Who Is The Devil?

And all Satan needs is a little toe hold in our lives or as one person put it just a little nail.

Dr. Tony Evans shared this illustration that came from the land of Haiti.

There was this particular man who wanted to sell his house for $ 2,000. At the time houses sold for next to nothing in Haiti. He couldn’t find anyone to buy his house but there was one man who did offer him $ 1,000.00.

Seeing that it was the best offer the owner made a proposal. He would sell the entire house except for a nail above the back door. The man didn’t think anything about it so he agreed - $ 1,000 for the house with only the nail above the back door still being under the control of the original owner.

After some time the original owner came back and wanted to repurchase the house. He had decided that it was a great house and he wanted it back. However, the new owner and his family had settle in and were living quite nicely. They politely refused.

During the night the original owner found the rotting carcass of an animal and hung it on the nail he owned over the back door. The new owner couldn’t do anything about it because in the contract he signed he stated that he would allow the original owner to own that nail and have authority over it.

Of course you know what happened. The family couldn’t stand it. The smell of rotting animal was just too much. They knew that once this animal was gone the man would just find another. They finally gave in and agreed to give back the house. There was just no way they could stand living there.

That is a perfect picture of the Devil. He doesn’t want our whole house at first; just a small place to hang his nail. Then when we don’t expect it our lives are filled with all kinds of rotting things – evil things, evil habits, evil thoughts and evil actions. In the end the Devil will be in total control. That is why the Apostle Paul stated so strongly in 1 Thessalonians 5:21-22

“Test all things; hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form of evil.”

We are never to get into a conversation with the Devil. Once a temptation comes whether it is from him or from one of his demons we are to shut it down with prayer and scripture.

Notice what Jesus does in Matthew chapter 4 –

We need to understand that the Devil has never been any match for Jesus. How could he be – the Devil is a creation – Jesus is God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit. But Jesus endured the temptation to tell us how we are to face temptations

+As soon as something suspicious came to his mind, Jesus checked it against the Word of the LORD

+Any reply Jesus’ gave was saturated with God’s Word

+Over and over again Jesus spoke about His Absolute Commitment to God and God only

In the end, Jesus put all of His trust, obedience and status in His Heavenly Father and the Holy Spirit.

This morning, we face an age old foe – one that has been around a lot longer than we have been this morning. He is crafty. He will lie – He does lie. He will manipulate, deceive, create chaos, attempt to divide, and attempt to have us focus on the mundane, the earthy and the flesh.