This message deals with the absolute, perfect, and complete defeat of Satan.
And the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, this month shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you. Speak ye unto all the congregation of Israel, saying, In the tenth day of this month they shall take to them every man a lamb, according to their father’s houses, a lamb for a household: and if the household be too little for a lamb, then shall he and his neighbor next unto his house take one according to the number of the souls; according to every man’s eating ye shall make your count for the lamb.
Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male a year old: ye shall take it from the sheep, or from the goats: and ye shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month; and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it at even. And they shall take of the blood, and put it on the two side-posts and on the lintel, upon the houses wherein they shall eat it. And they shall eat the flesh in that night, roast with fire, and unleavened bread; with bitter herbs they shall eat it. Eat not of it raw, nor boiled at all with water, but roast with fire; its head with its legs and with the inwards thereof. And ye shall let nothing of it remain until the morning; but that which remaineth of it until the morning ye shall burn with fire.
And thus shall ye eat it; with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and ye shall eat it in haste: it is the Lord’s Passover. For I will go through the land of Egypt in that night and will smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the Lord. And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are: and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and there shall no plague be upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt. And this day shall be unto you for a memorial, and ye shall keep it a feast to the Lord: throughout your generations ye shall keep it a feast by an ordinance for ever. Exodus 12:1–14.
The truth about the precious blood of Jesus Christ needs emphasizing …ye were redeemed, not with corruptible things, with silver or gold, from your vain manner of life handed down from your fathers; but with precious blood, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot, even the blood of Christ: who was foreknown indeed before the foundation of the world, but was manifested at the end of the times for your sake. I Peter 1:18–20.
The blood bought not only our redemption and forgiveness for our sins, but access into the holiest presence of God. It is the way by which we can stand absolutely righteous before God. It is the key of the defeat of Satan, the key by which everything in heaven and on earth is to be restored under the Lord Jesus Christ.
Few really understand or appreciate what the precious blood of Jesus Christ means to us. Believers need to know the all-inclusiveness of it, so that they can stand in the full privilege this covenant affords. This is a new covenant, called the blood of the new testament, in Matthew 26:28 (KJV). (A testament or covenant is a will, a declaration or a commitment.) When God sees the blood upon our hearts He passes over us in the hour of judgment. That precious blood makes the difference.
We should also understand the provision for our perpetual victory through His precious blood: …if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanseth us from all sin. I John 1:7. This verse says nothing about repentance, although we know the importance of this truth; it says nothing about receiving personal ministry in order to get a deliverance. But it says simply that when we, who have come under the covenant of the blood of Jesus, walk in the light, two things happen: we have fellowship with one another (and the more we walk on with the Lord the more we love each other); and the blood cleanses us from all sin.
You have a guarantee by the precious blood of Jesus Christ. Honor it and keep on walking in the light. It is simple enough: no matter how you feel, keep walking in the light. You will have fellowship one with another and with the Lord, and that cleansing will take place through the blood that cleanses us from all sin. There is hope for all of us as we open our hearts and say, “Here we are, Lord, ready to move on in Thy name.”
A number of Scriptures give us a composite picture of Satan’s activities and future, and what our attitude to him should be. Revelation 12:11 reads, And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb, and because of the word of their testimony. Once in a while we need to review Scriptures which give us earnest exhortation concerning Satan. Peter wrote, Be sober, be watchful: your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour. I Peter 5:8.
Ephesians 4:27 emphasizes, …neither give place to the devil. While we recognize him as a foe, his power comes when we give him a place. The devil is best defeated by discerning him, then having nothing to do with him.
“Resist him,” we read in James 4:7 (KJV): Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Your submission to the Lord Jesus Christ is the basis by which Satan’s defeat is executed. The victory of the Lord Jesus Christ is like a big dam of water—the potential is there, but it is dormant until turned loose. The defeat of Satan was provided for in the shed blood of Jesus Christ upon the cross, but our submission to the Lord opens the floodgates of the dam. Thus we put in action His defeat of Satan and release His complete provision for us. We submit ourselves to the Lord: that opens the floodgates, and the devil flees because that victory of Jesus begins to sweep everything away.
If you don’t think it works that simply, perhaps you don’t know how unsubmissive you are. Many times you are fighting the devil with rebellion in your heart. The deeper the submission, the mightier the victory that you receive.
What is Satan’s future? Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into the eternal fire which is prepared for the devil and his angels. Matthew 25:41. The sinner who rejects Christ will go to that eternal fire, to a place that was prepared for Satan and his angels, but the believer will go to a place prepared for him by the Lord. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go…I come again, and will receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. John 14:2, 3. Don’t ever fool yourself, but “be sober and be vigilant, for your adversary is like a roaring lion, seeking to devour.” Remember that under the precious blood and by the word of your testimony, you have leverage to enforce the victory of Christ over Satan.
To this end was the Son of God manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil. I John 3:8b. Not only will He destroy all of his works, but Hebrews 2:14 states plainly that He partook of flesh and blood, that through death he might bring to nought him that had the power of death, that is, the devil. Death, sin, and sickness were introduced into the world by Satan. God did not create men to die or to be sick or to live in sin; He created them for Himself.
Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out. John 12:31. The specific application of these Scriptures to us is in Romans 16:20: And the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly. It pleases God to bruise Satan under your feet.
Now, for a picture of the final showdown, the beginning of the end. And I saw an angel coming down out of heaven, having the key of the abyss and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, the old serpent, which is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years, and cast him into the abyss, and shut it, and sealed it over him, that he should deceive the nations no more, until the thousand years should be finished: after this he must be loosed for a little time. Revelation 20:1–3.
And when the thousand years are finished, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, and shall come forth to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to the war: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea……And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where are also the beast and the false prophet; and they shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever. Revelation 20:7, 8, 10. God releases Satan in order to test the nations that have come forth during the time of this Kingdom. He lets them be tested once again, then comes that last great judgment.
Satan is the greatest idiot and fool that exists in all creation, but he is serving a purpose. Christ defeated him, but God lets us be subjected to his assault to give us the opportunity of putting in action that defeat. What a privilege it is to meet the devil and cast him out; to see where he has worked havoc in a person’s life and see the Lord bring forth righteousness in it. What a privilege to be living in the generation that shall see him banished into the abyss for a thousand years. What a privilege to live on the threshold of a day when the righteousness and the knowledge of the Lord will cover the earth as the waters cover the sea.
We are living in a generation in which the whole force of spiritual gravity is to be reversed. Instead of the downward pull upon the souls and spirits of men, by the power of the flesh and sin, and of Satan using every opportunity to cast them down, we shall see the house of the Lord established on the top of the mountains, and all the nations flowing into it (Isaiah 2:2). We shall see the glorious hour of liberty and victory.
God is stirring us to become part of that end-time Remnant used of God.
What a great privilege to be an instrument in the hand of God to bring forth for the Lord Jesus Christ the rewards of His suffering, the sum and substance of that which was provided at Calvary’s cross. We can go to a man whom the Lord died to redeem, and be the ones to loose him from his grave clothes and speak peace to his heart. We can be the ones to bring to him all that the Lord bought for him on Calvary’s cross.
If only we could realize how inaccessible God is to sinful man; he couldn’t look upon Him, for he would perish. God has gone to great lengths through Christ to reconcile the world unto Himself (II Corinthians 5:18). For us to stand in the presence of God, and receive this glorious help and blessing, we must understand what happened to bring it to pass. Then shall we be able to come boldly to the throne of grace to find help in the time of need (Hebrews 4:16).
We who were far off are made nigh by the blood of Jesus Christ (Ephesians 2:13).