Resist the Devil by Mario Digangi - Part 3 — Mariano Di Gangi

The World Under the Evil One

We will never let anything displace the centrality of Jesus Christ in this church. So we have the statements in James and in Peter. Now there are several passages in 1st John. 1st John chapter 5 and verse 19.

1st John 5 19. We know that we are children of God and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one. By world here he doesn't mean the planet. By world he means that whole simple system of things which gets along without the authority.

A lifestyle that ignores God. A lifestyle that disregards his warnings. A lifestyle that will not conform to the Father's will. That is the world. At every level where God is disregarded you have an evidence of the control of the evil one.

He defiles the world. He dominates the world and ultimately will be the cause of the world's destruction. So 1st John 5 19 reminds us that we are in the world but we are not of the world. We are children of God and we know that we are to be distinct from and separate from the world which is under the control of the evil one.

Christ Came to Destroy the Devil's Work

Continuing in 1st John turning back to chapter 3 and verse 8. He does what is sinful is of the devil because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil's work.

Christ came into the world to nullify the work of the devil. He came to annihilate and all his works. Whoever does what is sinful shows that he is a partisan under the command of the evil one. For the devil is a sinner from the beginning and all who sin show that to that extent they are under the devil's influence.

The reason why the strong Son of God appeared upon this earthly scene was to destroy the devil's work. So there's a war going on and we either side with Christ who came to destroy the works of the devil or we side with the evil one and make ourselves enemies of the Son of God.

The Necessity of Choosing Sides

There simply is no room whatsoever for neutrality in this. We either side with the devil and his works or we side with the strong Son of God who came to destroy the devil and we make the work of Christ counterproductive and we give our allegiance and obedience to his enemy.

The Word of God Enables Believers to Overcome

1 John chapter 2. Here John gives us the secret not only of how to resist the evil one but how to overcome. 1 John chapter 2 beginning at the middle of verse 13 and going on into verse 14. I write to you young men because you have overcome the evil one.

I write to you dear children because you have known the Father. I write to you fathers because you have known him who is from the beginning. I write to you young men because you are strong. And why are you strong?

Hiding God's Word in the Heart

Because the Word of God lives in you and you have overcome the evil one. Overcome the evil one and this goes beyond resisting and repelling. It means winning. Comes about when the Word of God lives. Remember that famous statement in the Psalms?

Thy word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin. If what we hear goes in one ear and out the other then when we are tempted we have nothing to draw on with which to resist and overcome. But if when we read the Word of God or hear it read and expounded we retain that word and it lives in us then in the hour of need we can draw on it and we can cite it and we can resolve to stand by it and to believe what God has said and to obey what God commands and so we resist the enemy and we actually precedent for this kind of exhortation.

Jesus Resists Temptation with Scripture

It is found in the fourth chapter of Matthew in a passage we all know where Jesus is tempted by the evil one in the wilderness. Every time that Satan brings from the outside a suggestion to the mind of Jesus that he should not submit to God but take matters into his own hands that he should do the sensational and spectacular rather than the superficial rather than the spiritual and sacrificial but whenever the devil comes to him with this external solicitation to sin how does Jesus deal with it?

He refers to the scripture that lives in his heart. It is written it is written it is written and he takes the Word of God and puts it in the devil's face. Young men that is new converts to the faith I write to you because you are strong and what is it that makes you strong?

It is the indwelling enlivening Word of God and that enables you to resist and to overcome the evil one. The hearing of the Word of God should let it find lodging within us and live within us.