Know Your Adversary Series

We are starting a series of Sermons on Spiritual Warfare.

One of the most important things that we can do as we prepare for all-out war, is to understand the force that we will be fighting against.

1. Satan is the Father of Lies

a. Even before time began

i. From a couple of Old Testament passages, we understand that Satan was a chief Angel.

ii. He decided that he wanted to be like God, and convinced other angels to along with him.

iii. He started the darkness

b. Genesis: here Satan attempted to destroy God’s creation

i. He did it by telling a lie.

c. Jesus gave him that name:

i. John 8:44: You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.

1. Jesus tells us that Satan has not just lost his way, but that he is speaking in his native language: Lies

2. What is your native language?

a. How do you choose to speak? Is it with words of truth or with words of lies.

b. If you read the context around John 8, you will find that Jesus is calling out the Jews for listening to the lies of Satan.

c. What was true for them is true of many of us, we would rather listen to the lies of Satan than the truth of God.

d. Same problem today as in the garden: WE BELIEVE THE LIE: GOD DOES NOT LOVE US ENOUGH TO PROTECT US.

i. Many foster kids struggle with trusting people, so instead of believing that they are safe, the rebel.

ii. We do the same with God.

Why does Satan Lie to us? Because he is:

2. Satan is opposed to God

a. He is so opposed to God, that he wants to stop you from following God.

i. His greatest desire is to see everything that God does destroyed, and that includes you!

ii. He lies to get you away from god, and then he bombards you.

iii. Remember, Satan is not a fried of man.

1. He may lure you in, but regardless of what you do for him, he goal is still destruction of you.

iv. Satan has strategies that he uses to defeat the work of the church (or every believer)

1. Persecution

2. Discord and division

But the greatest threat that Satan has is his position as the:

3. Satan is the founder of a masquerading church

a. And his goal: to destroy the message, and by doing so, destroy the redemptive work that Jesus does in the believer.

b. How does he go about this:

i. Apostasy and heresy

1. He greatest threat to the church, is to create a church that looks like and sounds like the real deal, but does not preach a true salvation.

2. 2 peter 2:1-2 - But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them—bringing swift destruction on themselves. 2 Many will follow their depraved conduct and will bring the way of truth into disrepute.

3. Just this week, we heard a former leader of the church say, “and the church will continue to be even more irrelevant when it quotes letters for 2000 years ago as their best defense.”

a. See what he did there? He said that the Bible no longer matters.

b. This is the work of Satan.

i. If he can convince the church to stop following the truth, then he thinks that he has won a decisive victory .

But thinkfuly, we know the truth…

4. Satan is defeatable

a. That’s right he can be defeated. And will be defeated.

b. What can we do now to defeat Satan?

i. First: Draw near to God

1. James 4:7 – Submit yourselves, then to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

2. The best defence we have against Satan is a relationship with Christ.

ii. Second: Wage war differently.

1. This is not hand to hand combat like we see on TV, but a war of prayer

a. This weapon has the power to demolish strongholds and keep Satan from victory

i. 2 Corinthians 10:3-5 - For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does.4 The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. 5 We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.