JESUS EXPLAINS REBEL DEMONS & THEIR PRISON

let's open our Bibles to Isaiah chapter 14 what we're looking at this morning is how we each need to learn to resist our worst enemies and our worst enemies are shown up in our text where we've been studying in Revelation 9 but the way we resist our worst enemies is using the key truths in the Bible of spiritual warfare so first of all let's introduce ourselves to this key enemy isaiah 14 contains for us what would be the introduction to lucifer becoming satan and above all the angelic hosts of god above the super-powerful Archangels and we know Gabriel and Michael above the flaming fiery Serafim and above all those mighty cherubim that surround God's throne there was one angel that was above them all and he is called Lucifer the son of the morning and he went from being the highest and most powerful created being God ever made imperfection he became the arch enemy of God and we call that the origin of Satan the word Satan in Hebrew means the adversary he is the one that opposes God well Ezekiel gives us a description of what we're going to read in Isaiah but doesn't as fully presented as we're gonna see in Isaiah but what Ezekiel tells us is that what took place in Lucifer's heart was his heart was lifted up because of his beauty and you corrupted your wisdom by reason of splendor and basically what we would say is that that Lucifer began to to be moved by his own beauty instead of gods and drawn to his own splendor instead of gods and that pride is what got him well the Old Testament Hebrew prophet Isaiah gives us this wording and in Isaiah 14 we're gonna read 12 through 15 what we're gonna see is two things in our text we've been studying Revelation there is an angel that falls from heaven to earth and unleashes a pit of the worst demons of the universe in this text we're gonna read in Isaiah 14 we're gonna meet the angel that falls from heaven to earth his name is Lucifer become Satan and we're gonna hear about the pit that goes all the way through the Bible to Revelation 20 so Isaiah 14 if you got it let's stand together for the reading of God's Word remain standing I'm gonna read all the way down through verse 15 and as I read notice the I wills and I put them on the screen in front of you so that so that you can see that and basically we see God recording what's going on inside of Satan's mind how you are fallen from heaven o Lucifer son of the morning how you were cut down to the ground you who weakened the nation's for you have said in your heart I will ascend into heaven I will exalt my throne above the stars of God I will also sit on the Mount of the congregation on the farthest sides of the north I will ascend above the heights of the clouds I will be like the Most High yet you shall be brought down to Sheol to the lowest depths of the pit Wow the origin of Satan let's bow for word of Prayer father in heaven I pray that we would be warned by your word of the overwhelming irresistible power of our flesh of our self of i centered living of pride and how I pray that we will heed one of the clearest insights into spiritual warfare and that is to humble ourselves to submit to renounce anything of this proud self-centered self-assertive lifestyle that Satan imagined and then lived out and we see the carnage and wreckage from it so I pray that that we would be stirred to resist Satan by resisting pride in our own hearts and by submitting to you and we'll thank you for what you teach us if you illumine our hearts in the precious name of Jesus we pray amen you may be seated as you're seated I wrote the text only I inserted in parenthesis some thoughts for you to look at because what we see in Lucifer's life is this that Lucifer became Satan because of this this thought process that led him to rebellion and the essence of it is self and pride and basically I will ascend his self assertion he is calling the shots he's saying I'm gonna do this this is what I'm gonna do asserting himself as the ruler of his life which is the opposite of what God wants for us I will exalt my throne was him promoting himself self promotion he said I'm gonna be above all the other angels of God I I am going to promote myself it's kind of the go get it and for yourself I will sit on the Mount of the congregation that's self-centeredness if you remember God is seated on the sides of the north and the whole idea of his throne being there and what Satan is saying is I want to be in the center I want to be the center of everything - not just God and then I will ascend above the heights of the clouds he want to exalt himself he wanted to magnify himself and finally he says I'm gonna be like the Most High God and that is that is an amazing evidence of inspiration if humans if mere humans wrote the Bible we would not have written I will be like the Most High God we would have said that Satan would have said I'm gonna be greater but see the evidence of inspiration is that this really happened and that Satan even though he's proud and malignant and rebellious and everything else he's also highly intelligent and he knows that God is greater than the sum of everything he has created and that existed and so he knew that he's just one part of that creation Satan knew that and he knew that God is greater than the sum of everything so he one individual piece could never be greater than God but he said I'm gonna be like him you know that's one of our greatest temptations today because if you're a Christian when you came to Christ you bowed before him and said that he was the one who bought owns us so he is God and at that moment the Lord becomes the highest the greatest the the most important of all he's kind of the top shelf of our life and then we have lots of other shelves in life but the longer were Christians what happens is we start putting other things on the top shelf with God it's like well god you're important but so is my career and so is my health and so is my family and so is my finances and so is my entertainment and so is my pleasure and so is my and we have all of these other things that crowd the preeminence of Christ out of our lives and it's all Satan was doing is saying I'm gonna be up there in the same shelf with you oh I want to be with like you and the Lord said look at the end of it yet you shall be brought down to Sheol the grave to the lowest steps of the pit now let's turn to chapter 9 of Revelation as you're turning there I want to remind you of how dangerous these self self self assertions of the devil are we should be aware of any self assertion of any self promotion of any self centeredness of any self exaltation and self-deception because each of these acts leads to pride and pride what is so dangerous about pride is pride makes us act independent of God now remember Isaiah earlier in chapter 6 told us the essence of sin all we like sheep have gone astray we have turned every one to his own way you see the essence of sin is independence from God we don't need him we're gonna do it our way we're gonna run this ourselves we're gonna live our life we're gonna religion since we can save ourselves if we do enough of this it's gonna out balance our bad stuff and we're gonna make it on our own we don't need you God it's acting independent of God and that is always sin and sin is always horrible and has horrible consequences like Lucifer found he became Satan he went from the son of the morning to the adversary of God and now the pit look at chapter 9 we've been looking at Revelation 9 but this shows together the two pieces the origin of this one that fell from heaven to earth the fall of Satan into sin and into rebellion and then those that went with him as we saw last week the Angels that disobeyed and they are now incarcerated many of them in this place this pit but but look at verses 1 and 2 the fifth angel sounded I saw star fallen from heaven to earth the devil to him was given the key by the way who gave it to him chapter 1 tells us Christ as the key to death and hell and to the grave so Jesus gave it to him and he takes this key and look at that it's a key to the bottomless pit to the place he's headed see Satan is going alternately to the bottomless pit we're gonna see that in a moment verse 2 he opened the bottomless pit the smoke arose out of the pit and it was smoke of the pit so you notice how often this thing is repeated this is a a reminder from the Lord that God has a prison for rebel angels and every time we see this this pit it has something to do with demons and the the work of rebellion that's going on if you keep going to verse 11 of the same chapter you notice that it's mentioned again in verse 11 it says the king over them the Angel of the bottomless pit whose name in Hebrew Sabet so there is a demon who is over the demons that are in this pit if you keep going to chapter 17 a little bit further go to the right in your Bibles in Revelation chapter 17 and verse 8 notice it says the Beast you saw that was and is not will ascend out of the bottomless pit everything that has to do with the rebellion comes from this this prison house of demons every time seven times in the book of Revelation and one place outside of Revelation that this word bottomless pit or pit of the abyss is used it's always used for a place where demons are held and if you keep going to chapter 20 you see what the fulfillment revelation 20 has the fulfillment of what it said in Isaiah 14 and verse 15 that we read at the beginning and basically look at what happens I saw an angel coming down from heaven by the way I'll answer the question so many people ask they say people say is that Jesus is it you know when it says in Revelation chapter 10 a mighty angel you know one foot on earth one foot you know on the water and now we have this mighty angel coming down they always say is that Jesus did you know Jesus has never portrayed as an angel in the book of Revelation in fact Jesus is not portrayed as an angel in the New Testament Jesus was the angel of the Lord in the Old Testament Jesus is not an angel so to help you understand Revelation he's never an angel and all those bright shining faces are angels it's not Christ but this angel not Christ comes down from heaven chapter 20 verse 1 he has the key of the bottomless pit so Christ gave it to him because he holds that and a great chain in his hand and he laid hold of the dragon who is that he's the serpent of old who is that the devil who's that Satan so this this rebel Lucifer become all of those and bound him for a thousand years verse three and cast him into the bottomless pit there's the same place the pit of the abyss the prison-house for rebel angels basically this is Satan's destiny and he's going to be there and then they're gonna you can read the rest he's let out briefly and then he's finally thrown into the lake of fire but we're not doing a demonology what we're doing this morning is a Christology because the truth of the matter is that Jesus has defeated demons and that we are not to ignore demons nor are we to fear them we are not to ignore the devil nor are we to fear him we are supposed to resist we're supposed to know his strategies and were supposed to resist him but to help us jesus authenticated himself and turn back to the Book of Luke because we're gonna read just about four or five verses there the gospel by Luke and chapter four and what I want to show you is how Jesus demonstrated who he was in the Gospels Jesus authenticated he he showed people who he was in one way by his power over what they were so aware of the powers of darkness the demons the the evil spirits and and many of the people in the time of Christ and before had experienced these the torments of these demons and they were powerless before them they didn't know what to do and so when Jesus came there was an unusual outpouring of the kingdom of darkness and and by the way all of these demon scenes were intentionally precipitated and the Lord did this to show who he was but in chapter 4 of Luke starting in verse 33 what's amazing is this is Christ's first miracle recorded in Luke and and usually it's important the first time Jesus reaches out in Supernatural power does something it's for a purpose and so Jesus is is ministering along and Luke 4 by the way he was born in chapter 1 and two baptized in Chapter three already in chapter four of a four verse 33 he was tempted by the devil now he's going into the devil's realm and he is going to liberate people sitting in the darkness and the demons want to hinder him and so the first thing we see is in verse 33 so Jesus is speaking in the synagogue and and the people in verse 32 were already astonished at his teaching when Jesus taught he didn't teach like all the other teachers the other teacher says well rabbi so-and-so says this and rabbi Sohn sauce is this and I agree with them and and they just kind of it was just kind of like a you know kind of agreeing with the opinion of someone else's opinion but Jesus came in and spoke authoritative Lee see what it says in verse 32 they were astonished his teaching for his word was with authority he spoke like he was speaking the very word of God and he was and people were already astonished at that well there was someone there and in this event by the way is in Mark's Gospel and and it reminds me of what would happen in a lot of churches if Jesus Christ came you know there are 330 thousand churches in America do you know how many of them don't even preach the gospel they don't even believe in the inspiration of the Bible they don't believe in the deity of Christ they don't believe in the resurrection of Christ they don't believe in the miracles I don't know what they believe in the only thing they have is a cross and they're not even sure about that anymore and you know I mean and if Jesus came and preached there it would astonish them but there was look at verse 33 now in the synagogue there was a man who had a spirit of an unclean demon now we don't know but it appears that this guy came to the synagogue and he was able to cover kind of like you know alcoholics can cover their alcoholism and drug addicts can cover their drug addictions and a lot of abusers can cover their abuse and they kind of go through life and everybody thinks they're okay and they appear to be normal this guy just appeared to be normal even though at times in his life this demon was was in telling him to do things so he's sitting there with everybody else in the synagogue like this and and he sat through many synagogue services probably you know counting the pillars and what everybody does you know because it's so boring and all of a sudden he started listening and this guy was speaking like no one ever spoke before and all of a sudden the demon inside of him started looking out through his eyes and all of a sudden the demon realized who the guest speaker was you understand that's what happened see demons are not omniscient nor are they omnipresent and they do sense things they have a personality to him and so this demon wasn't paying attention all of a sudden the demons saw who the speaker was and look what happens in verse 33 and he cried out with a loud voice saying let us alone so there there seems to have been more than one of them and we know who you are what do we have to do with you Jesus of Nazareth did you come to destroy us I know who you are the Holy One of God now that must've been quite a service you know here's Jesus teaching along the sky screams and yells at the in fact mark says the word is Creusot which doesn't mean to yell it means to scream I mean have you ever been somewhere and someone screams and everyone freezes and looks that's what's going on in the synagogue and so Jesus this is his first miracle rebuked him saying be quiet come out of him and when the demon had thrown him in their midst Wow I mean this guy is twisting and writhing and rolling around on the floor and when the demon had thrown him in their midst it came out of him and didn't hurt him Wow well that's the way to start your ministry Norman stared paying attention so look at verse 41 and the demons also came out of many every time Jesus I mean people started bringing all their troubled friends and and they pushed him to the front of the crowd and when they got near Jesus look what happens in verse 41 the demons came out of many crying out and saying you are the Christ the Son of God and He rebuking them did not allow them to speak for they knew he was the Christ see Jesus said oh I don't need their affirmation okay you just see that I have power over the spirit world and by the way the demons are always totally in dread fear look at chapter 6 verse 18 another instance and those as well who were tormented with unclean spirits and they were healed so there were people that were tormented the the people that were just writhing with with all of the demonism look at chapter 7 and verse 21 I mean you could do this yourself it's just fascinating to read this and just pull them out in that very hour he cured many Luke 7 21 of infirmities and the many is is is still affecting many with afflictions and many with evil spirits see this was a regular part of Christ's ministry showing that he had defeated the power of Satan and that that in fact it says also in chapter 10 of Luke that while Jesus is doing the satan falls like lightning to the earth because he didn't like what was going on now turn over to chapter 8 and and this is fascinating insight into the women that followed Christ it came about past afterward he went through every city and village preaching and bringing glad tidings of the kingdom of God by the way that's the gospel Jesus preached repent the kingdom of God has come what is kingdom it is rule a kingdom has one main element a king see we forget that a lot of people just kind of want to add Jesus to their life being saved means making him and acknowledging him and yielding him as king of the kingdom and we are his subjects his slaves so he's preaching that Kingdom message and the twelve were with him but look at verse two certain women who had been healed of evil spirits those were the ones that were surrounding Christ those are the ones that were you know the last ones at the cross and the first ones at the tomb these out of whom he had had delivered them of evil spirits and infirmities and look Mary called Magdalene had seven demons I mean she was a hyper demonized person now let's get down to chapter 8 verse 26 because this is fascinating this is the tie now between the pit we're looking at and these demons in verse 26 and they sailed to the country of the gadarenes which is opposite Galilee so they went achill II they went from the west side of the Sea of Galilee to the east side of the Sea of Galilee if you're on a map and when he stepped out on the land and and what's amazing is you know Jesus went on this boat the boat hit the shore Jesus is stepping out of the shore and he gets his foot on the shore and look at this a certain man from the city there met him who had demons for a long time so this guy had been troubled a long time but he wasn't able to hide out in the synagogue this man was really troubled and he wore no clothes and he did not live in a house but he lived in the graves kind of like the Halloween you know setting that the Americans loved the scary thing but when he saw verse 28 Jesus he cried out fell down before him and with this loud voice can you emit I mean I see things in my mind you know I picture them can you imagine the other guys you know they're they're winding up the the ropes are putting the sail down I mean they just they cross this boat for their whole life I mean this sea for their whole life and they're doing all this and Jesus is just stepping off and all of a sudden this bare naked man covered with scars comes up runs up throws himself down on the ground in front of Jesus staring at him and starts screaming and look what he says I'm sure they dropped the sail and their paddles and they were watching what have I to do with you Jesus son of the Most High God I beg you do not torment me see John 5 says God the Father has delivered all judgment to Christ Jesus is the judge he is the ultimate judge before whom everyone is going to stand every human who's ever lived from Adam to the last person to millennium every human that doesn't have their sins forgiven and dies with their sins on them will someday with all their sins on them stand in front of Jesus Christ and every rebel demon - and they know they're going to be consigned hell the lake of fire wasn't made for people it was made for Satan and his angels the Scriptures tell us that and they know that's coming and so he says don't send me there yet before he commanded the unclean spirit verse 29 come out of the man for it it often seized him that's what demons can do and he was kept under guard the people used to try and control this guy they did incarcerate and they put him in the prison and they would bind him with chains a whole group of them would hold him down they'd stretch his arm out and they'd put iron there and they get their hammer and they pound through a you know a chain a shackle and they put it on with a chain and they get him all chained up and notice what it says after they did all this chaining and shackles that he would break the bonds he just it mark five says that he would break the shackles what strength does it take to grab a shackle a bound piece of metal and tear it off of your own wrist I mean can you imagine how fearful this was to the people and he was driven by the demons into the wilderness and so verse 30 Jesus said to him what is your name and he said Legion because many demons had entered him and they begged him now the whole chorus starts I'm sure the both the people in the boat were just amazed at all this they that they begged him that he would not command them to go out into thee what does your Bible say yeah there's where we are in Revelation 9 this prison house of the demons and this Legion which could be courts of 6,000 of them said don't send us to jail yet we don't want to wait there until it's time for the fire of hell don't send us yet they begged and pleaded with him so basically let's do a very quick summary of what demons are like and then we're gonna look how to resist them number one they're invisible there's no record in the Bible of any form of demons demons go inside of things they don't they're they're invisible there's never a visible representation of them they're independent their personal beings in fact if you use the same method we use for the personality of the Holy Spirit the Holy Spirit is a person because he has power of thought and speech and action he has feelings we call that personality demons our personal beings they're independent another thing about them their body lists their incorporeal they're there they love they don't like to be out of a body they like to get into animals and into people and and the effect while you're in Luke look at chapter 11 it talks about that and verse 24 it says when an unclean spirit goes out of a man he goes through Dry places seeking rest and finding none he says I will return where I came from and when he comes he finds it swept and put in order that's that's when you just go through you know the twelve steps and you rehabilitate yourself from whatever your illness is and you don't get Christ you're empty swept and garnished but there's no power inside you're just rehabbed and look what happens the next verse says and after that verse 26 then he goes and takes with him this is the demon seven other spirits more wicked than himself and they enter and dwell there and the last state of that man is worse than the first see if you just rehab people never give them the gospel and they never turn from darkness to light their prey for worse things and it's horrible demons are bodyless by the way they're convinced did you know there are no atheist demons you know I chuckle every time I hear you know this the president of the Christian University of Oregon student body it was in the news this week came out as an atheist and I thought great you know that's great you know great thanks for telling the news me to that but there are no atheist demons why they all believe they're all believers they know who Jesus is they know that he is the son of the Living God they saw his miracles they saw him rise from the dead they shake they're not saved see James warns about people that go to church they have demon faith that means they believe all the facts they just never been transformed if you've never been saved from sin you've never been saved from hell you understand that Jesus came to destroy the power the hold the grip the the complete abandonment to the will of the devil he destroys that and transforms us into his kingdom there are a lot of people that just know the facts they just never met Jesus Christ personally and been changed demons are convinced they're supernatural remember chapter 8 they can pull off the the bondage they're all so malignant they're harmful it's amazing if you read about what some of these demons do in mark chapter 9 a man said my son is possessed with a demon it makes him mute so they can make people mute whenever the demon seizes him it dashes him to the ground he foams at the mouth and he grinds his teeth demons are very harmful beings but they're scared to death of Jesus Christ and they know that he greater is He that is in you the Scriptures tell us than he that is in the world any of Satan's minions well let's let's start applying this positively we only have a few minutes to do it so go from Luke to the book of Acts remember Luke wrote both inspired and wrote both those in Acts chapter 19 talks about the church that most confronted demons and the devil and all of that realm and in chapter 19 I call this God's methodology for church growth and what's amazing is that what we're gonna read this morning in the Word of God is what God has always said is his methodology for growing the church and it seems like nobody has read any of this because nowadays most churches are involved in what has just availed competition they're trying to ramp up their program so they can pull people from another church into their church or get greater crowds you know and remember we lived in Tulsa there was a church that boasted they had six hundred pool tables so they had the largest youth group in Tulsa because they had six hundred pool tables in their recreation place and I thought amazing we draw people in with pool tables that's good another church outdid them they had a too dated a Sega Genesis I mean what is that twenty years ago and and a seat for every student that came to their youth group and they could all sit there and blast each other you know and they shared screens and I thought wow we have all kinds of ideas to grow our church how does God grow his church and it's very clear it's in acts 19 verses 17 to 20 and there's two real keys and I'll read it to you starting in verse 17 and this became known to all the Jews and Greeks what became known well it's this little scene that started in verse 11 of the same chapter where Paul is busily sewing his leather work or whatever he did is a tentmaker and and as he worked he would sweat and he would take out his handkerchief and go like this and he'd set it on the workbench and he'd get back and he wore this apron so he wouldn't poke himself with the tools and when he went to lunch he'd take the apron off and set it down and he'd go to lunch and people would sneak in his shop and they grabbed his sweat rag and they'd take his apron and if they went around they could heal people you understand that's what's going on it's fascinating to read and so this the seven exorcists that weren't Christians they thought wow we're gonna add Jesus to our repertoire I mean that I mean wow that's great and so what happens is these itinerant look at verse 13 they took it upon themselves to call the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits do you see you don't have to be a Christian to cast out demons in the name of the Lord Jesus like it says in Matthew 7 many will sans me that day Lord Lord didn't we cast out demons and Jesus will say yes you did but you never knew me so this is an example of those who were pretending to know the Lord and they said to the evil spirits we exorcise you by the Jesus whom Paul preaches how do you like that for a second hand presentation and then the man with the evil spirit answered and said Jesus I know I mean I know who God is I I know the Holy One of God and Paul I know so obviously demons can tell who are Christians demons can see that we are sealed by the Holy Spirit that we belong to God so this demonized man says I know who Jesus is and I know who Paul is who are you you are not associated with either one of them you're not carrying Paul's apron in the name of Christ and his sweat rag and you're not a bear and indweller of Jesus Christ doesn't live in you and the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them one man leaps on seven overpowered all seven of them and prevailed against them so that they fled out of the house naked and wounded and this became known both to all the Jews and Greeks dwelling in Ephesus I mean it just went all around the city and fear fell on them all and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified all of a sudden people said be careful about this Lord Jesus Christ it's real it's real it's real it's real powerful it's a real pro something's going on there and they began to have fear and the name of Christ that was magnified in other words people were interested in knowing who Jesus Christ was because he was the one that was real he was one that was powerful he was the one that could overcome and even the spirits were afraid of him so it's amazing what happens we'll keep keep reading in verse 18 and many of those who believe came confessing and telling their deeds so as soon as Jesus name was magnified the Saints began to get consecrated those who believed who had believed these people are already believers they came confessing and telling their deeds and many of those who practiced who had practice see this is their former life magic brought their books together burned them in the sight of all and they counted the value of them and a total fifty thousand pieces of silver what is going there the church is getting consecrated they're saying hey we don't want anything to do with with the kingdom of darkness with the devil with evil with with all that that our former life we were saved we we turn from darkness to light we turn from the power of Satan to God we receive forgiveness of sins we don't want any part of that old life reminds me of when Bonnie and I moved when we were on staff with MacArthur we went up to New England and I pastored a historic hundred sixty-five year old church the pastor just prior to me had been an evangelist to Roman Catholics and he had built the church on door-to-door Rhode Island is the most Roman Catholic state even more than Mary's land it's 98 percent you know Roman Catholics dense and so he just went door to door leading Roman Catholics to Christ and the church had really grown but he realized that there was a real hindrance and it was like there was something holding back to church people got to say but they were growing they weren't hungry for the word and so he began visiting these homes and he found they still had all their little you know on their dashboard st. whoever to keep him safe driving and around their neck st. whoever to keep him safe traveling and and you know this little thing over the kitchen table so they could during their prayer look up at Mary or whatever it was and they had these all this stuff and their beads you know and they were they just didn't know what to do with all that stuff and it was holding him back the idolatry of Romanism was holding him back so he preached through this passage and during his sermon he wheeled and in front of the communion table a 55-gallon metal drum he said we're having communion tonight before you partake in the communion of the Lord Jesus Christ you need to renounce anything you have of idolatry paganism any images you have any things you hold hoping for spiritual benefit from holding those or praying to them or looking at them or feeling them or having you know them around he said bring them and he said we're going to burn them tonight it was the turning point in the church when we got there they had planted 21 churches in greater Providence area because the people renounced they brought look at verse 19 they brought all that stuff that was magical and burned him in the sight of all they didn't sell him on eBay by the way so someone else could be ensnared by it they destroyed anything they had to do was Satan and evil and idolatry and everything else and look what happens in verse 20 the word of the Lord grew mightily and prevailed okay lesson number one Paul taught that to magnify God we have to divest ourselves of anything tied to Satan to demons to occultic activity to magical black arts we have to renounce not just say it we have to get rid of it in our life did you know many Christians are held back from fully serving the Lord because they have things that that are hidden in their life hidden to everyone but of course God and the Spirit of God is grieved because when he looks at us he sees what we are choosing to hide to hold on to to cherish more than him because we know that that this pleases him but but it has a hold on us Paul said you must renounce the darkness and that was a turning point for that church then he says we we have to use God's weapons and we studied this two times ago but you know the passage we have to know that we have the helmet of salvation the breastplate of righteousness and our loins Girt about with truth and we have to have our feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace and we have to have the sword of the Spirit that means we don't trust someone else you know our favorite elder to know the verse we should know the scripture that we need to defend ourselves and that's the sword of the Spirit and our spiritual weapons are not humanly invented these are spiritually empowered and then James said and if you want to turn to James chapter 4 I mean this one is very specific in James chapter 4 the order that the Lord gives us is astounding he says that we must submit to God in submission to God precedes any ability for us to resist the devil and what James said is therefore submit yourselves to God that's first you must be first then look what it says in verse seven resist the devil and he will flee from you you understand that that spiritual warfare starts with submission to God it starts with with a bowing before the one who bought us and owns us and we submit to him it continues Peter said and if you're if you're in James 4 just turn across the page to first Peter chapter 5 and look what Peter says in verse 5 likewise you younger people submit to your elders yes all of you be submissive to one another be clothed with humility do you see that Peter said to resist Satan we must not only submit to God but we have to live humbly you know we live in the proudest Society of all we we trumpet ourselves show off I mean it's just the social media has become show myself and in so many ways and it's just the human flesh feeds on it God says you want to resist Satan you got to start living humbly in God's sight we're too close ourselves with humility before we can resist only humble people can resist the devil and finally John said this and as long as you're going it's right past first Peter and second Peter we get to first John three verses 7 through 9 and this is what John says he says not only do we live submissively and humbly and renounce the darkness and use the spiritual warfare but we live holy in God's sight to resist Satan and our our lives are only as powerful as our purity in God's sight and that's why everyone who has this hope first John 3:3 says who has this hope in himself purifies himself just as he is pure we have to renounce all the sins of the flesh and of the we have to buy purifying that means we get rid of we member Jesus said you've already been washed but now you have to wash just you're washing the feet was saying as we go through life we get defiled there are it's almost like we're always splashing up the mud of the world and we're totally cleansed by the Holy Spirit but we by our contact with the world have to purify and say Lord I renounce those thoughts those images those things those words those feelings I ask for your cleansing so that I don't grieve your spirit it's amazing how powerful a pure life can be and how disabling impurity is so basically we're supposed to monitor our own spiritual immune system we have to have spiritual health you go see a doctor the doctor says how are you doing the what are you eating you eating right are you getting enough rest are you exercising you know most Americans have very sedentary lives come on eat less exercise more did you know that's what church is supposed to be like we're supposed to be asking everybody around us how you're doing eating and drinking God's Word are you exercising every day in the spirit are you reading this thing are you doing it what verse are you memorizing if you're building your sword of the Spirit well what one have you added to your sword this week do you have any sort did you that's what you do when you come to church you don't come and say hey are you going the potluck I'll go in the potluck oh boy boy do you have a new car I have a new car are your kids graduate my kids are graduating see you later where's the spiritual health stuff we're all supposed to be exhorting one another and so much the more as we see that Day approaching it's not the elders they're supposed to be running around like chickens with their heads cut off trying to talk to every person it's the Saints talking to each other and edifying one another and encouraging one another that's our spiritual health and secondly our spiritual armor we're supposed to understand and use the armor and they're supposed to be testimonies of people saying how how they have resisted and how they have found that that the weapons of our warfare work instead of just hearing lessons about it lectures about it we're supposed to hear testimonies about it that's what we gather for that's what church is about it's not Sega Genesis and video games and 600 pool tables and we have more than you it's were walking in the spirit and we're seeing him at work in our lives and then we start resisting the devil and we don't ignore him and we're not afraid of him we go into his territory and we resist him that's what so much of missions is about is going into the darkness as a light well our call is to consecrated living x19 if you look at it basically has three parts first God's Sun is magnified in verse 17 then God's people get consecrated and start clearing out the trash and then God's Word prevails that's how God builds a church hold up Christ God's people start following him then God's Word prevails through them so I like this I in fact I clipped it and put it in for you this is what a fella that I've never met but I've only read his books wrote on this passage he said what would be burned today if the spirits conviction swept our church I mean if God really swept through us I think some DVDs that have things that grieve the Holy Spirit no matter whether they cost $20 or not would be gotten rid of magazines videos and quietly removed from from out of the way desk drawers no probably removed from hard drives and servers and things like that who has a solid copy of anything these days certain novels perhaps some television shows or movies or websites or radio stations and video games would be boycotted by the person because they say I don't want to do anything that that draws the devil and his demons and grieves I mean what a double jeopardy that is do something that grieves the Holy Spirit of God that seals us and do something that draws the enemy and that's what all these things do television shows movies websites radio station video games they have gratuitous bloodshed God says Christians aren't supposed to look at bloodshed even if it is pixelated we are never to get used to bloodshed it's amazing how Satan is deadening a whole generation with saying it's just a game if it's just a game aren't you stop if it's not important why'd you stop how come kids are dropping out of school because they can't stop playing the games because they're addicted to bloodshed well some how do I get off I'm reading I'm sorry I get preaching here some people would ask others to pray that they would be set free from whatever's dragging them down that's what the church is supposed to be we're supposed to come in and say I'm really struggling this week you know if if someone's car breaks down we we rushed to their rescue but when people's spiritual car breaks down we don't even know see we have to say I need help pray for me come alongside of me and many would come to Christ for forgiveness of sin and deliverance from the eternal wrath of God why because the church when Christ is magnified when Christians start getting consecrated the Word of God prevails in their life and through them so basically this the power of consecration is this the power of the early church was simply they had genuine holiness they didn't just talk it they lived it they are energized by grace so they magnified Christ God's Word prevailed in their life and then out of their lives into others they lived a consecrated life the Spirit of God moved unhindered flowed unquenched and God got all the glory no one was competing for the credit no one sought to be in control and God reigned and the spirit moved and Christ was magnified I wondered this morning is that describe your life was there something needs to go in the 55-gallon drum and get destroyed and you renounce what this pleases God well a good way to start on all that is to stand up so let's all stand up I'm scaring you now right someone asked me this and when's the next time you're having to walk down the aisle invitation I said well not this week you know because everyone would think that you have some satanic stuff in your house so we're not going to do that but what I thought is it starts by magnifying Christ and submitting to him in this little chorus is an invitation kind of like sending out an invitation to a part you know it's an RSVP and in asking the Lord to respond and saying Lord I want you look at the words melt me you know I get cold I get distant I'm kind of you know not like his fervent as I used to be I want you to melt me bring me back that mould me I've gotten conformed to this world squashed me back into your shape fill me I'm so empty I just feel so far from you so you can use me and that only happens not by me reading a couple more verses picking up another service or another Bible study it's only the Spirit of God when I don't grieve him and when I don't invite his enemies into my life so I renounce that and I submit to him and surrender to his control and you can do that by singing this song and let's sing it together as our closing prayer to the Lord on me thank God for fresh on me melt me mold me fill me use me spirit of the Living God for fresh on me let's bow before him father in heaven I prayed that any renouncing of the darkness any destruction of those reminders of the Evil One and of his wickedness would take place in our lives that we would say I don't want anything to impede your spirit and your word prevailing so that Christ will be magnified in and through my life and lord I pray for anybody that this morning just needs help they just need to talk to someone that you would bring them as the elders and our godly women are here with your word open ready to pray ready to minister that no one who needs to get a fresh start today would depart without starting again anew and afresh with you and for all of us I pray that we would examine our lives and decide what displeases you and consciously as an act of worship get rid of that and say I do this in the name of Jesus because I want you to fill me and use me for your glory thank you for meeting with us change us into your image we pray in the precious name of Jesus and all of God's people said amen god bless you as you go

Channel: DTBM

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Keywords: Bible, God, Jesus, Christian, teaching, biblical, teach, sermon, trinity, church, lesson, traditional, truth, true, divine, theology, freedom, guilt, testament, pure, interpret, spirit, holy, John, Barnett, christ, father, heaven, hell, doctrine, doctrinal, sinful, forgive, forgiveness, history, teachings, chapters, verses, discover, the book, ministries, dtbm, Dr. Barnett, controversial, repent, helpful, sin, the, book, dr, john, doctor, barnett, training, videos, series, resources, savior, god, jesus

Id: aK4NAnuKpG4

Length: 49min 37sec (2977 seconds)

Published: Mon May 11 2020