The Battle of Good and Evil: Unraveling Satan's End

Hello and welcome to the Middletown Baptist Church podcast, where we are proclaiming the truth to the world.

My name is Pastor Josh, and I want to thank you for listening to this podcast.

I hope that this podcast can be a blessing to you and strengthen you in the word of God.

Now, come along.

Let's look into the Bible and see what God has for us here today.

Let's go ahead and get into our Bible study here this evening.

And we're going to be in multiple places tonight in the Bible.

One place that you could go that might be kind of like the launching point is Revelation, chapter 12, even though we're going to go to a lot of places, so be ready to go on that.

Now, we've been studying Satan, and I know that that's kind of awkward to talk about within the church, but the Bible does very clearly teach us that we should be aware of who our enemy is and how he acts.

The Bible says in First Peter, Chapter 5, that be vigilant, because our adversary, the devil, is like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour.

And the Bible says that we should be sober about this topic.

And biblically speaking, when we talk about being sober, it means being serious about the right things.

And so.

So the Bible calls us to be serious about the attack from the enemy.

And even In Ephesians, chapter 6, the Bible tells us that we are to arm ourselves with the armor of God so that we can be aware that Satan is coming after us.

Yes.

But also be protected from his fiery darts, those temptations.

And so in this study so far, we've looked at what we would call the origin of Satan.

Okay?

He's a creation of God, a fallen angelic being.

And we know that he was fallen because of that sin that he commits.

He commits that sin of pride.

He wants to be like God.

He wants to be as God.

And we studied that passage in the book of Isaiah and then of course, the passage in Ezekiel.

And so we kind of understood his fall, his origin.

And.

And we even looked at some of the elements in those passages of Scripture of his appearance.

And.

And then we went on further to look at how he tempts.

And.

And we looked at Genesis, chapter three, how he tempted Eve and Adam there in the garden.

And then from there, that original lie that he told from the very beginning is now propagated throughout all of the earth forever until the end, which we're going to be talking about tonight.

But what we talked about last week was Matthew, chapter four, how Satan tempts.

The Bible says that he is a tempter in his character.

He is a tempter.

Therefore he comes to us in a certain fashion.

And how he really comes to us is in three different ways.

He appeals to the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life.

And we saw that that was the same path that he took in tempting Jesus there in the wilderness.

And it's the same path that he takes with us today.

But we also looked at in the Bible that there are other sources of temptation.

We know that there's Satan, there's the world, and there's our flesh.

And, and we looked at how even in the book of James, James chapter one, that we cannot blame anybody but ourselves when temptation comes, it's a test.

But when we give into that temptation is when we give into our own lust.

And what the Bible says is sin is conceived and sin bringeth forth death.

And the Bible speaks of that, that stillbirth that comes in the conception after.

After that sin is, is.

Is created there.

So what we're going to be looking at here this week is Satan's demise.

He's a defeated foe.

And it's important for us to understand that when we are fighting against the enemy, we are fighting against someone who is defeated.

We weren't the ones that did the work.

We know ultimately it was Jesus who did the victory.

And we sing that song, victory in Jesus, and we claim that truth.

And we're going to see here this evening from.

From Romans chapter 8, that we are more than conquerors because of what Jesus Christ has done.

And so the victory has already been won.

And I want us to look at that here tonight.

So we're looking at it in three parts.

Satan's origin and his characteristics.

And then number two, what he's basically doing right now, tempting and trying to thwart the plans of God.

He's been trying to do that throughout all of time.

From the very beginning.

He tries to stop the redemptive plan of God.

And we even know that even in Jesus earthly ministry he was trying to stop that plan.

But we know that God was not going to allow that.

So now we're going to talk about the end.

And I want us to think about when did the end begin?

And really the end for Satan began at.

If you want to get really technical, it started in the garden when God proclaimed that the.

That the son of the seed of the woman would crush the head of the serpent.

But that was the proclamation of the victory.

But we believe that the victory was really seen and completed on the Cross and in the resurrection, right?

Jesus, when he was on the cross and he was paying the price for our sins, the Bible says that he is the one who paid the price for our sins.

He says a statement at the very end, right before he gives up the ghost, as the Bible says, he says the statement.

In the Greek, it's tetelestai, In English it is, it is finished.

And I don't believe that that's Jesus just saying that the crucifixion is over.

I believe that that's Jesus saying that the work of the payment of our sins is over.

And so Jesus paid the price for our sins, and the Bible speaks of that.

But then we also know that if he just sat on the cross and stayed in the tomb, our faith would be in vain.

And the Bible speaks of the fact that Jesus conquered death and hell through the resurrection.

And so In Matthew chapter 28, we know that Jesus tells them to go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead.

So the moment that Jesus conquered death through the resurrection, Jesus defeated sin and death.

And we could say that basically Satan was put on notice that his time was short.

Now, for us, I hear a lot of people ask this question, why is God waiting so long for the judgment, the complete judgment of the enemy?

And we have to understand it from the perspective of God and the perspective of man.

Perspective of man, what is a hundred years is a long time.

It's ancient for God, it's nothing, right?

And so God is, is patiently waiting.

And, and we are seeing it as a long period of time.

But Satan ultimately knows that his time is short.

And, and so let's look at that in Revelation chapter 12.

Because in Revelation chapter 12, it basically says in so many words that Satan realizes that his time is short.

And if Satan realizes that his time is short, all the more reason for him to get busy, right?

And he is busy.

He's been busy since the very beginning.

We even saw from the book of Job that he was roaming about the earth.

He was seeking after those who he could devour.

So Revelation, chapter 12.

And, and we look at verse 12 and, and it says this.

Therefore rejoice ye heavens and ye that dwell in them.

Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea.

Now this, this is all happening.

This is end times.

This is, this has not happened yet.

But it says, for the devil has come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.

And so the Bible clearly speaks that Satan understands the timeline and therefore he's busy.

But Satan's downfall began the moment he, as the angel Lucifer, rebelled against God.

That was seen in Isaiah, chapter 14.

God cast him out of heaven and he did gain dominion over the earth, if you will say that.

The Bible does say that he is the prince of the power of the air, that he's the God of this world.

And so through that allowance, now some might ask, why does God allow Satan to roam the earth?

Well, we're going to study a lot of those questions next week.

Why does God fill in the blank?

And truthfully and theologically, God did it.

And we might not know the why.

Why did God allow this to happen?

We don't ultimately know his mind in this, but we do know that God has allowed Satan to roam about and be.

As we see in Revelation chapter 12.

We're going to refer a lot to Revelation chapter 12, Revelation chapter 12, verse 10.

If you go back two verses from verse 12, it says this that he is the accuser.

The accuser.

Now, why does he accuse the brethren, as it says there?

Specifically, it says that he is the accuser in verse 10, the accuser of the brethren.

Why does he accuse the brethren?

Because it is his goal for the Christians, the believers, to doubt what God has done.

He wants everyone to doubt the goodness of God.

He wants everyone to doubt the grace of God.

So what is he going to do?

He's going to accuse someone of the sin that they have committed.

Now, let's say, for example, he comes up to you and he brings up a sin of your past and he accuses you of that sin.

If you are not grounded in the security of your relationship in Jesus Christ and what God has said is secure, then what's going to happen is that I'm going to revert back to my guilt.

And we've talked about the difference between guilt and conviction.

Romans, chapter 8, verse 1 tells us that there's therefore now no condemnation to those that believe.

And so what Satan wants us to do is feel like we are condemned.

Because if he cannot take our salvation, if he cannot take our eternal destination, what he wants to do is he wants to render us ineffective in the cause of the gospel.

If God wants us to proclaim the gospel, which we know that he does, the Great Commission, right.

God's ultimate purpose for his people is to proclaim his truth, and that glorifies him.

Okay, so if that's God's ultimate plan for mankind in their redemption, think about Satan in the opposite side of that.

He wants us to not do that, so Satan wants to get those that are unbelievers to, to be with him, to join him in their rebellion and their evil.

But if he can get a Christian to believe that the accusations that he's bringing are true, which they are true circumstantially.

But at the end of the day, we know that there's no more condemnation.

So when God saves us, the Bible says that he blots out our transgressions, he wipes our slate clean and therefore we are eternally secure.

And so what he does is he's the accuser of the brethren.

And therefore from that point forward, that's his character.

The Bible says in verse number nine, go back up one verse, it says that he is the one who deceiveth the whole world.

So, so in this, he's a deceiver.

This whole time up to the end, he's going to try to deceive the world in the truth, meaning this.

He's trying to propagate lies.

And ultimately the greatest lie, that we don't need God.

That we are enough.

That you are enough.

I just heard a preacher recently.

I, I get myself into.

Some of you that watch YouTube know that it can be a great distraction.

It could be a great help, but it can be a great distraction.

I'll get on there and I'll be studying something for a sermon and listening to this one guy and then I'll be listening to this other guy and all of a sudden there's a video that pops up about these really cool looking dogs.

And then all of a sudden I'm on a dog video doing some crazy tricks and I'm like, how did I get down this road?

I'm 24 minutes in and, and I just wasted 24 minutes of my life.

But, but I heard this preacher preaching.

He was getting up there and he said this guys, I don't buy into this thing of original sin.

He says, you know, the Bible says that we are all sinners because of Adam.

But you know what, I don't believe that.

I believe that we can be good.

I believe that God has created us good.

And therefore, you know, you don't, you don't have a sin nature.

That's just the lies of the enemy.

And, and what he was doing essentially was literally propagating the lie of Satan that you are good, you're okay, you can make it.

And, and so there's danger in things that sound good.

And what Satan does is he doesn't come with lies that sound harmful to us.

On the initial side of things.

His lies are veiled in beauty.

His lies are veiled in what we would call, you know, pleasure and, and, and makes maybe even worldly sense.

But what we can see here is that the Bible calls him the deceiver of the whole world.

And that's why we can say that the world system is Satan's system, because he has set that in motion in the, the big lie that God is not needed.

And so the Bible speaks very clearly that God has prepared a place for the punishment of Satan and all who follow his lies.

Satan did not create hell.

That, that is a, that is a teaching out there from some places that, you know, Satan created hell as his dominion and his realm, and he's wanting to bring people there with him.

No, he did not create hell.

The Bible says that God created hell for the punishment ultimately of Satan and of those that follow his plan.

Matthew chapter 25, verse 41, says this.

Then shall he say also unto them, on the left hand, depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.

And so the Bible speaks of God's ultimate judgment, which we're going to get to a little bit here this evening.

I, I don't know if we'll get into as much as I'd like to get into, but there is going to be a time at the end, and we'll get a little bit more into the end times here in a moment.

But there is going to be a time at the end.

Whether or not you believe in this timing or this timing, that God is going to judge all of those in this world for their lack of belief, their lack of faith.

And God is going to say at one point, depart from me, I never knew you.

And he's going to place them in a place called hell.

And it says they're with.

Prepared for the devil and his angels.

So Satan and his angels, or what we would call demons, that is the original purpose of the punishment of hell.

And those that have rejected God will go there as well.

Now some people will actually say this, talking about hell.

My God, who is a loving God, would never send anyone to hell.

And that is a faulty statement in and of itself, because God does not send anyone to hell.

We send ourselves to hell.

By our rejection, God is essentially giving us what we have desired.

If we don't desire God, we're desiring what hell is.

And that is the wages of sin is death.

And so if we desire sin, if we desire rebellion, if we desire what we would say is our own way.

The Bible says that he will give that to us and that will be the judgment of hell.

So technically, yes, he does send people to hell, but ultimately we are the ones that are guilty of that.

He doesn't send us.

He doesn't send innocent people to hell because there is no innocent people.

Okay, There, there, there.

There are none innocent.

Now, some could argue that there are some babies or there are some people that have mental handicaps that cannot get to that place in their minds where they can understand who God is.

And we believe that God.

I believe, Let me say not we, because you might not believe this, but I do believe God extends grace to those.

But those who have come to a place in their life where they can make that judgment call.

They can make that decision.

God is going to judge them and he's going to judge them off of what?

He's going to judge them, not off of their works.

We know that because Matthew chapter seven says that there will be people there proclaiming their works to Jesus.

And he says no.

So he does not judge us off our works.

He judges us off of our faith, our relationship.

Jesus says, depart from me, you worker of iniquity.

I never knew you.

He doesn't say, I never knew you.

Never worked with, never saw you working.

You never went to church.

He says, I never knew you.

So there was a lack of a relationship there.

So, so, so just know that when we talk about Satan's end, he goes to the place that is created for him because of his rebellion.

Same place that everyone will go if they stay in that rebellion.

So Satan has from the very beginning been a defeated foe.

And we know that there is a common misconception in this world today that I, I've mentioned this multiple times.

And I think it's because it's so prevalent that God and Satan are equal foes.

And they're like this cosmic battle of good versus evil.

And we just hope at the end that God will come out on top.

That is not the case.

Every time we see God and Satan or even Jesus and Satan interacting, there's always an allowance from God for Satan to do anything that he does.

So.

So if you go to the book of Job, right, Satan basically was allowed by God to come after Job.

There's other passages of scripture that even teach that.

Luke, chapter 22, very interesting passage of scripture.

Some of you that were here in our Luke series might remember this, or he might not remember this, but it's the point in time when Simon or Peter was coming to a place in his Life where he had some pride and he thought that he was never going to deny Jesus.

And, and Jesus says, and the Lord said, simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you.

So, so Satan basically comes to God and desires to have him.

And it says that he may sift you as wheat, but I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not, and when thou art converted, strengthened thy brethren.

So the Bible says that Satan desired Peter, but it was really ultimately the power of God that held Peter in, in the grip of, of, of God's security.

And we know that, that no man can pluck us from the hand of God.

And so Satan always has to have the allowance from, from God.

And so some people might have a struggle with that.

They might say why does God allow Satan to do these things?

Again, we don't know.

But, but what I would say is this.

I would say that anytime there is a, an object of love, there must be a choice.

And so God must allow the alternative to him to be offered so that there is a choice of love.

I don't believe in robotic Christianity that everybody is forced to do this and that every decision that I've ever made was forced by God.

Some do agree with that.

But what I do believe is that there is a choice of love and therefore God has allowed for rebellion.

Therefore we see Satan, his demons and we even know that in Mark chapter five, you guys know the story when Jesus is addressing the, the demons there and they call themselves Legion.

It says, well I'll just read it for you here, I have it in my notes.

I'll just read it really quickly for you so that you can see the interaction between Jesus and these demons.

And, and he asked him, what is thy name?

And he answered saying, my name is Legion.

So remember, this individual is demon possessed.

And, and we actually find out that he's not just possessed by one demon, but multiple demons, because that's what that word legion means.

He says, for we are many and he besought him much that he would not send them away out of the country.

And so what we can see here is that the demons were pleading with Jesus.

Now, now it's interesting and we even know that they, they were they, it says verse 11.

Now there was near nigh the, the mountains of a great herd of swine feeding and all the devils beside him saying, send us into the swine.

So they, they even asked Jesus for, for permission.

And so really for reasons unknown to us, but known to God, Satan is allowed and his demons are allowed for a time to do what they will to a point.

But ultimately we know that God will judge them in, in the very end.

And, and that is what we can see through many passages in the New Testament.

First Corinthians, chapter 15 tells us that the end's going to come, that, that God the Father, after he destroys all of evil, he will reign over his people for forever.

Now we know that Satan's not going to go down lightly and we're going to get a little bit into the, the end times here.

And regardless of your viewpoint on the end times, I do believe that there are certain things in scripture that are very clear that that there will be an end, that Satan will be defeated, that Jesus will come back, and that we as believers will rule and reign with him.

The Bible speaks of a millennial kingdom.

Some people take the millennial kingdom as a figurative kingdom or an allegory, or that we're in the millennial kingdom right now.

I don't believe that because the Bible clearly says that during the millennial kingdom that Satan will be bound.

And I personally don't believe that Satan is bound right now, at least in my estimation of things.

Again, this is something that I would be love to discuss with people.

This is one of those topics in the church and in theology that can, that can become a distraction.

If we allow it to be a distraction, we can talk and debate.

But, but I think that if we allow these things to go past what the Bible clearly says and start to get into our gospel imagination, we can get ourselves in danger by our opinions.

And you know, I think it's going to be like this or I think it's going to be like this, or is it going to be this way?

You know what, I guarantee you people 50 years ago had their opinions on how all the things in Revelation were going to play out.

Well, it's going to be done this way and it's going to be done this way.

And then all of a sudden now we're 50 years later and we've got a bunch of different technology, we've got a bunch of different world climate situations, and now we have an opinion on how it would look.

And we know exactly it's going to happen soon because this is how it is.

And will it happen soon?

Maybe I believe in the imminent return of Jesus Christ.

And so I don't think that anything else has to happen for Jesus to come.

Others might argue that and that's okay.

But what I know is this.

We, we can be tempted to start to think that we know the day and the time, how it's going to be.

But I would encourage you to go to just what Scripture says.

And, and I believe that In Revelation chapter 16, again, if some of you are like, well I'd like to do a whole study in the book of Revelation, maybe at another point in time I'm trying to just hit some of these bullet point topics and try to give you some, some concept of the end times, specifically in the concept of Satan's demise.

But the Bible says that when Jesus returns, and I believe as my end times philosophy that this will happen.

After the seven years of tribulation, I believe there will be a rapture.

I believe the church will be raptured.

I believe that at that point in time there will be seven years of tribulation.

I believe at the end of the seven years of tribulation there will be a battle called the battle of Armageddon.

And we can see that in Revelation 16, 6.

And, and it says that there will be shed of blood saints and prophets, that thou has given them blood to drink for they are worthy.

And I've heard another on the Lord of the altar.

And it goes on to talk more about the Lord God being the true and righteous Judge.

Judge.

And that's there in the third vial in, in Revelation chapter 16.

But nonetheless there will be a battle of Armageddon.

It won't be much of a fight because I believe the Bible teaches that Jesus annihilates Satan and his forces just with, with his word of his mouth.

We, we can see that the Bible says that in 2nd Thessalonians chapter 2, verse 8 it says, and then shall the wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming.

And, and so I believe that this battle, this last ditch effort from Satan and all of his evil forces will be thwarted by the power of Jesus and his Word.

And after this defeat of the battle of Armageddon, Satan will be bound for a thousand years.

Revelation chapter 20, verse 3 tells us that says and cast him into the bottomless pit and shut him up and set a seal upon him that he should deceive the nations no more.

So at this point in time there will be Satan will not deceive the nations.

And, and most people that come from our stripe of thinking believe that this will be the millennial kingdom for a thousand literal years.

During this time Satan says here will not deceive the nations.

But the Bible does speak that in the millennial kingdom there will be some that do rebel so how do those people rebel without Satan's deception?

Well, their flesh, okay, because we still have that.

They're not us because we won't be there.

But those that are born and then passed into the millennial kingdom.

And those that are born in the millennial kingdom will have a fleshly nature.

Therefore they have an opportunity to reject Jesus.

And so the Bible says that during that time Satan will not deceive the nations.

Another reason why I believe that Satan is still at work right now, because I still believe that the nations are being deceived.

But it says till the thousand years shall be fulfilled, till a thousand years pass.

And after that he must be loosed a little season.

So the Bible says that after the, a thousand years, so there'll be a battle of Armageddon before the thousand year millennial reign.

And then after the thousand year millennial reign, he'll be released for a short time.

And at the end of that time, Satan will have one more rebellion against Jesus and, and his kingdom and his people.

And then at that point, Satan's forces are going to be defeated again.

And, and the Bible says, I believe It's Revelation, chapter 20, verse 10.

What will happen at that point?

This is that last, that last battle.

Satan has one last effort right there and it's, and, and this is, so this is Satan's end.

This is where his, his story is over.

Amen.

This is a good, this is a good place.

We're longing for that day.

Verse 10 it says, and the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet, again those are going to be two individuals in the end times that are going to play out Satan's plan.

It says, where the beast and the false prophet are and shall be tormented day and night, forever and ever.

So Revelation, chapter 20, verse 10 essentially tells us Satan's end, his demise.

He's cast into the lake of fire and of brimstone.

That, that's, that's the end.

And there will be eternal torment, day and night, forever and ever.

And so there's that one last final judgment of all those who have rejected Christ there in verse 11 through 15, says, and I saw a great white throne and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away.

And there was no, there was found no place for them.

And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God.

And the books were open and another book was open which was the book of life.

And the dead were judged out of Those things which were written in the books according to their works.

So, so what we can see here, a lot of people think that as a Christian, I'm going to be standing before the Great White Throne Judgment.

Christians are not going to be standing before the Great White Throne Judgment.

I don't believe we stand before the Bema seat, which happens before this.

The Great White Throne Judgment is for those who are going to be judged for their wicked deeds.

And the Bible actually says that they will be judged for their wicked deeds.

They're judged for their lack of faith, and then they're judged for their deeds.

And so no one can, no one wants to be judged for their deeds.

And so it says they're judged according to their works.

Verse 13.

And the sea gave up dead which were in it, and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them.

And they were judged every man according to their works.

And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire.

This is the second death.

And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.

So that's the end for Satan.

That's the end for his, his minions, his demons, his angels.

However, the Bible responds to it in different ways and then those that have followed the lie of the enemy.

So I know that's a lot, I know that's a lot to take in and some of you like my time frames are all messed up.

I, I, I know that and I understand that that's another study for another day.

But what I will say is I think that we can all agree, okay, if you have a difference in timeline, that's okay, we can talk about that.

But I think we can all agree of Satan's end.

And that's there in verse 10.

He's cast into the lake of fire.

He's done.

He is not going to be an everlasting creature that is going to continue on with his deception and his accusations and his evil forever.

That there will be a final judgment.

And God does, as we would say, make all things right.

And I think at the end of that time there will be a lot more understanding for believers to understand why God allowed certain things to happen, why he did what he did.

And ultimately we will there we will be on the opposite side of that in eternity in what we would call the new heaven and the new earth, ruling, reigning with Jesus forever.

And so in one sense we could say that Satan is already defeated.

The Bible speaks of the cross and the resurrection being the thing that defeat Satan.

But it, but it And I would even say this.

It's possible for us to have victory over Satan even here and now because of our standing in Jesus Christ.

God has given us all the tools that we need.

The Bible has told us to allow the Spirit to guide us.

And in so doing, we have the armor of God to protect ourselves from the wicked one.

And I want us to go to our last passage of scripture here.

And I think that this will be an important thing to see because in context to our victory, I want us to see that it's not our victory.

We can never defeat Satan on our own.

We defeat Satan by the power of God and the relationship that we have with him.

And so go to Romans chapter eight with me.

We'll, we'll kind of conclude the, the thinking here and then we'll be done.

I know two things.

One, I might have caused more questions for you about Satan and that's okay.

We are going to stop this series of asking questions because I've got a lot more questions I still got to catch up with.

So I can't open up any more official questions.

But what I will say is that if you do personally have a question about Satan, demons, hell, the end.

I would love to field those questions and answer those to the best of my ability according to Scripture.

But, but let's look here.

Romans chapter 8, starting in verse 1.

This is where we started with the idea that as the accuser of the brethren, Satan is trying to make Christians feel like there's condemnation or judgments.

There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

So when you're saved, when you're, when you believe, the Bible says there's no more condemnation.

There might be conviction to come back to a, a walk with Christ, walking in the Spirit and not in the flesh.

But the Bible says there's no more condemnation for believers and that there's nothing that can separate us from the love of God.

Romans chapter 8 is one of.

If for me, maybe not for you, But Romans chapter 8 is one of the most powerful passages of scripture for me because I am tempted to doubt, I am tempted to fear.

I am tempted to get to a place in my life where I feel like, man, I don't think I can make it.

Maybe I made a mistake.

Maybe I made too big of a mistake.

And I have to go back and read Romans chapter 8 over and over again because there's so many great nuggets of wisdom here.

I would even and take you to verse Number let's, let's see, verse number 12.

It says, Therefore, brethren, we are debtors.

Not to the flesh, to live after the flesh.

For if you live after the flesh, ye shall die.

But if he, through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.

So it's speaking of that whole thing of, of dying to our flesh, coming to the Spirit, understanding God's direction, understanding God's path.

For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.

So if you have the Spirit indwelling you, the Bible says that you are the sons of God, children of God.

This is a beautiful picture of God's adopting us into his family.

For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear.

So he says, before you had Christ, you were under the bondage of fear, because fear of my failures, fear of my inadequacies, fear of my judgment.

But it says now that you are saved, you no longer have the bondage of fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption.

So what's the spirit of adoption?

Well, it's speaking of the Holy Spirit and the relationship that we have with Christ.

And therefore, because we have a relationship with Christ, the Bible says, whereby we cry abba Father.

And abba is just the endearing term that a child would call his father at that time.

And so it's speaking of a personal relationship with God.

It says the Spirit itself beareth witness with our Spirit that we are the children of God.

So the only way that we can recognize that we are children of God is if we have the Spirit indwelling us.

And the Spirit indwells us through salvation through faith in Christ.

And so, and if children, if we are his children, then heirs, heirs, meaning we receive the things that he has, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ.

If so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.

So we are identified with Christ.

We are children of God.

Now, there's so much more that we could talk about, but I want to go to verse number.

Let's go to verse number 31, because this, there's a lot more here.

There's a lot of work.

And by the way, we're going to be having a whole study in the book of Romans coming up on Sunday mornings after Easter.

So we're going to get into all of this, all the, all the nitty gritty of the book of Romans, Romans, chapter 8, 9, 10.

If you know anything about that, there's a lot of good stuff in there.

We can't get into all of it tonight.

But look at verse number 31.

It says, what shall we say then?

What shall we then say to these things?

If God be for us, who can be against us?

So if God's for us, even if Satan's against us, it doesn't mean anything.

If God's for us, says 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 meaning?

If God gave us his son, if, if God allowed this to happen for us to come to him in faith, how much more do we need to understand how greatly he wants to give us good things in our life?

Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect?

We are God's elect.

So.

So who can accuse us?

It is God that justifieth.

No one else justifies us.

Who is he that condemneth?

It is Christ that died, yea, rather that is risen again.

Who is even at the right hand of God, who is making it, who also maketh intercession for us, who shall.

And this is where it gets good.

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ shall tribulation.

So.

So trials test no.

Or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword.

As it is written, for thy sake we are killed all the day long.

We are counted as sheep for the slaughter.

Nay or no.

In all these things we are more than conquerors.

More than conquerors.

The I.

I believe in, in the Greek.

I'm again, I'm not fluent in coin Greek, but the best that I can understand it to say, it says super conquerors, like above conquerors.

We are more than conquerors through him that loved us, through him that loved us.

For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

So the Bible very clearly teaches that even Satan, the, the evil one, the accuser of the brethren, the one who is trying to deceive the whole world, he cannot separate us from the love of God.

His demons cannot separate us from the love of God.

Some have asked, you know, can a Christian, a believer, be possessed by a demon?

And you know, I think a lot of times Hollywood has allowed us to, to get to a place where we've sensationalized that whole process.

My, my biblical defense to that is I don't believe that a demon can possess a Believer.

Why?

Because the Holy Spirit indwells us and the Holy Spirit and the demon cannot possess the same body.

And so I would say the Bible says, be not drunk in wine, whereas in excess, but be filled with the spirit.

The Bible says being filled with the spirit just basically means to allow the spirit to guide us.

And so we aren't going to have the spirit guiding us and a demon guiding us.

And then number two, I do believe that here in Romans chapter eight says nothing can separate us from the love of God.

So therefore I don't believe a demon can possess a true love Christian.

But what I do believe is that demons can affect our surroundings and, and affect our decisions, but not possess us.

But I do know that biblically speaking, I would be wrong to tell you that that is not something that is a real thing.

Like there are things in this world that we can't explain that are darkness that are evil.

But as a Christian, it's nothing that we need to fear.

It's nothing, nothing that we need to take lightly, but it's nothing that we need to fear.

And then secondly, it's not anything that we need to glorify.

I, I would say that we, and this is my, this is my challenge to you.

Okay, you could take this or leave this.

But what I will say is this, stay as far away as you can from the things of what some would call mystic dark magic or the occult or anything to do with the, the evil spirits or that, that the Bible and I, I could go down a whole other rabbit trail with that.

But the Bible speaks of all of that being a path to evil, being abominations.

And so it breaks my heart sometimes that Christians will even entertain those things and allow that to become something that is attractive or something that they want to dive deeper into.

And I've even heard of people like merging the two together, like Christians and the mystic arts and trying to do that.

Just be very, very careful with that.

And I don't want to get down a huge rabbit trail and going down specific things.

Um, but if the Bible speaks against it or if the Bible clearly teaches that this is something that is contrary to the goodness of God, if it's not part of the light.

I, I want to take you to one last, I, I, I said one last thing, but again, I'm off script now.

But I, I want you to see Philippians chapter four, because this is, this is again something very, very important for us to see.

Philippians chapter 4, verse 8.

What kind of things are Christians supposed to be thinking about, and dwelling on and, and being around.

Well, this is, it tells us here.

And you would say, well, am I supposed to be entertaining this?

Am I supposed to be thinking about this?

Am I supposed to be being involved with this?

One of the really good tests to, to go to is Philippians chapter 4, verse 8.

And it says, finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report, if there be any virtue.

And if these things, if there be any praise, think on these things.

That's what as Christians we should be filling our minds with, not with the opposite.

And so again, I just want to caution you that though I don't believe a Christian can be possessed by, by a demon or evil, I do believe that Christians can allow themselves to, to cuddle up or get close to things that Christians should not be getting close to and therefore allowing themselves to get down a path of danger and exposing themselves to things that we should not be exposed to.

And God speaks very clearly about that in the Old and, and the New Testament and, and pretty much the whole Old Testament specifically.

Even like, because some of us, including myself at some point have said this.

What do we need the Levitical law for, right?

And we, we don't live by the Levitical law.

I'm thankful for that.

I'm thankful that I'm no longer bound by the law of, of Leviticus, okay?

But the whole point of the laws in Leviticus, in Deuteronomy were that God, it was the idea that God would separate his people away from the world, like to be different than everybody else.

And the same principle is given to Christians in the New Testament.

It's just, we don't have to live by a bunch of rules and laws, but ultimately the heart of God is still that we would be separate from the things of this world, that we would be different, that we wouldn't want to look exactly like the world, that we would want to be foreign to the world, foreign to the ways of the enemy.

Because Satan is deceiving the whole world.

And so if we go the way of the world, we're just in the same path as those that are being deceived by the world.

And so, so these are all things that, that I would caution you with when we study Satan and the enemy and, and evil one.

Now again, like I said, there's, I probably scratch the surface on the study of Satan and who he is and what he has done and what he continues to do in his end.

But I wanted to at least delve into those three main topics.

If you have more questions, I would be willing to answer those.

I don't know if I'll have an answer for everything that you might ask, but, but I did want to try to address those things that sometimes are not talked about in church.

Either they're totally avoided or they're over emphasized and everything's a demon and everything's Satan.

And we want to have a really healthy viewpoint on that and understand that.

So, like I said, next week we'll be coming back with another difficult topic talking about, you know, why, why did God do this?

And we're going to talk about some things in scripture that seemingly don't make sense to us.

And you know, I think I may or may not give you guys what you want to hear because I know we all want answers.

Have you ever watched, I mean, speaking of things, you ever watched a TV show, a good one, maybe clean one?

Okay, but the idea that there's a mystery and you want to know the mystery, and they never answer the question, you're like, why didn't they resolve this?

All right, there are some times in the scriptures that we get to a place where there isn't that clear resolution of this is exactly why God did this or allowed this.

There's sometimes there is that.

I mean, I believe the book of Job is a really good one for us to see that God allowed this to happen for Job, for his glory.

And then ultimately Job was, was, was restored.

And Job was actually abundantly blessed above what he had even lost.

But, but Job didn't understand all of that.

And, and there are other things in scripture that God does or he allows or he doesn't heal or, you know, why does God do what he does?

I think that's important for us to dig into scripture and essentially what we're, I'm, I'm, I'm giving you guys too much.

But essentially what we're going to get to is this.

We don't know.

And ultimately we don't have the right to question God.

But we'll get there.

We'll get there and we'll talk about it.

Thank you again for listening to the Middletown Baptist Church podcast.

I hope that this sermon has been a blessing for you.

If you would like to find out more information about our church or this sermon, you can find us at middletownbaptistchurch.org or find us on Facebook or YouTube.

You can also email me directly at Josh Massaro at middletownbaptistchurch.

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