Know Your Enemy: The Devil’s End | Revelation 20

ThornCrown Covenant Baptist Church

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I have a slight correction to make to the sermon title today.

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The title is Know Your Enemy, The Devil's End, and The Flesh. It's going to be primarily about the devil's end today and finish up,

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Lord willing, this series on the devil. Lots of important ground to cover that I wanted to make sure that we covered so that we are fully equipped and prepared to deal with the enemy, with the devil.

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And so I'm really excited to present this to you all and I think it'll greatly, it'll be a blessing to us.

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And the scripture is not primarily 1 John, it's going to be primarily based on Revelation chapter 20, okay?

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And of course, Happy Father's Day to all the men, the fathers in our church.

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We're grateful for you all and for the blessing of having strong fathers and to our future fathers as well.

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We haven't forgotten you all either. So hey, we're trusting the Lord that the right spouse will come along and the

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Lord will bless it. So we ask for that as well. And as we've been progressing along this series, it's been a cumulative progressive series on the world, the flesh and the devil.

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The flesh is the last part of this series that we will pick up likely next

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Lord's Day. I know it's Father's Day and everything. I don't have a Father's Day message to preach about.

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The best I can do is to say that we want to make sure that our calling and election is sure and that Father God is our

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Father and not the devil, amen? So make sure that the devil is not your father.

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But with that said, is this very important stuff to address regarding our notorious enemy, regarding the devil.

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And so I want to start by sort of recapping and summarizing by concluding the eight major theses or points that I've covered since the beginning on the devil.

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Point number one was that the devil ain't dumb. The devil is not dumb.

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You know, so that's important to keep in mind. Number two is that the devil uses means.

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He uses means. He uses people, right? He uses people with unresolved issues, including believers, weak believers, unprepared believers, as well as unbelievers.

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And he also number three is that he the devil knows all of our specific weaknesses and he exploits them because the devil is a tempter.

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And number four is that the devil seeks to ensnare you with bad influences and to isolate you in your weakness.

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Number five is that the devil is a liar and a deceiver. Number six is that the devil is persistent.

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He is not a quitter. He's a winter soldier, persistent. Number seven is that the devil is insidious.

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He gradually, progressively worsens society and sinners and he makes sin progressively worse so that it becomes openly accepted.

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Like the psalm says, the wicked strut about freely when vileness is exalted among men.

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And the last one is that number eight is that the devil is a traitor, a prideful usurper, one who illegitimately takes power or control and false accuser who himself uses traitors, prideful usurpers and false accusers, all of whom will meet an untimely and well -deserved end lest they repent.

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But we know that the devil will not repent. We know where he's going. And that's what we're going to talk about today.

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So one of the principle and most precious remedies against Satan's devices is to memorize scripture and to put on the full armor of God and of light, according to Ephesians 6 and Romans 13, 12 through 14.

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And in Romans 12, the passage says, the night is almost gone and the day is at hand.

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Therefore, let us lay aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light, the armor of light, the armor of God.

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Let us walk properly as in the day, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in foolishness, not in sexual promiscuity and sensuality, not indulging our lusts or our senses, not in strife and jealousy, but put on the

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Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision whatsoever for the flesh in regard to its lusts.

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Amen. And throughout the series, I've mentioned some recommended resources for us to dig deeper into these topics.

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One of the ones I mentioned was the Screwtape Letters by C .S. Lewis, in which a senior demon is basically instructing a lesser demon on how to tempt us, how to tempt people and to try to be a snare and snare us in society as well.

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There's also books by Michael Heiser and Steve Quayle that are very much worth investigating and looking at.

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And also, highly recommend the Truth Behind Hip Hop series and videos and sermons by G.

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Craig Lewis, as well as, I would be remiss if I failed to mention the

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Puritans. Very important to be familiar with the Puritans, Thomas Brooks and his work,

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The Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices, very, very good work to be familiar with.

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And John Bunyan's The Holy War. The full title is Made by King Shaddai upon Diabolus for the

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Regaining of the Metropolis of the World, or The Losing and Taking Again of the Town of Mansoul.

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So very good, solid material that we can get and should get our hands on. Now, of course, we don't necessarily agree with all of these men or what they teach.

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We have to make sure that we discern and test everything with the scriptures, like the

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Bereans did, like the scriptures command us to do. And that is why we need both balance and discernment.

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We need balance and discernment when dealing with both of our natural and spiritual enemies and problems as well.

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As soldiers in God's army, we have duties and responsibilities to attend to for our sake, for our family's sake, for our legacy's sake, and for the church, for the good and purity of the church, while also continuing to rightly apply and distinguish the law and the gospel properly, appropriately, right context, right situation, right circumstance.

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Now, this brings me to a very important public service announcement. No one is immune to the devil's attacks,

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OK? I've run into believers that are not well -grounded in the word regarding the enemy.

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And they think that because they're saved that, well, no, what's that verse?

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No weapon formed against me shall prosper. It's like, yeah, but you have to keep that in proper context.

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We can be attacked. The devil can take a foothold in our lives if we're not careful and we're not dealing with our sin responsibly, like the

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Bible says. No one is immune from the devil's attacks. No one. Any one of us can be attacked and fall prey to the devil, to all of the enemies, to the world, the flesh, and the devil, if we're not careful, if we're not sober and vigilant.

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Every single one of us has weaknesses, especially the ultimate weakness that we all share and we all struggle with, and that is enemy number two.

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The flesh. The flesh, which I am very excited and eager to get to next in our series.

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So then, we must remain sober and vigilant because your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour always, persistently, insidiously.

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But resist him, firm in the faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished among your brethren who are in the world, but not of it, of course.

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Not of the world. And after you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, strengthen, confirm, and ground you.

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To him be might forever and ever, amen. That's 1

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Peter chapter 5, verses 8 through 11. That is an awesome and powerful gospel promise.

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He himself will restore, will strengthen, will confirm, and will ground us.

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He provides everything that we need, amen. We are not alone in this, and of course we have a role to play in this life.

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We have temptations, we struggle, we sin, but he himself is all powerful and he gives us everything that we need in Christ and in his word, his means and his sacraments.

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So we cannot lose sight of that. And we must beware of becoming overly confident or prideful, because pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall, like Proverbs 16, 18 says.

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It's like Michael the archangel. We need to learn from his example that it's not by our own power or authority or might or strength that we resist the devil, but by God's power,

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God's authority, and God's means. So to fight back, like I've been preaching this the whole series, we need

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God's remedies or the six S's. Number one being scripture, two, sound doctrine, three, the sacraments, the preaching of the word, especially in the

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Lord's Supper, baptism. Number four, self -awareness and self -denial, five, sage counsel, wise counsel, and six, spiritual warfare, including intercessory prayer.

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Very important. Now turn with me to 1 Corinthians 10, as we start in verse five, what the

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Lord has to say to us today regarding this matter, 1

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Corinthians 10. Now 1

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Corinthians 10, verse five, God's word says, Nevertheless, with most of them, them being the

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Israelites in Exodus, God was not well -pleased, for they were struck down in the wilderness.

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Now these things happen as examples for us, so that we would not crave evil things as they also crave.

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Do not be idolaters, as some of them were. As it is written, the people sat down to eat and drink and stood up to play.

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Nor let us act in sexual immorality, as some of them did, and 23 ,000 fell in a single day.

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Nor let us put Christ to the test, as some of them did, and were destroyed by the serpents.

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Nor grumble or complain, as some of them did, and were destroyed by the destroyer.

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Now these things happen to them as an example, and they were written for our instruction, upon whom the ends of the ages have arrived.

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Therefore, let him who thinks he stands take heed that he does not fall, lest he fall.

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No temptation has overtaken you, but such as is common to all of us, to man.

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But God is faithful, God is faithful, even when we are not faithful, who will not allow you, excuse me, allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able.

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But with the temptation will provide you the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it each and every single time.

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He always provides and equips us with what we need to endure, to fight back, and to resist the enemy.

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Amen? Amen. Now, to sum up this whole matter on the devil, we must answer a very important question, and that is, what is the devil's end?

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What is the devil's end? Now this has two meanings, okay?

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I mean this in two different ways, in two different senses. The first one is, what is the devil's purpose?

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What is the devil's purpose? Why is he here? Why is he still here? And the other meaning or sense is that, what is the devil's final destination?

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What is his ultimate end, his final destination? Where is he headed?

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And I was listening to John Robbins' lecture on the devil, which reminded me to bring this up from the

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Trinity Foundation. Now the devil's purpose, what is it?

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God uses the devil. Keep in mind,

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God uses the devil, amen? God uses the devil because the devil is

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God's devil. The devil is not his own man. The devil is God's devil.

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And he uses the devil and the demons as means to blind, to deceive, to harden, and to judge, reprobate men, and to abandon them to their sin.

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Like Romans 1 says, and several other places in Scripture. Because God sends upon them, upon reprobate unbelievers who will perish, a deluding influence so that they will believe what is false instead of what is true, in order that they may be judged who did not believe the truth.

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But took pleasure in unrighteousness. That's a sobering reality.

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That's from 2 Thessalonians 2 verses 11 through 12. God deludes and deceives and hardens the reprobate to judge them, to prevent them from knowing the truth and from knowing him.

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Many people reject this. They don't understand and they don't believe this. But didn't

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God harden the Pharaoh's heart? How many times did God do that? Didn't God hate

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Esau? How many times? The Scriptures are replete with these examples of reprobate men.

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In Romans 1, God abandons the wicked, reprobate world and unbelievers to their sin and the wrath of abandonment by sending them delusions and false teachers who by itching ears heap them upon themselves and incur judgment on themselves and fatten themselves up for God's slaughter and judgment.

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This is the God of the Bible, the God that we serve. It's important to know also that God is not locked in some eternal cosmic struggle between him and the devil, which is what the false teachings of dualism, also known as Manicheanism, claim.

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That's the sort of claim that there's two forces opposing each other. There's good and there's evil and they're sort of both equally opposed to each other.

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And that is a blatantly false understanding of the world, of reality.

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And take note that consistent Arminianism and the belief in free will also leads to this type of dualism or open theism because the result is just a bunch of free wills doing whatever they want to do.

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The devil is doing what he wants, God is doing what he wants or what he's trying to do. See, in this world view,

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God has to try to do things. He's not powerful enough to actually accomplish them. He has to try to do things and we have free will and we can do whatever we want.

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And we can override God's will at any point. And so this leads to an ultimate denial, ultimately to a denial of God's omniscience and power.

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It's heresy. That is why the canons of Dorr historically condemned Arminianism because consistent

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Arminianism leads to heresy, blatant denial and heresy of God, God's attributes of omniscience and omnipotence.

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Now, but do not be deceived, beloved. God has complete, sovereign and absolute control of the devil and all his devices and minions and so on and so forth.

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Just as he has complete, sovereign and absolute control of everyone and everything.

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Everything. Amen? God uses the devil also to test us, to test us, to refine us, to bring those issues to light that we are not necessarily addressing, to humble us, to sanctify us believers.

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And if you have any doubts about that, just look at the book of Job chapter 1.

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Amen? Have you not considered my servant Job? Who did he tell this to?

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He told this to the devil himself. So, God has a purpose for it.

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Now, the ultimate purpose of the devil then is to carry out

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God's will, God's plan, God's purpose,

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God's predestined will, sovereign providence to bring glory to himself, especially in his satisfaction of justice, which brings us to the devil's second end, which is his final destination.

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What is his final destination? What is the devil's final destination, his ultimate destination?

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Now, the short answer, according to Scripture, is that fire will come down from heaven and devour him and his followers after the thousand year millennial reign of Christ on earth.

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So, hallelujah. It's that simple. And so, this dualism of how

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God is trying to cast his vote for your salvation and the devil is trying to cast his vote for your damnation.

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The devil doesn't choose anybody, not without God's consent.

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God is the one who chooses who to save and who to damn. He is the one who deludes unto damnation and softens unto salvation.

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Amen? Very clear. Jesus himself taught in the parables. To you it was given to know these things, eternal life, but to them it wasn't given.

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That's why I speak to them in parables, so that seeing they may not see and hearing they may not understand, seeing they may not perceive.

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God is, he has a purpose for everything, even the wicked for the day of doom, like Proverbs 16 verse 4 says.

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So, turn with me now to Revelation 20, to our main text. I'm very excited to dig into this together and find out what the

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Lord's word has to say to us regarding this important matter.

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Revelation chapter 20, starting at the beginning in verse 1. Now, God's word says,

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Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, having the key of the abyss and a great chain in hand.

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Keep this in mind, okay? And he laid hold of the dragon, the serpent of old.

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From Genesis, remember? Flashback. Who is the devil and Satan. In other words, he subdued him completely and bound him.

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He bound him up for a thousand years and he threw him into the abyss and shut it and sealed it over him so that he would not deceive the nations any longer.

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Not until the thousand years were finished. Notice the emphatic emphasis, the verbs that the word uses to describe the binding of Satan during the millennial thousand -year reign.

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Now, let's continue. Let's continue on to verse 3.

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After these things, he must be released for a short time. Then I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was given to them.

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And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their witness of Jesus and because of the word of God, and who also had not worshipped the beast or his image and had not received the mark on their forehead and on their hand.

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These, in other words, are true believers who belong to Christ. And they came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.

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They came to life. They were resurrected, in other words. This is the first resurrection.

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That's the first one. Number one, blessed and holy is the one who has a part in this first resurrection.

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Over these, the second death, which is the lake of fire, according to verse 14, has no authority, has no claim.

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In other words, all believers partake in the first resurrection. And their final destination is not the lake of fire.

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It's the glorious new heavens and the new earth. Amen? By faith alone in Christ alone, through his salvation, and his work, and his life, his perfect life and death on the cross.

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So, and they will reign. I forgot.

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Okay, let's finish the end of that verse. Over these, the second death has no authority.

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In other words, all believers will partake in the first resurrection, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and will reign with him for a thousand years.

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Okay? For a thousand years. Now, and when the thousand years are finished,

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Satan will be released from his prison temporarily, and will come out to deceive the nations once again, which are in the four corners of the earth,

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Gog and Magog, to gather them together for the war. The number of them is like the sand of the seashore.

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And they came up on the broad plain of the earth, and surrounded the camp of the saints in the beloved city, the beloved city, which is

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Jerusalem. And fire came down from heaven, and devoured all of them in one fell swoop, destroyed them.

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And the devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are also.

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And they will be tormented day and night forever and ever. Amen. This is the

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Lord, the devil's final destination. He is going to lose, and he knows it.

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He knows his time is short. His end, in other words, as well as his followers' end, those whom he deceived and he betrayed, and he uses up and chews up and spits out, will be according to their evil deeds.

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Notice that this verse also clearly refutes annihilationism or conditionalism, which is the belief that you only suffer temporal punishments in hell, and that God extinguishes you, and you cease to exist completely.

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That is a false teaching. The Bible says here very clearly, they will be tormented day and night forever and ever without stopping.

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And that applies to those who are also his followers, all the unbelievers who, like Thessalonians say, will be inflicted by the avenging fire of God, inflicting vengeance on all those who obey not the gospel, who believe not the gospel.

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And by that, of course, it's the command to believe the gospel. We have to distinguish the law and gospel properly.

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The gospel does not command. The gospel is a promise. But the command to believe the gospel is there.

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Everyone is called, all men everywhere are called to repent and believe the gospel.

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That is a command, and we must believe the gospel. And so that's something we must have a proper understanding of.

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Unbelievers will neither expire nor cease to exist. They will suffer the second death in eternal conscious punishment in the lake of fire.

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Conscious. Death does not mean that you are no longer conscious. That is false. The Bible says we were dead in our trespasses and sins.

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We were still conscious. Death is not a failure to be conscious.

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The second death is eternal conscious torment. We must understand that rightly. Now, this takes us back to the earlier sermon

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I preached on the history of the devil's devices. Recall that the standard reformed confessional view of eschatology, which is the study of last things or of final things, the last days, is called amillennialism or postmillennialism, which is an extended, more optimistic version of amillennialism.

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And that is very blatantly contradictory of several passages in Scripture, 2

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Timothy 3, which says, In these last days perilous times will come. Things will get worse.

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Men will become lovers of selves, abusers of men, haters of God and of parents and murderers and adulterers and all these things.

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Things are getting worse, not better. And there's also going to be apostasy, as we are experiencing before our very eyes.

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Apostasy as well. So amillennialism and postmillennialism both deny a literal thousand -year millennial reign of Christ on the earth.

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That we just read in Revelation 20. Because they instead claim that the thousand years mentioned in there is only figurative or a metaphor for this present current age.

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Since according to them, Christ is already reigning in his kingdom through the church and through the gospel.

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Okay, so both views also deny that there are two literal physical resurrections.

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The first being of the just and the second being of the unjust, which is what we just read.

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And instead they claim that according to the Westminster Larger Catechism in question 87, that at the last day, there shall be a single general resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust, when they that are found alive shall in a moment be changed and the selfsame bodies of the dead, which were laid in the grave, being then again united to their souls forever, shall be raised up by the power of Christ.

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The bodies of the just, by the spirit of Christ, and by virtue of his resurrection as their head, shall be raised in power, spiritual, incorruptible, and made like to his glorious body.

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And the bodies of the wicked shall be raised up in dishonor by him as an offended judge.

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So that is what the reform standards teach, which is amillennialism.

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So, they also teach in question 88 that immediately after the single resurrection shall follow one general and final judgment of both angels and all men, including believers.

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So, this is important to understand. This view collapses the two resurrections of the just and the unjust into a single resurrection of both the just and unjust.

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And therefore collapses, truncates, or denies the millennial reign of Christ that is in between the two resurrections according to Revelation 20.

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You have the resurrection of the unjust first, then the millennial reign of a thousand years, and then the resurrection of the unjust.

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Okay? That's what Revelation 20 explains. Now, consequently, this raises several issues.

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Okay? Several issues. Because amillennialism teaches that Satan is already bound.

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Right now, he's already bound. And he was bound at the beginning of the present millennial time in the

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New Covenant. And he will be released at the end in the last judgment.

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So, okay? Now, postmillennialism teaches that Satan is being bound progressively by the preaching of the gospel throughout the world.

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Alright, so these are the two views that primarily make up the Reformed faith.

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But we have to scrutinize this and examine these things with the

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Scriptures. Because contrary to both amillennialism and postmillennialism, the devil is simply not bound yet.

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He is not bound. At all. He is not bound.

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We need to rightly understand this. Because if we don't understand this properly, we are going to be deceived and fall prey to the devil and his devices.

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Okay? Now, both of these views claim that the preaching of the gospel they basically claim that the preaching of the gospel binds the devil.

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That has the effect of binding the devil. Or, that the

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Son of God was manifested on the earth for this purpose. To destroy the works of the devil.

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That's 1 John 3 .8. Now, that is true. But what does it mean? Okay? Because they also say they tend to claim that demonic activity and possession are no longer a problem.

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Because the devil is either already completely bound in the abyss, in chains, or is being increasingly bound through the preaching of the gospel and the progressive dominion of Christians on the earth.

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However, if you pay careful and close attention, you might spot the fatal flaws in both of these views.

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Okay? While both of these views Well, no, I'm sorry. While there is no doubt that preaching the gospel is spiritual warfare.

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It is spiritual warfare. And it is taking the offensive and fighting against the devil and his dominion.

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It nevertheless does not actually bind the devil himself.

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Nor does it shut him up or lock him up in the abyss. Like Revelation 20 clearly says.

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Okay? We need to rightly understand this. It is also not a progressive binding up.

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It is not a process. Because an angel Let's go back to Revelation 20.

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And you see, an angel, it is an angel that specifically binds

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Satan and locks him up in the abyss in chains at a distinct point in time.

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And he is not bound by the preaching of the gospel. It is not the gospel that bounds him.

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And this is what so many Reformed folks say. It is wrong. It is an error.

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The binding of Satan is before the millennial reign by the angel who takes the key locks him up and binds him up in the abyss in there so that he cannot do anything including deceive the nations any longer.

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Okay? So, there is likewise a similar problem with both views, the premill view and the amill view understanding of the first resurrection.

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Because both views deny that the first resurrection is a literal physical resurrection at a distinct point in time.

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At the same time. And instead, they spiritualize it or symbolize it as the progressive process of the regeneration and conversion of all believers through the preaching of the gospel.

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At different points in time. Because we were all saved at different points in time, right?

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I wasn't saved at the same time you were. We were all saved at different points in time.

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So there's no one point at which this happened. And that is a contradiction a stark contradiction to what

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Revelation 20 clearly says. So, these are bad arguments.

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They are bad hermeneutics. It's unsound, unbiblical interpretation. Because it contradicts scripture in several places which results in painting a false reality and a false understanding of the enemy.

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You cannot consistently affirm that one resurrection is a distinct physical resurrection that happens at the same time while spiritualizing the other resurrection at various points in time in the individual conversions of all believers.

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Because the Bible explicitly parallels both of them as the same type of event.

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As the same type of resurrection. At one point in time. At the same event in that time.

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And it is a physical, literal resurrection. Okay? It is a literal, physical resurrection at one point in time.

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In the first resurrection before the millennial reign and the second resurrection after the millennial reign of the unjust.

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It's very clear. The first resurrection happens and then the millennial reign commences.

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These are fixed points in time. And then the second resurrection happens will not happen until the millennial reign ends at a fixed point in time.

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So, this now brings us to bringing this together.

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And likewise, the binding of Satan and locking him up in the abyss which is prison.

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Okay? That's like Tartarus. It is a prison. It is a dark dungeon locked up in chains.

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Remember, the angel got chained with him. Locked up Satan so that he cannot do anything.

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He cannot deceive the nations. Okay? It is a stark contradiction to what the Bible clearly reveals.

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and he was bound at a specific point in time.

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A distinct point in time rather than a progressive process of binding him to the preaching of the gospel.

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That is not what binds him. Okay? We have to just think clearly and see what the

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Bible clearly says. It clearly says something at face value that we need to take very plainly.

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We cannot spiritualize things like Origen did and made a mess of the Bible and led to some serious problems including his own castration.

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Because he said, Hey, well, some of us are made to be eunuchs so I'm going to make myself a eunuch and snip, snip.

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It's like that's not you don't take that literally. Okay? We need sound hermeneutics.

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Amen? This is serious consequences. It's serious. So, now, to which

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I now ask you. Okay? Judge for yourselves and ask yourselves this.

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Is the devil still deceiving the nations today? Is the devil still deceiving nations today?

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All you have to do is turn the TV on. Okay? It's not hard to see.

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Just turn the TV on. Look what you see. Even in churches, you see the devil trying to get his way back into the church.

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That is what the Bible explicitly warns us about all throughout the New Testament.

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Satan's devices and deceptions are everywhere. Literally everywhere.

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Because preaching the gospel, this is important. Okay? This is very important. Primary point of contention here.

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Because preaching the gospel or even casting out demons or even resisting the devil by defending ourselves against him and fighting him back.

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None of those things makes the devil bound.

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Those don't bound him into the abyss. The only thing that does is make the devil and the demons flee or run away.

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Okay? According to James 4 -7. Remember?

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That's the verse I've been using for many of these sermons. You resist the devil.

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Resist the devil. Why? So that he will flee from you.

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Now that doesn't mean he's running to the dungeon. He's running so he can go harass somebody else.

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Okay? That's what he's doing. He is not bound. Okay? How do you make sense of that?

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He's prowling around like a roaring lion constantly, insidiously persistently seeking someone to devour.

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And this warning is for us. He's seeking us to devour. Even those of us who have embraced the gospel.

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The devil still goes after us. The gospel does not bind him. That is not the purpose of the gospel.

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Okay? We need to rightly understand the purpose of the gospel. It is not for that.

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Very important to understand rightly. Now, none of these things, okay, actually bind the devil or the demons.

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Because they will simply continue to prowl around, to sneak around, and wander in waterless places, like Scripture says.

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Waterless places looking for another victim to attack.

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Or sometimes the same victim to attack and oppress and in some cases possess.

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Because they still have the temporary freedom to do those things. Right? Because Jesus explains that when an unclean spirit goes out of a man, it passes through waterless places seeking rest.

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That is a reference to the flood. Okay? When God judged the Nephilim. He judged the giants.

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Wiped them out. The entire earth. And judged the Nephilim and their spirits came out of the

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Nephilim and that is what is now demons. Okay? That is what it's referring to. Waterless places.

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They're avoiding judgment. They're trying to stay away from the judgment of the waterless places that they receive.

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Because now they seek rest and does not find it.

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He does not find it. And then it says, I will return to my house from which

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I came. And when it comes, it finds it unoccupied, swept, then put in order.

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He's talking about the body that he left. The person that he left. Then it goes and takes along with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself.

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And they all go in and live there. And the last state of that man becomes worse than the first.

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That is the way it will also be with this evil generation.

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Okay? That's Matthew 12, 43 to 45. Jesus just said the exact opposite of what these views claim.

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He said the opposite. An evil spirit leaves and in certain cases, it will come back with seven worse spirits on you.

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If we are not careful. If we do not let the foot if we do not equip ourselves with the armor of God and not give the enemy a foothold.

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It will come back worse. We have to rightly understand scripture.

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Okay? This is clear what Jesus is warning us. In this evil generation.

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This is happening now. Okay? He is not bound.

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The devil is not bound yet. We need to understand that. And neither are the demons.

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The fallen Nephilim spirits. You know, this kind of reminds me of a scene from the movie

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The Passion of the Christ. And you know what? I can't recommend the movie. It was not a good representation of the gospel and what happened.

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But there was a scene there that kind of struck me as that looks somewhat like it may have been somewhat accurate.

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And it's the part where Jesus Christ dies and I guess he rises again.

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And at the very end the devil is like screaming. He's like holding his head up and he's like, ah, he's screaming because it's like, oh man, like I thought killing

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Jesus was gonna defeat him. And he realized that no, it only made things worse for him because Christ now took that dominion from the enemy from the devil that we lost in Adam because the devil took that dominion by tempting them to sin.

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And so that kind of reminds me of that. That scene of how the devil was furious at Christ's triumph on the cross because he came to destroy the works of the devil.

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And it's also similar to the Chronicles of Narnia. It's a good novel, a

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Christian novel where the lion Aslan represents Christ and the witch of the, the witch of, oh gosh,

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I'm going to blank. The witch of, I forget her name, but the witch and all her little goblins and demons are trying to plot against Aslan and Aslan says, or Aslan says because they had a claim on the kids, on the kids that were there, and Aslan offers himself instead.

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And he says, oh yeah, great. And they're like drooling at the mouth, waiting to kill

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Aslan, the lion. Little did they realize that they misunderstood the prophecy that in killing him, it was going to break the curse and bring him back to life.

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And so they were shocked and they were furious because Christ conquers death, hell, the grave, and destroys the works of the enemy on the cross.

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But that does not mean that Satan is bound yet. Okay? Very important to understand and distinguish properly.

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So, this is where we need to rightly de -systematize and put together sound doctrine so to avoid dangerous consequences and false understandings that can lead to, that can lead to very serious spiritual consequences.

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Besides, okay, now follow me here, okay? Let's take a little trek on the biblical path.

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Let's jump back to scripture here. How is it that the devil could be bound when the

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Bible repeatedly warns us to resist the devil himself? James 4, 7.

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Because he, our present adversary, our adversary, the devil prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour.

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1 Peter 5, 8. The Bible even says that the gospel itself is veiled to those who are perishing.

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Why? In whose case, the god of this age, the devil has blinded, actively deceived.

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I thought the devil was no longer deceiving the nations. What's that about? Blatant contradiction here.

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The devil of this, the god of this age, the devil, has blinded, actively deceived the minds of the unbelieving so that they may not see the light of the gospel.

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But I thought the gospel was binding the devil, wasn't it? I thought the gospel was binding the devil.

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This is saying the opposite is going on. That the god of this age is blinding minds to prevent them from believing the gospel of the glory of Christ who is the image of God.

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Amen? 2 Corinthians 4, verses 3 -4. This is so plain.

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It is a plain contradiction to the scripture. Okay? I hope we can close this case out.

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It is so plain what the bible teaches. We must embrace the plain teaching of scripture.

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So what is, like, how do you reconcile that according to those views? I mean, did the devil come out of the abyss somehow?

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Did the angel not do a good job of wrapping him up and chaining him up? Look at again what it says in Revelation 20.

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Look at the emphatic verbs used. How it says that the angel the angel has the key of the abyss and a great chain in his hand.

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And he laid hold he subdued the devil, the dragon and Satan and subdued him and bound him for a thousand whole years.

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No chance of escape. No parole. No nothing. No visits. No nothing.

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And threw him into the abyss. Cast him into it and shut it and sealed it over him so that he would not deceive the nations any longer until until the thousand years were finished.

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Okay? That is emphatic. The emphasis is clear in scripture.

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It's telling us something. Literal. So, what does this bring us to then?

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I mean was he, was this lion let out of his cage? I mean what is going on?

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It makes no sense. It makes no sense of what the Bible says. Even Ephesians 6 12 states plainly that we do not wrestle against flesh and blood but against the rulers, the authorities, the cosmic or world powers world rulers over this present darkness.

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This present darkness. Who is causing this present darkness? Who is the prince of the power of the air?

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Who is the god of this world? It's the devil. It's the devil himself who is ruling over this present darkness against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

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It's very clear. 1 John chapter 5, 19 we know that we are from God and the whole world the whole world currently lies in the power of who?

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The evil one. The devil. Therefore, we must deny the doctrine of the general resurrection of the dead in favor of two distinct literal physical resurrections.

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The first of the just before the millennial reign. The second of the unjust after the millennial reign.

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The scriptures are unequivocally clear and we must rightly understand this in order to make sense of our enemy, the devil who is not bound who is attacking us even now.

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Okay? And like I said, resurrection of the just before the millennial reign of Christ and the resurrection of the unjust after the millennial reign and before the great white throne final judgment.

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Okay? Very important. Very important. So make no mistake.

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As Christians, we are commanded to engage in spiritual warfare against evil supernatural forces, against the devil who is not bound yet.

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The angel has not bound him in the abyss yet. These evil forces are also not the fallen watchers or angels who fell because they're locked up in Tartarus.

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They are the spirits of the Nephilim, the demons, the offsprings of the fallen watcher angels and human women from Genesis 6.

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And the demons are a continuation of the devil's offspring, the devil's devices, all throughout the

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Old Testament and the New Testament. A prophetic continuation of the war with the seed of the woman who is

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Christ against the spiritual seed which are all of us believers. The devil himself is still after us and we must fight him and resist him.

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And remember that even though the devil and his minions are trying to beat us and destroy us, resist him and he will flee and we will be sanctified and edified and strengthened by it.

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Amen? We will be strengthened and edified by it. So, part of the issue is that in the

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Gospel of John chapter 5, we see Jesus talking about this very thing.

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And this is where the primary text of the general resurrection of the dead instead of two resurrections comes from.

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It says in John 5 verse 25 Truly, truly, I say to you a time is coming and even now has arrived when the dead will hear the voice of the

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Son of God and those who hear will live. For just as the Father has life in himself, so he gave to the

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Son also to have life in himself. And he gave authority to execute judgment and because he is the

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Son of Man. Okay? Do not be amazed at this, for a time will come when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and will come out.

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Those who did good deeds to a resurrection of life and those and those who did and those who committed the bad deeds to a resurrection of judgment.

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I can do nothing on my own as I hear I judge. So, okay? So this is where some take the view that, well, it's one resurrection of the just and of the unjust.

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But no, even in here you can see that Christ is distinguishing there is the resurrection of life of the just who did good deeds whose life was an evidence of good works because they believed the gospel and those who committed the bad deeds to a resurrection of judgment.

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It's a distinct resurrection of judgment as opposed to a distinct resurrection of life in which we will reign with Christ during the thousand years on earth.

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Okay? Very important to have a good understanding of.

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So, I hope that really helped and blessed us with this. In fact,

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I know this really excited me because I was really excited to dig into this and to really try to make sense of this and put it all together.

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So, let's close this series on our enemy the devil. And of course the devil, it's not like I'm going to stop preaching about the devil.

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Right? This is just the conclusion to this specific series. But, I want to close out with some gospel saturated promises of victory and encouragement.

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The first is from 2 Thessalonians 3 verses 1 -5.

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Finally, brothers, pray for us that the word of the Lord will spread rapidly and be glorified just as it did also with you.

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And we will be rescued from perverse and evil men. For not all have faith.

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Not all believe. Right? Because the devil twists and perverts the minds and darkens and blinds the minds of unbelievers to prevent them from believing the gospel.

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So, but the Lord is faithful who will strengthen.

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God is faithful who will strengthen and guard you from the evil one. And we have confidence in the

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Lord about you, that you are doing and will continue to do what we command. And may the

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Lord direct your heart into the love of God and into the steadfastness of Christ himself.

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Praise God for that. God is the one who is faithful. God is the one we have confidence in.

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And God is the one who directs us into His love and His steadfastness of His Son.

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Amen? Now, this next verse is my favorite verse that I've mentioned before.

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In Romans chapter 16 verses 19 to 20. For your obedience is known to all so that I rejoice over you.

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But I want you to be wise as to what is good and innocent as to what is evil. This is exactly what this series has been about.

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The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your very feet.

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The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen to that.

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That is true objective peace when the evil is eradicated.

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Excuse me. I just get so excited about this.

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So, we must rightly understand

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Satan will be crushed under our feet. But that hasn't happened yet. And now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling who is able to keep you and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy to the only

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God our Savior through Jesus Christ our Lord be glory, majesty, might, and authority before all time now and forever.

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Amen. That's a powerful passage. I think that's one of my new life verses now.

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Jude chapter 1 verses 21 to 24. This is so important to bear in mind. God will make us stand.

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God will keep us from stumbling and make us stand in the presence of His glory blameless.

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We are not going to face the final judgment. We don't have a judgment because Christ paid the judgment already.

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He was judged on the cross for us. And we will stand in His glory, in His presence blameless with great joy because of His glory,

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His might, His majesty, His authority, His power. And all God's people said,

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Amen to that. Let's close out then with a word of prayer. Our precious almighty

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Father and Lord we thank you so much Lord for the awesome power of your word and of how clearly you've exposed for us the enemy the world, the flesh and the devil himself.

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Lord help us to take these truths to light and to apply them into our lives Father God. Help us to rightly distinguish the enemy and to understand what

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His agenda is and what your plans for Him are. To rightly understand that He is not bound yet.

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That we must continue to engage in spiritual warfare to resist Him because we know that He prowls around like a roaring lion trying to devour us.

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Even those of us who have already believed the gospel and embrace the gospel and who share the gospel and preach the gospel and advance your kingdom.

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Lord the enemy is an ever present one who continues to persistently and insidiously go after us.

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And so we must never lose heart and lose faith and lose sight of that very thing.

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We must constantly strive to put on the full armor of God Lord. Help us Father to do these things and to embrace your means of deliverance

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Father God. We thank you Lord and we ask these things. We also ask that you help us to embrace the joy and the importance of spiritual and intercessory prayer for each other

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Lord. To pray for each other in all of our situations and hardships and spiritual attacks from the enemy himself.

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From the devil and the demons. Lord help us to embrace these things and to do these things as a church

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Lord decently and in order. In Christ Almighty name we pray. Our almighty

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Savior and Deliverer and Intercessor who brings us and makes us to stand in the final day in your glory.

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In Jesus mighty name we pray. Amen. Thank you for listening to the sermons of Thorn Crown Covenant Baptist Church where the

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Bible alone and the Bible in its entirety has applied to all of faith and life. We strive to be biblical, reformed, historic, confessional, loving, discerning

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Christians who evangelize, stand firm in, and earnestly contend for the Christian faith.

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If you're looking for a church in the El Paso, Texas area or for more information about our church, sermons, and ministries such as Semper Reformanda Radio and Thorn Crown Network Podcast, please contact us at thorncrownministries .com