Dealing with the Devil

Well, I do want to say welcome to all of you once again to this wonderful Holy Day, this Day of Atonement. And in turning our focus on to this day, we are going to turn our focus on to Satan the Devil. And the title of our message is Dealing with the Devil. Dealing with the Devil. And if you have your Bibles, I invite you to open them to Ephesians chapter 6. Let's turn there. Ephesians chapter 6. And we're going to read in just a moment verses 10 through 13. Ephesians 6 verse 10 through 13. And I'd like to start off our study on this great day of atonement by asking a question. Perhaps a few questions. First question, what is actually wrong with our world today? What's wrong with our world?

How come it is so unbelievably broken? You know, these are questions that have increasingly come into our hearts, particularly, I would say, over the last few years with the surge of the epidemic, the virus, the civil and racial unrest that we see on the streets here in America, the wars that we see around this world. We've been asking ourselves these questions. And perhaps we, one of the primary purposes in coming together on the Sabbath and coming to God and coming to His Word is to have the answers, to understand, to have a deeper understanding to the answers to these questions. What is wrong with the world? How do we account for all the atrocities that we see in these days? Atrocities. What is the explanation for the lack of unity? Lack of unity despite all of our attempts amongst the nations? Lack of unity despite all of our attempts in our homes?

Lack of unity despite all of our attempts in the church? Even in God's church? Why have we felt so much in these attempts? Why all this conflict? Perhaps the overarching, most important question, when will it all end? When will all these conflicts end? Now again, it may come as no surprise that the Day of Atonement enables us to grapple with these questions. And in fact, Ephesians 6, verses 10-13, we see immediately here that Paul is made aware of the answer to these questions. Let's read it together. This is his closing words to God's people in Ephesus. Ephesians 6, verses 10-13, Paul concludes his letter by saying, Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in heavenly places. Therefore, take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all to stand. Let's stop there. So I think it is obvious that Paul has been given understanding by God here, deeper insight into the world in which we live and deeper insight into the worlds, we could say, in which we live. Paul is making clear to the Ephesians, making clear to us today, that the conflict which we are experiencing here on earth is directly related and tied to the conflict in the heavenly realms. Okay, I'll repeat that. It's this acknowledgement, this truth, that the conflict which is happening here on earth is directly tied to conflict in the heavenly realms. I wonder if you ever thought about it in that way. This fact may ring true to us today. You know, when you look around at the events, the horrific events that we see around us, I know many of us through conversations have just, we get the notion, the spine-tingling notion, that there's something far deeper than we're seeing, than what we see just merely on the surface. It's the feeling that there's something far more sinister behind all these horrific events, and particularly those events that are in fierce opposition to God in His ways, fierce opposition. We know God's Word is being attacked His way. We also see that those carrying the testimony of Jesus Christ are also being manifestly opposed. It was how it was at the time of Ephesus. These men and women, as they were called and as they were responding to that call, they were having extreme persecution placed upon them as they declared Jesus Christ as their Messiah. Extreme persecution came to them. Why? Well, simply put, as we see here in verse 11 and 12, it all originates from the devil and from the rulers of the darkness of this age. And they are, in fact, opposed to Christ and therefore opposed to His followers.

What is wrong and why all these conflicts in the world? Again, Satan and the demons are the current and, thankfully, temporary rulers of this world at this time. Paul doesn't get this information or pull this information just from his own thinking. In fact, we see that this was announced from the very beginning. If you will put your marker here, we will come right back. Let's turn to the beginning where this announcement was made of this great conflict. Some of you are already ahead of me, but it's Genesis 3. Let's read verses 14 and 15 here.

Genesis 3, verse 14 and 15. Because we see here that Scripture speaks of a serpent, Satan the devil, and God reveals that the origins of this great conflict occurred from the very beginning. Let's look at this. Genesis 3, here it is. Here's the origins. Verse 14 and 15.

Genesis 3, verse 14 and 15. So the Lord God said to the serpent, to the devil, because you have done this, you are cursed more than all cattle and more than every beast of the field. On your belly you shall go and you shall eat dust all the days of your life.

Here's the announcement of this conflict. Verse 15. And I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your seed and her seed. He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel. Let's stop there. So you see seed there, and verse 15 is capitalized. I will put enmity, extreme immense hostility. That means immense conflict between you and the woman, your seed and her seed. This is the announcement of the conflict, and it is the announcement ultimately between the devil and God's people. Ultimately, it's a conflict between the devil and all of mankind. All of mankind will have the opportunity to be a child of God. But here is the conflict. In the bruising of the heel of the woman's seed, that's a metaphor of Christ's crucifixion and death, a death which could not hold him. So it was only a bruising of the heel, if you will. After three days and three nights, he was raised from the dead, establishing the destiny of the eventual bruising of Satan's head.

So while although Satan bruised his heel to harm the Savior by instigating the crucifixion, that is true, but it is also true that Christ is risen from the dead. And it is now written into the very unfolding of time that he will one day bruise not only the heel of Satan, but in fact he will cast a fatal blow to his head. Satan could not prevent Jesus Christ from being raised back to life, and therefore he cannot prevent Jesus from ultimately defeating him. So Genesis 3.15, you have this prophecy that will eventually point forward and does point forward to the ultimate victory of Jesus Christ over Satan.

But until that ultimate fulfillment, there is enmity, intense hostility between man, those followers of Jesus Christ, and the devil, and his demons. So we won't turn there, but for your notes, 1 Peter 5 verse 8, 1 Peter 5 verse 8, we are instructed to be sober. You know, this day of atonement is a very sobering event. We are afflicting our souls and fasting, magnifying the soberness. 1 Peter 5 verse 8 says, Be vigilant, because your adversary, the devil, walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.

Today, he roams to and fro from the earth, seeking whom he may devour.

And as a result of this adversary, all conflict in the world can ultimately be traced to that one root, all conflict. Now, you will not hear it hit this on the evening news. I can guarantee you that.

You will hear it here, but you will not hear it on the evening news. I don't think I've ever heard anyone saying on the newscast, well, you know, there's no surprise that we're having racial conflict, because after all, we exist with conflict in the heavenly realms. More news at five, you know. You don't hear that. Or you don't hear, in these times of great conflict between Russia and Ukraine, we understand that all of it originates from a great cosmic battle that ensues in a realm that we do not actually see. Now to sports, you know. No, you don't hear this truth. Why? Because people by and large do not have any notion what Paul is speaking about in Ephesians chapter 6. No notion. Let's turn back there, if you were, Ephesians 6. By and large, people have no notion of what Paul speaks about fighting not against a physical enemy. Ephesians 6 here again, verse 12. We do not wrestle against flesh and blood. It's very clear. Who is the battle against? It is against principalities, powers, rulers of darkness, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.

Philip's commentary puts it this way, quote, we are up against the unseen power that controls this dark world, the spiritual agents from the headquarters of evil, unquote. That's interesting. Spiritual agents from the headquarters of evil. So this is to realize that all the conflict, all these conflicts do not simply result from political bumbling or ineptitude, or all these conflicts do not result as a part of misinformed or careless people. Rather, all the conflict and atrocities are traceable to the fact that within the corridors of power, within the governments of this world, there are dark, sinister, unseen forces at work. Let me just show you an example of this. Again, we'll come right back to Ephesians 6, but if you would just turn briefly with me to Daniel chapter 10. Daniel chapter 10, and we'll read verses 10 through 14. Within the governments of our world, there are dark and sinister, unseen forces that are at work. Here in Daniel 10, and we're just going to break into the the narrative here. Daniel was in great despair in Daniel 10. He had just been given a vision that it was not good news for God's people returning to their homeland. They had been besieged by these governments of Persia and Greece and initially Babylon. All these governmental forces came and were overtaking them, and he had just received a vision that things were going to get worse. It wasn't good news, and so we're going to break into the narrative here in verse 10, because I want you to just equate all that was happening on the ground level of Daniel and his people and God's people. Equate that with the conflicts in the conflicts in the heavenly realms. Daniel 10 verse 10, suddenly a hand touched me, so Daniel had just had this vision, which made me tremble on my knees and on the palms of my hands.

And he said to me, this is an angel, oh Daniel, man greatly beloved, understand the words that I speak to you and stand upright, for I have been sent to you. So this angel had been dispatched to Daniel. While he was speaking this word to me, I stood trembling. Verse 12, then he said to me, do not fear Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart to understand this vision and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come because of your words.

Verse 13, but the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me 21 days, and behold Michael, the archangel, one of the chief princes, came to help me, for I had been left alone there with the kings of Persia. Now I have come to make you understand what will happen to your people in the latter days, for the vision refers to many days yet to come. Let's stop there.

So you understand what this is saying. So Daniel had been given this vision. He had sought for interpretation. He had cried out to God, an angel's dispatch to give Daniel this information, and the angels held up by a king of Persia in the demonic realm, held him up for 21 days until Michael came and helped release him so he could come to Daniel and fulfill the purposes to why he was dispatched to him so he could give him the interpretation of all that was going to come from that vision. So is there demonic forces assigned to certain areas of the country and over those people that are making these governmental decisions? This particularly was a demonic demon who was in this realm. It's quite obvious. It was trying to thwart God's purposes. So all the conflict in the earthly realm, we see parallel happening in the heavenly realm.

But I'll just give you a little hope with the fear that this can ensue and come into our hearts. I'll have you know that there at the end of verse 14, the vision that's referred to many days yet to come, it's still happening. The end is going to happen just as God foretold, despite all the the efforts put in, all the evil work to thwart to these things.

And so it is that the very people who are making decisions here in the earthly realm, wittingly, unwittingly, perhaps, may be the very agents or pawns of these things. Sounds so bizarre, doesn't it? But it's the truth of the Bible. And if we were ever once to pull back the curtain, and the spiritual world behind it came into view, it would expose to our vision a struggle so intense, so convulsive, so sweeping, everything within its range, that the fierce battle ever fought on earth would seem by comparison a mere game. Again, our earthly struggle, it is a representation of all the unseen spiritual struggle that's all around us. And it is a struggle that will in fact continue until Christ comes, and a great day of atonement is fulfilled, binding the devil and his incomplete evil realm. In all that great day of atonement, we will have freedom from the one who has instituted this conflict from the beginning. So this is our focus. This is our focus on this great day of atonement. And it's the focus of Paul. This is what he wanted to leave his, the people, God's people in Ephesus with this understanding. So if we turn back to Ephesians 6, we understand Ephesians 6 verse 12 that we cannot make the mistake of fighting the wrong battle. We have to understand the battle is not against flesh and blood. If we believe it's just against flesh and blood, we're going to spend a tremendous amount of time fighting the wrong battle. If we have a conflict in this physical realm, where's the first place we go to prepare for it and to prepare to have victory in the end? Well, we go to that which is spiritual. We go to that realm where the conflict is actually occurring.

Now, I don't know, some commentators say they go to great lengths to say, Ephesians 6 verse 12, they seem to suggest that there's four tiers of spiritual opponents. You'll notice Ephesians 6 verse 12. We do not fight against flesh and blood, but against principalities. There's one, they say powers. There's two rulers of the darkness. There's three, and again spiritual hosts of wickedness. There's four, four tiers of spiritual opponents. I don't know if I'm opposed.

I don't think I'm inclined to that view. The reason I'm not inclined to that view is I know Paul's writing style. And if you look at Ephesians, his writing style is just to heap words upon words and descriptions and adjectives, and that's just his nature and how he writes. So I think he's heaping up the phrases here just to point to the fact that this battle is cosmic, it's all-embracing, and Satan is at the helm of it all. He's not arguing for the existence of it, you'll notice. He assumes that God's people have no doubt that there is this evil spiritual realm. There's a few reasons why they don't have doubt, and it comes from a few experiences that they went through, and I want to just show you one experience.

If you'll keep your marker here, let's turn over to Acts chapter 19. Acts chapter 19, beginning in verse 11. You'll see why Paul didn't have to spend much time arguing for the existence of it. They knew of these demonic spiritual realms. No doubt, and I'm going to show you one instance why they knew beyond a shadow of a doubt of the existence of this evil spiritual realm.

One example is found here in Acts 19, beginning in verse 11. I'll give you a little build-up. God was doing extraordinary miracles through Paul, and now we're picking up to these miracles. Acts 19 verse 11. Now God worked unusual miracles by the hands of Paul so that even handkerchiefs and aprons were brought from his body to the sick, and the diseases left them, and the evil spirits went out of them. So Paul was enabled to do this by God, and the people around here, them, witnessing this, understood he was removing evil spirits, continuing here. Look at what happens next. There were Jews which were intrigued by this, and they tried to do the same thing.

Verse 13. Then some of the itinerant, that's the traveling, some of the traveling Jewish exorcists took it upon themselves to call the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, we exercise you by Jesus whom Paul preaches. Also, there were seven sons of Siva, a Jewish chief priests who did so. And so they tried to evoke the Lord Jesus on behalf of Paul over these demon-possessed individuals.

Verse 15. And the evil spirit answered, the evil spirit answered, and said, Jesus I know, and Paul I know, but who are you? So the evil spirit calls their bluff here, verse 16. Then the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, overpowered them, and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that house, naked and wounded. Let's stop there. So again, the Ephesians didn't need any convincing about the reality of demonic activity, spiritual warfare.

They had seen these seven guys, clothes torn off, bashed, beaten up, bleeding. You know, they would have said, what happened to those seven men from Siva? Well, did you hear about them? So no one had difficulty at this time understanding the spiritual realm. So much so, look at verse 17 and 18. So much so, verse 17 and 18 says, this became known both to all Jews and Greeks dwelling in Ephesus, all Jews and Greeks dwelling in Ephesus, and fear fell upon them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified, and many who believed came confessing, telling their deeds.

And then look at what happens next, those who had practiced sorcery. Look what happens next. There's a public bonfire here, verse 19. Also, many of those who had practiced magic brought their books together, burned them in the side of all, and they counted up the whole value of them, and it totaled 50,000 pieces of silver. Let's stop there. A piece of silver corn was about a day's wages. So this represents 50,000 days wages here. That's a lot of satanic activity. That's a lot of individuals dealing in satanic activity. And in this way, verse 20, so the word of the Lord grew mightily and prevailed.

So when we read in Ephesians, you know, I want you to be strong in the Lord. I don't want you to be it doesn't say I want you to be strong in your own might. It says I want you to be in His mighty power. They had firsthand a witness of how pathetic and weak they were against these forces.

They knew they needed armor, spiritual armor. We need to be wearing this armor. You know, do we need to be convinced of the power and evil of the spiritual realm in this world in which we live? You know, if we're convicted and convinced of this, we will pray with greater urgency for the fulfillment of the day of atonement, where on that day Satan the devil and all of his minions, if you will, will be put away, put away for a thousand years. Can you imagine a world without Satan the devil and all of his influence? Think if the world believed this. You know, we're about to spend, as a society, multi, multi millions of dollars on a political campaign that will focus on the next four years. Millions and millions of dollars. Can you imagine if the world believed this, what we could do with those resources? We could pour those millions of dollars in bringing hope, true hope, not for the next four years, but true hope for eternal hope, for the coming kingdom of God, a hope when Satan the devil will be put away, one day for good. It's not the world's mission, but it's ours. It's ours. You see the impact there in Ephesus of what banishing Satan and his demons can do. Look at that impact of this bonfire and those, and God's word spread greatly throughout the region. This is our purpose in banishing Satan from our lives to make this impact. Banishing Satan from us as a church, banishing conflict, banishing anything that is of the devil. That's our purpose here, individually and as a church, so we can make this impact that was made in Ephesus. We can bring about this day of atonement in our lives today. We do not have to wait. This can come, we can bring it about in our lives today. But this is what we're up against. When we are bringing light to the world, you will discover that there is no code of honor. We're coming against people, individuals that have no moral principles. There are increasingly no higher ethical feelings, utterly ruthless. How do we make sense of the dreadful Holocaust of abortion?

How do we explain the embracing of pornography and filth and degradation in our culture?

It's because of a prince of a power of darkness, Satan the devil. And so much of society is either wittingly or unwittingly subjects of this power of darkness.

We look around at the decisions of our culture and our society.

You know, if you ever try to go head to head with some of these decisions that are being made, it's impossible because it's impossible to even have effective arguments because we're not starting with even standing on a base foundational level.

There is no idea of morality. There's no idea of God who has the right to put forth law and truth and has the right to govern his people as he says. And the church lives in the midst of this world.

Jesus says, I pray that you not take them out of the world, but that you what? You keep them from the evil one. So we're supposed to be in this world, but we're supposed to keep ourselves from the evil one with the grace of God. So we need to be followers of Jesus Christ out in all of these areas, making a difference. So therefore, you see how crucial it is.

And I'll say this again. I may say it again before the end. That anything associated with the the Satan the devil or his way of life, we must banish it from our lives. You know, when I participate in small measure, in large measure, in things of the devil, and I think about how how I'm pleasing him and not pleasing God in that moment. And the gut-wrenching thought that my actions could actually cause the celebration in the demonic realm, is I participate in sin instead of my actions causing celebration in the heavenly realms with God. It's just a gut-wrenching, gut-punch to know that every time we participate in those activities, that sin, we are not putting Satan out of our lives and we're not fulfilling this great day of atonement.

Well, back to Ephesians 6 and verse 4. Ultimately, it was Paul's great concern that God's people would stand in the midst of this darkness.

This was Paul's major theme surrounding this discussion of these demonic realms, is that God's people would stand in the midst of it. If you look at Ephesians 6 verse 4, he says, he begins this conclusion to his letter that way, stand therefore.

Ephesians 6 verse 13, therefore take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, stand, withstand there. Verse 14, that you will stand in the midst of it. That you may be able to withstand in the evil day, stand, withstand there. Verse 14, that you will stand firm then, stand therefore. Again, verse 14.

And then he goes on to introduce the armor of God. Perhaps we'll get to the armor of God in a later time, but God wants us to put this armor on so that we'll be able to stand to the end. We can't be wobbly Christians, if you will. We can't, we need to deal in the realm of black and white, not gray areas. There are areas in which we need to engage in discussion, but ultimately God's Word is black and white.

Use discernment in how you're entering into these discussions. Sometimes coming out with the black and white isn't the proper approach. You know, you say, well, let's talk about this, and let's discuss this. And you can say, well, I know the Bible is clear when it says this, and so therefore I live my life based on this, you know. Stand, stand firm.

But I'll ask you as we begin to conclude, are we standing firm on this understanding that the battle is not with flesh and blood, it's ultimately spiritual battles. So what physical struggle are you going through today? A physical trial, a physical challenge that's up against you, that is seemingly winning. Think of that trial at this moment, and I'll acknowledge today that it's ultimately not a physical battle. You got to get your mind set. You got to understand what battle you're fighting. It's ultimately, all these conflicts are ultimately not a physical battle. So therefore, our victory will not come by physical strength or physical techniques. It'll come by primarily bending our knees and bowing our heads. If you can't physically bend your knees, that's okay. You can bow your head in humility and reverence. Bring it to your father. He's the one that can help. Take anything that's of the demonic realm in your life, a sin that you've been dealing with, bring it to the father. That's where the victory will ultimately begin. Again, if God were to pull back the curtain and show us what is happening and going on in the city of London, Kentucky, where we are today, I think it would drive us to our knees in a new way. God has raised us to a realm of victory, but also to warfare. Let's stay reminded that we do not fight against flesh and blood, but against powerful, evil, cunning spiritual forces. May we pray today that God will give us the ability to stand. May we pray today that God will protect us and provide for us. And I will conclude with Paul's words here. Finally, my brethren, may we all be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might.