Let us turn tonight in our Bibles
to Ephesians chapter six. Ephesians chapter six and reading
verses 10 through 18. Finally, my brethren, be strong
in the Lord and in the power of his might. Put on the whole
armor of God that you may be able to stand against the walls
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. 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. 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. Above all, taking the shield
of faith, wherewith you shall be able to quench all the fiery
darts of the wicked. And take the helmet of salvation,
and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God, praying
always with all prayer and supplications in the spirit, and watching thereunto
with all perseverance and supplication for all saints. We're beginning
tonight the last section in this letter of Ephesians, and I have
basically two truths that I want to emphasize tonight to us from
verses 10 and 11. The first truth is the believer's
strength, and the second truth is the believer's enemy. So first,
the believer's strength, the Lord Jesus Christ. Be strong
in the Lord and in the power of his might. Matthew Henry commented
that believers must be strong. They're God's children. God's
people that we must be strong. We must be strong according to
him for service, strong for suffering, and strong for fighting. And
then he went on to say, our natural courage is as perfect cowardice
and our natural strength as perfect weakness, but all our sufficiency
is of God. The apostle writing to these
believers in Ephesus, and therefore to us, declares, be strong in
the Lord. And what that actually means,
literally, is we must have Christ as our strength. Last Sunday
morning, I began the worship service reading from Exodus chapter
15. And in that chapter, of course,
we have the song of Moses. The song of Moses which the Israelites
sang as they look back upon all of their enemies destroyed in
the Red Sea and God had brought them safely through on dry ground. And that song began something
like this. The Lord is my strength and song. The Lord is my strength and song. And he has become my salvation. Be strong in the Lord. The Lord
Jesus Christ must be our strength. He himself must be our strength. I know many of us have sung David's
words in Psalm 27 and verse 1. The Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? The Lord is
the strength of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid? And
we notice that in both of these texts, in Exodus 15 and Psalm
27, in both of these texts, it is the Lord. That is, it is Jehovah. It is the Lord God Jehovah who
is proclaimed as our strength. In 1 Samuel 15 and verse 29,
we find that this is even one of His names. You know, the Lord
our God has many names revealed to us in the Word of God, and
all of these names tell us something about Him. And this is one of
His names in 1 Samuel 15 and verse 29, the strength of Israel. That's God. The strength of Israel
will not lie nor repent. And we know when The scripture
speaks about God lying, about God repenting. Both of these
are impossibilities. God cannot lie. God cannot repent. But it reminds us of this wonderful
truth of God's immutability. God cannot change. God is the same today as he was
yesterday. and forever shall be. He is eternal
God and knows no change. The scripture says the strength
of Israel will not lie nor repent, for he is not a man that he should
repent. You know, men, all of us, we
change with the weather, we say. And we know that's true, isn't
it? We get up in the morning and we have plans for the day.
But our plans many times are not realized and we change. We change. We must change. Circumstances
arise that cause us to change our mind and change our plans.
But not God. He knows what's on tomorrow because
he has purposed what's coming to pass on tomorrow. And things
that take us by surprise, God is never surprised. God never
learns anything like we do. He is our strength. We should realize, and this is
a point I think is so important, we should realize that it is
not just that He gives us strength. That is true. He gives us strength. But for us, what we need to realize
is He is our strength. Not only does He give us strength,
but He is our strength. We have no strength apart from
Him. God is our strength, who is all-powerful. Therefore, the psalmist said,
of whom shall I fear? Seeing that God, who is omnipotent,
is our strength, whom shall I fear? Just as Jesus Christ is the author
and finisher of our faith, so we must realize that he also
is the author and finisher of our strength. He, he himself
is our strength. Paul says, finally, my brethren,
be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might, his might. You know, Paul knew this. And
Philippians, to that church family, he wrote this, I can do all things. Now, if he had just put a period
there, we would question that, would we not? I can do all things,
period. No, no. I can do all things through
Christ, which strengtheneth me. I can do all things. He strengthens
us to do his will. His will, His revealed will for
us that is in the Word of God. He strengthens us that we may
do His will. He strengthens us to withstand
inward corruptions. And we all face and have those
inward corruptions, temptations and lust and, and desires that
He gives us strength to overcome. He gives us strength to withstand. and not only inward corruptions,
but he gives us strength to resist outward temptations. We're met
many times with temptations, are we not? Who is it that gives
us the strength? As Matthew Henry said, we are
perfect weakness in ourselves. We have no strength. In fact,
the Lord Jesus Christ, speaking to his disciples, said, without
me, you can do nothing. That pretty well answers that
question, doesn't it? Without me, you cannot resist
temptation without me. No, he is our, finally, my brethren,
be strong in the Lord. And I think about the question
that God asked Abraham, the Lord Jesus asked Abraham that day,
is anything too hard for the Lord? Is anything too hard for
the Lord? You know, as we pray, and as
we pray about relocating, I'll just give you my personal experience. As we think about what seemingly
to us may be impossible, but I remind myself when I'm praying,
it was impossible for a woman 90 years old to have a baby. But she did. It was impossible
for the Red Sea to open up and the Israelites to walk through
on dry ground, but the Red Sea opened up. God is a God of doing
the impossible, isn't He? For a virgin to have a child,
bring forth a child, is an impossibility, and yet All things are possible
with him. And so she did bring forth her
son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Is anything too hard for the
Lord? And I thought about this 10th
verse before we moved to the 11th verse, but I thought about
this 10th verse and I thought it can look backward and it can
look forward. You say, what do you mean by
that? Well, Be strong. Finally, my brethren, be strong
in the Lord. It can look backward here in
this official to chapter four and verse one where he said,
I therefore the prisoner of the Lord beseech you that you walk
worthy of the vocation wherewith you are called. How are we going
to do that? How are we going to walk worthy
of this calling? Remember, his calling is a high
calling and it is a heavenly calling and it is a holy calling. How are we going to walk worthy
of this calling? Finally, my brethren, be strong
in the Lord and in the power of His might. We don't have the
might in ourselves. And then as we read through and
we've studied through those verses of scripture, think of all the
exhortations that the apostle has given us as believers I thought
about when he said that we are not to walk as other Gentiles
walk in verse 17 of chapter 4. This I say, therefore, and testify
in the Lord that you henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk. How are we going to do that? How are we not going to walk
as other Gentiles walk? That is, as the lost of this
world walk. in His strength, in His power. And then, you know, there's so
many other that we could point out there. Verse 24 of chapter
4, that you put on the new man. How are we going to put him on?
Where's the power going to come from? And of course, that new
man is created in righteousness and true holiness. That's that
new man that that we have since we've been saved. Now put him
on. In other words, live out what God has worked in. It is
God that worketh in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure. How are we going to do His good
pleasure? Be strong in the Lord. And then, of course, when he
spoke about putting away lying and, you know, be angry and sin
not, Let him that stole steal no more. Rather work with his
hands that he might have to give. Just let no corrupt communication
proceed out of your mouth. The strength to obey these exhortations,
to do these exhortations, it's not in us. It's not in our flesh. We know that. Finally, my brethren,
be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might, so we
might look back. And then these family relationships
that he mentions, the husband towards his wife, the wife toward
her husband, the children toward their parents, the workers toward
their employers, and the employers toward the workers, all of these
relationships to do what is right. to do what is right, where is
that strength going to come from? From the Lord. Finally, my brethren,
be strong in the Lord. So the point being, He is our
strength. He, that is the Lord Jesus Christ. And then, that's looking back,
but looking forward here in this passage of scripture, we see
to withstand in the evil day. I believe that's in verse 12. No, in verse 13. 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. Where is that strength
coming from? To withstand and having done
all to stand. Where's that strength going to
come from? from the Lord. So that's my thought concerning
verse 10. It could refer back to the verses
that went before or to the verses that follow. So that's the first
point I want to emphasize tonight. The believer's strength, the
Lord Jesus Christ. Be strong in the Lord. He is
our strength. The second point I want to emphasize
concerns the believer's enemy, the devil. Verse number 11. Put on the whole armor of God
that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. Every once in a while in the
news, You will read something about some religious hierarchy
who does believe that there is a devil. It's just like, like
that's such an amazing thing, you know? Well, everyone who
believes the word of God knows there is a devil. He's a real
being. He's a real being. And he is
the enemy of every child of God. We often remind ourselves that
every believer has three enemies. The flesh, the world, and the
devil. The devil is a real enemy. Now he was defeated at the cross. No question. No doubt about it. The word that was spoken to Adam
and Eve there in the garden actually is spoken to Satan. The seed
of the woman shall bruise your head. That is the head of the
serpent. And at the cross, the Lord Jesus
Christ defeated him. But you read in Revelation chapter
12 of that war, though he is defeated, he has not yet been
cast into the lake of fire. But he knows, he knows that he
has a short time because the day will come. He knows that. He knows what awaits him. He
has a short time. And Satan is always busy. He never takes a vacation. He's
always busy walking about as a roaring lion seeking whom he
may devour. Now Paul calls our attention
in this text to his wiles, W-I-L-E-S, the wiles. That's what he's put
on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against
the wiles of the devil. What does that word mean, wiles? The Greek word is only used in
one other place in the New Testament. And we'll look at that place,
it's chapter four here in Ephesians. and verse 14, and the way that
it is translated here explains and defines what that word means,
the wiles of the devil. In chapter 4 and verse 14, Paul
said that we henceforth be no more children tossed to and fro
and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the slight
of man and cunning craftiness whereby, and here it is, They
lie in wait to deceive. Men, Paul says here, men, there
are men in this world who lie in wait to deceive believers. And they're only following their
master, their head, that is Satan. Because that's what this word
wiles means. It means to deceive. It means
to set a trap, actually. One of the old writers gave this
definition of the word. First, he said, it signifies
such snares that are laid behind one. In other words, Satan is
not going to announce his presence. He's not going to come up to
you and say, hello there, I'm Satan. Oh no, that's not the
way he works. No, his wiles is to slip up behind
someone. It's to lay a trap behind someone,
treacherous to someone who comes up from behind, unawares. You
know, you're walking along and he comes up from behind, unawares. You're not expecting him, you're
not looking for him, and here he is, unaware. He also, the same writer, gave
this illustration of what it means. A man is walking along
his road, thinking he's walked down this road many times before. This is old hat to him, walking
down this road, but then on a sudden, he's caught by some thieves. He's taken advantage of by some
thieves. He's walking along this road.
He's walked down this road many times and he falls into a hole,
a trap that has been set, falls into a pit. Now, one of the books
that I bought many, many years ago, all of us in Bible school,
we were all taught to appreciate good writers, good books and
the Puritans. were being reprinted at that
time, printed by Puritan writers. And one of those books that I
bought at that time, the name is Precious Remedies Against
Satan's Devices. It was written by Thomas Brooks. And he took for his text, in
writing this book, 2 Corinthians 2 and verse 11, where the apostle
Paul said, last, lest Satan should get an advantage of us. Now listen,
for we are not ignorant of his devices, his machinations. We are not ignorant of his devices. And then Thomas Brooks, he gives
12 devices of Satan and the remedy
for each one of these devices of Satan. I'm going to give us
tonight the first device that Satan has and the four remedies
that Thomas Brooks gives us. I trust it'll be a help and a
blessing to us. The first device that he mentioned,
this is Satan's device. He presents the bait, but hides
the hook. He presents the bait, but hides
the hook. just like men do when fishing.
We bait the hook, the bait attracts the fish, but then the fish suffers
because of the hook. No one thinks of fishing with
just a hook. Oh no, you're not going to catch
many fish with just a hook in the water. You've got to have
some bait on that hook. And then yes, maybe you will
catch some fish. I want you to look back at the
illustration he gives us, and it's so obvious and so clear,
back in Genesis chapter 3. Genesis chapter 3, and let's
see the bait. This is Satan now, remember.
Let's see the bait that he uses. Speaking to Eve, verse three
and four. But of the fruit of, this is
Eve saying, but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst
of the garden, God has said, you shall not eat of it, neither
shall you touch it lest you die. And the serpent said unto the
woman, here's the bait, you shall not surely die. For God doth know, this is continuing
the bait. This is a bait to get her to
disobey God. You will not surely die, for
God doth know that in the day you eat thereof, then your eyes
shall be opened, and you shall be as God's, knowing good and
evil." Here's the bait, the sweet, the pleasure, the profit. You
won't die. Your eyes are going to be opened,
and you're going to become as God's. Didn't he hide the hook? Here
comes the hook, the bait, the sweet, the pleasure there. You
will not die. Your eyes are going to be open.
You'll become like God's. But here's the hook immediately,
death. Just as soon as Adam partook
of that fruit and disobeyed God came death, spiritual death. Shame, remember, what did they
do? Immediately they tried to cover
themselves with fig leaves, came under the wrath of God. And think
of all the loss that followed from that sin. All the loss that followed. We
live in a fallen world, don't we? And we see the repercussions
of sin every day. in our own self and in others. We see what sin has brought into
this world. That's the hook. Oh, the bait
looked good. Now, he gives four remedies.
Remedy number one, keep at the greatest distance from sin and
from playing with the golden bait that Satan holds forth to
catch you. Keep at the greatest distance
from the sin and from playing with the golden bait that Satan
holds forth to catch you. Romans 12 and verse 9 says, abhor
that which is evil. Abhor it. Abhor it. Cleave to that which is good. You know, there's a proverb which
says, fools make a mock at sin. And only a fool would. When you
see what sin costs the Lord Jesus Christ, what it costs to forgive
a sin, to put a sin away, the sacrifice of the Son of God,
only a fool would mock at sin, but fools do. That's the bait. Stay away from it as far as you
can. Number two, the second remedy
is that sin is but a bittersweet That seeming sweet that is in
sin will soon vanish, and lasting shame, sorrow, horror, and terror
will come in the room thereof. And then he emphasizes or points
out these three verses from Job. I never had noticed them before,
but Job 20, verses 12 through 14. Though, now listen, though
wickedness be sweet in his mouth, though he hide it under his tongue,
though he spare it and forsake it not, but keep it still within
his mouth, yet, here it comes, here comes the hook, yet his
meat in his bowels is turned, it is as the gall of asp within
him. Sweet in the mouth, but oh, the
hook when it comes into the stomach. Number three, the third remedy,
consider that sin will usher in the greatest and saddest losses
that can be upon our souls. And he says this, it will usher
in the loss of that divine favor that is better than life, and
the loss of that joy that is unspeakable and full of glory,
and the loss of that peace which passeth understanding, and the
loss of those divine influences by which the soul hath been refreshed,
quickened, raised, strengthened, and gladdened. And the fourth
remedy is seriously consider that sin is of a very deceitful
and bewitching nature. It is from the greatest deceiver,
that is Satan, and it is the ground of all the deceit that
is in this world. It can deceive a person so much
that a man will call bittersweet and darkness light. We live in such a day, do we
not? And we have, this has been on
my mind, but we have leaders of our nation who call darkness
light. They're deceived. I heard today that if a congressman,
if his wife has a baby, He cannot, on the floor of Congress, say,
my wife had a baby girl, or my wife had a baby boy. You cannot
use those terms, boy and girl. That's against the rules now
of the Congress of our nation. That's sad, isn't it? People
are so deceived. Why? Because we've forsaken The
Word of God. And it started in the pulpits,
I realize that. It started in the pulpits years
ago. But oh, how it has advanced to
where we are today. It's a sad, sad thing. Well, Satan, he is a deceiver. Be strong in the Lord and in
the power of his might that you may be able to stand. against the walls of the devil. I pray the Lord would bless this
message to us this evening.