Matthew-033

Today, we continue to study our systematic study of the wonder­ful teaching of our Lord Jesus from Matthew 12:22-29.

Know yourself and know your enemy

This whole passage centers on the Lord Jesus’ enemy, and ours: Satan. The word “Satan” actually means enemy, adversary. It is a Hebrew word transliterated into English, The Greek word for it, diabolos is translated into English as “devil.” The English word “diabolical” means exactly devilish. In this passage, we see that the whole theme is concerned with the enemy of our souls, and we are dealing with something really very important. Satan is a reality and a dreadful and powerful enemy. Were it not for the power of Jesus’ blood, and were it not for the Holy Spirit of God living in you and in me, we would not stand a chance against him.

Satan is a being of tremendous power and intelligence, and if you don’t believe in Satan, it’s because you haven’t been in God’s work. Anyone who has been in God’s work, and has seriously engaged in it, would have come across Satan quite a few times. We will not fear the enemy, but we will respect his power. I often quote those words from Chinese military science: “Knowing yourself and knowing your enemy is the guarantee to 100% victory!” (知己知彼，是必勝之道也!) You must know his strength and you must know his weakness. To under-estimate the enemy is always fatal; to over-estimate the enemy is also fatal. Over-estimating or under-estimating yourself are both fatal. You can see how many possibilities of error there are in spiritual warfare. Accuracy of the spiritual situation is the essence of spiritual life.

Satan has power in the spiritual and physical worlds

The enemy, Satan, is one who deserves a lot of respect on the one hand. On the other hand, he doesn’t deserve to be feared if you are a Christian. Satan can do you tremendous spiritual as well as physical damage. I say “as well as physical damage” because he has physical power too. He may attack you personally, or he may attack you through one of his agents, the demons. He has a lot of soldiers, a lot of rookies if you like; they are all his army.

I am going to share a recent happening as a vivid illustration, as it’s a very important warning for us to remember not to play around with spirits. This concerns a man who was selling Bibles in the east of England, who, although he was a Christian for many years, did not take Satan and his power, and the power of his demons too seriously. He is so typical of so many Christians, who theoretically believe in Satan, but actually don’t worry too much about it. He told me this whole account directly, and I am recounting it to you without exag­geration.

He came to this little village in the east of England, selling his Bibles and Christian books. Many people have this kind of ministry in England because they don’t feel gifted to preach or to teach the Word of God, but at least they can sell Bibles in remote places where people don’t have Christian bookshops. When the villagers heard that he was selling the Bible, they told him that there was a very wicked woman, a spirit medium working at the post office. A spirit medium is a person who can communicate directly with the spirits. You would be surprised to know how many spirit mediums there are. Of course, people do this because they get certain personal bene­fits out of it. For example, they make a pact with Satan in order to get the right numbers to win horse races and lotteries. But gradually, they become possessed. And it is a psychiatric fact that the majority of them become insane towards the end of their lives.

When this man was told about this lady, he marched to the post office, and put a tract in front of her. So this woman looked at him with two sharp, evil-looking eyes, and she slowly got up and said, “Come with me!” Going behind the counter, he followed her through a door to go upstairs. He is a big-build 6-foot fellow, so he didn’t worry about what this little woman could do to him.

It was a meeting room with all kinds of strange pictures on the wall upstairs. So he asked, “What is this place? Is this some kind of Egyptian bazaar?” And she began to explain to him what these pictures meant. When she showed him a spiritists’ meeting room, he kept telling her not to dabble in spiritism.

As he kept warning her, she suddenly turned with her hands in a sort of kungfu position, and swiftly jumped at him. He had a pen in the chest pocket of his jacket, and in a flash, she got the pen out of his pocket. (So the warning is, don’t put your pen there when you go to see spirit mediums.) He thought, she would make a very good pick-pocket with her speed! Then she began to say some strange things as she was squeezing his pen in her hand. He said, “Give me back my pen!” But she went on muttering. Finally, he said to her, “If you don’t give me back my pen, I will be obliged to take it back by force.” Then, she smilingly returned his pen to him. By now, this Bible seller felt that he had had enough of this whole place, so he stuck his pen in his pocket, and saying a few more words of warning to her, he walked out.

He went on selling his Bibles for the rest of the day, and did not think about this incident anymore. He just thought that this woman was a little bit “bananas” (crazy). By night time, he was very tired, and went to bed falling fast asleep. In the middle of the night, he could not breathe. He woke up and found himself being strangled. There was a very powerful person—and remember he himself is six feet and pretty powerful too—strangling him with very strong force. He thought, “I’m dying! I’m dying!”, while choking and unable to breathe. Then he opened his eyes and saw two strange, yellow eyes staring at him in the dark. And he thought, “This can’t be true! I must be dreaming!” But what was certainly true was that he was choking to death, and there were these two eyes staring down at him. The strange thing is when he was struggling, he could not feel anything.

He said to me, “I began to pray desperately, but my prayer didn’t seem to do anything to this enemy. In fact, I was just about going to pass out!” Finally, in desperation, I called out, “Lord Jesus!” And the moment the words “Lord Jesus” came out of my mouth, something amazing happened. Suddenly, this creature went straight out through the closed door!” Undaunted, he jumped up from bed to give chase to the evil spirit. He shouted, “Wait a minute! You’re not getting away with this!” This man really had no idea of what fear is. In his rush, he nearly banged himself on the door, because he forgot it was closed.

He chased but he couldn’t see anyone. So he returned to his room, sat down on his bed rubbing his throat wondering what it was all about. As he sat there on the bed and feeling his rather painful throat, he thought, “Ah! Now I know what that woman was doing with my pen. She was pronouncing a curse on me, and the power of the enemy was going to work on me.” He said, “I realize my lack of experience in this kind of spiritual warfare. Before putting the pen back in my pocket, I should have said, ‘Yahweh God, destroy the power of the enemy with Jesus’ precious blood.’” He was in trouble because he didn’t ask to receive the protection and the power that he needed. God allowed him to learn a lesson.

The Pharisees did Satan’s work -- slandered Jesus

I am sure from your own experience, you know the enemy’s power of attack. The enemy attacks in many ways. For example, earlier in this passage in verse 22, there is a person who was blind and dumb because a demon had rendered him both blind and dumb. The Bible distinguishes clearly between this kind of illness from the other kind which is organic illness, illness that is of physical cause. For example, in John Chapter 9, the blind man was born blind; his illness was or­ganic or physical. He was not said to be possessed. The man, crippled for 38 years, waiting beside the pool, is never said to be crippled because of a demon. It’s not at all correct to say that in the Bible, all illness is ascribed to demons.

However, this particular case in today’s passage has to do with a demon, and the Lord Jesus casts it out. Incidentally, this same power is entrusted to Christians who are true disciples of Christ, as you will have noticed in Matthew 10:1. When the Lord Jesus cast out the demon from this man, of course, he was able to both see and speak. Verse 23 tells us that the people were amazed, and said, “Can this be the Son of David?” That means the promised king who was going to save Israel. It’s another way of saying, “Is this the Messiah?”

But the Pharisees said, “He casts out demons by Beelzebul!” Beelzebul was another name for Satan, the devil, and that was the name the Jews liked to use. So the Pharisees were saying that Jesus cast out demons by Satan’s power.

Among Christians, we tend to use the name “Satan”. That is the Hebrew transliteration for “devil.” The word “devil” stems from a Greek word which means a slanderer or an accuser. Satan is always slandering other people before God; he also slanders other people before men. Slander is a very serious sin. Remember that before you speak evil of any man. If you slander a servant of God, your responsibility is really very, very great because you are doing Satan’s work for him. Here the Pharisees are doing Satan’s work because they are slandering Jesus. If you were doing something for God and someone says, “You are just a Satan follower!” I wonder how you would feel about that. What I find so impressive here is the quiet, unemotional response of the Lord Jesus. He did not lose his temper. What is remarkable is that there is no sign of anger from the Lord Jesus at all. Rather, he speaks quietly to them to show them their foolishness.

Jesus’ attitudes in confronting slander and satanic attack

1. Clarity of mind

Jesus says, “Every kingdom that is divided against itself will fall. Don’t you realize that? Either the demon is really cast out, or it’s not. If Satan were casting out Satan, he would just have to put on a show; it would not be a real casting out. So if the demon is not really cast out, the man will still remain blind and dumb. If the demon is truly cast out, then the man will no longer be blind and dumb, and it cannot be Satan’s work, otherwise Satan would be casting out Satan, destroying himself.”

The first thing we see is the clarity of mind. In spiritual things, all you need is to think a little clearly. I have found that nowhere is there more muddle-headed thinking than in the area of religion. Some­times, even Christians can say the most absurd things without even pausing to realize how absurd it is. And those who are in training have had occasion to observe quite a few times that this is the case. You can give an exegesis that is completely wrong without realizing it. And all one needs to do is to show them, “Can’t you see that it is both logically and exegetically wrong?” And immediately, they will say, “Oh yes! We see it now. It’s strange that we’ve made such a mistake!”

There is so much muddle-headedness, a lack of clarity of thought in the area of religion. So when the Lord Jesus pointed out to the Pharisees how erroneous, illogical and silly their reasoning is, they couldn’t reply. We must not imagine that being a Christian is to be irrational or stupid. Although we don’t rely purely on human reasoning, I have found that a redeemed person should also have his thinking redeemed. That is, if our spirits have been freed from error, so should our thinking.

2. Calmness out of loving the truth

The Lord Jesus said another thing, “All right! If you are saying that I cast out Satan by Satan,” (which we have already seen is completely illogical), “then let me ask you, by whom do your sons (or workers) cast out demons? You tell me, by what power do they cast out Satan?” Then he goes on beginning at Matthew 10:28. Notice the humility of his words; there is no dogmatism: “If it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out Satan, then you know that the kingdom has come upon you.” This is the second thing I find so beautiful about the Lord’s attitude. He doesn’t say to them, “Listen! It is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons,” banging on his pulpit. He is so un-dogmatic, so un-argumentative that it is really amazing! He says, “Well, if it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons, then you know that you are in trouble, my friends.”

What does this attitude of Jesus tell us? It tells us something very important in our battle against Satan. The people who shout are those who are very nervous, because they are not so sure that they are right after all. Have you ever talked to some Christian worker, and noticed that the moment you question him a bit, he gets more nervous, excited and aggressive? The more he cannot answer your questions, the more aggressive he crushes you saying, “You are resisting God! Your heart is hardened!” I would like to hear the Christian worker who has the calmness to say, “Now if what I say to you is true, you’d better consider your position.” You will say, “That’s putting it too weakly; we’ve got to put it really hard.” When you speak to a person who knows and understands the truth, you will notice a certain calmness about him; he is in no hurry to win his case. But those in error are the ones who turn red in the face.

I always remember that long, public debate I was challenged to by some Jehovah’s Witnesses in Scotland. I did not challenge them, they challenged me to an open debate, and I accepted it only for the sake of the other people, not because I enjoyed any argument. Their reaction illustrates exactly this point: the more they were losing the debate because they could not prove their case from the Word of God, the more they got red in the face and lost their temper. By the end of it, they were steaming with temper. But we who were speaking for God’s Word, remained calm and cool. The truth will win through in the end, and we were not in a hurry.

I have always said that a Christian must have the attitude of loving the truth, not fighting for this doctrine, and arguing for that doctrine. If my doctrine is wrong, I am most grateful to you if you will correct me, because it is the truth that we love. If what I say is right, I don’t have to get red in the face. The truth will come through. Or if the person doesn’t want to hear it, then I will leave the argument as it is. My getting red in the face will not convince him. I learned this wonderful attitude from the Lord Jesus. He loves the truth. He is not fighting for his reputation. A person who has the Lord Jesus’ attitude doesn’t get angry when slandered most seriously.

You try saying to a pastor, “You are speaking like the devil.” I think you will be flung out of the church! You will be in big trouble. I don’t suggest that you should try that, but if ever anyone is saying that to him, I think it would be very interesting to observe his reaction. I pray to God that we might react in exactly the same way as the Lord Jesus, who tried to help the Pharisees by speaking clear, plain logic and not threat or abuse.

The reason why I have spent some time on this is because if you are going to deal with Satan, you are going to lose your temper. To do that is the quickest way to fall into his trap. Losing your temper is exactly what Satan wants you to do. But if you only love the truth no matter what happens to your reputation, you won’t fall into Satan’s pit.

3. He must bind the strong man, Satan to set us free

He comes to the third point in answering these accusing Pharisees, and says, “How can you enter a strong man’s house to plunder his goods unless you first bind the strong man?” In other words, he is saying, “Do you know what I am doing? By casting out the demon, I am binding the strong man.” He is quietly and calmly explaining to these blind and bitter Pharisees what he is doing. He says, “The kingdom of God is coming to set you free, because right now you are bound by Satan, the strong man.” Notice the Lord Jesus’ description of Satan.

Today, I often hear pastors saying, “Satan is a defeated, crushed enemy.” But the implication presumably is that you don’t have to worry about him whatsoever. That is a dangerous half-truth. The Lord Jesus doesn’t under-estimate his enemy. He doesn’t say, “You can disregard Satan, he is crushed, he is beaten, you can just walk over him.” You will do nothing of this sort. He describes Satan as a strong man, not just a man but a strong one. Moreover, we see a very impressive sight in the parallel passage in Luke 11:21: “a strong man, fully armed” with his armor, his sword in his hand, and all his weapons at the ready. The Lord’s teaching is very different from that of many pastors. Satan is still armed today. He is still well-equipped and able to do you tremendous damage.

That is why the apostle Paul in Ephesians 6:13 says, “Put on the whole armor of God, and having done everything, stand.” Paul is saying that even if you are fully equipped with the whole armor of God, you might just manage to stand, let alone advance against the enemy.

In 2 Corinthians 2:11, the apostle Paul says, “We are not ignorant of his devices. We know he is a powerful, cunning enemy.” You can see that the servant of God, the apostle Paul, is a well-experienced spiritual soldier. He is warning us not to under-estimate our enemy.

The apostle Peter does the same thing. He warns us in 1 Peter 5:8, “Your enemy, the devil is going around like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour.” Notice the picture, a lion is a very powerful animal. Peter doesn’t under-estimate the enemy and paints him like some snail or some worm. No, he is a lion, very well-armed with strong fists. And Peter is speaking to Christians whom Satan may devour, and “devour” means to eat up, to utterly destroy. The non-Christians are already under his bondage. He is telling Christians to watch out.

The Doctrine of “Once saved always saved” leads to destruction

However, today, we have another doctrine in the church that assures us that there is no danger whatsoever. We seem to be full of teachings in the church today, that is designed to lull us to sleep in the midst of battle. It seems to me that Satan has really advanced into the church. We are told that “once you are saved you are always saved,” and therefore, Satan can never devour you. You don’t have to worry about such a thing. Why should you worry about putting on the whole armor of God when you are invincible, you are “once saved always saved”? What can all the fiery darts of the devil do to you? Therefore, what was meant to be a comforting doctrine turns out to be a doctrine of destruction.

If we cannot be devoured by the roaring lion, is Peter just talking nonsense? Is he just trying to make empty threats on Satan’s behalf? But Peter did not say, “Watch out! Your great adversary, the lion might give you a lick on the hand.” He did not say, “He might come and nibble your ear.” Or “He might chew your foot a little bit.” He said nothing of the kind. He said, “He will devour you!” Yet, we are told, “No, don’t worry! Once saved, you are always saved. Why worry about this?” Let me ask you, is this a doctrine of God or not of God? I let you judge for yourself.

Little wonder today, when we preach to Christians about Ephesians 6, they say, “Why all the fuss about putting on the armor of God, putting on the helmet of salvation? We are okay without the helmet and the armor. We are securely saved!”

Whenever I warn against this doctrine of “Once saved always saved,” people say, “Hey! Isn’t that a church doctrine?” I don’t know what church doctrine it is, but I am speaking about the Word of God. I am not concerned about doctrine if it cannot be proved from the Word of God. I am concerned about beloved brothers and sisters, not about some doctrine. What worries me is that some people are more concerned about doctrine than about the souls of the people. The Pharisees were more concerned about their doctrines than about the souls of people. So they hated Jesus so much because Jesus tram­pled on their doctrines, and he did so because he loved the people so much.

False teaching has no compassion

From Matthew 12:7-13, which we are not preaching on today, you will find that there was a man with a withered hand in the synagogue, and the Lord Jesus said to the Pharisees, “According to you, is it lawful to heal a man, to do a good thing on the Sabbath day or not? You, Bible scholars, answer me.” According to the Pharisees, their doctrine did not allow healing sick people on Sabbath day. That is a day of rest; no work is to be done, and healing is work. They said, “No.” Jesus said, “Look, if one of your sheep fell into the pit on the Sabbath day, would you leave that sheep to die in the pit on the Sabbath day? Every one of you would rescue your sheep from the pit on the Sabbath day. How much greater is the value of a person than a sheep!”

The doctrine of the religious people did not allow it, because they said, “Our Bible (the Old Testament) exposition tells us that this cannot be done.” They claimed that their doctrine was based on the Bible. And Jesus told them that any doctrine that regarded people less than the doctrine itself was not God’s doctrine. He said, “If you didn’t understand that mercy is more important than sacrifice, that is religious performance, you haven’t understood God’s Word” (cf. Mt. 9:13, 12:7).

And what is mercy? Can you say that it’s merciful to tell a person, “Out there is a lion walking around, but just go out. You know the lion can’t do anything to you. No, he is powerless. He has teeth but he’ll never touch you”? Either you don’t believe Satan is a lion, who has the power to destroy you, or you believe that he can destroy you. And if you don’t believe that, you haven’t believed the Word of God. But you won’t believe that Satan can destroy you if you are told you are “once saved always saved,” you can never be hurt.

I ask you to choose which is true from the Word of God because they cannot both be true. They are contradictory. But if you think that the lion cannot hurt Christians, just let a little child go out into the safari park sometime, I would like to see if you believe it or not. It’s absurd either to teach people today such an untruth, saying that the enemy could not hurt us even though he is powerful, or tell them the enemy does not exist.

The Lord Jesus teaches us to beg God: “Deliver us from the evil one”

The Lord Jesus taught his disciples to pray, “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.” (Mt. 6:13) That prayer was for Christians, not for unbelievers. But we are assured that there is no need to worry about any deliverance from the evil one, because it is “once delivered always delivered.” The apostles Peter and Paul were making a great fuss about nothing. At most, Satan might chew your fingers a bit, and that is a painful experience, but he cannot do you any harm. Paul says, “Put on the breastplate right in front of your heart, so that Satan’s fiery arrows will not shoot right into your heart. And when his arrow shoots into your heart, it isn’t just chewing your fingers.” You know what happens when an arrow goes into your heart. I ask you to consider God’s Word. I don’t mind what the church or some pastors want to say about me, I am concerned about your eternal welfare, brothers and sisters.

Satan is a strong man

The Lord Jesus describes Satan as a “strong” man. First, he doesn’t under-estimate him who can do tremendous harm because he is fully armed, that is, he is powerful. (Lk. 11:21)

Secondly, to say that Satan is “strong” means he is not only powerful but he also has authority.

The third point you see about Satan is that he is described as a person, not as some kind of thing. Evil has no abstract existence any more than good has. Good and evil don’t have abstract existence. In other words, I cannot point and say, “Look! Here is a piece of evil.” Evil has no existence apart from persons, and good has no existence apart from persons. Therefore you will understand why the Bible says only God is good. He is the embodiment of goodness. Without him, there would not be such a thing as good. And the Bible tells us that Satan is the embodiment of evil, if there were no Satan, there would be no such thing as evil in an enduring sense.

Satan’s power was breached at Calvary, but he must be bound in each person

The Lord Jesus goes on to say, “The only way you can set people free is to bind Satan, he has to have his power cramped.” We must not get the idea that Satan is bound once and for all. Many preachers have given us the idea that Satan was bound at Calvary, and since then, he has forever been bound. And because Satan was bound at Calvary, Satan is now a poor, impotent prisoner of war with his hands tied behind his back. There is no such Bible doctrine! If that were the case, again, what Paul is warning us about Satan in Ephesians 6:12 and what Peter is warning us in 1 Peter 5:8 is all pointless.

The Lord Jesus is not saying Satan is now bound for good at the present time, but that Satan is being bound in individual cases. He is saying, “For example, when this man who was both blind and dumb is set free, it is in this instance Satan is bound, his power over this person has been destroyed.”

We are fighting a battle to liberate person after person. Right now, we are fighting a spiritual battle of Stalingrad. Stalingrad became the epitome of a hand-to-hand, inch-by-inch battle. The Germans and the Russians fought over Stalingrad literally inch by inch. So bitter was the fighting that they advanced only a few feet every day. They had to fight over every stone, every room, every street, from house to house, room to room.

You might say that Christ’s power is surely victorious over Satan, but it is not “victorious” if there were no battle. At Calvary, Satan was defeated. The power of the enemy was breached. That was the turning point. That one particular battle has decided the issue once and for all. From the point of Calvary on, the battle goes one way. However, it did not mean that Satan put down his guns; he has not surrendered. He is going on to fight.

There was a point in WWII, when everyone knew that Germany was finished, but it did not mean that the Germans put down their arms and surrendered from that point. From that point on, the battle was every bit as bitter as before, but the victory was on the Allied side. Although from that point on in WWII, the Germans were sure to lose, still, many Allied soldiers lost their lives. By the time of the Normandy invasion, the Alliance was pretty confident of winning, otherwise they would not have launched that invasion. But how many laid down their lives on the beaches of Normandy never to stand up again!

In the same way, Satan is bound to lose. He has been defeated at Calvary, but he has not surrendered. His weapons are still deadly and his aim is very good. He is well-practiced in warfare. And that is why Paul is warning, “Yes, the enemy is defeated, but he can take a lot of casualties out of you.” We are only told in Revelation 20:2 that Satan will be fully bound and thrown into the bottomless pit for a thousand years. We haven’t reached that time yet. It means that up until then, he is still very much around and he still has tremendous power to inflict damage. He has power to kill, power to devour. Don’t make any mistake about it. He can shoot his fiery dart straight at your heart, and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. He can literally wipe you out if you are not on your guard. When you expound the Bible, you must expound it accurately.

The Lord Jesus’ warns: Watch out for Satan and pray!

Time and again, the Lord Jesus warned his disciples, “Watch and pray! Watch and pray lest you fall into temptation! Be careful! The enemy is powerful.” But which preacher today warns us to watch and pray? Why watch and pray? You don’t have to watch and pray about a defeated, crushed enemy. You don’t worry about him. I beg of you to notice the difference of this teaching, because your eternal welfare depends on it. Like the Lord Jesus, I beg of you to watch and pray because the enemy will be able to wipe you out if you don’t. Don’t you say, “I’m a Christian. I’m okay for good no matter how I behave, how I live, I can sin as much as I like. I’ll get a little bit hurt, I’ll receive some discipline, but I will be okay. My place is reserved for me in heaven.” Don’t you believe it, because if you believe that, I will have the sadness of not seeing you there on that Day. Satan loves that kind of doctrine. There is nothing the boxer loves so much as the opponent puts his guard down. All you need is the kind of doctrine that tells you, “Put your guard down, there’s no danger.”

And yet, there are preachers and pastors today, who will get red in the face defending a doctrine which says “Once saved always saved.” To teach a doctrine that tells you that you don’t have to watch and pray; you can be complacent; you don’t need to worry, is a disaster of all time! If I were to enter a boxing competition, I would get one of my friends to pretend to be my opponent’s friend, and indoctrinate him saying, “This guy who’s coming in the ring with you is nothing. You don’t have to train every day. Don’t worry about him. When you step in the ring, just blow at him, and he’ll go right down.” So when I come into the ring with him, my opponent is overweight, flabby, untrained, and he is taking life easy with a big, smug smile on his face. Oh, that’s just good for me!

Do you see that that is what Satan has done to us? Satan has told us through all kinds of well-intentioned preachers saying, “Don’t worry about Satan. He is a pushover. Just shout at him and he runs for his life, because we are the children of God.” If you believe this lie, when you get into that ring with Satan, he will make minced meat out of you!

Where are the people who became Christians at some winter or summer conference, or became Christians a year ago, where are they? Satan has just wiped them out. Teach the doctrine, “Once saved always saved” wherever you like, and 80% of your hearers will be wiped out in the first year. If you don’t think my statistics are accurate, go and check the statistics yourself. Ask the pastors about these people who have made a profession of faith, who have put their trust in Jesus, “Where are they today? What is this doctrine of “Once saved always saved”? What’s happened to my friend?” The pastors and church workers have no answer to this question. Or they would say, “Well, these people never believed in the first place.” Yet I know these people, and you may have been there as they came forward with tears running down their face. Are the pastors telling me they did not really believe?

Satan has had his field day, hasn’t he? He has really made minced meat of a great part of the church. Just look at those Christians who have been Christians in the churches for a few years, what do they look like? They are beaten, crippled people.

I beg of you one more time, watch and pray, because your enemy is a roaring lion. He is very powerful. Notice, he is not afraid to roar, which shows just how little he’s afraid of you. Normally, a lion does not roar when it stalks his prey for the attack. It only roars when it has complete confidence that its prey cannot get away. Or it also roars if it’s injured. Hunters know that a wounded lion is much more dangerous than a lion that is not wounded. Either way, a wounded lion, or a lion that has cornered its prey is very, very dangerous! Therefore, watch out for your enemy. If you lose a boxing round, that’s a very small thing, but when Satan seizes you, you stand to lose your soul!

You only overcome Satan when you become a new, spiritual person

I will say one more time: Unless Christ is in you, you don’t stand a chance against Satan. You can say to Satan, “I believe in Jesus.” That won’t impress him. There is only one kind of person that commands some respect from Satan, that is the new, spiritual person, who is united with Christ. It is in this person that God’s Holy Spirit lives in fullness of power. Then it will be like what the apostle John says, “He that is in you is mightier than he that is in the world” (1 Jo. 4:4). When God’s Holy Spirit lives in you, you can advance, and win the battle against Satan.

I pray that you will understand that you will never survive on your own strength. You will overcome Satan only when you are a new person, united with Christ, so that you have God’s Holy Spirit living in you and working with you.