How should we think of Satan and spiritual warfare? | John MacArthur

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How should we think of Satan and spiritual warfare?

  • I was raised charismatic and spent ten  years Pentecostal. As you may know,   those movements are all into like  praying against the spirit of this,   or rebuking and binding the spirit of that, and  so on and so forth. So my question is basically,   do we need to think of or be afraid of Satan?  How should we think of Satan? You know, he prowls   about like a roaring lion, seeking who to devour.
  • What does spiritual warfare entail? One of the   pastors here said that spiritual warfare is just  warring against your own sinfulness. So basically,   how should we think of Satan, or should we think  of Satan? Should our mind just be on worship? Well, it’s a good question. We don’t  want to be ignorant of Satan’s devices,   that’s what Scripture says. We don’t  want to be ignorant of his devices.
  • Satan comes at us through devices, he comes at  us through the world system. Satan, first of all,   is not omnipresent, okay. He’s fast, but  he’s not omnipresent. So the notion that   whatever’s going wrong in your life is  specifically Satan at work is just not   accurate.
  • Satan has a host of demons as  well who do his bidding around the world,   but primarily he functions with this  system of evil that is basically   within the human race. So a fallen race of  people are basically in the hands of Satan. The whole world lies in the lap of the  Evil One, that’s what Scripture says.   So it’s not a matter of us fighting Satan as a  personality, but it is important that we not be   ignorant of his devices.
  • And he goes around  as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour,   not in some personal encounter with Satan,  but he goes around creating an environment   in the world that becomes solicitous to  what is evil. He drives the world system   at the lust of the flesh, the lust  of the eyes, and the pride of life. Just look at advertising alone.
  • Just look at  television alone or film or any form of media;   it is just loaded with things that appeal to  the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes,   and the pride of life. That sort of sums  up the contemporary human philosophy. We   have a right to be proud. We have a right  to fulfill our desires. We have a right   to fulfill even what we lust for. This is  all legitimate. This is Satan’s big lie.

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John MacArthur