1 Thessalonians 2:13 -3:13 Satan’s Prime Temptation Dennis

Mock
Sunday, January 17, 2010

Satan’s specialty is spiritual warfare and he is very good at it. We are affected in
our view of it by books and culture. Ephesians 6:6-10 reminds us there is spiritual
warfare in heavenly realms. We are reminded in Daniel 10 of Michael’s battle against the
prince of Persia. Revelation reminds us of one last great battle.
How engage in the battle do we feel? It is going on all around us all the time yet
we feel disconnected from it. There is not a demon behind every tree and Satan is not
omnipresent. Sin and its consequences cause most of what we see.

Three Possible areas of attack:

– The call to live a life of love (Eph. 5) - We are to reach out and care for others.
– The call to live a life of light (Eph. 5) – Satan wants to keep us from this.
– This morning we will focus on the area of our calling to live a life of faith.
○ Biblical examples:
 Gen. 3 – Adam and Eve are attacked as to whether or not they believe
God.
 Job 1-2 – Job in terms of trusting God in trials.
 Luke 22 – Satan asking permission to sift Peter like wheat to test his
faith.
 Matt. 4 – Strong argument that the temptation of Jesus himself was a
test of his faith in the Father.
 Paul’s testing by the thorn in the flesh.

Spiritual warfare comes at us primarily in the area of testing our faith. Satan wants us to
abandon our faith due to trials, pains and disappointments in life.

Read text: 1 Thessalonians 2:13 -3:13

– (v. 16) We will reserve the discussion of the wrath of God for a later message.
○ It is God’s settled disposition toward sin.
○ It has been demonstrated historically and will be completely expressed in the
events of Revelation.
– We have talked in 1 Thess. about the idea that Jesus is coming back again and
what we are to be involved in while we await. Spiritual warfare is one of those
things! You may not have realized it but you have already been in it.

What are the predictable schemes of Satan to attack our faith?:

Why?
– Satan can’t take salvation away but he can make us ineffective.
– Romans 1:17 – The Righteous will live by faith.
– Gal. 2:20 – We live by faith in Christ.
– He brings up the question, “Will you really believe God?”
– Salvation, Sanctification, reaching heaven is all by faith.
Goal?
1. To keep us from taking God at His Word.
a. Do we believe God or what other people say.
b. Ex. The issue of abortion. Scripture clearly states that life begins in the
womb.
 c. Look back at 2:13 – We have a choice. It is either man’s word’s about God
and is fallible or it is God’s Word about Himself and is absolutely trustworthy.
i. Those in Thessalonica received it as the very Word of God.
d. Satan would cause us to doubt its accuracy.
2. To get us to stop trusting in God in adverse circumstances.
a. Paul is in Athens because persecution has driven them there. He has sent
Timothy as his emissary to the Thessalonians. He then brings a report back
to Paul.
b. Struggles and persecution are given for us as believers! (3:3-4)
i. We should not see it as a surprise. We should see it as a test of our
faith.
3. To discourage us from turning to God for everything.
a. Remember when you were young in your faith and trusted god for
everything? We need to get back to that.
4. To discourage us from trusting God by having us give into emotions and
feelings.
a. To get our focus on unmet expectations.
b. Paul was afraid the tempter had gotten to them. (3:5)
5. To cease serving God and others because it is too hard.
a. Paul could have just given up many times but he did not.
b. He could have just left it to Timothy.
c. (3:8) – What really brought Paul joy was finding that they were standing firm
in the faith.
i. Their belief was complete and their trust was wholly in God.
ii.Faith = unwavering trust

– We must continually believe God has our best interests in mind and leave those we
love in His hands.
– If we have the kind of trust we should in God then we should have zero fear of
death.

How does Satan go about it?:

1. He will attempt to make us unsettled in our thinking.
a. Unsettled means “shaken” or “disturbed”. The Greek term pictures a dog
wagging his tail.
b. Not knowing which way to turn.
2. Raise doubts about the veracity of God’s Word.
a. It is about the Bible.
b. Our resting place is in the Word of God. It is our guide for life and
communicates absolute propositional truth.
3. Throwing roadblocks in our way (2:18)
a. Like a barricade in the road.
b. Satan creates some sort of obstacle to their traveling to see them. We don’t
know what it was.
c. This does not mean God is not sovereignly in control! He allows Timothy to
go instead.
d. The hindrances are there and Satan wants us to think we can’t get around
them. God will always get around them.
e. We have to keep moving by faith. Let God take away the obstacle or redirect
our path.
 f. Satan attempted to put obstacles in Christ’s way so that He would not go to
the cross. (i.e. Garden of Gethsemane)
g. The obstacle may be in our own thinking. Decisions we have made and
aren’t allowing God to change.
4. Enticement to Sin – (We will get to this next week).

Proven strategies of believers to withstand/repel Satan’s attacks:

– If we know how Satan is coming we can be prepared.
–
1. The Shield of Faith. (*KEY)
a. Ephesians 6:16 – “…shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the
flaming arrows of the evil one.”
b. We must stand by faith in God and His Word.
c. Faith will always extinguish Satan’s attack.
2. Remind yourself of the truth of God’s Word.
a. Satan is the father of all lies and comes to kill steal and destroy.
b. God’s word is therefore our only source of truth.
3. Remember it is always normal to be tested. (2 Tim. 3:12)
a. The only question is when and in what way.
b. Faith that is untested is not faith at all.
c. Some are from Satan, some are from a sin cursed world, and some are from
God but not in the form of temptation.
4. Refuse to be undone or controlled by our feelings and emotions.
a. D. Martin Lloyd Jones – “Don’t ever listen to your emotions, tell them what to
do!”
b. Martin Luther – “Moods go by kicking”
5. Rely on the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit.
a. We have living in us the same person and power that raised Jesus from the
dead!
b. The power of Him who is in us is more than sufficient. 1 John 4:4
6. Resist the urge stop serving God and others.
a. Share in each other’s lives.
b. Encourage and strengthen each other’s faith.
c. Equip each other to more fully live by faith (fill up what is lacking).
d. Stay involved/invested in the lives of others for God’s purposes.
e. (3:2,7,13) Timothy encouraged those in the Thessolonian church and in turn
the church in Thessalonica encouraged Paul.
7. Resolve to pray for God to strengthen our faith.

We will close with a passage form 1 Peter 1:6-9

6
In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief
in all kinds of trials. 7These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold,
which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in
praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. 8Though you have not seen him,
you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled
with an inexpressible and glorious joy, 9for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the
salvation of your souls.