ANB 65, on the defensive

God showed me a picture one time of a hockey team. The hockey team had one special
player, the goalie. The rest of the team was nothing special. It was like in an instant I
watched a whole game. The final score was 2-0, the team with the special goalie won.
The point of the quick vision was that if I will put up a great defense, even if I only score
every so often, I will still come out on top.

So what we’re going to talk about today is taking an aggressive defensive stance towards
the devil and all sinful ways. In Matthew 5:48, Jesus tells us to ‘Be perfect as our Father
which is in Heaven is perfect.’ That sounds like a tall order, but He knew all the
assistance we would have in this endeavor. Now before we get started I want to mention
that I still firmly believe in the scripture that says, ‘Walk in the Spirit, and you will not
fulfill the lust of the flesh.’ (Galatians 5:16). That tells me that I should focus more on
doing the right things than not doing the wrong things. It’s when I get my focus on Jesus
and living the life He has me to live (going to church, praying, reading the Bible,
ministering to others, etc.) that all things of the world will become dim and I will lose
interest in my old sinful ways.

Yet, as we form a great spiritual offense in our lives we must realize that we must play
defense at the same time. “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a
roaring lion, walks about, seeking whom he may devour.” (I Peter 5:8). The fact is that
as we develop a great life in walking in the Spirit, the devil is going to press our pressure
points. The devil is going to tempt us where it’s hard to overcome. If you allow that
snake in one part of your life, he will derail every part. For this reason we must keep an
impregnable wall between our lives and his deeds. We can’t let him in. Not in any area,
because once he is in we don’t get to control him anymore. (Like a person who wants a
great Christian life but still keeps the one sin of pornography or something similar.)

The truth is we have been given many weapons to fight satan. These are all divine gifts,
praise the Lord. “For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God
to the pulling down of strong holds; casting down imaginations, and every high thing that
exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to
the obedience of Christ.” (2 Corinthians 10:6). So we have some spiritual weapons to do
battle with against our adversary (satan is actually the Hebrew word for adversary). In
the verse in Peter above the word ‘adversary’ in Greek means opponent in battle or court.

So let me list a few weapons or battle tactics, so to speak, that can be useful to the person
who strives to live holy and perfect before God.

1) Taking every thought captive.

Let me just show you this quickly, the battle over whether to sin starts in the mind. The
devil’s battlefield is the mind, and he is going to use suggestions to sin as the true means
of temptation. He is going to suggest some sort of sinful activity, even subtle ones like,
‘tell someone they are a jerk.’ He is going to get you to think about this until you do it.
That is his plan. He knows that if he can get you to think a thing, it will produce your
actions. So we have to, as the verse above tells us, take every thought captive to the
obedience of Christ. You do this by speaking out against the sinful thought. Here is an
example. I’m in a line and someone is taking forever. I hear the thought, ‘get angry,
look grumpy, and say something to hurry them up.’ This would be an impatient,
unloving, sinful act. So I have to answer that thought. You can either agree with it, or
you can denounce it. If you will take the thought captive to the obedience of Christ (the
Living Word of God) by confessing the Written Word of God you will see that Word
come to life and dispel that thought you have. So I say, ‘no, the fruit of the spirit is
patience, glory to God, and I walk in the Spirit.’ This is a short but powerful example. I
do this type of thing all the time, and I will be doing it as long as I’m alive on this earth.
Begin winning the battles in the mind, where the battle begins. Win at the root of the
battle and you will end it all early.

2) “Lest satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his
devices.” (2 Corinthians 2:11).

Now the point with this one is we need to understand how the devil works. I showed you
above his device concerning the thought life. But let me speak generally about his
devices. First, I’m not advocating going through the Bible and seeing how he gets people
to fall (pride, deception, fear, envy, lust, etc.) If you just plant yourself in church and in
God’s Word you will soon understand Godly behavior and see yourself tempted to depart
from it. You will begin to understand his devices. But, praise God, because you are in
the right places you will know how to defeat him.

The device specifically mentioned in this passage is unforgiveness, but this is a sub-
device of the broad heading of all devices. The devil’s main device is to get you to fall
out of perfect love for God and perfect love for your neighbor. Remember that we have
learned that Jesus said we only have two commandments (Matthew 22:37-40): a) Love
the Lord Your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind and all your strength
and b) Love your neighbor as yourself. We also saw that the 10 commandments are
broken into these two groups. The first four go to commandment 1, the next 6 go to
commandment 2. So all sin is really a love failure.

So any temptation to love less than this standard is from the evil one. What we can do as
Christians is recognize our actions and see when we are about to act out of perfect love.
Anything not to this standard of love is sin. We must not do it.

3) The Holy Spirit

Now one of the Holy Spirit’s main functions is to guide us according to all truth, or the
Word of God (John 16:13). The Holy Spirit will guide us according to God’s Word and
God’s holiness.

So let me tell you how this will help you. As I go through life I can sense from the Holy
Spirit when I am about to sin (fail out of my love walk). If you ask God for this you will
receive it more clearly, and you really already have this dwelling within you if you are
born again. The Holy Spirit speaks to your spirit which is the voice of a Christian’s
conscience. When you feel your heart pull and say don’t do something, you need to
listen. There is rarely (if ever) a time I sin without having had the option not to. The
choice is now mine. Begin listening for your heart and consistently obeying.

As Christians we need to be pushing to win battles. The first battles we need to win are
the ones that go on inside ourselves. If we will adopt a defensive posture and refuse to
allow satan a foothold in our lives, then we won’t be losing, and we will start winning.
Praise God. Adopt a defensive posture in your life. Refuse to allow satan to ever score
on your life. Don’t let him in by any means.

Praise God. As your heart is pure and you maintain your heart’s purity, you will see the
rest of your life blessed and in abundance. Praise God.

“Resist the devil and he will flee from you.” (James 4:7)