Is it scriptural to bind Satan?

Lesson 11 Welcome to Through the Bible with Les Feldick, a 30-minute walk through the Scriptures teaching in-depth Bible truths that change people's lives. Now here's your host, Les Feldick. Les Feldick. Okay, once again we'll go right back to where we left off in our last program. For some of you that was a week ago, for some of you it was yesterday, but whatever, we'll pick right up in Ephesians chapter six and we're going to go into verse 10. Again, we always like to welcome our television audience. Some of you are probably seeing us for the first time, and we're not involved with any particular group, and we're not supported by anyone. We just depend strictly on the gifts of you, the television audience, and God always seems to supply our needs, and consequently from day one I've always said that I will never beg for money on this program, and I won't. We haven't, but we do thank you for those of you who help us pay the bills and for your kind letters from day to day. We just can't thank you enough. I think most of you realize that Iris is totally a helpmate in this, and we always appreciate the fact that I guess 99 % of our letters are not dear less, it's dear less than Iris, and I do. I appreciate that so much because I just couldn't do it without her. Now again, we like to always make it known that our programs all the way from Genesis up to where we are now in Ephesians are available on a six-hour format, or twelve programs on a videotape, and the same twelve programs are on audio cassette, and they've also been transcribed then into a little book as you see on the screen, and those are available if you'll just call us or write to us, and we'll give you the format, the table of contents, whatever you need. Now then, we want to buy up the time, and we're going to go right back to where we left off in Ephesians chapter 6 and verse 10. Now as I mentioned back in our study of the Corinthian letters, you'll notice that every once in a while Paul kind of shifts gears, and he just goes from one subject to something seemingly totally different, and here is one of them. Now in the last two segments of course, he came out of the relationship between the husband and the wife based on love, and our comparison with the love of Christ, and then he carried on into chapter 6, the first verses that we saw in the last program with that same attitude between the parents and their children, but now we come into something totally different. Now we're going to cover the territory of dealing with our adversary, Satan and the powers that be. Verse 10. Ephesians 6. "...whole different set of circumstances, a different subject matter, finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and the power of his might put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil." Now you have no idea how many letters and phone calls I get that ask, is it scriptural that we are to bind Satan? Personally I've never heard it, it sure isn't in this Book. There is no way that we humans can bind Satan. He is a spirit being, and God in the power of an angel will one day bind him and put him in the pit for a thousand years, but there is no way that we can bind Satan today, nor are we instructed to. I pointed out to one individual, and I found all the verses that I could, that the instruction always as we see right here, is to resist him, and to oppose him, but there is no way we're going to bind him. Now look what it says in verse 11. Ephesians 6. "...whole different set of circumstances, a different subject matter, finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and the power of his might put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil." Now the first thing you always have to do in Bible study is think of a situation way back where we have a perfect example of what Paul is talking about here. Now I like to do this just to make people think. Where can you think of an instance where someone resisted Satan? Well, the Lord. Let's go back in Matthew chapter 4. Now if Satan were to have been bound, then the Lord would have done it right here, but He doesn't. But what does He do? He resists him. And how does He resist the devil? With the Word of God. And it's no different for us today. We cannot bind him, but we can withstand him with the Word of God. Here it is, Matthew chapter 4. Verse 1. "...then was Jesus led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil, or tested. And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was after a hundred. And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread." Now the Lord could have done it, no problem. But He certainly wasn't going to do it at Satan's command, and so what does He do? He withstands him. He resists him, and how does He do it? It is written, He quotes Scripture. "...man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." Now you come through these various temptations, and every time, what does Jesus quote? The Scripture. That's our defense. Now coming back to Ephesians, as you look at these verses in whole, there is not one word in here that we are to attack Him. All of the attributes of this event are defensive, and that's all we can do. We can withstand Him, we can resist Him. James puts it that we are to resist the devil, and he will flee from us. And so always remember that here is where we have to have a knowledge of the Scriptures in order to confront Satan if and when he approaches us. So we are to be prepared because he will attack at one time or another. You know I don't think you and I have to feel that he is constantly attacking us day in and day out. I told someone the other day, and he was probably shocked a little bit, that I have more trouble with my old sin nature than I do with Satan. Isn't that right? Sure, it's our old sin nature that gives us the most problems. Satan I think is periodic in his attack, and we have to be aware that it could be constant, but he doesn't. But our old Adamic nature is a 24 hour battle, because that's where we have to be constantly in a warfare. Now let's move on. Verse 12. We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, and against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Now let's come back to Romans chapter 8, because that's the only way I can teach is to just compare Scripture with Scripture, because it usually explains itself better than I can. Romans chapter 8, and let's drop down to verse 38 where Paul writes in the conclusion of this great chapter of Romans chapter 8. Romans 8. I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. In other words, these principalities and powers that Paul speaks of are in Satan's domain. These are the powers of darkness that he warns us about, and again he does not tell us to attack them. We are to resist them, we are to have a defense against them, and be ready with the Scripture to resist them. But we always have to understand that it is not flesh and blood, even like Paul knew it better than anybody. As he writes this little letter to the Ephesians, where is he? Well he's in the prison in Rome, and whether it was at this exact moment, or whether it was a year or two later, but who became the most awful emperor that the Roman Empire had ever experienced? It was Nero! And it was under Nero of course that he was finally put to death. Now I have to feel as I study some of these things, and some of the freedom that Paul experienced in his early prison experience, that it must have been another emperor, and then Nero came in a little later. But we do know that Nero was the emperor at the time that Paul was put to death. And Nero was wicked, and much like Ahab back in the Old Testament, Nero had a wife that was worse than he was. And she happened to be a wife who had been a proselyte of Judaism, and she of course would listen to the Judaizers who detested the apostle Paul and wanted his life, and so she egged Nero on in a lot of his wicked things. So Paul writes from a position of full understanding what it is to be up against the powers, and the principalities, and the wickedness, and the darkness of this world. He knew what it was, and he was talking from first hand experience. But on the other hand, Paul never gave up, and never despaired, but his makeup was constantly upbeat. When we get into Philippians it's rejoice, rejoice, rejoice evermore, in spite of his horrible circumstances, and so it's an encouragement to us. My we have no idea what the apostle had to go through, but we do get a little picture of the wickedness and the things that are taking place, again in the realm of the principalities and powers. All you have to do is pick up your daily paper. What is causing the murder and the random violence that's sweeping not only America, but the world? This very thing, the satanic powers, the principalities, and the things that foment and are constantly producing such wickedness. Now then verse 13. Ephesians 1. Wherefore, since we are now dealing with something that is beyond the physical, this is something that you can't take a weapon and learn how to use. This is something that is in the area of the invisible, and that of course is where Satan's domain is. So he says, wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Now another point I like to make. If Paul is in prison in Rome, who is constantly in his presence? Roman soldiers. One of them was usually chained to him. And so he had a first hand view of the operations of a Roman soldier. And you know it's unique to Paul, I think, that he uses the things that were around him in the everyday world to make his point, even though it's Holy Spirit inspired. For example, when he tells us to run the race, what does he make an analogy with? The Olympics. He gives us the same background that the Olympic runners had to prepare to run their race, and so do we. And so he uses these things out of the Roman community to make a point. Now of course he's using the Roman soldier, and they were known for their ability in battle. Now as he comes down through these verses, he's going to just literally look at that Roman soldier prepared for altercation of one sort or another. He may not have had quite as much as actual battlefield, but yet Paul was relatively aware of all of the things that that Roman soldier needed before he went into battle. Because he was seeing it around him all the time. Now I think I've made mention of it before on this program, and then last night I was reading someone else, and they made the same point. That Paul was such a tremendous witness of the Gospel, that even these pagan Roman soldiers by the time they had come in and spent a certain amount of time as his personal guard, by the time they rotated out to another place of service, what were they? They were believers. And so this is why he could even say in Philippians chapter 1, verse 13. I mean this is hard to comprehend, that under those horrible pagan circumstances, yet the man in the power of the Holy Spirit was constantly winning these men to Christ, who in turn were going into other places of duty, and were becoming a testimony as well. Now let's look at Philippians chapter 1, verse 13. So that my bonds in Christ are manifest in all the palace, and in all other places. That is throughout Rome. Now let's go over to chapter 4, verse 22, and this just sort of builds on it. Philippians chapter 4, verse 22, as he closes the letter to the Philippians, he says, "...all the saints salute you, chiefly or mainly those who are of Caesar's household." That's why I don't think Nero was yet the emperor, because Nero would never have allowed this. But someone else, one of the other emperors, I think was still on the throne at this time. But because of Paul's testimony to these soldiers who would come in and be his personal guard, and when they would be rotated out into other areas of service, they were actually penetrating the household of the emperor. Now some of course probably feel that this was limited to the Roman headquarters of that garrison rather than the actual palace of the emperor. But Paul was having such an impact on those Roman soldiers as they would come in to guard him 24 hours a day, under chain, that by the time they left that tour of duty, they went out as believers. And I think they went to the ends of the Roman Empire, and that is why Paul could write to Titus in chapter 2, that the grace of God which bringeth salvation has appeared unto all men. Now just think about it. What a testimony that man had, even as a prisoner, winning those pagans around him to a knowledge of salvation. Now if you'll come back to Ephesians chapter 6, so he writes from first hand experience of the preparations for battle that the Roman soldier had. And note that all of these things were defensive. There's only one offensive weapon, and it is used defensively, and that is the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. But now as you come on down, verse 14. "...stand therefore, having your loins gird about with truth..." The loins, that's the upper legs, and that of course was to deflect the spears and arrows of the enemy. But Paul is going to bring it now into the spiritual realm, and so as the Roman soldier had his loins protected with some sort of armor, we too are to have our spiritual loins gird about with truth. Now those of you who have heard me teach very long, I always say there's another term that we can always substitute for the word truth, and not do violence to the Scripture. Do you remember what it was? The name of Christ. And if we are literally protected by the presence of Christ, Satan can't touch us. I guess especially as we travel a lot, and as we put the nose of the car into traffic, I think Iris and I have learned to just ask the Lord to hedge us about with His presence. And when that's there, nothing can touch us. Now we run across horrible accidents constantly, but we have to constantly rest in that knowledge that we're in His protective care, and Satan can't touch us. He cannot touch us without God's permitting it. And so here again we are to have our loins gird about with the very presence of Christ, the truth. Now let's see, I always have to have a reason for my statements. Come back in Ephesians to chapter 1, a verse I like to use quite often. Ephesians 1, verse 13, and of course you can't help but see the name of Christ in verse 12. Ephesians 1, verse 13. Ephesians 1, verse 13. "...in whom you also trusted after you heard the word of truth, which is the gospel of your salvation." See that? That's when we became a believer, when we heard the Word of Truth, the Gospel. And then in whom? In Christ again, also after you believed, nothing else. And after you believed, you were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise. And so the whole concept of Paul's teaching is that Christ is the very truth of God, He is the Word of God, and we are to be surrounded with His very presence. Let's move on quickly to the next part of that same verse. Verse 14, and we are to have on the breastplate of righteousness. Now those of you who remember when we taught back in Romans chapter 3, how do we receive the righteousness of God? When we believe the Gospel. Now I had to do a little bit of research on this, because I don't want to put something in here that isn't here. But the breastplate of the Roman soldier that Paul was looking at as he probably was writing this, did not just cover the upper chest as we think of bulletproof vests today. But the breastplate actually went to the lower part of the torso, whereupon the leggings then would pick up. So this breastplate of righteousness was that which covered the whole torso of the Roman soldier. Now let's just quickly go back to Romans chapter 3. You'll recognize the verses because we've used them before, and remember what the breastplate is? It's righteousness. This is our security. It's our defense against the principalities and powers. Verse 21 of Romans 3. But now the righteousness of God without the Law is manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God, which is by the faith of Jesus Christ unto all, and upon all that believe. What is righteousness? God's righteousness is imputed to us. It covers us. It's our defense against the powers of darkness, because it's an imputed thing. And it has been placed upon all them that believe, for there is no difference between Jew or Gentile, black or white, red or yellow, it makes no difference. They're all covered with the righteousness of Christ. Now the other one I always like to use from the Old Testament is Isaiah chapter 61. This is a Jewish prophet, but he also is writing by inspiration of the Spirit, the same as Paul does. And Isaiah writes, I will greatly rejoice in the Lord. My soul shall be joyful in my God, for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom does to his bride. Do you see the analogy? As God's righteousness has been imputed, it becomes the breastplate that Paul talks about in Ephesians chapter 6. And it is our defense against the powers of the evil one. If you'll come back again for just a moment to Ephesians chapter 6, verse 15. We probably won't have time to finish this verse, but we'll take it as far as we can. Ephesians 6, verse 15. "...and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace." Now can you imagine a Roman soldier out on a battlefield of briars and sharp rocks with nothing to protect his feet? Well of course they had to be protected, otherwise he�d have been powerless against the enemy. But we too have to have our feet shod with the preparation of the Gospel of Peace. I guess there�s one good verse, and I don�t think I�ll have time for it in this half hour, but we�ll look at it in the opening part of the next program, where we have the referred to in the Old Testament as well as in the New, as that which takes the Gospel to the ends of the earth. And we�ll look at it in our next program, how that our feet are beautiful in the sight of God when we take the Gospel to other people. So always remember that all these things are first and foremost defensive to resist the wiles of the devil. Never try to bind him, we only can resist him. And we�ll see you next time.