Why do we experience spiritual defeats—even after salvation? Some mock the idea of a literal devil, but Scripture affirms that Satan is real. His goals are to draw us away from God, thwart His purposes, and cause division. Dr. Stanley discusses Satan’s battleground, his many efforts to mislead and deceive, and the ways in which God’s Word is our greatest protection against the enemy’s lies.
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Dr. Charles Stanley: Many
people will live their whole
life and wonder why things
don’t go too well.
They trusted Jesus Christ as
their personal Savior, and yet
they suffer one defeat
after the other.
Can’t quite figure out why.
Do not realize they have an
enemy, an enemy that’s very
real, an enemy that’s laughed
at, criticized, disbelieved,
but very, very real,
whose goal is three-fold.
To draw us away from God:
to thwart God’s purpose
in our life and divide us.
Satan is a very real person.
And so, what I want us to talk
about in this message,
it’s “Satan’s Strategy
to Defeat Us.”
All of us, every one of us.
He hasn’t left any of us alone.
When somebody tells me, “I don’t
believe in the devil,” I think
that’s like being in a ring with
a bunch of lions and you say,
“No, I don’t believe
in animals.”
I’m telling you, Satan is real.
He’s a liar.
He’s a deceiver.
And many, many, many people
are very deceived.
And their deception is very
evident when they say, “I don’t
believe in such a person
as the devil.”
So, I want us to read a passage
of Scripture from Romans,
chapter eight, if you will.
And then I want us to talk
about his strategy.
How does Satan defeat us?
What is his strategy?
But Romans, chapter eight, and
let’s slip down to verse five to
start with, “For those who are
according to the flesh.”
That is, they’re living in sin,
have never trusted Christ as
their Savior, maybe, “According
to the flesh set their minds on
the things of the flesh.”
So, let me define flesh.
We’re not talking about flesh
and bones and skin and blood.
We’re talking about that drive
within us, that drive within us
that opposes God.
There’s something in every one
of us that opposes God.
And Paul called it the flesh.
“For those who are
according to the flesh set their
minds on the things of the
flesh, but those who are
according to the Spirit.”
That is, we have the Holy Spirit
living within us, trusting Him,
“The things of the Spirit.”
Watch this, “For the mind.”
And remember this.
The mind is Satan’s playground
and his battlefield.
Listen, all of his work is
done in the mind.
It may follow down to the feet,
but Satan’s works on your mind.
He’s there.
“For the mind set on the flesh,”
that is, a mind that set on
the things that the devil
wants, listen, “is death.”
Look at that.
“For the mind set on the flesh
is death, but the mind set on
the Spirit,” that is, the Holy
Spirit, “is life and peace,
because the mind set on the
flesh is hostile toward God.”
You think about
about your thinking,
your thoughts, how much time
of your day is given to
thinking things
maybe you shouldn’t.
Or thinking about
people, whatever it might be.
He said, “Mind set on the
flesh is hostile toward God.”
You can’t think holy things and
hostile things at the same time.
“For it does not subject itself
to the law of God, for it is not
even able to do so.”
That is, the mind that’s
controlled by the devil is not
going to be controlled by God at
the same time, “And those who
are in the flesh
cannot please God.
However, you are not in the
flesh but in the Spirit,
if indeed the Spirit of God
in dwells you.
That is, when you
trust in Christ as your Savior,
you’re a child of God.
And the Spirit of God is in your
life to rule and reign,
but if you choose, you
can disobey God.
You can listen to the
voice of the devil–
disobey God.
Does that mean your lost?
No.
But you’ll think you are.
You’ll find your self acting
like you are.
“However, you are not
in the flesh but in the Spirit,
if indeed the Spirit
of God dwells in you.
But if anyone does not have the
Spirit of Christ, he does not
belong to Him.”
Now get that verse, “If anyone
does not have the Spirit of
Christ,” living within them,
they don’t, “belong to Him.”
So, when you ask somebody,
“Are you a Christian?”
They say, “Sure I am.”
“Well, on what basis would you
say that you’re a Christian?”
“Well, I grew up in
a Christian home.
I went to Sunday School
when I was a kid.
I got baptized and I’ve tried to
do the best I can all these
years, and so yeah, I am one.”
Not necessarily.
There are people who’ve done all
of that and who’ve never trusted
Jesus Christ as their
personal Savior.
And so, when we talk about the
work of the devil, his primary
work is that of
deception, lying.
He is a liar from
the very beginning.
The Word of God says he is.
Jesus said he was.
He’s a liar.
Whenever you are listening
to the devil speak to you,
you are listening to a liar.
And so, with that passage
in mind, I want us
to think about it.
And that is, every single
one of us who’s
a follower of Jesus Christ,
our mind is a battlefield.
And we’re battling every day.
You wake up in the morning,
everything may seem to go
right, but all may seem
to go wrong.
But whatever it might be,
you have an enemy
with one sole purpose:
to deceive you;
ultimately to destroy you;
and certainly to keep you
from walking in obedience
to Almighty God.
And so, when I look at all these
passages, in Second Corinthians,
for example.
I want you to look at Second
Corinthians, just a verse
or two here.
And what Paul says
in this fourth verse.
He says, “In whose case the god
of this world,” Who’s the god
of this world?
Satan, “Has blinded the minds of
the unbelieving so that they
might not see the light of the
gospel of the glory of Christ,
who is the image of God.”
What’s he do?
Satan is a liar.
He’s the source of lying.
He is a liar, misleading and
causing people to distrust
Almighty God.
So, the truth is every single
one of us, we’re a battlefield.
There’s something going on in
our mind, and that is,
we are in constant conflict.
That doesn’t mean we
always feel it, but the truth is
we live in a world of conflict.
We live amidst conflict because
Satan is always lying.
And if you’ll look at American
society today, if we’ve
ever been a society of conflict,
lying, of misleading,
of cheating, of adultery,
of adultery, of all kinds
of sin–but such wholesale
giving over to Satan and
convincing other people
that sin’s not sin after all.
When you vote to kill children,
born or unborn,
you vote to agree
with the devil.
The Bible says–
[congregation applauding]
The Bible says,
“Thou shall not kill.”
The Bible says, “Thou
shall not commit adultery,
thou shall not steal, shall not
bear false witness.”
When you are
violating the laws of God,
you become the
enemy of God.
And what you’ve done,
you have consented to doing
what Satan wants you to do.
So, think about this.
Your mind, even when you’re
a believer, your mind is
also a battlefield
for the devil.
Who is it that causes you in a
moment to lie about something
you know better?
Or to look with lust or to take
advantage of, or whatever it
might be.
Satan is very much alive.
Now, he cannot overpower a child
of God unless we give him
permission, because we have the
Holy Spirit living within us who
reminds us that Christ died on
the cross, shed His blood to
forgive us of our sins.
Who lives within us, who has
sealed us, watch this, we have
been sealed by the Spirit of
God, as a child of God
we cannot be lost.
Live in sin?
Yes.
Disobey God?
Yes.
Suffer the consequences?
Yes.
Just because you’re a believer
does not mean you can sin
against God without
any consequences.
There are always
consequences to sin.
It is Satan’s lies that convince
people they can do this, that
and the other, disobey God and
think, “Well, it’s not too bad
and nobody’s perfect.”
Listen.
Satan has a bag full of tricks.
That he’s willing to show us how
to get by, how to do this, how
to do that, all oftentimes lying
against what we know is the
absolute truth.
Think in your own life how often
you’re tempted to do something
that you know is not right,
that you think,
“Well it’s not too bad.
I am saved.”
And I’ve heard people
argue this.
Say, “Well, I know, I know that
I don’t live a godly life, but
the Bible says my name is
written in the Lamb’s
Book of Life and I’m saved.”
Yes, it does, if you are.
It also says God
will chastise you.
Now, not because He doesn’t love
you but because He does.
Because He wants to get your
attention to remember who
you’re listening to.
Do you listen to the devil or do
you listen to God?
You either listen to God or you
listen to the devil.
And this is a warning, a warning
that Satan is committed
to our destruction.
So, what I want us to think
about for a few moments
is his strategy.
This is how he works.
He’s always working to do
anything in His power to mislead
us; to destroy us because we
bear witness of the Son of God
and His love and
graciousness to us.
So, let’s think
about it a moment.
This is how Satan operates.
Are you interested in that?
This is how he operates.
He directs our attention towards
a need or a desire.
That’s the way he
always gets in.
He starts out with that.
For example, here’s Adam and Eve
in the Garden of Eden.
Everything is absolutely
perfect, could not be better.
They have everything.
They have each other.
Everything’s perfect.
The one thing that they didn’t
have is fruit from the Tree of
the Knowledge of Good and Evil.
Look at everything else
is perfect.
And so, what does Satan do?
He points them to the one thing
they don’t have.
How many men and women point to
some other person lustfully
because they have everything
else in life they need but him
or her?
And how many decisions are made
not because people don’t have
certain things, but they don’t
have a particular one.
Satan is a liar.
Satan is a deceiver.
And one of the first things he
does is to point out something
that we should not have.
This is the way
the devil operates.
He points out something
in your life that
you don’t have.
He does not remind you of how
much you do have, how blessed
you are, how healthy you are,
what you drive, where you live,
what you wear.
He points out the one thing
you don’t have.
“What about, suppose
you had that?
Now, if you really want to be
complete, you need this.
If you really want to feel
sufficient and adequate;
if you want to be accepted.”
Or, “Look how much money
he makes.
Well you, you work as hard as he
does–you need to quit your job.
You just need to get your–“
In other words, if you can’t–
listen, “You can always
lie, steal, and cheat.
They seem to get by with it.”
No, they don’t.
He’s a liar.
He’s a deceiver.
And he uses the same tactics
he used in the garden.
You’d think by now
we’d have caught on.
How does he operate?
He points out the thing you
don’t have, so that if you want
to be complete, you’ll have it.
Did it satisfy her?
No.
And it doesn’t
satisfy people today.
He creates this desire
in order to get people
off base, off track.
If you only had that.
Listen carefully, you can’t ever
have enough of anything
that is not the will of
God for your life to
ever make you happy,
ever make you feel complete,
ever make you feel content.
You’ll just go from one thing
to the other believing
one lie after the other.
You’ll find yourself in
self-destruction.
One of his tactics, get our
attention on something
we think we need.
A second one is this.
Watch this carefully.
Satan chooses his timing.
He knows when we’re the most
vulnerable.
When Jesus had fasted
forty days and forty nights,
what did the
devil say to Him?
“Oh, been fasting.
Glorifying the Father.
Well, all You have to do
is turn that stone into
a piece of bread.
You’ll be satisfied,” which
would have been a violation
of the Father’s will and purpose
and plan for His life.
And so, the devil
does the same thing.
That is, he knows the
timing in our life.
And so, when you get hungry,
angry, lonely or tired,
you’re vulnerable.
Hungry, angry, lonely tired,
think about it.
Think about the times in your
life when that’s what you felt.
Very, very hungry or
very, very angry or
very, very lonely
or very, very tired.
H-A-L-T, remember that, halt.
When you start feeling hungry,
angry, lonely or tired, H-A-L-T,
stop and think, “I am now
vulnerable to a satanic attack.”
Did you get that?
A satanic attack is an attack by
Satan in one of those areas of
your life where you’re the most
vulnerable.
When you get hungry, how
do you feel?
When you get angry,
how do you feel?
When you’re lonely,
how do you feel?
And when you’re
tired and worn out?
We’re the most vulnerable, and
that’s when Satan will attack.
He knows exactly when to attack
us, how to attack us.
He knows our weakest points.
Everybody has a weakness, at
least one or more.
That’s the way he operates.
A third thing he does is this.
He creates doubt in our mind.
This book from Genesis
to Revelation is the
Word of the Living God.
It’s all true, not
part true, all true.
The devil will attack you in
those areas that you are
the weakest.
And he creates doubt
in our minds.
And so, what I’ve noticed is,
when I talk to people who are
really under temptation about
something–it’s amazing how they
can bring up other Scriptures
that have nothing
to do with that,
and try to interpret that
verse of Scripture to say,
“Well, nobody’s
perfect and you know,
he had this problem,
she had that problem and,”
and so what happens?
The next thing you know,
they’ve rationalized themselves
right into sin.
That’s his tactic,
create doubt in your mind.
So, if I should ask you,
do you believe the Word of God?
What would you say?
Well, do you believe all of it?
You mean you believe
all the Word of God?
Well what about this one?
My God shall supply all your
needs according to His riches in
glory in Christ Jesus.
Do you believe that?
Well, why do you sin to
get your needs met?
Listen, the devil’s a liar.
He’s a deceiver.
He will cheat you, deceive you
any way he can to get you to
follow him rather than Jesus.
And so, if he can create doubt
in your mind about the Word of
God, that’s a dangerous doubt.
If he can create a doubt in your
mind about His Word, listen, he
doesn’t have a toehold.
he’s got a stronghold
and a grip in your life.
Because when you get
tempted, here’s what you’ll do.
You’ll say, “Well I believe,
I believe the Bible,
but some of it’s not relevant.”
Which part is that?
Or, this is it–“That’s
just your interpretation.”
Well, let me ask you this.
How do you interpret,
“Thou shalt not steal,
thou shalt not kill, thou
shalt not commit adultery,
thou shalt not bear
false witness”?
How do you interpret those?
There’s only one way to
interpret–thou shalt not do it.
That’s very simple is it not?
Very simple.
And yet I’ve, I’ve seen
people come and say,
“Well, that’s your
interpretation.”
Well how, what’s the
interpretation of
“Thou shalt not”?
And what I want to say is
“You shall not doubt
the Word of God.”
This is how Satan operates.
He works on our desires, he
works on our spots that are
most vulnerable, creates
doubt in our mind.
And then he loves this, he wants
to get us in a debate.
And to debate with
him is disastrous.
Jesus said, “It is written.
It is written.
It is written.
It is written.
Here’s what the Father has said.
When somebody wants to debate
with you about what’s right and
wrong, just give them God’s
Word.
You say, “Well, I don’t know
God’s Word.”
That’s why you need to be
reading God’s Word.
You can’t, you can’t just come
to church and listen to a sermon
once in a while and think you’re
fit to deal with the devil.
Listen.
You’re not fit to deal with the
devil unless you know
the Word of God.
It doesn’t mean that you have to
know all of it, but listen.
You can deal with him if you
know the basics.
Thou shalt not.
And when you, listen.
When you start trying to
re-reason
“Thou shalt not” to say well,
“Thou should not.”
That’s not what it said,
thou should–thou shalt not.
Now, is God trying to keep us
from something good?
No!
He’s trying to keep us
from self-destruction.
The Ten Commandments
are protection.
And when I think about
stripping the schools of the
Ten Commandments, no
matter what else you teach,
if you don’t teach morality; if
you don’t teach godly ethics;
if you don’t teach the truth,
what else have you taught?
What else have you taught?
And so, Satan wants
to get us in arguments.
And if he can get you to say,
“Well I know.”
If he gets you to say,
“Well I know, I believe all the
Bible but some of it I don’t
understand so I just
don’t read that part.”
But–listen, everybody
should have some favorite
passages–something that God
keeps bringing you back to.
It can be the Old Testament
or the New Testament,
but certainly some
passages that you live by.
That have become
a compass in your life.
And so, what does Satan do?
He wants to engage us in a
debate, and Jesus simply said,
“It is written.”
That settles it.
It’s what the Father said.
Then of course, he uses
deception as his key weapon.
If he can deceive you about
anything, he has you.
Think about it.
To deceive simply means to
mislead by making something
appear other than
what it really is.
And Jesus said Satan
is a deceiver.
And this is how he operates.
He’d like to deceive us to make
bad things good,
lying not so bad,
or telling a story.
And so, there are all
kinds of ways Satan
attempts to deceive us.
And he knows when we are the
most vulnerable in whatever area
of life he chooses to attack us.
And then he wants
to create division.
And Satan’s going to
say to young people,
“Oh that’s okay for your
parents, but you know what,
they’re old fogies.”
Or, “that was true a
long time ago but not now.”
Which part of the
Word of God is outdated?
Not any of it.
The New Testament interprets
for us the Old Testament.
We understand the
truth of the Word of God.
But if I don’t–listen–
wherever you remove the Word
of God, you’re going to have
division and strife,
unbelief and distrust.
The Word of God
harmonizes us together.
We know what the truth is.
We know the truth
from error, from lying.
We want to
follow the Lord God.
That gives us harmony
and peace and joy.
We don’t have to have
everything in life we would
like to have maybe.
Satan will tell you, “Well,
you’re not complete without
this, that, and the other.”
On the same side, we could say,
“Well, the Bible says my God
shall supply all my needs
according to His riches
in glory in Christ Jesus.”
Is it true or not the truth?
It all boils down to this.
Is this the Word of God
or is it not?
Is it the truth or is it not?
If it’s not the
truth, then what is it?
And if part of
it’s not the truth, what is it?
And if some of it
is not the truth, what is it?
It is the Word of the Living
God true from cover to cover.
And God intends
for us to live by it.
If we want to have peace and
harmony and joy and fullness and
completeness and security
and all the rest, we live by
the Word of God.
You notice I didn’t say happy,
because happiness
comes and goes.
But truth and joy, godliness,
God wants the best for us.
He’s given the best for us, but
we have an enemy in the devil
and he lies.
He does his best to
get us to be divided.
Entraps us with lies, tells us
that the Word of God is
outdated, we don’t need
that any longer.
So, we either believe him or we
don’t believe him.
But Satan creates division
because ultimately his goal
is to destroy us.
If Satan can get you to doubt a
verse of Scripture, a verse of
Scripture, he’s got a toehold
into your life, because here’s
what happens.
If he can get you to doubt,
watch this carefully, if he can
get you to doubt one verse, he
will lead you to some other area
of your life in which you would
like to disobey God, and get you
to possibly consider,
“Well, that’s not true.”
Well, maybe this is not all that
true after all and
here’s what he does.
Step by step he gets you
to doubt this.
Before long you’re
doubting this.
Before long you’re doubting
the Word of God.
That’s how treacherous he is.
He’s a liar, a deceiver.
And all he wants you to do is to
start doubting the Word of God.
And if you’ll doubt a little of
His Word, you’ll doubt more.
And then here’s what happens.
You’ll find yourself doing what?
You’ll find yourself picking out
the verses of Scripture that you
want to doubt.
And I can tell you
which ones they’ll be.
The one area in which you want
to sin are the areas in which
you want to doubt the
truth of God’s Word.
He’s treacherous.
He’s a liar.
He’s a deceiver.
And many people who
name the name Jesus,
who call themselves Christians
are living in sin because they
have chosen they’ve decided
they will believe whichever
part of the Bible they
want to believe.
The Word of God is
simple and plain and clear.
And there are not
mistakes in the Bible.
There are some things that
are hard to explain–I agree.
Even Paul admitted that when he
wrote and when he explained
many things in the Scriptures.
But the truth is this–
watch this–
Satan is a liar and a deceiver.
Whenever he prompts you to do
something that is not true in
the Word of God,
he he has a foothold.
And that foothold is
big enough, if you’ll do this,
you’ll maybe–you’ll do that.
Next thing you know, the
Word of God you’ll close.
I’ve seen some people that
I thought were really truly
committed Christians–begin to
doubt one or one single
part of the Scriptures.
Maybe a couple of
verses here and there.
Next thing you know, I
don’t see them anymore.
They’re gone.
They decided that it
didn’t all apply to them;
and therefore,
they just forget it.
Which part of this
does not apply to me?
The question is this,
Do I believe the
Word of God or don’t I?
We have an enemy.
Watch this.
We all have the same enemy.
He works the same way
in our mind.
He works in our mind,
how we think.
If we are saved by the grace of
God and we’re thinking the way
God thinks, we’ll live
a godly life.
When we chose to think other
than the way God thinks, we find
ourselves in trouble,
disobeying God.
When you read the Word of God,
it’s crystal clear.
I either believe it or I don’t
believe it.
If I don’t believe it, I must
assume responsibility for
unbelief in all the wonderful,
absolutely awesome promises of
God found in the Scripture.
This is a sacred book,
holy book, God’s book.
I either believe it or I don’t.
Believing part of it is not it.
Believe all of it.
Genesis one, one to the last
verse of the Revelation.
It talks about Heaven and Hell.
It talks about good and evil.
Talks about Satan and angels.
Talks about all the things we
need to talk about.
The issue is not
anything specific.
Do I believe it or
do I not believe it?
And the devil will say to you,
“You don’t believe all of that.
It was written in Hebrew;
written in Greek.
It’s been many, many
thousands of years.
Everybody doesn’t agree.
That’s not the issue.
Do I believe it?
So, let me ask
you this question.
If you’re not living
by the Word of God,
the Bible, what
are you living by?
Something.
What are you living by?
You’re living by
some principles.
You’re living by some ideas.
What promises do you have by
the ideas that you’re following?
More money?
More people?
More this, more that?
What’s the basis
of your whole belief system
if you don’t believe in the
truth of the Word of God?
What do you believe?
And one last question:
What are you going to die by?
“It is appointed
unto man once to die,
and after this the judgement.”
You’ll notice there are no
paragraphs between that.
Appointed unto man once
to die–not and this
and that and–
“Appointed unto man once
to die, and after this death,
the judgement.”
If you don’t
believe that’s true,
what are you going to die by?
Satan will lie to you.
He’ll bear false witness to you.
He’ll mislead you.
He’ll do everything in his
power to get you to doubt
the Word of God.
But one thing for certain,
you’re going to die and you’re
going to be judged by
the Word of God.
Where would you say you stand?
Have you trusted Jesus Christ
as your personal Savior?
Maybe you don’t
understand it all.
Maybe you don’t understand
everything that happened
at the cross.
Maybe you don’t understand
everything that happened
at the empty tomb.
But do you believe
the truth of God’s Word?
Believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ, giving yourself to Him,
and you’ll have the
gift of eternal life.
Do you believe it enough
to live by it?
That’s the key.
Do you believe the Word of God
enough to live by it?
When you answer that question,
you’ll know whether you believe
the Word of God or not.
Amen?
And Father, we thank You that
You made the Word of God
crystal clear.
You’ve exposed the devil
to be the liar that he is.
You’ve shown us the Lord
Jesus Christ to show us
the truth that He is
and He embodies.
And that all of our hope and
help, and our way of living is
to be found in Him.
And Lord, I pray that every
person who hears this message
will recognize that one day
they’ll stand before You and
then for sure they’ll know that
You were telling the truth.
But for some people too late.
Thank You for Your Word.
Thank You for Your promise and
thank You for the power to live
by it every day, is our prayer
in Jesus’s name, amen.