The World, its methods - 1 J..

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com. That's cornerstonerbc.com. I said, Brother, I want to speak to you about the methods or the operations off the world. And I want us to read.

We're going to be reading here from verse 15 all the way to verse 25 in Chapter two. And something very interesting that I want you to pay attention to is how the Apostle finishes his thought about the world in verse 17. And then the first thing that comes to his mind is going to be the spirit of the Antichrist. This is going to help us in some of the things that I'm going to be sharing about the methods of the operations of the world. But remember that when the apostles were writing the scriptures, they were not only just listening to this voice from heaven that was dictating words, and they were actually writing these words that they were that they were hearing.

But actually, the spirit of God came upon the apostles using who they were, their personalities, their knowledge, everything that the Lord had done in the apostles in his providence. And he was using everything that they were and they felt and they they had in their mind to write the scriptures. And here we have an apostle that after given us this clear commandment not to love the world in verse 18 is going to go and change. or perhaps it sounds like it's a change, but it's still in the same thought to speak to us about the spirit of the Antichrist. Namely, the spirit of the Antichrist is working in the false teachers or in the Antichrist for the apostles.

So let us read here, brethren. Let us read from verse 15 to verse 25. I want to speak to you about the methods of the operations of the world that has read together the words of God with faith. This is 1 John 2, verse 15. Do not love the world or the things in the world.

If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and the pride of life, He's not from the Father, but he's from the world, and the world is passing away along with his desires. But whoever does the will of God abides forever. Children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard, that Antichrist is coming. So now many antichrists have come.

Therefore, we know that is the last hour. They, antichrists, they went out from us, but they were not of us. For if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out that it might become plain that day these antichrists They all are not of us. But you, the church, have been anointed by the Holy One, and you all have knowledge.

I write to you not because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and because no lie is of the truth. Who is a liar? But he who denies that Jesus is the Christ. This is the Antichrist. He who denies the father and the son.

No one who denies the son has the father. Whoever confesses the son has the father also. Let that what you heard from the beginning abide in you. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, then you too will abide in the Son and in the Father. And this is the promise that He made to you or to us.

The promise is eternal life. Amen. This is the words of the Lord. Now, my dear brother and my dear sister, As you progress through your studies of the Scriptures and as you grow in understanding of the Scriptures, there's a very important category that is good for you to have clear in your mind that will help you avoid lots of errors and lots of misunderstanding as you progress through your studies of the Scripture. And that is this aspect that in the Scriptures, especially in the New Testament, there are aspects that have been already fulfilled, but there's still waiting for some level of fulfillment.

This is what they call the already, not yet. Understanding that in aspects of the doctrine, in aspects of the New Testament especially, there are certain things that have been already accomplished, or have been already fulfilled. It's very important. But also we need to understand that at many times, these things that have been already accomplished are yet to be fulfilled in a particular sense. Think about, for instance, union with the Lord Jesus Christ.

Those who by grace through faith had been united to the Lord Jesus Christ. They have been already united to Christ. There is still in union with him. Yet when you come through the Scriptures and you read the New Testament especially, you will see that many times the apostles will call you to abide in Christ, to remain in Christ, not to separate from Christ, not to fall from grace, to be severed from Christ. Yes, yes, you have been fully united upon professional faith to the Lord Jesus Christ.

But there is a sense a experiential sense in the present time in which we are to be united to the Lord Jesus Christ and more in a final sense. Once the glory comes or once you die are taken up to glory, there's going to be a full consummation of our union with Christ. Now imagine, if we do not understand those distinctions of the already united to Christ, not yet fully united to Christ awaiting for the consummation of that union. If we just don't understand those two aspects of the scriptures, we will end up flattening the scriptures in such a way. that we either deny that we have been united to Christ and we need to do certain things to be united to Christ, or we will deny the pressing necessity for the Christian to be united to Christ and to abide in Christ.

Why? Because the Christian has already been fully united. We are to hold those two things from the scriptures as truth. We have been fully united to Christ already, and yet we are called to remain in the person of Jesus Christ. Same thing happens with our sanctification.

There is a sense in which the Christian has already been sanctified. We have been already set apart, but we are called to be saints. That is what the apostle Paul says in first Corinthians chapter one verse one and two speaking or writing to the Corinthians. Those who are sanctified called to be saints. The Christian is already sanctified in a positional sense, already sanctified.

But progressively we are called to grow in sanctification so that we will be finally sanctified in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. If we deny those two aspects of the scripture, we're going to make a lot of mistakes. We're going to either deny the necessity of progressive sanctification, or we're going to deny that the Christian has already been sprinkled with the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, as Peter says in 1 Peter 1, and has already been sanctified. Same thing, holding that category of already, not yet, happens when it comes to a relationship to the world. What is the preposition that you use?

To or with? To the world? The relationship to the world. That happens exactly the same. A relationship to the world also has this concept of these components of already, not yet.

We have been crucified. We have been united with the Lord Jesus Christ upon profession and faith, brethren. Upon profession of faith, the Christian has been united into the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. Remember, there's a very famous passage that speaks about that. Romans chapter six, united in death with the Lord Jesus Christ.

I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live, says the apostle in Galatians chapter two, verse 20, right? I am crucified with Christ. I am dead. If I'm crucified with Christ, I'm crucified to the world.

The same apostle says, in other words, debt to the world. If you were in Christ, you are debt to the world. That is that you have overcome the world already. And the Apostle John says that many times through this letter, that those who have faith have overcome the world. Yet, not only the same Apostle, but the Apostles in general in the New Testament calls us to be very careful in our relation to the world.

That is, that even though we are overcomers of the world, we are in a constant, present fight against the world. This apostle that we have here in 1 John, chapter 5, verse 4 and 5, and more importantly, in verse 5, asked a question. Who is he that overcomes that world? And as part of that question, the apostle John answers he who believes in the name of the Son of God. In the previous verse, in 1st John chapter 5 verse 4, it says that he who has been born of God has victory or overcomes the world.

And what is the victory? Our faith. That is that by virtue, my dear brother and sister, of grace and through faith, yes, we are overcomers. We have overcome the world. But the same apostle that holds that truth, that the Christian is an overcomer of the world, is calling us not to love the world.

And many other apostles, especially the apostle Paul, is going to call us to mortified and to defeat and to fight against the things of this world. Because even though, yes, we have the faith in us of our Lord Jesus Christ that empower us to overcome the world, we are called, my dear brother and sister, to live in the present experience of a reality that is against us. Because as the apostle says in 1 John chapter 3, that we are enemies, or better, that the world is in enmity with us. And my dear brother and my dear sister, we have a horrendous danger in conservative, reformed, Calvinistic camps in which doctrine arrives into our minds in such a way that we live our lives in an abstract way. We are very good at speaking words about the sovereignty of the Lord.

But yet, when it comes the time in which our faith is tested, we are fearful, because the sovereignty of the Lord is only a concept in the mouth that we have. When it comes about to think about the providence of the Lord, we speak about how the providence of the Lord works. And usually, the providence of the Lord is the escape door for all the theological problems that cannot be explained. thrown into the providence of the Lord. And yet, when it comes to the secret private life, we live lives that completely contradict what we say with our mouths and are full of doctrines of the sovereignty of the Lord and the control of the Lord and the hand of the Lord.

My dear brother and my dear sister, by faith, we believe that, yes, the Lord is sovereign and that he is in control of absolutely everything. And by faith, we do believe that he who has begun the good work in us will bring it to completion in the day of the Lord Jesus Christ. By faith, we do believe that the world is not going to overcome us because he has given us faith and we are overcoming of the world. By faith, we believe that we will endure until the end. not because of us, but because of the power of God that sustains us until the end.

But, my dear brother, my dear sister, by the same faith that apprehends all of these glorious doctrines, we are to apprehend the words that Apostle says of work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. With the same word, with the same faith that we hear everything about the sovereignty of God and the power of God. We are to hear the words when I say, take heed, lest there be any one of you that may fall. Take heed. Be careful that you may not have a deceitful heart of unbelief.

Hebrews chapter three, verse 12, departing from the living God. Take heed. And my dear brother and sister in the moment, in which the Christian divides and dissects the scriptures in such a way that we are very good at speaking at high, lofty doctrines of the character of God, which are very important, and separate the word that the same God speaks unto our soul, we found ourselves living lives of lack of power in the practical life. Because everything is to be taken by faith and according to what is written, not according to a square mind that desires to put God into this box. So I understand everything of Him, but rather submitting to what the Scriptures say.

So, brethren, when the apostle says, Do not love the world nor the things of the world. For he who loves the world does not have love of the father. He is, first of all, speaking to Christians, therefore to you and to me. And second of all, he is truthful about what he says. That is that if we love the world, brethren, the love of the father is not in us.

That is, that if we love the things of this passing away world, that is, that if the things of this world capture our heart, our attention, that we wake up in the morning and we pray one minute or we just remember that we're Christians and that we are to pray, and then our mind is taken captive by the things of this world. And our days are taken, our efforts, our talents, our money, our time and whatever other things come to your mind are taken by the things that are temporal. And then, God, when your life is put on display, God is just simply an appendix of something that you just do from time to time. Then, my dear brother and sister, let me tell you that a life like that looks more like a life that loves the world. A life that has surrendered the affections to this world.

A life that has surrendered the thoughts, the mind, the heart to the world. And we are not to treat that differently to what the Scriptures treat it. We are not to define and give a diagnosis, if it's the way that you pronounce the word, about that situation that is contrary to the scriptures. Because then we will be the false teachers. We will be the false prophets.

The false teacher is not only the one who goes and denies the Trinity, or the one who goes and denies the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ. The false teacher is also the one that when he knows, that a particular matter is taking place in the heart of a brother and sister, instead of taking the sword of the scriptures and presenting the scriptures per what they say, just simply comes with soft little words, not to create a confrontation between me and you, so that we will just be able to continue to endure with our relationship. That is also a false prophet, that instead of preaching Christ in the secret place, the Christ that confronts, the Christ that exposes, the Christ that reveals, the Christ that wants conformity to Christ, presents a different Christ. A Christ that says, yes, you can love the world. and yet have the love of the Father, present a Christ, a scripture that says, yes, you can be given over to the things of this world.

You can come to church and do these things. But in the rest of your life, you can be given over to build empires. You can be given over to pursue all of these things and not having place for Christ in it. Yes, you can call Christ your helper rather than your Lord. You can do of all of these things and still be a Christian brethren.

That is not the testimony of the scriptures. That is not the testimony of the scriptures on many of the problems that we face as a society is because that church that professes to be the church of Christ is nothing of what is written is nothing of what is given in this book. And many of the difficulties that we endure as personally and as a church and as a universal church is because we have not submitted to the kinship of the Lord Jesus Christ. So it is of very serious concern of uttermost importance, my dear brother and sister, that we will discern the ways of the world. I want to say we I'm not speaking from a place in which I know I'm telling you I want I want us to do it together to discern the ways of the world.

Because let me tell you something just in summary of everything that I'm going to say. Satan is the one that is behind the world. And Satan, imagine he no, imagine, you know, he's deceitful. And, you know, one of the characteristics of something that is deceitful is that you do not know because he's deceitful. And if it's deceitful, my dear brethren, we are to sharpened are.

senses, spiritual senses, and our spiritual sword. We are to sharpen our eyes, we are to sharpen our souls, and to always be attentive to the words of Christ, that we will be able to discern the ways of this world. This world, my dear brother and sister, as I said to you last week, is a system of darkness in full contrast and separation to the ways of the Lord. That is how the apostle presents the world in complete contrast, opposition and separation. And this system off the world is ruled by Satan.

Satan is the one that rules the system off the world. That is what the puzzle says in First John Chapter five verse 19 that these world lays under the sway under the power of the evil one. And one of the very important things that I wanted to say to you last week is that the extent of this world, my dear brother and sister, is the problem is not that is outside of us. The problem is that this world has an ambassador, a representative inside of us, which is sin. Yes, we have the indwelling presence of the spirit of God in us.

Yes, we have been justified by grace through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Yes, He has given us the promise that He's going to take us out of this wilderness and rescue us and taking us to glory. Yes, we have all of those promises, but at the same time, already, not yet, the presence of sin remains in us and sin is not of God. But sin is of this world, of this fallen world. And Satan has an ambassador, has a representative inside of each one of us.

So when we're going to think about the extent of the world, we're not only to see outside of us and to be afraid of the news and the government and the wickedness and this and that. But brethren, in humility, we're to be more afraid of the things that take place inside of us. Do you remember any of your dreams? Do you remember any of the thoughts that you have had? Many of those dreams that just shocked you in the morning and that you wanted just to forget them?

This is the result of what is in your heart, apart from the great of the Lord moving you in paths of righteousness. Many of those dreams that you've had, many of those thoughts that you had could have been easily accomplished by your hand, right, left feet, head by you. They could have been easily accomplished. He says, do not love the world. The world is in the business, brethren, of making us love the world.

This is a battle of affections. The Lord, you know how many people say the Lord does not want you, He wants your heart. And then at times, you know, people who are in theology, they say, you know, the heart, the emotions. Of course, there are many more, many, many, many other things to your faith. But in reality, brethren, it's true.

It's a matter of the affections of the heart. Is our heart is given for Christ or is not? Think about this, how you have experienced love in different ways. You have some of you have children, brothers and wives and friends. You have experienced the emotion of love.

You have experience in your being, in your inside of you, what love means for another person. How could love for Christ be categorically different to that? It should be in the way of extent that is greater for Christ. But how love to Christ, how could it be? Emotionless.

without thoughts, without minds, just resting in this little box that I call doctrine, or just resting and abiding in this little box that I call my religion. I'm not moving your affections. I'm not moving your heart. I'm not bringing you to your knees, not producing tears in your eyes when you think about what he has done for you. Brethren, it is a fight for affections.

Because when a person thinks that they have won the lottery and now they have one million dollars in their bank account, let me tell you that that person is filled with emotions. How much more when a person just thinks that I deserve hell, yet he died for me? It is a battle of affections. Do not love the world, nor the things of the world. Because if you love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

How does the world then operate? What are the methods of the world? Well, the world, my dear brother and sister, is not an entity that is working on its own. But as I said, the world is ruled by? Satan.

And the methods of the world are the schemes of Satan. Brethren, we will be very naive to think that things that foreign people produce and do is of God. Right? We will be very naive and silly to think that a world that is being built upon the unrighteousness of the human heart, that according to Ephesians chapter 2, is ruled by the prince of the power of the earth, who is at work in the sons of disobedience. We will be very naive and silly to think that the things that the world builds are of God.

Yes, there might be the providence of the Lord working in ways in which He allows certain things to happen. But my dear brother and sister, thou which man built in and of their own, are powers of Babel against the one who rules and is king over this whole world. Because Satan is presently working in the heart of the sons of disobedience. What are the schemes of Satan? Thankfully, the apostle addresses this very clearly in Ephesians chapter 6.

So please come with me to Ephesians chapter 6. And I want to show you four different, and I know I said the number. When I say the number, now I have to go through the number that I say. I usually don't give the number. But I want to share with you four, perhaps three, depending on times, but four things.

Four methods, or four things that Satan does in the context of the world to make us love God less and love the world more. Four things that Satan does, or operations or methods of Satan. Four things that he does in the context of the world and through the things of the world to make us, to take us from our eyes from Christ, our hearts from Christ, and to deviate them to the things of the world. Because my dear brother and sister, the commandment that John gives is to Christians, do not love the world. And if he's giving that commandment to Christians, that means that Christians can be tempted and moved and at times removed from keeping themselves in the love of God, as Jude said.

Removing themselves from the love of God and loving the things of the world. So I said, Ephesians chapter 6, and you remember this very famous passage there in Ephesians chapter 6, in which the apostle speaks to us about putting on the armor of God. Remember that passage? Now, that passage contains a lot of information about our battle. about our war against us, our hearts and the things of this world and Satan, all of these spiritual things, all of these powers, all of these authorities.

We see a lot of things there. And of course, we're not going to go into all of those details. The only thing that I want you to pay attention to is to what the apostle implicitly say that Satan attacks. That is not the purpose of the apostle. The purpose of the apostle is to tell us what we need to put on in order to defend ourselves.

But by implicitly seeing those things that we put on, we can see what is going to be attacked. I'm not going to put a helmet in my head if my enemy is going to attack my leg, right? So by knowing that I'm putting a helmet on my head, I know that the enemy is going to attack my head. By protecting my chest, I know that the enemy is going to attack my chest. So implicitly, in the armor of God that we see here in Ephesians chapter 6, we can see those things that the apostle, or better, not apostle, I'm sorry, apostle Paul, that Satan attacks.

that Satan attacks, as the Apostle Paul explains here. Now, I'm not speaking about those parts of the armor, but rather those qualities that the Apostle connects with this part of the armor. So he's going to speak about truth. He's going to speak about righteousness. He's going to speak about faith.

He's going to speak here about the word of God. Remember the passage? He's going to speak here about the gospel of peace. Why does he speak about all of those things? Because all of those things are the things that Satan wants to diminish in the life of the Christian, right?

Faith and all of those things. So there are six of them, six of those things. And let us just simply see those things that we are to protect or that we are to be, not so much protect, but in this case, putting the armor just to be strong. What do you say? Strong on, you know, to be strong.

So Ephesians chapter 6, there are six of them, and they start in verse 14. Those qualities of the Christian life that were to be strong. So let us read from verse 10, and then we will see them progressively there. It says, finally, chapter 6, verse 10. Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might.

Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes or the methods or the operations of the devil, of Satan. So we are to put the whole armor of God that we will stand firm against Satan. Verse 12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore, Christian, take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day and having done all to stand firm explanation of that armor of God. Verse 14 stand, therefore, having fastened on the belt off truth.

So truth is important in this process of defending ourselves, right? At least we know that it's important. Truth is the first one. and having put on the breastplace of righteousness. Verse 15.

And as shoes for your feet have been put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. The gospel of peace is supposed to give us readiness to be ready, not to be slothful, but to be ready, to be always prepared. to be always active and hear the feet. You remember Isaiah? How beautiful are the feet of those who bring the good news, the good tidings?

That is that putting the armor of God, this gospel of peace, our feet are ready, given by the gospel of peace. You can see, I hope that what it was Satan attacks. Verse 16 in all circumstances, take up the shield off faith. which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one, and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of the Lord." All of these things that make the Christian stronger in the process of defending themselves, him or herself, of these schemes of Satan that is aiming, trying to attack the Christian.

We have truth, we have righteousness, we have readiness when it comes to the gospel. We have our faith, we have our salvation, and we have the word of God in us. If we were just simply going to take a small brief teaching from here, we say that the Christian is to abound Abound and to be reached in all of these things in truth, in righteousness, in being ready to proclaim the gospel of peace. In our faith, we're to be strong in our faith. We are to abound and glory in the salvation that we have, knowing that is not ours, but is the salvation that comes from God.

the Lord, we are to always be ready with the sword of the spirit. That is what makes the Christian is stronger. And that's what makes the Christian supplicate with all prayer and supplication as they will continue. Because now prayer is the outflow of a Christian that is so equipped, so prepared with the truth of God, with the gospel of peace, ready to proclaim that is also prepared with faith, with righteousness, with a sort of the Lord, with salvation. equipped, fully equipped by the Lord, not only to do what he's supposed to do, but in this context, brethren, to defend him or herself from the schemes of Satan that wants to attack him or her and diminish all of those attributes.

When it comes to righteousness, for instance, yes, we abide in the glorious reality that we have been made righteous in the Lord Jesus Christ. But also we are to grow in righteousness every single day, not in the legal righteousness, but in the imparted righteousness, namely in conformity to the Lord Jesus Christ. Satan, my dear brother and sister, is going to try to attack us in such a way that our vessel is diminished in our treasures of truth, in our treasures of faith, in our treasures of salvation and righteousness, and all of these virtues that we have read here. And the way that he does it, my dear brother and sister, is just by going to the core of what sin is. As you remember, we have given many definitions of what sin is.

Remember, the Apostle John says in 1 John that sin is a transgression of the? Law, a transgression of the commandments of the law. The Apostle Paul says in Romans chapter 14, in the last verse, he says that sin is everything that does not proceed from faith. Or James says that sin is the good that we are supposed to do, that we do not do, that is sin. My dear brother and sister, the core of all of those definitions of sin is just simply choosing something else above God.

That is the core. That is the substance of it. Every time that we sin to the depths of it. For some reason, we are choosing something or someone with many times is ourselves or someone else. We're choosing something on someone else that besides God, we're not choosing God, which can choose other people by choosing God.

We can choose our brothers and sisters and serve others by choosing God. But we remove God from the picture and we choose something or someone else that makes sense and moves us to sin. And sin, my dear brother and sister, is that which is going to affect the truth that is in us, the righteousness of our souls, not the righteousness, imputed righteousness, but the practical righteousness of our soul. Sin is that which is going to come inside of us and is going to make us slothful and lazy and not ready to bring the good news of the gospel of peace. Sin is that which is going to bring doubts about our salvation and bring our minds to self so that we derive satisfaction from self-performance rather from the truth of the Scriptures.

Sin is that which is going to make us to choose the wisdom of the world and the wisdom of our minds rather than the wisdom of the Scriptures of the Lord. Sin is that which is going to make us choose to be strong in this way, rather than in this way of the scriptures. Sin and deceitfulness and unrighteousness is everything that is going to move us from the path of the Lord onto the path of unrighteousness. And Satan, my dear brother and sister, is in the business of making use of that ambassador or representative that is inside of you. and making that ambassador, that representative that is inside of you, that is called the presence of sin, to make it flourish.

You have been given the power of the Holy Spirit not to be under submission or under the dominating power of sin, yet Satan is in the business, through temptations and other imaginations or other machinations or whatever the word is in English, with other schemes, with other methods, with other things, to bring you to a point in which you choose the delights. And you call that to be pleasure, and you call that to be satisfaction. And slowly, slowly, your heart, your conscience, your mind deviating and separating from the paths of the Lord, getting used to see those things that you know that you should not see, listening to those things that you are not supposed to listen. But I did it yesterday. Nobody caught me.

And I'm just doing it today once again. Why not? And it slowly, slowly grows in inequity and unrighteousness. I should be praying, but why would I pray? I could do this other thing anyway.

You know, I'm praying before I eat, or I'm praying with my family when I do this or that. And slowly, slowly, temptations and things around you start to become now more appealing to your eyes. The things which you knew not only with the mind that were wrong, but your emotions were not even moved to them because you saw the unrighteousness and the blackness in them. Now you see them as if perhaps they are okay. They are too strict.

Oh, this religion is too strong. This is just so square. There's nothing wrong about it. Satan, using the ambassador, the representative that is now in your heart, is moving you to paths of unrighteousness, making you slowly love the things of the world that remember. They don't need to be open and external and so clear out there, they can simply be inside of you.

Oh, I deserve, you know, I deserve to do this. I deserve to accomplish these things. I deserve to conquer this. Why this? I deserve to have this name.

Why deserve to have these, these, these? And I'm not saying that those things may be wrong, but I'm just saying that when we turn from the things of the Lord unto that, four things that or four methods that the Lord Satan, sorry, that Satan uses, four methods that Satan uses to bring this sin that is present inside of us to flourish and to move us in ways in which we diminish our righteousness, our truth, slothfulness, knowing the ways of preaching the gospel or communicating the gospel. Four of them. First one, temptation. Satan tempts you.

Temptation, you've heard that, right? He's the tempter. Satan is going to tempt us to unrighteousness. Satan is going to tempt us to sin. Satan is going to tempt us to way of darkness, and Satan is going to tempt us to do according to that which is inside of you.

With all of these four things that I'm going to mention, and I hope briefly, my dear brother and sister, it's super important that before we even go through them, that we're very clear to know that Satan is always under the sovereign control of the Lord, right? Remember what happened to Peter, what the Lord said to Peter? What did he say to Peter? Not only that, but he also said, Peter, Peter, Satan has demanded to sift you, right? Like like wheat he has requested.

Satan has requested. He has demanded, asked to sift you like wheat. But I have prayed for you that your fate will endure. And when you return, strengthen the brethren. Satan operates under the sovereign control of the Lord.

But having said the doctrines and paying attention to where the Scripture says, brethren, we have to be very careful because Satan is indeed around us seeking someone to devour. And that is true. And that is absolutely true. And let me tell you something. At times, the Lord may allow that Satan touches us or that Satan does something to us for the sake of our good, for that we will grow independence with the Lord, that we will grow in humility and that we will return to the ways of the Lord.

The Lord may allow those things. First one. First thing that Satan does to remove us from the path of righteousness. And it is temptation. Temptation.

He will come to tempt us. Now come with me, please, to James chapter one, because in James chapter one, there's something super important that we need to understand about temptation before even we address how Satan tempts us in our lives. Many times, my dear brother and sister, when we are speaking about these confrontations of the Christian of righteousness and unrighteousness against Satan and our sinful condition. Brethren, pay attention to this. Many times, brethren, you will find that Christians, many Christians will will err in one of these two ways.

Either we pass and transfer all responsibility for our temptations to Satan. So you will find many Christians who come to the conclusion that all things that are happening in my life and all the temptations and all the scenes that I'm committing is because there is a dark oppression, demonic presence around me. And all of these, you know, Satan or demons are around me that are tempting me and now transfer responsibility of my scene through to this demonic operation around me. That is one extreme. The other extreme is that we deny completely the demonic operations of Satan and his demon around us, and we address and we deal with all things of the Christian life almost in a natural way.

That the spiritual is there, but is not there. That we acknowledge that the spiritual exists, but just with the mouth. And that we do not acknowledge and accept that Satan is real, and that his demons are real, and that Satan indeed tempts. So in order to do and to understand and to have a balance between the real spiritual activity of all demonic powers and the individual responsibility when it comes to sin, I think this text here helps us very much. That is found in James chapter 1 in verses, I think, 13 through 14, speaking of how temptation happens and when temptation is produced.

It says in verse 13, Let no one say when he is tempted, I am being tempted by God, for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. Now here's is what happens with temptation. Verse 14. But each person is tempted when he that is, the person is not reducing this only to men is speaking to the person he or she. But each person is tempted when he or she is lured and enticed by his own desire.

Then desire, when it has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and sin, when it is fully grown, brings forth death. Temptation is originated, if you allow me to use that word, I hope that exists, is produced, it has a beginning in the heart of the person. So the temptation happens from desires that we already have inside of us. It's from the desire that we have inside of us that we're enticed, lured. And when the desire that is already inside of us is moving us, is taking us, and when that comes to action, that becomes sin.

And that sin then produces death, because the wages of sin is death. Not only spiritually, but also physically. That's why we die. Because of our sin. But temptation is produced inside of me.

So any other external temptation that is going to come has value or power, not because of what the temptation is in and of itself outside of me, but rather because when the temptation is presented, it finds a point of agreement inside of my heart. Now there's going to be some person or some people that are not going to be tempted to something, even though they're exposed or presented to that something. But there's going to be other people who are highly tempted to something, not because of that something outside, but rather because that something outside finds a point of agreement, a point of connection in the heart of that person. Satan is going to use these, you know, desires, this lust of the flesh that are in your heart. He knows a lot of things, and many of his demons have been watching us and seeing all the things that we do, right?

So they have gathered information about who we are, and they will know what we like and we don't like, even though they will not be able to go and search into the thoughts and all of these things. But they would have gotten information about the things that we do, perhaps even better than our friends, our spouses or brothers or people that are around us because they see, right? They would have gathered a lot of information. They present things to us that find point of agreement with our hearts. And I'm going to present to you two ways in which Satan tempts us.

I'm not going to be able to go through the four, but let's just try to go. The first one, temptation. The first one, my dear brother and sister, sexual immorality. Satan tempt us to sexual in morality. Come to 1st Corinthians chapter seven place.

1st Corinthians chapter seven. Sexual desires being natural to humans are a point that is used by Satan to bring temptation. And in this passage in 1 Corinthians chapter 7, even though the apostle is speaking about the relationship between husband and wife, here we can see not only that Satan does tempt us when it comes to spiritual matters, But also we see here some important aspects of sexual activity. It says in 1 Corinthians 7, you remember the passage in which the apostle is given these exhortations about sexual immorality. Now, concerning the matters about which he wrote, it is good for a man not to have sexual relations with a woman.

That is what they wrote. That's why the ESV gets it very well there, that puts it in quotes there. So this is what they wrote. Is it good for a man to have sexual relationships with a woman? That is the question that they had asked in the first letter.

a letter that they wrote to, perhaps sent to Paul, and then it comes in verse 2. But because of the temptation to sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband. Now, here you see a purpose of marriage, not the purpose of marriage, but you see a purpose of marriage. That is, that husband and wife will come together and they will enjoy and delight themselves in the pleasures of intimacy that the Lord has a limit for husband and wife. That's why it's very good for a man and a woman to marry as soon as possible.

Why? Because of all of these things that we read here. Why? But the world will tell us that marriage is something that can wait. That marriage is something that men and women can be on their own for many, many, many, many years.

But it's good for a man to be married with, especially a Christian brother, a Christian sister. 3. The husband should give to his wife her conjugal rights, and likewise the wife to her husband. 4. For the wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does.

Likewise, the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does. Do not deprive one another. Now, this is a command. This is for the marriage. But here we see what lack of self control does when it comes to sexual matters and what Satan does when there's lack of self control.

It says in verse five, Do not deprive one another, except perhaps by agreement for a limited time that you may devote yourselves to prayer. Many times I ask myself how many Christian marriages do this? but then come together again so that Satan may not tempt you because of your lack of self-control. Why does Satan tempt in this case to sexual immorality? Because of the lack of self-control.

A passion, you know, sexual desire is something that is natural to men and to women. We have been made to be merit, and to procreate, and to sexual intimacy. Yet that desire that is inside of the heart, when there's lack of self-control, if you remember self-control is one of the virtues of Christian maturity, according to 2 Peter chapter 1. Remember self-control? It's one of those virtues of maturity.

Lack of that virtue of self-control, which is your faith working in maturity, is going to be used in this case between husband and wife by Satan to bring temptation to sexual immorality. And my dear brother and sister, this application to sexual immorality here in chapter 7 is very important, but it's not the main point of the apostle. The apostle had already spoken about sexual immorality, because there might be some of you that say, OK, but I'm not married. I have no wife. I have not a husband.

This is sexual immorality in general. And sexual immorality is not the act of a man and a woman coming together. But as you would have read from the scripture, sexual immorality is more extended. Sexual immorality. And the apostle has spoken about sexual immorality already.

If you very carefully pay attention to verse 12 of chapter 6, please read to this, my dear brother, my dear sister, especially younger brothers and younger sisters, Carefully read to this verse 12 of chapter six. All things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful or things are loved for me. But I will not be dominated by anything. Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food. And God will destroy both one and the other.

The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord and the Lord for the body. And God raised the Lord. and will also raise us by his power. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute?

Never! Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one with her? For as it is written, the two will become one flesh, but he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. The one that is joined to the Lord will not commit sexual immorality, basically saying, if you're joined to the Lord, you're joined in the spirit. You're not to give your body to sexual immorality.

It says then in verse 18, flee from sexual immorality. I hear it comes a very powerful categorization of the apostle, almost two types of sin. flee from sexual immorality every other scene or every other scene every every scene Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, but you were bought with a price to glorify God in your body.

Sexual immorality, my dear brother and sister, that which is natural to the heart of men and women, is used by Satan when there's no self-control, either in the husband and wife, when they are not joined together in intimacy, or when a single brother or single sister lacks self-control and give themselves to private, secret, wicked, sexually immoral practices. Then Satan uses all of these brethren for a person to seem against their own body. Quickly come to 2nd Corinthians chapter 7, please. And here in 2nd Corinthians chapter 7, the same apostle is speaking to the same church. It speaks their brethren of how sanctification is to be brought to fulfillment.

How sanctification is to is to be consummated or completed in 2nd Corinthians chapter 7. And in 2 Corinthians 7, the Apostle distinguishes between two things that are to be purified. And I believe here the Apostle is referring to 1 Corinthians 6 about these sins of the body, or these sins of the flesh, namely sexual immorality as a whole category from any other sin. It says in verse 1, chapter 7, since we have these promises, all of the promises that come from verse 14 of chapter 6, Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of the flesh or the body. And I believe here the apostle refers to sins against the body.

In other words, sexual immorality. Because we are called also here to cleanse ourselves from every defilement of the spirit. Every other sin produces a defilement of the soul or the spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of the Lord. My dear brother, my dear sister, Satan tempts us to sexual immorality. And if a person is given over to sexual immorality, either secretly, when no one sees, or just simply by any other awful practice, do you think that that person has the armor of God, equipped with truth, equipped with the words of God?

Do you think that that person is walking in the Spirit? You think that that sin is not going to beget another sin? Don't you think that that sin of that particular practice that this person is given on to is not going to bring all other things? And don't you think that that person now is going to easily become a lover of the things of the world? A person that is taken captive by what the eyes see and perceive?

A person that is taken captive by what they see on a computer, on a phone, or there? Don't you think that that person now is going to be deprived or taken from the love of God? You think that that person can love all of these things and at the same time love the Lord? No, brethren, that cannot happen. When a person is given over to the temptation of the heart that brings all of these type of practices, now that person is not only departing unto unrighteousness, unto Sodom, unto Gomorrah, but also that person is separating from the land that is like Eden.

It is removing themselves from the presence of the Lord. And the Lord is... We have read what He does to the people of Israel when all of these things happen, my dear brother. And Satan is there to tempt us to sexual immorality. Let me just go through all of them very quickly because I'm not going to be able to go as I expected just to go through them.

But the second one, temptation, my dear brother and sister, is money. Money is the other way that Satan is going to tempt us, to lure us into things of the world, to take us captive into the things of the world. The love of money is a root of all evil, my dear brother and sister. We're not to treasure up things here on the earth, but we're to treasure up things, or treasures where, brethren? in heaven.

And my dear brother and sister, the temporal treasures of this world, the temporal possessions of this world are used by Satan to remove the word of faith that the Lord implants into our hearts. As I presented to you in First John chapter three, if you quickly go there, John chapter three, this is a verse that we are to remember. Brother John, First John 3 16. Easy to remember. John 3 16.

First John 3 16. 1 John 3, 16. By this we know, my dear brother and sister in John, 1 John 3, 16. By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, How does God's love abide in him?

He doesn't, is the answer. He does not. Because this person has been given over to love the goods, the possessions of the things of this world, my dear brother and sister. And there's nothing better for a Christian than to be content with what the Lord has provided for that person. And to be a lover of money, my dear brother and sister, does not mean a brother or sister who, because of the sovereignty and providence of God, has now possessions and accumulated certain things.

You can be a lover of money with one cent in your pocket. You can be a lover of money with one dollar in your bank account. You can be a lover of money without money, my dear brother and sister, when your money is such a great possession that you are not even willing to give to the brethren, to provide to the brethren that you want to treasure and to keep and to keep. And your security, your certainty is derived. from the amount of money that you have in your bank account, or derived from the desires of money that you want to have, and then you're dreaming, daydreaming of the amount of money that you could make, that you could have, and that you should have, or that you should have obtained by this time in your life, when you're daydreaming, and then just going through your life like that, let me tell you, The love of the Father is not in your heart, my dear brother and sister, because he's the one that puts a piece of bread on your table.

He's the one that provides a glass of water in your table. He's the one that provides a roof. And let me tell you something. He's the one that takes that, but he has promised that he will provide for us all of those things. My dear brother and sister, when the heart of the Christian is rooted in the Lord Jesus Christ, then, my dear brother, we're able to deal with the temporal matters as we are supposed to deal.

And Satan uses both sex and money to lure your passions. Remember, especially for men that we want to build and produce and come up with and have our names written like the Tower of Babel. Satan uses all of that to lure us into these temptations and to remove us from the love of the Father. Let me now make it the fourth three because we're not going to finish. But let me just go to the third one that I wanted to share with you.

The first one is temptation. Temptation through sexual immorality and also money. The second one was meant to be the third one. The second one in this case, my dear brothers and sisters, is persecution. Come with me to 1 Peter chapter 5, and you may remember the very popular verse there about Satan being like a roaring lion.

Brethren, that text there is in the context of persecution. The roaring lion that is seeking someone to devour, is the roaring lion that is seeking someone to destroy, and to bring persecution and tribulation. 1 Peter chapter 5, let us read it together there. It's a very important verse. Let us read from verse 6.

Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, so that at the proper time He may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on Him, because He cares for you. Be sober-minded, and hear the same words as in Ephesians chapter 6. Be watchful, your adversary the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, that is Satan, firm in your faith. How?

Knowing that the same kinds of suffering and being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. Brethren, persecution and suffering that is sovereignly controlled by the Lord, many times through the agency of Satan, is one of the ways in which the faith of the Christian is tested. The genuineness of the faith of the Christian is tested. And when the professing Christian fails through the suffering to remain firm in the faith, many times that Christian will change the suffering, not going through the fire, removing themselves from it for the things of the world. I don't want to go through the suffering.

I don't want to take up the cross. I don't want to suffer, you know, the offense that my Christianity produces to this world. I don't want to take up this cross. I'm just simply going to drop the cross of the suffering and the suffering now has tested the genuineness of that faith. Count it all joy, it says, count it all joy when you fall into various trials knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.

Satan is at times in the hands of the Lord an instrument to test the genuineness of the faith of those who profess to be in the Lord Jesus Christ. May the Lord give us the strength that is necessary, brethren, that when we are suffering, that when we are experiencing grief genuinely in our hearts, our eyes remain firm in the Lord Jesus Christ, and that we are not easily moved from the suffering just to try to fix and remove that awful circumstance or experience just for something of the world that proves that our faith is not genuine at all. And let me conclude with the third one, which is the most important one, my dear brother and sister. Come with me, please, to 1 Timothy chapter 4. 1 Timothy chapter 4.

The first one was temptation. Temptation, sexual immorality, and money. The second one is how Satan operates to make us deviate from God into the things of the world through trials and temptations and sufferings. He's an instrument in the hands of the Lord to test the genuineness of our faith. And the third one, my dear brother and dear sister, is doctrines of demons, false prophets.

First Timothy chapter four. You remember the verse it says in verse one. First Timothy chapter four. Now the spirit expressly says that in latter times. How do you pronounce that latter later?

Latter times, you spell it the same way later and latter. Wow, English is so strange. Now this this this spirit explicitly says that in latter times, some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves, brethren, to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons. Brethren, brethren, this is not speaking about a clear church that is preaching false doctrine and is a synagogue of Satan or that is a Satanist church. This is speaking about a local church or a congregation that is a professing Christian.

People are professing genuine faith. Even we're told that many will depart from the faith. Why will they depart from the faith, it says, by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared the liars. And then he gives examples who forbid marriage and required abstinence from foods that got created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth for everything created by God is good and nothing is to be rejected. if it is received with thanksgiving, for it is made holy by the words of God and prayer.

Doctrines of demons. Brethren, doctrines of demons, teachings of deceitful spirits. This is the spirit of the Antichrist that John speaks in 1 John. This spirit of the Antichrist is already among us, and many Antichrists have come out in the world. If you read there, if you go quickly there to 1 John, chapter 4.

This is what the Apostle does in 1st John chapter 4 and also in 2nd John. Quickly read with me, and this is the instruction that the Christian receives when it comes to false teachers. Those who have the spirit of the Antichrist, 1st John chapter 4, it says, Beloved, speaking to the church, Beloved, do not believe every spirit. If the Christian, brethren, if the Christian could not be taken captive by the spirits, the Apostle will not give this exhortation here. But because there is the possibility that the Christian might be taken into believing spirits that are not the spirits of the Lord, he comes and says, Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test.

the spirits to see whether they are from God. For many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God. Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God. And every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God.

This is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you heard was coming and is now in the world already. Verse four, little children, you are from God and have overcome them. For he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. They, the false teachers who are moved by the spirit of the Antichrist, verse five, they are from the world, from the world that is ruled by Satan, brother. They are from the world, therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them.

We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us, apostles. Whoever is not from God does not listen to us, apostles. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. The world, my dear brother and sister, is constantly speaking and preaching unto us.

And it's not only the world that is constantly preaching and teaching and sending information unto us, but it's also the spirit of the Antichrist that is moving among professing Christians who are not generally in the Lord Jesus Christ. Many doctrines of demons in the last times, brethren, that will make it through the years of professing Christians and will make them deviate from the faith that will make them run away from the paths of the Lord that will be taken captive by doctrines of the flesh. Many times, brethren, that I see people that profess to be in Christ so taken by doctrines like that, forbidden, given in marriage, or this thing, or that thing, or that other thing, brethren, my heart is filled with compassion, not so much about the error in which they may be about a doctrinal matter, that, guess what, all of us have doctrinal errors, but rather the position of the heart of that person. that has already been taken. My brethren, for us to walk in the truth, remember, we don't have the ability to learn the truth in and of our own.

We learn the truth because the Spirit of God is the one that illuminates us and teaches us. So guess what? What happens when a person is following these doctrines of demons? Who is the one that is teaching them but Satan himself? My dear brother, my dear sister, fearful.

And I want you to see how dependent we are upon the Lord Jesus Christ. If anyone thinks that they stand firm, let them take heed that lest they fall. My dear brother and sister, apart from the condescending grace of the Lord, all the temptations that we see on a daily basis are going to take us captive into this world. All the temptations to sexual immorality and the things that we see are going to easily take us in the things of this world. My dear brothers, if we do not covenant with the Lord, if we do not covenant with our eyes before the Lord, then the things of this world are going to easily take us either secretly, privately when no one sees or openly when we don't care anymore about the unrighteousness in which we are.

If we do not depend continually and ongoingly for the source of life that is Christ himself. We are going to end up being lovers of the world, lovers of money. Yes, saying that we work and we work and accumulating unto themselves treasures that are going to pass away and not treasuring up the words of God into our hearts and not building for ourselves mansions in heaven rather than here. My dear brother and sister, if we do not abide in the person of Jesus Christ, the next moment that trial or tribulation comes, We're going to be the ones that desert and they just move and go away from the fate of the Lord Jesus Christ because the burden was too much. And if we don't endure, my dear brother and sister, in the sound doctrine, we're going to be like those of Second Timothy chapter four that accumulate unto themselves.

Accumulate unto themselves people and preachers and teachers that teach unto themselves according to their itching ears, because they do not endure the sound doctrine of the word of the Lord. May the grace of Christ abound richly, brethren, in this context of this feeble little church cornerstone, so that we will continue to abide in Christ, endure until the end, that he will be the one that preserves us and keep us, not only here when we can see each other, but brothers and sisters, in the secret place where no one sees. When your eyes are moved, when your heart and emotions are taken, where your affections leave, that at that place Christ will be richly enthroned in our hearts, so that we will glorify him for being our King and our Lord. Amen.