Satan: What Is He Like?
Selected Scriptures
In our last study we established the fact that there exists a personal real devil, and then we outlined who he is. We said that reason and revelation and experience all corroborate to substantiate the existence of this being. And the Bible tells us very clearly that he is a fallen angel. Not just a fallen angel but perhaps the supreme angel in God's creation, the cherubim that covers, the highest of the cherubim who perhaps were the highest of the angelic hosts.
He is a spiritual being. Though he is spirit he is not omnipresent, but he moves rapidly and his work is conducted, not only by himself, but by the host of angels who fell with him in his rebellion.
So, we answered the first question ‑ Is he? ‑ by saying ‑ Yes. And we answered the second question ‑ Who is he? ‑ by saying ‑ He's a spiritual being, a fallen angel who is intensely powerful and who rules a host of demons like himself, fallen angels. who are set against the purposes of God. And we said that the battlefront is at the very throne of God, as illustrated in the book of Job, in the heavens as illustrated in the book of Daniel, and on the earth as illustrated time and time again throughout the Bible. We realize the conflict occurs.
Now tonight we want to look at the third of our questions ‑Is he?...Who is he?...thirdly, ‑ What is he like? And we want to define a little more carefully and clearly the character of Satan. And the reason we want to do this is because our...our clear understanding of what's going on in the world is dependent, in some sense, on knowing what the adversary is doing. And when Paul wrote to the Corinthians he said ‑ I do not want you to be ignorant of his devices. The better able we are to anticipate his activity, the better able we are to set a defense against it. And so it's important to know what he is like.
Now, first of all, under this point ‑ what he is like ‑ and have your Bible handy, we'll be looking at several scriptures tonight, let me say this. There are some things we ought to say about what he is not like. And please note that Satan is not like God. He is not like God. And by that I mean several things, and you'll understand them in reference to what we've been saying about God in our morning hours.
Number one, Satan is not self‑existent. He was created. He is a creature. And that puts him supremely inferior to God.
Secondly, he is not sovereign. Satan rules a domain of demons but he does not rule beyond the bounds of that confinement of rule which God has given him. In fact, Satan never has cast off the government of God. You realize that. That the rebellion totally failed. And if you want to look at Satan properly you will look at him in exile. He has been exiled to the earth and the domain around it. He never did cast off the government of God, he is only in rebellion against it. He is in chains chafing against the chains.
And his chains stretches just so far and God allows him to go that far and no farther. He operates completely within the sphere of God's allowance. The Apostle Paul gives us an indication that God even uses Satan to His own ends. In II Corinthians chapter 12, verse 7 Paul says: "That which was given to him, to buffet him, to make him aware of his own weakness, that thorn in the flesh was the messenger of Satan to buffet me." And yet he prayed to God to have God remove it and God chose not to. God was actually allowing Satan to do something that would redound to God's honor. Satan operates in rebellion but even his rebellion fails as God uses him to His own ends.
Satan, then, is not like God. He's not self‑existent and he's not sovereign. Thirdly, he's not omnipotent. He is definitely not omnipotent. He is not all powerful. Powerful ‑ yes, not all powerful. First John 4:4 says: "Greater is He that is in you than he that is...where?...in the world." And who is it that is in you? It is God in the form of His Spirit. Satan is less by far than He.
Next, Satan is not omniscient. He does not know everything. There are Christians, I suppose, for years who have discussed the idea of whether Satan can read your thoughts. As far as I can understand in the Bible, there is no statement to that effect at all. And the reason that I believe that Satan doesn't know everything is because Satan is an angel and the angels don't know everything. That is illustrated in I Peter chapter 1:11 and 12, where we saw this morning that the whole area of salvation, angels desire to look in to. There are some things angels don't understand.
We talked this morning a little bit about things like mercy and grace and forgiveness which are incomprehensible experientially to an angel. There are some things they don't understand and if holy angels don't understand everything there's no reason to believe a corrupted one would. There is no indication in Scripture that Satan can read our thoughts. Now he's pretty good at predicting our behavior because he's had a lot of time to work on human nature. And he can tell by attitudes and actions pretty much what's going on inside. But he is not omniscient.
One good illustration of the fact that Satan doesn't know everything is the confusion in his own kingdom. Have you ever noticed how Satan keeps running into himself? He does really stupid things. For example, if Satan knew everything he never would have gotten Christ to the cross. At the beginning of the ministry of Christ it appears as though he tried to stop Him from getting to the cross. He wanted to give Him everything. Remember in His temptation? Later on through the incident with Peter, he tried to say ‑ Christ, don't do it that way. But when he knew he couldn't stop Christ, he forced the issue. Well, if he'd have known everything he would have known that was the deathblow to his own head. He's not omniscient. You read Acts chapter ID and see the terrible confusion that goes on there...the confusion between the demon‑possessed people who are prophesying and predicting and the people who are trying to cast the demons out, who were also demonic. Satan is very confused. If you've ever studied the Bible very carefully and studied the character of Satan, you know that he's terribly inconsistent and that's because one thing about corruption...corruption also effects the intellect.
And the angels have intellect but the fallen ones have corrupted ones. They don't function too well.
Not only is Satan not omnipotent and omniscient, but he's not omnipresent. As I told you last week, he's fast but he's not omnipresent. No angel is. Daniel 9, Daniel 10 clearly indicate this.
So, angels have limitations and particularly corrupt ones and Satan is a very limited creature. That's what he's not like.
What is he like? Now the best way to see what he's like, and this is what we want to do tonight, the best way to see what he's like is to see the names and title and terms that are used to describe him because these descriptions give us information about what he's like.
First, let's look at his names and titles. The names and titles that describe to us the character of Satan.
Number one, he is called Satan. That's a good place to start. Now I don't want to take you to all the scriptures where he's called Satan because he's called Satan fifty‑two times...take us a little long...but, for example, Zechariah 3:1, Revelation 12:9 and others. The word comes from a Hebrew word which means adversary or opposer. We learn, then, from the name Satan that he is an adversary. And whose adversary is he primarily? Whose? God's. And secondarily, he is the adversary of God's holy angels as evidenced by Revelation 12 where he fights against Michael and the heavenly angels, the holy angels. He is also the adversary of God's people, of those humans who have identified with the Lord Jesus Christ. Satan is an adversary. That is his...that is his name that defines his character.
Secondly, he is not only called Satan in the Bible but he is called ‑ the devil. And this term is used of him some 35 times, diabolos. It...it means one who slanders or one who trips up.
And if we were to combine those he wants to injure people by malicious slander. He slanders God. He slanders Christ. He slanders the Holy Spirit. He slanders the church. He slanders the Bible. He slanders the true doctrine. He slanders the character of Christians. He slanders continually. He defames everything that even relates itself to God, that is his character.
He is not only an opposer but he is a slanderer. And this is why it's sometimes very difficult for a Christian to exist with a good reputation in the world because the world is in the lap of the evil one, I John 5:lg says, and he is busy slandering everything there is about Christianity.
Thirdly, he is called, and these are in no particular order, but thirdly he is called in Revelation 12:9 the old serpent...the old serpent. In Genesis chapter 3 we see him as a serpent. In II Corinthians, an interesting comment is made in chapter 11. It says in verse 3: "I fear lest by any means as the serpent beguiled Eve through his craftiness, so your mind should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ." The characteristic apparently connected to the serpent idea is craftiness, subtlety. sneaky, wiley, deceitful, deceiving. That is the character of Satan. In fact, in writing to the Ephesians and the others who read that, what was a circular letter, the Apostle Paul said that children were tossed to and fro and carried about by every wind of doctrine. And he uses the term ‑ sleight of hand ‑and ‑ cunning craftiness ‑ of those who lie in wait to deceive us. Satan is seen as a crafty subtle deceiver.
Fourthly. and this is a different concept, he is called in Revelation 12, verses 3, 7 and 9, and all through that passage he is given many of his names, but he is called in that particular passage ‑ the great dragon. In verse 3 it says: "There was a great red dragon," Revelation 12, "with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on his head," and it goes on to discuss it...and down again in verse 7, calls him the dragon...and again in verse 9 ‑ the great dragon...the great red dragon. Now what is this to indicate? Well, this is to indicate the power and the destructiveness of this beast. He is a terrifying, destructive beast who is out to destroy. And it pictures him that way in Revelation 12 because he's seen there as the...as the general of the hosts of hell. He's seen there as marshaling the army of demons. And so he's seen in his great awesome, fearsome character...the great dragon.
Also he is called by another animal name. In I Peter chapter 5, verse 8, he is called a roaring lion. Now I don't know a whole lot about lions but I did a little reading just to find out about them cause I want to know how Satan works. Do you know when lions roar? Lions roar when they have their prey. Isn't that interesting.
Lions don't roar when they're chasing their prey, or their prey knows their coming. Lions are sneaky, as sneaky as you can be when you're eight‑feet long and 400 pounds, I guess...pounding through the forest, but they are sneaky. And when a lion reaches his prey and is assured of victory, it is then that he roars before he devours. By the time you hear him roaring, folks, you're in deep. And the idea of a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour is that Satan's desire is to capture men and engulf them in his sin...swallow them up in his evil.
Departing from those names which are related to the animal world, to those which are a little bit more abstract, he is called in John 17:15 ‑ho poneros. In the Greek it means the evil one...the evil one. And this is something that is characteristic of Satan. In I John 5:18 it says: "We know that whosoever is born of God does not continue to sin, but he that is begotten of God keeps himself and that wicked one...that poneros doesn't hold him." It doesn't mean touch, it means ‑can't hold on to him. When God has a hold of a life, Satan can't hold that same life. But it calls him there ‑ the wicked one.
Now what this word poneros refers to, I believe, as best understood is it refers to an intrinsic internal evil. He is evil personified. He is evil at its deepest possible point. And like all evil people, and all evil demons, they are never satisfied with their own evil but desirous of corrupting everybody else. It's like Romans 1, where people delight in evil, not only their own but that of others.
Next, he is also called the Tempter. And in Matthew chapter 4, when it says the Holy Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness, you remember, and after He had fasted for 40 days He was hungered. And Satan came to Him, it says ‑ the Tempter.... And what that means is he entices men to evil. We'll see more on that as we get further into our discussion.
Another thing that he is called, a name or a title, is recorded in Revelation 12:10, he's called the accuser. One thing that Satan loves to do is accuse believers. He's busy at this. And our Lord is our advocate. Satan may accuse, our Lord will defend. Satan may say as he did in the case of Job ‑ Job isn't any good, just do this, do this, do this and he'll bail out and curse You. That's typical of human nature, they'll all curse You if You really treat them evil, God. Satan is the accuser. And I'm sure Satan is busy trying to accuse us before God so that God would turn us loose. Satan would say ‑ Well, he's not worthy, he's not fulfilled what You require, he's not deserving of Your grace and Your love and Your salvation. And then we read Romans S where it tells us that nobody can lay any accusation against God's elect, it's Jesus Christ who has already made us righteous, it's God who has already declared we are justified, we have nothing to fear.
Then Satan is not only called all of these things, tempter, accuser, etc., but he is called, with an interesting title, in Ephesians 2:2, some say this is not a title, but simply a string of terms, others say it is a title. He is called the spirit that works in the children of disobedience. What that means is that he is the spirit who works in unbelievers, he rules the hearts of the unsaved.
Now there you have in just a simple few statements, something of the character of Satan. He is Satan, adversary. He is the devil, slanderer. He is the old serpent, subtle, crafty, deceiver...the great dragon, a powerful terrifying destructive beast out to destroy. He is a roaring lion, ready to devour and engulf anybody that he can into his evil system. He is called the evil one, intrinsically evil, not even content with his own evil but wanting to corrupt everybody else. He is tempter, seducing men to evil. He is accuser, attempting to bring down on men the judgment of God by saying we are undeserving of His favor and salvation. He is called the spirit that works in the children of disobedience in Ephesians chapter 2 and verse 2. Every man who lives in the world apart from God is dominated by this being.
Now, those are just titles and names. Let me take you to a second concept. Another way that we can understand Satan is to see the terms that are used to describe him. They're not much different than his names and titles, but they're more descriptive adjectives or nouns that define him to us. And I'm going to give you at least three to start with and we'll see how far we get.
Number one, Satan is called a murderer, John 8:44. Our Lord in having dialogue with the Pharisees who claim to be the children of God told them that they were anything but the children of God in verse 44 of John 8, He says: "You are of your father, the devil. And the lusts of your father you will do. He was a murderer from the beginning and abode not in the truth because there's no truth in him. When he speaks THE lie, he speaks of his own for he is a liar and the father of it." He is not only a liar but he is a murderer. You go right back in to the garden and you find that the crime that was committed, that stands out in our minds after the fall, was the crime of Cain's murder of Abel. And Satan began his career as a murderer.
In I John 3:12 it says: "Not as Cain who was of that wicked one and killed his brother." Why did he murder? Because he was of Satan and Satan is a murderer. Murder is Satanic. Satan entices to murder. He has been busy doing that. In fact, he has tried to slaughter Israel time and time again. He has tried to wipe them out repeatedly. We find that in Revelation chapter 12, one of the things that Satan has tried to do is not only wipe out the nation of Israel but wipe out the child that was delivered of Israel who was the Messiah.
Now you think back and you'll remember many times when Satan attempted to destroy the Messiah. Let me take you back into the Old Testament and give you an illustration. Second Kings, chapter 11...II Kings chapter 11, just a thought. There was a very evil woman here by the name of Athaliah. Ahaziah had died.
And his mother, this evil Athaliah, really took over. "And Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, she arose and destroyed all the royal seed." Now here was Satan's emissary going to wipe out the Messianic line, going to wipe out the seed of those who had the right to reign and thus the seed in the coming of Messiah. But, friends, I want you to know that that is a big word. At this point in history the royal line of David got down to one person. If anything happened to that one person, the whole Messianic hope was gone.
"But Jehosheba, the daughter of king Joram, sister of Ahaziah, took Joash the son of Ahaziah and stole him from among the king's sons who were slain." Now I don't know how she did that, but that must have been an interesting little caper. "And they hid him, even him and his nurse, in the bedchamber from Athaliah, so that he was not slain. And he was with her hidden in the house of the Lord six years. And Athaliah did reign over the land." And God protected the one little baby that was the...the thread of the Messianic hope.
Finally that Messiah came. And you get over into Matthew chapter 2 and Satan realized that that child was born and he set about to murder Him again. "And when they were departed an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream saying, Arise and take the young child and His mother and flee into Egypt," Matthew 2:13. "Be thou there until I bring thee word, for Herod will seek the young child to destroy Him. When he arose he took the young child, His mother by night, departed into Egypt and they were there until the death of Herod that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord to the prophet saying, Out of Egypt have I called My Son. Then Herod when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men was exceedingly angry, sent forth, slew all the children that were in Bethlehem and in all its borders from two‑years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently inquired of the wise men." And that fulfilled what it...what was spoken by Jeremiah, "In Rama there is a voice of lamentation and weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children and would not be comforted because they are not."
Again, Satan through Herod tried to destroy the Messiah. God protected the Messiah. Satan is a murderer. He has always been a murderer, he will always be a murderer.
Secondly, in defining his character and this we'll spend a little more time on. Satan is a liar. I just read you John 8:44, it says he was a murderer from the beginning and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks the lie he speaks of his own for he is a liar and the father of it. Listen, you can never believe Satan. He lies all the time. You know, there are people who say ‑ Well, you know, I had a wonderful experience, why I had problems in my life and I went to a certain person and they revealed these various demons and they cast out this demon, and this demon and such a such a demon said this, and such a such a demon said that. And, you know, invariably I'll say to someone like that ‑ You know something...just a basic thought...you can't believe one word they said. A man told me ‑ Well. I thought my problem was this, but I got into a meeting and somebody cast out a demon and you know what? It turned out that it wasn't that demon at all, it was a totally different demon. Well, don't you think a demon is going to tell you a lie if it will make you think you don't have a problem? It's like the man who said he got delivered of the demon of post‑nasal drip. They'll say anything if you'll believe it...anything. You can't believe them. You can't believe anything you hear. Satan is a liar. There is no truth in him.
He speaks nothing but lies. That's why I really have questions about these deliverance ministries. Those people are not on a level to cope with demons and Satan because they can't deal with the truth. Satan is a liar and he's really good at it.
Listen to me. In Revelation 12:9 it says: "He deceives the whole world." He is sharp at it. He deceives the whole world. Satan is a liar, don't think that you're going to get in with Satan and have a conversation that's going to reveal the truth. He's a liar.
The Apostle Paul said in II Corinthians chapter 4, verse 1: "Therefore seeing we have this ministry as we have received mercy, we faint not, but we have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the Word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth." He says ‑ One thing that happened to me immediately when I got out of Phariseeism and got into Christianity was I quit telling lies and started telling the truth. All false religion is built on lies. He says ‑ I stopped the hidden things of dishonesty, I ceased walking in craftiness, and handling the Word of God deceitfully, and I started manifesting the truth. Christianity is the truth, everything else is a lie.
In I John, and we've just completed our study so this will be fresh in your minds, I John 2:21, "I have not written unto you because you know not the truth but because you know it and that no lie is of the truth. Who is a liar, but he that denies that Jesus is the Christ. He is antichrist that denies the Father and the Son."
This is characteristic of Satan. Now, over to chapter 4, verse 1: "Believe not every spirit, but test the spirits whether they're of God because many false prophets are gone out into the world." Satan is a liar. And you're not on a level to deal with it.
Now let me add something here. Satan has some very effective lies. And I really feel that one thing Satan has done today with the preoccupation with witchcraft and the occult and all of that stuff, is he has directed peoples' attention away from the real issue. People, I know there's a lot of real fantastic and exciting things about Ouija boards. And even those of us who are Christians and reject all of that kind of like to fiddle around with it and read about it cause it's kind of funny...kind of weird. And we're all kind of hung up on finding out a little more about the next world. And what Satan, I'm sure, would like to do would be to get everybody diverted into his overt activity and forget his covert activity which is really where he works the hardest and that is at lying. I think an interesting statement that I read recently by Dave Breis is this: "Witchcraft is certainly dangerous but it deceives only the simple minded. Toying with Ouija boards or holding a reference for fetishes can produce a dreadful spiritual infection. Their main appeal, however, will be to those limited intellects who feel more than they think. External phenomena may be interesting, even spectacular, but are limited in their appeal to reasonable people. With witchcraft, orgies, and séances and demon possession, he has captured thousands; with false doctrine millions." end quote.
He's right. The real work of Satan is in false doctrine. If you want to know what I believe it is much more seriously Satanic in terms of its ultimate influence to have somebody standing in a pulpit and denying the Word of God than to have a séance going on. That is obvious. This is subtle. Satan's deadliest activity, beloved, is in the area of perverting the truth. That's where he spends his time. And I'm sure he'd like to get a whole lot of Christians diverted into thinking that all he's doing is running around with his demons and playing little games in people.
In I Timothy 4:1, the Spirit speaks expressly...now watch this..."That in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of demons." There you have the two works of Satan. Notice them. His overt work ‑ seducing spirits. His covert work ‑ doctrines of demons. He works in two ways; overtly seducing spirits, the spiritual world, spiritism. But most significantly the doctrines of demons and it defines it, "Speaking lies in hypocrisy." Now this is why we are commanded to study the Word of God in order that we might counteract the lies of Satan.
Paul said to Titus, "We should be holding fast the faithful word as he hath been taught, that he may be able by sound doctrine to exhort and confute the opposers." Of course, that's in reference to an elder, but certainly true for all of us.
And I think too that whenever people get on the experiential kick, they play right into Satan's hands. Most...most experience‑ oriented systems are loaded with false doctrine.
I see that so much today in what is called the Charismatic ‑ Movement. Wherever you have a preoccupation with experience, you invariably have loads of false doctrine...misconceptions of God...misinterpretations of Scripture...misrepresentations of how the Holy Spirit operates. When you accept the experiential as the test of truth, you have played right into his hands.
Satan works in false doctrine. He has muddied the world with false doctrine. And you know, inevitably it is taught by reasonable educated intelligent people. I turned on my television today to watch "Religion Today," or some other innocuous thing, but it was called "Religion Today." And they had a particular person on there, a Catholic priest who was talking about the pope's disc jockey, who wanted to let the world know on the Vatican radio station that God was contemporary and with‑it, so he played rock music. And he was a priest. And then there was a protestant minister from the Methodist church in Los Angeles, and he had some graffiti about the news. And then there was a Rabbi who wanted to talk about some other things.
You know, they were three intelligent men. Three very conservative‑looking men. Three very nice men...very typical. Very typical of the deceit of Satan. You know, let me just give you an illustration. I...I thought when I was growing up that the greatest deceiver Satan had in the world, and this was just my own thinking as a kid, that the greatest deceiver Satan had in the entire world was a man by the name of Mahatma Gandhi. You know why? Because he was such a nice guy. Everybody liked Gandhi. He would just sit around...yeah. He was...what could he do? Right? The all‑time wonderful peacemaker. Tragedy of all tragedies was he was Satan's man to just deluge an entire civilization with lies. You know, if you think that Satan's man is a drunken bum, you've got it wrong. Satan's man is a reasonable logical religious man. That's Satan's man. If you think Satan's man is a...is a warlock, that's wrong. There are some of those on the fringes. Satan's man is the man who looks just like every other Christian and who uses Christian terms but speaks the devil's message. Satan's good at lying. I want you to know that.
I'm going to tell you some of the best lies he's got, just so when you hear them you can knock them off. I'm going to...I've got his bag of tricks tonight and I'm dumping it. See. Number one, here's one of his super lies, go to Genesis 3:1 and I'll look at a couple of them here and then in Job a couple of them, and then in Matthew. First...first lie that I see here is God is a cosmic killjoy. That's his first lie. Genesis 3:1: "Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made, and he said to the woman, Yea, hath God said you shall not eat of every tree of the garden?" Why, Eve, you mean God put you here and then said you couldn't eat it all? What kind of God is He? Why would He do that? You know what God is? He's a tyrant, who would just delights in putting people in frustrating situations. He just loves to stick you there and say ‑ Now don't touch that and yourrrrrr...see. He just loves to frustrate. God just loves to...to lay down a Mosaic law that nobody can keep and then frustrate everybody out of their wits. He's some kind of a killjoy. You can't live up to that stuff. Chuck it and do what you want. Have you ever heard that one? Maybe it rattled around in your computer, once upon a time.
Let me give you another lie. Here's another lie he