Satan's Tricks and Traps - Tony Evans Sermon

there are great academic discussions today about the causes of evil you will hear people discuss all the reasons why evil exists and of course how it needs to be addressed there have been many myths that have been established over history about where evil came from and why evil exists probably one of the most well known Greek myths about the origin of evil is Pandora's Box Zeus as the myth goes was offended by two brothers the god Zeus in Greek mythology was offended by two brothers and in reaction to how they had offended the gods he created a woman the myth says a very beautiful beautiful woman he took clay and made this lovely lady and one of the two brothers that had offended Zeus married the lady Zeus then created this spectacular box as a wedding present for Pandora the lady and her new husband one of the brothers who had offended him there was only one instruction given to Pandora you are not to open this box you can enjoy it you can look at it you can admire it but under no circumstances do you take this key and open the box well as the myth goes Pandora is passing this box every day and she is dying to know what's in it it's interesting that Zeus gave her a box and gave her a key and told her no you sir but after she couldn't take it anymore she took the key she opened the box thus Pandora's box and out of the box as the myth goes all manner of evil emerged death disease destruction illness murder in the all manner of evil just erupted out of the box and when all of this evil came out she just collapsed and wept because she had opened up a door for evil to enter the world she closed the box her husband came in and saw her weeping because she had let loose evil in the world well that's a myth it's a Greek myth there is no Zeus they were no two brothers before the first woman but one thing is consistent and that is that a human being unleashed something that expanded to the world there is a cloud cover that covers the human race a cloud cover of destruction we we look at it and we say how could he do that she do that or I do that because there's this covering and God said as we've studied in chapter 2 verse 17 every tree of the garden you may freely eat but the tree in the midst of the garden do not eat it or you're going to die you're gonna die so the cloud cover that covers the human race can be summed up in one word and that is the word death that's the cloud cover it it no matter what you try to do with it it just covers stuff it just keeps coming up and he says you shall surely die but as we've already explained the word death in the Bible means separation so forget the word death for a moment and just think of the word separation when a physical body dies the soul leaves the soul is separated from the body so the body can no longer function because the life has been separated thus death so any illegitimate separation equals death okay remember that now for where're we going any illegitimate separation is the definition biblically of death death does not mean something ends it means something has separated so God says on the day you eat of this fruit there will be a separation that will occur and you will die our purpose today is for you to understand the categories of death because I can assure you that most here today if not all have died are dying or will soon be dead because of the definition of death the Bible says over and over again that sin and death go together the two cannot be separated ezekiel 18:4 the soul that sinneth shall die Romans 6:23 the wages of sin is death James 1:15 sin results in death so the two are always put together you cannot sin and not die every time there is a sin at that moment there is a death but we're defining death as the Bible defines it that a separation occurs now with that in mind let's see what happened to Adam and Eve when they sinned against God and what happens to us when we do likewise now I know some men already saying well you know I came here to be lifted up I came to church to be lifted up verse 7 of Genesis chapter 3 they have eaten of the fruit under the tutelage of Satan then the eyes of both of them were opened and they knew that they were naked they sold fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees in the garden he said on the day you eat you will die they did but not physically they didn't die for hundreds of years physically what happened that day was they died spiritually because a separation occurred between them and God so the first kind of death is spiritual death where your relationship with God is broken it says when they ate their eyes were opened the way meant they could already see all the trees of the garden you may freely eat they could see the tree they could see the fruit on the tree that they could eat from they were not physically blind what does he mean on the day they ate their eyes would be open their conscience would for the first time be exposed to evil they would become let's change the word Oh well of something they were never aware of before and that is the consequence of evil they had not known evil till this point they had only known good because everything God made was good but once they obeyed the conscience which is God's regulatory system of the soul became aware of something it was never supposed to become aware of and I bet you all of us have had experiences in our lives where we look back and say I wish I didn't know that cuz man and I know it it has messed me up that's why we just we try to protect our children from seeing certain things or being exposed to certain things so that they don't become aware of the evil for as long as we can God says I don't want you to eat because I don't want you to become aware I do not want you to become a Decipherer of good and evil so if you stick with me your conscience will be protected from illegitimate exposure but because they disobey God they were exposed to something and now watch this they are hiding from God it says that when they got exposed to evil it affected their relationship with God and they sewed fig leaves around themselves to cover themselves because what was supposed to be natural now became immodest that's why when you wear clothes people describe you as modest or immodest because the exposure is now viewed as something inappropriate and so they are now exposed and they don't want God to see they don't want God to see their exposure and so they do what we all do when we're exposed weak it says they hid behind the trees or women now those are good trees all the trees are good because everything God made was good they sold their loin cloth wood leaves from the trees so they not only had from God they hide from God in his blessings they use the goodness of God as their hiding place how many folk here this morning a hiding in church you're in the place that God created but you hidden and you got your good looking lawn claws on he's hiding in the place of blessing so God has to come looking for them because they have run from God spiritual death is where there is an illegitimate separation from fellowship with the Living God and sin produces an illegitimate something God does not want separation from God and the Bible says this separation has affected and infected the whole human race Ephesians chapter 2 you are dead in your trespasses and in your sins tell my spiritual death that the unsaved world walks around spiritually disconnected from God and the worst part about it is they don't even know it you know why because they wearing fig leaves fig leaves of religion fig leaves are trying to be a nice person fig leaves a popularity fig leaves that they want to look like it's okay while they hide hide behind using the name God hide behind being religious say huh they had but but there's a spiritual disconnect because of disobedience to the revealed will of God we've all felt the sting of that that's why first John one talks about our fellowship with God when we sin because the fellowship is broken he goes so far and says in first John 1 and if you say you haven't sinned when I know you've sinned just let me tell you you and I are not on the same page so unfortunately even many of God's children are walking around disconnected from the true and living God because we're hiding and so there is this spiritual separation notice there long cloths are made of leaves the leaves on the trees so they got to break the leaves off the trees in order to make the lawn cloth because what was supposed to be fine is no longer fine anymore in light of their disobedience in other words think they patched together a solution let's let's let's do a little patchwork because if we can patch it up good enough we can be covered only problem is an admission God knows so god they heard the sound of the Lord God verse 9 walking in the garden so that's probably Jesus Christ the second member of the Trinity walking in the garden in the cool of the day they'll get it the weather's nice trees are nice and they hear the rustling of the Lord God in the garden the God that they used to walk with they now run from they used to hang out with God they would be kicking it with the Lord and all of a sudden and then they're hiding because exposed God asks three questions verse 9 where Adam where yeah verse 11 who who told you you were naked verse 13 what what is this you have done let me explain something God doesn't ask questions so he can find our answers he's not aware of okay that's good that's true he's not asking questions so you can give him data that he does not know the reason God asked questions is to promote self-examination he wants to ask you the question so you can answer it for you he wants to see whether you gonna tell you the truth I say with me here cuz he already knows the truth but whether you ordered see coz what we what we want to do is because we can't handle the truth what is this you've done I made a mistake no I think it's a little bit deeper than man we don't want to answer the question outright for what it is sinful rebellion against the holy God against his commandment and his instruction and so there was a spiritual death what is this you have done I know some of us are raising the question when all this over some fruit come on man come on man we got to go through all this over some fruit no no if you if you get stuck on the fruit you've missed it Satan said to her in verse 5 of chapter 3 if you eat the fruit you can be like God and you can know what God knows and you can be your own God you can be independent from God you can be autonomous from God so it went just about fruit it was about claiming my own diggity I don't need to do what you say god I'm my own God I'll have to answer to no God you're looking at him so it was a god issue and a deity issue and a defining issue no longer a dependent issue and so there was spiritual death and whenever we have broken fellowship with God due to sin even if we're believer we've died we're not communicating or were hidden we're we're not a good God and us are not on the same page no matter how how well your fig leaves have been sewn together something else happened he didn't just die spiritually he died emotionally and she died emotionally notice what he says verse 10 I heard the sound of you in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked so I hid myself wait a minute he's now living a life of fear fears and emotion because I was naked he's now living a life of shame he's now knowing what it feels like to feel guilty for disobeying so his emotions have been turned inside out upside down because there has been a death why because there has been a separation from well-being you know it is when you're feeling well emotionally and you're happy and you're excited and you're no longer nervous and things are calm and you are in control of your emotions and they're not taking you every which way but loose because because you've been stable in your soul but when something happens when you've broken a law of the law you know how it is to feel guilt and shame and to be terrified of what could happen they're now living like this and so so fig leaves some of us go to fig leaf counselors paying fig leaf money to get fig leaf relief we we go to entertainment to help us to forget this knowing in our soul that something is awry we pop pills Prozac and volumen to help me to get over this disruption in my well-being we connect with people because maybe they'll help me too to forget we get on drugs to give me some kind of ecstasy in the misery that I'm feeling with sewing fig leaves because the emotions have gone awry we have died in our emotional well-being he says I was terrified of you the god I used to kick it with in the cool of the day and in the pleasantness of the atmosphere I am I am an emotional wreck so I ran I ran from God emotions went to shambles oh but that's not the only kind of death because remember death of separation yeah they spiritually died which led to emotional death and that led to relational death he says in verse 16 to the woman he said I will greatly multiply your pain and childbirth in pain you will bring forth children I'll talk about that in a moment yet your desire will be for your husband and he will rule over you your desire shall be for your husband and he will rule over you are there any men here married to a control and wife you better keep your hand down I know that because you used your role to entice him into eating the fruit how about at the moment because you use your position to entice him I am going to amplify your desire to be the head of this house how do I know that's what he means by desire because of chapter 4 verse 7 he says to Cain if you will do well will not your countenance be lifted up and if you do not do well sin is crouching at the door and it's here this desire is for you what sins desire to control him so when he uses it of the wife he's using the same thing your desire to control him is going to be magnified so if you are married to a controlling woman it is the curse at work if she wants to be your boss and she wants to to you to submit to her if she wants to and she may have come from a controlling a matriarchal household but he says because you wanted to take the role and take his role illegitimately well we're gonna let you see where that gets you and I'll tell you where it will get you he will rule over you so now the question is are there any women married to any domineering many men who are verbally abusive or emotionally abusive or physically abusive who who say well you ain't my mama and you ain't telling me what to do I don't have to listen to your advice I'm the King here I'm in charge here and as far as you're concerned you'll cook a bottle-washer and you you have no say-so you you being a helpmate is totally rejected because he reacts to your domineering and you react to his rule and what you have as a curse is the battle of the sexes in the home so you wind up fighting for everything ham and eggs and you wind up you wind up fighting for everything he likes it cold : she likes it hot in and and she go to be an early you go to bed late everything turns into World War 3 why because a death has occurred in the relationship there's a death because definitely separation so now we want to separate now I want to get a divorce now undo all that why we can't live together anymore why because there's a curse it didn't start with an argument between the two of them it started what rebellion against God he just showed up and the argument at all that's why when you saw the fig leaves of going on a vacation and you saw the fig leaves of buying an anniversary gift you saw the fig leaves well let's talk you saw the fig leaves we try not we tryna they trying to deal with this thing when all you you saw in his fruit not root he says notice what he says I will greatly multiply your pain in childbirth still tell my relationships in pain you will bring forth your children one lady was in labor pain she was starting to moan a little bit mmm-hmm okay now the contractions are getting closer together they're getting closer together so she's feeling it more mmm and then when I just got unbearable she screamed out I hate you even every time a woman feels labor pains it is the reminder of rebellion against God and the painted bricks but he says not only will you have labor in childbirth but you will bring them forth in pain you will have problems in child rearing how many of us have had the pain of raising a child that rebelled starting at two terrible twos living with the teenager who rebelled but he talks about the pain a relationship that this thing was going to manifest itself and spin out into all directions that would be deaths of relationships many of you know that many who know the pain of the rebellion that started spiritually but it wind up showing up relationally Adam he says he will rule over you he will he will become this domineering person because of the sin and so there will be a Mis definition of manhood eNOS that he will define manhood by the street no longer by God why why are you gonna do this why are you gonna do this well look at what he says he says to Adam he says in verse 17 because you listen to the voice of your wife ooh I'm supposed I'm not supposed to listen to my wife isn't she might help me yes she disagrees with me the closest person in your life is never to Trump God okay how much you love them I know you love her I know you didn't want to lose her but when it come to me it Trump's her that's the closest person to you is not to overrule me now I know why I'm nobody got over wound man got sympathetic see she cook she come she come blinking them eyelashes I took a little bite of this fruit I don't want to go down by myself so will you help a sister out join me because you listen to your mom so here's the basic principle Adam was responsible see the definition of a kingdom man is he's responsible he didn't say Adam and Eve where y'all you said Adam where are you cuz I commanded you and you was supposed to deal with it by the way man numbers chapter 30 says that a man is responsible for the vowels of his wife so I had this with a couple of us get married get married and so so I was counseling them and for their marriage so I said okay what are some of the challenges he said well she's made all this debt you know she's made all this debt so she's got all these bills that's that's gonna be a challenge so I said well let me ask you a question are you willing to own them oh no we got that straight when when we get married she got to pay our own bills so I looked at her and I said don't marry him don't marry not now cuz he don't get it when he marries you he takes that as his responsibility you can help with it but he gotta own it make a man won't stay single right there make it me I won't stay single cuz you you suppose own that thing cuz you are the one responsible so he says to him that there will be this clash relationally marital conflict that was not the only kind of death that would be an economic death notice because you've listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten from the tree verse 17 which I commanded you saying you shall not eat from it cursed is the ground because of you in toil you will eat of it all the days of your life both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you and you shall eat the plants of the field but by the sweat of your face you will eat bread tell the you return to the ground there will be physical repercussions economically for you because death is a separation right now before you rebelled against me all this stuff grew for you you developed it but but but I made it all available for you the ground was plenteous you gonna have plenty of fruit and plenty of vegetables and all that and it's just naturally happen without you breaking a sweat o for the day when you don't have to break a sweat well you don't have to make ends meet he says because now your rebellion against me has created thorns and thistles in other words your productivity is going to be interrupted it's going to be interrupted by this death growth thorns and thistles that stick to you and irritate you you're trying to you're trying to pick berries and you getting stuck because thorns and thistles with your rebellion against me has affected your ability to provide livelihood without pain there is an economic cost to this no disobedience and many of us know it many of us are so in debt with the thorns and thistles of disobedience that we'll have to die before we could pay it off with insurance because we've rebelled against God it shows up over and over and over again we got to deal with the thorns and thistles of the people we got to work the thorns and thistles we have people got to work for we got to deal with all these attitudes they got to deal with us I want to change jobs and find something better so I can be at peace because my career is thorns and thistles even though I get a green paycheck he says because you didn't listen to me and you let a human being even your wife overrule me it's gonna affect your career but that's not all I know all of us tired of dying by now but stay with me that's not all the one we know about most it would be physical death he said at the end of verse 19 tell you return to the ground because from it you were taken for you are dust until you return to the ground that means buried okay stay with me here because you are dust okay I don't want you miss that you are going back to the ground cuz that's what you are you are dust you're dirt okay look at the person next to you let's look at both sides look you know what you just look at dirt yeah okay you may be good-looking dirt you may be rich dirt you may be sophisticated dirt you may be well-known dirt you may be poor dirt but on your best day you are dirt and the proof you are dirt is that you are going to get dirty at the point of your demise because you will go back to the ground and no matter how much Botox you take how much cosmetic surgery you get or how many weeds you have you are going back to Garrett [Applause] see that's why that's why you can't get too overly impressed with folk you can't get too overly impressed with folks who look like they got it old you got it going on cuz all they are they are dirt they say they may have achieved something so so don't look dirty but all they are are dirt because they are going back we're all going back to the grave so much for the divinity of man he says you going to go back to dust because when you want to be independent from me there are repercussions and then there's the worst kind of death eternal death eternal death that's where the soul is separated from God forever we call it hell that's eternal death that is where for 1 billion one zillion 1 quadrillion years you get to live in your sinfulness that's why he had to put Adam and Eve out of the garden God says therefore verse 23 the Lord God sent him out from the Garden of Eden to cultivate the ground from which he was taken so he drove the man out and at the east of the Garden of Eden he stationed the cherubim and flaming swords which turned every direction to guard the way to the Tree of Life a separation from God but eternal death is forever when pandora's husband came in he saw her keeled over in pain because of the evo she had unleashed by opening the box Pandora's husband opened the box and there was one little thing at the bottom of the box and when he opened the box the one little thing flitted out of the box and it had written on it one word hope all this evil had come out when she opened the box but when he came afterwards and open it one little thing fluttered out called what all this death is there any hope verse 15 I will put conflict enmity between you and the woman and between your seed and her seed he shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel this woman is gonna have a baby and when this baby comes along he's gonna crush the head of the serpent so I want to close by introducing you to the hope because it's gonna take a long time unfold so be good to apply it to all the stuff we've talked about but to understand history all of history from Adam to today and all the deaths that we all are dealing with you only have to understand one name given to two men Romans chapter 5 beginning with verse 15 I'm gonna read them read this whole section and then give you a closing thought but the free gift is not like the transgression for if by the transgression of the one the many died mature did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one man Jesus Christ abound to the many the middie who had died the gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned but on the one hand the judgment arose from the one transgression resulting in condemnation but on the other hand the free gift arose from many transgressions resulting in justification for if by the aggression of the one death reigned through the one much more those who receive the abundance of grace of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the one Jesus Christ so then as through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men even so one act of righteousness there resulted justification of life to all men for as through the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners even so through the obedience of the one the many will be made righteous the law came in so that the transgressions would increase but where sin increased grace abounded all the much more so that as sin reigned in death even so grace would reign through righteousness to the eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord so let me give you a word of hope through the one Adam the infection of sin and death was transferred to all men for all time everywhere but first Corinthians 15 says Jesus is the last Adam so if you want to get it all you need a two names your attachment to the first Adam bring sin and death but your attachment to the last Adam allows you watch this he said to reign in life what does it mean to reign in life it means to no longer be controlled by the graveyard of your existence no longer to allow sin to be your boss and Satan to be your God but once Jesus takes over control the Bible says he said I've come to give you life and to give it to you more abundantly so Jesus Christ wants to give you the life back that Satan has ripped off from you in your spiritual relationship your emotional relationships your economic relationships your personal relationships your physical relationships he wants to wipe that thing so clean that once you're a right relationship to him you don't even get to die because he says you immediately go to be with the Lord so he is reversing that thing I love the phrase he doesn't just want you to live he wants you to reign in life he wants you to tell your emotions what to do tell your circumstances what to do tell the evil one what to do and when you get hooked up right with him death no longer controls you

Channel: Tony Evans

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Keywords: Tony Evans sermon, Christian sermons, sermons, powerful sermons, strategy of satan, sermons on satan, sermons on demonic, sermons on demons, demonic oppression, freedom from demonic, motivational, motivational video, tony evans, tony evans radio, dr tony evans, tony evans sermons

Id: DIqzGP5CudY

Length: 43min 47sec (2627 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 14 2019