What Do Angels and Demons Have to Do With My Life?

If you’re jumping in with us just this morning, we’re in a series where I am going through questions that many of you have submitted related to scripture and our walk as Christians. And part of the reason we are going through some of these questions and and they’re all very thoughtful, great questions is we want to see that Christianity is about real life. Christianity answers real questions that we all face in life. It’s not a abstract philosophical theory. It is a real truth.

It’s not a hobby. We aren’t bumper sticker Christians who just want the label. We really believe that Jesus conquered death and we want to follow him in every area of life. And so that’s why we look at these questions together and a couple of you asked questions about angels and demons. And so we’re going to be talking about that this morning.

Now, some of you it’s not surprising to some of you that there are those out there that don’t believe in angels and demons. But I will tell you that the more I look at the world and the state of things and what all is going on at the national, international scene, all over the place, the more I am convinced that there are unseen spiritual forces at work in the background. Not only that, but the wisest man to ever live, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, firmly believed in angels and demons. In fact, he conquered demons and he commanded angels. And while some may doubt their existence, I find it interesting that nearly every culture in history, when you go through the annals of history, nearly every culture will say, “We believe that there are these spiritual forces.

We can’t see them. They’re invisible, but they are somehow interacting with our lives and they’re making a difference in how we live.” And so our big question this morning is what do angels and demons have to do with my life? What do they mean not just for the stories of scripture, but what do they mean for me today? To to know that there are these spiritual forces at work in the world.

And here’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to look at Ephesians chapter 6. We’re going to see what God has to say about this. So, if you would and you’re able to, please stand for the reading of God’s word. We like to stand out of reverence for the word of God.

We stand for the pledge of allegiance. We stand at a wedding when the bride shows up and and we are going to stand for God’s holy and perfect word. The big idea we’re going to see is every day you get to decide will I choose to serve the kingdom of darkness or the kingdom of God. That’s what it’s all about. And Paul by the way writing this Ephesians chapter 6, he is very likely many scholars would say he was probably chained to a Roman soldier as he is writing these words.

And so he had this very clear visual of the armor that he’s now now probably describing. He says this, verse 10 of Ephesians 6, “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand that you may be able to withstand in the evil day and having done all to stand firm.

Stand therefore having fastened on the belt of truth and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and as shoes for your feet having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. In all circumstances, take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one. And take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. Praying at all times in the Spirit with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints and also for me that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly as I ought to speak.

Thank you. You may be seated. So, here Paul is telling us that we are in this battle for the ages and he uses this image of armor and he says we’ve got to suit up. We’ve got to be prepared. We’ve got to know that we’re in this battle.

And it’s against these unseen enemies. There’s something you need to know about war. When you’re in a war things change. Your your mindset changes. I’ve got a buddy who’s been to Iraq and he will tell you that you know, a couple things.

When you’re in war, you’re always hyper-vigilant. You’re constantly aware of your surroundings. You’re constantly aware that there’s an enemy that is out to get you because at any moment bullets could come flying. As you’re driving along the road, there could be an IED. There could be a roadside bomb.

So, you got to be aware all the time because the enemy wants you dead. Secondly, he’s talked about how being at war creates this special kind of brotherhood, this bond because here you are, you’re in the middle of it and all you’ve got is your gun and your bros. And the more you realize I’ve got to rely I’ve got to trust on my brothers out here if I’m going to withstand the enemy the more you have this bond that comes. And I think there’s a lot of application for us as believers because number one, we’re in a war, so we need to stay vigilant. We need to be aware that there’s an enemy that wants to take us out.

And number two, we need to be depending and encouraging one another. We need to ask ourselves, how can I be praying for others? How can I look at the needs of others around me, in the church, in the community, and recognize if there’s an enemy that not only wants to take me out, but wants to take out others, how can I pray on their behalf? How can I encourage them in light of that? So, here’s the first question.

What can we learn about angels and demons? Kind of a general question. So, let’s talk about this. The Bible begins by saying that God created at some point early in history, he created these powerful spiritual beings. We call them angels.

As far as we can tell, they were created to worship God, to serve as his messengers, to serve him, and also to serve us. More on that in a bit. But they were here before us. We know that because Job says that at creation, they celebrated. They were there to celebrate with joy at creation.

They’re powerful, but they aren’t God. That’s important to remember. As powerful as they are, more powerful than us, there is an infinite gap in greatness between God and everything else. Now, I grew up in the ’90s, and for whatever reason, there was a bit of an angel craze going on during that time. Some of you may remember this.

There was TV shows like Touched by an Angel, and there was movies like Angels in the Outfield, which is a great baseball film, by the way. And and then there was films like Michael and The Preacher’s Wife. And then books on angels were just flying off the shelves. No pun intended. But people people wanted to know about angels.

Everybody was interested. What are these creatures doing here? What do we What do we need to know about them? And a lot of the messaging focused on how angels are like these secret agents and they’ve been sent and they they’ve come at critical points in our lives to help us and enable us to get through them. And and then they’re move on to another assignment.

And there’s certainly some truth to that. But there are a lot of misconceptions about angels. So, I think it’s good to address those. Like number one, there’s this widespread myth that when we die, we become angels. It still pervades today.

I don’t know the full origin of that belief, but that is not found anywhere in the Bible. We will be always and forever human beings. Made in the image of God. We’re not going to be angels. Though some have talked about how God needed another angel or something like that.

Growing up, I remember I had this older neighbor that told me I was probably six or seven years old. She said, “You know, you’ve got angel on your shoulder and that’s your guardian angel.” And I remember thinking even at that time, I remember thinking if this angel is so small it sits on my shoulder, I’m not sure it’s going to really help me out if I need protection. But many people wonder this. Is this in the Bible?

Do we see anything about guardian angels? Is that a thing? And I would say this, there’s nothing definitive that says each and every one of us has a personalized guardian angel. But what we do see is in places like Hebrews 1, it says that angels are sent out to serve and protect us. So, they’re they’re they’re there and in many ways they’re looking out for us.

Not in ways we can fully grasp sometimes, but but I don’t know that there’s this personalized guardian we each have. Other times people picture angels as these chubby little babies with wings. And I again, I I don’t know where all this comes from, but it’s been around for a while because you see it in paintings, you see it in decor. But I think it’s funny because in the Bible, every time an angel shows up, he has to say, “Fear not.” Because they’re these massive, incredibly, terrifying warriors that resemble lightning.

Not exactly a little baby. There’s one passage where a single angel wipes out an entire army of 185,000 Assyrians. That’s just one angel doing that. So, just imagine how powerful these creatures really are. And this leads us to Revelation 12, which talks about this war that is going on between the forces of darkness and the forces of light.

In your notes, number one, there’s an unseen war waging since the dawn of time between very powerful spiritual beings, and the battle is primarily for your soul. So, again, the Bible says that at the beginning, everything God made was good, including these powerful angelic beings. But at some point early on, one particular angel, known as Lucifer, very possibly was the worship leader in heaven at that time, according to Ezekiel 28. He grew proud of his beauty, and he wanted to ascend above God. And And now he is the one we call Satan.

Pride always comes before destruction. Now, for many people, when they get to the book of Revelation, they they sort of balk a little bit because you have this book that’s full of monsters and dragons and lots of eyes on everything. And And it’s a little bit confusing. And I understand that, but I will tell you the more I get into the book of Revelation, the more I kind of love it. Because it it gives this big, wide-angle lens of history and since the dawn of time, it shows this.

We learn that in Revelation 12, Satan, after he rebelled against God, he recruited a third of the angels to join him. And these are today what we call demons. Ultimately, their battle is over human souls. This is what they’re after. This is why you need to be aware of this because you need to know that behind all the evil, oppression, and chaos we see in the world today, these unseen forces are battling it out.

There is a war going on. And that changes things when we know that. And we know it’s worldwide because in that passage, the devil is called the deceiver of the whole world. He he’s deceived everybody on some level. And he’s he’s after us.

He knows that his final destination ultimately is the lake of fire, and his goal is to bring as many of us with him as possible. Now, I have two goals in this sermon. Number one is I want you, if you’re not aware, I want you to be aware that you are in a war. That you need to be prepared for battle. That this is this is something that scripture touches on again and again because when you know that you’re in a spiritual war, you will live differently.

You’re going to read the Bible differently. You’re going to see things that you didn’t see before. You’re going to look around this world, and you’re going to recognize, I know what is behind all this. And it will radically transform your prayers. You’re going to see that your prayers are mighty weapons used in this battle.

That you’re not defenseless, you’re not without any aid. You have the help of the spirit of God, you help you have the help of of angels who do respond to prayer. We see that in the Bible as God sends them. Not that we pray to angels, just to clear up. God sends the angels, we pray to God.

And so, it’s good to be equipped and suited up for battle. Number two goal would be this. Some of you right now are actually in the the clutches of Satan’s deception and his guilt and he has convinced you of of things that are untrue about you. He has convinced you that you’re you’re worthless, that that God doesn’t care about you, that that it’s hopeless for you. He wants you to be under the the stranglehold of addiction.

He wants you to be under the power of his kingdom rather than be in the fullness of freedom in the kingdom of God. And so my prayer for you is that you would know the freedom of Jesus Christ. That you would know him as redeemer because he sets you free from the kingdom of darkness. Second question is why were there so many demon-possessed people in the New Testament and why does demonic activity seem less over today? You know, it’s a good question.

As you read through the Old Testament, there’s very few cases of overt demonic oppression. We do see things like King Saul tormented by an evil spirit. We read about these deceiving spirits, but on the whole very little. But then you get to the New Testament and it’s like there’s this explosion of demonic possessions. And many people wonder what is going on there.

And what we see is Jesus and John the Baptist, when they come on the scene, they are announcing the kingdom of God. And what is happening is the kingdom of darkness is retaliating. It’s like the inbreaking of the kingdom of God is coming on earth and everyone has been put on notice. That the forces of darkness that thought they had it made, they are told that there is a conqueror and a king who is coming to drive them out. And so they go to full-blown possession in many cases.

And Jesus said this. He said, you know, one proof that the kingdom of God is among you is that I will drive out demons by the finger of God. That’s one one the things you will see is is as the kingdom comes and advances the forces of darkness are pushed back further and further. And in a sense we’re seeing in the Gospels Jesus and Satan go head-to-head for all those demonic encounters, all those healing miracles, we’re seeing Jesus showing his power over the forces of darkness. And what you find is that when Jesus does this, he so effortlessly drives out demons.

That’s what so incredible is he just says the word, the demons have to go. And that’s a good reminder for us because no matter how powerful these demonic beings are, we do not need to be afraid of them. What you need to be aware. We don’t need to be afraid of them because Jesus is infinitely more powerful than any of them. But I would argue that demonic activity is no less today.

In fact, if anything, it has been heightened. I I see this in scripture in fact. So here’s my conclusion. Although we may not see as many overt cases of demonic possession, the devil and his demons are no less active in destroying lives today. Again, if you go back to Revelation 12, what you see is when Satan was cast down to the earth, when he was rendered in in many ways defeated from a heavenly perspective, it says that he’s filled with wrath because he knows his time is short.

And the New Testament says that the devil is the father of lies. So his chief weapon is deception. He blinds people’s minds, he cripples people’s thinking, and he convinces people they don’t need God. Now in a couple weeks I’m going to be answering questions related to the end times. And I’m just going to tip my hand a little bit here cuz I know there’s different views.

I am what you call a pre-millennial guy. That means I believe in a future literal Jesus Christ reigning on earth for a thousand years. And and the reason that one big reason that I believe that is in Revelation 20, what you see is that during the thousand years, during the millennium, it says an angel of God locks the devil up. I’ll just read it to you. Revelation 20, beginning in verse 1.

Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven holding in his hand the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain. And he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent who is the devil and Satan and bound him for a thousand years and threw him into the pit and shut it and sealed it over him so that he might not deceive the nations any longer until the thousand years were ended. After that, he must be released for a little while. So now, according to this passage, during the millennium, the devil is going to be taken by this angel, thrown into a pit. That pit is going to be sealed over and he won’t be able to deceive the nations any longer.

And my question is, how could we be living in the millennium today because the rest of the New Testament makes it pretty clear that the devil is deceiving the world today. For instance, 2 Corinthians 4:4 calls the devil the god of this world. He’s he’s the god of this worldly system in rebellion against God and and he’s blinded the minds of the unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ who is the image of God. In other words, Satan is actively opposing people today. He’s actively deceiving people.

And he’s keeping them from seeing their need for God. He’s keeping them from seeing their need for forgiveness so that they won’t turn to Jesus. And that is his main aim. He wants people to not know there is hope and forgiveness in Jesus Christ. Every time a soul is rescued by Jesus, heaven has a party and the devils shriek in fear.

If we were in the millennium right now, I would argue the devil would be locked up in that bottomless pit. He would be rendered in many ways powerless. But that doesn’t match what we read elsewhere. For instance, 1 Peter 5:8 says this, “Be sober-minded. Be watchful.”

You got to be aware. “Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour.” That doesn’t sound like he’s locked up in a pit. That sounds like he’s actively on the loose. He’s like this ravenous lion and he’s looking for his next meal.

A while back a professional hunter in Africa wrote this book called Death in the Long Grass. And he describes all these encounters with these deadly animals in Africa. And in particular, he he highlights this one time where a very powerful male lion would would seem to be bent on hunting man. And there would be nine people killed by this lion. He said that this this lion would come at night and he would target someone.

And he would sneak up while every while the crew was asleep, he would sneak up quietly until he killed that unsuspecting man. And he emphasized in that book that the crew’s biggest mistake is that they were ignorant of how deadly lions are. They imagined that they could be controlled, that they could they could understand the lion’s movements. He said, “We were wrong. We were wrong.”

Here’s the point. You only make one mistake with a lion, your last. That’s how we should picture the devil. He is like a lion and he’s on the prowl. He is after us.

He’s He’s out to destroy marriages. He wants to pull Christians apart over differences. He wants to divide us. He wants us to lure us into sin. He wants us to make fools of ourselves, to to blow up our lives over horrible decisions.

And he wants us to live in the shackles of addiction. See, the devil is still actively on the loose and we need to know that. We need to be aware that he is cunning. He seeks to devour you. A good question to consider is if the devil wanted to destroy my life, how would he do it?

What tactic would he take? What would he try to go after? Where would he say, “Hey, there’s a weak point. He won’t see me coming.” Amen.

Could be our kids. Could be so many things. It’s worth asking because we aren’t helpless victims here. We need to know this. We are not without help and protection.

The Bible calls us more than conquerors through him who loved us. And 1 Peter goes on to say, after warning about the devil, he says, “Resist him firm in the faith.” We’re going to talk about what it means to resist Satan in a moment here, but first one more question that came in. This one is, “Is there life on other planets and are aliens actually demons?” Okay, so we can get that question up there.

This is where we’re going to pull out our tin foil hats and we’re going to talk about this. So, now, let me let me start with Let me start with what we know because I think it’s important to ground ourselves. What we know is demons are real. What we don’t know for sure is that aliens are real. You know, I I love a good sci-fi just like the rest of you.

But we got to remember it’s science fiction is what that means. And how many people would look at our universe and say, “You know, it can’t be all empty space. There’s got to be life out there.” And I would say this, we know for sure it’s not empty space because it’s filled with God’s presence. And if there’s one thing we know about the stars out there is that they were created to point us to the glory of God, to declare his greatness.

That’s why they’re there. So, so we don’t say, “Oh, what a waste of space.” we say, “How awesome is God?” That’s what we’re supposed to take away from that. Now, I’ll just put my cards on the table.

I am highly skeptical about life on other planets. I have yet to see solid evidence and and now I could be wrong. I could be wrong absolutely. And if there’s life on other planets and people prove that there is, that doesn’t actually shake my faith at all because nothing in the Bible says there can’t be life on other planets. I just don’t see the evidence for it.

But here’s what we know, the Bible centers on the human story here on Earth. That’s the focus. It’s It’s not on other life forms or other beings out there. And people sometimes say, you know, it’s arrogant to think that we’re the only intelligent life. And and sometimes I say, you know, I I get it.

I mean, sometimes it’s hard to find intelligent life on Earth. Right? >> >> But again, here here’s what I know. Psalm 8 says this, “When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him?” David’s saying, “We’re tiny.

We’re these little tiny creatures on a small speck of dust in the middle of this vast universe. Why do you even care about us?” And then he goes on to say, “But you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings, the angels.” So, in the grand scheme of things, human beings have been made just a little bit below these powerful angels. But it goes on to say that we’ve been crowned with glory and honor to rule the Earth.

Now, why is that significant? Because Psalm 8 is fulfilled in Jesus Christ. The Bible points out that God didn’t become an angel to save angels. He became a man to save human beings. Of all the beings out there, he became a man only to redeem man.

And as a man, Jesus will rule this Earth as the King of kings and Lord of lords to fulfill these promises. And here’s the crazy part, all who belong to him are going to reign with him. As he is the king over us. Now, are aliens actually demons? Well, honestly, I think a lot of UFO sightings are probably bogus.

That’s That’s just my take. A lot of them are not even real. But if there are real ones, it’s interesting. There’s been some research done on this, and what they found is there’s this consistent theme that recurs that those who have been abducted claim that the aliens say that the Bible’s a myth, and that Jesus is just one of many gods. Now, that’s interesting to me because that would be a very demonic message.

Now, again, I can’t say I’m fully convinced. Here’s what I’d conclude. While we can’t be certain, it’s possible that some paranormal manifestations are demonic, but we shouldn’t rely on speculation. We should be people of the truth. We should be grounded in what we know from scripture, and the speculation, that should be totally secondary, tertiary, way way past what we know for sure.

That’s what we should focus on is the truth. Okay, in this last section, I want to focus on getting very practical from Ephesians 6, because I think it would be a crime for me to talk about spiritual warfare and not talk about how we fight back. One reason I think this is important is after Peter talks about the devil actively looking for someone to devour, he says this in 1 Peter 5:9, “Resist him.” So, what whether you like it or don’t like it, the Bible says as a command, “You’re to resist the devil.” So, just think about that for a second.

Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brothers and sisters throughout the world. So, again, there’s that mindset of we’re not alone in this battle. There’s brothers and sisters all over the world that are dealing with the same struggle, same battle that you’re facing. I remember reading this once and thinking, “Resist him? Now, how in the world am I supposed to resist the devil?

He’s this powerful fallen angel. He’s deceived the whole world, and I’m called to resist him?” In context, there’s a good clue. He says, “Do this firm in your faith.” And here’s why I believe faith is the key to how we resist the devil.

I believe that though he is more powerful than me, by faith, I connect to the power of God, which is infinitely greater than him. So, the question is, how can we fight Satan and his army? Number four, remember who the real enemy is. This is so important. As C.

S. Lewis points out in The Screwtape Letters, that the demons would love it if we just thought of the devil as this cartoonish, you know, red guy with hooves and horns and a pitchfork. And that’s our image of the devil, and we and we can just laugh at him. The devil is okay with being laughed at as long as we’re not aware of his schemes. And the devil is a schemer.

And he’ll turn people against God, and he often begins by turning people against each other. The Bible says that he’s a a father of lies and that he’s come to steal, kill, and destroy. Now, in the New Living Translation of Ephesians 6:12, Paul says, “For we are not fighting against flesh and blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.” So, here’s what Paul is saying. Your enemy is not the Democrats.

Your enemy is not the Republicans. Your enemy is not your boss. It it’s not your mean neighbor who’s always complaining about you. Your enemy is not your Christian brother or sister who sometimes irritates you. He would want to convince you that that’s your enemy.

And your enemy is not your spouse. See, the devil would love for us to center our attacks on one another and see one another as the enemy and see that if I have a difference with you or if you see things different than me then you’re now my enemy. The devil would love that. He would love to have us pour all our energy into fighting against one another. And Paul is saying, “That’s not your enemy.

That’s not who you’re really fighting against. You need to understand who you’re fighting against.” He divides and he destroys. So, remember who the real enemy is. And then number five, request God’s power throughout each day.

This is why Paul calls each one of us to take up the armor of God. And then having done everything to stand firm. This is what you and I have to get. You can’t stand firm in your own strength. This is the mistake so many people make.

This is like someone saying, “I’m going to go fight that lion with my bare hands.” Don’t do that. That’s a bad idea. We’re called to be vigilant. The devil wants to kill your trust in God.

So, if you’re going something going through something hard right now and and let’s say you’re struggling with your faith. You’re you’re going through doubts right now. Let me encourage you to think about this because maybe you have been blaming God and and maybe you’re even angry at God. Let me encourage you to think of it this way. What if the one you’re to blame is the devil?

What if he’s the enemy that is planting those seeds of doubt? What if he’s the one who’s been discouraging you? What if he has been sending fiery darts your way and keeping you up at night or giving you these bad thoughts. What if it’s the enemy who has caused so much friction in your life? Remember, God is seeking your best.

He has only good plans for you. Satan wants to destroy your faith. He wants you to doubt God. He wants you to turn to other resources and neglect God. But, the safest place to be is in the Lord’s will.

So, we’re called to submit to the Lord, to come under his reign and say, “Jesus, you reign in my life. I don’t want to do life without you. I want you to be first. You lead the way.” And only then can we resist the enemy of our souls.

Number six, renew your mind in the truth of God’s word. If you want to be ready for battle, you have to be spending time in the word of God. Remember, if Satan’s primary attack is deception, the most important counterattack is knowing the truth. We need to know the truth about who God is, who we are, why we’re here, what our calling is. When Satan came after Jesus in the wilderness, Jesus counterattacked by quoting scripture.

And that was because Jesus had spent countless hours meditating on the word of God. He knew it by heart. He knew the scriptures and he could fight back against the enemy. He rejected the lies that Satan wanted to use to destroy him. And if Jesus used the word of God, think about this, the son of God quoted from scripture, then that means it’s good enough for us.

That’s why Paul calls the Bible the sword of the spirit. It’s from the spirit. It has spiritual power. And it is a sword because it cuts through the lies of the enemy that have filled our culture, our personal life. Number seven, recognize your identity in Christ.

Satan attacked Jesus at the point of his identity. He said, “If you’re really the son of God, why don’t you turn these stones into bread?” He does the same kind of attack with us. He comes after us and he says, “Look, if you really belong to God, don’t you think your life would be going different? Don’t don’t you think if you were really loved and you were a child of God that you wouldn’t have these these sinful temptation?

Don’t you think you wouldn’t have this struggle over here?” He does the same thing, and that’s why Paul says, “Take up the helmet of salvation.” The helmet protects the most important part of your body. You may have a soldier who is totally buff and ripped, but if he gets hit hard enough in the head, all those muscles mean nothing. In the same way, you have to protect your mind.

Back in Revelation 12, we see Satan’s strategy of accusation. And this is what the devil does. He blinds the minds of unbelievers, but he accuses believers. It says, “He accuses the brothers and sisters day and night, constantly accusing us.” So, what does this look like?

Well, it’s like this. Sometimes you can feel like you’re doing great, you’re walking with the Lord, and suddenly the enemy will pull out this past sin from the file cabinet. He’ll say, “Remember this time that you got drunk? Remember how you treated that person? Remember that time that you lied?

Remember how you looked at that website? Remember how you went to that abortion clinic? Remember Remember how you did these terrible things over here?” And he will bring it out and he will say, “Look, this is your identity. This is who you are.”

And this is how devious Satan is. He will try to use God’s own law against us and attack our own God-given conscience. But this is why it’s so devious. Because before we know Christ, God’s law is meant to confront us in our guilt. That’s why not all guilty feelings are bad.

If you never felt guilty, you would never seek cleansing in Christ. Amen? So, God’s law was intended to show that guilt. It was not meant to leave us there condemned. And what Satan does is he will try to nullify the gospel with the law.

God does the exact opposite. And this is how you overcome the devil’s accusations. You take up the shield of faith, he says. And by faith, you look at what Jesus did for you on the cross. You see that the weight of your guilt has already been borne by another.

And that when Jesus died on the cross, he put all your sins away forever. For all eternity, they have been put away through sacrifice of Jesus. And the Bible even says this, when when you put your faith in Christ, Hebrews 10:22, by putting your faith in Jesus, your conscience is cleansed because you see that the blood of Jesus washes all those sins away. That sin in your past does not define you. You have a new identity in Christ as a child of God.

And the Bible says that he now sees you as pure, spotless, blameless in Christ. We need to know this because the devil will try to hijack your conscience. And this is where true joy is found in knowing forgiveness. Number eight, rejoice in the victory assured through faith in Jesus. If you’re lacking joy in your Christian walk, let me tell you, it is very possible that you are it’s because of spiritual attack.

If you feel worthless, if at times you feel like your life is pointless, that you’re there’s no purpose in going on. You can’t go on cuz it’s too hard. Those are lies of the enemy. And the devil is a liar. That is his main arsenal.

And so, you need to know the truth from God’s word and you need to pray against the enemy’s attacks. Again, the devil is real. He really is seeking to devour you. Keep that in mind. You have an enemy.

So many people, because they haven’t taken the battle seriously, are are facing the devastation of not armoring up. But know that by faith you will overcome because you believe that the cross was enough. That because Jesus poured out his life to the fullest measure, you are totally secure in Christ. And you can by faith know that you are part of the family of God, we call the church. And so that means you have brothers and sisters who you are called to encourage, to lift up, to pray for, to help because they need to know they’re not alone.

And you want to be the person who says, “It’s time to get back in the fight.” People need to hear that. It’s time to get back in the fight because the enemy wants to bring you down and I’m here to say, “I’m your brother or I’m your sister and I’m praying for you. You’re not alone in this.” People need to know that.

And one of the greatest ways to stay grounded in the gospel is to share it with others. If you are evangelizing, if you are telling others the good news of Jesus, that he died on the cross for all of your sins, that he paid for it in full, that he rose from the dead and he’s coming back soon, you spread that message to others. You’re going to be grounded in that message and it’s going to be more real to your heart because it’s on your lips. And you’ll be prepared for the battle. So we don’t need to live in fear of the devil.

We have everything we need for victory in Christ. And here’s the point. If you’re walking closely with Jesus, the devil will flee from you. The safest place to be is in submission to Jesus. So stick with him because the Bible says, “Greater is he who is in you than he who is in the world.

I’ll leave you with this question. If the devil was to destroy your life, how would he do it? And be thinking about how

Transcript machine-generated from the sermon audio, so it may contain errors. 6,777 words.