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So 1998, a new movie had come out. I called my dad and asked if he wanted to go to it. We went to a movie theater and something happens in that auditorium that I'll never forget. It wasn't so much with what was on the screen, that was certainly part of it, but it was what was happening in the auditorium.
Because see, was a war movie and the opening scene was intense and it was this Normandy invasion, these young guys that are coming and there was just this slaughter taking place, but during this scene, I started watching some of the older men in the audience get up and they began to pace in the aisles.
And I began to realize that these were probably men who had fought in the Vietnam or the Korean War, maybe World War II.
And as we were watching that open scene of Saving Private Ryan and I was watching what was happening to these men, some of them would glance at the screen and then look back down and some of them would start to cry and some of them were shaking and I myself, I've never been in combat, but I realized from what I was watching on the screen and what I was seeing the effect on these men, I realized what General Sherman said, the general from the Civil War, how true it was, the war is hell.
The war is hell. Now I'm gonna use that word often in this message today, and I don't use it as a curse word, I use it as a descriptive word, because if we're gonna talk about the devil, we have to talk about hell, don't we? The devil and hell go together.
You see, historians recently discovered that in over five thousand years of human history, there's only been two ninety two years of peace. Think about that. Five
thousand plus years of human history, and in the totality of that time, there's been fighting or wars going on somewhere on this planet other than just two ninety two years. But in that same time period, there has not been a second of peace and another kind of war that's going on. A
battle that's taking place in every person's life, every second of their life, every corner of this earth, it's the spiritual war.
The spiritual battle is going on. That's why the big idea for this weekend is that we're in a fight and the battle is over you. We're in a fight and the battle is over you. You're in a fight and the battle is over you. I'm in a fight and the battle is over me. See, two thousand six hundred years ago, a general,
a Chinese general named Sun Tzu wrote a book called The Art of War. You probably don't realize it, but I guarantee you, you've heard it quoted at some point. If you've ever read a leadership book, if you've ever been to a leadership conference,
if you were in the military, I guarantee you were using some of the tactics that Sun Tzu wrote about two thousand six hundred years ago. But one of the things that Sun Tzu said is if you want to defeat your enemy, you have to know who your enemy is.
That's what this series is about. We have an enemy who is hell bent on destroying us. We need to know who this enemy is. So what we're gonna do today is we're gonna look at who is this enemy, why does he hate us, what's his battle plan, and how does he fight. If you have your Bibles, open to Matthew chapter four.
Matthew is the first book in the newer testament.
I'm gonna give you a workout if you have a hard copy Bible and you're looking around today, because I'm gonna be all over the Bible, but I'm gonna try to give you time to find the different passages, because it's so important for you to see these. But let me do what I often do, I wanna pause and pray.
And I wanna pray today, because here's what I think is happening. God takes this battle very seriously. The devil takes this battle very seriously, but sometimes we don't take it very serious.
So I wanna pause and pray that God would speak to us in a powerful way. God, I pray, spirit of God, I pray that you would just open our hearts and minds. God, I recognize how true that is, that you take this serious, you tell us this in your word, the devil takes this serious, but so often we just roll through life and we forget, we ignore, we try to pretend like there's not a battle, a life and death, heaven and hell battle.
And so God, I pray right now that you would help us understand these truths. We love you, Jesus, and all God's people said, amen.
So a couple of years ago, I was walking through a bookstore and I looked over and I saw this book on the stand, you'll see a picture of it on the screen. Now, I didn't read the book, I don't know anything about the book, but just the title alone made me pause in that bookstore and ask the question,
who does rule the world? Now, since we're in church, everybody would answer, the church answers always Jesus or God, right? Like almost anytime someone asks a question in church, you can just say Jesus, and you're usually right, but not so fast on this one. Back up with me two thousand years,
Jesus is living on earth in the flesh, God in the flesh. He spent about thirty years in this obscure village called Nazareth. Now he's around 30 years old. His cousin John the Baptist has recently baptized him and publicly proclaimed him as long awaited Hamashiach, long awaited Messiah,
and now the spirit of God, Matthew four tells us, the spirit of God leads Jesus out into the wilderness where he's gonna fast for forty days and pray for forty days, but the devil's gonna be tempting him. So we're gonna kinda pick it up in the middle of that story. Watch what happens. This is fascinating. Matthew chapter four, skip down to verse eight. It says, next the devil, meaning the devil's already come to him at least once. Next the devil took him to the peak of a very high mountain and showed him how many of the kingdoms? All
kingdoms of the world and their glory, and this is what the devil tells Jesus. I will give it all to you, he said, if you will kneel down and worship me. Here's what I find fascinating.
That if you were to read the next verses, Jesus doesn't say to the devil, you don't have these kingdoms to give me. These aren't your kingdoms to give. He doesn't say that, why not? Because the Bible in several places actually refers to the devil as the ruler of the kingdoms of this world.
Now, we know that he's not the ultimate ruler. This is where the right church answer is true. Who's the ruler, the ultimate ruler of this universe? Jesus.
That's the church answer, and it's right this time. He's the creator of this universe. He's the sustainer of this universe. Spoiler alert, he's the one that someday every knee will bow to and every tongue confess. He is the ultimate ruler, yes. He's
the ultimate ruler, but, the Bible tells us that the devil has a tremendous amount of influence, that he is the ruler of kingdoms of this world. He has a tremendous amount of influence and power in the kingdoms and the governments of this world. He has a tremendous
amount of influence and power in the philosophies and the education and the commerce and the families and churches and governments of this world. He has tremendous influence and power. We're in a fight and the battle is over you. We cannot forget that. But his son Sue said
two thousand six hundred years ago, we need to know our enemy. Who is he? Why does he hate us? What's his battle plan? And how does he fight?
So flip over, you're in Matthew four right now, flip over in your Bibles right now to Isaiah chapter 14. Who is this devil? Now again, if you're newer to church or maybe you've never read this before, when you think of the devil, think of what we've seen, right? Couple of horns, tail, pitchfork,
and he's kind of a bad guy, a little bit scary. That's what we think of him. But where did he come from? How did this all start?
Well, there's two passages in the Old Testament that speak to this. Ezekiel chapter 28, which we don't have time to look at today, and Isaiah 14. But if we had time to look at Ezekiel chapter 28, it would talk about where the devil came from. That he was actually this beautiful angelic being that God created. He was one of the most important angels. He was holy, he was undefiled,
he was magnifying God's brilliance. That's what his job was. What happened to him? Isaiah 14, look at this, in Isaiah chapter 14, skip down to verse 12 now, it's gonna start to explain to us what happened in history past, where did this devil come from?
The writer says, How you are fallen from heaven, O shining star. Now a lot of times when the Bible talks about angels, it refers to angels as the stars in the sky. Hold on to that because we're gonna see another passage with that idea.
How you have fallen from heaven, O shining star, son of the morning. Some of your translations will actually say, O morning star. So it's referring to the devil,
who used to be this angel, as the morning star. So if you've ever come out early in the morning, the sun is just coming up, and you can't see any of the stars now, except for one which we call the morning star because it's brighter than all the other stars.
That's why the writer does that here, is the writer's saying that this angel wasn't just any angel, he was the most brilliant angel. He was beautiful, he was holy, he was undefiled. That's who this was.
But keep reading, look what happens. You've been thrown down to the earth, you who destroyed the nations of the world. Why was he thrown down? What happened?
The next verse is gonna give us an indication of that. And I want you to watch this, count with me, you're gonna see five times where the devil somewhere in the past in history, five times he's gonna say, I will,
and look at his pride and arrogance, watch this. Verse 13, for you said or because you said you were thrown out of heaven, because you said to yourself, number one, I will ascend to heaven. Number two, I will set my throne above God's stars. Number three, I will preside on the mountain of gods, the gods far away in the North. Number four, I will climb to the highest heavens. Number five, I will be like the Most High.
You talk about arrogance and pride. This beautiful, brilliant angel that was created to reflect the magnificence of God is now standing there saying, I'm gonna become like God. I'm gonna take that glory that he deserves and I'm gonna have it for myself.
The very first sin that you'll ever read about in the Bible, the very first sin right there, pride. And you know what's interesting? I sat down one time and I started writing down every sin that I could think of that we commit as human beings and I couldn't come up with one that doesn't go back to the root of pride.
Try it sometime, you start thinking through every sin that you can think of that we commit as human beings and you will find at the root of it is pride. The very first sin was pride.
This beautiful angel saying, I will be like the Most High, and because of that, he was thrown out of heaven. Now flip over to Revelation 12.
Revelation is the last book in the Bible, go to the very end. Revelation 12, we're gonna actually see a little bit more of this story of what happened when he was thrown out of heaven in history past. Now, while you're finding Revelation 12, let me give you the setting for Revelation. I've shared this before, but I want us to understand this because the book of Revelation is a very confusing book to a lot of people.
It's a lot of symbolism in there,
but the reason that the book of Revelation was written is because a guy named John who spent four or five years of his life with his Jesus, the last three or four years of Jesus' life he was with him. He saw Jesus perform miracles, he saw Jesus teach, he saw Jesus die, he saw Jesus rise from the dead, he saw Jesus ascend into heaven. And John now is an old man. All of his friends, those 11 other disciples that he was following Jesus with, Judas killed himself, but the other 10 have all been martyred.
John's an old man, his friends have all been killed, the church is under intense persecution in Rome, and John is sitting looking at his world like you and I sometimes do going, I know what this says, but it sure looks like evil's winning.
God, I know you said you're gonna win, but it sure looks like evil's winning. You ever been there? And so what God does with John is he allows John to see a picture of the future. That's the book of Revelation.
And I can sum, I've done this before, but let me sum up the whole book of Revelation. This is it, simply, Jesus wins. That's it. That's the story.
Because you and I sometimes, we look around, we're going, it sure seems like evil's winning. Read the book of Revelation, you find out the end of the story, Jesus wins. Spoiler alert. But Revelation chapter 12, as he's seeing these different visions,
he sees a vision that connects a little bit to where did this devil, this enemy that we have come from? How did this happen? Revelation 12, look at verse three with me. John says, Then I witnessed in heaven another significant event. I saw a large red dragon. Now this is apocalyptic literature,
meaning there's a lot of symbolism. This is the devil he's talking about. I saw a large red dragon with seven heads, 10 horns, and seven crowns on his head. A lot of times when we draw Satan, we draw him with his little, you know, he's got his little horns and his tail and his pitchfork, and what we should probably do is give him seven heads, 10 horns, and seven crowns, But that's symbolic, I don't have time to explain what it's symbolizing other than this. Suffice it to say, the writer is saying this isn't some mediocre enemy that we have.
This is indicating he is a powerful enemy. Look at the next verse, verse four, this is describing what happened then. His tail swept away one third of the
stars. Remember what I said, when the Bible talks about stars, it's often talking about angels. His tail swept away one third of the stars in the sky, and he threw them to the earth. So see what happened, Isaiah 14, when
the devil, who has created this beautiful, holy, undefiled angel said, I will be like the most high, and he was kicked out of heaven, he took a onethree of the angels with him. That's what we call the demonic realm now.
That's who our enemy is. Remember what Sun Tzu said two thousand six hundred years ago, if you wanna defeat your enemy, you better know who he is. Who is our enemy? He's an angel that made a devil out of himself. So why does he hate us?
So why does he hate us?
Rock Point, this is so important for you to get. If you're watching online, this is so important for you to get. In fact, I'm gonna give you a quote, write this down or take a picture of it, it's gonna be on the screen. Our enemy, the devil does not hate us because of who we are, but because of whose we are.
I'm gonna do that again. We gotta get a little bit more than just we need some amens or something because that is tied to our identity, friends, this is so true. Our enemy, the devil, does not hate us because of who we are, but because of whose we are. Amen. Our enemy,
the devil, does not hate us because of who we are, but because of whose we are. He hates us because of who our dad is. He hates us because of who our father is. We are the pinnacle of his creation.
When God created everything, the angels aren't the pinnacle of God's creation. The only thing created in the image of God are you and I as human beings. We are the sons and daughters of God. And because of that, this enemy that was thrown out of heaven because he wanted to be like God,
he hates us, he despises us, not because of who we are, but because of whose we are. You see, you disliked me, I mean not just dislike me, but despised me and hated me and wanted me dead and for some reason you couldn't get to me, who would you attack? My children.
The mob learned this a long time ago, didn't they? Street gangs learned this a long time ago. You wanna really hurt someone, go after their kids. See, the devil knows he can't get God, so he'll go after his kids. That's why we're hated,
not because of who we are, but because of whose we are. So we know who the devil is, he's an angel that made the devil out of himself. We know why he hates us, not because of who we are, but because of whose we are. But what's his battle plan?
Flip over to John chapter 10 now. This is a verse that you should probably put to memory. You should memorize this verse because remember, we're in a fight and the battle is over us. You should memorize this verse and quote this often. Sometimes quote it right to the devil and his demonic realm, sometimes quote it to yourself.
But in John chapter 10, Jesus is telling a story, a parable, and partway through that story, he says this, this is critical for you and I to get, what's the battle plan of our enemy? Watch this. The thief, the devil, the demonic realm, our enemy, the thief's purpose, Jesus said, is to what? Steal and kill and destroy.
That's his plan, that's his goal. That's all he wants to do with you. He wants to steal and kill and destroy you. That's his only goal. Now Jesus differentiates that and says, but my purpose, the reason I came, is to give them a rich and satisfying life. Some translations will say to give them a life or a full life or an abundant life.
The thief, the enemy,
the devil, his only goal is to steal and kill and destroy. Jesus is saying, but I've come that you may have life and have it to the full. I've come that you can become everything that God made you to be, but the devil, all he wants to do is steal, kill and destroy. So you've probably heard it said before that God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life. That's true. But guess what? The devil hates you and has a horrible plan for your life.
We forget that sometimes. See, what happens is some of us errantly think that the moment that we gave our lives to Jesus, that moment where we said, Jesus, I accept you as my Savior and Lord, that at that moment, the devil in his demonic realm threw up their hands and went, well, I lost that. Oh no,
he still, and I'm not using this as a curse word, I'm using this as a descriptive word, he is still hell bent on making sure that you and I, as children of God, remain as weak, ineffective, anemic Jesus followers.
So the battle's not over. Just because you've given your life to Jesus, the battle's not over. It's still raging, because now he's gonna make sure that you never become who God made you to be. You never become the man that God made you to be or the woman that God made you to be. In fact,
when Paul who wrote two thirds of the newer testament, when Paul was writing some Jesus followers in Ephesus, he said this, he's talking about the spiritual battle, and you don't need to turn there because I'm actually gonna use it in the way the message paraphrases it because I love how Eugene
Peterson paraphrases this. I read the message a lot from my devotions because this is in modern English, But look what Eugene Peterson says, Ephesians six verse 12. He says, this is no afternoon athletic contest that we'll walk away from. Paul is saying this to the Jesus followers in Ephesus.
And forget about in a couple of hours. This is for keeps. Life or death, fight to the finish against the devil and all his angels. See, if the Apostle Paul was standing up here, if he was speaking to you and not me, here's what he'd be saying. He'd be saying, Rock Point,
do you understand that this battle that you're in, you don't get to decide whether you wanna be in it or not. You didn't get to wake up today and say, I don't feel like fighting. You're in this battle whether you like it or not, and it's not just an afternoon contest.
It's not like we're shadow boxing. This is heaven and hell, life and death. That's what Paul is trying to get across. And I can't emphasize enough how serious we have to take this. Like I said, God takes this serious, the devil takes this serious. I think for a lot of us, we really don't take it that serious very often,
but it is. And some weeks like this last week, I'm reminded of how serious it is. In just the last seven to ten days, some of the news I've received about some of my friends, a pastor whose wife died of suicide and left him and his five kids and another gentleman that I've known for years and
he was a brilliant business person and a leader of leaders, and he led international companies, and now because of abuse and trauma that he faced as a child, he's just mentally, he's just coming unwound right now, and his life is being destroyed.
And I saw those things and as I read and saw and heard those things this last week, at one point I was praying for those guys and I just, I put my head down and said, Mare and Nance, come quickly, Jesus. Come quickly, Jesus, because I know how the story ends. I read the end of the story.
When he comes back someday, there won't be any more divorce or suicide or rape or pillaging or cancer, diseases, death, bitterness, anger, unforgiveness, it'll all be taken care of forever. But right now, we're in this battle. Sometimes I get so tired of seeing the destruction that our enemy is wreaking in our lives,
in our family's lives and in this world. Do you ever get tired of seeing that? God takes this serious, the devil takes it serious, but sometimes we don't take it serious enough. When I was teaching
at a Christian school years ago, a junior high kid, I love teaching junior high because junior high kids will ask questions that adults are afraid to ask.
And so this one junior high kid raised his hand, he goes, Mr. McCullough, is it wrong to hate the devil? I'm like, that's such a great question, why is no adult ever asked me that question? Is it wrong to hate the devil?
So I started thinking about that a little bit, I brewed on it a little bit, I thought, you know what, if you don't hate the devil, I don't think you have any idea how evil he is. See, it's wrong to hate people because Ephesians six, our battle is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities,
demonic realm, that's where battle is with. If you don't hate Satan, I don't think you realize how evil he is. I don't think you realize how evil his plans for your life is. I don't think you realize what he's trying to do to you and your family. I remember a youth camp that I was at, one of the counselors,
I was one of the counselors there in the back of the room there was a teenage girl and we found out later her story, she had been physically, sexually, emotionally abused, she was cutting, she was addicted to drugs and alcohol, she'd been suicidal the last few days,
God had her in that audience and the speaker was speaking about this Jesus and how much he loved them and how he wanted them to have this life and have it to the full, and then at the end he gave, I'm gonna use a churchy word here, he gave an altar call, he invited them to come forward, anybody that wanted to know Jesus,
And this girl got up from the back and she started to walk and then she started to jog and then she started to run forward. And as she started
walking, jogging and running, started in a whisper, but then by the time she got to the front, it wasn't a whisper anymore, she was literally screaming it at the top of her lungs. And I can't say what she said in church today, but she was cursing the devil.
And she was cursing the devil all the way down to the point where she started screaming and she claps in the front and she was on her face weeping,
just screaming, cursing the devil. Blank the devil, blank the devil, blank the devil, she was saying. And one of the counselors said, mean this is a church camp, we can't ever talk like that. And thankfully another counselor said, no, no, no, God is doing something. I
think that girl understood in that moment the spiritual warfare far more than we do. I think that girl in that moment understood how evil the devil was and what he was doing in her life and what he had been doing to her better than many of us do.
See, all have pivot moments in our life, we get it, you could all share pivot moments. One of my pivot moments was similar to that girl's. I was in early high school, I had grown up in a Christian home, I had gone to a Christian school, we'd been going to church, we were the model family.
My dad was a strict disciplinarian, so I'd hear other families saying, why don't you act more like the McCullough kids, because we were well behaved,
but no one knew what was really happening behind closed doors, no one really knew the lies that were going on, no one really knew the brokenness, and all of that started coming out in my early high school years. I remember one day there was a desperate situation that had happened. I was home alone now. I was dealing with the brokenness of the situation, and like that girl that day, I just got so
angry with what I saw the devil doing to me and my family. I started going from room to room and it was a pivot moment in my life. I went from room to room saying, I hate you Satan. I hate what you're doing to me and my family.
And I'd go to every room in my house and then I ended up in the living room on my face saying, I hate you devil, I hate what you're doing to me and my family. It was a pivot moment for me because I think in that moment I understood the spiritual battle better than I ever had before.
I understood what the enemy was doing to me and my family. We're in a fight and the battle is over you, our enemy is hell bent on destroying us, he's come to steal and kill and destroy. You recognize it changes how you fight when you know what you're fighting for, right?
It changes how you fight when you know what you're fighting for.
Years ago, I was reading an article in the paper and it was online and it was about a dad and a husband who had woke up in the middle of the night and he heard a noise out in the hallway and so he went out and he saw an intruder in his house and so the article is saying he chased him out in the street and he caught him and there was a struggle in the street and then the guy got away. The article was saying that the intruder had actually come in and abused the man's daughter. And I looked at my wife and I read that article and I said, I can promise you when he was fighting that man in the street, he did not know that he had just abused his daughter. I can promise you that because the guy wouldn't have gotten away,
he'd be dead. Because I'm a dad, I know what it's like. It changes how we fight when we know what we're fighting for.
And the problem is again, is God takes this serious, the devil takes it serious, but we don't sometimes take it serious enough. Do you know what you're fighting for? This is what Paul was trying to get across in Ephesians chapter six, this isn't an athletic contest with a fake score up on the screen, this isn't shadow boxing, this is life and death, heaven and hell.
So we know who he is, he's an angel that made a devil out of himself, we know why he hates us, not because of who we are, but because of whose we are. We know his battle plan is to steal, kill and destroy, so how does he fight? Now I'm gonna give you three words.
I'm gonna say these three words several times. You're gonna hear these three words in every message throughout this series for the next six weeks. This is how the devil fights. He's always fought this way. He fights this way now, and
He. See, guys are so good because the words are right behind me, get it, yep. That's how he's always fought. He isolates, he loves to get us alone. Sometimes not just physically, but sometimes in our mind, emotionally,
spiritually. He loves to convince us no one else has ever felt this. No one else hurts like you. No one else will understand. No one else will love you. He loves to isolate. It's one of his main tactics. He's always done it and he always will. He loves to instigate.
He loves to lie to us. In fact, in John chapter eight, Jesus said the native language of the devil is lying. It's all he knows. It's all he knows how to do. He lies, lies, lies. He takes God's truth and tweaks it slightly.
This is another quote worth writing down or taking a picture of it, you'll see it on the screen in a moment, this is so important for you to get. See, our enemy does not control us by fangs in the flesh, but by lies in the heart and mind. Our enemy, the devil, does not control us by fangs in the flesh, but lies
in the heart and the mind. This is why the Bible says we cannot fight that enemy with physical weapons, we have to have spiritual weapons. Why? Because he's not fighting us with fangs in the flesh, he's fighting us with lies. This is why Paul in two Corinthians chapter 10 verse five said to take every thought captive.
Why? Because our enemy isn't fighting us or controlling us with fangs in the flesh, but with lies in the heart and the mind. This is why Paul wrote in Romans twelve:two, you will be transformed by the renewing of your mind, why? Because our enemy doesn't fight us with fangs in the flesh, but with lies in the heart and the mind. He whispers lies to us
and then we believe them and go live them out. He isolates, he instigates and then he annihilates.
It's how he's always worked and he always will. John ten ten, the thief came to steal, kill and destroy, that's why you should memorize that verse. That's his only goal, that's his only plan for you and me, to steal, kill and destroy, to annihilate us. Have you ever noticed
how when the devil tempts us, he never tells us how things are gonna actually end with that? Have you ever noticed how he never shows us the end game?
He'll never show the person who's drinking heavy how they're gonna feel in the morning or how ten years later if they keep drinking like that, it's gonna affect their life. He never shows them that. He'll never show the person who's storing up bitterness and unforgiveness how that will start eating them from the inside like a cancer. He'll never show them that. He'll never show the teenager who starts peeking at pornography how addictive that's gonna become and how that's gonna affect their future relationships in a negative way. He'll never show that.
And when the consequences of our sin are heaped on us, He'll never be there to help us carry those, will He? Then He's just there heaping shame on us. Look what you did. He isolates, He instigates and He annihilates. It's how He's always worked.
One last passage I wanna show you, and I wanna show you that this is how he's always worked. Flip to Genesis chapter three.
The very first time that we actually see the devil working in the Bible, in this narrative, in this story, is in Genesis chapter three, and you're gonna see from the very beginning, you can see where he's isolating, he's instigating, and he's annihilating, okay? Genesis chapter three background,
God has just created the universe. It's a beautiful place. It's a perfect place. The Garden of Eden, he created Adam and Eve, the pinnacle of his creation. The only thing created in his image. He's a yes God, not a no God, so he said yes to everything in the garden except for no. No for one thing, the tree.
And now watch what happens. Genesis three verse one.
The serpent was the shrewdest of all the wild animals the Lord God had made. So the devil is in the serpent. I actually think the devil is in all snakes, I hate snakes, okay? So the serpent was the shrewdest of all wild animals the Lord God had made. One day he asked the woman, now side note,
this is another message for another time, but I wanna know why this woman's having a conversation with a snake, and it just doesn't seem to It seems like an everyday conversation. You're like, the snake's talking to her. Come on. But that's another message for another day. So the devil threw the serpent. One day he asked the woman, watch this, he's isolated her already. He's gotten her away from Adam. He's gotten her off by herself, gotten her away from walking with God. It's just the devil in her now. He loves to isolate us. Watch how he's gonna start instigating now. Did God really say,
oh, he loves this. Did God really say you must not eat the fruit from any of the trees in the garden? Did God really say that? Did God really mean that that's bad? Did God really mean that that will hurt you? Is God really good? He loves to instigate.
So now watch what the woman does in verse two. Eve starts having a conversation with a snake and she says, of course we may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, the woman replied. It's only the fruit from the tree in the middle of the garden that we're not allowed to eat. God said, you must not eat or even touch. Uh-oh,
she just added to what God said. God didn't say that you could touch it, he said don't eat it. Beware when you start editing God's Word. See, aren't you glad that thousands of years of human history taught us that and we've quit editing God's Word, we've quit adding to it or subtracting from it?
I'm being facetious, we haven't learned that lesson yet. You must not eat of it or even touch it, if you do, you will die. Now watch, he's gonna keep instigating, verse four. You won't die,
the serpent replied to the woman. He's questioning the authority of God. It's how he always works. It's how he works in your life, I promise you. It's how he's always worked. He's gonna question the authority of God. Did God really say that? Did God really mean that? Is it really that important that you not do that or that you do this?
Question God's authority. Now watch, next verse, verse five, he's gonna start questioning the goodness of God. God knows that your eyes will be opened as soon as you eat it. God's telling you not to eat this because he's not good. There's something better for you if you'll do this. Oh, young people in here especially,
this is a lie from the pit of hell that he loves to use on us. That God is, as I've often said, some overbearing boss saying, no, Pat, behold, he's having fun. And that he's just making this list of rules for us, but that's not God. Everything God says not to do is because it will hurt us.
But our enemy will get us to question that. And then watch the annihilation here, verse six. The woman was convinced. She saw that the tree was beautiful and its fruit looked delicious. That describes sin so well, doesn't it? It looks and feels good at the moment.
And she wanted the wisdom it would give her, so she took some of the fruit and ate it. And if it were a movie at this moment, the music would change and go bum bum bum. Because that decision changed human history. The devil knew what he was doing.
He wasn't just annihilating Adam and Eve, he was annihilating the entire human race. He's been trying to do it ever since.
So what do we do with this message? How do we apply this message to our life? I think what God wants us to get today is he's saying quit messing around, this is real. Quit just dabbling with Jesus, Go all in.
This is a serious battle. This is heaven and hell. This is life and death. This is for your soul. This is for your family. This is for this church. This is for this community. This is for this nation. This is for this world. Quit messing around and go all in. That's how we can apply this. Can I end on a good note?
Can I you guys okay with that? Like some of you are going, please, for the love of God. Okay, if I end on a good note though, I gotta give you just a really quick little language lesson. Remember
the older testament was written in Hebrew and you've heard this title given of the devil. We've heard him sometimes called Satan, right? Well, here's where that came from. There's the Hebrew word or is the Hebrew word where we get Satan. In Hebrew is like our English word the. This is so important for you to get.
See, Satan actually isn't a name or a title for the devil, it's more of a description of him. Because Hossetan literal translation would be the accuser. So whenever the Bible, when you read the English translation,
you read the word Satan, it should literally read the accuser. It's not his name, it's not his title, it's a description of what he does. What does he do? He's the accuser.
Now right now you're going, this doesn't sound like good news yet. This doesn't sound any better. Hold on, here's what I want you to picture. I want you to picture the throne room of God right here and I want you to picture that Hasatan is right here, the accuser.
But I want you to picture that right over here is this Middle Eastern man named Yeshua named Jesus, God in the flesh and I want you to see the wounds in his hands, I want you to see the wounds in his feet and I want you to see him smiling at you because he's madly in love with you because you're his son or daughter. Now,
let me differentiate the descriptors between these two. Hasatan, the accuser. Jesus, the creator. Hasatan, the accuser. Jesus, the savior. Hasatan, the accuser. Jesus, the redeemer. Hasatan, the accuser. Jesus,
the advocate. First John tells us when we sin, we have an advocate before the father. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. This one's accusing, this one's forgiving. Amen? The accuser.
Hasatan is accusing this one here, he's the king of all kings and lord of all lords. Hosaton is accusing this one right here is the one that two thousand years ago, as he hung his head on that cross, his last words were, it is finished. You know what he meant by that? The war's been won. The war's been won.
Now some of you may be confused by that. You say, I thought you were talking about the You notice I keep using the word fighting and battle. As Bill often says, yes, we're in a fight, we're in a battle, but the war was won. You know what this means?
That you and I, if you put your faith and trust in Jesus, we're not fighting this battle out of a place of defeat, We're fighting this battle out of a place of victory, because Hasatan doesn't win. The accuser doesn't win. Jesus won, past tense.
He won. Greater is he that is in me than he that is in the world. If God is for us, who can be against us? We can do more I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me, for we are more than conquerors.
That's why the Bible talks about that. Because we're not fighting out of a place of defeat, we're fighting out of a place of victory.
God help us get this. Help us realize this truth. We know that you take this serious. We know the devil takes this serious, but God forgive us so often we don't take this serious enough. We forget that we have an enemy that is hell bent on destroying us, but God, may we recognize
that we're not fighting out of a place of defeat, we're fighting out of a place of victory because of what you did on the cross, Jesus. And so I pray that this church, Rock Point Church, will be marked as a church full of people who are fighting and fighting well. We love you, Jesus. And all God's people said, amen.
Fight well this week. Thanks for joining us online this weekend. Let us know if we can help you in any way. Make sure to follow us on social media and connect with us on rockpoint.io for prayer and everything happening here at Rock Point.