The central theme is that Jesus Christ's coming and work represent a divine invasion and victory in an ongoing spiritual war against the devil and his works, offering believers deliverance and ultimate peace.
I read the word of God from 1 John chter
7 little children let no man deceive
you he that doeth righteousness is
righteous even as he is
righteous he that practices sin is of
the devil for the devil sinth from the
beginning for this purpose the Son of
God was manifested that he might destroy
the works of the
devil whosoever is born of God does not
practice sin for his seed remaineth in
him and he cannot practice sin because
he is born of
God in this the children of God are
manifest and the children of the
devil whosoever doth not righteousness
is not of God neither he that loveth not
his brother
for this is the message that ye heard
from the beginning that we should love
one another not as Cain who was of that
Wicked one and killed his brother and
why killed he him because his own Works
were evil and his brothers
righteous Marvel not my brethren if the
world hates you we know that we have
passed from death and life because we
love the Brethren he that loveth not his
brother abideth in death who whoever
hateth his brother is a
murderer and ye know that no murderer
hath eternal life abiding in
him it is possible to be a child of
devil we usually associate Christmas with
peace after all the Angels came and said
glory to God in the highest on Earth
peace Good Will toward
Men He Shall guide our feet in the ways of
of
Peace said
Zacharias and the Old Testament Prophet
said that one of his names would be the
prince of
peace and so it's proper in a world
that's filled with a great deal of
turmoil and strife to talk about peace
at Christmas
time and and yet actually the birth of
Jesus Christ in
Bethlehem was part of an ancient
war a war that had been going on between
Satan from the
beginning when Satan
fell and rebelled against
God now John takes Satan
seriously in 1 John CH 3 he talks about the
the
devil and Jesus Took Satan
seriously he confronted him in the
wilderness he defeated him in life after
life during his
ministry the Bible takes Satan
seriously I know we have those who tell
us that there is no such person as
Satan Satan is now used as a means of
entertainment but the rise of the occult
and the development of satanic
Cults is reminding people today that
Satan here in 1 John chapter
3 and verse 8 John gives us the third
reason why the Lord Jesus was
born he was manifested that he might
destroy the works of the devil
back in verse 5 he was manifested to
take away sin back in chapter 1 verse 2
the life was
manifested the promise of Christmas is
the promise of life and
forgiveness and victory for this purpose
the Son of God was manifested that he
might destroy the works of the
devil now this raises the question how
did the Lord Jesus Christ destroy the
works of of the devil he did not destroy
the Devil he destroyed the works of the
devil John is talking about a war he's
talking about a conflict and he's
talking about a victory now how does all
of this come about and what does it mean
to you and me who are here worshiping in Chicago
Chicago
today when you examine our Lord's battle
with the
devil a battle that ended in
Victory you will discover that there
were four
crises involved in this
Victory and if you and I understand
these four
crises we will be able to accept from
the Lord the kind of victory that he
wants us to have in our lives I'm sure
I'm speaking just now to people who want
Victory somebody listening just now is
saying this last week has been a week of defeat
defeat
I wish I could take those pages out of
my diary and burn them and if I did that
the memory is still
there we're surrounded by many people
who are defeated the soldiers are becoming
becoming
casualties and whether we like it or not
Satan is busy at
work he's wrecking lives he's wrecking
homes how do we get this victory
let's notice these four crises that are
involved in our Lord's victory over
Satan crisis number one his
birth in his birth Jesus invaded Satan's
world you say wait a minute pastor weby
this is my father's world that's right
but if you read the Gospel of John
carefully you will find that the Lord
Jesus uses a name for Satan that
identifies him with this world he's
called The Prince of this
world now is the Judgment of this world
said Jesus now shall the prince of this
world be cast out he said to his
disciples the prince of this world
cometh but he hath nothing in me Satan
is the prince of this world this world's
system is controlled by the power of Satan
Satan
1 John CH
5 verse
19 and we know that we are of God and
the whole world lith in wickedness the literal
literal
translation the whole world is lying in
the lap of the wicked
one and Satan has this world system like
a toy in his lap and he's playing with
with it and he's getting glory and he's
winning victories and the first crisis
was the birth of Jesus Christ when Jesus
Christ invaded Satan's
World our Lord tells us about this in a
little Parable that is usually neglected
back in Luke
11 Luke 11 our Lord had cast out a demon
and they accused him of being in League with
with
Satan and the Lord Jesus
says in verse 21 of Luke 11 when a
strong man armed guardeth his Palace his
goods are in peace but when a stronger
than he shall come upon him and shall
overcome him he taketh from him all his
armor in which he trusted and divideth his
his
spoils he's describing what happened at Bethlehem
Bethlehem
Jesus Christ came and invaded Satan's
world the strong man was guarding his
wealth and guarding his world and a
stronger than he
came now Satan knew he was
coming we should be as good students of
the Bible as Satan is the war was
declared back in Genesis 3:1 15 when God
said to the serpent I will put enmity
Warfare between you and the woman
between your seed and her seed he shall
crush your head you shall bruise his
heel war was declared and Satan watched
in the Old Testament as little by little
God unveiled the truth about the coming
Redeemer he would come through the
Jewish Nation
Abraham he would come through
Judah that kingly tribe he would come
through the family of David he would be
born in Bethlehem
he would be born of a
virgin Satan could even calculate from
Daniel chapter n about when he would be
born Satan was ready for
him he knew that he was coming and Satan
tried to do everything he could to keep
him from coming he had Cain to kill Abel
and then God had to appoint Seth to
carry on the line he had Abraham go down
to egyp Egypt and almost lose his wife
so that Isaac and Jacob could not be
born and God overruled that at one point
in Jewish history a wicked Queen
Queen
athaliah killed all of the royal seed
and thank God for a nurse who hid little King
King
joash to carry on the line of the
Messiah at one point the whole future of
redemption rested in the body of a
little Jewish
boy even after Jesus was born Satan
tried to kill him Herod slew the babies in
Bethlehem because Jesus Christ invaded
Satan's world that's why there's
conflict in the world today Jesus said
one day you think I've come to bring peace
peace
I've not come to bring peace I've come
to bring a sword because there's a
battle going on and you can't be neutral
he that is not with me is against me and
scattering crisis number
two in his life and his
death he destroyed Satan's
works now we're talking here about the
works of the devil not the works of the
flesh if you want to know what the works
of the flesh are you read Galatians
chapter 5 The Works of the flesh are
manifest which are these adultery
fornication lasciviousness uncleanness
he goes on to name a list of wicked
things that come from the evil heart of
man for out of the heart says the Lord
Jesus proceed evil thoughts and
adulteries and fornications
and we see somebody reeling down the
street drunk we say well the devil's got
him that's not the devil that's the
flesh here's someone whose life is being
ruined by lasciviousness and dirty
appetite say oh the devil's got him well
the devil can use those things but
that's the
flesh The Works of the devil are far
more subtle and the average person
doesn't recognize the works of the devil
you see back in 1 John chapter
3 John says if you want to know the
works of the Devil look at
Cain Cain but wait a minute Cain was a
religious man that's right back in
Genesis CH 4 Cain and Abel came to the
Altar and Cain brought a sacrifice and
Abel brought a sacrifice but Cain's
heart was not right with God and God
could not accept his
sacrifice and when Abel's sacrifice was
accepted and Cain's rejected Cain became
envious and angry and filled with hatred
and hatred is step one to murder and out
in the field he murdered his brother
Abel then he lied about it am I My
Brother's Keeper I know not where he
is and John says that Jesus Christ
destroyed the works of the devil now
what are the works of the devil just
self-righteousness Cain came to the
altar a religious man but his heart was
wrong with God do you know how Satan
captures more people than alcohol or
narcotics or lust he gets them to be
religious without faith in Jesus
Christ they go about to establish their
own righteousness and they will not
submit themselves to the righteousness
of God and you hand them a track and say
here's some good news from the Lord and
they say I don't want that
I belong to a church I'm a religious man
self-righteousness that's one of the
works of the devil
pride pride is the sin that converted
Lucifer into
Satan if Isaiah 14 is the record of the
fall of Lucifer and I think it is we
have pride I will Ascend to the throne
of God I
will pride and Cain Would Not Bow Down
Cain would not admit his sin Cain was
proud pride is one of the works of the
devil self-righteousness Pride hatred
John is talking in 1 John 3 about love
he said look no
murderer no murderer has eternal life
abiding in him and Jesus says that
hatred is murder and so hatred a work of
the devil deceit lying Satan's a
murderer and Satan's a liar
self-righteousness Pride
hatred deceit these are the works of the
devil and in his life Jesus exposed
these works when Jesus Christ began his
ministry everyone looked at the
Pharisees and said oh they're so Godly
Jesus said they're Children of the devil they're
they're
self-righteous they're proud they're
full of hat hatred they're
liars and that's the crowd that murdered
Jesus just as Abel
exposed the wickedness of Cain and Cain
killed Abel so Jesus in his life exposed the
the
wickedness of the children of the devil
and they killed
him but in his death our Lord Jesus
Christ completely destroyed the works of
the devil that word destroyed does not
mean annihilated or removed that word
destroyed means put out a commission
Satan's still at work and there still
are people who are self-righteous
Children of the devil proud filled with
hatred Liars Satan is still at work but
Jesus Christ in his life exposed this
and in his death completely defeated the
works of the devil that work that word
destroyed means to take away the power to
defuse a friend of mine I think uh has
hit the nail on the head when he uses
the term emasculate he said when Jesus
Christ died on the cross he emasculated
power how did he do it well let's just
take the works of the devil
self-righteousness Jesus brings us God's righteousness
