Resist The Devil

Grace Fellowship Church

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This sermon is from Grace Fellowship Church in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. To access other sermons, or to learn more about us, please visit our website at graceedmonton .ca.

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I'd like this afternoon to speak about the Christian's duty to resist the devil. For this, we'll be examining these two verses from James that we just heard.

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And normally, we go through a book of the Bible starting from the beginning, working our way through it verse by verse, following the train of the author's thought.

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But here, we're just jumping right into the middle of the letter, and so we have a bit of a challenge here, because it's very easy when we do that to misunderstand the author's intent and to completely get the meaning wrong.

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So before we get into the meat of the sermon, we first have to address an important interpretive issue regarding this passage.

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The issue is this. Is James, in this section of Chapter 4, addressing believers here, or unbelievers?

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It's my personal opinion that he is addressing believers, and this also happens to be the position taken by every commentary

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I consulted on the subject. That is, every commentary except one. There was one I came across,

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John MacArthur in particular, who thinks differently, and he takes the view that James is making an evangelistic appeal to unbelievers here in this section.

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MacArthur himself is aware that his position is a minority one. He was dismayed, he said, that of the 15 commentaries he consulted, not one of them did share his same opinion.

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But he knows, though, as well as we do, that men can err in their interpretations, and each

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Christian must hold the Bible to be their final authority and base their convictions on what they believe the

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Bible to teach. So here's what I'd like to do. Let's read the scriptures in view first.

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I'm going to take a little bit of a larger section here so we have a bit more of the context in view, and then I'll proceed to set before you four of the arguments that MacArthur made.

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And then I'll give you my counterarguments and then leave it to you to decide. So if we start again in James 4, beginning in verse 1.

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What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you?

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You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel.

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You do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive because you ask wrongly to spend it on your passions.

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You adulterous people, do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

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Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the scripture says, he yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us, but he gives more grace.

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Therefore it says, God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. Submit yourselves therefore to God.

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Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double -minded.

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Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter return to mourning and your joy to gloom.

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Humble yourselves before the Lord and he will exalt you. So the four arguments then.

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The first one is that these are not Christians, is that they have worldly affection and worldly wisdom.

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And since James tells us that worldly wisdom is not from God, and that those who desire to be friends of the world are enemies of God, that these therefore must not be true believers.

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But think this through with me for a moment. Now here's my counter argument. Is it so that a true

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Christian is automatically free from worldly affection and worldly desire? Or worldly, sorry, worldly wisdom, worldly affection.

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What is so special about those sins that they alone should be singled out as belonging only to unbelievers? What about the other sins that James addresses in his letter?

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He reproved them for filthiness and rampant wickedness in chapter 1. Dishonoring the poor in chapter 2.

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Cursing others in chapter 3. Evil boasting and arrogance, chapter 4. And grumbling and false swearing in chapter 5.

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Are we going to say Christians still sin, except having worldly wisdom and worldly affection? No, I think this is the wrong way to go about it.

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I think all that James is doing here in chapter 4 is addressing their double -mindedness, just as he continues to do throughout the whole epistle.

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He knows that when a person becomes a believer, they're not immediately and completely transformed, but that it is a process.

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And he wanted them to move on to spiritual maturity. I don't think James suddenly shifted his theme and his audience here in chapter 4, but he was carrying on with the same concern he had throughout the epistle.

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His concern was for the spiritual wholeness of the Christians to whom he was writing. That is why throughout the epistle, he constantly reproves them, yet at the same time, he continually calls them brethren and beloved brethren.

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Nineteen times, in fact, he refers to them this way. Brothers, dearly beloved brothers. I'd also like to point out that James is not alone in reproving

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Christians for behaving like unbelievers. Paul told the Corinthians that they were, quote, of the flesh and behaving only in a human way.

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1 Corinthians 3, 3. Even though he wrote in Romans 8, 7, that the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, and in Romans 8, 8, that those who are in the flesh cannot please

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God. Are we going to say that the book of 1 Corinthians was written to unbelievers? I think

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James and Paul were just trying to wake up the Christians they were writing to. It's like what we do when we say to someone, stop being a baby.

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We're not actually saying they are babies, but we are saying we want them to see that they are acting as if they were.

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So that was his first argument. His second argument is that James calls them sinners in verse 8, and that true believers are never called sinners in Scripture.

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But to that, I would just turn back to chapter 2, verse 9, where James calls them transgressors. Are we going to say that it's

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OK to call a Christian a transgressor of the law, but calling him a sinner is off limits?

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I think these things are pretty much the same thing. But if someone does want to quibble about words and say that the precise word that is translated sinner is never used when referring to a

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Christian, I would just point them to Paul, who not only referred to himself as a sinner, but the foremost of sinners, 1

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Timothy 1, 15. Now granted, the reason for him considering himself a sinner was based on his conduct when he was priorly, before he was a

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Christian, but regardless of the reason, it cannot be denied that Paul did in fact use this word to describe himself in the present tense while he was a believer.

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His third argument is that they are called enemies of God. Allow me to quote him directly. So he's talking about people who have a worldly wisdom, a worldly affection, and who are the enemies of God.

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And as I tried to point out to you last time, two weeks ago, this cannot refer to believers, for believers are nowhere in Scripture ever called the enemies of God, end quote.

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But is this so? Did James call them enemies of God? Let's read the text carefully together.

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James 4, 4. You adulterous people, do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God?

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Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. It seems to me that James wasn't making a proclamation of their enmity with God here.

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He was rather just trying to wake them up. He wanted them to see not that they were unbelievers and needed to be saved, but that they were walking inconsistently with their profession in ways that those who truly are had enmity with God.

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Again, when we turn to Paul, we see the same pattern, reproving Christians who are wavering and then issuing a strong warning about the direction they were heading.

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He wrote to the churches of Galatia and reproved them because they were, quote, deserting

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Christ and turning to a different gospel. Galatians 1, 16. They had not come to full maturity and they were in some respects walking inconsistently with the gospel.

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But this doesn't mean that Paul considered them unbelievers. In fact, he reminded them in chapter 3 how they received the

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Spirit by faith and were now trying to be perfected by the flesh. Then in chapter 3, verse 10, he issues this stern warning.

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For all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse, for it is written, cursed be everyone who does not abide in all things written in the book of the law to do them.

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Is Paul saying they are under this curse? Of course not. That's not at all Paul's point.

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Just like James was not telling his audience that they were enemies of God. This is not unusual in scripture.

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We see another instance of it when Paul addressed the Corinthians. In 1 Corinthians 6, he reproved them for their unrighteousness and then proceeded immediately to warn them that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God.

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A few chapters later, he said, wake up from your drunken stupor and do not go on sinning. So the answer isn't to say that the

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Corinthians were unbelievers or that the Galatians were unbelievers, just as it isn't the answer to say that the brethren in James 4 were unbelievers.

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His last argument is that James quotes the proverb about God resisting the proud and giving grace to the humble.

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He believes this statement makes no sense when spoken to a believer because the believer is already humble by definition and has already become a partaker of all of God's grace.

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He says it makes no sense to warn a child of God that grace may be held back from them. There's a few things

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I could say about this, but the easiest refutation is just to look at Peter. And we see how he thought it made perfect sense to motivate a

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Christian by quoting the same proverb. 1 Peter 5 .5 So it seems to me that all these arguments have one thing in common, and one common problem, and that is that they prove too much.

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If he is correct and these arguments do in fact prove that James is addressing unbelievers, then by the very same reasoning we have to infer that Peter was writing to unbelievers in his epistle and that Paul was writing to unbelievers when he addressed the church in Corinth and also when he wrote to the churches of Galatia.

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This is obviously not the case. I conclude therefore that the natural interpretation of this passage is correct and that the majority of commentators have it right.

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Let me add one last thought in case you are not convinced of this. Even if I am wrong in my interpretation here, and James is addressing unbelievers, the duty to resist the devil still is a duty enjoined towards Christians.

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If we carry on in the passage in 1 Peter, we see that it is in many ways parallel to our passage here in James.

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That was, if you care to read it, that's 1 Peter 5 .5. 1

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Peter 5 .5, he uses words and phrases almost identical to James, and Peter was unquestionably writing to Christians here.

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Listen to it. So that's the interpretive issue, and that's all

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I'll say about that. There's one more preliminary issue I'd like to address before we get into the meat of the sermon.

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I'd like to say a word about maintaining a proper perspective when it comes to handling the doctrine of Satan. You see, there's two extremes that people tend to gravitate towards when it comes to this thinking about Satan.

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Some think about him too much. They're preoccupied with Satan and are always trying to discover where he is, what he's doing, what part he may be playing, and everything that comes about.

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Then there are others, rather than seeing the devil everywhere, they see him nowhere. So how much emphasis should be given to Satan in our thinking?

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Well, I think one of the best sources to turn for this is Jesus himself. How much did our

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Lord emphasize Satan? Well, you can tell a lot about the priorities of a person when you observe their prayers, what they pray for.

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In Jesus' high priestly prayer in John 17, he made seven requests of the Father. One of them was that his followers be kept from the evil one.

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Also, in his moral prayer that he taught his disciples to pray, one of the petitions is that the Father would not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

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And when we see the word there, evil, it's exactly the same Greek as we have in John 17 where it's translated the evil one.

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The Greek will allow both interpretations and scholars are uncertain which translation is best.

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It either refers to Satan specifically or to evil in general. But even if we do take it in a more general sense, the factor means that Satan constitutes a big part of the evil that stands opposed to the

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Christian. So the petition to be kept from the evil includes, by implication, the request to be kept from the evil one as well.

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So Jesus was not only concerned with Satan, but he taught that we should be concerned as well. And we should be praying for deliverance from Satan.

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And his petition should not only be made occasionally, but regularly. The Lord's prayer includes a request for our daily bread.

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So that means this whole prayer constitutes things we should be praying for daily. Now, I find this to be an instructive recalibration.

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Let me ask you, do you make it part of your daily praying that you would be delivered from the evil one?

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Have you prayed today that you would be delivered from the evil one? I, for one, don't think

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I've had enough concern regarding Satan as I ought to. And not only did

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Jesus teach that we ought to continually ask for deliverance from the evil one, but we see elsewhere how deadly serious he was on this subject.

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Recall how earnest he was in the Garden of Gethsemane the night he was betrayed. He said to James and to Peter and to John, My soul is very sorrowful, even to death.

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Remain here and watch with me. When his disciples grew weary and fell asleep, he said to them,

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Why are you sleeping? Rise and pray that you may not enter into temptation. And it was

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Jesus alone here who saw the need of the hour and continued in agony as he prayed, to the point of sweating great drops of blood.

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What a turn of the tables we see between this incident and the time when Jesus was with his disciples on a boat in a storm on the sea.

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There they were afraid for their lives and woke Jesus and rebuked him as if he didn't care that they were perishing. Their physical lives were being threatened and Jesus was asleep on a pillow, not troubled at all.

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But in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus perceived a real threat and he woke his disciples and exhorted them to pray lest they enter into temptation.

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According to Jesus, then, there's times in your lives where this is worth losing sleep over.

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How many of us have lost sleep in earnest petition that we enter not into temptation? My guess is that most of us probably don't consider the threat of Satan as seriously as we ought to.

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And this is understandable. Giving consideration to the one who is pure evil is not what we prefer to think about.

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We much prefer to think about the loveliness of Christ and our eternal rest, and rightfully so.

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We are told to think about those things that are true and honorable and just and pure. And so it's joy for the child of God to study theology and learn of the great

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God who redeemed them. Nevertheless, we are presently in a hostile world and there is a great war going on.

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And though we would choose to ignore our adversary, he will not ignore us. And if we hope to successfully battle the enemy, we must know our enemy.

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And so agrees the Puritan Thomas Brooks. He said there's four prime things that the

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Christian should most study and search out. First is Christ. Second, the scriptures.

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Third, your own heart. And fourth, Satan's devices. So with the supposition that James was addressing

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Christians in our text, and having seen the proper emphasis that should be given by the Christian to Satan, I have four main points that I'd like to cover, which you can also see in the insert in your bulletin if you care to follow along.

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The first thing we will consider is our formidable adversary. Who is this devil that we are told to resist?

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Firstly, when we are told to resist the devil, it's not Satan himself that is in view, but an innumerable army that follow

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Satan and do his will. Ephesians 6 describes our warfare with Satan as a war against a plurality of evil spirits.

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And when we resist them, it can be said that we resist Satan, who is their head. A second thing to note about our formidable adversary is that they are ancient beings.

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The angels were created before man was created. But unlike man, they don't reproduce and they don't die.

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The very same angels that exist today were present at the creation of the world. So you can think then, for example, that those seven demons that were cast out of Mary Magdalene are still most likely on the earth somewhere at this very moment, seeking out evil.

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A third characteristic about these spirits is that they are personal beings. When we resist these devils, we are not resisting an abstract entity, such as an evil influence or abstract force, but individual, personal, real beings.

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They have souls. They've been given names, just as the angels Michael and Gabriel have names.

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They have individual personalities, like you and I, with their own characters, thoughts, and emotions. And before they fell, they were joyful beings.

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Job 38 records that at the time of creation, the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy.

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Although after they fell, it's doubtful whether they have joy at all anymore. Now instead of joy, they are filled with great wrath, which brings us to a fourth characteristic about these spirits.

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They hate God and mankind. They are filled with hatred for God and are filled with hatred towards mankind who has been created in his image and who are the objects of God's special care and favor.

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And that leads us to one last characteristic of these angels I would like to point out. Not only are they an innumerable army composed of ancient beings, personal beings, and beings who hate

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God and man, but they are beings who do not grow weary. In fact, as time goes on, their intense vehemence and fury only grows stronger and they become more energetic in their assaults on God's people.

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Revelation 12 .12 says the devil has come down in great wrath because he knows that his time is short. The devils know that their days are numbered and their final doom is getting closer and closer.

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It's like when you're watching your favorite sports team, trying to fight to get ahead when they are down in the game with only two minutes remaining.

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They give it everything they have and pour themselves out in a last -ditch effort to turn the tide. So that's a brief look at our formidable adversary.

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Let's next consider our personal engagement with this adversary. So far we've been speaking about angels out there in the unknown as if they were simply theoretical objects of study.

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We can read about the demons and talk about them, but our Pastor James tells us to resist them.

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That means that there will be times in our lives when we will encounter them personally. Now there's two things

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I'd like to point out that we need to be aware of regarding these encounters. Firstly, everyone in this room who is a follower of Christ will surely encounter them.

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Now I'm not saying there isn't anything we can do to minimize the frequency of these encounters. Half of the battle is to make sure we don't get into one in the first place.

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As we saw, Jesus had great concern that his disciples enter not into temptation. He both taught his disciples to pray and we see how he prayed for them as well.

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So we can pray, we can pray for one another. Moreover, we can avoid making ourselves easy targets for the devil to tempt us.

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Paul said, give no place to the devil. Avoiding temptation is our great wisdom and much can be said about this, but our focus in James chapter 4 is not on avoiding the devil, but resisting him once we encounter him.

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For even after we have been diligent to do all we can do to not encounter the devil, we won't be able to avoid him altogether.

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The most mature Christians and the most vigilant and watchful still encounter devils. Jesus himself, who gave no place to the devil and was more vigilant than any, was still tempted by the devil.

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Listen to how the commentator J. Alec Mottier put it. He said, we do well to notice that it is those who have subordinated themselves to God who are commanded to stand firm against the devil.

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James knows of no act of consecration to God which takes us out of the conflict. On the contrary, it is the very act of decisive enlistment as his underlings, which brings us into the firing line and calls the devil's attention to us as objects of attack.

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So no Christian is able to fully keep the devil away. Now not only will you personally encounter devils, but we have to be aware that they pose a true danger.

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Some have the idea that the devil is all bark and no bite and that all he can do is frighten you. But this is not what the scriptures teach.

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Now it's true that Satan can't go beyond the bounds that God has set for him. It's also true that as long as we use

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God's prescribed means, we are safe and the devil cannot touch us. But the problem is we don't always use

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God's prescribed means. We don't always resist the devil. And when we fail to resist, the devil will ensnare us and deceive us into sinning, and sin has disastrous consequences.

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Consider Peter when Satan desired to have him that he may sift him his wheat. The Lord prayed for Peter that his faith wouldn't ultimately fail, and it didn't.

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But Peter failed to resist the devil that night and later denied the Lord three times.

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And Peter, after he realized what he had done, went out and wept bitterly. Now even though Peter was afterwards forgiven and restored, are we to suppose that the sin of Peter's didn't have a lasting effect on Peter?

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I think Satan pierced his soul that night and left a scar that would stay with Peter for the rest of his life.

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Paul likewise looked on his former days of persecuting the church with shame and sorrow and remorse.

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Or how about David? Though his sins were put away, do we suppose his falling into adultery and murder didn't have a lasting effect upon him?

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I'm sure that every time he recalled his child that was no more, his heart would be pierced again. So yes, if he has not resisted, the devil can pose a true danger.

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When we let him carry us along, he can tear apart marriages and families and divide brethren, cast saints into despair, and rob them of usefulness and love for God and man, and deprive them of peace and joy and of fellowship with God.

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So having examined our formidable adversary and our personal engagement, the next thing to consider is what we are to do once we find ourselves tempted by the devil.

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And what we will find is that God has not left us defenseless, but has given us a surefire strategy to overcome.

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Our text here in James gives us a simple and effective strategy to overcome the devil. It's encapsulated in one word, resist.

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Our text says, resist the devil and he will flee from you. Well, it seems pretty simple, but what does that mean exactly?

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Well, to start with, let's consider where this resistance is to be waged. This resistance is to be waged in the mind.

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Paul instructed the Corinthians to put on the armor of God, which is not physical armor, but spiritual. And this is because we do not war against flesh and blood, but against spiritual enemies.

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We are to put on this armor in our minds, because that is where the battle is fought. We are to put on the belt of truth, the gospel of peace, the shield of faith, etc.

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In other words, we are to arm our minds with proper thoughts and beliefs. We are told to hold on to these truths with all diligence.

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And that is because Satan's sting lies not in his power over nature, or even through evil men to harm us, but through his skill to deceive.

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It's not the brute force, but the deceiving nature of Satan that is ascribed to him over and over in the

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Bible, and that makes him such a formidable foe. He is called the accuser, the tempter, a deceiver, a liar, and the father of lies.

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You see, the devil can persecute you through evil men. He can cause you to be thrown into prison. He can take your health, take your family, and even kill you.

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But that in itself cannot harm your soul. The one and only way the devil has to get at your soul is to persuade you to believe his lies.

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Think about Job. We see how Satan was permitted to manipulate the physical realm around Job.

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He destroyed his wealth and slew his family and servants and went on to strike Job with sickness. But these were not the end goals of Satan.

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Satan was probing for a way to get to Job's mind. His ultimate goal was stated in Job 2 .5.

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Satan believed that through these things, he would succeed in persuading Job to curse God to his face.

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So here is both the great power and the great weakness of Satan. He has been granted great authority to manipulate the physical realm, and he has great skill to persuade, yet he has no power to force us.

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For another example of this, consider how Satan tried to get at Eve in the garden. If he had power to force her will, he would have done so.

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But we see that his method was not force but persuasion. Therefore, since Satan tries to get at us in our thinking, we need to resist in our thinking.

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And this brings up a question. Does Satan have power to directly suggest thoughts into the mind of the believer?

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People have various opinions on this, and the Bible doesn't give us an explicit answer. I tend to think that he does.

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Why do I say that? Well, think about this. If I were to ask you to describe the features of a $20 bill, would you be able to do it?

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Now, without looking, I'd like you to see how much you're able to recall. Do you remember its color?

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It's green, right? Do you remember some of the security features? Maybe that clear part of it you can see right through it?

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Do you remember the texture of this $20 bill? And the newer bills are more like plastic now than they are like paper, right?

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Do you remember whose portrait is on it, on the back of it? Queen Elizabeth II. Bonus points if you got that right.

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So, everybody have a picture of a $20 bill in their minds. Who put the thought of that image into your minds?

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Were you the origin of it? Did we all at the same time just spontaneously decide to think about a $20 bill?

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I put that image in your mind, didn't I? Now, if I, a mere man, have power to put a thought into all of your minds, are we to suppose that Satan, who is the prince of the power of the air, doesn't have that power?

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Here's another reason why I think Satan is able to do this. Consider that the devil's main traits are to lie and to deceive.

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If we are going to say that Satan only operates in the physical realm and does not directly influence the minds of people, then how is it that he is able to lie and to deceive?

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Things like sickness and physical disasters do not lie and deceive.

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Otherwise, God himself would be implicated as a liar and a deceiver. Lies have to do with beliefs and propositions.

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Therefore, much of Satan's playground must be in a direct influence of the thoughts of men. For further proof of this, let's consider some biblical examples.

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In 1 Kings 22, we read of a spirit who is permitted to go forth and entice

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Ahab by being a lying spirit in the mouths of his prophets. In Acts 5,

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Peter rebuked Ananias, saying, Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the

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Holy Spirit and keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of the land? John 13 too records how the devil put into the heart of Judas Iscariot to betray

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Jesus. And it wasn't just unbelievers that Satan worked in the minds of. In 1

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Chronicles 21, we read that Satan stood against Israel and incited David to number the people. At one point,

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Peter began to rebuke Jesus and said, And Jesus said to him, Get behind me, Satan. You are a hindrance to me, for you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.

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Now we have to be careful here. This doesn't mean that Satan can make you sin.

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A spontaneous evil or blasphemous thought that comes to your mind in and of itself is not counted to you as sin.

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Sometimes you'll be in a room with unbelievers and they speak some blasphemy you wish you had never heard. And yet there this is this thought in your mind.

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The thought itself is not the thing that is sin, it's what you do with it that you are held accountable.

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It's when you let yourself be enticed by those thoughts and tolerate and coddle them and nurture them that they give birth to sin.

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You can read about that in James 1, 14 and 15. Now having said all that,

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I'm not saying that we should be preoccupied with trying to figure out where our thoughts are coming from, whether they are of our own or from the devil.

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As I said earlier, we have to maintain the proper emphasis in regards to our thoughts about Satan.

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I'm just saying we should consider that not every thought that runs through your mind necessarily comes from your own heart.

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Sometimes they come from an outside source. And sometimes that source is an evil spirit that is intent on separating you from your brother or neighbor or family or spouse or from God himself.

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So how much then should we be watchful to guard our thoughts and lives and stand against every ungodly thought that enters our minds?

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So that's where our resistance is to be waged. It's to be waged in the mind. Another aspect of our resistance against the devil is that it must be a strong resistance.

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By strong, I mean we must put effort into this resistance. Resistance that is weak and passive and half -hearted will not put the devil to flight.

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The devil is aggressive and pushes hard, and we have to push hard back against him. If you're swimming against a river, you must swim against a stream with at least an equal intensity or else you'll get swept away.

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I think we need to reinforce this concept because there's a teaching out there that says that the Christian life should not be viewed as a fight and a war in which you have to muster all your strength, but rather one of yielding and surrender.

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They have the idea that if you just cease from all striving and then look to Christ, that at that point of absolute surrender,

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Christ will step in and do the work of sanctification for you. The idea is encapsulated in such phrases as, all of God and none of me, or let go and let

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God. No, God could do it this way if he wanted to. He could step in and do the work of sanctification in us.

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That is, in fact, what he often does do for those who are in the early stages of their Christian walk.

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Think about your own experience. When you were first converted, some sins just seemed to fall away without a struggle, didn't they?

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But not all of our sinful tendencies just fell away like that. Some of them seemed more stubborn and persistent and refused to go away without a fight.

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So what's going on here? Well, when one is a child, it's perfectly fitting for the child's parents to dress them and spoon -feed them.

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But once that child grows up and becomes an adult, if at that point they still need to be dressed and spoon -fed, there's something very wrong about that, isn't there?

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When we were children in the faith, it was perfectly fitting for God to do much of the work for us. But God does not desire us to remain as children, but to become strong and to become mature.

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God wills for us to become like his son, and his son is a strong, self -controlled man.

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Therefore, God does not see fit to keep fighting our battles for us. At the same time,

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I'm not saying it's just us who is fighting this battle, but it is God in us. But I'm just saying we have a part to play.

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We have an effort to make. It's God working in us and us working.

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So God, seeing that it's fit to not keep fighting our battles for us, he will not dress and spoon -feed us forever.

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The Puritan William Grinnell said it well. He said, when one is made a Christian, he is not presently called to triumph over his slain enemies, but carried into the field to meet and to fight them.

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In 1 John, we see a picture of various Christians who have attained various levels of maturity. John likens new converts unto little children, those who have made some progress in the faith, unto young men, and those who have become seasoned and reached an advanced maturity, unto fathers.

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The interesting thing to note here is how the young men are described. The thing that characterizes them is that they have overcome the evil one.

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1 John 2 .14 says, I have written to you, young men, because you are strong. And the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one.

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This is interesting, because it shows that a strong resistance against the devil is the distinguishing mark of those who progress beyond spiritual infancy.

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Every Christian who wishes to mature and progress in the faith, and every

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Christian that desires to overcome the evil one, must learn to stand against the devil with a strong resistance. Well, not only is our resistance to be strong, but it must also be immediate, that is, instantly, without delay.

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It will not do to put off resistance until you have thought it over and given it some time to stew over. It's at the very onset of temptation when resistance is easiest.

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If you delay in your resistance to ungodly thoughts, Satan will get a foothold from which to stage a stronger attack.

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If you yield to the devil even before he has gotten a foothold on your heart, how do you think you can resist later once your heart has already begun to yield?

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But not only must this resistance of the mind be strong and immediate, but it must also be universal.

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That is, it is not just one area that we have to put up a resistance, nor will it do if we put up a resistance in many areas, but our resistance must be universal.

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It must be in every area where the devil is permitted to press. If he brings persecution your way, you must resist at that point and hold fast your faith.

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If he brings suffering your way, you must put up your defense there and hold fast the goodness of God. If he tries to entice you, you must put up your resistance there and believe that the

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Word of God has to say about such matters. The devil has many devices, and what good will it do if we put up a valiant resistance in many areas but fail to defend ourselves in just one?

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The devil will be sure to find that spot, and if you don't resist him there, he will take you in his snare.

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Satan did not stop afflicting Job after he met resistance in one area, but he shifted his tactic and tried another.

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Satan, after touching all that Job had and meeting a strong and immediate resistance, did not stop there, but he tried another tactic.

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Touch his bone and his flesh, he thought, and Job would curse God to his face. Likewise, when

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Satan tempted Jesus in the wilderness, he did not stop at the first temptation, but he tried another line of enticement, and then another.

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If we knew where the arrows were going to fly, we could fortify ourselves in that area alone. But Satan comes at us from multiple angles, and so we must resist, not in most areas, but in every area where he tries to get a foothold.

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But not only is our resistance to be universal, it must also be steady. Often we'll put up a good effort for a time, but that temptation doesn't seem to go away.

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It persists and keeps knocking at the door of our heart, begging to be let in. And then this in itself becomes a temptation, as we grow weary with resisting.

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But to make the devil flee, we must resist until he leaves. What good is it if you are in a battle, if you fight valiantly for a time, only to grow weary and let down your defense and allow the enemy to strike you down?

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Job made a terrific start when Satan first afflicted him. Having lost his family and all that he had, he fell to the ground and worshipped, saying,

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Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the

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Lord. What a model for us of such an immediate and strong resistance to the devil.

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But the devil didn't flee after this, did he? Job's resistance was not over.

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It had only begun. Our resistance must be steady. Though we wish the temptation would be over and done with, we must hold up our resistance as long as the devil keeps pressing.

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It was not until Christ had resisted steadily for 40 days and 40 nights that the devil turned away and gave up his attack.

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So the resistance that we are to put up in our minds must be strong, immediate, universal, and steady.

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But if we stopped at that, and just focused on the denial of ungodly thoughts, we'd still be ill -equipped to resist the devil.

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This denial is only one side of the equation. I don't believe James 4 .7

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is to be taken in isolation. It's coupled with verse 8, and these things are to be taken together.

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Let's read James 4 .8. It says, Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you.

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The resistance that makes the devil flee is a resistance that is accompanied by drawing near to God.

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Now we have here a very important principle for the Christian to remember. It will not do to put all of our focus negatively, and just focus all of our efforts on denying the ungodly thoughts and desires that we have.

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Our hearts are bent on desire. If we simply remove a desire, we will form a vacuum in our hearts, and our hearts will latch onto something else to take its place.

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Thomas Chalmers, a Scottish pastor of the 19th century, expounded this principle in his famous sermon, The Expulsive Power of a

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New Affection. Here's how Chalmers put it, Such is the grasping tendency of the human heart that it must have a something to lay hold of, and which, if rested away without the substitution of another something in its place, would leave a void and a vacancy as painful to the mind as hunger is to the natural system.

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So the principle is that you cannot fight desire merely with denial. The way to fight desire is with desire.

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If we're only thinking negatively, and we're only thinking, I must resist, I must deny this, we're not weighing the correct things in the balance.

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We must think of the positive aspect as well, and resist by clinging to a new and stronger desire to displace that desire that you're trying to resist.

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You shouldn't be trying to decide whether you'll have this pleasure or not. You should take into consideration that there is another desire to consider, a far superior desire, a desire for God.

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We must resist the devil, but this resistance must not be in isolation. It must be a resistance that is accompanied by the pursuit of the desire of God.

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We must resist the devil, and we must submit ourselves to God and draw near to Him.

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So knowing that we have this very formidable adversary, and that we are sure to encounter him, when he comes, let us remember these verses in James, and take up the surefire strategy he has given us to defeat him.

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Let's resist him and draw near to God. And in all of our resisting and in all of our drawing near, there's one last consideration for us to contemplate.

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That is our promised reward. Resisting the devil is hard, and it can be a struggle even at times to draw near to God.

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Therefore, we need the proper motivation. The Bible holds out for us not to do these duties of ours just because we ought to, but we are promised great rewards for doing these things, and we are to take that into consideration.

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In Hebrews 11, we read that Moses forsook the treasures of Egypt and chose rather the reproach of Christ because he was looking to the reward.

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According to Hebrews 12 too, the thing it says that sustained Jesus on the cross was not the duty laid before him, but rather the joy that was set before him.

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So in all of our battles with the devil, we must take into consideration the reward and the fruit that will come about as a result of the choices that we make.

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Listen to how the Puritan Thomas Manton puts his finger on this point. We look at the trouble of resisting him, but the sweetness of victory will abundantly compensate for it.

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Usually we make the mistake of seeing how delightful sin is and what a nuisance it is to resist it, and so we create a trap for ourselves.

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The right comparison is between the fruit of sin and the fruit of victory. We have often experienced what it is to be overcome.

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Let us now see how delightful victory will be. And so with that in view, let's look then and consider the victor's reward.

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The reward that James speaks of is a twofold reward. The first part of this reward is that the devil will flee.

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Our text says, resist the devil and he will flee from you. We are not told when, but we can be certain that if we continue to resist him, a time will come when the devil will realize he is unable to get anywhere with us and he'll depart.

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We have to remind ourselves, especially in seasons of temptation, that being tempted of the devil is not the continuous and permanent condition of the

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Christian life, even in this world. Job, in the midst of his temptation, probably thought that his suffering would last forever.

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In the midst of his temptation, he desired to die and he cursed the day that he was born.

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But though his temptation was great, it was not forever. There came a decisive moment when, after a season of wavering,

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Job came to a firm understanding and resolution in his mind and he repented in dust and ashes. At that, all hope of the devil getting anywhere with Job was ended and the devil was done.

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The devil fled and let Job be. And I tend to think that when the devil flees, it's not of his own accord, but rather because God himself sends him to flight.

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The devil's design is to trip you up and I can imagine that he would persist and keep at you forever if he were permitted to do so.

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But the Lord does not give Satan free reign. He gives Satan bounds that he cannot pass.

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God set a hedge about Job and though he desired to, the devil wasn't able to touch Job except for that season where he obtained special permission of God.

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And when God does permit Satan to operate, it is not for Satan's sake, but for God's own good purpose.

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And the moment that God's purposes have been fulfilled, the devil will be put to flight. He will not permit

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Satan to tempt you even for one nanosecond longer than is absolutely required.

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Satan will leave the scene and you will be left in peace for a season. Sometimes just the sweetest thing to the soul is just to be left alone.

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And at that time you'll enjoy the satisfaction of peace just as there is a sweet satisfaction after a storm has passed and the clouds begin to break and the sun begins to shine.

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Your faith will have stood the test and come forth as gold and you will have the joy of victory. Much sweeter to enjoy the rest that comes after a victorious bout with Satan than to have yielded to him and fallen, wherein

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Satan will proceed to take up the second prong of his wrath, which is to accuse you. So when the devil tempts you, strengthen your heart knowing that resisting the devil is not forever.

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You have the promise of the victor's rest, which God is eager to bless you with. The second part of the reward

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I have left to last because it's the best. If we resist the devil, not only will he flee, but we will enjoy the fellowship of God.

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Verse 8 says, draw near to God and he will draw near to you. Think about that.

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The devil at best promises only things that are of the world, things that not only fade away, but the desire of them fades away as well.

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The desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes, and the pride of life. But God promises to the victor, not perishing things, but himself, to have fellowship with the

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Almighty, the one true God, the God who is light and in him is no darkness at all, and the

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God who is pure love. God himself bids us to draw near to him, us who have repeatedly fallen short.

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And even if we have given in to the devil and denied our Lord a thousand times, he still bids us to come.

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And when we draw near to him, embrace him, and reject the devil, God himself will draw near to us and fellowship with us.

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And let me also add this. It's not just after the battle is over that we obtain fellowship with God.

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Oftentimes, it's in the very midst of the temptation and the suffering that God draws near and strengthens us.

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Luke 22 records Jesus' prayers in the Garden of Gethsemane the night he was betrayed. Jesus, being in earnest prayer, was drawing near to the

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Father as he was resisting with all his might the thought of getting out from under the cup of wrath and escaping

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God's will. And as he was resisting in his mind, even to the point of sweating great drops of blood, he was praying and drawing near to the

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Father. He was doing exactly what James exhorted in our text. He was resisting the devil.

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And at the very same time, he was submitting himself to God, saying, Not my will, but yours be done.

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He was drawing near to God. And what we see is that God was also sending aid and drawing near to him.

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And in verse 43, it says, And being in agony, he prayed more earnestly.

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We must never think we are to fight the battle alone. If we think that God just looks on and observes how we fare, how wrong we are, we are not left to stand on our own, but he gives grace in time of need.

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If your heart is set on him, he will come to your aid and strengthen you to stand. And when that happens, even the devil's wrath towards you is turned to an occasion for greater intimacy and fellowship with God, just as children flee to their parents for protection when they perceive that they are in danger.

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Listen to this thought from Charles Spurgeon. He said, And from very fear has made him cling the more tightly there.

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If he thrusts you thus, match him by turning even his temptations to good account, and he will soon give up that mode of warfare and exchange it for another.

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So in times of temptation, remember that you are not alone, but you have access to God. You have

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God on your side and the powers of heaven to assist you. In your resisting, draw near to God, and God will deliver you and draw near to you.

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Psalm 91 describes it well where it says, Because he holds fast to me in love,

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I will deliver him. I will protect him because he knows my name. When he calls to me,

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I will answer him. I will be with him in trouble. I will rescue him and honour him.

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So we have considered a lot today. We've looked at our formidable adversary, which is Satan, and his minions who have their hearts set on our destruction.

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We looked at how each of us will inevitably encounter them. And we also saw how God did not leave us defenceless, but gave us a strategy, a surefire strategy, which is to resist him.

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And when we resist him, while simultaneously drawing near to God, we have a twofold promise, which is that devil will flee and that God himself will draw near to us.

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Let's believe the word of God. Submit yourselves, therefore, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

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Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Be resolute, uncompromising, steadfast in your heart.

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And hold out until you receive the victor's promised reward. And know that after this short pilgrimage and vapor of a life is over and done, and after we have resisted to the end and fought the good fight of faith, the scripture will then be fulfilled where we are told, the

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God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. And we will see him no more.

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We will then receive the crowning and everlasting reward, which is unending peace and fullness of joy in the presence of God in his kingdom.

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So my time has run out, but I don't want to let you go without suggesting a resource in case this topic of resisting the devil has piqued your interest and you'd like to explore it in more detail on your own.

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It's a classic Christian book written in the mid -1600s by the Puritan William Grinnell. It's called

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The Christian in Complete Armor. It's an exposition of that section in Ephesians that talks about putting on the armor of God that we may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.

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It's a long book. It's about 1 ,200 pages. But his words are not wasted. If you're the kind who likes to highlight or to underline, it's the kind of book where half of everything you read will just be underlined.

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John Newton, the preacher and hymn writer, said of it that, or he said that if he could choose only one book besides the

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Bible, it would be The Christian in Complete Armor. It has also received the highest praises from J .C.

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Ryle and Charles Spurgeon. Spurgeon said that this book is the best thought reader in his library, in his whole library, and that more discourses have been suggested by it than by any other uninspired volume.

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While 1 ,200 pages is too daunting for you, there is also an abridged version available. It takes some of the highlights of Grinnell and delivers them in short daily readings, one reading each day for a year.

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So I'll leave that recommendation for you for your consideration and further exploration.