The Enemy’s Names For Preaching
The Enemy’s Names For Preaching
In the last post we looked at some of the names of the Enemy. These names show us what the evil one is up to. In this post we consider more of the enemy’s names for preaching in your church.
Preach that the Enemy’s Name Is “The Evil One”
This is the name that gives us an understanding of what the evil is up to in the world. You’ll find the Apostle John calling him this in I John 5:19, where it says:
19 We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one.
David Platt
The word translated as “evil one” refers to the one who is the apex of evil. This means that the enemy will try to corrupt anything and everything in God’s world to make it as evil as it can be. I just finished a book by David Platt, well-known pastor serving in the Washington D.C. area, titled, Something Needs to Change. Platt describes his hike through an area of the Himalayas. There he encountered villages that had few or no young children 8 years old to 15 years old. Sex traffickers duped their parents into giving them their children for the equivalent of $100. The traffickers told the parents that the children would work in the cities off the mountains as household servants, and would send back money to their family.
Instead, these children became sex workers. This is the kind of evil that is represented in this name. Think of the terrorists that have killed so many in our world, even broadcasting beheadings. The bottom line is this: there is evil in the world, and it springs from a powerful being. One of the enemy’s names for preaching is The Evil One. Think of every headline of evil that you read in your news.
Preach that the Enemy Has The Name “The Tempter”
God created us with perfectly normal and natural desires. We are people who need something meaningful to do with our lives, as well as food, sex, etc. However, our enemy will twist these desires so that we try to fulfill them in inappropriate and destructive ways.
This name explains the vast pornography industry that rakes in billions of dollars each year. It explains our desire for “comfort food” when we’ve been through a particularly difficult time.
I just read in my denomination’s magazine of one of our pastors who was arrested for the murder of a young girl. It turns out that he was inappropriate with young girls. He struck one of them when she didn’t do what he wanted, and she died. He buried her in a woods near his home. The body was found recently, and he eventually confessed to killing her. There is an enemy, and one of his names is The Tempter.
Preach that the Enemy Is The Accuser of God’s People
In the church I served in California there was a man who was one of the leaders in the church. He served as an elder, but was also part of our evangelism team. He would stand in the back of church welcoming people each week. Soon in the conversation he would ask newcomers, “Do you love my Jesus?”
He knew God’s grace and mercy in a powerful way.
So, I was surprised when he was dying that I was asked by the family to call on him. He was fearful of death, he said, because he was such a great sinner. I knew that he was an alcoholic who had been in recovery for decades. But now, the accuser came as he was about to meet his Savior. The Accuser brought back all of the guilt of his drinking to excess. I reminded him of what he knew and believed, that God is a God of grace. He would be received by his Savior with joy.
There will be one more post on this subject of the Enemy’s names. Stay tuned.
