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Satan – Why Choose A Loser? (July 7, 2013)

What is the biggest difference between you and Satan? Lets face it – there are many differences between you and Satan. He is the most powerful created being. He is evil personified. He once walked the corridors of heaven. His battle with Christ has defined human history. But this evening, I want to suggest that possibly the biggest difference between you and Satan is that his end is set in stone – yours is not. As Martin Luther put it in his great hymn – A Mighty Fortress Is Our God:

The prince of darkness grim – We tremble not for him! His rage we can endure, For lo, his doom is sure: One little word shall fell him.

It is true – we know Satan’s obituary already. Revelation 20:10 describes the moment the most powerful created being, the most fascinating of creatures reaches the end of his reign of terror.

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And the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.

Revelation 20 is describing the day at the end of time when God will sit upon His Great White Throne and judge every created being. It is on that day Satan is to be cast into the lake of fire to suffer eternal torment. His end is determined. It is set in stone. But I have a couple of questions for you.

If Satan’s doom is sure – why does he keep on battling against God and the people of God?

You know and I know that the final chapter in the history of Satan is decreed in God’s unchanging Word – it will come to pass. And since Satan is much smarter than you or I, surely he knows that his doom is absolutely certain. Surely he knew that the game was over the moment he fell? So then why this eternal battle between the Beast and the Lamb – between the Beast and the people of the Lamb? I don’t pretend to know everything about how the devil thinks. But I can only come up with two options.

Perhaps deep down he really believes that the future is not set. That he can somehow finally overcome Christ. That one day his schemes won’t end in failure. One day he will have his day and triumph over Jesus. Perhaps – but I really doubt it. Satan knows the power of God and that His Word is sure. He knows he is merely a created being and Jesus is the Creator. Satan knows he is not Christ’s equal and cannot triumph over the Lamb.

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So that leaves only one option. He keeps on fighting, scheming, attacking – because that is his nature. He is evil incarnate so he must oppose God. It is what he does. A scorpion, being a very poor swimmer, asked a turtle to carry him on its back across the river. “Are you mad?” exclaimed the turtle. “You’ll sting me while I’m swimming and I’ll drown.” “My dear turtle,” laughed the scorpion, “If I were to sting you, you would drown and I’d go down with you. Now why would I do that?” “You’re right,” cried the turtle. “Hop on.” The scorpion climbed aboard and halfway across the river gave the turtle a mighty sting. As they both sank to the bottom, the turtle, wondered, “Do you mind if I ask you something? What you just did will cost you your life as well as mine – so why did you do it?” The drowning scorpion replied. “It’s just my nature.” Satan is evil. He is intractable opposed to the people of God. So although Satan knows his doom is sure – he will keep fighting and scheming right to the end because it is what he does. But I have another question.

If Satan’s doom is sure – why do so many men and women – whose doom is not yet sure – choose to join his rebellion against God?

Each man and woman born has to choose to follow the Lamb or the Beast. Unlike Satan our final destinies are not set. But our final destinies are determined by whether we choose to be the people of the Lamb or the people of the Beast. To become a child of the Lamb – you have to choose the Lamb with every fibre of your being. Matthew 13:44–45:

The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it.

However, there are four ways you can end up aligned with the Beast.

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First, you can choose Satan. There are many who are drawn to choose to throw their lot in with Satan. They worship him. They tattoo him on their body. They sing to him. On one level I do understand the fascination with Satan. Sex, drugs, rock and roll, lawlessness, sticking it to the man, watching people cringe. There is an antiestablishment cool factor involved. How many of these Satanists truly believe Satan is real? – I don’t know. For some there is no doubt Satan is more a symbol than reality. A way to enjoy the fruits of sin. But also – there is little doubt that for many the worship is real. They know the power of evil. They worship the evil one. For these ones who choose to follow Satan I wonder – why join the loosing side? Surely they know how this is all going to end? Again – perhaps they think of Satan and Christ as two equally powerful beings involved in a cosmic battle – a battle Satan actually has a chance of winning. And this is exactly what some Satanic literature declares. Satan killed Jesus once and he will triumph again.

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They say the depiction in the Bible of the end is not set in stone – Satan can triumph and so can they. Ultimately this comes down to who you believe – the One who is the way, the truth and the life – or the Father of all lies. Don’t choose Satan. There is a second way you can end up aligned with the Beast.

You can choose against Christ. To choose any other God – Allah, Buddha, money, sex, the world, self – is to choose against Christ and to choose Satan. Satan is the Father of Lies Revelation 13:11–15 describes Satan’s dealings through the false prophets:

Then I saw another beast rising out of the earth. It had two horns like a lamb and it spoke like a dragon. It exercises all the authority of the first beast in its presence, and makes the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast, whose mortal wound was healed. It performs great signs, even making fire come down from heaven to earth in front of people, and by the signs that it is allowed to work in the presence of the beast it deceives those who dwell on earth, telling them to make an image for the beast that was wounded by the sword and yet lived. And it was allowed to give breath to the image of the beast, so that the image of the beast might even speak and might cause those who would not worship the image of the beast to be slain.

The beast deceives men – by lies, signs, deception. Communism, humanism, secularism, atheism, worldliness, Islam, Scientology, drugs, sex – any lie, sin, philosophy that will draw man’s heart away from Christ.

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Verses 16 and 17 tell us that the deceived receive the mark of the Beast – they belong to Satan. To choose anything but the truth is to choose against Christ. There is a third way you can end up aligned with the Beast.

You can make no choice. On the final day – I suspect that there will be untold billions who will protest – but I didn't choose Satan – I just made no choice. The Bible is crystal clear – Jesus bids us come. To make no choice is to ignore the path of salvation and choose the path of the Beast. The book of Revelation tells us that everyone in history belongs to one of two groups – those who have the name of the Lamb and His Father written on their foreheads – and everyone else – who belongs to the Beast – Satan – and bear his mark. You are either with Christ or against Him. If you are in an office and the police call and tell you – we have evidence there is a bomb in the building get out – and you say – I will just ignore that – you have made a choice. To make no choice for Christ is to make a choice for Satan. There is a fourth way you can end up aligned with the Beast.

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You can make a false choice. There are many who think they have chosen Christ but their choice is false. They chose a false Christ. Mormons, Catholics, Unitarians – they might protest that they choose Christ – no they didn’t – they chose a false Christ. And many think they followed Christ – but they stayed serving two masters – which means they chose Satan over Christ. Unless you are fully Christ’s – you are not His at all. Matthew 7:21–23:

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’

That is such a scary verse. Most of those who choose the side of the Beast are not theologically sold out to Satan. It is not just overt Satanists who choose the side of Satan. In fact they are very much the minority. Most who choose Satan don’t realise they are doing so and will be shocked to find out they have chosen him.

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But unfortunately too many – including too many Christians fail to understand how serious the spiritual battle is and how firmly we need to follow Christ to resist the devil. They fail to understand that unless you choose Christ with all your heart – you in fact choose Satan. They want a foot in Christ and a foot in the world – which is in fact to have both feet in Satan. I am convinced too many Christians fail to understand that they are locked in a life and death battle for their soul. And the enemy of our soul is not flesh and blood – he is powerful, intelligent and has many weapons. Listen to Ephesians 6:11–12:

Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

Hebrews 2:14 tells us that Satan is the one who has the power of death. Ephesians 2:2 describes him as:

…the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience.

1 Peter 5:8 tells us:

Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.

Ephesians 6:16 reminds us that we need the shield of faith to:

… extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one. Over the years I have seen many who call themselves Christians fall away. There are many reasons:

The flaming darts of the evil one – questions about the existence of God – the reality of heaven – creation – miracles. The lure of the world. Sin. Apathy.

Those who fall away tend to go one of two ways.

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Some swing the pendulum right to the other extreme. They become atheist evangelists, Muslims or even witches and Satanists. But most merely say – I have given up the fight to be holy and now I will enjoy the world. The Bible says – either way – you are aligning yourself with Satan. And so having seen this all too often – I have a question and an encouragement. Here is my question: Why choose a loser? Satan’s doom is sure. Any who side with Satan will be lost – nothing is more certain. So why choose to side with the loser? Satan is incredibly powerful – but he is not God. His history is one of defeat. He hatches plot after plot and defeat emerges from the jaws of victory every time. Wylie E Coyote has more chance of victory. Think with me for a moment through the history of Satan and it becomes clear why we must actively choose Christ and not be aligned with the Beast. The Bible tells us little about Satan’s origins. We know that he is a created being. We know that he is probably the mightiest of all created beings. The Bible doesn’t clearly say so, but most likely he was a mighty angel who fell and took many other angels with him. The first time we encounter Satan is in Genesis 3. At this point he is already evil, he is opposed to God and those who are God’s. And this whole episode is a template of all that is to come. He shows himself to be a master of lies and manipulation. He does all in his power to pervert the children of God. He appears to gain a great victory. But the victory is flawed. What seems to be victory actually lays the seeds of his utter defeat. In Genesis 3:1 we are told that he is crafty. He is cunning and shrewd. He doesn’t come with outright opposition to God. He starts with a question – Indeed, has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’? That is not what God said and Eve knew it. The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’ ”

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Notice Eve’s little hyperbole – God said we can’t eat from it or touch it! Then comes one of the most twisted statements ever uttered. The serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” Truth mixed with wicked lies and twisted reality! Satan is a master of lies. It sounds true – but it is from the pit. Disobey God and they would die – spiritually and finally physically. True their eyes will be opened – and in this one narrow way they will be like God – but this is not a good thing. It is disastrous. When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths. I would imagine that about this point Satan would be feeling pretty good. God had created men. He created them to worship Him and serve Him and glorify Him forever. And in his first attempt he managed to cause the fall of all mankind. But, then defeat is snatched from the jaws of victory. Listen to Genesis 3 verses 14 and 15:

Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field; on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. 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.

From the woman would come the seed who would finally bruise Satan – crush his head. The seed of the woman would finally issue in Jesus Christ. The fall meant that God could demonstrate love and mercy and grace. God would still have His redeemed humanity. What had seemed like a triumph actually led to his greatest defeat. Then throughout Genesis you see Satan’s threats to this promised seed line. While Satan is not mentioned, most likely he is somewhere in the background trying to stop the coming of the seed of the woman. In Genesis 6 he tries through intermarriage.

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In Genesis 11 we have the rebellion of the Tower of Babel. There are several threats to the seed line in the days of Abraham. Twice Sarah is nearly taken by a man not her husband. Abraham takes Hagar – but Ishmael is not the promised seed. We see the descendants of Abraham threatened by famine. And every time God protects and delivers. The plans of the evil one are thwarted. Around this time we have a fascinating insight into the machinations of Satan. It comes in the book of Job. Job 1:6-12:

Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them. The Lord said to Satan, “From where have you come?” Satan answered the Lord and said, “From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking up and down on it.” And the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil?” Then Satan answered the Lord and said, “Does Job fear God for no reason? Have you not put a hedge around him and his house and all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. But stretch out your hand and touch all that he has, and he will curse you to your face.” And the Lord said to Satan, “Behold, all that he has is in your hand. Only against him do not stretch out your hand.” So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord.

Satan may come before the Lord. But even this mighty being must ask permission of God. And Satan asked permission to afflict Job. Satan believed that Job only served God because God blessed him. So the Lord gave Satan permission to strike this man but not to touch Job himself. He took his possessions and his children. And still Job did not curse God. And Satan came back to God and said it is only because he has his health. So God said:

Behold, he is in your power, only spare his life. And Satan went about this with zeal. He struck Job head to toe with boils. He took his health and put him in great pain. And Job’s wife came with wonderful counsel – Just curse God and die. Once again, victory is near. Job received poor counsel. He is confused and unsure. But finally, he learns a great lesson. He learns that God is sovereign. That God cannot be thwarted. He comes to fear God.

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Listen to one of the most magnificent statements in Scripture. Job 42:1-6:

Then Job answered the Lord and said: “I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted. ‘Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?’ Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. ‘Hear, and I will speak; I will question you, and you make it known to me.’ I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you; therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes.”

Satan’s apparent victory led to a great defeat. Job gained an understanding and awe of God. Throughout the Old Testament we see Satan bob up from time to time. Like when he caused David to number the people – to look to armies and might for victory not God. But again defeat is snatched from victory. David repented and wrote some of the most magnificent Psalms about trusting the Lord. Perhaps the whole behind the scenes machinations of Satan can be summed up in a vision Zechariah had in Zechariah 3. Zechariah 3:1:

Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to accuse him.

This is Satan the accuser of the brethren. Pointing our every fault, every sin, everything that separates us from God. It might appear that Satan has won. That he has kept men from a relationship with God. But what we can’t do, God does. Zechariah 3:2–6:

And the Lord said to Satan, “The Lord rebuke you, O Satan! The Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is not this a brand plucked from the fire?” Now Joshua was standing before the angel, clothed with filthy garments. And the angel said to those who were standing before him, “Remove the filthy garments from him.” And to him he said, “Behold, I have taken your iniquity away from you, and I will clothe you with pure vestments.” And I said, “Let them put a clean turban on his head.” So they put a clean turban on his head and clothed him with garments. And the angel of the Lord was standing by. And the angel of the Lord solemnly assured Joshua,

The accusations were true. But God did what we cannot. He stripped off the filthy garments and clothed Joshua the High Priest with clean garments.

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It is God Himself who will counter the evil of sin and Satan. Then we come to the New Testament and the battle between the Lamb and the Serpent begins its final stage. The ministry of Jesus began with Him demonstrating that He was worthy to be the second Adam. Christ was led by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness and there he fasted for forty days. And it was there in the wilderness that the tempter – Satan – came to him. He issued Him with a series of temptations – severe temptations. To turn stones into bread and feed His hunger. To throw Himself from the Temple and have the angels catch Him. And to worship Satan and receive the kingdoms of the world. Satan had every advantage. But again – He failed. Christ refuted each temptation with the Word of God. With this in mind, what I want to do for a moment is to compare the temptations of Adam with Jesus the second Adam. Adam was tempted in paradise, the Garden of Eden. He lacked for nothing everything was provided for him. Christ was tempted in the sparse rugged terrain of the wilderness. This was made worse by the presence of wild beasts in the area. Adam was well fed. Every tree of the garden but one was his to choose from. Christ was physically and emotionally drained. Forty days of fasting must have left Him in a severely weakened state and susceptible to temptation. Adam had just one temptation placed before him – Do not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Christ was continually tempted for forty days and forty nights. But, where Adam failed, Christ succeeded. Christ faced the most severe temptations known to man and did not succumb. He clung to the bread of life – the Word of God and withstood the evil one. Because of this He demonstrated His credentials to be the Saviour of the world. To have fallen at any point would have invalidated the ministry of Christ and disqualified Him from being able to bear our sin. He was tempted, He suffered, He remained sinless and thus He was able to come to the aid of those devastated by Adam’s failure. This is crucial. We might think we cannot overcome Satan. But with Christ in us – just as He withstood the evil one – so can we.

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Then throughout the gospels we have an outpouring of demonic activity unlike anything seen before or since. It was as if all the fury of hell was hurled against Jesus. But Jesus cast out the demons. And Jesus gave the authority to cast out demons to his disciples. In overthrowing the strongholds – Satan fell from heaven like lightning. Look at Luke 10:17–19:

The seventy-two returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name!” And he said to them, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall hurt you.”

But Satan was not done yet. Luke 22:3:

Then Satan entered into Judas called Iscariot, who was of the number of the twelve.

Satan entered into Judas and had him betray the Lord Jesus for a handful of silver. But this betrayal led directly to the cross. The holy One was dead. And yet I have wondered if Satan with all his brilliance would have known that the death of the Saviour would lead to his defeat. Did he know that he had helped bring about his own downfall? Did he do it because opposing God is simply part of his nature? Or did he really think that he had triumphed over the Son? Was there joy and celebrations in hell that night? Did they rejoice that Christ, the Son of God, the seed of the woman – was dead? Or was there a sense of foreboding – knowing that by their hand the salvation of the world and the triumph over evil had occurred on the cross? I don’t know. But if this was the high point of Satan’s career – the celebrations would have died in their throats when the Lord rose in power from the tomb. Death – where is your victory? Satan – where is your victory? And if Satan had ever thought there might be any chance of winning – it died in the empty tomb. Oh Satan is still here – like a roaring lion. Deceiving, lying, opposing God, accusing the brethren. He is the Prince of the Power of the Air. He is the lord of this world.

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He is like a headless chicken – running around, but his doom is absolutely sure.

The prince of darkness grim, We tremble not for him His rage we can endure For lo, his doom is sure.

Satan still fights on. Looking for those he can devour. And he still has a battle or two left in him. Revelation 12 describes the birth of Jesus and the spiritual battle in the heavenlies this triggered.

And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.

Satan was cast down and the spiritual battle rages right now. It will rage to the end. Revelation 20 verse 2 says that a day will come when the devil will be imprisoned for a thousand years. But, he will be released and then there will be one final great battle – Armageddon – and finally the end comes for Satan. The evil one has to know his end is sure. Defeated time and again. Demolished at the cross. Imprisoned for a thousand years. One final rebellion. But ultimately one last great defeat.

But fire came down from heaven and consumed them, and the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.

Satan is history’s ultimate loser. He presents himself as a winner – but when you look closely – he always loses. In 1831 Friedrich Moritz August Retzsch painted a picture of a chess game. He titled it – The Chess Players. The players were a young man and Satan. The young man manipulated the white pieces; Satan the black pieces. The man is watched over by his guardian angel. The stakes of the game is the young man’s soul. The black pieces advance without respite on the white set. Satan looks supremely confident of victory. The young man’s hand hovers near his rook; his face pale with amazement and horror. All hope has left him. His soul is about to be forfeit.

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Many chess players viewed the picture. All declared – indeed – the young man has lost – the devil wins! However, the great chess player Paul Morphy saw a copy of this painting in a home in Cincinatti. He studied this painting for quite some time and then declared, “I think that I can take the young man’s game and win.” The host replied, “Why, impossible! Not even you, Mr. Morphy, can retrieve that game.” “Yet, I think I can,” said Morphy. “Suppose we place the men and try.” A board was arranged, and the rest of the company gathered round it, deeply interested in the result. To the surprise of every one, victory was snatched from the devil and the young man saved. Thinking that a blunder must have led to this unexpected result, one after another did each gentleman take the devil’s part, and to each in turn did Mr. Morphy prove that Satan would not triumph! Ultimately, Satan never triumphs. He wins some skirmishes – but loses the war. Plan after plan and scheme after scheme looks like Satan wins – only to meet defeat after defeat. But there is a sense in which I can understand why Satan continues his fight. It is his nature. He is evil incarnate. He must oppose God to the end. But I have a question for us – Christians – those who know the reality and power of Satan.

Why flirt with a loser? If we dabble in the world – if we are not sold out to Christ – by default – we choose Satan. Despite so many clear warnings – many Christians flirt with the world, the flesh and the devil. And I ask why. Why would they do this? And the only answer I can come up with is that despite so many warnings we can still be ignorant of how deadly the spiritual battle is. We flirt with spiritual danger instead of being petrified about flirting with the world. We can trust that grace will cover our sins in the end. But in this we have bought the devil’s great lie.

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In the Bible every time Satan speaks, most of what he says is true, but there is just enough untruth to make it deadly poison. Our very souls are at stake. You are the Lamb’s or the Beast’s. You cannot serve two masters. You cannot have the world and Christ. Either you are all Christ’s or you are not His at all. Satan lies. Satan tempts. Satan appeals to our flesh. Satan whispers – have the world now and repent later. Satan whispers – you don’t have to be so hardline. It is a deadly spiritual battle. If we are not vigilant with our souls – we will lose this battle. But here is an encouragement to end with. You can choose to be with the winner. Yes – Satan is powerful – but Christ is much more powerful. 2 Corinthians 10:4:

For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds.

In the cross – not only is there power to ultimately destroy Satan – but there is power to resist him now. James 4:7:

Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Acts 26:17–18:

I am sending you [to the Gentiles] to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God.

Ephesians 6 outlines the armour of God by which we can stand firm against the schemes of the devil. Brothers and sisters – we need to choose this day who we will serve. As for me and my house – we choose the Lord. Any other path is the path of the beast and it leads

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to destruction. We choose not to align ourselves with one whose doom is sure. We choose Christ – the way, the truth and the life.