“And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience.”
In a British radio broadcast circa 1943, reading one of his own essays, C. S. Lewis was discussing some of the basic Christian beliefs. In talking about the personal existence of the devil, Lewis anticipated the scoffing of the so-called enlightened modern thinkers who would relegate the idea of a devil to just a symbol of immorality, or a myth upon which to lay blame for one’s wrong behavior. He said, “I know someone will ask me, ‘Do you really mean, at this time of day, to re-introduce our old friend the devil - hoofs and horns and all’? Well, what the time of day has to do with it I do not know. And I am not particular about the hoofs and horns. But in other respects my answer is ‘Yes, I do’. I do not claim to know anything about his personal appearance. If anybody really wants to know him better I would say to that person, ‘Don’t worry. If you really want to, you will. Whether you’ll like it when you do is another question’.”
- Mere Christianity
“What Christians Believe”
I will not waste my time in preparation, or your time in listening to/reading this sermon, arguing the existence of the devil. Anyone who sincerely wants to know the scriptures and is willing to believe that what God’s word says is true, will see that the Bible makes the personal existence of the devil very clear. He has a name. In fact, he has several names. He talked to Jesus and Jesus talked back.
Anyone who will deny his existence is ignoring the preponderance of scriptural evidence, and they are either deliberately and willfully ignorant, or do not intend to believe the bible anyway. So as I said, I won’t waste my time and yours.
The problem is, there are many churches today; the liberal churches; the ones that have adopted the theology of the world system, that teach that there is no actual person that is the Devil (capital “D”), and I have to admonish you to stay away from those false teachers. They will lead you into error. They are dangerous.
I think today we should just begin with the premise that Satan is real, he is a person, a created angel who was cast from Heaven when pride filled his heart, has this world and the hearts of men as his domain; and let’s talk about what his key objectives are.
In II Corinthians 2, Paul tells his readers that forgiving one another is important so that no advantage be taken of them by Satan, and he says, “...for we are not ignorant of his schemes”.
And without taking that thought out of context, I believe we can take as a wise bit of advice, that we also should not be ignorant of Satan’s schemes.
So let’s put him on the hot seat today and see what he’s up to.
THE PRINCE OF THE POWER OF THE AIR WANTS TO FRUSTRATE LIFE
I have often said that man’s fallen condition makes him ‘backwards’ in respect to the things of God. Not that I’ve come up with anything new there; it is just the way I express the truth, that apart from God we are really the opposite of God.
And of course, the man in sin is serving sin, doing the will of Satan, so we can say that Satan, in his very essence, is opposite, or diametrically opposed, to God.
Now I want to be careful here that I do not lead you to think that I am preaching error. I don’t want you to get the impression that I am putting God and Satan in some kind of New Age equal-but-opposite-plane theology.
That would be to take away the personality of both, and say that the idea of God is the representation of the good side of the universe, and Satan is the representative of the bad side.
Or going even farther, for those who do not want to concede to any absolute good or bad, but see all things as relative, then we would say the “God concept” represents light, and the “Satan concept” represents dark.
That is where George Lucas and those of the same belief system get the Light side of the Force and the Dark side of the Force, of ‘STAR WARS’ fame.
But when I say that Satan is the opposite of God, I do not mean those things. What I mean is that since he, and all mankind in sin are diametrically opposed to God, hateful rebels against His Lordship, then the fruit you will see in the lives of men and the acts of Satan, are opposite of God.
So when we say “God is light” in essence, then we would say that “Satan is darkness” in character. If God is love, then Satan has no love in him. If God is the Good Shepherd, then Satan is the evil scatterer. Get my drift?
Now I know you will agree with me, that throughout the scriptures we see God bringing forth life.
From Genesis 1:1, throughout, we see God making life.
He called all things into being, and breathed the spirit of life into the first man.
When sin and the righteous judgment of God required that the earth be destroyed, God sustained life through it, and brought forth life upon the planet when the judgment was done.
Everything that man and Satan did to kill and destroy, God turned around for good and brought forth life from it.
Joseph’s brothers tried to kill him. God brought forth life. Israel went down into Egypt. God brought forth life. Pharaoh tried to kill all the male babies in the camp of the Israelites. God brought forth life. Herod tried to kill the emerging Messiah. God preserved Him. Satan tried to kill Him in the garden. God protected Him and strengthened Him. Evil men tried to kill him. God brought forth life.
He is the life-giver. He is Life.
So Satan deals in; rejoices in, death.
Hebrews 2:14,15 says,
“Since then the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and might deliver those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives.”
Is this saying that the devil has the power of death, in the sense that he can kill or let live at will? Of course not, if you think about it. God has the ultimate power over life and death.
Satan’s ‘power’, was that he held mankind under the constant expectation of death for sin.
Listen to Andrew Murray on the subject:
“In the very nature of things it could not be otherwise than that man, when he turned from God, the fountain of life, to Satan and to self, fell under the power of death. He had yielded himself to Satan, and Satan had the power over him. As the jailer keeps the prisoner under the authority of the king, Satan holds the sinner in the power of death so long as no true legal release is given.”
We might say, Satan has no power to bring death, but his power over us is death, and the fear of death.
What the writer to the Hebrews is telling us, is that Christ became flesh (since God cannot die), and in the flesh He died in order to offer us life, thereby removing the fear of death from us, thereby snatching Satan’s own sword right out of his hand.
If we do not fear death, then Satan has no power, no leverage, over us. Nothing with which to intimidate us. Nothing with which to enslave us.
Satan’s purpose is to stop life. To frustrate it. To block it, wherever he can. Think of all the evils of the world, and behind them, eventually, is some form of death. Wars are obvious. Violent crimes are obvious, but even those we see as less violent also bring a sort of death. Rape brings death to innocence and self-esteem. Burglary brings death to any sense of security in one’s own home.
And we can go on. Lying brings death to trust. Covetousness brings death to any faith in God to provide... etc,
We must be aware, Christian, that Satan’s goal is to frustrate life, and be wise as serpents... always on our guard. Because he cannot touch you or me, but he can oppress and attempt to deceive, and we must remain aware of his devices in order to continue to walk in victory.
What things can bring death to our intimate and significant daily communion with the Father? Our prayer life?
Busy-ness? Depression? Worry? Doubt? Come up with your own list if you will, but then step back and look at that list, and think about who or what is behind each of those conditions that stop your praying, and guess who you’ll find in the end; lurking in the darkness?
What things can bring death to our family and church relationships? Make your own list... and again, the one you see leering out at you from their dark corners, is the one who wants to frustrate life in any form, by any definition, because he is diametrically opposed to the One who gives life to the dead and calls into being that which is not.
Now I want you to see that:
THE PRINCE OF THE POWER OF THE AIR WANTS TO NULLIFY THE GROWTH AND WORK OF THE CHURCH
I could be biting off a really big chunk here.
We could not possibly fully address this one issue today, or even in a series of sermons.
Just think about the battles the church has fought through the centuries, to keep itself pure of the influences of the enemy.
It started with Ananias and Sapphira, and continues with the apostate church of today; the so-called Christian church that denies the Virgin Birth, the shed blood of Christ to atone for sin, a final judgment, with eternal damnation for the unrepentant, and, as I said, even a personal devil.
From saint-worship and other heretical doctrines of the Roman Catholic church, to the Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses and numerous other cults that have arisen in the name of Christianity; behind them all, is the one whose purpose is to nullify the growth and work of the true church by any means available to him.
As I said, it’s a big subject to attack here; let’s just bring it down to our lives and the local church.
All of us here have seen it, and most have been the victims of it. The hateful things that have been done; the ungodly attitudes that have driven people from the church, vowing never to darken the door of another one.
The bitter arguments within committees, over the most ridiculous of issues.
Or the feuds between brothers and sisters within the church that carry on for years because no one will back down, and while the battle rages on, no one seems to notice that the Holy Spirit has long since ceased to do any work in or through that congregation.
I recently read a blurb about a church in the Bible belt, I can’t remember which State is was in; the source didn’t mention the specific town. Two deacons had been at odds with each other for years. If one had an idea, the other would oppose it as a matter of course.
One day, one of these deacons hung a peg on the back wall of the sanctuary so the pastor would have a place to hang his hat as he entered. The other deacon became so enraged that this had been done without consulting him, and raised such a fuss, that the congregation was finally split over it and half of them went and started another church in the town. The article said that to this day the two churches are referred to in that community as “Peg Baptist” and “Anti-Peg Baptist”.
It is so pathetic as to be funny. But any of us who have been in the church for some years, have seen the same type of story again and again.
People will leave the church for the most absurd of reasons, their self-pride not allowing them to humble themselves before God and their brethren so that He can do a sanctifying work in their lives and continue the process of conforming them to the image of His Son. They’ll leave the church altogether, or roller-skate from one church to the next, always ready to roll down the street at the first minor perceived infraction of their own brand of Christianity or affront to their ego, never coming to realize that they are surrendering their soul for Satan’s use, and presenting the members of their body to him as weapons to use against the kingdom of God.
In I Peter 5, Peter is exhorting his readers to humble themselves before God, putting themselves entirely under His mighty hand, trusting in Him and in His loving care. Then he goes on in verse 8 to say:
“Be of sober spirit; be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls about like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.”
Jesus Himself, exposing Satan for who he really is, described him this way in John 8:44
“...He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature; for he is a liar, and the father of lies.”
So we need to be alert and aware, Brothers and Sisters in Christ, that the enemy of our souls, the enemy of our Father in heaven, the enemy of our Lord Jesus Christ, wants to nullify the growth and kingdom work of the church.
But more than that, we have to understand and stay alert to the fact that he cannot do it himself! He must have our yielded members to work with, and if we yield our members ~ meaning our bodies and our minds ~ to him, he will use them as weapons of unrighteousness against the One we call Savior and Lord; he will use them to nullify growth and kingdom work through us as individuals, and us as a church.
He prowls about like a roaring lion, seeking the weak and the unaware. Therefore,
we must not be ignorant of his schemes.
Next I want you to see that:
THE PRINCE OF THE POWER OF THE AIR WANTS TO KEEP SOULS FROM HEAVEN
Now this brings us back into sharp focus on our text today.
Ephesians 2:1 says,
“And you were dead in your trespasses and sins...”
One of Satan’s most clever ways of keeping souls from the kingdom of Heaven, is by blinding them to the fact that they have a condition that separated them from God; a condition that must be dealt with by the Life-giver Himself.
You’ll hear people talking about God as though they really know something about Him. The more flippant of them will go so far as to refer to Him with terms of familiarity; such as the ‘Man upstairs‘, or the ‘Big Guy‘.
But they don’t know they are dead.
Friends, when you have opportunity to witness the gospel message to someone, ~ and I do pray that you look for those opportunities and make use of them ~ when you do, you must tell them that they are dead in trespasses and sins.
We cannot be squeamish about telling them the whole truth, at the risk of their eternal souls.
No one can come to God unless he first realizes he has a need for salvation. If he is brought into the church under any other pretense, he will not be here for the right reason, and he will either not be here long, or he will stay, comfortable, but with a veil over his eyes, and become increasingly hardened to any prospect of conviction of sin and an attitude of repentance.
People have to be brought to the point of despairing over their helplessness in the face of eternal death, so that they can turn to the Life-giver and appropriate to themselves His gift of eternal life.
It is the Holy Spirit who removes that veil; but we are responsible for disseminating the information He will use to do that. Not that He cannot do it without us; but we have been given the privilege of working with Him in this endeavor. Read Matthew 28:18-20
As those dead in trespasses and sins, Paul goes on to say, they are:
“...walk(ing) according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience.”
Satan wants to keep them walking according to the course of this world; a world that is passing away. A world that is under the curse of sin, and continues to produce death as sin’s result.
He wants to keep them focused on self, and the pleasures of the flesh, and the temporal comforts of this life. He wants to keep their attention fixed on the preservation of the temporary; from personal makeup and health obsessions, to recycling and planting and ecology, which in themselves and put in their proper place are good things, but obsessed-over and taken to extremes, keep their minds from considering the eternal, or their need for a Savior, or their accountability to a Creator, and these things become gods in themselves, and souls are kept from Heaven.
They are walking according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience.
What is disobedience? It is failure to believe that what God says is true. It is lack of faith. It is disbelief.
And the spirit of disobedience, the spirit that is the prince of the power of the air; Satan himself, is working in them.
Do you remember that word from chapter 1, verse 19?
We saw that the word ‘working’ in 1:19 referred to an active energy. An on-going exertion of power to bring about in us, resurrection life.
This word in chapter 2 verse 2 is slightly different. It conveys the thought of someone doing something with a certain purpose or goal in mind.
I know it sounds like the same thing. Think of it this way. If you have a man using a power saw, the word in 1:19 would best describe the electrical energy being exerted to keep the saw going and useful. The word in 2:2 would refer to the actions of the man who is pushing the boards through the spinning blade.
The spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience, is in them to use them to accomplish his purposes. Not to bring about something in them; not to effect some good for them, but to use them as instruments of unrighteousness, and to accomplish the things we talked about earlier. Death. Disunity. Ineffectiveness. Impotence. All the things that are diametrically opposed to God.
Just let me point out clearly here, that Paul is talking to believers, and he is reminding them; reminding us; that we once were these things.
We were dead in trespasses and sins. We formerly walked as sons of disobedience, according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air. And he once worked in us...used us like puppets...to war against God.
Do you see in verse 3, the fruit of his working? We indulged in the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and by our very nature we were children of wrath. That is, deserving of God’s wrath against sin, and simply awaiting the day of wrath when the sons of disobedience will be finally judged .
But I want to close today, assuring you that:
THE PRINCE OF PEACE HAS TRIUMPHED
We’ve spent the bulk of our time today talking about Satan. That is the most unpleasant of topics, so I want us to kind of purge our pallets, so to speak, by turning our thoughts back to the Prince of Peace.
Verse 4 begins with two of the greatest words in the Bible. “But God...”
I won’t go further than that today because we’ll study these coming verses in more detail than I have time to give them now.
Just, for the moment, consider what we’ve been saying today.
The prince of the power of the air brings the fear of death and deals in death. He hates life and wants only to frustrate it. He works hard to nullify growth and effectiveness in the work of Christ’s church. He blinds the minds of the unbelieving and deceives them in any way he can, just to keep them out of Heaven.
BUT GOD...
Let’s go away from this today, carrying in our hearts these two words. “But God...”
We were dead in trespasses and sins... But God...
We walked according to the course of this world... But God...
We walked according to the prince of the power of the air... But God...
The spirit that now works in the sons of disobedience worked in us... But God...
And we will spend eternity, raised from the lowest depths to the highest heights, because as helpless and hopeless as our situation was, God intervened.
I want to give you an illustration, and I have to warn you that it is graphic and unpleasant, so forgive me, but get the message.
When I was a police officer, I was on patrol one day, and as I negotiated my patrol car around a gradual bend in the road, I came upon a cat that had apparently just been hit by some motorist ahead of me.
The cat’s head had been run over, and it was stuck to the pavement; but the entire rest of the body was still thrashing and flopping in those last moments before it died.
At the cross of Christ, in fulfillment of the prophecy of Genesis 3:15, Satan bruised Christ’s heel, but Christ crushed Satan’s head.
When Jesus died there for you and me, Believer, He took away Satan’s power forever. Through death, He rendered powerless him who had the power of death, that is the devil, and delivered us.
Oh, he’s still flopping and thrashing about...and stirring up the dust and making a lot of noise... but he’s a defeated foe, because of all that is contained in this phrase, ‘But God’
“The prince of darkness grim,
We tremble not for him.
His rage we can endure,
For lo, his doom is sure;
One little word shall fell him”
-Luther
