Satan and Endtimes — Leonard Ravenhill

Again our Father as we come into thy courts, we have already offered thee praise and gratitude from our hearts. We thank you for these discordant hearts of ours that you've brought into harmony with yourself and with your will.

We confess that too long we've been of the earth earthy and we long that we may be more heavenly that as we have sung often but not always realize the things of the earth may grow strangely dim. We thank you for the grace you've given us in another week.

We thank you for every temptation that we have overcome. We thank you for every trial that we have endured. We thank you for every experience which has been enriching to us and brought us to realize more of your benevolence, your love, your greatness, your majesty.

We think of those who grovel around in the world about us without God, without hope. There are millions who still sit in the darkness in the shadow of death. There are millions in that area your word speaks of, the habitations of cruelty and the places of evil where the light of the glorious gospel is not yet gone.

There are areas where this light once shone and the light has become dim and in some place even extinguished. We thank you for everything today that in any way has brought light, illumination to those who sit in darkness, for those who at this very moment perhaps are in prison cells, for those who go down the jungle path perhaps discouraged, stammering through a new language they've hardly mastered, their bodies perhaps tortured by food that they're not used to eating, almost crushed by the environment of heathenism and darkness where the powers of darkness and rebellious spirits hold empire over the souls of men.

We don't know how you do it but we pray that if Jesus tarries that out of this very meeting somewhere will be birthed that we reach those areas of darkness where too long satan has been lord and master and governor.

We're amazed not just at your patience with those in heathen darkness but we're amazed at your patience with the church so-called sleepy and careless and indifferent that two thousand years after Jesus died and rose again from the dead, after he led captivity captive and gave gifts unto men, our feet have been like lead, we have not mounted up with wings as eagles, we have not run and not been without becoming weary, we have not walked without fainting, we have spent I guess all of us most more time on ourselves, more money on ourselves, more interest on ourselves than we should.

But lord we ask thee this afternoon, perhaps we don't know what we ask, but we ask lord Jesus as you walked in the midst of the seven golden candlestick walk in our midst this afternoon, we would say Samuel thy servant when he was disturbed from sleep speak lord for thy servant hear us.

I think of Wesley's word when he said oh for a trumpet voice on all the world to call. We would like to send a shattering message to every lost soul in the universe this afternoon that there is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins and sinners plunged beneath that flood can lose all their guilty stains.

But whether a man is a dying thief or a living thief he can rejoice to see this fountain in this day and there may he though vile as he wash all his sins away. We thank you for giving us this word, we thank you it is a miracle book, it's a miracle it's been preserved to this day by the attacks that have been made on it, by the volumes that have been written against it, by the speeches that men have declared against it and yet we thank you that it shines as clearly as the beautiful sun shines today.

We thank you that it's your word and therefore it's indestructible just as your church is your church and it's indestructible. We thank you for something permanent in the world that's constantly changing.

We thank you for this truth in the midst of a thousand voices of error. We pray thee open our eyes that we may behold wondrous things out of thy law. Open our ears as we sing sometimes that we may hear voices thy voice of truth that thou send us clear.

Make this word to us what we need this afternoon if lethargic stir us by it, if we have open wounds heal us by it, if the path has become dark illuminate us by it, if we have become weak strengthen us by it.

Above all help us to see as we've already sung in this majestic hymn that very soon the tables are going to be turned and the kingdoms of this world will become the kingdoms of our God and of his Christ and he shall reign forever and ever whose right it is to take the throne.

We thank you Lord Jesus for shedding your blood for us. We thank you this afternoon for sitting at the right hand of the majesty on high. We thank you that you are the king eternal invisible God only wise in light inaccessible and hidden from our eyes and yet thou art the unchanging God.

We believe we live in the most dark cruel age that the world has ever known and Satan strives with all his mastery to bring destruction to our generation. But we thank you that we have a risen Christ an exalted Christ.

You've told us that all power is his that everything is under his feet. We pray that this may quicken our hearts and send us out with a love that burns and blazes for thee. That in this last day we shall witness that blessed holy promise of your word that you will pour out your spirit on all flesh.

Just as the sun is shining this afternoon on the wicked and on the righteous, on the clean and the unclean, on men who are captives and men who are free. So we believe that you're going to give us this great final demonstration as we say so often a Pentecost that will out Pentecost, Pentecost.

To give us a great last harvest for Jesus who deserves all the praise and all the glory. We thank you then we shall join in the everlasting song and we shall crown him Lord of all. We thank you for hearing us we thank you for blessing your word to our hearts in Jesus name.

We started last week in the epistle of Paul to the Ephesians chapter 6. Ephesians chapter 6 reading from verse 10. Finally brethren be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armor of God that ye may be able to stand able to stand against the wiles of the devil.

For we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities against powers against the rulers of the darkness of this world against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day and having done all to stand.

This is a very simple observation but to me a very challenging observation that this chapter begins in the nursery and ends in the armory. We have an awful lot of people who want to stay in the nursery.

The apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthians and said he had to feed them with milk and not with meat because he said you're not able to bear it. Now there is a very glamorous interpretation of the spiritual life which is a novelty.

You can't find it in history but you'll find it today. It's all excitement and goose pimples. It's all sugar and spice and all that's nice. It's very far removed from this chapter that we have here which is a chapter speaking of strife and speaking of contention.

There's a double warning here in verse 11 it says put on the whole armor of God. In verse 13 it says wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God. All our defense is revealed to us in this chapter. There's a recognition here again that there's a contention.

We wrestle not against flesh and blood. We do not have an obvious enemy. We do not have a visible enemy. We have an enemy but nobody knows how old he is. Nobody knows how strong he is. Nobody knows what resources he has.

He's greater than man but he's less than God. He's supernatural but he's not supreme. He's mighty but he's not almighty. I suppose there never has been a warrior like the apostle Paul that is in the spiritual realm and as I've said so very often a man with a with an experience is never at the mercy of a man with an argument.

There's a poem and I don't know who wrote it and I can't for the moment connect it in my mind but the theme of the poem is this. What an embarrassment it will be as a believer to get to heaven without scars.

We're in a warfare and while again this uniform if you want to call it that this this armor that is described here is usually considered for the defensive and yet men did not go to war without their armor and then when they the enemy began to pursue them run home and put the armor on.

That's just a bit too late. We need this whole armor of God. You remember that when the tomb of Israel were warned of the enemy of death that was coming over them that they had to take a lamb and they had to spill the blood.

It wasn't enough to kill the lamb that was partly obedient partial obedience. It wasn't enough to take the blood and put it there in a vessel and keep it in the house and give a signal to the angels going past we've done as we were to the blood must be put over the lintel and over the doorpost.

Now if we had a condition like that in our discipleship if you were told that it was dangerous to go through that door tomorrow morning without putting the blood over the lintel and the doorpost we would do that.

But you see so very often we rush out into a hostile world, a terrifying world. I've said before that I've been asked very often like every preacher do you think we're living in the last days and I say definitely not.

We're not living in the last days we're living in the last moments. We may be living in the last seconds as God counts time or if he counted in our time. I had a man came to see me yesterday he stayed about seven hours and he's a very well-informed man on international affairs.

He's investigated government documents and he's photographed all kinds of things and he almost left me with a with a big cloud hanging over my head except that he did confirm what I have felt for very long.

Brother Herb said to me the other day how long do you think we have before the kind of the curtain falls? And I said well I think maybe five years at the very most ten years. This man said to me you know I think that two and a half years from now we'll have ended all our liberties.

No no we're not going to be invaded by communism that's not the thing. We have a warfare that began in the heavenlies and it still is there in the heavenlies and it's been manifest in so many other countries but it's been manifest more and more secretly here in our country.

This man suggested that within two years we'll have a health program which means that everybody will carry a plastic card. Now now that's the very way that Russia overtook the and stole the the privacy of people in that nation many years ago.

I said to you before and he confirmed this I guess in five years we'll have a cashless society. You can't spend money nobody will accept it. You'll have to have a card with a number on it and if you if you submit that if you don't submit that card and you say well look I happen to have convictions as a Christian this is an anti-Christ system and but but remember I have a wife and four children at home and they're going to starve if you don't feed me and he says listen I have a wife and four children and I'll starve if I do feed you.

So I have the choice of letting you starve with your children or I starve because I help you. Now that may sound unreasonable. I'm quite sure it's in the offering. As a matter of fact I have a secret suspicion that in Europe before very long they'll not only devalue currency they'll abolish it.

Italy is on the brink of financial disaster. We keep giving her an injection. She's not going to make it. The papacy said last year that if the if the communists got a heavy vote this year that they would begin designing a cathedral in Jerusalem it would be a duplicate of Notre Dame Cathedral.

You see the Jews have a seat on the United Nations because they're established as a nation. No no no the pope says they're not a nation. They don't own Jerusalem. It's the holy city. I'm the holy father.

That's my city. I don't recognize the Jews and there's an antagonism there. It's another interesting thing to me and I'm not not nationalistic in this. We're going to give the Jews another billion dollars but we're going to sell Taiwan down the river apparently.

There are three million Jews in Israel. There are 13 million people in Taiwan and a very aggressive healthy spiritual church there. But we can do without 13 million people in order to establish some relationship with China and uh as much as we don't like Cuba we'd like to make a deal with her even though she has some soldiers in Angola.

Now now this is all a mix-up isn't it? Sure it is. But it shows you the affairs of men. You see there are two kingdoms. The kingdoms of our kingdom of Jesus Christ and the kingdoms of this world. Now we're not fighting a visible enemy.

If the devil was a visible enemy I'd uh sell my car and my house and give a donation towards making atom bombs to blow him off the face of the earth. But unfortunately he's not a visible enemy. And you remember that Jesus is talking in the in the 14th chapter of Luke.

He says this, what king going to war or making war against another king, sitteth not first down to consult whether he be able with 10 ,000 to meet him that come up against him with 20 ,000. Now now what you have to do with your enemy obviously in fighting a battle you have to know who he is, where he is, what strength he has, find his strategy, outmaneuver him and either go headlong into battle with him or back off and say well no chance.

It's too much for us. Now we're lining up the church of Jesus Christ against the powers of darkness. You know it's interesting that Satan does not appear in the first two chapters of Genesis and he doesn't appear in the last two chapters of Revelation.

The first time we hear of him is in the third chapter of Genesis the 15th verse where the promise is there that thou shalt bruise, he shall bruise our head and thou shalt bruise his heel. And then you have a continuous pattern of his activity right through the word of God.

Now Paul has already said you remember writing to the Corinthians the weapons of our warfare are not carnal. You see unless we're careful they'll be hypocritical enough to say because we have in God we trust that's all we need.

Don't believe it for a minute. You remember when the armies of Israel were lined up on a hillside? It's a story we tell to children but it's too big for us. And the king was there and his wonderful son the prince was there and all the chosen men were there from their west point of that day and a man came striding down the valley there.

He was a monstrous man maybe 10 feet high and he had a voice like a thunderstorm and when he trod he shook the earth. And day after day he defied the armies of the living God. That was why he was there.

He opposed the God of Israel. He was a champion the superman of the Philistines. And you may remember even stepping into the story of Samson where they said look we don't need to bother too much. You know the God of Israel the supernatural the holy God.

He doesn't divide the sea anymore. He doesn't lead his people by a pillar of fire or a pillar of cloud. He's gone out of business. We can soon get hold of this man Samson and reduce his power. Now there is the antagonism.

You see however much Satan fights against the church it is not the church he's against. He's against the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. All right nobody can go out and fight this Goliath. A little boy goes up and says what are you waiting for?

Run home and look after those few sheep. His brother says that you didn't come to bring our lunch you came to see the battle. I would have said where is it? They'd been there a long while there'd be no battle.

And he slipped up one day and he said you know you know what I feel embarrassed that the God of Israel has to stand here and you're his representatives and you've no power you've no authority. Why in God's name don't you do something?

Why do you take his name on your lips? You have no power. Isn't that what the world says right now about the church of Jesus Christ? Where is your power? Where is your authority? You want to shibboleth.

I'm quite convinced in my own spirit otherwise I want to die now. I believe that before long organized religion will be bypassed and God is going to find his prophets where Jesus found his. By the side of the sea signing a document an income tax form as Matthew was.

Jesus didn't knock on the door of the Sanhedrin. He didn't say Cleopatra sit on my platform and give me some prestige just to give me a start as an evangelist because it's pretty rough. Why don't you go and sort of that man?

You wait till you see him. You wait till you hear him barking out. And David says I want to tell you something I've done my homework. What do you mean you did your homework? Well you see God says if you're if you're if you're faithful in the secret where nobody sees you.

You see we like to show our ministry display our power or come where you're credentialed. Well one night I was there playing my harp and singing the 23rd psalm and having a great time and I heard the roar of the lion.

I said hey put my sheep down and I went after him and I killed him. Another night a bear came along and I punched him on the nose said come back I'll kill you too. Now look I threw a lion I threw a bear give me a chance to go to Goliath.

Do you remember how Goliath came to him? Goliath 10 feet high needed a man with a shield in front of him. You notice what David didn't ever bother with a man with a shield. We're so busy running around after demons we don't hit the devil.

Devil doesn't care how many demons we destroy. In fact you can't destroy demons. Jesus never demons. He shifted them out of one place to another. I'm glad for those who can cast out demons sure enough.

But isn't it something when you have a helmet of gold and a wonderful uniform and a sword with diamonds maybe in the like some of the daggers we have over in old England there and you can't do anything with it.

Well in God's name I ask you what do we do with all the millions of people in pews and all the money we have and all the societies we have. The church is shrinking devilry is expanding. We're nervous and afraid.

I was thinking this week of one of the hymns of Charles Westwith. I like Charles Westwith's hymns very much. And he's facing the powers of darkness and the invasion from hell and he said should all the hosts of death and powers of hell unknown put their most dreadful forms of rage and malice on I shall be safe for Christ this place superior power and bounteous grace.

Does it matter how big the enemy is if you're 10 times stronger than he is? So you want to go fight him? Yes I want to go fight him. Can you see his brothers looking around the tent and say what will we say to dad when we go home?

We'll have to say a lion slew him or somebody destroyed him. That Goliath will take our little brother and break him over his knee and throw him to the birds. In fact the big shot said he'd do that. After all there's a little boy hasn't got a shield.

Of course he has a shield. Doesn't say so in the book. It does if you read carefully. It doesn't in my version. Well it does in mine you better get mine. You know I because it says God said to Abraham I am thy shield.

Isn't that better than a shield of stainless steel about three feet thick you hold it against the enemy? Yet faint holding it anyhow. He has an eternal God between him and the one who is going to destroy him and you can't get through God.

The psalmist says the Lord is a sun and a shield. They're watching little David go down the hill and he's skipping along with happy you know praising the Lord and singing the 23rd Psalm or some other.

He stoops down to say what did he get? I don't know something somebody lost I guess. He slipped five stones in his pocket. You know why? Because Goliath had four brothers and he was hoping they'd come and he'd wipe the lot out.

He got five stones. I say this is going to be ridiculous isn't it? Yes yes yes. That's what Paul said after he struggled with the intellectuals you remember at the 17th of Acts. The intellectual capital of the world.

He started to struggle with Epicureans and poets and and all the other intellectual group and then he comes to Corinth from the intellectual capital world to the festival of the world, the capital of immorality and he says I'm coming to you.

Do you know what with? Not with the wise words of the poets and philosophers and Stoics and Epicureans and all the learned people. I tried that. It didn't work. I'm coming to you with a gospel which is the power of God unto salvation and he established in the festival, the hell on earth, he established the church of Jesus Christ in Corinth.

The very gates of hell couldn't prevail against him. Little David goes and throws the stone. Well the big man was like everybody else. He was protected everywhere except in his head. That's where the devil gets most people anyhow.

Got a breastplate, arm plate, leg plate, name plate and uh and yet his forehead. Little David goes, I guess he sat back and said wait for this, wait for this. He sees the stone going up. You know such a thing had never entered his head before and uh that's all it needed, one stone.

Isn't it ridiculous when you've got men trained in warfare? Oh come on, where is the church of Jesus Christ got with scholarship that isn't anointed? Give me scholarship on fire and I'll get excited but you just start dividing the word of God as though you're up in some old laboratory and you start you know discussing or dividing or dissecting dead doctrine and food.

Forget it. Give me a mouthful of sand, this is refreshing. The ridiculous things, the weapons of our warfare are not carnal. I think David would have said that if he'd known it in his day. He didn't know it but Paul said it later on, you remember.

Christ’s Authority Over Principalities and Powers

All right we're fighting against what? Well Paul says here we're fighting against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

Now that's that's a pretty terrifying record isn't it? They remind you of something. Chapter 1 verse 18, listen to what he says. The eyes of your understanding. Now are your eyes open? This is what he says.

If the eyes of your understanding are open then he says that you are enlightened and you know what is the hope of his calling and what are the exceeding riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints and what is the exceeding greatness of his power unto us world who believe according to his mighty workings, according to his mighty power which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead and has set him in his own right hand in heavenly places.

Now, now we're fighting against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world. Look in this verse anyhow. In this verse 21 he says that Jesus is far above those principalities and he has principalities above principality and power and might and dominion and every name that is named.

Now what's the opposition to the Christian? All right, sum it up in scripture. The world, the flesh, the devil, the rulers of the darkness of this world. When Satan was cast down he brought down the third part of the heavenly host.

So there's your opposition. Oh, of course your own lust and sinful nature. The world, the flesh, the devil, principalities, powers, the rulers of world systems, my fleshly desires, the lust of the eye and all those dazzling bewitching things that can, they're all militating against my spirituality.

Such a pretty mighty host to fight against isn't it? But I said if you, if you knew tomorrow morning that as soon as your children went through that door there were all kinds of monsters wanting to devour them, the school system will pollute them if you have nothing else.

The hellishness, the filth, the sewers that run through schools. I hope this reminded me last night he'd been reading something of Wesley's. You know I turned that over in my mind. I tell you one thing he didn't fight, he didn't fight a lousy school system like we do.

They didn't have the devil piped in on TV in every hall. It was the golden age for the church of Jesus Christ to shake the world in my judgment. Do you know why? Because most people couldn't even read in his day.

And if a theater came to town they couldn't afford to pay to go. Sure they came in their thousands. Sure the anointing of God, but the principalities and powers and rulers of darkness hadn't invaded the world as they've invaded today.

I'm not saying he wouldn't triumph today or Luther or somebody. I'm saying the odds against the church of Jesus Christ are a thousand times stronger today than they were in Wesley's day or Luther's day.

The thing that used to be done in a corner he shouted from the housetops. There are multiplied billions of dollars invested in filthy, in pornography, in, in the film industry, in the drink industry, in the gambling industry.

The devil's got the whole thing sewn up. So against us there are principalities and powers, the rulers of the darkness of this world. The Satan and a third part of the heavenly host, the world, the flesh and the devil.

That's an army, that's, that's legions. And you say well here I am all by myself. Just quoting Acts 1 .8, ye shall receive power. I don't feel too strong against that multitude anyhow. Wait a minute, wait a minute, let me tell you something.

When Jesus rose he put all things under his feet, not some things, all things. Against me the world, the flesh, the devil, principalities and powers, the rulers of the darkness of this world, appetites which I have perverted unless God tends it.

But who's for me? Well look, who's for me? The Father, the Son, the Holy Ghost. You know they're a pretty strong combination. And since only a third part of the heavenly host fell, then two-thirds of the heavenly host are on my side.

And I have the Church of Jesus Christ, I have the prayers of the saints. I have all the wealth of God couched in this book. The greatest book of wisdom, the reason the devil drives us from it. He wants us to read other books about the book rather than read the book.

It's even because the word of God is quick and it's powerful. It's like the delayed bombs. People drop bombs over those awful Germans, drop them in England. And the kind English people drop them over in Germany.

And uh, and you know what? They didn't always go off when they were dropped. And they learned to detect. They said there's a bomb there, it won't go off for 24 hours. There's one there, it won't go off for 36 hours.

You know the word of God is like that sometimes? You read it and sometimes you're on a plane or somewhere else and suddenly it explodes. The word is quick and it's powerful. You know if we ever rediscover the greatness, the majesty of Jesus Christ in his risen glory, we'll shake the world.

We've gone to sleep on it. Now Satan, as I say, he's not, he's greater than man but he's less than God. There's a very beautiful description of him in the 28th chapter. At least the consensus of opinion is that this is about Satan in the 28th of Ezekiel.

Let me read it to you. Verse 12 says, Son of man, take up a lamentation upon the king of Tyrus and say unto him, thus saith the Lord God, thou sealest up the sun full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. Listen, thou hast been in Eden, the garden of God.

Every precious stone was thy covering. The sardis, the topaz, the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, the carbuncle and the gold. Will you notice that nine of those twelve stones were in the breastplate of the high priest?

Thy workmanship and thy fabrics of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou was created. Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth. I have set thee so. Thou wast upon the holy mount of God.

Thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire. Thou wast perfect in thy beauty. Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou was created till iniquity was found in thee. By the multitude of thy merchandise they have filled the midst of thee with violence and thou hast sinned.

Therefore will I cast thee as profane out of the mount of God and I will destroy thee, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire. Thy heart was lifted up because of thy beauty. Thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness.

I will cast thee to the ground. I will lay thee before kings that they may behold thee. Thou hast defiled thy sanctuaries and the multitude of thy iniquities by the iniquity of thy traffic. And then in the 14th chapter of the book of Isaiah, in verse 12 it says, How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning?

How art thou cut down to the ground, which thou didst weaken the nations? For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into the heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God. I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation in the sides of the north.

I will ascend above the heights of the clouds. I will be like the most high, yet thou shalt be brought down to hell to the sides of the pit. Now I can't conceive that that description in Ezekiel is about anyone else but Satan.

He was in the garden of Eden. He was the anointed cherub after the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. He was the greatest being maybe that God ever, it was fascinating. I believe that when the woman Eve saw him, she was dazzled by his beauty.

Every precious stone was his covering. He had authority, he had power, he had majesty, he had dignity. And then somehow, nobody knows how, he desired to be as God. You see, the offer to every man who falls is the offer that came in the garden of Eden, ye shall be as God.

In other words, ye shall have power. Satan came to Jesus and said, Kneel before me and I'll give you power over all the kingdoms of the earth that have been offered. Alexander the Great was offered the world, he almost made it.

Spyrus, the king of Persia. Right down to Adolf Hitler. Offered power, offered authority, man craves for power. Now here's a scripture that just floors me every time I read it. You can tell me about the devilish destruction, you can try and estimate all the millions of people destroyed by death and wars and plagues and every diabolical thing that Satan engineered.

And then I'm staggered by a statement of Jesus, when he said to his disciples, I give you power over all the power of the enemy. Isn't that something? I'm delegating authority, I'm delegating power. You know, if we'd spent as much time training people to prayers, we've trained them to sing in choirs.

And people get angry, people come to me, say sometimes, you know, I feel I have a ministry of song. I say, well sing. Sing, I don't care. But I'll tell you what, there is no gift of the Spirit that's a ministry of song.

The church is so sick today, you can get somebody to come to your city and rent an auditorium seating 5 ,000 people to give five dollars to sit for four hours or five hours in an all-night thing. And if you paid them five dollars, they wouldn't come to an all-night of prayer.