Demons

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Dear Heavenly Father, we come before you this Lord's Day with grateful hearts.
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We thank you for saving us. We thank you for giving us a body with which to fellowship and to worship you.
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Lord, this morning as we open your word, I pray that your spirit would open our hearts and minds to see you afresh.
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We pray, Lord, that even as our minds are foggy, you would give us clarity of mind and above all,
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Lord, a supreme desire to enjoy you in each word of scripture that we read.
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And as we hear it preached later this morning, in Christ's name, we pray, amen. All right, so I'm filling in for Pastor Steve.
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Pastor Steve's been taking you on a cruise down the highway of the London Baptist Confession.
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We've been looking at some weighty theological themes, engaging with them. It's been such a rich nourishment to our soul.
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And today we're going to take a little detour down the Dimholt Road.
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All right, I see a few smiles, but those of you who don't get it, you'll figure it out soon enough what that is. The topic for today,
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I'd like you to kind of guess as I give you a few clues. Okay, let me just do a quick count.
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Four, five, eight, 11, 12, plus four, 15, 15 plus four, 19.
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Okay, oh no, 20. So I count 20 people here. How many individuals occupy this space, do you suppose?
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20? I took, okay. I knew
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I was going to make a math problem mistake. Okay, 21. There are 21 people here. How many individuals are here?
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21. I asked my daughter this on a Friday night. It's her birthday, so we took her out to a Friendly's. And I said, you know, there were five of us.
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We had a cousin with us. And so, Judith, how many people are here?
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Oh no, I didn't say how many. I said how many persons are here in this table? She knows when Dad asks that question, that's a trick question for sure.
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She said, okay, six to eight, Dad. Can anyone think of the logic behind that, six to eight?
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She couldn't figure out if Trinity, she said, one God or three persons. So she was like, I'll cover myself with this range, six to eight.
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I'm like, wow, that's pretty good. She knows me pretty well. Then I said, you know, okay, let's take eight.
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Because, you know, each person in the Trinity, they are omnipresent. And she's like, you know, so we have the
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Spirit of God indwelling us in our presence. And we also have the Father and the Son, because they are omnipresent.
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We know that they are here. So we have at least three more to the 21. And then the question is, is there more?
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Charlie, explain, please. Excellent. Actually, today's topic is kind of, last time
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I taught here, I taught on angels. And today is kind of leading off from there. And we do have invisible spiritual beings that inhabit this planet
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Earth. And right here, I can't count the number, but I'm pretty sure we have more than 21, 24.
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My math is rough. But you get the point. But today we are going to be looking at not angels, but demons.
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And what a topic to start Sunday with, right? Because last time I did angels, today
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I have to do demons. And I don't want to do part two, so we'll finish with this today. My goal is quite simple.
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When we talk to unbelievers about God, they would say, well,
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I don't see God. Maybe I believe he exists, but he has really not much to do with me.
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You know, God's out there. I'm out here. I do my own thing. And when we as believers think about it, we're like, whoa, that's a very weird kind of response to have.
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This is the God you must contend with. And you better know your God and know him on his terms.
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Now, when it comes to believers, sometimes we can act like that when it comes to spiritual beings, angels and demons, and specifically demons.
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Now, with the obsession that some parts of the unbelieving world system has with supernatural, we might sometimes react against this false desire to know so much about evil.
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And you can see all kinds of movies that are out there. No, you don't want to see all kinds of movies that are out there about the supernatural.
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But for believers, is it right for us to understand demons and their role in this world?
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And so what I'm going to do today is I'm going to give you a whole bunch of scripture text. So those of you have been with me in Sunday school, you know,
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I'm going to make you read a lot of scripture. So I'd like you to raise your hand as many times as you can when I ask you to read scripture.
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But don't do it if you think it will distract you from the from the content itself. So some of us,
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I know if I read it, I can follow along. But you'll have to raise your hands a few times to read the scriptures.
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And I'm going to do this in two parts. In the beginning part, I'm just going to go quickly through several scriptural truths about demons because God has revealed them to us.
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And he wants us to know these things. And I want them to be on the forefront of my mind, our minds as we understand what is happening in the supernatural world around us.
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And then I want to slow us down in the end where I'm going to ask us the question. So what as believers, what must we be careful of that the scripture warns us regarding these supernatural beings?
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All right. So with that, I want some hands now. I need one, two, three, four hands.
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OK, one. So, Corey, if you can take Isaiah 14, 12 to 15,
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I need another hand. Haley first. So Haley, if you can read
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Genesis 131 and we have second Peter two, four. I need one more hand.
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Thank you, Jenny. And if you can read Jude one, six. But before they read, in fact,
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I want Haley to start us off and Corey. Read last. If demons are created beings, does
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God create evil things? Does God create evil?
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No. So we know that God is a good God and everything he creates is good.
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So Haley, can you lead us off with Genesis 131? So in Genesis chapter one, we have the account of all of creation.
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And from day one to day six, everything is created that exists. And then God looks at everything.
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And this includes supernatural beings, angels, and everything was very good.
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So that's what we understand of creation from God. And then, therefore, we know also that since demons exist between Genesis 131 and Genesis three, one, where we first see the creature, the serpent, there is something that happens where good, good angels that are created good somehow morph into these demons, some of them.
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And so we'll we'll try to understand what happens here. So second, Peter to four. That's OK.
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You want to keep going, don't you? Because that's like here's. And actually, that's one of those things. I think we talked about this with angels as well.
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You hear something about demons here. And then there is a consequence. There's a reason why you need to understand how
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God dealt with angels that fell the demons and what that means for us today here on Earth.
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But I don't want to comment on it till Jenny reads Jude, Jude, Jude, verse six.
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So here's the picture you get. So angels created by God. And we have several other verses that we saw last time.
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And we looked at angels. They dwell in the presence of God in glory, enjoying him. And when they rebelled, they shook off the authority under which they were in, which
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God had rightly placed them and said, you know, we want to exercise our own will.
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God cast them into gloomy darkness. They are now away from the presence of God. And some of these are in chains.
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And some of these have the ability to influence our world. So just let that be in your mind. And we look at this passage, which seems to kind of hint at what happened with between the fall of good angels into this state of rebellion that they're in.
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So, Corey, if you can read Isaiah 14, 12 to 15, and you can see here the common theme and not the last three verses is there is this thing where there is these beings that are which ought to be exalted, try to put themselves beyond the scope of what
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God has created. And as a result, they are actually brought low to the pit. And here the language that is used.
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So Isaiah, the prophet writing here under the inspiration of God, gives us a little bit of an insight into what is going on.
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As we believe this is referring to Satan in his pride, wants to thrown himself up on high.
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And in that rebellion, he is brought low by God. And that's the that's the fall of this angel.
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And then you have. And then you have the demons,
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Satan and his followers that that now exist in rebellion against God.
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There's another passage, too, but we're not going to read that. That's Ezekiel 28, 11 to 15. That also alludes to this this fall.
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All right. So that gives you a little bit of a beginning origins for demons. But now we're going to take a ton of verses that just going to give you an idea of what is the nature of this fallen beings that we have to contend with today.
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So first, we're going to look at Satan. Let me give you a few terminology before we look at these verses.
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Satan is from Satan, Hebrew, and that means. Adversary.
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He is the adversary of the people of God. So that's Satan. Now, devil, which we are.
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Both of these are used in the scriptures. Devil is in English comes. Back up again.
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So Satan in Hebrew, when it was when it was translated into the
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Septuagint Greek, the word used that was Diabolos and Diabolos. Is the root from which we get the word devil today.
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So we'll we'll look at these words, what they mean and the scriptures that refer to them.
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So I need one, two, three, four people, please, to read some scriptures. Don't be shy.
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All right. So for yourself, Job 1, 6. Thank you.
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First Chronicles, 21, 1, Zechariah 3, 1 and Luke 10, 18.
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So let's begin with Job 1, 6. And this is referring to Satan. And, you know, the rest of the story in Job.
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So here is God in heaven. You have the angels that are in assembly before him.
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And then you have Satan who comes and God is the one who initiates the conversation. Satan has no authority before God.
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And God asks him what you've been doing. He says, walking to and fro. And that's a verse that's going to come back to us in the
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New Testament. This to and fro business. And then God says, have you considered my servant Job?
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And that begins the whole book. And you know how the painful many chapters and then the end, which is glorious.
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But Satan is in the presence of God only because he's called there. And then
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First Chronicles, 21, 1. And and I want you to just think about this for a moment.
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So Satan is the head of the demons. And there, Israel is the covenant people of God, whom
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God has chosen out of all the nations in order to that they may proclaim his excellencies in a dark world.
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And there, Satan, the adversary now comes against those people. And he incites. And I want you to just keep that in mind.
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He incites them in order to do a census and shake off their trust and dependence upon God in their action.
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So that's what Satan did here in First Chronicles. Now, next, Zechariah 3, 1. And this is one of those other aspects of Satan, which is he is an accuser.
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And we see that in other texts in the New Testament as well. And he here comes before Joshua.
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And then you if you remember the passage in Zechariah, this Joshua is given clothes of righteousness and then
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Luke 10, 18. And here is these 70 disciples that go out.
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They preach the word and they're like, you know, the demons obey us as they go forth in the authority of Christ.
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And then you get to see how Christ talks about the falling of Satan from the skies as God's kingdom goes forth.
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And this is just a little precursor as we look at what happens in the lifetime of Christ when
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Satan and his authority is taken away. All right.
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So this is for Satan. Now, we have a few other names for Satan. One is the devil, which we see only in the New Testament.
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Unless you look in the Septuagint, you have the serpent. We have Beelzebul. We have the ruler of the world and the evil one,
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Prince of the power of the air. These are all various names talking about the devil. But I want us to just quickly read them. So we have these again in the forefront of our mind before we apply it.
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So I need several people to just sign up. Maybe I might need more than one verse per person.
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So I'm going to read the verse. Just tell me who's going to read this. Matthew 4, 1. Did I see a hand?
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Natalie. And then Matthew 13, 39. Corey.
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Matthew 25, 41. Haley. Revelation 12, 9.
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And then Revelation 20, verse 2. Charlie again.
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All right. So let's let's go through this section. This is the devil that refers to Satan as the devil.
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Matthew 4, 1. This is right after the baptism.
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Christ is here. His beginning is kingdom ministry. And then you have the spirit of God taking
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Jesus into the wilderness in order to be tempted by whom? The devil.
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So here is what? Let me let me back. I will. You'll see other words that explain why the devil is doing this.
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Matthew 13, 39. This is you remember the parable where the wheat and the wheat and the tares and the weeds are the sons of the evil one.
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It's kind of important to understand. And then the enemy who sold them is the devil. And it kind of gives you a little bit of an understanding as you go out into the world.
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And as you interact with the world system, what is happening in the observable world that we see as there is a sower, not the sower of the word, but the sower of the weed.
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Matthew 25, 41. Unbelief in in people results in condemnation and unbelief in the angelic realm.
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The devil has an eternal condemnation. Likewise. And the devil will go there at the end.
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Revelation 12, 9. Did you notice all the four terms talking about the devil, dragon, Satan, devil?
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What was the other one? Serpent. And we're going to see that next. And his casting doubt with his angels is described in Revelation 12,
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Revelation 22 and Revelation 20, Millennium. Before it starts, you have this complete binding of Satan and his forces where they will have zero influence on the earth.
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Now they do, even though they no longer inhabit heaven, though they some of them are consigned to chains and others have influence on this world.
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And even after Christ coming, his power is he's a defanged person, but he's still very active and influential.
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And but it's that thousand year period. We will see that he has zero influence because God completely restrains him in the bottomless pit.
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OK, that's the devil. Now, the serpent. I need several more hands. Well, let's start with this.
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Genesis three, one. Josh, Second Corinthians, 11, three people,
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Anthony, Revelation 12, nine. Thank you.
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Actually, you know what? Let's skip that. We just read that. So we'll just we'll just read these two verses. Genesis three, one first.
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And this is the entry of evil into the world. And so here you have Satan coming in the form of a serpent.
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And the serpent is a is a designation that you will see carried through. So the next verse that we read will will see that in the
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New Testament. So Second Corinthians, 11, three, you're already getting to see a sense of the reason why we need to be very watchful of this enemy.
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Eve created in the state of Adam and Eve. They were created in a state where they did not have inherent sin, nothing inwardly to cause them to stumble.
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They had freedom, the true free will, if you will, the way most people like to think of free will to both follow after God or not.
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And here comes the devil. And if you remember Genesis three, I'm not going to spend too much time on this. The wilds of the devil.
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And if you just look at Genesis three, he doesn't come on and say God is a liar. He comes and says, you know, did
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God really say this? I was just a little bit of a doubt that was sown there. And then as that progression happens,
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Eve is kind of slowly drawn into the scheme of this deceiver. And before she knows it,
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Satan's got it right where he wants. And he says, you shall surely not die.
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This is a direct contradiction of what God had said before. When you eat of it, you shall die. And but he didn't just come out and say that.
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He just came on to saying, did God really say you should not eat of it? What did he say?
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Every tree in this garden, since I've started it, let me make sure
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I say the right words here. So Genesis three, one did God actually say you shall not eat of any tree in the garden?
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Very innocent question, it seems like. And before she knows it, she's down floored by him. And then we saw in the passage that Anthony read.
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This is really our danger today. You and I face this same dangerous adversity.
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And he's not going to come out and say, you know, I'm the devil. Follow me and you shall have riches forever. He's going to come very deceitfully to to trap you and snare you and to keep you from worshipping
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God. The next title is Beelzebul. So I need a few more words. Hands, please. Matthew 10, 25.
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Thank you, Jenny. Matthew 12, 24. I saw a hand. Yes. And then Luke 11, 15.
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Thanks, Larry. So we'll start with Matthew 10, 25. Here you have the son of God called falsely accused of being
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Beelzebul. We'll talk about what that means in a moment. Matthew 12, 24. Their thought is authority.
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You know, God has authority over his beings. And when Jesus does all these mighty works among the demons and they don't like Jesus, they don't want to accept his claim that he is the
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Messiah, the one who was sent by God. Maybe he has authority over the demons because he is the
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Lord of the demons. There when they call him Beelzebul, they're calling him Satan. And then
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Luke 11, 15. OK, so Beelzebul is the origins of the term.
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Baal was the worship of the God that the Philistines worship. And there is a couple of different ways in which people think of Beelzebul.
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Beelzebul is Lord of the Flies. You probably heard the book that has this interpretation of the name and something that the
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Israelites would mock the Philistine God, this idolatrous pagan
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God that the Philistines worship by saying, yeah, he's the Lord, but he's a lot of the flies. And but that's a name that stuck on.
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And that's what you see in the New Testament when referring to Satan himself, Beelzebul.
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And the Pharisees would call Jesus that, but referring actually to Satan. And then let's do a few more verses and then we'll get into the application.
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He's also called the ruler of this world. So John 12, 31. John 14, 30.
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Thanks, Anthony. And John 16, 11. So John 12, 31. John 14, 30.
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John 16, 11. The ruler of this world. And that's how Satan is referred to.
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You want to be thinking when you see the word world here referring to the evil world system that is aligned under Satan and actively opposing
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God. And one of the things you need to be thinking of here is he who's not with me is against me.
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There is this sense in which people who are not card holders with the Satan party are belonging to this world system.
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They are under him, under his authority and freely doing his will, sometimes completely unaware what they are signed up for, but they are gladly and willingly doing so.
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There is another verse. I'm going to just read this myself. Ephesians 2, 2. I'll start with verse one.
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You were dead in that in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air.
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So that's another term that is used for Satan, prince of the power of the air. The spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience among whom we all once walked.
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So this gives you a little bit of the sense of what Satan is. As you think of all these various scriptures, this is his origin.
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These are his ways in which he operates. This is the kind of influence. Yes, this is how he sows weed.
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This is how he comes and deceives the people of God. He's also called the evil one. Now we see that Satan is a source, originator of evil.
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Genesis three, we talked about Eve and the fall. We see this also in second
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Corinthians 11 three. We see this in John eight. You are of your father, the devil.
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He is the one who was a murderer from the beginning. He is the one who was a liar from the beginning.
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When he lies, he speaks of his own resources, if you will. So here is
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Satan, who is the originator of sin. And we want to be thinking of that because many, many times we think of sin, which we freely and willingly do because of our fallen nature in Adam that we have.
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But when Jesus confronts those who oppose him in John eight, he directly ties that back to the father of those who oppose him.
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He says, you don't belong to Abraham. You don't belong to God. You belong to the devil because he is the one who is the originator of lies.
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And he is the one who is a murderer. And you want to murder me. Now, demons goal is to try and oppose every work of God.
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If you see you and me as handiwork of God in Ephesians two, you know, he redeemed us.
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He has created this path that we must walk forth in them. And that is the work of God in our lives, that he would take this rejects, if you will, bring them and reconcile them to himself, give them a new position and a standing, and then set this path before us, enable us by his spirit that we would walk.
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And then you get to see the handiwork of God in each of our lives here. What is the enemy's desire among us?
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It is to what hinder and obstruct as much as he can. So many, many times when
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I think of trials, I look at it from my perspective and God's perspective. And as I rightly ought to, some trials are of my own making.
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My sin leads me down or brings me into those paths. And the
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Lord, by his grace, quickens me to them. And I wake up and I say, Lord, you sovereignly allowed these things to happen.
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Help me now. I need your help. I can't get out of this. And as I draw on strength from the Lord, I walk and I learn and I grow.
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And as I mature as a Christian, even God uses that in that part that he has created for me, where he makes me more and more conformed to the image of his son as he works out the draws out of my life.
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So I think of trials properly, biblically, when I do that. But there's one thing that I completely miss out, which is the role of demons actively in my life.
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I have a lot of scripture, but I also want to have some discussions here. So I want to take some discussions and we'll go to some scriptures if needed.
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Now, in your sanctification. So let's say you're tempted in whatever way. Just think of maybe the top two or three areas you're tempted in and you struggle with.
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What is your greatest motivation to resist the temptation and walk in the path that God has for you while you're facing that temptation?
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So what would just say out loud? What are some of the things that give you great motivation to resist the temptation and walk in the path that God would have you choose?
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So you have any time you come to a temptation, you at least have to the way of the Lord and the way your way when you're if you're sending.
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What gives you the greatest motivation to follow the Lord in the midst of your temptation?
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Yes. Excellent. And in fact, you know, this is one of the things
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I'm going to go to that verse next. And maybe I'll do that right after I speak here. You know, there is a position that every believer has.
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There is a heart of gratitude that every believer ought to look back to because any at any time
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I'm facing temptation. I am wanting to fall headlong into that. Fake allure, just like the
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Satan deceived Eve. Here is the fruit. It's it looks good. It looks like it may be tasty.
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It looks like it'll give me knowledge. There is this temptation that promises to satisfy. But I need to remember that I am anchored in the sonhood or daughterhood that I have in Christ.
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I'm anchored in the gratitude for what God has done for me. And I need to make my choices that reflect who
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I am in Christ. And that's how I need to move forward. But let me let me take a few more.
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Yes, Charlie. You know, actually, that's really where I wanted to go, which is when I sin,
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I am in the presence of God. Or I think you put it even more powerfully because of the indwelling presence of the
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Holy Spirit. I am taking him with me to places where I ought not to go. And this is really where I want us to think about God and the devil.
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When I am tempted. I very often forget that God is right there in my midst.
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The choice that I'm going to make is not hidden from anyone else. My wife may not know it.
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My boss may not know it. My neighbors may not know it. But the choice that I make,
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I have the very God of heaven in my presence. And that's the weight of the sin that I commit when
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I'm tempted. And I think just remembering that God is with me will help me think rightly about choosing between trusting the
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Lord or following after my own sinful desires. But let me just carry that a little bit further.
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What about the devil? Especially if it is a sin that has been motivated or influencing you in order to take that path that Eve did in your own choice that lies before you.
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The Bible talks about not giving a foothold for the devil as we sin.
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Whether it is anger, whether it is lust, whether it is patterns or sinful behavior that we do.
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We actually are, when I say we, I'm talking about believers. I'm not talking about unbelievers. We as believers are giving a foothold for the devil in our lives.
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I was trying to picture what this might look like. You know, first and foremost, we need to remember that we have God dwelling in us and we ought to be taking sin very seriously.
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Especially sin that is patterns. And we ought not to say, oh, that's just me. This is something that God has redeemed me out of.
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He has given me the power to resist sin. And I am with God when
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I am in the press. God is here in my midst when
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I'm tempted and I choose to sin. When it comes to the devil, I was like,
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I'm not going a Frank Peretti on you. But this is the image that just kept coming into my head.
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It's like, I think yesterday we were watching some nature show on TV and they go into this caves.
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They go in and out and then they come into this huge cavern. And then, you know, it's just the two of us in this big
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Cayman Island, you know, stalactite, stalagmite thing. And then they zoom in the camera on the top and there's this bat hanging from the top.
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And the guy's like, oh, and then, of course, the bat conveniently flaps down. And then, you know, and when
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I was saying, you know, bats have those little crevices and those things in which to, you know, hang their hooks and then like give you this nice little thing.
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Hi, I'm here. You just don't see me. And if you have like I was just thinking, you know, what if they just made the whole thing out of marble?
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This is completely smooth. There's really no hooks for the bat to hang on. That's really what we are doing.
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Every time I choose to say, you know, I'm going to let this in my pets and kind of linger and stay.
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Firstly, this could actually be demonically there to thwart the work of God in your life.
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And here are these crevices that are being made. And here are these bats, if you will, hanging from there.
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And just think about that for a moment. If I were to just bear my soul and all I can see are these crevices that have been created, that the devil just has his hooks on me, if you will.
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And I am just this unsuspecting we're unsuspecting traveler just being sliding down this road.
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So I wanted to rethink your trials and their temptations one more time, this time looking at it. Not just as how a child of God would choose to volitionally disregard the work of God in our lives, but being aware of the influence of the devil in our lives.
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I wanted to think now of what Jesus told Peter when he called him
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Satan. Do you remember the event? Peter makes his great confession, you are the
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Christ, the son of the living God. And then Jesus tells him, flesh and blood has not revealed this to you. But my father who is in heaven, there is this divine revelation to Peter.
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Peter's like, who, who? And then Jesus says, I'm going to go. I'm going to be crucified, beaten and scourge, and I'm going to be killed.
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And he's like, no, no, no, Lord, this shall not happen to you. And what did
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Jesus say? Get behind me, Satan, for you do not have the things of God in your mind.
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Why did he call him Satan? That seems like a really harsh thing.
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And this is in front of everybody. He didn't give him a private tribute. Why did he call him Satan? You need to be thinking very carefully here.
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What was the thrust of what Peter was saying? You know, the cross? No, that far be it from you.
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Think again, Genesis three, the fruit. It's just a very flavorful thing.
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Don't keep yourself from it. It'll it'll give you wisdom and knowledge and make you like God. Here are some things from a human plane.
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You take Eve or Peter looks like a good thing to do. You know, fruit is good for my eyes and it will give me knowledge.
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Cross bad thing. You're the king. You need a messiah. You need to be ruling in heaven. I want to protect you from all the evil that is to come.
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And deceptively, here was the schemes of the devil being worked out in both of their lives. And God checks the work of Satan in Peter's life by calling it out and exposing it for what it is, which is we need the will of the father.
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And that's what we'll be aligned to. And now ask yourself the question, what are the schemes of the devil in your life?
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And in my life, we need to be super cautious of, you know, after I started reading this.
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I was like, you know what? Sin is not anything to be trifled with. I can just say this in it can go.
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I can pick it up tomorrow. There is. Powers of the darkness of the air that are at work, especially in the life of believers, in order to plot the work of God in your life.
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And every time we give in to their work in our lives, we are just building those crevices for the work of the devil to happen.
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So I want you to turn with me to first Peter. And I want to read a couple of verses for you just to give you a thrust for how we must resist the devil.
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So while I'm while we are turning that any thoughts that you have, because I realize
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I'm woefully out of time again. First, first.
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So the passage I'd like you to turn to is first Peter five, six. Yes, Charlie. I think that's that's excellent.
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Where's everyone able to hear what Charlie said? OK, so. And there's two things I want to just bring out there.
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One of them is, if you remember, Peter has his own motives, which he thinks are good.
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But he needs to listen to what the word of God that Jesus had just spoken and submit his thinking under the word that Christ has spoken.
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And for us today, it is the word of God. If I think something is good and it goes contrary to the word,
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I need to remember that this is true and I'm not I can be deceived. But the word of God is always infallible.
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And I need to say, well, in my way, this seems like the right way. Maybe I can get a shortcut out of my trial.
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Maybe I can get into a quick sanctification if I just do this or that. But if the word of God says, hey, we just say, amen.
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We want to submit to God's word in order that we may not be deceived by the tricks of the wily one.
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But the second thing you said, and I didn't have time to go into this, but it's very crucial. God alone is omnipresent.
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Satan lives in only one place at a time. So do his demons. God is omni -scient.
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Which should be scarier if we attempted, because I don't have to actually physically commit a sin.
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God knows that as I'm actually concocting it in my heart. The devil does not know that. Please be sure that you get this right.
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The devil does not know that you are concocting a sin in your heart. He might be doing all these things so that your mind is going in that direction.
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But how can he know that you've actually gone down that path when you actually commit that sin? So, and he observes you, even if you're the only one committing that sin and nobody else does.
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So you need to be thinking about Satan by no means.
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He is a created being. He has none of the divine attributes that God has, but he is an extremely powerful being.
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And that's why even when angels, and angels are more powerful than demons, but even when they deal with the devil, they are very careful with what they say and limit themselves to their spheres of influence.
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And that's why, you know, we don't talk about casting out demons. We don't talk about rebuking the devil. We don't talk about all that.
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But there is one thing we must do, and that's in 1 Peter 5, and that's beginning in verse 6.
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If someone can read 1 Peter 5 verses, let's just read from 6 to 9 and we'll wrap with this.
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Who can read that? Oh, thank you. 1
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Peter 5 verses 6 to 9. Very quickly, verse 5 here talks about God opposing the proud.
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We need to be extremely cautious of our own standing before God. That was the fall of Satan and his minions.
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They were putting themselves higher than where they ought to be, and God opposes the proud, but give grace to the humble.
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So we need to have this heart of humility as we come before the hand of God, whether it is a hand to bless us or a hand to cause us trial.
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We need to be sure that we wait under him when it doesn't seem easy, because at the proper time, he will exalt you according to his sovereign pleasure.
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And while you're going through these trials and temptations, instead of looking for your quick, easy solution out of them, you need to cast your anxieties upon him.
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He's not a crutch like the unbelievers would like to have you think, but rather he is one who deeply cares for you.
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He cares for you more than your closest friend, more than anyone else that lives here on this planet, and he knows your temptation and your trial in a way that no one else can know.
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Pastor Mike has been talking about how Jesus has been tempted in all ways as we are in yet without sin. He knows the intimate challenge of being tempted in a way that nobody else knows.
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I might be tempted in the same area as you, but your temptation is different than mine. I'm built in a different framework, but God knows that.
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And he cares for you because he has saved you. He is watching over every step, every misstep that you make in order that he may accomplish his good purpose.
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But there is something, be sober minded, be watchful. This is something that, you know, this is war language.
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And I didn't have time to go to Ephesians 6. I'd like you to read the armor of God and the powers that we are wrestling with.
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We don't wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers. This is not just a game we are in. This is a war.
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Every believer is in a battle the moment you are born into the kingdom of God. And you need to remember that while you engage in the life that God has placed for you.
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Sober minded, watchful. Your adversary, the devil adversary is Satan. He prowls about like a roaring lion.
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I've had a dream when I thought I was in this street and there was a lion literally walking in the street. And I can tell you,
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I always say, oh lion, no big deal. But it took a dream for me to get terrified out of my head.
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And you need to remember that's what he is. He is there to ravage and tear and destroy. You might have heard about the woman who was killed a few weeks back in South Africa.
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It's like this is not a joke that the scripture is warning us about. There is a very real and dangerous enemy who is out there prowling and he is seeking to devour.
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And then in verse 9 you have the instructions for you. Resist him. Resist him.
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You submit to God earlier in the passage and now you resist him. How? Firm in your faith.
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You need to anchor yourself. And I think that's what Gary was alluding to. You need to anchor in who, what
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God has done on your behalf. Knowing that the same kind of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world.
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No matter what kind of devious schemes that the enemy has against you, you have the word of God and the work of God in your life.
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And if you go through the armor of God, you have some things that you put on and keep on all the time, like the belt, the breastplate, the shoes.
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And you have some things that you take on, like the shield and the sword, which is the word of God. Those are your things that you quench the darts of the fiery one.
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And so as we close today, I just want you to keep this in mind. You know, the pagans might look at God and say, you know,
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I don't see him or I don't care. We need to be resisting the enemy because he is very active in our lives today.
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Keep your eyes upon Christ. You remember 1 Peter 5 begins with submit to God, cast your anxieties upon him.
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He cares for you and he will lift you up. I'm sorry we didn't get to cover everything here.
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Any burning questions before we close? That's one way to make sure
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I don't get a question. All right, let's let's pray. Our loving and gracious father, Lord, we thank you that he who is in us is greater than he who is in the world.
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I thank you for your powerful work of redemption. Your gracious work of providence and sanctification in each of our lives.
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I pray that you would guard and protect us even this morning, Lord, as we worship. I pray that our hearts and minds would be filled with who you are and your goodness, your goodness that protected
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Job from the hands of the enemy and your hand that is very active in our lives today.
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Help us to worship you as we truly are with grateful hearts and with thankfulness.