WESTSIDE BAPTIST CHURCH
PASTOR: TERRY VAUGHAN
SERMON TITLE: HOW CAN WE DEFEAT SATAN?
“For God so Loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through Him might be saved. He that believeth in Him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” John 3:16-18
TEXT VERSE: Job 1:1-8 “There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was perfect and upright, and one that feared God, and eschewed evil. (2) And there were born unto him seven sons and three daughters. (3) His substance also was several thousand sheep, and three thousand camels, and five hundred yoke of oxen and five hundred she asses, and a very great household; so that this man was the greatest of all the men of the east. (4) And his sons went and feasted in their houses, every one his day; and sent and called for their three sisters to eat and to drink with them. (5) And it was so, when the days of their feasting were gone about, that Job sent and sanctified them, and rose up early in the morning, and offered burnt offerings according to the number of them all: for Job said, it may be that my sons have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts. Thus did Job continually. (6) Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan came also among them. (7) And the Lord said unto Satan, Whence comest thou? Then Satan answered the Lord, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it. (8) And the Lord unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil?”
I’m glad I’m the Lord’s servant. Some people think the Lord is supposed to serve them. I don’t want to ask what God can do for me but what I can do for God. A lot of people are asking God to answer their prayers and to strengthen them and so on, and He can but what are we doing for the Lord? Listen to God’s opinion about Job. “There’s none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God and escheweth evil.” What a great man Job must have been for the Lord to say there’s not another like him in all the earth. That tells me that Job was willing to stand up for the Lord even thou his daughters and his sons forsook the Lord. They took up the wine in the brothers house and Job prayed for them. Job stayed strong in the Lord. I wonder what God thinks about us tonight as his servants. Are we doing what God wants us to do. Are we going where God wants us to go. Are we saying what God wants us to say. Just coming to the house of God isn’t always good enough. It’s good that we can assemble together in the house of God to worship the Lord but thank God it’s good when we can get out in the field and work. If God was writing a book tonight about a lot of Christians there wouldn’t be those kind of words found it like Job’s had. There’s not a lot of Christians in this world standing up for Jesus. They’ll put everything else first. Their lacking in their Christianity and the spiritual things and the heavenly things of what God wants them to have. I believe God looks down from heaven on his children and there’s not too many of us that would get a report like Job got. I want you to notice this: Job was perfect, upright, feared God and eschewed evil but Satan was right there with him trying to bring him down. It don’t matter what kind of a Christian you are, Satan is going to be around if you are trying to do God’s work. But if we trust in the Lord, we can win.
Job 1:9-12 “Then Satan answered the Lord, and said, Doth Job fear the Lord for nought? (10) Hast not thou made an hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every side? Thou hast blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land (11)But put forth thine hand now, and touch all that he hath, and he will curse thee to thy face. (12) And the Lord said unto Satan, Behold, all that he hath is in thy power;(did you notice that all that we have is in in Satans power? It’s right there where he can use things against us to bring us out of the realm of God if we let him. He can’t force us to but he can force us to be led away.) only upon himself put forth not thine hand. So Satan went forth from the presence of the Lord.” You know the rest of the story. Satan took away all that Job had.
His sons, daughters, cattle. God gave him everything he had and Satan stripped him of all that he had. That’s the problem with a lot of Christians today. God has given them everything and they’ve allowed Satan to take it away. One place in here it says that even Jobs wife told him to curse God and die. Satan had done gotten after her and she listened. Job told her she spoke as one of the foolish women. Thank God he said, “The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away, blessed be the name of the Lord.” I wonder how many times we’ve blessed the Lord? A lot of people can only serve God when their up on the mountain top. It was in my lowest valley that I found that God was right there with me. He said he’d never leave me nor forsake me. Paul said when I am weak then am I strong. I want you to be strong tonight. Just because Satan is around and he’s bothering you and he’s trying to tear you down it does not mean that you’ve done something wrong in the eyes of the Lord. Job was a perfect and upright man. But Satan was there to bring him down. A lot of people think when Satan comes around that they’ve done something wrong in the eyes of God. If you do something wrong in the sight of God, God will pay you a visit and not Satan. He’ll chastise you and correct you. Satan is the God of this world and as long as we’re around, he’s going to be around trying to stop God’s work but we need to realize who the enemy is and keep on standing for God. There’s a lot of people that don’t. Satan like to go after the ones that are working for God. I guarantee you if Satan can come to Job, he can also come to me and you. Satan has a lot of power on this earth. There’s one place in the Bible where it talks about Noah, Job and Daniel in the same scripture and I thought to myself, What’s the significance of having those three men in one verse? I got to praying about it and here’s what the Lord showed me. Noah was a preaching man. He preached and said there’s coming a flood and God’s going to destroy this earth and you better be ready and that’s what we need to be preaching today. We need some preaching people telling that Christ is coming back one day. Then I thought about Job. Job was a patient man. He had a lot of patience. The devil took all that he had but Job just waited on God and his patience stood the test. Then I thought about Daniel. Daniel was a praying man. He called out to God no matter what the storm. That’s how Satan will come to you. He’ll say, “you don’t feel like praying. your body is worn out so just pray in your bed on your back so you’ll fall asleep in the middle of it.” We need to be concerned for a lost and dying world. get down on your knees and reference God. People don’t pray like they used to. The Bible says that Jesus went to pray in the Garden and his sweat became as great drops of blood. That’s how Jesus prayed and that’s how I pray. Some people say you don’t have to cry out to God. He’s not far off and he can hear our prayers. Yes he can but if you humble yourself before an almighty God and you’re automatically louder than you think. If you really want something from God you won’t knock on the door like this: (tap tap) You’ll knock on the door like this: (TAP TAP). That’s what humbling yourself is. When kids want something they come to mom and dad. It don’t matter what it is, they think you’re able to get it. Is there anything wrong with that? No. We’re supposed to think that God can give us anything and he can. The Bible says he’ll supply all your needs according to his riches in glory. But Christians are letting Satan bring them down. Jesus told Peter that Satan desired to have him to sift him as wheat. But Jesus told him that he had prayed for him that his faith would fail not. If the Lords praying for us right now we ought to be able to be good Christians. God knows, God cares and God understands. He wants to help you to be a good Christian. He wants our church to be a good church. He wants to help us reach this community. Christians are letting Satan bring them down. Satan is our advisary. People say that they don’t witness like they used to, they don’t rejoice like they used to, they don’t pray like they used to and so on and you know why? They’re not used to having God control their lives. They’ve allowed Satan to strip them of everything.
Now turn to Job 42:1-2 “Then Job answered the Lord and said, I know that thou canst do everything, and that no thought can be withholden from thee.” Now look at verse 5 “I have heard thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eyes seeth thee.” Now look at verse 12 “So the Lord blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning: for he had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, and a thousand yoke of oxen and a thousand she asses. and he had also seven sons and three daughters.” God blessed him more in his latter days than in his beginning. In the beginning he was a perfect and upright man and God was blessing him then, yet God blessed him more in the end. I want to tell you tonight to keep hanging on to Jesus. Everything is going to be all right. Don’t you let Satan hinder your thoughts, your heart and your spirits. The Bible says to resist the devil and he’ll flee from you. Draw nigh to God and he’ll draw nigh to you. When you do you can have some rejoicing and shouting times in Gods house.
Satan desires to have you. Here’s the state that Satan wants you in: He wants you to where he can control you best. When you’ve got a big frown on your face. He does it through sadness and depression. He does it when you’re down hearted. When you’re not feeling good spiritually. When you feel like you’re not the Christian you used to be. You know what will defeat him? A big old smile on your face. Tell yourself that we’re going to win and not Satan. You can beat the devil if you’ll just stick with the Lord. You’ll never beat him by yourself.
