1/23/18 – Eph 6:11.
The Angelic Conflict, Pt. 8.
The Enemy, Pt. 5.
Lesson #18-009.
The Angelic Conflict, Pt. 8.
The Enemy, Pt. 5.
Lesson #18-009.
Pastor/Teacher, Jim Rickard
Grace Fellowship Church
Stand in Warfare –
Eph 6:10-20.
Outline of Eph
6 :10-24
1. The Empowerment, vs. 10.
2. The Enemy, vs. 11-12.
3. The Equipment, vs. 13-17.
4. The Energy, vs. 18-20.
5. The Encouragement, vs. 21-24.
2. The Enemy, vs. 11-12.
Eph 6:11-12; Gen 3:5; 2 Cor 4:4; 1 Tim 4:1-2; 2 Tim 3:5; Rev
12:9; 20:3
Eph 6:11, “Put on the full armor of God, so that you
will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil.”
·
Relative to the unsaved, Satan is in
authority over them, Isa 14:17; 2 Cor
4:3-4; Eph 2:2; Col 1:13; 1 John 5:19.
·
Relative to the saved, he comes in
conflict with them, Eph 6:11-18.
·
Relative to truth, he is a liar, John 8:44; the author and father of
“the lie.” In that lie, He deceives the whole world, Rev 12:9; 20:3.
Rev 12:9, “And
the great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old who is called the devil
and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was thrown down to the
earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.”
Rev 20:3, “And
he threw him into the abyss, and shut it and sealed it over him, so
that he would not deceive the nations any longer, until the thousand years
were completed; after these things he must be released for a short time.”
The principal tactic Satan uses to attack God and His
program in general is to offer a counterfeit kingdom and program. This was
evident when he originally sinned by wanting to be like, not unlike, God, Isa 14:13-14. The counterfeit was first
attempted on mankind when Satan offered Eve the chance to be like God, knowing
good and evil, Gen 3:5.
Gens 3:5, “For
God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you
will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
The temptation of Christ was also an attempt at the
counterfeit, Mat 4:1-11. A
counterfeit is as like the genuine as possible, only without some vital
feature. Satan’s offer to our Lord was to have the glory due Him without the
essential feature of His death.
Today, Satan promotes a form of godliness while denying its
power, 2 Tim 3:5.
2 Tim 3:5, “Holding
to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; avoid such men as
these.”
Scripture depicts Satan as:
·
Opposing God’s work, Zech 3:1,
·
Perverting God’s Word, Mat 4:6,
·
Hindering God’s servant, 1 Thes 2:18,
·
Hindering the gospel, 2 Cor 4:4,
·
Snaring the righteous, 1 Tim 3:7,
·
Holding the world in his power, 1 John 5:19.
To do this, Satan disguises himself and his servants as
servants of righteousness, 2 Cor 11:15.
He promotes a doctrinal system through the demons who in turn use people who
advocate a false asceticism or an unbridled license to sin, 1 Tim 4:1-3; Rev 2:24.
1 Tim 4:1-2, “But
the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the
faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons, 2by
means of the hypocrisy of liars seared in their own conscience as with a
branding iron.”
This is not speaking about overt “devil worshippers,”
although they have existed in the past and continue to exist today, but about
the false teachers of false doctrines who counterfeit the Word and Plan of God
in a false system that looks like Christianity, but is not. They promote
systems of legalism, works for salvation, do-goodism, human good, the
prosperity gospel, etc., and on the other side, ultra-liberalism or
abusive-grace where they are free to sin because of God’s grace or do not believe
they ever sin because of the forgiveness of sin at the Cross and God’s
regeneration at salvation. This also includes those who abuse 1 John 1:9, by thinking it is not
needed for the believer post-salvation, and those who teach you can simply
confess sin without repentance / recovery, thereby leading to the abuse of 1 John 1:9 as a mode of sinning,
recovery, sinning, recovery, etc., without any change in behavior.
In relation to unbelievers, Satan uses the counterfeit life
style to blind their minds so they do not think they need a Savior or
salvation, and therefore do not need the Gospel, 2 Cor 4:4; cf. Rom 1:21-25.
2 Cor 4:4, “In
whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so
that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is
the image of God.”
This blindness attacks the minds of people, and while
unbelievers may think and reason, a power greater than Satan must remove that
blindness. Human reasoning and convincing arguments have a ministry, but only
the power of God can remove satanic blindness.
In promoting blindness, Satan uses counterfeit religion. He
often does this by leading them to think that any way to heaven is as
acceptable as the only way, many times through a system of human good works or
a false religion; again, a counterfeit. This may include everything from
asceticism to license, from theism, (as being a theist does not necessarily
mean being saved), to occultism.
In addition, sometimes the devil comes and takes away the
Word that people have heard in order to prevent them from believing in Jesus
Christ, Luke 8:12.
Luke 8:11-12, “Now
the parable is this: the seed is the word of God. 12Those beside the
road are those who have heard; then the devil comes and takes away the word from
their heart, so that they will not believe and be saved.”
In other words, Satan will use any aspect of the world
system that he heads in order to confuse, conflict with, twist, change, deny,
etc., the Word of God, to keep people from thinking about it or doing that
which will bring them into the kingdom of God, Col 1:13; 1 John 2:15-18.
1 John 2:15, “Do
not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the
love of the Father is not in him.”
1 John 2:18, “Children,
it is the last hour; and just as you heard that antichrist is coming, even now
many antichrists have appeared; from this we know that it is the last hour.”
Col 1:13, “For
He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of
His beloved Son.”
J.I. Packer wrote, “If
I were the devil (please, no comment), one of my first aims would be to stop
folk from digging into the Bible. Knowing that it is the Word of God, teaching
men to know and love and serve the God of the Word, I should do all I could to
surround it with the spiritual equivalent of pits, thorn hedges and man traps,
to frighten people off.…
How? Well, I should try to distract all
clergy from preaching and teaching the Bible, and spread the feeling that to
study this ancient book directly is a burdensome extra which modern Christians
can forgo without loss. I should broadcast doubts about the truth and relevance
and good sense and straightforwardness of the Bible, and if any still insisted
on reading it I should lure them into assuming that the benefit of the practice
lies in the noble and tranquil feelings evoked by it rather than in noting what
Scripture actually says. At all costs I should want to keep them from using
their minds in a disciplined way to get the measure of its messages.
Were I the devil, taking stock today, I think
I might be pleased at the progress I had made.”
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