R333 Portrait of and Enemy Attack

The Portrait of an Enemy Attack. That's today's message as we open God's encouraging Word together with Dr. Don Wilson. It's a powerful message on the way, and we're here in power to pray with you at 866-899-WORD. That's 866-899-9673 or online at www.tewonline.org. The Encouraging Word.

And now, Dr. Don Wilson. I don't want to preach this message. I'm nervous about preaching this message. I believe Satan doesn't want to hear this message. I believe that there are people in this congregation who don't want to hear this message. I believe there are politicians who don't want to hear this message. I believe the White House doesn't want to hear this message. Congress doesn't want to. Our educators don't want to hear this message.

Newspaper editors don't want to hear this message. Church people don't want to hear this message, and I don't want to preach this message. I'm here reluctantly this morning. I'm not here today to preach something that I feel good about.

I'm not here to paper over the cracks or to pander to anybody's preferences. But this is the Word of God, and I must preach God's Word. Lives have been changed. People have come to know Christ. Missionaries have been sent out.

God has been glorified for over 150 years, and it is no less true of these United States of America. But I'm going to say to you, beloved friends, that we had better wake up. We'd better wake up to what the enemy is trying to do. I want to read you something this morning, and I cut this out of a newspaper article. It's here for anyone who would like to see it.

Listen to this. As members of the Kansas House of Representatives stood and bowed in prayer at the opening of a recent session, some were shocked and offended by what they heard. A heartfelt prayer of corporate confession, forgiveness, and divine guidance. One representative walked out, and another sat down in protest.

The Wichita Eagle, the newspaper, reported, quote, and the house came alive with a flutter of agitation that comes from a fence and its often loud response. I have never heard in 10 years as divisive, sanctimonious, self-serving, overbearing prayer as I've heard this morning, one representative said. However, the Reverend Joe Wright, who offered the prayer, said, quote, Prayer is prayer. I am praying to God when I am praying. I'm not up there to put on a show. I'm there and here to pray.

I don't do it any differently in public than I do in private. Here is the full text of Reverend Wright's prayer. Heavenly Father, we come before you today to ask your forgiveness and seek your direction and guidance.

We know your word says, woe to those who call evil good. But that's exactly what we've done. We have lost our spiritual equilibrium and inverted our values. We confess that we have ridiculed the absolute truth of your word and called it moral pluralism.

We have worshipped other gods and we called it multiculturalism. We have endorsed perversion and called it an alternative lifestyle. We have exploited the poor and called it the lottery. We have neglected the needy and called it self-preservation. We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare. We have killed our unborn and called it choice.

We have shot abortionists and called it justifiable. We have neglected to discipline our children and called it building esteem. We have abused power and called it political savvy. We have coveted our neighbors' possessions and called it ambition. We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it freedom of expression.

We have ridiculed time-honored values of our forefathers and called it enlightenment. Search us, O God, and know our hearts today. Try us and see if there be some wicked way in us. Cleanse us from every sin and set us free. Guide and bless these men and women who have been sent here by the people of Kansas and who have been ordained by you to govern this great state.

Grant them your wisdom to rule, and may their decisions direct us to the center of your will. I ask it in the name of your Son, the living Savior, Jesus Christ. This Bible that I hold in my hand this morning is filled from Genesis to Revelation on the portrait of a Christian. The Bible tells us that you and I can know that we know that we know that we know that we're saved. It's not a thought process.

It's not an if, but, or and. It is a biblical fact. The Bible says that you can know whether a person is a believer or whether they're not. Our salvation is a personal private matter because salvation is tied into the sovereign work of God. But our Christianity, our outworking of our salvation is a public matter according to God's Word, and it is there for everyone to see. And so it is, beloved friends, this morning that just as we have the portrait of a believer in the Bible, the Bible also tells us from the fall of man that there is a portrait of the enemy in the Bible. And I want to speak this morning on a portrait of an enemy attack. It is possible, according to God's Word, to identify when you and I are being faced by an enemy attack.

Now, I want to say this before I read Nehemiah chapter 6. I'm convinced today, beloved friends, that the time has come in three areas that we need to wake up. We need to stop this messing around that's going on in society today. Our nation is in very serious trouble. Everywhere the onslaught of the enemy is evident.

We see it in programs, we see it in legislation, we see it in action, we see it in comments, we see it in political parties, we see it in agendas and platforms. Our nation is under the attack of the enemy. Satan does not want the United States of America to be a nation under God.

Satan wants to bring this nation to her knees, folks, and Satan is doing it, and he's doing it right in front of our very eyes. But secondly, our churches are under attack. You could come with me for a journey across America today, and I will guarantee you that the one comment that you will make more about evangelical churches today than anything else is that that church used to be a great church. That church used to be on fire for the Lord Jesus Christ. That church used to be a place where people came into the presence of the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.

That used to be a church. You're going to be one of those people going around saying, remember back then how it happened. Remember when all those people got saved. Remember when all those children were coming to Christ.

Remember when that choir used to sing like that. Remember that pulpit and all it is today is a monument, a social club, a country club, a tower, a steeple with walls that is a museum to an unknown God. And folks, I'm going to say to you today, beloved friends, if we don't think that that can happen to this church, we don't understand scripture. It can happen to this church. It can happen to our neighboring church. It can happen to any church.

Do you know why? Because Satan wants to divide and destroy God's church. He wants to take God's people. He wants to scatter them to the four winds. He wants to destroy the church.

And the Bible says the gates of hell will not prevail against my church. Our nation is under attack. The evangelical church is under attack. But our Christian men and women, boys and girls are under attack. I don't believe I've ever seen it as much as I am these days. There is hardly a week that goes by that I'm not called to go and minister to some precious family somewhere in this community, facing all kinds of problems, marriages breaking down, gross immorality and adultery, people living exactly the way they want to live without any fear of any kind of discipline or standing up for the righteousness and the principles of Almighty God, children being disobedient to their parents, families splitting apart to the four quarters of the earth and people walking out on one another in unprecedented numbers.

It's got so bad that even if a town council dares to get up and challenge traditional family values, there are brought to bear upon that council an unprecedented warfare that comes from every corner of the vineyard. And I'm going to say to you, my friends, that our nation and our towns and our families and our churches and our institutions are under an enemy attack. I want you to read God's Word with me this morning.

Nehemiah chapter 6. When word came to Sanballat, Tobiah, Geshim, the Arab and the rest of our enemies that I had rebuilt the wall and not a gap was left in it, though up to that time I'd not set the doors in the gates, Sanballat and Geshim sent me this message. Come, let us meet together in one of the villages on the plain of Ono, but they were scheming to harm me. So I sent messengers to them with this reply. I'm carrying on a great project and cannot go down.

Why should the work stop while I leave it and go down to you? Four times they sent me the same message and each time I gave them the same answer. Then the fifth time Sanballat sent his aid to me with the same message.

In his hand was an unsealed letter in which was written. It is reported among all the nations and Geshim says it's true that you and the Jews are plotting to revolt and therefore you are building the wall. Moreover, according to these reports, you are about to become their king and have even appointed prophets to make this proclamation about you in Jerusalem.

There is a king in Judah. Now this report will get back to the king. So come, let us confer together.

I sent him this reply. Nothing like what you are saying is happening. You are just making it up out of your head. They were all trying to frighten us, thinking their hands will get too weak for the work and it will not be completed. But I prayed, now strengthen my hands. One day I went to the house of Shemaiah, son of Deliah, the son of Mehetable, who was shut in at home. He said, let us meet in the house of God inside the temple and let us close the temple doors because men are coming to kill you. By night they are coming to kill you. But I said, should a man like me run away or should one like me go into the temple to save his life?

I will not go. I realized that God had not sent him, but that he had prophesied against me because Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him. He had been hired to intimidate me so that I would commit a sin by doing this.

And then they would give me a bad name to discredit me. Remember Tobiah and Sanballat, oh my God, because of what they have done. Remember also the prophetess Noah Dyer and the rest of the prophets who have been trying to intimidate me.

So the wall was completed. On the 25th of Elul in 52 days, when all our enemies heard about this, all the surrounding nations were afraid and lost their self-confidence because they realized that this work had been done with the help of our God. Also, in those days, the nobles of Judah were sending many letters to Tobiah and replies from Tobiah kept coming from to them. For many in Judah were under oath to him, since he was the son-in-law to Shechemiah, the son of Arar, and his son, Johanan, had married the daughter of Meshelam, son of Berachiah. Moreover, they kept reporting to me his good deeds and then telling him what I said. And Tobiah sent letters to intimidate me.

May the Lord write his word upon our hearts this morning. A portrait of an enemy attack. 1 Peter 5, the Bible says, Be sober and be vigilant because the devil, as a roaring lion, is seeking whom he may devour. How can we identify an enemy attack? How do you know if the enemy, if Satan, is coming against you? How do you know if in your family that you're under a satanic attack? How do you know in a city that you're under a satanic attack? How do you know if our nation is under a satanic attack? How do you know if our church is under a satanic attack?

How do you know these things? Would you pray with me? Lord, I cannot preach this message because I know that Satan does not want anybody to dare get up and call him what he is. And so I invoke the power and the Spirit of God upon this place. I call upon the name of Jesus and I pray because of the blood of the Lamb that you would come upon not only this preacher in all of his weakness, but upon God's people, O God, not only in this place, but all across our nation. For the time has come that we mount up and we stand up and we understand, O God, that you alone are God.

In Jesus' name, amen. The first way in which you can know if it's an enemy attack, number one, the enemy has a track record. The enemy has a track record. Now, from this passage in Nehemiah chapter 6, it becomes apparent immediately that the enemy has a track record. If you want to know whether or not what is happening to you is something that is coming from the pit of hell, try and go back and trace the track record of the person involved or the things that are happening related to the issues that are involved.

You will nearly always find a track record. If a person is behaving in a certain way and they behaved in a certain way like that for years and years, it is almost of a certainty that we are under an enemy attack. Folks, listen to me, in your families, if you start feeling the crunch in your family or in your business or in the fabric of your lives, whatever it is, go back and check the track record to find out whether these things be of God.

The Bible says, test and try my spirit. You see, beloved friends, just as God and his ways have never changed, so it is that Satan and his ways have never changed. He still uses the same devices. He still does the same things. He still behaves in the same way. And guess what?

He's not going to change that either. The Bible says, Jesus Christ, yesterday, today and forever. The Bible teaches, my friends, Satan and his devices yesterday, today and forever, and we need to understand them. Number two, second way you can determine an enemy attack is that the enemy sneaks in the back door.

The enemy sneaks in the back door. Look at verse two. Sanballat and Geshem, right from the beginning of the book of Nehemiah, these men were always there. They were always trying to do what they were trying to do. They had a track record.

There was no doubt about it whatsoever. The proof was in the pudding. But I want you to notice how they tried to sneak in the back door. Sanballat and Geshem sent me this message.

Come, let us meet together in one of the villages on the plain of Ono. It's amazing the subtlety of the manner with which they sneaked in the back door. I'm going to say to you, friends, that the enemy sneaks in the back door. We better sit up and take note. We can get up and talk about tolerance. That's not the issue. We can get up and talk about, my, my, how terrible it is that our children will never ever see the Olympic flame come walking through the streets of Spartanburg. But that's not the issue. You see, my friends, we can talk about it and we can write about it, but we're not prepared to stand upon the Word of God and upon His principles, the principles of morality.

And I thank God for men and women who are prepared to take a stand. What does Jude 4 tell us? Jude 4 tells us that certain men have crept in unnoticed into the church. What does that word crept in mean?

It means they have slipped in secretly under cover. That's what the Word says. Matthew 7 says, be careful.

Why? Because wolves in sheep's clothing are going to be trying to devalue. They've crept into our denominations. They've crept into our education systems. They've crept into our newspapers and into the media. They've crept into the Congress and the White House.

They've crept into our state and local governments. They've crept in everywhere, and the result is destruction, according to God's Word. Please forgive the interruption, but as we think about the destruction that could be around us, you need to know we're here to pray with you against that destruction. We're here to encourage you. At the other end of 866-899-WORD anytime, day or night, that's 866-899-9673, and we have a resource that Dr. Don's going to tell you about that'll help launch your day of encouragement every day. You know, I'd love to be a part of your daily devotional. I'd love to be able to send you the Encouraging Word daily devotional and be a part of what God says to each one of us through His Word every day. You can become part of that and receive one yourself from me. Just go online to T-E-W online dot O-R-G. That's T-E-W online dot O-R-G, and get your copy of the Encouraging Word Bible devotion today.

Again, you can sign up online at T-E-W online dot O-R-G. We'll see you at the website. Now back to today's teaching with Dr. Don. People say, my, my, what's happening to America? Folks, we know what's happening to America. My, my, what happened to my church? We know what's happening to the church. My, my, what's happening to the family system and values in this country?

We know exactly what is happening to the family system in this country. Number three, the third way in which you can identify an enemy attack is that the enemy always diverts attention away from the main thing. Listen to me, people. We're not playing games. Listen to what the Word says. The enemy always diverts attention away from the main thing. Look at verse three.

So I sent messengers to them with this reply. I'm carrying on a great project and I cannot go down. Why should the work stop and I leave it? While Sanballat the sewer rat and Tobiah the tick bite are constantly wanting to draw blood, distract attention and take things away from the centrality of the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. Nehemiah said, I will not do it.

I will not stand for that. You want to know whether Satan is at work in your home? Ask yourself the question, is he diverting attention away from the real thing? Now, what's the real thing, Mom and Dad? You know what real thing is? It's love. You can give your children... Listen, you can give them anything under the sun, but if you don't give them love, you've given them nothing. You know how Satan is going to destroy your marriage? He's going to divert attention away from the real thing. He's going to diminish your love.

Practical, outgoing, demonstrable love. He's going to take it away from you. And when he takes it away from you, he's going to collapse your marriage. Folks in churches, Satan will divert attention away from the main thing. He will distract attention. He'll say, well, this is important.

The color of these carpets are important. Where the organ is important, where you hang a window, how many buses you've got, whether this budgets this or this budgets that. Who did this and how done that?

And why do this and how much that? And I want you to know he will do anything he possibly can in God's church to divert attention away from the real thing. The rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem was God's command.

And Nehemiah and these people said about it and Sanballat and Tobiah and Geshem, they just didn't want to do anything but to divert attention away from what God had called the people to do. Number four, the enemy persists in his attacks. The enemy persists in his attacks. Look at verse four and five, four times. They sent me the same message and each time I gave them the same answer. Can you believe? Look at verse five.

Then the fifth time Sanballat sent his aid with the same message. The enemy persists. He's not going to let you go. Listen, you can send a delegation to the enemy and the enemy is going to say, I'm not interested. You can stand on your head, friend.

You can do whatever you want to do. But the enemy is going to be absolutely relentless in trying to destroy your home and your nation and your education board and your philosophy and your church and everything that you've got. He's going to do everything he can and he's not going to give up. I don't know where we get it in God's word that we can get to a point that we can sit back and relax and say, hey, well, that's it. Satan's not going to worry me anymore.

No, sir. Let me guarantee you when he's finished worrying you in one place, he's going to start in another. And he's going to do it until he can get you. And he's going to do it until he breaks you down.

And it is only because of God that we're able to stand up. Number five, the enemy sends others to do his dirty work for him. Look at verse five. You want to identify the enemy?

Ask this question. Does the enemy recruit other people to do his work? The answer, yes. Look at verse five.

Then the fifth time, Sam Ballot sent his aid to me. You want to try and test the enemy's activities, my friend, ask this question. Is he a recruiter? Does he enlist others?

Does the enemy get allies? There's no doubt about it. You bring up a controversial issue in the community. And I will guarantee you, there will be people at that meeting you have never seen before. The guarantee.

I will guarantee you even in this great church, friends, I will guarantee you, if there is a controversial issue that comes up in this body of Christ, I will guarantee you some people will show up to church that you have never seen before. You know why? Because the enemy is a recruiter. That's what he does. You go to Congress today and see them working on the abortion issue. And you see a group of men who understand the horror of abortion, and they get together and they are about to legislate.

And they're in that conference room, look out across that conference room and see who's sitting there. Folks, some of the strangest people you've ever seen in your life, you know why the enemy knows who to go after. He knows who to recruit. He knows who the weaker brethren are.

Number six, the enemy is usually actively engaged in the work he is attacking. God wants to see the church purified. God wants to see society purified. God wants to see individual Christians purified. God wants to see the family purified. Now, what does the Bible say?

The Bible says the purest gold comes out of the hottest fire. That's an incredible thought. You see, as these things happen in your own life, always remember that what God is doing is He's just making you a whole lot purer. Perhaps God's been doing that in this time of teaching from the pulpit with Dr. Don Wilton, God's purifying each of us, but He also perhaps might be challenging us.

I pray that you'll open your heart to what Dr. Don wants to share next. Are you ready to give your heart and life to the Lord Jesus Christ? Why don't you pray this prayer with me right now? Dear God, I know that I'm a sinner, and I know that Jesus died for me on the cross. Today, I repent of my sin, and by faith, I receive you into my heart. In Jesus' name. My friend, I welcome you today into the family of God.

This is exciting news. If you've given your life to Christ or rededicated your life, Dr. Don has resources we want to put in your hands for free if you'll call us right now at 866-899-WORD. That's 866-899-9673. Not just now, but 24 hours a day. 866-899-9673. Or online at tewonline.org. That's T-E-W online dot O-R-G.