(Clip) Resisting the devil — Tim Dilena

Temptation’s Relentless and Personal Assault

Temptation knows your price. Temptation knows where you are defenseless and susceptible and will relentlessly keep making offers to your soul. That's what temptation does. It keeps knocking, making the offers, upping the ante.

There is a promise about these relentless offers that gives me hope in the book of Isaiah. Here's what it says. Isaiah 54, 17. No weapon that is formed against you, hallelujah, will prosper. Folks, I don't know about you, but that's good news today.

But it's very interesting to me that the word formed is a very personal word. The word formed, when it says no weapon formed against you, that word actually means tailor-made, custom-built. It's a word for someone that was used for ordering pottery and wants it made to order.

And what Isaiah is doing, he's giving us a sobering warning that every battle you face and I face, get this now, is custom-built for us and where you're at in your heart and soul. Which means they are demonically engineered weapons made specifically to harm you and go after your weakest areas.

These aren't random things coming against you, folks. These temptations are demonically engineered. For some, it's intellect. You get so buried in intellect, you lose faith. For some, it's fear, fear of hell, fear of dying.

For others, it's loneliness and even a fear of being lonely. For others, it's greed and this desire to be rich because all your family is known is to be in poverty. For others, it's lust and it's the chains of pornography.

And here's the bad news. Satan goes after your most vulnerable spot. That's the bad news. That's the tailor-making. But here's the good news. No weapon formed against you has to prosper. Let's make sure today that we figure out and know what the Bible says about winning what we would call spiritual warfare.

See, temptation is fighting the tailor-made offers and attractions. Let me say that again. Spiritual warfare, as we're dealing with this, is temptation, get this now, is fighting those tailor-made offers and attractions.

Jesus’ Temptation and the Power of the Holy Spirit

Now, I want to say something to you that I had to just kind of keep digesting. Get this now, you're going to see it. In order for temptation to be temptation, it has to attract me. It has to have something I want.

Now, for some of you are going like, well, of course, that's it. But folks, this is what makes it even more difficult to understand. Jesus' three temptations would not be temptations if there wasn't something there that the enemy wasn't going after.

He was trying to lure Jesus in Matthew chapter 4. And that's hard to say because I'm just going, Jesus would be invincible. But because Jesus was tempted in all points as we are, listen to it, Hebrews 4 .15, we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are.

But here's the good news, yet he did not sin. See, the old Puritan writer said it like this, the devil had an apple for Eve, a grape for Noah, a change of raiment for Gehazi, silver for Judas. We can keep adding to that.

He had raiment and gold bars for Achan. He can dish out his meal to all palates. That's the tailor-made part of that. He knows what is going to be the thing that will begin to hit those vulnerable and susceptible areas.

But the good news is not that they don't have to prosper, but the good news gets a little bit better. Get ready, this is good news. The same presence and power of the Holy Spirit who enabled Jesus to resist, hallelujah, resides in every Christian.

But sometimes I have to remember that the same Spirit who enabled Christ to overcome and resist temptation, that Holy Spirit resides in you if you're a born-again Christian. And folks, I can't say it any other way.

The day you become a Christian, you are an enemy of hell. Temptation begins to come your way. In 1 Peter 5 .8, Satan is given a description that makes me shudder. He's called a roaring lion who is looking for a meal.

Listen to it. Be of sober spirit and be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour, seeking someone to devour means Satan is not only on a mission, but he's on a mission to destroy.

And here's what I have determined. Here it comes now, church. This is what I have determined going forward. I don't want to be the devil's next meal. Folks, let me put it to you this way. The first warning that the fire is waning is when you are lukewarm.

Spiritual Vigilance and Fellowship Against the Devil

Some of you are going like, I've heard about that in Revelation 3. Let me explain to you what lukewarm is. Best definition, here it is. Lukewarm means this. I still believe in God. I'm just not that excited about Him anymore.

Folks, look at me. Look at me for a second. You know how you know the fire is waning? Is if you can sit here when people are calling out and you're sitting here with your hands in your pocket or by your side and people are calling.

Folks, let me just tell you something. When we start calling on God, I'm the most desperate man in this place because I know that lion lurks. If you want to sit there and look sophisticated, then God, I was going to not bless you, God help you.

Because outside these doors, those lions are lurking and looking for some. Folks, I'm telling you, the greatest way you can keep a fire going is lift those hands, lift those voice, ask God just to come.

And listen, stay in fellowship. Don't be a straggler that doesn't think you need the family of God. This is your herd. This is your herds. This is the one that you're next to. You need them. Because sometimes when we don't see the pounce, the lurking there, we need each other.

I don't want to be the devil's next meal. I don't want to be that. The devil prowls looking for those operating by themselves, the stragglers who have distanced themselves from the people of God. He's looking for those who have let the fire go out.

The devil is out to devour the easiest, the young, the old, the sick, and the careless. And the devil will lie in wait and pounce. There has to be a fight in us. There has to be weapons against this. We are in a battle.

But with God, this battle can be won. The great Scottish preacher Robert Murray McShane said this. He says, I know well that when Christ is nearest, Satan is also the busiest. Thank God he is close to us.

God’s Faithful Way of Escape from Temptation

But the scariest thing is that the whisper of temptation sometimes can be heard much easier than the loudest call to duty. And I'm going to give you a call to duty today. And this verse is so powerful in the fight over temptation.

It's probably the verse I've leaned upon in so many different ways. Here's what it says. Paul says it like this. Here's your call to duty. No temptation has overtaken you, but such as is common to man.

And God is faithful. Folks, here comes the good news. Who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation. This is good news. Will provide the way of escape so that you will be able to endure.

Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Here's what we're being told. Get this now. You can never be delivered from being tempted, but you can experience victory from giving into temptation. Folks, listen. You are going to be tempted until you get to heaven.

Let's just be honest. When you get saved, folks, the sensitivity goes up in us spiritually. But that temptation is always going to come. See, here's the good news. Second part's good news. Christ was tempted, so we will be tempted.

Christ overcame, so we can overcome. That's the good news about this. Let me just for a moment, just to kind of get us thinking this way, just put it in a little bit of today's language. Listen to it in Ken Taylor's version, the paraphrase of the Living Bible.

Ken says it like this. He says, but remember this. The wrong desires that come into your life aren't anything new and different. We all get them. Many others have faced exactly the same problems before, and no temptation, hallelujah, is irresistible.

And then he says this. You can trust God to keep the temptation from becoming so strong that you can't stand up against it. For he has promised this and will do what he says. He will show you how to escape temptation's power so that you can bear up patiently against it.

Hallelujah. That's good news to make. With the temptation at your face, God says this, I'm faithful that I'll provide a way out of this thing. That it's not the end, does not have to be you become the devil's next meal.

The Word of God as the First Weapon

So let me give you three tools, and we'll go through this fast, the escape route out of this. Here it is. Let me talk to you about that providing the way of escape. So here's the first one, number one, because this is so key.

Number one, the word of God. Here it is, folks. Listen. Jesus, in Matthew chapter four, comes face to face with Satan in what is called the three temptations. And folks, I believe Jesus was setting a precedent for us.

He was saying I'm about to fight Lucifer, not some devil from hell or a demon, but I'm fighting Lucifer himself, Satan himself. And Jesus shows us plainly how victory comes. Now listen. If you're finding yourself constantly hearing the knock and unbolting the door, I want you to understand this.

There is, you can get all the counseling you want. Folks, you can show up to church all you want. You can get people laying hands on you, not just anointing with oil. They can pour Crisco on you until you are doused with oil.

But I'm telling you, if you don't have this part of your life, you can't win that knock. You'll answer the door. Folks, you cannot, okay, here it is. Get this down. Let me really make you mad. A wordless Christian is a powerless Christian.

If you don't have, if you think that you've just eating on Sunday is enough to keep the door locked when Satan keeps coming and with the tailor-made, demonically engineered invites, and if you think we have to, it's impossible.

Folks, let me say it to you this way. If Jesus needed the word of God to defeat the devil, what makes you think you can win without it? Here it comes, here it is. Three times Jesus said to the devil, it is written.

Folks, he went back to the word every single time. And here's what's amazing. Because Jesus, what he does is something that is just amazing. Because he says to Satan three times, it is written, it is written, it is written.

And Jesus says, let me set the precedent for you. I'll do it out of one book of the Bible. So if you're gonna do that, I'm going like, man, New Testament wasn't written at this time. So I'm going like, go Psalms.

Go Proverbs. That'll take him out. You know what Jesus does? He says it is written three times in all three passages. Man shall not live by bread alone. You shouldn't tempt the Lord God. You know where they all come from?

Deuteronomy. I can't even spell it. I had to look at it, I had to go, wait, is it U before E or E before U? And Jesus goes, Jesus goes, I'm gonna choose a book that every one of you are trying to skip through the Bible in a year.

And Jesus goes, no, no, no, don't skip that. Because what you think doesn't matter. If those words come out of my mouth, then those words have power to set you free. You can declare it is written. And God, I'm telling you, will bring the victory every single time.

Prayer as Preparation for Spiritual Battle

Okay, number two, here it is. I don't know why I'm yelling number two. Number two, prayer. Jesus was in one of the most vulnerable, second most vulnerable place probably after the wilderness would have been Garden of Gethsemane.

He was fighting the temptation of not drinking the cup of pain that would lead him to the cross. The agony, the loneliness was so intense. Luke describes it as sweat turning to drops of blood, that blood vessels were bursting because of the agony and the intensity.

And Jesus, who felt alone, the men that he brought with him that he thought would be praying with him and maybe standing watch with him, fell asleep. And Jesus speaks these words in Matthew 26. Keep watching and praying.

Why? That you may not enter into temptation. Spirit's willing, but the flesh is weak. This is so important. On how important prayer is, the Word keeps the door shut. The Word makes me walk in the right way.

The Word makes me choose the right fork in the road. The great Baptist theologian, R .A. Torrey, said it like this, the reason why many fall in battle is because they wait until the hour of battle. The reason why others succeed is because they have gained their victory on their knees long before the battle came.

They knew that God... Listen, but Jesus even adds one other thing to the prayer part. He says, watch and pray. Keep an eye that you're not finding yourself in areas or in relationships. He says, pray, but you better keep an eye on stuff.

Because remember, that lion lurks. He lurks. Keep an eye on stuff. The problem with some of us is we're looking at everything else around us. What prayer does, it makes me look right at Him and keeps my eyes focused on God.

Submission to God as Resistance to the Devil

I'm going to jump at it fast. And it's this, submission. James chapter 4. James teaches us that binding is not simply done with the mouth, but it's done with the life. It's done with a submissive life.

Listen to it. James 4, 7. Don't miss this. Get this. Submit yourself to God. Resist the devil. And he will... Some of us have the word flee, or he will run away from you. See, if you just go resist the devil and he will...

And I've heard people say that. Resist the devil and he will flee. That's not what it says. The hard part of this... See, I grew up with resist the devil. I bind you, Satan. That's what I grew up with.

No one ever said to me, submit to God. That's the submissionary part. That's the part that takes it simply from the words of your mouth and says it has to do with your life. Submission is hard work, but a powerful one.

Submission is the fighting word to the devil and so easily missed by the Christian. Submission starts with recognizing God's authority. It's when you recognize God as the authority in your life and you're saying, not only is God more powerful than me, but God is wiser than me.

So when I read something in here, I yield to it, or I submit to it. Submission... Let me say it again. Submission says you're smarter than me. So when the Bible says, don't be unequally yoked, what that means is this, you minister to everybody.

But the Bible says light can't have fellowship with darkness. It says, but he loves me. Let me help you. He loves you by his definition. Not by this, 1 Corinthians 13. Love is patient. Love is kind. Love is not selfish.

So we submit to this. So when the Bible says, young lady, when the Bible says, don't get entangled. Don't commit your life to someone who is not a Christian. Here's what submission does. You're wiser than me, God.

Because the knocks are always going to come on the door to try to say, you're not going to be lonely anymore. You're not going to have to be lonely anymore. Remember what we said with temptation? When we look at it, it's not just what it offers.

I've got a man. I've got a husband. I'm going to finally be a mom. And all you're talking about is what it offers. But you never talk about what it's going to take from you. And when God lays something out, God goes, I'm not going to give you all the details.

I'm just going to go, don't be unequally yoked. And I'm not going to go because of A, B, C, D, and E. He says, I need you to trust me that I'm the all-wise God. That I know what I'm doing here. I know what's happening here.

It's impossible to resist the devil in any area if there's not submission to God in every area. Don't miss this. Let me say that again. It's impossible to resist the devil in any area if there's not submission to God in every area.

That's why the greatest binding you can do is by saying yes always to God. Submission to God is the believer's way of binding Satan from their lives. It's the Word of God. You can't win without the Word.

Watching and praying is essential. And our voices are hollow without submission. So the call to duty was this. No temptation overtaking you, which is not common to me. God will always provide a way of escape.

A Call to Repentance, Vigilance, and Freedom

But it's interesting. Before that verse comes, it was as if the Apostle Paul slaps us in the face. He says, let me just remind you here. Listen to 1 Corinthians 10 -12. He says this. Therefore, let him who thinks he stands take heed that he does not fall.

We're going to begin. If you're here today and just say, Pastor, I need the temptations. When I walk out here at my university, at my job, in my apartment, in my country, in my occupation, in my family, they just keep knocking.

It knows my price. It keeps going. It keeps going. And it's hard. I feel like I've lost the brakes. My mouth is saying something. My mind has lost the brakes on this and lost the brakes here. My heart, the fantasies that keep coming of a broken marriage and all you do is fantasize what it would be like to be a single man again.

You fantasize thinking, what is it like when I don't have to be married to them anymore and be responsible? I am speaking to someone in this place right now. And you've lost the brakes because you knew when those divorce thoughts came, you used to put a stop to those things.

But now you've lost the brakes on this. I am telling you, listen, listen! This is your runaway ramp today to stop a divorce that you think, if I can get out of here. It's hard. She doesn't respect me and I'm speaking to a man in this place today.

I'm telling you right now, walk out of this building, you'll file for divorce. Hit the runaway ramp, God will rescue you today. You stand there and know what's happening. And you know that God is speaking to you right now.

This is a day of liberty. It's a day of freedom today. The brakes have been locked, but I'm telling you, this is going to be a day that God is going to get the glory. Victory is going to come back to your lives today.

Victory is going to come back to your lives today. But it takes honesty, it takes transparency, it takes vulnerability to go, I've lost brakes, but I'm taking the runaway ramp today. I'm not going off this cliff.

I'm not going this way. I'm not finding myself. I realize the losses, but I'm going to today, today, today, I'm realizing no weapon formed against me is going to prosper. I'm going to trust God on this.

God, I'm going back to the word. I'm going back to prayer. Listen, there is victory in this house today. God's going to set you free today.