General MacArthur, a great military leader of his time once wrote an article that dealt with what was necessary for military success.  He gave four principles that he thought were the most important: Morale, strength, adequate supply source, and most importantly, a knowledge of the enemy.

The Bible tells us exactly who our real enemy is:

Ephesians 6:11 (NKJV) — 11 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.

When thinking about the devil we need to be careful and avoid two extremes in attitude that you may have towards Satan.

One extreme, many people ignore the devil; some even make fun of him.  They think of the devil as some kind of a mythical figure like Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny.

I’m not ashamed to tell you, I believe in a personal devil just as much as I believe in a personal God.

When I hear people say “there is no such thing as a personal devil” I’m reminded of the prize fighter whose opponent was beating him about half to death.  Every time he would come back to sit on the stool between rounds, his manager would say, “Go get him tiger, he hasn’t laid a hand on you!” 

Well, for seven rounds this guy was getting beat from pillar to post and every time his manager would say the same thing. 

Finally, with both eyes closed shut, bleeding from the nose and his lips cut wide open, when that manager said, “Go get him tiger, he hasn’t laid a hand on you!”  the fighter looked at the manager and said, “Then I want you to keep your eye on that referee because somebody is beating the daylights out of me!”

But we also need to avoid the other extreme of being obsessed with the devil.  I’m always concerned about Christians who see a demon in everything.

A preacher told this story:

I heard about a woman that went to a church picnic and the ladies were having a covered dish luncheon.  When she walked in one of these super spiritual ladies walked up to her and said, “What did you bring to eat?” 

She said, “Deviled eggs.” 

 Well, immediately this woman flung her hands up high and said, “I bind everyone of them in the name of Jesus!”

That of course is a silly example…but, we must be careful with extremes.

I encourage you to give the devil his due, but don’t give the devil the farm. But we need to know who he is.

We’re told in v.12 that our battle is against:

Ephesians 6:12 (NKJV) — 12 … against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.

That tells me that Satan is a spiritual being and that ought to tell you that not everything spiritual is necessarily good.

But it shouldn’t surprise you that our fight is spiritual because our foe is spiritual.

You’re not going to win your war against Satan by sheer will power… this is a spiritual battle.

“He quakes at the sight of the breastplate of righteousness. 

He quivers before the shield of faith. 

He quails before the sword of the spirit.” 

Those are the only weapons that the devil is afraid of…and they are also the only weapons that will work.

Don’t take him lightly:

Ephesians 6:12 (NKJV) — 12 …principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age…

Don’t ever think you can handle him on your own because you can’t.  On your own he will overpower you every time.

Here is the key:

Ephesians 6:11 (NKJV) — 11 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.

 Now the word “wiles” is a very interesting Greek word.  It gives us the English word “method.”  It literally means deceit or trickery.

It basically says, “Look out for the tricks of the devil.” Satan is the master of deception.

The devil has even deceived us in the way we think about him. 

We conjure up the picture in our mind of a little man wearing long red underwear, with horns on his head, a forked tail and a pitchfork in his hand, walking around looking for somebody bending over.

A lot of people think of that kind of devil and think to themselves, “I can’t believe in that kind of devil.”

Well, I’ve got news for you.  I don’t believe in that kind of devil either.

The Bible says:

2 Corinthians 11:14 (NKJV) — 14 And no wonder! For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light.

I think if we saw the devil today that it would shock us how attractive he would look.  It would even shock you how nice and generous he could seem to be.  You would never know that he is the most wicked, treacherous force in the universe.

I want you to understand this devil is interested in darkness and wickedness.

We hear people say all of the time: “God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.”  Well, I think we ought to add to that this reminder: “Satan hates you and has a terrible plan for your life.” 

You mark this down.  The devil is doing everything he can right now to either take you to hell or, if you’re going to heaven, to make that trip as miserable as possible.

“God wants you to be happy and holy. 

Satan wants you to be depressed and dirty.” 

If you’re not saved, he’ll do everything he can to make sure that you never get saved; and if you are saved he’ll do everything he can to make you sin and cause you to lose the joy of your salvation.

As I talk about the devil, I realize that many of us could be intimidated because he is powerful.  But he isn’t “all-powerful” and it’s important to know who your real enemy is.

In the next blog post we will talk more about how to defeat him.