“The Devil and his deeds”
LAGRANGE BAPTIST CHURCH
September 02, 2007
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You'll want to
take your Bibles, I think, and turn 1 Peter Chapter 5, please.
While you're turning there, the Psalmist wrote: "Be merciful to
me, O God, be merciful to me, for my soul takes refuge in you.
My soul takes refuge under the shelter of your wings till the
storms of destruction pass by.
I cry out to God Most High, to God, who fulfills his purpose
for me." Do you need a
place to hide? Sometimes
we do and God is our hiding place. This morning we
approach a subject that could be difficult, could be confusing,
could be thought to be foolish.
It doesn’t need to be any of those things.
We're going to see what God has taught us about the devil and
his deeds. You can find
that passage of scripture on page 1017 in the pew Bible.
I hope you're not looking for page 1017 in your Bible, I
don't know what that would be, let's see, wonder what it is in mine,
no… I won't take the time to do that.
Mine happens to be 1222. So, what is it
about the devil that peaks your curiosity, that causes you to be
afraid, that causes you to think, "Do modern people still believe in
that?" Let's look at 1
Peter Chapter 5, and we'll read a passage.
We're not going to spend a
whole lot of time in this passage only, we have to draw in other
material that will help us understand it.
But, I think this is most fitting to read along with what I
read earlier in Ephesians 6. 1 Peter Chapter
5, Verse 6-9.
[6] Humble
yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, so that at the
proper time, he may exalt you [7] Casting all your anxieties on him
because he cares for you. [8] Be sober minded , be watchful; your
adversary, the devil,
prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour: [9]
Resist him firm in your
faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being
experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. I want us to get
the big picture. I want
a clear understanding.
The last thing I would do, especially this morning, is to
seek to move you emotionally.
That's what You know, some
of these messages have been so serious.
There are always old jokes I've heard, preacher jokes, going
through my mind. You
know, sometimes they are just inappropriate to tell, but I have to
hold back so many.
Preaching on the devil, I just don't know if it is proper for devil
jokes or not, because it might make you take him less seriously, so
I'll see if I can hold back.
It's really wanting to come out, but I'll tell you later.
[Laughter] The big picture.
God would have us have a Biblical view of life.
Everybody, Everybody has a world view.
That is simply the lens through which you look a life.
It's how you understand life and the way you see God is the
biggest determinate factor in how you see life.
You take God out of the picture, you're an evolutionist and
then evolution is the lens through which you see life and interpret
everything and you read meaning into everything in life.
The only position to read meaning out of life is to see life
from God's perspective and then you can see life as it is.
That is a position of faith.
You must recognize we have many things to support that but it
is still a position of faith.
That's how we are saved - by grace through faith.
That's the way we live: The just shall live by faith. That's
the way we walk: We walk by faith, not by sight.
But, to have a Biblical view of life is the only way to see
life as it is. So, the
Biblical view is the big view of life.
We must see God as he has revealed himself, not as we have
made him up in our mind, we must see life as he sees life if we are
going to understand the devil rightly. Now, here is one
overall Biblical thing that you and I need to know that God would
have us know. The devil
first comes on the scene in Genesis 3.
He leaves the scene of earthly life in Revelation 20.
Genesis 3 he interrupted God's perfect creation.
Revelation 20, he leaves God's imperfect creation and God
once again restores perfect, with the devil, evil and every
possibility of evil forever banned.
What God is saying is, as long as we are in this earthly life
before Christ comes back and sets up his kingdom we will deal with
the devil. Interesting,
isn't it? Since so many
people now don't even believe he exists, which, to me, is probably
one of the most convincing evidences of his existence, since his
master trait is that of deceiving and lying.
What else would be the best way to sneak in on somebody is to
think they don't exist? And he has masterminded that in many ways.
Genesis 3 he enters the story; Revelation 20 he exists the
story, but the big picture is that we have to see that and here is
just a nutshell in how it started. He had already
fallen. He was angel, fallen.
God makes these strange and curious little creatures
captivated by a body called "humans."
And Satan with all the other angels is interestingly looking
at these odd things.
They have to walk on the ground; they can't fly through the air;
they're visible, they can't become invisible.
The spirits were invisible and could become visible.
And he looks at them and he thinks, Oh, wow!
Well there is a limited number of angels.
When he rebelled he could only take a third of them with him.
He couldn't affect all of them.
But, being the wise serpent that he was, he must have figured
out that God's means of humans multiplying was through procreation.
Every human that is on the face of the earth, other than Adam
and Eve, came through the birth process and so Satan evidently had
figured out that if I get the captain, if I get the head, Adam, I
get them all. What a
strategy for affecting the course of history!
That simply is the big picture of life and he entered the
Garden of Eden and what did he do?
He convinced Adam and Eve that obedience to God was good for
God and bad for them.
And that's the same lie we buy today.
Never, never believe that obedience to God is something that
is good for God and bad for me.
The only reason it would ever feel bad for us is because
we're battling it with our own sin nature.
There's a battle there.
But that's a lie we can never believe. Well let's look
briefly at what and who Satan is.
The best way I know to do that is just to do a rundown of all
those names that are on the screen because his names and his
activity describe his character. Who was Satan?
Well he was an angel, evidently a very high angel called Lucifer.
He is a light bearer. Some writers think that he was
evidently way up in the angelic chain because that's how he could
influence so many other angels.
He had the job of reflecting the light of God back to God, of
giving all the worship of all the angels up to God, and somehow,
someway he decided that he wanted to keep a little bit of that
worship. You know, up
until that point, evil didn't even enter God's creation; even in the
spirit realm there was no such thing as evil, so even in Satan's
brilliance, his limited mind had no idea how to deal with the issue
of God's justice. He had no idea what length God would go to, to
preserve the fact that God was in control.
One of the big things that we need to know about Satan is
though he has fallen, though he is powerful, he can only be in one
place at one time, he can't
do anything God will not allow him to do, as Martin Luther
said, "The devil is still God's devil."
He's on a short leash.
He can do many things and let's look at his names.
They go right down the list:
·
Accuser. (Revelation 12:10)
He is
before the throne of God and telling God on you.
"God, did you see what they did last night?"
Do you realize that the only time the devil tells
the truth is when he tells God on you, because it's true.
He's got a list longer than your arm on you, the sins you've
committed, the things you've done wrong and he takes it and he
throws it before the throne of
God and he says, "They should be damned in hell," and I'll
show you in a minute that God says, "Yes, you're right, but somebody
has stood in their place and has taken that for him.
And you, the devil, have been defeated."
·
Adversary (1 Peter 5)
·
Deceiver. He always comes to deceive.
We should never believe him.
·
Destroyer.
·
Angel of Light - sometimes he disguises himself as this.
·
The
Devil - the devil is a personal name to him.
It describes the fact
that he is a being separate, an individual thing, and the
word, devil, is diabolas, we get the word, diabolical, from that and it
basically means slanderer, false accuser.
·
Dragon (Revelation 20)
·
Liar
(John 8:44) Jesus says he's a liar, there is no truth in him.
·
Murderer; he's been a murderer from the beginning.
·
Prowling lion (1 Peter) Seeking whom he may devour.
·
Satan (Revelation 12:19) Satan is used 52 times, Devil is used 34
times in the New Testament. Satan is actually a Hebrew word;
that's what he's called in the Old Testament and it means
adversary.
·
Serpent (2 Corinthians 11:2)
·
Tempter (1 Thess. 3 and Matthew 4) You'll be studying that in a week
or so in Sunday School. So, what do we
learn about this devil. Are
you afraid of him? Is a
Christian supposed to fear him? Is there a way to rightly deal with
this creature, this spirit being called the devil?
But how do we
deal with such a one who is so much wiser and intellectual than we
are? Someone who has
spirit powers and all kinds of spirit beings with him?
Someone who accuses, deceives, who is a dragon, who murders,
who is a prowling lion and a serpent? I want to take
you to three places of victory; there are more, there are many more,
but I want to take you to three places of victory in the scripture
so you have a way to settle your mind.
We're not going to turn to these because we're going to do
some scripture work where you've got to turn pages in just a moment,
but I want you to think these through.
Now, these are not going to be on the screen because I want
you to hear them, if you are a note taker you can write them down.
Three places of victory.
When the Lord
Jesus was baptized, the gospel writers tell us that he was led by
the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.
The obvious first thing of that we need to recognize is if we
are under enemy attack it doesn’t mean that God is disappointed with
us. Jesus just heard the
voice from heaven, "This is my beloved Son with who I am well
pleased," and right after that, the next verse, the Spirit of God
leads Jesus in the wilderness to be tempted.
The Bible says "he was tempted in all ways like as we are yet
without sin." So when
you are tempted, you have a High Priest who can sympathize with the
feelings of your weaknesses.
We cannot say, "God doesn’t understand," because he does.
The Lord was there.
He felt all the full frontal attack of Satan and never gave
in. That's why we'll never be tempted to the level Jesus was because
we give in and as soon as we give in, his strategy at that point has
been successful. In the
wilderness temptation, the devil came to Jesus after he fasted 40
days and 40 nights and said, "Make these stones bread." Jesus
responded to him, not with his own words, as a human, but with the
written words of God. He
obviously had spent a lot of time in the Book of Deuteronomy because
that is where his quotes come from.
He said, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but on every
word that proceeds out of the mouth of God." Satan was tempting
Jesus to do that which he should not do.
He tempted him to bow and worship.
He even tempted him with the Word of God.
Do you know the scriptures good enough to do fencing with
Satan? He said, "Well
the Bible said he's going to give his charge concerning you, they're
even going to keep you from dashing your foot on a stone."
Jesus said, "It is written, 'You shall not put the LORD your
God to the test.' " He
asked him to bow down, Satan said he would give him all the kingdoms
of the world, he's the prince of the power of the air, he's the
ruler of this world, I guess he could have done it.
Jesus said, "No, you should worship the LORD God and him
only." And he told Satan to leave and he did.
Why is that important?
When was the last time Satan had a direct encounter when he
was visible, could be seen, it was in the Garden of Eden and Adam
was there and Adam, the first Adam, failed.
Jesus didn't fail, he prevailed in the wilderness.
That, my friend, is a time we need to go back to, because
there was a God-man, Jesus, who in our place, defeated the devil
with the Word of God and there is a lesson there for us.
Don't talk with the devil on his own terms; don't use logic
and reason, use the Word of God and rest in it.
The second place
is the Cross and the Resurrection.
I would have to think that when the Jewish leaders succeeded
and the Roman soldiers crucified Christ, that Satan thought that was
a high moment. There is
no way he could have envisioned and known what God was going to do.
It was impossible for him to do that.
He doesn’t know the future, only God does.
And three days later, once more he was defeated.
Listen to what
the Book of Colossians, Chapter 2, Verses 14 and 15 say: "By
cancelling the record of debt that stood against us [he's talking
about his work on the cross] he, [that is Jesus] disarmed the rulers
and authorities and put them to open shame by triumphing over them
in him." At the cross he
cancelled the record of debt that was against us because of our sin,
he took the devil at the cross and crushed him.
He defeated him, he is a defeated foe. But there is a
third and final victory I want you to know about and that's the
judgment. In Revelation
20:10, the Bible says this: "And the
devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire.
The lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false
prophet were. And they will be tormented day and night forever and
ever." He entered God's
perfect creation and corrupted it.
He is judged and damned from God's imperfect creation and is
held forever in captivity never again to work his corruption and God
will make a new heaven and a new earth where all of his children who
have put their faith in Christ will live forever and ever and ever. The Bible does
tell us that hell was prepared for the devil and his angels.
But it also informs us that all of those who have rebelled
against God and have not repented of their sin will spend their
eternity there also.
And it would be the delight of the devil to take as many
people with him as he could.
That's how evil he is. If he would confront his creator and
try to tempt him to sin, why do you think he wouldn't tempt you?
His audacity, his brashness to come to God incarnate and
think he could make him bow down and worship him?
Well, do you think it's going to be easy for you to defeat
him? No.
I think not. But
you can. What do we do?
How does a Christian respond to the works of the devil?
The Bible says that Jesus came to destroy the works of the
devil and he has done that.
But, he has not put him in the place of final defeat.
We work from the position of victory, the devil works from
the position of defeat, but since he is a deceiver and liar, since
he has been working with the likes of us for about 6,000 years or
so, he has us pegged as far as how we operate as human beings.
He cannot read our minds, I don't think, but he can look at
us and observe what we know.
The people you know well, can you sometimes predict their
actions? Sure you can.
He's watched us for thousands of years.
He knows human temperaments.
He is far more intellectual than we are.
His capacities far exceed us, but they are smaller than a
fingernail compared to that of the Lord Jesus.
What then, can we as mere mortals do?
Sometimes I think the real strategy in defeating Satan is
missed. We want power encounters.
We want to be able to name the principalities and powers and
call on other powers in heaven to defeat them.
Frank Peretti is a great author, but his theology, when it
comes to angelic warfare, is pretty poor.
You can use your imagination, but read the Bible and you'll
learn what really goes on in the heavenlies.
1 Peter Chapter
5, take a look there, please.
Peter is speaking to the church; he spoke to the elders, he
tells the elders and everyone there to:
[5] clothe
themselves with humility toward one another: for God opposes the
proud, but gives grace to the humble. There's our
first key. If you want
God as your enemy be prideful, for every time you are operating in
pride, you have a direct confrontation with God.
Pride is that which says "I can do that without God's help."
Pride is that which says, "I don't need to read the Bible."
Pride is that which says, "I don't need to pray."
Now, most of us here would never say that, but we do it in
our actions and when we do that means we haven't recognized the
greatness of God, the evil of Satan, the smallness of self, the
destruction of sin, and therefore we are operating in pride, I don't
need God, and therefore, God is going to oppose you until his
opposition shapes you and bends you to where you bow before him.
The first key in dealing with the devil is the word, (I'm
going to give you 3 words) what do you do? 1. BOW.
This is what I
want you to remember.
You Bow. 1 Peter 5:6:
[6] Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, so
that at the proper time, he may exalt you: Now wait just a
minute. If you know
anything else about wrestling, about battles, about athletic
positions, the worst position you could ever be in is that of
bowing. That's what
makes this battle unique. You are no match for the devil.
Even the 2. WE GET DRESSED.
The first thing
you have to do is take some things off. Verse 7: [7] Casting
all your anxieties on him because he cares for you. I really hate to
say this because it is so convicting, but worry is a sin!
OOPS! You know if
you're as good as I am you can worry and be spiritual about it!
[Laughter] "I'm so concerned about this.
I've been praying about it for a long time."
Our words eventually betray us and our prayer life turns into
nothing but asking God to come down from heaven and help us worry
about something. Would
help me worry about this, God, because if I feel really bad about
it, if I've got a wrench in my gut, I know I'm concerned and then I
know people will know I'm sincere.
What is it, is the world on your shoulders, my friend? The
world is on God's shoulders.
Bow yourself before him and take all of those anxieties in
your heart and toss them over on God.
If you don't believe he cares for you, what more do you need
to understand than this?
"But God
demonstrated his love for us in that while we were yet sinners
Christ died for us."
Now, let's take
a real quick detour over to Ephesians 6 please.
I want to show you a wardrobe.
The Puritan,
William Gurnell, is quoted by two of the modern commentators that I
was reading. Irwin Luther has a wonderful book, The Serpent of
Paradise, and he quotes Gurnell.
John Stott has a fine commentary on Ephesians; he also quotes
him. If the Puritans had
a sin it was that they talked too much and they also had a little
bit of a mock humility because when William Gurnell wrote the
introductory statement to his title, the title we have is "The
Christian in Complete Armor," but the whole title of that book is
about a paragraph long, about as long as the books we read today.
But he talks about this small, insufficient work that he is
writing to the people of his church.
This small, insufficient work, I believe had had over 1700
pages in the original copy, so he needed to get a little
perspective, but he was accurate in what he said.
William Gurnell,
after encouraging believers to hold fast to the assurance that God
is watching Satan's every move and will not let him have the final
victory, says this: "When God says,
stay, Satan must stand like a dog by the table while the saints
feast on God's comfort.
He does not bear to snatch even a tidbit for the Master's eye
is always on him." That's what
Martin Luther meant when he said, "The devil is God's devil."
He can't make a move without God's permission.
Move he does when he is given permission. He can inflict
suffering; Peter tells us that.
He can inflict natural disasters if God gives him the
permission to do that.
God's still in control over all those things.
We have to remember that God is in control. If this is true
and we've bowed to God and given him our anxieties, then how do we
get dressed for such living? Ephes. 6:13
[13] Therefore take up the
whole armour of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil
day, and having done all, to stand firm. [14] Stand therefore… Three times he
repeats the issue of standing.
Stability is the key issue in Christian living.
We're not to be blown to and fro by every wind of doctrine.
We're not to be stunted by the assaults of Satan.
We are to be able to stand.
But here's what you need to know about getting dressed.
God's provided the wardrobe, it's your responsibility to put
it on. Can I be real
honest and tell you a story that embarrasses me.
I heard a sermon once about putting this armor on.
In truth, if you read the grammar, you put it on once and
leave it there. But this
particular pastor, who preached a fine sermon said "You need to
dress yourself in that armor every day."
I got rather obsessive about it and during my quiet time
every day I would go through a process of putting on the girdle of
truth, of taking up the breastplate of righteousness and putting it
on. I would go through the motion of putting my gospel shoes on,
until it became not a Biblical exercise, but an obsessive exercise.
That sometimes if I didn't feel like I did it right, I would
go back through it again and make sure I've got the helmet of
salvation on, I've got the shield of faith, that I've got the sword
of the spirit, the scabbard so I could pull it out, and I think the
devil was having a heyday with me watching me through that idiotic
exercise. No, God has
provided a wardrobe, not for us to go through and put on by physical
action, but through this thing of praying, knowing that we have to
have these things and they have been provided for us in Christ.
It is your responsibility to put them on, so let's look at
the wardrobe very quickly.
If you're going to stand against the schemes of the wiles of
the devil, (every time I hear wiles I think of Wile E. Coyote on
Roadrunner). Stand therefore
having fastened on the belt of truth.
Now that could be the truth of the scriptures that you put on
yourself, but in a little bit we hear the "sword of the spirit,
which is the Word of God," this truth is that of a sincere life.
Are you genuine or are you a hypocrite?
The devil loves hypocrites and hates genuine people.
It is the truthfulness of your life. You've got to robe on by
wearing the clothes of the gospel, which are honesty and
truthfulness, gentleness, patience, all of those things. You put on the
girdle of truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness; There are two
kinds of righteousness in the New Testament.
A righteousness which is given to us by Christ which will
never falter, we'll never lose it, and a daily righteousness that we
have by living our lives.
I think this hints strongly at both.
We are protected eternally from the devil through Christ's
righteousness, but you can have plenty of holes in your armor when
you live an unrighteous life, even as a believer, so do you have
that put on? Beyond that,
when you take up the breastplate of righteousness, you have shoes
for your feet: [15] And
shoes for your feet having put on the readiness given by the gospel
of peace; That describes a
shoe that is kind of like an open-toed sandal with straps that come
all the way up to the knee and cleats on the bottom, so when you
stand, you can't easily be pushed backwards, you are standing firm.
It is the message of the gospel that does that as well as the
proclamation of the gospel that takes it into the world. [16] In all
circumstances, take up the shield of faith, with which you can
quench all the fiery darts of the evil one. How's your
faith? Take up the
shield of faith. Faith
in what? Believing I can
raise this shield up and stop the devil? No.
Faith in God.
Faith in God's revealed Word.
Your shield is always taking.. the picture is the arrows
dipped in tar, lit and shot at the enemy.
And the shield he is talking about is the big shield; they
could put it down. If
you saw Lord of the Rings, you saw it happen, or some of the
gladiator movies where there are people cutting each other's head
off, you know, of course we're not worried about our kids getting
offended by those kinds of things.
Man, those things are gory aren't they? But you've got this shield and you duck behind it but it is hitting the leather cover on this wooden shield that is covered in linen and leather, it's got a bass tip on each end to hold it together. You've got to repair that thing! How do you repair it? You feed your soul with this Word. You clothe yourself in it, you put it on because if you don't put it on you can be under the devil's influence and not even know it.
[17] And take the helmet
of salvation… I like that
salvation is our helmet.
In the Old Testament God himself wears this armor and wars
with us. In the New
Testament, he shares his armor with us and asks us to go into battle
with him. Doubts, wrong
thinking patterns need to be corrected by the scriptures; put the
helmet on. And then…. Take up the
sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God: That's why we
want you to memorize scripture, so you can take it up.
What do you do?
You BOW, you GET DRESSED and you STAND. This is, I'm
going to repeat this:
This is your responsibility.
A lady went
shopping, came home and hid the bags in the bedroom.
She came out one by one and then she saved the special one
for last. It was a
dress. It cost her $625.00.
She looked at her husband, made all the excuses in the world,
she said she was really tempted by it, it was just gorgeous, it was
really a sale price, it was more than that, she had never seen a
dress like it, it would be unique.
He said, "Well, honey, why did you not tell the devil to get
behind you?" She said, "I did and he said it looked good from there,
too!" [Laughter] Did you read in
the paper about the lady who is suing the casino because of her
gambling debt? You
figure that one out yet?
I haven't. But I have
counseled many people, who, their lives are what they are because
they ignored the devil. It's like going to a casino when you've got
a gambling problem. It's
like going to one anyway! It would be a lot of fun, but I work too
hard for my money. I
don't like driving down the road and throwing $20 bills out the
window. It's like if
you've got an alcohol problem and you go to a bar!
It's like if you've got a problem looking at scantily clad
women and you toy around on the internet.
It's like if you do have a shopping problem and every time
you see a sale sign, you go in.
There's a word for that:
Stupid! I mean it
really doesn’t take an intelligent devil to cause us to do those
things, but we do that, we walk right into his trap.
But if we don't clothe ourselves we won't know any better.
We'll just do those things. Does it matter
to you if you go to heaven?
Does it matter to you what happens to you when you die?
The Bible, you know, has a lot to say about that.
And if we ignore what God says about that, we could fool
ourselves into thinking we're going there when we're not.
Because, you see, when Christ comes in, he makes changes.
We'll stumble and fall, the devil would see to that, he
throws things across our paths and trips us up, but if we put on
this armor, if we willfully get dressed, tuck on that helmet of
salvation, (It's a shame Western didn't have more helmets yesterday
when they were playing Florida…. Just didn't work out good, did it?)
By the way, that's a fair illustration.
Western is where I played football, we're division I-AA, they
played last year's national champions, I-A,
Are you dressed?
Do you take him seriously? You need to do that.
Your eternal soul is at stake.
The honor of God is at stake.
The comfort of your life is at stake.
Bow before him, cast your anxieties on him, put his armor on,
and stand.
Let's pray together.
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