When The Enemy Fights Back: Using The Bible Defensively Series

HOW CAN THE BIBLE BE USED DEFENSIVELY? Untruths threaten to push us down the wrong path.

- Matthew 4:1-11; Ephesians 6:11; 1 Peter 5:8.

- We talked last week about using the Bible offensively – using it to win spiritual victories.

- This week we’re going to talk about using the Bible defensively – that is, using it to defend ourselves when we’re being attacked spiritually.

- The best known example of this would be the Temptation of Christ (Luke 4:1-13).

- Satan attacks Jesus spiritually three times and each time Jesus defends Himself from the untruth by quoting Scripture (see vv. 4, 8, 12). That’s a profound truth for us to understand. If Jesus used Scripture to defend Himself from a spiritual attack, how much more do we need to do that?

- I just want to note two things also about this chapter:

a. Note that Satan quotes Scripture in the third temptation: vv. 10-11.

- He knows how to pick and choose His Bible references to make things that are wrong sound like they’re ok.

- If something was 100% anti-Biblical, we might catch on, so a much more effective path is to mix some lies in with the truth and see if we notice.

- This is another reason why we need to have a good knowledge of the truth.

b. Last week in talking about using the Bible as an offensive weapon, I quoted from Luke 4:18-19. Note that both of these happen right at the outset of His ministry. These are not secondary issues.

- What’s the most common form of attack? An untruth.

- If He can get us to believe something that isn’t true and then follow it out to its natural conclusion, he’ll have us way off track.

- Imagine that you’re out hiking. You come to a fork in the road and your partner says: “I think we need to take the left fork that goes down past the lake. That looks like an easier path.” So you do and it is an easier path. Unfortunately, it also leads you five miles away from the base camp you were hoping to make it to.

- If you get false information and start down the wrong road, bad things are going to happen.

- Look at the lives of people around you. So many have believed false information and have ended up with bad things in their lives because of going down wrong paths.

- Satan doesn’t have to do all the work – we’ll do the work – he just has to get us pointed in the wrong direction.

- This is why it’s critical that we fight back against untruths.

- It’s essential not just that we’re sincere in our beliefs, but that we sincerely believe something that is actually true.

- Some people argue that it doesn’t really matter what you believe as long as you believe it sincerely. That’s hogwash. Many ideas are stupid; many are dangerous; many are evil; many are vapid. To say that sincerely believing something is all that’s required is an idea that sounds good at first blush but that doesn’t hold up to closer inspection.

- You need to found your life and you need to pursue a path based on what’s really true.

- That isn’t going to happen by accident. We’re surrounded by lies. I want to talk about some of the major sources of lies in our life.

WHO'S LYING TO US?

1. Satan.

a. Example #1: “You’re not worthy of having Jesus in your life.”

- Ephesians 2:8-9.

- The Enemy may put a thought into your head at a moment of sin. You’ve done something you shouldn’t have, so the Enemy plants a thought in your head: “You’re an idiot. You’re a spiritual failure. You’re not worthy of having Jesus in your life.”

- It would be easy for that thought to become a downward spiral of self-blame and depression, leading us to give up on our Christian walk.

- We need in that moment to know what the Bible says to that.

- The first thing is says is, “You’re right – I’m not worthy of having Jesus in my life, but He didn’t come in in the first place because I was worthy. He came in because He loved me.”

- Ephesians 2:8 reminds us that we’re saved by grace, not by our works.

- Because I’m saved by grace, I know that Jesus is willing to forgive me when I mess up. It’s not that my sin is something that’s “no big deal” – it was a big enough deal that Jesus died on the cross for it – but He loves me beyond my sin.

- So when I know the Bible, my response to that thought is to pursue repentance, not walking away from God.