👋 Welcome back as we consider the ongoing story of spiritual warfare.

We’re in a section in this class on knowing your enemy.

Last time, just as a kind of review recap, we saw that:

  • He is the adversary.

  • In other words, he’s the one who’s setting himself up.

  • He’s choosing to be opposed to you as a follower of Jesus Christ and to God and His Kingdom.

Today, we’re going to look at another powerful word—a name that is given him. This name helps us:

  • Identify where he is and what he’s doing.

  • Understand his strategy.

  • Become aware when we see him at work in our own life.

  • And hopefully, become aware of his work in the world as well.

🧠 Be Prepared

I chose to do this name next because it is one of the most scary names that exist, a name that allows us insight into his character.

The name is: the evil one.

I found this graphic just trying to rightfully awaken horror in us—the evil one.

🕷️ The Meaning Behind the Name

The name implies that he is the apex or the culmination of evil.
He is everything that evil encompasses—all of it is in Satan, in the evil one.

As I was thinking about this and preparing this lecture, it struck me:
That’s not the way we often picture him.

📚 Reference to C.S. Lewis and The Screwtape Letters

C.S. Lewis, in his great book The Screwtape Letters (which we’ll reference more later, but begin with now), imagines a conversation between a supervisory devil and a tempter assigned to a particular man.

The tempter’s job? To keep him from faith and from believing.

One of the things the tempter says is:

“Just have him imagine the Lord Satan—referred to as the Lord, the evil one—as just a comical character in red tights.”

🧠 I was just trying to think of, in my experience, where that’s happened—where he’s just pictured as kind of a funny character, a comical character.

I think of this program:
📺 Bewitched (1964–1972)—that was during my childhood, but it’s still on reruns. It’s still on reruns all over the place.

It’s a story of a young woman, who’s a witch, and this man—who’s a normal guy—marries her and doesn’t know she’s a witch until later. Samantha’s mother shows up, and it’s just all kind of good fun, right?

  • The fact that she’s able to do magic, and when the little girl comes along (Tabitha), she turns out she’s got magical powers too.

  • This idea of magic, of doing things that are supernatural, is just presented as kind of a comical thing. It’s funny.

Another TV program:
📺 Charmed (1998–2006)—where these women, you know, they do some fighting of evil. But you know, they’re witches, they’re fighting warlocks, doing these things. But it’s all kind of innocuous, it’s not really all that important.

📺 Sabrina the Teenage Witch (1996–2003)—couldn’t find a picture of that. Again, it’s just this comical thing.

  • It’s a comedy, a sitcom, a situation comedy—that’s how it’s pictured.

🧙‍♂️ Satan’s Distraction Tactic

I sometimes picture Satan behind that saying:

“Don’t look. You know, don’t look.”

📚 More Recent Example: Harry Potter

A more up-to-date example would be the Harry Potter series.

Now, I love that series. I read all the books. Read them with my grandkids. It’s a wonderful fantasy trip.

But it takes this power thing and makes it good—that there’s good and there’s bad, and it’s all about:

  • Who are you?

  • Are you a magician?

  • Are you somebody who’s been trained?

And the battle goes on.

The idea is:

  • This isn’t really all that scary—until the last one where there’s that ultimate battle against evil.

  • But it’s good and evil.

  • In fact, throughout the program, throughout the movies, you’ll find that theme.

  • There’s even a theme for Harry Potter of death and resurrection in the last book, in the last film.

But it’s not pictured as horror. It’s not pictured as the evil one. Ah, somewhat, you know...

🔥 The Culmination of Evil

But I’m talking about the culmination of evil:

  • Evil intent.

  • Twisting the creation.

  • Thwarting the Kingdom of God and its building.

All of that is involved in this name—the evil one.

📖 Let’s look at some of the places where “the evil one” is used in Scripture.

First, in 1 John 5:

We know that anyone born of God does not continue to sin. The one who was born of God keeps them safe, and the evil one cannot harm them—the evil one.

We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one.

We know also that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding so that we may know Him who is true. And we are in Him who is true by being in His Son, Jesus Christ. He is the true God and the eternal life.

The whole world is under the control of the evil one.

✝️ Jesus Invaded This Evil World

We also know that Jesus invaded this evil world—that’s how the battle got started.

There’s a construct in theology that says time is set up into two different times:

  • First, there’s creation, and there’s good.

  • But then there’s the fall into sin.

With the fall into sin, there’s this time of battle in the world until Jesus comes.

Jesus invades this world, and it’s described as:

  • The “already” and the “not yet” of the Kingdom.

When Jesus comes into the world, the Kingdom is here, and the battle is engaged in a very personal way with the evil one.
But it’s not fully complete until Jesus comes again and introduces the Kingdom to come.

So:

  • Already the Kingdom of God is here.

  • The battle is joined.

  • But it’s not yet fully realized.

Now, we live in that time of:

  • It’s here already, but the Kingdom is not fully come.

  • And so, there is that presence and power of the evil one in the world.

🌍 Where Do You See This?

Where do you look for that?
Where do you try to comprehend it?
Where do you experience it in this world?

📚 David Platt’s Story

Something that’s helped me recently is a man named David Platt.

  • He’s a pastor, a lecturer, a missionary.

  • I read his book recently: Something’s Got to Change.

It’s an account of a hike he took in the Himalayan Mountains.

  • He met an interesting man at a conference.

  • This man invited him, since he was doing ministry in the Himalayas, to go on a week-long hike.

  • So they did this.

  • It was cold, snowy—Himalayas.

During that time, Platt kept a journal.

😔 Powerful Experiences of Evil

He wrote about how many things he experienced that were powerfully evil.

  • One was the simple fact that people didn’t know the name Jesus.

    • He met people, had tea with them in their homes, asked them about Jesus Christ.

    • They said, “We don’t know that person.”

But the evil began to intensify.

  • He talked about seeing people burning a body at a river.

    • The idea was that as it burned, the person would be delivered into the next phase of living.

    • He realized how blinded these people are.

But the real evil, he said, came when they entered a village where there were hardly any young people—no kids, hardly any at all.

He asked, “Why?”

He was told:

  • The young girls in particular were taken by slave traders.

  • It wasn’t obvious. They didn’t come in with an army and take all these kids.

  • But they came offering the parents $100—that’s half a year’s wages.

The parents, eager for the money—because they didn’t have birth control and had trouble feeding their children—were duped.

They let their child go, believing the child would:

  • Go to the big cities.

  • Work in houses, cleaning for rich people.

  • Start sending money back to support them.

But they never heard from them again.

  • The children were gone into slavery.

📖 A Brief Article on Sex Slavery and Sex Trafficking in Nepal

Here’s just a brief article I found online about sex slavery and sex trafficking in Nepal:

Sex trafficking is when someone uses coercion, force, or fraud to cause a commercial sex act with an adult, or causes a minor to commit a commercial sex act.

A commercial sex act includes:

  • Prostitution,

  • Pornography, or

  • Sexual performance done in exchange for an item of value, such as money, shelter, food, drugs, or clothes.

Sex trafficking is particularly rampant within Nepal and India, and in that region:

  • As many as 5,000 to 10,000 women and girls are trafficked to India alone each year.

  • Those trafficked for sex work are likely to be older, illiterate, and have fewer family members with earning power.

Some reasons for being trafficked for sex work may include:

  • Poverty, and

  • Being old enough.

Younger female children, on the other hand, tend to be exploited for:

  • Non-sex work, including domestic and manual labor and circus work.

There are an estimated 150,000 to 200,000 Nepali women and girls who are trafficked to India’s brothels.

  • Each year, girls are sold to brothels at prices ranging from 50,000 to 70,000 Indian rupees.

  • The younger the girl, the higher the price she will be sold for.

  • Once sold, the girls become the property of the brothel owner until they can pay back the amount paid for them.

Girls trafficked for sex work may be provided with:

  • A small portion of food, and

  • Sometimes a small sum of money.

However, brothel owners may take up to 90% to 95% of the girls’ earnings.

One study reported that girls were forced to serve an average of 14 clients per day, with a minimum of 3 and a maximum of 40 men.

😔 A Disturbing Reality

I just looked up a picture of children and sex slavery in Nepal and India, and this is one of the pictures that came up:

  • Young children, as young as eight years old.

  • This is one of the things David Platt reports on—seeing children sitting in front of a brothel.

  • The brothel was made like a restaurant, with various booths built in, and you could go in, have sex, and have a meal.

That’s the life of these kids.

🌍 The Whole World Is Under the Control of the Evil One

This is evil.

David Platt titled his book:

Something’s Got to Change.

When I started reading it, I suspected some of the content because I’ve heard him speak. But I was surprised when I got to the end.

I thought:

  • Something’s got to change us.

  • We’ve got to change some things in those mountains.

  • We’ve got to change something in those families.

  • We’ve got to change the poverty that drives this whole thing.

  • We’ve got to change the greed and lust of people—young men in particular—who come looking to pay for sex in these places.

  • We’ve got to change that.

And when I got to the last chapter, he says:

I realized something’s got to change in me. In me.

And then he gave a great challenge at the end of the book—just asking us:

Please be aware. Please be engaged. What are you going to do as a result of this?

🌍 More Than Just Sexual Trafficking

Now, I know that you know another part of the evil is not just the sexual trafficking.

In a few weeks, my wife and I are going to visit a friend of ours, a young woman who is doing missions in Spain.

She reports that we’re going to be doing a prayer walk with her through an area that’s just covered:

  • It’s a whole group of greenhouses where they grow a lot of food that feeds the people of Spain.

  • Those trying to escape bad lives in Africa come there, looking to enter Europe and start a new life.

Instead, they are forced into labor:

  • They pay somebody to get them out, to get them across the Mediterranean and into Europe.

  • But they can’t leave—they can’t be free until they pay back that amount through work.

  • There are all sorts of systems to keep them working there.

We’re going to go into one of those areas—where there are brothels—and we’re just going to walk through and pray against the evil one.

🙏 A Personal Conviction

One of the reasons we booked that trip is because I realized:

Something’s got to change in me.

And something’s got to change as we battle the evil one more—where we see evil.

🕊️ The Holocaust, Sudan, and Genocide

The Holocaust…
In Sudan, as I’m recording these sessions right now, there’s a genocide going on—that’s being reported.

It’s a civil war, and part of it has turned to genocide:

  • One group of people decides to wipe out the other.

The ultimate example of that is during World War II:

  • When the Nazis began to do away with not just Jewish people, but also people with epilepsy, people with Down syndrome.

  • Anybody who could “taint the blood of the people”—the Aryan society—was killed.

  • Just killed. Evil.

When you see this sort of thing going on, you’ve got to say:

That’s awful. That’s evil.

🗺️ So Many Places in History

How many places is this going on in our history?

  • I think of Rwanda, and the Tutsis and the Hutu fought.

  • It was a genocide—trying to kill them, trying to wipe them out.

Who could conceive of such evil?

The evil one can do that.

And he’s working yet today:

  • He’s working in Sudan.

  • He’s working in various places where he’s trying to cultivate evil.

And that isn’t just interest in the occult—it’s just putting one person against another against another, creating chaos and hatred.

🌎 Evil in the World Today

You know, I live in the United States.
And right now, that’s what characterizes our political system.

Our political system has become paralyzed because Democrats and Republicans will not work with each other.
And as a result, people are hurting.

  • The number of children that have fallen into poverty is huge—21% of children fall into poverty because they can’t enact legislation that would help them.

There’s evil in this world.

⚔️ The Picture of War

I think of war, right?

There’s a picture of Ukraine.
While I’m doing these lectures, there’s a battle going on.

  • Russia invaded Ukraine, and the battle goes on.

As we read the news stories and see them on TV, there’s evil going on.

  • The kind of awful things that are being done to the enemy.

  • Most of the news we’re getting is from the Russian side, where people are killed indiscriminately.

  • Where children are exploited.

  • Where missiles are targeted.

    • Just this past week, missiles targeted a cafe.

    • 52 people were killed—just sitting there, eating a meal.

This is evil.

Wherever you see war going on, it’s evil.
And you can look at a lot of places on our planet where evil is going on.

🌍 Hamas, Israel, and the Evil One

Right now, as I’m recording these sessions:

  • Hamas has attacked Israel, and

  • Israel has responded.

There’s evil going on as people are being kidnapped, people are being killed on both sides.
The evil one is at work.

😢 Starving Children and Global Hunger

Then, of course, starving children.
The numbers here are astounding.

  • One person dies about every six seconds in this world.

    • Count it out: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.

Millions are starving. Millions are dying.

Part of it is just that corrupt governments won’t let the food in.

Yes, there’s evil.

This is just a picture of one, but he or she represents thousands, hundreds of thousands of children who are going to die this year.

Many are going to die during the time you’re listening to this lecture.

🌍 Haiti and Humanitarian Crisis

Then there’s Haiti, a place my wife and I have visited and done mission work.

Right now:

  • The government is non-functional.

  • People there were already in bad shape—they averaged one meal per day.

  • Now it’s worse.

    • Gangs won’t let food get out of the airport, or out of the harbor.

    • As a result, people are starving, and people are in danger.

This is evil.

📝 A Growing List of Evil

So, you can make a list:

  • Drug addiction,

  • Alcohol addiction,

  • The pandemic…

Whenever, wherever you see evil, know that behind it is the evil one.

👀 Be Aware: You’re a Watchman

Be aware.
You’re a watchman.
You’re aware now.

Look for him.
Pray against him.

I will get more into how to do that later.

🙏 Closing Prayer

Let’s close in prayer:

🙏 Lord, as we become aware of the evil one in a fresh way, we pray that You will give us insight. Protect us, but give us courage to do the battle as well. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

👋 Okay, we’ll see you next time!

最后修改: 2025年05月29日 星期四 08:29