When Satan's Power Reigns Supreme — Steve Gallagher

The following message is provided by Eternal Weight of Glory. For other sermons, teachings and articles please visit EternalWeight .com.

Jesus’ Prophecy of Satan’s Hour

Would you please open up your Bibles to Luke 21. The title of my message this morning comes from the Living Bible's rendition of what Jesus said to the man who came to arrest him in the garden that fateful night.

Jesus said, this is your hour, and here's the title of the message, when Satan's power reigns supreme. When Satan's power reigns supreme. Now Luke 21 corresponds with Matthew 24 and Mark 13. They are all different people's perspectives of the same sermon.

And the reason they're a little bit different is because different people remembered different parts of the sermon. It wasn't the whole sermon that you see in any of those chapters. It's the parts that stuck with people.

And so that's why there's a little bit of change, a little bit of differences amongst those three chapters. But we're going to go over Luke 21. And before I get into it, I just want to mention the law of double reference, which those who have been with me going through the prophets know very well what that means.

The law of double reference is simply a term to do with hermeneutics, which means that when the prophet gave a message, oftentimes it referred to something in the immediate future, some event that was going to unfold in the not too distant future, but it had a secondary application to the far distant future, usually the end of the age, what we are living in right now.

And so it's called the law of double reference. And in this chapter, Luke 21, Jesus kind of goes back and forth. Sometimes the things he's referring to are only describing life leading up to the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD.

Other times he's only describing the end of the age before his return, and still other times it has application to both. So just so you know, and what I want to do is I want to go through this chapter.

I'm using the New Living Translation today. That's not my typical Bible. I use the New American Standard, but it's just a little more colorful and to be honest with you, I just get tired of the same old translation all the time.

So I just thought I'd switch things up today a little bit. It doesn't change the meaning of anything, but I want to go through this story. I'll make a few little points, but mainly I want to read this chapter just to get the atmosphere of it.

And then I'm going to make a couple of points, okay? Let's start with verse 5. And Lord, I do pray that you will bless the reading of your word. These are things that you said really only a few hours before you were arrested.

And Lord, I just pray that you will bless these words to our hearts. They did relate to the disciples, but they also relate to us in our day, very much so. I pray that you would give us ears to hear these words, Lord.

Help us to get out of this tendency to take your words with a grain of salt. Help us to break out of this spiritual lethargy that has come about through the power that is in the atmosphere, through the forces of darkness.

Help us, Lord, to wake up to the time in which we live, I pray. Make your words real to every heart, I pray, Lord. In the name of Jesus, amen. Verse 5. Some of his disciples began talking about the majestic stonework of the temple and the memorial decorations on the walls.

You know, this is so typical for people to be enamored by the outward. Don't be enamored by the outward, dear ones. Don't be taken in just because ministries are big and impressive. Don't be taken in by that.

Look for substance. Will you do that when you leave here? Will you please have discernment and look for substance? But Jesus said, the time is coming when all these things will be completely demolished.

Not one stone will be left on top of another. Now this is directly referring to when Titus and his three legions of Roman soldiers came in and ransacked Jerusalem and razed it to the ground. Verse 7. Teacher, they asked, when will all this happen?

What sign will show us that these things are about to take place? He replied, don't let anyone mislead you, for many will come in my name, claiming I am the Messiah. The spirit behind it is I am the one.

I am the most important spiritual leader you will ever know. That's the spirit behind it he's talking about. When you get the sense of that from some religious leader, run the other direction. Run the other direction.

And may God always help us to exalt Jesus Christ alone at Pure Life Ministries. Only Jesus deserves the glory. He replied, don't let anyone mislead you, for many will come in my name, claiming I am the Messiah and saying the time has come.

But don't believe them. And when you hear of wars and insurrections, don't panic. Yes, these things must take place first, but the end won't follow immediately. Now I believe that that whole sentence there is describing the 20th century.

Because from the Great War, World War I, from then on it's been nonstop war at some place in the world. But that's only leading up to things. It's preparing the world for something else that's coming.

Then he added, nation will go to war against nation and kingdom against kingdom. Or I could say realm of influence against realm of influence. There will be great earthquakes and there will be famines and plagues in many lands.

And there will be terrifying things and great miraculous signs from heaven. Now, they asked him about the destruction of Jerusalem. And what was his answer? He's talking about the end of the age. That's just the way Jesus is.

You just have to love him. He doesn't do things the way we want him to do them all the time. All right, verse 12. But before all this occurs, now he skips back. He's just all over the place. And he does it on purpose.

Don't mistake what I'm saying. Jesus lays things out perfectly. And it is a complete mess to our logic. But that's the way he wants it to be. This is not meant to be a mental exercise. It's meant to be received into your heart.

To change and transform the core of who you are as a person. And to translate into your life. All right, it's not something to be all figured out necessarily in your mind. That's a very secondary issue.

Persecution as an Opportunity to Testify

Anyway, verse 12. But before all this occurs, there will be a time of great persecution. You will be dragged into synagogues and prisons. And you will stand trial before kings and governors because you are my followers.

But this will be your opportunity to tell them about me. So don't worry in advance about how to answer the charges against you. For I will give you the right words and such wisdom. That none of your opponents will be able to reply or refute you.

All right, now this is one of those passages that refers to both. This does refer to the persecution the church began to experience in the 60's AD. And I'll say something about that here in a second actually.

When he refers to kings and governors, surely must primarily be referring to the Apostle Paul. Right, I mean he went to King Agrippa. He spoke to Felix and Festus, both Roman governors of Palestine. And eventually he had to stand before Nero.

Now we know what happened with the first three. It describes basically what happened when Paul stood before them. Who can comprehend the spiritual force that came forward when this man of God, especially at this point in his life, this is towards the end now.

At this point in his life, who can comprehend how he must have spoke with such eloquence and power and authority, where words will just go into hearts and affect people, impact them, take them right to the cross instantly.

And we know that Felix was overwhelmed by Paul's words. He couldn't get away from Paul quick enough. But I wonder what happened when he stood before Nero. Now you know, this was about 63, his first arrest.

He was arrested later, a few years later. But this was his first arrest, and he stood before Nero. It was about 63 AD. And it's interesting that if you look in secular history, Nero took a real turn for the worse at about that time period.

He really was a fairly, I want to say, average, typical emperor up to that time. He was a mess, but they were all a mess. Power corrupts and all of that. But something happened, and he took a real downturn about that time.

And the next thing we hear in secular history was Rome burning to the ground. And one of the beliefs from the earliest historians was that he had a hand in that because he wanted to build this entire complex that would give him all this glory and so on.

I was listening to a Chuck Smith message on this, and he suggested the possibility that when Paul stood before Nero and probably poured his heart out to that man, Nero rejected that message. And Chuck Smith's belief is that he became demon-possessed when that happened, that he opened his heart up to demonic possession.

And then all the stuff that you hear later that Nero got into, I mean, some wax stuff, you know. Even this group would think some of the stuff he did was just out there. But I don't know. Anyway, that's just a side note.

It's just kind of an interesting thing to me. I'll tell you something. When the Holy Spirit takes over your tongue and you're sharing with people, you do not know what God can do with those words. You just don't know.

Verse 16, I mean, even those closest to you, your parents, brothers, relatives, and friends, will betray you. They will even kill some of you. And everyone, everyone, everyone will hate you because you are my followers.

Now, this is describing a time when Christianity is illegal. You know, to be betrayed means that you're living your life kind of undercover, in a sense, incognito. And someone turns you in. Hey, there is a believer.

There's one of those Christians. And they haul you in. You're arrested. Now, that did occur in the 60s when Nero started persecuting Christians. Those things did happen. But that is also what we are moving into.

I'll get more into that in a few minutes. Verse 18, Now, that just means that they can destroy your body, but they cannot destroy your soul. That's all that means. Verse 19, And some translations say, through endurance you will win your souls, and so on.

Jerusalem’s Destruction and the Times of the Gentiles

Verse 20, Okay, that's 70 A .D. All this that we're going to read right now. For those will be days of God's vengeance. And the prophetic words of the Scriptures will be fulfilled. For how terrible it will be for pregnant women and for nursing mothers in those days.

For there will be disaster in the land and great anger against this people. They will be killed by the sword or sent away as captives to all the nations of the world. And Jerusalem will be trampled down by the Gentiles until the period of the Gentiles comes to an end.

All right, this is describing the first century. Eusebius tells the story of what happened with the Christians. Apparently, one of the prophets, maybe Agabus, or who knows who, received a word from the Lord that it was time to get out.

You know, those Christians who were living in Jerusalem. And so all the Christians, the true believers, left Jerusalem and went to a little town called Pala over in Edom. You know, on the other side of the Dead Sea.

And that's when the Roman armies came in and encircled the city and put them through hell. For a couple of years, I think it was, before they completely sacked it. But the Christians escaped. When it says here, the days of God's vengeance, you've got to understand, right before Jesus gave this message, do you remember the message He gave in Matthew 23 to the Pharisees?

He just really lit into them and told them exactly. I mean, He nailed it, the spirit that they were in. And towards the end of that talk that He gave, right before He did this, it may have been the same day even, He told them that the guilt of all the righteous blood that had been shed all the way from Abel to Zechariah would fall on them.

And that's what was about to transpire in 70 AD. Josephus says that 1 .1 million Jews were slaughtered by the Romans and 97 ,000 were taken into slavery. But look here at the second part of that, verse 24.

And Jerusalem will be trampled down by the Gentiles until the period of the Gentiles comes to an end. This period of the Gentiles is basically describing the church age. It's when the apostles had been ministering to the Jews and to put it in the words of Paul, when he was trying to minister to the Jews in Pisidian Antioch, he said, you won't hear me?

You don't want the gospel? Okay, I'm going to turn to the Gentiles. And that's basically what the Lord did. The Jews rejected Jesus Christ, rejected the gospel, so the focus became the Gentiles. And so that began the church age, which we are still in.

And when it's talking about Jerusalem trampled down by the Gentiles, that has been the history of the city ever since 70 AD. First it was the Romans, then it was the Saracens, then the Turks, the British for a while, and the Arabs.

They all had their periods of time when they just dominated and controlled and ruled that city all the way up until 1967. All right, verse 25,. And there will be strange signs in the sun, moon, and stars, and here on earth the nations will be in turmoil, perplexed by the roaring seas and strange tides.

People will be terrified at what they see coming upon the earth, for the powers in the heavens will be shaken. All right, now this again is definitely talking about the end times. This phrase here, perplexed by roaring seas, throughout Scripture the sea is used figuratively to describe people groups.

Now I don't know if that's what Jesus is talking about here. It could be or it could literally be the ocean, tsunamis or whatever. We've seen two devastating tsunamis in the Far East in the last decade, haven't we?

So it could be either. I really don't know which. But definitely this word perplexed literally means no way out. In other words, what Jesus is describing is a period of time where despair and hopelessness becomes stronger and stronger and more prevalent amongst mankind.

Now I haven't looked into statistics on this, but I have a feeling if I did that we would find that the suicide rates are going up exponentially every year. Why? Partly because people are finding out the meaninglessness of life more quickly because of all of our technology, all of our prosperity and so on.

The powers in the heavens shaken. Now here again, this could be some kind of a literal thing. I tend to think that Jesus is referring to the principalities and powers in the atmosphere. In Ephesians 6, Paul said,.

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.

I think that that's probably what he's talking about. This word shaken also means agitated and I could see something happening. A lot of turmoil in the spiritual realm where these great principalities that have had their way and are increasingly having their way are also coming into the realization that their time is running out.

Their time is short. And we know in Revelation 12 where it says that Satan, when he realizes his time is running out, just goes into a rage against humanity. Maybe that's what Jesus is referring to. I don't know.

Verse 27, Then everyone will see the Son of Man coming on a cloud with power and great glory. Okay, so here again, we're at the very end. So when all these things begin to happen, go back a few years now, when these things begin to happen, that's you and me.

Stand and look up for your salvation is near. And then he uses the fig tree to describe how that all unfolds and so on. And then verse 34, Watch out, he says, Don't let your hearts be dulled by carousing and drunkenness and by the worries of this life.

Don't let that day catch you unaware like a trap, for that day will come upon everyone living on the earth. Keep alert at all times and pray that you might be strong enough to escape these coming horrors and stand before the Son of Man.

Resisting Enticement Through Self-Denial

All right, now I'm going to remind you of the title of my message, When Satan's Power Reigns Supreme. And I believe we are easing into that dark period right now. That this is occurring in our day. You guys are going to witness unbelievable things in your lifetime.

Unbelievable things. Basically what's going on is the enemy is being allowed a greater measure of power on this earth. And it's all part of what the Lord is allowing. He's allowing it to occur. So the enemy is going to be going after Christians.

The enemy is going after Christians right now. Like never before. This attack is going to be coming in two basic ways. And these are going to be my two points. Either overwhelming enticements or devastating persecution.

It's going to come in one form or the other or both. All right, so let's look at this first one. If we're going to stand against the enticements that the enemy is going to lay in our path, then we must learn how to deny ourselves.

We've got to figure this out. But the reality is the basic attitude of most American Christians is to go after and get every kind of pleasure they can possibly get their hands on short of obvious sin.

And to enjoy every form of entertainment they can possibly enjoy short of obvious sin. To indulge every desire of the flesh they can possibly indulge short of obvious sin. To pursue every personal idol that they have built up in their heart.

As long as it's short of obvious sin. You see, because the church today has our, we have our list of our rules and here's the things that you can do and get by with and here's the things that you can't.

If you do these things, then we're going to frown on your life. And that list is even getting shorter and shorter every year. You know, the bottom line is we have had prosperity in this nation for 50 years.

It's been a growing prosperity for 50 years and now we are living with the fruit of it. You see, the condition of the church after 50 years of enjoying prosperity, some people think it's God's blessing, I don't know.

But whatever it is, now you see the fruit of it. Sexual sin, out of control. Promiscuity, out of control. Divorce, out of control. Drug use, out of control. And all the other sins that go along with all of that stuff and all the heart issues and stuff.

People just living for self, out of control. That's the fruit of 50 years of a church that has enjoyed prosperity. Basically, the only time people say no to themselves is when they can't afford something.

If they can afford it, if they have the means to get it and they want it, they get it. I'm talking about Christians here. I'm not talking about unbelievers out there. I am referring to people who say they're Christians.

Look what Jesus said, verse 34, watch out. Maybe your translation says beware. Does that word mean anything to you? When Jesus, if He stood in front of you and said beware, is there anything in you that can be reached?

I'm not getting on you guys, you understand, but is there something in you that hasn't become so jaded that Jesus' words can actually affect you and scare you, trouble you, disturb you? They should, they should.

And He gives a warning here. Don't let your hearts be dulled. Let me read it in the Living Bible. Watch out, don't let my sudden coming catch you unawares. Don't let me find you living in careless ease, carousing and drinking and occupied with the problems of this life like all the rest of the world.

Now the translation says that one part, but take care that your hearts are not loaded down with self-indulgence. Amplified, continues on, worldly worries and cares pertaining to the business of this life.

This word that the New Living Translation says carousing, the Greek is krahipale. It really just means the after effects of overindulgence. It's how you felt Thanksgiving evening after Pure Life Ministries just let you gorge your flesh, right?

It's how you feel after you've been out drinking all night the next day. It's how you feel after you've gone on a sexual binge. It's how you feel when you give over to spending money. It's how you feel when you've just thrown yourself into the world, sat in front of some carnal movie or maybe two or three movies or something.

That's what it's referring to. The word is dissipation. In other words, it's just an over-excessive indulgence in something. And Jesus is warning us, end-time believers, don't do this. You know, one of the problems with indulgence is it creates cowardice.

It will turn you into a moral coward to where you can't take a stand for anything. Everything's got to revolve around your feelings, around your desires and your flesh and your pride and so on. That's why the emperors were always so soft and effeminate because they had given themselves every pleasure that they could possibly become involved in.

That's where it takes you. If your lifestyle is a lifestyle of constantly saying yes, yes, yes to your desires, you're in trouble. You are not prepared for what's coming upon this earth. You know something, we all desperately need to learn how to say no to ourselves.

We have got to learn how to control ourselves. In the midst of a culture that is out of control, we have to be controlled by the Holy Spirit. Now, I'm going to share a story with you. You know, we usually are very cautious about sharing things about other members of the senior leadership, you know, because we don't want to give people a wrong impression or whatever, but I felt like this message was important enough to warrant sharing something that happened a couple weeks ago when Pastor Jeff and Sister Rose tried to lead me astray.

You remember this, right? Yeah, you do. Let me tell you what happened, the sordid tale. I went over to their house a couple weeks ago, helping him out with some stuff, and they had just gotten another dog, and they were very excited about this, so they would have, you know, two dogs, and they could play together and enjoy each other and so on.

And Sister Rose, who you just heard that glowing testimony about, in one of her lower moments, says to me, Steve, you know, you really need to get another dog so Gus doesn't have to live by himself like that.

And, you know, listen, when Rose says something, I immediately go into action, you know? She hasn't told me to do many things in the years I've known her, but when she speaks, I jump. So I immediately went home and started pondering this, and I presented it to my wife, and she said, Rose said that?

And I said, yeah, Rose told me. So she said, well, we've got to do it then. We've got to look into this. So, you know, we went into, we can't afford to go out and buy another Bull Mastiff. They're pretty pricey dogs, and we got into this website where they rescue dogs, and there are a lot of Bull Mastiffs in this because they're big dogs, you know?

Our dog Gus is 140 pounds, and he hasn't even, he's not fully grown yet. So, you know, a lot of people will get one of these dogs and realize they can't handle them, so they'll put them into these rescue situations.

So we started looking through this website, looking for the dog that Rose told us we had to go get, and I found the dog. His name was Boss. Boss was one year old. He cost the man who bought him $3 ,000.

This is a true story. $3 ,000 dog. This dog was beautiful. Beautiful dog. You know, you could just tell he was, came from a champion line and so on, and I could have him for a few hundred bucks. Now, I don't really have the money to spend, but, you know, how could I pass this up?

And the thought of having two of these beasts, you know, I could certainly understand that this was definitely of the Lord the way Rose gave it to me. So that night, I went to bed, and I had to fill out this application on that website, and all night long, just dreaming about Boss.

Boss and Gus, Boss and Gus, Gus and Boss. Man, I was excited. I was so excited. Then the next morning came, and I made the mistake of having a prayer time, and everything went south for me. Seriously speaking, I got up that morning, and I knew the Lord was saying, I don't want you to get this dog.

So I immediately wrote an e-mail to the people at that website because I didn't want to take a chance on, you know, later on saying, am I sure that was the Lord? But no, I just sent an e-mail out, and I knew I had to say no to myself.

You understand what I'm saying? We have to learn to go to the Lord, not to just jump on opportunities, not to just go and do the thing that you have the power to make happen. We've got to learn how to take something to the Lord and say, Lord, with a sincere heart, do you want me to do this thing?

You've got to learn how to do this. If you're going to be led by the Spirit, the sons of God are known by the fact that they are led by the Spirit, Paul says. Do you know what it means to be led by the Spirit?

You have to come into that. And to be able to be led by the Spirit, you've got to be willing to say no to yourself. When you want something really bad, you should force yourself to go in the other direction.

At least until you can get clear-headed about it. That's how you prepare yourself to withstand all the things that the enemy is going to lay in your path in the days ahead to bring you into his mindset that all revolves around pleasing the flesh.

Humility in the Face of Persecution

The other thing is, if we're going to stand through persecution, we must learn how to humble ourselves with people. You know, the world is becoming increasingly hostile to true Christianity. They'll put up with formal Christianity.

They'll put up with it. They'll tolerate it. But they are growing increasingly more hostile towards true Christianity. And they're lumping us in with Islamic fanatics. I don't know how they put the two together, because to become a radical Christian means that you become less selfish, more giving, more humble, more kind.

How could they put that in with a fanatic who wants to blow people up? It's the devil. But that's what's happening. And at the same time, the established church is becoming increasingly absorbed into the world, into the world system.

Why? Because they are given over to the world and the things of the world. They're immersed in the mindset of the world. They sit in front of the television night after night. They sit in front of the Internet.

They're filling their minds with the message of the world constantly and then go to church on Sunday. You know, in Revelation 17, when John was given a vision of the harlot church, he saw something that had left him amazed.

That this church, he couldn't understand it. He couldn't come to grips with it in his mind because this was the Christian church. But this church was drunk with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the witnesses of Jesus.

Which are you going to be? Which side are you going to be on? You have to decide. In John 16, Jesus said, an hour is coming for everyone who kills you to think that he is offering service to God. You know, in the early church days, the Jews would lead the parade of persecution against the Christians.

They would actually come and get the Romans and turn in and betray the Christians because they were an embarrassment. You know, you got to understand, the Christian church looked... It was a sect. It was a Jewish sect.

That's what we're coming into. You have the formal church and then you have the fanatics, the haters. As they will call us. And we are an embarrassment to the formal church. And that will grow stronger in the days ahead.

This is what Jesus was referring to. People close to you betraying you. You know, I'll tell you what brings that about more than anything, that I have seen it over the years in this place, the 20-some years of this live-in program.

It's the cross. Because the cross moves in to a person's heart and exposes the idol of their heart. And when a person's idol has been exposed by the Lord, they will either hate the person who does the exposing, who brings the message.

They will hate them and turn against them and betray them and lie about them. Or they will collapse in a heap of true repentance and contrition. That's why we see such powerful transformations at Pure Life Ministries.

It's because we bring that message of the cross to people. And I'm not necessarily... Really, I'm not so much talking about you guys in the program as much as I'm talking about these men and women down here in the intern program and who come on staff.

That's really where God goes after everything in your heart. And that's where we have been hurt the most is by those who we have poured ourselves into the most. They're the ones who have hurt Kathy and I and Jeff and Rose and the others.

Well, anyway, I'm getting off track here. I want to get back on track because I want to share some factual information with you that you may not be aware of. Now, listen, this isn't the way out stuff that you find on conspiracy websites, okay?

Surveillance, State Power, and the Prospect of Persecution

What I'm going to share with you, I'm going to get through this real quick because I want you to understand where things are going. This is factual information. Just three things real quick. Number one, the Obama administration is quietly but aggressively doing their utmost to bring the United States under the auspices of the United Nations International Court System.

Hillary Clinton is selling us out to the world community right now. And when that happens, we will lose our rights as American citizens. In other words, they can haul any one of us before this international tribunal.

We won't have the rights as American citizens that have protected us all these many years. If you would have read Mein Kampf in the 1930s, you could have predicted exactly what was going to happen with Germany.

And I suspect the same thing would be if you read It Takes a Village. I've never read it, but I just am pretty well sure of what that woman's heart is. She wants the United States to come down and come into the world community.

That's what Hillary desires, and that's what the Obama administration is working behind the scenes to accomplish right now. It is happening. Number two, President Obama has just recently, January of 2012, signed into law the National Defense Authorization Act.

They call it the NDAA, which states that any American citizen suspected of being involved in terrorism, and please understand, they have purposely left that term very loosely defined. So anybody that stands outside of the norm, if you will, of American life can be lumped in with that.

For instance, like the Branch Davidians a few years ago that Clinton and Janet Reno and them torched and killed all those people. You know, not to say anything positive about the people, but that's the sort of thing that I'm talking about.

This National Defense Authorization Act, it's just been signed into law, and what it says is that any American can be detained indefinitely without trial or right of appeal. That is now law. The day is coming that Guantanamo is going to be filled with Christians, believe me.

We're heading in that direction. I knew when George Bush started the whole Department of Homeland Security and the things that he started, you know, enhanced interrogation, all the Christians were applauding that, and I know there was part of me, I felt that way too.

Yeah, go get the terrorists. They had just attacked our country. I felt that patriotic sense too, but there was another side to me, and I remember thinking it right after 9 -11 when he did all that. I remember thinking one day, one day that's going to be us.

And the third thing is the Department of Homeland Security is quietly establishing numerous surveillance systems into American life. For instance, surveillance cameras are going up everywhere by the thousands.

You don't even realize it probably. There's 10 ,000 of them in Chicago alone, and that's not including private ones. 10 ,000. They're about to expand it to 14 ,000 in just Chicago. They estimate in London it's in the hundreds of thousands.

That's where we're headed. Cell phones and computer activity, all the things, your phone calls, who you're calling and so on, all the websites that you go into, all your e-mails, it's all being recorded.