KNOW YOUR ENEMY: TACTICS OF THE ENEMY PT 2

III. Revelation 12:10; Zechariah 3:1-7 – Devil – Greek diabolos; Satan – Hebrew satan pronounced saw-tawn. Both are translated Adversary/Accuser; tactics - accusations

He makes accusations against the followers of God (Revelation 12:10). See an example of this in Zechariah 3:1-7.

This Joshua is not to be confused with the Joshua from the book of Joshua. This Joshua was a high priest at the time the Jews returned to Jerusalem following the Babylonian exile. He led a remnant to Jerusalem from Babylonia. Being high priest meant Joshua was the people’s spiritual leader. If you read the book of Ezra, Joshua helped lead efforts to rebuild the temple. Zechariah has a vision of Joshua being put on trial. He’s standing before God in filthy garments which represent what? Sin/iniquity. Who was his chief accuser? Satan. What was accusation against Joshua? What sin had Joshua committed? If you read the books of Ezra, Zechariah, and Haggai, you’ll read that Joshua failed to carry out his responsibility as spiritual leader – to exhort the people to continue to obey God’s commandments. He perhaps pursued materialism rather than God. Consequently, the people had wandered away from God and towards self interests. Satan’s evidence? The people had stopped rebuilding the temple and were focused on making money and building nice houses for themselves. God was no longer the number one priority in their lives. (See Haggai) Joshua was no longer worthy of being the people’s spiritual leader all of which was true. But before Satan could make his case against Joshua, what did God do? Rebuked Satan. Get lost! Cleansed Joshua of his sin and re-established him as spiritual leader of the people.

Satan makes accusations against us to God. For what purpose? To bring to God’s attention to all the bad things we’ve done. To make us seem unworthy of God’s grace. You sure someone like him/her deserves forgiveness? But understand something … Satan’s accusations against us are not just directed towards God. He also directs them at us. Believe me, Joshua the high priest was getting a spiritual earful from Satan about how bad a job he was doing. How he had let the people down and more importantly let God down. God has rejected you as high priest. By using this tactic (accusations), what did Satan hope to succeed in doing? To fill Joshua with so much guilt, self-pity, doubt, etc., to the point where he no longer desires to carry out his responsibility as the Jews’ spiritual leader. Satan uses this tactic against us today. He constantly puts back in our face all the sins God has forgiven us for. Remember this, this, and this? You really believe God has forgiven you of these sins? All in an effort to instill in us doubt, guilt, etc. To get us to focus on our past sins rather than our present grace. Don’t allow him to question your salvation. When the accuser brings up your past sins, do not allow him to instill guilt in you. Once he does, he’s going to feed it until it becomes a massive beast of burden that will prove difficult to unload. If Satan proves successful, he will make you ineffective as a servant of God just as he did Joshua for a time.

IV. John 8:42-47; Acts 5:1-5 - father of lies; tactics – falsehood (talk about murderer later)

Jesus said that the devil is not just a liar but he is the father of lies. Why does Jesus use that descriptor? The devil was the first liar and the progenitor of lies. Progenitor - a person or thing that first originates something or serves as a model. He spoke the first lie (Garden of Eden) and is the source of all lies ever since. Definition of “lie” - a false statement made with deliberate intent to deceive; an intentional untruth; to convey a false impression. What are some examples of lies that Satan throws at people? In order to be truly happy, you must have a Mercedes Benz, 60 inch Plasma TV, 10 bedroom/8 bathroom/4 car garage house with an Olympic size pool and tennis court out back. Real pleasure found in pornography, drugs, alcohol, or food. Your mistakes/sins are so heinous that God will never forgive you. Your sin is insignificant that God didn’t see it. God is not concerned with the issues you’re experiencing. He’s got more important matters on His plate than your piddly problems. Why are you still praying? God’s not listening. There is no God. Jesus was an ordinary human … not God in flesh. The Bible is a mixture of myths and history written by men and not the Word of God. Satan’s primary goal in using lying as a tactic is to hide/conceal truth so that people will not believe/accept it. John 8:45 "But because I speak the truth, you do not believe Me.” Why did the people Jesus was speaking to not believe the truth (Jesus was Son of God)? Because they listened to and believed the lies crafted by Satan. Satan also uses the tactic of lies to create a false impression of God in order to undermine our faith in Him. (See his temptation of Eve) He also seeks to create a false impression of ourselves (view ourselves as unlovable, unforgivable, insignificant or view ourselves more highly than we should … we are not answerable for our sins) in order to undermine our mission to share the truth of God to a world trapped by Satan’s lies.

As the father of lies, Satan has produced many children of different shapes and sizes. The little white lies that are “harmless”. The elephant size lies that have started wars between countries and promoted genocide. Perhaps the one lie that Satan has produced that many followers of God have fallen prey to is the lie that we can conceal truth from God… that we can lie to God and get away with it. Ex. Story of David and Bathsheba found in II Samuel chapters 11 & 12. Story of Ananias in Acts 5:1-5. Both David and Ananias were fed their lies by Satan. He convinced them that no one would learn of their actions not even God. They were wrong and they paid the price for it. Not only them, but those close to them as well (David’s family and Ananias’ wife). There is no such thing as a secret sin. You may be able to conceal the truth of your sin (pornography, drugs, inner hatred for someone which Jesus says is murder) from your spouse, your children, or your friends but you cannot conceal your sin from God. Don’t fall prey to Satan’s lie that you can. If you do, you are walking a dangerous path. See David and Ananias.