The Three Words the Devil Cannot Defeat and the Future He Cannot Stop

To all of you. It’s a beautiful day. I was sitting out in the kitchen, listening to y’all sing. You’re in good voice. There’s something about voice actually that I don’t think we fully comprehend. Isn’t it unique that, you know, what have we got now? Eight billion people on the face of the earth, and yet the voice signature? It’s different for every one of them, and yes, I mean, you’re a good voice, it’s a great Sabbath, so I’m happy to be here.

The title of my message today is “Three Words That The Devil Can’t Defeat, And The Future He Can’t Stop.” Three words that the devil can’t defeat. These may—there may be no three words that are more powerful than these, and then I’ll try to justify it and have hope. I mean, it’s a three word sermon. So we should be able to get through this pretty quickly, and you’re all laughing back at me. But there may be no three words recorded in the Bible more powerful than these, and it’s simply this: It is written.

These are the very words that Jesus used when he faced Satan in the wilderness, and he defeated him by simply saying, “It is written,” and we’ll go there in a minute. But I don’t think that was accidental. And the reason I don’t think it was accidental is exactly the opposite happened at the beginning of the book with Eve, where Satan’s tactic then and today is to make the truth tentative.

Did God really say that you shouldn’t eat of every tree in the garden? That’s in Genesis chapter three, it’s written.

Did God really say that you shall not eat of every tree in the garden? Now that’s actually, if you look at Genesis chapter two, the opposite of what He said. God said that you shall eat of every tree in the garden, except for the one that is in the midst of the garden. That one you shall not eat of, lest you surely die. You see the tactic? He twisted it and turned it.

God had plainly spoken, Satan didn’t begin simply by denying God’s words. His tactic was more devious. He made the truth that God had spoken tentative. Did God really say that? And Eve took debate. It became something to discuss. What was meant to be distinctive and factual became tentative. Eve took the bait, sin, fear, alienation, and death followed. The deceiver enters the biblical story by calling God’s word into question. And I would have you know, he and his agents, and those who are under his influence, use that exact same tactic today.

But we can defeat it because the second Adam didn’t take the bait. And the thing that Satan called into question in Matthew chapter four in the wilderness was far greater. It wasn’t about trees, it was about identity of the creator. If you remember in Matthew chapter three, the very last verse God says, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” I can’t imagine a more affirmative statement about identity than that. A voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”

And in the very next chapter, come with me, and we will look at where it is written. Matthew chapter four. Don’t take my word for it. Look at where it is written.

Matthew 4:1-4  
Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterward He was hungry. Now when the tempter came to Him, he said, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.” But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’”

He didn’t take the bait. Think about it. The temptation. And I’ve taken the bait. And then you get into a debate, and then you realize you’ve been had. He didn’t take the bait. He could have said, “Wait a minute, I am the Son of God. What do you mean?” Only forty days ago, God in heaven confirmed it with audible voice, and I have five hundred witnesses. He didn’t take that bait. He said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’” Satan called into question his identity. Jesus said, “It is written,” not once but three times, and he’s actually quoting in Deuteronomy chapter eight and Deuteronomy chapter six.

Satan came back and tried again. And Jesus said, “It is written, ‘You shall not tempt the Lord your God.’” And then he came back and tried again. And Jesus said, “It is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only shall you serve.’” Where the first Adam failed, the second Adam prevailed. Satan made truth tentative. Jesus made it definitive by stating, “It is written.” Christ didn’t respond with speculation, tradition, philosophy, or clever argument. He returned to what God, or more precisely, what He Himself had revealed through Moses.

John tells us that the Word was God and the Word became flesh. So before He had become flesh, He was the author of these very words, and He referred back to that. Satan can question what God has written, he cannot change it. And when we look at that from a positive perspective, that gives Satan a distinctive disadvantage. He can’t change what is written. He can only call it into question, and then we have the choice to make. Do we go back to what is written, or do we fall for debate?

Satan can question what God has written, he can’t change it. He can oppose the future that God has prophesied and promised, but he can’t stop it.

This year, as I’ve done in previous years, for the Feast of Walnut Creek, we’ve established a theme, just a kind of provide some thematic background, and it’s been various things, and this year I chose “It is Written.” And when I communicated with the speakers, I said, “This is our guiding principle. If it is written, let’s dig deep. If it isn’t written, don’t even go there. It’s not in the Bible. Don’t waste time on philosophy and clever jokes and all that. If it is written, dig deep. If it isn’t, don’t go there.”

And then I realized that this isn’t just for Walnut Creek. It can be a helpful principle for all of us as we prepare for the feast, because it doesn’t matter where you’re keeping it geographically, or whether this will be your first feast or your seventieth. And I mean, I think that’s probably the case wherever you go, and in Walnut Creek in particular, on account of our mutual friend that attends here, you all know him, Mr. Schmidt, who I’m talking about, you know, he’s that seventieth guy, and then you usually have one or two that it’s their first feast, first feast, which is wonderful. It doesn’t matter whether it’s your first or your seventieth, “It is written” speaks to all of us, because we’re not celebrating a feast that we made up. God’s holy days provide a roadmap for His plan of salvation from Christ’s Passover to the Feast of Tabernacles in the eighth day.

But there’s another dimension. Now as we go through this, I just want you to be thinking about this and hopefully we’ll reveal it, it’ll kind of emerge, and that is the same plan, and we’ve said this so many times. The biblical feasts provide a roadmap of salvation, but it also reveals Satan’s defeat. By the time we arrive at the feast, the trajectory is clear. God’s plan moves toward restoration, while everything Satan has contrived, built up, and devised moves toward defeat. So that should be encouraging to us, because like I said, these three words Satan can’t defeat, but maybe more importantly, he also can’t stop the future. He can call into question what is written, and he can try to minimize or distract from the future, but he can’t stop it.

So today we’re not going to work through every holy day. We’re preparing for the Feast of Tabernacles, but here in North Canton, what I’d like to do is to go through seven and then eight examples of “It is written” in preparation for the Feast of Tabernacles, and I hope it will, as it did, reenergize me. In anticipation for the feast that we have now celebrated, I think this is our 41st, it’s hard to believe that, because I very well remember the first. Will you come with me to see what is written? I invite you. You don’t have to, but I invite you. This is only a sketch, so take note of the supporting scriptures that I’ll give you and dig deeper yourself so that when you arrive at the feast you are prepared to embrace it, to live it. And maybe most importantly, to share it with others because that is in large part what it’s about.

As we go, watch for two things happening at once. God shows us what He will restore. And what Satan ultimately loses. Seven days, seven “It is written,” and those are, like I said, just a sketch. Just scratching the surface. So we’ll go through seven statements plus one, and the first one is this.

It is written: The Lord shall be king over all the earth. Now come with me, and we’ll go to where that is written. Let’s come with me to Zechariah chapter fourteen verse nine. We don’t have to guess, we don’t have to make it up. It is written.

Zechariah 14:9  
And the Lord shall be King over all the earth. In that day it shall be—  
“The Lord is one,”  
And His name one.

By the time we arrive at the feast, you know, trumpets that points back to the return of Jesus Christ, and atonement toward the reconciliation, removal of Satan’s deception as He is restrained from the deceiving of the nations. We come to the Feast of Tabernacles, where it is written, “The Lord will be king over all the earth.” You know, you can contemplate maybe a little bit on the power of that, the power and the reality of that statement, the Lord will be king over all the earth. I mean, what will that change? Humanity has tried virtually every form of government imaginable. You know, Winston Churchill famously said that democracy is the worst form of government ever devised by man, except for all the rest that they’ve tried from time to time. It is, I mean, those words ring true with absolute clarity. I mean, democracy is messy, cantankerous, and you know, you just need to read the news to see all its faults, except for all the rest that we’ve tried from time to time.

But the feast that we celebrate because it is written in Leviticus chapter twenty-three, “These are my feasts,” will change all that. Because we just read where it is written, “The Lord shall be king over all the earth.” But history doesn’t end there. The King will reign for humanity righteous government. For Satan, his present influence gives way to Christ’s reign. He can oppose the king as he does, but he can’t stop the king from coming. And therein lies the tension that we feel. Here are some other supporting scriptures. Actually, I would encourage you, Zechariah chapter fourteen is rich. It talks about the mountain splitting in two and people fleeing through a valley. Starting in verse, you know, you read the context of all that is written, not just what we have scratched. And here are some more supporting scriptures: Isaiah chapter nine verse six and seven, Daniel chapter seven verse thirteen through fourteen, Revelation chapter eleven verse fifteen and Revelation chapter twenty verse one through three. We could go to all of them, but I have limited time. And I think more importantly than that, we’ve got all day actually, but more importantly, it is imperative that you go there yourself in your Bible and understand and know what is written. Because when a devil shows up on your doorstep, as he will, it is you, not me, that has to be able to use the three most powerful words, but it is written. So it means that you have to know it. Imagine what will the world actually look like when Jesus, the King, reigns. You know, we used to have a booklet called, what was it called? The Wonderful World Tomorrow, What It Will Be Like. And you know, it was, you know, you let your imagination do its creative work, and I’m sure you can come up with a lot of things.

Statement number two: It is written. They shall not learn war any more. The largest budget item in the United States of America is dedicated to learning war, executing war, perpetuating war. We now have a war department instead of a defense department. If memory serves me correctly, the annual defense budget approximates a trillion dollars a year. I don’t think I, I can’t even, I didn’t take the time to try to come up with a way to kind of put that into context. I mean, for most of us, earning a million, sorry, a trillion dollars would approximate eternity, you know? If you just run the math, it’d be many, many, many, many, many thousands of years. On what we do and spend just to learn war, it is written, “They shall not learn war anymore.” Isaiah chapter two. Come with me to where it is written.

Isaiah 2:4  
He shall judge between the nations,  
And rebuke many people;  
They shall beat their swords into plowshares,  
And their spears into pruning hooks;  
Nation shall not lift up sword against nation,  
Neither shall they learn war anymore.

You know, we have said, and I believe this is an accurate metaphor, that the church is the kingdom of God in embryo. And you know, we have said that celebrating the Feast of Tabernacles is living the future today, and all, I mean, all sorts of things like that. And this is also why we have a fundamental belief that states we don’t participate in military service in war. Because if we are to live the future today, it makes that impossible. Because in the kingdom of God, nation will no longer lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore. It is in contrast to that statement that, you know, we see everything happening today. It’s all about war. Christ’s government produces something humanity has never sustained. I think actually, I should rewrite that. Christ’s government produces something humanity has never experienced. And that is peace. I think there, if I remember right, there was somebody that studied that and tried to figure out as best you can from the record of history, how many years of actual peace the world has experienced, and I’m not sure that you could come up with that. No battlefield, no arms race, no casualty notification, no mother burying a child because a nation couldn’t live together. The violence, the violent characteristic of Satan’s present world doesn’t survive God’s restoration. That’s a promise, because it is written. Satan can push back. But you can’t stop it. Supporting scriptures, Isaiah chapter two verses two through four. Again, we just zoomed in on one. Get the written context, Micah chapter four, we’ll go there a little bit later, one through three, and Psalm forty-six verse nine, that may be one that doesn’t come to mind at first.

Statement number three: It is written, “The earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord.” The earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord. You know, imagine that, not competing religions and billions sorting through, billions of people sorting through conflicting claims about God, but the earth full of His knowledge. Now, I believe to the depth of my being, and I stand on this one, I believe that the Church of God has been gifted with the most coherent, cohesive framework of doctrine of any church since the first century. We may have done a poor job living it out. But that I think is demonstrably factual, at least, in my research of the historical church, which has been considerable, that’s just a fact. But, here’s the but, compared to the earth being full of the knowledge of the Lord, we maybe have just got a wee little bit. And that’s why I think, you know, I’ll get to this later. I mean, when you just begin to try to comprehend a God who would command you to celebrate and not work for days. You know, there’s been no dictator, I mean, look at Pharaoh. It’s been the exact opposite. So we can go to the feast and at least experience at some small level what was yet future, and that is the earth shall be full of the knowledge of God. Come with me to where it is written, Isaiah chapter eleven.

Isaiah 11:9  
They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain,  
For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord  
As the waters cover the sea.

You ever been to the ocean and stood by the beach at sundown and the waves come crashing in? The earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. For humanity, this will be truth and a knowledge of God. For the deceiver: Lost. Defeat. Satan can deceive the world today, as we know from Revelation 12 verse nine. Let’s go there, where it’s written.

Revelation 12:9  
So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.

You know, we would like to think that we’re not part of the world and that we are in the world, and certainly that should be our objective. But I think if we’re really, you know, we kind of go to our little room in the back and lock the door and dare being honest? Has Satan deceived me just a little bit today? I’ll let you answer that question. Couple additional scriptures to statement number three, Jeremiah 31 verse 33 through 34. That has a lot to say. Habakkuk two verse fourteen and the whole context of Isaiah chapter eleven verse six through nine.

Statement number four. It is written, “No one shall make them afraid.” No one. You know, fear entered the garden early, remember? Genesis chapter three. You know, Satan arrived, he did his thing, Eve took of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and then they had a great revelation. I mean, this was really grand. They knew that they were naked. I mean, that’s almost comedy. The tree that promised so much according to Satan revealed that they, what should have been obvious, they were naked. But there was a, you know, God calls out to them, and that, even if you look at just the imagery and what all happened, they hid, God sought. And called out to them, and what did Adam say? “I hid myself for I was afraid.” Not only did they learn the marvelous truths of being naked, they inherited the psychological pathology called fear. That drives so much human experience and action. Let’s go to where it’s written, Micah chapter four.

Micah 4:4  
But everyone shall sit under his vine and under his fig tree,  
And no one shall make them afraid;  
For the mouth of the Lord of hosts has spoken.

This is one of those beautiful millennial prophecies. But everyone shall sit under his vine and under his fig tree, private ownership of land. Which we take for granted here. I’ll just, you know, insert this. The United States of America has come the closest to fulfilling what we read here through private ownership of land, of anything that’s ever happened in history. And some of that was born out of, you know, the philosophical underpinnings of the Reformation. One of the things that I found almost, I wanted to say humorous, but it’s really not funny. When I was on my trip through Germany and Switzerland doing research on church history and Sabbatarianism, Anabaptism, I’ve got a folder about this take on it, a lot of pictures. But one of the things that the Anabaptists, I mean, we, you go to Behold in Berlin, and you have this wonderful painting that explains the whole history, and it, they’ve, the artist did a great time of brushing it up and, you know, just so neat. And you can come away from it feeling like, “Wow, this—everything was so good and it’s all together.” It wasn’t like that at all. Not falling to painting, it’s just that you, when you reduce something to a narrative, you of necessity have to decide what you drop out and what, what’s not readily apparent is just how bombastic and traumatic and rough it was. I mean, people thrown out of homes, tongues cut out, I mean, unimaginable stuff, you know, putting, making a bonfire out of them. But one of the things that I found in one of the documents that I saw was they kept, I think it’s in Psalms somewhere, it says, “The earth and all that is in it is the Lord’s.” And it shows the power of scripture because they had only had the New Testament in their native language for four years, and they were like, “You know what? The earth is the Lord’s. I mean, these overlords have no claim to it,” and then it became land claim actions and all kinds of, I mean, the overlords that were part of the Hapsburg or whoever else that was in said, “Well, we’ll show ’em whether it’s the Lord’s.” I mean, they believed they were acting on the Lord. You know, private ownership, unless you were a nobleman, was not really the case. I mean, it’s just—but my point is simply this, that I think it is fair to say that the US, for all its faults, the philosophies upon which it was founded comes the closest. And it also shows that the Word of God is a principle that works, and it’s in matter of degrees. I’m not suggesting, please, I want to make sure for the record I state this, I am not suggesting in the least that the United States is somehow a fulfillment of what we’re about to read here. I’m only saying that because maybe to a greater extent than any other country that comes to mind at the moment, we have embraced the ability to have, given people the ability to own. If you’re in Florida, I guess a fig tree and a vine. If you’re in Ohio, it’s an apple tree and a vine, in my case. I’m only saying that to the extent that we have maybe more than anybody else given people the ability to do that now. I have violated my own instruction of if it, that wasn’t written here, so I said, “I don’t go there,” and I did. So I took the bait. All right, let’s go back to my gaffe. But everyone shall sit under his vine and under his fig tree. And no one shall make them afraid. I don’t think you can overstate the power, the negative impact and power of fear. But it is written, and we can count on it, that in the kingdom that reaches home, family, field, and neighborhood, people can enjoy the fruit of their labor in security. Without fear. For humanity, this statement brings security, and fear gives way to peace. Satan can’t oppose it, but you can’t stop it. Supporting scriptures Isaiah chapter thirty two verse seventeen and eighteen, and Ezekiel thirty four verse twenty five and twenty eight. I want to go there. I think we have time. Ezekiel chapter thirty four is a powerful prophecy of condemnation as well as hope. Scripture has an amazing ability to hold those two in, as we might say today, in tension. Let’s look at verse twenty-five through twenty-eight, with respect to not having fear.

Ezekiel 34:25-28  
“I will make a covenant of peace with them, and cause wild beasts to cease from the land; and they will dwell safely in the wilderness and sleep in the woods. I will make them and the places all around My hill a blessing; and I will cause showers to come down in their season; there shall be showers of blessing. Then the trees of the field shall yield their fruit, and the earth shall yield her increase. They shall be safe in their land; and they shall know that I am the Lord, when I have broken the bands of their yoke and delivered them from the hand of those who enslaved them. And they shall no longer be a prey for the nations, nor shall beasts of the land devour them; but they shall dwell safely, and no one shall make them afraid.”

The remarkable thing about this prophecy is it is in the same chapter where God condemns the shepherds that have done exactly the opposite, and it is Ezekiel prophesying to Israel at a time Israel had already been dispersed. So it reaches down to our day, but that’s a different topic.

Statement number five. It is written, “You shall rejoice.” Come with me to Deuteronomy chapter sixteen.

Deuteronomy 16:14  
And you shall rejoice in your feast, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant and the Levite, the stranger and the fatherless and the widow, who are within your gates.

Who did he leave out? Is there someone? I don’t know of any other festival that is this inclusive. Family, neighbors, orphans, widows, fatherless, strangers? Everyone who is within your gate. I mean, this is a festival that is revolutionary. And we are called to rejoice. So bring this future directly into our feast preparation. God doesn’t merely tell us what the future will be like, He tells us to rehearse it. We worship, fellowship, learn, eat together, and it is written, “You shall rejoice.” Why rejoice when the world gives us so many reasons for discouragement? It’s a good question. Because it is written, “You shall rejoice.” Stated another way, this actually what I had in my notes. Why do this? This puts a, the same thing, little different nuance, I’d just like to share it with you. Because we know it is written. That’s why we can rejoice. War doesn’t win, deception doesn’t win, fear doesn’t win. God’s promised future is more certain than Satan’s apparent victories in the present. Leviticus chapter twenty-three. We can’t do this sermon without going there.

Leviticus 23:1-2  
And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: ‘The feasts of the Lord, which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations, these are My feasts.’”

Here Moses canonized what the Lord had spoken. And in verse one, the Lord spoke to Moses saying, “You know, in contemporary Christianity the word Lord, the Lord this, the Lord that, the Lord told me this or the Lord that. I mean, the Lord is used a lot, probably a lot more than we use it in our community, and you know, we can debate one way or the other, but I wonder if it’s ever occurred to any one of them that it’s the same Lord that spoke to Moses. I mean, this is, I mean, I don’t know, I’ve had a lot of time to contemplate, I don’t know, or just contemplate it, and it’s the stuff you don’t think about that sometimes has the most impact, and it’s sitting like, right, it just occurred to me now, and the Lord spoke to Moses. Well, the Lord. It’s the same Lord. Speak to the children of Israel and say to them, ‘The feasts of the Lord, which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations, these are My feasts.’ I mean, does that have the same impact on you today than it did pick a number forty years ago or whenever you first read it? It’s not something that someone made up. And it’s going to defeat Satan precisely because it is written. That these are my feasts.

Statement number six. It is written, that you may learn to fear the Lord your God always. Deuteronomy chapter fourteen, verse twenty-three.

Deuteronomy 14:23-26  
And you shall eat before the Lord your God, in the place where He chooses to make His name abide, the tithe of your grain and your new wine and your oil, of the firstborn of your herds and your flocks, that you may learn to fear the Lord your God always. But if the journey is too long for you, so that you are not able to carry the tithe, or if the place where the Lord your God chooses to put His name is too far from you, when the Lord your God has blessed you, then you shall exchange it for money, take the money in your hand, and go to the place which the Lord your God chooses. And you shall spend that money for whatever your heart desires: for oxen or sheep, for wine or similar drink, for whatever your heart desires; you shall eat there before the Lord your God, and you shall rejoice, you and your household.

And this has something to do with learning to fear the Lord your God? Eating? Whatever your heart desires. You see, if you pay attention from the beginning of Genesis all the way to Revelation, and I have to be careful how I say this, God is decidedly personal, practical, and unspiritual. And it’s the unspiritual part I have to be careful about. I don’t mean that God isn’t spiritual. What I mean is God came to Earth in a garden and talk to man. The same God that sits on, at the edge of the universe somewhere, on a powerful throne, and somehow His presence is everywhere present. So you have those two things. But eating has something to do with relationship and understanding and learning that I don’t think we really comprehend. The feast is both celebration and education. We rejoice and we learn, not fear of Satan, man, or tomorrow, but the right kind of fear, reverence for God. Maybe learning to revere the Lord your God is closer to what the original Hebrew means. And we do that by doing what most people don’t do. We go to the feast despite the opposition, despite the fact that no one, quote unquote, else does it. And by doing so, we learn reverence for God because He enabled us. I don’t know of anybody that has become destitute by going to the feast. I know many examples of the opposite. You see how practical that is? Proverbs nine verse ten also says, “The fear of the Lord is wisdom.” You may want to look at Nehemiah eight verse thirteen through eighteen and Deuteronomy thirty one verse ten.

Statement number seven. It is written, this is big, “The nations shall keep the Feast of Tabernacles.” Let’s go to where it’s written. You all know this one, Zechariah chapter 14. I remember reading this one forty years ago, and it was like, “Wow.”

Zechariah 14:16  
And it shall come to pass that everyone who is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles.

And I was like, “That can’t be true.” It isn’t written, “You shall keep Christmas.” It isn’t written, “Keep Easter.” I mean, think about, I mean, this is why I say, and I can say it with some level of confidence, because they are precisely the three words that caused Jesus, our Messiah, to prevail. He said, “It is written,” He didn’t take the bait. Today Satan deceives the whole world, but it is written that nations will come to Jerusalem and worship the King and keep the feast. The nations Satan deceives today will worship the King tomorrow. So the same roadmap that maps out how salvation is achieved also maps out how Satan is defeated. For humanity, it is the worship of the true God, for the deceiver, the nations are no longer his to deceive. What we are preparing to do is to preview something global. When we celebrate the feast this year, we are rehearsing the future. This is big. You know, and it’s important that we, without vision, the proverb says, people perish. And if we can’t envision what God is doing, it becomes proportionally more difficult for us. Because believe me, we all have our challenges. Other scriptures to this point is Isaiah chapter two verse two and three and Revelation twelve nine, and then the whole context of what is written here in Zechariah. There’s a lot more. Read it for yourself, memorize it so that you can say to the devil when he’s at his, at your doorstep, “But it is written, you will be banished.” And the nations will worship the king.

You ready for the eighth one? It is written. This is the eighth day. It’s the capstone. It is written, “Behold, I will make all things new.” Revelation chapter twenty one. You know, we could say, one way to envision what we’ve done today is we have walked through the scriptures, volumes of it, and we started in the beginning and we are concluding at the end, so you might look at it as two bookends to the same story. Revelation chapter twenty-one. You know, we begin the biblical story by Genesis chapter three asking, “Has God indeed said?” But in Revelation chapter twenty, his deception influence is over because we read, well, let’s just read it.

Revelation 20:7-10  
Now when the thousand years have expired, Satan will be released from his prison and will go out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle, whose number is as the sand of the sea. They went up on the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city. And fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them. The devil, who deceived them, was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are. And they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.

And then you have the contrasting statement in Revelation chapter twenty-one, where it is written, “Behold, I make all things new.” Come with me, shall we? Let’s read the whole thing together, verse, chapter twenty-one in verse one.

Revelation 21:1-7  
Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea. Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.” Then He who sat on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.” And He said to me, “Write, for these words are true and faithful.” And He said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts. He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be My son.”

That is the context that is written. Before we read verse five, shall we? And He said to me, “It is, sorry, then He who sat on the throne said, ‘Behold, I make all things new.’ All things? Some things, no, all things new. How big is that? And he said to me, “Write, for these words are true and faithful.” You see, we come to where we started. It is written. Right for these words are true and faithful, and He said to me, “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts.” He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God, and he shall be my son.

The same plan that reveals God’s salvation also reveals Satan’s defeat. For humanity, the trajectory ends in restoration. For Satan: The dungeon, defeat, and a deep dark hole. He can oppose God’s plan, he can deceive people about it, he can make God’s words tentative in our minds, but he can’t stop the future God has written. It doesn’t matter where you keep the feast or whether this is your first or your seventieth, the preparation is the same, what is written. This is only a sketch. Take these scriptures home and dig deeper if you’re keeping your first feast. Discover, “This is why I’m here.” This is what God says. This is His plan. This is His feast. If you’re keeping your seventieth, too bad Gordon isn’t here. I’m going to tease him. I’m going to call him and tell him he gotta listen to this sermon. There’s only one Gordon. If you’re keeping your seventieths, don’t look for novelty, and he’ll probably correct me, I don’t remember, maybe he’ll probably come back and say it’s his ninetieth. You know, for all we know. If you’re keeping your seventies, don’t look for novelty. Look deeper. If it is written, dig deeply. If it isn’t written don’t do what I just did, go there.

We conclude as the book ends. In Genesis chapter three, Satan enters the story asking, “Has God indeed said...” He makes God’s truth tentative. In Matthew chapter four, as second Adam answers three times, “It is written,” and defeated the very same being. The first bookend is God, has God indeed said, calling into question, the other bookend is Satan is gone, death is gone, sorrow is gone, pain is gone, because I make all things new. I’ll just reiterate the eight statements quickly. It is written, the king will reign. It is written, war will end. It is written, the earth will know God. It is written, none shall make them afraid. It is written, you shall rejoice. It is written, you shall learn to fear the Lord your God. It is written, the nations will keep the feast. And finally, it is written, “Behold, I make all things new.” These three words give us hope when we—when what we see around us would otherwise produce despair. Satan can question it. He can’t change it. Satan can oppose it, but he can’t stop it. War doesn’t get the last word, deception doesn’t get the last word, fear doesn’t get the last word, death doesn’t even get the last word, Satan doesn’t get the last word, because God does. There is a future that even Satan can’t stop, because it is written, “Behold, I make all things new.”