Spiritual Warfare:
How Satan and Demons Relate to God
Originally preached by Dr. David Platt at
Secret Church 7 on 11/06/09
Adapted by Rev. Chas. Pendleton
for
Fitchburg Nazarene Church
March 01, 2015
(These are the Pastor’s notes. He may have said more which is not noted here.
He could have ignored certain portions of these notes in our actual service.)
Last week I told you we would next look
at
“How Satan and demons relate to God?”
I may have used the wrong terminology
last week.
Instead of “relate,” perhaps the word I
should use is “contrast.”
I want us to be clear about some contrasts
between God, the Creator; and Satan the
destroyer.
God is the Creator, Genesis 1.
Satan is the destroyer that is his name,
Revelation 9, destroyer.
Satan delights in destroying everything
God has made.
He’s the destroyer, but don’t miss this, it’s
the good news.
God is the Almighty, Satan is limited by
God.
Genesis 17, “I am God Almighty,” Job 1,
“Very well then everything he has,” talking
about Job, “is in your hands but on himself
do not lay a finger, then Satan went out from
the presence of the Lord.”
Satan is limited by God because he is less
than God.
We have to be very careful not to attribute
the characteristics of God to Satan, to the
devil.
Satan is not omnipotent,
he is not omniscient he does not know
everything he does not know all of our
thoughts. He’s not omnipresent.
Satan is not omnipresent - everywhere at
once.
He is limited by God and he only works
under the permission of God.
Satan is on a leash.
God’s Almighty, Satan is not almighty.
I will come back to that later.
God is true;
Satan is the father of lies.
God is love;
Satan is hatred, and a murderer.
John 8:44 says “He was a murderer from
the beginning, not holding to the truth, for
there is no truth in him.”
God is righteousness,
Satan is evil.
God is our Advocate. We have one that
speaks to the Father in our defense, Jesus
Christ the righteous one. Praise God!
Satan is our accuser.
In Zachariah 3, Satan is standing at the
right side of Joshua, the high priest to accuse
him.
(Study that passage)
God is our protection in temptation,
Satan is the tempter.
God is our ultimate Judge,
Satan is ultimately judged by God.
So Satan and God, when you think about
these two, remember these contrasts.
These are the CONTRASTS between God
and Satan…..
HOW THEY RELATE TO ONE
ANOTHER.
Changing Gears!
NOW
How do Satan and the demons relate to
us?
Here are some Scriptures we have looked at
already:
1 Peter 5:8
prowling around,
How does he prowl - how does he devour?
2 Corinthians 2:11 tells us that Satan is a
schemer. The question is what are his
schemes?
Ephesians 6:11 uses the same language;
take your stand against the devil’s evil
schemes.
So what are Satan’s schemes?
What I’m attempting to do here, is to give
you a catalog of the major schemes of Satan.
How Satan works, and this is not every
single thing but it’s a pretty good picture,
an overview of how Satan works in
relation to us.
Satan deceives,
he is a master counterfeiter.
THIS IS A HUGE CATEGORY!!!
We will go over some of his major
deceptions.
He attacks in subtly, deadly indirect ways.
He delights in taking truths and twisting
them ever so slightly so that we think we’re
living according to truth when we are not.
And the one thing we need to remember
about his scheme of deception is that it is
not obvious.
Deception is not obvious.
You do not know you’re deceived.
That’s the whole point.
This is where I think Satan is most
dangerous.
1.
He deceives through false philosophies.
Paul warns in Colossians 2:8,
“See to it that no one takes you captive
through hollow and deceptive philosophy.
2.
He deceives through False religions,
sacrifices of pagans are offered to demons.
When you participate in false religions,
you’re offering sacrifices to demons, that’s
what Scripture teaches.
1 Corinthians 10:20
No, but the sacrifices of pagans are offered
to demons, not to God, and I do not want
you to be participants with demons.
3.
He deceives through false ministers, and
this is what was going on in Corinth.
People were claiming to be teaching truth
masquerading as servants of righteousness,
yet teaching demonic ways; subtly demonic
ways.
TURN TO
2 Corinthians 11:12-15
And I will keep on doing what I am doing in
order to cut the ground from under those
who want an opportunity to be considered
equal with us in the things they boast
about. 13For such people are false apostles,
deceitful workers, masquerading as apostles
of Christ. 14And no wonder, for Satan
himself masquerades as an angel of
light. 15It is not surprising, then, if his
servants also masquerade as servants of
righteousness. Their end will be what their
actions deserve.
4.
Satan deceives through false doctrine, a
picture of the antichrist.
One example of this
1 John 2:15-26
(We read it at beginning of service)
(vs. 22)
whoever denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such
a person is the antichrist—denying the
Father and the Son.
5.
He deceives through false disciples.
Here is one that many find hard to swallow,
but we are told to watch out for because God
will not judge this deception until final
judgment.
Matthew 13:24-29
(READ together – Bible)
False disciples in the midst of God’s people.
Brothers and sisters, this is why we must
guard the purity of the church.
This is why we cannot take lightly what it
means to be a part or a member of the
church. Because there is an adversary who
delights in filling the community of the
kingdom with false disciples and false
leaders who are intent on pulling people
away from the gospel. So we’ve got to be on
guard.
6.
Satan deceives through False morals
In 2 Thessalonians 2:7-12 we have the
picture of false morals at work.
He deceives people into thinking that they
are embracing truth when they are
embracing lies. Satan deceives.
Let’s turn to it and READ
7
For the secret power of lawlessness is
already at work; but the one who now holds
it back will continue to do so till he is taken
out of the way. 8And then the lawless one
will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will
overthrow with the breath of his mouth and
destroy by the splendor of his coming.9The
coming of the lawless one will be in
accordance with how Satan works. He will
use all sorts of displays of power through
signs and wonders that serve the lie, 10and
all the ways that wickedness deceives those
who are perishing. They perish because they
refused to love the truth and so be
saved. 11For this reason God sends them a
powerful delusion so that they will believe
the lie 12and so that all will be condemned
who have not believed the truth but have
delighted in wickedness.
So SATAN is a
DECEIVER!
Second,
Satan attacks by directing
governments; it’s a picture you can
look at more in depth in Daniel 1, but I’m
not going to take that time right now. We
see it elsewhere in scripture, but Daniel 11 is
full of this.
Read it this week and see how Satan uses
Governments to work his will.
Perhaps you only need to read the
newspaper!!
Satan attacks by bringing
sickness.
This is what Satan obviously did to Job;
struck his flesh and bones.
Job 2:1-10
It’s what Satan had done to the woman who
had been crippled by a spirit for 18 years
in Luke 13.
Satan had kept bound for 18 long years.
Satan attacks by destroying
lives.
When speaking of Jesus coming in the
flesh, the writer of Hebrews says in…
Hebrews 2:14.
Persecuting the saints,
In Revelation 2:10 Jesus tells the Church of
Smyrna…
The time is coming the devil will do that,
persecuting the saints – and you would see,
he has done it throughout Church History, if
you want to take the time to research it.
Preventing service,
Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 2:18
He attacks by planting doubt.
In Genesis 3. “He said to the woman, did
God really say that?” AND
“You shall not surely die.”
Satan tempts,
Just a quick list!
He tempts us to anger, to pride, to worry.
He tempts us to worldliness, the cravings of
every sinful man in the world.
The lust of the eyes.
The lust of the flesh.
The boasting of what we have – be it gifts,
or treasures.
Tempting to lying, like the picture of
Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5.
He tempts us to immorality.
Satan deceives, he attacks and
he tempts.
Among other things, he blinds unbelievers;
we have seen this in 2 Corinthians 4:4. He
blinds them. They’re blinded, they’re
blinded.
And once he blinds them - Satan holds his
captives!
He BLINDS and BINDS!!!
You get to the end of 2 Timothy 2, and Paul
states…
Satan misuses Scripture,
it’s what he’s doing in the temptation of
Christ in Matthew 4. He’s misusing
Scripture.
Satan attacks faith,
leading us away from sincere and pure
devotion to Christ,
2 Corinthians 11:3.
“In some way the tempter might have
tempted you.”
Satan works against people ascribing
glory to God.
Here’s the deal, wait a second, Satan cannot
deprive God of the glory He is due in
heaven. But he can work against people
ascribing the glory He is due on earth.
As a result, Satan will do anything he can to
hinder the people of God from declaring the
glory of God. That’s why I am convinced in
some ways that Satan is just fine with a
Christian self-centered pursuit of holiness.
And with a church system that spends all of
our resources on ourselves where we
insulate our lives from the lost-ness of the
world around us. That is no threat to the
kingdom of darkness.
He is hindering mission.
An on an individual note, I wonder if there
are men and women here who at some point,
God by His Spirit was calling you to a
certain task, to a certain place to a certain
ministry and somewhere along the way you
let Satan play the role of the hinderer.
I just want to invite you to consider how
Satan might have been hinderer, diverting
you, distracting you, keeping you from
doing what God was telling you to do.
And I want to call you to put his
hindrances behind.
He wants to thwart God’s mission in your
life. Don’t let him thwart it.
CLOSING PRAYER