(For the purposes of this message, I used the New International Reader’s Version of the Bible)
How many times have we been told something in our lives that are presented as pure truth, just to find out they are not true? Has anyone ever told you something that was “really for sure”, and then later you found out it was incorrect?
We receive many emails that tell us “facts” that are supposedly very true, yet when we go to one of the places online that delineate truth from fiction, we find out those “facts” are not true at all.
For instance, I received an email a while back that said President Bush had ancestors who were Muslim. And this email went on to give names of those relatives. Of course, this is not correct. Bush’s ancestors came from Europe, not the Middle East.
Another email keeps coming around saying that we need to contact the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) as quickly as possible, because they have been petitioned to shut down all religious broadcasting.
They have received letters by the thousands over the years, protesting this action. The trouble is, there has never been any petition before them to do any such thing. We have to be very careful what we believe, because most of it is not true at all.
And this same tendency is brought into our Christian beliefs. We know many things that, when investigated, just don’t prove true. For instance, much about what we know about the devil just isn’t reality. And that is what I want to talk to you about today.
I want to talk about three things that we know about the devil that, when taken to the Bible, end up being myths or legend, but not the truth.
The first thing we know as fact that turns up false is …
1. SATAN IS EVERYWHERE
I have had people tell me over the years they know Satan is in the middle of their marriage, or that Satan rules their homes, or that Satan spends all his time attacking them. Each of us tend to think that we are his primary targets, don’t we?
First of all, none of us are that important to him, until we start doing things that glorify Jesus to other people. That is when he, or his demons, starts trying to steal our focus from Jesus.
Satan cannot be in more than one place at one time. Only God can do that. And since God can be everywhere at once, He knows what is going on everywhere – all the time. You can keep no secrets from God.
GENESIS 1:1 tells us,
‘In the beginning, God created the earth.’
JOHN 1:1-3 talks about Jesus being the Word, and reads,
‘In the beginning, the Word was already there. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. All things were made through him. Nothing that has been made was made without him.
HEBREWS 4:13 says,
‘Nothing God created is hidden from him. His eyes see everything. He will hold us accountable for everything we do.
We have not been taught the clear and perfect truth of God’s word. Therefore, we have come up with beliefs about Satan that are very wrong. One of those beliefs is that Satan is on the same level as Jesus. That He is the equal to Jesus! There is no equal to Jesus, on earth or in heaven. Jesus stands supreme, as He is also God.
If you need to compare Satan to anyone, it would be more accurate to compare him to the archangel Michael. Both were God’s creation.
We picture Satan as being all red, carrying a pitchfork, and having horns, with a snarl on his face and having the eyes of a madman. Those stories date back to the 11th century, but do not date back to the Bible.
How did we happen to picture Satan like that? Scholars believe that this myth came about in steps. First of all, Satan is seen as red because that denotes the color of something that has been burned.
The pitchfork shows that he has the capacity to hurt us and cause us much damage. The horns represent our fear of mean animals who can attack us. And the snarling mouth and evil look in his eyes represent out of control evil hatred.
But that is not the picture the Bible paints of him.
In EZEKIEL it says that he was the model of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. It says that on the day God created him, he made him beautiful.
So what do we know for sure about Satan so far? We know Satan was not here since the beginning of time, but that God created him. And when he created Satan, he made Satan to be perfect in beauty. No pitchforks. No red skin. No horns and certainly no crazy look in his eyes.
And we know that Satan cannot be everywhere at once, because he is not God, but a creation of God. Therefore, he has limits. And if he is not everywhere at one time, we tend to put him in a box and assign him a place to be. Thus, came about the story of ….
2. SATAN IS THE ONE IN CHARGE OF HELL
We have put Satan on a throne that sits in the middle of hell itself. We look at him as this evil boss who has a lot of little demons running around doing his will. This is another early attempt at making Satan look so bad that people would want to stay away from him.
And Satan loves it when we do things like this, because if we are focusing on myths, we aren’t focusing on what he really can do to us if we let our guards down.
We are told this in JOB 1:7 in a conversation between God and Satan.
‘The Lord said to Satan, "Where have you come from?" Satan answered, "From traveling all around the earth. I’ve been going from one end of it to the other, seeing who I can destroy."
Satan is not sitting in hell. In fact, Satan is not in charge of hell. Satan is running around on this earth day and night, along with his minions, to see who he can attack and steal away from Jesus Christ.
In MATTHEW 4, Satan meets Jesus in the wilderness. He tries his best to get Jesus to worship him, and even offers to put Jesus in charge of many earthly kingdoms. But Jesus directs Satan back to the written word and tells him not to test God.
This, too, shows that Satan is in charge of the earth, not of hell. Again, three times in the book of JOHN, Jesus refers to Satan as the “prince of this world”, not as the “prince of hell.” In REVELATION 2 we find a letter to the church at Pergamum. It says that city is where Satan’s throne is.
1 JOHN 5:19 says,
‘We know that we are children of God. We know that the whole world is under the control of the evil one.’
This verse tells us two things: It tells us that we are children of the Most High God, but it also tells us that Satan is in charge of this world, and not of hell.
You might ask who is in charge of hell if Satan isn’t. Jesus is. And in the book of REVELATION, it tells us that Jesus will be the One who eventually throws Satan into hell, where he will be bound forever and ever.
REVELATION 20:10 reads,
‘The devil, who fooled them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur. That is where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. They will all suffer day and night forever and ever.’
So if you have always thought that Satan was in charge of hell, you need to realize that is wrong. Satan is in charge of the world, but he will end up in hell.
Now, another misconception we have is that …
3. SATAN IS THE SOURCE OF ALL OUR PROBLEMS
If you are like most people, you think all your temptations and all your evil thoughts come from Satan. Many of them do, but many of them don’t, too.
Most of us remember the comedian, Flip Wilson, who used to say, “The devil made me do it!” And we think the devil makes us do everything bad. That is wrong, too.
See, the devil can offer you all the temptations in the world, and that is all they are – temptations. He cannot make you accept them. As I have said before, he will make those temptations look almost too good to pass up, but the key word is “almost.” We have one strength that will enable us to turn down his gift.
JAMES 4:7 tells us that we can resist the devil
‘So obey God. Stand up to the devil. He will run away from you.’
So, even though Satan can influence us, we do have the strength to resist him. That strength is found in Christ Jesus.
PHILIPPIANS 4:13 says
‘I can do everything by the power of Christ, who gives me strength.’
I said it was a myth that Satan is the source of all our problems. He is part of the source, but we are the other part.
Every since the fall of man, when Eve convinced Adam to eat what God had told them not to eat, man has turned his heart away from God. And we are still doing that today.
ZECHARIAH 7:12 tells us,
‘They made their hearts as hard as the hardest stone. They wouldn’t listen to the law. They wouldn’t pay attention to the Lord’s messages.’
We have a choice. And we always tend to pick the wrong choices first. We pick what the world offers before we pick what God offers. And that causes a hardening of the heart. And, as the heart hardens, our ability to choose the right things diminishes. And, from the evil that creeps into our heart, we make those wrong choices.
So, even though all that evil originally comes from Satan, we allow it to come into our hearts, and that shows that we cause our own damage, too.
I hope that you see more of the truth about Satan now rather than just seeing the old myths and fairy tales about him. And I pray that, as you see Satan for who he really is, you also see that Jesus is higher than Satan, and Jesus is much more powerful than Satan is. And, as a child of God, you have that power through Jesus – if you choose to access it.
And as we learn about, and adjust to, the truth about what Satan really is and where he rules, let us also understand a little about how he operates. Here is how Satan tries to trick us.
No matter what God offers us, Satan offers us an alternative.
PROVERBS 14:12
‘There is a way that seems right to men, but in the end, it leads to death’
Now, that alternative sometimes looks very good and seems like it makes more sense than any other way. That is the pretty paper Satan uses to wrap his temptation in. Be very careful which decisions you make, as one is from God and the other one isn’t.
Satan likes to confuse us so we don’t know what’s going on! Have you ever felt confused and lost? It is when we “think” we are being good Christians that we lose our ability to judge correctly so that we “know” we are being good Christians. Here is an example of what I am talking about.
A young woman started coming to church who had a very checkered past. She soon came forward and gave her life to Christ. From that point on, she tried her best to do what she thought Jesus wanted her to do, and she tried to not let her past interfere with her walk with the Lord.
A couple years passed, and she grew deeper and deeper in love with the Lord. She also began to feel a love for the pastor’s son, who was the same age as she was. And she noticed that the feeling was mutual. Pretty soon, a relationship developed, and about a year later, they made plans to get married.
And the congregation began to whisper and gossip about this wonderful son who was making the worse mistake of his life. When that information got to the pastor’s son, he stood before the congregation the next Sunday and very softly said:
‘I am hurting for all of you today, and I feel called to pray for each of you.
It appears that you are somewhat confused about the issue, the ability, and the power of the total redemption power and forgiveness of the blood of Jesus. All have sinned and fallenl short of the glory of God. No sin is greater or smaller than another. The same precious blood cleanses all manner of sin.
I hope that, as you talked about my fiancé’s sins, those that have been forgiven, that you begin to focus on those sins of yours that have not yet been forgiven.’
The congregation was confused because of the gossiping nature that Satan offered to them. They didn’t see anything wrong with telling others about it, because it was just watching out over the young man’s best interest, right?
It seems like the right thing to do, but when taken to the Bible and compared with God’s word, we find that gossip is never the right thing to do, and it will lead to your spiritual death. So stop it. And then ask forgiveness from those you have offended, and then take it to God for His forgiveness.
Another way Satan keeps us tricked and unfocused from the truth is by putting all kinds of stumbling blocks in our way. The more we have to fight things in front of us, the more we tend to circumvent them and take another path. The problem is the other path is rarely the right one to take.
I think one of the biggest hindrances the American Christian finds today is the notion that we are divided into two parts; our sacred self and our secular self, or, our Godly self and our worldly self. We have fallen for the belief that they should be kept separate because they do not mix.
In our current presidential campaigns, we find commentary on both sides that infer if a person is a true Christian, they shouldn’t let that influence them in the white house if elected.
That is what man thinks is right. But that thinking is wrong and will lead to spiritual death. We cannot keep God in a closet and expect to live the Godly life. We cannot be ashamed to live for Him and still expect to be invited into His house.
We try to take the stance that aggravates neither side. We take what seems like the easiest way out, and convince ourselves that it is the way God wants us to go. And then, we close our ears so we don’t have to listen to the truth. By doing that, it is like straddling a barbed wire fence. You don’t end up on either side, and only get hurt because of the position you’ve taken.
God has given us the simple truth of His word. If we look at it as such, and abide in it, we shall prosper.
The unhappiest person in the world is not someone who didn’t get what they wanted, but who got it and then found out that it wasn’t as wonderful as they had expected.
The secret of a happy life is not to get what you want but to live the way God wants you to live. Most of us spend our lives concentrating on what we don’t have instead of thanking God for what we do have. Then we wake up to find that our lives are over and we missed all we could have found in it.
A young couple got married and they set about trying to better themselves like we all have done. They both got jobs and worked very hard, looking forward to the day when they could afford a house and a family so they could have the good life.
After a period of time, they got their home, but things were tight financially because she got pregnant and had to quit work. He began working a lot of overtime so they could still have some of the good life.
A few years later, he had to take on a part-time job in addition to his regular job, because they now had four children and things got really tight. But they kept looking forward to the day when they could just relax and enjoy their home and their children.
When the kids went to college, she had to get a job to help meet the expenses. But that was okay, because they looked forward to when the kids would be on their own and things would settle down so they could enjoy life.
And then, one day they found themselves sitting on the porch of the nursing home, looking at the pictures they had taken of their family over the years. As they sat there, holding hands, they fondly remembered the ‘good old days.’
Satan wants to keep us so busy we cannot focus on what God has given us. Even in church, he wants us to be so busy in church that we have no time to focus on Jesus. That is how he puts stumbling blocks before us. Don’t let him rob your focus on following the Lord.
Satan has influenced today’s church to wholly consider the worldly point of view – and to accept it! Our society avoids acknowledging sin for what it is, and instead teach that or problems are a result of our having a lack of opportunity.
Our society avoids the need to confess and repent. We are told all we need to be happy is to have greater self-esteem, and that we need to look out for #1, because if we don’t do it, nobody else will.
And our society will only you talk freely about religion if you acknowledge that everyone will eventually go to heaven, no matter what they believe.
So why are we surprised when people come to church with a non-repentant heart, or come to church and not really understand who Jesus really is, or even understand the difference between spiritual right and wrong?
Everybody wants an answer as to what is wrong with society today. Here are some actual letters from children written to pastors, because they had questions and wanted answers.
· Dear Pastor, Are there any devils on earth? I think there may be one in my class.
· Dear Pastor, How does God know the good people from the bad people? Do you tell Him or does He read about it in the newspapers?
· Dear Pastor, How can I be sure that when I get to heaven, my brother won’t be there?
· Dear Pastor, I know God loves everybody but how could He love my sister?
· Dear Pastor, I think a lot more people would come to your church if you moved it to Disneyland. Is that possible?
The title to this sermon is, The Truth of Satan. I am going to give you several truths to Satan right now. Listen to them and see if you can see evidence of any of them in your life.
· Satan will blind you to God’s truth so you will be so confused you don’t really know what you should do.
· If Satan cannot blind you to the truth, he will give you a lie to keep you from looking at the truth.
· And Satan will offer you the most beautiful looking temptations you ever saw! But remember that temptations is much like crack cocaine. One you indulge, you instantly become a life-long addict. And that addiction to sin will surely cause you to lose your spiritual life.
There is only one cure for that addiction, and that is to believe with all your heart, all your mind, and with all your soul that Jesus is the Son of God, and that He loves you so much, He came down here from heaven just to make sure you were safe – because that is what He offers you.
Will you reach out and accept that gift today? That means you must know the truth of Satan so you can realize the truth of Jesus. Satan will cause you nothing but harm. Jesus knows the plans He has for you, and they are all meant to give you a hope, a future, and to spiritually prosper you
INVITATION
This sermon was influenced by Jim Bucher’s sermon entitled: Three Things Everyone Knows About Satan (But That The Bible Says Are False), and by Reese Blanchett’s sermon entitled, Satan’s Stumbling Blocks, and Satan’s Secrets.
