What He Will Do with the Devil, Part 2

Introduction and Scripture Reading: The Devil's Doom Revealed

0:01 The following sermon was delivered on Sunday evening, August 19, 2001, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. Now again, I shall be reading in your hearing one of the very crucial passages in Scripture that answer the question, what events will cluster around the coming again of our Lord Jesus. And I shall read in your hearing Revelation chapter 20, beginning in verse 1. And I saw an angel coming down out of heaven, having the key of the abyss and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, the old serpent, which is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years, and cast him into the abyss, and shut it, and sealed it over him, that he should deceive the nations no more until...

1:08 the thousand years should be finished. After this, he must be loosed for a little time. And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them. And I saw the souls of them that had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and for the word of God, and such as did not worship the beast, neither his image, and did not receive the mark upon their forehead and upon their hand, and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.

1:43 The rest of the dead lived not until the thousand years should be finished. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he that has part in the first resurrection. Over these the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.

2:08 And when the thousand years are finished, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, and shall come forth to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to the war, the number of whom is as the sand of the sea. And they went up over the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city, and fire came down out of heaven and devoured them. And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where are also the beast and the false prophet, and they shall be tormented day and night forever and ever.

2:59 Let us again ask God's help as we come to the study of his word tonight. Our Father, as once again we would bring our minds natively dark and confused to the light of your word, we pray that the Holy Spirit will be present in his gracious and powerful operations, both in the mind and heart and mouth of the preacher, and in the ears and the hearts of every listener. Lord, do come and meet with us as we contemplate again those events which you have revealed in the scriptures shall indeed be fulfilled. Amen.

3:42 Come to pass when the voice of the archangel is heard and the trump sounds, and our Lord Jesus returns in power and glory. O Lord, come and visit us in the ministry of the word we pray. In Jesus' name. Amen.

Review of the Series and Foundational Assertions about Angels

4:01 Now our reflections in the scripture tonight constitute the 15th sermon in a series that I've been preaching in recent weeks on the subject of the return, of Christ in New Testament belief and experience. And looking out and seeing visitors among us, it's impossible for me to squeeze into a five to seven minute review the substance of some 15 hours of exposition of a number of passages, so I must just simply try to ease you in to the point at which we have come in our study by catching the very tippity-tops of the peaks of what we have considered, and that is that we are in the midst of a time of great uncertainty. I began the series by expounding six clear texts in the New Testament which affirm that eager anticipation of and love for the return of Christ was an essential element of New Testament Christian experience. And having established that, I sought to answer from the scriptures the question, why do true believers in a healthy spiritual state, eagerly await and love the return of the Lord Jesus? And having given an answer along four lines of biblical evidence, I then began to take up what could be called crucial matters

5:30 touching the return of the Lord Jesus. Things concerning which the minds and hearts of the people of God ought to be well established and in which they ought to have a settled confidence and assurance. We considered the event itself, that it is certain. As to its place in redemptive history, it is central and climactic.

5:55 No great redemptive act of God is to follow those events that surround the return of the Lord Jesus. As to its time, for us it is always imminent, indefinite, and unknowable, regardless of what so-called special insights any man may think he has, it is arrogance and pride to presume to date set with respect to the return of our Lord Jesus. And then we considered together from the Scriptures that with respect to the events that will surround His coming, they are clearly revealed, and yet they are, they are manifold. And we have been looking at those events which Scripture says will come to pass in conjunction with the return of our Lord Jesus. Not considering them as some kind of an inspired, numerically lined up checklist with everything in its proper sequence, God does not give us that in the Scriptures, but thinking of the return of the Lord Jesus as the whole pie, the whole circle, we have been looking at large segments, large pieces of the pie. And the organizing principle has been these three questions.

7:23 What is certain to happen to those who are in Christ at the return of Christ? And we saw from the Scriptures there are four things certain to happen to those who are in Christ. Then last Lord's Day, we took up the question, what will happen to those who are not in Christ at the return of Christ, and again the scriptures are clear with respect to God's dealings with those who are not in Christ when the Lord Jesus returns in power and in glory. Then this morning we began to take up the third slice in that pie of the cluster of events connected with the coming of the Lord Jesus, and the question we began to answer was this, what will happen to the devil and his angels at the return of Christ? And I gave you a statement that at the return of Christ, according to the scriptures, that 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 that is assigned to those who are not in Christ. And I stated to you, since I have not preached, on angels in my almost 40 years here, I have mentioned angels when they have come up in the

8:48 text and in our consecutive reading, that my response to the question that at Christ's return certain things would happen to the devil and his angels assumes the broader base of biblical teaching concerning these spirit creatures called angels. And so we hammered out from the scriptures these six assertions with respect to the devil and his angels. We saw the fact that there are numerous non-material but intelligent, rational spirit beings called angels. Rip angels out of the Bible and you have a tattered, emasculated Bible in your hands.

9:31 Secondly, we considered the fact that among the angels there now exist two distinct categories of moral and spiritual identity. There are the elect and holy, and there are the unrighteous. There are the holy angels. There are the non-elect, fallen, sinning angels. Thirdly, we saw that at the head of and as chief among the fallen angels, there is a being called the devil or Satan. Fourthly, we saw the fact that the devil and his angels are very active in the entire real-life historical drama of redemption. We find that that prince who is over the devil is the one who is the one who is the one who is the one who is the one who is the his minions, Satan himself, introduced in the third chapter of Genesis. And he does not go off the scene until the twentieth chapter of the book of the Revelation. Then in the fifth place, we saw the fact that the devil and his angels

10:29 received a decisive defeat in conjunction with the first coming of Christ. And in a very real sense, whatever his treatment may be, whatever the treatment of the devil may be, whatever the treatment of the devil may be, the devil's angels may be at the second coming. In a very real sense, it is but the mopping up operation of that death blow dealt to the enemy of God and of his people in conjunction with our Lord's first coming. And then sixth and finally, we saw that the devil and his angels know that they will experience their total and unqualified defeat at Christ's return to judgment.

11:11 The demons speak to Christ in the days of his flesh, saying, Have you come to torment us before the time? And in Revelation, we read that the devil comes down having great fury, for he knows that he has but a little time. Now, some of you may have been sitting there saying, But pastor, you didn't address the question. When were the angels created? That's right, I didn't. Because to my knowledge, the Bible doesn't answer that. Nor did I address the question, What were the circumstances of their fall? Some think that they see in Isaiah 14 and in an obscure passage in Ezekiel, the answer to that question. That does not persuade me. No one has persuaded me that those passages are answering that question.

12:01 And the posture of faith before the silences of God is to keep one's hand upon one's mouth and to rein in the curiosity, which is the nature of this person and in the capacity of this person. The scripture says, The things that are revealed are for us and for our children. The secret things belong unto the Lord. Now then, having given that flyover of all that material, we come now to the heart of the question, What will be done to the devil and his angels at the return of Christ?

The Present Imprisonment and Future Judgment of Fallen Angels

12:36 And I have asserted that at the return of Christ, the archenemy of Christ will be denied. And I have asserted that at the return of Christ, the archenemy of Christ will be denied. that is, the devil and his angels, will be judged and banished by Christ into the same place of torment assigned to those who are not in Christ. And we now want to look at the plain declarations of Scripture. Let's turn again, first of all, to those two passages we consulted briefly this morning in asserting that there is a second category of angels, sinning, fallen angels.

13:13 In 2 Peter 2 and verse 4, Peter writes, If God spared not angels, angels when they sinned, but cast them down to hell, and a word used here, Tartarus, the only place in the New Testament, I believe, that it's used to speak of a place of imprisonment for judged, doomed spirits. God spared not angels when they sinned, but cast them down to hell and committed them to pits of darkness to be reserved, to be reserved unto judgment. So whatever God does with these sinning angels, they are imprisoned, they are restrained in some kind of a divinely constructed spiritual retaining pen, all moving toward what Peter calls judgment. They are preserved unto judgment. So whatever their present case, casting down into hell involves, whatever their present being committed to pits of darkness, it is not God's final judgment upon them.

14:41 It is not God's final dealings with them in judgment. And Jude becomes a bit more specific, when he writes in verse 6 of his epistle, Jude 6, And angels that kept not their own principality, but left their proper handling of all things, proper habitation, he has kept in everlasting bonds under darkness unto the judgment of the great day. So again, we have the concept of some manner of imprisonment leading up to and consummating in the judgment of the great day. Now then, when we scour our Bibles and look at all of the accounts of that judgment of the great day, accounts such as we have considered several times in other connections as we have in Matthew chapter 25, we do not find any explicit reference to the devil and his angels appearing before Christ as he sits in judgment. In the

15:56 son of man shall come in his glory and all the angels with him. Then shall he sit on the throne of his glory. Before him shall be gathered all the nations, and he shall separate them one from another as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. But there is no indication that he gathers all of the fallen spirits and separates them into the elect and the non-elect angels.

16:26 The holy and the sinning angels. And to my knowledge, there is no watershed passage that gives us any description of the day of judgment that gives us a description of Christ the judge dealing with these fallen spirits, these sinning angels, the arch enemy of Christ, the devil and his cohorts, his minions, the demon powers. However, if you've been listening, and if you remember at all what was preached previously, you can't get rid of that text in 1 Corinthians chapter 6, when Paul is chiding the Corinthians for going to law before unconverted pagan judges and says, wait a minute, because of the blessings you've received as believers under the new covenant, blessings received by the indwelling of the spirit. And the wisdom of God imparted in Christ, is there not a wise man among you who can judge? He said, don't you know you're going to judge the world?

17:36 1 Corinthians 6, 3, don't you know that you're going to judge angels? And we saw that one of the things that will occur for the people of God at the coming of Christ is that they will in some manner join with Christ in the judgment of Christ upon the ungodly. And even upon angels. And I don't know how to cut that exegetical Gordian knot.

18:06 In some way we will be joined. In what way? The answer to that question, to my present light and understanding, is not given to us specifically in the scriptures. But obviously we will judge the world and judge angels only in a secondary sense, in that our union with Christ, that brings us to sit with his throne as he promised to him that overcomes, shall sit with me in my throne as I overcame and sat down in my father's throne, will involve in some way Christ judging these falling angels.

18:44 Therefore, I've stated my proposition this way, carefully and deliberately, at the return of Christ, the devil and his angels will be judged by Christ. I have not said they will be brought before the devil. The judgment throne of Christ. But we in union with Christ will be involved in the judgment upon the devil and his angels.

Eternal Fire Prepared for the Devil and His Angels

19:08 But we are told in this passage in Matthew 25, that when the judge sentences the goats, those who are not in saving union with him, he sentences them in the language of verse 41. Then shall he say also unto them, on the left hand, depart from me you cursed ones into the eternal fire, which is prepared for the devil and his angels. There is an eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. In verse 34, when the king welcomes the sheep, welcomes his own, he does so with this language. Then shall the king say to them in his right hand, come you blessed of my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world, the kingdom of glory and all of its magnificence. The king shall say to his sheep, to those who are savingly united to him, come enter into the blessedness of this kingdom,

20:27 a kingdom prepared from the foundation of the world. This kingdom is not an afterthought in the mind of God. It was prepared for you, upon whom the triune God set his love in eternity, in his free sovereign act of electing grace. When you were marked out and given to me, and I assumed all of the responsibilities for your salvation, you who are blessed of the father, enter the kingdom that was in the mind and purpose and plan of God from before the foundation of the world.

21:05 But then using the same verb, in the same precise tense, a perfect passive participle, Jesus will say to the goats, to those on the left hand, depart from me you cursed into the eternal fire, not which has been prepared for you, from the foundation of the world, but prepared for the devil and his angels. For you theologians, this is why some of us reject any notion of the equal ultimacy of the decrees of election and reprobation. That's just a mouthful of theology to many of you, and I throw that out for some for whom the words say something. Jesus will say as the judge to those on his left hand, depart into the place, not prepared for you, but prepared for the devil and his angels. The place marked out and prepared for that one who left his proper bounds, and those who left those boundaries with him, and rebelled against the authority of God, and the place assigned to them as creatures in God's creation. Enter into that place prepared for the devil, and his angels.

22:28 And surely, if God has prepared a place for the devil and his angels, and the devil and his angels have done that which is worthy of judgment in such a place, God will effectively land them in the place prepared for them. And therefore, if we had no other text but this, we could by logical deduction from the biblical data say, they will eventually go to the place, prepared for them. Especially when we remember, they are conscious that that is their doom. Have you come to torment us before the time?

The Final Banishing of the Devil and His Minions

23:06 The devil hath great fury, knowing that he hath but a short time. However, since we have seen that Christ, in fellowship with his people, will judge the world, and in some way judge angels, since these evil beings are to be dealt with when? 2 Peter 2.4, Jude 6, in conjunction with the judgment of the great day, it is at the return of Christ that they will be banished into that place of horror and terror and anguish, prepared for them, and into which all who are not in Christ shall be cast. And the clearest biblical statement, at least with regard to the devil, though it does not mention his angels, is Revelation chapter 19, Revelation chapter 19. Here the return of Christ is set before us under the vision of a conquering warrior. Revelation 19.11,

24:19 I saw the heaven opened, and behold a white horse, and he that sat thereon faithful and true, and in righteousness does he judge and make war. And in this very graphic picture of Christ as a conquering war hero, coming for this great battle, there is a preparation. Verse 17, I saw an angel standing in the sun, and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the birds that fly in midheaven, come and gather together to the great supper of God, that you may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses, and of them that sit thereon, and the flesh of all men, both free and bond, and small and great. And then he says, I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies gathered together, the beast and the false prophet representative of all of the anti-Christian motif and thinking and action of the world, and the false prophet representing those that would twist the truth of God, the beast and the false prophet, not individual people, but those associated with those influences we are told that the beast was taken and with him the false prophet that wrought signs in his sight, wherewith he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast and worshipped his image. They too were cast alive into the lake of fire

25:46 that burned with brimstone. The lake of fire prepared for the devil and his angels does not yet have the devil and his angels. These anti-Christian powers are pictured as being cast into the lake of fire. Then in chapter 20, we are taken back to the mighty conquest of the enemy in conjunction with the first coming of Christ as we saw this morning.

26:14 Now is the prince of this world cast out. Now is the judgment of this world. The prince of this world comes and has nothing in me. Colossians 2.15, Hebrews 2.14, 1 John 3.9 speak of that decisive blow given to the arch enemy in conjunction with the first coming of Christ. And during this period when martyred saints are in his presence reigning in union with Christ, we then read that at the end of this gospel age, the devil will be given a measure of release from the restraints placed upon him. And in this one, the final battle described here in Revelation 19, there will be the ultimate final conquest of the devil and all who follow with him.

27:09 Verse 7, And when the thousand years are finished, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, shall come forth to deceive the nations that are in the four corners of the earth. And what will happen to him? We read that fire comes down out of heaven and devours them. And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where are also the beast and the false prophet, and they shall be tormented day and night forever and ever.

27:44 And I saw a great white throne, and I saw the dead stand before God, the great and the small, and the books are opened. You see how these events cluster around the coming of the Lord Jesus. Is God telling us in this sequence that the devil will be dealt with before Christ sits in judgment upon the nations? I'm not prepared to say that.

28:11 I'm not prepared to say that there is some strict sequence. The event itself will sort it all out, and you and I will know with clarity. But this much is clear. In conjunction with the fire coming down, down out of heaven, 2 Thessalonians 1, Christ coming in flaming fire, 2 Peter chapter 3, the whole emphasis of Scripture, the fieriness of the return of Christ, it is in conjunction with that return that the devil shall be cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and they shall be tormented day and night forever and forever. It is at that point in the history of redemption that the full and final conquest of the enemy and all of his lackeys will be realized. Professor Leahy, in his helpful little book, Satan Cast Out, writes as follows, The doom of Satan is a concomitant of the second coming of Christ. Then we shall see Satan's defeat at the cross and his actual downfall in judgment as one.

29:34 We shall see the lightning flash and hear the thunder simultaneously. We shall see the cross in relation to time from God's standpoint, not at a point along the line with the past behind us and the future before us, but at the center of a circle where the whole circumference may be viewed, and where past and future are alike. At the end of time, as we now know it, we shall see from an altogether new perspective, and while in eternity we shall remain finite creatures, we shall nevertheless view all history from the divine standpoint, as we sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvelous are your works, Lord God Almighty. Just and true are your ways, O King of Saints. In view of Satan's crushing defeat at Calvary and his certain doom at the second coming, it is unspeakably sad to see sinful men give to him their allegiance and to accept his lie. As one servant of God has exclaimed, how dreadful it is that multitudes are still slaves to a vanquished, convicted, and sentenced being.

Pastoral Application: The Efficacy of the Gospel and Believer's Security

30:58 What a sad thing to know that sitting here tonight are men and women, boys and girls, yielding homage to one who has been vanquished in Christ's cross, convicted and marked out with all of the fallen angels for judgment. What a tragic thing to serve so base and unworthy a master. At the coming of Christ, he and all of his angels will be banished to the place prepared for them as Christ himself banishes them to the hallelujahs of all of the people of God of all the ages. Now, what does all of this say to us sitting here tonight, anticipating the baptism of a young woman? Surely, pastor, in your preparation, your plumb forgot about the baptism. until Saturday night.

31:59 No, I didn't. And as I wrestled with the relevance of all of this to the providential occasion of Jessica's baptism tonight, I was thrilled as I began to see the connections and the tremendous relevance. You see, we have no gospel to preach with any degree of expectation that it will ever be effectual if we didn't believe that the devil and his angels received a mortal blow at Calvary. Because when we preach the gospel with God's ends in view, this is the enterprise we're engaged in.

32:35 Turn to Acts chapter 26, if you will, please. Here Paul is recounting his conversion and his commission as apostle to the Gentiles. And the Lord speaks to Paul, Acts 26 and verse 16, and says, Arise, stand upon your feet, for to this end I have appeared to you to appoint you a minister and a witness, both of the things wherein you have seen me and of the things wherein I will appear to you, delivering you from the people and from the Gentiles unto whom I send you. Now here's his task, to open their eyes, that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive remission of sins and an inheritance among them that are sanctified, by faith in me. You see what the Lord is saying to Paul? If there is any sinner among all the spheres in which you will labor for me in days to come, whoever receives forgiveness of sin, if there is any sinner who comes to possess the inheritance of grace, Paul, this is what is going to have to happen. There's going to have to be a miracle of restored sight.

33:54 Open their eyes. Their eyes are natively blind. Furthermore, there will have to be a radical deliverance from the whole realm of darkness into the realm of light. To open their eyes, that they may turn from darkness to light.

34:11 Thirdly, there must be a liberation from the power of the devil himself unto God. If that doesn't happen, there's no remission, there's no inheritance, because there's no true faith. No one will exercise saving faith while still blind to his own sin, blind to the perfect suitability of the gospel to him or her as a sinner, blind to the glory that emanates from the face of Christ as the friend and savior of sinners. Unless the eyes are open to those realities, there'll never be any faith, saving faith that is the desperate casting of the soul upon Christ himself and Christ alone. For life and pardon and salvation. There must be that mighty work of God in the opening of the eyes. Furthermore, there must be a radical turning from that which we natively love.

35:10 This is the condemnation, that light has come into the darkness, and men love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil. There's got to be something that God does that changes the prevailing disposition of the soul from a lover of darkness to a lover of light. And furthermore, there's someone who has a vested interest in keeping all of his subjects, the devil himself. 2 Timothy 2.26 speaks of those taken captive by him unto his will. Unconverted men and women are children of the devil. 1 John chapter 3 says, In this the children of God are manifested and the children of the devil. All of us are sons of Belial, or sons of God.

35:59 And the devil doesn't delight in giving up his subjects, of having sons of darkness and evil and pride and perversity transformed into sons and daughters of truth and of light and of uprightness and of righteousness. And you see, Paul's mission would be absolutely unavailing. And so would every gospel preacher's mission be unavailing. If the devil had not received that blow upon Calvary, remember Jesus said, Now the prince of this world is cast out, and if I be lifted up, speaking to his death upon the cross, I will, as a result of my being lifted up and the banishment and the blow struck to the enemy, I will draw all men to myself, all kinds of men in all circumstances, I will draw them. My cross secures their drawing. Well, if to be drawn, eyes must be opened, lives turned, lives delivered, that such a mighty work will be done. It's because the devil received a death blow at Golgotha.

37:20 Jessica has borne witness that God has made Christ precious to her, that she's prepared to live her life with this ambition of pleasing Christ. Now let me ask you, could her parents have opened her eyes to see that in spite of all of the good and godly hedges placed around her, to keep her from going where her heart would natively have taken her, in spite of all the nurture and the instruction of the home, the school, and the pulpit and the classroom, do you think her eyes would ever have been opened to take the posture of a guilty, hell-deserving daughter of Adam, who in spite of her externally moral, upright, religious, commendable lifestyle, that she was worthy of hell? Do you think her parents could make her see that? Do you think any one of us could make her see it? Do you think any one of us could so reveal an unseen Christ that a young woman is prepared to say, I take Christ's evaluation of what I am as a woman, and if God gives me the desire of my heart, I see marriage and motherhood as my most noble calling in the will of God?

38:43 Do you think God, do you think someone naturally, parents, friends, and others, can bring any young woman, especially in our society, to see that Christ's way and Christ's will is good, acceptable, and perfect? No, you see, that work has to be done in children born into Christian families, nurtured from mama's breast in Christian truth, validated by godly, not perfect, but godly, consistent example, nurtured under sound, biblical preaching. There is no inherent power in all of that influence to half open one blind spiritual eye. No power to release them from the grip of the devil. Christ must do it by the Spirit, and he shall do it, because being lifted up, he cast out the enemy and has secured not the possibility of saving some if they will consent to his wish, but the certainty of saving all for whom he poured out his life's blood. And so as our sister is baptized tonight, we're not making a heroine of her, we're rejoicing with her, that by God's grace she's discovered a great savior,

Pastoral Application: Triumph Over Demonic Powers and Service for Christ

40:11 who's accomplished a great salvation. And in an application that I want to bring to you, the Lord's people, when we stand on solid biblical ground with respect to this answer to the question, what will be done to the devil and his angels at the return of Christ, and we understand that Christ's return and his ultimate, final dealings with the devil and his angel are but the capstone of the death blow dealt at Calvary and in the open tomb, then in union with Christ we will be able to have this kind of borderline triumphalistic declaration that marks the apostle Paul in Romans 8. I want you to look at it with me for a moment. The end of this wonderful chapter, having opened up God's commitment to give us all things necessary to accomplish every facet of the divinely ordained and divinely purposed salvation, the apostle cries out, what then shall we say to these things? Verse 31, if God is for us, who is against us?

41:25 He that spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? Then he asks some more rhetorical questions. Then verse 35, who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or anguish, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?

41:48 Even as it is written, for your sake we are killed all the day long, we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. No! In all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us for. He says, we conquer, and we are more than conquerors.

42:06 Let hell and high water come in common parlance. Who shall separate us? Tribulation, anguish, persecution, famine? No!

42:17 More than conquerors, for I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, now notice, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Now let me ask you, is it holy elect angels that would ever try to sever you from Christ? No! They are sent to do service for everyone who is in Christ, according to Hebrews 1.

42:54 But think of those malevolent, vicious, foul, unclean, demonic powers, that would do their best to claw you away from Christ. You may look them in the eye and say, I am persuaded that principalities, powers, nor angels can sever me from Christ. You won't have that kind of unshakable persuasion unless it is rooted in the reality that those powers are defeated powers. They are not totally neutered, there is restraint placed upon them, there will be an unleashing to some exponential degree of those powers just prior to the parousia. But in the light of the truth of the word of God, God's people who live through the most intense baptisms of suffering and affliction and martyrdom are able to look those things in the face and say, I am persuaded that none of them in any combination shall separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. And then, when we go out to do service for Christ, it should comfort us to know

44:21 that if we go forth in the biblically enlightened faith that the enemy has been conquered and in union with Christ we share in that conquest, then Acts 19 will give us a lot of comfort. You remember Paul is laboring at Ephesus and there is some opposition as generally there was in his ministry from the Jews, and so he hires the school of Tyrannus and preaches for the space of two years. Verse 11 of Acts 19, And God wrought special miracles by the hands of Paul, insomuch that the sick were carried away from his body, they carried away handkerchiefs or aprons, and the diseases departed from them, and the evil spirits went out. But certain also of the strolling Jews, exorcists, took upon them to name over them that had evil spirits the name of the Lord Jesus, saying, I adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preaches. And there were seven sons of Sceva, a Jew, a chief priest, who did this. And the evil spirit answered and said unto him, Jesus I know, and Paul I know.

45:34 But who are you? You see the scene? Paul in union with Christ is given even unusual powers among the apostles on this occasion. And that even handkerchiefs carried from him and somehow in the sovereign will and purpose of God they become effectual to the healing of diseases and the casting out of evil spirits.

46:04 In some way, this was not just a superstitious ritual, there was some purpose of God to validate the gospel in this most unusual way. And so these exorcists say, hey man, we got a good thing going here. Let's try and do it. It works for him.

46:19 Let's see how it works for us. And when they seek to exercise these demons, the demons, the evil spirit answers and says, Jesus I know, and Paul I know. And I'm aware there are two different words in the original but I'm not prepared to say there's any real significance. Jesus, I know who he is.

46:39 If Jesus were speaking through you and you were in union with him, we'd obey because he is our conqueror. And Paul, we know he is in union with Jesus. And when he speaks in the name and authority of Jesus, we recognize the very power of the one who crushed us on Golgotha and we must obey. But who are you?

47:05 We don't know you. You see, the humblest saint in true union with Christ has his name registered in hell. His name is registered among the powers of darkness and in union with Christ we are conquerors in the name of Christ. And you see, it is that confidence not in ourselves but in Christ and his conquest.

47:35 The devil hates it. He is a bluffing bully. Martin Luther looked him straight in the eye and he said, I know who you are. This is what I think of you.

47:50 A mighty fortress is our God, a bulwark, never failing, stanza three. And though this world with devils filled should threaten to undo us, we will not fear. Why? For God hath willed his truth to triumph through us.

48:11 The prince of darkness grins. We tremble not for him. His rage we can endure, for lo, his doom is sure. One little word shall fell him.

48:28 One word expressive of the consciousness of our union in Christ and with Christ in the conquest of Christ and the enemy must flee. Resist the devil and he will flee from the spiritual giants among you. No, he'll flee from you, the humblest child of God. In his faith, union with Christ can take his stand.

48:54 And having done all, stands against all of the wiles of the devil, takes the shield of faith and quenches every fiery missile, stands his ground. Martin Luther understood this truth. That's why he defied that whole monolithic system of Rome. He defied it in the name of Christ and by the word and the spirit of Christ.

49:25 Dear people, Martin Luther had all kinds of gifts none of us will ever have. But he didn't have a greater Christ. And he didn't have a greater Bible. And he didn't have a greater spirit.

49:37 The spirit and the gifts are ours. Through him who with us sideth, let kins and good let kindred and goods and kindred go. This mortal life also, the body they may kill. God's truth abideth still.

Conclusion: The Devil's Exposure and the New Heavens and Earth

49:52 His kingdom is forever. I'll be very surprised that the devil doesn't like what's been preached in this place today. You pray for me this coming week. More than once, I've preached things and it's like the Lord said, now my son, you preached it, are you going to live it?

50:11 You pray. The devil doesn't like to be exposed for what he is. He's a usurping bully. He doesn't like the humblest child of God conscious of his union with Christ, taking his stand, clothed in the full armor of God and withstanding in the name and in the strength of Christ.

50:31 What will occur at the coming of Christ to the devil and his angels? They will be forever banished. And then, as you read in the book of the Revelation, and I trust you'll do this this week, chapter 21 and 22, apart from one explicit reference to those who are outside the beauties of it, you have the marvelous description of the new heavens and the new earth, God in covenantal intimacy with his people. God himself shall be with them and be their God.

51:05 They shall have no more sickness, crying, death, pain. The former things are passed away. God has banished the evil one in all of his minions and all who chose him as their father. He's banished them to that horrible place.

51:23 And there, agony and suffering will not impede our delight in God and in the Lamb. We will know perfect joy even in the knowledge of the banishment of the enemy and all who follow him. May God grant that in that day we shall be found in Christ, to have the judge himself identify us infallibly. That's one of my sheep.

51:55 Angels, put them over here. And then not only to identify us infallibly, but then to vindicate us as being truly his. To confess our name in the presence of the Father and of all the assembled universe. And then to impart the rewards of grace.

52:19 And then perfect it into his sinless, spotless pride to sit down at the marriage supper of the Lamb and to feast in the immediate presence of Jesus. Never, never to end the honeymoon. Oh, dear people of God, what a future awaits us. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.

52:44 Let's pray.

52:50 Our Father, as we become aware of just a very tiny amount of the wickedness perpetrated in the world, when we think of those who exploit others, abuse them physically, sexually, emotionally, mentally, when we think of the horrific pogroms in which whole groups of people have been the object of people's hate and desire to see them obliterated, when we think of famines and earthquakes and the devastation that comes, how we long that this horrible scene of suffering and evil and inequity will become, with the purifying fires of a returning Lord Jesus, the new earth wherein dwells nothing but righteousness. How we pray that you will help us as your people to be well grounded in all the wonderful, glorious things that you have stored up for those who are your own. And we pray that you'd make sinners in this place jealous to know the blessedness of this salvation. We pray now your blessing upon this culminating part of our service as Jessica openly confesses before you and the unseen

54:18 and holy angels and your people, her attachment to Christ. We pray that you will seal this reality to her heart, cause others to ask where they stand before you. Lord, continue with us and glorify yourself, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.