You notice that where the children
of God, the sons of God, began to meet, they're in verse 6.
It says, Satan came also among them. You look at that word in
the middle of the, if you've got a Cambridge, you've got a
margin, and it'll say the adversary. And I want to talk tonight, I
talked about the good angels, the angels that God used last
week. Talked about Christ being the
covenant of that. angel of the covenant, that angels
were sent to be ministering spirits unto us, unto those that are
heirs of salvation. And how that they were used of
God, they were called messengers. God used them in many instances,
in many times, in many ways. He used them for judgment, to
bring great judgment upon people. In fact, there was a time he
went out, and when Syria was and camped around about Israel,
Jerusalem, and people were almost starved to death. People were
about to eat their babies, and an angel of the Lord came that
night and slew 85,000 people. An angel of the Lord slew 85,000
people. So God used them for judgment, and He says that He
would use them to gather His elect together from the four
winds of the heaven. But tonight, the other side of
that is, is that if there's angels used of God, There are fallen
angels, and there's a devil that's not used to God, a devil that's
cruel, mean, an adversary. There's a devil, there's fallen
angels, there's evil spirits, and we hear lots about it in
the Scriptures. And you notice how Satan's name
there is capitalized. It's because he's a person. He's
a person. And there's lots about him in
the Scriptures. And I'll tell you something now. The devil
doesn't mind. And now you look with me over
here. I want you to see that. But look over here at Luke 11
with me just a minute. The devil does not mind a man
getting religion. He really does not mind that.
He don't mind a person going to church. He don't mind them
having a Bible. He doesn't mind them praying.
He doesn't mind them The thing that he does is, his main purpose
is to keep people from Christ. He wants to keep anybody from
Christ. And that's why he presents himself
when the sons, and whenever you find him in the scriptures, he's
always involved in a religious exercise. Now, he really truly
is. You find him when Satan himself,
not all the fallen angels, but Satan himself is always involved
in it. The first place you find him,
he's lying on God and misinterpreting God's Word in Genesis. But here,
he doesn't mind the man getting religion. He just doesn't want
him to get to Christ. Look what it says down here in verse 15. But some of them say, he had
cast out devils, talking about Christ when he cast out a devil,
through Bezalel, the chief of the devils. And others tempting
him saw of him a sign from heaven, but he, knowing their thoughts,
said unto them, Every kingdom divided against itself is brought
to desolation, and a house divided against itself is brought to fall. If Satan
also be divided against himself, how shall his kingdom stand?"
So here he's a Satan, and he's got a kingdom. Because you say
that I cast out devils through Beelzebub, and if I by Beelzebub
cast out devils, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore
they shall be your judges. But if I with the finger of God
cast out devils, no doubt the kingdom of God is come upon you.
When a strong man armed keepeth his palace, his goods are in
peace. But when a stronger than he shall come upon him, and overcome
him, he taketh from him all his armor, wherein he trusted, and
divided his spoils. He that is not with me is against
me, and he that is not with me scatters. Now watch this. When
the unclean spirit is thrown out of a man, he walketh through
dry places, seeking rest and finding none. He'll say, I'll
return unto my house from where I come out. Now he went out. But watch what happened. When
he comes, he finds he's swept in garbage. Now why did he go
out for? He went out finding someplace
else to live, someplace else to take up his abode. He couldn't
find any place. And oh, he got back and this
fella had some religion. He'd been swept, he'd been garnished,
he'd been dressed up in religion. He got him some crosses, got
him some lapel pins. Somebody told me the other day
how many lapel pins her husband had on both sides of his jacket. I don't remember how many times
and how many she named and all that. And started talking about
all them lapel pins. They got him these lapel pins.
They don't go to meetings anywhere now. But they sweat, they garnish,
they get them a Bible, they attend church, they get them some religious
pictures, and they do all this, and get them some crosses, and
make up, you know, and then all of a sudden, then he goes back
to the house! What does he do then? He takes seven other spirits
more wicked than himself, and they enter in there, and the
last day of that man's worse than it was when he first started.
So I'm telling you, the devil don't care for you getting religion.
He don't care. He just don't care. But he don't
want you to get to Christ. Now let me tell you what God's
Word says about the devil. First of all, let's tell you
some of the names. The Scriptures is full of names about him. And
I don't want to give him... I don't want to say anything
about that would make you think that... I don't want to give
him any due other than what the Scriptures would say about him.
But his name is Satan. And that means an adversary.
I mean, he's a great adversary. He's a wise adversary. He's a
powerful adversary. He's called the devil. And that
devil means he's a slanderer. He slanders people. He accuses
people. Says awful things about people.
And they're never true. And then Beelzebub, when they
called our Lord Jesus Christ Beelzebub there, Beelzebub means
the prince of the devils. He's the prince of all the devils.
And then over in Revelation, he's called Apollyon. And old
John Bunyan said he went toe-to-toe with Apollyon one time. And it
hadn't been for God, he said, there'd been no hope for him.
And then he's called as Apollyon, an angel of the bottomless pit. He's called the prince of this
world, the god of this world, the prince of the power of the
air that now works. works in the children of disobedience. He's called the dragon, a lion,
Lucifer, son of the morning, battle serpent, and the evil
one. So there ain't nothing good about
him. He is evil, wicked, horrible,
And there's nothing good if you think of the worst person, the
worst thing that you can think a person could possibly be or
do, and you multiply that to the nth degree and you've got
the devil. And you've got the devil. And the Bible tells us
that he's a person. Now a lot of folks want to think
he's just nothing but an evil influence. He just influences
people to evil. That really there is no devil.
There's a good influence and an evil influence. If you follow
the good influence, you'll do all right. If you follow the
evil influence, you'll do wrong. They don't believe there's a
devil, but the devil in Satan is really a person. You know,
when our Lord Jesus Christ was tempted, the Scripture says that
He was led of the Spirit into the wilderness and was tempted
of the devil. Forty days and forty nights. And the devil has some power.
And he caught our Lord in his weakness, and he was always standing,
waiting, trying to defeat the cause of Christ. The gospel. And keep Christ from doing his
work. Well, when he got there, our
Lord Jesus Christ told him in verse 9 of Luke chapter 4, he
said, Get thee behind me, Satan! And you know how he defeated
him, and the only way we can defeat him? It's by the Word
of God, by the Scriptures. Paul said, we wrestle not against
flesh and blood. If you had a flesh and blood
that you could fight, you'd have something you could hold on to,
something you could grasp. But I tell you, he said, we wrestle
not against flesh and blood, but against spiritual weakness
in high places. And all beloved, the Lord addressed
him as a person, said, get thee behind me, Satan. God addressed
him as a person, says, where you come from? I'm running here,
and I'm running yonder, and I'm walking up, and I'm walking down.
And what did he say? Seeking whom I may what? Devour. Devour. Do you know how many people have
been devoured by him? And here's the thing, if He can
convince you that He's not present, He's got you pretty much where
He wants you. Ain't that right? If He can convince you that He
doesn't exist, but isn't that what our Lord Jesus Christ said?
Didn't He tell some of you that if you were your father Abraham,
you'd do the works of your father Abraham? He said, we're not born
of fornication. Our Lord turned around and said,
you are of your father. Who is He? The devil? He's a murderer, and he's a liar, and the father
of lies. And I tell you, Matthew 13 says,
you know, that when the Word of God's been sown, he says,
when it falls, the first time it falls, he says, when a man
hears it and understands that it's not, the wicked one comes
and catches away that seed. And I tell you, if we did not
know God, and the sovereignty of God, and the power of God,
and what God says about Himself, and how God oppressed Satan,
and how God had Him on a chain, if we did not know that, beloved,
I'd be scared to death to live in this world and did not know
God if I trusted in my own will, my free will, or my power to
persuade you to become a believer. I could not do it. Cause the
minute I said something right, the devil be there to take it
away. So it's up to, God's the one that's got to put seed in
the heart. And He puts it there. And let me tell you about those
that follow Him. Devils, demons, fallen angels. Look over in Mark
chapter 5. I'm starting to use this for
my text tonight. Mark chapter 5. And here's one thing that I love
about it. Over in Revelation, it talks about that he is on
a chain. People think he's going to be on a chain in the thousand
year reign. He's going to change that now. Did you see how God
told him what he could do and what he couldn't do with Job? You know, did you see how he
told him what he could do? And you find throughout the New
Testament that the devils, the demons that was in people when
Christ come up, we know thee who thou art. If you've come
to torment us before our time, they knew who Christ was. They
knew He's the Holy One. They knew where He'd come from.
They knew His power. Now look here at the maniac of
Gadara in chapter 5 here. And oh, listen. Down here in
verse, this is about the maniac, but let's start in verse 7. Here's
this man running around, cutting himself on the tombs and stuff
like that. And when he saw Jesus in verse 6, so far off, he ran
and worshipped Him. This man did. And cried with
a loud voice and said, What am I to do with thee, Jesus, thou
Son of the Most High God? I adjure thee that by God didst
thou torment me not. For he said unto him, Come out
of the man thou unclean. And he asked him, says, What
is thy name? You know, these devils have names. You know what
he says? My name is Legion. You see how
that's capitalized? And you know what a legion is? Oh, it's a huge, it's like an
army almost. And oh, my name is Legion, for
we are many. And he besought him that they,
and this man Legion, this Legion besought him that he would not
send them away out of the country. Now there was under the mountains
a great herd of swine feeding. One place it says there's two
thousand of them. And the devils besought him, send us into the
swine, that we may enter into them. And the unclean spirits
went out and entered into the swine, and they ran violently
down a steep place and into the sea, and were choked, and were
about two thousand choked in the sea. So there's enough devils
in that name to kill two thousand sheep, pigs. That's how big a legion is. Somebody asked me here a while
back, he said, you know, you read about these people being
demon-possessed in the scriptures. He said, you don't see anybody
like that now. I said, you just ain't been in
the right place. There's plenty of them. There's lots of them. All you've
got is homosexuality. You think that's not demons in
these people that make people want to take children and abuse
children? You think that's natural? You
think that ain't demons? You go to Chicago, go to Dayton,
go to Los Angeles, go to any big city, go down to Knoxville,
and you'll find people walking around talking to themselves,
cussing God under their breath. I've been around people whenever
they found out, you know, that they just, they'll cuss God and
walk around cussing Him and saying, I hate you and you can't do nothing
with me. And there's lots of people, and these people that
does this pornography and has been involved in that, why do
you think them are? And I'll tell you, there's lots
and lots of demons in people. And with people, the sociopath,
the person who does not have a conscience, that does not have the ability
to have a conscience, and when they do something, their conscience
does not bother them one way or another. And I mean, I've
got people in my family that don't have that ability. They
just assume, cuss you one day and act like you're the finest
fellow in the world the next day. They have no desire, no
ability to tell that they're wrong. And what they do is wrong,
and always justify everything they do, and everything that
happens is somebody else's fault. Never mind! A genuine sociopath. That's demons! I still put any of them around.
There may not be a legion in some of them, but I fought the
men of Trump one time or two, so I thought there might be a
legion. Oh, my, you go on Skid Row, any place in Skid Row in
some city. Go to a mental hospital. Go to
a mental hospital. Now, I know that there's mental
diseases, but there's lots and lots of people in there because
they've got devils in them. And that's just scary, you know. And I tell you, you know what,
it was Satan who met our mother Eve in the garden the first time
you find him being mentioned. And the first thing he done was
that he twisted the Word of God. And Paul says, I fear for you
and I pray for you and I'm afraid, lest Satan, through his subtlety,
as he beguiled our mother Eve, he'll beguile you. through His
subtlety from the singularity that's in Christ. If He can come
and make you trust anybody, look to anybody, but the Lord Jesus
Christ, that's His accomplishment. That's what He wants you to do.
He don't care. Preach Christ some of the time. Preach work
some of the time. Preach doing the best you can
some of the time. Preach the cross some of the time. As long
as you just do it part of the time. Don't make Christ the issue
all of the time. Well, let me show you that. I'll
tell you, we've got a lot of scriptures to look at, but I
think you need to see them. St. Corinthians 11. I want you
to see this. St. Corinthians 11. You know, this idea The devil
wears a three-piece suit most of the time and carries a Bible.
He really does. And here in verse 13, 2 Corinthians
11, 13. For such are false apostles,
deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles
of Christ in no marvel. For Satan himself is transformed
into an angel of light. Therefore it is of no great thing,
now watch this, if his ministers, his ministers also be transformed,
as the ministers of righteousness whose end shall be according
to their words. Now what kind of righteousness is he talking
about? He's certainly not talking about the righteousness of Christ.
But they're his ministers. His ministers is what he calls
a man. Well, let me ask you this question. I'll try to answer
it. Where did he come from? Where
did the devil come from? Where did Satan come from? Well,
I'll just read it to you. You don't have to look at it.
But in Ezekiel 28, it shows us that he's created. And also in
Isaiah, he is a created beast. There was a time that he was
not. He did not exist. just as the angels. There was
a time they did not exist. There was a time Gabriel didn't
exist. There was a time that Michael didn't exist. There was
a time that the angels, that the heirs minister to us who
are heirs of salvation, there was a time that the devil didn't
exist. He was a created being. In Ezekiel 28 and 11, it says
this. And he uses Tyrus, the king of
Tyrus, as a talking about the devil. He says, Thus saith the
Lord God, you fill up wisdom, full of wisdom, perfect in beauty. You've been in the garden of
God, covered up with beauty, beauty, beauty, and the work
shipment of your tablets and pipes was prepared in the day
that thou was created. I mean, when he come in the garden,
here's a fellow that, I mean, you know, as soon as he comes
in there, he was a serpent, but that means that he was crafty.
I don't, I personally don't believe. that there was a snake crawled
up in that tree and started talking to her. That's why it's called
that old serpent. That's why it's called the dragon.
There was a person there and he's called, it's just like a
snake. You know a snake is, you won't
see it, and he sneaks up on you, and he's right on you, or you're
right on it before you know it's there. But that was for his craftiness
and his subtlety. But here he says, goes on down
here and says, In verse 15, thou wast perfect in thy ways from
the day that thou wast created, watch this, till iniquity was
found in thee. Huh? He says, by the multitude
of thy merchandise they have filled the midst of thee with
violence, and thou hast sinned. Therefore I am going to cast
you out as profane as thou out of the mountain of God. I'll
destroy you. Verse 17 says this, thou wast lifted up because of
thy beauty. Thou hast corrupted thy wisdom
by reason of thy brightness. I will cast thee to the ground.
I will lay thee before kings, that they may behold thee." So
He was created and He was a beautiful thing. And Isaiah 14, look at
it over here just with me real quick, Isaiah 14. He is created
and I'll tell you something, He's not eternal, He's not like
God. He's not omnipotent. He's not
omnipresent. Isaiah 14, He's not omnipotent.
He's not omnipresent. He can't be in two places at
the same time. That's why He has all these fallen
angels. That's why He has these demons and that that does His
work. But it says here in verse 12, How art thou fallen from
heaven, O Lucifer? Lucifer. Son of the morning, day star,
how art thou cut down to the ground which this weakened the
nations? For thou hast set it on earth. Now when this took
place, I don't know. The Scriptures don't tell us.
But it happened in heaven. It happened in the presence of
God. God made this angel, this Lucifer, this created being,
this beautiful thing, full of wisdom and full of glory, full
of beauty. For you said, I will ascend into
heaven. I will exalt my throne above
the stars of God. I'll sit also upon the mount
of the congregation and the sides of the north. I will ascend above
the heights of the cloud. I will be like the Most High.
Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell to the sides of the pit. So here's a created being. And
he done just like the devils, he left it to all the demons.
He left his first estate. He has power, but he's not omnipotent. And he's bound to be in one place.
But I do know it says he's a roaring lion, but he's subtle and he's
a strong man armed. But you know what our Lord Jesus
did? He went about doing good. Healing all that were oppressed
of the devil. Oh my, how many times did the
devil take me captive in his will when I was a young man?
When I first started preaching? When I first started preaching
legalism, fundamentalism, self-righteousness, how often did the devil take
me captive until Christ came? Huh? Went about doing good and
healing, healing all them that were oppressed of the devil.
Paul said, I'll message you a Satan. It's sent to buffet me. So, beloved,
I'm telling you, you know, a lot of people joke about it, speak
flippantly, jokingly, lightly about the devil and say, well,
the devil made me do it. But let me tell you something.
He's a real enemy. He really exists. He's a real
adversary. He's had 6,000 years experience. And I'll tell you something that
I'm very thankful for. His power is limited. His power is limited. God's got
His power limited. And I'm not going to leave us
just thinking about Him. But where does He exist? Where's
His place? Where does He work at? Well, He exists in the heavenlies. We've warred against flesh and
blood and principalities and powers in the heavens. And oh,
beloved, he's running to and fro on the earth, rocking up
and down. And what's his character? What kind of a character does
he have? I could not describe the devil as being the devil.
But I know that the Scriptures tell us his main character, as
a character, and the main thing about him is his pride. His pride. It's his pride. He said, I'll
accept. I'll accept. I got all that. I got this glorious
merchandise that you want. It's all pride. He was so full
of pride that he actually thought he could dethrone God and put
himself in His place. That sounds like man, don't it?
Actually thinks that he can put himself up there, take God off
the throne. He's full of malignity, subtlety,
deceitfulness. He's a murderer. He's a liar.
He's the father of it. He's a whisperer. He hates God. He's full of subtlety and pride,
and he has works. But look over here in 1 John
3.8. He has works. In 1 John 3.8, watch what he
says here. And the first work that he did,
the first work that he did was to beguile Eve and cause
Adam to fall, and sin passed upon all of us. Death passed
upon all of us because of sin. There in verse 8, He that commit
a sin is of the devil, for the devil sinneth from the beginning.
For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might
destroy. the works of the devil. You know why it says that the
devil had power over death and Christ defeated him and took
away from him that power of death? You see, Satan was the one who,
through his subtlety, brought death into this world through
Adam falling. So people, he had the power of death until Christ
came and defeated him, and Christ has the keys of hell and of death
now. And oh, beloved, you know what another one of his works
is? I want you to see this over in 2 Corinthians. Chapter 4. Here's another one. Here's another
one of his works. He says here in 2 Corinthians
4, verse 3. But if our gospel be hid, it
is hid to them that are lost. Now watch this. In whom the God
of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not,
lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the
image of God, should shine unto them." If a man does not, if
our gospel be hid, it's we're sitting preaching the gospel,
and I'm eating the gospel. According to the Scriptures,
if we're preaching the gospel and the man doesn't believe it,
and it's hid to him, it's because the God of this world has blinded
his mind. And that's why, you know, our
Lord told Simon Peter, said, Simon, Satan hath desired to
have you, to sift you as wheat. But, oh,
listen now. But I prayed for you. Oh, ain't you grateful you got
an intercession at the right hand of God? I have enough just
contending with my flesh. I don't want to have to contend
with the devil. I have enough to contend with
with me. I don't want to have it. I want my master to take
care. I want my master to deal with
him. I want my master to keep him
away from me. And y'all know that you've heard
that story about Martin Luther. You know, he says, I guess it
was a dream or a vision or something. He says the devil come and rolled
out this big old long scroll with all of these sins. He said,
look at there, Martin Luther, there's no way you could be saved.
Look at all them sins. You know, he'd been a monk, he'd
crawled on his knees, he'd beat his body with chains and whips.
He is a monk, and he just fasted and prayed and laid naked and
froze himself to death and all that. He was climbing the steady
steps on his knees when God opened his heart. The devil comes along
and rolls out of the way. And he told him, oh, yes. See,
he's a fuser of the brethren. He's a slanderer. He's an amateur.
Martin Luther said, oh, yes, I'm guilty of every one of them.
But if you look at the bottom of that scroll, the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses
from all sin. You know, God said there's sins
and iniquities. I will remember no more. And
you know, beloved, he has an end. He has an end. You know
what the Lord said his end is? He said, there's a place when
the end is done, sheep on the right, goats on the left, and
all those who did not believe, all the wicked, all the, those
who did not come to Christ, he says, they're going to the place
prepared for the devil and his angels. Huh? And oh, let me show
you this where I'm going to show you three things, and I'm going
to quit. Colossians chapter 1. I'm going to say, where are we
right now? Where are we right now? We've seen there that Satan
has a kingdom. Satan has a kingdom. Where are
we as believers right now? Colossians 1.12 says this. giving thanks unto the Father,
which hath made us meet, to be partakers of the inheritance
of the saints in life, who hath delivered us, saved us, brought
salvation to us from the power of darkness, and hath translated
us into the kingdom of his dear Son." In Revelation 12, and I've
done it, Revelation 12, where will we be? That's where we are
now. We're in the kingdom of God's
dear Son, the Son of His love. Revelation 12.10. Where are we
going to be? What it says here, And I heard
a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength,
and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ. Now
listen, For the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which
accused them before God day and night." Now listen, "...and they
overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, by the word of their
testimony, and they didn't even love their lives unto death."
Huh? I'd rather be with Christ. And that's why He accused us,
but now the next thing you know, we're standing there in the prisons.
Overcome, how? By the blood. And by the word
of the testimony, this is my salvation, this is my only plea,
that when Christ died, He died for me. For with the mouth, with
the heart, man believeth unto righteousness. Now, if the confessions
made us, we believe that Christ is our only righteousness. And
with our mouth, we confess that He's our only righteousness.
Huh? Ain't that right? And I'll tell
you that anybody that's blood-washed, blood-bought, Henry Mahan brought
a message one time, and it's true. You look it up on Sermon
Audio. He said, there's a sin that the believer will never
commit. A sin he'll never, ever commit. You know what it is? He'll never deny the gospel.
He'll never, never, never deny the gospel. He'll always believe
the gospel. You know, he may deny a lot of
things. And he may do a lot of things, but he will never, ever
turn from the gospel. You know why? Because it's his
salvation. If you deny what Christ did,
then you take away all hope. If you turn from that, if you
turn from him, there's no more sacrifice for sins. Is that not
right? And if a man fall away, then
it's impossible to restore him to repentance. So I tell you, you find, oh,
I'm going to stay with, I'm going to, I'm going to, I'm going to
hide behind Christ. I'm going to hide in Christ.
I don't want to finger out. I'm in, I'm in Christ, I don't
want out. Do you? I told you the other night, that
two-fisted salvation. We're in Christ's hands. No man
is able to punish or plunge us out of His hands. We're in God's
hands, and no man's able to plunge us out of them. That's a two-fisted
salvation. Two-fisted security. Amen. Oh, Father, our Father, blessed
be Your name. Thank You that You've defeated
every enemy, conquered every foe, Especially this horrible
foe of sin. Deceit. Oh, thank you for destroying
that. Taking it away. Spoiling every principality and
every power. Nailing it to your cross. Thank
you, Lord Jesus, that you came and delivered us. Saved us. Saved
us from that kingdom of darkness. that power of darkness, that
spirit that worked in us when we were children of disobedience.
Thank you for coming, saving us from that, quickening us from
the death of our sins. God bless you people, strengthen
you people, encourage you. And we ask these things in Christ's
name. Amen.