The Attacks Of Satan

The Attacks Of Satan

Scripture: 1 Peter 5:8, Job 1:1-5

Introduction: Two worldy men saw an elderly churchgoer coming down the street. One man pointed toward her. “I’ll bet you can’t mention anybody that old Miss Thompson can’t find something good to say about” The other fellow called the bet. Miss Thompson he said, “what do you think of the devil?” Miss Thompson replied, “Well she said, there is one good thing I can say about him, he’s always on the job?

I don’t know if that’s good or not but the ladies right in one regard the devil is always on the job. 1Peter 5:8 says he is constantly seeking who he may devour. His work includes destruction, distraction, discouragement, depression,disillusionment, division, despair, and despondency among just a few.

If you are not a Christian, he is doing all that he can to keep you that way. He wants you to stay in the pew and not make a decision for Christ. He wants to furnish you with a million excuses as to to why you shouldn’t He wants to keep you unsaved til you die and then he will have you eternally in hell with him.

If you are a Christian he wants to tempt you with sin and cause you to fall so that you will be out of fellowship with God and worthless in your service to Christ. He wants to just keep you in the pew and prevent you from committing to serve him. He wants you to live a life of mediocrisy. He will do his best to keep you from giving and witnessing.

Perhaps this is a pretty good way to sum up his word among believers….

Illust. Satan called a worldwide convention. In his opening address to evil angels he said…..”We may not be able to keep Christians from going to church. We may not be able to keep them from reading the Bible and knowing the truth. We may not be able to keep them from their conservative values. But we can do something else. We can keep them from developing an intimate fellowship with Christ. If we can do that then they will have no power in their life. This is what I want you to do angels….Distract them from gaining hold of their Savior and maintaining that vital connection throughout the day. How shall we do this shouted the demons ? Keep them busy in the non-essentials of life and invent unnumbered schemes to occupy their minds. Tempt them to spend, spend, spend, then borrow, borrow, borrow so that their wives will have to go to work and the husbands will have to work 6-7 days a week 10-12 hours a day to suppot their lifestyles and keep them from spending time together as a family. As their family fragments. Soon their homes will offer no escape from the pressures of work. Over stimulate their minds so that they cannot hear that still small voice. Entice them to play their radios and CD players. Keep their tvs and dvd players constantly playing in their homes. See to it that their minds are jammed with the images on the computers. Keep the newspapers and books readily available to read in their homes. Pound their minds with the news 24 hours a day. Invade their driving moments with billboards. Flood their mailboxes with junk mail. And even make their recreational time excessive so that they are too tired and exhausted to engage in spiritual things. And when it comes to Sunday if they do go to church lt them engage in gossip and small talk so that they leave with troubled consciences and unsettled emotions. If they happen to engage in any good work make it to where their lives are so crowed with good causes that they have no time to seek power from Christ. Soon they will be living in their own strength and we will be victorious. At the end the demons shouted in glee because they knew that it was a good plan and they went eagerly to start their assignments. Has their work been successful ? You be the judge.

Today I want to look at 5 ways that Satan attacks Job.

I. He attacked Job through his faith. Job 1 V.11

Job was a man of great faith Yet Satan accuses Job of only having such a great faith because of all that God has blessed him with. Satan says put forth your hand and touch all that he has and he will curse you to your faith.

Satan wants to blind you to the truth of God. He wants you to become skeptical about God and your faith. He wants you to deny that you need God. He wants you to doubt as to whether God can save and forgive you. He want to turn you angry and bitter against God. Job had a strong faith V21 but Satan tried everything in his power to wrestle that faith away from him.