Part 1: The Enemy We Face The Enemy We Face: Ephesians 6:10-12

“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.”

Fence Lines and Enemy Lines Our struggle really is not against flesh and blood, but against a spiritual power present in our world.

The Genesis of Evil … “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” (Genesis 1:1) Genesis provides a record of the created physical world, but it’s important that we recognize that God made heavenly beings - angels, seraphim, cherubim and the like, that exist in a heavenly realm also. Scripturally, Satan’s beginnings are somewhat unclear.

A Scriptural “ Resume” of Satan One-third of the angels joined in allegiance with one of the lead angels, one named Satan. Satan desired to be God, so he declared war on God and heaven. There was a great conflict, Satan lost and he and those aligned with him and were kicked out of heaven, banished to earth. Just as there is good and evil on the earth, there are good and evil spirits at work on the earth. It is these beings that compose the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms referred to in our passage.

Some Truth about Satan Satan is a created creature. He is simply an angel who has rejected the authority of God. “God and Satan are not similar to the good side and the dark side of the ‘force’ portrayed in Star Wars. Such a dualistic concept is foreign to God’s Word”. (Robert Lightner) Much more evident in the OT, but also present in the NT, Satan is presented as only as powerful and active as God permits him to be.

Misconception #2: Satan Rules Hell Second, Satan’s realm is the earth, not hell. Scripturally, Satan does not rule hell; in fact, quite to the contrary, he and his demons fear it because it spells their ultimate destruction. "And the devil, who deceived them was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day and night forever and ever." (Revelation 20:10)

Misconception #3: Satan’s Appearance Third, it is a very strong possibility that Satan is not disfigured and red, with horns, a tail and a pitchfork. If we take scripture at face value, Satan possesses great beauty; scripture confronts our cultural depiction of a shadowy, slinking, disfigured creature. As Christianity spread across the Roman empire, people groups with their own view of evil were encountered and these views often became enveloped within Christian belief.

Satan as – “the serpent”; presented as sneaky, conniving, and crafty; an oppositional, yet inferior force to God, who uses crafty language to misdirect from truth. – the “adversary” or “accuser”; presented as one who accuses the righteous, pointing out their short comings to God, or challenging their faithfulness. – the “devil” or “slanderer”; presented as one who presents false allegations against the redeemed; one who drums up false testimony against the righteous. – the “tempter”; presents a pattern of operation - misquote God’s Word in order to set people up for death.

A Conclusion on his Character Although Satan’s origins remain somewhat fuzzy, we can arrive at a very firm understanding of his activity against the people of God. Satan’s tactic is to either trick or misdirect us from the true word of God, to bring false accusation against us, whittling down our resolve, or to tempt us to abandon our hold on Jesus Christ. He’s searching for an opening; a foot in the door kind of opportunity.

"Be strong" is the Greek word "endunamoo“, which refers to explosive inherent power. The encouragement here is to “be filled with explosive power of the Lord”, which is no match for Satan. “You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world” (1 John 4:4). The key thing to consider – whose power am I relying on; my own limited strength or the explosive power of God made available to me? Notice the repeated word in verses 11 and 13. This is the Greek work "histemi," and means "to be set, confirmed, resolute, fixed, established". The explosive power of God enables us to ready our stand in preparation of attack, to stand confidently in the midst of attack and to continue standing once the attack has passed.

1.Underestimating our enemy – "But woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has gone down to you! He is filled with fury, because he knows that his time is short … Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.” (Revelation 12:12 and 1 Peter 5:8) – Fury and desperation make for a dangerous combination, so we must be careful that we do not underestimate Satan’s power. Knowing Our Enemy: Two Tendencies

2.Overestimating our enemy; we see Satan in everything and each shortcoming we experience becomes an opportunity to heap the blame on him. ―Another of Satan’s tactics is to get us so focussed on him that we lose sight of other sources of attack; we become so engaged on one front that we leave another defenseless. ―Scripture reveals to us that the seat of sinfulness is the human heart and tells us that “the hearts of people … are full of evil” (Ecclesiastes 9:3) and “the heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure” (Jeremiah 17:9). ―Beware of our own hearts.

There is a way to not only guard against Satan, but also to guard our own hearts and is revealed to us over the next seven verses as the Apostle Paul reveals to us the weapons at our disposal – the armour of God. We’ll key in on these over the next three weeks and my hope is that by the end of this series you feel better equipped to stand against our enemy. May our hearts rest in the knowledge that we “are from God and have overcome [evil spirits/Satan], because the one who is in [us] is greater than the one who is in the world”.