You've discovered, I'm sure, in your Christian life,
that the Christian life is not a playground,
it's a battleground.
Before I was saved, according to Ephesians chapter
2, I walked according to the course of
this world, according to the prince of the
power of the air, the spirit that now
worketh in the children of disobedience.
Before I was saved, according to Ephesians 2,
I walked in the lusts of the flesh,
and those are the three enemies the Christian
faces, the world and the flesh and the
devil.
We're seeing across America a tremendous satanic revival.
If we could have a spiritual revival of
the dimensions of the satanic revival we're having,
we'd win the world.
I walked into a very prominent bookstore in
Chicago some weeks ago and surveyed shelf after
shelf after shelf of books about the occult.
You can walk down Wells Street or Michigan
Avenue and meet people who are promoting Satanism.
The Satan Church today is officially recognized.
You won't do it, but if you did
give a donation, it would be tax-deductible.
I think Satan has had more churches than
those who have just officially been recognized, by
the way.
The Christian has to know how to handle
this battle against the devil.
I hear people say, here's a fellow going
down Clark Street, he's reeling, he's drunk, the
devil's got him.
That's the flesh.
It's the flesh that makes a man lust.
It's the flesh that makes a man drunk.
I'm not defending the devil, but I do
want to explain from the Word of God
that Satan's tactics are far more subtle than
that.
There are Christians in Chicago who are being
taken in by Satan and don't know it.
It's possible there are some Christians in Wichita
being taken in by Satan and they don't
know it.
So let's spend our time tonight, I trust
profitably, in looking at the strategy of Satan.
In order to follow the strategy of Satan
and learn how to defeat him, we're going
to do it the easiest way possible.
We're going to talk to four people in
the Bible who had a personal encounter with
Satan.
Interestingly enough, all four of them are in
the Old Testament.
Did you know that Satan is mentioned at
work only four times in the entire Old
Testament?
He's there the whole time.
Don't misunderstand me.
But you're going to find four episodes in
the Old Testament where Satan is dealing personally
with somebody.
I seriously doubt whether Satan has much to
do with me.
I'm not that important.
He has some junior demon, I think, assigned
to my frequency.
You remember in the book of Acts, the
apostle Paul was casting out demons and some
Jewish men came along and thought they'd do
the same thing.
And so in trying to cast out this
demon, they said to the man, in the
name of Jesus whom Paul preaches, sort of
a secondhand kind of a formula, in the
name of Jesus whom Paul preaches, come out
of him.
And the demon spoke up and said, Jesus
I know, and Paul I know, who are
you?
Now, it's rather interesting, they knew who Jesus
was, obviously.
And they knew who Paul was.
I imagine out there in the satanic atmosphere
where Satan and his armies rally, the name
of Paul was cursed over and over again
because Paul had invaded their territory.
If you start invading the devil's territory, the
demons will get to know you.
Now in the Old Testament, you're going to
find four persons who had a personal encounter
with Satan.
If you're the kind of person who takes
notes, the outline is going to run like
this.
In each case, there was a target, a
weapon, a purpose, and a defense.
In each case, when Satan came to these
persons, there was a target he was aiming
at.
There was a weapon he was using.
There was a purpose he was seeking to
achieve.
And thank God there's a defense that we
can use against him.
Now with the Lord's help tonight, and you
must pray as you listen, with the Lord's
help tonight, I want us to be able
to go away recognizing the strategy of Satan.
You say, well, Pastor, are there only four
tactics that he uses?
There are four basic tactics that Satan uses.
You say, I thought it was more complicated
than that.
No, men have made it more complicated.
But there are four basic tactics that Satan
uses.
And if you and I can grasp these,
we'll be well on our way with the
Spirit's help to having victory.
Genesis chapter 3 is the first person we're
going to meet in the person of Eve.
Genesis chapter 3.
Now the serpent was more subtle than any
beast of the field which the Lord God
had made.
And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath
God said, Ye shall not eat of every
tree of the garden.
And the woman said unto the serpent, We
may eat of the fruit of the trees
of the garden, but of the fruit of
the tree which is in the midst of
the garden.
God has said, Ye shall not eat of
it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye
die.
The serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall
not surely die.
For God doth know that in the day
ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be
opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing
good and evil.
And of course you know the rest of
the story.
The woman saw and she desired and she
took, and their eyes were opened, but not
quite the way she expected, and sin has
now entered the human race.
Now what was the target at which Satan
was aiming?
Keep your place in Genesis 3, but turn
back to 2 Corinthians chapter 11.
The greatest commentary on the Old Testament is
the New Testament.
And so when you read your Old Testament
scriptures, always trace your cross-references.
I meet many saints of God who have
these beautiful cross-references in the middle of
their page or on the edge of their
page.
Never use them.
Now we're going to follow our cross-reference
back to 2 Corinthians chapter 11 and verse
3.
Paul says, but I fear, lest by any
means as the serpent beguiled Eve through his
subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted from
the simplicity that is in Christ.
His target was her mind.
Now why in the world would Satan want
to aim at my mind?
For this reason, when God wants to communicate
his truth to me, he communicates his truth
through my mind.
Why is it that many, many Christians have
the idea that when you walk into the
house of God, you take off your hat,
you take your brain off with it, hang
both of them up someplace, and come in
and sit down?
The Bible was written for the mind as
well as for the heart.
God's truth must be taught to the mind.
Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with
all thy heart, with all thy soul, with
all thy mind.
One whole book in the New Testament is
devoted to the mind, the book of Philippians.
Some eighteen times in that four-chapter letter,
Paul talks about thinking, remembering, knowing, the mind,
the mind, the mind.
Your mind is important.
A man said to me one day, he
said, Pastor, when I pray, I just empty
my mind.
I said, you do that, and Satan moves
right in.
God never asked anybody to empty his mind.
Some folks don't have to work too hard,
but God never asked anybody.
God never asked anybody to empty his mind.
We have all kinds of brethren.
We have the United Brethren and the Plymouth
Brethren, who rarely drive Plymouths.
They most often drive Cadillacs and Lincolns.
We have the River Brethren, but Paul hit
the nail on the head.
Paul said the biggest denomination of all, the
Ignorant Brethren.
I would not have you to be ignorant,
brethren.
People say to me, they say, oh, you
know, I don't know my Bible.
Why?
We ought to know the Word of God.
You say, well, I haven't got time.
I talked to a young man yesterday who
was a member of our church, teaches one
of our Sunday school classes, was saved out
of a cesspool of iniquity as a job
that would break my neck.
He's in construction, and he's a supervisor in
construction, which often means 14 hours a day
work.
He devotes two hours a day to the
study of the Word of God.
It's fantastic.
He attacked her mind.
Now what was his weapon?
His weapon was lies.
Now Satan's a liar.
Jesus tells us that over in John 8
.44. He said to that religious crowd, ye
are of your father the devil.
He's a liar, and he's a murderer.
It's rather interesting.
God's truth brings life.
The devil's lies bring death.
You say, well, I'm sort of neutral.
You can't be neutral.
If a person doesn't believe truth, he ends
up believing a lie.
God has so constructed the human mind that
if we do not accept truth, we end
up accepting lies.
Now his weapon?
Lies.
Notice how he does it.
Go back to Genesis 3.
He comes as the serpent using one of
the beasts of the field.
He never comes in his true guise.
I stopped in a bookstore a couple of
weeks ago.
I spend a lot of time going through
bookstores because I love books, and I want
to see what people are reading, especially my
young people.
Here was a table stacked up with books
on the occult, with pictures of Satan.
I'd fire the artist.
Satan doesn't look like that.
A horned, hideous creature with a tail and
a pitchfork, that's ridiculous.
That came out of the comic books.
That didn't come out of the Bible.
But Satan never comes in his true guise.
He always comes disguised.
He's a masquerader.
Notice what he does now.
In verse 1, he questions God's Word.
Yea, hath God said.
That's always the first step.
The question mark.
I can't help but think a question mark
looks like a serpent.
Here's the question mark.
Yea, hath God said.
Thou shalt not commit adultery.
Yea, hath God said.
It's wrong to cheat on an examination.
Yea, hath God said.
You shouldn't gossip about your neighbor.
He questions God's Word.
Then the next step is he denies God's
Word.
Verse 4.
Ye shall not surely die.
You see, if you listen to the question,
you'll end up getting the denial.
And Eve listened to the question.
He questioned God's Word, then he denied God's
Word, and finally he substitutes his own lie.
And his own lie is something rather interesting
in verse 5.
Ye shall be as gods.
Now, who can turn that down?
You see, Satan himself became the enemy of
God because he wanted to be God.
Back in Isaiah chapter 14, we have Lucifer,
the light bearer.
Lucifer, one of God's creatures.
In fact, probably the highest of the angelic
creatures.
He's called the anointed cherub that guardeth.
And Lucifer said, I will, I will, I
will, I will, I will be like the
Most High.
God said, oh no, you won't.
Now, by the way, it's worth noting in
verse 5 that this is the lie that
is running the world today.
Back during World War II, Mr. Goebbels, who
was Adolf Hitler's propaganda minister, said if you
tell a lie long enough and loud enough,
people will believe it.
And Satan has told this lie long enough
and loud enough and people believe it.
What is the lie?
That man is not a created being who
has an obligation to his creator.
Man is his own God and has no
responsibility to a creator.
Paul picks this up over in Romans 1
when he tells us about people who exchanged
the truth of God for the lie, not
a lie, the lie, and worshipped and served
the creature rather than the creator.
I don't know about Wichita, but most of
the people in Chicago are living for the
creature and paying no attention to the creator.
Consequently, our city is in trouble.
So he questions God's word, he denies God's
word, then he substitutes his lie.
Now, notice what Eve does.
Eve falls for the trap, and in verse
2, she takes away from God's word.
We may eat of the fruit.
God didn't say you may eat.
God said you may freely eat.
But she took that word freely out.
Young people come to me and say, why
is God so hard on us?
We can't do this and we can't do
that.
We can't do something else.
And I say, have you ever stopped to
think of how good God's been to you?
Freely you have this and freely you have
that.
And she drops the word freely and takes
away from God's word in verse 2.
And in verse 3, she adds to God's
word.
Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall
ye touch it.
Now, we don't have any record in chapter
2 that God said they shouldn't touch it.
I'm sure it was wrong to do that.
But she's adding to God's word.
She takes away from his graciousness.
She drops the word freely.
And she adds to his judgment.
Don't touch it.
But worse than that, she changes God's word.
It's bad enough to add to it and
take away from it.
She changes it.
At the end of verse 3, she says,
lest ye die.
And God didn't say, lest ye die.
God said, ye shall surely die.
But Satan's got her.
My friend, once you and I question this
book and begin to tamper with this book,
Satan's got us.
That's why he hates the Bible.
That's why he hates churches that preach the
Bible.
I was chatting with a fellow in Chicago
not long ago who was describing to me
the iniquitous kind of life he was living
without any blushing or any shame, telling me
the dirty life he was living and backing
it up with Scripture.
Backing it up with Scripture.
Satan had so gotten a hold of this
fellow's mind that he could use the Bible
to endorse his sin.
His target, the mind, his weapon lies.
Now, what was his purpose?
His purpose was to make Eve ignorant of
God's will.
Ignorant of God's will.
Now, friends, if you and I don't know
the will of God, we're sunk.
We're absolutely sunk.
Here's a young couple establishing their home.
If they don't know what the will of
God is for the home, they're done for.
Here's a young man setting off for university
or college.
If he doesn't know the will of God
for studying and learning, he's going to be
in trouble.
Here's an older couple coming to retirement if
they don't know what the Bible says about
the way older people are supposed to live.
And by the way, it does tell us
a lot about how older people are supposed
to live.
I'm studying up on it.
I want to be ready.
They're going to have problems.
Here's a church seeking to serve the Lord.
If they don't know what the Bible says
about pastors and deacons and members and churches,
they're going to have difficulty.
Your pastor has this experience, as all of
us do.
Folks come in to see you, and they
sit down.
You pray and say, now, what's your problem?
They start to tell you this long, detailed
problem that they have.
Some of these situations are like trying to
unscramble an egg.
And there they sit and tell you about
it.
And you stop them, and you say, folks,
I want to ask you a question.
Do you two ever read the Bible?
No.
Don't you day by day just read the
Word of God and feed your soul?
No.
No, we don't do that.
Well, no wonder you've got problems.
No wonder.
Satan wants to make us ignorant of God's
will.
I have a friend who thought he knew
the will of God about something.
He took some very foolish steps.
What he thought was faith was presumption.
Almost wrecked his whole life.
You say, well, I don't pray about the
will of God.
You better.
You better pray about the will of God.
And here's where we find the will of
God.
In the Word of God.
And if Satan can come along with lies,
and fill our mind with lies, or even
one good lie, quote unquote, he's got us.
I've seen homes wrecked by one lie.
I've seen Sunday school classes completely disrupted by
one lie.
Somebody in that class believes some lie about
somebody else.
It's very strange.
People don't come to me with gossip.
You know why?
I don't listen to it.
Whenever folks come to me, I say, just
a minute, you got some witnesses?
Do I have what?
Do you have some witnesses?
The Bible says in the mouth of two
or three witnesses, let every word be, no,
I don't, then shut up.
You say, you're rather, you're rather harsh.
No, I'm sorry.
I'm not scriptural.
You want to wreck a church, just start
some lies going around.
Young people, you want to wreck your youth
group, just start some lies going.
Satan's the liar.
His target, the mind, his weapon, lies.
His purpose, to make us ignorant of God's
will.
Now what is our defense?
The inspired Word of God.
The inspired, infallible, inerrant Word of God.
It's interesting that when Satan came to Jesus
and tried to tempt Him, Jesus didn't argue
with him.
He could have.
Jesus Christ is the sum total of all
of God's wisdom.
He didn't argue with Satan.
He just quoted Scripture.
You're hungry for 40 days.
A couple of weeks ago, I heard heaven
announce, this is my beloved son, beloved son.
This is what you call love?
You're hungry?
What kind of a father do you have?
Why don't you turn these stones into bread?
Just bring that up to date.
Oh, you're one of God's children?
How come your wife's in the hospital with
cancer?
God loves you.
How come your son lost his job?
How come you had that auto accident?
If God loves you, what are you doing
hungry?
Now, why don't you just take a shortcut
and turn those stones into bread?
Now, Jesus didn't sit down and give Satan
a long theological argument.
He just simply said, it is written.
And by the way, He didn't have to
use a concordance to find the verse.
If the old serpent shows up on many
of us and starts throwing something, there's a
verse someplace, you know.
Oh, no.
He just said, it is written.
Pulled out that sword.
Man shall not live by bread alone.
Imagine using a verse from Deuteronomy to defeat
the devil.
I thought you were supposed to use the
Gospel of John.
Deuteronomy.
He says, oh, you're going to quote the
Bible?
Two can play at that game.
Takes him up on top of the pinnacle
of the temple and says, now it says
in the Bible that Satan can quote the
Bible.
A man came in to see me one
day and proved to me from the Bible
he was supposed to divorce his wife.
Isn't that interesting?
Satan knows how to use the Bible.
He said, now the Word of God says
if you cast, He's going to give His
angels charge over you to keep you in
all, to keep you, period.
He didn't put in all thy ways.
He left that out.
Now, why don't you jump down and let's
see if God will do it.
Jesus said, it is written, thou shalt not
tempt the Lord thy God.
Deuteronomy.
Then He gets him up and shows him
all the kingdoms of the world.
He said, I can give this to you
if you'll just once, just once, not fifty
times, once, bow down and worship me.
And Jesus said, it is written, thou shalt
worship the Lord thy God and Him only
shalt thou serve.
And Satan said, I didn't say a word
about service.
Jesus said, wait a minute, whoever you worship,
you serve.
How did Jesus defeat Satan?
He said, well, he was God.
Jesus did not defeat Satan in the power
of deity.
Jesus defeated Satan with the same power available
to us.
Don't ever get the idea when you read
the four Gospels that Jesus accomplished what He
did in a way different from our way.
The Holy Spirit of God gave Jesus Christ
the sword of the Spirit and energized Him
for battle.
He'll do the same thing for us.
Don't ever sit back and say, well, I'm
not God.
I mean, He was God.
Uh-uh.
His first words were, man shall not live.
I'm not here as God, although I am
God.
Satan, I'm going to fight this battle the
way every one of my followers is going
to fight this battle, with the Spirit of
God using the Word of God.
By the way, do you spend time every
day in God's Word?
Have you got an artillery of good promises?
Precepts and principles from the Word of God
you can take and use on the wicked
one?
I hope so.
Thy word have I hid in mine heart
that I might not sin against thee.
The inspired Word of God.
Now, the second person we're going to visit
tonight is a very well-known person.
His name is Job.
Job is the second one over in Job
chapters 1 and 2.
He came to Eve, his target the mind,
his weapon lies, his purpose to make her
ignorant of God's Word, our defense, the inspired
Word of God.
Now, Job.
You know the story of Job.
Job was wealthy and godly and had a
godly family.
And unknown to him, totally unknown to him,
up in heaven, there's a conversation.
Now, Satan has access to heaven.
Not until the middle of the tribulation will
Satan be thrown out.
And so Satan comes up and God says,
Where you been?
Oh, he said, Going to and fro upon
the earth.
Peter later on adds, Seeking whom he may
devour.
And God says, Have you considered my servant
Job?
He says, You bet your life I've considered
your servant Job.
I've had my eye on him.
But I can't get my hands on him.
You've hedged him about.
You've protected him.
And Satan said, I'll tell you one thing.
If he loses what he's got, he'll curse
you to your face.
He's what they call in the mission field
a rice Christian.
Sure, he's rich.
He's got a great family.
Why shouldn't he be religious?
God says, All right.
You can go to work, but you can't
touch him.
Aren't you glad that when God permits Satan
to work, he sets the boundaries.
Whenever the Lord puts you through the furnace,
he always keeps his hands on the thermostat.
Don't ever worry about that.
He knows how much we can take.
And so in one day's time, the stock
market crashed.
Lost his flocks, lost his herds, lost his
children.
He didn't lose his wife, but the way
she acted, maybe he'd have been better off
if he had.
I don't know.
Can you imagine here the dear man, his
wife just falls apart?
Of course, he needed her later on because
they were going to start all over again.
He loses everything.
What does he do?
He says, When I was naked, I came
out of the womb.
Anybody can say that.
And naked, I'm going to leave.
Anybody can say that.
The Lord gave.
The Lord has taken away.
Anybody can say that.
Blessed be the name of the Lord.
It takes a saint to say that.
Now, the next test was a little harder.
Satan shows up in heaven and God says,
I told you.
And imagine all the angels watching this drama.
You know, the angels are watching us today.
They are learning through the church the ways
of God.
I wonder how much they're learning.
I wonder.
The angels are watching and God says, I
told you.
That man Job.
Sterling character.
Satan says, Sure.
But skin for skin, all that a man
hath he'll give for his life.
Let me touch his body.
God says, Alright, but you can't take his
life.
And you know the story.
Job woke up itching one day.
Before long, he was covered with a noxious
disease with running sores.
He describes it in the book.
His breath got so bad chlorophyll didn't even
help at all.
His breath got bad.
People stayed away from him.
There he sat.
Just a complete bundle of misery.
Now, what was Satan's target?
His body.
You say, you mean Satan attacks the believer's
body?
That's right.
Why does Satan want to attack my body?
For several reasons.
Number one, my body is God's temple.
And when God permits Satan to attack my
body, he's attacking the temple of God.
Secondly, my body is God's treasury.
Over in 2 Corinthians chapter 4, Paul says
we have this treasure in earthen vessels.
And God has deposited this treasury of grace
in our bodies.
Satan fights us.
But the main reason, my body is God's
temple and my body is God's treasury.
According to Romans chapter 6, my body is
God's tool.
Paul says in Romans 6, yield the members
of your body as instruments, tools, or weapons
of righteousness.
My hand can be doubled into a fist
and I can hurt somebody or my hand
can pick up a pen and I can
write a letter and encourage a missionary.
God can use my feet and my ears
and my eyes and God says I want
your body as my tool.
And Satan says I'll wreck that tool.
His target is the body.
Now what is his weapon?
His weapon is suffering.
Dear Christian friend keep in mind that there
are two kinds of suffering in the Bible.
Please keep this in mind.
Otherwise you may get into discouragement and defeat.
There is correcting suffering and there is perfecting
suffering.
Now correcting suffering is over in Hebrews chapter
12 where God chastens me to make me
what He wants me to be.
When Jonah ran away from God God sent
a storm and in that storm and in
being thrown into the water and swallowed by
the fish and then regurgitated again in all
of this experience God was correcting Jonah.
But not all the storms of life are
corrective.
One day Jesus said to His disciples I'll
meet you on the other side of the
lake.
Remember that?
And He went off and they got in
the boat and halfway across boy a storm
moved in like they'd never seen before and
these seasoned fishermen were scared.
Now why were they in that storm?
Because they obeyed God.
Jonah was in the storm because he disobeyed.
There are times when God permits perfecting suffering
to come and sometimes He'll allow Satan to
do it.
A few years ago I was rounding the
curve of a very quiet little highway about
three miles from our home when we were
pasturing down in Covington, Kentucky and a drunken
driver came around the bend so fast I
didn't see and he was going about ninety
miles an hour ran right smack into me
he was killed instantly five more minutes I
would have been dead and I'll never forget
those weeks of recuperation a week or so
in the intensive care ward and then in
the hospital and then at home and the
chaplain of the hospital who did not happen
to be a Christian believer just a nice
guy said to me boy it's too bad
this happened here you are a preacher and
this happened to you I thought well you
poor blind fella I said listen I have
learned more about the grace of God in
this hospital than I ever learned in five
years at seminary because when you go through
it you know it I said quite frankly
it's worth being within five minutes of death
just to find out how real the whole
thing is that's perfecting suffering and God knew
I needed that just to help me grow
and that's what God was doing with Joel
his target the body his weapon suffering his
purpose now this is the important thing you
say boy pastor where's me I felt it
in my body there are dear saints of
God who come to this church week after
week whose bodies hurt if they were my
sissies like some other people we know they'd
stay home they keep coming they pray and
say oh God why why here I want
to serve you and I want to do
your will why what is Satan's purpose he
wants to make us impatient with God's will
now class Job is mentioned only one time
in the entire New Testament anybody happen to
know where it is that's right over in
the book of James chapter 5 you know
of the what patience of Job here's the
book of Job with all these long chapters
some 40-42 chapters and yet when the
New Testament zeroes in on Job it grabs
one thing about him patience now my friend
if the devil can make us impatient he's
got remember the last time you got impatient
with God's will the mess you made out
of things did you ever go through your
Bible and make a list of the people
who lost their patience Abraham got impatient one
day married the wrong woman begat a son
and that boy's descendants have been given the
Jewish people fits ever since impatience he got
impatient one day went down to Egypt almost
lost his wife almost lost his life Moses
got impatient one day and killed a man
and buried him God had to put him
over in the desert for 40 years taking
care of sheep then he brought him back
and put him to work and well again
one day Moses got impatient and smote the
rock and he lost his ticket into the
promised land he had to wait until the
transfiguration to get there David got impatient one
time numbered the people 70,000 people died
Peter got impatient one night pulled out his
sword aimed for a man's throat got his
ear and Jesus reached over and healed the
ear it's a good thing there would have
been four crosses on Calvary you see impatience
is evidence of unbelief back in the book
of Isaiah chapter 28 verse 16 the prophet
says he that believeth shall not make haste
and when you find yourself getting nervously impetuous
weight unbelief is an evidence or impatience is
an evidence of unbelief and impatience is an
evidence of immaturity little children are always impatient
when we were living in Covington my family
lives up in Hammond, Indiana it's a long
trip from Covington to Hammond we'd get in
the car during vacation days to drive up
to see Grandma and Grandpa we'd stop at
the first stoplight and my little Judy would
say are we there?
I'd say no we've got six hours and
fifteen minutes more to go I'll never make
it you see a lot of people grow
old who never grow up and they're still
just as impatient as children impatience is an
evidence of immaturity that's why James chapter one
says count it all joy when you're falling
into various testings knowing that the trying of
your faith works patience but let patience have
her perfect work that you may be perfect
mature wanting nothing boy if the devil can
get a hold of an impatient Christian he
can wreck a church he can blow up
a home he can split a Sunday school
class because impatience is one of the works
of the flesh his target the body his
weapon suffering his purpose to make me impatient
with God's will what's my weapon when he
comes at my mind I have the inspired
word of God when he comes at my
body I have the same thing Paul had
the imparted grace of God one day Satan
went to work on Paul and lest I
should be exalted above measure wrote the apostle
to meet your need by the way make
a list someday of all the unanswered prayers
in the Bible have you lived long enough
to be thankful for unanswered prayer take it
away God said Paul if I took that
away you'd be a flop why you've been
up to the third heaven and if you
want to have great experiences like that there's
a price to pay you get your hands
out and God loads your hands with blessings
if he keeps on loading your hands with
blessings you know what'll happen you'll fall flat
in your face so he puts some burdens
on your back to kind of balance you
that's right and Paul said Lord take it
away and God said I won't do it
I want you to be the great apostle
Paul I'll tell you what I'm going to
do my grace is sufficient for thee then
Paul changed his tune and said most gladly
therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities
for when I'm weak I'm strong the imparted
grace of God I'd love to linger on
that but I'll just drop this into your
mind into your heart you were saved by
grace you have to live by grace if
you can explain what God is doing in
your life if you can explain what's happening
in your life God's not doing it that's
right if you can explain what happens in
a church God's not doing it you say
well we have a great church because we
have no no it's God who has to
do it God's grace why what do we
deserve we deserve hell grace aren't you glad
he's the God of all grace he's cornered
the market on grace the God of all
grace suffering grace my grace is sufficient for
thee here's
the bank book here's the guide book he's
the God of all grace and the Bible
is the word of his grace and his
throne is the throne of grace and when
a child of God who's been saved by
grace comes to the God of all grace
with the promises of the word of grace
at the throne of grace he can say
with James he giveth more grace are you
living by grace tonight now when Satan brings
some circumstance to your life that makes your
body uncomfortable doesn't have to be sickness and
accident it could just be waiting at a
railroad crossing I've seen saints lose their sanctification
waiting for an elevator I was stranded at
O'Hare field one day which is not
unusual and I've learned to accept these things
from my father's hands all things work together
for good what can you do anyway and
so and so I'm sitting there reading I
always carry a book with me I read
an entire I've read I read two entire
books sitting in Tulsa one day waiting for
a plane to show up I'm sitting there
and here's a fellow pacing around and swearing
and smoking one cigarette after another and he
said to me how can you be so
calm so I told him I said you
know I said Delta doesn't run this airline
my father does and I've learned that my
father arranges things and I'm just not going
to work he said do you really believe
that I said yes I do and he
just shook his head he thought he was
cornered with an idiot of some kind I
think but isn't it true we get impatient
the imparted grace of God we've got to
hurry now would you turn to First Chronicles
21 Pastor may I continue a few more
minutes alright you'll be here if nobody else
will First Chronicles chapter 21 now if I
were to ask you what David's great sin
was you'd probably say Bathsheba and it was
a great sin he committed adultery he made
a man drunk he killed the man he
lied about it for a year and because
of his sin four people died but you
know in First Chronicles 21 David commits another
sin and 70,000 people died it was
not a sin of the flesh it was
a sin of the spirit First Chronicles 21
and Satan stood up against Israel and provoked
David to number Israel now once a year
the Jews were supposed to number the people
starting from 20 years old and on up
and get a half a shekel from them
for the sanctuary this was redemption money once
a year the Jew would pony out his
half shekel as a reminder you're not your
own you're bought with a price nothing wrong
with numbering the people if you do it
to the glory of God but David wanted
to be sure he was in the top
ten David wanted to be sure his press
releases were good he calls in Joab and
Joab was far from being the most godly
man in the Bible Joab was a scoundrel
he said Joab number the people Joab said
the Lord grant to my Lord many more
don't do it isn't it amazing how a
fellow like Joab had more sense than David
David said do it or else he did
it they spent some ten months numbering the
people counted them up and issued the press
release and God said you know what David
you've sinned I'm going to give you a
choice now what do you want gave him
three choices do you want to fall before
your enemies what do you want David said
let me fall into the hands of the
Lord great are his mercies please don't let
me fall into the hands of man well
how true that is pestilence hit Jerusalem they
began to die like flies carrying them out
on wagons and David went out oh it's
a sad thing David went out and he
found the threshing floor he saw the angel
of God with his sword and David bought
the threshing floor where he saw the angel
and he offered sacrifices and God stopped the
plague the interesting thing is this the site
of that threshing floor became the location for
the temple it's rather amazing David committed two
great sins Bathsheba and from that Solomon was
born and numbering the people and from that
he got the territory for the temple and
Solomon built the temple where sin abounds grace
much more abounds but 70,000 people died
and the devil did it now what was
his target not his mind he was not
deluded or deceived not his body things were
never going better for David by the way
watch out one of the biggest mistakes we
Christians make is wasting our victories David had
won a victory here and won a victory
there and things were going great and he
relaxed it wasn't his body it wasn't his
mind it was his will pride he attacked
David's will and his weapon was pride what
was his purpose not to get him ignorant
of God's will he knew he was out
of God's will did it deliberately not to
make him impatient with God's will things were
going great he wanted David to be independent
of God's will he was saying to David
hey David you're somebody important I don't think
you really know how important you are let's
number the people let's find out how important
you are and pride welled up within David's
heart and pride goeth before destruction pride is
Satan's sea and the Bible warns us in
the New Testament about falling into the snare
of the devil which is pride his target
the will has Satan ever swooped down upon
your will and sought to capture your will
and said hey you can do this and
get away with it what is your defense
when he attacks my mind I have the
inspired word of God when he attacks my
body I have the imparted grace of God
when he attacks my will I have the
indwelling spirit of God it is God that
worketh in you both to what will and
to do of his good pleasure Philippians chapter
2 verses 12 and 13 there have been
times in my life times too many to
number when Satan has just swooped down upon
my will and said do this and I've
had to cry out to God and say
oh God by your Holy Spirit get a
hold of my will and the Holy Spirit
does it you know Paul had a problem
Romans chapter 7 he said boy to will
is present with me but how to do
it I find not you ever have that
problem the things I should do I don't
do the things I shouldn't do I do
oh wretched man that I am what's the
answer the Holy Spirit of God down inside
the average Christian doesn't trust the Holy Spirit
oh you say Pastor Worsby I face some
awful temptations my will is weak ah but
the Spirit is strong and our weapon is
the is the indwelling Spirit of God who
takes the will and controls it to the
glory of God now I've got to rush
because you'll never invite me back if I
keep you here too long would you turn
to the book of James please chapter 4
James chapter 4 James makes a a very
important statement here we have to lay hold
of James chapter 4 and verse 7 resist
the devil and he will flee from you
that's not the whole verse though is it
what does he say before that submit yourselves
therefore to God resist the devil look right
up here you and I cannot fight the
devil until first we submit ourselves to God
you say fine what should I submit I
want you to quote two verses with me
quote them out loud would you Romans 12
1 and 2 here we go I beseech
you therefore brethren by the mercies of God
that you present your bodies a living sacrifice
holy acceptable unto God which is your reasonable
service and be not conformed to this world
but be ye transformed by the renewing of
your mind that you may prove what is
that good and acceptable and perfect will of
God what does it mean to be dedicated
to give God three gifts my body my
mind and my will these are the areas
that Satan attacks he says present your body
he attacked Job's body he says don't be
conformed to this world let your mind be
renewed he attacked Eve's mind that you might
prove what is that acceptable will of God
he attacked David's will first thing tomorrow morning
before you get out of bed while you're
lying there say thank you God that I
belong to Jesus take my body take my
mind take my will just give it to
him then get out of bed open your
Bible and let him renew your mind then
get on your knees and pray and let
him get a hold of your will and
you know what when you step out your
door you have submitted yourself to God he
has your body your mind your will and
during the day when Satan attacks you the
spirit of God goes to work to give
you victory you've got the inspired word of
God you've got the indwelling spirit of God
you've got the imparted grace of God well
if you submit then you can resist there's
one more person I won't keep you much
longer just be patient now a fellow said
to me one day he said where is
it when I listen to you I get
numb on one end and dumb on the
other I don't want that I don't want
that to happen to you these three weapons
Satan uses on earth he came to Eve
on earth attacked her mind he came to
Job on earth attacked his body came to
David on earth attacked his will but you
know when we do sin we shouldn't but
we do if we do sin he's got
a fourth weapon not on earth up in
heaven turn to Zechariah chapter 3 Zechariah chapter
3 talks about Joshua the high priest this
is not the Joshua who led the Jews
into the promised land this is the Joshua
who was the high priest when the Jews
came back from Babylonian captivity and Zechariah the
prophet has a vision he sees Joshua the
high priest up in heaven standing before the
Lord and Satan standing at his right hand
to resist him now the interesting thing about
this is in verse 3 Joshua was clothed
with filthy garments you know why?
the Jews had sinned against God the high
priest was supposed to stand before God with
clean garments but in Zechariah chapter 3 up
in heaven Joshua stands before God in dirty
garments did you ever stand before God in
dirty garments?
sure you have the last time we sinned
we soiled our garments and when we did
we're standing there before God and Satan is
standing there as the accuser and Satan says
to God look at Joshua he's one of
your chosen look at those Jews down there
you're a holy God they deserve to be
judged you see Satan is the accuser of
the brethren Revelation chapter 12 verse 10 and
every time we sin he stands before the
throne of holiness and he accuses me before
God and when he accuses me before God
it ricochets back and hits me down here
and I get concerned and I get discouraged
the difference between God's conviction and Satan's accusation
is this the devil accuses me because he
hates me God convicts me because he loves
me the devil accuses me to destroy me
God convicts me to cleanse me I finished
a radio program one morning the phone rang
here was a dear lady on the other
end of the line she said pastor I
won't tell you who I am you don't
even know me I want to ask you
a question she said when I was 16
years old I fell into horrible sin and
then I got saved and now I'm trying
to live a Christian life with my husband
and my children they've asked me to be
a Sunday school teacher should I do it?
I said what's the problem?
well she said look what I did when
I was 16 I said my Bible says
the blood of Jesus Christ God's son cleanses
us from all sin when you gave your
heart to Jesus Christ who cares what happened
when you were 16 she began to cry
she said to think that all these years
I've been sitting on the shelf afraid to
serve God listening to Satan's accusations all across
this country I've met people who are on
the shelf because Satan keeps saying remember what
you did 30 years ago remember what you
said 5 years ago I know about you
the accuser of the brethren his target my
heart he wants to accuse me and make
me miserable his weapon accusation his purpose lay
hold of this believer he wants to bring
about an indictment between me and God he
wants me to believe God hates me God's
through with me God can do nothing for
me Satan is such a rascal before I
sin he says you can get away with
it and after I sin he says boy
it's all over with you and people believe
this now look when you sin when I
sin what do we do?
well 1 John tells us what to do
my little children these things write I unto
you that you sin not but if any
man sin we have an advocate with the
Father let's read about it in Zechariah chapter
3 now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments
and stood before the angel and he answered
and spake unto those that stood before him
saying take away the filthy garments from him
and unto him he said behold I have
caused thine iniquity to pass from thee I
will clothe thee with change of raiment isn't
that beautiful?
oh you see my dear friend when you
and I sin and we stand before God
in filthy garments at our right hand Satan
stands to accuse us but at God's right
hand stands one to cleanse us Satan is
the accuser but Jesus is the advocate that
word advocate means lawyer aren't you glad you
have a lawyer up in heaven?
and the American Bar Association cannot take away
his credentials did it ever dawn upon you
that when Jesus went back to heaven in
a glorified resurrection body it wasn't perfect?
it was wounded he said here reach in
feel my wounds my side you know when
I get my glorified body no more bridges
and no more eye trouble no more ear
trouble when I get my glorified body it
will be perfect he went back to heaven
with an imperfect body you know why?
those wounds forever plead and so I stand
before God and I say oh God he
attacked my mind and I believed his lies
or he attacked my body and I got
impatient or he attacked my will and I
got independent oh God I'm dirty Satan says
you sure are you see when I'm doing
something right the devil tells lies when I
do something wrong he tells the truth Lord
what am I going to do?
Jesus steps up and says I've done it
I've done it quote it with me if
we confess our sins he is faithful and
just to forgive us our sins and to
cleanse us from all unrighteousness with weapons like
these we shouldn't lose we have the inspired
word of God we have the imparted grace
of God we have the indwelling spirit of
God we have the interceding son of God
and if God be for us who can
be against us Heavenly Father we pray that
the word we've studied might go to work
in our lives in our hearts may it
not just be truth that we have learned
mentally may it make its way into our
very spiritual being to control us Lord we
would daily surrender body and mind and will
we would daily have the mind renewed by
the word the will submitted by prayer Father
help us tonight to submit that we might
be able to resist Lord if some dear
ones here tonight who's never been saved may
that one come to Christ tonight if there's
some defeated saint of God who needs victory
may that one find in Christ victory tonight
thank you Lord Jesus for dying for us
when you died you whipped the devil praise
God we're working not for victory but from
victory hallelujah make this real to us now
for Jesus sake we pray Amen