Guided by God's Word (Part 3)

Well, thank you, ladies, for the beautiful special music. Wonderful reminder. I love the words of that song. Spending quality time with God, really taking those words and putting them into our hearts. That is a wonderful, wonderful reminder. Thank you so much. You know, in 1896, construction began on an ambitious project that began in the port city of Mombasa, Kenya. We had our sermonette. It was over in the west side of Africa.

We're jumping to the east side for the first part today. It was officially known as the Uganda Railway, and the vision ultimately was to run rail clear from the Indian Ocean into the interior of Kenya and Uganda, aiding in British colonization of East Africa. The project was beset from issue with issues from the start. I mean, from the beginning of the project. They had attacks from the local Maasai tribes in retaliation for assaults on their people by the railway workers.

They were met with uprisings, armed resistances. Many of the workers died from disease. Probably the most notable incident that plagued the Uganda Railway was the Sava incident of 1898. Some of you may be familiar with the Sava incident. For those that aren't, from March of 1898 through December of that year, for about a ten-month period, a pair of male lions terrorized the workers on the railroad. The lions stalked them. They would occasionally attack and kill them on the outskirts of the camp and drag them into the brush. Some of them were consumed with an earshot of their fellow workers just outside the edge of the camp. The men built these tall, foreign fences called bomas, and they built these huge fires in the camp at night to try to keep the lions out.

Try to keep themselves protected while they slept. But it wasn't enough. Men were drugged from their tents, screaming by the lions into the darkness of night. And they kind of, these lions took on somewhat of a mythical status to the workers in this area. It didn't seem to matter what they did to try to prevent the attacks.

The lions found a way through. They found a way around those defenses, and they continued to kill and consume the workers on the project. As a result, the workers named the lions the Ghost and the Darkness. Some of you may have seen the movie The Ghost and the Darkness. It stars Val Kilmer as John Henry Patterson, the colonel involved, in the story who actually wrote the book, Man Eaters of Savo, in 1905.

But the Man Eaters of Savo is John Henry, or John Henry Patterson, Colonel John Henry Patterson's personal account of hunting and killing the two lions of Savo. He wrote the following. He says, During that ten-month period, before Colonel Patterson managed to kill both lions, he estimated that 135 men were taken and killed.

Twenty-eight of them were laborers that were imported from India, and in Patterson's own words, scores of African natives of whom no official record was kept. They're really not 100% sure as to how many. In fact, the total number is disputed. A bunch of scientists are saying, there's no way they could have killed 100 and whatever, and they've done a bunch of tests to try to determine it. But most people agree at least 28. At least, which, listen, 135 or 28.

I'm sorry, that's still a lot of people, regardless of the difference in the amounts. He himself almost died on one of his hunts in an attempt to kill the second lion. He killed the first one already, and he had the second one trapped. He had a bullet or two in it, and it was down, and he thought it was dead. And when he got up there, it turns out it wasn't, and it came at him.

And in the book he records a similar incident with some incredibly descriptive language. And I want to share it this morning to help paint this picture. Because we're going to head in a direction today that this is going to help us to build to. It says, with a great roar he sprang to his feet, as if he were quite unhurt. His eyes blazed with fury, and his lips were drawn well back, exposing his tusks and his teeth in a way I hope never to witness again.

When this perilous situation so unexpectedly developed itself, I was not more than three paces away from him. Now, I'm not a pirate, so I can't give you the exact distance of a pace, but it's about three feet. It's roughly three feet. There is quite possibly nothing more beautiful or fearsome than a full-grown lion. Their powerful bodies are capable of short-versed speed up to 50 miles per hour. They can leap 36 feet in one bound at max.

That's the largest recorded, and they can weigh up to 420 pounds. I can't imagine locking eyes with such a formidable animal at a distance of 10 feet. I can't even imagine. And yet spiritually, we face such a formidable creature each and every day.

Let's go over to 1 Peter 5 and verse 8. 1 Peter 5 and verse 8. It was a very common passage. We come here quite a bit, but we're going to go there again. I think sometimes it's important to be reminded of exactly what it is that we face.

Somebody cut it out of my Bible last night. Come on. There we are. 1 Peter 5 and verse 8. We'll kind of begin today to establish the analogy we're going to operate from and really set the stage for the direction that we're going to head. We'll see in 1 Peter 5 verse 8 a description of our adversary. A description of our adversary in 1 Peter 5 and verse 8. It says, Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. We've mentioned this in messages before, but it's worth mentioning again.

The word devour in this passage is the Greek word katapino. It means to drink down, to gulp entirely, to drown, or to swallow up. In this case, it is warning us that Satan is seeking those whom he may swallow whole. One bite, gone. He's described in Scripture as our adversary. He's described as an opponent. We might say enemy. And his behavior is described here, that he walks about seeking, looking for the ones that he can take. Personally, in my own head, I imagine and I visualize a lion slowly and slyly pacing back and forth, just waiting for that opening, just waiting for that opportunity to pounce. When our defenses are down, when we maybe least expect it, when we're wounded or when we're hurting, then bam!

Done! Brethren, we've all seen the nature shows. We've seen lions hunt prey on the Serengeti. We know how it works.

When an animal gets separated from the herd, when it gets hurt, when it gets wounded, when it isn't able to defend itself, or when it's not paying attention, that's when the lion drills it. That's when the lion comes in and has its opening. One of my favorite Gary Larson cartoons has two animals on the Serengeti. Both have their heads down feeding. In the background of the picture, there's a lion mid-pounce. And one of the gazelles there in the picture, it might have even been birds now, come to think of it, kind of has turned a little bit and sees the lion coming. The other one has its head down wearing headphones. Which one's going to get it? Right? The one not paying attention. The one with the headphones on. But if we allow ourselves to get distracted, if we allow ourselves to become unfocused, if we allow ourselves to become separated or wounded or caught defenseless, it makes Satan's job so much easier. We basically walk right into his trap. He goes on in verse 9, 1 Peter 5 and verse 9, resist him steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world. We see specifically that we must resist. We must withstand steadfastly in our faith, knowing and frankly taking consolation in the fact that the same sufferings, the same difficulties and struggles are accomplished or being experienced by our brethren in the world wherever they might be located. You know, as we've developed this series of messages looking at the themes that operated off of the United You Camps theme this year of being guided by God's Word, we've looked at this idea that his law, his commandments and what we see in Scripture should be the things that we base our lives upon.

Not necessarily what we want them to say, but what they say. And we base it upon what we read in Scripture, and that is the foundation. That is the lamp that lights our feet, that guides us through the darkness.

We talked a little bit about how the physical aspects of our life should ultimately parallel that foundation, that our marriages, our careers, all these decisions and the actions of our life are based then upon that word and upon that ultimate foundation.

Not just hearing what God would have us do, not just academically understanding it, but following through and doing it. Letting our actions tell the story.

Last week we examined the second of those sub-themes. The next kind of natural extension of our lives is choosing those blessings that God has offered us. Once we determine what is true, what is lasting and what is right, we reach a point where God says, Will you or won't you? You know what you need to do, will you or won't you? We talked very much about how the decisions that we make and the choices that we make really give it a narrative. They tell a story of where our priorities are and where the intents of our heart truly lie. We also talked about how it might not be a huge decision. It might not be this massive black and white decision that is just so vastly different.

It might be between shades of gray. And we might find that once we reach the end of that road, we turn around and we go, Well, how did I get here? Little compromises, little things that take us away from God's Word can ultimately be a very slippery slope that can lead to the edge of a precipice. But the moral of the story, as we finished up last week, was that the story of our heart is told through our choices and through our actions.

For us to be guided by God's Word, we have to let His light, His Word, guide us on that path to make our appropriate choices and to resist the darkness. Let's go over to 1 John 1.

Sandwiched between here and the back of the book.

1 John 1.

And we'll go ahead and pick it up in verses 5 through 10.

1 John 1.

Verses 5 through 10.

1 John 1, verse 5, says, Sorry, I lost my place. If we say that we have fellowship with Him, I lost it.

Isn't that fun? There it is, verse 6. Sorry about that, guys. If we say that we have fellowship with Him and we walk in darkness, we lie and we do not practice the truth.

We see here in God there is no darkness. He is pure light.

There's no shadow. There's no darkness. If we say that we have fellowship with God and if we claim to be His follower, if we claim to be a disciple, and we walk in darkness, it says we don't speak the truth.

Verse 7 goes on, Notice the passage doesn't mean that we'll never sin.

Quite the contrary. The second half of this passage is telling us that the blood of Jesus Christ enables us to come before the Father, to ask for forgiveness of our sins, and to ultimately be cleansed. But it warns us of the danger of thinking that we are without sin, of thinking that we are doing maybe somehow better than we really are.

Kind of gets at the idea that if we don't acknowledge our sin before God and ask for forgiveness, and then yet say, but I walk in the light, that we make Him to be a liar and His Word is not in us.

We must resist wrong.

We must ultimately resist the devil and walk in light rather than in darkness.

And today we're going to continue this series of messages. We're going to continue with the third sub-theme. The third sub-theme is resisting wrong.

The title for today's message is Guided by God's Word. This is part three, resisting the devil.

Resisting the devil.

1 Peter 5 and verse 9, we'll go back there just real quick. 1 Peter 5 and verse 9. Left off with a statement. Left off with a statement.

It specifically said, resist Him.

Steadfast in the faith. The word resist is anasthemi in Greek, which means to stand against or to oppose. This is not passive. This is active. Standing against and opposing.

We have to stand against the wrong. We have to stand against the evil that we see in the world. And we take consolation in knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by our brothers and our sisters across the world.

We're all dealing with difficulties in living this Christian life.

We understand this is not an easy road to live.

Doing the right thing in this world is hard.

It's difficult. It goes against the grain. It goes upstream, so to speak, as the rest of the world goes downstream. And we're all facing down an adversary who wants to destroy us by any means necessary.

A being who's not content with God's plan for mankind, not pleased with your part in it, and frankly would rather disrupt, destroy, and terrorize.

That is who we are up against.

You know, as I mentioned in our last message, there are a number of issues that face our brethren in Nigeria. And I'm not going to dig back into them. We went into those in pretty good detail last week. But there are a number of issues that face our brethren in Nigeria. And one of the things that was really interesting to me, as we spoke with the brethren about the different issues they faced, were ultimately the issues weren't much different than the issues that we face here.

It's a different culture, yes. It's a different specific set of issues, yes. But the nature of the issues themselves, where they spring from, is the same source.

In the last message, we talked about corruption inherent in the system. We talked about years of crooked politicians making backroom deals to advance their own personal agendas. We talked about them getting rich on the backs of their people. Let me ask you a question. Am I talking about Nigeria, or am I talking about the United States?

Can't tell, can you? Because realistically, it's the same issues. It's just a different location. We are not immune to corruption and greed. And in the last couple of decades here in the United States, as God's hand of protection has been pulled back, we have seen more and more and more of this very thing.

It's coming home to roost, at this point in time, in our own country. We're in the same situation Nigeria is. Both countries, frankly, the entire world needs the kingdom of God more than ever. Satan has driven this world to the absolute brink of collapse.

And the only ultimate solution, the only fix, is the kingdom of God.

Rather than we can't afford to have blinders on when it comes to the own spiritual condition of our own country, to the ills that we face right here at home. I think what was wonderful about Nigeria is that it opened my eyes to the issues we have here and allowed me to see that we face some of the same issues in many, many ways.

Turns out no amount of money, no politician, no new ideas or technology will fix the core issue. We are treating symptoms. We're not treating the issue. We are treating symptoms.

Satan does not want the plan of God to succeed.

And as a result, as we mentioned, he will do what it takes to disrupt and to destroy, particularly for those whom God has chosen.

Sun Tzu, many of you are familiar with Sun Tzu, once wrote in his book, The Art of War, If you know the enemy and you know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you do not know your enemy nor yourself, you will be imperiled in every single battle.

Brethren, we are at war. We're at war.

And as such, knowing our enemy and knowing ourselves will help us to resist the advances of that enemy.

When it comes to resisting wrong, it's crucial to know the character of our adversary, to know how that character and how those attitudes influence and tug upon our human nature to cause us to sin.

Today, in the time that we have left, we're going to examine three specific character traits of Satan the devil, so that as Christians we can build a formidable defense against these traits in our own lives. And these, the ones that I chose are the ones that sometimes I think we can easily have blinders on to them in our own lives.

These are the ones that crop up time and time and time again, and that oftentimes we can have blinders on and not even realize that they are existing in our own life.

These three characteristics are as follows. Satan is prideful. He's prideful. He's a tailbearer. He's a gossiper. And he's a liar. He's prideful. He's a tailbearer. And he's a liar. And these character traits, if we are not careful, can be tugging on and pulling on our human nature, and we can find ourselves in these three places very, very quickly.

Let's turn over to Isaiah 14. Isaiah 14. Isaiah 14, and then we'll go ahead and pick it up in verse 12. We'll kind of illustrate the pridefulness of Lucifer at this point in time. Isaiah 14. We'll go ahead and pick it up in verse 12.

Isaiah 14 in verse 12, under a heading in my Bible of the fall of Lucifer, says, Oh, how you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning, how you are cut down to the ground, you who weakened the nations. For you have said in your heart, I will ascend into heaven. I will exalt my throne above the stars of God. I will also sit on the Mount of the congregation on the farthest sides of the north. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds. I will be like the Most High. It's an awful lot of eyes in a very short amount of time. Verse 15, yet you shall be brought down to Sheol to the lowest depths of the pit. Notice, I will ascend. I will exalt. I will sit upon the Mount. I will make myself like the Most High. Satan's rebellion, his choices and his actions, sent the message of, I know better. That's the message that Satan's rebellion sent. I know better. My way is better. I can do a better job than you can, God. I don't like your plan. I'm going to go ahead and do it myself so that I end up with the preeminence. How often have we let pride in our hearts say the same thing? How often do we take matters in our own hands, thinking that we somehow know better than what God is working and doing in our lives?

How often do we say, I'm going to drive, get out of the way? How often do we say that? Pride seems to be one of those hot-button issues that can creep into our life very, very easily. It's one of those character traits that Satan possesses that can interface with our human nature very quickly and very easily. It's subtle. And at first, it's not always apparent. At first, it's not always apparent.

It takes some time for that seed to really start growing and for it to start really heading down that road before the pride and the arrogance and those kinds of things start to show up. Sometimes, and we don't even see it ourselves. Sometimes we don't. You see recorded in Luke 18, we won't turn there, but you might jot it down. Luke 18 has the parable of the Pharisee and the publican. And we won't turn there. Again, we'll briefly reference it to illustrate our point.

We see in that particular parable a Pharisee praying in the temple, basically passing judgment on all the rest of the people that he sees. I thank you that I'm not like these other people. I'm not a robber. I'm not an evil doer or an adulterer or looking over at the tax collector or that guy. I'm not that guy right there. I'm not that tax collector. I pass twice a week. I give a tenth of all that I have.

We see a contrast on the other side in this particular parable of the humble attitude in the tax collector and his words as he beat his breast and said, God have mercy on me, a sinner.

The Pharisee was blind. He didn't see it. Yet he was full to the brim with pride. Yet he did not see it.

There was no pride in the statement of the tax collector. He knew he was a sinner. He knew that he wasn't worthy.

Yet he submitted himself to God and asked for forgiveness and mercy.

What about us? Do we really recognize how broken we really are?

Do we know how broken we really are? How much we really need God? How much we need His forgiveness and His mercy each and every day?

Or, like the Pharisee, do we look at our life and think, hey, I've got to pretty much put together. I'm doing great.

When we come before God, do we acknowledge our sin and our need for Him?

I'm going to ask a tough question. When was the last time we fasted to humble ourselves?

If the answer was last atonement, brethren, that was almost a year ago.

When was the last time that we humbled ourselves in fasting and in prayer?

Let's go over to the book of Proverbs. Let's go over to the book of Proverbs.

We're going to go through three Proverbs in fairly rapid fire here, but the good news is they start from the left and they move to the right.

So we won't have to flip back and forth and back and forth. We can just go forward.

We're going to start in Proverbs 8. Proverbs 8, we want to get an understanding of exactly what God feels with regards to pride.

How does God think of pride and what does He look at with regards to pride? Well, there we are.

Proverbs 8, we'll go ahead and pick it up in verse 13.

And again, these are going to be pretty rapid fire.

Proverbs 8 and verse 13, God says, The fear of the Lord is to hate evil, pride and arrogance, and the evil way, and the perverse mouth I hate.

So in that same breath as hating evil being the fear of the Lord, pride and arrogance are wrapped right up in that.

Right up in that.

As well as the perverse mouth I hate, which we'll talk about here in just a little bit.

Let's go to Proverbs 18, verse 12.

Proverbs 18, verse 12.

Again, going towards the back of the book here.

Proverbs 18 and verse 12, Before destruction, the heart of a man is haughty, or as some translations put, prideful.

And before honor is humility.

So again, we see the attitude of pride leading to destruction.

Whereas humility leads, in this case, to honor.

The final one, Proverbs 21 and verse 4.

Proverbs 21 and verse 4.

And this is by no means a full selection of the Proverbs that deal with pride.

This is just three. There are many.

Proverbs 21, verse 4 says, A haughty look, or a proud look, a proud heart, and the plowing of the wicked are sin.

A proud look, a proud heart, and the plowing of the wicked are sin.

God is clear. He hates pride. He hates it as an attitude.

Pride, arrogance, brings a fall. It brings sin.

Which is why it is so dangerous in the life of a Christian.

Pride is a gateway by which Satan can enter our life.

It is a big, wide-open door, the huge hole in our defenses that Satan can just stroll right into and start wrecking things.

Walk right in the wall and start destroying things.

He can wreck our relationship with God. I mean, who needs that? After all, you can take care of yourself.

You're good. You're good. He can ruin relationships with our brethren.

Hey, you know what? You're doing better than they are. Look at their sin.

Look what they've done.

You're doing so much better than that. Come on, what's their problem?

Pride can also begin to tickle the back of our brains that we know better than everybody else.

Our scriptural interpretations are vastly superior.

It's a dangerous road. It's a very dangerous road.

And frankly, it's a wide-open gate for Satan to enter our life like a bull in a china shop and just start destroying things.

Resisting the devil means sealing that hole. It means filling up that gap in the wall. It means being humble, recognizing our need for God, for His mercy and for His forgiveness, and recognizing that He is in charge and we are not.

That He is in charge and we are not. Really, it requires letting Him lead and getting ourselves out of the way, which is tough.

Satan is prideful. It's one of his character traits. And that attitude can permeate our life if we are not careful. We have to be on guard. We have to remain sober and we have to be vigilant to prevent it.

The other thing that Satan is is a tale-bearer. Let's go back just a couple of pages to Proverbs 6.

If you are still in Proverbs 20, it's a couple of pages at least. Proverbs 6.

And we'll take a look at the list of things that God informs us that He absolutely detests. Absolutely detests.

Proverbs 6. And we'll pick it up in verse 16. Proverbs 6 and verse 16.

Proverbs 6 and verse 16 says, Proverbs 6 and verse 16 says, So proud look, having a look of pride.

It begins with pride. In this particular list, it begins with pride.

And it ends with a person who sows discord among the brethren.

In other words, somebody who gets the brethren all riled up.

Someone who manipulates, rather, brother, to move against brother.

Someone who stirs the hornet's nest or smacks the hornet's nest, so to speak.

And obviously we know there is one being that is chief among those of the brethren.

We'll pick his story up in Ezekiel 28. Let's go over to Ezekiel 28. Ezekiel 28. And we'll see a very specific mention in Ezekiel 28. It's kind of sort of a parallel scripture to Isaiah 14. It's also recording some of the initial things using an analogy here. But Ezekiel 28, and we'll pick it up in verse 15. Verse 15. We'll not do the whole thing, but Ezekiel 28 is an interesting read. Ezekiel 28, verses 15.

We'll go 15 and 16. Ezekiel 28 and verse 15 says, You were perfect in your ways from the day that you were created until iniquity was found in you. By the abundance of your trading you became filled with violence within and you sinned. Therefore I cast you as a profane thing out of the mountain of God and I destroyed you, O covering carob from the midst of the fiery stones.

And we know this is referencing Satan in this particular allegory here. But it says, Out of the abundance or the multitude of your traffic? Out of the abundance or multitude of your trading? As some translations have it, abundance of your merchandise. But this doesn't give us the full story. Satan didn't have a booth at the farmer's market. So what was Satan trading? What were the merchandise? What was he selling? What was he maneuvering? He wasn't trading in tangible goods.

So what was he trading in? Particularly something that could cause him to become filled with violence and cause him to sin. The word that's translated here as traffic or merchandise is the word rikula, which comes from H 7 4 0 2, which is the Hebrew word rakal. And it's a root, rakal is the root of rikula, which is translated as to travel in the process of trading. So it indicates that Satan was traveling. He was going from angel to angel, angel to angel, angel to angel, but it still doesn't answer our question.

What was Lucifer trading with these angels that caused him to become full of violence and sin ultimately in his own pride? To answer this question, we need one more scripture. Leviticus 19 verse 16. And for sake of time, we won't turn there, but it reads as follows. You can jot it down and read it. It says, Thou shalt not go up and down as a tale-bearer among thy people. Neither shalt thou stand against the blood of thy neighbor.

I am the Lord. The word tale-bearer in this particular translation is translated as tale-bearer, but some translations have it as slander. It is the word rakil, which translates directly from the same root as rakula. It comes from the word rakal, which is H 7 4 0 2. Satan was trading in words. He was trading in words. He was a tale-bearer. He was a slander. He was running from angel to angel to angel, stirring up the group with a campaign of murmurs, half-truths, and lies.

Trading in secrets. And out of the abundance of his slander, he was filled with violence and sinned. We might say that Satan waged a war of gossip. He waged a whisper campaign. And it's no different today. It's no different today. Today, gossip continues to be one of our primary modes of communication and one of our primary sources of contention. I came across this study online that actually estimated that 80 percent of our everyday conversations with others were in the form of gossip.

Eighty percent of our conversations with others might think back to workplace conversations or people coming to talk to you, how often were they passing on some juicy tidbit or morsel or wanted to pass on some juicy tidbit or morsel before you went, whoa, whoa, whoa, I don't need to know that. Eighty percent, this study claims. Now, that's one study. But GotQuestions.org is a website that's dedicated to answering religious questions. I don't particularly like their theology, but I really like their definition on gossip. I felt out of all of the descriptions and the definitions that I came across, this particular one was the most succinct. It says, the Hebrew word translated gossip in the Old Testament is defined as one who reveals secrets, one who goes about as a tail-bearer or scandalmonger, which is a word we definitely don't use enough these days.

I'm kidding. A gossiper is a person who has privileged information about people and proceeds to reveal that information to those who have no business knowing it. Gossip is distinguished from sharing information in two ways. One, intent. Gossippers often have the goal of building themselves up by making others look bad and exalting themselves as some kind of repository of knowledge. Two, the type of information shared. It says gossippers speak of the faults and the failings of others or reveal potentially embarrassing or shameful details regarding the lives of others without their knowledge or their approval.

Even if they mean no harm, it's still gossip. So we can see that it's not necessarily just lies and half-truths that are passed on in gossip. It's privileged information, true or not, given to someone else with the intent of making the person who passed it look better than the person being spoken about.

And it's based on someone else's faults. Very simply, it's something that you know that the other person doesn't know and, frankly, has no business knowing. It's basically the definition of gossip as it was put in Got Questions. The words that we speak to others, the things that we say, or the words that we put into print, can have terrible, terrible consequences.

I was just in a seventh grade health class this last week, and we were talking about the effects and just unreal statistics around cyberbullying. Just this new form of bullying that kids are using online to create fake accounts and then just treat each other like absolute garbage. And the effects of these kinds of things is just amazing. The damage done from words can be greater than if we financially cheat or steal from someone else. Money can at least be repaid. The damage from our words can't be. If we go to 1 Samuel 21 and 22, 1 Samuel 21 and 22 contains the story of a himalek.

1 Samuel 21 and 22 talks about a himalek, David, doe egg, the edomite, ends fall. And I'm not going to take the time today to read all of these passages in their entirety in 1 Samuel 21 and 22. We're going to read some select ones, and I'll give you kind of the basics, the Paul Hardy version of this story, so to speak.

But if you want to go ahead and turn there, we are going to look through a couple of selected sections just to see the damage that can come from idle words and from gossip. And again, this is one of those character traits of Satan that interfaces really easily with our human nature. Because everybody wants to know juicy gossip. Everybody wants to know things. They want to have information. They want to understand. I mean, I don't know, I'm going to make up a random statistic here, but 80 to 90 percent of our entertainment news is gossip.

I mean, who heard about the Brangelina split this week? It was, I was breaking news on CNN! ISIS! No, Brangelina. Come on. We look at these kinds of things, and we think that they're somehow incredibly important. It's nothing more than gossip. It's nothing more than gossip. For Samuel 21 and 22, in chapter 21, we see David in haste arrive with a small company of hungry men to a himalek. We see, after some discussion of why he's there, David convinces him to provide him and his men with sustenance.

A little bit different form of sustenance than a himalek was ready to give necessarily. And a weapon, ultimately, as David told him, that the Aaron that Saul sent him on required haste, and he didn't bring his sword. Okay, so he takes off with a weapon. David spoke nothing evil towards Saul at this point. He didn't say anything negative about Saul to a himalek. Now, a himalek had no knowledge of David's falling away with Saul. However, this entire interaction was observed by Douag the Edomite, which, for whatever reason, was there in custody detained.

Or at least was there, it says specifically detained. David gets the food, gets Goliath's sword, he takes off again on foot to put some distance kind of between him and Saul. In chapter 22, verse 9, we see that Douag gets put in a situation where he has the opportunity to pass on privileged information.

First Samuel 22 and verse 9. First Samuel 22 and verse 9 says, we'll go verse 8, Saul's in the middle of this rant. All of you have conspired against me and there's no one who reveals to me that my son has made a covenant with the son of Jesse and there is not one of you who is sorry for me or reveals to me that my son has stirred up my servant against me to lie in wait as it is this day.

Verse 9.

Then answered Douag the Edomite, who was set over the servants of Saul, says, um, sir, uh, I'm assuming that's what Douag sounded like. I saw the son of Jesse going to Nob to a Himmelek, the son of Ahutub, and he inquired of the Lord for him, gave him provisions, and gave him the sword of Goliath, the Philistine. So the king set to call the Himmelek, the priest, the son of Ahutub, and all his father's house, the priests who were in Nob, and they all came to the king. So we see he ends up in a situation where he has a chance to pass on some privileged information. Did Saul ask Douag specifically anything related to this situation? No. No. No. Not at all. But Douag saw an opportunity. He saw a chance. Maybe if I pass on this information, maybe I'll be exalted in Saul's eyes, because he's bawling out all these other people about not giving him this information. Here's my chance to move up a couple ranks. Here's my chance to move up a couple ranks here. So he inquired. We see verse 9, um, set over, I saw the son of Jesse go to Nob to a Himmelek, the son of Ahutub, and he acquired of the Lord for him, gave him provisions, and gave him the sword of Goliath, the Philistine. So we see here this sense fall into a rage. Sense fall into a rage. He calls for a Himmelek and demands an answer.

Himmelek confirms the event. Transpired exactly as Douag said it did, but his response is kind of telling. Verse 14. Verse 14 of 1 Samuel 22. So Himmelek answered the king and said, And who among all your servants is as faithful as David, who is the king's son-in-law, who goes at your bidding and is honorable in your house? In other words, are we seriously having this conversation? Of course I gave David what he asked for. He's chief in your house. He's married to your daughter. It would have been suicide to not give him what he asked of me.

He had no idea. But in verse 15, he says in verse 15 essentially that he knew nothing of it. Did I then begin to inquire of God for him? Far be it from me. Let not the king impute anything to his servant or to any in the house of my father, for your servant knew nothing of all this, little or much. Didn't know anything about it. But Doig repeated something that he saw, something completely true that Himmelek confirmed when he was asked. And that with the fact that Saul had pretty much completely lost it at this point, he orders a Himmelek's death, the death of his entire household. But there's more from verse 18.

And the king said to Doig, you turn and kill the priests. Now Doig's being trusted with a task.

Saul's wondering perhaps will he do it. So Doig the Edomite turned struck the priests and killed on that day eighty-five men who wore a linen F5. Verse 19, also knob the city of the priests, was struck with the edge of the sword, both men and women, children and nursing infants, oxen and donkeys, and sheep with the edge of the sword. All of that because of idle words.

Psalm 52 is written by David following this incident. Psalm 52 is specifically following this incident. Let's go ahead and go over there. Psalm 52.

Psalm 52 says to the chief musician, a contemplation of David when Doig the Edomite went and told Saul and said to him, David has gone to the house of a Hymnalek. So this is written in response to the events that we just read in 1 Samuel 21 and 22. Why do you boast in evil, O mighty man? The goodness of God endures continually. Your tongue devises destruction. Like a sharp razor working deceitfully, you love evil more than good, lying rather than speaking righteousness.

You love all devouring words. You deceitful tongue. God shall likewise destroy you forever.

He shall take you away and pluck you out of your dwelling place and uproot you from the land of the living. The righteous also shall see and fear and shall laugh at him, saying, Here is the man who did not make God his strength, but trusted in the abundance of his riches and strengthened himself in his wickedness. But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God. I trust in the mercy of God forever and ever. I will praise you forever because you have done it, and in the presence of your saints I will wait on your name, for it is good. Doag fed the fire. Ultimately, the spark that started at burning was Saul and David's conflict. Their strife and their difficulty started it.

But Doag just piled up a bunch of wood on it and let it burn.

Not just a himalek, but 84 of his fellow priests went into that fire, so to speak, struck down by the edge of the sword, and it started to burn out of control. Not content there, he ordered the entire town to be slaughtered. Men, women, and children. Not even their animals escaped.

Saul brought the place to the ground. Our words can have incredible power, and if we're not careful, they can have horrible consequences. Horrible consequences. Proverbs 26, 20 through 21, records, For lack of wood the fire goes out, For lack of wood the fire goes out, And where there is no whisperer, no tail-bearer, contention ceases.

As coals are to hot embers and wood to fire, so is a contentious man to inflame strife. Satan is a tail-bearer, and is his character. He trades in secrets, he trades in tidbits of information. Morsels that are just too delectable to pass up. Human nature wants to know.

We want to have information so that we can better understand things. We want to understand, we want to be involved in everything, whether it's our business or not. Okay, I think there was a country song once that said, Mind your own biscuits and life would be gravy. I think that's the, that's the lyric, but mind your own biscuits and life would be gravy, right? If we stay out of some of these other people's affairs, we don't allow these kinds of things to become inflamed in our own life. We can avoid the area that Satan gets into our lives and gets into influence ourselves in our human nature. We need to make sure that we resist wrong. And what that might mean is that might mean that we need to be sure that before we share something on the internet, we prove that it's true. We absolutely prove that what we are about to hit that share button on on Facebook is true, that it's not just being passed on by some satire news site or somebody with an agenda, and now we're signing off on it and saying, I agree with this, share. It might mean that we need to ensure that the things that we share to other people, even in person. We ask ourselves a couple of questions. I'm not a huge fan of of quoting philosophers in sermons. I don't like to go there, but you know what? Socrates hit the nail on the head with this one. He said everything that people say must be passed through three big questions. He called them three sieves. He said, is it true?

Is it kind? And is it necessary? Is it true, kind, and necessary? And if it passes all three, by all means, share it. By all means, share it. But if it doesn't pass through those three things, then it shouldn't be passed on. Because Satan trades in information, because that is his character, and often that information is half-truths and lies, we can't allow ourselves to do the same. We have to resist that. We have to put up the wall of defense and prevent those kinds of things from coming in and those attitudes from coming in. The last thing, the last character of Satan is, Satan is a liar. Satan is a liar. The very first words that we see recorded from Satan in the Bible, ultimately, those the first that he interacted with humans specifically, are a lie in the form of a deceptive half-truth. He's a liar. In fact, John 844, I wouldn't say that lightly, John 844 says it. Let's go to John 8, verse 44.

John 8, verse 44, we see Christ speaking to the Pharisees here, and as often when he was speaking to the Pharisees, he's not pulling any punches. John 8 and verse 44, he tells them that they're unable to understand the things that he is saying because they cannot hear the word. He goes on to say that they're of their father, the devil. John 8 and verse 44 says, you are of your father, the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth because there's no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it. Satan is a great deceiver.

He's an accuser, and he doesn't speak the truth. By definition, there can be no truth in him. He is a liar. What he does incredibly well, however, is twist the truth. He'll take something that sounds very true, but twist it just enough, just like he did with Adam and Eve in the garden. You shall not surely die? Well, of course they would. Just not immediately, like they thought was going to happen. So he twists the truth. It seems like it might be true because there's a shred of truth to it. In fact, this example I think is very well shown in the example of Christ's temptation in Matthew. Let's go over to Matthew 4. Let's just kind of start to bring things to a close here today. Matthew 4. The first part of Matthew 4 here, we see that this is what he does. This is his MO. He twists the truth. It seems true. It's very close, but it's twisted. It's not quite there. Something just doesn't quite smell right, so to speak. Matthew 4 in verse 1 says, And then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil, and when he had fasted forty days and forty nights afterward he was hungry. Now when the tempter came to him, he said, If you are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.

But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God, which we know is truth. The word that comes from God is truth. John 17, 17. Thy word is truth.

Satan tries to play a little bit here. I mean, there's a couple of things going on. One, he's tempting him because he's just not eaten for forty days and he knows he's hungry.

But in a way, he's almost playing on Christ's pride a little bit here, too. Notice what he says, If you're the Messiah, like he's questioning it. If you're the Messiah, he will full well Christ was the Messiah. Was he trying to provoke a prideful response? You know, Christ was... If I'm the Messiah, I'll show him. I will turn those stones to bread.

Was that the response he was trying to provoke? We don't know for sure.

But he didn't rise to the bait. Christ didn't rise to the bait. He didn't come up. He didn't go for what, ultimately, Satan went for. He rebuked him using Scripture, using the truth, and he turned him around. We see in verse 5, he goes on, for verse 5, Then the devil took him up into the holy city, set him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to him, If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, He shall give his angels charge over you. Was that Scripture really a true statement?

Yep! Applied in that way? Nope! Absolutely not! Satan knows Scripture. He knows the plan of God. He can twist things to sound true, to be kind of similar ultimately to what's presented scripturally, but Christ saw through the smoke screen. His response to him in verse 7 says, Jesus said to him, It is written again, You shall not tempt the Lord your God. So again, he goes back to the Word of God to rebuke Satan's attempt at twisting Scripture.

We see in verse 8, Again, the devil took him up on an exceedingly high mountain, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in their glory, and he said to him, All these things I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me. Finally, he offers Christ an easy way out.

You don't have to suffer. You don't have to die. I can give you what the Father promised you, the kingdoms of this world. I can give him to you right now. All you got to do is serve me. All you have to do is bow down and serve me, and I'll give him to you.

You won't have to go through the suffering. You won't have to die.

Verse 10, Jesus said to him, Away with you Satan, resisting him to his face, essentially, away with you Satan, for it is written, You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve. Once again, he goes back to Scripture and rebukes Satan with the truth. Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and ministered to him. At each turn, Christ turned Satan away with Scripture. He returned his lie to think of it like a tennis match. He returned his lie with truth every single time. He had a strong foundation, and when offered the alternative, he chose life, and he resisted the devil. Matthew 4, honestly, is an excellent example for us to follow as we kind of go through our day-to-day, and to have those be able to know Scripture well enough to have it bouncing through our head as we have these things pop up. Satan is a liar. He's incapable of telling the truth, but he can sure twist the truth to make that lie look correct.

We see, scripturally, it mentions that Romans 1, people have exchanged the truth of God for the lie. They've bought it! Hook, line, and sinker. They've bought it! We can't allow ourselves to be one of them. We cannot allow ourselves to be one of them. We have to resist. We have to withstand, not passively, but actively withstand. Forcefully withstand, if you will. So how do we do that? How do we defend against Satan's attacks? Let's go to James 4. James 4 will briefly cover a couple of things here that specifically give us some ideas on how we can go about defending against these attacks. And again, these are character attacks. They interface with our human nature. And so, if we're not careful, if we don't see the lions flip in under the defenses, then we ultimately run the risk of finding these attitudes popping up in our life. Finding ourselves prideful, finding ourselves passing on gossip, or finding ourselves not telling the truth, or maybe not living within the truth. James 4 and in this verse 5. James 4 verse 5. And we'll pick it up here. The first part kind of gets at where do we these wars and these fights come from. You know, from the wars for pleasure in our members, lust and can't have. Verse 4 says, adulterers and adulteresses do not do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God. Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, the Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously, but He gives more grace. Therefore, He says, verse 6, God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. God resists those with prideful attitudes, but He gives grace to those who are humble, to those who show humility. Because humility allows us to submit our life to God and draw near to Him. We talked about the Serengeti, right? We talked about the animals, and they, you know, every time you watch these things, every time you watch one of these nature videos of a lion chasing down prey, it runs and runs and runs until it gets one off by itself.

And then it chases that one down, and when it runs out of gas, it pounces. We have to make sure that we draw near to God, so we don't end up out there by ourselves, potentially. Verse 7, Therefore submit to God, resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be afflicted and mourn, lament and mourn, in this case, in the New King James, and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the sight of the Lord, and he will lift you up. Here's the formula that God provides. We humble ourselves. We submit. We actively resist Satan's influence in our life, and we draw near to God. We cleanse and we purify our hands and our heart. But that attitude of humility is key. That attitude of humility is key. The antithesis of pride is humility. To defend against the attacks of pride, to defend against that attack, to fill the breach in the wall, we have to humble ourselves. And that seals the wall. That prevents the attack, or at least makes it more difficult for the attack. Because then we have to be on guard each and every day. Let's go over Ephesians 6 for our last passage today. Ephesians 6.

Ephesians 6. And we'll go ahead and take a look at how we can be on guard each and every day. And you know, we come here pretty frequently. This is one of those passages that we come to quite a bit. But it's a very important passage. And there's a couple things in here I think maybe we don't often focus on. But Ephesians 6, we'll pick it up in verse 10.

Ephesians 6 verse 10. Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand, again resist, right? Stand and resist the wiles or the cunning or the scheming or the shrewdness of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Again, outlining who our adversary is. Verse 13. Therefore, take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all to stand, having done all that we can to prepare, then stand and resist. A couple of things to notice here, though. Notice it's not our armor. It's not our armor. It's God's armor. We simply put it on.

But where do we have to receive it? From God. We have to receive it from God. It's not sitting in our closet. Maybe it is in your prayer closet if you pray in your closet. But it's not like hanging up somewhere in our house that we can just go in there and put it on in the morning. We have to go to God and receive it. Verse 14. Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, having shodged your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace, above all, taking the shield of faith with which you'll be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one, and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. Brethren, it's His truth. It's His righteousness, His gospel, His faith and assurance, His salvation, His word that we put on and that we obtain through our relationship with Him. Each and every day, we have to make sure we put on the totality of our armor.

You've never seen a war movie, a medieval war movie, where the guy just puts on, you know, his greaves or whatever over his thighs and goes running out with no breastplate on or no helmet on. Okay, maybe there's a few that do that. But the reality of it is, that's a death mission. If you're not wearing your entire suit of armor, you're toast, because those archers knew where to place arrows.

Okay, they knew where to find it. They knew where to attack. They knew where the weak spots in the armor are, and that's where the attack came. We are only as strong as the vulnerability in our armor. We're only as strong as the weakest place in that armor. And if we're not daily putting it on and putting on all of it, then now we have a vulnerability. And Satan's not stupid. He's going to attack that vulnerability all day long until we finally give Him. We give the devil a place. If we give him a foothold, he will take it. He will absolutely take it, because again, brethren, he wants us out. He does not want us to obtain eternal life. He wants the plan of God destroyed and wants us out of it. He'll take that opportunity every single chance. He's God. We have to be vigilant. We have to be diligent. His character can influence our human nature, and every day we need to consider that and visualize that lion stalking back and forth on the outside of the walls of our little camp, waiting and looking for that little vulnerability to get inside, to wreak some havoc, to drag somebody out of their tent in their sleep. Will we willingly give him a foothold? If that lion was out there on the outside of our camp, would we willingly hack a hole in our bone offense and make an opening for him to come in? Would we do it willingly? Will we give him an opening? Will we succumb to pride? Will we succumb to gossip? Will we succumb to half-truths?

Or will we remain guided by God's Word, remain in that light of God's presence?

Satan's plan for keeps. Again, he doesn't wish for us to obtain that gift of eternal life. He wants to destroy that plan entirely. We can't let him. We need to ultimately learn this same lesson that the people of SAAB O learned. Lions may be powerful. They may be formidable. But they're not unbeatable. Remain silver. Be vigilant. And, brethren, resist the devil.