Can The Devil Use A Christian： How Dangerous Is Jealousy？ — Kenny Batson

So let's turn to Galatians chapter 5, please. Galatians chapter 5. Let's fix it here. And we will talk about this. Can the devil use a Christian? Oh yes. If that Christian allows it. And the subtitle is How Dangerous is Jealousy?

The Holy Spirit’s Warning About Jealousy

I wish I was able. I just got to trust the Holy Spirit to give me the power I need right now in the unction to express to you how important it is to understand what I'm going to teach you tonight. I cannot emphasize strong enough how much God has been telling me to tell this church about jealousy.

It is one of the... I can't remember anything that God has pounded on me harder than this message tonight. And I wanted to preach it this morning. But I felt like God didn't want me to. He wanted me to speak it tonight.

That might be because you have to have ears to hear. And primarily those who come on a Sunday night are going to be mature believers. For one reason maybe. But I have constantly been made aware by the Holy Spirit of how big of a problem jealousy is.

And I'm not talking about Grace Fellowship. I'm talking about period. On the earth. Everywhere. And I'll tell you something else. I beg God that the Holy Spirit will give you the ability to humble yourself and listen to this.

Jealousy is one of those things we don't like to admit. It is embarrassing. Nobody wants to admit they're jealous. If you're honest, you'd say, well, in fact, there's been times in my Christian life where I've told someone you're being jealous.

And they get angry. Most times people get offended if you tell them that. Why? Because the person they're jealous over, they don't like. And if you say you're jealous of that person, that is offensive because they already don't like them.

So what you're saying, in a sense, is you think that person is superior to you. That's how they interpret it. Rather than hearing you say you're having trouble right now with some jealousy. By the way, when I say jealousy, it's synonymous with envy.

In the Bible it is. Jealousy is one of the biggest problems in the church. It's up there with pride. And if you don't know, pride is the worst sin. Pride and unbelief are synonymous, basically. Jealousy is right up there with it.

It is something that people do not recognize. They don't see it. And then they don't want to see it. So I pray tonight that God will give you the ability to hear what he says. Not what Kenny says. What his spirit says.

Jealousy Among the Works of the Flesh

Look at Galatians 5 verse 19. It says,. Now the works of the flesh are evident. In other words, it's obvious what's wrong. Which are adultery. It's obvious you shouldn't be an adulterer. Fornication. That's sexual sins.

Which is any sexual stuff outside of marriage, period. No matter what people think, if they like it or not, sex outside of marriage is fornication, period. Fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, by the way, those two also have sexual connotations in them.

And then verse 20 says, Idolatry. Idolatry is to love anything more than God. Anything more than God. Even your kids. Idolatry. Sorcery. Somebody tell me what the Greek word for sorcery is there. Pharmakia.

Drugs. Sorcery is drug abuse. Abusing drugs. So sorcery is one of the works of the flesh. Hatred. Hate. Hating people. Bitterness. Hating the preacher for saying something you didn't like when he was right.

Now you can hate evil and you can hate sin, but you can't hate people, okay? Hatred. Contention. That's just where you're constantly bickering and fighting. And look at the next one. This is the one we're going to look at tonight.

Jealousies. And then it says, Outbursts of wrath. Selfish ambitions. Dissension. Heresies. Envy. That's synonymous with jealousy. It's a little different, but it's pretty much the same thing. Same Greek root.

Murder, which can be in the same category as hate. Drunkenness. That goes with booze. So alcohol and drug abuse are in this passage. Revelries. That's parties. And the like. In other words, this is just a list.

It's not an exhaustive list. He's saying these kinds of things. And then he says, Of which I tell you beforehand. Is this the word of God we're reading? He says, Of which I'm telling you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will burn in hell.

That's what that means. They will not inherit the kingdom of God. If you practice these things, you will burn in hell. So we need to be telling people that. If we care about people, preachers primarily, we're not going to want to flatter people every Sunday.

Because people are living in sin. In the next part, verse 22 says, But, this is the good, the fruit of the Spirit. When God's Spirit's in you and working out of you, the first thing it says is love. Joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.

Against such there is no law. I was talking to Mike and Chastity before service. And she mentioned how there's people that profess to be Christians, but by the way they live, you can tell they're not.

Anybody know something like that? How do you know that? Some people say, Oh, it's judgmental. No, it's not. The Bible says we're supposed to judge with righteous judgment, doesn't it? In other words, we're not supposed to be naive.

We're not judgmental, but we're judging with righteous judgment. Jesus told us to do that. And it's true. There are lots of folks who profess to be Christians, but you can tell real quick by how they live, they're not.

Why? Number one, you just don't sense love on them. And then it says here, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness. And then it says faithfulness, 23, gentleness, and self-control. Against such there is no law, 24.

And those who are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in the spirit, let us also walk in the spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.

And again, that goes with jealousy. Let's pray real quick. Lord, I am begging you to help me understand more how important prayer is. And I'm asking you also, Lord, for anyone here that doesn't understand, show them.

And show them that all you desire from every heart is faith. That's it. You just want us to trust you. We don't have to have cool language. You just want us to talk to you, Lord, in faith. Help us understand and genuinely draw closer to you.

In Jesus' name, amen. So the question, can the devil use a Christian? Yes, especially if you're ate up with jealousy, envy, bitterness. There's all kinds of list of stuff that we could get ate up with.

But we're going to talk about this tonight. I want to show you a scripture that we looked at this morning, actually. Exodus 20, verse 17. This is commandment number 10 of the Ten Commandments. It says, you shall not covet your neighbor's house.

You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor's. In other words, it wouldn't be a stretch to say that God's saying, you shall not be jealous of what your neighbor has.

That's another way you could look at that verse. You shall not be jealous of what your neighbor has. But let me tell you something else. Sometimes people think when you talk about jealousy, it's just a matter of physical things.

It's a matter of he or she's better looking than me or more talented or whatever or got material possessions. Jealousy is much more than that. Let's look back down here at verse 20. Idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions.

What's the next word? Okay, here it is on the projector. This is the Greek word. Zelos. I should have put the English transliteration up there. It's Z-E-L-O-S. What word do we get from that in English?

Zeal. Zealous. Exactly. So the Greek root here. Why am I showing you Greek? Because this was originally written in Greek. That's why. So the original word is zelos. And the definition is it's a particularly strong feeling of resentment and jealousy against somebody.

Envy, jealousy, resentment. Resentment is a key word that helps you understand what jealousy is. I don't think you can really understand jealousy. Just say you don't have any idea what jealousy is. I think you must understand the word resentment to understand what jealousy is.

Resentment is very much what jealousy is. Now I wrote some stuff down here, my definition of it, that I wrote down just so I could try to explain it the best I can because we need to understand. If you don't understand Satan's tactics, then you're going to be ignorant and get tore up, right?

Understanding the Enemy Through Knowledge and Self-Examination

By the way, in case you don't know, Great Britain in World War II was getting smoked by Germany. I'm talking beat down. If you do not know, Germany was a monster military powerhouse, much more powerful than the United States in World War II.

But because of intelligence and work that Great Britain did, especially tapping the wires and catching some of the, when German planes would go down, there was a couple of key times where they got this information boxes, whatever they were, and they were able to decipher what the Germans were doing.

That is why we won World War II. It wasn't because we all had mightier military power. Germany lost because of intelligence, because of understanding and finding out things that the enemy was doing. That's how you get one up.

That's how you win. My people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge, the Bible says. So we need to understand. Okay, here's some of my definitions of jealousy. It's to resent someone for some perceived good fortune.

Now, all of us think of that, we're like, come on, that's terrible to do that. But we also all know we've all done it. Anybody that's honest knows there have been times where you've seen some kind of a good fortune in someone else, and it aggravated you.

Now, I'm talking about especially before you're a Christian. Hopefully, as a Christian, when you catch it, you're like, man, why would I feel like that? That's not good. It's having ill will, in other words, when somebody else is prosperous, for whatever reason.

So it's to resent somebody for some perceived good fortune. It's to have a strong dislike for someone having what you don't have. I just don't like somebody because they got what I don't. People do that all the time.

I'm telling you, I can't even emphasize, you can ask my wife. I talk to her about this almost every day. This sermon could have been preached three weeks ago. It just constantly, God's showing me stuff.

And I'll start talking to her, and she ends up hearing the whole sermon in the living room. She's like, mm-hmm. Because I'll just start going off on this because God's showing me this. In my personal relationships, not with this church, but I'm talking about just in general, average, regular relationships, just with everybody, how it influences and it affects.

And the reason God, by the way, does that a lot of times for a preacher is so he will preach it. That's true. Here's another definition. A hate for someone for being superior to you in some form. That's more along the lines of envy.

So that happens a lot. You all know it does. And that is why we don't like to admit it. We wouldn't want to say, I don't like him because he's better looking than me. We don't like saying that. It's embarrassing, isn't it?

Confession, Humility, and Victory Over Sin

But if you don't know, the key to victory is to confess your sins and humble yourself to God. Is that true? It's when you and I admit this is an issue, and I go to God and I admit that and I confess it, that he saves me.

Now, I don't remember who I was talking to today, Mike or somebody, Hal or Wally after church. Getting saved is coming to the place in your life where you realize, I don't know a better word, what a dirtbag you've been.

I have been a dirtbag. I have sinned. I've used God's name in vain. I've been mean. I've hated people that Jesus died for. I've even hated God. But he what? Sent his son to die for me? That's a low down thing.

And when you really get that, that same moment, you will fall on your face before almighty God. Amen? Isn't that how you guys got saved? The day you realize, I'm sinful. I have done wrong so much, but he loves me.

So, in other words, a key to getting victory, a key to true deliverance is recognizing and seeing, even though we don't like to see bad stuff about ourselves, the truth and accepting it and confessing and agreeing with God.

By the way, you know the word confess? I think it's paralambano in Greek. I don't mark my words on this, but I do know this for sure. The word confess means to speak the same thing as. That's exactly what it means in Greek.

In Romans 10, 9, when it says, confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe your heart God raising from the dead, you shall be saved. You guys remember that verse? The word confess there in Greek means to speak the same thing as.

In other words, the Bible says, in order to get saved, I have to speak exactly what God speaks about me. Basically, I have to agree with God. And so, when we see things that we don't like and are embarrassing or humiliating, whatever, first of all, you don't have to tell everybody else.

Some Christians believe you've got to go find an accountability partner. No, Jesus is your accountability partner. Amen? Just go talk to him. If you told your friends everything about you, they would believe you.

Amen? I'm telling you, I felt condemned about that for years. And then I realized one day, just because everybody's saying that don't mean it's exactly the truth. Honestly, this is my opinion. I can't really fathom that anybody's ever lived that genuinely confessed every filthy, vile thing in their heart to anybody else.

You're not the only one with stuff inside of you that's embarrassing. Everybody in here has that kind of stuff in them. Amen? It's the truth. Okay. So, in other words, feel better. Because it's the truth.

We're all messed up. So, I want to give you some examples of jealousy. Because we need to see it, and if we're doing it, we want to get victory. When someone gets a nice material thing, and your first feeling is negativity, that is jealousy.

Everyday Manifestations of Jealousy

So, in other words, if my friend gets a new phone, or somebody gets a new phone, or whatever, and it's a little bit irritating, that is jealousy. Call it what it is. Another one. When another preacher succeeds, or preaches a good sermon, or his church is growing, if the first thing Kenny wants to do is get negative about him, that's jealousy.

Unless he's a heretic, of course. If he's a heretic, I shouldn't be positive about it, right? But if somebody's seeing people saved in their church, and they're teaching the Word of God, and people are talking highly of him, I'd be happy for him.

That's love, right? If every time some certain person gets something new, we then also have to have it, that's jealousy. If I see somebody getting something, and I have to have it, that's jealousy. I'm not talking about all times you need something new, or want something, that's jealousy.

I'm not saying that. I'm just saying if at all times, every time somebody gets something new, I've got to have it, that's jealousy. Here's another one. When an attractive man or woman is around, we all of a sudden don't like them, and we start to speak negative to our spouse about them.

Okay, I'm going to say that again. When an attractive man or woman comes around, or someone of the opposite sex that's beautiful, and all of a sudden I just don't like them, and I start to speak negative to my spouse about them, that's jealousy.

Do you guys understand why that is? Because the truth is, when we see someone that's better looking, I'm afraid my wife might think he's good looking, and so therefore I start talking dirt on him. Saying little negative things.

People do that all the time. And they don't know it's jealousy, but it's jealousy. I'm not saying I do that. I'm just telling you guys. It could be the wife. Some pretty girl comes to church, and oh yeah, she's this and that, and I heard this and that about her.

It happens all the time. It's jealousy. When someone is more fortunate than us, and we immediately think that they think they're superior. I've brought this up a few times lately. I don't know why, but it keeps coming to me.

If someone is rich, for example, and I immediately assume they think they're superior to me, that's jealousy. How do I know they're heart, number one? Number two, I'm out of line. There are blanket prejudices, is what I call them.

In other words, I've heard people absolutely hate rich folks. People say, rich people are stupid. Or rich people think they're better than me, and they think they're smarter than me. That is blanket prejudice.

Not all rich people are like that. Amen? That's jealousy. That's jealousy. We might call it being judgmental, and it is, but ultimately it's jealousy. And blanket prejudice could be on anything. All kinds of different matters of life.

How Jealousy Damages Church Relationships

And so I want to give you some illustrations of how it can hurt church. Like I told you, it is the reason for many problems in church, and the devil loves it. I felt him poking at me about this message, so I knew I was supposed to preach it.

One of the ways I know I'm supposed to preach, or if the devil don't want me to, is I get hit with weird stuff. That maybe I can't explain, but I think some of you know what I mean by that. Here, listen to these.

The wife, she doesn't like sister so-and-so at church because husband thinks she's sweet and godly girl. That happens. Or husband will sabotage church attendance because the wife admires another brother or the pastor at church.

Everything I'm reading to you, I've seen happen. Or negativity and slander starts to creep out of a parishioner's mouth because they are jealous deep down over the financial prosperity of another parishioner.

In other words, because of jealousy, they'll start to talk negative. Or husband won't allow marriage counseling or the couple to go to the marriage retreat because the wife admires the pastor's marriage.

Seen that happen. Wife won't allow the husband to go to certain church functions because an attractive woman is there, and that's it. You can ask my wife, we've seen that. And I'm not talking about anybody in here in particular, okay?

I'm just telling you, we've seen this stuff. In fact, we have actually suffered some of this, my wife and I have. I've seen my wife suffer incredibly so because of one sister having it in her head certain things that her husband might have thought about my wife.

And it's a terrible shame, and it tears churches up. Here's another thing, a form of jealousy that most people don't catch. Everything the sister so-and-so cooks is bad. I'm telling you, girls get jealous about another sister being able to cook good, and they'll talk bad about other sister.

Sometimes, not always. Or here's another one, sister so-and-so starts to talk negative and slander another sister at church because she has a crush on a certain man, and she thinks the other girl does also.

I've seen that happen in church. So she has a crush, and she thinks another girl does, so this other girl she starts to dislike and talk bad about because she's got a crush on a guy, and she thinks that girl does too.

That's jealousy. Brother so-and-so preaches good message, but certain people won't tell him because they're jealous. And by the way, preachers are the worst at this. I'll tell you, I'll never forget when I first got saved and I went into ministry, my little church started to grow in Rich Hill.

I went to the first pastor's meeting, baby Christian. By the way, it's common for a church to grow when you're a new pastor. Everybody thinks you're great. It's called the honeymoon phase. Anybody heard of that before?

I went to this pastor's meeting, and the presbyter was asking me to testify about how our church was growing, and I didn't understand nothing at that time. I was 29 when I first started to pastor. And I'll never forget, I was like, man, that guy seems like he don't like me or something.

I didn't have a clue what I'm talking to you about tonight. And come to find out, the guy intensely didn't like me because of my testimony I was giving. He was jealous that God wasn't doing the same thing in his church.

It was quite a deal. Sister so-and-so, here's another example. Sister so-and-so sang a beautiful special, but she was hindered from encouragement because, number one, wife forbids it, and sister so-and-so is jealous that she can't sing like that.

You hear these awkward examples I'm giving you? In other words, somebody might sing good, and because of jealousy, somebody else is forbidden or hindered from encouraging her, and she needed to be encouraged.

Does that make sense to you guys? I'm telling you, those are little weird examples, and the reason I went through all the trouble to do all that is because I want you to understand and recognize when you have jealousy.

I need to see it. God showed me, I have it. I've got the same problem. I told my wife a story the other day. I was going down the road, and I saw somebody in a brand-new, very expensive vehicle, in Butler, actually, and I immediately had a negative thought about them.

And I was like, what in the world? Why would I be acting negative or think negative just because they got a nice car? And right about the time they got up to me, they waved real big. I don't even know who they were.

They were just real friendly, and here I am thinking that they think whatever. Why? Because they have an expensive car? Is it against the law to have an expensive car? Why would I be peeved about that?

It's jealousy. And it disgusted me. And that kind of started me on these thoughts. The list goes on and on. It does. It goes on and on. So in other words, jealousy can cause you or me to not be loving to somebody or to believe a lie about somebody or to start trouble for what?

Mostly because my people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge. I'm going to tell you right now, when you confess and you admit to whatever weaknesses you have, I don't care if it's drugs, if it's thinking evil thoughts, lust, you name it, when you admit it to God, He will lift you up.

Oh, He will, and He does. Let's finish here by reading the rest of this passage. Let's go down there to verse 22, Galatians 5 .22. It says, The fruit of the Spirit is love. How do you receive God's Spirit, guys?

Walking in the Spirit and Rejecting Bitterness

You ask, you humble yourself, you confess your sins. God, what does the Bible say? Resists the proud and He gives grace to the humble. He gives you love. The Bible says that God is love. I say that all the time because the Spirit of God is God.

And when the Spirit of God is in you, you have love in you, real love. That is the only way to produce the fruit of the Spirit is by the Spirit. You can't just try real hard. You cannot just feel bad because you have this or haven't that.

You have to operate under His unction. That's the only way. Call it like it is, in other words. And then it says, love is the first thing it says. And then joy, peace. Isn't peace a beautiful thing? And the first time you and I ever had it was the day we said, God, you're right, I'm wrong.

And we can lose that. You know we can. If you've been saved for any time, you know that you can lose that peace because of sin. Letting stuff creep in here and getting your heart. What does the Bible say about a root of bitterness?

Springing up. What does it say? It causes trouble. And then what? By this, many are defiled, become defiled. So that means a person can be a true Christian, pure in heart, walking in grace and truth, and then allow a root of bitterness in their heart.

And listen to me, please. One root of bitterness will put out a whole bunch of branches. And it'll come out in jealousy, outbursts of wrath, a foul attitude, pride, and more bitterness. Because I didn't want to listen to the one root problem.

And then it says, kindness, long-suffering there, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Don't you all want that to be what runs your life? Amen? All you and I got to do is just come to Jesus.

It's that simple. That is supposed to be the majority rule for the believer. The majority rule for the believer is not sin. It's righteousness. It's true holiness in the Lord. And then verse 24. Those who are Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

The true Christian recognizes his jealousies, he admits it, and he kills it. That's how you got to deal with sin. You cannot be a pitter-patter little pansy with sin. Amen? You will lose. Sin will cut your throat and throw you on the ground.

That's what will happen. You got to be brutal with sin. You got to fight it with violence spiritually. Like I said, be brutal. Call it what it is. You know, look at it like this. It may not be fun for me to admit some stuff that I'm seeing about myself that's not clean, not beautiful, not attractive.

But boy, that's the only way to knock it out. To nail it on the cross, you got to be honest. Amen? 25. If we live in the Spirit, if you're saved, then walk in the Spirit. Obey the Spirit, in other words.

Let us not become conceited. That means you can be not conceited and then become conceited. Provoking one another. And that's what it does. If I start getting conceited, think too highly of myself, I start seeing everybody else as flawed and below me.

And then it says envying one another, which is jealousy. That's when you start just not liking people. If you find yourself starting to not like a lot of folks, especially your brothers and sisters in the Lord, you're the problem.

That's the way it is. So if you're saved, live it. Admit it. And I want to show you one more scripture up here. This is more valuable than all the money and all the banks of the earth right here. This verse.

Receiving Mercy at the Throne of Grace

How do you get mercy and find grace to help you? You've got to go boldly to the throne of grace. In other words, remember what I told you? You've got to be brutal with yourself, brutally honest. Come up to Jesus.

Lord, this is it. Help me. Now, please listen to me. Some of you, maybe most all of you, aren't struggling too much with this right now. It's going to probably be an issue later. Number two, there are people that you know that are defeated by this.

So pray for them. Amen? That's love. To stand in the gap for somebody that does not know. Amen? I've had a couple different people come to me. For those of you who may not know my testimony, I was a blatant, belligerent, drunk, fool, thug.

That's what I was. And I had no idea I needed Jesus. And after I got saved, years later, I had a couple people come to me and say, I used to pray for you. I didn't have no idea, people. I didn't even understand prayer, much less that I needed Jesus.

I know that's how I got saved. People prayed for me. Do you have somebody? I don't want you to raise your hand unless it's true. Can you think of someone that needs you to pray for them tonight, sincerely?

Raise your hand. Amen. This is prayer service. The Bible says my house should be called a house of prayer. When you pray, it's worth more than all the money on earth. You will get more deliverance than you could ever get trying, doing drugs, drinking, getting in a new relationship.

The only way to be set free is Jesus Christ. And the way to get to him is to talk to him. Amen? All right. So let me pray for you, and we'll close. Lord, I just want to pray for everybody that's listening to this.

I'm asking you to encourage and hold and lift up each heart that's down, especially those who might be feeling convicted or maybe struggling with this, Lord. I need you to straighten me out just as bad as we all do, Lord, maybe worse because I'm more responsible for these people.

I ask you to do what you've got to do, whether it's convict or comfort, and remind us, Lord, that even though the devil can use someone who allows it, he cannot use us if we submit to you. And we don't want it, Lord.

We want nothing to do with his schemes. We want your peace, your victory here, and we want you to continue to add into this church people who need you and get saved. In Jesus' name, amen.