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16-Your Adversary, the Devil - How Satan Operates |
16-Your Adversary, the Devil - How Satan Operates
Matthew 17:14-21
Many of God's children live a defeated life because they do not recognize
the nature of the adversary and the kind of conflict in which they are
engaged. Our adversary is so cleverly and subtly camouflaged many do not
even recognize his existence. There can be no victory until we recognize
the nature of the war. It was this fact Paul emphasized in Ephesians
6:12. "We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against
principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of
this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places." We fight an
unseen adversary, but though he is unseen, he is powerful and formidable.
We recognize that Satan as a created being is not omnipresent. Although
the angels are supernatural, they are not gods and they cannot be
everywhere present as God is. The angels as personal beings did not lose
their personality in the fall with Satan. Nor did Satan lose his
personality because of the fall. The limitations placed upon Lucifer by
creation continue as his limitations after his fall, for Satan's
rebellion did not give him prerogatives that belong to God. So Satan
cannot be everywhere present at one time, warring against God and against
God's children. Satan has to operate through those angels that followed
him in his original rebellion.
Scripture has little to say concerning the extent of the angelic
rebellion. What Scripture does infer is that when Satan rebelled a great
host of created angelic beings followed him, and those who accepted his
leadership and rebelled with him are referred to as demons. This word in
the King James text is translated devils, but should more properly be
translated demons.
In Ephesians 6:12 Paul tells us that Satan has followed the pattern of
God's arrangement and has ordered his demons into different hierarchies
called principalities and powers and rulers. To each of these hierarchies
is assigned a different responsibility. Scripture does not tell us the
responsibilities assigned to these different groups. We do know that they
have one common purpose: to oppose God and to defeat God's program for
men in the earth as that purpose is revealed in the Scriptures.
In Revelation 9:11 there is another reference to this organization of the
demonic world where we find in the first ten verses that innumerable
demons have been released from the abyss which is the destiny of all the
fallen angels. They are released into the earth to inflict suffering and
torture upon men. In verse 11 it is recorded that "they had a king over
them which is the angel of the bottomless pit whose name in the Hebrew
tongue is Abaddon and in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon."
Apollyon or Abaddon means one who exterminates. Thus we find that the
demons are organized under the leadership of one who bears the name, One
who exterminates. Under his leadership these demons will be released in
order that they might exterminate the purpose or plan of God.
We know nothing of the numerical extent of the demons. We know that each
individual who has ever lived had a guardian angel. The Word of God makes
this very clear. The original extent of the angelic creation evidently
far exceeded the total number of all individuals who ever have lived or
ever will live upon the face of the earth. It would seem a valid
conclusion that the rebels organized under Satan equal or exceed in
number the number of the total population of the earth at any given time
from Adam to the end-time.
Evidently the demons don't like men. Scriptures seem to infer that when
given any choice they shun the scenes of human habitation. Christ, in
Matthew 12:43, speaks concerning demonic activity, "The unclean spirit
that is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest,
and findeth none." When a man was delivered from demonic control, the
demon went out into the desert or the wilderness to flee the place of
human habitation. Isaiah 13 refers to this fact again in symbolic
language, where in verse 20 he speaks of the city of Babylon that will be
destroyed, "It shall never be inhabited ." and in verse 21, "But wild
beasts of the desert shall lie there; and their houses shall be full of
doleful creatures; and owls shall dwell there, and satyrs shall dance
there." And in this symbolic language Isaiah says that this place which
had once been a center of world empire would be destroyed and left
uninhabited and would then become a dwelling place of demons.
Certainly demons are uncomfortable living around an individual who knows
Christ as a personal Saviour or in an area where God is recognized and
His authority honored. That is why we see less of demonic activity in our
country than would be evident in many places in the world. If you have
talked much with missionaries you know that as they go to heathen lands
that are utterly blind to the Gospel and to the truth of the Word of God,
they are impressed with the fact that they are surrounded by evil demonic
influences and they live under the pressure of that demonic presence.
While they are in a heathen land they are especially subject to satanic
attack because they are invading a territory occupied and possessed by
the enemy, and he resists their presence. One of the principal reasons
that we need to be faithful in praying for our missionaries is that they
have gone into the center of the enemy's camp to defeat the adversary.
You may be certain that they will be subject to all sorts of attacks by
the enemy to nullify their testimony, to defeat them spiritually, to
destroy their physical health and strength so that they cannot minister,
to surround them with countless dangers to prevent their ministry from
coming to fruition. The absence of the Gospel leaves an area subject to
satanic control in a very real way.
One of the devices of Satan has been to blind us to the extent of this
demonic activity, to delude us into believing that there is no such
person as Satan and no such persons as demons. If we deny their existence
we are not engaged in a warfare against them. We leave ourselves open to
their attack, and they may defeat or destroy us with ease. While many
people are willing to concede the existence of angels, they do not
recognize that demons are real personalities and exercise any influence
in our lives at all. Satan would like us to believe that such a doctrine
is the product of medieval superstition and has no place in an
enlightened twentieth century mind. That is a device of Satan to
camouflage his existence in our midst and his attack and influence on our
lives so that we will not be walking in Christian victory.
The Word of God has much to say about demons. If we were not basing our
doctrine upon the Word of God we would be most foolish indeed to venture
into this realm. Yet we have the revelation of the Word of God concerning
these facts and truths. In 1 Kings 22 you see the interesting fact that
Satan through demonic activity can control governments and movements in
the political realm. God has a purpose for this earth; that is to set His
Son, Jesus Christ in a place of authority as King of kings and Lord of
lords. It is God's purpose to subdue all kingdoms and tongues and nations
to the authority of Jesus Christ. That plan is under constant attack by
Satan who seeks to control governments and move governments away from the
recognition of the authority of God to bring them into subjection to his
authority so that he may exercise world-wide dominion. Many who follow
the front pages of the newspapers today would agree that Satan has done a
good job.
In 1 Kings 22 is an illustration of how Satan works in the political
realm. Verse 20 reads, "The Lord said, Who shall persuade Ahab, that he
may go up and fall at Ramoth-gilead? ." It was God's purpose to judge the
wicked king, Ahab, by having him fall in battle. Now to have Ahab fall in
battle he must have an adversary and a nation must decide to move against
Israel. So the question is asked how this could be arranged. "One said in
this manner and another said in that manner. And there came forth a
spirit, and stood before the Lord, and said, I will persuade him. And the
Lord said unto him, Wherewith? And he said, I will go forth, and I will
be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets. And he said, Thou
shalt persuade him, and prevail also: go forth, and do so."
Without going into all of the ramifications of this passage we see that
an evil spirit or a demon spoke to Ahab through his false prophets and
Ahab listened to the false prophets instead of listening to the true
prophet of God and Ahab followed the false prophets. When the false
prophets said he would be victorious, it was a lie. By accepting the
falsehoods of Satan, Ahab went into battle and was defeated, and he lost
his life. Demons moved in the political realm. The purpose of
overthrowing Ahab was to prevent David's Son from coming to David's
throne to rule as King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
The demons work, not only in the political realm by moving heads of
state; they also work in the religious realm. Several Scriptural passages
recognize this. In Leviticus 17 the people were going through outward
forms of religion, offering the sacrifices according to what was
prescribed in the law of Moses, but in verse 7 God said: "They shall no
more offer their sacrifices unto demons." In Deuteronomy 32:17 this same
fact is inferred, that when an individual offers a sacrifice to an idol
he is offering sacrifices to demons. In 1 Timothy 4:1 Paul says, "The
spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart
from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of
demons"-the doctrines that are being propagated by demons. Behind every
idol that has ever been erected to become a center of worship was a
demon, and demons propagate all of the false religions and the forms of
idolatry that ever have or ever will exist. This is a part of Satan's
deception. He works in the religious realm to prevent men from coming
under the authority of God that they might continue under the authority
of Satan.
The Gospels contain the greatest number of references to demonic
activity. This demonic activity was so prevalent because the Son of God
was personally present among men. When He was offering Himself as a
Saviour and Sovereign, Satan and his minions were whipped into a frenzy
of activity in order that they might oppose Him and defeat Him. Several
references will suffice here. In Mark 1:23-26 we read that when Christ
came into Capernaum there was ". a man with an unclean spirit [a demon];
and he cried out, Saying, Let us alone; what have we to do with thee,
thou Jesus of Nazareth? art thou come to destroy us? I know thee who thou
art, the Holy One of God. And Jesus rebuked him, saying, Hold thy peace
and come out of him. And when the unclean spirit had torn him, and cried
with a loud voice, he came out of him. And they were all amazed." Christ
stood there to present Himself as the Saviour. Immediately He was met
with an outburst of violence as the demon sought to hush the voice of
Christ as He explained the Scriptures to them. This is referred to again
in Luke 4:33. After Christ has presented Himself as the One who fulfilled
Isaiah's prophecy, we read, "In the synagogue there was a man, which had
a spirit of an unclean demon, and cried out with a loud voice, Saying,
Let us alone; what have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth? art
thou come to destroy us? I know thee who thou art: the Holy One of God."
These were men indwelt by demons, and the demons used them to oppose
Christ, to still the voice of Christ and to prevent Him from being
received by the nation Israel.
Demons do not have the power to materialize themselves. They cannot
assume a form or shape so that they can manifest themselves to men. They
are dwellers in the unseen world, spirit beings who do not have a body of
flesh and blood. To manifest their presence among men, demons must
possess or control a physical body whether it be the body of an animal or
the body of a man. We would not know of the presence of demons apart from
the disorder that they produce when they control a man. It was evident to
those in the synagogue in Capernaum that demons were present actively
opposing Christ. The evidence was seen in the outburst that came through
the lips of this demon-possessed man. There would have been no
consciousness of demonic activity or demonic presence apart from the
disorder in the synagogue. We find a good illustration of this fact in
the 9th chapter of Luke's gospel. In verses 38 and 39 a man came to
Christ, saying: "look upon my son: for he is mine only child. And, lo, a
spirit [or demon] taketh him, and he suddenly crieth out; and it teareth
him that he foameth again, and bruising him hardly departeth from him."
It was evident to the father that a demon was possessing and controlling
his son. The proof of that fact was in the disorganization and disarray,
the confusion, the suffering, that was produced in the life of his only
child.
Now the demons as they influenced men had their effect in several
different areas. First of all we find that demons working in the physical
realm could produce physical disease. Look in Matthew 9:32 and 33, "As
they went out, behold, they brought to him a dumb man possessed with a
demon. And when the demon was cast out, the dumb spake: and the
multitudes marveled, saying, It was never so seen in Israel." Now the
deafness, the dumbness, the physical infirmity that was produced by the
demon was a very real sickness. It has to be treated as such. But there
was a difference between being controlled by the demon and the physical
sickness that resulted from demonic control, and Christ had to deal with
both. He had to deliver the man from control by a demon and then deal
with the physical effects of this demon's presence in his life. From many
different illustrations in the gospels it can be substantiated that the
demons could produce physical effects. Demons affected men in the mental
realm. In Matthew 17:15 a man came to Christ and said: "Lord have mercy
on my son: for he is lunatic." This had to do with a mental derangement
or a mental disorder and the presence of this demon robbed the son of his
rational faculties so that his thought process was controlled not by the
individual but by the demon.
We find that demons had influence in the emotional realm as well as the
mental. This is inferred in Matthew 17:15 where the father said, "my son
is sore vexed." In Mark 9:18 it is suggested to have been an effect in
the emotional realm. A good illustration that Christ should heal this one
for he "pineth away." This seems of this is the familiar record given to
us in Luke 8:26-39. The demon-possessed individual we know as the
Gadarene demoniac had been ostracized from his own community. He found
his dwelling among the tombs. There he sat cutting himself.
He was bound, hand and foot, as men sought to restrain him. Here is a
vivid picture of what a demon could do. It affected his body so that he
had to leave his place of residence. It affected his emotions for without
doubt he sought out the tombs, an unclean place, because he felt unclean.
He had a guilt complex. The man was cutting himself. This was because he
was in such a mental state of depression that he counted himself unworthy
to live, and that emotional state was produced by demoniac control. There
the man sat utterly helpless and hopeless, brought to this situation, not
by something that he had done, but because demons had used him to promote
the purpose and program of Satan. We find then that the demons in the
physical realm could produce physical sickness; in the mental realm they
could produce insanity; in the emotional realm they could produce such
depression that a man would seek to take his own life.
In a former pastorate I had a medical doctor in the congregation who was
giving several days a week to serve in a state mental institution just a
few miles from where we lived. On countless occasions this doctor said
that the patient's need was not medicine but my ministry. It was the
doctor's way of saying that the state of that individual was not
attributable to physical causes but to spiritual causes or demoniac
activity. This is something to which we have largely closed our minds,
and we have denied that in so-called Christian America, Satan could have
any influence upon individuals twenty centuries after the time of Christ.
Satan's demonic activity is prevalent, real, and it is a part of our
warfare about which we must be informed if we are to have victory over
the Evil One.
Demons can control an unsaved man at will. The unsaved is a member of
Satan's kingdom and submits to his authority and submits without
resistance to control by demonic influence or activity. A believer can be
controlled by Satan through demons only by the consent of his own will.
Since the believer is a child of Cod and is in subjection to the
authority of Christ, Christ will prevent that one from being indwelt by a
demon. But demons may control a believer if the believer consciously
submits to that control and influence. Since we have not recognized this
possibility many believers may go through some physical affliction, some
emotional disturbance or difficulty, some mental difficulty because they
have not recognized the true source of the difficulty and come to deal
with it on the principles of the Word of God.
There is a danger in speaking of these things, for it is possible to
become so obsessed with demonic activity that it takes over one's
thinking. I was sitting at breakfast with a friend in a restaurant. In
the middle of our conversation he asked to be excused and he bowed his
head and had a short prayer. We resumed our conversation. A few minutes
later it happened again. I guess I looked somewhat quizzical and he
explained that he was undergoing a satanic attack and he had to call upon
Christ for deliverance. I said, "What makes you think that you are under
satanic attack here?" He said, "Didn't you see that drop of coffee drop
off the bottom of my coffee cup on my tie? That is a satanic attack." The
second time he had let a little scrambled egg roll off the edge of his
fork down into his lap and saw that as a satanic attack. I am not to say
whether it was, or whether it wasn't. Maybe he had more spiritual
discernment than I, but there is a danger that we become so obsessed with
this adversary that we see him where he just doesn't exist. But that is
not the great danger. The great danger is that we do not recognize his
activity in our lives.
The Word of God gives us our defense against the attacks of the evil one.
We have already referred to the account in Luke 4:35 where when Christ
was confronted by the demon-possessed man in the synagogue He said, "Hold
thy peace and come out of him." The authority of Christ was such that He
could control demons. They did His will, and the demon left an habitation
that he had been using to fulfill his purposes on the basis of the
authority of Christ. In the 17th chapter of Matthew's gospel, while
Christ was on the mount of transfiguration, the disciples were confronted
by the father with the demon-possessed son, and they were not able to
cast the demons out. When Christ returned and cast out the demon, the
disciples wanted to know why they were impotent. Christ said, "Because of
your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If you have faith as a grain of
mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder
place; and it shall remove and nothing shall be impossible unto you. This
kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting." A mountain is used
frequently in Scripture as the symbol of a kingdom and we believe it is
so used here.
What Christ was saying was this: If you have faith as a grain of mustard
seed you shall say to this representative of Satan's kingdom, "Leave,"
and in response to your faith on the basis of the authority of Christ
this representative of Satan's kingdom will flee. But this will not
happen apart from prayer and fasting. Prayer and fasting were two
evidences of complete dependence upon God. That is what prayer is:
depending on God. And so Christ said that if we recognize that we have
His authority, and believe that He makes us His partner in this warfare
against Satan, and exercise His authority dependent upon God, we can say
to any representative of Satan's kingdom, "You leave," and he will
depart.
In Matthew 16:17 we find Christ said to Simon, "Simon Barjona; flesh and
blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven."
Now the fact that had been revealed to Peter was the fact of the
authority of Christ. He was the One who was to rule. And in His rule He
would rule over, not only this world, but over the demonic realm as well.
Christ says in Mark 16:16, "These signs shall follow them that believe;
In my name shall they cast out demons." "In my name" does not mean some
mysterious incantation, some magic formula that uses the name of Jesus.
To speak in the name of a person is to use all his authority. Christ said
that if we proceed against our adversary, or his representative, with His
authority, dependent upon God, we can say to Satan, "Let me alone," and
he will leave us alone.
Much that we suffer in the physical realm, the emotional realm and the
mental realm we suffer because we are subject to Satan's attacks against
us as an ambassador of Christ. We have not recognized that Satan is
seeking to defeat the purpose of God in and through us. We let him
continue to oppress us, to bring us into bondage through some physical,
mental or emotional weakness. We have not by the authority of Christ
resisted the devil that he might flee from us. We need to heed James's
command, "Resist the devil," and claim His promise, "and he will flee
from you" (James 4:7).
Pentecost, J. D. (1997). Your adversary, the Devil. Originally published:
Grand Rapids, MI : Zondervan, 1969. (138). Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel.
.
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