Don’t be ignorant of the strategy of the devil
I. What are the plans, purposes, ideas, and strategy by which the devil plans to defeat Christians and the Church community?
[2Co 2:11 NASB95] 11 so that no advantage would be taken of us by Satan, for we are not ignorant of his schemes (thoughts, and purposes).
II. The devil has two strategies by which he hopes to defeat the individual Christian and Church Community.
[Gal 5:6] 6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision (legalism) nor uncircumcision (lawlessness) means anything, but faith (in the gospel) working through love.
III. Legalism
[Luk 12:1 NASB95] 1 Under these circumstances, after so many thousands of people had gathered together that they were stepping on one another, He began saying to His disciples first [of all,] "Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.
All obedience to God that is done to gain heaven, or reward is motivated by selfishness instead of love for God or desiring to see HIM glorified. It is at heart selfish and therefore a sin.
[1Co 13:3 NASB95] 3 And if I give all my possessions to feed [the poor,] and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.
Two types of legalists
A. Happy and proud
B. Hopeless and full of fear
IV. Lawlessness
[Rom 6:15 NASB95] 15 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? May it never be!
[Gal 6:7-8 NASB95] 7 Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap. 8 For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.
A. Happy with a false hope
B. Vanity of vanity all is vanity
V. The gospel centered life
[Titus 2:11-14 NASB95] 11 For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, 12 instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age, 13 looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus, 14 who gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds.
[Titus 3:4-7 NASB95] 4 But when the kindness of God our Savior and [His] love for mankind appeared, 5 He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, 6 whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, 7 so that being justified by His grace we would be made heirs according to [the] hope of eternal life.
Only the Christian and the Church that sees that God has bankrupted heaven in wild love to forgive us, adopt us, possess us, fill us, know us, and overflow HIS life out of us can do good deeds without pride, self-righteousness, or selfish motives. Only salvation by grace alone leads to faith working through love.
[Eph 2:8-10 NASB95] 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, [it is] the gift of God; 9 not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.
Homework – Preach the gospel to yourself every day this week at a very specific time for at least five minutes every day.
“To preach the gospel to yourself, then, means that you continually face up to your own sinfulness and then flee to Jesus through faith in His shed blood and righteous life. It means that you appropriate, again by faith, the fact that Jesus fully satisfied the law of God, that He is your propitiation, and that God’s holy wrath is no longer directed toward you.
To preach the gospel to yourself means that you take at face value the precious words of Romans 4:7-8: “Blessed are they whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will never count against him.”
(Jerry Bridges The Disciplines of Grace)