Ephesians 6:10-24 Prepare for Battle

Barbara is recovering but still sore. The speaker talks about being a preacher and now enjoying teaching Sunday school. They mention the decision to change the teaching schedule and talk about slavery in the Bible. They discuss the different types of slavery and how the Bible condemns it. They also mention the struggle to abolish slavery in history. The focus is on preaching the gospel and the power of the Holy Spirit. The speaker emphasizes the importance of mutual submission in relationships. Barbara's doing better. She is still very, very sore in many, many places. She was a little fearful of coming this morning for fear that someone might hug her. She's up and moving. Well, good morning. It is true that I don't get many calls to preach anymore. Not very many people are 89-year-old preachers. But I never thought I would enjoy teaching a Sunday school class. But Brother Jack has made a wonderful partner. I tell folks every time I can that I learn something from him every week. I got a granddad who was a preacher. My daddy was a preacher and went to Baylor Seminary. I learned stuff from him I didn't learn in any of those places. And I'm just grateful for the opportunity to have a chance to hear him more often and to share the teaching responsibilities with him. Now, we're going to make a little change today. I'm not going to finish the sixth chapter. I just want you to know that. I'm not going to try to finish it. I'm going to take my time and I'll come back next Sunday and teach the rest of chapter six and also teach a little something about mothers. And then the next Sunday, Jack will begin with Philippians. So we decided to make a change. I texted him yesterday and I just said, I can't finish chapter six. So how about me taking the, let's see, I'm going to, Tom, don't let me mess this up. I'm going to take what I can this week and what's left we'll finish next week. And he said, well, okay, then talk about mothers the rest of the time next week. So I said, okay, we'll do that. So we're going to change up just a little bit. There's just too much in this last chapter for us to glide by. And there's so much unique about this. Just the dealing of the issue of slavery, for instance. We could just skip over that, but we took some time last week to talk about slavery in the Roman empire. And I want to finish that up as we go on today. And just reminds you that in the epistle to Ephesians, he is writing to believers. So he's not writing to correct the issue of slavery. But by the way, the Old Testament made restrictions and descriptions about slavery that is very unlike slavery in our history. Slavery in our history is the forced taking of people and making them slaves. And they have no rights, no choices of their own. They can't own property. They were brutally abused by arrogant people. All of it was wrong. And sometimes I hear people say, well, the Bible never does condemn slavery. Flash news. In the book of Exodus chapter 21 and verse 16, Moses forbade and condemned forced slavery, kidnapping anyone for slavery. And anyone who kidnaps a person for slavery had to be put to death. Oh, the next verse in Exodus, by the way, says if so, does anyone who abuses their parents. I mean, this is serious stuff. But in Deuteronomy 33, 15, 15, 16, Moses said again, don't return a slave to his master when he escaped from his master to you. Let him live among you wherever he wants within your city gates and don't mistreat him. When we get to the end of the prison epistles, we're going to come to Philemon, who is receiving a message from Paul by Onesimus. And Paul tells Philemon, receive Onesimus as you would receive me. In other words, I'm a free man. I'm welcomed into your friendship. Treat him the same way. So the scripture does in fact deal with slavery, though slavery in the ancient times was so different because slaves could buy their freedom. They could own property. Wealthy Greek and Roman bankers, for instance, would hire slaves to be the officers and the people who took care of the bank. Slavery was a part of the culture and the economy of the ancient world. And while the owner could treat them any way he chose, there was also evidence that many of the masters treated them well. And when they did earn their freedom, many of them would choose to stay with their masters. And as a token of that, they would pierce a hole in their ear and that would say, I was a slave, but I have chosen to remain in the service of my master. So slavery in the Old Testament was of a different kind. But even that, Deuteronomy and Exodus tell us that it was inappropriate, often abused. So there are some similarities, but not as much similarities, more differences because it was a different kind of slavery. Slaves who did have an abusive master could run away and Moses took care of that. He said, you get a slave that's run away, welcome him, give him a place to live, don't mistreat him. So the Bible everywhere condemns slavery, but it also brought a message that would condemn slavery and eliminate slavery, which it actually did in time. It was a struggle. I just remember the struggle of Wilberforce in England when he fought against slavery and for years, decades, he presented things in the Parliament and wanted to overturn slavery, make it illegal. It finally became illegal. Parliament actually passed the law outlawing slavery three days after Wilberforce died. But he labored for years. Look at our own country. It took a civil war for us to settle that issue. So it is an emotional issue, it is an incredible matter, but the Bible is never complicit in approving slavery. In fact, it never approved slavery and spoke against it and advocated for good treatment of those who had been slaves. So I thought I would do a couple of things before we get on. How did one become a slave in New Testament times? We know it existed. Well, how did they get to be? And you'll see how different it is from the last 200 years. First, a thief who could not make restitution could become an indentured servant until repayment was complete. It was better than prison. He had an option there to be an indentured servant. Which, by the way, I don't want to get on a rabbit because I don't have time, but if you read American history, you'll find that some slaves who were brought here became indentured servants. Now, it's interesting. There has been a group, I think they call themselves the 1619 group, that said that when the slaves were brought to the East Coast way back in the 15th, 16th century, whenever it was, that they had slaves and they remained slaves. That is not true. They became indentured servants and in time they could serve their time and they would be free and could actually purchase a house or have a place provided for them upon their freedom. So the whole idea of indentured servants is something we did experience here that they practiced in the biblical times at all. Now, what was Paul's response to all of that? Paul was not addressing the issue of slavery as the primary issue. Remember, this is the New Testament. Ephesus was a new church. The gospel was a new message and his focus was on preaching the gospel. That was the focus of the Apostle Paul throughout all of his writings and you can know that he concentrated on preaching the gospel. And that was the focus of the New Testament. It was the focus of the church. The New Testament never sought to overturn politics or culture of the world at that time. Their lives and the gospel did that. They demonstrated the gospel. Remember the little word, do it, is applied to truth in the New Testament. John says that we ought to do the truth. Well, that is what we saw. The first church operated in a Roman world where it was illegal to be a Christian. They could not worship. Sharing their faith could bring great consequences. We remember the lions in the arena and we need the way they were treated, beheaded, crucified. It was a terrible treatment. Imagine trying to grow a church when the best you could offer new members was you might have your head cut off and you might be beaten to death and you might be nailed to a cross or you might be fed to the lions. That would not be a very appealing, attractive way to grow a church. But they did. While they were illegal, while they were often persecuted even to death, the church grew dramatically and within 380 years the church became the official church of the Roman Empire. How did they do that? It was through the faithful witness, the power of the Holy Spirit, dealing with the main task which was preaching the gospel. God took care of the issue of slavery in that time and even in our time though it took a lot of years for it to happen. So he was proclaiming the gospel and his life and the gospel itself made it impossible for slavery to continue. It's a shame we waited nearly 2,000 years to make it true in America. So remember these are believing slaves he's writing to. These are believing slave owners that he's writing to. And so he said the real issue are the two people, the hearts of the people, the slaves and the masters. They are there to have their lives changed by the gospel and if their hearts are not changed then anywhere the hearts are not changed there will all be attempts to establish oppression of other people. We're basically a selfish race and we'll try to get what we can. I said last week that babies want what they want when they want it. That's pretty true of adults. I mean who likes to stand in a line? I tell people the only two things I hate, both of them are waiting. We kind of want what we want when we want it too don't we? So we haven't grown very much. But the spirit of God living in us in chapter 5 verse 18, filled believers will present different approaches to every problem. They won't accept the status quo. Basic problems in humanity today are not political, they're not social, they're not economic, they're spiritual. And that's where Paul focuses. Our response to every relationship, here it is, mutual submission. He started back in chapter 5 talking about well submit to each other. Husband and wife, member to member. He talked about then submitting to husbands submitting to their wives and wives submitting to their husbands. They talk about children submitting to their parents. I mean it's all about submission and that is where Paul is focusing. Because the kind of submission he's talked about here in the 5th and 6th chapters of Ephesians is not possible without the Holy Spirit. This last June, the president of the pastors conference at Southern Mass Convention asked me to speak. And they were going to speak, there were about 18 of us that spoke. So he was going through the Beatitudes and some of the Sermon on the Mountain things. So he wanted me to speak on the self-control, which is one of the fruits of the Spirit. So I had a good time with that. I began my message by saying self-control is an oxymoron. Because I say we can't control ourselves. I mean we couldn't even keep the Ten Commandments, let alone the Sermon on the Mountain. It's the Holy Spirit that gives us the strength and the power to do things. And so self-control by itself isn't really possible. It's only possible through the presence of the Holy Spirit and that's the context of how Jesus said that. And we need to remember that. But here we're talking about believing slaves and believing owners. The slave's attitude is simply explained. First is, be obedient. What's your attitude as a slave? Be obedient. That's present tense, by the way. Tense in the Greek language does not mean time of the issue, but the kind of issue. So present tense for us is just now. This is the present tense. In the Greek world, present tense meant continuous action. It just kept on and on and on, never ended. So present tense is a very important tense for us to know. There are three important tenses that you need to know in Greek. You need to know the present tense and the aorist tense and the imperative mood. Those are all things that red flags ought to go up because the present tense means it's going on now. It needs to keep going on. The aorist tense means it happened in the past, but it's still happening now. And what happened in the past is still effective now. The imperative tense is a command. So we learn those, and we can get a better understanding of the depth and the significance of what God is asking us to do. So our response to every situation, to every person, is mutual submission, and that's only possible through the filling of the Holy Spirit. The slaves were to be obedient. Present tense, continuous obedience. Titus 2, 9, and 10 said slaves are to submit to their masters in everything, to be well-pleasing, not talking back or stealing, but demonstrating their utter faithfulness so they may adorn the teaching of God our Savior in everything. So they were to be obedient, and they were to keep a pure heart, verse 5. Right motive, verse 5 toward the end. Diligence, verse 6. They were positive, serve with a good attitude as to the Lord and not to people, in verse 7. Exodus 9, 10 says whatever your hands find to do, do it with all your strength. Romans 12, 11 says do not lack diligence and zeal, be fervent in the Spirit, serve the Lord. Colossians 3, 22 and 23 says slaves obey your human masters in everything. Don't work only while being watched as people pleases, but work wholeheartedly fearing the Lord. Whatever you do, do it from the heart as something done for the Lord and not for people. So we ought to be positive in our obedience and what we do for the Lord. Then anticipation, because in verse 8 he says knowing whatever good each one does, slaves or masters, he will receive this back, this reward of the inheritance from the Lord. You serve the Lord Jesus Christ. So what he's trying to get across to is everything we do reflects on Christ. Mahatma Gandhi, great leader in India, highly regarded, lived in New York and spent many years over here. In his last years he said I would be a Christian today if it were not for Christians. He attended church, he got wrapped up in American culture, but what he saw in the church did not lead him to believe in Jesus. That's kind of what he's talking about. What you say you believe is going to make a difference in how you live, what your attitude is. By the way, I'm finishing up on a book right now that I highly recommend to you. It's about George H. W. Bush and Barbara. It's not a political book. They were faithful members of the St. Martin's Episcopal Church in Houston for years and took it very, very seriously. It's called Witness to Dignity, one of the most intriguing books I've ever read. I knew George Bush barely, not often with him, but I had no idea. Just what I read yesterday said that when Barbara died, that's where I am in the book, Barbara's death, the author who was their pastor for 20 years, he said around the room and everywhere they spoke they were saying thank you, thank you, thank you. He said they were a grateful people. He stole one of my comments and said gratitude is a great attitude. The family was characterized, they were people, people. When the people came to view Barbara's body, George Bush insisted on coming and being there to shake hands with everybody that came. It's a great book. It doesn't have anything about politics, so you're not going to get caught up in any new controversy, but it's a book that will bless you. But that's what we ought to be. We ought to be people who are grateful people, grateful people. What on earth did we ever have that someone didn't give us? Everything that we have, someone gave us. We may have worked for it as we got older, but gratitude, it's just great to say thank you. In fact, there are two things. I identify with this because this is kind of my determination as Carol Ann. They say thank you a lot. She does too. But I always say I want the last three words she hears, I love you. And that Barbara's head as she was dying, many times over and over, George would whisper, I love you. That's the kind of attitude that ought to be true in our lives. Every circumstance is different. Every challenge is different. Every relationship is different. But we need to realize that being grateful and expressing love and living and demonstrating kindness is something that speaks very loudly and ought to be a part of our lives. Don't get me off on the riots on the college campuses. You can imagine how I feel about it, however. And so that's what he tells the slaves how they ought to do it. And then he turns to the owners. He wouldn't give the slaves a command without giving the owners a command. And masters, verse 9, treat your slaves the same way without threatening them because you know that both their master and yours is in heaven. And there's no favoritism with them. He's not going to act like this. He's not going to do this. He tells them, don't abuse your slaves. Treat your slaves in the same way. Treat your slaves like you want to be treated, like the Lord treats you. No intimidation without threatening. No partiality because there's no favoritism. God plays no favorites. Spirit-filled believers, husbands and wives, parents and children, masters and slaves, the issue is mutual submission. Treat each other with mutual submission. Now exactly what does that mean? Well, in a marriage, it means don't lord it over your spouse. Don't demand things. Be grateful for the relationship that you have and express it in love. And that's the way you ought to be a husband. Now some husbands like to use the submission idea as a club to beat his wife down and keep her in line. That's not the New Testament way. In fact, as I just said, Paul speaks of mutual submission between husband and wife. A husband doesn't demand submission, but he also owes submission. It's a principle of life that will do you well in whatever you do in life. Now what are the contemporary applications of that? Well, first of all, slavery is forbidden. It is clearly unacceptable for any believer to be involved in the issue of slavery. Number two, this applies to employee and employer relationships. I'm going to try to get this just a little lower. There we go. When we become an employee, we put our skill at the disposal of our employers. We're working for them. We're giving them our time and talents, which are not our own now. We've given them by our employment agreement to our employer. We gave them away in employment. Employers have every right to expect that we'll be honest and diligent and agreeable. We're to be obedient, happy, and loyal employees. We ought to be the most enthusiastic, willing, consistent, and kind people who work in that company. That's the law of Christ. We ought to be like that. Because the Bible says that whatever you do, do it all for the glory of the Lord. And that's what we believers ought to do. That's what Daniel did when he got accused of attacking Potiphar's wife when he was in Egypt. He did just exactly that. He didn't scream and holler and all that. He just obeyed, and he did what he was asked to do, and God blessed it, and he ended up being vice president of Egypt. So very, very important. God expects us to be the same kind of individuals. Others may waste their employer's time, but we perform them properly and enthusiastically and anything less. If we complain and criticize, we need to realize that we owe a debt to the one who has hired us. Now, if you don't like your employer, if he doesn't treat you right, find another job. Or let God really bless you and just do what you're asked to do as long as it's not illegal, immoral, or unethical, and let God answer for you. The Lord is always present. We serve him, not other people. There's no secular place for believers. This is very important. There's no secular place for believers. Now, I know we have a tendency to think, and pastors will tell you, well, my position is a sacred place. So is every believer. Every believer is serving the Lord no matter what kind of employment they may be in. All of us are in full-time service to the Lord. All our vocations are in God's will and must be done from the heart. Again, it's a matter of being obedient and responding as God would have us to respond. Now, we've come to verse 10 in this sixth chapter. And let me get to it here. I have so many paper clips in my Bible. And then when I move one, I can't find what I had it there for. But beginning in verse 10, and this is always a welcome word from Paul. Finally, brethren. Paul didn't say finally very much. And in fact, sometimes in his writings, he never had a period. He just kept on and on and on. But he's now saying, finally, brethren, be strengthened by the Lord and by his vast strength. Put on the full armor of God so you can stand against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this darkness, against evil spiritual forces in the heaven. For this reason, take up the full armor of God so that you may be able to resist in the evil day and having prepared everything, to take your stand. Stand therefore with truth like a belt around your waist, righteousness like armor on your chest and your feet, sandaled with readiness for the gospel of peace. And I'll just keep on here. In every situation, take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish the flaming arrows of the evil one and the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. Pray at all times in the Spirit with every prayer and request and stay alert with all perseverance and intercession for all saints. We just can't jump over that. There's too much in there for us. The Christian life is a battleground, not a playground. Just let that sink in a little bit. You don't get any do-overs. It's not like golf. When you get a mulligan, you get to hit another shot. You don't get any mulligans in this fight. It's not a playground, it's a battleground. The enemy is stronger than we are without the Lord. The Spirit-filled believers will encounter opposition. The genuine Christian life is a warfare against the enemy, the enormous influence and power of the enemy. And when God blesses us, Satan will attack and conflict will occur for believers. Now, we talked about that in Romans chapter 7 back when we were in Romans last year. And the Apostle Paul talked about the struggle that he faced. The good I would do, I don't do. The evil I shouldn't do, I do. There's a constant battle that takes place. And that shouldn't surprise us. When Jesus began his ministry, he had a great battle with Satan that lasted 40 days, according to Luke 4. He ended his ministry with Satan's attack on him in the garden so severe that he sweat great drops of blood, Luke 22. The battle intensifies as we serve God obediently. As God gives victory in certain areas, Satan will attack in other areas. The battle rages as long as we live, so don't be surprised by that. When you're going the world's way, Satan doesn't bother you because you're going his way. But you turn around and start serving God, and you're butting him head on. When I was in Baylor, Bill Glass was a center on our football team. I'll take it back. He was a middle linebacker. But they asked me one day, what's it like being a middle linebacker? He said, well, it's kind of like going on a one-way street the wrong way. That's kind of like what life is. When we begin to serve God, he's going to oppose us. And you can say, well, I've never experienced that. Well, you better examine your obedience. You better see how real and genuine you are with your faith, because you determine you're going to live for God. Satan will not leave you alone. He is going to get after you. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 18, he said, I will stay in Ephesus until Pentecost because a wide door for effective ministry has opened for me, yet many oppose me. You begin to go through wide open doors that God offers, and you'll find opposition. The angel sent to Daniel in Daniel 10 struggled with the demon for 21 days and needed the strength of Michael the archangel to defeat that demon. Michael fought with Satan himself over the body of Moses, according to Jude 9. Paul told the Ephesian elders, I know that after my departure, savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock, and men will rise up from your own number with deviant doctrines to lure disciples into following them. He told the Corinthian church, I have done this so that we may not be taken advantage of by Satan, for we are not ignorant of his schemes, 2 Corinthians 2. And in our text, verse 11, he says, you do that so you can stand against the tactics of the devil. Now listen carefully. We don't fight for victory. We fight from victory. The battle has already been won. The Holy Spirit lives in us. And he, through us, will accomplish what Jesus accomplished for us on the cross. Look at the words in verse 11. You have the word resist. Verse 13, stand. Verse 14, it's an imperative. These are defensive postures. You resist. You stand holding ground. You don't give in. James 4 says resist the devil. He will flee from you. These are all defensive things that we do. Then the sword of the Spirit is the only offensive weapon we have. It's the sword of the Holy Spirit. And so in verse 10, he says, be strengthened in the Lord by his vast strength. The source of our strength is not in us, but it's in the Lord. Not in ourselves. We are in Christ. He is in us. We are one with him. His strength is our strength. His power is our power. His truth is our truth. His life is ours. We have access to everything that he is. So we are to be strengthened in his strength. And the first thing you note is that his strength is sufficient. Do you remember the, I think it's Mercedes car that ran an ad some years ago. I don't see it now. About how many, how much horsepower does a car have? And the answer is enough. So how much strength does God have? Enough. Whatever we need. He's sufficient. He's sufficient. He's enough. Don't look in the wrong place for strength. But his strength is more than enough. Secondly, the battle has already been won at the cross. The sting of death is sin. The power of sin is the law. Thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. First Corinthians 15 toward the end of that chapter. The writer of Hebrews said, through his death, he died on the cross, that through his death he might destroy the one holding the power of death. That is the devil. Hebrews 2. Paul told Timothy, God has not given us a spirit of fearfulness, but one of power, love, and sound judgment. You, therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. So we're to be strengthened in the Lord. But next we're dressed up for the conflict, put on the whole armor. Take the whole armor of God to be properly equipped for battle. And the emphasis is on God, not on us. God told the Corinthians in 2 Corinthians 10, For though we live in the body, we do not wage war in an unspiritual way, since the weapons of our warfare are not worldly, but are powerful through God for the demolition of strongholds. We demolish arguments and every high-minded thing that is raised up against the knowledge of God, taking every thought captive to obey Christ. 2 Corinthians 10, 3 to 5. Now, this armor, by the way, is not a uniform. It's our lifelong companion, and it gives us divine protection. Jude, at the last of that little book, said, Now in him who is able to protect you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of his glory, blameless and with great joy, to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, power, and authority before all, now and forever. Amen. What a great verse. We are addressed for battle when we put on the armor of God. Our armor itself is propelled by Scripture. It's filled with the Holy Spirit and it strengthens us so that we can stand firm. The Roman armor protected the body. The Christian armor protects our souls. There's never a day when we can fight with Satan and win without God. Just can't do it. Now, the next thing is that I have to comment out of verse 11. He says, So you can stand against the schemes of the devil. The enemy is real. We like to depict Satan as a little guy with a long red tail, a pitchfork. That's not the case. He may be dressed in a three-piece suit. There's no way to say how he's going to appear, but he is real. And we know his schemes. We know how he acts. The word schemes there answers something. English is a lazy language. A lot of English words we just made up. For instance, schemes here is methodea. Now, what does that sound like? Method. We just took methodea. That's Greek. Method. That's English. So many examples of that. For instance, do you know that the Dallas-Fort Worth area is called a metropolitan area? Two Greek words. Metro means great. Polis means people. It's a great number of people. We just made up a word and called it a metropolitan area. We have a lazy language. We don't originate much. We make it up from other languages. Well, we know the devil's schemes. We know how he acts. That word methodea describes deception, slyness, trickiness, cunning. It's used of a wild animal who will stalk and then pounce upon his victim. Satan uses deception and treachery, and we have to be aware of that. And we know how he acts. The Bible declares that Satan is real. You know, modern-day liberalism kind of crowns upon that idea, and basically many liberal so-called theologians will say that there is no such thing as the devil. Well, that's kind of interesting because God gave him a bunch of names. He is the anointed guardian cherub, the ruler of demons, the ruler of this world, the god of this age, the ruler who exercises power over lower heavens, Satan, the devil, Lucifer, dragon, the ancient serpent, one who deceives, accuses of the brethren, beast, roaring lion, evil one, tempter. Why would the Bible give so many names to someone who doesn't exist? Well, obviously he does exist. I've met him many times. You have too. And he's clever, he's powerful, he's real, and worst of all, he's invisible. We can miss him all and be led astray quickly. He's called Satan an adversary 52 times in the Bible and devil 35 times. He's active today. In fact, I believe that there's never been another time in history when there have been such increase in deceitful spirits and teaching of demons. 1 Timothy 4.1 talks about that. The church is being seduced by liberal theology. Just this last week, one break off of the Methodist church voted to include allowing lesbians and homosexuals to have leadership roles in the church. That's a Methodist. That's John and Charles Wesley who, together with George Whitefield, shook Europe and the United States in great awakenings. Their church has been seduced to practicing what is culturally correct but biblically incorrect. Satan is tricky. We can't take him for granted. The Bible speaks of false messiahs and false prophets that will arise and some perform great wonders and signs to lead us astray. Even the elect, according to Matthew 24, Jesus talked about that. These tactics include promoting heresy, godless lifestyles and behavior. They lead believers to immorality, arrogant pride, self-confidence, evil, slander, ridicule, persecution. He has a strategy for every one of us. He is not omnipresent and he is not omniscient. Satan can't read our minds, but he can observe our actions and pretty well determine what we are thinking. He attacks us where we least expect it. I'm going to make a suggestion to you. I hate getting calls from pulpit committees because they all ask the same questions. One of the questions is, what are his weaknesses? Number one, I don't look for weaknesses. I'm not going to waste my time trying to figure out what somebody is weak at. But I have discovered that we don't have weaknesses. We have strengths and our strengths are our weaknesses. When we are strong, we think we can handle it. We don't have to worry about it. I never smoked a cigarette. I never had an alcoholic beverage. As one guy said, you don't have to taste garbage to know it's garbage. So I never did. So I always thought, that would never tempt me. And then you go down the list. A lot of things, I was saved early, never got arrested, never used drugs, never had sex before marriage. I always thought there were some things I wouldn't do. I've told you this before, but I was in a minister's meeting one day in Kansas City. I don't know what the speaker talked about. His name was Joey Stevens. I think that was his stage name. He was a singer. His dad was the man that ran the Chicago Rescue Mission. And in the middle of his speech, it seemed like God just opened the door to my heart and let me look in to see what he saw. And what I saw was as dark as a thousand midnights. It absolutely broke my heart. And I started weeping. Now, I'm in a minister's meeting with 125 preachers. I'm sitting at a table of eight, and I am crying. Not crying, sobbing. Well, what would you do? Got up and left. That's what I did. I wasn't going to stay. So I drove back to the church, cried all the way, got there. What little staff we had, a custodian and two secretaries and a music minister. They wanted to know what was wrong. I couldn't tell them. I didn't know what was wrong. And so they didn't know me. I'm still crying. I mean, this has been going on now for about an hour. And they just knelt around me and prayed. But God showed me at that time that there's no sin I won't commit. Just because you got saved early and was a good kid, that doesn't matter. Under the right circumstances with your human nature, there's no sin you will not commit. I didn't believe that until then. But you see, we are capable. We are born with a sin nature while we're made in the image of God. That's a conflict. That means we're going to be in turmoil most of our lives and have to make decisions if we're going to go counter to the culture that is leading us away from God. And sometimes we kind of sit back and think, well, I can take care of this. No. Your weaknesses are your strengths. You just think of the ministers and church leaders who have fallen in their witness, in their walk with God. And what they did, they always said they would never do. So they didn't pay much attention to it. Your strengths are where Satan's going to attack you because you get careless with your strengths. He knows your weak spots and he knows when you get to a certain place that the things you say you would never do, you're very susceptible to temptation. And so without the Holy Spirit in us and through us, we're not going to be able to defeat the slyness and cleverness and the trickiness that Satan is going to throw at us. Now, in Ephesians 4.27, Paul warned us, never give Satan a foothold. And then he warned us what he might get to us with. Uncontrolled anger, verse 26. Stealing, verse 28. Foul language, verse 29. These things belonged to the world before we were saved and now we're alive in Christ. How could we possibly do those things? Well, we're capable. We're never capable of facing Satan by ourselves. The next thing I'd say is, in verse 12, the conflict is intense. This is not a playground issue. Verse 12 says, Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers and against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this darkness, against evil spiritual forces in the heaven. Now, some people will tell you there's no conflict, but we know better. We have struggled within ourselves with that conflict. Denial leads us to apathy and spiritual lethargy. The war between God and the devil has not lessened. It has expanded, as we're seeing today. The word battle there, or the word that speaks of the struggle, is a Greek word which speaks of hand-to-hand combat. It's a wrestling word. The New Testament uses this to describe deception and trickery. The result is that a real issue is involved and death can occur. The devil knows that his ultimate fate is already settled and he is trying to change that. He is relentlessly trying to destroy everything that God has, especially the church. Now, Satan's forces are highly organized for destruction. It is a definite army of demonic creatures. In fact, against each of these creatures, authorities and world forces and so on, before each one of these is the word... You know, when you're teaching or preaching, your mind is always about ten seconds ahead of where your speech is, and sometimes it's hard to catch up. But he calls them evil, having prepared all the evil. And the collection against, that's the word I was looking for, against is before every one of these words. I mean, there's an intense battle that is taking place. Authorities is delegated authority. There's authority that's been delegated against us, literally world powers. Another high-ranking demonic power called cosmic powers of the darkness, the plan of Satan. I mean, that describes the demonic activity in the political systems of the world. The plan is deceptive. The supreme task of Satan is to blind the people of the gospel. Second Corinthians 4 says, The God of this age has blinded the minds of the unbelievers so they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ. Demons are engaged in the most extreme forms of evil, immorality. Demons are real. One of the things we found when we were in Oklahoma City, there was a lot of demonic activity toward the end of the Jesus movement. When we built our new auditorium, we built a little room just off of the choir because we had so many people who would have demonic influences and were dealing with demonic issues that we wanted to get them out of the auditorium and into a place where we could deal with them privately. That hasn't been that many years ago. You may say, I never saw anything like it. Well, trust me, demonic activity has been increasing and everything that seeks to destroy the church and destroy Christian ethics and Christian principles and truth is very much involved in this battle. Paul doesn't explain in detail this hierarchy, but he gives us the idea of the power and attractiveness and effectiveness of the enemy. So the only answer when we're dealing with Satan is to turn to God who alone is omnipotent and sufficient for victory. The best way to engage the devil is to live in obedience to God and give no place to the devil in your life. My grace, Paul says in 2 Corinthians 12, is sufficient for you. My power is perfected in weakness, therefore I most gladly boast all the more about my weaknesses so that Christ's power may reside in me. Well, we're going to stop right there. Now here's what you need to do. Keep your notes. We're not going to have new notes next week. So keep your notes and bring them back. We'll start with verse 13 and go to verse 24. And if I get through, we'll have something to say to our mothers next week. But I can't promise you that right now. But anyway, I told Jack, the reason I called Jack yesterday, I said, I can't get through this. I've left too much space. But this is too important. I mean, we're not talking about playing Monopoly or hopping scotch or whatever. What is it? Hopscotch. Hopscotch, okay. We're not talking about a silly little game. We're talking about a fierce, intense battle against an enemy that wants to destroy us, every single one of us. To get an illustration of that, look at Hamas's attitude toward Israel. That's the devil's attitude toward us. Hamas will never be happy. They'll never be willing to sign a peace agreement. But they said it themselves, if everything settles down, we'd still hate you because you're not Islam. You're not Muslims. They're not going to be happy except for the total annihilation of Israel. And my friend, the devil has the same plans for you. It's a real battle, but Christ is sufficient. So as a little boy, I think, a mother told a little boy, she said, now when a stranger shows up and you don't know him and wants to come in, don't let him. Call me and I'll meet him. So when the devil shows up, just turn to the Lord. You can't face him by yourself. I don't think you can. And where you think you never will, you will if you're not careful. That's why he's going to say before we get through this passage, keep alert. Keep alert. Stay wide awake because there's a real battle taking place. Father, thank you that we do have a battle, but we also know the victory. And we know the victory's in you. And so we thank you for that. Thank you that you planted the Holy Spirit in us so we rely upon him and we draw strength and wisdom and grace and all that we need from him. We thank you in Jesus' name. Amen.