Ephesians 6:10-13

All right, thank you, music ministry.

I see the fly is back that was troubling Roger

Dell last Sunday.

He's still here.

He won't go away.

All right, let's turn.

I think I just heard myself.

Did y'all hear that?

That was an echo.

Maybe the fly is getting to me.

And let's begin by just reading this text for

today, starting in verse number 10.

Finally, that should tell you something.

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.

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.

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.

Now, we won't get to everything in this text

today, but we're going to get the ball rolling

here.

I want you to just think about this.

It's been a minute since we've been in Ephes

ians, the absolute majesty of this epistle.

I want to remind you of the fact that Paul in

this one epistle has revealed to the church

for all of church history some of the most

profound truths of the Christian faith since

verse 1.

Think about some of the things we've learned.

I won't go over every jot and tittle, but just

some major themes.

Some of the fantastic realities we've learned

about what it means to be in Christ.

We spent some time studying what that phrase

means to be in union with Christ as believers.

We also learned what it means to be adopted by

grace.

What a great doctrine that is into God's

family.

At the very start of Ephesians, we learned

that tremendous truth that we have been

blessed

with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly

places in Christ just as He chose us in Him

before the foundation of the world that we

would be holy and blameless before Him.

We have learned how we have been taken out of

the kingdom of darkness that we're going

to learn about today and we've been

transferred into the kingdom of Christ.

We have learned not only how we are

individually in union with Christ, but we're

also in union

with every other believer.

Every one of us is in union with one another

because we have the same indwelling Holy

Spirit

in us all.

We have learned how when we come to saving

faith in Christ, the entire constitution of

our nature changes, our attitudes change.

We begin to think different.

We begin to feel different.

We begin to talk different.

We act different.

We're not perfect.

None of us are in this life, but we begin to

be in a process that makes everything in

our life totally different than what it was

before Christ in that process, as you know

we call sanctification.

All of that is just a brief, very brief

summary of what we learned in just the first

three

chapters.

And then remember, Ephesians is split in half.

We learn all that in chapters one, two, and

three.

And then Paul switches in chapters four, five,

and six.

And after learning all about Christ and our

position in Christ as believers, then Paul

takes a turn and he starts to talk to us about

what the Christian life looks like when it's

lived out in obedience to what I like to call

the gold standard of God's Word.

Remember?

Remember how chapter four, verse one starts

out, look at it again.

We get that therefore, therefore I, the

prisoner of the Lord, implore, remember that's

beg.

He's begging you to walk out in a manner

worthy of the calling, worthy of the calling

with

which you have been called.

And then what happens after that?

If you can think back, he goes on to unpack

what the worthy walk looks like in the

successive

verses after this.

And certainly don't have time to go back over

all that, but we'll be here tomorrow.

But except to say this, if right now you're

confused or you're not sure about what is

God's will for my life right now?

That's probably, I remember R.C. Sproul saying

that's the number one question that he always

got from people at conferences and after

church.

What's God's will for my life?

Well, in one dimension, I can tell you this,

just go back and read chapters four, five,

and six up to this point where we are today,

and you will absolutely get a very clear

understanding

of the very least of how God wants you to live

.

You'll get a very clear understanding of what

the Christian life looks like when it's being

lived out according to the will of God.

And remember, not in perfection, but in the

direction, right, of your life.

Now, before we go on to Paul's, what we're

getting in here today is the last great thrust

of instruction that the apostle Paul is going

to give us.

And before we get to that, I want you to think

of all that I have just said to you in that

summary, and I want you to apply it this way.

As believers, we all have all the power, all

the resources, and written down for us in

a book, all the principles necessary for us to

live the Christian life in such a way that

it brings glory to God.

We have all of that at our disposal.

And of course, as you know, that's the purpose

of breathing right now for Christians to live

in such a way that you bring glory to God with

how you live.

And starting here in chapter 6 verse 10, Paul

is making clear after saying all that that

he said in this letter, he's really saying, "

Look, there's just one more thing you need

to know before I close this letter out in

spite of all the resources and the power and

the

principles that we have written down in this

book that we can read every day that are ours.

Living as a Christian in this fallen world is

not going to be easy."

That's how Paul wants to end this letter.

He's basically saying to us, "Do not dare take

anything for granted."

Just because you know how to operate on the

job doesn't mean you'll automatically pull

it off, right?

You ever work with somebody like that?

Just because you've learned from the Word of

God and you know here how you're supposed

to conduct yourself and your family as a

Christian, that doesn't automatically mean you

're going

to fulfill it, does it?

Because even though you have the principles

and even though the principles and the power

are there, there's something else there, and

that is a very formidable enemy, the very

real adversary who hates us.

And since at the end of the day, this

adversary can't have us.

He seeks to wreak as much havoc as he can

while he still does have access to us before

we go to our heavenly home and terrorize, tear

up.

And so when it comes to defining the Christian

life, the very best term that we can use if

we are serious about our faith is warfare.

In fact, if you don't view the Christian life

that way, I'm here to tell you you're not

living it right.

You're coasting.

And if you're coasting, he's really tearing

you up and you don't even realize it.

But this is exactly how Paul presents the

Christian life in this last passage of Ephes

ians,

warfare.

In fact, at the end of his life, he wrote to

Timothy in 2 Timothy 4, verse 7.

Look at it there.

What did he say?

"I have fought the good fight."

That's an element of warfare.

In 2 Timothy 2, verse 3, one of my favorite

verses in the New Testament, he said, "Suffer

hardship with me as what?

A good soldier of Christ Jesus, repeatedly in

Scripture."

What's implied that the Christian life is seen

, thought of as warfare.

Just consider Jesus himself at the very start

of his ministry.

He finds himself in a very intense conflict

with Satan himself after 40 days of fasting.

Right?

You remember the story.

And if you think that the warfare gets easier

the longer you live, wrong you are, is what

I say to you.

Consider the scene at the very end of Jesus'

life and ministry in the Garden of Gethsemane.

Now even though Scripture does not record

Satan saying anything at all at the Garden

of Gethsemane, you can smell him there.

Through what Jesus was going through as he was

meditating on what was about to happen

to him at Calvary.

My point is this, Jesus had tremendous

conflict at the beginning of his ministry in

the wilderness

and the temptation, but he didn't sweat as it

were great drops of blood until the end

of his ministry in the Garden.

And the same here is true for us.

The longer that we live the Christian life,

the more spiritually mature we become, the

more sensitive to sin we become, the more the

war intensifies.

So it doesn't get easier, it's harder.

We're aware of more and if you're striving to

live the Christian life the way that God

intends you to, this is no different for me

than it is for you.

We're on level playing field.

Just because I happen to have a role and a

service of pastor, we're going through this

exactly the same way together.

Warfare is absolutely the best way to describe

what we are going through as we live out our

lives in this fallen world, but for all of the

difficulties and all of the battles that

we face in this war.

You want to hear something crazy?

This is some non-worldly thinking right here

in the very big picture view as a Christian.

You should want to be in the heat of the

conflict while you're here on this earth.

You should want to be every single day.

Why do I say that?

Why do I say you should want to be because

this is what God has ordained for us in his

process of conforming us to the image of

Christ?

It's what he's ordained for us.

And that reality gives us what no earthly

warrior ever has.

You know what no earthly warrior ever has?

Guaranteed victory.

We have guaranteed victory in the end, indis

putably we win.

Consider what Paul says about staying in this

city of Ephesus just a little while longer

in 1 Corinthians 16 and verse 9.

He says a wide door for effective service has

opened to me.

Now I could preach a whole sermon right there

on tracking the winds of providence and what

you're going to do with your life.

A wide door opened up and he's ready to go,

but look what he says next.

And there are many adversaries.

Paul is saying there are many adversaries at

this new wide door for effective service,

so guess what I'm doing?

I'm staying put.

I'm staying where the war is the hottest on

purpose.

Too many Christians here in the Lando plenty

say, oh, man, this is getting to be too much

for me.

I got to get out of this.

I want an easy ministry.

I want it easy as you can get.

That comes from listening to too much popular,

topical type preaching in our day.

In large measure, Americanized Christianity is

soft, weak.

It's always looking for ease, rest, relaxation

, easy life, no trouble, no confrontation,

plenty

of rest, R&R, plenty of prosperity.

Let me tell you something that don't even

spell like Christianity.

If that's what you're looking for, it ain't

the Christian faith.

You're not finding that in the Bible.

The genuine Christian life is warfare.

That's what I'm trying to get across to you.

And besides fighting our own flesh, which that

's a whole another topic for another day,

right?

I've got that to the side for right now.

We have an enemy who is literally hell bent on

destroying every divine purpose that God

has for us every second of every day.

So I'm telling you, yes, we are sons, yes, we

are servants, yes, do loss, but also we

are soldiers too.

Paul says this in St. Corinthians 10, 3-4, "

For though we walk in the flesh," and you

got to be nuanced when you're not talking

about walking in the flesh as far as sin,

he's just talking about being human, "we do

not war according to the flesh," the weapons

by warfare, not of the flesh, but divinely

powerful for the destruction of fortresses.

So our warfare is not just physical, it

certainly can have a physical element to it.

Our battle against the flesh can come through

the use of the enemy using human beings, just

like with Jesus.

I mean, think about it, right?

He was beaten, spit on, crucified by men,

right?

But most certainly those men were influenced

from within a realm that we can't even see

that is occupied by our adversary, the devil.

Consider the apostles beheaded, beaten, stoned

, crucified, martyred for their faith in Christ

.

How about many places in Africa and the Middle

East, many Christians are being slaughtered

for their faith right in front of their

families right now, today.

It's terrible what's going on in Nigeria and

other places.

Do you really think there are only men

involved in that great wickedness that we see

going

on?

If you do think that, you better pay close

attention to every single solitary word in

this text that we're fixing to study.

Because behind the hatred for Christ and the

physical persecution that we see from people

in our world, there really is, there really is

an entire unseen by us domain filled with

spiritual beings, fallen angels who are at war

every minute of every day with every believer

that's living and breathing on the earth right

now.

And they simply use the physical world and the

people in it as a means to their hands.

Now, before we go any further, this is a good

spot for my devil disclaimer.

How many of you have never heard my devil

disclaimer?

Raise your hand.

Okay, we got enough for the devil disclaimer.

Here's the problem we have in the church, in

conservative churches and mainly the Forum

churches, we put these guys over here.

Yeah, I mean, you know, we're biblical and we

acknowledge, yeah, there is a devil.

There's no question.

I mean, you can't get around it.

You can't get around it.

The devil's all over the Bible, right?

He makes us a little uncomfortable to talk

about because one of these guys, man, it's

wild.

It's supernatural.

But the main reason why we kind of just kind

of shy away from talking about it is because

these folks over here in charismatic land,

over here in charismatic land, it's devil

here, devil there, devil there, devil

everywhere, right?

The devil of this and the devil of that, the

devil made me do it and the devil of parking

space and devil stopped my parking space.

I had somebody else texting with me and I've

been sick and I say, "I think it's the devil."

Somebody texts me that the other day and I say

, "Well, I might just need to go to the

drugstore and get you some sinus pills or

something that might help you."

So over here, we get a little bit like, "Ooh,

I don't want to be like these people over

here who are so extreme."

And then really what they wind up doing is

really blaming the devil for everything and

not their own sin is what really winds up

happening.

This is where we need to be right here in the

middle.

Think, use your brain that God gave you, okay?

Yeah, we don't want to be nuts, but yeah, we

don't want to, at the same time, deny.

It's a real devil.

There's real demons.

They really do wreak havoc in our lives.

They really do.

So we want to think about this biblically.

We want to come to scripture like this text

and unpack this scripture so we can understand

how to deal with this massive warfare that we

're in because you're in the war whether

you want to be or not if you're a believer.

And as we dive into this, with all those

things considered that I just said, I'm going

to

give you five points to get us through 10 to

13 and we might be in 10 to 13 again next

time.

I don't know.

Number one, the preparation.

Number two, the armor.

Number three, the enemy.

Number four, the battle.

Number five, the victory.

Okay, so those are the points we're going to

work our way through in this text.

And we're going to start first with the

preparation because you most certainly do not

want the

battle to start and you find yourself unpre

pared, right?

Look at how Paul starts off in verse 10 with

this word, finally, he says that because as

I told you earlier, this is the last of the

major themes here in this epistle and he says

next in verse 10, "Be strong in the Lord and

in the strength of his might."

Now there is a general principle here that we

all live our Christian lives totally dependent

on the strength of God, amen?

This is a way of life for us.

We depend totally and completely on God's

strength.

Notice here that two times he uses the word in

, I in, in the Lord and in the strength

of his might.

And that is a prominent reality in the whole

book of Ephesians, remember?

We are in Christ.

We are one with him.

There is a sense in which his life is our life

.

His power is our power.

His truth is our truth.

We talked about all of that when we studied

that.

So it is in Christ that we are strong and

guess what, only in Christ, never in our own

strength alone because our enemy, I hate to

tell you, is much, much stronger than us in

our own strength.

Now, he is in no way at all anywhere close to

the strength of King Jesus.

Get that straight, these fools that talk about

Jesus and Satan are fighting on some kind

of equal playing field, they are out of their

mind, they are not reading the Bible right.

And you know for yourself and myself, greater

is he that is in us than he who is in the

world.

Right?

That is Christ.

So, infinitely greater is Christ that the

reality is the smallest amount of divine power

can

completely overcome the greatest amount of

power coming from anything that our adversary

and all of hell together could ever unleash.

So understand that, there is no equal playing

field between God and the devil here, okay?

The strength is ours, the strength in the Lord

and we have the greatest resource that

exists in this warfare anywhere, it is in us.

Remember in Colossians what Paul said, Christ

in you, the hope of glory, right?

Now Hebrews 2.14 says this, "Therefore, since

the children share in flesh in blood as us,

he himself, that's Jesus, likewise also part

ook of the same flesh in blood, that through

death

he might render powerless him who had the

power of death that is the devil."

Now, I'm going to tell you straight away, I am

not satisfied that I have fully understood

the depth of what that means, that Satan had

the power of death and all of that.

I mean that's an area of theology, I'll be

honest with you, I'm still studying that,

I'm still trying to grasp the depth of that.

But this is what I can tell you, what I do

understand about this verse is really the

best part of it, at the cross, Jesus delivered

a death blow to Satan.

Look what it says, "He rendered him powerless,

him who had the power of death that is the

devil."

Well, my question is, in what sense, how does

that really work out?

I still haven't got a complete explanation

that I'm satisfied with, but in one sense

for sure, this means for believers only, Satan

can lay no claim on us.

Satan can't ever have us, there is no charge

that Satan can ever bring to God about us

ever.

Because he's the great accuser of the brethren

, this is what R.C. Sproul writes, his note

on this verse in his study Bible.

He says this, "Having tempted humanity to sin,

the devil acts as an accuser, demanding

that a just punishment be exacted, and the

wages of sin is death."

In other words, the devil is up there saying,

"Hey, there are sinners, you said wages of

sin is death, kill them eternally, death,"

then Sproul writes, "the devil's power to

kill is destroyed only when our sin has been

punished in Christ's death, then his

accusations

have no ground."

And that helps me get at this deal a little

bit better.

So as Romans 8, 33 says, "Who will bring a

charge against God's elect?

God is the one who justifies."

So let me tell you, that's what this means.

If you have come to repentance and faith on

Christ's terms and God has done something

that is the most important thing that can ever

be done for a human being, God has declared

you just, right?

And he has not only declared you just, he has

forgiven all of your sins past, present,

and future, and he's not only forgiven all of

your sins, he's taken the righteousness

of Christ that he acquired while he was here

living a perfect life, and he's imputed it

to you, and he's put it on your account.

And all of your sins, every one of them were

imputed to Christ when you believed and

punished

in Christ on your behalf as your substitute on

the tree.

So guess what?

That means that Satan has no grounds at all to

lay any charge against any believer ever.

You understand that?

In the biggest picture, he has nothing to

accuse us of, because Jesus has paid for

everything

we've ever done that he could accuse us of,

and that is in the sense so far that I

understand

the reality that Jesus defeated Satan at the

cross.

This is what John McArthur writes, "If God has

declared me just, and if God has won

the battle, and if God has gotten me victory

in Jesus, then that victory is mine, and Satan

has no power to withstand the resurrection

resource that dwells in the life of every

believer."

Are you tracking with that?

You see?

Now, the point is this.

We are in a war in this life.

God allows Satan to come against us in this

war.

Go, Regio.

It's a perfect example.

But he's on God's leash.

He can only go as far as God lets him go no

further.

Well, God lets him rope out to sanctify us,

right?

Folks, what I want to get you, before we get

to, oh, Diablos, before we get to him, what

I'm trying to get you to see here, leading up

to explaining that, is in the ultimate

sense we cannot lose.

You get that?

There's no reason for you to be afraid of the

devil, none.

Paul says that Timothy God has not given us a

spirit of fear, but of power and of love

and of a sound mind.

So we can read these Bibles and we can

understand all this that we're dealing with.

There's no Christian at no time in his life

who ever needs to feel that he loses the war

to the enemy.

We know that we are going to win the war

because Christ has already achieved the

victory.

Now, can you keep all that tracking straight

in your mind?

But there are battles along the way.

If we're going to have some success in these

battles, there are some things that we are

going to have to know and put into practice in

our lives.

Number one, we have to have our strength in

the Lord, as we just read.

And number two, you've got to have your armor

on.

Now, we hear a lot today about the Christian

ministries that are in the business of

delivering

people from demons.

Go on YouTube and you'll see them there having

, it's just the most cheesiest fake lunacy that

you'll ever want to see.

And the people are screaming in the man, comes

over there and puts his hand on it.

It's pretty interesting to me that these

demons primarily only manifest themselves and

possess

people in the church services of these types

of ministries.

I mean, you never see this happening in a Re

formed Baptist Church anywhere.

You never see this happening in an Armenian

Southern Baptist Church or any other churches.

They just only seem to show up and shriek and

froth at the mouth where the preacher is there

to do that job.

It seems they should put a red flag up for you

when you're watching these videos.

And in addition to that, there is not one word

about Christian exorcism, Protestant

or Catholic, found anywhere in the scripture,

not one word.

Whenever Satan or his fallen angels are dealt

with, they are dealt with in terms of two

things.

One, in the strength of the Lord, and two, in

the provision that God has made for every

believer in Christ and the resources that are

clearly laid out in the scripture for us.

So we don't need man-made rituals.

We don't need man-made exorcisms.

We don't need Bob Larson ridiculously command

ing demons to go to the pit as if you could do

something like that, as if you could command a

spiritual being that's been here for centuries

since the Garden of Eden to do anything, which

is insane to me that people believe that.

But anyway, the resources that God has

provided are available for every single

believer in

this war.

In Ephesians 1.19, it talks about what kind of

power is at our disposal.

Look at it.

And what is the surpassing greatness of his

power toward us who believe?

Well, here they are.

These are in accordance with the working of

the strength of his might.

What more power could you possibly want?

And what kind of power are we talking about?

Well, it's the kind of power to raise Christ

from the dead, kind of power that set Christ

at the Father's right hand in the heavenlies,

far above all principality and power and might

and dominion in every name that is named, not

only in this age, but in the age to come,

that kind of power.

What kind of power we have?

The kind of power to conquer death at the

cross, the kind of power to conquer death

in the grave, the kind of power that exalted

Christ to the right hand and set every single

angel, demon in the universe under his feet,

that's the power that we have.

That's the power toward us, Ephesians 1.19 is

talking about.

So every believer has the resource within us

that enables us to deal with whatever Satan

throws at us, but on certain conditions, one,

that our strength is in the Lord, not

ourselves.

Number two, that we fulfill the conditions of

armor that we're going to talk about.

That's the provision that God has made in this

war for all of us.

So number one point, preparation means in

general, okay, this is the bedrock, recognize

that in the Lord only, the power is available.

That's what I'm trying to get across to you

before we get a look at the fierceness of

our enemy.

There is absolutely no believer who cannot

deal with Satan and his fallen angels in

terms of the power that is available to every

believer in Christ.

You just have to know and understand and

appropriate it.

And that's what we're going to try to get to

in this study at the last part of Ephesians.

Look at what 1 Corinthians 10-12 says, "There

fore let him who thinks he stands take heed

that

he does not fall."

You know when you're the most vulnerable, when

you think you're not.

When you think you've achieved theological

mastery, when you think that you can handle

Satan on your own, I got all the necessary

equipment, I got all the doctrine of data,

I know what to do, when you think that you can

handle these fallen angels who have been

here since the dawn of creation and they exist

in a realm that you can't even see with your

eyeballs.

Let me tell you, you're doomed before you even

get started.

But on the other hand, when you depend

completely on God, there's nothing that

adversary can

do that can cause you to lose the victory.

Look at 1 Corinthians 10-13, "No temptation

has overtaken you but such as is common to

man and God is faithful, who will not allow

you to be tempted beyond what you are able

but with the temptation will provide the way

of escape also so that you will be able to

endure it."

And the point is, there will never be a time

in this warfare that we're talking about when

you need to lose.

There will never be a time when you cannot

overcome with Christ in you if you depend

and follow his instructions and that's a big

if.

If you depend on him and follow his

instructions, that if is on us.

You understand that?

We have to submit to God's way of dealing with

this issue, or guess what, we'll be sifted

like wheat, like Jesus told Peter.

Remember Paul talking about his thorn in 2

Corinthians 12-7?

Remember what he called it, a messenger of

Satan.

There's a demonic involvement God allowed and

remember he prayed three times for it

to be taken away.

You remember the response in verse 9, "And he

has said to me, 'My grace is sufficient

for you, for power is perfected in weakness.'"

And then at the end of verse 10, Paul says, "

For when I am weak, then I am strong."

He got it, right?

We can't hand on this on our own, I promise

you, but when we would depend on the King

completely in him, we can.

Let me give you an example.

If you were a soldier up on the wall and you

're guarding a fort and you're the guard on the

wall and all of a sudden coming through the

woods, you see the enemy forces approaching

the fort.

Just you, by yourself, guarding on the wall,

do you take your gun and run down there and

confront the enemy?

No, not if you got any sense.

What do you do?

You report to the commander.

That's what you do, the commanding officer.

That's what we need to learn about this war

that we're in right here.

When the enemy attacks us, don't go straight

at him to the fight, immediately report to

the commanding officer.

David said to the Philistines, "The battle is

the Lord's."

Ephesians 6-10 is telling us we can be strong

in the Lord and in the strength of His might.

We can be the Holy Spirit.

I just read it last week, "I sproke through

the prophet to Jehoshaphat in second chron

icles."

He said, "For the battle is not yours, but God

's."

Get that.

Learn this.

This is the proper preparation.

This is what we're building on top of and that

leads us next to the second way we have

to deal with the enemy.

Look at verse 11.

It starts out, "Put on the full armor of God."

Stop right there.

Even with the proper preparation, we also have

to have the armor on in this war.

Oh, we're not going to have any victory.

And the dependence upon God's power and the

obedience to put on the available armor, both

of those things are absolutely necessary or we

're going to get beat down on the regular,

I promise you.

And we're going to get into detail about what

this armor is all about and some sermons

to come.

But right here, verse 11, look next at that

phrase, "Put on."

In the original, the full meaning is to put on

once for all.

It's not like in your football uniform, you

put it on only on game day.

We are to put this armor on and leave it on

for the rest of our lives.

That's what to put on is.

This is intentional Christian living as we're

going to see.

And any time you lay that armor down, you are

completely vulnerable because at that

point you're on your own and you can't do

anything on your own and neither can I.

So the message here is this, "Depend on the

Lord, put the armor on and leave it on."

That's the message, being doctrinally sound,

having a grasp of biblical theology.

There's very good and very necessary things

for us to have.

But without having the armor on, having all

your theological facts straight alone, that

ain't going to do nothing to help you when he

comes at you.

The armor goes beyond the facts in your head

to the response of living right.

That's what we're going to see in this text.

John MacArthur again says, "If you want to win

in the Christian life, get the armor

on, get your life right because it's going to

be a battle to the day you die."

If you're truly a Christian, it's going to be

a battle no matter what.

You're going to get smoked every day or you're

going to put the armor on.

That's the question.

This brings us to thirdly, the enemy.

Look next.

So that you will be able to stand firm against

the schemes of the devil.

We always need to be standing firm because

guess what?

The enemy is always attacking.

We don't need to go find the enemy.

He's always scheming against us.

There are not many bigger idiots in the world

than the demon hunters.

We're going hunt the demons.

Those people are idiots.

They don't know their Bible.

We are never told in the Bible to attack the

devil ever.

You know what we're told?

Resist him and he'll flee.

We're told, stand firm, hold our ground and

yes, he is absolutely real and no, he's not

a little red man with horns and a pitchfork.

No.

You can read about his fall in Isaiah 14, Ezek

iel 28 talks about him, originally the

top anointed angel.

You know the story.

He got the eye disease.

I will ascend up.

I will be like the most high and Lucifer, the

highest of angels fell and one third of

all the angels that God ever created fell with

him and they all became the demonic enemy.

Now, as I said earlier, do you have a problem

here in the 21st century believing he exists?

Well, let me tell you something.

Jesus believed he exists.

Jesus talked about him multiple times in the

gospels.

Jesus talked to him in Matthew 4.

The apostles believed he's real.

Paul talks about him.

Peter talks about him.

He tempted even Genesis 3.

He tempted Jesus in Matthew 4.

He hindered God's servant in 1 Thessalonians 2

.

He's an angel of light in 2 Corinthians 11.

He fights with the archangel Michael in the

book of Jude.

He has the whole world lying in his lap in 1

John 5.

He's been here since the very start of human

history.

He has personal titles.

Ezekiel 28 calls him the Anointed Cherub.

John 16, the ruler of the world.

Ephesians 2, the prince of the power of the

air.

2 Corinthians 4, the God little G of this

world, Luke 11, the ruler of demons.

Fifty-two times he is called Satan, which

means adversary.

Thirty-five times he's called devil, Diablos,

which means slanderer.

He's called the old serpent.

He's called the great dragon, the roaring lion

, the evil one, the spirit now working

in the sons of disobedience.

He is also described by Jesus as a murderer

and a liar and the father of lies.

He works in our world with doctrines of devils

and seducing spirits.

He is a formidable enemy and you cannot say

that you believe that the Bible is God's

Word and at the same time say you do not

believe he exists.

You can't say both of those things at the same

time and be honest.

He is in charge of a fast host of fallen

angels, demons who have been here as long as

he has.

They are wily, they are clever, they are

highly intelligent, they are subtle and

cunning and

incredibly deceptive.

They are invisible, they are supernatural.

And listen, important point, when we refer to

our enemy or our adversary, it's really

shorthand for referring to all of them because

Lucifer is not omnipresent.

He can only be in one pace at one time and I'm

pretty sure right at this moment he's

dealing personally with bigger fish to fry

than any of us over here on Hooper Road.

But all the rest of them, okay, all the rest

of them are way more than we can handle in

our own power and strength.

So when we say enemy, adversary, understand,

we are really referring to the whole, even

when we say Satan, we are really referring to

the whole demonic realm.

And how do they operate?

Well, they operate, look at Ephesians 6, 11.

Here's how they operate.

On the basis of, look at that phrase, the

schemes of the devil.

And they have many screams.

They work in and through people, politics, all

of the realm of media, social media.

They are eating young people alive on the

internet, eating them alive.

There's a whole show, I don't command you to

watch, I've got a lot of cussing in it,

but it's about this 764 group.

I can't even begin to tell you the terrible

things that they are extorting young people

to do and those making young people kill

themselves, making young people, it is

horrible.

If you've got young grandchildren, nieces and

nephews, get them off of social media.

I'm talking about all of it, Instagram, TikTok

, get them off.

There are predators out there that are

unbelievably doing the most wicked things.

If you want me to give you the show and send

it to you, if you can stand it, you can't

hardly even listen to what they're doing, get

them off of that.

They're working through Hollywood, they work

through the music industry, their schemes,

are most wickedly, deceptively demonstrated in

false doctrine and false religion.

They have deceived mankind throughout history

with many different false religious systems.

They are incredibly, again, intelligent,

creative, and sophisticated in doing this.

They can go from totem poles to the Vatican

and everything in between and just deceive

everybody that falls into their trap.

And guess what?

They know us better than we know ourselves.

You know why?

Think about it.

They have been observing and studying human

nature since the very beginning of human

history.

Oh, they know us.

Let me tell you, from the lowest IQ person in

the world to the most brilliant IQ person

that this world has to offer and all the

spectrum in between in every single situation,

they

know exactly how to work on and to tempt and

to deceive everybody.

You want a good example of that?

Go read C.S. Lewis' screw-tape letters.

I commend it to you highly.

They have people all over the world in pulpits

professing to be Christians, but denying

the inerrancy of Scripture, denying the deity

of Christ, denying salvation by grace through

faith alone, and at the same time promoting

abortion on demand, homosexual marriage, and

transgender rights all the while with the

rainbow stole claiming to be Christian.

In the mainline denominations of America,

something I thought I'd never see in my

lifetime.

But here it is.

Here we are.

It's demons behind all of that.

You have to understand that.

Satan and his minions infiltrate churches to

split them up.

We can tell a story about that, but the church

was, I was there before it is.

And many other ones, they are always at work

in Christians' mind to create doubt about

your salvation.

Look at what you did.

Look at how you acted.

They tempt us at all levels using the allure

ments of this fallen, evil world system.

And they use men to persecute the church.

Look at how verse 12 starts out.

"For our struggle is not against flesh and

blood, humans, but against the rulers, against

the powers, against the world forces of this

darkness, against the spiritual forces of

wickedness in the heavenly places."

And we're going to see when we go more

thoroughly through that.

All of that right there is describing demons.

So if you're going to say you believe the

Bible and you can't get around it, our real

enemy is not flesh and blood, but the demons

who use flesh and blood, men, to accomplish

their evil warfare against us.

It's just wild to consider the reality that we

live in.

There's a totally invisible unseen realm of a

demon empire all around us.

And there's a very real enemy that's invisible

that we wrestle against.

It's just so wild.

Let me tell you something, they know their B

ibles.

They have their theological ducks in the road

far better than any of us.

Do you know what else they know?

They know their end.

They know that there is an eternal lake of

fire prepared for them that will be their

reality forever.

And therefore, they hate our guts more than

you can possibly imagine, because they know

our end too, and they are filled with evil

hatred.

They know they can't have us.

They know that we win in the end.

So while they do have whatever access God

allows to have to us, because they're filled

with this evil hatred, they never stop being

at war with us until the King returns.

But guess what?

The minute he comes back, war's over.

War's over.

They lose.

So instead of the beginning, if you're really

going to live the Christian life as God int

ends

it to be lived, it's not going to be easy.

This year marks 25 years of serving in the

ministry for me, and I could tell you

countless

stories of the very many, many ways that the

enemy has tried to take me out of the ministry

and take every single one of my pastor friends

out of the ministry.

And you know most of my pastor friends, and

here we stand, group.

We got battle stories that we don't share with

people, we don't want to burden you.

But I went to look about, I used to hear a big

number, huge number, that 17,000 pastors

leave the ministry every year because it just

gets to be too much.

Well, part of that is just a constant

relentless attack on pastors.

He doesn't want me up here doing this.

He does not want me up here doing this,

especially expository preaching.

But the best, and I even checked with Grock,

who's pretty, some things he's right on, but

I double checked him, on average about 3,000

evangelical pastors quit the ministry every

year.

About 150 pastors every month, every year quit

, give up, and just can't handle it anymore.

And only, only by the grace of God am I

fortunate enough to still be hanging in here

after 25

years with a group of men who will be quick to

tell you that that's the only way that

they do too, the only way.

And believe me, we don't take anything for

granted at all.

Every day, folks, all of us, all of us, have

to remind ourselves who is our strength and

that we have to keep the armor on, and for

today, we're going to end on a victory note.

How about that?

You want to do that?

We can.

In verse 13, we've gone from the preparation

to the armor, to the enemy, to the battle,

to the victory.

Verse 13, "Therefore, take up the full armor

of God so that you will be able to resist

in the evil day, and having done everything,

stand firm."

That's what we're called to do.

We got all the power.

We got all the resources that we need to be

able to resist him.

He flees and stand firm.

If the armor is on and the confidence is in

the Lord, there's victory.

Guaranteed.

When is the evil day that this verse is

talking about?

Every day.

It's every day until Jesus comes back.

So report to the commander when the fiery d

arts come.

Victories yours, resist the devil.

He'll flee.

Now, we're going to, we're going to proclaim

and we're going to celebrate the greatest

reality right now that gives us the victory,

that is the Gospel, the person and work of

Jesus Christ proclaimed in the bread and the

cup.

So as we always do, turn over to 1 Corinthians

chapter 11.

And I want you to, I don't want to repeat

myself, although I do that quite often.

The older I get, the more I find myself

repeating myself.

But I think that goes with the, with the

territory.

But remember what I said at the beginning

about worthiness.

Okay.

I want to read this for the sake of gravitas,

weightiness was what we're fixing to do.

This is a magnet.

This is one of the most magnificent things you

'll ever do in your life is celebrate the

Lord's Supper.

And Paul writes therefore, and you remember

now the context, the Corinthians were acting

like fools in the supper and he had to step in

, Paul did and correct the situation.

So the very context here is that, but it's, it

's a, it's a broader context for us when

we consider how serious we are to take the

supper, therefore, whoever eats the bread

or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy

manner shall be guilty of the body and the

blood of the Lord, but a man must examine

himself and in so doing, he is to eat of the

bread and drink of the cup for he who eats and

drinks, eats and drinks judgment to himself

if he does not judge the body rightly.

For this reason, many among you are weak and

sick and a number sleep, died, they died.

He took, the Lord took them out.

They were Christians and he disciplined them.

They were good and so stupid with what they

were doing, he took them out and I serious.

That tells me this is serious now at the same

time that you understand the seriousness.

You're a believer at the same exact time that

you understand the weightiness.

You should be brimming with joy.

You should be overwhelmed by the fact that

because of salvation, you have all these

resources

at your disposal to fight against the sure

attacks of the devil.

You have Christ in you the hope of glory.

You've got the principles written down for how

to do it.

You know what's going on.

People who are not Christians don't even know

what's going on.

I only did not believe it, they're not even

aware, they don't even think about it at any

time but we have all of these great gospel

benefits and privileges.

So at the same time that you recognize the

weightiness here with great joy, bubbling

over with thanksgiving, thank you Lord that

you saved me.

Thank you Lord that you plucked me as a brand

from the fire, I didn't deserve it at all.

I deserved to go into the fire of hell is what

I deserved and you plucked me out by

your grace and for your glory for reasons

known only to you.

I don't want to worry about you and me of all

people, I have no idea.

I won't know that hopefully until I get to

heaven, I'll know it.

You don't know it now and I'm sure you can say

the same about yourself.

So with great joy we come to celebrate

together as a church this great ordinance,

this great

celebration that Jesus has commanded us to do.

Now as always you know this table is open, if

you have genuinely repented of your sin

and placed your faith in Jesus Christ and

proclaimed that publicly in baptism, come

on down and receive the supper and we do it

together, we pray in a way that brings God's

glory.

Before we do that let's bow our heads, close

our eyes, oh man just think about the

magnitude

of the things that you have heard this day.