This sermon delves into the challenges of dealing with unseen forces like Satan, emphasizing the need to resist temptation and rely on God's grace and guidance. Through the story of King David's trials and victories, the sermon highlights the importance of humility, submission to God, and seeking higher help to overcome spiritual battles. It underscores the significance of forgiveness, looking for beauty in others, and putting on the Lord Jesus Christ to navigate through life's trials.

Satan is an unseen force and the question is how do we deal with Satan and should we in fact resist and scripture is of great help to us and we find in the book of James an instruction from the Lord how to resist Satan and the verse is given up here in James chapter 4 verses 6 to 10 James chapter 4 verses 6 to 10 James chapter 4 verses 6 to 10 and if one of you would be kind enough and read that verse 6 to 10 yes but he gives more grace therefore he says God resist the proud but gives grace to the humble therefore submit to God resist the devil and he will flee from you draw near to God and he will draw near to you cleanse your hands you sinners and purify your hearts you through 210 lament and mourn and weep let your laughter return to morning and your joy to gloom humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord and he will lift you up thank you so much for reading that text and may I ask you in verse 6 there it says he gives us more grace and what is this grace for to resist temptation and the grace in verse 6 here it says God resist the proud but gives grace to the humble and he gives grace to resist now we have many of those who teach that don't worry about sinning it's already covered under grace but this is not what the Bible says and so we must follow the Word of God in Revelation chapter 2 and 3 Jesus said to five churches repent turn around this is in the New Testament this is after the cross and so we need to repent if we fall short of the glory of God we still need to repent and here grace is given to us as a help from God it's his blessing it's his blessed hand that is able to keep us from falling and so here he says but gives grace to the humble and in verse 7 what do we need to do right so what is submit submitting or submission what is that to you surrendering your will and giving yourself completely over to his to the power of the Spirit let the Spirit control your life let the Holy Spirit control your life yes because without higher help we are helpless against an unseen power Satan is an unseen power and we cannot win through physical means you know if if I see you in person and we have a fight I can wrestle you with my hands I can wrestle you with my body I can move I can see you move but in this case now we are wrestling against an unseen power an unseen force and beloved if you think you can manage on your own you can't see who you're hitting you can't see who you're hitting that's right he might be behind you above you beneath you he might use all kinds of tricks that are above us that we cannot really fully understand also the ways are so subtle that we sometimes don't even realize that comes to our life the temptation very gentle and not visible way right beginning at least right right and so we have to ask for higher help to be able to manage this battle against this unseen force of Satan and so the topic is temptation temptation itself is not a sin temptation is not a sin but when we give in to temptation then it becomes a sin so let's talk about this diagram here for a moment first of all we are born with a sinful nature we are born with a sinful nature and there's a couple here a man and a woman and both are born with a sinful nature I am born with a sinful nature you are born with a sinful nature and the Word of God tells us that sin came into our lives through this first couple Adam and Eve and so we have sinful desires in our body we want to grow against God we want to do our own things and so often we are overcome by that and here is the track of the sinful nature their evil desires in our flesh and now we have to make a decision do I sin or don't I sin well if I sin and go on to sin consistently then there is spiritual death for the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord and so this couple here is also shown as born again and you see here a blue circle with yellow and when we are born again we are born again in soul and spirit but the outer flesh remains with us until we die or until we are raptured the outer flesh the old self can never be improved can never be saved it must do what it must die that's the only solution and it must die daily and it can be put to death daily through through the Lord Jesus who was the victory and could someone please find first Corinthians 15 verse 57 first Corinthians chapter 15 verse 57 and read that for us so we are promised in the Word of God that we have the victory through Christ is that what it says yes can God lie so we have the victory but Satan says no no no no you have these besetting sins and you've done them all of your life so there's no way that you can stop that's a lie from Satan okay that's a lie from Satan so once we are born again in soul and in spirit then we have the victory through the Lord Jesus Christ he helps us but God also says we are to resist and have a part how do we do that and the answer for that is in Romans chapter 8 verse 13 could we take a look at that please Romans chapter 8 verse 13 or if you live according to the sinful nature you will die but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body you will live so how do I put to death temptation how do I do that we have to put to death the flesh and live by the Spirit so it has to be done by spiritual means before we talked about this battle you know how do I hit an unseen person well I can't because the evil and Satan himself is also in the spirit we cannot see him right now so we must in this spiritual battle defeat a spiritual opponent with the Spirit and through the Spirit of God and we look at some more steps later on how do we do that how do we physically take these steps in the Spirit of God and we'll get to some answers on that later on but here in this diagram this unseen foe Satan and the devil he uses now our nature okay and the example that one can use in this is you have no money and yet you want to buy something and you say okay well I'm gonna go for a walk where all of the stores are I'm gonna go to a shopping plaza and I'm just gonna walk around and take a look and then you see what you want to buy but you don't have the money and you're tempted to buy so then you have the choice do I now satisfy my nature on what I want I want this latest upgrade in TV I shouldn't be watching TV all the time but I really want it and so I'm gonna go ahead and then go into debt and have bill collectors call me and so I'm hurting myself because I'm going and buying things that in the first place I don't really need and in the second place I've given in to the desires of my flesh any other example that comes to your mind if you have a weight problem don't go into the chocolate store right if you have a weight problem don't go into the chocolate store and so the sinful nature then as we go through the plaza and we say okay I can't really afford this I shouldn't buy this and then there's this little small voice that says yeah use the plastic use the plastic you can pay monthly on that okay you can pay monthly on that and so Satan comes and adds to our nature and to the flesh or the world says you've got to be beautiful on the outside and you've got to have this latest dress or you got to go on a vacation that you cannot afford you've got to be living up to the world you gotta get with it wake up with the times that's right and so the world adds to that and then also people people are used by Satan to also try and mislead us we we love people but we don't love their sins and we have an example in Scripture of course where Peter meant very very well for the Lord Jesus Christ the Lord Jesus Christ was on the way to Jerusalem to give his life for us to die for us so that we might have life and might have it more abundantly he was going to give his life to cover our sins and that our sins would be taken away and we would have peace with God through the Lord Jesus Christ so he was on the way to Jerusalem he told his disciples I gotta go to Jerusalem I'm gonna go there to give my life and Peter said no no no you must not do that how can you go and give your life and then Jesus turned to him and said get thee behind me Satan so Satan was influencing the thinking of Peter not that Peter was satanic but his thoughts were affected by thoughts from Satan on what to say and try to keep Jesus from giving his life and doing the right thing and so we know that Satan can also come through people and affect us and all of us even in family life some of you maybe most of us have come from dysfunctional families where the mother or father means well but then we've been affected in that family with sometimes with evil and that has affected us for the rest of our lives but we don't need to follow that we don't need to have that in our lives and I myself of course also before I became a true Christian I lived in sin and I affected the lives of my children and my wife you know and now I have the consequences of that yet God has forgiven me but they're also consequences for sin any thoughts or questions on this diagram okay I'm going to take this off and we're going to go on and we're going to look further at how Satan affects us in our thinking and the question on top of the sheet is how does in which ways does Satan tempt you and me and the church in North America and Satan tempted Eve in the garden and said has God really said this and so this doubt also comes into the church today has has God really said not to sin has God really said that he doesn't want sin in the church has God really said these things yes he has and so Satan comes and he lies and he lied to Eve to create doubt he always creates doubt so that we would doubt God and have unbelief so for the church I can mention very obvious sins but these sins that are not so obvious are really unbelief and denying the power of God in our lives so we go through our life and we manage on our own day to day and say I can do this move over God I don't really need you for this and this is a great great from to God because he wants to be with us he wants to help us moment by moment and by denying the power of God in our lives we often run into difficulties and then we cannot manage and then we say God why did you allow this in my life well I decided to to eat too much and so I'm a little bit obese and if I have health consequences from that it's not God's fault okay I've done that it's up to me to to live right you know and so if someone could please turn to Deuteronomy chapter 32 verse 4 Deuteronomy chapter 32 verse 4 please and if you could read the verses maybe from a couple of different translations Deuteronomy chapter 32 verse 4 he is the rock his work is perfect for all his ways are justice a God of truth and without injustice righteous and upright is he righteous and upright and he's without injustice and could we read that verse from perhaps another translation the rock his work is perfect for all his ways are justice a God of faithfulness and without iniquity just and upright is he now the King James says that God is without iniquity the NIV version says that God does do no wrong okay and so we have to understand that when Cain killed Abel God did not give instruction to Cain to kill Abel Cain did that on his own okay we cannot hold God responsible for evil in the world where people do evil evil things and so when David King David later on when he wanted Bathsheba he killed Uriah her husband and God did not instruct King David to kill Uriah so we must be very careful and distinguish between things in the world that are from Satan and sin because Satan comes and says you see God did this again God did it well God let this happen you know we are destroying our environment with all kinds of things and then some of the nature effects that are coming we are blaming God you know but we should not be blaming God we should be looking at it objectively and here in Deuteronomy chapter 32 verse 4 it says God does no wrong in the NIV version or God does not do iniquity in the King James version and so we must keep this in mind any thoughts on this some of you look puzzled no any thoughts on this we have a great incredible good God but Satan brings doubt and unbelief and he twists our minds and says no no no you know but God has good thoughts towards each one of us. His love is perfect and scripture says he's not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance so we have a great and good God so unbelief denying the power of God disobedience these are obvious things for Christians in a way because we pick and choose which scriptures we want to abide by we don't like all of the scriptures and so some we do and some we don't in fact the underground church says that we don't do about 80% of the scriptures in North America and so when you read the Bible on your own you should always ask yourself do I really agree with what God says and do I do this. I find a lot of people they use grace as a license to sin they say that what's in the Old Testament is is not for us that we are under grace yes but like I just said grace is not grace is grace grace is not a license to sin and they use that as an excuse yes and yet they also say that the words of Christ changed after the cross but we have the example of Christ in the book of Revelation where he's speaking to seven churches and to five of these churches he said repent turn around you're lukewarm and we don't even consider lukewarmness a sin okay but lukewarmness is a sin having lost our first love for God is sin if I evaluate all of my time is my first love really God or is it something else it's sin you know a sexual immorality is sin the the various things that Christ mentions to these five churches he said turn around you're sinning I stand at the door and knock and hear Christ is outside that Laodicean church he's on the outside they said no no we're lukewarm we're gonna do our own stuff and Christ says I stand at the door and knock I want to come in I want to help you but we say no we know our own way we know what to do we don't like this stuff in the Bible we now have a different viewpoint we have a new society and we have different ways this is not what God says so now we want to take a look at how some of the people were tempted in the Bible and how they responded to temptations often with King David we only look at the one temptation with Bathsheba but he had many more temptations early on in life and so we want to take a quick look at the life of King David and King David first of all was a shepherd boy and later on he was crowned king but would you remember how old was David when he was anointed as king he was between 16 and 18 right likely yeah yeah and the age is not given but let us take a look at 1st Samuel chapter 16 verses 11 to 13 and Samuel said to Jesse are all the young men here then he said there remains yet the youngest and there he is keeping the sheep and Samuel said to Jesse send and bring him for he will not sit down till he comes here so he sent and brought him in and he was ready with bright right with bright eyes and good-looking and the Lord said arise anoint him for this is the one then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers and the spirit of the Lord came upon David from that day forward so Samuel arose and went around thank you so much so this is the story of when Samuel the Prophet was sent to the household of Jesse there were many brothers and Jesse didn't think too much of David because he didn't bother calling him from the fields and so his own opinion however was not the same as the opinion of God because God was looking for a man after his own heart and so all of the brothers came before Samuel and Samuel said no no not this one not this one not this one and finally all of the brothers were finished and then he asked Jesse is that it is that all and the father said no there's someone out with the sheep and David was called from the field and he was anointed as King the anointing of the King then was by way of oil being poured on David so he was anointed as a young boy but there was a problem there was already an existing King King Saul and so now King Saul and his army that was in the battle against the Philistines and there was a giant by the name of Goliath who was saying evil things against God and the nation of Israel in a valley there and he was shouting against the Israelites and so David was coming to bring some food to his brothers and the question is how old was David when he brought food to his brothers what might be a guess he was probably older it was after he was anointed it was after he was anointed but before army age before the age of being inducted into the good good guess but let's take a look at numbers chapter 1 verse 3 it tells us the army age when people were inducted into the army so the army age was 20 years old and because he was bringing food to the army he must have been less than 20 years old so maybe he was 18 or 19 we don't know but he was less than army age then he was allowed by King Saul to fight Goliath and then he defeated Goliath and was a great victory now the next question is by what age did King David become actual king for Israel what age any thoughts on that so at 18 or 19 he probably defeated Goliath and he was before then anointed with oil to be king but not physically yet he had not ascended to the throne when did he actually ascend to the throne at what age 30 years this is a correct answer 30 years so take a look at 2nd Samuel chapter 5 verses 4 and 5 2nd Samuel 4 and 5 and the age difference is important here because between the age of 18 and 19 and the age of 30 a lot of stuff happened to King David so if someone could read 2nd Samuel chapter 5 verses 4 and 5 he was 30 years old when he became king and he reigned for 40 years in Hebron he reigned over Judah for seven years and six months and in Jerusalem he reigned over all Israel and Judah for 33 years very good thank you so much so he became king at the age of 30 so the in-between time we're now going to look at that and see what kind of temptations came to him and as we look at his life we will be able to have an analogy and first of all when he defeated Goliath he gave credit to God you can read that in 1st Samuel chapter 17 verse 47 if you would like to if someone would like to read that verse please 1st Samuel 17 verse 47 David relied on higher help and when we fight Satan we need higher help we cannot succeed on our own and so if someone would read 1st Samuel 17 verse 47 then all this assembly shall know that the Lord does not save with sword and spear for the battle is the Lord and he will give you into our hands so the battle is the Lord's and while God asks us to participate in humility we must resist Satan we must work together with God that's his instruction to us resist Satan but do it in humility submit yourself to me and then the battle is the Lord's so then there is a great acknowledgement of his victory in 1st Samuel 18 verse 5 what does it say there 1st Samuel 18 verse 5 so David went out wherever Saul sent him and behaved wisely and Saul sent him over the men of war set him over the men of war and he was accepted in the sight of all the people and also in the sight of Saul's servants so what has happened here is Saul set him over the men of war what does that mean to you like the general yes so he had the whole army under him yes so now in in the following passages even in the same chapter in 1st Samuel 18 verses 10 and 11 let us read what what happened there and it happened on the next day that the distressing spirit from God came upon Saul and he prophesied inside the house so David played music with his hand as at other times but there was a spear in Saul's hand and Saul cast the spear for he said I will pin David to the wall but David escaped his presence twice okay so here what is happening is that King Saul had gone against God and God permitted this distressing spirit to come upon Saul but Saul now takes a spear and trying to kill David who is in his presence now how would you feel if your boss took a spear and tried to kill you how would your reaction be towards that human being anger for sure anger from the beginning actually maybe surprised because shock because you don't expect when you said someone that somebody like your boss will just turn against you suddenly and God had said to you I'll make you king he already knew that he was destined to be king he wasn't king yet but yet here he's being tried to be killed you know how would your reaction be towards God well if you weren't if you weren't letting the spirit control your life you try to kill him that's right that's right you would be led by the spirit and God told you that you anointed and you will be the king you expect that nothing will happen to you until what God said to you but in the heat of the moment in the heat of the circumstances I'll get you before you get me right you think God are you really for me God are you really protecting me God are you really with me and these are lies from Satan okay because here David was being what was happening to David at this point he just moved and didn't even touch I mean showing David that he is protected by God all the time yes and also perhaps to prepare for his future job always put people which he wants to elect to some function to really difficult times even when we look for the life of Joseph he also went to a lot of travels before he will become prime minister say gold is refined by the fire you have to go through the fire right now comes the next the next down down thing now comes the next thing that is not so good first Samuel 18 verse 13 and 14 what does it say there therefore Saul removed him from his presence and made him his captain over a thousand and he went out and came in before the people and they they would behave wisely in all his ways and the Lord was with him so what happened here in verse 13 David he demoted him from what position from general from general to now you get a thousand yes does your pride ever get hurt particularly when you're doing okay I mean everything you should do properly yes you killed the giant you saved Israel you were a general now when the king is trying to kill you and now he demotes you I think Saul's pride was getting in his way because he knew that David was gonna be king and he couldn't accept the fact that God chose David to be king and he was gonna remove him from the kingdom the question is really how do I react when I have circumstances I don't like how do I react to them do I believe Satan that God is not good that God has done something in my life to hurt me do I still trust God David did Saul did not that's a good comparison but now remember that he was probably 18 or 19 when he fought with Goliath and he became king at the age of 30 how many years difference is that 11 or 12 years of difference yes so let's now see what happens now Saul comes up with a scheme let's go to first saying of 18 verses 17 and 19 verses 17 and 19 here's my elder daughter I will give her to you in marriage only serve me bravely and fight the battles of the Lord for Saul said to himself I will not raise a hand against him but the Philistines do that and then verse 19 so when the time came for Mara Saul's daughter to be given to David she was given in marriage to Adriel of Mahala so what happened here so King Saul promised David a daughter and in those days that was incredibly important by the way because then you became part of the king's court and his daughter would be given to him in marriage and he would be united you know going on the right track to become the next king of Israel right and and now now this woman is taken away from David how would you feel as David you would fear rejection you would feel deceived would you feel down a little bit yes how would you feel about God permitting that well everything depends how how much experience you have all day you become more you see you realize that many times Lord puts you to different trials in order to establish you in something he so he helps us to grow through trials he helps us to become better Christians more based on a sure foundation of God but we must never listen to Satan because Satan says no no all of this stuff just means God doesn't exist God is not there for you don't believe his lies don't judge your circumstances by what happens surrounding you because we are battling an unseen force only through the Spirit can we battle against the unseen forces of evil we said we not really immune even we getting older today I have the situation in my workplace the woman 83 years old was crying to me that God doesn't listen to her and she feels first of all she's scared of death secondly because David Mays died and she's listening TV and crossroad on TV she is telling me that she is so scared that Lord doesn't listen even she prays and I told her exactly the same don't listen that's the light love is listening all your prayers and always read the Psalms or whatever God's Word so now let us read 1st Samuel 18 verse 20 and 21 please 1st Samuel chapter 18 20 and 21 now Mikal Saul's daughter loved David and they told Saul and the thing pleased him so Saul said I will give her to him that she may be a snare to him and that the hand of the Philistines may be against him therefore Saul said to David the second time you shall be my son-in-law today okay thank you now read verse 27 please of the same chapter 1st Samuel 18 verse 27 David and his men went out and killed 200 Philistines he brought their foreskins and presented the full number to the king so that he might become the king's son-in-law then Saul gave him his daughter Mikal in marriage so here was a strategy for David to be killed by the Philistines and the king wanted to have confirmation that 200 Philistines were killed and then he would give him his daughter but he wanted him to be killed by the Philistines yet God enabled him and so he did this but then in 1st Samuel 19 verse 10 could someone read in the next chapter verse 10 please then Saul sought to pin David to the wall with the spear that he slipped away from Saul's presence and he drove the spear into the wall so David fled and escaped that night okay thank you so here again this is another time David is in the presence of King Saul and King Saul tries to kill him again and now David leaves and he goes into the desert where he wrote many of his psalms by the way about God and he starts running let us read 1st Samuel 21 verses 12 and 13 1st Samuel 21 verses 12 and 13 David took these words to heart and was very much afraid of Akish king of Gath so he feigned insanity in their presence and while he was in their hands he acted like a madman making marks on the doors of the gate and letting saliva run down his beard so here David is running from King Saul, King Saul wants to kill him he went to another king, King Ashish to be with him but in order not to be hurt there he has to feign insanity how would you feel about your circumstances and how would you feel about your God if you had to do that? He would feel like he deserted you. I think he would feel that he was in great danger of losing his life yes and so you know this is where one trial comes after another trial and one more trial and now let us read 1st Samuel 23 verse 14 1st Samuel 23 verse 14 and David stayed in strongholds in the wilderness and remained in the mountains in the wilderness of Zip. Saul sought him every day but God did not deliver him into his hand. Thank you for reading that so here King David future King David between the age of 18 and 19 and age 30 when he becomes king he's on a more duress he's on a more threat of life he's running from King Saul in the wilderness and yet he had twice a chance to kill King Saul but he would not do it he said no vengeance is mine says the Lord he left it up to the Lord and later on King Saul gets killed by the Philistines and then subsequent to that he becomes king of Israel and so beloved when we judge our circumstances we are often misled by Satan okay we we don't look to God we don't look for higher help we don't look for Jesus our victory and in first Corinthians 15 verse 57 we said in the beginning that Christ is the victory and then in Romans it said that we need to take the spiritual path to defeat spiritual attacks on our minds on ourselves and we must reject Satan we must resist him and now the final verse David was the man after God's own heart after King Saul died how do you think David reacted after King Saul died maybe he had some kind of relief that he would not be hunted and kind of running away all the time take a look at 2nd Samuel chapter 1 verse 23 2nd Samuel 1 verse 23 Saul and Jonathan in life they were loved and gracious and in death they were not parted they were swifter than eagles they were stronger than lions yes and so in the King James Version it says Saul and Jonathan were lovely and pleasant in their lives and in their death they were not divided they were swifter than eagles they were stronger than lions and so David mourned the death of King Saul how is that possible I think he had big respect to his king and even though he was still being hunted by him he was sorry that Saul died yes because even evil behavior does not give you always the feelings of relief complete you sometimes you're really sorry for the person which does not behave the same way as you would expect and so here King David was looking for the beauty of Saul he was looking for the beauty of King Saul he was not looking for the evil when he died and so this is a good approach for us when I meet people now I look for their beauty I no longer look for their faults I let the faults run off me like water I look for their beauty and I don't look for their faults there's something else that comes to mind but David must have forgiven Saul it can't be that he could always see his beauty and he always had an understanding that Saul is misled so there must have been a point in time where he forgave Saul I think he has compassion he has compassion in his heart even seeing this evil in his behavior he still loved him as a king probably and his baby father-in-law as well yes and so when I find that I look for beauty in people that are difficult they end up responding they end up becoming open they become approachable and I never used to do that for most of my life I always judge people I always put them down and as you said sister part of that is forgiveness and it is a great requirement by God and it's part of the Lord's Prayer where we need to forgive others that have hurt us and then at the end of the Lord's Prayer it says if you don't forgive I won't forgive you so part of that relationship skill is to forgive with the help of God and so perhaps one final verse that I also practice and it says put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh and so we have to put to death the flesh daily we don't need to go by its desires or false things we have the Holy Spirit to help us but we must also call for higher help to be able to survive and to be able to live the life that a Christian should live in these times so thank you so much for listening thank you for joining us the Lord bless you good night