The Dark Side Of Evil Part 2

Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. Satan whispers lies in our hearts to immobilize us, to stop us in our tracks.

But if we see ourselves from Heaven's perspective, everything changes. We need not succumb to Satan's bondage, for Christ has set us free. From the Moody Church in Chicago, this is Running to Win, with Dr. Erwin Lutzer, whose clear teaching helps us make it across the finish line. Pastor Lutzer, Jesus said, you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.

What a liberating promise. Dave, when you quote that verse immediately, two thoughts come to mind. First of all, Jesus taught that truth existed outside of ourselves. He certainly was opposed to the modern idea that I have my truth, you have your truth. To him, truth was rooted in God. But secondly, I have to emphasize that truth, yes, does set us free, but oftentimes there's a battle. It's the kind of battle we should not give up. I've written a book entitled Putting Your Past Behind You, and I wrote the book because I'm absolutely convinced that God still has a future even for those who, looking back, have destroyed their lives. Or maybe you're a person and you haven't destroyed your life, but someone else has destroyed your life.

There's hope for both. Ask for the book Putting Your Past Behind You, and for a gift of any amount it can be yours. Here's what you do.

Go to rtwoffer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337. Let us understand that Jesus came to set us free. What are the lies? First of all, he will distort your self image. He will distort your self image. You know, the Bible says that we are sinners and that we desperately need God, and that's an important truth.

And the reason that the Bible says that and the Holy Spirit shows that to us is so that we will come to Christ, be forgiven, be cleansed, be filled with the Spirit, and get on with the business of living a holy life. Satan takes those same truths but leaves out the second half. So what he does is, he heaps condemnation on people. He says, you know, you're so awful. Who could ever love you? You are so filled with shame. Don't you see how dirty you really are? Don't you understand how hopeless your situation is? You see, don't you see how messed up you are?

Who is ever going to love you? Don't you realize you're damned? So he distorts your view of self so that you'll just simply pull the shell around you and say, I'm not going to get any help.

I just got to survive in my own private little hell. He distorts self. Secondly, he distorts God, and they're related. He'll come along and say, oh yes, God has the power to deliver you, but you know what? He's not going to. You expect God to deliver you.

Look at that. You've prayed. You've memorized some verses of scripture, and here I am, and you think that God is going to deliver you. I want to tell you something, Satan speaking. God is untrustworthy, and God doesn't really love you, and he really doesn't care about you that much, and you are doomed to live with your stronghold for the rest of your life.

Just get used to it. Oh, he loves that, because then you are not going to flee to the deliverer, and so he distorts God, but of course he distorts your problem too. He would like to make your problem much bigger than it really is. He loves to exaggerate the depths of your problem, and he uses fear to do it.

Satan's most primary weapon is fear. He will inject fear into your heart about being alone, fear about rejection, fear about what would happen if you really got serious with God. There are actually wicked spirits who have told their subjects that if you get rid of me, you're in big trouble, because I am going to speak words of comfort to you.

I've known instances like that, where Satan has said wonderful things through voices to people, getting them to believe that they were listening to the voice of the Spirit of God, and not realizing that they were listening to a demonic duplicate. And so what he says is, you get rid of me, you'll have nobody to comfort you. You will not have your obsession anymore, and that obsession means so much to you.

You understand how much it means, don't you? Just think of the terror of suddenly being rid of it. And then, he will cause you to be fearful about confronting your past. You'll simply say, look, your past is so awful, it's too much for you, and it's too much for God.

Now, it's alright if you don't have to confront your past, but as long as it is there and needs to be confronted, you see, Satan will magnify it until it will appear as if normalcy for you is impossible. I'm told that out in the wild, there are two bull moose that may fight over the sovereignty of a herd. And they will fight, and once they have had their fight, the winner is no longer challenged. The person, the moose who has been defeated, will simply acquiesce for the rest of his life to the bull moose that defeated him.

No more contest. That's the way Satan works all the time. What he wants to do is to say, I'm going to win some very decisive key battles in your life, and after I have won them, I do not want my authority contested. Let's just understand the fact that you're going to be an alcoholic until you die, that you are going to be a slave to pornography until you die, understand the fact that you are going to be vengeful, covetous, selfish, and all the rest, and get it through your head that I don't want these issues confronted. Let me ask you something today. How strong is Satan anyway?

Well, I'm going to give you a surprising answer. Satan is as strong as you believe him to be. That's how strong he is. If you believe that he is formidable, if you believe that your stronghold can never, never be taken away, if you believe that indeed he is so powerful that he can hold you in bondage for the rest of your life, he will do it. He's that strong. But if you see him as crushed, if you see him as a squatter standing on territory he doesn't own, if you understand the dynamics of the cross having taken him and crushing him, if you can understand Satan from the standpoint of God Almighty in heaven to whom Satan is absolutely nothing and insignificant, then he becomes terrorized because he said, now you're onto something that may force me to give up the territory that I have so judiciously conquered and held onto all these years.

So he's as strong as you believe him to be. Recently I spoke to a woman who was on medication and then she got off the medication and she told her psychiatrist, her doctor that and why was he upset and angry? He said to her, you're never going to get over your problem. Now, I'm not speaking in favor of medication nor against it. It may be necessary in certain situations, but what an awful thing to say to somebody. Can't you imagine how that just generates hope?

Talk about helping people. You're never going to get over your problem. You're always going to be that way. Wow, lovely. Whether he realizes it or not, that man was mouthing the words of the devil.

That's exactly what he wants you to think because as long as you think that way, you are bound. Now, what's the way out? You did come here to hear that today, didn't you? Of course. Let me give it to you in five steps. Notice I didn't say five easy steps nor do I mean to say that these are successive steps. Sometimes you may begin with number two. Sometimes you may skip to number five and work backwards. Perhaps it'd be more accurate to say five principles rather than steps, lest I give the impression that there's a little formula that can be followed and if you just do these things, it'll all be over. No, you're going to have to do these things. That's for sure. But it may not always immediately be all over.

Number one, complete submission. Now, take your Bibles and turn to James chapter four for just a moment. James chapter four, all of us have memorized the verse that says, resist the devil and he will flee from you.

We all know that. The problem is it's only half the verse and it's taken out of context and people don't understand the dynamics of what James is talking about. James chapter four, he says, verse six of chapter four, but he gives a greater grace. Therefore, God is opposed to the proud.

Wow. Oh, Satan loves pride in our lives. It's a stronghold he intends to keep, but God does give grace to the humble. Submit therefore to God. Deal with the pride in your life through submission. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners. Purify your hearts, you double minded. He's talking about people who don't recognize their sin and there's sin in their lives and there's sin in their hearts and there's lack of submission.

What does it mean to submit? It means certainly that you repent of the sin. I told you a moment ago that Satan always needs an excuse. He always needs a stronghold. He always needs a foot in the door. What you do is cut out the ground that he's standing on. Cut it out from under him. You repent of the sins that you've been justifying in your mind because you have thought that you can never be free from them.

That's step number one. And since we're talking about putting your past behind you, it also means giving all of your scars to Christ. All of the hurts of the past that you can't deal with. All of the injustices that were inflicted upon you.

All of the things that cannot seemingly be changed. I remember seeing a woman with a tattoo on her arm and I asked her what it was about and she said, well, that was done by my previous boyfriend. And she said, oh, she said, I wish I could get rid of that tattoo, but it's there. You see, what Satan wants to do is to make you believe that because of those kinds of scars, and I'm not speaking about physical scars so much as emotional and spiritual scars, he likes to give you the impression that they are tattooed into your heart. You can never be rid of them.

Give them to Christ. I wish I had time to read from this book. It's entitled Satan's Underground by Lorena Stratford. Now this lady went through more trauma than you and I have ever even heard about. I read this book and could hardly sleep the night after I read it. At the age of six, she was given to men who raped her with the full permission of her mother because her mother was making money in this way. As a teenager, she became part of a satanic cult and had two babies that she was forced to sacrifice to Satan. It's an awful, awful story.

But here's what I want to read. It says, the next step was the hardest thing I had to do in receiving healing from the pain of my memories. And incidentally, the battles that she went through are just excruciating.

The only good thing about this book is it ends in victory. I had to give every physical and emotional scar to Jesus. I was not to bear them any longer. You might think that this would be easy, but letting go of the past turned out to be a bitter fight. For if I gave it all to Jesus, there would be no more excuse, no more self-pity.

I'd have to make a choice not to take back any of the hurts. It was, in effect, a final choice to step out of the past, to put an end to my grieving, and live in the freedom that was mine for the taking. It was evening. I was sitting on the sofa in the living room, wrestling with my anger, my hatred, and my bitterness. Joanna, that's a friend whom she came to know who prayed with her through this experience, sat down beside me. For several minutes she was silent. Finally, she said, are you ready to give your scars to Jesus, all of them? I'm skipping here because this is a long quote, but I want you to notice that she began to pray. She said, my body bore many scars.

Somewhere from my early childhood and had nearly faded from the passing of time, a few were so bold and vivid that they had defied my attempts to disguise them. Ever so patiently and carefully, Joanna helped me identify each scar. At times it seemed as if it would take forever to name a scar.

But then she did it. Jesus, I give you the mark on my forehead that was branded on me by Victor, identifying his control over me. Because you own me, Lord, and I am your child, I ask you to receive this scar. I give the meaning of this scar to you, and I give the emotional pain of the scar to you. Jesus, I give you the long slash mark on my right arm. I give you the mental scars of having to stand naked and be photographed as a little girl. Jesus, I give you the pain of the murders of my little ones. On and on, naming, the giving, the letting go went.

Over those places that were just too much to name specifically, Joanna would help me. But eventually, she was free. You begin with submission to God, and it undercuts the authority of Satan that he wants to have over you and me. Secondly, not only complete submission, but the complete armor. Take upon yourself the whole armor of God, and we don't have time to look at it in Ephesians chapter 6, but you put on truth and the breastplate of righteousness, and your feet are shod with the gospel, and you have the word of God, and above all, you take the shield of faith by which you are going to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. So you have complete armor, I should say, and prayer, which incidentally next week is going to be the topic of our message, as I hope to explain to you, God willing, how to use prayer to take the armor of God upon you and to pray through your past into victory.

So you have complete armor. Thirdly, complete authority. Complete authority. Is there anyone here today who doubts whether Jesus is stronger than Satan? Is there anybody here today who doubts whether Jesus won a decisive, incontestable victory against the devil? Is there anyone who doubts at all that Jesus, who has ascended, who is above the right hand of God the Father, at the right hand of God the Father, looking down upon this earth so far as his body is concerned, is there any doubt at all that he crushed Satan and put an end to all of his authority and rule? Of course there's no doubt about that. The issue is clear. Now what about you?

It's not so clear, is it? Struggling with Satan every day, strongholds, obsessions. Do you know what the Bible says that when Jesus was raised above every principality and every power and every name that was named in this world and in the world to come, God so put us into Christ that as Jesus looks down upon Satan and sees him crushed, we too are in the heavenlies and we look down upon him and we see him crushed too.

We're in him. And Christ's authority can become our authority, complete final authority. I know that he is a roaring lion walking about seeking whom he may devour, but the good news is he has been declawed.

He's declawed. Complete authority, complete acceptance in Christ. This has to do with the changing of your self-image. It says that those who believe in Jesus become heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ. It says that God the Father loves his people just as he loves his son and you begin to bask in the warmth and the forgiveness and the glow of God's love and life in you. The thief cometh not but for to steal and to kill and to destroy, but I am come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly. Well, we've had complete submission and complete armor, complete authority, complete acceptance.

Let's have complete humility, complete humility. And by that I mean sometimes we need our brothers and sisters in the Lord to help us, no question about it. I told you that there are certain things that cannot be overcome anymore on your own. It is only as you solicit the prayer support, the intervention, the intercession of other people does God begin to answer and as those people stand with you, Satan's foothold in your life begins to weaken. You say, well, Pastor Lutzer, do you believe in exorcism?

Yes, I do. But exorcism is always the last step of the process. I'll tell you why. It's because, you know, it's possible to have an exorcism and you still have your problem. Because it may be a problem of the flesh that Satan has been using and Satan is gone, but your problem isn't necessarily solved. But get this, as you begin to develop Bible doctrine and understand who you are in Jesus Christ and experience the inner healing of Jesus, it makes Satan's territory in your life get smaller and smaller until finally he gets pushed out the door.

Remember the testimony a few weeks ago of a man, Ralph, who was involved in pornography? He said that standing there on the street corner, he knew that a spirit left him. As he was reading the Bible, resisting Satan, it was as if the spirit gave up on him.

Now, that's what Satan does. Eventually, he gives up on us. Because you remember the illustration I gave you about the bull moose fighting? And just as how once the battle is decisive, that other moose does no longer contest the authority of the victor?

Listen to this. Once you win a couple of battles over the devil and you're onto him, he will still contest you. He's not a gentleman. He's not going to go run and hide. But you know, his authority over you gets weaker and weaker and weaker and every time he tries to resurrect his old stronghold, it gets knocked down more quickly and he begins to recognize, I've lost this person.

I've lost them. And that's why it's so important to understand who we are and what we are about. My dear friend, we are in a battle.

Young people, teenagers, listen to me. Satan is willing to have spirits stalk you for 15 years if necessary to catch you at a weak point in your life and ensnare you and capitalize on so much as a single violation of the law of God. Time is on his side. You know, eventually of course, the goal is that Satan be totally kept outside of our minds and when he tries to get thoughts into our minds, we just simply dismiss them in the name of Jesus and then there's freedom. Well, we began today talking about Martin Luther. Let me quote to you what he said. Somebody said, Martin Luther, what do you do when Satan comes to you?

I love it. He says, when he comes knocking on the door of my heart and asks who lives here, the dear Lord Jesus goes to the door and says, well, Martin Luther used to live here, but he has moved out and I now live here. The devil seeing the nail prints in the hands and the pierced side takes his flight immediately. That's the way you respond when the devil opens the door. He says, I've got this suggestion, commit this sin. You say, hey, wait a minute.

I'm going to send Jesus to the door and then I'm going to take the door and slam it in your face. I refuse to have anything to do that submits to my enemy. I am not interested in a truce.

I'm not interested in compromising with a devil who is nothing but a liar and I reject him in the name of Jesus and on the basis of Christ's authority and when you live that way, finally you are a free person. Now you can begin to pursue godliness without always having all of that interference. There still will be interference. There's interference in my life. There's interference in the life of the staff.

Anybody has interference but it is not formidable interference. You can begin to press on and be what God wants you to be because you are free. And of course when I emphasize that the truth sets us free, I don't want to give the impression that the battle has been totally won.

In this life we'll constantly be harassed by Satan but as we follow God's word, we'll discover that his power and his temptations are lessened. I've written a book entitled Putting Your Past Behind You. I can't think of a more relevant book for a world that is so broken, so full of pain. Some of the chapter titles are Confronting Fatal Addictions, The Hurt and Healing of Abuse, Understanding Sexual Bonds.

Another chapter is entitled Breaking Sexual Bonds, The Healing Power of Forgiveness, Empty Obsessions, et cetera, et cetera. For a gift of any amount this book can be yours. We here at Running to Win are committed to putting resources in your hands that we believe will be of benefit to you and to your friends in a world that clearly has lost its way. Here's what you can do. Go to RTWOffer.com. That's RTWOffer.com and as we frequently say, for a gift of any amount we'll ship this book to you. RTWOffer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337. And I want to just express to you my deep appreciation for every one of you. We are committed to getting the gospel of Jesus Christ to as many as possible and that's why it is that we appeal to you for your prayers and your support.

Go to RTWOffer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337. You can write to us at Running to Win, 1635 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois 60614. Next time, channeling God's power. A look at a special kind of prayer called warfare praying. A way of calling on God's power to the destruction of Satan's many strongholds. Running to Win is sponsored by the Moody Church.