Satan’s Strategy to Defeat Us

Why do we experience spiritual defeats—even after salvation?

Because it is so easy to overlook our spiritual enemy, who battles with us on a daily basis. Some mock the idea of a literal devil, but Scripture affirms that Satan is real, and his goals are to draw us away from God, thwart His purposes, and cause division. In this message, Dr. Stanley discusses Satan’s battleground, his many efforts to mislead and deceive, and the ways in which God’s Word is our greatest protection against the enemy’s lies. For more messages from Charles Stanley!

Many people will live their whole life and wonder why things don’t go too well.
They trusted Jesus Christ as their personal savior and yet they suffer one defeat after the other can’t quite figure out why do not realize they have an enemy, an animate.
That’s very real, animate. It’s laughed at, criticized disbelieved, but very, very real.
Whose goal is threefold to draw us away from God to want God’s purpose in our life and divide us.
Satan is a very real person.
And so what I want us to talk about in this message is Satan’s strategy to defeat us, all of us, every one of us.
He hasn’t left any of us alone. When somebody tells me, I don’t believe in the devil.
I think that’s like being in a ring with a bunch of lions.
And you say no, I don’t, I don’t believe in animals. I’m telling you, Satan is real. He’s a liar.
He’s a deceiver. And many, many, many people are very deceived and their deception is very evident when they say I don’t believe in such a person as the devil.
So I want us to read a passage scripture from Romans chapter eight, if you will, and then I want us to talk about his strategy.
How does Satan defeat us? What is his strategy?
But Romans chapter eight, and let’s slip down to verse five to start with.
For those who are according to the flesh that is, they’re living in sin, have never trusted Christ as their savior.
Maybe according to the flesh, set their minds on the things of the flesh.
So let me define flesh. We’re not talking about flesh and bones and skin and blood.
We’re talking about that drive within us that drive within us that opposes God.
There’s something in every one of us that opposes God and Paula called it the flesh.
For those who are according to the flesh, set their minds on the things of the flesh.
But those who are according to the spirit that is we have the Holy Spirit living within us, trusting Him, the things of the spirit.
Watch this for the mind and remember this, the mind is Satan’s playground and is battlefield.
Listen, all of his work is done in the mind. It may fall down to the feet.
But Satan works on your mind. He’s there for the mind set on the flesh.
That is a mind that’s set on the things that the devil wants. Listen is death. Look at that.
But the mind set on the flesh is death. But the mind set on the spirit.
That is the Holy Spirit is life in peace because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God.
You think about, think about your thinking, your thoughts, how much time of your day is given to thinking things maybe you shouldn’t or thinking about people or whatever it might be.
He said mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God.
You can’t think holy things and hostile things at the same time for it does not subject itself to the law of God.
For it is not even able to do so.
That is the mind that’s controlled by the devil is not going to be controlled by God at the same time.
And those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
However, you’re not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if indeed the spirit of God dwells you, that is when you trust that Christ is your savior, you’re a child of God and the spirit of God is in your life to rule and reign.
But if you choose, you can disobey God, you can listen, you can listen to the voice of the devil, disobey God.
Does that mean that you’re lost?
No, but you’ll think you are, you, you can, you, you find yourself acting like you are however you are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if indeed the spirit of God dwells in you.
But if anyone does not have the spirit of Christ, he doesn’t belong to Him.
They get that verse, if anyone does not have the spirit of Christ living within them, they don’t belong to him.
So when you ask somebody, are you a Christian that says sure I am.
Well, on what basis would you say that you’re a Christian? Well, I grew up in a Christian home.
I went to Sunday school when I was a kid.
I got baptized and I’ve tried to do the best I can all these years.
And so, yeah, I am on.
Not necessarily, there are people who have done all of that and who’ve never trusted Jesus Christ as their personal savior.
And so when we talk about the work of the devil, his primary work is that of deception, lying.
He is a liar from the very beginning.
The word of God says he is Jesus said he was, he’s a liar.
Whenever you’re listening to the devil speak to you, you are listening to a liar.
And so with that passage in mind, I want us to think about it and that is every single one of us who is a follower of Jesus Christ.
Our mind is a battlefield and we’re battling every day.
You wake up in the morning, everything may seem to go right or it all may seem to go wrong.
But whatever it might be, you have an enemy with one sole purpose to deceive you to ultimately to destroy you and certainly to keep you from walking in obedience.
So mighty God. And so when I look at all these passages and in Second Corinthians, for example, I want you to look at Second Corinthians just the verse or two here.
And uh what Paul says in this fourth verse, he says, in whose case, the God of this world, who’s the God of this world?
Satan has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they may not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
What’s he doing? Satan is a liar. He’s a source of lying.
He is a liar, misleading and causing people to distrust the almighty God.
So the truth is every single one of us. We’re a battlefield. There’s something going on in our mind.
Even if when you’re a believer, your mind is also a battlefield for the devil.
Who is it that causes you in a moment to lie about something, you know, you know, better or to look with us or to take advantage of or whatever it might be.
Satan is very much alive and he cannot overpower a child of God unless we give him permission because we have the Holy Spirit living within us who reminds us that Christ died on the cross, shed his blood to forgive us of our sins, who lives within us, who has sealed us, watch this.
We have been sealed by the spirit of God as a child of God, we cannot be lost live in sin.
Yes, disobey God. Yes. Suffer the consequences. Yes.
Just because you’re a believer does not mean you can sin against God without any consequences.
There are always consequences to sin. It is Satan’s lies.
They convince people they can do this that and the other disobey God and think, well, it’s not too bad and nobody’s preppy.
Listen, Satan has a bag full of tricks that he’s willing to show us how to get by, how to do this, how to do that.
All oftentimes lying against what we know is the absolute truth.
Think in your own life how often you attempt it to do something that you know is not right.
But you think, well, it’s not too bad.
I am saved and I’ve heard people argue this say, well, I know I know that I don’t live a God in life, but the Bible says my name is written in the lamb’s book of life and I’m saved.
Yes, it does. If you are.
It also says God will chastise you now, not because He doesn’t love you, but because He does because He wants to get your attention to remember who you’re listening to that.
You listen to the devil, you listen to God, you either listen to God, you listen to the devil and he, this is a warning, a warning that Satan is committed to our destruction.
So, what I want us to think about for a few moments is his strategy. This is how he works.
He’s always working to do anything in his power, to mislead us, to destroy us because we bear witness to the Son of God and his love and graciousness to us.
So let’s think about the moment. This is how Satan operates. Are you interested in that?
This is how he operates. He directs our attention towards a need or desire.
That’s the way he always gets in. He starts out with that.
For example, here’s Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Everything is absolutely perfect.
Could not be better. They have everything to have each other. Everything is perfect.
The one thing that they didn’t have is fruit from the tree of the knowledge of viva.
Look at everything else that’s perfect. And so what does Satan do?
He points them to the one thing they don’t have how many men and women point to some other person lustfully because they have everything else in life they need but him or her and how many decisions are made.
Not because people don’t have certain things, but they don’t have a particular one.
Satan is a liar.
Satan is a deceiver and one of the first things he does is to point out something in your life that you don’t have.
He does not remind you of how much you do have, how blessed you are, how healthy you are, what you drive, where you live, what you wear.
He points out the one thing you don’t have. What about, I suppose you had that? He’s a liar.
He’s a deceiver and he uses the same tactics he used in the garden.
You’d think by now we’d have caught on how does he operate.
He points out the thing you don’t have so that if you want to be complete you’ll have it.
Did it satisfy her? No. And doesn’t satisfy people today, he creates this desire in order to get people off base off track.
If you only had that listen carefully, you can’t ever have enough of anything.
That is not the will of God for your life to ever make you happy.
Ever make you feel complete but ever make you feel content.
You’ll just go from one thing to the other believing in one lie after the other and you find yourself in self destruction.
One of his, one of his tactics, get our attention on something we think we need.
The second one is this, watch this carefully. Satan chooses his timing.
He knows when we are the most vulnerable. When Jesus had fasted 40 days and 40 nights.
What did the, what did the devil said to him? Oh, been fasting glorifying the father.
Well, all you have to just turn that stone into a piece of red.
You, you’ll be satisfied, which would have been a violation of the father’s will and purpose and plan for his life.
And so the devil does the same thing that is he knows the timing in our life.
And so when you get hungry, angry, lonely or tired, you’re vulnerable, hungry, angry, lonely, tired, think about it.
Halt. Remember that, halt.
When you, when you start feeling hungry, angry, lonely or tired, halt, stop and think I am now vulnerable to a satanic attack.
Did you get that?
A satanic attack is an attack by Satan in one of those areas of your life where you’re the most vulnerable when you get hungry?
How do you feel when you get angry? How do you feel when you’re lonely? How do you feel?
And when you’re tired and worn out with the most vulnerable? And that’s when Satan will attack.
He knows exactly when to attack us how to attack us. He knows our weakest point.
Everybody has a weakness, at least one or more. That’s the way he operates.
A third thing he does is that he creates doubt in our mind.
This book from Genesis to Revelation is the word of the living God.
It’s all true, not part true, all true.
The devil will attack you in those areas that you are the weakest and he creates doubt in our minds.
And so what I’ve noticed is when I’ve talked to people who are really under temptation about something, it’s amazing how they can bring up other scriptures that have nothing to do with that and try to interpret that verse of scripture to say, well, no, nobody’s perfect.
And you know, he had this problem and she had that problem and, and so what happens, the next thing, you know, they’ve rationalized themselves right into sin.
That’s his tactic to create doubt in your mind.
So, if I should ask you, do you believe the word of God? What would you say?
Well, do you believe all of it? You mean, you believe all the word of God?
Well, what about this one?
My God shall supply all your needs according to his riches and glory in Christ Jesus. You believe that?
Well, why do you sin to get your needs met? Yeah.
Listen, the devil is a liar. He’s a deceiver.
He will cheat you, deceive you any way he can to get you to follow Him rather than Jesus.
And so if he can create doubt in your mind about the word of God, that’s a dangerous doubt.
If he can create the doubt in your mind about His word, he listen, he doesn’t have a toe hole.
He’s got a strong hold in the grip in your life because when you get tempted, here’s what you’ll do.
You’ll say, well, I believe, I believe the Bible, but some of it’s not relevant.
Which part is that or this is it. That’s just your interpretation.
Well, let me ask you this. How do you interpret?
Thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not bear false. Witness.
How, how do you interpret those? There’s only one way to interpret thou shall not do it.
That’s very simple as it, for example.
And yet I’ve, I’ve seen people come and say, well, that’s your interpretation.
Well, how, what’s the interpretation of thou shalt not?
And what I wanna say is you shall not doubt the word of God.
Th this is how Satan operates. He works on our desires.
He works on our spots to the most vulnerable, creates doubt in our mind and then He loves this.
He wants to get us in the debate and to debate with him is disastrous.
Jesus said it is written, it is written, it is written, it is written here.
Here’s, here’s what the father has said when somebody wants to debate with you about what’s right and wrong, just give them God’s word you say, well, I don’t know God’s word.
That’s why you need to be reading God’s word.
You can’t, you can’t just come to church and listen to a sermon once in a while and think you are fit to deal with the devil.
Listen, you’re not fit to deal with the devil unless you know the word of God.
It doesn’t mean that she doesn’t know all of it, but you listen, you can deal with Him if you know the basics, thou shalt not.
And when you listen, when you start trying to re reason, thou shalt not to say, well, thou should not, that’s not what it says.
That should thou shalt not. Now is God trying to keep us from something good?
No, he’s trying to keep us from self destruction. And so what does Satan do?
He almost engages in a, in a debate and, and Jesus simply said it is written that settles it.
Here’s what the father said. Then of course, he uses deception as his key weapon.
If he can deceive you about anything he has, you think about it to deceive, simply means to mislead by making something appear other than what it really is.
And Jesus said, Satan is a deceiver and this is how he operates.
He’d like to deceive us to make bad things.
Good lying, not so bad, are telling a story.
And so there are all kinds of ways Satan attempts to deceive us and he knows when we are the most vulnerable in whatever area of life he chooses to attack us.
And then he wants to create division.
And Satan’s gonna say to young people, oh, that’s ok for your parents.
But you know what they they’re all or that that was true a long time ago, but not now, which part of the word of God is outdated, not any of it.
The New Testament interprets far as the Old Testament, we understand the truth of the Word of God.
But if I don’t listen, wherever you remove the word of God, you’re gonna have division and strife unbelief and distrust.
The word of God harmonizes us together. We know what the truth is.
We know the truth from error, from lying.
We want to follow the Lord God that gives us harmony and peace and joy.
We don’t have to have everything in life we would like to have.
Maybe Satan will tell you, well, you’re not complete without this, that and the other on the same side that we could say when the Bible says, my God shall supply all my needs according to his riches and glory.
And Christ Jesus, is it true or not the truth? It all boils down to this.
Is this the word of God or is it not? Is it the truth or is it not?
If it’s not the truth, then what is it?
And if part of it’s not the truth, what is it?
And if some of it is not the truth, what is it?
It is the word of the living God true from cover to cover and God intends for us to live by it.
If we want to have peace and harmony and joy and fullness and completeness and security and all the rest we live by the word of God.
You notice I didn’t say happy because happiness comes and goes. But truth and joy.
God, this God wants the best for us.
He’s given the best for us, but we have an enemy in the devil and He lies.
He does his best to get us to be divided.
It traps us with lies, tells us that uh uh the word of God is outdated.
We don’t need that any longer. So we either believe him or we don’t believe him.
But Satan creates division because ultimately his goal is to destroy us.
If Satan can get you to doubt a verse of scripture, a verse of scripture, he’s got a toe hole into your life because here’s what happens.
If He can get you to doubt, watch this carefully.
If he can get you to doubt one verse, he will lead you to some other area of your life in which you would like to disobey God and get you to possibly consider.
Well, that’s not true. Well, may, maybe, maybe this is not all that true after all.
And here’s what He does step by step. He gets you to doubt this before long.
You’re doubting this before long. You’re doubting the word of God. That’s how treacherous He is.
He’s a liar, a deceiver. And all he wants you to do is to start doubting the word of God.
And if you will doubt a little of His words, you’ll doubt more. And then here’s what happens.
You’ll find yourself doing what, you’ll find yourself picking out the verses of scripture that you wanna doubt.
And I can tell you which ones, they’ll be the one area in which you want to sin are the areas in which you want to doubt the truth of God’s word.
He’s treacherous. He’s a liar. He’s a deceiver. We have an enemy, watch this.
We all have the same enemy. He works the same way in our mind.
He works in our mind how we think if, if we are saved by the grace of God and we’re thinking the way God thinks we live a Godly life when we choose to think other than the way God thinks we find ourselves in trouble disobeying God.
When you read the word of God, it’s crystal clear.
I either believe it or don’t believe it.
If I don’t believe it, I must assume responsibility for unbelief in all the wonderful, absolute awesome promises of God found in the scripture.
This is a sacred book, holy book, God’s book.
I either believe it or I don’t believing part of it is not it, believe all of it.
Genesis 11 to the last verse of the revelation. It talks about heaven and hell.
It talks about good and evil, talks about Satan and angels.
It talks about all the things we need to talk about.
The issue is not anything specific this, do I believe it or do I not believe it?
Satan will lie to you. He’ll bear false witness to you. He’ll mislead you.
He’ll do everything in his power to get you to doubt the word of God.
But one thing for certain, you’re going to die and you’re going to be judged by the word of God.
Where would you say you stand if you trusted Jesus Christ as your personal savior?
Maybe you don’t understand at all. Maybe you don’t understand everything that happened at the cross.
Maybe you don’t understand everything that happens. Empty tomb. But do you believe the truth of God’s word?
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ giving yourself to Him? You’ll have the gift of eternal life.
Do you believe it enough to live by it? That’s the key.
Do you believe the world ever got enough to live by it?
When you answer that question, you’ll know whether you believe the word of God or not.
Amen. And father, we thank you that you made the word of God crystal clear.
You’ve exposed the devil to be the liar that he is.
You’ve shown us the Lord Jesus Christ to show us the truth that he is and he embodies and that all of our hope and help and our way of living is to be found in Him.
And Lord I pray that every person who hears this message will recognize that one day they’ll stand before you and then for sure they’ll know that you were telling the truth.
But for some people too late, thank you for your word.
Thank you for your promise and thank you for the power to live by it every day is our prayer in jesus’ name.
Hey man.