Well, last week we began talking about understanding the enemy. And we noted last time that he's referred to by various titles. And we named many of those titles. The scripture gives a lot of names and titles for the enemy of our soul. And one of those that we're very familiar with, of course, is the devil. The devil means slanderer. And the Bible says that that is one of his chief devices. And so is deception. That's another one. And this morning I want us to continue in this study as we seek to understand who the enemy of our souls is. It says over in different passages that identify his hellish works that he is an accuser of the brethren, where he seeks to accuse us night and day before God. And we saw that in Job chapter 1 and 2, where he went to the father and very, very presumptuous in his deeds, and sought to discredit Job and sought to imply that Job wasn't serving God for nothing, that he was there for some type of gain because God has put a hedge around him and God has blessed him. And so it's very important that we understand this enemy and we understand that we are to watch and understand his devices. I read last time from Thomas Adams, that Puritan preacher who said this, 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 chronicled for victories and extension of their kingdoms, and 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. And we certainly don't want to give him any advantage, as the scripture tells us, that we do not want to be ignorant of his devices. And so, as we look at this morning, that's what our goal and that's what our aim is. Satan is a perverter of scripture. He is one who has been casted out of heaven because of his hellish deeds, because of his rebellion. And as Revelation chapter 12 tells us, that he led a third of the angels in that rebellion. And that's what you and I Fight with on a constant basis. We might not fight with Satan himself But we certainly fight with his demonic host and there were enough of them that fell in the beginning Truthfully, I don't know if it really matters which one we're fighting with the truth is we are fighting with them And let me have you to turn to Ephesians chapter 6 we read that this morning There's some things in there that point out to us how important it is like verse 10 says that we realize that there is a battle we realize that The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but they are spiritual, as 2 Corinthians 10 tells us. They are mighty in God for pulling down these strongholds. And we have to understand, too, that we have to be strong in the Lord. That's where everything begins. Before you can even put on the armor of God, you have to be strong in the Lord. Not in your strength, not in your might, but in the Lord himself. And we noted that when we read it a while ago, verse 10 says, Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. Notice that it's in the Lord and it is in His might. In fact, the way that the word be strong in the Lord reads in the Greek, it's used in the voice that tells us that He is the one who has to give you the strength. You cannot conjure up the strength on your own. You cannot go after it on your own. All you have to do, like Ephesians 5.18 says, is to yield. The voice is passive. But at the same time, it's also an imperative. We are commanded to be filled with the Spirit. We are commanded to be strong in the Lord. God wants us depending on Him. He doesn't want us depending on anybody else. And He certainly doesn't want us to depend on the enemy. And after He tells them to be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might, then he says, to put on the full armor of God. And notice there that the armor that you're putting on, again, it's not ours, it is his, it is God's. He uses the genitive origin there when he says, of God. He says that you need this so that you will be able to stand. Over there in verse 13, he says again, to stand firm. The devil wants to do everything to knock your footing out. He wants to do what he can to pull the carpet out from under you, if you will. And so it's important to have the armor of God on, to rely on the strength of God, so that you can stand firm. And notice it says, against the schemes of the devil. And the word schemes there is the word metadia, and it refers to deception. It refers to trickery, craftiness. And then he says our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Now let's understand the context here. Ephesians chapter 5, Paul has launched into being an imitator of God. He's launched into walking in love just as Christ has also loved you. He's talked about things that should not be named in your life like immorality or impurity or greed. He says there, verse 4, there must also not be any silly talk or filthiness or coarse jesting. But rather what should mark your life is thankfulness, gratitude. And then he gives the warning in verse 5, you know this, that with certainty that no immoral or impure or covetous man who is an idolater has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Let no one deceive you with empty words. In other words, he's saying here that there will be people that say God will not judge you if you live this lifestyle. God is not going to judge us. We are living this lifestyle. We're not experiencing or dealing with any kind of consequence for this lifestyle. And Paul says, don't let anyone deceive you with those empty words. For because of these things, what things? All of those things he's just mentioned, all those different vices. He says, because of these things, the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Therefore do not be partakers with them. Why? Because you were formerly darkness, but now you are light and the Lord walk as children of light. And as he continues to talk about this, when you get all the way to verse 18, he talks about an element in our life that has to occur on a moment by moment and a daily basis, and that is the filling of the Spirit. Again, he has just talked about this formidable enemy, this darkness that we have been delivered from. He continues to talk about that in verses 9 all the way to verse 14. He gives the final exhortation in verse 14 about a waking sleeper and a rise from the dead and Christ will shine upon you. And then he says, based upon that, you need to be careful how you walk, how you order your life, how you conduct yourself. Not as unwise, but as wise. In other words, he's saying you don't want to be stupid. You don't want to be ignorant. And just as in the passage that we read a few moments ago in verse 10 of chapter 6, we do not want to be ignorant of the schemes, the trickery, the methods, the deception of Satan. And so, of course, he launches into this. He says, do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit. And then from verse 19 all the way into chapter 6 and verse 9, he talks about the varying relationships. And so, therefore, when you get into chapter 6 and he says in verse 12, our struggle is not against flesh and blood, he's having a direct impact or a direct reference to those relationships he has just mentioned. We don't wrestle with flesh and blood. It's not a human battle that we're involved in. It is a spiritual battle. And of course, if anything, the devil could deceive us in is to think that our struggles are with people, not with him. Now, like I said, we looked at some of his hellish devices by some of his titles. We noted one very important issue of how he perverts scripture. And we looked at Matthew chapter 4. We looked also and saw how he takes Scripture, and where Jesus was quoting Scripture to him, Satan turns around and quotes Scripture, but he leaves part of it out. That, again, is how he operates. And then we looked in Job chapter 1 and chapter 2, and we began to note the character of the devil. And the first thing that we noted was that he is presumptuous. What do we mean by presumptuous? He is overconfident. He is overconfident. He accused Job. before God. He accused his motives in which he was serving God, that he wasn't doing it for anything. God had put such a hedge of protection around him, and that if any time God would remove that, Job would deny him, and Job would curse him to his face. But in two of those major, major tests that he experienced, Job did what? It says that he did not curse God, he did not sin with his lips. He maintained that integrity. And we know he went through some pretty tremendous things. And we know that Satan, who was emboldened by the success that he had with Adam and leading him in that fall, he was confident that the fear of God in Job would not stand through his test. And again, in one day, Job was stripped of all of his wealth. One after another, four frightened messengers reported that 500 yoke of oxen, 500 donkeys, 3,000 camels were stolen in the enemy's raid. 7,000 sheep were struck by lightning and killed, and all 10 of his children were killed by a windstorm or a tornado. It's a pretty tremendous trial from Job's perspective, but as we see the curtain pulled back in Job chapter 1, we're able to see what is actually taking place on a supernatural, a spiritual dimension. Job knew what had happened, but he did not know why. It had happened. And that's the crux of all issues, isn't it? Sometimes we know what happens. Certainly, we just experienced it. But we don't know why it happened. Why did God allow this to happen? Well, again, the curtains pulled back for us in Job chapter 1 and 2. We see there that there was a testing taking place. And we see there also that God did not allow Satan to destroy Job. It did not allow him to take his life. And if you remember, I talked about how there are many things in our life that are very precious, and especially our families, right? Especially our children. And here Job lost his children in one day. Tremendous trial. All the physical things, his home, his possessions, all of them are replaceable, right? But people are not. His children were not replaceable. Even though in the end, God restored all those things, also blessed the womb of his wife. They had more children, but still there were children that had been taken from him and there is a mourning that occurs in something like that. Well, I want to introduce you now to the next three characteristics of Satan. And I want us to dive in even deeper and see this enemy of our souls so that we are not ignorant of who he is or of his devices. Again, remember that When you identify characteristics about him, it also identifies how he operates. Just as I mentioned in those various titles last week, it tells us very quickly things about his mode of operation. I mean, if you're called, for example, Abaddon, or Accuser of the Brethren, or Adversary, if you're called by different names, some of those names by their very meaning identify for us the very character of this created being. First, we noted he is presumptuous. Secondly, we noted in the characteristic of Satan is that he is proud. He is proud. Now, you and I struggle with pride. Sometimes we even struggle with the definition of pride, right? Let me read to you a definition of pride by Stuart Scott, taken from his book, The Exemplary Husband. I think this is very good. He says, when someone is proud, They are focused on self. This is a form of self-worship. A person is prideful who believes that they in and of themselves are or should be the source of what is good, right, and worthy of praise. They also believe that they by themselves or should be the accomplisher of anything that is worthwhile to accomplish. and that they should certainly be the benefactor of all these things. In essence, they are believing that all things should be from them, through them, and to them, and for them. Pride is competitive toward others, and especially toward God. Pride wants to be on the top. Thomas Watson is quoted to have said, Pride seeks to un-God God. And that phrase certainly describes the arrogant. Go with me to Romans chapter 11 for just a moment. Do you notice what he said there? He says, in essence, they are believing that all things should be from them, through them, and to them, and for them. And as he noted in the very beginning of his definition that when someone is proud, they're focused on self, and this is a form of self-worship. This is ungodding God, if I can say it that way. This is to ungod God. Look what it says in verse 33 and following Romans 11, verse 33 and following, he says, all the depths of the riches of both the wisdom and knowledge of God, how unsearchable are his judgments and unfathomable his ways. For who is known the mind of the Lord or who became his counselor? Or who is first given to him that it might be paid back to him again? For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever. Amen. What does pride say? Pride says the opposite, doesn't it? That person who is caught up in pride believes that it is from them, through them, to them, and for them. But Paul says, no, that that is for God. So when we're filled with pride, we're putting ourselves on the very level of competing with God. We're trying to un-God God. We're trying to get on His throne and dethrone Him. Most people say that they believe that God is dead. That is the atheist response. But I think that the true, sinful, wicked, human, fallen heart doesn't wish God was dead. It wishes that God never existed. That's the height of depravity. And then you have this demonic, fallen creature who seeks to pervert your mind through his hellish words and devices, and in essence is seeking you to follow after the very pride that he has sought after. Again, in Genesis 3, he did not tell Eve that he tried all of these things he was telling Eve and was expelled from heaven and sentence of judgment was pronounced on him. He didn't tell her anything. All he told her was that basically, in essence, that God is holding out on you. God is not giving you everything. I want you to look with me at Isaiah chapter 14 and notice. In Isaiah 14, and we'll look at also Ezekiel 28. Where you see the very deeds of the devil and what led to his fall. Isaiah 14. Look at verse 12. He says, how you have fallen from heaven, old star of the morning. son of the dawn. You have been cut down to the earth, you who weakened the nations. But you said in your heart... Now notice this, there are five statements that he makes here that identify pride, that identify worship of self. He says, I will ascend to heaven, I will raise my throne above the stars of God. The phrase the stars of God is referring to angels. I will sit on the mount of assembly in the recesses of the north. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, the clouds referring to the Shekinah glory. They're the Shekinah glory of God. And then he says, I will make myself like the Most High. Notice those five statements that he says that he will do. In essence, he is dethroning God. But yet you have to read verse 15. Nevertheless, you will be thrust down to Sheol. the recesses of the pit. One of the things that Satan wants you to believe about him, that he is so powerful that he can dethrone God. That's what he wants you to think. He wants you to think that he is omnipotent. He wants you to think that he is omniscient. He wants you to think that he is all knowing, all seeing, all powerful. He can be everywhere at the same time. He wants you to think that he is God. Sometimes we, of course, give him that credit, don't we? We say that, you know, Satan is tempting me, and maybe he is, or maybe it's a demonic temptation, demonic oppression, but this also could be your flesh, also could be your own fallen flesh, because you still have that to deal with. I mean, why do you think Colossians 3, 5 says, to mortify the deeds of your body. You have to attack the flesh head on. You have to put it down. And it starts in Colossians 3 by realizing that your affections need to be in the right place and on the right person. He says, if you have been raised up with Christ, seek those things which are above where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on the things of the earth. You have to have your mind transformed by the Word of God. Because one of the tactics that Satan has is attacking the mind. And he's very good at it. He's been around a long time. A lot longer than any of us. He knows your weaknesses. Demons know your weaknesses because they see them. They see you give up territory to them. You give up territory to them, you give up territory to the flesh. You don't walk in the Spirit, you walk in the flesh. And as we've said so many times in Ephesians 5.18, that is an absolute. That means that you have to maintain that constantly. That's why when it talks about the filling of the Spirit, Galatians 5.16 says it is walking. What is walking? One step at a time. That is what defines walking. You can't take a step and fall and consider that to be walking, right? Might be crawling on your face. But you'll notice there, again, that in his description, he sought to ungod God. Over in Ezekiel 28, turn with me there now, it also gives us a further description, not only of what he did, but it tells us more about who he is. I believe that Isaiah 14, 12 to 15 in Ezekiel 28, verses 14 and following, are very important passages to remind yourself of about the enemy. One of the things, again, the enemy doesn't want you to understand is that he was a created being. Again, he wants you to think that he is God. But it says in verse 14, you were the anointed cherub. What are cherubs? Cherubs are angels. You were the anointed cherub who covers. And I placed you there. Who is this talking? God is the one talking. You are the anointed chair. I placed you there. You were on the holy mountain of God. You walked in the midst of the stones of fire. You were blameless in your ways from the day that you were what? Say it with me. Created. He is a created being. A created foe. Again, in his original creation, he was created as an angel. He says there in verse 15, blameless in your ways from the day that you were created. Until what happened? Unrighteousness was found in you. Unrighteousness. And so he says, verse 16, by the abundance of your trade, you were internally filled with violence. You have sinned. Therefore I cast you as profane from the mountain of God, and I have destroyed you, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of the fire. Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty. You corrupted your wisdom by reason of your splendor. I cast you to the ground. I put you before kings that you may see. By the multitude of your iniquities and the unrighteousness of your trade, you profaned your sanctuaries. Therefore, I have brought fire from the midst of you. It has consumed you. And I have turned you to ashes on the earth in the eyes of all who see you. And who will know among the peoples? All who know you among the peoples are appalled at you. You have become terrified. and you will cease to be forever. And it's not hard at all to study the scripture and to see the future of this foe. Revelation chapter 20 tells us that he will be cast into the lake that burns with fire and brimstone. That is his end. But until now, he deceives the nations, doesn't he? Until now, he's the accuser of the brethren. But understand this, like I said last time, anything that happens in your life or my life has to first pass through the loving hands of our Heavenly Father, doesn't it? He has to give allowance of this. He has to give permission, just as he gave permission to the devil to do what he did to Job. Again, Job didn't know why this was happening. He knew what was happening. And he said, naked I came into this world, and naked I will leave. I can't take this with me. But he was a righteous man. Regardless of what happens in your life, follow after the righteousness of God. Regardless. So those two passages point out to us some very interesting points about pride. Let me have you to turn to 1 Timothy 3, because Paul uses this when speaking about elders in the church. He says that when it comes to the point of placing them in the church, he says, first of all, they have to have two sets of desires. One is an internal desire. A second one is a desire where they reach toward the office. But desire alone doesn't qualify them. That's why he has, in verses 2 through 7, a specific list of qualifications, moral character qualifications, for Timothy to look at these people and to evaluate them before he places them in this place of authority. And if you'll notice in verse 6, he says that they are not to be a new convert. Why? So that he will not become conceited and fall into the condemnation incurred by the devil. The word conceited in the authorized version is translated being puffed up. And that word comes from a Greek word which means smoke or pride. And it's the idea of raising a smoke or a mist. When you put a new convert in a position of spiritual leadership, this is what it means. He's apt to be puffed up, to put his head literally in the clouds. I heard someone say one time, man's the only creature that if you pat him on the back of the head, his head swells. You know, sometimes we don't always accept criticism, not criticism, but compliments the way we should and give glory to God for those compliments, right? Instead, we take them in and our head goes in the swelling direction. And when he talks about here falling into the condemnation incurred by the devil, that does not mean the judgment which Satan brings on a man, but rather the judgment which fell on Satan himself because of his pride. He sought a high position for which he was not qualified, and as a result, he was brought low. Again, Isaiah 14, 15. Nevertheless, you will be thrust down to Sheol, to the recesses of the pit. So Satan's condemnation was due to his pride. It was pride over his position. And it resulted in his fall from honor and authority. And the same kind of fall in judgment could easily happen to a new and weak believer put in a position of spiritual authority. That's Paul's point in 1 Timothy chapter 3. And so just ask yourself this question. How are you dealing with pride in your life? How do you deal with it? Do you seek to kill it? Do you seek to allow it to be exposed? Pride is a hard thing for us to expose ourselves. In fact, for that matter, many sins are hard for us to expose. That's why it's the supernatural authoritative Word of God that has to expose it. That's why we've talked so many times how important it is that you spend daily time in the Word of God because it's the Word of God that will grow you. It's the Word of God that schools you, that trains you. In fact, in the words of Titus chapter 2, it says this, verse 11, The grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. It's the grace of God that teaches you. It instructs you how to deny ungodliness. and worldly lust, and to live sensibly and righteously and godly in the present age. It's the Word of God that brings that exposure. It unearths what we seek to cover up, what we seek to hide, what we seek to tuck into the closet. The Word of God opens it up. And even the Scripture says your sin will find you out. When you hide it, the Scripture says that God will expose it, right? Well, in the second characteristic that we see of Satan here, not only is he presumptuous, but he is proud. Let's note a third characteristic of him, and that is he is powerful. He is powerful. I have to laugh when I hear people calling down Satan as if they have power and authority to do so. He is a very powerful being. This is very apparent from looking at Job chapter 1 and 2, as well as the temptation of Jesus in Matthew chapter 4. Would you agree? He's very powerful. In fact, I want you to think with me for just a moment. Who, before you were saved, controlled you? Who controlled you? Go with me to Ephesians 2. And let's answer that question. Ephesians chapter 2. Paul begins, says that you were dead in your trespasses and sins. And many times we've looked at this, we've pointed out that he's speaking in the past tense because the present reality in their life is that they've been made alive to God, according to verses 4 and 5. But the nature that they had before Christ was that they were sons of disobedience. And not only were they sons of disobedience, but there were certain things that marked their life. These were things that marked our life before salvation, before God opened our eyes. Number one, we were dead in our trespasses and sins. That's verse one. Number two, he says you formally walked according to the course or the pattern of this world, this evil system. That's the word kosmos. He's not referring to the creation itself. No, he's talking about the evil system in which Satan is the head. It seems to be very clear from the rest of the passage. He says, according to the prince of the power of the air. So back up for just a minute. He says, you formerly walked, you formerly conducted yourself, you formerly lived according to the pattern of this world and also according to the prince of the power of the air. You say, wait a minute, I didn't worship Satan. Paul says, yes, you did. You just didn't know it. You were unaware of it. He controlled you and coupled with your flesh. That's not very hard to do, is it? He says there, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Notice that he moves from a past tense to a present tense and says that this is the spirit, this is the foe, this is the enemy that is presently at work in every unbeliever. And if he is presently at work in every unbeliever, then he was presently at work in your life prior to the new birth. And let me say this, too. Just because you're born again doesn't mean that he doesn't touch you. It doesn't mean that he doesn't tempt you or try to deceive you or discourage you or any of those things. The Bible says that he is a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. He's not selective. He goes after any and every. And look what else he says, verse 3. Among them, too, we all formerly lived in the lust of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind. And we were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. That's very interesting because in verse 2, he first talks about how we were led by Satan. We were controlled by Satan. He talks about that before he even considers the idea that you were controlled by your flesh, too. So when we talk about Satan being very powerful, we need to understand that he is the spirit that works in all unbelievers, and he was the spirit that worked in us prior to our salvation. And for us to run around and thinking that we could conjure up some terms or some spells as if we're some magicians and just kind of toss some stuff out there, that Satan has to yield to those words. To him, they're powerless. They're meaningless. As we have said on so many occasions, what attacks the devil is a godly life. That's what attacks the devil. That's what is a threat to him. If you're not living godly and righteously, then you're no threat to him. In fact, he's got you right where he wants you. I question whether he even messes with you at all. He's got you where he needs you. Ineffective. Powerless. William MacDonald, in commenting on Ephesians 2, verse 2, he says that they were led around by the chief ruler of evil spirits whose realm is in the atmosphere. He says they were willingly obedient to the God of this age. This explains why the unconverted often stoop to the vile forms of behavior lower than that of animals, because all of that is being led by Satan. Turn over to 1 John chapter 5. Look at verse 19. What's he say there? Well, he's closing out the chapter. He said a lot of things leading up to this point. But as he begins to close this out, he makes some final exhortations. He says in verse 17, all unrighteousness is sin. There's a sin not leading to death. He says, We know that no one who is born of God sins, but he who was born of God keeps him, and the evil one does not touch him. And then he says in verse 19, We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one. That phrase, lies in the power of the evil one, is a Greek idiom, which means lies in the evil one. The verb there, the verb phrase, has also been rendered lies inside the hand of, or lies under the feet of, referring to being commanded by, or some have even rendered it belongs to. Linsky translates it as prostrate in his power domain. Well, the idea is control. Just as Ephesians 2, That the spirit that now works in the sons of disobedience, the one who controls unbelievers, the one who controls those whose lives give evidence of being apart from God, they lie prostrate in the power of the evil one. Again, that's why we need to understand what Paul says. That's why we need to understand these exhortations when The Scripture talks about the devil and how we are to respond. What is to be our response? Let me take you back to Ephesians again. Go back to chapter 6. Go back to verse 12. And let me focus in on the word struggle. The word struggle in verse 12. He says, for our struggle. What does that mean? That's the word palo. Palo originally meant a wrestling match. But it could also stand for a fight in general. A.T. Robinson says it was an old word that meant to throw or it meant to swing. It was referring to hand-to-hand combat. You can read it back that way. Our hand-to-hand combat is not against flesh and blood, but against rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. John Calvin says the meaning is that our difficulties are far greater than if we had to fight with men. There we resist human strength. Sword as opposed to sword. Man contends with man. Force is met by force and skill by skill. But here the case is widely different. All amounts to this, that our enemies are such as no human power can withstand. Our struggle is not fleshly, meaning with people. It's not human. It's spiritual. The sooner we realize this, I think the sooner we can see victory. The sooner we realize this, the sooner we can see how important it is that we walk in the power of the Holy Spirit because you cannot deal with sin in your life and you cannot deal with the enemy of your souls in the flesh. And again, as I said, walking in the Spirit is one step at a time. It is a moment by moment reality. When Paul said it to the Corinthians, that I could not speak to you as to spiritual, but as to carnal, and then he identifies strife and anger and all these different sinful vices in their life. He says you are being fleshly. And carnality or fleshliness is not some kind of state that we enter into and we stay there for such a long proclaimed time to where now we're considered carnal Christians. That is a state that you enter into either one moment or not. What I mean by that is right now you are either filled with the Spirit or you're carnal. And you can flip back and forth that quickly. Anytime you entertain a wicked thought, you are being carnal. But when you bring those wicked thoughts down by the power of the Spirit and the power of the Word of God, that is not carnality. That is the power and the feeling of the Holy Spirit. Anytime you're in an argument with your spouse or in an argument with anybody and you're slinging things out there and you're not controlling what you say or how you express that, That is carnality. That is the flesh. And it doesn't take a Phi Beta Kappa to figure out that 1 Corinthians had many, many problems listed in that book. Do you know that there were a total of four letters written to them? We only have two of them. Two of them were lost. Four were written to them. And when Paul launches into 2 Corinthians, what is he doing in the whole letter? He's defending his apostleship because they attacked it. But they were dealing with all kinds of vices, all kinds of carnality, all kinds of fleshliness where they were taking one another to court. You know, they were involved in gross immorality. They were coming drunk to the Lord's table. All kinds of problems. And Paul had to address that. Our difficulties are far greater than if we had to fight with men. Because our struggle, our hand-to-hand combat is not with men. It's with Satan and his demons. The Puritan preacher Richard Gilpin said, get this, this is very interesting. He said, Satan can afflict the body by the mind. For these two are so closely bound together that their good and had a state is shared between them. If the heart be merry, the countenance is cheerful, the strength is renewed, the bones do flourish like an herb. If the heart be troubled, the health is impaired, the strength is dried up, the marrow of the bones wasted. Grief in the heart is like a moth in the garment, it insensibly consumeth the body. and disordereth it." Turn to Psalm 32, and this is exactly what David had to admit. Psalm 32. Look at what he says in verse 3. And here he has just said some wonderful things about what the Lord has done when he says, How blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit." But notice this, when I kept silent about my sin, look what happened in his body. He said, my body did what? It wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me. My vitality was drained as with the fever heat of summer. I was wasting away. all because he refused to acknowledge his sin. Look what happens when he does acknowledge it. Verse 5, I acknowledge my sin to you and my iniquity I did not hide. I said I will confess my transgressions to the Lord and you forgave the guilt of my sin. Therefore, let everyone who is godly pray to you in a time when you may be found, surely in a flood of great waters, they will not reach him. You are my hiding place. You preserve me from trouble. You surround me, excuse me, with songs of deliverance." This is what he personally experienced because he had been hiding his sin, but when he finally confessed it, God delivered him. And now he wants to instruct others, verse eight, I will instruct you and teach you in the way which you should go. I will counsel you with my eye upon you. Do not be as the horse or as the mule, which have no understanding, whose trappings include bit and bridle to hold them in check. Otherwise they will not come near to you. Many are the sorrows of the wicked, but he who trusts in the Lord, loving kindness will surround him. God will teach him. He will be able to teach others. Isn't that what 2 Corinthians 1 talks about? The very comfort that you received, you were able to use that very comfort that comes from God to comfort others. He says, loving kindness, verse 10, will surround him. So his conclusion, verse 11, be glad in the Lord and rejoice, you righteous ones. Shout for joy, all you who are upright in heart. But the devil has other plans. He does not want a Christian to be joyful. Right? He wants you to live in that misery. He wants you to stay discouraged. That's his deception. That's his hellish devices. He wants you to forget about the Word. Because he knows if you will not read the Word, you will not lift out of that depression that you're in. You won't lift out of any discouragement. Because the Word is quick and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword. It's able to discern the intents, the motives of the very heart, right? It's powerful. It can deliver. David said, in my affliction, your Word revived me. It's the Word of the living God. I don't know about you, but when you're in the Word, And I mean really in it, I'm not talking about one eye on the page and the other eye on the internet. But when you're in the Word, you're not running, you're not hurrying, you're saying, God, I surrender myself to you, I want to learn from you right now, I want to understand your Word. As you do that, you will find your heart crave for it more. And then more, and more, and more, and it can never be satisfied. But if you're not experiencing that craving, maybe it's because you're, like Warren Wiersbe says, you're eating a lot of junk food, a lot of spiritual junk. Maybe you're supplementing or maybe you're replacing the Word with something else. Or it could be a Christian book. It could be anything, quote, Christian. But nothing can replace the time in the Word. Nothing can replace your reading it, your hearing it. See, that's why it's important that in your life and in my life, we need more than just hearing sermons. We need more than just being around brothers and sisters and talking about it. We need time in the Word ourselves, period. I said, I think Wednesday night, men, What are we doing to foster that along in our wives? One of the best things that we can do is to give them time alone with God. That's not time alone for them to go in there and do bills or to go on the internet, go on Facebook or whatever, right? That's time alone, you and your Bible. That's the best thing that can happen for your family. You say, oh, we struggle with having devotions together. So have we, 22 years. We primarily don't have them together, but we make sure each other has them. That's more important than just having this little fuzzy time. You know, we talk about the word all the time. My wife is always asking me questions. We're always talking about different things of the scripture. And I ask her questions. It's not a one-way street here, you know, like I'm the repository of all these answers, you know. I have questions, too. And I don't know everything. Contrary to what you may believe, I may have just bursted your bubble just now, you know. Thank you, Kelly. I needed that humility right there. But I don't. And if I did think I knew everything, that's the whole definition of pride, isn't it? That's it right there. I should be able to learn from anybody. And I seek to put myself in that place for that. What do you think I do when I study? I read what other people study, too. I hear their comments. I hear their ideas. I hear things that they're learning. I have to lean on people that know the languages, so I have to read what they write. And I won't read just one. I'll read several. Language is language, folks. You can't go wrong with it unless you're saying something about the language that is not true about the language. You're calling a verb something that that's not the definition of it. You're calling a tense something that that's not the definition of it. And there are so many things available for you and I to study the word. There are so many tools. We live in such a rich time that to say, I don't know how to study my Bible is more of a cop out. because of all of the resources that are available. You say, well, I don't have money to purchase these resources. If you have the internet, these and many of these resources are free on the internet so you can study. I don't know where they are at. Go to the church's website. I have a link right there to them. And go there. They're not hard to find. Type in Strong's Concordance. Type in Debbie Vine's dictionary. Type in some of these books. Surely you'll bring up bookstores, but you also bring up places where you can use these tools online. But Satan wants to keep you in the dark. He doesn't want you to study the Word. He doesn't want you to know what it says. Satan is presumptuous. Satan is proud. Satan is powerful. And then lastly, Satan is evil. He's evil. He's evil. He's called, in 1 John 2.13, the evil one. When Jesus was praying in the garden there in John 17.15, He said, as He prayed, He prayed that God would keep His children from the evil one. This is a real person. Satan is a real person. He is the evil one, Matthew 13.19, who comes and snatches away what has been sown in the heart of the one who does not believe the gospel. That's what he says in Matthew 13 and verse 19, that when you are sowing the seed, the Word of God, the Gospel, you're preaching the Gospel to someone, you're sharing the Gospel with them, and they do not believe. Satan comes along and snatches that seed out of their heart. That's why he is called the God of this world. He blinds the eyes of the unbelieving. Again, that's not hard to do if the unbelieving are already dead in trespasses and sins. Right? But what you and I need to make sure that we do not allow that he blinds us. We have to watch him. We have to understand his devices. That's why Ephesians 6 and verse 16 says that you take the shield of faith is what you need to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. You have that shield right there to hide behind as he shoots his darts of doubt at you. You put your trust in God, your trust in His Word. Have you ever sat down and just wrote out what you understand that the Bible teaches about itself, about God, about Jesus, about the Holy Spirit? Or do you ever engage yourself in those types of conversations? Those things are faith-affirming. It firms up your faith. Because when you talk about it, you hear what your lips are saying. You have absorbed what you have taken in over a period of time. It's almost like a survey that you're going through in what you believe. And of course, again, the devil wants to deceive you there as well because he causes us to fashion a God after our own making. We do that by saying, well, God can't be like that. God would never do that. So right that moment, we have formed a God after our own imagination. that any of us can say that's not true about God is if that's what's affirmed in Scripture. That's the only way. So what is your understanding of the devil? You see him this way this morning, you see him as presumptuous, as proud, powerful, evil. If you don't see him that way or you see him some other way, then you need to realize you have just experienced his number one characteristic and that is deception. Deception. Again, remember that the devil is powerful enough to snatch the word from an unbelieving heart. And if you're here this morning and you've never been saved, and as the gospel is sung to you, as you hear it, what is the gospel? The gospel is the good news. What is the good news? The good news is that you do not have to spend eternity in hell. You do not have to experience the wrath of God, which is coming. Those two things are bad news, aren't they? You do not have to experience that. You say, well, how can I not experience it? Repent. Turn your life over to Christ. Give up your life. Quit holding on to it. Surrender to Jesus Christ. Trust in his saving work, that he and he alone is the only one who can save you. He is the one who took your penalty, your sin, on himself. You say, well, wait a minute, I didn't know I even had all that stuff. Yes, what Adam and Eve did in the garden, was transferred to every single person who would ever live. David said, in sin did my mother conceive me. It didn't mean that in a sinful relationship he was brought forth in sin. No, it means that we're sinners from the very womb. From that very moment of conception, we are sinners. And Romans 6, 23 says, the wages of sin is death. And the thing to fear is the second death. Every single person coming into the world is headed to die. You're born to die. And every single person is headed to hell unless God saves you. In Acts 17 verses 30 and 31, Paul says, therefore, having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent because he has fixed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness through a man whom he has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising him from the dead. We made that exchange. Is Jesus Christ truly your Lord? Have you truly surrendered to him? If you haven't, I call you right now to repent and turn to Christ. Let's pray together. Father, we come to you once again, and we thank you for your word today. And we pray that as your Holy Spirit does his work in applying the word to our hearts, I pray, Lord, that you would save somebody this morning and that they would turn from their sin and turn to you. We pray also to father that you will help us to see how important it is that we understand our enemy. We understand this evil one and that we're not ignorant of his devices. We pray all this today in Jesus name. Amen.