Pathway to Victory

Speaker 1

Hey, podcast listeners, thanks for streaming today's podcast from Pathway to Victory.

Pathway to Victory is a nonprofit ministry featuring the Bible teaching of Dr. Robert Jeffress. Our mission is to pierce the darkness with the light of God's word through the most effective media available, like this podcast.

To support Pathway to Victory, go to ptv.org/donate or follow the link in our show notes.

Now here's today's podcast from Pathway to Victory.

Speaker 2

Hi, this is Robert Jeffress, and I'm glad to study God's Word with you every day. This Bible teaching program.

Speaker 3

On today's edition of Pathway to Victory.

Speaker 2

Jesus called Satan a liar and the father of all lies. You can't trust a word he says.

Well, what lies does he want to implant in my heart? The list is endless. But as I look through scripture, I find four especially effective lies of the devil.

And that's what we're going to look at today.

Speaker 1

Welcome to Pathway to Victory with author and pastor, Dr. Robert Jeffress. Satan has been deceiving humanity since the very beginning of time, and this master deceiver has developed certain lies that are so effective, he continues to use them against every generation.

Today, on Pathway to Victory, Dr. Robert Jeffress reveals the specific falsehoods that Satan uses to steal our joy, destroy our peace, and damage our relationships.

But first, let's take a minute to hear some important ministry updates.

Speaker 3

Thanks, David, and welcome again to Pathway to Victory. Most Christians start their day without any awareness that the devil is on the prowl, like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.

Well, as a pastor and Bible teacher for more than 40 years, I've seen the carnage Satan has caused with marriages, families, and children. This has inspired my teaching series on spiritual warfare called Spirit Wars. It also motivated me to write a book for you and the little people in your life. It's called Suit Up: The Armor of God for Kids. This full-color, fully illustrated book is designed to help you share God's strategy with children so they can learn to fight against the enemy and trust God's protection. Each chapter explains one piece of spiritual armor and includes discussion questions to continue the conversation.

So let me send you my book, Suit Up: The Armor of God for Kids. It's yours when you give a generous gift to support the ministry of Pathway to Victory. For the adults, I've also written a brand new book called Angels and Demons: Fact versus Fantasy, and you'll be receiving this resource too.

All right, we'll give more details later in the program, but right now let's open our Bibles to John 8 for our next study in our teaching on spiritual warfare. I titled today's message Satan's Four Favorite Lies.

Speaker 2

Author James Allen has said, "Every good thought produces good fruit. Every bad thought produces bad fruit. And each man is his own gardener." That's true, but it's only half true. Yes, it's true. The thoughts we cultivate in our minds determine our actions. Our actions determine our destiny. But there is another gardener at work in our mind. He's an enemy. His goal is to sow bad thoughts that produce bad results, bad fruit, and a disastrous destiny. And that's the truth we're going to talk about today.

For those of you who may have just joined us in this series, we're in a series right now on spiritual warfare. So far, we've talked about the reality of spiritual warfare. We all have that sense that we're in a battle, but it's an invisible war. Ephesians 6 says we are all in a death struggle, not against other people, flesh and blood, but against the unseen powers of darkness.

The reality of spiritual warfare. We've talked about our enemy in spiritual warfare. It's not that boss, that mate, that friend who has wronged you. No, our enemy is Satan, our adversary, the devil. We've talked about Satan and his minion of demons, where they came from, what their goal is, and their strategy for destroying your faith, your family, and your future.

Then last time, we began looking at the location of spiritual warfare. If we're supposed to suit up and be ready for this spiritual war, we've got to know where the battlefield is. It's not in the home, it's not in the church, primarily. It's not in Washington, D.C. The real battle that's being fought for your very soul is being fought on the battlefield of your mind. The mind is the location of spiritual warfare.

We talked about how Satan loves to sow destructive negative thoughts in your mind. He has numerous means of communicating with us—through himself, a direct confrontation with him, through other people, and through other mediums. But he's always trying to sow those bad seeds in your mind that produce bad fruit. We've talked about the means of his communication.

Today, we're going to talk about the message he is trying to communicate to each one of us. Whatever Satan speaks, Jesus said in John 8:44, is a lie. He speaks from lies. In fact, in John 8:44, Jesus called Satan a liar and the father of all lies.

Speaker 3

You can't trust a word he says.

Speaker 2

Well, what lies does he want to implant in my heart? The list is endless. But as I look through scripture, I find four especially effective lies of the devil. And that's what we're going to look at today: Satan's four favorite lies. They're his favorites because they have the most devastating impact on your life.

In fact, did you know you can go back to the beginning of time and that cosmic battle that was fought between Lucifer and God? It started in heaven, and it was built on these lies. Those same lies were responsible for the very first sin on planet Earth that we're going to look at today. So it's important we know what these lies are so we can recognize them.

The first lie deals with discontent. It's a lie from the enemy that says you don't have what you really need to be happy. God has not given you what you need to be happy. God has shortchanged you in some way. Many of you may be familiar with the basketball superstar David Robinson. He once spoke about superstar Michael Jordan, watching him clutch the Chicago Bulls' first championship trophy.

As David Robinson was watching that, this is what he said to himself: "Here I am with five cars, two houses, and more money than I ever thought I would have. What more could I ask for? And here's Michael Jordan. He has more than me. And, boy, I'd like to have some of the things he has."

But is the world setting a trap for us? What I had should have been plenty. But no matter how much I had, it didn't seem like enough. Because material things can't satisfy your deepest needs. Robinson was right. The world is setting a trap. But it's not just the world.

Speaker 3

It's the God of this world.

Speaker 2

That's what Jesus in Scripture refers to when he calls Satan the God of this world. He is constantly baiting us with the lie that God hasn't given us what we really need. You see this in the very beginning, with the sin committed on planet Earth.

Turn to Genesis, chapter three. Look at Genesis three, beginning with verse one. Now, the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. Remember, the serpent originally was not that slimy, scaly reptile; he was a beautiful creature. Satan used him as a medium to voice his thoughts to Adam and Eve.

Now, the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field, and he said to the woman, "Indeed, has God said, you shall not eat from any tree of the garden?" Satan is always trying to sow doubt in our minds about God's word. Did he really say that? Was that God who spoke? Does God really speak through Scripture today, or is that just ancient people's thoughts about who God is? Did God really say not to eat from the tree of the garden?

And the woman said to the serpent, "From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat. But from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, you shall not eat from it or touch it, or you will die."

Think about this: God had placed Adam and Eve in an idyllic, beautiful, perfect setting. He had created thousands of trees they could enjoy. "You can have any tree you want, except that one, and it's forbidden." And what does Satan do? Through the serpent, he directs Eve's attention away from all of God's blessings, all of the trees that could have been hers to enjoy, and he redirects it toward that one thing.

Speaker 3

God said no to.

Speaker 2

And he continues to do that same thing in our lives again.

Speaker 3

Oh, there's a reason God doesn't want you to have this tree.

Speaker 2

God is a cosmic killjoy. He wants to rob you of true happiness in life. If only you had this house, if only you had this job, if only you had this salary, if only you had this mate, then you could really be filled with joy and have everything you need. What happens when we fall for that deception? That somehow God has shortchanged us and God giving us what we need? Well, James tells us in James, chapter three, hold your place here and turn to James chapter three. James talks about the consequences of dissatisfaction. What does discontent do to us? And he traces it all the way back to the source of that discontent.

Look at James 3:16. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every evil thing. And then he says in chapter four, verses one and two, remember, there was no chapter division originally. This is all part of the same discussion. What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you? Is not the source your pleasures, your desires that wage war in your members? For you lust and you don't have, so you commit murder. You're envious and you can't obtain. So you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. And then look at verse four, you adulteresses. Do you not know that friendship with the world, that is the world system, is hostility toward God? Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

Verse 7. Here's the real source of everything. Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. He's going from the consequences of discontent all the way up to what? The source is Satan. Now, to help you better understand what James is saying here, allow me to paraphrase those words. I've written a little paraphrase of it that does just the reverse. It starts with the source of our discontent and traces it to its consequences. James was in essence saying, resist the devil because he is promoting a worldly value system that equates money with success, sex with love, and power with purpose.

When you adopt these values, you'll start lusting for those things that are outside of God's will for your life. That constant craving not only leads to turmoil within your life when you disobey God, but it causes dissension with others as you jealously crave their possessions and positions. Don't you see that chain reaction all around you? A chain reaction that begins with discontent and ends up in adultery or murder or theft and sows discord between believers and unbelievers.

What motivates, for example, a husband to abandon his wife, abandon his children for another mate? At the heart of it is discontent. What is it that causes an applicant for a new job to inflate his resume, to lie in order to get a leg up on another applicant? At the heart of it is a discontent with his present situation. What is it that causes a businessman to risk imprisonment all for the gain of a little bit more money? At the heart of that is discontent. At the root of all chaos and disorder is discontent. To be really happy in life, I need a bigger house, I need a larger salary, I need a different mate. And then I can have what I really need.

When we fall for that lie, God has not given you what you need to be happy. We're ready to fall for his next lie, and it's built around pride. It's a lie that says you are in control of your destiny. You're in control of your destiny. If God can't be depended upon to give us what we need, then we better start looking out for number one. Nobody else is going to look out for you. You better look out for yourself. You must control your destiny, and you can control destiny. That's the essence of pride.

You see that in the garden? Remember what Satan said to Eve? He said, don't eat from this tree because verse five, God knows that in the day you eat from it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. I want you to see the connection here between discontent and pride, which leads to independence and ultimately fear. Go back to the very first sin in the universe. It occurred in heaven when Lucifer decided he was no longer content with being the second banana. He wasn't content with having the second chair in the heavenly boardroom. He wasn't content being the chief angel. He wanted to be the big banana himself. He wanted to be number one. He wanted the first chair in the heavenly boardroom.

What is it that led Satan to believe he was even capable of running the universe? At the heart of it was pride. Remember what God said to Lucifer before he cast him out of heaven? Ezekiel 28:17, you, heart was lifted up because of your beauty. You corrupted your wisdom by reason of your splendor. Now here's the Jeffress paraphrase of that verse. You became intoxicated with your God-given beauty and you allowed your thinking to be messed up by your God-given gifts. Psychologists have a term for that. Delusional. Satan forgot he was a creature and thought he was the creator.

And we make the same mistake today. It's no wonder that Lucifer, after he was banished from heaven because of his pride, tried to plant the same seeds of discontent he felt in Eve's heart. You don't have what you need to be truly happy. But guess what, Eve? You don't have to settle for what God gives you or doesn't give you. You can be like God himself. You don't have to be satisfied with being a creature. You can be like the Creator. And ever since that time, you and I have been tempted with the idea, the thought that as one positive thinking preacher said, if it's going to be, it's up to me. I control my destiny. I'm the one who decides what happens with my life.

You see it everywhere. That spirit of independence, discontent. I'm not happy with what God's doing in my life leads to. What? Pride and independence from God. And we celebrate that independence. How many of you have ever been to a graduation ceremony before of any kind? We've all had to sit through. I mean, we've gotten to experience joy with others of those. Probably somewhere in one of those you heard the famous words that are often quoted at graduation time called Invictus. Remember how it goes? Out of the night that covers me black from the pit from pole to pole, I thank whatever gods may be for my unconquerable soul. It matters not how straight the gate, how charged with punishments the scroll. I am the master of my fate. I am the captain of my soul.

No, no, no. A thousand times no. We are not the masters of our fate. We're not the captains of anything. Psalm 103 says, for the Lord himself is God. It is he who made us, and not we ourselves. We are his people and we are the sheep of his pasture. We think we control our destiny. We think the choices we make are so important, and to an extent, they can be important, but they don't have the final word in our destiny. We're like passengers on an ocean liner on a long journey. Those passengers think they have all kinds of choices. What to eat, what time to eat, go to play shuffleboard or cards or take a nap. They think they can make all of these choices, but all the time they're exercising their free will, they're in a ship where the captain is determining the ultimate destination.

And so it is with us. We have a master of our soul, a captain of our fate, and it is God himself. That's what pride is. The idea I can control my destiny. And that thought, that belief leads to a third lie that we're susceptible to. And that is one that is based in fear. That is, you are all alone. Now, here's the great irony of all of this. We think pride and sovereignty over our choices. We think pride and independence produces confidence in people. It gives people great confidence. It doesn't. It gives people fear. People are filled with fear when they are unshackled from the truth that there is a God controlling their destiny.

You know why that is? It's because once somebody decides that there is no God and he has no power over their lives, then it makes people victims of random events or random circumstances in their life. It doesn't take long living on this planet to realize you're not in control of your circumstances. A disloyal mate, a maverick cancer cell, an unexpected accident or illness suddenly makes you realize you're not in control of the situation. That's what happens. And that's why people are so filled with fear. It doesn't produce confidence in people to think that circumstances or other people are free to do to them whatever they desire to do. Does that give you any confidence? No. We need to know there is a God who is bigger than the circumstances, bigger than the enemies in our life. But independence always produces fear.

I think it's interesting that the very first negative emotion in the Bible isn't jealousy.

Speaker 3

It's not bitterness, it's not greed, it's not lust. It's fear.

Speaker 2

Did you know that the very first negative emotion in the Bible is fear? After Adam and Eve disobeyed God, they went and hid from God. And remember, God came looking for them. In verse 10, Adam said to God, "I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid myself." That's always the result of acting independently from God.

When we act independently from God, when we unshackle ourselves from the responsibility we have to obey God, we're filled not with confidence, but with fear. The more we teach people in our schools, teach our children, that there is no God and that things are simply random, the more fear that grips our hearts. If there is no God, all we're left to do is to calculate how many different things could go wrong.

Speaker 3

Our lives and on our planet.

Speaker 2

Discontent leads to independence, independence leads to fear, and fear ultimately leads to bitterness. And that's the fourth lie Satan loves to convince us of. And that is, you have been mistreated by God or by other people.

I remember once reading a story about a thief who broke into a convenience store overnight, and he went to the vending machine to try to pry it open in order to get the change out of it. In the process, he ended up pulling the vending machine on himself. He was trapped there for six hours.

You know what his next move was? He sued the convenience store for negligence for the injuries he had sustained. I thought, you know, that thief is a lot like Satan. He cannot accept the fact that he's the one responsible for his banishment from heaven. He wanted to blame somebody else for his predicament. He happened to blame God.

Speaker 3

Satan is a liar. And from the beginning, he's been planting seeds of doubt into our unsuspecting minds. Without protection, we become defeated and discouraged.

And in a moment, David will explain how you can receive the entire teaching series called Spirit Wars. It's recorded on audio CD and video DVD, and the complete collection is available right now. Plus, you're invited to request the children's book I mentioned earlier. It's called Suit Up the Armor of God for Kids. My book will help your children and grandchildren put on the armor God provided. It'll equip them for spiritual victory in these trying times.

When you give a generous gift today to help pierce the darkness with the light of God's word, I'll be sure to send you a copy right away. As someone who financially supports the ministry of Pathway to Victory, you're helping men and women who need a defense against the wicked one.

Recently, I heard from a man who watches Pathway to Victory in Wisconsin. He said, "Pastor Jeffress, I wanted to say thank you for your teaching series on spiritual warfare. I'm a backsliding Christian and I've really struggled with my battle with sexual immorality. But your messages on standing against Satan's attacks have been really helpful for me to gain victory over my desires."

Thanks so much for giving generously to Pathway to Victory. Your gift allows viewers like this one to overcome their spiritual battles with God's help. Here's David to tell you more.

Speaker 1

When you give a generous gift to support the ministry of Pathway to Victory, you're invited to request *Suit Up the Armor of God for Kids*. Additionally, you'll receive *Angels* and *Fact versus Fantasy*. That's a brand new resource designed especially for adults. Make your gift and request both books by calling 866-999-2965 or visit online@ptv.org. When your ministry gift is $100 or more, you'll receive both books plus the *Spirit Wars* teaching series on audio and video discs, along with Dr. Jeffress' bestselling book, *The Divine Defense*. So call today at 866-999-2965.

You could also contact us by mail if you'd like. Write to P.O. Box 223609, Dallas, Texas 75222. That's P.O. Box 223609, Dallas, Texas 75222.

I'm David J. Mullins. Join us again Friday for the conclusion of the series *Spirit Wars* here on Pathway to Victory.

*Pathway to Victory* with Dr. Robert Jeffress comes from the pulpit of the First Baptist Church of Dallas, Texas. Experience the breathtaking majesty of America's last frontier on the 2026 Pathway to Victory Cruise to Alaska.

Speaker 2

Board Holland America's luxurious Koningsdam ship with Amy and me for a journey that will refresh your soul and renew your spirit.

Speaker 1

Experience the unforgettable adventure June 13th through 20th, 2026. To book your cabin, call 888-280-6747 or go to ptv.org.

You made it to the end of today's podcast from Pathway to Victory, and we're so glad you're here. Pathway to Victory relies on the generosity of loyal listeners like you to make this podcast possible. One of the most impactful ways you can give is by becoming a Pathway Partner. Your monthly gift will empower Pathway to Victory to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ and help others become rooted more firmly in His Word. To become a Pathway Partner, go to ptv.org/donate or you can follow the link in our show notes.

We hope you've been blessed by today's podcast from Pathway to Victory. Oh, and one last thing before we go. Have you reserved your spot yet for the 2026 Pathway to Victory Cruise to Alaska? You've been hearing me and Dr. Jeffress mention it, so what are you waiting for? Just picture yourself on the deck of Holland America's elegant Koningsdam and stepping out on deck to witness nature's grandeur. It's beautiful. These moments in God's creation will deepen your faith in powerful ways. It really will.

Experience five-star dining, luxurious staterooms, and visit iconic ports like Juneau, Ketchikan, and Skagway. We're also bringing along our own Christian entertainment. You'll love it. Seats are filling up, so book your spot today at ptv.org.