Overcoming Satan's Deceptions And Accusations

Our subject for this weekend is what's written there, forgetting the things that are behind and pressing on to perfection. From the time that the devil deceived Adam and Eve, man has been living under condemnation all these many centuries. Now I want to turn with you to Revelation chapter 12, where the devil is given a number of titles. And I want to speak to you a little bit about Satan today. Why should we talk about Satan? Because the Bible says we fight with all these evil powers of which Satan is the head. That we read in Ephesians 6, 10 to 18. And when we fight an enemy, it is good to know something about the enemy. Because if you know something about the enemy, then you know how to fight him. In all warfare, every army tries to find out some details about the enemy. That's why they send spies into that country to find out. So, then we can overcome the enemy more quickly. So, when we fight to overcome Satan, it is good to know something about him. Paul once said, we are not ignorant of the schemes of Satan. That's why he could overcome him. So, in Revelation 12, in verse 9, he is called dragon. And serpent. And devil. And Satan. All these titles are there in verse 9. And then we see another title. In verse 9, middle, the deceiver of the whole world. That is one of his main functions, to deceive people. That means, make them think something is the truth, when it is not the truth. Make them believe in a false god. Make them believe wrong things about Christianity. He is the deceiver of the whole world. And he brings a bad name on Christians, by the way many Christians behave. For example, Jesus once said in Luke 16, 13, that you cannot serve God and money. But the devil says, you can serve God and money. That is how he deceives people. He makes them believe that what Jesus said is not true. And that is how he is the deceiver of the whole world. Jesus said very clearly in Luke 16, 13. You cannot serve God and money. They are two masters. You have to choose which you want. So how to find out if somebody is serving God and money? How to find out if I am serving one master here or another master there? When both of them call me, the one I answer, that is my master. When both of them call me, the one I answer, that is my master. If two people are standing here, they will say that Jack is my servant. Yes, you have called Jack. I will go to one person. He is my servant. God calls one person. And the person goes towards money. That means he is serving money. There is nothing wrong in earning money. Jesus also worked as a carpenter to earn money. But money was not his master, it was his servant. But money was not his master, it was his servant. Money is a good servant, but it is a bad master. In this earth, they put gold on top of people's heads. It is a crown. In heaven, gold is on the street. People walk on it. The people who are ready for heaven are the people who have learned to put gold and money under their feet now. Just like the tree of knowledge of good and evil was a test for Adam, there were two trees there, the tree of life, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. God wanted him to go to the tree of life. The devil wanted him to go to the tree of knowledge of good and evil. The devil wanted him to go to the tree of knowledge of good and evil. But he went to the wrong tree. He ruined his life. Even today, there are two trees, God and money. But God wants us to go to him. The devil wants us to go after money. He wants us to take that money as our master. But what it means is that we are deceiving God. That is how the devil deceives us. How does the devil deceive us? He tells us that we can serve only two people. That is why there are so many churches today. Pastors, every Sunday they will be telling you to give your money. You say, how can we run a church without money? Jesus also needed money to feed his twelve disciples for three and a half years. Jesus also needed money to feed his twelve disciples for three and a half years. But he never took a collection. Even when thousands were healed, he never said, okay, now we will take a collection. Today, when nobody is healed, they still go around taking a collection. This is a deception. And so many Christians sit there and believe this deception. We have proved in our churches for 43 years that we can serve God without loving money. So do you believe this? That in 43 years, in all our nearly 100 churches, we have never taken a collection of money. We keep a box, like there are a couple of boxes here. And say, those who want to give, give. Because Jesus said, when you give, your left hand must not know what your right hand is. But if you put a bag in front of them, everybody knows that you are giving. And every church is disobeying that command of God. But Jesus taught us how to give. We read once, he was sitting here, an offering box, one widow came and put money. Nobody saw it. Jesus saw it. That is how we have to give. We keep a offering box. Those who want to give, give secretly. And we have proved in 43 years that we can run churches without asking for money. Not in one or two churches, but in a hundred churches. We have proved that we can use money, but not serve money. Because we trust our heavenly father. So, I have seen so many people who come to our church in Bangalore. I never invite them to come. They come on their own. But I ask some of them. Why have you come here? They say, Brother Zach, in our church, every Sunday they are talking about money. It is only here that we hear about being free from sin. There they tell us how to be free from our money. By giving it to the church. Here we are taught how to be free from sin. So, we are fed up of listening to money, money, money, money every Sunday. Some of you sitting here from other churches, I am sure you are hearing the same thing in your church. But you will never hear it in a CFC church. We talk about holiness, not money. We talk about being free from the love of money. That is one area in which Satan has deceived the whole of Christianity. They have said, you can do what Jesus never did. Jesus never asked for money, but you can do it. The apostles never asked for money, but you can do it. That is one of the great deceptions of Satan in our time. And we want to be like a light in the midst of this darkness. And Satan also deceives people that you can secretly sin and still God will accept you. When Jesus comes back, what is he going to judge? Is he going to judge how many times you went to church? Whether you sang in the choir? Whether you played some instrument in the church? Whether you gave money to the church? He is not going to judge any of these things. Let me show you what Jesus is going to judge when he comes back. It is good to know it now. 1 Corinthians 4 verse 5 If you have a Bible with you, please turn to this verse. It is a very important verse. The final day of judgment is like the final examination of school. 10th standard, matriculation, SSLC, final examination. That is the final judgment of God is like that. And supposing the examination board says SSLC board says this year we are going to give you all the question papers before the examination. All the students will be so happy. Free. We are going to give you the exam question paper before the examination. That is what is written in 1 Corinthians 4 verse 5. What question will come in the final judgment? What is the important question that will come in the final day? You are being given the question paper for the final examination now. Prepare for it. Ok. Verse 5 1 Corinthians 4 verse 5 When the Lord comes, middle of that verse and judges the first thing he will judge is the hidden things in darkness. And then second he will judge the motives of people's hearts in what they did. Not what they did, but why they did it. Not what they preached But why did they preach? Did they preach to make money or did they preach to get honor for themselves? That will be more important than what they preached. Not did they come to church, but why did they come to church? To show their face or to glorify God. But first of all, the things hidden in darkness. So, God will judge not what this person did in public. Not how holy he looked in the church. That is not what God is going to judge. He is going to judge what was this man doing in the darkness. Ok, he had a smart phone. When everybody was asleep in his house what was he looking at on his smart phone? When he connected to the internet what pictures were he looking at? Nobody saw it. His wife was asleep. And he sits there watching all types of filthy videos all on his computer in the darkness. He thinks nobody is watching him. The angels and Jesus are watching what he is looking at. But someday he comes to the church and he is singing and acting as if he is a very holy man. Now, there are people in the world also who are doing this. But they don't come on Sunday to church and sing like they are holy people. So, these people who come to the church and do it will get a hundred times greater judgment than those people who do it out in the world. Because those worldly people they boast, yes, I see a lot of filthy videos in my smart phone. But the people who come to church they act as if they are only listening to messages on the smart phone. Deceivers. Hypocrites. Things hidden in darkness. Most important question in the final examination. And it doesn't matter whether you are a pastor or an elder in a church. If you are doing those things God will judge you very severely. Or if you are a very respected brother in the church God doesn't care for that. Or in your office where you signed something false to make some more money. Or cheated somebody in a very clever way to make some money. There is a lot of cheating that goes on in business. Only to make money. Now Jesus also did business. He was a carpenter. But he never cheated people. If he did something he told people exactly what he did and earned his living like that. But if there are things hidden in darkness in your life that is the most important question that will come up in the final day. And in the church in CFC we preach about that. That the things hidden in darkness you must cleanse from your life. And you must repent of that. All the bad things. Then there are certain good things hidden in darkness. Like you gave without anybody seeing you gave some money for God's work. Nobody knew it. People thought you never gave anything. In the day of judgment God shows how many thousands of rupees you gave for God's work and people will be surprised. We thought he was a miser keeping all the money for himself. He loved money and he gave. But now we see that he gave so much for the work of God. We will get a surprise. Like the other surprise you get when you give money for God's work and you think see this holy man was watching filthy things. Please remember in the day of judgment the things hidden in darkness will come out. The devil deceives the whole world saying no no no nothing will happen don't worry. But the devil deceives everyone saying nothing will happen. God will not do that. He said that to Eve too. God said if you eat this you will die. No you will not die God will not punish you like that. All the problems in the world came upon this world because Eve believed the lie of the devil. He is a deceiver of the whole world. And another title in Revelation 12 in verse 10 we are talking about Satan. He is the deceiver of the whole world He deceives about money he deceives about the final judgment And in verse 10 he is called in Revelation 12 the accuser of all the believers. That means he will accuse this person accuse that person How does he do it? He doesn't come like the devil to you and say okay that is what that person did. No because if he comes like the devil you will run away from him. But he will come through a brother through a sister One brother or sister will come to visit you in your house. And say brother I want to tell you something about so and so I want to tell you a story about sister so and so And I want to tell you about that person's daughter And the devil accuses them Yeah like this They do this They behave like this They did this to me You don't recognize this is the devil speaking through them He is accusing not directly but through a person So the devil has got many agents on earth All those who accuse somebody to you are an agent of Satan So don't hold hands with Satan to accuse people What should you do if you see something wrong with some brother or sister or his children in the church I'll tell you what you should do Go to the elders of the church and tell them secretly brother I saw this please verify if it is correct or not That way you can help that person Supposing you see one brother drinking and getting drunk Go to the elders and say brother I saw this brother drunk that day please help him Ok he made a mistake the elders can go and help him and be free He may have made a mistake but the elders can go and help him and be free If someone makes a mistake we don't drive them out of the church Even if he has a bad habit we'll deliver him from that habit Supposing your son has got a bad habit or your daughter Will you drive them out of your house No I say all the children in our churches are my sons and daughters I can't drive them out I want to help them to be free from that habit So come and tell the elders if you see somebody having a bad habit and don't tell anybody else Let the elders come and help them from that habit The devil has got a desire to accuse to destroy that person Don't be a co-worker with Satan in that business But here it says there were certain people who overcame Satan Verse 11 That means Satan will come to accuse you also He not only accuses others He will accuse you What will he say? You remember 10 years ago when you were in so and so place You did this terrible sin with this other person Nobody in this church knows about it The devil says I know And you know You're guilty And then you also know 7 years ago In this other place you did this other thing And then 5 years ago you did this over here And even last year you did this over there You hear all these things and you get discouraged Because everything the devil said is true Because he knows all the sins you committed in secret And he will remind you even of what you did 20 years ago Many of us in our younger days were so foolish that we did so many stupid foolish things Not only some but all of us And the devil reminds you what you did then what you did 20 years ago what you did 25 years ago What you did before you became a believer And the sins you did after you became a believer And one after the other he tells you and you get discouraged How to overcome him? Don't argue with him It says here in verse 11 they overcame him by the blood of the And the word of their testimony together What does that mean? That means when the devil kept on saying this sin Yes, Satan, you're right, you're right, you're right Not only those I've committed many more sins also You make the full list And when you make the full list You write across it The blood of Jesus Christ has cleansed me from all those sins That is the word of your testimony about the blood of Jesus Christ Don't say oh but I have changed now and I'm not so bad And I