Ephesians 6:11 "Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil."

Satan is the most deceiving being that the Child of God will ever have to content with, therefore it is needful for us to recognize his devices that we may be able to dodge his bullets.

Now in our Scripture, it is called the "wiles" of the devil. Wiles is nothing more than "trickery" or playing "tricks" or "tricking" someone. And this is what Satan always does. He is the doer of it, yet, he tricks people into believing it is something else that is happening.

Satan is always filling our hearts with different thoughts and then tries to lead us to believe that it is just human nature to do the things that he wants us to do.

Let me give you some good examples of what I am speaking of. You think, "I am so worried about my children till I just don’t know what to do." We think that this is just natural to worry about our children and more so if they are not walking in the Grace of God.

While this may seems to be just a natural thing to do, yet, I say unto you, that it is one of Satan’s bullets that he is throwing at you to keep you from doing the things which we are commanded in the Word of our God to do and that is to believe God.

Look at these Scriptures: Acts 16:

22 "And the multitude rose up together against them: and the magistrates rent off their clothes, and commanded to beat them.

23 And when they had laid many stripes upon them, they cast them into prison, charging the jailor to keep them safely:

24 Who, having received such a charge, thrust them into the inner prison, and made their feet fast in the stocks.

25 And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God: and the prisoners heard them.

26 And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken: and immediately all the doors were opened, and every one's bands were loosed.

27 And the keeper of the prison awaking out of his sleep, and seeing the prison doors open, he drew out his sword, and would have killed himself, supposing that the prisoners had been fled.

28 But Paul cried with a loud voice, saying, Do thyself no harm: for we are all here.

29 Then he called for a light, and sprang in, and came trembling, and fell down before Paul and Silas,

30 And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved?

31 And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.

32 And they spake unto him the word of the Lord, and to all that were in his house.

33 And he took them the same hour of the night, and washed their stripes; and was baptized, he and all his, straightway.

34 And when he had brought them into his house, he set meat before them, and rejoiced, believing in God with all his house."

Therefore if you believe, then according to the Holy Word of our God, both you and your children will be saved.

We are not to go around worrying about our children because they are not at this time living in obedience to the Word of God.

Notice that our responsibility is to believe in the Lord Jesus and not only we but also those of our household will be saved.

So what has happened? Why are we so worried about our children? We have been hit by one of Satan’s bullets and it has knocked us for a loop and caused us to forget the commandment of our Lord.

Here is another one of Satan’s bullets that he loves to use and which we again think to be just natural. "I don’t know how I will ever get the ends to meet, I don’t have money to buy food, clothes, shelter, medical or all the other things that we need in this life." Oh, if there was just some way that I could find to get more money."

Let me say this: It is not more money we need, but rather to realize that Satan is hitting us with his bullets. No matter how much money you have it never will seem to be enough to do all the things that you think it should.

Look at these Scriptures and know that they are true and real and they do work:

Matthew 6: 24 "No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.

25 Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?

26 Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?

27 Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?

28 And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin:"

29 "And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.

30 Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?"

Here we are told not to even think of those things yet we go around day by day worrying about them. So what are we to do? Just what our God has told us and that is to put our trust in Him.

Also Philippians 4: 19 "But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus."

Here is one more that Satan uses on us very much and that is "We are always worrying about our health." Most Americans are Insurance poor and spend much money on insurance that could be going for the things which is really needful. But people say, "Well what am I going to do if I get sick?"

What does the Scripture say?

Exodus 15: 26 "And said, If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the LORD thy God, and wilt do that which is right in his sight, and wilt give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I am the LORD that healeth thee."

I know some of the things I am saying in this message may seem hard, yet, it is the Word of our God. If people would stop listening to Satan and take God at His Word and obey Him, none of those things would come upon them.

Some one might say "Well, what about this Scripture?"

John 9:1 "And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth.

2 And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind?

3 Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him."

Notice, this was not sickness nor was it any disease.

If you do get sick, what are we to do?

James 5: 14 "Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord:

15 And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.

16 Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much."

Satan wants us to keep worrying about these and other things rather than to take our God at His Word as we are commanded to do.

Now I want to ask you a question. What is worry? It is nothing more than fear and doubt. There is no way that we and worry and believe our God at the same time.

Now when Satan hits you with a bullet he will never tell you that he has done so, but rather he will endeavor to make you think that you are only being human and doing what any good person would do.

While this seems reasonable it is contrary to God’s Holy Word, therefore it is Satan and not by any means "human nature".

The main reason that we don’t spend more time in battle with Satan instead of just laying there and letting him beat us is because that we don’t realize that it is Satan.

Much of Satan’s work is applied to "human nature" rather than to Satan.

Now let me say this. Human nature is a good thing and it does come from God and is given to us for good reasons. What is the real reason for this "human nature"?

Human nature is given to us so that when we get hungry, this human nature will direct us to search for food. When we are cold, human nature will send us searching for the means to get warm.

So then where does all this worry come from? It comes from Satan and not your human nature. Satan will tell you that it is only human to worry but you will not find this in the Word of God. In the Word of God you will find that our Lord tells us to "believe" and you shall receive.

So many times I have seen things happen in the lives of people and then they will try to explain it by saying "This is just my nature". No it is not. It is Satan.

When you say that anything is just your nature you are saying that it is God’s nature for:

Genesis 1: 27 "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them."

So you see we were made in God’s image with His nature, therefore anything which does not speak to this effect is one of Satan’s bullets and we need to recognize them for what they are and then rise up against Satan and cast him out of our lives.

How can we know if the thoughts we have are Satan or God? Well, that should be easy. Look at these Scriptures:

Philippian 4: 8 "Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things."

OK, so anything that is contrary to this would be and is Satan. There are only two powers in the world and that is Christ and Satan.

Here I want to give you something to think about. Look at these Scriptures:

Matthew 16: 21 "From that time forth began Jesus to show unto his disciples, how that he must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day.

22 Then Peter took him, and began to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee, Lord: this shall not be unto thee.

23 But he turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence unto me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men."

Did you notice that? Satan took one of Christ’s Disciples and used him to throw a bullet at our Lord. Did Christ believe that it was Peter speaking to Him? No, He did not. He recognized that it was a bullet from Satan so what did He do? He turned around and spoke to Satan telling him to get behind Him.

Remember this: Satan can and does use the things of our Lord to do his own dirty work with. He even used God’s Holy Word against God’s Holy Son. Read it in:

Matthew 4: 4:1 "Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.

2 And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungered.

3 And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.

4 But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.

5 Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple,

6 And saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone.

7 Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.

8 Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and showeth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them;

9 And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.

10 Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve."

See that? Satan even told our Lord what was written in God’s Word trying to get him to obey it in a perverted way that it would put our Lord under the influence of himself.

Satan can and does use any gifts that our Lord has given us but only to try and get us away from our God.

Let us watch and be sure that we recognize the bullets that Satan is throwing our way that we may be able to dodge them and go on our way serving and doing the will of our God. Let us be sure that we don’t accept Satan’s bullets as our "human nature" or any other thing.

Rev. Whatley

 Return to
Rev. Whatley's
Sermon Index

Click on Preacher for
Table of Contents