What is the intention of Satan here to
do?
Well, he's to draw us away from the
will of God and to distort the very
Word of God itself.
It's interesting, when Satan said, really?
Has God said that you can't eat from
any tree?
Is that what God said?
No, God said we couldn't eat of that
tree.
Is that same temptation taking place?
Well, if you're a parent, you know that
it is.
How many have heard your child say that
I can't do anything?
Is that what you said?
No, you said you couldn't do that thing.
I can't go anywhere.
Is that what you said?
No, they can't go to that one particular
place.
I can't see any movies.
No, you can't see that movie.
So, that same track is still there.
Somehow or another, our needs are going to
get met in Christ, or they're going to
get met in the world system.
And we're going to be tempted to fall
into those patterns of the world instead of
God's answer.
Then comes the last Adam, Christ.
He was tempted in every way, such as
man.
And so, we are told in Scripture that
he fasted for 40 days and was hungry.
Isn't that incredible?
I fasted four hours once and was famished.
But anyway, he came back.
He was on the verge of starvation.
And the devil said to him, if you
are the Son of Man, why don't you
turn that rock into bread?
Now, what is the issue of that temptation?
It was an attempt by Satan to get
Jesus to use his own divine attributes independent
of the Father.
And I want to say that that is
the heart of temptation.
It's an attempt to get you and I
to live our lives independent of God.
And the life that Jesus modeled on planet
Earth was a life totally dependent upon God
the Father.
He said, I don't even come on my
own initiative.
I don't speak on my own initiative.
And the same is true of the Holy
Spirit.
They only responded to that which their Heavenly
Father told them to.
And even in the Trinity, there is that
sense of unity and dependence upon God the
Father.
And the Lord, in every case that he
was tempted, he quoted right out of the
book of Deuteronomy.
In this case, he said, man does not
live by bread alone, but man lives by
everything that proceeds out of the mouth of
God.
And so immediately, he declared his dependency upon
God the Father.
Then let's look at the lust of the
eyes.
What's the intention here?
When the devil tempted Jesus, he took him
up to the temple and he offered him
that the Lord would bear him up if
he would throw him off.
In other words, he was going to put
God the Father to the test.
And I see this as the great religious
temptation today, that we're going to put God
to the test.
I said, it doesn't work that way, people.
We are being tested by God.
We're being tempted by the devil.
The intention is to destroy our faith.
We are being tested by God.
The intention is to strengthen our faith.
I remember several years ago, when I was
a pastor, I had a man who joined
our church.
He was a nice guy and recovering from
a pretty debauched life, actually.
Through it, he had gone through a divorce
and had come to Christ.
He just wanted to serve the Lord.
He had actually been a mayor of our
town at one time.
Here is a committed man.
Unfortunately, an awful lot of the rebellious living
of his past had caught up with him.
Eventually, he got sick and they took a
long time diagnosing it, but finally it was
discovered he had cancer.
He was a pretty solid guy.
I wish I could say the same for
his wife at that time.
She just kind of lost all sense of
rationality and started to grasp for any straw
that came along.
Next thing I know, some bizarre religious figures
were coming into their life.
I went over to their house and she
said, I am not going to let you
pray for my husband if you are going
to conclude the prayer if it be according
to God's will.
I had to be honest with her.
I said, I bow to a higher authority.
I think that there is nothing that I
would want more for your husband than for
him to have God's will.
I am convinced that God's will is good,
acceptable, and perfect.
We are even told to pray in the
Lord's Prayer that thy will be done.
I want God's will for his life because
I believe it is best for him.
Well, that ended that relationship for a while.
Then the word got out in our church
that four independent witnesses all testified that God
told them that he was not going to
die.
Isn't that great, Pastor?
Well, that would be great.
I like this man and I did pray
for him and I was concerned for him.
But I knew in my own heart that
four independent witnesses had not heard from God
and three weeks later the man died.
Now, what happened here, people?
Did God tell those four people?
And if God did, what would that make
God?
That would make God a liar.
I believe those four people were doing nothing
more than paying attention to a deceiving spirit.
What is the intention of this temptation?
It is to destroy our confidence in God
and to undermine the actual word of God
itself.
Now God can't be trusted.
And when Eve responded to the temptation of
Satan at that time, she said, No, God
didn't say that.
He said we couldn't eat or touch that
tree.
Oh, what did she add, people?
She had a touch.
Now, what if she touched that tree and
she didn't die?
Well, again, then God would be a liar.
And then Satan comes along and says, You
surely shall not die.
He's trying to question the very word of
God.
The last one is the pride of life.
And here the devil offered him to have
half the kingdoms of the world if he
would only bow down and worship Him.
Now, people, the Lord did not respond and
say, You don't have half the kingdoms of
this world.
He knew who the God of this world
was.
But this temptation was immediately rebuffed by our
Lord because He knew that there was only
one He should worship and He said, You
shall fear only the Lord your God and
you shall worship Him.
You see, what he confronted him with was
the ultimate lie.
It goes right back to the Garden.
You will be like God.
And that temptation is still true today.
The New Age is trying to tell us,
You don't need a Savior.
You don't need to repent from your sins.
You just need to realize that you're God
and all you need to be is enlightened.
Isn't it amazing that a child comes onto
this world, he readily accepts the notions of
God.
If they had a godly mom or dad,
they would believe in God.
They just seem to naturally do that.
And now what's happening now is they grow
up a little bit older, get involved in
the public school systems and they don't believe
in God anymore.
And now they grow up a little bit
further and they think they are God.
That's like me as a child saying I
believed in Santa Claus and I grew up
a little bit and did believe in Santa
Claus.
Then I grew up a little bit more
and I was Santa Claus.
Well, what's the intention of this temptation?
It's to pull us away from our obedience
to God and our worship of Him.
We are not God, but we are children
of God.
So how do we stand up against that
temptation?
We have to realize it's really a battle
for our mind.
When we see the opposite sex or something
out there, it isn't the apple, that isn't
the issue, it isn't the object of our
temptation.
The intention here is to draw us away
from the will of God, from the word
of God and from the worship of God
to get us to live our life independent
of God, to destroy our confidence in God
so we will no longer obey Him.
And so when that tempting thought comes, we
stand against it immediately.
No, I do not need that opposite sex.
That is not God's answer for my fulfillment
in my life.
God provided for that in my marriage and
my spouse and so I'm going to commit
myself to that only.
But we have to stop that thought immediately.
And you do that by choosing the truth.
Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is light,
right, whatever is lovely, think on those things.
And so that threshold thinking, you take every
thought captive to the beatings of Christ.
And the world and the devil in the
flesh is going to try to say, you
can get your knees met out here.
And I'm saying, no sir, my knees are
met in my relationship with God for my
God will supply all of my knees according
to His richness and glory.
And I do not have to be tempted
to find those knees met in this world.
Well, we're all subject to temptation.
What happens here is if we get into
that temptation, we sin.
And so we confess it.
Then we give in again and we sin.
And we confess it.
And we get into that sin, confess, sin,
confess, I give up cycle.
What's wrong with that?
It's not complete.
There's something missing here.
It's supposed to be sin, confess, resist.
I want you to hear a remarkable story
of a girl, a pastor's wife, who attended
our conference who was caught in that sin,
confess, sin, confess, I give up cycle.
Listen.
Dear Neil, I can't begin to tell you
all that the Lord has done in my
life through the truth you shared with us
at the conference.
I am now more aware of the deception
of the enemy, and this makes my gratefulness
for my powerful and gracious Savior real.
I was bulimic for 11 years, but now
I can be in the house alone all
day with a kitchen full of food and
be in peace.
When a temptation or lie from Satan pops
into my mind, I fend it off quickly
with the truth.
I used to be in bondage to those
lies for hours and hours each day, always
fearing food.
Now I'm rejoicing in the freedom which the
truth brings.
It's that truth that we have to choose
in our own minds and to realize how
God has provided for everybody a way of
escape.
It seems like it may not be there,
but it is there, and if we want
to know it, we can have it.
Temptation.
We're all subject to that.
All of us have the power in Christ
Jesus to stand against that temptation and realize
the basis of temptation are legitimate needs in
our life, but those needs can be met
in Christ.
So how do we get out of the
sin, confess, sin, confess, I give up cycle?
We realize that sin, confess, resist.
We're to submit to God, then resist the
devil.
We have to take into account that reality.
For instance, suppose you open the door.
Now you were told don't open that door
no matter what.
On the other side of the door, the
tempter is saying, come on, you can do
it, you'll get away with it.
All the other people in the church do
it, so you might as well too.
And you open the door, and the dog
comes in and glonks onto your leg.
Do you beat on the dog or beat
on yourself?
Well, unfortunately, as soon as you open that
door, and he glonks onto your leg, do
you know what he says?
You open the door, you open the door,
and the accuser of the brethren takes over,
and you throw your hands up in the
air, and you cry, oh God, forgive me.
Guess what God does?
He forgives you, but the dog is still
there.
You've taken into account half of reality, but
not all of it yet.
That's why if you confess to God, you
submit to God, then you resist the devil.
We have to learn how to do that.
When he's on this side of the door,
he becomes the accuser, and he puts us
down day and night.
Accusation.
That's the other side.
I want you to hear a remarkable letter
that was sent to me.
My old feelings that life isn't worth the
trouble keep coming back.
I'm scared, lonely, confused, and very desperate.
I know deep down that God can overcome
this, but I can't get past this block.
I can't even pray.
When I try, things get in my way.
When I'm feeling good and I begin putting
into action what I know God wants me
to do, I'm stopped dead in my tracks
by those voices, and a force so strong
I can't continue.
I'm so close to giving in to those
voices that I almost can't fight them anymore.
I just want some peace.
I want people like that to have peace,
and I'm sure you do too.
But can you imagine the frustration of that
being down time and time and time again?
How do we stand against the accuser of
the brethren?
In Revelation it says he accuses the brethren
day and night.
Well, there's a remarkable passage in Zechariah 3.
Let me read it to you.
Then he showed me Joshua the high priest,
standing before the angel of the Lord, and
Satan standing at his right hand to accuse
him.
And the Lord said to Satan, The Lord
rebuke you, Satan.
Indeed, the Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke
you.
Is this not a brand plucked from the
fire?
Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments and
standing before the angel.
And he spoke and said to those who
were standing before him, saying, Remove the filthy
garments from him.
Again he said to him, See, I have
taken your iniquity away from you, and I
will clothe you with festal robes.
Then I said, Let them put a clean
turban on his head.
So they put a clean turban on his
head and clothed him with garments, while the
angel of the Lord was standing by.
What a remarkable picture.
This is a vision given to Zechariah, but
it's been totally fulfilled in Christ.
Take a look at it.
Let's reconstruct the course of heaven here.
See, Joshua is standing before God.
He's the ultimate judge, and he's in filthy
garments.
This is not a good thing.
The high priest would go into the Holy
of Holies and the Great Day of Atonement
in the early church.
Before he went in there, he went through
elaborate procedures to become ceremonially undefiled.
He could not go in there unless he
went through those procedures.
Even then, it was an awesome experience.
They used to tie bells around the hem
of his garments and a rope onto his
leg.
And you say, Why did they do that?
Well, as he went in by himself once
a year to atone for all the sins
of Israel, at least he didn't go in
there right.
The other priests would stand outside.
They'd listen for the bells.
And they would say to one another, Do
you still hear the bells?
Yeah, I still hear them.
I don't hear them anymore.
Well, go in and check it out.
No, you go in and check it out.
Well, that's what the rope was for.
Pull them out of there, see?
And so here is Joshua, the high priest,
standing before God in filthy garments.
Not a good thing.
And the Lord says, The Lord rebuke you.
Who?
Satan.
Isn't that great to know that in the
face of Satan's accusations, the Lord himself is
saying, The Lord rebuke you.
Do you realize right now you have two
members of the Trinity praying on your behalf?
Romans 8, 26.
I don't know how or what to pray
for, but the Holy Spirit does.
And Jesus always liveth to maketh intercession.
He's standing there at the right hand of
the Father himself right now, interceding on your
behalf and my behalf.
Look at those courts of heaven.
Who's the judge?
It's God the Father.
Who's the accused?
It's you and I.
Who's the prosecuting attorney?
It's Satan.
Who's the defense attorney?
It's Jesus.
Are you going to lose this court case?
You could lose it if you wanted to.
What power does the prosecuting attorney have?
Can he determine a verdict?
Absolutely not.
Can he pronounce a sentence?
No, no way he can.
All he can do is bring accusation.
But boy, it is effective.
It is amazing how many people are relentlessly
pursued by that accuser of the brethren, beaten
down, entertaining thoughts like, I'm stupid, I'm dumb,
I'm ugly, God doesn't love me, God doesn't
care for me.
And I've seen that at the highest level
of the church to the lowest level of
the members.
It seems to be that all of us
are subject to the voice of the accuser
of the brethren.
Now the question is, how do I know
whether that struggle in my mind is the
accuser of the brethren or whether it is
really the conviction of the Holy Spirit?
That's a great question.
And I believe it's answered in 2 Corinthians
7, verse 9 and 10.
Let me read it.
He said, And I now rejoice, not that
you were made sorrowful, but that you were
made sorrowful to the point of repentance.
For you were made sorrowful according to the
will of God, in order that you might
not suffer loss in anything through us.
For the sorrow that is according to the
will of God produces a repentance without regret,
leading to salvation.
But the sorrow of the world produces death.
Now what is he saying?
He's saying, I'm glad you were made sorrowful.
Not that you were just made sorrowful, but
that you were made sorrowful according to the
will of God, in order that you might
not suffer loss.
In other words, God is going to bring
that conviction to us.
And if it's coming from God, that conviction
will lead to repentance without regret.
And so if I've sinned, I've done something
wrong, I go before God, God brings a
conviction, I confess it to Him, it's over
with.
It's done.
It's passed.
But the sorrow of the world produces death.
What's interesting is the same word is used
for both.
Sorrow.
In other words, it may feel the same.
What's the difference between the two?
The end result.
One leads to life, the other one leads
to death.
For instance, Judas betrayed Christ, and he went
out and hung himself when he came under
the sorrow of the world.
Peter also betrayed Christ, came under the conviction
of the Holy Spirit, and he became the
spokesperson for the church.
Now the question is, which one is going
on in our minds today?
Well, if you are constantly being beaten down,
never seems to be any resolution, no matter
how many times you confess it, people, that
cannot be God.
Why can't it be God?
Listen to Romans 8, verse 31 and following.
What then shall we say to these things?
If God is for us, who is against
us?
Can't be God, people.
Why not?
Because the next verse says, He who did
not spare his own son, but delivered him
up for us all, how will he not
also with him freely give us all things?
Well, who will bring a charge against God's
elect?
It cannot be God.
Why not?
Because God is the one who justifies.
Well, who is the one who condemns?
Can't be Christ Jesus.
Why not?
Because Christ Jesus is he who died.
Yes, rather, who was raised, who is at
the right hand of God, who also intercedes
for us.
Well, who is going to separate us from
the love of God?
And the answer is, nobody is, people, because
you are a child of God.
I've often been asked, well, can a Christian
commit the unpardonable sin?
The answer is, no way.
The only sin that is unpardonable is the
sin of unbelief.
When the Lord told about the unpardonable sin,
He was saying that in reference to the
fact that they were accusing Him of doing
His work by the power of the devil.
And so He said, that cannot be.
Then He goes on to say that any
blasphemy against the Son of Man would be
forgiven, but any blasphemy against the Holy Spirit
would not be.
Well, what is the difference between those two
members of the Trinity?
Well, the difference is their respective work.
It is the work of the Holy Spirit
to bring us to conviction, to draw all
people to Christ.
If you reject that witness, you never get
to Christ.
But if you're in Christ, you're a child
of God, there is no condemnation.
And so the only unpardonable sin is the
sin of unbelief that never allows you to
get to Christ in the first place.
But Christ died once for all.
That's your sins, my sins.
And so if you're in Christ, you are
forgiven, and there is no condemnation for those
who are in Christ Jesus.
Let's go back and look at the door
illustration again.
And let's say there's a little girl there.
And you are her parent.
And you told the little girl, don't open
the door, don't open the door.
But she does.
She opens the door.
Imagine, if you would, some hovering, ugly presence
hovering over this little girl and just putting
her down and accusing her and bringing temptation.
Is there not a parent listening who wouldn't
rush over immediately and try to drive off
that ugly stranger to get rid of that
presence and then grab that little girl and
say, now honey, don't open the door again.
But I wish I didn't have to say
this.
But unfortunately, oftentimes, the church joins the accuser
of the brethren.
And we go over to that and we
start putting it down.
You open the door.
That's the role of the accuser of the
brethren.
Let's resist the devil.
Let's chase off that.
There is no condemnation for those who are
in Christ Jesus.
And then sit down with one another and
say, now don't open the door again.
And by the grace of God, we won't
have to do that.
And so we're all subject to temptation.
We are all subject to the accusing work
of the God of this world.
All of which we have all the grace
we need to stand against.
The most subtle schemes of the devil, however,
are deception.
He is the father of lies.
Deception.
We are confronted in our world today with
a deceiver.
We are false prophets, a false teacher, deceived
people, a wrecking havoc in our church.
But we are not just subject to that
that is clearly occultic.
We are vulnerable and we can deceive ourselves.
We can deceive ourselves.
And there are a number of scriptures that
allude to that.
Listen to some of them.
We deceive ourselves when we hear the word
of God, but don't do it, according to
James 1.22. 1 John 1.8 says,
We deceive ourselves when we say we have
no sin.
Now people having sin and being sin are
two radically different issues.
So if a Christian thinks that they can't
sin or somehow don't choose to do that,
then we are really setting ourselves up to
be in a bad position.
Romans 12.3 says, We deceive ourselves when
we think we are something we are not.
So we are not to think more highly
of ourselves than we ought to think.
1 Corinthians 3.18-19 says, We deceive
ourselves when we think we are wise in
this age.
We are to lean not in our own
understanding, but in all ways acknowledge God.
James 1.26 says, We deceive ourselves when
we think we are religious, but do not
bridle our own tongue.
Unfortunately, the tongue can be set on fire
from hell, he writes in the book of
James.
So we have to watch over our tongue.
We deceive ourselves when we think we will
not reap what we sow, according to Galatians
6.7. 1 Corinthians 6.9-10 says,
We deceive ourselves when we think that the
unrighteous will inherit the kingdom of God.
I had that driven home once when a
young gal who had come to see me
had been led to Christ by her sister.
She was now unfortunately living in a lesbian
relationship.
And somehow or another she justified that before
God, but she missed this passage that says
that is not possible.
Somehow or another she was either horribly deceived
herself or could not have been a Christian
to enter into a belief like that.
1 Corinthians 15.33 says, We deceive ourselves
when we think we can continually associate with
bad company and not be corrupted.
Because bad company will corrupt even the best
of morals.
Well, that's sobering to realize that we can
deceive ourselves.
We have to live our life out of
denial, live in a real world, stay in
touch with reality, and choose the truth because
we can just deceive ourselves.
But we are also very, very subject to
false prophets and false teachers.
And I realize that that has clearly been
taught us in the New Age.
That we are told that there is going
to be an apostasy, a falling away from
the faith in the latter ages.
And that people are going to pay attention
to deceiving spirits.
In Matthew 24, when he warns us that
in the days preceding the second coming of
Christ, that there will be many false prophets
and false messiahs who will rise and show
great signs and wonders so as to mislead,
if possible, even the elect.
2 Peter 2 talks about false teachers and
false prophets who will rise from amongst you.
Now, this is not the Maharishi, Mahesh Yogi,
or the Rajneesh, or Sun Yung Moon, or
Baggy Pants Sneeze, or some false teacher like
that.
He's talking about people who will disguise themselves
as ministers of righteousness.
They will rise from amongst you.
They will probably be professing Christians.
And the scripture says they will secretly introduce
destructive heresies, eventually denying their own master.
And many people will follow after their sensuality.
They won't follow their teachings so much.
They'll be caught up with a charismatic teacher.
And the next thing you know, they'll be
denying their own master.
How do we know them?
Well, 2 Peter 2.10 says that they
will despise authority.
They have an independent spirit.
They will just do their own things.
I tell you, this is so sobering to
me, personally, because in the last church that
I passed before I went on to teach
at seminary, my wife's best friend, who sat
under my teaching, who is very closely related
to us, is now living with a man,
all in the name of Christianity, answering the
phones for an obvious false teacher.
Our best friends, from ten years ago, who
sat under my ministry, who were very close
to us, got caught up with a false
teacher.
They eventually lost their ministry, and somehow or
another wanted to justify this very, very obvious
false teacher.
Well, how will we know them?
Well, we've been warned.
Listen to Jeremiah 23, verse 21 and following.
He said, I did not send these prophets,
but they ran.
I did not speak to them, but they
prophesied.
But if they had stood in my counsel,
then they would have announced my words to
my people, and would have turned them back
from their evil way and from the evil
of their deeds.
So what's the intention of a prophet?
Well, a prophet in the Old Testament would
be much like an evangelist in the New
Testament.
The intention of God sending a prophet was
to reveal unrighteousness.
You see the same thing in the gift
of prophecy in 1 Corinthians 14, was to
disclose and reveal unrighteousness.
The intention was, in the Old Testament, was
to draw them back to the law, to
bring them again under conviction, and to have
a right standing with the Lord.
The false prophet won't do that.
They'll announce their own words.
And the intention is, is to get them
off that direction and to lose that sense
of a righteous relationship with God.
And God responds, Am I a God who
is near, declares the Lord, and not a
God far off?
Can a man hide himself in hiding places
so I do not see him, declares the
Lord?
Do I not fill the heavens and the
earth, declares the Lord?
Well, I've heard what the prophets have said,
who prophesy falsely in my name, saying I
had a dream.
How long, the Lord asks.
Is there anything in the hearts of the
prophets who prophesy falsehood?
Even these prophets of the deception of their
own heart, who intend to make my people
forget my name by their dreams, which they
relate to one another, just as their fathers
forgot my name because of Baal.
Verse 28 says, The prophet who has a
dream, he may relate his dream, but let
him who has my word speak my word
in truth.
What does straw have in common with grain,
declares the Lord?
Well, I'm an old farm boy.
I understand the value of straw.
It has no nutrition in it at all.
You can feed straw to horses or cattle,
they won't eat it, they'll sleep on it.
So where does the nutrition come from?
It comes from the grain of God's word.
And then he says, Is not my word
like fire, declares the Lord?
Like a hammer which shatters a rock?
See, the church is under the conviction of
God.
And judgment begins with the household of God.
God's not going to come by and give
us some pious platitude and tell us that
he loves us.
If we've got people sitting in our fellowship
that are living in immorality, and if judgment
came upon that church, it would cause them
to confess their sin and to cling back
again to the holiness of God because it's
required of all of us that we live
a holy life.
Then he says, Therefore behold, I am against
the prophets, declares the Lord, who steal my
words from each other.
That's plagiarism.
You see, that is God's word, but he
gave it to somebody else.
And so we ought not to steal the
work of another person, but to give them
credit where it is due.
Then he said, Behold, I am against the
prophet, declares the Lord, who uses their tongues
and declares the Lord declares.
Oh, this is subtle.
And it's even in our evangelical churches when
somebody comes and says, Boy, the Lord told
me that I'm supposed to marry you.
I've seen this happen.
And I just had the privilege to marry
my daughter to a young man.
And when he came to me, he asked
for my daughter's hand.
He didn't tell me the Lord told him
he was supposed to have it.
If he'd have said that, I'd have driven
him off.
And so it better be a request, not
a mandate.
Then he says, Behold, I am against those
who have prophesied false dreams, declares the Lord,
and related them and led my people astray
by their falsehoods and reckless boasting.
So we've been warned, there will be false
prophets and false teachers, and they will arise
from amongst us and secretly introduce destructive heresies.
The point of it is, get back to
the Word of God.
Get under the authority of a good, godly
church where a man has a servant leadership.
And if he's got an independent spirit and
he won't answer to anybody, get out of
there because he is highly suspect in that
regard.
Well, how can we know?
Well, I'm calling for discernment.
We've got to learn to discern.
Hebrews chapter 5 says, Solid meat is for
the mature who have had their senses trained
to discern good and evil.
In the last century, Hannah Whitehall Smith wrote,
There are the voices of evil and deceiving
spirits who lie in wait to entrap every
traveler entering these higher regions of the spiritual
life.
In the same epistle that tells us that
we are seated in the heavenly places in
Christ, we are also told that we shall
have to fight with spiritual enemies.
These spiritual enemies, whoever and whatever they may
be, must necessarily communicate with us by means
of our spiritual faculties.
And their voices, as the voice of God,
are an inward impression made upon our spirit.
Therefore, just as the Holy Spirit may tell
us by impressions what the will of God
is, concerning us, so also will these spiritual
enemies tell us by impression what is their
will, concerning us, though not, of course, giving
it their name.
Well, we've realized that throughout 2,000 years
of church experience that this kind of battle
is taking place, and so we're not sharing
anything that is new with you here.
I've had people come up and tell me,
well, God told me that I was supposed
to do so and so.
And I've often cautioned them, I don't think
so.
And they say, well, why not?
I mean, God did tell me that.
And I say, well, I'm not so sure
He did.
I say, if God told you to tell
me to do something, then what would that
make you?
Wouldn't that make you a medium?
But the Bible says that there's only one
intermediary between God and man.
Now, don't throw out the baby with the
bathwater here, because God has provided an abundance
of counselors and teachers who will help one
another.
But the intention of a prophetic voice of
any kind is to draw us to God
where God will lead us, where the Holy
Spirit will guide us in our life.
Even when God sent Nathan to David, it
wasn't to tell him how he was supposed
to conduct his work as a king, or
where he was supposed to go next, etc.
That prophet was brought to him to bring
conviction, to disclose unrighteousness, so that his relationship
with God would be made right, and then
God would be his guide, as He would
be for all who would hold to a
priesthood of believers.
I want to share another little letter that
was sent to me that really drives home
again how important it is to realize we
can have that freedom in Christ.
Dear Dr. Anderson, I will always remember the
day I came to you for counsel and
prayer.
Ever since that day, I have felt such
freedom.
There are no more voices or feelings of
heaviness in my brain.
I'm even enjoying a physical sense of release.
Satan has returned many times, trying to clobber
me with those old thoughts, but his hold
on me has been broken.
I'll never forget what you told me.
You said that those negative thoughts about God
and myself were lies that Satan planted in
my mind.
You said I have the power, through Jesus
Christ, to rebuke Satan and get rid of
the evil thoughts.
It has taken me a while to really
believe that with all my heart, but lately
I've decided to fight back, and it works.
It's been wonderful to deal with my problems
with a clear head.
Thank you for helping me and so many
others find peace and learn to trust, love,
and believe in the Lord.
See, I'm convinced that every church in America
can help somebody like that.
I'm not the deliverer.
I'm certainly not the Messiah.
He's already come, and this is not based
on any sense of giftedness or special indulgence
that God has given me.
We are all children of God.
We have this danger.
We can't lose control if we surrender our
will wrongly.
Before we look at what God's answer for
this is and how we help people find
their freedom in Christ, let me share one
more story with you that was shared with
me.
Dear Neil, I have been set free.
Praise the Lord.
Yesterday, for the first time in years, the
voices stopped.
I could hear the silence.
When we sang, I could hear myself sing.
For the first 14 years of my life,
I lived with an oppressive, abusive mother who
never said, I love you, or put her
arms around me when I cried.
I received no affection, no kind words, no
affirmation, no sense of who I was, only
physical and emotional abuse.
At 15, I was subjected to three weeks
of air-hard seminar training, EST, which really
screwed up my mind.
The year which followed was pure hell.
My mother threw me out, so I went
to live with another family.
Eventually, they also threw me out.
Three years later, I found Christ.
My decision to trust Christ was largely based
on my fear of Satan and the power
of evil I had experienced in my life.
Even though I knew Satan had lost his
ownership of me, I was unaware of how
vulnerable I still was to his deception and
control.
For the first two years of my Christian
life, I was in bondage to a sin
I didn't even know was a sin.
Once I realized my sin, confessed it to
God, and received forgiveness, I thought I was
finally free of Satan's attempts to control me.
I didn't realize that the battle had only
begun.
I suffered from unexplainable rashes, hives, and welts
all over my body.
I lost my joy and closeness to the
Lord.
I could no longer sing or quote scripture.
I turned to food as my comfort and
security.
The demons attacked my sense of right and
wrong, and I became involved in immorality and
my search for identity and love.
But that all ended yesterday when I renounced
Satan's control in my life.
I have found the freedom and protection which
comes from knowing I am loved.
I am not on a high.
I am writing with a clear mind, a
clean spirit, and a calm hand.
Even my previous bondage to food seems suddenly
foreign to me.
I never realized that a Christian could be
so vulnerable to Satan's control.
I was deceived, but now I am free.
Thank you.
Thank you, Jesus.
A lot of Christians really react to the
possibility of the fact that a Christian can
lose control like that.
Well, if you believe a lie, that will
happen.
You see, our relationship with God is secure.
We are in Christ.
He will never leave us nor forsake us.
But the protection that He has provided for
us is really dependent upon our participation.
We are told to put on the armor
of God.
What if you don't?
We are told to take every thought captive
through the obedience of Christ.
What if you don't?
We are told to make no provision for
the flesh in regard to its lust.
What if you do?
We are told to resist the devil.
Again, what if you don't?
You see, it requires an act of participation
on our part.
There is a sobering passage in Luke 22,
verse 31, when the Lord comes and says,
Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded permission to
sift you like wheat.
But I have prayed for you that your
faith may not fail.
And you, when once you have turned again,
strengthen your brothers.
And Peter responded, and he said to him,
Lord, with you I am ready to go
to both prison and to death.
And he said, I say to you, Peter,
the cock will not crow today until you
have denied three times that you know me.
Now, what right does Satan have to demand
to sift him like wheat?
By the way, that was the heart of
Peter.
It was his intention that he would stick
with Jesus to the end.
But he did exactly what the Lord said.
He went out and denied him three times.
Well, if you look at the context, you'll
find out what the problem was.
They were all arguing amongst themselves who was
going to be the greatest in the kingdom
of God.
Pride is a killer.
It was a killer then, and it's a
killer today because God is opposed to the
proud.
Well, how do we help people find their
freedom in Christ?
And oftentimes, we as Christians say, well, if
this is true, how come there's not some
statements in the epistles that would tell us
how to cast a demon out of somebody?
And indeed, it's a good question because there
are no passages like that.
I struggled with this several years ago because
I had had some direct encounters with things
that were demonic, and it really bothered me.
I realized, God, there must be a better
way than this.
How do we deal with these kind of
people?
I had a gal in my office jump
across a desk, grab a pencil, and rake
it across her wrist.
And I realized, Lord, you've got to have
a better answer than what I have right
now.
And so I started searching for that.
I started a class at Telma School of
Theology where I taught as a prof for
about 10 years and saw something rather phenomenal
happen.
It grew from a THM elective of 15
students the first year, then 23, then 35,
then 65, then 150, then 250.
All of those years, I was gaining an
understanding of what God had to say, much
less a greater appreciation for the reality of
the spiritual world that we're living in, and
our own spiritual identity, and the importance of
what it means to walk by the Spirit.
So where are the instructions in the epistles?
Well, it takes a perceptual change that we
have to understand.
Prior to the cross, Satan was not a
defeated foe.
Therefore, it would take some specially endowed authority
agent to bring about that kind of an
effect and change.
And that's why you will read in Luke
9, verse 1, Behold, I have given you
authority and power over the evil one.
And then when the 70 came back, Lord,
even the demons are subject to that.
But after the cross, you don't see that.
And you wonder, why not?
Because it's no longer the outside agent's responsibility.
It's the individual's responsibility.
You see, I can't put on the armor
of God for you.
I cannot take every thought captive to the
obedience of Christ for you.
I can't forgive for you.
I can't confess for you.
I can't renounce for you.
I really can't do anything for you.
But I can help you.
Now you have a very, very definitive passage
right in the pastoral epistles.
2 Timothy, chapter 2, verses 24 through 26.
Listen.
And the Lord's bond-servant must not be
quarrelsome, but be kind to all, able to
teach, patient when wrong, with gentleness correcting those
who are in opposition, if perhaps God may
grant them repentance, leading to the knowledge of
the truth, and they may come to their
senses and escape from the snare of the
devil, having been held captive by him to
do his will.
But you see, that's not really a power
model.
It's not really a confrontational model.
It's a kind, compassionate, able to teach model.
The classic model that I had attempted to
follow years ago was pretty much like this.
Call in the exorcist, or the pastor, or
the missionary, or the counselor.
He will call up the demon, get his
name and rank, and then cast it out.
But if you look at that picture, who's
the deliverer?
Well, I guess it would be the pastor
or the counselor.
Where are they getting their information from?
Demons.
Why would you believe them?
We are clearly told in John, chapter 3,
that they are all liars, and they speak
from their own nature, which is to lie.
I think there's a whole different picture that's
given to us in the instructions to the
church.
I think the deliverer is Christ, and he
has already come, and I think what we
ought to do is to get our information
from the Holy Spirit.
He is the Spirit of Truth, and he
will lead us into all truth.
The key to this whole thing is to
help that individual assume their responsibility.
Look at James 4, 7.
Submit to God, resist the devil.
You try to resist the devil without first
submitting to God, you're going to have a
dog fight.
That's the classic error of many deliverance ministries.
On the other hand, you can submit to
God, not resist the devil, and stay in
bondage.
The tragedy of our day is that the
vast majority of recovery ministries aren't doing either
one.
Look again at that picture there.
Sin in our life is a little bit
like garbage, and garbage attracts flies.
The tendency is to try to get rid
of the flies, and the answer is no.
Get rid of the garbage.
Because if you get rid of the garbage,
the flies will have no right to be
there, and they'll just lose interest and go
someplace else.
What we've got to do is to help
our individuals assume their responsibility in a loving
way, be the Lord's bond servant, correct them
if they're in opposition, able to teach, patient
with wrong.
It takes a lot of patience to help
these kind of people.
But help them assume their responsibility.
And when they do that, they're submitting to
God.
It's really kind of a piece of cake
to resist the evil one.
What we've done to facilitate this process, and
it's really being used all over the world,
is to develop a procedure called Steps to
Freedom in Christ.
And what we're really doing there is to
help this person assume that responsibility.
And we just assist.
We want to be the Lord's bond servant,
the one who comes alongside, trusting in God,
and help them resolve their issues.
As I tried to develop this years ago,
I realized that the answer was Christ in
us, the hope of glory.
What I had to do was to help
this person make that connection with God, get
the wonderful counselor involved in the process, so
he was the one that was doing it,
because I can't set anybody free.
Only God himself can do that.
So what we've done is to develop basically
seven issues that we help people look at
and understand something.
The Steps to Freedom don't set you free.
Who sets you free is Christ.
What is going to set you free is
your personal response to God.
And so we want to look at seven
issues.
One is the counterfeit versus the real.
In what way have I involved myself in
false religion, false prophets, false teachers?
I need to renounce that and to confess
my confidence and trust in God.
Secondly, we want to try to expose as
best we can the deception versus the truth.
In what way have I believed a lie?
How have I deceived myself?
In what way have I attempted as a
Christian to defend myself as opposed to trusting
in Christ as my personal defense for my
life?
And then we have them read through a
doctrinal affirmation.
It's just a public declaration of this is
what I believe, I choose to believe.
Our third step is to help them work
through the issues of bitterness versus forgiveness.
It is our experience that in all the
people that we've helped over the years, the
number one access that Satan has to the
church today is the Christian's unwillingness to forgive.
Why is this so important?
It's the cross.
We're to forgive as Christ has forgiven us.
Jesus said, you forgive from your heart because
he himself may turn us over to the
torturers or to the tormentors.
Paul warns us in 2 Corinthians chapter 2
verse 10 and 11, I urge you to
forgive for we are not ignorant of Satan's
schemes.
You forgive people for your sake.
It's between you and God.
You forgive because that's your ticket to free
yourself from your past.
If you don't, the past or person or
events will continue to have a hold or
an effect upon your life.
So you bring that before the Lord and
you work through the issues that are keeping
you in bondage.
Rebellion versus submission.
Well, rebellion is like the sin of divination.
If you've got a rebellious problem, you may
have the worst problem in the world.
And to renounce that, ask God's forgiveness that
you've ever rebelled against his established authority and
get under his protection and submit yourself to
God and let him be your protection.
Pride versus humility.
We said earlier pride is a killer.
It really is.
Humble yourself before the almighty hand of God.
There are just several issues that we encourage
people to work through there.
Let me suggest some.
Do you have a stronger desire to do
your own will than God's will?
Are you more dependent upon your own strength
and resources than you are upon God's strength
and resources?
Do you sometimes believe that your ideas and
opinions are better than others or heaven forbid,
better than God's?
Are you more concerned about controlling others than
developing self-control?
Do you sometimes consider yourself more important than
others?
Do you have a tendency to think that
you have no needs?
We all have needs.
And only God can meet those needs in
our life.
Do you find it difficult to admit that
you were wrong?
Do you have a tendency to be more
of a people pleaser than a God pleaser?
Are you overly concerned about getting the credit
that you deserve?
Are you driven to obtain recognition that comes
from degrees, titles, positions rather than finding your
worth and your identity in Christ?
Do you often think you are more humble
than others?
That's subtle, but it's possible.
And there are other ways that we may
allow pride to slip in and to destroy
our sense of dependency upon God.
Bondage versus freedom.
We find a lot of people are in
bondage.
The most common one is sexual bondage.
But there are eating disorders and alcoholism, etc.
The answer is to get out of that
by choosing the truth.
Recognize the lie.
Renounce those uses of your body that have
been offensive, that have allowed sin to reign
in your mortal body.
And the last step is to really declare
your position in Christ.
There are intergenerational problems.
There are family problems, corporate problems that have
been passed on from one generation to another.
You don't have to be a part of
that.
But you need to do something about it.
You need to renounce that stuff that was
in your past or in your family.
Declare your position in Christ.
Commit yourself to Him.
Those are the steps that we help people
walk through to find their freedom in Christ.
And once they're established firmly in Christ, resisting
the devil, they can find their freedom in
Christ.
We want to share with you that there
is hope.
There is an answer.
There is freedom.
Does Christ want you free?
Well, Galatians 5 1 says, it was for
freedom that Christ set you free.
Don't return again to the yoke of slavery.
Find your identity in Christ.
Find your freedom that He purchased for you
on the cross.
Become the person God has called you to
be.
And by the grace of God, you will
bear fruit.
And in your bearing fruit, you will bring
honor and glory to your heavenly Father who
loves you.
God bless you as you take this walk
with Him.