Know Your Enemy: Remedies Against the Devil’s Devices (2) | James 4:7

ThornCrown Covenant Baptist Church

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So, to start, obviously,

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Happy Mother's Day to all the amazing, wonderful mothers in our church. We're very grateful for our mothers and for our ladies and sisters that recognize what it is to be a true woman and the true femininity which is in what

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God has designed us to be. And mothers are the primary role for a woman.

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And that's something that we embrace because it is God's creation role that He has given us to women.

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And so we're very grateful for you all. However, today will not be about Mother's Day.

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It is, first and foremost, the Lord's Day. And I've been very focused on preaching through this series on the world, the flesh, and the devil.

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And I'm going to go ahead and continue on that topic.

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I did want to make one correction to my last sermon when

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I misspoke and referred to Jesus instead of Paul when

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I quoted Galatians 1, 8 through 9 where he says, even if we preach a different gospel, let him be eternally condemned, or anathema.

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So that wasn't Jesus speaking, that was Paul speaking. And so as I said,

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I'm going to continue preaching about knowing your enemy and remedies against the devil's devices or schemes.

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Based on James 4, 7, to be subject therefore to God, resist the devil and he will flee from you.

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We are called as God's soldiers in God's army to resistance, which is both defensive and offensive, as we will see today.

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And this is part two, so I'm going to continue where I left off last week. And I also want to encourage us not to play the victim and to fight back biblically.

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We have the means to fight back and to attack the enemy and to get him out of our lives.

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So many of us are going through, like I mentioned already, a very hard season of trials and suffering and tribulations, etc.

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But remember, this too shall pass.

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This will pass. And if you missed any of the previous sermons, then

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I highly recommend that you go back and listen to them, because this is a series that builds on the previous messages.

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So it's important that you have that other information, that other context, to understand where we are right now.

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There's a lot of important information that I covered in the previous sermons. And as I said last

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Sunday, it's very important for us to have balance and discernment when it comes to dealing with our natural and our spiritual problems and enemies.

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Very important in order to avoid extremes and self -deception and doing more harm than good, right?

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Remember too that our Heavenly Father tests us through trials, even when they come from the devil himself, in order to purge us, to prune us, to sanctify us, to clean us, to help us to grow in conformity to Christ, and in order to give us self -awareness of our issues in order to resolve them.

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Our God is issue -driven, and we must also be that way as well. Resolve our issues and help each other with our issues.

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The most foundational remedy and resistance against all our enemies is none other than the cross, the gospel, the power of God unto salvation.

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Amen? In order to live out our deliverance, we need

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God's means of deliverance. We need His remedies, or like I mentioned last week, the six

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S's. Number one is scripture. Two is sound doctrine that agrees with godliness.

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Three is sacraments. Four, self -awareness and self -denial. Five, sage counsel or wise counsel.

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And six, spiritual warfare, to resist and rebuke the devil and his underlings out of our lives.

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So now, today I want to describe specific aspects of what the devil is and does, and lay out some strategies and remedies to fight against him and all his devices.

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Now, first and foremost, we must remember that we are soldiers in God's army.

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We are in a spiritual battle. Called to fight this spiritual battle, and must therefore prepare ourselves for battle daily.

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It never stops. It doesn't stop. Not until we end up in heaven, in glory.

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So, we, like the Apostle Paul says, must die daily.

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Die daily to self. That's in 1 Corinthians 15 31. We must deny ourselves, that means our flesh specifically.

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Remember, daily. Take up our cross daily and follow

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Christ. In a life of sanctification and holiness.

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That actually brings me back to the catechism question today. The catechism actually deals with a lot of what

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I'm going to cover in the sermon. That the Holy Spirit has renewed me and set me apart to be a member of Christ, so that more and more

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I become dead to sin and increasingly live a holy and blameless life.

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That is how we fight the devil back and keep him out of our lives. One of the primary ways we do that.

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Now, to clarify, I am not talking about lordship salvation. Where you have to sell everything you have and give everything up and go be a poor missionary somewhere.

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That's not what I'm talking about. That's not what Jesus says. I'm talking about personal, practical obedience in our normal, everyday lives.

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Very simple. Make it your ambition,

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God says, to lead a quiet life and peaceable life and attend to your own business and work with your hands just as we commanded you, so that you will walk properly toward outsiders and not be in any need.

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That's 1 Thessalonians 4, 11 through 12. I'm also not talking about a certain imbalanced view of the

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Reformed faith. Which teaches that our sanctification has already been predetermined by God, and so we need to just rest in it.

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This is more in line with this Keswick teaching of letting go and letting God. This is not biblical.

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Do not be deceived, brethren and sisters. Do not be deceived. Our sanctification is not entirely passive.

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We have a role to play, and neither is spiritual warfare. The Baptist Catechism faithfully summarizes what the

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Bible teaches about sanctification, which is, quote, the work of God's free grace, whereby we are renewed in the whole man after the image of God and are enabled more and more to die unto sin, which is negative, and live unto righteousness, which is positive.

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Just like the Orthodox Catechism also said in that question. Okay, so yes, while God does cause our sanctification,

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He is the primary cause of our sanctification. It is a work of God's free grace, but that power from God enables us, the

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Spirit of God enables and empowers us to walk out our sanctification and grow in it.

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Because what you do and not do directly and indirectly affects your sanctification.

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Okay, if you stop coming to church, you stop reading the Bible, you stop studying sound doctrine, what's going to happen?

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You're going to fall into sin. You're going to be tempted to sin. You're going to keep your guard down, and your sanctification will be hindered.

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That's a guarantee. This world is against us. Our flesh is against us.

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We have enemies that are always against us. Conversely, if you take hold of the means of God's grace, you come to church, you receive the preaching of God's word, you study the word, you read the word, you pray the word, receive the sacraments, all of that sanctifies us.

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It edifies us. Okay? So, consequently then, we ourselves must put on the full armor of God.

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This is obviously, you're going to make war, you need to count the cost and prepare for war.

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Let's turn to Ephesians 6, chapter 10, I'm sorry, chapter 6, verse 10, to once again review what

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God commands us to do to prepare for this spiritual warfare that we are called to every day.

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Ephesians chapter 6. So, in Ephesians chapter 6, starting in verse 10, we read,

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Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the might of his strength. Put on, you must put on the full armor of God so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes or devices of the devil.

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For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, remember from last week, where it's not against natural enemies, but against rulers, authorities, world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.

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Therefore, take up the full armor of God, take it up yourself so that you will be able to resist in the evil day.

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And having done everything to stand firm, stand firm, therefore, having girded your loins with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace.

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In addition to all, having taken up the shield of faith and with which you will be able to extinguish the flaming arrows of the evil one and also receive the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God, praying at all times with all prayer and petition in the spirit.

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And to this end, being on the alert, being on high alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints.

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Amen. This is our battle call. And like I mentioned before,

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I highly encourage all of us to memorize this passage, memorize our spiritual call to warfare, because there's a lot of things going against this imperative that we have, many things working against us and to undermine that call.

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Remember also that in the new covenant, there is a sharp transition and substantial changes from the old covenant that do not carry over because we have a new and better covenant built on better promises.

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So generally speaking, the old covenant was more physical, more literal, more temporal.

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The new covenant, on the other hand, more generally speaking, more spiritual, more otherworldly, more eternal.

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And failing to properly distinguish the differences between the old and new covenants leads to serious error and makes us ineffective in spiritual warfare or a liability because this can cause us to misunderstand how the devil himself has in fact changed and adapted his strategy and his schemes in light of these covenantal transitions.

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Because on the cross, Christ took back the dominion from the devil that was lost in Adam because of his failure to obey.

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The devil, therefore, has shifted his focus and his attack because the prophetic seed of the woman,

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Christ, already came, was already born, lived a perfect life of active obedience, died a propitiatory or wrath -satisfying death of passive obedience, and rose again.

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So then, that leaves us a big question. What is the devil really after now?

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Scripture is very clear about this. The devil ultimately wants to steal, kill, and destroy you, your family, and your legacy, and the church as well, by extension.

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Steal, kill, and destroy. That's from John 10. The thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy.

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But I, Christ, have come that you may have life and have it in abundance. Have victory.

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It's not talking about money, right? Let's just get that straight. But Satan, the devil, thinks long -term.

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He's a long -term enemy. He's been around for a very, very long time.

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And he has far, far more battle experience than you and I have, combined.

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Okay? He's been around since the Old Testament, and even before that, and has continually sought to inflict the most possible damage to God's plan and to His people, because of that prophetic seed that was going to crush

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Him. Remember that? So, remember, though, he's not just after you.

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He wants your legacy, because he thinks in terms of the entire war, not just the battle against you specifically.

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He's thinking long -term. How can I do the most damage? Long -term. Which brings me to a true story that I have for you to tell.

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When Shea, my wife and I, got engaged, we started noticing that a lot of people tried to discourage us and dissuade us from getting married.

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Many, many people. And it seemed very unexpected, very unprovoked. Like, why are so many people coming to us, encouraging us to not get married?

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Friends, family, from all over the place. And it got pretty intense, because Shea and I, we were struggling.

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We didn't have a church. We were trying really hard to be faithful and to just walk out our walk together and seek out the proper way to get married.

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But even, we had gotten involved with a religious cult, very aggressive religious cult.

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Even they almost succeeded in separating us, because my wife went to go visit them.

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They almost practically tried to brainwash her into thinking that if she leaves, that God is going to judge her and kill her or something.

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So when Shea came back, she was all shaken up. She's like, I got to go back. And I'm like, no, no, no, wait, whoa, whoa, whoa, what's going on here?

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God clearly spoke to us. He showed us that He has a plan for us and He wants us to get married. We already knew and understood that.

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And so this became very apparent to us that the devil was trying to attack our legacy.

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This is what the devil does. This is what he does to us. He uses people, even

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Christians, who mean well, right? They mean well, quote unquote.

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But they don't understand. They may not understand what

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God's plan is. And so it was just coming from all different directions.

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And that made me realize this is something else going on. There's something spiritual going on here.

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There's so many people conspiring without conspiring against our marriage, because he wanted to prevent our future, our children, from coming into this world.

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That's what he's after. He's after the legacy. He's after our future. So in a victory report,

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I'm happy to say that he failed miserably. Amen? Amen. We're going on five and shooting for 10.

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We're going strong. Praise God. The devil ain't stopping us. We're not scared of that.

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Amen? Amen. We have full victory in Christ and on the cross.

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So he wants your legacy to end before it even gets started.

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So it's very important to have spiritual eyes to recognize when the devil is attacking us.

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Now, a warning. Even though Christ came to destroy the works of the devil, like 1

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John 3 says, and won back dominion from the devil, we ourselves nevertheless still sin and can give the devil a foothold or an opportunity to mess with us if we're not careful.

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And he can also exploit us to mess with others if we're not careful.

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Okay? So we still are in a war. The war is not done. We are still in...

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It is decided, obviously. The devil is defeated. But the battles are still being played out in time.

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And we still have a role to play. So we cannot let our guard down. Okay? So what is the remedy?

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The remedy for this is that we have to obviously recognize our call, and we are commanded not to give the devil an opportunity, like Ephesians 4 .27

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says. We need to guard ourselves with the armor of God and of light and protect those under our authority, our children, our wives, those under us.

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We must be of sober spirit and be watchful because your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour, according to 1

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Peter 5 .8. Right? So just always remember, we are in a war with an enemy that started it long before you and I were even born.

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So know your enemy because, number one, the devil ain't dumb.

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Okay? The devil is not dumb. He is not a fool. Genesis 3, verse 1 says,

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Now the serpent was more crafty, more cunning, than any other beast of the field which

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Yahweh God had made. And he said to the woman, Indeed has God really said. And you know the rest of the story.

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He knows, the devil knows, the Bible backwards and forwards and will twist it against you, especially through his other devils and his false teachers, his ministers.

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Okay? Now what's the remedy for this? The remedy for this, going back to the

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S's, this S is for spiritual warfare in Scripture as well because we cannot underestimate the devil.

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We cannot underestimate him. But even though the devil, he's not dumb, he is also the ultimate arrogant fool which caused him to fall in the first place, his pride.

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Pride leads to a fall, like Scripture says, because he dares to defy the omnipotent

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God of the universe. You have to be out of your mind. Who does that? Why would you defy the most powerful almighty person in the universe who created you?

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I mean, that's just utter stupid. So in one sense, that's utter foolishness and stupidity. And he knows that he's going to lose in the end.

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He knows that his days are numbered. So when he does try to mess with you, remind him of that and rebuke him.

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Tell him that. Your days are numbered. You are defeated and you have no claim over my life.

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Who does? Christ does. Amen? So let's see the way of our master now, how

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Jesus dealt with the devil in Matthew 4. Let's turn to the Gospel of Matthew 4.

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We will see how

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Jesus dealt with Satan. I'm also reading from the

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Legacy Standard Bible. In Matthew 4, starting in verse 1,

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God's word says, Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.

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And after he had fasted 40 days and 40 nights, he then became hungry. And the tempter came to him and said to him,

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If you are the son of God, command that these stones become bread. But he answered and said,

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It is written, it is written, Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.

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Then the devil took him into the holy city and had him stand on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him,

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If you are the son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written,

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He will command his angels concerning you and on their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.

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And Jesus said to him, Again, it is written, You shall not put the

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Lord God to the test. And again, look at the persistence here.

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And again, the devil took him to a high, very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory.

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And he said to him, All these things I will give you if you fall down and worship me.

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Then Jesus said to him, Go, Satan, get out of here, for it is written,

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You shall worship the Lord your God and serve him only. Then the devil left him and behold, angels came and began to minister, minister to him.

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Amen. That's a powerful, powerful example from Christ.

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This is a perfect example, in fact, of resisting the devil and him fleeing.

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Right. Just like the word says. As believers, we need to exercise the authority that we have in Christ and rebuke the devil out of our lives.

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And I mean, rebuke, speak it openly. Do not let the devil overwhelm you.

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So I'm like he is a real person. Some Christians act like he is not real.

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He's a real person who is coming after you. Him and his minions, his devils.

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You tell them, get out of here, devil. You don't belong here. I belong to God. And now this is also for Scripture, like I mentioned earlier.

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Read God's word. Study God's word. Pray God's word. Memorize God's word.

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And receive the sound preaching of God's word. Amen. We must know

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Scripture well enough to refute the devil's twisting lies.

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Do not quote then irrelevant or misinterpreted verses against him and his lies.

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Okay, don't do that. That's like shooting at your target and completely missing the mark.

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Oh, Jesus wept. You can't quote stuff that doesn't apply.

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Okay, we have to be mature in understanding. Use the right weapons. So, we need to know how to interpret the

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Bible correctly in order to rightly understand it and ourselves and our enemy and to rightly apply it given the situation that we're facing.

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We also need pastors and teachers to instruct us in the analogies of Scripture and of faith, the law and gospel distinction, confessions and catechisms and so on to be like Jesus and do like He did.

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Amen. Amen. This brings us to the next thesis.

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Number two. The devil uses means. The devil uses means because he ain't dumb.

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He's very efficient and he uses means. Now, we know that God uses means to accomplish

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His will including the devil. The devil is

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God's devil like Luther said. Amen. And like Brother Richard preached on the

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David and Goliath story, God used David, raised him up to slay giants and bears as a means to show who is in charge, that God is in charge.

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God uses means, so does the devil because the devil can't be everywhere at once.

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Some people act like he's everywhere. No. He has other means that he uses. He has other devils, other angels that fell,

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Matthew 25, 41, to advance his agenda. He uses the world.

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The whole world lies in the power of the evil one, according to 1 John 5, 9.

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He has the whole world under his power. What is the whole world? You all remember when

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I was preaching on that last time that the world is all of unregenerate civilization.

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Unregenerate society. Because he is also the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience of unbelievers.

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Ephesians 2. So as I also mentioned last week, the devil often uses people.

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Usually unbelievers, but also misguided or ill -equipped believers with unresolved issues.

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That's why we need to deal with our issues. As well as false teaching in order to foster natural enemies in our lives and to distract us from our real enemies.

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The world, the flesh, the devil. He uses those things to distract us and to shift our focus away from what's the real problem.

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We're going to look at two very important examples in the lives of Peter and David. The Apostle Peter and King David.

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So first, starting with Peter, let's go to Matthew 16, starting in verse 21.

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We'll see another very important incident with the Apostle Peter. In the

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Gospel of Matthew, chapter 16, verse 21. We read, From that time,

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Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem, suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed and be raised up on the third day.

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And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying,

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God forbid it, Lord. This shall never happen to you.

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But Jesus turned and said to Peter, Get behind me, Satan. You are a stumbling block to me, for you are not setting your mind on God's interest, but man's interest.

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Okay, very important episode. Here, we see how the devil took advantage of Peter's ignorance and character flaws.

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His brashness. You know, like he's jumping into the water. Yeah, Lord, I'm jumping into the water and then he's drowning.

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He's very brash. He'll jump to things quickly without really preparing himself or thinking through things.

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He's very, yeah, he's just very brash. And the devil used

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Peter to thwart Christ's mission on earth. But Christ, what did

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Christ do? He exposed the devil and then rebuked him.

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Get behind me. Get out of here. Go. He exposed the devil in his agenda.

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He uncovered it, what he was doing through Peter, and he rebuked him.

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He said, Get out. That we must do likewise. That is what we have to recognize when the enemy is behind the scenes working through people.

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We have to learn how to recognize that. And then, that's

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Peter's example. Let's go to King David now. In the book of 1 Chronicles 21, a very revealing episode in David's life,

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King David's life. In 1 Chronicles 21, starting in verse 1. So, in 1

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Chronicles 21, verse 1. Then Satan stood up against Israel and incited

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David to number Israel. So David said to Joab and to the princess of the people,

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Go, count Israel from Beersheba even to Dan, and bring me word that I may know their total count.

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But Joab said, May Yahweh add to his people a hundred times as many as they are.

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But, my lord the king, are they not all my lord's servants? Why does my lord seek this thing?

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Why should he be a cause of guilt to Israel? Nevertheless, the king's word stood strong against Joab.

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So Joab went out and went throughout all Israel and came to Jerusalem. And Joab gave the total count of the census of the people to David.

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And all Israel were 1 .1 million men who drew the sword. And Judah was 470 ,000 men who drew the sword.

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But he did not number Levi and Benjamin among them for the king's command was abominable to Joab.

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And this thing was displeasing in the sight of God. So he struck

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Israel. Then David said to God, I have sinned greatly in that I have done this thing.

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But now please take away the iniquity of your slave for I have acted very foolishly.

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So here we see two cases where the devil used someone who were

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God's people. They were believers. He used them to incite sin, to incite and to thwart

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God's plan and sin in our lives. It says very clearly

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Satan incited David. He planted that idea in his mind, incited him to sin, provoked him to sin.

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And David consequently sinned. So we have to be careful because the devil does not make us do anything.

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As I've mentioned before, we give the devil a foothold. And that's when we then become enslaved.

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We can become enslaved if we're not careful. But it results in us giving him the foothold.

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So this is very important to keep in mind.

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And even if this does happen, y 'all, this has happened. The devil attacks us and sometimes he beats us to he beats us down.

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And but we as soldiers of Christ who have the hope in Christ, have the strength from Christ to get back up and to repent and to reconcile and to say,

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Lord, forgive me. Devil, get out of my life. I made a mistake. I blew it.

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So I want to close today with an example of how the devil uses false teaching.

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And there are so many. There's so many. I mean, we have even in El Paso, there's so many prosperity gospels and all this stuff going on.

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And there's just so many people, even in our camp, there's false teachings of federal vision.

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And you have to present your good works to God in the last judgment in order to be justified before God when it's completely false, because it's by Christ alone, through faith alone in his work, not ours, that we are saved.

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Now, there was a video that I saw recently by Justin Peters.

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It's called Mark Driscoll follow up an interview with Phil Johnson. And in this video, they talk about Mark Driscoll.

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He's another mess of a problem. He's a diatrophies. He's a nimrod. This guy was a is a total disaster and he's causing more problems now.

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But Justin Peters in that video made a very concerning remark about Jezebel, because he was he was criticizing

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Mark because he said there's this Jezebel spirit going around everywhere. And so Justin Peters was and I'm Justin Peters ministries.

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It's very good, very sound stuff. They are they got a lot of good stuff. But unfortunately, he made the claim that there is no such thing as a

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Jezebel spirit. He denied it completely. And he said, that's not a real thing.

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And that, you know, even in Revelation to 20, when I were first to the woman, Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, he said, well, that's just a woman who happened to be named

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Jezebel as if it were a coincidence. So let's clear the record here and turn to Revelation to 20.

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Revelation to 20. And the last book of the

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Bible, Revelation, chapter two, verse 20. We see

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God says, but I, Christ have this against you that you tolerate the woman

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Jezebel who calls herself a prophetess and she teaches and deceives my slaves so that they commit sexual immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols.

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And I gave her time to repent and she does not wish to repent of her sexual immorality.

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Behold, I will throw her on a bed of sickness and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation unless they repent of her deeds.

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And I will kill her children with pestilence and all the churches will know that I am he who searches the minds and hearts and I will give to each one of you according to your deeds.

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So, there are no coincidences with God. Okay, God doesn't roll dice.

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There's no chance or coincidence with God. Amen? This woman

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Jezebel is doing the exact same thing that Queen Jezebel was doing back in the

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Old Testament times. Do not be deceived, brothers and sisters. There is a demonic

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Jezebel spirit and it has infiltrated many churches and entire denominations.

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It operates in false prophets. Notice prophets, male and prophetesses, females today.

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It operates in both. It's the spirit of feminism of unbiblical female authority and leadership.

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That's what the Jezebel spirit is. It's the same spirit of feminism that manifests itself in the real world.

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There are real manifestations of these demons in the world, in society, in individuals, and in churches where you see denominations where, oh, women can preach, women can be pastors.

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That's the Jezebel spirit. The Bible says women cannot usurp authority or teach men.

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Very clear. But Jezebel doesn't care. All these women prophetesses, all these women teachers teaching men, preaching to men.

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That is the spirit of Jezebel. Feminism, trashing men, emasculating men.

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Women can do everything men can do. All this stuff. Denying motherhood.

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You don't need a man. Go live your life. Go have your career. That's feminism.

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That's Jezebel. Abortion. The spirit of abortion.

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My God. This is demonic. We have to look past.

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This is demonic. There are demons that are operating, causing this stuff. It's not just humans.

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There is a conspiracy of the devil trying to bring about this wickedness in society.

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The real Jezebel did the exact same thing. She married King Ahab, who consequently did more evil in the eyes of the

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Lord than any of those before him. And she influenced him and Israel to worship

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Baal. And as a woman seeking more power, she sought to destroy those who questioned her.

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And most of the prophets of Yahweh were murdered at her request. She was a vile, vicious, nasty woman.

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If you remember the episode where Elijah was challenging the 450 prophets of Baal, guess whose prophets that was.

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That was Jezebel's prophets who were sitting at her table to eat with her. This is the same spirit operating today.

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And we need to rebuke this spirit out of our lives, out of our churches. The spirit of feminism.

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Okay? We must recognize the reality of spiritual warfare with the devil and the means that he uses.

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We must discern with spiritual eyes to look past the natural means that the devil often uses.

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We have to look past that. We must learn to discern when there is an evil spirit behind the natural problem and have zero tolerance for the devil.

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Zero tolerance. Including this Jezebel spirit of feminism. Y 'all, it's everywhere.

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Everywhere. And like Jesus and the apostles, we saw how

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Jesus said, Go, Satan, get out of here. Get behind me, Satan. Look past the natural means and rebuke the devil.

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And I want to close this out with one more passage in Scripture in Acts 16. In verse 16.

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With the apostle Paul now. Very powerful passage. In Acts 16.

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So, in the book of Acts, chapter 16, verse 16, we read,

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Now it happened that as we were going to the place of prayer, Luke wrote this gospel, this book, along with the

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Gospel of Luke. It's a continuation, really, of the Gospel of Luke. And they were doing ministry in this place.

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And so he continues, A servant girl, a slave girl, having a spirit of divination, met us, who was bringing her masters much profit by fortune telling.

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Following after Paul and us, she kept crying out, saying, These men are slaves of the

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Most High God, who are proclaiming to you the way of salvation.

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And she continued doing this for many days. But being greatly annoyed,

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Paul turned and said to the spirit, I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to leave her.

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And it left at that very moment. Wow. This is a really powerful passage here.

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Now, we see clearly, they recognize that this servant girl had a spirit of divination.

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In the Greek, this word is python, a python spirit. This is the kundalini spirit that we see from Hinduism and from yoga and from all of these false eastern religions that even the serpent, the snake coiled up in the medical symbol, that's all coming from the serpent, the devil himself.

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And this false kundalini spirit that the shaking and all that crazy stuff that happens in charismatic churches.

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This is that same spirit of divination, the python spirit. And it also manifests in people, starts slithering around like serpents.

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This is real and it really happens. So, she was bringing money to her masters and she, look what she did.

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She was telling the truth. She was telling the truth about these men. These men are slaves of the

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Most High God who are proclaiming to you the way of salvation. Now, why was she doing that? Why was she doing that?

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She didn't know these men, but she knew because she was talking to this python kundalini spirit and it was telling her what these men were doing because she wanted to tap into the

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Christian market. She wanted the church to see, oh, oh, she's telling the truth.

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Look, these men are proclaiming the way. and then look at what

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Paul did and they put up with it for many days. But then Paul turned and said, he looked past her and said to the spirit directly and he says,

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I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to leave her. And it left that very moment.

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Amen. So, spiritual eyes. That's what spiritual eyes looks like.

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We need to train ourselves in the scriptures and in sound doctrine to recognize when the devil is operating because the devil uses means.

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Now, we must know that and recognize that. I'm not talking about overreacting and saying everything is the devil.

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Okay, that's not what I'm saying. Recognize when there is an agenda, a pattern, an agenda.

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See the patterns, okay? And it's clearly opposing

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God. That's a clear sign. Is there a pattern? Is it leading you to sin, causing you to oppose

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God? There you see, that's an agenda. That's an agenda. Amen.

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Now, in closing, and I do want to leave you all with this.

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This sermon, some of these sermons have been very emphatic on what we need to do.

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There's a lot of impetus and emphasis on us because this is undeniable. We are soldiers.

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Soldiers have duties and responsibilities. Amen. We have a role to play.

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We cannot passively sit by and just rest and be like, oh, well, I'm just going to, you know,

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God has, he's got me covered. He's already sanctified me and he's going to, you know, he's going to take care of that for me.

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No, no. God commands us to take up the armor of God and to do all of these things and more.

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We're going to get to more next week. But I also want to remind us that this is given for our edification.

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This itself builds us up. So yes, while there are duties and responsibilities that we are commanded to do and to practice and to apply, it doesn't mean that this edifies us.

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This is what edifies us, y 'all. Just because there's a sermon in which the gospel is not explicitly preached does not mean that the sermon is not edifying.

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We have to be careful with these imbalanced views of law and gospel. Law and gospel distinction does not mean that you have to preach the gospel in every sermon.

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That's more in line with some Lutheran traditions and things like that. That's dangerous because that undermines the effectiveness and the power of all of Scripture.

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All Scripture sanctifies because all of it is God's truth, including the law of God. And when you preach

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God's word faithfully, that itself sanctifies us because it is the word of God.

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It doesn't have to be just the gospel. Of course the gospel sanctifies us. So does the rest of Scripture.

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So bear in mind, like William Perkins said, when we receive instruction, commands from the

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Lord, put on, take on, rebuke, all of these things, they build us up because they are the word of God and the truth builds us up.

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And when we take hold of those things and apply them, that builds us up and it encourages us and it empowers us to continue to walk out a life of holiness and sanctification and obedience.

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Amen? We have to be careful not to do those things. That's sort of like what

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Spurgeon did when he's like, well, unless the text subjectively grips me emotionally, then

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I can't preach it because it's not going to do God's people any good. That's undermining

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God's power in God's word. All of God's word is edifying. We have to remove these filters or these lenses that may cause us to stumble and say, well, the sermon just beat me up today.

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Amen. If it beats you up, receive it and be edified by it because it's

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God's word that sanctifies us. Amen? With that said, let's now close in a word of prayer.

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Our gracious, precious Lord and Heavenly Father, thank You so much for Your powerful word today,

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Father God. Thank You for helping us to know and to empower us and equip us. You don't leave us out in the dark,

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Father God. You empower us and equip us to know everything about the enemy that we need to know in order to counter him and to attack him.

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And You equip us with everything that we need to defend ourselves, to guard ourselves and our people and each other and those under our influence and authority.

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Lord, You equip us with the armor of God. Help us, Lord, to take hold of those means and to continue to walk blameless before You, Father God, to trust and to know

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You, to know You, to know ourselves, to recognize what we need, Father God, and to deal with our issues so that we may be effective soldiers in Your army called to fight and defend ourselves with the truth of Your word.

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Lord, give us that confidence and that boldness to approach

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Your throne of grace and to approach the devil and to confront him directly and to tell him that he is not welcome in our lives and in our homes.

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Help us, Lord, to declare Your Spirit a stronghold to make our homes and our lives a stronghold for Your Spirit, Your Spirit alone, and to live accordingly that life of holiness that pleases

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You and is a soothing fragrance and aroma in Your nostrils.

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We thank You, Almighty Father, and we ask these things in Jesus' almighty, all -powerful name.

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Amen. Thank you for listening to the sermons of Thorn Crown Covenant Baptist Church, where the

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Bible alone and the Bible in its entirety is applied to all of faith and life. We strive to be biblical, reformed, historic, confessional, loving, discerning

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Christians who evangelize, stand firm in, and earnestly contend for the Christian faith.

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If you're looking for a church in the El Paso, Texas area or for more information about our church, sermons, and ministries such as Semper Reformanda Radio and Thorn Crown Network Podcasts, please contact us at thorncrownministries .com.