Warren W. Wiersbe - Be Victorious. In Christ You Are an Overcomer

BE VICTORIOUS
Published by David C. Cook
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David C. Cook U.K., Kingsway Communications
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are registered trademarks of Cook Communications Ministries.

All rights reserved. Except for brief excerpts for review purposes,
no part of this book may be reproduced or used in any form
without written permission from the publisher.

Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are taken from the King James Version of the Bible. (Public Domain.) Scripture quotations marked NASB are taken from the New American Standard Bible , Copyright 1960, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission; NIV are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version . NIV . Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved; MSG are taken from THE MESSAGE . Copyright by Eugene H. Peterson 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group; and PH are taken from J. B. Phillips: The New Testament in Modern English , revised editions J. B. Phillips, 1958, 1960, 1972, permission of Macmillan Publishing Co. and Collins Publishers.

LCCN 2008924757
ISBN 978-1-4347-6782-0
eISBN 978-1-4347-6521-5

1985 Warren W. Wiersbe

First edition of Be Victorious by Warren W. Wiersbe published by Victor Books
in 1985 Warren W. Wiersbe, ISBN 0-89693-547-7

The Team: Gudmund Lee, Amy Kiechlin, Jack Campbell, and Susan Vannaman
Cover Design: John Hamilton Design
Cover Photo: Veer Inc.

Second Edition 2008

Dedicated to
our pastor and his wife,
Curt and Claudine Lehman,
whose ministry has helped many
to be overcomers

Contents

: An Introduction to Be Victorious by Ken Baugh

1. (Revelation 1)

2. (Revelation 2)

3. (Revelation 3)

4. (Revelation 45)

5. (Revelation 67)

6. (Revelation 89)

7. (Revelation 1011)

8. (Revelation 1213)

9. (Revelation 1416)

10. (Revelation 1718)

11. (Revelation 1920)

12. (Revelation 2122)

T HE B IG I DEA

An Introduction to Be Victorious
by Ken Baugh

From 19942004 I lived in the Washington, D.C., area with my family, and not long ago I was talking with my wife, Susan, about all the terrible things our two girls witnessed between September 11, 2001 and November 2002. First, our girls witnessed the greatest attack on our country since Pearl Harbor, as terrorists crashed their hijacked airplanes into the World Trade Center towers and the Pentagon. I remember seeing the smoke from the Pentagon through my office window at church. Then on October 26, 2001, we experienced the anthrax scare when a letter containing the toxic substance was opened by an aide of Senator Tom Daschle. On November 16 of the same year, another package of anthrax was discovered in the Sterling, Virginia, post office right down the street from our house. Then in October 2002 we witnessed the Beltway sniper shootings, which caused my oldest daughters high school to cancel both the homecoming football game and dance out of fear of further attacks. I remember my wife and I going to the Tysons Corner Mall one night during the three weeks of these attacks and people would actually run from the parking lot into the stores out of fear of being the snipers next target. Needless to say, I dont have to explain the existence of evil to my girls. They are fully aware of its horror.

Do you ever wonder at the presence of such reckless hate in our world? Where does all of this evil come from? I often ask myself. The Bible tells us that we live in the midst of two dimensions: a physical dimension and a spiritual dimension. The physical dimension is what we see all around usits the world we can taste, touch, and test in a laboratory. The spiritual dimension is something quite different. This is where we encounter powerful spiritual forces, both for good and for evil. The Bible tells us of two kinds of angels who live here: those who wish to protect and care for the children of God, and those whose sole purpose is to steal, kill, and destroy.

The Bible also tells us of one angel whom we should fear the most. He has been called by many different names throughout history and Scripture, each of which reveals another aspect of his evil nature. He is called: the Accuser of our brothers; the Angel of the abyss; Beelzebub; Belial; the Dragon; the Enemy; the Evil One; the Father of Lies; the God of this Age; a Guardian Cherub; a Liar; the Morning Star; a Murderer; the Prince of Demons; the Prince of this World; a Roaring Lion; the Ruler of the Kingdom of the Air; Satan; a Serpent; the Son of the Dawn; the Spirit who works in those who are disobedient; a Strong Man; and the Tempter. Most people refer to him as the Devil, and if you are a follower of Christ his goal is to destroy you.

The Bible tells us in 1 Peter 5:8, Keep a cool head. Stay alert. The Devil is poised to pounce, and would like nothing better than to catch you napping. Keep your guard up ( MSG ). Today, many people reduce the Devil to a scare tactica way of scaring people into being goodwhile others limit him to a logo on the side of a tuna fish can or an evil presence in a movie. But the Bible affirms both his presence and goal: to destroy people. Read the words of the apostle Paul in Ephesians 6:1213:

This is no afternoon athletic contest that well walk away from and forget about in a couple of hours. This is for keeps, a life-or-death fight to the finish against the Devil and all his angels. Be prepared . ( MSG )

Peter warns us to keep our guard up , Paul tells us to be prepared. Both terms refer to military action, because we are in the midst of a spiritual war with the Devil and his angels. But this still doesnt tell us why the Devil and his angels cause such hate to exist in the world around us. Let me explain.

First, it is easy to see why the Devil hates us, because we are the only ones in all of Gods creation who were created in His image and likeness (see Gen. 1:27). And since the Devil hates God, he hates human beings who were made in the image of God. Furthermore, back in the garden of Eden when Adam and Eve rebelled against God, part of the consequence was that they relinquished their right to rule over the earth to the Devil. As such, today the Devil is the ruler of this world. In 1 John 5:19 ( NIV ) we read, The whole world is under the control of the evil one. So the one who hates us most is also in charge of our world.

Therefore, all the evil that we see and experience in this worldterrorist attacks, the sniper shootings, murder, rape, war, hate, racism, and so onare all due to the Devil and his angels. But do not despair, the Devil is on a leash and can only wreak so much havoc. A day is coming when Jesus will put a stop to his reign of terror. In fact, Jesus has already defeated the Devil at the cross (Col. 2:1315), and now He is just waiting for the right time to come back and finish the job. The apostle Paul even affirms this in Romans 16:20 ( NIV ): The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet.

Jesus came to earth over 2,000 years ago as the Lamb of God, but He is coming back again as the Lion of the tribe of Judah. Jesus Christ is coming back! He is the rider on the white horse, the One who is faithful and true. When He comes, the armies of heaven will be following Him, and He will destroy all those who oppose Him. In the end, Jesus will not only defeat the nations of the world whom the Devil has deceived, but will finally cast him into the lake of fire where he will remain for eternity. Here is the big idea of the book of Revelation: Jesus Christ is the Victor, Jesus Christ is the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, and we as His followers will reign with Him forever in the New Heaven and the New Earth. I say, Maranatha! Come, Lord Jesus, comeand come soon! Come and take your bride, the church, to be with you forever!