Sermon Tone Analysis

! TWO: /The Destroyer/

*1 Peter 5:8 (KJV) *Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:

*Luke 22:31 (KJV) *And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired /to have/ you, that he may sift /you/ as wheat:

*Revelation 9:11 (KJV) *And they had a king over them, /which is/ the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue /is/ Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath /his/ name Apollyon.

*Matthew 12:22 (KJV) *Then was brought unto him one possessed with a devil, blind, and dumb: and he healed him, insomuch that the blind and dumb both spake and saw.

*Job 2:6 (KJV) *And the LORD said unto Satan, Behold, he /is/ in thine hand; but save his life.

!! 1.  SATAN’S TARGET: YOUR BODY

      If Satan cannot defeat you by deceiving your mind, he will then try to destroy your body.

As the serpent he deceives; as the lion, he devours.

If we believe his lies, then we will destroy our­selves.

But if we resist his deceit, then he will attack our bodies.

Job is the prime illustration of this kind of attack.

He lost the fruit of his body—his children.

He lost the means to sustain his body—his flocks and herds and wealth.

And he lost the health of his body when he contracted a loathsome disease.

His friends sat in silence for a week, for they saw that Job was in great agony.

Even Job’s wife was so overwhelmed by her hus­band’s trials that she suggested, “Curse God and die!” (Job 2:9).

Satan did a thorough job of attacking Job’s body and all that related to it.

When you read the Gospel records you discover that Satan, through his demonic helpers, attacked and sought to destroy the bodies of various people.

He caused one man to be dumb (Matthew 9:32, 33), and a woman to be bent over and disabled (Luke 13:11-17) He even attacked a child and tried to get him to destroy himself in the water or the fire (Matthew 17:14-18).

There is no escaping the awesome fact that Satan wants to attack and destroy your body.

*Why does he want to do this?

For several reasons.*

*To begin with, your body is God’s temple.*

*1 Corinthians 6:19-20 (KJV) 19 *What?

know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost /which is/ in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? *20 *For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.

*Philippians 1:20 (KJV) *According to my earnest expectation and /my/ hope, that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but /that/ with all boldness, as always, /so/ now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether /it be/ by life, or by death.

God is invisible; the world cannot see him.

Jesus Christ has returned to heaven and cannot be seen.

But we Christians /can /be seen, and it is our conduct /in the body /that glorifies and exalts the Lord.

*Matthew 5:16 (KJV) *Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

God wants to use your body as a vehicle for re­vealing him to a lost world.

Unconverted people are not likely to read the Bible to learn about God, nor books of Christian theology; but they will read our lives.

*1 Peter 2:9 (KJV) *But ye /are/ a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light:

This means that when Satan attacks your body, he is attacking the one means God has of revealing his grace and love to a lost world.

Creation reveals the power, wisdom, and glory of God, but Christians reveal the grace and love of God.

 

      *Not only is your body God’s temple, but it is also God’s tool.*

*Romans 6:12-13 (KJV) 12 *Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.

*13 *Neither yield ye your members /as/ instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members /as/ instruments of righteousness unto God.

When God wanted an ark constructed, he used the skill of Noah and his family.

When he wanted the tabernacle built, he used the hands and minds of Bezalel and Oholiab and their helpers (Exodus 36:1 ff.).

Jesus used the hands of his disciples for the distributing of the bread and fish.

He used their lips and tongues for the preaching of the gospel.

If God is going to get his work, done in this world, he must use the various members of our bodies, empowered by the Spirit of God.

Satan knows that he can hinder God’s work by attacking God’s workers and putting their “tools” out of commission.

The Greek word translated “instruments” in Romans 6:13 can be translated “tool” or even “weapon.”

Just as God the Son had to take on a body to accomplish his work on earth, so the Holy Spirit needs our bodies.

The members of your body are tools in the Spirit’s hands to help build the Church here on earth.

Never underestimate the importance of your body.

Never minimize the care of your body.

The Christian who is careless about his health or safety is playing right into the hands of the destroyer.

*The third reason Satan attacks your body is because your body is /God’s treasury./*

*2 Corinthians 4:7 (KJV) *But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.

When God saved you, he put the treasure of eternal life within your body.

You have the very life of God within you! God did not give you this great treasure simply to protect it—an earthen vessel is not the safest place for a treasure!

He gave you this treasure that he might /invest it /through you in the lives of others.

For example, God deposited this spiritual wealth in the Apostle Paul

*1 Timothy 1:11 (KJV) *According to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, which was committed to my trust.

Paul invested this treasure in Timothy.

*1 Timothy 6:20 (KJV) *O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane /and/ vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called:

*2 Timothy 1:14 (KJV) *That good thing which was committed unto thee keep by the Holy Ghost which dwelleth in us.

Timothy, in turn, was to invest this treasure in the lives of others.

*2 Timothy 2:2 (KJV) *And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also.

In other words, the safety and success of this spiritual investment is in the hands of weak human beings!

The treasure is in an earthen vessel!

Satan can rob the world of spiritual wealth by attacking the bodies of believers.

*Finally, Satan attacks your body because it is /God’s testing-ground./*

*1 Corinthians 9:27 (KJV) *But I keep under my body, and bring /it/ into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.

The image here is that of the Greek games.

Each participant had to qualify and keep the rules or he was not allowed to compete.

If after he won a prize he was found guilty of breaking the rules, his prize was taken from him.

Jim Thorpe, one of our greatest American athletes, had to return his Olympic medals because it was discovered he had earlier played sports for money, which is against Olympic rules.

Satan can rob you of your rewards by attacking your body and getting you to break the rules.

It is not a matter of salvation, but of rewards for faithful service.

The athlete did not lose his Citizenship if he broke the rules; he only forfeited his reward, a shameful experience indeed.

*1 John 2:28 (KJV) *And now, little children, abide in him; that, when he shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before him at his coming.

I cannot emphasize too much that /your body is important to God. /As God’s children, you and I must care for our bodies and use them for God’s glory.

Anything in our lives that keeps us from doing our best must be abandoned Just as the mechanic takes good care of his tools, so the be­liever takes good care of the “tools” of his body.

*Romans 12:1 (KJV) *I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, /which is/ your reasonable service.

!! 2.      SATAN’S WEAPON: SUFFERING

Satan wants to control the circumstances around the body so that the believer will suffer.

He wants to touch the body and create suffering.

All of this is illustrated in the story of Job.

First, Satan attacked Job’s /body /through the circumstances around him, and Job lost his children, his wealth, and the favor of his wife, friends, and neighbors.

Then Satan attacked Job’s /person /with a horrible disease.

When Job looked around, his situation was painful.

When he looked within, it was even more painful.

And when he looked up, it seemed that God had forsaken him, although Job maintained his faith in God and was honored at the end.

It is important to note that /God was always in control.

/Satan could not attack Job’s possessions until God gave him permission.

Satan could not attack Job’s person until God allowed it.

This reminds us of our Lord’s words to Peter.

*Luke 22:31-32 (KJV) 31 *And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired /to have/ you, that he may sift /you/ as wheat: *32 *But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren.

Satan cannot touch the child of God without the heavenly Father’s permission.

This is a great encouragement to us, for we know that whatever suffering may come to our lives, God has ordained it and is in complete control.

The one thing God will not control is /how we respond to this suffering, /and it is here that Satan can gain his purpose.

Note, too, that there is more than one kind of suffering in the life of the Christian.

There is /natural suffering /that we experience simply because we are human.

We cannot prevent the gradual breakdown of the body as we grow old, though we can seek to delay it.

We are subject to sickness and injury; we lose loved ones and friends as death claims them; we find ourselves slowing down when we wish we could speed things up.