Never Walk Alone — Thaddeus Barnum

God, Almighty Father, we pray your grace and mercy as we come humbly to your word today. We need that special gift of your Holy Spirit to open the scriptures to our understanding, to our hearts, to our whole selves.

Come, Lord, I pray. Revive us, strengthen us, and pour out your blessing from on high. Through Jesus Christ, our Lord, we pray. Amen. Good morning, dear friends. This has been a most difficult week in Pawleys Island.

We lost a 16-year-old this week in a car accident on 17, Jamisa Lewis. And for her family today, we pray. And for all the kids of Waccamaw, and for all those who knew this extraordinary young Christian woman, it was simply an accident.

And that's what makes these things so painful of heart, does it not, when accidents, or sickness, or circumstances beyond our control take the life of our children, or take the life of those we love. We understand that the world, we don't, what's it like?

Why does God allow it? Why do these things happen? These are the questions that we ask. And yet many don't want to actually dive into the answers to these things, but it's time to. Friends, it is 2017, and you have just heard Deacon Beth read from the Gospel of Matthew, chapter four, that the Spirit of God drove Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.

The Reality of Satan and Spiritual Warfare

And then you heard Dr. Phil read to us, the real Dr. Phil, read to us from Genesis, chapter three, the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve, and the devil again. Oh, come on. We're modernites, we don't listen to things like this, we don't, the world laughs when we read things like this.

The world doesn't believe in the devil, it's just rubbish. And God forbid we believe in creation, or Adam and Eve, that's storytelling, that's fable. The devil is nothing more than what Hollywood makes for our horror movies.

No, no, no, it's all wrong. It's completely for the uneducated of mind that we think about these kinds of things. The world is sophisticated. The world has discovered this week, USA Today, bottom page, about Thursday, that our scientists have discovered a 3 .88 billion year old bacteria.

First sign of life. They don't want to hear the rubbish God created heavens and earth. They will, however, interestingly enough, talk about evil. When we have a moment of terror, when 9 -11 happens, when shootings in Charleston, when Sandy Hook and our kids are killed in elementary school, our politicians rise to the microphone, they say, that was evil.

Well, you talk evil, you're talking Bible, for Pete's sake. You've come into my world, get out of it. You're right, it is evil. What do you mean by evil? Oh, no, no, we don't mean those kinds of things.

And then you come to church, and the last thing us modern church people are gonna ever talk about is the devil. We're not gonna go back to creation. Our sophisticated ears don't want to talk about these things and don't want to hear about it.

So what we do is we listen to Jesus being tempted by the devil, we race to, well, yes, all of us are tempted. There are seven deadly sins, gluttony, greed, lust, pride, envy, sloth or laziness, anger.

How many of you are being tempted by one of those? Three of you. Now, what that means is the rest of you are being tempted by pride, because clearly you couldn't quite raise your hands to the moment. But you see, so what we'll do is have a lovely sermon, and this is Lent, so we can deal with these seven deadly sins.

Poof, poof, six weeks all over, and we'll come to Easter. We're basically good people, we want to hear a good sermon, a good, robust sermon, yes, there are problems, we are tempted, and on we go. Job well done, pastor, what a lovely sermon.

Let me tell you what the Bible says, how's that? It was like that. How about we deal with what's really spoken? Want to do that? Number one, the Bible tells us that the devil was created an anointed cherub, an angel of the highest rank of God.

You'll find that Ezekiel 28, Isaiah 14. Number two, sin came into his heart, pride filled him. He wanted to sit on the seat of God and be as God, and he was cast down from heaven. Jesus says in Luke 10, 18, I saw Satan fall from heaven like lightning.

The Devil’s Authority and Christ’s Victory

Point number three, he is called in the Bible the God of this world, the prince of the power of the air. Jesus calls him the ruler of this world. Why does he say that? Why is he called these things? He's called these things because that was what was given to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, Genesis chapter one.

We were given dominion. We were given authority. What happened when we disobeyed? We handed that authority over to the devil. He's been ruling ever since, and that's exactly what we saw in the third temptation, did we not?

Jesus, the devil says to him, I can give you all the glory of these kingdoms, all these kingdoms and their glory if you'll bow down and worship me. Why could he say that? He could say it because it was right.

We handed him that authority. We gave it to him, the ruler of this world, the God of this age. Point number four, let me summarize the entirety of the Old Testament. We need a savior, which is why you find in 1 John chapter three, verse eight, for the Son of God appeared for this reason, to destroy the works of the devil.

That's why he came. Point number five, he did that on Calvary. That's the whole point of Calvary. The ruler of this world is about to be judged, and he did it. Hold on, my friends. Cling on to Colossians 2 .15, for he disarmed the rulers and authorities.

He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through the cross. Thanks be to God for the cross. That's where it was all dealt with. That's why there's power at the cross of Jesus, because that's where the evil one, that's where the enemy of our souls was dealt with.

Point number six, he's still hanging around. Revelation 12 .9 tells us this. Revelation 12 .12 tells us this. He's got but a short time, and he is ticked. That's my translation. I'm very aware of that.

It says he's full of wrath. He's full of wrath. He knows he only has a short time, and by the time you get to the end of the Bible, Revelation 20, verse 10, one of the momentous moments of all time, of all history, when the Lord will take the devil and all his hosts and thrust him forever into the lake of fire and sulfur, where he will be tormented forever and ever.

That day is yet to come, but that day for us is already here, because it happened on Calvary. It's gonna be meted out at the very end of time, and he will be done with. No more enemy, no more sighing, no more sorrow, no more crying, no more weeping, no more pain.

Our Savior has come. That's what he came to do. Point number seven. Little lambs, you're about to go face the wolves out there. Don't be afraid. I'm clothing you in the armor of God with the power of the Spirit of God.

And so you've got underneath it the apostolic warning. Straight on. Beware. Be sober-minded. Be watchful. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking who to devour. Resist him strong in the faith.

Because of Calvary, we can. Somebody at the 745 said, I pray this all the time, Satan, be gone. I say, well, add one more thing to it. Satan, be gone in the name of Jesus. Because it's the power of the cross of Jesus Christ and his victory that you and I can stand against the devil's schemes, against the powers, against the rulers of this dark world, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realm.

Three Strategies of the Devil

My friends, the world thinks this is rubbish. The greatest job that the enemy does to deceive the world is to tell the world that the enemy is not there. The enemy telling us there is no enemy. Well, let me tell you three things he does.

Boom, boom, boom. Are you ready for this? Boom, boom, boom. These are his strategies. One, he comes as himself. And don't believe he doesn't. There are people all over this world in cultic, satanic worship.

The Wiccans, the cults that actually worship the divine evil powers, do incantations, talk to the dead. All the powers of evil. Don't believe it's not real. It is real. You drive down the street. Oh, there's a palm reader.

Ladies and gentlemen, that's called the power of evil. It's called the power of the devil. It's all there. It's all real. And it's sucking out our kids who are diving into it. Point number two, he doesn't always come as himself.

He usually comes as the tempter behind the scenes, promoting us to rebellion to God, to rebellion to sin. And he does it by the three natural forces that we've always heard about. The power of the world, the flesh, and the devil.

What does the world do? It entices us. The lusts of the flesh, the lusts of the world, the lusts of the mind. They're all seducing us, seductively trying to draw us in. That's what's going on. And our flesh gets inflamed by it.

Our flesh begins to respond to it. And what's the devil do? He promotes us to take action, to do this. We don't tell anybody. We are hiding it. We think we're in control of it. And at the next moment, it's in control of us.

And we do what we know we should not be doing. And we're tempted to sin, tempted to rebel against God. And of course, the devil's never done there. Why do I say that? Because after we've sinned, he brings in shame.

He brings in guilt. He brings in that horrible sense of worthlessness, being unclean, making us feel hypocritical. One person on the outside, but the real person that we know inside, because we're doing what we ought not to do.

Brothers and sisters, if we are being tempted, I beg of you, tell somebody. That's what gets... That's what... And I'll show this in a second. That's what gets these things diffused. Point number three, he not only comes as tempter, he comes as deceiver.

And that's what our Lord warned us about. He warned us time and time about this. He told us, beware of the false prophets who come to us as ravenous wolves dressed as sheep, dressed in sheep's clothing.

Beware of them. The apostles called these who bring this horror to us. They come disguised as apostles of Christ. They come described as false prophets, false teachers, false apostles. Satan himself coming as an angel of light.

That's how he appears to us. And so our Lord says in Matthew 24 verse 4, see that no one leads you astray, for many will come in my name, saying, I am the Christ, and they will lead many astray. Verse 11, many false prophets will arrive and lead many astray.

And then verse 24 of Matthew 24, false Christs and false prophets will arise. They will perform great signs and wonders so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect. See, I have told you beforehand.

This has always been the work of the apostles. They always wanted us to know so that we can know and beware and do something about it. This message is always preached. And that's why the apostle Paul summarized it so beautifully.

Am I going too fast? Are you with me? I can back up. Second Corinthians 11 verse 3. Listen to the apostle Paul. He says, but I'm afraid. Lest, as the serpent deceived Eve, you too will be led astray. Listen to the message of the apostle.

What's he saying? Oh yes, Eve is not some child's story. She was an historical fact of history, an historical personage of history. There was a real Eden. There was a real God who created all things, visible and invisible.

Imperfection made us in his image. And the devil came in disguise, in disguise to the woman. You'll never find in the Bible that Eve was tempted. Eve was deceived. The man was tempted. I'm going to give you a brief analogy so that you got it.

I was absolutely harassed after the nine o 'clock. I will leave immediately after this service so you can't get near me. But very simple. I've never duck hunted. But if you're a duck hunter, I know about you.

You sit in the blind dressed up in leaves or something that nobody can see the real you. And then what do you do? You clap this sound that sounds like a lustful female duck. That's what you do. You're not a female duck unless you are a female duck.

But how do female ducks make us anyway? At any rate, so you make, and so you lure the men. You lure the men and then you kill them upon their arrival. That's complete deceit. It's exactly what the devil does with us.

Seduces us. He lures us in. He pulls his gun out. It's the nature of it. It's how it works. It's the way it always works. It's not difficult to figure out. He comes to us in disguise. And that's how he came to Eve.

He came in disguise. He came as a serpent to the Garden of Eden in its perfection. Serpents in the Garden of Eden were perfect. Don't think of a serpent post the fall. Think of a serpent pre-fall. There were serpents.

There were all kinds of animals. Sanctify the serpent. He's actually standing upright because in the curse he falls down, right? So stop thinking about bad serpents, ugly snakes, and all the rest. Think about good, mage perfect.

And the serpent approaches her. She's not scared or terrified. And he talks. I love that. I love the fact that in glory our animals talk. C .S. Lewis was right about that. Yes, all we get is a donkey and Balaam.

But I'm telling you, here he is. They're having a natural, normal conversation in the Day of Eden. But we don't know he's in disguise. He's in disguise. And he's got his Bible in his hand. He's got his Bible that's got God.

Now, it's a small Bible because God hasn't spoken quite a lot yet. But nonetheless, he has come to challenge the Bible. And that's what he does. He isolates us and he pulls out his Bible. He isolates, he twists the Word of God, and then he compels us to act.

Those are the three things he does. He isolates, and then he twists God's Word, and then he compels us to act upon that Word. That's what he does. Utter simplicity, and yet it always seems to catch us and to work.

And I'm saying to you, it's true. He isolates us. Now, let me tell you that in our evangelical world, I feel there's been a bad doctrine that's been around for years. I've heard wonderful preachers preach about this.

They're simply wrong about it. I don't know what else to tell you. They say to us in Genesis 3, verse 6, that while Eve was in discourse with the serpent, that Adam was nearby watching and complicit and silent.

And they say that this was a sin on Adam's part to be silent. Now, there's no question that they're exactly right. It is a sin to watch sin happen and remain silent. We've got to speak. Absolutely. But that is not what Adam's sin was.

He was, it's simply he was with her in the garden, but he's not complicit here. How do I know that? Because the Bible teaches us the fullness of Scripture. Comes to this moment and tells us temptation came into the world when Adam disobeyed God.

It wasn't silence that caused temptation and sin into the world. It was actually his seeing that fruit and disobeying the command of God. He took it and ate. That is what the Bible calls the temptation of the first Adam.

Which is why we needed the last Adam to come right the wrong of the first Adam. And that's exactly what the last Adam, our Lord and our Savior Jesus did. I say this because we have got to make this very clear.

It is the work of the evil one in deception to lure us away. To take that one little sheep in the hundred and draw that sheep away. Away from the 99. That's what he does. He seduces us. He comes as false shepherd and draws away the disciples after him.

Isolation, False Teaching, and the Need for Fellowship

Acts 20. You'll find that actually spoken in those words. He seduces. He begins to introduce wrong teaching and he lures us away. My friends, many of you know how hard it is as a parent to watch your child go off to college.

Having come into the environment of the church all their life. And they get into college, but they don't need church anymore. They don't need church anymore. They don't need fellowship anymore. How many people tell you, I don't need institutional religion.

I don't need that. I can walk alone. Many of our friends are walking alone. They're done with the church. My friends, the moment you walk alone, you are prey to the evil one. His job is always to isolate.

And when he's done isolating, what he does is he brings forth his message. The Bible twisted. He deceives us. He twists. He twists the message. He introduces destructive heresies. He denies the father.

He denies the son. He does all kinds of things. We don't have time for all of this, but I can tell you, one, he deceives the world. Why? No, the world doesn't need the Christian religion, do they? The world's message has always been the same.

Indulge your flesh. Have fun. When you die, you're going to heaven. He deceives us by all the religions. All religions lead to God. You know that. Oh, you Christians, you think you're the only religion that leads to God.

Well, what about the other religions? You're not being fair in the same way he deceives the church. I came into the church stunned. That the church I love, that I grew up in, when I came to Saving Faith in Jesus Christ, I went and I told people that it, I understand.

He, Jesus saved me. He, he's rescued me. And my bishop and the clergy around me looked at me like these big eyes and said, oh my lord, you've become one of them. And I began to be introduced to a church that no longer preached the Bible.

So many of our churches don't preach the Bible. So many of our churches, all the people want is some comfortable, good, wonderful, robust message that makes us good in this age and feel good about these things.

I started going in as, you know, Errol and I arrived in 1997 to All Saints. When the Episcopal church had risen up, they were denying the cross. They were denying the resurrection. They were denying the Bible.

Completely. The world, the Africans, the Asians, the Global South Christians that once were evangelized by the first world were coming back having to preach the gospel to us. Horrified that we had lost the heartbeat of the gospel message to us.

So many of us have been tormented by the disguise that the devil has done to divide us as Christians, to break us, to focus on secondary doctrines, not the primary. The devil comes to divide and to twist God's word and to bring confusion into our midst.

This is why the apostles, this is why the first generation Christians, this is why they gave us the creeds, the Nicene Creed, the Apostles' Creed, the Athanasians' Creed. Why? To safeguard us from the destructive heresies that are going to come in and try to rob us from the gospel that can save us by the power of God.

That's how Paul says this, Romans 1 16. I'm not ashamed of the gospel. It is the power of God for salvation. And so our forebears, they gave it to us. I believe in God the Father, creator of heaven and earth.

I believe in God the Son. What's he come to do? According to the scriptures, God the Son has come to bear our sin. Crucified under Pontius Pilate, according to the scriptures, raised upon the third day, seated upon the right hand, his kingdom shall have no end.

We believe in God the Holy Spirit who comes to bring us the giver of life, the Lord, the giver of life who comes to bring that salvation to us. The whole point of them is to safeguard us against the devil who's come to torment us.

But that's the popular doctrine around today. Go onto your TV sets, you'll hear it everywhere. The tickling of the ears, a gospel twisted in our generation. The apostle Paul just told it so blank, so clearly to us.

Preaching Sound Doctrine Against the “Peace Time” Gospel

He says this, 2 Timothy 4 verse 1, I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead in view of his appearing and his kingdom, preach the word, be prepared in season and out of season, confront, rebuke, and exhort with great patience.

For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their lusts. That's what's happening in our day.

That's it. That's what's selling. That's what's making big churches grow. They're allowing us to live ungodly lives and yet feel like we're godly people. He's deceiving us. He's trapping us. We're no longer hearing people talk about things that we don't want to hear.

Our preachers need to rise up and say no. You can't have this generation. The devil tries to isolate us. What's the first remedy? We never walk alone. The devil wants to twist the Bible's message. What do we do?

We gather around us, the pastors, the counselors, those who have been in the past generations, those who love Jesus, those who know the Bible, those who are filled with the Spirit, those who know that when we assemble, Matthew 20 verse 18, Jesus stands in our midst so that before we act and do what's wrong, we are moving together by the Spirit of God.

It's always been the remedy. The people of God, with the Word of God, by the Spirit of God. Did you get that? Let me just tell you what would have happened if Eve, oh dear Eve, had she gone through the whole thing, talking with the serpents, hearing this wonderful message by the serpent, looking at the tree, feeling a desire to eat, because now she understands in a new way.

But before she compelled to act, what she does is, wait a second, you know what I need to do? I need to talk to Adam and talk to the Lord and have a prayer meeting. Say, Lord, is it your will that I eat of this?

Is that message true? Had she just called Adam to her side and the Lord who walks in the cool of the day, she never would have eaten, the Bible would have been very short. That's all we have to do, my friends.

You who are an alcoholic, before you just get that temptation to take another drink, call somebody. You who are tempted on the internet, the moment you start flicking through, stop, call your brother and say, I need prayer right now.

Call somebody to your side. The moment temptations begin to take us, the moment things begin to, that we're not sure what we're doing, don't walk alone. If you've decided not to go to church anymore, you can handle on your own, brothers and sisters.

Jesus has called us, we walk together. It's the whole point behind Celebrate Recovery. It's the whole point behind the Christian message. We never walk alone. We test all the messages. And we never act until we know the Spirit of God in us is giving us the direction.

No, no, we are not people who are seduced by Him. Not when we're together, because the Spirit of God will make it clear. He'll open the Word of God to us as we assemble as the people of God. This has always been the remedy to temptation, always been the remedy to deception.

A Call for Wartime Preaching and the Armor of God

I'm so sorry to sound like this. I know, I don't know how I sound to you, but I can tell you this. I'm a person that listens to a lot of sermons. I podcast. Even at my old age, I figured out what podcasting is.

And I listen to sermons of preachers all across our country. Wonderful sermons, filling us with wonderful knowledge. But I feel in my soul, we're listening to peacetime sermons and not wartime sermons.

We're not hearing the thunder of the message that's telling our children, be watchful, beware. He dresses in sheep's clothing. He comes as an angel of light. Don't walk alone. We gather together. We need to stand together.

We need the armor of God. We need to go back to what He did at Calvary because we win this story. Yes, we do. We always win this story because He won this story. It is time for the church to arise, stand.

It's time for our preachers to do what the apostles did and say, beware, the Antichrist is both coming and has come. Filling us with doctrines that are not feeding our people and they're stealing our kids.

Where's the thunder? Where's the wartime sermons that rise us up and say, I'm going to be watchful? Just as the apostles told us, 1 John 2 .26, I write these things to you so that you will not be deceived.

Our forebears always preach this sermon. It's not an easy sermon to listen to, but I tell you something. It gives life to our kids when they go off to college and they find fellowship in Jesus. That's what will safeguard them at college.

So it safeguards all of us in life. We never walk alone ever because our Savior has come. Our Savior has won. We've got victory today. We can actually bear the armor of God and stand against the devil schemes.

We can actually stand today and resist the devil in Jesus' name. But we've got to beware. We've got to be watchful. We've got to be alert. We need the thunder to be able to stand in our day, help our children go out into that world and take it by storm for the gospel of Jesus Christ.