Evangelical Presbyterian Church of Milford

According to Luke 4:1-13 [NLTse]

On account of some insidious events going on around our congregation, last week’s sermon focused on the person and work of Satan, the devil. We started by showing how the Bible presents Satan  as an angelic being who fell from his position in Heaven due to sin and who is now completely opposed to God, doing all in his power to thwart God’s purposes.

We made clear that Satan is in no way the evil counterpart to God’s goodness, but that he is merely a created being whom the Bible shows will be readily and once-and-for-all defeated when Jesus returns for us at the end of the age.

Wondering whether we should be afraid of Satan and his devils, we saw that every human being who has not been born-again-into-God’s-Kingdom-through-faith-in-Christ lives under Satan’s power. (Which means that all other faiths [and lack of faiths] are in reality victories of Satan, because all the devil cares about is keeping people from coming to know the Father through the Son by the Holy Spirit.)

We ended by saying that Satan seeks to keep people from trusting in Christ 1) by nurturing doubt in us (that is, getting us to question God’s Word and God’s goodness); by discouraging us (having us look more at our problems than looking to God); by having us question God’s promises, our salvation in Christ, and by making us feel like such failures that we give up and stop trying; and, if all that fails, then by tempting us to delay so that we’ll put off doing the good God wants done in the hopes that we’ll never do it at all!

So we must take the threat of spiritual attack seriously: Praying; reading the Bible; living by faith; and, keeping close and in regular fellowship with other Christians.

This week I thought it might be helpful for us to talk about

Why God may have allowed the devil’s rebellion, and why the Lord has allowed his destructive and rebellious work for so long;

What some of the devils schemes and ways are so that we can recognize when we are becoming overly-influenced by him and beginning to participate with him in his work; and,

How we can seek God’s equipping and equip ourselves to stand firm, and arm and armor ourselves against the devil’s tricks and snares.

So, what does the Bible say as to why God may have allowed the devil’s rebellion, and why He may have allowed his destructive and rebellious work for so long? Oswald Chambers wrote: “Faith must be tested, because it can be turned into a personal possession only through conflict…” He goes on to say, “Let me say I believe God will supply all my need, and then let me run dry, with no outlook, and see whether I will go through the trial of faith, or whether I will sink back to something lower… What is your faith up against now? The test will either prove that your faith is right, or it will kill it.” (My Utmost For His Highest, August 29.)

As many have before him and many since, Chambers proposes that God allows Satan and suffering for the same reasons that a loving-parent might allow their child to struggle and even to fail in the present (if failure is the result), so that that same child might overcome and succeed in the future.

To support this, the apostle Paul writes to the Roman-Christians: “We can rejoice when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because He has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with His love.” (Romans 5:3-5)

Am I saying that the madness, horrors, and atrocities that Satan deceives people and manipulates them to are all worth it if we learn something by it? No. But I am saying that “what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory He will reveal to us later.” (Romans 8:18) “For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever!” (2 Corinthians 4:17)

As we believe God we can see through Satan’s attempts to cause us to doubt or be discouraged, to feel defeated or to delay. Knowing that the conflict the enemy seeks to bring gives us opportunities to prove our faith, knowing that even Jesus learned obedience from the things He suffered (Hebrews 5:8), and knowing that our Father works every-thing together for our good, we can love and trust God through our troubles and trials knowing that our crucified-King does and will deliver and save, and if not in this life then in the life to come, as we keep on loving Him and responding to His call.

As far as Christians being influenced and manipulated by the evil one, Simon Peter is a great example: When Jesus first shared with His disciples about His upcoming sufferings and crucifixion Peter couldn’t take hearing that, so he cut Jesus off and tried to correct and set Him straight. But Jesus told Peter that he was being used by Satan at that moment to discourage Him and distract Him from God’s things. So we can see that a person doesn’t have to be “demonized” or “possessed” to be used by, oppressed by, influenced by, or manipulated by the devil. And in that interaction with Peter, Jesus shows us how we can recognize when Satan is trying to do it.

Jesus said to Peter, “Get away from me, Satan! You are seeing things merely from a human point of view, not from God’s.” (Mark 8:33) So even though the devil has no power over those who have the Holy Spirit on account of their faith in Christ, we can be vulnerable to be influenced by the devil when we want something so badly that it doesn’t even bother us that it might not be what God wants! Adam and Eve show us the same thing.

In the beginning God told Adam, “You may freely eat the fruit of every tree in the Garden—except the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. If you eat its fruit, you are sure to die.” (Genesis 2:17) Even so, after listening to the devil Adam and Eve decided that the Tree of Knowledge was beautiful, and that its fruit looked delicious. And they wanted the wisdom it would give them. (See Genesis 3:6)

Where was Simon Peter’s focus? Not on what the Son of God had just told him God wanted but on what he – Simon Peter – wanted; not on what the promises or sovereignty of God offered, but on what he as a man could imagine and understand. Where was Adam and Eve’s focus? Not on God’s Word and what He’d commanded but on what they wanted; not on what the Lord had told them was spiritual-truth but on what appeared to be true to their eyes… And the same is true for us.

We can want things so badly. Think with me, for a second: What do you really want? What have you, perhaps, always wanted? … What if God seemed to want something else for you? And that conflict of wills can get us acting like the devil, can’t it? We can find ourselves deceiving – telling little white lies, trying to get our way; we can find ourselves accusing – saying things about others that may or may not be true, but that we think might help us get our way; directing those around us away from what God has said in His Word or away from seeking God in His Word or in prayer so that they might hear our side of the story so that we might get our way…

And yet, deceiving is what the devil does. Accusing is what the devil does. Drawing people away from God is what the devil does. And when we find ourselves doing these things we can be sure that – whether we realize it or not, whether we want it or not – we’ve been listening to the devil, and he’s succeeded in influencing and/or manipulating us and using us for his work…

We can also become aware that such things are going on around us simply by what we see going on around us: Christians set against each other, trying to get their way, talking about one another instead of to one another, pushing their position instead of seeking God’s position, strife, conflict, competition, splitting up into “us” and “them”…

Of course, it can all be more personal.

An indication that Satan might be seeking to block God’s purposes for your, or someone-around-you’s, life is when the temptations you’re experiencing seem especially strong, or when you find yourself beginning to rationalize giving-in and doing something you know is not of the Lord. In such times, call on Jesus. There is power in His name because when we call on Him He is present, with us. And when you realize you’re under personal attack, that’s the time to spend extra time in the Bible and prayer; that’s the time to get others reading the Bible to you and praying for you (since those can be times when it can be difficult to read and pray); and, perhaps, that’s even a time to consider fasting. (We’ll talk more about fasting another time; or you can ask me later if you sense you’re in the need for such things right now.)

Jesus faced every temptation you and I will ever face, and He did not sin. So study the Gospels. Watch Him. He is our role-model and mentor in all things, including how to overcome temptation and stand firm against the devil.

Which brings us to our last piece: How we can seek God’s equipping and equip ourselves to stand firm, and arm and armor ourselves against the devil’s tricks and snares?

And we do that by looking to Jesus: What do we see Jesus doing?

We see Him praying. (Sometimes late into the night. Sometimes all night long!) We know He’s in the Word because we always see Him quoting the Scriptures, and giving different Scriptures as the evidence for the different words He’s speaking or actions He’s taking. We see Him boldly living for God. And we see Him always in the synagogue or at the Temple with God’s people, or always on a hillside or in a boat with God’s people, or always taking a journey with or eating a meal together with God’s people. Always with God’s people. (And, of course, that’s where we got our list from that we closed with last week.)

And you may look at that list and say, “I already know all that, Pastor.” But I will ask you, are you already doing that? Most Christians know they should pray and read and study God’s Word and live surrendered to the Holy Spirit and keep in close fellowship with God’s people. But according to numerous and frequent polls taken by Christian organizations, not many Christian people actually do these things. And it’s not the knowledge of Jesus’ ways that save us. It’s having faith in Him enough to do them that we find ourselves transformed and empowered.

As a matter of fact, the majority of Christians share that it’s only when they are going through hardship that they more regularly pray and attend worship services. (Though hardship does not seem to influence Bible reading or living by the Spirit.) As a father myself, if I knew my kids needed my help each day but found that they only came and talked to me when they were in some kind of trouble, I’d allow them to get into some trouble, too!

We need to be doers and not merely hearers if we want to stand with Jesus against the wiles of our adversary.

Let’s review:

The Father wants us to understand the devil’s ways and scheme’s, and to understand His Own almighty plans and purposes for allowing Satan’s ongoing influence and work. At the heart of that is our Savior having so much more for us than just 40, 80, or 100 or so years here in this life. He’s preparing us for forever! For eternity! And all these hardships and heartaches Satan can try to stir up around us will all be so much more than worth it for all that He’s preparing us for!

The Father wants us to guard our will and our desires. When our wills are contrary to His will we make ourselves vulnerable to the evil one if we seek to get our own way and are not seeking God’s way.

When in weaknesses or vulnerabilities we sense the devil’s attacks to be too much for us, we need to call on Jesus, read the Bible more and pray more and have others read the Bible to us and pray for us and, if led to, fast.

Of course, as in all things, we need to be keeping our eyes on Jesus and always doing what He did and would do: Praying all the time (as we’ve already said); reading and studying the Bible (as we’ve already said); taking the Word of God into ourselves with the intention of living it out of ourselves – living and abide in Jesus so that He’s living and abiding in us!; and, keeping in constant touch with other Christians for the already-mentioned encouragement, advice, prayer, and support that are only available to us when we’re firmly established in the Body of Christ.

It’s a war we’re going through here – at school, at home, in our workplaces and neighborhoods. But it’s a war that has already been won on the cross and where defeat has already been conceded at the empty tomb. These troubles and trials that Satan’s been allowed to bring in the hopes of leading us away from God are simply the final skirmishes. No less threatening; no less deadly. But they are almost over. Stand firm. And keep your eyes on Jesus, and your heart and mind set on all He’s bringing with Him when He comes.