Wizards that peep and mutter. Let's talk about it on this edition of Key Life. You're listening to Key Life, a program that isn't designed for nice Christians doing nice things for God and helping you to be nicer. This is Bible C too for real living. Here's Steve. Thanks Mike. If you have your Bible, keep it there. I'm going to be referring to a lot of scriptures we go along. Let me give you a scripture I didn't give you yesterday and you're familiar with it. And you probably memorized it. We were talking about when you're discouraged, discouragement being pain and suffering ugly, really ugly sister. And we talked about a lot of stuff over the last few days about what you do about discouragement. We talked about guilt and how you deal with that. We talked about a cloud of witnesses. We talked about the power you have. Now I suggested some things that have helped me. I remembered the past. Job 8, 8 through 10. I remember the facts. Ephesians 6, 13 through 14. Remember the process. Psalm 37, 23 through 24. And then yesterday I ended that talk about that by saying don't forget about the future that you're not home yet. John 14, 1 through 2. Don't be troubled. This is Jesus speaking. You believe in God. Believe also in me. And my father's house are many mansions. And if it weren't so, I would have told you I go to prepare a place for you. Listen, when it hurts, when it's really bad, when your rope is broken and you're discouraged, remember the memorials God has given you in the past and look to the future with the confidence that he has prepared a place for you. Alright, I want another subject altogether. We're going to talk about the devil. I used at the beginning of the broadcast wizards that peep and mutter. That's a delightful phrase. It's found in Isaiah, I think, when Isaiah is talking about the occult. But I want to talk about Satan because when you're talking about pain and suffering, Satan has a part of this. Let me give you a quote from Tozer. A.W. Tozer, show me an individual or a congregation committed to spiritual progress with the Lord. Interested in what the Bible teaches about spiritual perfection and victory. And I'll show you where there is strong and immediate defiance by the devil. Satan has been in this business of intimidating and silencing and depressing the people of God for a long, long time. Someone else, I think it was Ron Dunn, put it this way, if you didn't meet the devil this morning, it's a good indication you're probably going in the same direction. You know, there are many times when we go through really difficult times. And it's the result of sin. Job's friends, expeditions, gave some validity for the problem of suffering, their explanations. However, we're wrong. Although the friends, philosophical. And then we talked about that a lot during a series. And theological views were sometimes really insightful and biblical. They missed the real cause of his misery and suffering. How do I know they're wrong? And oh, because I have an advantage they didn't have. I've read the first part of the book. In the first chapter, and we're going back to Job, so if you've got your Bible open, it did Job 1, 9 through 12. In the first chapter, Satan came before God and the Lord asked if he had seen that there was no one on earth like a servant Job, a blameless and upright man. And then this is the text. So Satan answered the Lord and said, does Job fear God for nothing? Have you not made a hedge around him around his household and around all that he has? On every side, you have blessed the work of his hands and his possessions have increased in the land. But now, stretch out your hand and touch all that he has, and he will surely curse you to your face. So the Lord said to Satan, behold, all that he has is in your power. Only do not lay a hand on his person. Then Satan went out from the presence of the Lord, presumably to do the bad stuff that happened to Job. Now, if you read the story, you know that Satan went after everything important to Job. He took away Job's family as fortune, as reputation. Through it all, Job remained faithful to God. The Satan went back to God so he might inflict more pain on Job. You can look at that at Job 2, 3, 3, 7. Now, there are five facts. By the way, when he took his family away, he didn't take his wife away. That was his curse. Job said, oh man, give me back my children and take her. She told him, he said, just curse God and die. That was really an encouragement. That was a model for Christian wise for their husbands when they were really down. But anyway, I want to draw from that Job passage. And then from Job 2, 3, 3, 7, 5 facts. And I don't overdo this because I think Christians get into trouble when they give Satan more power. Well, we'll talk about that as we go along. But I want to show you five facts. The first thing you ought to notice about Satan is that he is. He's alive and well. A lot of you guys have been listening to this broadcast and agreed with most of the stuff I've been teaching up to this point in this series. And you're probably saying, oh, Steve, you've got to be kidding. That's a cop out. You preachers are all the same. When you can't explain something, you blame it on the devil because I knew some of you would be saying that or something like that. I thought about just not saying anything about the devil. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that a discussion of suffering without a discussion of Satan would be like discussing World War II without discussing Adolf Hitler. The writers of the Bible call Satan the liar, the accuser, the drag, and the serpent. The ruler of the world Bible says that even says enough about the work of Satan to make any believer pause. Satan is the tempter who would lure the believer away from the walk of faith. He seeks to destroy God's word in the experience of the blaze, the accuser who would cripple the Christian with guilt and fear. He sometimes becomes king in an individual life. Satan is responsible for sin and unbelief. He rejoices whenever he can turn a pagan away from Jesus and a Christian away from the Christian life. He would have you fall down and worship him even if you called him by another name. He's real, he's alive, he's dangerous, so deal with it. Some of the clear teachings we have on Satan, absolute evil, comes from Jesus himself. If Jesus was the son of God and he said he was, then everything he said was true and only very foolish Christians would ignore it. What then did Jesus say about Satan? When Jesus saw the unbelief of so many so-called religious people, he said, well, if you got your Bible, turn to John 843-44. Why do you not understand my speech, this is Jesus talking, because you are not able to listen to my word, you are of your father, the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth because there's no truth in him when he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources for he is a liar and the father of lies. Jesus pointed to Satan as the reason, the truth of God doesn't take root. Flip over to Mark 4, 14 through 15, the source, those word, and these are the ones by the wayside where the word is sewn and when they hear Satan comes immediately and takes away the word that was sewn in their hearts. In John 1231, Jesus called Satan the ruler of the world and Luke 22, 31 through 32. Jesus says, Simon, Simon, indeed Satan has asked for you that he may sit you as sweet, but I have prayed for you that your faith would not fail when you have returned to me, strengthen your brethren. You may have some difficulty in believing in a real and personal devil. If that's your situation, don't just ignore what I'm saying. I will allow you because of your immaturity to substitute the words metaphorical personification of evil every time I use the word Satan or devil. Your designation will be silly, but the ammunition I'm going to give you will be just as effective. The first thing is very important for us to remember that Satan is alive and well, so deal with it. I must say on this broadcast, I'm going to talk more about it tomorrow, but I've got to say because he's going to leave it there. The same thing I want you to remember, not only do we learn from Job that Satan is alive and well, but we also learn that Satan is controlled. An English proverb says that devil is God's ape. I like that. Please note that before Satan could do anything to Job, what did he do? He asked God's permission. Satan though alive and well, is a defeated enemy. Now, let me give you some scriptural references. I'm not going to take the time to read of Colossians 215, Revelation 2010. Let me take something. If you're a believer, you're playing in a ballgame that's already decided, the victory's already been won. Satan will come out on the short end of the stick. You can hang your hat on it because of the cross of Christ. Because of the cross of Christ, God has already won the battle of Satan. And by the way, that truth that I just told you is a truth that Satan, if he does exist, or if you're sillian superficial, you want to say metaphorical personification of evil. Whatever doesn't like to hear. Because Satan knows that if you know that he's a defeated enemy, you simply will not be afraid of him anymore. Now, y'all have a little bit of fear. He's got a lot of experience. You don't have. But he's under the control of the God of the universe. I think it was Rutherford who heard a noise out in his living room one night, woke him up. He went out and satin was sitting in his easy chair. Rutherford looked at him, said, oh, it's only you. I'm going back to bed. And he went back to bed. You can do that too, if you remember. That Satan is controlled. You think about that? I'm in. Hey, listen, if you don't have our winter magazine, I'd love to send it to you free. I wrote a couple of articles, our God reigns and crosses and crowns. When your pain becomes unbearable, how do you bear it? There's a question and an answer column. A lot of great resources. In my tenor areas there, a lot of resources to get you and those you love home with freedom and joy and faithfulness to Christ is your kind of achievement. And it's free. So, if you don't like it, you can't complain. Just let us know. Give us a call at 1-800-Keylife, or you can write Keylife, post office box 5,000-Mateland, Florida, 3-2794, or Keylife-Canada, post office box 3-2150. You can email us at Steve at Keylife.org with your regular mailing address. 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