The Serpent Strikes Back Part 2

Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. After Adam and Eve disobeyed God, Satan turned his focus on stopping the future birth and death of Christ. The earth became a battlefield with humanity as Satan's victims.

Sin's tragic consequences were only beginning to emerge. From the Moody Church in Chicago, this is Running to Win with Dr. Erwin Lutzer, whose clear teaching helps us make it across the finish line. Pastor Lutzer, today you'll conclude another message on God's devil, and you'll talk about the evidence of Satan's activity all around us. Well, you know, Dave, and I have to emphasize the fact that there are times when the devil is very active and we don't even recognize it. That's why the Apostle Paul tells us that we have to put on the whole armor of God. I've written a book entitled God's Devil.

Now, you might be a bit surprised at the subtitle. It's subtitled The Incredible Story of How Satan's Rebellion Serves God's Purposes. One of the things I emphasize in this book is the fact that moment by moment, the devil is subject to whatever God permits. You know, the average person thinks that the devil, who's the god of this world, kind of is out there doing his own thing and God is saying, well, you know, he is the god of this world. My friend, the devil is under God's control. God doesn't do evil, but he limits what the devil can do. I wrote this book to encourage people, to encourage all of us to believe God and to trust him. For example, some of the chapters have to do with the serpent in our garden, the serpent's new religion. He certainly uses that. Also, the serpent is crushed. And then closing the door when the serpent knocks. Just a couple of the chapter titles of this book. God's Devil.

For a gift of any amount, it can be yours. Here's what you do. Go to RTWOffer.com.

RTWOffer.com. And when you're there, thank you so much for your support of this ministry. Or you can call us at 1-888-218-9337. And now we go to the pulpit of Moody Church to learn more about our enemy and how we can defeat him.

We look at our own society today, filled with violence and filled with immorality and impurity. Sometimes I call people on the phone just to see how they're doing. No special agenda.

I did that this last week. I phoned a family connected with Moody Church and heard something that made me so angry. So angry.

Unbelievable. Two, two lovely young girls molested by a grandfather, as they learned about a week ago. And then one of these young ladies, also worse than molestation really, with some neighbor, I'm not sure exactly of all of the details. And I say to myself, where does all this perversion come from? How many are there out there that are molesting children that are doing those despicable things? And listen, you know what that means? That means that there are people who are listening to me today who are molesting children, doing things that are despicable.

And if you fit into that category today, let me tell you, stop it. Stop it in the name of Christ because you are doing the devil's work. And by the way, some of you mothers, you have husbands that are molesting your children and ruining their lives and you are pretending that you do not know because you don't want to face the consequences of what would happen if that man were found out. Could I simply tell you today that go for help and blow his cover.

Blow his cover. Deal with it. We look at movies today, the impurity of mind and heart and spirit, the pollution of soul. Young people watching movies, all of this foolishness and all of the sensuality and the violence and the occultism. It takes hours and hours of reading the scripture simply to purify the mind to get all of the pollution out of the minds of the hearts of even Christians today. Satan says, first of all, I want to destroy them by killing them. I can't kill them. I'll corrupt them. I will separate their souls from God.

Now listen to me very carefully. If you are involved in sexual immorality of any form, whether it is pornography, whether it is some form of perversion, I want you to know today that you need to go for help because the iniquity, the iniquity that we face even within the church today grieves God. God says, I'm sorry that I have made men. That was Satan's strike. Now, there are other ways that Satan tried to blot out the seed, the good seed. Turn to 2 Kings 11 verse 1 for just a moment. 2 Kings 11 verse 1, we find that Satan has a woman on the throne who is going to do the devil's work. And notice it says, 2 Kings chapter 11 verse 1, when Athaliah, the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, she arose and destroyed all of the royal offspring. We don't have time to go into the text in detail, but I just want you to know that if she had destroyed all of the royal offspring, the promises that God made that Jesus Christ would be born through Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob through the line of David would have not been fulfilled because she was going to kill everybody who was of the royal seed. Well, would you believe that there was one who was spared and his name was Joash. Somebody hid little Joash and then he didn't fall under this woman's edict to destroy the royal seed.

Athaliah, by the way, was involved in Baal worship. You also get the corruption of religion, which we don't even have time to get into, the corruption of worship along with the immorality and violence and pride and greed and you have all of that pouring into the life of Israel as God preserves the seed, but as Satan attempts to destroy it. So once again, Satan thought, I've won. The promises of God are going to be nullified.

No, you didn't win. Joash was spared. We don't have time this morning, but let me just jog your pure mind by way of remembrance. Jesus comes on the scene and what happens? He's there, born in Bethlehem, and Herod says, you know, to the wise men, why don't you go find out about him because I'd really like to come and worship him. Oh, yes, of course you'd like to come and worship him, wouldn't you? Well, it turns out that Herod really doesn't want to worship Jesus Christ.

After all, he's not interested. He wants to kill Christ and then they flee to Egypt and what happens in fleeing to Egypt? Herod then has all of the boys, the children who are two years of age and younger killed in all of the environs of Bethlehem, hoping that he will be able to in that way by casting a large net kill Christ. But Christ has escaped and he doesn't know it. So Satan says to himself, I can't kill him.

I'm going to try to corrupt him. So you have those temptations and he takes Jesus Christ to a high mountain and he says, if you worship me, he says, I will give you all of the kingdoms of the earth. Now scholars are divided on whether or not Satan had a right to say that to Christ or not. Well, Christ didn't rebuke him. He didn't say, you have no right to talk to me like that. Remember, he is the prince of the power of the air.

He has much more right than you and I might realize. But he said, Jesus, if you worship me, I'll give you all the kingdoms of the earth. And Jesus said, no, I won't bow down to worship you.

Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God only and him only shalt thou serve. Satan said, I can't corrupt him that way. Maybe if he won't listen to me, maybe he will listen to his special disciple.

Of course he won't listen to me, but if I can get his disciple to say the same thing that I'm saying, maybe that'll work. And so he inspires Peter. And one day when Jesus said to the disciples, I want to go to Jerusalem and there I'm going to die, what did Peter say?

Far be it from thee. In fact, it says that Peter took him aside and rebuked him saying, master, don't do it. Same thing that the devil had told him on the mount of temptation. And then Jesus had to say to Peter, Peter, Satan, get thee behind me. Thou speakest not the things that be of God, but the things that be of men.

We come to Gethsemane. Here is Jesus in agony. Satan now is in a bind. He doesn't know what to do. Should he support the death of Christ on the cross?

That was a question. Should he inspire these evil people to put Christ on the cross? Because surely he knew that the death of Jesus Christ was going to be his own death knell. And by the way, the message that I preach next week, God willing, is going to be one of the most important in this series as I talk about the death of Christ and how the triumph of the cross ended every possible right to Satan's career and the victory that Jesus accomplished. Should he inspire them or should he pull back the glee of seeing Jesus on the cross, even if it is for a few hours was so great. Satan was in a muddle. There was ambivalent madness. He wanted to kill Christ before the cross.

He couldn't do that. And now should he support the killing of Jesus Christ. And so you have Jesus dying on the cross and what happens? Satan for a brief moment is glad, but he knows that it's going to be very brief because three days later Jesus Christ is raised from the dead and later on he is taken into heaven as king of kings and lord of lords as God of very God and Satan was defeated again. How can I wrap this up for you?

Just a couple of observations, a couple of lessons very quickly. Number one, Satan always strikes at the people of God. He always strikes at God's people. He does not bother with those who are into paganism.

They are his. He always opposes the people of God. In the Old Testament it was Israel. In the New Testament it is the church because he is opposed to God and to his people and it is in this day and age it is you and it is me. Let's look at the history of the church for a moment. First three centuries, kill them. You have all of those persecutions that took place in Rome and thousands and thousands of believers were put to death in fire and thrown to wild beasts. He couldn't do it that way. Tertullian said that the blood of the martyrs was the seed of the church. Wherever he killed them there were more of them.

So he decided that he would take a different tact. I can't kill them. I'll corrupt them.

After the time of Constantine you have of course the Europe becoming quote Christianized and you have all of the pagan practices that the Romans had been practicing were all now brought into the church and somehow made to fit with Christianity. You try to kill them and then you try to corrupt them. But what about you and me? Is he after us?

Oh you'd better believe it. You say well Pastor Luther I have not known a single satanic suggestion or attack in my life. If that's what you're saying as a believer all that I can say is that Satan's plan for you has worked perfectly, perfectly because you are asleep. You are asleep. A number of years ago I had a biopsy, not an autopsy but a biopsy. And I was in the hospital and they had to put me to sleep. It was the first time that I had ever been put to sleep and the anesthesiologist, what a word, I had to practice it last night, she said I'm not supposed to work today but she said I saw your name on the list and she said I've often heard you preach over the radio and she said I wanted to be the one to be here today to put you to sleep. And I thought to myself I sure hope to God she loves my preaching. But you know during those hours when I was asleep I was not involved in the battle.

Anything could have happened and it was okay by me because I had been anesthetized. That's what Satan does. He hates you. He has made meticulous plans for your downfall. Spirits have observed you. They know your weakness. They know your secret sins that they hope to exploit and to hold against you someday.

They know what they can do to use good sweet bait to ruin you. And now you're saying you have never been affected. You have been. You have been.

I have been. I know satanic attack and so do you. He always goes for the people of God. That's number one. Number two, all of his victories are sham. All of his victories are illusionary.

You say well that's not true. Look at all the victories. Look at the smashed marriages. Look at the immorality that destroys families, his attack against the family.

Look at the perversions of the day that multiply around us so that you can't even take your child to some neighbors to have them babysit the child without wondering whether or not the children are going to be safe. Yes, but what you need to understand is that the more victories he wins, the greater his condemnation shall be. I want to tell you today that Satan's defeat is as inevitable as the spirits that have been confined in Tartarus who are awaiting the lake of fire. That's how inevitable his destruction really is.

Always remember that. You know, Pyrrhus won a victory against Rome and the victory ended with Pyrrhus having so many casualties. It almost destroyed his army that he is the one I believe who said later at a time, he said if we have any more victories like this we shall be destroyed. That can be said of Satan.

If he has any more victories, he is going to be only more surely and more completely destroyed. And finally, finally, let us remember that it is our responsibility to resist him. The Bible says, whom resist in the faith. Resist, resist, resist. Some of you who feel overwhelmed because of your obsessions, because of your addictions, because of the demonic struggles that you are in, there is hope for you.

There is something that you can do. You can go for help to other believers and to Christ and you can resist him in the faith. Your defeat is not inevitable. Let me tell you one of the most important steps to spiritual victory is when we get to the point in our lives where we actually believe that change is possible. If you feel that you're locked in, that you've struggled with this so long that your defeat is inevitable, it will be inevitable.

I'm told that when there are bull moose, I guess the plural of moose is moose, when there are bull moose in the wild and they are fighting for the herd. After the fight, one is victorious and the other loses. The loser never challenges the victor again. That's what Satan wants. I want to defeat you and defeat you and defeat you and defeat you and now that you are defeated, don't you not ever challenge me again. But we can challenge him because Christ, as we shall learn next week, crushed the head of the serpent and said, now is the judgment of this world and now shall the prince of this world be cast out. We can challenge Satan again.

We can resist him. Remember that story of the man who painted, an excellent chess player painted a huge chess game between Satan and a young man. And the whole idea was that if Satan were to win, that young man would have to be the servant of Satan and be in hell forever. If the young man were to win the game of chess, Satan would have to serve the young man. Well, I'm told that this painting which hangs in one of the galleries here in the United States, but I will not mention the city because I did one time and we received letters from our listening audience trying to work things out regarding the painting, but I'm told that the painter painted it in such a way that the devil had just moved his queen and declared checkmate in four moves.

The young man's face was ashen and pale. Chess players from all over the world came to look at the painting and agreed that the devil had won, but there was Paul Morphy who came, chess player who looked and looked and looked and in his mind moved this piece and that piece and that piece standing in front of the picture for 15 minutes and then a half an hour and finally shouting, young man, there is a move that you can make. There's a move that you can make.

Something had been overlooked. There's a move you can make. Satan says, I've got Cain. He is going to kill Abel. Seth arrives. I'm going to destroy civilization through perversion and iniquity. But Noah finds grace in the eyes of the Lord. I'm going to destroy the seed royal.

Sure enough, they're all destroyed aren't they? Somebody hid Joash and on and on it goes. I'm going to kill Christ, but he escapes to Egypt and I'm going to see to it that he won't go to the cross, but he does go to the cross and then he is resurrected. I want you to know today that no matter who you are, no matter what level of spiritual growth and struggle you are at, there is a move that you can make.

One of the moves that you can make even is to come for special prayer. Let someone else bear your burden because if there's anything that Satan cannot stand, it is light. As long as you are secretly battling, that is the realm of the devil. But once it is exposed to someone who helps you bear that burden, there is light and with light there comes life because Jesus won a victory and now invites us to participate with him in it. Our responsibility is to resist him steadfastly in the faith knowing that we, we in Christ if we're willing to expose and come to the truth are the victors and let us pray. Our Father we want to thank you today for Christ. Thank you for all of the grace that he gives to us so freely and we pray today Lord for those who struggle.

Bring openness and honesty and truths to bear for we are in need of it. We thank you that when the serpent strikes that Jesus has been there to crush his head. And now before we sing together I want you to pray. You talk to God whatever it is that you need to talk to him about. Some of you may not know Christ as Savior. You've come to church and you didn't know that today was the day that you would believe on Christ. And Christian what burden is there that you need to bring to God? Father hear our prayer. Come to cleanse us. Come to cause Satan to flee because we live righteous lives. In Jesus' name we ask. Amen.

Well my friend this is Pastor Lutzer and I have a burden for the Church of Jesus Christ today. Sometimes Satan is underestimated. We act as if he doesn't exist. There are other times of course when it's very easy for us to overestimate his role in the world.

What we must do is to look to the Bible. And in the book entitled God's Devil I point out what his strategy is. It's a strategy of deception. He never loses sight of his long term goal.

He knows exactly who his prospects are. It's entirely possible that demonic spirits watch us. They know our weaknesses. And when we are vulnerable they strike.

I point out that they keep as many promises as they possibly can so that we begin to invest in their ways and think that we are benefitting when in point of fact we are going to be the losers. It's important for us to understand the enemy. That's why I've written a book entitled God's Devil. The incredible story of how Satan's rebellion serves God's purposes.

One of the chapters has ten different doorways that Satan uses to gain a foothold in our lives. For a gift of any amount this book can be yours. Here's what you do. Go to rtwoffer.com. And I want to say a word to those of you who support this ministry. Thank you so much for helping us. And as I mentioned for a gift of any amount you can also call us at 1-888-218-9337. Ask for the book God's Devil. Let me give you that info again. rtwoffer.com.

Or if you prefer call us at 1-888-218-9337. Together we are working to expose the work of the devil to expose the darkness that we might shine the light of Christ into a very confused and dark world. You can write to us at Running to Win, 1635 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois 60614. Running to Win is all about helping you understand God's road map for your race of life. The cross of Christ is the centerpiece of the human story. That's where Jesus atoned for sin and defeated Satan, our mortal enemy. Next time on Running to Win, we'll see Satan, the serpent's doom made certain by the sacrifice of a suffering savior. The Bible's words for this tell us that Jesus came to crush the serpent's head. For Dr. Erwin Lutzer, this is Dave McAllister. Running to Win is sponsored by the Moody Church.