It's Time To Whip The Devil

Intro: Charles Atlas Story--bully whips this skinny kid on beach steals girlfriend. Skinny kid pumps weights, gets massive, goes back to the beach, whips the bully, gets his girlfriend back. Before Christ,(BC) the devil whips people up, but After Christ, people can put a hurting on the devil.

It’s Time To Whip The Devil

Luke 4:1-15

In the temptation of Christ we find four keys on how to whip the devil.

I. By Being Full of the Holy Spirit--Luke 4:1a Jesus full of the Holy Spirit went into the wilderness.

here is a revealed truth in God’s Word that so many people miss. Jesus didn’t operate in the flesh to win over Satan, He was empowered by the Holy Spirit. The same Spirit that dwells in every believer.

a. we are defeated when we try to operate on human effort and not God’s Spirit. Jesus was full, many times we try to win over the devil on empty.

b. if we use Sunday to get a fill up, but don’t operate in the Spirit the rest of the week, we will live defeated lives.

c. in the last days they will put on forms of righteousness that denies the power of God.

ill) Seven Sons of Sceva- when they tried to duplicate God’s power they had seen, they were defeated by demons to the point of having their clothes torn off.

II. By Being Led By The Spirit--4:1c

Jesus was led to this fight with the devil by the Spirit of God. To many times people find themselves in losing battles because they weren’t led by the Spirit of God in the first place.

ill) it is important to be led by the Spirit. The story is told of a man and wife following each other on a trip. He was leading what he assumed to be his wife’s headlights, she was following what she assumed to be her husband’s taillights. When they realized they were separated, they were in different States.

until you go in the Spirit, you can’t return in the Spirit. You can’t get into the battle and then start praying for the power, you have to bring the power into the battle.

ill) lady on airplane during a terrible storm seemed unconcerned. Man next to her said, we had better start praying. The lady said, I did my praying before I ever took this flight.

III. By Being Hungry For God--4:2 in those days He did eat nothing.

There is not a lot of teaching on prayer and fasting. Some people when you mention not eating for a day, or days say things like isn’t that dangerous? But Jesus went 40 days without food. Fasting is a statement to your flesh, you are more hungry for God than anything else. Jesus said, His meat was to do the will of the Father.

I wrote a chorus a while back that talks about being more hungry for God than anything else.

Nothing Else Matters

Nothing else matters but you Lord

Nothing else matters but you

this world and it’s riches, it’s cares and concerns

is not where my heart is, or what my soul yearns

for I’ve found the place where the Spirit moves through,

where nothing else matters, where nothing else matters but you.

a. if you are hungry for God, you will be filled. When the church gets hungry for God, God will fill the church.

b. David said, as the deer pants for the water so my soul longs after thee, you alone are my hearts desire and I long to worship you.

IV. By Standing On The Word--

4:4- it is written, 4:8-it is written, 4:12-it is said.

you need to know the Word to speak the Word. You can’t whip the devil by giving him your opinion, you whip the devil by giving him God’s Word on it.

a. the Word is quick and powerful, my flesh is slow and weak. I am not able to defeat the devil, if we could defeat the devil by ourselves, Christ wouldn’t have had to come to save us.

b. sharper than a sword--it cuts through all the lies of Satan, the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds.

ill) years ago they advertised a knife called the Ginzu knife. It’s motto, it slices and dices, it chops and it splices and never grows dull. We are people of the sword. It never grows dull, it can never be defeated. If it is burned, banned it still lives on. It is infallible, indestructible, the ever living Word of God. It won’t return void, it prospers where it is sent, it accomplishes what it sets out to do.

close: it’s time to whip the devil.

Years ago when I was in sixth grade, there was a boy who was as thin as a rail. 70 pounds soaking wet. He had a crew cut, black rim glasses, and was an easy target to be picked on. I had just moved to Maine and was trying to make some friends when I noticed some guys pushing this kid around, knocking his glasses off. So I went over and said, before you hit him again, you will have to hit me. They backed off and John Marrow became my first friend in Eddington Maine. I tell that story not to say I was a hero, but that you might be out there and the devil is whipping you all the time.