The Dark Side: The Truth about Satan and Demons

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We return tonight to our study of systematic theology. And specifically, tonight we look at the dark side, the truth about Satan and demons. In November of 2001 there was a national survey. In this survey a number of questions were asked. One of them had to do with the existence of God and another had to do with the existence of Satan and demons. In this survey in 2001, 68 percent the people surveyed said that they believe in God as the all knowing, all powerful creator, 68 percent, almost 70 percent. In that same survey, only 23 percent of the people in the United States believe that Satan is a real person, as opposed to just a personification of evil. It's an interesting comparison, to embrace one being that the Bible clearly teaches and to deny another.

Let me see if I can trace with you how that came to be. If you were to retrace the teaching about Satan to the medieval world, you would discover that that world was absolutely confident of the existence of Satan and demons. One of the famous stories from that period of time concerns the reformer Martin Luther, who was so aware of the devil's presence that at one point he believed that the devil was so much in the room where he was studying, that he picked up an inkwell off his desk and hurled it across the room at the devil. Of course, all he was left with was a mess on his wall that he needed to clean up. But there was this constant awareness that there were evil beings, spiritual beings who inhabited the world in which we live.

Now, what has changed in the 500 years since the time of Luther and the reformers to today? Well, it's an interesting study, really, in how things change, and how thinking changes. Because in the medieval world the church thought the best way to resist Satan was to attack him at his weakest point. Now, what is Satan's weakest point? What was the source of his fall? Most would say it was his pride. And so, the way they decided to attack Satan, to gain victory over Satan, was to ridicule him. They painted ridiculous images of Satan as a little red dragon with horns and a long tail, complete with a pitchfork. You've seen the pictures. And they put these on their walls and in their churches and in their homes.

Following generations came along, having missed the reason that these images were painted and portrayed was to ridicule this being, in some way to gain an advantage over him, and when they saw these pictures, these hideous pictures, they assumed that their predecessors actually believed that Satan appeared like that. And so as a result, they concluded in their enlightened age that they could not embrace the reality of such a person as Satan, if that's who he was conceived to be.

But regardless of what most Americans believe, the Bible is clear, there exists a spirit being of great power, incredible intelligence, and unthinkable evil, who has set himself against the plan of God. And through his deceit and cunning, he led a revolt of countless angels who now follow his leadership and execute his wishes. He is real. Listen to Murray, John Murray writes, "Back of all that is visible and tangible, in the sin of this world, there are unseen spiritual powers. Satan is the god of this world, the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now works in the sons of disobedience. The arch foe of the kingdom of God is not the visible powers arrayed against it. For behind these visible agents and manifestations of evil is the ingenuity, craft, malicious design, instigation, and relentless activity of the devil and his ministers. It was this of which Paul was fully aware when he said, 'we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, against the world rulers of this darkness, against the spiritualities of wickedness in the heavenlies.' Because we have given way to the impact of naturalistic presuppositions," in other words, we have embraced the fact that this world and things we can observe empirically is all that there is, and we have also given way to antisupernaturalistic bias, that is, we've rejected the concept of anything supernatural, "we are far too liable in these days to discount this truth of Christian revelation. We are liable to discard it in our construction and interpretation of the forces of iniquity. To the extent that we do so," Murray says, "our thinking is not Christian."

I won't ask for a show of hands, but I wonder if I were to ask you tonight, are you thoroughly and utterly convinced that there is a spirit being named Satan, and there are real angels fallen from heaven who follow him and who are involved in the world in which we live? I wonder how many even here would feel a little uneasy acknowledging that reality. And yet, that is what the Bible teaches. The Bible has much to say about both Satan and his angels.

Now, put on your seatbelts, because we're going to examine it together. I want to give you an overview of this dark side of the world in which we live. First of all, we want to look at the origins of these beings. Two passages really introduce us to where they came from. The first is 2 Peter 2:4, "if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to pits of darkness, reserved for judgment." Peter is in the process of making a larger point about the certainty of God's judgment, but I want you to see here a description of some angels who sinned. There is a second passage and that's Jude 6, "angels who did not keep their own domain, but abandoned their proper abode, God has kept in eternal bonds under darkness for the judgment of the great day."

Now, when you look at these two passages, there are two views to what these passages have to say. The first view is that both of these verses describe some fallen angels. Many who would believe that would say that these are the ones who sinned back in Genesis 6, you remember the passage where the sons of God married the daughters of men, they would say that the sons of God in that passage actually refers to angels. And these are angels who sinned in a especially gross way and they have been reserved apart from other fallen angels in a special holding place until final judgment.

Others would say, these two passages describe all of the fallen angels, all the demons. Listen to Wayne Grudem in his Systematic Theology, "The emphasis here is on the fact that they are removed from the glory of God's presence and their activity is restricted. Metaphorically, they are in eternal chains. But the text does not imply either that the influence of demons has been removed from the world or that some demons are kept in a place of punishment apart from the world, while others are able to influence it." Those are basically the two views of this passage. But what I want you to see, regardless of the interpretation you take of these two verses, there are angels who sinned and that's where these fallen beings that are described as demons come from. That's where they originate.

Now what was the timing of the fall of Satan and the demons? Well, we know it was after day six of creation, because there we're told, in Genesis 1:31, "all was very good." And we know it happened before Genesis 3, because that's when Satan, already having fallen, tempts Eve. So sometime between the end of Genesis 1 and the beginning of Genesis 3, Satan and the demons fell.

Let's look specifically at Satan and his great fall. I want you to turn to Ezekiel 28. This is a fascinating portion of Scripture. Everyone agrees, as you look at this passage, that verses 1 to 19 of Ezekiel 28 deals with God's judgment on the ancient nation of Tyre and its ruler. Everyone agrees with that. But verses 11 through 19 there's a great deal of discussion about and debate about. I believe, and I think I can prove to you as we go through this passage tonight, and many others believe, that these verses go beyond the ruler of Tyre to his anti-type, Satan himself. For example, it's hard to apply verses 14 and 15 to the king of Tyre, "You were the anointed cherub who covers," "You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created." Those things are hard to imagine describing the king of Tyre. We know that he was a sinner from birth. We know that he was certainly no cherub from all that's described about him in the Scripture.

So it seems that in these verses, verses 11 through 19, Ezekiel backs up and he tells us about the being that energizes the king of Tyre, the spirit being that's behind the power of the king of Tyre, who is the great anti type; he is Satan himself. Now notice what we're told about him here. Verse 12,

"Son of man, take up a lamentation over the king of Tyre and say to him, 'Thus says the Lord God,

"You had the seal of perfection,
Full of wisdom and perfect in beauty.
"You were in Eden, the garden of God;
Every precious stone was your covering:
The ruby, the topaz and the diamond,
The beryl and the onyx and the jasper;
The lapis lazuli and the turquoise and the emerald;
And the gold, the workmanship of your settings and sockets,
Was in you.
On the day that you were created
They were prepared."'"

Here you have a description of the unparallel beauty of this being, this cherub, originally one of the cherubs of God, which we'll talk about in a moment. Absolutely unrivalled beauty. His covering, his garment, was made of these rainbow colors of stones, precious stones.

In verse 14 we're told that he had the highest position in heaven. "'You were the anointed cherub who covers, and I placed you there. You were on the holy mountain of God; you walked in the midst of the stones of fire.'" That last phrase is probably a reference to the presence of God Himself. Here is Satan, originally created as a cherub guarding God's holiness. Remember, we discovered a couple of weeks ago that that was the responsibility of the cherubs, was to guard the holiness of God. And it seems that Satan was the chief guardian of the majesty and holiness of God.

Notice the first part of verse 15, you see his moral perfection, "'You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created.'" You know, it's hard for us to really grapple with that and to grasp that. Let me see if I can give you a little flavor for it from a wonderful excerpt that I read from Donald Grey Barnhouse this week. Listen to how he describes the moment Satan awakes, having just been created in utter perfection in the presence of God. Barnhouse writes, "He awoke in the first moment of his existence, in the full orbed beauty and power of his exalted position, surrounded by all the magnificence which God gave him. He saw himself as above all the hosts in power, wisdom, and beauty. Only at the throne of God itself did he see more than himself possessed. And it's possible that even that was in some sense not fully visible to the eyes of the creature. Before his fall he may be said to have occupied the role of prime minister for God, ruling possibly over the universe, but certainly over this world. Given the chief place in heaven of all created beings."

So what happened? It's interesting because the last half of verse 15 is the only verse in the Bible that states exactly the origin of sin. It was in the heart of Satan. Notice what it says, "'You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created until unrighteousness was found in you.'" Sin originated in the heart of this chief created being in heaven. Barnhouse writes, "Sin began with spontaneous generation in the heart of this being, in whom such magnificence of power and beauty had been combined."

What exactly was this that generated within the heart of Satan? What was his sin? Well, verses 16 and 17 give us a hint of the nature of Satan's sin. First of all, verse 16 says, "'By the abundance of your trade you were internally filled with violence, and you sinned.'" This is probably a reference to the fact that Satan used his position in heaven for personal ambition. As one writer put it, "He used his position to traffic in his own self-promotion." We see that in our world, don't we? People who use a position that's been given them by a higher authority, they use it to traffic in their own self-promotion. And that is apparently part of what was going on in the heart of Satan. "'Therefore,'" verse 16 says, "'I have cast you as profane from the mountain of God. And I have destroyed you, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire.'" In other words, I have cast you out of my presence.

Verse 17 gives us the second part of the sin. And this really gets to the heart of the issue. Why was it he trafficked in his own self-promotion? It's because, "'Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty; you corrupted your wisdom by reason of your splendor.'" He got carried away with himself, instead of worshiping the true God. Every created being is made to worship. We will worship someone. And if we don't worship the true God, then we'll worship something else. And often it's ourselves. And that's exactly where Satan landed. His heart was lifted up with pride. And so, he throws a rebellion in heaven. Did Satan really believe he could win? You know, I don't think we'll know until we have the chance to ask the Lord Himself.

When I was in school, I took a class on John Milton, a fascinating author, poet. We had to read Paradise Lost as well as Paradise Regained. But I'll never forget one line from Paradise Lost, "God has thrown out the rebels. They have hurled headlong into hell." And they have a council meeting in hell, in Milton's poem, and in the midst of that council meeting one of the commentators on this whole situation, the rebellion of Satan, says this, and puts this in the mouth and heart of Satan, "Better to reign in hell than to serve in heaven." That was Satan's heart. "Better to reign in hell than serve in heaven." Carried away with his own beauty, his created beauty, and the wisdom that God had given him. What a terrible portrait of the fall of this great being, the greatest of created beings, designed to guard the holiness of God. What an amazing fall.

There's another passage that many think refers to Satan. It's often used of him. Many see the similarity between the language of Christ in Luke 10:18 about Satan falling and this description here in Isaiah 14. It's impossible to know for sure about this passage because there's no clear obvious sign that it doesn't refer to the king of Babylon, and the king of Babylon only. My own impressions of it is that it does refer primarily to the king of Babylon. I don't think it's like Ezekiel 28. I don't think it's clearly a reference to Satan. But obviously you can see in the attitudes of the king of Babylon, the attitudes that were in his father, Satan himself.

"How have you fallen from heaven
O star of the morning, son of the dawn!
You have been cut down to the earth,
You have weakened the nations!
"But you said in your heart,"

And again, here's the king of Babylon speaking, but ultimately this is an expression of the pride of Satan himself.

"'I will ascend to heaven,
I will raise my throne above the stars of God,
I will sit on the mount of assembly
In the recesses of the north.
'I will ascend above the heights of the clouds.
I will make myself like the Most High.'
"Nevertheless, you'll be thrust down to Sheol,
To the recesses of the pit."

Notice the I wills, the expression of pride and arrogance. Here's an earthly king deciding to assert himself over the King of Heaven. In the case of Satan, you had a created being, made to worship God, deciding that he would be King. Can I just stop here and make an application for us? Every time you and I decide to assert our wills over the will of God, every time we choose to obey ourselves rather than God, there is a sense in which we pull the same rebellion that Satan himself did, because we worship the creature more than the Creator.

Now. let me give you just a quick glimpse, I'm not going to go through these in detail, but you can see that there are a lot of names there in the left-hand column, given of Satan, if you want to look at these in detail there are a number of systematic theologies that list them. If you have a systematic theology it will be in there. If you don't, you can pick up one at the bookstore. But basically, you see the names here on the left, Satan, devil, you can see the meanings, adversary, slanderer, the evil one, the great red dragon, the serpent of old, and so forth. A number of names are given to Satan that describe his character now that he has indeed fallen. And they tell us a lot about what he does. Again, I just wanted to call to your attention that the Bible uses many different names for this evil being.

Now, what about demons, where did they come from? Well, we've already seen it, but let me just tell you that there are various views. One view says that demons, and these are views that have been in the church for centuries, that they are spirits of evil deceased people. Another view says that they are spirits of a pre-Adamic race of people. Those who embrace this view believe in what's called the gap theory. You remember, between Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:2, that there was this long period of time, and during that period of time there were people created before Adam. There's no biblical evidence for this whatsoever.

There's a third view that says they are the offspring of a sexual union between the sinning angels and women. So in Genesis 6, if you believe that's angels and daughters of men, that is, women, earthly women, the offspring of those, they say, are demons. This is based on two assumptions, one that the sons of God were, in fact, angels and the other that the offspring of those unions were not human, which very few people believe. So, this view has not been a popular one in recent years.

And finally, and this is what we believe, and I've already expressed to you, these are, in fact, demons are simply fallen angels. According to Revelation 12, these bought into Satan's lie and rebelled with him, a third of the angels, as much as a third of them, rebelled with Satan against the throne of God. The nature of these beings is the same as holy angels because they are fallen angels, so I'm not going to go through that again. If you want to learn more about the nature of angels, and therefore of demons, you can listen to our last study on angels. I won't repeat it tonight.

What I do want to do now, however, is go to their activity. What are they about? What are Satan and demons doing? In C. S. Lewis's Screwtape Letters. Screwtape is an older wiser demon and the uncle to a lesser demon named Wormwood. And Screwtape, this older wiser demon, writes a series of letters to Wormwood, giving him advice on how to better accomplish his mission toward one particular young man. It's a fascinating read, really, and very insightful in many ways, obviously not absolutely accurate in every detail.

But here's Lewis's purpose, it was to show how varied the activity of Satan and demons really is. Let me give you just one example; this is a fascinating one to me. In one of his letters, Screwtape, the older demon again now, instructing the younger one, writes this, "Music," that is, music to the worship of God, "and silence, how I detest them both. How thankful we should be that ever since our father entered hell, no square inch of infernal space and no moment of infernal time has been surrendered to either of those abominable forces, but all has been occupied by noise. Noise, the grand dynamism, the audible expression of all that is exultant, ruthless, and virile. Noise, which alone defends us from silly qualms, despairing scruples, and impossible desires. We will make the whole universe a noise in the end. The melodies and silences of heaven will be shouted down in the end," It's fascinating to think of all the ways Satan and his demons may work in our world.

But what does the Bible say about what constantly occupies these malevolent beings? Now, as we talk about their activities, there are three dangers to avoid, very important, avoid all three. The first is simply to deny that they exist. I hope that's not where you are since you're here tonight. The second, and this is very prevalent in our day, is to see demons behind every trouble and every sin. I'm not making this up. I've actually read of one person wanting to have the demon of a bad hair day cast out of them. Listen, this trivializes these evil and powerful beings. They're not trying to mess up your hair, nor are they behind every little inconvenience in your life. There are people who live that way.

That brings me to the third danger. And this also is very common. And that is, to think that they operate outside of God's control. When I was at Grace Church, there was a church nearby that essentially, unwittingly, taught the sovereignty of Satan. These people lived their lives under the fear of what Satan was going to do next, to them and to their children, and to their homes, to everything in their life. Satan isn't sovereign. Martin Luther said, "Satan is God's devil." That's exactly right. Picture Satan as a dog, like a leash on a chain, and God yanks him whenever He wants to yank him; he has no power that isn't given him.

So what is Satan doing? Well, under God's permission, Satan's approach is to develop schemes, according to Ephesians 6:11, and traps, according to 2 Timothy 2:26. And those schemes and traps are to undermine God's eternal plan and purpose in the world. He then assigns specific roles to his demonic underlings to oversee the execution of his plan and the protection of his interests in the world. So when we speak of the activity of Satan and demons, they're essentially the same.

So what is it that Satan is doing to undermine the plan and purpose of God in the world? Let me just give you the big sweeping pictures. First of all, he is doing everything he can to encourage every being in the universe to sin, of which he is the originator and father. John 8:44, Christ says, "'You are of your father the devil,'" speaking to those who are unregenerate, "'and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, does not stand in the truth, there's no truth in him, whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lives.'" Satan is about getting children to himself who will do what he wants them to do. And every unbeliever is unwittingly his child. And his desire is to see them sin and sin and sin. Because at its heart, what is sin? It's a rebellion against the true God of the universe, just as Satan himself.

By the way, let me just mention here, I'm not going to get on too big of a sidetrack, but some people wonder about the origination of evil, where did evil originate? Well, obviously sin originated in the heart of Satan, but sin and evil is not an entity, it's not a force that exists in and of itself. Sin and evil is the absence of the character of God. It's the absence of virtue. It's the absence of righteousness. So what happened in the heart of Satan wasn't that some new force was created. Instead, by his own will, he forced out the righteousness with which he was created and chose to go his own way.

By the way, I'm not going to spend any time tonight on demon possession, but I know some of you are curious about that. Let me encourage you to get a little book that I think is the best book that's been written on this issue. It's called Demons, a Biblically Based Perspective by Alex Konya. Let me just read you one brief section. He says, "The biblical words for demon possession give a frightful picture of true demon possession. It involves a demon or demons indwelling a person's body with the demon exercising living and sovereign control over his victim, which cannot be successfully resisted." He goes on to say, "The primary characteristic of demon possession in the New Testament was physical and mental torment. Since the symptoms of demonization were so obvious and unique, no tests were employed to determine whether a person was demonized." You don't need to check out and see whether a person is in demon control. Some of you sometimes wonder that about your children at points, you don't need to wonder. "People were not assumed to be demonized unless the condition was obvious." That's exactly right. And he develops that very thoroughly in this book. I encourage you to read it. Us as believers, we cannot be so sovereignly controlled by Satan, but he can have influence, as we'll see in a few moments.

So, he's about encouraging us to sin. Secondly, Satan wants to build a counterfeit kingdom, which reflects his own character, his own priorities. And he wants to rule over it. He is repeatedly called the prince of this world, notice, not the world, but this world. He's also called "the god of this world," 2 Corinthians 4:4. Now, this doesn't mean that Satan has control of the created world. God does and He has given control of this world to His Son, Jesus Christ. Satan instead is said to control two things, the kosmos and the ion.

Now, let me illustrate those for you. First, kosmos, the word that's often translated world, refers to this evil world system, "the present condition of human affairs," says Vine. But I think the other Greek word, ion, gives us a more important glimpse as to what we're talking about. French, in his Synonyms of the New Testament, defines it this way, "All that floating mass of thoughts, opinions, maxims, speculations, hopes, impulses, aims, aspirations, at any time current in the world," in other words, this mass of thinking that characterizes the world, "it may be impossible to seize and accurately define, but which constitute a most real and effective power, being the moral or immoral atmosphere, which at every moment of our lives we inhale." You get that? In every time period there is [Can we say it?] a value system that characterizes the age in which we live.

That is what Satan is the God of. That is what he rules, not the physical universe, not this physical world that we live on, but rather the evil system. The mindset of the times would be another way to describe it, the mindset of the age. And Satan is absolutely the ruler of that. In Ephesians 2:2 we're told that, "we used to walk according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience." That's what we're talking about. We're talking about the mindset and values that characterize those who are in disobedience to God, in any period of time. Satan is the ruler and lord of that. He is in control of and is directing the prevailing thoughts, opinions, speculations, aspirations, at any time current in the world.

And the world in this sense, by the way, is a great temptation to us, isn't it? That's what Paul says in Romans 12:2, he says, "Don't let the world," this mindset that characterizes your times, "push you into its mold, make you think the way it thinks." This is what Satan's about. You remember, in Colossians we're told that we have been transferred [What?], "from the kingdom of Satan," the kingdom of darkness, "into the kingdom of His beloved Son." There's a kingdom of which Satan rules and it's this value system that characterizes our world.

A third activity of Satan and his demons is to promote damning false religion. Turn back to Deuteronomy 32, Deuteronomy 32:16. This is part of the song of Moses near the end of his life. And he writes this,

"They made God jealous with strange gods;
With abominations they provoked Him to anger.
"They sacrificed to demons who were not God,
To gods whom they had not known,
New gods who came lately,
Whom your fathers did not dread.
"You neglected the Rock who begot you,
And forgot the God who gave you birth."

Do you see what he's saying here? He's saying that the gods of the nations, the idols of the nations were inhabited and moved and made to seem real by demons. You see this again in Psalm 106, Psalm 106:35. Psalm 106, of course, is a sort of recounting of Israel's history. And in verse 35, we're told, verse 34, back-up to there,

They did not destroy the peoples, [of the land]
As the Lord commanded them,
But they mingled with the nations
And learned their practices,
And served their idols,
Which became a snare to them.
They even sacrificed their sons and daughters to the demons,
And shed innocent blood,
The blood of their sons and their daughters,
Whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan;
And the land was polluted with the blood.

Now notice, the idols of Canaan and demons are put together as one and the same. You want to know why there was not much demon activity in the Old Testament? Some people say, well, why did all of a sudden, there was this sort of onslaught of demon activity in the life of Christ? Well, part of it is because there was a pitched battle between the forces of good and evil, Satan understood what was at stake. But demons were present in the Old Testament. They simply manifested their presence in a different form. They energized and were behind the idols of the nations. Behind each of the worship of false gods in the Old Testament is a demon impersonating that God to enslave the people.

By the way, I believe that still happens today. And in fact, Paul says it does. Turn to 1 Corinthians 10, 1 Corinthians 10:20. Paul here, of course, is talking about things sacrificed to idols. And he says in verse 19, he says, you know, it's nothing because an idol isn't anything. "No, but I say that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice," verse 20, "they sacrifice to demons and not to God." Verse 21, "You can't partake of the Lord's table and the table of demons." You see, behind every false religion, and I don't care which one it is, there is a work of Satan, there is a demon energizing that, pulling people to that false religion and damning their eternal souls to hell.

In 2 Corinthians 11:14 we're told that "Satan himself is an angel of light." That is, a messenger of truth. That's what that means. Satan disguises himself as a messenger of truth. I cannot read that verse without thinking of Moroni, the angel that supposedly showed up to give Joseph Smith the prophecies. That was Satan himself. You see, Satan promotes false religions of every kind, at both ends of the spectrum, from the moralism and good citizenship of the Mormons to the pagan idolatrous orgies, and everything in between, from the millions of gods of Hinduism to the environmentalists' worship of mother earth. He doesn't care what it is. As long as it will distract people from the worship of the true God and damn their eternal souls, he's content.. There is no religion apart from the true worship of the triune God as He has revealed Himself in the pages of Scripture that isn't energized by Satan and his demons. When you are interacting with Jehovah's witnesses, with Mormons, with Buddhists, with Hindus, whatever it is, you are interacting with people who are in slavery to demons.

There's another activity of Satan and his demons and that is to pervert the worship of the true God, to pervert the true worship of the true God. And he does this in several ways. First of all, he presents another Jesus. In 1 John, John warns us, this is how you can know the spirit of God, 1 John 4:2,

every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God; and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; this is the spirit of the antichrist

It's another Jesus. You see the same thing in 1 Corinthians 12, "Therefore I make known to you that no one speaking by the Spirit of God says, 'Jesus is accursed'; and no one can say that 'Jesus is Lord,' except by the Holy Spirit." Satan sets out to distort the true Jesus, and how successful is he in our day.

He also perverts the worship of the true God by presenting a different gospel. First Timothy 4:1 says that "the Spirit explicitly says that in the later times some will fall away from the faith." That is, the once for all delivered to the saints' faith, this body of doctrine, they're going to fall away from it. How? They're going to "pay attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons." Satan is trying to entice people away from the faith, that is, the truth of Christianity, into error, to pervert the true worship of God.

He also seeks to pervert the true worship of God by promoting antinomianism. We don't have time to turn there, but in Revelation 2:20-24, demons there attempt to convince professing Christians that what the Bible forbids is acceptable, oh go ahead and do it, it'll be fine, you can live however you want. I saw an article this week about the reinstating of a United Methodist lesbian minister after a two year battle and I was reminded of this. In the name of Christ, in the name of Christianity, here is a work of Satan, to promote in the name of Christ an absolute disregard for the law of God. This is a perversion of Satan.

Another activity of Satan is to prevent the spread and comprehension of the gospel. This is what we battle when we share the gospel. In Matthew 13:19, you remember, Christ tells the story of the sower and the soils, and in that parable one hearer hears the gospel, the word of God falls on the hard soil of his heart, and before anything can happen with it the devil comes and [What?] snatches it away. This is the work of Satan, to prevent the spread and comprehension of the gospel.

Matthew 13:39, you remember the parable of the tares, there Christ says it was the devil who sowed tares in the world, or false believers, to mess everything up, to allow unbelievers to go, yeah, look at that guy, I live better than he does, I don't need to become a Christian – and any number of other excuses. This is the work of Satan. It's the work of Satan to prevent the spread and comprehension of the gospel. First Thessalonians 2:18, Paul says, "we wanted to come to you – I, Paul, more than once – and yet Satan hindered us." We don't know exactly how Satan hindered Paul. We just know that here we find him trying to hinder the spread of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Satan obstructs world missions wherever he can. And God, of course, always overrules him.

I can't help but think of the situation with the Auca Indians down in Ecuador, how God overcame that to His glory. But that was the work of Satan to stop the spread of the gospel. He moved in the hearts of those tribesmen who came to kill those missionaries. And yet God, in the blood of the martyrs, planted the seed of that church. Revelation 2:10 we're told, "Do not fear what you're about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to cast some of you into prison, so that you will be tested, and you will have tribulation for ten days. Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life." Here Christ tells His church that Satan is behind the persecution of Christians. "Satan is about to cast some of you into prison."

One final role that Satan plays in the world, a major role, there are lots of things we could say, but one more, Satan tries to undermine the faith of true Christians. Turn to Job 1. You're familiar with the story, but I just want you to see it in this context. Job 1:6. Job, of course, lived at the time of the patriarchs. We're not sure exactly when he lived, but around that time period, the time of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob.

Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them. And the Lord said to Satan, "From where do you come?" Satan answered the Lord and said, "From roaming the earth and walking around on it." The Lord said to Satan, "Have you considered my servant Job? For there's no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, fearing God and turning away from evil."

Now watch what Satan does, this is part of his role as an adversary, a slanderer, an accuser. He says, well, yeah, look at what you've done, I mean,

"Does Job fear God for nothing? [I mean he's got some pretty serious perks out of this deal.] Have you not made a hedge about him and his house and all that he has, on every side? You bless the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. But put forth Your hand now and touch all that he has; he will surely curse You to Your face." Then the Lord said to Satan, "Behold, all that he has is in your power, only do not put forth your hand upon him." So Satan departed from the presence of the Lord.

God's purpose here is to what? To test Job, to purify him. And we'll learn about that when we get into the book of James, here in a few weeks, and we see the purpose of trials. But what was Satan's purpose in it? To undermine Job's faith and his confidence in God. This is what Satan's about. This is his job.

Luke 22:31, you remember the words of Christ, just before His death, to Peter, He said, "'Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded permission to sift you like wheat;'" what a powerful image, "'but I have prayed for you, that your faith fail not.'" This is Satan's determination to undermine the faith of true Christians. Second Timothy 2, we're told that,

The Lord's bond-servant must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to all, able to teach, patient went wronged, with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition, [now watch this, these who are in opposition] if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, having been held captive by him to do his will.

The devil and his minions are constantly attempting to get people to distort the truth of Scripture, to destroy, hopefully, the faith of some in the church.

This is the activity of Satan and his demons. Oh, there are other things, there are many things we could talk about, but these are the core issues of the activity of Satan. By God's grace and by His strength and power, their defeat is also a reality. It was prophesied in Eden all the way back in the garden of Eden, Genesis 3:15, what does it say? The seed of the woman will crush the head of the serpent. It's coming, and it was accomplished at the cross. I love Colossians 2 where we're told that Christ, in His death, in the cross work that He accomplished, "disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through Him."

Listen, Satan's arrest warrant and death sentence was passed at the cross and all that remains is the execution. An eternal execution, as we'll see in a moment, because his defeat will be executed in the future. Matthew 25:41 refers to hell as having "been prepared for the devil and his angels." Roman 16:20 refers to "The God of peace who will soon crush Satan under your feet." And Revelation 20 gives us the exact historical reference. In verse 10 we're told, "the devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are also; and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever." His defeat is certain.

Now, what are the lessons for us, quickly, from the study of Satan and demons? The most important one to me is for you to understand that our God is in complete control of the forces of Satan. You don't have to lose any sleep about this. You don't have to wonder if, you know, I think sometimes Christians get this idea, almost a dualism in their minds, that there are these two eternal equally powerful forces fighting one another. If that's the picture you have of God and Satan, you've got a terribly wrong picture, because the picture the Scripture portrays is a mighty, omnipotent, all powerful God who uses Satan as a pawn to accomplish His great plan and purpose; he is a dog on a leash and his end is certain.

Let me show you just a couple of pictures of this. One is just fascinating to me. Turn to 1 Kings 22. We don't get many insights into the interactions of God and these evil spirits. Job, we get a glimpse, and here in 1 Kings 22, we do as well. Notice verse 19, "Micaiah said, 'Therefore, hear the word of the Lord. I saw the Lord sitting on His throne, and all the host of heaven standing by Him on His right and on His left.'" Now let me give you the context here. Jehoshaphat and Ahab are planning to go into battle, and they want to know if it's going to go well with them. Jehoshaphat wants to call Micaiah the prophet and Ahab is immediately against it because he says, look, all this guy ever says is evil about me; all he ever says and prophesies is bad, I don't want to hear it.

So finally they bring him and he does just that, verse 17, "'I saw all Israel scattered on the mountains, like sheep which have no shepherd.'" "'"They have no master."'" In other words, you're going to die in this battle. "Then the King of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, 'Didn't I tell you? I told you he would not prophecy good concerning me, but evil.'" It's in that context that Micaiah says, "'I saw the Lord sitting on His throne, and all the host of heaven standing by Him on His right and on His left.' And the Lord said, 'Who will entice Ahab to go up and fall at Ramoth-gilead?'"

And I love this, now picture this scene, in the presence of the Lord, the Lord says, alright, which one of you guys is going to go and entice Ahab to come up to battle? Because I've already determined he's going to die there. "One said this while another said that." Can't you just picture the scene in heaven? Well, I don't know, what do you think? I don't know. There's this conversation and God is just observing the whole thing and watching it. Verse 21,

"Then a spirit came forward and stood before the Lord and said, 'I will entice him.' The Lord said to him, 'How?' And he said, 'I will go out and be a deceiving spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.' Then the Lord said, 'You are to entice him and also prevail. Go and do so.'"

Here you get a picture of how even the evil spirits, these fallen angels, are absolutely under the control of a sovereign God. God's holding council, they're allowed to come, He asks who's going to do this thing that will accomplish My purpose. And one of them says, I will, he's asked to explain how, he explains how, and God says, okay, that is the plan, I want you to go and do it. That's the picture you need to get of the relationship of God and Satan and his hosts.

There's another, of course, in Job. Turn back to Job 1. I want to just show you this. I read verse 12, "the Lord said to Satan, 'Behold, all that he has is in your power.'" In other words, Satan, you go and do it. "Satan departs from the presence of the Lord." Now notice verse 21, "He said, 'Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked I shall return there. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away.'" You see, Job understood that whatever was happening in his life, whether he fully appreciated the fact that there were evil forces that could be involved in his life or not, he understood that it was the Lord who gave and the Lord who took away.

Notice verse 3 of chapter 2, "The Lord said to Satan, 'Have you considered Job? There's no one like him on earth, a blameless and upright man fearing God and turning away from evil. And he still holds fast his integrity, although you incited Me against him to ruin him without cause.'" You see the interplay here? Satan is allowed to do what God believes is best and Satan carries it out, but under the supervision and the controlling authority of God.. Verse 5,

"However, [Satan says] put forth Your hand now, [God] and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse You to Your face." So the Lord said to Satan, "Behold, he is in your power, only spare his life."

Do you see the relationship that goes back and forth? Luther was right, Satan is God's devil, accomplishing only what He intends.

You see it in the ministry of Christ, I wish we had time to go into it, Christ interacting with demons. Not once in His ministry did they ever refuse to do what He said. And they always acknowledged His sovereignty over them. That's the relationship. They even asked His permission to go into a herd of swine. So don't ever give too much way to these evil beings. They are powerful. They are God's arch enemies. They are at work in the world. But they are absolutely under the thumb and control of God. Not one bats his wings, if I can put it that way, without the permission from the throne of God.

A second application of this for us is, tolerating sin in our lives exposes us to some kind of influence from the devil. Now, I'm not going to take you to Ephesians 4 because we're going to be looking at this in a couple of weeks in our study on Sunday morning, but you remember, he tells us that we're to settle our conflicts, we're not to let the sun go down in our wrath. Why? So that we don't give the devil an opportunity in our lives. Understand that unconfessed sin, allowing our sin to fester in our lives, provides opportunity for the devil, not to possess us and sovereignly master us, but to undermine our faith, to pull away our confidence in God, to certainly diminish our effectiveness as believers in this world. So we need to beware tolerating sin in our lives.

Another lesson, and this is an important one, is that our real enemy is never, ever, people. You know, so many Christians, who have the best of intentions today, are fighting this political war, you know, against all the lobbies, the homosexual lobby and everyone else. Listen, our enemy is not the abortion doctor, our enemy is not the homosexual who's flaunting his rights and trying to get his way on Capitol Hill. That is never our enemy. Turn to Ephesians 6. Ephesians 6:11,

Put on the full armor of God, so that you may be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, [it's never about people, our war is never against people] but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.

We're talking about demons, the minions of Satan, that's who we really fight. Christ, in Matthew 13:39, in the telling of the parable of the tares said what? "'The enemy is the devil.'" Don't ever lose sight of that. So many Christians waste so much energy and, honestly, undermine the cause of Christ by forgetting who the enemy is; it's never people. They have been captivated by Satan to do his will. The real enemy lies behind them.

And then finally, we must put on the armor of God. What an amazing passage. We're here in Ephesians 6, notice the armor we're told to put on, truth, verse 14, "Stand firm therefore, having girded your loins with truth," or literally, truthfulness might be a better translation, a sincere wholehearted commitment to fight. That's how you fight the devil, you be committed to serving God, you be committed in integrity to warring. Then he says, "put on the breastplate of righteousness." This refers both to the righteousness of Christ and, more specifically in this case, to your own righteousness, and that is, to righteous deeds, to obeying God. "the gospel of peace," verse 15, is what our feet are to be shod with. This is confidence in the reality that God is at peace with me. I may be at war with Satan, but not with God, I'm at peace with Him.

And then he says, "in addition to all, taking up the shield of faith." Faith here, of course, is unwavering confidence in God and who He is and what He's promised. Verse 17, "the helmet of salvation," that is, the hope or assurance of salvation protects our minds from the onslaught of Satan. And then finally, "the Sword of the Spirit," verse 17, "which is the word of God."

That's the armor of God. It all boils down to this, holding on to the word of God, being confident in it, and living in obedience to it. That's our defense against Satan. You don't need to cast him out of your room or house. You don't need to get a Satan detector for your home. All you need to do is have your confidence in God, understand the word of God, and seek to obey it. Let's pray together.

Father, we thank You for the confidence we have that You are God and that everything in the universe is under Your control. There isn't a stray molecule that isn't under Your absolute sovereign control. Lord, we thank You that this terribly evil being and all of his fallen angels, these powerful beings that influence the fallen world so much, have been defeated. They were defeated at the cross. And we anticipate their ultimate defeat in the future.

Lord, I pray that You would help us to live in confidence in You. Don't let us live in fear of these beings. Help us instead to realize that greater is He that is in us than he that is in the world. And Lord, help us to live holding onto Your word, believing it, treasuring it, obeying it. And in so doing, resist the devil so that he flees from us. We pray it in Jesus' name unto the glory of our great God, amen.