The Basis of Authority, Part 2

The question on the floor is, where will we find the authority to wage spiritual warfare victoriously? Dr. Tony Evans says none of us has the clout to take on Satan single-handedly.

If you could only see Jesus, you would see someone who has already won the battle for you. This is The Alternative with Dr. Tony Evans, author, speaker, senior pastor of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in Dallas, Texas, and president of the Urban Alternative. Even people who always wear their seatbelts in a car will rush into spiritual battle without proper protection.

Let's join Dr. Evans as he explains how we can avoid that dangerous mistake. We're talking about spiritual warfare. One of the things you should know by now is that this world is ruled by angels. Satan, we are told, is the prince of this world order.

John 12, 31 lets us know that he's in charge. And the reason he's in charge is because our friend, our Father Adam, who was made a little lower than the angels, and who was told by God, this program can only work by total obedience to me, turned our world over to the evil one. That led to the angelic conflict that was operating in history past to become part of time as man would know it. God in his grace resisted Satan's attempts to totally take over. And he did that by allowing his angelic host to wage war in the heavenlies. And all we see happening in the physical realm is but the mimic of what is happening in the spiritual realm. Yet God's plan was being fulfilled even in Adam's failure. Because even though he failed and brought death to the human race, because if you eat of the tree in the midst of the garden, dying you shall die.

You shall surely die. God was working a plan where still through the lesser man, he would overcome the greater angels, for you have made man a little lower than the angels and crowned him with glory. The problem is that we're caught in this battle. We're caught in it in our families. We're caught in it in our personal struggles and lives.

We're caught in it when we have to face the reality of sickness, illness, and death. And yet God still holds out this promise that man will rule. That there's coming a time when angels will no longer run this universe.

It will no longer be at the whim of the devil and his host being resisted by Michael the archangel and his host and we being pawns on this cosmic chessboard. There is coming a time when the lesser will rule the greater. But there was a problem. The problem is how do we get rid of the curse? Because when our father Adam handed over this world order to Satan in the garden, this world became cursed and death passed to all men for an Adam all died. The world, the Bible says, began to deteriorate. Man who was to rule over the animals, who was to control nature, now would have to fight for his very existence.

Where would an answer come from to fix this mess? And had God miscalculated the power of Satan, was the plan of God in trouble to create man the lesser to rule the greater to demonstrate his glory? The answer we're introduced to in Hebrews chapter 2. This book of Hebrews, where the first two chapters are in fact a detailed discussion of the angelic conflict, lets us know, but we see Jesus, he says in verse 9, who had been made a little lower than the angels.

We see Jesus because of the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor, and by the grace of God, he might taste death for every man. We're introduced to Jesus. The question on the floor is where will we find the authority to wade spiritual warfare victoriously? What will enable us to stop being losers in the battle that we didn't start, but that we can't get out of? What will stop us week after week, day after day, year after year, from keeping Satan destroying our family, splitting up our marriages, owning our children, controlling our minds, pressing our passions, what will keep this evil being off of our back?

That's the question of authority. The author of Hebrews says God has introduced another person to the equation, and we see Jesus. It is your ability to see Jesus and to understand what you seek that will introduce you to authority you never knew possible. If you could only see Jesus, you would see someone who has already won the battle for you. So my task today in enabling us this week to be winners and not losers is to help you see the man of all men, to help us see Jesus, to help us see the one who tasted death for every man by the grace of God, the one who removed the curse.

It is our inability to see Jesus that has limited our authority in the realm of spiritual warfare. I want you to see three things about Jesus today. First of all, I want you to see the person of Jesus. Then I want you to understand the payment of Jesus, and then I want you to come to live under the position of Jesus.

First of all, the person of Jesus. When Adam sinned, God told the serpent, this battle's not over, because the woman is going to have a seed. She's going to give birth to a baby. And this baby, when this baby comes on the scene, this baby will crush your head. You're going to bruise his heel, but he's going to stomp you out. And it's going to come through the woman.

Why? Because it had to come through a man. God could have crushed Satan, but he didn't want to crush him, he wanted to embarrass him and then crush him. And he said, I'm going to crush you with something less than you, and it's going to be the seed of the woman. Now look with me at Galatians 4.4. Paul says, and I love this verse, but when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his son, now get this, born of a woman, born under the law. God had made a promise that the seed of the woman would crush the head of the serpent, but it would take thousands of years before the seed would come. So God placed in the middle of time a layaway plan. This layaway plan provided temporary relief for sin until it was time for the Savior. They brought bulls, and doves, and goats, and offered them on the altar as a layaway plan.

And in this layaway plan, it was their way of saying, one day a woman is going to have a baby who's going to crush Satan's head. It was time for payment, and Galatians 4.4 says, in the fullness of time. That's just a nice way of saying, just when the time was right, when all the conditions were ideal, at the right time, something marvelous took place. You know, a number of things made it the right time. The whole world had now been consolidated under one empire, Rome.

Rome had built roads to every major nation in the world so that a traveler could not only take himself and his family, but he could take his message that he wanted to deliver worldwide because now there was world consolidation under the Roman Empire. It was the perfect time because everybody could speak a common language, Koine Greek, the language of the everyday man, so that difficult things could be understood throughout the whole nation with a common tongue. And the Jews have become the center issue in the Roman Empire.

What are we going to do about this Jewish people who keep talking about this coming Messiah in their synagogues in the fullness of time? And don't read verse four too fast because you'll miss it. God sent his son, born of a woman. The son was sent, but the baby was born.

I like the way Isaiah put it. Isaiah says, a child is born, but a son is given. The child had to come through the birth canal. The son already existed. See, what you have in the person of Jesus in what we call in theology the hypostatic union was deity, the son, being poured into humanity, the seed, so that the hands that were forming in Mary's womb were hands that would belong to a baby who would be God incarnate.

Those little legs belonged to a baby who would stand on a mountain one day and shred his humanity and glow like the noonday sun. That wasn't no ordinary baby in this lady's womb because, you see, the son was sent, only the baby was born. You see, God had to have a man, but it had to be the kind of man who wouldn't do what Adam did. It would have to be the kind of man who would face with the devil one on one and face with the power of God could choose right. What we needed was a God kind of man.

So what God did was he sent his son, born of a woman, in order to reclaim the dominion, hand it back over to the angel Satan and bring it back to mankind. But Satan wasn't about to give up trying to sabotage God's plan, and Dr. Evans will have more on that in just a moment. But first, I want to let you know that today's lesson is just one installment from Tony's 12-message audio series called Spiritual Warfare.

In it, he looks at the nature of the unseen battle and helps us realize that many of our physical troubles essentially spring from spiritual roots. These messages will not only help you learn how to recognize the spiritual origins of the problems that plague you, but will teach you how to tackle those issues using God's methods and power. We want you to have this collection of biblical teachings on spiritual warfare as our gift. Just visit tonyevans.org before time runs out, make a contribution, and we'll say thanks by providing you all 12 messages in this two-volume collection on your choice of either CDs or instantly available digital downloads. Again, that's tonyevans.org, or call 1-800-800-3222, where resource team members are standing by around the clock to assist with your request. I'll have that information for you again after part two of today's lesson and this.

Are you hungry for more of God, more of His truth, more of His power, and more of His wisdom applied in your life? Then you need to connect with a community of passionate believers who are growing in God's Word through the Tony Evans Training Center. With exclusive video and audio teaching from Dr. Tony Evans, this interactive online study experience allows you to explore theology, biblical history, and real-life application of the kingdom agenda anytime, anywhere. Visit tonyevanstraining.org to get started today.

That's tonyevanstraining.org. Now Satan is no dummy. When Jesus is being born, he lets out all the stops, if you remember the Christmas story. He infiltrates Herod to kill all the babies two and under, because he knows he now has a problem on his hands.

God has thrown the proverbial curve ball. He kept defeating men, knowing that there would be no man who could handle him. What he didn't bank on was God becoming a man. That was a part of the plan he didn't calculate.

That was a gamble that he didn't have on his mind. He said, give me another Adam. I can handle him. Give me Adam Jr. I can handle him. Give me Adam III.

I can handle him. Give me a generation of Adam. You just keep those Adams coming, because there's not a man, God, you can make who can stand against my angelic power, because I was made spirit like you.

Who's going to handle me? God said, well, let's try this one. I'll come down and become a man. And God entered into time and space as a man. Satan knew he had a problem, so he tried to kill him. That didn't work because of angelic assistance that led the mother and father out to the protective regions of Egypt.

God sent his angels to give direction to keep them from Herod's sword. When killing him wouldn't work, he tried to curse him. He met him in the wilderness one day, and he tried to get him to do what Adam did.

What? Act independently of God. Do you remember what Adam was told to do?

Eat this fruit. Do you remember what Satan told Jesus? He told Jesus, why don't you turn these stones into bread? Satan's big on food.

He tries to use the same tack as he used in the garden to get them to act independently of God. But this Jesus, who had to win it as a man, which stood him based on the word of God, and at the end of the story, Matthew chapter 4 verse 11, it says, and when Jesus was victorious, the angels came to help him. Satan realizing that he was not going to defeat him by killing him at birth, he was not going to defeat him by cursing him in the wilderness, said, well, then let me help crucify him. And so what we find in John chapter 18 verse 22 is that Satan entered Judas, Iscariot, and motivated him to go out and to betray Jesus Christ in order to be a participant in the crucifixion.

Jesus did miracles on earth to demonstrate that he had the right to rule and to challenge Satan based on obedience and dependency on God, and Satan knew what he was all about. First John chapter 3 verse 8 says that Jesus came to destroy all the works of the devil. So Satan says, okay, we got a little different strategy than I anticipated.

God never told me he was going to throw this one at me. So maybe if I get rid of him on the cross, maybe if I get rid of this person on the cross, maybe if I just go at him with all I've got and destroy him, and this is the best that God has got to offer as a man, I'll win it. And so the person of Christ led to the payment of Christ, Colossians 2. In order to conquer Satan, death had to be conquered, because that is the consequence of sin. So in order to conquer Satan, you've got to conquer death, but in order to conquer death, you have to conquer sin, because it was sin that brought death, and there's only one way to conquer death, and that's through resurrection.

So what happens is God assigns Jesus Christ to die, to meet Satan in his realm. Look at chapter 2, verse 13, and when you were dead in your transgressions, and the uncircumcision of your flesh, he made you alive with him, having forgiven all your trespasses. God had to deal with the sin problem, and the way he dealt with the sin problem was in the death of Christ.

God provided a way to forgive sin. Now read verse 14, the first phrase, having canceled out the certificate of debt, consisting of decrees against us, which were hostile to us. When Jesus was tried by Pilate, Pilate says, I can't find any reason, I don't have enough evidence to convict the man. But the people hollered out, if you don't convict him, you are no friend of Caesar, for this man claims to be king of the Jews.

In order for Pilate to crucify Jesus, he needed a certificate of degrees. He needed to be able to outline for the Roman government, why are you killing this man? So on the top of Jesus's cross, in three languages, in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, you read these words, Jesus of Nazareth, king of the Jews, he is being killed because he declared he is king of the Jews, there's only room for one king in Rome, and that's Caesar, so he is being crucified for treason.

We're gonna kill him because he claims to compete with Caesar, saying that Caesar is not the only king, he is saying he's a king too, there's not room for two kings, they did not allow you to compete with the king of Rome, and so we're gonna crucify him for treason. But little did Satan know that above the sign on the cross that said Jesus of Nazareth, king of the Jews, he's a treason person and deserves to die, there was a cosmic blackboard. It had every sin of every man who would ever be born, is born, or who will ever come into existence, all the sin of all the men for all time was on the board. And the Bible says that Jesus Christ did not die as innocent, he died because we were guilty, for he who knew no sin became sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. That was a cosmic blackboard and God's wrath against all sin for all time for all men was poured out on Jesus Christ. And Jesus Christ hung high and they crucified him for treason on earthly realm, but for the sins of the world he tasted death for every man. Jesus is hanging on the cross with the sins of the world on his shoulder and he comes to near his last breath and he screams out with a loud voice, it is finished, paid in full. Everything that you owe God and that I owe God was paid by Jesus Christ. And what did he do? Verse 14 says he canceled out the certificate of death consisting of decrees against us which were hostile to us.

Why were they hostile to us? Because Satan could always bring them up. Satan knows enough about God to know that his holiness will not tolerate sin, so what he will do is bring it up.

He will say, well, you can't do anything with that guy because look at what he did. I got the decree. But whenever Satan goes before God and brings up Tony Evans, Jesus Christ is going to say, but did you see the stamp to tell us that? Paid in full, that I have already paid the penalty for sins he hadn't even done yet. And that's why once you're saved, you can never become unsaved.

Why? Because he paid the price in full before you were even born. He paid it in full well in advance. He satisfied the demands of God. Dr. Tony Evans, talking about how God handled the sin problem for us with Jesus Christ's sacrifice on the cross. During his time here on earth, Jesus never traveled more than 300 miles from the place he was born, yet his life, as Tony's been talking about today, changed the world. In the feature-length film Journey with Jesus, Dr. Evans and his family take you to the Holy Land to explore just what made Jesus' life so remarkable and so impactful.

For a limited time, you can stream this powerful film right into your own home. With Easter upon us, be sure to make Journey with Jesus part of your reflection on Christ's life, his ministry, his sacrifice, and our redemption. Find out more at tonyevans.org. And while you're there, don't forget that we'd like to send you a copy of Tony's current 12-lesson audio collection on spiritual warfare. It's our gift to you when you make a donation to help keep this broadcast coming to this station and others like it around the world. Just visit tonyevans.org where you can learn how to get your copy right from the home page. Or if you'd prefer, give our resource request line a call at 1-800-800-3222 and let one of our friendly team members help with your request. Again that's tonyevans.org or by phone at 1-800-800-3222. You know, there's nothing like the element of surprise to change the course of a battle. Tomorrow Dr. Evans will explain how God used that tactic to secure our salvation and equip us to fight spiritual battles successfully. I hope you'll join us. The alternative with Dr. Tony Evans is brought to you by The Urban Alternative and is made possible by the generous contributions of listeners like you.