The Prince’s Prince

Rev. Richard A. Bolland

(January 12, 2003 sermon transcript)

Isaiah 42:1-7

        Hear the words of Isaiah. Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom I delight; I will put my Spirit on him and he will bring justice to the nations. He will not shout or cry out, or raise his voice in the streets. A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out. In faithfulness he will bring forth justice;

        We, all of us, every last one of us, have been, and always have been, under the authority of others. When we were conceived and when we were born, God placed us under the authority of our parents. Not only that, we live under a system of government. And every government, we know from the scriptures, receives its authority from God to continue to govern.

        What’s more, all of us are creatures of God. And as creatures, we owe obedience and honor, and yes, authority to our God who rules over us. From the very beginning, there were angels who were also created. And the angels were also placed under the authority of God.

        But one of them, the main angel, actually, raised up full of pride and rebelled against God and threw off the authority of God, or at least attempted to. And so we are reading in the scriptures that in fact there was a war in heaven. That St. Michael and his good angels drove Satan out.

        Now, Satan is not a mythological creature. He is not a theological concept. He is a very real being. He is as real as the angels who remain faithful. And what is more, he is powerful. And he is the prince of this world, according to the scriptures.

        However, this prince has a Prince. And he has a name. Here are a few for you. These from the Bible. He is the Accuser. He is the Adversary. He is the chief opponent of God, and of man. He is there to do exactly the opposite that Christ is here to do.

        We heard part of Jesus’ description. He is God’s servant. He has God’s spirit. He will bring justice to the nations and He will not bruise a reed nor will He put out a smoldering wick.

        Satan, on the other hand, is not God’s servant. He does not have God’s spirit. He is not here to bring justice, he’s here to avoid justice. And what’s more, he would be delighted to break any bruised reed or to snuff out any smoldering wick. And what’s more, the last thing he wants to see is justice, because he knows exactly what he deserves, and exactly what will come his way.

        And so you see, we have a prince of this dark world. But that prince has a Prince. And that prince’s Prince is Jesus Christ. And the prince’s Prince, as we explained to the children here, is much stronger than we. When we cannot stand in the face of the evil one and his temptations and his evil works, we have a champion who fights for us.

        Now I would suggest to you that there are two main dangers when we consider the prince of this world. First of all, that we underestimate him.. You must remember, that in our modern day, which considers itself so terribly enlightened, with this exaltation of human reason, the very thought of acknowledging the thought of Satan is thought to be utter foolishness. It wasn’t too long ago when one of our national news magazines had a cover story about Satan and Hell. I don’t know why they did that, but they did. And they put out the idea that, "You know, we really have come to the conclusion, along with a lot of theologians, that Satan is not really as bad as he looks, and hell probably isn’t that bad, either." Hmmm. I would classify that as "wishful thinking."

        Indeed, I would say to you that there are a lot of seminaries and a lot of main-stream denominations that hold that the authority of God’s scriptures are very low indeed. And that you can’t really believe what they say, about a great number of things, but most specifically about Satan. And that indeed, Satan has been discounted and has been made to be the superstitious remnant of a past religious dark age, and that’s that.

        I would suggest that the old military axiom of "know thine enemy" is never more true than when we consider our spiritual adversary, the evil one. To deny his existence is to place one’s life and spirit in jeopardy. And to do so at great peril to oneself. To deny this malignant spirit’s existence places into question the very fall of man into sin. To deny this spirit’s reality is to deny the authority of God’s word. To deny this world’s prince’s reality is to leave one’s (well, how shall we say this?), to leave oneself in real danger, of not recognizing a real and present danger.

        To deny the existence of Satan would be about as smart as it would have been for General Dwight D. Eisenhower, during World War Two as he was planning Operation Overlord, (that is the landing of NATO forces on the beaches of Normandy) to completely ignore the intelligence he had regarding what the defenses were which the Nazi’s had prepared for them. He would no more have done that than he would have flown without a plane. Of course he listened to the intelligence! He wanted to know everything he could about his enemy, so his enemy could be defeated.

        But I would suggest to you that it is also a grave danger to overestimate his power as well. First of all, we must remember that while Satan is more powerful than any other creature on the face of this earth, he is, in fact, the one who is still under authority. He is under the authority of God. He cannot do anything except that which God permits him to do. And unwittingly, that which God permits him to do actually works in favor of God’s kingdom so that Satan, against his own will, becomes the unwitting lackey of God.

        Now that’s good news. Do not overestimate him either.

        As we listen to the first verse of the hymn of the Reformation, it speaks very specifically of the evil one. It says,

The old evil foe
Now means deadly woe.
Deep guile and great might
Are his dread arms in fight.
On earth is not his equal.

        And yet, despite his great power, he may not, except under the authority of God’s permission, act at all. If we go back to the book of Job, we find this written very clearly. There is a conference between God and Satan. And God, in order to demonstrate where the real righteousness of man resides (not in man but in Himself), He says, "Have you considered my servant Job?" (Now if Job knew what was coming, he would have run the other way!) But Satan says to God, "you know, God, Job doesn’t love you for nothing. He loves you because you have blessed him in so many ways. You have placed a hedge of protection around him. He’s enjoying life. If you take away that stuff that he has, he will curse you to your face." And so God does something that might seem puzzling to us. At least initially.

        From Job chapter 1 verse 12, The LORD said to Satan, "Very well, then, everything he has is in your hands, but on the man himself do not lay a finger."

        And of course we know what transpired after that. We know that Job’s wealth and riches were destroyed, taken away by the evil one. Not by God. But it troubles us. And it troubles us precisely because we now have doubts about God, if we do not know and understand as we should. We think that perhaps God is in collusion with the evil one. And now we think that perhaps God does not always intend our good, but maybe He is waiting to smack us a good one every once in a while so He can prove His point with Satan. If that’s what you think, you misunderstand the book entirely. You misunderstand God entirely.

        God is not some schizophrenic overlord who sits up in heaven, waiting for an opportunity too make life miserable for us. Rather He only and always seeks our blessing. Remember what I said before about Satan. Anything he is permitted to do, God only permits because it fosters His divine design, to bring about our reconciliation. Satan is God’s lackey. He is a dog on a leash, that will not be set loose, but will be fully controlled.

        Dear friends, as we think about that, just remember this. The book of Job is a case study of salvation by grace through faith in Christ alone. Now you might think that’s strange, since Job is in the Old Testament. But as we read through the book, we find some passages there that are quite informative. We find that despite all the arguing and haranguing that goes on, and the finger-pointing at God, Job speaks the truth. He says, keep silent and let me speak; then let come to me what may. Why do I put myself in jeopardy and take my life in my hands? Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him; I will surely defend my ways to his face. Indeed, this will turn out for my deliverance, for no godless man would dare come before him! (Job 13:13-16)

        Well, then, where does Job find his godliness? I would suggest to you that he finds it quite clearly. In the Messiah who is promised. He says, Yet if there is an angel on his side as a mediator, one out of a thousand, to tell a man what is right for him to be gracious to him and say, 'Spare him from going down to the pit; I have found a ransom for him'-- then his flesh is renewed like a child's; it is restored as in the days of his youth.He prays to God and finds favor with him, he sees God's face and shouts for joy; he is restored by God to his righteous state. Then he comes to men and says, 'I sinned, and perverted what was right, but I did not get what I deserved. He redeemed my soul from going down to the pit, and I will live to enjoy the light.'   (Job 33:23-28)

        In the midst of Job’s suffering, in the midst of his sorrow, in the midst of all of his loss, we find Job’s hope is not in himself, nor in the possessions that he has lost. Rather it is in an Advocate. One who speaks on his behalf to the Father. One who redeems him from the pit. From Job’s early Old Testament perspective, he may not know all the details about the Messiah, but he sure knows he has one!

        It was Satan who set out to destroy our Lord Jesus Christ by approaching Him in the wilderness, as the second Adam, and yet he runs away with his tail between his legs, looking for a more opportune time. It was Satan who used the scribes’ and pharisees’ pride to attempt to discredit and destroy Christ and His ministry. And yet the people listened all the more to His words of grace and hope.

        It was Satan who entered into Judas Iscariot to betray the Lord, but ends up by that very betrayal, accomplishing the very purpose for which He came. That is to redeem us all.

        It was Satan who used the jealousy and the pride of the council of the Sanhedrin to bring Him to trial and to even violate their own laws to unjustly condemn an innocent man. And yet, by their very treachery our salvation was obtained.

        It was Satan who spoke through the lips of Pontius Pilate, who thwarted Roman justice as well, who even though he knew the man was innocent, condemned Him to death. And through that very condemnation God brought about our salvation, a Savior who dies for us, and pays our penalty on a cross, and makes us His own, now and forever.

        In each and every circumstance of life, Satan only serves to further God’s desire to reconcile sinfallen man to Himself.

        I have some good news for you. The good news is this. Nothing has changed. Not a thing has changed. God still permits Satan to serve His divine ends. It’s a "turn the tables on the evil one" kind of thing. It looks like he’s getting away with murder, but in fact he’s getting away with nothing.

        He is under the authority of God. He brings us pain, but he only drives us closer to our Lord. He brings us doubts about our faith, doubts about our salvation, but finally we are drawn through God’s word to trust only in that which God has given, and not in that which we perceive with our eyes. Jesus Christ has demonstrated that He alone is the Prince of the prince. That He alone is the conqueror of death and hell, and yes, the evil one himself. He thwarts every evil scheme and destroys every evil plan. And grants to us life.

        Yes, Satan is powerful. But he’s the one who is under the control of the Prince of Peace. By the way, there is a second verse to "A Mighty Fortress". Permit me to read it to you.

With might of ours cannot be done
Soon were our loss affected
But for us fights the valiant one
Who God Himself elected.
Ask ye who is this?
Jesus Christ it is
Of Sabbaoth Lord
And there is no other God
He holds the field forever.

You see, dear friends, the champion has come. He has wrestled the evil one down to the mat and has pinned him for good. He has redeemed and saved us from sin, death, hell, the grave, and the wildness of the old evil one who means nothing but our dread and woe.

The victory by God’s grace is ours. And then that which our text tells us is absolutely incredible. Justice comes, and the bruised reed is not broken, and the smoldering wick is not put out. And we are God’s people, now and forever. In Jesus’ name, Amen.