The Enemy, Part 1

“There was a day when I died, utterly died—died to George Mueller, his opinions, preferences, tastes, and will; died to the world, its approval or censure; died to the approval or blame even of my brethren and friends—and since then I have only to show myself approved to God.”

George Mueller

Kirk Cameron’s Comment

Often I fail to see how subtle and crafty the enemy is. A fear of looking like a freak is often the jab he gives me when I want to preach or share my faith with someone. Overcoming fear is a discipline we can learn.

Questions & Objections

Lesson

The moment we exercise repentance toward God and put our faith in the Savior, we step right into the middle of a threefold battle. We find that we are torn by the world, the flesh, and the devil. Let’s look at these three resistant enemies.

Our first enemy is the world, which refers to the sinful, rebellious world system. The world loves the darkness and hates the light (John 3:20), and is governed by the “prince of the power of the air” (Ephesians 2:2). The Bible says the Christian has escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. “Lust” is unlawful desire, and is the life’s blood of the world—whether it be the lust for sexual sin, for power, for money, or for material things. Lust is a monster that will never be gratified, so don’t feed it. It will grow bigger and bigger until it weighs heavy upon your back, and will be the death of you (James 1:15).

There is nothing wrong with sex, power, money, or material things, but when desire for these becomes predominant, it becomes idolatry. We are told, “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him”; whoever is “a friend of the world is the enemy of God” (1 John 2:15; James 4:4).

The second enemy is the devil, who is the “god of this world” (2 Corinthians 4:4). He was your spiritual father before you joined the family of God (John 8:44; Ephesians 2:2). Jesus called the devil a thief who came to steal, kill, and destroy (John 10:10).

To overcome him and his demons, make sure you are outfitted with the spiritual armor of God (Ephesians 6:10–20). Become intimately familiar with it. Sleep in it. Never take it off. Bind the sword to your hand so you never lose its grip. The reason for this brings us to the third enemy.

The third enemy is what the Bible calls the “flesh.” This is your sinful nature. The only access the enemy has to cause you to sin is through the flesh. Before your conversion, the appetite of the flesh was fully satisfied with the pleasures of sin. Suddenly it is starved to the point of gnawing at the mind for want of food. It causes what the Scriptures call a “war in your members.” Thoughts that once were acceptable now stir the alarm of conscience. This battle of the mind is fought against the powerful and corrupt Adamic nature.

The fleshly nature continually wants to sin. If you allow it to do so, it will take the “edge” off your prayer life. No longer will you come before the throne of God with confidence. You will be like Adam, who hid from God because of sin. None of us can afford to let that happen, not only for the sake of our own salvation, but for the sake of the world around us.

You will also see “Adam” pushing through if you have ever been gripped by fear when it comes to personal witnessing, or even handing someone a tract. The Adamic nature wants the approval of men, preferring the praise of men to the praise of God. It is proud and concerned about self rather than the eternal welfare of sinners. Crucified Christians don’t care what people think and are not ashamed of the gospel. They care only about the will of God and therefore the salvation of the lost.

Just after a young couple’s first child began to walk, he picked up a blanket and adopted it as his “cuddly.” He would take that blanket wherever he went. In the usual childlike manner, he would put his thumb and part of his blanket into his mouth and make sucking noises. When his blanket was washed and hung on the clothesline, he would stand beneath it and jump up to try to grab it. The parents felt that they had better try to break his habit before his wedding day, so they cut it in half and gave it to him. The next day, they secretly cut it in half again. Every few days, they would cut it in half, until it became so small it just disappeared.

This is what we are to do with the flesh. It is forever running around like a turkey with its head chopped off. It is dead, but it won’t lie down without a little help from the whetted blade of the two-edged sword. The witless creature needs to be gutted, plucked, and its soft flesh carved on the wooden plate of Calvary’s cross. That will put thanksgiving in our hearts.

If we deal with our flesh once and for all, the world will have no attraction for us, and the devil will have no foothold in us. It is vital to identify this Judas in our heart. Our old nature is nothing more than a cowardly traitor who will cry “Master, Master,” and then betray the Son of God with a kiss. We must hang Judas by the neck until he has “burst asunder in the midst, and all his bowels gushed out” (Acts 1:18). If we do not deal with this enemy, he will quietly steal from us until he betrays us and the cause for which we stand.

To defeat this enemy, we must consider ourselves to be dead to sin, and alive to God. We do this by not allowing sin to reign in our bodies. Rather than obeying its lusts, we must yield ourselves fully to God and offer our bodies to Him as instruments of righteousness (Romans 6:11–13).

Preacher’s Progress

A sample witnessing conversation, written in the style of John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress.

Questions

1. What happens the moment we repent and trust the Savior?
2. How can we overcome our enemy the devil?
3. What is the door of access for sin?
4. How does sin affect our prayer life?
5. What is the source of most fear when it comes to witnessing?
6. What must we do to stop the enemy’s access?

Answers to these review questions are provided in the back of the printed book / source PDF.

Memory Verse

“Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.”

Romans 6:6

Last Words

Oscar Wilde (1854–1900), writer: “My wallpaper and I are fighting a duel to the death. One or the other of us has to go...”

Oscar Wilde