Let’s read Ephesians 6:10-12. Paul says, “Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. 11 Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles,” note that word, “of the devil. 12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.”
It doesn’t take long being a Christian getting over kind of that initial joy of salvation. Remember when you were first born again and the joy that filled your heart? To realize that the Christian life is not a playground, it’s a battleground, right? We realize there’s an enemy of our soul, we’re going to see in our text he’s called the devil, he’s full of his tactics or wiles, and he’s very powerful. He’ll do everything he can to destroy your Christian walk and life. He can’t rob you of your salvation, but he can certainly nullify your sanctification, keep you from serving the Lord. If you’re a believer, it’s wise for you to understand how you’re to stand against the wiles of the devil as Paul lays out here for us in the book of Ephesians. Look at Ephesians 6:12. He says, “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” We find ourselves in a spiritual battle.
The Christian’s enemy falls into three categories. First, there’s the world. The word “world" in the New Testament is the Greek word cosmos and speaks of the evil world system apart from God. Satan uses the world to attack and influence the believer. The second enemy of the believer is the flesh, and we’re all so painfully aware of that. It’s not talking about our physical bodies but about our sinful nature—your sinful Adamic nature that you inherit from Adam. Even though you’ve been born again and have a new nature from Christ, you have the power of the Holy Spirit. Paul said, “…For what I will to do, that I do not practice.” In the book of Galatians, Paul said the Spirit and the flesh war against one another, so Satan will use our flesh to try to nullify our Christian witness and our service to Christ keeping us ineffective in our Christian life.
The third category is, which we undertake tonight and the next several weeks to look at, the devil. The world is our enemy, the flesh is our enemy, and then the devil is behind all of that—he uses the world and the flesh to attack us. Again, verse 11, we get him named, that it is the devil, “…the wiles of the devil.” The word “devil” means slanderer, also known as Satan, which is the name adversary. He slanders us before the throne of God. Thank God that we have Jesus to intercede for us and have His righteousness imputed to us. But he also wants to be attacking us as the adversary.
The context of this section of the book of Ephesians is that the first three chapters are doctrine, and the second section, chapters 4-6, are duty. We have the wealth, then we have the walk, and now you might add a third category, Ephesians 6:10-20, the warfare of the believer. It’s a great way to break up the book of Ephesians. It starts with your wealth in Christ, then how you walk in Christ, Ephesians 4:1 where he tells us to “…walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called,” and the warfare of the believer. It’s interesting, the devil wants to keep you ignorant of your wealth and impotent in your walk. He wants you to be ignorant of the wealth you have in Jesus Christ. Notice, doctrine always comes before duty, principles before practice. You can’t live what you don’t know you’re supposed to be. Satan wants to keep you ignorant of who you are and the wealth you have in Christ, so if you need to strengthen that in your life, go back to Ephesians 1 and read chapters 1-2 and then come back to this section on the warfare of the believer. The devil wants to ruin your walk and your witness for Jesus Christ.
It’s interesting, we just finished looking at husbands and wives, parents and children, and masters and servants. If there’s anything Satan wants tonight, he wants to attack your family, he wants to attack your home, he wants to attack your marriage and your children. Right after that, in the book of Ephesians, we find the spiritual warfare. If you are appropriating your wealth and practicing your worthy walk, you will come under the attack of the devil, so Paul tells us how to stand.
There are three main points I want to make tonight from this text, and I’m not going to take the text chronologically, I’m going to take it logically. I’m going to bounce around in these three verses. Paul tells us three things. First, Paul tells us that we need to know our enemy; secondly, we need to put on the armor; thirdly, we need to stand in His strength. We need to know our enemy, put on God’s armor, it’s very clear from the passage that God provides the armor for us, and thirdly, we need to stand in His strength.
First we are to know our enemy. I already pointed it out, look at it, verse 11, he is called the devil. We have, “…the wiles,” or the tactics or schemes, “of the devil.” There’s an important thing that we need to know, that is, who is our enemy. The danger is two extremes here, and I want to mention them. The first extreme is that everything’s the devil. You get enamored with the devil, and all you do is think about, look for, talk about, and see the devil in every issue. I have seen so many believers get completely off balance and have actually had their testimony ruined because all they talk about is the devil. They see a devil in everything. If you eat too many doughnuts, you’ve got the demon of doughnuts.
It’s interesting, too, by the way, demons aren’t named specific sins in the Bible. There is no demon of lust, demon of greed, demon of envy, demon of nicotine. I’ve heard the demon of nicotine…you got a smoking demon. That doesn’t appear in the Bible. Demons are real, and we’re going to talk about that in a moment, but don’t just get so focused on the devil that all you see is the devil in everything and get that old Flip Wilson thing, “The devil made me do it.” You know, you can sin quite well without the devil because you have the flesh—you still have your sinful Adamic nature.
The other extreme, and it is an extreme, is to deny his existence. Either everything is the devil, that’s all you want to think about, talk about, focus on, and you just get so absorbed in that that you stumble or the other extreme is that he doesn’t exist, “I don’t believe in a devil.” There are some so-called Christians and Evangelical believers that deny the existence of a personal devil. I don’t know how you can do that, his reality is so clear. Those are two dangerous extremes.
Let me break this down for you. This is a little bit of Basic Doctrine of the Devil 101. First of all are his names. There are a whole slew of them, but he’s known as the devil. We have it in verse 11, which means slanderer, and he does slander us before the throne of God. In the book of Job, when he came before the Lord and started slandering Job, there’s an example of that. The name Satan means adversary, so he is your enemy. He doesn’t really like you at all. As a matter of fact, he hates you and wants to destroy you. He’s also known originally as Lucifer, which is actually a beautiful name, but you don’t want to name a child Lucifer. That’s not a good idea. The name means son of the morning or son of light. He was an angel and probably, it’s believed, one of the most beautiful and powerful of all of God’s angelic beings. We know that it was pride that caused him to sin and fall out of heaven. A reference for that, read Isaiah 14. It is a classic passage on the five “I will’s” of the devil. We’ll get that in just a second.
The Bible teaches that the devil is a real person. It teaches the personality of the devil, he’s a personal being. He possess intellect (I’m going to give you the verses, we won’t turn to them), 2 Corinthians 11:3; he has emotions, Revelation 12:17; he has a will, 2 Timothy 2:26; he has personal pronouns that are used of him in the Bible. The Old Testament affirms the personality of the devil. There are seven Old Testament books that he’s named very clearly in. In the book of Job, personal pronouns are used for the devil. Jesus spoke of a personal devil, and it’s referred to in Matthew 4 where He uses these personal pronouns for the devil, the evil one.
What about the devil’s origin and character? He was created as an angel, Ezekiel 28:13-14. These are classic passages in the Bible on the devil. I recommend that if you study the devil, that you study it in the Bible. There are very few books that are written about the devil that are very valuable to read. Ezekiel 28:13-14 says, “…in the day that thou wast created…thou art the anointed cherub that covereth,” the point there is very clear that the devil was created, so he’s a finite creature. God is the eternal, uncreated Creator of all things. Satan was made or created by God. When? We don’t know. Sometime probably before Genesis 1:1. In eternity past God created the angelic hosts and one of them was named Lucifer, who became the devil or Satan. He is a spirit being. I want you to look at verse 12 where it says, “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood,” so he is not a flesh and blood being. He’s a spirit being as he was created as an angel.
How did this angel become the devil? This is one of the great mysteries of the Bible. It was called the fall of Satan—or better, the push of Satan—because God kicked him out of Heaven because of his pride. He was full of wisdom and perfect in beauty, Ezekiel 28 says, until the day that sin was found in him. I don’t know if you’ve ever thought about it, I probably shouldn’t even bring it up because maybe you didn’t think about it but now you’re going to think about it because I told you about it. The question is: Where did sin come from? What’s the origin of the source of sin? If God is holy and He created the angels, how did the angels become sinful? The only understanding we can have of that from the Bible is that it first appeared in the heart of Lucifer, that the devil is the origin and source of evil. When we look at all the evil in the world today, how can we understand it if we don’t understand that there’s a devil, a satanic being, who is the enemy of God and hates men and wanted to usurp himself above God because of his pride.
It’s interesting to think that sin started in the heart of Lucifer and that sin was pride—him wanting to be exalted above the throne of God. Those five “I will’s” are found in Isaiah 14 where Satan said, “I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God,” the other angels, “I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation…I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.” The heart of sin is self will, “I will.” Instead of saying, “Thy will,” to God you say, “I will,” and you reject God and His Word and go your own stubborn rebellious way. Really, the heart of sin is selfishness—you’re not fearing God or thinking of others, you’re just wanting to do what you want to do.
When Satan fell, he also took other angels with him. This is called the angelic rebellion. Satan rebelled against God in his pride, God kicked him out of Heaven (in Revelation 12:4 there’s a reference to where Satan is kicked out of Heaven) and then other angels fell with the devil. These are known as demons, but these demons are outnumbered 3-to-1, good angel to bad angel.
How many angels are there? We don’t know. There’s a whole lot of them, just millions and millions of angels. Good angels who haven’t fallen do God’s will—they protect, watch over, and take care of us. They do God’s bidding. They are spirit beings. Bad angels, fallen angels, are known as demons. There are basically two categories of fallen angels: Satan and demons. Satan, as we’re going to see because he’s created, he’s finite, he’s not omnipresent, omnipotent, or omniscient, that if you’re being attacked by Satan, most likely, it is one of his demon hordes, one of his helpers, not Satan himself. He’s got bigger fish to fry than you or me. When Satan fell, he did take others. That’s the source of demons.
In the spirit realm, that’s all there is: God, Satan, and demons. People get involved in satanism and spiritism. They believe in all these different spirits, but there are only these two realms—God, the devil, and his fallen angels or demons.
I want to give you three facts about the devil from our text. First of all, verse 12, he is powerful. Notice the reference to powers in verse 12, “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood,” this isn’t a physical battle. You can’t beat the devil off with a stick, sword, or gun, “but against principalities, against powers,” principalities speak of not different kinds of demons but just that they are ranked over other powers and the fact that they are powerful is mentioned in verse 12, “…against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness.” There are three words that I have underlined in my Bible, the word “wiles” in verse 11, we’ll come to that in just a minute, the word “powers,” and the word “wickedness” in verse 12. That pretty much summarizes the facts that Paul gives us about the devil in this text, so he’s powerful.
Satan is pictured in the Bible as a lion. It speaks of his power. Peter says he walks about as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. He’s also likened unto a dragon in the book of Revelation, the red dragon, which speaks of his fierceness. In John 10:10, he comes “…to steal, and to kill, and to destroy.” As you watch the heartbreaking images of the war in Ukraine, you see the death that is going on there and realize that Satan, man’s wickedness, and the fallen world that we live in is behind that. The demoniac of Gadara is a picture of the satanic power—he was in chains, he could break his chains, and lived in the caves—and what Satan wants to do to individual’s lives. I believe that we see so often today Satan’s wicked work in people’s lives—how he comes to kill, steal, and to destroy.
I want to point this out: Satan is powerful, but he’s not all-powerful. Some people have the idea that there’s God and the devil, and they’re both kind of battling it out in the heavens and we’re hoping that God can beat up and get the victory over the devil, but the devil is a created being. He’s finite. He’s not omnipotent. The Bible teaches the sovereignty of God—that God is ruling in the heavens. Now, He has a purpose, it’s sometimes a mystery to us as to why He’s allowed the devil to do his thing, but God’s purpose will be fulfilled, Satan will be destroyed, he will spend eternity in hell, the lake of fire, and God will get the glory. God will actually use Satan to bring Him glory. God’s purposes and plans cannot be thwarted. The devil does not win. We know the end of the story, the book of Revelation gives it to us, so we can rejoice that God reigneth in the heavens. He is omnipotent.
The devil is also not omnipresent. That means if the devil is in Las Vegas or San Francisco (I just mentioned those in passing, he may go somewhere else, I don’t know) then he’s not in Menifee. I highly doubt he hangs out much around here. He does have a lot of demons to do his bidding, but he can only be in one place at one time. A lot of times Christians say, “Pastor John, pray for me. The devil’s after me.” It’s true, it’s the devil, but it’s probably more a demon and not the devil himself who is coming after you. He is not omnipresent.
I found this interesting. There’s only six people in the Bible that had a direct temptation from the devil himself. The first one was Eve, we know that well, in the Garden of Eden. She should have been a little suspicious when a snake was talking to her. It’s interesting. Critics of the Bible and those who do not believe in God mock this idea of a talking snake. I hear it all the time. It’s perfectly possible, believe it or not, for a snake to become demon possessed and to talk. Satan wants to inhabit a snake, and it could have not been a snake as we know it today. It could have been like a dragon kind of snake, that’s why he was actually cursed and told he would crawl upon his belly. Critics of the Bible, “Oh, well snakes crawl. Why would he tell the snake that you’re going to crawl upon your belly when snakes already crawl upon the belly?” It’s because they didn’t crawl upon their belly before he had tempted Eve. Duh!
I do believe that Satan appeared to Eve and tempted her (we’re going to talk about that in just a moment) questioning God’s Word and God’s goodness. How about the book of Job. Satan had power over Job granted to him by God, notice that. If you’re a Christian, God puts a hedge around you and Satan can do nothing to you but God allows to serve your good and His glory if you trust the Lord and resist the devil. Then, the story of Jesus being tempted by the devil. It’s an historical account where He was in the wilderness and Satan shows up and tempts Him to turn the stones into bread, to jump off the pinnacle of the temple, and actually tempted Him that He could have all these worldly things if He fell down and worshiped him, so He had a direct temptation of the devil. Judas Iscariot was possessed by the devil when he denied and betrayed the Lord. Peter was also attacked by Satan, “Get thee behind me, Satan,” Jesus said. Ananias and Sapphira in the New Testament, the Scripture says, “…why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost.”
Not only is the devil not omnipotent and omnipresent, but he’s also not omniscient—he doesn’t know everything. Now, he can read the Bible and see what’s going to happen to him, but he doesn’t know what God’s going to do or God’s plan, so Satan’s power is limited. Even Michael the Archangel recognized him as a powerful being and said, “The Lord rebuke thee,” Michael kept the Lord between him and the devil.
There are a lot of Christians today that like to go around binding the devil and telling the devil what he’s going to do. I think he laughs at that. Only God can bind the devil. If you’re going to say the devil should be bound, then you should ask the Lord to bind him because certainly you haven’t been given the authority over the devil. But if you’re a child of God, the Bible says, “…greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.”
Notice not only is he powerful, he’s also wicked, verse 12, as I pointed out, “…spiritual wickedness in high places.” He’s called the evil one. His demons are called unclean spirits. God is holy, but Satan is unholy and wants to lead you into sin against God.
Thirdly, notice that he’s also crafty, verse 11. This is what we have to deal with in verse 11, “…against the wiles of the devil.” Look at the word “wiles” in your Bible. It means craftiness or strategies, schemes, devices. I said the devil is not omniscient, but he’s pretty intelligent. He’s an intelligent being, and he’s been up to his craft for a long, long time. He’s so sly. If he can’t get in the front door, he’ll go to the back door; if he can’t get in the back door, he’ll come through the back window; if he can’t get in the back window, he’ll come through the chimney. He comes in every different angle. He doesn’t always come the same way, so he’s very crafty, full of wiles and cunning in his devices. This is why the Bible likens him unto a serpent in his subtlety and craft.
In 2 Corinthians 2:11, Paul says, “Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices.” In order that Satan might not get advantage of you, you need to be aware of some of his tactics that he uses. Satan knows when to attack us. This is just a little list I put together. It’s not exhaustive and there are many things that could be added to it, but when you’re a new believer, Satan will attack you. He doesn’t wait long to say, “That was just your emotions. It’s not real. It’s not genuine. Give this up,” and he’ll attack you when you’re a new believer. As I mentioned, he knows that now you’re a Christian, you’re saved, he knows that you’re going to go to Heaven, but he wants to nullify your witness. He wants to keep you ignorant of God’s will. He wants to keep you impotent in God’s Word and God’s commands. He attacks young believers as well as older believers. He doesn’t ever stop.
When Jesus was tempted by the devil in the wilderness, it said that he left Him for a season. Wouldn’t it be cool if the devil just tempted us once in our Christian life, and the minute we get the victory, “Whew! Okay, no more devil,” but he comes right back in a different way again the day following.
When you are suffering affliction or physically suffering, be ready for Satan’s attacks. When your body is suffering, he will attack your spiritual life. Job is a great example. When Satan attacked Job, he attacked him when he was suffering physically. Satan also used Job’s wife, “Why don’t you just curse God and die,” amazing that Satan can use your spouse sometimes. I don’t recommend you go to your wife, “Get behind me, devil!” but Satan can use anyone so we have to be careful. Again, don’t get overboard in seeing the devil in every situation, but he can also use your friends to tempt you as well.
When you’re serving God, you are a target for the devil. Sometimes, and I actually believe that some Christians fall into this trap, “Well, I’m not going to teach a Bible study,” “I’m not going to witness,” “I’m not going to serve the Lord because if you do, the devil will go after you.” Well, that’s what the devil wants you to do—the easy road. If you serve the Lord, he will attack you but the Lord will protect you, and you will glorify God in your ministry.
Peter was mightily used of God. When Jesus said, “Whom do men say that I…am?” Remember Peter said, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee,” and I’m sure Peter thought, Wow! That’s awesome! I’m on a roll. Jesus said I’m awesome. He said, ‘Blessed am I.’ Then, Jesus went on to say, “…how that he must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things…and be killed,” and Peter thought, Well, I’m on a roll, might as well try this a second time, and said, “Be it far from thee, Lord: this shall not be unto thee,” You’re not going to go to Jerusalem, You’re not going to suffer, You’re not going to die. Jesus said,”Get thee behind me, Satan.” I don’t believe that Peter became demon possessed, but what he was saying was consistent with what the devil was saying. He was speaking words from the devil as well from his own lips. When we’re serving God, beware; Satan will attack you.
When we are idle, Satan will attack us. Idleness is the devil’s workshop. Remember when David was standing on his rooftop instead of out in warfare battling the enemy and saw Bathsheba. He was tempted, committed adultery, and then committed murder and lied to cover his sin. David would have been better off out fighting the battle, and he needed to hide God’s Word in his heart that he might not sin against the Lord.
Fifthly, is when you are isolated from other Christians. What Satan wants to do is isolate you from other believers—keep you from the Bible, keep you from prayer, keep you from church, keep you from hearing the Word of God—and then he will be able to attack you. Remember when Peter was self-confident, “Lord, everyone will forsake You, yet not I.” Then, it says that he followed Jesus afar off, then sat by the enemy’s fire outside the court of Caiaphas, and ended up denying three times that he even knew the Lord. The Bible says, “Let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.”
It’s been sad and tragic to see so many believers these last couple years, at least I would assume they were believers, I have a hard time understanding this, who let the fear of Covid or the restrictions of the government keep them from church. There was no doubt in my mind that people getting out of the habit of coming to church would’ve never come back to church. There are a lot of churches that have closed their doors because their people aren’t coming back to church. Some of it just you get out of the habit, you aren’t being taught the Word, you’re not worshiping with God’s people, you’re not praying together. The Bible says that we should not forsake the assembling of ourselves together and that we need to provoke one another unto love and good works, so make a priority in your life to be in fellowship because when you’re isolated, that’s when Satan can attack and cause you to stumble or fall.
Satan knows how to attack us. He has strategies. One of them is to deny God’s Word, Genesis 3. Remember the first time the Bible records the words from the mouth of Satan? What does it say? “Did God really say that?” The number one attack of the devil is against the Bible being the Word of God, “It’s not true. It’s got errors. It’s not accurate. It’s got fallacies and fairy tales. It’s not really the Word of God.” Satan attacks God’s Word, so you must understand the Bible is the inerrant, infallible Word of God and not listen to Satan’s lies.
Satan also says that there is no God. He wants you to believe that he doesn’t exist—there is no devil, there’s no hell (that’s one of his favorite lies), God won’t judge you, there’s no punishment for sin. He invents false religion. False religion sends men’s souls to hell, “All paths lead to Heaven,” and that’s a lie from the pit of hell. He’s an angel of light that would disguise himself as a messenger of righteousness. False religion is one of Satan’s greatest tactics to destroy people and damn their souls to hell. We have the truth of God’s Word. When we get into the armor of God, we’re going to see that we take the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. He uses the world and the flesh to attack us. He tempts Christians to fear, to doubt God and not trust His promises, to be discouraged when you’re serving the Lord.
One of the number one tools of the enemy, and I know this from experience, is discouragement. It’s his most well-worn tool in his tool chest—to discourage the servant of God. The Bible says that we should “…look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.” The Bible says, “And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.” Satan wants you to throw in the towel, he wants you to get discouraged, he wants you to give up, and he will use discouragement against you.
Write down 1 Peter 5:7. It says, “Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you,” and in verse 8, the next verse says, “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.” Verse 9, actually says, “Whom resist stedfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren,” so Satan will come and attack you. We see the devil is real, he is created by God, and he will be used for God’s purposes and God will be glorified.
The second point, and we won’t tarry on these, is that we must put on the armor of God that He provides. We know our enemy; we wear the armor that God’s provided. We’re going to go over this taking about seven weeks going through each piece of the armor. Look at verse 11, “Put on the whole armour of God,” why? “that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil,” he mentions standing in verses 13 and 14. There’s an armor that’s provided by God. If you don’t get anything else about this armor, get this: God provides the armor. You don’t stand in your own strength and your own ability, God provides you armor to be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
Look at verse 13. Paul says, “Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God,” you can’t pick and choose. You say, “Well, I don’t want a shield or a helmet, I just want to take the sword. I’m into swords,” or “I’ll just wear the sandals of peace.” No, you need the whole armor of God, or the whole armor provided by God, to stand against the devil. Just to mention them quickly, there are seven aspects: There’s a belt called truth in verse 14 and a breastplate of righteousness; shoes given to us, sandals of the gospel of peace; and in verse 16, there is the shield of faith; in verse 17, there’s the helmet of salvation—don’t go out to battle without your helmet. Sixthly, there’s the sword of the Spirit, verse 17, which is the Word of God, so you have the Holy Spirit working through His Word. This is your number one defense against the enemy. If Satan can keep you ignorant of your Bible, he will keep you defeated as a Christian. You can’t live the Christian life without a knowledge of God’s Word, and even the psalmist said, “Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.” How “shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to thy word,” so the sword of the Spirit. Seventhly, verse 18, there is all prayer, “Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints,” so getting on your knees and praying is a piece of the armor as well.
Thirdly, we are to stand in the strength that the Lord provides. We are to wear the armor that God provides; we’re to stand in the strength and in the power of his might. Go back to verse 10, “Finally,” or for the rest, “my brethren, be strong,” notice the phrase, “in the Lord.” It’s not your strength, it’s not your ability, it’s not your power. Your strength, my strength, our strength comes from the Lord, “and in the power of his might.” Remember Philippians 4:13? Paul said, “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me,” that’s all the things that God requires for me to do. He gives me the strength and the ability. Amen? The Bible says, “There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way,” for you, “to escape,” so there’s no excuse for falling prey to temptation and falling into sin because God has made the way for us to escape. He’s provided the armor, and He’s provided the strength and the power for us to stand.
Jesus said in John 15, “…without me ye can do nothing.” Did you notice He didn’t say not much? He said, “…nothing.” Jesus said, “Without Me you are a big zero.” The Bible, as I’ve already quoted, says, “Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.” Anytime I’m counseling a young believer and they’ve fallen into sin and then they start boasting, “I’m not going to do it again. You can be sure, Pastor John, I’m not going to let it happen again. I’m going to be strong.” I almost want to cover my eyes and say, “I don’t' want to watch.” “Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.” You know the best way to fight the devil is on your knees with an open Bible in front of you, reading God’s Word, praying, hiding it in your heart, getting on your knees praying for God’s Spirit to empower you and give you victory over sin. How do you rely on God’s power? Verse 18, “Praying always.” We’ll spend a whole night in verse 18 talking about the power of prayer.
Remember, as we wrap this up, that we are God’s people. We fight from victory, not for victory. Jesus Christ has already won the war. There are battles and we stumble and get beat up, and sometimes we lose, but we’re going to win the war. Amen? Jesus, when He died on the cross, Colossians 2:15, it says, “And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it.” Satan’s power over you as a believer has been divested through the cross and through the resurrection, so any power he has over you is actually usurped power that you yield to him by not walking in the Spirit, not relying on God’s power, and not keeping your eyes on the Lord. God has provided everything you need.
If you’re here tonight and you’re struggling with the flesh or the world or the devil’s attacking you, or Satan’s demons are, Satan is defeated foe. He walks about as a roaring lion, but at the cross Jesus pulled his teeth out, right? All he can do is gum you. He can roar and scare you, but he can’t destroy you. I love that verse that says, “…greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world,” but you’ve got to wear the armor. You can’t go out without the armor. You gotta rely upon prayer. I love the fact that it says, “…be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.” It’s His might not your own. It’s His strength. Stand in His victory, stand in His strength, He is the Lord God almighty. Amen?
