Satan's Back And God's Face - James 4:7 Series

Well, if the Bible promises that if I resist the devil he will flee, and he doesn’t flee, that only leaves one possibility – I wasn’t really resisting him. You see, it is possible to resist sin or resist temptation without really resisting the devil himself. As I was studying this, and I had the question, “What does James mean by ‘Resist the devil’?” I started looking back in the book at what James says the devil’s work is. And the focus is not just on temptation. In fact, James gave us a whole section on temptation in chapter 1 and never even mentioned the devil. So resisting the devil is more than just resisting temptation. It is a fight against a person.

Look Past the Temptation to the Person

When we fall into sin, we need to understand that was not just some random impulse. There is a person who led you step-by-step down a path that resulted in you falling into that sin. And this person is a vicious, evil, angry, hateful spiritual being who is determined to do you the greatest possible harm. He disguises himself as an angel of light, but the reality is he really hates you, his teeth are bared, and he wants nothing for you but your total destruction. And worse than that, he hates God and is doing everything he can to dishonor God. Do you really want to cooperate with that? When we are being served some sinful delicacy on a platter, we would do well to look up and see who it is who’s serving it to us. Then we will wake up to the fact that this is a lot bigger than just, “Am I going to do the right thing or the wrong thing?” It is that, but it is also, “Am I going to cooperate with a monster that’s trying to ruin me?” Second Timothy 2:26 tells us what happens to people who do not resist – Satan takes them captive to do his will. Resist him or be enslaved by him - those are the only two options.

The Power of God

“Okay, so I’ve come to grips with the fact that Satan is behind this temptation. Now what? What do I do now that will make him run away in fear?” I think it is safe to say that nothing is going to make Satan run away in fear unless we introduce God into the picture. He is the only one who can scare Satan, because he is the only one who can hurt Satan. Satan is not going to be afraid of me – what am I going to do to him? If we are going to make the devil flee, we are going to need some divine firepower. And yet, this command is directed to us. He doesn’t say, “Wait for God to scare Satan away.” He tells us to do it. It is something we can do that will unleash God’s power on Satan and send him running. What is it? What does James say about the devil’s work in this context? If you haven’t been with us – James has been making the point that all our hostile speech, and our fights and quarrels – it all comes as a result of us buying into the world’s values, the world’s perspectives, and the world’s way of thinking. James calls that earthly wisdom. And guess who the author of earthly wisdom is.

James 3:15 Such “wisdom” does not come down from heaven but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic.