Being Aware of Satan's Tactics - Zac Poonen - March 31, 2019

[Music] there are many preachers were afraid to preach the same message twice because they will lose their reputation people will say hey this guy's got nothing near to say I'll tell you one preacher was not as ashamed to repeat what he said more than once and that was Peter good example to follow because he was more interested in people understanding the truth rather than his getting a reputation for being a great preacher there are very few preachers like that who are more interested in people knowing the truth and coming to that life with God rather than building their own Kingdom or their own honor or accept the praise of men now what are we to you second Peter chapter 1 where Peter says in verse 12 2nd Peter 1 verse 12 I will always be ready to remind you of these things even though you already know them you say Peter if you if they already know them why do you want to remind them because nobody gets it even with one or two hear hearing sometimes ten hearings I think of people who the very few people who are born again the first time they hear the gospel and it was I know I've heard the last one hundreds of times before I actually got born again and I thank God that God didn't allow me to hear it just once I may never have been saved it's so important to hear it again and again again and he says not only that you have been established in the truth but I'm still going to remind you of it and this is right as long as I am in this earthly body I will keep on reminding you Peter was certainly not interested in a reputation for preaching something new he was more interested in the people to whom he was speaking than his own reputation it is very rare to find godly preachers like that and he also says in verse 15 I'm going to be diligent about something else that after I depart from this world you will still remember what I said that means he was concerned that even after he died and went off to be with the Lord people should still hear what he said and that's in this letter see that's why we read the Bible again and again we don't read the Bible like a story book if you read a story book that's it you won't read it again you see I already know what's there but we read the Bible so many times scores and scores of times why because you can't read the Bible and say oh well I will reread that until that word has become flesh that means until that word has become a reality in me I gotta keep hearing it like if a person's not born again he's got to keep on hearing you must be born again you must be born again you must be born again until he's born again and if you have a difficulty forgiving others you need to keep on hearing the word which is forgive one another as Christ forgave you forgive one another as Christ forgive you when do you stop when you've learned to completely forgive others as God forgave you the same is true of many many other things do all things without murmuring and grumbling when do we need to stop hearing that when you come into a life where you never murmur or grumble about anything but if you haven't come there yet you need to keep hearing it again and again and there's nothing wrong in that we don't have to be ashamed of it many of us have fallen into such a deep pit of sin in our unconverted days all of us that takes a while for all that muck and dirt to be removed from us we are forgiven but the effect of the way we live the selfish way we live doesn't go away from us easily but the Holy Spirit is there working with us patiently to me one of the greatest marks of the patience of the Holy Spirit is how he keeps working with us never giving up even where were defeated again and again in the same area he works with us he's I won't give up on you because I'm determined to make you like Jesus Christ isn't that an encouraging thing the Holy Spirit has come to make us like Christ and he doesn't give up on us one of the things that the Apostle Paul said which often comes to my mind and which I've tried to understand his second Corinthians and chapter a verse second Corinthians chapter 2 2nd Corinthians chapter 2 he says I want to forgive people in verse 10 if you have forgiven anybody I also forgive and I've forgiven in the presence of Christ why because if I don't forgive others Satan will take an advantage of me did you know that did you know if you don't forgive somebody I don't care what they did Satan will take an advantage of you that's what it says you and Paul the Apostle says I want to forgive so that no advantage be taken of us by Satan see Satan knows that he can't harm God's people directly he can tempt them but he can't harm them because the devil is because Jesus has taken away his par on the cross but he knows one thing if I can make these children of God proud God Himself will resist them because the Word of God says God resists the proud I don't have to do anything I just make them proud and God will resist them God will do the job for me so Satan doesn't have to attack us directly he's just got a puff us up God resists us he knows that or for example Jesus said if you don't forgive others God will not forgive you and Satan knows that so he doesn't want God to forgive you so what does he do he just makes you not forgive somebody else he's accomplished his task see this is part of Satan's schemes he doesn't have to attack us directly he just gives us a wrong attitude and knows that the laws of God determined that you will suffer the consequences of disobedience to that law and he goes on to say we this is the phrase I was thinking of we are not ignorant of Satan's schemes you know in the Old Testament people had very little understanding of Satan almost zero that's why if you read in the Old Testament you almost never read about Satan you read about Satan in the book of Job which is probably the first book that was written you read about Satan and Genesis and the time soon after creation is coming in tempting Adam and Eve and in the rest of the Old Testament you read about Satan only two or three times rarely once in a vision that I Zechariah had another time indirectly but there's no direct reference to Satan anywhere in the Old Testament except these three or four references I mentioned they their conflict was not with Satan all those Israelites they were fighting with human beings the first person who confronted Satan directly was Jesus Christ as soon as you come to the New Testament the very first thing is Satan tempting Christ and Christ defeating him and all the way casting out demons and finally defeating Satan on the cross and then of course there's a lot about Satan in the episodes we are in a conflict with Satan why was it that Satan was not permitted to attack people in the Old Testament like that they would have been finished but today God has given us the Holy Spirit when you are born again the Holy Spirit of God comes into our heart and then we have the power to resist Satan and God who does not allow us to be tempted beyond our ability would not allow anyone in the Old Testament to encounter Satan it would have been beyond their ability but today the fact that God allows Satan to attack us who attack our families or tempt us indicates that it is not above our ability to overcome him because it's a law of God that for his children God will never allow us to be tempted beyond our ability that's like saying that in a school a teacher will never give an examination to a student that is above their grade I mean if they are in the third grade they won't get a fifth grade question paper no it never happens anywhere God doesn't do that either each of us will be tempted at the level we are spiritually but hopefully we will grow so we need to be aware of Satan's schemes and one way we can become aware of that is by reading the Bible so when we read even the Old Testament even though Satan's not mentioned some places we can see how the devil works in people because now we have light on Satan's activities so we should be able to say as we grow spiritually that we are not ignorant of Satan's schemes so in the end of the Bible in Revelation chapter 12 there's a title given to Satan which is important for us to understand in Revelation and chapter 12 we are told that Satan is in verse 11 at first 10 sorry he is called the accuser of our brethren Satan is in verse 9 middle of verse 9 the deceiver of the whole world he deceives believers too but he's the accuser not of the world he's the accuser of believers he doesn't need to accuse the people in the world because they already belong to him but believers he's always accusing them it says he accuses them day and night he's a full-time worker 24 hours accusing them before God and very often holding hands with some believer on earth to accuse another believer beware of holding hands with Satan we must be discerning I'm not saying we should be blind to the deceptions of people I'm not saying that we should be ignorant of the way the devil uses certain believers to bring confusion in God's work we must be alert to that and the Bible speaks about rebuking those who sin the Bible speaks about avoiding those who cause divisions there are warnings like this but we must not be ignorant how Satan is working but we must not spend our time accusing no that's not thank you we're not here to accuse but we must discern so that we protect ourselves so Satan accuses us to God and he accuses God to us so that's one of his schemes is very important to understand that if you turn back to the beginning of the Bible how did he deceive Eve it's good for us to know because that's the way he deceives us the way he deceived he was a couple of things in Genesis chapter 3 you know that God had told Adam and Eve there's only one tree in the garden that you should not eat off now he didn't give them a reason teaching us that when God tells us not to do something there's no need for us to understand the reason you'll never get much obedience from your little children from a orthere or three-year-old if you tell him to do something and he tells me why should I do it and every time you ask him to do something you have to give an explanation you'll never get an obedient child you tell your three-year-old you do it because I'm your dad and I tell you to do it or I'm your mom and you've got to do it you don't go around explaining why you don't allow that two-year-old to play with a knife what understand it God never gave an explanation to Adam why he should not eat from that tree Adam it's enough for me that I your Creator have told you not to eat of it period is that enough for us that God has told us certain things in the scriptures how do we need an explanation that's that's one of Satan's schemes why should you do that what's wrong if you don't do it and you're already in his trap so when the Lord told Adam don't eat of that tree I mean there were thousands of other trees he could have eaten these are all nothing was forbidden except one and the devil comes exactly at that point and said to him and said to Eve in verse 1 he knew that it was easier to get at Eve than an atom and certainly didn't want to gather them both of them together so he goes to the woman and says in verse 1 as God really said you shouldn't eat from any tree of the garden and the woman says yea the fruit of the trees and God we can eat all of them but the fruit of this tree which is in the middle of tree of knowledge of good and evil God said you shall not eat from it or touch it now that's adding to God's Word God never said anything about touching it see that's the thing sometimes we have people who add something to God's Word which is their own ideas that's disobedience too or you know like the Pharisees they kept adding things to God Moses law and Jesus had to condemn them he said why do you fight in the world you add to God's law stop where God's love stops if God says don't eat it why do you say and don't touch it it's an old habit with the human race to add something to God's Word there are many many Christian groups that have added Commandments to what's written in the Bible and there are and subtracting also or you will die and immediately the devil says in verse 4 you surely will not die that's the first thing we see the schemes of satan saying even though it is written like this in god's word it will not happen to you that's not for you I've heard people take scriptures in the New Testament and see that's not for us that's for the Jews when one elder in one assembly told me the book of Hebrews is not for us it's for the Hebrews really I said what about Corinthians that's not for us either is it or Ephesians or Galatians what's harassment it's a deception to say that that's not for us but he found some inconvenient verses in Hebrews that for example I was talking to about where the Bible says that we shall be made partakers of Christ Hebrews chapter 3 verse 13 and 14 if we hold fast to the beginning of our confidence firm until the end I said are you made a partaker of Christ if you don't hold that beginning of your confidence firm mentally and he said no that's not for us so that's another trick of the devil no no you you you will not die now I'll give you an example of how the devil says that today that's he said to Eve today there's no tree of knowledge of good and evil but there's something else turn with me to Romans in Chapter eight in Romans chapter eight there's another word which says you shall surely die the same God who told Adam and Eve you shall surely die says in Romans 8 if you do this you shall surely die Romans 8 and verse to whom is Romans 8 written to believers it says in verse 12 brethren he's not talking to unbelievers brethren we are not under obligation to the flesh but verse 13 brethren if you live according to the flesh even though you're a child of God you will surely die what is the devil saying what he said to Eve no you won't die you're a child of God you remember 15 years ago you accepted Christ as your Savior so what is it matter if you live according to the flesh he will not die it's the same old voice that was heard in Eden which he has been speaking throughout the world for 6,000 years God God has said will not happen jesus said heaven and earth will pass away but my word will not pass away that's not to scare us I mean it's like a doctor warning us think of a person who's an alcoholic and his liver has been thyroid damaged the devil's and the doctor tells him listen if you're gonna drink more alcohol your liver will be ruined and you'll die does he hate him when he says that no most sensible people will take that doctor's warning seriously okay I better get rid of alcohol or if somebody's lungs are all black with cigarette smoke and the doctor says if you smoke one more cigarette you're gonna reduce your life expectancy by a couple of years he'll stop I'll tell you most people that I have met listen to doctors more than they listen to God and the reason is they fear sickness more than they fear sin but let me tell you something I know people who got AIDS and who got converted later on in life who died of AIDS and went to heaven because they were born again the sin was forgiven the consequences of this in remained but nobody goes to hell because they got AIDS or because they got cancer people go to hell because they sin so which is worse sin or cancer sin or AIDS we need to understand that it's I mean it's so clear and yet the devil has made people feel sickness more than seen it's one of the prayers I prayed for myself Lord as I get older I have to be more careful about my health and but I don't want to fear blood pressure or diabetes or cancer more than I fear sin never let that they never come in my life where I fear some earthly sickness more than I fear telling a lie more than I fear hating people more than I fear having an unforgiving attitude or living according to my lusts let that day never come in my life I hope you'll pray that prayer and if you start that praying that when you're young what a life you can live where you fear and hate sin more than you fear and hate any sickness in the world how careful we are even when we get in you know you know go to a hospital and they take your blood for testing they rub it with some spirit so that there are germs on your skin which shouldn't go inside your vein and that's why they do that it's so careful and if you know the importance of that and somebody doesn't do it you tell them a please rub my wrist with the spirit before you do it because you're so careful that one little germ should not go inside your vein boy imagine if you had that attitude of sin Lord I don't want one little sin to come into my heart do you know whatever church we would be the light would shine so brightly here that people will be drawn to that light years ago when I was burdened about preaching the gospel in India and India's got a 1200 million people of which holy 1% are nominally Christian and out of that 1% maybe 10% of that are born-again so which means such a small number of people in a country of 1,200 million people I said Lord how in the world am I going to reach all these people and give them the gospel and find who wants to respond to the message of Christ I can't reach all these people if I just talk about going to heaven everybody wants to go to heaven how do I know who wants to give up sin and so the Lord said to me you don't have to go all over the country doing all that there's a better way you know it's like there's an expression in English called finding a needle in a haystack haystack is a huge bundle of hay and if there's one needle hidden inside that how are you gonna find it put all the hay aside and find that needle and supposing in the huge haystack of a thousand two hundred million people in India there are a few here and there who want to follow Jesus how do I find them it'll take me a lifetime just to cover 1% of my country and the Lord said you don't have to do that if your church is a very powerful magnet it'll draw out these needles from the haystack without your plunging inside the haystack that means your light will be so your power will be so great the testimony of your life and church will be so great that people will be drawn from here and there I said that's a more efficient way of getting the needles out of the haystack and that's what we want to be a powerful magnet as a church if that means a church which is holy where loved where we love one another we live by God's standards that's a powerful magnet and who will be draw we won't draw hey hey is not drawn to magnets but we will draw those needles that means in the midst of that hey the few people who are longing for a godly life who I don't where they are but they'll be drawn and that's a prayer we used to pray Lord if there's anyone in this area where we are living who are looking for a godly life please draw them to us or bring us to them so that we can add them to your church give them the gospel and then once that prayer was answered in a little way we said Lord is there anybody in this state or then in this country and then finally we said Lord in the world it was very ambitious prayer to pray that way but it we went in concentric circles little by little by little by little and to preach in the whole world how in the world can we do that and then the Lord opened up the Internet some years ago and it's amazing how that word has gone out I mean when I get a letter from Greenland where I thought they were only asking was responding to a message of the intern I said wow we really have reached from far out New Zealand and Fiji and Chile and Greenland I say Lord it's amazing what you do when we pray a simple prayer Lord where are those needles help us to find those I don't want to find people who want to go to heaven everybody wants to go to heaven I want to find those whom Jesus said the way to life is narrow and very few people find it because it's a way of taking up your cross and denying yourself and following Jesus I said Lord I only want to find those few I'm not interested to all the others I want to find those few I preach the gospel wherever I get opportunity but I want to build the church I want to find those few who want to walk the narrow way who want to follow Jesus the church is a group of people who want to follow Jesus and who want to be a testimony and the more we all are willing to take up the cross in our daily life and follow Jesus the more powerful you will enable this church to be a powerful magnet to draw others who are interested in that life and that won't be many I don't think we'll be able to build a mega church when Jesus had huge crowds following him he turned around and said some of the hardest words to them you gotta hate your father mother brother sister wife and children if you want to be my disciple you got to take up the cross every day and if you want to be my disciple you got to forsake your possessions if you want to be a better sample imagine saying that to crowd of huge crowd I mean most pastors if they saw a huge crowd like that today they say let's pass the offering bag around but Jesus was didn't say that he said let's pre preach the truth to them and most of them left that was that is in Luke 14 by the way and then another instance in John 6 where another big crowd you just fed them the five thousand five loaves and two fish and then again he preached some hard words to them about eating my flesh and drinking my blood meaning participating in my death the death of the cross and again it says great numbers left him saying this is a hard statement who can bear it you read that in John chapter six and finally there were only 12 left Jesus was a great master at doing the opposite of what many pastors do today reducing numbers in a church to a small group I've seen that I've experienced that in a number of churches that we have planted in different parts of the world when it starts with a number then gets reduced and then the Lord says no I can build my church there has to be a sifting because that's a pattern if you read the Gospels you see that pattern Jesus did miracles and preached powerful sermons and a lot of people came and then he began to preach the whole truth and the sifting took place and a lot of people left and then he was left with a few he said now we can build the body so Satan's schemes he will try to avoid us I tried to prevent us from preaching the whole truth which is if you live according to the flesh you will die don't don't don't don't preach that because you will not die of course you'll die the law of Bible says you will now what I want to point out further hear about Satan's schemes is once he had succeeded in deceiving Eve to believe that God did not really love her you know the essence of that temptation was God doesn't really love you Eve I tell you that's the message that Satan's been preaching for 6,000 years to all humanity God doesn't really love you if he loved you he'd give you this which is so beautiful and so appear so tasty and so good why doesn't he permit you to have it that's what he was saying there and look what he says in verse 5 Genesis 3:5 you know why God has not permitted you to eat of this tree because God knows he's accusing God of being selfish he knows that if you eat your eyes will be opened and you will be like him and he doesn't want you to be like him he wants to be the only God if you eat this he will also be like God and he doesn't want you to be like what a lie and that's what fools Satan woman's heard that and immediately she ate it she ate it because she wanted to be like God the world is full of people who want to be like God today they've all got that from Adam and Eve did you see that that was the temptation you God doesn't want you to be like him today the world is full of dictators rulers who want to be tyrants like God and rule people have everybody under their domination the wrong understanding of God that's not how God rules they think this is the way to be God religious leaders of all types of religions who want to be like God to their followers obey me listen to me it's all that same temptation that started there you can be like God and it's very interesting that Jesus also came with the same message but meaning something quite different Satan said you can be like God having power and authority and knowledge and Jesus came and said you can be like God in love and goodness and humility and character not in ruling over others but in washing their feet and serving them two messages both say you can be like God which one shall we go for I tell you a lot of people haven't understood the truth if you've gripped by the message of Christ I want to be like God in the way you remember jesus said in John 13 I don't have time to show it you just take or take their time to read it sometime he washed the disciples feet in John chapter 13 and then in John chapter 14 he said when Philip said show us the father and he said have you seen what I did just now washing your feet if you have seen me you've seen the father that's what the father is like God is one who wants to wash your feet Wow is this the god you worship do you want to be like him do you want to wash the feet of others or rule over others God's called me to be a preacher and teacher of God's Word and he has told me very clearly never forget that all your preaching is only washing people's feet is not to rule over their lives it's not our there to tell them what they should be doing it's because you see a lot of people with dirty feet you want to get down on your knees and wash them sometimes it hurts because the dirt is pretty strong you've got to get a rough brush to remove it so if you feel it'll hurt don't get offended it's just removing the dirt from the feet it's still washing the feet I'll never forget that I'll never forget it for the rest of my life and that's I work with over a hundred elders in many churches and that's what I keep telling them I said remember my brothers we are washers of feet never ever think you are anything more than that we are called to wash feet we are to be like God in that way not in power and authority that not to listen to the devil's message you can be like God in power and authority and ruling over people no but to listen to Jesus message you can be like God in character in humility and serving and giving your life for people like God came down to earth and gave His life so the schemes of Satan are this he wants to make you like God in the wrong way and we need to discern what Paul said we're not ignorant of Satan's schemes and Paul never allowed himself to be puffed up to become some great ruler over the churches he was a servant to the end of his life the other thing I want to mention here is this wrong picture of God that Satan gives to that tried to give Eve that God doesn't really love you you know he that's why he doesn't allow you to eat this if he loved you he don't allowed you to eat anything nobody's forbidden you because he doesn't love you and I believe that's the reason why many many believers don't come to the Lord they they feel that God doesn't really love them and so they hide as soon as Adam sinned it says he went and hid behind a tree can imagine how sin makes a man so utterly foolish isn't the height of foolishness to think you can go behind a tree and play hide-and-seek with God that shows the stupidity of a man how God a man becomes stupid the moment he sins he thinks go and hide behind a tree God can't see him and I'll tell you sin makes a person stupid and it has made a lot of us stupid when we sin the Bobby are free from sin the Bobby will understand the truth not only hide from God before the sin Adam and Eve they were husband and wife they could be perfectly naked with each other and not ashamed as it says in Genesis 2:25 but the moment they sinned and their connection with God was broken they not only hid from God they began to hide from each other there to cover themselves with leaves as if he was saying to Adam I don't want you to see me as I really am I'm embarrassed about things in my life or in my body and Adam saying I don't want you also to see me as as I really am and you know that hiding from each other has continued till today even today husbands and wives hide from each I don't I don't mean physically but we don't want the other person to know some weakness in us because we think if they know it they'll despise us even in the church it can be oh I hope they don't discover I hope those brothers don't discover this weakness in me because they'll despise me isn't it sad that people could be like that because he started with the start in the Garden of Eden this unwillingness to be known even before God we think God won't love me because I'm so bad that's a lie of the devil it's a lie of the devil we want to hide from God and you think you can hide anything from God he knows you through and through but he still loves you that's one of the things that Jesus made clear in so many of his actions of his you know the Pharisees once brought a woman caught in adultery in John chapter 8 and there was a law in the Old Testament it said if a woman is caught in adultery she must be stoned to death and you know who gave that law to Moses Jesus when he was in heaven as a son of God he gave that law to Moses stone a woman caught in adultery of course the reason was two people helped people to see how serious adultery is not because God hated women caught in adultery but cookies you must see how serious is sin adultery is and that was the only way to teach them just like sometimes you need to spank a child to teach them how serious disobediences and when the same Jesus came to earth and the Pharisees remind they didn't know this was the same Jesus they reminded him of that law which said Moses said the woman was she stoned to adultery and Jesus is listening to the law that he gave what are you going to do now and he said if any one have used without sin cast the first stone and they all went away finally there was one man left without sin who was qualified to pick up stones and throw at the woman and that was Jesus himself why didn't he do it why didn't he keep the law he gave Israel 1,500 years earlier to stone women caught in adultery because that was not God's purpose he refused to pick up a stone he did not come here to stone people caught in adultery he came to forgive them and to redeem them and change them I wish we would understand this I wish we would have no wrong idea of God in our mind that I'm so bad that God cannot possibly accept me particularly if I'm a believer supposing you're a believer in your part of a church that preaches holiness like here and you slip up somewhere he's a boy I'm a part of our LCF and I slipped up here Oh people know that they won't love me really if they don't they're not like God God still loves you you know how much the father of the prodigal son loved the prodigal son that prodigal son had been away from the Father for years but it says one day the father saw this ragged boy not even looking like what he was when he left home thin skin and bones coming at a distance and the father ran is the one place in the Bible where it says God ran to welcome not a holy man but a sinner who had disobeyed him broken his laws if Jesus had only said God loves you that wouldn't have been as powerful as that story he said of God's intense love for people who messed up their life so Jesus forgave that woman caught in adultery said there's nobody condemned you woman no I don't condemn you either does it mean he took adultery lightly not at all because the next sentence was don't do that again there are two sentences don't forget one is I don't condemn you but that's not the full gospel the full gospel is don't do it again and I'll help you not to do it again wonderful so many people preached the first part of the gospel they're not condemned we preach the full gospel which is don't do it again or you take the other story of this woman in Samaria who had been divorced five times John chapter four and was now sleeping with a man was not even her husband and Jesus deliberately led by the Holy Spirit goes through Samaria and is prompted by the Holy Spirit to sit down at a well because the Holy Spirit knew that woman was coming it's amazing how God leads us to meet needy people even today and here was this woman whom Jesus knew everything about her life I've often thought about that supposing a lady came to this church who was divorced five times and it was now sleeping with the man who was not even her husband how would you look at her how would I look at I hope I look at her like Jesus looked at that woman needy messed up needing forgiveness and God came to earth to restore such people that's the type of church he must be it's not that we condone sin don't do it again that's the second part of the gospel we preach that as well but not such that we give people the impression that God won't accept you because you're too bad even after you've become a believer if you slipped up don't ever let the devil tell you oh God won't accept you no you did that for the 50th time or the hundredth time he'll welcome you back he'll help you to overcome it never never given to the schemes of Satan to go and hide behind a tree or whatever is there : to that in your life where you think you can hide from God and we read that God came into that garden and said Adam where are you and that's how he comes looking for us so brothers and sisters let's rejoice in a God who comes not only to forgive us but to help us overcome whatever our limitations are and let's not be ignorant of Satan's schemes let's pray Heavenly Father help us to hear and be founded unshakably on these wonderful truths of your love for us I pray in Jesus name [Music]

Channel: River of Life Christian Fellowship

Views: 38,677

Rating: 4.8381796 out of 5

Keywords: being, aware, satan's, tactics, zac, poonen, sermon, rlcf, river, life, christian, fellowship

Id: Tg1e75RsjzA

Length: 44min 57sec (2697 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 01 2019