The Devil

Introduction

Tonight we will finish our journey through the mini series “The World, The Flesh, and The Devil” by looking at the Devil.

In our world today Satan is something that is often not regarded as being real or even being a problem at all but I assure you that he is a very real problem. Often times we put satan in a category with supernatural things that do not exist. We see these funny looking pictures of a man in a red suit with horns and think surely that is not real. The origin of those pictures is actually pretty funny. Satan fell because of pride, when those pictures were first being made they viewed them as a way to hurt Satan’s pride by making fun of him. Pretty clever right? The only problem was that the next generation came along and thought “I can’t believe my parents believe in something like that” and disregarded him as being real. Let me tell you that nowhere in scripture is Satan described as a funny looking man in a red suit. He is described as an angle of light. He will not come looking like the worst men there are such as Hitler or Stalin but he will come looking like the greatest men among us.

The devil is also thought of as an evil force and not an evil person. Satan is a real person that has extraordinary gifts such as his craftiness. He is bent on evil and in complete opposition to God. In the last weeks we looked at the World and the Flesh, in them we saw that the world is a system that we are apart of that is totally sinful and in opposition to God and the flesh is our very being that is sinful and wants what the world offers. Coming to the devil, the final part of the dreadful triangle, he likes to give us what the world has and what the flesh wants. He wants to make it accessible to you and to push you closer to it. He is smart, his actions are subtle, he is against God. On top of all of this he has his army of demons that are doing what he wants them to do and working to spread evil everywhere.

Ephesians 2:1–3 ESV

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

The prince of the power of the air and the spirit that is at work in the sons of disobedience. This is what we are facing. Let’s begin to look at the enemy then we will finish by looking what we are to do to combat him.

The Real Satan that We Face

1 Peter 5:8 ESV

Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.

This verse uses some vivid imagery describing the devil. Firstly he is an adversary to Christians. If you have out your faith in Jesus you are an enemy of the devil. He wants to lead you astray, he wants you to deny Jesus. He wants you to sin.

He is also described as a lion seeking someone to devour. We can imagine what this looks like in real life because we know what a lion hunting a gazelle looks like right. It is the top predator waiting to tear something much more frail apart.

In this we understand that the devil does not care about anyone but himself and he detest God. he desires to lead people astray and in Luke 4 he even tries to lead Jesus astray but Jesus resisted him. Our enemy the devil is ferocious and does not care for you, he desires the exact opposite of what we should do and how we should live. Spiritual warfare is a real thing and the devil is a real person that is engaged in this battle. we are dealing with a cosmic evil in the unseen realm trying to lead us away from God.

Resisting the Devil

Ephesians 6:11–20 ESV

Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints, and also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly, as I ought to speak.

When thinking about the devil this passage stands out to me because it gives us what we need to resist him. It describes our problem of not wrestling with flesh and blood so real armor is of no use to us. To resist the devil and battle the cosmic powers we need to put on the armor of God.

The armor of God

the armor of God described in Ephesians would have been a familiar site to the people of this time because they would have been familiar with a Roman soldier in his armor. We too can imagine this in a similar way so that we can get the image that is being pushed here.

the belt of truth

The belt is designed to hold everything together. In the same way equipping ourselves with the truth will hold everything together. One of Satan’s biggest tools is lies, he will fill our heads with so many lies and they can bring us down and lead us astray but by being held together with the truth we can withstand his lies.

the breastplate of righteousness

Righteousness is right standing with God. It means that you have been forgiven of your sin. Putting on the breastplate of righteousness puts the image of covering all the vitals with the fact that you are in right standing with God. There is nothing that the devil or anyone else can do to take that away from you once you have it. Our being right with God and the reminder of it vitally protects us and we can know that there is nothing that the devil can do to compromise that.

the gospel of peace as shoes

Like Paul said in Philippians, because of the peace of God he can endure all things. The gospel of peace readies us for anything that the devil can throw at us. like cleats ready our feet for a football or soccer game the peace of God readies us for any of the devils schemes and prepares us to be able to respond to them.

the shield of faith

Our faith is something that we can hold up and protect us from the darts of the devil or we can let it down and it serves no purpose. To resist the devil we need to hold up our faith as added protection, using it to fend off satan. This can look like trusting Gods plan for your life even when the world seems to be offering something better. It can also look like the story of Job, everything that can go wrong in his life but he held his faith high through it all and never wavered.

helmet of salvation

The fact that we have even been saved from the wrath of God acts as a helmet to us. Much the same as the breastplate of righteousness our salvation covers us and protects us so that the attacks of the devil can cause us no harm.

sword of the Spirit

The sword of the spirit is the word of God, the Bible. While all of the other things provide protection to us the sword is for offence. This can come from reading the Bible and memorizing passages. When the schemes of Satan are coming at you can temptations come your way scripture is the most powerful tool for combat. When Jesus was being tempted in the wilderness by the devil he always responded with scripture, we need to learn to do the same. I would encourage you in this that if you have a particular area of struggle that temptations always seem to arise in, memorize scripture for that so that when the temptation arises you have that with you to act as a sword.

Finding these scriptures is easy, go to google and search scripture about ____ and it will pop up something. Then take out your Bible and look some up to make sure they are what you need and then you are ready to commit it to memory. Make it a screensaver or a sticky note on your mirror that you read every morning. Through this you can always have a sword to battle the devil.

prayer

The last thing that the passage finishes with is prayer. Prayer is our communication with God and it carries serious power. Asking God for help dealing with the schemes of the devil, struggles with the flesh, and the influence of the world is always a good idea. God tells us to let our request be known to him through prayer.

One thing that I do from time to time is pray through a Psalm. This helps me keep my prayers focused on God and align me with his will. It also keeps things fresh so that I do not feel like I am wearing out my prayers. An example of this could be done from Psalm 23 where the first line is “the Lord is my Shepherd”. You can ask God to be your shepherd and guide you where you need to be and protect you from the evil that is all around.

Conclusion

In the end to resist the devil you should put on the whole armor of God. The devil is a real being that has great power but Jesus is far more powerful and will take care of us and gives us the tools we need to be soldiers of Christ and fend off the schemes of the devil.

The thing about the devil though is that he desires you to not follow Christ and if you have not put your faith in Jesus you are an enemy of God which could also mean an ally to the devil. Christ desires us to put off all evil and follow him. To do this all you must do is put your faith in him and turn away from your sins. This does not mean that you are perfect but that you now serve someone who is.

The world, the flesh, and the devil have us trapped on all sides and desire evil. We are to constantly run to Christ and keep their influences away. This is not easy. the enemy is powerful, but our God is far more powerful and with him all things are possible.