Satan Our Adversary

Introduction

Well, good morning. The sun is shining. The saints are in the house of the Lord, worshiping and hopefully praising in a pleasing way our God and eternal Father. This morning I want to talk about something very frightening. And quite frankly, to begin, I want to use something that I hope is very scary, sad, and angering to you. I hope it kindles anger within you. I want to talk this morning about some of the dangers associated with walking around town. Now, I’m gonna allow your imaginations to do much of the work, but I want you to think about if a guy like me walks around Orlando, in fact, walks around downtown, probably not much is going to happen to me because people are gonna see my rough and tough exterior and leave me alone, of course.

I appreciate the amen. But what about my sweet darling wife who’s under five foot tall without heels on? She’s very cute, very sweet. How many of you would recommend she walk around downtown by herself with no cell phone for three or four hours at night from twelve to four in the morning. What would you be thinking if I told you, yeah, that’s something that she does. Sometimes when Kashka is stressed, she goes and she walks around at night. Her favorite place to think is dark alleys, actually. She gets the most brain spark there. We know that’s foolish. That’s why there’s laughter. But let me tell you, if you watch your news, you know things happen to people. In this country, girls are grabbed. Men, boys are grabbed, children are taken, and unspeakable horrors are done to them.

And let me ask you, don’t you wish the parents or the kids themselves knew what was coming? Don’t you know that if it was your child who was walking around undetended, and if you knew that threat was there, you would do everything in your power to stop it. We know something horrible is out there waiting for you, for me, and for our children. And I’m telling you, it is our adversary, Satan. It is the devil himself. He is after us. And let me tell you his consequences. The consequences of being caught by this evil person, this being, are far worse than any consequence here in this life. If you don’t think so, you are sadly mistaken. Open your New Testament with me. Look at 1 Peter chapter 5.

I want to look at three scriptures very quickly this morning to set the stage of our adversary. In 1 Peter chapter 5, what was read to begin our worship this morning. Peter says, beginning in verse 6, humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, so that at the proper time he may exalt you. Casting all your anxieties on him because he cares for you. Be sober-minded, be watchful. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in the faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. Did you get that? Where is the adversary throughout the world? What’s he doing? Seeking whom he may devour. Now look at Ephesians chapter 6.

In Ephesians chapter 6. Right before what we know as the exhortation by Paul to put on the spiritual armor of God. Look at why. In Ephesians chapter 6 and verse 10, Paul says, Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God. Why? That you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. Why is this so important? Why does it matter? Why is why should we take the time to consider who our adversary is? Because just like anything else in life, under any dire circumstances, and perhaps even under mundane ones, we like to be prepared. If it’s raining, you don’t just walk outside if you can help it. You bring an umbrella, don’t you?

How much more so when the stakes are eternity? We need to make sure that we realize that this is not a game. Being a Christian is not some sort of monopoly in which you go about and you try to check off boxes as you go through life. I got married, I have a Christian marriage. I became a member of the church, I’m a happy member of the church. Check. Check. Satan is there for us at every instant, and the minute we think we can do it by ourselves, brothers and sisters, we are all lost, ready to be devoured by our adversary, the devil. Notice what Paul warns in 2 Corinthians chapter 2. In 2 Corinthians chapter 2 and verse 11. Beginning in verse 10 to complete Paul’s thought.

Anyone whom you forgive, I also forgive. Indeed, what I have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, has been for your sake in the presence of Christ. Why, verse 11? Look with me there. 1 Corinthians chapter 2 and verse 11. So that we would not be outwitted by Satan. For we are not ignorant of his designs. This morning I would like to talk about Satan, our adversary, and paint a picture of four ways, four schemes, four designs of our great adversary. And I want everyone to be honest this morning. I want to talk real plain with you before we begin. Because Satan gets you somehow. He tempts you in some way. I might not know what it is. In fact, I probably don’t. But you do. Our adversary does.

1. The First Design of the Devil Is to Discredit

And God does. So let’s not fool ourselves. Let’s try not to fool other people. Consider how he strikes you and what we must do in reverse. Perhaps the first scheme, the first design of the devil is to discredit. He discredits many things. I’m going to show you this morning how he discredits God and God’s people to begin with. I hope you turn in your Old Testament to Genesis chapter 3. A well known passage. Notice how from the very beginning of our recorded text. In just the third chapter of our Bibles, Satan has begun, a serpent. The adversary of God has been speaking against him, seeking to discredit all that God is and all that God has said. Pick up the reading in Genesis chapter 3 and verse 1.

Now the serpent was far, was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, Did God actually say, You shall not eat of any tree in the garden? And the woman said to the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die. So we have the rules. Eve understood. We have an adversary, the serpent, understood his rule. Notice what he says in verse 4. But the serpent said to the woman, you will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.

Do you see the beauty behind that scheme? Not only is he saying, first of all, that’s wrong. Second of all, why is it wrong? Why, if it is true, in the off chance, why does God care so much about you obeying that rule? Verse 5. For God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. Do you see from the onset of time how the devil wants to discredit God? He does it in two ways. He says, and understand this from Genesis chapter 3, you’re gonna see a lot of our world in it. He says, first of all, God didn’t mean exactly what he said. And secondly, it’s because even if that is true, he doesn’t have your best interests at heart.

There’s something wrong with obeying everything he says. Do you see the parallels? I vote that you everyone should take at least ten minutes a week and just drive around a place where you see any type of number of churches, any number of churches. Because I guarantee you in Orlando, especially other places, you’re going to see church after church after church. And do you know what they teach? Something different than this church? Something different from the church next to them? Even right now, look outside. We have some Christian brothers and sisters over there, and we have some over there of different belief systems. They believe different things for salvation. They believe different things about a whole lot of different things. You know who’s behind that? The devil, our adversary.

He’s saying God didn’t exactly mean what he said because you know how you get differences in the church and differences in obeying scripture? You get a couple people, and then you get followers who say, that’s not exactly what he meant. In fact, God didn’t mean that you have to be a good person to be saved. In fact, that would be misconstruing the free gift of grace that’s talked about in Ephesians chapter 2. How can it be free if you have to do something? There’s a problem with that logic. It discredits half of what God has said, and furthermore, it ignores the rest of what God has said. But we shouldn’t be surprised. The devil, the serpent in Genesis chapter 3, have the gall to call God a liar.

Can you imagine? Now we know the stakes. But notice he also discredits God’s people. Look in 3 John. Look in the book of 3 John in verse 10. Notice what John has to take his time to write in the third gospel of John in verse 10. Beginning in verse 9, I have written something to the church, but Diatrophes, who likes to put himself first, does not acknowledge our authority. So if I come, I will bring up what he is doing, talking wicked nonsense against us. And not content with that, he refuses to welcome the brothers and also stops those who want to and puts them out of the church. What is our adversary doing? He’s discrediting God’s people. How many times in your New Testament in the book of Acts, such as chapter 16, 17, and 18, was Paul having to deal with some sort of discrediting by the people?

They’re saying he’s out there, he’s trying to ruin everything. He’s not right, he’s wrong. Don’t listen to him. That’s Satan’s best tool. He wants to take the people who get it, like John, like Paul, and say, don’t listen to them. Either they don’t have your best interest at heart or they don’t have the truth anyway. And you know what’s remarkable about it? It works. Satan effectively neutralizes the good that some people can do by undercutting them with false pretenses. He says, That preacher is wrong because he said at some point in the past, my mom who passed away is going to not be in heaven. Or don’t listen to him. He says you have to do things to be in the kingdom of heaven. He is wrong.

I don’t want to hear his scriptural background. I just know in my heart that that’s not true. You see, he discredits people. Can I tell you something? If if Mr. Bob or I or Adam, when he comes, say something that’s not true, please correct us. But if I say 90 things, and eighty-nine of them are true, the eighty nine that are true are not false because of one mistake. We must not discredit truth. If it is of God, we should follow it. Period. Just like Paul, he had a mistaken past. He did things that were horrible. He persecuted the very church that he then spent his life being persecuted in the name of. And yet, it was good and it was right in the eyes of God for him to not only be listened to, for him to not only preach and to establish the word.

He wrote most of our New Testament canon. This man who made mistakes was good. We must not discredit people because of silly things, because of things that we find important. We must stick to what God has said. And if it is in this book, brothers and sisters, it is good and it is right. And it doesn’t matter who is telling you. God’s will must always reign. And one final point in terms of how Satan seeks to discredit us. And I want to pay really close attention to this one. He tries to discredit this very word. In fact, in 1 Corinthians chapter 1, he talks about the foolishness of God, the foolishness of men is wisdom, is glory to God. God glories in taking what is weak and lowly to us and exalting it and making the wise fools.

In fact, what does Paul say in 1 Corinthians chapter 1? Look with me there. What does he say about the power of gospel? Look with me in 1 Corinthians chapter 1. He says in verse 21, for since in the wisdom of God the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. This is most sad to me. Because you see all those churches I talked about earlier, they happen because people take the word of God and still manage to divide over it. Satan is so crafty. He’s allowed people who are even reading the word to be pulled astray. That’s one of his grand designs. Think about there are Christians, if you watch debates, who say, well, Genesis is good, but it’s not actually literal.

The Old Testament isn’t literal. They’re just good stories. Can I tell you something about just stories? The people in the New Testament who divided over being of Abraham might want to know that those were just stories. The people who spent their lives proving their lineage might want to know that all that stuff in the Old Testament were just stories. People divide over whether the word of God should be taken literally, whether or not we should obey what’s in it, or whether it’s about our intent, whether it’s the character of our heart, and are we just doing the best we can, and if we disagree with something here and there after all, we are all Christians, we’re all brothers and sisters, and it’s okay. That is Satan winning.

If you don’t do what God says, it’s still okay. Do you do you believe that? Do you understand that? People who say to you that it’s okay as long as you believe in the name of Christ, you believe that he came, died, and was resurrected from the dead that you’re okay. That doesn’t make a lick of sense, does it? But Satan has won. He has gotten the masses to believe it. And that’s aside from the way he’s discredited God’s word and had people believe that it is fake, that it is unauthentic, that it’s a big ruse that somehow has lasted through the centuries. He wants us to doubt. He wants us to think, how can I truly believe this is what it is? Because he knows the gospel of God is the power of God unto salvation.

2. Satan Wishes Desperately to Distract Us

He knows the power is in his word. And if he discredits that, if he discredits man or even God himself, he has pulled us away. But a second point this morning is that Satan, our adversary, wishes desperately to distract us. Well, you look with me in Luke chapter 8. In the parable of the soils. Look at Luke chapter 8. Beginning in verse 5, Jesus begins the parable saying, A sower went out to sow a seed, and as he sowed, some fell along the path and was trampled underfoot, and the birds of the air devoured it. And some fell on the rock, and as it grew up, it withered away because it had no moisture. And some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up with it and choked it.

And some fell into good soil and grew and yielded a hundredfold. As he said these things, he called out, He who has ears to hear, let him hear. Notice Christ’s explanation of this parable, beginning in verse 11 of the same chapter. Now the parable is this the seed is the word of God. The ones along the path are those who have heard. Then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts so that they may not believe and be saved. The devil’s design, number one. But look at verse 13 and 14. And the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear the word, receive it with joy. But these have no root. They believe for a while, and in time of testing fall away.

Who do you think that’s doing that testing? Continue reading in verse fourteen. And as for what fell among the thorns, they are those who hear, but as they go on their way, they are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature. Have you been choked this morning? Have you been choked away from God? Because the Bible says that happens. Look with look with me in your Bibles at Psalm chapter twenty-three. Pastors, we should know pretty well. I want you to compare Psalm chapter twenty-three to this ode written by Brother Bob Turnbull. In Psalm chapter twenty-three, we have the well known scripture of David where he says, The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.

He leads me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake, even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. Why? For you are with me. Your rod and your staff, they comfort me. Here’s an ode by Brother Bob Turnbull. The TV set is my shepherd. My spiritual growth shall want. It keepeth me from doing my duty because it presenteth so many good shows I cannot miss. It restoreth my knowledge of the world. It leadeth me from the path of worship and service for the sake of entertainment. Yea, though I live to be a hundred, I shall keep on viewing my TV set as long as it shall work. For my set is my closest companion. Its sound and its picture, they comfort me.

It prepares diversion for me in the face of my responsibilities. It filleth my head with fantasy and my imagination runneth over. Surely no good will I do in the kingdom all the days of my life. And I will dwell with my one eyed box forever. Amen. I hope you find that amusing. And I hope you don’t find that hidden close to home. But the reality is things, maybe not the TV set, maybe not a cable television show, but things stand in the place of God. Who is it that you want? Who will guide you? And if the answer is not Christ, you will not make it. But look at your life. Look at your time. Has Satan been able to distract you from doing your duty?

How much have you read the scriptures? How much have you drawn closer in your heart? Approach the throne of God in prayer. How much work and spreading his gospel have you done? And if you feel that they are lacking in any or all of those areas, I ask you why not. And I provide a possible reason. It’s because Satan is literally choking you with the distractions and the cares of this world. Do not let things pull you away, whether it’s good intentions, whether it’s ball games, whether it’s family affairs, plays, operas, going to a basketball game, what have you. Those are great, but they have their time. They will choke your spirituality to nothing if you let them. We must restore God. Allow the Lord to be our shepherd and do the work of the kingdom.

3. Discouragement, One of Satan’s Most Effective Tools

Distractions will pull us away from God, and we won’t even realize it because we’re too busy to think about it. Another way that Satan is able to be adversarial and do a lot of harm in the kingdom of God is through discouragement. One of Satan’s most effective tools. Because you see, discrediting God is hard to do, especially here in an assembly of people who believe in God and perhaps have learned about him from the time that they were born. And in fact, distracting is a little bit hard when you have some preacher who, like I said earlier, is rough and rugged, screaming constantly about not getting distracted and not being choked out. But this is one that hits those people who are left. Discouragement. Discouragement comes in many forms.

I want to show you two ways. Look with me in the Old Testament, Ezra chapter 4. There’s two ways that the devil can discourage us. There’s two situations in life. The first one is when we’re trying to do something, and he just doesn’t want it to happen because he knows it would be for your spiritually good. Maybe it’s going to church. Maybe it’s going to a gospel meeting. Maybe it’s setting aside that club or that ball team that’s keeping you from studying your Bible the way you should. Look in Ezra chapter 4. When it’s talking about the people trying to rebuild the temple, notice the text beginning in verse 1. Now, when the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin heard that the returned exiles were building a temple to the Lord, the God of Israel, they approached Zerubbabel and the heads of the fathers’ houses and said to them, Let us build with you, for we worship your God as you do, and since we have been sacrificing to him ever since the days of Ezra Hadan, king of Assyria, who brought us here.

But Zarubbabel, Jeshua, and the rest of the heads of the fathers’s houses in Israel said to them, You have nothing to do with us in building a house to our God. But we alone will build to the Lord. The God of Israel, as King Cyrus, the king of Persia has commanded us. Good. The Israelites stood up for what they should be doing. Good. They’re practicing what God would want them to do. They’re taking care of the temple of the Lord. But just like us, just like when we win one battle, if you think Satan will leave, look at verse 4. Then the people of the land discouraged the people of Judah and made them afraid to build and bribed counselors against them to frustrate their purpose all the days of Cyrus, king of Persia, even until the reign of Darius, king of Persia.

Yes, the devil may go away. Yes, we may have some victories over Satan, but he’s not going to go away easily. Do you see that? What did he do? He discouraged the people. They gathered up, they said, We can’t have them build the temple. So we’ll discourage them. Have you ever been in a tough spot in life? Have you ever wondered? Maybe going back to the discrediting point, where is God in all this? How can this happen to me? My life hasn’t played out the way I expected it to, God. Where are you? Or maybe in the name of Christ, in the name of defeating our great adversary, you made sacrifices. And you look at your bank account, you look at where you’re living, you look at your car, you look at your job, and you say, How did this happen?

Is this is this my life? Is this how I should be treated? There’s another way of discouragement. Look in Galatians chapter 6. There’s the times where Satan can discourage us with our life circumstances. And there’s even a far more crafty one revealed in the sixth chapter in the letter to the churches of Galatia. Look at Galatians chapter 6 and verse 9. Paul exhorts them, saying, And let us not grow weary of doing good. For in due season we will reap if we do not give up. I am begging you this morning, do not give up. Do not grow weary of doing good. Do you see it? Do you see how he wants us to do it? You can be discouraged from doing good in two ways.

One, you can say, I’m just not getting recognized for it. I’m doing all this good, and you know, when’s someone can do something nice for me? Or, you know, I always write cards to everyone when they’re in the hospital, and I just had a hospital say a week and a half ago, and I got one card. There’s 200 members at Bumby. That’s discouraging. But also notice, we should not grow weary in doing good. Sometimes we can get into comparisons. We say, I can’t lead singing like Cody can. I can’t lead singing like Mr. Lindy or Mr. Jim can. So I’m just going to stop. I can’t lead a prayer like Brother Bill can. I can’t lead a prayer like Brother Angelo can. So I’m just not going to try.

And it goes far outside of the assembly. We look at people and we say, Miss Molly Austin is so good at doing things in the community for others. I could never be like that. And you know, that kind of we use that as an excuse. We use discouragement as an excuse, and that’s why Satan loves it so much. Because we start feeling sorry for ourselves. We say, I’m not as good as I need to be, and we sit on the sidelines and do absolutely nothing. And can I tell you, Satan loves nothing more than Christians sitting on the sidelines instead of on the field fighting the spiritual battle for which we’re supposed to be preparing and entering? He loves it when we sit and do nothing.

He loves it when we hear sermons on it and we say, That’s right, I need to do it and go back and do nothing. He loves people having the secret, the power of God until salvation and doing nothing with it. Because if he can discredit God, he wins from the onset. If he can distract us, he can pull us away from the goal. And if he doesn’t get us there, he can discourage you. He can say, you know what? Maybe it’s not worth it. Maybe you should just give up. Because after all, where is your God? Doesn’t God love you? Doesn’t he want you to be happy? Why can’t you live the way you want to live? Why can’t you do the things you want to do?

4. If You Allow Yourselves to Delay, He Will Win

What God is that? I can tell you what God that is. That is a God who has an eternal purpose and a love for us that is so expansive that he sent his son to die on the cross for our sins. That’s the God we know, that’s the God we serve, and the one who will prevail against Satan, our adversary. The question is, will you join him? Will you make your life right? Will you do what God has said? Because if not, even if you don’t follow these three things, if you say, you know what, that sounds well and good. I need to start on that, but you give in to Satan’s fourth point. If you allow yourselves to delay, he will win. Have you ever been emotionally invested in some sort of decision?

Whether arbitrarily you just got into a fight about it and wanted to make sure that your opponent got across, or you’re buying a car or something. When our emotions take over, it’s easy to make decisions, whether good decisions or poor ones. I’m telling you, obeying Christ gets harder the longer you wait. Because the world with Satan behind them, Satan as their father, will count down until your life is over. He will throw more thorns in your way. He will squash your enthusiasm. He will distract you from the truth that you once found. And then it will be too late. Delaying is Satan’s best tactic. Because it hits Christians and non-Christians alike. He wants Christians to say, you know what? I’ve done enough for now. I’m going to get in when my life’s in order.

Conclusion

When my bank account’s where I need it to be at, when I have the time that I need, and I’m where I need to be in my job, that’s when I’m going to help out. Or you know, when I retire, that’s when I’m going to help. That’s when I’m going to get fully engraved into the work at South Bunby. But maybe there are some of you this morning who haven’t obeyed God at all. My question is, why not? And if you say, Well, I’m still thinking things through, consider carefully. Because we know the Lord is coming like a thief in the night. Do not delay. Understand when you say, I just need more time, whose hand are you playing into? Choose this day. Who will you serve?

Will you delay and play right into the hands of your adversary who wants nothing more than to pick you out of that street corner alley and make you his, enslaved to sin forevermore? Like he is. Who will you follow? Who will you make your master today? Will it be God or will it be Satan, our adversary? Please pray with me. Our dear God, our most gracious and loving and powerful Heavenly Father, you are Jehovah God. It is in you that we have all hope, all existence. And the blood through your will of your Son Jesus, who came to this earth and died on the cross for our sins, and yet he was resurrected, allowing us the chance to be free from the bondage of sin if we just choose to come into contact with his blood, to follow you, put off the old man, put on the new, and obey your wills and your ways.

Oh God, please forgive us when we stumble. Give us the courage, give us the understanding to discern not only what the will of the Lord is in both right and wrong, but to know that Satan is out there, that he is lurking, that he is prowling, and to be ready for him, so that we may resist him and that he may flee from us at least for a time. Please forgive us of our wrong. Keep us as we go into our Bible classes, and it’s in your son’s name we do pray. Amen. We’re now dismissed the Bible class.