The Original Ghost-Buster Ii

The Original Ghost-Buster II

November 12, 2006

Last week I spoke to you about a ruthless, cruel underworld system that wars against everything we value… our families, our health, our joy, and especially our eternal destinies. It’s an invisible system, but it’s no less real. And just because you can’t see it, doesn’t mean it’s not there. I can’t see the atoms that make up my bed… but every morning when I stub my toe on the leg… I know it’s real! This invisible system of evil is headed up by a mastermind called, Satan or ‘the Devil”. Jesus called him, “the prince of this world” in John 14:30. The apostle Paul called him, “the god of this world” in II Cor.4:4… because contrary to most peoples understanding, Satan isn’t in hell right now surrounded by fire and brimstone, dressed in a red suit and holding a pitchfork. No, he’s here. He’s living in this world! He’s alive and well right here on the planet earth! And he’s coming against you to obsess, depress and defeat!

Why? Well, the bible tells us in Isa.14 and other places that one time, Satan served in heaven as a mighty angel, but because he rebelled against God, He was He was thrown out of heaven. When he fell, 1/3 of the angels fell with him and became demons. The devil is now lord of these fallen angels and together they form an organized, mobilized force of evil, bent on overthrowing God, and robbing you of your inheritance in heaven. Out of spite, he wants to see you suffer…in hell…with him… forever!

He uses a number of ways to carry out that goal, but his most basic weapons are 3-fold. They are… the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life. READ I John 2:15-17. Now, the ‘world’ John is talking about isn’t the world of people, and it isn’t the world of nature… the grk. word he uses here for ‘world’ is ‘kosmos’, which means, “orderly arrangement or system”. In otherwords, Satan uses the system of thoughts, ideas, and actions that make up this world to squeeze you, mold you and conform you into an ungodly and destructive lifestyle. A life that pleases him, not God. According to John this system, warped by sin has 3 major components, and I want you to write them down…

“The lust of the flesh” are

1. Sensual PLEASURES.

There’s an internal enemy in our lives that the bible calls, “the flesh”. It’s not talking about your flesh and bones, hide and hair, it’s talking about that part in everyone of us that wants to do evil. It’s our sin nature. We got it from our parents but it’s roots go all the way back to Adam. If you’re into computers, the hardware is our brain and body, and the ‘flesh’ is like the software that’s been corrupted by a virus called sin. The ‘lust of the flesh’, is when our flesh goes wild after things that make us feel good. It’s an attempt on our part to find purpose and escape pain by stimulating our physical senses to the point of addiction. It would include an exaggerated desire for food, drugs, sex, alcohol, laziness, violence amusement… and the list goes on and on. Giving into our ‘lusts’ is like drinking ocean water. Ocean water contains 7x more salt than the human body can digest… so your kidneys demand extra water to flush out the overload of salt. So, the more salt water you drink, the thirstier you get. Drinking salt water actually dehydrates you to the point that you die of thirst. Satan uses the ‘lust of the flesh’ to destroy us because he knows that the more we drink, the more we die! When we lust, we thirst desperately for something that looks like what we want, but is exactly the opposite of what we need. In fact, it can kill us!

The 2nd component that Satan uses to ruin our lives is called… “the lust of the eyes”… this is…

2. Selfish POSSESSIONS.

This speaks of our desire to have more and more of everything that entices the eyes. It’s when gather ‘things’ that really don’t matter and never really satisfy. I wise man once said, “To whom little is not enough, nothing is enough”. Satan will use our lust after possessions to detour us away from God, trying to find meaning and importance in the things we own.

And then 3rdly, Satan will use “the pride of life” to lead us towards hell…

3. Stubborn PRIDE

This is the desire for importance. A desire to lord yourself over others – to be self-sufficient, better than others. It’s an unwillingness to admit that without God we’re sunk! Pride is what keeps us from humbling ourselves in our relationships when we’ve messed up. It’s what keeps us from humbling ourselves before an Almighty God. Admitting that we’ve messed up and need His forgiveness. Pride is the most devilish attribute a person can possess, because it was pride that turned an angel into the Devil… and it does the same thing to us.