The Binding of SATAN

So if you've been around for the Apologetic Dog content for any length of time, then you know that I deal with the Church Christ and Hyper Preterist, and so I want to show you along the way how to ultimately engage in context with these cult groups.

Luke's Gospel. We come across this amazing passage. We talk about Jesus and Beelzebub. This is also the passage where Jesus talks about how He must first bind the strong man in order to plunder his goods.

This actually tells us a lot about the kingdom of God, okay? And especially the wind, which is already in our midst. Now he was casting out a demon that was mute. When a demon had gone out, the mute man spoke, and the people marveled.

But some of them said, he cast out demons by Beelzebub, the prince of demons, while others, to test him, kept seeking from him a sign from where? Heaven. But Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said to them, every kingdom divided against itself is laid to waste, and a divided household or kingdom falls.

And if Satan also is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand? For you say that I cast out demons by Beelzebub, and if I cast out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore they will be your judges.

Now, okay, so I just want to say Jesus exposes their their faulty logic. Jesus is doing miracles that clearly show that he is sent from heaven, and they have to blaspheme the Holy Spirit. They have to figure out a way to explain what's obviously happening in front of them.

They say, well, he's actually possessed by a demon. That's what's going on. Well, I want you to understand, this entire world, 1st John tells us, is in the power of the wicked one. And before Jesus' first coming, Satan had the entire world, minus Israel, that was given the oracles of God, and God was with them.

The whole world was deceived by the prince of the power of the air, of darkness. And so the whole world was was extremely dark, except for just a little bit of light that God was shining in his temple, in the tabernacle, with the the nation of Israel.

And so the reason why I say that is Satan has a kingdom of darkness, and it started essentially in the fall, in Genesis chapter 3, where Adam lost, Satan gained. Okay, now Jesus comes on the scene and says, look, you can't accuse me of being possessed by a demon.

That would be the kingdom of darkness fighting against itself, and there's no way that it can advance in what it seeks to do if it's fighting itself. And so he's just saying that's a broken logic. He goes on to say, but if it is by the finger of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.

Okay, so when is the the kingdom of God coming? Well, for us it has already came, and Jesus is telling the Pharisees, the people in his midst, the kingdom of God is here because he is here. Remember Luke chapter 4 verse 43?

He says, this was the reason that I was sent, to proclaim the gospel, the good news about the kingdom of God. It is at hand. Repent and believe the gospel, okay? But I want us to see that the kingdom of God is already here in a spiritual way.

It's inaugurated. For us, it's not fully consummated. So then, Jesus goes on to talk about a very important truth about this kingdom. He says, when a strong man, fully armed, guards his own palace, his goods are safe.

But when one stronger than the strong man attacks him and overcomes him, he takes away his armor in which he entrusted and divides his spoil. Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.

Whoever is with me is against me. So, this is so incredible. Satan is the strong man. Okay, Satan is the prince power of the air. He's the ruler of this world. When we think back to Jesus being tempted in the wilderness, remember one of the temptations?

Satan took Jesus to a mountain and said, all the kingdoms of the world can be yours. Satan was tempting Jesus to receive an inheritance, the nations, without having to die on a cross. You can have it now if you just worship me.

But here's the interesting thing about that. All the nations of the world, minus Israel, was Satan's. He had totally deceived them. It was dark. They loved sin. They hated God, all these things. And so, Satan is the strong man, right?

But what Jesus is saying, when he cast out demons, the kingdom of God is here. Salvation is at hand. Jesus is saying, he is the one that is stronger than Satan. And so, Jesus is the stronger man that bounds up the strong man, right?

And takes his plunder. Now, maybe I'm getting ahead of myself a little bit, but how does Jesus defeat the strong man? Well, at Jesus's resurrection, John chapter 12 says, totally defeated the ruler of this world with the resurrection, showing that he has the power over death, right?

Remember, for all of Adam's posterity, they all died in Adam, and all sinned. Jesus was sinless and resurrected from the grave. That was a crushing blow to the enemy, Satan, because he does not have power over Christ.

All of his temptations fell flat. They didn't do Jack Diddley squat. Jesus can empathize with this as a perfect Savior who was tempted in all ways like we are, but he was perfect. There's actually a C .S. Lewis quote I really like.

I think it Meek and Lowly was the book written by Ortlin and quoted C .S. Lewis that says, if you can imagine, Jesus was walking through the the onslaught of the storms of temptations, and for us, we all fail.

Eventually, the temptation makes us just kind of tap out and say, okay, I gotta, you know, we give in. But Jesus never failed. So as you think about someone walking through a storm with, you know, heavy rain, heavy winds, that's Jesus walking through the storms of this life with temptation.

So my point is, he experienced temptation in an even greater way than all of us, because eventually we fall and we fail, right, and we give in. He always stood. He endured all of it. Anyway, he plunders the strong man's goods, firstly at his resurrection, proving that he is a risen Lord, he is God in the flesh, and he plunders the strong man's good by regenerating souls.

This is how the the kingdom of God overpowers and judges the kingdom of darkness. Every time the Holy Spirit regenerates a dead sinner's heart, this is the kingdom of God judging the kingdom of darkness.

And this is the stronger man, Christ, plundering the strong man's goods. Okay? And so I believe in Matthew's account, we don't have to necessarily turn there, but it also mentions this age and the age to come.

And the point is, we see Jesus inaugurating the kingdom of God, and he's binding the strong man at his resurrection. When he sends the Holy Spirit, we see a continuation of the age to come, subduing and judging the kingdom of darkness.

Okay, so hopefully we answered the when question pretty sufficiently. When? Now. When is the kingdom going to come? It's already here. It's inaugurated. It's spiritual. It can't be seen with the physical eye, but we await to Christ's return, and when he returns, he's going to consummate the kingdom, and he's gonna bring the physicality of the kingdom that lasts forever with an eternal state.

And we're already living in that forever kingdom in its spiritual form, but when he returns, it'll be both spiritual and physical and is everlasting.