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How Evil Works · Pastor John Piper's answers

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  Speaker 1: What does evil look like? And sound like? And feel like?
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  Speaker 1: Is evil like a horror film set in a haunted
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  Speaker 1: forest in a remote cabin at night with floorboards creaking
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  Speaker 1: under uninvited footsteps? Or is evil the most scandalous murder
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  Speaker 1: trial in the headlines? Or is evil more quiet like
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  Speaker 1: in white collar crimes and embezzlement? Or is it a
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  Speaker 1: bloody civil war? There are many forms evil can take,
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  Speaker 1: but at its core, how evil works is more essential
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  Speaker 1: than all of those things that I just described. Today
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  Speaker 1: on Ask Pastor John, how evil works. This week in
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  Speaker 1: our Bible reading, we come upon a trio of texts
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  Speaker 1: that collectively reveal to us how Satan's multi-fronted assault comes
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  Speaker 1: after us, how his evil works, how he works in
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  Speaker 1: this world. He's a spiritual deceiver of minds. He is
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  Speaker 1: a prosecuting accuser in the heavenly courtroom. And he is
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  Speaker 1: behind the scenes influencing human rebellion. He seems to work
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  Speaker 1: in a lot of different ways. In John 8, we
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  Speaker 1: see him as a liar and a murderer. In 2
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  Speaker 1: Peter 2 and 3, we see him as a deceiver
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  Speaker 1: and a destroyer as well. And in Job 4 to 6,
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  Speaker 1: we see him as the provocateur and accuser. Those texts
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  Speaker 1: and those rules help to reveal his work in this world.
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  Speaker 1: And as we rehearse those rules in our Bible reading
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  Speaker 1: this week, we have this email from an anonymous young man.
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  Speaker 1: Pastor John, when I think about spiritual warfare, I often
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  Speaker 1: first think about physical things like maybe illness and addiction
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  Speaker 1: and even demon possession. But I wonder if I'm missing
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  Speaker 1: a larger picture. How much influence does Satan have in
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  Speaker 1: this world and how does he use it? How much
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  Speaker 1: of his power is physical? How much of it is unseen?
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  Speaker 1: And where do you see him most at work in
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  Speaker 1: our modern culture? Is it in obvious sins or in
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  Speaker 1: subtler ways to keep people from the gospel? How can
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  Speaker 1: I see his work without getting preoccupied with him? That's
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  Speaker 1: a great question with a clear purpose. And here's how
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  Speaker 1: Pastor John answered this very question from a young man
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  Speaker 1: named Josh in 2018.
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  Speaker 2: The word Satan is a transliteration of the Hebrew Satan.
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  Speaker 2: and basically means opponent or adversary. The Greek translation of
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  Speaker 2: that Hebrew Old Testament always translates Satan with Diabolos in Greek,
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  Speaker 2: which means devil. We always translate Diabolos in English in
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  Speaker 2: the New Testament, devil. And Diabolos puts a more specific
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  Speaker 2: focus on the meaning of the opponent or adversary because
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  Speaker 2: Diabolos basically means slander or accuse. It's used not to
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  Speaker 2: refer to the devil several times in the pastoral epistles
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  Speaker 2: of Paul to just refer to people who are slandering others,
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  Speaker 2: speaking evil of them, being false about them. So even
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  Speaker 2: though this supernatural being, this fallen angel and archenemy of
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  Speaker 2: God has a remarkable power in the material or physical realm,
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  Speaker 2: like he can make people sick, he can throw them
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  Speaker 2: in prison, he can even kill them. Nevertheless, His main
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  Speaker 2: way of opposing God and destroying God's people is not
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  Speaker 2: in the physical or material realm, but in the mental
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  Speaker 2: or intellectual or moral realm. In other words, the best
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  Speaker 2: way to think about his power is not in terms
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  Speaker 2: of physical strength, but moral deception. So let me try
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  Speaker 2: to illustrate this from the Bible. Here's the passage that
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  Speaker 2: piles up more designations of Satan than any other passage
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  Speaker 2: in the Bible. You need one or two verses to
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  Speaker 2: put the identity and work of Satan before you. It
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  Speaker 2: would be Revelation 12, 9 and 10. Here it says,
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  Speaker 2: And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient dragon serpent.
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  Speaker 2: And remember what the Bible said in Genesis 3 about him.
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  Speaker 2: He's subtler. He's subtler than every beast. So it's his
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  Speaker 2: subtlety that's being focused on in his serpent-like reality, who
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  Speaker 2: is called The devil, diabolos, slanderer, liar, cheat, and Satan, adversary,
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  Speaker 2: the deceiver of the whole world. I don't think you
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  Speaker 2: can say anything more sweeping or more basic than the
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  Speaker 2: end of Revelation 12, 9. He is the deceiver of
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  Speaker 2: the whole world. Verse 10, the accuser of our brothers.
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  Speaker 2: has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night
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  Speaker 2: before God. So at the center of Satan's purpose is
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  Speaker 2: to deceive on earth and to accuse in heaven. If
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  Speaker 2: he can deceive you about God and Christ, you will perish.
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  Speaker 2: If he can successfully accuse you of unforgiven sin in heaven,
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  Speaker 2: you will perish. And Jesus calls him a murderer from
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  Speaker 2: the beginning, John 8, 44. So the deception and the
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  Speaker 2: accusation and the eternal death that results from unforgiven sin
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  Speaker 2: is a way of destroying people and opposing God. So
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  Speaker 2: Josh asks me, to what extent and by what means
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  Speaker 2: specifically does Satan influence the world? My answer, therefore, is no.
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  Speaker 2: The extent is worldwide, and the means is deception. We
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  Speaker 2: can see this in another text. Here's Revelation 28 to 10.
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  Speaker 2: He comes out to deceive the nations, but he will
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  Speaker 2: be defeated. And the devil who had deceived them. So
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  Speaker 2: there's the focus again on his major strategy of destroying
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  Speaker 2: the world. deceive them, and he will be thrown into
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  Speaker 2: the lake of fire. So my basic answer to Josh's
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  Speaker 2: question is that the extent of Satan's influence is global,
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  Speaker 2: covers all nations, and the primary means of his influence
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  Speaker 2: is deception. He destroys not mainly by the sword or
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  Speaker 2: disease or killing, but mainly by lying. Jesus calls him
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  Speaker 2: the father of lies, John 8, 44. Specifically, he lies
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  Speaker 2: mainly about God, about Jesus, about the gospel, about sin.
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  Speaker 2: And oh, how wonderful it is that he has been
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  Speaker 2: dealt a decisive blow. You can see his deception about
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  Speaker 2: the gospel in 2 Corinthians 4, 4. In the case
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  Speaker 2: of the God of this world, he has blinded the
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  Speaker 2: minds of unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light
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  Speaker 2: of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is
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  Speaker 2: the image of God. So Josh's second question is, where
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  Speaker 2: do you see his works most clearly? And my answer is, therefore,
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  Speaker 2: wherever saving truth is hated and resisted and distorted and muted,
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  Speaker 2: so that people are kept from being saved by the
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  Speaker 2: truth of the gospel, that's where I see his works
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  Speaker 2: most clearly. 2 Thessalonians 2.9, Satan comes with wicked deception
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  Speaker 2: for those who are perishing because they refuse to love
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  Speaker 2: the truth and so be saved. Satan hates the truth
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  Speaker 2: of the gospel. and the truth of the cross more
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  Speaker 2: than any other truth. You remember when Jesus was on earth,
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  Speaker 2: Satan tried to keep him away from the cross. Matthew 16, 23,
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  Speaker 2: when Peter says, no, no, this isn't going to happen
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  Speaker 2: to you. Jesus says, get behind me, Satan. That's what
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  Speaker 2: Satan wants. He doesn't want me to die for the
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  Speaker 2: sins of the world. Even though at the end, Satan
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  Speaker 2: gave up on that strategy and Judas to get Jesus betrayed. Nevertheless,
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  Speaker 2: at the end, he's trying to make it as horrible
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  Speaker 2: as possible. But his first design was, I'm not going
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  Speaker 2: to let him get to the cross. No way. And
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  Speaker 2: now Satan is mainly bent on preventing the message of
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  Speaker 2: the cross from being spread, from being understood, from being believed.
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  Speaker 2: And he does everything in his power to distort and
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  Speaker 2: silence the saving message of the cross. Remember how Jesus
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  Speaker 2: said he snatches the word. He snatches it. Just as
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  Speaker 2: soon as you preach the cross, as soon as you
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  Speaker 2: preach the saving word of the kingdom, boy, Satan will,
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  Speaker 2: if he can, snatch the word right out of the mind,
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  Speaker 2: just like birds snatching seed off of a path. Now,
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  Speaker 2: why is he so opposed to this central truth? Because
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  Speaker 2: the gospel is the truth that Christ has paid the
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  Speaker 2: price for sins of everyone who believes, and that means
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  Speaker 2: Satan cannot successfully accuse us in heaven. He cannot make
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  Speaker 2: a case against the elect because our sins have been covered,
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  Speaker 2: and that's the only means he has to destroy us,
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  Speaker 2: which means, of course, he can oppress us, he can
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  Speaker 2: distress us, he can tempt us, he can make us sick,
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  Speaker 2: he can kill us, and he cannot damnate us ever.
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  Speaker 2: They are eternally safe. We, the elect, are eternally safe
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  Speaker 2: in God's sovereign grace. And so he rages against the
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  Speaker 2: people of God, and he rages against the gospel that
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  Speaker 2: snatches people out of the damning hands of his own
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  Speaker 2: greedy self. You can see this in Colossians 2.13. God
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  Speaker 2: has forgiven us all our trespasses by canceling the record
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  Speaker 2: of debt that stood against us with his legal demands.
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  Speaker 2: He has set aside those sins, nailing them to the cross.
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  Speaker 2: And here's what follows. Thus he disarmed the rulers and authorities,
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  Speaker 2: and put them to an open shame by triumphing over
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  Speaker 2: them in him. When our sins are forgiven, nailed to
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  Speaker 2: the cross, the satanic rulers and authorities are decisively defeated.
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  Speaker 2: They are undone, meaning their one condemning, damning weapon has
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  Speaker 2: been taken out of their hands, namely unforgiven sin. If
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  Speaker 2: our sins are not forgiven, Satan can rightly accuse us
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  Speaker 2: before God and we will be sentenced to hell. But
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  Speaker 2: if our sins are forgiven, Satan cannot successfully accuse us
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  Speaker 2: before God. And so Paul soars in exultation over the
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  Speaker 2: great gospel of deliverance in Romans 8. If God is
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  Speaker 2: for us, who can be against us? Who shall bring
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  Speaker 2: any charge against God's elect? That is in Satan's face.
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  Speaker 2: Who shall bring any charge? It is God who justifies, Mr. Satan.
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  Speaker 2: Who is to condemn? It is Christ Jesus who died, Mr. Satan.
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  Speaker 2: You couldn't stop it more than that who was raised
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  Speaker 2: from the dead, who is at the right hand of God,
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  Speaker 2: who indeed intercedes for us, Mr.
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  Speaker 1: Accuser.
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  Speaker 2: So I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels,
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  Speaker 2: nor rulers, nor Satan, nor anything else in all creation
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  Speaker 2: can separate us can separate us from the love of
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  Speaker 2: God in Christ Jesus. So our weapon against Satan in
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  Speaker 2: this world is truth, especially the truth of the gospel
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  Speaker 2: of the cross of Christ. And our great mission is
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  Speaker 2: the deliverance of the world. Tell them the truth. Spread
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  Speaker 2: the truth. Defend the truth. Live the truth. for you
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  Speaker 2: will know the truth and the truth will set you free,
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  Speaker 2: free from sin, free from Satan. The words of Jesus
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  Speaker 2: to the apostle Paul before he sent him out was,
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  Speaker 2: I am sending you to open their eyes to the
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  Speaker 2: truth of Christ so that they may turn from the
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  Speaker 2: power of Satan to God, Acts 26, 18. That's our
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  Speaker 2: great liberating mission in the world, to open the eyes
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  Speaker 2: of the blind by the power of the Holy Spirit,
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  Speaker 2: by the great instrument of truth, because Paul said, God
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  Speaker 2: will grant them repentance, leading to a knowledge of the truth,
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  Speaker 2: and they will become free and escape from the snare
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  Speaker 2: of the devil, having been captured by him to do
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  Speaker 2: his will. May God make us valiant spokesmen and spreaders
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  Speaker 2: of liberating truth.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, amen. His main way of opposing God and destroying
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  Speaker 1: God's people is not in the physical or material realm,
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  Speaker 1: but in the mental or intellectual or moral realm. Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: Satan is chiefly about blinding minds to the glory of Christ.
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  Speaker 1: That is the evil behind his evil intentions. And therefore,
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  Speaker 1: the most important weapon is the sword of the gospel,
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  Speaker 1: the sword of the spirit to cut through that evil deception.
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  Speaker 1: It's a great relief that we have hope in Christ
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  Speaker 1: to make us victors once again in facing all of
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  Speaker 1: this evil from Satan. Sobering. I'm Tony Reinke. Thank you
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  Speaker 1: for listening to the Ask Pastor John podcast with longtime
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  Speaker 1: author and pastor John Piper. He is back in the
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  Speaker 1: studio with us next time talking about the circumstances we
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  Speaker 1: need to find joy. That's next time. Have a great weekend.
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  Speaker 1: We'll see you back here on Monday.