The Name of Evil

The Name of Evil
I preached the following sermon in September, 2006. The setting was in a church in Marshall, Texas.
Hear the Word of the Lord
THE OLD TESTAMENT READING
Job 1:1-12 (King James Version)
1There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was perfect and upright, and one that feared God, and eschewed evil.
2And there were born unto him seven sons and three daughters.
3His substance also was seven thousand sheep, and three thousand camels, and five hundred yoke of oxen, and five hundred she asses, and a very great household; so that this man was the greatest of all the men of the east.
4And his sons went and feasted in their houses, every one his day; and sent and called for their three sisters to eat and to drink with them.
5And it was so, when the days of their feasting were gone about, that Job sent and sanctified them, and rose up early in the morning, and offered burnt offerings according to the number of them all: for Job said, It may be that my sons have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts. Thus did Job continually.
6Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them.
7And the LORD said unto Satan, Whence comest thou? Then Satan answered the LORD, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.
8And the LORD said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil?
9Then Satan answered the LORD, and said, Doth Job fear God for nought?
10Hast not thou made an hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every side? thou hast blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land.
11But put forth thine hand now, and touch all that he hath, and he will curse thee to thy face.
12And the LORD said unto Satan, Behold, all that he hath is in thy power; only upon himself put not forth thine hand. So Satan went forth from the presence of the LORD.

THE NEW TESTAMENT READINGS
Revelation 12:7-12 (King James Version)
7And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels,
8And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven.
9And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.
10And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night.
11And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.
12Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.
Ephesians 6:10-13 (King James Version)
10Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.
11Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
12For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
13Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.



THE SERMON
If you have looked at a newspaper, watched a TV news program or caught a radio newscast while driving lately, you have been literally bombarded with news reporters shouting stories and offering eyewitness reports of bombings, killings, wars, genocides, shootings, attacks, crashes, wrecks, explosions, hurricanes, storms, floods, tornados, fires, deaths, rapes, murders and any number of other disasters and terrible events that manage to kill, maim, cripple and harm people, people who are, more often than not, innocent people, bystanders, victims and non-combatants.
All of these happenings and incidents and occurrences can be labeled the result of evil. The world we live in is a very dangerous place because of evil The results of evil ideas and evil actions make it difficult to stay alive today. However, if we look into the Word of God it becomes obvious that the constant presence of evil has plagued mankind for centuries, perhaps since time began.
We have read this morning about a man named Job from Uz. We do not know exactly were Uz was, and many of the details are sketchy about just who Job was, but there is a good possibility that he was the same person mentioned in Genesis 35 by the name of Jobab, the 2nd king of Edom, a relative of Esau, Jacob’s twin brother. Remember the one who sold his birthright for a bowl of stew? The story of Job is, I believe, a fascinating one. Maybe it could be the topic we deal with next Sunday, the Lord willing.
But getting on with today’s lesson, according to the scripture, Job’s name came up on the agenda of a meeting, a meeting around a table in the conference room of Almighty God, a meeting with all the head-angels. Satan, being one of them, was asked by God what he thought about Job. And angel Satan, being a negative thinker, did not have much confidence in Job’s being able to maintain his righteousness, especially under duress.
Perhaps noteworthy in this particular passage is that here is Satan, the accuser of the brethren, the deceiver, the father of lies, the destroyer, the sworn enemy of mankind right there sitting at the table accusing Job before the Father of being good just because God had blessed him and protected him. Of course Job won and the devil lost his bet, however, at Job’s expense. But Job got it all back, even double in the end.
Then skipping about 4,000 years in time, we read an account by the Apostle John of his vision on the Island of Patmos about 90 AD. There was some conflict in the heavenly realms which resulted in that old Serpent, another name for Satan, or the Devil--also known as the accuser of God’s children—being removed from the conference table and consigned to the Earth. No longer did he have the Ear of the Father so as to accuse the faithful, evidently actually overcome and demoted, stripped of any real power, all done because of innocent righteous blood shed on Calvary.
But the line in verse 12 of that passage that said “. . . .woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has gone down to you! He is filled with fury because he knows that his time is short. . .” kind of brings one up short, gets your attention.
The book of Revelation is the only book in the Bible that promises you a blessing if you read it, or hear it read. In verse three of the very first chapter, we find it says, “Blessed is the one who reads the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it, because the time is near.”
So, hopefully we can all get some blessing and some information from the passage read this morning.
Next, Paul gives us some insight into who the real enemy is in the sixth chapter of his letter to the Ephesians. That particular letter was, according to scholarship, most likely written not to the church in Ephesus exclusively, but as a circular letter to be read in all the churches in the area that is now known as Greece and Turkey. So, this morning, we have read some of it as well, to a portion of the church in Marshall, Texas
We learn first of all here that the Devil has or uses wiles, or cunning arts, deceit, craft and trickery, and God supplies some protection, some armor against these tactics, but we must be knowledgeable enough and willing enough to put it on and wear it. We could do a sermon or two on this armor, and might some day, however, for this lesson, lets just concentrate on our task of defining and recognizing this thing we call evil.
Paul informs us that our struggle is not against human beings. Our enemy is not human. Our opponent is not a man or woman. Our battle is with beings in the spirit world.
Now, hear me out. I did not say this, the Apostle Paul, who claimed to have had visions or spiritual visits with Jesus, who wrote a third of the New Testament cannon, who devoted his life to taking the gospel of Christ all over the known world in his day. Paul says that our real enemy, the real evil, consists of, and I quote, “. . . .principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age,[a] against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.”
The Greek word translated principalities has to do with the idea of rulers and magistrates. The word rendered powers could also be given as, spiritual potentates. Then the word translated “rulers” could as well be translated as “the devil and his demons” devil and demons who rule what Paul describes as the darkness of this age, or as one definition is given: the persons in whom darkness becomes visible and holds sway. Thus Satan and his bunch have so deceived some that to them dark is light and the night is desirable and gives them, to use another metaphor—a sense of boldness to do evil things. And Paul continues, using the word spiritual—non-physical—hosts or many beings all over the place, all over the heavens that surround the earth constantly involved in doing wickedness, wreaking havoc, wantonly destroying, and making misery for mankind.
We could find numerous other passages in both the Old and New Testaments that would shed light on our subject: the idea, the concept, the personification, of evil if time permitted. But I will cite just one more example here. It is a passage we recite almost every time we come together as a church. We call it the Lord’s Prayer.
The version from Matthew six is the one you are most familiar with. It goes:
Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil:
For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.
According to those who study such things, the Greek word translated “evil” is used in the nominative case in Mt. 6:13. This usually denotes a title in the Greek. Hence Christ is saying, deliver us from "The Evil", and is probably referring to Satan. Thus some translations render it “deliver us from evil” while others translate it deliver us from the evil one.” I think we all know who the “Evil One” is.
Our struggle is not against human beings this morning. Our enemy is not human. Our opponent is not a man or woman. Our battle is with a being and his beings in the spirit world, Satan and his angels and his demons. We read about demons in the New Testament. Jesus dealt with them on a daily basis. The demons knew who Jesus was, even though most of the people in Galilee and Judea did not seem to get it.
Do we have demons today? Well, if we do not have demons today, when did they leave? Where did they go? Do you suppose that the demons are as busy today as they ever were, putting evil thoughts in people’s heads, cajoling, lying, conniving, convincing, deceiving and tricking folks into doing all sorts of destructive things. That’s why we need the armor! The Deceiver is cunning enough to deceive the very elect.
Put yourself in the enemy’s mind for just a moment. If you wanted to destroy God’s children, break up God’s family, disrupt the Bride of God’s Christ, what would be a foolproof tactic? Why not sow seeds of distrust, of suspicion, of pride of one’s knowledge, of selfishness, and self aggrandizement and self importance and help folks be so fully convinced that they had it all figured out and everybody else was wrong.
Sow seeds of doubt about spiritual things, instigate a fear theology instead of a faith theology. These are a few of the destroyer’s methods in use today in the church. I don’t believe that any one of us is above being deceived. This is why we must have a knowledge of the Word of God, because God’s Word is true. If it doesn’t measure up to the Word, then it’s a lie!
But how are we going to know, how are we going to be able to discern fact from fiction if we do not have a working knowledge of the scriptures? Sunday school is good. Listening to a 25 minute sermon once a week is good, however, it may not be enough. Personal study, a respect for the Word, a desire to know what God’s will is, and desire to become closer to the Father every day, to grow in the grace and knowledge of God would be our goal, it’s part of the armor of God, it’s having our feet shod with the preparation of the Gospel, knowing the word, knowing wherein we stand.
We have not scratched the surface of this subject, but time is up for today. If we need to take anything away this morning, take home this:
Our enemy is not human. Our enemy is an angelic being called Satan. He is real, he is alive and he is furious with anyone who believes in Jesus. He is out to get you. When you get on God’s side, you automatically get on Satan’s list. He has helpers in angels and demons and you can’t see them, they are only spiritually discerned. People can be influenced by these demons, we witness the result of these evil influences every day on the news and many times in personal experiences.
Jesus tells us to love our enemies, those people who persecute us, revile us and falsely accuse us because of our stand on God’s side. He tells us to turn the other cheek, to pray for them and help them. The New Testament instructs us in how to bring others into the Kingdom: to preach the Gospel, to live the Gospel, to shout the Good News, to turn on the light of truth, to be the good Samaritan, to be the helper, to be the giver, so that those folks who are deceived and walking in the Devil’s darkness might see a better way, might have hope, might choose life instead of death.
Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. There is one way and that is the Lord’s way. If that’s narrow, then that’s narrow. God’s desire is for everyone to come to a knowledge Him, He would rather that none would succumb to the Devil, but He also said that at some point, every knee shall bow, and that means everyone who ever lived, who lives now and who will ever live, every knee shall bow before the Lord Jesus, God’s Christ. I guess it means that even though one might go through life as an atheist and unbeliever, at some point that person will be forced to bow and acknowledge that Jesus is the Christ. But we can’t guarantee what will happen to that atheist next. I think I will just choose life, just choose Jesus and acknowledge Him right this minute as Lord of Lords and King of Kings, will you Join Me?

Amen