Key Life Network

Matthew: How do you fight the devil? The answer to that and other questions on Key Life. This is Key Life, dedicated to the message that the only people who get any better are those who know that if they don't get any better, God will still love them anyway. That teaching raises a lot of questions, so here is author and seminary professor Steve Brown, along with Pete Alwinson from Forge Truth with answers from the Bible that will make you free.

Steve Brown: Thank you, Matthew. Hey Pete.

Pete Alwinson: Hey man, I know you use jujitsu to fight the devil.

Steve Brown: That's right, I'm pretty good at it. He ends up in the dirt. As a matter of fact, he does, but it wasn't me. But we'll get to that when we start dealing with that particular question. That's Pete Alwinson and if you haven't visited forgetruth.com, you ought to do it because there's a great podcast there, a lot of great audio and video teaching. Forge is an amazing men's ministry and there are people all over the country who are a part of that. And if you're in central Florida, you ought to go to the website forgetruth.com, check some of the locations and you might want to be a part of that.

As you know, Pete comes in each Friday and we spend this time answering questions. We love your questions. You can ask your question 24/7 by calling 1-800-KEY-LIFE. That's 1-800-539-5433. Follow instructions and we'll record your question and then we may use your voice on the air. Or you can send your question to Key Life Network, PO Box 5000, Maitland, Florida 32794.

If you live in Canada, it's Key Life Canada, PO Box 28060, Waterloo, Ontario, N2L 6J8. Or you can email your question to steve@keylife.org. And if you can help us financially, please do. I promise there will be as faithful with your gift as you were in the giving of it. If you can't, we understand. So stop for a minute and pray for this ministry. God is doing some really neat stuff. Speaking of prayer, Pete pray for us and we'll turn to these questions.

Pete Alwinson: Absolutely. Let's pray together. Great God, what a joy to come into Your presence today, to know that the God of the universe, the God who is outside of time and space, but also right near us, hears our prayer and all because of the work of Jesus Christ. We thank You, our Triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, for being the God who is, who was, and is to come. And we just come to You in praise and honor for Your power and Your mercy and Your grace.

We thank You that in Your holiness and justice, You are merciful to us. And so we ask now, even as we think about worship and meeting with Your people this weekend, we pray that You would bring unity to us. We pray that You would bring the gospel clarity to us. Be with our pastors, teachers, our priests, and worship directors and all those who will be leading us into Your presence. We ask God, use them in a powerful way and speak to our hearts. At the end of this week now, we ask that You would help us with our questions and we commit this time of Q&A to You as we pray in Jesus' strong name. Amen.

Steve Brown: Amen. Pete, this is an email question. What does the Bible teach about spiritual warfare and how are we to fight?

Pete Alwinson: Yeah, it says a lot, doesn't it?

Steve Brown: It really does. You know what I've discovered though? The battle's over, the script is clear, Satan lost. And somebody has said the dragon has been slain, but his tail still swishes. Do you know that the creation of Satan, ever think of it this way? The creation of Satan is a sign of God's love for His people.

Pete Alwinson: Okay, now you're going to have to unpack that.

Steve Brown: Well because He wants us to see the victory. And He wants us to join in the celebration. And if there was no fight, no battle, no war, we wouldn't be able to see any of that. And so because we don't know how to fight Satan, we run to the one who does, we watch what He does, and we are filled with joy. Look at what Jesus did. And then at the marriage supper of the Lamb, that's going to be a celebration because the battle's over, everything won, Satan has been banished, and we're free.

Pete Alwinson: Boy I tell you, at that point, we will see it all. We'll be able to look back in history. The war is won, and yet there are a lot of battles that are still really tough.

Steve Brown: They are. We're to put on the whole armor of God, Paul said. And Jesus probably said more about Satan than anybody else.

Pete Alwinson: That's exactly right. I have a friend that's running for office here in Florida. And he says as he goes door to door, you wouldn't believe the stuff that people throw at him. He says, I feel like I'm going to war every time I'm going door to door. I said, you are. And so there's a very real sense in which we go to war, but before we go out every day, we probably ought to do the celebration. We've won and do what you suggested, think a little bit more about the victory of the resurrection.

Steve Brown: And the common means of grace are the ways that God uses us in that battle to get victory. And that's not a little thing.

Pete Alwinson: It's a big deal, the means of grace of His word, spirit, meeting with God's people, helps to lift us. And then Sunday is always that every week celebration of victory and should be seen as that.

Steve Brown: Good question. By the way, just so you know, we're getting a new phone system here at Key Life and that's no fun when they put in a new phone system. It cooks dinner for you. I mean it does everything for you, but it's very complicated. But as you listen to this, it's up and running. And so that phone number I told you could call to ask your question is now working fine, so feel free to pick up the phone and call 1-800-KEY-LIFE and ask your question.

But meanwhile, the producer of this broadcast, Jeremy, was talking to one of the staff members downstairs and she was talking about a guy who called. And Jeremy, as the producer, said you and Pete ought to address this. What was it, Jeremy?

Jeremy: Well hello guys. So apparently here is what happened. And I want to read this so I get it correct and I don't embellish with my own amazing accent. What he said, caller was fuming about the way Steve Brown responded to God's disciple, responded to God's disciple, God's not angry at His people. How can that be said? The Bible is clear that God disciplines His people.

Steve Brown: I get that kind of question a lot. And I understand what people are saying, they don't want to soften the justice of God and all that. But you can't get around imputation and that is that we, when we were drawn to Him and our salvation was secure, two things happened. First on the cross, our sins were covered by the blood of Jesus Christ. And we usually stop at that.

But there's a second action and that's what Paul talks about in the New Testament in Romans, it's on steroids where God imputes or gives to us the righteousness of Christ. So we are clothed in God's righteousness. And if God is angry at His Son, which He's not and never will be and never has been, He's exactly the same with us because we're clothed in the righteousness of Christ.

Pete Alwinson: Wow and let your mind sink into that a little bit. Think about it. That's what affects us as Christians in a great way, it unpacks grace for us. However, what we have to understand too is that a parent really disciplines their child best when they're not angry, when they're not out of control. God is never out of control and we often confuse that with the discipline. So you and I have disciplined our kids and we do best when we're in control. Honey that was wrong and you need to suffer some consequences for it and to teach you.

Steve Brown: And that's so good and it's so good to say it that way. You know people and I don't believe most of the time, maybe all the time, that we're unaware that God is doing it when He's doing it. I think people say, well I stole 25 cents from my mother from her pocketbook when I was 12 and God gave me cancer when I was 53 and there's a connection. That's not, that's child abuse.

Pete Alwinson: Right, really, yeah okay I see it.

Steve Brown: But I think God is gentle. That passage on discipline in Hebrews talked about being a Father. I mean it is a wonderful kind of thing.

Pete Alwinson: That image is what we need in as we follow him. God's not angry at us because He poured His anger out on Jesus, the true justice on Jesus.

Steve Brown: That's true. So that's good. I'm sorry our caller was so upset.

Pete Alwinson: Yeah but more people get mad at you than me, so there it is. One more short question. Do animals go to heaven? It's an email.

Pete Alwinson: If you read the Chronicles of Narnia, absolutely.

Steve Brown: That's true. I mean maybe. Do we have proof? No. The scripture's not clear about that. But I have some German Shepherds I fully expect to meet someday when I get home.

Pete Alwinson: It would be a benefit and wouldn't be surprising to me.

Steve Brown: Hey Key Life is a listener supported production of Key Life Network.