I believe God's giving me a message
for you tonight. I've been working on it for a
long time. Turn to Revelation chapter 20. Who is really in
control? Really. Who really runs the world? Who really controls all the events
of time? whose influence really prevails
everywhere. Most religious people will tell
you that it is Satan. And observing the evil that's
in the world, looking upon the ungodliness, the wickedness,
the decadence, the idolatry of this society, reading the newspapers,
Watching the news on television, you can certainly understand
the reasoning of men who think that Satan's influence is effectual
everywhere. One can hardly imagine a more
wicked, perverse, decadent, reprobate society than that in which we
live. But does that mean Satan rules
the world? The ungodliness all around us
certainly is instigated by Satan. Those things that vex our souls
from day to day without question are instigated by the devil.
But Satan is not the god of this world. He is the prince of darkness. He is not the god of this world. The god of this world It's Jesus
Christ, God's Son, our Savior, our surety. It is He who has
dominion over all things. Absolutely. And this dominion
was given to Him as our surety before the world began, according
to Proverbs chapter 8, as the act of God's wisdom. God gave to Christ our surety
because of him standing as our surety, accepted as our surety
before the world was. Dominion over everything in great
wisdom for the saving of our souls and the glory of our God. You remember in John 17, you'll
begin studying that in just a couple of weeks on Sunday mornings.
And in John 17, in our Lord's prayer, He speaks of the Father
giving him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life
to as many as the Father has given him. And he says to the
Father now, glorify me with thine own self, with the glory that
I had with thee before the world was. When our Lord Jesus had
finished the work of redemption and grace on the earth and ascended
back into heaven, seated upon the throne of David as God's
King, It was manifestly given to him, openly given to him,
so that Peter said, this now is the fulfillment of what Joel
prophesied in Joel chapter 2. Christ the King, King David is
sitting on his throne, but the glory was his before the world
was. The dominion put in his hands
to rule everything before the world was. Yes, even the devil
himself is under the absolute rule of King Jesus. Oh, if God will give you just
that, you've got enough to do you this evening. Yes, Satan
himself is under the absolute rule of King Jesus. This is exactly
what the book of God declares here in Revelation chapter 20.
The title of my message tonight is Christ's dominion over Satan. Our text is Revelation 20 verses
1, 2, and 3. Christ's dominion over Satan
is the message of the book of Revelation. Christ's dominion
over Satan is the message of the book of Revelation. This
is called in the opening verse of chapter one, the revelation
of Jesus Christ. It is never referred to as the
revelations of Jesus Christ. It is the revelation of Jesus
Christ. And the book of Revelation is
given to us in seven visions, giving us pictures of the person
and work of Christ in this gospel age, as they were given to the
apostle John on the Isle of Patmos. In these seven visions, our blessed
Savior is revealed to John and tells him what he has done, is
doing, and shall hereafter do for his church, in his church,
and with his church. The whole purpose of these 22
chapters. When you read the book of Revelation
in a few weeks, you'll come to it in our scripture reading day
by day. Read the book. Try to sit down and read all
22 chapters at one time and understand it is one revelation. It is about
the person and work of Christ. And the whole purpose of the
book is to assure God's children in this world of the ultimate
triumph and conquest of our souls over the world, the flesh, and
the devil. Yes, bless God, we shall prevail
and the God of peace shall soon crush Satan under your feet. This book of the revelation of
Christ shows us who he is and what he does. And our Lord here
calls for us ever to look to him in confident faith, assuring
us that we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. I
often refer to things I learned from my friend, Brother Harry
Graham, when I was just a young man. I moved away from Winston-Salem
when I was 21 years old, so I was just a young man the days we
spent a lot of time together. Harry referred to that passage
in Romans 8, more than conquerors. How can you be more than conquerors?
How can you be more than conquerors? You involved in a battle. and
you whip the fellow, you fight him, but he may rise again. You
fight a war and the nation may prevail, but that nation may
have the one subdued rise up again and prevail over it. What's
he mean? We're more than conquerors. Our
Lord Jesus has so conquered Satan that he can never rise to power
again. And he has made us more than
conquerors through him that loved us. The seven visions John saw
and recorded for us in these 22 chapters of inspiration are
set before us in consecutive order. I do not mean by that
that they're set before us in order of time so that you read
the first vision and then the second, third, fourth, fifth,
sixth, seventh, and you put them all together and you figure out
a time chart for things. Not at all. Not at all. They're
given to us in consecutive order, but each vision Each vision begins
with the first advent of Christ and continues through the whole
gospel age to the second glorious advent of our Redeemer and the
end of the world. Each vision portraying the certain
triumph of Christ and his church over all evil. The first vision
is given in chapters one, two, and three. The picture of our
Lord Jesus gives us of his church and him in the midst of his church
with seven golden candlesticks. The second vision, we see our
Lord Jesus in chapter four, opening the book, the book of God's purpose,
the seven sealed book of God's eternal decrees. And that goes
through chapter seven and verses in chapters eight through 11.
The Lord Jesus is seen answering the prayers of his people. protecting
them from their enemies, vindicating us by executing seven trumpet
judgments in his providential rule of the universe. And that's
what he does in all the ages of time in this gospel age. He's
just executing trumpet judgments for his people in his providence. And then in chapters 12, 13 and
14, Christ in his church is pictured as being persecuted by Satan.
by world government and by false religion. And then the fifth
vision, chapters 15 and 16, we see Christ sending his angels
to pour out the seven vials of his wrath upon the earth. In
the sixth vision, we see Christ's conquest of chapter 17, 18, and
19 over Babylon, the beast, and the false prophet. And then we
come to chapter 20. And through chapter 22, we see
Christ's dominion over and destruction of Satan and the glory of the
New Jerusalem. Now, I repeat, these seven visions
each cover the whole gospel age. They don't represent, as people
commonly think in this perverse age, when men have been deluded
with all kinds of silly notions about prophecy. These seven visions
do not represent seven dispensations of time. They represent the whole
purpose of God in time. They will tell us the same story
over and over again. Tell us what our Lord has done,
is doing, and shall hereafter do for the salvation of his people. Now, when you read through the
book of Revelation, you can't help but notice the use of the
number seven. the number of perfection, of
completion. There are seven golden candlesticks,
seven stars, seven seals, seven trumpets, seven angels, seven
vials. Each of the seven visions, God
the Holy Ghost gives us to assure us of the perfect rule of our
Savior. He's walking in the midst of
the seven churches. Not rushing to and fro he's walking
calmly in the midst of the seven churches We just looked at portion
of john chapter 20 in scripture reading back in the office Brother
merle reading to us in the previous part of that chapter our lord
jesus uh his picture is being risen from the dead and he folds
his napkin that was over his face and The bedding clothes
and lays them And there's a picture. Our Lord Jesus came out of the
tomb as one perfectly calm. In no hurry, he just takes the
time to neatly fold his grave clothes and lays them in a proper
place for his disciples to observe them. So it is always all the
time. Jesus Christ, who has conquered
death, hell in the grave, is never in a rush, never in a hurry,
never under pressure. I deliberately put myself under
pressure to do things because I work best under pressure. Our
Lord Jesus works perfectly and he's never under pressure. He's
never pressed to do anything, but rather he walks through time. in the midst of the seven golden
candlesticks, in the midst of his churches, while we hurry
and scurry about, while we bite our nails, while we paste the
floor, while we run here and there, while we're all upset,
he walks calmly in the midst of the churches, ruling and having
his way all the time. And if we could but grasp the
reality of his calmness, we would be calm. But the David saying
just a few moments ago, sometimes he calms the storm. But then,
bless God, sometimes he calms his child, even in the midst
of the storm. And as we are able to observe
our Savior in his dominion, our hearts are calmed. Revelation 20, this final vision
begins. Chapter 19 brought us again to
the end of this gospel age, to the end of world history, to
the final day of judgment, the final consummation of salvation.
In chapter 20, John takes us back to the beginning. He takes
us back to our Lord's first advent and the accomplishments of our
Savior while he walked on this earth as a man. These three verses
reveal the binding of Satan which was accomplished by our Savior
when he finished the work of redemption. Revelation 20, verse
1. And I saw an angel. You can write
that in capital letters. The angel is Jesus Christ, the
angel of the covenant. I saw an angel come down from
heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain
in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon
that old serpent, which is the devil and Satan and bound him
a thousand years and cast him into the bottomless pit and shut
him up and set a seal upon him. Now here's the purpose for this
purpose, that he should deceive the nations no more till the
thousand years should be fulfilled. And after that, he must be loosed
a little season. Now the sequence of events given
here is perfectly clear. Our Lord's first advent is followed
by a long period of time spoken of here as the thousand years
in which Satan is bound. That's speaking of this whole
gospel age. It is not talking about a literal
thousand year millennial reign. It's talking about our Lord's
present reign in this gospel age. At the close of this gospel
age, Satan is to be loosed for a little season. And the loosing
of Satan will be followed by Christ's glorious second advent
to judge the world and make all things new. Now I remind you,
when you read these words, the picture given is figurative. Everything, every vision given
in the book of Revelation is given to us in figurative language. It is not intended to be interpreted
as literal language. The thousand years are figurative. Just as the chain is figurative
Our Lord didn't come down here with a literal chain in his hand
and put a literal chain around Satan's neck Satan's not a physical
being but a spirit being created by our God But our Lord comes
down here with omnipotent power and binds him for the thousand
years I remind you again that the term thousand in the language
of the text is never used in the singular. or reading the passage quite
literally, it reads like this, He bound him for the thousands
of years. There's not a singular term for
thousand in the Greek language. So Satan was bound for thousands
of years, this present gospel age, the whole of it. We're not
given a distinct period of time to indicate how long it will
last, but whatever the space of time is, it is this long duration
Beginning with Christ first advent and concluding with the second
advent. How do you know that look at verse 11 verse 11 and
I saw a great white throne and him that sat on it from whose
face the earth and heaven fled away and there was found no place
for them so that the End of the thousand years is that the second
coming of our Lord Jesus Christ when he comes to judge the world?
Now, if you've got one of those Bibles that teaches dispensational
stuff, they have a problem, have a real problem, because dispensational
doctrine teaches that our Lord is going to return three times.
He's going to return secretly before the tribulation period.
And then he'll return publicly at the end of the tribulation
period. And then he's going to return a third time at the end
of the millennial kingdom. No, no, no. Christ is coming
a second time with climactic judgment at the end of this gospel
age when he will make all things new. Our Lord Jesus has so thoroughly
bound the prince of darkness that he has total dominion over
him. And let me show you four things
in these three verses. First, the scripture speaks here
and tells us plainly of the purpose of our Lord's incarnation. And
then we see the character of our adversary, the devil. And
third, the scripture speaks here of the binding of Satan. What
does that mean? And then of the loosing season
when Satan is turned loose again upon the earth. All right, first,
here is the purpose of our Lord's incarnation. And I saw an angel
come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit
and a great chain in his hand." Turn back to chapter 10, back
to chapter 10. This great mighty angel is our
Lord Jesus Christ, Michael the archangel, the angel of the covenant,
the angel of God's presence. He is that mighty angel John
saw coming down with power great power Who lit up the earth with
his glory in chapter 18? He alone has the keys of death
and of hell. We're told in chapter 1 and verse
18 Now look what we have here in chapter 10 John says I saw
another mighty angel. This is our savior again portrayed
as an angel come down from heaven clothed with a cloud The mystery
of God is in him and a rainbow. The covenant of God's grace was
upon his head and his face was as it were the sun and his feet
as pillars of fire. And he had in his hand a little
book, the whole book of God's purpose given in chapter four.
And he set his right foot upon the sea and his left foot on
the earth. and cried with a loud voice as
when a lion, the lion of the tribe of Judah, roareth. And
when he cried, seven thunders uttered their voices. And when
the seven thunders had uttered their voices, I was about to
write and I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, seal up
those things which the seven thunders uttered and write them
not. What God does, he does in time
and makes known in time. He does not reveal ahead of time
what he's going to do tomorrow. He said, don't write those things,
read on. Verse five, the angel which I saw stand upon the sea
and upon the earth lifted up his hand to heaven and swear
by him that liveth forever and ever who created heaven and the
things that therein are and the earth and the things that therein
are and the sea and the things that which therein are that there
should be time no more. But in the days of the voice
of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery
of God should be finished as he hath declared to his servants,
the prophets. No creature could ever bind the
devil. No creature could even hinder
his influence. He is the greatest, most powerful
creature of the almighty. None but the almighty could bind
him. Our Lord Jesus came into this
world specifically to save sinners. He came here specifically to
save his people from their sins. His people out of every nation,
kindred, tribe, and tongue. But in order to accomplish the
salvation of his people, Satan must be bound. And here we see
Christ coming with the key of the bottomless pit with a great
chain in his hand. He's coming to shackle the treasonous
rebel. to lock him away. In the scriptures,
we're plainly told that one purpose of our Lord's incarnation was
to make war with and to conquer and bind the prince of darkness.
Genesis 3, 15, he comes to crush the serpent's head. In 1 John
3, verse 8, we're told that Christ, the Son of God, was manifested
that he might destroy the works of the devil. And then over in
chapter 12 of Revelation, look at verse 5. Revelation 12 verse
5 The scripture here speaks of
the same warfare and she brought forth a man child who was to
rule all nations with a rod of iron and Her child was caught
up unto God and to his throne and the woman fled into the wilderness
Where she had to place prepared of God that they should feed
her there a thousand and two hundred and three score days
And there was war in heaven and Michael and his angels fought
against the dragon. And the dragon fought and his
angels and prevailed not. Neither was their place found
anymore in heaven. And the great dragon was cast
out. That old serpent called the devil and Satan, which deceiveth
the whole world. He was cast out into the earth
and his angels were cast out with him. And I heard a loud
voice in heaven say, what's this now? Now is come salvation and
strength and the kingdom of our God and the power of his Christ.
For the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them
before God day and night, and they overcame him by the blood
of the land. And in verses two and three here
in Revelation 20, the character of our adversary, the devil is
described. He laid hold on the dragon, that
old serpent, which is the devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand
years. Satan's too wise, too strong,
too subtle, too crafty, too cunning for us to resist him, overcome
him, or avoid his blinding delusions. And this great rebel against
God? full of enmity anger and wrath He's full of malice toward
the sons of men For he knows that by the merits of Christ
By the merits of Christ and in union with Christ God's elect
shall have the place he desired Read the 14th chapter of Isaiah
by the merits of Christ By the power of Christ, by the grace
of God in Christ, in union with Christ, we shall possess the
place that Satan desired, the very throne of God, sitting with
our Savior. We shall sit with Christ upon
the very throne of God and judge the world. That's what our Savior
tells us in chapter 3 and verse 21. And in chapter 6 of 1 Corinthians,
he tells us we will sit in judgment over the angels. Satan's hatred
for God's elect is the hatred of envy. The hatred of envy. Envy. Oh, envy makes meanness. Envy makes malice. Envy makes
cruelty. Envy makes slander. Envy makes
deceit. Envy makes a lie. Envy makes
murder. Satan is full of envy for David
Coleman. Imagine that. The devil is full
of envy for you who are gods. Envy because you are his, because
you belong to God. He's called here the old serpent,
the old, very old serpent. He's been around since the beginning.
And nothing could better represent him than the slithering, crooked,
deceiving serpent with his subtle hidden poison and deadly malignity. The serpent deceived our mother
Eve and seduced our first parents into sin and death. The serpent
today deceives the souls of men and women with presumptuous pride,
false doctrine, perverted wisdom and unbelief. And the serpent
is the one who corrupts, divides and seeks to destroy the very
church of God. This deceiver is called the devil. The word devil means slanderer,
liar. Our Lord says Satan speaks a
lie, he speaks his own, for he is a liar from the beginning.
He slanders God to men. In the garden, Satan speaks to
Eve and slanders God. He misrepresented God to his
creature. He misrepresented God to our
mother. He misrepresented God to man
in the garden. He said God's not what he pretends
to be. God's not like he says he is.
He really is depriving you of things that would do you good.
And he slanders men to God. That's what he did in the book
of Job. You remember, he came and gave report to God with the
sons of men. He gave report to God, and as
he did, he slandered God's servant Job, whom God declared to be
perfect and upright in his own darling son. In Zechariah chapter
three, we see a picture of Satan slandering Joshua, the high priest. He stands by Joshua to resist
him as Joshua stood before the Lord. But there was one who rose
up mightier than Satan, who did not need to rebuke him. He simply
said, the Lord rebuked thee. And that one who stood up is
Christ, our great angel, the angel of the covenant, who pleads
our cause continually and resist the devil everywhere for us.
And the devil twist and perverts all. He twist and perverts God's
word. So that men take the word of
God and just risk the scriptures to their destruction. He twists
and perverts God's providence. So the people look at God's providence
and dare seeing what God does in providence to presume that
they can sit in judgment over the almighty. And he perverts
the gospel of God's free grace. Paul speaks of that perversion
as another gospel that's damning to the souls of men. And next,
the great enemy of our souls is called Satan. The word means
accuser. He waits to entrap, to oppose,
to disable, to bring to disaster and to destroy. He is a ready,
vicious, unrelenting adversary. opposing God from the beginning. He opposed our Lord Jesus while
he walked upon the earth. He opposes God's elect from the
cradle to the grave. He's constantly persecuting the
woman, the church of our God. Child of God, this is the character
of your soul's adversary. He's a powerful dragon, a subtle
serpent, a deceiving slanderer, a bitter, relentless adversary. But our savior is mightier than
he. Satan is too great an adversary
for us, but he is no match for our Redeemer. So look at the
third thing. Verses two and three speak of
the binding of Satan by our Lord Jesus Christ. He laid hold on
the dragon, that old serpent, which is the devil and Satan
and bound him a thousand years, bound him thousands of years. Cast him into the bottomless
pit and shut him up and set a seal upon him For this purpose that
he should deceive the nations no more Till the thousand years
be fulfilled Now let's look at a few other things in Revelation
turn to chapter 9 John saw the Lord Jesus come
down from heaven with a key a key to lock the bottomless pit and
and a chain to bind the devil. Chapter 9, verse 1. And the fifth
angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth.
And to him was given the key of the bottomless pit. Chapter
11, verse 7. And when they shall have finished
their testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless
pit shall make war against them. and shall overcome them and kill
them. Go back to chapter 9 verse 11
again. And they are king over them, which is the angel of the
bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon,
but in the Greek tongue, his name is Apollyon. This bottomless
pit has a lid upon it, a lid that can be locked and sealed.
Remember, this is only a picture, a figurative symbol, nothing
more. But it tells us of the work of
Christ. He laid hold upon Satan. He overpowered Satan. He rendered the devil helpless.
He bound him securely with the mighty chain of sovereign power
and cast him into the bottomless pit and locked the lid and sealed
it for a thousand years. What does all this mean? How
did our Savior do this? You'll remember back in Matthew
chapter 12, when the Pharisees accused our Savior of casting
out demons by the power of Satan, our Savior said, how can one
enter into a strong man's house and spoil his goods, except he
first bind the strong man, then he will spoil his house. The
word bind used in Matthew chapter 12 is exactly the same word used
here in Revelation chapter 20. It's talking about the same thing.
The binding of Satan began when our Lord triumphed over him in
the wilderness of temptation. In the fourth chapter of Matthew
and in the fourth chapter of Luke, the temptations of our
Lord in the wilderness are described. And the Lord Jesus declares that
Satan came against him and found nothing in him. triumphed over
him by the Word of God. So that everywhere where Satan
assaulted him, the Lord Jesus foiled the devil's power. And
there the power and influence of Satan began to be curtailed. For our Savior began performing
miracles, miracles upon the earth, casting out demons. healing the
blind, healing the lame, healing the death, raising the dead,
overcoming those things that demonstrated power as God alone
has. And he cast out devils by his
mere word. That's what our savior does until
this day by the power of his grace. Then in the Garden of
Gethsemane. Our Lord Jesus was again assaulted
of the devil. You can read it in Matthew 26. In that dark, cold night, Satan
came to oppose our Redeemer. Taunting him. Taunting him with
that which he is about to experience as our substitute. Taunting him
with being made sin. Suffering the wrath of God for
sin. Being forsaken of his father
for the sin that was made to be his until he at last was slaughtered
under the hand of divine justice. And our savior was crushed in
his soul with great sorrow. But he rose in triumph. Hold
your hands in Revelation 20 and turn to Hebrews chapter five.
Hebrews, the fifth chapter. Our savior rose in triumph after
he had prayed. And prayed three times, Father,
if it'd be possible, let this cup pass for me. In confident
faith, our Lord Jesus rose up to lay down his life for his
sheep. He said to Peter and James and John, let's go on. Let's
go on. And he willingly, willingly for
the joy set before him, laid down his life for his people.
But he gained this triumph in Gethsemane's garden in his prayer
as a man Hebrews chapter 5 or 7 I had no question. There's
much much much more here than I have yet apprehended, but I
find this declaration astonishing the Lord Jesus in the days of
his flesh when he had offered up prayers and supplications
with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save
him from death, and was heard in that he feared. Oh, what terror struck his soul
as he anticipated suffering hell for us when he was made sin for
us. Look at verse 8. Though he were
a son, Yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered. Our savior came to know in experience
that obedience he pledged himself to before the world began as
our substitute by the things which he suffered and being made
perfect. Not. made more holy, not made
more righteous, but made perfect as our savior, made perfect as
our surety, made perfect as that one who undertook as our good
shepherd before the world was being made complete. He became
the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him.
And then our Lord Jesus. Met the serpent, Satan, the dragon
of hell, Apollyon, upon the cursed tree. Turn back to John's gospel,
chapter 12. Here, the serpent's head was
crushed. Our savior bound the wild beast
of hell and cast him into the bottomless pit. by his obedience
unto death, by his glorious, triumphant death upon the tree.
John 12, verse 28. Father, glorify thy name. Then came there a voice from
heaven saying, I have both glorified it and will glorify it again.
The people, therefore, that stood by and heard it said that it
thundered. Others said an angel spake to
him. Jesus answered and said, this voice came not because of
me, but because you needed to hear it. This voice came not
because of me, but for your sakes. Now is the judgment of this world. Now shall the prince of this
world be cast out. And I, if I be lifted up from
the earth, will draw all men. Draw Jew and Gentile. Draw my elect scattered through
all the nations and kindred and tribe and tongues of the earth.
I'll draw all men unto me. By his death upon the cursed
tree, the Lord Jesus broke the arms of Satan's usurped dominion
over the nations of the world and began to draw all men to
himself. The apostle Paul gives consideration
of this in Romans chapters 9, 10, or 11. Our Lord Jesus comes at Calvary's
tree and he cast Satan out so that he no longer has power to
deceive the nations. The gospel had been hidden all
through the Old Testament history from all the nations of the earth,
given to the Jews only. Now it's taken from the Jews
and blindness given to the Jews. And the gospel is sent to the
Gentiles because Satan has been bound and no longer able to deceive
them. And oh, how the gospel ran through
the world in those early days, how quickly the gospel spread,
how rapidly the kingdom of our God increased and continues to
increase until Satan shall be loosed for a little season. And
thus all Israel shall be saved. And when Paul gave consideration
to those things, he said, Oh, how unsearchable are his judgments
and his ways past finding out all the depth, both of the wisdom
and knowledge of our God and Satan. When our Lord Jesus ascended
into heaven, the chariots of God attended him. He led captivity
captive. took Satan captive and bound
him. Every single text of scripture
in the Word of God that speaks of the binding and captivity
of Satan refers to and is associated with our Lord's first advent,
his life, his death, his resurrection, and his exaltation. Back to chapter
20 of Revelation. Oh, what a glorious, comforting
gospel revelation this is. How few there are who apprehend
it. How little we who know it apprehend it. We're not awaiting
a day when Satan shall be bound and Christ shall be king. Jesus
Christ is the sovereign king today. He sits today upon the
throne of David. The kingdom of God has come to
us by the power of his Christ and Satan is a bound adversary.
Our adversary, the devil, is under the total rule and control
of our Redeemer. That means he can't harm us. He can't harm us. He roars, seeking
whom he may devour, but all he can do is roar. He can't devour
or even harm. Rather than the binding of Satan,
I'm sorry that this binding of Satan doesn't refer to his destruction
that'll come at the day of judgment but rather it refers to the binding
of Satan the restraining of his power the restraint of his power
to deceive the nations Satan's influence over the world. No,
that's not destroyed but it's curtailed So that he's unable
to prevent the spread of the gospel He's unable to prevent the spread
of God's kingdom. And we're told by our Savior
that the gates of hell. Oh, what a word. The gates of
hell shall not prevail against God's church. Nowhere ever. Gates, what a strange term to
use when you talk about a warfare. Gates are not weapons of offense.
Gates are weapons of defense. So our Savior is telling us as
we go through the world, preaching the gospel to every creature,
we bombard the very gates of hell and watch them fall by the
power of our God and the power of his Christ through the gospel.
Oh, how we have seen it over and over in history, how we've
seen it over and over in our own lives, how we've seen it
over and over in God, establishing his word in one place and then
another. Satan is bound today by the power
of our savior, the Lord Jesus, and is bound through the preaching
of the gospel. Turn back to Luke chapter 10,
Luke chapter 10. I've got to hurry. Verse 16. The Lord sends out his 70 to
preach the gospel. And it says, he that heareth
you, heareth me. He that despiseth you, despiseth
me. He that despiseth me, despiseth him that sent me. And the 70
returned again with joy, saying, Lord, even the devils are subject
unto us through thy name. I wonder if it's possible for
me to enter into that in any way. We have these fake charlatans
all over the world today who talk about casting out demons
and healing the sick and raising folks up from their beds of affliction,
and somehow they always manage to get a lot of money out of
it. That's not like these men. These men represent God's servants
sent out to preach the gospel. And the devils are subject to
us. And it is true to this day. Oh, my soul, God filled me with
the knowledge of this. Satan cannot stand against God's
word. Satan cannot prevail over the
gospel of God's grace. He said unto them, I beheld Satan
as lightning fall from heaven. Behold, I've given to you power
to tread on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the
enemy. Now, watch this. Watch what it
says. Watch what it says. And nothing
shall by any means hurt you. I said this last week down in
Sylacauga, and a couple of dear ladies, I've known them for a
long, long time, said, Brother Don, did you mean to say nothing
can hurt us? But we've felt a lot of pain.
Oh, I didn't say you wouldn't feel hurt. I don't suggest you
won't feel pain. Oh, no, no, no. You feel a lot
of that. But nothing's going to harm you. Not even hell. Not even the demons of hell.
Not even satanic influence. Not even the works of the devil.
Nothing shall hurt you. Not if you're Christ. Notwithstanding
in this, rejoice not, but that the spirits are subject unto
you. That the spirits are subject
unto you, but rather rejoice because your names are written
in heaven. Now. Let's look briefly at the loosing
season. We're told in verse 3 that at
the close of this thousands of year period, this thousands of
years of the gospel age, at the end of this time, Satan must
be loosed for a little season. Satan must be turned loose upon
the earth. again to deceive the nations
for a little season. I don't pretend to speak with
authority. I don't know. But it appears
to me that we're in that little season. If you care to read history,
you will find that the whole world, the whole Gentile world,
has reverted completely to the mythology of barbaric ages and
times. And the religion of this age
is so much akin to the barbarity of Greek mythology and the barbarity
of false religion in both its foolish doctrine and in its base
corrupt immorality that there's no way you can avoid the comparison. Yes, Satan has been turned loose. so that there is now, as Amos
said, there would be a famine for the hearing of the word of
God. There is now a time when the world is zealously religious,
but utterly ignorant of the true and living God, deceived by false
religion. God Almighty, in this little
season, it appears, has sent a strong delusion to multitudes
who would not believe and would not receive the love of the truth
because they would not bow to his word. But we're bound to
give thanks all the way to God for you. Brethren, beloved of
the Lord, because God had from the beginning chosen you to salvation. Oh, how you and I ought to rejoice
and give thanks to God in this dark, dark day of apostasy, of
will worship, of antichrist religion, that God has been pleased to
reveal the gospel of his grace in you and to establish for you
a faithful witness of the gospel in the place where you live.
Talking to some friends down in Sylacauga, some of the old
folks. Brother Henry Breedlove pastored there for a long, long
time, 35, 40 years till the Lord took him. And they've had faithful
ministry there. Little congregation, small, small
assembly. Been there for all this time
in a little place like Sylacauga, Alabama. Now, if you've never
been to Sylacauga, you hadn't missed much. It's just Sylacauga,
Alabama. It's not Birmingham. It's not
Atlanta. It's not New York City. It's Sylacauga. Sylacauga. Sort
of like Danville. Nowhere. Nowhere. Nowhere. And God's been pleased
to send his word in this dark day to us. What can we do? in this dark
day. I'll tell you three things we
can, should and must do. God give us grace to do. We can
pray. Pray that God will open doors
of utterance for the gospel and make them effectual before us.
And that he will give us zealous commitment to the furtherance
of the gospel. We can preach. We can do everything
in our power for the spread of the gospel in this generation.
And we can praise the God of all grace. Because God, from the beginning,
chosen you. Chosen you to salvation through
sanctification of the spirit and belief of the truth. by which
he called you." Oh God, thank you for light in darkness. Thank you for grace in the midst
of judgment. Thank you for salvation in the
midst of perversity. Amen.