Ephesians chapter 6, verse 10. We're going to read through verse 20. We're going to try and cover at least the first verse tonight. Finally, be strong in the Lord. and in the strength of His might, put on the full armor of God, so that you will 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 realm. Therefore, take up the full armor of God so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. Stand firm therefore, having girded your loins with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace. In addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. And take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. with all prayer and petition, pray at all times in the Spirit. And with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints. And pray on my behalf that utterance may be given to me in the opening of my mouth to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel for which I am an ambassador in chains, that in proclaiming it I may speak boldly as I ought to speak. Lord, thank You that You've given us Your Word. Thank You that You've given us Your Spirit. And thank You that You've sent Your Son to reconcile us to You through His offering of Himself on the cross. Lord, thank you for this reminder that we remain under assault by your enemies, by those opposed to Christ and to the gospel, who sought to draw people away from you from the days of the first man and woman. So, Lord, teach us tonight by your Spirit. In Christ's name, amen. Tonight we come to the final section in our study of Paul's letter and teaching to the church in Ephesus. He's reminded us, he's reminded all of his readers of the many great and heavenly blessings that we've received. All of the sovereign grace of God. And he's taught us to lay aside the old self. now live as people who've been made spiritually alive and brought into a spiritual, eternal union with the risen Christ. He tells his readers, then and now, that we will face hostility, opposition in this life from spiritual beings that we can't see and we can't touch. The devil and all the demonic beings who roam the earth. But he's told us that God has provided His power to us for this warfare. We, who by the sovereign grace of God have received every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realm, and who have now received an inheritance in glory, and to whom all the mysteries of God, hidden in all the ages, have now been revealed. We who have been called to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which we've received will still face great opposition in this life." And it's opposition, as I said, that we can't see. Paul, who has shown us that we must, as new creations in Christ, subdue our own lusts and fleshly desires. He's shown us that we must now follow the ways of God, which he's taught us in Scripture. He now shows us that we must realize that this enemy of God and his people is still actively engaged in warfare against us. It's happening as we speak. He seeks hour by hour to draw us away from our Lord. He seeks to bring hardship on us, persecution on some. And He promises shiny things of this world if we will abandon Christ. So, right off the bat, the context here is the church and every member of the church has an enemy who is hell-bent on our destruction. Now Paul teaches on how the Christian is to engage this enemy, how we're to stand in this spiritual warfare that is inevitable for all of us. And God has made His power available to us. That's why He says, be strong in the Lord, in the strength of His might, stand firm. Because in our own strength, we could not stand in front of this foe. Different writers divide these 11 verses differently, I suppose. I see the division really as in three parts from verses 10 through 13, where He tells us to put on the armor of God, Verses 14 through 18, he exhorts us to stand firm. Then verses 19 and 20 is really a request for prayer. It's somewhat personal from Paul. Let's look at the first imperative here in verse 10. Finally be strong, or some render it, be powerful in the Lord. It's not saying be powerful in your own might. Be powerful in the Lord in the strength of His might. Now this is passive. It's receive this strength is what he's talking about. Be made strong. Receive strengthening in the Lord. How do we do this? We put on this full armor of God. The Greek word is panoply. The whole thing. The whole armor of God. All of the defenses that God has made available to us. William Hendrickson translates this verse, I think, a little better. At least he gets to the meaning a little better, verse 10. Finally, he says, find your source of power in the Lord. And that's really what Paul is getting to here. We see this same thought in Paul's prayer for the Ephesian converts in chapter 3, verse 14, 15, and 16. There he says, 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. This has been Paul's prayer. And his point here, he wants us to understand that whatever strength we have is strength we draw from the Lord. In fact, whatever we have, we've received from the Lord. We do not possess the strength or power in ourselves to fight this battle. This is spiritual warfare. And we don't recognize it a lot of the time, but it is going on. Every temptation is spiritual warfare. Every lust in your heart is something that Satan seeks to work on, agitate. This enemy seeks to cause us to fall away from the faith. You know, many make momentary professions of faith. They walk aisles. They do various things. They pray prayers and then go back about their lives. But we know that only those who persevere to the end are revealed to be the true sons of God. And Satan doesn't give up because we have even been born again. He stays at us. So, because we lack this strength to fight this battle, we must be strong in the Lord. We've got to find our source of power in Him. John 15, 5, Jesus said that apart from Him, we can do nothing. Do you believe that? I hope so. Apart from Him, we can do nothing. He's made His power, though, available to us, and His power is infinite. as He is infinite. There is no limit to His power. Paul wrote, Philippians 4.13, I can do all things through Him who strengthens me. Paul understood. Paul understood. So before we look into the necessary armor that we have to put on and the necessary preparations we must make for this warfare, I want to look at the questions of, what's the nature of this warfare? And who is this enemy, the devil? In what ways is the devil waging war against us? Where do we go for the answer? Scripture, of course. First, I want us to understand, Satan can only do that which God permits him to do. Period. This is what we saw in the story of Job. And I've got a lot of Scriptures here, and I'm going to ask you, please don't try to look them all up right now. If you want a list for your personal study later, I've got one here for you, and I'll give it to you when we're done. And I encourage you to study all these things at home in your private study. But for now, I just would like for us to hear the Word of God and what the Word of God teaches us about this one that Paul here calls Diabolo, the devil. Sometimes he's called, in Scripture, Satana. Same person, as we'll see. Diabolu, devil. This word means slanderer or accuser, and has come to mean devil. It's used in that way here. Here's what we know about the devil, just from Scripture. The devil tempted Jesus. Matthew chapter 4, he tempted Jesus. Matthew 13, 39, the devil sows tares among the wheat. He sows unbelievers in the midst of the church. And what effect can that have? It can cause disruption. It can cause unnecessary dispute over Scripture. Matthew 25, 41 tells us that eternal fire has been prepared for this being, for him and for all his angels, Jesus said. In Luke, chapter 8, verse 11, we're told that, by Jesus again, that He comes and He takes away the good seed of the Word of God from the hearts of men. This is what He does. John 6, 70, Jesus looked at the twelve and He said, One of you is a devil. A devil. What's that mean? One headed for hell. One who stands opposed to Christ. John 13, 2, the devil entered into Judas. The devil entered into Judas. Acts 10, 38, Jesus went around healing those who were being oppressed by the devil. And how many times have we seen people being possessed by the demons of Satan? And He would cast them out, exercising His authority over them. There's a saying that the greatest lie that the devil ever told was convincing people that he didn't exist. But look what the Gospels and all of the New Testament tells us about this one, who foolish people think doesn't exist. Acts 13.10, Paul called a man named Elymas, a son of the devil, because he was seeking to turn the proconsul and pathos away from Christ. Son of the devil, if you're trying to turn people away from Christ. Remember back in Ephesians chapter 4, verse 27, Paul told us, don't let the sun go down on your anger because if you do, you are going to give the devil an opportunity. This is all real. First Timothy 3, 6 speaks of the devil as one who has been condemned. The very next verse, Paul warns against appointing elders who might be subject to falling into the snares of the devil. 1 Timothy 3.11, this very word, diabolo, is used of slanderers, people who slander others. 2 Timothy 2.26, Paul again warns about the snares of the devil. What's this tell us about the devil and snares and deception? He's a schemer. He never comes at us head on, very rarely. In fact, most of the time, I don't think we notice him, at least not at first. In Mark 1.13, the one who tempted Jesus is not called Diabolu, he's called Satanah, the equivalent of Diabolu, Satan and Devil. We see it several times in Scripture, two names for the same being, I should say. Luke 10.18, Jesus watched Satan fall like lightning. In Luke's account, it was Satan who entered Judas, not the Devil, as John writes it. Same being. Luke 22, 31, Satan demanded permission to sift Peter like wheat. John 13, 27, Satan entered Judas. Acts 5, 3, Satan filled the heart of a man named Ananias to lie to the Holy Spirit. Acts 26, 18, Paul's preaching. He's on trial and he says that Jesus sent him to rescue people from the darkness, from the dominion of Satan. Now what do we see about Satan in all of these passages? What do they all have in common? It may be kind of obvious, but he's against God and what he's doing is, what he's doing is evil. There's no place here that says Satan called a man to help the man who'd fallen by the roadside. Everything he does is of evil. 1 Corinthians 5.5, Paul delivered a sexually immoral man to Satan for destruction. And then he says in 2 Corinthians 2.11, we are not ignorant of his schemes. We should not be ignorant of his schemes. And really, just the verse that really gets to the heart of who he is. 2 Corinthians 11, 14, he disguises himself. He masquerades as what? An angel of light. And he has power. 1 Thessalonians 2, 18, Paul writes, Satan hindered us from coming to you. Now, so we understand serpent, Satan, devil, diabolos, dragon are all talking about the same being. Revelation 20 verse 2, He laid hold of the dragon, the serpent of old, who is the devil and Satan. All of these terms refer to the same evil being. Now, I said the devil does not come at us head on, very rarely. He uses deception. He uses cunning. He uses deceptive strategies to catch us unaware. Often we don't see Him coming. And that should cause us not to be frightened but to be prepared. His methods are crafty. He doesn't use, you know, He doesn't line up and just come right at us. No. He's too cowardly. Always uses deception and scheming. And some of the ways He does this, even with the Bible, what does He do with the Bible? He distorts it. He will mix some lies and some error with some truth in there. Or He will completely distort the meaning of a passage. Sometimes he'll put in just enough truth to make it appear plausible. Now, he can't change the Scripture, but he certainly has impacted the way that the Jehovah's Witnesses read the Scripture. Who do you think's behind that? He's affected the way the Mormons read the Scripture. He led Joseph Smith to write a whole other addendum to the Bible. And he's led the Roman church to deny the final authority of the Scripture. All of these. He can now leave them alone. He can leave them alone. Because they have strayed so far from the Scriptures. I see you folks who've got your Bibles with you, who are opening your Bibles every day. You're the ones He's interested in. Sometimes like in the garden remember in the Garden of Eden. What did he do? He just outright misled He just put a doubt in Eve's mind What did he say to her? Did God really say Well, yes, he did he really said don't eat from that tree or you will surely die He just caused her to doubt Think about those words. Did he really say that? He doesn't necessarily sound like he's objecting to what God said. He's questioning. You sure you heard him right? Get him to doubt what he said. Other times, like when he tempted Jesus in the wilderness, he misrepresents what the Word is. Look, we read in the scripture there, you can leap off this mountain and he'll send angels to catch you, no problem. Well, that wasn't the point of that passage. He inspires men. These guys who call themselves apostle and prophet, he inspires men to falsely present themselves as ministers, as apostles, as prophets. Anyone who's looked through the YouTube for just a few minutes can attest to that. Or who's turned on the TV to the, quote, Christian channels. 2 Corinthians 11 3, hear this. But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and the purity of devotion to Christ. What would be an example of something that's Someone who's been led away from the simplicity and the purity of devotion to Christ. That's right. That you add your works and some special prayers that some man has made up to pray to somebody who were never authorized to be praying to and who very likely can't hear us. This is what this Torah Club business is about. They've left the simplicity and the purity of the gospel, trying to go backwards. For if one comes, Paul goes on, 2 Corinthians 11, 4, if one comes and preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or you receive a different spirit which you've not received, or a different gospel which you've not accepted, you put up with it. You put up with it. He's rebuking them for this. And then verse 13, for such men who do these things, who come up with another gospel, let's go back to Israel. Let's reenact the sacrifice of Calvary every day on an altar we've got here. Let's claim that we are changing this wafer into the body of Christ. Such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. And then look what he says, verse 14. It's no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. I've known a lot of priests in my life. Some of them were good men, by my reckoning anyway. But they were preaching a gospel that doesn't exist here in the Scripture. And they preach a message that says, here's what you do to merit God's blessing. And no one is good enough to merit God's eternal blessing. I don't know why Hebrew Roots people would want to go back to some works that have been clearly stated to be obsolete now in the New Testament. So, Paul concludes this, 2 Corinthians 11, 15, Therefore it is not surprising if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness, whose end will be according to their deeds. What is the destiny of every person who seeks to earn eternal life? How many will succeed? This is so clear in Scripture. There is none who seeks God, there is none who does good, not even one. Everyone who seeks to earn eternal life in the favor of God for all eternity by his own works will fail, as all of you have just attested. And yet, religion after religion, pray five times a day in this direction, pray on this set of beads, sit in a yoga position, all of these things, none of which can earn anybody the favor of God. And they all present themselves, as Paul says, as servants of righteousness. Who's behind all this? Satan is behind every bit of it. All of this new age business that never goes away. It was kind of part of the Gnostic thing 2,000 years ago. There's nothing new about it. It's just inventing your own God, worshiping it. You think that Satan's going to show up in all those stadiums this Sunday where people are wearing the jersey of some football team? Think he's going to bother any of them? Or do you think maybe he's going to slide into the churches and say, hey, that game's going to start? This is what he does. People have to understand there's eternity at stake here. And the opposite of eternal glory is not just eternal nothingness, it's eternal misery. And that's where Satan wants every one of us to go, to a place of eternal misery. And as to the activity of Satan, 2 Thessalonians 2.8. Then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will slay with the breath of His mouth, and bring to an end the appearance of His coming. Now that's not Satan, but this is one whose coming is in accord with the activity of Satan, with all power and signs and false wonders. Satan will equip this man of lawlessness to work miracles, signs, and wonders. And I'm reading these things so we understand, one, he's real, and two, he has power. And He will do things that we can't do. He will equip men to do things we can't do in order to deceive us. So we must hold fast to the Word of God. His coming is in accord with the activity of Satan, with all power and signs and false wonders, and with all the deception of wickedness for those who perish. Because And it's so simple, because they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved. Belief in the truth is the way of eternal life. Commentator named Snodgrass says, evil rarely looks evil until it accomplishes its goal. It gains entrance by appearing attractive. desirable, and perfectly legitimate. It is a baited and camouflaged trap. Peter, 1 Peter 5.8, Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary The devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. But resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world. Revelation 2.10. Jesus sends this letter to, sends seven letters to seven churches. This one is to the church in Smyrna, which would suffer persecution. He says to them, do not fear what you're about to suffer. They're going to be cast into prison. And who is it that He says is going to cast them into prison? Let me read it. Behold, the devil is about to cast some of you into prison. That's what Jesus was saying to John in this letter to the believers in Smyrna. He's about to cast some of you into prison so that you will be tested and you will have tribulation for ten days. Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life. Satan seeks to disrupt unity and harmony in the church. You know, when I started trying to make a list of all the things that Scripture tells us he seeks to do among us, it became the whole study for tonight. Just looking at the evil things he seeks to do. Jesus called him the evil one at times. He seeks to hinder the progress of the gospel. That's his overall endeavor. He seeks to hinder the fulfillment of God's eternal plan and purpose in Christ to sum up all things in Him. And he can't do it. He's already lost. He attempts by his crafty schemes to appeal to us. In what ways does he, what kind of emotions does he stir in us? Anger. Lust. Envy. Fear. All of these. Everything I wrote down, you all said. He seeks to stir up all this in us. Wants us to be envious of one another, angry at one another, doubting one another. He wants to cause disharmony among us. He seeks to stir in us all manner of sin. And first is the same thing He sought to stir up in Eve. Doubt in the Word of God. Above all else. That's why He doesn't have to spend much time with the Jehovah's Witnesses, the Mormons, and the Roman Catholics. They already ignore parts of the Word of God. He seeks to cause us to reject things God has spoken in His Word, as well as evoke anger and bitterness among us. He seeks to move us to speak falsely. Somebody asked us a question, we don't like the answer, we have to give. You don't have to tell the truth. He delights when we speak ill of others, especially of the brethren. He delights when we're unkind to others. Paul says, put on the fruits of the Spirit. And kindness is one of those. Love, joy, peace, patience, all of those things. When we stray from any of them, Satan's happy. He delights when we refuse to forgive one another. When we hold grudges against others. All of these tear at the soul. They embitter the soul. Those are victories for Him. And they can lead us away. Any of these things can lead us away from the steadfast perseverance in the faith. They can greatly hinder or destroy love, harmony, and unity among the brethren. And just in the things we've just read here in chapters 4, 5, and 6, devil seeks to move wives to refuse to be subject to their husbands. He seeks to move husbands to not love their wives unconditionally. He seeks to stir children to disobey their parents. He seeks disharmony between employers and employees. He seeks to place women and sodomites in pulpits in Christ's churches. You think about it. He's got a homosexual preaching. Has he won the battle already in that church? They've rejected the Word of God. He can move on to the next church. Same thing with putting women in pulpits. It's not about what our natural human talents are, it's about what God's Word instructs us to do. So people can doubt that the devil exists all they want. It's clear that Peter and John and Paul and the Lord Jesus Christ all believed in the existence of this evil being. And so they say, we must put on this full armor against him. What they all say in describing the power of the devil is that having been cast out of heaven, he now responds in fury, in envy, in hatred. against God, against His people, He seeks the destruction of the whole human race. He's got this desire to lure people into hell with Him. And He's got this powerful army. But to the praise of the glory of His grace, at this time, the time in which we're living, and for the last 2,000 years, God's eternal plan of redemption as it's being worked out. Satan has been bound. He is not free to roam as he pleases. He opposes us. But he is limited in one very important respect. And we find it in Revelation chapter 20. He cannot hinder the progress of the gospel among the Gentiles. Let me read this to you. Revelation 20, verse 1. I'm going to read three verses. And I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding the key of the abyss and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold of the dragon, the serpent of old, who was the devil and Satan. And he bound him for a thousand years, and he threw him into the abyss, and shut it and sealed it over him. And then he explains it. So that he would not deceive the nations, the Gentiles, any longer. until that 1,000 years, a symbolic 1,000 years, were completed. And after that time, He shall be released for a short time. We don't know what character that takes on. We're in this symbolic 1,000 years. He cannot deceive the nations any longer. That's why the gospel has gone forward for 2,000 years. The binding is obviously not bound in a chain, but He cannot stop the gospel. but He's still at war with us. I'll tell you what else we know. All things will ultimately be subject to Christ. He's ruling and reigning right now at the right hand of the Father because He has won the victory over Satan, sin, and death. He just hasn't cast Him into eternal fire yet. And Paul is not exhorting us to go out and win this victory on our own. He's at war with us. See, we're thinking, well, I'm not at war with him. If I let him alone, he'll let me alone. No, he won't. He will not let us alone. He wants us in hell with him. So Paul says, look, don't rely on your own power because you don't have it. He exhorts us to draw on the powers that God has made available to us, so that we might be able to withstand the fiery darts, the attacks of the devil, and stand firm against him. And that's what we're going to be seeing in the verses to come. He doesn't like what I'm saying. Finally, Be strong in the Lord, find your source of power in the Lord and in the strength of His might. So by virtue of this new life in Christ, each Christian has a certain amount of power. We all have the Spirit of God indwelling us. But this needs constant strengthening. We secure this increase, this strengthening, through our union with our Lord, through our abiding in Him, and through drawing on His strength, as He's going to teach us in the coming weeks. All that we have is what God has granted us. And by the gifts He's bestowed on us, He has provided us with the weaponry that is necessary to withstand this warfare that is certain to come. It's already coming. We're in it right now. And this means it's important we understand and have no doubt about God's power. In what ways has God demonstrated His power? What about creation? God created everything. That would be the great demonstration of power. He raised Christ from death back to life. He has power over life and death. He has the power to create. He has the power to destroy. He has the power over life and death. All things, all beings are entirely subject to Him. That's the power of God. He's omniscient. What matters is that we believe, that we know these things in our hearts. He knows everything. He knows the future in every detail. He knows the end from the beginning. He demonstrated this in Christ. When Christ was on earth, Jesus not only healed the daughter of the Syrophoenician woman the other week, but what else did He do? He told her he knew she was healed. Go home and you'll find her healed. How did he know that? He didn't see her. He knew she was now well. He knew Judas would betray him. One of you is a devil. He knew Peter was going to deny him three times before the cock crowed. He knew. Why? Because he knows all things. He told his disciples I'm going to Jerusalem now. And I'm going to be delivered over by the chief priests and the elders and the scribes to the Gentiles to be crucified. But don't worry, on the third day I'll rise again." Did any of that happen? Every bit of it. So this is the God who's on our side against this enemy. And you know what else? This seemed important to me. I think it is. this great and powerful God we have, when we come to Him in prayer, He hears us. How do we know He hears us? Here's a clue. Every question I ask, the answer's probably the same. How do we know He hears us? Because He tells us He hears us. And He cannot lie. Psalm 55, 16, as for me, I shall call upon God, and the Lord will save me. Evening and morning and at noon I will complain and murmur, and He will hear my voice. He hears us. Psalm 139, this is a psalm of David. Verse 1, O Lord, You have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up. You understand my thought from afar. Now how can He do that? Can God really understand David's thoughts from afar? Yeah, He can. He does. He knows your thoughts. He knows your heart. David continues, "...you scrutinize my path and my lying down, and are intimately acquainted with all my ways, even before there is a word on my tongue. Behold, O Lord, you know it all." 1 John 5, 14. This is the confidence which we have before Him that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. Now, that should be a tremendous comfort to us. He hears us, but He also knows our hearts. So we must seek to daily purify ourselves, turning away from that which displeases Him. But for the believer, the power of God is absolutely undeniable. What's incumbent upon us in the face of this unrelenting spiritual warfare, and again, it is going on. The Bible wouldn't say it's going on if it wasn't. We must avail ourselves of that power. The Lord said to Paul, and He says to us, My grace is sufficient for you, for power, Him, is perfected in weakness, us. Paul writes to Timothy, 1 Timothy 1.12, I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me, because He considered me faithful, putting me into service. Finally, Ephesians 1.19. Back in the first chapter of this remarkable letter, Paul prayed for the Ephesian converts, that you will know what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. He wants them to know this power. These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might, which He brought about in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places. That's the power of God. So, given that power of God, given that it is such as it is, why should it be necessary then that we put on this armor? Well, the why is explained beginning in verse 11. And we will begin our look at that question next week, Lord willing. Well, let's take a moment and reflect on the things the Lord has shown us this evening, and then we will close in prayer. Lord, we're just filled with awe, with amazement that You have opened our eyes to the knowledge of all these truths. all these truths of the spiritual realm, all these truths of eternity, all these truths of your eternal plan, the mystery of your plan of redemption in Christ. And Lord, we are awestruck that you would choose to include us in the family that you have called to yourself by your grace and by your mercy. And so, Lord, we thank You for Your Word, for Your Spirit, for Your Son, for Your mercy, Your grace, and Your love. In Christ's name, amen.