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[0:00] Amen. Remain standing as I read our text this morning from Psalm 110.! Let's pray.

[0:54] Father God, we pray that as we open your word, you'll open our hearts. Help us to see your glory. Lord, help us to see how grateful we ought to be. Fill our hearts, God, with gratitude for being chosen while we were still enemies.

[1:10] To know you. To know you, Lord, as sons and daughters. Thanks be to Christ. In his precious name we pray. Amen. Have a seat.

[1:22] Our text today is Psalm 110. We have been continuing through our Summer Psalms series with an emphasis on spiritual warfare. Last week we looked at Psalm 91 and today I turn your attention to the most quoted New Testament verse in all of the Old Testament.

[1:41] It is quoted or referenced about 24 times in the New Testament and alluded to far more often. This theme is actually pervasive in the New Testament.

[1:54] If you'll read through the New Testament with an eye to this Psalm, I think you'll see multiple mentions and you'll also get a sense of why this particular verse was so important to the early believers.

[2:07] I think it gives us three things about Jesus that the early believers love to see. And the first one is who Jesus is. This Psalm says, The Lord says to my Lord.

[2:20] That phrase there is used in the New Testament to remind the Jews that David is not the one in view here. That David has a Lord. That one of his descendants would wind up being ascendant over him.

[2:36] And so they would use this Psalm as a reference to the deity of Christ. So one of the reasons they liked it is because it tells us who Jesus is. The second reason they liked it is because it tells us where Jesus is.

[2:48] Not who Jesus is, but where Jesus is. He's at the right hand of the Father. And the third reason they liked it is because it shows us what Jesus is doing. He's ruling and reigning until all of his enemies are made his footstool.

[3:03] Today we're going to talk a little bit more about Satan. And how Satan fits into this promise from God. That he will rule and reign until all of his enemies are made his footstools.

[3:17] The first thing I would say is that this is a process. You know, let me just encourage you with something that I think is just super encouraging. You need to remember that God is above time.

[3:30] And one of the glories of that reality is that he knows every version of you, including the fully glorified version of you. The fully free from sin version of you.

[3:44] The made new version of you. And he knows that version of you just as well as he knows any other version of you. So when God sees you, he sees you as who you are, who you have been, but also who you will be.

[3:57] He sees you as who you are, who you are, who you are, who you are, who you are. That's hard for us to comprehend. Except I just want to remind you that when you pray to him, boy, he sees a lot you don't see.

[4:10] We often would say that that's a, you know, he sees a lot you don't see. We'd say he sees your sin and he sees the deceit of your heart. Absolutely. Absolutely. He also sees that version of you united with Christ perfectly in which all evil has been expunged and you have received a resurrected body capable fully of understanding and enjoying God.

[4:29] He knows that version too. This is kind of as pertinent to this theme you'll hear sometimes in theological discussions about the already and not yet. This is the way that salvation works.

[4:42] We are already saved. The Bible says actually we are fully justified in Christ and we are fully sanctified even positionally in Christ. So that's the already, but the not yet is, is that all of this is sort of coming into fruition.

[4:57] We could say the same about Christ's conquest over his enemies. In some sense, it is done. And in other ways, it is progressively unfolding throughout the development of history.

[5:07] I think that idea that God sees all of that equally is a very encouraging idea. For God already, not yet, is not really a thing in the same way that it is for us, stuck in time as we are.

[5:21] So we're going to talk about how Psalm 110 applies to this great enemy, the devil. Last week, I mentioned that the devil is real and he is a real problem. I quoted from A Mighty Fortress that we do not have anything in and of ourselves to contest against this great, powerful force that is the devil.

[5:42] And I've wanted to, last week and a little bit this week, to undo some of the misnomers that have been created over the years, often well-meaning, regarding Satan.

[5:53] One of the things I mentioned last week was that some people have suggested that Satan can't put things into your head. Or that Satan somehow has some kind of a wall that he can't permeate.

[6:04] It's like, well, the Bible actually says, in multiple places, the devil puts things in people's hearts. It's true of Ananias and Sapphira, it's true of Judas, and so forth. So that's one misnomer. He can get in there.

[6:16] Another misnomer that you'll often hear regarding Satan, again, I think these are well-meaning, is something like, he is not omniscient, he's not omnipresent, there's only one of him, and he probably has better things to do than mess with you.

[6:28] Probably heard that at some point. And that may help someone overcome some form of alarmism related to spiritual warfare and all the like, but it's actually pretty misleading. All you need to do is understand network effects, hive mind, neural networks, and so forth, and just process this simple truth.

[6:47] Satan has a network of demons that communicate. And so one of the things to understand is that the devil has the intelligence, the networking, the pattern recognition, and so forth, so as to emulate, impersonate omniscience and omnipotence.

[7:08] It's not true, but he's certainly craftier than some simple statement of, hey, you know, he can't put things into your heart, or, hey, he's got other people to mess with.

[7:18] No, he's fully capable, fully networked, plenty of opportunities for him to mess with you. People will say he can't read your mind. Well, I think that's probably untrue.

[7:31] Thoughts, as it turns out, are more or less chemical processes. If Neuralink can recognize a person's thoughts, my guess is that the spiritual forces can as well.

[7:42] I don't say all this to alarm you. I just say all this to turn up the vigilance and to help you to understand this is something we absolutely need to take seriously, but also something we ourselves are powerless to do unless, as Martin Luther said, the Lord were on our side.

[7:59] Now, as we think about how Psalm 110.1 is applying to the devil, we've got some tensions here that I've already mentioned. And that is, on the one hand, we are told in Scripture that Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil.

[8:14] That's in 1 John. We're told in Hebrews that Jesus came to destroy the devil. In John 12, Jesus says, Now is the judgment of this world, and now the ruler of this world will be cast out.

[8:27] In John 16, Jesus is talking about the Holy Spirit, and he says, When he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment.

[8:39] Concerning sin because they do not believe in me. Concerning righteousness because I go to the Father, you will no longer see me. Concerning judgment because the ruler of this world is judged.

[8:51] So we've got some already not yet stuff to think through. Our main question we're exploring this morning is just, okay, Psalm 110. Jesus is sitting at the right hand of the Father until all of his enemies are made his footstool.

[9:03] One of his enemies is Satan. A great enemy is Satan. How is Psalm 110.1 applying to this great enemy? On the one hand, there seems to be some evidence, not seems to be, there is evidence, that Jesus and the apostles understood something to have happened to the devil that essentially leads to him being, if not powerless, significantly limited.

[9:29] But on the other hand, we've got a passage like 1 Peter 5.8 that tells us to be sober and pay attention because the devil prowls around like a roaring lion.

[9:40] In fact, you won't find many New Testament books that don't include some warning about Satan. So you're getting attention I'm putting forward here.

[9:51] On the one hand, we have these promises that God is going to overcome our enemies. Jesus implies that that has taken place in some way or another. But on the other hand, throughout the New Testament, we're told that Satan remains a problem to some extent.

[10:07] So that's what I want to sort out in our minds today, and I want to help you to see how this applies practically to your own walk with the Lord, your own interaction with the people of God, and so forth. I think the first thing we probably want to do is just understand some of the basic tactics the Bible talks about Satan, you know, engaging in.

[10:26] I think you could probably summarize all of this into two basic streams, accusation and separation. Those seem to be the two basic tactics.

[10:36] He has always tried to separate men and women from God by tempting them to sin, by deceiving them with false gospels, by afflicting them with various faith-testing trials, even by prospering them so that complacency would be induced.

[10:54] He's always tried to separate people from God. That's separation. We'll talk more about that a little bit later. In terms of accusation, this is really where we're going to see the work of Jesus have its greatest effect on the power of Satan.

[11:13] Because in addition to wanting to separate us from God, he is also a master of accusation. In fact, I believe as I've studied the scriptures, his main goal in tempting us, his main goal in attacking us, is ultimately to accuse us.

[11:28] There's something about Satan that seems to be primarily geared toward this idea of accusation. And I would argue, very firmly, that the cross and resurrection of Jesus ripped Satan of this central strategy.

[11:49] He simply lost a job. Satan got doged. You know, like, this position was eliminated at the cross.

[12:01] And so one of the ways we see Satan already being subdued and made Jesus' footstool is, one of his main things has been taken from him.

[12:13] The idea, I think, behind Satan's accusation is that insofar as our sins are unforgiven, insofar as our sins are not covered, all Satan must do is speak to God about us, true things about us, by the way, and incite God's judgment and wrath against us.

[12:35] Satan's role as accuser is a factual role. He is merely bringing up what is actually true of you and me, that we are sinners, that we are rebels against God, that we are often indifferent to him, and we will often use even the sweetest comforts as a means of distancing ourselves from the Lord rather than drawing near.

[12:58] Our sin makes God angry. It provokes God's wrath and judgment. And Satan's main strategy with accusation is to present the reality of our sins before the Lord as a kind of prosecuting attorney in the heavenly courtroom, inciting God's judgment against us.

[13:19] There's a lesser known story in the Old Testament that fully portrays this. In the book of Zechariah, the prophet has a vision of Joshua, the high priest. Let me read that to you.

[13:30] It's from Zechariah 3. Then he showed me Joshua, the high priest, standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to accuse him. And the Lord said to Satan, The Lord rebuke you, O Satan.

[13:45] The Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you. Is this not a brand plucked from the fire? Now Joshua was standing before the angel. What's the devil doing? How's his accusation working?

[13:56] Well, it's pictured, his sin is pictured as filthy garments. And Joshua was standing before the angel clothed with filthy garments. And the angel said to those who were standing before him, Remove the filthy garments from him.

[14:09] And to him he said, Behold, I have taken your iniquity away from you, and I will clothe you with pure vestments. And I said, Let them put a clean... Now the prophet is getting engaged in this.

[14:21] He's like, You gave him a new robe. Let's give him a new hat or a new turban as well. Put a new turban on his head. And so they put a clean turban on his head and clothed him with garments.

[14:31] And the angel of the Lord was standing by. I think that this is a very typical, not exceptional picture of what Satan seeks to do to every single human being in the world.

[14:43] He wishes to stand before the courtroom of God, pointing out all of our filthiness, inciting God's judgment. And you'll notice that in this passage, Satan is subdued purely because of imputed righteousness.

[14:58] The declaration of justification. God says, Shut up. He has a new robe. Well, where did he get the new robe from? Well, there's a New Testament answer for that, right?

[15:11] We are clothed in the righteousness of Jesus. And so this is, I think, if you want to understand the accusatory role of Satan, I think this is a good passage. So when Jesus says, Now the ruler of this world has been judged, the classical, nothing I'm telling you today is unusual.

[15:28] This is all kind of historically normative ways of thinking about the devil. The classical reform Protestant perspective is that when Christ shed his blood and atoned for our sins, this left Satan with nothing to say.

[15:43] This left Satan with nothing to say. This is actually told quite clearly in Romans 8.33. Who shall bring any charge against God's elect?

[15:55] It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died. More than that, who was raised, and who is at the right hand of God, who is indeed interceding for us.

[16:08] So one of the ways that God has already made Satan his footstool is by imputing his righteousness to us and silencing the devil's main scheme of accusing us.

[16:23] This brings us to Revelation chapter 12. Again, I'm just going to give you the classic reformed Protestant perspective on this text. This text is seen essentially as a retelling of the basic gospel story with prophetic imagery.

[16:39] Let me read a little bit of that to you from Revelation 12. Now war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back, but he was defeated, and there was no longer any place for him in heaven.

[16:54] And the great dragon who was thrown down, the ancient serpent, who was called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world, he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.

[17:05] And I heard a loud voice in heaven saying, Now the salvation and power and kingdom of God and the authority of his Christ have come for or because, therefore, the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God.

[17:25] And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they love not their lives, even unto death. Now this isn't, this may be confusing to some of you, but Revelation 12 is not a future-looking event.

[17:40] This is a celebration, in apocalyptic language, of all of the events pertaining to the incarnation, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus. And one of the things that happened when Jesus made peace with the blood of his cross, I'm in Colossians 2 now, is that Satan has lost his accusing position.

[18:00] He has put the devil to open shame. Satan's best weapon is your unforgiven sin. Your sin armed Satan with a great arsenal of accusation.

[18:19] And the glory of the Gospel is that the God who created all things and sustains the universe by the word of his power took on flesh so that he could take every bomb and bullet in Satan's accusatory arsenal for you.

[18:35] Satan simply lost his main strategy because of the cross.

[18:47] He can't accuse you before God because God has made an end to all your sins. If Satan ever attempted, if you're in Christ, if you've been saved, if Satan ever wanted to go to the Father and say, look at so and so, look how sinful this person is, all the Father would have to do is point to the wounds on the hands and feet of the Lamb who was slain before the foundation of the world and say, tetelestai, it is finished.

[19:18] Done. You have no standing any longer to accuse this man or this woman. That sin has been more than atoned for with my righteous blood.

[19:30] Now, I do want to give some caveats. He cannot accuse you to the Father because the Father accepts the gospel as a fact.

[19:44] It's a fact. Not that he merely accepts it as a fact. It is a fact. Satan can accuse your conscience if your conscience is not informed by the facts of the gospel.

[19:57] Hebrews 10, 21 through 22. And since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance and faith with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

[20:14] You'll read in the New Testament this indication, this inclination to revert back to the law. And this is almost always due to the conscience of the church being inadequately confident of the gospel.

[20:30] And so Satan has no standing any longer in God's throne room, God's courtroom. He may still have standing in your courtroom if your conscience, if your heart isn't fully standing on the gospel of Jesus Christ.

[20:45] That's going to be one of the struggles you'll have to walk through if you're a new Christian, if you're growing in your faith. You will need to learn to convince yourself of the truth of the gospel so that Satan loses his accusatory power in your own conscience.

[21:04] Now he can also do this to others. Listen to this, friends. Anybody, family, church, or society that is not convinced of the gospel is a body ready to be hijacked by satanic bitterness.

[21:20] There are families all over this world, you might be in one, who do not fully believe in the gospel and are therefore a bee's, a hornet's nest of bitterness because they don't believe that Jesus has made an end to all our sin.

[21:39] So as a general rule, Satan's accusing power power only works in places where the gospel is not accepted as fact. And listen, friends, this is why the Bible tells us to consistently forgive.

[21:54] I want to tell you something. As someone who has been wronged plenty, I'm sure you have as well, I want to tell you something. I think most of you know that you shouldn't be playing around with Ouija boards and the occult and things like that.

[22:06] I think, I think you all know that, right? Listen, harboring bitterness in your heart is the exact same thing. It will lead to the same place.

[22:18] You are, you are rejecting the gospel when you refuse to forgive. You are questioning the basic facts of the gospel and you're giving essentially the cockpit to the enemy of your souls.

[22:33] So the Bible's clear that when we apply the gospel vertically, first God does that for us, we're declared righteous, he no longer accepts Satan's accusations.

[22:44] Eventually, Lord willing, we get around to believing that too and we get in a position where he no longer has great standing to accuse even our own conscience. But there's this last place where the gospel has to be applied and it's the horizontal.

[23:00] And what you'll see, and I don't have time to get into it, but what you see in the New Testament is all of these pleas for harmony and agreement and overcoming division, they're always some way connected to Satan. Because that's what he'll do.

[23:14] He's lost accusatory power up there. He'll use accusatory power in here. Please, just because I like you, please get serious about forgiveness.

[23:28] Please get serious about bitterness. forgiveness. It's just a terrible plan for your life. It'll mess up your family and so on and so forth. So, we're answering the question, in what way has the devil been defeated at this point?

[23:44] He really has no standing any longer. And I think that the idea here is that he has been demoted from prosecuting attorney to persecuting terrorist.

[23:55] I think he's been demoted. The Bible says in Revelation 12, he's been cast down to earth. He's been demoted to this other position where he can attack. And that attack seems to be rooted in this idea of separation.

[24:11] Revelation 12, 12 says he's lost standing in heaven. He's thrown down to earth to attack. And this aligns perfectly with what Peter's telling us. Be sober-minded, be watchful.

[24:22] Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. He can't accuse you, but he can attack you. He can make your life hard. He can cause you to suffer.

[24:33] And all of this would be aimed at that other thing I was talking about, which is his separating intent. He has lost his accusatory role, but he can still attack and seek to separate you.

[24:45] That is why you'll often find these two themes put together. For instance, Romans 8, 33, who can bring a charge against God's elect? What's the next thing Paul talks about? Separating powers.

[24:58] What shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? For as it is written, for your sake we are being killed all the day long.

[25:09] We are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered. Here's the idea, guys. Once you get the gospel really into yourselves, praise God. And that can take a while.

[25:20] And some of you have experienced this like this year. and you've been able to say, I now actually believe it when I say my only hope is Jesus. Like, some of you have just gotten there.

[25:31] Praise God. Well, what's the next thing left to do if the accusation doesn't exist any longer? What's the next thing to do? Just attacks of various strategies.

[25:44] Here's the idea. there's a ton of biblical language just about alertness because the devil is bent on if he can't accuse you attacking you.

[25:57] And he can attack you with sickness. He can also attack you with health. He can attack you with poverty. He can also attack you with prosperity. He can attack you with persecution. He can also attack you with peace.

[26:09] The point of all of this is not to make your life hard or to make your life great. It's to separate you from God. It's to create a sense of independence from the Lord to increase a measure of pride in your own life and your own efforts.

[26:25] Friends, one thing I wanted to mention here is that we've seen as we looked at the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness by the devil that the devil can misapply various promises of God in an effort to separate his people from him.

[26:42] And friends, I just want to remind you that absolutely we believe in the perseverance of the saints. We absolutely believe that once we're in the hand of Jesus, nothing can ever snatch us out of our hand.

[26:55] But I will tell you straight up, friends, that if you use those promises in such a way as to be less diligent in prayer, less diligent in seeking the Lord, less diligent in drawing near to him, those promises have been misapplied to create a separating force in your life to pull you away from the Lord.

[27:19] So what do we do with this idea that Satan is attacking? The Bible's really simple and sweet and straightforward about this. The answer is always be aware that it's a possibility and just keep drawing near to God.

[27:34] Just keep drawing near to God. It's basically the solution to all the spiritual attacks you'll ever see. It's not some conjuring of demonic genealogies or calling this exorcist in for this or that.

[27:48] Fundamentally, spiritual warfare is fought in this way. You draw near to Jesus Christ. That's it. That's it. That's how we fight. We draw near to Jesus Christ.

[28:00] The rest is just details. Pray without ceasing. Read the scripture regularly. Meditate on the scripture. Draw near to God's people. Confess your sin frequently. We're just talking about details of this main thing which is you draw near to Jesus Christ.

[28:16] James says it this way. Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. How do you overcome various kinds of spiritual attack whether they are in the form of prosperity or poverty?

[28:33] You should always be drawing near to God. It's the only place you are safe. That is why in all of the language about enemies in the Psalms what we are told consistently to do is to make him our refuge.

[28:48] Our strong tower. Our shield. Our fortress. If we draw near to the Lord we will overcome. We will prevail and what Paul promises in Romans 6 20 will be true that the God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet.

[29:05] the grace of the Lord Jesus be with you all. Now I want to end with a bit of a historical review. This won't take very long but as you know I'm a big fan of church history and I started thinking about church history in relationship to Psalm 110 and I want to end with just a bit of an encouragement to you.

[29:27] I'm going to read a little bit of an excerpt from a very old Nordic poem that has the following line. Then comes the mighty one to the judgment of the powers full of strength from above he who rules over all.

[29:48] This is found in an old Viking poem about the gods. And it was so obviously Christian that historians when seeing this line in the poem thought that certainly has to have been added later.

[30:05] That certainly could not have been inserted before the Christian world overtook the Nordic pagan one. But the truth is is that we've never found any manuscripts of this particular poem that don't include this particular line.

[30:20] And more importantly the whole concept of Ragnarok do you know that first of all do you all know that that's a real thing or you know that's not just in a movie?

[30:31] Okay. The whole concept of Ragnarok you know what that word means? It means the death of the gods. It means the judgment of the gods. You see Nordic mythology had an eschatology and at the end of their eschatology was some sort of great battle in which all of their gods Thor and Odin included would fall would be destroyed.

[30:56] that's Ragnarok it means the fate of the gods or the twilight of the gods. Did you know that there's a Ragnarok verse in the New Testament? Colossians 2.15 He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame by triumphing over them in him.

[31:17] Do you know that that's part of what Jesus came to do? to put the rulers the principalities the authorities to open shame? Do you know that Jesus Christ has a whole trophy room full of false gods that people used to worship that now people don't even know about?

[31:39] It wasn't just the Vikings. Diocletius the Roman Emperor the evil Roman Emperor unleashed a great wave of persecution on the church because suddenly and he blamed the Christians his diviners could no longer divine.

[31:59] They could no longer harvest prophecies from their old magic. It dried up. It stopped working. Shortly after Constantine his, I believe his nephew Julian the Apostate tries to bring paganism back into Rome and he goes to the Oracle of Delphi a historically known and reliable source of pagan prophecy for hundreds of years.

[32:26] There was this temple they would have this particular prophetess they would change that prophetess out over time and she would deliver primarily to local kings or kings in the area prophecies of guidance on how to act.

[32:41] Julian the Apostate was so eager to restore paganism back to Rome that he sought out the Oracle of Delphi and here is what the Oracle said. Tell the king the dappled court has fallen to the ground.

[32:54] No longer does Apollo tend his house nor his prophetic laurel nor his babbling spring. Even the chattering water is quenched. In other words tell him there is nothing left here.

[33:06] Apollo has left the building. The early Christians were not confused about what was happening as magic both in the pagan world and also in the Talmudic Judean world was drying up.

[33:23] Athanasius says again in former times every place was full of the fraud of the oracles and the utterances of those at Delphi and Dordona and Boeotia, Lycia, Liberia, Libya and Egypt and those in Kibiri and the Pythonists were considered marvelous by the minds of men but now since Christ has been proclaimed everywhere their madness too has ceased and there is no one left among them to give oracles at all.

[33:48] All demons so far from continuing to impose on people by their deceits and oracle givings and sorceries are routed by the sign of the cross if they so much as try.

[34:00] I could talk all day about Boniface and Thor's Oak, St. Patrick and the Druids, St. Gregory and the Temple of Apollo, St. Martin of Tours and the Gauls, St.

[34:12] Columbus and the Scottish Picks. I could go on and on and on and talk about time and time again how the gospel has advanced, tearing down strongholds, taking every thought captive, raised against the knowledge of King Jesus.

[34:26] And I would bring that to you both to brag on Jesus because that's fun but also to say, hey friend, I know, I know there's still stuff in your life, potentially some idolatry, some ongoing sin, struggle with either something like an addiction or just some ongoing struggle with something like anxiety.

[34:53] I just want to remind you that the Lord Jesus is at the right hand of the Father and your enemies are his enemies. enemies. He will take care of you.

[35:06] He will have the victory. Even as he has had the victory over all of these gods. Let me read a list of gods to you. Tell me if you know any of these names. Teshep, Astarte, Ninkasi, Reshep, Enlil, Mithra, Atargus, Epona, Anhur, Athor, Sobek, Taret.

[35:25] I've never heard of any of these. There were temples built to all of them. And now they are completely forgotten. The Lord Jesus is indeed at the right hand of the Father ruling and reigning until all of his enemies are made his footstool.

[35:44] As I introduce us into communion today, I want to remind you that at the end of our communion partaking, we always say, for as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.

[35:56] And I want to remind you how all of this ends. All of this ends with all of his enemies permanently cast out. Revelation 20.10 And the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented there day and night forever and ever.

[36:16] Therefore, let me bring 1 Peter 5 to you. Resist him, the devil, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world.

[36:28] And after you've suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.

[36:40] To him be dominion forever and ever. Amen. Let me pray, and then you come and grab your elements, turn to your seat, and we'll partake together. Oh, great God, we praise your holy name and state with absolute confidence that you are King of King and Lord of Lords, and that nothing, God, is too hard for you.

[36:59] Father, you rule this whole universe by the word of your power, and we are confident, Lord, that you are ruling and reigning perfectly even today. As Hebrews 2 says, God put all things under your feet, though even now we do not see all things in subjection yet.

[37:16] Lord, give us faith to say that it is only a matter of time, that as you have been faithful through the centuries to bring about the end of many false gods, you will continue to be faithful all the way to the end until Satan himself is fully cast into the lake of fire and there suffers forever and ever.

[37:33] We praise your holy name that you have saved us, not because we're smart, not because we're insightful, not because we were naturally holy, you saved us, Lord, simply because you loved us, and that not because of anything we've done to deserve it.

[37:48] In fact, God, your word says that you choose the foolish things of this world to confound the wise and the weak things of this world to confound the strong. And so the day is coming, Lord, when all of us pathetic people who were saved out of our sins and have nothing to boast in except Christ will indeed partake in the crushing of the great, rebellious, prideful, deceiver of the brethren.

[38:12] Lord, we will partake in that for your glory, for your namesake. We praise your holy name for the plan you've put forth in your word. We trust it and we look forward to seeing it come to fruition.

[38:25] Now, Father, as we come and partake of this table, let us remember Jesus Christ, who is indeed the agent of God's vengeance in this world, who is God of every God and sits at the right hand of the Father even right now, actively bringing his enemies into compliance.

[38:44] Praise your holy name, Lord, that at one time we were your enemies and that you, Lord, killed us through salvation. You brought us to death through the cross and brought us to life through the resurrection so that we sit here today, Lord, as former enemies made sons and daughters.

[39:02] Your great conquering work is often more merciful than we could ever expect. Fill our hearts full of faith as we partake today. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. If you're a follower of Jesus, would you come and get your elements and then return to your seat.