Sermons from Lone
Rock Bible Church Dress for Success:
The Basics (Part 3) Somebody has said, “Forewarned is forearmed.” As we continue to explore what the Bible says about the enemy of our souls, let’s prepare ourselves for the conflict to come. We are helped if we understand the enemy’s motivation and his tactics.
Let’s talk politics -- an observation or two that will take us into the sixth chapter of Ephesians without question. These are my observations. Christians are a funny bunch at election time. In a way, it is a test of faith. If our team wins, we tend to relax. “Oh, a friendly administration,” we think, a friendly president or senator or governor or representative or whatever. And when it goes our way politically it’s interesting how Christians kind of go, “ok, ok, good.” If it doesn’t go our way then we tend to despair. Kind of like, “Oh, we just don’t how what’s going to happen, how can this be?” We frequently put an inordinate amount of trust in the institutions God gives us frequently over trust in God Himself. I find that to be a true observation. We have a natural way of putting more stock in God’s ordained institutions than we do in God Himself. He has ordained family, church, government. So very often we confuse that. We trust in those institutions more than we might trust in God Himself. But He calls us to himself, to a relationship with the living God. That has to be our benchmark, our bottom line. In political season, which seems to be every year any more, win or lose, election time should prompt, I would suggest, at last three responses from God’s people that I would consider to be healthy ones. (This is the mini-sermon leading up to the real sermon.) First of all, election time needs to remind us that God is as in control now as ever. Isn’t that amazing how that works? Back in the days of Daniel, when Nebuchadnezzar was on the throne, that’s where those words came from -- it is God who raises up kings and who deposes kings and it is God who establishes governments (Daniel chapters 2 and 4). Secondly, at election time we need to remember to be grateful for the freedoms we enjoy in our country. Right now Felimon and Pedro are closing in on Oaxaca where political unrest and turmoil and violence are ripe. We have no problems compared to them. Imagine how their perspective on government right now might differ from our own. We need to be grateful for what God has given us and not be preoccupied with what we wish He might give us. Third, and this to me is the issue, we need to be motivated at times like this to take seriously the spiritual realities of our time. Moving right into chapter 2 of I Timothy, notice what Paul says. These are convicting words to me. “First of all,” he says, and I don’t believe that is accidental verbage for the sake of rhetoric. “First of all then I urge that entreaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgivings be made on behalf of all men for kings and all who are in authority.” I have felt for some time that God’s people in our culture react first and pray later. I think we are a reactionary bunch and are prone to be buffeted about by whichever political wind might blow because we forget first of all comes prayer. I honesty wonder if God’s people beginning as far back as we want to go would put as much effort and focus into the spiritual reality of prayer. I wonder how different things might be politically. My sense is we do not, so we react. Ephesians 6 reminds us in verse 12 that our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but our struggle is against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. That’s where we are. Whether we realize it or not, whether we appreciate it or not, whether we believe it or not, makes no difference. The reality is our struggle is not against flesh and blood. It is spiritual. That’s why Paul will go on to say you need your armor because the enemy is at work. He is a spiritual enemy fundamentally. He will war against your soul. We are going to conclude a few thoughts today with regard to our opponent. Last week we talked about his history and his limitations. Today we want to talk about his motivation and his tactics. Motivation One word that fuels our enemy is pride. Pride is what prompts our enemy to do what he does. Let me read a few verses along those lines. During his pre-fall existence, Satan, the enemy of our souls, said in his heart: Isaiah
14 13"But
you said in your heart, A heady statement, a proud determination. This is fundamentally who he is as a person. The devil is self absorbed, preoccupied with who he is. We share, as people, some similarities, but he has the power. Ezekiel
28:17 "Your heart was lifted up because of your
beauty; He believes himself to be on equal with God and he is unabashed about declaring that position. That will lead to other issues, as we shall see. This is who he is as a person. That’s why the devil hates -- and I don’t use that word lightly -- he literally abhors, despises, detests, hates people because people, not angels, alone were created in the image of God. People, in the eyes of God, the image of God, have more worth in the sight of God than do angels. He hates us for that. He holds that province to be his. People are the objects of God’s favor. People are the ones for whom He created such a glorious place to live. People are the ones who will populate heaven with Him.. The angels will not. He hates us for that. Pride prompts on the part of our enemy resentment and bitterness. That’s him. Yet sadly so many people are that way too. They are ready tools of the enemy in that regard. Resentment and bitterness are killers and so is the devil. His resentment and bitterness prompts him generally and he has several responses toward people. Generally (John 10:10) he is the enemy who kills, steals and destroys. That is his general M.O. He likes to hinder people from coming to faith. He hates us so he wants to wreak death and theft and destruction among us. He hates us so he wants to keep us from coming to faith. There is a verse in II Corinthians 4 that is a bit chilling. I’ll read it to you. II
Corinthians 4:3-4 He hates us so much that he would hinder us from coming to faith in the first place. He would kill us, he would rob from us, he would destroy us at any given opportunity. And third, if nothing else, he will seek to neutralize us in our effectiveness, in our life, to rob us of the joy that the Lord provides. That’s what he did with Job in the Old Testament when God indicated to Satan, “Have you considered My servant Job? For there is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, fearing God and turning away from evil.” Satan said, “Oh yeah, let me have my crack at him.” God said go ahead, just don’t kill him. What Satan did, by taking everything away from him was to neutralize him. I think that he does that in two ways to believers. How does he neutralize us? One way is by distraction. In other words, he will seek to charm us with something that is good, perhaps, or something that is at least harmless, would love to take our time, our resources, our attention, in a direction that neutralizes our effectiveness for Christ. We get distracted. We forget who we are. We forget what He has done and our ability then to further the kingdom is hindered because we are distracted, or he just plain pulls for our destruction. When we see, that we sense that the enemy is at work because if he can, he will pull us down. He is motivated by pride, fundamentally. He is motivated by resentment or bitterness, and third, he is also motivated by a desire to be preserved. The Bible is very clear that the devil is doomed, that he has been cast out of the third heaven and that certain of his number have been confined in a place we cannot go, a place Bible scholars call Tartarus. It’s the pit, the abyss, a place of confinement of evil spirits. There are a certain number of them, we don’t know the number but they are in active circulation even now in this world. They are doomed. The Bible is very clear about the certain doom of the devil. What we do not know is how long he will be in active circulation and does he really believe he is doomed. Those are questions that are difficult to answer. I am going to read from Matthew 8. Jesus is in His active ministry. He came to the other side of the country of the Gadarenes. This was on the southeast shore of the Sea of Galilee. 28When He came to the other
side into the country of the Gadarenes, two men who were demon-possessed met Him as they
were coming out of the tombs. They were so extremely violent that no one could pass by
that way. They knew who He was. Now it took a lot of convincing before people
would come to realize who He was but the demon world knows exactly who He was Have You come here to torment us before the time?" Are we going in the abyss? Is now the time of destruction? That’s the question they want to know. “We know we are doomed.” At least that’s the implication. “Aren’t you a little early, Jesus?” 30Now there was a herd of many swine feeding at a
distance from them. That’s Satan’s M.O. –
destruction. The Bible doesn’t tell us once those swine were simply bobbing pig
corpses, where those demons went. Did they go back into circulation? Are they still
looking for a place to live or did they wind up in yet another host or did they end up in
the abyss. The Bible doesn’t say. The point of the story is that Jesus is wholly in
control and that these creatures are doomed. Satan may know he is doomed; he may not. In World War II, historians tell us that
after Pearl Harbor was bombed in December 1941, it was a mere matter of months before the
Japanese army realized they could not win. Certainly with the Battle of Midway and as U.S.
forces and the British began to retake the southwest Pacific Islands they knew they were
done. It’s interesting as the allied forces got closer to Japan from Saipan, Iwo
Jima, and certainly Okinawa, the harder and more entrenched the enemy became and took more
casualties. I sense that is the case here as well. There will be no surrender on the part
of the devil. He will simply fight harder as time goes by. He is motivated then in some sense by the
desire for preservation. His motivation also is to oppose God’s will. The word Satan
means adversary. He is the adversary. He is the adversary of God and he is the adversary
of God’s people. He understands something that I think many
Christians do not yet grasp. He understands that there is a very real spiritual connection
between the risen Savior and the church, the Christians. Remember on the road to Damaskos
when Saul, soon to become Paul, was struck down and heard a voice from heaven that said,
“Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” “Who are you Lord? I didn’t
realize I was persecuting you.” “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.” You
take shots at God’s people, you take shots at God. That’s how close the tie, the
link, the connection between Jesus and His people is in His eyes. I think the devil is
aware of that. I think he realizes that by coming after God’s people he is actually
coming after God. He will get his digs in
whenever he can. What are his tactics? I have three
categories of tactics. One is international darkness and destruction. Secondly, local
geographical influence. And third, he gets personal with people. Let’s talk for a second about the
international side of the devil’s operation. It’s interesting as we study the
Old Testament, particularly in the prophets, we see that certain leading international
governmental figures are characterized by or represented by fallen angels, specifically
Satan. As a matter of fact, in Isaiah 14, the representative of Satan is referred to as
the king of Babylon or the prince of Babylon. He is not named, like Nebuchadnezzar or one
of those, but the angel who represents the nation is named. We understand by the context
of the passage who is being talked about. He is talking about the devil and at that point
in history the devil’s presence was most profoundly seen as the head of the reigning
world empire. That was in Isaiah. Later, in Ezekiel 28 --
same basic idea. In this case though, the devil is called prince of Tyre. Today it is
Lebanon, but in those days it was a powerful maritime city. The Phoenicians operated out
of there. The prince of Tyre was influencing government at that level. Daniel 9 and 10 are fascinating chapters
because in them Daniel is praying. Chapter 9 is a prayer and chapter 10 is God’s
answer to his prayer. In Daniel 9 Daniel is praying, Lord it’s time for these people
to repent. We have been in exile nearly 70 years. We figure that was the time frame but I
don’t see any evidence of repenting. So Daniel, on behalf of himself and on behalf of
the people, is pouring his heart out before God in confession and repentance. He goes one
week, no answer. He goes two weeks, no answer. Three weeks and finally He gets an answer
from God by the angel Gabriel. Gabriel essentially tells him in chapter
10, I would have been here sooner. As a matter of fact, when you were praying, your
prayers got through but on my way to answer I was accosted
by the prince of Persia, a high level angelic force because Daniel is praying at an
international level. He is looking to see the kingdom of God established to influence all
the earth. The reigning power, humanly speaking, was Persia. The head of the Persia Empire, in some
sense influenced by the devil himself, stood in opposition to the angelic messenger. He
said I would have been sooner and I’d still be there if Michael hadn’t shown up
to help me. Have you read this? It’s fascinating. The second and third chapters of Revelation
are made up of seven letters written to seven real churches of that day. In Revelation
12:2 to the angel of the church in Pergamum, which is on the west side of Asia Minor,
which today is Turkey: 12 "And
to the angel of the church in Pergamum write: The One who has the sharp two-edged sword
says this: Angels on watching over churches. That’s
what we have. I’m glad. Doing battle on behalf of churches, battle we cannot see. I’m
glad they are there. The church at Pergamum had one. The One who has the two-edged sword
(that would be Jesus) says: 13 'I know where you
dwell, where Satan's throne is; and you hold fast My name, and did not deny My faith even
in the days of Antipas, My witness, My faithful one, who was killed among you, where Satan
dwells. The enemy maintains a presence at high levels. I look about and I see international turmoil and I see God’s people in so many nations of our world being oppressed and being persecuted and being denied. I think that warfare is still going on, isn’t it? And various nations are held, for the time being at least, under the sway of the forces of darkness. It’s an international deal. As I said a few weeks ago, I’m confident that the devil would prefer there not be political democracy in the Middle East because with political democracy tends to come freedom of religion and open doors for the gospel. He is certainly not going to be in favor of that. He hates God, he hates God’s people. He hates the gospel and not only that, as a fascinating sidelight to the enemy of our souls, he loves war because war fleshes out what he represents – violence and destruction and death. He is in favor of that. I don’t think we realize what is at stake in the minds of our enemy here. He loves it when people die. He thinks it’s great. We weep at funerals. He celebrates at funerals. It doesn’t matter the circumstances. He just loves death. It makes him feel good. He has a vested interest not only in his own survival but on a worldwide scale in the control and destruction of God’s people. Read the Voice of the Martyrs newsletter. Be aware of what is happening in so much of our world today. It’s not like it is here. God’s people are taking serious hits. Secondly, based on the above of course, what we see in Isaiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel and Revelation, without question there is strong evidence that the devil has certain sway in geographical areas, right down to areas in the state of Montana. It’s interesting in my experience and travels how a person can go to one community in the state and see there a thriving gospel ministry where God’s word is freely proclaimed and people are growing in the faith and coming to know Jesus and go down the road only a few miles to find nothing. Do a little research on the history to realize that nothing ever has been there. My theory is that it is related to spiritual forces that have been invited there over the past how every many years by whomever might have invited them. We find where there has been a strong Native American presence because of the spiritism involved, oftentimes it is difficult for the gospel to get hold. We don’t understand the sovereignty of God in these things but it does tend to be true. Also interestingly, wherever there has been a strong presence or attraction for the greedy, particularly the mining communities there has been trouble getting a gospel witness going. When gold is a part of the equation, people are drawn there and the expression is, “blinded by greed,” perhaps. But that’s how it works, that’s how it seems to be a trend. I’m not saying there are no Christians in places where there are mines. Please don’t hear that. But we are saying it’s difficult to see for a gospel ministry to grow and thrive under those conditions. Last week I told you about a camp in the mountains and what they went through spiritually before there seemed to be a breakthrough and the ministry grew and developed. So there are geographical influences evident. There are those in the field of world missions who are engaged in what is called spiritual mapping. They basically take the temperature, if you will, of different places where the gospel is patently opposed and other places where it is tolerated and other places where it is welcomed. That is as it is and we can see where the devil has been and what he has wreaked. Let’s talk for just a minute about the personal side. That’s where we are. We can be praying and we should be. I Timothy says we should be praying for our leaders first of all. But we also have to deal day to day with how our enemy deals with us personally. By the way, in all likelihood the devil personally will not mess with you or me. Why? Because he has bigger fish to fry. As we understand Scripture, he is probably more directly involved at the international level where he can have broader influence. That’s not to say Satan doesn’t have his minions. He has an ordered hierarchy and his forces, his minions, his agents, will certainly mess with us. Let’s talk about that for just a minute. He has three tactics personally that I am going to list. The first one is this: he lies. He does not traffic in the truth. Jesus in His confrontation with the Pharisees in John 8:44 said what he thought. It got Him into trouble a time or two. He said this to the Pharisees: You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of
your father He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because
there is no truth in him Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he
is a liar and the father of lies. Now if you are in this room today and your
life is characterized by a propensity to lie, be assured you are in miserable company. He
is a liar through and through. He lies sometimes in an outright fashion, like he did with
Eve. “Oh, did God say that? You will not surely die,” he told her. He lied to
her face. Other times he simply lies by deceiving us in an attempt to get us to sin. He
makes what is second or third or fourth best or even harmful look good to us, makes it
glitter, makes it shine. Somehow, he promises us or leads us to believe that we can be
satisfied with less than what God offers. We will take the bait most of the time if our
armor is in the closet. He will deceive, even tempt us with less than what God offers and
we are dupes and we will bite far too quickly. He lies also by accusing. The Bible calls the devil the accuser of the brethren. He accused Job to God (Job 1) of being less than what God said he was. He accuses us before God. Sometimes though he accuses us to ourselves and seeks to convince us that we are no good, we will never be right, that our sins really are not forgiven. After all, how could a holy God who is eternal and knows everything really forgive your sins? Don’t you think you really are still bearing them and in the end, you’ll pay. Satan doesn’t understand redemption. He doesn’t understand the cross. It’s not an option for an angel to be redeemed. These are things into which angels long to look. He hates people and doesn’t understand that people are redeemable by the grace of God through the blood of Christ by grace through faith. He doesn’t get that. He doesn’t understand, many Christians do not understand Romans 8:1, that there is therefore no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. That is a foreign concept to him and he will use it against us as he has opportunity. He accuses. Secondly, he offers us counterfeits and distractions. This is so dangerous, it seems to me, for believers. II Corinthians chapter 11, Paul here is talking about false teachers, heretics, charlatans, spiritual snake oil salesmen. He says they are false apostles, deceitful workers . They are disguising themselves as apostles of Christ, then he says in verse 14: No wonder,
for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. Sometimes the devil offers us things that will absolutely fool us. How many times I have read accounts of people who have nothing to do with Jesus Christ, who lapse into some sort of comatose state or clinically dead state and who say how they’re going along in a tunnel and it’s light at the end and as they get to the end of that tunnel and they break forth into light, here’s that wonderful looking person standing there to greet them saying “I’ve been waiting for you, come on in to heaven.” But they’ve never trusted Jesus. They couldn’t care less about the gospel. My friends, even the devil disguises himself as an angel of light. That doesn’t change the truth of the gospel. Someone’s testimony while comatose or medicated doesn’t change the truth of the gospel. Sometimes, though, he offers us other issues that are distracting. Sometimes in the name of Christianity or even in the name of Jesus, someone will stand up and say there is more for you than the simple gospel. There is more for you than that. Sometimes, professing Christian people are drawn away saying maybe I’ll find gold on my fingertips. Maybe I’ll be able to bark like a dog and call it holy barking and holy laughing and holy falling down and all kinds of stuff that looks absolutely nothing like the gospel of Jesus. It’s a total heretical distraction from the beauty and simplicity of the finished work of Jesus on the cross. And if we are sucked into that we are playing into the hands of the enemy. It has nothing to do with the gospel of Jesus, nothing. Why? Because it distracts us from Him. It takes our eyes off Him. Shifts our trust from Him. And the old idolator is us so readily comes to the surface. Even if he shows up as an angel of light, could we please remember that the magicians of Egypt who worked for Pharaoh could turn their snakes into sticks and water to blood by the agency of the devil. He does these things. It’s real. The reason God’s people were told to stay away from spiritism and necromancy and astrology and all sorts of things is not because it was fake or because it doesn’t work, but because it is the domain of darkness and spirit forces are at work there. Shun them. Don’t go there. So he offers counterfeits and distractions and he does it all the time. Stay away. He also lies by overstating his power and influence. He offers Jesus all the kingdoms of the world, and He already has them. He convinces folks that he is right there over their shoulder, behind every bush and under every rock. I talked to a fellow who had preached a sermon on the radio. I said that was a pretty good sermon. He said thank you. I asked what are you going to preach on next week. He said I don’t know yet and even if I knew I wouldn’t tell you. He said I wouldn’t even tell my wife because if I do, the devil might hear me and mess me up. The Bible says greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world. If our armor is on, we are safe and needn’t fear being overheard. By the way, the devil cannot read our mind. There is no indication in Scripture that he can read our mind. He can influence our mind. He can put things there. He can’t take things out. There is no cosmic tug of war going on between God and the devil. So he lies. Secondly he seeks our destruction at all levels, at any scale. Folks, he applauds the holocaust, whether it’s the holocaust in eastern Europe during World War II or the holocaust of dead babies in the United States. He thinks it is great. I am not surprised when the president of Iran stands and tells the world he does not believe there was a holocaust because he is living in darkness anyway and the devil would love for us all to believe that. He loves the tsunami. He thought the tsunami was good too. He thinks bodies bobbing in the water are fun. He thinks dead babies are fun. He likes war. So he seeks destruction at all levels on any scale. That’s why he influences people. In Scripture, the people the devil influenced, all of them were among the ranks of believers at some point or another. I think it’s interesting. Let me list a few. Judas – maybe he doesn’t count, being apostate. But he did spend three and a half years with Jesus and, by the way, if we understand the gospel accounts, when the disciples were sent out two by two, Judas was involved in casting out demons during that time and he rejoiced in that accomplishment. And yet, the devil put it into his heart to betray Jesus. The devil messed with Judas. David – King David, the man after God’s own heart, sweet psalmist of Israel. The Bible says in I Chronicles that the devil incited David to take a census of the people resulting in the death of tens of thousands. David was a pretty solid believer, I would say. Peter – spoke in Matthew 16 on one hand that you are the Christ, the Son of the living God, but oh, you shouldn’t go to the cross and Jesus said, “Get behind me, Satan.” Later on, He told Peter that the devil had requested him. Satan has requested you, Peter, that he may sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you so that when have turned you strengthen your brethren. Peter was a pretty solid Christian. Plenty of enthusiasm. Plenty of knowledge. Devotion would be unquestioned and yet the devil seemed to have a way with him. Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5 were influenced by the devil. The devil put it in their heart to lie to the Holy Spirit. All of these were professing believers. All of them in different spiritual conditions. He sought their destruction by influencing them or by the destruction of others. So he influences people, but he also inhabits people when he can. I’m not going to go to great lengths on “Can a Christian be possessed?” He would love it if we thought about that. But I have known Christians who have been occupied by demonic forces, used, later to be delivered. I don’t know if that’s called possession or influence or oppression or what. Always, the tendency there is toward self destruction. We see it with the little boy possessed in
Mark 9 throwing himself into the fire and then into the water. We see it with the
demoniacs cutting themselves with stones and crying out among the tombs. Watch it. Self
destruction is a symptom of the devil in operation, trying to get involved in someone’s
life on the inside. So he lies. He seeks destruction. His third tactic – he just leaves us alone. He has a couple allies. The world and the flesh are his allies. Sometimes we can be so dumb or so stiff-necked or so hardhearted or just foolish that the devil doesn’t need to mess with us. We’ll mess up just fine without him – and we do. He would like us to think, of course, that he is there. But he doesn’t need to be, he nor his agents. He has strong allies in the world and in the flesh. That’s why the apostle says in verse 13, “Therefore take up the full armor of God.” Because this is real! You are going to need it. If you are going to engage in the fray, take on the whole armor of God. That’s what it is about. The challenge that he gives in verse 13, we think is great imagery? He’s talking about armor. We can do a VBS on this. We can do a Sunday School on this. We can make armor. We can put on helmets. This would be a wonderful setting for some church activity. No, it is not that. It is not pretend, this whole business. It isn’t distant. We think this is for people in third world countries that are not enlightened yet. Oh no, it’s right here. It’s on TV under Physic Detectives. It in the newspapers under your horoscope. It’s everywhere! It isn’t pretend and it isn’t distant and it isn’t optional either. When we sign on as Christians, when we come to faith in Jesus Christ, we are in the Lord’s army and the Lord’s army is deployed. It’s a battlefield, brother, not a recreation room. Remember that song. That’s how it is. So we don’t have an optional conflict and neither is it trivial. The stakes are high, very high. The destruction of lives, marriages, families, churches, communities, nations, cultures – it’s all traceable to the activities of the enemy and we hadn’t ought to minimize it. I’m going to leave with I John 4:4. ln a week from today, if Jesus doesn’t return, we will begin discussing the armor that we are commanded to put on. You are from God, little children, and have overcome
them; because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world. That’s good news. "Scripture
taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, Jim Carlson 2006, Lone Rock Bible Church, Stevensville Montana, USA |