I'd like to look firstly this
morning at these verses from verse 13 on. took upon them to call over them
which had evil spirits, the name of the Lord Jesus, saying, We
adieu you by Jesus, whom Paul preacheth. And there were seven
sons of one Sceva, a Jew, chief of the priests, which did so.
And the evil spirit answered and said, Jesus I know, and Paul
I know, but who are you? And the man in whom the evil
spirit was leaped on them and overcame them and prevailed against
them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded. Let's ask the Lord's help. Our
Heavenly Father, we come to passage as a scripture which reveals
things which are strange to our experience and we pray, Heavenly
Father, that you might take your words and cause them to be spirit
and life to us and cause us, Heavenly Father, to walk before
you in in reverence and awe, and may, may, as happened as
a result of this, Heavenly Father, may the word, your word, the
word of the Lord, the living word of the Lord, be magnified
in our midst. Bless us, Heavenly Father, for
we come needy, beggars, weak, and helpless. And we come to
a rock, and lead us to the rock that is higher than us, our Father,
that your Son might be glorified and honoured, and your people
might be comforted and strengthened. For we pray in Jesus' name and
for his glory. Amen. Well, these are strange
things indeed. We have seen Paul on this journey.
We've seen him go to these big cities We've seen him in Jerusalem
at the Jerusalem Council. And these are all cities under
the power and under the dominion at this time of Rome, so this
is a good thing to think about spiritually. from the aspect
of God on high, bringing all the wisdom of men to nothing,
and bringing all of their deeds to nothing, and exalting his
Son in all of those places. But Jerusalem, of course, is
the real Jerusalem, is the Jerusalem above, and the real Jerusalem
is the Jerusalem which is the home of God's people. But in
this Jerusalem, at this time, we are now 25 years or more after
the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, and Jerusalem had
become, as the Lord found them when he came there triumphantly,
it was a den of thieves and it was a place where the enemies
of the Gospel reigned and ruled in that temple. And as you remember
in Paul's journey, he went from that great city, which was the
home of the most religiously righteous people this world had
ever seen. They were the most zealous law
keepers. They actually went to their spice
cupboards. You can imagine going to all
those little jars of spices you've got in your place and getting
out the cumin seeds, those little tiny seeds, and working out how
many you have and then working out a tenth of them and taking
it along. Unbelievable. They strained a gnat. They strained
a gnat and they swallowed a camel. But it was the home. It was the
home of the most self-righteously religious group of people you'd
ever wish to see. And Paul, on his journey, and
us on our journey through Acts, he went then to Athens. And Athens
is the seat the esteemed seat even to this day of men in his
philosophy, in his wisdom. And it was a wisdom that had
a practical import, wasn't it? It was the home of democracy. It's man ruling man as best as
man could do it under all the wisdom of men. And then Paul
goes to that other great city under Rome, which was Corinth.
And this is a picture of man in the world, isn't it? It was
a great commercial centre. There was great wealth in Corinth
and great depravity alongside all the wealth. And now Paul
is in Ephesus. And Ephesus was famous in those
days as being the breeding ground and the epicentre of all sorts
of magic arts and superstitions. As much as Corinth was known
for its wickedness and its lewdness and the depravity of what went
on in the name of that sort of religion there, Ephesus was famous
for all these mystic arts and things. And so in every one of
these places, we find the Gospel coming and we find the same thing
that's happening all throughout this world. Wherever man is,
whatever state man is in, the Lord Jesus Christ comes along
and he takes his people out of that. He'll take his people out
of religion. and self-righteous religion. You'll take them out
of this world and its philosophy and this world that says that
man can do this and man can achieve this and man's best efforts are
honourable and worthy by the power and the strength of man.
He takes people out of that. He takes people out of the coherence
of this world of man in his indulging himself in the pleasures of this
world. And he takes his people out. He takes his people out of superstition
and religious idolatry and out of open demonic wickedness. He takes them out. God is pleased,
he says, to take his people out. But of him, that verse that we
have quoted so often, but of him are you in Christ Jesus,
who of God is made unto us. Wisdom All that wisdom. If you have
Christ, you have all the wisdom that you ever want to have, and
you don't need anything more than Him. Wisdom and righteousness. If you have the Lord Jesus Christ,
you have all the righteousness of God. There is only one righteousness,
and it's the very righteousness of God. And sanctification. He is our sanctification. He
is our holiness before God, and He's all of it. God is pleased
with His Son, and pleased with His Son's holiness, and He's
very pleased with the holiness of everyone who's in His Son.
And He's our redemption. He's our redemption. He redeems His people. He buys
them out. Of every one of those situations,
He comes and He buys His people out. And the purpose of it in
1 Corinthians 1.31, that according as it is written, He that glorieth,
let him glory in the Lord. He that boasts, he that brags,
he that puts some confidence in something, let his confidence
be in the Lord Jesus Christ. It's good for us to remember
that our God reigns. It's good for us to remember
that even these things which seem before us here in Acts chapter
19, in these verses, to be quite extraordinary, When we deal with
these issues of spiritual forces and evil forces, we have to put
our hand over our mouth and ask the Lord to guide us. The reality
is that the only light we have on these activities is the light
that comes from God. There are activities of God in
this spiritual world that we live in, in the spirits of all
men. There are spiritual things, spiritual
forces at work, and it's our God who controls and rules all
of them. But we read, when it comes to
spiritual things, we read extraordinary things in the Word of God. The spirit of the Lord, in 1
Samuel 6.14, you might remember Saul, he disobeyed God and he
presented, as a priest, he presented a sacrifice to God, which was
Samuel's task. And the spirit of the Lord departed
from Saul, 1 Samuel 16.14, and an evil spirit from the Lord
troubled him. Now if you go on and read the
rest of Saul's history you'll find that Saul descended into
absolute madness. He had times when he realised
that David was doing the right thing. He had extraordinary times
when he realised that David could have killed him on a couple of
occasions and David was remarkably merciful and David was faithful. Saul had these times of probably
repentance with tears and then he descended into absolute utter
madness and he ended up in the hands of a witch. There are forces at work in this
world about which we know so very, very little. And if the
Word of God didn't enlighten us, and the Word of God, the
living Word of God didn't protect us, then we would be in them.
No wonder Paul, when he's writing to the Ephesians, and we might
look at this a little bit later on, he says, finally, my brethren,
chapter 6, verse 10, be strong in the Lord in the power of His
might. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to
stand against the wiles of the devil, because, 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 read of what happened to Judas,
and we ought to tremble. He who was an apostle for three
years and performed miracles and preached and seemed to all
the other apostles to be one of the chief of the apostles
at that Last Supper, at that Last Supper, There was absolutely, after three
years of ministry from the Lord and three years of Judas being
with them, not one apostle had a clue that Judas was an evil
man. And the Lord says, Satan entered
him. Satan entered him. And he betrayed the Lord Jesus.
And when he went to that garden, he betrayed him with a kiss. He betrayed him with a kiss. He had evil in his heart and
a kiss on his lips. Our God rules, rules over all
these things. And when we deal with these issues,
we need to be extraordinarily mindful. And there are some simple
things that I keep wanting to remind you and remind myself. is that when it comes to issues
to do with spiritual forces in this world, have absolutely nothing
to do with them whatsoever and flee with them. You don't know
who you're dealing with and you don't know how weak you are.
You have nothing to do with the occult in any way whatsoever,
whether it's tarot cards or astrology or all the other nonsense that
parades itself around this day. There is no such thing as an
innocent exercise in these things. I lived in India in the monster
of that open idolatry and that open evil on display in so many
ways and it's extraordinary isn't it that the western world now
is infested with it. There are statues of Buddha who
was actually a Hindu before he discovered a cheaper and easier
way to get to where he wanted to go. and the Hindu gods are
demons according to the word of God. And yet we have in this
world of ours, the average person in our world thinks in Hindu
ways these days. They think that yoga is an innocent
thing. It's a great exercise to do,
isn't it? Do you know what the word yoga means? The word yoga
is a Sanskrit word, and it means to be yoked. And the understanding
is that there's a serpent curled up in the base of your spine,
and in yoga you release that serpent, and you become yoked
to it. For those who have any understanding
of the pictures in the scriptures, we should think about yoga with
horror. There's another thing that's
creeping into this Western world that comes straight out of Hinduism
and Buddhism, and that's called mindfulness. and it's now sort
of used. You think positive thoughts of
yourself and in the present all the time. The reality is, brothers
and sisters, we are spiritual beings and we live in a spiritual
realm. And as we see in the scriptures, the evil activities of Satan
become most exercised and most evident where the Gospel itself
is preached. And so we don't hear of much
demonic activity in all the times of nation Israel. There are incidents
like Saul and there are many, several others, but it's when
the Lord Jesus Christ is revealed, it's when the Lord Jesus Christ
is revealed that Satan is revealed. And Satan's greatest enmity is
always directed at the Lord Jesus Christ and always directed at
his people. And Satan's enmity is always
directed at the Lord Jesus Christ and him crucified. And so all
of the arrows and all of the targets all of the enmity of
Satan is enraged against the Lord Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And it's no wonder why, if you
turn to Colossians chapter 2, you'll find that the Lord Jesus
Christ, He's quickened you together with Him, having, verse 13, and
you being dead in your sins, in the uncircumcision of your
flesh, He hath quickened together with Him, having forgiven you
all your trespasses, blotting out the handwriting of ordinances
that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out
of the way, nailing it to His cross. And having spoiled principalities
and power, he made a show of them openly, triumphing in it. He made an open show and he triumphed
on Calvary's tree. He triumphed over Satan. He triumphed
over him. And all of his people were one
with him in that triumph. And therefore, this liar and
this murderer and this deceiver and this man who takes people
captive to do his will. is now so openly subservient
to the works and purposes." It must be frustrating. It must
be frustrating being Satan, isn't it? There he is. He can't give
up his evil enmity, just like Saul couldn't give up his enmity
against David. But Satan sees his activities
being thwarted and overruled as they are in this remarkable
passage of Scripture before us in Acts chapter 9. The end result
of all this demonic activity, both in those seven sons of Sceva
who were deceived and taken captive by Satan, and the evil spirit
himself, All of the end result of it is that the Word of God
is magnified, and Ephesus, that home of superstitious nonsense,
has a bonfire in the main street. Our God reigns and rules. I have nothing to do with the occult
in any way whatsoever, my brothers and sisters in the Lord. The rest of the world would be
wise to take that advice on board as well. But this is a remarkable
event. It's a remarkable event, isn't
it? Remarkable in its uniqueness
and remarkable in the wonder of it. Remarkable in the way
God overrules it. These men, these seven sons of
Sceva, took upon them. They took upon themselves. See, Paul took nothing upon himself
in all of his ministry. He was made a servant. He was
made a minister by God. These certain of these vagabond
Jews, it means that they were wandering. They were wandering
Jews. They took upon them to call over
them which had the evil spirits the name of the Lord Jesus. So
they'd heard, they'd heard these remarkable stories of these special
miracles that were done by the hands of Paul. They were special
miracles. The miracles in the Scriptures
are special miracles, but these ones are particularly special
because Paul didn't have to be there. It was just an apron,
a handkerchief, if you read there in verse 12, which was taken
from him. And while we're on the topic
of miracles, it's so important that we understand that the miracles
were done, the miracles were done by the hands of the Apostles
to reveal the fact that the Gospel that they proclaimed was a continuation
of the Gospel that the Lord Jesus Christ proclaimed. Please turn
to Hebrews chapter 2. It's so important that we understand
these things. Because there are miracles being
performed all over this world today, so-called miracles. I
want you to know that they are lying. They either are lies and
fakes, or they are the works of Satan. In Hebrews, chapter 2 begins,
Therefore we ought to give more earnest heed to the things which
we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip. What
a great warning that is. It means that they just slide
by. You can hold the things of God
and then they just slide away from you. For if the word spoken
by angels was steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience
received a just recompensive reward, how shall we escape if
we neglect so great salvation, which at first began to be spoken
by the Lord? So the Lord was the first one
to speak, and confirmed unto us by them that heard him, God
also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders and diverse
miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost according to His own will. These miracles, these miracles
are the miracles that are God-wrought miracles. You read that there
in Acts 19.11. God-wrought these miracles, and
God-wrought these miracles to confirm the Gospel that Paul
preached, to confirm the witness that Paul had of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And you can know that the modern miracles are all deceptive,
because if you go and ask those people about the character of
the Lord Jesus Christ, you'll find that they openly deny the
character of the Lord Jesus Christ. One of my students is running
around the world performing miracles these days, and he, the last
time I met him, I said to him, you knew and you've heard about
the God who was absolutely sovereign and the God who elected a people
and a God who sent his son to represent those people in a covenant
of grace and died for those people. You know this God. You've heard
about this God. You might not know him, but you've
heard about him. And he acknowledged that he'd heard about him. And
I said, are you going out in your missionary career to proclaim
that God? And his reply to me is, no, I
am not. And I have no doubt that in his
mind and in the minds of many, many others, there are all sorts
of wonders being performed. And they're writing back and
they're collecting money. He denies the very character
of God and yet claims to be speaking on God's behalf. What were these
men doing in Ephesus? They had seen and heard of the
mighty acts of the Lord Jesus Christ, performed and wrought
by God. And they thought, well, this
works really well. Simon Magnus thought he could
buy the gift of God, didn't he? Acts chapter 8. He thought he
could buy the gift of God. These men thought that they could
use those words of Paul and use them as a magic charm. So here we have two groups of
Jews, don't we? We have Jews in the synagogue
next door to where Paul was preaching the gospel. They spoke evil of
that way. Spoke evil of that way. These men appeared to honour
both Jesus and Paul. They appeared to honour them.
They took upon themselves. You see, there's a great and
important word, isn't it, in Acts chapter 19, verse 13. It always seems to me that throughout
the scriptures that Satan acts in response to what the Lord
has done. You see, all these remarkable
things were done by Paul, then certain of the vagabond Jews,
exorcists, took upon them. Counterfeits always arise and
enemies always arise after the truth is revealed. Satan keeps his goods in peace,
and it doesn't matter what sort of peace it is. He can keep his
goods in the peace of religion. He can keep his goods in the
philosophy of men, in the wisdom of men. He can keep his goods
at peace in enjoying all the peace of this world. He can keep
his goods at peace in all this superstitious, demonic activity
that Ephesus was famous for. And then a strong man comes,
and a strong man comes, and Satan is then enraged. There is just one weapon in our
warfare, brothers and sisters, isn't it? Paul just preached
the gospel. He preached the gospel. And all of what flowed from that
is just an affirmation of the Gospel. You might recall back
in Philippi that Paul had a demon-possessed girl wandering around after him.
And she was proclaiming the right things, isn't it? This man, this
man tells us the way of salvation. This man, this man, Paul, preaches
to us the truth. And she was a demon-possessed
girl. And Paul Paul cast out that demon, but he was three
days, several days with her. It wasn't the most urgent thing
on his list of purposes. Our task and our purpose is to
preach the Gospel. So these men appeared to honour
the Lord Jesus Christ. They were exorcists. That means
that they are one that employs a formula for the conjuration
of expelling demons. They applied a formula. They thought that there was something
magic in the words of the Lord Jesus Christ. If you've seen
the tele-evangelist, they think there's something magic in the
words of the Lord Jesus Christ, isn't there? These men had seen Paul's ministry,
and they thought that they could use the same formula. They thought
that they could have the same success. They thought that they
could add to their esteem. See, these men were Jews. They
were zealous. They traveled all the way from
Jerusalem. They were the sons of the priests.
One of the high priests, there were 24 divisions of the priests,
and one of the high priests had seven sons. You would think that
they wouldn't have enough to do around the temple of God.
And these men were obviously successful. And they came with
their religious authority. The other lesson in all of this
is that Satan operates in open enmity against the Gospel, and
Satan is at his most dangerous when he appears to be most righteous
and most a minister of light. Paul spoke to the Corinthians
about him. He was fearful, as the serpent
had with God Eve, that his beloved friends would not be corrupted
from the simplicity of the sin Christ. But he talked about Satan
there. He talked about these false apostles,
and Paul was earnest for the love of his brethren that he'd
actually bring them to nothing as much as he possibly could.
Before such, he says, are false apostles, 2 Corinthians
11, 13, false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves
into apostles of Christ. And no marvel, for Satan himself
is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no
great thing if his ministers also be transformed into ministers
of righteousness. ministers of righteousness. It's
remarkable, isn't it? Satan standing behind a pulpit,
preaching to you about your righteousness, your ability to work something
for your own righteousness. There's a great phrase in this
section of scripture, isn't it, that says, they took upon themselves. Sidon and his ministers took
upon themselves. So another lesson for us is,
and the first lesson is to stay away from them as far as possible.
Their success is no measure of the fact that God is with them
and God is honouring what they're doing, but also Satan and his
ministers as angels of light are far, far, far more dangerous
than any open evil. the most religiously zealous
and the most righteous person who talks about their righteousness
and wants to tell you about their righteousness and wants to show
you how you can be righteous by going back to the law and
going back to your own self, is far, far more dangerous than
any other being in this place. See, who in Ephesus was the worst
off? There was this great city full
of the most extraordinary wickedness. There were these pagans at the
Temple of Diana. There were these pagans involved
in all sorts of nefarious activities. Who was the worst off? Those pagans involved in all
that temple worship, or the Jews in their synagogue? being as
righteous as you could possibly imagine, and exalting their righteousness,
and having rejected the Lord Jesus Christ, and rejected the
testimony of God against them and their religion. Satan is most, most dangerous. And God is most, most to be revered
when we think that he hardens people's hearts and leads them
in religious self-righteousness. They made themselves. They make
themselves. What did the Lord say of these
people, these Jews? They travel over, Matthew 23.50,
they travel over land and sea, they are extraordinarily zealous.
They went all the way from Jerusalem to wherever they could get an
audience. And when they brought one of them back, brought one
of those pagans out of Ephesus or Corinth or Athens, they brought
them back there and put them under their religion, and they
looked as clean and as moral and as zealous and as knowledgeable
as you could wish them to be. And the Lord Jesus Christ says
they're twofold the child of hell now. For the Lord's people, these
things are very humbling. They cause us, and should cause
us, to walk humbly and in reverent fear before our God. That was
the effect of this in Ephesus, isn't it? That great fear fell
upon these people. Great fear fell upon them. Our God is not to be trifled
with. We are involved and dealing with
spiritual realities and there are spiritual forces which are
way, way too big for us. And for the Lord's people, it
is just so important that all of these things cause us to be
humbled, to be humbled before our God. The other thing that's evident
in these verses is that the evil spirits know what is going on, and they know what's going on
in places like this. If you turn to that in Acts 19.15,
and the evil spirit answered, answered these seven sons of
Sceva and said, Jesus, I know. And Paul, I know. And who are you? You might remember
that all of those evil spirits that met with the Lord Jesus
Christ in his ministry knew exactly who he was all the time. And
Satan knew exactly who he was. And they know exactly what is
going on. and they are aware of what is going on amongst the
people of God. They are always much more aware
than we can possibly imagine of what is happening in the fellowships
of God's people. The evil spirits had more knowledge
of the Lord. This evil spirit had a greater
knowledge and a clearer knowledge of who the Lord Jesus Christ
was and who Paul was. as the Lord Jesus' servant than
these men did. These men who professed in their
presumption, they involved themselves in things that they were completely
unaware of. And the child of God, when he
encounters these things, he runs to hide. There is a refuge, isn't
there? There is a place to hide for
God's people. They see the presumptuous and
they want to run and hide in the arms of the shaviah. They
want to be covered by his wings. They want to know that the angel
is in camp around his people. They want to be like the psalmist. Happy is he that has the God
of Jacob for his help. See, an angel fallen became the
devil. A man like Judas, an apostle,
became a betrayer with a kiss. When that list of the evil men
that have populated the scriptures like Cain and Korah and Balaam
and people like Lot's wife, they all had remarkable religious
privileges and they all became notorious apostates. They took upon themselves and
were successful for a time. They took upon themselves. May the Lord Humble us as we
look at these things. May the Lord cause us to be as
low as we can go and to be as close to the cross of the Lord
Jesus Christ as we can go. Be a nothing. Be a nothing. Be a nothing. And if the Lord would grant you
mercy, be fearful of God. Our God is not to be trifled
with. the extent to which we are fearful
of God. And that word fear has two meanings
in the scriptures. It can mean to be afraid or alarmed. It also can mean to reverence. You'll only reverence a God who
is absolutely sovereign. You'll only reverence a God upon
whom you are completely and utterly dependent. The more fearful you
are in godly fear of the Lord, the more you will understand
and be wise of the devil and his schemes. These vagabond Jews, they had
no fixed abode, and they appeared to the natural eye to be one
with Paul, and they appeared to be successful, and they claimed
to have the power to cast out demons. But they didn't dwell
in the Lord Jesus Christ, and Christ didn't dwell in him, so
they used his name as a magic charm. And I believe that in the religion
of this world today, the name of the Lord Jesus Christ is used
as a magic charm, because they find the real name, the real
character of our Lord and Saviour, they find it offensive. But they
have another Jesus that they cling to, and they use him like
a magic charm, a get-out-of-hell card. The power that these men claimed
was a power that they took upon themselves. And they tried to
turn sinners from evil, not by preaching the Lord Jesus Christ
and Him crucified, but by doing these works of a religious huckster. So they claim, call on the name
of the Lord Jesus and deny the real Jesus by the things they
do and proclaim. See, men might have been fooled
by them, and these men might have been esteemed. But our God reigns, like that
demon-possessed girl in Philippi. They have just a time, don't
they? And then the Lord turns it for
His glory and for His good. What a remarkable thing. Paul,
as we might read later on in Acts 19, was on his way from
Ephesus to Corinth. He was about to leave Ephesus,
and after two or more years of preaching, this remarkable event
comes. And look what happens. And the
man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, verse 16, and
overcame them and prevailed against them. So they fled out of that
house naked and wounded. What a remarkable scene that
must have been in Ephesus. There was this city full of magic
charms and amulets and all sorts of concoctions and incantations
being made and all sorts of superstitious demonic activity going on and
all of a sudden These seven men run into the street, bleeding
and naked. And it was obviously done in
a public way, in a public place, and for superstitious people,
this had a remarkable impact. And this was known to all the
Jews and the Greeks, also dwelling at Ephesus. See, Paul wasn't
there when this happened, brothers and sisters. This is a sovereign
act of our God in mercy to his people. All the Jews, all those
Jews that were in that synagogue, all those Jews that were there
publicly mocking Paul, the Apostle, and publicly mocking Paul's God
and our Saviour, they knew all about this. And the Greeks also
dwelling at Ephesus. And fear fell on them all, and
the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified. It's wonderful, isn't it? It's
wonderful to say, our God reigns. No matter what the activity,
no matter what the opposition, no matter how perilous it might
seem, no matter how little we might understand it, and certainly
how little we have the capacity to do with it in any way at all,
our God reigns. He does work. He's not sitting
by idly in this universe. He works all things together. He works them all together. He
does all things according to the counsel of his own will.
No harm can befall the righteous. God will have his people out
of there, and the best that Satan can do is for the good of his
people and the magnification of the Word of God. The Word so mighty grew and kept
on growing, the Word of God, and prevailed. It's remarkable, isn't it? The
Word of God and the Word of God, the Word known flesh, are as
one. We live in this world where we
can seem so small and such a tiny remnant, and the forces that
seem in so many ways opposed to the proclamation of the Gospel
range against the children of God, and we are left often wondering
And we might even ask the question of the game sayers that they'd
said to David, where is your God? And David's answer was,
my God's in the heavens. My God's in the heavens. He does
whatsoever he will. No weapon, says Isaiah 54-7,
no weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper, and every
tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants
of the Lord, and their righteousness is of me." We have no record
in the Scriptures of what happened to these men, and we don't need
to know. We need to know that the word of the Lord was magnified,
that God rules over the demonic spirits of this world. They are
his creation and they'll do his bidding, for good or for ill. These men took upon themselves,
and God's children have something put upon them. Why don't we finish by just turning
to Ephesians chapter 6. And we'll see what God makes
of his people. These men made themselves something. God makes his people something. And he robes them with the very
robe of the righteousness of his Son. and he causes them,
he causes them to triumph in this world. Ephesians chapter
6, Paul no doubt when he was writing this had thoughts of
some of these events and no doubt these were chosen particularly
but out of, these were typical probably of many, many events
that happened in that city of Ephesus. He says, finally my
brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.
He's the one that has the ability. He is able. He is able. and put on the whole armour of
God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. I want to remind you that every
single pronoun here is a plural pronoun. The thought of you going
out as an individual against all of the wiles of the devil is just not in the text. The
text is saying this is an activity of the children of God as they
are gathered together and as they care for and nurture each
other and remind each other of these great pictures of the Gospel. These are all pictures of the
Gospel. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against
principalities, against powers, against the rulers of darkness
in this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore
take unto you the whole armour of God, that you may be able
to withstand in the evil day, having done all to stand." God's
able to make His people stand. Stand therefore, stand in the
gospel, stand shoulder to shoulder with God's people, stand shoulder
to shoulder with the apostolic confession of who the Lord Jesus
Christ is. Stand shoulder to shoulder. Stand
therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having
on the breastplate of righteousness. and your feet shod with the preparation
of the gospel of peace." You wear upon your feet the preparation
of the gospel of peace. You walk in it, brothers and
sisters. You walk in it. Walk in Him. Above all, taking
the shield of faith. Wherewith ye shall be able to
quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. All the fiery darts
of the wicked one. That's a promise from God, brothers
and sisters. It's a promise from God. You
shall be able to quench the fiery darts of the wicked. Satan never
has to lie to accuse you. But he has to lie about your
Saviour and he has to lie about your union with the Saviour to
accuse you. And take the helmet of salvation
and the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God. When Satan came and attacked
the Lord Jesus Christ at his weakest in the desert after all
those 40 days of hunger and thirst, And the Lord Jesus Christ repeatedly
said to Satan, this is what God says. This is what God says. He took nothing upon himself
in that meeting with Satan. He just said, this is what the
word of God says. I am trusting the promises of
God. the sword of the Spirit, which
is the word of God, praying always with all prayer and supplication
in spirit, watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication
for all the saints. And for me, that utterance may
be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly and make
known the mystery of the gospel. See, the Lord's people put on
the armour of God so that we can seek an opportunity to proclaim
the Gospel and that we might have another opportunity to preach
and speak about our Saviour, for which I am an ambassador
in bonds, that therein may I speak boldly as I ought to speak. That's the power of God. That's
the power of God, is the preaching of the Gospel, the covering of
the children of God, is all about the Lord Jesus Christ. He is
the faithful one. He is our salvation. He is the
one who wields the sword of the Spirit. He is the one that is
the breastplate of righteousness. He is the one that is able. He
is the one that is able. God's people take nothing upon
themselves and make nothing of themselves, but they are made
of God. We are made of God. Made of God
to stand in this world. Made of God to know that the
strength is not in ourselves, but He is able. He is able. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father,
we pray that we might be found gathered together, Heavenly Father,
in exalting Your dear and precious Son. We praise You, Heavenly
Father, that the events of this world, and even the strange events
of this world, are events that are ordained and designed by
You, that Your Word might be magnified, that Your people might
find their comfort and their rest in who the Lord Jesus Christ
is. Oh, our Father, we pray that
when we encounter these things, you would cause us to be humble
before you. You might use these things, Heavenly
Father, to cause us to cling to our Lord Jesus Christ, to
be fearful of making anything of ourselves, to be wise, our
Father, with His wisdom. and to take his word. And may you make it spirit and
life to us, Heavenly Father. May we find ourselves at rest
in who the Lord Jesus Christ is and his promises for us in
this dark and depraved and dying world, Heavenly Father. We praise
you for your salvation. We praise you for the wonder
of complete forgiveness in the Lord Jesus Christ. Father God,
help us to delight in his blood shed for us and his body broken
for us. That mean we might, Heavenly
Father, be used of you to magnify him in this world by simply trusting,
by simply being reliant upon him. We pray these things in
Jesus' name and for his glory. Amen.