Conflict

What would you do if three rattlesnakes were loose somewhere in your house? You would probably do what that family in California did when they found three rattlesnakes in their house. They moved to a motel, and they got a team of men to search through the house and find the snakes.

An acquaintance of mine who is a snake-capturer told me the story. This lady had looked out her back window and saw three rattlesnakes in her backyard in California. And so she called the police, they have a special service for this, and the police came and caught the three snakes, put them into a large gunny sack, and while the police were making out their report, the snakes escaped.

And the patio door was open, and they headed for the door, and they got into the house. The men searched the house and said, we can't find the snakes, they must have gone out. The family moved back in.

A few days later, the girl in the family was working in the kitchen, and one of the snakes bit her. They moved out again, got a hold of a couple of king snakes. They tell me that the king snake will kill the rattler, but won't attack anything else.

Turned the king snakes loose in the house, the snakes found the rattlers, killed them, and that took care of the problem. Interestingly enough, the house that you and I live in, this world that we're living in, has been invaded by a serpent. He's called that old serpent the devil, Satan.

And because he is here in this world, there is evil, and there is trial, and there is difficulty, and there is even death. We're discussing in these morning messages the problem of suffering in this world. Why is it that there is suffering and difficulty in this world? The first answer God gave to us is the answer of creation.

We are living in a groaning creation. All of creation is in travail. God didn't make it that way, and God's not going to keep it that way.

But the second reason, the second answer to suffering in this world is conflict. There is an enemy in this world, and this enemy is in conflict with the people of God. And because he is, and you and I are here, we're a part of this conflict.

If you are a Christian, then you know what I mean when I say that Satan is fighting against you. Now, if you aren't a Christian, you don't know what I'm talking about. In fact, there are those who even smile or laugh at the very concept of Satan.

But the Word of God assists us here. The Word of God gives to us the answer. One reason why we have suffering, difficulty, tears, and trial, seeming injustices in this world, is because God's enemy, Satan, is at work.

If you are a Christian, you can get victory over that. No Christian ever has to say, I don't understand why these things happen. If anything, we Christians ought to say we do understand why some of these things are happening, because there is a roaring lion going about, seeking whom he may devour.

I want us to look this morning at four declarations from the Scripture that can encourage us and help us in this conflict of life. First, if you are seeking to live for the Lord Jesus, you're in a battle. If you are seeking to witness for the Lord Jesus, you're in a battle.

If you are trying with your everything that you have to glorify Jesus Christ, you're in a battle. If you are not in a battle, something's wrong. The Word of God gives us four very marvelous declarations that encourage us in this battle against Satan.

Declaration number one, the Bible declares that Satan is recognized as God's enemy. Now, were it not for the Word of God, we would never understand this. If we did not have the Word of God starting in Genesis and going clear through to Revelation, we'd never understand this.

We'd say, what's out there? There's got to be some force, there's some power, there's something. Several years ago, Intelligence Digest, which is published in Great Britain, ran a series of articles on the subject that they called Force X. They said, military leaders, political leaders, people who understand these things have gotten together and decided that somewhere in this world is a force that is wanting to tear everything down. And they've given this force the name Force X. Well, we have a better name for it, Satan.

Not a force, but a person. And the Word of God declares that Satan is recognized as God's enemy. Now, he wasn't always God's enemy.

If we understand Isaiah chapter 14, then we get the idea that at one time, Lucifer, which means the morning star, the light of the morning, Lucifer was the highest of God's creatures. When God had made all of his angelic beings, the highest of these was Lucifer. The suggestion is given in Scripture that Lucifer was in charge of the earth.

In some wonderful way, he was God's deputy here on the earth. When God made man, man was given rule over the earth. But even prior to the making of man, Satan, Lucifer, rebelled.

Now, there are many mysteries about this we don't understand. There are some problems we can't solve. We read Isaiah 14 that says, How thou art fallen, Lucifer, thou son of the morning! How thou art cast down, which did weaken the nations! And it tells us what happened.

Lucifer looked at the throne of God and said, I will be like the Most High. And he was cast down. This angelic creature, who was Lucifer, the son of the morning, was cast down to become the prince of darkness.

This Lucifer, who at one time was working with God, was cast down because he fought against God. That was the beginning of all of this. Satan declared war on God.

That means there are two wills at work in this universe. That means there are two programs at work in this universe. Paul calls one of them the mystery of godliness.

He calls the other one the mystery of iniquity. That means that there are two forces and powers at work in this universe. It also means that Satan is the originator of sin.

I'm glad for that. I'm glad man did not originate sin. If man originated sin, God could not forgive man.

Man did not originate sin. Man participated in sin. The same being who said, I will be like the Most High, came to Eve and said, You shall be as God.

And Eve succumbed to sin, and she led her husband into sin, and sin entered the human race. Sin did not enter the universe in Genesis chapter 3. Sin entered the human race in chapter 3. Because Satan is the originator of sin, Satan cannot be saved. The angels who fell with him cannot be saved.

The Bible declares Satan is recognized as God's enemy. His very names reveal this. Satan means adversary, opponent.

He is called Apollyon, which means the destroyer. He is called the serpent, which means he deceives. He's called the lion, which means he devours.

Satan goes about as a roaring lion. He's called the god of this age. He's called the prince of this world.

He's the prince of darkness. Wherever you touch the names of Satan, you are touching an adversary. And he is an adversary because of the work that he does.

In John 8, verse 44, the Lord Jesus said to the Pharisees, Ye are of your father the devil. He is a liar, and he's a murderer. Those are the two strands that go through scripture.

The liar, the murderer. Lies always bring death. Truth always brings life.

And so in this world, Satan, the liar, is opposing God, the truth. Satan, who brings death, is opposing Jesus, who said, I am the life. In John chapter 10, verse 10, Jesus says, The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy.

The thief. He's a thief. Jesus says, I've come to give.

Satan says, I've come to take. The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and after he's killed, to destroy. Now, most murderers are content just to kill.

But Satan, after he kills, destroys. He's destroying homes today. He would destroy the church if he could.

My dear Christian friend, let me put the fear of God into your heart today. He would destroy you if he could. Jesus said to his disciples in general, and to Peter in particular, Satan has asked to have all of you, that he might sift you like wheat.

But I've prayed for you, Peter, that your faith fail not. We had better learn to respect the person, and the power, and the program of Satan. Have you learned, my friend, that the Christian life is not a playground? It's a battleground.

And because it is a battleground, there is suffering in this world. Now, if you are gods, if you've trusted Christ as your Savior, if the Holy Spirit lives within you, if your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, if you believe this book, if you're gods, you've got an enemy, and that enemy is Satan. Declaration number one, Satan is recognized as God's enemy.

That means he's your enemy, and you're a part of a battle. Now, a battle never was easy. No soldier out on the battlefield looks around and says, what's happening? How come he's dead? Well, man, we're in a battle.

What's all that noise? Those are bullets being shot, and shells, and bombs. Well, how come I'm bleeding? You've been hit. You see, if you go through life with this attitude that life is easy, there are no conflicts, there is no battle, then you're shocked when things happen.

But if you go through life with your eyes open, realistic, and you know the word of God, you say, I understand why these things are happening. We're fighting a battle. Satan is recognized as God's enemy.

That's our first declaration. Now, our second declaration is this. Satan is restricted and restrained by God's will.

The greatest illustration of this in the Bible is Job. Job was a godly man. Job was not a hypocrite.

He was a dedicated godly man. He taught his children how to sacrifice and worship at the altar. He had a godly family, and he was a wealthy man.

Not all wealthy people are godly, and not all godly people are wealthy, but Job happened to be both godly and wealthy. Abraham was the same kind of a man. Unknown to Job, a conversation was going on up in heaven.

Satan shows up to report, because Satan is under the restriction of God. And God says, where have you been, Satan? He said, I've been going to and fro upon the earth. Peter tells us what he was doing.

He goes to and fro upon the earth, seeking whom he may devour. And God says, have you considered my servant Job? Satan says, consider him. I've had him number one on my list for a long time, but I can't get to him because you've built a wall around him.

But I'll tell you something, said Satan, the only reason Job is a good godly man is because you've blessed him. You take away all of his wealth, and he'll curse you to his face. Now, Job knew nothing about this.

God does not always tell you when he is using your life as a battleground to defeat Satan. I have been with the saints of God who have been going through testing that I could not understand. And we've cried out and said, oh, God, how long, how long? And God has whispered and said, now, just calm down.

I am working something out that you don't understand. But I'm using that life, that home, as a battlefield to defeat the devil. Job one day lost everything.

His family, except for his wife, was wiped out. All of his cattle, all of his flocks, all of his herds. And they came one after another.

The messengers arrived with telegrams saying, the stock market has fallen, you've lost everything. You know what Job did? Job sat down and he said, naked I came out of my mother's womb, and naked I'll go back into the womb of the earth. The Lord gave.

Anybody can say that. The Lord has taken away. Anybody can say that.

Blessed be the name of the Lord. It takes a saint to say that. Now, Satan said he'll curse you.

But Job didn't say cursed is the name of the Lord. He said blessed is the name of the Lord. And God said, Satan, I told you so.

All the angels in the bleachers of heaven applauded and said, we won, we won. Satan says, sure, but let me touch his life. You let me touch his body and you'll find out.

God said, all right, you can touch his body, but you can't take his life. And so Job woke up with what some scholars think was actually leprosy. But be that as it may, great boils and stench and pain and agony.

And Job never does curse God. He cursed his birthday. He said, oh, I wish I'd never been born.

But you've said that. He never cursed God. He maintained his integrity.

But the main lesson there is God was in control. Declaration number two, Satan is restricted by God's will. You can take his wealth.

You can't take his health. OK, you can take his health. You can't take his life.

That's good to know. It's good to know that when Satan throws you in the furnace, God keeps his hands on the thermostat. And God will never permit us to be tempted or tested beyond that we're able to take it.

He knows how much we can take. You see, Satan is not omniscient. Satan is not omnipresent.

Satan does not have all power. You say, well, wait a minute. If Satan is limited, he can only go so far.

Why doesn't God just wipe him out to begin with? Oh, because God's fulfilling purposes. We live in a world of choice. When God made the first man, he made him with the ability to choose.

If man did not have the ability to choose, he would be a robot, something left over from Buck Rogers in the 25th century. But man is not a robot or a marionette or a puppet. Man has the power of choice.

Now you've got to have something to choose between. And when Satan fell, God said, all right, against the black background of Satan's rebellion, I'm going to show the glory of my grace. Philosophers have been wrestling for centuries with the problem of evil.

Some have said, well, there are two gods in the world, a good God and an evil God, and they fight each other. But evil is not eternal. God alone is eternal, and he's good.

Some have said, well, our God is limited. We have a limited God. He's not really all-powerful.

I can't conceive of a God who's not all-powerful. The very fact that Satan is allowed to do what he does shows how powerful God is. Only a God of absolute power would dare to allow a rebel like that to go to and fro upon the earth.

And where God cannot rule, he overrules. The same thing was true in the case of Paul. We read about this in 2 Corinthians 12.

Paul had been taken up to paradise, and he kept quiet about it for 14 years. You and I wouldn't have kept quiet about it for 14 years. We'd have written a book about it.

We'd have gone from all to all the evangelical publishers saying, I have been to heaven and back. How much will you pay me for my book? Paul kept quiet for 14 years, and the only reason he mentioned his trip to heaven was to answer and refute his enemies who were accusing him. Now he said, I went up to heaven.

I heard things that no man can utter. I saw things that I'd never seen before. Then Satan came along.

This is beautiful. Satan said to one of his demons, you go over there and you tell Paul what a great man he is. Satan said, if we make Paul proud, that'll wreck him.

And God overruled. God said, Satan, you're not going to make Paul proud. You're going to make Paul humble.

I want you to buffet him. You mean I can buffet Paul? You go right ahead and buffet Paul. And so Satan went to work and began to buffet Paul.

And then Satan woke up one day and said, you know what? I'm not working for me. I'm working for God. I wanted to make Paul proud so that I'd win him.

But here I've been buffeting him and it's made him humble. And I've defeated myself. You see how God works.

God is able to rule and overrule because Satan is restricted by God's will. You know what that means? Nobody has to listen to the devil. Nobody has to listen to the devil.

You can, through faith in Jesus Christ, say no to Satan. There's a third declaration that the Bible gives to us. God is recognized or Satan is recognized as God's enemy.

Satan is restricted and restrained by God's will. Thirdly, Satan is resisted by God's grace. That's what we learn in 2 Corinthians chapter 12.

You see, Job and Paul were both buffeted by Satan. But God solved the problem in two different ways. In Job's case, God removed the suffering and blessed him.

There came a day when Job's sickness was healed. There came a day when all of his wealth was doubled. There came a day when his wife presented to him child after child and his family was blessed.

Job had lost so much, and yet there came a day when God gave to him more than he lost. But God doesn't always solve the problem that way. God doesn't always do that.

There have been preachers and missionaries and servants of God who have gone down to their graves seemingly defeated and lost. Some of us can remember that night when the radio announced that the five missionaries were lost down in Ecuador. We stayed very close to our radios and TV sets in those days, listening to see what was going to happen.

One of the liberal magazines in America published an editorial about the death of those five men, and they called it a waste of manpower. A waste of manpower. They really blasted the fundamentalists, the gospel-preaching missionaries.

A waste of manpower. Why didn't God rescue them? It wasn't in God's plan. Why didn't God rescue Jeremiah? It wasn't in God's plan.

Why didn't God keep Isaiah from being sawn apart? It wasn't in God's plan. Why didn't he keep John the Baptist from being beheaded? It wasn't in God's plan. It's not always God's will to deliver you from the trial.

Now, we have a brand of Christianity being preached today that is false. That if you are a dedicated Christian, you will be rich. You will be a millionaire.

You'll never be sick. If you're sick, you're sinful. And folks, that is not what the Word of God teaches.

I know in Hebrews 11, it talks about people who were delivered from the lion's mouths and delivered from the furnaces. But at the end of that chapter, it says, And others weren't delivered. They tasted the sword.

They were sawn asunder. Now, in Paul's case, God did not see fit to remove Satan's buffeting. He had a purpose to fulfill.

In Paul's case, he said, I'll give you grace to bear it. Let me drop this into your heart. You think about it.

The apostle Paul was a Jew. He was born a Jew, a Hebrew of the Hebrews. He was a Roman citizen.

He grew up in a great city, Tarsus. He was a Christian. Now, the Jews, the Romans, and the Christians have three different viewpoints on suffering.

To a Jew, suffering is something to escape. When you read the Old Testament, God said to the Jewish people, If you obey me, I'll bless your herds. I'll bless your flocks.

I'll bless your wives. I'll bless your bodies. You'll never have any of those diseases you saw in Egypt.

But God never made that promise to the church. God made that covenant with Israel. He said to the Jewish people, If you obey me and do my will, you'll always have rain from heaven, crops, and blessing.

So, when suffering came to a Jew, his first thought was to escape. Escape it. That's your first thought.

I tell you, we often pray, Dear Lord, can't you take this away? Paul was also a Roman. Now, the Romans were very stoical, very strong and disciplined. And the first thought of a Roman is endure it.

Endure it. Roman people knew how to endure suffering. But the Christian goes much higher than that.

Paul began as a Jew and said, Oh, Lord, take it away, three times. God didn't answer. Well, I guess I'll just endure it.

And then God answered and said, Paul, why don't you take this like a Christian? I don't want you to escape it. I don't want you to endure it. That'll just make you bitter and mean.

I want you to enjoy it. Enjoy it. Enjoy it.

I want you to be able to take pleasure in infirmity. Enjoy it. How can I do that? My grace is sufficient for thee.

My dear friend, the greatest miracle in your life is not God healing your body. He could do that to an unsaved person. The greatest miracle in your life is God giving you the grace to rise above the suffering and the buffeting and the battling and be able to say, I take pleasure in infirmities, in weaknesses, because when I'm weak, He's strong and He gets the glory.

Certainly God is glorified by helping someone to escape suffering. Certainly God is glorified by helping someone endure suffering. But I'll tell you this, God is glorified more when He helps you to enjoy suffering, to be able to say, Dear Lord, if it's for Jesus' sake, I'll take it.

I'll rise above bitterness. I'll rise above arguing. I will be your servant.

Here I am. God says, My grace is sufficient for thee. Now, how do you get there? That's the question.

I've suffered. I've known what it is to lie in a hospital bed with hoses and tubes every place they could find an opening. You've known what it is.

And sometimes even harder than our suffering is the suffering we watch other people endure that we love. Here's a husband who watches a wife deteriorate, and he says, Oh, God, what can I do? Well, the first thing that Paul had to do was accept it. He said, There was given to me.

What a strange gift. There was given to me a thorn in the flesh. God said, I want to give you a gift.

Paul says, Not a gift. That's what kind of a gift is that? He said, Why don't you accept it? My friend, if you go through life fighting against the will of God, you'll destroy yourself. William Sangster, that marvelous British preacher, tells about a little girl that he was visiting in the hospital who was going to die.

And she kept talking about God taking her life, God taking her life. And Sangster said to her one day, My dear, don't let God take your life. Give it to him.

That made a difference. God has taken my strength. God has taken.

No, no. Give it to him. He accepted what God gave him.

That was the first step. The second step was to understand it. God said, Now, Paul, let me explain this to you.

Now, God never explains until first we accept. First, by an act of our will, we accept it. And God says, All right, if you've accepted it, now I'll explain it to you.

Paul, the reason I've given this to you is to keep you from sinning, keep you humble. I've given you so much of blessing. I have to balance it with suffering.

And therefore, Paul, I want you to know this. If you'll just accept it and learn to enjoy it by my grace, you'll glorify me. And so Paul accepted it.

That was the will. He understood it. That was the mind.

And then he used it to the glory of God. He said, All right, for Jesus sake, I'll do it. The problem with us is we don't want to do things for Jesus sake.

We want it for our sake. We wake up in the morning and all we think about is what we want and where we're going and what we're doing. But, you know, Paul had a marvelous experience here.

When Paul learned to accept and enjoy for Jesus sake, a peace came into his heart. The war was over and a joy came into his heart. The bitterness was gone.

I've met Christians who don't have peace and joy. They're at war with God. God, why this? Why that? Would you just accept it? But Satan is buffeting me.

I know he is. I know how much you can take. Would you just accept it? Satan is resisted by God's grace.

My grace is sufficient for thee. I want you to know I learned more about the grace of God in five days in an intensive care ward than I ever learned in five years in a seminary. And it's worth the buffeting of Satan to be able to say, When I'm weak, praise God, he's strong.

When I'm nothing, he gets the glory. We Christians, I think, sometimes are too super sensitive to physical things that aren't going to last very long. One of these days, our Lord is going to return and give us brand new bodies.

Praise God. And Satan's dominion will then be o'er. There's a fourth declaration that the Bible makes.

Satan is recognized as God's enemy. Satan is restricted by God's will. Satan is restrained by God's grace.

And Satan is reserved for God's judgment. One of these days, Satan's work will be over. One of these days, all that God has fulfilled through this creature will be ended.

And he's reserved for judgment. Now, he's already defeated. That encourages me.

When our Lord was going to Calvary, Now is the judgment of this world. Now shall the prince of this world be cast out. You got to go through your Bible and trace the career of Satan and discover that it's always cast out, cast out, cast out.

Isaiah 14, How thou art fallen from heaven, Lucifer, thou son of the morning's cast out. When the disciples came and said, Lord, we've been casting out demons, boy, we've been getting things done. He said, I beheld Satan as lightning fallen from heaven.

When he went to the cross, Now is the judgment of this world. Now shall the prince of this world be cast out. We read in the book of Revelation that one day Satan shall be cast out of heaven and one day Satan shall be cast into hell.

Satan is reserved for God's judgment. And then God's going to make a new heaven and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness. And there will be no more Satan and there'll be no more death or tears or sorrows.

There'll be no more suffering. The former things are going to pass away. Now, knowing that you and I can keep on going, knowing that Satan is God's enemy.

He's after us. We can keep going. It's God's battle that we're fighting, not our own.

Who is on the Lord's side? Knowing that Satan is restricted by God's will, we can keep going. Lord, you know all about it. Knowing that Satan is restrained by God's will and God's got his hand on the thermostat.

Knowing that Satan is resisted by God's grace. You will never find God putting you in any circumstance where he cannot keep you. The old motto is so true.

The will of God will never lead you where the grace of God cannot keep you. We can keep on going. We don't have to be a group of evangelical sissies who sit and weep and say, God's forgotten us.

He hasn't forgotten us. All of the storehouse of his grace is available to us. He's the God of all grace and he giveth more grace.

And knowing that Satan is reserved for God's judgment, we can keep going. He's a defeated foe. And though we may lose a few skirmishes, I want you to know we're going to win the war.

Why is there suffering in this world? Well, creation is part of the problem. It's groaning. But conflict is part of the problem.

Satan, the enemy, is fighting us. And I conclude this message by saying this to you. You are on one of two sides today.

You're either on the Lord's side or against the Lord's side. Jesus said, he that is not with me is against me. And he that gathereth not with me scattereth.

Whose side are you on today? Now, if you're on the Lord's side, expect conflict. Don't wilt. Don't whimper.

Don't weaken. Stand up straight and tall and say, God's grace is sufficient. I'm going to keep on going.

I'm not going to complain. If you're not on the Lord's side, don't expect any conflict. Satan will make it as easy for you as he can to take you to hell.

A man said to me one day, to whom I was witnessing, don't talk to me about heaven or hell. That's on earth right now. I said, sir, this is your heaven.

You're not a Christian. This is the only heaven you'll know. You better enjoy it.

Enjoy it all you can. It's the only heaven you'll ever know. Because if you die without Jesus Christ, you go to hell.

I said, this earth is the only suffering we'll ever know. We as Christians in this world find tribulation, but we don't mind it. One of these days, we're going to go to heaven.

I said, if you want heaven to be on earth right now for you, enjoy it. It's the only heaven you'll know. I speak to someone right now who has never trusted Jesus Christ.

You have never come to him and been saved and set free from the bondage of sin and Satan, set free from the judgment of hell. And I would beseech you to come today. Will it make life easier for you? Not necessarily.

You'll find when you step out of Satan's army into God's army, he'll fight you. Satan will fight you. But God is for you.

And if God be for us, who can be against us? And the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us. Oh, my friend, give your heart to Christ today. And if you're already born again, just depend upon his grace, which is sufficient.

We come, our Father, praying that you will help us to make that right decision. Help us, oh God. Help those who are not saved to step out and trust Christ.

Help those of us who are born again to grow and to realize we're in a battle. Help us to be faithful. Help us to draw upon your grace.

Oh, God, help us to be serious about the Christian life, as serious as Satan is about it. And I pray in Jesus' name, may our lives this next week really count. May we invade Satan's territory.

May we claim Satan's spoils. May we by grace get victory over Satan's buffeting and through it all get the glory. I pray in Jesus' name, amen.