0:11 Oh, Lord, make me to know my end and what is the measure of my days. Let me know how fleeting I am. Behold, you have made my days a few hand breaths and my lifetime is as nothing before you. Surely all mankind stands as a mere breath. Surely a man goes about as a shadow.
0:31 Surely for nothing they are in turmoil. Man heaps up wealth and does not know who will gather. Father, we pray that we will be reminded of eternity, that we will be reminded of the fact that there is a realm that is more real than the physical realm. Would you sanctify our perception this morning? Would you remind us of why we're here?
0:59 Would you remind us of the realities that we might forget of? Would you, Lord, speak to our hearts? We come to your house. We come to your sanctuary to be sobered. And, Lord, we trust that your word is true, and we pray and we say thank you for every detail found in this holy sacred text.
1:21 We thank you that everything is given for us concerning our instruction and our sanctification and our encouragement and our building up. And so Lord, we take this word with delight. We listen and not only listen, but intend to hear in order to obey. And so Lord, we ask that you would teach us, feed your sheep. We're hungry, we're needy, we're weak, and we come for our daily bread.
1:50 Meet your people here this morning, Lord, through your word. May there be no birds in the air that would rob this seed, but may it be planted in good soil this morning. And so father, may Jesus be lifted up through these verses and through everything in between. Be exalted, we pray. In Jesus' name.
2:09 Amen. The Bible labels Christians as soldiers soldiers. And that automatically implies something, that if we are soldiers, we're in a war. This is a reality of this universe and this world that we are in a war. Whether you wanna believe it or not, we are in a battle, and we are soldiers in this battle.
2:43 And if we are soldiers, meaning that we are in a war, then that also means that we have an enemy. We have an enemy that we are fighting against. We have an enemy that's fighting against us. And today, I wanna talk about that enemy. The Bible is clear.
3:05 In second Corinthians two eleven, we, Paul said, would not be outwitted by Satan, for we are not ignorant of his designs. Paul tells us clearly that Satan is our enemy, and he has designs, schemes, and plans against the people of God. And now the purpose this morning is not to honor or exalt Satan. It's not to give the spotlight to the adversary of our souls. It is for one purpose.
3:41 Like any army that chooses to fight, they must be informed of who they're fighting against. Any army, any troop, any soldier that wants to be effective in their battle must, to some degree, understand who their enemy is, how he works, what he's done in the past, what his weapons are in order for us to once again have some sense of consistent victory. And so the purpose of this message is twofold. Because when it comes to this idea of Satan, when we talk about Satanology or demonology, there's a lot of confusion amongst the people of God. There are genuine Christians who have a unhealthy fear of Satan.
4:36 They have this magnetized view of who he is. They have elevated him. They are fearful of him. They're, in some sense, haunted by his existent, haunted by his realities, haunted by the fact that he roams on the earth, and that is something that we should not be fearful of. We should be informed of it.
4:55 We should be aware of it, but fear of him is not the place we need to be. Not only that, there are other Christians who have no idea how to distinguish an attack from Satan from anything else. There is this idea of no discernment concerning the voice of the enemy and the voice of yourself or somebody else. And so we can go on and on why this is important, but this is the purpose, so it's twofold. We wanna talk about the enemy for two purposes.
5:23 One, to clear up any confusion, to clear up any confusion, and two, to build up a confidence. We wanna clear confusion, and we wanna build a confidence in your health, in your soul, in your spiritual state. And the bible gives us little details of who this enemy is. There are two places in the Old Testament that speak of the origins of Satan, and one of them is in Ezekiel chapter 28, and I'm asking you please to meet me in that chapter. And this, more than anything, is gonna be a teaching.
5:57 It's not gonna be preaching as much as going through verses and really just being informed by the word of God of who we're dealing with. And in Ezekiel 28, we get some insight. Verse one tells us the word of the Lord came to me, son of man, say to the prince of Tyre, thus says the Lord God. If you look carefully in verse one, it tells us here that Ezekiel was to prophesy to who? The prince of Tyre.
6:29 And when you read the rest of those verses, what you will see is a very human description and very human terms concerning the prince of Tyre. You can tell that Ezekiel is speaking to a man. You can tell that the prophet is describing a person. But when you go to verse 11 in the same chapter, it says moreover, the word of the Lord came to me, son of man, raise a lamentation over the king of Tyre, and say to him, thus says the Lord God. Now when you read the rest of the verses in this, and we're gonna do that in a moment, you're gonna realize that the prophet is not talking in human terms anymore.
7:12 You're gonna see that the prophet is not describing a person like you and me. There are supernatural terms. There are celestial definitions and descriptions. So what's going on here? In the first part, he's talking to an actual king.
7:31 In the second part, he's talking to Satan and talking about Satan. And what's happening here is that the king of Tyre has been indicted with pride. He's been indicted for using his position and elevating himself and his heart to the place of godhood, and the prophet is condemning this this king. And what he's doing is he's not only speaking to the king, pay attention, he's speaking to the spirit that is influencing the king. He's speaking to the enemy, the same one who has elevated his heart to godhood at one point, and he's speaking about the one who has influenced this king to the state in which he is in.
8:14 So do we understand that? He's not only speaking to the person, he's speaking to the influence, the spiritual being that has influenced this king. And now we read in verse 12 who this king is, or whose influence this king rather in verse 12. Son of man, raise a lamentation over the king of Tyre and say to him, thus says the lord god. You're gonna realize that this is not a person.
8:41 You were the signet of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. You were in Eden, the garden of God. Now could the king of Tyre, actual king, be in the Eden garden of God? No. Ever precious stone was your covering, and he names the different stones that covered this being.
9:02 It says on that day, on the day that you were created, they were prepared. You were anointed, an anointed guardian cherub. I placed you. You were on the holy mountain of God. In the midst of the stones of fire, you walked.
9:13 You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created till unrighteousness was found in you. So just stop there for a moment. Let's take this verse by verse. We see here in verse 12 in the second part that he was the signet of perfection. And so what we're seeing here is Satan in his original state, Satan in his original position, and he was the signet of perfection.
9:39 He was created with the quality of utmost perfection. It speaks of his character being full of wisdom. It speaks of the appearance being perfect in beauty. He is in fact debatably the most precious and one of the most, at one point, the most precious created beings that God has created. And it goes on to say in verse 13 that he was in Eden, the garden of God, so that no man would be mistaken, that we are talking about the devil, that we see in Genesis chapter three that was in the garden of God.
10:18 Now when he was in Eden as recorded in Genesis chapter chapter three, we do not see him in his original state. We see him in his fallen state. But the Bible wants to tell us that this is the same serpent. This is the same angelic being. And so now it goes on to what his original state was here.
10:33 Every precious stone was your covering, sardius, topaz, diamond, barrel, onyx, and jasper, sapphire, emerald, and carbuncle. And crafted in gold were your settings and your engravings. It names these different jewels that covered him. Now we know that there is no detail in the bible that's by accident. Right?
10:53 The bible doesn't take the effort by the Holy Spirit to write down these details for us just to know some information. These nine stones are the very same stones that were found in the breastplate of the high priest. But the difference is that the high priest had 12 stones representing the 12 tribes of Israel. Here we see only nine. So we don't wanna make too far of conclusions, but this one conclusion we can make about Satan in his original state, Satan in his original state had a very important ministry role in heaven.
11:26 He had some kind of important role. Some say he was a worship leader because in the King James version talks about how he was built with with pipes and different things. But all we know from these details is that he did in fact have a very vital role in heaven. And it gives us a little bit more description of what that was when you look at verse 14. You were anointed, an anointed guardian cherub.
11:52 Anointed being chosen. Cherub is a class of angels in the scriptures. We see cherubim, seraphim. We see different roles concerning angels in the bible. And whenever you see cherubim more than anything, the cherubim is a class of angel that has been assigned to protect or guard something.
12:14 When you look at the Garden Of Eden after Adam and Eve sinned, what happened with the tree of life? He sent cherubim with flaming swords to guard the tree of life. When you think about the ark of the covenant, the the box that was symbolic of the presence of God, and on top of that box was what? The mercy seat. There were two, what, golden cherubs that were covering the top of that mercy seat.
12:39 So this understanding of cherub is protector or guardian, and he was an anointed cherub. He was a chief cherub at one point, and it says he was in a specific place. I placed you. You were on the holy mountain of God. And so Satan, based on this, perhaps had a position in which he screened, and he protected the throne of God in which he allowed people to come or to go or whatever celestial being to do so.
13:09 He had a very specific position in which he, the mountain of God that represents God's throne, he was there. He was in close proximity to the presence of God. This was his position. This was his privilege. This is why he was created.
13:26 In the midst of the stones of fire, you walked. You were blameless in your ways, verse 15, from the day you were created till unrighteousness was found in you. Something happened. At one point, though we do not know what point of history it was, people debate where he did this and when this happened, at one point, what we do see is that Satan had unrighteousness in him, and verse 17 tells us what that unrighteousness was. It says, your heart was proud because of your beauty.
14:02 His heart became proud because of his beauty. You corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor. He became proud. And we talked about pride at one point on a Sunday morning. How pride an element of pride is when one forgets the source of his blessings, the source of his beauty, the source of his talents, the source of his gifts.
14:26 Satan forgot that his beauty, his wisdom, his position was given by God. And in the second place in the Old Testament where it describes the origins of Satan, in Isaiah 14 verse 13, it tells us what he did with his heart. Isaiah 14 verse 13 tells us, you said in your heart it's amazing. God sees what we say in our hearts. He didn't say you said with your lips.
14:51 He said you said in your heart. Be careful what your heart says because God can hear it. Man might not be able to hear it. God can hear it. You said in your heart, what did the devil, what did Satan say in his heart?
15:05 I will ascend to heaven above the stars of God. I will set my throne on high. I will sit on the Mount Of Assembly in the far reaches of the North. Here it is in verse 14. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds.
15:21 I will make myself like the most high. I want to be elevated above God. Satan was not pleased with being the most beautiful, wise, in close proximity to the throne of God? No. He wanted to be worshiped.
15:45 He wanted to be above the throne. He wanted to be above God. He didn't he didn't like the fact that God was worshiped. He didn't like the fact that, and people debate he had trouble with seeing man created in his image and how God gave so much attention to man. That's debatable.
15:58 But all we know is that Satan allowed pride to come into his heart. And this pride did something to him. When you go back to Ezekiel in verse 17, he says, I cast you to the ground. I expose you before kings to feast their eyes on you. Because of his pride, Satan was expelled from heaven and from the presence of God, and he has sealed his fate for all eternity.
16:29 That is very important for us to understand. In Matthew twenty five forty one, we know that Jesus says that there will be those who will be cast into the lake of fire. I'm sorry. It's not some imaginary lake of fire. It's a real lake of fire.
16:44 But it says specifically prepared for Satan and his angels. Hell was created specifically for Satan and for his angels. When you go to Jude, no chapter, one chapter, verse six, it tells us that there were angels, pure plural, angels that left their position of authority their proper dwelling place. So what we do know is also in Satan's pride and desire to ascend above God, he has recruited angels to rebel against God. And so it wasn't just Satan, he recruited hoards of angels that are now demons to also leave their proper dwelling place, and their fate as well has been sealed for all eternity.
17:31 And which begs the question to the curious person, why doesn't God grant repentance to Satan? I remember talking to somebody with my brother and a friend, and we were just telling them about the Lord, and he brought this interesting question. Should we pray that Satan's heart would be changed? I mean, just elementary, pure, childlike question. Should we ask God to soften Satan's heart and for Satan to repent?
18:01 Why wouldn't God give him why did he seal their fate for all eternity? Well, let me return that question with this question. What makes you and I think that even if he did grant them repentance and the chance to repent, that they would repent? From the beginning of time, they have chosen to rebel against God, and they have not ceased to do so until today. Satan and his demons have a perfect hatred towards God, towards his glory, and towards his purposes.
18:28 A perfect hatred. They are driven by this hatred. We're gonna talk in a moment that they are unified by this hatred. Secondly, I believe the reason why their fate is sealed for eternity was because of their original position in the first place. Satan, despite the access to the presence of God, we're talking about the throne of God.
18:52 Imagine the conversation. Imagine the access. Imagine the sensation. Satan with the unveiled glory of God before him, still him and his angels decided to rebel. And that deserves God's wrath and its fullness.
19:12 We have to understand that when Jesus Christ died on the cross, when Jesus Christ set up a sacrificial system through him, it was only for humans. There is no sacrificial system for angels or demons. There is no way. Jesus did not die for demons nor for Satan, only for us who were created in his image. And so his fate is sealed.
19:33 So for us to understand the enemy, we gotta understand this in summary. Satan, who he is. Satan is this. In his original state, Satan was a spiritual being created by God who dwelt in his presence and carried a very specific heavenly role. Due to his prideful rebellion, Satan became a fallen creature and now stands as an enemy of God who attempts to distort and destroy his purposes and the people who represent his kingdom.
20:03 Satan, because he is an angelic being, has power, has personality, and has various names that describe his character. But this is important as well. Though Satan is a supernatural spiritual being, even in the midst of his rebellion, does not stand on equal par with God. This is where a lot of people make mistakes here. He does not stand on equal par with God.
20:29 Even in his rebellion against God, he's on a leash. He's under the sovereignty and the control of God almighty. And a lot of the things that he has to do or wants to do, at times, he needs to get permission from God, especially with the people of God. This is who we're talking about. Satan forfeited his position and his purpose in heaven, but pay attention.
20:49 Now he has a new position and he has a new purpose. He has a new position and he has a new purpose. What is that? Ephesians two one to two. And you who were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, that is Satan.
21:20 He's been given the title, the prince of the power of the air. We're gonna find out he's been given the title, the god of this world, little g. But please be reminded once again that it says that he is the prince of the power of the air. He's not the king. There's only one king.
21:37 His name is Jesus. So Satan might have access to this world, but Jesus, is the king of the universe. Don't forget that. And we see here that he is one who has followers. He's in charge of the system of this world.
21:55 He influences the system of this world. And in first John five nineteen, it says that the whole world lies in the power of the evil one. The whole world lies, but it's a limited power. It's a limited power. He has set up on this earth a counter kingdom to the kingdom of God.
22:16 We know in Job one seven to eight that Satan roams to and fro throughout the whole earth. He walks. He's probably going on a morning walk right now. Satan's domain is not in hell. It's not in the midst of the earth.
22:30 The bible tells us in Revelations two that his throne is actually on earth. The bible even tells us in Ephesians six twelve that Satan has a kingdom, and under his kingdom, there's a government and there's ranking. We do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Do you think those are just random titles? No.
22:55 Those are rankings in Satan's dark kingdom. You You know what that tells me about Satan? It should say this to us too. He takes this war very, very, very seriously. Very seriously.
23:12 There's organization. There's ranking. In fact, in Revelation twelve ten, you gotta hear this, when it talks about Satan, it says in verse 12 of Revelation 12 rather 10 to 12, you can read all those verses. It says that Satan is on the move at one point in history. He will be on a move, and I believe he still is now because he understands that his time is short.
23:34 He knows that his time is short, and so he's on the go. He's moving. When he was confronted by God, when he had access to the presence of God concerning Job, God asked him, what are you doing? He said, I'm moving around. I don't sit.
23:50 To say that he's walking and moving means that he's continually active. He's on the go. He has he has an ambition. Though he knows that his faith is sealed for eternity, his number one goal is to bring as many people as he can with him. When Jesus casted out a demon and the Pharisees accused him of doing it in the power of Beelzebub you know what Jesus says in Matthew twelve twenty six?
24:12 If Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand? So he says, you're telling me that I'm casting out a devil by the power of the devil? He goes, you don't understand. A kingdom divided against itself can't stand. Do you know that Satan has unity in his kingdom?
24:33 This should convict the church, local churches and the church at large. There's no division in Satan's kingdom. They are all unified with one purpose, a perfect white hot hatred for God, and they work together to fulfill that purpose of robbing him of his glory, of destroying people's lives, and of destroying those for all eternity who are created in the image of God. I remember hearing once of a testimony of this month of the year out of all months of the year and even before the new year, where those who are in satanic cults come together to organize how they're gonna plan for the new year. Talking about satanic cult members that come together, that perform spells, that pray to demons, and try to tap into demonic powers.
25:27 They have meetings. They have meetings to talk about how they will destroy, of what areas they wanna focus on, of how they wanna recruit more people into their kingdom. Hear it very carefully. He takes this war very seriously. He's organized.
25:48 He understands time. He understands the power of unity, and he's operating in those principles. But we have to understand also that though he is active in this world, his activity towards nonbelievers and towards believers is different. How he operates concerning those who are in Christ and those who are outside of Christ is completely different. And so he has a position, yes, but he has a different purpose.
26:19 What is his purpose towards those who do not have Jesus Christ? Well, he does many things. The Bible tells us that he oppresses. The Bible tells us and shows us that he possesses. The Bible tells us that he can at some measure inflict disease.
26:34 Now be careful. They're not all diseases. Satan led and charged. But we know in Acts ten thirty eight, we see even with the woman that was crouched over, that's Jesus said this woman has been bound by Satan. There are some instances where Satan has some kind of access to inflict people with harm physically.
26:50 But that's not the main goal. That's not his main ambition. There is something greater. There is something that's motivating him, underlining all those things, and this is his main purpose concerning the world that do not have Jesus Christ. He wants to set up an antichrist philosophy on the earth that will sway the minds of the people to further deceive them and to ultimately destroy the souls of men.
27:17 His main goal in setting up his kingdom on this world is to set up an antichrist philosophy for the purpose of great deception. And this is the popular verse we all know in second Corinthians four four. It says here, in their case, the god of this world has blinded the minds of unbelievers to keep them, that's important, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ who is the image of God. Satan's main ambition is to blind people and keep them blinded, to keep them from seeing the gospel and understanding the gospel and being liberated by the gospel. So how does Satan blind people?
28:04 Well, one, he blinds them from seeing the need for the gospel of Jesus Christ. He blinds them by producing false religions. Do you think false religions are rooted in some idea? No. They're rooted from Satan.
28:21 Don't get it twisted. And he'll present as many as possible as long as it's not the right one. All these false religions to promote a sense of self righteousness. He'll present Christ, but a different type of Christ. Not the Christ of this book, not the Christ of this gospel, a different type of Jesus.
28:44 Oh, he even has the audacity to go as far to convince people that God does not exist. He's even convinced people that Satan himself doesn't exist. If you don't believe Satan exists, you've been tricked by Satan. He convinces people it's foolishness. The bible tells us that even the enemy takes people in captivity to perform his will.
29:08 There are people that have been influenced of Satan who are people of influence, and they've been given a platform to mock God, to speak against God, to take the name of Jesus and to drag it in the dirt, and because of their place of influence, other people are just swept up into it. Satan blinds people by convincing them that good is evil and evil is good. That's true today. And the Bible tells us in Isaiah, woe to those who call evil good and good evil. Satan does whatever he can on a weekly basis to make sure that a non believer comes and sits in God's house to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ.
29:50 Oh, he even goes deeper than that. He makes sure that if you do come to the house of God, that he, the person standing behind this pulpit, will not preach the true gospel of Jesus Christ. He goes even further than that because he's so desperate. He goes to the point when when the gospel is truly preached, just like this morning, he sends out his demons to make sure that that seed does not really penetrate your heart. And the moment you hear the true gospel, he's there to snatch it away from you.
30:16 He wants to rob it from you. He'll whisper in your ear and try to convince you otherwise. He blinds people from seeing their need of the gospel, but he doesn't just blind them by doing that, he blinds people by distracting them long enough not to think of eternal matters. If Satan is the prince of the air, if he is the he is the god god of this age, that says something of his influence in the world. He has influence behind the system of this world, and so he has in his knowledge of humanity and their sinful state, he knows what people can fall into.
30:57 He knows what they are prone to. So he sets up things long enough for us to be distracted, not to think about eternity, not to think about death. He uses people's minds to do these things. He creates inventions. He creates all these different things to distract us, to derail us, to keep our minds busy.
31:13 And all he wants to do is keep your head down low enough so that you don't see that you're walking off of a cliff. That's what he does. And he'll use innocent things, seemingly innocent things. Do you think Satan is dumb enough to come up to you and just blatantly say, I am Satan. I'm trying to deceive your soul?
31:29 No. He comes innocently. And I believe that this is a problem in America more than anything where other cultures are experiencing full on satanic attacks because they're not dealing with what we're dealing with. People in different cultures are dealing with demons. You know what?
31:47 We're dealing with distraction. Demons have a vacation in America, I believe, because Facebook and all these different things are doing that job for us. Be careful. I'm not saying those things are evil or Facebook is created by the devil. Don't get me wrong.
32:04 I'm saying that he loves to make people distracted long enough even with good things. And so we see that this is what he does twenty four seven. This is what he does on a continuous basis. This is what he is driven by day by day, night by night. And in Revelation twelve nine, the bible gives him a specific name, that ancient serpent.
32:30 We're talking about the end of the book of the bible, and we're describing him as the ancient serpent. Why? Because he's still doing the same thing that he did in the Garden of Eden. He's the same serpent. And it says that ancient serpent who is the deceiver of the whole world.
32:45 He's the deceiver. Jesus is the savior of the whole world. Satan is the deceiver of the whole world. We know in John eight forty four that when he lies, he speaks his native language. He is the father of lies.
32:58 He's a good liar. Have you ever met a good liar, unfortunately, in your life? He's the father of lies. He knows how to do it best. And so we see this generation and all other generations that do not have Jesus Christ are blind, are helpless, are in the power and the clutches of Satan.
33:17 And so what's the hope for these people? You'd be surprised. You. You're the hope. You're the hope.
33:33 You say, how do you say I'm the hope? Isn't Jesus? Yeah. It's Jesus in you. When Christ commissioned Paul the Apostle in Acts twenty six eighteen, he says, I'm sending you to the Gentiles.
33:45 What does he say? To open their eyes. That they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God. That they may receive forgiveness in his name in a place of sanctification by faith in him. Place of sanctification by faith in him.
34:03 Paul, I'm sending you to a people to open their eyes. They're blind, and Satan has his hand over their eyes. But when you go, Paul, in the power of the Holy Spirit, and you preach this gospel, light penetrates where there is darkness. When you go, Paul, and you continually seek my power and prayer, and you continually faithfully preach my word, people will be set free. People's eyes will be opened.
34:34 That is something that we've been given. That is the that is the beauty of the Christian life is that there are blind people all around us at work, at school, on the street, on the bus, and we have the power through the gospel to see spiritually blind people set free. Eyes opened. That's how you came to faith at one point. You heard a message.
34:56 You read this word. Something of the gospel in some form came to you, and your eyes were opened, and you saw that you were under the clutch of Satan. You saw that you were following the course of this world. You were following the prince of the power of the air. You were deceived your whole life, and your eyes suddenly saw.
35:12 Your eyes suddenly see the light, and you said, I want to follow Jesus. And if that's the case, if that's the purpose of Satan towards the unbeliever, and if we're the hope for the unbeliever, then he has a second purpose towards the believer. The number one goal of Satan for the Christian, his fight, his planning, his scheming day by day is this, to make you the least effective you can be for the kingdom of God. Satan's number one goal is to bring you to a place in which you are the least effective where you have no effectiveness upon his kingdom and his purposes in this world. That's his number one purpose, and he does this in many ways.
35:58 But before we get to that place, we have to talk about this. There are some things that Satan cannot do, and this is where I wanna spend some focus here. This is where we're gonna clear some confusion here. Because we've been talking a lot about how he's a power, and yeah, he's influence and all these different things, but listen, we're blood bought. And the Bible tells us that we've been delivered from the domain of darkness and transferred in the kingdom of his beloved son.
36:21 You've been delivered from his domain. He has no hold on you. He has no clutch on you. He has no authority over you. With that being said, what can Satan not do for the believer?
36:31 Well, number one, he can never rob you of your salvation. Hear me. He can never rob you of your salvation. There is no license given to Satan to take somebody away from the clutch and the grip and the loving tender hands of Jesus. Nothing.
36:46 And don't let him tell you otherwise. We know in Romans eight, we know this in Romans eight thirty eight, when it tells the list of things that cannot separate us from the love of God. One of those things are angels or rulers. Satan is an angel. He can't touch you or me.
37:02 He can't. Jesus faithfully said it in John ten twenty eight. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and not one will snatch them out of my hand. No one will snatch them out of my hand, even Satan. Your salvation is secure.
37:19 The devil can't touch it. Don't you fear it? Don't you worry about it? We should have confidence in that. What else can he do?
37:26 Well, he can't possess you with a demon. He can't possess you with a demon. He says here in Ephesians two two, we've already talked about it, that he is the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience. The spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience. Meaning, those who do follow the course of this world and those who do unknowingly follow the prince of the power of the air, Satan has access to work in them, to manipulate them, to torment them.
38:05 And if they give him enough access, to possess them as we see in the New Testament. But that is not true of you nor is it true of me if you are filled with the Holy Spirit sealed by him. Greater is he that is in you than he who is in the world. You have somebody living in you already, and Satan can't be neighbors with the Holy Spirit. He can't possess you.
38:31 Don't ever fear that. Don't ever buy into that. As believers, we have that precious guarantee, the Holy Spirit. We're temples of the Holy Spirit. We can defile this temple, we could sin against this temple, but Satan has no access to live in this temple.
38:49 He can't possess you with a demon. Do you know that Satan can't read your thoughts? That kind of access has been attributed to God alone. That's what makes God God. He's omniscient.
39:04 Psalms one thirty nine two says, you know when I sit, you know when I go, you know, he says all these different things. You can see my thoughts afar off. You know my thoughts afar off. You know my thinking pattern. You know the things that I think.
39:15 If you think that Satan is there while you're sitting in your car and he can read your thoughts, you're wrong. What does Satan do? He is so studied human behavior that he can just predict what you might do concerning a situation. What you might do in attempting, confrontation. But he can't read your mind, that's been given to God, and only God has that power.
39:37 You can't read your thoughts. You can't even touch you physically apart from the permission of God Almighty. We know that with Job. Job one ten he says, yeah, you know Job, you put a hedge around him, around his possessions. I can't touch him.
39:53 You know what that says? It says that Satan tried to touch Job, but he couldn't touch Job until he came before the throne of God. And God says, alright. Let me show you how faithful he is. You think that Job is serving me because I give him good stuff?
40:04 I'm about to prove you wrong. But it says something of Satan that while he was walking to and fro, he tried to get to Job, but he couldn't because there's this hedge of protection around him. Not even around him, even around his stuff. Satan must receive permission from God, and if God allows it, we all know this, you can be comforted that it's for a great purpose, always for our good. So be reminded there's many other things, but these are main points.
40:32 Satan can't rob you of your salvation. Satan can't possess a Christian with a demon. Satan cannot read your thoughts nor can he even touch you physically apart from the permission of God almighty for a greater purpose in the wisdom and the knowledge of God. So if those are the things that he can't do, what are the things that he does do to the believer? What does he do?
40:55 Or what can he do? You're gonna hear these things and you're gonna see and realize a common thread. You could take these verses down as a note. Number one, he influences our thoughts. In second Corinthians eleven two and three, this is what Paul the apostle says, for I feel a divine jealousy for you since I betrothed you to one husband that I may present you as a pure virgin to Christ.
41:21 Stop there for a moment. Can we just go on a little bit of a rabbit trail? For I feel a divine jealousy for you. There is a righteous jealousy, and there should be a righteous jealousy amongst those who are spiritual leaders. He says, I have this jealousy for you since I betrothed you, since I introduced you, so to speak, to the bridegroom.
41:41 And this is what I'm jealous about, that you would be totally devoted to him. Paul as a spiritual leader, when he saw the Corinthians being influenced by something else that drifted from total devotion to Jesus, he felt this jealousy. This righteous burning indignation. No. When I called you, when I preach the gospel, when I discipled you, I have one thing in mind that you'd be totally sold out for Jesus Christ.
42:10 A true spiritual leader, that stuff will keep him up at night when he sees people backsliding in his church, when he sees people just fooling around with the things of God. You can guarantee if there is a godly person in your life that you you are allowing to disciple you, they are burning with jealousy if at any moment you choose to lift anything outside of a total submission to Jesus Christ. I'm burdening that you would be completely his. I'm a friend of the bridegroom, and there's only one standard, total in love radical adoration for the Lord Jesus Christ. And when I don't see that in your life, I don't judge you, I don't criticize you, I'm broken for you, because I know that there's something greater than what you're experiencing.
42:52 He says, I feel that kind of a jealousy for you, but I'm afraid. I'm afraid that just as a serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ. He says, I'm I'm scared though that the same way Eve was in perfect paradise. She was in an environment that we could not even imagine. Even in that kind of a place, Satan was able to deceive her from total devotion, love, adoration, submission to the Lord.
43:35 And how did Satan deceive Eve? Well, one, by having her question the word of God. Did God really say? What else did he do? Two, he gave her doubt concerning the consequences of sin.
43:51 Three, he gave her false promises that disobeying God in the end will turn out for her good. And the bible, whenever it makes a reference, Paul is not making a reference here by random. He's saying the way he did it with Eve is the same way he's doing it with Christians today. Having people, genuine Christians, doubt the word of God or doubt certain portions of the word of God. Having genuine Christians doubt that God is good, that his commands are good.
44:19 Having Christians doubt if I really get into that sin, it's not gonna be consequential. Having believers doubt that living for the world is probably better off than living for God. He does this, and he goes, I'm afraid that I'm afraid that the same way he did it for Eve, he's gonna do it for you. Reminder, he's a liar, a very good one. Meaning, he takes 99% truth.
44:44 He makes it so close to the truth, but just that little ingredient, that little leaven of lie can do enough damage. And so you know what he does to the believer? He lies to the believer. Now he doesn't just lie concerning devotion to Jesus. He doesn't just lie by telling that other things are more satisfying.
45:01 No. No. No. He lies concerning who God is as a person. That he's not a good father.
45:06 That he doesn't accept you. That he doesn't love you. That Jesus' blood is not enough. That you need to work for his approval. He doesn't he just lies about that.
45:13 He lies about you. He lies about the character of God, but he also lies about you as a person. You're not forgiven. You're not worthy. God's not gonna use you.
45:24 And here's the simple trick. I know you're gonna roll your eyes probably at this. Here's the simple trick. In order for you to discern the enemy and his voice, you need to get God's voice in you. When you have this word saturated in your mind, I know it sounds spiritual.
45:39 It is spiritual. When you have this word saturated in your mind, even if you don't feel it, you're not gonna feel tingles every time you open up the Bible. I'll tell you that much. But what it does is it creates a radar in your mind that when Satan comes and tries to tell you something, even if it's 99% truth, you'll say that's a lie. I know that's a dead enemy.
45:58 I know it's Satan. You'll detect it like that. You'll smell it from afar off. You'll know, okay, this is the enemy speaking to me, accusing me, lying to me. Why?
46:06 Because the word of God says something different. You get the totality of this in you, his lies will not have power over your life. It will not have power over your mind. Read your bible. Know the voice of God so that when he speaks you can detect it.
46:24 He influences your thoughts. Not only that, he produces fear in you through persecution. He produces fear in you through persecution. First Peter five eight. Be sober minded.
46:35 Be watchful. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. So we know that he roams around. We know that he walks to and fro throughout the whole earth. For what purpose?
46:49 Seeking somebody to devour. Seeking somebody to consume. Now what does that mean? The context suggest, when you go to verse nine, resist them firm in your faith knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced in your brotherhood throughout the world. The context is talking about persecution.
47:05 It could be related to other things, but mainly persecution. Satan will use fear tactics to the believer in order for him not to be effective to his testimony. So he'll threaten you. He'll mock you. He'll convince you.
47:24 He'll do different things. He'll try to put you in a corner. He'll make you shrink back from being wholehearted to God. He'll use family members. He'll use friends.
47:33 He'll use coworkers. Now be careful. Don't go out there like a demon hunter and say, you're all demons if you get persecution. Alright? Because there are people like that.
47:41 Oh, this person made fun of me. Must be possessed by a demon. Hold on. But there is some element of truth. We don't we don't fight against people.
47:50 Brothers and sisters, we don't fight against people. We don't fight against flesh and blood. And so there are some people that come under the influence of Satan to produce fear in other believers through persecution. And he says, when that happens, just stand firm. Be watchful.
48:07 Be sober minded. So so he's saying, be alert with that mindset that there are people out there that wanna put fear in you, that there are people other that wanna attack you. And this is what he does. He waits for you not to be sober minded, and he waits for you not to be watchful. And when you're in that position, then is when he can devour you.
48:29 So let me give you this insight about the enemy. He watches you. He watches you, especially if you're effective for his kingdom. He watches you, and we talked about this, and he just waits. And he sees the moment that you're not watchful.
48:47 You get so busy in life that you forget that there's a war every day of your life. He realizes you're not sober anymore. You're not allowing the word of God to wash you through and through. You're not on your spiritual toes, so to speak. Built up in prayer when you went to work and somebody tried to say something against you.
49:10 You just took it with love. And so he waits. And that persecution is in the roaring. He tries to put fear. When you hear a roar of a lion, it produces fear.
49:20 It's trying to put shrivels in your back, in your spine. But there is an aspect of him where he watches, he watches, he watches, he watches and he waits. And the moment you're weak enough because you did not build up the spiritual man, he sends a flood of temptation. He knows what he's doing. He's not stupid.
49:38 He produces fear in you through persecution. He watches and when he devours, it doesn't mean necessarily don't get a twist of what it means. He devours your testimony. He makes you. He tempts you in such a way where you bite into that temptation and your testimony is tainted.
49:52 He consumes your zeal to serve God. He consumes your faith. He consumes so many different things. When he devours, it means total destruction. We need to understand that that's his goal and that he's waiting for the right opportunity for that.
50:03 Don't even give him the opportunity to stay guarded. Put the full armor of God every day and you'll be just fine. Not only does he produce fear, he frustrates the people of God who advance the gospel. He frustrates the people of God who advance the gospel. First Thessalonians two seventeen to 18.
50:23 And we're almost done here. This is Paul talking to the Thessalonians in first Thessalonians two. He says in verse 17, but since we have torn away from you brothers for a short time in person, not in heart, we have endeavored the more eagerly and with great desire to see you face to face because we wanted to come to you. Stop. Paul wanted to meet with the Thessalonians, and you read later on those verses to exhort them, to build them up in the faith.
50:49 He wanted to meet with them face to face, to supplement their faith. He wanted to see them grow. And he says, I've been trying to do this. I've been trying to come. I've been trying to come.
50:58 I, Paul, again and again, and here's the last part, but Satan hindered us. Satan hindered us. You can guarantee if there's any believer or group of believers that is serious about advancing and seeing the kingdom of god grow in their corner, Satan will try to hinder that work. Now we don't know how Satan hindered Paul. We don't know.
51:24 But what we do know is that he tried and he attempted persistently, and Paul recognized it. Meaning this, you will be able to recognize when the enemy is trying to come against something. He throws chaos, frustration, roadblocks, somebody to persecute, and I think one great example is the book of Nehemiah. If you've ever read the book of Nehemiah, you saw that Nehemiah was sent by God to build up a wall. And guess what?
51:51 The enemy did not let that happen easily. At first, you saw them say, hey, who gave you permission to build a wall? And they sent a letter back to the Persian king. There was a temporary pause. When that was flipped over, they came to threatened.
52:03 When that came over, they hired false prophets to say, hey, come into the temple of God and try to get Nehemiah to sin. There was this continuous battle against Nehemiah and his people concerning building up the things of God. If you and I wanna advance God's kingdom, watch Satan try to frustrate those plans. I can tell you back in the days in Toronto when a group of believers went week by week persistently long enough, it was obvious that Satan at some times was trying to hinder that work. And people could tell you testimonies where they were talking to a certain person in Downtown Toronto, and right when the gospel was about to be preached, this random fellow comes in between them and shouts at the top of their lungs.
52:45 I can tell you stories where guys even, as they're trying to go and witness, women, random women are literally trying to lure them away throughout their evangelistic efforts. There is story after story of how when you really wanna get serious about God, Satan will take notice and you will take notice of how he will try to hinder that work. But I take joy in this, that greater is he once again in me than he who is in the world. I take pleasure in knowing that Satan gets bothered when you and I do something for God's kingdom. What a privilege to know that he sends his demons and he tries to frustrate plans because we're doing something right when he takes notice.
53:30 He tries to frustrate the plans, but not always from the outside. Pay attention from the inside as well. You don't have to turn there. Let me read this. Ephesians four twenty six to 27.
53:43 Be angry and do not sin. Do not let the sun go down on your anger. Stop. He's talking to Christians. He's talking to a group of Christians.
53:49 Don't let your anger go down with the sun and give no opportunity to the devil. So he's talking to Christians. When you get angry with another believer or vice versa, make sure you deal with that anger, that frustration, that hurt as fast as you can. Why? Because if you go to bed with that thing, Satan will take advantage of that anger and prolong it and create a disaster from within.
54:17 So he can't read your mind, but guess what? He can read body language. Oh, he can hear conversation. And if there's something in your heart where you became angry with another and you do not deal with that, he has the ability to come and whisper and feed that anger in you. I can't believe can you believe she actually said that to you?
54:34 Can you believe that? Don't even talk about it. Just ignore her for a few days. Oh, can you believe that he did that to you? He didn't he didn't fulfill that promise?
54:47 Oh, don't even just ignore don't even you know what? Go to him. Tell him off. He deserves it. This is the second time he did it.
54:52 Tell him off. When you and I don't deal with our anger, specifically in this case, it gives a foothold to the enemy to work with something. Don't give him a foothold. Next time you feel that, next time you are offended, whatever it may be, realize I'm not gonna give Satan an opportunity. I'm gonna do something with this before it becomes dangerous.
55:15 Not that he possesses you if you have anger. Oh goodness, we would all be possessed. But that he uses it. He uses it and he sees it as an opportunity to feed the flames, so to speak, from the inside. The enemy, our enemy soldiers of Jesus Christ, he influences your thoughts, and he wants to pull you away from a pure and sincere devotion to Jesus Christ because he knows that is the root of everything.
55:41 And he'll convince you otherwise like he convinced Eve. Secondly, he'll try to produce fear in you. You wanna do things for God? You wanna be radical for Christ? He will roar.
55:50 He would try to intimidate you through people oftentimes more than anything. Thirdly, as a body, understand this, that if we wanna advance God's kingdom, expect the enemy to try to hinder us. Not only from the outside, don't give him an opportunity for him to do it in the inside, from the inside. Outside, we understand. Inside, don't give him a foothold.
56:15 Why doesn't God just deal with Satan right off the bat? We don't have to worry about any of these things. Be encouraged. One day, he will. That day, lest the lord tarry, not today.
56:32 So what do we do? We continue to fight. We continue to pray. We continue to press forward. We are clear from any confusion, and we have a confidence.
56:43 Why do we have a confidence? Once again, because he's under our feet. He's under our feet. And all those things concerning how the enemy attacks a believer, did you notice the common thread? It has to do with the mind.
56:56 Influencing your thoughts, speaking into your mind concerning how your emotions are. It all has this is the battleground of the enemy in you. So you saturate yourself with this, you guard this, you discipline yourself in this, and we will walk in constant victory. Let's pray together.
