One of the greatest privileges the Lord Jesus gives to us as His beloved children and disciples in His great mission of world redemption is to use His Word under His authority and in the power of the Holy Spirit to preach good news, proclaim freedom for the prisoners, recovery of sight for the blind, and release of the oppressed Lk 4:18. In the last year we have seen God work in miraculous ways. In the last few months we have seen dozens of people healed of inner hurts, and wounds, and be set free from Satan’s oppressive hand. As we now regularly pray with people, I have seen more people dramatically change from the inside, than I have in the last twenty years of ministry combined. There is no question that God is teaching us to do ministry the way Jesus did it and the way He taught His disciples to do it and desires for us to do it as well.
One of the greatest privileges of the Christian life is the authority we have in Jesus Christ to use the truth of God’s Word when Satan attacks us, and Satan will attack us. Jesus spent 25% of His ministry casting out evil spirits, 75 times in the first three gospels (go home and read it for yourself). Why do you think Peter tells us that our enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour (if that’s not a reality) 1 Pet 5:8. The devil, like a lion is a predator that is constantly on the prowl looking for helpless, unassuming, or just plain ole unaware Christians and non-Christians to attack.
Why do you think the Holy Spirit told us through Paul, to put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes (tactics or strategies ). "12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against rulers, authorities, powers of this dark world and spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms." Eph.6:11-12. The reality, is that it is the reality, and the better we understand it, the better able we will be to defend ourselves and be used by God in ministry to set captives free.
For many years I read Scripture without the Holy Spirit’s leading in the here and now. I read the stories, believed the stories, but they had little relevance to my life today, other than principles to live bye, like a self-help book. What I failed to understand was that God was not only revealing His truth to us, but showing us how to apply His truth through Jesus example, and the disciples, both good and bad.
Let’s take for instance Jesus’ encounter with Satan in the desert in Luke 4 where it says that Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the desert, 2 where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. Three separate times Satan tried tempting Jesus with the same line, “If you are the Son of God, then do this or do that?” What was he trying to do? He was trying to bait Jesus and deceive Him into believing that He was not God in the flesh, that this was not His time for public ministry, and that just prior to this, the heavens didn’t opened and the Holy Spirit didn’t descended on him like a dove, and a voice didn’t came from heaven saying, “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased,” just a day or so earlier, Lk 3:21-22.
Now why did Satan do that? He did that because that’s who Satan is and that’s what Satan does. He is the father of lies and the accuser, (Jn 8:44; Rev 12:10) and his goal is to deceive us into not believing what God says is true about us. Think about it! How many believers do you know today that are still held in guilt and condemnation to their past. Even though they are born again, forgiven, set free, and been made a new creation in Christ, they are still living as the old Amy Grant song says, “in old man’s rubble and listening to the father of lies. If you are then you’re headed for trouble, if you listen to long you’ll eventually die.”
If Satan can get us to believe what he says is true, instead of what God says is true, then we have taken the bait, and the bait always hides the hook.
In the Garden, God told Adam that he could eat from any tree except from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. But Satan, the mighty deceiver told Eve it was OK to eat of that tree because when she did, she would be like God, knowing good from evil. What did Eve do, she believed the lie and as a result she disobeyed God’s direct order saying “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.” Gen 3:13 As a result, she and Adam spiritually died, which plunged all of mankind into separation from God and the consequence we now live in.
Satan is the master deceiver and a deceiver is someone who persuades people to believe in something that isn’t true. Satan and his fallen angels are out to mislead us; and to persuade us to believe what he says rather than what God says. That’s why Jesus said to be wise (shrewd) as a serpent (the devil himself), but gentle (innocent) as a dove (the Holy Spirit), Mt 10:16
How does Satan mislead us? One way is by planting misleading thoughts in our minds. In 1 Chronicles 21:1 we’re told that Satan rose up against Israel and incited David to take a census of Israel in disobedience to God. Because David did this, there were consequences and God sent a plague and 70,000 men died. Where did David get the idea to do this? Satan planted this thought in David’s mind to do something God did not approve of.
In Matthew 16, Peter rebuked Jesus for revealing that He must go to Jerusalem and be killed and on the third day be raised to life. Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.” Mt 16:23
Who incited Peter to dissuade Jesus from obeying His Heavenly Father and going to the cross? Satan!
In Acts 5 Ananias and Sapphira were believers who sold a piece of property to give to the apostles. However, before they gave the money, they decided to hold some back and then lie about it (they weren’t honest on their tax form). Peter said, “Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit and have kept for yourself some of the money you received for the land? Acts 5:3. Where in the world did Ananias get the idea to lie to the Holy Spirit and keep some of the money? Satan!
In dealing with Satan’s lies and deception, Jesus not only shows us what to do, but how to do it. As a disciple maker, Jesus doesn’t just talk about following the Father in obedience, but showed us how to stand against the devil’s schemes. He modeled for us the way to use His Word, when we are attacked by the enemy.
Let’s go back to Jesus in the desert in Luke 4.
When Satan tried to attack Jesus’s identity and bait Him into disobeying God and falling into pride, what did Jesus do? Instead of falling for the deception, Jesus countered with the truth of God’s Word. When Satan baited Him to use His authority in a wrong manner by turning stones into bread, what did Jesus do? Jesus countered this lie by stating the truth from Luke 4:3 “It is written: ‘Man does not depend on bread alone, but on everything that God says." When Jesus countered Satan offer to a quick way to authority over the world by stating, Luke 4:8 Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve him only." When Satan assailed His authority by baiting Him to throw Himself down from the temple, in order to stage a rescue by the angels, he was met with Luke 4:12 “do not put the Lord your God to the test.”
Then it says, "When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left him until an opportune time." Lk 4:13. (He wasn’t finished and we see that throughout the Gospels, go home and read it for yourselves!)
How did Jesus model for us what He wants us to do when the deceiver assails us? Well, He used God’s Word, great! But how did He use it? Last week, Deb Perrino and I were talking after class on this topic when God showed me something that I had never seen before (don’t you love when He does that? Isn’t so cool to know that the Holy Spirit is our teacher and disciple maker?) In class we were talking about what the Holy Spirit said through the Apostle Paul in 2 Cor. 10:5 about taking every thought captive. As Deb and I talked, the Holy Spirit, said, “George, that’s what Jesus did in the desert.” Oh my goodness! I went home and sure enough it was dead on! Let’s see if you don’t bear witness to this as well. I’m going to change all the plural pronouns (we) to (I), as Jesus would say it. "For though we (I) live in the world, we (I) do not wage war as the world does. 4 The weapons we (I) fight with are not the weapons of the world. (Isn’t that what Jesus did?) On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. 5 We (I) demolish arguments and every pretension (arrogance) that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we (I) take captive every thought and make it obedient to Christ (My Father)." 2 Cor 10:3-5 This is what Jesus did in the desert and it’s what He wants us to do. Remember what Ephesians 6 says, take your stand against the devils schemes and fight with spiritual weapons. What are those spiritual weapons Jesus used and He wants us to use as well?
There are several examples in Scripture, but this morning I want us to look at Psalm 119, starting in v.11. It says, "I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you." Did Jesus do that? You bet He did! He had the truth of God’s Word at the ready to come against the deceiver’s lies. Satan baited Jesus to sin, to be disobedient to the Father, but Jesus countered that attack by taking that lie captive (before He ever let it in), matched it up by what is true, found it to be false and then and then demolish that lie.
Just think, if Ananias did that he wouldn’t have died; if David did that 70,000 wouldn’t have died; and if Eve had just said to the serpent that “Satan was lying to his soul” like my 4 year old granddaughter Ava said to the little girl that told her she had a big nose, all of mankind wouldn’t have spiritually died. Do you hear what I’m saying!
Verse 12 goes on to say, "O LORD; teach me your decrees. With my lips I recount all the laws that come from your mouth." Did He just quote random Scripture when Satan hit? When Satan said, “If you are the Son of God turn this stone into bread," did Jesus just pull out a random verse, "If a man loudly blesses his neighbor early in the morning, it will be taken as a curse." Prov. 27:14 Satan says, “What does that have to do with anything?” “Well, it’s in the Bible!” God never told us to just know Scripture, He told us to know the truth of Scripture so that His truth could set us free. How did Jesus know what was from God and what wasn’t? v.14 "I rejoice in following your statutes as one rejoices in great riches. 15 I meditate on your precepts and consider your ways. 16 I delight in your decrees; I will not neglect your word." Jesus was able to demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and take captive every thought and make it obedient to the Father, because He came under the Father’s authority and always allowed God’s truth to trump Satan’s deception. And what Jesus did, He what’s us to do. If you want to be Jesus’ disciple, then know that disciples do what Jesus said to do and do it as He said to do it.
On March 10, we are going to start our Saturday Night Service. Jesus said, The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; “I have come to give you life to the full.” Jn 10:10
Jesus came to give us life, to give us joy. When does that happen? After the kids are grown and out of the house? When I get a better job? After I’m done with school? When I’m in a relationship? Or out of a relationship?
Jesus offers us real life, full and complete, right here and now. Your life is a mess, and Jesus will clean it up, but you’ve got to first give it to him. Give your junk to Jesus, and he will give you joy. It’s time to experience life as it was meant to be, and that starts as we come to God with all of our stuff and hand it over to him. He’s a big God. He can take it, can you?
We’re going to have an extended time of worship, we’re going to learn practical ways to experience the life Jesus talks about, and we’re going expand our ministry of healing, inner healing and freedom in Christ. Some may even go to Perkins for pie!
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