Back during my chemo treatments, Patsy and I said, when this is over, we're going to do a little getaway. And so, we were able to do that this past week, and cashed in some of our flyer miles that we had, and went to what we thought would be a warmer climate. We went to Savannah, and did you know that it gets cold in Savannah? I did not. But I do now. But it wasn't Connecticut cold. So it was pleasantly less cold than it was here. But one of the delights of our trip was we were able to have breakfast with Stephanie Gardner, who is an RUF intern from our church, serving the Lord at Savannah College of Art and Design. And she's doing well. She's a wonderful, young Christian woman serving the Lord on that battlefield. It was interesting because my stereotype of art students would be that they're just kind of laid back, artsy type people. And she said, well, the students are very artsy there, but they're also very driven. They're very competitive, which I thought was kind of an interesting combination and not exactly what I would predict. But pray for her. She's doing a great job on that battlefield and hopefully sometime maybe in June or something she hopes to be up here for a few weeks and we'll have her do a Sunday school class and you can hear for yourself. If you've paid attention to the news, particularly the last few weeks it seems to me, speaking of battlefields, it seems like taking front page in the news has been the war on terror, the depraved behavior of ISIS in the Middle East, and most recently, interestingly enough, in Washington, the battle over homeland security and the funding of it, which, as Washington goes, is not really about homeland security, it's really about something else. But here's the thing. At the end of the day, you know they're going to fund homeland security. because no politician in his or her right mind would ever want to be seen as being against that, right? I mean, it would be the death of their career. You were against homeland security. I hope that no Christian is so foolish as to neglect the homeland security of his or her soul. That's what our sermon is about today. It's about the apostles' inspired calling to take up the full armor of God, that we may stand against all the wiles of the devil." I'm not going to cover this whole great passage, the whole armor of God, I'm really just going to take one piece of it, but I do want to read Ephesians 6, 10 through 20, and just a word to the children, don't tune out as I read this, I think this is a great passage for children. I mean, it's great for all of us, but you have the imagination to actually see what's being described here. In one sense, Paul's talking about the Roman soldier. And you can see the Roman soldier putting on his armor. And for example, when he puts on, when he takes up the shield, don't think some little dinky shield. This would be a shield that would pretty much cover his whole body. So you can kind of picture this, maybe you can draw this, but he's not just talking about a Roman soldier, he's talking about the Christian soldier in the spiritual warfare and taking up this armor. So let's hear God's word, Ephesians 6, 10 through 20. Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. Stand, therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. In all circumstances, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one, and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication, To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints. And also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly as I ought to speak. Let us pray. Oh, Father, help us to understand something of the battle that we are engaged in and not to take it lightly. At the same time to look to the Lord and the strength of his might give us a greater sense of that and help us indeed by faith to take up the full armor of God that in the evil day we may stand firm. Help us Lord, we need your help. In Jesus name, Amen. There's a well-known passage in the New Testament, I'm sure many of you have read it numerous times, where Paul speaks of his thorn in the flesh. And he never really describes what it was, undoubtedly some sort of illness, physical ailment that afflicted him. And I think I came to appreciate that more in the past seven or eight months as I went through the whole round of chemotherapy and the leukemia and all of that. And especially coming into focus, as it never did before, that Paul described that affliction as a messenger of Satan. I think I have a better appreciation now for the ways in which affliction is a matter of spiritual warfare. There are many ways to look at affliction, many legitimate angles from which we can look at it. In my case, it was a medical issue, and they often are. There was, in a sense, a financial issue. What if this goes on forever? How is that going to work out for me? There are relational issues. Relationships are affected as you go through affliction. There's an emotional angle, always, with affliction. But I guess what I've come to realize is, maybe as I haven't before, that there is a spiritual warfare going on in our affliction. C.S. Lewis wisely said, you've probably heard this statement before, that there are two equal and opposite errors we can fall in thinking about the devil. He's equally pleased by either one. There can be a morbid fascination and obsession with the devil and demons and spiritual warfare, and I don't think I've ever been guilty of that. But the opposite one can be we just ignore the devil. We just don't pay any attention to him. We just don't think he's a factor on the stage of our lives. I think I've definitely been guilty of that. Not that I don't believe what the Bible says about Satan, it's just not something really that I pay all that much attention to. And as I come to read Ephesians 6, and as I've gone through affliction, I realize what a mistake that is. In a sense, I realize what a mistake, a blind spot I've had, even sometimes in pastoral counseling, in various marital issues, or perhaps someone who's really feeling depressed, or whatever it might be, failing to see that there's a spiritual battle going on here. The devil and his demons are also adding to the weightiness of this fray. And so, it's important to me, and if I were counseling someone going through affliction now, or anticipating going through affliction, which all of us will at one time or another, I would want to make sure that they understand that there will be a spiritual warfare And you need to know how to stand firm in the evil day, as Paul puts it. Take up the whole armor of God, verse 13, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. This morning, first of all, let me invite you to understand the schemes of the devil, as the ESV translates it. That would be verse 11, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. The King James was the wiles of the devil. That's a good translation as well. Literally, if you want to translate it, in fact the way the word actually sounds in the Greek, are the methods of the devil. In other words, Satan is no fool. He has tactics. He has a certain understanding of human nature. And if you think of it, he's been able to study human nature for many, many, many, many centuries. You're playing chess against someone. I'm no great chess player, but I think the game is fascinating. One of the things you're going to do if you're going to be any good is you're going to probe your opponent's weaknesses. That's exactly what Satan does. I suppose if you're a good tennis player, one of the things you have to take into account is your opponent's strengths and his weaknesses. Doesn't have a good backhand? If I was a tennis player, I would go to my opponent's backhand every chance I got if he wasn't good. You're covering somebody in basketball, and you notice your man can't really go to his left. Well, I would try to force him to go to his left all night long, right? I mean, that's what you do when you're competing. And the devil is no fool, and that's exactly how he works. goes after our weaknesses. So what are the methods of the devil? Let me say a few things about it from this passage and also from the larger context. And I'll just say a few things. If we take our cue from the armor of God that Paul tells us to put on, and I'm not going to go in detail through the armor of God today, but to summarize it, he's really talking about truth, isn't he? and the shield and the sword. Really, he's really talking about protecting yourself, building your homeland security by saturating your life with the truth. And that's because above all, the devil attacks the gospel. The devil attacks the truth of the gospel. I recently saw an advertisement for something that's coming up on CNN, of all places, And I believe this series is called Finding Jesus. I don't even know if it's a series, maybe it's just one presentation. I will stay about as far away from that as I possibly can. I cannot imagine, well I can imagine, what CNN will tell me about finding Jesus. I guarantee you they will raise more questions than they'll give answers. Why would I put myself, why would I subject myself to that? That's just going to be the devil unleashed. The only reason I would ever watch something like that would be if maybe I had a neighbor who was watching it and I was trying to witness to him. I might watch it then with discernment to try to talk to him about it. But other than that, why would I invite that? Because the devil wants to do everything he can to undermine and attack the gospel. I'd be very cautious about taking a religion class at a secular university if you're a UConn student. I'd be very cautious about that. What in the world are you gonna get? Except something that's going to undermine the gospel and the Lord Jesus Christ. But not only does the devil attack the truth of the gospel, he attacks our assurance in the gospel. And that's what Zechariah 3 is about. As Joshua, the high priest, comes before God, the devil is screaming to him of his unworthiness. And as Pastor Boland rightly said in his prayer, we can't argue that the devil's wrong. The devil's often right. We are sinful. But he's going to make us draw the wrong conclusion, and that is that we have no assurance of the love of God now because we're sinners. And that's the lie of the devil. He's the father of lies. He spins out this deceit so that we won't have assurance of the gospel. Because the last thing the devil wants is a group of confident, gospel-believing people invading the domain of darkness. He does not want that. He's no fool. He's going to attack the truth of the gospel, he's going to attack our assurance of the gospel, and he's going to attack our boldness in the gospel. Notice how Paul asks for prayer. He says, pray for me that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel. You might think, oh, that's natural for Paul. He was just a bold guy. He's always going to speak boldly. That's not what he says. He says, if God doesn't help me, I'm going to wimp out here and I'm not going to be bold for the gospel. Oh God, help me. It's part of the spiritual warfare to silence us. That we don't go vigorously and say, Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but through me. Oh, but that's not politically correct. Oh, but that's not sensitive. Oh, but there must be many ways to God, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. That's the work of the devil. The devil attacks the truth of the gospel, our assurance of that gospel, and our boldness in it. A couple other things to point out about the methods of the devil. The devil exploits broken relationships. And now I'm not talking about the world really, I'm talking about the church. And just prior to this, Paul has said in Ephesians 4 verse 18, I've lost my where it is, but do not where is it? Do not let the sun go down on your anger and do not give the devil an opportunity I know that's in there. It was in here this morning It was in there all week, and I'm just not finding the oh there. It is verse 26 I got it be angry and do not sin do not let the sun go down on your anger, but then listen to this Give no opportunity to the devil If you have an unresolved anger issue against your brother or sister, you're giving the devil an opportunity. Because he's just going to fuel that. He's going to make you feel so incredibly self-righteous. He's going to make you enumerate the faults of that person you're angry with. And you're going to be, well, maybe if they crawl to me, we'll be reconciled. Maybe if they properly humble themselves and come to me, we'll be reconciled." Of course, we've never been angry with our spouses, have we? Of course not, not ever. But it's very important, and Paul, you know, we think sometimes that this spiritual warfare is spooky stuff, and, you know, it's found among the occult and the witches and all that, and that's not something to trifle with. I don't think Christians should have anything to do with the occult. But that's not really what Paul's talking about here. He's just been talking about the life of the church, walking in love, Christian marriage, children and parents, slaves and masters. Now he says, watch out for this spiritual warfare because that's the trenches of life. That's where the devil works. It's in the trenches. of life. So when we hold bitterness against our spouses and we don't resolve it, you're just giving the devil an opportunity because he knows how to weave a spell. And the next thing you know, you know that other woman really understands me. That other man, he really actually listens to me when I talk. And that's how it goes. Most adultery doesn't happen because you set out to commit adultery. It happens because you've given the devil an opportunity to corrupt you, to lead you astray. Another of the devil's tactics or methods is just like the wolves you see on the nature programs. Who do they prey on? What do they prey on? What do the wolves always prey on? What do they always tell you they prey on? The strong, healthy, vigorous elk or the strong, healthy, vigorous moose? Of course not. They go after the weak ones, don't they? They cut out the young one. They look for the old one and devour that. That's exactly what the devil does. And so when we're weak, when we're sick, when we're ill, when we're down, that's an opportunity. Watch out for that because the devil will prey on that. And one other thing I'll say about the tactics of the devil, he also preys on pride. He feeds on it. So be careful if things are going really well and you're very successful. Be awfully careful of that. I read something that, it didn't surprise me, but it was grievous to me. A man had done a study of a bunch of pastors that had fallen into moral failure or sin or, it wasn't always adultery, but that type of thing. And he did a study of these men. I think maybe he interviewed them. I was just reading a summary of his book. I think he maybe even interviewed them, did a study of them. One pattern in all of them is that they had stopped having regular times of reading the Bible and praying. I mean, that didn't surprise me at all. You give the devil an opportunity, you're proud, you're confident. What do I need that for? I don't need to depend regularly on God and His Word and prayer for it. They were ripe for a fall. And that doesn't just apply to pastors. My friend, is there time in your... Do you make time in your busy life for the Word of God and prayer? If you don't, you're setting yourself up for a fall. You're inviting the devil to hammer you and to lead you further into sin. Remember Paul's warning against not making a new convert an elder in the church. Why does he say that? Lest he fall into the snare of the devil. The snare of the devil is pride. It's an overweening self-confidence. And so, Paul, these are some thoughts from the Bible on the methods of the devil, on the schemes of the devil, on the ways in which he works. And Paul says, stand firm, take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day. Now, what does he mean by the evil day? If you look at the commentaries, you'll find various explanations. I can only give you the one that I think is best. I think what Paul means by the evil day is the especially fierce period of temptation. God in his kindness rules over Satan, and he does not allow us to be equally fearfully tempted at all times. If he did, we couldn't stand it. We wouldn't be able to bear it. So temptation is not equally fierce all the time. The battle's going on all the time. But it's not always the evil day. Adam and Eve were doing just fine in the Garden of Eden, thank you very much, until the evil day when Satan comes along and fiercely assaults them. Job is doing just fine, thank you. He's a righteous man walking with God, not having any major problems, and along comes the devil and unloads on him. Joshua, the high priest, standing, that was the evil day for him. Jesus said to Peter, Satan has demanded to sift you like wheat. That was the evil day for Peter. That was particularly his fierce temptation. Even our Lord Jesus Christ, I had Matthew read this morning, Luke adds an interesting detail to the temptation of the Lord Jesus Christ. At the end of it, Luke says, after Jesus had been tempted, then the devil left him until an opportune time. Luke 4.13. And we might think that Jesus was fiercely tempted in this way every single moment of his earthly life. I don't think that's true. The devil picks his battles. The devil picks his spots. And even the Lord Jesus Christ, whom he knew he would never take down, he's looking for an opportunity. He's looking for that weak backhand. He's looking for that way where he can't go to his left in his thinking. And then he attacks again. That's what the evil day is. It's when the devil sees it as an opportune time. And by the way, some Christians act like the devil is omnipresent. Only God is omnipresent. The devil can only be in one place at one time. Now I know he has demons that go around, but he's not omniscient, he's not omnipotent, and he's not omnipresent. So that's another reason of saying we're not equally tempted all the time, but there is the evil day. If I would summarize the methods of the devil, I would say the devil is an ambulance chaser. I don't know if you like John Grissom. I like John Grissom. I think he's a wonderful storyteller. An ex-lawyer, he loves to stick the needle into lawyers. And one of his recent books, in fact I read it last week, well it's the kind of thing I like to read when I'm on vacation. is these two kind of down-on-their-luck lawyers have set up their office right near a busy intersection. Why did they set their office there? Because a lot of car crashes happen. They listen for the siren. When the cars crash, they run out with their car and try to drum up business. The devil is an ambulance chaser. He goes for the weakness. He looks for the car wreck. He looks for the affliction. And I guarantee you when you enter into affliction, the devil is gonna be there. He's gonna hammer you, if he possibly can, with his power. So then, I want you to understand something of the schemes of the devil, and understand that we're in a real war, and there really are evil days. You might be in one of them right now. Secondly, I want you to look to the Lord, and to the strength of his might." Verse 10, finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Sometimes when spiritual warfare is presented, I think a false impression is given, not intentionally perhaps, but kind of like the Lord and Satan, they're sort of equal adversaries kind of wrestling about. My friends, this is a mismatch if ever there was one. This is a complete mismatch. Satan is absolutely no match, no competition for the Lord God Almighty. We could add to the fact that the Lord Jesus has defeated Satan at the cross, he's a defeated enemy, he's cast down, but he's still angry, he still looks for whom he may devour, he knows his time is short, but he's no match for the Lord God Almighty. Earlier in Ephesians, Paul has given us a picture and I'll really just read it without really any comment. Here's what Paul wants us to know as he prays for the saints. Ephesians 119. He wants us to know what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe. According to the working of his great might, that He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead, and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in the one to come, and put all things under His feet." Take that, Satan! Take that, forces of darkness. You need never say in the midst of your affliction and spiritual warfare, this is hopeless. I can't win. I won't be delivered. The devil is going to make me do something bad. Not true. We can't blame our sins on the devil. And hear the Lord Jesus Christ in the strength of His might. Be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. says the Apostle. But it's not enough to know that in just kind of an abstract way. To just kind of know that with your head, oh yeah, of course God is stronger than the devil. We're called to do something in response. So we're called not only to look to the Lord in the strength of His might, we're called, as we're exhorted several times in this passage, to put on the full armor of God. Now the traditional Reformed way of preaching through this passage is probably to do one sermon on each of the pieces of armor. I'm not doing that. I'm just making one overall point about the armor. If you want to listen to a really good series of sermons on the whole armor of God, listen to Rob Hill. Did I mention he's my son-in-law? He's preaching on this right now. And if you go to sermonaudio.com, search on Rob Hill, you'll find his series of sermons. I listened to one of them the other day, and he's doing a great job, and he's going through the pieces of armor one by one. So if you want that, go there. Go to Martin Lloyd-Jones, read his book, The Christian Soldier, which is his exposition of this. There's lots of good stuff out there. If you really want to do heavy-duty study, and I've never been able to work through it, William Gurnall, the old Puritan, The Christian in Complete Armor, pages. And it's thick, dense stuff. I mean, it's good stuff. It's great stuff. But I can only read a couple pages of it at a time because it's so thick and dense on the Christian and complete armor. But put on the full armor of God. If I were just going to summarize it and put it very simply, it's what I've already said. Cover yourself with gospel truth. That's really what the armor of God is about. Cover yourself in various ways as needed with gospel truth. I want you to notice that when Paul says, put on the armor of God, sometimes we miss this. First of all, he's talking about the armor that God himself wears. This is God's own armor that we're talking about. If we go back to Isaiah chapter 59, there's an interesting description of this, and I'm quite sure this is what Paul has in mind when he speaks of the armor of God. The Lord saw that there was no man, no man to deliver his people. and wondered that there was no one to intercede. Then his own arm brought him salvation, and his righteousness upheld him. He put on righteousness as a breastplate, a helmet of salvation on his head. He put on garments of vengeance for clothing, and wrapped himself in zeal as a cloak. According to their deeds, so he will repay, wrath to his adversaries, repayment to his enemies, to the coastlands he will render repayment, So they shall fear the name of the Lord from the West, and His glory from the rising of the sun. And a Redeemer will come to Zion, to those in Jacob who turn from transgression." Do you see this picture of God clothing Himself with armor to bring about judgment and salvation? I've seen in various sports magazines, of course you can always buy T-shirts or jerseys of your favorite team. But I've seen ones advertised that are advertised as game-worn jerseys. So Derek Jeter just retired, right? And you could buy a jersey that Derek Jeter actually wore in a game. So you could have Derek Jeter's name on the jersey and his stale sweat and dirt. I guess a little bit I understand the appeal of that. A little bit in the sense that I wouldn't pluck down the money for it. But it kind of brings you closer to the battle. Paul was saying that God gives us God's own battle-worn armor. The very armor that the Lord Jesus Christ wore in his triumph over Satan. And He promises that to us in Christ. This armor is God's truth. It's God's truth applied and lived. We can never have too much truth. We can never have enough study of the Bible. We can never hear enough preaching. And it's God's truth prayed in praise and petition. And that's how Paul ends this passage. Praying at all times in the Spirit with all prayer. and supplication. That's the armor of God. Clothe yourself with that truth. Listen hungrily to the preaching of the Word. Study the Word. Meditate on it. Memorize it. Hide it in your heart. That's what he's talking about. That's the armor of God to help us in the evil day. Otherwise, we will be deceived. We will be suckers for worldly wisdom. and we'll wander off to our own destruction. I've done some pretty significant reading about Winston Churchill over the years. I admire his leadership. I don't think he was a Christian. He certainly had flaws like any man does, but he was very admirable in other ways. And prior to the outbreak of World War II, for at least 10 years, Churchill was a voice crying in the wilderness. And he was basically saying, the evil day is coming. Hitler and his Nazis are going to make us go to war again after the horrors of World War I. And you know what? Basically, no one wanted to listen. Nobody wanted to hear that. People would rather just stick their heads in the sand. World War I had been so terrible, they just didn't want to hear about another war. They just wanted to have their picnics and their parties and their entertainment and not listen to him. And people didn't listen to him until it was almost too late. Finally, they started listening. They started realizing the threat that Nazi Germany was and started building planes and tanks and ships and all the things they needed to do to enter into war. I hope that you, as you listen to this sermon this morning, won't be like the English nation in those years before World War II. I hope you won't sit there and say, you know, I really don't want to hear about this. I don't want to hear about this spiritual warfare stuff. I don't want to hear about this devil stuff. I don't want to hear about this armor of God. I hope you'll listen before it's too late. Because in all of your life, and especially in your afflictions and your weaknesses, the devil or his demons are going to attack you. Our God graciously offers us His armor, His victorious armor over the evil one. that you may be able to stand firm in the evil day. Amen.