Pathway to Victory

David J. Mullins: Hey podcast listeners. Thanks for streaming today's podcast from Pathway to Victory. Pathway to Victory is a non-profit 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.

Dr. Robert Jeffress: Hi, this is Robert Jeffress, and I'm glad to study God's word with you every day on this Bible teaching program. On today's edition of Pathway to Victory: How does obedience protect us from Satan's attacks? It protects us from the consequences of sin, doubt about our salvation, and the loss of our eternal rewards.

But fourthly, obedience protects us from Satan's further entrance into our lives. Obeying God, stopping the barbarian at the gate, as I said in the sermon title, stopping him now prevents him from gaining further entrance into our lives.

David J. Mullins: Welcome to Pathway to Victory with author and pastor Dr. Robert Jeffress. If you're a Christian, you have an advocate in heaven named Jesus. He's pleading your case before God the Father. But you also have an adversary here on earth. Today on Pathway to Victory, Dr. Robert Jeffress reveals a critical piece of spiritual armor for defending against the enemy. But first, let's take a moment to hear some important ministry updates.

Dr. Robert Jeffress: Thanks, David, and welcome again to Pathway to Victory. In this first week of March, we begin an in-depth study of spiritual warfare. Our goal is twofold. First, we want to expose Satan and his devious schemes to destroy your life. And second, we want to equip you to have victory by utilizing the amazing weapons God has provided for every believer.

Now, I wrote a quick reference guide designed to help you as well. It's called Equipped for Battle. This brochure folds out with six colorful panels and includes pictures and commentary that describe each item in the armor of God. And this brochure is my gift to you simply for going to ptv.org.

The brochure doesn't go into tremendous depth. So in addition, you're invited to request my full-length book on this topic of spiritual warfare. It's called The Divine Defense: Six Simple Strategies for Winning Your Biggest Battles. There's still time to request a copy of my book, The Divine Defense. It's yours when you include a generous gift to support the ministry of Pathway to Victory. I'll repeat these details after today's study. But right now, let's get started with the message. I've chosen an unusual title: Stopping the Barbarian at the Gate.

Well, if you're a Christian today, I've got some good news and some bad news for you. If you're truly a Christian, the good news is this: First John 2:1 says you have an advocate in heaven. That advocate, that lawyer so to speak, is Jesus Christ himself, and he is seated at the right hand of God the Father, pleading your case day and night before your heavenly Father. That's good news.

The bad news is, not only do you have an advocate in heaven, you have an adversary here on earth. He's a powerful adversary. He can destroy everything that is important to you. That's why the apostle Peter said in First Peter 5:8, "Be on the alert, be of sober spirit, for your adversary the devil prowls about like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour." He has power, but he also has a plan.

The Bible talks about the schemes, the plans of the devil. Did you know he has right now a personalized blueprint with your name at the top of it that details how he's going to destroy your faith, your family, and your future? He's got a plan of attack. You say, "How could I ever withstand an adversary like that?" Fortunately, God has given us everything we need to resist Satan's plan to destroy us. I call that the divine defense, and it's found in Ephesians chapter 6. Turn first of all to Ephesians chapter 6, beginning with verse 11.

Paul wrote, "Put on the full armor of God, that you may be able to withstand the schemes," the methods of the devil. Put on the full armor of God. Remember when Paul wrote those words, he was under house arrest in Rome. He was chained to a different Roman soldier every six hours. And as he looked at that Roman soldier, he said, "You know, the same armor that Roman soldier has to give him success in his battles is the same armor in a sense God has given every Christian."

And he details six of those pieces of armor, which really are a symbol of six strategies to defeat Satan's plan. He first of all talked about putting on the belt of truth. Remember for the soldier, the belt was essential. It was the way you tucked in the free-flowing tunic so you didn't trip over your own tunic or give the enemy an unfair advantage. Paul is saying in the same way, we need to take our loose thoughts and confront them, tuck them in so to speak, into the word of God.

Here's what that strategy is. It's simply recognizing and replacing wrong thoughts with God's thoughts. That's what putting on the belt of truth is all about. And then secondly, he talks about putting on the breastplate of righteousness. Remember for a Roman soldier, that breastplate was a piece of molded metal. It covered most of the torso. It protected you against injury to your heart, your lungs, and your bowels.

Well, Paul said in the same way, Christians need not a piece of metal, but they need a breastplate of righteousness. What is righteousness? It's a right standing with God. And in the Bible, righteousness is used in three ways. Sometimes it's used to refer to self-righteousness. That kind of righteousness is worthless. Isaiah 64:6 says it's a filthy garment to God. It can't get you into a right relationship with God. You can't do that through your own efforts.

There's a second kind of righteousness: imputed righteousness. That's the righteousness, the right standing with God we receive as a gift from God when we trust Christ as our Savior. Second Corinthians 5:21 says, "God made him, Jesus, who knew no sin, to become sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in him." When you become a Christian and God looks at your life, he no longer sees your unrighteousness. He sees the perfection of his son.

Is that the kind of righteousness Paul's talking about that will protect you against Satan? I don't think so. How many of you are Christians this morning? Raise your hand. How many of you have had some attack from the devil in the last month? Raise your hand. Point made. Righteousness, as wonderful as it is, imputed righteousness isn't enough to protect you against the enemy.

There's a third kind of righteousness that Paul's talking about here when he talks about the breastplate of righteousness, and that is practiced righteousness. It's obeying God. That's all it means. Obeying God. Practiced righteousness. That strategy is simply this: If you want to protect yourself against Satan, do what you know you should do.

The problem most of us have with God's will is not that part of God's will we don't know. We get all centered on the things we don't know. The real problem is what we know, what God has told us we need to do through his word. And the way obedience protects you from Satan's attack is what we're going to talk about today.

When you choose to do what you already know to do, that obedience protects you in four specific ways. I want you to write them down. First of all, obedience protects us from the consequences of sin. If Satan were a salesman, he would be sued by the Federal Trade Commission for false advertising because he's always making hollow promises he never can fulfill.

He did that with Eve in the garden. He said, "Eat this fruit from this forbidden tree and you'll be just like God. You can be like God." Did eating the piece of fruit make her like God? No, it made her more unlike God. And she questioned Satan, and she said, "Wait a minute, look at this label on here. It says eating this fruit can be spiritually hazardous to your life."

"Oh," Satan said. "That may apply to other people, but not for you. Why, it's going to bring you great joy if you'll just eat from the tree. It won't produce death. It'll produce life." What happened? She died when she ate that piece of fruit. Not immediately. She spiritually died immediately. Physically, she died ultimately. And death has been with us ever since.

Satan is a snake oil salesman in every sense of the word. And by the way, he keeps using the same line against us in our everyday lives. He says, "You don't need to obey the warnings against sin. They apply to other people, but they don't apply to you." In my decades as a pastor, I've seen this so many times.

I can remember very well the time I've counseled with men or women who were involved in adulterous affairs, and I tried to warn them of the consequences. I tried to help them visualize the end result of what they were doing: the breakup of their family, the disillusionment of their children, setting off a general chain reaction of immorality in their families, the loss of their reputation, the loss of their witness for Christ.

I talked until I'm blue in the face, it doesn't make any difference, because they are so intoxicated with drinking from stolen waters that they cannot see the ultimate end of sin. That's what Satan does. He blinds us to the painful consequences of sin. But make no mistake about it, those consequences are there.

Remember James's analogy of the fisherman? Satan is like a master fisherman who dangles the right piece of bait in front of you at just the wrong time. And the fact is, you see the bait, you see how appealing it is, but what Satan doesn't warn you is that right in the middle of that bait is a hook that will destroy you. So it is with sin.

Solomon said it this way in Proverbs 7:21-23, "With her many persuasions she entices him; with her flattering lips she seduces him. Suddenly, he follows her as an ox goes to the slaughter, or as one in fetters to the discipline of a fool, until an arrow pierces through his liver; as a bird hastens to the snare, so he does not know it will cost him his life."

Solomon is talking about adultery, but that's true of any sin. Following God leads to life. Following Satan leads to death, the destruction of everything important to you. Turn over to Romans 6 for just a moment. Paul makes an interesting statement in Romans 6 that most Christians don't understand. And the statement is simply this: No person can serve two masters, but every one of us serves one master.

You're not free. I'm not free. We are all serving somebody. And if you want to know whom you're serving, just ask yourself whom are you obeying. Are you obeying Satan? If so, your life is filled with unrighteousness. Are you obeying God? That's what he says in Romans 6:16. "Do you not know that when you present yourselves to somebody as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness?"

You're the slave of somebody. If you want to know whom you're serving, just look at your life. Are you living unrighteously? Then you're serving Satan. Are you living righteously? Then you're a servant of God. But it's one or the other; it can't be both. And amazingly, some of these Roman Christians who had been saved out of unbelief, they had been transferred from Satan's kingdom to God's kingdom, now that they were Christians, they were going back to their old lifestyle.

Paul is saying, "Why would you ever go back to that old way of life? Remember how miserable you were before you came to Christ?" Look at verses 21 to 23 of Romans 6. "Therefore, what benefit were you then deriving from the things of which you're now ashamed?" He's saying, "Go back, remember your life before you were a Christian. Did disobedience produce happiness and joy in your life? What benefits were there?"

He goes on to say, "For the outcome of those things is death. But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit resulting in sanctification, and eternal life." And then here's that verse we all know so well: "For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."

We use that verse all the time in evangelism. We say to people, the result of your sin is eternal separation from God; that's why you need Christ as your Savior. All that's true. But that's not really what Paul is talking about here. He's not talking in the sense of evangelism. He's talking about obedience. Before you choose to disobey God, consider the wages, the payment of doing that.

Before you decide as a Christian whether you're going to serve Satan or God, think about the benefits each master offers you. Imagine for just a moment that you have two different job offers from two different employers. Before you decide which one you're going to pick, you'd probably do some investigation.

What's the salary being offered? What's the vacation policy? What's the retirement provision? What about the health plan? What about the boss himself? Is he a good guy who cares about me and my family, or is he a tyrant who can't be trusted at all? You'd evaluate all of those things before you made a choice of a master.

Paul is saying, do the same thing. Check out carefully the wages each master, God and Satan, are offering you. And decide, do you want death or do you want life? When you choose to obey Satan, you're not choosing life; you're choosing death, the destruction of everything important to you. Let me be real specific.

When you choose pride over humility, you're choosing the death of your relationships. When you choose immorality over faithfulness in marriage, you're choosing the destruction of your marriage. When you choose gluttony over self-control, you're choosing the death of your body. When you choose laziness over diligence, you're choosing the death of your dreams. Disobedience has painful consequences, but obeying God protects you from those painful consequences.

How does obeying God protect you? Secondly, obedience protects us from doubt about our salvation. I used to have a seminary professor who said, "Men, never forget this: Nothing will cause more doubt in your life than trafficking in unlived truth." It was obvious what he was saying. For a pastor to stand up and proclaim truths that he doesn't embrace, to condemn behavior that he engages in, he can't keep that up for very long.

It will produce tremendous doubt in his own heart. But that truth doesn't just apply to pastors. It applies to all of us. When you sing about things that aren't true in your life, when you proclaim what a wonderful joy it is serving Christ but you're not following Christ, it creates doubt about your own salvation.

Here's what I've discovered after years of ministry: There are some people who can hold on to their faith and hold on to their disobedience for a while, but eventually they let go of one or the other. You can't hold on to your faith and hold on to disobedience. You'll either give up your disobedience or you'll give up your faith. That's what doubt comes from. It comes from disobedience.

It's popular in today's world to deify doubt, talk about how doubt's a good thing. We say things like it's better to debate an issue before settling it than to settle an issue before debating it, or the depth of our doubt determines the depth of our faith. Now there are some instances in which doubt can lead us to truth and lead us to a stronger faith, but in the Bible, doubt is never portrayed in a positive way.

In fact, doubt is always condemned. There's a word for doubt in the Bible. It's called double-minded. In Psalm 119:113, "I hate those who are double-minded, but I love your law." Or James 1:8, "being a double-minded person, unstable in all of his ways." Or James 4:8, "Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded."

You know what the antidote for doubt is? It's not faith. It's obedience. The best way to cure your doubt is to obey God. That's what First John 3 verses 18 and 19 say. Listen to this: "Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth. We will know by this that we are of the truth and will assure our hearts before him."

The way you assure your hearts that you really belong to Christ is by obeying the word of God. If you don't remember anything else I say in today's sermon, I want you to write down and remember this saying forever. Only professions of faith that result in expressions of obedience guarantee we are in possession of eternal life.

I know that sounds like a tongue twister. Let me say it again. Only professions of faith that result in expressions of obedience guarantee we are in possession of eternal life. In other words, profession plus expression equals possession. That's how to know if you're really saved. And when you obey God and make that a practice in your life, it gives your heart assurance that you are truly a child of God.

How does obeying God protect us from Satan? First of all, it protects us from the consequences of sin. Secondly, obedience protects us from doubts about our salvation. Here's one you probably haven't thought about. Obedience, thirdly, protects us from the loss of heavenly rewards. Choosing obedience protects us from the loss of heavenly rewards.

Most people, even Christians, have a great misconception about heaven. They think heaven is going to be like a sanctified socialist society where everybody's the same. Nothing could be further from the truth. Although we will enter heaven by the work of Jesus Christ, we will fully enjoy heaven as determined by our works while here on earth.

Good works are worthless in obtaining our place in heaven, but good works after we're saved are invaluable in determining the kind of heaven we experience. A.J. Gordon has said it this way: "I cannot think of a final divine judgment which shall assign the same rank and glory, the same degree of joy, to a lazy, indolent, unfruitful Christian as to an ardent, devoted, self-denying Christian. To believe that all Christians, regardless of their degree of obedience to God's command, will experience the same heaven is illogical and unbiblical."

Again, although self-righteousness can never earn our place in heaven, obedience to God after we're saved determines our position in heaven. Listen to Second Corinthians 5:10. Paul wrote, "For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one of us may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether it be good or bad."

That word bad means worthless. There is a judgment coming that will determine the kind of heaven we enjoy. Paul is again talking about that judgment seat of Christ in First Corinthians 3:14 and 15. He compares the judgment as to a fire that tests every man's work. He says in verse 14, "If any man's work which he has built upon it remains, he will receive a reward."

But if any man's work is burned up, his life is seen not to be gold, silver and precious stones, but wood, hay and stubble, not evil things, but just worthless things, what will happen to that Christian? He will suffer loss, even though himself he will be saved, though as by fire.

There's so much more I want to say about defending yourself from the enemy. Friend, you have an adversary who prowls around like a roaring lion, and he's relentless. But here's the good news. You don't have to be spiritual roadkill. My book, The Divine Defense, will show you how to identify Satan's tactics before they destroy what matters most to you.

Drawing from real-life stories and deep biblical truth, this book equips you to stand firm and fight back effectively. When you invest in Pathway to Victory's mission today, I'll send you this essential resource. Because I want you fully armored and ready for the battles ahead. Plus, I'll also include the creative multi-folded brochure called Equipped for Battle.

This is a quick reference guide to grab when you're in the midst of any spiritual conflict, because it reminds you of the promises God has granted for your triumph. As we close, let me express something deeply personal. I'm forever grateful for your partnership in this ministry. God is using Pathway to Victory in powerful ways. But I could never accomplish these things alone.

Your calls, letters, and donations fuel our mission to meet the urgent need for biblical hope sweeping our nation. Every gift you give helps us fulfill God's mandate to shine his light into the darkness. We couldn't reach hearts hungry for truth without friends like you standing beside us. Thank you for your sacrificial generosity. Here's David to tell you more.

David J. Mullins: When you give a generous gift to support the ministry of Pathway to Victory, we'll say thanks by sending you Dr. Jeffress's best-selling book, The Divine Defense. As an added bonus, we'll also send you the Equipped for Battle brochure. To request your copy, call 866-999-2965 or visit online at ptv.org.

You can also make your donation by texting PTV to 78800. And when you invest in this ministry with a gift of $100 or more, you'll also receive the Divine Defense teaching set on audio and video disc, the companion study guide, and an illustrated book for children titled Suit Up for Kids. This illustrated book teaches children that God has given them everything they need to win their battles.

To make your request, call 866-999-2965 or visit ptv.org. You could write to P.O. Box 223609, Dallas, Texas 75222. Again, that's P.O. Box 223609, Dallas, Texas 75222. I'm David J. Mullins, inviting you back next time for part two of the message, Stopping the Barbarian at the Gate, 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 a journey that will refresh your spirit and renew your faith on the Pathway to Victory cruise to Alaska. Sail aboard Holland America's luxurious Koningsdam through British Columbia's beautiful Inside Passage. You'll witness God's handiwork on full display. Call 888-280-6747 or visit ptv.org.

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