This extreme hostility toward spiritual things is common to all severely demonized people. The demon that troubled King Saul could not stand the sweet spiritual music of young David and left its victim when the musician performed in the monarch’s presence (1 Samuel 16:23).

Prayer in the name of Jesus, reading and claiming promises of Scripture, and singing hymns of praise to God are sure means to rout demonic powers and secure the release of the victim. In fact, this is the simple order of deliverance sessions conducted by believers today who cultivate a humble, quiet ministry for God in this needy area.

 Merrill Frederick Unger, What Demons Can Do to Saints (Chicago, IL: Moody Publishers, 1991), 147.


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Simply put, truth is what God says it is. People can find truth in God’s Word. Something is true or false in terms of how it squares with what God says about it, no matter what the majority of people think on a given Gallup Poll. Truth is not a relative concept; it is absolute and universal.

 Robert Dean Jr. and Thomas Ice, What the Bible Teaches about Spiritual Warfare (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications, 2000), 24.


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Either we are dependent upon God and the light of His revelation or we are independent of God and attempt to discover truth by our own fallible thinking.

 Robert Dean Jr. and Thomas Ice, What the Bible Teaches about Spiritual Warfare (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications, 2000), 24–25.



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Independence and idolatry are the two main reasons for adopting the human viewpoint in our search for truth. Independence—characterized by self-assertion, self-rule, or self law—forms the foundation of idolatry.

 Robert Dean Jr. and Thomas Ice, What the Bible Teaches about Spiritual Warfare (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications, 2000), 27.


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Idolatry is the worship of anything in place of the God of the Bible. All gods other than the God of the Bible are simply projections of man’s own self. The narcissism of contemporary America is a classic example of this self-worship.

 Robert Dean Jr. and Thomas Ice, What the Bible Teaches about Spiritual Warfare (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications, 2000), 27.


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By putting reason at a higher level than the Bible, reason replaces God and so becomes an idol.

The real conflict is not between using reason at all and not using reason at all, but between using reason under the authority of God and using reason independently of God. The true issue is the proper place and use of logic. Human viewpoint uses logic idolatrously, placing it in the arena reserved exclusively for God’s Word.

 Robert Dean Jr. and Thomas Ice, What the Bible Teaches about Spiritual Warfare (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications, 2000), 29.


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Anytime we base a technique for dealing with demonized people on anything other than the clear teaching of the Word of God, we are doomed to failure. In fact, using any approach based on information not directly derived from the Scriptures is, in practice, a denial of the authority and sufficiency of the Bible.

 Robert Dean Jr. and Thomas Ice, What the Bible Teaches about Spiritual Warfare (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications, 2000), 35.

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To say that God is sovereign is to say that He is supreme over all things, that there is no one above Him, that He is absolute Lord over creation. It is to say that His Lordship over creation means that there is nothing out of His control, nothing that God hasn’t foreseen and planned. It means that even the wrath of man must ultimately praise God and the remainder of wrath God will restrain (Psalm 76:10). It means that every creature on earth, in heaven and in hell must ultimately bow the knee and confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father (Philippians 2:10).

God’s sovereignty logically implies His absolute freedom to do all that He wills to do. God’s sovereignty does not mean that He can do anything, but it means He can do anything that He wills to do. The sovereignty of God and the will of God are bound up together. 

 A. W. Tozer and David E. Fessenden, The Attributes of God: Deeper into the Father’s Heart, vol. 2 (Camp Hill, PA: WingSpread, 2001–), 144.

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God’s sovereignty means that He is in control of everything, that He planned everything from the beginning. Man’s free will means that he can, anytime he wants, make most any choice he pleases (within his human limitations, of course). Man’s free will can apparently defy the purposes of God and will against the will of God. Now how do we resolve this seeming contradiction?

 A. W. Tozer and David E. Fessenden, The Attributes of God: Deeper into the Father’s Heart, vol. 2 (Camp Hill, PA: WingSpread, 2001–), 149.


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Here is what I see: God Almighty is sovereign, free to do as He pleases. Among the things He is pleased to do is give me freedom to do what I please. And when I do what I please, I am fulfilling the will of God, not controverting it, for God in His sovereignty has sovereignly given me freedom to make a free choice.

Even if the choice I make is not the one God would have made for me, His sovereignty is fulfilled in my making the choice. And I can make the choice because the great sovereign God, who is completely free, said to me, “In my sovereign freedom I bestow a little bit of freedom on you. Now ‘choose you this day whom ye will serve’ (Joshua 24:15). Be good or be bad at your own pleasure. Follow Me or don’t follow Me, come on or go back. Go to heaven or go to hell.”

 A. W. Tozer and David E. Fessenden, The Attributes of God: Deeper into the Father’s Heart, vol. 2 (Camp Hill, PA: WingSpread, 2001–), 150.


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It means that if you walk out of church contrary to the will and way of God, God does not will that you should do it, but He wills that you should be free to do it. And when you freely choose to walk against the way of God, you choose freely to go on the road to perdition. That’s one thing about heaven and hell—no one is in either place by accident. Hell is populated by people who chose to go there. They may not have chosen the destination, but they chose the highway.

 A. W. Tozer and David E. Fessenden, The Attributes of God: Deeper into the Father’s Heart, vol. 2 (Camp Hill, PA: WingSpread, 2001–), 160–161.


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When used in a salvation context, to repent is to believe in Christ. That’s why we do not need to apologize for not using the word “repentance” in evangelistic messages. When we call upon a non-Christian audience to trust Christ, we have called upon them to repent. We have called upon them to do what the Gospel of John asks—believe.

 R. Larry Moyer, Show Me How to Preach Evangelistic Sermons, Show Me How Series (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Academic & Professional, 2012), 129.


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Changing one’s life is not the issue, and understandably so. God offers His gift with no strings attached: “He who believes in Me has everlasting life” (John 6:47). To make changing one’s life the first issue is an unbiblical presentation of the gospel; it confuses salvation and sanctification—entering the Christian life with living it. One enters the Christian life through simple trust in Christ. When one comes to God as a sinner, recognizes Christ died for him and arose, and trusts in Christ alone to save, both faith and repentance have taken place. We are entirely His. We then live the Christian life by walking in obedience to Him. Our salvation, though, is never conditioned on that obedience. That’s why when we say, “You must come to Christ as Lord and Savior” that is most appropriate if we mean we must acknowledge the fact that He is Lord God Almighty. But if we mean that we must make Him Lord of every area of our lives, we have confused salvation and sanctification. Making Him Lord of every area of our life is part of growing as a disciple. It has nothing to do with salvation.

We cannot change our life before coming to Christ. The grip of sin and temptation is so strong that apart from Him there is no victory. Only after coming to Him, and relying upon Him and His indwelling strength day by day, can we say no to sin and yes to a life of righteousness.

 R. Larry Moyer, Show Me How to Preach Evangelistic Sermons, Show Me How Series (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Academic & Professional, 2012), 130–131.


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Entering the Family (John 3:1–16)

The only way to get into the human family is by birth, and the only way to get into God’s family is by birth. “Except a man be born again, he cannot see [experience] the kingdom of God.… Ye must be born again” (John 3:3, 7). The term that theologians use for this experience is regeneration, which simply means “born again.”

Two spiritual parents. Children must have parents; that is the only way to be born in this world. God’s children have two spiritual: the Spirit of God (John 3:5) and the Word of God (1 Pet. 1:23–25). The miracle of the new birth takes place when the Spirit of God applies the Word of God to the mind and heart of the sinner, and this Word generates faith (Eph. 2:8–9). The sinner believes on Jesus Christ, receives new life, and is born again into the family of God (John 1:11–13).

But didn’t Jesus say that we must be “born of water” as well as “born of the Spirit”? Does this mean that water baptism is necessary for salvation? The phrase “born of water” probably does not refer to water baptism because in the Bible, water baptism is associated with death and not with birth. “Born of water” means physical birth, what Nicodemus referred to in verse 4. “Born of water” is the same as “born of the flesh” in verse 6. First, the physical birth; then the spiritual birth. Anyone who is acquainted with human birth knows that water is involved; the baby is “born of water”

 Warren W. Wiersbe, Be What You Are: 12 Intriguing Pictures of the Christian from the New Testament (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House, 1988), 12–13.


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The “birthmarks” of God’s children. Can a person really know that he or she is a child in God’s family? Of course! The First Epistle of John was written to assure believers that they are the children of God (1 John 5:11–13). Seven times in this letter, the Apostle John uses the phrase “born of God.” If you put these statements together, you discover four “birthmarks” of the true believer:

• practicing righteousness and not sin (2:29; 3:9)

• loving God and other believers (4:7; 5:1)

• overcoming the world (5:4)

• overcoming the devil (5:18)

 Warren W. Wiersbe, Be What You Are: 12 Intriguing Pictures of the Christian from the New Testament (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House, 1988), 13–14.


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In the New Testament, adoption is the act of God whereby he gives each of his children an adult standing in the family the instant he or she is born again. You do not get into God’s family by adoption but by regeneration. Why? Because an adopted child does not have the same nature as his adoptive parents. God’s children have God’s own nature because they have been born of God’s Spirit (2 Pet. 1:4). Adoption has to do with our standing in the family. It simply means that God treats us as adults, not as babes, and gives us adult privileges.

 Warren W. Wiersbe, Be What You Are: 12 Intriguing Pictures of the Christian from the New Testament (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House, 1988), 14–15.

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God does not satisfy our “greeds,” but he does supply our needs (Matt. 6:19–34).

 Warren W. Wiersbe, Be What You Are: 12 Intriguing Pictures of the Christian from the New Testament (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House, 1988), 16.