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Steve Brown: Jesus wouldn't lie to you about the devil. Let's talk on Key Life.

Guest (Male): That was Steve Brown. He doesn't want to be your guru, and he's not trying to be your mother. He just opens the Bible and gives you the simple truth that will make you free.

Steve's a lifelong broadcaster, author, seminary professor, and our teacher on Key Life.

Steve Brown: If you were listening yesterday, we're starting a new subject as we look at some of the basics of the Christian faith. We're talking about how to deal with the devil. I'd prefer not even talking about it. This makes me uncomfortable to do it.

I told you that next summer at the Billy Graham Training Center, The Cove in North Carolina, I'm going to be teaching a seminar all weekend. I think there'll be four different sessions on evil and Satan, and frankly, that scares the spit out of me.

Jeremy, who's our producer, and I were talking, talking about our experiences. We have both seen a lot of fakery and nonsense in the body of Christ about the devil, so that people look for demons under every bed. But we've also seen the real thing.

I was telling Jeremy that I remember in the first church that I served down on Cape Cod. It was a little church, and there was a couple with children who lived in our village. Their children were always dirty. Their house was always filthy, filthy, and he was always angry.

One night he wanted to see me, and he came to my study at this little church, and it was a small one. I'm not making this up. It was raining and there was thunder and lightning, so it sounded like something out of a novel. He began to cuss.

Now, I am not naive. I mean, I am not offended by cuss words mostly, because I've heard them all. Said some of them myself. But this was on steroids. It would have made a sailor blush, and he started cursing and went on for a long time. At the end of which in a gravelly voice, he said, "If there's a God, I curse him."

I remember how I felt on that occasion. In those days, I was an intellectual and certainly didn't believe in something as naive as a real devil. But what he did and how he did it scared the spit out of me. I remember thinking, he must be schizophrenic, or he must have serious mental problems.

But I'm a lot older now, and I've seen a lot over a lot of years. Satan is an old acquaintance of mine. I've seen him around the world, and I've seen him in my life. I've seen him in the churches that I've served, and he is real.

The Bible, we saw yesterday, doesn't back off on talking about the devil and Satan. In fact, they clearly warn us of the devil and Satan and the occult and all kinds of things that come from the dark side.

But listen to me, perhaps the clearest teaching we have on this being of absolute evil comes from the lips of Jesus himself. When Jesus saw the unbelief of many so-called religious people, do you know what he said? This is in John 8:44. He said, "You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning and has nothing to do with the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks according to his own nature. For he is a liar and the father of lies."

I didn't say that. Jesus said it. Jesus pointed to Satan as the reason some people refuse to accept God's word. In Mark 4:14 and 15, he said, "The sower sows the word, and there are ones that fall along the path where the word is sown. When they hear, Satan immediately comes and takes away the word which is sown in them."

Jesus called in John 12:31, Satan "the ruler of this world." When Jesus wanted to give Peter something to hold onto after Peter would deny Jesus, this is what Jesus said. "Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you that he might sift you like wheat. But I've prayed for you that your faith may not fail. When you have turned again," and that presupposed that Peter belonged to Jesus and he would eventually turn, "when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers." That's Luke 22:31-32.

Time after time, Jesus warned his disciples about the dangers of Satan. Now, you may still have difficulty believing in a real and personal devil. If there was a devil, however, he would be very happy if he could keep you from believing in him. So it could be the very fact that you don't is a sign that he is. If that is your situation, I want you to listen to these broadcast on evil and on Satan.

You need the information too much. Just substitute as I did when I was an intellectual, metaphorical personification of evil every time you use or hear or say the word Satan or devil. Your designation, I believe, will be wrong. But the ammunition that I'm going to teach you on these broadcasts will be effective nevertheless.

In other words, a lion by any other name will be just as dead when you shoot him with a gun. Let me say something about our present culture. We have a lot of political divisions and disagreements. But we also have a pile of hatred and animosity and division and destroying of people in our culture.

If you believe that it's just the natural outworking of politics and politics is dirty, you don't understand. What we see in our culture, and you can see it around the world, is the efforts of a very evil character and his minions, who have influenced nations and villages and you and me.

It's very important that Christians understand because as we move, and I believe we're there, into a great awakening taking place in this country and Canada. As we move in that direction, Satan is irritated. He is ticked. He hates it.

He's going to move as much as he can, influence as much as he can, try to reach us as much as he can, and that's why the importance of this teaching is something you ought to take very seriously.

What we're going to do, and I'm running out of time, so we'll do it in some detail tomorrow. Before we look at the ways God has given the believer to deal with the devil, let me give you a couple of preliminary considerations. The first is, as I said, we'll talk about it more tomorrow. There are three sources for sin and evil and temptation. There's the world.

There's the believer's flesh, and then there is Satan. Satan is important to understand as at least a third of the evil that you encounter in the world. Don't discount the world. We live in a fallen world that is desperately corrupt. Paul is so clear about that in his teaching in Romans, that this world is an infected world with a disease that is so bad that you wouldn't believe it. I blame Adam and Eve for it, and I don't even know them. But they messed it up for the rest of us.

Don't underestimate yourself, that's the second place. We all think we're good people, but we're not. And so, I sin because I like to sin, because I've decided to sin. But in the middle of all of those truths and those considerations, don't forget Old Slewfoot, the devil himself. He's real, and he wants to get to know you. You think about that. Amen.

Guest (Male): Thanks, Steve. We're in the middle of covering the basics of the faith, and this week we're taking a look at the enemy, Satan. Uncomfortable at times, even unsettling. Yes, and yes. But also important. We'll continue exploring the subject tomorrow. Hope you'll join us then.

We are now about a month out from the Super Bowl, and one of the things I like best about football is the strategy. How one team can use their strengths and exploit the opponent's weaknesses. Satan does that. In fact, one of Satan's greatest strategies is to convince us that he doesn't exist.

But in a sermon from Steve called "God and the Devil," you'll not only learn why Satan exists, but also how to arm yourself against him using seven weapons in the Christian's arsenal. Grab your copy on CD for free right now by calling us at 1-800 Key Life. That's 1-800-539-5433. You can also email Steve at keylife.org to ask for that CD, or to mail your request, go to keylife.org/contact to find our mailing addresses for the US and Canada. Again, just ask for your free copy of the CD called "God and the Devil."

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