Yesterday we were looking at that verse in
2 Corinthians 2, where Paul says, we are
not ignorant of Satan's schemes.
2 Corinthians 2, verse 11.
You know, if you knew that there were
a lot of counterfeit currency notes going around
the town, you would be very careful about
every currency note you received, to ensure that
it was genuine, because we don't want to
lose money.
The Bible says that as we approach the
end of time, there are going to be
a lot of deceiving spirits flooding the world.
And if we are serious about our Christian
life, we don't want to be robbed spiritually,
we don't want to be deceived, then we
must not be ignorant of Satan's schemes.
We must be aware of the schemes and
tactics by which he seeks to lead people
astray.
Yesterday we looked at the way he led
Eve astray from God and out of the
Garden of Eden.
Jesus said that the devil is a liar
and a murderer right from the beginning.
He's a thief who has come to steal
and to kill and to destroy.
And if we read the Word of God,
we discover some of his schemes and tactics
as we have details given us of his
dealings with different people.
Today we want to look at the book
of Job, chapter 1, and see something of
the way in which Satan attacked Job.
Because we are given some details of that,
particularly in the first two chapters of that
book.
Here we read of a very godly man
in this book who was also a rich
man, a man who had brought up his
children well.
He had seven sons and three daughters.
And we see something about his burden for
his children in verse 5.
In fact, it's a wonderful example for all
fathers to follow.
What you read in verse 4 and 5,
whenever any of his children had a birthday,
they would call everybody together for a feast.
And that feast would take a number of
days.
It was a birthday feast that lasted a
number of days.
And when the days were over, Job would
call all his ten children.
Now these ten children were all grown up
people living in separate homes.
But Job would send for them, call them
to his house early in the morning, verse
5, and pray for them and offer offerings
to God for them.
Reason?
He would say, well, we never know.
In all these days when they drank and
ate, perhaps they may have sinned in their
hearts.
Not externally.
Perhaps they may have sinned and offended God
or cursed God in their hearts.
And therefore, let me, just to be on
the safe side, offer a sacrifice for the
forgiveness of their sins.
Can you see the concern of this man
for his ten children?
That he wanted them to be right with
God.
I wish there were more fathers like that.
And we can be sure that Satan targets
such people.
See, when Satan goes around the world, he
doesn't target everybody.
That would be a waste of time.
He doesn't send his demons after all the
useless Christians who are living for the world
in any case.
He says to his demons, leave them alone.
They're okay.
They won't trouble our kingdom.
Their main interest in life is money.
Even though they go to church, leave them
alone.
And this other group, oh, they're a bunch
of gossipers.
They won't be of any harm to our
kingdom either.
Leave them alone.
So a lot of Christians whom the devil
leaves alone.
And I'll tell you this, if the devil
leaves you alone, that's not a compliment.
It just means he doesn't think much of
you.
He thinks you're a pretty useless believer who's
not going to be a threat to his
kingdom.
One of the greatest compliments the devil can
pay you is to really target you and
try to attack you in some way.
Of course, the devil, God allows that.
God allows that because through Satan's attacks, we
can become stronger.
You know, just like gold is put into
the fire to purify it, the fires of
temptation and persecution and the attacks of Satan
have always purified God's people if they respond
in a right way.
So that's the reason why God allows Satan
to attack God's people.
Fire is a very dangerous thing.
It can destroy.
But without fire, gold would never be purified.
So Satan also can harm, but God uses
him to purify his people.
So that's what he did here in Job's
case.
See, Job was a very godly man in
many ways.
But there were certain areas in his life
that still needed to be purified, even though
he was the best, the most godly man
on the face of the earth.
If you read, I don't have time to
show you, but sometime if you read in
the middle of the book of Job chapter
29 to 31, you'll see he was a
man who way back, I mean, he lived
before Moses.
Because the reason I mention that is, there
is no mention of the law in this
book.
Do you know that this is the only
book in the Bible which has no connection
with Abraham, Isaac or Jacob?
All the other 65 books in the Bible
have got some connection with Abraham, Isaac and
Jacob, except Job.
So which teaches us that he must have
lived before Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, certainly before
the law.
And since Moses wrote the book of Genesis,
and if Job lived before Moses, and Job
was then written even before Genesis.
Because there are so many details in this
book of conversations and all that, which could
not have been written long after Job died
or anything like that.
It's probably written soon after he died.
Which means, something you perhaps did not know
till today, that the first inspired book of
the Bible was the book of Job.
I believe that.
That when God wanted to write scripture, He
began with the book of Job.
He began with the story of a godly
man.
He began with the story of a godly
man who was persecuted by other religious people.
He began with the story of a spiritual
man, in contrast to three, four religious people.
The contrast between spirituality and religiosity comes right
there in the very first book of inspired
scripture, the book of Job.
It's kept in the middle of the Bible
only because it's linked up with the other
poetic books like Psalms, etc.
And when God decided to write a book,
the very first book He wrote was about
a man who suffered.
A godly man who suffered.
And who became a better man as a
result of that suffering.
And God showed in that book how He
watches over His servants who suffer, make sure
they come through to a very glorious end.
And that's why it's a very encouraging book.
You see, we live in a day and
age where we are taught by a lot
of people, that if you're a godly person,
you'll be rich.
And you won't suffer.
Well, this book proves that to be a
lie.
The most godly man on the face of
the earth at that time suffered intensely.
But it was an education that God was
taking him through.
God does not allow His children to suffer
at the hands of Satan without a purpose.
That's one of the things we read very
clearly in this book.
God does not allow us to suffer without
a purpose.
If any of you are going through suffering,
you can be pretty sure that God has
a purpose in it.
The book of James says, consider Job and
see how the whole story ended.
You see the end of the Lord in
what God allowed him to go through.
So, there's a lot of comfort we get
from reading this first book of inspired scripture.
And we read here that this is the
man whom Satan targeted.
Okay, let's look at Job chapter 1 verse
6.
There was a day when the sons of
God, that refers to the angels, came to
present themselves before the Lord and Satan came
among them.
So we see here that Satan has got
access to God.
Even though he was cast out of the
third heaven, from a lower heaven he can
speak to God.
And the Lord said to Satan, where are
you coming from?
And Satan said, from roaming about on the
earth and walking around on it.
So there we see what Satan's activity is.
Even though he's in the second heaven, he
moves around on the earth along with his
demons.
He visits various places.
You think the devil visits Peter Merzberg?
I'm sure he does.
I'm sure he visits every little town and
wherever there are believers.
But he's looking for wholehearted believers who are
a threat to his kingdom.
He's looking for godly homes to try and
destroy them.
He's looking for godly churches to try and
destroy them.
So if you fall in one of those
categories, you are a very blessed man, or
a very blessed home, or a blessed church,
if Satan decides to pick you out.
And I think the greatest insult that Satan
could offer this town is to go through
this town and say, forget it, there's no
danger over here, let me move on to
the next town.
That would be terrible.
If the devil left all of you alone
and said, well, oh, these fellows are all
compromisers, they're no threat to our kingdom.
He roams around the earth and the Lord
said to Satan, okay, you've roamed around the
earth, you've seen all the various people on
earth, and you've seen all the compromisers and
the half-hearted people and the religious people
who talk about me, says God, but don't
have any life.
Okay, I know there are lots of people
like that, God says, because there were these
preachers.
The devil didn't bother them, because they were
no threat to his kingdom, they just had
a lot of head knowledge about God and
the devil doesn't bother about such people.
They were religious people, they prayed, etc., but
the devil doesn't bother about them.
But in the midst of it all, God
said to Satan in verse 7, But have
you seen my servant Job, that there's no
one like him on the whole earth, a
blameless man, an upright man, fearing God and
turning away from evil?
Now that verse has challenged me for many,
many years.
In this way, I ask myself, can God
say that about me?
As the devil moves around the earth and
he visits Bangalore too, where I live, can
God ask Satan, Okay, you've traveled here and
there, but have you seen my servant so
-and-so who lives there?
Have you seen him?
He's not a compromiser.
That's what I ask myself, can God say
that about me?
And I believe that's a question you need
to ask yourself.
Can God boast about you to Satan?
That's much more important to know the answer
to that question than to know what other
people in your church think about you.
Because other people in your church don't know
anything about your private life.
The devil knows everything about your private life.
The devil knows exactly how you talk to
your wife at home.
The devil knows exactly how you handle your
finances.
The devil knows exactly how you do your
work and all types of details about your
private life.
He knows everything.
And he is not fooled.
God also knows.
And God can't point out any one of
his children because some of his children God
is ashamed.
Quite frankly, God is ashamed to point out
some of his children to the devil.
He can't because the devil could point out
so many...
I don't mean weaknesses.
We are all weak.
I don't mean where we trip and fall.
I'm talking about hypocrisies which the devil sees
in so many Christians.
Pretends.
Pretending to be holy and...
And God says, I can't point out that
one.
I can't point out that one.
I can't...
So God looks around and the vast majority
of people he can't point out.
But then he finds one.
And can you imagine the delight God has
in his heart when he finds one among
his children whom he can point out to
the devil.
And say, OK, Satan, I agree with you.
A lot of my children are hypocrites.
A lot of them live double lives.
But what about this one who lives in
that town?
Have you seen him?
Have you seen how he lives at home?
Have you seen how he fears me?
Have you seen how upright he is?
Now, I'm sure there are a lot of
other things about Job.
Job may have been a very intelligent man.
But God doesn't say, have you seen how
intelligent he is?
He's not bothered about intelligence.
Job may have been a rich man.
He was a rich man.
But God doesn't point out that to Satan
and say, see what a rich man is.
God doesn't care about riches.
Notice the things that God points out in
Job in verse 8.
A blameless man.
An upright man.
One who fears God.
One who turns away from evil.
Those are the important things.
Not how tall you are or how smart
you are or how clever you are or
how rich you are or how influential you
are or how much people respect you.
These things matter nothing to God.
And God's not going to point out those
things at all.
But what He wants to point out is
whether you are blameless according to your understanding.
Upright.
Without compromising.
And one who fears God and turns away
from evil.
That was, Job was like that.
If you read, as I said in chapters
29-31, you see there a man who
did not lust with his eyes.
Amazing.
He says in Job 31-1, I made
a covenant with my eyes never to lust.
Now he was a grandfather.
And he was still careful with his eyes.
And he had that attitude long before Jesus
spoke about it in Matthew chapter 5.
He didn't have any Bible.
This man was blameless and upright without a
Bible, without a church, without meetings, without tapes,
without books, without fellowship, without anything that we
have.
What a man he was.
I tell you, the Bible says to whom
more is given, more will be required.
And wouldn't you all agree, wouldn't all of
you sitting here agree with me that God
has given us a lot more than He's
given Job?
What do you say?
Yes or no?
The Bible, the Holy Spirit, the knowledge of
Jesus Christ, what He did for us on
the cross, conferences, meetings, books, tapes, Christian brothers
and sisters, fellowship, examples of godly men.
What a lot of things God has given
us that Job never had.
Well, if that's the case, to whom more
is given, more will be required.
God's not going to judge Job in the
same level as us.
He's going to judge us by a much
higher level because He's given us so much
more.
If Job could rise so high without a
Bible, without the Holy Spirit, without fellowship, without
books, tapes, everything, can you imagine how high
we can rise?
Why is it we don't?
Job was a radical, wholehearted man.
Perhaps we are sluggish.
But we read there in those chapters, in
chapter 29 to 31, that he was a
man who helped the poor.
He would help blind people to cross the
street.
If he saw an orphan, he cared for
him.
He never worshipped gold.
He never ran after money.
And many, many good things.
He would care for strangers and do so
many good things.
He was a godly man whose godliness was
not just in prayers.
As we saw, he prayed for his family.
But more than that, it moved over into
practical life, in daily life.
He was a godly man.
And that is the person whom God could
point out to Satan.
And Satan says, Yeah, he says, I've met
Job, but I know he fears you because
of certain reasons.
The Bible says that Satan is an accuser.
And he always tries to find fault even
with the most godly people on earth.
When you find other believers finding fault with
you, don't be surprised.
You read in the book of Job that
other religious people found so many faults with
him.
They blamed him.
They said your children must have died because
of some sin in their life.
All types of accusations.
So godly people have been accused right from
the very first inspired book of the Bible.
Jesus Christ was accused.
And if you're a godly person, other religious
people will accuse you.
Because they don't like your uprightness.
They don't like your blamelessness.
And the devil inspires people to accuse you
as part of his tactics.
And he accused Job of serving God with
wrong motives.
He said, well, Job serves God because he's
benefiting from it.
You have blessed him.
On every side you have blessed him.
You have blessed his possessions.
You have increased his wealth.
In other words, Satan was saying, well, you
know, Job serves you, God, because you've made
him a rich man.
You take away his wealth, then let's see
whether he serves you.
And that's very often what he tells God
even today.
Those people out there, yeah, they've got a
comfortable life.
Everything's going well.
They've got a job.
They've got a house.
They've got a car.
They've got this.
They've got that.
Yeah, they've got everything.
No wonder they serve you.
But, take it all away, verse 11.
Then let's see whether they serve you or
not.
I tell you, he says, he will curse
you to your face.
And there are believers like that.
As long as they are prospering and happy.
They are praising the Lord and rejoicing in
Him.
Singing praise to God, but when God doesn't
answer some of their prayers, when difficulties come,
when trials come, when sicknesses come that are
not healed, when financial difficulty comes, the song
of praise is gone.
And the devil says to God, see, I
told you.
These fellows won't praise you when you take
away their money, you take away their comforts.
Let me ask all of you sitting here.
Can God say to the devil, like you
said concerning Job, Okay, Satan, try it out
on that person.
Try it out on that sister.
And you'll see that he and she still
praise me.
No matter what happens in their life.
Can God say that about you?
It's a very searching question.
Can God trust you not to let him
down in the time of trial, in the
time of difficulty, suffering, sickness, that you will
still praise Him?
Or is what the devil says true about
you, that you praise Him only when everything
is going well?
And we have to say the devil was
right.
And God's mouth is shut.
What a shame.
That's the challenge that comes to us from
the book of Job.
And if Job could shut the mouth of
the devil, without a Bible, without the Holy
Spirit, without any knowledge of Christ, why can't
we?
I believe that should be the challenge that
comes to every one of us.
Lord, the devil is not going to accuse
me of serving you only when everything is
going well.
I'll serve you no matter what happens.
I love you because you first loved me.
It's tremendous when God can find a person
like that, whose devotion to Christ is not
dependent on prosperity, or comfort, or health.
So the very first book of the Bible
denounces this gospel of prosperity and health.
No, on the contrary, it speaks about a
godly man's suffering, and becoming poor.
Because he was godly, and thereby proving to
the devil, that even if I don't have
health, and even if I don't have wealth,
I will still serve God.
Because in the book of Job, do you
know what Job lost?
He lost two things, health and wealth.
The very two things that are being preached
today.
So we can say that the very first
book of inspired scripture is refuting the health
and wealth gospel.
Isn't that interesting?
The very first book of inspired scripture speaks
of a godly man who did not get
health and did not get wealth.
Have you read it?
Have you understood what scripture says?
Or are you being fooled by all that
is being preached today?
But the other thing I want you to
notice here is that the devil says something
about Job, which is an eye-opener to
all of us believers.
He said about Job, he said to God
in verse 10, God, you have made a
three-fold hedge around him.
A hedge around him, number one hedge, a
second hedge around his family, and the third
hedge around his finances and his property.
Now that's the one verse, the only verse
in the Bible that teaches me that around
every child of God, there's a three-fold
hedge.
It's wonderful to know that.
I'm very thankful that Satan mentioned it there,
because otherwise I wouldn't have known it.
What is that?
That around me, there are three hedges.
One is around my body, my physical body
and myself.
The second is around my wife and children.
And the third is around my property and
my bank account and my finances.
God is interested in all three.
He's not just interested in me.
Do you know that God's interested in your
wife and children?
God's interested in your property and your finances
and your bank account?
Sure.
And there's a hedge around them.
And the devil is not permitted, he cannot
go through these hedges.
It is impossible for him to penetrate these
hedges unless God opens them up to him.
And that's what the devil tried to get
permission from God for.
So the Lord said to Satan, OK, I'll
prove to you that my servant Job will
be faithful to me even if you go
and attack him.
And then the Lord told him, All right,
I'll open up hedge number three and hedge
number two, but you won't be able to
go to hedge number one.
That will be closed.
Hedge number one was around his body, himself.
He told Satan, you can't touch him, sorry.
Don't put your hand on him, verse 12.
But his wife and his children and all
his property, I open up to you.
Go ahead and do what you like.
You know, once the Lord told Peter, Simon,
Simon, Satan has desired to have you, to
sift you like wheat, and God has permitted
him.
It's a wonderful encouragement to us to know
that anything that comes into your life, if
you're a child of God, anything bad, any
attack of Satan, cannot come without God's permission.
That's a tremendous encouragement.
Just imagine, for example, I don't know what's
going to hit me tomorrow, next week, next
year, ten years from now, but one thing
I know, not the smallest little thing, not
even the smallest wee tiny thing can come
into my life without God's permission.
Not me, not my family, not my finances
or property.
It cannot be touched without God's permission.
Okay, maybe my business will suffer.
Job's business was ruined completely.
Okay, but if my business suffers, it will
be because God has opened up that hedge
number three to the devil and says, go
ahead, destroy his business and I will sanctify
him through that process.
Do you know sometimes we get sanctified when
our business gets destroyed?
I know so many cases of people like
that.
And God may even allow Satan to attack
our family.
That's what we see here.
That in one moment, he went and destroyed
all of Job's property.
Job had such a lot of wealth, 7
,000 sheep and 3,000 camels and 500
yoke of oxen and 500 female donkeys and
the richest man in the East and everything.
It's like a man who's got so many
businesses and everything gets blown up in one
day.
One day, the whole thing was gone.
Fire came from heaven.
You know, the devil's got tremendous power.
Tremendous power.
He could stir up the Chaldeans to go
and attack Job's people.
He could even send fire from heaven to
destroy Job's property.
Killed all his children.
He could have killed Job's wife.
Can you tell me why he didn't kill
Job's wife?
He said, she is more useful to me
alive than dead.
I can use her to nag Job and
needle him and trouble him.
That's why he kept her alive.
God had given Satan permission to kill her.
But he didn't kill her.
Just like he used Eve to drag Adam
into sin.
He kept Job's wife alive to try and
use her to drag Job down into sin.
You know, later on in chapter 2, she
goes to Job and says, why don't you
commit suicide?
Curse God and commit suicide.
She was actually telling Job to commit suicide
in chapter 2, verse 9.
Curse God and die.
What does that mean?
How can you just die?
It means commit suicide.
Curse God and commit suicide.
Dear sisters, please remember that the first two
recorded instances of wives in the Bible, Adam's
wife and Job's wife are both women whom
Satan used to lead their husbands into sin.
Please take a warning from that.
I'm not saying there are no godly women
in the Bible.
There are many, many godly women who helped
their husbands, like Esther and Sarah and Priscilla
and many, many others.
Praise God for them.
Follow their example.
But remember that the first two women in
the history of humanity mentioned in scripture are
women who tried to lead their husbands into
sin.
In Eve's case, she succeeded.
In Job's wife's case, she did not succeed.
But the devil used them.
So, we must be alert.
You sisters must be alert that Satan does
not, that you don't without knowing it perhaps
become unconsciously a weapon in Satan's hand, an
instrument in Satan's hand to make life difficult
for your husband.
Please take that as a warning.
Because there are a lot of religious women.
I'm sure Job's wife was a very religious
woman.
But a lot of religious women are a
real pain in the neck to their husbands.
They're not a help to their husbands.
They become instruments in Satan's hands to needle
them, nag them, accuse them.
They're already going through so much difficulty.
Make life even more difficult for them.
Those are Satan's tactics.
I'm just telling you what's recorded in the
scriptures.
Now, the wonderful thing we see here is
that even though he took all of Job's
children and I've never in my life met
anybody who has suffered so much at the
hands of Satan in one day to lose
10 children and to lose all your business
in the history of the world.
I wonder if there was ever a man
who went through so much in one day.
And it says when Job heard it, he
fell down, verse 20, and worshipped God and
said, when I came from my mother's womb,
I was naked.
I had no possessions.
I had no children.
When I die, I'll die naked without possessions,
without children.
All that I had, 10 children and my
business, my prosperity, God gave me.
God has every right to take it away.
And the Bible says in all this, Job
did not sin, nor did he blame God.
Now what I want to say to you
is, if you want to overcome Satan, if
you don't want to be ignorant of Satan's
tactics and schemes, remember this, that you can
overcome Satan only if you have the same
attitude to your possessions and to your family
that Job had.
He obviously loved God more than he loved
his children.
And he loved God more than he loved
his possessions.
Because he said, my children, the Lord gave
them to me, the Lord has every right
to take them away.
I want to ask you, will you say
that about your children?
Think about it.
It's not easy.
But if you want to love Jesus, you've
got to say, Lord, you mean more to
me than even my children.
Otherwise the devil will have power over you.
If you've given them over to God, then
Satan can't have power over you.
Many, many of God's servants, God's people, they
love their children more than they love God.
You know, when I, when we started building
the church and God had called me to
serve Him, I mean, God called me to
serve Him many years ago, about 38 years
ago, but particularly to build the church, it
was about 27 years ago, and I realized
that I would now be the target of
Satan, and I have been in many, many
ways through the years.
And I knew my salvation, if I want
to overcome Satan, would come only through one
thing, that I must love God more than
everything on earth, more than my family, more
than my house.
I remember, I never in the world, in
my wildest dreams imagined that I would ever
have a house of my own to live
in.
And by some amazing miracle, I got this
house in which I live in today.
But I was scared when I got it.
I said, Lord, I don't want this house
to be an idol to me now.
I never imagined I'd ever have a house
to live in, but here, give me a
house, and I am never going to worship
this house of mine.
This is a place to live in, and
if you want to burn it up, you
can burn it up.
I don't care.
And for the first six months after I
got that house way back 30 years ago,
every time I turned the corner to my
house, I thought I would see it in
flames.
I thought God would take me at my
word and burn it up.
For about six months, I thought He would
take it away because I said, I don't
want this to be an idol.
And in my mind's eye, it had already
gone up in flames.
After that, it never bothered me whether I
had it or didn't have it.
And if you don't have that attitude to
your possessions, Satan will have power over you.
That's what we can learn from here.
But if you can take Job's attitude, well,
when I came to earth, did I have
a house?
Did I have property?
Did I have a business?
Did I have possessions?
Nothing.
God gave it to me.
God has every right to take it away.
Satan cannot have power over such a man.
The other thing I did was, in my
mind's eye, way back then, 27 years ago,
I saw five coffins.
I think I had only three children then.
the number of coffins where my wife and
children were all lying there, dead.
I said, Lord, they're yours.
That doesn't mean they're going to die.
It means that as far as I'm concerned,
I've died to them.
They've died to me.
I belong to God.
I'm willing to accept it.
Are you willing to accept it?
Are you willing to give up your wife
and your children to God?
Otherwise, I'll tell you, Satan will have power
over you and your service for God will
be limited.
Are you afraid that if you do that,
God will actually take them away?
I'll tell you, He never took away my
house.
He never took away my wife.
He never took away my children.
But I became free from them.
And I could serve God.
Many people are not free.
They're bound to their family.
They're bound to their property.
No wonder their earthly life is lived in
a useless way.
They just go to meetings, attend a church,
go to meetings, and what have they accomplished
for God in their life?
Zero.
Pretty close to zero.
All that they can say when they stand
before God is, Lord, I attended 247 meetings
or 1,247 meetings and I sang so
many hymns and all that.
Is that what you're going to say to
God?
For all that Jesus did for you on
the cross?
That all the numbers of meetings you attended
and all the hymns you sang?
What about your life counting for God, my
brother, sister?
If you want your life to count for
God, love Him more than everything on earth,
more than your possessions, more than your business,
more than your job, more than your property,
more than your family members, more than everything,
and say, Lord, You can have all of
them.
I came into the world naked and I
will one day go away from this world
naked and everything You give me on this
earth, it's Yours.
I will never complain if You take any
of them away.
You have every right to take them away.
I will serve You.
Then you can be a person about whom
God can boast to Satan.
Have you seen when you went to Pietermaritzburg,
did you see that man?
I know there are a lot of hypocrites
there, but not that one.
Did you see that one?
Did you see that family?
Boy, imagine if God could say that about
you.
What a tremendous honor.
That would be the greatest thing I could
long for.
I don't want all the empty honor of
Christendom.
That's what I want.
I hope that's what you want.
And we read a little later that again,
Satan came before the Lord in chapter 2.
And the Lord said, See, without any reason,
you incited Me to ruin him.
I allowed you to go through hedge number
3 and hedge number 2.
You have killed his children.
You have taken away his property.
Chapter 2, verse 3.
And he still holds fast his integrity.
He's a man of integrity.
That's the word used in verse 3.
Chapter 2, verse 3.
Do you know what God looks for?
Men and women of integrity.
And Satan said, yeah, I know.
He's always got some excuse.
Even when he loses and he's lost the
battle, he's still got some excuse.
He says, I know why he's serving you.
Because I tell you, he didn't care much
for his wife and children, his property in
any case.
What he really cares for is his body.
You touch his health and I tell you,
he'll curse you to your face.
Because all human beings, he says, they all
love themselves, first of all.
They don't love their wives and all so
much.
But they love themselves.
They love their physical health.
You've just taken away his wealth.
What about his health?
He's got his health.
He's okay.
So he's not bothered.
So Satan is trying to get permission to
go through hedge number one also.
And God says, okay, I give you permission
to go through hedge number one, but with
one condition.
You cannot kill him.
Verse 6.
You cannot kill him.
Do you know that if you're a child
of God, you can't be killed, you can't
die before God's time?
God has to give permission.
Jesus said, I have the keys of death.
Keys of death means only he can open
the door for me.
God's children can't suddenly die of cancer or
road accident or any such thing without Jesus
opening the door.
There's no such thing as accidents in God's
eyes.
He plans something on a particular day.
He has planned that the door should be
open for me or for you.
That's the day.
If I do the will of God, that's
the day I'm going to go.
I won't go before that.
I won't go after that.
But if you're a person who's living for
yourself, then I don't know when you'll go.
I'm talking about if you're one who's living
for the glory of God, the date of
your arrival on earth was determined and the
date of your departure is also determined because
the key for death is in the hand
of Jesus Christ.
I have the keys of death, he said.
Satan tries to frighten us with the fear
of death, but it's not God's will that
any of us should be afraid of death.
The Bible says that Jesus through death, Hebrews
2, 14 and 15, destroyed him who had
the power of death, that is the devil,
so that we who lived in the fear
of death might never again be afraid of
death in our lives.
It's a wonderful passage, Hebrews 2, 14 and
15, that Satan had the power of death,
but Jesus took that power from him.
Satan had the keys of death in Job's
time, but not today.
Jesus took it from him on Calvary's cross.
Something happened on Calvary's cross.
The keys of death are now, Jesus says
in Revelation 1, I have the keys of
Hades and death.
And that we read in Hebrews 2, 14,
15, was taken from the hand of Satan
on the cross.
Through death, he destroyed him who had the
keys of death, the power of death, that
is the devil.
That those who through fear of death were
subject to slavery all their lives, the fear
of death brings us slavery.
A lot of believers I've met are afraid
of death.
They're afraid some sickness will come upon them,
something or the other will come, as if
God is not watching over these things.
One of the things we see in the
book of Job is that sickness is from
the devil.
I don't have any doubt about it.
Sickness is never from God.
I'll tell you why.
God gives good gifts to his children.
If you being evil, Jesus said, know how
to give good gifts to your children, how
much more will your heavenly Father give good
gifts to those who ask him?
How many of you fathers will give sickness
to your children?
Anybody here?
I wouldn't.
And God is a much better father than
me.
And if I won't give sickness to my
children, God won't either.
He may permit it.
He permitted it in Paul's case.
He permitted it in Job's case.
But he doesn't give it.
It's always from the devil.
We read that in the book of Job.
When Paul got a thorn in the flesh,
he called it a messenger of Satan, not
a messenger of God.
Sickness is never a messenger of God.
It's a messenger of Satan, which God permitted.
Please remember that.
Sickness is always from the devil.
God may permit it sometimes, like in Paul's
case, or in Job's case, to sanctify the
person.
But once you recognize that it's with God's
permission, it changes our whole attitude to sickness.
We don't live in fear of it.
We know the Lord can heal it.
We know the Lord is in control of
it.
And so it says here, Satan went out,
verse 7 of chapter 2, and swore Job
with sore boils from the sole of his
foot to the crown of his head.
He became sick, full of boils.
I don't know what type of sickness it
was, but it was obviously some terrible form
of infection that he had to go outside.
He had to leave his house, sit outside
the camp and of the city and had
to scrape himself with a potsherd, we read
in verse 8.
And when his wife said, why don't you
commit suicide?
Why are you serving such a God who
allows you to suffer?
You know, all heathen religions say you can't
serve a God who allows you to suffer.
Job says you can.
And a true Christian says you can.
Jesus served his father even when he suffered.
And a true disciple of Jesus serves God
not only when he's prosperous, not only when
he's healthy, but even when he's lost all
his wealth and lost his health.
He still serves God because he loves God
more than his health and he loves God
more than his wealth.
I hope you do.
These are the tactics of Satan.
If we don't love God more than health
and more than wealth, Satan will get far
over you.
That's why I believe that Satan is getting
far over a lot of believers today with
the health and wealth gospel because they are
defeated by sin, defeated by anger, lust, bitterness,
jealousy, love of money and so many things
and they think they're alright because they're healthy
and wealthy.
It's one of the greatest deceptions of the
devil.
If only you have eyes to see it.
But a lot of people are not able
to see it because they love money so
much and they love health so much, more
than God.
But Job did not.
That's the first message in the very first
inspired book of Scripture.
Let's learn it.
And Job said to his wife, you speak
like a foolish woman.
Shall we accept good from the hand of
God and not adversity?
And Job did not sin.
And later on we read that Satan used
three religious preachers to come and trouble Job
as if his troubles were not enough.
There were three religious people who came and
preached to him.
You know what they preached to him?
There must be some secret sin in your
life, Job.
There must have been some sin in your
children's lives.
That's why God judged them.
And from there, the example of these godless
religious people, I learned one lesson.
You know what lesson it is?
When you see somebody suffer, don't become a
self-appointed prophet to go and tell him
he's suffering because of sin.
A lot of Christians like that.
You hear that some believer is suffering or
some problem comes upon a believer and you
begin to think, oh, that must be because
of some sin in his life.
That is heathen way of thinking.
That's not God's way of thinking.
There was nothing wrong with Job.
But these religious people who had that heathen
way of thinking, they thought, oh, calamity means
God is against you.
Prosperity means God is for you.
Really?
You think all the richest people in the
world, God is for them?
Open your eyes and see.
These crooked businessmen and politicians who made such
a lot of money, are you trying to
tell me God is on their side?
You got to be crazy to believe that.
And all these healthy Mr. Universes and all
that, you think God is on their side?
You got to be crazy to believe that.
No, that's not the mark of God's blessing.
I've discovered through the years there's only one
mark of God's blessing.
Only one.
Christlikeness.
If he has succeeded in making you Christlike
in your humility and goodness and love and
purity in your speech and your attitude, that
means God has blessed you.
If you haven't got that, brother, I don't
care if you're a multi-billionaire, God has
not blessed you.
I don't care if you're the healthiest man
and woman in the world, God has not
blessed you.
Don't let the devil fool you.
And so we see God, the devil used
all these other three preachers to come and
irritate Job, but he had his ups and
downs.
But finally, we find God blessed him in
the end.
And gave him double of what he had
before.
And he gained his wife also.
Because his wife bore ten more children.
And I'm so sure she must have realized
that she had a godly husband.
She began to appreciate her husband in the
end.
And so the Bible says that consider the
end of the Lord, it says in James
5.
The reason why God took Job through all
that, I told you in the beginning, there
was one thing Job lacked.
With all his goodness, he didn't lust with
his eyes, he helped the poor, he didn't
worship money, he cared for orphans, he cared
for blind people, he was such a good
man.
But do you know, there was one sin
in his life, which even he himself did
not know.
You know what that sin was?
Spiritual pride.
You read that in chapter 29 to 31.
He boasts about what a good man he
is.
And a lot of religious people, a lot
of very good people, very fine Christians, they
have this one sin.
They are proud of their righteousness.
They are proud of how holy they are.
They are proud about how spiritual they are.
Even those who come to New Testament churches,
they say, Lord, I thank you that I'm
not like these blind people in other denominations.
I have light.
What conceit.
They don't see it.
They don't see it as a sin.
And God had to root out that sin
from Job, and that's why God allowed Job
to go through all these trials.
That's a sin which is very difficult for
us to find.
If God can help you to see it,
you'll see the reason why God allows Satan
to trouble you, why you go through trials
so that you can discover this sin in
your life and finish with it.
And have that genuine godliness which is coupled
with humility and brokenness, the likeness of Jesus
Christ.
Let's pray.
While I head about in prayer, I want
to encourage you again to respond to the
word of God that you heard this evening.
We have learned a little more about Satan's
tactics, the type of people he is after.
We have learned a little more about the
counterfeit Gospels that Satan is using to lead
people astray from the truth, and God's ways
are not man's ways.
We've seen a little bit about the terrible
sin of spiritual pride, pride in our righteousness.
And the only way to overcome is to
make sure that you love God more than
your family, more than your property, more than
your own life.
Say, Lord, you're going to be first in
my life from today onwards.
Everything is going to be secondary.
You are first.
Seek to be a man or a woman
whom God can boast about to Satan, whom
God can point out in your little town
to Satan and say, Satan, have you seen
that man?
Have you seen that woman?
Sisters, don't be a nagging wife.
Dear husband, a nagging wife is an instrument
of the devil.
No matter how much Bible knowledge you have.
Be a help.
If you can't be a help, at least
shut your mouth.
But don't be a nagging wife.
There are many lessons we learn from the
book of Joel of Satan's tactics God wants
us to overcome.
And if God has pointed out something in
your life, be honest and acknowledge it before
God.
If you don't acknowledge it, God can never
set you free from it.
Acknowledge your sin.
Acknowledge your weakness.
Acknowledge your nagging.
Acknowledge your love of property or love of
health or wealth or whatever it is.
And say, Lord, I want to love you
more than anything else.
Respond to him.
Ask the Holy Spirit to change you.
Heavenly Father, we pray that you will speak
to every heart here tonight that we shall
not fall a prey to Satan's tactics.
We shall be overcomers all our days.
We pray in Jesus' name.