The Evil One (Part 1 of 2) In popular ((music playing)) culture, the devil is sometimes portrayed as a fun-loving troublemaker, mischievous but basically harmless. But that's a far cry from the way he is described in the Bible. And today on Truth For Life, Alistair Begg takes us to Jesus' high priestly ((music playing)) prayer for a closer look at the devil's identity and strategies. >> ((music playing)) >> We're going to read from uh John chapter 17. Just briefly. From verse 11. Jesus says to the Father, "I'm no longer in the world, but they, that is his disciples, are in the world and I'm coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you've given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I've guarded them, and not one of them has been lost, except the son of destruction, that the scripture might be fulfilled. But now I'm coming to you. And these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. I've given them your word, and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. As we turn to the Bible, we turn to the Lord. Father, this is your word. We want to hear Jesus speak. We just affirmed that in our song. Beyond the voice of a mere man to hear your voice and to listen and to believe and obey. Help us as we uh navigate our way through this material, that we might have clarity and brevity and uh joy in the Holy Spirit. For we pray in Christ's name. Amen. Well, last time in John chapter 17, we finished at verse 15. And when I say we finished, I should really say we ended, um because it felt like we didn't finish. And at least it didn't feel that in that way to me. And that is because we left hanging the final phrase of verse 15, where Jesus says, "Keep them from the evil one." This phrase uh "Keep them from the evil one" is um such a vital phrase. Uh it so reference to Luther in his great reformation hymn, when he describes uh the evil one as the prince of darkness grim. But what I want to do is simply this. I want to consider first of all the identity of the evil one, the strategy of the evil one, Christ's victory over the evil one, and then our activity in relationship to Christ's victory. So as you can see, there's quite a lot to get through. First of all then, the identity of the evil one. He is described variously throughout the Bible as the devil, uh which is a diabolos, which is the word that gives to us our English word diabolical. Satan is the Hebrew terminology for him. He is, as the diabolical one, a slanderer. He slanders God to us. He slanders us to God. He slanders us to one another. He is the accuser. He is the adversary, as it were, in the court case of life. He comes in that way. And he is identified for us in various places, and not least of all in the Gospel of John. So for example, in John chapter 8, in a dialogue that Jesus has with the Jewish people, who are making much of the religious background and declaring that they don't need to be set free, because they've never been slaves to anyone, because they have Abraham as their father. And then quite dramatically, Jesus then says to them in verse 44 of chapter 8, "Well, 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. But because I tell you the truth, you do not believe me." As you go through John's Gospel, Jesus then identifies the evil one as the ruler of this world. I'll tell you where I am without necessarily turning it up for you every time. For example, John chapter 12 and verse 31, where Jesus there refers to the devil as the ruler of this world. I.e., our world is a fallen world. Our world is a world in rebellion against God. And that world in rebellion against God is under the jurisdiction of the devil, Satan, the evil one. In chapter 14, he refers to him in the same way, when he says the ruler of this world is coming. Fascinatingly there, the ruler of the world is about to appear, not in the form of a serpent, as we see in Genesis 3, but in the form of Judas Iscariot. You perhaps remember when we studied that passage, that the son of destruction, where we read of him, Satan entered into Judas. And Jesus says to his followers, "Don't let your hearts be troubled" and so on. And he says, "But you should know that the ruler of this world is coming." Not only in the Gospels, but also in the Epistles. So Paul, uh writing in 2 Corinthians, uses a very interesting word. He uses a term for the devil that is unique in all of scripture. And the word that is there is the word Belial. You find it in 2 Corinthians 6 and in verse 15. He's speaking there about the importance of those who are followers of Jesus not getting themselves entangled with those who are opposed to Jesus. And he uses terminology that is very understandable. Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers, because we're talking about two very different things. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? What accord has Christ with Belial? And that term for Satan was peculiar to Judaism at the time of Paul. So the Jewish people who were listening to him would be perfectly clear about the reference that he was making. The word actually means worthlessness or it means destruction. And so he's saying, "Uh what possibility is there for any kind of union between he who is absolutely worthless, he who is committed to destruction, and he who is the Lord of life and glory? If you are in Christ, you cannot be unequally yoked in this way." And of course, the direction is very straightforward. When you get to 2 Corinthians chapter 11, uh the devil, and we're still talking about his identity, the devil is there described as an angel of light. He's talking about false apostles. We may have time to come back to that. But he says then, "There's no wonder about this, because even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light, as an angel of light." Remember when he writes to the Galatians, he says, "I'm really concerned that you would depart from the Gospel." He says, "You should be very careful, because even if an angel came from heaven and proclaimed to you a gospel that is not the Gospel, you should have nothing to do with that." An angel that came from heaven, a fallen angel that would come and proclaim a gospel that is no gospel. You don't have to be a genius to realize how apropos that is. Now, his identity is masterful. He could hope for no better cover than the illusion that he doesn't exist. That's the best thing. If you're going to be a spy, you're a spy that doesn't exist. But [snorts] you do exist. He does exist. But he wants us to believe either that he doesn't exist, and so we ignore him completely, or that he exists all the time, everywhere, all the time. So two preoccupa- The two dangers of dealing with the devil in terms of his identity. One, that we become preoccupied with him, and we see him everywhere, like in the old Frank Peretti books, called In Present This Present Darkness, which was a which was a good book, but I found that every time I turned around, I expected to see a demon. You know, if you opened your closet, said, "Oh, there's another one." Whatever it was. And and he could see them on people's shoulders and everything. I don't know where they all were. That kind of preoccupation, I think, is unhelpful. But the al- The alternative is equally unhelpful. To walk around as if there is no one. There is. Jesus says so. That's his identity. Secondly, his strategy. What is his strategy? Fundamentally, the strategy of the evil one is to discredit the word of God and to destroy the works of God. To discredit his word and to destroy his works. So, when you go through the story of the Bible, you realize that the great opposition to the unfolding drama of God's purposes is opposed again and again and again. There's Goliath against David, who is the Lord's anointed. It's in the incarnation with the response of Herod in his great opposition to this unfolding drama of the arrival of a king and so on. And the strategy we find from the very beginning of the Bible. So, if you turn to Genesis chapter 3, uh you find it there. And you'll find that what I'm suggesting is actually there. From the very beginning, from creation, um the evil one is at work. Now, the serpent was more crafty. The power of evil revealed here in Genesis 3 is in and behind the speaking serpent. So crafty. So crafty. And in that powerful opposition, his craft and his power are great. So, his opening gambit in speaking to Eve, his initial approach, is kind of deceptively innocent. Uh he says he says, "Oh, do you would you mind if I asked you a question?" Well, that's sort of disarming, isn't it? Nobody's immediately in the defensive there. But what is the question? "Did God actually say, you shall not eat of any tree in the garden?" No, he did not actually say that. He said, "You shall not eat of this tree in the garden." And so the devil immediately misquotes God. And people say, "Well, you know, Mr. So-and-so is a very nice man. I went to his church. He quotes the Bible." Listen, that's not the issue. It's how you quote the Bible. You can monkey around with the Bible a hundred ways. Say all kinds of things. You can't misquote it. No, that's not what he said. Verse 4, he then says to her, he's not only crafty, but he's cruel. He says to her, "You know, here's the deal. You won't die. You won't die." And then he says in verse 5, "The reason that he's saying these things to you is because he's seeking to deprive you of something that would be really good for you." Verse 5, "For God knows." Now he's Now he's explaining God. >> [laughter] >> The devil one is explaining God. "For God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." Well, the fact is their eyes were opened, but what did they see when their eyes were opened? They saw that they were naked. They saw that they had a problem. Because they already knew that they'd been made in the image of God, chapter 1 and verse 26. God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And furthermore, let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, birds of the heaven, over the livestock, over all the earth." Notice, "And over every creeping thing that creeps on the face of the earth." They knew that they were now made in the image of God and being given dominion over everything. This, incidentally, is the social history of humanity. This is the nature of humanity as described for us in the beginning of the Bible. But what has happened to them? Well, they actually listened to the evil one. They listened to the serpent. The serpent who is contradicting the maker of heaven and earth. So, they list Their ears are filled with the word of the evil one. And then they go and they hide from God. And what happens from that point on, to quote my friend Chad Van Dixhoorn, is that the poison of disobedience was absorbed into the root of humanity. Was imputed to all who were in the line from Adam and Eve. Remember when Paul preaches in in Acts chapter 7 17, we have it. Where where he says remarkably there, and this is I I didn't mention this this morning, but there it is in verse 26. He's speaking to the Athenians and he says, "And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on the face of the earth." So, [snorts] if he made of that one man and that one man was a sinner and the poison of disobedience came through that one man, then we who are in that man, as in Adam, all die. Therefore, we got the problem right along with him. That's what the Bible says. That's why when the writer to the Ecclesiastes is giving us a kind of a survey of life, its ups and downs, and trying to make sense of the jigsaw puzzle, he makes the statement in verse 29, "God made man upright, but they have sought out many schemes." "God made man upright, but they man crave man, man and woman. God has made us in his image, upright, but we are crooked. We're like a broken coat hanger that's been bent in 50 different ways. And we realize that we're unable to straighten it. That is why men and women today, like Adam and Eve, conspire to seek after everything, it seems, that is contrary to God and to his purposes. Everything except God, the God to whom we're accountable. And when again in Ecclesiastes 7, uh the writer puts it so succinctly. He says, "Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins." Now, just put that in your pocket for a minute. "There is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins." He's not saying that man is incapable of good things. But what it is saying is this, that man is incapable of doing anything good in terms of merit towards the God who has made him. He's He's completely incapacitated. If we had time, we'd go to Romans chapter 3, but we won't. You can for homework. Left to ourselves, we don't seek God. And left to ourselves, we are unable to do anything that merits salvation. The Westminster Confession uh helps us in section 6, where it says this. Speaking in terms of the impact of the fall of man. Since they, that is Adam and Eve, were the root of all mankind, the guilt of this sin was imputed to and the same death in sin and corrupted nature was conveyed to all their posterity descending from them by ordinary generation. From this original corruption, by which we are utterly disinclined, disabled, and antagonistic to all that is good and wholly inclined to all that is evil, all actual transgressions proceed. So, when people say, "What in the world is up with the world? Why is it that things are the way they are?" This is the Bible's answer. Now, his strategy is revealed not only in creation, but his strategy is revealed, as I've said, elsewhere. One other place just to point you would be to the temptation of Jesus. Because you you see his craftiness in full force in Matthew chapter 4. You remember that Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted. The tempter comes, the devil comes, and he says to him, straight out of the blocks, "If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread." He says, "If you're the Son of God, do a miracle. Show everybody." And what he's actually doing, he's trying to seduce Jesus to use his divine prerogative to make his circumstances easier on himself. You got to be hungry after 40 days, Jesus. Turn the stones into bread. Do yourself a favor." He goes on from there. Jesus answers him. If you want to talk about bread, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. Jesus answer every time is on the with with the scriptures. Then the devil took him to the holy city, set him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to him, "If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, he will give his angels charge concerning you. On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone." Once again, the devil uses the Bible, misquotes the Bible to try and oppose Jesus. That's his strategy. To destroy what he has come to do. To discredit the word that he speaks. And for a third time, he took him, verse 8, to a very high mountain, showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to him, "All these I will give you." That's a flat-out lie, incidentally, because he couldn't. "All these I will give you if you will fall down and worship me." So, what is he say? His strategy is this, to get Jesus to exchange his love of the Father for the worship of Satan. >> [clears throat] >> Strategy hasn't changed. He would He would rather that you worshiped him when his broad road to destruction that that you bow down before Jesus as Lord and King and Savior. So, it's no question at all that the evil one, by identity and strategy, is the father of lies. He is the father of lies. And as the father of lies, he's very, very capable. I must keep moving, but 2 Corinthians 4, I find that this is helpful to remind myself of this. Why are things the way they are? 2 Corinthians 4 and verse 3. Why is it that when we tell people the gospel, this good news, and people go like, "Hey, talk to the hand." Yeah. Sure. Thank you. I can see that it means something to you. It means nothing to me. Why is that? Here's the answer. The god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. And worse still, the evil one is so crafty that he employs people in positions such as my own or positions of significant leadership within the unfolding story of the drama of Christianity. Men who are false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. So, saying one thing but meaning something else. Saying that they believe the Bible and it must be upheld, and then saying that it doesn't matter whether marriage is heterosexual or homosexual. That's this week from the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Archbishop of York. He and his buddy have finally concluded that it doesn't really matter. That it is equal opportunity irrespective of gender and background. Now, I I I I hate to say it of the Archbishop, but that is false. And if he is really the Archbishop of Canterbury, what about the Bible? What about the Bible? His strategy is disguise. Disguise. He intimidates. 1 Peter 5, he roars. The sound of the opposition may seem so loud in the ears of some. They say, "I'm just going to have to go with the crowd. It's roaring so loud." He He consumes. He devours. You're listening ((music playing)) to Truth for Life with Alistair Begg. We'll hear more about the strategies of the evil one tomorrow. Now, as we are looking forward to Easter, we are praying that you'll be intentional about sharing with others the true meaning of this important celebration. And to help with that, we've created a tract that presents the story of the gospel. It's titled Ever Wonder Why Your World Feels Broken. This is a small 3 and 1/2 by 4-in pamphlet that speaks to the emptiness and brokenness that so many people feel but can't explain. The tract, which is taken from Alistair's teaching, explains the storyline of the Bible in simple, easy-to-understand language. Readers will learn that God made the world good, sin made it bad, in Jesus it's restored, and one day it will be made perfect. At the end of the tract, readers are given a link to the gospel of John, as well as a link to a message from Alistair that explains more about God's salvation plan. These tracts make it easy to introduce others to Jesus. You can give copies to friends or neighbors or co-workers, leave some behind at the places you frequent, leave a stack of them near your church's entrance for first-time visitors. Again, the title is Ever Wonder Why Your World Feels ((music playing)) Broken. You can buy five for a dollar or packs of 25 for just $5. ((music playing)) Purchase a supply online at truthforlife.org/tract or call us at 888-588-7884. ((music playing)) We are glad you joined us today. Tomorrow, we'll learn why it's important to take ((music playing)) the devil seriously, but as believers, we don't need to be preoccupied with him. I hope you can join us. The Bible teaching of Alistair Begg is furnished by Truth ((music playing)) for Life, >> ((music playing)) >> where the learning is for living.