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WEEKLY
Volume 2 Number 50
11 May 2008
Satan, the Devil
(Message delivered by Rev
Hien Nguyen at the Worship Service, 2:00 pm, May 4, 08)
Text:
Isaiah 14:12-15
Last week we learnt from God’s Word about angels and
their ministry toward us under God’s direction and control. Today we
shall learn more about Satan, the Devil. Many do not believe the
existence of Satan while many others are worshiping him without
awareness. Some even worship Satan openly; for example, the Church of
Satan in San Francisco, headed by Anton LaVey.
Both the Old Testament and New Testament affirm the reality and
existence of Satan. The Lord Jesus Christ Himself mentions Satan, the
Devil, at least twenty-five times. Although we cannot
see Satan, but he is real and we can recognise him through his evil work
in or behind human beings or in this sinful world. The Lord Jesus said
to the Jewish leaders who hated Him and wanted to kill Him, “Ye are
of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He
was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because
there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his
own: for he is a liar, and the father of it” (John 8:44), and God’s
Word says, “He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil
sinneth from the beginning… In this the children of God are
manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever doeth not
righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother”
(1 John 3:8, 10), and “But I say, that the things which the Gentiles
sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God: and I would not
that ye should have fellowship with devils” (1 Cor 10:20). Thus, we
can see Satan working everywhere in or behind those who are against the
Lord and His Truth (His Word) and those who worship idols and live in
sins, in falsehood, in hatred, and in unrighteousness. Then who
is Satan? and what does he do? and how can we overcome him and his
temptations?
Satan, the Cursed Angel
Lucifer
Through God’s Word, we know that Satan is the cursed
Angel Lucifer (Isa 14:12), who used to be perfect with a high position
among created angels, “full of wisdom and perfect in beauty…in Eden
the garden of God…the anointed cherub…wast upon the mountain of God…wast
perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity
was found in thee” (Ezek 28:12-15).
As God created everything very good in His six
literal 24-hour days of creation (Gen 1:31), the fall of Lucifer must
have taken place after the sixth day and before the fall of Adam and
Eve. Being a created angel with his own will, intelligence, desire,
emotion, Lucifer proudly wanted to lift himself up to be like God, so he
was “cut down to the ground.” God’s Word says, “For thou hast
said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne…I
will sit also upon the mount of the congregation…I will ascend above the
heights of the clouds, I will be like the most High. Yet thou shalt be
brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit” (Isa 14:12-15).
Satan’s fall drew to himself many other fallen angels, and they are all
condemned to Hell, and in the end they will be cast into the lake of
fire (Matt 25:41; Rev 20:2-3).
Satan means adversary and he is also called the
Devil, the great dragon, the old serpent (Rev 12:9), the adversary (1
Peter 5:8), the god of this world (2 Cor 6:15), the prince of this
world (John 12:31), the prince of the power of the air (Eph 2:2), the
wicked one (Matt 13:38-39; 1 John 2:14), the enemy (Matt 13:25, 28, 39),
the tempter (Matt 4:3), a murderer and a liar (John 8:44), the accuser
(Rev 12:10), Beelzebul (Matt 12:24), Abaddon (destruction) and Apollyon
(destroyer) (Rev 9:11), etc.
Satan is very subtle and cunning (Gen 3:1; 2 Cor
11:3), he likes to disguise himself as an angel of light (2 Cor 11:14),
and his purpose is to deceive the whole world (Rev 12:9), to mislead
people to worship him (1 Cor 10:20; Rev 9:20), to attack and twist God’s
Word (Gen 3:1-5), to take away God’s Word sown in human hearts lest they
should believe and be saved (Luke 8:12), to blind the minds of
unbelievers (2 Cor 4: 4), to sow the tares (the children of the wicked
one) in the world (Matt 13:38-39), to trouble God’s children and to draw
as many as possible away from God and His Word and His Truth.
Satan, the Attacker of
God’s Word
God’s Word is truth (John
17:17) while Satan is a liar, so he has attacked God’s Word since the
first human beings, Adam and Eve, existed in this world. God said to
Adam, “Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat”
(Gen 2:16-17). Satan cast doubt on God’s love and God’s Word with a
question, “Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree
of the garden?” (Gen 3:1). God said, “But of the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day
that thou eatest thereof thou shall surely die” (Gen 2:17). Satan
twisted God’s Word, telling a lie, “Ye shall not surely die:
for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall
be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil”
(Gen 3:4-5). Sadly, Eve was deceived by the seductive words of Satan and
fell into temptation, and Adam listened to her and fell too! Then they
did not become like gods but were cursed as sinful human beings!
God’s Word warns that sinners
will be judged and condemned to Hell (Rev 21:8), but nowadays many are
still deceived by Satan’s lie, “There is no Hell,” so they just enjoy
their lives in sins! Many are even deceived by some unbiblical beliefs
that they are gods or will become gods, independent from the living and
true God!
Nowadays Satan still attacks
God’s Word, particularly the perfectly inspired and perfectly preserved
Hebrew and Greek texts underlying the KJV through modern English
versions, textual criticism,
unbiblical articles, journals, books, websites, etc. We must be cautious
and discerning or else we may be deceived by Satan.
Satan, a Disguised Angel of Light
Satan likes to disguise himself as an angel
of light, so nice, so brilliant and so powerful. There are false Christs
and false prophets who lure many people away from God and His Word
through deceiving signs and lying wonders (Matt 24:24; 2 Cor 11:14; 2
Thess 2:9-10), through unbiblical doctrines (Col 2:22; 1 Tim 4:1; Heb
13:9), through a different gospel (Gal 1:6-9; 2 Cor 11:4), etc. Our Lord
Jesus still warns us, “Take heed that no man deceive you” (Matt
24:4). We must therefore be cautious!
Satan, the Tempter
Satan is very cunning and subtle and he
makes use of human sinful nature to tempt every man with the lust of the
flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life (Gen 3:6; Matt
4:3-11; 1 John 2:16). Satan
knows what bait is suitable to tempt men and women, young and old. For
those who desire fame, position or titles, Satan will tempt them to have
it through compromise or subtle
ways. For those who embrace sexual lusts, Satan will tempt them through
dirty novels, movies, videos, bad friends, and worldly pleasures. For
those who love money and riches, they are tempted to get easy money by
illegal or ungodly ways. For those who love the world and materialism,
Satan attracts them with all the worldly fashions, lifestyles, or
values, etc. Dear friends, it is vital to separate ourselves from sinful
lusts and worldliness, and let the Holy Spirit control our hearts and
fill us with God’s Word and godly desires or else Satan will make use of
these sinful lusts to tempt us.
Satan, the Accuser
Satan may trouble believers with his
accusation before God (Job 1:9-11; 2:4-5; Zec 3:1-3; Rev 12:10). The
best way to overcome his accusation is to put on the breastplate of
Christ’s righteousness (Eph 6:14) and to trust in His Blood,
“overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their
testimony” (Rev 12:11).
Satan, the Persecutor
When Satan sees that it is more effective
to threaten believers, he will be fierce and cruel like a roaring lion
(1 Peter 5:8), threatening, discouraging, and scaring believers so that
they may give up their faith due to shame, opposition, persecutions,
tribulations, afflictions, trials or death, etc (Matt 13:21). We are to
endure all the trials and persecutions and never give up our faith so
that we may obtain the “crown of life” and “shall not be hurt
of the second death” in Hell (Rev 2:10-11; 20:14). May the Lord
graciously see us through all the attacks from Satan.
How to Overcome Satan and
His Temptations
Acknowledge
Our Weakness:
Our Lord Jesus knows our weakness more than we do, “without me, ye
can do nothing” (John 15:5). Before their fall, Adam and Eve were
perfect human beings with the ability to obey God’s will. However, once
they chose to be independent from God by disobeying Him, they were
cursed and “sin entered into the world” (Rom 5:12). With a sinful
nature, we know for sure that we are unqualified to fight against Satan
and overcome his temptations. “Wherefore, let him that thinketh he
standeth take heed lest he fall” (1 Cor 10:12). Then we are to be
humble, watchful and prayerful, “Watch and pray, that ye enter not
into temptation: the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak”
(Matt 26:41).
Trust in the Lord:
Acknowledging
our weakness, we are to trust in the Lord alone and look unto Him for
strength and deliverance. Our
Lord Jesus was tempted in all points as we are, yet without sin, so He
can “be touched with the feeling of our infirmities” (Heb 4:15)
and be “able to succour (help) them that are tempted” (Heb
2:18). We are thankful to the Lord that He came to “destroy the works
of the devil” (1 John 3:8) and He is ever living to pray for us so
that we may stand firm until now. Jesus said to Peter, “Simon, Simon,
behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat:
But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not” (Luke
22:31-32), and “The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of
temptations” (2 Peter 2:9), and “will not suffer you to be
tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a
way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it” (1 Cor 10:13). Thank
God and praise the Lord, for He is our Victory! With the presence of God
in us and His elect angels encamping around us, we are safe in Him,
“Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater
is he that is in you, than he that is in the world” (1 John 4:3).
Let us wisely hide ourselves in the Lord, who is “our refuge and
strength, a very present help in trouble” (Ps 46:1).
Resist Satan with the Whole
Armour
of God: We are to “be
strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. Put on the whole
armour of God that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the
devil” (Eph 6:10). We are safe with the defensive
armour
of God: God’s truth is our belt, God’s righteousness is our breastplate,
God’s gospel of peace is our shoes, our faith in God is our shield,
God’s salvation is our helmet. But Satan still attacks us and only flees
when we resist him with the offensive
armour
of God: God’s Word, “the sword of the Spirit” and our prayer
(Matt 26:41; Eph 6:13-18; James 4:7; 1 Peter 5:9).
Adam and Eve did not resist
the Devil with God’s Word and prayer, so they failed, but our Lord Jesus
resisted the Devil and overcame him by the very Word of God (Matt
4:1-11). Satan is scared when we
kneel down and pray to the Lord, “When I cry unto thee, then shall
mine enemies turn back: this I know; for God is for me” (Ps 56:9)
and when we cite the very Word of God as the Lord Jesus did. Satan will
laugh at those who doubt God’s Word and just cite the thought, the
commentary, human arguments or quotes or textual criticism, etc. Only
“the word of God is quick, and powerful” (Heb 4:12).
Let us live by the Word of God
and never tempt God, but resist Satan with all our determination to
worship and serve the Lord alone and to obey God’s Word alone.
“I have written unto you, young men,
because ye are strong, and the word of God abideth in you, and ye
have overcome the wicked one” (1
John 2:14). Is the Word of God abiding in our whole being and
controlling us with our full dependence and submission?
Conclusion
Satan is real and his temptation is real.
Being tempted is not sin but yielding to temptation is sin.
Acknowledging our weakness,
let us humbly trust in the Lord and His Word with our full submission
and dependence, putting on the whole armour of God to defend ourselves,
and using God’s Word and our prayers to resist Satan until he flees
away. May the Lord be with us and in us and help us overcome Satan
always, all for His glory. Amen.
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