Four Difficult Issues to Understand Part 2: full transcript and answers

▶ 0:00 Hebrews 2:14, we’re going to show you that through the cross the Devil was destroyed, his power was reduced to zero. Hebrews 2:14, “Through death he,” Jesus, “might destroy him,” Satan, “that had the power of death, that is the Devil.” You see, so when Jesus died on the cross, this cross, this death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ is the power of God and the salvation. Folks, this death, this burial, and this resurrection is the key to our victorious living. That was a good place for an amen, just in case you didn’t know, amens mean so be it, I [unclear] agree to that.

▶ 0:57 All. And so his power is rendered powerless, and people say, “Satan’s been bugging me.” Well, have you read the Scriptures lately? He’s rendered what? Powerless. Hallelujah. Now, again, 1 John 3:8, “He that commits sin is of the Devil,” that’s habitual, consistent sin. “For this purpose the Son of God was manifest,” made plain, “that he might,” what? “Destroy the works of the Devil.” What’s the works of the Devil? Him getting you to sin. Isn’t that just plain and clear? You see, so Jesus came and died on the cross and rose again to destroy the works of Satan, to get you to sin, and not only that, but finish the scripture, it’s very important: “Whoever is born of God does not,” what?

▶ 2:02 Sin, “for his seed,” Jesus’s seed, “remains in him, and he cannot sin because he’s been born of God.” And see, the Baptists and the Pentecostals and the charismatics, one of the things they really gave to us is this born-again thing. And the Bible says we’re born of the Spirit in John, and again it says we’re born of the word, and so the word and the Spirit come and work something in us, they birth us, we’re connected to a spiritual kingdom. It’s not just repeating a sinner’s prayer, it’s not just getting on a church roll book. This salvation thing, like the Baptists and, and the Pentecostals and the charismatics have emphasized, is a real Bible principle, where God comes and puts himself in us by his Spirit, we start living for Christ, by his word we start living, we get birth, we’re a, we’re now a spiritual being that’s connected

▶ 3:10 spiritually. And I like to bring out some of these sources because denominations are fighting with each other and all that, and every one of the denominations and religious groups have given us something to hold tangibly onto, and we need to quit quarreling with one another and just serve the same Jesus. Could you say amen to that? Now, that’s a very powerful scripture. See, God’s active in your life to keep you from sin. Your nature, your new nature now, is not to sin. Oh, you might make some mistakes, but you’re not going to live habitually in sin when you’ve been born again. You’re going to correct that. Why? It’s your new nature. See, and that’s why a lot of Christians sin, they so-called Christians sin, they haven’t been born again. There is no motivation in, there’s no power in them moving them forward to grow in spiritual things and live righteously. They just said a little sinner’s prayer, they joined a church, or they got baptized without knowing anything, and a lot of churches love numbers, so they just love, “Okay, you believe, you’re one of us,” but we need to what? Get born

▶ 4:28 again. “They overcame Satan,” this is the believers, “by the blood of the Lamb, the word of their testimony, and they loved not their lives unto death.” Again, 1 John 2:14, “I have written unto you, young men.” He gives us the four areas of Christian growth there, and then this young man area of Christian growth, he says, “You young men, you are strong because the word of God abides in you, and because the word of God abides in you, you have overcome,” what? The wicked one. You see, we don’t want to stay in the baby stage too long, we don’t want to stay in the child stage too long, we want to get up there and become a strong Christian, who through the word of God we overcome the wicked one, his temptations, his seductions, his, his deceits.

▶ 5:27 Amen. And how did they do it? By the word of God. That’s why it’s important you’re in Bible studies and you’re in the word, that’s why it’s important that you speak the word to yourself, as we heard this morning and utterances, you use the word, you don’t use people’s opinion and your feelings and your circumstances, you use the word. Amen. Now, Romans 16:20, “The God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet,” after you’re 70 years old? “He shall bruise Satan on your feet shortly.” You don’t have to dilly-dally along. You need to grow, and you need to start growing quickly, and you grow by the word of God. And so you need, the young Christians needed, again, in the Bible studies, they need to be reading Proverbs and singing Psalms and studying the New Testament all the time. Proverbs tells you how to live in this life, Psalms tells you how to live in the kingdom, and the New Testament illustrates, gives us the illustration, the final illustration of everything in the Old Testament, so when you read the Old Testament you understand it. Now,

▶ 6:40 hallelujah, and you will put Satan under your feet shortly. Acts 26:18, “Paul, I’m sending you to open their eyes, to turn them from,” what? Darkness to light, “and from the power of Satan to the power of God.” Now, see, Jesus didn’t just come to forgive you, he come to turn you, get you out of the kingdom of darkness and put you into the kingdom of light, and the power of the King of the kingdom of light. And see, when we teach the second coming wrong, we get people distracted from the power of the church that we have in our lifetime. Hallelujah. And a lot of preachers preach that you really can’t be perfect, you can’t be like Jesus, you can’t get his image or anything, you know, we just got to hang on till he comes. That is not

▶ 7:49 Bible. The church is a victorious church, it’s a victorious army, it’s a victorious family, they’re not hanging on to anything until the second coming, they are influencing the world for Jesus Christ, and denomination has nothing to do with it, it’s the person. Now, we want to show you that even after Satan was cast out of the earth, he is released and bound, released and bound, to influence those in the world. “In times past you walked according to the course of the world, according to the prince of the power of the air,” that we just heard was cast out, “the spirit now works in the children of disobedience.” Now, why do we need to know this

▶ 8:43 stuff? Because we got to understand God’s in charge of everything, and he’s not going to let Satan come and just totally have possession of your life. He is totally limited to the God, God and Jesus Christ who created him, and what he can do, and he’s always used for your good. In the end it’s for your good. And yes, you can give into his limited power and commit sexual immorality and steal and use profanity and get mad and beat up people and act cocky and, and all the rest, and, and you’ll pay the price for it. Why? Because he wants you to turn, and if there’s no price to pay, you won’t

▶ 9:36 turn. See, if I don’t discipline my kids, they’re not going to turn, so I have to bring punishment on them, so one form or another, so they know, man, if I do this, it’s going to hurt. And that’s the way God is, both with the unbeliever and the believer. Is this making sense to you? Hallelujah. And remember, God can’t do evil, so he has Satan over there doing his handiwork for him, because that’s all Satan knows how to do, is rob, steal, kill, destroy, seduce, lie, that’s what he does. 2 Chron— uh, Corinthians 4:3, “If our gospel is hid, it is hid to them that are lost, whom the god of this world has blinded the minds of them that believe not.” See, you can accept Satan coming and telling you, “This is a bunch of baloney,” that’s what he’ll do, said, “Ah, God don’t know what he’s talking about, that Bible, it isn’t even authentic, book, and, you know, I can’t see God, and so how do I know there is one?” Yeah, he can, and you can accept it, he has that kind of

▶ 10:57 influence. But see, once you’re blind and the light comes, like Jesus said, you know, when the light comes then the whole body is full of light, so you got to, not you got to experience and understand darkness before you can re, uh, uh, understand the light and accept the light and accept the change. Are you there? And it’s Satan that’s doing it, it isn’t God. “Well, God doesn’t show himself to me.” No, it’s Satan deceiving you, knucklehead. Come to Christ, pray to him, get in the book, and he will take the veil of Satan off of your eyes, and you will see him and you will experience him and you will know scripture. See, there’s something you got to do. These preachers are wrong when they say, “By grace are you saved through faith, and not of works, not of itself, lest any man should boast.” If they read the next verse, the next part of that context, that said that you were saved for righteous and good works. We’ve got to apply ourself, we’ve got to seek him, that’s our part, we’ve got to call on him, that’s what he asked us to do, we’ve got to do something, and yes, it’s not giving money and it’s not in the natural, it’s in the spiritual things. If I humble myself and pray, he will what? Hear. If I read that book, he will what? Open my

▶ 12:28 understanding. If I come to him, he will what? Draw nigh to me. I do something, he does something, and this thing works. Now, to show you that he has limited influence over believers, 2 Corinthians 2:11, “Lest Satan get an advantage of us.” 1 Thessalonians 2:18, “We wanted to come to you, but Satan,” what? Hindered us. 2 Chronicles 12:7, “God sent a messenger of Satan to buffet me.” See, that wasn’t a physical thing in Paul, that they believe, it plainly tells us what his thorn in the flesh was, it was an angel of Satan to what? Buffet him, give him some opposition, so he doesn’t get lifted up in pride.

▶ 13:30 Are you out there? You know, we take the scripture, we do dumb things, and really, he couldn’t see, or, you know, he had a hearing problem, it wasn’t a physical thing, it was an angel that opposed him so he didn’t get lifted up with pride because of all the things he saw and he experienced. How many know that’s a good thing? Hallelujah. So some of you that God visits in a way that humbles you, relax, he’s doing you good. It’s the humble heart that God responds to. So yes, he knows to bring things in your life that humbles you, embarrasses you, so you don’t stay in that proud, cocky way of yours. Ain’t that right? I mean, we get proud over our haircut,

▶ 14:30 that, that’s how lame we are. “My haircut better than your haircut, my haircut’s better than your, I’m the latest, man.” We get pride over clothing, you know, back ten years ago was an alligator on your shirt, man, if you didn’t have the alligator you weren’t cool, and when we had the alligator, we strutted. Yeah, “Man, I’m cool.” You see, and what does God come? He comes and brings things to humble you. You’re laughing because you’re guilty, and I haven’t, I haven’t even brought up the issue that you’re guilty of yet. In 1 Corinthians 7:5, God is, or Paul is, the Scriptures are talking about the marriage, and this is important, and he says, “Wives and husbands, do not hinder sexual

▶ 15:38 relationships.” Don’t give me the headache excuse, and I’m working twelve hours a day excuse, there is no excuse, that’s fact. And I know people twist the scripture and say, “No, the Bible is trying, trying to tell us all through the Bible that we are sexually created people, we have a normal, healthy appetite for sex with the opposite sex, and there’s nothing wrong with it. There’s no such thing as a bisexual or a homosexual or a [unclear] or whatever. You have to learn those habits, you’re not created with that. That’s a lie from the Devil, absolutely deceiving

▶ 16:33 people. And a lot of people are believing the lie. You have a normal sexual desire and a release in that for the opposite sex, and you get married so that you can keep that healthy principle of God in a healthy environment and avoid sexually transmitted diseases and destroying kids and having kids you don’t even, you know, have any parenthood over, you know, you just hit and impregnate and leave, and, see, it stops all that. Kids are the biggest sufferers of permissive sexual habits. And so he tells them plainly, and so does the Old Testament, don’t stop having sexual relationships in your marriage. And what’s the first thing people do when they get mad at each

▶ 17:30 other? You sleeping on the couch. See, that’s a deception of Satan. Why? Because he says Satan will take advantage of us for our lack of what? Self-control. You’re opening the door for Satan to come in and tempt you to do, and women are always looking for men and men are always looking for women, and it starts with the eye contact. That’s why, when a woman, and when I was younger, looked at me with that eye contact, I never looked at him again in the eye. That’s a fact. It wasn’t going any further than that. Once I know what you’re up to, I’m not looking at you. That’s true, and believe it or not, I have to use it sometimes in my old age, I don’t understand

▶ 18:27 why. I mean, look at me. You know, it would be just like this, okay, you know, there a, well, you know, okay, it’d be like the woman get mad and say, “I’m not cooking anymore, because things aren’t going my way.” You, you know, that’s why we get mad, don’t you? Because we don’t get our way. Hallelujah. That’s why we get mad, cuz when you’re trying to direct someone the right way, you got no reason to get mad, you’re just trying to direct, there’s a big difference. But when you are so set on your way, he’s being right, you don’t get your way, that’s when you throw a tantrum and say, “Okay, buddy, no sex, I’ll teach you, you’ll submit one way or another, or you’re not going to get

▶ 19:25 any.” Oh, I’ve heard it as a pastor all my life. Well, the guy comes home and he doesn’t get his way, so he’s, “I’m not working and bringing home the bread anymore.” You said, “Well, that’s extreme.” Well, so is sex. That’s how important sexual relationships are in the home. Do you get it? Why? Because Satan will use it to bring some handsome man or some flirty woman, whichever sex you are, by and get you distracted. Hallelujah. And see, we open the doors to some of these things by our breaking of principles. See, the reason people don’t find Christ is they don’t seek Christ. If you seek him, you what? Find him. You say, “Well, you know, I’ve never touched Christ.” Well, you tell me you’ve never sought

▶ 20:27 him, because you got to use the principle of seeking him. I don’t understand the word. Well, you’re telling me you never read the book, because if you read the book, he promised to what? Open your understanding. If you go to Bible studies, he promised to what? Open your understanding. So what does Satan want to do? He wants to keep you out of Bible studies, he wants you to think you’re stupid and can’t understand, he loves you saying, “Man, I just don’t get this book,” he loves you saying that. You just open the door for him to create a desire within you to stop reading the book. Are you there? So he can have an influence over your life. 1 Timothy 5:14, “I will that the younger women marry, bear children, guide the home, give none occasion to the adversary to speak reproachfully, for some are already,” what? “Turned aside after Satan.” And he’s doing that in the middle, are talking to widows, so young widows are supposed to what? Try and marry so they can still fulfill that sexual desire in its proper place, and some weren’t doing it, and so what? Satan used it to seduce them to

▶ 21:49 sin. Do you know how many Christians in America today are shacking up? And they’re using grace and faith to justify it. How would you like to be raised in a home where Mom or Dad is bringing in a strange person every other week or every other month? See, the Bible gives us clear direction, and when we don’t follow the clear direction, Satan then comes in and entices us to sin, because he is allowed to come in with limited

▶ 22:43 power. Is that clear to you? And see, we need to know these things, because we can’t wait for the rapture, or, in the Bible there’s no word for rapture anyway, we can’t wait for the resurrection to experience these things. We need to experience them now. That’s when it’s going to do my family good, that’s when it’s going to do my wife good, and my children good, and those around me, is I experience God now and his power.