Satan is defeated
1 John Series • Sermon • Submitted
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(ESV)
4 Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. 5 You know that he appeared in order to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. 6 No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him. 7 Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous. 8 Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. 9 No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him; and he cannot keep on sinning, because he has been born of God. 10 By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.
4 Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. 5 You know that he appeared in order to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. 6 No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him. 7 Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous. 8 Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. 9 No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him; and he cannot keep on sinning, because he has been born of God. 10 By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.
(ESV)
8 Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.
8 Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.
Why did Jesus come?
Sure we probably know the usual answers…But John actually gives us the Two correct answers…
One of those we looked at last week… “To take away our sins”…
But verse 8 tells us of the other reason that Jesus came…
He came to destroy the works of Satan, and we can truly give thanks and praise! Because Jesus did exactly that.
Today as we continue to move through chapter 3, we really get a very clear statement from God’s Word as to WHY Jesus came into the world.
Again…To take away sins, and to destroy the works of Satan.
I found something interesting while studying…
I ran across a comment that said that the early church fathers had a statement or a description of these two purposes of the first coming of Christ…
they called it the “Drama of Redemption.” The Drama of Redemption.
I hadn’t really thought of it that way until I read it…
Maybe with all our being so enlightened and educated, we have actually begun thinking of the Gospel of Jesus Christ in the New Testament as just a ‘point of view’ or a ‘worldview’ that we Christians hold…
or maybe we’ve started thinking of it as another idea or basis of religions similar to all the others. In other words, is it possible that over the centuries, we may have forgotten somewhat the true significance of what Jesus came to accomplish, and the actual events that DID take place?
In fact, I believe that shift in thinking must have been starting very, very early in the life of the church. Paul addressed this himself as he mentioned the tendency to fall prey to subtle shifts in thinking that had allowed the Gospel of Christ to morph towards a way of thinking or philosophy, rather than being the proclamation that it is about the events that actually happened. So we need to constantly remember that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is not about religion or philosophies.
The Book of Acts gives us a great picture of what is supposed to still be happening even today…
In Acts we find very clear reminders that those early preachers, the early Christians, did something as they traveled around and wherever they went…
They told the people of their day about what had happened…
They talked about the Person, Jesus Christ, and what He had done…
And they placed a very Stong emphasis on the Resurrection;
The placed a strong emphasis on how Jesus had been put to death;
They placed a strong emphasis on How God had raised Him from the dead;
They placed a strong emphasis on How Jesus then spent those 40 days with them and then He ascended back into Heaven…
And they preached and spoke this message with much power…with power they received themselves from the Holy Spirit Who had come just as Jesus has promised.
So in the Message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, we must see and remember that Jesus came not to start a new church; He did not come to take over the government; He did not come to fulfill some ego trip to become the most popular guy alive…
Instead, Jesus came to Seek and Save the Lost, to Take Away our sins, and to Destroy the works of the Devil as John said in verse 8.
That brings us to the Devil…
When it comes to the devil, I know we tend to talk more about him and how he messes with us, or how he made us do stuff we’re ashamed of, or how bad things that happen in our lives or in the world are all his fault, and so on.
And yes the whole problem that mankind and the world has to live with started back in the Beginning as we read in the Scriptures.
We read in Genesis that God made a perfect world, but someone, Satan, came to the man and woman, Adam and Eve, whom God had placed in the garden, and spoke the lie.
So here we have the devil who is called by several names in the Bible…
he is called the father of lies ();
44 You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and 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.
he is called Lucifer, son of the morning ();
god of this world ();
the serpent ();
the prince of the power of the air ()…these are names we see throughout the Bible…
So while Satan came and spoke the lie to Adam and Eve and enticed them to sin…
Did he FORCE them to sin?
Does he force you or me to sin today? No…
But he certainly DID ENTICE them to turn against God, just like he does still today.
And the moment Adam and Eve did, the ‘works of the devil’ began.
And to defeat these works of the devil was then why Jesus came into the world.
But from the moment Adam and Eve sinned, men and women needed to be delivered from the Holy Law of God that now condemned them.
They needed to be delivered from the punishment that was now theirs.
They needed to be delivered from the kingdom they had entered into when they sinned, the kingdom of the devil, and be brought into the kingdom of God.
And only Jesus could do this.
Only Jesus could come and conquer the devil;
Only Jesus could deliver men and women from darkness back into light. ()
27 But no one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man. Then indeed he may plunder his house.
So though the subtle lies, and through the subtle lies that continue, Satan persuades men and women to live in those lies.
And the result of those lies, meant that there would be quarreling and fighting;
there would be adulteries; there would be lusting; there would be coveting and murders.
Those are just some of the RESULTS of the lies, so, I believe it is very important for us to look at the various forms these lies take.
That’s because if we know they are out there, then we can be better prepared to recognize them for what they are.
Here’s the first one…it is the outright lie AGAINST God Himself.
What do I mean?
Well, Satan hit Adam and Eve with this one right off…
This is making God out to be someone Who just wants to keep us down and under His control.
Think about this…Adam and Eve lived in the perfect world, and they had the privilege of having complete communion with God;
and not only that, neither did they even have to work in order to obtain whatever they needed.
God provided it all…God provided them with food; with perfect weather; they didn’t need health insurance…they had perfect health.
They had no need for shelter…God protected them with His divine covering;
But, along comes Satan and basically says…don’t you see that God is just holding you back?
That’s why God said not to eat of that tree…He doesn’t want you to be like Him.
That’s The lie against God…and we continue to hear that same lie today.
If God really wanted you to be happy, then He wouldn’t have all those silly rules.
If God really was the ‘loving’ God He says He is, then He’d let you live the way YOU wanted. He gave you a brain, and now He doesn’t want you to think for yourself.
That LIE though, leads then to the next lie which is the lie about God’s will.
Here’s God who gave mankind His perfect good law, which was given for our own good…
After all, since God made us, He knows us best;
So He knows what is good for us and what isn’t…
but Satan wants to convince us that God’s Law ISN’T for our welfare, but that it’s designed to hold us down…
And what does man do?
We go and let pride and self-arrogance kick in, and we ‘agree with Satan’ and NOT with God, and we say, yeah, that’s right. God’s rules are just to keep us down.
And since God said that the wages of sin is death, well, we don’t like that either…and that leads to the next lie…the consequence of our actions…
So we even rebel against believing there are consequences for our sin…
Adam and Eve faced the same thing, which is why Satan said to them don’t believe what God said about what might happen if you disobeyed Him…
The lie was that ‘surely you won’t die like God said’…and if you go ahead and eat and have your eyes opened, guess what, you’ll become like God and you’ll be even greater than you are right now. Go ahead…God didn’t really mean you’d die.
And what happened?
Yep. We know, and we live under that now.
Folks, Satan still goes around telling people they don’t need to fall for believing God’s laws…
don’t worry…you’ll just be more enlightened, and wiser. Don’t worry, you’ll be even more free than you are now. You’ll be more intelligent and will have even less use for those silly old rules.
but this is why the Bible tells us in that whatever we sow, we’re going to reap.
7 Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. 8 For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.
So out of all that, the works of the devil brought about a world that was living alienated from God, a world that was miserable with wars, disease, immoralities, poverty, starvations, and so on,…a world that was facing the sting of death.
It was into this world that Jesus came, He came that v. 8, that He would destroy the works of the devil.
God in His love and goodness even promised this in when He said 15 I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”
15 I will put enmity between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and her offspring;
he shall bruise your head,
and you shall bruise his heel.”
The very Incarnation of Jesus Christ undoes the very lie of Satan, and tells us that God is indeed Love, and He loves us with an EVERLASTING LOVE. So while Satan cries out that God is against us, the Coming of Jesus Christ to pay the price for our sins and defeat the works of the devil tell us that ‘God so loved the World that He sent is only begotten Son, that whosoever will believe in Him will have everlasting Life! ()
16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
Luke said it so well in chapter 11:21-22… (ESV)
21 When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own palace, his goods are safe; 22 but when one stronger than he attacks him and overcomes him, he takes away his armor in which he trusted and divides his spoil.
21 When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own palace, his goods are safe; 22 but when one stronger (this is referring to Jesus) than he attacks him and overcomes him, he takes away his armor in which he trusted and divides his spoil.
Jesus came, and set the captives free.
Jesus came, and conquered sin and death… (ESV)
55 “O death, where is your victory?
O death, where is your sting?”
56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
55 “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” 56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.