Scripture Reference: 1 Peter 5:8-9
Visit the series page: Exiles: A study in 1 Peter
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Sermon Series: Spiritual Exiles
Message: Battling Our Enemy
Airdate: 11/11/2026
Program: 2398
Battling Our Enemy: Part B
How do we resist the devil? And now I’d like to pull in the larger teaching of the New Testament and give some helpful strategies. Number one is to understand Satan’s strategy. Satan has strategies that he uses against us. Here’s 2 Corinthians 2:11. “So that we would not be outwitted by Satan, for we are not ignorant of his devices.” If you’re on defense in football and you want to compete against an offense, you have got to understand their plays. It’d be great to know their playbook. Imagine if you knew the playbook, man. You could look at the way they’re setting up, and you’re like, “I know what play they’re running here in advance.” And now we can do our defense to counter it.
That’s essentially what we’re called to do with Satan. And Satan, Satan’s got like a one-page playbook. I’m simplifying here, but he has three basic things that he does. And I take these from a Puritan named Bevington, who summarizes Satan’s strategies as deception, temptation, and accusation. The three things that Satan does in his war: deception, temptation, and accusation. Let’s take those in that order.
So let’s talk about deception. And on this level, we see that Satan is aiming right here for the mind. Deception is about the mind. Now Satan is not omniscient. He does not know everything. In fact, I don’t think that Satan knows our thoughts. I recently read a blog about this, and there’s some debate about whether Satan can read our minds or not. I don’t think that he can. However, for thousands of years he studied human behavior. I suspect Satan knows our thoughts before we think them. He knows how we think. He knows how to suit certain deceptions to the way that we look at things.
So when we think about the causality of sin, theologians talk about three influences that cause us to sin primarily. The world, the flesh, and the devil. The world is, as Beeke calls it, human nature apart from God. It is... it is human civilization. It is mankind trying to define reality, find meaning apart from a relationship with God. It is mankind in rebellion against God and the sort of structure of value and life that it creates. We live in this world. It is a world set apart from God, in rebellion from God, and yet it influences us, doesn’t it? This world around us. We have the flesh within us. The flesh is the sin nature that we are born with. The flesh is set apart from God. We all have that sin nature that we are born with. It leads us to sin. And then you have the devil.
But realize, if there was no devil, we still would sin. We would sin because of the influence of the world around us. We would sin because we are sinners. It is our nature to sin. Now here’s the difference with the third in the world, the flesh, and the devil. The devil uses the world and our sin nature against us and is the master of manipulating us, using those influences against us. Genesis calls him crafty, more than all the other animals, all the other beings in the world, for a reason. He is incredibly crafty, and he manipulates the power of our sin nature, and he deceives us by hiding primarily, hiding a good desire, hiding like a bait, fishing bait, that hides... now some of the men are paying attention, thank you... hides the hook under the feather, if you’re trout fishing. The trout only sees the feather. The trout only sees the desirable thing. Is there anything wrong with feathers or worms? Is this a sermon against worms? No. But I’m pointing out that Satan is the master fisherman who hides the hook in the worm. And he takes even good things, good things that God made, and he hides... the moral consequence within the desire, and he deceives us by appealing to either our corrupt nature or even our higher nature, but pursuing or gratifying that desire outside of the will of God.
Another thing he’s a master at doing is he loves to tempt us to small sins, loves to deceive us into thinking, “This is only a small sin.” Now we think Satan just wanted me to do the small sin. But Satan doesn’t care about the small sin. Doesn’t care about the small sin. His aim is always the large sin. And he knows that if he can get us to compromise on the small sin, he has now a toehold in our mind and heart that he can enlarge towards the great sin. And that series of compromises, that each one doesn’t seem like that much more of a compromise, leads us... You know, think of David and Bathsheba as an example of that. I don’t have time to get into it. It’s a long sermon already. But you think about how David fell with Bathsheba. It was some small compromises that led to the big one.
Or to think about what he did with Eve. He made eating that apple desirous, because it would give her moral enlightenment, and she would be like God. Now, why did Satan know that that would be a really tempting thing? Because it is the very temptation he himself fell from heaven with, that he gave into himself. What did he hide from Eve? Death. He gave Eve an apple, and he took away paradise. How’s that for a great exchange, right? And you see, that’s the way that he operates. And I wonder if right now, if you could survey your life, is there currently a deception possibly going on in your life where maybe even a good desire is somehow being presented to you, fulfilled outside of the will of God? Or a small sin that you’re maybe willing to do because you think it’s a small sin? Do you see the strategy of the enemy? It is deception. He is deceiving the mind.
Here’s the second, is temptation. And temptation is not so much the mind as it is the affections or the desires, that level inside of us where James describes in James 1:14, “Each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire.” And here now, Satan, we find, is using the flesh, the sin nature, and giving us an opportunity to have that desire satisfied, again, but outside of God’s will. And let me just give you an example of this, and I almost feel like I need to read it because I’m on a subject that I don’t want to misspeak on, okay? Satan is a parasite, and he takes what is good and holy and high, and he twists it and tempts us to satisfy a good God-given desire in an unholy way. That is how he does it. And do we see what is really going on as we drive down the interstate, or we get on that website and the pictures are on the side even as you’re trying to read the article about, you know, whatever? They just fill the sides with things asking you to look and click. Why? Because that’s the way he operates. That is the way that he operates. And this is true in so many desires, financial security, love, friendship, food, authority, family, health. You pick a desire and Satan has a sinful temptation perfectly suited to it. It’s how he operates.
And the third is the accusation, okay? So we have deception, temptation, accusation, and the accusation is on the level of the conscience. Satan is called the accuser of the brethren. And he is especially good at defeating Christians by keeping them from fully accepting the grace of God and the forgiveness of God in their life. He binds us to the past, the failure, the sin that we have confessed and tried to receive the grace of God, that we never seem to be able to get over what happened in the past. And he continues to accuse our conscience and to keep us in a state of being defeated. We fail to fulfill the words of one of our favorite songs. “When Satan tempts me to despair and tells me of the guilt within, upward I look and see Him there who made an end to all my sin.” I’ve had kind of a tangent under a tangent here. I hope you’re following along. If you’re able to hear, how does Satan operate? Three primary ways: temptation, deception, and accusation. How are we to fight against him? We are to resist him. But we begin resisting him by understanding how he works. So that’s the first thing.
Here’s the second way we resist him, is to fight Satan’s tactics with spiritual weapons. With spiritual weapons. Now that we know how he operates, how do we then resist him? And the Apostle Paul actually gives very clear teaching about the weapons that we have available to us. And I’d like to read now this famous section, Ephesians 6, the Apostle Paul. Here’s what he says describing the spiritual warfare. He says, “Therefore, in this battle, take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand,” there’s resist language, “in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. Stand therefore, having,” now here comes the weapons, “having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. In all circumstances, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one, and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, praying at all times in the Spirit with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints.”
It’s almost like Paul is exegeting Peter here, because Peter just basically says, resist him in the faith. Paul gives the sort of bigger picture here of how we do that. And I just want to walk through these weapons and to point out to you that if you understand how Satan operates, why these weapons that we’re wielding against him are ideally suited for what he’s thrown our direction.
To go through these, the belt of truth. Now, how does Satan operate? Deception. He deceives us as a liar. He lies to our conscience. He lies to our desires and our flesh. What do we wield against him? He says, the belt of truth. And this truth is the truth as we are taught in God’s word. It is the truth as seen in the example of Jesus. It is the truth of God. And what exposes a lie? The truth. The truth. Satan can’t handle the truth.
He says, secondly, breastplate of righteousness. This could be the righteousness that is ours through justification. It could be the righteousness of the integrity of life that flows from being declared righteous in the eyes of God. We’re not sure which it is. But what does the breastplate protect? The core. And what needs to protect us more than anything? It is the righteousness of Christ and our righteous standing found by faith. You try to go to battle without that understanding of my identity in Jesus by faith, and the core is easily ... We need to know who we are in Jesus, standing in His righteousness alone, in Christ alone.
He says, thirdly, these shoes. I call them boots, gospel boots. It’s a little obscure here, but... how does a soldier stand firm? You got to have some boots that are giving you some traction, right? How does a Christian march into enemy territory with the gospel, or just to broad metaphorically bring in, you know, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach good news”? It is the gospel that we stand in. That’s what gives us our footing. We better understand that gospel, believe it with all of our hearts. Because if we don’t, it’s like we’re standing on ice. That soldier is easily... away.
I like this one, the shield of faith. This is what Peter emphasizes, stand firm in the faith, which Paul says, this faith, this shield, is what extinguishes the darts of the enemy. And go back to deception and temptation and accusation. All of those that Satan is shooting at us, all of them in some way have to do with us taking and appropriating the promises of God and believing them. So if I am dealing with a guilty conscience, something that I have confessed and I have, you know, I’ve given over to God, and here comes now the accuser against me, my faith shield says, “That is not true. I am not going to believe what my mind somehow is thinking right now.” Where that comes from, we’re not sure, but we know who’s behind it. “I am believing what God says to be true. That if I confess my sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive my sins and cleanse me from all unrighteousness. Take that, Satan.” Bam, like that. The shield of faith refuses to believe his lies.
If Eve would have applied that in that moment, “Did God really say, Eve, that you shouldn’t eat of it? He knows if you do, you’ll be like Him.” If Eve would have applied that, what would she have done, that shield of faith? She would have said to Satan, “God is good, and I’m not going to believe you questioning Him. And He loves me, and He wants His best for me. And that means not eating the tree is better for me, no matter what you say.”
The helmet of salvation. They would wear these helmets because in that day they had battle axes. And, you know, if you could get on there and bash the guy’s head, you’re halfway to winning the fight. The helmet of salvation. This is our assurance of our salvation. We are confident in this standing that we have in the Lord Jesus Christ. It’s a protection.
And then finally, the sword of the word of God. The only offensive weapon listed here is the sword of the word of God. And you could ask why. I don’t know why that is, but we do know that this is what Jesus wielded. Satan comes to Him three times with temptations in the wilderness. Each time the Son of God doesn’t say, “I’m the Son of God. Your measly temptations mean nothing to me. Your Jedi skills are beyond these.” That’s not what He says, even though maybe that was true. What He says each time is He quotes God’s word back at Satan. Satan twists the words of God. He quotes it accurately back at him.
What do you do when you’re facing a temptation? What do you do when the opportunity to lack integrity financially or whatever is there? How do you handle that moment? I think most of us go, we just sort of breathe, breathe, breathe. “It’ll go away. Take it away. Go away.” And we don’t employ what? What the word of God can do for us.
Here are some good verses, my dear flock, to have at the ready. “Greater is He that is in me than he that is in the world,” 1 John 4. Romans 8:32, “If God did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also along with Him graciously give us all things?” He’s good. He’s good, no matter what you say, Satan. 1 John 2:15, “Love not the world, neither the things in the world.” Luke 10:27, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.” Philippians 4:13, “I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.” These and many others. Have those at the ready.
And I’ll throw an extra one out that I heard from John Piper that has been a help to me. When you are under a temptation and you are just like under it, it’s almost like you can’t help yourself. You’re just feeling like, you know, you’ve quoted your verses, you’ve done all your things, and you just feel yourself being drawn towards this sin. Bring to your mind as visibly as you can Jesus hanging on the cross, blood pouring from Him, the agony of that. You think about Jesus on the cross, and I’ve incorporated that in my own walk. It is hard to feel the power of a temptation when you are actively, visually thinking about His suffering for sin. There’s something about that. It just, like, eliminates it. I throw that out to you for your benefit.
Now, I want to give a couple resources here, okay? Real quick. First of all, if you’re like, “Hey, you got a good book to recommend?” I’d recommend this one. Fighting Satan by Joel Beakey. It’s not very big, see? Not intimidating. Really, really good. And I appreciate it very much. If you want to read the classic on it, it would be this one. Thomas Brooks, Precious Remedies Against Satan’s Devices. I was at a conference with some of the guys that I really like, and I was amazed how many guys on the panel were quoting from this book. And I thought, I got to get this book.
And I just want to summarize. Here’s Thomas Brooks’ 10 remedies against Satan’s devices. I share this with you just to resource you. Here’s what he says. Number one, walk by the rule of Scripture. Number two, don’t grieve the Holy Spirit. Number three, pursue heavenly wisdom. Number four, resist Satan’s first overtures immediately. Number five, strive to be filled with the Spirit. Number six, remain humble. Seven, maintain a strong and constant watch. Eight, maintain communion with God. Nine, fight Satan in Christ’s strength, not your own. And ten, pray much.
And remember, we’re all in this battle together. There’s nobody in any of these rows or on this stage right now that somehow has come to a place where now, “Boy, the battle, I’m good. I’ve won. Like, I’m totally over it. There’s no temptation for me.” We are all in this together. Can we collectively say amen? Amen. And to realize then, that ought to give a kind of grace to one another, to realize that we’re all soldiers in this fight, that sort of band of brother camaraderie. And to come alongside, and no doubt right now, we’ve got some of our soldiers here who took a very serious wound this week. You failed in a battle severely this week. Some are bleeding on the battlefield. Some are casualties in the hospital right now. I hope that God will engage all of us in the battle, that we might not fall to the devil’s schemes and wiles.
And again, I want to encourage you. We don’t fight for victory. We fight from victory. We fight from the victory that Satan has already lost and Jesus has won. And that is our encouragement. We’re not fighting in a battle that we’re ultimately going to lose. We are fighting a war that we will ultimately win. And that gives us encouragement.
It’s like watching a football game on DVR, right? And on your way home, somebody says, “Isn’t it great? Your team won.” And you’re like, “Oh, I was not wanting to know that.” And then you get home. You’re like, “I’m going to watch the game anyway.” And, you know, your team wins in the end, but you want to watch the game. And they’re down two touchdowns in the first quarter. They’re down four touchdowns at halftime. But you’re not sweating it. Why? Because you already know what’s going to happen. Now you still cheer and you get excited and all of that. But you know in the end there is a victory that is coming. And that’s the kind of battle we’re in. It doesn’t mean that we take it easy. It doesn’t mean that we sort of are passé about it. But it does mean that we are confident in an ultimate victory that Christ has accomplished for us. And that’s how we do the battle.
