What He Will Do with the Devil, Part 1

Introduction to the Series and Revelation 12

0:01 The following sermon was delivered on Sunday morning, August 19th, 2001, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. Now please turn with me in your Bibles to the book of the Revelation and chapter 12.

0:22 As I have done in this present series of studies, I've been seeking to read some of the watershed texts that point to those events that will occur in conjunction with the coming of our Lord Jesus. I have not read these passages intending to expound them in detail, but generally making reference to them at some point in the course of these studies. Revelation chapter 12, and that we might from the very outset know who this dragon is, that is, one of the central figures. We don't need to trust the prophecy experts to tell us.

1:02 The Spirit of God has told us in verse 9, of the chapter, and I want to read this and then go back and read the chapter, and the great dragon was cast down, the old serpent, he that is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world. He was cast down to earth and his angels were cast down with him. Now here we have the Spirit of God telling us the symbolism of the dragon. It is clear.

1:35 From the circumstances surrounding the symbolism of the woman who bears, births a child, and then that child is threatened, but wonderfully preserved and caught up, and that child is described in terms that can only apply to our Lord Jesus Christ. The woman that is then harassed by the dragon is obviously God's covenant people, now his church, and in the light of that, let us hear this portion of the Word of God. And a great sign was seen in heaven. A woman arrayed with the sun and the moon under her feet,

2:16 and upon her head a crown of twelve stars. And she was with child and she cried out, travailing in birth and in pain to be delivered. And there was seen another sign in heaven, and behold, a great red dragon, dragon having seven heads and ten horns and upon his heads seven diadems and his tail draws the third part of the stars of heaven and did cast them to the earth and the dragon stands before the woman that is about to be delivered that when she is delivered he may devour her child

2:55 and she was delivered of a son a man child who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron and her child was caught up unto god and unto his throne and the woman fled into the wilderness where she has a place prepared of god that there they may nourish her a thousand two hundred and sixty days and there was war in heaven michael and his angels going forth to war with the dragon and the dragon warred and his angels and they prevailed not neither was their place and they prevailed not neither was their place and they prevailed not neither was their place

3:32 found any more in heaven and the great dragon was cast down the old serpent he that is called the devil and satan the deceiver of the whole world he was cast down to the earth and his angels were cast down with him and i heard a great voice in heaven saying now is come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our god and the authority of his christ for the accuser of our brethren is cast down who accuses them before our god day and night and they overcame him because of the blood

4:12 of the lamb and because of the word of their testimony and they love not their life even unto death therefore rejoice oh heavens and you that dwell in them woe for the earth and for the sea because the the the devil is gone down unto you having great wrath knowing that he hath but a short time and when the dragon saw that he was cast down to the earth he persecuted the woman that brought forth the man child and there were given to the woman the two wings of the great eagle that she might fly into the wilderness unto her place where she is nourished for a time and times and

4:55 half a time from the face of the serpent and the serpent cast out of his mouth after the woman water as a river that he might cause her to be carried away by the stream and the earth helped the woman and the earth opened her mouth and swallowed up the river which the dragon cast out of his mouth and the dragon became angry with the woman and went away to make war with the rest of her seed that keep the commandments of god and hold the testament of god and the testament of god and the testament of god and the testament of testimony of jesus now let us again ask the aid of the spirit of god as we come to our study of the word

The Certainty and Centrality of Christ's Return

5:40 our father we are so thankful that you have given us your holy word and we pray that as we come to its pages again this morning that the very holy spirit who inspired the various penman to write as they wrote that he would be present as our true teacher help your servant that he may be an instrument in your hands to point to the truth but oh blessed holy spirit you alone can enable us rightly to understand and rightly to receive the truth and so we cast ourselves upon you and upon your present aid

6:22 for this time together in the scriptures hear us and meet with us we plead in jesus name amen amen we were reminded in our consecutive reading in the scriptures this morning that all of the things that happened to the lord jesus and in particular those things which culminated in his crucifixion that all of these things without exception were but the unfolding of the sovereign decree and purpose of the living god the lord of heaven and earth and the life of all the earth

7:06 and furthermore the scriptures inform us that this very same jesus delivered up by the determined counsel and foreknowledge of god in the language of acts chapter four this same jesus rose again from the dead on the third day and that for forty days he made many appearances to the eleven apostles and at the end of those forty days that they were eyewitnesses as he visibly, physically ascended up into heaven. And while witnessing that astounding event, and their eyes are fixed steadfastly heavenward,

7:48 two men, obviously angels, stood by them and said, Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus who is taken up from you into heaven shall so come in like manner as you have seen him go into heaven. And this great truth, that the Lord Jesus, who lived and died under Pontius Pilate, who was raised again from the dead, would certainly come again in like manner as he went up into heaven, became a dominant note in the apostolic preaching and in the apostolic nurture,

8:32 and in the nurturing of the infant churches. So much so, that it is accurate to say the truth of the return of Christ was a truth that was central to the life of the apostolic churches. And so I launched several months ago into a study under this general theme of the return of Christ in New Testament belief and experience. And I hope some of you, you have noticed that I've not used the term the second coming, that's an event.

9:07 The return of Christ focuses upon the activity of a person. And it was the return of Christ, not some fascination with eschatology or the doctrine of last things, but the reality that the Lord in whom they trusted would indeed return again in power and glory at the end of the age that was part and parcel of the vibrant apostolic faith of the early churches. And in seeking to open up this very broad subject of biblical revelation, what we have done is first of all to establish that this expectation of the Lord's return

9:52 was indeed a part of normal New Testament Christian experience. Then I attempted to answer from the scriptures the question, why do believers eagerly await and long for the return of the Lord Jesus? Having answered that question, I then said we need to address some fundamental issues with respect to the Lord's return that we might not be pushed into the turbulent sea of idle speculation, or on the other hand, into some nebulous cloud of indefinite perception with respect to this great event, in God's redemptive work.

10:35 And so we established from the scriptures that as to the event of the Lord's return itself, it is certain. As to its place in the history of redemption, it is central and climactic. When Jesus comes, everything that consummates time and history as we know it will have come to its glorious climax and finality and eternity will then unfold in the new heavens and the new earth for the people of God and in the place of weeping and wailing for those who are not in Christ. As to the event, it is certain.

11:16 As to its place in redemptive history, central and climactic. As to its precise time, for us it is always imminent, indefinite, and unknowable. Indefinite and unknowable, unknowable to us. And then with respect to the Lord's return, I have stated that in conjunction with His return, the events that will certainly occur are very clearly revealed and manifold.

The Third Slice of the Pie: What Happens to the Devil and His Angels?

11:49 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 events that will certainly occur at the coming of Christ are those events

12:32 that are focused upon God's gracious dealings with His own people. What will happen to those who are in Christ, both dead and alive, at the coming of Christ? And we saw four distinct things that Scripture says will happen to those who are in Christ. Last Lord's Day, we began to look at the second slice in the pie.

12:57 What will occur at the coming of Christ with respect to those who are not in Christ, both dead and alive? And I brought before you the biblical materials under these two statements. At the return of Christ, the bodies of those who are not in Christ shall be raised by the voice and power of Christ in order to appear in judgment before Christ, along with the unbelievers who are alive at the coming of Christ. And secondly, at the return of Christ, all who are not in Christ shall, at the judgment throne of Christ, be publicly identified,

13:40 tried and condemned by Christ, and banished from Christ to a place of horrifying torment. These shall go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into life eternal. Well, having considered the questions, what will happen to those in Christ, at the return of Christ, major slice number one in the pie? What will happen to those who are not in Christ, at the coming of Christ, major slice number two?

14:14 There is an order of beings that I've not yet included in answering the question, what are those events clearly revealed in conjunction with the second coming of Christ? We have spoken of all humanity in those two fundamental categories, in Christ, not in Christ, but I say there is another order of beings who do exist alongside those who are in Christ and those who are not in Christ. Another order of beings who are present throughout the whole unfolding drama of redemption, from the appearance of our first parents in Eden right down to the consummation when Christ returns

14:57 in power and in glory. Are you thinking what that order of beings is? It is spirit beings, namely the devil and his angels. And so having considered what will happen to those in Christ at the return of Christ, what will happen to those not in Christ, we take slice number three, not as wide as the others, not as much data, but nonetheless clearly addressed in scripture, what will happen to the devil and his angels at the return of Christ?

15:31 Well I answer in a similar structure that I've used with the others, at the return of Christ, the arch enemy of Christ, that is the devil along with his angels, shall be judged and banished by Christ to the same place of torment assigned to those who are not in Christ. At the return of Christ, the arch enemy of Christ, that is the devil, along with his angels, shall be judged, I do not say shall stand before the judgment throne of Christ, and I omit that deliberately, and I'll tell you why, but they shall be judged

16:14 and banished by Christ to the same place of torment assigned to those who are not in Christ. The word of Jesus is clear, depart from me into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels. Now in this statement by which I've sought to draw together the various lines of biblical revelation concerning the ultimate destiny of the devil and his angels, there are some foundational assumptions concerning the devil and his angels. And since I have never in my forty years, this is a statement of fact, it's probably a confession,

Foundational Fact 1: Angels are Numerous, Non-Material, Intelligent Spirit Beings

16:58 maybe a little bit of both, I've never preached a topical message on the subject of angels. Whenever an angel has been present in any text, when I've been preaching through historical sections or large portions of other biblical material, I've never shied from affirming my deep confidence that there are such beings as angels, and that they do enter into the drama of redemption as it unfolds, but I've never preached the topical message or the topical sermon on angels. There is a department of theology that is called angeology, in which theologians attempt to take the total witness of scripture concerning angels and to lay it out

17:41 in some kind of an orderly, cohesive and comprehensive way. When we've come across angels in our consecutive reading, we've never burped and turned away and hoped that we could just forget about angels. But in the statement that I'm making about what will happen at the return of Christ to the devil and his angels, I'm assuming what the Bible does when it sets forth the destiny of the devil and his angels. What Christ will do specifically and particularly to the angels who are called the devil's angels and to the devil himself is built upon the larger platform of the biblical teaching

18:24 concerning angels in general and fallen angels in particular. So what I propose to do in the time that remains this morning is to open up, this is going to be a heavily didactic message, and this morning I'll be more the teacher than the preacher, and I trust none of you will be irritated with that. It is essential that our thinking be clear about the general teaching of the word of God so that when we zero in specifically upon the treatment of angels that Christ will meet out to the devil and his angels, there will be no unnecessary loopholes in our thinking that would cause us to question either the justice

19:08 or the propriety of God's dealings with these spirit beings. So I'm going to lay out some foundational biblical facts assumed in this answer that I've proposed to you. In answer to the question what will happen to the devil and his angels at the coming of Christ, I've given you a sentence in which I've affirmed certain things will happen. Well, in making that affirmation and in that explanation, I'm assuming certain vital facts revealed in the scriptures concerning these spirit beings.

19:45 And we're going to look at six of them. Number one, the Bible clearly teaches us that there are numerous non-material but intelligent rational spirit beings called in the Bible angels. The Bible clearly teaches that there are numerous non-material, you can't touch them, feel them, spit on them, kick them, they are in their very essence as created beings, non-material but intelligent rational spirit beings. They are not God or a part of God

20:29 or an emanation from God. They are creatures made by God. Colossians 1 in verse 16 includes these spirit beings for we read, in him that is in Christ were all things created in the heavens and upon the earth, things visible and things invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers, all things have been created through him and unto him. Angels are created essences but they are non-material spirit beings.

21:10 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.

21:36 They are not like gravity. If I take the glass of water and I say on the count of three I am going to open my fingers, you know exactly which direction that glass of water is going. There is not a one of you that is going to be looking for it to go up. Why?

21:50 Because of the law of gravity. But the law of gravity is an impersonal physical force. For you who want to take me to task, an electrical force. But the Bible reveals that there are numerous non-material but intelligent rational spirit beings called angels.

22:11 We know that they are spirit beings. Hebrews 1 in verse 14 describes them that way in the context in which the writer to the Hebrews is demonstrating that Christ is greater than the angels. He says of angels, in Hebrews 1 verse 14, Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to do service for the sake of them that shall inherit salvation? Angels are spirit beings.

22:41 And we know they are numerous from many passages of Scripture. Let me give you just two examples. You remember when our Lord was being apprehended and then tried? He said in Matthew 26 in verse 53, these very interesting words, letting people know that His present posture submitting to this kangaroo court and about to be sentenced worthy of death by crucifixion was not a set of circumstances being imposed upon Him, but voluntarily chosen by Him.

23:18 And in Matthew 26 in verse 53, He says these words, Do you think that I cannot beseech my Father and He shall even now send me more than twelve legions of angels? Peter, you're picking up your sword to defend me. If I wanted defense, I tell you I'd have a much greater one than you, Peter, with your one little sword are able to afford me. Do you not think that right now I could ask of my Father and He would send me twelve legions, a legion for every one of the apostles?

23:55 You know how many were in a legion, a Roman legion? Twelve thousand. That's footmen, fully armed, not to speak of horsemen. He said all I need to say, Father, send me twelve legions.

24:08 Bang! A hundred and forty-four thousand angels would appear. They are numerous. They are seen to be numerous in the vision John is given into the very immediate presence of God in the book of the Revelation, Revelation 5 and verse 11.

24:24 Look at the language. And I saw and I heard, I saw and I heard a voice of many angels round about the throne and the living creatures and the elders and the number of them. Get out your calculators. Ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands an innumerable company of angels.

24:50 They are numerous, non-material but intelligent, rational spirit beings called in the Bible angels. If we're to rid ourselves of angels from our Bibles, we have to emasculate our Bibles. There are no fewer than approximately two hundred and fifty references to angels explicitly called angel singular or angels plural. And then a number of references where it's obvious that angels are present.

25:24 They can assume, in fulfilling the will of God, they can assume physical presence and apparently physical substance in pursuit of a God-assigned mission. It was two men that the eleven apostles saw when they were gazing up into heaven. It says two men stood by them in white apparel. When the women go to the garden tomb that first Easter morning, they see what appeared to them to be male figures.

25:56 But they are angels. They are spirit beings in their essence, but spirit beings who can take to themselves in the will and purpose of God or have given to them physical appearance, possibly even physical substance in that we have the record of angels eating and drinking. Now, second assumption in our statement about angels and the devil at the coming of Christ is this. The second foundational fact assumed in this explanation that I'm giving is this.

Foundational Fact 2: Two Categories of Angels – Elect/Holy and Fallen/Sinning

26:35 Among the angels, there now exist two distinct categories of moral and spiritual identity. Among the angels, numerous as they are, there now exist two, not three, four, two distinct categories of moral and spiritual identity. I'm not going to touch at all upon the biblical indications that there is some kind of a divinely established hierarchy, at least among the holy angels. I pass that by, and what I want us to understand, and it's vital if we're to answer the question with biblical intelligence, what will Christ do to the devil

27:20 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.

27:51 Girls, boys. Men, women. Well, as surely among the multitude of the angels, whatever their rank, whatever their specific function may be in the divine or the devilish pecking order, this is the fundamental moral and spiritual identity. Some of them are designated as the elect and holy angels.

28:19 Some of them are defined as to their moral and spiritual identity as elect and holy. 1st Peter chapter 5, 1st Timothy, I'm sorry, chapter 5. Paul writing to Timothy, giving instructions to his spiritual son for the work of God there at Ephesus, writes, 1st Timothy 5 and verse 21, I charge you in the sight of God and Christ Jesus and the elect angels that you observe these things without prejudice, doing nothing by partiality. Whatever the function of angels,

29:03 it's obvious Paul wants Timothy, when he thinks of his ministerial responsibilities, to think of them as being administered before the face of the living God, his son Jesus Christ, and spirit beings called the elect angels. And then they are called in Mark 8, 36 by our Lord himself, the holy angels. He identifies their essential moral and spiritual identity in these words. Mark chapter 8 and verse 38, For whosoever shall be ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous

29:47 and sinful generation, the Son of Man shall be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels. So here is one group of angels. They are designated elect and holy. But there's another innumerable company of angels who are set before us by inference, non-elect, by explicit biblical terminology.

30:15 They are the angels that have sinned. Turn to 2 Peter 2 and verse 4. 2 Peter chapter 2 and verse 4. Peter setting up this paradigm of God's dealing in judgment with the wicked while preserving his own uses this as one of the illustrations of that framework of God's administration of justice and of mercy.

30:49 4, 2 Peter 2, 4. For if God spared not angels when they sinned, but cast them down to hell, Tartarus, a unique word translated hell, and committed them to pits of darkness to be reserved unto judgment. Peter assumes that this is a given. He's giving to these people a reminder of certain facts to prove that those scoffers mocked the idea of the Lord coming.

31:22 God will preserve his own. This is what God did. When the angels sinned and were marked out for judgment, he goes on to say, God is the one who can preserve his own. He judged the sinning angels.

31:36 He judged the generation under Noah. He judged the cities of the plains, Sodom and Gomorrah. But in the midst of all of that, God preserves his own. He assumes as a matter of common knowledge that the people would not say, Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a minute, Peter.

31:51 What are you talking about? Angels that sinned. This was apparently something that was known to them. God spared not angels when they sinned, but cast them down to Tartarus and committed them to pits of darkness to be reserved unto judgment.

32:11 They sinned. God deals with them. God marks them out for the day of judgment. Now, in the beginning, in the book of Jude, we have an expansion on these facts.

32:24 Jude, beginning in verse 5. Now I desire to put you in remembrance, though you know all things once for all. So apparently what he's going to write about, he said, look, I'm not telling you anything new. That the Lord, having saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed not.

32:45 You know that no amount of privilege secures for you immunity from the judgment of God, if you turn against God. I put you in remembrance. The Lord saved a people out of the land of Egypt, but when they did not believe, their carcasses rotted in the wilderness, he destroyed them. Now he's going to take up a second example.

33:04 And angels that kept not their own principality, but left their proper habitation, he has kept in everlasting bonds under darkness unto the judgment of God. The judgment of the great day. Now sorting out the precise significance of the words and the linguistic structure is not an easy task. Good and godly knowledgeable commentators differ.

33:35 But here's the essence of what the Spirit of God is saying. The NIV renders it this way. The angels that did not keep their positions of authority, but abandoned them, they did not keep their positions of authority, but abandoned their own home. Whatever the precise nuance of the words is, this much is clear.

33:59 That there were angels that had been assigned a specific sphere of responsibility and administration of the will and purpose of God. And their sin lay in moving from the position assigned by God in pursuit of something other or more than what God had assigned to them. And they are described as those who left their proper habitation, and God has placed some form of restraint upon them, marking them out for the day of judgment, at which time he will deal with them with finality

34:40 and with absolute justice. Now here are the two categories of angels. Some are called elect and holy. Some are called those that sinned and are placed under some kind of restraint of God.

34:56 They were not content with their assigned spheres as creatures. And they have now become the devil's angels. You see, God has not relinquished all control over them. Both passages state that though they sinned, and though God brought some immediate judgment, he has placed restraints upon them, that though they have now aligned themselves with this archangel, or whatever the devil was before he fell, and are now described as the devil and his angels, they are not operating out here in some no man's land with no control and restraint of the living God.

35:41 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.

36:13 The devil had to humble himself and ask permission of Jesus. So don't think in any way that there are these equal, opposite, and insulated spheres of the elect and the holy angels, and the sinning and the fallen angels who are now the devil's angels. But it is a sober reality that such spirit beings who are full of hatred of God, full of bitterness, to the God whose restraints they sought to overthrow, that those very fallen angels are part of the reality of the context

36:57 in which you and I are called to live out the Christian life. Ephesians 6 says, We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, against the world rulers of this darkness. And that's why it's vital that we wrestle with this question. What will happen to the devil and his angels with the foundation of these more fundamental assumptions clearly in place?

Foundational Fact 3: The Devil is Chief Among Fallen Angels

37:30 First of all, that there are numerous non-material but intelligent, rational spirit beings called angels. Secondly, that these angels exist in two distinct categories of moral and spiritual identity. Thirdly, the third assumption embodied in my assertion is this, the judgment of the devil and his angels is this, that at the head, I'm sorry, here's the third assumption, that at the head of and as chief among the fallen angels there is a being called the devil. At the head of and as chief among the fallen angels

38:14 there is a being called the devil. Turn to Matthew chapter 12. Jesus has cast out a demon. Everyone is amazed.

38:31 People are hanging on Christ because they see his mighty works. And these narrow-hearted, squint-eyed Pharisees who oppose Jesus say, wait, wait, wait, no, no, a demon's been cast out but it's not because he's Messiah and this is the power of God and a messianic credential. This just shows he's in cahoots with the devil. And notice how they express it, verse 24 of Matthew 12.

38:57 But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, this man doth not cast out demons but by Beelzebub, the prince of the demons. And knowing their thoughts, he said unto them, every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation and every house or city divided against itself shall not stand. And if Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself, how shall his kingdom stand? And if I by Beelzebub cast out demons, by whom do your sons cast them out?

39:31 Therefore they shall be your judges. You see what our Lord brings together? When they say, you know, we know why you're casting out demons. You're on the inside track with Beelzebub, the prince of the demons.

39:45 Assuming as I am and most responsible Bible students that the demons of Satan are these fallen angels, these spirit beings with intelligence and with influence upon the minds and even the bodies of others. Jesus does not say, get out of here. There's no such being as the devil and the prince of the devils. You're saying that I'm doing what I'm doing because I'm in cahoots with the prince of the demons.

40:16 There are no such things as demons, let alone a prince over them. That's the way many in our day treat these kinds of passages. Anti-supernaturalists say, no, no, this was just an expression of first century general ignorance of how we're put together and the whole matter of our psychology and how our minds work, etc. Jesus doesn't do that.

40:41 He accepts at face value the fact that there is the reality of the devil, Beelzebub, prince of the demons. Demons and their prince are a reality to Jesus. And he identifies who Beelzebub is in verse 26. If Satan is casting out Satan, he is divided against himself.

41:02 How shall his kingdom stand? Our Lord assumes there is a devil. The Pharisees say, Beelzebub, prince of demons. Jesus identifies him as Satan.

41:12 Jesus affirms that he has a kingdom. Jesus affirms that he exercises authority within that kingdom and some sense of reasonably intelligent military strategy. He doesn't divide himself against himself. He orders the affairs of his underlings to accomplish the purposes of his own kingdom.

Foundational Fact 4: The Devil and His Angels are Active in Redemptive History

41:37 Now we come to the fourth assumption. And it is this, that the devil and his angels are very active in the entire real life historical drama of redemption. When we look at the Bible text that tell us what Jesus will do to the devil and his angels at his return, we are reading statements in scripture that rest down upon this reality. That the devil and his angels are very active in the entire real life historical drama of redemption.

42:17 And for some of you going off to pagan universities, this language is used to help inoculate you. What we read in the Bible of what we call the history of redemption is not some mythical, non-historical storyline that has great religious significance and meaning if you can find it in there. But it has all of its tap roots in the stuff of real live history. There was a tree in the garden.

42:49 That was marked out by God as the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Had Adam come to it with an axe, he could have ripped through its bark and taken out a chip. There was a real tree with a real man in a real garden. And from the very beginning, there is a very real devil.

43:09 He assumes the control of the one that is called the serpent. More cunning than any beast of the field that God had made. What do we know about it? No more than what the scripture says.

43:23 And in that passage in Revelation 12, he is still called the old serpent, the devil. And I'm asserting that foundational to what the Bible teaches about Christ dealing with the devil and his angels at his second coming is this reality. That the devil and his angels are very active in the entire real life historical drama of redemption. It is Satan who seduces and deceives Eve.

43:58 And the Apostle Paul accepts the historical facts of Genesis 3. He says to the Corinthians, I'm afraid lest as the tempter tempted Eve, he might tempt you and draw you away from the simplicity, single-mindedness that is in Christ. And when we trace out our Bibles, we see it is an extended commentary on the truth embodied in the first gospel promise. When God comes to deal with the sinning man, the sinning woman and the tempter, he speaks to the tempter and tells the tempter who is in some way inextricably bound up at this time

44:43 with the serpent. He speaks to him. And this is the language that he uses and it's most significant because it's a major theme of biblical revelation. I will put enmity between you, the serpent and the woman, between your seed, that is your offspring, and her offspring.

45:04 He, that is the seed of the woman, shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel. God announces the first ray of gospel light when speaking to the adversary. And he says the gospel will come to its ultimate and climactic fruition in the context of warfare. I will put enmity between the serpent and the woman, between his seed and her seed, and in the outworking of that conflict, the heel, a vulnerable but not a vital part of the body shall be bruised, but the head of the serpent shall be crushed.

45:48 And when we pick up our Bibles and come into the New Testament, no sooner is Jesus publicly marked out as Messiah, empowered with the Holy Spirit according to the promise of God in Isaiah, in the servant of the Lord passages, the Spirit of the Lord is upon me. But the Spirit drives him, Mark says, impels him where? Into the wilderness. For what purpose?

46:14 In order to be tempted by the devil. The seed of the woman has come forth to bring that great and climactic bruising upon the serpent's head and the serpent's determined to turn him aside from that character of life and those specific things that he must do in pursuit of crushing the serpent's head. And he is tempted for forty days of the devil. And he comes away the victor and tells the devil be gone for now.

46:48 And he is gone. And then the demons in the presence of Jesus cry out, What have we to do with you? We know you, who you are. Jesus, Son of God, have you come to torment us before our time?

47:02 They recognized in Jesus the one who was appointed to crush the head of the serpent. And when the devil overplays his hand, he fills the heart of Judas. The Scripture says, Satan entered the heart of Judas and he betrays the Son of God. And then, as we read in the Revelation passage, there is this ongoing warfare.

47:30 The child of the woman is caught up into heaven and the dragon in his frustration cannot touch him. So where does he turn? He turns to the mother and to her seed. And he persecutes the seed of the one who was born.

47:51 That's the reality. That the devil and his angels are very active in the entire real life historical drama of redemption. So that when admonitions are given to believers, they are given in this way. Be watchful. Why?

48:07 Be sober. Be watchful, Peter says. 1 Peter 5.8 Your adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion, walks about seeking and he may devour whom resist steadfast in the faith.

48:20 We do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but principalities and powers. We do wrestle. They are real. They are not imagined.

Foundational Fact 5: Decisive Defeat at Christ's First Coming

48:31 The fifth foundational assumption is this, that the devil and his angels, and this is what he doesn't want to hear. He doesn't want to hear me preach this. He doesn't want to hear you grasp it and understand it. But it's true.

48:44 The devil and his angels received a decisive defeat in conjunction with the first coming of Jesus. The devil and his angels received a decisive defeat in conjunction with the first coming of Jesus. Remember the outcome in that first official encounter in the wilderness? When Jesus resists the third temptation, he says, Get away from me, Satan!

49:12 And it says he left him for a while. And then in the Matthew 12 passage that we've read, Jesus said, If I by the finger of God cast out demons, then has the kingdom of God come among them. The kingdom is present in the person and power of the king. And every time a demon heard the voice of Jesus, it had to throw a salute reluctantly, click its heels and do what it was told.

49:45 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.

50:21 And you come up to the door and knock. Who is it? I'm Johnny. Yeah, what do you want, Johnny?

50:27 I'm coming in to take your stuff. Oh, you think you are? Yeah, who are you? Tell me about yourself.

50:32 I'm Johnny. Describe yourself. I'm five foot two, 135 pounds. And you're going to come in and take my stuff?

50:39 Yeah. I know you've got some big three-carat earrings in there and you've got a lot of other jewelry, about five pounds of gold. And you hang around your neck when you go to the discos. I've heard about all of you.

50:47 I'm coming in and get your stuff. There's one little problem. It's six foot six, three hundred and twenty-five pounds worth of problem. Little Johnny, five foot two, 135, go in and take his stuff?

51:01 Uh-uh. Not until, first of all, he ties up the strongman. Now, if he opens the door and he's got a rifle with a tranquilizer in it, and he hits him right here, and it soon goes through the body and he clumps and he's out. All right, now you can tie him up.

51:15 All right? You tie him up good. Now he can get his earrings, get his gold chains. But you can't take the strongman's goods until you first bind the strongman.

51:25 Jesus is telling these people, when you see me taking goods from the devil, know that I bound him. I say to the devil, you've got that man. Let him go. And the demon leaves and he's found clothed in his right mind.

51:44 And he wants to follow Jesus. And Jesus says, no, go on back home. Tell people what mighty things I've done for you. Satan is bound in the first coming of Jesus.

51:56 He is bound as we see the Lord Jesus casting out demons. And as Jesus faces the ordeal of the cross, which the devil thinks will somehow be his end, the end of Jesus. Jesus knows in facing the cross it will be a decisive blow against the enemy. Turn in your Bibles with me.

52:21 I want you to see this with your own eyes. John 12. The mind and soul of Jesus are filled with the impending trauma of Gethsemane and Golgotha. He knows his hour has come.

52:39 Verse 23 of John chapter 12. Jesus answered them saying, The hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified. Truly, truly, I say to you, except a grain of wheat fall into the earth and die, it abides by itself alone. But if it die, it bears much fruit.

52:57 I'm about to exemplify that great principle. The seed bears no fruit till it dies. My hour has come. I'm going to die.

53:08 What is going to happen to me will look as powerless and as unimpressive as bearing a seed in the ground. And then he says, The principle that's true of me as the Savior will be true of all those whom I bring into my salvation. He that loves his life shall lose it. He that hates his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal.

53:31 If any man serve me, let him follow me. And where I am, there shall my servant be. If any man serve me, him will my Father honor. I'd love to stop and preach on that principle, but that's not my concern.

53:43 Look at the next verse. Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour?

53:50 But for this cause I came to this hour. Father, glorify your name. There came therefore a voice out of the heavens, saying, I've both glorified it and will glorify it again. The multitude thinks that it's thundered.

54:04 Some say, no, an angel has spoken. And Jesus now says, verse 31, Now is the judgment of this world. Now, now. Not at some coming to set up some earthly kingdom here on earth as a temporary arrangement before the final day, no.

54:25 Now is the judgment of this world. Now shall the prince of this world be cast out. Now shall the prince of this world be cast out. I've gone into the field and into the joust with him.

54:45 I've left him a slinking, shriveling, defeated foe. And now as I face the cross, he shall be cast out. The language is vigorous, unmistakably triumphalistic. Now is the judgment of this world.

55:05 Now shall the prince of this world be cast out. And what will be the result of that casting out? Notice the particular emphasis of verse 32. And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, verse 33 says, that's not a reference to preachers holding up Christ with their words.

55:23 It's a reference to a Roman gibbet holding up the body of Jesus there at Golgotha. And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, if I am offered up as a sacrifice for sin, and I will answer all of the just claims of the law and all of the mouthiness of the accuser who would point at my sheep for whom I die, I will in this act of being lifted up cast him down. And what will be the result? I will draw all men to myself in virtue of what I accomplish upon the cross, among other things, the casting out of the devil.

56:05 I will infallibly draw to myself all kinds and classes of men from the entire world. The devil will no longer be the one who deceives the nations and who delights that a little glimmer of light occasionally broke through when the nation of Israel, God's specially chosen people, lived up to her calling and her privileges. But now, Christ says, if I be lifted up in death upon the cross, I will draw all men unto me. The devil will have to relinquish those who are my people.

56:44 I will exhaust all accusations and claims against them. And as my gospel goes out to the ends of the earth, my spirit will accompany that gospel and it will draw my people unto me. And then in chapter 16, on the eve again of his crucifixion, he says regarding the coming of the Holy Spirit, he'll convict the world in respect of sin, judgment of sin because they believe not on me, of righteousness because I go to the Father. You behold me no more of judgment because the prince of this world hath been judged.

57:25 Not maybe down the road after millennia. No, he has been judged. Our Lord speaks proleptically. He speaks from the vantage point of the cross behind him and the resurrection behind him.

57:41 The prince of this world has been judged. And I ask you to look with me quickly at several other texts which explicitly state that this is what he did in his death. Colossians chapter 2, speaking of the work of Christ, blotting out the bond written in ordinance as it was against us. Colossians 2.14,

58:06 taking it out of the way, nailing it to the cross. Now notice, having despoiled the principalities and the powers. When that terminology is used of evil, it's speaking of these evil forces having despoiled the principalities and the powers. He made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it.

58:29 And the it is the death of his cross. And in Hebrews chapter 2 and verse 14, another clear reference to the triumph of Christ over the devil in his first coming. Since then the children, two fourteen of Hebrews, are sharers of flesh and blood. He also himself in like manner partook of the same, that through death he might bring to naught him that had the power of death, that is the devil, and might deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetimes subject to bondage.

59:03 First John 3.9, for this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil. Now dear people, I suggest to you that that's the meaning of Revelation chapter 20, verses 1 to 4, where John has a vision of an angel coming and chaining the evil one to what end. It doesn't say that he should have no influence whatsoever any more than the 2 Peter 2.4 passage

59:34 and the Jude 6 passage that speak of these angels that sin being kept under some kind of legal restraint until the day of judgment. The Bible does not allow us to interpret that to mean the devil and the evil spirits have no influence. We interpret scripture by scripture, and in Revelation 20 the vision given is of the mighty conquest of the devil in the first coming of our Lord Jesus. And a great chain is in this angel's hand.

60:06 He lays hold on the dragon, the old serpent, and bound him for a thousand years for an indefinite longer period, cast him into the abyss and shut it and sealed it over. Why? That he should deceive the nations no more until this lengthy indefinite period of time should be finished. After this he must be loose for a little time.

60:30 Here is the binding of the devil so that no longer are the nations left in the darkness of ignorance and in bondage to the wicked one. He is cast out in the way that Christ says. He will be cast out if I be lifted up. I will draw all men unto myself.

60:51 And in fitting into the scheme of other passages it is toward the end of the gospel age as all of the throes of redemptive travail come to a conclusion. The Bible makes plain that the devil will be let loose in such a way that the man of sin will appear. There will be the general apostasy. He is let loose to do his work to a new degree, unprecedented in all of the previous history of gospel triumphs.

61:25 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. If we are going to speak and think accurately of what Jesus will do with the devil and his angels at his return, it must be within this framework of biblical revelation that the devil and his angels received a decisive defeat in conjunction with the first coming of Jesus. And one of the commentators that I consulted this week had a marvelous and helpful illustration.

62:07 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.

62:25 And I said I got to split it into two words. You try to say meteorological, it's a meteorological event. And in that event, lightning comes downward toward the earth, an electrical current. Concurrent with that lightning is a minor sonic boom.

62:46 Boom! The thunder. Now, if the clouds are a half a mile away, we don't get the lightning and the thunder together. We see the lightning because light travels faster than sound.

62:58 But when we see that bolt of lightning coming down, we brace ourselves because we know the thunder's not far behind. The thunder and the lightning in reality are one event. Though to us, they come to us in two stages. The lightning and then the sound.

63:17 This commentator said, so it is with the defeat of the enemy. There at Golgotha, there was a cosmic, spiritual meteorological event. When the head of the serpent was bruised. When the Son of God triumphed over the powers of darkness in his death.

63:37 When he gave grounds for Michael the archangel to cast the dragon, Satan, and his angels out of the place of accusing God before the throne. Because the mighty conqueror said, tetelestai! It is finished! It stands!

63:56 Accomplished! And there the lightning flashed and the thunder clapped. And it's only a matter of time before having seen the lightning emanating from the cross. We'll hear the thunder of the final destruction of the enemy.

64:14 That's what longing for Christ's return is. It's waiting for the sound of the thunder. But it's going to come. Our eyes have seen the lightning, the thunders not far behind.

Foundational Fact 6: The Devil Knows His Total Defeat is Coming

64:25 Then I close with this sixth and final assumption in my proposition about the devil and his angels. And it's this. The devil and his angels know. They know that they will experience their total and unqualified defeat at the return of Christ to judgment.

64:45 The devil and his angels know that they shall receive their total and unqualified defeat at the return of Christ to judgment. Remember what the demon said to Jesus in Matthew 8, 29? Look at the language. Very explicit.

65:05 Matthew 8 in verse 29. When he was come the other side of the country, the Gadarenes there met him too, possessed with demons. And behold, they cried out, saying, What have we to do with you, Son of God? Are you come hither to torment us before the time?

65:24 They know there is a set time and that they will be tormented. They who are now the tormentors of those whom they inhabit will be the tormented. And they know it's going to come in conjunction with the time. They know that they are marked for ultimate judgment.

65:45 And so does the devil. Remember the passage that we read this morning? He comes down having great fury and anger. Why?

65:55 Listen to the language at the end of chapter 12. Not the end. Verse 12. Rejoice, O heavens, in you that dwell in them.

66:03 Woe for the earth and the sea, because the devil is gone down unto you having great wrath, knowing that he hath but a short time. From the conquest of Calvary to the bursting forth in the clouds of glory, it is a short time. And the devil knows it. And he's furious to come as the enemy of Christ and of his people and of truth and of uprightness, of decency and order.

66:37 He wants to turn the present state of things into the hell into which he knows he will go. And the more we move as a society, away from decency and order and rational discourse, and the more we move into the realm of the cacophonous and the disorderly and the ugly, the more we are giving to ourselves a preview of hell. It'll be the consummate gathering together of all dissonance and ugliness and disarray. This at times makes me wonder if we're not living in that time when his fury is greatly intensified

67:21 because he senses the thunder is near at hand. The devil and his angels know that they will experience their total and unqualified defeat at the coming of Jesus. So we come around full circle to where I started. When Christ returns, what will happen to the devil and his angels?

Conclusion: What Are Your Alignments?

67:45 I've asserted that the Bible teaches that at the return of Christ, the arch enemy of Christ, that is the devil along with his angels, will be judged and banished by Christ into the same place of torment assigned to those who are not in him. And I said that this statement has in its very skirts these six biblically grounded assumptions that there are numerous non-material but intelligent rational spirit beings called angels, that these now exist in two distinct categories of moral and spiritual identity. That chief among the fallen angels there's a being called the devil.

68:28 The devil and his angels are active in the entire real life historical drama of redemption. The fact that the devil and his angels received a decisive defeat in conjunction with the first coming of Christ and the fact that the devil and his angels know that they will be fully, completely, totally defeated at the return of Christ to judgment. God willing tonight as part of our communion meditation we'll look at two or three passages that explicitly, clearly declare that the devil and his angels will indeed be banished to that place of unspeakable torment. As I said this morning

69:12 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.

69:36 Enmity injected. I will put enmity between you and the woman. Enmity perpetuated between your seed and her seed. Enmity consummated.

69:48 You'll bruise his heel but he'll crush your head. And after opening up that text in the light of scripture I can still hear the professor in his very quiet but intense way with his Highland Scottish accent saying and I ask you what are your alignments? And his T.S. was

70:15 What are your alignments? That's the question I ask you. What are your alignments? Your alignments determine your destiny.

70:30 He that is not with me in the context of this cosmic warfare he that is not with me is against me. He that gathers not scatters. What are your alignments? Here, now, in this place, this morning.

70:47 We're born aligned with the seed of the serpent. By nature we are of our father the devil and the lust of our father. We will do. Our alignment with Christ is the fruit of grace that discovers our wretchedness points us to the infinite worth of the sacrifice of Jesus displays to us the glory of God in the face of Christ so that with all of our being we throw ourselves upon Jesus to be saved by him to be governed by him

71:30 to be aligned with him in life in death and in the day of judgment. What are your alignments? That's the question. What are your alignments?

71:45 Here, this morning. May God grant that you give yourself no rest until you can say I'm aligned with Christ. To be aligned with the devil is to share in the destiny of the devil. Depart from me into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels a place horrible enough to do justice to the devil's chicanery and wickedness and that will be your companionship.

72:13 If you're aligned with him you'll be cast off with him. Oh, may God grant you'll be aligned with Christ that the spirit of God will show you the perfect suitableness of Christ to all the needs of your soul. The only reason you're still aligned with the devil is you think you can get a better deal with the devil than you can with Christ. That's the only reason you remain unconverted.

72:39 You really think you're going to get a better deal aligned with the devil. He's a liar. He's just licking his chops till he can fiendishly laugh over you when you enter the pit with him. But Jesus holds forth in the gospel all that the human soul can ever legitimately desire.

73:04 It's in him. Go to him. Embrace him. And go on embracing him till you wake up in his presence at your death or you meet him when he comes with the shout the voice of the archangel and the trump of God.

73:24 Let's pray. Our Father, we can only cry to you that by the Holy Spirit you would deliver us from being bound by our physical senses believing only what we can see and touch and all the while we are slaves of these unseen spiritual beings and forces. We plead with you. Oh God, we plead.

73:52 Come in the liberating power of the gospel. Set some captives free. Lord Jesus, have not you been anointed to proclaim liberty to the captives the opening of the prison to them that are bound. Oh Lord Jesus, do your work in this place today.

74:12 And for those of us who have been liberated, what can we say but thank you Lord for your mercy. Thank you for exposing to our hearts the devil's lies. Thank you for showing us the sweet reasonableness of your claims over us in the gospel. Seal then this word to our prophet we pray.

74:35 In Jesus name. Amen.