Key Life Network

Guest (Male): The truth. Just the truth. Let's talk about it on Key Life.

Matthew: Welcome to Key Life. I’m Matthew, executive producer of the program and our host is author and seminary professor Steve Brown. The church has suffered under “do more, try hard” religion for too long, and Key Life is here to proclaim that Jesus sets the captives free.

Steve Brown: Thank you, Matthew. We’ve been looking this week and the week before about ways that Christians deal with Satan. Oh yes, there really is a devil. It's not a metaphor, it's not a symbol. There is a reality that is personal and the Bible says it over and over and over again.

And we’ve been talking about what the Bible says we can do about it. We can pray about it. God’s gift is the gift of faith, and as He gives it, it moves mountains and it moves Satan away from us. And there are other ways, but we spent some time yesterday talking about the importance of truth, that truth is the way one deals with the father of lies.

If you’ve read the temptation passages of Jesus and how He dealt with the devil—and boy, when you read those passages, you think, "I don’t know if I could have done that." How did Jesus do it? He quoted Scripture. He reminded Satan of the truth, and Jesus reminded Himself of the truth.

Now listen, if Satan tries to tell me I do not belong to Christ—and that’s one of his favorite games—I will quote John 1:12. If he tells me my weakness will cause me to fail beyond the love of Christ, I’ll quote John 10:27 and 28.

When I think that the temptations I face will be so strong that I have no way out, I will remember 1 Corinthians 10:13. When I can’t sleep at night because I’m afraid of death, I’ll get out my Bible and read John 14 and 1 Corinthians 15.

When I’m in danger of judging the spiritual depravity of my fellow Christians, I’ll think about Ephesians 2:8 through 9. When the burdens of just keeping on keeping on get to be too much and I think nobody cares, I’ll read Psalm 55:22.

Listen, there is no substitute for truth, and there is no truth more useful to the Christian in his or her battle with Satan than the truth of Scripture. In my battle with Satan, no matter how strong he seems, I will remember the truth.

This is Colossians 2:15: "He, God, disarmed the principalities and powers and made a public example of them, triumphing over them in Christ." That’s a fact. It’s the truth, and you can stand on it. And I don’t want to talk about the devil anymore, so we’re going to switch to another subject.

And it is this: Christians are human, too. When you start talking about the basics, it’s very important that Christians recognize that they are sinners, that they have a great Savior, that they are human, that they will fail, and that there are no super Christians. That’s why Paul said in 2 Corinthians 12:9, "My grace is sufficient for you." Here it comes: "For my power is made perfect in weakness."

Now I want to talk to you about what I believe is one of the major problems Christians face. It isn’t a problem for Joe Pagan and Jane Cynic, but for the person who wants to live the Christian life, the problem assumes major proportions.

What's the problem? The problem is this: Most Christians, even though they sometimes don’t admit it, fail to really see their own weakness clearly. But more important than that, most Christians fail to see their weakness in relationship to God’s strength.

Because of this failure, many Christians live a life of frustration and guilt. God does not sell frustration and guilt in His store. If you’ve got them, you didn’t get them from Him. So, we're going to talk about it and we're going to talk about it a lot tomorrow.

Not too long ago, a man came to see me who was one of the most miserable-looking individuals I’ve ever seen. As we talked, I discovered he had been making some very important promises to God. He had promised that he would give his life wholly and completely to God.

He had promised that at every opportunity, he would be a faithful witness for Jesus. He had promised that all of his actions would be clean and pure. He had promised that he would burn himself out for God. Now, those are laudable promises, and I told him it said something good about his heart, and I’m sure God heard them and was pleased with his heart.

However, there was a problem. As this young man tried to live his life and he got out into the daily grind of just keeping on keeping on, he found that no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t keep all of those promises. And you can’t either, because we are so human. We are so weak. We are so without resources in ourselves. The Lion of Judah says that’s why we must be kind to each other. You think about that. Amen.

Sometimes when I have some extra time on a Wednesday, I answer one or two questions. Pete will be in on Friday and as always will spend the whole broadcast answering your questions. And we love your questions.

You can ask one 24/7 by dialing 1-800-KEY-LIFE, that’s 1-800-539-5433. Follow the instructions, ask your question, and sometimes we put your voice on the air. Or you can send your questions to Key Life Network, Post Office Box 5000, Maitland, Florida, 32794.

In Canada, it’s Post Office Box 28060, Waterloo, Ontario, N2L 6J8. Or you can email your question to steve@keylife.org. And we love your questions. And by the way, if you can help us financially, please do.

We’re a member of ECFA in the States and CCCC in Canada, and those organizations oversee our financial practices to make sure that we are what we are, and that is ethical. We’ll squeeze every dime for the glory of God.

Alright, let’s turn to one or two questions. This is an email: "Is it possible to be saved and not know it? Perhaps we were all saved at the cross, but without our personal acceptance of Christ and His saving grace, it is impossible without the conscious act of acceptance of Him as our personal Savior. Is that right?

The Bible says that salvation is not based on works, but only by accepting the gift of Christ’s sacrifice as our Savior. Why can’t it be said that accepting this gift is a good work that we’re doing to somehow earn our salvation?"

Okay, I get that, but you have gotten in a spiral going down asking questions when you forget the basic fact that Jesus hugs the people He saves. And the faith is a gift, Ephesians 2:8 and 9, that He gives to them, so there’s a sense in which they are saved before they’re saved, because they wouldn’t even have the faith to put in Him if that were not true.

And so, it’s possible, I think, for people to be saved and not know that they’re saved. In fact, I have some friends I think that’s true about. I have a Jewish friend who loves Jesus but isn’t a Christian.

And we were at a meeting and there was a lot of anti-Semitism going on and I said to him, "Let’s go up to my room. I can’t deal with this anymore." And we did, and he started crying. And then he said, "Do you ever want to leave?" and I said, "Yeah, about every other day.

But I’m going to stay because Jesus wants me to stay. And he may want that for you," and he laughed. Then he left after we prayed together, and I remember saying to Jesus, "He’s not far from the kingdom."

And Jesus, I don’t want to go to heaven if he’s not there. And I think in his heart of hearts, he ran to Jesus and that he was saved and he didn’t even know it. That doesn’t mean that’s the general way that Jesus does it, but Jesus does as He pleases and He does it right well.

Sometimes He reaches out to people, He calls them to Himself, and something happens in their life that only can be described as redemption. They don’t have the words, they don’t have the theology, they don’t have the Bible knowledge, they don’t even have a church.

But Jesus is funny that way. He goes to strange places and He loves strange people and He does it because, well, just because. He’s Jesus and He does things well all the time.

Most of the time, it happens when you tell somebody the good news and they go, "Wow, I’d like that as part of my life," and they say a prayer, "Jesus, could you save me?" and He does. But there are other ways too, I think.

Guest (Male): Hey, I gotta go. Key Life is a listener-supported production of Key Life Network.