Has The Devil Taken You Captive?

WESTSIDE BAPTIST CHURCH

PASTOR: TERRY VAUGHAN

SERMON TITLE: HAS SATAN TAKEN YOU CAPTIVE?

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through Him might be saved. He that believeth on Him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”

TEXT VERSE: 2 TIMOTHY 2:24-26 “AND THE SERVANT OF THE LORD MUST NOT STRIVE; BUT BE GENTLE UNTO ALL MEN, APT TO TEACH, PATIENT, IN MEEKNESS INSTRUCTING THOSE THAT OPPOSE THEMSELVES; IF GOD PREADVENTURE WILL GIVE THEM REPENTANCE TO THE ACKNOWLEDGING OF THE TRUTH; AND THAT THEY MAY RECOVER THEMSELVES OUT OF THE SNARE OF THE DEVIL, WHO ARE TAKEN CAPTIVE BY HIM AT HIS WILL.”

That was great scripture but I want to point out to you verse 26: “that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will.” I want to preach to you for just a few minutes on being taken captive by the devil. Now I want to go back up to verse 24 because I want you to notice two words: The servant. Because it says the servant of the Lord must not strive, but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient, in meekness instructing those...and in verse 26 that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil.”

I want to tell you what Paul said in Romans 7:21 “...when I would do good, evil is present with me.”

There’s a lot of evil in this world. A lot of people think the evil’s on the outside of the church but I have news for you, sometimes it’s on the inside of the church. Just because we’re children of God it does not mean that we cannot get out of the will of God. I’m not preaching necessarily to those that are lost, I’m preaching to those that have been saved by the Grace of God and are not living it. There’s a lot of Christians today that claim to be saved by the Grace of God but their not living that Godly life. Has the devil taken you captive today? I’ll say this...the devil can’t get your salvation. If you’ve been saved by the Grace of God there’s no way the devil can take that from you. The Bible says we’re sealed with the Holy Spirit of Promise until the day of redemption. It’s engraved in the palm of God’s hand and nobody can take it away. But the devil can capture you. And it says he can do it at his will. A lot of times he captures us in our minds. Sometimes he can even capture us in our heart. I remember reading in the book of Acts where Annanias and Saphire, Peter said, “Why has Satan filled your heart that you’d lie to the holy ghost.” Listen, the devil is not someone to be messing around with if you’re not strong enough to take him on. You better stay just as close to God as you can. Because if you don’t, you’ll falter and fail and fall short of the glory of God. Let me make this statement here: There’s no way that we can simutaneously follow the Lord and the devil. There’s no way! We cannot serve the Lord and Satan. I remember reading in Matthew 12:30, Jesus said, “He that is not with me is against me. And he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad.” The Bible says we cannot serve two masters. Either you’ll hate the one and love the other. There’s too many Christians in the world today trying to follow the Lord and Satan at the same time. The devil has a lot of power and I want to share these things with you.

NUMBER ONE: The devil wants to confuse you. I remember sitting on a pew the day the Lord began to deal with my heart. Now this wasn’t the night I got saved. This was weeks before when I went under conviction. The Lord started dealing with me and the old devil came along and said that ain’t real. He said these people in here is crazy. He said everybody laughs at the preachers and deacons. He was trying to tell me that there was no way that I needed to go down to an old fashioned altar and give my heart and my life to Christ when he had everything. He was trying to throw a big confusion block in front of me. He’s trying to that right now to somebody here today. I’ll say this though....GOD IS NOT THE AUTHOR OF CONFUSION. If you’re confused you can bet it’s not coming from God.