Charles Stanley - Enduring a Satanic Attack
Have you ever suddenly found yourself confronted with a strong, enticing, very inviting, seemingly irresistible temptation? What did you do? Did you just suddenly walk away, or did you find yourself debating with yourself and trying to decide what to do? Well, what you were experiencing in that moment was a satanic attack, that is, a attack by Satan, an assault by him upon you in order to harm you, either in your spirit, your soul, your physical being, your material possessions. It was Satan's assault upon you to get you to deny your relationship with Jesus Christ and to walk away from Him in some fashion.
Well, the apostle Paul warns us in the book of Ephesians about this warfare that you and I are in. And he talks about having to put up with the wiles of the devil and the treachery of the devil. And so, I want you to turn, if you will, to Ephesians chapter six. And I want to remind you that in this particular book that the first three chapters of Ephesians, the apostle Paul is talking about our wealth as believers. The fourth, fifth, and part of the sixth chapters, he's talking about our Christian walk. And then in this latter part, he's talking about our warfare, that you and I are in a battle against a very definite, real, live enemy.
And I want you to notice beginning in verse ten what he says. He says, "Finally, be strong in the Lord, and in the strength of His might. Put on the full armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For 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". Look at that. "For 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".
The title of this message today is a message about temptation, but I want to title it simply this, and that is "Enduring a Satanic Attack". Now, what does he mean when he talks about the schemes of the devil? He's warning us of this: that Satan has a definite strategy that he uses against God's people. He has tactics, he has strategy, he has a way and the means. What he's simply saying is this: that Satan comes to us with a plan, a very definite plan as to how he will bring us down, how he will destroy us, how he will defeat us. And so, what he's saying here is, he's reminding us that our battle is not against flesh and blood. It is against an evil force. It is against Satan and his evil forces who have a specific strategy by which to destroy the people of God.
Now, when we talk about the whole idea of a satanic attack, what do we mean by satanic attack? A satanic attack is a deliberate, willful assault by Satan upon an individual in order to destroy, listen, to harm them or to destroy them in their spirit, their body, their physical being, their material possessions, or even in their emotional life, or all of those things. But his goals are always the same. And that is his purpose in attacking us, in seeking to unseat us in some fashion. Here's what his goal is. He wants in every way possible to lead us away from God unto himself.
Secondly, he wants to thwart God's purpose in our life, whatever that may be. He wants to deny God the worship and the glory that we give Him by our yieldedness to Him and our worship and praise of Him. Ultimately, he wants to destroy us. That is always his ultimate object. So, what he's does, he plots and plans, and so he attacks us. He presents us with those temptations and trials and difficulties in life that he believes that he can use to defeat us in our relationship to Almighty God.
Now, what I want us to do is to at least examine this strategy. There are probably lots of ways that Satan would try to defeat us, but there are some very definite things that are very clearly given to us in the scripture. Now, somebody says, "Well, but these are different days than we're talking about two thousand years ago or a thousand years ago or longer than that. These are different days. This is a different culture. We don't even think the same way". Well, the truth is that Satan has not changed his strategy. His strategy, his schemes, his cunning ability is the same.
And so, I want us to look at one that is very evident from the scriptures, and if you'll think we could go back to the third chapter of Genesis and just take the way he operated in Eve's life and Adam's life alone and see most all of the strategy that he uses. But I want us to look at this from several scriptures here. Now, realizing that the mind is indeed the organ of our thought, and that all temptation, first of all, is offered to the mind. Think about this. Think about that. Think about the way you would achieve this need or this desire in your life. What did he do? Satan came to Eve, and the first thing he did to her is one of the aspects of his strategy.
And here's the first aspect of his strategy I want you to think about, and that is that Satan focused Eve's attention upon a specific thing. He always focusses our attention upon a specific desire or a specific need in our life. So, with her, it was a desire. He said to her, "You know, you could be like God. You could know the difference between good and evil".
Now, this is his approach. Think about this. You think about all the trees in the garden, all the avenues, all the walkways, all the streams or all the lakes, all the beauty, all this absolute perfect environment that this infinite God who has the power to create all things beautiful. This place that God had created could not have been improved upon. She had all of that, so what does he do? He did the same thing to her that he'll do to us. He will focus our attention and narrow it down on what we don't have because Satan knew that he could rob Eve of her joy over all that she did have by pointing out, narrowing down, and saying, "But look what you don't have. Look what is missing in your life". He knows exactly how to deal with us. And so, what does he do? He points out, he narrows it down to a desire or some particular need that we have.
The second part I want you to notice is this: that he, listen, he determines the time of the temptation. Satan is not going to tempt us just any old time, any old place, any old way, you see, because he knows that all of us have weaknesses and frailties in our life. There are moments when we are more vulnerable than at other moments. There are times in our life when we are very weak. And the truth is, we all have our areas of weakness, whatever it may be. Somebody says, "Well, I don't know what mine is". If you don't know what your area of weakness is, then, my friend, Satan already has at least a little toehold in your life because if he knows what it is, and he certainly does.
You say, "Well, is he infinite in his knowledge"? No, all he's gotta do is watch how we live. He knows what our areas are. So, you say, "Well, how do I find out what it is"? Here's what you do. You ask yourself this question: "In what area of my life do I fail continually? In what area of my life do I have the most difficult time being obedient to God? In what area of my life am I having to come back over and over and over again and confess and repent of the same sin"? Well, more than likely, you can just chalk that up, that's a weakness.
You say, "Well, how do I take a reading on my life"? Well, ask yourself this question. The last time you had those feelings and the last time you faltered or you fell or you yielded to sin or temptation, you surrendered to the devil, ask yourself this question: "What was I thinking at that time? What was going on in my life? What was the circumstances? What had I been thinking? Where was I? What was the situation? What was going on in my life when I faltered, when I fell at that time"?
You'll begin to understand the times, the circumstances, the situations in which Satan knows that you and I are the most vulnerable. We need to take a reading on our life. If it is something we keep going down over, then more than likely, that is the area that Satan is going to do his best to get a toehold, a stronghold, a fortress, as he says, built into our life.
The third thing I want you to notice is this, and that is one of his strategies is he creates doubt in our mind. If he can create doubt in your mind about God. "Well, if God were so good, why would He do thus and so"? If he can create doubt in the Word of God, he not only has a toehold, a stronghold, he begins to build a fortress. When you begin to doubt any portion of scripture.
Somebody says, "Well, I believe some of the scripture". Well, which part do you believe? "Well, I believe this part and that part, and I don't believe certain things". It's interesting to me what I've discovered when anybody has ever told me what portion of scripture they don't believe, usually if you will keep talking, there's something about that portion that personally bothers them. Naturally that's what Satan would do. That's part of his strategy. And so, people, what they do is they say, "Well, you know that sounds right, and I believe that that's probably true and what we do when", listen, when we begin to doubt God in any area, we open the door for disobedience in other areas.
You see, you're not just gonna be disobedient in one area. You hang in there with one act of disobedience, and you keep failing in this area, you're gonna start failing over here. In fact, I don't know of many sins, if I know of any at all, personally, that you can commit in an isolated fashion without it, listen, spilling over into sinning in some other way. And so therefore, what does he do? He focusses our attention upon a desire, upon a need. And then he determines the time when he is going to lay that temptation or that trial before us because he knows the timing is so important. And then he's gonna create some form of doubt in our mind in some fashion.
Then the fourth thing he does, he likes to engage us in debate. Now, oftentimes, we think we're just talking to ourselves. And so here's some temptation. And you think, "Well, you know, after all, I deserve that," or "I think that would satisfy me. I should drive one of those or live there or wear this or do that or go here or go yonder, whatever it may be. Surely there's nothing wrong with that". And so, you begin to talk and let some, yet something on the inside of you says, "This is not the right time," or "This is not the right way, this is not the right purpose, this is not the plan". And so, you begin to talk to yourself.
What happens? Haven't you found yourself talking yourself into something that when you first thought about it, you knew it was wrong to begin with, no question in your mind, and the longer you talked to yourself about it, well, you talked yourself right into it? You say, "Well, I talked myself into it". No, you didn't. While you were talking, who do you think was interjecting these negative thoughts? Who do you think, listen, do you think, "Well, I'm just arguing with myself"? No, that's what he does. He gets us in a debate. The best way to handle him is tell him what Jesus said. It is written. But he will get you in a debate. He got Eve in debate. He said, "Now, look," he said, "now, did God really say this"? And so, he got her in this conversation.
Next thing, you'll notice how absolutely cunning and deceitful he is. Listen, his key method of strategy is using, listen, using deception. Now, watch this. He is a deceiver, he a liar, he makes things appear to be like they are not. And so, here's what you'll find out as he began to work, for example, in Eve's life, in trying to mislead her. We said deception is to mislead someone, to make them think something is what it is not. It is to lie to them. And Jesus said, He says, "He is the father of lies, he is the father of lies, he is a murderer". So, here's what I want you to notice what he did. He said to Eve, he said, "Now, after all, your desire for food and beauty and knowledge, God gave you that".
And that is absolutely true. God gave her a desire for food, a desire for knowledge, a desire for beauty. And so, this particular piece of fruit is good-tasting and it was absolutely beautiful to look upon. And besides that, when she ate, she would be able to know the difference between good and evil. She would know like God knows. And so, what did he do? He tempted her to misuse what God had given and what God had offered. She had all this other and what happened? All this other and he says, "But look at that".
Now, notice how, he deceived her. Here's what he said. "When she said, 'Well, God said if we eat of that tree we shall surely die.'" What did he say? He said, "Will you surely die"? Here's what he said: "God is too good to let you die". And then he said to here, for example, he said, "Now, if you eat of this, then you'll be wise like God, knowing good and evil". And what he was saying is, "Listen, God is not all that good, because if He were all that good, He wants you to reach your potential. He'd want you to know what He knows. He'd want you to have all this knowledge. He'd want you to be like Him".
So, what is he doing? He's confusing the whole issue. "Well, God's too good. Listen, God's too good to let you die for eating this. Secondly, if God were good, He wouldn't keep this from you". Satan is a master at deception. He is a master at confusing our minds. He is a master at frustrating and confusing our thought processes, and this is exactly what he did to her. Subtle, listen, subtle and dangerous is all of his, listen, all of his temptations because they come in such different fashions and such different forms. And he camouflages it and he covers it and he puts it in words, always attractive.
Satan's never gonna walk up and say, "Hello, friend, I'm the devil". He's never gonna say that. He's gonna, listen, he's gonna always come on looking as much like God, looking like he's on your team, looking like he's on your side. He's looking out for you. You have these desires. You have these needs. He wants to help you now. He wants to help you get what you want. Let me tell you something. Satan will indeed help us get what we want in order to get us what he wants us to have, which is ultimate destruction. That's the way he operates. You see, what he says, ultimately, is this. "God is not giving you His best. God is depriving you of His best. Therefore, if you want the best and you want your needs met, here's what you do. I'll help you get them".
He doesn't come on as the devil saying that, but he comes oftentimes through other people, oftentimes in our thought processes, things that we hear, things that we see. It is his way of absolutely undermining and destroying everything good within us. He is a deceiver of all things. He's the one you and I have to face in mortal combat day by day. He is there in every situation and circumstance he possibly can. Doing what? Using the strategy, we just talked about. Why does it work? All of us will have to admit we've been defeated at times. We will have to admit as you look in the scriptures, he was successful in the past, he's successful today. He'll be successful in our life today and tomorrow if we allow him to do it.
So, what is the question? The question is this: How do we win? How do we win when we have a satanic attack? Well, turn back, if you will, to Ephesians chapter six for a moment and look at this passage. Listen to what Paul says. He says in verse ten. "Finally, be strong in the Lord, and in the strength of His might". Listen, how do we endure when we are under one of those vicious, penetrating, overwhelming attacks by Satan? What do we do? Here's what we do. We stand firm in the strength of Almighty God. Thank You, Father, that He that is within me is greater than he that is tempting me. We draw strength from God. We stand firm in the strength of the Lord.
The second thing we do is, he says even in this passage, he says we are to resist. Listen, he says we are to resist and in, for example, also in James chapter four, verse seven he says, "Submit yourselves unto the Lord God, and resist the devil and he will flee from you". What do we do? We stand firm in the strength of the Lord. We, listen, we resist the devil in the strength of the Lord. Never in our strength, never in our wisdom, no debating with him. We, listen, we resist him, we stand against him, we say no to him. In our heart we say no to him.
The third thing we do is we do exactly what Jesus said do, and that is to answer his enticements by saying, "It is written, it is written, it is written". Why do you think he hates the Word of God? Why do you think he wants to keep you so busy that you don't read it? Why do you think he wants to keep you so busy you don't study it? Why do you think he wants to keep you away from church and listening to it? Why does he want you to come to church without a Bible, without a note, and without a pencil? Because he does not want you to listen to what was being said. He does not want you to remember it, because the next time he entices you with temptation, he wants you to be suddenly, listen, what? Without anything to say back to him.
"Let's see. Now, what is that verse? What was that"? And so, what happens? If you, listen, if you don't have, Jesus says, "It is written. Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. Man shall not live by bread alone". Jesus answered Satan's vicious assaults upon him with a reply of the Word of the Living God, He knew that Satan had no answer for that. What do we do? We say, "It is written". Whatever the issue is, you name whatever, that is, get yourself a verse or two of scripture, or three or four verses, or whatever it might be, but something that you're armed with, something that you're armed with so you can say what Jesus says, "It is written".
So how do we stand? We stand firmly in the strength of the Lord. And listen, we stand submissive to the will of God. If you're not standing submissive to the will of God, you're not gonna resist the devil. Now, this is the key. If I, listen, if I'm going to speak to the devil, if I'm gonna resist him, I've got to be in the Spirit. That means walking in submission to God's will. If I'm living out here in the flesh and Satan comes along with something, I'm not going to sense the strength.
But listen, and what he'll do is he'll say, "Well, why should God answer your prayer? Why should God listen to you? Look at you". This is why we need to walk in the Spirit, that is, walk in submission to the will of God in every area of our life possible. Now, so we said, first of all, we want to stand strong in the strength of the Lord. We want to resist him in the strength of the Lord. We want to say to him, "It is written".
And the fourth thing we want to do is to assume, to assume the authority that we have as a result of being indwelt by the Holy Spirit. And the Bible says that He that is within us is greater than he that's in the world. Why did the Holy Spirit come? To do what? He says to live on the inside of us, to live through us the life of Christ, to be our comforter, our strength, and our guide. He, listen, it is He who is the power within us. We have the right and the authority to say to Satan, "Listen, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, on the authority of His Word, by His shed blood, Satan, be gone. Get out of my life. Get out of here now".
You say, "Well, now, will he be back"? Absolutely. Absolutely. But at that moment, he'll be gone. Well, you say, "Well now, Jesus, was he just tempted three times"? Jesus, listen, Satan hounded Him every, listen, every waking moment of His life, Satan was there. Just because we have those three temptations do not mean that's the only time Satan tempted Him. If God didn't... listen, God has given us a clear picture of who the enemy is and how he works. He's also given us assurance that we do not have to yield unless we choose to. And so, I want to say to you, my friend, if you've never trusted Jesus Christ as your Savior, he's got you.
Now, listen to what He says. He says he blinds the minds of the unbeliever so you will not believe in him. Do you realize that it's written in the Word of God, crystal clear, in black and white, exactly what Satan has done to you? He's blinded your mind. You say, "Well, I don't believe this. I don't believe that. I don't go to this. I don't go to that". You know why? He's blinded your mind.
You say, "Well, are you calling me blind"? Spiritually, if you've never trusted Jesus Christ as your Savior, you are spiritually blind to the reality of who God is and what He's up to in your life and His love for you and what He wants to do for you by saving you and indwelling you and giving you heaven as your home, yes! And Satan will do his best to keep you blind. You say, "Well, what do I do"? Here's what you do.
You say, "Father, I'm going to accept by faith what the Bible says about your Son, that He is your Son. I'm going to accept by faith that when Jesus died at Calvary, He took all of my sin upon Himself and paid my sin-debt in full, and I'm gonna ask You to forgive me of my sins and I'm gonna ask You to save me. Open my eyes, Father. Help me to see the truth. Save me from my sins". You say, "Well, now, how do I know God will do that"? I am absolutely confident He will. You know why? Because it's this clear. Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved, period. Signed, God Almighty. I know He will.