Understanding the Adversary: A Biblical Perspective on Our Enemy

Hello and welcome to the Middletown Baptist Church Podcast, where we are proclaiming the truth to the world.

My name is Pastor Josh, and I want to thank you for listening to this podcast.

I hope that this podcast can be a blessing to you and strengthen you in the word of God.

Now come along.

Let's look into the Bible and see what God has for us here today.

All right, let's go ahead and get into our study tonight.

As you know, we've been going through a lot of the questions that have been coming in, and certainly I've got a lot of those have come in so far, and I don't know if I'll get to all of them, but I will try to do my best.

And this series might be a little bit longer than I was expecting, and so there might be a time where I just cut it off.

I mean, questions are open at all points, but I might not have my whole sermon series for questions.

I kind of go through withdrawals, not preaching through a passage of like a book of the Bible, but I'm going to do my best to go through this.

But one of the things I will say is that the topic that we're going to be discussing here for the next few weeks is going to be a difficult topic because we're going to be talking about something that isn't talked about a lot in churches.

Or there's really two errors that we do when we talk about this topic we're going to talk about tonight.

Well, one, a church just ignores this topic.

Or number two, individuals will overemphasize this topic and glorify this topic.

And so what we're going to be talking about here tonight is we're going to be studying who the enemy is.

And before I get any further with this, I do want to make some clarifying statements before we get into the study.

I do want to make a statement of that.

Every single time somebody sins, it doesn't mean that Satan is coming after you.

There's a lot of people that blame every single situation in their life to Satan, right?

So it was the enemy.

It was Satan.

He was the one that made me late for work today.

And it might be that maybe it was you that slept in, or it might have been your vehicle that broke down that made you late.

It necessarily wasn't seen.

And so there's caution with the idea that when we talk about the enemy, well, everything's blamed against him.

So the Bible teaches us that there are three different sources of temptation in this world that leads us to sin.

One, we would say is obviously Satan.

We know that we're going to talk about him.

That's what the study is all about.

Our enemy, who he is from scripture, what he does, how he works, his background, his future, all of those things we're going to look into.

So that's one source, admittedly, and the Bible will talk to us about that.

There's another source that the Bible talks about.

It says the world.

It uses this phrase, the world.

And the world is basically the system that has been instilled in this world, the marred world that we live in with sin and the curse.

So the world.

Right, and the world systems.

And then we don't want to talk about the third one.

Very often we like to blame Satan and we like to blame the world for our struggles.

But one of the other areas that the Bible tells us that is a source of our temptation would be our flesh, which would be me, my sinful nature.

And so there are some things in my life that I am drawn to because of my sinful nature.

And the Bible tells us that.

And so when we study Satan, we don't do this study to rid ourselves of the blame.

Right.

You know, you've heard the phrase, the devil made me do it.

The Bible says no.

The book of James speaks of how we are pulled away in our own desires, and so we cannot blame Satan for our sin.

But the Bible does clearly teach that we should know our enemy.

And so I've had some people push back over the years in ministry to say, pastor, there's two areas I don't want you to talk about.

Don't talk about hell and don't talk about Satan.

Okay?

That's just.

We don't need to talk about that.

And I would say that's what Satan would like us to do.

Right?

Jesus spoke about the enemy.

Jesus spoke about hell.

And so though we don't only teach about those things, we do need to teach the full scope of scripture.

And so I want us to go to a few different passages that give us kind of an understanding of why I think we should study the enemy.

So the first one is in first Peter, chapter five.

And by the way, anytime I'm answering any of these questions, I want to do my best to point you to as much scripture as I can.

Okay?

So it's not Pastor Josh's opinions.

It's not something that we feel.

It's what the Bible says.

And we get into this topic of Satan and, you know, you might hear the name Lucifer or the devil, There's a lot of information that comes to us not from the Bible, but from media.

Okay, so media meaning tv, movies, books.

By the way, many of the heresies taught around Satan and false teachings in regards to Satan and sin and devil and hell comes from ancient books, old literature.

Maybe you'll hear about some of them when we talk about that.

And maybe some of the names that you're familiar with will pop up here.

So the Bible warns us to stick to scripture when it comes to these topics.

And so let's stick to scripture.

First Peter, chapter five, verse number eight.

Okay.

This is a warning that follows in context, the challenge to humble ourselves before God, cast our cares upon him.

And then it says, be sober.

Okay, Be sober.

What does that word, sober, mean?

It means serious, unhindered from any outside sources.

Okay.

So we use it in context to, you know, I'm not inebriated with alcohol or substance, so I'm sober.

And that would make sense in that context.

But in general, it just means not allowing outside sources to come in and infiltrate our minds.

And so be seriously considering the truth.

Be sober, be vigilant.

We know what vigilant means.

It means on guard, be ready.

Why?

Because your adversary, your enemy, the devil.

So the Bible identifies that Satan, the devil, is our enemy.

And so though we are our own enemies in some cases, the Bible very clearly says that Satan is our enemy, your adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about seeking whom he may devour.

So the Bible teaches that Satan is looking for opportunities to devour.

And so Satan is a devourer.

And we're going to talk more about that.

He's a deceiver, he's an accuser.

We'll get into all these elements and just transparently speaking, this is just going to be an introductory lesson here tonight.

This week has been difficult with this because the more you study this kind of stuff, Satan fights against you.

So don't be afraid.

Right?

We're not afraid of the enemy.

Why?

Because the Bible says that if you're in Christ, you're his child and he's the victor.

If you have any hesitancies of that, read Romans, chapter 8.

It talks about how we're more than conquerors.

Nothing can separate us from the love of God, and so not even the enemy can separate us from the love of God.

And so what we're going to do is we're going to go through this and we're going to be sober.

We're going to be vigilant.

Why?

Because Satan is looking to devour.

You would Say, well, that's one verse, Pastor, you're proof texting.

I'm glad you said that because I've got other verses to go to.

If you turn with me to Second Corinthians, chapter two.

We've been going through the book of Second Corinthians on Sunday mornings, and we talked about this very same topic in very brief fashion when we went through this study.

But in Second Corinthians, chapter four, the Bible actually says that Satan, so we know that he devours, he wants to eat up, he wants to destroy, so to speak, he wants to destroy our lives, he wants to destroy our church, he wants to destroy families, he wants to destroy marriages.

He wants to destroy everything that God has ordained to be good.

So Satan opposes God.

We know that.

And as Satan opposes God, he opposes God's way.

And if Satan opposes God and God's way, he opposes God's people.

So if you are a child of God, he opposes you.

It's not that he hates you.

It's ultimately that he hates God and you are one of his children.

So he's trying to get to God by getting to you.

And the Bible speaks of that.

But it says in 2nd Corinthians 4.

4 it says, and in context, this is speaking of the Gospel being hid to those that are lost.

Okay?

So the gospel not being understood by those that are unsaved, and then it says, in whom?

The God of this world.

And the God of this world, in context, we know, is speaking of Satan.

Okay?

Now, some people right then and there have an issue.

My.

My God is the God of this world.

Well, the Bible speaks that Satan.

Satan has allowed.

Is allowed, I should say, Satan is allowed by God to roam about this world right now.

So one heresy that we need to teach a correction to is that some people say Satan is in hell right now.

Okay?

That is not the case.

Satan is roaming about this world.

And the Bible speaks of him being the prince of the power of the air.

The Bible speaks of him being the God of this world.

Little G.

God, not the God of this world, but Satan has access to things in this earth.

We know that.

We know that through many different ways.

One of the other ways that we know that is through the book of Job.

If you know the story of Job, right?

And this is baffling for us.

God and Satan have a conversation about Job.

And he says, have you witnessed my servant Job?

And Satan says, yes, I have.

And God allows Satan to come.

Come and do things to Job.

And so we know that Satan has access to this world.

He's not locked in hell, not yet.

We'll get to his future later on in the study.

So it says, in whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.

And so Satan is trying to devour.

But Satan is also trying to deceive.

And we know that he is the father of lies.

And we could go through a couple of other passages that speak to the fact that he's trying to deceive, he's trying to entice, he's trying to lure.

In the picture of Scripture is the idea some of you might have gone fishing.

And, you know, sometimes they call it fishing, but they don't call it catching, because we don't really know how to catch fish.

But if you have the right bait, you'll catch the fish.

And so what the Bible says is that Satan lures or entices us to pull away from the truth of God.

He's a deceiver.

And so here in this case, we see that he has, as it says there, blinded the minds of those that are not believing.

And so there's that passage of Scripture there.

But then I want you to go to another passage of Scripture in the book of James.

I'm trying to just lay the groundwork for you.

If I'm going to fast for you, write these verses down and refer back to them.

There's so much that the Bible talks about when it comes to just who Satan is.

And we're going to try to get back a little bit into his start, so to speak, and we'll address that here in a few moments.

But this was one last verse to kind of talk about the importance of studying the enemy.

So James, chapter four and verse number seven, context is key.

So if we're looking at verse number seven and minimum, at minimum, read the verse before and read verse after.

Now, sometimes context is needed more.

You got to read the whole chapter before or the whole book before.

But it's good to know what's coming before and after a verse.

So I'll read verse seven, and then I'll read verses six and eight, and then I'll try to explain to you kind of the context of the thought here.

So verse 7 says, Submit yourselves therefore to God.

Resist the devil and he will flee from you.

So right there, the Bible tells us to do two things.

What?

Submit yourselves to God, Resist the devil.

And so when we submit ourselves to God, when we Grow closer to God the more we separate ourselves from the enemy.

And so it's not just about fighting against Satan because some people are like, well, I'm going to use dirty tactics against Satan.

I'm going to be, you know, if he's going to be a liar, I'm going to be a liar.

Eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth.

No, the Bible doesn't say that we are to attack Satan on our own.

And that's our only focus, right?

Some people say, I wake up in the morning and I'm ready to go after Satan.

No, the Bible says very clearly here before that, submit yourselves therefore to God.

And if you go to the verse before, it says, but he giveth more grace, verse 6, wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to the humble.

And so we deal with the enemy in humility.

We cannot fight against the enemy on our own.

We cannot wake up in the morning and go, I'm a Satan fighter and I'm going to do this in my own strength.

Look at me, look how powerful I am.

There have been many a person throughout history that have tried to fight the enemy on their own strength and they have failed.

And so the Bible says in verse six.

To do what?

Understand that God gives the grace.

God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.

So we fight the enemy in humility.

We resist the enemy in humility.

And then verse eight.

So verse eight amplifies what we're to do on the positive side.

Draw nigh or draw near to God and he will draw nigh to you.

Cleanse your hands, ye sinners, and purify your hearts, ye double minded.

So in the process of understanding our enemy and in the process of combating the enemy, we draw closer to God and rely on his strength.

Like in anything, it's always about more God and less of me.

And so that's what we do when we talk about these topics.

It's not about glorifying Satan, it's not about giving him all this credit.

But there are individuals who say, you know what?

Satan is nothing.

And I can handle him in my own strength.

And the Bible says very clearly that we rely on the power of God.

Okay, so I wanted to kind of clarify some of those things for you before we even got started.

So fighting against the enemy, who is our enemy?

The Bible says, as we already see, that Satan is our enemy.

And anytime we go into battle, and by the way, the Bible clearly teaches that we are in a battle, we're going to study Ephesians chapter 6.

Most of you know that passage as the armor of God passage.

But the Bible says that we are to wear the armor of God in the midst of the battle.

And so anytime we go to battle, we need to know who we are fighting against.

And actually, let's just go and look at that because I think this will be important to see.

Ephesians chapter six.

Let's look at Ephesians chapter six and let's see what the Bible says when it comes to this idea of fighting against the enemy.

Why are we wearing the armor of God?

What's the point of wearing the armor of God?

Well, the Bible clearly gives us the answer to that, and it is.

And I'll kind of give you an overview as we get there.

It's the idea of fighting against the enemy.

Ephesians chapter 6, you can see it there with me.

Verse number 10.

It says, finally my brethren, be strong in the Lord and the power of his might.

Put on the whole armor of God that, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.

So we're in a battle and we're fighting against the enemy.

For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

And there's a lot of debate about what verse 12 means.

Essentially what I believe is that Satan is the ringleader and there are many followers of that.

And we'll talk more about that when we talk about fallen angels and things of that nature.

So going on further, wherefore an emphasis, anytime the Bible repeats something so close to itself, there's emphasis.

Verse 13, Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand in the evil day.

And having done all to stand.

So again, it reminds us to put the armor on the fight evil.

And the Bible tells us that it's the wiles of the devil.

Later on in that passage of Scripture, it speaks of obviously all of the armor of God.

We're not going to get into all that tonight.

But it says verse 16 and above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.

So it speaks of an attack from the enemy.

So all of that to say this, we need to know our enemy.

Back in the day when I would play, I never went to battle.

So the closest thing that I ever had to going against another person in a physical form was sports and baseball is baseball.

Like I love Baseball, basketball is basketball.

I played basketball.

But football was a little bit more combative, right?

And so our coach would be like, all right, we need to know who our enemy is.

And we.

We had a coach on our team that was all about scouting the other team.

And, I mean, he would go film the other games.

He would stand up in the stands, he'd be filming, and he would bring back to us every single player, their number, their tendencies.

He'd say, number 71, right before the play starts, he's going to move his foot here.

If he moves his foot here, that means they're going this way.

And we would be ready and we were able to go into our games prepared and ready to know how the enemy would attack.

Okay?

Their tendency is to go to the left, so we know that they're going to come to the left.

And of course, it wouldn't be perfect, but we know that as scripture tells us to prepare, I think it's wise to know how the enemy will attack and who our enemy is.

And so I want to address a few things.

According to scripture, Satan is described in the Bible as, the best way that I could phrase it, as an angelic enemy of God.

And we'll get into the depths of that.

Some people, like, what kind of angel is Satan?

We need to look at what scripture says, okay?

There's a lot of beliefs and there's a lot of opinions about the type of angel Satan was, what angelic creature he was.

And we'll look at two passages of scripture, one in Isaiah and one in Ezekiel, that speaks to that.

But it's safe to say that he's an angelic enemy of God, and therefore he's an opponent of God and therefore opponent to those who follow God.

And so at some point in time, you say, give me the year.

I can't give you the year.

But at some point in time, Satan chose to rebel against the Lord.

Now, the question would be, a lot of people want to go into the why?

Why did Satan rebel?

Okay, the way that we could boil it down is pride, sin.

Now, again, we could go back another step, and a lot of people will ask the question, why did God create Satan if he knew that this was going to happen?

It's the same question as, why did God create mankind if he knew that we would sin?

And I always go back to the understanding of the key word for me is love, right?

With love, there is a choice.

True love is a choice.

And if everything is robotic and God says, okay, I'm going to set it this way, and people have to do this again.

That's, I believe, an infringement upon the choice of love.

So I always use this example.

Alicia and I are meeting a new family of our church, and I go in, I say, okay, this is not how we do things.

Okay, you can ask her.

Okay.

Okay.

You're going into this meeting, you better act like you love me.

You better be this way.

And I'm threatening her.

And under the table, I've got, you know, I've got some, you know, like a knife to her.

And I'm like, all right, you guys, you got to do this, right?

That, that.

That wouldn't be love.

That would be forced.

Right?

And so the concept for.

For me would be, when there's true love and there's a true choice, there is also the opportunity for someone to make the decision to the other side.

And so in this case, Satan chose to be equal with God.

He chose pride.

And so there was a fall.

Now, some people say, where.

Where does that come from in Scripture?

And that's a good question.

There's a lot of passages of Scripture that allude to Satan's fall.

And even in the Book of Revelation, it speaks of Satan's fall, as well as his minions, his enemy, or our enemies, what we would call the demons.

But I want to go to a few passages of Scripture that speak to Satan's fall.

If you have your Bibles, turn to Isaiah 14.

So we're kind of getting to this topic.

And now if you.

If you're a studier of scripture, if you're a student of the word, Isaiah 14 is a passage that people use as the history of Satan's fall.

But there are other people that say, no, this is not talking about Satan.

This is strictly talking about a king of Babylon.

And if you truly read this for what it is, yes, I believe there is a reference to a real king of Babylon and his fall.

But I also do believe that scripture in many ways speaks in symbolic terms, in multiple ways.

And so, for example, some of you that were with us in the study of Genesis.

I know I'm getting in the weeds here, but don't let me lose you.

We talked about Melchizedek.

There was the order of Melchizedek.

There was a guy in the Old Testament called Melchizedek, and it referenced this individual that talked to Abraham, and he was a priest and king.

And I truly believe that Melchizedek was a real person.

But also, Melchizedek is a picture of Jesus, who is also our priest and king.

And so you see how Scripture can allude to two different things at the same time.

I believe that Isaiah 14 is talking about a real king of Babylon, but also Satan's fall and connecting the two.

And many scholars would agree with me on that.

So let's look at.

Well, we can start in verse number 12.

Verse number 12 is kind of where the main idea of Satan's fall comes in.

You could read back and read more about it.

But here's verse 12.

It says this.

How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning?

How art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations?

For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven.

I will exalt my throne above the stars of God.

I will sit also upon the mount of congregation, the sides of the north.

I will ascend above the heights of the clouds.

I will be like the Most High.

He goes on a little bit further, verse 15, and we'll go down to verse 17.

Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell to the sides of the pit.

They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee, consider thee saying, is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms, that made the world as a wilderness and destroyed the cities thereof, that opened not the house of his prisoners?

And so I believe, and we could go further, but I believe that part of that passage is past and part of that passage is going to be future.

Satan's future of his fall, his demise, ultimately the fall from heaven, but then the demise that he will face and the ultimate victory that God has over him in the end.

So you see there the picture and you see what happened and why he was cast out.

It says that obviously it was pride.

Verse 14.

I will be like the Most High, I will be like God.

And so that's scripture.

Okay?

That's not someone's interpretation of Scripture from a movie dramatized.

That's what the Bible says.

Now, there have been a lot of people that have elaborated on that and created conversations between God and Satan.

But that is a reference there from Scripture that people will point to as Satan's fall.

Okay, now I will take you to another passage of scripture.

Ezekiel, chapter 28.

Ezekiel, chapter 28 is a passage of Scripture that people use as a description of what does Satan look like or his aspects of his.

We would look like his character, if you will.

Now, his character is talked a lot about in the New Testament, or the lack of his character, I should say.

But Ezekiel, chapter 28, and we'll look at well, oh, man, we could go all over the place.

I don't want to take up too much time here.

I'll go to verse 13.

Well, verse 12.

Son of man, take up a lamentation upon the king of Tyrus.

Again, this is speaking of Tyrus as king, But a lot of people use this as a comparison to a parallel to Satan and say unto him, thus saith the Lord God, Thou sealest up the sum of.

Full of wisdom.

Perfect in beauty thou has been in Eden, the garden of God.

Every precious stone was thy covering.

So this is the passage of scripture that a lot of people get when they say Satan's beautiful.

The description.

You ever heard someone say that?

They're like, you know, Satan was created by God and he had all these precious stones, and he was.

He was beautiful.

That's the.

This is the passage of scripture that they're getting this from.

Okay, because it says in verse 12, beauty, right?

Perfect in beauty, thou has been in Eden, the garden of COVID Every precious stone was thy covering.

The sardius topaz, the diamond, the beryl, the onyx and the Jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, the carbuncle and gold.

The workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created.

Okay, now maybe some of you have heard that Satan was musical, that he had the musical talents.

And we do know that that's the passage of scripture that they get that from.

By the way, thy tablets and thy pipes was prepared indeed the day that thou was created by the way.

Let me just stop there.

Another false teaching of Satan is that he is equal with God.

He's God's counterpart.

No, Satan is created.

It says right there, Satan is a created being that, yes, God did create, but he is not equal with God in his eternality.

And I'm gonna pause there because this is something that is very, very important in the concept of Satan tempting us and coming after us.

He is not omnipotent.

Omnipotent is all powerful.

Nothing in scripture says that he is all powerful.

Nobody is all powerful outside of God.

Now, is he powerful?

Let me stop there.

Is he powerful?

Yes.

He's more powerful than me.

Far more powerful than me.

And I would never be able to go against him.

And none of us could either in our own strength.

He is not omnipresent.

The Bible speaks of him being at one place at a time.

Omnipresent would be that someone is everywhere.

And we know that God is everywhere.

Satan is not everywhere.

He's limited and we could point to a few different passages of scripture that talk about that.

So some people think, well, you know, Satan's everywhere and he's always looking.

Satan is limited.

I will say that he, I can't describe this other than the fact that he travels a lot faster than we can travel.

So he can be a lot more places than we can be just because of the ease of access of the prince, of the power of the air.

But number two, Satan, as we're going to study later on in this study with fallen angels and what we would call demons, he has help.

And we don't know the numerical amount of the help that he has, but it's substantial.

We'll talk more about that.

Even when Jesus is casting out the demons, it's legion.

So there's more than four or five.

There's a lot.

So again, just want to stop there.

So he's not omnipotent, he's not omnipresent, and he's not omniscient.

Omniscient means all knowing.

Satan is limited.

Is he smart?

Yes.

Is he crafty?

The Bible says very much so, yes.

Smarter than me, but not all knowing.

Okay, so he doesn't know your thought.

And this is a whole debated topic and this is something that I cannot prove.

But I don't believe that Satan can read your thoughts and get into your heart and, and indwell us, especially as believers.

You cannot do that.

And the Bible says that the Holy Spirit indwells us.

Therefore the Holy Spirit and Satan or a demon cannot indwell us.

I believe that firmly he and the demons can affect us, no doubt.

So I don't think he can read our minds.

And that's the other topic that some people say.

Well, can he hear us?

Yes, he can hear us.

And we'll get into the whole time.

I had a question come in and I'm getting ahead of myself is, well, then should we even pray out loud?

We'll get to that.

We'll talk more about prayer and the concept of that, but don't worry about it.

Yes, you can pray out loud and I will get to that later on because God's more powerful than the enemy.

But anyway, I digress with that, but I just wanted to let you know that he is not all powerful, omniscient or omnipresent.

All right, so going back, that was that idea of the musical nature in verse 13, verse 14, Thou art the anointed cherub.

So it references him being a cherub.

And that's a specific type of angel which is described in other places and you can read up more on that.

Don't want to take the whole time in describing a cherub, but it's a.

It's an angelic being.

Thou art an anointed cherub that covereth and have.

And I've set thee so.

Thou wast upon the holy mountain of God.

Thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire.

Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created till iniquity was found in thee by the multitude of thy merchandise.

They have filled the midst of thee in violence.

And thou hast sinned.

Therefore I will cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God and I will destroy thee.

O covering cherub from the midst of the stones of fire.

And so it goes on and explains more of what he did.

Defiled sanctuaries, verse 18, verse 19.

All they that know thee among the people shall be astonished at thee.

So that speaks to the idea that he can sway the masses.

Thou shalt be a terror and never shalt thou be anymore.

So there's the Old Testament reference.

Obviously there's other Old Testament references, but those are the major two that we get a lot of our basic understanding of who Satan is and the descriptions of him.

And so I think that that summarizes that I could elaborate.

I don't.

And by the way, through this, we don't want to glorify evil because remember what I said at the very beginning, there are people that will never emphasize evil, Satan or the demons.

And there will be other people that overemphasize it.

And it's all they talk about.

And it's almost like there's an excitement to the evil.

And we don't want to do that either, but we want to just clarify and talk about what the word of God says.

So we also know that Satan's first appearance in scripture is in the book of Genesis.

And we know that Genesis chapter one, God created the world and it was good.

And then shortly after, we know that Satan tempts Eve, Adam and Eve sinned.

And the Bible talks all about that in Genesis chapter three.

So let's go to Genesis chapter three, kind of just trying to get this piece by piece.

I know looking at the clock, there's no chance I am going to get to all the information that I have here.

So this might be a two, three part series.

And by the way, it won't only be about our enemy, it will also be about how we interact with evil, how we don't interact with evil and how we can coach other people towards the truth.

Because if you're dealing with an unsaved person, there's going to be a lot of misconceptions about this kind of stuff.

And even if you're dealing with a saved person, if they've been taught the wrong things about this, there can be some real hindrances to spiritual growth because of these things.

So going back to Genesis chapter three, we know what happened.

Satan comes and tempts Eve.

But I want us to walk through this process because I think that a lot of times we think that Satan is recreating these new things today.

And though Satan is using modern tools and modern culture, it's the same lie from the very beginning.

The same thing that he brought to Eve and Adam in the garden is the same thing that he's doing today.

And I want us to kind of break down Genesis chapter three and see what his MO Is.

What does Satan want us to do?

Let's look at it here in verse.

We'll start in verse number one.

Okay.

And we'll go from verse number one to verse number 15, and then we'll be done.

Okay.

It says now the serpent was more subtle than any beast in the field, which the Lord God hath made.

And he said unto the woman, yea, hath God said, you could stop there.

That's what he's questioning God.

He's questioning what God has said.

He's questioning the Word.

So where Satan attacks is Satan's okay with everyone going to church.

Satan is okay with everyone claiming to be religious.

Satan is okay with big buildings and big programs.

What Satan attacks is the word of God.

That is what is the foundation to the Gospel.

It's what's the foundation to how we teach the truth.

And so.

So he wants to attack the Word.

And that's what he does from the very beginning.

He questions what God said.

Right.

They didn't have the 66 books of the Bible back then.

Adam and Eve, all they had was what God told them.

And so he's questioning what God tells them.

So he says, hath God said, ye shall not eat of the tree of every tree of the garden?

And the woman said unto the serpent, we may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden, but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch of it, lest ye die.

And there's a lot that we could talk about there, but basically, Eve takes it Too far.

And the concept of she infuses something there that God had said, just don't eat of it.

But yet Satan is going to twist things here.

And the serpent said unto the woman, ye shall not surely die.

So he lies.

So everything based in Satan's tactics is a lie.

And he wants to undermine the word of God by lies.

So take it to today, okay?

This thing that you're going to do is not a sin.

You can justify it.

God said this, but he didn't really mean that.

He's wrong.

He doesn't want you to enjoy yourself.

And so that's why people sin, right?

There's that enticement, verse 5.

For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof.

This is in part of character of Satan.

Then your eyes shall be open and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.

So he says, hey, you know, you'll be like God, you be your own God.

Okay?

So there's a word that starts with an H that isn't talked about a lot today, but we should talk about it more and it's called humanism.

Humanism was the first lie that you can be God.

We are our own gods.

You are in charge of your life.

And so Satan was telling Eve there and by extension Adam is be your own God.

Isn't that what we're hearing today?

Be your own God.

If you actually look at people that claim to be Satanist, okay, a lot of Satanists don't even actually believe in a real satanic creature or being.

They just believe that it's a teaching, that you do what you want to do, you're your own God.

Now, I wouldn't encourage you to go deep into the depths of their teachings, but what I will say is that the core of what we call modern Satanism is humanism, okay?

And you can see humanism tied to every other element of life.

Okay?

So think about it.

Everything in the world is all about humans.

Starts with the.

You ever heard about the Enlightenment period back in the 1700s?

Do some research on that.

It was before we needed God, now we don't need God.

We can explain things through science, we can explain things through reason, we can explain things through evidence.

And so therefore now we don't need God.

And it was a big lie that was told and spread.

And obviously to this day there are people that say, well, we don't need God.

And that was Satan's original lie.

We could go further into that if you want to know more about that.

I can talk more about humanism.

So verse six.

And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, so she saw that it was attractive, she saw that it was going to be good.

She believed that it was going to be good and that was pleasant to the eyes.

And a tree to be desired, to make one wise.

Lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, pride of life, okay?

The New Testament says those are the three areas.

Lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, pride of life.

So she says, it's pleasant to the eyes, it's going to make me wise, it was good for food, it makes me feel good, it looks good, it's going to lift me up.

Same old story, okay?

She took of the fruit thereof and did eat and gave also to her husband with her, and he did eat.

Now, so the big question is, well, whose fault was it, Adam or Eve?

We'll get into this when we're studying the book of Romans.

The Bible says as by one man, sin entered the world.

So actually Adam is the one that's guilty.

Now, Eve sins, but the responsibility in Romans chapter five goes to Adam.

And then we know that through one man, salvation comes in Jesus Christ.

And that's why Jesus is sometimes called the second Adam.

So anyway, don't get on a rabbit trail there, but anyway, he goes, okay, eat it.

They eat it.

Verse 7.

And the eyes of them were both open and they knew that they were naked and sewed fig leaves together.

So they try to make their own way and made aprons.

Obviously God confronts them and you guys know the story, so we're not going to go into that part of it, but God confronts them.

Ultimately they recognize that they sin and they confess and they try to hide for a little bit.

And then ultimately God is going to extend the curse.

But verse 13, I do think this is verse 12, actually, this is interesting.

The man said unto the woman, and the man said, the woman, whom thou gavest to me to be with me.

So Adam blames Eve.

It's the classic.

The husband blames the wife for the sin she gave him me of the tree, and I did eat.

And the Lord God said unto the woman, what is this that thou hast done?

And the woman said, the serpent beguiled me and I did eat.

So she can't blame her husband, but she then blames the serpent.

So it's.

It's the classic idea of passing along the blame where we started at the very beginning.

Can't blame someone else for our sin.

We can't blame Satan for our sin.

It's on us.

Verse 14 and we'll get to verse 15 and that'll be it for the night.

And the Lord God said unto the serpent, because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle and above every beast of the field.

Upon thy belly shalt thou go, and thus shalt thou eat all the days of thy life.

So there's the curse against Satan.

And then here's the ultimate thing.

And I will put enmity between thee and the woman and between thy seed and her seed.

And so there's a reference to her seed.

This is what's called the proto evangelium, you would say.

What is that?

It's Proto Evangelion, first gospel.

Okay.

This is the first mention of the gospel in all of the Bible.

Genesis, chapter three.

Some people say gospel isn't mentioned all the way until, like, the New Testament, right?

No, all the way from Genesis.

And so what does it say?

The seed of the woman.

Who's the seed of the woman?

Jesus.

Okay, Seed of the woman.

It says here that Satan will bruise his heel, but ultimately the seed of the woman, Jesus would bruise his head, which meant death.

And so it's Jesus who is going to be the conquering element of sin.

Jesus is the one who's going to pay the price.

Jesus is the one who's going to conquer Satan.

So the beginning of Satan is pride.

The end of Satan is destruction.

God is going to defeat him.

So we end with that.

We end with that today.

Satan is a defeated foe already.

He's fighting hard.

I believe he thinks that he can change the script.

I believe he thinks he can cause chaos in this world, which he can, but he can't change his outcome.

The outcome was set from the very beginning that he would be defeated.

Now some would argue why.

Why has God allowed Satan to do what he's doing for so long?

And the only answer that I can give.

I could give you the true answer.

The truest answer is, I don't know.

But if we wanted to extend ourselves to try to understand the concept of why, we could say that God is long suffering, he's patient, and he wants as many people as he can to come to him in love.

And so therefore he's extending this period of time for those to come to him.

When will that run out?

I don't know.

The Bible says that that ultimately could be any day.

But what I can say as a believer is this.

I'm thankful that the victory is already done.

It was foretold here.

It was finished at the cross.

Jesus conquered death through the resurrection and the rest is we're on the winning side.

And so I don't want us to study this, this aspect of scripture by saying, oh, it's like a defeatist.

Satan is so powerful and we can't defeat him.

The Bible says that God has already done the defeat.

Like in Romans chapter 8.

If you want, you want some homework, read Romans chapter 8 before we go any further.

In this, it says we are more than conquerors.

The Greek word for that.

Sometimes the Greek jumps off the page.

It says in the King James, it says more than conquerors.

Which I like that, more than conquerors.

But in the Greek it actually has the idea of like super conquerors.

Like we are super conquerors in Christ.

We're more than conquerors.

If you think of a conqueror, someone has defeated a foe and they're winning and they get all the spoils of the war, all the blessings of that victory.

The Bible says we're more than that in Christ Jesus.

And so there's nothing that can separate us from the love of God.

And it gives a long list of things that people think might separate them from the love of God.

But nothing can separate us from the love of God.

Therefore, the victory is in Jesus.

We sing that song, Victory in Jesus.

It's not just because it makes sense, like it's a cool song and it rhymes.

No, it's the truth.

It's a theological truth.

So when we're studying Satan, we're studying a defeated foe.

But yet at the same time, the Bible says to be cautious of him because he can, he can devour.

And if you're not saved, or if you know people that are not saved, Satan is wanting to take their soul.

He's wanting to take their eternal destination.

He's trying to take as many people as he can with him in his defeat.

But then some people say, well, I'm saved.

He can't take my soul, he can't take my eternal destination.

But what I will say is that he's trying to destroy your life.

If he can get you to allow yourself to be destroyed in your Christian walk, you're not going to affect anybody else.

And he says, okay, that's a one off.

I'll cut my losses there.

But they're not going to affect anybody else.

The more you fight for the truth, the more he's going to come against.

And I will say this as a believer, that's not something to fear, that's something to embrace and say, that's okay, I got the victor on my side.

And so when we speak Of Satan, we speak of someone who can greatly affect the church.

He can come in the midst of the church and he can allow.

He can plant seeds.

And the Bible speaks of it as seeds of discord.

He can plant division.

Jesus prayer.

In John, chapter 17, it says high priestly prayer.

He prayed Jesus, Jesus heart.

We say we want Jesus will, right?

We want God's will, Jesus heart.

He prayed to the Father and said, I want them to have unity.

Unity.

Don't be against each other.

And so if that's what Satan's or that's what Jesus heart is, Satan's heart is the exact opposite.

He wants to do everything he can to not have unity in the church.

So he'll do anything he can.

He doesn't play by the rules.

We're going to talk about next week how he's the accuser of the brethren.

What does that mean?

We're going to talk about that.

We're going to talk about how he's the father of lies.

We're going to talk about how he's.

And it speaks of a couple different things that he does.

But we're going to go and we're going to move to Matthew chapter four.

And if you know anything about Matthew chapter four, that's Jesus temptation, right?

And it's very interesting to study how Satan goes after Jesus.

And obviously we know that Jesus is the perfect example for us.

And so he's giving us the tools how to fight against the enemy.

And I think it would be very, very helpful.

So the answer to the question, who is Satan?

He's a created angelic being in rebellion against God fell because of his pride.

He wanted to be like God.

And we saw the description of him.

He's not a red guy with horns and a pitchfork.

That comes from other sources we could talk about.

He's not the king of hell.

He's not living in hell and ruling hell.

He didn't create hell.

That was something else.

Through a guy named Milton who wrote a book about him kind of ruling the dead.

That's not who he is.

He's not the guy that you see on TV shows.

That's real.

Whatever.

That's not who Satan is.

We have to go off of what Scripture says.

So same thing with God.

Don't take your beliefs in God from.

Well, this is what I saw on this TV show.

Like, okay, it might be true or it might not be true.

And I know people.

Pastor, are you against us watching TV shows?

No, I'm not against you watching Christian TV shows.

But I just.

I'M just like, be careful.

Please be careful not to get your theology from that, allow that to drive you to scripture to read what the Bible says.

So I will never tell you something about Satan that is not in scripture.

So I wanted to take you to that Isaiah 14 passage.

That's where people get their ideas.

Ezekiel, Genesis, and we'll get more to Revelation and we'll talk more about how his end will be and some, some of the last ditch things that he will try before the end.

And but, but as I'm studying here this evening, I realize that this is too long and so I'm gonna have to cut it off in like two or three different sections.

But all right.

Anyway, if you have any more questions, follow up questions for me, you can ask them.

I don't know if I'll have the answer, but I'll try my best.

Thank you again for listening to the Middletown Baptist Church podcast.

I hope that this sermon has been a blessing for you.

If you would like to find out more information about our church or this sermon, you can find us at middletownbaptistchurch.org or find us on Facebook or YouTube.

You can also email me directly at Josh Massaro, Middletown BaptistChurch.com if you've enjoyed this podcast.

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Thank you so much.

God Bless.

Have a wonderful day.