Knowing Satan's Schemes — Zac Poonen

Satan's Opposition to the Church

This verse, Matthew 16, verse 18, that I will build my church in the gates of hell, and will.

Not prevail against it. We see the gates of hell as the powers of spiritual darkness, the powers of Satan. And Satan is a deceiver.

And we must recognize it's very easy for us to be deceived. Believers are being deceived everywhere. Satan doesn't come with a dark face, he comes as an angel of light. And Pete Paul once said in 2 Corinthians 2,.

Verse 11, the last part, we are not ignorant of his schemes.

We must not be ignorant of Satan's tactics. And that's why the Bible tells us something about Satan, which they never knew in the old covenant. There are some things written in the Old Testament about the origin of Satan.

And if we study that, we will see something about his tactics. So, we want to be alert to the way in which Satan will seek to enter our life or our home or our church. If you are ignorant of Satan and how he became the devil and all that, then he can deceive you.

Satan's Origin in Ezekiel 28

So, let's look at two passages in the Old Testament about the origin of Satan. First of all, in Ezekiel chapter 28, here the Lord says to Ezekiel, verse 12, take up a lamentation over the king of Tyre.

And the king of Tyre was the devil, who dwelt inside the earthly king. And you see that very clearly when he says in verse 13, you were in Eden, the garden of God. In verse 14, you were the anointed cherub that covers.

In the last part of verse 12, you had the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. It's obviously referring to Satan. And he says, I placed you, verse 14, on the holy mountain of God.

And verse 15, you were blameless in your ways. So, there was a time when Satan was an anointed angel. And he had so many abilities that God gave him. In verse 17, your heart was lifted up because of your beauty.

And then, I cast you down. So, that's the first thing we need to understand. That Satan became Satan because of pride. Not by murder or adultery or telling lies, but by pride. And not on the outside, it says his heart, 17, was lifted up.

Pride as Satan's First Scheme

Pride begins in the heart. And why was his heart lifted up?

Because God had blessed him in so many ways. He says, because of his beauty.

When you are proud because of your good looks,.

You got a little bit of the devil in you.

When you are proud because you are more intelligent than others, you got a little bit of the devil in you. There's nothing wrong in being beautiful.

Nothing wrong in being intelligent. But when you are proud of your beauty, proud of your intelligence,.

Proud of your wealth, proud of your car or house,.

Or proud of your Bible knowledge, or proud of how spiritual you are, or proud of your church,.

Any type of pride, the devil's got it. Because that's how he became the devil. And along with that pride, we read in Isaiah 14, there was a spirit of rebellion against authority. Isaiah 14, verse 12, How have you fallen from heaven, O star of the morning, son of the dawn?

You've been cut down to the earth. See, that's where you get the word Lucifer. It's from verse 12, star of the morning. Nowhere in the Bible do we get the real name of Satan before he became Satan. He's just called star of the morning and son of the dawn.

Somehow the word Lucifer has stuck to it. Okay, we'll call him that. But he said in his heart, verse 13, I will ascend to heaven, I will raise my throne above the stars of God. I will make myself like the most high, verse 14.

God says you'll be thrust down to hell. Here was pride, and here was a dissatisfaction with the position God had given him. You know, God had made him, even the head of the angels, he was not happy.

He wanted to be like somebody else. He wanted to be like God.

Discontentment and the Temptation to Sin

Whenever you're not happy with the circumstances God has put you in,.

The Bible says be content with what you have.

When you have a spirit of complaint against God for your circumstances or your situation,.

Lord, why have you made me like this? Why have you made me so short? Or so fat? Or so dark?

Or so white? Or why you allowed me to grow up in this family? Why you haven't done this? Why you made my circumstances like this? I want something else. A little bit of the devil. If he don't recognize the schemes of Satan, he will come into us without our knowing it.

He doesn't come saying, Hey, I'm the devil, let me come into you.

He'll come in through just a little pride. Hey, don't you think you're a little more spiritual than those other people? And you say, yes, I think so. I thank God. We don't even realize it's the devil.

And don't you think you're a little more good looking than those other people? Yeah, I think so. Don't you think you're a little cleverer than all those dumb people sitting there? Why don't you thank God for it?

Why don't you thank God? And then you pray, Lord, I thank you that I'm not like other men.

Lord, I thank you that I'm not like other men. That's how the Pharisee prayed. Who prompted it? That wasn't the Holy Spirit. It was the devil.

To puff him up. To make him discontent when the devil makes you discontent with your situation. That's what he made Eve. He made Eve discontent with her situation. Eve, see, God has not allowed you to eat that from that tree.

He's made you unhappy. Come on, take it. Take it. That's how sin came. When God has not given you something which you think you should get.

And you try to get something God has not given you. That's the devil.

We can ask God for anything. If God chooses not to give it to us, we bow and say, Lord, we accept your will.

You know, sometimes it could be a sickness. We pray, Lord, heal me. And for some reason, he doesn't heal. Then you can be like the devil. Then you can be like the devil. Why hasn't God done this? But Paul submitted.

Comparison, Pride, and Jealousy

He said, Lord, I've got the sickness. Heal me. Lord said, no. He said, okay, I'll accept it. So, what have we learned from these few instances? How does Satan come against the church? Who don't come in?

Make you compare yourself with other believers and think you're better? You don't think that's the devil, but it is. That's why I tell people, never compare yourself with others. Always compare yourself with Jesus.

You remember when Peter was walking on the water, he looked at Jesus. He walked. But the moment he turned his eyes away from Jesus, he sank. That's always when we sink. Our eyes are turned away from Jesus to somebody else, something else.

That means we're not satisfied with Jesus Christ. That's not enough, Lord. I want this also.

I want you. Good, I've got you. But I also want this.

You'll be very unhappy. You say, Lord, I'm bound to your will. Give me whatever you think is best for me.

You'll always triumph over Satan. If you're always wanting this, wanting that, you'll be miserable. Or if you try to compare yourself with others and think you're better, again, the devil got it. Because when you compare yourself with others,.

Two things can happen.

One, you may feel you're better than them and become proud. And the devil gets it immediately. Or you can compare yourself with them and they're better than you and you get jealous. He's got a better house than me, a better car than me, a better job than me.

He's got more spiritual gifts than me. His church is better than mine. And he's better than me in so many ways. His children are better than mine. There are so many reasons for jealousy. Or like Cain, the fire of God is falling on him, it's not falling on me.

So kill him. Do you know in Christian circles there's so much of jealousy? They can't bear to see God blessing somebody. When they see God blessing somebody, they try to tear him down and say it's all wrong and false teaching and all types of things.

Looking to Jesus for Humility

So, the gates of hell prevail against the church. When we stop looking at Jesus and start looking at people, and become either proud because we're better than them or jealous because they're better than us, the best thing is not to look at them at all.

Look at Jesus, you'll never be proud, you'll never be jealous. People have asked me, Brother Zach, how can we always remain humble? Because the Bible says, God gives His grace only to the humble. I always want to get grace, so I always want to remain humble.

See, the answer is just look at Jesus. Compare yourself with Him. You'll see so much sin in yourself that you'll never become proud. I made it a rule many years ago that I would never, never, never compare myself with another person.

But I would compare myself with Jesus all the time. And that saved me. It saved me from pride, saved me from jealousy.

Because I'm not interested in finding out whether I'm better than somebody. If somebody is better than me, then I praise the Lord, that's great. I feel I feel humble when I look at Jesus because I'm so much unlike Him still.

So that's the first thing. If you want to overcome Satan, remember these are the ways he comes. In earthly warfare, they only try to study their enemy. How is the enemy coming, going to come against us?

Paul studied the tactics of Satan and he says,.

We are not ignorant of his tactics. I find most Christians.

Haven't understood. I think most Christians haven't understood this. Satan has overcome many churches because the leaders have not taught the people how to overcome Satan. How he comes. You see, Satan was the leader of the angels to worship God.

Before he became saint. And then he said, why should they all worship God? I want some people to worship me too. And he tried to get some angels to worship him. God cast them all out and those are the demons who went with the devil.

Devil had a rebellion against God. So this rebellion against authority is what made the devil devil.

So Jesus, in order to bring salvation, did the opposite of what Satan did. Bring salvation? How did sin come? Satan exalted himself. How did salvation come? Jesus humbled himself. Only these two spirits operating.

In the world today. One spirit always seeking to go up and up. The other spirit of Christ seeking to go down and down. One seeking to exalt itself and the other seeking to humble itself. And whether you know it or not, all of you are being, all of us are being taken up, influenced by one of these spirits.

You are always.

Either seeking to go down or seeking to go up. The church is full of people who want to exalt themselves over others. Jesus said, you are all servants, you are all brothers. He washed the disciples' feet because they thought they were all too big to do that thing.

Whenever you think that you are too big to do some lowly job in a church,.

You are being influenced by the devil. Jesus was always willing to do the loneliest job in the church.

I've said in our church in Bangalore, if you really want to be a part of the church, start by cleaning the toilets. I said, I've done that. I'll do it today. What's wrong in that? It's the house of God.

It can't be served, sweep the floor or do anything. Anytime you feel, I'm too big for that.

That's the devil. Seek to go down. If people think less of you, praise the Lord. If they think too much of you, get scared. But it's not like that with many people. They are happy when everybody thinks so highly of them.

And they feel sad when people think less of them. There's so much in fellowship with the devil, they want people to think highly of them.

Becoming Nothing So God Can Use Us

This is how Satan overcomes. See Galatians chapter 6, verse 3, if anyone thinks he's a somebody when he's actually a nobody, he's deceiving himself. That's a great verse. Do you recognize yourself as a nobody or you feel you're a somebody?

There are a lot of people who come to the church and they want to be somebody in the church. He is deceiving himself, it says. Our calling in the church is to be nobodies. See the Apostle Paul and what he says in 1 Corinthians chapter 3.

In Corinth, Paul and Apollos were the great servants who did something. He says in verse 6, chapter 3, verse 6, I planted Apollos water. But God caused the growth. Now listen, read verse 7. The one who plants is a zero, the one who waters is a zero, God is everything.

What is Paul saying? I'm zero. Apollos, another zero. God is everything. If you want God to use you to build His church, always be a zero in your own eyes. And if you are not yet there, ask God to bring you there.

God has to bring a man and a woman down to zero before He can use them. The moment we lift up our heads, the devil shoots us and knocks us down. You know, when we were trained in the military, we had to learn how to crawl on the ground against enemy fire without lifting up our heads.

The man who lifts up his head is the one who gets shot first. So they would have a barbed wire about 9 inches above the ground and make us crawl underneath that. Even in the military they know, keep your head down, you'll be alright.

It's a very important lesson. I was once speaking to the children in our church back home and I was telling them the importance, trying to teach them the importance of this. Because you know, in school there's so much of competition among children.

And many children feel so small and inferior because I'm not as good as the other child.

Some are good academically. Some are good in the sports field.

But some children are not good at either.

So I said, I want to teach you a lesson. So I said, okay, let's get one of these girls, come here.

Okay, this is the girl who comes first in the class. What is she in God's eyes? Daniel 4, verse 35.

It's a great verse. Daniel 4, verse 35.

All the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as zero by God. Okay, here's this girl who's come first in the class. What does God call her? Zero.

So I gave her a big piece of paper with zero written on it. Okay, I'm saying we pick up this boy who always wins the athletic championship. He always gets the medal for the athletics. What's he? Another zero.

He also stands there with zero. Okay, we'll pick up another boy. He always comes last in the class. What's he? Also zero. Here's another girl who can never win anything in athletics. She always comes last in the races.

She's also a zero. He stands there with a zero. First in the class, last in the class. First in athletics, last in the class. Then I said, what about me, the great preacher? I took a zero. There's absolutely no difference.

Everybody is a zero. I said, there's only one person who's not a zero. He's a one. That's Jesus. And I said, if I have... I took this number one.

And I said, if I have Jesus, I suddenly become a ten. See, I put this one next to me. Now I'm not a zero anymore. I'm ten. And I said, one of you zeros come here. Let's have some fellowship. Hey, we suddenly became a hundred.

Let's get one more. We need one thousand and ten thousand. Will you remove Jesus? Boy, we all became zeros again. They will never forget it. But it's really true. So those children, you know, felt really happy.

Hey, it doesn't matter so much if I did my best, I didn't come first, I didn't win the races or what. I did my best, that's all. But, but I have Jesus, so I'm valuable to God. Nobody's a zero when he has Jesus.

And you'll at least be ten. If you can have fellowship with another person, you'll be a hundred. That's why fellowship is so important. That's the way to overcome Satan. Then I'll tell you another characteristic of Satan.

Satan as the Accuser of Believers

It says in Revelation 12 and verse 10 that Satan is the accuser of the brothers and he accuses them day and night. But, but always trying to find fault with some believers. He never says anything good about anybody.

He's always trying to find some fault in somebody. I say, do you have that habit? Do you look at people and you're always trying to find some fault in them? You can never see any good in them? That's the spirit of the devil.

When I have married couples' meetings,.

I say, I want you to do something now. Take a piece of paper and without thinking, quickly write down five good things about your wife. Five good things about your husband. Just scratch your head. So you see how difficult it is?

Now take it up again. Now take it again.

Write down five bad things about your wife.

Five good things about your husband.

And that shows something about what you're thinking. We prefer to remember all the weaknesses in one another. That's exactly what the devil wants you to think about. We blame one another. We say such exaggerated things.

If somebody does something wrong once or twice, you're always doing it wrong. He did it only twice. This is how our nature is. It's all part of the devil. The accuser of believers. Do you know what Jesus does for believers?

It says here, the devil accuses 24 hours. Day and night. Hebrews 7 .25.

Hebrews 7 .25 It says Jesus does something. 24 hours for believers too. 24 hours! He prays for them. So there are two ministries going on. Always trying to find fault with believers day and night.

And another ministry that sees those faults and prays for them day and night. It's happening right now in the heavenly. The devil and Jesus both see a fault in me. Some of them I see, some of them I don't see.

And the devil immediately says, see, he's like this. And Jesus is praying for me. Help me to overcome it, Father. You and I are co-workers with Satan or with Jesus.

You see something wrong in a brother or sister or your wife or husband. You see, ah, it's like this, like this, like this. Just keep talking about it. Or you like Jesus and say, Father, help that person to overcome.

Help my husband to overcome. He's got this bad habit. Father, my wife's got this bad habit. Help her to overcome. It's only between you and God. Do you know that's how you can get into fellowship with Jesus?

You see, why am I not getting closer to Jesus in fellowship? Start doing what he does. Then you'll get into fellowship with him. What is he doing? What's he doing? He's praying for people that they'll be better.

But if you get into fellowship with Satan, accusing, finding fault, always looking with magnifying glasses at the weaknesses of your wife, husband, other people,.

Over a period of time, you'll become like the devil. You'll preach, talk about the Bible, but you'll become like the devil. I have seen numerous people like this.

They talk religious language. They don't see the spirit of Christ. So this is another way the devil overpowers the church. Make you compare yourself with others. Be proud, or be jealous, or accuse, or as I said, rebel against authority.

Drawing People to Christ Rather Than to Ourselves

That's another way. Draw people to yourself. Get people to admire you. That's what the devil wanted. He didn't want people to worship God, he wanted them to worship him. There's so many people in church like that.

They want believers to admire them. They don't like them admiring somebody else. You must admire me. We're not called to get people to admire us. We're called to get people to admire Jesus. If your life can point to Jesus, that people are drawn to him, they don't see you.

That's the person who's really filled with the Holy Spirit. Because Jesus said in John 16, the Holy Spirit will not speak of himself, he will glorify me. I know I'm filled with the Holy Spirit when I don't draw people to me, I want to draw them to Christ.

Rebellion Against Authority

The spirit of rebellion, that's another thing. There's rebellion everywhere in society. Children rebel against their parents.

Factories, workers rebel against their managers. In countries, people rebel against the rulers. Students rebel against their teachers.

In the church, people rebel against authorities. You've got to be careful of the spirit of rebellion. That's why the most important thing we must teach our children is to respect and honor their parents.

I see sometimes small children rebelling against their parents and not respecting older people. I know it's going to go very badly with those children.

I remember years ago, I saw a small boy, he must have been three or four years old,.

He was showing his hand like this to his father, who do you think you are?

I called his father and said, be careful.

Don't ever let your boy behave like that. He didn't take me seriously. Twenty years later,.

His son is a rebel. Teach your children to respect parents and older people. Teach them when they go to school to respect their teachers.

I used to tell my children, don't gang up with the other students and disrespect your teachers. If your children do that, don't join them. Because it's the spirit of the town. There's a lot of rebellion against authority in society.

I said, don't rebel against your boss in your office. If you're not happy with that word, resign, go somewhere else. But don't sit there and cause rebellion. Don't rebel against authority in your church.

Maybe the church is not following the Lord. Fine, just leave the church and join another church. That's okay. I've done that many times. But don't rebel.

It's wrong in leaving a church. If you find something, better join it. I remember one brother telling me, someone who didn't like me too much. Someone who did not like me too much. He said, Brother Zach, you're such an unstable person.

You leave one church and go to another church. Then you go from there to another church. I said, I've been unstable all my life. When I was a little boy, I left the kindergarten and went to the first grade.

After a year, I left that and went to the second grade. I even left school and went to college. I wasn't like those steady people who stay in kindergarten all their life. I wanted to learn more. I didn't stick in one place where I could just rot away.

I found something better, I went there. Same with the church. I mean, if you would put your wife in a hospital, she's not getting any better. There's another hospital which is better. Will you take her there?

How will you say no? I've got to be loyal to this hospital because I put her here first, let her keep her there and let her die there. That's right. You'd be crazy. If you find a better hospital, take your wife there, let her live.

What about if you find a better church? Is your spiritual health not as important as your wife's physical health? That's not rebellion, to leave the church.

But we shouldn't stay in the church and cause problems for the leader of the church.

I was unhappy, I just quietly left and said, God bless you folks, I'm not going to interfere with your work. So, if you're alert to these things, Satan will never get power over us. We can build a church, it will overcome Satan.

Now we'd spend 45 minutes trying to answer these questions.