Biblical Keys to Staying On Course

We are between studies right now, having finished Revelation on Wednesday, and then we took some time off. And before I get started with another book study, sometimes I like to share something, some things that have been on my heart, and I do have something on my heart that I want to share with you tonight. And it has to do with some keys to staying on course in your Christian walk. I want to explain this. I guess I want to set this up a little bit for you so that you can kind of tell where I'm coming from. Over the course of the last, you know, few years, I've been spending, I've been getting a lot of emails from a lot of people from all over the world that have questions about the Bible, about God's Word, and I've learned a lot. I've learned a lot about what people are questioning in their faith. And I found over a period of time that I was answering questions the same way over and over and over. In fact, I was sharing a lot of the same Scriptures for people repeatedly. And I began to realize, I'm not the brightest bulb in the, you know, box, but I began to realize after a while that there's a consistency here. There's a need among Christians to be reminded of some basic elemental truths of the Word of God in order to stay on course in their Christian walk. And you know, and I'm not telling you something you don't, that we often get off course. Christians can easily get off course. And of course, you know, we've got an enemy who's trying to get us off course. There's a world that's always pressing in on us and tempting us to get off course. And then there's our own emotions, sometimes coupled with wild and crazy hormones. And there's just all kinds of things happening in our lives, the drama of family. And it's just, it's just, and then, oh, the stuff going on in the world. Have you noticed in the last few years, it's kind of like the gates of hell have just been opened up? And just, it's just, you know, I, in fact, I heard Franklin Graham saying recently that he said that every demon from hell seems to have been unleashed, you know, just in the last little while. And so we're living in this crazy world and there is a great, opportunity is not the right word. There's, there's a, there's a lot of options for Christians to go bad, to go off course. But I have found that there are certain passages in the Bible that help us to stay on course. And that's what I want to share with you tonight. And here's, here's the reason why. I find that when people get off course, whether the enemy has dragged them off course or just the world they live in or the drama of life or whatever, they begin to become bound in their fears, in their concerns. And, and when you, when you start to get bound, literally enslaved to wrong thinking, you need a truth adjustment in your life. And Jesus said something, we went over this not very long ago in our study on Sunday morning in John. Jesus said something very important about the truth. Let me put it up on the screen. You know, this from John eight, it says, you will know the truth and the truth will set you free. So you see the point of, of getting back on course through the word of God is to bring freedom back into the life of the believer. Okay. Because those times that we get off course, those times that we begin to believe the lies of the enemy, or we begin to embrace the things of the world, or we begin to follow our own emotional directives, rather than the directives of God's word, those things will bind us. They will enslave us. And then we're, we're miserable. And we, and sometimes we don't even know why. Christians will just be walking along and, and, and they just realized suddenly I'm just, I'm miserable. I am miserable that I don't know how I got here. And so, but once, once they, once they find the word of God that unlocks, once again, their, their freedom, they suddenly realize, oh, now I see what was going on. There was wrong thinking. I was focused on this or that, and I wasn't seeing things as God wants me to see them. Or I had let go of my faith, my faith in the simple elements of, you know, what is true. And I had begun to believe a lie, you know, and that's, what's really kind of going on. People begin to believe lies. And so this evening, I want to share what I believe are some keys with you concerning four areas that I hear a lot about from other believers. And there are more than this, but this is all I had time for in one night. So what we're going to do is we're going to look at some biblical keys to staying on course in these four areas. First of all, concerning salvation. Secondly, concerning you and Satan. Thirdly, concerning you and the law of Moses. And then concerning you and hardships. I may have gotten those, those might be slightly out of order. I'm not sure. Yeah, anyway, we're going to, we're going to hit all four of them tonight, regardless. So anyway, we want to do the first one here, so we're going to put the first one up on the screen. And that is biblical keys concerning salvation. People always have a lot of questions about their salvation or the salvation of loved ones or others. And what you need to know about, particularly as it relates to your salvation, you need to know this. Satan is eager to bring you to a place of confusing you over your salvation. Or maybe causing you concern is a better way of putting it, over your salvation. Whether it is yours or frankly even someone else's. The enemy is eager to get you to that place of being concerned. Because if he can get you to that place of doubting God, just as he did with Adam and Eve in the garden. Concerning, you know, God's intentions for them not eating of the tree that was in the midst of the garden. If he can get you to that place of doubt, then he can bring you to a place of having a foothold in your thinking. And again, then you find yourself enslaved and literally miserable. And I find that there are a great many people who have enjoyed the beauty of knowing that they are saved. But then they begin to walk through a time of doubt and concern about their salvation for one reason or another. And what I find is happening in their lives is they're getting their eyes off the keys that will keep them on course as it relates to their salvation. And they've gotten their eyes on to something else. And one of the first keys that I want to show you is one of the most important that you can never let go of. And it's from Ephesians chapter 2, verses 8 and 9. Guys, this verse, this passage, I should say, answers so many questions that people have about salvation. Paul simply wrote this,

And the reason I bring this scripture up as a first key to staying on course is because I have noticed in certain personalities that there is a gravitational pull, subtle though it may be, over time where they will embrace the free gift of their salvation. But over time, they begin to slightly lean toward the idea that I have to do something to hang on to this. And that it's somehow up to me. And some of you may be that way. And if you are, you probably know who you are. You've known all your life that it's very easy for you to slip into a performance relationship with God. And you know what I mean by that. You begin to feel the need to perform in certain ways in order to keep that relationship good, to keep your salvation fresh, to keep the security even of your salvation. You might not admit it that way to anybody, but the fact of the matter is that's what you're doing. And you probably know who you are because you were probably either raised by parents or raised in an environment when you were young where you had to toe the line. And that was just the way, that was the environment in which you were raised and everything was based on performance. If you performed well in school, you got, you know, this or that or the other thing. If you performed well at home, if you, you know, you were rewarded. And it's so easy for those things to become ingrained in our soul to the point where we bring it into our walk with Jesus Christ. Some of you may even come out of a church environment that was more legalistic than anything. And it's just a tough thing to shake off. You know, I got to do, got to do it, got to keep up, you know. And this passage is... So important because it reminds us that we are saved by grace and that word grace is an important Greek word that means apart from what you can do. When God's word tells you and me that we are saved by grace, it means it's a free gift and it's not according to what we can merit or earn. We are by grace saved through faith. It is believing that saves you through the grace of God. By believing, believing what? Believing that Jesus died on the cross for you and that his death was enough. And that is what saves you. That is what saves you. People will write to me and they'll say, if I do such and such or if someone does, sometimes they'll do it in more general terms, if someone does such and such, will they still be saved? You're asking the wrong questions because I have to bring them back to this key. What those questions tell me, when somebody asks me that question, I know that they've let go of this key. This is a key to keep them on course but they've gotten off course because they've forgotten this key, dropped it, lost it or whatever. They're no longer focusing on it and now they're focusing on what they have to do in order to stay saved. And I have to remind them, you didn't do anything to be saved. What makes you think you have to do something to stay saved? We are saved by grace through faith. And even Paul goes on to say, this not of yourselves. You know, and he repeats it multiple ways. He says, it's the gift of God. Gifts are given freely without being earned. And then he even says it again, not a result of works. There is no boasting in heaven. So this is, again, this is a key. This is gonna keep you on course, guys. If you keep Ephesians 2, 8 and 9 front and center in your understanding of your salvation, this will keep you on course. And it will keep you from false doctrine as well. Whether it's a church that says, if you don't speak in tongues, you're not saved. Or if you're not baptized in water, in our church preferably, you know, you're not saved. And if you don't do this and you don't do that, and you keep Ephesians 2, 8 and 9 and you're gonna stay on course. There's another verse that I wanna share with you because one of the, another one of the craftiest tricks of the enemy is to suggest to a believer that they have sinned beyond any hope. And in such a case, I find myself reminding them of that great and wonderful promise in 1 John 1, 9 up on the screen, which says,

I would encourage you to go to this verse in your Bible and circle the word all, and then go back and revisit it as often as you need to. As often as you need to, he will cleanse us from all unrighteousness. He's faithful to do that, if you confess your sins. And for those who feel they must somehow hold onto their salvation, once again, through good works, I often have to take them to John 19, verse 30, which says when Jesus had received the sour wine, of course, he's on the cross at the time, he said, it is finished, and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. You guys have heard me talk about this lots of times. And the reason I talk about it is because I'm used to reminding people about those simple words, it is finished. Do you know that in the Greek, that's one word? To tell us die is the Greek word. And do you know that we have actually recovered papyrus copies of receipts from the time of Christ that have stamped on them one single word, to tell us die? And it means paid in full. And that is what Jesus declared on the cross. And I have to remind people who have gotten off course and who begin to think that, you know, what Jesus did for them on the cross is wonderful and great and good and all that stuff, but they also have to do this and do this and do this and do this. I have to take them back to this passage in John 19, 30 and say, Jesus said, it is finished, it is finished. It is paid in full. He paid it in full when he suffered on the cross for you and me. It's so important, guys, remembering what Jesus said on the cross will keep you on course, okay? And then finally concerning salvation, another common question has to do with how God will deal with those who have either never heard the gospel or perhaps they have a loved one in their life who's never responded to the gospel. And I get this, I get this a lot, you know, and it's funny that people are so concerned with this, but they'll say to me, you know, Pastor Paul, what about people who've never ever heard the gospel? Or, you know, I've got an uncle who, you know, he came to church with us once in a while, but he never ever confessed Christ and then he passed away. And what can you tell me? What does the word have to say? And if they're not careful, they can get off course if they're not thinking biblically. And I always take people to a passage in Genesis chapter 18, verse 25. And this is Abraham speaking here. He's talking to the Lord and he says, far be it from you to do such a thing, to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike, far be it from you. And then this is the part that's so important. Will not the judge of all the earth do right? Now it's given in question form, but it's a rhetorical question. And it demands a yes answer. Will not the judge of all the earth do right? Yes, the judge of all the earth will do right. Here's the point. I don't know exactly how all of these things work out, but I do know one thing, God will do right. You know? So when people ask me, well, how's it gonna work? You know, for some people who've never heard the gospel, I don't know. All I know is that God will do right. He's not gonna be unfair. He's not gonna be unjust. He's not gonna be unkind. He's not going to be cruel. He's going to do what's right. Here's the question. Do you believe that? If you let go of the answer to this rhetorical question, you will get off course. Because the enemy loves to accuse God, loves to do it to you. To accuse God to you. You know, I don't think God's fair. I don't think God's even kind. Look at this, look at that. And then start to bring up all these circumstances and situations and so forth. And what about that? And what about that? And then when people finally write me a note or come and talk to me about it and they say, Pastor Paul, what about? I know that they've been influenced by people who are throwing out all these questions in an accusatory sort of a way. And I come back and I say the same thing. I don't have the answer to all those, but I know someone who does. Here's my question. Do you trust him? Do you believe in his character to the degree that you can say, I know that God will do right. Whatever he does, he will do right. No one will stand before God and say, I didn't get a chance. Nobody. I believe that with all my heart. So those are some biblical keys on staying on course as it relates to salvation. We're gonna move on to the next one here, which is the biblical keys concerning you and the law of Moses. This is a huge area, you guys. And it is probably one of the areas of the greatest confusion among believers. How do I apply the law of Moses? I know that the Bible, the whole Bible is the word of God. And so I read through my Old Testament and I come to the 10 commandments and I come to the, and I see the law and I say to myself, or I ask myself, so what, how does it all apply to my life? And this has been a huge issue for Christians for many, many years. I have to tell you, in all honesty, groups like the Seventh-day Adventists have stumbled over this area terribly and continue to stumble to this day. Essentially, what Christians struggle with as it relates to the Mosaic covenant that God made with Israel is how it possibly can intersect and harmonize with what they know to be the gospel of grace. Because on the one hand you read verses like we already did from Ephesians that says we're saved by grace through faith and this not of ourselves and then they read the law and they're confused. What's the what's this so aren't the Ten Commandments still important? And the answer to that question is yeah they are they're still very important. But there are several passages that I share with people along the lines of understanding and staying on course related to how the law of Moses applies to your life. And one of the passages in fact the first one that I'm going to show you is so key that the author of the book of Hebrews actually quotes this passage in detail. And personally when I read through this I believe that the people who struggle with the law like groups like the Seventh-day Adventists and there are others I'm not pointing out them as the only one but I have to think that they haven't either fully read or fully understood what this passage has to say. Let me put it on the screen from Jeremiah 31 verse 31 and following it says

Will you stop there for just a moment give me your attention we'll read through the rest of it I promise. What do you see so far in this passage? God is saying that he's going to make a new covenant and we know that he made that covenant initially with Israel but it was broadened to the Gentiles and brought in to be the full you know family of God. But what do you see in that passage? The first thing God says is I'm gonna make a new covenant that's the first thing he says I'm going to make a new covenant. The second thing he says there is that it will not be like the covenant I made with their forefathers. Did you see that? It won't be like it and yet for 2,000 years Christians have been trying to amalgamate the old covenant with the new covenant. They've been trying to put them together piece them together somehow make them work together somehow make a mesh together and you know what happens when you do that? You get Christianity with law keeping. You get Christianity but you got to keep a certain day. You get Christianity but you got to keep the food laws. You get Christianity but you got to do this. You got to do that. That's what you get that's what you end up with and it's a mess. It is it is it is an absolute mess. So God says it's not going to be like the old covenant. Okay let's go back to this passage and read the rest of it.

That crazy? God says I'm gonna write my law on the inside. Do you know what that means? It means you don't need the law on the outside anymore. You know we have all kinds of laws here in the land that are posted with signs and none of those signs live inside of you. They're all outside of you and you're driving along the road and you see a speed limit sign on a street or on the highway or on the freeway or whatever and that sign says that you may go this fast and no faster and if you go faster you're gonna break the law. Now you may not know depending on what state you're in exactly what the law is until you see the sign. If you're in a brand new state you drive you're driving state to state and you come in you know what's the speed limit here in this state anyway you're driving along for a while and think well I hope I'm not going over finally you see us okay I see that's this is how fast they want us to go on the highway. But you had to wait until you see the sign because you didn't know really otherwise. You were kind of guessing because not every state has the same speed limit. You go from Idaho to Oregon you suddenly go from 80 miles an hour to 70 on the freeway when you hit the border and you better not go 80 on the Oregon freeway or you're gonna pay for it. But the sign is external to you. Now stop and think for a minute if those signs weren't necessary. What if the government and this sounds kind of scary but just bear with me what if they had a way of taking all of the laws and putting them inside you? You wouldn't need the signs would you? You would cross a border you'd know. You'd know exactly how fast you were because it was inside of you. It's just there. It's innate. You know that you know that you know. You don't need an external law saying to you thou shalt not commit adultery. It's here. It's here now you see. And it's not that I'm dissing the law in terms of saying I don't care about it anymore. I care very deeply about it. In fact I care in a completely new way because it's now not just in me it's my desire. It has become one with my desire. It is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose the Bible says. It is God who works in you. How? Through his Spirit. How? Taking the law bringing it into flesh. It is in me now. It's in you. So do I need this external law anymore? Well that's an important question. Another wonderful passage that puts the law into the perspective for believers is what Paul wrote in Galatians 3. Let me show you this. Galatians 3 24 and 25 it says

That's exactly what I was explaining to you. You don't need the signs anymore. It's inside of you. The law was a guardian. You needed a guardian because why? In the Old Covenant under the Old Covenant the Spirit did not come in to indwell people. You know that right? Nobody in the Old Testament had the Holy Spirit living inside them. The Holy Spirit would come upon people to empower them for service but the Spirit did not live inside under the Old Covenant. So the law was given, Paul says, as a guardian but he says now that faith has come and I have my faith in Jesus and of course what happens when I put my faith in Jesus? I receive the Holy Spirit. Now that the Spirit has come to live within me through faith I don't need a guardian outside of me anymore. The guardian is in me, right? This is your relationship to the law. Listen, don't let go of these truths or you'll get off course because somebody's gonna come along and they're gonna tell you you gotta do this just this way and they're gonna be talking about these external guardians from the Old Covenant and you're sitting there looking at them like, dude I have the Holy Spirit. I have the writer. The lawgiver lives in my heart. I love also Romans chapter 7 verses 4 through 6. This is another verse that I share to keep people on course. Paul says, likewise my brothers you also have died to the law through the body of Christ so that you may belong to another to him who has been raised from the dead in order that we may bear fruit for God for while we were living in the flesh our sinful passions aroused by the law, that's what the law did by the way, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death but now we're released from the law having died to that which held us captive. I want you to notice that phrase, having died to that which held us captive. What held us captive? The law. It held us captive to the curse because we couldn't keep the law, right? So that, he goes on to say, we now serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code. We serve in the new way of the Spirit. What is the new way of the Spirit? It's listening to the lawgiver in my heart and not needing the external guardian of signs that are outside of me. That's what Paul's saying. And so he says we've died to that which held us captive. The law previously held us captive. Yeah. Not that, not because the law was bad. The law wasn't like holding us captive because it was bad. It was holding us captive because we were bad and we couldn't live up to it and so we were cursed because of it. You're under a curse, all of you. Can't keep the law. That's God's righteous standard and you can't do it because you got to do it perfectly. You break one law, you've broken them all. that delightful? We couldn't do it. None of us could do it. So you're under a curse. Now you've been set free from the curse. You've been set free from that which held you captive, and now you are living in the new way of the Spirit, following the Spirit, not rules and regulations. Again, let me just say something. Some of you have an internal gravitational pull to rules and regulations. They make you feel safe, and you like people to tell you, do this, don't do that. And I get people all the time writing me and saying, Pastor Paul, here's my situation, what should I do? And they probably get angry with me, and I say, well you need to pray and listen to the Holy Spirit. I want you to tell me what to do. No. If I do that, I will circumvent the most precious thing going on in your life as a Christian, and that is being led by the Holy Spirit, listening to his voice. He is the counselor, not me. And I will not usurp his position. But, you know, we'd rather go through the drive-up window of answers, get our quick thing, you know, and because, you know, waiting on the Lord for an answer is tough. People will say very often to me, I've been praying and I haven't heard anything from God, so what do you think I should do? No, you're not gonna trap me that way. You've been praying and listening, but you haven't listened long enough. You keep listening. You persevere. You haven't, you need to say, I've been praying and I haven't heard yet. And if someone's pressuring you for an answer, you know, do you know one of the most beautiful passages about hearing the Holy Spirit is just recognizing the peace. I didn't have this to put on the screen, but, you know, someone asked me just this week, you know, I've been praying about this and I'm not really sure what the Lord's direction is. How do I know? And I quoted in the passage from Colossians, I believe, let the peace of Christ rule in your heart. That word rule means referee. Let the, let the peace of Christ referee in your heart. Do you have peace about the decision? Or are you unsettled? Well, I have peace. Well, let the peace of Christ rule. Let the peace of Christ call it, you know. The Holy Spirit will give you an unsettled, you know, lack of peace if you're beginning to take a step that is outside of His will. So, you know, just pray and listen and trust. It's trusting by faith. That's that new work of walking with the Spirit. Trusting by faith. God's gonna lead me. God's gonna lead me in the way that I need to go. And that's why Paul wrote what he did in Romans 3. Up on the screen, Romans 3 31 says,

Guys, this verse here will keep you from getting off course. Because you will be told by certain law-abiding or people who believe that they must keep the law in some way, shape, or form, you will be told that because you don't do it their way, you're violating the law. Whether it's going to church on the Sabbath or whether it's doing this or doing that or whatever the thing might be. And Paul answers that question because don't you know that Paul got those same accusations, people? Don't you know Paul was accused? Paul was accused. The Apostle Paul was accused of overthrowing the law of Moses by what he was teaching. Because he was teaching Christians that they're no longer under the law and they are now to be led by faith that they listen to the Holy Spirit because the lawgiver now lives within them. And people, the Jews would say to Paul, you can't say that to people. You're literally overthrowing the law when you say that. So Paul asked the question, is that true? Are we overthrowing the law? No, we are not. He says, by no means. In fact, he says, through faith we uphold the law. How does that work? How does faith uphold the law? Well, it depends on who you have your faith in. You got your faith in you, that's a problem. You got your faith in Jesus, you're golden. You know why? He kept the law perfectly. And now you put your faith in him. And through Christ, through faith, we uphold the law. We uphold it. We uphold it by faith. Guys, not by doing. That's what the legalist will say, no, no, no, no, you got to do. We say, no, you have to believe. And that's hard for some Christians, again, who have a tendency toward legalism. They're going to struggle with that a little bit. Paul also wrote in Romans 6, 14, this is a great verse, he said, for sin will have no dominion over you since you are not under law but under grace. Well, the first thing he tells you there is that you're not under law, okay? Boom, you're not under law. But that's not the important part of that verse. The important part of that is Paul is now answering his critics who say, if you tell people that they're not under the law, they're just going to, sin is going to become rampant in their lives. And Paul says right here, no, by faith, sin has no dominion over you any longer. By faith. You see, the legalist says the way to get free from sin is to keep the rules. Do and do and do. That's how you stay sinless. And Paul says that doesn't work. It isn't by doing and doing, it's by believing. By faith, sin will have no dominion over you because you're not under the law, you're under grace. That free gift of the Holy Spirit living in you, guiding you, leading you. Wait, guiding you, leading you perfectly? No. There's not one person in this room who is guided or led perfectly by the Holy Spirit, myself included. In fact, I probably make more mistakes than the rest of you. That's not the point. We're learning, we're growing, we're seeking to follow the Holy Spirit in our lives for the direction that he gives, but we mess up. Aren't you glad that the blood of Jesus Christ keeps on cleansing us from sin? Because we do mess up, don't we? But the blood of Jesus keeps on cleansing us. And so, you know, it's so beautiful. It really is. Finally, Romans 6, verses 1 and 2 says, are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? That's what Paul was accused of preaching. He said, no, by no means. How can we who died to sin still live in it? Now he's answering those critics about, you know, you get rid of the law and sin is just going to go wild in your life. Paul says, no, that's not the way it works. Because see, when we come to Christ, we join him in his death on the cross. We literally join him. And I don't understand how all that works, but we join him in his death, we die to self, and we learn to put off the dominion of sin and to allow the leading of the Holy Spirit in our lives. These are biblical keys that I've given you so that you don't get off course. If you hang on to these keys, and I mean just really hang on to them, meditate on them, keep them near, they're going to keep you on course as it relates to these things. The next one we're going to look at here is the biblical keys to kind of understanding you and Satan. And this is another really challenging one, because at some point in a believer's life, they're going to have to grapple with the question of just how much authority Satan has to tempt and torment us. I remember when I was a new Christian, I did not have this figured out in any way, shape or form. And the enemy took advantage of my lack of understanding, my ignorance in it. And I was a young man at the time, I was in my early 20s, and I just didn't know. I kind of saw God and Satan as these equals who were kind of having this tug of war in heaven, and sometimes God won and sometimes Satan won, and I wasn't really sure on whatever day I woke up who was going to win that day. And I just really didn't fully understand. I didn't know how much freedom that the enemy had to come into my life and to wreak havoc, you know. And I didn't, I mean, can Satan spoil my salvation? These are questions that people ask. You know, can Satan literally steal me away from God? Is that something he can do? Is he free to attack me or my family whenever he wishes? And very few know. New believers have the answers to those kinds of questions. And they have plagued believers and kept them awake at night. But there are biblical keys that you can hang on to that will keep you on course as it relates to this particular question. And the first one is from Romans 8. You know this verse, but it's so easy to let go of. Have you ever lost your house keys or your car keys? We lose biblical keys too. We just misplace them. And this is one key that people misplace. Paul says,

You'll notice he mentions angels. That includes Satan. He's an angel, fallen though he may be. Okay? He cannot, he cannot separate you from the love of God. The love of God is certain and sure, and it's not going anywhere. And Satan is not going to do that. He can't do it. Doesn't matter. He says any, and if Paul hasn't named every possible thing, he then sums it all up by saying, or anything else in all creation. So I don't really care, whatever else you want to say, or name as a possibility. That's not gonna do it either. Do you guys remember at the last supper when Jesus was talking to his disciples and he began to tell them that they were all going to desert him that night? He says, this very night, you're all gonna run off, scared for your lives. And you remember, Peter spoke up, and he was very much offended at the idea that he might be one of those who would desert the Lord that night. And so he told the Lord, I will not, I will not desert you. I will go, I'll die with you tonight if I have to. And you'll remember that Jesus said something very important to him, but it helps us to understand the relationship of Satan to the believer. Here's what Jesus said as recorded in Luke 22.

Now, this is also translated elsewhere in some other modern English translations as Satan has asked to sift you his wheat because that is the idea behind the word demanded. The idea there is that Satan has to ask permission in order to do anything in the life of a believer. And frankly, we see this as far back as the Old Testament in the book of Job, where Satan comes before God along with the angels, and he begins to accuse Job to God, and God then allows, through permission, for the enemy to do certain things in Job's life. But again, this was for the purposes of God. And it's important for you to understand that Satan just doesn't have this constant free access to the life of a believer. You are in Christ, you are stamped with the Holy Spirit, he is living within you, and Satan does not have free reign. I don't care what your Pentecostal friends tell you. He doesn't. And that's because that's what the Bible says, and we're gonna believe the Bible. There's something else you need to understand about Satan as it relates to your ability now in Christ. And that is given to us in the passage we actually just looked at on Sunday morning. We'll look at it again from 1 Peter 5.

Good thing Peter didn't stop there. He ended up saying, but you can resist him. As you stand firm in your faith, you can resist him. Did you know that? Do you understand, Christians, that apart from Jesus, you have no ability to resist the enemy? He is so much more powerful than you, but he is not more powerful than God. And you have God living in you through the Holy Spirit, and through that indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit, you can now resist the devil. Peter said so. Resist him, he said, firm in your faith. In other words, resist him as you stand firm in your faith. You can do that. You can say, no, you can pray against the work of the enemy. You can pray God's protection. You can stand against the lies. And one of the ways that we also resist the enemy is through the word, because the word is the sword, the sword of the Spirit. And when the enemy comes, you can start swinging that sword, and it has an impact. Jesus used the sword of the Spirit against Satan when he was being tempted in the wilderness. You can too. That is one of the ways we resist the devil. And it is now yours through Jesus Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit. You need to understand something else about what Jesus has accomplished. This is given to us in Colossians. I like this out of the NIV. It says, and having disarmed the powers and authorities, Jesus made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross. What powers and authorities is Paul talking about here? He's talking about spiritual powers and authorities. He's talking about Satan. He's saying that Satan has been disarmed according to your life. You are under new management, and that is God. And the enemy, as it relates to you, has been disarmed. I honestly think that Christians give Satan way too much credit. These are biblical keys that will keep you on course as it relates to how your life in Christ connects to the work of the enemy. And these are important keys to hold up that are part of the shield of faith. And then finally, our last section that we're gonna look at here tonight is biblical keys concerning you and hardships. And this is another big one that Christians really struggle with because we all go through hardships. Some of us go through terrible tragedies, stressful, stressful times in our lives. And this last section is gonna help us stay on course in the midst of the storms of life because we go through storms. And when we go through storms, there is a very real temptation for getting off course, being blown off course by the winds of those storms that come into our lives. And why do we get off course? Because we get our eyes off the Lord and we start looking at the wind and the waves just like Peter did when he was walking on the water. Got his eyes off the Lord, started looking at the storms. Well, you know, that's natural, isn't it? When I go through storms, I look at the storms. I have to physically turn my gaze away from the storm and get it back on Jesus. Hard thing to do, but it's very important to maintain the keys, the biblical keys that are gonna keep you on course when the storms of life begin to rage. And the first one is another passage from Romans 8, that wonderful chapter where Paul says,

Why is this such an important passage to maintain? First of all, you need to remember that whatever trials and tragedies or problems or stresses come into your life, they will not, they cannot be strong enough. They cannot be strong enough to separate you from the love of Christ. The first thing people ask when they go through a hard time is, does God still love me? Not everybody, but it's common. Does God still love me? And the enemy wants to quickly answer that for you. And he wants to say, the answer is no, he doesn't. And when we're feeling pain, that's a fairly easy sell. It's not that hard for the enemy to convince us that God doesn't love me. love us anymore, and that's why we're going through what we're going through. I could show you, I wouldn't, but I could show you an incredible amount of emails where people have spoken that very thing, questioned the love of God because of what they're going through in their lives right now. Does God still love me? And that's why Paul says in the middle of that passage, for I am sure. And that is a call to you and me to ask ourselves the question, am I sure? Am I sure? The apostle Paul said, for I am sure that nothing can separate me from God's love. Here's the real question. Are you sure? Because if you are, that's a key to keep you on course when hardships come into your life. Romans 8, 28, for we know, we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good for those who are called according to his purpose. Once again, Paul starts off that passage by saying, and we know. Here's my question. Do you know? Because you know what? A lot of people communicate to me that they're certainly not sure. They do not know that all things work together for good. They are not certain of it at all. Because what they're going through right now hurts, it's painful, and it has called that very element into question. But we have to, when we're going through hard times, we have to go back to the scripture and read it and recite it and memorize it until it just gets into our heart. I know, I know, I know that for those who love God, all things work together for good. I know. You must become convinced through the word. And then finally, 2 Corinthians, one of my favorite passages, Paul telling about his conversation with the Lord when he sought the Lord to have that thorn in his flesh removed. But he said to me, my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. Paul says, therefore, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me for the sake of Christ, and I'm content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and look at this, calamities. For when I'm weak, then I am strong. What an incredible passage of scripture. But you know, one of the first things that I find Christians do when they're going through a hard time is they try to cover it up. They don't tell anybody at first. And I'm not everybody, but most people, they won't say anything about it because they're afraid that if they communicate somehow that they're going through some kind of a hardship or difficulty, that people are going to think them less spiritual, I suppose. Maybe your faith isn't where it should be because you're going through a hard time. That's ridiculous. We all go through hard times. Paul got to the point where he said, I not only admit it when I'm going through a hard time, but I'm not going to have any problem admitting it for the rest of my days. I boast in them. Here's why. I've learned an important lesson that when hardships, calamities, difficulties, weaknesses bring out in me what is truly there, which is my own personal lack, that's when Jesus rushes in to fill that lack. That's what he learned. When I am weak, that's when I actually become strong. Do you understand that the grammar, when I am weak, then I am strong, doesn't make any sense unless you understand what he's saying. I mean, grammatically speaking, that's a stupid thing to say. When I'm weak, then I'm strong. That's ridiculous. When you're weak, then you're weak. When you're strong, then you're strong. No, no, no. See, what Paul is saying here is when I'm personally recognizing the weaknesses of who I am, that's when I begin to rely on the power and grace of God, and that's when his strength begins to empower me, and I become strong in him or because of him. That's what he's saying. And if you've never experienced that before, that's an important thing to remember. It's a key that'll keep you on course. Because we all go through those times. We all go through those times when life is just miserable, miserable, and we're not sure we're going to be able to make it another step or another day. And that's when we simply come to God and we say, Lord, I can't do this. I can't do this. I'm at the end of myself. I'm at the end of my rope. I'm at the end of my strength. I can't do this. I need you to give me the ability to take the next step, to take the next breath, and to go into the next day. And then I have to remember that when I am weak, that's when he makes me strong. And that key, those biblical keys will keep you on course during times of hardship. So there you go. Biblical keys to staying on course. Let's pray. Father, I thank you so much for the power and just the presence of your Holy Spirit in the midst of your Word that makes bold declaration of all that you will do in our lives as we put our faith and trust in you. Lord, forgive us, please, for those times, the many, many times when we waver and our faith is not strong. Forgive us, Lord, for those times when we listen to the whisperings of the enemy, when we are lured into the ways of the world and the thoughts of our own emotions take center stage. Forgive us, Lord, when we lose the keys that you've given to us to stay on course and we begin to drift off the path that you would have us to be on. Forgive us, Lord, and help us to maintain our course by abiding in your Word and what it says and believing your promises. Lord, we want to have that same confidence the Apostle Paul had so that we can say, I am sure and I know. Lord, do that work in us. Increase our faith. Help us, Father, to stand on the Word, to trust in our Lord without wavering. Lord, we look to you because we have to look to you, because there's no one else or there's nothing else to look to apart from you. We commit our hearts to you tonight. In Jesus' precious name, all God's people said together, Amen. God bless you. Have a good rest of your Wednesday.