Satan's Devices - Part 3

And all of this stuff will come on us. Or, you know, maybe you're gonna step out. You've been so excited, you feel like God is calling you to serve him, and you decided to sign up for the children's ministry. You're gonna go over there and teach the kids. And the next thing you know, a voice is coming along going, you think you could teach those kids? You haven't even taught your own kids. You yell at them at home all the time. You're such a bad example. You're a terrible parent. You're never gonna amount to anything. You better go over and tell Mickey that you're just not gonna be able to do it. See, that's the enemy. That's what he does. And he comes with this condemning thing. But it's so very subtle. And quite often, you know what he really is doing in a sense a lot of times? He's sort of mimicking God. He's trying to give the impression to us that it's God who's speaking to us. Now, after all, hey, if God's condemning me, I'm in big trouble. But that's what he wants to get you to think. But we know that it's not God who's condemning us. How do we know that? Because the Bible tells us. The Bible says that there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. And Paul asked the question. He says, who is it that condemns? And then he answers. He says, it's not Christ. Christ died for you. Christ rose for you. Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Christ is actually making intercession for you. So who is it that condemns? Well, it's the devil. He is the one who comes and he whispers these things. But you see, we've got to stand on that word of God. Now, the reality is, of course, Satan can't really condemn us because we're in Christ. And there's no condemnation for those who are in Christ. But if he can get you to think you're condemned, then he has succeeded. He has succeeded in stopping you from your progress with the Lord and your life with him and your service to him. So that's what he's attempting to do. But it's not only condemnation. He will come along, and this is where the fiery dart thing comes into the picture. He will hurl into our minds things, things, for example, like the idea that that passage that we read, we can't really trust that to be true. Oh, come on. A man being swallowed by a fish and then being spit out on the beach and going into a city and prophesying. I mean, come on, who can believe that? Certainly, that's a fairy tale. Certainly, that's mythology. You can't believe this book, the Bible. And Satan will come along and he will try to cast doubt. He will try to get you to doubt God's existence. He'll try to get you to doubt your own salvation. He'll try to get you to doubt the work that God wants to do in your life. He'll try to get you to doubt the promises that God made to you. And of course, his primary attack is against God's word. And he has been very successful in leading people into unbelief. He's been very successful. And he's relentless. He does this continually. And this is something he's been doing from the very beginning. You know, I have noticed that Satan hasn't really changed his tactics much over the years because they work so effectively. And he's using the same things today that he was using at the very beginning. What did he say to Eve in the garden? He came to her suggesting that what God said wasn't really trustworthy. He said, has God really said that you shall not eat of the tree in the midst of the garden? Is that what God said? Or was it really God who said that? So you see, he's trying to cast doubt upon the word of God. And he has continued to do that throughout all of these long centuries. He does the same thing today. Did God really mean that? Are you sure that that's God's word? How do you know the Bible is God's word? Isn't it just a compilation of various human authors? And of course, he's got all kinds of help in these kinds of things. You turn on the TV and there's a program on there about the Bible. And that's what they pretty much tell you about it. Oh, the Bible is just a collection of stories and myths and things like that. So he tries to cast doubt on the word of God. And then it's just a short step to blatantly denying it just like he did with Eve. He says, has God really said that? She said, well, yes, God told us this. God told us in the day that we ate, we would die. And the devil's response was, you will not die. And that's what he does. He comes and he contradicts the word of God. But here's what we need to understand. And this is where we get tripped up. You see, the temptation to doubt is not doubt and it's not sin. And to some degree, you can't help but being tempted. And these things come, they're thrown at us from the enemy. And here's what he quite often does. He throws this temptation to doubt our way. We think it's our own doubt. He turns and points the finger and says, oh, you doubted God. You're not trusting God. You're not believing God. You think God's really gonna help you? And then we find ourselves in this dilemma. But we have to be able to identify the devices of Satan. We have to realize that's the enemy right there. That's the devil at work. And we refuse to succumb to that. We refuse to buy into it. So it's not a sin to have the temptation to doubt. To some extent, you can't help it. I remember hearing Greg Laurie say years ago, he said, you know, you can't stop a bird from flying over your head, but you can stop one from building a nest on it. I thought that, you know, that's a good point. Yes, that's true. And you know, the thoughts coming into our head, it's like a bird flying over our head. I can't do anything about that. But if a bird landed on my head, I could certainly prevent it from building a nest. And so likewise, when these thoughts come into my head, I can't stop that from happening. But I don't have to receive them. I don't have to let them have a place in my mind. I need to recognize that this is the work of the enemy. And remember in the passage we read in Ephesians 6, he says concerning the fiery darts, how do we extinguish them? He says, we take up the shield of faith. So you see, we stand firm on God's word. We believe what God has said over the suggestions of the devil. But there's another area that Satan will often attack us in. And another scheme or another one of his wiles, and that is to threaten evil consequences for obedience and to try to strike fear in us, a fear that would cause us to pull back from the Lord instead of press into the Lord. And he will do this. He will come and he will say, oh, you know, if you surrender, and there you are, you're thinking, you know, I'm gonna really, I wanna give everything to the Lord. I'm tired of being in this, you know, middle ground sort of a place here. I wanna go for it. I wanna give it all to Christ. I wanna serve him. I'm gonna dedicate my life. And as you're thinking that, as you're moving in that direction, the enemy comes along and says, oh, you better watch it. You better watch it. You know what's gonna happen. You give the Lord everything and he's gonna take it all. It's gonna cost you your family. It's gonna cost you your friends. It's gonna cost you your job. And then you know what God's gonna do, right? You know where he's gonna put you, right? You know, he's gonna stick you right there in the heart of that jungle. You've always been afraid of the jungle. You've always been worried about that. You know, or just wherever it is, you know, that place. I don't know, when I was a kid, you know, I never wanted to go to prison. That's a good thing. But you know, I think I saw some movies when I was a kid about prison life and it just, you know, it freaked me out. It was one of those things that, man, that prison is scary. I never wanna go there. And I remember though, when I was kind of moving in the direction of yielding my life to the Lord, I remember one time when the enemy came, said, you better watch it. You know, God will put you in prison to serve him there. I thought, oh, boy, that's the last place I wanna go. Oh God. And this is what he does. So he tries to strike fear in us. Evil consequences for obedience. You yield to God and you don't know. And we buy into that.