Welcome back to Bible Time. in the book of Colossians in chapter two, and we're looking at verse 15. And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it. Father, in Jesus name, we thank you for the triumph of Christ. We thank you for the spoiling of the enemy's strongholds, Father. And we pray, Lord, today that you would glorify Christ, exalt Christ, Lord, that you would continue this work of spoiling the enemy's strongholds and help us to understand what this means and what it means for us today. Illuminate your word to us in Jesus' name. We'll give you all the glory and all the honor for it. In Jesus' name, amen. So Colossians 2 15 here speaks of Christ as having spoiled principalities and powers. Now there's spoiling the word shows up. Spoil shows up here in verse eight, where Paul has told us through the inspiration of the Holy spirit and never, ever, ever forget that. It's really easy when people say, Paul said, Paul said, Paul said to start thinking that Paul's the one that said it when God's the one that said it through Paul. This isn't Paul's letter to the Colossians. This is Christ's letter to the Colossians through the mouth of Paul. Not everything Paul ever said or wrote was given to us as scripture, but this was, and this is the word of God. And that's the difference. That's why we don't have all of Paul's writings. That's why if they found another one of Paul's writings suddenly, and they said, this was Paul's writings, it would not shake my faith because it doesn't matter. Because I already have the Bible and I don't need another one of Paul's writings and I don't need any of the letters. I don't need the letter to the church of Laodicea. I don't need third Corinthians. I don't need any of that stuff because Jesus Christ gave me his word, the Bible. And I'm not leaning on Paul. I'm not trusting in Paul. I'm trusting in Christ who worked effectually through Paul. and inspired his word through Paul. So here, when we say Paul said in Colossians, that only reminds us of the instrument through which God spoke, but this is God's very perfect, inspired, infallible, and preserved word that we are reading today. Nothing more, nothing less. So verse eight says, beware lest any man spoil you. through philosophy and vain deceit after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world and not after Christ. We've examined that in a previous lesson and it's come up many times as we've studied this passage. But that spoiling there, we didn't really talk about what that spoiling meant. That spoiling is not the same kind of spoiling as whenever a can of food is left unsealed in the cupboard and you open it up and it's all full of bacteria and mold. That kind of spoiling can apply, and you can get some application from that kind of spoiling. But the spoiling that it's speaking of here is the spoiling of taking something that does not belong to you by right of conquest. So whenever a foreign king invades your country and his soldiers overthrow your military and he sets up a new government in that country, he sends his soldiers throughout the country gathering all the goods for himself and taking all of the persons and the goods and the skilled laborers and everything like Nebuchadnezzar did to the Jews in the times of Jeremiah. And when that happens, that's called spoiling. So here, whenever it says in verse 15 that Jesus Christ spoiled principalities and powers, it means that he took from them by force of arms and right of conquest that which they had laid claim over before. Those things that they had taken claim over, they had taken authority over. They were exercising authority over something, over some beings, and Jesus Christ spoiled those principalities and powers. He made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it. This gives you the idea of, for example, whenever a king is taken captive and as they bound the king of Israel in fetters of iron and took him away to Babylon, they made a show of him openly. One of the kings in the Old Testament said that he had had many kings sitting under his table with their thumbs and their great toes cut off and that they ate bread under his table. And he said, as I have done to them, so it's done to me. He made a show of those kings openly. He wanted everybody to see them. When the Philistines took Samson and they put out his eyes, they brought him in and they made him grind corn for the temples of their gods or the temple of their God. And they brought him up during their idolatrous feast and they wanted to make a show of him openly. They wanted to exhibit their conquest. When Joshua went into the land of Canaan and he conquered many kings, he took them before the children of Israel and he made them put their heads on the ground and the princes of the children of Israel put their feet on the necks of the kings in front of the whole nation. Now that kind of stuff isn't very publicly acceptable. It's not very, what do you call that? It's not very popular, it's not very acceptable in our culture anymore to do that kind of thing. We're supposed to, when we whip somebody's tail in war, we're supposed to pay for it for some reason. I still haven't figured that one out. But Jesus Christ, when he spoiled the principalities and powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it. He won and he won big. And when he won, he made a show of the principalities and powers. He put on display the destitute destruction of the principalities and powers. He made it absolutely plain to the whole world who the boss was. That's what this is saying. Jesus Christ made a show of them and he spoiled them and he triumphed over them in it. Now it gives us here in verse 13, it says, and you being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses. Now this is how he spoiled them. It says in 12, buried with him in baptism, wherein also you are risen with him. through the faith of the operation of God who hath raised him from the dead. The resurrection of Jesus Christ was the conquest. The death of Jesus Christ was part of the battle. He went to the grave, there was part of the battle. He rose from the dead, the battle was over. When Jesus Christ rose from the dead, he put all of his enemies to an open shame. He mocked them by His resurrection. Now, you say God doesn't mock people. The Bible says, He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh. He shall have them in derision. The Bible says God will mock when your fear cometh. When your fear cometh as desolation, the Bible says, God mocks His enemies. God puts them to an open shame. Now the modern church era has come up with a hippie wimpy Jesus who walks around in his sandals hanging out with a bunch of sinners in their sin and not rebuking the sin but just kind of peace and love and hemp and weed and whatever else you want and he's going to go along with it. And that hippie Jesus, oh he cried in the garden and he cried on the cross and he's crying in heaven today over the lost poor sinners because he loves them so much and he wishes they would just get saved but those sinners just won't get saved. And he's crying and he's weeping and in the mind of the modern church he's going to cry and weep for all of eternity, but that is not the Jesus Christ of the Bible. He loves sinners. He died for sinners. He was buried and He rose again the third day to save sinners from their sin. But if sinners refuse to repent of their sins, my Jesus Christ, my Christ, my Lord and my God, the Jesus of the Bible is going to mock. He is going to have you in derision. He is going to laugh when your fear cometh. When your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh upon you, he's going to mock, he's going to have you in derision. I've even fallen prey to this before, I've even preached it myself. At one point I remember saying something like, Jesus will weep for all of eternity over the lost people in hell, and that's not in the Bible. That's why I keep telling you, and I'll tell everybody I ever get a chance to tell, you don't just take a preacher at his word. You take God at his word, and that's called faith. And if a preacher is preaching from the word of God, you need to get in the Bible, you need to read the Bible, you need to study the Bible, and when the preacher's wrong, You don't need to go up and horse collar him and drag him out of the pulpit unless it's that bad. If he starts blaspheming or something, that might be in order. But otherwise, just pray for the poor guy and realize that he's just a man, but that God is God. And the Word of God says, let God be true and every man, even your darling pastor, let every man be a liar as compares to God. If anybody says anything that disagrees with the Word of God, they are doing the work of a liar. They blew it. I'm sorry. I don't care how much you like them. I don't care how long you've done your hair like them. I don't care how much you try to be just like them and preach all their little sermons verbatim from your own pulpit. But it doesn't matter who says what, unless God says it. And when God says it, you better listen up. What God says will last forever. The words of the Lord are pure words. The word of the Lord is pure. He is a shield unto them that put their trust in him. Every word of God is pure. Now, here in the word of God, Jesus Christ was buried, he died, he rose again. In the raising from the dead, he spoiled, he spoiled the principalities and powers. He made a show of them openly. The Bible says that when Jesus Christ rose from the dead, many of the old saints rose from the dead with him. It was just, it was a field day in hell. It was a field day in the center of the earth. It was a field day in paradise. Now on that day, Jesus, and we'll get into this a little bit. later, but Jesus went down to paradise. Some people call it Abraham's bosom and we're not going to get into all that today. Maybe someday we'll study that out. But, um, they're in paradise where the rich man, the rich man Jesus talked about died and in hell lifted up his eyes and he saw Abraham or he saw Lazarus afar off in Abraham's bosom. What he saw there was Abraham laying at a feast table with Lazarus laying in his bosom, just like John the Beloved would lay in the bosom of Christ at the Last Supper and at other suppers that they would have. And it's a term of endearment and nearness that he was laying there in the bosom of Abraham. And that place where he laid in the bosom of Abraham is called Paradise in the Bible. Now, Paradise, Jesus Christ took all of those people who were there the Old Testament saints who believed in God, and they went out with him. Some of them stopped by the rest of the world on their way out. I don't understand how all that worked. But the Bible says that the tombs were rent open, the rocks were rent, there was an earthquake, and many of the Old Testament saints arose and went around. If I remember right, I think it says prophesied, check it out. But they went around and they told everybody the gospel. And then what happened to them? I've always wondered, did they just go up to Heaven after that? Well, I don't know. The Bible doesn't tell us. But the Bible says it happened, so I believe it. Boy, that'd be crazy. All these people that used to be dead came back to life when Jesus died. They couldn't stay down there. Do you remember when Elisha died? When Elisha died, they said they took another man that was also dead shortly after Elisha had died, and the Moabites had invaded the land, and these guys were carrying their dead buddy, and they opened Elisha's tomb to bury the man, and here came a band of Moabites, and they threw the guy in the grave, and when he hit Elisha's bones, he came back to life, and he walked. I've always thought about that one, too. What a bad time to come back to life. Here come the Moabites. You better come back to life with your boots on, tied up and ready to run. Wouldn't that be a rude awakening? Now, in any case, when Jesus Christ died, he went down to paradise. And when he came down to paradise, it could not hold him. It started busting apart at the seams. There was a mighty earthquake, and many of the Old Testament saints arose and began to preach about Jesus Christ. Which by the way, exactly fulfills Christ's words in Luke 17, whenever that rich man asked Abraham, send Lazarus back to tell my brothers so that they will not come into this place. And Abraham said to him, he said, if they believe not Moses and the prophets, they will not believe though one rose from the dead. And he was right. Not only did they not believe the Old Testament saints, but shortly after that, on the third day, Jesus Christ arose from the dead. And when he arose, they didn't believe him either. And they paid the soldiers to lie about him. All that's right out of the gospels. Now we're going to look at this, the spoiling of the principalities and powers, the triumph of Christ, the show of them openly. And we're going to look at it real quickly, past, present, and future. What does this mean? How has God done it in the past? How has he done it today? And how's he going to do it in the future? And Lord willing, we'll get this all done, uh, within about an hour from our start time. Lord willing, we're gonna do our best. Go to Exodus chapter 18. Exodus chapter 18, every word of God is pure, even the Old Testament. And all scripture is profitable for doctrine, for proof, for exhortation and righteousness. So in Exodus 18, we have a statement by Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, and he says in verse 11, look there, Now I know that the Lord is greater than all gods. For in the thing wherein they dealt proudly, He was above them. Now, Egypt was a place that specialized in the occult. Egypt was a place that specialized in the worship of principalities and powers. And I believe that's why God sent the children of Israel down to Egypt, one of the reasons. God told Abraham the iniquity of the Amorites is not full, but also God had a plan. And God's plan from the beginning of this whole thing has been to exalt Jesus Christ from before the foundation of the world. God's plan has been to exalt Jesus Christ. And in doing so, he is going to triumph over the principalities and powers and make a show of them openly and spoil them. So let's look real quick at how God did this. If we back up in Exodus to the plagues. The plagues that God sent through the word of Moses on the children of Egypt and some of the children of Israel, they got to suffer some of these plagues at the start. The first plague was that God turned the river to blood. So the Egyptians worshipped the Nile River. They believed that it was a God and they worshipped it. And God turned their river to blood, the very thing that they worshipped. The Egyptians worshipped frogs. Now Exodus 7, 17 is where he turns the river to blood. And we'll move on to the second plague in chapter 8 in verse 2. He said, I will smite all thy borders with frogs. The Egyptians worshiped frogs, so God gave them frogs. And then God killed the frogs. When Pharaoh finally said, enough's enough, we'll do what God says, ask God to take away the frogs, God killed the frogs and he left the frogs to rot all over their land. Whenever Pharaoh hardened his heart again, it says in the next part that he turned the dust to lice. That's in chapter 8 and verse 16. He told Moses, stretch out thy rod and smite the dust of the land that it may become lice throughout all the land of Egypt. All of these things had to do with the deities of the Egyptians. And I do not recommend that you dig deep into studying the old occults and the old gods and the old idols. And I have not, and I will not, I have no desire to dig in depth into those things. That is intruding into things that he hath not seen. If you're not careful, you're going to get spoiled. You're going to get beguiled if you go digging down into all that rot. But it's enough to know that they worshipped them. It's enough to know that they thought that their gods ruled over these things. And here, God Almighty, Jehovah God, who is Jesus Christ from the beginning of the world, was showing them that He was God alone. So they worshiped flies or had a God that was over the flies. By the way, the Israelites called Satan Beelzebub, which is Lord of the flies. And here God sends swarms of flies. And the swarms of flies corrupted their land, and they beseeched God, and God took them away again. And that's in Exodus 8, 21. Exodus 9, verse 3, God sent a grievous moraine upon the cattle and killed many of their cattle, which they also worshipped. You know, there's nothing new under the sun. The Hindus worship animals, the Egyptians did before. It's all the same stuff. It's from the same principalities and powers and rulers of the darkness of this world and spiritual wickedness in high places. Now they changed the names around. Satan doesn't care nearly as much about names as we do. He'll switch names at the drop of a hat if it means that he gets to try and advance his kingdom and his cause. He doesn't, he doesn't mind being called an apostle. He doesn't care if you call his people prophets. He doesn't care what you call him. In fact, he's going to call himself Christ. He doesn't really come up with anything himself anyway. He just mimics and steals. That's all he knows how to do. Some people will use as evidence, Lord help us not to get on rabbits. They'll use evidence. They'll say that Christianity is just a philosophy of man because so many pagan religions have elements of Christianity mixed into it. Well, I've got news for you. Satan hasn't ever thought up anything by himself anyway. He's just a thief and a robber. So all false religions have elements of truth mixed in them that Satan is mixed in, and it does not validate their position. By the way, all these false Bibles have a bunch of God's true word mixed into them, but it does not validate the false Bibles. And boy, are we getting on rabbits now. Old Joseph Smith has a Bible. Most of it is plagiarized from the Word of God. that doesn't validate his Bible, the Mormon Bible, is lie out of hell. And how many of you Christians that name the name of Christ are going to go get a Mormon Bible and preach from it Sunday morning? How about the Jehovah's Witness Bible, the New World Translation? How many of you want to go get that Bible and preach out of it? The old Jehovah's Witnesses took and edited the Bible because they didn't like where the Bible says that Jesus is God, and they wanted to make the Bible say what they wanted it to say, so they made up a new Bible. How many of you are going to go get a Jehovah's Witness New World Translation? Now hold on to your hat. I just heard recently that Jehovah's Witness have supposedly ratified the NIV as a good alternative to the New World Translation. And you know why they did it? I don't know why they say they did it, but the NIV has more changes in it, more edits, more blasphemies, more lies about Christ than the New World Translation. And you want to try and put the NIV in your churches? We got on some rabbits. Lord, help us. That's valuable stuff, but it's not what we're studying today, so we're going to get back on the trail. There was a plague in the cattle. There was a boils on man and beast in Exodus 9, 8. And boils broke out on the men and on the beasts. They had, and the magicians were trying to do all this with their enchantments. Eventually they said, this is the finger of God. They thought their gods could do it. God outdid all their gods and God did more than their gods could do. Now God would send hell mixed with fire in chapter 9 and verse 18. Hell mixed with fire, that's one I haven't seen yet. The fire ran along the ground, the Bible says, and everybody that was outside that wasn't under shelter died. Every cattle, every person. God sent locusts. They had their enchantments. They had their sacrifices. They had their witchcraft and their power of darkness and God overcame it all. The next thing he brought was darkness. Darkness that could be felt, the Bible says. All these little shows, you be careful now. All these little shows that come out about Bible things, they all pervert the truth. Every one of them. They all pervert the truth. They all put things in your mind that dumbed down the Bible. The darkness that was in the land of Egypt could be felt and the Bible says nobody even moved. So Cecil B. DeMills or whatever your name is, how come you've got Joshua running around out in the streets when the Bible says nobody even moved? I know I just stepped on somebody's toes because you think that's the best thing ever, that old show, but I'm telling you, it's perverted. And it's full of perversions and it's full of wickedness and defilement. Get away from that junk and get back to your Bible. Now the death of the firstborn came as the final plague, and here they even the firstborn of Pharaoh, and Pharaoh had set himself up as God and demanded to be worshipped as God. Now while the death of the firstborn was going on, at the very same time God brought in the Passover, and they took a little lamb. And they took that lamb and they cut its throat and they poured the blood into a basin. And they took the blood and they struck it upon the lentils and the side posts of the doors of their houses. And whoever would go in under the blood and get into the house under the blood would be saved. God said there in Exodus, when I see the blood, I will pass over you. When Jesus Christ entered in on the scene, John the Baptist pointed his old finger at Jesus. He said, behold, the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. In the Old Testament, Jesus Christ triumphed over the devil. He triumphed over hell. He spoiled principalities and powers and made a show of them openly. Those children of Israel, when they came out of Egypt, they spoiled the Egyptians, the Bible says. They borrowed every man jewels of gold, jewels of silver, they got gems, they got all kinds of monies, all kinds of yarns and spices and linens and fabrics. They went out of there carrying with them the wealth of Egypt with them. And what did God do with that wealth of Egypt that he spoiled from the principalities and powers? He turned it into the tabernacle. Oh, the devil tried to win again and they melted down the gold and made a golden calf. But Moses burnt that calf and strawed it upon the water, strewed it upon the water and made them drink it. and killed a bunch of those idolaters and God gave them the tabernacle which is a picture of Jesus Christ and redemption by grace through faith by believing in the Lord Jesus Christ. They went on into Canaan and what did they do in Canaan? They triumphed over the principalities and the powers. They triumphed over the gods of Canaan. They triumphed over the kings of Canaan. They were outnumbered. They were outgunned. They were outmatched. They didn't have the weapons, they didn't have the skill, they didn't have the training. They only had one thing, and that one thing they had was the name of God Almighty. And they went in and Joshua said, sons, stand thou still. Moon, stand thou still. And those Canaanites who worship those celestial bodies saw the very heavens stop. and fight against them, the Bible says, so that the very thing that they worshipped, God turned against them and He spoiled them and He made a show of them openly before all the world, triumphing over them in it. Go back to the book of Colossians. As you go there, remember the words of Jethro. Now I know that the Lord is greater than all gods. For in the thing wherein they dealt proudly, he was above them. Hallelujah. In the Old Testament, in the time before Christ, in the past, He spoiled principalities and powers and he triumphed over them. But it was all pointing to the time that he would come and die on the cross and be buried and risen again the third day. Colossians 1 and verse 16. We're going to back up and get a run at it. The Bible says here, giving thanks, verse 12, giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light, who hath delivered us from the power of darkness and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son. He delivered us from the darkness. He translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son. that which Jesus Christ spoiled, that which He took by force from the kingdom of hell, from Satan, that which He took and claimed as His own, that had previously been claimed and ruled over by another, was us. us who he delivered us from the power of darkness and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear son by the way it says who for the joy set before him speaking of us endured the cross despising the shame and is set down at the right hand of the father It says of Jesus Christ, in whom we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins, who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature, for by Him were all things created that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers, all things were created by Him and for Him. You get that. God created Satan. His name was Lucifer. He was an archangel, and God created him for a purpose. Satan rebelled against God, but it did not take God by surprise. God knew about it, and he had a plan for it, and he cast Satan and a third of the angels out of heaven, and he cast them down to the earth, and he knew Satan was going to do his best to pervert man, and Satan did it, and some people want to blame God for it, but God created man to judge angels, and man was supposed to stand on his own feet against the devil. He had the Word of God. He had the commandment of God. He didn't need to fall, but he fell, and that's our depravity, and that's nothing against God. But God had a plan for that too. And God's plan was that one day, on the cross of Calvary, the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ the righteous, would die for the sins of the whole world. He would be buried in a new tomb, and he would be raised from the dead the third day, and he would spoil the principalities and the powers that he had created for his own self and for his own glory, but that had rebelled against him. He made a show of them openly. The Bible says in Colossians 1, And he is before all things, and by him all things consist. And he is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things he might have the preeminence. For it pleased the Father that in him should all fullness dwell. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hebrews 1 tells us that the angels are lower than Christ, that Christ is God's only son. Turn there quickly. This is the present circumstances that we live in. We looked at the past, now we're looking at the present. God, who at sundry times in a diverse manner spake in time, passed unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son. whom He hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also He made the worlds. The Bible says in John 1 in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. By Him were all things made, and there was not anything made that was made apart from Him. You can look it up and get it as I butchered up that second verse. Jesus Christ is God. He was in the beginning with God, and he was God. By him are all things made that are made. And it says, who be in the brightness of his glory and the express image of his person. I'm not preaching on it right now. You cannot read this and not believe in the deity of Christ unless you are blind or full of devils. end up holding all things by the word of his power when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high. He by himself purged our sins. He spoiled the principalities and the powers. He triumphed over them in it. Christ as a man, go to 2 verse 7 of Hebrews. It says, Thou madest him a little lower than the angels. Thou crownest him with glory and honor and did set him over the works of thy hands. Thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet. For in that he put all in subjection under him, he left nothing that is not put under him. But now we see not yet all things put under him. And we'll get into that when we deal with the future spoiling that Christ is going to do. God has put all things under Christ's feet today, but we see not yet all things put under Him. It's coming, and we'll get to that in a little bit. Verse 9, but we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor, that He, by the grace of God, should taste death for every man. For it became Him for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through suffering. Go to Philippians 2. Philippians chapter 2. This is of Jesus Christ, let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. who being in the form of God thought it not robbery to be equal with God. Get there in just a second. who being in the form of God thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of men. And being found as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow. And this is dealing with future. We'll talk about that in a minute. Every knee should bow of things in heaven and things in earth and things under the earth and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. So Jesus Christ as a man was made by God the Father lower than the angels whenever his body was made for him. Always differentiate and distinguish between the birth of Christ, the making of Christ's body, and the fact that Jesus Christ is eternally God Almighty. Do not let these cults out here tell you that because God made him the firstborn that that was when he was created. That flies in the face of every other part of the Bible. Both are true. God made him the firstborn. God made him a little lower than the angels. He humbled himself. He became a man so that he could die for us. It's the miracle of incarnation. And that would not be a miracle if it was not for the fact that Jesus Christ is God who made heaven and earth. And that is the miracle of it. Now in 2 Timothy 1.9, we find that God, that Christ abolished death. It says here, Who hath saved us and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began, but is now made manifest by the appearing of our Savior, Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. 1 Timothy 5. and verse 10 he says, for therefore we both labor and suffer reproach because we trust in the living God who is the Savior of all men. By the way, that's another verse on the deity of Christ. Almost every verse in the Bible is a verse on the deity of Christ. If you just look at it. It says we trust in the living God who is the Savior of all men. And we know that Jesus Christ is the Savior. And it says here, especially of those that believe. Now this especially of those that believe reflects the present condition of the spoiling of the principalities and powers. When Christ spoiled the principalities and the powers, he did not finish the work. Instead, he went and he sat at the right hand of the Father from henceforth expecting until all his enemies should be made his footstool. So there's still a spoiling that is going to happen. Now, Jesus Christ spoiled with the handwriting of ordinances that was against us. He took it and he nailed it to his cross. Satan glories in destroying you. Satan wants your death. Satan wants your destruction. Satan wants your dismemberment. Satan wants you to be defamed. He wants you to be defiled. He wants you to be degraded. Satan has a dastardly plan in mind for you. He wants to defile you. He wants to destroy you. Satan is the accuser of the brethren. He wants you to die. He wants you to burn in hell. But the Savior spoiled principalities and powers. He took by force and by power, by conquest in battle, that which Satan had claimed and Satan ruled. Jesus Christ died, He was buried, but He rose from the dead, and in His resurrection He spoiled principalities and powers. He made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it. In the things where they doubt proudly, He was above them. Where sin did abound, grace did much more abound. By death, Christ defeated death. By blood, He purged us from blood guiltiness. By rejection from His own, He included the world in His salvation by patient suffering. He opened the way to paradise by subjection to the curse. He brought blessings eternal. He cast out devils who had come to destroy, and they could do nothing but scream in rage. He bent the bent over, the bowed down. He raised them up. and He loosed the blind, He made to see the sin sick, He forgave and restored to fellowship with the Father, the lepers He healed, the dead He raised, in the things wherein they dealt proudly, He was above them all. Go to Ephesians chapter 4. In the things wherein they dealt proudly, He was above them all. And not only was He above them all, but He had made Himself. through the incarnation a little lower than the very principalities and powers that he was spoiling, though he was a man. Hallelujah to the Lamb. Ephesians 4.8 says, Wherefore he saith when he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive and gave gifts unto men. Now that he ascended, what is it? But that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth. So here, Jesus Christ, he led captivity captive. He defeated the captor. He led captivity captive and he gave gifts unto men. Now Jesus Christ was made a little lower than the angels to take on the form of man for the suffering of death when he was incarnated, when he was born of the Virgin Mary, when he was conceived in the womb, and now he gives gifts unto men here. Now that he ascended, what is it, but that he also descended first in the lower parts of the earth, Jesus Christ went up to heaven. And we know that from the book of Luke and the book of Acts, where it says that he stood on the hill, uh, and he ascended up into heaven and a cloud received him out of their sight. And then an angel said, why you men of Galilee, why stand you here gazing up into heaven for this same Jesus who you saw go up into heaven will come again in like manner as you've seen. And I quoting that loosely up, you can look it up. He last part of the book of Luke and the beginning of the book of Acts. But here, what he's saying in Ephesians is that if it's something to believe that Jesus ascended, what is it? But that he also descended. Why is it so hard for you to believe that he descended into the lower parts of the earth? Why is it so hard for you to believe that he did exactly what he said that he did? He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things. And he went down there, he busted everybody. out of the lower parts of the earth. And the Bible says, and he gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the son of God unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. Now we're talking today about the triumph of Christ, and we've looked so far about the triumph of Christ in the Old Testament, how he spoiled principalities and powers and made a show of them openly triumphing over them in it, all the way back in Exodus. He's been doing this from the beginning, really. We've just held out some highlights, but the Bible is nothing but a long history of Jesus Christ triumphing and the triumph of Jesus Christ. We could really preach through every book of the Bible and show the triumph of Christ. We could preach page after page after page on the triumph of Christ all throughout the Bible. How in the things that the, where in the gods of this world have dealt proudly, he has, he has been above them all from consistently From the beginning of this world from the time that the angels fell Until now he has been above them all the first time satan tried to deal proudly and he said i'll be like the most high Jesus christ cast him down out of heaven and jesus said I beheld satan as lightning fall from heaven in the things that satan has dealt proudly christ has been is and always will be above them all Now we see this in the present as we've looked at it here, how Christ in this gospel age, in this time of the dispensation of the fullness of times where the gospel had the dispensation, the gospel was committed to Paul to preach the word of God throughout all ages, or through, I'm sorry, throughout all the world. Here in this time, in this day, Christ has given us, it says some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. Till we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the son of God unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. Now, yesterday we looked some at the idols of this world and the principalities and powers, the rulers, the darkness of this world, spiritual wickedness in high places. The idols, the charmers. We looked at the wizards. We looked at the familiar spirits a little bit. We looked at the things we're in this world does proudly. Turn to 1 Corinthians 15. And as you go in there, Ephesians 4 says, God gave us these apostles. Well, the devil had his wizards. Christ gave us apostles. And he gave them power and he gave them signs and he gave them wonders. And the 12 apostles, the lamb, he gave the direct revelation, the direct inspiration of the Holy ghost to give us the word of God. And the new Testament that you hold in your hand is the greatest ministry that the apostles did far beyond John saying to the man, rise up and walk far beyond. Peter raising Dorcas to life, far beyond even Paul striking old Elamist, the sorcerer with blindness, far beyond that is the ministry of the word of God, the inspiration of the Holy Ghost that he gave through the apostles. A man asked me not too long ago, how do you know that the 66 books you've got in your hand there are the only books in the Bible? And I told him it all works through those apostles. God gave us the apostles and praise God he did. Now Satan's got his wizards, but Jesus Christ gave us the twelve apostles of the Lamb, and through them the Holy Scriptures and the ministry of the apostles of the Lamb is carried on to this day. The Mormons say, well, we've got apostles, where are your apostles? And I say, I've still got apostles. I carry the apostles with me. I hate to leave my house without the apostles. I've got the apostles in their writings and we're studying the words of the apostles of the lamb today. And the apostles of the lamb are those that God gave us the word of God through. And if anybody tries to claim to be an apostle of the lamb today, then they are claiming to have the same authority as God himself, because God spoke through the apostles of the lamb and their word that he inspired and he preserved in the scripture is the word of God. Now, I believe today that the work of the apostles is carried on in the work of the missionary that goes under the authority of the Word of God and carries the epistles of God to the lost and dying world. And we've seen that throughout the ages. William Carey, Hudson Taylor, many other great men of faith, J.O. Fraser carrying the gospel into inland China. And these men carried the work of the apostles forward under the authority of the apostles of the Lamb. Boy, that authority thing, that's an issue that people have today is with authority. Nobody likes authority. Nobody wants to get under authority. Everybody wants to be an apostle and raise themselves up to the level of Peter and Paul and act like they're their equal. And you and I are not. God spoke through them in a special way. God used old Aaron, he used old Miriam, but he said, my servant Moses isn't like you guys. He says, I'm going to speak to him face to face. And God gave revelations and inspiration to his church through the 12 apostles of the lamb. And that's the only ones that he's giving inspiration. and revelation of scripture to his church through. Now those apostles Christ gave us in the thing that the Satan's wizards have dealt proudly, Christ's apostles have done better than them. Christ gave us through, he gave us prophets all through the scripture and these prophets, preachers of God's word, preachers of righteousness, proclaiming the word of God and they are subject to the Word of God. The devil has his familiar spirits. The devil has his forecasters. The devil has those who try and tell the times. But Christ gave us the prophets. And the prophets are over the familiar spirits. The prophets, the preachers of the Word of God. And you may differ a little from me on this. I just ask you to have grace and look at it. Bible. Look at what the Bible says. When the Bible talks about a prophet, the Bible's talking about someone who proclaims the Word of God. and forecasting and fortune-telling has almost nothing to do with it. The only time the prophets ever told the future was when they were preaching the Word of God that God told them to preach and God said what was going to happen. Now God Christ gave us the apostles. He gave us the prophets. He gave us evangelists. And these evangelists, the devil has the opposite. He's got these charmers, these sweet talkers, these smooth oil mouth people, these slick salesmen. Snake oil salesmen who go around and they slick everybody up and they tell them what they want to hear and they tell them go drink it up, sin it up. Christ loves you just like you are. But Christ gave us some evangelists, praise God. And he gave us evangelists with the power of the Holy Ghost. He gave us evangelists who are just men, just weak men. But when they get in the spirit of God and they get the fire of God on them and they get out there and they start preaching. against sin and showing their people their sin. That's the work of Christ carried forward in the evangelist. You say you're on a rabbit. We're not. Hang in there. This is right, and this is the triumph of Christ, because Christ's work didn't end when Christ ascended. Christ's work was just beginning in this world when he ascended. He said, greater works than these shall ye do, because I go unto my Father. He said, fear not, little flock, for the Father hath given you the kingdom. Christ gave us the kingdom, he gave us the power, he gave us the authority in the name of Jesus Christ. The devil had idols, he has principalities and powers, and Christ gave us pastors and he gave us teachers. And He gave them to us for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness. of Christ, in the things wherein they dealt proudly, He, Jesus Christ, was above them all. And to this day, 2,000 plus years after Jesus Christ was born, to this day, Jesus Christ is still triumphing. He is still spoiling the principalities and the powers, and He is still making a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it. Just like old Joshua, whenever he defeated those, I think it was ten kings, And he had them all come and he had them lay down on the ground, bow down on the ground. And he took the princes of Israel and had them put up their feet on the necks. I'm telling you today, Jesus Christ is making a show. Jesus Christ. Joshua was a type of Christ. And Jesus Christ today is making a show of the principalities, of the powers, of the rulers of the darkness of this world, of the spiritual wickedness in high places, when He takes little, no good, dirty, rotten sinners out of the gutter, and He saves them by the blood of Jesus Christ, and He pours out His Spirit upon them, and He anoints them, and He lifts them up out of the dust, and He sets them on fire, and He sends them out to preach the Word of God, He has them step over there and put their grubby little feet on the necks of hell, on the necks of Satan, on the necks of his devil, through faith in the blood of Jesus Christ and the anointing of the Holy Spirit of God. And Christ, having spoiled principalities and powers, made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it. 1 Corinthians 15, we're going to touch this real quick. And this is the future spoiling. See, it's not over yet. The devil's nightmare hasn't ended. It all started bad for Satan. When he said, I will be like the most high, God said, you're going to be lower than the old snake because you're going to crawl on your belly and just shout out, eat all the days of that life. And guess what he said, the seed of the woman You're going to bruise his heel, but he's going to bruise your head. He says you're going to get walked on by men. You're going to get crushed by men. And I've got to tell this story to you, even though we're jumping another rabbit a little bit. I read about a missionary, and he had won some souls to Christ, and he had trained them in the Word of God. and they were going to try and start a church in another village. This was out in the west coast of Africa, maybe Ivory Coast, I can't remember for sure. But here he was, and he had a few of those national men with him, some of those saved missionaries, and they got out under that big old tree where the elders of the village would meet, and they started having their little meeting. Partway through that meeting, one of those green mambas fell out of the tree. One of those that'll kill you so dead, you won't get to take more than a couple steps after it bites you and you're dead. Dead. They kill so fast and so dead that they're feared all over the area that they inhabit. And that little green snake fell out of that tree in the middle of that crowd of native men, all those black men and that one little white missionary guy, and it fell down in there, And that black preacher, that black preacher barefooted stomped on that snake. And the snake bit him in the foot. And he finished the thing off. Now what on earth possessed that man to do that? Something had welled up inside that man and he stomped on that snake and killed it and the whole crowd standing there looking at it and looking at the man. You've got pagans, you've got witch doctors, you've got the missionary, you've got the church and they're trying to start a work in this village and here this green snake falls out and one of the main preachers that they were going to have working in that ministry just got bit by a snake he tried to step on. And they're all staring and they're all watching. And since they were all staring and watching, that little black man started preaching. And the more he preached, the stronger he got. And he never did fall over dead. And by the time he preached for a little while, the chief looked over at the missionary and he says, you do whatever you want. You've got my blessing. Now I'm going to tell you something today. Satan's got some venom. He's got some power. But Jesus Christ stomped on his head. He became a man to do it. And Satan's venom couldn't keep him dead. Hallelujah. And every preacher, every God-called preacher, every God-called missionary, every God-called evangelist, every God-called teacher that goes out here and preaches the Word of God in the power of the Holy Ghost is stomping on the head of that old serpent And Jesus Christ is still spoiling the principalities and the powers and the rulers of the darkness of this world and the spiritual wickedness in our places. Jesus Christ is making a show of them openly. Fear not, little flock. It is the Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Hallelujah! And He's not done yet. 1 Corinthians 15. And verse 20 says, But now is Christ risen from the dead and become the firstfruits of them that slept. For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. And get this. But every man in his own order, Christ the firstfruits, afterward they that are Christ's that is coming, then come at the end when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father, when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and all power. For he must reign till he hath put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death, for he hath put all things under his feet. Hallelujah. Jesus Christ is not done spoiling the principalities and powers. He's still hard at it through his true church. He's still hard at it through his true servants. He's still walking all over the head of that serpent, and he's not going to stop till that serpent's in the lake of fire for the last time. He must reign till he hath put all enemies under his foot. Death is going to be destroyed. The devil's going to be destroyed. We've got nothing to fear but God Himself. The Bible says... He hath put all things under his feet, but when he saith all things are put under him, it is manifest that he is accepted, which did put all things under him, which is God the Father, is accepted from being put under the feet of the Son. Verse 28, when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all. Whole lot more here to study out. I don't wanna skip any of it, but we're gonna move on. Verse 45, and so it is written, the first man Adam was made a living soul, the last man, the last Adam was made a quickening spirit. Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural, and afterward that which is spiritual. The first man is of the earth earthy, the second man is the Lord from heaven. And as is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy. That's us, just a bunch of earthy old dust. And as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly, and that's Jesus Christ. And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly. I'm telling you, he's going to make a show of the devil openly. Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, neither doth corruption inherit incorruption. Behold, I show you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in a moment in the twinkling of an eye at the last Trump, for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So in this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality. then shall be brought to pass, then in the future. Listen, we're looking to a future. We're looking to a time. We're looking to a victory. We're looking to a triumph. We can look back and see the triumph in the Old Testament. We can look back and see the triumph when Christ came. We're living in that triumph today, carrying forward that triumph today. But I want to tell you to look forward and look up and look to heaven. Look to Jesus because the triumph of Christ is only Just begun! Hallelujah! So when the corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up. Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? You hear him mocking death. Do you hear him mocking death? O death, where is thy sting? Death that once held us in fear. Death that once held us in bondage. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which hath given us the victory. through our Lord Jesus Christ. Hallelujah. In the conclusion of that chapter, verse 58 says, Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord. you you