1 00:00:13,501 --> 00:00:20,215 ...in them, or be possessed by an evil spirit... 2 00:00:20,215 --> 00:00:24,852 Again, I'm just going to say what Scripture says, 3 00:00:24,852 --> 00:00:33,915 Let's ask this: Biblically, what can the devil do to believers? 4 00:00:33,915 --> 00:00:38,403 Tempt them. How do we know that? 5 00:00:38,403 --> 00:00:40,538 Christ was tempted. 6 00:00:40,538 --> 00:00:44,917 Right. He is called "the tempter," right? 7 00:00:44,917 --> 00:00:49,809 And Paul feared lest the Christians at Corinth 8 00:00:49,809 --> 00:00:53,519 were being tempted just like Eve was tempted. 9 00:00:53,519 --> 00:00:59,543 So yes, he can tempt Christians. 10 00:00:59,543 --> 00:01:05,313 What else can he do to Christians? 11 00:01:05,313 --> 00:01:10,211 Remember what he asked permission to do to Peter? 12 00:01:10,211 --> 00:01:21,001 Sift him. Sift him. What do you think that is? 13 00:01:21,001 --> 00:01:24,424 Probably another way to say "tempt." 14 00:01:24,424 --> 00:01:32,275 What is temptation? Temptation is luring to sin. 15 00:01:32,275 --> 00:01:36,656 Not causing to sin. But enticing to it. 16 00:01:36,656 --> 00:01:39,175 Peter was sifted. 17 00:01:39,175 --> 00:01:43,835 He was put in a situation where he denied the Lord. 18 00:01:43,835 --> 00:01:47,220 He was sifted to see what he was made of. 19 00:01:47,220 --> 00:01:49,120 Yes, he was tried. 20 00:01:49,120 --> 00:01:53,431 What's something else that Satan can do to a child of God? 21 00:01:53,431 --> 00:02:01,191 He accuses. Day and night, he accuses our brethren. 22 00:02:01,191 --> 00:02:07,099 He can accuse us. He can slander us. 23 00:02:07,099 --> 00:02:11,246 What else can he do? 24 00:02:11,246 --> 00:02:18,583 He can tempt, sift... 25 00:02:18,583 --> 00:02:27,084 Slander, accuse... can he deceive us? 26 00:02:27,084 --> 00:02:29,269 He is the deceiver. 27 00:02:29,269 --> 00:02:35,549 And the thing is with temptation is a lie, right? 28 00:02:35,549 --> 00:02:38,347 There's always a lie. Yes, any times he tempts us 29 00:02:38,347 --> 00:02:41,347 and we fall into the sin he tempts us into, 30 00:02:41,347 --> 00:02:48,568 he's deceived us. What's something else he can do to us? 31 00:02:48,568 --> 00:02:53,077 Now he goes about seeking to devour, 32 00:02:53,077 --> 00:02:57,277 but can he actually devour a true Christian? 33 00:02:57,277 --> 00:03:04,029 What can he do? 34 00:03:04,029 --> 00:03:09,467 With God's permission, what can he do? (Job) 35 00:03:09,467 --> 00:03:12,017 What did he do? 36 00:03:12,017 --> 00:03:20,809 He destroyed his children, his wealth, his health. 37 00:03:20,809 --> 00:03:25,012 He can take your health away if God grants him permission. 38 00:03:25,012 --> 00:03:27,033 But he asks permission to sift. 39 00:03:27,033 --> 00:03:32,052 Let me tell you what, he's like a dog on a chain. 40 00:03:32,052 --> 00:03:36,207 He can only do what is within that little dog pen 41 00:03:36,207 --> 00:03:38,377 that he's allowed to run in, 42 00:03:38,377 --> 00:03:46,698 and God can reel the chain in or let it out anytime God determines. 43 00:03:46,698 --> 00:03:54,595 Is there any account where a Christian is possessed? 44 00:03:54,595 --> 00:03:58,563 There isn't. There isn't. 45 00:03:58,563 --> 00:04:02,136 Flesh and blood, but what do we wrestle against? 46 00:04:02,136 --> 00:04:04,913 So there's a fight. We can wrestle. 47 00:04:04,913 --> 00:04:07,913 He can do battle with us. 48 00:04:07,913 --> 00:04:13,477 But when it comes to possession... 49 00:04:13,477 --> 00:04:21,542 What does Satan do to lost people that he can't do to us? 50 00:04:21,542 --> 00:04:25,351 What's true of Satan's relationship with lost people? 51 00:04:25,351 --> 00:04:28,947 I've been memorizing Ephesians chapters 1 and 2. 52 00:04:28,947 --> 00:04:32,947 What's something that's said there concerning, the lost do what? 53 00:04:32,947 --> 00:04:37,037 They follow the course of the world, 54 00:04:37,037 --> 00:04:39,846 they follow the prince of the power of the air, 55 00:04:39,846 --> 00:04:41,642 and what's he described as? 56 00:04:41,642 --> 00:04:46,135 The spirit that's now at work in the sons of disobedience, 57 00:04:46,135 --> 00:04:48,543 he's at work in them. 58 00:04:48,543 --> 00:04:51,718 He's actually got control of them. 59 00:04:51,718 --> 00:04:57,374 Can anybody think of somewhere else that Scripture talks about? 60 00:04:57,374 --> 00:05:00,872 He's their father. 61 00:05:00,872 --> 00:05:05,112 1 John 5:19 says, "we know that we are from God, 62 00:05:05,112 --> 00:05:09,567 but the whole world" does what? 63 00:05:09,567 --> 00:05:12,567 "It lies in the power of the evil one." 64 00:05:12,567 --> 00:05:17,473 He is the spirit at work in the sons of disobedience. 65 00:05:17,473 --> 00:05:20,482 They all lie within his power. 66 00:05:20,482 --> 00:05:24,742 He has dominion over them. 67 00:05:24,742 --> 00:05:27,762 Does he have dominion over us? No. 68 00:05:27,762 --> 00:05:34,801 He that is with us is greater than he that is in the world. 69 00:05:34,801 --> 00:05:38,711 In fact, Christ likens Himself to what? 70 00:05:38,711 --> 00:05:42,858 The One who is stronger than the strongman, 71 00:05:42,858 --> 00:05:44,578 and has the ability to come 72 00:05:44,578 --> 00:05:48,701 and bind him up and take what's his, 73 00:05:48,701 --> 00:05:50,061 and that's what He's done. 74 00:05:50,061 --> 00:05:54,309 He's freed us. He's no longer our father. 75 00:05:54,309 --> 00:05:59,938 We're no longer in that bondage. 76 00:05:59,938 --> 00:06:02,938 We're no longer possessed in that way. 77 00:06:02,938 --> 00:06:04,818 By this it is evident who are the children of God 78 00:06:04,818 --> 00:06:06,792 and who are the children of the devil, 79 00:06:06,792 --> 00:06:10,088 whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, 80 00:06:10,088 --> 00:06:12,515 nor is the one who does not love his brother. 81 00:06:12,515 --> 00:06:16,909 I'll tell you another thing Satan can not do to God's children, 82 00:06:16,909 --> 00:06:23,288 he can not so control us as to move us into a place 83 00:06:23,288 --> 00:06:27,118 where we practice sin and don't love the brethren. 84 00:06:27,118 --> 00:06:30,628 He can not do it. 85 00:06:30,628 --> 00:06:33,753 Can he tempt us at times to fall into sin? 86 00:06:33,753 --> 00:06:37,653 At times to have unloving gestures towards the brethren? 87 00:06:37,653 --> 00:06:42,249 Yes, but can he move us into the practice of that? No way! 88 00:06:42,249 --> 00:06:44,156 He does not have the power to do it. 89 00:06:44,156 --> 00:06:46,263 In fact, if that's true in your life, 90 00:06:46,263 --> 00:06:50,013 you are of the devil. You are not of God. 91 00:06:50,013 --> 00:06:54,581 Whoever practices sin is not of God. They're of the devil. 92 00:06:54,581 --> 00:06:59,252 That's specifically and exactly what the Scripture says. 93 00:06:59,252 --> 00:07:03,456 Let me tell you something else, you talk about his question: 94 00:07:03,456 --> 00:07:09,503 can a Christian have an evil spirit? 95 00:07:09,503 --> 00:07:12,032 Now obviously they can have an evil spirit 96 00:07:12,032 --> 00:07:15,032 that tempts them, that they wrestle with, 97 00:07:15,032 --> 00:07:21,000 that brings spiritual warfare to them, 98 00:07:21,000 --> 00:07:23,363 but you know what's true of every child of God? 99 00:07:23,363 --> 00:07:25,573 What do they have in them? 100 00:07:25,573 --> 00:07:31,957 The Holy Spirit. And in fact, in Romans 8:9, 101 00:07:31,957 --> 00:07:34,957 "you however are not in the flesh, 102 00:07:34,957 --> 00:07:38,271 but in the Spirit if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you," 103 00:07:38,271 --> 00:07:41,544 now listen to this: "Anyone who does not have 104 00:07:41,544 --> 00:07:45,194 the Spirit of Christ, does not belong to Him." 105 00:07:45,194 --> 00:07:47,421 So if you do belong to Him, you have the Spirit, 106 00:07:47,421 --> 00:07:50,421 and where that Spirit is, it's the Holy Spirit 107 00:07:50,421 --> 00:07:52,118 and I'll tell you this, unclean spirits 108 00:07:52,118 --> 00:07:55,118 and the Holy Spirit do not abide together 109 00:07:55,118 --> 00:07:58,600 and live together in the same place. 110 00:07:58,600 --> 00:08:02,720 Those that we were told about in Scripture that were possessed, 111 00:08:02,720 --> 00:08:06,155 Acts 8:5, "Philip went down to the city of Samaria 112 00:08:06,155 --> 00:08:07,875 and proclaimed to them the Christ 113 00:08:07,875 --> 00:08:09,315 the crowds of one accord paid attention 114 00:08:09,315 --> 00:08:11,445 to what was being said to Philip, 115 00:08:11,445 --> 00:08:14,240 when they heard him and saw the signs that he did, 116 00:08:14,240 --> 00:08:16,440 unclean spirits came out of many 117 00:08:16,440 --> 00:08:18,640 who were possessed." 118 00:08:18,640 --> 00:08:21,214 But they're the lost folks. 119 00:08:21,214 --> 00:08:27,103 Mark 7:25, "Immediately, a woman whose little daughter was possessed 120 00:08:27,103 --> 00:08:32,304 by an unclean spirit heard of Him and came and fell down at His feet." 121 00:08:32,304 --> 00:08:34,144 Mark 5:18, the demoniac, you know 122 00:08:34,144 --> 00:08:36,262 the one that had the legion of demons, 123 00:08:36,262 --> 00:08:37,809 "As He was getting into the boat, 124 00:08:37,809 --> 00:08:40,639 the man who had been possessed with demons..." 125 00:08:40,639 --> 00:08:42,457 But these are all lost people. 126 00:08:42,457 --> 00:08:44,127 Never do you have an example 127 00:08:44,127 --> 00:08:46,365 in the Scriptures of somebody that's saved 128 00:08:46,365 --> 00:08:51,607 that's said to have been possessed.