Dial In with Jonny Ardavanis - Spiritual Warfare: Understanding Satan's True Identity and How to Defeat Him | Jonny Ardavanis

Episode Date: May 6, 2025

Discover the biblical truth about Satan's origin as Lucifer, once the most beautiful angel created to lead worship in heaven. In this episode, we explore Satan's cunning strategies, the reality of spiritual warfare, and how Christians can stand firm against demonic attacks. Learn how the enemy targets believers when they're idle, discouraged, doubting, overconfident, alone, busy, or tired. Understand the organization of demonic forces described in Ephesians 6 and why many Christians are unprepared for battle. This eye-opening study reveals what Scripture actually teaches about our adversary and provides hope that through Christ, we have the strength to overcome. Perfect for those seeking a deeper understanding of spiritual warfare and biblical truth about the enemy.

When God went and set out to make the most splendid and supreme being in all of creation, he made him a musician that was given the charge of leading the angels and choirs of heaven in the worship of God. So you have to ask the question, what happened to Satan? There is demonic activity that takes place every single day that aims to trivialize and normalize the darkness of this world david helm was the one that said that satan wants to make sin seem normal and righteousness seems strange yeah a lot of people don't dress for spiritual battle because they don't realize we are in a war and they don't realize the cunning powerful and relentless nature of Satan, who according to the scripture, is trying to destroy you. But if you are in the Lord, you have his strength and therefore you have

hope in the battle. Hey folks, my name is Johnny Artavanis. Welcome to Dial-In Ministries studio. I'm sitting here with Hank. How are you doing, Hank? I'm doing great, Johnny. Coming off Easter weekend. How are you doing? Good.

He is risen indeed. He is risen indeed. Hallelujah. Hey, one thing for you who are watching or listening by way of announcement, if you haven't already, you can sign up for our devotional newsletter, which goes out three times a week, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. You can sign up for free at dialinministries.org. It's about a three to five minute read that are reflections from God's word that hopefully ground your morning in the scripture. Well, hey, I want to talk about biographies for a moment. Do you read any

biographies? I love biographies. I like biographies. I love reading biographies about Winston Churchill, Kobe, the Black Mamba. Of course. Ever heard of him? Teddy Roosevelt. Three very similar men so far. Yeah, very similar, all athletes. William Carey, the founder of Modern Missions. I've loved his biography, been impacted by it. George Mueller, the man of prayer. George Whitefield, a great evangelist.

But I like biographies because what they do is they allow for you to get a glimpse inside the life of someone that maybe you've heard of, you're familiar with, but you may not know all that well. And in this episode, what I want to do is really look at a biographical sketch of a character that many people watching or listening will be familiar with. They'll be acquainted with him, but they've probably significantly underestimated or misunderstood the character that we want to talk about, someone that they've

heard of, but it's the person in the scripture known as Satan. And whatever your idea of Satan is, it's probably distorted. I think growing up, you could probably speak to this. I had, you know, a character with a red figure with horns or Darth Maul. I wasn't allowed to watch Star Wars, but something of the sorts. Yeah, lots of red animated horns and scary. Yeah, scary. But when we look at the person of Satan,

the being of Satan in the scripture, the Bible says that Satan is the most beautiful creature ever made by God. The term Lucifer, the name Lucifer, literally means shining one. It means son of the dawn. Now in Genesis one, we read the account of when God created the world. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. That's what my daughter is memorizing. But that is not, according to the scripture, the first time that God had ever made anything. We read in Job

that when God made the world, when he said, let there be light, when he said plants and trees and oceans and animals and fish and all the sort, that the angels were worshiping God and they sang, Job 38, that the sons of God sang for joy when God set the foundations of the world. So at some point before God said, let there be light or before he made the world, he made angels. In Colossians 1.15, it says that thrones, dominions, powers, or principalities, all things were created by him and for him. Now those terms, you've probably memorized the verse, all thrones, dominions, rulers, powers, and principalities, those all refer to angelic beings and God made them once upon a time. How many angels did God make? Do you have on your screen, Revelation 5, 11? It says, then I looked and I heard the voices of many angels

around the throne and living creatures and the elders. And the number of them was 10,000 times 10,000 and thousands of thousands. So how many angels are there? I think just the idea in scripture is that it's innumerable. 10,000 times 10,000 and thousands upon thousands. So there are more angels than you'd be able to count. And all of these angels are personal beings. They're beautiful and they're powerful. And they were originally made with the intention of worshiping God. We know the name of a couple of these angels,

according to the scripture. Michael is the general of God's angelic army. Gabriel is the one who appears to Mary, and he is the one that reveals God's purposes and plans to his people. But what we want to talk about in this episode, the most splendid, powerful, beautiful, intelligent angel ever created by God is Satan himself. And I'm gonna want you to read Isaiah in just a moment, but before we do so, I wanna read Ezekiel 28 because I think people have grown up hearing about Satan. They've heard that Jesus says,

get behind me, Satan, to Peter. They understand that there's maybe an opposing force in the scripture, but they have a little understanding about his background that this is the angel created by God. And Ezekiel 28 is really interesting. It says in verse 11, I'll start reading in just a moment, but in these verses, God is pronouncing a judgment against the king of Tyre. And in his judgment, he is going to condemn the king, but not only the king, he's going to condemn the evil power operating behind the king,

that being Satan himself. So we read in Ezekiel 28, 11, that the word of the Lord came to me saying, son of man, take up lamentation over the king of Tyre and say to him, thus says the Lord God. And here he says, you had the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. You were in Eden. So Satan was in Eden. The garden of God, every precious stone was your covering. The ruby, the topaz and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx and the jasper, the lapis lazuli, the turquoise and the emerald

and the gold, the workmanship of your settings and sockets was in you on the day that you were created. They were prepared. You were the anointed cherub who covers and i placed you there you were on the holy mountain of god you walked in the midst of the stones of fire you were blameless in your ways from the day you were created until unrighteousness was found in you that idea in ezekiel 28 13 it says in the gold the workmanship of your settings and sockets.

Another translation would say your tambourines and flutes. So to back up for a moment, God says to Satan, you were in Eden. You were the summer perfection. You were beautiful. You're covered. Whatever your idea is of this red dragon with horns. God says to Satan, the Ruby, the topaz, the diamond, the burial, the onyx and the onyx, and the jasper, that's what you're covered with. And it says that you were made with setting in sockets that are like tambourines and flutes, which means what? Well, when God went and set out to make the most splendid and supreme being in all of creation, he made him a musician that was given the charge of leading the angels and choirs of heaven in the worship of God. So you have to ask the question, what happened to Satan?

Which brings us to Isaiah 14, 13 and 14. Would you read that for us? Yeah, absolutely. So it says, but you said in your heart, I will ascend to heaven. I will raise my throne above the stars of God and I will sit on the Mount of Assembly in the recesses of the north. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds and I will make myself like the most high.

So five times in those two verses, I will, I will, I will, I will. Satan wanted to be greater than God. In Revelation 12, it tells us that Satan, who is called the great red dragon, he takes with him because of this pride, because of this rebellion, takes with him one third of the angelic host. And now in Matthew 25, 41, it speaks of Satan and his angels. So to back up, there are billions of angels. They're innumerable. They're more than we can count. They're thousands times 10 thousands.

And one third of those angels are a part of Satan's army. So when we look at the scripture, this is important to recognize. When the Bible, when Jesus speaks of Satan, he is referring to a real, personal, evil being that rules the world. In scripture, he is known as 1 John 5, 19, the wicked one, Luke 11, 15, the prince of demons, and 2 Corinthians 4, 4, the god of this age. In Ephesians 2, 2, the prince of the power of the air. Jesus calls him the father of lies and a murderer. Now we started off with biographical sketch. We like to read biography so we can get an idea of who people are. But when we look at the biography of Satan in the scripture, I think we are beginning to understand that we've underestimated and have maybe an inadequate view of who our enemy is.

Yeah, absolutely. It strikes me, and we'll keep moving here, but it's worth pointing out that the story of scripture, Satan need not be this kind of undisclosed, hidden character in the darkness, but rather the Bible speaking really clearly is your point. And even to your point, I don't think I've fully grasped, but Gabriel defined role, Michael defined role, and then we have Satan defined role and his rebellion is indirect contradiction to that defined role. It's the story of scripture. He's the antagonist. That's first John, he came, Jesus came to crush the devil. So we'll get back to Satan in a moment, but I want to gather our bearings if you want to turn over with me to Ephesians. In the book of Ephesians, Paul is punctuating the glories of the gospel.

And in the first three chapters, he's just talking about what God has done in Christ, what God has done in Christ. And there's only one command, one imperative in those opening three chapters, and that's in Ephesians 2.12, when Paul tells people to remember what Christ has done. This is the typical Pauline flow of the way that he writes. Remember what God has done. Here's what God has done in the gospel. He's chosen you and him before the foundation of the world. He's adopted you as sons by grace. You're saved through faith, not as a result of work so that no man can boast. So he does that for Ephesians 1, Ephesians 2, and Ephesians 3. And then as he typically does in Ephesians 4,

he turns this corner and he encourages people to walk in a manner worthy of the gospel. That's the book of Ephesians, the letter to the Ephesians. And he's telling this to a church in Ephesus that is living amongst rampant promiscuity, sexuality, adultery. It's an evil culture. And he tells them, okay, here's what God has done.

You live in a manner that's worthy of the gospel. And he says that we walk in a manner worthy of the gospel as we live in purity and unity and in love. But I bring this up because I think, as Paul is going to tell us, many people confuse walking in a manner worthy of the gospel, I think it was Charles Swindoll who said, with a stroll, as if it's going to be easy. And so what Paul does is he talks about what God has done in the gospel. He encourages and challenges believers to walk in a manner worthy of the gospel of what Christ has done. And then as he concludes this letter, he tells Christians then and he tells them today,

it's going to be a lot more challenging than you may have anticipated to live in a way that honors God because of the devil that we're facing. Chuck Sundahl said, when we begin the Christian life, we didn't stroll into a happy playground. We stepped onto a harsh battleground. And because the Christian life is warfare. Now, we've talked about this before. We battle our sinful flesh. We live in a world that seeks to tempt us. But it's not just against our flesh and the world around us. We are in a battle against a real supreme being that wants to destroy us.

So would you, if you're in Ephesians, would you read just those Ephesians 6.10 through 13 right now? Yeah, absolutely. Ephesians 6.10 says, Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the might of his strength, put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of this wickedness in the heavenly places.

Therefore, take up the full armor of God so that you will be able to resist in the evil day and having done everything to stand firm. We're going to talk about those verses in greater detail over the next few episodes. But one of the realities of the gospel is that the battle is already won. Christ has triumphed over the darkness. But just like sometimes in a presidential election, you'll say like, you'll see that, oh, this person has not yet conceded. That's the reality of scripture. So between Christ's first and his second advent, when he returns, even recently we celebrated the resurrection

and we anticipate a return of Jesus Christ. Between Jesus's first advent and his second advent, when he comes back, we live in a time now that is governed, according to the scripture, by the devil. And every victory in our life as a Christian, and this is maybe something people theologically affirm, but practically deny,

every victory in our life is against a personal being so evil and so intent on harming us. Now these verses, Ephesians 6, 10 through 18, the Puritans wrote great volumes about these verses alone. Martin Lloyd-Jones preached 52 sermons on these 10 verses entitled the Christian warfare and the Christian soldier. It makes sense, right? We don't really talk about this often. If you're in a war, which you are, if you're a Christian, it makes sense to know your enemy. That's the objective of this episode and following to know the resources we have in defeating, fighting our enemy.

So you read it already and we'll just touch on this. The first thing we need to do is know our orders. It says, Paul says, to be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might, to put on the full armor of God so that we will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. We're going to talk about this more in our next episode. But the main idea here is that we're strong, not in our own strength, but in the Lord's strength. In the Lord, because this is nothing about picking yourself up by our own bootstraps. It's the language of keyword there.

It's dependence. So is it your strength? No, it there. It's dependence. So is it your strength? No, it's the Lord's strength. So we know our orders, but secondly, and this is where I want to spend the bulk of our time. We need to know our enemy in our spiritual battle. It says in the, in first John 5, 19, that the entire world is under the sway of the wicked one. So you played sports growing up, right? Do you ever look at, you know, tapes of the opposing teams, right? Absolutely, every Thursday.

Every Thursday, you have to understand who you're up against. And the scripture is gonna tell us who we're up against. And this is like, it's sobering to look at this because I, you know, I can count on one hand the amount of times I've ever heard a sermon on Satan. But the Bible says every victory in your life is against this personal being seeking to destroy you.

So I want to, underneath this banner of knowing our enemy, look at three realities about Satan. One, that he's cunning. Two, that he's powerful. And three, that he is relentless. And we'll leave it there for this episode. The first of which is that Satan is cunning. It says in Ephesians 6.11

that we are to put on the armor of God so that we will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. That word is methodea for schemes, which means that Satan has a bunch of different methods that he employs to attacking you personally when you are most vulnerable. So much we could say here, but on a consistent basis, Satan and his demons are intelligent and intentional.

And because he's scheming, because he's strategizing, because he has methods, Satan attacks us when we are, really, I wrote down seven categories. You want to give us the first one? Yeah, absolutely. So you have idle here. I think maybe as you dive in here, again, it's just worth re-underlining. Satan is not omnipotent. He's not like God. He's not sovereign. But again, I think it's, to your point, it's so useful to know, like there's pattern recognition here that we can take inventory of our own selves. So firstly, you to do nothing. And within a few taps of your phone or you turn on the TV, you open up a portal to sexual temptation, worldliness, and indulgence and materialism. So Satan comes after you when you're idle.

Satan doesn't always have to send you Potiphar's wife. Sometimes he just wants you to be alone. Whether we are alone or with others, idleness creates an opportunity. You know, in Genesis, it says that sin is crouching at the door. Idleness creates an opportunity where sin is crouching at the door and you have nothing else to do than to open it. So I think we're specifically vulnerable when we're idle. Secondly, I think Satan comes after us and this is all underneath this banner of him being cunning when we're discouraged. When we're discouraged or despairing or walking through a trial, Satan will make sure that there

is something to stroke your ego. I don't know about, you know, maybe just in your own life, you can reflect that when you're discouraged, there are times where you are trying to, you know, find something that comforts yourself other than the comfort of God. Taking a shortcut. Yeah, taking a shortcut. This can be true in ministry. It can be true familially. It can be true professionally.

So Satan can come after you and he's scheming. When are they going to be vulnerable? When you're idle, when you're discouraged, third, when you're doubting. The first question ever asked in human history is, you know, did God say, yeah, did God really say, yeah, this was a question asked in the garden before page three, there were no questions. There were only answers. The first question ever asked in human history was a question poised to get Adam and Eve to doubt the goodness and love of God. And when you begin to doubt God's goodness and when you begin to doubt his love, you will be tempted to be satisfied

and thrilled by things that are other than his love and goodness. So he wants you to doubt who God is, God's plan for you, God's provision for you. God's promises. Yeah, God's promises. Because once you start doubting who God is,

everything else becomes an opportunity for you to be the king of your own self-sufficiency. Um, but not only discouraged and doubting those may be like times when you're in the dumps, right. But also when you're confident, um, two, two sides, two ditches on either side here. Yeah. Uh, Satan not know, not only knows how to exploit your despair, but he will cripple you when you are confident. You know, pride is really dangerous. Peter, you know, Jesus says, you know, you're going to be tempted.

And he says, no one else will ever fall. You know, I'll never deny you. Yeah, though everyone else will. I won't. I won't. And we read in scripture that pride cometh before the what? Fall. The fall.

So I think when you're confident, that's why scripture says take heed lest you fall. Because when you think you've got it going on, Satan knows how to attack that vulnerability because you think it's all quiet on the Western front. It's really actually Satan is going to specifically target maybe your laissez-faire approach to the battle. Now, just think about this, and I'm curious in your perspective, from a spiritual perspective, how can you be overly confident about your walk with the Lord?

Totally. You kind of go, I'm feeling good, there's no sin, what do you think? Yeah, I think it's, well, I'm just reflecting on my own life of it's so easy. It's the two pitfalls of when you're super discouraged, you're almost the metaphor of like you're looking down and you're downcast and kind of you're looking for anything to make your life better. And inversely, when you're overconfident, it's like I'm looking so far to the future and everything is smooth sailing that I neglect to trip over the thing immediately in front of me that I'm not even like keeping my eyes out for it.

The image of Satan as a prowling lion of like both an idol person but also someone who's not even worried that the lion's out to get them um i didn't answer your question it's appropriate just in the sense where we we forget yes if you're confident that you're actually in a battle so that would be the fourth the fifth would just be alone he'll come after you he's. He'll come after you when you're alone. It's no coincidence that Satan came to Jesus at the conclusion of 40 days of solitude in the wilderness. That's when Jesus, according to Satan, was, you know,

actually in his humanity, Jesus was fatigued, isolated. And then it says that, we'll talk about this more in a moment, that Satan left Jesus to return to tempt him at an opportune time meaning that satan viewed the solitude and fatigue of jesus as um the ideal moment the six would be he'll come after you when you're busy we could talk a lot about this at great length but corey ten boom once said that if the devil can't make you sin he'll make you busy because one of the first things to go often when you're busy is your own dependence upon the lord you start to double down you know batten down the hatches and you get your life and block schedule and i wake up and i do this and you stop living dependently upon

the lord or just even good things can crowd out the ultimate thing which is abiding in jesus christ so in second corinthians 2 11 paul says we're not ignorant of Satan's devices. And so he might come after you when you're busy. And seventh, I've already touched on it, when you're tired. You can even look at the life of Elijah. I think we've talked about Elijah before. That's what I was just thinking about. Come sleep, eat, and then I'll talk to you. Yeah, you know, Elijah takes on the prophets of Baal.

And then he runs, you know, 20 miles. At a high point, you'd imagine. Yeah, 20 miles. He's discouraged. He's despairing. And then he's tired. And he says, God, take my life. He wants to commit suicide. So Satan is cunning. Secondly here, not only is he cunning, he's powerful. And in verse 12, we read, for our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Main idea here, and I think sometimes people just interpret this all synonymously. And there's probably a truth where there's overlap here.

Main idea here is that our battle, once again, is not against mere flesh and blood. Paul's going to say the same thing as second Corinthians 10, though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. But right here in this verse 12 of Ephesians six, we read against, against, against flesh and blood. It's not against flesh and blood, but against the powers, against the world forces. And it's just over and over again, using that word against. Yeah. In the heavenly places. Yeah. Now we want to talk through what this means, these different terms. Probably one thing to understand is that even as we talk about Satan, according to the scripture, our battle is not just against one supernatural being, but an entire host, as we've talked

about, of spiritual forces, demonic powers with differentiated rank, focus, and capability. There are in the scripture, according to the scripture, an army of demons that have a plan of evil that is specific and unified with the intention of bringing down and destroying the people and credibility of the people of God. This is me not trying to scare people, but trying to inform people of what the Bible says. And I think C.S. Lewis used to talk about how there was two different ditches. You know, you look for a demon under every rock.

Yeah. And then you kind of talk like, you know, you live and act as if he doesn't exist at all. So I think there's, as you said, ditches. Yeah, and there's listeners who are probably going to self-identify in either camp. But maybe it'd be helpful, unpack this a little bit. What does the Bible say? Give us some information, like organization. As you've already mentioned, Satan is not omnipresent. So demons exercise their control over certain areas. I've been to different places in a missions context where

once you go overseas, there's going to be a more powerful and sensed presence of demonic activity. Even when I've gone into different villages, you can see the demonic aggression that takes place when the gospel begins to take root in a village. There is an account, even in this regard in Daniel 10, where the angel is sent to help Daniel, but that angel was opposed by a demon for 21 days and had to be supported by the warrior angel, Michael. So we get this idea even from the scripture

that there are demons over certain areas that exercise influence and power. And that's their area underneath the banner of their leader, Satan. So that's rulers. And then it says powers. This could refer to the worldview of the world. It could refer to specific people that rule over different areas. But I think it's very, you know, I think sometimes even too, when we think about demonic possession, you think of a guy, I don't know what comes to your mind when I say it. Yeah, yeah. You know, like, send us into the pigs, filming at the mouth, breaking chains. I would want people to understand that demonic possession doesn't always look the same way. I think according to the scripture, there are very, there's a great amount of people today

that are demonically influenced or possessed that are clean cut, that are in positions of influence and leadership over nations, over regions, over cities. And that's what the scripture says here. Our battle's not against flesh and blood, but against the powers. Well, and that's just to put a fine point on that. I think it's in theologically robust circles.

I feel like people can listen to this and be like, well, that sounds, I mean, that's a plain reading of scripture. You're pulling this out of Ephesians 6.12. This is not imagining kind of false realities. That's what Paul's writing to this Ephesians church that we're supposed to be reading today. Yeah, we're to live in light of it too. Paul then says the world forces of this present darkness. I, along with others, believe this has to do with the propagation of darkness and corruption in the world in which we live. So MacArthur would mention that this is the media, the entertainment, the present darkness here could be the demonic influence. There is demonic activity that takes place every single day that aims to trivialize and normalize the darkness of this world

to make you feel like the darkness of this world ain't that dark at all. David Helm was the one that said that Satan wants to make sin seem normal and righteousness seem strange. And that is demonically influenced. It's not just the flesh, that it's not just our worldly system. It is the devil that wants to trivialize and normalize the corruption of this world.

I think as a listener, you can probably think back in your own life. There's periods in, especially in younger years, when you're really, or if you've walked through a chapter of your life where your faith becomes very alive to you and God grabs your heart in a new way, maybe when you're initially saved and you go into, I was talking with a colleague the other day traveling for work,

and it's so easy to just become numbed to the ways of the world to the point that you, five years later, are looking back and seeing the world to your point, normalness becomes sin. And it's so easy to drag into like the perpetual flow and drip of culture. It's just so top of mind coming off this business trip even recently and how that's not, Paul's saying, stand firm, stand in contradiction to that, stand firm with the Holy Spirit empowering you.

Yeah, yeah, there's truth there. And then Paul concludes by saying, these spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. I think this just refers to the reality that there are demonic masterminds seeking to distort, deceive, corrupt, manipulate, and blind.

Main idea here is that Satan and his angels are not winging it. They are plotting. And all of these various usages, rulers, powers, world forces, spiritual forces, John Stott says, help us to understand that even the devil, we were talking about this, claims to be able to give Jesus all the kingdoms of this world when he's tempting Jesus. Bow down and worship me and I'll give you the kingdoms of this world. So he's got this idea that he does really run the world. And we read in scripture that the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.

So Satan is cunning, Satan is powerful, and we'll be brief here, but Satan is relentless. In verse 16 of Ephesians 6, it says, put on the shield of faith, which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. The idea there is, in a battle, those arrows are just...

Volley after volley. Volley after volley. They're going, and sometimes it may not feel that way, obviously, because he's strategic. He knows how to... If you were always feeling like you're being harassed by Satan, you'd be more on guard. So there's an element here where he's coming after you and you've mentioned 1 Peter 5, 8.

He is prowling like a roaring lion seeking to destroy you. Now, when lions hunt, they're not growling, right? They're what? Prowling. Yeah, quiet. They're quiet. They're in the thicket. So he's also a master hunter.

And because he's trying to destroy you, when you are most confident, when things seem most quiet, that's likely when he's got you in his sights. He's lurking. He's hiding in the thicket, so to speak. Lions don't alert their prey like that they're hunting you.

That would be dumb. Yeah, it's obvious, but it's so often overlooked. They attack you when you're least suspecting. So every day is a day of evil, but there is in verse 13, it says, therefore taking up the full armor of God so that you will be able to stand to resist.

Then there's this idea in the evil day. In Ephesians, it says we're to make the most of our time because the days are evil. We read that in chapter five, but right here it says we're to make the most of our time because the days are evil. We read that in chapter five, but right here it says the evil day. That's definitive article. What we, what is the evil day? If every day is evil, what is the evil day? Well, Ferguson notes that the evil day in scripture is where a three strand cord meets. It's a unique day in your life where Satan focuses particular attack

on you as a child of God, and it's where three things meet. What three things need to meet for it to be the evil day? Well, Ferguson says it's when temptation, desire, and opportunity meet, and those are the three things that Satan tries to use to destroy you. You could, he uses the example of David's failure came at a time where all three of these realities met.

There could have been time in David's life when there was temptation, but no desire and no opportunity. There could have been times where there was opportunity, but no desire. And it's just where these three things meet this confluence. It is sobering to think that there are 42 kings in the Old Testament. Only one of them is referred to as a man after God's own heart. And yet he was sifted by the devil on the evil day. Hohner writes this, the believer should be aware that they must be prepared not only for everyday evils, but for the times of heightened and unexpected spiritual battles. For example, as we've talked about, when the devil failed to tempt Jesus to sin,

he left Jesus until an opportune time. That's Luke 4, 4, 13. If Satan tempted the unimpeachable son of God at opportune times, we can be sure, he says, that his gang of demonic thugs will do the same thing to us. This is the heart cry of Paul saying, listen, I need to be on guard. I need to be on guard because he says, I don't want to preach the gospel to others and then disqualify myself. Now, one of the things we just conveyed is that Satan is a hunter. He's prowling like a roaring lion seeking to destroy your soul. It says in Ephesians that there are volley after volley of evil that is going to attack you on a regular basis, but there is a definitive day in which Satan is going to try and destroy you.

So the question would have to be, if Satan was going to make a particular and aggressive attack on your life on one day, how would he do it? I think we all need to consider that. Sometimes Satan is a lion, and at other times he comes like a friend, right? He came to Eve this way to offer help. He disguises himself as an angel of light. And in all of this, Paul says, we struggle against Satan. This is the language of hand-to-hand combat. So what we need to talk about in our next episode is Paul says, you need to know your enemy, right? Obviously, we're leaning heavily towards that side.

But then he tells us that we are to put on the full armor of God and to stand in the strength of his might so that we will be able to stand firm. And we're going to talk about this more. leave it. A lot of people don't dress for spiritual battle because they don't realize we are in a war and they don't realize the cunning, powerful, and relentless nature of Satan who, according to the scripture, is trying to destroy you. Thankfully, we do find encouragement and I would want to leave it with some hope that 1 John 4, 4 says, greater is he that is in us than the evil one. And so the reality for every Christian is if you're in Christ, and that's the main idea here, be strong in the Lord, because you can't be strong in the Lord if you're not in the Lord. But if you are in the Lord, you have his strength and therefore you have hope in the battle. Absolutely. Well, it's helpful to take some time and really come to grips and wrestle with the truths of scripture of who our enemy is.

I look forward to joining you again and talking through the hope that we have in Christ and exactly what we have when we are in the Lord. All right. Thanks, Hank. Thanks, Johnny.