4 Dangerous Spirits to Avoid
DANIEL WHYTE III
4 Dangerous Spirits to Avoid by Daniel Whyte III Cover Design by Atinad Designs. © Copyright 2016 TORCH LEGACY PUBLICATIONS: DALLAS, TEXAS; ATLANTA, GEORGIA; BROOKLYN, NEW YORK All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher and copyright owner, except for brief quotations included in a review of the book. The Bible quotations in this volume are from the King James Version of the Bible.
Introduction From the study of the word of God and from life experience, God has shown me that there are four dangerous spirits driven by Satan himself that are designed to destroy the lives of God’s people. If God’s people don’t confess their sins and repent, these demonic spirits will destroy their lives and testimony. These spirits are manifested in the lives of four characters in the Bible — two in the Old Testament and two in the New Testament. They are: the satanic spirit of pride shown in the life of Pharaoh in the book of Exodus; the satanic spirit of rebelliousness, stubbornness and witchcraft shown in the life of King Saul of Israel; the satanic spirit of betrayal shown in the life of Judas Iscariot who betrayed Jesus; and the satanic spirit of worldliness shown in Demas one of the first century
believers who was an associate of the Apostle Paul. In this book, we will be dealing with each of these dangerous spirits, and I will attempt to show from the word of God exactly why these spirits are so dangerous and how you can overcome them and be victorious over them. --Daniel Whyte III
ONE
The Spirit of Pharaohistic Pride 1 And the Lord spake unto Moses, Go unto Pharaoh, and say unto him, Thus saith the Lord, Let my people go, that they may serve me. 2 And if thou refuse to let them go, behold, I will smite all thy borders with frogs: 3 And the river shall bring forth frogs abundantly, which shall go up and come into thine house, and into thy bedchamber, and upon thy bed, and into the house of thy servants, and upon thy people, and into thine ovens, and into thy kneadingtroughs: 4 And the frogs shall come up both on thee, and upon thy people, and upon all thy servants. 5 And the Lord spake unto Moses, Say unto Aaron, Stretch forth thine hand with thy rod over the streams, over the rivers, and over the ponds, and cause frogs to come up upon the land of Egypt. 6 And Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters
of Egypt; and the frogs came up, and covered the land of Egypt. 7 And the magicians did so with their enchantments, and brought up frogs upon the land of Egypt. 8 Then Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron, and said, Intreat the Lord, that he may take away the frogs from me, and from my people; and I will let the people go, that they may do sacrifice unto the Lord. 9 And Moses said unto Pharaoh, Glory over me: when shall I intreat for thee, and for thy servants, and for thy people, to destroy the frogs from thee and thy houses, that they may remain in the river only? 10 And he said, To morrow. And he said, Be it according to thy word: that thou mayest know that there is none like unto the Lord our God. 11 And the frogs shall depart from thee, and from thy houses, and from thy servants, and from thy people; they shall remain in the river only. 12 And Moses and Aaron went out from Pharaoh: and Moses cried unto the Lord because of the frogs which he had brought against Pharaoh. 13 And the Lord did according to the word of Moses; and the frogs died out of the houses, out of the villages, and out of the fields. 14 And they gathered them together upon heaps: and the land stank. 15 But when Pharaoh saw that there was respite, he
hardened his heart, and hearkened not unto them; as the Lord had said. --Exodus 8:1-15
We are looking at the dangerous spirit of pride that is shown in the life of Pharaoh. I call this type of pride "pharaohistic" pride, because it goes beyond the typical pride that many people have, and you will see why in this chapter. There is much disagreement on exactly who the Pharaoh of the Exodus was. The Bible does not give us his name. However, based on the examination of archaeology and the dates provided in the Bible, most scholars assume that the Pharaoh of the Exodus was either Thutmose II, or his grandson, Amenhotep II. We will not spend much time on this debate here, however, one of these Egyptian kings exhibited an extreme spirit of pride. The Bible has a lot to say about pride. Again, this is the pride that I call “Pharaohistic� pride. Pride is the sin that rose up in the heart of Lucifer, caused him to rebel against God, turn into the devil and be cast out of Heaven. Let me share with you some of what the Bible has to say about pride: Proverbs 11:2 says, "When pride cometh, then
cometh shame: but with the lowly is wisdom." Proverbs 16:18 says, "Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall." Proverbs 29:23 says, "A man's pride shall bring him low: but honour shall uphold the humble in spirit." Proverbs 16:5 says, "Every one that is proud in heart is an abomination to the Lord: though hand join in hand, he shall not be unpunished." James 4:6 says, "God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble." 1 Peter 5:6 says, "Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time." From our scripture passage above, we will look at three characteristics of pride and see why this Pharaohistic pride is so dangerous.
Pharaoh would not listen to God. God told Pharaoh, through Moses, "Let my people go, that they may serve me. And if thou refuse to let them go, behold, I will smite all thy borders with frogs..." We enter the story of the exodus after Moses has come back to Egypt and after he and Aaron have gone to Pharaoh and demanded that he let the children of Israel go free. However, when Moses confronts Pharaoh, Pharaoh scoffs at the word of the Lord. He says, "Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice to let Israel go? I know not the Lord, neither will I let Israel go." Pharaoh was probably not completely ignorant of the name of the God of the Israelites. The Egyptians certainly had heard of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob frequently throughout the 400 years that the Hebrews were in Egypt. Dr. Wayne Brindle of Dallas Theological Seminary writes that it is "more likely that Pharaoh refused to recognize the name of Yahweh or the request brought in that name." Additionally, it is interesting to note that many of the Egyptian Pharaohs saw themselves as gods. Thus, it was a willful decision on Pharaoh's part. He knew of the God of the Hebrews, he just did not want to acknowledge God's authority. This is the main root of pharaohistic pride -- a refusal to
acknowledge God's authority. It has often been said that one of the reasons atheists refuse to acknowledge the existence of God is because if they admit that there is a God, then that would mean that there is an authority in the world that is greater than they are -- and they would be compelled to obey that authority or face the consequences of disobedience. Unfortunately, many Christians live as atheists do. Yes, we say we believe in God, but we do not act as though we do. We refuse to acknowledge God's authority in every part of our life. We want to do what we want to do and live our lives the way we want to, and we don't want God interfering with our plans. Pastor Craig Groeschel wrote a book titled "The Christian Atheist." In it he says that "a Christian atheist might sound like someone who's got a faith problem or perhaps a spiritual confusion issue. But the core problem for the Christian atheist isn't belief; it's intimacy. The Christian atheist doesn't really KNOW God very well." And I will add, if at all. Pharaoh's problem was not that he did not know God in the sense of having knowledge of Him. But his problem was that he did not know God in a real, intimate way. He did not know God like Moses knew God. And what is worse is that
he did not want to know God. He refused to listen to God. His pride led him to reject the word of the Lord.
Pharaoh would not listen to common sense. Not only did Pharaoh refuse to listen to God, but he refused to listen to common sense. Our passage tells us that after God sent the plague of frogs upon the land, Pharaoh called up Moses to have the frogs removed. To demonstrate God's power over the frogs, Moses gave Pharaoh the choice to name a specific time when he wanted the frogs to be removed. Notice what Pharaoh said -- "Tomorrow." Now, if I were Pharaoh, I would have said, "Right now! Get these frogs out of here within the next few minutes!" But Pharaoh just couldn't bring himself to complete humility before God and before God's servant, Moses. Even as he suffered plague after plague after plague, he refused to let the children of Israel go. After the removal of each plague, we read that Pharaoh "hardened his heart." His pride drove him to suffer needlessly. And in so doing, he caused many thousands of others to suffer as well.
My friend, everybody may not have wisdom, but God gave everybody common sense. I tell my children that if they are not wise, to at least use common sense. That is, if they know already that they will be punished for something, then it is smart not to do whatever that thing is. It is the common sense thing to do. If you know that you are going to get pulled for driving over the speed limit, then whether you have wisdom or not, you can at least use common sense and avoid getting a ticket by driving under the speed limit, no matter how wrong you think the speed limit is and no matter how quickly you think you need to get somewhere. I have said many times that I can take many things in life, but one of the things that I do not like is pain. I don't like the pain that comes from disobedience to God. I don't like the pain that comes from doing things that God has clearly said in his word not to do. So, to avoid pain in my life, I use wisdom and common sense and simply don't do those things which I know are displeasing to God. Pharaoh, however, acted as though he didn't mind pain. He thought he could take God's judgment. And immediately after the brief moments of humility that he showed when the
pain momentarily became too much to bear, his pride rose up again, and he hardened his heart against God. My friend, pharaohistic pride is a dangerous spirit that you need to avoid.
Pharaoh would not heed God's judgment. The final characteristic of this dangerous spirit of pride in a person is that this person does not take heed to God's severe judgment. Pharaoh received some of the harshest judgment that God has ever poured out on mankind, and yet to the very end, he refused to repent. He refused to humble himself before God. The Bible tells us that the land of Egypt was struck with the water being turned to blood, frogs coming up out of the water and covering the land, lice covering the land as thick as dust, and swarms of flies. We all know how annoying one or two flies can be. Imagine the air being full of flies. Egypt's livestock was struck with a grievous disease and many animals died. And then boils broke out upon the people and animals of Egypt. After that there was thunder and hail so
severe that many of the trees in Egypt were destroyed. And then God sent locusts to wipe out the Egyptian crops. After the locusts there was intense, incredible darkness -- "thick darkness" -- the type of darkness that you can feel. Despite all of this devastation, Pharaoh refused to let the children of Israel go. His pride wouldn't let him submit to God's will. I fear that there are people in our country who have this type of pharaohistic pride -- people who boldly promote abortion, people who boldly promote the abomination of homosexuality and homosexual marriage, people who boldly commit and promote adultery and sex before marriage. Many of these people see the devastation and harm that these sins are causing in our families, in our communities and in our nation -- children growing up without fathers, thousands of babies being killed each year, AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases that do not have a cure -- yet these people refuse to repent. There are even people in the church, who ought to know better, who engage in these sins and refuse to repent despite the consequences that they experience in their own lives. In spite of his consequences, Pharaoh would not repent, so God sent the most severe judgment of all -- the firstborn child of every Egyptian family was killed in the tenth and
final plague. That is when Pharaoh finally broke down. That is when he finally allowed Moses and the children of Israel to leave Egypt. God had to strike at a part of his life that was near and dear to him to get his attention. Now, for those of you who might be thinking that God would never do something like that, we must remember that Pharaoh had nine other opportunities to humble himself before God. We must also remember that while the death of a child is a tragedy for us, it is not a tragedy for God. The child simply and immediately goes back to the arms of the loving Heavenly Father. Nonetheless, the death of all of those children could have been avoided if Pharaoh had not allowed his pride to drive him in his rebellion against God. You see, Pharaoh's pride was so ingrained that even though he was being punished severely, he still did not see the need for him to turn from his wicked ways. He was, in short, what the Bible calls a fool. Proverbs 27:22 states that "Though thou shouldest bray a fool in a mortar among wheat with a pestle, yet will not his foolishness depart from him." Perhaps you have seen a chef on TV grinding pepper or some other herb into a fine powder. Well, in ancient Israel, women had to grind grain into fine powder to make flour. The Bible is
saying that even if you put a fool under such intense, grinding pressure, that fool would not turn away from his foolishness. That is the kind of pride that Pharaoh had. My friend, I hope that you do not have this dangerous spirit of pharaohistic pride. This dangerous spirit will drive you to complete destruction. Proverbs 16:18 says, "Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall." I hope that you will choose to be humble enough to listen to God's words, to use common sense, and certainly to take heed to God's judgment.
TWO
The Saulish Spirit of Rebelliousness, Stubbornness, Witchcraft, and Disobedience 12 And when Samuel rose early to meet Saul in the morning, it was told Samuel, saying, Saul came to Carmel, and, behold, he set him up a place, and is gone about, and passed on, and gone down to Gilgal. 13 And Samuel came to Saul: and Saul said unto him, Blessed be thou of the Lord: I have performed the commandment of the Lord. 14 And Samuel said, What meaneth then this bleating of the sheep in mine ears, and the lowing of the
oxen which I hear? 15 And Saul said, They have brought them from the Amalekites: for the people spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen, to sacrifice unto the Lord thy God; and the rest we have utterly destroyed. 16 Then Samuel said unto Saul, Stay, and I will tell thee what the Lord hath said to me this night. And he said unto him, Say on. 17 And Samuel said,When thou wast little in thine own sight, wast thou not made the head of the tribes of Israel, and the Lord anointed thee king over Israel? 18 And the Lord sent thee on a journey, and said, Go and utterly destroy the sinners the Amalekites, and fight against them until they be consumed. 19 Wherefore then didst thou not obey the voice of the Lord, but didst fly upon the spoil, and didst evil in the sight of the Lord? 20 And Saul said unto Samuel,Yea, I have obeyed the voice of the Lord, and have gone the way which the Lord sent me, and have brought Agag the king of Amalek, and have utterly destroyed the Amalekites. 21 But the people took of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the chief of the things which should have been utterly destroyed, to sacrifice unto the Lord thy God in Gilgal. 22 And Samuel said, Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and
to hearken than the fat of rams. 23 For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, he hath also rejected thee from being king. 24 And Saul said unto Samuel, I have sinned: for I have transgressed the commandment of the Lord, and thy words: because I feared the people, and obeyed their voice. 25 Now therefore, I pray thee, pardon my sin, and turn again with me, that I may worship the Lord. 26 And Samuel said unto Saul, I will not return with thee: for thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, and the Lord hath rejected thee from being king over Israel. --1 Samuel 15:12-26
We all know of Saul as the first king of Israel. After the children of Israel had been settled in the Promised Land for some time, they began to demand a king like all the other nations around them. They did not want to be a theocracy, under the rule of God alone; they wanted to be led by a human whom they could look to for leadership. God decided to grant them their request, and commissioned his prophet Samuel to anoint Saul from the tribe of Benjamin as the new king of Israel. The Bible tells us that Saul was a man who
looked the part of a king. He stood head and shoulders above the crowd. But, he was fearful of the responsibility of leadership. Even after Samuel had anointed him, when it came time for him to be announced as the new leader of Israel, he was found hiding from the people. After Saul took on the office of king, however, some disturbing character traits began to appear in his life and the way he governed. These events culminated until the events in our passage. God had commanded Saul to attack Amalek and wipe them out -- their people and their animals -- because of how they had treated the children of Israel many years before. However, Saul does not follow God's instructions. He saves the best of the animals alive. When Samuel comes to see Saul, he tells him that the kingdom is being taken away from him and that his actions amount to rebellion, witchcraft, stubbornness, and idolatry. What happened in the life of Saul? How did Saul go from being the celebrated first king of Israel to a man who displeased God? Let's look at three traits in Saul's life that show us how this happened.
Saul began to think too highly of himself. Even though he appeared to be a humble young man before he was crowned king, it seems as though the power and position that Saul gained eventually went to his head. He began to think that he was somebody important. So much so that when Samuel came to visit him, he had to remind Saul of just how far he had come. Samuel told Saul, "When thou wast little in thine own sight, wast thou not made the head of the tribes of Israel, and the Lord anointed thee king over Israel?" Samuel had to remind Saul that he had not gotten to his high position by any actions of his own. In fact, it was in spite of his own actions that he was king of Israel. Have you ever helped somebody move on up in life, and when they gained a certain level of success, they forgot all about you and started to act as though they had gotten to the top all by themselves? This is what began to happen to Saul. He began to think of himself as the one in charge instead of remembering that God through his servant Samuel had put him where he was. (Even though Israel was not officially a theocracy, God was still running things, and Saul did not recognize this.)
The Bible warns us in Romans 12, 'not to think of ourselves more highly than we ought to think.' This type of thinking is part of what fueled Saul's rebellion. When young David became a national hero after slaying the giant Goliath, Saul heard the song that the women were singing in celebration. They sang, 'Saul has slain his thousands, but David his ten thousands,' and the Bible tells us that 'Saul was very wroth (angry), and the saying displeased him.' Saul could not stand for someone to be lifted up higher than himself. John Trapp writes that Saul "gave way to that devilish vice of envy, which was henceforth as a fire in his bosom, as a worm continually gnawing upon his entrails... He looked upon David with an evil eye." Saul's self-importance led him to try to kill David to ensure that one of his own children would sit on his throne. In so doing, he was rebelling. He was fighting against God. He was being stubborn -- unwilling to give up something that God had already taken away from him.
Saul was selfish, impatient and unwilling to wait on God.
These three traits are shown by Saul's actions. In I Samuel chapter 10, Samuel commands Saul to go to Gilgal and wait there for him to arrive. Samuel says that he will arrive in seven days to tell Saul what he is to do about the Philistines. However, in chapter 13, we find that Saul is in Gilgal waiting on Samuel. The Bible says that "Samuel came not to Gilgal; and the people were scattered from him." Saul started to get nervous because he knew the Philistines could attack at anytime. Instead of choosing to wait and trust God, Saul decided to take matters into his own hands. Saul calls for the sacrifices to be brought to him, and he steps into the role of the priest and offers the sacrifices himself. The Bible tells us that "as soon as he had made an end of offering the burnt offering, behold, Samuel came." Instead of repenting of his wrongdoing when Samuel confronts him, Saul tries to justify it. He blames Samuel for not arriving on time. He says that the people were getting weary of waiting. He raises excuse after excuse, but Samuel delivers a message from God saying that the kingdom will not continue in Saul's family line because of his sin. Matthew Poole comments that, "Men see nothing but Saul's outward act, which seems small; but God saw with how wicked a mind and heart he did this; with what rebellion
against the light of his own conscience, as his own words imply; with what gross infidelity and distrust of God's providence; with what contempt of God's authority, and justice, and many other wicked principles and motions of his heart, unknown to men. Besides, God clearly saw all that wickedness that yet lay hid in his heart, and foresaw all his other crimes; and there had far more grounds for his sentence against him than we can imagine." Saul making a sacrifice may have seemed like only a small infraction, but it demonstrated Saul's impatience and unwillingness to wait for God's timing. Saul rebelled against the order that God had laid down in the Mosaic law. Only the priests were allowed to make sacrifices, and Saul had stepped into a role that he should have never stepped into. He only cared about what he wanted done, and in this case, he did not want to give the people reason to think that he was not in control. In his rebellion, he wanted to do things his way.
Saul thought he knew how to run things better than God. When Saul was given a direct command by God to completely wipe out the Amalekites and all that belonged to
them, Saul thought it would be best to save the king alive and bring back the best of the livestock. He even tried to sound spiritual about it. He told Samuel, "Yea, I have obeyed the voice of the Lord, and have gone the way which the Lord sent me, and have brought Agag the king of Amalek, and have utterly destroyed the Amalekites. But the people took of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the chief of the things which should have been utterly destroyed, to sacrifice unto the Lord thy God in Gilgal." Instead of following God's instructions, Saul decided to do his own thing. He thought he knew better than God how to deal with the Amalekites, and that is a mark of true rebellion. Saul was bent on doing things his own way. He wanted to run the kingdom the way he thought was right instead of acknowledging God as the true leader of the people of Israel. Saul's infraction at this point is the straw that breaks the camel's back. Samuel declares that the kingdom will be torn from Saul and given to "a neighbour who is better" than Saul. He also utters these famous words: "Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry."
Saul's problem was not just that he neglected a religious duty. His problem was that his heart had become rebellious and stubborn against God. He simply wanted to do things his own way. He wanted to serve himself. One commentator wrote that, "All conscious disobedience is actually idolatry, because it makes self-will, the human I, into a god" -- thus Samuel's comparison of Saul's stubbornness to idolatry. It would have been easy for Saul to point his finger at the Amalekites or the Philistines and say, "Look at those idolaters. They don't worship the true God like I do." However, Saul wasn't worshiping the true God either -- in his words or in his actions -- because true worship of God begins with surrendering your life to Him. It is quite ironic that Samuel compares Saul's sin to the sin of witchcraft, because Saul was the very same king who carried out a purging of the land in which all witches and sorcerers were killed, but that is how seriously God views the sins of rebelliousness and stubbornness. God views the dangerous spirit of rebellion and stubbornness as idolatry (worshipping false gods) and witchcraft. We ought to take heed to the lesson of Saul's life -- if we rebel and repeatedly disobey Him, we will eventually lose all of the privileges that he has given to us. We must guard our hearts and minds against the devil who will try to plant the ideas of self-importance and
superiority there. Whenever this temptation comes, we can always remember that when Satan, once known as Lucifer, began to be proud and think more highly of himself than what he should, he got cast out of Heaven. Saul had his kingdom stripped from him. God does not play when it comes to rebellion and stubbornness. Now, let's expand on this topic and really explain the meaning of each of the sins that Samuel says Saul is guilty of. By doing this, we will be able to better identify any of these sins in our own lives, because that is the true purpose of this book -- not just to talk about these sins in the historical lives of these biblical characters, but to see if we are guilty of these sins ourselves and to take the necessary steps to repent and get right with God.
The first sin that Samuel names is the sin of rebellion. The Webster's American Dictionary defines rebellion as "an open and avowed renunciation of an authority to which one owes allegiance." Thus, a rebel is a person who opposes someone whom he or she should obey. A rebellious person disregards his proper authority, be it spiritual authority or
human authority. Saul rebelled against God -- his spiritual authority, and Samuel -- his human authority. Saul owed his allegiance to God for the simple reason that God had created him in the first place. On top of that, God had selected him to be the king of Israel. Saul also owed obedience to Samuel because he was God's representative on earth who had anointed him to be king. However, Saul rebelled against both of these authorities. During the Civil War, America was divided into two camps. There were the Union troops fighting to keep the country together, and there were the Confederate troops fighting to separate and set up their own nation. The Confederates were called "rebels" because they were opposing an established government and authority. Even today, some people in the South still identify with the 'rebel' name. Proverbs 17:11 says, "An evil man seeketh only rebellion: therefore a cruel messenger shall be sent against him." This man despises authority and wants to do things his way. He can't stand being told what to do, and sometimes will go contrary to what an authority tells him simply because he had to be told. C.S. Lewis said, "Fallen man is not simply an
imperfect creature who needs improvement: he is a rebel who must lay down his arms." We are all naturally-born rebels. However, as followers of Christ, God has given us the power of the Holy Spirit which can crucify our flesh -- the old, rebel within us -- and give us the drive we need to be obedient to God and other authority figures in our lives.
The second sin that Samuel names is the sin of witchcraft. Samuel says, "rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft." When the Bible speaks of "witchcraft", it is largely referring to the work of divination. According to Holman Bible Dictionary, divination is the "attempt to contact supernatural powers to determine answers to questions hidden to humans and usually involving the future." The "witch of Endor", whom Saul consulted with in 1 Samuel 28, was a necromancer, one who attempted to communicate with the dead in order to answer questions for the living. God clearly condemned such practices in the Mosaic Law. Deuteronomy 18:10-12 says, "There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer
of times, or an enchanter, or a witch. Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer. For all that do these things are an abomination unto the Lord." Many of the heathen nations that populated Palestine engaged in these practices, and that was part of the reason why God wanted the Israelites to drive them out. That is why Saul himself actually led a campaign to stamp them out. Some of you may be wondering why Samuel would equate rebellion with witchcraft. Witchcraft seems to be so much worse of an offense. Well, a rebel who turns his back on God and says he is going to go his own way is essentially doing the same thing as a witch who attempts to contact the dead or some other spiritual force to ask for direction or advice. Instead of listening to and obeying God, both of these, the rebel and the witch, want to do things another way. And that is why rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft.
The third sin that Samuel names is the sin of stubbornness. The Hebrew word for "stubbornness" literally means "to push, or to press, to be insolent." A stubborn person is one who continuously goes the wrong way even though he gets
blocked every time; like a man who keeps driving down a dead end street thinking that he is going to get somewhere. Watchman Nee said, "Many of our spirits are too arrogant: they can teach others but can never themselves be taught. Many possess a stubborn spirit: they stick to their opinions even if they realize they are wrong." While the children of Israel were in the wilderness, God repeatedly reprimanded them for being "stiff-necked." They refused to listen and do things that were even good for themselves. When Moses went up into the mountain to get the law from God and the people got tired of waiting and made a golden calf instead, God told Moses, "I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiffnecked people..." God was ready to destroy them and start all over with Moses. In a previous chapter, we were talking about Pharaoh and how ingrained the spirit of pride was in his life. We read the verse in Proverbs 27:22 which states, "Though thou shouldest bray a fool in a mortar among wheat with a pestle, yet will not his foolishness depart from him." In ancient Israel, women had to grind grain into fine powder to make flour. The Bible is saying that even if you put a fool under such intense, grinding pressure, that fool would not turn away from his foolishness. That is the kind of stubbornness
we are talking about here -- even when you know something is not going to work out, and yet you keep trying to do it over and over again. Saul, as the king, should have known that disobeying God would not work. When Samuel anointed David to be king after Saul, Saul stubbornly and repeatedly sent men to kill David. He even engaged in the manhunt twice himself. It was a futile occupation seeing that David was under God's protection. Saul did not just find himself fighting David, he was stubbornly trying to fight God who had already decided that David would be the next king. Like Saul, this spirit of stubbornness can lead you to do things as crazy as trying to fight against God.
The fourth sin that Samuel names is the sin of iniquity and idolatry. Samuel tells Saul, "stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry." The Hebrew word translated as "iniquity" in our English Bibles simply means "idolatry" and the word that is translated as "idolatry" is a more specific reference to the physical idols (statues or images) that are used in idolatrous practices. Idolatry was also another big no-no for the
children of Israel. The heathen nations that lived in Palestine worshipped many different gods and engaged in idolatry by their setting up of images to represent those gods. God severely warned the children of Israel not to engage in idolatry but to worship the one, true God, and nothing or nobody else should be put before Him. Part of worshipping the one, true God is our obedience to Him. We cannot say we worship God on Sunday morning, but disobey him on Monday thru Saturday. Why did Samuel say that Saul was engaging in idolatry? Well, the reason is simple. By Saul's disobedience to God's commands, he was showing that he did not see God as number one in his life. He wanted to do what he wanted to do. He was not living for God. He was living for himself. Self was on the throne of Saul's life. He was putting himself before God, and thus making himself an idol. John MacArthur said, "Idolatry is having any false god -- any object, idea, philosophy, habit, occupation, sport, or whatever that has one's primary concern and loyalty or that to any degree decreases one's trust in and loyalty to the Lord." Saul's idol was himself. And, as the Bible says, "no man can serve two masters," so Saul could not serve God and self at the same time. He had to choose, and he chose to
serve self. So, we see the four-pronged spirit of disobedience that manifested in Saul's life. Saul had an underlying rebellion against God and against Samuel, God's authority. This rebellion is likened to witchcraft because it seeks to accomplish things its own way instead of God's way. Stubbornness was also a problem in Saul's life. He fought against God by trying to have David killed even though God had already anointed him to be king. Saul did this because he no longer valued and worshipped God in his heart. He had set himself on the throne of his life. My friend, we must ask ourselves these questions today: Are we living in rebellion to God or God-ordained authority? Are we trying to do things our own way instead of waiting on God? Are we stubbornly doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results? Are we truly worshipping God, or are we engaging in idolatry by worshipping ourselves or something else?
THREE
The Judas Spirit of Betrayal 20 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that receiveth whomsoever I send receiveth me; and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me. 21 When Jesus had thus said, he was troubled in spirit, and testified, and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, that one of you shall betray me. 22 Then the disciples looked one on another, doubting of whom he spake. 23 Now there was leaning on Jesus' bosom one of his disciples, whom Jesus loved. 24 Simon Peter therefore beckoned to him, that he should ask who it should be of whom he spake. 25 He then lying on Jesus' breast saith unto him, Lord, who is it? 26 Jesus answered, He it is, to whom I shall give a sop, when I have dipped it. And when he had dipped the sop, he gave it to Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon.
27 And after the sop Satan entered into him. Then said Jesus unto him,That thou doest, do quickly. 28 Now no man at the table knew for what intent he spake this unto him. 29 For some of them thought, because Judas had the bag, that Jesus had said unto him, Buy those things that we have need of against the feast; or, that he should give something to the poor. 30 He then having received the sop went immediately out: and it was night. --John 13:20-30
Any governmental leader, church leader, spouse, business leader will tell you that the worst kind of person to deal with in life is a person you cannot trust, a person who is a liar, a person that you have to watch or the person that you have to have someone else to watch because you have a check in your spirit about them that they have the spirit of betrayal in them – they have the spirit of Judas. Some of the most reviled people in history are traitors -people who turn their backs on those whom they have promised to be loyal to. You might recall the name of Benedict Arnold who was a war hero during the American Revolution but he defected to the British, plotted to turn over an American fort to them, and led British soldiers on
raids against Americans. John Anthony Walker, Jr., was a U.S. Navy officer who secretly spied on the U.S. for the Soviet Union for 17 years during the Cold War. If we go back in history, we will see the faces of the Romans Cassius and Brutus who murdered Julius Caesar. Today, some people are calling Edward Snowden, the man who released evidence of the U.S. government's surveillance activity, a traitor. But, arguably, the most infamous of all traitors is Judas Iscariot who betrayed Jesus Christ for thirty pieces of silver. I would submit to you that this spirit of betrayal is still present in our churches and ministries today. And we are going to look at the characteristics of this spirit with the purpose of being able to identify it. The name "Judas" is the Greek form of the Hebrew name "Judah" meaning praise. Most scholars agree that Judas' surname, Iscariot, means "a man of Kerioth." Kerioth was a town in southern Judea. Jesus and the eleven other disciples were from the region known as Galilee. Thus, Judas would have been the only non-Galilean among Jesus' disciples -- he was the outsider of the group. Now, we are going to look at the three main characteristics of the Judas spirit as shown in the life of Judas Iscariot.
The first characteristic of the Judas spirit is a love for money. In John chapter 12, when Mary came and anointed Jesus' feet with perfume, Judas looked on with disapproval. John 12 reports that he said, "Why was not this ointment sold for three hundred pence, and given to the poor?" John also adds that he said this "not that he cared for the poor; but because he was a thief, and had the bag, and bare what was put therein." Judas didn't really want to give to the poor, he was just concerned about where the money was going. he probably felt as though he had the right to approve or disapprove of how the money was spent in Jesus' ministry. David Guzik notes in his commentary that this episode with Judas "teaches us that outward appearances can be deceptive. Many people have a religious facade that hides secret sin." What Judas said sounded very spiritual and praiseworthy, but behind it was a heart with evil intentions The Bible says in I Timothy 6:10, "the love of money is the root of all evil." Even in our churches today, we have pastors and other officials running ponzi schemes and embezzling money from the church bank account to line their own
pockets. This desire for money, and this desire to steal money from God's work is a mark of the Judas spirit of betrayal. In Mark's and Matthew's account of these same events, they both add that immediately after this incident, Judas "went unto the chief priests, And said unto them, What will ye give me, and I will deliver him unto you? And they covenanted with him for thirty pieces of silver. And from that time he sought opportunity to betray him." According to the Professional Coin Grading Service, thirty pieces of silver would have been worth around $950.00 in today's money. Back then, that amount would have been enough to buy a small farm. Judas' love for money was part of what drove him to betray Jesus Christ.
The second characteristic of the Judas spirit is extreme selfishness. In John 6, a series of teachings from Jesus Christ are recorded. Some of these teachings are described as "hard sayings" and many of the multitude who had been following Jesus up to this point decided to leave Him. When they had left, the Bible tells us that Jesus asked his disciples, "Will ye also go away? Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to
whom shall we go? ...we believe and are sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God. Jesus answered them, Have not I chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil? He spake of Judas Iscariot the son of Simon: for he it was that should betray him, being one of the twelve." A person who has the Judas spirit is a person who will only work with you as long as they are getting something out of it. They are selfish. If something is not going their way, they will be quick to jump ship and go to the other side. Jesus asked this question of his disciples because he wanted them to make sure that they were following Him for the right reasons, and that they had their hearts in the right place. Unlike the multitude, Jesus wanted his disciples to follow Him not just for what he could do for them physically. Some scholars have suggested that part of the reason why Judas betrayed Jesus Christ is because Judas had an earthly vision of Jesus as the Messiah. He dreamed of Jesus, not as a saviour, but as a conqueror who would overthrow the Roman occupation government and restore glory to Israel. He probably had dreamed of being given a high position in Christ's kingdom seeing that he was one of the twelve. When he saw that things were not going in that direction -- when he saw that what he wanted was not happening -- he switched
sides. This kind of selfishness that showed up in the life of Judas is similar to the pride that grew in Lucifer's heart. Instead of being fully invested in God's plan, they both wanted something for themselves. Judas likely wanted some level of power in an earthly kingdom. Lucifer wanted all power in God's heavenly kingdom. This similarity leads to my third and final characteristic of this dangerous spirit.
The third characteristic of the Judas spirit is a person being filled with Satan. In John's account of the Last Supper, verse 27 reads, "And after the sop Satan entered into Judas. Then said Jesus unto him, That thou doest, do quickly." According to Smith's Bible Dictionary, "in eastern lands where our table utensils are unknown, the meat, with the broth, is brought upon the table in a large dish, and is eaten usually by means of pieces of bread clipped into the common dish. The bread so dipped is called a sop." So, after Jesus gave Judas this morsel, the Bible tells us that Satan entered into Judas.
Adam Clarke notes that, "Satan had entered into Judas before, and now he enters again, to strengthen him in his purpose of delivering up his Master. But the morsel was not the cause of this entering in; the giving of it only marks the time in which the devil confirmed Judas in his traitorous purpose." A person who has the Judas spirit of betrayal is someone who, if he does not deal with this issue in his life, will eventually become filled with the spirit of the devil, and will begin to act based on that influence. Matthew Henry said, "Though the devil is in every wicked man that does his works, yet sometimes he enters more manifestly and more powerfully than at other times, when he puts them upon some enormous wickedness, which humanity and natural conscience startle at." The spirit of Satan will drive a person to do things that he would otherwise never think of doing. Once a Judas spirit gets ahold of a person, it will drive that person to his own demise. The Bible tells us that after Judas betrayed Jesus Christ, he committed suicide by hanging himself. Judas may have thought that he was doing something important by betraying Jesus Christ. Perhaps, he thought he was getting into the favor of the high priests, and that he would be seen as a hero among the Jewish leaders who hated
Jesus and wanted to get rid of him. But, in the end, the false dreams that the devil put into his mind never came to pass. The devil used Judas and then forsook him. And that is what the devil will do to you -- he will drive you to doing something foolish, and then he will sit in the corner and laugh at you. That is the great tragedy of the Judas spirit -- that is what makes it so dangerous. First, such a person will find themselves in league with Satan. They will think that they are getting what they want, when in actuality, the devil is just using them to continue his own sinister plots against God's work. And when the devil has used this person, he will dump them. My friend, we must watch out for these warning signs in our own lives if we are going to avoid adopting this dangerous spirit: Do we love money too much? Do we place too much importance on money in our lives? We must consider why we are really serving God. Are we serving Him because we truly love Him and because we are invested in His work? Or are we serving Him for what we can get out of it? If we don't keep these issues in check, we leave a doorway open for the devil to step in to our lives and drive us to betray God, to betray Jesus, to betray the Lord’s church, to betray your own
family, and to betray others. The Judas spirit is a dangerous spirit.
FOUR
The Demas Spirit of Worldliness 9 Do thy diligence to come shortly unto me: 10 For Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world, and is departed unto Thessalonica; Crescens to Galatia,Titus unto Dalmatia. --2 Timothy 4:9-10
The Bible does not tell us very much about Demas. The name "Demas" means "popular, or governor of the people." He is mentioned only three times in Scripture. In Paul's letter to the Christians at Colosse, he includes that Demas along with Luke send their greetings to those believers. And in Philemon 1:26, Paul calls him "my fellow labourer." However, when we get to our passage in I Timothy, which Paul wrote from a jail cell in Rome, we see that things have changed, and Paul writes that Demas "hath forsaken me, having loved this present world, and is departed..."
Recent statistics have shown that many of those who start out working for the Lord eventually leave the ministry. For example, according to the Francis Schaeffer Institute of Church Leadership Development 35-40% of ministers just starting out in ministry will last less than 5 years. Other reports state that 60-80% of those who enter the ministry will no longer be laboring in the ministry 10 years later. Why are so many servants of Christ falling by the wayside in the ministry? We do not know all of the reasons, but from this letter that Paul wrote to Timothy, we can see one of the reasons ministers of the Gospel end up abandoning their calling -- and that is they love the world more than they love God. Let's dissect this issue by examining three key words in this verse.
The first word I want us to look at is the word "forsake." Paul says Demas forsook him while he was in prison for the faith. The word abandon means to "abandon, to desert, to leave helpless or utterly forsaken." This is what Demas did to
the Apostle Paul and to their work for the Gospel. Some of you might be saying, "Why did Demas have to forsake the Gospel? Couldn't he have just lived for God and still kept his ties with the world?" The answer to that question is, No. Remember what Jesus Christ said in 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." And you cannot serve God and the world. Remember also that Jesus Christ said, "No man who puts his hand to the plow and looketh back is fit for the kingdom of God." Why did Demas forsake the Gospel? The simple answer is that he had to. He could not serve God and the world. He had to make a choice. C.S. Lewis wrote in his book Mere Christianity: "The Christian way is different... Christ says 'Give me all. I don't want so much of your time and so much of your money and so much of your work: I want You. I have not come to torment your natural self, but to kill it. No half-measures are any good. I don't want to cut off a branch here and a branch there, I want to have the whole tree down. I don't want to drill the tooth, or crown it, or stop it, but to have it out. Hand over the whole natural self, all the desires which you
think innocent as well as the ones you think wicked... I will give you a new self... my own will shall become yours.'" Jesus Christ does not want some of your life or some of your heart or some of your commitment. He wants all of you committed to serving Him. You might recall the statement that sparked D.L. Moody's great ministry. He said, "The world has yet to see what God can do with and for and through and in and by the man who is fully and wholly consecrated to Him. I will try my utmost to be that man." And each of us ought to strive to be that man, that woman. Demas, who had a divided heart -- who was tempted to try to serve the world and Christ -- had a choice to make. And, he made the choice to forsake Christ and love the world.
The second word I want us to focus on is the word "loved." Paul writes that Demas loved this present world. The Greek word for "loved" entails the following meanings: "to welcome, to entertain, to be fond of, or to be well pleased
with or contented with." Despite his relationship with the Apostle Paul and despite his time of serving in the ministry, Demas became enamored with the world. He began to entertain worldly thoughts and ideas. I mentioned before that some scholars say that Demas' name means "popular." Perhaps Demas wanted to gain popularity in worldly circles. He wanted to be well-known and applauded. The promised rewards of the believer were not good enough for him. He wanted what he thought would be better. St. John talked about the dangers of loving the world in his epistle. He said, "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world, for if any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him." Right here, we see the unveiling of the dangers of the heart of one who is not fully committed to Christ. This person cannot love the world and Christ at the same time. His love for Christ must be like hatred towards the world, or his love for the world will be like hatred for Christ. I wonder how many people in the church are struggling with choosing between loving the world and loving Christ.
The final word we will look at is the word "present." Demas loved this present world and forsook the ministry in order to take advantage of what it had to offer. However, Demas made a very foolish and fatal mistake because he chose to love and invest in that which is temporary. All worldly affairs -- government, politics, finances, relationships -- will eventually pass away. The Bible says in I John 2:17, "And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof..." Everything that we see in this world will depart or disappear. And if we have all of our lives, hopes, dreams, purposes, and passions wrapped up in this world, everything we have will fade away as well. That is the great tragedy of this spirit of worldliness: people who begin to serve Christ throw it all away for temporary gain, temporary success, and temporary glory. However, the Bible gives us a wonderful promise for those who reject the spirit of worldliness. First John 2:17 goes on to say, "he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever." Demas missed out on enormous blessings in this life because
he forsook the ministry and loved the world. He missed out on heavenly rewards for believers because he decided to pursue temporary ambition instead of eternal purpose and God's glory. As believers, the allure of the world is stronger than ever. Sadly, like Job and Asaph in the Psalms, there are many who ask the question, is it even worth it to serve God? Part of Satan's strategy is to get believers enamored with the world and cause them to lose their focus on winning souls and advancing the kingdom of God. How we respond to this temptation will determine our effectiveness in the ministry and how beneficial we are to the body of Christ. Let us all determine not to fall prey to this sinister spirit of worldliness, lest we forsake God and our fellow believers, and lose our spiritual privileges and rewards.
How to be Saved from Hell, Straight from the Bible If you were to die today, where would you go, Heaven or Hell? 1. Accept the fact that you are a sinner, and that you have broken God’s law. The Bible says in Ecclesiastes 7: 20: “For there is not a just man upon earth that doeth good, and sinneth not.” Romans 3:23: “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” 2. Accept the fact that there is a penalty for sin. The Bible states in Romans 6:23: “For the wages of sin is death…” 3. Accept the fact that you are on the road to hell. Jesus Christ said in Matthew 10:28: “And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” The Bible says in Revelation 21:8: “But the fearful, and unbelieving, and
the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.” 4. Accept the fact that you cannot do anything to save yourself! The Bible states in Ephesians 2:8-9: “For by grace are ye saved through faith: and that not of yourselves: it is a gift of God. Not of works, lest any man should boast.” 5. Accept the fact that God loves you more than you love yourself, and that He wants to save you from hell. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (Jesus Christ, John 3:16). With these facts in mind, please repent of your sins, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and pray and ask Him to come into your heart and save you this very moment. The Bible states in the book of Romans 10:9, 13: “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.” “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
If you are willing to trust Christ as your Saviour, please pray the following prayer: Heavenly Father, I realize that I am a sinner. For Jesus Christ sake, please forgive me of my sins. I now believe with all of my heart that Jesus Christ died, was buried, and rose again. Lord Jesus, please come into my heart and save my soul and change my life. Amen. For more information to help you grow in your newfound faith in Christ, go to GospelLightSociety.com and read What To Do AfterYou Enter Through the Door. Please e-mail us at gls@gospellightsociety.com so that we can send you free material that will help you grow in your walk with Christ.