Thank you for your good singing today. Would
you open your Bible with me to a text in 2nd
Timothy, the second chapter? The second epistle
to Timothy and chapter 2, right at the very end
of the chapter, beginning with verse 24. And
the Lord's bond -servant must not be quarrelsome,
but be kind to all, able to teach, patient when
wronged, with gentleness correcting those who
are in opposition, if perhaps God may grant them
repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth,
and that they may come to their senses and escape
from the snare of the devil. having been held
captive by Him to do His will. This morning we
want to think together about the snares of Satan.
Through this summer we have arranged our messages
around the theme S .O .S. Urgent messages from
the Word of God. And nothing is more urgent than
that we learn something about our enemy. quite
concerned that we not do that, and I'd like to
ask you to pray with me. Lord, as we come to
study Your Word this morning, we pray that the
enemy will be unable to interrupt or to interfere,
but will be held back so that we can learn what
You would have us to learn and see that applied
to our lives as the Spirit of God knows that
it needs to be. Be our teacher this morning.
We wait upon You. and to claim the victory of
the Lord Jesus Christ at the cross and his tomb
from where he rose from the dead. Amen. I was
watching a documentary this past week about serpents.
And I was intrigued by one particular serpent
that has a very flexible tail. The way that it
captures its prey is to get into its coil to
strike and then to lift its tail and to begin
wiggling it and it's so flexible that it looks
like a worm. Now the snake does this when he's
in the presence of a frog, for example, as was
the case in the documentary. And the frog watches
this tail moving and begins to believe that it's
a worm and edges ever more closely to it until
finally he leaps on the worm only to find that
the snake strikes at the same instant killing
him and then swallowing him. As I thought of
that illustration I thought how appropriate for
what I'm talking about this week in the snares
of Satan. A snare is a trap. It is a way of capturing
a prey. The Bible tells us that Satan has devised
many different kinds of snares that he might
take us captive. One such text is the one we've
just read and frankly it's not clear in the context
whether it's speaking about believers who've
been taken captive by him or unbelievers. I tend
to lean toward the latter But I think it may
be left ambiguous because believers as well as
unbelievers can fall to the snares of Satan and
be taken captive. You and I need to be aware
of the snares of our enemy. This morning I'd
like to talk about some of those snares and because
there are literally hundreds of them we need
to group them and so that's my intent. I want
to congregate them around four subtitles this
morning as we think about the snares of Satan.
We'll have time to talk about a few specific
ones, but by no means will we exhaust this subject
in one message. Your pathway and mine is plotted
every day with snares which Satan would use to
destroy our freedom and joy in Christ. and our
usefulness to God's kingdom work. A snare results
in one being held captive. He cannot proceed.
He cannot do what he wants to do because he is
held fast by it. Avoid the snares of Satan. Don't
be fooled. Because he never delivers what he
offers, just like that snake who offers the unsuspecting
frog what he thinks is a worm. Because the result
when we fall for Satan's snares is inevitably
bondage. The first group of snares I want us
to think about this morning is the snare of false
teaching. Because that's really the context where
we begin in 2 Timothy chapter 2. Paul is concerned
about false teachers who are present around the
congregation in Ephesus where Timothy is the
pastor. And so he tells Timothy how to go about
counteracting the false teaching in his midst.
He is to be characterized by gentleness and teaching
and patience and so on, so that if God is willing
those who are in opposition to the truth may
come to a knowledge of it and escape the snare
of the devil Whom he says holds them captive
at his will Satan hates the thus saith the Lord
He hates the preaching of the Word of God He
hates the doctrines of God's Word And he will
do anything to deter you from learning and believing
what the Word of God says. Now if he can't keep
you from hearing the Word of God, and he's very
clever at doing that to us, but if he can't keep
us from hearing the Word of God, he will then
attempt to adulterate the Word of God. to water
it down or to compromise it with some false ideas.
That's very dangerous to have some truth and
some error mixed together. That was the case
undoubtedly in Ephesus and Paul's concern as
he writes these words. Wherever Paul went preaching
the Word of God, seeing people come to Christ
and establishing churches, Satan was inevitably
right behind him, sowing lies and false teaching,
seeking to adulterate the Word of God and thus
to hold in bondage and captive those new believers.
And he hasn't changed today. Many of those who
join cults in our country are people who have
come to Christ, but who are very immature, who
have received no teaching, and who are easy prey
to Him in false teaching. And they are snatched
up into the cults and held captive by them."
Paul warns about the last days being characterized
by lots of false teaching. Turn back to 1 Timothy.
chapter four, written a few years before the
epistle we've just read, but when Timothy was
undoubtedly pastoring in Ephesus. And he says,
but the Spirit explicitly says, now notice that
this continues Paul's thought, in the end of
chapter three he is describing sound doctrine
to him. And he gives to us an early confession
of faith. Some even call it a creed of the church.
in an embryonic form in verse 16 of chapter 3.
But, Paul says, the Spirit explicitly says that
in later times, some will fall away from this
faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits
and doctrines of demons. What Paul is saying
is that there are spiritual entities, Satan's
spirits, angels who fell with him from heaven,
whose goal and purpose working among humanity
is to create new religions and new ideas. These
teachings and doctrines of demons are then whispered
in the ears of people and scattered throughout
humanity. That's why there are so many and various
religions in the world. What we believe determines
how we behave. If we begin to believe error in
some respect, that will inevitably eventually
be worked out in our lives. That's why it's so
important that we keep coming back to the Word
of God to test what we hear by what the Word
of God has to say. If we become a follower of
false belief, We will eventually become a liver
of false doctrine. We will live it out in our
lives. One of the snares of Satan is false teaching.
Now this morning I'm going to do something that's
risky. I'm going to talk about some false teaching
in our world today. I'm going to have to do this
briefly. That's why it's risky, because one can
say everything that he might regarding some of
these things. But I lift these as examples so
that you might be forewarned. One of the most
popular books selling in Christian bookstores
these days is one that's called Good Morning,
Holy Spirit. The same author has authored one
called The Anointing. His name is Benny Hinn.
Now I mention him specifically because he's coming
to the Twin Cities for some kind of a rally or
meeting in the next few days. Now the most recent
issue of Christianity today tells us that Benny
Hinn has repented of his false teaching. This
is the third time he's repented of it. I hope
it's true this time. He is a pastor of a large
church in Orlando, Florida. He is in the Charismatic
Circle. And even his fellow Charismatics reject
some of the doctrines that he has come up with
and which he has inserted here and there in the
books that he's authored. Perhaps one of the
tests as to whether he's truly repentant will
be whether he at least revises, if not removes,
some of his books that are now selling to Christians
across this country. The anointing basically
is about being slain in the Spirit. which is
a teaching foreign to the Word of God entirely.
There is nothing about that in the Bible, and
yet it is sweeping many charismatic churches.
I hope Benny Hinn is changing. Time will tell.
But be careful if you could pick up a book that
is authored by him. Don't accept all of it without
testing it from the Word of God. Time doesn't
allow me to mention Kenneth Hagen, Kenneth Copeland,
Robert Tilton. who are among the prosperity gospel
preachers and who insert constantly in their
messages teaching that is contrary to the Word
of God. In a certain respect, coming out of a
different element of Christianity, the Reformed
circles, is a teaching called Reconstructionism.
or Kingdom Now theology or Dominion theology.
You may see books by Gary North or R .D. Rushdooney.
Their basic teaching is that we need to go back
to the laws of Moses and apply those to society
today and in doing that we will eventually bring
God's kingdom on the earth and Jesus then will
come again. Well, that is foreign to what the
Word of God teaches us. This past week one of
the most popular figures in all the world has
been the United States in Pope John Paul. We
would agree with many of the values that the
Pope declares. I am glad that he says some of
the things that he does in our leftist oriented
society. It helps all of us. But the fact is
that he represents a system of doctrine in the
Roman Catholic Church, which is in error. And
this same Pope has declared that snake worshipers,
witch doctors, Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims all
worship the Christian God. They just call him
a different name. Is that true? The Word of God
would not agree with that. In Africa, he told
voodoo leaders, That they quote would not betray
their traditional faith by converting to Christianity
Close quote that's an absolute lie You cannot
turn to Jesus Christ and still embrace the teachings
of voodoo that is not true I don't have time
to talk about Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses,
which would be more commonly agreed upon by us
as cults. Christianity is being infested with
New Age teaching. In fact, in today's St. Paul
newspaper, there's an article entitled, Meditation
Revolutionizes Mainstream Prayer Life, and what
it says is, that many people in main line, that
is liberal denominations, are finding their prayer
lives revolutionized by getting into meditation,
borrowed from Eastern mysticism, Zen Buddhism,
and Hinduism. They're mixing that with their
Christianity. It's false teaching. You can't
mix that with the teachings of Jesus Christ.
Now, I could go on. Time doesn't allow that.
But what I'm illustrating to you is that out
there in our world today, there are hundreds
and hundreds of snares of Satan, doctrines of
demons, by which some Christians are held captive
by Satan. We need to beware of the snare of perverted
teaching. Test what we hear by the Word of God.
Then we can't be wrong. Beware of the snare of
false teaching. Whether it was Corinth or in
the churches in Galatia, or in Philippi, or in
Ephesus, wherever Paul went preaching the Word
of God, Satan came right along behind him with
false teaching because he knows that false teaching
is so effective in capturing the minds and the
hearts of people, just as it is. in the day in
which we live. The second category of snares
would be that of fleshly temptations. So let
me talk this morning briefly again about the
snare of fleshly temptations. I invite you to
turn back to 2 Corinthians chapter 2. 2 Corinthians
chapter 2 And let's pick up the reading in verse
10. A bit of background, you may remember that
in 1 Corinthians, Paul writes to the church telling
them to discipline a man who had grossly and
publicly sinned. They were to remove him from
their fellowship and have nothing to do with
him, the goal being that he might repent. Apparently,
he did. But they were reluctant to forgive him
and to receive him back They wanted him to suffer
They were refusing to forgive and so Paul says
this but whom you forgive anything I forgive
also for indeed what I have forgiven if I've
forgiven anything I did it for your sakes in
the presence of Christ Paul is saying I have
forgiven this man. You need to forgive him, too
in order that no advantage be taken of us by
Satan, for we are not ignorant of his schemes."
Now the word schemes here means a well thought
out plan. You and I can be set up by Satan. Now
when I talk about Satan, let me just back up
a moment and say to you, that I'm talking about
a real personality, a spiritual personality who
exists in our world and who is accompanied in
his work by an innumerable group of angels who
fell with him from heaven. When the Bible talks
about Satan, it's not talking about merely an
evil influence. It's not using this term for
just bad people who live in the world. It's talking
about a fallen spirit. who oversees a hierarchy
of demons. Sometimes when Paul uses the word
Satan, he's referring to the whole system as
here. We're not ignorant of Satan's schemes,
his well thought out plans. You see, Satan studies
us to find our weaknesses and then he plots against
us. that he might create a snare that would cause
us to be taken advantage of. Here we find a group
of people in the church in Corinth who didn't
want to forgive. They were bitter about this
man. Paul writes to correct them. That was their
temptation. But shall we talk this morning about
the fleshly temptation of anger? Shall we talk
about the fleshly temptation of taking vengeance
on our own, or lust, or jealousy, gossip, hatred,
malice, drunkenness? addiction to drugs, idolatry.
All of these are the works of the flesh, the
Bible says. That pattern of attitudes and actions
that arises from the sinful person that we are
in Adam. Even when we trust Jesus Christ and
we're no longer in Adam, we still retain that
imprint of the old man on our personalities,
that flesh, the scriptures call it. And you and
I can fall into the lusts and the fleshly temptations
that anyone else in the world can. Satan is at
work today devising snares to entice you and
he knows exactly what your weaknesses are. And
he plays on them. And he devises clever schemes
by which he can lay out a snare that you step
into and bam, you're gotten. And you're held
captive. Perhaps the time for greatest vigilance
is when we think we're strong. It was a privilege
to attend the Promise Keepers conference a couple
of weeks ago in Colorado where 50 ,000 men were
gathered together to stadium in Boulder. One
of the greatest experiences I've ever had. One
of the speakers was a pastor from Southern California
named Greg Laurie. He was talking about temptations
that commonly face men and expressing some of
his own battles and he said this, when the devil
comes knocking at my door, I simply say, Lord,
would you mind getting that? When fleshly temptations
appeal to us and we're tempted to step into the
snare, that's the point to appeal to God. Say,
Lord, would you mind doing this? Would you mind
taking care of the situation for me? And backing
up away from that snare. Life inevitably includes
many trials. which are intended by God to be
tests of our faith and our character. But these
very tests can become opportunities for the devil
to subvert God's good intention. He will enter
into our trials and will devise around that time
of test a temptation to evil. Maybe a shortcut,
a way out of that trial that wouldn't be God's
will. He says, oh, do this, it'll be a lot easier.
Of course, his intent is to derail our walk with
God, to get us to step into that snare and it
holds us fast. Beware of the snares of fleshly
temptations. And then there is a third category
that I must talk about. It is mentioned in 1
Timothy. chapter 3, and I invite you to turn
there to this chapter which lists for us the
qualifications of elders, spiritual leaders in
the church. Now what is said here about elders
can be applied to all of the rest of us because
it says in He, verse 7 of chapter 3, 1st Timothy,
He must have a good reputation with those outside
the church. So that he may not fall into reproach
and the snare of the devil The snare that I see
here is the snare of hypocritical living That
is when we allow ourselves to say one thing and
to live another that's a snare of the devil Eventually
he will cause that snare to trap us and we'll
be caught. When we get involved in the snare
of hypocritical living, we are set up for a fall
that can destroy our lives, our testimonies,
our families, our work for God, and our future.
Oh, this is an effective snare. You think about
the people that you know in public ministry in
particular because they're so obvious. who have
been involved in saying one thing and preaching
one thing and living another and what eventually
happens. At some point Satan yanks that snare
and they fall and they take with them lots of
people. Beware the snare of hypocritical living.
You don't have to be in ministry to be worried
about the snare. Now the fact is that no one
of us is perfectly consistent. We all know a
lot more than we live But what I'm talking about
here is when we purposely live a lie When we
say we're doing one thing and we're actually
doing something else Hypocrisy is when there
is a dichotomy between what we are claiming to
be and what we're actually living in secret.
It's not that we're all consistent because we're
not, but the point is we ought not to be pretentious.
We ought not to pretend to be something we aren't.
We ought to be transparent, at least with some
people who know us well. And perhaps that's the
best way, in fact, to avoid this snare, to find
another person or a small group of people that
are trusted and with whom we can develop a relationship
of transparency so that we can allow them to
help us with our struggles, our inconsistencies,
and we can help them. The danger is when we think
that we're above the need for others, or when
we think that we are above others. Because none
of us are. The snare of hypocritical living.
Beware of that snare. Recognize that there is
inconsistency in all of us. We all know more
than we live, but don't purposely go out to live
a lie. That's hypocrisy. And that is a snare
of the devil. There's one more snare that I want
us to look at this morning, and it's perhaps
one of the most tempting ones in our culture.
Chapter 6 of 1 Timothy, verse 7. We have brought
nothing into this world. We cannot take anything
out of it either. And if we have food and covering
with these, we shall be content. But those who
want to get rich fall into temptation and a snare.
And many foolish and harmful desires which plunge
men into ruin and destruction. For the love of
money is a root of all sorts of evil. And some
by wandering or longing after it have wandered
away from the faith and pierced themselves with
many a pain." Here I see the snare of temporal
priorities. Our priorities are those things that
we exchange our life for. It's not always what
we say our priorities are. Our priorities truly
are measured by what we give our lives to, what
we exchange our time for, our money for. Those
actually reveal our priorities. And here, the
priority that is warned about is the priority
regarding material things. The apostle says we
ought to be content if we have food and clothing.
Learn to be content. Beware, he says, of the
snare of wanting more and more and more. Beware
of the love of money. He says it corrupts and
it leads to other vices. I wonder if there is
a greater snare for individuals and couples and
even teens. in our culture than falling into
a lifestyle and a way of making decisions where
Jesus Christ is not number one, but where having
more means everything. Satan is quite content
if you and I will make Jesus Christ priority
number two in our lives. You know why? Because
he's got number one to work with, whatever it
is. It may be money and material things as he's
warning about here, or it may be a host of other
things. He doesn't mind if Jesus Christ is number
two because he can always work with number one,
and he will. He will use that as a snare. And
when we allow temporal things to take over place
number one in our lives, Satan is leading us
to a trap. Someone gave me a little statement
a couple of weeks ago that says, I make myself
rich by making my wants few. I like that. I make
myself rich by making my wants few. Isn't that
the secret of contentment? How easy it is for
us to lust and yearn and long To have more toys,
grown -up toys to play with. Or to have bigger
this or more luxurious that or more of this.
Do we really need that? Are those wants that
are necessary for our lives? Or are they lusts
for what's unnecessary? The snare of temporal
priorities. Now, as I said before I began this
list, other snares can be listed. But it seems
to me that these four categories that I've tried
to bring forth this morning are among the most
common and the most serious in our culture. These
are snares that hold fast people without God.
Satan seeks to drag them from the snare to the
pit. But I can assure you that these snares are
used on God's people as well. Every one of them.
I suppose that all of us have heard stories of
the Vietnam War that caused us to shudder. There
were some cruel ways of carrying out warfare
there in the jungle by the Viet Cong. We had
the gun power. They knew how to fight in the
jungle. They had the will to win. We didn't have
the political will to win. One of the weapons
devised by the Viet Cong and used to create terror
in our troops was a snare. As old -fashioned
as it could be, a simple snare. They would take
a cord of some sort and lay it out on the trail
that they knew our soldiers would be coming down.
And then they would cover that with some kind
of a jungle thicket, a flooring. of some sort,
of ferns, whatever, was at hand. And they would
attach this snare to a limb that they had bent
so that when one of our soldiers stepped into
the snare, it would immediately upend him. But
the limb was bent so that it would also cause
the soldier's body to swing. and it would swing
into sharpened bamboo stakes that were waiting
to pierce the body of the soldier. And time after
time, soldiers would step into these snares and
would find themselves killed by these sharpened
stakes. That's a terrible picture and you can
imagine the kind of fright it would create if
you had to walk down a jungle trail. Listen my
friend, you and I are on a pilgrimage in a world
that is filled with devils. We have a spiritual
enemy that is laying out before us all kinds
of snares. We do well to learn what they are
and to pay heed to them. Say, well how can I
learn the snares? Get in the Word of God. That's
the only way I know. Get into the Word of God
and learn the tactics of the enemy. And as you
learn how he operates, then you'll be forewarned.
You'll know where to step and where not to step.
But I may be talking to some dear people this
morning who are caught in snares. You see, we
know when we're in a snare if we can't make progress.
Because a snare holds you back. Just imagine
that rope around your foot this morning, you're
trying to walk, and you can't go anywhere because
you're caught in a snare. You're in a spiritual
snare this morning of some sort if you're not
making progress in your Christian life. If you're
being held captive by Satan to do what he wants
you to do, you're ensnared. Now call it anything
else you may want to, but recognize at its heart
what it is. You're caught. How can you be free?
I only know of one way. And this one way works
whether you're a Christian or you're a non -Christian
who is caught in a snare and a terrible habit.
If you're in a spiral going downward in your
life and you don't know how to get out of it,
there's an answer. If you're a Christian who's
caught in one of the devil's snares, you want
to know how can I get free again? How can I go
on walking with God? How can I grow again? I'm
going to tell you. We get free from Satan's snares.
We cut that snare away when we submit our lives
to Jesus Christ at the cross. The cross of the
Lord Jesus Christ is the place of freedom. And
when we come to Him and submit our lives to Him,
We are free by Him. Now that's the first step.
There may be some more steps you need to take
to experience consistent ongoing freedom, particularly
if you've been caught in a snare for a long time.
There are more steps you may need to take and
those may vary, but always step number one begins
by coming to the cross and there submitting to
Jesus Christ's Lordship. And this morning I want
to appeal to you that if you are caught in a
snare, you come to Him and submit your life to
Him. Will you do that? Let's pray. Father, I
thank you for the true freedom that there is
in Jesus Christ. We have learned this morning
that our enemy, Satan, has many snares that he
uses to take us captive. And some listening to
me right now know in their heart that a snare
has captured them. They're not free, and they've
lost the joy that they once knew. I pray this
morning they will take the step necessary to
be free, that they will submit their lives to
Jesus Christ and go on from there to experience
A renewed freedom and joy that you've made possible
for them because of the work of the Savior at
the cross, where He defeated Satan. Before I
pray further, I wonder if there is someone here
who would honestly say, Pastor, today I sense
that my life is in a snare. I am convicted about
that. But I also this morning understand and
know that Jesus Christ is the way to be delivered.
And I want this morning to come to the cross
and there to submit to His Lordship in my life.
And I give it all to Him if that is your heart's
decision. I'm going to ask you just to stand
up and to show that you're free. To show that
you can make that step that you need to take.
that you're not going to be held in bondage any
longer. That you may be coming to Jesus Christ
as Savior and Lord, you may be a Christian who's
ensnared, but this morning you're saying by the
grace of God I submit to Jesus Christ today and
by my standing I am making that declaration that
He is my Lord and at His cross I claim my freedom.
Will you stand? God bless you. Don't allow the
snare to hold you down. Hasn't it held you long
enough and robbed you of freedom and joy? At
the cross there is freedom. Does anyone else
wish to stand? Say, this today is my claim. God
bless you. Yes. Thank you for standing. You can
be seated again once you've stood. Anyone else?
I am submitting my life to Jesus Christ today
that I may know freedom. Now those of you who've
stood, God knows the struggle. He knows the snare.
It would be good for you to be able to share
that with someone else. Let me encourage you
to do that. If you have a Christian friend that
you trust, if you wish to come to the office
and talk with one of our pastors, that would
be wonderful too. We want to help you to go on
beyond this initial step. Thank you Father for
these who've stood and I pray for each of them
that they may know that initial freedom and joy
that comes by submitting to Christ, and beyond
that, that they may know a walk of freedom as
they continue to grow and to learn how to do
combat with the enemy. Father, if there are some
who are still content to be held captive, to
do Satan's will, I pray that they may be given
repentance to come to a knowledge of the truth.
before it's too late. In Jesus' name, amen.