Timothy J. Clarke - The Design of Spiritual Warfare

Now, this week in part two of our series on spiritual warfare, we’re looking at what I’m calling the design of spiritual warfare. Everyone saved? The design of spiritual warfare! Say it one more time: the design of spiritual warfare. Now, here’s what I mean by design: what spiritual warfare is meant or intended to accomplish. And, beloved, be very sure that Satan has an end result he wants to achieve, a means and a method by which he will know he has been victorious in his spiritual battle in our lives.

Now, we see this truth played out powerfully in the Garden of Eden, where our first ancestors, Adam and Eve, are attacked by Satan in spiritual warfare. We saw last night that the first aim or desire of spiritual warfare—watch this—is to drive a wedge between us and God. The second design we’ll look at this morning—watch this—is that Satan wants to, and seeks to, deceive us. And he does this by telling us lies—lies that far too often we believe and for which we fall.

So, listen to Satan in verse 1 of chapter 3; he says to Eve, «Has God said?» Verse 4: «You shall not surely die.» Verse 14: «The day you eat of them, you will be like small g gods.» Now, watch this, beloved: each of these insinuations comes with one purpose in mind, and that is to deceive Adam and Eve. Sadly, he is still doing the same thing today.

So, let’s look at some of these areas of deception that Satan tries to use to deceive us. Here’s the first one: Satan seeks to deceive us about our identity—our person. Now, if you listen to the words of Satan, they are intended in this text to suggest that, as they are—listen, as they are—Adam and Eve are not good enough, that they are lacking or missing out on something. And so, the first attack he brings is a lie or deception about their identity.

Now, Satan does this in three ways. First of all, he seeks to deceive us about who we are in our own right. Let me stop right there—here’s what I mean: Satan wants us to walk around with an inferiority complex. Okay, y’all got that? «I’m not good enough; I’m not smart enough; I am not worthy enough; I am not good-looking enough.» Come on, church! The devil is always feeding us—can I use a big word? Propaganda. He’s always whispering in my ear, «If you were just three inches taller, if you were just 20 pounds thinner, if you were just one shade lighter”—follow me two.

I’ve been wanting to share this since last week. Last week, everybody let’s know if I said it wrong. Last week, I used „white“ in the 10 o’clock service. I was talking about how the devil will use things because people you love will tell you things. I told the story that when I was growing up, they meant well; they were victims and products of their generation. The older folks told me, „Now, now don’t y’all laugh; they said, ‘Now you’re dark. When you get married, don’t marry nobody dark, so you give your kids a chance.’“

So, I brought this right up after service. Tyrone came to me; he hugged me. He said, „Pastor, can I tell you something?“ I said, „Yes, sir.“ He said, „I grew up this color, and I grew up feeling something was wrong with me because I was too light.“ Now watch this: I’m thinking I’m too dark, and he’s thinking he’s too light! Isn’t it amazing that no matter who you are, you find something wrong with you? I need some help; I’m preaching good! The devil will play on your insecurities—your struggle area—if it’s your color, your weight, your size, your money, or your family. He will play on that and inject propaganda into it to make you doubt yourself. God, I’m preaching good this morning!

He seeks to deceive us about who we are in our own right. And watch this: if he doesn’t do it by giving us inferiority complexes, are y’all ready for this? He’ll give you a superiority complex. He’ll have you walking around thinking, „You the catch!“ „You the Mac Daddy!“ „God’s gift to women!“ Let you be a prima donna! Come on, talk to me. And how many of you know—none of you are, but you know people stuck on themselves thinking they’re better than everybody? That’s a delusion, an illusion born out of a lie from the devil.

So, he seeks to attack us about our identity in our own right. Here’s the next thing: he seeks to deceive us about who we are in our relationship with God. I talked about this last night—in the CD—because most of the sermon last night centered around this point: he wants to get us to break fellowship with God. He wants us to forsake God. He wants to get us to the place where we don’t have faith in who God is and lose faith in our relationship with Him. What does Satan do? He tells you, „I know you go to church every Sunday, „—watch this—“but what has that done for you? Oh, you still got laid…“