Brethren, we are all quite aware that Christ overcame the world, so we are not going to read all the scriptures that refer to that, but let’s turn to John chapter 16.  Read verses 28 to 33.  He overcame the world through His life and through His death.  We are going to find some interesting parallels to what we must face in life.

CHRIST OVERCAME SATAN
Turn to Hebrews chapter 4, please.  How did He overcome, and what is it that He had to do to overcome the world?  Hebrews 4:14 tells us:  “Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.  For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.  Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”

Christ was indeed tempted by all things just as we are, yet was without sin in His life.  He was tempted in all the things that we could possibly imagine, so that He could relate as High Priest to our condition.  He was tempted to get angry at times.  I am sure He was tempted by greed, certain lusts, and selfishness (especially self-preservation knowing what He would have to go through).  He was tempted to lie to take the easy way out.  That is what it means to be tempted in all points just as we are.  Yet He never succumbed to any of these temptations.  He never sinned.  I would like to look at the most famous incident of Christ being tempted.  We will turn to Luke chapter 4.

Read Luke 4:1-13.  You noticed He was tempted for forty days, and at the very end when He was the most hungry, He was severely tried.  He was tried to take an easy way out.  Satan tempted Him to take an easy way out from the suffering that they both knew He would face if He was to continue on the path that He was going.  But it also says here that Satan left Him and departed just until there was another opportune time.  This is not the only temptation that Christ faced.  Sometimes we think this was the big battle to end all battles, and there were no more temptations.  The Man suffered temptations as long as He lived.  He was tempted to destroy those who were destroying Him on the cross, but He forgave them instead.  They tried to provoke Him to anger by spitting on Him and doing a variety of things.  I am sure that temptation was there, but He refrained.  He would not return accusation for accusation.

So Christ did not sin.  That was the most famous incident, but it shows us something.  He went head to head with Satan the devil personally.  Satan came at Him again and again for as long as He lived, and he did it personally.  Satan went personally after Jesus Christ.

Turn, if you would, to Mark chapter 8.  Verse 31:  “And He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.  He spoke this word openly.  Then Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him.  But when He had turned around and looked at His disciples, He rebuked Peter, saying, ‘Get behind Me, Satan!  [These are the same words He used with Satan that we talked about at the temptation.]  For you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men.’”  Then He goes on to explain this.

Continue reading verses 34-38.  After rebuking Peter and saying, “Get behind Me, Satan,” He explains.  When we are afraid to lay down our lives for our fellowman and we want to preserve our life, we are not walking in His footsteps.  He told Peter, I must suffer these things.  I must go forward.  It is the same temptation that Satan used directly head to head in both Matthew 4 and Luke 4.  But what we have to notice is why did Satan do this personally?  Why was he personally attacking Jesus Christ through Peter and also at the temptation after His big fast?

There is an old expression:  “You don’t send a boy to do a man’s job.”  Satan had to beat the future king of the universe, and he was not going to allow an underling to handle the job.  There is a lot of  meaning behind that, because the position that Satan held is the position that Jesus Christ was going to take from him as god of this world.  He had a lot at stake.  He was not going to turn it over to another demon somewhere and leave it to chance.  He was going to work on this himself.

Turn to John chapter 13, verse 18.  This is at the Passover when Jesus Christ says, “‘I do not speak concerning all of you.  I know whom I have chosen; but that the Scripture may be fulfilled, “He who eats bread with Me has lifted up his heel against Me.”  Now I tell you before it comes, that when it does come to pass, you may believe that I am He.  Most assuredly, I say to you, he who receives whomever I send receives Me; and he who receives Me receives Him who sent Me.’  When Jesus had said these things, He was troubled in spirit, and testified and said, ‘Most assuredly, I say to you, one of you will betray Me.’”  Isn’t that an awful temptation, knowing that one of your closest (supposed) friends is going to betray you!

Continue reading John 13:22-27.  Once again, you see Satan entered Judas personally.  He wanted to get the job done right.  In his viewpoint, he wanted the best possible outcome, so he wanted to do this personally.  That did not have to be the case.  Satan can call upon perhaps hundreds of millions of demons to do his dirty work, so he did not have to do it personally, but he knew how much was at stake.

LEGIONS OF DEMONS
I want to look at a few examples of how the demon world works and how Satan can assign responsibility.  Let’s turn to Luke chapter 8.  Read verses 26-30.  We see demons are individual beings with names, with qualities, and with characteristics.  In this case, the demon that was doing the speaking said, we have to say legion because there are so many of us here.

The term “legion” is what we would use today to refer to a regiment as in the army.  The Romans had legions which were a certain number of troops.  Today a regiment is nearly a thousand men.  I don’t know exactly what a legion was, but it is about a thousand men today.  So you can see if he was going to list the names of all the demons in this man, it was going to go on for a while.  He just said we are legion, there are lots of us!  The point here is that Satan allowed this poor individual to be conquered and taken by many demons.  He did not do it personally.  He has lots of demons that he can assign these things to.

There is another example in Matthew chapter 12, verse 43.  “‘When an unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes through dry places, seeking rest, and finds none.  Then he says, “I will return to my house from which I came,”  And when he comes, he finds it empty, swept, and put in order.  Then he goes and takes with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter and dwell there; and the last state of that man is worse than the first.  So shall it also be with this wicked generation.’”

There is a lot of insight here into the demon world.  A demon is cast out, and the house gets swept, cleaned, and put in order.  In other words, sin is dealt with, and the person is cleaning up their life.  But when they start to get weak again, this demon says, I am going to have to have reinforcements.  If I am going to keep this house, I need reinforcements.  He goes and gets reinforcements more wicked than himself, which we could say means more powerful and stronger, so they can keep the house.

There is a lot of information here when we start putting these scriptures together, but what does this have to do with Christ and overcoming sin?  The answer is Christ fought the top beast, the top dog, the chief lion in the pride, Satan. He went head to head with Satan the devil.  Why is this important to know?  Satan’s realm is well organized, brethren.

Turn to Ephesians 6 for a scripture we often use.  When we want to know about how the demon world is organized and how to fight them, we turn here because it is laid right out for us starting in verse 10.  “Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.  Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.  For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.  Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.”

What are principalities?  If you look at the world today, principalities would be nations, states, provinces, regions, and cities.  These are principalities.  There are principalities in heavenly places over the principalities of the earth, and they rule the earth with the god of this world.  Let’s look at a few examples.  I know we have looked at these in the past, but let’s refresh our memory.

Turn to Daniel chapter 10.  Read verses 1-12.  His prayer was getting answered.  From the first day that he started this fast and prayer, his prayer was heard in heaven.  But there is some interesting information here that follows this.

Verse 13:  “‘But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me twenty-one days; [The full three weeks that Daniel was fasting and praying, this prince of Persia fought off God’s messenger, the angel.]  and behold, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, for I had been left alone there with the kings of Persia.’”  This angel that was bringing the message to Daniel was fighting for three weeks on his own and needed reinforcements to get through to answer Daniel’s prayer.

Continuing with the story, read verses 14-20.  This angel is saying, I am going to go back and fight through this prince of Persia once again, and after this battle is done, the prince of Greece is coming.  If you will notice, in the physical empires of the ancient days, Persia preceded Greece.  Each empire was assigned specific demon princes over them by Satan to cause the people of God trouble and to block off the messages from God, if at all possible.  This message that Daniel was being given here for the last days was fought very intensely.  I think because it had to do with the last days that it was fought very intensely. It gives us some insight as to how the world is divided up into spheres of responsibility by Satan.  He has divided up the world and assigned portions of the earth under certain princes who in turn lead their legions, their regiments.  It is basically a type of spiritual warfare.  It is Satan who assigns these responsibilities.  The jobs that he gives out are real. The territory that he assigns is real.  We do not see the spirit realm, but it is very real.

Turn, if you would, to II Corinthians chapter 4.  Satan has the right to do so, just as he said in both Matthew 4 and Luke 4.  He said to Christ, you do not have to suffer and die.  I can give this to you.  I have the right to turn this over to you, because I am the god of this earth.  I am the king of the earth at this time.  II Corinthians 4, verse 1:  “Therefore, since we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we do not lose heart.  But we have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness nor handling the word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.  But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the god of this age [which can be translated ‘the god of this world’] has blinded, who do not believe…”

The god of this age is Satan, so we like to say god with a little “g”.  He is very real.  His position is very real.  He doles out positions to those under him, and they have specific jobs to do.  As I said, it was imperative for Satan to beat Christ, because Christ was after his position.  Christ needed to beat the “god” of this world, so that He could become the King of kings and God of this world and take that position rightfully back under the authority of the Godhead.  That battle was a very, very severe test for both of them.  Satan knew it was important, and to Jesus Christ it was important.  They were both contending for the same spot, so to speak.  We do not understand all the reasoning that goes behind that, but we can see from the scriptures that it is the fact of the matter.

THE KING WITHOUT HIS COURT
Note what happened when Jesus Christ succeeded with His life.  He had beaten Satan and had gone through life without ever succumbing to temptation and sinning.  Turn to Daniel chapter 7, and we will see what happened.  Beginning in verse 9, this was Daniel once again being allowed to see spiritual things:  “‘I watched till thrones were put in place, and the Ancient of Days was seated; His garment was white as snow, and the hair of His head was like pure wool.  His throne was a fiery flame, its wheels a burning fire; a fiery stream issued and came forth from before Him.  A thousand thousands ministered to Him; ten thousand times ten thousand stood before Him.  The court was seated, and the books were opened.’”

Drop down to verse 13 of Daniel 7:  “‘I was watching the night visions, and behold, One like the Son of Man [this is Jesus Christ rising to the Father], coming with the clouds of heaven!  He came to the Ancient of Days, and they brought Him near before Him.  Then to Him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him.  His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and His kingdom the one which shall not be destroyed.’”

We see the Father, the Ancient of Days, seated at His throne.  And after Christ’s perfect life (never succumbing to sin) and His resurrection, He comes and He claims His kingdom (His crown).  He was the first man resurrected to a position.  He was the first of the firstfruits.  He was the first human being to survive Satan’s spiritual onslaught.  He is the only one to this point.  There has not been another resurrection yet of the saints to their positions.  He was the first of the firstfruits, making Him King of kings and Lord of lords, but Christ is still a King without a court.

Christ is a King without those serving Him.  He is without the other human beings that need to serve Him in His kingdom.  The co-rulers have not yet been born again.  They have not yet been resurrected.  Most of them have lived.  We are privileged to be, hopefully, among the last group to fill out this number.  Most of them have already lived, but they have not been resurrected to that position (to that eternal life), so Christ reigns alone right now.  The god of this world still has power.  Those in the regions that the demon beings rule are still under their sway and under their influence.

In our country it is similar to how a president is elected in November, but he does not take office until the end of January.  He is a president without anything to do.  It is not a good analogy because Christ is our High Priest, but He is a president without his cabinet and without those who are going to serve him.  He has His position.  He knows He is president, but He cannot fully implement the things He wants yet because it is not time.  He has to wait until the cabinet and the people who are going to be serving Him are appointed.  This is the way it is in a democratic situation.

In a kingdom, a king must have his court.  He must have his courtiers, his messengers, and the people who serve him and rule the outlying areas.  He must have his governors.  Christ does not have that yet.  They have not been resurrected yet.  The Father and Jesus Christ are not yet finished handing out those positions.  For some it is a done deal.  They have succeeded and died, and they have even been told what they will have in some cases.  Let’s look at some of the scriptures that back up that thought.

POSITIONS IN THE KINGDOM
I will tell you this story.  There was a situation where the sons of Zebedee were brought before Christ.  And like every doting mother who wants the best for her children, their mother  said to Jesus Christ, can you please give my sons the right-hand position and the left-hand position in the kingdom?  Christ said, you have no idea what you are asking.  The Father is in charge of that, and the Father is the one who is going to determine finally who is selected for those positions.  I am working with your sons, and they will indeed serve in some capacity.  And He goes on to say, they will share the cup.

The story can be found in Matthew chapter 20.  Verse 20:  “Then the mother of Zebedee’s sons came to Him with her sons, kneeling down and asking something from Him.  And He said to her, ‘What do you wish?’  She said to Him, ‘Grant that these two sons of mine may sit, one on Your right hand and the other on the left, in Your kingdom.’  But Jesus answered and said, ‘You do not know what you ask.  Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?’  They said to Him, ‘We are able.’   So He said to them, ‘You will indeed drink of My cup, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with [He said you will, I know you will.]; but to sit on My right hand and on My left is not Mine to give, but it is for those for whom it is prepared by My Father.’”

The other apostles who heard this became jealous.  They understood the concept of ruling with Jesus Christ, but it shows us that there are positions in Christ’s kingdom.  There are positions to be given out.

Go back to Matthew 19, verse 28:  “So Jesus said to them, ‘Assuredly I say to you, that in the regeneration, when the Son of Man sits on the throne of His glory, you who have followed Me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.’”  Here we see that there are twelve specific positions over the twelve tribes of Israel.  Christ told His disciples that they are going to sit as judges over the twelve tribes.  There is absolutely, beyond a shadow of a doubt, a kingdom divided into responsibilities. Mr. Herbert Armstrong used to speculate on where some of the other positions were and who would have them.  They made good sense.  But we can see that there are scriptures that are absolutely positive about this.  If you were to read John 14 (we do not need to go there now), it tells us that in God’s house are many mansions.  This means many positions.  There are a lot of things to do.

If you would, turn to I Corinthians chapter 9.  Paul and the other apostles understood this very well.  If you glean information here and there, you can pick up how it is going to be organized and how we obtain positions.  I Corinthians 9, beginning in verse 24:  “Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize?  Run in such a way that you may obtain it.  And everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things.  Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown.  Therefore, run thus:  not with uncertainty.  Thus I fight:  not as one who beats the air.  But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified.”

We can see there is a race that we are running for a crown.  Is there one crown?  No.  If there was one crown, Christ already got it.  There are many crowns.  He is called King of kings.  There are many other positions.

WE MUST OVERCOME
The Father draws people to Jesus Christ to fill a specific spot.  It is up to that person to overcome as Christ overcame.  While that race is run, who knows over the course of the couple thousand years of the Christian experience how many people have striven for that specific crown.  Some have failed, because it can only be given to one person.  That does not mean they have lost their salvation.  You can go back to I Corinthians chapter 3, and we understand that, but they have lost reward.  There are only so many positions, but there are a lot of them.  God the Father determines who will be drawn for that position, and then Jesus Christ works with them as the author and the finisher of their faith, striving to help them attain that position.  But the individual has a tremendous amount of work to do, because they are the ones who have to overcome, as He overcame.

The Church has a huge responsibility to be successful.  If you would, please turn to Revelation 14.  I think you will see it is quite clear now that the first of the firstfruits was the first followed by 144,000 more firstfruits.  We can’t say with absolute certainty, but we can be pretty sure that there are 144,000 significant positions in God’s house (His kingdom).  Read Revelation 14:1-4.

Jesus Christ is the first of the firstfruits, and there are 144,000 more firstfruits.  He took on the top dog head to head.  He has taken Satan’s crown.  Satan is now demoted, but he still has this earth.  He is still in control of the earth as god of this world, but he is no longer a super powerful being.  If you were to study the whole subject, he has received a mortal wound.  So his system is dying.  But there are other potent beings (evil princes or demons) that must also be beaten.  That is why we are told to overcome as Christ overcame.  These 144,000 firstfruits are a prophecy of that success and that God will fill those positions.

We are to overcome as Christ overcame, and we really have no excuse in not understanding it.  He says it repeatedly, but let’s just look at the seven Churches in Revelation.  We are not going to read all the messages given to the seven Churches, but the message concludes basically the same way for all of them.  For the Ephesian Church we look at Revelation chapter 2, verse 7 where we hear Christ say:  “‘He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.  To him who overcomes I will give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God.’”  It is to him who overcomes.

Drop down to the Smyrna era in verse 11 of Revelation 2.  “‘He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.  He who overcomes shall not be hurt by the second death.’”  It is a promise.

To the Pergamos Church in verse 17 it says, “‘He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.  To him who overcomes I will give some of the hidden manna to eat.  And I will give him a white stone, and on the stone a new name written which no one knows except him who receives it.’”  It is another promise to those who overcome.

To Thyatira, drop down to verse 26:  “‘And he who overcomes, and keeps My works until the end, to him I will give power over the  nations…’”  There will be a distribution of the inheritance which will be positions to rule and the regions of the earth to rule.

In Revelation chapter 3, verse 5 it is speaking to the Sardis era.  “‘He who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments, and I will not blot out his name from the Book of Life; but I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels.’”  That is another promise to those who overcome.

In Revelation 3:21 the Laodicean era, the era of which we are a part, it says:  “‘To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.’”  It is talking about rulership on the throne.  It is the same throne that Jesus Christ ascended to that we read about in Daniel chapter 7.

For a concluding scripture in this vein of thought go to Revelation chapter 21.  Verse 7:  “‘He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be My son.’”  Here is a backward reference to the rest of the firstfruits.  But we must overcome in order to attain any of these things.  To get there and receive that prize, that crown, we must overcome.

WHO STANDS IN OUR WAY?
The point of all of this that I have been trying to bring together for you is that someone stands in our way.  Who stood in Christ’s way?  Satan stood in His way.  That is the position Jesus Christ was striving for.

This may sound strange, brethren, but if the world is divided into regions, principalities, and nations that are ruled over by a prince, and if Jesus Christ is going to return and distribute His inheritance, we must get through what is in the way for us.  He will pass out cities.  He will pass out rulership over so many cities because we were faithful.  In order to receive those things, we must get through what is in the way for us.  Then we will rule over many things in God’s house.  We will receive a mansion to dwell in, a governor’s house, so to speak.

We generically think of Satan.  We generically think of sin.  But, brethren, I want us to think of something a little bit more personal.  Satan has assigned a prince to attack you and me.  You and I are a huge threat to this government that is barely holding together for him.  If he can beat God, he thinks he can keep His government and keep ruling for a long, long time, maybe eternally.  He could not get Christ to cave in, but he has gotten many brethren to cave in.  How is that done?  Is he going to assign the weakest little demon to tempt us that there could possibly be?  Or will he assign those who are reserved to deal with the world?  He is going to send a prince just like what Daniel was fighting with and just like what the angel had to fight through to get to Daniel.  It was a prince that was very powerful.

We are not to fear.  The demons have the fear in them.  They understand that everything is at stake.  They know God is going to keep putting someone in the race for that crown until that crown is given out.  Those demons know that their time is limited.  Their territory is about to be taken from them.  Their dominion and power is about to be ripped out of their hands and given to a son of  God.  That position has a name on it.  God the Father says, We are going to draw this person to fill this role, and We are going to help him all We can.  The demons are terrified.  They are absolutely terrified, not because of any strength that we have personally.  They are terrified because of the armor of God that we can call upon in Ephesians 6 and because of the blood of Jesus Christ that we can call upon when we do fall.  None of us are going to make it through life without sin, and they know that.  But they know as we repent, we can always get our sins forgiven.  Now the tables have been turned on Satan and the demon world.  The wages of sin is death, but now they are facing an enemy (us) and the brethren who have come before us who can deal with their tactics.  The brethren can deal with the sin that they throw at us and the temptations that cause us to fall.

We overcome by the blood of the lamb.  Turn to Revelation chapter 12 where it says it very well.  Verse 10:  “Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, ‘Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down.  And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death.’”

Satan goes before God and accuses them.  Look what this Blanchard guy does!  He sins!  The wages of sin is death.  He can’t take the position of so-and-so.  God says, but wait a minute.  He just repented.  The blood of the Lamb took care of that.  You had better go back to the drawing board.  This goes on continually from the time we start our Christian walk.

But I want to point out that our fight is as personal as Jesus Christ’s was against Satan. It is as personal as that.  It is like hand-to-hand combat.  It is mind-to-mind combat.  We need the armor of God.  With the armor of God and by resisting them, they must flee.  They have no choice.  They have been beaten by the blood of the Lamb, but we have to successfully use that blood and use the scriptures like Jesus Christ did.  He defeated Satan at the great temptation with scripture.  That is how potent and powerful the word of God is.

The demon that has been assigned to stop us in our tracks knows our weaknesses.  That is an advantage that they have.  They broadcast the temptations to our mind that they think we are going to fall for.  I can go back into I Kings and read the account of Ahab.  It has been a while since I have looked at that.  I will just try to recount it a little bit here.

If you recall, Ahab was a very wicked king.  He was the husband of Jezebel.  They were the ones who were using the prophets of Baal to try to defeat Elijah.  They are the ones who took Naboth’s vineyard through crooked means and had him killed.  So there was a meeting in heaven about this situation.  These guys were going up against God’s prophet. The meeting went something like this.  God said, we have to stop Ahab.  This is getting out of hand now.  We are going to defend Elijah.  How can we do this?  Send a prophet down there.  Tell the prophet that Ahab is going to die in battle if he does not obey God.  Give him a chance to repent.  So the prophet goes and says, you are going to have to repent or you are going to die in battle.  He did not repent.  He said we will get around this.  He called the prophets of Baal to prophecy to him.  This was the last straw.  I am paraphrasing this.

There was a meeting in heaven and God said, who can induce this guy to goof up so we can kill him in battle?  A spirit steps forward and says, I can do it.  What are you going to do?  I will tell him something that will appeal to his ego, to his sins, to his weak nature, and he will fall for it.  Okay, go try it.  That is a demon.  He is allowed to go after Ahab (like in Job), and Ahab deserved it.  Ahab fell for the false prophet.  The lying prophet would be a demon working through a human being.  The lying prophet said, disguise yourself and go into battle.  You will win.  Everything will be fine.

Ahab put the armor on of a plain soldier, and he did not ride in front like the king that he should.  The enemy was told to just kill Ahab.  We don’t want anybody else except Ahab.  So they were all looking for Ahab.  They just want to kill Ahab, but he is disguised.  He thinks, I am going to beat Elijah.  I am going to beat God’s prophet.  I am going to survive this.  One of the enemy reaches back for an arrow and lets an arrow fly.  Wouldn’t you know it, it went right through a chink in his armor, and he died.  But the lying demon got that guy to fall for it when he would not repent.

The demons well know our weaknesses, brethren.  What is our problem?  They are as numerous as they are for everybody else.  They know what we are tempted to fall for, and they will go after that over and over.  They will lay a trap that sometimes takes years to set, because they have everything on the line.  There is nothing like telling someone, if you do not do the job, Joe is replacing you.  That is exactly what has happened.  They know when someone has been called to take their position.  They know your name.  They  know my name and who we are.  They know what our weaknesses are.  Can we back this up with scripture anywhere else?  Yes, we can.

I love Paul in that he was so frank and honest about his problems.  He was one of those guys that wore his emotions on his sleeve.  Turn to II Corinthians chapter 12.  We will not go through Romans where he talks about what a wretched man he was, and when will he ever stop sinning, and where he states he is sick of himself.  But we can understand here what was going on with the man by turning to II Corinthians 12, verse 7.  “And lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure.  Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me.”

Paul says, there is a messenger from Satan who is after me.  I keep asking God to get rid of this thing.  God says, no.  You have been given so much understanding.  You have been given so much spiritual wisdom.  You have been given so many of the fruits of the spirit, Paul, it is going to go to your head.  It is actually too dangerous for you!  He says, I have to let you be humble.  I do not like to do this, but I am going to let him point out your weakness, whatever that weakness is.  He is going to be a thorn in your flesh.

I looked up the term “messenger,” and it is aggelos, which means to bring tidings, a messenger and an angel.  If it is a messenger from Satan to bring tidings, it has to be a demon.  Aggelos also comes from the word ago, which means to lead, to drive or to induce.  So this thing was supposed to induce Paul to sin.  It was to point out his weaknesses over and over.  It was to tempt him.

It is interesting because ago is the source of the word agon, which means a contest, effort and anxiety.  It is related to the word that I am quite sure we get agonize from, because agonizomai means to struggle and to compete for a prize, and to contend with an adversary.  Doesn’t that exactly depict what is happening here!  We are after a crown.  Paul was after a specific crown, and this messenger had that crown!  He was ruling over whatever it was that God would give Paul as territory in the world tomorrow. They were contending for that crown.  God told him, I am going to let you fight for this crown.  I have given you so much, Paul; three years of teaching in the wilderness; I let you get blinded and then healed your eyesight.  I have given you so much understanding, it is going to go to your head.  I have seen things go to people’s heads before, starting with Satan.  I am going to keep you humble to know that you have weaknesses.  I am going to let you contend for that crown.  That is why Paul could write so emotionally about how I contend.  I beat my body.  I fight!  I work toward this prize.  I run this race.

We all have to run the race we have been given to contend for that crown.  Paul understood.  To put the story together, you have to look in four or five places, but that man struggled for that crown until the end of his life.  We know he made it.  Do not feel just because we have sin and we keep falling short that we are never going to make it. That is Satan’s little lie.

THE WORST LIES
The worst lies you are ever going to hear in your life are the lies you tell yourself.  You tell them to yourself because there is a little voice in your head that says I am worthless, I am stupid, I will never amount to anything, and I will never beat this thing.  Where do you think that little voice comes from?  It is not from Jesus Christ or Michael or Gabriel.  I will not use the name to put them down because we are not supposed to revile against these things, but it is against the demon that is coming and bothering you or me.  It is sending those little thoughts and those little temptations into our minds because they know our weaknesses.  But we do have the strength, and they are afraid of that strength.  Because with Jesus Christ, His blood, and His sacrifice, we can always win and overcome. We have to claim that sacrifice, and we have to keep putting one foot in front of the other. James 4 tells us to resist the devil, and he must flee.  That includes all of his demons as well.  A little resistance and they must flee.  They have to!

It is agonizing though, brethren.  I am quite sure that is where the word agonize comes from.  It comes from that Greek word.  I did not look that up.  Agonizomai:  to struggle and compete for a prize and contend with an adversary under very anxious and trying conditions.  That is what we have to do.  We can succeed, and God wants us to succeed.  But the point is that it is a very personal fight for a very specific position with a very specific crown at stake.  God cannot let that position go unfilled.  We could go and look at scripture after scripture and parable after parable about sending people out at the last minute.  We have to fill the wedding hall!  We have to get this done!  If the brethren that we have offered it to are not going to take it, just beat the bushes and the highways and the byways and bring someone in here.

I have used this example before.  I have met a number of people that would put us to shame and me to shame, specifically, with the love that they have for their fellow man. Mother Theresa died not too long ago.  She said her rosary every day, and she was following pagan gods and what have you, but if she could have even had a glimmer of what we have, she would have run right over the top of us to get it!  God says, I call the foolish of the world.  He called the weak things and the base things.  That woman had strong character.

I have met people like that who have strong character, like people serving in Vanuatu.  If you look at the news, you see people serving in Darfur.  You see the little French nurses and Red Cross workers from Canada or the United States laying their lives on the line to serve their fellowman.  They are confused about their religion, but they have the love down.  Sometimes I like to picture myself, just to help myself along this way.  If God had a crowd of these people out in front there and I wanted to lay down my crown, He would say who wants this thing?  I know there would be thousands of hands that would go up.  They would do a whole lot better than I do to try to attain it.  But the miracle is that God is working with the weak and the base things, but we cannot waste the time that we have.  We cannot waste the armor of God. We cannot waste the blood of Christ.  We have to make this fight personal.

SPECIFIC ENEMIES TO FACE
I was not going to do this sermon during the Feast of Tabernacles, which is why I shelved it until this morning, and why it is not prepared as well as I would like it.  But I decided there is no better place than the Feast of Tabernacles, because we are going after the crown here.  We are going to become part of the kingdom.  We need to stop thinking in nebulous, foggy terms about the enemy.  We have specific enemies to face.  If we do not face them and use the armor of God to beat them, God will give our crown to someone else.  He has to because time is short.

I am not saying this to despair.  When you know your enemy, he is a lot easier to defeat.  When you have weakness and when you feel temptation, know where it is coming from.  Tell that being, I can beat you.  I have the blood of the Lamb on my side.  Get out of here!  Tell them in the name of Jesus Christ, get out of here!  They have to go.  This is the power we have, and it is awesome.  They are scared to death of it, so they have thrown everything at us but the kitchen sink to get our mind off the power that we can actually wield.  We can get it back.  We need to work on that.  The stakes are very high, brethren, they are high for us.  They are high for the world.  The world is waiting anxiously for us to be revealed.

Let’s conclude with Romans chapter 8, verse 18:  “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.  For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God.  For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.”