Sermon

Episode 67: How to avoid Satan taking a foothold

Double Edged Sword ♱ Assyrian Church Podcast

Open publisher episode ↗

Publisher transcript

Transcript

View source ↗
  1. In the name of the glorious Trinity, Father and Son and Holy

  2. Spirit forever. Amen.

  3. Glory be to the everlasting mercies which sent you to us, O

  4. Christ, the Light of the world and the life of all.

  5. Give us wisdom by your law and enlighten our impulses by your

  6. knowledge. Sanctify our souls by your

  7. truth, and grant that we may be obedient to your words and may

  8. fulfill your commandments at every hour.

  9. O you who enlightens the rationale with the knowledge of

  10. your greatness, do enlighten, my Lord, our thoughts that we may

  11. meditate upon your holy and divine scriptures at all times,

  12. O Lord of all, Father and Son and Holy Spirit forever.

  13. Amen. What happens when, on a cold

  14. winter's night or day, freezing temperatures, while you're

  15. snuggled under your blanket with a heater on nice and comfy, and

  16. then someone leaves the door they came in through open.

  17. Now I know we may quote the idiomatic phrase Were you born

  18. in a tent along with any other words or I'm not going to speak

  19. about those today. So what caused the commotion?

  20. It is the cold air, the breeze, the draft which was allowed

  21. permitted to enter the room or the house.

  22. Now why did I begin with this question is some people reached

  23. out, some of the listeners reached.

  24. And again thank you so much for reaching out and your

  25. suggestions and your recommendations and your

  26. Kudoses. If you want us on your

  27. blessings, we really appreciate it.

  28. The producer Stephen and Adreno on their behalf, I'd like to

  29. thank you all express our sincere gratitude.

  30. But we ask one thing that you always glorify God.

  31. Let us always glorify God. Some asked.

  32. A lot of you spoke about, you know, Satan taking a foothold.

  33. How can we avoid Satan taking that foothold?

  34. How can we avoid freezing by the breeze and the cold air that

  35. entered the room because someone left the door open?

  36. You see it's the same. We can say the same about the

  37. devil, Satan and us. See we have the armor, the armor

  38. that have had been graced by God as mentions mentioned by Saint

  39. Paul in Ephesians chapter 6 verses 7:50.

    Ephesians 6 chapter mention

  40. They we can say are the doors, the walls, the fortresses that

  41. keep him keep, Satan and his Wiles, his stratagems, his

  42. deceitfulness. At a distance though he makes

  43. every attempt to find ways loopholes opportunities to enter

  44. our hearts minds will desires through his vial is stratagem

  45. which is a a a device to capture the enemy by his trickery.

  46. You know I remember when when we would do something wrong and mum

  47. would would get up to you know spank and use the Bahusta or the

  48. the flip flop. Yeah, the Chikanta.

  49. I have to be careful when I say flip flop because in Australia

  50. we say something else which is not appropriate in the United

  51. States. I remember when I came to the

  52. United States and I would use the Australian term of flip

  53. flop, flip flop. And I used to get these frowning

  54. looks and I thought why are you frowning my world?

  55. And I said Robbie, that's not a good word anyway.

  56. So the chikalta, right. And what you do, you'd run away

  57. and then you're like I, I, I, you know, I escaped the the

  58. beating. And then Mum would have this

  59. stratagem, this strategy. She would pretend that she's

  60. forgotten to talk to you and you know, try to lure you.

  61. And then when you thought everything's OK, all quiet at

  62. the Western Front, once you entered the house and you got

  63. close to him, and then smack would come the the slap or the

  64. flip flop. You know, Satan has a stratagem.

  65. And that stratagem, that strategy is a device to capture

  66. the enemy by his bickery, trickery.

  67. And who are his enemies? We are his enemies.

  68. You see, the devil does not openly displace sins to man or

  69. woman. He does not suggest that a man

  70. or a woman practice idolatry, prostitution, homosexuality,

  71. murder. No.

  72. But he prepares these things in a roundabout manner, covering

  73. his wickedness. And by making his suggestions

  74. seem plausible, he makes us ready to commit these very sins

  75. according to the writings of the Blessed, the awful act.

  76. And that's why Saint Paul urges us not to sleep, not to be

  77. complacent, not to be laxed. This is our problem.

  78. Oh, you who believe in the Trinity, that is you.

  79. This is your problem. This is our weakness.

  80. This is our shortfall. This is our issue, that we are

  81. laxed, we sleep, we're in our comfort zone, complacent, and

  82. we're careless. But Saint Paul writes to us,

  83. urging us, begging us at times not to be asleep and be

  84. careless, but to be awake and eager for the unseen warfare

  85. against the enemy, which is Satan and his demons.

  86. Why? Why?

  87. He writes in Ephesians 6. Because our struggle is not

  88. against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the

  89. powers, against the world forces of the darkness, against the

  90. spiritual forces of wickedness under the heavenly places,

  91. Against the attempt, the stratagem, the deceitfulness,

  92. craftiness. The attempt to defile the minds

  93. of our dear children, innocent children with drag Queens at

  94. schools, reading books with principles, openly announcing to

  95. innocent and young children that they are gay and lesbian,

  96. homosexual, corosexual, bisexual, pinticexual.

  97. And it goes on and on and on. Right.

  98. This is our warfare, beloved. So since our battle is not

  99. against flesh, so too the weapons of our campaign, our

  100. attack are not flesh but are directed at those deceivers that

  101. are from of old, the demons. And there is a holy war that

  102. must also be waged against every sin beloved against Satan and

  103. his army. So the question is, how do we

  104. fight this battle so that we do not give Satan the foothold off

  105. the bat? No need to go pick it and glue

  106. your hands onto streets and sit in every freeways blocking

  107. traffic and throwing coloured dust onto tennis courts, snooker

  108. tables or running naked on a stage or in an on an arena.

  109. No, we don't need to do that. What we need to do is not fret.

  110. By the way, let Alka Ellen we say in a Syrian don't don't get,

  111. you know, discouraged quickly and oh, what am I going to do?

  112. No, we are the children of light.

  113. We've been empowered. We are told to put on all that's

  114. the problem. All, not only those armours of

  115. God. That's bets bests us or suit us

  116. best. Those that suit our lifestyles,

  117. our philosophy in life know we are to put every armor of God

  118. according to Saint Paul in Ephesians chapter 6 verses 10 to

    Ephesians 6:10–18

  119. 18. Put on good ourselves.

  120. Take it on and put it on and be constantly equipped and clothed

  121. with these armors. And the first and foremost, and

  122. this is going to be a few few series.

  123. We're going to talk about this in in a few episodes.

  124. What I'd want to talk about today is what Paul says first.

  125. Gird our loins with truth. This is the first thing he says.

  126. This is the armor is girding. There's a belt.

  127. Now what are the loins? And I don't want to go into too

  128. much into human anatomy and biology so simply.

  129. The loins, also known as the lumbus, are the sides between

  130. the lower ribs and pelvis and the lower part of the back.

  131. And Saint John Chrysostom, the blessed Saint John Chrysostom,

  132. the Church father writes just like the Neil or the kill.

  133. Sorry, just like the kill. That is a fin upside down on the

  134. bottom of a ship. The loins are the central

  135. balancing support of our whole body.

  136. They are a kind of foundation all is built upon from them.

  137. Now the girdle, as I said, is a belt that goes around the loins

  138. or around the waist, and what does it do?

  139. It secures the strength within us.

  140. You've seen bodybuilders when they're doing their workout,

  141. when they're lifting weights, they put this belt on and I'm

  142. they make it so tight, right? And it gives them that strength

  143. to, you know, do you have the strength to lift up the 20,000

  144. gazillion pounds of weights? Whatever it is you've seen, when

  145. they're on the stage, they're showing off their body.

  146. The bodybuilders, they they grasp or they hold on to their

  147. loins and then they start pumping themselves and you see

  148. the muscles start appearing, right?

  149. That's the strength. So what Saint Paul is saying,

  150. listen, you need to strengthen yourself, your strength, both

  151. physical and spiritual. But I would say more physical at

  152. first, because if your physicality is weak and is

  153. flawed, then the spiritual is affected as well If we have evil

  154. desires, evil fleshly desires. Gentlemen, when you get on the

  155. Internet and social media to start searching for videos and

  156. pictures to satisfy your evil and your bodily desires, right

  157. then the spirit is yearning and crying out.

  158. No no don't do that. But because you're fleshly weak,

  159. so we are too good ourselves with truth.

  160. And what is truth? What is he talking about?

  161. Truth that you never lie. They always say what is right.

  162. Well, Paul is referring to, according to church fathers, the

  163. right faith along with the right doctrine creed.

  164. We're not going to go too much into the creed.

  165. We'll do that next episode. But the right faith.

  166. The true faith. The faith.

  167. Now what is faith? What is faith believing?

  168. Well, that's faith, obviously. But what what?

  169. What is faith? What is this process of

  170. believing? It is a complete trust,

  171. confidence, unwavering, assurance, certainty,

  172. consistency in someone or something uninfluenced by human

  173. reason. And John Chrysostom quotes or

  174. writes. Faith supersedes human reason

  175. and is penetrate as it penetrates the invisible

  176. substance of things. You know what that means.

  177. How can a man be inside of a fish or a whale for three days

  178. and not be digested? That's ridiculous.

  179. That's beyond human reason, right?

  180. Well, let me pose you this question.

  181. You see your children before the television and they witnessed

  182. Chapatl being swallowed by a fish with was it Cleo his.

  183. I think that was his cat. Cleo Vigaro.

  184. Vigaro. And then Pinocchio dives into

  185. the ocean and goes into the whale, and he sees that, hey,

  186. Pinocchio is still alive. Maybe there's a subliminal,

  187. subliminal biblical message there, right?

  188. How can that be? How can a donkey speak?

  189. But we pay hundreds of dollars to enter into, what is it,

  190. Universal Studios. And we watch the animal show,

  191. and we see rats come out from one side of the stage to the

  192. other side of the stage and we applaud.

  193. And we are in awe. Oh, wow.

  194. We see an eagle fly from its trainer's hand to the person

  195. who's holding the dollar note. Yes, I've seen it.

  196. And then we all clap and wow, Right.

  197. So if human beings have control over animals and they can train

  198. animals to do what they want, you fool.

  199. What about God, the creator of that human being and the animals

  200. and everything that we see and don't see?

  201. Everything tangible and non tangible.

  202. Nothing is impossible with God, yes, and faith supersedes that

  203. human reason. When you say are you serious,

  204. that doesn't make sense. You say well that's faith.

  205. When it doesn't make sense, human sense, that is faith and

  206. faith, Lovett is more than emotions and knowledge and

  207. wisdom. You see, everyone has a faith,

  208. everyone has a belief. Let me use this as an example.

  209. The most ridicules of faith, ridiculous faith, evolution,

  210. evolution though a ridiculous instable, inconsistent theory.

  211. It requires more faith to accept and trust etcetera, right?

  212. Like the primordial soup. You know what a primordial soup

  213. is, right? It's a notion that when the

  214. Earth was young, Hang on. Where did the Earth come from?

  215. Oh, sorry, We didn't think about that.

  216. OK, it's ridiculous. So I need to have faith to

  217. believe because there's no proof it's inconsistent.

  218. So when the Earth was young, the oceans.

  219. What are you talking about? Oceans.

  220. Who? Where did these oceans come

  221. from? The oceans were filled with

  222. simple chemicals important for life.

  223. Where do these chemicals come? You see what I mean?

  224. You've got the gist of it. Ridiculous, inconsistent,

  225. continuously, continuously changing.

  226. So what Saint Paul is instructing us in order to not

  227. to give Satan the foot for whole, is to gird our loins with

  228. truth. The truth that in the beginning,

  229. God. God.

  230. Period. Don't text me and message me.

  231. But Robbie, what about God, Period.

  232. That is faith. You don't understand it.

  233. It's OK. Praise God if it's not according

  234. to your the the human reason. Praise God because it's

  235. superseding human reason. The 1st and most important

  236. aspect weapon that we need to be armed with is truth and we are

  237. to stand strong in order to avoid giving Satan a loophole.

  238. And that is believing in God. That is the truth.

  239. All else is from Satan. I don't care what color robe

  240. they're wearing, what color sash is around their waist, what type

  241. of crosses are in their hands or hung on their necks.

  242. The truth is God, All else is satanic, and it's from Satan.

  243. Now you're probably saying there are so many gods and so many

  244. concepts, so many philosophies, ideologies of the true God.

  245. How do I know which is the truth?

  246. So that I can believe and stand firm and have my power in it.

  247. So that I can avoid Satan. So that I can avoid giving Satan

  248. a loophole. Well, it's very simple See on

  249. these programs someone make this comment.

  250. I think Adrina someone said that you know Robbie you keep it

  251. simple. That's right.

  252. Because I'm not philosophical. I know academics.

  253. Listen guys, you want to know how what my academic level of

  254. understand of education is? Sydney people contact Saint

  255. John's Park High School. You know what school I'm talking

  256. about or farewell high school, right?

  257. I have none. I like to keep it simple because

  258. it is the simple facts of Christianity.

  259. When we fulfil and stand firming we can be granted and graciously

  260. being granted the Kingdom of God.

  261. Simple. I'm not here to philosophize and

  262. and you know, use human reason. I have no time for human reason.

  263. I'm here with faith. I may not even be able to

  264. explain it. Beloved.

  265. I may be, I may. I may reply.

  266. I don't know. But I have faith, and I know

  267. it's beyond human reason. A simple equation.

  268. You want to know the true God. You want to know the truth.

  269. You turn to the only person that in the history of mankind you go

  270. and read all of those so-called religious books of different

  271. faiths. Interfaith I despise in the

  272. faith, but let's not go there interfaith.

  273. Go and read all these books. No one has dared to claim this.

  274. And in the history of mankind the one and true God spoke and

  275. said to one person that this is my Son the beloved in whom I am

  276. delighted. Matthew 317.

  277. That is the truth. When he first appeared to be

  278. baptized at his baptism, it was an introduction.

  279. God the Father introduced God the Son.

  280. And then in Matthew chapter 17, verse 5, there's a an extension.

    Matthew 17:5

  281. This is my son. When Jesus revealed his

  282. divinity, revealed his Godhead on the mount of Tabor, there was

  283. a voice again that came from heaven.

  284. This is my beloved son in whom I am delighted.

  285. Hear him. Listen to him, our friends, the

  286. Muslim friends. If there are Muslims listening

  287. to this podcast, I welcome you and I'm glad that.

  288. You are listening and I pray that the Lord Jesus Christ will

  289. somehow according to his perfect will and timing and

  290. unfathomable. You know strength and and and

  291. and timing and desire and will will touch your heart.

  292. Our friends the Muslims was this said to Muhammad?

  293. Is there anywhere in your Quran that the heavens opened?

  294. And God the Father let's call him Allah for argument's sake

  295. God the Father Allah spoke and said this is my beloved son.

  296. No, don't even dare. Don't go to the Quran.

  297. Don't, don't, don't, don't waste your time opening it.

  298. I'm telling you there isn't our beloved friends.

  299. Who the Buddhist did God say this to?

  300. Buddha, Confucius, Rajneesh, Bhagwan and And in all these all

  301. these faiths no one person, one person and one person alone.

  302. And that is the Son of God, God Incarnate.

  303. Praise me to his name Jesus Christ.

  304. Through Jesus Christ we know the truth, and by knowing the truth,

  305. we must good ourselves. You know what that means if you

  306. don't understand what it means to stand firm.

  307. Go and read the history of your forefathers, beloved Syrian

  308. brothers and sisters, from any faith, any denomination, right.

  309. Go and read the history of our forefathers who died for this

  310. faith. When the sword, when the sword

  311. of Muhammad was placed on their necks, you know what they said?

  312. We will not deny Jesus Christ, right?

  313. This was simple faith. You know, they probably couldn't

  314. define grace saved by grace. They, they, they, they couldn't

  315. define that. But one thing they knew that

  316. they would never deny Jesus Christ.

  317. Simon denied him. Our forefathers didn't deny

  318. Jesus Christ. And that's how they they knew

  319. the truth and that's how they were girded by the truth.

  320. To the point, to the last drop, to the point of the last drop of

  321. their blood. They didn't deny deny Jesus

  322. Christ and through Jesus Christ, and rightly so, only Jesus

  323. Christ has claimed in John 14 six.

  324. Now this is the pshuto version. This is the Aramaic, you know,

  325. I'm sorry to say with all respects and I'm not saying

  326. don't keep, continue to read the scripts you have, but maybe you

  327. need to look for other versions. In the Aramaic version, it

  328. actually says John 416. Not just I am, I mean yes, yes,

  329. I am ING God said to Moses go and tell them I am no Yahwah.

  330. But it's actually I am the living God.

  331. So Jesus is saying I am the living God, the way and the

  332. truth and the life. No man comes to my father, but

  333. by me alone you see the father you see me.

  334. John 10 Everything that my father has is mine.

  335. John 16 No one dared to claim this truth that we need to be

  336. good by. So when when you're giving Satan

  337. the foothold, it's most probably because you have no

  338. relationship. You're not standing firm on the

  339. truth of Jesus Christ. You're wavering, You're quick to

  340. compromise. You're quick to give away this

  341. truth and then follow other so-called truths.

  342. And then you're opened. You know the door is open.

  343. The breeze is going to come in. That's when Satan comes and

  344. starts attacking. In many ways, he'll throw doubts

  345. in your mind. Well, you know, maybe

  346. Christianity isn't the only true fact.

  347. Yes, it is. Christians are not good people,

  348. let me tell you that. Yes, I admit I for one, I raise

  349. my hand. Stand corrected.

  350. I'm committed. I'm convicted.

  351. I may not be a good and true and perfect Christian, but

  352. Christianity is true, perfect. No one from Christendom has come

  353. out of Christendom and when interviewed has said Jesus

  354. Christ was a cruel Lord has to say taught division.

  355. No. But from other faiths they come

  356. out and say, well you know what my faith was teaching?

  357. Murder and eye for eye and a tooth for tooth.

  358. So we need to stand firm in the truth that the one true God is

  359. known through Jesus Christ. And to stand firm, which means

  360. we believe we have complete trust in have unwavering

  361. confidence, assurance, certainty consistently.

  362. You know, we mentioned it, we mentioned it in one of the

  363. verses. How do we stand in this truth?

  364. Maybe in passing. Maybe you just overheard it or

  365. got sidetracked or took a bite of the the in and out double

  366. double. Or the vacuum cleaner hindered

  367. your hearing or someone pulled out in front of you and you're

  368. too busy trying to, you know, tell the person to be careful.

  369. Let me repeat it. How do I stand in this truth?

  370. Matthew 17. Five God says listen to the Son,

  371. listen to Jesus Christ. Listen to him to gain, to ponder

  372. and put it in practice. Put that faith, that truth in

  373. practice that you are hearing right now.

  374. What you heard you need to put in practice.

  375. Romans 10/17. Therefore, faith is from the

  376. hearing of the ear, Shmit of natha, and the hearing of the

  377. ear is from the word of God. You're hearing the word of God.

  378. Once you have heard, you need to examine it.

  379. Now you need to study it. You need to contemplate on it

  380. and ponder on it. Which on what you have heard,

  381. Not just send me a God bless you, Robbie.

  382. These are amazing. No, go if you have time.

  383. Once you finish your vacuum and your cooking, what have you open

  384. the scriptures and start to read and examine what I've what I

  385. have just told you. This is the way we are on a way.

  386. On the road on the path to deterring Satan to take a

  387. foothold, we quote two Timothy 316, right?

  388. Every written, every written which is written by the Spirit.

  389. Every writing which is written by the Spirit, and the Church

  390. canonizes which writings are by the Spirit is profitable for

  391. teaching. That is how to avoid Satan for

  392. correction, correcting our ways, our thoughts, our understanding

  393. on how to avoid and flee from the devil for direction and for

  394. A cause in righteousness. That is the right path which is

  395. opposite to Satan's evil paths, that the man or the woman of God

  396. will be perfect and perfected for every good Works.

  397. Do it. You hear it.

  398. You examine it. You study it.

  399. Do it. That's another problem we have.

  400. We want Bible studies. We want to be spoken about this

  401. type of topic and that topic and and preach about this.

  402. And I'll be OK Fine. Yes, we'll do that.

  403. We have the service of Christ. Right.

  404. But are you doing it? We have 60 something episodes,

  405. right? We're in 66, right?

  406. Yes. You've heard all of them.

  407. Are you doing it? Sorry.

  408. Oh well, I'm being modest. 67 right?

  409. Are you doing it, James? 122 But be a doer of the word,

  410. and not only a hero, and shake your hand and praise Jesus for

  411. these words. No, do it.

  412. Do not deceive yourselves, St. James says, and in chapter one,

  413. verse 25, he continues. But everyone who gazes into the

  414. perfect law of liberty. Liberty is from God.

  415. It's not some political government that wants to give us

  416. and teach us liberalism. No, no, no.

  417. That's evil, by the way. It's evil because liberalism

  418. today is teaching me that your grandson, when he goes into the

  419. school, you're going to have a drag queen that's going to come

  420. and sit there and teach your son how to become a drag queen.

  421. That's evil. That's not liberalism, right?

  422. Liberty is from God, which means freedom, independence, the right

  423. to have a relationship with God. So everyone who gazes into the

  424. perfect law or liberty and continues in it, continues lives

  425. in it, does it fulfills that He is not a hero who heard what is

  426. forgotten, but is a doer of the works.

  427. And this man shall be blessed in his work.

  428. Read the scriptures. Listen to the scriptures.

  429. Do the Scriptures examine the Scriptures?

  430. Jesus prayed for all of us. John 1717 Father, sanctify them

  431. by your truth. What is the truth?

  432. Your word Himself, the Word of God.

  433. Christ Himself prays between His name and the word that came and

  434. proceeded from his mouth is truth.

  435. We prayed in the beginning. Sanctify our souls by your

  436. truth. This is how we can begin to

  437. practice to battle against Satan, avoiding him, taking a

  438. foothold, so girding ourselves with the truth of the One God

  439. through Jesus Christ and His Holy Spirit.

  440. And we say we believe in one Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth

  441. that proceeds from the Father. What proceeded from the Father?

  442. Praise and glory be to his name, the Son and the Holy Spirit, One

  443. God, one triune God. So put these things in practice.

  444. Beloved, you know sometimes people want their cake and to

  445. eat it as well. No, you need to.

  446. You need to take onus in your Christianity.

  447. Go back and examine yourselves to the Scriptures.

  448. Go back and see if you truly understand and believe in the

  449. one true God and how do you believe in that one true God?

  450. Through Jesus Christ and only through Jesus Christ and worry

  451. about what the world is teaching and what some some religious

  452. leaders are teaching. Don't worry about that.

  453. God will reward according to their deeds.

  454. You focus on the Lord Jesus Christ and the truth and the

  455. Holy Spirit that Jesus promised would send.

  456. And He will teach us the truth that proceeds from the Father,

  457. that Spirit that is in you that would lead you.

  458. But you need to be attentive to the Father and to the Son and to

  459. the Holy Spirit, one God. Amen.

  460. We hope you enjoyed this week's message.

  461. Please don't forget to rate and review this podcast and share

  462. with your friends and family. For any future topics,

  463. suggestions, or to give us detailed feedback, please visit

  464. our link in the show notes linktr dot EE forward slash

  465. double edged sword. Until next time, God bless you

  466. all.