The Subtlety Of Satan
I.
Genesis 3:1-Satan’s
attack is subtle
A. Satan’s attack is not
obvious, it’s not direct, it’s not forthright and out in the open and public
and unconcealed
1.
Subtle-Sly, crafty, shrewd,
delicate, fine, deceitful; Clever at attaining one’s ends by indirect and often
deceptive means
a. The opposite of subtle is
forthright, noisy, hard, open, harsh, honest, ignorant, stupid, obvious,
public, unconcealed, direct, frank
2.
He doesn’t come in
beating down your door screaming hey I’m the devil and I’m here to destroy your
life
B. John 10:1-5-The thief
doesn’t come in the front door, why? Because his attack is not obvious and
public and direct, it’s delicate and deceitful
1.
Thief-A name transferred to
false teachers who do not care to instruct men, but abuse their confidence for
their own gain
a. When you’re false and you
know your false you want to look real to the people
2.
Robber-To steal by stealth-intended to not attract
attention, steal in quiet or secret to go unnoticed
a. If he does it in quiet or
in secret and it goes unnoticed, then he can keep doing it
b. The enemy has robbed
people of their faith and they don’t even know it; they’re believing wrong and
not believing God and think they are and think they have great faith and
they’re great faith people
3.
You
have somebody who comes in not using the front door so that it’s not obvious,
direct, and forthright; He’s coming in to lead you astray, to get you to
believe wrong (abuse their confidence), so that he can steal from you in
secrete, in quiet, going unnoticed
4.
This
whole thing is about leading the sheep
a. What does the stranger
need? He needs the sheep to follow him
1)
Do
you notice it doesn’t say that thief climbs in some other way and murders all
the sheep in a massacre? It’s not a power struggle, and the enemy is not
overriding people’s wills
2)
John
10:10-The thief is going to steal, kill, and destroy by being false and getting
you to believe it
b. Deceived is to be led
astray and away from the truth – NOT FORCED ASTRAY
1)
Jesus
is going to lead you into the truth and the truth is going to make you
free-John 8:38, 16:13
2)
The
stranger wants to lead them astray into lies and bondage
C. Matthew 7:15-If a wolf
doesn’t dress like a sheep it will be hard for him to get close to you and you
get you to put down your guard; The enemy doesn’t approach you like a wolf
howling with fury in his eyes; he approaches you like and innocent harmless
sheep
1.
False prophets-One who acting the part
of a divinely inspired prophet; It also means lying and deceitful
a. GNT-They
come to you looking like sheep on the outside, but on
the inside they are really like wild wolves.
b. TLB-Who come disguised as harmless sheep, but are wolves and
will tear you apart
c. NIRV-They come to you pretending to
be sheep. But on the inside they are hungry wolves
2.
2
Corinthians 11:13-15-Satan transforms into an angel of light
a. EXB-Satan changes himself to look like [disguises himself as;
masquerades as] an angel of light [trying to fool people into thinking he is
from God who is pure light]
b. CEV-Satan tries to make himself look like an angel of light
c. MSG-Satan does it all the time, dressing himself up as a
beautiful angel of light
3.
He
didn’t come to her as Lucifer, the one who had been kicked out of Heaven for
trying to exalt himself above God
a. He chose to speak through the most subtle means possible (He
wasn’t looking for scary he was looking for subtle)
II.
Genesis 3:1-6, 1 Timothy
2:14-The enemy wants his attack to be so subtle on your life that you don’t
even recognize that it’s him
A. She’s not recognizing
this serpent as her enemy and these words as arrows shot to deceive and
destroy; she doesn’t see the end
1.
She’s
not picking up on what’s happening here in verse 1 and you can tell because
she’s reasoning with him
a. She tries to tell the
serpent what God said and he already knew what God said
2.
There’s
something in the undertones of what he’s saying and she’s not picking up on
what he’s trying to do to her
a. The words sound innocent, but in the undertones of what he is
saying is darkness and death
b. Ex: You deserve better; I wander why that hasn’t happened
yet; He shouldn’t treat you like that
3.
The
enemy said, “Did God say that you shall not of every tree of the Garden?”
a. That’s not what God said,
but it’s true; It’s true they can’t eat of every tree, but it’s not true that
that’s what God said – THIS IS SUBLTE
b. The insinuation is that
God is lying to you because he’s holding out on you and doesn’t what you to
have be like him and walk in all the benefits that would come from eating of
that tree; Now he didn’t come right out and say that, but that’s what he’s
getting at
c. He’s subtly working this
way of thinking into their thought pattern that; There’s something God doesn’t
want you to have;
4.
He
said the exact opposite of what God said, “You won’t die if you eat of it.”
a. When you begin to buy
into his deception is words will become more direct
5.
You need to ask yourself
two questions to renew your mind in this area when a negative thought comes:
What is it? Where did it come from?
a. People have yielded to negative thoughts so much that many
times they don’t even recognize when they come
B. Eve got in trouble and
yielded to deception because when he fired a dart, she didn’t put up her shield
1.
Every time the enemy
fires a dart and you don’t resist it you are getting closer and closer to complete
deception
a. What you didn’t resist you yielded to – There’s no
middle ground
b. When an arrow is fired at you, it either hits you or it
doesn’t – There’s no middle ground
c. 2 Corinthians 10:5, Ephesians 6:16-Every very dart needs to
be quenched every thought needs to be cast down
2.
Having
and knowing the truth she is now deceived (She knows what God said and she just
told him what said and yet she was deceived)
a. How does that happen?
When you have the light and the truth, but don’t war with it against the lies
of the devil you are on way to being deceived and believing something else
that’s not true
3.
Rather than firing back
she’s considering what he’s saying, she’s rolling it over in her mind (Saw-See,
Look at, Consider, Gaze at)
C. She is deceived and
believing wrong (They’re eating of the tree because she believes it’s going to
help them)
1.
She
saw that it was good for food
a. Is it good for food? NO!
– Anything you eat that’s going to kill you the same day is not good for
food
b. She is not seeing right
and she is deceived and believing a lie
c. She believes that if they
eat of this tree they are going to be wise; She believes wrong and the enemy
has gotten her to believe a lie
2.
She has lost her faith
III.
Matthew 4-The way Satan
attacked Jesus is the way he will attack you and it’s not at all spectacular
A. Tempter-Enticement of
sin, to test one craftily – Satan is subtle
1.
3-Jesus
hasn’t eaten in 40 days; Why not tempt Jesus to turn the rocks into an animal
or into a tree? Why food?
2.
6-It
is true that it was written, “God will give his angels charge over you…” but what
he said was not truth
3.
3,6-“If
you are the son of God,” The insinuation is maybe you’re not so if you could do
this in the natural it would prove that you are
a. He doesn’t say that Jesus
is not; he just says IF you are
4.
8-10-This
is what Jesus came for, this is the desire of Jesus’ heart and it was true that
Satan could have given them to him
a. The deception here is, this
will be good, do it this way Jesus, bow down to me and I’ll give it to you
5.
Here’s
why Jesus wasn’t deceived and duped and tricked: Every time Satan fired a dart
Jesus put up his shield and swung his sword
a. Eve reasoned with the
devil and considered what he said; Jesus fought the good fight of faith
B. The enemy is not
overriding people’s wills and forcing them to do stuff that they don’t want to
do, but rather he’s trying to get them to believe wrong and not see the truth
1.
Satan
didn’t override Jesus’ will and force him to turn these rocks into bread, jump
of the temple or bow is knee; This is not a power struggle; he’s trying to get
Jesus to believe wrong; In the Garden he didn’t force Eve to eat the fruit, he
got her to believe wrong; it’s not a power struggle it’s a faith fight
2.
Proverbs
1:10-17-These sinners aren’t in a power struggle forcing him to go with them,
they’re trying to deceive him and get him to believe wrong; He wasn’t trying to
force the bird into the trap by power, he’s trying to deceive the bird and get
it to believe wrong
3.
Satan’s
doesn’t catch people by force, but rather by deception
4.
The
truth is Jesus is the son of God and whether or not he can turn rocks into
bread or jump of the temple and be safe doesn’t have anything to do with that
truth; For Jesus to believe that he needs to do those things to prove that he
is would be for him to believe wrong
C. Satan’s attack never
begins spectacularly-Luke 8:27
1.
27-Nobody
has to have devils (Ephesians 4:27-Neither give place to the devil (foothold);
John 14:30-Jesus aid he has nothing in me)
a. 30-Who allowed the devils to enter into him? Who gave
these devils permission to enter into him? He did-John 14:30, Ephesians 4:27
1)
The devil wasn’t entering into
everybody like this because everybody hadn’t yielded to him the way that this
man had-1Peter5:7-8
2.
29-The
devils driving because he let the devil drive
a. The enemy is not just
showing up and possessing people against their will and without their consent
b. 29-People will look at
this and ooh and ah about how spectacular it is, but what they don’t release is
that it started with an arrow of deception fired and a man who yielded to it
3.
30-Who
allowed these devils to enter into him?
a. Proverbs 4:23-Guard your
heart means you can let in what you want and not let in what you don’t want
b. The mind is the gateway
to the heart; These devils entered in his heart because he gave place to them
in his mind
c. 35-When he got delivered
he was in his right mind and when he was in bondage he was not in his right
mind
1)
When that demon was oppressing
him his mind was unsound, therefore demonic activity of every kind always has
to do with the mind
4.
Even when demonic influence
increases it still started on this level of lies and deception
a. Words of Satan spoken to the believer and yielded to
become thoughts taken
b. Thoughts taken continually become strongholds in the
mind (it’s no longer just a thought
you have, it’s your WAY of thinking)
c. Strongholds in the mind enable that spirit to set up
residence and give it authority to inspire everything a person does-Rom8:6,Isaia26:3
1)
When you begin to yield to what
that spirit says you give that spirit place in your life and you will begin to
take on his characteristics
IV.
If you’re enemy is a
deceiver who’s weapon is deception then you’d better ben on guard against; in fact
deception is the number one thing you should be on guard against (Luke 21:8, Matt24:4,
Mark 13:5, Deuteronomy 11:16-We are to take
heed that we be not deceived)
A. You need to ask the enemy
this question: What exactly are you trying to get me to believe here?
1.
You
need to ask yourself this question: What am I believing right now and Is it true?
B. You need to take the
approach that Satan is trying to deceive you all the time; Every day he’s
trying to get you to believe something that is not true; What is he trying to
get me to believe today that’s not true?
1.
You
need to wake up in the morning expecting arrows to be shot at you