Religions > Atheism > 19-Your Adversary, the Devil - Putting the Adversary to Flight
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19-Your Adversary, the Devil - Putting the Adversary to Flight |
19-Your Adversary, the Devil - Putting the Adversary to Flight
James 4:1-8
Recently I was given a 31 caliber bullet captured from a Vietcong
soldier. It was ingeniously engineered so that, when it strikes an
object, it tumbles end over end and tears its way through bringing death
and destruction in its wake. Yet, if this one were put into the rifle and
pointed toward me and the trigger fired, I would not be the least bit
afraid of it because the bullet has been deactivated. The powder has been
removed and it has been rendered absolutely harmless. However, if you did
not know that, and it were placed in a rifle and pointed at you, and you
knew it was the intention of the one holding the rifle to fire it, you
would run for the nearest cover and cower in dread and terror. But
knowing that it had been safely deactivated, you would be completely
unconcerned.
Many live in fear and fall in defeat before our adversary, the devil,
because they do not realize the biblical principle that he has been
deactivated and has been rendered harmless. And every time he appears,
they cower before him and are overcome. They are convinced that they must
go down in defeat because they have not appropriated the principle that
Jesus Christ through His death has rendered Satan inoperative and has
given us the means of victory. Let us develop a step further the promise
given to us in James 4:7: "Resist the devil and he will flee from you."
The word "resist" does not call for passive resistance, does not suggest
to us a futile attempt to defend ourselves. It pictures a soldier of
Jesus Christ marching out to do combat with the adversary with the full
and complete assurance that we have victory already given to us through
the One who has led us in the train of His triumph. And when the Apostle
instructs us: "Resist the devil," he is standing as a general before
those troops under his authority and commanding, "Forward, march!" He is
not calling retreat. He is not sounding an alarm to send God's soldiers
into a foxhole because they have no defense against the adversary. The
Apostle is commanding us to do battle with Satan because he has the
assurance that, when he is actively opposed on the basis of scriptural
principles, he will and must flee from before our attack.
In Peter's similar command (1 Peter 5:9) he said in effect, "You turn and
face him. You resist him. You actively oppose him, and through your
active opposition, you will turn this one to flight. The pursuer will
become the pursued." Especially notice one phrase that the Apostle has
placed in this exhortation: "Resist steadfast in the faith."
When he refers to the faith, he is not referring to the body of divine
truth that is revealed to us in the Word of God. That is the faith once
and for all delivered to the saints. He is saying "stand steadfast in the
faith principle." Stand by faith. The Apostle is selecting out from the
entire body of revealed truth one particular aspect of divine truth that
applies to our conflict with the adversary. Now what truth does he have
in mind which we are called on to believe?
The first truth is the truth of the authority of the believer. In the
Epistle of Jude, we read in verses 8 and 9: "Likewise also these filthy
dreamers defile the flesh, despite dominion, speak evil of dignities. Yet
Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about
the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but
said, The Lord rebuke thee." Recall what we have emphasized previously -
God has given to the believer in the Lord Jesus Christ an authority that
exceeds the authority of our adversary. When Lucifer was created, he was
created as the highest of the archangels of God. Now even though Lucifer
rebelled and became Satan or the Devil, the rest of the angelic realm
remembered and recognized the authority that he had had by creation.
Michael was an archangel. According to the hierarchy arranged at the time
of angelic creation, Michael would have been only one step below Lucifer,
directly responsible to Lucifer, who in turn was responsible to God.
Although Lucifer rebelled and became Satan, Michael never could forget
that by creation Lucifer had been his superior.
Much later, after the fall of Satan, when Michael and Satan entered into
conflict over the body of Moses, Michael did not dare to stand alone
against Lucifer. In this conflict over the body of Moses, Michael, who
now is vastly superior to Satan, because he is an unfallen angel; called
upon God and said, "The Lord rebuke thee." Not even an unfallen angel
dared try to exert authority over Satan. The unfallen angels trusted God
to defeat Satan in the conflicts into which they had been sent by God.
Michael was not in conflict with Satan by his own will, nor to pursue his
own purposes. Michael was in that conflict over the body of Moses because
God sent him on that mission. But the authority of Michael was not
sufficient in itself to defeat Satan. He had to call upon God by faith.
The great truth of Ephesians 2 is that when Jesus Christ was resurrected
and ascended and enthroned in glory, you and I as believers in Jesus
Christ were enthroned with Him. God has raised Him from the dead, and
you. God has brought Him into glory and brought you into glory with Him.
Paul says in Ephesians 2:6: "God has raised us up together and has made
us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus." Because we are
associated with Christ on the throne of God, the authority of the throne
belongs to the child of God in our conflict with the evil one. We have an
authority over Satan that exceeds the authority that Michael had. But as
Michael did not dare enter into conflict with Satan alone but called upon
God to give him victory, so we need to be reminded that we need and have
God's authority, and this authority is to be exercised by faith.
How do we know this is true? The Word of God says so. This is something
that must be believed. And the first step in victory over Satan is the
step of faith, a step that believes God, a step that believes the Word of
God. When Peter writes to his fearful sheep who were entering into
conflict with a roaring lion, and exhorts them to stand "steadfast in the
faith," he is saying to them that when they hear the adversary
approaching, they are to believe what God says - that they have authority
over him and can turn him back. If you believe that you are helpless
before Satan, if you believe that you have no means to victory, if you
are convinced that every time he speaks you must obey, if you believe
that every time he tempts you you must fall, you will obey, you will be
defeated, you will fall. But when you believe that you have been given
authority over Satan, then you can actively resist him, and forbid him to
pursue the course that would bring about your destruction or downfall.
The second thing we are called upon to believe if we are to be victorious
over Satan is the fact that Satan is a defeated enemy. It is a strange
thing as we go through the Word of God to find what universal agreement
there is on this fact. Turn to Matthew 8:29, for instance. We find that
all of the demons in hell acknowledge the fact of their defeat. We read
there that when Christ came into the country of the Gergesenes, there met
Him two coming out of the tombs, exceeding fierce, so that no man might
pass by that way. And in verse 29 it is recorded, "[The demons] cried out
saying, What have we to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God? Art thou
come hither to torment us before the time?" The word torment has to do
with consignment to eternal punishment, the eternal torment of the
damned. These demons who stood face to face with Jesus Christ, recognized
that He is their judge and they are condemned to be separated from God
forever. They anticipated a coming judgment on fallen angels in which
they will be banished from the presence of God eternally. Thus, when they
faced Christ, they asked if He had come before they expected it. This
verse shows us that the demons recognize that Satan has been defeated
and, because they are his, they suffer defeat.
Not only the demons but Satan himself acknowledges that defeat. John
writes in Revelation 12:12, "Therefore rejoice ye heavens, and ye that
dwell in them. Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and the sea! for the
devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that
he hath but a short time." John, of course, is describing Satan's
activity in the tribulation period. The frenzy of the last part of the
tribulation period John attributes to Satan's knowledge that the time
when he will be bound and cast into the Lake of Fire is fast approaching,
that what he does he must do immediately. Satan acknowledges the fact of
his defeat, the fact that he has been judged and is to be confined to the
Lake of Fire forever. Demons and Satan do not argue the fact; they accept
it and acknowledge it.
God in other passages states the fact of Satan's defeat. In Colossians
2:15, Paul states that Christ by His death spoiled principalities and
powers, that is, robbed them of their authority. He made a show of them
openly, triumphing over them in it. And again in 2 Corinthians 2:14, Paul
writes, "Thanks be unto God which always causeth us to triumph in
Christ." We might read that verse, "Thanks be to God which always leads
us in the train of Christ's triumph." The picture there is one of a
victorious general returning from a military conquest. In these passages
in which the Apostle pictures Christ as a victor, he is stating again the
truth that all heaven knows, that Jesus Christ by His death and
resurrection has triumphed over Satan, and will lead in triumph all those
who believe that they are victors. And when Peter exhorts his sheep,
pursued by a roaring lion, to stand "steadfast in the faith," he wants
them to hold on to the truth, not only that they have been given God's
authority over Satan, but that they may parade as victors because Jesus
Christ is the Victor over the evil one.
We recognize that the resurrection of Jesus Christ is a keystone of our
faith. When Paul summarized the Gospel to the Corinthians, he stripped it
down to its barest essentials and said we have preached a Gospel that
Christ died for our sins, and that He rose again the third day. The death
of Christ provides a basis for our salvation through the shedding of
blood. The resurrection of Christ not only signifies God's acceptance of
Christ's death as a payment for our sins, but the resurrection provides
the basis for the believer's daily victory over the adversary. And while
hell cannot forget that Christ rose as a victor and while all heaven
acknowledges the fact that Jesus Christ arose, we who live here seem to
live as though He were still bound in the grave. Jesus Christ came forth
as a victor in order that we might walk in the train of His triumph, that
we might fight a good warfare by faith in His victory.
There is a third truth that must be believed if we are to have victory
over the evil one. Not only are we called upon to believe in the
authority of the believer that exceeds the authority of angels, not only
are we to believe that Satan has been defeated, but we are to believe the
categorical promise of God, "Resist the devil and he will flee from you"
(James 4:7). Actively oppose Satan on the basis of the truth that the
Word of God reveals about him and he will flee. When blood was applied to
the doorposts and the lintels of the homes in Egypt, the death angel
could not enter. There was no force in hell that could pry open a door
that had been sealed by blood. And when you are undergoing some Satanic
attack-whether it be a temptation to sin, whether it be some oppression
or depression in the realm of the mind, whether it be in the realm of the
affections in which your love of Christ is being diverted away to other
things-no matter what the forms of the attack, when you plead the value
of the blood of Christ, Satan cannot pursue the attack. He can only turn
and run because he hates the sight of blood. Your victory is based on the
value of the death of Christ, a death that not only provides for
salvation from the condemnation of sin, but a death that protects you
from the onslaughts of the evil one.
As believers in Christ, we can also plead the benefits of the
resurrection of Christ. We only need remind the adversary that a
resurrected, glorified Christ is the captain of our salvation, that we
take orders from Him. Satan turns from the battle because he is a coward
and will not fight where there is no hope of victory. When the child of
God pleads the value of the cross of Christ and pleads the victory and
the triumph of a resurrected Christ, Satan's defeat is absolutely
certain. The tragedy is that, when we have the means of victory in our
hands, we turn from the faith principle and join in a hand-to-hand combat
with Satan and then wonder why we go down to defeat. Can you imagine
anything more foolish than sending our soldiers into battle with no
weapons whatsoever? Yet that's the way many are trying to do battle with
Satan. You have left every weapon behind and have thought by your own
cunning, by your own skill, by your own deception, you could camouflage
yourself and defeat the enemy. It has never been done yet. If you are to
experience victory, you will realize it by faith, believing what God says
about your position in Christ.
God has not called upon you to hide, called upon you to run, called upon
you to outsmart the adversary. He has called upon you to cover yourself
with the armor of God, then to withstand him actively, believing what the
Word of God says about your authority and your victory, and to put the
adversary to flight because you are joined with the Victor. May you, when
you recognize the presence of the adversary, actively resist him because
you believe what God has said about your invincibility, what God has said
about your authority, what God has said about your victory.
Pentecost, J. D. (1997). Your adversary, the Devil. Originally published:
Grand Rapids, MI : Zondervan, 1969. (166). Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel.
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