Reading Portion for Job part 3

THE TEMPTER AND THOSE WHO OVERCOME THE TEMPTER

A. The Overcomers

Other than our Lord Jesus Christ, no one is an overcomer. “The Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil” (1 John 3:8). “It [the seed of the woman] shall bruise thy [the serpent’s, Satan’s] head” (Gen. 3:15). Christ is the Victor. He is the One who has destroyed the works of the devil and the One who has bruised the serpent’s head. Christ has overcome. If we acknowledge this fact continually and join ourselves to Christ, we will overcome continually. Satan is the most afraid of our continually speaking this word of our testimony (Rev. 12:11), acknowledging Christ as the Overcomer. Such a word of testimony will drive Satan away. Christ has overcome. Hallelujah! Praise the Lord! (See Mark 1:24, 27; 3:11.)

B. The Place of Overcoming

Other than Golgotha, is there another place where Satan is overcome? The cross at Golgotha is the place where Satan and his power is defeated. The victory at Golgotha is still effective today. “Stripping off the rulers and the authorities, He made a display of them openly, triumphing over them in it [the cross]” (Col. 2:15). “Through death He might destroy him who has the might of death, that is, the devil” (Heb. 2:14). Man may consider the Lord Jesus’ crucifixion as His failure, yet that was the very place of His victory. In the world, there is no way to determine the victor before the two armies have engaged one another and fought the battle. The Lord was crucified on the cross, and He resurrected from the dead. He went into death, fought with death, overcame the power of death, and then emerged victorious over everything. It would be impossible to say that the Lord has overcome Satan if He had not died and resurrected. This is why the Lord had to die—to fight with Satan, he who has the might of death, and overcome him. The Lord’s resurrection is the proof of His victory. When Christ was advancing toward Golgotha, He said, “Now is the judgment of this world; now shall the ruler of this world be cast out” (John 12:31). Satan was defeated at Golgotha. All those who want to fight against Satan elsewhere are destined to fail. Other than at Golgotha, Satan is always victorious. He was defeated only at Golgotha, and he was defeated at Golgotha forever. Hence, all those who are joined to the Lamb of Golgotha, who stand on the basis of His victory at Golgotha, not attempting to gain another new victory but expressing the one unique victory in the present battle, will overcome. Defeat comes when one trusts in the self, but victory comes when one stands on the ground of Golgotha. Golgotha is the place of victory! Golgotha is our home! What can cause us to fear?

C. The Warfare Announced by the Messengers

We are the Lord’s messengers declaring the victory at Golgotha and Christ as the Victor. “To whom I send you,…to turn them…from the authority of Satan to God” (Acts 26:17-18). The victory at Golgotha is still effective today; Jesus the Savior is still the Victor. Satan is still the defeated one; he is powerless toward us. Hence, we all must turn away from the authority of Satan to God.

D. The Release of the Captives

“Who delivered us out of the authority of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of the Son of His love” (Col. 1:13). Christ has overcome, and He is still overcoming. We are now in His kingdom, having been transferred out of the authority of darkness. If we firmly remember this fact and fully believe in it, the authority of darkness will not be able to come to us. The best way to maintain ourselves in this position is to periodically declare our position by faith and by our will.

E. The Victory of the Christians

Christ is the Overcomer. When we are in Christ and are joined to Him, we will also be the overcomers. We can overcome every day because the Lord has said, “Behold, I have given you the authority to tread upon serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy…The spirits are subject to you” (Luke 10:19-20). “In My name they will cast out demons” (Mark 16:17; cf. Acts 16:18; 19:15). Apart from the Lord, we can do nothing. We should abide in the Lord all the time. If we do everything in the Lord’s name, Satan will be defeated continually.

III. THE DECEPTIONS OF THE TEMPTER

Although Satan has numerous deceptions, “we are not ignorant of his schemes” (2 Cor. 2:11). If so, what do his deceptions accomplish? Unfortunately, though some of us know his deceptions, our intention is not to guard against him! We can know all things in the Lord through the Holy Spirit; hence, none of Satan’s deceptions can escape our eyes. Furthermore, when we trust in the Lord’s strength, Satan’s deceptions will become useless.

A. His Plot against the Unsaved Ones

Some unsaved ones love to listen to the Word, but Satan will rob them by stealing away the word. “Those beside the way are those who heard; then the devil comes and takes away the word from their heart, so that they would not believe and be saved” (Luke 8:12). The devil is afraid of the Word, but he is not afraid of talk concerning the Word. When we preach, we must not speak rashly and lose our spiritual power, for the devil will snatch away the word once he sees it. Those who are unsaved, those who are about to believe and be saved, and those who are not interested in the Word at all, have their minds deceived by the devil already. “In whom the god of this age has blinded the thoughts of the unbelievers that the illumination of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, might not shine on them” (2 Cor. 4:4). We should pray that the eyes of the unsaved ones would be opened to receive the Lord’s word and that this word would grow and bear fruit.

B. His Deceptions against the Saved Ones

1. Keeping Them from Being Absolute in Their Consecration to God (Acts 5:3)

God is a jealous God. He demands man’s total consecration, and He charges man to love Him with all his heart, all his mind, all his strength, and all his soul. He expects man to be selfless and to keep nothing back for himself. However, Satan is the most afraid of man’s absolute consecration. For man to do this causes Satan to lose his field of work. “Why has Satan filled your heart…to put aside for yourself some of the proceeds of the land?” (Acts 5:3). This couple was filled in their hearts with Satan; they kept something for themselves, yet they said that they were fully consecrated. Most believers today consider it wrong not to consecrate at all, yet they consider that the price of consecration is too high. As a result, they often deceive themselves and others by keeping back a portion for their own use. The rest they consecrate to God in the hope that they will gain for themselves the appearance of total consecration. Little do they know that Satan has filled their hearts already! Those who read this should ask themselves whether or not they have fully consecrated themselves.

2. Holding Them Back from Taking Off Their Filthy Garments (Zechariah 3:1-3)

When the prodigal son came home, the father gave him the best robe. The prodigal son could not wear the clothes of a pauper in his father’s house. The robe denotes righteousness. The devil is afraid that man will take off his old righteousness. This is why he always tries to set up another righteousness apart from the righteousness of God (Rom. 10:3). We should put on the righteousness of the Lord Jesus and cast off the righteousness of self-renouncing service which most moralists hold today. “Then He showed me Joshua…and Satan standing at his right hand to accuse him….Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments” (Zech. 3:1, 3). Satan dislikes for us to take off any “former” things. Believers are saved through the righteousness of the Lord Jesus, yet they are not willing to remove their “former” righteousness. The clothes may be naturally filthy, yet they are still clothes. Although the righteousness one holds is filthy, it is still a kind of righteousness. Satan causes the believers to have a righteousness which is based upon their own strength, that is, to develop their natural righteousness, hoping that by so doing they will obtain God’s favor and earn man’s praise. Little do they know that old garments are extremely filthy before God; our natural righteousness is unacceptable to God. Satan encourages us to execute the demands of the spirit by the soul. We should beware of this.

3. Working in Fleshly Jealousy and Rivalry (James 3:14-15)

Satan is not willing to see Christians become one. When two disciples come together, he will try to divide them. When three disciples come together, he will try to isolate them from one another. The more linkages there are, the more he will try to break them into pieces. He will try to stir up jealousy and rivalry among the believers, causing them to become reluctant to work together. This is true not only concerning physical things; even in spiritual work, he causes the believers to become jealous of and compete against each other: “You are more spiritual than I am.” “Your preaching is more welcomed by others than mine is.” “Your doctrinal views are different from mine.” From this, jealousy and rivalry arise. This rivalry is bitter and comes from the heart of man. Outwardly, it is not easy to detect, yet how very dangerous it is!

4. Keeping Them from the Cross by Means of Other Men (Matthew 16:22-23)

“And Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him, saying, God be merciful to You, Lord!…But He turned and said to Peter, Get behind Me, Satan!” (Matt. 16:22-23). The devil found his defeat on the cross; therefore, he is the most afraid of a man going to the cross and securing the victory of Golgotha. Here, Satan was so bold as to tempt the Lord Jesus Himself. He tried to make Him set His mind on the things of men rather than on the things of God (v. 23). The devil is good at using natural affection to turn man away from the way of the cross. He will cause man to think that this way is too hard, too difficult, and that for one to take it would be too harsh on the self. If we set our mind on the things of men, we will not be able to set it on the things of God. Hence, whether through self-pity or a natural concern for others, we will inevitably cause God’s will to suffer loss. Once a man becomes prosperous, it becomes easy for Satan to put his own things inside him; self-love, self-esteem, and self-pity are all contrary to the way of the cross. To avoid something, to pity the self, to fear, and to compromise, are to Golgotha as north is to south. Satan’s way is to encourage man to hold on to the self and to cling to natural affections. Satan is afraid that man will go to the cross to be crucified and then resurrected from the dead (v. 21). For this reason, he tries his best to prevent man from going to the cross, for apart from the cross, there is no other way ordained by the Lord (1 Thes. 3:3). Which way are you taking today? It is a pity that many Christians try to sidestep the cross whenever they see it and are unwilling to be crucified! Although they are spared from suffering, the ease and comfort which they gain cannot be compared with the will of God which they miss! If they actually die, they will actually resurrect, and Satan will have no ground to stand. This is what Satan hates the most. Since Satan is afraid of our dying on the cross and resurrecting from the dead, we should all the more die to our self through trusting in the Lord and then resurrect from the dead.

5. Threatening Them as a Roaring Lion (1 Peter 5:8)

The devil not only deceives men in secret, but seeks to devour those who are not sober and watchful. Before Martin Luther died, Satan related his sins to him in detail, threatening him, that he might doubt his salvation. However, in the end Luther overcame Satan by the grace of the Lord. From this we see that Satan always threatens and seeks to devour men when they seem to be at their weakest hour. This is one among the many great works of Satan. Satan’s plan is to intimidate man by taking the offensive. As a lion roars to intimidate the beasts and then seeks to devour them, in the same way Satan threatens the believers, causing them to fail through fear. Many times he has nothing besides his threatening! Those who see that all that he has are mere threats will no longer fear his threatenings. However, those who take in his threats will experience much of what he threatens them with. Do we not constantly have the experience of his empty threats? Then why should we be afraid of him?

6. Making Them Proud (1 Timothy 3:6)

“Lest being blinded with pride he fall into the judgment suffered by the devil” (1 Tim. 3:6). Immediately after believing, many Christians advance quite well spiritually and have some results in their work. At this point Satan would take the opportunity to come in and cause such ones to become proud and fall. We often see that great war heroes and even great revivalists can fall through sin because of the common wiles of Satan. He often induces men to take God’s grace for themselves. Then when grace works in their hearts, he causes them to have a high esteem of themselves, to think that they are different from other people, and even that they are something special! Satan is most pleased to see men proud of themselves because this is his nature.

7. Causing Them to Do Things beyond God’s Will (2 Samuel 24:1)

“It incited David against them to say, `Go, number Israel and Judah'” (2 Sam 24:1, NASB). “It” here should refer to Satan. God did not order David to number the people. But because Satan likes to see men suffering God’s wrath as he also suffers, he incited David to do something beyond God’s will. He will either hold men back from advancing or push them to do too much. Christians today often carelessly think that all promptings are from the Holy Spirit. Little do they know that Satan can prompt men also. The numbering of Israel and Judah did not seem to be so great a sin, but whenever men act apart from God’s will, Satan’s plot is carried out. Believers are often lacking in “spiritual discernment”; when they are stirred up to do something which they do not perceive as evil, they deem that it is of the spirit. However, we should not judge the source of such promptings by considering whether the thing is good or evil; we must judge these promptings by considering whether or not it is God’s will. There are many good things which are outside of God’s will!

8. Causing Them to Doubt God’s Word (Genesis 3:1)

God clearly charged man in Genesis 2:17 not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Nevertheless, the devil said, “Hath God said?” (Gen. 3:1). Every Scripture is God’s Word and can be used to attack Satan. Satan is afraid of this; therefore, he causes man to doubt the Bible as the Word of God. The alarming thing is that most of the doubters of the Bible are believers rather than outsiders! The devil causes men first to doubt God’s word, then to believe in his own word, and finally to fall into sin (Gen. 3). His working in this way has never ceased since the time of the garden of Eden.

9. Oppressing Them and Making Them Sick (Acts 10:38)

The devil is full of deceptions. If he cannot cause men to rebel in their spirit, he will work on their bodies, oppressing them with sickness. Because of this, men are not able to enjoy the blessing of the resurrection life and lose both their peace in the body and their steadfastness and watchfulness in the spirit, thus fulfilling Satan’s wish. We often see active Christian workers in this world becoming sick through a little carelessness. The devil likes to see Christians become sick, so that they will stop working for the Lord.

From Collected Works of Watchman Nee, Vol. 1, Chapter 9