The Schemes of the Enemy - Part 1

Father, I pray now that as we open up the Word, Lord, help us. Grip us with the Word. Let us feel the weight. Help us to have proper understanding, to feel the magnitude of what's being said, and to have the grace of God upon our lives to apply it. Lord, we don't want to be hearers only. We want to be a people moved upon by the Word. We want it to abide in us. We want it to influence us. We want it to affect us. Lord, it's your Word. These are not just the words of men. These are not a trifle. This is that living Word, that active Word of God. We pray that you would empower it, invigorate it. Lord, move through your Word. We pray this in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Okay, well, what I'd like everybody to do is turn in their Bibles to Ephesians chapter 6. I started, you may recall, I started several weeks back by preaching two messages out of Ephesians 6. That was only the very, very beginning of what I intended to be a much longer series on fighting spiritual warfare. Because two weeks ago I was down in Corpus Christi preaching a conference, I simply did not have the ability to prepare a message specifically separate from the other things that I was doing in my life at that time. And then of course, last week, Ruby and I had just moved. You may not realize it, but I was just barely capable of bringing you a message last week. I felt like I was way out of sorts and very jet-lagged. And anyway, obviously that week was not really conducive to preparing a third message in this series either. That's why we had two messages that somewhat interrupted the series. But here we go again. We're going to dive back in. I don't know how long this is going to go. I'm just going to let this go as long as I feel like the Lord is in it. And the Lord's helping us. The Lord's showing us things. I'm going to keep going as long as I feel strongly that there's more to be said. As long as the Lord keeps leading me in that direction. So here we are, Ephesians 6. Again, I want to read verses 10-18. I'll remind you once again, that there is no single place in the Bible, not that I can think of, not that readily comes to my mind, where you get such a detailed description of the spiritual warfare that we Christians are called to fight. These verses right here are very unique. It is a unique portion of Scripture. We are told in other places about the battle. There's no question about that. But to be given as much detail as we're given here, that is unique. And so we want to take full advantage of it. Of course, you all didn't get the whole series. I've actually been preaching from Ephesians, starting right in chapter one, verse one, for several years now at Grace. And so here in Manchester, we're just kind of getting the last little series out of that much bigger series. But here we are, Ephesians 6, verse 10. Finally. So this is Paul's last major thrust as he's finishing up this letter. Finally. Here's the last thing that's really important for him to unload on these folks at Ephesus before he wraps up this epistle. Finally be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Now, we're going to continue reading, but just feel that. Rulers. I mean, we can just read across that, but we have to recognize these are the forces that are pitted against us. This is what we're up against. We're up against rulers, authorities, cosmic powers, spiritual forces. This is what we fight. There's no small enemy that we are faced with. Okay, let's keep reading. Therefore, take up the whole armor of God. There's a reason that you may be able to withstand in the evil day and having done all to stand firm. All. You want to notice that word. This is an all-out battle. You have to do everything to stand against these forces. Stand therefore. That's the issue. These forces are trying to knock us down, take us down. And to go down, there are lesser ways of going down. But remember, our enemy is a murderer. When he wants to take somebody down, like he took Adam and Eve down, when he wants to cause them not to stand, he goes for the jugular. He means to kill us. You have to recognize you are dealing with an enemy that shows no mercy. He hates us with an utmost of passion. He wants the absolute worst imaginable for us. Stand therefore, having fastened down the belt of truth and having put on the breastplate of righteousness and his shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. In all circumstances, take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one. And take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word. Praying at all times in the Spirit with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints." So brethren, what's the impression that we get here? Is the impression from these verses that Christianity is a life of ease? I mean, do we simply take our justification by faith and assume all that's well? Look, that's not an over-exaggeration of what a lot of people do. You talk to certain Christians, or professing Christians, it's very common, I believed, as though what? We take our justification by faith and assume all that's well? Well, yeah, I did that. Like it's a one-time thing. I mean, Paul Washer talks about it like, what, taking a vaccine or taking a pill. Like it's this thing you do one time. Well, that's not what Paul's saying. Paul says that there's more. Put on the whole armor of God. He wants us to realize that from the day you're saved until the day that you die, you're engaged in a massive, terrible conflict. All you have to do is take those two words, cosmic powers. I mean, that's big. When you start using cosmic as the adjective of the enemy that you're against, that's a pretty significant thing. So Christian, what you and I need to recognize is we are the ones who need to be so armed. The devil doesn't need to use his schemes against the unbeliever and against the non-Christian. There's no need for him to do that. Why? You think about Jesus' words. He calls the devil the strong man. And he calls him fully armed. And he says he guards his palace. And listen to this. He says that his goods are safe. Of course they're safe. His goods are unbelievers. And they're safe because think about this. With no devil even mentioned, think about how lost people are described. All by themselves, our Bibles teach us that unbelievers, in 2 Thessalonians 2, it says unbelievers refuse to love the truth and so be saved. See, that's an unbeliever. Also in Romans 1, it says that they suppress what can be known about God. Right here in this very book of Ephesians, it says what? Debt and trespasses and sins. And it says they follow the course of the world and they follow the prince of the power of the air. See, we follow. We readily follow. We readily don't like truth. We readily suppress truth. We readily suppress what can be known about God. That's how we are. We're dead in trespasses and sins. We love our sins. But unbelievers are an easy task for the devil. It takes very little cleverness and very little subtlety on the part of the devil when it comes to unbelievers. But you know what happens? Once a sinner gets saved, once a sinner gets translated into the kingdom of Christ, the whole situation changes. Changes all together. And the devil knows it changes. You know what the Bible calls us? Children of light. And what does light do? Light reveals error. It reveals the darkness. It reveals who God truly is. Not only are we in the light, we have new hearts. We desire righteousness. We desire good. We desire to know God. And we do know God. That's what Scripture says. We now see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Scripture becomes alive. Scripture becomes real. We begin to feel the convictions of the Holy Spirit through it. We know the truth. The truth sets us free. Unrighteous men gladly exchange the truth about God for a lie. There's no work for the devil. It's easy for him. Men are disposed to error and to lies and ungodliness. That's their nature. They want to be deceived. But you know what happens once we're saved? The whole position is different. That's why he targets us. That's why we are the ones that he needs to scheme against. You may notice that word. Look at verse 10, or verse 11 rather. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the schemes. Paul knows it's real. Put on the whole armor of God. That's how real it is. And we are arming ourselves against schemes. Now think about that. What are the synonyms for schemes? The King James Version calls these things wiles. The wiles of the devil. The Holman Christian Version calls it the tactics of the devil. If you look for synonyms of schemes, you come up with words like craftiness, cunning, wiliness, trickery, stratagems. Do you remember how it said there when we first see the devil? Way back in Genesis, what were we told? The serpent was more crafty than any other beast. And remember, we're talking about us. We're talking about the battle we're in. But remember how he used his craftiness against our first father and mother. He was a murderer from the beginning. He killed them. Remember what happened. He's crafty. He uses his craftiness to undo people to the uttermost. Now listen, this is another statement made by the Apostle Paul. You don't need to turn there, but just listen to this. In 2 Corinthians 2, Paul to the Corinthians speaks about being outwitted by Satan, for we are not ignorant of his designs. Here in Ephesians, it's called schemes. In 2 Corinthians, it's called designs. Now remember what Peter tells us. Peter tells us that he's looking to devour. If you want to know about his designs and his schemes, he's seeking like a lion to devour. He wants to eat us. He wants to chew us up. He wants to tear us to pieces. This is the picture. Designs is the way that ESV puts it. But the KJV says devices. Maybe some of you are familiar with the Puritan Thomas Brooks. I have a little Puritan paper back at home, which I wish I would have brought with me. It's in my books to bring. It just didn't make it in the first time over. But he wrote a book. He wrote a discourse, a treatise called The Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices. What is a device? What is a design? Basically, a design, it can be used in a good way or a negative way. It just basically means purposes that are conceived through thinking. When we design something, we think. We think about how to do something. We think about what something ought to be, how something ought to be made up, the pieces and the parts of it. That's the idea. Think with me. This is not a small thing. We literally have the minds of fallen angels conspiring and striving together, forming plans. What kind of plans? What kind of plans are these? Well, listen to Paul again. Listen to Paul in 2 Corinthians. So that we would not be outwitted by Satan, for we're not ignorant of his designs. Listen to that word, outwitted. That's what these plans are about. That's what these devilish minds of these fallen angels, they're trying to outwit us. They're coming up with plots and strategies that are designed to get the advantage over us. Now notice our passage. Notice Ephesians 6 verse 11. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. I just want you to notice the word against. When somebody's against you, you say, oh, they're against me. Well, obviously that means they're not for you. That means they mean to do you damage and harm. That's what it means to be against. Somebody's against you. It means that they don't have your greatest good in mind. They're not looking out for your welfare. Think, this extraordinary angelic being is using all of his IQ. What do you think his intelligence quotient is? It's big. He has the ability to think and he has the ability to plot. And it's against us. Christian, what Paul's telling us is you're not lost in the crowd. You may feel like, oh, you're not very tall or you're not very handsome or you're not very beautiful or you're not very significant or you're not very gifted or you're not very this or very that or something else. Let me tell you something. You're not lost in the crowd because the truth is the devil doesn't care if you're beautiful or handsome or tall. He doesn't care if you've got tremendous muscles. You know what he cares about? If you're a Christian, that's what he cares about. And if you're a Christian, you're not lost in the crowd. And Paul is saying this is no fiction. Paul is in dead earnest about this. So we read from Job. There was a reason for that. Job chapter 1 and chapter 2 are very significant portions of Scripture when it comes to understanding our adversary. So let's turn there. Let's go to Job now. I want us to look again at Job chapter 1. So turn there. Job chapter 1. I want you to see, brethren, what I am concerned about is that we be educated about our enemy. We need to figure out who we're fighting. We need to figure out about his schemes. So notice this. Notice chapter 1, verse 7 of Job. You've got to love Job. I don't mean just the man. I mean the book. It is a very unique book in the Bible. And one of the things that is so unique about it is it simply shows us that God and the devil communicate about us. And we don't always know what Satan is doing. Job was never told in the entire book of Job what Satan was up to. Never. And what we get in the book of Job is a glimpse behind the scenes. Very instructive. Notice verse 7. The Lord said to Satan, from where have you come? Satan answered the Lord and said, now notice this, from going to and fro on the earth and from walking up and down on it. Well, that's instructive. The devil moves. Peter says he prowls about. He's not omnipresent, but he's got, we believe, a third of the angels. So there's a lot of them to be in a lot of places at one time, even if they're not omnipresent. But even where they are, they're moving. The devil's on the move. Listen to what he says next. Verse 8. The Lord said to Satan, have you considered my servant Job? Now stop right there. I want you to think about what the devil thinks about. Paul's already telling us. He schemes. It's against us. If he's scheming against us, he's thinking about us. He's considering us. Notice. This is a good question. Devil, what are you thinking about? This is what the devil is being asked by the Lord. Have you considered? In other words, what are you thinking about, devil? You thinking about Job? You ever considered him? How does Satan answer? Does he say, well, I know. I'm glad you brought him up because I've never thought about him. No, that's not the answer. What's the devil preoccupied with? Well, God asked him directly about his thoughts and listen to the devil's answer. Verse 9. Then Satan answered the Lord and said, does Job fear God for no reason? Oh, you see, he was very much thinking about him. He knew very well that Job feared God. Does he fear him for no reason? Have you not put a hedge around him and his house and all that he has on every side? You've blessed the work of his hands and his possessions have increased in the land. You better believe he considered Job. He knew all about him. Christian, he knows all about you. If the devil and the Lord were to be having a conversation without you knowing about it and God were to ask the devil, have you thought about my servant? Put your name in the blank space. Do you know he would answer the same? He does know. And here's something else. Notice the dialogue in verse 11. Notice what the devil says. Stretch out your hand and touch all that he has and he will curse you to your face. Now notice this. The devil says, God, you have to stretch out your hand and touch what he has. Notice verse 12. It takes the Lord saying to Satan, behold, all that he has is in your hand. Only against him do not stretch out your hand. So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord. You might want to notice the devil has to be granted permission. The power of the devil is alarming. Not only is his power alarming, his brashness is very stark. The devil is bold. The devil is confident. You think about it. The devil himself, he did not hesitate to tempt and attack even the son of God himself. And Job, in Job's day, Job is probably the most righteous man alive upon the land. And the devil is all too ready to have a go of him. You see how confident he is? But I'll tell you, with all of his confidence and all of his boldness and all of his brashness, there's a problem. A problem for him. He can't get at Job, unless what? He needs permission. I mean, why had he not killed Job's children before that day? Because he couldn't. He didn't have permission. And you know what? This first go at Job, he doesn't afflict Job with boils. That's only the second time. Why doesn't he afflict Job with boils the first time? Because God told him he couldn't. God specifically told him, you have access to all that he has, but you have to leave him alone. Only against him do not stretch out your hand. You know what? God sets the limits, not the devil. All that Job has is in your hand, only against him do not stretch out your hand. The devil can't do whatever he wants, and he knows he can't do whatever he wants. That's why the devil says what he says. Have you not put a hedge around Job? Of course God had put a hedge around him. Of course that hedge. Christian, do you realize there's a hedge around you too? Have you ever read? I mean, one of the most glorious statements made in Zechariah is found there in Zechariah chapter two, verse five. I will be to her a wall of fire around, declares the Lord. Who's the her? It's Jerusalem. It's Zion. It's Israel, the true Israel. It's us. God puts a wall of fire around us. We there in San Antonio, we love to sing Psalm 46. The Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our fortress. Brethren, there's only one way the devil gets through that fortress and through that wall of fire. Only one way, by permission. All the time the devil is under the all-seeing, all-sovereign eye of the living God. You have to remember this. The devil is God's devil. I don't remember who said that. Someone said that. I'll say it again, but it's true. God owns the devil and the devil does only what God allows him to do. The devil is only going to be around here as long as God allows him to be around here. You have to recognize this. The devil is here because God has purposes for him. So, okay, if this is true, then think with me about what Paul says in Ephesians six. Now let's go back to Ephesians six, because read Ephesians six now in light of what we just learned from Job chapter one. So if God's in control, if God has to give the devil permission, so let's read this in light of that. So beginning in chapter six of Ephesians verse 11, put on the whole armor of God. Why would we need to put on the whole armor of God? Because what do you put on armor? On yourself. You're not arming your dog. You're not arming your house. You're not putting armor around the church building. You are putting armor. Armor is for you. It's on you. Why? Because the devil is able to get to your breast, to your head, to your body, if you don't have a breastplate of righteousness or a helmet of salvation. It's you that you have to gird up with this. And there's a reason, because if you're not girded with it, the devil is going to be able to get through that, pass that to you and do you damage. Now, listen, we need to put on the whole armor of God that we are able to withstand against the schemes of the devil. You know what it sounds like? It sounds like the devil is being allowed to scheme against us, for we do not wrestle against flesh and blood. No, but we do wrestle against rulers, authorities, cosmic powers over spiritual forces of evil. You know what that means? It means God is allowing the devil to get to us, to wrestle with us. If the devil's scheming to outwit me, that can only happen if God allows the devil to scheme to try to outwit me. And here's the thing. Brethren, we are everywhere in Scripture told to trust the Lord, to believe Him and to obey Him. God tells us what to do in order to be victorious, and God tells us what to do in order to not be outwitted by the devil. Here's the thing. We will be outwitted if we don't listen to God. We will be outwitted if we don't gird ourselves with this armor that he's telling us about. God gives us a way to fight the battle, and if we'll listen to Him, and we'll hear Him, and we'll obey Him, and we'll heed His instruction, then we won't be outwitted. God tells us everything we need to do in order to not be outwitted, but we will be outwitted if we're careless, if we're lethargic, if we're unbelieving, if we're disobedient. We will fail. We will fall. We'll become discouraged. We'll become depressed. We'll grieve the Spirit. We'll become hardened. And I'll tell you this. People who don't obey, people who do not heed this instruction, they even fall away from the living God, and they're murdered. That's what the devil means to do. God gives us this instruction, and He is very serious that we heed Him. God is pleased to do this because this tests our faith, a faith that's upheld by God. It tests our obedience. Now, listen to me. The Spirit of God drove Jesus into the wilderness to do battle with the devil. God gave the devil permission to ravage Job, but you know what? Job stood the test, and the reality is that Christ more than stood the test. But God purposely puts His servants in the way of the devil. Think with me. Think about the glory God gets when He puts little weak people like you and me face-to-face with spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. And the Lord says, Satan, minions of evil, have at them. And we make it. We actually survive. We actually make it to the end. Think. Brethren, that's no credit to you and me. That's credit to the strength and the might and the salvation of God, and He gets great glory in this. But that doesn't mean we sit back and are passive. No, that's never the case. God saves the people to be active in working out their own salvation. That's how He saves us, through a faith that He upholds, but it's also a faith that we have to feed and that we have to strengthen. We are the ones who have to believe, and we are the ones who have to fight the good fight of faith. So God purposely puts little weak things like us. Can you imagine the frustration this is to the devil? Here he is, this mighty angelic being, and he's not by himself. He's got these hordes of cosmic powers, and here, little people like us, in all of our weakness, in all of our stupidity and backwardness, and we actually survive. We make it. I mean, the devil just has to be absolutely frustrated that Christian after Christian just seems to evade him and elude him. But I'll tell you, we know he's furious, and he knows his time is short, and he hates us, and he sets himself to do battle with those who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus Christ. The Lord says that if we'll trust Him, if we'll cling to Him, if we'll abide in Him, abide in His Word, do what He says, we will be more than overcomers. And when we don't, we all know too well the kinds...we've all failed to some degree in this. And when we do, we know the doubts, the discouragement, the depression, the fear, the pride, the wrong thinking, and with some people, even the apostasy that can come in. Now listen, Paul said, as we turn to the particulars in this, Paul told the Corinthians, we are not ignorant of the devil's designs. Don't you love that? We're not ignorant. Wow, Paul. He's pretty dogmatic. We're not ignorant. And he's saying we. I mean, he includes himself and the church at Corinth. We're not ignorant. Well, we could just close our Bibles right there, right? Well, if we're not ignorant, case closed. We all have a handle on this. We are ignorant. No more needs to be said. But you know what's interesting to me? The apostle to these very same Corinthians, in the very same book of the Bible, in just a few chapters, he looks at these Corinthians and he says this, I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ. Paul, why are you afraid? Why would you be afraid? I thought you were fairly certain these folks weren't ignorant of Satan's devices. So why are you afraid over there? You say we know his devices. So why are you afraid now that these people might be deceived by the serpent? Why? What's going on with that? Well, the truth is, the truth is, even though we might know something in theory, we can fail to know practically and we can fail to practically apply what we do know. You know the thing is, I think we very often as Christians, we expect it to be obvious when a scheme is being unraveled against us. We expect it to just be plain. We expect it to be right there before our eyes when it happens to us. Well, we can have our Bible study, you can have a sermon like you're getting today on the schemes of the devil, and we can all say confidently, you know you can walk out of the church building today, but we're not ignorant of the devil's designs. We heard about them, we know they exist. But then isn't it amazing? You have these people who can actually know and not be ignorant. But you know what? It's probably could be said of us, just like it can be said of the Corinthians, that if an apostle came and examined our life, or anybody spiritual, and they began to examine our life, they might also come away very much afraid for us that we are in fact being outwitted by the devil's cunning. I mean, some of us may at this very moment be far more outwitted. Look, I've been a pastor long enough to recognize this. The devil's subtle. That means he comes in a way that you don't expect. That means he comes at us in a way that we often, he means for us not to detect he's there. I've seen people's lives, and I recognize they're being outwitted by the devil, and they don't even realize they're being outwitted by the devil. And isn't that what it means to be outwitted by the devil? It means that he's working these schemes craftily. The serpent was more crafty. You see, this is the issue. There may be some of you that are being more outwitted in certain areas of your life than you might possibly imagine right at this moment. We can get subtly turned off course to where we hardly know where we're at. And good men often have been. We have accounts in Scripture of good men. You know, the thing is, we know the devil's there. We know he's out there. We know he's coming. We know he's strategizing. We know he's planning and he's plotting. We know that. But you know, we can be kind of like a soldier who's drawn guard duty. You're a soldier. It's wartime. It's World War II. You're a British soldier. You're called. It's your turn. You've got guard duty. It's 3 a.m. You've got the fourth watch. There, it's your turn. And you're watching for the enemy. You know he's out there. You know he's coming. And yet, you don't see him. Why? A German soldier has crept around on his belly and now he's coming up behind you. And you know what? He's coming in the least expected direction. Oh, but there's more. He's not dressed like an enemy. He's not wearing one of those Nazi helmets with a swastika on his sleeve. He's actually dressed up just like a British soldier. You see, brethren, the thing is we can know and not know. David. You take David, King David. Oh, he can know. Nathan comes to him and tells him this very pathetic story about a man who had a lamb and his rich neighbor stole the lamb away from him, a lamb that was like a pet to his family. And this rich guy went and took it and he slaughtered it. And you know, you can take David and David can recognize that's all wrong and yet be blind to the very fact that the man Nathan is talking about is actually he himself. You see, we can see and yet not see. We can know and yet not know. We theologically can all, you know, cross the T and dot the I. We have a good theological understanding that there is a devil. We know Satan's our enemy. On paper, we can write down certain facts. We academically know about these schemes and these plans and these designs and these plots. But I would just ask you this. Does Paul talk like these plots and these schemes are somewhat unusual in the Christian life? Somewhat spaced apart, few and far between? Maybe, yeah, they're there, but they're kind of a rarity. Is that what we're feeling? You see, Paul's urgent about us being clothed right now, instantly with the power of God's might and with God's armor. Why? There's cosmic forces, there's spiritual powers, and you've got to do everything to stand. And it's all against the devil's schemes. They're obviously not sporadic and occasional. Just these occasional nuisances in the Christian life. Do you get the feel here? This is all out battle. In other words, there are crafty schemes being worked and employed against you and against this church right now. This is a constant reality. And the question we need to ask is where? Because they're subtle. They're crafty. They're working. They're trying to outwit us. This is all out battle all the time. It's happening here and now, and it's happening to you and to me, and it's happening to this church. And so the question we have to ask is where is the devil trying to take us out? Where's he trying to take you out? Where's he trying to outwit the church? And you know, his designs are different. He doesn't always work the same way. When he came against the Lord Jesus, he didn't try to get him to eat a fruit from a tree, but that's what he did with Adam. Eve in the beginning, then Adam. You see his methods vary. He may try to come at us one way one time and another way another time. He may try certain schemes on one person knowing their weaknesses and another one on another person knowing where they're weak. We're not all wired the same. And he knows that. Where's the devil trying to take you out? Where's he trying to outwit the church? Brethren, we're not ignorant of Satan's designs unless we are. So I want to show us in the weeks ahead. One of the things that I really want to do is I want to focus on ways that he tries to take us out. Some of those more common ways, the things we have to keep our eyes open to and be aware of. So this is going to kind of be an ongoing thing. I'm not going to say everything about certain things that I want to ultimately say more about. I'm just going to end today by looking at one particular point of attack. And even here, I'm not going to say everything that I ultimately am going to want to say about this. But I want to show you something. So everybody turn in your Bibles. This is going to be the last main place we're going to look as we wrap up the sermon today. 1 Chronicles chapter 21. I'll let you all get there. 1 Chronicles 21. Now you may remember this account. Then Satan. This is 1 Chronicles 21 verse 1. Right at the beginning of the chapter. Then Satan. So you see our enemy. Here he is. There's no hiding him. He's right here at the beginning. We know who's operating. And he's operating against a child of God. It's David who he's working with. Who he's trying to outwit. So this perfectly fits what we're talking about. The devil. And he's trying to outwit. And he does outwit a child of God. And let's notice the details. Satan stood against Israel and incited David to number Israel. And David does. He's incited by the devil and he follows through with what the devil is inciting him to do. Leading him to do. Impressing him to do. So David said to Joab and the commanders of the army, go number Israel. From Beersheba to Dan and bring me a report that I may know their number. But Joab said, may the Lord add to his people a hundred times as many as they are. Are they not, my Lord, the king, all of them my Lord's servants? Why then should my Lord require this? Why should it be a cause of guilt for Israel? Now notice that. Why is numbering Israel a cause for guilt? Why is it sin? And make no mistake, what David did was absolutely sin. If you have any doubts about it, look down at verse 7. Look at verse 7. 1 Chronicles 21:7. God was displeased with this thing and he struck Israel. And David said to God, I have sinned. He didn't just sin. He sinned greatly by his own admission. I have sinned greatly in that I have done this thing. But now please take away the iniquity. He calls it sin. He calls it iniquity. It's called something that displeased God. Iniquity of your servant for I have acted very foolishly. Yes, that's another thing you can call it. It's foolishness. He acted very foolishly. So here's a question. What's the devil up to here? Or maybe the question we need to ask is this. What's wrong with numbering Israel? Look, this is altogether practical. Because, you know, we read this account of David. It's like, when's the last time you were tempted to number Israel? Well, the reality is you haven't been. And yet the reality is just as well that you undoubtedly have been tempted to number something. So what's wrong with numbering Israel? I want you to notice two things here. Look with me right at the first verse again. Satan stood against Israel and incited David to number Israel. So David said to notice who David says this to. This is key. He said to Joab. Who's Joab? Joab's the head of the military. He said to Joab and the commanders of the army. He didn't just say to some social workers somewhere. He's actually asking these military men to go number Israel. And then notice verse 5. Joab gave the sum of the numbering of the people to David. In all Israel there were, now notice this very carefully, 1,100,000 men who did what? Who drew the sword. You know what? This is no general census. You know what David's doing here? He wants to know how big his army is. Why? Because kings trust in the size of their armies. Kings. I'm talking about kings of the world. Pagan kings. Pagan kings trust the size of their armies. He wanted to know how big his army was. I hope you see that. You see what Satan's doing is he's inciting David to depend upon the size of his army. You see what he's doing? He wants David to trust the arm of the flesh rather than to trust the God of Israel. I would just say this, oh David, you who went out to the battlefield against the monster Goliath with only a sling and a stone and you went out in the name of the God of Israel and now here you are, outwitted. We all do well, very well, to remember Jonathan. You remember David's good friend Jonathan, the son of Saul? You may remember there was a day when he was out on the battlefield. He was fighting against the Philistines and do you remember what he said to his armor bearer? There was a time when he and his armor bearer, they were down at the bottom of a hill or a mountain and up at the top was a Philistine garrison. He basically had a whole troop of Philistine soldiers up on top. You remember what Jonathan said to his armor bearer? We do well to heed this. He said, come. He saw the enemy up there, they were way outnumbered. But did that deter Jonathan? No way because he wasn't trusting in numbers and he said as much, listen to what he said. He said to his armor bearer, come, let us go over to the garrison of these uncircumcised. It may be that the Lord will work for us. And listen to what he says then. For nothing can hinder the Lord from saving by many or by few. We need to take that to heart, brethren. Be sure of this. One of the devil's schemes is to get you and your family and to get this church to put their trust in the arm of the flesh. Sennacherib, you may remember this guy, king. He was a king of Assyria, Sennacherib. He and all his Assyrian hordes are gathered together against Hezekiah and Jerusalem. And listen to what Hezekiah said to his people in 2 Chronicles 32. He said, be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or dismayed before the king of Assyria and all the hordes that are with him. For there is more with us than with him. Now he didn't mean we have more soldiers than they have. When he says there's more with us than with Sennacherib, what he means is we've got God Almighty with us. That makes what we have more than what they have. That's the whole point. He says with Sennacherib is the arm of the flesh, but with us, the Lord our God to help us and to fight our battles. Now, here's one thing we do well to remember all the time. When you come over to the New Testament, you're reading along in certain places like 1 Corinthians 10 or Romans 15. You know, the apostle likes to tell us why the Old Testament was written and why accounts like that of Hezekiah and Jonathan were written. You know what he says? He says that whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, for us. That through endurance, through the encouragement of the scriptures, we might have hope. You know why those Old Testament accounts were preserved all the way to today, till 2020 here in Manchester so that you and I can read them? It's for us. It's written for our instruction. It's written for our benefit that we might learn. I want to remind you of something. You notice this the next time you read through the Old Testament, read through 1 Samuel, 1 Chronicles, 1 Kings. You remember this when you read Joshua. Some of the most mighty among the commanders of Israel, men like Joshua and David, the mighty warriors of Israel, you may want to take notice, they never rode on horses. They never fought from chariots. It was always the enemies of God that had the chariots. Scripture says this in Deuteronomy 20, when you go out to war against your enemies and you see horses and chariots, not only that, but an army larger than your own. You see, this is what God is saying to His people. I'm going to put you on the battlefield, and you are often going to be up against armies that are bigger than yours, and they're going to be on horses, and they're going to be on chariots, and it's going to be a very fearful thing to the human eye. But He said this, He said, you shall not be afraid. Why not? For the Lord your God is with you. That is the simple and the beautiful and the glorious and the perfect answer. That's why we don't trust numbers. That's why we don't trust horses. That's why we don't trust chariots. You'll remember what the psalmist said, some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we will trust in the name of the Lord our God. This we do well to remember. The psalmist also said this, the war horse is a false hope for salvation and its great might. With its great might, it cannot rescue. You remember this? Egypt. Right before Israel came out of Egypt, Egypt was the mightiest military force on the face of the earth. They had massive numbers of horses and chariots. You'll remember that when they rode out of Egypt, out there into the wilderness, out up against the Red Sea to take Israel, they were coming with horses and chariots. That was the army. Very fearful. There's a roar. These things, oftentimes you may see on the hubs of these wheels of these chariots, they would put blades. It was very, very scary if you're just standing there on foot. It's kind of like being on the battlefield and you've got tanks coming against you and you're standing there just as a foot soldier and you're carrying a gun. I mean, here comes a tank. It's like this is overwhelming. It's too big. But I want you all to remember where all those horses and chariots ended up. They ended up on the bottom of the Red Sea. Remember what the Lord says, cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the Lord. This is how scripture speaks to us. We do very, very well to recall these things, whether it's horses and chariots or whether it's numbers, the number of soldiers, it's all wrong. But think, brothers and sisters, the devil is scheming against you and me and all of us as a church. Now we know this intellectually, but unless we really see how the devil operates and we begin to apply it to ourselves in this place at this time, if we don't do that, we'll be outwitted. You see, the devil, he greatly desires us to just be forgetful or to read these Old Testament accounts and read them somehow separate from ourselves. You know what? The devil wanted Jesus himself to bow down and worship him. That's what the devil wants. He wants to worship. You know what he really wants? He just doesn't want us worshiping God. He wants us dishonoring God. He wants us to not trust God. And the devil outwits us anytime we trust anything more than God. And I would even say more than that. The devil outwits us anytime we trust anything other than God, not just more than God, other than God. Scripture says, you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety. You alone, this is what the psalmist says, are my rock and salvation, my fortress. Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who alone does wondrous things. He's alone in his glory. It's not just that we shouldn't trust God more than anything else. We need to not trust anything else but God. I know there's a place for trusting. People have a certain amount of trustworthiness. But I'll tell you, in the grand scale of all things, it's God who we must trust. And I know we all can affirm this. And I know we can say we see it. We're not ignorant. But I wonder, I wonder, some trust in cherries, some trust in horses, some trust in preachers, some trust in money, some trust in their own abilities, some trust in their own thinking, their own ability to think. The devil is crafty and the devil is subtle. And he schemes and he plots. Now think with me. The devil wants this church to disobey God and to dishonor God and to not trust God right at the point. The devil is going to tempt us right at the point of who and what we trust. And he does it all the time. And it's always the arm of the flesh. He wants us to trust something other than God. And it always comes down to the arm of the flesh. It always comes down to something that's created. It always comes down to some ability of our own. What do we trust? Brethren, sometimes you have to ask different questions. See, if we say, if we ask the question, who do we trust? Oh, you know, call on me. I've got the answer. We trust God. Well, we know the right answer. Sometimes we have to ask the question differently. You know, I find it very telling to find out why God's people can't do things. Like you bring up to a church, hey, brethren, you know what we ought to do? We ought to do this. And listen to the reasons as to why people don't think we can do that. Because that often will tell you exactly what they trust. Let me just finish here with just several things that we commonly like to trust other than God. Now, obviously, the devil outwitted David by numbers. But I'll tell you numbers, oh, it may not be how big the military unit is of Israel, but you know what? The same thing can afflict the church. Churches love numbers. Churches love to boast in numbers. I'll be honest, brethren, I'm afraid of that. One of the things that you'll never find me doing is counting the people in this church. You're not going to find me ever able to tell you exactly how many professing Christians we have in the church here in Manchester. At Grace, I didn't count, and I never counted. And the reason that I didn't is because I know, and I'm wired like other people. It's not because I'm trying to set myself forth as being more righteous. It's I know the tendency. I know the temptation, and I'm afraid of that. And pastors love to compare numbers. I don't think that's good. And what good are numbers? You know the thing is, the moment you boast in numbers in the church, God will split the church. The moment we look at numbers, how many are even true? Do we know the wheat from the tares? And brethren, the thing is, we just have to think like Jonathan. Whatever it is we're up against. Whatever it is we may want to do. The thing to ask is not how big we are. The thing to ask is how big our God is. That's always the question. Or here's another one. Money. Oh, what a big temptation. We know what a big temptation it is to trust money just by our Lord's words. Out of all the things He could have compared, out of all the things that might challenge serving God, isn't it amazing that there in Matthew 6, Jesus says you cannot serve God and money. And it can become so subtle. The thing is, Christians need to work with money. Jesus worked with money. We know Judas held the bag. Well, it wasn't evil to have a bag. It was evil that Judas stole from the bag. But they were all good with having a bag. Why? Because from the bag, you could feed the poor. We need to deal with money. The Bible everywhere talks about money. Money's not a bad thing in and of itself. The love of money certainly is. But the thing is, because we're always using it, there's that temptation and it's subtle. You just get to the place where you start making decisions not based on prayer. Not based on the promises of God. Not based on the character of God, the power of God, the goodness of God. But you just, you do everything. Well, you know, all before we can do this, brother, how much do we have in the bank account? We don't want to get there. The thing to do is not to figure out what's in the bank account. I can't tell you the number of times I have found God very willing to stand with us in some endeavor when we did not have the funds in the bank account. I remember just recently we had our annual business meeting and we're talking about what we should increase certain missionaries to. And there was somebody who was new to the church, hadn't joined the church yet. They were just kind of auditing our business meeting. They raised their hand and they said, well, what's the church's budget? And I just smiled and I said, you know, sister, we don't operate that way. In other words, it's not based on statistics. It's based on, we came into this financial meeting with a week of prayer and fasting where we really have sought the Lord. Brethren, I'll tell you, I can't tell you how many times in our business meetings, financial meetings that we had in San Antonio, where I would say to the brethren, I feel like by faith, you know, I feel like we ought to support this certain missionary at this amount. And then somebody raises their hand and says, brother, that's the same number I had. And then a sister raised her hand, brother, that's the same number that I had. And we don't want to trust money. We don't want to serve money. We don't want to look at how many giving members are in the church, how many breadwinners are in the church. What are the numbers in the bank account? What does the bank account ledger say or the checkbook ledger? We don't want to live like that. What we want to do is we want to seek the Lord and ask the Lord what the Lord wants us to do. And then in faith and looking at the promises of God and the character of God, step out in faith and seek to do it. I cannot tell you, I'll just tell you this, every single time without exception, there's not a single exception, every single time in the life of the church in San Antonio, over just about 20 years that we have stepped out many times when we did not have the financial resources. God came through for us every single time. If it was 99%, I'd tell you, but it's not that. We serve us a faithful God. A third thing, Isaiah 2:22 says, stop regarding man in whose nostrils is breath, for of what account is he? Let me tell you something. You start trusting somebody even if they are an apostle. Remember Peter? He was an apostle. He denied the Lord three times. He failed the church at Antioch. Paul had to rebuke him. Some of you may feel that your former pastor has failed. I'll tell you this, men are weak. And I hope that the church is not putting their trust on me coming. I remember Asahel Nettleton. He was one of the American figures at the forefront of the second great awakening in the United States. And you know what? He was known to be a man through whom God worked. But if he ever got into meetings somewhere and he felt like the people were trusting his being there more than God showing up, he would walk away. He would leave the conference and walk away. Sometimes he would go into a neighboring town and just pray for the people in the church that he just left or in the village that he just left until they were broken, until they were calling on the Lord and desperate for the Lord. Then he'd go back. Brethren, you'll remember what Paul said. What is Apollos? What is Paul? Neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything. Only God who gives the strength. Don't put your trust in men. You know, God may use certain men. That may be true. But you don't want to put your trust in them because just as soon as you do, they will fall right on their faces in front of you. Men are just vessels that will or will not be used to the degree that God designs and desires. And that's true of Charles Spurgeon, of Martin Lloyd-Jones, two of my favorites. But they only were what they were by the grace of God as it was said of the Apostle Paul. I'll tell you a fourth thing. Brethren, you may remember this account. In the 39th year of the reign of King Asa, Asa was diseased in his feet and his disease became severe. Yet even in his disease, he did not seek the Lord but sought help from physicians. This is a big problem too. People don't seek the Lord and they run to doctors. People don't seek the Lord, they run to the health providers. That's wrong. That was wrong for Asa and it's wrong for us. And just remember why these things were recorded. They were recorded for our instruction. You know what you get? You get people, they try the doctor, they try this doctor, they go for a second opinion, they try this health, they try this operation, they go to this hospital. And it's like, oh, you know, now we've tried all these things, well, I guess we better try God as a last resort. It's like when we've tried everything else, well, we better try prayer. Brethren, do you know why Asa was faulted? He was faulted because doctors and health providers, health care have helped different members of my family and helped me. It's kind of the same with preachers. We should have preachers. I'm not against doctors. Brethren, the thing that Scripture is warning against is trusting them. And I love it when we have a church where the brethren first, before they seek the doctors, they're asking the elders to pray over them. Not because they trust the elders, but because they know that James 5 talks about seeking God for healing. I'll tell you a fifth thing we don't want to trust. We don't want to trust in our own understanding. You may recall the proverb, very famous proverb, Proverbs 3, 5, trust in the Lord with all your might and do not lean on your own understanding. Oh, brethren, we need to believe our Bibles. We need to believe the promises. We can ask ourselves, do we believe what God says? Well, yes, in theory. I just want to ask you something. Have you ever read the verse that says, this is Jesus speaking to not just apostles, speaking about anyone who believes in Him? Listen to this. Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in Me, not just first century Christians, not just apostles, whoever believes in Me will also do the works that I do and greater works than these will He do. Because I'm going to the Father. And I would just ask you this, brethren, do you believe this? If you say yes, then I would say, I would say, brethren of Grace Fellowship Manchester, let's act like we believe it. While the devil is strategizing and planning against us, let us strategize and plan to do these kinds of works, greater works than Christ did. I mean, while the devil is trying to plan and plot and subtly outwit us, let us plan and plot and openly defy him in the strength of the Lord and set out to do things that are greater than what Christ did. You say, I don't believe that. I don't understand that. I don't get that. I would say this, don't lean on your own understanding. If the Lord said it, you can believe it's true. I mean, we may have to figure out in what capacity it's true. But the thing is, it's true. And we don't want to deny it. You want to live like it's real. Brethren, I mean to fight to keep us from trusting things we should not trust. And God, help us to lean on his everlasting arms. God, help us to be such people that are not going to limit the Holy One of Israel. God, help us not to trust in chariots and in horses and in the size of our army. God, help us not to trust in British pounds or American dollars. God, help us not to trust this. The psalmist said, put them in fear, O Lord, and let the nations know that they are but men. And I would add this, God, put the devil and his demons in fear. Let them know that they are but fallen angels. And that, brethren, we need to speak just like David when he was in his right mind and he was thinking well, when he went out against Goliath. We come in the name of the Lord our God. We come in the name of the God of Israel. And we mean to trust him. We need to be committed to that. We're going to trust him. Even if we look like fools, we're going to trust him. Even if we have to step out and it seems like there's no firm footing for our foot to fall on, we're going to trust him. God, help us to trust him. Some trust in chariots. Some trust in horses. God, help us to be a people who trust in the name of the Lord our God. Don't be outwitted, brethren. The devil's going to try to get us not to do this. The devil gets churches all the time to trust in other things. You can tell a church that trusts the Lord by what they do, by how they live, by how they walk. God, help us, brethren, in the days ahead. I have much more to say on this, but that's probably more than enough for today. Let's pray. Father, I pray as some do trust in chariots and horses and some trust in money, some trust in all sorts of things. Many, many, many are putting their trust in the arm of the flesh. Lord, we would ask you to help us to be so... we read about a shield of faith. Lord, we want to believe what you've said in your Word. Not just theoretically, no. We don't want it just to be theory. We want it to be reality. We want our lives to reflect this reality. Help us, Lord. Help us to grow. Help us to not be outwitted. Help us to not be ignorant of the strategies of the devil right at this point, right at this place, as he seeks to tempt us to trust other things, to not to trust you. Help us to be aware. Help us to be armed. Help us to be girded about by the armor of God that we not be deceived and that we do all to stand in this evil day. May we be a people that would rise up and show that we do indeed trust the God of Israel and that we believe that you can give us a victory by many or by few. Lord, help us. We ask in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.