Welcome to From the Pulpit.
Each week we bring you a different message
from some of history's greatest speakers in the
Christian faith and powerful sermons from modern preachers
too.
This week we have S.M. Davis with
his message Conquering Satan's Strongholds.
Turn in your Bible with me tonight please
to the book of 2 Samuel chapter 5
and then be ready to turn with me
to several other passages throughout the Bible but
we'll begin in just a moment with 2
Samuel chapter 5.
I believe it was in 1998 that a
preacher came here from Kenya, Africa by the
name of Titus Kamala and he gave one
of the most unusual testimonies of how he
was saved.
He was raised in the home of a
drunkard and eventually became one himself, got drunk
one night out in public and passed out
and was so passed out and so out
of it that the police came by, picked
him up and thought he was dead.
Took him to a third world country morgue,
opened the door and threw him in on
a pile of other dead bodies.
Locked the door.
I don't know why you lock the door
to a morgue but anyway they did.
Locked the door and he woke up after
a while and realized where he was on
a pile of other dead bodies and he
told how that the news report literally was
picked up and went around the world of
him trying to get out of there and
finally being rescued and how God used that
to bring him to Christ.
I don't know about you but if I
got that close to death, I think if
I was lost I'd want to be saved
too.
And after he was saved he started preaching
and winning souls and one of the villages
he was in, in Kenya, Africa, the witch
doctor got wind of what was going on
and came after him.
And the witch doctor said to him and
two fellows with him, my God, referring to
Satan, is bigger and more powerful than your
God, referring to the Lord Jesus Christ and
I'm going to prove it to you.
And the witch doctor reached around, picked up
a basket, opened it, took out a large
deadly cobra that he had already used to
kill other people and threw it at brother
Kamala.
The cobra reared its head, spread its cape,
and posed and poised to strike.
And brother Kamala said, I didn't know what
to do so I did the only thing
I could think of to do.
Now would you look with me at 2
Samuel chapter 5, an unusual passage that I
don't think I've ever used as the text
in a message before.
This is the time when David is becoming
the king over the entire nation of Israel.
Chapter 5 verse 3, so all the elders
of Israel came to the king to Hebron
and king David made a league with them
in Hebron before the Lord and they anointed
David king over Israel.
Verse 6, and the king and his men
went to Jerusalem unto the Jebusites, the inhabitants
of the land, which spake unto David saying,
notice this, very, very unusual saying, except thou
take away the blind and the lame, thou
shalt not come in hither, thinking David cannot
come in hither.
Nevertheless David took the stronghold of Zion, the
same is the city of David.
And David said on that day, whosoever getteth
up to the gutter and smiteth the Jebusites
and the lame and the blind that are
hated of David's soul, he shall be chief
and captain, wherefore they said, the blind and
the lame shall not come into the house.
Now, isn't this a very strange thing?
What is he referring to when it says
that, verse 6, except thou take away the
blind and the lame, thou shalt not come
in hither, and then David says that the
blind and the lame are hated.
Now, you won't need to turn there, but
just let me read to you a passage
from Psalm chapter 115, verse 4, because I
believe this is what it's referring to when
it refers to the blind and the lame.
Their idols are silver and gold, the work
of men's hands.
They have mouths, but they speak not.
Eyes have they, but they see not.
They're blind, they can't see.
They have ears, but they hear not.
Noses have they, but they smell not.
They have hands, but they handle not.
Feet have they, but they walk not.
See, they are lame as well, neither speak
they through their throat.
And so you could refer to these not
only as blind and lame, you could also
refer to idols as deaf and dumb.
Because they're nothing but the Jebusite said to
David, you cannot take this unless you do
something about the blind and the lame.
You should not come in hither because they're
looking at their idols as being powerful, as
part of the strength of this stronghold of
the city.
And notice that David took the strong, very
key word for the message tonight, David took
the stronghold of Zion.
This was a fortress, it was a stronghold
that they thought was strengthened by the idols
and the idolatry, but it was not.
And so David sent those folks up and
they said the blind and the lame shall
not come into the house.
They're going to be, they're going to be
tossed out.
I believe they were burned or torn apart
or whatever.
Verse 9, so David dwelt in the fort
and called it the city of David.
And David built round about from Milo and
inward.
And David went on and grew great and
the Lord God of hosts was with him.
So David took a city that had been
a stronghold for idolatry and conquered it and
made it a fortress for God.
How interesting that is.
Turn over in your Bible to Matthew chapter
12.
In Matthew chapter 12, Jesus used a true
story about an unclean spirit to describe the
attitude of the nation of Israel.
The nation of Israel, by the time Jesus
came, had cleaned the idolatry out.
The blind, the lame, the deaf, the dumb.
Those idols that could not see, speak, hear,
walk, touch or anything.
And the children of Israel had finally gotten
rid of that.
But in Jesus' day, they had not replaced
it with love and sincerity and obedience and
true worship.
And notice the story that Jesus then tells.
Matthew 12 verse 43, Then shall the righteous
shine forth as the sun in the kingdom
of their father who hath ears to hear,
let him hear again.
The kingdom of, excuse me, I'm in chapter
13.
I need to be in chapter 12.
Sorry about that.
Chapter 12 verse 43, When the unclean spirit
is gone out of a man, he walketh
through dry places seeking rest and findeth none.
Then he saith, I will return into my
house from whence I came out, and when
he is come, he findeth it empty, swept,
and garnished.
Then goeth he and taketh with himself seven
other spirits, more wicked than himself, and they
enter in and dwell therein.
The last state of that man is worse
than the first, even so shall it be
also unto this wicked generation.
So the demons now have created.
This man started out with one demon.
He wound up with seven more, more wicked
than himself.
And the demons have created a stronghold in
this man's life.
Turn over to 2 Corinthians chapter 10.
And the apostle Paul here gives one of
the most powerful verses in the New Testament
for Christians to be aware of, especially because
we are in a spiritual battle.
2 Corinthians chapter 10 verse 4, For the
weapons of our warfare are not carnal, they
are not fleshly weapons, but mighty through God
to the pulling down of strongholds, casting down
imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself
against the knowledge of God and bringing into
captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.
You notice again the casting down of strongholds.
And a couple of more verses in Ephesians
chapter 4.
Here are instructions to the Christians at Ephesus
concerning their walk as Christians.
In verse 26, Be ye angry and sin
not.
That's a present passive imperative in the Greek.
It means be angered, be acted upon by
somebody trying to get you angry, but don't
react and sin by getting angry.
So be ye angry means be angered and
sin not.
Let not the sun go down upon your
wrath.
Read verse 27 out loud with me, would
you please?
Neither give place to the devil.
This word stronghold is a powerful, powerful word.
And the key truth that I want to
share with you this evening is that God
wants to use his people to conquer Satan's
dark, wicked strongholds of deception and idolatry and
ungodliness.
Isaiah 34, 13 described a fortress that was
an habitation of dragons and a court for
owls.
And God wants to use his people to
conquer these strongholds and replace them with fortresses
of truth and godliness and righteousness.
So I want to speak to you tonight
on the subject, conquering Satan's strongholds or how
to conquer Satan strongholds.
How many of you have ever visited a
fort?
Let's see your hands.
A fort or a fortress.
A little over a year ago now, my
wife and I were in South Alabama and
we went to Fort Morgan right on the
Gulf of Mexico.
And we saw there walls and cannons and
barracks and places to store food and ammunition.
A group of men could literally hold off
an attacking force for days or weeks.
And I suppose that they probably did.
I remember when I was in Baltimore, Maryland
visiting Fort McHenry.
That is where Francis Scott King was on
the ship and saw the Star Spangled Banner,
deer still flying.
In fact, just recently I was able to
visit the grave of Francis Scott King there
in Frederick, Maryland.
And here is Fort McHenry.
And it was a powerful fortress that was
able to withstand the bombardment that came against
it.
A fort is a stronghold.
It is a place of tall, often stone
walls, sometimes up on a hill.
It may have massive secure gates.
It would be a place that could stand
up to a powerful assault because of its
almost impregnable nature.
I've also visited castles and forts in France
and in Romania and saw rooms and yards
full of all kinds of ancient weaponry.
I looked through the Bible to see how
many times this word stronghold occurred.
And I found out that it occurred 27
times in your King James Bible.
But that the Hebrew word, mipsar, is translated
fortress or fence city or strong city 23
more times for a total of exactly 50
times if I counted right.
The first time the word stronghold occurs is
in Numbers 13, 19 where they were checking
out the inhabitants of Canaan land.
Before they went in to conquer Canaan, they
wanted to check out and find out whether
they lived in tents or in strongholds.
It made a difference what your strategy was.
If you're going to go up against an
enemy and he's in a tent or he
is in a stronghold, such as a fortress
of a walled city.
In 1 Samuel 23, 14, David was in
the wilderness in strongholds and God protected him
there.
It's interesting to me that the city of
Tyre, right on the coast, the city of
Tyre was referred to twice as a strong
city in Joshua 19, 29.
And then it was named after several other
cities in 2 Samuel 24, 7 as a
stronghold.
I love Nahum chapter 1, verse 7.
It says, The Lord is good, a stronghold
in the day of trouble, and he knoweth
them that trust in him.
But that word stronghold only occurs one time
in the New Testament.
The weapons of our warfare are not carnal,
but mighty through God to the pulling down
of strongholds.
It is saying to us that Satan is
a builder of strongholds, not in the physical
realm, but in the spiritual realm.
Do you realize that it is possible that
there are people here tonight that Satan has
built a stronghold, a fortress in their life?
And you live in continual defeat because of
it.
Now if you study the biblical history of
Satan and the unclean spirits, you will find
that Satan, our adversary, was once Lucifer, the
light bearer and anointed cherub of God, Ezekiel
28, 14.
I believe he may have been an archangel
along with Gabriel and Michael.
He had incredible power, beauty, and wisdom.
His very being rang with fabulous music of
every sort.
Isaiah 14, 11 refers to the vials.
We get the word violin from that.
He had in his very being the ability
to make the music of stringed instruments.
Ezekiel 28, 13 refers to the tablets in
him, timbrels and drums, pipes, flutes and trumpets,
wind instruments.
And so he in his very being had
the ability to make this fantastic orchestral music.
But Ezekiel 28, 17 tells us that his
heart was lifted up with pride and he
wanted to be equal with God.
Apparently he deceived many of the angels into
following him in his sin.
And Revelation 12, 9 records that the devil
was cast out into the earth and his
angels were cast out with him.
But Satan and his army of fallen angels
do not simply float around all the time.
Yes, they travel, but primarily they look for
a place where they're able to reside.
Ephesians 4, 27 commands you and me as
Christians to not give place to the devil.
It means the same thing as a room.
In fact, that same Greek word is translated
five times in the New Testament as room.
And Paul is saying to Christians, don't give
Satan a room in your life.
In Matthew 12, 43 to 45, an unclean
spirit left a man.
We read it a few minutes ago.
That man had apparently been providing a place
for that spirit to live.
Now that man, the Bible says when the
unclean spirit is gone out of a man,
perhaps the unclean spirit was cast out of
the man.
Maybe something happened to make the demon feel
uncomfortable about staying.
Maybe he experienced true salvation.
Maybe godly music came into his life.
Maybe there was words of praise.
Maybe there was sincere worship.
I don't know.
Maybe the spirit just decided to go looking
for a new place to stay.
We're not told why.
We're simply told he went out of the
man.
And what did the spirit do?
He started looking for a place to stay.
He walketh through dry places seeking rest and
findeth none.
And the word place is there when it
says he walketh through dry places seeking rest.
Same word used in Ephesians chapter 4 verse
27.
Neither give place or room a place to
rest to the devil.
The same word is used in Luke 9,
12.
And when the day began to wear away,
then came the twelve and said unto him,
Send the multitude away that they may go
into the towns and country round about and
lodge and get victuals.
For we are here in a desert place.
Now you could stay in a dry desert
place, but it wouldn't be very pleasant.
Humans don't like it.
Neither do demons.
When the spirit found nowhere else to call
home, he went back.
And amazingly, that fellow had cleaned up his
house.
He threw out all the filthy junk in
his life.
You can imagine all the filthy junk a
man could get in his life.
He got an empty religion with ritual and
no reality.
Let me tell you, nothing is emptier than
empty religion that just has ritual and no
reality.
And the spirit said, Wow, what a place
to live.
So he went traveling again and found some
other spirits who were looking for a place
to stay.
And he invited them to move in with
him.
And they did.
And the latter end of that man was
worse than the first.
The history of the unclean spirit.
Secondly, the home they desire.
They left their home in heaven.
That is still the home of the rest
of God's angels who did not follow Lucifer.
Matthew 22, 30 refers to the angels of
God in heaven.
Matthew 24, 36 refers to the angels of
heaven.
Mark 12, 25 refers to the angels which
are in heaven.
Apparently, heaven is the home of the angels.
And they are dispatched to earth to accomplish
specific purposes for God.
I remember a preacher years ago who made
it come alive for me as a little
boy.
He talked about that passage where the angels
do always behold the face of their father,
which is in heaven.
And he said, Here's what's happening.
The father's on the throne.
The angels are right there in front of
him.
And they are beholding the face of the
father, which is in heaven.
And the heavenly father looks down and sees
one of his children who needs some help.
And he says, Angel, quick, go there.
And with the speed of thought, the angel
is right there to rescue you and me,
to minister to us, to help us.
Thank God for the angels.
Jacob in Genesis 28 saw angels ascending and
descending on a ladder that reached to heaven.
Angels delivered messages to Mary and Joseph and
Zacharias.
The shepherd saw a multitude of the heavenly
hosts praising God at the birth of Jesus.
Then Luke 2.15 says, It came to
pass as the angels were gone away from
them into heaven.
The fallen angels left their past home.
Matthew 25.41 tells us about their future
home.
Then shall he say also unto them on
the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed
into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and
his angels.
Revelation chapter 20 verse 10 expounds further on
that.
In Matthew 8.29, the unclean spirits living
in the men of the country of the
Gergesenes said to Jesus, What have we to
do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God?
They were saying, Please leave us alone.
Art thou come hither to torment us before
our time?
And the word time means appointed time or
season.
They were saying to Jesus, You're not going
to make us go to hell early, are
you?
Heaven was the past home.
Hell is the future home of Satan and
his demons.
Their favorite place to reside right now is
with humans.
But they'd rather live in hogs than in
hell or not have anywhere to live.
In that same passage, they begged Jesus to
let them live in hogs and he gave
them permission, but the hogs wouldn't put up
with them.
There's a big lesson there to lost folks.
If there's somebody lost here tonight, if unclean
spirits fear the torment of hell badly enough
to prefer living with hogs, maybe you better
think twice before you flippantly laugh and joke
about going to hell.
The hogs wouldn't have them and cast themselves
into the sea.
Now, what is the home that Satan and
his fallen angels desire?
They desire to live with or in human
beings.
Now, some of you are already thinking this,
so I'll ask it and then answer it.
Pastor, do you believe a Christian can be
demon possessed?
Doctrinally, I personally believe that a Christian can
only be oppressed and not possessed.
Practically, it seems to make little difference.
I have seen Christians who have definitely allowed
what Paul warned the Christians at Ephesus not
to do.
Don't give the devil a place, a foothold,
a room, an area of control, an area
of jurisdictional authority.
Don't give the devil ground in your life.
Don't do that.
Third, how do Satan and his demons move
in?
Several years ago now, we visited Uganda, Africa,
and we were there with the stencils, and
they took us in their house, and they
showed us everything.
Here's your room.
Here's the bathroom.
Here's the kitchen.
Make yourself at home.
They came here to the United States.
We took them to our house.
And we said, hey, you treated us.
Now, we're going to treat you.
And here's your room, and here's the bathroom,
and here's the kitchen.
Here's the living room.
You make yourself at home.
And some people think that that is what
you have to do to get Satan to
take a room in your life.
Now, I'll admit that will work.
And there are spiritually blinded fools in our
day who will pray to Satan and ask
him to come in and take over their
lives.
And they are fools.
Some worship Satan and involve themselves in all
types of satanic rituals.
You know, if I were to ask you,
what is one of the poorest countries on
the face of this earth?
And you were thinking you would say the
country of Haiti.
Do you know why Haiti has had so
many problems for so many years?
I think it's because of a letter I
received from a preacher just a few years
ago now when he said, I was in
Haiti this past February.
I was contacted by several pastors asking me
to arrange a crusade for the year 2004.
The reason is because that is the anniversary
of the signing over of the island to
the devil.
Parenthesis, voodoo.
On January 4th, 1704, the island was given
to Satan by the sacrifice of a pig
and by the people drinking its blood.
Do you wonder why Haiti is in such
a mess tonight?
Until somebody turns that around, that will stay
a curse for generations on a country.
Now, may I insert right here, if you're
wise, you won't read stories or watch movies
about these kinds of witchcraft and satanic things.
Demonism and witches and all of this.
You are inviting Satan to have a place.
I remember so clearly, a group of us
were on an airplane flying to Ghana, South
America, and there weren't enough seats for us
to all sit together.
So they sat together and I had to
sit in another seat just up there with
somebody.
Right next to me, there was a man
reading a Stephen King novel.
I really didn't know anything about Stephen King.
Don't really to this day.
I'm just telling you what I glanced over.
Saw his book open and read one paragraph.
That so glorified demonic powers that I felt
a chill come over me and an oppressive
spirit surround me.
And I had to pray immediately for God
to forgive me for reading that and cleanse
my mind and put His hedge of protection
about me.
I was afraid God was liable to take
that plane down because of me.
I'm serious.
I said, oh God, I'm sorry.
Please forgive me.
God, cleanse my mind.
I plead the blood of Jesus against what
I just read.
Folks, watch out for psychics and fortune tellers
and palm readers and witches and spirit guides
and those that the Bible refers to as
those having a, quote, familiar spirit.
Most of the time when Satan gets ground
in a person's life, he does so without
them knowing about it.
You don't have to say, Satan, come in
and take over.
I seriously doubt if there is a person
in this room whom Satan hasn't gotten ground
in your life at some time or other,
whether you even knew it or not.
He doesn't usually use a frontal attack.
He is deceitful and cunning like a lion
slipping up on its prey.
He roars after the victory, not before.
He kind of puts his foot in the
doorway of your life and works his way
in without you even know it.
He is a master deceiver and his work
to destroy you and me is not always
an obvious thing.
John 8, 44 tells us that Satan is
a liar and the father of lies.
Many are having their lives and families destroyed
by Satan but don't even know it.
In fact, they will defend and fight for
that which is destroying them because Satan is
a deceiver.
Hear me, homes don't just fall apart.
In many, many cases, they have succumbed to
Satan's well-planned attacks.
Young people don't just become rebellious.
They often fall prey to Satan's subtle plans
to defeat them.
He is very deceitful.
2 Corinthians 11, 14 tells us that Satan
himself is transformed into an angel of light.
He came as a serpent in the garden.
Eve did not suspect who he was.
It's very easy for you to not recognize
Satan as Satan when he comes.
I noticed two families continually having problems getting
along some time back.
And as I watched them, I wondered if
they realized that it was probably Satan working
to divide them.
Somebody wisely warned, do not negotiate with Satan.
You must learn to recognize his attacks.
Somebody told a little story like this.
A hunter raised his rifle and took careful
aim at a large bear.
When about to pull the trigger, the bear
spoke in a soft, soothing voice.
Is it not better to talk than to
shoot?
What do you want?
Let us negotiate the matter.
Lowering his rifle, the hunter replied, I want
a fur coat.
Good, said the bear.
That's a negotiable question.
I only want a full stomach, so let
us negotiate a compromise.
They sat down to negotiate and after a
time, the bear walked away alone.
The negotiations had been successful.
The bear had a full stomach.
The hunter had his fur coat.
And Satan says to you, let's negotiate, but
there are some things that are not negotiable.
You cannot compromise with the devil.
You can't negotiate with him at all.
You've got to learn to recognize him.
But J.B. Buffington in a message said,
we must identify our enemy if we're going
to have victory.
He said, during World War II in the
Air Corps, we had to identify all the
battleships and airplanes of the Japanese, the Italians,
the Germans, the Russians, and the Americans.
We had to know friend from foe in
a split second.
He said, by the time you had an
airplane bearing down on you, you didn't have
time to say, hey, let me grab the
book and see which one of those, what
kind of plane that is.
He said, by the time you do that,
you're a dead duck.
I saw a World War II training video
where they were showing the men.
This is the way you identify.
They put the American plane on this side.
They put the Japanese plane on this side.
And they said, they look alike like this,
but these are radically different.
Here are the differences.
You must learn to spot them in an
instant.
Could I tell you something?
You better learn to spot the devil in
an instant, because if you wait, it may
be too late for you.
Ephesians 6 describes ranks in Satan's organization.
We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but
against principalities, against powers, against rulers of the
spiritual wickedness in high places.
He has his forces well organized on this
earth.
Principalities refers to governments.
Powers refers to top demon princes, such as
Daniel had to deal with in the book
of Daniel when his prayer was delayed all
of that time.
And then the angel came and said, we've
been working to get this to you.
Then there are rulers, those under the demon
powers.
Then there is spiritual wickedness.
A multitude of Satan's forces, an unseen host
of demonic powers.
Are you recognized that there could be more
angels and demons in this room tonight than
there are people?
Satan works wherever he can get permission to
work.
And we debate about demon possession or demon
oppression, and we miss the simplicity of the
truth.
Demons go where they are allowed to go
or have a right to go for as
long as they are allowed to be there.
Satan goes where you let him go.
He gets a place in your life.
One way he does it is through certain
possessions.
In Mark chapter 5, the Jews had those
hogs and it was a possession they were
not meant to have because they were under
the Levitical law and it was an unclean
thing.
And the unclean had a right to enter
the unclean.
See?
Jesus wasn't deliberately destroying a herd of swine.
Jesus was giving permission where ground had already
been yielded.
I'm thinking of a family that had a
problem with a child and they changed a
lot of things, but they didn't go through
their home and cleanse their home.
Of whatever things may have been in their
home that were allowing Satan to get ground
in their child's life.
And this child still had these demonic things
he was playing with in his bedroom.
And the child, the parents were telling me
the child seems to be tortured, but we've
already pleaded the blood of Jesus against them.
And I said, but you don't understand.
They have a right to be there.
You have given them that right.
You must take away that right.
Then you can reclaim the ground and rebuke
them in the name of Jesus and the
oppression can be ended.
With some possessions comes a curse.
Joshua chapter 6 and 7, there was Achan
who took that thing that the Bible says
was accursed because it was devoted to God.
He wasn't supposed to touch it.
And because of that, until they dealt with
that, they could not go on.
We must always consider the spiritual value or
impact of earthly or material possessions because sometimes
material possessions aren't just material possessions.
They have spiritual things that tie in with
them.
In the book of Judges, Gideon destroyed that
grove of idols.
He destroyed them.
That's the reason I try to not allow
idols to be displayed in missionary displays.
When missionaries come, I'll say to them ahead
of time, now if you have anything that's
an idol, if you'll do me a favor.
I know some people say, well, you've prayed
over it, there's nothing left there.
And I have no debate with that.
I'm just asking, don't put them out.
I don't want them there.
In Acts chapter 19 verse 19, there were
books that were burned.
And they counted the price of these books
that were full of sorcery and witchcraft and
all of this kind of stuff.
And they found out the value of it
was 50,000 pieces of silver.
And that was in Acts chapter 19 verse
19.
And in verse 20 we read, So mightily
grew the word of God and prevailed.
Sometimes Satan can take ground simply through the
possessions that you have.
But a big way according to the context
of the passage here in Ephesians chapter 4
that Satan can take ground is through anger
and its related sins.
Notice, be ye angry and sin not.
And then in verse 34, you have the
catalog of sins that relate to anger.
Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and
clamor, that's brawling, and evil speaking be put
away from you with all malice, that's intention
or desire to hurt somebody else.
So when he says, be ye angry and
sin not, neither give place to, let not
the sun go down upon your wrath.
Why does he say that?
Because if you get angry, if you get
angered, and then in your anger you allow
your anger to rise till it becomes sin,
and you don't deal with that right away,
and the sun goes down on it and
you sleep on it.
Parents, do not send your children to bed
with angry words.
Do not let your children go to bed
when they are angry.
Let not the sun go down on your
wrath.
Do not let the bedroom become a place
of bitterness.
Because when that anger turns inward and the
sun goes down, and you lie in bed
and you think of those angry words that
were said to you, and you think of
how disgusted you are and how upset you
are, that anger can turn into bitterness, which
can give Satan ground or a place in
your life.
The only time, folks, that anger is right
is when it's God's anger, not yours.
Any time that it's your anger, it is
wrong.
James 1 20, For the wrath of man
worketh not the righteousness of God.
Psalm 37 8, Cease from anger and forsake
wrath.
Ecclesiastes 7 9, Anger rests in the bosom
of fools.
Ephesians 4 31, That word in Ephesians 4
31 referring to anger is the same word
that was used in Mark chapter 3 verse
5, where Jesus displayed anger.
It is never used again.
The Greek word is never used again in
the rest of the New Testament in relation
to any other human being.
But it is used right there to say
to you and me, let all bitterness and
wrath and anger be put away from you.
Jesus could handle it.
You can't handle it.
Get it out of your life.
One of Satan's biggest ways of getting his
room or his place in a family's home
is through the father's anger or the mother's
anger or both of their anger.
Listen to this article.
My husband and I have three children.
In the last two years, we have tutored
our 13-year-old daughter in math.
However, when Daddy tries to tutor her, it
becomes a confrontation instead of a learning experience.
He yells at her.
He makes sarcastic comments.
She in turn gets an attitude and resents
that he ridicules her in front of her
siblings.
I find his methods immature and inefficient.
He shouts.
She cries.
What is being accomplished?
I no longer like the person my husband
has become.
He finds a reason to yell about something
as soon as he gets home.
He's told the kids that he would use
physical discipline if it weren't for me.
I'm ready to get a divorce because I'm
unhappy.
The kids are unhappy.
He's obviously unhappy too.
Now, what is happening in that home?
That father's anger is creating all kinds of
destruction for his wife and his children.
How does rebellion develop?
Anyway, here is the hurt that has come
into your life.
Listen to me.
It could be real.
It could be imagined.
It doesn't matter.
With the hurt comes bitterness.
You review the offense over and over and
as you do, what's happening?
The Bible talks about a root of bitterness
springing up and thereby many be defiled.
So, you've had this hurt.
It could have been caused by anger.
It may have been.
And you review it over and over and
as you do, it's like you're pushing that
root under the soil and watering it.
And then you know what I watch?
I see those who then become rebellious and
stubborn.
First Samuel 15, 23 says, Rebellion is the
sin of witchcraft and stubbornness is as iniquity
and idolatry.
So, you've got rebellion like witchcraft and stubbornness
like iniquity and idolatry.
And here now is somebody who says, Boy,
I tell you, I've heard this so many
times.
I've had, especially young people, but I've had
adults do the same thing.
Look me right in the eye and say
to me, I like being bitter.
I like being angry.
I am not going to forgive.
I don't want to forgive.
I don't see any reason for me to
forgive what they have done to me.
So, here is this anger and it is
producing Satan, being able to take a place
and build a stronghold in somebody's life.
And this person now, what did it say?
Casting down imaginations and every high thought, every
high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge
of Christ and bringing into captivity every thought
to the obedience of Christ.
So, what happens is this person in their
mind begins to justify this.
I have a right to be angry.
I have a right to be unforgiving.
I have a right to be rebellious and
no, I'm not going to quit.
Thank you.
I like it.
I think it's fine and I'm going to
hold on to it.
And they don't realize they're not holding on
to anything.
They just opened the door to the devil.
And he has created a place.
He has created a...
He has taken a room.
He has created a stronghold and a fortress
in their life.
Could I tell you something?
You talk to somebody who believes a lie,
sometimes it's hard to convince them otherwise.
Have you ever noticed how you can talk
to people who believe abortion is all right,
the murdering of helpless unborn babies, and they
will fight you over that?
Have you ever noticed that there are people
who think homosexuality is all right?
That there's no big deal, that sodomy is
just something that well, you know, it's no
big deal.
They have allowed Satan to create a stronghold
in their minds, in their imaginations and they
think that is right.
Through anger and strife and bitterness and unforgiveness,
even ungratefulness, Satan can take ground in a
person's life.
Hebrews 12, 15, and 16 is the passage
that talks about how that root of bitterness
springing up and thereby many be defiled.
And then it goes on and it says
this, lest there be any fornicator or profane
person as Esau who for one morsel of
meat sold his birthright.
So he relates, watch me now, he relates
bitterness and moral failure.
And you know what I've seen over and
over and over again?
I have seen when a young person gets
rebellious.
And it's not always a young person.
It could be almost anybody.
They get rebellious or they get bitter.
The next thing that happens is the I
don't care attitude.
Well, they treated me that way.
Mom did that, dad did that, brother did
that.
I just don't care.
Now where does the don't care attitude lead
to?
It leads to moral failure.
Because you don't care what happens anymore and
so the gates are wide open and Satan
can do anything he wants to to your
life.
In 2 Corinthians 2, 10 and 11, Paul
talked about the need to forgive others.
Lest Satan should get an advantage of us
for we are not ignorant of his devices.
Another way Satan can take ground in your
life is through jealousy.
In 1 Samuel chapter 18 verses 7 through
9, the Israeli army had returned from defeating
Goliath and the Philistine army.
Women were singing and dancing in the streets.
Saul has slain his thousands.
Oh, I like that song.
Boy, that sounded good to his ears.
Then they came to the second stanza.
Same tune, different words.
Saul's expression changed.
The glimmer in his eye changed to a
grimace on his face.
David has slain his ten thousands.
And Saul said, what can he have more
but the kingdom?
Verse 9 says, and Saul eyed David from
that day and forward.
Could I ask you, listen to me, who
are you eyeing tonight?
Who is it, teenage girl?
Who is it, teenage boy?
Who is it, worker on the job?
Who is it who has received more acclaim,
gotten more opportunities, gotten more recognition, gotten a
bigger raise or a higher promotion?
Who is it sings better than you or
more often than you?
Who is it who is a better teacher
or got a better title or plays basketball
better than you?
Who are you jealous of?
The very next verse says, it came to
pass on the morrow that the evil spirit
from God came upon Saul.
And it simply means God gave an evil
spirit permission to take over a place in
Saul's life.
Why?
Satan had earned and had a right to
that place.
That is why.
Satan is looking for a place to stay.
He's probably not going to come in the
front door.
He's probably going to come in the back
door through all these different ways that we're
talking about.
You know what I've noticed about teenage rebels?
A rebel is one of the most confused
and deceived people alive.
They really think they are running their own
life.
In reality, they have lost control, are out
of control, and Satan is running their life
for them.
Could I share with you what I believe
is a strong biblical thought about why some
parents lose control of their children?
I wonder if when parents refuse to go
to the trouble to make a child obey,
the child's continued disobedience then allows Satan to
get ground in the child's life so that
the child is more difficult than ever to
control.
Now, if that is true, then parents would
have to both pray over the child and
insist on first-time obedience before the child
could be set free.
Pastor, give me some Scripture.
I'm glad you asked.
I was about to in Mark chapter 9.
A father brought a son to Jesus who
had been under the control of an unclean
spirit since he was a child.
Mark 9, 21.
And that Greek word was used in other
places to refer to children as young as
three years of age.
Satan may also come into your life through
pride.
1 Timothy 3, 6 warns how pride can
come into a believer's life so that he
would then, quote, fall into the condemnation of
the devil.
Pride is taking personal credit for what God
and others have done.
Pride is trying to impress others.
Pride is overestimating one's own importance.
Pride is thinking we are better than somebody
else.
Listen to me.
At the heart of racism is pride.
At the heart of a lot of indebtedness,
not all of it, but some indebtedness is
pride.
At the heart of a lot of contention
is pride.
The Bible says by pride comes contention.
Satan may get a foothold in your life
through pride.
Satan can only do his work if he
can get the ground in somebody's life so
he can do it.
And do you realize what I have just
described here?
Not only the history of the unclean spirits,
the home they desire, how they move in,
but I'm describing to you right now the
horror of a satanic takeover.
Because once Satan gets a foot in your
life, a foothold, he takes that one place,
he doesn't stop there.
Then he says, I've got this room, I'm
going to try to get another room here.
And he takes more ground and more ground
and more ground.
And I've seen people who started out with
a little bit of bitterness over rebellion and
it wasn't long until they were in alcohol
and drugs and pornography and immorality and homosexuality
and other things too wild and too wicked
for me to even mention from this bullpen
because they allowed Satan to take the ground
in their life.
So what is, I'm glad there is hope
for deliverance.
What is the hope for deliverance?
I'm talking to somebody right now who may
have already given Satan a room or ground
in your life.
What do you do?
Remember that Paul said the weapons of our
warfare are not carnal but are mighty through
God to the pulling down of strongholds.
What do you do?
First of all, you recognize who your enemy
is.
First Peter 5, verse 8 says, your adversary
the devil.
Did you know if Satan can get you
mad at others instead of upset at him,
he scored a double victory.
The Bible doesn't say your adversary, your dad.
The Bible doesn't say your adversary, your mom.
The Bible doesn't say your adversary, your wife.
The Bible doesn't say your adversary, your husband.
The Bible doesn't say your adversary, your ex
-husband or ex-wife or son or daughter
or...
It doesn't say...
The Bible doesn't say your adversary, your in
-laws or your neighbor.
It doesn't say that.
No, it says your adversary, the devil.
And you're going to have to bring...
Somebody put it like...
Somebody said, and I wonder about this.
I don't really know about this.
I just share it with you.
They said, fiery darts are thoughts that Satan
sends your way to deceive you.
Proverbs 14, 12 says, there is a way
which seemeth right unto man.
And so Satan will plant these thoughts in
your mind.
In Acts chapter 6 they were asked, why
has Satan tempted you to lie?
So you've got to recognize who the adversary
is and recognize the lies he has told
you such as you are justified to be
bitter.
You are justified to not forgive.
You are justified to hold on to this.
And Satan holds on the ground.
Recognize your enemy.
Confess your sin to God.
Whatever it is.
Is it anger?
Is it bitterness?
Is it rebellion?
Is it rock music?
Because rock music is the thing.
Anytime you find rebellion, in our day you
almost always find rock music which is feeding
that and building that.
Whatever the sin is, is it jealousy?
Confess that sin to God.
And then ask God in the name and
through the power of the shed blood of
Jesus to take back any place or ground
that Satan may have taken in your life.
Revelation 12, 11 says they overcame Satan, thank
God for this, by the blood of the
Lamb.
And then you've got to fill the emptiness
of your life.
Remember that guy in Matthew chapter 12?
His life was, it was empty and you
better put some, once you get the devil
out you better fill your life.
What you gonna fill your life with?
You fill your life with truth.
You fill your life with the truth that
you can love anybody you choose to love.
You can forgive anybody if you choose to
forgive.
You can get victory over any sin.
Satan will tell you, you can't get victory
over this.
I want to tell you, through the blood
of Jesus you get victory over any sin.
You fill that empty room with truth, with
the power of the Holy Spirit, with the
joy of the Lord, with faithful Christian service,
with witnessing to the lost, with Bible reading
and meditation and prayer, with strong godly standards,
with godly melodious music.
You look for every opportunity you can to
yield your rights.
What's he saying?
Not only in Ephesians 4.31 did he
say, let all this be put away from
you.
In the next verse he said, and be
ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one
another, even as God for Christ's sake hath
forgiven you.
Ask yourself this question, is this really worth
fighting for from God's viewpoint?
A lot of people fight over stuff not
worth fighting for.
A lady wrote, we know two sisters who
haven't spoken to each other in ten years
because they both wanted their mother's ice cream
scoop.
Come on folks, yield your rights.
Give up the ice cream scoop or the
dresser or the end table or the picture
or the money or the car or the
dog or the cat or the room or
the parking place or the dress or the
anger or the shoes or the right to
be bitter or the right to have the
last say so.
Decide when Satan comes to me looking for
a place to build a stronghold, he's just
going to have to keep looking because by
the grace and power of the Lord Jesus
Christ, his strength is going to be gone.
And by putting all of this in my
life where it should be like it should
be, I will be able to build a
fortress of truth that will stand against Satan's
strongholds.
I began with Titus Kamala, saved out of
a terrible background.
And after he got saved, started preaching and
winning souls and a witch doctor came after
him and said to him and two guys
with him, my God, Satan is bigger and
more powerful than your God, the Lord Jesus
Christ and I'm going to prove it to
you.
He opened a basket, took out a deadly
cobra that he'd used to kill people and
he threw it at Titus Kamala.
The cobra reared his head, spread his cape,
poised to strike.
Brother Kamala said, I didn't know what to
do, so I did the only thing I
could think of to do.
I looked at the snake and I remembered
Mark 16, 18, they shall take up serpents
and if they shall drink any deadly thing,
it shall not hurt them.
And I looked at the snake and I
said, I command you in the name of
the Lord Jesus Christ to be gone from
here.
And the snake fell over backward and crawled
back to the basket.
The second time, the witch doctor said, we're
not done.
Grabbed the snake out of the basket, threw
it at the guy again and he did
exactly the same thing.
I command you in the name of the
Lord Jesus Christ to be gone from here.
And the snake crawled back to the basket.
Third time, same thing happened.
And by that point, he was feeling his
faith.
And I wouldn't suggest this, I'm just telling
you what happened.
This is what happened.
He looked at the witch doctor and said,
now, enough of this.
You've got two minutes to get saved or
you're going to die and go to hell.
And he started looking at his watch and
counting down.
It's been 30 seconds, I suggest you get
saved.
At one minute he said, sir, you have
one minute left to live.
You've seen the power of my...
I don't suggest that, I'm telling you what
happened.
And the witch doctor screamed, tell me what
to do.
And he said, fall on your knees right
here, repent of your sin and ask God
to forgive you and cleanse you from your
sin and renounce your spiritism and your witchcraft
and trust Jesus as your savior.
And within 30 seconds to spare, he cried
out to God and got saved.
And brother Kamala said the fellow got baptized
and began faithfully serving God in their church.
I want to tell you, thank God, God's
power is more powerful than Satan's.
You know Jesus, have you trusted him?
Does Satan have ground in your life?
You've been listening to From the Pulpit.
This week you heard S.M. Davis with
his message, Conquering Satan's Strongholds.
Tune in next week for another powerful message
from God's word on From the Pulpit.