The Schemes of Satan - Pastor Daniel Batarseh (Ephesians Series)

And would you stand with me as we open up God's word to the book of Ephesians chapter six beginning in verse 10. Ephesians chapter six beginning in verse 10. Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. Father, we humbly bow our hearts in your presence.

And at the hearing of your word, we ask that you would be gracious to us and making this clear to us by the spirit of wisdom and revelation. Lord, as we are continuing in this series of warfare, surely there is warfare happening even now. And so we ask, Lord, that every mind and heart would be arrested by the authority of this word, and that your spirit would penetrate our hearts, and that we may be enlightened, Lord, to know how to wage good warfare. Thank you that through Christ, we have the victory. Nevertheless, we know that there's still a daily battle.

And so, Lord, give us what we need to ensure that we would be faithful stewards and soldiers in this war. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. You may be seated. There are many ways to describe the Christian experience, and the Bible gives us those descriptions.

Paul loves to use the illustration of a race, and different parts of scripture illustrate this idea. Oh, thank god it's more than an idea, though, of intimacy with God, relationship with him. But we cannot forget that there is also the concept and the reality of a war of a war. You and I are in a battle as Christians, and we discussed this last week as we started this series that when you became a Christian, there is no part of you that could choose whether or not if you wanna be a part of this war. The moment you enlisted to be a Christian is the moment you enlisted in a war.

And the only thing that you and I can really determine as Christians is not whether or not we wanna be a part of this battle or this conflict or this combat. We can't determine that. What we can determine though is whether or not we're gonna be good soldiers or not. And so we're all called to be soldiers. We're we're all called to go into the trenches.

We are all called to face this enemy eye to eye in your face, in his face wrestling. Remember, it's not just a fight, it's wrestling. He is up in your grill. He gets personal. He wants to come in as deep as possible and do whatever he can to rewire your thinking.

And so Paul says, just as a recap in verse 10, be strong in the Lord. I I love those two words. Be strong. Christian, be strong. Don't be weak.

Don't give up. Don't retreat. I don't want to go ahead now and talk about the armor of God, but you'll notice that there's one piece of the armor missing, and that's the back piece. You know why the back piece is missing? Because you can't turn around and run.

You're going all in. There is no such thing as retreating in this war. That's one of the reasons at least. Be strong. Don't don't give into temptation whenever it comes.

Don't give into anxiety when it knocks on your door. Don't give in to discouragement when you don't see what you believe God to do in your life and through your life. Be strong. You want strong soldiers, but look at the source of strength in the Lord. And so I can't muster up the strength.

I can't do it in my own power. I can't do with my own intelligence or my own strategies. No. No. No.

No. No. No. Be strong and receive that strength from the captain of your salvation. Even this morning, I was just reading a verse upstairs and before while we were praying, and I just wanna read it to you because I think it's so beautiful.

It's in second Timothy four eighteen. You don't have to turn there, but listen to what Paul says. At the end of his life, there was a man who went through war. It was this man. He says, the Lord will rescue me from every evil deed and bring me safely into his heavenly kingdom.

The Lord is able to rescue me from every evil deed. He's able to do it and to bring me safely into his heavenly kingdom. Be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. And after giving this charge about warfare that you and I are consistently engaged in, Paul continues to unpack further marching orders concerning Christians for all time. He goes on to say in the next verse, put on the whole armor of God.

This is the second charge. And he writes it after laying down the foundational truth of receiving your strength from God. Then he says, now put on put on the armor of God. And this shows us that the Lord, again, has supplied something for us in order to be effective. He has ensured us.

He has tailor made a uniform for you and me in order to be able to go into this thing victoriously. And this also tells you and me that there are more strategies than just being strong in the Lord. We learned that the the way in which the strength is received is early on in the book of Ephesians. That Paul says, I bow my knees before the father. And paraphrasing, he says, I'm seeking God for you believers in Ephesus that you would receive strength from the power of the Holy Spirit in your inner man.

But he says, put on the whole armor of God. In other words, there's more to this warfare than just simply praying as powerful as praying is. So this requires attention. This requires study. This requires us to really understand what this armor is.

Because so important is this armor of God that he does not just say it in verse 11, he elaborates it in verse 13. You know, when somebody repeats something more than once, it's because he really wants to understand the importance of it. Put on the whole armor of God. Then he says in verse 13, take therefore up the whole armor of God. And then he begins to elaborate and and describe the different pieces.

So there there's something about from head to toe that we need to understand about this uniform. In verse 13, he describes it. In verse 11, he doesn't. He gives the charge. Why?

Because he wants to drill it in your mind and mine that you and I ought to take up the whole armor of God, but that's not the subject today. In verse 11, he gives the motivation of why you ought to bring up this armor upon yourself. He gives the reason why you and I ought to take this thing called the armor of God seriously. Why? Because Satan has some schemes up his sleeve.

I want you to take up this whole armor of God because there is a devil, and he has some schemes. And if you wanna be motivated to put on this armor, be motivated by that. He has some plans. He has some methods. He has some strategies tailor made for you, and God has a tailor made uniform for you to be able to withstand it.

And if Satan's purpose in this warfare remember, his purpose in this warfare is different for the Christian and the non Christian. If you're in this place today and you do not know if you've given your life to Jesus Christ, I want you to know something, that Satan is doing one thing in your life, making sure that you are distracted enough to not receive the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Discourage you enough, lie to you enough, blind you enough to not make that first step. But even when you do make that first step as a Christian, now these limitations are put on him. Now there's a leash around his neck concerning your life, and he has to work in a certain way in order to get to you.

And what is his purpose concerning the Christian? Because he can't pluck you, as we just read, out of his hand. God will bring you safely into his heavenly kingdom. And so he does this. He brings the believer into a state, as we said, I'm repeating from last week.

He brings the believer into a lasting state of ineffectiveness by challenging your character, your confidence, and your calling in Christ. There's this obscure verse. Nothing in the Bible is random. We all remember that whole ordeal with Uriah and David when David lusted after his wife and had it all planned out for Uriah to be killed. And so he sends a letter to Joab and says, make sure you put Uriah in the right place so that he would be killed.

And it happens. And Joab sends a messenger to David to tell him about the update of what's going on in the war, that there are a few men that fell. But he tells his messenger, listen. When the king's anger arises, make sure you tell him that you Uriah is dead. But look what he says.

He said, listen. Joab knew David very well. He said, this is what he's gonna say. When he says this, make sure that you calm him down by saying that Uriah is dead. But this is obscure verse and you think to yourself, why would the Bible include this?

And I think it has insight concerning warfare. In second Samuel eleven twenty one, he knew that David would respond in this way after knowing that a few of the men had been slayed. Who killed Abimelech, the son of Jerobosheth? Did not a woman cast an upper millstone on him from the wall so that he died at Thebes? Why did you go so near the wall?

Then you shall say, your servant, Uriah, the Hittite is dead also. I remember reading that and saying, why would David say this thing? It revealed something about this man as a warrior because this incident that he he's explaining, because he's he's trying to tell them why you failed and let these men die. He goes all the way back to the book of Judges, pulls a story out, and brings it to present day reality, which tells me something about David, that he was more than just a motivational soldier. He was more than a courageous, bloody warrior.

He was a well studied commander. That David, in his effectiveness in warfare, in this one verse, what we see is that he was able to study the different tactics of the enemy from the past to bring it into his present day experience so that he could avoid the same mistakes that others have made. He knew it, and he wanted to be one step ahead of the enemy. And I look at that verse, and I say, how true is it of us as well that you and I are called to understand the schemes of Satan, lest he have an advantage over you and over me. And there are two extremes on understanding this idea of the devil.

One extreme is that you blame him for everything, and the Bible does not do that. You blame him for every single temptation. Remember your flesh. You blame him for every emotional distraught that you're experiencing, not necessarily true. And we kinda pin it all on him, and the Bible says, no.

That's not necessarily right. Every sickness is Satan. Who said that? Every sickness has to go away this way. And Paul says to Timothy, drink a little bit of wine for your stomach so that you feel better.

Do you know what I'm saying? We can go to extremes. And then the other extreme is that we ascribe nothing to Satan. And this idea of warfare is silly, and this is just too much, and this is just ultra spiritual. And if you think that we're not in a war, you have to understand that he's already winning in your life.

This is what we want is the balance that comes from scripture, and what the scripture tells you and me is that Satan has some schemes. He has separate schemes for the world that are not in Christ, and he has some schemes just for you and me as Christians. And this word schemes is very important because it it gives the understanding of cunning, trickery, being wildly, strategic. He's not obvious in his attack. He is subtle, and that's his desire.

It involves confusion. It involves a mixture of truth and falsehood. He's not like God who is omnipresent and omnipotent. He is limited in his resources, but don't forget this. Just because he is limited in his resources does not mean that he does not wanna do maximum damage to your life.

Remember, Satan does not wanna trip you as a Christian. He wants to devour your faith. And so he does this he does this in a way in which he's very careful and not obvious. And unfortunately for him, his methods have already been made plain and clear in the word of God, and it's up to you and me like David to just pick up this word and see what he's done in the past and realize that he's gonna probably do it again. So we're not blinded by these schemes.

We're not walking in the dark here. Any good army will receive a report of who their enemy is, what kind of weapons they have, what they can or can't do, and for us to be unaware of that is to go into a war in great danger. What are the purpose of his schemes? We know the meaning of schemes that he's a trickster, and we're gonna find out how he does it. Well, if the armor of God according to this verse, put on the whole armor of God, is given so that we may be able to stand, then every single scheme that Satan has is for the opposite purpose for you to fall.

And not just fall, but to keep you down. To keep you down. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand. And here's my question because remember this, whenever you read the scriptures, Revelation comes by asking the text questions. What does it mean to stand?

It sounds nice, but what does it mean for a believer to remain standing? Here are two verses for us to give us insight. First Corinthians fifteen fifty eight. After describing the beautiful reality of the resurrection, Paul concludes by saying this practical exhortation. Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.

So he's saying with the revelation of the fact that you will be resurrected one day because Christ has resurrected, here's my charge to you. Be steadfast, immovable always always always abounding in the work of the Lord. Okay. So this idea of being immovable is connected to the truth that I am to be a fruitful spring of good works, zealous at all times to do the service of my master. Okay.

So there's something there, but then there's another verse. In second Peter one ten. Peter lists all these different virtues, and then he goes on to say in this verse, therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and your election. For if you practice these qualities, you'll never fall. Oh, so it's possible for me not to fall as a Christian.

That if I do certain things, I can live my entire life without falling. I didn't say it. The Bible said it. Disagree with me? Offended by that?

I'm just the messenger. It's amazing how many people are offended by the idea of never falling. They're okay with the idea of falling, but they're offended by the fact that you can say you can never fall. I don't know. And so I take these two truths now.

I see that there's something about being immovable, and that's connected to abounding in the work of the Lord. And I see something about these qualities being added to me in order to make my calling and election sure, in order to, in a way, confirm that, yes, God has done a work in my life to some degree. And so I take those two things hand in hand. I relate it to what it means to stand, and this is what it means. To stand means to be consistent in my labor and my testimony for Christ.

To stand means to be consistent in my labor, immovable, abounding in the work of the Lord. And in my testimony. Add these qualities to you that you may be making your calling and election sure. So if that's what it means to stand, then what does it mean to fall? Simply this, that Satan's schemes are designed to make you forfeit any assignment that you have devoted yourself to for Christ.

That's the one part. He wants you to press the eject button on whatever ministry you have committed yourself to. He wants you to put that gift that God in Christ has purchased through the blood to put in you, and He wants you to put it on the shelf. As long as he can keep you quiet and calm, just going through the motions, he's winning. Realize this, that the enemy knows, I believe more than believers, the potential that's in you more than you and I know.

One man said this powerful quote. He said, he who owns the youth owns the future. He who owns the youth owns the future. You know who said that? Hitler.

I remember reading that quote and saying, wow. Satan has a greater revelation of the young person's life than most Christians do. He would do anything to make sure that you do not finish the assignment that's been given to you from heaven. As long as you just coast along in this life, sure you're saved, that's fine. That's good.

You'll get into heaven safely. Just don't bring anybody with you. Or not just to make you forfeit any assignment, but to defile your character, to tarnish your testimony in order to cause doubt in either yourself or in the eyes of others concerning your testimony as a Christian. So this is this is what makes him work. This is why he's walking to and fro.

This is why today, I believe that Satan and demons are the most busiest on Sundays. Oh, yeah. He works throughout the week as well. But if you're not doing anything throughout the week, which I believe, unfortunately, is a majority of what we're seeing in the West. If we're not living this thing out throughout the week, probably Sunday is the busiest day for him in America.

But as he's working, this is what's this is what's going on through his mind. One, how can I make this person so discouraged? How can I make this person so distracted and derailed and their understanding of what they've been given by God to do? How can I so twist the way of thinking that they'll just say, you know what? I think I'm done here.

I'm just gonna go on. I'm gonna I'm just gonna do my job, raise my family, not gonna really get involved, just hear a message once a week, and that's it. He goes, good. I'm done with you. Moving on to the next one.

Or because he's so conniving, how can I just defile this person's testimony? How can I tempt him? How can I lead him in such a way in which he himself can even look at his own sense and say stuff like, am I really regenerate? Am I really born again? Make him in doubt.

Oh, and if he's in doubt, then other people are gonna look at him and see the joy that's lacking in his life and see the peace that's forfeited in that. And they're gonna not want what he has, or I I can make this person do you see what he does? This is why he wakes up in the morning. This is why he does what he does. Discourage or distract your labor, defile or debase your testimony.

So what are the schemes he uses? It's worth noting where he, in his limitation, spends most of his energy. He's limited. And so he spends his energy, and the scripture reveals, on a particular element of your life. He doesn't use bombs, and he doesn't use snipers, and he doesn't use all this ammunition.

Yeah. Sure. That's a manifestation of something else. All the craziness in the world is rooted in one thing. Second Corinthians ten three to five, Paul talks about warfare again, and he goes, for though we walk in the flesh sound familiar.

Right? For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds. Okay. So there's some strongholds.

There's some castles. There's some fortification in people's lives. And so how are these strongholds pulled out? Or what are these strongholds rather? He says, casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalted itself against the knowledge of God, bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.

So he says our weapons are not carnal, not flesh and blood, not hand to hand combat, and not with guns, and not with bombs. No. No. No. It's through imaginations, attacks against the knowledge of God, and bringing every thought into the captivity of Christ.

Imaginations, knowledge, thoughts. Imaginations, knowledge, thoughts. What do all those three things have in common? Welcome to the battleground of your warfare. Welcome to the ring of your wrestling match with these principalities and spiritual powers in between your eyes.

Because he knows this, that if the command center for your sanctification is in the practice of one's renewing of the mind, then Satan's main weapons will manifest in whispers. Can I say that again? That if the command center according to Romans 12 of your sanctification, believer, is in your practice of renewing your mind, then his onslaughts will be manifested in whispers. He wants to get in there. Because if he can get in there, he can get everywhere.

And God wants to get in there. Because if he can get in there, he can get everywhere. This is where the fight takes place every single day. Now so we can talk about demon possession. We can talk about all this.

But this is where he spends most of his energy, in your thought life, in the seeds of ideas and imaginations, in those flashes of images. This is what he does. So we know where it is. We know where the focus is. And so now we gotta talk about how he does it.

And, oh, one service cannot exhaust it enough. One one message cannot really give it all, but if we have a general understanding, hopefully, we'll be able to identify it and be able to conquer it. And so here are the two main ways that this enemy comes up to you believer and whispers. Number one, he's a tempter. He's a tempter.

We know this because he knows something, that you not only experience temptation from his suggestions, but your flesh is another enemy that you war against. And he wants to make allies with your flesh, And he knows that if you can just come to a place where you feed that thing that you carry every single day, every single night, that you will self destruct because of eventual lack of control. And so he knows if I can just get this flesh wild up and make him in bondage concerning his own decisions, I can leave him to himself and just work on the next one. And so he is a tempter. He knows how to tempt, and he does it in three different ways.

We find this in Luke chapter four. He tempts with his very own mouth. These are the methods of his temptation. He tempts with his very own lips. We read how throughout forty days and forty nights, Jesus was in the wilderness led by the Spirit, and this is when the enemy chose to come and tempt Jesus.

You better believe that the suggestions of Satan are most persistent, and the volume of it is most intensified when you are alone. Is that not true? Is that not true? Are the same thoughts going through your life when you're with a crowd of believers? Are the same thoughts going through your mind right now as they are when you're in your bedroom by yourself?

But, oh, if you can find somebody that is isolated, you and I can both testify that we feel the pull of temptation to deviate from the will of God is to be strongest when we seem to be walking alone. And there are voices that come from him, and they seem the loudest when we don't have other voices speaking into our hearts and speaking into our minds. And this is why Jesus teaches us a valuable lesson that even when you're walking alone, that makes no excuse for us to fall into temptation. Even though you and I both know that we need other voices to encourage us according to Hebrews three, that we are to exhort one another. Right?

So so how did Jesus overcome it? Because he was dependent on another voice. He was dependent upon another word, the word of God. And so be aware that when you're alone, his whispers are more common. His suggestions seem more seductive.

Not just when you're alone, but when you attempt to serve the Lord in obedience. This is Jesus's trial before public ministry. This is Jesus walking into preparation, and guess who realized it? The enemy. And he wanted to do whatever he could to sabotage him taking that first step into what God has called him to do.

And so he comes, and he what does he do? The same thing he'll do with you. If at any moment in your life you decide to graduate from infancy, and you wanna go higher in God, and you wanna be more effective of God, and when he notices, oh, this person's taking their faith quite seriously, this person wants to this person wants to do the will of God, guess what he's gonna do? The same thing he did with Jesus, present to you alternatives to a spirit led life. Present a shortcut version of your Christianity.

And so he comes up to Jesus, and he says, you know you can have this instead. Right? You know instead of using your power to obey God, why don't you use your power for your own selfish desires? And so he suggests, he suggests, he presents alternatives, he gives substitutes. And there's this one interesting verse in Luke four thirteen.

And when the devil had ended all the temptation oh, so that it's possible for Satan to end all his temptation. Hold on. Read the verse. He departed from him for a season. And so there are moments, and I believe that Jesus shows us this when when you are alone.

And that could be from today to you being alone in your house, or when you decide to grow in God and want it because he went into the wilderness led by the spirit. You want a spirit led life. You believe that you've just put a bull's eye on your head. He will come and present alternatives. He will come and present suggestions more intensified than ever before.

And when you resist and when you resist and when you resist, that intensity, that temptation will go away. When he sees that you are, as we're gonna find out, so consumed with the truth of the word of God, he'll say, okay. This guy is not playing around. And what does he what does he do though? He leaves only to come with a greater strategy to come against you.

And so look at this. You have to see this in the life of Jesus. When is the next time he comes up to Jesus? It's not in the in the gospel of Luke as much as it is in Matthew. Matthew sixteen twenty three, as Jesus continued to walk in obedience to the will of the father, the enemy manifested his temptations in a different way.

So Jesus in Matthew 16 just explained to his disciples, you know, I'm gonna I'm gonna suffer in the hands of rulers. I'm gonna die. And Peter comes up and rebukes Jesus. And you know this verse. But he turned to Peter and said to Peter, get behind me, Satan.

You are a hindrance to me, for you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man. This is how the enemy came next. When he came to him with his own mouth and his own whispers and his own suggestions, he was defeated. So you know what he thought to himself? Look how conniving this snake is.

If I can't get to his mind directly, let me get to another person's mind so that person can get to his mind. You don't believe that the enemy has done this before? When Satan came up to God and says, you know why he loves you? It's because you've given him all these blessings. You know what?

There are Christians like that. They only serve Jesus because they have their bellies full and they have what they want. Take those things away and watch how he'll curse you to your face. Alright. Touch whatever you want.

Comes back. Have you seen how faithful Job is to me? Oh, don't you wanna be a child of God in which God can boast in and smile over? Have you seen how faithful he is? Look, you touched all this stuff and he didn't he worships me.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Touch his body and watch how he'll curse you. Alright.

Just don't kill him. And I find something so fascinating. You read those first two chapters of Job that he had every right to touch everything, any person, killed his kids, killed everything. And you know who you see still left? His wife.

He had the right to take out his wife. He kept his wife. Who is the one that said curse God and die? His wife. That was a part of his strategy.

If I can't get to this guy, let me get to the closest people in his life. Let me surround him. Here. Here's the two warnings. Number one, Jesus said to to Peter, listen.

Your mind is set on the things of man, not on the things of God. So here's one warning. Number one, beware of the people that are in your life that have not set their minds on the things of God. That's just the obvious one, that they will be a source of temptation in your life. You will feel the cords pulling you back from growing in God because you just have the wrong crowd that you hang out with.

But not only that, look at this. Beware of those who are even true believers that in a moment of weakness and vulnerability can be used as a source of temptation in your life. Do you see how this warfare, as much as we need one another, it is still a one on one combat with the enemy? That there are times in which you just need to stand alone sometimes. And there's a way in which you can do that, but here was Peter, a close disciple of Jesus in a moment of weakness.

Not that he was possessed by the devil, but he was inspired by satanic thoughts, trying to convince Jesus to not go to the cross. Now beware. Please don't point at people in your life and say, Satan, Satan, Satan, Satan. That's lack of wisdom, and that's just plain rude. But develop an understanding that things can come up from different places and even from those that you know, especially those that are closest to you.

Guess what? It didn't work for Jesus. You would think, Okay, go take a vacation, Satan. This is the Son of God. He goes, no.

There's still time. He hasn't gone to that cross yet. And so what happens in Matthew twenty seven forty? How tenacious is this devil? I do not like to give credit to any devil, any Satan, but let's not be unaware of his schemes.

Let us see the viciousness of our foe. It comes to the point where Jesus himself is on the cross. On the cross. And what does he do? Well the first thing he did was he he tried to tempt him with his own mouth.

The second thing is he he tried to inspire the closest people around him to lure him away from the cross. And lastly, His last tactic was to influence the world to try to bring Him to a place of surrender. You say, how do you know? Look at Matthew twenty seven forty, and saying this is the crowd, you who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself. If you are the Son of God sound familiar?

If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross. That's why I believe that the enemy had some kind of work in this because they literally echo the very same words that he used in the wilderness temptation. If you're the son of God, come off that cross. And so what's his last tactic? Through mocking and intimidation and force and challenge to bring Christ off of what he dedicated his life to.

You know what all those three temptations have one thing in common? Every single pursuit that the enemy had against Christ, though they were different in method, had one purpose: for Jesus not to go to the cross. And he said, well, what does that have to do with me? Because I'm not the savior of the world. Right.

But you do have a cross. After the second time when Peter came up and says, you're not gonna go to the cross. It's after that time. We see it in Luke and in Matthew. After that time, right after that, Jesus ushers in the teaching, if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself.

Take up his cross daily and follow me. Why? Because Peter's mind was influenced of a crossless Christianity. He says, you're not gonna go to the cross. That's ridiculous.

You're ushering in the kingdom. You're the Messiah. You're gonna go on the cross. He goes, listen, Peter. Not only you, but I'm afraid of all these disciples.

Why don't you guys come in and let's make this a teaching moment. You all have a cross. You all have to deny yourself if you want to follow me. And you know what? Satan's main central focus is whenever it comes to temptation in your life, don't deny yourself.

You don't have a cross to carry. There's an easier way to do this. That's what his suggestion was for Jesus. You can have all the kingdoms of the world if you would just bow down and worship me. You can have a short shortcut version of this.

You don't have to go to the cross, and Jesus knew. This is a lie. He'll always present a shortcut version of your faith, and so many people are biting into it. He's a tempter, Relentless. Fierce.

But he's not just a tempter. He's a liar. He's a liar. John eight forty four. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character for he is a liar and the father of lies.

It's his native tongue. That's all he knows what to do. He's so good at it. And the question is, how does he do it? How does he do it?

How how does he lie? What is the what is the substance of his lies? Oh, he can lie about so many things, but it is generalized in Genesis chapter three. And this is where we're concluding today. In Genesis chapter three, when we are introduced to the serpent, Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made.

You know, we read that and we get the idea that it was a slippery slimy snake that came up, and it was so obvious that there was something different about this animal. This is pre fall. Everything was perfect and glorious and awesome, which tells me something about when Satan tempts. He comes like like a harmless thing. Doesn't come so obviously.

So when the serpent came, I don't know what he looked like. We don't know, but we have this understanding that he he cloaked himself in a different vessel to present himself in a way that might not be so threatening. He said to the woman, did God actually say, you shall not eat of any tree in the garden? You guys know this. The first thing that he does when it comes to his lie, he always wants you to doubt God's word.

Always. If there's one question he continually wants you running through your mind is, did God actually say? And know this, that up to this point in history, Adam and Eve only had so much revelation to deal with. There was a strict command concerning not eating of that tree and a command to be fruitful and multiply. Yes.

So they they had this revelation, and the enemy worked with that revelation and tried to confuse them and and tried to lead them astray from that. But listen, He is not limited to just a few revelations now. He is willing to take every single truth of this word and present a different version of it. And so what am I saying here? I'm saying that do not be surprised if the enemy comes up to you and says, did God actually say, relating to anything about who he is or anything that he has commanded?

And you will be amazed of how many people are walking in insecurity and fear in their relationship with God because all they're hearing is, did God actually say? And they're believing it. Did God actually say that he loves you? And then he goes in with that, and he connects it with the experiences in your life of how there is lovelessness in your life. And he goes, your father was like that.

You think the heavenly father is gonna be any different? Did God actually say he tries to bring your experience and your circumstances to your face and try to pin it on God. Did God actually say that he would forgive you of all your sins? All your sins? Do you know the people that you hurt?

Do you think God, as holy as he is, do you think he's just gonna let that go? Did God actually say that he would really protect you all the days of your life? Did God actually say that all things work together for good? Because the things that you're really going through right now, you can't really see God's hand in it. Did God actually say?

And so to bring you to question the word of God is one of his favorite tricks. And it's a dangerous thing when you're not familiar with the word of God because it's easily moldable for him to work with your lack of understanding. Isn't it amazing that the temptation of Jesus the first thing Satan said was, if you are the Son of God. And the temptation account follows immediately after the baptism account in which God the Father said to Jesus, This is my beloved Son in whom I'm well pleased. As soon as God said, This is my Son in whom I'm well pleased, the first thing Satan says, If you're the Son of God.

Questioning your identity, questioning your value in Christ, questioning God's goodness towards you. Did God really say it? Prove it. Did God really say it? Doubting God's word.

Not only doubting God's word, his lie comes here in verse four. But the serpent said to the woman, you will not surely die. Simple. The second lie that he loves he loves he loves to bring to believers is for them to dismiss the consequences of sin. Have you ever noticed when temptation, the sensation of it comes to you, so gripping, so powerful, sometimes so rushing in your blood almost, that you never think about the consequence of it as much as the pleasure of it?

That you're so consumed about how it's gonna make you feel or what it's gonna give you, how it's gonna advance you, that you never think about what it will do afterwards. All Satan said was you will not surely die. You know what he didn't say? You're gonna affect the entire human race from this decision. You're gonna affect your relationship with God through this decision.

No. He's a master director of presenting sin on a platform of of harmlessness and and stinglessness and without consequence. And all it is is a mirage. So he dismisses the consequences of sin, and all he does is focus on what it will grant you. What does he say in verse five?

Your eyes will be opened. For God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be opened. So you'll always bring what it will offer you. He will never tell you what it will take from you. Never.

And so you know what you and I have to do as believers? It's fascinating. So many Christians focus on memorizing and saturating themselves with the promises of God and the blessings of God, and they fail to give the same energy to the warnings of God, to the hazardous signs in the scripture that keep us from veering off. And so you and I must get just as familiar with the severity of God and not just his kindness according to Romans 11. Because when you come to that place where Satan tries to fool you with temptation and dismiss the consequences of sin, you know what's gonna be flooding through your mind?

All the consequences of sin. See, we look at David's story and everybody gravitates towards the mercy of God, and and we have to. We need to. Nobody thinks about all the things that happen afterwards concerning his family life, his kingdom, and himself. We need both.

We need both. He dismisses the consequences of sin. And lastly, in verse five, he loves to discredit the character of God. Look at verse five. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be open.

You know what he's making God seem like? Somebody that's holding something good from them. God's holding this back from you. God is withholding something from you, Adam and Eve. And And what the enemy loves to do is convince the people of God that he is not really for their good and for their protection and for their flourishing.

That is not only true through the commands given in Scripture. His voice is just as known when we experience certain circumstances in life. So again, you experience something and he goes, look what God's doing in your life and allowing to happen in your life. Look Look how long you've been praying for and it's only getting worse. And so look at look what Satan does.

When he comes before God, he loves to accuse us before God, and when he comes to us, he loves to accuse God to us. He accuses God us to God, and he comes to you, and he accuses God to you. So he comes to God and go, look how faithless there. He comes to you. Look how faithless he is.

Doubt the word of God. Dismiss the consequences of sin. Discredit the character of your heavenly father. And this is not a concrete truth necessarily, but it's it's it's worth the observation. Have you ever wondered why Satan went to the woman and not to Adam?

It doesn't say. It doesn't tell us why he went to the woman instead of Adam. But there is one observe it's just an observation worth considering. Maybe over lunch you can talk about it. That Eve did not have something that Adam did have.

Adam had a direct connection with God concerning the commands, And there is nowhere recorded in these accounts that Eve was told by God what she was to do and not do. In other words, it could be possible that she received secondhand revelation, whereas Adam received it directly from God. If that is true, then we know the people in which Satan loves to come and tempt the most, those that do not have their own independent reception of the Word of God, but are overly dependent upon others and what they know of God to be their source of strength. And there's something different between Eve here and Jesus in the wilderness. Is there not?

Look here look here in Genesis three two. Look how she answers the enemy. And the woman said to the serpent, we may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, you shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die. Then you go to Genesis two sixteen and seventeen and see what God said and and compare it. You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

She didn't give the name of the tree to said the tree in the midst of the garden. You shall not eat for in the day that you eat of it, nothing about touching it. She said, yeah, I can't touch it either. So there's something added there. There's something missing and there's something added.

And then he says, you shall surely die. She says, lest we die. Even the enemy knew the certainty of the consequence when he comes and says, you will not die. He didn't say you will not die. He said, you will not surely die.

So we see a person here that's unfortunately not having a full grasp on the word of God, on the commands of God, on the promises of God, on the consequences that come from sin. There's this general light generalizing idea of it, but not a firm grasp of it. When you come to Jesus though, and Satan comes to tempt him, he does not even go back to his baptism experience to give him the confidence. Do you realize that? If you are the Son of God, it's like, weren't you at my baptism?

It was an awesome thing. You did not hear the voice of God that declared that I am the Son of God. Do you know how many Christians are dependent upon their past experiences to give them present day security? Jesus doesn't even do that. As glorious as it was, He goes, it is written.

It is written. It is written. It is written. You know what the psalmist says? I have hid thy word in my heart that I might not sin against thee.

Notice what he didn't say. He didn't say I have read your word that I might not sin against thee. I've scanned through your word. I have you version Bible verse of the day your word that I might not sin against Thee. You know what he said?

I've hid it. I got it in my bloodstream. I buried it as deep as possible as I can in my inner man. I've lit up every single room in my mind concerning the word of God so that whenever there's a lie or deception or temptation that comes, it is immediately detected and deterred. I've hid it in my heart.

I buried it there. I've compacted it so it's not easily forgotten. We're talking about spiritual warfare here. We're not talking about comfortable Christian romanticizing this idea of what this faith is. Yes.

There's an element of the relationship with God. If it's not for that, I I can't imagine what this faith is about, but you have to understand we're in a war. How do you know how to wield this sword? Are you familiar with your weapon? Are you familiar with the Word of God?

And this is what will happen when you get the word so in you. Just naturally, when you really just get it in you, this isn't a call to memorize books. If you want to, you can do that. But to get the words so in you on a daily basis, you would be amazed that when certain voices and certain suggestions come, you do not only just get random verses, you get verses that are specific to that assault that work as a shield to protect you. Because when Jesus answered, he answered specifically to each temptation.

And you know what Satan did when he saw that Jesus came back with the word of God? He says, oh, you wanna play that game? You want to quote scripture to me? Here's scripture back. What did he do?

He took it out of context. So what did Jesus do? He didn't just know his verses. Jesus knew the context. He knew the surrounding elements of those verses.

He couldn't be tricked. So when you handle temptation, do you handle it like Eve? Or do you handle it like our ultimate example, Jesus? I'm fully aware that we have to grow in this, but let's not be satisfied in this. This is a war, and we need to handle this word.

And I'm not gonna go too deep into this. I'm just giving you a general idea because we're gonna get into the armor together. But it is possible for you and me to frustrate the enemy in his attempts towards us. It is possible. Look look now marry these two ideas to so fall in love with Jesus and so fall in love with with his word that it automatically contributes to your warfare.

Don't separate the two. It's all mingled together. That, yes, I am a soldier, but I am madly in love with my commanding officer. And yes, it is a battle, but this is a love relationship. And so as I come to just know him and adore him, the automatic result is that as a soldier that represents him, I'm gonna be strong.

I'm gonna be able to withstand it. I'm gonna be able to move forward. And the more you know his truth, the more you'll be able to detect falsehood. You'll be amazed at the people that are experiencing oppression, anxiety, fear, shame, guilt, sorrow, unnecessarily simply because of their lack of understanding of who God is. I praise the Lord that he did not make this very complicated for us.

We're the ones who make it complicated. Read all the saints of old. Read all these men of God who had such deep revelation, had great fruit for the kingdom of God. And I love reading books. And Spurgeon said one thing, visit many books, but live in the Bible.

But whenever I have the opportunity to read these books, and I've just been noticing this more and more and more and more about these different men of God and these different moves of God that have been led by vessels that was consecrated unto the Lord. Whenever it comes to the secret of their life, all they do whenever you read these books, these awesome books, the language that they used to describe the Christian faith and the experience that you have with God and how it is to walk in in testimony towards them, It always comes down to, okay, pray, read your Bible. Like, that's it? Pray and read your Bible. It's like there's gotta be something more.

No. Pray and read your Bible. Pray and memorize scripture. Fast here and there. It's like, but why isn't there anybody I mean, that's so easy, but it's not easy.

If it was easy, everybody would be doing it. God made it so simple. Jesus demonstrated it for you and me. And so be aware of the schemes of the enemy, that he is a tempter and he comes through different methods. Be aware that he is a liar, and often his temptations are mingled with lies.

Be aware that he is an accuser. He accuses you towards God and accuses God towards you. And the secret is saturate yourself in this word. Know Him. Know His consequences of sin.

Know His promises. Know His blessings. Know His warnings. And the more you know, the more you'll stand. Let's pray.

Father, there are some people in here, and we've all been through this, Lord, that are experiencing warfare in the mind. Some might be experiencing shame. Some might be experiencing doubt. Some might be experiencing condemnation. Some might see you in the wrong light.

Help us realize that the enemy has contributed to that. But help us also be encouraged leaving this place that as long as we get this in us, your word, your promises, your character, your attributes, we gird up our loins. And we just pray right now for a special grace for the sake of our testimony for Christ and our longevity in the ministry for for what you have given us that we would get into the word of God more and more. Some of us have lost that ambition. Some of us have lost the faith in that.

But, Lord, help us be like the psalmist who says, I have hid thy word in my heart that I might not sin against thee. Help us take that by faith to not try to argue with the devil, to not even point back to different testimonies in the past, though that is good, but to make our concrete foundation based upon the written scriptures and to believe that as we quote them and as we memorize them and as we rehearse them in our hearts, the enemy flees eventually. And so, Lord, strengthen your people today, we pray. Strengthen all of us. How we need you, how some days it is so exhausting, how some days we feel like giving up.

But, Lord, tonight through this morning message, we believe that you have strengthened us and that we will leave here with our heads high, our shoulders up, not boasting in self, but knowing that we are strong in the Lord. And, lord, we receive your marching orders. We wanna be faithful. We wanna be found faithful.