Ephesians chapter 6, and I want
to begin reading in verse 10 down through verse 12. This is
where we've come to in our study of this book. We're really somewhat
beginning in a little bit different study.
Paul has been dealing with so many things, and he's come now
to this. But in verse 10, Finally, my
brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might."
Now, we should really understand this,
and we're going to deal with it probably in the next week
or so, just a little bit more in depth. But there's a reason
that he tells us to be strong in the Lord and in the power
of his might. Put on the whole armor of God. that you may be able to stand
against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh
and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers
of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness
or wicked spirits in high places, in heavenly places. I want us
to think just a few minutes about this. He tells us here in verse
10, there is a power for us. But he goes on there in verse
11 and 12 and tells us there is a power that is against us. The power of God is for us. The powers of darkness are against
us. God is for us. Thank God for
that. If God is for us, who can be
against us? If God is against us, who could
possibly be for us? God's power is for us. In Romans 8, and you don't have
to turn there, but he makes this wonderful statement, we're more
than conquerors through Him who loved us. More than conquerors. And the reason we can conquer
is from verse 10. Be strong in the Lord and in
the power of His might. I want to remind you, I've did
this two or three times, but look back over again in the first
chapter of this book that we've been studying in. Let me remind
you that Paul is very concerned for us that we know this and
believe this, that God's power is working in us. The Lord is
in us, working. The tremendous almighty power
of God is working in us. It's so important that we understand
that, and he keeps saying this throughout this epistle. Look
in chapter 1 and look in verse 19. He says, I want you to know,
I've even prayed to this end for you, that you may know what
is the exceeding greatness of His power to usward who believe. and even the way we believe. How can we believe? According
to the working of His mighty power. Even the same power, He
tells us in verse 20, that He wrought in Christ when He raised
Him from the dead. The mighty, miraculous power
of God. And look what He says in the
third chapter, and look in verse 16. The third chapter in verse
16. Here he is praying for them again.
And he prays for this, that He would grant you, according to
the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might by His
Spirit in the inner man. Strengthened with might. And
look what he says down in verse 20. Now to him that is able to
do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or even think
according to that power which worketh in us. So this is something
that you and I must understand and must believe, that God's
power is working in us. Be strong in this power, in the
power of the Lord. Aren't you glad for that passage
of scripture that says, that you're kept. When we consider
these wicked fallen spirits and the devil himself, aren't you
glad that you're kept by the power of God? My Father is greater
than all, and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's
hand. Nobody has the power to do it.
Jude even said that when he was talking about being kept, by
the power of God. He made this statement. He said,
and for Him that is able to keep you from falling. Not only to
keep you, but even keep you from falling. Not even falling away,
but to keep you from falling. He's able to do that because
of this mighty power that works in us. And present us to Himself. Present us in His very presence. Perfect. with exceeding joy,
exceeding greatness of His power. How wonderful that is to think
about. You know, we've heard people talk about falling away. Well, you and I would not have
only fallen, brothers and sisters, but we'd have fallen away if
God didn't work in us by His mighty power. We cannot stand
without that. And you know, if one believer
falls away, then two can fall away. And if two can fall away,
they all can fall away. And what happens if they all
fall away? Christ has lost his church. And what does that mean? That means, after all, we weren't
more than conquerors through him that loved us. The blood
of Christ has failed to cleanse His intercession at the right
hand of God has ceased to be effectual? The Holy Spirit has
left us and gone back to heaven? Aren't you glad that we're kept
by the power of God? Oh, thank God for it. Thank God
for this. The exceeding greatness of His
power. Be strong in the Lord. That's the power that's for us.
If God be for us. But here we're told in these
next few verses of that power that's against us. And that's
the devil and his fallen angels. He said there in verse 11, put
on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against
the trickery, the deception of the devil. The devil. Oh, the
devil. We studied about this a few weeks
ago, didn't we, in the book of Job, the first chapter of Job,
when the devil come up before God and the Lord said, where
have you been? Well, he said, I've been walking
to and fro in the earth. I've been going up and down in
the earth. And that's what Peter says he
is. He's a roaring lion that walketh about. He's in this earth
seeking whom he may be about. You know, there's some theologians
in our day that have denied that there is a personal devil. And
you know something? I've got a sneaky hunch that
he's already deceived those people. How can we possibly believe in
a personal God, in a personal Savior, and not believe in a
personal devil? The same Bible that tells us
about God tells us about this devil and these fallen spirits. And he tells you in verse 12
not only about the devil himself, but look here at these fallen
angels. We wrestle not against flesh
and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers
of the darkness of this world, and against wicked spirits in
high places. These powers, rulers, wicked
You know, when the Lord Jesus Christ was upon this earth, He
encountered these fallen spirits constantly. He did battle with
them. And it seems to me like almost
that they were congregated there in this little nation of Israel
because everywhere He went, they encountered Him. And you could
see something about their nature and all the havoc that they caused.
Remember the little boy? His dad brought his little boy
to his disciples. He would fall down and begin
to foam, and he would run and jump in the fire and jump in
the water to try to ground himself. And it was these demons that
were in him. And the Lord encountered him
and cast those demons out of that man, out of that little
boy. But the demons threw him down
on the ground and he was foaming, and they thought the little boy
had died. The Lord was always encountering these demons. Remember
the Gadarene? He had a legion of demons and
lived in the tombs and cut himself and cried out and lived in utter
despair. Do you know what that was? That
was these demons. These demons. I don't know. It seems like to me, at least
in our country, we don't see the openly possession In some
countries you do. In some countries in Africa.
It's so evident that physically demons have filled the bodies
of some of those men. But mostly in our country, it's
in the mind. Demons working in the mind and
upon the spirits of men. So we have these great powers
that's against us. The devil is against us. These
fallen demons, these wicked spirits are against us. And notice verse
12 again, how Paul, he uses this negative to really tell us something
here. Notice what he says, we wrestle
not against flesh and blood. Our battle is not with flesh
and blood. Now he's not saying that we don't
have a human nature that sometimes we have to keep in check. We
do. even things that's lawful, that
we can't live without. A human nature is vital for us
to live. It gives us an appetite. We desire
to do different things that's good and right. But you know,
we even have to keep an eye on our human nature. We have to
keep a check on it. But there's this fallen nature
that we sometimes call flesh that's corrupt. And I tell you,
we have to keep it beat down. We have to keep it crucified.
So there is a battle there. And we also have enemies that's
made up of flesh and blood. Some of you have neighbors that's
probably your enemies. They don't like you at all. The
church, in a sense, has always had flesh and blood that opposed
it. You remember the Sanhedrin that
got a hold of John and Peter and whipped them? Their enemy
was flesh and blood. But what Paul is saying here,
that our chief battle is not with the natural man. The weapons
of our warfare are not carnal, it's not flesh and blood. Brothers and sisters, flesh and
blood knows nothing about this warfare. It knows absolutely
nothing about this warfare. You have to be born again to
get into this warfare. That's where the warfare with
these demons is taking place. The Lord Jesus said to Peter,
He said, Peter, flesh and blood have not revealed this to you. How do you know me, Peter? Flesh
and blood has not taught you of me. but my Father which is
in heaven. are not carnal. You can't fight
the devil with these arms and these legs, with carnal weapons. He's not effective with them. Remember when the Lord told the
devil, Job's in your hands, just spare his life. Remember that?
You know, Job, Job thought what was going to take place. He said,
that which I feared has come upon me. He had this in the back
of his head for quite some time. You know, this could happen to
me. But you know, when it come, he couldn't do anything about
it. He had no preparation. The devil
came upon that man, brought the Chaldeans, the Sabeans, killed
his servants, hauled his cattle away, brought this wind and blew
his house down and killed his children, even smoked Job with
sores from the crown of his head to the sole of his feet. And
what could Job do about it? Nothing. Why? Flesh and blood. Flesh and blood. When we talk
about flesh and blood, we're talking about something that
is weak and unstable as water. It knows nothing about this water. Poor man. He brags about the
power of his will. His free will. Doesn't he do
that? We have free will. I believe in free will. Poor
things, they brag about that. And all along, while they're
bragging about their power, they're in captivity to the devil. I remember we had a preacher.
Some of you remember this. Most of you don't. But when we
were down at a church not too far south of here, there was
a preacher that came that was going to pastor us at that time.
We didn't have a pastor. And he came out of Texas and
he preached three or four times to us. And three or four times
did it for us. Because he made this statement.
I never will forget this statement. He said, really, man is sovereign. Man is sovereign. I thought,
man, I don't want to sit under you for a pastor, because you
don't know man. You don't know anything about
flesh, and you don't know anything about blood. Listen to this. Listen to this. I was coming
back from, well, I'm not going to tell you that story. I'll
get off. I'll get off on that story and you'll go, but I'm
not going to tell you that. Listen to what they said here about flesh. All
flesh is grass. All of it. But wait a minute. I've been on the way for 35 years. I'm changed. I'm not the man
I used to be. And I've set myself apart and
I've been careful in my home, on my job. You're talking to
me? He's talking to me. What am I? My flesh is grass. And listen to this, he didn't
stop there. And all the goodliness is as the flower of the field,
the grass withereth and the flower fadeth away. It's only the word
of our God that shall stand forever. We're no match. We're no match
for the devil. We're no match in and of ourselves
with these fallen angels. Now, let me show you now. I think
it's essential for you who know this to be reminded of this,
and you who don't know it to learn it. Because this is something
the Apostle Paul is getting ready to teach us, and we need to know
it. Look over in 2 Timothy. Look in 2 Timothy chapter 2,
and look in verse 24. 2 Timothy chapter 2, verse 24. Look at this. Look in verse 24.
He's speaking here of the devil and humanity, and see if the
whole system of free will and the power of it fits in this
scripture. Look what he said in verse 24.
The servant of the Lord must not strive. but be gentle unto
all men, apt to teach, patient, in meekness instructing those
that oppose themselves." They're even against themselves. They
don't even know it, but they are. If God perhaps will give
them repentance to the acknowledgement of the truth, then they don't
know the truth. They're lost. They've been deceived
by the devil. They're believing a lie. Paul
said, oh, that God would open their hearts. Verse 26, that
they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil. The devil's got them in a snare.
Well, how can he do that? Who does he think he is? I have
free will. I have some power. You know something
the devil's got a will to? There's three wills I can find
in the Scripture. And the man's will is on the
bottom of the totem pole, if you will. There's God's will,
that's sovereign. He does according to his will
in the armies of heaven, among the heavens and the earth. And
there's the will of man, you will not come to me. That's We're
born not of the will of the flesh, of God's own will begotten. And here we find the devil has
a will. And what happens, brothers and sisters, when God leaves
a man to himself? What happens when God leaves
a man to his will and the power of it? Satan takes him captive. Look at it. who are taken captive
by Him at His will. Yeah, Satan has a will, too.
He has a will, too. And if God doesn't intervene
in great grace and mercy and give light to the understanding
to open a person's heart and deliver them and give them repentance,
to let them see that they're wrong, to let them see the truth
and believe the truth, what will happen? Satan will just keep
on holding them. While they brag about their free
will, they're in the prison house of Satan and darkness. That's
serious Satan. Most people that you and I know,
including our immediate families, most people we work Most people
that we see in our society fit right here. Satan has taken them
captive at his will. Now, there's a power that's against
us. There's a power that's against society. And if we don't recognize
it, and society doesn't, society is defeated already. Let me show
you another scripture. Look over in Colossians. Go over
to Colossians chapter 1. Look in Colossians chapter 1,
look in verse 12. Let me show you a couple more scriptures
regarding humanity and this awful power that's against him. Look
what he says in verse 12. Give him thanks unto the Father
which has made us fit, meet. to be partakers of the inheritance
of the saints in life, who hath delivered us from the power of
darkness." There was a power that was holding
you and was holding me. And it's still holding every
lost person. A power! A power! And they can't deliver themselves
from it. God knows they don't even know they're helped by it. And God in mercy, God in His
power and grace has to deliver them from that power of darkness. I'll send them a strong one,
a Savior, and He shall deliver them. Those who sit in darkness,
they just give up, they sit down, and they suffer and despair. They saw a great light. And what
is that? That's Christ. That's the gospel. And the Lord comes and delivers
us from the power of this darkness. And look at this. He has translated
us into the kingdom of His dear Son. Let me show you one more
scripture along the same line. Look in Matthew chapter 12. Matthew chapter 12. Look here
in verse 22. Matthew 12, verse 22. You remember this story. Matthew
12, verse 22. Then was brought unto him the
Lord Jesus, one possessed with a devil, blind and dumb. And he healed him insomuch that
the blind and the dumb both spake and saw. And all the people were
amazed and said, Is not this the Son of David? But when the
Pharisees heard, they said, This fellow does not cast out devils,
but by Beelzebub, the prince of the devils. And Jesus knew
their thoughts and said unto them, Every kingdom divided against
itself is brought to desolation. And every city or house divided
against itself shall not stand. And if Satan cast out Satan,
He is divided against himself, how shall then his kingdom stand? You mean he has a kingdom? He must be pretty powerful then.
That's why he's called a God, I guess. He has a kingdom. And
if I by Beelzebub cast out devils, by whom do your children cast
them out? Therefore they shall be your judges. But if I cast
out devils by the Spirit of God, Then the kingdom of God is coming
to you. Now look at this. Or else how
can one enter unto a strong man's house? A strong man. Who is that? That's the devil. He has a house. What is that? That's the heart of unregenerate
men. The heart of unsaved people are his castle. And look at him. He's a strong man that keeps
his house. And how can somebody enter into
the strongman's house and spoil his goods, except he first bind
the strongman? And who can do that? There's
someone that's stronger than he, and that's Christ Jesus the
Lord. There's one stronger than the
devil, and that's Christ Jesus the Lord. And what must he do? He must enter the house, bind
that strongman, the devil, and then he spoils his goods. You can almost get it in your
imagination that you've got this underground house. Have you ever
seen these houses built half underground and half above ground?
Boy, you can close the curtains off and it's dark in there. It's
dark. And somebody comes in and they
swing open the front door and they jerk off the blinds and
they let all this light come flooding in. That's the way the
heart of man is. Satan wants to keep men underground. He wants to keep them in darkness.
He wants to keep them ignorant. And he bolts that door fast.
And boy, he makes sure no shade of light can come through those
windows to get to your understanding. And here comes the Lord Jesus
Christ, and what does He do? He jerks the door off of His
angels. He jerks them over the shades.
And He lets the light of His gospel come in. And He spoiled
the darkness. He's taken away the ignorance.
He saves from the devil. That's wonderful, isn't it? Here's
the power that's for us and the power that's against us. This
thought keeps coming to mind. I'm going to tell you this story.
I was coming back from Kentucky and often switching channels,
looking to see what people were saying. And I heard this man,
he must have been a Pentecostal of some kind, but he was preaching.
He was preaching. And he was preaching to the devils.
And he was talking to the devil. And he was saying, loose, loose
her. Come out of her, you unclean
spirit. And do this and do that. I command
you, devil. And he was talking to the devils.
It got really strange. You know how that is when you
hear them do that. Do you think he had any effect?
Do you think these rulers trembled because of that man's voice?
Do you think they paid any attention to that man at all? Not at all. These are gods! These are rulers. These are the powers of darkness. And flesh and blood command them
to do anything. There is but one power that can
subdue our enemy. And that is the power of the
triune God. And here is this poor man trying
to command and charge these spirits. He is defeated already. And if we don't understand this,
and we don't understand that Christ in His love and grace
and power is for us, we're defeated. We're defeated. Be strong in
the Lord. That's our victory. We're more
than conquerors through Him that loved us. And if we're not in
Him, and if He's not for us, we're defeated. We're defeated. All these two great powers. You
know what humanity is. With all this bragging and boasting
and this proud look and high thoughts of itself. You know
what humanity is. Just pawns. Any of you play chess? Bill,
you look like a chess player. They'll be set there on the table
until somebody moves them. There's these two great powers.
And they're in conflict, one with another. And they're just
moving men around. While men is bragging and boasting
of their power, these two great powers are moving men around. That's all we are, is pawns. That's humiliating to this world,
but that's so. What is flesh? What is blood? Before these great powers. Three
things right quickly I want us to say in closing. Just take
me a minute, I promise. I think we need to know this
in a way of background. First of all, where did these
powers come from? Where did the devil come from?
Where did these wicked spirits come from? I think it would help
us to know that. I want you to turn to Ezekiel
chapter 28. Ezekiel chapter 28. And look in verse 12. I want
to read this to you, then I want to quote you another place from
Isaiah 14. I want you to mark this down. I want you to mark that down
if you have a pen, or turn over there quickly and mark it, because
I want you to read that chapter when you have time. I want to
quote a little bit from it, but this tells us something about
where the devil came from. Look in Ezekiel chapter 28, and
begin reading in verse 12. Son of man, take up a lamentation
upon the king of Tyrus. Now, sometimes when you read
a name like that, it's not really talking about the king of Tyrus.
Sometimes when we read about Christ, he goes under the name
of David. But it's not talking about David
at all, it's talking about Christ. Sometimes when you read the name
of Jacob, it's talking about the church. O thou worm Jacob."
He's not talking about Jacob, he's talking about the church.
And here when you read about the king of Tyrus, as you read
about it, you realize he's not talking about the king of Tyrus
at all, but he's talking about somebody else. And it tells us
who he's talking about. Take up this lamentation against
the king of Tyrus. And saying to him, Thus saith
the Lord God, Thou sillest up the sun, full of wisdom, and
perfect in beauty. Oh, my. Thou hast been in Eden,
the garden of God. I don't think the king of Tyre
was there, do you? I'll tell you somebody was there, though.
You remember him? Hanging around that tree in the serpent? Remember who that was? He was
there in Eden, wasn't he? Buried precious stones. Every
precious stone was thy covering. The sardis, the topaz, the diamond,
the beryl, the onyx, the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, the
carbuncle, the gold, the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes
were prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created."
He was created, and he was a beautiful creature full of wisdom. Thou
art the anointed cherub I don't know what that means, but it
sounds great, doesn't it? He's a cherub. They tell us that's
the higher form of angels. I really don't know. But it sounds
like he's somebody important. The anointed cherub. I have set
thee so. I made you so, God said to him. Thou was upon the holy mountain
of God. Thou hast walked up and down
in the midst of the stones of fire. You were perfect in your
way. from the day that you were created
until iniquity was found in thee. Now let me read you Isaiah chapter
14, verse 12 through 14. Thou art, how now art thou fallen
from heaven, O Lucifer. That was his name, Lucifer. And
look what he's called, the Son of the Morning. It sounds to
me like maybe he was the first or among the first of God's creatures,
the Son of the Morning. Now art thou cut down to the
ground which did weaken the nations, for thou hast said in thy heart,
I will ascend unto heaven, I will exalt my throne. He had a throne. God gave him
a throne when he made it. And I will exalt that throne
above the stars of God. I will set also upon the mount
of the congregation of the north. I will ascend above the height
of the clouds. I will be like the Most High.
I will, I will, I will. Who does that sound like? Sounds
like man, doesn't it? But God said, no, you're not.
You're full of pride. Pride has come into your heart,
Lucifer. And you think you're going to
exalt yourself and be like the Most High? No. He said, you shall
be brought down to hell. So what happened? Here was this
angel, this anointed chair of the Son of the Morning. And he
was perfect in beauty. And he sinned. He was lifted
up in pride. This is why Paul said, be careful
with young preachers. They'll get lifted up in pride
and fall into the condemnation of the devil. That was the devil's
fall. And he was cast down. Now look
in Jude 6. Look over in Jude 6. The book right before Revelation. Look in Jude 6. Look in chapter
1 verse 6. Just one chapter. Look here at
what Jude says about these angels. Peter tells us about these same
angels. He said, God spared not the angels that sinned. The angels sinned. So they were
created holy too. But they sinned. What was their
sin? Well, look here in verse 6 of
Jude. And I think Jude hints at it
here. And the angels which kept not their first estate. And that first estate means proper
domain. their proper place. God created
all creatures, including Lucifer and those angels. He created
them with this in mind, to serve Him and to worship Him, to do
His bidding. He put them there in that place.
They left that place. They said, we are not satisfied
with this. We want something higher. And here comes Lucifer,
seemingly, And they fell into a plot with him. And he said,
you fall in with me, and we'll ascend to the height of the clouds. We'll be like God. We'll sit
on the throne, and we'll be God ourselves. And what happened? Well, they left their own habitation,
and he hath reserved an everlasting change under darkness. and to the judgment of the great
day. Listen to Revelation 12. I want
you to mark this sometime, too, and I want you to read this,
because all of these places hint at something that happened, a
war that began to take place. Revelation 12. There was war
in heaven. I don't know when it started.
I don't know why it started, except it was out of pride. Michael,
whoever that is, If that's an archangel, if that's the Lord
Jesus Christ, I'm not for sure. But it said Michael and his angels
fought against the dragon, and the dragon fought in his angels,
and they prevailed not. Neither was their place. They
had a place in heaven, but their place was found in heaven no
more. And the great dragon was cast
out, that old serpent called the devil and Satan, which deceived
the whole earth. He was cast out into the earth,
and his angels were cast out with him. So it seems like you
have Lucifer that took these angels, the scripture says a
third They were in cahoots with him, and they were cast out of
heaven. The Lord Jesus said, I beheld
Satan as lightning fall from heaven. Where are they now? Well,
they're right here, aren't they? They're right here in this earth.
They had their beginning. God made them. They fell through
sin. God allowed them to do it. He
preserved what's called the elect angels. And now, these sinful,
wicked, fallen angels are here among us. And that's the battle
that you and I face. Three quick things that you and
I need to remember. First of all, I want to give
you two. I missed the second thing. The first thing is, where
did they come from? What happened to them? God made
them. They sinned. He cast them down.
What are they doing now? I commented on it just a little
bit. They're doing all the evil they can. They're doing all the
evil they can. The Bible is very, very clear
on that. Satan, as a roaring lion, walketh
about seeking whom he may devour. And I tell you one of the things
that scares him to death is when you get a lost person under the
gospel. That's when he's scared. Because he knows that's the only
thing that can snatch him out of his clutches. So what does
he do? He blinds the mind. Lest the
light of the glorious gospel of God, of the Lord Jesus, should
shine through there. He blinds the mind. Oh, they're
awful. They hate humanity. You and I
really should never say either. We should never say this. This
is really not good to say this. The devil is not down at your
honky-tonk. Well, of course he is. Of course
he is. He's doing all the evil he can
in the church, in religion, and he's doing all he can in the
open and profane world. He hates men's souls. This is
why you and I, brothers and sisters, our hearts should be broken for
lost people. And we should spend some time
in prayer to God, asking Him to be merciful and deliver these
people from the clutches of Satan and his fallen angels. You know,
there is a sense, and I know that man is responsible. He'll
give account of himself and his thoughts, what he believes, what
he don't believe, what he thinks. Man is a responsible creature,
and he'll give account to God for it. But isn't there a sense
in which he just can't help it. Some of the things he thinks
and some of the things he does, he goes beyond human nature.
And what causes him to do that? The devil and his fallen angels. They hate him. They hate him.
This is why we see people mixed up in all kinds of sin and they
live in despair without any hope. The devil has driven them there.
May God help us to pity these people and spend some time in
prayer. Oh Lord, look what your enemy
has done to poor humanity. All would you save, would you
deliver from his clutches. And thirdly and lastly is this.
First of all, where did they come from? What happened? What
are they doing now since they've been cast out of heaven? And
lastly is this. We need to remember this. This
is so important to remember. Satan is a creature. That's all
he is. Whatever you can say about his
power, all of his titles, he's yet a creature. He's not the
Creator. He doesn't have any attributes
of the Creator. He's not like God at all. Remember that. And secondly,
remember this. He's God's devil. He's God's devil. He's bound
and he has to get permission to do everything he does. We saw that in the first chapter
of Job. Have you considered my servant Job? Yes, you build a
hedge about it. You won't let me at it. He has
to get permission. He's God's devil. One of the
most comforting passages that you'll find concerning this is
in Revelations chapter 2, around verse 10. The church was riding
to Sermon. The church at Sermon. And he
made this wonderful statement. He said, Fear none of those things
that are about to come upon you. Satan shall cast some of you
into prison, and you're going to have tribulation ten days. But be thou faithful unto them.
Why did he tell them, don't be afraid? Because the devil is
my devil. I've got him on a leash. Yes,
he'll persecute you. He's going to make sure that
you're put in prison. But just for ten days, how does
Christ know it's just going to be ten days? Did you ever think
of that? He rules the devil. And if he
says ten days, it won't be nine days, it won't be eleven days,
it'll be ten days. And when it's time, he'll bring
you out. The devil belongs to Jesus Christ. Remember that. Remember that. I am not trying
to make you afraid of demons. Be sober. Be vigilant. Don't be flippant about this.
But we don't have to go through this life terrified with demons. I'm not trying to cast them out
of anybody. I don't want to be around some of these nuts laying
hands on people and commanding demons. I have no interest in
that. But don't be afraid of demons. They're God's demons. Christ
rules those principalities of power. And the last thing to
remember is this. His end is sure. And it's not
good. And it's unavoidable. And his
end is getting closer than it was. In Revelation 20, verse
10, the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire
where he is tormented day and night forever and ever. Be strong in the Lord. and in
the power of His might. That's the way we stand against
these rulers. May the Lord bless you. Let's
pray.