(John 8:31-36) To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, "If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." They answered him, "We are Abraham's descendants and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?" Jesus replied, "I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. (NIV)

Must pause to read one of our/my favorites….

(2 Peter 1:3-4) His divine power has given us __________ we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may __________ in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. (NIV)

6) T or F: Actually satan was already defeated by Jesus when he died on the cross, his teeth have been pulled, his power over us is only deception and bluff.

While satan no longer has the power to disrupt or terminate your spiritual walk…. If he can convince you that he does, or that you are not worthy of God’s promised grace.

It’s not an issue now of you needing to beg God for additional grace to release you from temptation. He has already done that! The difficulty seems to be in getting us to realize just exactly what Jesus has already done for us!

If you see yourself as the helpless victim of satan and his schemes, you will continue to live like his victim and be in bondage to his lies.

If you see yourself as the dearly loved and accepted child of God that you really are, you will tend to live like a dearly loved and accepted child of God!

 The key to victorious Christian living is learning to recognize satan’s deceptions and resist him…

(James 4:7-8) ________ yourselves, then, to God. ______ the devil, and he ________ flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

(2 Corinthians 10:4-5) The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. (NIV)

II. The Gauntlet to Spiritual Freedom (Neil Anderson)

Imagine that you are standing at one end of a long narrow street lined on both sides with two story block houses. At the other end stands Jesus Christ and your eternal reward.

Your Christian life: is the process of walking down that long street of growing Christian maturity… in Him.

There is absolutely nothing in the street that can keep you from reaching Christ and your eternal heavenly reward!

Since the world is still under the dominion of satan, imagine that the row of houses on either side is inhabited by beings who are committed to keeping you from reaching your goal.

They have no power or authority to stop your forward momentum, to block your path, or even slow your step; so they hang out the windows and call to you, hoping to turn your attention away from your goal and disrupt your progress.

Satan is defeated! …. He has no authority over those who are “in Christ”…

He does, however, have authority over those who do not belong to Christ. We see evidence every day of those who, say they are sold out to Allah, but are actually sold out to satan.

In our own country, we see, almost every day, those who, in the name of national freedom, are moving us further and further from the spiritual freedom our country once enjoyed. They smugly believe themselves to be filled with truth while they are simply puppets of satan himself.

But on they other hand, there are believers who are paranoid about satan’s power over them, suspecting that demons are lurking around every corner just waiting to possess them… that is not in line with what Scripture says.

Our relationship to demonic powers in the physical realm is not unlike our relationship to germs in the physical realm. You know they’re there, but you don’t spend your day worrying about them causing your destruction. You learn to live in such a way that you acknowledge their presence but you take safety measures to ensure that they don’t control your life. If you do come under their attack you deal with them aggressively and move on. You know that the normal defense mechanisms God has built into your body are dealing with millions of germs every day and destroying them. Sometimes they come at you with such force that an all out defensive response is necessary.

So it is spiritually…. God builds into you, as a believer, spiritual antibodies. You, also must take measures to build up your resistance to attack, and sometimes it is necessary to mount an all out offensive assault.

(Ephesians 6:10-18) Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints. (NIV)

III. Gearing up for the Gauntlet

The common word we use to describe the distractions coming from either side of the street is the word:

Temptation

It’s become something of a joke to us to laugh about the areas in our life where we..

-could do better

-should do better

-are commanded by God to do better

Yet we’ve often learned how to rationalize, philosophize, why the weak, sinful areas of our lives just must be that way. We put up little plaques that say, “I can resist anything but temptation, and we chuckle at the reality of the statement.

What the plaque is really saying is:

I am in bondage to the deceiver of my soul!

I don’t have to do what he has suggested,

It’s not right to do what he has suggested,

I don’t really want to do what he has suggested,

But I have chosen to do it anyway!

Whoa, Pastor…that’s too hard. When satan tempts me and I yield, it’s a situation where:

The devil made me do it!

No it isn’t….He doesn’t have the power to make you do anything, His power has been retracted by Jesus death and resurrection. Satan doesn’t have power over you.. He can only suggest wrong behavior. I’m the one who chooses whether or not I will do what he has suggested!

Living short of God’s design, for our lives, is not just slowing our pace on the path. It’s stopping, turning, and entertaining the suggestions of the deceiver. Sometimes we see people who actually start walking backward on the path tasting the deceptions that they have already had victory over. Once in a while someone will seemingly turn and run headlong back the path that they already covered.

A. Three responses to temptations from the roadside..

1) Consider the deception, believe it, give in, be defeated

2) Argue with the deceiver about his deceptions (bad idea)

3) Ignore him and resist his deceptions!

But Pastor, you have no idea how severe, how ferocious, the attacks of satan are in my life. Actually I do; believe it or not Pastor’s get attacked too…ferociously. But let me remind you of something:

(1 Peter 5:8-9) Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings. (NIV)

Why does a lion roar? To paralyze it’s prey with fear. Once the prey is paralyzed with fear, It’s much easier to subdue and kill it. Bill Gothard says the older and weaker a lion becomes, the loader it roars. Why? It’s only hope of defeating it’s prey is in killing it with fear.

If you cower in fear at satan’s show of supposed power over you then you will have to become the defender of ground that you Savior already won for you!

(James 4:7) Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you! (NIV)

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