 How come when people bind the devil, he never stays bound? He seems to keep getting loose as often as people even bind him. You don't have to be in Pentecostal Charismatic circles to hear people saying, I bind you demon, I bind you Satan, get behind me, I rebuke you, things like that. You don't have to be in those circles to know or to hear people saying it. You hear it often times, you hear it on YouTube, Google, wherever, go to any particular certain churches, you're also going to hear the same thing. The question is, is that a possibility? Can people, do people have the ability to rebuke, to bind, or even to step on his head? Well, if that's the case, how come it is that every Sunday, somebody is binding the devil, but he never seems to be bound? Is it that someone is coming to unbind him? Well, no. The problem is that there's a misunderstanding of what it means to be loose and to be bound and what it means to rebuke. And then also, do we even have the power to do so? And so before I go into it, I want to at least deal with what does it actually mean to rebuke? We'll get to being bound in a second, but I want to deal with being reviewed. And there's one time in scripture where we see the devil being rebuke. In June 9, it says, but Michael, the archangel, when he disputed with the devil and argued about the body of Moses, did not dare pronounce against him a railing judgment, but said, the Lord rebuke you. Well, I want you to notice a couple of things. One, it says that this is Michael, the archangel. He himself did not want to bring a railing accusation against him. Think about it, we're talking about Satan. There's probably not an accusation that you could bring at Satan that isn't untrue and not deserved, but he himself did not want to bring a railing accusation against him. We're filing accusation as some translations may put it. Did not want to do that. And we're talking about him, Michael, the archangel, far above us in terms of his power and understanding. But what does he say? He says, the Lord rebuke you. And by the way, what does that mean to review? It means to chide, to kind of put in your place to, and in some cases speak sternly to warn and so forth. Well, think about it if we do it. Notice it's not us rebuking him in the scriptures. It is not even an archangel. It is the Lord. When we rebuke someone, it's putting someone in their place, letting them know that they're wrong. In other words, shaming them, chiding them. How does it look? How would it come across as us chiding Satan? What do you think he does with that? Not much. It's not gonna result in anything now. When the Lord does it, that's something completely different. Because remember, he controls, he determines whether even Satan can even exist now. So it's one thing if we say so, which Satan has no issue with. Satan doesn't, it's almost like water on a duck's back. But when the Lord does so, it's quite the other thing. And so to rebuke him, doesn't do anything. Shame on you Satan, bad Satan, bad devil, that has no effect on him whatsoever. If it did, we would see decreased demonic activity. However, we don't do that. We see an increase. As a matter of fact, Peter says that be sober minded. Why? Because Satan is going around like a lion, seeking whom he may devour. And rebuke him, it's not stopping him. Now, one of the other places that we get this whole notion of binding him comes from Matthew chapter 16. This is when Jesus is speaking to the disciples. Let's go there. In Matthew 16 verse 13, Jesus is asking them who do the people say that the Son of Man is. And they say some of them say that you are John, the Baptist, others say that you're Elijah, but still others say that you are Jeremiah, or one of the other prophets. And he asked you, who do you say that I am? And so Peter stands up and the other apostle, the other disciples are in agreement, that you are the Christ, now aren't the Christ. You are the Christ of Messiah. And was Jesus' response, he says that blessed are you, Simon Peter, as he answered, he says blessed are you Simon, bar Jonah, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but my Father who was in heaven. Notice he says my Father who was in heaven has revealed this to you. You didn't get this from reading anything or someone told you this, but this was revealed to you by the Spirit, by God Almighty. And so he says, I also say to you that you are Peter and upon this rock. Now, this is not referring to Peter that he's building this statement on. No, he said upon this rock, but this, the rock that he's speaking of is this revelation that you receive from heaven, which is this, he says upon this, I will build my church, that is that he is Christ and the gates of hell will not overpower. In other words, there will not be this one ever come against him being the Christ. Though we see now people coming against that, but it's not gonna happen, not to any effect. There are gonna be some that might be convinced, but they're not part of the church anyway. Going back to what he says, I will give you the keys of heaven. Here it is. And whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loose in heaven. Then Jesus warned the disciples they should tell no one that he was the Christ. Now there's much that can be said about this passage even going further, but I wanna deal with that passage what he says in verse 19. Some of your versions might read a little bit differently. Let's go back to verse 19. He says, and whatever you bind on earth, look what it says shall have been bound in heaven and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loose in heaven. Some versions will say whatever you bind will be bound in heaven, whatever you loose on earth will be loose in heaven. This is a better translation of it because if we go back and look into it, we'll see that the Greek of this verse have been bound is in the perfect tense. When he says, whatever you bind on earth it says shall have been bound. The Greek word is that a man on which is the perfect tense of being bound. The same holds true for being loose is the Luminon which is the perfect tense of being loose. What the perfect tense is is we don't have anything like it in English. There's a way to kind of convey that if we use enough words. And in this case in the NASB it uses the words to kind of convey that the perfect tense is a completed action from the past. And so what Jesus is not telling the disciples that they have been given the keys meaning that they can do things and then call heaven to acquiesce with whatever their commands are. No, it says that whatever you bind in heaven because it's the perfect tense will have already been bound. Whatever you loose on earth will have already been loose on or in heaven. Meaning all they're doing is being revealed to them what heaven has already done. They're not calling heaven or causing heaven to move. Heaven has moved and they're singing with me. So they're not giving any sort of power. And so we also don't have the ability to bind or to loose. The only thing that we can do if we have that sort of insight particularly through the scriptures that it has been done which is a whole point of using the perfect tense. And so the disciples are only going to and this is in keeping with this revelation that they also received earlier that Jesus is the Christ that the same revelation, how they knew that is also for them how they will know what to bind and what to lose because it's already been done. Now that might lead to another story, another issue. Do we have that same power? Well, the Bible doesn't say so. The Bible doesn't speak about us having that same ability as well. Now there is an understanding of losing and binding as it relates to church discipline and so forth. And this is likely also what he may be referring to as well. And so in that regards, if we are exercising church discipline upon other church members, that's fine. But in terms of applying this towards Satan that cannot be applied. Why? Because it says whatever you bind will have been bound, whatever you loose will have been loose. Well, if you try to bind Satan, has he been bound? In other words, has heaven bound Satan? Well, the answer is an obvious and emphatic. No, he has not been bound. Now he will be bound in the future. So let's go to Revelation 20 and see where the Bible speaks of Satan being bound. In chapter 20 verse one, it says, And I saw an angel come down from heaven holding the keys of the abyss and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold of the dragon, the serpent of old, who is the devil and Satan and bound him for 1,000 years. And he threw him in the abyss and shut it and sealed it over him so that he could not deceive the nations any longer until the 1,000 years were complete. After these things, he must be released for a short time. So in this instance, he's bound and we see the implications of him being bound. This is why this makes absolutely no sense. We should just disregard this and teach people not to say these statements such as Satan, I bind you or demon, I bind this demon or you. No, we see what happens when he's bound. Remember, Peter, as a matter of fact, Jesus even states what the activity of Satan is gonna be. Jesus says that Satan desires to see if you like wheat, but I pray for you. Peter says that he's walking around like a lion seeking whom he may devour. And so his activity has not ceased. But as we look at Revelation, it says that he will be bound and that he will not be able to deceive the nations any longer during this 1,000 year period. At that point in time, he'll be bound, but then he'll also be unbound. He'll be released for a short time. And at that point in time, then God will make short work of him and deliver him as well as hell into the lake of fire. That hasn't happened yet. And so we need to get in the habit of reading the scriptures and I'm saying what it says that we can't bind him. But the truth of the matter is we don't need to bind him. In James 4, 7, he says, submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and then he will flee. Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. And so we don't have to even worry about rebuking or binding him. He doesn't have to be something that really even matters or comes up in our lives. What does he say? What's the remedy for whatever's happening in the world? Whatever's happening particularly with Satan as he may come to you. And guess what? It's true that he might have designs or plans towards you or any other believer. That's fine. That matter for us because what's the remedy? Well, the same remedy now is what it's always been and what it will be in the future that is draw closer to him. Then he says, resist the devil and he will flee. This part is clear. It says that he will flee. There's not an if possibly no, he will flee if you resist him, but that's also in you drawing close to him. So you don't have to bind him. All you have to do is go close to him. And then if that happens, if there's ever a need for him to be reviewed, well, what does we can just take the lesson learned from Jude and that in drawing closer to him, let the Lord review him. Should the Lord decide to do so? But we don't have to worry about him. Let him be an afterthought. He's no longer our Lord, no longer our Father. We have a new Father, a Lord that is God. And so let's just get close to him and we don't have to worry about rebuking and binding that never works. Amen.