Light on Satan's Tactics — Zac Poonen

Sin Under the New Covenant

So, we've done eight studies on the New Covenant so far. The New Covenant is rarely taught or studied in depth in most of Christendom. And the result is that most Christians live under the Old Covenant.

And we've seen one of the fundamental differences between the Old Covenant and the New Covenant is in the area of sin. In the Old Covenant, you had forgiveness of sins in the new Psalm 103, and in the New Covenant, it says, sin shall not rule over you.

So because you're not under the Old Covenant, but under the New Covenant. That's what Romans 6 .14 says, you're not under law, but under grace. So if you take a simple verse like that, just one verse, Romans 6 .14, sin shall not rule over you, because you're not under law, Old Covenant, but under grace.

So even if you ask a little boy, from that verse, can you tell me who is under the Old Covenant? Those who are defeated by sin. Who's under the New Covenant? Just from that one verse, those who overcome sin.

So never forget that simple definition from Romans 6 .14. For those who have years to hear, that is the difference, fundamental difference. Then we looked at some other things as well about God being our Father.

Satan's Limited Presence in the Old Covenant

I want to take another aspect of the New Covenant, and that is, in the Old Covenant, we rarely see Satan. Right at the beginning, you see Satan in Genesis chapter 3. Then you see Satan in the book of Job, but not on earth, he's in the heavenlies, asking God to irritate Job in some way, permission to trouble Job in some way.

And then once in 1 Chronicles 21, Satan tempted Job to number Israel, and God punished David so severely for numbering Israel, and that is because David was leaning upon the arm of flesh. And Satan tempts people to depend on themselves rather than upon God.

And then finally, you see Satan in Zechariah chapter 3, where he comes as an accuser, and God stands up against him. There's a picture of Jesus there defending us against Satan and his accusations. But otherwise, you never see Satan, no demon-possessed people, you never read about any of the prophets encountering demon-possessed people.

Satan is almost not found in the Old Testament, except these rare instances. In the beginning, Job and Genesis, and then towards the end of the Old Covenant in Zechariah. But when you come to the New Covenant, as soon as Jesus is baptized, the very first thing is his encountering Satan.

And then throughout his ministry, he was casting out demons, and you know one instance where he was in the synagogue, and there was a demon-possessed man there. He was not at all disturbed when the Pharisees had been preaching there for years.

He sat there quietly, but the moment Jesus came and preached, he got all worked up and screamed till Jesus cast him out. And then you find Paul casting out demons, and so Satan is very active in the New Testament.

The Devil's Schemes and Spiritual Warfare

And then we read this great verse in Ephesians chapter 6 about our conflict with Satan. Ephesians 6 and verse 11, put on the full armor of God, that you can stand against the schemes of the devil. The emphasis in the New Testament is not on the power of Satan, but on the schemes and the wiles and the tricks of Satan.

See, many people in the world are afraid that Satan can harm them in some way, but that's not what the New Testament emphasizes. The New Testament emphasizes the devil's deception, and it says you have to stand against the wiles or the deceiving tricks of Satan.

And then we read in verse 12, our struggle is not against flesh and blood. Flesh and blood means against human enemies. We don't fight with human enemies, but we fight against evil rulers and powers. That's one big difference between the Old Covenant and the New Covenant.

If you read in the Old Testament, the book of all the history of Israel, right from the time they left Egypt in the wilderness, they were fighting with human enemies, and they came into the land in Joshua, they were fighting with human enemies, and in the book of Kings and Chronicles, it's constantly fighting with human enemies, and here, there, it's always fighting with human enemies.

And then we come to the New Testament, and Jesus never fought with anyone. They slapped him, he never fought back. And Paul says, we don't fight with human enemies. That's one fundamental difference between Old Covenant and New Covenant.

Refusing Conflict with Human Beings

If you fight with human beings, whether you know it or not, you are under the Old Covenant. You can say you belong to NCCF, New Covenant Christian Fellowship. But you fight with your wife, you fight with your husband, you fight with your brothers, you fight with your sisters, and you fight with your relatives, you are an Old Covenant Christian sitting in NCCF.

We do not fight with flesh and blood. I remember when the Lord baptized me in the Holy Spirit nearly 50 years ago, and I began to get light on some of these things, which I didn't understand before. You know, one of the things the baptism in the Holy Spirit does is bring us into a spiritual realm.

It opens our eyes to a realm which we are not aware of by just intellectual study of the Word. The Old Covenant, they were not aware of these things. And one of the things I saw was the realm of Satan where he tries to deceive people.

And this is the verse the Lord spoke to me and said, if you want to overcome Satan, I remember so clearly what the Lord said to me about 48 years ago, if you want to overcome Satan, determine that you will never, never fight with human beings.

If somebody comes to fight with you, say, I don't want to fight. If it's your wife or husband or neighbor or relative, just say, I don't want to fight. I've had people who come to argue with me about some doctrine.

You know, we preach a lot of doctrines that a lot of Christians don't, most Christian denominations don't preach, even believers. And some of them would have something to argue with. They'd come to my home and argue.

And I say, listen, I'm not going to argue. If you want an explanation of what I believe, I'll do that. But if you're going to argue, I'm not going to argue with you at all. Let's talk about some other subject.

Because I found even that argument can be a fighting with flesh and blood. I want to urge you, my brothers and sisters, get out of arguments. You won't accomplish anything that way. I mean, if God has called you to be a prophet or something to expose some false doctrine, do that.

But otherwise, we should avoid. Most of the arguments people have are about earthly things. What are the arguments people fight about? Entirely earthly things. Don't fight. And the Lord said, if you want to have power over Satan, determine that you will never fight with human beings.

Not about doctrine, not about anything, and certainly not about money or property or all the other wretched things that human beings fight about. Never, never, never. And I have sought in all these, from the time CFC started, to avoid this completely as far as possible.

Because I want to be strong against the schemes of Satan. It speaks here about the schemes, which means the tricks and the wiles of Satan. And there's so many ways in which he'll try to trip you up. See an example of that in Genesis chapter 3.

Satan's Deception and the Distortion of God's Word

The way he came to our ancestor, Adam and Eve. The first thing you notice is that he did not go to Adam. He went to Eve. And the Bible says in 1 Timothy 3, one reason a woman is not allowed to teach or preach in the church, you know the reason?

Because she was deceived, and Adam was not deceived. That's written in 1 Timothy 3. So the devil knew something, that this woman is more prone to be deceived than the Adam. So I won't go to Adam, I'll go to Eve.

And look how he came, you know, asking her to say something, as God said, you can't eat. And the woman said, yeah, we can eat everything except this tree. The Lord told us, see how she added to God's word, you shall not touch it.

God never said anything about touching it. And she spoke, and the Lord said, you will surely die. She modifies it to say you might die. So that was how he came, you know, lowering the standard of God's word.

That's how he came, as God said, questioning God's word. Now, the reason I mentioned that is because Jesus also, when he was tempted, it was with the word of God. The devil told him to turn the stones into bread, and Jesus said, no, God's word says this.

Eve ignored God's word, Jesus quoted God's word. So one of the first things we learned there is, if you want to overcome Satan, first of all, I told you, never fight with human beings. Secondly, get to know God's word.

Know the word of God, which will be appropriate to the particular temptation. Turn the stones into bread. No, God's word says you shall live only by, live by the word of God, not by these, man shall not live by bread alone.

And then the devil quotes God's word to Jesus. That's the other thing we see in our confrontation with Satan, that he will quote God's word to us. See, it says here, misquote God's word. Jump off the temple, because God's word says his angels will take care of you.

It is written. Because Jesus said it is written, the devil says it is written in Matthew 4. And then Jesus said it is also written. So that's the other thing we must remember in overcoming Satan. Satan can try and deceive you with a scripture.

Knowing the Whole Counsel of Scripture

He tried to deceive Jesus with a scripture. He tempted Jesus to commit suicide. Jumping off the truth of the temple is suicide. The angels will protect you. I have met people like that, who say, I don't have to take medicine.

The Lord will heal me. And they die. How many people have come across in India like that, quoting God's word? Jesus is my healer. Paul told even Timothy, if you've got some stomachs infirmities, take some medicine.

But the devil hides those scriptures from us. So when the devil says it is written, you must see what is also written. The truth of scripture is like two wings and a bird. If you have only one wing, you go around in circles.

So there's a balance in scripture. That's why we need to know the whole word of God, if you want to overcome Satan. That's why I encourage people, from the time they're converted, read God's word, read God's word every day.

Become familiar with God's word, so that if you're familiar with God's word, at the time of temptation, the Holy Spirit will bring to your mind the appropriate word, just like he brought the appropriate word to the mind of Jesus.

You can be sure of that. But if you're too lazy to study God's word, then you're not going to get that word in the time of temptation. So we overcome Satan with the word of God. Turn back to Ephesians 6.

Truthfulness as Spiritual Armor

There's an armor given here, it's picture language, how to overcome Satan. It speaks about having loins girt about with truth, verse 14, Ephesians 6, 14. The first thing mentioned there is truth, absolute truthfulness.

Jesus said in John 8, 44, in this connection, John chapter 8, verse 44, he said the devil is a liar. He's been a liar from the beginning. He's the father of lies, John 8, 44. Please remember that and teach that to your children.

In the book of Psalms, it says, children go astray telling lies as soon as they are born. I think that's Psalm 58. Children tell lies as soon as they are born. That's amazing. So one of the first things we have to teach our children, to protect them from Satan's attacks as they grow up, is to speak the truth.

Because it says in John 8, 44, the devil is the father of lies. So how shall we overcome Satan? Speak the truth. In the Old Testament, there was not such an emphasis on this. The commandment was, don't tell a lie when you're swearing in court.

You know, they put your hand on the Bible, say, I swear to speak the truth, then speak the truth. But the commandment didn't say you must always speak the truth. But in the New Testament, it says you must always speak the truth.

Never tell a lie. Because the devil is the father of lies. That light was not there in the Old Testament. So you see the significance, the importance given in the New Testament to confronting Satan. So you've got to be very careful in your life because, you know, in offices, for example, in certain situations, you can sign a false statement, make a little more money, and you don't realize that it's the devil who's tempting you to sign that false statement, make a little more money.

What do you gain? A little more money. Whatever you lost, some area of your life, the devil has got a hold there. It's like some part of your life, the devil's got it. And that'll affect you. It'll affect your family.

So we've got to be very alert in this. The other area where the devil warns us about Satan is in Ephesians 4. Ephesians chapter 4, it says here, in verse 27, don't give the devil an opportunity. In what context is he saying that?

Righteous Anger and Giving the Devil No Opportunity

Anger, verse 26. Be angry. When should we be angry? When was Jesus angry? He was angry on two occasions. One when he saw people making money in the house of God. There are lots and lots of people today in Christendom who's always asking for money, money, money, money.

Christendom is full of preachers and pastors and all types of denominations who ask people to give money and become rich off the offerings of others. And when Jesus saw that in the temple, it says he sat down, read in John chapter 2, he sat down and made a whip and chased those people.

There are other ways to chase them out. He could have said, will you gentlemen please move out from here. This is not the place to do that. You'd think that's a decent way you should do it. I have a feeling some of the disciples not understanding may have gone to Jesus and said, Lord, calm down, calm down.

Don't get so angry with these people. That is how blind those disciples would have been. But Jesus did get angry. When it comes to money in the house of God, if you're not angry, you're not following Jesus.

The second area where Jesus was angry was, you read in Mark chapter 3, when they did not want a man with a withered hand to be healed on the Sabbath day. Some ritual, Sabbath, you can't do these things.

You can't do good to another person on Sabbath day. And that's another way that Jesus was angry when they exalted a ritual over a needy person's need. So these are warnings to us. So that's why you can be angry.

The command is to be angry, but don't sin. All other anger, other than these two things I mentioned, are sin, any other type of anger. If you're angry for standing up for being righteous with money in the house of God, it's right.

If you're angry because somebody is not compassionate towards others who are in need, that's okay. But when it comes to your own self, when they slapped Jesus and spat on him, he was never angry. If people insult you, do you know that they call Jesus the prince of devils?

He wasn't angry. If you're angry when somebody calls you a bad name, you are not following Jesus Christ. Let's face up to it. You're offended. The devil gets power over you. Be angry, but don't sin. Because if you do, verse 27, you will give the devil an opportunity to get into your life.

The Sword of the Spirit and Disciplined Bible Study

So, there are a number of things here that we've seen in relation to Satan and the weapon God gives us. Have you noticed in Ephesians 6, if you read carefully, in Ephesians 6, what is called the armor of God, all the things mentioned there are defensive.

The loins girt with truth, and the breastplate, and the feet shod, and the shield of faith. Everything is defensive, defensive, except one weapon, offensive, and that is the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God.

So that's an important passage there in Ephesians 6, 17, the helmet of salvation, again, defensive, but the sword of the spirit. There's only one offensive weapon with which we can attack Satan, and that is God's word.

And that's why the devil will not encourage you to be faithful in studying and meditating on God's word. I'll tell you, your life will change. I know my life changed when I began a disciplined study of God's word.

From the time I was born again and baptized, every morning I would get up. I was, what, 23 years old, and I was in the naval base, and I would get up in the morning, kneel down and pray, and then take my Bible and my notebook and spend quite a bit of time studying God's word, and then go to work, and then come back at night, again sit down and study God's word, and then kneel down and pray, and then go to bed.

And in six months, I really got to know the scriptures. I did that every single day, and it protected me from so many temptations. I was a young man. God protected me from numerous things, and I want to encourage you, teach your children to study God's word, meditate on it.

It will protect them from Satan as they grow up.