THE TRUE ENEMY

There is a book written 2,600 years ago that is required reading for anyone working in the intelligence field for the United States Government. The United States Marine Corps requires all officers and encourages enlisted men to read it. The book is called The Art of War written by a Chinese author by the name of Sun Tzu.

In Chapter 3 point 18, Tzu writes this:

“If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.”

This sums up the battle between the Christian and our enemy Satan very succinctly. If we know who the enemy is and know who we are, we have nothing to fear, but if we do not recognize the enemy, we are going to lose half the battles, and if we do not know ourselves or our enemy, we will lose every battle, and dear friend, I want you to know that Satan is your enemy, and too many Christians fail to recognize Satan for what he is.

Satan is your enemy. Make no mistake about it, and God wants us to know our enemy, and I am telling you Satan is attacking the church daily. When we gather for church services in Christ’s name, who is here? JESUS CHRIST THROUGH THE HOLY SPIRIT. Guess who else is here too? SATAN, and many times, Christians in the church misidentify the true enemy, and as a result, the church loses many important battles.

Satan is our enemy. The church has been so deceived by popular culture’s conception of the Devil. In a recent survey of professing Christians, 50% said that the devil was an evil influence and not a real being. I won’t you to know that 50% are wrong, and those 50% are losing every battle they face.

Satan is real, and he is not beyond using anything or anyone to do his bidding, and he is having his greatest success from within the church.

2 Corinthians 11:13–14 “For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.”

2 Corinthians 11:15 “Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.”

Just because someone is a church member does not mean that person is of God. I want you to think about it. There are attacks on God’s Word and God’s decency that take place in the church today.

Can I give you some examples? I want to give you these so you can see Satan as the real enemy and how he is attacking from within the church.

If God is the same today, yesterday, and forever, then God’s Word is the same today, yesterday, and forever too. Correct? So if God’s Word says one thing and the church sanctions something else, who is behind it?

Leviticus 20:13 “If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.”

God’s Word seems pretty specific, so how could a preacher or a church condone homosexuality within the church?

People miss the point, and you can say it about any sin, technically.

A homosexual can be saved, but when a homosexual is saved, they are born-again to a different life. When they are born-again, they will repent of the sin of homosexuality and will not continue in it. If they continue in it, they either were not saved, or God’s Word is not true.

Yet many churches are ordaining homosexuals. 85% of people surveyed under the age of 35 said that same sex marriage was okay. So, what is going on? Satan has successfully attacked what God said about sex. God gave sex as a gift to be shared between one man and one woman in the intimacy of marriage, but Satan has convinced many that as long as it is okay in your eyes, it is okay.

Dear friend, in a generation, we have gone from looking down on divorce to changing our assigned genders at birth like changing shirts. It will always happen when man determines right and wrong instead of allowing what God says in His Word be the guide.

Did you know many churches are getting away from teaching God’s Word? They are. They teach manuals and books in lieu of God’s Word. It is the same attack Satan used on Eve when he got Eve to question God’s Word.

I am telling you that sexual deviance, sexual perversion leads to the quick downfall of a society especially when that sexual perversion spills over into the church. I might as well say what I want to say.

Jude 4“For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.

There are certain people who have entered the church through the side door. They have entered the fellowship by their way instead of the way, and the Bible says they have been marked long ago for condemnation.

The Bible says that they have turned the grace of God into lasciviousness, and you cannot fully understand what that means until you understand that word lasciviousness.

Lasciviousness means to lust after anything in the flesh, especially lust for sexual perversion. Many people do not want to call a spade a spade, but I think it is time I do so. I know of a Baptist church in this area that had this guy working in a nursery who was molesting 8,9, and 10 year-old girls at the time. Did the church know that he was doing that? No, but he had slipped in unawares, gained the church’s trust, and that church had placed those children in danger. It was a warning that Jude gave for the ages, and notice what Jude says.

That lasciviousness began by denying who? By denying our Lord Jesus Christ. I am telling you, dear friend, that churches who refuse to call homosexuality, transgenderism, and child molestation the sin that it is are being controlled by people who slipped in unawares who have long ago been marked for condemnation.

“Jimmy, you can’t say that. You are not God.” That’s right! I am not, but I know what God’s Word says too.

I want you to see the what happens to a man or woman before they get to the point where they are openly defying God by giving into their fleshly desires.

Romans 1:17–18 “For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness;”

Romans 1:19–20 “Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:”

Every person that is born to a mother and a father has the law of God written on their hearts. The wrath of God is revealed to all men. In other words, all men and all women know what God demands in regard to sexual purity. There is no doubt about it. The Bible says that which may be known of God is manifest in them. In other words, every person knows what God expects.

Every person knows what Genesis 2:24 means because God has written it in their hearts.

Genesis 2:24 “Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.”

Every person knows this, and the Bible says that no one has an excuse, but I want you to see what happens when a person denies what God has written on their hearts.

Romans 1:21–23 “Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.”

Romans 1:24–25 “Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves: Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.”

This is what happens. A man can know God because of what can be known of God is written on his heart, but if that man rejects what God says, they become prisoners to their own imaginations, and their hearts are darkened. Dear friend, do not be deceived. How else, other than hearts being darkened, can someone believe that homosexuality, transgenderism, and child molestation is acceptable behavior?

It is a lie from Satan, and I shudder to think who might have gone to Epstein’s Island, and I shudder to think what they may have done to those young girls and boys. They reject God and become vain in their imaginations. If their minds can think it, it is okay to do. They change God’s truth into a lie, and they worship the creation more than the Creator.

Did you know that Mother Earth began as intellectual fools rejected God? Satan convinced them, even though they knew God from His law being written on their hearts, that the creation was worthy of worship but not the Creator.

A man is on a slippery, slippery slope by this point. Finally, God has enough. God will only take man’s rejection so long until He gives man up to man’s desires. Dear friend, here is a point we miss in God’s Word, and I want you to stay with me for just a second. I want you to look back at the verses we just read, Romans 1:19-25. When you finish, I want you to look up at me.

Those verses are pretty clear, right? Those verses establish the conditions of the following verses.

Romans 1:26–28 “For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.

And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;”

Sexual perversion comes about from a heart that has been darkened by the rejection of God. Is that right or wrong?

Man rejects God until God gives them up to their vile affections, but Satan has convinced millions upon millions that what God has said does not matter. The only thing that matters is that you love the person you are with, and dear friend, it is a lie from the pits of hell, and any church that has any notion of accepting and ordaining homosexual individuals are not being controlled by the Spirit of God but by fleshly desires.

Once again, I am going to say this. Someone caught in sexual perversion can be saved, but that person once saved will not continue in that lifestyle.

John 8:11–12 “She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more. Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.”

I am telling you this is the truth. This woman’s sin of adultery, sexual misconduct, was forgiven, but it had a price that had to be paid, and that price was paid by Jesus on Calvary. It was a sin worthy of death, but proof of her being born-again was going to lay in the fact that she was no longer practicing adultery.

A homosexual can be saved, but they are not born-again to that same lifestyle, but Satan has convinced so many that homosexuality and transgenderism is okay. I do not understand. God, help me! Dear friend, it is time the church called sin, sin.

Not to condemn someone! I do not have the authority to condemn someone. God is in charge of that department.

Romans 12:19 “Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.”

We are not to waste our time worrying about vengeance because God is going to take care of that, but as churches and Christians, we are to call sin, sin.

Homosexuality/Lesbianism is sin.

Transgenderism is sin.

Child molestation is sin.

Those things are abominations before God, but our obligation is not to condemn. Our obligation is to share the gospel, and if they laugh in our face, we just shake the dust off, and go onto the next person because God is going to get vengeance anyway.

What really is amazing is that Satan has gotten people in the church to question what God says about sexual misconduct. It is the same strategy that rascal used with Eve. He gets man to do what man wants instead of obeying what God’s Word says even though God’s Word says that rejecting His Word leads to a heart being darkened.