Dive deep into a transformative sermon that reveals the heart of Jesus’ purpose— to destroy the works of the devil. Sharon Otts passionately articulates the distinction of manifestos and mandates, bringing to light the destructive plans of the enemy and the restorative power of Christ. Through scriptural insight and spiritual discernment, discover how Jesus’ actions were a heavenly mandate to heal, liberate, and empower believers. Perfect for anyone seeking to understand the battle between darkness and light and the victory promised through faith.
00:00:05 Introduction to Jesus Manifesto and Mandate
Greetings, friends and new listeners, and welcome to the program. I’m Sharon Otts, thanking you for joining us today on The Sound of Faith, because we know faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. I’m excited to bring you today’s message, Jesus Manifesto and Mandate, because it’s a true devil-chasing sermon. A manifesto is a public official declaration of a person or group’s beliefs, mission, and plan of action. And Jesus said Satan’s manifesto is to steal and to kill and to destroy, and the evidence is all around us. But Jesus was manifest to destroy the works of the devil, and he was sent with heaven’s authority to carry it out in Jesus’ manifesto and mandate. Glory to God. Turn in your Bibles, if you would. Let us begin in the first epistle of John, chapter 3. And looking at verse 4. Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law, for sin is the transgression of the law. And you know that he was manifested to take away our sins, and in him is no sin. Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not, and whosoever sinneth hath not seen him, neither known him. Little children, let no man deceive you. He that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous. Now pay attention to verse 8. He that commits sin is of the devil, for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose… The Son of God was manifested that he might destroy the works of the devil. This is one of my favorite verses in the Bible. Amen? Now, a manifesto is a public, official, authoritative declaration or proclamation that someone gives to state their mission and their purpose. And it’s common today for certain groups or certain individuals even to post on the Internet their statement of beliefs and their mission to carry them out. A lot of times after there’s been a terror attack or after there’s been some mass murder, somebody goes on the job or any of these terrible things that we see happening more and more, when the government and such that investigate these things go online, they find these people have stated for the whole world to see. and the whole world to read exactly what they wanted to do. They have already put their manifesto online where it’s public, and so that’s why we need to realize when we see something like that going on, we shouldn’t just brush it aside. We may need to pass the information on to someone that needs to take a closer look. Because a lot of times now, the governments and such are finding themselves with their pants down because they could have went and seen all this stuff before. Or maybe they saw it and didn’t give it a second look. And so it’s what we call a manifesto. And people state their mission, their beliefs, and a lot of times how they intend to carry it out. Amen? You know, when we look at terrorism, there are many terrorist organizations. Some of them have been around for quite a while. People like the PLO and the Muslim Brotherhood in Hamas. And more recently, ISIS. It’s getting all the press because they are really been unleashing their terror everywhere. Amen. And they have their own manifesto. They have stated clearly what their manifesto is. Amen. And for some of them, they’ve made it clear that they intend to wipe Israel off the face of the earth. They just come right out and say it. And I don’t know how our government can be friends with any society or organization that has made that statement. And you can go and read it for yourself. They didn’t make it behind closed doors. And you’ve got to know somebody to know somebody to understand what they’re really about. Amen? And right here in America, there are subversive groups in America that want to overthrow the government. Amen? There are a lot of paramilitary groups. And they go in obscure places out in the desert or some other place that’s sparsely populated. And they practice war games. And they have it in their minds that they’re going to overthrow the government. Amen? And so these people, when you go to investigate them, you find out they have a manifesto. And they’ll tell you why they’re doing what they’re doing and what they hope to do and what their purpose is. Amen? And we see people like the Planned Parenthood. I mean, they have a manifesto. Their manifesto is that abortion should be legal for everybody for any reason at any time all the way up until the ninth month. The baby could be due on August the 1st, and you can have an abortion on July 31st, and it’s not murder. That’s their manifesto, and they don’t apologize for it. And they also have, part of their manifesto is, is not only do they want to keep that legal, they want to force everybody to have to pay for it. They want it so that there’s nothing you can do. Your tax money will go for that. Amen. They’re even already trying to force churches to have to offer health insurance to employees that include paying for abortion. Amen. Amen? So their manifesto was out there. You know exactly what they’re about. You cannot, you know, fudge it a little bit and whitewash it and pretend, oh, they’re out there to help women’s health problems. You know what? You’ve got Obamacare. You’ve got all these other Medicare’s and things. We don’t need Planned Parenthood. To take care of us if we need to go and have a gynecological checkup. There’s other places we can go besides Planned Parenthood. And the fact is that’s a very small percentage of what they’re doing. But they don’t want that known. Amen? It’s their manifesto. And if you just investigate a little bit, you’ll find out. There are many subversive groups. And now we’re seeing groups that are out there and they haven’t declared that they’re out to kill the pigs. I don’t hear many amens out there. They want to kill law enforcement. Amen. I’m not talking about the oink oink pigs. Maybe that’s why you all didn’t respond. Amen. That’s what they call them. There’s rappers out there rapping. Kill the pigs. They’re talking about law enforcement. Amen? These are their manifesto. And all of these different ones, and there’s many, many, they’re very devoted to their beliefs. They have this manifesto, and they come under the big umbrella of Satan’s manifesto. the big umbrella. And keep your place now. Don’t leave because we’re not done here in 1 John 3, 8, but you all know this. You probably don’t even need to turn there. John 10, 10, Jesus said, the thief has come but to steal and to kill and to destroy. Amen? But I am come that you might have life and have it more abundantly. Amen? Actually, I left a word out when I quoted John 10.10 because I’ve just been quoting it this way so long, but there’s a little word I left out, and let me quote it the way it’s in the Bible. The thief has come not but to steal and to kill and to destroy. And you say, well, what difference does that little not mean? That little not means it’s his one and only agenda. Just by inserting that, it’s telling you he’s come for not any other purpose but this. His manifesto is to steal, to kill, and to destroy. Amen? But we just read in 1 John 3, 8. That for this purpose was the Son of God manifested. Jesus has a manifesto. And here it is right here in 1 John 3.8. He was manifested to destroy the works of the devil. Amen. Satan came to steal life. Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil. Satan’s come to kill. Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil. Satan came to destroy. Jesus came to destroy the destroyer. That’s his manifesto. He not only had, that’s his manifesto, but he also had a mandate. A mandate is when someone in authority gives you an order to carry out. Someone gives you that order and tells you you’ve got to carry this mission out, and there’s someone in authority. And he said, I have received authority from my Father. Amen? My Father has sent me to carry out this manifesto. Don’t leave 1 John 3, 8, but I will direct your attention to Luke 4. And you probably know this verse, but I’ll read it. 4, 18 in the book of Luke. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He hath sent me. He has given me a mandate to heal the brokenhearted. Amen. To preach deliverance to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind and to set at liberty them that are bruised. Jesus has a mandate from the Father. Amen? He came to heal the broken in heart. He came to preach deliverance to the captives. He came to bring healing to those that are blind and any other sickness and blindness, whether it’s spiritually or physically, to set at liberty them that are bruised. And the word bruised there means to be crushed under a load, to be crushed under something. Amen? And he came to… Deliver us and set us free from that crushing burden that Satan puts on people. And we know that Isaiah 53 says that he was bruised for our iniquities. Amen? He was crushed. The word there means crushed. He was crushed. He was bruised for our bruises. He was manifest for this. Now… We read in John 10, 10, I quoted to you that Satan’s come to steal, to kill, and to destroy. Amen? And the word destroy in John 10, 10 in the Greek is apolumi. And it means to utterly ruin. It does not necessarily mean to kill because kill was already taken care of before he came to steal, destroy. and to kill, and to destroy. The word destroy here means to ruin something, to absolutely ruin it. Whereas before where it says kill, it was a word that meant to slaughter. It actually pointed to the slaughtering of the lambs and the sheep at the sacrifices. That’s the word that it was used. Satan’s come to kill. He’s come to slaughter you as the sheep is slaughtered. Now, I didn’t have you read further, but we always lift John 10.10 out of its chapter because it’s one of those verses that stands alone and can preach the gospel by itself. But if you read the whole chapter of John 10, what is he talking about? He goes on to say that he’s the good shepherd, that he came to give his life for the sheep, that he came to lay his life down for the sheep, that there are hirelings out there and crooks out there. They come in to try to steal and kill and slaughter the sheep. And their boss is none other than Satan. And Satan has come that if he can, he wants to slaughter you. He wants to take your life. He wants to take you out. But if he can’t take you out, then he just wants to ruin your life. Because that’s what the word destroy here means, to ruin your life. He can ruin your life with drugs and alcohol. You don’t have to die of an overdose. You can just have a ruined life. You can just be bound by that and can’t have a normal, happy, free life. because you’re addicted to drugs and alcohol. You can have a ruined life through sexual perversion. Amen. That instead of you having a happy relationship with a husband or a wife and a good home and a family and a happy life, you can just go from man to man and woman to woman. Amen. And today, you know, there’s all flavors out there. And people think it’s liberty and freedom, but the Bible says that it is Satan coming to destroy and ruin your life. And sometimes by the time people wake up and realize it, they’ve already given their best years. to the devil and to that, amen? And he wants to ruin your life with divorce and broken families, with rebellious kids, kids in jail, kids on drugs, amen? Kids that are, you know, just in all manner of things the enemy has to try to destroy and ruin their lives. It breaks your heart when you see your child or your grandchild and you can see where their life is being ruined. By the devil. Amen? He wants to ruin your life with depression and mental illness. You may have a perfectly healthy body and don’t have any medical problems whatsoever, but if you are plagued with depression and oppression and mental illness, that’s a terrible way to live. Sometimes people that are in that situation, they are scared to die, but they hate to live. Amen? They’re afraid to die, and that’s a good thing because Satan wants to take it to its ultimate culmination, which is suicide. That’s where he wants to take them ultimately because that’s what his agenda is. That’s what his manifesto is, is to kill. Amen? But some people don’t have that nerve to do that, or they may have enough of the fear of God or biblical knowledge on their hearts that they don’t want to go to hell. But what a miserable life. Satan’s come to ruin people’s lives. It pays to serve the devil, people. Not only ultimately the wages of sin is death, but he wants to ruin your life. But Jesus was manifested. Jesus was manifested. Number one, we read in verse five, getting back to first John, he was manifested to take away our sins. And in verse eight, he was manifested to destroy the works of the devil because the devil is on the loose. You say, well, All we have to do is look out in the world and we see that the devil is on the loose. He has power over the world to bring misery and destruction to people. And I’m telling you, saints, he’s not going to quit until we put him in the pit. And that’s just the way it is. That is the truth. That’s the biblical truth. The biblical truth is that Satan is the god of this world and he exercises and executes authority over those in his kingdom. And it’s not going to stop and it’s not going to abate. It’s going to continue to intensify. Not until, and I’ll just quickly read to you what will happen. In Revelations 20 it says, And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. I like that, great chain. That means a super-duper, heavy-duty chain. And he laid hold on the dragon, the old serpent. And just in case you don’t know those metaphors, he tells you which is the devil. And Satan. And bound him a thousand years. And cast him into the bottomless pit and shut him up. Now that shut him up I know means that he shut the door and locked it. But I mean it also means he shut him up. He shut the liar up. He shut that one up who’s always lying on God, on Jesus, accusing you, accusing the brethren. He shut them up. Amen. That he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years should be fulfilled. And after that, he must be loosed a little season. Hmm. So he’s going to get shut up for a thousand years. But after a thousand years, he’s going to get loosed for a little season. We’re not told how long, but verse 7 tells us in chapter 20 of Revelation. And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison. And he’s going to go forth and deceive the nations. But then we’re going to find out that when they come from all around the earth and they come past the camp of the saints. Now, what is the camp of the saints? It is not you and it is not me because we’re going to be in heaven. This is after the rapture. The camp of the saints is referring to the Jewish people, the nation of Israel on the earth. They’re going to come past. The beloved city. How many know what the beloved city is? Jerusalem. They’re going to surround Jerusalem and the Jewish people in Jerusalem are not going to have a chance. They’re going to be surrounded by these nations that Satan is leading. But guess what? And fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them. Yeah. The fire is going to fall from heaven and devour the nations and the people. And verse 10 says, And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night forever and ever. And let the church say, But right now, saints, the devil is loose. Now, I told you what the word destroy meant in John 10, 10. It means to ruin, ultimately ruin. But in 1 John 3, 8, where it says that Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil, that destroy is another Greek word, lu-ah-oh. And it simply means to loose, to unbind, to untie, to break or to sever. It is used when it says that John the Baptist said, I’m not worthy to untie or loose your sandals. It means to untie something. Therefore, you unbind it. Amen? That’s what the word means in 1 John 3, 8. So what does that tell us? It tells us this. Jesus came to undo what the devil has done. He came to undo all the works of destruction that Satan does in people’s lives. We don’t have a choice. We’re born in sin. When we’re born, he’s our master. And by the time that most of us realize that we can be saved, we’ve already got a lot of bad things happen in our lives. Now, not me personally, because I was fortunate enough to be saved as a child. But for the most part, when many of you came to the Lord Jesus, you’d already been out in the world of sin, and the devil had already done his stuff to you. Amen? But Jesus was manifest to undo the works of the devil. I like to put it this way. He came to return what the thief stole from me. He came to return what Satan stole from us. Number one, our peace with God. Because the Bible says we were alienated from God by our sin and the wicked works of our mind. But now through Jesus Christ, he has reconciled us to himself, not imputing our sins to us like I preached last week, but putting them on Jesus. So first and foremost, he restored our peace with God. Amen. restore our relationship with God amen so that now we can come boldly to the throne of grace and say Abba Father amen and that we understand that that God loves us and he’s a loving caring and merciful God and a giving God so he restores our peace with God he restores our peace with others With others. When you get saved, there may have been people that you have possibly have grievances with and problems with and troubles with. And when you get saved, God starts working on your heart to make it right. I didn’t even know my mother’s true mother, which is my blood grandmother, until I was nine years old. I didn’t even know her. I thought the foster grandmother was my grandmother. And one day I get a letter in the mail. I’m nine years old. And from my aunt who used to send me things for my birthday and Christmas and all, my aunt in Pennsylvania, and she wrote me and said, your grandmother really loves that picture of you. I went to my mother. I said, who’s my grandmother? She said my grandmother. And my mother was like, uh-oh. She hadn’t been saved very long. She hadn’t spoken to her mother. They had real serious issues between the two of them that went all the way back from my mother was a baby. And so they weren’t on speaking terms, and my mother didn’t even tell me that she existed. And I was her one and only grandchild. because my mother’s sister never had children. So I was her one and only grandchild, and I was nine years old before I found out who she was. But see, it was time. Now my mom had to deal with it. Amen? Now God wanted to bring peace. He wanted to reconcile. Amen? That which was absolutely unreconcilable between the two of them, because there’s just no way it was going to happen without Jesus. Amen. There’s no way it would have ever happened without the Lord. Amen? But he can undo the bitterness, the unforgiveness, the anger, the resentment. He can undo all of that. He came to give us peace with God, peace with one another, and peace with ourselves. My God, you don’t have to beat yourself up anymore. You don’t have to regret and have remorse over all your sins and the mistakes that you’ve made in the past. And if you could go back and do it again. Yeah, all of us, if we could go back and do it again, knowing what we know now. See, that’s the difference. Knowing what we know now, we’d all do it differently. Amen? But you can’t go back and undo that. But through the blood of Christ, he can undo all of the bad that come out of it. All of the bad things that came out of it. All the product of it. That’s his manifesto. He came to restore our joy. Our peace. Our hope. Healing if you need healing. Amen. He came to break every chain. See, that’s another way we could, the definition of this word means to undo, to unbind, to untie, to unloose, to break the chain. He came to break the chains of bondage, sin and sickness and addiction, all of those things. He came to set us free, to liberate us. Amen. He said, this is my manifesto and this is my mandate. to destroy the works of the devil. What you and I have got to learn to do is we always got to determine the source of something. When something is occurring, we’ve got to determine the source of it. Okay? Satan’s come to steal, to kill, and to destroy. Anything that falls in that category comes from Satan. Not from God. Amen? He is the author of life. He is the author of healing and peace. Amen? But Satan is always giving God a bad rap. Coming around telling us what God has done to us. Amen? If it falls into those categories, we’ve got to determine the source of it. And when we know the source is Satan… Then we know we are not under his authority. And Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil in our lives. Amen. Amen. What a devil chasing sermon. Jesus manifesto and mandate. Jesus said of Satan, the thief has come but to steal and to kill and to destroy. This is his one and only agenda, and he is working in great wrath knowing his time is short. 1 John 3.8 tells us what Jesus’ manifesto is. For this purpose was the Son of God manifest, that he might destroy the works of the devil. This means to undo. Jesus was manifest to loose us from the power of sin, bondage, sickness, torment, and to take back what the devil stole from us, to destroy the works of the destroyer. Because he was sent by his father with heaven’s authority, it was his mandate, and he went forth implementing his mission by the anointing upon the authority. The first time he walked into a synagogue, the demons and a man cried out, Let us alone now, Jesus of Nazareth. Are you come to destroy us? The answer is yes. Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil. You need to add this message, Jesus Manifesto and Mandate, to your spiritual library. Order SK189 on CD for a love gift of $10 or more for the radio ministry. Mail to Sound of Faith, P.O. Box 1744, Baltimore, Maryland, 21203. Or go online to soundoffaith.org, where you may also order on MP3s. but to order by mail, send your minimum love gift of $10 to P.O. Box 1744, Baltimore, Maryland, 21203. Request SK-189 for Jesus Manifesto and Mandate.
