There are so many wonderful, wonderful instructions
given to us in the letters of the New Testament that comprise the teaching that relates to
our Christian living and Christian ministry that it’s good to go back and be refreshed
in these things. Turn in your Bible, if you will, to chapter
6 in Ephesians, a very familiar portion of Scripture is the main focus of this chapter. It actually begins in verse 10 and it runs
all the way down through verse 20. It is about the Christian’s war, or, if
you will, the armor of the believer. This is really the end of the epistle and
needs to be seen a little bit in its context. This particular epistle follows a pattern
that many of the epistles of the New Testament follow, particularly those written by Paul,
in that the opening chapters, namely in this case chapters 1, 2 and 3, identify our position
in Christ. They are doctrinal. They define for us what it means to be a Christian. For example, back in chapter 1 it means that
we have been blessed with all spiritual blessing or every spiritual blessing in the heavenly
places in Christ. And then Paul unpacks all of that, starting
in verse 4, in one long sentence running down to verse 14, “We have been chosen before
the foundation of the world to be made holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us, so that we have
been adopted as sons through Jesus Christ for the purpose that we might be to the praise
of His glory.” We have redemption, verse 7, through His blood, the forgiveness of our
trespasses according to the riches of His grace and that grace He lavished on us. Furthermore, He has given us revelation in
that all wisdom and insight has been made known to us. And that involves the mystery of His will,
that which was formerly hidden and is now revealed. We are able through the revelation of Scripture
to understand not only the past and the present but the fullness of the times, the summing
up of all things in Christ, things in heaven, and things upon the earth. We have obtained an eternal inheritance to
which we have been predestined. We have been sealed through that eternal redemption
with the Holy Spirit of promise in verse 13, who is given as a guarantee and engagement
ring, a down payment, the Greek word arabon , sealing our final inheritance and our final
redemption as God’s own possession to the praise of His glory. So Paul starts out with this long staggering
list of benefits and blessings that belong to us because we belong to Christ. And Paul praise then that we would understand
all of this, verse 18, the eyes of our heart being enlightened to know what is the hope
of His calling and the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, what is
the surpassing power that has been extended to us, the working of His might, the very
power that raised Jesus from the dead.” And then he says that this Christ who is our
Christ, having been raised from the dead, is seated at His right hand in the heavenly
places, far above all rule and authority and power, and dominion and every name that is
named not only in this age but also in the age to come. And everything has been put in subjection
under His feet because He’s the head of everything. Keep that in mind because all rule, authority,
power, and dominion, words like that come back again in chapter 6. And there, clearly they refer to demonic powers. So here in chapter 1 we are told, and it’s
very important, that among the benefits and the blessings of belonging to Christ is that
He is not only the head of all things, not only the head of all things given to the church
as head of the church, but He is over all demonic powers in this age in the one to come. So we are told that the one who is the head
of the church, the one who is our Lord and our Redeemer, our Savior is also the One who
has total power over the forces of hell. Chapter 2 further describes this wonderful
gift of salvation by reminding us that we were dead in trespasses and sins, but we have
been made alive, verse 5. We have been made alive together with Christ
by grace, raised up with Him, seated with Him in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus, with
a view that in the ages to come He’s going to show the surpassing riches of His grace
in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. And this is how these first three chapters
go. All of the blessings are defined. We are His workmanship, verse 10. We have been created in Christ Jesus for good
works, the result of our regeneration is that we do those works that please God which He
prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. We used to be excluded from the purposes and
plans of God, now we are included, along with Jew and Gentile. And that’s how chapter 2 ends. Even when you come in to chapter 3, Paul talks
about the wonderful privilege that has been his to be a steward and to be a minister. Even though he’s the least of all saints,
as he says in verse 8, in order that he might bring to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches
of Christ, to bring to light what is the administration of the mystery which for ages has been hidden
in God who created all things. That is he has been able to be the vehicle
by which God reveals the glorious truths of the New Testament which define the infinite
and eternal blessings that are ours in Christ. And so, these chapters are all about what
belongs to us because we belong to Christ. We have been granted from the riches of His
glory everything we need. And the third chapter then closes with this
great doxology, “Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly, abundantly above all we
can ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the
church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.” So there is this doxology, this outburst
of praise in response to all that is ours in Christ. And then in a very typical fashion, there
is a “therefore” in chapter 4. And that is to say we now move from the doctrinal
section to the practical section. We now move to the duty section, you might
say. Since all of this is true, since God has given
you all of this, this is your position in Christ, this is all that belongs to you because
you belong to Christ, here is what is then required of you. “Walk in a manner worthy
of the calling to which you have been called.” That sums it up. And then he begins to unpack all of that.
“We are to walk in a way that is consistent with our calling, that means humility, gentleness,
patience, showing forbearance to one another in love, diligently preserving the unity of
the Spirit,” which is then further elucidated in the subsequent verses. “We have been
grace according to the measure of Christ’s gift. We are to make sure that we use that grace. We are to submit ourselves to those who are
evangelists, and teaching pastors in the church who are there for our edification to build
us into mature people, a body fitly brought together...verse 16...held together by that
which every joint supplies according to the proper working of each individual part.”
So here we come in to the body now and we have a function, and a responsibility, and
a ministry for which we’re gifted and given the grace which is required for that function. We are to walk differently than we used to
walk, no longer walking like the Gentiles walk in the futility of their minds, no longer
being callous, sensual, practicing impurity with greediness. We didn’t learn Jesus Christ, verse 20 says,
in this way. In reference to your former manner of life,
verse 22, lay aside that old self. We are called to a new kind of life. In order to live that life, verse 23 says
we have to have our minds renewed. And that’s where the Word of God comes into
the picture and thereby we put on the new self, created in righteousness and holiness. We set aside falsehood, we speak truth, each
one of us with his neighbor. We’re angry but we don’t sin. In other words, only a righteous anger. Don’t let the sun go down on our anger. And then this, “And don’t give the devil
an opportunity.” Don’t give the devil an opportunity. The assumption here is that any of these kinds
of behaviors give the devil opportunity, including the ones that come after this. Don’t steal anymore, but work, performing
with your own hands what is good not only that you might provide what you need, but
you might have something to share with the one who has need. Let no unwholesome word proceed from your
mouth, that only such a word is as good for edification according to the need of the moment
that it may give grace to those who hear. Don’t grieve the Holy Spirit. That is, don’t do anything that would bring
grief to the Holy Spirit, any unholy act would do that. Get rid of all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor,
slander. Let it be put away from you, including all
evil...that’s the word malice, evil. On the positive side, be kind to one another,
tenderhearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ has forgiven you. You come in to chapter 5 and he says, “Be
imitators of God, walk in love as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us.” Don’t
let immorality, or impurity, or greed be named among you. Let there be no filthiness or silly talk,
coarse jesting, obscenity. It just keeps going like this. This is how you live because of what God has
done for you. You were formerly darkness, verse 8, now you’re
light. Walk as children of light. Verse 15, be careful how you walk, not as
unwise but as wise. Make the most of your time. Don’t be foolish. Understand what the will of the Lord is. Don’t get drunk. That’s dissipation. Be filled with the Spirit, speak to one another
in psalms, hymns, spiritual songs, singing, making melody in your heart to the Lord, always
giving thanks for all things in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Be subject to one another in the fear of God. And he tells wives how they’re to act, and
husbands how they’re to act. And he tells parents how they’re to act,
and children how they’re to act, and slaves how they’re to act. And slave owners how they’re to act. Coming down to chapter 6 verse 9, then you
have all of this accumulation of the details of living out our Christian life. Standards for unity, standards for life in
the church, for ministry, principles for purity, for fellowship, for witness. What the Spirit-filled life looks like, a
life controlled by the Spirit of God, if you will, under the dominating impulse of the
Word of God. The great theme here is to walk the worthy
walk. In the metaphor of walking, there is a certain
benign reality. Walking is not difficult. Walking is the easiest thing we do. And one might assume that because this is
the metaphor that is used, that it somehow means this is going to be a stroll for us. Well, the reason the New Testament writers
like to use the word “walk” is because it is a constant pattern. But it is not to make us assume that this
is some kind of a stroll that’s going to be easy. I think we know better than that. And we certainly know better than that when
we come to verse 10 in chapter 6. Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the
strength of His might. The assumption here is it will not be easy. It’s going to take strength. It’s going to take strength that you don’t
have. That’s why it says be strong in the Lord
and repeats it in the strength of His might. This is not an easy walk, it is a walk in
the sense that it is repetitive, that it is constant, that it is not highs and lows, fast
and slow, it is a pace. You’re to live a godly, holy pace. But it is not easy. You have a lot of things working against you. First of all, the flesh. Your fallenness is a problem, as is mine. We all face the same reality that we’re
living in an unredeemed body. There are in this body impulses that go along
with being human that are not yet redeemed. And that is what Paul calls the flesh in Romans
7, and it wars against the Spirit. There’s a battle going on in every believer
between the Spirit which is that new creation, and the flesh which is what’s left of that
old man. And there is a war going on so that Paul says,
“I don’t do what I want to do, and I do what I ought not to do.” And he says it’s
a wretched man that I am. He describes it like having a corpse tied
to your body that you can’t get rid of. In Galatians chapter 5 which is another helpful
passage along this line, we learn more about this conflict. In Galatians 5:17, “The flesh sets its desire
against the Spirit, that is the Holy Spirit, the Spirit against the flesh, these are in
opposition to one another so that you may not do the things which you please.” The
reality of living our Christian life of walking the way we ought to walk, walking a worthy
walk is that it is not easy. It is not easy because of the opposition of
our unredeemed flesh. What are the elements of this flesh? Verse 19 of Galatians 5, “The deeds of the
flesh are these: immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy,
outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing
and things like these.” So this is not an exhaustive list, this is merely a representative
list. Those are the kinds of things that are done
by people who have no part in the Kingdom, verse 21. The people who continually practice those
things will not inherit the Kingdom of God. On the other hand, the fruit of the Spirit
is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is no law. And so therein lies the battle. The Sprit drives us in the direction of that
which is holy. The flesh drives us in the direction of that
which is unholy. And that is the battle. So the battle is not outside of us, in this
sense, the battle is inside of us. It is inside of us. It doesn’t do you any good to, like the
medieval monks, it doesn’t do you any good to pluck out your eyes or go live in a cloister
somewhere on the side of a mountain so that you’re somehow away from sin. It doesn’t do you any good to have some
kind of surgery that is supposed to deal with your desire, as some of the medieval monks
did. And by their own testimony it had zero effect
on their evil desire. It doesn’t do you any good to run from sin
because wherever you go sin goes with you. It’s in you. Even though you may be a believer, there is
still remaining sin. So you’ll not be walking some kind of stroll
through a happy meadow, if that is a way to view it, you really are walking through a
mine field that is inside of you, the mine field has been basically set by your own flesh
and there’s a war from the very outset on the inside. You don’t need the devil for that war. Your own fallenness is sufficient. But when you add the presence of the devil,
the battle becomes all the more fierce. And if you go back to chapter 4 and verse
27, which I read to you a moment ago, Paul says in the middle of all of this, walk this
worthy walk, do not give the devil an opportunity. And falling into any of the patterns that
are described there a sinful patterns is how you give the devil an opportunity. So we have an enemy that is in us, and we
have an enemy that is outside of us. We have to be aware of this. So when the Apostle Paul comes to the end
of this epistle in which he calls us to walk in a certain way, and to live a certain kind
of Christian life, he reminds us that we have a very, very aggressive and formidable enemy,
namely Satan. And he says in chapter 6, “Be strong in
the Lord and in the strength of His might put on the full armor of God that you may
be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil, for our struggle is not against
flesh and blood but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this
darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.” Wow!
That’s serious stuff. There are adversaries that are human, but
behind them is supernatural evil. And, you know, before you come to Christ,
this would be true of the Ephesians or anybody else, you’re caught up in the kingdom of
darkness to which you belong. You’re under the power and authority of
the prince of the power of the air, the ruler of this world who is Satan. To borrow the language of John 8, you are
of your father, the devil. And so, you come to Christ and Satan still
is committed to your destruction. Once he had you, now he doesn’t have you. Once you were part of his system, now you’re
not. You have become the enemy of Satan, an enemy
indeed you are as he is an enemy to you, so you are an enemy to his cause now that you
have come to Christ. In a sense, when you were saved, when I was
saved, at the point that we were saved, we were basically delivered out of the kingdom
of darkness, to borrow the language of Colossians 1. We had been captive to 2 Corinthians 10 says
certain ideologies that were fortifications, wrong views, wrong thinking, and we were set
free and brought captive to Christ. We were rescued out of Satan’s fortress,
out of his lying, damning, deceptive ideologies, all those ideas raised up against the true
knowledge of God. He doesn’t take it lightly. Christ literally rips us out of his clutches,
as it were. We are like bran snatched from the burning,
to borrow the words of Jude. Satan then brings to bear upon us all the
forces of hell as if to undo what Christ has done. So we have an enemy that is in us and we have
an enemy that is outside of us. How do we deal with the enemy that is in us? Galatians 5 says, “Walk in the Spirit and
you will not fulfill the lusts of the flesh.” To put it another way, “Let the Word of
Christ dwell in you richly.” To put it another way, “Thy Word have I hid in my heart that
I might not sin against You.” We walk in the Spirit which means to walk in the things
that the Spirit affirms, which would be the things that are revealed in Scripture as holy
attitudes, holy thoughts, holy words, and holy behaviors. But what do we do about the enemy that is
outside of us? How are we to cope with this supernatural,
massive evil? When you think about it on a cosmic level,
it’s a pretty astonishing thing that we’re dealing with. We live in an infinite universe. It has no end. It is infinite. The bigger our telescopes get, the more they
penetrate into outer space, the more stunning and staggering it all becomes. And I don’t need to take you through all
the science of that. But it is a stunning and staggering thing. And you might think, “Why in the world would
God create this massive, massive universe where traveling at the speed of light, it
would take millions of years to get to the edge of it? What is that all about when all that ever
seems to happen is down in this tiny little dot called the Earth?” Well this is not
the only place where things are happening. There is a host of beings that occupy the
space between this little planet and the very throne of God at the final end of the infinite
heaven. The Bible describes that as the realm of Satan
and his demons, as well as the realm of holy angels. We get a little bit of a glimpse occasionally
into the battle between holy angels and the demons that occupy that realm, such as when
God dispatched an angel to bring an answer to a prayer prayed by Daniel and he was held
up by a demon. But when you think about God creating the
universe the way He created, understand that while there is the human realm here, there
is the spiritual realm that is vast. I only point that out to you to let you know
that this is a formidable, formidable enemy that we have and we cannot be ignorant of
his schemes. There are countless demons with him. In fact, in Revelation chapter 12 it gives
us a picture of Satan when he fell and it says he took a third of the angels with him. So there are twice as many holy angels as
there are fallen angels. But there are ten thousand times ten thousand
and thousands of thousands and ten thousands, the highest number in the Greek language that
has a word. So it’s just another way to say there are
uncountable angels, there are therefore countless demons in Satan’s army and arsenal. The question is...how does Satan operate? Well he operates against the people of God
through a system that would be called the world. That’s why we say we have a three-fold enemy,
the world, the flesh and the devil. The flesh is in us, the devil is outside of
us. And the means the devil uses is the world
system. Christians don’t need to feel that Satan
could come and live in them. No Christian in the Bible is ever pictured
as being indwelt by a demon. The only people that had demons in them were
non-believers. You cannot, like so many do today, say that
because a believer has a besetting sin in his life, as we heard in testimony tonight,
in Baptism, because a believer may have a besetting sin, he still has a demon of whatever
in him that needs to be exorcized. There is no indication in Scripture that any
believer ever could have a demon living in him. We are the temple of the Spirit of God. There are times when Jesus casts demons out,
but always out of non-believers. Furthermore, there’s nothing in the Bible
that associates demonization with moral evil. That may surprise you. Demon-possessed people manifest a bizarre
behavior, sometimes screaming at Jesus in a synagogue, sometimes jumping into a fire,
being suicidal, having some physical infirmity. But there’s no illustration in the Scriptures
of a demonized person having that demonization manifest in moral evil. So sin is an issue of the flesh. Demons can’t overpower people and make them
sinners. But what they can do is overpower people who
are already sinners, and, of course, cause them to manifest bizarre kinds of behavior
and self-destructive kind of behavior. But as far as Christians are concerned, no
demon could take up residence in a believer. There is no illustration of that anywhere
in Scripture. We are the temple of the Spirit of God. You say, “Well what do we have to fear from
Satan who is just one of the fallen angels who we call demons? What do we have to fear from them?” They
dominate the world in this way. They own the unregenerate people of the world,
they own them. The unregenerate people in the world are in
the kingdom of darkness. They are under the power of the prince of
the air, Ephesians 2, right? That’s exactly what we saw earlier. You formerly walked according to the course
of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that works
in the sons of disobedience. What is the world? We’re not talking about the planet, we’re
talking about the kosmos , the opposite of kosmos is chaos. And there is an order in the world. There is a system in the world that is run
by Satan. It is a sinful system. Demons work in that system. That system basically operates by demonic
power through human agencies. And this is what comes at believers. It isn’t so much that the devil himself
comes at you, although there may be times when that does occur in a more specific way,
such as when Jesus turned Peter over to Satan to accomplish a certain purpose in his life,
such as when a messenger from Satan was coming after Paul and attacking Paul’s ministry
in Corinth and he prayed that it would be removed, such as in the case of Job when God
allowed Satan to go after Job. There may be those occasions when Satan or
a demon becomes in the purposes of God a means by which God accomplishes something in our
lives. That is not to say that that demon will take
up residence in a believer. But it is to say that for God’s purposes
He may allow Satan or He may allow a demon to have some effect on a believer such as
in the case of Paul, tearing up the Corinthian church and God allowed him to do that because
Paul had had so many revelations, he needed to be humbled. And having demons wreak havoc in his church
was a humbling experience for him and God wanted him humbled. So there may be times when God allows Satan
and demons to do certain things in the realm in which His people live for ends that are
His, purposes that are His. God allowed Satan to bring Peter into a very,
very difficult situation where he actually wound up denying the Lord and he was restored
and recovered and then he would be able to strengthen the brethren who would go through
a similar situation. God allowed Job to be hammered by Satan in
order that he might prove that saving faith can never be broken and that he might come
out a purer worshiper than if it had never happened. So, Satan may be occasionally, sometimes for
the purposes of God may be allowed, or some demons may be allowed to have some effect,
some way on our lives for divine purposes. Remember now, please, the devil is God’s
devil. God owns the devil. God commands the devil. God sets the parameters where he can operate
and where the demons operate. I saw that and I pointed it out to you in
the first chapter that it is Christ having been raised from the dead, seated at the right
hand of God in heavenlies, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion and every
name that is named in this age and the age to come, and things that are named are persons. He has power over all persons whether they
are spiritual persons or physical persons living in this world, people or angels all
come under God’s control. So, all of that to say there may be occasions
when God permits demons to do certain things that effect believers, not from the inside
but from the outside. But the primary issue that we have to understand
is that Satan works against believers by developing a world system in which believers must live
that brings temptation to bear on their flesh. We would like to think that we could live
in a world that’s not hostile. People say we have to protect our children
from evil influences. Lots of luck. Not going to happen...not going to happen. And evil men get worse and worse. I think here in the United States of America,
we enjoyed a kind of reprieve for a while because this country had so much of Christianity
in its beginnings and its roots and in many ways our culture was influenced by great revivals
of the gospel, and there was a kind of cultural morality that maybe insulated us a little
bit, at least superficially. That has long since faded away and we are
now living in a culture that is fully exposed to the worse of the kosmos that Satan has
crafted among godless people. We are all literally hammered and battered
and besieged, aren’t we?, by this system that is really designed by Satan and plied
through people. Now the leading edge of this system is ideological. The leading edge of this system is that Satan
appears as an angel of light, disguising himself as an angel of light. Works most of the time in religion. His ministers are angels of light. All false religion is called by Paul doctrines
of demons. In other words, all false religion is concocted
by Satan as a part of his system to lead people into deception religiously. And they are doctrines of demons that are
propagated, Paul says in 1 Timothy 4, by hypocritical liars. So the leading edge of Satan’s effort in
the world because man is by nature a religious animal, that is to say his conscience and
his mind that the conscience by the moral law written in his heart, the mind by the
reality of cause and effect, leads him to God. And the most natural thing for a human being
is to understand that because he has a moral law, there had to be a moral lawgiver because
he understands that nothing can exist unless it has a cause, there is a great cause. So there is a great cause who is also moral. That’s inherent in the understanding of
man. Satan knows about that god-consciousness. So Satan diverts that from the true God to
an endless array of false religious systems of which he is the author. And all of them have one thing in common,
they tell man that salvation and a right relationship with God can be earned...can be earned. Some of them are moral, some of them are immoral. Across the spectrum, something for everybody. But that’s the leading edge. It’s false religion because man is naturally
a worshiper. And because he has a conscience, he has the
sense of guilt over his own sins. And so Satan invents religions that attempt
to mitigate that guilt. But for those people who have so stopped their
conscience into insensitivity, there is also a full world system available to them that
is irreligious, atheistic, if you will, blatantly immoral. And there is that world in the middle that
says yes, I’m spiritual, but I can be spiritual and immoral at the same time. All of these ideologies that reigns from very
legalistic tight kinds of restrictive religions for people who find an appeal in that, to
the kind of open flagrant atheistic immorality at its worst level and everything in between
is all part of this very broad system designed by Satan. And there is enough in it that it has the
ability to drive temptations at all of us. That’s how Satan works. You don’t have to worry about Satan crawling
inside of you and making a residence there, it’s not going to happen if you’re a believer. But we live in a day when we not only deal
with the temptation that is in us that all believers had, but we have to deal with the
system that is outside of us and the system is more sophisticated and it is worst than
its ever been and all the bad in the past has been accumulated and stayed and been fully
developed. And now we have media to make it worse than
its ever been in terms of its exposure. I personally think that Jesus needs to come
soon because the onslaught is so massive that it’s beyond hope of ever being reversed. I’ve been saying to people...by the way,
if you think somehow there’s going to be a turn around in America...forget it...forget
it. We’re going down the path of immorality
at such warped speed, we’re not going to turn around. This is Romans 1, we’ve been turned over
by God to the consequences of our own choices and Satan is having a field day in the system
and we are all inundated by it. So what do we do about it? Well, that was kind of an ad-lib introduction. But let’s look at verse 10. I didn’t even turn a page here, that’s
not good. Verse 10. “Finally, be strong in the Lord
in the strength of His might.” This is the preparation, this is the preparation. Be strong, not a time for weak people. Doesn’t it strike you as interesting that
at a time when the power of the world is at its greatest that its ever been, the weakness
of the church is at its greatest as well? At a time when the world system is more formidable
than its ever been, the church is weaker than its ever been. And we are called to be strong in the Lord
and in the strength of His might, recognizing we don’t have in ourselves the strength,
we have to rest in Him. But know this, that the power is already yours. Philippians 4:13, “I can do all things through
Christ who strengthens me. There is no temptation taken you but such
is as common to man. God is faithful who will never allow you to
be tempted above but will with the temptation make a way of escape, 1 Corinthians 10:13,
the Lord has gained the victory at the cross. The Lord has taken up residence in our heart
in the presence of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ and all the power that is there
is the very same power that has raised Jesus from the dead.” And we have already pointed
that out, and I did that on purpose so I could take you back to it. We understand this, go back to verse 18 of
chapter 1, “I pray the eyes of your heart to be enlightened that you may know what is
the hope of His calling, the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints and
what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of
the strength of His might and it’s the very strength which He brought about in Christ
when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places.”
It is the very same power that raised Christ from the dead. It is the same power that exalted Him to the
right hand of God. It is the same power He exercises over all
rule and authority and power and dominion and every name that is named. And this power has caused Him to put all things
in subjection under His feet, made Him over the church which is His body and the church
as His body, I love this, is the fullness of Him who fills all in all. We are the fullness of Christ. We have the fullness of Christ there, therefore
we have the fullness of His resurrection power. In the third chapter, also Paul prays that
we would understand this, verse 14, chapter 3, “I bow my knees before the Father from
whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name that He would grant you according
to the riches of His glory to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner
man.” Verse 20, “Now to him who is able to do exceeding, abundantly beyond all we
can ask or think according to the power that works within us.” So the power is there. It’s not as if we have to plead for the
power. Christ is there and with Christ’s presence
is Christ’s fullness, and with His fullness is His power. So we are strong. The strength is there. All that we need is there in the very presence
of the Lord Jesus Christ. So we begin with the preparation and the preparation
is to understand that we have to rest in the strength of Christ. The second thing I want you to see in this
text, as we just begin, is the equipment. Preparation is to realize our strength is
in the Lord, and that strength is available to us. Secondly, the equipment, put on the full armor
of God. How do you tap into the power? Here’s the key. How do you tap into the power? You put on the full armor of God. I’m going to leave that because verse 13
says, “Take up the full armor of God,” and then describes it starting in verse 14,
running down to verse 17. So when we look at the armor itself, we will
see the equipment that allows us to tap the strength, okay? The strength is there, it is bound up in the
armor and the armor is defined for us in verses 13 to 17, and we’ll look at it in detail. So the preparation and the equipment, thirdly,
the enemy. We need to understand our enemy, verse 11.
“Put on the full armor of God that you may be able to stand firm against the schemes
of the devil.” The schemes of the devil, we don’t need to take a lot of time to define
Satan, this is not a course on Satanology, if you will. Suffice it to say that Scripture describes
the devil carefully and repeatedly. Jesus believed in him, referred to him, spoke
to him, pronounced judgment on him. The Apostles believed in him, obviously as
Paul does here when he writes about him. He is active through all human history. He rebelled against God in heaven, according
to Isaiah 14, Ezekiel 28, he was thrown out of heaven. He is the one who fell from heaven, described
also elsewhere in Scripture, including the twelfth chapter of Revelation. When he came to earth, he tempted Eve in Genesis
3. He tempted Christ in Matthew 4. He perverts God’s Word as we see in Matthew
4. He opposes God’s work as we see in Zechariah
chapter 3. He hinders God’s servants, as we see in
2 Thessalonians 2. He restricts, or tries to restrict the proclamation
of the gospel by blinding the minds of people so the gospel cannot come to them, 2 Corinthians
4. He snares the wicked in 1 Timothy 3. He deceives the nations as we see in the book
of Daniel, as well as the book of Isaiah and the book of Ezekiel, and the book of Revelation,
chapter 16 and 20. He fights with Michael, that means that he
is conflict with the holy angels. He has the whole world in his lap, 1 John
5, the whole world lies in the lap of the evil one. He runs the whole system. All his evil is basically worked through unregenerate
people who make up his kingdom and that is the world system, and that is the source of
temptation driven at our human flesh by this very sophisticated system. He is a person. He is called the anointed cherub. He called the prince of this world. He is called the prince of the power of the
air. He is called the god of this age. He is called the prince of demons, Luke 11:15. He has personal names. Fifty-two times he’s called Satan which
means adversary. Thirty-five times he’s called devil, or
diabolos which means slanderer. He is called that old serpent, that great
dragon. He is described in 1 Peter 5:8 as a roaring
lion who goes about seeking whom he may devour. In John 17:15 he is called the evil one, intrinsically
evil, poneros . He is called Abaddon and Apollyon in Revelation
9, that is a destroyer. He is called the tempter in Matthew 4, the
accuser in Revelation 12 and the spirit working in the sons of disobedience in Ephesians 2,
as we just read. He is described as a murderer and a liar. He works overtly, blatantly and covertly. He works overtly in the raunchy open wickedness
of the world. He works covertly in the false religious systems
of the world. Mark it, folks, both are under his power. He will be religious when he needs to be religious,
sanctimonious when he needs to be sanctimonious and blatantly wretched, and wicked, and vile
as it suits him. He is some enemy. He is the one who once was Lucifer, the son
of the morning, the anointed cherub fallen from heaven, the ruler of the demon world
and plies his wretched assault on God’s Kingdom through the humans that are his subjects. We cannot be ignorant of his schemes. Schemes comes from a verb meaning to stalk...to
stalk. It suggests that lion stalking his prey that
Peter referred to. He uses special tactics, guile, deceit, craft,
subtly. We need to be aware that he is a very old
enemy, been around since before the world was created. In 2 Corinthians 2 verse 11 says, “In order
that no advantage be taken of us by Satan for we’re not ignorant of his schemes,”
same idea, you can’t be ignorant of his schemes. You must understand. As we read in 4:27 of Ephesians, you don’t
want to give him any advantage. We must understand that he works in false
doctrine. We cannot just embrace everybody in every
religion, that would be embracing Satan. Hard to get people to understand that. Really hard to get people to understand that. Tertullian once said, “ Diabolos est dei
semia, ” the devil is God’s monkey. He apes God, part of his strategy. His system is the world. That’s why we hear James say, if you love
the world you’re an enemy of God, right? Friendship with the world is enmity with God. Or we hear John say, “Love not the world,
nor the things that are in the world. For all that is in the world, the lust of
the eyes, the lust of the flesh and the pride of life is not of God, it’s of the world
and the world is passing away.” False religions, heresies, subtle deceptions as well as blatant
immorality, all part of his arsenal. And through all of that he would assault believers
and attack the truth and endeavor to hinder the work of God. He loves to snatch the Word away, as we heard
in the parable of Jesus and the sower where the seed is sown in the hard ground and the
devil snatches it away. He loves to pervert the Word. He loves to interfere in the life of the church. He works in so many ways. He can create all kinds of false theologies
that cause believers to doubt, all kinds of false standards of spirituality that causes
believers to think that they’re not really required to live holy lives. He creates theologies like Antinomian theologies
and perversions of God’s truth. In all these things he is at work. And so, this means, as we think about these
things, that we are engaged in battle. We have to prepare for that. We have to be equipped for that. We have to know our enemy and we have to understand
that we’re in a battle. Verse 12, it is a struggle. It is a struggle not against flesh and blood. People are not really our enemy. I know sometimes we think that immoral people
and people who advocate immoral things and people who make referendums against marriage,
such as the one we’re facing this week, are really our enemy. No, our real enemy is far, far more powerful. These are just dupes. These are just pawns. These are just people that he uses that belong
to his kingdom. We’re not struggling against flesh and blood
but against the rulers, against the powers, against the spiritual forces of this wickedness
against the spiritual forces of wickedness that resides in the heavenlies. And that’s what I told you, between here
and the throne of God, that’s the domain of demons and angels where there is angelic
conflict. Understand that we have a formidable enemy
who has developed a very successful system. The rulers and the powers would simply be
the rankings of demons. They’re all structured like the holy angels
have some structure as we learn in Scripture, so do the demons. There is a kind of world, there’s a kind
of kosmos even among demons where they have varying ranks. Some of them are associated with nations and
governments, in particular, as we see back in Isaiah and Ezekiel and even in Daniel. Spiritual wickedness in very high places. Should we fear? No. Verse 13 says, “We should react not with
fear, but with readiness.” Herein is our instruction as we engage in the battle. “Take
up the full armor of God that you may be able to resist in the evil day and have done everything
to stand firm.” That tells us there can be victory, right? What is the evil day? The evil day is any day that evil comes. In fact, the evil day would be a way to describe
this era in the world. The evil day would e a way to describe living
in the world. For us every day is an evil day. This is evil’s day as opposed to the day
of righteousness to come in the future. So as we live in the evil day, if we are putting
on the armor, then we can resist. “Resist the devil and he will flee from you.” We
can resist. Victory is promised. And when the battle is over and the smoke
is cleared and the dust is settled, we can be standing firm. That’s the promise of victory. Paul wonderfully understood that. In 2 Corinthians 4, I love this, 2 Corinthians
4:8, “We are inflicted in every way but not crushed, perplexed but not despairing,
persecuted but not forsaken, struck down but not destroyed.” In the end, the devil threw
everything he had at him but he couldn’t be victorious. He triumphed through it all and so can you. There is victory promised. So, he says your preparation is in the strength
of the Lord. Your equipment is in the armor of God. Your enemy is formidable, the devil. You need to understand his schemes. You’re engaged in a real struggle and your
struggle is not just with humans, but its with a supernatural force, a complex structure,
a hierarchy of demons that operate in the heavenlies. This may seem more than you’d ever be able
to bear but the truth of the matter is, if you put on the full armor of God, you will
be able to resist in this evil day, this era of evil that dominates the fallen world. And when it’s all over, you can stand firm. Now I know that’s what you want in your
life. And so, starting next time, we’re going
to look at verse 14 where it says, “Stand firm therefore,” and it tells you how. This is how to tap the strength, this is how
to stand firm no matter what Satan brings. Let’s pray. Father, we thank You for the clarity with
which the Scripture enlightens us as always on things that would otherwise be absolutely
mystifying. We know the world is full of ridiculous, foolish
ideas about Satan, bizarre, halloweenish fantasies, they’re not even close to reality. And then there are those people who would
deny the existence of the devil all together. But we know the truth because we know Your
Word. We thank You that You’ve given it to us
and You’ve opened our minds to understand it, to be enlightened by it and that You’ve
promised us that even though we have an enemy that is cosmic, an enemy that is massive,
an enemy that is as old as time, an enemy that is experienced in evil for thousands
of years at a supernatural level, an enemy who has seen all human behavior come and go,
a massive force of demons who literally rule over the unregenerate population of the world
and have developed a system that is powerfully evil. You have told us that we can stand and resist
and be firm if we have the armor on. What a wonderful, hopeful promise that is. And we stand in that promise, ready to know
how to tap that strength, to be strong in the Lord and in the power of Your might. So continue to open Your truth to us and ready
us to live triumphantly to Your glory, even in this evil day. We know the day will come that Satan will
be vanquished, sent forever to the Lake of Fire which You prepared for the devil and
his angels. Until that time, we cannot be ignorant of
his schemes nor can we be foolish enough not to put on the armor. Enable us to do that, Father, that we might
live not only to Your glory but that we might live lives of fruitfulness and joy in the
path of obedience, and we’ll thank You for Your Son’s sake. Amen.
