Read Textual Sermon from Robert Jeffress
This Is My Father’s World
You may remember a song many of us learned as children, a hymn. It's a sweet little hymn entitled This Is My Father's World. How many of you remember that song? This is my Father’s world. It is a song about the sovereignty and control of God over all His world. And while it’s theologically true, experientially it doesn’t always seem that way.
If this is really God’s world, isn’t He doing a pretty lousy job of running it? Look around—all the natural disasters, tsunamis, earthquakes, wars and rumors of wars, terrorist attacks, not to mention the struggles we face day in and day out, the personal issues and relationship problems.
Why is this world described as God’s world? Many of us might think that C.S. Lewis had a better description of this world than that hymn writer. He once wrote that earth is “enemy-occupied territory.” That’s what this world is. And that’s true.
The question is—how did this world get into the shape it’s in? How did it go from being a perfect world to the one we live in? It’s the result of that cosmic struggle between God and His former chief of staff, Satan, who was known as Lucifer.
The Origin of Satan
We saw last time, by looking at Ezekiel 28 and Isaiah 14, that you can piece together his story. First, he was a created being. Satan, the name we usually refer to him by now, is not God’s opposite. If Satan has an opposite, it’s not God—it’s Michael the Archangel. Satan was created; he didn’t exist eternally. Just as God created all the angels, He created Satan.
Secondly, Satan held an impressive office in God’s kingdom. He was the chief cherub, the chief of the cherubim—those angels charged with protecting the holiness of God.
Thirdly, Satan possessed incomparable wisdom and beauty. And finally, it was his pride that led to his downfall. He began looking in the mirror too often. He thought he was responsible for everything good about him. He forgot that he was the creature, not the Creator.
Because of that pride, he led a rebellion against God. Isaiah 14 tells us he was cast down to earth along with a group of rebel angels we now call demons. Right now, he is in the process of creating his own shadow kingdom. He wants to overthrow the kingdom of God and is working to accomplish that.
Round One: Deception
If you’re a Christian, you’re a part of God’s kingdom—and that means Satan’s attacks are aimed at you. His battle against the kingdom of God is fought in three rounds.
Round one is deception.
Imagine what it was like when Satan and his demons were cast out of heaven. Perhaps they crash-landed on planet earth just as God was finishing His work of creation. After God made the plants, minerals, planets, and animals, His crowning act was man.
Genesis 1:26–27 (KJV) says:
“And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth... So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.”
God saw all that He made, and it was very good. Everything else He called “good,” but when He finished with man, He said, “This is very, very good.”
Now imagine you were Satan. You had just been cast out of heaven and saw the creation of man. If you hated God as much as Satan did, the only thing worse than living with one God would be living with a bunch of little creations of God that resembled Him.
So Satan thought, “What if I could take these servants of God and make them my slaves? What if I could turn God’s grandest creation into His biggest mistake?”
He decided to deceive them into following him. His plan was simple—he would whisper into Adam and Eve’s ears: “There’s a better way than God’s way.”
When Adam and Eve rebelled, God could have responded with anger. He could have destroyed them and started over. But the Bible says when He saw what had happened, His heart was filled with compassion.
Ephesians 2:4–5 (NKJV) says:
“But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved).”
Your salvation and mine have nothing to do with us—it’s all about the compassion, love, and grace of God.
Round Two: Deliverance
Satan won round one—deception. But God immediately initiated a plan of deliverance.
To illustrate that, think about an event from 2003, Thanksgiving Day. Six hundred soldiers gathered for a meal in Baghdad, unaware that President George W. Bush had secretly left Texas the night before, flown across the world under the cover of darkness, and made a dangerous descent into Baghdad to surprise them.
When asked why he went to such trouble, President Bush said, “It’s got to be lonely for the soldiers. I thought it was important to send that message that we care for them.”
In the same way, even though mankind wandered from God, He never stopped loving us. For centuries, He sent messages and miracles to show that love. But 2,000 years ago, He did the unthinkable—He came Himself.
God visited our war-torn planet in the person of His Son, Jesus Christ.
Unlike President Bush’s trip, which was designed to avoid death, Jesus’ journey to earth was designed so that He might experience death. His death was the ultimate objective.
Acts 2:23 (KJV) says:
“Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain.”
What would cause God to devise a plan that ended in His Son’s death? Because Jesus came not just to reassure the troops, but to rescue them.
Colossians 1:13–14 (KJV) says:
“Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son: in whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins.”
When we are born, we’re part of Satan’s kingdom. But Jesus paid the ransom with His own blood to deliver us.
1 Corinthians 6:19–20 (KJV) says:
“Ye are not your own, for ye are bought with a price.”
That was God’s plan—to redeem us so we could serve Him instead of Satan.
Round Three: Desperation
Even though Satan was defeated at the cross, he hasn’t given up.
As Hal Lindsey wrote, “Satan is alive and well on planet earth.” He got it half right—Satan is alive, but he’s not well. He’s been mortally wounded, but he’s still staging a desperate final assault on the kingdom of God.
Revelation 20:10 (KJV) tells us:
“And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone... and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.”
Until that day, his strategy is twofold:
- Blinding unbelievers to God’s offer of salvation.
- Robbing believers of the benefits of their salvation.
2 Corinthians 4:3–4 (KJV) says:
“But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: in whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not.”
If you’re not a Christian, you’re already on that broad road leading to destruction. You don’t have to do anything to end up in hell—just keep doing nothing.
But if you’ve come to believe that Jesus is the Savior who died for your sins, that’s because God has opened your eyes.
And for believers, Satan’s goal is to steal every good thing from your life—your joy, your peace, your influence, and your eternal rewards.
John 10:10 (KJV) says:
“The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.”
Though Satan has been disarmed, he’s still dangerous—crafty, appealing, and relentless.
Next time, we’ll look at the personalized blueprint Satan has devised for the destruction of everything important to you—your faith, your family, and your future.
Questions This Sermon Answers
- Why does the world seem so broken if it belongs to God?
- Who is Satan, and how did he fall from heaven?
- How did Satan deceive humanity in the beginning?
- What is God’s plan for redeeming mankind?
- How is Satan still active today despite being defeated?
- What are Satan’s current strategies against believers and unbelievers?
- How can believers resist Satan’s efforts to destroy their faith and joy?
