The Devil
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
Good morning my name is Chad I'm one of the pastors here if you will grab your Bibles and go to John chapter 8 we're going to be all over the place this morning as we kind of are trying to understand a concept um and look at uh as we kind of continue this series in the three enemies um we began the series by pointing out that you are developing into something you are growing into something uh you were getting better at something it might be sitting on the couch it might be being mean to your spouse.
But you're getting better at something and what we want to as Christians get better at and grow into is the image of Christ we're trying to grow into Joy we're trying to grow into life and we're trying to develop and follow Jesus and be made more into His Image that's what we looked at the first week the second week we discussed that we have three enemies Satan the Flesh and the world are three enemies of our soul that are at work to keep us from growing into the image of Christ and we uh Isaac introduced us to this this phrasing from uh um a was a pastor.
Now he's just kind of a thought guy book writer person um John Mark comr we don't agree with all the things that he would teach but we thought he worded this really well and so we uh this is kind of what the three enemy strategy is together which is decept deceitful ideas that play to disordered design desires that are normalized in a sinful society and that's kind of the three at work together that the enemy lies that we personally want to believe the lies there's part of us that wants to sin we have disordered desires.
And then they're normalized in a sinful Society that's kind of where we are and so today we're going to look at Satan which is is just translated it's the the adversary so sometimes we might just refer to him as the enemy even though we have three that we're talking about we might be the enemy the adversary we're going to talk about Satan and how he lied so as we begin this this morning I'm going to pray and then we're going to jump in to Jesus's words in John 8.
So pray with me Father we've been lied to and we come in this morning as people who are believing lies we're believing lies about you we're believing lies about our world we're believing lies that fr name up our interactions with our families with our Church family that frame up our interactions with money and work with sacrifice and joy and so we ask that in the name of Jesus that we would hear truth this morning that we would see truth this morning that we would grow in truth this morning and that you would by the work of your spirit begin to un undo all the areas where lies have begun to take root in our souls.
And we ask this in accordance with your mercy in accordance with your power and to the glory of Your Great Name in Jesus name we pray amen John chapter 8 Jesus is teaching and in verse 30 is where we're going to pick up it's on F page 522 if you have one of these blue Bibles it says says that many of the people who had heard him believed in him and so in 31 it says this so Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him.
So they've just come to Faith just come to trusting in Jesus is who he says he is they they don't fully know what that means but they're trusting in Him he's the Messiah that he's from God and he says if you abide in my word you are truly my disciples and you will know the truth and the truth will set you free and they answered him we are offspring of Abraham and have never been in ens slaved to anyone how is it that you say you will become free this is interesting.
Because The Offspring of Abraham was enslaved at one point it's also currently under Roman occupation but they seem to be making this a very literal like we're not the the people of Abraham aren't slaves we're not enslaved right now like what are you talking about I've never been a slave I'm a free agent I can do what I want what are you talking about they mean it really practically really earthy and he says verse 34 Jesus answered answer them truly truly I say to you everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin the slave does not remain in the house forever the sun remains forever.
So if the sun sets you free you will be free indeed so Jesus says I'm not talking about Earthly bondage I'm talking about eternal bondage I'm talking about Sin they're like we we're offspring of Abraham we're not slaves he says oh have you sinned he like oh probably it's like yeah every one who sins is a slave to sin your soul is enslaved to this and and he says the slave isn't free the son is free and that's himself he's the son.
So if the son sets you free you'll be free indeed so he's saying that he's going to set you free from sin he's going to work to set free from sin which is our other enemy The Flesh which desires sin is sold under bondage to sin and so he's saying he can set you free from sin he ultimately does this by paying the penalty of sin the price of redemption which is buying slav slaves Freedom price of redemption at the cross where he pays the penalty.
For our sin so he saying you can come to me and be set free I know verse 37 I know that you are offspring of Abraham so he's saying I know that you are Jewish I know that you've come from Abraham yet you seek to kill me because my word finds no place in you I speak of what I have seen with my father and you do what you have heard from your father so he says I know your offspring of Abraham.
But you're doing what you've heard from your father that's going to be important later but he says you've been listening to your father and you're doing what he's told you to do they answered him Abraham is our father this is getting these are the people who just believed and now it's already tense you ever feel like that like I just became a Christian why is Jesus all up in my business I already did the thing it's like yeah this is what he's doing he's working these things out.
So he says they say Abraham is our father Jesus said to them if you were Abraham's children you would be doing the works Abraham did but now you seek to kill me a man who has told the truth that I heard from God this is not what Abraham did he says no no you're you're not you're wrong you are doing The Works your father did so he's all right so this father that they've been hearing from this father they've been listening to is not Abraham he said no.
If you were If Abraham if you were really his children you'd do what he did but you're not your penny takes it back to their father they said to him we were not born of sexual immorality we have one father even God so they say okay well if Abraham's not our father God's our father Jesus said to them if God were your father you would love me for I came from God and I am here I came not of my own accord.
But he sent me why do you not understand what I say it is because you cannot bear to hear my word you are of your father the devil and your will is to do your father's desires he was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him when he lies he speaks out of his own character for he is a liar and the father of Lies but because I tell you the truth you do not believe me.
Okay so in us trying to understand the devil this is a helpful passage where Jesus is talking and explaining something about him first of all Satan is real he has a real personhood he's a real entity it's not an idea or concept or like a a vague Force out in the world Satan is a real spiritual being Jesus treats him as real the Scriptures treat him as real we see Jesus interact with him he's throughout the Scriptures a real being he is spoken of in some ways the way we speak of as of Hitler that Satan uh is leading this Rebellion against.
God so it's Satan and all of his demonic forces and so that when I say we speak of the way we speak of Hitler like you might could have read a a newspaper article that says Hitler invades Poland but if you looked at the picture it would not be like Hitler running into Poland it means Hitler and his forces Hitler as a figurehead Hitler as working against the world and that's the way Satan has spoken of some in the Scriptures he's a physical being like a spiritual being an entity he has personhood.
But he's not omnipresent and so when it talks about Satan a lot of times it just means all of his forces at work against God but he's saying that Satan himself is a liar and the father of lies and he's a murderer and a liar so his aim is destruction his aim is death but his strategy is lies we see this in Genesis he's working towards death but he lies this is what he's doing he's working towards destruction he's working towards death and his strategy is lies he's the.
Father of lies he's the father they've been listening to so they're listening to lies believing lies and acting out of that that's what he's talking about and that all lies ultimately find their Source in Satan which makes sense because God created reality and reality exists we have reality there are certain realities in life life we're not in the Matrix this isn't a simulation we have reality which means that we also have unreality so we have reality we have unreality this is why we'll say phrases like that boy's in.
For a real reality check because reality is what you run into when you're wrong this is why we can say you'll get a dose of reality what we mean is you're about to realize you're wrong and reality it will teach you because there's reality and there's unreality Now by God's good design for us we can hold unreality in our minds this imagination this is how we build things how we come up with ideas so we can think about a thing that doesn't really exist.
But it also is the thing that lets us believe lies so we have three things we have reality truth we have unreality imagination or lies so we have or and we have what we think what we believe this is why Jesus calls us to Faith calls us to believe in him and sometimes I think we frame that up like there's a whole lot of things we could believe in and Jesus is one of those things and he's saying hey believe in me like.
If you went to the grocery store and you were buying cleaning products there's like a whole wall of cleaning products and all of them are saying pick me now all of them will help you clean there's not one there that's going to make things dirtier they're all going to help you clean you're trying to figure out which one's the best and I think sometimes we think that's what it's like with Jesus that all these things are good or all these things are helpful or all these things will work in life.
But Jesus is saying he's the best but the reality is Jesus is saying he's the truth that there is one reality that God created the world and that Jesus Christ is the way back to God that he's the reality and that everything else is a lie everything else is untrue and so it matters a lot what we think it matters how we frame up the world because we have reality and we have unreality and Jesus is calling us back to him and we're doing this all the time we're thinking all the time we're framing the world up all the time in order to help you kind of wrap your head around this I want to.
Talk about maps and math and I know somebody here is like finally I've been wanting to talk about maps and math well you're welcome today's your day all of us that live in this area wherever you live it's a real place there it's an actual City actual buildings that you can run into roads that you can ride on and then all of us are building a map in our heads all the time we're constructing our own map so that we can travel around you do this in your house you have a pretty good map of your house like you don't usually you're not sitting in the living room and go I'm going to go to.
The restroom and point to your front yard but go to the restroom you know where your bathroom is so you'll point the right direction but the bigger the map gets the maybe the fog or it gets for you and you might be the type of person who just points in random directions and stresses people out Spencer does this periodically from up here he'll be like over in kids City and you can see people twitch because kid City's that way but you can do this you can have you have this map in your head that you're building all the time and we build it differently.
When you start talking to to somebody you'll realize the way their Map works is different than yours every time I'm talking to miss Louise and I'm trying to find a place trying to go somewhere she will she will use Road names I don't have all the road names memorize Miss Louise has all the road names memor I don't she use Road names sometimes you might talk with someone and they'll use directions they're like well you're going to head north and you're like I I'll make sure to bring my compass they'll say things like.
Well that's where the Old Farm buau used to be it's like oh how what I often have to talk to people and I'll say things like they'll be telling me stuff and using Road names or whatever and I'll say do restaurants tell me where the closest Bojangles is this this works well because sometimes I learn about new restaurants but I know where restaurants are you're like you know where the Arby's and Casey is yes I know where the Arby and Casey is.
Now you can get me there but we're building this map if your map in your mind is right you'll get where you want to go if the m map in your mind is wrong you'll be led astray this is how it works with reality and unreality and you're building a map of your world not just a physical map but you're building a map of your world with Concepts like freedom and fairness and joy and hope and the purpose of life you're building that in your mind all the time that's Maps math one of the things I love about like spaceship movies or science fiction movies is at some point in the movie.
If it's a good one there's a moment where math becomes immensely important they're like talking through things and like we can get these people home and someone raises their hand in the back and they're like not if you want them to have air they're like what do you mean and they're like math or there's like a guy with a whiteboard and he's just been mathing it up he runs in all sweaty and he's like the math and we're all like if they do a good job we're like the math.
Because we know that math is meant to correspond to reality that's the point they're doing all this math so they know how much time they have how fast they can travel if they come in at the right angle will they burn up this is just Pro tip I know we've got some teachers in here if you teach math this is how to teach math make them watch one of those videos first day and then when you give them math problems and they get it wrong just be like oh your astronauts are dead anybody else want to try that way you keep fifth graders with the intensity cranked up.
So they know why math is important the point is we're working working out something that corresponds to reality and what I need you to know is when it comes to your life you're doing the math and you're making the map all the time and if it corresponds to reality you'll get where you want to go alive and if it doesn't you'll be led astray and burnt up and it matters and Jesus says I am the way the truth truth and the life.
But this is how the enemies at work he's lying he's the father of lies and here's how his lies work I have been a part of two surprise parties in my life like planned surprise parties not just like an impromptu hey we're having a party but like a planned surprise party one I was the surprise e like I walked in and people surprise which is fine and two I was one of the surpris ear I hid in a house and I got to be like surprise.
But I think the best surprise party job is the person who distracts the person who's going to be surprised you're in on it but you don't have to crouch down in a dark house for a long period of time you're just the person who's going to keep them busy you're going to go to the movie with them or whatever but your job one job is they can't go home till the designated time or whatever you've got to keep them distracted.
If you go and the movie sold out you've got to come up with something else it doesn't matter what it is anything else will work you can deflate your tires you can be like let's go to another movie you can be like hey let's go eat you can be like I really suddenly need to start a stamp collection let's head to the post office you can come up with whatever you want it's anywhere but home and that's Satan's goal anywhere.
Jesus anywhere but reality so if that's complete Rebellion aggression promiscuity wickedness you're harming people great great but if it's distraction comfortable nice quiet suburban American life where everything's fine and you're good and you're nice enough and you're not one of those bad people out there fine anywhere but home anywhere but Jesus believe anything but Jesus this is why the lie of all roads lead to God is a great one because anywhere but Jesus it it that's the ways it worked and this is what he's doing he's lying.
So Jesus is going to say this is why Jesus calls us back to the truth when they ask Jesus in John six what do we need to do to do the work of God he says this this is the work of God that you believe in him whom he sent he's calling us back to reality he's saying you need to trust in me you need to know that I am your hope I'm the way the truth the life Satan wants any other way anything that's not that is not the truth it's a lie and it doesn't lead to life.
So we've got the way through truth to life or we have any other way through a lie to death it's the way it works Revelation 129 this is the enemy this is what he does it's all over the place and the Great Dragon was thrown down that ancient serpent who is called the devil and Satan the deceiver of the whole world we're in 2 Corinthians 11 but I'm afraid as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ or Titus 3:3 he says.
For we ourselves were once foolish disobedient LED astray slaves to various passions and Pleasures passing our days in Malice and envy hated by others hating one another or Romans 1 when it's talking about how the world works this big thing that it says is that they exchanged the truth about God for a lie what lie any lie anything but reality Works anything but Jesus Works 2 Corinthians 4:4 in their case the God of this world has blinded the what blinded the what Minds what would we expect you to blind eyes.
But he's at work in our thoughts he's at work in the world of ideas he's at work in what we believe so he blinds the minds of the unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the Gospel of the glory of Christ who is the image of God this is why second Corinthians will say things like this Same Same Book same letter just later for though we walk in the flesh we are not Waging War according to the flesh so flesh there just means physical IAL body that we have physical bodies we're not Christian war is not against physical bodies it's not like all right y'all we're going to do PT training next week.
And then we're all going to get our guns and we're going to go attack those unbelievers and that's not what this is we can just get rid of those bad people that's not how this works at all the war is not against flesh and blood it's not a Waging War according to the Flesh and it says this for the weapons of our Warfare so we said we have three enemies we're waging a war are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds that's a verse y'all we have weapons we're in war and our weapons have divine power.
So I don't know if you pictured yourself with weapons well now they're like glowing like you pulled the sword out and it's like it's got divine power and it's got divine power to do what destroy strongholds a stronghold is like a tower or a castle something that's meant to keep you out something that's been built and planted and rooted it's here it's not going anywhere and he says no we have weapons of divine power that I mean obliterate them we read this we like yeah let's go.
And then he keeps going we destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God and take every thought captive to obey Christ where is the war happening in your mind it's happening in what we think and what we believe and the arguments and opinions I don't think when he's saying we destroy arguments he means get your YouTube apologetics video going and start destroying people I don't think he I don't think he means that but he does mean we need to undo arguments undo opinions we need to we need to step into the realm of the spirit to believe what is true and what is right and what is good and what is.
Real and that we actually have power to do that but the war is happening in what is true and what is a lie and this is happening in your mind all the time Dallas Willard is a pastor and he says that we truly live at the mercy of our ideas that your life is framed up by what you think by what you believe by how you think about your world we're truly living at the mercy of our ideas Spencer went on sabatical and in my head I realized a couple weeks in that I was just repeating to myself I'm going to be really tired after this.
Because it just I had to take on extra stuff but I I was busier and I just kept saying Yeah I'm going to be tired after this I'm going to be tired after this and then I got convicted the spirit helped me but he was like why why why are you saying that over and over again there's no no mercy no Grace no work of the spirit no strength you're that important like it was like like 15 different ways I was told yeah shut up.
And then I was just framed up with I was like all right I'm gonna think of a better way to think of that and I decided we'll be a better Pastor after this and when he's back I'll feel like a superhero cuz I won't be as busy that's the have framed it up I've started saying it that way in my head but we're at all times living at the mercy of our ideas and we have big ones that frame up the world we have like World constructing ideas uh I was reading a book by Carl Truman He calls this the social imaginary.
But it's where we've collectively come up with ideas like freedom justice fairness like there are things that we kind of all agree to so that someone can yell at you that's unfair and they're they're they're throwing a concept at you telling you to imagine the same idea and there are ones that we've culturally agreed to some of them are good and in in line with reality some of them aren't there are things that our culture has agreed to that other cultures haven't and there are things that other cultures have agreed to that are culture hasn't like we don't talk about shame a lot I doubt you've ever looked and been like I've shamed my my.
Ancestors I just don't think you've said that but if I'm watching a movie of a samurai and he's like on his knees in the rain and he says I've shamed my ancestors I'm like like oh no don't do that I actually probably have shamed my ancestors but I've never talked about it never even thought about it because I'm riding around on the you know my horse smoking my Mars and being a free American I can do what I want ain't nobody ain't no me.
But me you know like that I don't have any ancestors I'm trying to shame or live up to or whatever we just don't think about it it's not the thing that we've framed up but we have things that we have framed up that we've agreed to and we've held up in our minds but there are other ones there are some that are line with God's grace his goodness his reality if you find any truth and you pull that thread you'll eventually get to Christ that's how this works.
Because all reality belongs to him and so we have things that are mixed with truth we have some things that are good some some freedom is good but absolute negative Freedom which is that nothing should ever impose on me and anything that does anything that has a claim on me or tells me I can't be the most me I can be is e evil well then you can't have children you can't get married or you'll be married for just as long as that doesn't impose on your absolute freedom uh we've got the idea of consumerism running out there I have more stuff I'm more happy we bought into that we have the sexual Revolution that.
My sexual desires give me an identity tell me who I am and that no one can ever tell me I can't pursue those and that if I'm sexually fulfilled as a person then I'm a real person we have that does that line up with God's reality and truth and goodness does that lead towards life or destruction we have the idea that if I was in power if I had more power if I was more respected if my political party was in power.
Then I'd have joy I'd be at peace everything would be good we've had that one for a long time all of these things the enemy has worked to bring in lies I want to show you how some of this works more personally we have the big ones that we believe but they're also what do you do with those so let's just think about the LIE I'd be happier if now you can put in whatever your if is it's possible that when you fill that out you said I'd be happier.
If I was more obedient to Christ but I doubt that's what you've been repeating to yourself I think you've probably been saying something like I'd be happier if I had more money more house more car more whatever I'd be happier if things would be better if I had more power if my relationship was better My Romance was better I was in this relationship out of this relationship out of this relationship and in that relationship whatever I'd be happier if something now most good lies have some truth in them like.
When I run out and try to you know deal with my boys and I'm saying what is going on like why are yall screaming and hitting each other or whatever if one of them looks at me and goes I I'm not even here I'm at school it's like that's terrible there nowhere close like you got to you got to at least you know get close change it just a few places so the truth is you might actually be a little bit happier.
If I'm not going to argue with that a little bit sure if your house was bigger I bet you'd like that okay if people respected you more yeah wow who wouldn't like that nobody's like I wish I was more disrespected that's nonsense but these things the thing that you're repeating the thing that you're saying over and over again your head you're hearing repeated the lie that the enemy is feeding you is kind of true but there's more to it my son has an egg allergy uh he can't eat cake.
Because there's egg baked in he can have icing most of that's just sugar so he likes icing and we have never been like we're going to build our whole diet around this kid who can't eat things that's crazy so we would eat pizza and feed him Beans and we would have cake and give him scoops of icing we' just be like here this is probably not good for you but that's fine he likes icing if he sees cake what you see is the icing he can eat the icing.
But there's death baked in and that's what the enemy has done he's iced a cake with something that's kind of true and there are all these assumptions baked in there's death baked in so I'd be happier if blank well there's a whole lot of assumptions that if we can drop this down you'll suddenly go oh wait hold on a second I'd be happier if blank okay I deserve this Jesus is withholding God is withholding this or uh since I'd be happier with it and I know that.
God wants me to be happy therefore I should have blame he he actually wants me to have it he wouldn't stand in the way of it we'll say things like if it were really a sin I'd feel convicted it's actually just an indication of how far our hearts are from Jesus that you feel nothing as you blatantly sin uh if I don't get this I'm G to waste my life being miserable I only have so much time we're going to live.
For eternity if this doesn't change I can't put up with this forever I can't deal with this forever there's assumptions in all of these things about where the good life is where Joy is found where hope is found whether eternity exists whether Jesus actually saves whether he's actually good and that he actually has our good in mind all of those things are baked in and all we're doing is repeating the the icing over and over again and so we're eating the whole thing.
But there's death baked in this is all over the place and all these lies are ultimately lies about Jesus because any truth is going to lead us to him so any lie is going to point away from him and all of them are about Jesus any lie that you're believing I can like you can sit and consider it for a while and you can see how ultimately that makes an accusation about God about what is good about who he is about what he does about what he promises about what he provides about whether or not There's Hope in him about whether or not there's satisfaction in him about whether or not there's joy in him.
And so the enemy is not just accusing us and tempting us but he's constantly lying about Christ and we see that in the garden that's what he shows up and does twists a little lie a little Hal truth a little question a little something Tobit the hook that ultimately begs the question is God really good can he really be trusted so we repeat things to ourselves and a lot of them are a little true most of them are a little true I'm the worst have you got some evidence of that I'm a terrible sinner yeah Bible tells you that I'm going to ruin everything maybe you do ruin some stuff you've made bowling less fun.
One time I know no nobody wants me around I'm a burden to my group a little bit sometimes that's the nature of relationships if they're real all of them have some bit of Truth with a wicked conclusion one of the questions I'll I'll talk with people when I'm counseling them sometimes is I'll just say would the Holy Spirit tell you that would the Holy Spirit draw that conclusion every time the Holy Spirit convicts you of sin calls you a sinner whatever he's he's pulling you back to.
Jesus he's pulling you back to repentance he's pulling you back to Joy if he says you're a burden to your group if the Holy Spirit says it well he's correcting you on something but he's going to press you into your group probably first through repentance or gratitude but the enemy is going to say you're a burden to your group get out go die alone he's going to have some kind of terrible conclusion something's going to be baked into that some kind of assumption about.
God assumption about his people I'll show you a lie that I think a lot of you here or repeat to yourself on a regular basis in some form and it's this one I've been married for 15 years this past may I wrote my wife a card all it said on the front when I opened it up was I love you asterisk how you think that would have gone over I didn't give her a car that did that I had to explain later it's going to be a sermon illustration.
Okay no I don't do that but that asterisk changes the sentence but some of you here yeah yeah okay yeah yeah Jesus loves you yeah yeah your group will say well you know Jesus loves you and you'll go had that little asterisk you'll do it to yourself when you're working through sin you go I know Jesus loves me and it's like there's some fine print and the fine print is usually technically kind of Jesus forgives me asterisk I'm welcome here asterisk and you you accept it.
Because you think it's about you but Satan has just lied about Jesus not you that his Mercy's not enough that his love isn't enough that his redemption's not enough that when Ephesians says that he washes the Church so that she doesn't have a spot or wrinkle or blemish or any such thing that somehow you've snuck in as what a spot a wrinkle a blemish a such thing that you're somehow in on a technicality that you're somehow welcome on a technicality that you don't really belong here these are lies From Hell from an enemy that wants to leads you to hell that wants to pull you away from.
Jesus that wants to pull you away from joy that wants to tell you you're kind of forgiven is and want you to live in a world where there's no glorious mercy and Grace from the King where there's no Redemption and joy where you're only dragging around as kind of some little Mark on your group on your Church on the people of God and you don't really belong here and you'll show up on Sundays and go nobody talks to me and never even think about the fact that you talked to no one that we're some how just not really the one who's really included not really the one who's really welcome and he's told us this.
Over and over again these lies about I'll be happier if I can get out of this marriage I can't put up with this anymore I can't stand this anymore everybody hates me my spouse hates me they'll never forgive me this person dislikes me this person I mean it's all over the place you have been lied to you have heard the lies from the father of Lies you've been lied to a lot so what do we do we said early on we're going to talk about our enemies.
But we were going to get practices things to do to help fight against this stuff well the first thing to do is this you need to know Jesus Colossians 2 2-4 says Paul's writing and he says he's praying about the Church he says I pray that their hearts may be encouraged being knit together in love to to reach all the riches of full Assurance of understanding and the knowledge okay this all stuff in our head of God's mystery which is Christ in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge I say this in order that no one may delude you with plausible arguments you need.
Jesus and you need to know that all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge and truth and reality are in him they're in him and he says I'm saying this so that no one would delude you with a plausible argument because the arguments will sound pretty good they've got some truth in there they got some reality in there but just enough to pull you astray just some asteris to get you away and he's saying no I want you to know Jesus if you don't know.
Jesus you need to know Jesus and y'all if you belong to Jesus he has defeated the enemy he says that we're in an unpluckable hand you're not going anywhere this is what 1 John 3:8 says say whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil for the devil has been sinning from the beginning the reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil he came to win and he did on the cross Colossians 2:15 says he disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open Shame by triumphing over them in him that him is.
Jesus and it says that he nailed to the cross our debt the record of our debt the enemy has nothing on you anymore you you do not lose Paul Paul in Romans is writing a letter he talks all this theology talks about all these things and when he's ending his closing remarks he's saying say hey to this person say hey to this person and he just includes this the God of Peace will soon Crush Satan under your feet Jesus wins he has already disarmed the enemy and he will crush the enemy.
But then we're told things like do this so you won't be outwitted by Satan that we won't be uh blind to the schemes of the devil or 1 Peter 5'8 says Be sober minded Be watchful your adversary the devil prows around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour I love that because sober minded means think clearly and As Americans none of us think that thinking clearly is watching out for the devil none of us are like I just got to be on guard against the devil I'm trying to think clear that's not we're not trained that way in the west.
But Peter says you need to he's writing to the Church not that the devil will steal your soul but that you'll believe his lies and he'll rob you of joy and fruitfulness and relationship and delight and rest and worship he's not going to take you ultimately to hell he can't he can't if you belong to Christ you aren't going to be condemned but he can help you mess up your marriage he can help you choose sin he can help you leave a Church or tear one one up.
So we need to Be watchful so what do we do first first thing you need to do is know Jesus second thing you need to know your Bible so happy to get to say that I feel like there's a little bit of like really this is going to end with read your Bible yes yes it's going to end with read your Bible y'all did you see what Jesus said to the people that first believed in in John 8:31 so Jesus said to the Jews who have believed in him.
If you abide in my word you are truly my disciples and you will know the truth and the truth will set you free and then he goes into a big discussion with them about how they've been listening to the lies of Satan they believe and he says you need to know the word because you've heard so many lies that you're outdoing the works of Satan you need to know the word y'all that word abide means live you need to live in your Bible you know how you go to someone else's house and you're like where's the trash can or you need a spoon and you open what should be their spoon drawer and you're like.
Idiots Ziploc bags and spatulas close it and then you go where your spoons but in your house you don't do that you know right where everything is cuz you live there you need to know right where everything is because you live there when the enemy shows up and tells you something you need to go nope that can't be true that can't be true because Jesus told me something else that can't be true because Jesus told me something else he says this here hold on a.
Second I'll get there hold on hold on wait wa wait wait wait that thing about yeah I'm the worst yeah yeah watch this watch this watch this watch this I was dead in my trespasses and sins this is the beginning of a good sermon I'm the worst yeah yeah yeah but God being great in Mercy with what the great love that he had for us he's shown steadfast Grace to us that he's at work to show immeasurable Riches of his kindness in the future that I have a hope of an eternity don't get me going we got to know where it is this is why.
Jesus who can every time he speaks it turns red letter just so y'all know when he speaks it's it's Bible every single time when he's Tempted By by Satan in Luke and Matthew do you know how he responds every single time he quotes Deuteronomy because he's showing us if you want to not believe lies you better have Bible in you you better have the word of God in you you better live here I don't know what lies you're believing but I know you're believing.
So I don't know what you've had on repeat in your head that is working to lead you out of your out of faithfulness out of peace out of joy out of Grace I don't know what you've been repeating in your head that's leading you towards sin I don't know what you've been uh making okay in your head that you know the Bible says isn't okay I don't know what it is that you're working towards or that's allowing you to be unfaithful or that's robbing you of the grace and the joy of belonging to a Church or belonging to a people or repenting of sin I don't know what it is.
But I know it's there and I know that we need to live here and by God's grace enjoy what he's purchased for us in the cross let's pray Lord we've been lied to we've been tricked the enemy's baited the hook and we've bitten and we ask that by the power of your spirit that right now you would begin to help people hear the lives you'd begin to help them hear what they've been repeating to themselves over and over again what they've bought into about the good life about Joy about Hope about Eternity.
For those who do not trust you may they see the truth the enem is trying to get them anywhere but Jesus we ask your spirit to be at work and we praise you for rescuing us and calling us back to the truth may we be a people who love your word in Jesus name amen the band's going to come back up we're going to sing and celebrate the victory of Christ I I don't know what your Bible reading looks like I don't know.
If reading's really hard for you I don't know if you don't know how to read There are apps that will read to you there are ways to memorize Scripture but we've got to live here we've got to abide in it we've got to act as if our joy and our life depends on it because so much of it does and it all points us towards Freedom towards Grace towards hope and I would encourage you sometime this week to get to a quiet place get your phone away from you get a blank sheet of paper and ask the spirit what lies have I been believing he loves to answer that question.
And then get your face here and see what's true.
The Devil and the King
Transcript
Well, good morning. My name is Chet. I'm one of the pastors here. We're going to be in 1 Peter. We'll be on page 658, if your Bible looks like this. If you have one of the blue and white Bibles from the Rose, we're on page 658.
We'll be in 1 Peter chapter 5. We've been walking verse by verse through the book of 1 Peter, and we're coming up on the tail end of it. Halloween is coming up this Saturday, and I find that when it comes to Halloween, you've got people kind of in different groups. We're going to take some—we're going to kind of figure out who's in the room this morning. So when it comes to Halloween, there is the group of people that are like, oh, yeah, Halloween was last week.
Like, you were at a place where, oh, look, there's bats on the wall. I guess Halloween's coming. Like, you just don't care. It doesn't even show up on your radar. You could care less about—couldn't care less about Halloween. That's the one that makes sense, that Americans say could care less.
Anyway, raise your hand. You just couldn't care less about Halloween. It doesn't show up on your radar. You don't care. Okay. Cool.
Yeah, we got a handful of people that are in that zone. Who falls in the—there's the other group of people that, like, care maybe too much about Halloween. Like, they're a little too excited. Like, to them in their brain, it's one of the major holidays. Like, it is the—it's a big deal. And so they're going to decorate their house a little prematurely.
They're going to—you're going to have some—when you throw a party, it's like a legit party. Like, people come over, and there's, like, cups with things bubbling out of the top, and they don't even know how you did that. And, like, you just—who's that? Who's that person? Cares a lot about Halloween, is excited about Halloween. Okay.
So I got two more questions that kind of fall along the same lines. If you're invited to a costume party, there's groups of people here. There are the people who get excited and show up, like, make the party good because they're there, because they know how to dress up. They know how to make it amazing. Who's that? Who shows up to a costume party just ready to roll?
Yes. Okay. Cool. I appreciate y'all. I like the people who go to costume parties dressed up. Who says no to a costume party because you don't want to dress up?
Yeah. Okay. I thought there were people there, too. Yeah. Who says yes, thinks they'll dress up, and decides not to, and just shows up anyway? Yeah.
Okay. That's the one I do. I'm like, yeah, I'm going to dress up this year. And then by the time I get there, I'm like, I'm my evil twin. Like, I'm the bad version of me. It's like, but you look the same.
Right. That's what I want to—I'm tricking you. Like, I'm my doppelganger. Like, that's how I go to Halloween parties. All right.
Last one. Horror movies. To be careful how I pronounce this horror. Raz, a friend of mine from Australia, he came over here. I think it was he was dating his now wife, and she asked him, you like horror movies? He's like, what?
He's from Australia, and he pronounces things. Like, actually pronounces things as opposed to Southern Americans who just kind of slur everything together. She's like, you know, horror movies. And he's like, no. Why would I like a horror movie? Why are you even asking me this question?
So horror movies. Who likes horror movies? Scary movies? Who likes them? Gets really excited. Yeah, I find people fall in different camps on these.
Like, they're like, you should see that movie. It's terrifying. I didn't sleep for three days. Why on earth would I want to watch that? I swear, when you get home, there's going to be a small child in your bed. Why would what?
No. You won't be able to walk alone for a week. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Who is the, I have no desire whatsoever to see a scary movie. Not going to watch it. Yeah, that's me.
Like, I do not want to see a scary movie. Unless it's Troll 2, I don't want to see it. Don't care about scary movies. Just don't. Well, we're coming up on Halloween, and we've come to this section in 1 Peter where Peter is going to talk about the devil. And in some ways, it's fitting because this is the time in our culture where everybody just, it collectively, we kind of think about these things.
Creepy things, demonic things, spooky things, ghosts, all that kind of stuff. And so what we're going to do is Peter's come to this section. He's talking about the devil. He's going to encourage Christians on how to respond to the devil. And so what we're going to do this morning, because I think we've been a church plant for going on three years now, two and a half years something, we've never taken a whole lot of time to talk about Satan. Never taken a whole lot of time to talk about the devil, talk about demonic things.
And so what we're going to do is just, in order to even understand what Peter is teaching us today, we have to understand who he's talking about. We have to understand who Satan is, how all that works, what demons are. And so we're just going to read what Peter says, and then we're going to zoom out and get a big overview on who Satan is, what he does, how he works, what the Bible says, big picture. And then we're going to come back to 1 Peter and say, okay, given that that's what, that's who he's talking about, that's what the Bible says about Satan, this is how we get to respond. And so this is going to be a little bit different than most of the time where we just read a passage and talk through it.
And if this is your first time hanging out with us, this is the first time we've ever spent any significant time talking about Satan and the devil and the demonic. So welcome. It's everybody's first time for this kind of a conversation too. So I'm going to pray and then we're going to, we're going to spend, we're going to read 1 Peter and then we're going to kind of zoom out and just spend some time talking about this. So God, we thank you that your word tells us what we need to know.
God, it doesn't always give us all the answers that we want to know, but it tells us what we need to know and we can be confident in you and in your word that you've provided so that we might study your word and know and be equipped with the information that we need so that we might be able to understand the world that we live in. And so God, we just pray that as we study this this morning, that we would learn what scripture says about the enemy and appropriately learn and that you would still get all the glory and it would still be about you. In Jesus name, Amen. Okay, so we're going to read 1 Peter 5, 6 through, no, 8 through 11 and then we're going to just kind of talk a little bit and see kind of big picture who Satan is and what the storyline is here.
So, be sober-minded, be watchful. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. To him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen.
Okay, so that's the section in 1 Peter, but he just says, your adversary, the devil, and so if we're not familiar with what he's talking about, it's like, well, what? Like, you just, you just going to bring him up at the end of the letter? Like, you just, I'm just supposed to know who you're talking about? So we're just going to take a second, zoom out, look at this big picture. I do want to read this. This is a, C.S.
Lewis was a theologian and an author in the 1900s in Britain. And this is, this is a quote he says about the demonic, and I think it's helpful. There are two equal and opposite errors in which our race can fall about the devils. There he just means demonic spiritual realm. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe and to feel an excessive, unhealthy interest in them.
They themselves are equally pleased by both errors and hail a materialist or a magician with the same delight. So what he says is there's kind of two ditches on the road of understanding the spiritual realm and understanding the demonic. One is just, they don't exist. It's not a real thing. The other is to be way too concerned, way overly interested, way overly afraid of. The demonic.
And so, I find that in our culture, we have some people who are overly spiritual. You see some of this. You've met the person that everything is like some sort of a spiritual thing. Like Christians sometimes will over-spiritualize things or everything's an attack. So you'll be talking to somebody and be like, yeah, my car broke down, just locked up on me.
And I got out and I said, Satan, get out of my car. Or, because I knew Satan was after me. And it's like, when was the last time he changed the oil? Like, maybe you should just take it to, like if a mechanic can fix it, it might not have been Satan. I'm just saying, maybe, maybe he didn't want you to go to the grocery store. What were you doing?
Like, what? Like, I mean, you've met some of those people that are like, the devil's after me. Like, every time something's happening, oh, the devil's trying to get us, we gotta pray. Like, okay, there's spiritual things, but that's a bit too much. I remember my dad telling me there was a lady that lived kind of out in the country and on some farmland and she worked at their house helping watch them during the day because both of his parents worked. She told him one day, she said, last night, the devil was looking in my window.
And he and his brother said, the devil? The devil was looking in your window? She said, Satan himself. And they went, what did he look like? She said, a cow. They were like, you don't think maybe it was just a cow?
She's like, no, it's the devil. So, there's some people like that, that just everything is some sort of, most of us in this room probably are more on this side. Everything has an explanation. We can arrive at everything through scientific method, through reason, everything can be explained. And even for Christians, you take one step in and you say, yes, in theory, I believe, because I believe the Bible, that there is Satan and demons, but you just, on a real practical level, have no room for that whatsoever. So, you believe it, but actually don't feel like that ever really shows up in any kind of way.
Maybe in other countries or something, but not here, not really a thing here. And so, what we're going to do is just kind of walk through immediately, I think, some of our pushback, and the biggest ones I hear are science and reason why we don't need Satan anymore. Or why we don't believe in Satan anymore, or why we don't believe in this kind of stuff anymore, science and reason. Science is just basically, we have science now, so we don't have the God of the gaps theory. People used to believe, like, whatever they couldn't explain, they just needed God, that we just say, well, we don't understand that, so God must do it.
But now we have science, we've figured it out, we know that it's natural, there's processes, we can test things, we can study things, we know stuff. The problem is, the Bible doesn't have this separation between the spiritual and the natural, so when the Bible says that God sent a storm, or God sent a flood, or God, he does it through natural means, the normal storm system, the normal, he just, he works in it. People say that, like, the reason, when the Bible says that God is the one who gives children, God blesses mothers with children, that they said that because they didn't know where babies came from. But now we know, in the Christmas story, where Joseph is going to divorce Mary because she's pregnant, the reason he was going to divorce her is because he knew exactly where babies came from.
And he knew that one wasn't his. And so he's like, this relationship isn't working, like, we can't do this anymore. And so we, honestly, the Bible doesn't have this gap there. The Bible is very much, God works through natural means, but it's spiritual as well. The Bible's even going to attribute some spiritual, some natural things that happen to demonic things. And if we're willing to believe that there is a God, a good supernatural being, a good personal, real being that is good, it's not too much of a stretch to believe that there is a real personal being that is evil.
So if you believe in a good God, it makes sense that there could also be a spiritual being that is evil. The other one is reason. And when I say reason, what I mean is, not the science side, not the nature side. So what we would say is, well, people couldn't explain nature so they needed science. And then people say, well, people couldn't explain behavior, they couldn't explain evil, but now we have reason. We have, we understand dysfunction, we understand pathology, we understand family history, we understand nature versus nurture.
We can, now, we understand that ignorance is what causes all these things. So what they, would they just say, this person's evil, we don't need that term anymore, like we understand that everything has a cause. And there's a quote from a guy named Andrew Delbanco. He was a, he's a professor and a scholar at Columbia University. And he wrote a book called The Death of Satan. And in this book, he says he's a secular liberal.
He's not, not a Christian, not coming from a Christian book. But here's, in his book, The Death of Satan, here's how he starts it off. A gulf has opened in our culture between the visibility of evil and the intellectual resources to cope with it. A gulf has opened in our culture between the visibility of evil and the intellectual resources to cope with it. What he's saying is this, when we got rid of Satan, we lost the ability to explain a lot of the things we now see. So when we just talk about pathology, when we just talk about dysfunction, when we just talk about ignorance, and then we had Holocaust, the final solution, death camps, that came out of one of the most intellectual, civilized, cultural giants in the world.
We have genocide. We have just heinous evil across the board. And if we no longer can use the term evil and we no longer understand that the world has an evil presence active in it, we have a really hard time explaining serial killers. We have a really hard time being able to step in. And that's the point of his book is, when we got rid of Satan, we began to lose our ability to cope with how much evil there is in the world. That we have a hard time explaining death camps without being able to say, no, that's actually evil.
That's actually broken and there's actually something working behind it, active in it, for evil. And so honestly, the Bible's not against science and it's not against nature, not against reason, but it is going to say that the natural and the supernatural are much more blended than we know and that there actually is an evil being at work. And so one of the big storylines in the Bible is war. So there's certain storylines that just kind of go through the whole Bible and one of them is that there's a cosmic war. And so we're going to read a passage from Revelation 12 as we begin to start looking.
We're going to have it up on the screen. We're going to read a passage from Revelation 12 as we begin to start looking at who Satan is, where he comes from. And so this is, Revelation gets misquoted a lot and people take it out of context and they draw big charts, but this is just explaining with some imagery what happened a long time ago. So it says this, Now war arose in heaven. Michael, and that's an angel that is named a few times in Scripture, just apparently a powerful angel created by God. Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon.
And the dragon and his angels fought back, but he was defeated and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent who was called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world. He was thrown down to earth and his angels were thrown down with him. And later on it says that there was about one third of the angels rebelled with him. And so we've got this picture of God created spiritual beings. So he created physical beings like us and he created spiritual beings that are angels and some of those angels rebelled against him led by Satan.
This is part of the storyline of the Bible that there was a powerful angel and a few places in the Old Testament are going to be where God's going to be prophesying to specific nations. It's going to seem like he's also talking about some of what happened in this epic battle, but there was a powerful angel that basically believed that he needed more power, more glory, became prideful and fought against God. Now he doesn't actually fight God, he fights more angels and they win. And then he comes to earth. So the idea of Satan hanging out in hell, like that's his base camp, it's not a real thing.
So I know you watch South Park and he's there with Saddam Hussein and that was hilarious or whatever. That's not a real thing. He's actually on earth because he's no longer allowed in the normal realm that he was in and he's kind of trapped in this area where he's been kicked out of and Jude 6 and 2 Peter are also going to say that the angels that went with him that did not stay in their proper place. So Satan led angels to rebel in heaven. That's one of the pieces of the story that we get from scripture. And all demons are just angels, spiritual beings created by God that did not remain where they were supposed to, did not do what they were supposed to, but rebelled against God.
And Satan is just a demon, an angel created by God that rebelled with them and the Bible kind of uses him as a figurehead or it would just say the devil referring to all of the demonic in general or talk about Satan referring to all of them in general, not necessarily just him. Sometimes it is specifically that one angel. But here's the thing. This is just kind of weird for us. Like we don't, we don't talk about this other places. Like the only two places I know that we, we even address this or think about this in our culture is pop culture.
So you have stuff like South Park is going to bring it up. We've got far side cartoons that are going to have jokes about it. You've got the movie Little Nicky where Adam Sandler is Satan's kid but he's the nice one. Like we just got that kind of weird. Then you got all your scary movies that go along with that stuff.
And then nobody else talks about it until you get to the church. And then the church talks about it because the Bible talks about it. You were never in a math class where your teacher was like, or a class in elementary school where your teacher was like, put away your multiplication tables and for the next 30 minutes before we go to lunch we're going to talk about demons. She wouldn't be a teacher very long. She's not allowed to do that. Some of you maybe were homeschooled and you never saw those multiplication tables but you talked about demons a lot.
Welcome. Sorry. That came out meaner than it was supposed to be. But no. Most of us in school we don't cover these things. We cover it in the church but here's the thing.
We got to take what the Bible says about these things and begin to form our picture. Not what pop culture tells us but what scripture tells us and begin to form our picture. And as you study scripture a few things start to come out. A few things start to become clear. First of all God created everything and he created Satan. God and Satan aren't yin and yang.
They're not equals. God is above Satan. Even in what we just read when Satan rebelled he did not fight God. He fought other angels and lost. Now there were more angels on the other team but he lost.
There is a time in the Bible where Satan fights God and that goes like this. It's later in the book of Revelation. So this happened a long time in the past and then there's another time where God fights Satan. It says Satan was released and he leads an army and here's what it says. Fire came down killed his army and Satan was thrown into hell. That's how that fight goes.
When God steps into the ring the fight is over. But at this point he rebels and the angels kick them out and they are sent to earth. Now the story moves. So this war that begins in heaven moves to a new battlefield which is the earth. And that's where we pick up in the book of Genesis. That's where we begin to see the ancient serpent shows up in the garden to lead humanity astray.
And he shows up and he tricks Adam and Eve into rebelling against God like he had. And then God shows up and immediately proclaims the first gospel which is he shows up and tells them there's going to be a male born of a woman. Now that's interesting because throughout the Old Testament genealogies are this man begat this man begat this man or this man was the father of this man was the father of this man was the father of this man. Every once in a while a woman's mentioned but she's always mentioned in relationship to a husband. But what God steps in and says is there's going to be a woman and she's going to have a son.
And he's referring to the only woman who ever had a son outside of a man being present which was Mary who as a virgin had a son named Jesus. And what he says is there's going to be a man who's going to come and you're going to bruise his heel but he's going to crush your head. And he proclaims the gospel over this rebellion that Jesus is going to show up and fix the problem. So Jesus shows up. He's born. As soon as he begins his ministry Satan shows up to tempt him because all he knows from what we can tell from scripture is just Satan knows who Jesus is and that he's got to mess him up.
He's got to keep this from working out. He knows that God is active. He knows that there's been some prophecies. He knows that this is coming and he's just got to mess it up. So he shows up and tries to tempt Jesus into rebelling against God because if he can get Jesus to rebel the plan's messed up.
And Jesus doesn't. Jesus withstands temptation and keeps going. So then Satan works actively through Judas Iscariot to kill Jesus because he's thinking okay Jesus will go to a cross not a throne. Jesus will get only crown he'll ever wear is a crown of thorns. Jesus will be destroyed. Jesus will die and he won't be able to fulfill his plan.
And so he works actively to kill Jesus and in the epic plot twist of all time in the most cosmic twist that God had worked up what Jesus did was he hid victory and defeat. He hid freedom in slavery. He hid life in death and on the cross undid everything Satan was working for. He Colossians 3 tells us that he disarmed Satan by going to the cross because what Satan's power was in sin and death and Jesus took our sin and our death so that it no longer has a hold over us. And so in the cross Satan was defeated because he didn't understand what God was actively after. He didn't understand how great power can be shown through humility.
He didn't understand how God had designed it for Jesus to come and not be exalted on earth but be exalted in eternity and to be exalted fully to show his glory fully through a cross not a throne. And so Satan is defeated but he's not gone. And so then we see how Satan now actively works to disrupt and cause problems until he is fully destroyed. So he's defeated in the cross but not fully gotten rid of until some future date. And as Christians when we became Christians we were invited into this battle. We were invited into this war.
Over and over again scriptures will say that our battle isn't against flesh and blood but against principalities and powers and spirits in heavenly places and that we're brought from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of his beloved son that this is a cosmic battle that we've been invited into to see more people meet Jesus. So a few things we need to realize and understand when it comes to who Satan is. One is he's finite created being not more powerful than God not equal with God. He can't be in all places at once. He does not know everything. just the sheer fact that he can't be in all places at once.
Look I think you're wonderful. Did you know that? I think you're very special. I agree with your mom. I think you're special and like a snowflake. But Satan is probably not messing with you.
The actual being Satan himself is probably not messing with you. Now the Bible uses Satan as a covering or the devil as a figure head for all demonic evil activity. So we are attacked by biblically demonic activity but Satan is finite. He's only in one place at one time. He's somewhere on earth but he's only in one place at one time. But there are demonic spirits that work with him to lead to lie to destroy.
So let's start looking at what does he do? If he's already lost in the cross what's his goal? How's he work? What's happening at this point? And so a few things I want us to just kind of see as we walk through. So what we read at first in 1 Peter and we're not going to unpack this yet but we're just going to see one of the things that Peter's queuing us in on.
Lost in the cross what's his goal? How's he work? What's happening at this point? And so a few things I want us to just kind of see as we walk through. So what we read at first in 1 Peter and we're not going to unpack this yet but we're just going to see one of the things that Peter's queuing us in on. Be sober minded be watchful your adversary
The devil prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. Okay so he's active and he's trying to seek someone to devour. What does that even mean? And so let's take just a second and just look at a few places in scripture where we begin to see how Satan actively tries to work to destroy to disrupt to deceive.
The first is through sin and disbelief in the gospel. So a few different places in scripture and I included a few references in our community groups this week we'll actually read a good bit just so that all of our information comes from not Little Nicky not South Park but comes from our scripture we begin to inform ourselves through scripture
But we'll spend more time studying these things but I included some reference for people who want to follow up but sin and disbelief in the gospel basically one of the ways that Satan is active is in just leading us to sin because sin is destructive sin leads to death and sin keeps us
From God sin is so he gives us what we want a lot he baits us entices us says no what you need to be happy is this no no your marriage isn't good but this person would make you happy oh if you just made this much money if you just did this like he just leads us
To sin leads us to chase after other things to believe that other things will fill us up bring us joy the other thing that Jesus says specifically is that he tries to get us to not believe the gospel so when the gospel is proclaimed
That Jesus sets us free that Jesus gives us life that Jesus paid for our sin that Jesus makes us whole Satan tries to disrupt that and take that away another one and I don't think we realize this or think about this much
One of the other ways that Satan works actively to lead us astray and to disrupt is through religion and self righteousness okay now when I say religion some people are always like wait I thought Christianity was a religion what we mean
When we talk about religion quite often the Bible does use it sometimes in a good light a lot of times it's using it in a negative connotation we're using it in a negative way to mean the belief that my behavior saves me my behavior is what
Makes me good my morality my actions because all of that is my righteousness my goodness comes from me and the Bible is clear our righteousness comes from Jesus so Satan is active in as long as you trust you that's fine with him so most
Of us think that Satan's only working in harmful things but actually he can work through generosity he can work through really good behavior he can work through morals as long as there's no Jesus that's fine so I'm going to read 2 Corinthians 11 13-15 it's one of the references
But for such men are false prophets deceitful workmen disguising themselves as apostles of Christ Jesus and no wonder for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light so it is no surprise if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness
There are people who will even say the name Jesus and be pointing you away from him pointing you towards your behavior towards your actions towards your goodness as long as you're trusting you Satan doesn't care there are multiple times where Jesus
Is interacting with the religious elite and he calls them broods of vipers which means you're the child of the serpent he's saying you're sons of hell sons of Satan he says you go over land and sea to get one convert and then make him twice as
Unhell as you are what he's saying is your religion your good work your effort your memorization your hard work like they used to like connect the bible to their wrist and their forehead like you thought your grandmother was religious because her
Bible weighed 47 pounds these people had the bible strapped to them until your grandmother gets a backpack bible she ain't nothing he doesn't care we can be as religious as you want to as long as you're not trusting Jesus actively at work in that another one
Is so he's actively at work in leading people away from Jesus which makes sense actively at work in making people confused about the gospel which makes sense but then he if you become a christian genuinely trust Jesus with your life with your sin then the next thing
He works after is disunity in the church and ineffective christians he just wants you okay if you're a christian well I lost that one but I gotta keep you from helping other people become christians some of the ways he does this is through just letting us be really comfortable I
Think keeping us distracted some of the ways specifically that are mentioned are Ephesians 4 26-27 says be angry and do not sin do not let the sun go down on your anger and give no opportunity to the devil second corinthians 10 talks about forgiveness and he says if you forgive him I forgive
Him we're to forgive one another and we're not to be ignorant to satan's schemes one of the ways that he works is he he gets you mad at you and doesn't want you to talk to each other that as long as we're frustrated as long as we're infighting as long as we're not sharing the gospel
That's fine whatever we can do to keep us aggravated to keep us frustrated to keep our feelings hurt and to keep us from talking to each other and having unity and being on mission is fine okay satan's a created being who rebelled against God who was
Defeated in the cross and now actively works to keep people from Jesus actively works to keep us in sin actively works to keep us ineffective in sharing the gospel now let's go to first peter and see what he says about him how we're to respond verse 8
Be sober minded that means think clearly think correctly one of the ways that we do that is we have incorrect information that's what we're trying to do just a second ago is get at least some correct information so that we know what we're thinking about how to respond so
Be sober minded then he says be watchful so be on alert just have your radar up for anything that looks like it might be enemy activity so if someone comes and is proclaiming Jesus to you but the whole point is here's how you be good here's
How you behave here's how you be religious here's all the things you have to do have your radar up they're not preaching Jesus they're giving you morality they're giving you religion they're giving you behaviorism they're giving you performance ism but it's not Jesus and
So be aware another one is this say you're hanging out on a Sunday and you think huh that's the second week that person didn't say hey to me I think I just saw a look did I see a look I saw a look I bet they're mad at me why would
They be mad at me I guess because they're a jerk I'm special when mom told me that it can't be my fault and then you'll come up with some reason oh I bet it was this I bet this is what they're thinking I bet they're mad about this you know what I'll do I'll be
Mad at them boom accomplished as opposed to being watchful and going hold on a second one of the things that I know that Satan actively tries to do is get me frustrated I'll go talk to him hey are you mad at me no I'm not mad at you why didn't
You say hey I don't know why didn't you say hey oh good point that person didn't say hey to me did you say hey to them no jerk like that's how that works like have a conversation be watchful know what's going on
Know that these things can happen and have your radar up that's what he says be sober minded be watchful your adversary so he's against you the devil prowls around like a roaring lion seeking
Someone to devour so we talked about how he works to devour I want you to show you two of the things he does first of all he prowls he's intentionally sneaky people have said well if Satan was
Real why he'd just show himself because that's a terrible plan terrible plan do you know how many anti-gun people would be at the Walmart buying rifles if we confirmed that the zombie apocalypse
Had started I'm so glad I'm in America come on you foot dragon slobber monster like if we found out that werewolves were real you know how quickly we'd be producing silver bullets they're real full moon silver bullet time so as soon
As like if Satan just showed up was like I am Satan you know people would be here next week pretty sure Jesus wins that one didn't realize that was true so he prowls he's sneaky he doesn't want you to know where he's at work he doesn't
Want you to know where he's active he's hiding it which all right let's play a game you're on a safari but you're just walking around it's really tall grass you see a lion over here you do not see a lion over here which one do you run from
The one you saw y'all aren't good at this game you run from the one you see y'all were like I don't know I think you're supposed to play dead I don't think that works with lions they're like sweet I don't have to
Run you run from the lion you see that's how that works this one surprises you you run this way and go dang it hey buddy that's how that works so yeah he's sneaky because then you're not aware you're not paying attention
Your radar is not up you don't know he can be at work he'd love for you to not believe in him that's fine with him he'd love for you to believe there's only natural causes for everything everything can be
Explained he doesn't need you to believe in him one of my dad used to teach us how to fight and one of his pieces of advice was if you're fighting while the other guy is still talking you have a distinct advantage
He said if his mouth is still open when you punch it that's a good start and honestly the enemy's like that if he's already started the fight before you know it started he has a distinct advantage so one of the ways that he does this is he's sneaky and he prowls
Around the second thing though is that he's a roaring lion which I want us to see this clearly Colossians 3 tells us that Jesus has disarmed the enemy that those of us who placed our faith in Jesus he has no power over us anymore because his power was in
Sin and death and Jesus has taken our sin and taken our death and Satan has no claim over us no power over us no condemnation over us any longer so once you do believe in his existence one of the ways he works is through roaring
Hearing a lion roar is terrifying but the roar is actually not the scary part of the lion it's the power that the lion has so when I'm at the zoo and a lion stands up and roar I'm like that was scary but I
Don't run because it's that giant ditch thing like if the lion comes at me I should be like bro you didn't think that through there's a lion in the ditch face looks hurt so when with Jesus having already conquered the enemy one of the
Things he's going for at this point for Christians who believe in his existence is for you to be very scared of him so some Christians don't want to talk about Satan or demons they don't want to bring it up they feel like it
Jinxes them they feel like oh we shouldn't be talking and they're unnecessarily afraid we should be watchful we should be aware we should be sober minded we should think about it clearly we are not to be proud or arrogant the power and authority
Is not in us we are not amazing Jesus is but we're also not to be terrified one of the word glory has several different ways that can be described in several different meanings meanings one of them is weight is weightiness which just means that you
Give things glory by giving them weight or sway in your life so I recently shaved my face I usually have a beard I recently shaved my face and people feel the need to tell me they didn't like it or that I looked like I was 12 it's like oh hi you look like a child thanks good talking to you it's nice to see you too but I do that because my wife and I met in high school and she needs to see my face every once in a while she has more weight
In my life than every person who saw me and told me I look like a child I care more about what she thinks I'm sorry I do also like the beard so I keep it and this time I shaved and she went I see why people like the beard I was like yes we're making progress soon she'll just be like just keep the beard I've seen your face enough but she has weight and so one of the ways that we give glory
To something or somebody is by letting them have some weight some sway some leadership in our lives some ability to affect how we act how we behave and when we are terrified of demonic things terrified of Satan it keeps us up at night we can't talk about him it's like he who must not be named when we do that we're giving glory to a being that deserves none now sober minded watchful
Not prideful not arrogant but also not giving them weight not giving him sway over your life how you act how your emotions work so he prowls and he roars and he's seeking someone to devour so we have an enemy who wants to destroy us let's figure out how we respond that's a good question what do you do with a prowling roaring lion who wants to devour you resist him
What helpful advice Peter should do a self-defense class alright ladies if you're in a parking lot and a man attacks you here's your plan try to get him to stop just resist it's like what that's not helpful I need like show me how to hold my keys with my knuckles give me a whistle something like I need a plan now just just just resist that'll be 50 bucks class is over
Like so resist him how firm in your faith okay cool resist him trusting in Jesus what's our faith our faith is that Jesus has disarmed the enemy through the cross our faith is that sin once had a lot of power over us guilt once had a lot of sway in our lives death was looming over us but now we have been
Rescued by a savior who took our sin who took our death and who set us free and when we are faced with enemy attack we just get to step back and say no I trust Jesus I don't have to be amazing I don't have to be good I don't have to be moral I don't have to accomplish this I don't have to be strong I don't have to be smart I don't have to
Be the best I trust Jesus and we just get to stand firm in our faith which is that Jesus is the ruling reigning king of all and that Satan has already been defeated resist him firm in your faith knowing that the same kinds of suffering now let me say this if you are not a Christian place your
Faith in Jesus you have a real enemy out to destroy you out to trick you into trying to be really good to prove something to God and to make him owe you out into tricking you into chasing after a million other things to find
Yourself to prove yourself to have value to be loved to find worth and you have a God who stepped in and rescued and redeemed you trust in Jesus trust the God who gave up his life
For you not the being that's after yours not the one seeking to steal your life but the God the creator of the universe who gave up his life for you he says knowing that the
Same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world what he's saying is realize you're not suffering you're not in this battle by yourself you ever exercise with a partner or go through something
Terrible with another person and you think to yourself I am I'm sorry that you're going through this terrible thing but man I'm glad you're here I remember in football camp watching someone else get cussed out and just being like I'm glad
That guy's here I'm glad I'm not the only one getting cussed at I'm glad I'm not the only one having to run after practice or being stupid there's just something about what he's saying just realize that
You're in a war and all of us are you've got a lot of teammates you're not by yourself the band's going to come back up here and we're going to sing and make much of
Jesus and we've got two more verses to look at here resist him firm in your faith knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout
The world you're not by yourself you're not alone it's not up to you there are others in this battle with you and after you have suffered a little while the God of all grace all freedom all joy all hope all peace
The God of all grace that freely gives freely poured himself out for us the God who went to the cross shedding his blood and giving his life so that you wouldn't have to shed yours or give yours the God of all grace
Who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ he's talking to Christians and he's saying the God of grace that's already redeemed you already rescued you already called you into an eternity where there is joy and peace and happiness
And freedom forever where the enemy is ultimately and finally destroyed who's called you to his eternal glory in Christ will himself restore confirm strengthen and establish you stand firm in your faith and trust that the God of grace is going to
Step in at the right time and make it all right it's going to step in at the right time and fix everything on your behalf to him be the dominion forever and ever amen one of the reasons we haven't talked a whole lot
About Satan one of the reasons we don't spend a whole lot of time on the devil is because the Bible is never about him he is never the focus he is never the point it is squarely on Jesus all the time Jesus is the one who gets the glory forever he's the one
Who has dominion forever he is the creator God that rules and reigns over everything to him be the dominion forever and ever amen to Jesus be the praise to Jesus be the glory to him be the strength to him
Be power to him be the kingdom to him be everything eternally it'll be him that's on the throne it'll be he that reigns and rules over all things forever it'll be him that makes his enemies his footstool it'll be him that is the king and glorious ruler of all
Because he hid life in death because he hid victory in defeat because he hid our sin on himself that he took it on himself so that we might be free so that we might be saved so that we might be rescued so that we might not have to walk around in fear of sin
Or death or Satan ever again it's to Jesus be the glory to Jesus be the kingdom to Jesus be the rule to Jesus be the reign to Jesus be the dominion forever and ever amen