A Device

Welcome to Sharper Sword, the publication ministry of Lighthouse Baptist Church in Lemon Grove, California.

White House believes that individuals can reach their potential for the Lord as they grow in Christ.

We want to hear our Lord say, Well done, thou good and faithful servant.

Let's join Pastor Doug Fisher as he preaches another important biblical message from the Word of God.

And also would you pick up Revelations chapter number 12?

2 Corinthians chapter number 2 and Revelations chapter number 12.

While you're turning to 2 Corinthians 2 and also picking up Revelations chapter 12, I want to uh I want to give you a brief explanation about something that relates to what we're studying today.

Revelation 12 · chapter mention

You're in 2 Corinthians 2 and also in Revelations chapter number 12.

Um in the military, it's often to have a uh a letter and number designation.

What do you mean?

Like uh the S1 shop or the S3 shop.

Uh what do you mean?

S1 shop uh deals with personnel and administration.

Uh in business you might call it the uh the HR or the human relations.

Although I'll let you know uh the S1 doesn't care that much about human relations.

I'm just caring to let you know.

Uh S S3 is operations, uh S4 is logistics and supply.

What I want to speak to you about this morning specifically is uh in what I did in the military, we dealt a lot with the S2 shop, the uh intelligence, the uh the community that gathers information or if you would, strategize to tell the operations uh what the lay of the land is to uh help them to strategize what to do.

The S2 shop is intelligence.

What the S2 shop did was uh they would uh they would teach us a lot about enemy tactics.

They would tell us how the enemy thinks.

Uh they would, if you would, brief us on current operations and uh every war's different, but the uh intelligence or the S2 shops, uh they come in sometimes very, very blunt and say, here's what they just did.

You need to know about this.

And it was, if you would, for us to understand the enemy.

And may I say, in warfare, we are required to know the enemy.

What do you mean, know them?

Uh we're required to uh know something about what they do and how they do it.

You say, is that biblical?

It absolutely is.

Look at 2 Corinthians chapter 2, stay right with me.

2 Corinthians 2 · chapter mention

I'll go quickly this morning.

In 2 Corinthians chapter 2, notice verse 11, verse number 11.

2 Corinthians 2 · chapter mention

It says this lest Satan should get an advantage of us, for we are not, say the word, ignorant of his devices.

What that says is we're not supposed to be ignorant of our enemy and his devices.

Devices, uh device uh definition, uh like a tactic, like a plan, like a scheme.

Now, a device can be something that's good or bad, but if you read the dictionary, you'll see it's commonly associated with bad.

A device, especially in the Bible, is a scheme or a plan or something invented that strategizes to do something bad.

And in this case, it says, lest Satan should get an advantage of us, for we are not ignorant of his, say the word, devices.

We're not ignorant of his strategy, of his plan.

A God in the Bible tells us about Satan, and we're not supposed to be ignorant in this warfare.

May I say to you, uh, if you read in context, and I don't want you to get off on this this morning, please, verse number 10 talks about forgiveness.

May I say in context, one of the devices that Satan can use is when Christians don't forgive each other.

Satan can get in there and have an advantage, and I'll show you what I'm talking about today.

And if you read in context, both before and after that verse, you'll see some of his strategies, some of his plans, some of his devices.

Now, what's the ultimate goal?

The ultimate goal is in 1 Corinthians 12.

1 Corinthians 12, you're holding your place in Revelations 12, go to 1 Corinthians 12, which means that turn your page to the left, just a couple of pages.

1 Corinthians chapter 12, and you're still holding your place in Revelations 12.

1 Corinthians 12 · chapter mention

And notice what it says in 1 Corinthians 12.

I want you to see another word.

So far we have device, device, a scheme, a plot, a plan invented normally in this case for bad.

It could be for good, but in this case for bad.

Look at 1 Corinthians 12.

Notice this, please.

Notice verse 25, verse number 25.

That there should be no two ways to say it: shishm or schism.

Depends on where you're from.

How do y'all say it in Australia?

Schism or schism?

Schism.

Back in Ohio we say shism.

But in Ohio we wash our clothes too, amen.

I'm just telling you how we grew up.

That there should be no schism in the body.

And schism, if you would, is a word that means division.

Divisive, separated.

And he says, in the body there should be no schism, there should be no division, there should be no separation.

Brethren, it's not just the body, but that ought to be that way in marriage.

That ought to be that way in family, in friendships, in ministry, in business.

We don't want schism or schism.

We don't want division.

We don't want something that divides us and separates us to where we're against each other.

And that's what a schism or a schism is.

His device is to try to turn us against each other.

His while, what do you mean while?

W I L E, not W-H-I-L-E, but the wiles of the devil.

The while is a trick.

It's a trick or something that is, if you would, uh subtle, that is a while or a scheme, not a W-H-I-L, but a W I L, a while, the tricks of the devil, the deceptions of the devil.

And what he speaks about is the ultimate goal is to cause disunity and discord and disharmony.

Because when we're divided against ourselves, we cannot carry out the work of God.

We cannot glorify God properly when we're divided against ourselves.

So the concept is he wants that schism or schism.

I want to show you one of his devices, please, this morning.

Revelations chapter 12.

Revelation 12 · chapter mention

Stay with me, you're doing great.

Revelations 12, and watch one of his devices, one of his schemes, his strategies, his plans, if you would, knowing the enemy, knowing our warfare, Revelations 12, and we're going to guard against this.

Revelations 12.

In Revelations chapter 12, notice verse 10.

Revelation 12 · chapter mention

Verse number 10, please.

They said, I heard.

I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation and strength and the kingdom of our God and the power of his Christ.

I want you to take note of the next little phrase.

For the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night.

I want you to underline in your Bible, if you would, accuser.

Accusation.

Someone there, Satan, that accused us day and night, because now Satan is going to be cast down and cast out.

First of all, he's cast down, then later he's cast out, but he's an accuser.

Someone, if you would, that puts blame on.

Someone that finds fault with.

Now, may I say something?

The accuser can find something to find fault or blame that's true, or the accuser can fabricate and make something up that's not true.

So the accuser, the one that that uses blame, or the one that finds fault, it can be something true or it can be something fabricated.

And I want to present to you one of the devices, one of the strategies of our enemy.

And by the way, the devil is our enemy.

You say, I don't like talking about the devil.

Satan, Lucifer, the anointed cherub.

May I say to you, there's all kinds of words for him.

Leviathan, the dragon.

Come on, are you still with me?

He is our enemy.

You say, I come to church and you talk about the devil.

Brethren, I want to show you something that if we're not careful, schism can develop in families, in homes, in marriages, in ministries.

It has to do with accusations that come in a certain way.

And it's one of the wiles, one of the tricks, one of the schemes, if you would, to try to divide us, to get against each other.

And accusations is one of those.

With that in mind, I want you to see a verse and I want you to see one more word.

Look at 2 Thessalonians chapter 2.

2 Thessalonians 2 · chapter mention

2 Thessalonians chapter number 2.

And I hope you don't mind just kind of following me with these scriptures, 2 Thessalonians chapter 2.

2 Thessalonians 2 · chapter mention

If you're a little unfamiliar with your Bible, don't hesitate to look up in the front, look at the index, find out where 2 Thessalonians is, and notice 2 Thessalonians chapter number 2.

Why you're turning there?

Wilds, tricks, schemes, devices, if you would.

I want to show you another Bible word.

We talked about schism.

I want to show you one more Bible word that's very important to this study.

2 Thessalonians chapter 2.

2 Thessalonians 2 · chapter mention

And notice, if you would, verse number 7.

Verse number 7.

Here's what it says: For the mystery of iniquity doth already work.

Only he who now leteth, L-E-T-T-E-T-H, will let until he be taken away.

In context, you'll see in verse number four that uh Satan or the Antichrist will set himself up and exalt himself, if you would, uh, appearing to be God, and we'll not go into that.

The enemy is very deceptive.

Brethren, uh, when I was in the military, there would be uh enemy that would come over our radio sounding just like us.

What do you mean?

The enemy, the the the duplication of how we communicated, they could do it verbatim and they knew all the slang.

They talked like us, uh, they read back like us, they could give orders out like us, and we had to be careful that we were not getting something that appeared to be us that wasn't us.

What do you mean?

They would come over the radio and we practice and practice and practice this.

What do you mean?

And they would come over the radio and give us orders, and we wouldn't even know it was them.

They, if you would, recreated to make themselves look like us.

That's very common in warfare if you don't know that.

Satan does the same thing.

He will set himself up like God in a temple like God to show himself that he is God and he'll have all the imitation.

You say, how'd you handle it on the radio?

We had something we called authenticate.

Authenticate.

And in those days, it's much more sophisticated.

Now, in those days, we carried a little uh uh issued, if you would, authentication package, and there was a little uh uh way that you would go down this authentication package and it had letters and numbers and different things for that particular day, sometimes for that particular half day, and you would go to that if you would, and you would get the code, like a cryptic code, and you would say authenticate.

Well, if they didn't have the code, they couldn't do it.

And if they didn't have the code, you didn't listen.

And it was a series of numbers and letters that I would say a series of numbers and letters, and they would have to say one back to me, and we typically, depending on how secret the mission was, we'd have to go back and forth a couple times on this.

Are you still with me or not?

Because if they didn't know the code, they could not authenticate it was fake.

And by the way, we are supposed to know the fakes, but they're very deceptive.

He that now leteth, verse 7, will let, and he'll be taken out of the way.

In your old dictionary, if you look it up, let to hinder, to impede.

Satan hinders.

He tries to slow down, he tries to slow us, slow us off course.

He that now leteth will leteth until that day.

He'll keep hindering.

Why?

Because he doesn't want God to be worshipped.

The battle is over worship.

When someone gets saved, God is worshiped.

When someone, if you would, gets gets more uh growing in Christ and someone sings and someone's involved, God is worshipped.

And Satan doesn't want that to happen because Satan, the bottom line is he thinks he's going to be God.

Isaiah 14.

And it says that he that letteth will let.

Remember, one of his devices is to accuse, to cause blame, to, if you would, find fault.

Let me let me give you a couple different ways according to the Bible that he does this.

Now I won't ask you to turn there, but do you remember when God said, Has thou considered my servant Job?

Well, Satan comes before God doing what he does, and he accuses Job to God.

Please listen.

He says he finds fault with Job and said, If you do this to him, he'll curse you.

See, he was accusing human to God.

He did it twice.

He said, if you do this, Job will forsake you, he'll curse you.

By the way, Job retained his integrity.

But the accuser, he'll accuse God, and he'll say, Those humans down there.

That Doug Fisher down there.

You say, how do you know that?

Zechariah 3 says, He did it, if you would.

Even with Joshua, a type of Christ, he even accused to God, if you would, to try and resist, to hinder.

So he'll accuse God and he'll say to God, what about those human Christians down there?

What about your children down there?

Are you still with me?

But it goes farther than that because he'll accuse us of God.

What do you mean?

God doesn't love you.

If God cared about you, he wouldn't let that happen.

Look at Genesis 3.

Stay with me.

Genesis chapter 3.

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

Look at Genesis chapter 3, and you'll see this concept of the accusation.

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

The first one is he'll accuse to God, he'll accuse God and say, those Christians down there, but on our side, he'll accuse God to us.

Meaning, look what it says in verse number chapter 3 of Genesis.

Notice verse 4.

Verse 4, and the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die.

What do you mean?

Well, if you read the story, and many of you have already, uh, she had been told that she was not supposed to uh eat of the that certain fruit, that certain tree.

In fact, Adam even said, Don't even touch it.

Verse 4, and the serpent, type of Satan, said to the woman, Ye shall not surely die.

Watch, for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as God's knowing good and evil.

You know what he just said to Eve?

God's withholding from you.

He just accused God.

Because God knows the day you eat, you'll be like little G Gods, knowing good and evil.

And by the way, unfortunately that was true.

But he accused her of saying, Don't you know this is going to be good for you?

And God is withholding from you.

I want to tell you, don't tell me in the last year you haven't had a thought about God in a negative way where you thought, uh, I wonder why this is going on, and it was an accusation about God that came through your brain.

I'm gonna say it again.

I don't know if it came from the carnal nature or from principalities and powers, but we had a thought about the Lord, like, where is he?

Why isn't he why isn't he involved?

Why does he come and deliver this?

Why isn't he doing that?

And you say, No, I never thought about that guy.

Okay, for the for the other uh 88% of us, he did.

What?

We had a thought where we almost listened to an accusation about him.

Come on, are you still with me or not?

So he'll accuse us to God and God to us, but it doesn't stop there.

Another way he does it is this.

What was the byproduct of this?

Well, you know, they ate and then they found out they were naked, and now they, if you would, disobeyed God, and God had to break fellowship.

But notice what happens, if you would, verse 11.

Stay with me, verse 11.

And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked?

You see, when they ate of the truth, they they automatically got ashamed and found out they were naked.

Hast thou eaten of the tree?

Wherefore, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?

And here we go, verse 12.

And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.

Now, ladies, right there, you ought to just elbow that man.

And the man said, The woman that thou gavest me, please listen to me, please listen.

What he just said was not an attack against the woman.

What God just said is, or what Adam just said is, God, it's your fault.

You gave me the woman.

Had you not given me this woman, I would have never done this.

Was it indirectly against the woman?

Yeah, but Adam said back to God, this is your fault.

You gave me the woman.

Now, the Bible says in 1 Timothy chapter 2, if you study, Adam was not deceived.

1 Timothy 2 · chapter mention

Come on, is that right?

He knew exactly what he was doing.

But he said, God, if you had not given me this woman, this would have never happened.

What do you mean?

Division, schism, accusation, falsely accusing, blaming.

God, if you wouldn't have done this, this would have never happened.

And and ladies, don't get too proud because the woman blamed it on the serpent that God allowed in the garden.

Come on, are you still with me?

The idea is all this works together to cause this schism.

So please listen.

This is the important part of the message.

Please listen.

He'll accuse us to God and God to us.

On our side, God doesn't love you.

God doesn't care.

If he cared, why would he let that happen?

Now wait a minute.

And then he'll accuse us to us.

What do you mean?

Don't you think when they left that garden that Adam and Eve must have had a little conversation?

You say, what do you think they said?

I don't know.

But you know what we say in our home.

It's your fault.

Or what do you mean by that?

What do you mean?

Hey, brother, he can accuse us to God and God to us, or he can accuse us to each other.

And we get something in our brain that so and so is thinking a certain thing, and they're not thinking that at all.

But in our brain we think they are.

And the word Are coming into our perception, well, he meant this or she meant that.

And the accusation is strong.

Come on, are you still with me or not?

And that can cause division.

He'll accuse us to God and God to us, or he'll accuse us to each other.

Husband to wife, wife to husband, a church member to pastor, a pastor to staff, staff to church, if you would, uh, business people to business people, and he's trying to create division and schism, and we could go into more illustrations in the Bible about that.

Wait a minute.

There's one more I want to show you.

Look at Matthew 4.

Matthew 4.

In Matthew chapter 4, this is the one we really have to be careful about.

Matthew 4 · chapter mention

Matthew chapter number 4.

Matthew chapter number 4.

We're almost finished.

Don't be accused and say, oh man, he's not watching my time.

I'm watching your time.

Watching your time.

Matthew chapter 4.

Matthew 4 · chapter mention

Now watch Matthew 4 very carefully, verse 1, and you're doing fine.

Well, Jesus was led of the Spirit into the wilderness.

He had fasted 40 days and 40 nights, and then he comes against the temptation, verse 1, of the devil.

Notice the temptation, verse 3.

And when the tempter came to him, when Satan came to God in the flesh, Jesus, he said, If thou be the Son of God, stop right there.

Let's not go any further.

If you're really the Son of God, what did he try to do?

He had tried to accuse him of him.

If you're really the Son of God.

Brethren, the the accusation that gets us the most is when he accuses us of us, me of me.

You of you.

See, he'll accuse us to God and God to us.

Come on, is that right?

And he'll accuse between us each other.

But then the one that he really gets us in the middle of the night is he'll accuse you of you and me of me.

And what will he do?

He'll take a fault in our character and he'll exaggerate it.

What do you mean?

He'll say, Well, you're not this, look at what you do.

You can't do this, you can't be that.

Look at what you do, you hypocrite.

And he'll accuse you of you to try to demotivate, demoralize.

And by the way, you say, What's the solution?

Just agree with him.

Huh?

No, I'm gonna resist him.

I gotta tell you, when he starts accusing me of who I am and what I am, I'm just saying, you're right.

Thank God for his grace, though, devil.

Because you're right.

And I am that.

It says resist the devil or agree with your adversary in the way.

And sometimes you can't sit there and go, You're a liar, devil.

That's not me.

I don't do that.

You know what humility does?

It says, you're right.

But I've read the Bible, and God uses all kinds of men and women in here.

And his grace is sufficient.

He'll say, You're not worthy of that job.

You can't do that.

You can't be that.

Look at your character.

Look at who you are.

What will people think?

Come on, are you still with me or not?

Brethren, if every pastor listened to what he is, there would be no preachers.

There would be no preachers, because nobody's qualified.

What's the first qualification?

Blameless.

I'm out.

Ring me up.

But thank God for his grace.

That doesn't mean we don't try to do right.

It just means that Principal's and Powers can find something and just exaggerate it and exaggerate it and exaggerate it and magnify it.

And he'll say, See, there you did it again.

See, there you did it again.

The accusation is me against me.

So one of the ways is me to God, God to me.

Are you still with me?

The other way is me to you and you to me.

And the last way is me to me or you to you.

And I gotta tell you, he's often telling the truth.

You say, but he's a liar.

I know, but he knows us pretty well.

He's not omnipresent.

Satan is not omnipresent.

He's not everywhere at once.

But he's got principalities and powers around at different degrees and different levels.

And he, if he would say to Jesus, if thou be the Son of God, if you think you really are, he knew who that was.

He was trying to get him to sin.

Come on, is that right?

In fact, look at it again.

Stay with me.

You're doing great this morning.

Notice verse 6.

Verse 6, that's the second temptation, second one, and saith unto him, If thou be the son of God.

He tries to go at him again.

Wait a minute.

I got wonderful news for you.

On the third try, he doesn't say, if thou be the son of God anymore.

What do you mean?

All he does in the third try is say this, verse 9, and saith unto him, All these things will I give thee if thou wilt fall down and worship me.

Brethren, he tries twice to accuse him.

If you're the son of God, if you're really the son of God, on the third time, he doesn't try anymore.

He just says, This is all I got.

I'll give you everything.

Everything that's been given to me in my power, I'll give you that if you'll just fall down and worship me.

The problem was he was talking to the one that gave it to him.

Yes or no?

He was talking to the very one that authorized it.

You say, wait a minute, no, that was Jesus.

I know.

God in the flesh.

Fullness of the Godhead bodily.

I and the Father are one.

You've seen me, you've seen the Father.

What I'm saying was the one in very control, he said, I'll give you everything I got.

If you'll just fall down and worship me.

Brethren, everything he offered Jesus, Jesus is gonna burn up later.

All the glory of this world is what he offered him, and Jesus was like, I'm burning that up later.

I got a new one in mind.

I'm saying the device, the scheme, the strategy, us to God, God to us.

Us to us, us to each other.

And then us of us.

Brother Myanmar, the first time I went to Australia to preach was about 20 years ago up in Rockhampton.

I preached Friday night.

I wanted to get on an airplane, come back home that night.

I didn't sleep all night long.

I thought I did an extremely terrible job up there, and I just wanted to leave Australia, and it wasn't Australia's fault.

I didn't connect.

I thought I was a terrible preacher that night.

I felt like nobody heard anything I said.

Please look up here.

And he accused me all night long.

Now, whether that was my old nature or principalities and powers or the combination of both.

All night long I twisted and turned and didn't sleep and thought I just want to get on an airplane and go home.

Because if he can get us to quit, believing the accusing, the accusations.

He can demotivate us.

He can cause schisms between us.

He can cause schisms in me.

He can cause what do you mean by that?

Look, what do you mean?

Did you ever have that husband and wife?

Friend to friend?

Somebody says something and you think, what do you mean by that?

I didn't mean anything.

Did you ever look in the mirror and say, what do you mean by that?

Come on, am I the only one?

What do you mean by that?

I know you.

You say you're you're talking like there's two of you.

There is.

There's an old and a new.

And once in a while, when I'm in my old, I say, What do you mean by that?

Or the new said, Don't worry about it.

You're a mess, anyways.

If God would help us to take away his devices, his wiles, his schemes, his trickeries, expose him.

And by the way, we would not know any of this without the S2 book.

We would not know of any of this intelligence without this manual.

Nobody can dream it up.

God says, I want to show you about your enemy.

Just study it.

Look at it.

Underline it.

Don't think you get it in one time.

Because just the time you got that tactic figured out, he's got another one.

And please look up here, he doesn't play fair.

The Satan has no Geneva convention.

There's no boundaries to his wicked way of operating.

He has no boundaries.

If he would go to the Son of God and say, if you're really the Son of God, how arrogant.

How bold.

You say, what did Jesus do after fasting 40 days and 40 nights?

He knew who he was.

He was talking to the former anointed cherub that covereth.

Jesus was part of the creating of him.

He knew who he was.

He knew that he was lifted up because of his own beauty.

That wasn't his beauty at all.

It was a reflection of God through all those coverings.

Come on, is that right?

Without the glory of God, Satan didn't look good at all.

And so here's Satan saying something to God, and God's like, it is written we've got to do this.

And he comes back, but it's for our admonition.

Did he give way?

Absolutely not.

Did he believe the accusations?

No.

In fact, he said, be careful.

Be careful.

If he'll do that to me, he'll do it to you.

If he'll try to get me to be demoralized to sin, he'll try to do it to you too.

If he can get you to quit, if he can get you against each other, if he can get you thinking that about God.

Three statements.

If he can get you thinking that about God, if he can get you thinking that about that other person, or if he can get you to think that about you, he's got you.

He's got you.

It'll demotivate vision.

It'll demotivate opportunity.

Brother Man, so your son just graduated from college, is that right?

Where you at, brother?

Stand up, would you mind me using ya?

You just graduating?

Uh youth pastor?

That's the plan?

That's a good plan.

Let me be Satan.

You?

You?

A youth pastor?

Don't you know what your secret sins are?

Don't tell me you don't have them.

I saw you thinking the other night.

You still with me, brother?

You can handle this, can't you?

I'd never do this in Australia because you don't do this in Australia, right?

But we're in America, baby.

You know what I'm talking about?

Don't listen.

Don't you dare listen.

Australia needs guys like you going back to be examples and to make it happen.

I'm serious about that more than you know.

I've watched, I've studied, I've observed.

We need, why are you saying we?

I'm an honorary mate.

If you don't know what that means, don't you mean like you mean like an American mate?

No, like an Aussie mate.

I'm an honorary Aussie mate.

Come on, is that right?

Mate, you need to go back and be the example to some 12-year-olds and 13-year-olds and 14-year-olds that can do something for God.

And I'm telling you, you need to do that.

He'll accuse you to God and God to you.

He'll accuse you even to your dad and mom.

And your dad and mom to you.

He'll accuse you to the mate.

I say mate because over here we think of mate like spouse.

You get that right?

He'll try to, he'll try to destroy your mateship with someone.

Lastly, he'll accuse you of you.

Don't listen, brother.

We're we're all in the same boat under grace.

Thank you for listening to this message by Pastor Doug Fisher of Lighthouse Baptist Church in Lemon Grove, California.

To learn more about Lighthouse Baptist Church, visit our website at www.lighthousebaptist.com or call 619-461-5561.