What He Will Do with the Devil, Part 1

In this part of the sermon: Martin outlines the structure of his series, having covered what happens to believers and unbelievers at Christ's return. He introduces the third 'slice of the pie': what will…

Martin uses the analogy of a 'big pie' with 'major slices' to help collate the biblical data about events occurring at Christ's coming, making the complex information more comprehensible and memorable.

I did not say they are all easy to be understood or that it is easy to put them in some kind of a rigid sequence. I have said that the events that cluster around the return of Christ are clustered, are clustered, are clustered, are clearly revealed, and they are manifold. And I have suggested to you that if we think in terms of a big pie, a circle, and major slices in the pie, we can collate the biblical data in some kind of a comprehensive and hopefully stickable way, that there will be some mental burrs when we think of the pie. And I suggested that the first major slice in the pie of those ...

11:49 - 12:32 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin begins laying out six foundational biblical facts about angels, starting with their nature as numerous, non-material, intelligent, and rational spirit beings created by…

He contrasts angels with impersonal forces like electricity and gravity to emphasize that angels are intelligent, personal spirit beings, not mere forces.

But they are intelligent beings with personality. They are not like electricity. Electricity is an impersonal force and we see the fruit of it in the lights and in the mechanisms that are causing this little thing to pick up my voice and to give it some further amplification, etc. But angels are not like electricity, some mere impersonal physical force.

21:10 - 21:36 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The second foundational fact is that angels exist in two distinct moral and spiritual categories: elect and holy angels (1 Timothy 5:21, Mark 8:38) and fallen angels who sinned (2…

Martin compares the two distinct categories of angels (elect/holy and fallen/sinning) to the two fundamental sexual identities (males/females) within the congregation, making the distinction clear and relatable.

and his angels at his return? We must understand that right now, as we sit in this room, there exist two distinct categories of moral and spiritual identity. As surely as this congregation exists, right now, in two fundamental sexual identities, males, females, boys, girls. We have no burls and we have no goys.

27:20 - 27:51 Read in full sermon

Driving home: It is a pagan notion that you have two equal ultimate forces, the good and the evil. That's not found in the scriptures.

The examples of Satan needing God's permission to deal with Job and to sift Peter illustrate that the devil is not an equal, ultimate force but is under God's sovereign control.

It is a pagan notion that you have two equal ultimate forces, the good and the evil. That's not found in the scriptures. When the devil wants to deal with Job, he's got to go up to the throne of God and get God's permission at every single stage of the things he would inflict upon them. When the devil wants to do his wretched work with Peter and the others in conjunction with the crucifixion of Christ, Jesus says, Peter, Satan has asked for you to sift you as wheat.

35:41 - 36:13 Read in full sermon

Driving home: The devil and his angels received a decisive defeat in conjunction with the first coming of Jesus.

An extended story of 'Little Johnny' trying to steal from a large NFL lineman illustrates Jesus' teaching in Matthew 12 about binding the strong man (Satan) before spoiling his goods, demonstrating Christ's power over the devil.

He was a conqueror, as Jesus said in Matthew 12. You can't bind a strong man. You can't take the goods of the strong man unless you first bind the strong man and then you spoil his goods. You come to a home where you've got one of these interior linemen in the NFL having a nap, and he's got all of his three-carat earrings, real high-class diamond earrings, lying next to his bed, six foot six, three hundred and twenty pounds, all bone and muscle and sinew and square jaw.

49:45 - 50:21 Read in full sermon

Driving home: The devil loves it when we overestimate his present power. He loves it when we quail before him as though he has never been shamed and put to flight.

Martin uses the analogy of lightning and thunder to explain the defeat of the enemy: the lightning (Christ's decisive victory at the cross) has already occurred, and the thunder (the final destruction of the enemy at Christ's return) is sure to follow, though it comes in two stages to us.

We said on the radio, they told us on the radio, I'll get it right yet, that we may get some thunderstorms later on today. A thunderstorm is a meteorological event. It's a hard word to say. I practiced it in my study.

62:07 - 62:25 Read in full sermon

The point: Examine your alignments: are you with Christ or against him?

Martin quotes Professor John Murray's outline of Genesis 3:15 ('Enmity injected, perpetuated, consummated') to frame his concluding question about personal alignment in the cosmic warfare.

was going to be basically instructive but I cannot close without asking this one simple question as we close. The words in which I couch my question are not mine. I first heard them in a sermon by the late professor John Murray in an exposition of Genesis 3.15 I shall never forget the outline.

69:12 - 69:36 Read in full sermon