The
Devil
1 Peter 5:8 “Be sober, be vigilant;
because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion,
walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:
9 Whom resist stedfast in the
faith, knowing that the same afflictions are
accomplished in your brethren that are in the
world.”
1. The Master Rebel
2. The Destroyer
3. Brethren, Resist
1. The Master Rebel
Verse eight: “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:”
Who is the one that lurks in the shadows … waiting for his opportunity to attack, or to deceive, or to destroyer?
This is a person … whom the world does not even what to acknowledge or believe exists.
To the people in this world this person, who lurking in the shadows, is just a figment of the imagination of man.
To the wise man or the educated man of this world, this person does not even exist.
Yet the one whom the world does not want to acknowledge to exist … is the same one who actually runs this world.
Now, this person has been known by various names down through the sixty centuries of time.
He has been known by these following names, and more: as Apollyon [Revelation 9:11], as Abaddon [Revelation 9:11], as Belial [1 Kings 21:13], as Beelzebub [Matthew 10:25], as Lucifer, as the Serpent, as the “prince of the power of the air”, as the “god of this world” [2 Corinthians 4:4] as the Dragon, and as Satan.
This person is the DEVIL. He is a PERSON.
Now, the Devil, who is Old Scratch in the world’s folklore, is the MASTER of his HOUSE, according to Matthew chapter ten, verse twenty-five: “It is enough for the disciple that he be as his master, and the servant as his lord. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall they call them of his household?” [Matthew 10:25]
He has many members in his household that do his bidding. I did his bidding for the first twenty-three years of my life. The Spirit of God says this … in the book of Ephesians chapter two, verse two: “Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:” [Ephesians 2:2].
Now, “the children of disobedience” include all the people of this world … who are without the new birth in Jesus Christ.
[This includes both you and I, my friend.]
The “children of disobedience” belong to the DEVIL because he is the father to all disobedience.
He is the master REBEL.
2. The Destroyer
Now, GOD clearly can destroy … yet HE is not the DESTROYER.
In fact, it is the SON of GOD, Who said, while HE was here on this earth nearly two thousand years ago, that we ought to “fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” [Matthew 10:28] God will destroy “in hell” the unbelievers … those that refuse to bend the knee to Jesus Christ, and receive HIM Savoir and Lord.
But, GOD clearly wants to SAVE men. The Son of God’s goal while HE was here nearly two thousand years ago ... was to save men. The BOOK tells us this … in Luke chapter nine in verse fifty-six: “For the Son of man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them.” [Luke 9:56a]
GOD wants to save men, but men must first be willing to REPENT, or “come to repentance” as the HOLY GHOST tell us in Second Peter chapter three, verse nine: “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.” [2 Peter 3:9]
Now, there is someone else who can destroy. This someone else is the true DESTROYER.
This person’s motives are never pure. What is more … he never desires to see anyone saved from Hell. He never wants to see anyone “come to repentance.” He takes joy in destroying!
It is this very same person that David wanted to avoid at all costs [in Psalm chapter seventeen, in verse four]: “Concerning the works of men, by the word of thy lips I have kept me from the paths of the destroyer.” [Psalm 17:4]
The “paths of the destroyer” are well marked. They are marked by evil intentions and by deception. This destroyer always tries to mimic the true God of heaven and earth to fool men, yet he can be found out.
When “the angel of the Lord” “smote” the Assyrians in Second Kings nineteen, God was saving HIS people from the enemy. “And it came to pass that night, that the angel of the Lord went out, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians an hundred fourscore and five thousand: and when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses.” [2 Kings 19:35]
God’s motive behind the killing was to save the Kingdom of Judah. No one here [in this text] is destroying for the sheer joy of destroying. The DESTROYER was not there … saving Hezekiah.
The first instance in the Bible of the phrase: “the destroyer” is located in Exodus twelve.
Verse twenty-three: “For the Lord will pass through to smite the Egyptians; and when he seeth the blood upon the lintel, and on the two side posts, the Lord will pass over the door, and will not suffer the destroyer to come in unto your houses to smite you.” [Exodus 12:23]
There is no mention of any angel. The exact identification of the “destroyer” will have to wait tills one reads the account of Job … DESTROYER = DEVIL.
The Devil wants to take mankind to a devil’s HELL. Make no mistake about it. Satan is the DESTROYER.
3. Brethren, Resist
Verse nine: “Whom resist stedfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world.”
Now, the Devil and his cohorts [and all the men who are the dupes of the Devil] want to destroy everyone and anything … that is for Jesus Christ. They hate HIM.
Anything that is pure and right in this old world, the Devil wants to corrupt or destroy.
The first target of the Devil to corrupt, or destroy … is God’s word … the Bible.
It is Satan who has been “the ring leader” and the perpetrator of the deception that there is no perfect Bible on the face of this earth.
Satan is the author of the confusion … concerning the word of God with all the multiplicity and corruption in the Greek and Marsoretic Texts.
Something else, Satan is a liar. He is a pervert and an “agent of change” [a revisionist].
Yet in spite of all his relentless attacks, God’s words are “purely” found preserved in the Authorized Version of 1611 Bible [the King James] till this very day for you and I. Amen! “The words of the Lord are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times. Thou shalt keep them, O Lord, thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever.” [Psalm 12:6-7]
The second target of the Devil to corrupt, or to destroy … is the human family, and therefore, marriage. The family unit … is God’s DESIGN, and it is the oldest governing institution on the face of this earth. God’s intention was to build the human society with this primary foundational unit called the family.
Now, the family unit itself would depend upon the “one man” and “one woman” relationship becoming “one flesh” for life with the attendant “fruit” of the marriage being the children.
God’s plan to re-fill the earth with people depended upon the purity and the strength [the very health] of the family unit in order to build nations with the successive generations of men, and thereby, enable the perpetuation of mankind.
Now, the Devil hates the family unit that God has designed in the book of Genesis. He has done everything he can to promote divorce and the breakdown of our homes. He has confused both men and women about their individual roles as husbands and wives.
• Confusion abounds!
• Confusion reigns.
• Where confusion is … the Devil is near.
He has perpetuated the loss of our knowledge [which is in the Bible] of how to mother or to father our children for the last six thousand years. Satan is “out” to hurt, to maim and to destroy the family and the home.
He is the DESTROYER!
Satan is out to hurt, to maim and to destroy the children for they are the next generation. The Devil hates the children, and the children are hurting. Satan is the DESTROYER!
The third target of the Devil to corrupt, or to destroy … is the nations of the world. The Devil wants to lead the nations to HELL. He will do this by leading nation away from the God of the Bible.
At every twist and turn he arms his dupes so as to lead us astray from righteousness in every branch of our government and in all our schools. Satan wants us to forget the old paths, which lead us in a right way for our good. “Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people.” [Proverbs 14:34]
Brethren, we need to “resist” the Devil and be “stedfast in the faith.”
As long as we are in this world … we must resist the Devil. Why do we need to resist him? Here is why, because the Devil and his cohorts are ever so busy about their nasty business … of blinding the lost souls of this world to the true salvation found in Jesus Christ, and the urging of them on … in the road to Hell’s fire.
RESIST the Devil! Stand against the wiles of the Devil!
“Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.
Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness; And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace;
Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.
And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:
Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;” [Ephesians 6:10-18].