Sermon Tone Analysis

Know Your Enemy

INTRODUCTION: Roger Nielsen - Canucks coach (Christian, by the way).

He earned the name Captain Video - because in the days before

Nielsen was the coach who began the playoff tradition, in Canuck-land, of waving a white towel.

A symbol of surrender to the refs who seemed to have it out for the Canucks.

And Canuck fans have been surrendering ever since.

But that particular year was 1982 and the Canucks were a

- - want to see your opponent in action - recognize how they play.

We are dealing with the subject of Spiritual Warfare - the Armour of God, as given to us in - the goal of all of this is that we, the people of God who have been called to faith in Jesus Christ and given new life in him - will be able to walk in the joy and peace that He intends His people to enjoy.

And you know - that’s not an automatic.

Life, on this side of eternity is filled with traps, with quicksand, with enemies all around - - and far too many Christians live this life with far too little joy.

It doesn’t need to be that way.

It shouldn’t be that way.

But you need to know you’re in a war.

I want to help you wage warfare as God would have it waged.

And to do that, you need to know your enemy.

This week and next week, we will be dealing with our enemy - Satan.

Today I want to focus on his identity.

Next week we will examine his strategy - - the way he works against us.

Three things ...

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1 A REAL, PERSONAL ENEMY

Verse 11, “Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil.”

When many people in our society hear the word, ‘devil’ or ‘Satan’ - what image do you think comes into their minds?

Bright red suit, pitchfork, horns and a squiggly tail - a cartoony character.

“That’s the devil” - is it any wonder that they laugh … and ignore.

We live in a scientific age - we will not believe in anything that can’t be touched or seen or stuck in a petrie dish and studied in a lab.

But oh how our world searches for an explanation of the evil that assaults on a daily basis.

In some ways, there are really two views of a human being.

One view is there’s nothing to you but matter.

There’s nothing to you but the material.

There’s nothing to a human being but the chemicals.

There’s nothing to the human being but the physical.

That’s it.

When you die, that’s the end.

Your body falls apart.

That’s all there is to you.

The other view is you not only have a body but a soul.

There’s not only a material but an immaterial part to you.

There’s a soul which is not something that dies but something that moves on.

I think I may have mentioned this a week or two ago.

People who really believe human beings don’t have souls can never, ever live consistently with that.

You can’t do it, because if it’s really true a human being doesn’t have a soul, what really makes a human being different than another bag of chemicals, from a tree, or from a muskrat?

What really makes them any different?

Why do you treat them as different?

Why do you treat them with respect and dignity you don’t give to any other configuration of chemicals on the face of the earth?

We all know inherently, and we have to live, even if you don’t intellectually believe it, that we have souls.

There is something about us that’s immaterial and, therefore, doesn’t die.

The classic Christian understanding of a human being is you have a soul, and it goes on forever in one condition or another.

What are those conditions?

If today you decide to do something selfish, you know it makes it easier tomorrow to do it again.

Don’t you remember, some of you, how horrified you were with yourself the first time you did something, which now you do fairly regularly?

It makes a mark on your soul.

It gets easier and easier to do that.

At first, you grumble, but then after a while, the grumble sort of sinks in.

So grumbling becomes part of, not just what you do, but who you are.

We know that happens over a period of time.

If you decide to cut people’s throats in order to get up the corporate ladder, if you decide to elbow people aside, if you decide to be selfish and get up the corporate ladder, you’ve done something to your soul.

Over 10 years, 20 years, 30 years, things change, and you become a more selfish person and a harder person.

What if the thing you’re really making a mark on is not your body so much, because your body eventually goes, but your soul?

What if it’s making a mark on your soul?

And what if …?

After 20 years of selfishness, you might be a little bit more of a grumpy, selfish person, but after 2 million years, what will you be like?

If it’s true you’re not just a bag of chemicals, that means everybody in this room, 2 million or 2 billion years from now, will still be alive as a personal being.

If that’s true, the marks you’re making on your heart, and the marks you’re making on your soul right now, are going to affect you for all eternity.

If you decide you’re not going to do the cutthroat thing, if you decide you’re not going to do the selfish thing, if you’re not going to do the cruel thing, if you’re going to do the honest thing or the compassionate thing, and you find out, because you’ve done that, you haven’t gotten ahead in your company the way some other people have, don’t worry about that because you’re making marks on your soul.

What happens is the things you do now count forever.

As one writer said, a zillion years from now, we’re all going to be around, but we’re going to be in very different conditions.

We’re either going to be, because of the marks we’re putting on our soul … Someday some of us in this room are going to be bright, radiant, immortal creatures who are pulsating and glowing with glory, joy, love, nobility, power, and wisdom.

Some other people in this room, and none of us really know who’s who at this point … Some of us are going to be like monsters because we are going to be so completely consumed with self-pity.

After 2 zillion years, the little spells of self-pity can sink in.

Do you know what that does?

It makes you feel sorry for yourself.

It makes you mad at yourself.

It makes you mad at the world, a monster, a person just racked with self-pity, rage, bitterness, and complete self-consciousness.1

1 Keller, T. J. (2013).

The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive.

New York City: Redeemer Presbyterian Church.

The Bible says that Satan is not a figment of our imagination - he is real and he is NOT a vague, impersonal force or category used to describe all evil ....

He is personal.

Jesus speaks that way through all of the gospels.

In , Jesus is speaking to Peter, “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail.”

“Satan, not a foggy force, but a real person - says, ‘I would like to take hold of Simon Peter’.”

And Jesus tells Peter, “Satan has been asking for you - - he wants to destroy you.

But I have prayed for you.”

Satan is real.

He is personal.

He wants to destroy you ....

And Jesus loves you.

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2 A FALLEN ANGEL

We meet Satan in , almost at the very beginning of human history - when he comes, in the form of a serpent, slithering into the Paradise Garden of Eden - He pursuades Eve into sin and seduces Adam to do the same.

Sin and death and destruction and pain - they all enter the human race because our first ancestors fall into the trap of this enemy - - but WHERE DOES SATAN COME FROM?! Have you ever wondered about that?

falling into the trap of this enemy - - but WHERE DOES SATAN COME FROM?! Have you ever wondered about that?

The Bible tells us that Satan is a fallen angel.

Let me take you to 2 OT passages that deal specifically with the devil.

There are more, but we’ll just look at 2:

and

: How are you fallen from heaven, O Day Star, son of Dawn!

How you are cut down to the ground, you who laid the nations low!

You said in your heart, ‘I will ascend to heaven; above the stars of God

I will set my throne on high; I will sit on the mount of assembly in the far reaches of the north;