The text is found there in Ephesians
chapter 6 and reading verses 11 and 12. Ephesians chapter
6 verses 11 and 12 put on the whole armor of God that you may
be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. 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." Put on the whole armor of God,
says the Apostle. Previously we considered something
of the restoration of man in terms of a putting on. Back in chapter 4 and verse 24
of this book, this epistle to the Ephesians, that she puts on the new man.
which after God is created in righteousness and through holiness. We were considering that text
only last Lord's Day evening and we saw that as there is to
be that putting on, so at the same time there is a putting
off and also a putting away. in verse 22 of that chapter that
she put off concerning the former conversation the old man which
is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts verse 25 where for putting
away lying speak every man truth with his neighbor for we are
members one of another as there is to be a putting on then of
the new man so there is that putting off of the old man, that
putting away of the sins of the flesh. And we have also observed
the same truths, have we not? In what Paul writes in Colossians,
there in chapter 3 and verse 10, he says, And have put on
the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image
of him that created him. and thus there is such putting
on there, so also again he speaks of the putting off for the sake
that now you also put off all these anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy,
filthy communication out of your flesh and so forth. Now this putting off or this
putting away is really to be understood in terms of the necessity
of mortification, putting the death of the old nature. When the believer is born again,
born from above, born of the Spirit, becomes a partaker of
the divine nature, that seed of God which is in him, and he
cannot sin, because he is born of God, yet there is the old
nature, that is bent on sinning and it is the Christians calling
therefore to be putting those things off, to be putting those
things to death. And there in chapter 3 of Colossians
in the 5th verse Paul says, mortify therefore your members which
are upon the earth, fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection,
and evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry." What is this
mortification? It is the seeking to destroy
the old nature that nature that can never change, that that he
is born of the flesh, his flesh can never be improved, that that
he is born of the spirit, his spirit can never sin. There is an awful conflict therefore
in the soul of the child of God. But tonight I want us to consider
what Paul says here concerning another putting on, as he writes,
of the believer's armor, put on the whole armor of God, he
says. And then we have the reason,
of course, why the necessity of such armor, because there
is a warfare with Satan. Besides the mortification of
the deeds of the body, putting the
death of the old nature, that enemy that lies within the heart
of the believer, there is also this great adversary called Satan. And so Paul says, put on the
whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the
wiles of the devil, 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. And so first of all, let us consider
the particular enemy that the Apostle has in mind as he writes
these words. It's not now sinful self that
he is speaking of, that is to be put off. It is that dreadful
adversary called Satan. And so the Apostle speaks of
him, that he may be able to stand, he says, against the wiles of
the devil. Paul clearly believed in a personal
devil, a real adversary to the souls of men. Now, many today,
I suppose, would deny that. We live, alas, in a materialistic
age, and yet, how strange it is, whilst we live in such an
age as that, there are multitudes who like to delve into spiritism
and the occult, Every year now, of course, even children are
caught up in these things with all the fuss that's made concerning
Halloween in a materialistic age. How men dabble with unseemly,
unsavoury things, and yet so many would deny that they really
believe in a personal devil. How That, then, is this expression
that we have in the text where Paul speaks of the wiles of the
devil. And we see it all around us,
how he blinds the minds of men. Think of those words that the
apostle writes to Timothy in his second epistle. He speaks
of the desire that there would be those that may recover themselves
out of that grip of Satan himself, how they are taken captive by
him at his will. In 2 Timothy chapter 2 and verse
26, that they may recover themselves, he says, out of the snare of
the devil. who are taken captive by him
at his will. Taken alive, it says, in the
margin. Oh, he ensnares me. And we see
it, I see. He is such a crafty, cunning
foe, is this adversary of men. Oh, he hates man, because man,
of course, is created in the image, made after the likeness
of God. Satan is the great enemy of God
and therefore how he will vent his spleen against that creature
that was made in the very image of God. And he is so subtle. We see it of course right at
the beginning of creation. No sooner has God made the heavens
and the earth, and pronounced on that seventh day that the
work is very good, and set the man there in the garden of Eden,
and bringing him into paradise as made provision for him with
an helpment, bringing Eve to Adam, and how those two become
one flesh, living there in the very paradise of God. And then we come to that third
chapter, The opening words of Genesis chapter 3, now, the serpent
was more subtle, he says, than any of the beasts that the Lord
God had made. More subtle. All the subtlety
of Satan, the wiles of the devil. What do we see with regards to
this fearful farewell? He is able to masquerade sometimes,
even as an angel of light. as St Paul say as much when he
writes to the Corinthians there in the second book to the Corinthians
in 2nd Corinthians chapter 11 and there at verses 13 and 14
he speaks of those false teachers that had come into the church
and how they had stolen the hearts of many of those believers and
set them against Paul and the truth that the Apostle was proclaiming
and he sees in this the work of Satan. In chapter 11 of 2nd
Corinthians and verse 13 Paul writes such are false apostles
deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles
of Christ. That was their claim. Or was
Paul an apostle so these false teachers also claimed to be apostles? There are those today who say
they have apostolic authority. But what does Paul say? No marvel,
for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. How we need, friends, to be aware
then, aware of the fact that there are those who are false
teachers. And there have been from the
beginning of the New Testament, in the days of the apostles,
there were those who were creeping into churches, and they were
the instruments of Satan. And the devil, you see, can appear
as an angel of light. Or the subtlety of it. John gives
that exhortation, does he not, as he writes in his first epistle,
Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits, whether
they are of God, for many false teachers are gone out into the
world. There are false teachers and
we need to discern and of course the most dangerous of those false
teachers often times are those who come the nearest to the truth.
Many ways I would say that letter Calvinism that is so prevalent
today is the most dangerous thing, is it not? It comes so near to
the truth and yet there are those who are denying the truth. they
might pay lip service to the sovereignty of God. And yet the
manner in which they conduct themselves, their whole methodology
is not in accordance with divine sovereignty. But so often it's
a man-centered religion that they purvey to others. But how
we need, principally of course, to be looking to ourselves. Paul, when he writes to the church
at Philippi, he writes weeping as he gives exhortation to them
there in the third chapter in Philippians chapter 3 and there
at verse 18 he says many walk of whom I have told you often
and now tell you even weeping that they are the enemies of
the cross of Christ whose end is destruction, whose God is
their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly
things." What are we to do? We're to look to ourselves. We're
to examine ourselves. There is a place, is there not,
for that self-examination, remembering as subtle as the fur, the wiles
of the devil. Examine yourself, says Paul,
whether ye be in the faith. Prove your own self. Know ye
not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except
ye be reprobates? Or the subtlety of this Father,
cunningness, how he comes, you see, under cover of that that
seems to be so orthodox. He masquerades, he comes as the
angel of light at times. But how do we discover him? Well,
he might appeal to Scripture. As he comes, he appeals to the
Word of God, but so often what does he do? He misquotes the
Word of God. Look at how the devil comes and
assaults the Lord Jesus Christ immediately after his baptizing. What a blessed experience that
was to the Lord. that there we're told the heavens
opened and the Spirit descended upon him in the form of a dove. He was anointed with the Holy
Ghost above, Meshach. And then that testimony, the
voice from heaven saying, this is my beloved Son in whom I am
well pleased. But then we see Christ led of
the Spirit into the wilderness. Immediately after the blessings
that he knows that he is baptizing, he is under assault Satan comes
and Satan fearfully attacks him there in the wilderness and see the
approach of Satan in verse 5 of Matthew 4, Then
the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him
on a pinnacle of the temple, and saith unto him, If thou be
the Son of God, cast thyself down, for it is written. And now he begins to quote scripture
at the Lord Jesus Christ. It is written, He shall give
His angels charge concerning thee, and in their hands they
shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against
the stone. He shall give His angels charge
concerning thee. There are words that He deliberately
omits. Because when we compare what
is written there and what is actually written in the Scriptures,
if we go back to the psalm that is being quoted by Satan, Psalm
91, the significant words are that he will be kept in all his
ways. He has given the angels this
charge to keep thee in all thy ways. And what are thy ways? Why, they are the ways of obedience. to the will of the Father. This
is the great business that Christ came to accomplish, to do the
will of Him that had sent Him, and to finish His work, and He
would be kept in that way, and in no other way. How cunning,
you see, is Satan, he omits significant words. He misquotes the Word
of God. I know that other times we see
that he is so bold that he will even question God's Word or deny
God's Word. When he comes to Eve there in
the Garden of Eden, he wants to conduct the Word of God. He
wants to put doubt into her mind. The serpent, who is the very
instrument of Satan, there of course, comes to Eve and says
to the woman, ye shall not surely die. How he, you see, is a sower of
doubts. The Lord God had said quite clearly,
quite plainly to Adam, concerning any transgression of the commands,
concerning that tree, of the knowledge of good and evil, in
the day that they'll eat us hereof, thou shalt surely die." That's
what the Lord God had said. And here is the devil, ye shall
not surely die. Or he contradicts the word, he
sows that seed of doubt into the minds of the woman. From whence do these doubts proceed? They come of the evil one, friends. There are some who seem to imagine
that fears and doubts are commendable and they're good in the child
of God. They're indicative that that person is being preserved
from a presumptuous spirit. Well, we don't want to be presumptuous. God preserve us from that, but
let us recognize where it is that doubts come from. They're
a contradiction of the Word of God. They're an evidence of unbelief
that roots in the sin which does so easily beset us. I say, friends, that Satan is
the most cunning fowl. You're probably aware of that
quite remarkable book by William Gurnall. An interesting Puritan,
Gurnall, because he was one of those that conformed to the Great
Ejection in 1662. He was not ejected, but he continued
to minister in the established church. That remarkable book
that he wrote on this portion of scripture, The Christian in
Complete Armour, And he says many striking things in that
book, of course. And amongst others, he speaks
of how Satan is so cunning afar. He says, how he leads poor creatures
down into the depths of sin by winding stairs that let them
not see the bottom where they are going. And where is that
bottom that they're going as they fall in with his temptations? He is leading them by those winding
stairs, of course, down into hell. Oh, he is a clever, a cunning,
a subtle foe. This is the enemy of the child
of God. And as he is subtle, so we must
also recognize that he is strong. He is strong. He's a mighty angel,
is he not? He's a fallen angel. Look at verse 12, for we wrestle
not against flesh and blood, not wrestling with poor mortal
men like ourselves. But, he says, we're wrestling
against principalities or princes. against powers, against the rulers
of the darkness of this world. John speaks about the world lies
in wickedness, or lies in the wicked one. He is the prince
of the power of the air, is he not? Against principalities,
against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world,
against spiritual wickedness in high places. And that last word, which is
here in italics, of course, has been introduced, literally, against
spiritual wickedness in the highest, or in the heavenlies, against
spiritual wickedness that has to do with the highest things.
You see, the main matter of the believer's warfare is conflict
with Satan. The main thing is the high things,
the high things concerning God, those doctrines that are most
God-glorifying. He sets himself against God. He is opposed to the Almighty. He doesn't like the fact that
God is Absolute in His sovereignty. Well, it's here you see that
we are doing conflict with the great adversary of souls. It's
in those high doctrines that concern the glories of God. When Paul writes those chapters
in Romans, remember how in a sense chapters 9 and 10 and 11 form
a sort of unit in the midst of the book. And of course, chapter
9, as you know, is a remarkable chapter, somewhat like Ephesians
1, in setting before us high doctrine, the truth of God's
absolute sovereignty in the matter of salvation. And so Paul begins
there in chapter 9 and he takes on his argument through chapter
10 into chapter 11. And then at the end of that 11th
chapter we have that great doxology of praise concerning God. For
of him and through him and to him are all things to whom be
glory forever and ever. That is the very doctrine, you
see, that the devil sets himself against. their spiritual wickedness in
the highest. He is opposed to God and all
that God is, as one who is sovereign. And we need to be aware, you
see, of who this enemy is. Paul says, "...put on the whole
armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles
of the devil." Well, having sought to say a little with regards
to this enemy of souls, this great adversary of our God, how
that he is a subtle foe, he's clever, he's cunning, and he
can so easily entrap our poor feet, and he's one who is strong,
and can so quickly overpower us. I mean, he said something
with who he is, And now the apostle is very mindful of him, clearly
a definite believer in devils and Satan himself. Let us turn
secondly to consider something of the believers' encouragement
against this particular foe. Paul says, put on the whole armor
of God. Oh, the armor, you see, is that
that is provided by God. It's God's armor. It's God's
armor. Verse 10. Finally, my brethren,
be strong in the Lord's and in the power of His might. Here is where we are to encourage
ourselves in the one who is God, the one who makes provision for
his people. Remember David's experience there
at Ziglag. The city had been assaulted,
destroyed, whilst David was away with his armies. And the women
and the children had been taken away As they return, David sees
the sad scene, and his men, who were so faithful to him, how
they turn against him, and they speak of stoning him. David is the one that they accuse. Now they've lost their wives
and all their little ones. And we read there, you can read
it in 1 Samuel chapter 30, with the incident there, but
there at the end of verse 6 we have this statement, David encouraged
himself in the Lord his God. David encouraged himself in the
Lord his God. All seem to be against him. And where does he look? He looks
to the Lord. Oh be strong in the Lord and
in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God. There is that means that God
has supplied for His children. Now what is that whole armor
of God? Well, doesn't the Apostle go
on to describe the various parts of that armor? Verse 13 he says,
Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God that you may be
able to withstand in the evil day and having done all to stand. And then from verse 14 through
to verse 17 we have the various parts of the armour. It's what God has supplied. for
his children in this dreadful conflict against Satan, the adversary
of their souls. And I just want to mention one
particular aspect of that armor as it is spoken of here. In the first part of verse 17
he says, and take the helmet of salvation, take the helmet
of salvation. That's repeated. That's repeated
when Paul writes in 1 Thessalonians 5 and verse 8, he says, and for
an helmet, the hope of salvation. What is the helmet? There it
is said to be the hope of salvation, the Christian's hope. His hope
is in God. And Christian hope, you know,
is not just wishful thinking. It's something much more solid,
much more substantial than that. It is that that centers in God
himself. But what is the helmet for? Why
does the warrior have a helmet upon his head? Well, it's for protection, of
course it is. It protects his head, which is
such an important part of the man's anatomy. It is there that
the brain is, it's there that the man thinks, there that he
understands, there that he makes his plans, and in the warfare
he seeks to have his stratagems, and as situations arise he has
his various tactics. How important is the head? And think how the believer, you
see, needs to have his head protected in order that he might be thinking
right, thinking as it were the thoughts of God after God. He
needs wisdom. And we think of the understanding,
we think of the mind, we think of wisdom. And what is it? one part of wisdom in conflict
in warfare well one important thing of course is to know your
enemy how important that is that you know your enemy you understand
the way your enemy thinks so you can anticipate him and we see it do we not with
regards to satan again writing in Corinthians 2nd Corinthians
Chapter 2 and verse 11, Paul says, Satan should get an advantage
over us, for we are not ignorant of his devices. We are not ignorant
of his devices. You know, the Puritans were very
good in this area, were they not? Of the believers, warfare,
his conflict with Satan. Not only Gernot's great book
on the Christian Armour, there's another book, that book by Thomas
Brooks, Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices. How we need to be aware, you
see, of our enemy, we need to know him. We're not ignorant,
says the Apostle, we're not ignorant of our devices. We're not taken
in like the men of the world. They're taken captive by him
at his will. Now he has blinded their minds. They understand not. We're to
know him. That we might anticipate him. That we might see him defeated. We know he's a defeated foe already.
And yet so often he comes and seems to gain the advantage over
us. The Lord Jesus Christ could say the prince of this world
cometh. and hath nothing in me." And
that was the truth, of course. There was nothing in the nature
of our Lord Jesus Christ that the Prince of this world, Satan,
could take any advantage of. There was no sin there. In a
sense, we might say that The intensity of the onslaught that
came upon the Lord Jesus Christ was greater than any other man
has ever experienced. Surely the devil must have thrown
all his awful artillery, but he could not gain any advantage
there. Alas, you see, when he assaults
us, he does find that in us that he can take advantage of. And
so if we would know our enemy, Satan, we must know something
of ourselves. We're to know ourselves, are
we not? That's why there's that place for self-examination, as
we've said. Examine yourselves, prove yourselves.
Know your own selves, says Paul. Oh, how important that we know
ourselves and our weaknesses. The place where Satan will come
and gain the advantage. We need to be wise. We need to
be those of a good understanding, do we not? What are we to do? We are to withstand this awful
adversary. Put on the whole armour of God,
he says, that she may be able to stand, that she may be able
to stand against the wiles of the devil. Guy, at the end of
verse 13, he says that you may be able to withstand in the evil
day and having done all to stand. What is it to stand, to withstand? It's to be those who are awake. We're to be alert. We're to be
ready. We're to resist Him when He comes,
when He assaults us. We're to be those who are watching
The Lord says, watch and pray, lest ye enter into temptations. God's children surely are those
who need to be awake in this present evil world. Remember
the words that we find in Peter concerning this terrible foe
there in 1 Peter chapter 5 and verse Eight, he says, be sober,
be vigilant, because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion,
walketh about, seeking whom he may devour, whom resist, steadfast
in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished
in your brethren that are in the world. Oh, how we find comfort,
you see, in the fellowship of saints. Why are we not to forsake
the assembling of ourselves together? Well, simply because God himself
has commanded that we do not forsake the assembling of ourselves
together. But God has a good and a gracious
end in view, does he not? We need one another. We need
to be those who would encourage one another. That we might be
those who will withstand all the assaults of this great adversary
of our souls. That she may be able to stand
And one thinks when we see that word of the
command that was given long ago first to the man Moses in Exodus
chapter 14 but then we have the same command again in 2nd Chronicles
chapter 20 given to King Jehoshaphat. You know what I'm thinking of
when God says to these men stand, be still, and see the salvation
of God. Well, there's our wisdom, you
see. There's our wisdom. We're to be those who are looking
to God if we would overcome this awful foe. We cannot stand in
our own strength. We can only stand in that strength
that God himself affords. And we know that The principal
enemy of Satan is God Himself. It is God that He is seeking
to attack, even when He comes and assaults man, man-made in
God's image. And as we've seen over these
past weeks, the restoration of man, the renewal of that divine
image, those words that we have back in that fourth chapter,
put on the new man, which after God, that is after God's image.
is created in righteousness and true holiness. How Satan, you
see, hates the restored man, the believer, who is renewed
in knowledge after the image of him that created him. And
so he seeks to assault man, and the believing man is therefore
to withstand him, and we are to encourage one another in that
good fight of faith. But then also this, there is
to be a wrestling is there not. It goes on in verse 12, we wrestle
not, 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. All we're to wrestle, that's
our safety you know. when we're wrestling with him,
when we're resisting him, when we're withstanding him. There's
a sentence in one of William Huntington's letters, he says
this concerning Satan and concerning all that host of demons. If enemies
in arms, he says, they cannot hurt us, but if friends in alliance,
they can and will. Our safety is to be his enemy,
to be those who are ever resisting him, not ignorant of his devices,
seeking to withstand him and he'll flee from us. That's what
we're told, is it not? Resist the devil and he'll flee
from you. Our danger is when he comes in
his subtle temptation and allures us and draws us away. And then we fall. And what does
he do? He turns adversely. Oh, he hates
Manusseh. That's how subtle he is. He's
the accuser of the brethren, is he not? Accusing them day
and night before God. Having, as it were, gained that
victory for a little while. And the poor believer finds his
feet entrapped. And he's wandered now out of
the narrow way into some by-path. And the devil has gained that
advantage and then immediately he turns. And the poor believer
knows not what to do. He's ashamed. He feels he cannot
yet look to his God when he considers the sin that he's fallen into.
But that's our safest course, is it not? To turn to make our
confessions to acknowledge our sins. Or what are we to do? If we're wrestling against Him,
we must be those who are wrestling with God. That's how we're overcoming
when we wrestle with our God in prayers. We sang those words
of Coopers just now, how Satan trembles when he sees the weakest
saint upon his knees, that saint of God, that child of God who
is all weakness in himself, and here he is bowing down before
his God, seeking to wrestle with God in prayer. How it fills the
devil with trepidation. He cannot stand it. against that
one, you see, who sees that all his strength must come from God.
Or the believer's encouragement. He finds encouragement in prayer. And then he finds encouragement
here. He finds encouragement in the words of God. This is how we are to resist
Him. He will use the word. He'll misquote the word. He'll
abuse the word. He'll misuse the word. But what
is the believer to do is to take that sword, as we read here in
verse 17, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of
God. This is the very way in which
the Lord Jesus Christ Himself resisted Him. See it there in
Matthew chapter 4. What does the Lord say, verse
4? It is written, and then again in verse 7 Christ says it is
written again and then in verse 10 he says get thee hence Satan
for it is written and that's what overcomes the great adversary
or the Word of God the Word of God this book that God has given
to us how we should immerse ourselves in it know it you see in order
that we might resist the devil with it, that we might make use
of it in our prayers to God, thickening our prayers, pleading
what God has said. Our eyes surely should be much
in the Scriptures of truth. We know the Word, we can plead
the Word. And it is a mighty instrument in our conflict with
Satan himself, or the believer then is to put on, is to put
on the whole armour of God and the necessity of such an armour
because he is in deadly conflict with the most dreadful foe, even
Satan himself. Oh the Lord, help us then to
be those who would be resisting the devil. Put on the whole armor
of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the
devil. 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. Oh, the Lord God Himself, have
mercy upon us and help us. Let us pray. Our God, we do thank
Thee that Thou hast granted to us the whole armour, the whole
armour of salvation. Oh, we thank Thee, Lord, for
that provision that Thou hast made. Do help us, Lord, that
we might be those then who would be resisting the devil. Oh, might
we know our foe, might we know ourselves, our weaknesses, Lord.
But above all things might we know thyself. And do thou come,
Lord, and appear for us, that we with David might encourage
ourselves in the Lord our God. So hear our prayer, we ask for
Christ's sake. Amen.