There are four facts about Satan that I want you all to take home with you today. Here they are:

• 1. Satan has already been thoroughly trounced by Jesus and the holy angels.
• 2. Satan is still loose and deceiving the nations.
• 3. Satan hates and persecutes Israel and the Church.
• 4. Satan is presently being trounced by us as we preach the Gospel and extend Christ's Kingdom.

I. He has already been thoroughly trounced by Jesus and the holy angels, and cast out of Heaven.

WHEN was Satan cast out of Heaven?

People disagree about this. Some people think it was shortly after the earth was created, and that when Satan fell to earth he destroyed it, and rendered it uninhabitable; so that God had to make a second creation. Sometimes these folks hold to what is called the "Gap Theory" of creation, and believe that cave men and dinosaurs lived then, and were destroyed by Satan's fall.

Revelation 12:6-10 tells us that the war in Heaven started after the birth of Jesus.

• 6 The woman fled into the desert to a place prepared for her by God, where she might be taken care of for 1,260 days.
• 7 And there was war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back.
• 8 But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven.
• 9 The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him.
• 10 Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say: "Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ. For the accuser of our brothers, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down.

The woman (Israel) fled away from Satan. (She is still fleeing him today.) Michael and the holy angels fought Satan and the demons. Satan and the demons were cast to the earth. Then a loud voice proclaims that the accuser has been hurled down.

So Satan was cast out sometime after the birth of Christ. The Bible also tells us that Christ on the cross defeated Satan.

Before the earthly ministry of Jesus Christ, Satan had access to Heaven. We read about it in the Book of Job. He is called the accuser of the brethren. But when Jesus died on the cross, Satan was beaten and cast out. Satan's defeat is graphically illustrated in Colossians 2:15...

• 15 And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.

Other versions have more graphic translations:

• Amplified: [God] disarmed the principalities and powers that were ranged against us and made a bold display and public example of them, in triumphing over them in Him and in it [the cross]. (Amplified Bible - Lockman)
• Barclay: He stripped the powers and authorities of all their power and publicly put them to shame, and, through the Cross, led them captive in his triumphal train. (Westminster Press)
• NET: Disarming the rulers and authorities, he has made a public disgrace of them, triumphing over them by the cross
• "and openly displayed them as his trophies, when he triumphed over them in the cross" (Montgomery)
• "He exposed them, shattered, empty and defeated, in His final glorious triumphant act!" (Phillips)
• "He mocked them in public, triumphing over them in it" (EMTV)
• "and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in Him" (ESV)
• "He made a public spectacle of them by leading them as captives in His victory procession" (GNB)

The war in Heaven was connected with the death of Christ on the cross, and His ascension to glory to sit at the right hand of God the Father. There would no longer be any place for the "accuser of the brethren." Why not? Because the second person of the Trinity had taken on human flesh, and become a man. Jesus is one of us.

If you accuse a stranger before me that's one thing. But if you appear before me and accuse my brother, my sister, my father, my mother, my child....those are fighting words. And what did Jesus say about us in Matthew 12:47-50?

• 47 Someone told him, "Your mother and brothers are standing outside, wanting to speak to you."
• 48 He replied to him, "Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?"
• 49 Pointing to his disciples, he said, "Here are my mother and my brothers.
• 50 For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother."

II. He is still on the loose and deceiving the nations.

Satan's great work is deception. He began his earthly career by deceiving Eve, and plunging the human race into sin. He is still the great deceiver. That's what he does best, and he does it very well. Isaiah 5:20-21 says...

• 20 Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.
• 21 Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight.

How is Satan still deceiving the nations?

• 1. He tells us that being modern and up-to-date is good, and being old fashioned is bad.
• 2. He tells us that pre-marital sex is good, and shacking up before marriage is good, and saving yourself for marriage is bad.
• 3. He tells us that easy no-fault divorce is good, and putting up with spouse problems is bad for the kids, and divorce is better.
• 4. He tells us that "what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas."
• 5. He tells us that all religions are religions of peace, and that missions and evangelism is intolerant and bad.
• 6. He tells us that the gay lifestyle is just fine, and that those who speak out against homosexuality are incredibly provincial, backwoods homophopes.
• 7. He tells is that self-defense and personal responsibility are bad, and that more laws, more taxes, and more government control in every area of life is good.
• 8. He tells us that a woman's right to choose is good, and that the protection of infants not yet born is bad.
• 9. He tells us that gold and silver backed money is bad, and that government sponsored inflation and paper currency is good.
• 10. He tells us that teaching our children in school that they descended from rats and apes is good, and that teaching Creationism to our kids is unscientific and ignorant.
• 11. He tells us that a one-world government under the United Nations, and that a strong patriotic independent United States is bad.
• 12. He tells us that war is always bad, and that peace is always good.

And we could go on and on. Satan is busy at work, deceiving the nations, including us!

Jesus came to destroy Satan and his works. He came to bind the "strong man." He came to undeceive us and tell us the truth. He is the way, the truth and the life.

• He who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work. (I John 3:8)
• 26 If Satan drives out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then can his kingdom stand?
• 27 And if I drive out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your people drive them out? So then, they will be your judges.
• 28 But if I drive out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.
• 29 "Or again, how can anyone enter a strong man’s house and carry off his possessions unless he first ties up the strong man? Then he can rob his house. (Matt. 12:26-29)

Satan has been beaten up. He is bruised. He is injured. His power and influence has been curtailed by the Lord. But Satan is still allowed by God to be on the loose. He is not in the bottomless pit (the abyss) YET. Satan has been defeated and "bound" NOW by Jesus on the cross, to a great extent, but he has not yet been removed from the scene. Revelation 20:1-3 describes what we call the Millennium, a future golden era.

• 1 ¶ And I saw an angel coming down out of heaven, having the key to the Abyss and holding in his hand a great chain.
• 2 He seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil, or Satan, and bound him for a thousand years.
• 3 He threw him into the Abyss, and locked and sealed it over him, to keep him from deceiving the nations any more until the thousand years were ended. After that, he must be set free for a short time.

It is obvious to me that Satan is still deceiving the nations. Would anyone like to argue that the nations are NOT deceived by Satan? His hand is clear to see. If he is still deceiving the nations, then he has not yet been cast into the Abyss. If he is not in the Abyss, then we are obviously not yet in the Millennium. It is very strange to me that probably a majority of PCA pastors are what we call "amillennial" in their eschatology. That is, they think we are living in the Millennium right now, and that Satan has already been cast into the Abyss, and is not deceiving the nations. My position, which I think is clear from Revelation, is that Satan has been thoroughly trounced, but not yet cast into the Abyss. I see the Millennium as still future, so I am a Pre-millennialist.

I Peter 5:8 says of Satan:

• Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.

In Ephesians 6:11-16 Paul encourages us to fight Satan, so obviously he was still on the loose in Paul's time. I think Paul's letter to the Ephesians is for Christians today, too!

• 11 Put on the full armour of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.
• 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.
• 13 Therefore put on the full armour of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.
• 14 Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled round your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place,
• 15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.
• 16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.

III. He hates and persecutes Israel and the Church.

• 12 ¶ Therefore rejoice, you heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has gone down to you! He is filled with fury, because he knows that his time is short."
• 13 When the dragon saw that he had been hurled to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child.
• 14 The woman was given the two wings of a great eagle, so that she might fly to the place prepared for her in the desert, where she would be taken care of for a time, times and half a time, out of the serpent’s reach.
• 15 Then from his mouth the serpent spewed water like a river, to overtake the woman and sweep her away with the torrent.
• 16 But the earth helped the woman by opening its mouth and swallowing the river that the dragon had spewed out of his mouth.
• 17 Then the dragon was enraged at the woman and went off to make war against the rest of her offspring-those who obey God’s commandments and hold to the testimony of Jesus.

Remember, the woman clothed with the sun, the moon at her feet, and a crown of 12 stars on her head represents Israel. She represents the Jewish nation that brought forth the Messian. So Satan hates the Jews. The history of Western Civilization for the past 2000 years has example after example of anti-semitism, which comes from Satan's influence over the nations of Europe.

In 19 CE Tiberius expelled from Rome Jews who had gone to live in the city. Suetonius says that Tiberius "... distributed the Jewish youths, under the pretence of military service, among the provinces noted for an unhealthy climate; and dismissed from the city all the rest of that nation as well as those who were proselytes to that religion [335], under pain of slavery for life, unless they complied." Philo of Alexandria records Tiberius' lieutenant Sejanus as a major enemy of the Jews.

The historian Edward Gibbon wrote... the Jews discovered the fierce impatience of the dominion of Rome, which repeatedly broke out in the most furious massacres and insurrections.

During the Bar Kokhba's revolt in the second century Roman soldiers murdered many Jews. Rome refused permission for the rebuilding of the Temple at Jerusalem after its destruction in 70 AD.

When Christianity became the state religion of Rome in the 4th century, Jews became objects of religious intolerance and political oppression. Emperor Constantine I instituted several laws concerning Jews... Conversion of Christians to Judaism was outlawed. Congregations for religious services were restricted, but Jews were not allowed to enter Jerusalem, except on the anniversary of the destruction of the Temple.

Persecution became worse in the 5th century. Jews were barred from the civil service and the army. The Jewish Patriarchate was abolished and the scope of Jewish courts restricted. New synagogues were confiscated and old synagogues could be repaired only if they were in danger of collapse. Nearly all Synagogues fell into ruin or were converted to churches.

From the 9th century Islamic world and the Holy Roman Empire of Europe established full-scale persecution in many places, with blood libels, expulsions, forced conversions and massacres. All this persecution continued down through the centuries, it was not changed by the Reformation, and culminated in the Russian pogroms and the German Holocaust. Jews today are still heavily persecuted by the Muslims, and to a lesser extent in Western culture.

PERSECUTION OF CHRISTIANS has chiefly been from four sources:

• 1) The Roman Empire prior to Christianity becoming the State religion.
• 2) The Roman Catholic Church persecuting Christians who refused to acknowledge the primacy of Rome.
• 3) The sword of Islam sweeping through North Africa and the Holy Land, which were Christian. This persecution is still continuing in these places today.
• 4) Communism: tens of millions killed in China and the Soviet Union, N. Korea and other places.

• 10 Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say: "Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ. For the accuser of our brothers, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down.
• 11 They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death.

Even in the first century, Christians were getting the victory over Satan:

• The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. (Romans 16:20)
• I write to you, fathers, because you have known him who is from the beginning. I write to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God lives in you, and you have overcome the evil one. (I John 2:14)
• But every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world. You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. (I John 4:3-4)
• I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. (Matthew 16:18)

Hades was the Greek word for the place of the dead, or death itself. Jesus is saying here that even death cannot stand against the growth of His church. Those who trust in Christ have eternal life. And as we preach the Gospel and plant churches we are rescuing lost souls from spiritual death. Consider Romans 8:35-39...

• 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?
• 36 As it is written: "For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered."
• 37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
• 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers,
• 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Last Sunday night we read in our 2 Corinthians Bible study that to those who reject the Word of God our witness is the aroma of death unto death. For those who receive the Gospel, our witness is the aroma of life unto life. As we preach the Gospel, as souls are won to Christ, as churches are planted, as Christ's Kingdom continues to grow around the world, we are gaining the victory in our spiritual warfare against Satan and his kingdom, which is diminishing and which will eventually vanish away.

SUMMARY: Four Facts to Remember About the Devil.

• 1. Satan has already been thoroughly trounced by Jesus and the holy angels.
• 2. Satan is still loose and deceiving the nations.
• 3. Satan hates and persecutes Israel and the Church.
• 4. Satan is presently being trounced by us as we preach the Gospel and extend Christ's Kingdom.