In his sermon titled 'Prayer for Deliverance from the Evil One', Peter Allison explores the significance of the final petition in the Lord's Prayer, urging faithful and continuous prayer for deliverance from evil influences. He emphasizes the context of Jesus' teachings on prayer in Luke 11:14-26, highlighting how demons mock and distort God's works, exemplified by a mute demon Jesus cast out. Allison elaborates on the organized, hierarchical nature of Satan's kingdom, drawing from biblical accounts and historical examples to illustrate how demons leverage human authority for evil purposes. The sermon warns against the pervasive influence of Satan in various earthly institutions and societal movements, arguing that confusion and division are hallmarks of demonic presence. Allison encourages believers to rely on prayer, faith, and the sovereignty of God to combat these influences, reinforcing that Satan's kingdom, despite its power, is ultimately defeated by Christ's victory. The sermon calls for vigilance and prayerful engagement to counteract demonic schemes and to uphold God's order and truth.

Luke chapter 11. Our text is beginning at verse 14, but I'd like to read the Lord's Prayer before that, which begins at verse 1. Luke 11 verse 1. And I'll read that and then skip to verse 14. Hear God's Word.

Now it came to pass as he was praying in a certain place when he ceased that one of his disciples said to him, Lord teach us to pray as John also taught his disciples. So he said to them, when you pray say, our Father in heaven hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us day by day our daily bread and forgive us our sins. For we also forgive everyone who is indebted to us.

And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one." Verse 14, And he was casting out a demon, and it was mute. So it was when the demon had gone out that the mute spoke and the multitudes marveled. But some of them said, He casts out demons by Bilzebub, the ruler of demons. Others testing Him sought from Him a sign from heaven, but He, knowing their thoughts, said to them, every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, and a house divided against a house falls. If Satan also is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand?

Because you say, I cast out demons by Belzebub. And if I cast out demons by Belzebub, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore they will be your judges. But if I cast out demons with the finger of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you. When a strong man fully armed guards his own palace, his goods are in peace.

But when a stranger stronger than he comes and overcomes him, he will take from him all his armor in which he trusted and divide his spoils. He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters. When an unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes through dry places, seeking rest and finding none. He says, I will return to My house from which I came, and when He comes, He finds it swept and put in order. And then He goes and takes with Him seven other spirits more wicked than Himself, and they enter and dwell there, and the last state of that man is worse than the first.

Let us restrain our feet from every wicked way that we may keep His Word. Heavenly Father, May you give to us your Holy Spirit. May you seal to our hearts the truth of your word. And may you sanctify my lips to proclaim your message and not my own. We ask this in Jesus name, amen.

It's good to be reminded, God Himself, as we read this morning, has established a sign for Him to remember. He's established a sign for himself to remember a covenant that he made with the earth. And so if God himself uses signs to remember things, How much more is it right and good for us to have signs the ones that he's given for us to remember? And also for us to be reminded. You know, we celebrate the Lord's Supper every week because it is among other things, it's a reminder to us of Christ's sacrifice.

And so this morning we were looking again at a passage that we looked at a year ago in the hopes in the understanding that we it's good for us to be reminded, that we need to be reminded. And what I want to remind us about this morning is prayer. I want to remind us to pray. I want to encourage us this morning to pray. Yes, prayer in general, but this morning specifically, and especially, more prayer, and continuous and faithful prayer around that last petition of the Lord's prayer that we read, but deliver us from the evil one.

Jesus says in his model prayer to us that this is something that we ought to pray about, that we ought to do. And after that prayer, we skipped over some of those verses there, but Jesus goes on to teach a little bit about prayer, to encourage us, to remind us about importunate prayer, to remind us to pray diligently and faithfully, not because God's going to hear us because we pray it say it many times but because God is faithful to answer our prayer And that's why we should keep praying And then we come to this section on Demons and and the demonic and if you're and I think that that is a further explanation. Christ is giving further detail and instruction about how we can pray this last petition of the Lord's Prayer, but deliver us from the evil one. And if your Bible doesn't have that verse, that line in it, I would throw it out and get one that does. Because you see, without that line, if your Bible is admitting that line, deliver us from the evil one, then there is no context whatsoever for this whole section here about Jesus' instruction on prayer.

It's just hanging without any context. But you see, with that line there, then there's a perfect explanation and context for this instruction on the demonic. He's taught us to pray, deliver us from the evil one. And now He is proceeding in this section, verses 14 to 26, to give us more instruction, more detail, more insight in how specifically we ought to pray to be delivered from the evil one. We don't want to be ignorant of Satan's devices.

The scriptures are filled with, and the gospels especially, are filled with accounts of resisting Satan at all the various places and points where he attacked Christ. And among all the Gospels, Luke is by far the most prolific in these accounts in the references to the evil one. So let's look then at this instruction that Jesus gives. It's in the context of Him casting out a demon and it says that it was mute. It was mute.

Other demons in Luke and the other gospels are both mute and blind. While still other demons have very loud voices and cry with them and see things just fine. You see, that this demon is mute. The demon is mute. It's it, not he.

The demon is mute. He's casting out a demon and it was mute. See, specific demons have specific abilities to perform different kinds of evil. We might call that ability a gift, except it's an ability that can only perform evil. So It's not a gift that any of us in our right mind would want, but it is a capability, it's an ability to do something.

You see, different demons have different abilities, or disabilities, maybe we should call them disabilities. Now this ability to speak is significant for a number of reasons. And what I want to show with this is that demons always attack and mock and seek to destroy what God does. And so this demons not being able to speak is an attack upon Christ. And it's significant for a number of reasons because the ability to speak is what separates people created in the image of God from the rest of the created order.

It's the only one of our five senses that represent information flowing out of us. Everything else is information that we are taking in. All the other, our typical five senses are how us receiving information. But speech is how we call upon God. It's how we praise Him.

It's how we thank Him. It's how we express our love for Him. It's how we ask Him for our provisions and for our needs. Of course God governs and creates by the word of His power. God is the God who speaks.

He is the God who is and who speaks. He spoke the world into existence out of nothing. And Psalm 29 describes all the things that the voice of God does. It makes the deer give birth. It calls for thunder and lightning.

God's voice shakes the earth. And so you see this muteness, this dumb demon, in the sense that he can't speak, is mocking the work of God. You see, this is one of the telltale signs of Satan's finger and of Satan's presence. When we see God's works and His attributes being mocked, It's really a calling card of Satan's kingdom. And when we see God's works and God's attributes and God's excellencies and the things that God has done, The things that God has created, the things that He's made beautiful.

When we see these things being attacked, we ought to pray. We ought to remember the Lord's Prayer and Jesus' instruction to us and pray. Pray against the evil one. It should lead us to pray that God would deliver us from the evil one. That He would deliver us from this mockery of what Christ has and God has done.

And that He would destroy this mockery of his works. They're his works. Now not every case of muteness is necessarily demonic. I want to make that clear. Not every case of blindness, not every illness is demonic.

Not at all. But some are. This one was. The Bible says so. This demon was mute.

And he made this person mute. And so the fact that This petition then is a part of Christ's general instruction to us on how to pray, ought to encourage us to make this petition, that last line, a part, a regular part of our prayer, just as much as we pray for God's healing, or God's provision for our daily bread or for God's forgiveness for our sins or that we glorify the Lord and praise him. We ought to be praying when we see the telltale signs of Satan's kingdom. We have to be praying that God would deliver us from the evil one. Secondly, not only is this demon mute, But this demon that's inhabiting this person, but the demon has made the person mute.

There are two mutes in this account, if you noticed. You see, demons leverage their power by inhabiting and working through human hosts They leverage their power they extend it Because a demon is a fallen angel it's a it doesn't it's a spirit being And they use the human body to accomplish things, to extend their power. When demons inhabit kings and other people who have authority in their own right, they can leverage that person to extend their destructive and evil influence that much farther. They can leverage the authority that the king has. And so that's why very often Those that are in high office so often when they're not believers are subject to demonic manipulation because a demon operating through a king of a vast empire, like Nebuchadnezzar or like Nero, it can greatly extend their ability.

I think this is how we can understand passages like Isaiah 14 that is unquestionably, if you read that chapter, it's unquestionably about the king of Babylon. But this is what we read there. In this passage that is clearly about the king of Babylon, we read in verse 12, How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning, how you are cut down to the ground, you who weakened the nations, for you have said in your heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God, I will also sit on the mount of the congregation. On the farthest side of the north I will ascend above the heights of the clouds. I will be like the most high Yet you shall be brought down to shield to the lowest depths of the pit Those who see you will gaze at you and consider you saying is this the man who made the earth tremble, who shook kingdoms, who made the world as a wilderness and destroyed its cities.

It's talking about King of Babylon. It calls him the son of the Lucifer, and then it says He's a man who made the earth tremble. How do we understand that? Who is it talking about? Is it talking about Satan?

Or is it talking about a human? Well, it's talking about the human King of Babylon who was inhabited by the demonic, by a demon. The king of Babylon was being moved by high level demons, and there are levels as we'll see in a minute, and God addresses them together. It's just like when Peter suggested that Christ would not have to die in Matthew 16, and Christ rebukes Peter by saying, he turns to Peter and says, Satan, get behind me. He was addressing them together.

Satan was moving Peter to ask that question. But it's even more than just this. The only offensive weapon in the armament which God has provided for us to resist Satan is the sword of the Spirit. The only offensive weapon is the Word of God spoken in direct response, in direct answer to Satan's deceptions in lives. You see, so in removing This man's ability to speak, the demon is not only attacking the image of God, he is marring and distorting the handiwork of God.

Now the next characteristic of Satan's fingerprint is that Satan and his demons are not lone rangers. But some of them said, He casts out demons by Belzebub, the ruler of the demons. But he knowing their thoughts said to them, every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation. If Satan's kingdom is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand? Jesus says Satan has a kingdom.

And that within that kingdom there is a hierarchy of rule. This kingdom is described in Ephesians as principalities, as powers, as rulers of the darkness of this age. Satan is called the prince of this world in John 14, and Paul calls him the god of this age in his second letter to the Corinthians. You see, a kingdom implies a number of things. Jesus said Satan has a kingdom.

That implies that there are armies of demons. The picture described in Revelation 12 seems to suggest that a third of the angelic order fell with Satan. Revelation 9 mentions one army of demons numbering 200 million. So the total number of demons in Satan's kingdom is undoubtedly much greater than that. But however great that number is, billions, trillions, what we do also know is that Those who are with Christ are twice as many.

Two-thirds is twice one-third. A hierarchical kingdom with a ruler over other demons implies also a coordination between armies of demons. It implies direction given by rulers or generals who are over other demons. There's a hierarchy here. A kingdom implies armies.

This hierarchy implies a hierarchy. A kingdom also implies a strategic plan. You can't have a kingdom without having a strategic plan. And in light of the fact that demons extend their power by inhabiting and moving humans, particularly kings, It implies that Satan's kingdom has an earthly and a human representation to it. And if Satan is alive today, which He is, then it means His kingdom has an earthly and a human representation to it.

And I won't be entirely dogmatic on exactly how his kingdom is represented here on earth today. It certainly has changed. It's not the same in every age. You can trace the history of the world since the creation and see in hindsight and identify the structure of the Satanic Kingdom. In the ancient world it's talked about in Daniel with that statue that had gold and silver and bronze and iron and iron and clay representing the Babylonian, the Medo-Persian, the Greek and the Roman empires.

And all those empires were led by demonically driven kings. And they were all destroyed. The oracle Delphi is another example of the structure of the demonic kingdom in the days of Greece. That was a demonic spirit that people went to to get information because it gave them information about what would happen. It's demonic.

But it was information. So in that day that was the structure of His kingdom. But today it's different. And I said I won't be entirely dogmatic on this, but here I would offer this outline or this structure for His kingdom today. Jesus said that the Jews of his day who followed the oral traditions that later became what we call the Talmud or of their father the devil.

It's called the Babylonian Talmud because Babylon was a habitation of demons. All these Babylonian things were occult symbols. And as we've been learning in Revelation, those that are in the afternoon session, the very veil of the temple after it was torn at the crucifixion, the temple, the veil that replaced that had the Babylonian occult symbolism in it, according to historical records. And so the Jews of Jesus' day who followed these oral traditions from these Babylonian occult traditions were of their father the devil, Jesus said. And so I think we are on safe ground to hold that one department of Satan's kingdom today is represented in the Jewish Kabbalah.

Their behind the scenes involvement throughout the 20th century attacking the messianic reign of Christ and spreading false doctrine and creating confusion and war on the earth is well documented in many places. Another likely department in Satan's kingdom is the Mormon Church, in that they hold that people will become God. They hold to the exact theology of Satan. And this doctrine has been categorically stated by all key leaders beginning with Joseph Smith in an 1844 sermon known as the King Follett Discourse, he stated, quote, here then is eternal life to know the only wise and true God, and you have got to learn how to be gods yourselves, the same as all gods have done before you." Brigham Young stated, quote, the Lord created you and me for the purpose of becoming gods like Himself. And Mormon apostle Bruce McConkie wrote, quote, those who gain eternal life receive exaltation.

They overcome all things, have all power, and receive the fullness of the Father. They are gods, unquote. Mormon 70, Milton Hunter wrote, quote, No prophet of record gave more complete and forceful explanation of the doctrine that men may become gods than the American prophet. That's exactly what Satan believed. That's exactly what Satan believed.

Exactly. And that's his purpose and mission, is to storm heaven, storm the gates of heaven, and sit on the throne of God as God. O Lucifer, son of the morning, for you have said in your heart, I will ascend into heaven. I will exalt my throne above the stars of God. I will also sit on the mount of the congregation.

I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High." Obviously, this is not saying that every Mormon is a saint, and it's not at all. But institutionally, they have the exact theology of Satan. And institutionally have been closely connected with many things connected with Satanism. So I think we need to recognize this institution as an earthly department of Satan's kingdom. Now another department of Satan's kingdom is the Roman Catholic Church.

The last Pope, the one before the current one, resigned eight years ago in light of evidence proving his participation in the Ninth Circle satanic rituals. Now the Ninth Circle rituals are some of the worst unspeakably wicked. I couldn't even begin to even remotely describe the things that they do, the rituals that the Ninth Circle participates in. I couldn't even begin to describe them from the pulpit let alone in person. They are unspeakably wicked and vile deeds that are beyond mere human imagination.

And these same tribunals that brought forth this evidence that forced the last Pope to resign, they have evidence of widespread systemic participation. And so I think our confession is correct when it calls the Pope of Rome quote that Antichrist that man of sin and son of perdition that exalts himself in the church against Christ and all that is called God Fourthly, I think all the various Masonic orders with their demonic self-maledictory owes, would also have to be considered another department, earthly department of Satan's kingdom. All of their humanitarian work notwithstanding, after all, Satan himself can transform himself into an angel of light. Lastly, the Luciferians, the people that are openly consider themselves worshippers of Lucifer and in that category would be the United Nations. Madame Blavatsky was very instrumental and influential in the founding of the United Nations.

And even the names of their trusts, like the Luciferian Publishing Trust, they put the Lucifer's name right in their trust. You can look on their website today and they will say that they've renamed themselves because of confusion. They didn't say Christians but that's what they were referring to, people that are connecting Luciferian with Satan. But they're connected. We shouldn't be surprised or alarmed at global conspiracies.

The Bible says they exist in Psalm 2. But we can and we ought to be praying that we would be delivered from the evil plans and purposes of Satan's kingdom as that plan is worked out through all these various earthly departments. We can pray in great confidence that God laughs in derision at those who seek to overthrow the reign of his Messiah. And we can pray in confidence that the gates of hell will not prevail against the church of Jesus Christ. That it doesn't matter if all of our rulers are inhabited by demons.

That doesn't mean that God is able to destroy every kingdom and principality and power no matter how great it is. That ought to encourage us in prayer. God destroyed the Babylonian Empire. Wiped it out. It fell in a night.

That was an empire that was unstoppable. In all the world, nobody could stop it. God destroyed him in one night. God destroyed the Persian Empire. The greatest army ever assembled was defeated in Thermopolis.

God destroyed the Greek Empire. A demonically driven man who conquered the world died in his tent. Powerless. His kingdom was divided among his generals. Rome, the greatest nation and power and dominion that had existed yet, was conquered by the Church of Jesus Christ, such that the Roman Empire proclaimed Christianity as the true religion.

There is no power, no matter how demonically inspired, no matter how demonically driven, that can resist the prayers of Christ's people and the onslaught of the Church of Jesus Christ. And that ought to encourage us to wherever we see the fingerprint of Satan's kingdom and the telltale calling cards where he's mocking or mimicking or destroying what God has called beautiful and good and holy. That ought to call us to prayer. We ought to be reminded that all authority in heaven and earth is given to Jesus Christ, even over demons and principalities and powers. Verse 23 tells us that demons bring chaos and disorder.

It gives us another characteristic of Satan's kingdom. He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters. God is a God of order and decency. Satan is the ultimate scatterer, the great disruptor, the accuser, the confuser. He's the accuser and the confuser.

And whenever you see confusion existing, just mass confusion, where people don't even know where the problem is, or who the problem is. That's another telltale sign, characteristic of Satan's kingdom. The Ephesian riot that is recorded in Acts 19, where the people are divided and there's confusion over what the division is in the first place, is a good example of this kind of confusion, disorder. Acts 19 says that the assembly itself was confused, and most of them did not know why they had even come together. That's demonic confusion.

Remember, Ephesus was a demonic stronghold. Remember all the demonic material, books and things that were burned and destroyed. I think it came to 50, 000 or 30, 000, 50, 000 pieces of money. Ephesus was a vast demonic stronghold and this convocation was an example of this demonic confusion. In fact, the ruler of the city, once he got the assembly under order, said, we could come under scrutiny of the Roman government for what's happened here today.

There's no good cause for it, he said. That's demonic confusion. And so when the arrows are flying left and right, and people don't seem to know what's up or down, or even what the source of the issue is, or where the source of division is, and everything about the situation just seems to work out exactly wrong, It's a pretty good chance that that's demonically driven and in that case, pray, pray, pray that we would be delivered from the confusion of the evil one. The whole COVID narrative is a classic example. Just look back at all of the confusion and misinformation, disinformation, and divisions that were created on this.

The lies persist. An example of demonic confusion. Or the Black Lives Matter that we saw. It's tamed down a little bit. But it's a good example.

Racial enmity, police corruption, abuse of authority, hatred for people, anarchy. It's kind of all just hopelessly confused and there doesn't even seem to be a right or wrong side. Mass confusion. All attempts at logic and ability to reason are lost. A telltale sign of demonic confusion and disorder.

It can happen in a culture. It can happen in a church. Maybe you've seen something like that happen in a church. It can happen in a home. But wherever you see this manifestation of Satan's kingdom, of his presence, Pray.

Pray to be delivered from the evil one. Verse 23 also tells us that Satan's kingdom is opposed at every point to Christ and His church. At every point. Those who are not with Christ are against Him. Those who are not gathering with Him are scattering.

See, Satan may disguise himself as an angel of light. The Bible says he does. He may use his good looks to impress. He may even say something that's true, like quoting Scripture. Satan can quote Scripture.

He probably knows it better than us. He quoted it to Jesus. But it's always for an evil purpose. Satan is a liar. He's the father of lies.

He doesn't tell the truth even when what he's saying is true, because if he's saying something that's true, it's to a malicious purpose. It's to a wrong end. It's spoken out of season. It's spoken to confuse or divide or confound. See, demons seek to mock, to mar, and to destroy what God has made.

And God made men to speak, and Satan's demons make men mute. God made men and women after His own image to speak, to hear, to reason, to judge. And Satan makes men unable to speak and unable to hear and unable to reason, unable to judge rightly. You see the eyes of mass irrationality. That's probably often the work of Satan.

His kingdom. He mimics and he mocks. He mimics. He tries to duplicate it. Just like the priests in Egypt were able to duplicate a couple of the plagues that Moses and Aaron brought.

He mimics and he mocks all that is good and holy. What are some examples of how Satan divides, mimics or mocks all that is good and holy? Well, God made people to dwell together as families and as families of families in cultures and societies. And Psalm 133 speaks of how good and how pleasant it is when brothers dwell together. Satan seeks to destroy culture like that.

He seeks to divide people and to pit one segment of culture against another segment of culture. He seeks to pit one family against another family. Parents against children, sons against fathers, brothers against sisters. It's not any coincidence that saintness are found behind many of the genocidal and racist cultures such as Nazi Germany. The guard that stood outside of Hitler's bedroom every night testified to the demonic conversations and rage and terror that happened in that bedroom every night.

And the fact that racism, which is pitting of one color against another, completely arbitrary marker. The fact that we have racism arising in Our culture is one sign of the hordes of demons that are being unleashed in our land. Demons that have been kept out by the preaching of the Gospel and the conversion of our culture. That protection is collapsing. There are huge divisions right now in our culture.

It's on some very basic and fundamental matters. And so, brothers and sisters, as the people of God, we need to pray that this demonic confusion over the most basic truths, pitting one group against another group, that that would be defeated. God put men and women together in marriage and Satan seeks to take them apart. Rampant divorce and broken families is another indicator of the growing presence of Satan's kingdom and his attack upon Christ. God says, what God has put together, let no man separate.

Satan seeks to take apart, to do exactly that, take apart what God has put together. He tries to mock God by putting together what God has separated and what God never intended to go together. Satan divides by gender pitting man against women and women against men. See, rampant divorce, feminism, chauvinism, spouses simply giving up on their marriages are clear indicators of demonic influence. And so, brothers and sisters, we need to pray for the marriages in our families, for the marriages in our churches, for the marriages in our countries.

The people among whom we live here in Montgomery County or Liberty County or San Jacinto County. These people, or any other county, this is our culture. And when these marriages in our culture fall apart, it has a detrimental effect on all of us, on our whole society and our community. But we can pray. We ought to pray that God would Defeat the evil one and his schemes to destroy marriages in our families in our churches and in our state God created man male and female Binary genders Satan seeks to mock and mar and destroy that too.

So transgenderism and androgyny and transhumanism. The combination of the human species with other animal species or with inanimate things to create some perversion. Transhumanism. It's rising. It's rampant.

Becoming more so. That's a satanically driven movement to obliterate the binary order of gender and this order of species. God created every species and ordained that they procreate within that species. Transhumanism seeks to blur that distinction and to create a different species. It's neither human nor animal.

It's some blend of the two. That's a satanically driven agenda. Transgenderism. It's a movement seeking to destroy the binary order of gender that God created and have people spread over 67 different genders or maybe even an infinite number of a continuum. Anything but male and female.

Every human cell is a witness to the truth that there are two genders. And the fact that there is confusion over something so basic and so easily verified in every cell of every human body is another sure sign of demonic confusion and deception overtaking our land. And so brothers and sisters, we can pray this prayer, this petition of the Lord's Prayer, that this deception, all of these deceptions of the evil one would be pierced, and the absurdity of it all would be made apparent. The irrationality of it all would be exposed. God made men free.

Satan makes men slaves. In the fall, Satan made bond slaves of the human race. And in 2 Timothy 2.26, Paul describes people that have been taken captive by him to do his will. That's a slave. You see, Satan was the very first human trafficker.

And much of the slave trafficking today with children and adults is directly driven by those five departments of Satan's kingdom that we mentioned earlier. This bondage is another aspect of His Kingdom. He's a slave owner and the father of human trafficking of slaves. And as His Kingdom has become emboldened in our land and gained more and more of a foothold, we are seeing more and more of His slave trafficking of children and adults. But once again, brothers and sisters, when you see the next news report of human trafficking, pray against Satan's kingdom.

Pray that our land, your country, will be delivered from the evil one. The proliferation of body modification, cuttings, tattoos, is just another indicator of demonic influence. People may not realize what they are doing, they may not know what they are doing, but it is the service of demons. So when I see someone with a body full of tattoos serving Jesus Christ, I'm especially moved. I'm especially moved.

I'm going to hug that kind of person. It's not that that person is a worse sinner than anyone else. Not at all. It's not that it's somehow harder for Christ to save them. Not at all.

It's a miracle that any of us were saved. It's the fact that someone whom the evil one had marked for his kingdom has been ransomed and marked for Christ's kingdom. That's amazing. Amazing grace. It's Satan's kingdom has been plundered.

They, as they serve Christ, are a testimony that Satan's kingdom has been plundered. And another soul, ransom back from Him. Not stolen. Ransom back to its rightful owner. God created men to have dominion.

He created us to think logically and rationally and to fashion from the resources that God's placed in the earth, you know, the wood, trees, minerals, metals, and so forth. To use these things that God's created to create beauty, to create function, to organize. Even before the fall, Adam was to tend to the Garden of Eden. He was to organize it and beautify it. We have his recordings in there, his explorations down three of the four great rivers before the fall.

See, Satan works against that. Our mission, our calling as people that God has created is to create beauty and function and Satan Works against that tomorrow to mock or destroy what God has created. And to try to move cultures into ignorance and superstition and irrationality and subsequently poverty. The whole green movement, this decarbonization as it's called commonly today, is based on a dangerous lie that has the whole world under its sway. And to the extent that it succeeds, it's going to bring poverty, power shortages, and the like.

And so the next time you're in the airport or wherever and you walk past, or now it's like on websites, they can have a little thing now on decarbonization and what they're doing about it. But the next time you walk by a website that's offering to take your money to offset your carbon footprint, instead of just laughing at it or making a joke, which it's so easy to do, the stupidity of it all, pray. Pray to be delivered from this deception of the evil one that has this world under its sway. The effectual fervent prayer of the righteous avails much. Don't think, oh that's just one kiosk and I'm just one person.

Remember the effectual fervent prayer of the righteous avails much, and Elijah prayed that it would not rain, and it did not rain for three years. And Elijah was a man of like passions as we are. And he prayed that it would rain, and it did rain. So pray. Pray that that deception would cease to function.

That that piece of real estate on which it sits would be reclaimed for Christ. There's one more characteristic of Satan's kingdom that's given in this passage, And it's really the most encouraging of all of them. And that is that Satan's kingdom is a defeated kingdom. It is a defeated kingdom. Not that it will be a defeated kingdom, It is a defeated kingdom.

Now, Jesus said, if I cast out demons with the finger of God, surely the finger of God has come upon you. When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own palace, his goods are in peace. But when a stronger than he comes and overcomes him, he takes from him all his armor in which he trusted and divides his spoils. The fact that Christ cast out demons by the finger of God means that a greater than He is come. Satan is a mighty foe.

There is no question about that. And it's to our peril that we minimize Satan's power. Or Don't recognize it. He is a mighty foe. As Luther wrote, his craft and power are great.

And armed with cruel hate on earth, it is not His equal on earth. Even Michael the archangel, in contending with them, dared not bring a reviling accusation against them, but said, The Lord rebuke you. Michael the archangel, dared not bring an accusation against Satan. He is great foe. They have real power.

They control lightning and wind. They control animals and men, like the pigs that ran off the hill. They control men like the maniac that came out of them. Or Nebuchadnezzar or Nero. Or any number of people today.

They bring disease to believers like Job. Or Paul's thorn in the flesh, he said, was a messenger from Satan to buffet him. Or in Luke 13, and ought not This woman being a daughter of Abraham whom Satan has bound. A Christian, a daughter of Abraham. Satan has bound her.

Lo, these 18 years. Satan has great power. But the fact that Jesus casts out demons with the finger of God means that Christ has bound a strong man and plundered His kingdom. That's not just a minimal victory. It's not a bare victory.

Christ has obtained a glorious victory over the kingdom of darkness. He's disarmed the principalities and powers. He's made a public spectacle of them triumphing over them in it. It's a glorious, complete victory. He sits at the right hand of God, angels and authorities and powers having been made subject to Him.

And Christ has made us to sit in the heavenlies with Him. And through His name He has given to us to share in His victory over Satan and his kingdom. But we have to ask in prayer. We don't have, Jesus said, because we do not ask. We can't fight this war in the flesh.

We can't fight it ourselves. There's no way that we in our flesh can change the deception that is taken over the world about any of the things. And we might be tempted to give up and think, well, it's useless. But that would be a mistake. We can't fight this war in the flesh, but we can in the Spirit and with the weapon armor of God.

For the weapons of this warfare are not carnal. They're not fleshly. They're not the power of our arms or of our voice or of our pen, but they are the power of the Holy Spirit. They are not fleshly but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments. All the arguments that you are hearing today, Justifying all these demonic deceptions of weapons of our warfare are mighty for casting down those arguments.

And every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God and bringing every thought in the captivity to the obedience of Christ and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled. Yes, God is sovereign. And not one of the billions or trillions or however many there are of demons, of Satan, from Satan himself on down, Can do anything apart from God's decree and permission But see God doesn't work ordinarily work without the prayers of his people our prayers Our regular and and persistent consistent praying without ceasing is vitally connected to the defeat of Satan's kingdom and deliverance from the evil one. The passage in Daniel 10 where Daniel starts to pray and this warfare breaks out in heaven and a messenger is sent to him an angelic messenger is sent to him beautifully illustrates just how tightly our prayers are connected with the defeat of Satan We don't have time to read it, but take a look at that. How tightly our prayers are connected to spiritual warfare that's going on that we can't see in heavenly places.

But we have God's Word telling us that our prayers, what we do here on earth, is vitally connected to this warfare that we cannot see. Daniel started praying and fasting and he continued for 21 days with no response. And what he didn't know is that the day that he started praying, spiritual war broke out and the messenger was dispatched to him but was opposed by the spirit of Persia. And for three whole weeks this war raged on while Daniel prayed. What if Daniel hadn't prayed?

See, if we're not praying to be delivered from the evil one and from his kingdom and all its various manifestations from human trafficking to the attacks on marriage, then who will? Who will pray? See, we don't have to ignore news because it's too helpless or too hopeless or too depressing, we can pray to the mighty God. We don't need to be stressed at the news of the latest advance in St. Tim's kingdom, we can pray.

We're not helpless or hopeless. Do you practically believe that the sovereign God can pull down every stronghold of every high thing, of every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, regardless of how globally entrenched it is, regardless of how deeply entrenched in our culture it is, regardless of how many billions of people are behind it or trillions of dollars are behind promoting it, regardless of how many people are deceived by it, regardless of how many millions of demons are involved in it. Do you believe that every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God can be and will be defeated? There's a Psalm that speaks to it, and I don't have time to read it, but it's Psalm 2. I'd encourage you to read that.

Read this psalm because it gives you the cosmic perspective that Christ isn't troubled by everything that's happening in our world today. Christ is sitting in the heavens laughing, not laughing in derision, in mocking. And then it says, He will speak to them in His wrath and destroy them. Therefore be wise, O kings of the earth. Be instructed, you judges of the earth, serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling.

Kiss the Son lest He be angry and you perish in the way when His wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all those who put their trust in Him. Let's pray. Almighty Heavenly Father, we rejoice today at this victory that you have won over the evil one. That by your seeming defeat in death on the cross you have defeated death and destroyed, crushed the head of the serpent.

You've broken his power and His kingdom is defeated. We thank you Lord that not only have we been crucified with you and buried with you, but we've also been risen with you and ascended with you and you have called us to sit with you, amazing beyond all comprehension, that you would have us to sit with you and to share in your reign. Father, may we pray in faith without doubting for the defeat of Satan's kingdom, for deliverance from the evil one. Lord, may you encourage us, may you strengthen us in our prayers that we may pray in hope, that we may pray in confidence, in faith and not in fear, that we may pray with perseverance. For it was by the blood of the Lamb and the prayers of your people that Satan was cast out of heaven and overcome.

Father, that same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead is also at work in us. We ask, Lord, that you would strengthen us and give to us not a spirit of fear but a sound mind and of love, a fervent love. We ask all these things through Jesus Christ, Amen.