Key Life Network

Guest (Male): The devil? You’re kidding. Let’s talk about it on Key Life.

Matthew: Welcome to Key Life. I'm Matthew, executive producer of the program. Our host is Steve Brown. He's an author and seminary professor who teaches that God's amazing grace is the key to a life of radical freedom, infectious joy, and surprising faithfulness to Christ.

Steve Brown: Thank you, Matthew. We're going to turn to a new subject today on Key Life, and we're going to talk about the devil. Early in my ministry, I was writing a book and had a chapter on—it might have been this one, I’m not sure—that I'm using as a guide for this series of programs on the basics of the Christian faith.

While I was working—and these were the olden days—on the typewriter, I had a cup of coffee sitting on a bookshelf above where I was working. And this is true, I'm not making it up; the coffee came off the bookshelf and poured all over my typewriter. That’s when I decided to change the subject. No, I didn't.

But by the way, if you're interested, you can Google The Cove, the Billy Graham Training Center in the mountains of North Carolina. This coming summer, I'm going to be teaching a seminar, and we're going to spend a whole week talking about evil and Satan and demons. If you're interested, you might want to sign up for that. I think it's up on their website, but I'm not sure. It's called the Billy Graham Training Center, and it's near Asheville, North Carolina. At any rate, we're going to be talking for the next few weeks about how to deal with the devil.

I hope you had a great weekend, and I hope your pastor’s sermon was as good as my pastor’s sermon. Let’s pray and then we’ll study. Father, we come into your presence aware that there is a world that we don't see and sometimes don't understand. There is good in that world and there is evil in that world, and it is supernatural. And so, Father, we come to you because we're little and you're big, because you know and we don't, because you're infinite and we are finite.

We ask that you would teach us and remind us and apply what we learn from your word to our lives. You know everyone who's listening to this broadcast. You know the hard places and the soft places, the tears and the laughter, and you're in charge of all of it. We praise you and worship you because you are a sovereign and good God. And then, Father, as always, we pray for the one who teaches on this broadcast. Forgive him his sins because they're many. We would see Jesus and him only. And we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

Let me give you, as a kind of jump-off text for this study on how to deal with the devil, 1 Peter 5:8-9: "Be sober, be watchful. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experience of suffering is required of your brotherhood throughout the world."

Recently, an acquaintance of mine was visiting some friends when the subject of God came up. One of the men joined in the conversation with the assertion that he didn't believe in God. My friend replied, "Jim, tell me the kind of God you don't believe in. I may not believe in that God either." There are a lot of people who don't believe in the devil.

Many of them don't believe in him for the same reason others don't believe in God. Their ideas are immature, silly, and shallow nonsense. I don't believe in a God with a long white beard who sits on a cloud, surrounded by angels with wings, who looks for all the world a bit like Santa Claus. I don't believe in that kind of God for the same reason I don't believe in a devil who carries a pitchfork, has a long tail, and runs around in red underwear. That's not the devil that the Bible teaches.

I do, however, believe in a devil because I've seen him. I've seen him walking down the streets of a city slum. I've watched him do his work with a needle dripping heroin. I've seen him in a bottle clutched in the hand of a drunk who'd fallen asleep on a bench on Boston Common. I've read his handwriting in a suicide note. I've seen him smiling as the crowds lined up to watch an adult movie.

I have seen the work of Satan in the crushed automobile, empty stomach, and a dead soldier. I have seen Satan in the words of a man who said he didn't need God, and in the sneer of a woman who was asked if she knew Christ. I've seen Satan through the door of an abortion clinic. I've seen him in the hurt and emptiness and frustration of humanity. Sometimes I see him in my doubts and my anger and my fear. I see him sometimes walking the streets of Washington. I see him sometimes in the plans that are geared for the destruction of a nation. I've seen Satan everywhere, and sometimes—and this is a danger—I don't think there's a place I look where I don't see him.

And so for the next week or so, I want to introduce you to some information which will be ignored only with dangerous results. The information is about a personality so evil that most people can't even comprehend the depth of that evil. During our time, I want to introduce you to a being who is as evil as God is good, as selfish as God is unselfish, and as hateful as God is loving. His name is Satan, and he cares about you.

The writers of the Bible don't mind talking about Satan at all. He's called the liar, the accuser of the brethren. Sometimes when you're praying and you're feeling guilt and it's being dumped on you about where you've been and what you've done and the sins you've committed, sometimes that's not the conviction of the Holy Spirit, but the accusations of Satan himself.

He's called the dragon. He's called the serpent. He's called the ruler of the world. As one reads what the Bible says about the work of Satan, it is enough to make any believer pause. Satan is the tempter who would lure the believer away from the walk of faith. He seeks to destroy God's work in the experience of the believer. He is an accuser who would cripple the Christian with guilt and fear.

He sometimes becomes the king in an individual life. Satan is responsible for sin and unbelief. He rejoices whenever he can turn a pagan away from Christ and Christians away from the Christian life. He would have you fall down and worship him, even if you call him by another name. He is real. He is alive. He is dangerous.

Do you know, back in the days when I thought I was a thoughtful intellectual—I wasn't, but I thought I was—those of us who were intellectuals certainly didn't believe in something like Satan. I was a pastor, spreading that nonsense at a large church in the Boston area. I couldn't bring myself to say the word Satan or devil.

Every time I came across it in scripture and thought I had to teach on it, I called Satan the metaphorical personification of evil. If you're in our television audience, you can see that I'm blushing. The metaphorical personification of evil. And Satan always said, "That's cool. That's way cool. You think about that. Amen."

Matthew: Thank you, Steve. That was Steve Brown, resuming our series called Welcome to the Family. In it, we're covering the basics of the faith for new believers, though, if I'm being honest, it's also a nice refresher for the seasoned believer. More tomorrow, do join us.

You're likely familiar with Friday Q&A. That's our weekly segment when Steve and Pete answer listener questions. You might even have some questions yourself, and maybe not trivia-type questions. Big questions, like "Does God even exist?", "Am I really forgiven and free?", or "If all this is true, why don't I feel different?"

Steve wrote about these things in a special minibook called Faith and Doubt: When Belief is Hard. In it, he explores the reasons behind our doubts and explains how we can rest in faith. May we send you this minibook for free? Then call us right now at 1-800-KEY-LIFE. That's 1-800-539-5433. You can also email Steve@keylife.org to ask for that minibook. To mail your request, go to keylife.org/contact for our mailing addresses. Just ask for the free minibook called Faith and Doubt: When Belief is Hard.

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