Deny the Devil

Take your Bibles, if you would please, and turn to Ephesians chapter 6, verse 10. Verses 10 through 20 is a series that we are in, and that is on spiritual warfare. The title for today is "Denying the Devil" — denying him. I want you to have the skill set to be able to deny him in his tactics and schemes. And Ephesians 6:11 is our primary text, but I'd like to read with you Ephesians 6:10 through 20. I'll be reading from the Legacy Standard Bible, which is very close to the NASB, very close to the ESV — all these great translations of the Bible which we enjoy so much. But read with me if you would.

Ephesians chapter 6, verse 10: "Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the might of His strength. Put on the full armor of God so that you will be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the full armor of God so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. Stand firm, therefore, having girded your loins with truth and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace. In addition to all, having taken up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Also receive the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, praying at all times with all prayer and petition in the Spirit, and to this end being on alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints, as well as on my behalf, that the words may be given to me in the opening of my mouth to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains, so that in proclaiming it I may speak boldly as I ought."

In this we see some armor that the Apostle Paul, while he is imprisoned, is most likely looking at — a Roman soldier with all of these pieces of armor — as he is being guarded from escaping. And in this he is empowered by the Holy Spirit of God to associate those pieces of armor with spiritual concepts. In this we see that the truth holds everything together like a belt, and then we also see from the text that righteousness guards the heart like a breastplate, and then the gospel marches forward like a soldier ready with shoes or boots on, and then our faith defends us against Satan's schemes like a soldier with a thick shield, and then our salvation secures us like a helmet protecting the head, and then the Word protects us like a sword, and then our prayers keep us productive and prepared to be bold in our faith.

And so as we embark upon this journey through discovering what it is to be a spiritual warfighter, I want you to know that every Christian needs to be in active duty, fighting against these wiles of the devil. That's a good King James word right there — "wiles" — strategies and methods. In fact, if you look at your text you'll see these schemes in verse 11. It says, "Put on the full armor of God so that you will be able to stand against the schemes of the devil." And so your stance is to be standing, to be winning.

Look at Romans chapter 8, verse 35 with me real fast, and we'll see this posture of standing. Romans chapter 8, verses 35 through 39 — we see a victorious stance from the Apostle Paul. In Romans 8:35 it says, "Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will affliction or turmoil or persecution?" Now let me just pause there for a moment. We all go through these things, and these areas of life that can be equated to spiritual warfighting should have this type of perspective in mind. And so in verse 35: "Who will separate us from the love of Christ?" Well, obviously Satan is trying to separate you from the love of Christ, and he does these things — he schemes and plans and tries to pull you away from Christ. He tries to separate you from your Bible, from Bible study, from worship, from church, from walking with Christ, from having a close relationship with your spouse, from parenting your children biblically, from being holy. He tries to separate you from the truth and the love of Christ with affliction and turmoil and persecution, or even famine or nakedness or peril or sword, "just as it is written." Verse 36: "For your sake we are being put to death all day long, and we are counted as sheep for the slaughter." And so Paul's evangelistic attempts come with this dying-to-self aspect, even putting himself as one who is subject to a lot of pain and suffering, as if it feels like he's dying. So much turmoil is involved in reaching people for Christ.

In verse 37: "But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us." Now I want you to take note of what we overwhelmingly conquer. Do we overwhelmingly conquer Satan as if you get into the boxing ring with the devil? I mean, do you go face to face with Satan? Do you take up arms against him? Well, no — the answer is you conquer the schemes of Satan. Remember, Satan is the most powerful being second only to God. And in Psalm 2, God even laughs at Satan. But Satan is an angel — a fallen angel — and he still is invisible and powerful. He is smarter and stronger than we are in the flesh, and so we must fight in the Spirit. That's the only way that you're going to win in life — to learn how to fight as a Christian soldier, not as a carnal soldier, not as a person who is in the flesh, away from Christ, trying to do it yourself. And so we conquer the schemes. We wise up to what Satan is able to do by way of attack, by plans, by trickery — and then we deny him. We say no. We get away from or elude these things. We have frontal battle armor and we fight against Satan's schemes.

In verse 38 of Romans chapter 8 it says, "For I am convinced that neither death nor life nor angels nor rulers nor things present nor things to come nor powers nor height nor depth nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Praise the Lord that He is much stronger than all of the schemes of Satan and anything that can happen in this world.

It's important for us to remember that our battles are designed to either help or harm you, depending upon whether or not you're walking closely with Christ. If you're having tribulation today, it's important to remember and to discern whether or not you're in a battle that is helping you get closer to Christ — because you are walking with Him — and God is working these strains for your good and His glory. Or if you're being corrected by Christ, if you're being disciplined — so if you're away from the Lord and you're outside the shelter of His wings, the umbrella of protection that He provides for His own children, and you're getting eaten up by Satan's tactics and schemes — run to Christ. Repent and run to Christ. Truly get away from Satan's schemes. Get out from underneath the god of this age. Jesus even said to lost people, "You are of your father the devil." And so the devil can be a father — he can be a disciple maker, he can be a teacher. He teaches false doctrine. He aligns armies against Christians and even fools Christians into being on his side. We need to wise up to his schemes.

So I ask you today: how goes the battle? How goes the battle? And do you understand that you have a three-front battle, a three-front war, going on at all times? I want you to see this in the Scriptures. Turn to James chapter 3, verse 15, and see the categories of this spiritual war. Spiritual war has categories — it's the flesh, the world, and the devil. And in James chapter 3, verse 15, the Bible says — well, let's start with verse 13 so we get a running start and understand the verse. In James 3:13: "Who among you is wise and understanding? Let him show by his good conduct his works and gentleness of wisdom. But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, do not be arrogant and so lie against the truth." Verse 15: "This wisdom is not that which comes down from above, but is earthly, natural, and demonic." Okay? So there are your three categories. The world is earthly, and your flesh is natural, and the devil is demonic. You have these three categories that you're going to be fighting against, and you need to know how to fight in each area.

If you're fighting the flesh, then you're mortifying the flesh and you're fleeing from the flesh. Romans 8:13 says, "If you live according to the flesh, you will die. But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live." Romans 8:13 is a strategy for us to flee from the flesh, deny the flesh, mortify the flesh, kill the flesh — and you'll live. But if you allow sinful things to thrive in your life, it's going to lead you to death. And that's Satan's end goal. So fighting the flesh is one battle. But you also have a fight against the world and its allurements. We are not supposed to, as Christians, to submit our affections and our hearts to the things of this world. The things of this world are going to pass away. And so we need to keep our focus on God, set our minds and our hearts on things above and not on things of the earth. That's what Colossians 3:2 says. Set your heart — it's like you have control of putting your affections and your emotions upon them. It's just like being faithful to your spouse. Set your emotions on her or him. Love her or him. Love your spouse. Don't decide to love someone else. That's your fault if you do that, and there's punishment that comes with it. And so set your affections. Set your mind. Think and dwell upon the right things, and you'll be running from the world. The Bible says in 1 John 2:15, "Do not love the world or anything in the world." We're to love Christ because He first loved us.

And so the flesh and the world — and now Satan's schemes. In James chapter 4, verse 7, we are to resist the devil and he will flee from us. And if we do that kind of battle, if we resist Satan's schemes, resist his ploys, resist his tactics, resist his allurements — you know that he's prodding your life and trying to find where he can sneak in. But you know that he is shooting arrows at you. That's what the text says in Ephesians chapter 6, verses 10 through 20. He's got arrows coming at you often. And you know that your battle armor cannot withstand every single arrow that comes at you. Sometimes it pierces right below that breastplate of righteousness and gets right between the ribs. Sometimes things get to us. But we've got to resist Satan, and he will flee from us. We have to deny the devil in his trickery. Say no to his schemes. You have discernment. You're reading the Word of God. You have the Holy Spirit inside of you. When you smell something that is fishy, I promise you it's probably a dead fish. Don't eat it.

When you sense that Satan is up to something, don't be an unwise Christian and just go with the flow of the world. The way of destruction is broad; the way of Christ is narrow. We have to be like a fish that is alive and well and swimming upstream, going up the waterfalls. We need to be alive and well in Christ and know how to turn away from Satan and resist him. So are you living in victory over Satan's strategies? He wants to isolate you, afflict you, and torture you, and ultimately to destroy you.

In Ephesians chapter 6, this idea of him having schemes is in verse 11: "Put on the full armor of God so that you will be able to stand against the schemes of the devil." These schemes, these wiles, these methods — a scheme is a method.

John Wesley and Wesleyism — they're wonderful people, and I hope that they don't lean liberal, that they stay conservative and biblical. But today we are denying the schemes of the devil. In fact, speaking of Methodism, one of the schemes of the devil is to equate the writings of John Wesley as equally authoritative as Scripture. And Wesley didn't have all of his theology right, and so in that area of compromise is where Methodism has gone predominantly liberal.

The devil is a schemer, and he's going to continue, no matter how long it takes, to scheme and try to destroy your life. His attempts are guaranteed to be regular in your life, and unexpectedly he will come from areas where you do not expect it. It's your job then not to become a fatality. It's your job to stay close to Christ. It's your job to memorize Scripture, to stand against him and to resist his strategies. It's your job to wise up and not to become a dissenter. Don't fall away from the faith. In the last days, the Bible says that many will fall away from the faith. I want you to see this. Turn to 1 Timothy chapter 4, verse 1.

1 Timothy chapter 4, verse 1: "But the Spirit explicitly says that in the latter times" — now, the latter times: what is that? Well, that's from the first coming of Christ, incarnate in flesh, until the second coming of Christ. And that time in between is the latter times. And so are you living in the last days? Are you living in the latter times? Yes, we are all living in what the Bible calls the end times, the latter days. So the Spirit explicitly says that in latter times, some will fall away from the faith. Don't be surprised when some fall away from the faith, okay? And then what's happening to them? "They are paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons." Doctrines of demons. You know, Satan is so slick in how he deceives.

If you're taking notes, point number one is: the devil is a deceiver. The devil is a deceiver. 2 Timothy chapter 3, verse 13 talks about this: "But evil men and imposters will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived." Evil men have been deceived — they first were deceived by the deceiver, and now they are deceiving. And in verse 14, 2 Timothy 3:14: "But you, continue in the things that you have learned and become convinced of, knowing from whom you have learned them, and that from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to make you wise into salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus." And here's the end-all answer for spiritual warfighting. Verse 16: "All Scripture is God-breathed and profitable for teaching and for reproof and for correction and training in righteousness, so that the man of God will be equipped, having been thoroughly equipped for every good work."

The Word of God is your primary weapon out of all of the armor that we're going to study in the upcoming weeks in the spiritual warfare series. The sword — the offensive and defensive weapon of the Scriptures — is the only thing that Satan was defeated with when he attacked Christ in Matthew chapter 4, after Jesus had fasted for forty days and forty nights and was at His weakest point. That's when Satan came at Christ, and Satan was fought off with the Word of God. And so you must be memorizing Scripture. You must have it hidden in your heart, at the forefront of your mind. You must be regularly reminding yourself, by reading the Word of God, of what the Bible says. Highlight it, memorize it. Find out where you struggle and attach Scripture to the struggle. Don't continue struggling in life with Satan's schemes and your personal fleshly allurements. Don't continue in that struggle. Don't do it. Just attach Scripture to it and get away from it. Deny it. Walk away.

Satan has been using deception as a primary means of attack all the way from the beginning. Turn to Genesis chapter 3. Genesis chapter 3, verses 1 through 4 show us his first line of attack — his deception upon God's Word — trying to get you to misunderstand or doubt God's Word. He's trying to twist God's Word in your mind. That's the reason why Bible study, personal Bible study, is so important. I'm going to ask you a question: do you depend upon someone else to study the Bible for you and then tell you what it says? You're not there yet. I'm telling you, for you to be able to be an effective spiritual warfighter, you have to be able to study and rightly divide the Word of God for yourself. It's the reason why we place such heavy importance upon our Bible study groups that go verse by verse by verse through books of the Bible. It's the reason why we put such heavy emphasis upon Wednesday nights as we study theology — to know what the Bible says — because this is our primary line of defense, and the first place Satan is going to attack.

In Genesis chapter 3, verses 1 through 4: "Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which Yahweh had made. And he said to the woman, 'Indeed, has God said, "You shall not eat from any tree of the garden"?' And the woman said to the serpent, 'From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat, but from the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, "You shall not eat from it and you shall not touch it, lest you die."'" And here is the deception. There is so much packed into verse 4. We could have a series just on verse 4. But verse 4 says, "And the serpent said to the woman" — why is she even talking with Satan? You do not do battle with Satan, okay? Don't talk to him, don't listen to him. Resist his schemes. At the very onset of the issue, discern and move along. Use your shield, use your sword. Do not let him get to you. Above all else, Proverbs 4:23 says, "Guard your heart, for out of it flow the springs of life."

I so wish Adam would have personally discipled his wife here and built her up in these things and said, "Any time that the evil one comes close to you, you run to Christ, or run to the safe place. Stay where you're safe. There's evil out there. Be prepared." I'm telling you, ladies, listen — there is such a temptation today to separate from the authority of your husband and the authority of the local church. There is such a temptation today to do it your own way anyway, to have an individualistic mindset, to have your own bank account, to have your own job, to do things your own way: "You do things your way, hubby, and I'll do things my way." There's such division happening among good marriages today. Listen — marriages must become one in all areas. Unified. Do not do anything outside the unity of the marriage. It is so important for you to walk closely to Christ. I wish that this had turned out differently, but in the plan of God it didn't. And in fact, God still used even Satan's schemes for His glory in many ways.

In verse 4 it says, "And the serpent said to the woman, 'You surely will not die.'" Twisting God's words right there at the very beginning. No, Eve should have denied him at that point, turned to walk away, and said, "He is lying," and kept walking. Satan deceived Eve in Genesis chapter 3, verse 4. In Genesis chapter 3, verse 1, it records that the devil is a serpent — he's slick. He's like a snake. He's going to bite. He's like a viper. He's going to kill you if you let him.

So the devil deceived Eve by twisting God's words. Sin then entered in and affected all kinds of things. It not only affected Eve's innocence — her eyes were now opened — but it also affected their relationship with God, as they needed to hide from God. It affected their marriage, in that even Adam blamed Eve for the sin creeping in: "That woman that You gave me" — how immature that was. And then it affected all of our work — thorns and thistles, and by the sweat of our brow we accomplish things. It affected childbirth — now there's pain. It affected Eve's submission to her husband, and now she will desire to rule over him, something women have had to still overcome. Satan is still actively deceiving in all of these ways. He wants to deceive you into thinking that God is against you in all these ways, rather than recognizing that it's a curse that you have to work through.

Now, Satan is actively deceiving the most innocent as well. Don't think that you're in this just for yourself, or that your armor is just for you. You are part of a Christian family, and if you do not train the little ones to be able to recognize Satan's schemes and to turn and run from them, they'll get slaughtered right before your very eyes. And this is so sad to see — that we have lost this idea of training Christians. But 2 Timothy 3:16 ends with "training in righteousness." Have you trained the little ones to be able to stand against Satan? Like, if you're going to train to shoot a basketball into a hoop and win a game, do you throw them right into the game? No. There's all kinds of practice that goes on. You've got to learn how to dribble. You've got to learn how to walk and dribble. You've got to learn how to shoot. This is so practical — but why do we miss this in Christianity? Are you training the children up so that they are successful? Listen, repetition of key verses in the Bible will keep them right with Christ. For example, something extremely simple for young men — 2 Timothy 2:22, memorize it, men.

"Flee from your youthful lusts." Memorize Scripture at the point at which you struggle, and you'll win. Pray and ask God to help you. Do not click on pornography. I'm telling you, it'll ruin your life now and your marriage later. It'll cause you all kinds of heartache and harm others to come. Do not entertain those loose women — the Bible says, those alluring women. Do not do it online, in person, anywhere at all.

And the same thing goes for any struggle that we have. Wherever the struggles are, there is a verse that you can attach and memorize to that struggle, and then you can win these battles. Don't stay in the slumps of sin. Don't be beaten up by Satan every single day, because if he is whittling you down and getting you to your weakest point, he's going to launch some harpoons and try to destroy your life. If you entertain lust toward a woman and you try to keep it a secret, the Bible says in Numbers 32:23, "Be sure your sin will find you out." That's even secret clicks. If you lie about someone or slander them and you think you're cunning enough to hide online and do it secretly — be sure. You be sure. It'll be made public, and you'll be made the fool for who you are.

Listen, this is so important for you to guard your life, to guard your heart, to set your mind on the right things and to keep your heart pure. Satan is not out to just harm you — he wants to destroy you. In John chapter 10, verse 10, is his game plan. Satan's game plan is to steal, kill, and destroy. "The thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy, but I" — being Jesus — "come that you may have life and life more abundantly."

Listen to this strategy. Satan comes to steal. Let's just stick with this subject of holiness. He's going to steal a little bit of your purity and a little bit of your holiness — by some flashy ad that comes up, or some allurement — and gets you to do something in secret. He's going to steal some of your purity. And then once he comes and he steals that from you, he's got your purity. What then does he do? He chops it up and kills it. Straight to the heart. Murders it. He's a murderer. He doesn't just steal it — he then kills it. And then after it's dead, what does he do with it? Utterly destroys it.

Do you want to be mutilated by the evil one? I'm telling you, Satan is in the murdering and mutilating business. He has strategies. He has schemes. He has angels — demons — and he's aiming at your life. He's aiming at you. He wants to destroy you. He hates you. He wants to turn you against your wife. He wants to turn you against your husband. He wants to frustrate you against your children. He wants to say the church is not doing anything in this world and you just don't even need to be a part of it. He wants to turn you against God any little way he can. And if he can twist God's Word in any little way, as soon as he can get a little crack in your life — as soon as you leave that door unlocked or cracked or opened — then he will put his huge, lying paws on that door and rip the door of your heart right off, and he'll steal it, and he'll kill and he'll destroy.

How many marriages have been stolen, killed, and destroyed? How many of our young ones, in their entire lives, have been stolen by Satan, killed, and destroyed? Oh, we must be training in righteousness to be able to fight these battles. "Train yourself for the purpose of godliness" — 1 Timothy 4:7. Train yourself. If you enjoy weightlifting, as I have, that is nothing in comparison to godliness, the Bible says in 1 Timothy 4:7. Little profit, little bitty profit. Also — so what if you can bench a lot? So what if you can lift a lot? That means nothing. You know what means everything? Godliness. Godliness means everything. So train yourself in righteousness for this. The skinniest little godly man is much stronger than the biggest weightlifter and wrestler on the planet. Our flesh means nothing. God means everything.

It's so important for us to be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. One of the things that I have seen wreck people's lives — it was right in front of my face when I was in eighth grade. I went to a friend's house to play basketball and swim in his pool. We did that religiously — basketball, pool, basketball, pool, back and forth, back and forth. It was a great time. Then one day one of the kids across the street invited us into his house — had cupcakes and stuff like that. Oh cool. MTV was on. Whoa, I'd never seen that before. Whoa, a lot of bad stuff on MTV. Whoa, this is terrible. Well, in studying a little bit — not looking at MTV, but studying what MTV promotes — it in fact intentionally promotes the seven deadly sins.

Isn't this interesting? So the seven deadly sins — what are they? Well, they're not like a specific list in Scripture. They have been put together, just as Aristotle created the seven godly virtues. A Christian monk named Evagrius Ponticus made this list. The list is this — the seven deadly sins: number one, anger; number two, envy; number three, gluttony; number four, greed; number five, lust; number six, pride; number seven, slothfulness. And so Satan's deception to Eve — that she would not die — is very similar to Satan's deception to our young people: "And if you watch a little bit of this, it won't do you that much harm. Do what you think is best for you."

It's crazy how Satan convinced Eve that she would not die. But in fact, the Scriptures say the wages of sin is what? Death. "But the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus" — Romans 6:23. And then as well, in Proverbs 14:12: "There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death." And so Satan convinced Eve that she surely would not die. And somehow we see the same scheme toward our young ones — that you watch a little bit of secular television and develop these fleshly fun times or whatnot — "You're not going to die. It's not going to affect your life." Let me tell you, you are training yourself in sinfulness and not training yourself in righteousness.

And so how do you stand against all of these schemes? Just to mention a couple of them with you today. Well, the Bible says to be strong. In Ephesians chapter 6, verse 10, it says, "Finally, be strong." Not in yourself — be strong in whom? In the Lord. Be strong in Christ. And John 1:1 says, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." And so if you're going to be strong in Christ, you're going to be strong in the Word. The Word is pictured as a sword — offensive and defensive. And so be strong in the Word of God. Be strong in Christ. That means to be strengthened by Christ, with boldness and the ability to endure battles. To be strengthened means to have force, to have might, and it denotes having dominion and power over.

If you're going to be strong, what are you strong over? Well, if Bill Johnson is your spiritual mentor — I hope he's not — if Bethel TV is your source of theology — I hope it's not — then you believe you are powerful over Satan himself and have the ability to speak power over him, doing direct battle with him. Listen, Satan is no match for God, but the only one more powerful than Satan is God. Remember how powerful angels are, and especially the wisdom and the deception of Satan. You are not smarter than Satan. He knows the Bible better than you. He's been around longer. He's stronger. We don't do battle against him himself — we do battle against his schemes. Use the sword to cut off the scheme and move on. You say, "Nope, that's not of the Word," and you cut it off and move on. Resist his schemes.

So what then do we have power and dominion over? It's certainly not Satan himself. It is his schemes. Look at the text with me in Ephesians chapter 6, verse 11: "Put on the full armor of God so that you will be able to stand firm against" — what? You see that? — "against the schemes of the devil." What about verse 13? "Therefore, take up the full armor of God so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything to stand firm — stand firm, therefore." So you're to resist his evil schemes. In verse 16, what are we to fight against? "In addition to all, having taken up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one." You are standing and defending yourself against the arrows of the evil one — not him himself. You are not putting on boxing gloves and getting in the ring with the devil. He will knock you out.

So Matthew 10:16 says to "be wise as serpents and innocent as doves." It takes wisdom in God's Word to be able to do spiritual warfighting. So be stronger than Satan's schemes. There is nothing creative about Satan. He does the same things over and over and over again. Look through the Word of God. People fall from being lured by sinful women. The strongest man in the Bible — who was he? How many men did he kill? A thousand Philistines — with what? A jawbone of a donkey. How many foxes did he catch? Can you imagine trying to catch a fox? That takes some supernatural power. Samson was the only superman. He had supernatural power. What else did he do? He killed three thousand by toppling over an entire building, pushing the pillars out with the power of God. What a mighty man. What was his downfall? That devilish Delilah. So the most powerful man in the Bible was defeated by that devilish Delilah.

Men, I'm telling you, you had better run from this. Satan is a schemer and he can outwit you any day of the week. He is stronger than you any day of the week. If the strongest man in the Bible was outstrengthened and defeated because of Satan's schemes, then who are you to get in the ring and do battle with the devil himself? But there is an entire theology wrapped around this — with charismatic chaos circling the globe — about how you can outwit and out-strengthen the devil, even with your words, because you are supposedly a little god. It's a deep, dark doctrine. I want you to deny the devil. Deny him. Say no to this stuff. Resist Satan's schemes.

You've heard of God's will. I'm telling you what Satan's will is for you — to trick you and trap you and torture you and transform you into a God-hater, just like he did with Esau. How fast can it happen? It can happen real fast.

His schemes are cunning. They're deceitful. They're full of bamboozlement. Satan is a master at his trade. He has trained and trained and trained for centuries on how to deceive. He has practiced his trade. He is a master at disturbing your spirit. He's a master at distressing your mind, at befuddling your heart and twisting your emotions into a pretzel. He is masterful at this. He knows how to incrementally and gradually disturb and destroy you. He knows how to bother you at night. He knows how to discombobulate your mental state. He knows how to perplex, bewilder, and stress you out. He knows how to whittle you down. He knows how to attack. He wants to stun you and then sink you. He wants to strain you in every area and then separate you from the love of God, separate you from your spouse, separate you from your children, separate you from the church, and separate you from your Bible. Satan wants you in sin and then dead.

That's what he's going to do. John 10:10 tells us that he is there to steal, kill, and destroy. His schemes — he wants to allure you into gossip and slander. Revelation 12:10 says that Satan is the accuser of the brethren. I'm telling you today, deny him and don't do it. Don't act like Satan. There have been a few who have been guilty of this kind of grotesque sin publicly recently, but I want you to know that you and I are just as guilty in our hearts.

Guys, keep your heart clean before God so that it never publicly shames Christ and His church and yourself. Pray like David prayed: "Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew me each day." Walk with Christ. Keep yourself pure before Him. Do not think that you are stronger than any little sin. Do not flirt with sin or let it stay in your life, because it will grow. Sin is like cancer. Gossip is equated to gangrene in the Scriptures, and it will spread unknowingly. It's like something creeping slowly around you while you're asleep — hands that are as strong as a lion's coming around you. All of a sudden, Satan doesn't fight fair, and he uses all of his strength — enough strength to defeat Samson — on our most innocent and youngest ones.

Are we not to be shepherd-like, watchdog-like, like pastors and shepherds and elders and deacons and Christians? Are we not to be Christian soldiers who train in righteousness? Not just ourselves, but others. Are we not supposed to protect one another and to watch out for the schemes of the devil? You know that these schemes are everywhere. In fact, the Apostle Paul, when he was headed to Jerusalem knowing that his days were numbered — having completed the mission with a good conscience that God had set before him — he gathered the elders of the Ephesian church, where young Timothy was the pastor, and said to them, "I know that after my departure, savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock."

This verse, in Acts chapter 20, verse 29, says specifically that wolves — savage wolves — now, when a wolf gets a hold of a rabbit, what does it do? Right? When wolves come in and get around sheep, what do they do? Wolves will come from the outside and get into the church and savagely destroy sheep and their lives. But that's not it. Folks, the Bible prepares you in every way. Not only do wolves come from the outside in, but they come from among — from the inside out. Look at the next verse, Acts chapter 20, verse 30: "And from among your own selves men will arise, speaking perverse things to draw away the disciples after them." And so wolves come from the inside and from the outside.

Has not God in His brilliance prepared us and given us a manual for life on how to survive and live in this world? Ought you then to be studying the manual for life, to know it, to be able to say chapter and verse, to know where to stand in regards to your weaknesses? So deny the devil. Don't become a gossiper or a slanderer. And even do not be one who is guilty of worry and doubt. Jesus said in Matthew chapter 6, verse 25: "Therefore I tell you, do not worry." Don't do it. Just simply deny the devil and don't do it. Take your thoughts captive, as the Bible says, and lead a victorious life in these areas.

How about divisions among the brethren? Proverbs 6:19 says that spreading strife is one of the things that God hates — an abomination, among many other things. It's pretty terrible to think that we could be drawn in by Satan to giving a look or a whisper or even outright stating things that disparage brothers and sisters in Christ. Don't do it. Bridle that tongue. I would rather my tongue be cut off than to say something negative about my brothers and sisters in Christ. I would rather one of my fingers be cut off, or something severe happened to me, than for me to be given to gossiping about somebody that Christ has commissioned me to love and to teach and to shepherd and to pray for. Is that not the same conviction that Christians should have for one another? Sacrificially loving one another, bearing one another's burdens, and putting each other first before yourselves? Listen to me — in moments of weakness, do not let your words fly. Loose lips sink ships.

And if you think that you are not tempted to do this, then you ought to pay closer attention to what I'm saying. If you think that you're not guilty of it at all, then you ought to pay closer attention to what I'm saying, because perhaps the pride has blinded you and you don't even see that you have disparaged brothers and sisters in Christ. I dare not fall in this area. Lord, humbly I pray — keep me. Purify my heart. If I have anything sinful residing within me, let it not come out of my mouth. Let me deal with it in prayer. Let me deal with it with You. Let me get it out of my heart now in prayer, because the Bible says that from the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. So deal with it in the heart. Deal with it. If you have anger, frustration, resentment — Colossians 3:13 says to forgive as you have been forgiven. Forgive. Deal with these things. I promise you they will embarrass you. I promise you this is how Satan will grab onto your life and destroy parts of your life.

You know, Martyn Lloyd-Jones said in his day — he's a preacher from the 1900s in England — that discouragement was the primary way that Satan was destroying the church. Most Christians are walking around discouraged and depressed. And he made an emphatic statement, and I so appreciate it. He said, "Depression is always wrong." And then he went on — with sympathy, though he was no overly sentimental man; he was accurate, he was a preacher of preachers, a man of God — and yet at this point, with doubt and depression and discouragement, he went on to say that everyone battles with these things. The solution then is Christ. And having a Christ-centered everything — the source of the issue with depression, the source of the issue with discouragement, the source of the issue with doubt and all this type of stuff — is self-centeredness rather than Christ-centeredness.

And so I say to us today — if perhaps — and I feel this deeply, because I know the drudgery of going through hopeless seasons, I personally know how hard depression is to get through — I'm just saying to you what the Bible says: be Christ-centered in all of your thinking, and we do not really deserve even what we do have, and so you can be thankful for what you do have and stop the negative thinking.

So depression and doubt and such are always wrong, in that sense — we all deal with them. It's spiritual war within you. You're warring against these things. The Bible says in Romans 8:37, "We are more than conquerors through Christ." We are more than conquerors. Christ does not want you to stay in these deep, dark valleys. But at the same time, here's an observation from this pastoral perspective: I have seen that the brightest Christians often go through the darkest valleys. It's a truism. Those who are the happiest in Christ often have gone through the worst things in life. And so you're more than a conqueror. In the deep, dark valley, Christ has given you the ability to be an overcomer over these strategies, and He wants you to stand up and go forth.

Satan's schemes are just endless. I would love to preach until the cows come home, but just a few more.

What about murder in the sixth commandment? You're saying, "What is that?" Well, the sixth commandment is "You shall not murder." But Jesus said murder happens and starts in the heart, in Matthew chapter 5, verse 21. And so not only do gossip and slander start right in the center of our chest — but also murder. And when the sixth commandment says that you shall not murder, we should also not, according to Jesus' commandment, think and desire the slaughter or the murder of even our enemies. Instead, we're to bless them and pray for them. What a high calling it is to be a Christian. And so do not allow yourself to be allured by Satan to dwell on harming someone who has wronged you.

God will allow precious things from your life to be stolen. God will allow you to go through really hard hardships. And behind those hardships is often a person. Remember that we fight not against flesh and blood. Okay — you're not fighting against that person. It is Satan's schemes that he is scheming through a person and using them to steal, kill, and destroy. So there may be a person behind the attack. Do not dwell upon murdering that person. It's sin. I've done it. I've confessed it. And over time, through many times of confessing, confessing, and confessing, it's washed away to the point now where I can pray, "God, bless that person." That person that I'm talking about inside of my mind is already in the past and gone. But I'm telling you — these are real spiritual battles.

You cannot dwell upon murdering someone. A lot of times we act these things out in our dreams, or you're the victim of it in a dream. It's just an indication that you've got some stuff going on that you've got to continue to pray through and work through, to keep yourself close to Christ.

The same thing goes for lying. No lie is of the truth — John 14:6. You know, lies are developed and mastered and cultivated even from the cradle. The cries — the lies, right? "Nothing's wrong," and nothing really is wrong. But the cries and the lies continue if we don't grow up in Christ. If we over-embellish our problems and we're crying and murmuring and complaining, you're actually lying. If we lie about someone, it's a lie. No lie is of the truth. Who is the truth? John 14:6 — "Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life." No lie is of the truth. So your false testimony of yourself or of others is a lie against Christ. It's not of Christ.

Now I want you to turn to Luke chapter 22, verse 31, and see another area that Satan schemes. Luke 22:31 — starting up in verse 24, I'll give you the context of how pride can really get to even those who are closest to Christ, that being at this time the disciples who were walking with Christ.

In Luke chapter 22, verse 24, to get the context: "And there arose also a dispute among them as to which one of them was regarded to be the greatest." Well, my point in bringing this up is that a sin of pride and lusting after prestige and power crept into the disciples so much so that they wanted to be the ones sitting at the right and left hands of Christ in heaven. In verse 25: "And He" — being Jesus — "said to them, 'The kings of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those who have authority over them are called benefactors. But not so with you.'" Let's pause there for a minute. Listen — the ways of this world are to do whatever it takes to gain power, to gain positions of prestige. You're going to do whatever you can to step on someone and get up the ladder. That's the way of this world. The allurement of this world is to have more money, more power, and lord it over. That's for the Gentiles, Jesus says.

"Rather, the one who is greatest among you should become like the youngest, and the leader like the servant. For who is greater — the one who reclines at the table, or the one who serves? Is it not the one who reclines? But I am among you as the one who serves." So the one who has the best spot at the table and is reclining in the most comfortable, prestigious seat — the head of the table or such — is that where you want to be? Do you want to be the CEO of a Fortune 500 company, or to have all kinds of money and power? Listen, it's not a sin to be wealthy. Abraham was of great wealth. Noah had to have a lot of means to build that huge ark. Job had a lot of wealth. It's not a sin to be wealthy. But if that wealth gets a grip on you and controls you, then you are underneath Satan's realm, and it's got a hold on you. That's sinful. You want Christ to have all of you.

So this is the context. The disciples have been schemed against and lured by Satan to lust after the things of this world. But Jesus makes it clear that that's not how He is ministering — He is ministering as a servant, not a ruler.

In verse 28: "Now you are those who have stood by Me in My trials, and I grant you a kingdom, just as My Father granted one to Me, that you may eat and drink at My table in My kingdom, and you will sit on thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded to sift all of you like wheat, but I have prayed earnestly for you, that your faith may not fail."

Do you see here that Satan wants to pulverize and grind you to pieces? He wants to sift you like wheat, and he allures you in through these worldly allurements. And if you do not keep your heart right before God, he'll sift you and he'll destroy you and separate you. These things are sudden and violent. It's like Satan and all of his minions have formed a coup against you, and he wants to take over your heart so that your heart is no longer Christ's but is his. He is, according to the Greek word for "sift," intending to agitate so that he can overthrow. Agitate to overthrow — that's what "sift" means. Satan desires to sift you, to agitate you inwardly, to disrupt your spirit, to get you off of your Bible walk, walking with Christ, to get you out of your routine, to get you separated from the flock, separated from Christ's love. And then, once he has agitated and separated you, what is he going to do? He's going to overthrow you.

So inner agitations that try your faith are an attempt by Satan to separate you and then sift you. Satan is the chief evil adversary of God. He's supernatural. In fact, his name "Lucifer" means "light-bearer." And I'll close with this and pick up next week — the week after next, because we have the Lord's Supper next week. 2 Corinthians 11:14 says that Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. And so we see this through the meaning of the name "Lucifer" that's assigned to him.

We also have lots of other insights through the meaning of the words "devil" and "Satan" and "Beelzebub" and "Prince of Darkness" and all kinds of other names. But he wants to disguise himself as an angel of light. And if he can get control of another life and have that person act like a Christian — well, if Satan can possess or control someone, let me tell you, Sid Roth on TBN is promoting satanic things. One of the things that he has promoted is the following: a baby was dying in the hospital, and the parents took this baby over to a faith-healing service. And in this service, the healer took the baby and said, "Can I do whatever God tells me to do to this baby?" And the parents consented. And supposedly, based upon the testimony of two false preachers, two heretics, they said that this man threw the baby up against the wall to perform a miracle of God. And when that didn't work, this fake faith healer took this baby and kicked it like a soccer ball into the crowd. And the crowd laughed when this story was told. And then the false testimony that the baby was completely healed was then propagated.

Folks, I'm telling you, Matthew 7:15 is true — this is a wolf in sheep's clothing. 1 Timothy 4:1 says this is a doctrine of demons. Satan doesn't want to just use his power against someone like Samson, and you and I. He is using all of his strengths to destroy the youngest and most innocent. And so this is a real spiritual war that we are in.

And if you're a younger child here today, I want you to focus on obeying your parents and not lying. Don't lie in any way. Don't hide in any way. Don't allow the evil one to get a grip on any portion of your life, because that sinful portion will grow. If you can be disobedient to your parents now in the smaller things, you will be disobedient to your parents in larger things later. Don't do it, children. Deny the devil. Say no. I'm telling you, children — look at me if you would, all the younger ones. You are going to be tempted to lie. You are already being tempted to lie and hide. Don't do it. The title of today's message: deny the devil. And if you resist him, James 4:7 says he will flee from you. For a short period of time you'll have some relief, you can rest a little bit — but he's coming back again. You can rest assured he's going to tempt you in a different way.

And so a few quick take-home points that you already know.

Take-home truth number one: be strengthened by Scripture. Be strengthened by Scripture. Scripture — which is the Word of God, which is Christ — will strengthen you to be able to overcome these things. I already mentioned it in my sermon, but the take-home truth by way of application for "be strengthened by Scripture" is this: identify where you struggle and assign a Scripture to it. Identify your struggle, assign a Scripture to it, memorize it, and review it every single day. Your struggle is different from my struggle. We have all kinds of different struggles. The Word of God speaks to all of these things. So number one: be strengthened by Scripture.

Number two: study, study, study. How can you know how to wield the Word of God without actually studying the Scriptures? John 8:31 says, "If you continue in My Word, then you are truly disciples of Mine." To be a true disciple is to be one who continues in the Word. So study it. Rightly divide it — 2 Timothy 2:15. Know it. So be strengthened by Scripture; study, study, study the Word of God. Just another note on that — we can't just be ones who read the Bible. Bible reading is fantastic, but at some point you need to slow down and dig deeper and study. We have the 3D Bible study sheets available at the welcome desk for you to be able to do that. They're available online on our website, bbcwg.org. Download it for free. View it for free. Just dig a little bit deeper below the surface and you can see how to rightly divide and then apply the Word of God to your life.

And then the third is the title: deny the devil. Deny him. Stand against Satan's schemes. The mightiest man in the Bible did not deny his fleshly lusts with Delilah, and Satan used Delilah to overthrow him. Yet we are able to be stronger than Samson. If you would know the Word of God and be able to stand against the schemes of the devil, I promise you a better marriage. I promise you better parenting and better children. I promise you a better life in Christ. I promise you that you will have battles — Philippians chapter 1, verse 29 says it is granted unto you not only salvation but also suffering. I promise you these battles, but you'll get through them and you'll overcome them, and you will not be slaughtered, and you will not be one who dissents and falls away from the faith. Your job then is not to become one who descends and falls away from the faith. How do we do this? We've got to learn how to fight.

The spiritual warfare series is serious, and I'm so glad that you're engaged and taking notes and learning as we go through it. Pray for me as I impart to you, to the best of my ability, the truth that we need to be able to stand against the schemes of the devil.

If you're not saved, there's no way that you can stand against your father the devil. If you're not saved, there's no way that you can win against lust, because it's "Christ in you, the hope of glory." If you're not saved, there's no way that you can have a biblical marriage, biblical parenting — if you're not saved, you need Christ. Christ is the only hope that we have, not only for salvation but for godly living. Salvation is the very starting point for being able to apply the things that we've discussed today.

And so if you have never repented of your sin and acknowledged to God, "I have sinned," and placed your faith and trust in His substitutionary death on your behalf — why did He die for you? Because sin equals death. We've all sinned. Sin equals death. Your sin that you have committed, whether it's a little lie or a big lie — it doesn't matter. You've broken God's law. The whole law was broken with a single sin. And since you have sinned, since we all have sinned — the Bible says in Romans 3:23, "All have sinned" — since that has been the case, if you have not repented of your sin and placed your faith and trust in Christ's substitutionary death for you — you've sinned, you deserve death, but He died for you — if you place your faith and trust in what He did for you, that's the reason why He came to this world: to seek and to save that which was lost, to give Himself as a sacrifice. He is the Lamb. He is the sacrifice. Everything in the Bible points toward Christ. And if you have not yet placed your faith and trust in Christ, you are not yet saved. And so I plead with you — repent and believe the gospel. Repent and believe the gospel. And He will make you a new creation. He'll give you a new heart, new desires.

If you're unsaved today and you still love lusting after the things of this world, if you're unsaved today and you still love the flesh, if you don't care that the devil is leading you around like a carrot before a donkey, if you don't care that you're subject to the things of this world — you just want to go and have a good time, take this weekend and blow all your paycheck money and just go and go and go — if you're in that place, if your life is carnal and sinful and you're not a Christian, repent and believe the gospel.

Let's pray. Father, I pray that You will continue to save many souls through the testimony of Your Word, because faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. I pray as well, dear Jesus, that we will be bold in our faith and share the gospel and make disciples. I pray, God, that You equip us to be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. Lord, we know that he is creeping around like a prowling lion, seeking whom he can get separated and then attack and destroy. And I pray that we would be strong in our faith and unmovable, that we would not be subject to these unnecessary attacks. I pray that we'd stay close to the flock, at the center of Your will, and not exploring the ways of the world and becoming ones who are attacked by Satan. I pray, dear Jesus, that in the battles that we must endure, we would see them from Your biblical worldview — and that even the terrible things that Joseph had to endure in the Old Testament, such as being sold into slavery, yet You worked them for Your good and glory, I pray, Lord, that You would bless us with a biblical mindset of our struggles. That if we are truly indeed Christians, we can just keep walking through the valley and be conquerors and overcomers — keep our eyes focused upon You and allow You to keep us strong on the inside. And perhaps sooner rather than later these days of struggle will pass and we'll be able to experience victory. God, we love You. Thank you for the life that You have given us. We don't deserve all the blessings that You have bestowed upon us. But because of Your goodness, You have bestowed upon Your children many blessings, to be able to glorify You and spread Your holy Word. We say thank You, and it's in Christ's name that we pray. Amen.