Your Adversary, the Devil: Part 4*
1 Peter 5:8
What Satan Can and Cannot Do to Us
By Dave Redick

Satan cannot himself destroy human souls in the lake of fire. Only God can do that. In fact, Satan will ultimately be cast into the lake of fire himself. What the devil does is persuade as many as he can to enter the wide gate and take the broad road that leads there.

Doug Parsons wrote the following "Beatitudes of the Devil," which was published in Pulpit Helps, a magazine for preachers:

For the last three Sundays we have looked at some of what the Bible teaches about our adversary, the devil. We’ve considered his existence and how many people deny it. We’ve looked at what Satan is (and isn’t) and where he came from. We’ve considered why the devil opposes us with such intensity and why God doesn’t immediately destroy him. This morning we’ll continue the same theme, only this time we’re going to look at some of the things Satan can and cannot do to us.

The apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthian church in 2 Corinthians 2:11, "… We are not ignorant of [Satan’s] schemes." While they may not have been ignorant of his schemes back then, many surely are today. So just what can and can’t Satan do to us?

1. He Can Persuade Us To Walk Down the Path of Destruction.

Jesus warned us in Matthew 7:13-14 with these words: "Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide, and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and many are those who enter by it. For the gate is small, and the way is narrow that leads to life, and few are those who find it."

Satan cannot himself destroy human souls in the lake of fire. Only God can do that. In fact, Satan will ultimately be cast into the lake of fire himself.(1) What the devil does is persuade as many as he can to enter the wide gate and take the broad road that leads there. Jesus said in Matthew 10:28: "Do not fear those who kill the body, but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell." We are to fear God, not those who do the bidding of Satan. The devil is not the one who will destroy body and soul in hell. He does not have the power or the authority. Instead, he works overtime to attract, persuade, cajole, deceive, and coerce people to walk with him on the path of destruction that he himself is walking to ultimately spend eternity in the lake of fire.(2)

There is, however, a sense in which Satan is a destroyer. In fact, if I understand the following passage correctly, he is called a destroyer by the Bible.

Rev 9:11 says, "They have as king over them, the angel of the abyss; his name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in the Greek he has the name Apollyon."

Both the Hebrew and the Greek words John referred to there mean "destroyer." If this passage is referring to Satan (and I think it is) then one of Satan’s names is "Destroyer." As such he seeks to ruin, to spoil, to tear down, or to demolish everything that might help us to establish and maintain a saving relationship with our Heavenly Father.

Recall Peter’s warning in 1 Peter 5:8: "Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls about like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour." A lion devours. A lion rips and tears its prey. It destroys life.

Sitting here Sunday after Sunday among the brethren, with all of us dressed nicely, behaving ourselves, well fed, well entertained, reasonably happy, it’s easy for this picture of Satan as a destroyer to fade into the background. No, I don’t suggest that we keep ourselves always in terror mode. In fact, Jesus said that we should not fear the one who can destroy the body. (I searched in vain to find a single passage of Scripture that tells us to fear the devil.) Even Peter’s words we just read that compare Satan to a roaring lion didn’t say "fear him." They said "be sober." The said "be on the alert." We are safe in Christ, but we must ever strive to remain in Him and we dare not become lax or apathetic.

The other day I was going through a list of the names of all the people who have been baptized in this congregation since it was started. It’s an impressive list. Some of the names I recognize and some I don’t because their baptisms occurred before I came on the scene. What was sobering for me as I looked at that list was that among those I recognized, a lot of them have fallen away. When people fall away from the Lord, often you lose track of them – perhaps they move or just avoid any contact, so you never really know what happened. But as I looked at that list, I realized that the description of Satan as the one who leads people down the path of destruction really fits. We cannot see beyond death and we don’t know the ultimate outcome of judgment, but from what I could see, some of the folks on that list have died outside of Christ. Some of them who are still alive have seen their families torn apart as they left the protection of God’s flock and the Good Shepherd and the lion moved in on them. There is drug addiction and alcohol addiction and jail. I don’t know all there is to know about the lives of each of these dear folks who left but I can see enough to realize that Satan is a cruel and destructive master. I grieve for those we know who have gone their own way. I long to hear that those who still can have come back to Christ. But I also know that there are probably very few who will return.

Satan can persuade us to walk the path of destruction. He leads people and families to ruin. It happens in real life to real people whom we love. Please be sober about this issue. Please take it seriously.

Having said that though, I want to immediately point out to you that:

2. He Cannot Take Away Our Free Will.

I need very much for you to track closely with me as I go through this point. In saying what I just said, I realize that I am tramping down a lot of people’s daisies. I know I’m going to get some email when this sermon goes on the Internet and some of it will not be kind. Yet, as far as I can see, this is what the Bible teaches. Let me show you what I mean.

We have already noted that Satan is a very powerful adversary. He works quite effectively on the human race through temptation and deceit. To see clearly how capable Satan is, we need only examine his track record. Romans 3:10 says, "There is none righteous, not even one." Romans 5:12 says, "…death spread to all men, because all sinned." Romans 3:23 says, "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." Aside from his failure to persuade Jesus to sin,(3) Satan has a perfect record in getting people to sin. Thus, it would be easy for us to conclude that a being with this kind of results cannot be resisted – that we are hopelessly outgunned and that, when we sin, as the modern dodge goes, "The devil made [us] do it."

Yet the Bible plays a different tune on this important subject, and we need very much to understand it. For instance, James clearly states, when discussing temptation and sin in James 1:14, that "…each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust." Later in his same epistle he tells the followers of Jesus to submit to God and to "resist the devil and he will flee from you."(4) Paul echoed the same idea when he said in Ephesians 6:13, "Take up the full armor of God, that you may be able to resist in the evil day…."(5) So did Peter in that "roaring lion" passage that I quoted earlier when he said, "…resist him, firm in your faith…."(6)

When David sinned with Bathsheba, he didn’t say, "The devil made me do it." He said, "I have sinned against the Lord."(7) Even Judas acknowledged this after his betrayal of Jesus when he said, "I have sinned and betrayed innocent blood."(8) When Ananias and Sapphira lied to the Holy Spirit about the amount they received from the sale of their land, Peter said to them in Acts 5:4, "Why is it that you have conceived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to men, but to God."

In a culture that is accustomed to blaming all manner of behavior on everyone besides the sinner, this is a tough verdict to hear. Yet in the Bible, responsibility is always put upon the sinner because, unless our brain has ceased to function, we have and continue to have free will. There is never a time in our adult lives when we cannot say "no" to sin. Though sometimes we don’t, we can resist. It is always possible. We still have free will.

So if Satan cannot take away our free will, how does he get us to sin? He does it in any number of ways, most, if not all of them driven by deceit. For instance, he may:

I could go on but my point here is that none of these schemes ever actually takes away free will. We can always say "no" and when we don’t it is always called sin. Satan may try to persuade us that our situation is unique but God says otherwise. 1 Corinthians 10:13 says, "No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man…."

Satan may at times persuade us to sin but never do we have to sin. Never is or free will removed.

3. He Can Offer Us Many Things That Deliver Happiness.

From a young child, Moses grew up in the court of a king as the adopted son of Pharaoh’s daughter. As such he enjoyed every advantage including a lot of things that he must have known would be wrong. Then came that fateful day when he made his choice to defend the Hebrew people – effectively throwing it all away.

The writer of the New Testament book of Hebrews describes what was involved in Hebrews 11:24-26:

Note there that the Bible acknowledges that sin offers "passing pleasures" to "enjoy." Surely the trappings of Egyptian royalty contained plenty to make a mortal happy. But Moses was not happy. Why? Because he was looking to something better – "greater riches" as the verse says.

In the sermon last Sunday I called your attention to something in Luke’s account of the temptation of Jesus. In Luke 4:5-6, we read,

Of course, Jesus declined the temptation. But from that passage we saw that Satan possesses, at least for a time, a lot of things he can bargain with. "All the kingdoms of the world" is no small holding. And "all the kingdoms of this world" contain a lot of pleasurable things. Satan wanted so much for the Son of God to bow down to him that he was willing to offer the whole thing at once. "You can be the king, Jesus. I’ll just be your chief advisor."

Folks, it is reasonable for you and me to believe that there will be times in our lives when we will experience things that appear to be great opportunities for increasing our possessions, our positions, and our prospects for happiness. When those things happen, we must carefully weigh where our choices will take us, because the devil has such things with which to bargain. He’s into buying souls if that’s what will work – and unfortunately, many are up for sale.

Satan can offer us many things that deliver happiness. But…

4. He Cannot Offer US Anything That Will Last.

Satan can promise you the moon (so to speak) and even, in some cases, deliver it. You can conceivably have anything you want if Satan considers you a big enough "catch." You just can’t keep it.

One day you will loose it – forever.

A rich man learned that he would die in a few days. He called his three friends: a doctor, preacher, and lawyer to his bedside. He said, "The preacher has told me that you can't take it with you, but I believe I have worked out a way so that I can. Doc tells me that I won't live long, so I have prepared three sealed envelopes, each containing $10,000. When I die, I want each of you to walk by the casket and drop in your envelope with the $10,000."

A short time later, they attended his funeral and then met together. The preacher said, "I have a confession to make. We've been needing to repair the organ at the church building for a long time, and I took $2,000 out of Bill's envelope and used it on the organ." The doctor said, "This makes it easier for me, because I took $5,000 out and used it for my new clinic and only dropped in $5,000." The lawyer said, "Well, my conscience is clear. I did just what Bill said. I kept my envelope, picked up both of yours and dropped in a check for the whole amount of $30,000."

You know, even if you could rid the world of pilfering preachers, deceitful doctors, and lying lawyers, there is absolutely no way that any human being is going to leave this earth with anything physical. When your spirit leaves your body, all earthly possessions are stripped away.

Yes, Satan can offer it. He can even deliver it. But you can’t keep it.

More than once I have seen a family move away so that husband or wife can take a better position. And that sounds good on the surface. Who could argue with it? Yet I have seen more than once, people make such a move with little or no consideration for their spiritual provision. Then somehow, when they arrived, they either didn’t find a church they could live with or they just never got around to making the connections. Today they are out of the Lord. Making good money, yes. Enjoying their new houses and cars, yes. Getting those promotions, yes. But walking in darkness that threatens, if they don’t pull out while there is time, to take it all away and leave them with an eternity of regret.

Am I saying you should never make a move or accept a promotion? Not at all. Such a thing may be God’s will for you. I’m just saying that you need to give it careful consideration if you must step backward spiritually in order to do it.

What can and cannot Satan do to us? We’ve looked at four things. Lord willing, we’ll look at some more next time. For today, remember these:

Lost in the jungle, a man sought desperately to find his way to safety. His strength was ebbing fast as the insects and stifling heat did their deadly work. Suddenly he heard what he thought was a bell tolling in the distance. Surely he must be near civilization. He struggled bravely onward; but he never seemed to draw closer to the sound. Finally he fell to the ground exhausted, and died right where he fell. The mysterious Bell Bird had claimed another victim! According to G.B. Robeson, many travelers in the heart of the rain forest of Central and South America has been led to their deaths by the uncanny call of this seldom-seen bird. Its enticing, reverberating "toll" produces an almost overpowering temptation to seek its source.

Sounds a bit like the "toll" of our adversary, doesn’t it? Don’t give in to the toll of his bell!

Footnotes: Use your back button to return to your place.

1. Revelation 20:10
2. Revelation 20:14-15
3. Matthew 4, Luke 4
4. James 4:7
5. Ephesians 6:13
6. 1 Peter 5:9
7. 2 Samuel 12:13
8. Matthew 27:4

*Links to all sermons in this series: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6

Dave Redick is Minister of the Hwy 20 Church of Christ in Sweet Home, Oregon and Editor of The Preacher's Study. He may be reached at pstudysupport@comcast.net.

Copyright © 1996-2008 by The Preacher's Study. Permission is granted to subscribers to use this document in total or in sermon preparation in the context of the local congregation only. Publishing it in a book, on the Internet, or anyplace beyond the local congregation is prohibited.

All Scripture quotations and references are from the New American Standard Version unless otherwise stated.

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