Satan’s Background, Part 2
A Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. Eph 6:11 (KJV) “Wiles”
1 Wiles is from the Greek word “methodei”.
a Our word “method” comes from this word.
b Derived from two Greek words: “meta”, which means “in the midst”, & “hodos”, which means “to travel a road or to journey”.
aa (IL) Deer in the road
bb Literally, Satan wants to stand in the middle of the road to interrupt your journey, kill your vision, make you change course.
cc How?
2 He uses temptation to lure you from God’s best.
a Temptation is from the Greek word “peirasmos”: solicit or lure to action.
b Also where we get our word “piracy”: wants to steal our precious life.
c He tempts us to get away from God & causes us to do evil.
aa The devil can tempt us, but our will must participate & agree.
bb Let no one say when he is tempted, "I am being tempted by God"; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone.14 But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust.15 Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death. James 1:13-15 (NASB)
3 Don’t confuse temptation with sin! (Jesus was tempted, but He never sinned!)
a Everyone is/has been tempted...even Jesus.
aa No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it.1 Cor 10:13 (NASB) Temptation is our common lot.
bb But those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful desires which plunge men into ruin and destruction. 1 Tim 6:9 (NASB) Wealth affords more temptation
cc And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen. Matt 6:13 (KJV)
b Temptation is a part of the human experience-we will never get out of its pull until we go home!
B The devil is a pervert.
1 The LORD hath mingled a perverse spirit in the midst thereof: and they have caused Egypt to err in every work thereof, as a drunken man staggereth in his vomit. Isaiah 19:14 (KJV) Perverse is from the Hebrew word “avah”: to make crooked.
a “Avah” is sometimes translated “iniquity”.
b Greek word “diastrepho”: to twist through or distort.
c Satan takes good things & makes them ugly.
aa (IL) Sex in a heterosexual marriage is a gift from God.
bb Satan can twist that into homosexuality, pornography, & abuse.
2 Satan not only uses perversion, he’s also a counterfeiter.
a Uses imitation to draw people away from the true God (most religions are bad copies of God’s teaching-there is good found in every religion).
b Satan’s masterpiece will be the Antichrist.
aa Fool billions into following him.
bb He will imitate the miracles of Jesus. He performs great signs, so that he even makes fire come down out of heaven to the earth in the presence of men.14 And he deceives those who dwell on the earth because of the signs which it was given him to perform in the presence of the beast, telling those who dwell on the earth to make an image to the beast who had the wound of the sword and has come to life.15 And it was given to him to give breath to the image of the beast, so that the image of the beast would even speak and cause as many as do not worship the image of the beast to be killed.16 And he causes all, the small and the great, and the rich and the poor, and the free men and the slaves, to be given a mark on their right hand or on their forehead,17 and he provides that no one will be able to buy or to sell, except the one who has the mark, either the name of the beast or the number of his name.18 Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for the number is that of a man; and his number is six hundred and sixty-six. Rev 13:13-18 (NASB) He will even rise from the dead & be worshiped as a god.
C On Sunday night, I will speak briefly about how demons use deception & then start with the 14 symptoms of demonic operation.
1 Neville Chamberlain was known for his policy of appeasement, and in Sept. 1938 he made the Munich Pact with Adolph Hitler. Britain, along with Italy and France, agreed to give parts of Czechoslovakia & Germany to Hitler, & he agreed not to invade any more European countries.
a However, Hitler ignored this agreement, taking most of Czechoslovakia & invading Poland. It then became obvious that he had plans for invading France & Britain, as well. The Munich Pact was a universal symbol of the failure of appeasement.
b Evil cannot be reasoned with. If agreements are made & we live up to them, we’re at the mercy of evil. (www.sermoncentral.com/print_friendly_illustration.asp?illustration_id=9703)
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