From His Heart

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Today on From His Heart with Pastor Jeff Shreve, the battle begins.

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Now, the Bible indicates that we have three enemies. We have the world, we have the flesh, and we have the devil.

And we are starting a new sermon series called "This is War." How are we going to overcome the world, the flesh, and the devil? It's not a one-size-fits-all approach. You have to know where the attack is coming from so you know what to do with the attack.

There is treasure, there is blessed love, and there is hope that you always dream of. Love can heal every scar. Real love, real hope comes from His heart.

Speaker 1

Every Christian is a soldier, and the war before us is with the world, the flesh, and the devil. Although it is an invisible war, it is a very real conflict. The stakes are sky high as we strive by God's grace to fight the good fight and walk in the Lord's victory.

This is From His Heart with Pastor Jeff Shreve. Thank you for joining us today for the first message in his brand new series, "This is War: Overcoming the World, the Flesh, and the Devil." This first message is entitled "The Adversary," from which will come biblical insights and needed encouragement to help you stand firm against the schemes of the devil and resist him as you grow firm in your faith.

The apostle Peter says in 1 Peter chapter 5, "Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour." Now, what must we do to overcome our adversary from hell? Today we'll learn three essentials for walking in victory as a conqueror through Jesus Christ.

For information about today's message or the entire series, it's our gift of thanks to you for your support this month to From His Heart. Just go to fromhishheart.org; you can get it in the format of your choice.

Right now, though, open your Bible to 1 Peter chapter 5 as we begin this first message, "The Adversary." Here again is Pastor Jeff.

Speaker 2

There's a spiritual war raging, and every Christian is a soldier in the Lord's army. As Paul told Timothy, "suffer hardship with me as a good soldier of Christ Jesus." Now, the Bible indicates that we have three enemies: the world, the flesh, and the devil. We are starting a new sermon series called "This is War." How are we going to overcome the world, the flesh, and the devil? It's not a one-size-fits-all approach. You have to know where the attack is coming from so you know what to do with the attack. For instance, the Bible says, "flee youthful lusts." When it comes to an attack from the devil or his demonic horde, we stand firm. We resist him, firm in our faith.

I like what Adrian Rogers says about the world, the flesh, and the devil to help us understand the threefold enemy that we have, the three fronts that are attacking us. The world is the external foe, characterized by the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the boastful pride of life. First John, chapter two, tells us that all that is in the world is the external foe. The flesh is the internal foe, that old residual Adamic nature that you deal with and that I deal with. Paul says in Galatians 5, "walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh." We deal with that until the Lord takes us to glory. So, you have the world as an external foe, the flesh as an internal foe, and then you have the devil, who is an infernal foe. He is the devil from hell.

Think of the flesh as a pool of gasoline, the world as a match, and the devil as the one who strikes the match and throws it into the pool of gasoline. That’s how the world, the flesh, and the devil work to try and defeat you and me. But the Bible says, "in all these things, we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us." It also says, "thanks be to God who always gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." So today, as we kick off this series about spiritual warfare, we want to look at the ringmaster, the leader of the evil band: the devil and Satan. What does the Bible say about him?

Many of us know, as we talk about spiritual warfare, about defeat. One of the ways that you know you're a Christian is that you feel the agony of defeat when you're defeated by the world, the flesh, or the devil. You feel that agony. You remember the Wide World of Sports, that television show that was so popular some years ago? Always in the opening credits, there was the "Thrill of Victory" and the "Agony of Defeat." Everybody likes victory, but the agony of defeat was represented by some poor slob who came off the ski slope and didn't do very well. You thought he was dead, but he wasn't; he went on to live. We don't want to live in the agony of defeat, and the Lord doesn't want us to live in that agony either. He wants us to experience the thrill of victory. So, we're going to learn in this series how to do it.

Well, this is what Peter says in 1 Peter, chapter 5, beginning in verse 8: "Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. But resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world. And after you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. To Him be dominion forever and ever. Amen."

Our question is: what must you do to overcome the adversary from hell, this infernal foe? There are three essentials. Essential number one: you must regard your adversary. You must know that he is a formidable foe. Now, we're in college football season, and everybody knows that when you have the big powerhouse teams, they typically schedule some powder puff games in the first few weeks. Ed Fowler, the sports writer for the Houston Chronicle, used to call those games where a powerhouse team plays a lesser-known team, "Oh, that team, you know, Alabama's playing some directional school." Anytime you have a directional school, it's probably not a big powerhouse.

My dad used to call them "the Little Sisters of the Poor." No disrespect to these schools, but they're just not in the same league as the big powerhouse schools. Remember this: the devil is not the Little Sisters of the Poor. He is a defeated foe for sure, but he is powerful, and you have to respect that power. He is not to be taken lightly. If you play for a big powerhouse school, like the number one school in the nation, the University of Texas, you can't just mail it in when playing a directional school. The devil is not the B team, so do not take him lightly.

There's a song that many of us are familiar with: "I got the joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart." We teach it to our kids. There's a line from that song that says, "And if the devil doesn't like it, he can sit on attack." We kind of make light of the devil. We poke fun at him. But what happens on October 31st? Many parents let their kids dress up like the devil. They get a suit of red pajamas with a pointy tail and pointed ears, and you have a pitchfork. We laugh at that, but the devil is not someone to laugh at. He is someone you need to regard.

Why do I say that? Because there are only three angels mentioned in Scripture by name: Michael the Archangel, Gabriel, and Lucifer. Lucifer was the archangel. Ezekiel 28 says, "You were the anointed cherub who covers. You were in the garden of God." He had a high position, like Michael and Gabriel. As we know, he fell. He didn't want to be the worship leader in heaven; he wanted the worship to come to him. He fell and said five times in Isaiah 14, "I will, I will, I will, I will, I will be like the most high God." God kicked him out of heaven. Lucifer, whose name means "light bearer," became Satan, the father of the night. But he did not lose the power that God gave him.

In 2 Peter, chapter 2, talking about false teachers, it says, "Daring, self-willed, they do not tremble when they revile angelic majesties. Whereas angels who are greater in might and power do not bring a reviling judgment against them before the Lord." In Jude, which is just one chapter, it talks about Michael the Archangel. When Michael disputed with the devil concerning the body of Moses, he did not dare bring against him a railing judgment but simply said, "The Lord rebuke you."

If Michael the Archangel says, "The Lord rebuke you," and if the Lord says to Satan, "The Lord rebuke you," we need to learn from that. We should not take the devil lightly as if we're playing the Little Sisters of the Poor. He is a formidable foe, and you should always turn him over to the Lord. The Lord rebuke you. You don't put yourself in there like you're big and bad and tough.

Secondly, he is not to be forgotten carelessly. Peter says in chapter 5, verse 8, "Be of sober spirit. Be on the alert." This is red alert time. Be watchful, be vigilant. Why? Because your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. He is out there, so you need to be on alert. You need to be vigilant.

Many of you remember when the movie "The Terminator" with Arnold Schwarzenegger came out. We had not really seen a movie quite like that when it came out way back in the 80s. Arnold played a bad guy, the Terminator. There's a scene where Rhys, who has been sent from the future to protect Sarah Connor, explains to her that the Terminator is not someone you can reason with. He will keep coming and coming. That's exactly what the devil is; he's the original Terminator. He prowls around like a roaring lion to gobble you up, seeking someone to devour. That word means to gobble up whole. He is not someone we need to dismiss.

You have to regard your adversary. Secondly, you must recognize your adversary. Recognize him. I regard him; I recognize that he is not the Little Sisters of the Poor. This is someone who is greater because angels are greater in might and power than a man. Apart from the Lord, I am no match for him. We recognize him and his ways. As the apostle Paul said, "We are not ignorant of his schemes," so we know how he operates. If you don't know how he operates, you're a sitting duck.

When teams get ready to play, they study game film. They look to see what plays their opponent likes to run. If you go in without any idea of what your opponent does, you can get blindsided very easily. The Lord tells us about Satan's playbook so we can know how to prepare. How does he work?

First, he is a slanderer and a false accuser. The name Satan literally means "adversary." Your adversary, the devil, is a real being, a created being, and compared to you and me, he is massively powerful. Compared to God, he is nothing. Don't ever get the idea that there's some kind of dualism in the earth, with God over here and Satan over here, both going at it for the Super Bowl. God could destroy the devil just like that, and he will when he comes back at the battle of Armageddon.

What does the Lord do to the Antichrist? He takes him alive and the false prophet and throws them into the lake of fire. The dragon, the serpent, the devil of old, who is called the devil and Satan, will be taken at the end of the millennial kingdom and put in the lake of fire, tormented forever and ever. Don't get the idea that the devil is going to be king of hell; he is going to burn in hell. But right now, he is not in hell. We call him an infernal foe; he is from the fires of hell, but he is free to roam about.

He is a slanderer and a false accuser. The word slander means to speak evil against. Revelation, chapter 12, verse 10 tells us that the devil never ceases to come before the throne of God day and night to accuse us. The devil will accuse you and me. You might wonder, "How do you know when the devil speaks to you?" The devil is pretty slick; he doesn't speak to you in a guttural devil voice. He speaks to you in a voice that sounds a lot like your own, and it's hard to tell who is speaking.

It's not to your ears; you just kind of hear it on the inside. You know, "Hey, you know you want to sin. You know you want to go do this. Go do this; it's okay. God will forgive you." Then you do it, and he says, "I can't believe you did that. God's never going to forgive you. How can you show your face again? How can you ever go back to church again? Look what you did." He will accuse you and accuse you to get you to quit. He is a slanderer and a false accuser.

Secondly, he is a liar and a deceiver. Jesus said in John, chapter 8, verse 44, "You are of your father, the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies." The devil is a master liar and a master deceiver. He is not just a good liar; he is the slickest liar the world has ever known.

When the Antichrist comes to power, he will tell people things that sound so good but are rotten and bad. He will spin it in such a way that you think up is down, white is black, and north is south. He will turn you into a pretzel because he is able to do that. The devil doesn't normally come with outlandish lies; he comes with half-truths, with things that have a little bit of truth in them but are off.

Think about what he said to Eve. In Genesis, chapter 3, the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. He begins this dialogue with Eve, saying, "Indeed, has God said, 'You shall not eat from any tree of the garden?'" She responds, "From any tree of the garden, we may freely eat, but from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, God has said, 'You shall not eat from it or touch it, lest you die.'"

He says, "You surely shall not die, for God knows that in the day you eat of it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." He plants the lie that God is holding out on you. You need to disobey God and eat this forbidden fruit to experience what it's like to be God. The insidious part is that God wants you to be like Him, but the devil tries to get her to not need God. You will be like God, so you won't need to depend upon Him.

You and I are never going to be God's equal, but the idea that God doesn't want us to be like Him is a lie. He does want us to be like Him. 1 John, chapter 3 says, "See how great a love the Father has bestowed upon us that we should be called children of God. And such we are." For this reason, the world does not know us because it did not know Him. It does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when He appears, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.

God wants us to be like Him; He doesn't want us to be separate and independent from Him. The devil takes things and twists them just a little bit off. Why? So that you go down a road that's just a little bit off. The longer you go down a road that's just a little bit off, after several miles, you will see, "Hey, I'm way off course."

Speaker 1

You're listening to From His Heart with Pastor Jeff Shreve, who today began his new six-message series, "This is War: Overcoming the World, the Flesh, and the Devil," with the first lesson called "The Adversary." Why are we airing this series? Because every day, people around the world are battling powerful enemies they can't even see. Families are under pressure, and the faith of many is weakening.

But through your support of From His Heart this month, people are learning how to fight and win the very real battles coming against them and their families. In this month's series, "This Is War," Pastor Jeff exposes the invisible war raging against every believer and shows how we can stand firm and win through the truth of God's Word. For your gift today of any amount, we'd like to say thank you by sending you this new series on a USB flash drive, CDs, DVDs, or MP3 digital download. Make your gift today and help us reach someone who may listen to From His Heart and needs to surrender it all to Him. Request "This is War" when you call 866-40-BIBLE (866-40-BIBLE) or go online to fromhisheart.org. Together, we'll keep fighting to proclaim real truth, real hope, and real love from God's heart.

There's much more to be said about this subject called "The Adversary" on the next broadcast, where, after a brief review, the pastor will continue his thought with an example from our modern political climate. Make sure you're with us then. We want to close today with a verse that speaks to our hearts when we struggle yet have victory in this war we're all enduring. From Romans chapter 8, verse 18: "For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us." We pray that will bless your heart today and trust you'll join us again next time for part two of "The Adversary."

That's next time when Pastor Jeff will again open up God's Word and share real truth, real love, and real hope from God's heart here on From His Heart. From His Heart is the listener-supported broadcast ministry of Dr. Jeff Shreve, speaking the truth in love to a lost and hurting world. Remember, no matter what, God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life. Find out more at fromhisheart.org.

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