As you know, I have purposefully halted our studies in Isaiah in chapter 59 for just a few weeks to bring other messages that I felt strongly impressed of God to bring to you. But at the same time, I was working on the message that I must deliver to you tonight. It is a message That's both heavy and delightful because it speaks both of things of great difficulty and things of great joy. My subject this evening is when the enemy shall come in like a flood. When the enemy shall come in like a flood. Now give me your attention. My text will be found here in Isaiah chapter 59.

I will leave it to men who are more informed than I am, or at least think they're more informed than I am, to investigate and debate about the original historical events and deliverances that have inspired Isaiah originally to write these words. The historical matters, really, are of little concern to me. because I know of whom the chapter speaks. The great parkourer that is here described, this great deliverer, the one who has come as a mighty hero, the captain of our salvation, is none other than the lion of the tribe of Judah, the prince of the house of David, the Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior.

Now Isaiah may or may not have been aware that he was writing about Christ. I don't know. I don't know, that's debatable. Maybe he knew what he was prophesying, maybe he didn't know what he was prophesying, but God the Holy Spirit who inspired his words knew what he was prophesying. And that's all that's of significance.

Isaiah here writes concerning our Lord Jesus Christ and gives a prophetic description of Christ's coming, his redemptive work, and of his ultimate consummation of our everlasting redemption by his second advent. Look at verse 16, we'll work our way down to our text.

And he saw that there was no man, that is not a righteous man in the earth, no man to stand before God, no man of merit and worth and righteousness whom God would or could accept. And wondered that there was no intercession No one to stand between God and me. No one to take up the call of his fallen people. No one who would stand in our stead, in our room, in our place before God. When he saw that we were lost and undone, and there was none to help, then the scripture says, therefore his arm brought salvation to him, and his righteousness, it sustained him.

Oh, what good news. Our Lord Jesus Christ came into this world at God's appointed time as the arm of Jehovah, and by his own arm, he brought in our salvation. Salvation is totally, from beginning to end, in its entirety, the work of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. And that which sustained him while he performed his great work on the earth was and is his righteousness. The Lord Jesus came as Jehovah's righteous servant and his righteous obedience to God sustained him as a man in the midst of all his trials and struggles in this world.

His righteousness both personally and his righteousness representatively is that which sustained him. Then we read in verse 17, for he put on righteousness as a breastplate. The Lord Jesus put on the breastplate of righteousness. Paul picks this up and tells us to put on the same breastplate. He said, you put on the armor of God and stand, having done all to stand with the breastplate of righteousness, not your righteousness either. Stand before your enemies, loved in the righteousness of Jesus Christ the Lord.

And for an helmet, salvation. He took on him a helmet of salvation upon his head. And the apostle says, you take on the same helm. He came as our mighty captain, our mighty deliverer. He came as a man who is a man of war to do battle with Satan on our behalf and to win for us redemption at the very throne of God himself. And now he tells us, put on the same helm. The helm of salvation, which he's accomplished. That'll protect you. The helm of salvation that he has performed, put that on your head and that'll cause you to walk with peace and contentment in this dark world. And then he says, and he put on garments of vengeance for clothing, and was clad with zeal as a cloak.

Our Lord Jesus was not, as people have a tendency to think of him, just some kind of an effeminate fellow who came and did things that men greatly approved of and applauded, and they'd look at him and think, well, he couldn't harm a flea. The Lord Jesus came into his father's house when folks did in the temple of God what they do in churches all over the country today, and made it a place that was an entertainment center. They made it a place where they sold little religious trinkets. They made it a place for money changers. They made it a place where folks could go and have their family life centers, and have their ball team, and have their rummage sales, and have their concerts, and all the silly nonsense that goes on in the name of religion.

He took a whip and drove them out of their temple. Let them know vengeance is in my hand. My father's house will be called a house of prayer and I'm not tolerating it. He spoke with stern justice and drove the money changers out of his father's house. And I'm telling you the day is coming when he will again clothe himself with vengeance and judge this world. There's no question concerning it.

He demonstrated in the fact that he himself suffered the wrath of God for sin and he will punish sin. And he was clad with zeal as a cloak. He walked on this earth and said, the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up. So that the Lord Jesus lived continually as a man in zeal for God and for his glory. Because he does so.

He says in verse 18, according to their deeds, accordingly he will repay. Jury to his adversaries. recompense to his enemies, to the islands, that is to the Gentile world as well as to the Jewish world, he will repay recompense. He'll give exactly what's due, exactly what's due.

Because the righteous Lord loveth righteousness, as surely as he brought salvation in the earth, working it with his own hands, so surely also he will execute judgment upon his enemies. and justly recompense his adversaries. As grace reigned in righteousness through Jesus Christ unto eternal life, so too righteousness shall reign in the exercise of divine justice when he takes out his mighty sword and slays the wicked in that last great and terrible day. The Apostle Paul understood something of divine judgment and he says, knowing therefore the terror of the Lord. knowing that you must meet God one day, God in his whole injustice and danger, knowing the terror of the Lord, we persuade men, we urge you, plead now to Christ and take refuge for your souls in him. So shall they fear the name of the Lord from the west and his glory from the rising of the sun. That is, he says, there will be a people scattered from east to west, scattered through the nations of the world who will worship the Lord our God.

Now there is no question that truth shall yet prevail. There is no question that God's kingdom shall be established in all the earth. Now I certainly do not believe that the kingdoms of this world will become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ in a political sense, not at all. Or that the time will come when all men will be saved. Certainly the scriptures do not teach that.

But the scriptures do teach everywhere that God has his elect in every nation, people, tribe, and tongue scattered throughout this world. And the scriptures do teach us that God will save some out of every nation, some out of every people. Thus the as it spreads through the four corners of the earth, will cause men and women out of every nation to come to God. Chosen sinners out of every nation will worship the Lord our God. And those who are conquered by His grace in every nation shall become the kingdom and kingdoms of our God. And so in that sense, it is written in the scriptures, the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ.

Amen. Verse 20 says, The Redeemer shall come to Zion, and unto them that turn from transgressions, and Jacob, saith the Lord. Once God has saved his elect out of every nation, kindred, tribe, and tongue, once he has saved those 144,000 who have been sealed in his grace, Christ the Redeemer shall come again in the glory of his second advent. Now I hope you have noticed as we read this paragraph, that the whole paragraph encompasses the whole gospel age in which we're living. It includes the coming of Christ and his first advent to accomplish our redemption in this world. And it includes the coming of Christ and his second advent in glory to consummate his redicted work in the resurrection of our bodies and the establishment of his kingdom forever and ever upon the earth.

Verse 20 speaks of his second coming in just that sense, when he will come to every one of those who turn from their transgressions, turn to him in faith, turn to him in genuine repentance. and thus he will recompense us for his righteousness as he recompenses his enemies for their enmity against him. But I want this evening to call your attention particularly to the second half of verse 19. This is what I want to talk about. When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord So lift up a standard against them.

Now as you well know, I am not one of those delirious men who imagines that he has, by research and study, figured out the prophetic scriptures that everybody else has been stumped at for the last 2,000 years. I have no interest in those things and pay absolutely no attention to those who claim to know the timetable of prophecy. I advise you to do the same thing. Those who preach prophetic things really just preach nonsense. They just preach nonsense because they don't know where I'm speaking. The scriptures are abundantly clear.

It is not your father's pleasure that you should know those things concerning the day and hour of our Lord's coming. He has written those things on you. I don't care how well you study. I don't care how deep you dig. I don't care how much you do work out the numbers, work out the weeks, work out the years. You're not going to find out. You're just, you're not going to find out. And I count it to be a ploy of Satan to turn me aside from preaching the gospel to investigate those things.

Those who do so will demonstrate their following to everyone in just a short while. When men begin to predict future events and predict when the Lord's coming and predict things concerning the end, they show their folly in just a little while because it never comes to pass. It never has come to pass. It never will come to pass as men think it will come to pass. The Lord Jesus will come suddenly without warning to his people and gather us into glory. but he gives us absolutely no indication of when that day and hour shall be.

I'm content simply to expound the gospel to all who will hear me. I fully agree with Mr. Spurgeon who wrote this. He said, I believe it to be one of the most fatal devices of Satan to turn aside useful gospel ministers from their proper work into idle speculations upon the number of the beast and the meaning of the little horn. The prophecies will interpret themselves by their fulfillment, but no expositor has yet arisen who has been able to do it.

That's a pretty good, pretty good assessment there. The Apostle Peter, when he saw what happened on the day of Pentecost, he turned around, looked at Joel. He read that second chapter of Joel. He said, boys, this is it. This is what Joel was talking about. And when Christ comes again, we'll open the book and, boy, this is it. This is what he said.

But until then, you're not going to know. You're not going to find it out. Providence is the true interpreter of prophecy. Calper wrote, God is his own interpreter and he will make it clear. But for us to try the mysterious visions of Daniel and John and demonstrate them as to when they shall be fulfilled is simply folly, worse than folly. We can't do it.

Now having said all that with regard to prophecy, our text does give a general warning, a warning that is echoed throughout the scriptures of perilous, perilous times, times in which we live. times when Satan, our great enemy, shall come in like a flood, in the greatest power and force that he can muster, by God's permission, against our souls.

Now, I recognize that preachers have looked at their generation for years and said, this is the worst generation that's ever been. I'm fully, fully aware of that. And I'm fully aware also, this is the worst generation ever built, insofar as deception is concerned. Insofar as religious nonsense and foolishness is concerned. Those men whom our forefathers thought were absolute infidels and religious fools would turn over in their grave to imagine what goes on in our day, in the name of God and in the name of religion. It is utter nonsense, utter foolishness. We're living in perilous, perilous times. The apostle warns us of them over and over again in the scriptures. Now, notice what the prophet says here in verse 19.

When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him. Hold your hands here and turn to Revelation chapter 12. I believe we have another reference to this same text. Revelation chapter 12 and verse 15. This is talking about a heavenly war, a war between Christ, the main child, and the woman, the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the dragon, that old serpent, the devil. This is what the scripture says, Revelation 12 verse 15.

The serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman. he might cause her to be carried away with the flood. The Apostle Paul writes in 1 Timothy chapter 4, 1 Timothy chapter 4, concerning these dangerous, dangerous times. The Spirit speaketh expressly, that is, he speaks with absolute clarity, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith. There will be a general apostasy from the faith of God's elect.

A general departure. Not a departure in the political world. That's always been departed. Not a departure in the secular world. The secular world is always departed from God. He's talking about a departure, Bob, from the faith among men and women who claim to be in the faith. Who claim to believe God. A wholesale departure. There shall be men departing from the faith. giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils, speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their conscience seared with a hot iron.

And then he goes on to talk about some of the things they will do, forbidding to marry and commanding to abstain from meats which God has created to be received with thanksgiving of them that believe and know the truth. In 2nd Timothy chapter 3, He raises the same issue. This know also that in the last days, perilous times shall come. Men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemous, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, Fruits breakers, false accusers, impertinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, hated, high-minded, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God.

And he's not talking about folks in the honky-tonk, he's talking about folks in the church house. Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof. Now be sure you turn away from them. You turn away from them. Don't you let anything to do with them. At your soul, for your soul's sake, don't let anything to do with them. or of this sort of they which creep into houses and leave captive silly women laden with sins, laden away with divers lust.

Ever learning. Ever learning. I get so tired of listening to folks who are always full of questions. Somebody ought to get some answers sometimes. Somebody ought to learn something sometimes if you're studying and seeking to know God. But ever learning. and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. As Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these resist the truth. They are, though they profess to be the saints of God, they are men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith. Read on in chapter four, I charge thee therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ who shall judge the quick and the dead, that is, those who are living and those who have already died in his superiority and his kingdom.

Preach the word. Preach the word. Oh, if there's one thing I could say to preachers and be heard, one thing that I could say to preachers and set them down, make them understand, fellas, this is your business. This is what God sent us to do. Preach the word. Expand in men the holy scriptures which by the gospel is preached unto you. Preach the word.

Be instant, in season, and out of season. That is, when folks like it and when they don't, preach the word. When folks applaud you for doing it and when folks want to run you out of town for doing it, preach the word. Instant, in season, and out of season.

Reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and with doctrine. Folks say, well, don't preach doctrine. Don't preach doctrine. We don't teach doctrine. We do. And we're going to continue to. Like it or no, this is the way it's going to be because God said this. God said this.

There's nothing evil about doctrine. There's only evil of what men do with doctrine. Without doctrine, there's no substance to your faith. Without doctrine, there's no reality to what you say you believe because there's nothing to believe. Folks say, we don't want to hear doctrine because they don't believe anything. got nothing to believe. There's no substance to their religion. Reprove, exhort with all long-suffering and with doctrine, for the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but after their lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers having itching ears.

What on earth does that mean? Forgive me if I appear to be picking unjustly upon our politicians. I started to call one by name, but I'll leave that for another time. They find out they ought to kill me, folks, huh? Well, Bobby doesn't like me. I will hire me a personality trainer. And I'll find out what will make Bobby like me. Now, what does Bobby want to hear? What would you like me to say? How would you like me to appear when I say it? You tell me, that's what I'll give you. That's what I do. That's what preachers do everywhere. That's what seminaries train preachers to do. That's what preachers do all over the country. Teachers having engineers.

Now we're going to pretend like we have some conviction. Once in a while we're going to fight and squabble over creation, or fight and squabble over ordination of women, or fight and squabble over whether or not the Bible's inspired. But in reality, we do want to know, you folks who are paying our salary, what do you want to hear? What do you want to hear? That's what we'll tell you. That's what the apostles warning us of.

And they shall turn away their ears, the ears of their hearers, from the truth and shall be turned unto fables. Now we're living in such a generation. We're meeting women literally around the world in the name of God, gathered in churches everywhere in the name of Jesus Christ, believe and teach and rejoice in and sing about religious fables and despise the fruit of God. At such times, however, we are assured in our text that God the Holy Spirit shall put forth his glorious power and lift up the standard against our foes.

Though the enemy shall come in like a flood, no harm shall be done to God's people. No harm shall be done to God's truth. No harm shall be done to God's cause or God's purpose. No harm shall be done to God's kingdom. Nothing shall be damaged or even hindered in the counsel and purpose of God. The foundation of God stands The counsel of the Lord standeth forever. The purpose of God, that shall stand. The scriptures are abundantly clear. Let me say two things, just two things, and I'll send you home to mull over what I've been preaching.

First, there are times when Satan, the enemy of our souls, comes in like a flood, threatening And sometimes it looks like he's going to succeed. He is a roaring lion that goes up and down in the earth, seeking whom he may divide. Our adversary, the devil, never takes a vacation. He never relaxes his vengeance of enmity against the throne of God and the people of God. The manner of his assaults, he changes. But the object is invariably the same. He seeks to overthrow the work of God. That's his purpose.

Floods of heresy have spewed from the dragon's mouth from the very earliest of apostolic times. The heresies distress us, and they rightfully raise our fury against Faithful men will faithfully expose the heresies that are damning to the souls of men in their day. I have no hesitancy in declaring that.

I know that sometimes folks think, well, you're a little hard, you're not loving enough, and I get tired of hearing it. Sometimes, I get so tired of hearing it, but I always get tired of hearing it. If you take some drinks out of a glass that's full of poison, I know it just killed the last fella that drank out of it, but if I can, I'll get it out of your hand. That's called love. Now somebody else may say, that's not very kind, you don't let a fella have what he wants. But I'm going to do what I can to get the poison out of your mouth and out of your hand.

The Apostle Paul spoke plainly to the Galatians. He said, I marvel. I marvel that you're so soon removed from him that called you into the gospel of Christ into another gospel, which is not another. It's not even similar to it. Paul said, now fellas, Though we are an angel from heaven, come and preach any other gospel unto you than that which you have received. Let him be damned. Let him be damned. And I'm saying the same thing to you.

If you ever hear from these lips anything contrary to the gospel of God's free grace, don't you hear what I say, for I've departed from the faith. And don't you hear anybody else either who teaches such doctrine. faithful servant of God must expose that which is bending to the souls of men. The apostle did so continually. But the heresies that arise, while they come and they distress us and they raise our fury rightfully, they will never destroy the wheat in God's kingdom.

The homeless gift prepares the way. That's all. That's all. Look at what the Apostle says in 1 Corinthians 11. 1 Corinthians chapter 11. Years ago, I hadn't been pastoring at Lookout too long, and some fella came up from Bob Jones University, came through there and said he wanted to start an independent Baptist church.

We stopped by the local general store that happened to be owned by one of the men in our congregation. He was a deacon. Name only, but he was a deacon. And he was the devil himself. He was a deacon. But he said to me the next morning, he said, Butch, did you know that his son is starting a church down the road? I said, I didn't know that.

Well, what if he gets some of our members? I think he'll have all he can get. All he can get. If Charity will get you, go for it! I'm telling you, it won't get God's favor. Look here in 1 Corinthians chapter 11 verse 19. For there must also be heresies among you, that they which are approved not of men, but of God. They which are approved may be made manifest among you.

Because God's sheep aren't going to follow heresy. God's sheep are not going to follow a stranger's voice. This is what the shepherd says in John chapter 10. John the 10th Verse 4, When he put forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. They know his voice. And the stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him, for they know not the voice of strangers.

They're not going to be a stranger, not God's sheep, not God's sheep. They're not going to follow a stranger, not God's sheep. Aren't you scared, folks, about this thing and that thing? No! No! You have an option from the Holy One. You know truth from error, if you're born of God.

That's what John said in 1 John 2.20. There have been many heresies come down the path.

From the beginning of time, Arianism arose in the Church of God. Arianism is a denial of the Trinity. It is a teaching that God does not exist in three persons. and hence is a denial of the Godhead of Jesus Christ our Lord. But there are many forms of Arianism. Many people have come along in various parts of history and were denied that the Trinity exists. Contrary to the teaching of the Scriptures. The Scriptures are very plain. There are three that bear record in heaven. The Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit. And these three are one. That we believe, and anything contrary to that is utter heresy. For the heart of Arianism is a denial of the Godhead totally. So, Sinism is a denial of Christ's deity, denying that he is really and truly God.

Multitudes do so. Multitudes do so. Claiming to worship Christ, they say, well then, you can't say Jesus is God. You can't do that, he's a man. No, I can't do that, but God can, and God did. And he tells us plainly that Jesus Christ is Emmanuel, God in human flesh. And I'm telling you that those who deny the deity of Jesus Christ do not know God. They're no more Christian than folks who worship stumps. God's people worship Jesus Christ the Lord.

Papacy came along. And the heresies involved in papacy are some common ground between papacy and Protestantism. While I do not align myself with Protestants, I'm telling you that the reason our forefathers bled and died for the faith is because they saw there was no common ground between the worship of Mary and the worship of God.

There is no common ground between observing the Lord's table and observing a mass. There is no common ground between salvation in Christ and salvation in the church. There is no common ground between me and worshiping the one true and living God and worshiping a man who calls himself the Vicar of Christ and is standing in the house of God demanding that we worship him as God who claims to have the ability to absolve you of your sins.

That's utter nonsense. There's nothing Christian about it. And Arminianism fits in the same boat. Arminianism is nothing on this earth but man-centered salvation. It is the teaching that salvation ultimately resides in your hands. Salvation ultimately is what you do for God, not what God does for you. It is the teaching of free willism. It takes many names and many forms, but whatever it is that says salvation's in your hands, salvation by your decision, salvation by your will, salvation by what you do for God, not what God does for you, is utter damning heresy, and nobody's Christian who believes it.

Nobody. Nobody. The fables of Arminianism are so commonly received in our day that almost everybody believes them. We've got a generation of folks who are spiritual idiots. They're just spiritual idiots. They don't know God and don't know the power of God and don't know the Word of God. Folks, tell us everywhere.

God loves you. God loves everybody. Isn't that sweet and wonderful? I've asked the folks in hell if God loves them. Just go ask them. If he does, he's got a strange way of showing it. It's utter nonsense to talk about God loving everybody. If God loves me, everything's all right. If God loves me, he won't possibly send me to hell. It's not possible that he'd do so. Not if he loved me.

Folks tell us that Christ died for everybody. He died to redeem and save everybody. Now that may sound very nice to folks who don't understand the justice of God. and don't understand what they're saying concerning the person of Christ. But if Christ died to save one sinner who perishes in his sins, Jesus Christ is not God.

And there's no difference in denying his Godhead that way and denying his Godhead another way. I would just as soon embrace a man who says that Jesus Christ was not really the virgin-born son of Mary, but was the illegitimate offspring of some woman over in Israel, because it's not possible that a man should be born of a virgin. And then turn around and say, well, we can't accept him as a brother. But you turn around and accept the fellow as a brother, who denies that Jesus Christ is an effectual redeemer. It cannot be done. To deny His Godhead is to deny His Godhead, whoever does it, however it's done.

Folks, tell us that God, the Holy Spirit, is trying to get everybody saved. Oh, the Holy Spirit, please, please. He's drawing you. He's drawing you. When the scripture talks about the Holy Spirit drawing somebody, It's not talking about him tugging, it's talking about him fetching. That's a big difference. He doesn't tug at your heart. He sticks his finger of grace in your heart and fetches you to the Savior. That's all the difference in the world.

You see, to save the Holy Spirit is trying to get everybody saved. It's to declare that salvation is not by the work and power of God the Holy Spirit, but He has done what He can. Now salvation's there. and if salvation is up to you, strut before God and pop your suspenders. You've got a right to. But salvation is not up to you. Salvation is by the power of God.

And legalism is just as damning as the other. Legalism is a mixture of grace and works in the matter of salvation. It is an attempt by man to mix his obedience with Christ's obedience acceptance with God. It is an attempt by man to mix what he does with what Christ has done to make him righteous before the Holy Lord God.

Unless I leaned anything out and somebody has a little wiggle room, Pentecostalism is just as damning a threat. You see, Pentecostalism is nothing on this earth but an emotional show of religion. that is a total denial of the solitary authority of holisticism. Pentecostalism at its root says there's yet a word from God that you can get. Pentecostalism at its very basic, in the core of its existence, says the word of God is not sufficient.

The work of Christ is not sedition. You've got to have something other than redemption and imputed righteousness and free grace. You've got to have another experience. And the word of God is not God's final revelation. There's a word that you can get. A word of prophecy just for you. You listen and you'll find it.

The scriptures declare that any man who adds to this book or takes from this book God will add to him the place of this book, and take from him any place in the book of life. In this day of man-dependent, anything goes, we must not say anything to offend any one religion. Everything's tolerated. Everything's tolerated. Everything is tolerated except the plain declaration of God's truth. Everything else. Men are open to anything. They're open to anything. I haven't lived as long as many of you have. And that is why I did see things happen in churches. I would never have dreamed of that. I would never have dreamed of them happening. Even when I was young, I wouldn't have dreamed of them happening.

But men will do anything. Get a crowd, please a crowd, keep a crowd. Anything, they'll sell your soul to them. They'll sell your soul to them. Spineless preachers, cow-tailing to unregenerate church members and deacon boards, have given us a generation of Bible-toting, Bible-thumping, spiritual idiots who are totally ignorant of covenant mercy. electing love, original sin, effectual atonement, infallible grace, and divine sovereignty.

Ask them. Just ask them. Go ask your religious neighbor. Go ask your mama, your daddy, your brother, your sister. Ask them to explain something to you of God's covenant of grace. Why, they'll look at you like a cat looking at a new gate and say, what place did you learn from? Where on earth did you come from? What do you mean covenant grace? Ask them about divine poverty. They'll say, how do you spell that? Ask them about God's absolute predestination. What? What? This world doesn't know anything about God, and yet pretends to worship God.

The old serpent may have put away the glittering sword of persecution, but only because he's found a more subtle weapon of destruction. He's found a stupefying barbiturate of religion without Christ and without God, and a deadly poison of open hills.

On a more personal level, the Lord our God sometimes allows Satan to come in like a flood against our souls individually. He comes in and would seek to destroy us. Comes into the house of God and raises up disturbances. Just little things. Little disturbances that soon get into big things. Something by which he can persuade you to stay away from the ordinances of divine wisdom.

Mark 10, Satan's Word. Satan's Word. I know people all over the country. All over the country. who have faithful gospel ministers at their doorstep, but will not attend the house of God where that man preaches because of some little personality class. It's utter nonsense. Satan's doing it. It is Satan's doing it. Folks call me up, call me up from all over the country and say, what about this?

I say, do a pastor preaching the gospel of God's good? If he's preaching it, stay and listen to it, support him and pray for him. listen to him, support him, and pray for him. It's Satan's doing to take you away from the gospel. Satan allows our hearts, or God allows our hearts, to be tempted of Satan. And he would attempt to draw us by his temptations away from Christ.

Oh, how subtle he is. Sometimes with sensual lust and temptation. The religious world talks most about those. And Kenny, the most I ever heard preachers talk about sensual lust. Just raised sand about women dressed in the way they oughtn't to dress. They talk about those are the fellows who ran off with somebody else's wife. They got a problem. But Satan does use sensual lust. That's not the biggest trick of his band. Oh, not by a long shot. Sometimes he would lure us away from Christ just with the temptations of ease and pleasure. Just ease and pleasure.

But work so hard. Gotta have a little time for relaxation. After all, Y'all be down at the church house next week, won't you? Somebody be down there and preach next week, won't they? This is not so very important. And with the desire simply to please thyself, men and women are persuaded to forsake the worship of God, little by little. And sometimes, I think more than anything, He draws away the hearts of many women after the material attainment of this world. I've seen so many over the years excuse themselves from the house of God and worship of God, and they come to me or somebody else and say, well, you know, I know that I'm having to miss the worship and I'm having to be away from the family of God. But you know, if I can just, if I can get this thing secured, get this thing nailed down, I'll have enough money, I can support the ministry, and I can do this, and I can do that. And I haven't ever yet seen it come to pass. Never yet. Never yet. Sometimes Satan stirs up the corruptions of our hearts. It fills our minds with vile, blasphemous thoughts. I don't know whether to blame it on him or blame it on me, but it's real.

You read the word and you try to pray and thoughts arise that you wouldn't utter out of your lips for anything only. questioning the very being and character of God. And Satan holds up your inmost corruption and says, ah ha, you claim to be a Christian. And you claim to be a child of God. What hypocrisy. Where is your evidence? How are you going to demonstrate any evidence that you're one of these Sometimes, when Satan desires to have us so he may sift us as wheat, the Lord Jesus says, okay, sift away. And he will allow Satan to run Danny Iams through his sieve.

Just about the time Danny thinks he's strong in somebody, watch out. because you're weak and nobody. You understand that? And the surest way to stay out of Satan's sea is to recognize you're weak and you're nobody. You're nothing without Christ. But even when he allows Satan to run you through his sea, he says I prayed for you, but your faith failed.

And here's the second thing. Even when the enemy comes in like a flood, no harm shall be done in the kingdom of our God, and no harm done to our souls. For our text says the spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him. And I know what standard he's talking about. Come back to Isaiah chapter 11. Isaiah chapter 11. What standard does he lift up?

Verse 10, In that day there shall be a run out of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign, the word is standard or banner, an ensign of the people to him shall the Gentiles seek, and his rest shall be glorious. Verse 12, And he shall set up an ensign, a banner for the nation. and shall assemble the outcast of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth. So the banner he's talking about, the standard he's talking about, he says when the enemy shall come in like blood, the Holy Spirit will lift up. Jesus Christ crucified the Holy Spirit. He'll lift him up. He'll lift him up as a banner against the enemy. He lifts him up by the preaching of the gospel. which is the power of God and the salvation to everyone that believes, everyone who hears what God says in his word.

And sometimes, by miraculous means, secret, unknown events, worked only by the hand of God in prophetess, he opens doors of evidence for I went up to Ohio yesterday and preached. I don't know what God will do with it. Had opportunity to preach to those college kids. It may be 20 years down the road, God will call one of them and use them to preach the gospel to thousands. I don't know. I don't want to do it, but I know this. I know we must seize every opportunity because God opens the door.

And as he opens the door, he does it for a purpose, to lift up the family in the face of the enemy. against God's Church, lifts up the standard. And when God lifts up the standard, he can take the most worthless instrument and speak through that instrument words of life-giving power with such efficacy that at the end of one sermon, 3,000 souls had been converted. When the enemy comes in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord will lift up a standing division against you. And when it comes in against your heart, Satan would deride your soul and try to persuade you that you have no interest in Christ, no interest in the things of God, and would point out your weaknesses and your faults and your sins and your corruptions of heart. When Satan would cause your mind to wander in every blasphemous area imaginable and then shake his finger in your face and say, now there, that ought to show you you don't belong to God. Listen to the Word. And the Holy Spirit lifts up a standard in the hearts of chosen, redeemed, called sinners against the mouth of Satan. He lifts him up right here. And I believe. The standard, what is it? Christ's blood and his righteousness. This is all my hope. This is all my peace.

And when Satan would assault my soul, and would attempt to destroy me, and would attempt to destroy any hope and peace and confidence of faith that God's given me, I come again, an empty-handed, helpless, naked sinner with nothing but the blood of Christ to atone for my sin. Nothing but the righteousness of Christ to give me acceptance with God. And laugh. at the devil's assaults.

For I know that nothing shall be able to separate me. God forgive me if there's any presumption in that. Nothing shall be able to separate me from the love of God that's in Christ Jesus the How on earth can you know that? Because Christ is the standard. And he's lifted up in my heart.