What an encouragement those songs were this morning. If you'll notice that many of them went along with what we read in the Psalms. And I look at things like that as the sovereign hand of God, as to how He orchestrates the things that we do. And the same is true with the message this morning. just kind of clicked on me, kind of late yesterday, of where we needed to be this morning. And just looking back at all of the events of the week, the events of the day, a few people that I talked to, and then just listening to how God has orchestrated this entire morning, with the songs that we have sung, the scriptures that we have read, the things that we have discussed, talked about, I am convinced, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that God wants us to hear some encouraging things but also some eye-opening things that will help us in our walk with Christ. In fact, it helps us with everything that we encounter, because it's important that we understand that there is a real enemy out there who wants to destroy your souls, though he can't do that as a child of God. You are forever kept by the powerful hand of God. But he certainly can discourage you, and he's very successful at things like that. He works hard at that. He does that to every person. There's not a person exempt from that, nor am I. And so as I was thinking about some of that and even encouraging myself in the Lord, I was thinking about the fact that we do serve a holy and righteous God, but it is not without any opposition. There are all kinds of things that happen within your day or within your week, and many of those things are going on behind the scenes. They are the unseen. It's like one of the passages I want to look at this morning. It's found in Ephesians 6, where the apostle Paul talks about our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but it's against principalities and powers and rulers of this darkness, spiritual host of wickedness in the heavenly places. There are things that are going on behind the scenes. And sometimes we don't look at it like that, we just think, well, I have a conflict with a person. And it is on a human level, and it is face-to-face, it's physical. But reality, from what Scripture teaches, it is spiritual. It is a spiritual warfare that you and I are engaged in. And scripture makes it very clear that every follower of Jesus Christ has an enemy of their souls. He's referred to by many titles. In fact, I want to take just a few moments and let you hear some of those titles. And many of them you have heard on other occasions, but maybe some of them are new for you. But think about the various terms that the Bible gives for the enemy of our souls. For example, he is called Abaddon. He's called accuser of the brethren. He's called adversary. He is the angel of the bottomless pit. He is Apollyon. He is Beelzebub. He is Belial. He is a distressing spirit. He's referred to as a dragon in Revelation 20 and verse 2. He is called the enemy in Matthew 13, 39. He's called the father of lies. He is called a fleeing spirit. He's called the great red dragon in Revelation 12 three. He's called Leviathan in Isaiah 27 one. He's called a liar, not only the father of lies, but he is called a liar. He is also referred to as a lying spirit and a murderer. and the prince of the power of the air. He's referenced as being a reptile, as being the ruler of the darkness of this world, as being the ruler of demons. You know him as Satan. Others know him as the serpent or the serpent of old. All of us have known him as the spirit who works in the sons of disobedience. We're familiar with His temptation because He is the tempter. He is also the God of this age. Even Isaiah 27.1 refers to Him as a twisted serpent. And then, of course, Matthew 13.19, He is the wicked one or the evil one. All of these names and titles identify the one who accuses us night and day, the one who seeks to destroy you physically as well as spiritually. And his number one goal is to destroy you spiritually. Because if he can succeed in something like that, especially keeping a person away from Christ, a person away from hearing the truth or surrendering to the gospel or understanding the truth, then he can damn him all throughout eternity. And of course, for the believer, yes, he wants to discourage you. And to discourage you, he has to deceive you. One of his hellish acts is deception. And if he can discourage you by deceiving you, then he can go a long way. And yes, physically he wants to destroy you. He'll bring things upon you physically, but you have to understand all of this activity has to fall within the sovereign hand of the allowance of God, just as it occurred in Job's life. But I believe if we're going to understand our enemy, it's important that we understand his hellish ways. The Puritan preacher Thomas Adams said, let us watch Satan for he watcheth us. There is no corporal enemy, but a man naturally fears. The spiritual foe appears less terrible because we are less sensible of him. Great conquerors have been conquered or chronicled for victories and extension of their kingdoms. Satan is beyond them all. Saul has slain his thousands and David his ten thousands, but Satan his millions. He that fights with an enemy whom nothing but blood can pacify will give him no advantage. So we have to watch Satan. We have to understand also some things about him as we watch him. Number one, that he is a fallen angel. The Bible says in 1 John 3, 8, that the one who practices sin is of the devil, for the devil sinned from the beginning. And the Son of God appeared for this purpose to destroy the works of the devil. You know, the Bible says in 1 John that we are overcomers because of Jesus Christ. We have overcome the flesh, we've overcome the world, we've overcome Satan, we've overcome sin. We are overcomers. And we are to live in that every day. And we live in that by surrendering to the Word. The Word is the power. The Word is the offensive weapon that we have to deal with temptation, to deal with the deception of the enemy. The Word is the power by which we speak forth the truth. The Bible says in 1 Peter 1 that we're born again by the Word of God. Not only does the Bible teach that he is a fallen angel, but it also says that he was one that was cast out of heaven. Jesus said in Luke 10, 18, I was watching Satan fall from heaven like lightning. It was quick. It was quick. He's the author of man's fall in the garden, as noted in Genesis 3. He's the one who tempted Jesus in the wilderness, according to Matthew 4. He's the one who tempts you to forsake Christ and to deny Him by sinning against Him. And he's also a perverter of Scripture. Let me show you one of his perversions. Turn with me to Matthew 4. Matthew 4. If you know anything about these first 11 verses in Matthew 4, you know that this is the temptation of Jesus. This is when Jesus was in the wilderness, He was led up by the Spirit according to verse 1, and He was tempted by the devil. Verse 2 tells us His physical condition, that He had fasted 40 days and 40 nights, and He became hungry. And what does the tempter do in your time of need? He comes and begins to tempt in those weak moments. You and I have weak moments. You and I have days when we are weak and not strong for one reason or another. Maybe we are trying to surrender and yield to the Word, and maybe it's just not happening. And you're weak, you're discouraged, you're depressed, you're lonely, you're fearful. You spend your days in tears or frustration. The tempter takes advantage of that. He takes full advantage of you. And if he can deceive you into believing a lie, thinking that it's a person who has caused this in your life, whether it's a person in your family, a person here at the church, a person that you work with or go to school with, then he wants to hold you in that deception. And if you'll notice here in that weak moment, the tempter came, verse 3, And he said, if you are the son of God, in fact, in the Greek, it doesn't say if, it says since. He can't deny the true reality that Jesus is the son of God. You read it back this way. Since you are the son of God, command that these stones become bread. But Jesus answered him, verse 4, and says, from Deuteronomy 8, 3, it is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. Just a little footnote, the only way that you're going to deal with the enemy of your soul is with the word of God. You forsake the word, then you've forsaken the only offensive weapon that you have. This is the only weapon that's given in Ephesians 6, this and prayer. And what are the two things that usually go out the window when you're discouraged? Reading the word and prayer. You stop praying, you listen to your heart, that is the worst thing you could ever do. You hear on Christian radio today, people saying, oh, you've got to listen to your heart. That is the worst advice, the worst counsel ever. Because your heart is deceived. Your heart is deceptive. Jeremiah said the heart is wicked. And you want to listen to that? Your heart will feed things to you that are nothing but lies. Because out of the heart proceed those kinds of things. You still have this damnable body. You still have this fallenness that you're in. Your soul is fit for heaven, but you still have this flesh that brings you down. And listen, Satan doesn't have to tempt you. He doesn't have to lead you astray. You can lead yourself astray very easily. But you'll notice that the only way that you can attack the enemy is with something more powerful than the enemy, and that is the scripture. And Jesus does that right here. Satan comes to him in that weak moment, seeks to tempt him, says, since you're the son of God, just command that these stones become bread. Just do that. Just do a little trick. Take care of yourself right here in this manner. But Jesus says, quoting the word, man shall not live by bread alone, but on every word, that proceeds forth from the mouth of God. He wanted Jesus to presume on him. He wanted Jesus to stop trusting God and to take matters in His own hands. And isn't that what Satan does to us? Take matters in your own hands. Stop waiting on the Lord. You just do it yourself. It's not moving fast enough for you. Take it yourself. Well, he was unsuccessful at winning this temptation issue here with Jesus. Verse five says, the devil took him into the holy city. He had him stand on the pinnacle of the temple. And he said again, since you are the son of God, throw yourself down for it is written, he will command his angels concerning you and on their hands they will bury you up so that you will not strike your foot against a stone. Now I want you to notice something very interesting here. Jesus quotes scripture, but Satan does too. But the problem with what Satan did is he left part of it out. Therefore, that was a perverting of Scripture. This passage that Satan quotes from is from Psalm 91 verses 11 and 12. Go ahead and turn in your Bibles to Psalm 91 verses 11 and 12 so you can see the part that he left out. It says in Psalm 91 verses 11 and 12, for he will give his angels charge concerning you. Here's the part he left out, to guard you in all your ways. They will bear you up in their hands that you do not strike your foot against a stone. What was he seeking to do by leaving that phrase out? Maybe making Jesus feel like in his weakness that he was all alone, that there was no one there to aid him, to minister to him, because we know after all of this, verse 11 says, when the devil left him, behold, angels came and ministered to him. Maybe they brought him food, I don't know. But they ministered to him, they strengthened him. You have to understand, Jesus was God. Yes, but he was 100% man too. He took on our very infirmities. He experienced every single thing that you and I experience as people, as humans, as men and women. We get tired, we get hungry, we get sad, we get lonely, we get angry, we get frustrated. He experienced all these things, but without sin. I wish we could say that for us, right? We experience these things and sometimes they get the best of us and we sin in the process. But you'll notice that he perverted scripture. He's as if saying, you could quote scripture, so can I. But he leaves out part of it. He leaves it out. And of course, Jesus responds, verse seven, on the other hand, it is written, you shall not put the Lord your God to the test. That's, to me, a good verse for Jesus affirming his own deity here. because the tempter there is seeking to tempt Jesus to presume on God, not trust in God, trust in your own self, command resources in your own power because you are the son of God and you can do this. He could not deny the reality that Jesus was God, could not deny the reality that Jesus is the son of God. You can do this, just do it. But Jesus came to this earth. According to Philippians chapter two, he emptied himself. He trusted fully in the father. What he said was what the father told him to say. He didn't do anything on his own initiative as he said in the gospels. But Satan was tempting to change that. You're hungry, make yourself some food. May take you up to this high temple, this pinnacle part of the temple. Just throw yourself down. Just throw yourself down. Your angels will take care of you. Look at what he does in verse eight. Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain, showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to him, all these things I will give you if you will fall down and worship me. There've been many people throughout many time periods who have followed this verse right here, who have followed this hellish lie of Satan. Alice Cooper, I don't know if any of you know who Alice Cooper is. That comes from a little bit from my era. But Alice Cooper admitted in a seance that the devil said to him, if you will fall down and worship me, this very verse right here, I will give you the kingdoms of the world. And he did. And if you know anything about Alice Cooper, one of the most famous rock and roll musicians ever, I'd heard some years back that he got saved, but I don't know if that's true. You hear that circle in that realm. But he says, if you will fall down and worship me, I'll give you all of this. I'll give you all the kingdoms of the world. I'll give you their glory. Isn't that the things that Satan does, but in a little different context to believers? Listen, you're not getting what you need at this church. I'll take you over here at this church. I'll give you this church. This church will meet your needs. This church will minister to every aspect of your family. Go ahead and go. I'm not saying that Satan always does that. I'm not in any way implying that a person or a family is never led to another church. Don't get me wrong. But Satan will use those tactics too. The Bible says that he is an angel of light. He appears as an angel of light. Even his ministers appear as angels of light. What does that signify to us? It signifies to us that they are true people, true believers, true followers of Christ. Folks, that's why you have to check everybody out. this day and age and the age that is coming? You think if the church goes underground, and I believe it will in the future, it won't be meeting out in the public like this because all of our rights and privileges will have been totally taken away, you and I will go into hiding. Do you think true believers that are in an underground church or in hiding and they are seeking to worship their Lord, do you think that they're gonna just let anybody walk in there who says that they're a Christian? The underground church in China doesn't do that today. nor do any of the other underground churches in persecuted countries. We're the only country that this hasn't come to yet. But I guarantee you, it will happen. If our interpretation is correct of the 70th week of Daniel, and we see the Antichrist rise up, we see that. If we see that much, we will experience the fifth seal, the death of the martyrs under the altar. and some of us might be those martyrs. I don't say that to scare you. Really, it should fire you up. Actually, confirm your faith right there, you know, and it should encourage you that God is in control of your life, not Satan, not this world, and that you're committed to Him no matter what, no matter what. You don't have a problem talking to others about Christ because what can they do to you? What's the ultimate that they could do to you? Kill you? Where are you going to be? It'd be much better to die in obedience than disobedience, right? But if you'll notice here, that Satan sought to use the Scripture for his own means. And anytime you take the Scripture and use it for your own means, outside of its original intended purpose, its original intended meaning, you are perverting Scripture. And Satan is very good at that too. Make you where you feel like you're tired or you always have to be busy and go from here to there. You never have any alone time in the Word. Hey husbands, your wife needs to be in the Word too. Why don't you take the kids for a couple hours and let her spend some time in the Word as well? That's how you can minister to your wife. Take your kids outside and play with them. Let your wife have some time alone. She needs it. You know, she does that for you, right? So while I work all day, well, you have a lunch, you have a break, you have time to where you can get alone and you're not having to deal with the things that are going on in the home. But I think that we need to strengthen ourselves and encourage one another in the word. And we need to make sure that when we read the word, that we're also interpreting the word. One of Satan's biggest lies is that you cannot understand the Bible. or it's too hard, or it takes too long, or you run into a passage you're not really sure about, you get discouraged, and instead of driving you to find out what the meaning is, you just leave it all together. And you don't come back to it. You don't do the research. But yet we'll sit in the colleges and we'll do the research, the humanistic research that they get us to do, right? But we're talking about the living, abiding Word of God. We're talking about something more powerful than anything man could write or anything man could say. But again, you have to understand these are some of the devil's hellish devices. Now what I wanna do this morning, I attempted to do in my study was to take us through nine characteristics of the devil. But I only made it to four. So we'll pick up the remaining five next time. But I wanna begin this morning by helping us to see what the Bible says about the devil. What does the Bible teach about him? Again, I've already mentioned a few things that he was a created being. He was an angel, he was a cherub, you can read that in Ezekiel 28. He was called Lucifer in Isaiah 14, that was his original name, star of the morning. But all those other terms that I read earlier indicate who he is, what he is about. In every name or title, it gives us a little bit of understanding about his ways, just like we do today. You know, we earn nicknames based upon things that we do. You might not like some of those nicknames, but when you spend your whole life trying to shake that, But these stick with him, and they're true. And many of them Jesus said himself about the enemy. And he experienced the enemy, not just in Matthew 4, but he created him. He created him. The Bible says in Ezekiel 28, he was an anointed cherub. Cherubs, if you do a study in the Old Testament of cherubs, and even in Ezekiel chapter one and two, and you see the description that Ezekiel tries to give in that vision, the wheel inside of a wheel and things, he's describing according to chapter 10, cherubs, angels. These angels were holy angels that were around the throne of God. They always seem to be associated with holiness. You find them on the Ark of the Covenant, on the very lid of the covenant in the tabernacle. You find them on the curtains in the tabernacle. You find them on the walls in Solomon's temple. They were associated with the holiness of God. And so it's very interesting that when Jesus says, I saw Satan fall like lightning from the sky, how he was cast out of heaven very fast, very quickly, based upon what he sought to do and exalting himself above the Shekinah glory of God. You have to understand how serious his sin was, who was created originally to have something to do with the holiness of God, but to violate that. And according to Revelation chapter 12, to lead a third of the holy angels in his rebellion. Well, we don't know how many that was. We know the Bible teaches that there are millions upon millions, thousands upon thousands angels. There are an innumerable amount of angels as Hebrew says. And so just think a third of them, that's a lot of demons. That is a lot of rebellion right there. Well, again, I wanna go through four things this morning that give us an understanding and an idea of the character of the devil. And the first one is this, he is presumptuous. He is presumptuous. And I've hit on this lightly there in Matthew 4, but what I'd like to do is have you turn to Job 1. Job 1. And let me just say this as you're turning there, if you want a modern definition of presumption or being presumptuous. One local dictionary defines it this way as being rude or arrogant or inconsiderate, disrespectful, overconfident. And I think the meaning many times used of the devil is that one right there, overconfident. Because you certainly see that here in Job 1-2. He is overconfident. And the definition goes on to say, especially in doing something when not entitled or qualified to do it. You get overconfident or presumptuous. Look at Job 1 and 2. Job begins this way. By the way, this is the oldest book in the Bible. Many believe the very first. It says, there was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job, and that man was blameless, upright, fearing God, and turning away from evil. Very key verse out of all of chapter 1 and chapter 2 to understand the very accusation that Satan brings against him. Notice the things that he had. Seven sons and three daughters were born to him. His possessions were also 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, 500 female donkeys, and very many servants. And that man was the greatest of all the men of the East. His sons used to go and hold a feast in the house of each one on his day, and they would send and invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them. When the days of feasting had completed their cycle, Job would send and consecrate them, rising up early in the morning and offering burnt offerings according to the number of them all. For Job said, perhaps my sons have sinned and cursed God in their hearts, thus Job did continually." Now, that gives you the human element. That gives you a picture of a man who lived in a period of time whom God had blessed, who was a righteous man, a blameless man, a man who feared God, a man who turned away from evil. And now we get the curtain pulled back because events change at this point. And look at what happens. Verse six, now there was a day when the sons of God, that's referring to the angels, they came to present themselves before the Lord and Satan also came among them. The Lord said to Satan, from where do you come? Then Satan answered the Lord and said, from roaming about on the earth and walking about on it. The Lord said to Satan, have you considered my servant Job? But there's no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, fearing God and turning away from evil. By the way, if God is the one saying this about you, that this is what kind of person you are, that ought to encourage you, right? Verse nine, did Satan answer the Lord? And here's his presumption. Does Job fear God for nothing? Hey, he's doing this because you blessed him. Have you not made a hedge about him and his house and all that he has and on every side? You've blessed the work of his hands and his possessions have increased in the land, but put forth your hand now and touch all that he has and he will surely curse you to your face. This is what Satan does all the time. He does that about you, about me. And sometimes I think the Lord allows that to happen so that we can make sure that our eyes are not on the blessing rather than the source of those blessings. Well, verse 12, the Lord said to Satan, you ought to underline this, behold, all that he has is in your power, only do not put forth your hand on him. Here is a verse that identifies to each one of us, God allowing Satan to do something, but only able to go so far. He's allowing him to touch him, that is his possessions, but at this point, he's not able to put his hand on him. And so Satan departed from the presence of the Lord. Now, on the day when the sons and his daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother's house, a messenger came to Job and said, the oxen were plowing and the donkeys feeding beside them, and the Sabeans attacked and took them. They also slew the servants with the edge of the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you. While he was still speaking, another also came and said, The fire of God fell from heaven and burned up the sheep and the servants and consumed them. And I alone have escaped to tell you. And while he was still speaking, another also came and said, The Chaldeans formed three bands and made a raid on the camels and took them and slew the servants with the edge of the sword. And I alone have escaped to tell you. And while he was still speaking..." Man, talk about a bad day. But while he was still speaking, another one also came. Your sons and your daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother's house. And behold, a great wind came from across the wilderness and struck the four corners of the house and it fell on the young people and they died. And I alone have escaped to tell you." Look at this. Look at all these things that happened. You have the Sabaeans attacking, slaying the servants with the edge of the sword. You have fire falling from heaven. They thought it was the fire of God. This would be a reference to lightning. Interesting thing here too, this is where you can see Satan counterfeiting the very power and activity of God. He is a counterfeiter. And of course, while he is still speaking, another comes. Chaldeans formed three bands. They made raids on the camel. They took everything he had. And then of course, the last was on his family. Verse 19, a great wind, that would be a tornado. It does make you ask some questions about the modern things that you see, tornadoes, lightning. Now, how would you have responded to all this? How would you respond if you lost everything? Everything. You say, well, it would hurt to lose my home. It would hurt to lose my possessions. But those things can be replaced. But it's more when it's your family. When your family dies. All of them. At one time. It's hard to deal with one. But more than one. told us in the first part of the chapter, he had seven sons and three daughters. Seven sons and three daughters. And a great wind came from across the wilderness, struck the four corners of the house, it fell on the young people and they died. Seven sons and three daughters. I don't know about you, but I can relate. to things that Jared and Sheena have been experiencing, and maybe God has allowed us to experience some things, maybe for that whole purpose. Or what Richard and Emily experienced. I'd never in my life, in all my years of ministry, stood next to a father and a husband clutching his dead daughter. Never. And you ask questions, why does God allow stuff like this in our life? Why does God allow this? I mean, it's obvious from the text, he allowed this, it says it, that he allowed it. But how would you respond if it happened to you? You lost everything, and it's just you and your wife. And then your wife, She doesn't have something good to say. In chapter 2 and verse 9, it says, do you still hold fast your integrity? Curse God and die. She's so discouraged to the point where she's like, why do you serve him? Look what all he's done to you. Now, understand this. When we're going through stuff like this, we don't know that God has allowed Satan to do this. We just know that this is happening. And sometimes we immediately just blame God. God's doing this. Surely God allowed it, right? But Job's response in both of these situations, verse 20 of chapter 1, Job arose, tore his robe, shaved his head, fell to the ground, and worshipped. He worshipped. I'm sure that he was bawling his eyes out because he was a man. Like I said, your home, your possessions, all those things could be replaced. But your children, people born to you, they're irreplaceable. You can't just go out to the local mall and pick out another son or daughter, right? And look at what he said, verse 21. Naked I came from my mother's womb, naked I shall return there. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. I could hear him now singing that hymn. Blessed be the name, blessed be the name. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Can you sing that in your trials? I have to admit to you, I haven't been able to sing it. And yet there are some days when someone says something to you that just lifts you up, causes you to rise up, you know? And it's a great encouragement when it's your spouse, you know what I mean? Or your kids. Because the greatest thing as a father and a husband that you want is leading your family to God, not just by words, but by example. And they know you better than anybody else, because they see you every day, they see how you live, they see how you react to situations in your life, when tragedy happens. Job's response is a pinnacle right here. This is the epitome of what every believer should do. It's to fall to the ground and worship. I could tell you there's been many times that I've wanted to just shave my head, throw dirt on my head, that's an old testament, that's a form of humility, and just worship. when it's all stripped away from you, you have nothing left, you stand there empty-handed. Naked I came into this world, naked I will leave. I always think about Chuck Swindoll, a statement he made. When I read a verse like that, because he says, you know, I've been a pastor for all these years, probably well over 50 years now. He said, every funeral I've done, I've never seen a hearse pulling a U-Haul. Never. I haven't either. I've done a lot of funerals in my past. But naked I came from my mother's womb, naked I shall return. The Lord gave, the Lord has taken away. Sometimes when we get criticism, we don't always respond correctly. Sometimes we speak up or write something and we shoot it out and we regret it after it's said and done, right? And I remember hearing something that John MacArthur said one time, When someone said something to him face-to-face, was not encouragement, very discouraging, and all he said was, thank you and will you pray for me. Thank you and will you pray for me. I thought, well that's John MacArthur. I'm Steve Hereford. I took that advice the other day. Look at chapter two. Again, there was another day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord. Satan also came among them to present himself before the Lord. The Lord said to Satan, where have you come from? And then Satan answered the Lord and said, from roaming about the earth and walking around on it. And then the Lord said to Satan, have you considered my servant Job? There is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, fearing God, turning away from evil, and he still holds fast his integrity, although you incited me against him to ruin him without cause. I read one of the titles earlier, Satan is an accuser of the brethren. He accuses us night and day. Wonderful thing about 1 John 2, verse 1, it talks about if we sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous, who is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the whole world. We read right there that he is our advocate. He is our lawyer in defense. We have a defense lawyer. His name is Jesus Christ. Who is he? He's the King of kings and the Lord of lords. And if he says you're innocent, or if he says guilty, but I have paid for his punishment, he is therefore a free man, a free woman, and nobody can override that, right? Well, Satan answered and he accused the Lord again, verse four, skin for skin. It's all that a man has he will give for his life. However, you put forth your hand now and touch his bone and his flesh and he will curse you to your face. And so the Lord said to Satan, behold, he's in your power, only spare his life. We read about horrible situations of people's sufferings more than you and I could ever imagine because we've never experienced this. And here, you read the rest of Job and you read all the things that he went through. It's amazing. It goes on for chapters. But it says, verse seven, Satan went out from the presence of the Lord, smote Job with sore boils from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head, all over his body. He took a potsherd. A potsherd was a piece of broken pottery. And it says he scraped himself while he was sitting among the ashes. In other words, he went the same place that lepers go when they have been declared to have leprosy. And he's taking a piece of broken pottery and he's scratching himself. Can you imagine, if you've ever had the chicken pox, how bad that is or anything that causes you to itch and it's all over your body and you're just going, I'm going nuts here, you know? But it says, verse nine, of course, what I read a moment ago, his wife said to him, do you still hold fast your integrity, curse God and die? And look what his response is. He said to her, you speak as one of the foolish women speaks. Shall we indeed accept good from God and not accept adversity? And in all this, Job did not sin with his lips. He didn't charge God. He didn't say anything against God. In fact, you go back to where it says in verse 21, blessed be the name of the Lord. He had nothing but good things to say about God. He spoke well of God. He didn't accuse Him. He didn't even remotely accuse Him like James 1.13 refers to when it says that when you are tempted, let no one say to himself, I am tempted by God. God cannot be tempted by evil and He tempts no man. Psalm 23 tells us in that wonderful Psalm, the Lord is my shepherd. You know that Psalm. It says, he leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake. God does not lead anyone into sin. Doesn't lead anyone into sin. And therefore, you and I can worship him when we go through the tough times, the adversity, the trials, That's why James could write in James 1.3, consider it all joy when you encounter various trials. knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance, but let endurance have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God who gives to all men liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith with no doubting, for he who dowses like a wave of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind, let not that man suppose that he'll receive anything from the Lord. We can count it all joy. We can worship, but Satan says, no, you can't. No, you can't. He will even send people like these three friends of Job's. The greatest wisdom that these three friends gave Job was when they were silent for seven days. When they opened up their mouth, all folly came out of it. They were a discouragement to him. Look at verse 11. When Job's three friends heard of all this adversity that had come upon him, they came, each one from his own place, Elipas, the Tamanite, Bildad, the Shuhite, Zophar, the Naamathite, and they made an appointment together to come to sympathize with him and comfort him. Good motives. Want to be there for this brother and what he's going through. When they lifted up their eyes at a distance, did not recognize him, they raised their voices and wept. They had true sympathy for him. They had true compassion for him. Each of them tore his robe. They threw dust over their heads toward the sky. And then they sat down on the ground with him for seven days and seven nights with no one speaking a word to him, for they saw that his pain was very great." There are some times when I've been in the hospital with somebody and I have not a single word to say. I don't say anything. I understand that. You don't know what to say. You're overwhelmed at the adversity you see them experiencing. But this was the best that they could do for him. Because when you start reading the different things that they said, there was an encouragement. They had believed that he had sinned. And that's why all this came upon him. Job didn't sin. God said two times about him that he was a blameless man, upright, fearing God, turning away from evil. He holds fast to his integrity, even in the situation of his wife saying, curse God and die. He says, you speak like one of the foolish women. And he didn't even heed her advice. She was in great pain. There's nothing here other than what she said here. And I'm sure she said that out of her pain. She just lost seven sons and three daughters. And sometimes in our pain, we say some of the most off-the-wall things because of the depth of the sorrow of our soul. But, you know, Job didn't. Suffice to say, he had it under control here. You know what I mean? Think about all this. John MacArthur says, By the success that Satan had with the unfallen Adam in paradise, he was confident that the fear of God and Job, one of a fallen race, would not stand his test. Would not stand. He was confident. We could say overconfident. He was presumptuous. Again, This is what he seeks to do to you and me. And one day, Job was stripped of his wealth. One after another, four frightened messengers reported the 500 yoke of oxen, 500 donkeys, 3,000 camels were stolen in enemy raids, 7,000 sheep were struck by lightning and killed, and all 10 of his children were killed by a windstorm. Solomon was right when he said this in Ecclesiastes 9.12, moreover, no man knows when his hour will be as fish are caught in a cruel net or birds are taken in a snare. So men are trapped by evil times that fall unexpectedly upon them. That's just like trials. It says in James 1 about the trials, it says, you can count it all joy whenever you fall. And the whenever you fall, It has the idea that you can't pinpoint when it's going to happen. You can't determine it beforehand. If you and I can determine beforehand that we are going to go through this trying situation, then we can prepare for it, can't we? But since you don't know when they're going to happen, you can prepare for that now. knowing the right thing about God, the truths about God and His Word, knowing that He is a faithful and covenant-keeping God, and not listening to your heart, nor listening to the lies that come through Satan. Satan will use lies and speak them through other people. You know, it's like this that we say. You get around somebody that's complaining, after a while you'll start complaining. And in the beginning, you didn't feel like that. You didn't feel like that at all. But all of a sudden, now you're doing it because that was the influence. Do the opposite situation. Get around a brother or sister who, like Job, is not cursing God with his lips, not sinning against God and the adversity that he's going through, and you will get great strength from that as well. Here's the problem. What do you do when no one's around? When there's no one around. Here's the kind of stuff your mind will feed you when you're alone. Nobody cares about me. Nobody ever calls me. I'm all by myself. Going through this all by myself. Why am I going through this? Does God not love me? Does God hate me? You ever felt like that? If you've never felt like that, I tend to think maybe you're not human. You know? So I think we've all felt like that. Maybe more often than others. See, Job knew what had happened. But he did not know why it had happened. That's the crux of the matter, isn't it? We know what happens, but we don't always know why it happened. And we can go to those passages, like in James 1, where it says, knowing that the testing of your faith, your faith's being tested, it's being tried. It's being like 1 Peter 1, 7, tried as gold. They would take gold and they'd sift all the dross off of it, and you'd have pure gold. Well, God is sifting all the dross off your life. Or it's like John 15 using the pruning analogy. You prune back the sucker branches. We just had a huge tree cut down in our yard and the guy was cutting it down. He goes, you want me to cut off these sucker branches? I said, absolutely. I said, the only thing I wanna know about this tree is a memory. I said, I don't wanna see it. This thing has plagued my life. Well, 16 years of it anyway. But that's what God does. He prunes us. And sometimes it hurts, doesn't it? Sometimes it's painful. Sometimes you feel like it's more than you can bear, but then you have the promise of 1 Corinthians 10, 13, that no trial or temptation, but such as common to man will, what? Overtake you, overpower you. He says there, God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will make a way of escape so that you may be able to, what? Bear it. Endure it. You know, if it wasn't for the fact that God allows us to see right here, the curtain pulled back, beginning in verse six of chapter one, and to see what was taking place here, to visit the throne room of heaven, hear God and Satan speak, we would be in despair. We wouldn't have the right information that we need when we're going through these difficult situations. And we would probably take the same approach that Job's friends took and blame Job for all the tragedy. You know, there are some truths that do emerge from this whole scene here, not at least of which that God is, of course, sovereign in all things. He's on the throne of heaven. The angels do his will. They report to him. Even Satan can do nothing to God's people without God's permission. I wrote my Bible a long time ago that nothing can happen in my life that doesn't first pass through the loving hands of my Heavenly Father. It has to pass through His hands first. And the key there is to constantly tell yourself that, constantly be nourished up on the words of the truth, the words of the faith. If you forsake this Bible here, this is the only time you read it when we open it up to study it together, then yeah, you're going to be in despair. You're not going to be armed. You're not going to be armed against the enemy. Remember, as I said a moment ago, the only offensive weapon that you and I have is the Word of God. We don't have any other weapon besides that in prayer, and they go hand in hand. They work hand in hand. And how you can pray correctly and biblically is to know the word. Otherwise, you're going to be praying all kinds of unbiblical things, and you're going to be unable to see what you need to see. There's another situation in Zechariah 3. I'll just read this to you, but here where Satan was accusing Joshua the high priest. This is a different Joshua. It says in Zechariah 3.1, then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord and Satan standing at his right hand to accuse him. You know, in a courtroom setting, the adversary usually would stand to the right of the accused. This is the very location that is reported in this verse when Satan in heaven is accusing Joshua the high priest. presumption. He's a master at this. This is an old trick. This has been around a lot longer than you and I have been, so he's good at it. But, you know, we need to take some of the examples that we learn even in sports. In sports, teams always study their opponents, always. They want to know how they're going to react under certain situations. They want to do all they can to understand their playbook. Guess what? Here's our playbook right here. This is how we can understand everything that God wants us to know about the activity of Satan, about his hellish devices, about his hellish ways, about his true character that he seeks to mask. Because in Genesis chapter 3, he's sitting there trying to tell Eve that God's holding out on you, but if you take up this fruit, you will be like him. You know what he held out on Eve? He didn't tell Eve he tried this and failed miserably. He didn't tell Eve that he had been cast out of heaven, exiled to earth. He didn't tell Eve that there is promised for him the lake of fire. He didn't tell Eve any of that. That's just like when a colt walks to your door, they don't go, Hi, how are you doing? I'm so and so. We're going to hell. Would you like to go with us? We teach damnable heresies. They don't do that. They will take a little bit of truth and pack it with a lot of lies. And if you're not discerning, you won't catch it. You need to be thankful when there are people in your life that are discerning. Don't get irritated at them because they always point out something to you or point out certain things about scripture or even point out certain people you're hanging around with you shouldn't be hanging around with because they're bad news. And I don't even care if they call themselves a Christian. There's some people with the label Christian that are bad news. One church that I was at, my wife and I feared the youth group. Not because we were fearing our kids growing up, but it's because of what we saw in that youth group. We didn't see a promotion of holiness. We saw a promotion of ungodliness. So we were doing everything we could to keep our kids from that situation. in the church. And we tend to think that in the church, that's the safest place. Well, it should be, shouldn't it? But don't be that naive. Don't be that naive. That is why we have to check people out thoroughly. And even in checking a person out thoroughly, they can slide through the cracks and their true colors come out later. This church out of every church I've ever been in has experienced that. True colors of individuals coming out, has it not? I just want you to understand that Satan is a master at this stuff. He's a master at it. And if anything, he certainly wants to do is discourage you, make you feel defeated, cause you to give up. If you're truly a follower of Christ, I think you would have the same response that Peter had when he said to Jesus, Jesus said, will you go away also? What did Peter say? Where can I go? For I have come to understand that you have the words of eternal life. When you've tasted of the goodness of the Lord, you can't go away, can you? You can go away, maybe you weren't really there, maybe you weren't really His. You know, can a Christian stumble to that point? Yeah. You know, as a Christian, you could do anything. I mean, you have the liberty in Christ to do what is right, but you know what? You could do what's wrong, too. And if you're not guarding yourself and guarding your mind and guarding, you know, what you're doing, You can be led astray. I believe that there are Christians in some of these religions that are there that have been led astray. Lot was led astray. He put his tent towards Sodom and Gomorrah. What was that city known for? Right before its destruction, Genesis 18 and 19, what was it known for? Homosexuality. It says his soul was vexed with their unrighteousness every day, and God rescued him. It's amazing. God goes in there and takes him, his wife, and his two daughters. His wife looks back, she becomes a pillar of salt. His two daughters weren't righteous. They go up into the mountains of Zohar, and they have incest with their father, getting drunk, because they think that there are only two left on the earth. So they go and have sex with their father. Listen, you can be vexed with the unrighteousness of this world if you're not guarding yourself. And the only way that you can do that You need to commit your life to this right here. And I'm not just saying that as a cliche thing a pastor would say. I'm saying that you commit yourself to this like you've never commit yourself to this before. You get your nose in there and you get in there and you study it, you scrutinize it, you understand it, you pray through it, you talk about it, you witness about it. You commit yourself to it like you've never committed yourself to anything before because it deserves that type of surrender. Anything less of that. I think sin. Well, I had three others I wanted us to look at this morning, but I'm going to stop right here. Because I think we've said enough for us to go on and to realize that this very enemy that we are engaged with is a real formidable individual. He is a real person, and He is a very powerful person. And I hope that you don't take the approach like some believers take, that they run around and think that they are so powerful in and of themselves, and they can just tell Satan to do this and that, and he's going to just do their bidding. He's more powerful than you and me. But I'll tell you this, that when you are in the Word of God, surrendered to it, obeying it, I think he's going to put on the attacks even harder, but he's not going to be able to overcome you. That's where you're powerful. It's not you. It's this. It's the Word. He says, take the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. You were involved in a hand-to-hand combat, Ephesians 6. It's not with flesh and blood, but it's against Satan and demons. I don't know why in the world that we don't talk about that more. Well, I should say I know why. Because Satan doesn't want us to talk about that. The enemy never wants to be exposed. And so he does whatever is possible to shield that exposure. It's funny I say that because I think about the political arena right now. There's a lot of that going on. A lot of that. Well, let's pray together. Jesus, thank you so much for the word of God today. I pray that your people, Lord, have been challenged and encouraged, and I pray that most importantly, God, that we see the true enemy and his true tactics, his true devices. We see who he truly is, this angel of light, this counterfeiter, this liar, this deceiver, this accuser of the brethren, This one who is overconfident, thinking that He even knows everything you're going to do, God. Lord, I thank You, Father, for this example we have there in Job chapter 1 and 2. I thank You, Father, for Job and that he held to his integrity. I thank You, Lord, that he did not curse You or sin with his lips. I thank You, Lord, that he worshiped And I thank you, Lord, that we have that example. We have that curtain drawn back so that we can see that supernatural activity going on. And yes, I know it's not a battle between good and evil. It's not a battle between Satan and God. It's no battle. It's no battle for you, God. You are King of kings, Lord of lords. You are victorious. Satan is a created being. And you've given Him this little bit of time to spend evil as far as He can take it. I pray, Father, for each of us in here that we see that, we realize that, we see how important our relationship to You is, that we have to give ourselves to Your Word every single day, give ourselves to the truth constantly. knowing that that real enemy there is seeking to destroy us. I pray for each of us in here, Father, that we will arm ourselves with the Word, hide the Word in our heart, we'll treasure it above all things, we'll put it first, and we'll keep it first, and we'll fight every day that it stays first place in our life, above anything else or any person. And help us today, Father, With the remainder of this day, help us to walk in your spirit. Help us to take what we learn, God, and glorify you through it by a holy life. And help us to be quick to talk about it with people that don't know you, knowing that they need to repent. They need to see their sin. They need to see that you have a judgment that is coming far worse than whatever Satan could do. and help them to see, Lord, that they are right now walking according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in them. Sons of disobedience, have mercy, I pray, God. We thank you for your word today. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.