Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and the Adversary also came among them. The Lord said to the Adversary, “From where have you come?” The Adversary answered the Lord and said, “From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking up and down on it.” (Job 1:6-7)

Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. (1 Peter 5:8-9)

This week, we’ve been exploring the themes of conflict and reconciliation in the Bible. Yesterday we looked at the biggest conflict we face as human beings, that with God Himself. And today, we’re covering the second biggest conflict that we face, and it’s a real doozy. So buckle up, buttercup, because today it’s going to get dark.

The Unknown Enemy

The first passage we read from the book of Job gives us a rare glimpse into the inner workings of the courts of heaven. We see these beings called the “sons of God” who are either angels, or some other kind of heavenly, spiritual beings. For all we know, these could be God’s army, the hosts that are mentioned in His name “the Lord of Hosts.” And they present themselves in their ranks before the Lord, sort of like a heavenly roll call or a royal procession.

But something else is there—another kind of heavenly being whose presence casts an ominous shadow on the proceedings. This is the same ancient serpent who deceived Adam and Eve, the one who was cursed to wander the earth and eat dust all the days of its life. And indeed, that is exactly what it says it has been doing: “going to and fro on the earth, and walking up and down on it.” He has been hard at work ever since, luring mankind into even more sin and misery. You know who I’m talking about.

And yet, we don’t actually know his name. You see, in the original Hebrew text, what we’re given isn’t a name, but a role. It calls him “the Satan.” And “satan” was a normal, everyday word that meant “adversary.” In fact, most of the time that you see the word “adversary” in the Old Testament, it’s the same word (satan). But it also can have a different meaning, that of “accuser.” So this being is an eternal adversary of God, the enemy of all that is good, and whose role it is to accuse human beings of sin. He has a few other titles as well, but none of them are proper names, either: the Devil, the Ancient Serpent, the Deceiver of the World, The Enemy, the Evil One. We’re going to continue to call him Satan in our time together, because that’s what we’re used to, and most people would find it strange to call him “The Satan.” Just remember that this is more of a nickname than anything else. No human being knows his true name. (And no, it’s not Lucifer, either.)

But who or what exactly is this creature? And why is it a big deal whenever he shows up on the pages of Scripture?

Let’s start with what we know. We know he is a spiritual being of some kind, created by God and subservient to God even when he doesn’t want to be. Hence, his appearance at this heavenly roll call. We don’t know exactly when the heavenly beings were created, but we’re pretty sure he was created before Adam and Eve on the sixth day. And presumably, he was created good, but fell into evil through his own desires and proceeded to spread his evil influence to others. Those angels who fell with him into evil became demons, and were cast out of heaven and still wander the earth today.

We know that he is powerful because he is called the “ruler of this world” in Scripture. He is “the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience” (Eph 2:2). He is the greatest of what Ephesians 6:12 calls the “rulers…the authorities…the cosmic powers over this present darkness, [and] the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” Thus he wields vast authority and influence in both the spiritual realm, as well as on the earth over everyone who has not believed in Jesus.

We also know that he is extremely intelligent. Genesis 3 says he is “crafty”—meaning he is subtle and shrewd about how he goes about accomplishing his goals. He’s sly, intentional, and strategic in his wickedness. And he works silently, invisibly, untraceably, sowing tares in God’s fields in the dead of night while no one notices.

And more than anything, he hates you. He hates you with a hatred that you can’t even fathom or imagine. He despises you with every fiber of his being. He wants you to suffer, to writhe in anguish and misery and despair. And he will stop at nothing to bring you to hell where your body and soul will be in torment forever.

But why? Why does Satan hate us so much? Because we—human beings—are uniquely made in God’s image. We have capacities that no other living creature on earth has. We act like no other living creature on earth acts. And we have been given a unique level of authority over the earth, to subdue it and have dominion over it. Just like a baby looks like its biological parents, we “look” like God, spiritually speaking. Obviously, this resemblance has been marred and corrupted by the fall, but this image of God, this imago dei, is the most fundamental thing about us. It’s what makes us human. And it’s what Satan hates most about us.

The closest analogy I can think of was when the majority white population of the USA rounded up over a hundred thousand Japanese Americans in the 1940s and forced them into internment camps. It didn’t matter what language they spoke, or whether they had English names, or what their political views were, or whether or not they were U.S. citizens. If they were of Japanese descent, they were stripped of their rights and their property. In other words, they were hated because of the ethnic “image” that they had been created in. It wasn’t their fault, or even their choice. But racists don’t care about stuff like that. And neither does Satan.

Satan’s hate for humanity in general—and for you specifically—is unchangeable and eternal. He hates the God who made you more than anything, and he can’t stand to see the earth filling up with image-bearers because they remind him of God. And since he can’t attack the Lord of Hosts directly, he does the next best thing by attacking us. And he will never stop trying to attack us, because he will never stop hating us.

So, given that all of us will be struggling against Satan and his forces for as long as we live, let’s be wise and learn what we can about our enemy. How exactly does he go about attacking us? What weapons does he employ, and how can we counter his weapons? What should our struggle against him look like?

Weapons Formed Against Us

The first weapon Satan uses to destroy us is deception. Misinformation. Untruth. Or what we would call good old fashioned lies. Satan loves to twist reality and distort God’s word into wicked caricatures that serve his ends. He loves to pollute our minds and hearts with thoughts and ideas that have just enough truth in them to make them believable—but always mixed with the poison of his own detestable lies. And there are few weapons as effective and as deadly to our souls as deception.

Satan lies so much, in fact, that he is unable to tell the (whole) truth. All he can do is lie. Jesus says of him in John 8:44:

“He…does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.”

So our first and best defense against him is the truth! This requires, of course, that we know the truth, that we are able to differentiate the truth from lies. And the only way to do that is to have the Holy Spirit inside you. Jesus says in John 16:13, “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth.” Paul says something very similar in 2 Timothy 2:25-26 when he says, “God may perhaps grant [his opponents] repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will.” This means that if you are not a Christian, you cannot know the truth. But God is gracious, and will answer your prayers if you ask Him to reveal Himself to you! James 1:5 says, “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach.” So ask! Seek! Knock! “For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.” (Matthew 7:8)

The second weapon Satan uses against us is temptation. All of us, because we’re sinners, have an inborn desire to do what is wrong. We all are prone to wander, lured and enticed by our own evil desires. But in ways we can’t quite explain or quantify, Satan and his demons are capable of inciting us, inflaming our passions, and influencing us to sin in even greater ways than we would otherwise on our own. The Apostle John strongly implies that it was Satan who incited Cain to murder his brother when he says that Cain “was of the evil one” in 1 John 3:12. An even clearer example is in 1 Chronicles 21, where it says “Satan stood against Israel and incited David to number Israel.” And perhaps the most extreme example of this is when Satan “entered into” Judas Iscariot, inciting him to betray the Lord of Glory for a few pieces of silver.

So how do we fight back against a tempting spiritual force that we can’t even sense? With spiritual armor. In Ephesians 6, Paul uses the imagery of physical armor to describe key things that aid us in the fight and make us able to stand against the schemes of the devil. Truth. Righteousness. The Gospel of Peace. Faith. Salvation. And the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. These things protect us, defend us, and even allow us to go on the offensive against the devil. And they help us say with Jesus, “Get behind me, Satan! For you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.”

Aha, but that’s not even Satan’s main weapon. Satan’s primary weapon of choice against us is our own sin. Remember when I said that his title could also be translated “the Accuser?” Well, that’s exactly where his ultimate power lies—in accusations. Getting us to sin is only the beginning. Once we actually have sinned, he will accuse us of that transgression in a myriad of deadly ways. And the longer you live, the worse it gets. Every sin you commit is another flaming arrow in Satan’s wicked quiver, and he knows just where to aim them to inflict the maximum possible damage.

For example, he loves to bring up our past sins in order to make us feel discouraged, downhearted, and depressed. The reason this can be deadly is that it gets our eyes off of Christ and onto ourselves. Instead of worshipping God and rejoicing in His grace, we beat ourselves up and focus on how terrible and miserable we are. In other words, we stop looking at Christ’s record of righteousness and start obsessing over our own. And the moment we stop looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, we are in trouble.

Satan also loves to pepper his accusations with heaping spoonfuls of guilt and shame. He loves to say things like, “God could never love you after what you’ve done. No one could. You’re not cut out to be a Christian. You should just give up and walk away from the faith.” Words like these cut deep, especially when we know we’ve done something very, very wrong. They even feel right sometimes. But God doesn’t shame us or drive us away! On the contrary, he entreats us, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30) So take heart, and don’t let the voice of guilt and shame have the final word.

But Satan’s deadliest assault is before the throne of heaven, where he reports our sin directly to God Himself. He not only accuses us of sins we might commit, as was the case with Job, but also of all the sins we justly deserve to be condemned for. Revelation 12:10 calls Satan “the accuser of our brothers… who accuses them day and night before our God.” And in Zechariah 3, we get another glimpse of a heavenly tribunal, this time with “Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord. Now Joshua was standing before the angel, clothed with filthy garments… and Satan [was] standing at his right hand to accuse him.” These filthy garments represent all the wicked things this High priest had done. And where is Satan standing in this vision? Right next to him! There’s no hiding your sin from The Accuser; it’s all on public record. We can’t deny it, and he knows it. So what can we do? What then shall we say to these things?

The Triumph Of Grace

The answer is in Romans 8:

“If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died⁠—more than that, who was raised⁠—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written,
‘For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.’
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:31-39)

Amen! Nothing can separate you from His love, NOT EVEN YOUR SINS! Why? Because Christ lived for you, died for you, and has risen and is seated at the right hand of God. And when you belong to Him, not even the accusations of Satan can have any effect. Who is going to listen to the accusations of God’s sworn enemy when God Himself has pronounced you guiltless? “If the Son has set you free, then you shall be free indeed!”  Jesus also says in John 6:37. “Whoever comes to me I will never cast out.” When will Jesus cast you out? NEVER!!! Not even when you feel like you deserve to be. Why? Because “mercy triumphs over judgement!”

Remember Joshua the high priest, clothed in filthy garments? This is how God answered the accusations of the Accuser:

“And the Lord said to Satan, ‘The Lord rebuke you, O Satan! The Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is not this a brand plucked from the fire?’… And the angel said to those who were standing before him, ‘Remove the filthy garments from him.’ And to him he said, ‘Behold, I have taken your iniquity away from you, and I will clothe you with pure vestments.’” (Zechariah 3:2-4)

Do you see the loving care and grace of God, how he takes away our sin and clothes us with the righteousness of Christ? “All our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment” (Isaiah 64:6), but “the one who conquers will be clothed in white garments, and Jesus will never blot his name out of the book of life” (Revelation 3:5). Why? Because,

“A bruised reed he will not break,
and a smoldering wick he will not quench,
until he brings justice to victory.” (Matthew 12:20)

In dying for us, Jesus has fulfilled the promise given in Genesis 3 where the offspring of the woman would crush the head of the serpent. His grace has delivered the fatal blow that the Adversary will never recover from. Jesus Himself said, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.” (Luke 10:18) His end is nigh; his doom swiftly approaches. He is a defeated foe whose plans have utterly failed. 1 John 3:8 says “The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil,” and every single one of us here this morning who is a believer is living proof of that. Amen?

Resist The Lion’s Roar

But Satan is not going to take it lying down. Being the wicked, twisted creature that he is, he will continue to fight against God and do as much evil as he possibly can until he is dragged, kicking and screaming, into the lake of fire. Which brings us full circle back to our opening passage from 1 Peter 5:

“Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.”

Be careful! Watch out! Why? Because your enemy is on the prowl, going to and fro on the earth and walking up and down on it like “a roaring lion.” Have you ever heard a lion roar up close? Near where I live in Pennsylvania there is an outdoor zoo called Claws and Paws, and it’s in the middle of a forest. I will never forget just walking around, looking at some capybara or whatever, when all of a sudden I hear this roar in the distance. It was one of their lions. And it made my blood run cold! Even from halfway across the zoo, it was terrifying. I imagined that if I ever heard that sound out in the wild that I would just freeze, because I would know it was all over. It was that scary! And if we’re not careful, Satan’s roars can intimidate us into insecurity, inaction, and ineffectiveness.

But here’s the good news: Satan is a caged lion. He can’t hurt you. He can scare you, sure, but he can’t break the chains that the Lord has put him in. If you are in Jesus, you are being guarded by God’s power according to 1 Peter 1:5. The devil can’t devour you, and he knows it. But that won’t stop him from trying to discourage and intimidate and shame you into submission. Don’t let him! “Be sober-minded; be watchful.” You can’t take your stand against his schemes if you’re oblivious to them. You can’t confidently walk through life, hearing him roar, unless you know that his chains are secure. So keep your wits about you.

And last but not least, “Resist him.” Withstand him. Oppose him. Fight back. You have what you need to weather his attacks, so weather them. You have what you need to counter his blows, so counter them. “If you are not firm in faith, you will not be firm at all.” (Isaiah 7:9) As Moses said in Exodus 14:13, “Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will work for you today.” So go! Fight! Win! Never give up! Never surrender! And give God all the glory for the victory that you will surely win—the victory that Christ has already won. “Do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”

Let’s pray.

Other Messages In This Series:

• Message #1: The Genesis of All Conflict
• Message #2: Saved from God
• Message #3: Our Eternal Enemy
• Message #4: The Flesh Vs. The Spirit
• Message #5: Never Avenge Yourselves
• Message #6: The Root Of Quarreling
• Message #7: Wrap Up & Encouragement