the main devil, and he casteth out devils BY the prince of the
devils. Now how in the world could that
be? That's what an absurd, ludicrous charge to make against ANYBODY,
much less the Lord Jesus Christ. How can the devil cast out the
devil? How can Satan cast out Satan?
So you see the charge that they brought against Christ, how LUDICROUS
it is, how EVIL it is, how ABSURD it is. And look in Matthew s
version, look what it says over here, Matthew chapter 12, look
at Mythim in Matthew chapter 12, and look how it happened
over here. There s an account of this in
all of the Gospels except John s. And look in verse 22, Then was brought unto him one
possessed with the devil, and he was blind, and he was dumb.
This man couldn't see, and he couldn't talk. And he healed
him insomuch that the blind saw, and the deaf spake, dumb spake. He not only gave him his eyesight,
but he was able to talk. He'd been dumb before. And all
the people were amazed and said, Is not this the son of David?
But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, This fellow doth
cast out devils, but by Beelzebub, the prince of the devils. So
they saw this great miracle, and they turned around and said,
There s no way he could cast out this devil unless he did
it by the devil himself. That's what they said. They saw
this blind man see, who had never saw. They saw this dumb man talk,
who had never spoke a word in his life. And they said, turned
around and said, you know how he did that? You know how he
dealt with that devil? He did it by the devil himself.
That's what they said. And you talk about making no
sense. They were willfully, willfully misrepresented our Lord's work.
And that's what our Lord said back over here in our text in
Mark chapter three. And he called these scribes and
the people around him, and he said unto them in parables, how
can Satan cast out Satan? How can Satan cast out Satan? Oh my, what a dangerous ground
these men are on. And then our Lord says this,
He said, if a kingdom be divided against itself, how in the world
can that kingdom cannot stand? And then He goes on to say, if
a house be divided against itself, that house cannot stand. We've
seen that happen time and time again. But a kingdom, you know
how many kings has been destroyed because they were divided against
themselves? One king claims the throne, another
king comes to claim the throne. Who's got the power? And then
a house, a husband and wife divided against one another. They get
against one another. Next thing you know, the house
falls apart. And that's why he says a kingdom
that's divided, it's going to fall. It's going to fall. It has to fall. And that's what
he said, and no wonder we say this, united we stand, or divided
we fall. And that's exactly right. That's
exactly right. And if Satan cast out Satan,
look what he said here in verse 26. And he said, and if Satan
rise up against himself, if Satan rise up against himself and be
divided, he cannot stand, his kingdom cannot stand, And that
kingdom has an end, it comes to where it cannot stand anymore.
It has an end, it can't go on, it can't go on. And oh my, and
then he says this, and this is what I want to deal with. No
man can enter into a strong man's house and spoil his goods, except
he will first bind the strong man and then he'll spoil his
house. Who is this strong man? Who is this strong man that our
Lord's talking about? Well, it can only be one person. It can only be the devil himself. It can only be Satan. That's
all it could be. And I tell you, and the devil,
who is this strong man? He's the devil. Now I want you
to turn with me to Luke chapter 11, and we're gonna deal with
this over from Luke chapter 11. I want to deal with this from
over here, where our Lord was dealing with this thing. Luke
chapter 11 and verse 20. And look what he says over here.
And our Lord starts saying here in verse 19, I want you to see
this now. And he said, if I buy basil,
bub, if I buy the prince of the devils, cast out devils, why,
who do your sons cast them out by? Therefore they shall be your
judges They're going to be in judgment against you because
who do your sons do it if I do it by the devil? Who do your
sons do it for? But now listen to this. He said
but if I with the finger of God, that's all it takes is the finger
of God one finger if I with the finger of God cast out devils
I There's no doubt that the kingdom of God's come right into your
presence. I do it with one finger. And if I do it with one finger,
you know what that means? That God's right here. The kingdom
of God's right here. Not devil, that the kingdom of
God's right here. And if I cast them out with a
finger, and the kingdom of God's come unto you. And then look
what he says. And when a strong man's arm keeps
his palms, He talks about a strong man's arm, a strong man armed,
oh my. And who is this strong man? We
already told you, it's the devil himself. And look at his character,
he said he's a strong man. He's a strong man. What makes
him strong? What makes him strong? Cunningness. He's very cunning, He's very
deceitful, His subtlety, that's what He said, we know He's subtle.
His strength is in His cunning and deceit and subtlety. He knows exactly how to deal
with men. He faced our first parents, and
He was so cunning and so subtle, and so deceiving that he convinced
them, he convinced them that they would not die. He convinced
them that if they ate of that fruit of knowledge of true and
evil, God wouldn't kill them, that God wouldn't punish them,
and they would not die. He convinced them, he convinced
them of that, and they took of that fruit. That's how cunning
he is. He took parents, our parents,
who was in paradise, had never sinned, didn't even know what
sin was, but He convinced them, He convinced them to go eat that
fruit. God's not going to let you die.
Oh, He's not that way. He's too good. He's not gonna
punish you for your sin. He's too good. He's not righteous. He's not just. It wouldn't be
right. And you know what? He wants you to be like God Himself.
And He wants all the glory. He ain't gonna give you none.
Boy, He convinced them. And I tell you, you wanna be
made wise? Eat that fruit. You wanna be made smart? Eat
that fruit. You wanna know how God, how glorified,
how you'll be glorified? You'll be a God yourself. Eat
that fruit. Yeah, oh my. He's been doing
men that way ever since. Eat the fruit, it ain't gonna
hurt you. Eat the fruit, it ain't gonna hurt you. Oh my. And I'll
tell you what, and you know what he does? He comes as an angel
of light. And I'll tell you what, and he's
got a malignant, malignant form. And you know what he does? He
takes the young and overcomes the young through their lust.
and He overcomes the older folks through their pride. Oh, my. Pride, oh, my goodness. Man,
young man, He gets him. Makes him feel strong and he
can do anything he wants to and then he takes an old folk, takes
people like us and makes us so proud. Proud of how long we've
lived, proud of how smart we are, proud of how good we've
done, proud of how much we make, proud of the house, proud of
everything we've ever done. Scott said one time, he said,
a fellow retires, gets him a mailbox about that big, puts his name
on both sides. and says, stick to no trespasses
on his property, and said, I'm done, I don't want nobody around
me, don't come around me on my property. And then he sits down
and dies. Dies. Now that's the way man
is, he wants to be recognized. And I tell you, and the devil
will make sure you get recognized. And he makes the dead, you know,
and I've used this before. A funeral director, that can
make somebody that died look like they're laying there asleep
and makes them look almost like all their, like it can almost
get up and get out of the casket. Makes them look almost alive.
That fella get all the business in town. But he's still dead, huh? Oh,
he makes the lied appear like the truth. Darkness to look like
light. He's strong, he's strong, but
there's a stronger man, a stronger man, and I tell ya, you know,
he's limited in his strength, and you know who limits him?
The Lord Jesus. He said, I cast him out by a
finger. God asked Satan when they had a conversation over
Job. Have you ever considered my servant Job? He's a perfect
man. He's an upright man. And he hates
evil. He said, I tell you what, you
let me at him and I'll make him cuss you. He said, oh, well,
take down that hedge around him. Well, go ahead. You know what
Job did? He said, the Lord gave and the
Lord take away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.
Satan couldn't get him. You know why? Because he belonged
to Christ. He belonged to Christ, and he
ain't gonna get us because he, and look what else it says about
this strong man here in verse 21, Luke 11, 21. He's armed,
he's armed. He's armed. Armed with deceit,
armed with darkness, armed with all the things that'll deceive
a man. Our Lord said, you know, there was a fella that came along
while the saints slumbered and slept. And an enemy came in among
the wheat, and sowed tares among that wheat. And I'll tell you
who's that enemy, that's Satan. He comes in and he sows tares.
He makes people look just like the real thing. Judas, you know
Judas wasn't discovered until he sowed Christ for 30 pieces
of silver. He spent three years with Christ,
three years with the apostles. He done works and he was a treasurer. And you know what the scriptures
tells us? That he was not exposed until he sowed Christ for 30
pieces of silver. And they didn't know he did that
till he come out and kissed Christ in the garden of Gethsemane. He was, oh, he was a deceiver,
and this Satan is a deceiver and a liar from the beginning.
And his armor, his armor is just absolute opposite of God. His
girdle is a falsehood. He's a liar and the father of
it. His breastplate is wickedness. His heart is wicked and He puts
men's heart in wickedness. His feet are shod with the gospel
of hatred of God Almighty and the gospel of Christ. And I'll
tell you what, He deceived Eve and His shield, His shield is
a shield of doubt. His helmet is a helmet of damnation. His sword is the imagination
of an evil heart. He blinds men to the gospel of
Christ. And I want you to see something
in Isaiah 44. You need to see this. Isaiah
44. You know, I've seen this happen so
many times over the years. And sooner or later, sooner or
later, if there's a tear or The natural man, he's got control
over the natural man. That man will leave the gospel.
And look what he said here in verse 20. Look what he said here
in Isaiah 44, 20. He said, He feedeth on ashes. Who in the world wants to eat
ashes? But he feeds on ashes. A deceived heart hath turned
him aside. And listen, he cannot deliver
his soul. And nor say, is there not a lie
in my right hand? I've got a lie in my right hand.
Oh my. He'll cause a soul to make a
covenant with death and an agreement with hell. And look what else
he does over here in verse 21 of Luke 11, 21. He keeps his palace. Watch his
palace, man's heart. Man's heart, the natural man.
It's the natural man's heart, that's what it is. The heart
of man, the unregenerate man. He so perverts the mind, he so
perverts the heart of man, he so perverts the mind and heart
of a man that they can't see things as they clearly, clearly
are. How many times have you seen somebody and thought, boy,
He certainly deceived in Himself. He can't see things clearly.
He certainly can't see Himself. And you know, here's the thing
about it. Men can't see clearly. And that's what our Lord even
said, you know, He said, These fellows, you know, they want
to come and take just a little bit of might out of your eye.
A little bit of might out of your eye. And then they turn
around and he said, well, how in the world are you going to
dig out that mite? You've got a beam in your eye
because you think you can tell. And you're so deceived in yourself
that you think everybody else has got bad eyesight, but you've
got a whole beam in yours. And oh, my. And here's what he
makes those folks think. And I remember this. This is
the boat I was in. Oh, my goodness, till I was way
up in my 20s. He makes them think that they're
free. while he holds them prisoner. He holds them prisoner by darkness,
by ignorance, by superstition. Oh my. I was preaching one time
here years and years ago out of 1 Corinthians 14, I believe
it is, about tongues. Speaking in tongues, and you
have to have an interpreter. And there ain't no such thing
as an unknown tongue. It may be unknown to us, but
it's known to somebody. I can't go to Mexico and speak
in Spanish. But what I'm saying is, as I
was dealing with that, and a woman came to me and she said, oh,
I wouldn't deal with that for nothing. I said, you don't know
whether those folks are right or not. She's scared to death,
you know, to say anything against people speaking in this jibber-jabbers
and can't nobody stand up and interpret it. Oh, as long as
they're speaking in tongues, that's all that matters. She
said, I wouldn't do that for nothing. She said, I'd be scared
to death if I was preaching against something that's real. I didn't
have no problem with it. But that's that superstition?
That's that superstition? That's exactly what it is, being
superstitious. Oh my. You know, I don't have
no problem facing the Bible. I spoke in tongues. You know
how I found out it wasn't real? From the Bible! You know how
I found out I was deceived? From the Bible! You know how
I realized women ain't supposed to preach from the Bible. You
know why I found out that men are not supposed to, the church
cannot be divided from the Bible. How are people supposed to conduct
themselves by the Bible? And Satan will take the Bible
and he'll twist it and pervert it and make people damn themselves
by the very Word of God. He said, Oh my, he'll come along
and cause a man who's held by the awful bondage of sin to think
that he's free as a bird. And I tell you what, look what
it says, again there in verse 21, His goods are in peace. They're in peace, they're not
upset about nothing. I've seen folks that don't know
God, never did know God, never did love the gospel. And I've
dealt with funerals where people died with peace. They wasn't
upset. They wasn't nervous. They wasn't
afraid. They didn't think about eternity.
They died with peace. How can a man die with peace?
Because his goods are in peace. You know, and I tell you, if
you have a, and here's the kind of peace they had. They had a
peace without the cross. They had a bloodless peace. They
didn't have Christ's peace. Every peace, I said, Jeremiah
said, they cry, peace, peace, and there ain't no peace. People preach, you know, make
your peace with God. You can't do it. There's no way
you can do that. But these folks were in peace.
Oh my, He keeps them in peace, peace. Oh, everything's all right,
you're not gonna die. And I'll be, you know, everybody,
everybody gets to go to heaven. You ever been in a service and
somebody didn't get to go to heaven? And when I preach a service where
a man don't know God, don't know Christ, all I'll say is, is that
they're in God's hand and I'm here to preach the gospel. But
there's four things that never change. God's Word never change,
man never change, death never changes, and hell never changes. And I tell you this, no matter
what happens in this world, men are gonna have to deal with this
eternity. And I tell you what, the worst
thing of anybody can have is have a false peace. And you know
how you can tell if you got a false piece, you'll run way back. You'll
run to something you said. You'll run to something you done.
You'll run to some goodness you done. Oh, listen, somebody's
house burnt down. We gave them $500. And they keep it in peace. Everything's
all right. And I tell you that when the
soul begins to desire to get out of the way, get away from
him, you know what he does then? He makes some promises. Oh, listen,
if you stay with me, he said, I'm going to make you wealthy,
I'll make you wise, I'll make you have a good life. And then,
oh, if that doesn't work, he causes him great, great despair.
Huh? Oh, my. He keeps his people in
peace. Oh, I can read my Bible at home.
You can't tell me anything. I already know it. I go to church
regularly. I even got a brick in the church
that I paid for. I've got my name on it. Oh, you make too much out of
sin. And I do as good as I possibly can. And I tell you a story I
heard the other day, two stories. has this woman's husband, got
hurt on the job. And she asked the preacher, said,
would you go see my husband? He said, yeah, I'd be glad to.
Took his Bible with him, went in to visit her husband. Said,
oh, I'm glad to see you, preacher, glad to see you, glad you come.
And he sat down and opened his Bible, and he's gonna read out
of 1 John 5. But the first thing he asked that man, he said, are
you a sinner? Called him by name, said, are
you a sinner? He said, no, no, I wouldn't say that. No, I'm
not perfect. I've done a lot of bad things
in my life, but no, no, I wouldn't say I'm a sinner. Closed his
Bible and walked out of the room. What are you doing? I got nothing
for you. If you're not a sinner, ain't
no sense me talking to you. That's where Satan, that's them
goods kept in peace. Huh? That's them goods kept in
peace. Oh my. I've met a lot of folks
that's not been sinners. Met a lot of them. Everybody
else is, but not them. Oh my. All right, look what happens
now. In verse 22, but when a stronger
than he, shall come upon him, and listen to this, and overcome
him, he taketh from him all his armor, when he trusteth. And I tell you, he takes everything
he had, gives it away. Oh, our Lord Jesus Christ, stronger
than he. Oh, how strong is our Lord Jesus
Christ? How strong do you reckon he is?
How mighty do you reckon he is? He's called the mighty God. And
I tell you, almighty power. God said, I laid help upon one
that's almighty chosen out of the people. And I tell you, we
need somebody that's strong. I mean strong. And I tell you,
you know how strong our Lord is? He opposed the world by the
word of his power. You know that? And I tell you,
the government is on his shoulder. Got the government on one shoulder
and us on the other. I tell you how great is our Lord
Jesus Christ! His Word is strong! His Word
is strong! His Word is strong enough to
break down a man's will! His wrong Word is strong enough
to give a man a new heart! His Word is strong enough to
make a man get in the dust and be glad that he's there! Huh? You don't like being, anybody
here that knows Christ likes being down. Likes being nothing. Likes being nobody. They like
it. But Satan's people, oh no, they're
not gonna get down. They're not gonna get down. But
oh my, his word is strong. And I'll tell you something else,
his work is strong. He said, I bow to the finger
of God. Oh my, His work is strong. How
strong is His work? He said, the gates of hell won't
prevail against it. And when you go through the fire,
I'll be with you. When you go through the rivers,
it shall not run over you. He said, I've chosen you, I've
ordained you, I've kept you. Oh my, His foundation is sure. And it stands sure. And I'll
tell you everything about Christ, His Word, His work, His foundation,
everything about it. It will endure all the way through
time and all the way through eternity. And I tell you, it's
so good and it's so strong that it don't need no help. Don't
need our help, don't need our help. His Word don't need our
help. It's powerful enough in itself.
HIS WORK DOESN'T NEED OUR HELP. IT'S FINISHED. HUH? AND I TELL
YOU WHAT I LOVE ABOUT IT, THAT IT WILL ENDURE AS LONG AS I LIVE,
AS LONG AS YOU LIVE, AND IT WILL ENDURE THROUGHOUT ALL ETERNITY.
HUH? OH MY! AND I TELL YOU, HE COME
TO SEEK AND TO SAVE THAT WHICH IS LOST. YOU RECKON HE'LL FAIL?
YOU RECKON HE'LL FAIL TO SAVE THE LOST? YOU RECKON HE'LL FAIL
TO FIND THEM? Oh no. And look what it says
here in verse 22. He shall come upon him. He shall
come upon him. I like this. You think he
sneaks up on him? I will sneak up on him, see if
I can catch him. Oh no. I tell you what. He shall come upon him. He shall
come upon him. They started close combat back
in eternity. In Isaiah 14, it says, the son
of the morning, Lucifer, he said, I will descend above the throne
of the most high God. I will be as God. And God cast
him down. And everybody that believed his
lie, God cast him down. And they started fighting, started
fighting. When God said, I'm gonna put
enmity between the woman seed and you're healed. I'm gonna
put them between you and the woman's seat. You're gonna bruise
his heel, but he gonna crush your head. And I've been fighting
that way, and you know when? And I tell you what, close combat,
and even in the announcement of our Lord's birth, you know
the first thing that Herod wanted to do? Since they said, born
king of the Jews, he said, let's go kill them. Oh my. And I tell you from the
day that his birth was announced, Until he, 33 years later, he
went to Calvary, went to Golgotha. They fought a battle. And our
Lord Jesus Christ, he never lost the first time. Never lost the first time. You reckon he ever will? Oh,
every time, he says, Satan comes. And he has no part in me. He has no part in me. He got
part in us, but he don't have no part in Christ. And oh my,
it's like David. David had to face Goliath. Goliath
is over nine foot tall. David was a boy. He left the
sheep and went to visit his brothers in the army when there was an
end of war, and they were scared to death, this great big giant.
Everybody said, ìOh, letís send somebody out here.î David said,
ìIíll go. Thereís a cause in this.î What
is it? The glory of God, thatís what
it is. The cause of Christ, we ain't gonna let nobody, nobody
rob God of his glory. He went out there with five smooth
stones. What was the first one? God's
sovereignty. And that's the only one he needed. Second one was total depravity,
unconditional election, particular redemption, and perseverance. He had five of them, but he only
needed one. That one had God's sovereignty,
ran on it. I tell you, he took that thing,
boom! He brought Goliath down. And
that's the way our Lord Jesus Christ did. He didn't even have
to use a stone. He just uses his word. Satan,
you can go here, you can go there, you can do this, you can do that,
but you can't do this and you can't do that. You can't go here,
you can't go there. You can deal with this one, but
you can't deal with that one. And you read in Revelation, God's
got him on a chain. Everybody talks about how powerful
the devil is, listen. He has no power but what God
Almighty gives him. And I'm telling you, I know that
for a fact. I know that from the Bible, and
let me tell you something. If Satan had as much power as
everybody says he has, you know the first people he would attack
would be us, God's people. And he don't have to really go
after anybody. Man's wicked enough in himself.
But boy, I tell you what, he's got, but he has, you know where
he starts deceiving people at? In the pulpit. He just starts
deceiving them in the pulpit and starts teaching them to tell
lies, tell lies on God, tell lies on the Bible, tell lies
on people, tell lies on Christ. And he makes them to think Christ
is helpless, that God's helpless, that Christ has no power, that
His blood doesn't have any power, and that everything has to, everything
God and Christ does, can't do it without man. I've heard preachers say that
you're the one that's the sovereign! Man's sovereign! God can't do
anything until God gives permission! But I tell you what, you know
what David did? He stripped him, took his sword. Christ stripped Satan and took
his weapons away from him for us. He ain't got no, Shirley mentioned
one of these verses the other day, I think it's in Isaiah 57,
where it says, no weapon against thee shall prosper. Ain't that what, God said that
about it. No weapon formed against thee shall prosper. Huh? Oh my. And I tell you, our Lord,
He came upon Satan. And I tell you what, He faced
Him in the wilderness and defeated Him. He faced Him in the hatred
of the Pharisees. They faced Him upon His works
and the demon possessed upon Him, and then upon Himself on
the cross. And our Lord said, This is the
hour of darkness and the power and hour of darkness. But our
Lord Jesus Christ, when He was on that cross, He defeated him
once and for all. You know why people were afraid
of the devil? And this is a reason. Because Satan had the power of
death. You know where he started out with the power of death?
In the Garden of Eden. And he made people scared to
death of death all the time. You know why they're scared of
death? Because if I die in my sin, where am I going to end
up at? So he makes them think, you know, that they're okay.
But that's why, and our Lord said that He came to destroy
him who had power over death. You know why power of death don't
have any power over us anymore? Because sin's destroyed. He destroyed
sin on the cross. He destroyed lies on the cross.
He destroyed the power of Satan on the cross. He destroyed everything
that was against us on the cross. Oh my, and then look what it
says. overcome him, overcome, and listen to what else it says,
and takes from him all his armor. He got it, he got it, took his
armor, overcame him. Goliath was slain
with his own sword. Do you know that? David cut his
head off with his own sword. And I tell you what, he crushed
the serpent's head and he said, when it is finished, Everything
that could ever be held against us for time and eternity was
over and done with. But I'll tell you something,
men, men, men love darkness. And I'll tell you our Lord Jesus
Christ, he rolled back the darkness. He arose that third morning and
the scripture said he came to set the prisoner free. And let
me say this in closing. And by His grace, He despised
the fools, divides the spoils. He takes away Christ and all
the armor He had against us and spoiled it, spoiled it, and gave
gifts unto men. He brings freedom where there
was nothing but bondage, peace where there was nothing but turmoil,
power in the place of our weakness. He brought light and brought
us out of darkness. He brought us a knowledge of
ourselves and of God and Christ and sin in the place of self-deceit. He gave us truth in the place
of a lie. And when He won the victory,
when He won the victory, we who believe on Him won the victory
with Him. When He defeated Him, we defeated
Him. When He overcome, we overcome.
And oh my, man had been captured and God captivated and God destroyed
his goods and destroyed the power of the devil. And I tell you
what, he restored unto God, restored us to God and our rightful
Lord, the Lord Jesus Christ. He restored our freedom to worship
God and to pray, which we were never able to do. He restored
our understandings, and we understand things that we never had a clue
about before. He restored our knowledge of the one true and
livid God, and He did it all. All to Him I owe. He did it all. My and then it says here back
over in Luke. I mean, excuse me back in Mark
and they say this and gotta say this and I tell you this is this
is scary and This you know, you can tell if a man's blasphemed
against God and never be forgiven Lord said in verse 28 I Say unto
you all sins shall be forgiven unto the sons of men all of them
and even blasphemies, were with soever they shall blaspheme.
Our Lord even said, you can speak a word against me and it'll be
forgiven. But he that shall blaspheme against
the Holy Ghost has never forgiveness, but is in danger of eternal damnation.
And here's what they did. When you attribute, when you
attribute the work of what God does by the Holy Spirit to another
spirit besides the Spirit of Christ. They said, He does this
by an unclean spirit. You attribute the work of God
to what the devil does, and you'll never have forgiveness in this
world or the world to come. That's what that means. I mean,
you can speak against Christ. I spoke against Christ, and God
saved me. I spoke against God, and God saved me. But boy, if
you start attributing what God does and what He does by the
work of the Holy Spirit, you start attributing that to the
devil, and you'll end up in hell. You know, and this is one thing
I know a believer can't do. He can't deny Christ, he can't
deny the gospel, and he cannot deny the work of the Holy Ghost
in themselves. He can't do it. There's no danger
of a believer ever doing that. Can't do it. Can't do it. Our Father, in the blessed name
of Christ our Lord, it's your word, it belongs to
you, and I pray that you take what's
been said and done, said here today, use it, use it, use it,
as seemeth good in your sight. I pray that we understand clearly,
plainly, with our hearts the power of our Lord Jesus Christ,
the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ, the strength of our Lord Jesus
Christ. We have no reason, no reason
to fear death, no reason to feel punishment
for our sins or the wrath of God ever being brought on us,
or fear the judgment of God because we've already been through that.
with our blessed Lord Jesus Christ. God bless these dear saints and
keep them. Have mercy, mercy, mercy upon those we love, our
children and grandchildren, husbands and wives, sons and daughters.
Do what only you can do for them, for Christ's sake. Amen. Amen. He's the Savior of my soul. Jesus, my Jesus. He's the Savior of my soul. He's the Savior of my soul. Jesus. Jesus. Jesus. Jesus, He's the Savior of my
soul. He's the Savior of my soul. See you tonight at six o'clock,
God willing. Lord bless you.