SPEAKER_00: You know, I think we've all seen movies or examples of someone getting pickpocketed.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe on a train or on a bus or at a store.
SPEAKER_00: And you might notice that the strategy of the thief is not necessarily to sneak up behind you and quietly reach into your pocket.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes they do the exact opposite of that.
SPEAKER_00: They'll bump into you, they will spill something on you.
SPEAKER_00: They might ask you a question, or they might have a friend cause a commotion while they take your wallet.
SPEAKER_00: And the reason that works is simple because you're paying attention to the wrong thing.
SPEAKER_00: You're worried about the drink that was spilled on you or the commotion that's going on while someone else is walking away with your wallet.
SPEAKER_00: And I think there's an important lesson in that.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes the greatest dangers in our lives isn't the things that we see coming, it's the things that are happening while we're looking at something else or somewhere else.
SPEAKER_00: And that's especially true when it comes to our spiritual enemy.
SPEAKER_00: Most of us probably aren't walking around expecting to encounter some dramatic manifestation of Satan like we see here in our passage this morning.
SPEAKER_00: But that doesn't mean he isn't creeping and luring all around us, seeking to attack or even oppress us.
SPEAKER_00: Well, again, in our passage this morning, we do have a dramatic manifestation of Satan and the demonic.
SPEAKER_00: It's another showdown between the power of Christ and the power of Satan.
SPEAKER_00: It's a battle between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of darkness.
SPEAKER_00: The message of the passage that we just read is not very hard to see.
SPEAKER_00: It's that God's kingdom has come through the person and work of Jesus Christ, and his demonstration of power proves that his kingdom is more powerful than the devil's.
SPEAKER_00: But I do think that the passage gives us some interesting insight into Satan and his devices.
SPEAKER_00: You know, whenever we think of Satan, we are prone to think of this cartoonish red figure with horns and a pitchfork.
SPEAKER_00: But we have to remember that Satan is a spiritual being, a spirit being.
SPEAKER_00: And though he manifests himself in various forms, like oppression, like we see in our passage, he often does much of his attacks through influence.
SPEAKER_00: He especially uses those who are already under his control, or those who are already opposed to the things of God, just like we have with those people who are opposed to Christ in our passage.
SPEAKER_00: As we read about this marvelous display of the power of God over the power of Satan, we are given insight into who the devil is and how the devil likes to attack.
SPEAKER_00: The Puritan John Flavil says, Watchful and suspicious ought we to be in spiritual concerns.
SPEAKER_00: We should study and be acquainted with Satan's wiles and policies.
SPEAKER_00: I titled this sermon, Satan and His Tactics, because I believe we can learn a few things from our passage about the devil and some of his tactics that he likes to use on Christians, particularly those who are in the church.
SPEAKER_00: I've broken down this sermon into two parts.
SPEAKER_00: This morning we're going to look at part one, and the next week we're going to look at part two.
SPEAKER_00: So as we look at this passage together once more, I want us to note the following ways the devil would oppose Christ and his church.
SPEAKER_00: And they are these.
SPEAKER_00: Number one, by trying to shut our mouths.
SPEAKER_00: Number two, by blinding us to God's work.
SPEAKER_00: Number three, by twisting the truth, and number four, by trying to keep us from the kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: Let's look at that first one by trying to shut our mouths.
SPEAKER_00: That is one way the devil would like to work against us.
SPEAKER_00: In verse 14, we read, now he was casting out a demon that was mute.
SPEAKER_00: When the demon had gone out, the mute spoke, and the people marveled.
SPEAKER_00: So here we find Jesus doing something that we find him doing in the scriptures often during his ministry, exercising his power over the demonic and freeing people from the oppression of the devil.
SPEAKER_00: We are told of this man who had a demon that made him mute.
SPEAKER_00: According to Matthew, it also made him blind.
SPEAKER_00: This is no ordinary demonic influence.
SPEAKER_00: This is a total possession.
SPEAKER_00: This is fierce oppression that crippled a man's abilities to perform daily functions and activities.
SPEAKER_00: This type of possession and oppression is rarely seen.
SPEAKER_00: This demon was viciously attacking this man and hindering his ability to speak.
SPEAKER_00: We don't know how long it's been going on, but we do know that the people who were around knew about it, as we are told that after Jesus healed them, they marveled.
SPEAKER_00: They must have heard him speak after knowing that this man couldn't speak.
SPEAKER_00: They knew how the demon had shut up his mouth and hindered his ability to say anything for years.
SPEAKER_00: Now, we all know that we can use our words or our mouth to say good things and bad things, to do good and evil.
SPEAKER_00: There are some or many who the devil is pleased to have speak, because when they speak, they use their speech for gossip and slander and cursing.
SPEAKER_00: They use their words to divide and to destroy and to harm others.
SPEAKER_00: The devil was happy when some opened their mouths.
SPEAKER_00: However, the Christian knows that our mouths and our tongues serve another purpose.
SPEAKER_00: As James 3 10 tells us, from the same mouth come blessing and cursing.
SPEAKER_00: My brother, those things ought not be so.
SPEAKER_00: We know, the Christian knows that we are to use our words to bless, not to curse.
SPEAKER_00: But here's the thing: the devil knows that also.
SPEAKER_00: And though he cannot possess a Christian the way he does this man in our passage, he could influence the way we talk or the way we use our words or the way we don't talk or use our words.
SPEAKER_00: You've heard the saying, if you don't have anything good to say, don't say anything at all.
SPEAKER_00: Well, for the devil, it is the opposite of that.
SPEAKER_00: If you don't have anything bad to say, he'd rather you not say anything at all.
SPEAKER_00: If the devil can't influence us into cursing, his next best strategy would be to hinder us and to hinder us from blessing, to keep us from blessing others.
SPEAKER_00: You know, one thing that we often overlook when we read the Bible is how wonderful the authors of the gospels weave their stories together.
SPEAKER_00: For all we know, this event that we're reading this morning didn't happen immediately after Jesus' teaching on prayer.
SPEAKER_00: However, you will note that Luke strategically puts this event right after the Lord's Prayer.
SPEAKER_00: He seems to be teaching us something by placing the story here.
SPEAKER_00: Perhaps he's trying to teach us about the contrast, or he's trying to get us to see the contrast between the coming of the kingdom that we prayed for in the Lord's Prayer and Satan's opposition to it.
SPEAKER_00: Remember, in the Lord's Prayer, we pray, Father, let your kingdom come, thy kingdom come.
SPEAKER_00: And the devil would like nothing more than to shut our mouths from that prayer or to keep us from praying that or any of our prayers.
SPEAKER_00: It's one of his strategies to oppose God's people from praying and from speaking to God and from calling out to God and from blessing God.
SPEAKER_00: He knows that we use our, you we often as Christians use our mouths to praise, to pray, and to bless the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: We read in Psalm 34.1, I will bless the Lord at all times.
SPEAKER_00: His praise shall continually be in my mouth.
SPEAKER_00: In Psalm 51, 15, we are told, O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise.
SPEAKER_00: This is what the Christian uses their mouth for.
SPEAKER_00: We also use our mouth to bless others, as we see in Romans 12, 14.
SPEAKER_00: Bless those who persecute you, bless and do not curse them.
SPEAKER_00: We also use our mouths to encourage others, as we see in Ephesians 4.29.
SPEAKER_00: Let no corrupt talking come out of your mouths, but only such which is good for building up as fits the occasion that it may give grace to those who hear.
SPEAKER_00: We also use our mouths to share the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: Romans 10.14.
SPEAKER_00: How then will they call upon the Lord whom have they not believed?
SPEAKER_00: And how are they to believe in him who they have never seen?
SPEAKER_00: How are they to hear without someone preaching to them?
SPEAKER_00: And of course we use our mouths to call on Jesus at salvation, as Romans 10 13 tells us, for everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.
SPEAKER_00: So now you see why.
SPEAKER_00: One of the devil's strategies is to make us like this man who was mute.
SPEAKER_00: He would like nothing better than to shut the mouth of a Christian.
SPEAKER_00: His tactics against this man was to make him unable to speak.
SPEAKER_00: His tactic against us is to make us unwilling to speak.
SPEAKER_00: To discourage us, to condemn us, to frighten us, to make us so cold to the things of the Lord, we would have no desire to open up our mouths.
SPEAKER_00: That's what you will find in a Christian who does none of these things.
SPEAKER_00: When you see a Christian who doesn't open their mouth to praise the Lord, to pray, to share the gospel, to bless someone, to never speak about the good things of God.
SPEAKER_00: And that is a Christian whose heart has grown cold to the things of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: So how do we fight against this tactic?
SPEAKER_00: What can we do when the devil tries to shut us up?
SPEAKER_00: Well, you remember Christ said, out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.
SPEAKER_00: Well, our praising and our blessing and our sharing of the gospel usually springs from a desire's heart, from a heart that desires these things, a heart that desires to praise his name, a heart that loves people and wants to see them come to Christ, wants to bless them, not curse them.
SPEAKER_00: In many ways, Satan's battle for our words starts with a battle for our hearts.
SPEAKER_00: Don't let them have it.
SPEAKER_00: Don't let him lure you into giving over to your fleshly passions.
SPEAKER_00: Grow your heart for the things of God.
SPEAKER_00: When a man or woman's heart is burning for the things of the Lord, no one, not even the devil, will be able to shut them up.
SPEAKER_00: Because they can't help but speak about the goodness of God, about what God is doing in their lives, in their hearts, their families, their communities, and their church.
SPEAKER_00: That's one way, one strategy that we see in our passage is the devil would like to shut up the mouths of the unbelievable, of the Christian.
SPEAKER_00: Next, he would like to blind us, blind us from God's word.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 15.
SPEAKER_00: But some of them said, He cast out demons by Belzebule, the prince of demons, while others to test him kept seeking from him a sign from heaven.
SPEAKER_00: Now Luke doesn't tell us this, but Matthew and Mark, in their portrayal of this same instance, mentioned that those who accused Jesus falsely were the scribes and the Pharisees.
SPEAKER_00: You know about these.
SPEAKER_00: If you've read your Bible, you know about these two groups, two Jewish groups who were always opposing Christ and his ministry.
SPEAKER_00: And after witnessing Jesus demonstrate this power, the power of God, by casting out this demon, they try to discredit him.
SPEAKER_00: They accuse him of casting out demons by the power of Belzebule, the prince of demons.
SPEAKER_00: We encounter that name Belzebub in the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_00: There he is mentioned as the God of Ekron.
SPEAKER_00: However, by this time in history, the name, that name took on a different form, and it came to be known more than just the Philistine god Ekron.
SPEAKER_00: As we see in this passage, this name, Belzebule, is associated with the prince of demons, which would be Satan.
SPEAKER_00: He is the prince of demons.
SPEAKER_00: The deniers in the crowd didn't believe that Jesus was operating under the power of God.
SPEAKER_00: Rather, they believed that he was operating under the power of Satan.
SPEAKER_00: To test him, they asked him to perform a sign from heaven.
SPEAKER_00: Apparently, the exorcism of the demoniac wasn't enough to convince them they wanted to see more.
SPEAKER_00: What they expected to see, we don't know, but we do know whatever Jesus did wasn't enough for them.
SPEAKER_00: Their hearts were so cold, they couldn't see what was there.
SPEAKER_00: They were so blinded by their hatred of Christ and the work that he was doing, they couldn't see the power of God that was so obvious and obviously being displayed right before them.
SPEAKER_00: Some of the detractors manifested their blindness by being antagonistic.
SPEAKER_00: They spoke out and claimed what he was doing wasn't from God, and they were accusing him falsely.
SPEAKER_00: Others were skeptics who wanted proof that what he was doing was really from God.
SPEAKER_00: They asked for a sign to prove it was really God's work.
SPEAKER_00: The evidence wasn't enough.
SPEAKER_00: When it should have been, the evidence was there, the healing was obvious, they just couldn't see it.
SPEAKER_00: You know, one of the devil's tactics against the Christian is to blind us to seeing God's work.
SPEAKER_00: I know that this wasn't the devil who was the one accusing Jesus, but surely the devil was at work here.
SPEAKER_00: Surely the devil was influencing these trusts, these scribes and Pharisees, as we are told when Judas betrayed Jesus that Satan entered in him.
SPEAKER_00: And Satan will use these same tactics to try and blind us to seeing God at work, at work in our lives, at work in our marriage, at work in our family, at work in our church.
SPEAKER_00: And when Jesus was accused of breaking the Sabbath, he said, My Father is working until now and I am always working.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, God's work never stops.
SPEAKER_00: He's doing things that we can't see.
SPEAKER_00: He's working in ways that we can't see.
SPEAKER_00: And the danger is not so much that we can't see it, the danger is when we refuse to see it, like these people in the passage.
SPEAKER_00: It's when we're like these men who whose hearts are so shut to seeing God and to seeing the work of God and to seeing that there's anything going on.
SPEAKER_00: And just like Satan did with these people, he will try to make us antagonistic and he'll make us skeptics to what God is doing.
SPEAKER_00: Antagonism is a feeling of dislike, it's a feeling of opposition.
SPEAKER_00: And some Christians can find themselves here.
SPEAKER_00: This all this sometimes happens when a Christian, to a Christian, when things don't turn out how we wanted them to.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe we prayed for an outcome that didn't turn out the way we expected, so we start to become bitter at God.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, we might not openly curse God like these men in our passage, like the Pharisees and scribes, but our hearts can can harbor some sort of resentment towards God when we become bitter Christians.
SPEAKER_00: And Satan doesn't mind that.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, he works towards that.
SPEAKER_00: If he can't keep us from becoming a Christian, then he'll try and make us miserable ones.
SPEAKER_00: He'll try and make us angry at God and and bitter and harbor some resentment towards him.
SPEAKER_00: This is we have to remind ourselves that just because we cannot see God or we don't even understand what God is doing, doesn't mean he's not doing anything.
SPEAKER_00: That scripture reminds us that he often works in ways that we never saw coming.
SPEAKER_00: I think the cross is the clearest example of that.
SPEAKER_00: Do you think that the Jews and those who were waiting for the Messiah expected him to come and save them by or through a nailed bloody cross or by him being nailed to a bloody cross?
SPEAKER_00: Many of them were and still are to this day blind to that.
SPEAKER_00: Likewise, the devil is out to blind us to God's work.
SPEAKER_00: Because if he can do so, if he can blind us, then he can turn those difficulties difficulties that we face into his favor.
SPEAKER_00: He can turn our trials into bitterness and our sufferings into anger.
SPEAKER_00: In our first point, it was a battle for the heart.
SPEAKER_00: Here, this is often a battle for our minds.
SPEAKER_00: What is it that you believe about God?
SPEAKER_00: What is the when you think of who God is, who do you think he is?
SPEAKER_00: Do you believe what the scriptures tell you that he is for you?
SPEAKER_00: Or are you buying into the devil's narrative that he is doing nothing for you?
SPEAKER_00: Where are your circumstances leading you?
SPEAKER_00: Don't allow them to lead you into a dark and bitter place.
SPEAKER_00: Trust that though you might not see God working, he always is working.
SPEAKER_00: 2 Corinthians 4.18 says, as we look not to things that are seen, but to things that are unseen, for the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.
SPEAKER_00: The other issue that the people were dealing with was skepticism.
SPEAKER_00: They didn't believe.
SPEAKER_00: And this is another tactic of the enemy for us to get us to deny his work, to get us asking for more evidence to believe.
SPEAKER_00: You know, you often hear unbelievers say, I need evidence to believe in God.
SPEAKER_00: Where's the evidence?
SPEAKER_00: If you show me evidence that God exists, then I would believe in him.
SPEAKER_00: But it's not a lack of evidence that keeps people away from believing.
SPEAKER_00: It's a heart of stone, it's eyes that are blind, it's a love for the darkness rather than light.
SPEAKER_00: But what about the Christian?
SPEAKER_00: How can we Christians be in danger of becoming skeptics to God's word?
SPEAKER_00: Well, here's one way: by demanding to see more in order to press in or to serve him.
SPEAKER_00: By saying, God, if you do this for me, I'll do this for you.
SPEAKER_00: By trying to go negotiate with God.
SPEAKER_00: By saying, God, if I see you answer this prayer, then I'm going to start serving you a little deeper.
SPEAKER_00: Or by not being satisfied when the work that he is doing is not enough, and always being discontent with what he has given us.
SPEAKER_00: In Abakuch 1, verse 5, we read this look among the nations and see, wander and be astounded.
SPEAKER_00: For I am doing a work in your days that you would not believe it if I told.
SPEAKER_00: Now, if I just kind of read that out of its context, it would sound like maybe a prosperity gospel message, like God is doing these great things and look what he's doing.
SPEAKER_00: But in his context, it's interesting where we find this verse, Habakkuk 1.5.
SPEAKER_00: God tells Habakkuk that he is doing something that his people would hardly believe, even if he told them.
SPEAKER_00: What's going on here?
SPEAKER_00: Well, at the moment, he was raising up Babylon as an instrument of judgment against his people, the Israelites.
SPEAKER_00: It was going to be painful for them.
SPEAKER_00: It was going to be difficult for them.
SPEAKER_00: But God was saying, I am doing wondrous and astounding things.
SPEAKER_00: I am doing a work.
SPEAKER_00: And if I told you I'm working through this, you're not going to believe it.
SPEAKER_00: You wouldn't believe that, yeah, Babylon is coming for you.
SPEAKER_00: And they're going to take away, take you away from your homes and your land.
SPEAKER_00: But that's me at work.
SPEAKER_00: It's going to be hard for you to believe, but believe it.
SPEAKER_00: That's me at work.
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes God works in the same way.
SPEAKER_00: Through that trial, through that difficulty.
SPEAKER_00: God's saying that that's me at work.
SPEAKER_00: It's going to be hard for you to believe it.
SPEAKER_00: It's going to be hard for you to understand that through your sorrow and your pain, I'm working.
SPEAKER_00: But trust me, that's me at work.
SPEAKER_00: God's work doesn't always look like we expect it to look like.
SPEAKER_00: After World War II, a young Dutch soldier named Andrew van Derbitch, later known as Brother Andrew, was serving in Indonesia when he was shot in the ankle.
SPEAKER_00: The injury ended his military service and it left him recovering for a while in the hospital.
SPEAKER_00: And during that time, he was so disappointed and thought that he would no longer be useful.
SPEAKER_00: But during that season of recovery, he began to pick up a Bible and read the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: And he started taking the Bible seriously.
SPEAKER_00: Years later, Brother Andrew would become known around the world for carrying Bibles behind the Iron Curtain to Christians under communist persecution.
SPEAKER_00: That young soldier lying wounded in a hospital could not see where his life was headed.
SPEAKER_00: But his inability to see what God was doing did not mean that God wasn't doing anything.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes we only recognize the providence of God when we look back after we see He carried us along the way.
SPEAKER_00: And see how He was working through circumstances that we would have never chosen and we would have never asked for.
SPEAKER_00: This is often a battle for our.
SPEAKER_00: Faith.
SPEAKER_00: A battle for our faith in him.
SPEAKER_00: Do we believe that God works in ways that are not our own?
SPEAKER_00: Do we trust that he's working when we don't see it?
SPEAKER_00: Are we overlooking it?
SPEAKER_00: Or while all the while while looking at something else?
SPEAKER_00: God is always working.
SPEAKER_00: Don't let the devil get you to believe that he isn't.
SPEAKER_00: Don't discredit his work just because it isn't happening exactly how you want it or because you can't see it clearly at the moment.
SPEAKER_00: Don't let your heart grow cold like these men in the scripture in our passage this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Don't allow the devil to blind you from seeing the work of God that he is truly doing.
SPEAKER_00: Because he's always working, even in the most unlikely ways and in the most unlikely of places.
SPEAKER_00: Let us go on.
SPEAKER_00: Next, another tactic that he uses is twisting the truth.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 17.
SPEAKER_00: But he, knowing their thoughts, said to them, Every kingdom divided against itself is laid to waste, and a divided household falls.
SPEAKER_00: And if Satan also is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand?
SPEAKER_00: For you say that I cast out demons by Belzebule, and if I cast out demons by Belzebub, by whom do your sons cast them out?
SPEAKER_00: Therefore they will be your judges.
SPEAKER_00: It seems like those who opposed Christ weren't even vocalizing their opposition to him.
SPEAKER_00: Instead, they were speaking among themselves and thinking these thoughts, these things in their own in their own minds.
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus knew their thoughts, and he knew what they were thinking.
SPEAKER_00: So he tells them this short proverb or general principle every kingdom divided against itself is laid to waste, and a divided household falls.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, a kingdom or a house or a home must be united for it to stand.
SPEAKER_00: When and if it is divided, then it will fall.
SPEAKER_00: So he asks, if Satan is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand?
SPEAKER_00: It's a rhetorical question.
SPEAKER_00: The answer is it won't.
SPEAKER_00: So why would Satan be working against himself?
SPEAKER_00: If Satan's work is to oppress this man and to shut up his mouth, why would he heal him?
SPEAKER_00: So then Jesus tries to bring them to their senses by asking, if I'm casting out demons by the power of Beelzebub, then whose power are your sons using?
SPEAKER_00: Now exorcisms weren't strictly unique to the ministry of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: There were some religious leaders in the Jewish community at the time who were also performing them.
SPEAKER_00: And when they were successful at casting out a demon, it was always attributed to the power of God.
SPEAKER_00: So why not here?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is saying, why do you attribute the works of your sons in the Jewish community to the power of God?
SPEAKER_00: Yet you attribute my works to the power of Satan.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is pointing out their contradiction and their inconsistency.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Therefore they will be your judges.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, your own sons demonstrate that your accusations against me are a contradiction.
SPEAKER_00: By accepting them while condemning me, you are condemning yourselves.
SPEAKER_00: Their works act as your judge and show that you are wrong.
SPEAKER_00: What were they wrong about?
SPEAKER_00: They were wrong about whose power Jesus was casting out the demon by.
SPEAKER_00: It was not by the power of Satan.
SPEAKER_00: This was the power of God.
SPEAKER_00: But see, that's what Satan does.
SPEAKER_00: He often influences us into believing his lies.
SPEAKER_00: He twists the truth to fit his narrative, to fit his false narrative, exchanging God's truth for a lie.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, as we know, it's one of his oldest tricks.
SPEAKER_00: It's what he used in the garden to get Adam and Eve to fall.
SPEAKER_00: And he still uses this same tactic because it's been so successful.
SPEAKER_00: Don't fall for it.
SPEAKER_00: Don't fall for his lies.
SPEAKER_00: Don't fall for his manipulation.
SPEAKER_00: Defend yourself with the truth of God's word.
SPEAKER_00: That's where you will find the truth.
SPEAKER_00: Psalm 119, 160 tells us the sum of your word is the truth, and every one of your righteous rules endures forever.
SPEAKER_00: So, what does this look like?
SPEAKER_00: What does Satan's lies look like?
SPEAKER_00: I think we hear them every day.
SPEAKER_00: We hear them when he tells us that sin has no consequence.
SPEAKER_00: And we hear them when he plays on our fears, or when he tries to shake our trust and confidence in God.
SPEAKER_00: We hear them when he tells us that we don't belong to Christ, or when we are not loved by God.
SPEAKER_00: I can go on and on, but you're familiar with his lies.
SPEAKER_00: They come every day.
SPEAKER_00: The key is to recognize them and to confront them, to not let them go further, to pass that certain line, to confront them and to stop them in their tracks with the truth of the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: Satan is always on mission to get us to believe him over God.
SPEAKER_00: And we have to be careful lest we fall into being just like him, just like the devil.
SPEAKER_00: Because he isn't content to be the only liar.
SPEAKER_00: He wants to make us out to be liars as well.
SPEAKER_00: And we become liars when we falsely accuse God.
SPEAKER_00: He wants us to deny God's truth and lead others into doing the same.
SPEAKER_00: John 8 44.
SPEAKER_00: You are the you are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires.
SPEAKER_00: He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him.
SPEAKER_00: When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.
SPEAKER_00: You know, one of the consequences of lies being spread is broken unity or division.
SPEAKER_00: And we know this, right?
SPEAKER_00: We've seen this happen.
SPEAKER_00: Whenever lies begin to spread in a family or in a community or in a church, division usually follows.
SPEAKER_00: The proverb that Jesus gives here is a helpful reminder of this.
SPEAKER_00: A kingdom or a home that is united doesn't fall.
SPEAKER_00: But when that kingdom or that home has division, it will likely fall.
SPEAKER_00: And that is what Satan is after.
SPEAKER_00: The reason he uses these tactics is to oppose the kingdom of God and to disrupt the people of God.
SPEAKER_00: Look, he cannot overthrow Christ's kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: Christ's kingdom is going to advance regardless.
SPEAKER_00: The kingdom of Satan or the gates of hell will not prevail against it.
SPEAKER_00: But he is going to do everything he can to oppose the work of the kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: All in an attempt to disrupt the unity of God's people and to hinder the work of the kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: Let's be aware of this.
SPEAKER_00: Let's be aware of his devices.
SPEAKER_00: And that brings me to my last point.
SPEAKER_00: And it's one of his most coveted and favorite tactics.
SPEAKER_00: To try to keep us from the kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 20.
SPEAKER_00: But if it is by the finger of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.
SPEAKER_00: So Jesus is showing here that if this is God's work, if this is God's work that he's doing, then that means the kingdom of God has come upon you.
SPEAKER_00: He says, if by the finger of God, this would have reminded those in the crowd who knew their scriptures about how powerful that God is.
SPEAKER_00: The book of Exodus, when Moses displayed God's power in front of Pharaoh, his magician said, This is God's finger at work.
SPEAKER_00: And do you remember, do you remember what the whole point of that encounter was about?
SPEAKER_00: The Israelites were in bondage to the nation of Egypt, and they cried out to God for him to deliver them and rescue them from their slavery.
SPEAKER_00: And God sends Moses to Pharaoh as his messenger to demand that he let his people go.
SPEAKER_00: But when Pharaoh refused, God performed these supernatural works and these supernatural wonders.
SPEAKER_00: And when Pharaoh's messengers or magicians, I'm sorry, saw this, they, like some in our passage this morning, marveled at the great display of God's power.
SPEAKER_00: And all they could do was attribute it to the finger of God.
SPEAKER_00: They said, This is the finger of God at work.
SPEAKER_00: This is the power of God at work.
SPEAKER_00: Matthew uses this is the spirit of God at work.
SPEAKER_00: It was the finger of God that was used to deliver the Israelites out of Egypt.
SPEAKER_00: And it was the finger of God that was used to deliver this poor mute man from his demonic oppression.
SPEAKER_00: And it is the finger of God that rescued you and me from the kingdom of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of light.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus was operating under the finger, the power, the spirit of God, which proved that the kingdom of God has now come.
SPEAKER_00: And it has come to crush Satan and all of his power.
SPEAKER_00: 1 John 3:8.
SPEAKER_00: Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning.
SPEAKER_00: The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is showing that a little bit of that here in our passage.
SPEAKER_00: He's coming and giving a glimpse of what he came to do.
SPEAKER_00: He's destroying the works of the devil.
SPEAKER_00: What are the works of the devil?
SPEAKER_00: Well, there are many, right?
SPEAKER_00: Some I've mentioned this morning, some of these tactics, and we can find more if we had time.
SPEAKER_00: There are all of his tactics and all of his assaults that try to keep us away from the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_00: Or if he can't keep us away from it, he will try at least to keep us from enjoying the benefits of it.
SPEAKER_00: We all live in one of two kingdoms, either the kingdom of God or the kingdom of Satan.
SPEAKER_00: What's it like to live in the kingdom of Satan?
SPEAKER_00: Well, I think 1 John makes clear in Satan's kingdom, people practice sin.
SPEAKER_00: And we all know the effects of that, right?
SPEAKER_00: Where sin is, there's brokenness, and there's pain and there's suffering.
SPEAKER_00: Those who are the devil make a practice of sinning.
SPEAKER_00: Not just sin because of their sinful nature.
SPEAKER_00: Christians are going to sin because of that, as James says, we all stumble in many ways.
SPEAKER_00: But the Christian does not make a practice of sinning.
SPEAKER_00: That belongs to those who belong to the devil.
SPEAKER_00: Those who are not Christians make a practice of sinning.
SPEAKER_00: So that is his first tactic to keep us or to keep people away from the kingdom of God, to keep people from becoming Christians.
SPEAKER_00: Or to fool those who are not Christians into thinking that they are.
SPEAKER_00: That's his first way.
SPEAKER_00: That's what he'll do first.
SPEAKER_00: That's how he wants to keep people away from the kingdom of God, to keep people from becoming Christians.
SPEAKER_00: So what he's going to do to the Christian is some of those things that I mentioned earlier.
SPEAKER_00: He's going to try to keep our mouth shut.
SPEAKER_00: So we won't share the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: So we won't declare the good things and the glorious things about God.
SPEAKER_00: So we will believe lies.
SPEAKER_00: So we won't see his spirit working or him working, his hand working everywhere to bring people in to see the beauty of the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: That will be his first tactic.
SPEAKER_00: But he has another tactic against those who are Christians.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus says that there's joy in heaven when a sinner repents.
SPEAKER_00: When someone becomes a Christian, there is joy in heaven, which means there's sorrow in hell.
SPEAKER_00: The devil hates to lose those to the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_00: So he'll do everything, as I said, to keep people from it.
SPEAKER_00: But he doesn't stop when he loses one.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't stop when he loses someone to the kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: Like I said, if he can't keep us from it, he's going to at least try to keep us from enjoying the benefits of it.
SPEAKER_00: And Romans 14, 17 tells us that the kingdom of God is righteousness, peace, and joy, and the Holy Ghost.
SPEAKER_00: So here's his tactic for the Christian when it comes to keeping us from the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_00: To attack your righteousness, to make war on your peace, to steal your joy, to keep you from all of these good benefits that we find in the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what he's going to work, and that's how he's going to work against you.
SPEAKER_00: But if this healing of the demonic shows us anything, it shows us that Jesus can overcome the works of the devil.
SPEAKER_00: The devil knew that this healing of the demonic would show where the true power lied.
SPEAKER_00: And how the kingdom of God is radically different from the kingdom of Satan.
SPEAKER_00: What a contrast that we have before us between the two kingdoms, between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of Satan.
SPEAKER_00: It was so clear for everyone to see.
SPEAKER_00: It was clear in this exorcism of this mute man that who he was before Jesus healed him.
SPEAKER_00: Who was he?
SPEAKER_00: He was a man who was experiencing terrible oppression from the devil.
SPEAKER_00: The devil had this man.
SPEAKER_00: The devil had this man, this poor man in bondage, and everyone could see what that looked like.
SPEAKER_00: It looked like impairment, it looked like bondage.
SPEAKER_00: It looked like oppression.
SPEAKER_00: But then, right before them, what they saw was a glimpse of the power of God.
SPEAKER_00: What they saw was what the power of the kingdom of God looked like.
SPEAKER_00: The devil's kingdom looked like oppression and bondage and slavery.
SPEAKER_00: But then with this healing, they were given a glimpse of what God's kingdom looked like.
SPEAKER_00: It looked like healing and freedom and restoration.
SPEAKER_00: The light of the kingdom of God eclipsed the darkness of the kingdom of Satan.
SPEAKER_00: No wonder the devil wanted to confuse that.
SPEAKER_00: No wonder he didn't want people to believe that this was the power of God.
SPEAKER_00: No wonder he wanted to keep people from seeing that.
SPEAKER_00: He wanted them to believe that it was his work because he knew that he could not compete with this kind of glory.
SPEAKER_00: And he knew that he could not compete with this kind of beauty.
SPEAKER_00: What a wonderful and glorious thing that the people saw that day.
SPEAKER_00: And the devil hated that.
SPEAKER_00: As we close, let me ask you this.
SPEAKER_00: Do you have a strategy for the devil's tactics?
SPEAKER_00: What will you do?
SPEAKER_00: What will you do when he tries to shut your mouth from giving him praise?
SPEAKER_00: What will you do when he tries to stop you from encouraging others and blessing others and sharing the gospel?
SPEAKER_00: How will you fight to see God's work that's being done all around you?
SPEAKER_00: In your family, in your life, in your community, in your church, when the devil wants to stop you from seeing it, so he can get you to stop trusting in God, so he can get you to abandon the work of God, to leave it behind and say, God is not doing anything, so I give up.
SPEAKER_00: What is your plan for that?
SPEAKER_00: How are you going to combat his lies with the truth?
SPEAKER_00: How will you enjoy the benefits of the kingdom of God when he's going to try to keep them from you?
SPEAKER_00: The answer is to look to Christ.
SPEAKER_00: The answer is to grow your love for Jesus and to allow your heart to be so overwhelmed by his goodness that you can't help but praise and tell others about him.
SPEAKER_00: To be like some who were in that crowd that day, to behold the beauty and the majesty of God that you can't help but say, I want that instead of this.
SPEAKER_00: I want Jesus instead of that.
SPEAKER_00: Whatever that is, I want none of that.
SPEAKER_00: I want Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: I want the freedom and the wonder that comes with him.
SPEAKER_00: Remind yourself of the love.
SPEAKER_00: Day after day, remind yourself of the love that he has for you, that he showed you on the cross.
SPEAKER_00: And be assured that if he's willing to work for you, if he was willing to work for you on Calvary, he will surely work for you today.
SPEAKER_00: Get to know him more and more through the word so you can easily discern what is a lie and what is the truth.
SPEAKER_00: And be open to receiving from him day after day.
SPEAKER_00: Ask of him, receive of him, receive his righteousness, receive his peace, and receive his joy.
SPEAKER_00: Walk in the freedom and the benefits of the kingdom, and don't allow the devil to keep you from them.
SPEAKER_00: And whenever you think, because this will happen, whenever you think that the devil is too strong for you, and that his work is too much for you, and that you feel a little overwhelmed, remember that the God who is for you has more power in his finger than all of Satan's kingdom combined.