Exposing Satan
1 Peter 5:8,9
Bro. Bert
11/1/15
Ask any commander in battle, we must know who we are up against to know how to defeat
them. So often, we don't know our enemy. Today, we will be talking about our enemy.
Satan is a created being. He doesn't know everything. He has limited knowledge that mostly
comes from experience. He is also not omnipresent. He is not everywhere at all times. Satan
deploys his demons. It is probably not Satan personally who attacks us because he can only be
in one place at one time. If he has deployed demons to attack us, he is just getting reports back
about what we are doing. There is a created being who is limited in knowledge and space but
his instructions are to obliterate you.
1 Peter 5:8-10 - keep in mind that Peter was a person that was personally sifted by the Devil
himself. In order to expose Satan, we must know...
1. Who Satan is. He is our enemy. His name if found in verse 8 - adversary. It is a legal term
that is used in court. If you are in court, you had an adversary and a judge has to make a
decision between you two. The one on the other side is Satan.
Satan - Opposed to us in a court of law. What court is that? The only one that he is able to
appeal to - the one in the presence of God. Satan goes before God and appeals to God and
exposes your sins. He is our adversary.
The Devil - This word means to slander or defame. This is someone who unjustly criticizes to
condemn. Satan brings up lies against you in the court of law. 2. What Satan wants. Look at our verses again. He seeks someone to devour. That is what
a lion does. John 10:10 - The enemy does not come into your life to just mess you up. His aim
is to destroy your life. He wants to sever your relationship with Christ. He wants to kill you both
physically and spiritually. He doesn't mess around. Make no mistake, there is not innocent evil!
The bible does not make the distinction between secular and sacred. It is rather holy or
profane. Satan wants to separate everything in our life and put a distinction between secular
and sacred. But, God says things are either holy or profane. Can your work be holy? Yes. If
God calls you to it, equips you to do it, and brings glory to His name, then it is holy. It can also
be unholy. The others things we spend our time doing, it can also be holy or unholy. Our
enemy will use all of the profane things in our lives to destroy us! Philippians 4:8 - What are we dwelling on? We must dwell on things that are true, honorable,
right, pure, lovely, of good repute, excellent, and worthy of praise! Everything in our lives must
be run through this filter!
3. What we are to do about him. Typically, we ignore him. But this text gives us a different
response. We are to resist him. This is a military term that means strongly resisting, take a
stance completely against, establish your position publicly and conspicuously, holding on to
ones ground. When nations enter a war, they make a public statement that they are in a war.
Then, they go to work conspicuously placing their soldiers. They don't want their enemy to
know where they are going to place their soldiers. It is one thing to voice our opposition to our
enemy in church, it is another thing to go home and stand your ground. Resist Him: You will only resist him if you continuously are aware of his presence! • In your Home...nothing comes in that has a hint of devilish intent. The younger generation
has become desensitized to evil. If you think the evil is just entertainment, you are mistaken.
Satan is wanting to kill you. Get rid of it! • In you Marriage...nothing will shake what God created between the two of you. You have an
enemy that wants to destroy your marriage! He wants to kill everything you touch and love.
Guard your marriage with everything you have! • In your Work...take a stand against the schemes what would cause blemish to the name of
Christ. We have an enemy that wants to make us lazy, sloppy, irreverent, etc so that he
destroys the testimony of Jesus. Firm in Faith - We are to stand firm in faith. Faith is not something the we try to drum up to
impress God. Faith is listening to God's preferences. Belief means to execute those
preferences. How are we supposed to stand firm in the faith when we haven't been listening to
His preferences! Bert read many statistics of Americans and very large numbers are not
reading their Bible. Remember, even Satan quoted Scripture but he misused it. We must know
His Word and know how to handle His Word!
Understand Your Situation in the Body of Christ - Soldiers would interlock their shields and
they could move together so that they would not get hit with the flaming arrows. It is not enough
to go into a war by yourself. Bert has a helmet that was his dad's in war. On the helmet were
signatures and things that happened during the war. Their is a bond between soldiers that you
can't explain. When you fight next to someone in battle, you are forever tied to them. The ones
next to you this morning are your battle buddies. This is not a place we just come together to
have fun. No! We make it as a church because we come together! Satan's arrows are there to
steal, kill, and destroy. But we come back from battles and we don't even know a single
signature on our helmets. We don't even know who is fighting with us. We share a faith. We
must realize that all over the world, brothers and sisters are going through the same
battles we are. We must stand along side them so that we can all make it. Understand What Christ has done - How do we fight this enemy? Christ has already
defeated him on the cross. Hebrews 2:14-15. He has already defeated Satan. We fight FROM
victory not FOR it! If you are in Christ, you are already victorious. He lives IN YOU and He
won! We must allow Him to fight through us! Acts 26:14-18 - Paul was sent by God to open eyes and turn people from Satan to God.