Sermon 4
Sermon by Jeff Wattley 25th
September 2005 Evening Praise
Series: Developing the Character of Christ in a
Hostile World
The Devil
As we said at the start of
this series on discipleship in a hostile world:
God has a very clear ambition for each one of his children: he wants us to develop the character of
Christ; he wants us to grow more like Jesus.
The trouble is that He has an
enemy and that enemy is implacably opposed to this ambition: indeed this enemy
has dedicated all his energy and power to deceiving and distracting and
discouraging Christians form becoming more like Jesus: and everyone else from meeting Jesus in the
first place.
This week in our series on
Spiritual Growth we come to the Devil: the third in a dangerous triad made up
of the World, The Flesh and the Devil.
We are told to fight valiantly as Disciples of Christ against Sin, the
World, and The Devil and to remain faithful to Christ to the ends of our lives.
So I want to tackle three
questions this evening:
How real is the enemy?
the devil: satan; the
father of lies, or as my mother used to say: old forky
tail!
How strong is the enemy? How timid do we need to be when we confront
his power in our lives?
And how do we stand up to this enemy? How do we fight valiantly as disciples of Christ?
Let me say that thousands of
Christians either take the Devil too seriously and become intimated by anything
at all that is connected with his name:
indeed they would never be comfortable acknowledging that there is a devil
or satan: and prefer to refer instead to the effects
of evil or bad behaviour as if it were simply a human failing rather than a
spiritual reality. Equally there are
others who seem to become so focussed on the satanic that they see demons
hiding in every dark corner and in every sickness and weakness of men and
women. Today I want to see how the Bible
answers our three questions: so that we are equipped to engage in the battle:
not in our own strength but in the power and strength that God supplies.
How real is the enemy?
What is the Biblical view?
The truth is that the Bible
takes the Devil very seriously from the beginning of Genesis to the end of
revelation: indeed the one continuous
theme of scripture is that there is a battle going on between the kingdom of
darkness and the kingdom of light:
between the father of lies and the spirit of truth; between good and
evil; between God and the Devil.
Here are a few reminders; Genesis 3: Eve was deceived and tempted by the
Serpent. The serpent described in
Revelation 20 as that ancient serpent,
who is the devil or Satan. Jesus was
taken into the desert to be tempted by the devil. 1 Peter warns us to be self controlled and alert.
Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for
someone to devour. In John’s gospel
Chapter 8 Jesus said of the devil: he was
a murderer from the beginning not holding to the truth for there is no truth in
him: When he lies he speaks his native
tongue for he is a liar and the father of lies. Moreover in John’s first epistle John says ; We know that we are children of God, and
that the whole world is under the control of the evil one. Nevertheless take heart for John also says in
1 John 3 v 8: The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the work of the
devil.
So the Bible is crystal clear
that the enemy is real: and we need to
be alert and guarded because he is on the prowl looking for victims: however we are also told that he is defeated
and disarmed by the blood of Jesus Christ and with Christ at our side he has no
power over us.
What does the work of satan look like? Here we have to be wise as serpents ourselves
for the devil is the master deceiver and he prefers to operate in the
shadows. Satan is the sponsor of every
activity that builds a barrier between us and our holy and loving God. He has a vested involvement in every kind of
sin and rebellion against God’s commands and occupies hatred and bitterness,
pride and lust, greed and arrogance, self reliance and oppression. As well as the more obviously satanic territory of the occult.
In this day and age it is
important to remember that satan
is alive and active in many areas that would not been labelled by society as
bad or even illegal. He uses many tools
to gain possession of people and to exploit their weaknesses. A glass of wine with a meal or a pint in the
pub may be for most people a social pleasure but for a few it is a weakness
that can become their downfall. As a
simple rule: if there is anything you
cannot easily give up: be it drink or
excessive food or constant complaining or sexual addiction: if it seems to
overwhelm or overpower you: you are up
against this enemy. For as Paul reminds
us in Ephesians 6, our battle is not
against flesh and blood but against the rulers against the authorities against
the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the
heavenly realms.
By the way, picking up from
something Ken Hobbs said last week when he spoke of the battle against the flesh:
the statistics show that a very high proportion of Christian men and even women
are struggling with the temptation of easy access and secrecy of the internet
to access websites with sexual content.
This can become both addictive and deeply damaging to relationships and
to faith. A new ministry has been
introduced recently in the
Second Question:
How strong is the enemy? Satan always tries to fool us into believing that he
is more powerful than he is. For years I
thought of God and the Devil as roughly equal and opposite forces: one for good
and one for evil. But this is a
deception: satan never was equal to God for God is the Creator
and satan is a created being: one who rebelled
against God’s sovereign rule. Moreover satan was defeated. His attempts to distract Jesus from the cross
failed and at the Cross Jesus completely defeated satan.
Colossians 2 v 15 says: Having
disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them,
triumphing over them by the Cross.
Satan is not the least afraid
of you or me: but he is terrified of Jesus.
You need not fear if you always resist him in Jesus name: and banish him
by the blood of Jesus Christ. James 4 v
7 puts this twin strategy very well:
submit yourselves to God. Resist the
devil and he will flee from you. Come
close to God and He will come close to you.
In our spiritual warfare we
are not engaged in a power struggle between equal and opposite forces. But we are engaged in a battle for truth
between the father of lies and the Spirit of truth. We need to fight with the equipment that God
himself has supplied for the Spiritual battle.
So how do we fight valiantly as disciples
of Christ: how do we stand up against this enemy. Paul spells it out for us in this beautiful
and crystal clear battle plan in Ephesians
6. Please turn to the passage: page
1177.
First note that we are not
called to go rushing in to a confrontation with the devil where angels fear to
tread. We wait for the battle to come to
us: we are not called to advance against
the enemy but to stand. V 11 Take your
stand: v 13 stand
your ground. Again v 13: once again Stand.
Keep well away from anything
satanic: forms of witchcraft: ouija boards, séances, and any occult practices. Flee from involvement in them: and if you
have been caught up in such stuff in the past seek prayer ministry, teaching
and council to be sure that any old strongholds are broken. By all means speak to me and I can arrange
some support.
No instead we are to
stand: but putting on the full set of
spiritual armour that we will need for the battle: it is a good practice to pray all these items
on at the start of the day.
The belt of truth is the first mentioned: and not surprisingly when we
remember that satan is the
great deceiver. He wants you to believe
you are weak or worthless or unforgivable or unloved. The truth is you are a Child of God:
priceless in His eyes and forgiven by the blood of the lamb. We need to know the truth about who we are in
Christ: and about what Christ achieved on the Cross in defeating and disarming satan. We need to take God at his word: and believe
what the Bible tells us. That is what it
means to buckle up the belt of truth.
Second we put on the breastplate of righteousness. Because our sins are forgiven we are clothed
in the righteousness of Christ: and this needs to be reflected in the way we
chose to live: pursuing holiness; living in the light and avoiding the shadows
where we know we can be tempted: when we
are accountable to others and to God the devil cannot snare us so easily.
We have shoes which make us ready to pass on the gospel of peace. These may sound rather tame: not much good for protection or an assault:
but rest assured there is no weapon that terrifies the devil more than the
spread of the gospel: it is a weapon of
mass salvation against which he has no answers: only lies.
To defend ourselves we are
equipped with the shield of faith: certain confidence that although we may be
vulnerable to the flaming arrows of the evil one in our own strength: these arrows cannot penetrate the truth that
Jesus defeated satan on the cross; all accusations and temptations lose
their power when we hold up the name of Jesus and resist the devil. He can only flee.
Fifth we place on our heads
the helmet of salvation: we already have our citizenship in heaven
guaranteed not because of anything we have done but because of what Christ has
done for us. No one can take away our
eternal life. The devil cannot strike a
fatal blow against our heads if we wear the helmet of salvation.
Finally: Ephesians tells us to use the sword of the spirit which is the word
of God: The Mighty Godsword
as it was described in the Holiday Club:
The Mighty Gods Word before which the enemy can only retreat.
To this we add prayer:
recognising that we are not for one moment alone in the battle for
Christ is alongside us interceding for us.
We are called to fight
valiantly: consciously and prayerfully
against the devil: not by seeking him out, but by being equipped with God’s
armour for the battle. We are not
called to drive out the darkness. But we
are asked to turn the light on: the light of Christ.
Let us pray