It's wonderful to be here with you this morning and we
appreciate the presence of all that have come to be with us.
We have visitors among us and we would hope that you would feel
as you are. And that is our honored guest,
welcome. You back every time we have the
opportunity to meet, please feel welcome.
And is at his, as is always the case.
It is my privilege to speak concerning God's word.
I want to invite your attention to the book of Ephesians,
chapter 6. We want to be Ginn.
Reading there in verse 10, Ephesians chapter 6, the words
of the Apostle Paul beginning there in verse 10.
Paul said, finally 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 Wiles of the devil.
For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood.
But against principalities against Powers against the
rulers. Of the darkness of this age,
against spiritual hosts of wickedness in Heavenly places.
Therefore, take up the whole armor of God that you may be
able to withstand in the evil day.
And having done all to stand couple weeks ago, having a Bible
study at my house will question came up about demonic
possession. In fact, I was asked to talk on
this subject and really, in study of it is a huge subject in
fact, so much so that this morning were only going to have
an introduction to it. And let me just say this
morning's sermon really is a sermon encouraging.
The people of God to realize that if we will do what Paul
says Is to do then. Satan cannot have a stronghold
in our life at all. So we'll say that As We Lay the
foundation but this is the foundational part of our lesson.
We're going to talk about next time about exorcisms.
You know that comes up today. What about exorcisms can the
devil hath power over us against our will?
Do all those things exist. What about demonic possession?
Does that exist today? We'll talk about that in later
time next. Next Lord's Day.
Lord willing. But today for a little while, I
want to talk to you about three points and their three points
for the people of God, State and cannot have a strong hold in
your life. If you do three things, number
one, prepare as he said to prepare number to put on the
armor and number three, Identify the enemy and resist him in the
Bible tells us exactly how to do that.
The people of God can Rejoice because we have Victory, and
Satan cannot have a stronghold in our life.
If we do not allow him to do. So, when I talk about some
things along this line, and just a few minutes, but at this time,
let us pray In the book of Ephesians, the great Apostle
Paul presents to us, great realities of being in Christ, he
talks about what it means to be a Christian.
What it means to belong to God, what it means to have the spirit
of God, what it means to be adopted in, God's family,
wonderful blessings what it means to stand in him.
And so we see the great realities that we are blessed
with spiritual blessings in Just as we are members of the body of
Christ, we find that we've been taken from the Dominion of Satan
and placed into the kingdom of Christ.
And we understand that happens at baptism and when were
baptized into Christ, We rise from the Waters of baptism and
the Bible says we have been translated from the kingdom of
darkness and have been translated into the kingdom of
God's. Dear Son, let me just say the
very beginning of this sermon. There's only Kingdoms.
And you can be the greatest person in the world.
You are found in one of those two kingdoms.
One kingdom is the kingdom of darkness and the other is the
kingdom of God's, Dear Son, there's one or the other.
In fact, you know, the Bible pictures the world as all in
darkness, you know, Jesus on the great Sermon on the Mount.
When he was preaching that sermon he said to his disciples,
he said, now you are the salt of the earth.
And he said, also you are the light of the world now, why did
he say that? What he was meaning is Christ is
the true light, but his disciples and that's you, and I
today his disciples are luminaries and we are bringing
or testing out the Light of Christ to those that are in the
world. Why?
Because they're in darkness. You know, I know some wonderful
people but they don't have Jesus.
There are wonderful people and somebody might say, no, wait a
minute, they can't be in darkness.
They're in darkness. If they don't have Jesus and you
don't have Jesus on your own terms, you have to be in him.
And the Bible says, that's when we are baptized into Christ.
We clothe ourselves with Christ. That's a wonderful blessing.
We've been translated or transferred from the kingdom of
darkness to the kingdom of God's Dear Son, saying all of that.
Guess what? Satan Reigns over the kingdom of
darkness. I'm going to tell you something,
if we would really have a picture of the devil, we would
run from the devil. But the devil is very widely.
He is cunning, he is Crafty, he wants us to stay in darkness.
Much more on that later. Everything changes, though, when
we're a Christian, everything we have a new relationship.
In fact, Paul writing to the Ephesians says, our
relationships that we have with each other are different.
He says, your marriages are different and he describes the
marriage relationship and the role that the man is to have in
the home and the role that the woman is to have it, the home,
and they will be compatible working together, striving
together, What about this? What about work, relations, Paul
even addresses that how you behave yourself.
You know what you may hate your boss.
I have no idea. You may absolutely hate your
boss, he may be ruthless, he may be awful.
But Paul would describe if you are a servant or you are an
employee you work hard. Alee you work like you're doing
it for the Lord. Everything Changes.
We have to be the very best. We can be when we leave darkness
and go to light. So in other words in summing it
up so far. You got the resources to live
the Christian Life. You've got the power to live the
Christian Life. You have the principles to live
the Christian life but something else Paul would say it's not
going to be easy even though you got the power.
Even though you got the principles there, something else
that's there and that's the enemy, that's the devil.
I think sometimes people have a misunderstanding about what it
means to be a Christian. I can't tell you the number of
times. I've heard somebody say, well,
you know what, I'm trying to draw to God, but my life's not
getting any easier, that's not by accident.
That's the devil and he is there.
Christianity is get this, it is a Warfare.
Do you remember what Paul said? When he got to the end of his
life? He said I have fought the good
fight. I have finished my course, I
have kept the faith then he said, henceforth.
There is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, righteousness
that the Lord. The righteous judge will give me
in that day and not to me only but to all those that love his
appearing. What did Paul say?
He said I fought the good fight. You know what I seen when I read
that, I see that, that's okay. You know why?
Because the fight of faith is always good.
He said I fought a good fight. You know what else he said, he
said fight. Not as one who beats the air, he
described himself like that. In other words, I don't go and
just shadow box. There's the enemy, it's the
devil. It's all that opposes the truth
and he stood against it to Timothy, he said, be a soldier
who indoors hard that hard - So, repeatedly in scripture, it's
described as Warfare. Let me say something.
Encouraging to you, the more effective that you become.
The harder, Satan's going to work.
And remember this? if you're having difficulty in
your life, because you're trying to serve God, Just know that
you're on the right track and you're doing what's right?
And the devil's opposing you in that You know, the devil Works
in fields that are not his do you know when Jesus gave the
parable of the tares I'll just say this really briefly remember
the guy goes out and he prepares the field.
Does everything right, everything?
Right and then the Bible says he took takes the good seed and he
plants The Good Seed and he goes home and the Bible says he
sleeps. Kind of like Solomon talks about
sleeping. The sleep that is sweet.
You know, when you work real hard all day and you did
everything right. You go home, you're tired, you
eat something. Take a shower and fall asleep.
Then the Bible says that with out of that ground grew up the
tears alongside that which was good.
And that, and the servants come to the master and they said if
you sowed the good seed, how come there's tears?
You know what he said? I said all that to say this, he
said the enemy did it. And Luke's account says that the
enemy is the devil. The devil Works in fields that
are not his. If you want to get yourself in
motion doing that which is right.
Be understand, you will be opposed You know what Paul said
in First Corinthians 16 at 8, I love this.
He talking about what his next adventure is going to be in
preaching the gospel, and then he said, I must Terry attempted
in Ephesus. Now.
Why? Why was he going to stay in
emphasis? He said, there's a great door of
opportunity that's open to me and watch and there are many
adversaries. You know that's a great lesson
for me as a preacher preachers can learn from that sometimes we
want to go find an easier work. You know what Paul said?
I got to stay in Ephesus. Why there's great opportunity
here. Why there's many adversaries.
What a great example. You know what he was saying, I
got to stay with a fires hot. I gotta stay right here.
I got it. Earnestly contend for the faith.
That was delivered. The Saints.
I got to stand firm now. I gotta preach the truth now.
Where, where its hottest? Where the devil doesn't like it.
So yes, we are children, we are the children of God.
Yes, we are servants. We are slaves for Christ.
But listen, we Are Soldiers, to Paul said, in second Corinthians
chapter 10, he said the weapons of our Warfare are not fleshly,
they are spiritual. So we're dealing with high
things here. We're not just dealing with
things of a physical nature. Now, I can have that element but
understand this. There is a battle for the souls
of man between the Lord and the devil.
There's a battle going on for your soul right now.
The devil wants all of us to be lost and the Lord wants all of
us to be saved. Now, that's where the war is but
the battles are in the fleshly Physical Realm. the devil does
so through temptation, Throwing stumbling blocks our way.
But remember this, it's a spiritual battle.
And so, as we look at Ephesians chapter 6, verses 10 through 13,
let me share three things with you.
Three things I want to share the preparation, the armor and the
enemy. First of all, As We Lay some
foundational things, the preparation.
You cannot go into battle when you are not prepared, there's
nothing that you will ever achieve in life, that's
difficult. If you are not prepared in
Ephesians chapter 6 and verse 10, Paul said, finally my
brethren, get this, he said be strong in the Lord and be strong
in the power of His might Now. Where's the strength?
The strength does not come from our self.
If you think that you're strong enough to stand against the
devil, all on your own, you are sadly mistaken.
You know what? He stands.
You got to prepare, right? How do you do that?
Be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might, that's how
you prepare. You know, that's a cardinal
reality in the book of Ephesians, we are in Christ and
when we are in Christ, we are one with him.
His life is our life, his power is our power.
His truth is our truth, and it's only in Christ that his might
becomes our might By the way, regardless of how strong the
enemy is, and he's very strong. Regardless of how strong the
enemy is. The Lord is stronger.
In first John chapter 4 and verse 4.
The Bible says he that is in you.
Is greater than he that is in the world.
That's why we draw our strength from him.
He that is in, you is greater than he that is in the world,
who's in? The world is talking about the
Devil. He's the prince of the power of
darkness and more than that, but we'll get to that later.
One scholar said this. He said.
God Is So infinitely greater than the devil that the smallest
amount of divine power can overcome the greatest amount of
the powers of hell and the enemy.
And so our strength is ours in the Lord.
It is his strength in Philippians 4:13.
I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me?
Let me show you why the resource is ours.
You know, when Jesus was at the cross, Jesus gave a deathblow to
Satan and that's recorded in Hebrews.
Chapter 2 and verse 14, he destroyed him.
The one that had the power of death and all we need to do is
to take have that in our life, applied Hebrews 2 and 14.
Watch this. Inasmuch.
Then as the children have been partakers of Flesh and Blood, he
himself likewise shared in the same that through death, he
might destroy him. Who had the power of death?
That is the devil. Now, we understand this, Jesus
defeated the devil at the cross. Isn't that great?
The devil had no idea. All the devil was thinking is I
got to get Jesus off the face of this Earth.
Can you imagine what the devil must have thought?
When Jesus was on the cross, he dies in six hours he's planted
in the grave and for three days, there's no answer.
There must have been rejoicing among Satan and all of his
demonic Army when that happened. but on the third day, Heroes.
He conquered death. He conquered hell, he conquered
the grave. And guess what?
He defeated Satan when he did. So.
Now, what does that have to do with me?
And you? Here's the whole point, if Jesus
defeated Satan At The Cross by his death, if we are in Christ
and contact the blood of Jesus at baptism that he shed on the
cross, then we have access to heaven and we are triumphant
over the devil too. Not by our own strength.
But because of the cross. The same cross if Satan is
subject to Jesus because of the Cross, then Satan is subject to
us by the power of the Cross to and he has no strength, he has
no stronghold in our life. He is a vanquished foe.
He can lay no claim on the faithful child of God.
You know, sometimes people say, well, you know, life is just
really, really hard and it's just really difficult and
sometimes people take Romans chapter 8 out of context.
They take a totally out of context and they say you see.
All we got to do is if we love God, everything's going to work
out. And that's not what the Bible
says. Sometimes things don't work out.
Sometimes things are bad. Sometimes things are tragic.
Sometimes things are sad. It's the way it is.
Sometimes it doesn't work out. Sometimes people don't get
better when we pray for them. Sometimes they die.
So everything we do is according to the Lord's will, but let me
tell you what, the promises are that you can forsake of a better
term, go to the bank. About watch this.
Romans 8:31. I'm going to read several verses
here. What?
Then shall we say to these things?
If God, be for us? Who can be against us?
That's number one. It doesn't matter.
What Satan wants to do with your life.
If God is for you, he is nothing.
Satan is nothing in your life, that's number one.
Drop down to verse 35, Romans 8, who shall separate us from the
love of Christ, shall tribulation, or distress, or
persecution, or famine, or nakedness or Peril or sword.
Here's Encouraging things drop. Down to verse 37.
Verse 37, yet in all these things, we are more than
conquerors through him, who loved us.
Now, watch this for, I am persuaded that neither death,
nor life, nor angels, nor principalities nor powers nor
things present, nor things to come nor height nor depth, nor
any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the
love of God, which is in Christ Jesus, our lord, you know, when
it talks about this, when it talks about Qualities and angels
and powers, and all of that. Paul's talking about the same
thing that he's talking about in Ephesians chapter 6, and those
Powers were going to get to that later and another time, but
those Powers, that's the Demonic forces that is Satan's Army.
And you know what, if you're in Christ and you're trying to do
that which is right? And you have prepared yourself
the way that the Bible says to prepare yourself and your living
a Godly life and you're doing what the Bible tells you.
None of those things have power over you at all.
You cannot be. We don't have to lose that.
There's a Divine resource belongs to us, we can win in the
end. Here are the conditions we have
to have our strength in the Lord and secondly, you got to have
your armor on, you know, whenever Satan is dealt with,
he's dealt with. In terms of two things,
strengthen the Lord. And an obedient child of God,
doing what the Bible says. Do you know that there is not
one place in the Bible? Not one place.
Get this. We're a Christian was possessed
by a devil. Not one.
In the times of demonic possession.
It was for a purpose, it was all during the point in the time of
Miracles, it was for the purpose of the revealing, and confirming
the word of God to show, that Jesus was greater than all of
that. But not one time.
Were those demon possessed people?
Faithful Christians not one. And by the way, let me just say
this. I know about the 1970s movie
where the little girl was possessed by a demon and they
came in with all these guys and they did all this stuff and her
head spun round and round and round and round, and round.
She turned colors said, horrible things, horrible.
Language green stuffs flew out of her mouth.
That's not found in one place in the Bible.
Every single time when a demon was cast out, it was done by the
power of the Lord, none of that exorcism stuff ever happened.
Ephesians chapter 1. And verse 19.
And what is exceeding greatness of his power toward us who
believe according to the working of his mighty power, which he
worked in Christ. When he raised him from the dead
and seated him at his right hand in Heavenly places far above
here, it is principality power, and might and dominion, and
every name that is named not only in this age, but also in
the age to come, we draw our strength from the Lord.
But number two, we have to have our armor on. 1st Corinthians
chapter 10 and verse 12. Paul says therefore let him who
thinks he stands take heed, lest he fall.
Do you know when you're the most vulnerable?
Really me too. I am the most vulnerable. when
I'm at a point when I think that I'm not vulnerable, when I look
at my life and think that I'm strong all on my own, I'm the
most vulnerable. You know what Paul said?
Paul said, let him who thinks he stands take heed, lest he fall.
So in other words, the power is not in you.
The very next verse verse 13 says that we are not going to be
tempted above that which we are able.
But with the Temptation God's going to give us a means of
Escape that we are able to bear it.
The strength is in the Lord. Second Corinthians 12 and 9.
Paul says, when I am weak, then I am strong.
My strength is made perfect in weakness.
You know, it's amazing to me. What's amazing to me is even
when we're week, we can have the strength of God.
You know, when Jesus wrote those or Jesus talked about those
seven churches of Asia, you remember Philadelphia.
Now very few were considered faithful but Philadelphia was
one. Now what did Jesus say about the
church at Philadelphia? He said they were faithful.
He said, but they were little and strength.
That tells me that the strength of God is available when I'm
weak. That's the whole point if I'm
obedient. I can have the strength of God.
I need to be prepared to defeat Satan.
How do you do that? How do you are you prepared to
be a faithful? Christian, whose strength is in
the Lord. Again, in review in summary
season 6, and 10 be strong in the Lord.
First John four. And for that which is in you is
greater than that which is in the world Hebrews 12 and 4 were
partakers with Jesus at the cross.
Jesus defeated Satan at the cross.
Therefore we do too. First Corinthians 10, 12 and 13.
Take heed, lest we fall and G and the Lord will help us get
through those times and be strong as we serve God.
And from that point forward, I'm just going to mention these
briefly because we need to get to the enemy.
That's really the whole Crux of this series, but I want to talk
about the armor in Ephesians chapter 6 and verse 11.
Paul says, put on the whole armor of God.
Now just stop right there for just a minute.
It doesn't do you any good. if you don't put the armor on, You
know, in the original that phrase put on the armor, it
means this in the original, it means put it on once and for
all. Have you ever known somebody
that was did this? Have you ever known somebody
that kind of was a Christian over here?
And then over here they just kind of dwelt in the world a
little bit and they dabbled in worldly things over here and
then over here the kind of put on their Christian face and all
of that. That is not what's happening
here and they armor is not something that you take off and
put on repeatedly in your life in the original, it means put it
on and keep it on for the rest of your life.
We're talking about how can we defeat the Devil?
We have to first prepare, right. Then we have to put on the armor
once and for all I'm just going to read this briefly.
Look at verses 14 to 17 in the Visions, chapter 6.
Beating chapter 6. Beginning in verse 14, I'll just
read these and we're not gonna spend any time on them, but
here's the armor stand, therefore having girded your
waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness
and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of
peace above all, taking the shield of Faith, which With you
will be able to quench the fiery darts of the wicked, and take
the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the spirit which is the
word of God. That's the armor.
So it's not just enough to put your trust in God, you got to
put on the armor in your life. Let me ask you something.
Have you put the armor on in your life?
Are you manifesting that am I? Are we manifesting that in our
life? Put the armor on.
And don't give place to the devil, but now we get down to
the park that we're going to spend our time on and that is
the enemy. Understand that Satan is the
enemy in fact, in Ephesians, 6 and 11.
It says that you may be able to stand against The Wiles of the
devil. You know, every Christian needs
to understand that Satan is going to attack us.
I got to tell you something. I saw I read about this the
other day. There was a group of these
people. That get this in this silly.
There's a group of these people, and they gathered together, and
they had this ritual and they wanted to call on the devil.
And the reason that they wanted to call on the devil, they
wanted to call on the devil and then rebuke the devil.
Like they had the power over the devil You know, that's not the
preparation, we have power because of the lord we have
strength because of the Lord and by the way, you don't have to go
look for the devil. If you're a Christian, he'll
find you. The devil will find you, you
don't have to go and look for him.
You don't need the chat, you need to do all that stuff.
And by the way, nowhere in the word of God doesn't say this in
nowhere. Does it say go out and
aggressively fight the devil? You know what?
It says run from the devil, flee from the devil, you know, that's
what the Bible says when it says flee.
Also, youthful lust, why they war against the soul?
That is the Christian Warfare. The word flee comes from the
word, few go, you know this, the word few go and see where we get
the word fugitive. And that's exactly what you do.
When it comes to the devil. You don't go out and try to find
the devil so you can fight him, you run from the devil and he
will flee from you. You resist him, stand strong,
and you resist him. I read a deal the other day
where somebody said, oh, there's no devil.
You know, it's amazing what you can read and research.
Just people that write stuff when you're trying to put a
topic together. Somebody said, get this.
Somebody actually said there is no devil and we need not to be
afraid because there is no devil.
All there really is is a Halloween costume of a red guy
with little horns and a pitchfork and a pointed tail.
I got news for us. There is the devil and he
doesn't look like that at all. He is a demonic being, you know
who he is. His name is Lucifer.
What happened to the devil? Why is there a devil turn in
your Bibles? Please to Isaiah 14?
Look at Isaiah chapter 14. Now, understand this, the devil
is an angel. The principalities powers and
all that stuff in darkness that Paul talked about.
They are also Angels, they are demonic beings and there was a
time when they were in heaven and let me just say one more
thing before we read these verses, they are created beings
and don't let anybody ever tell you.
They are not created beings, they are created beings.
I don't know when they were created, I really don't care.
It was before all the stuff began before.
Or Adam and Eve were in the garden.
They are created beings. Now don't let anybody tell you
different. Jesus Christ is not a created
being, he is above all that. In fact, Jesus Christ, God in
the Holy Spirit have always existed.
Somebody might say well how did that work?
They had to originated somewhere.
I don't know. And I don't care other than the
fact that they have always existed and that's really all
that matters, but not Satan. Not the angels and not the
Demonic beings that were talking about.
They were created look at Isaiah Dean.
Let's begin verse 12. How you are fallen from Heaven
o, Lucifer, son of the morning, how you are cut down to the
ground. YooHoo weaken the nation's for
you have said, in the heart, I will Ascend into heaven.
I will exalt my throne above the stars of God, you to get that.
You get the pride there, I will exhaust my exhaust myself above
the stars of God. I will also sit on the Mount of
the congregation on the farthest sides of the north.
I will Ascend above the heights of the clouds.
I will be like the most high yet.
You shall be brought down to sheol to the lowest depths of
the pit. Did you get that?
Lucifer was an anointed cherub. He was an anointed Angel, he was
of the greatest of all. And he decided, you know what?
I want to be greater? I want to be greater than God.
I want to sit on the throne. Well, I'm going to tell you
something. God is Not mocked.
You know what? God Said, No, you're out of
here. And the Bible says, in the Book
of Revelation chapter 4, I'll paraphrase.
Now that when he was cast out, his tail, swept, a third of the
others, a third of the stars of Heaven is talking about the
other demonic angels. And they were cast out, I got to
admit something to you. I don't know how many we're
talking about. I'm going to tell you what one
scholar said and then I'm just going to say as a little
disclaimer. I don't know how you can know
this and I don't know if it's true but that's what he said.
He said there's probably Millions.
Probably millions of these, that constituted a third of the hosts
of Heaven that were cast out with Lucifer, the enemy the
devil. In fact, Revelation 12 says like
a great Dragon. He fell and his tail, he swept a
third of the angels with him. Lucifer is the Fallen Angel.
He also has titles. There are titles to him.
He is called the prince of the world.
In fact, he's called The Prince of the power of the air and I
want to make a point about this. What does that mean?
What does it mean when we say he's the prince of the power of
the air? Do you remember when Paul was
given a view into heaven? Paul was given that view into
heaven in. The Bible says, it was what it
was the third heaven. So the third heaven, that's
where God is. That's where we all want to go.
Now, what happened? Paul was able to see things that
were so magnificent and hear things that were so magnificent
that a human being in the flesh should never be able to see
those things or hear those things.
So what happened? He was given a thorn in the
flesh. Why a messenger of Satan Ian to
buff it me, just keep your feet on the ground ball of the things
that he saw. That's the third heaven.
That's where God is. The second heaven is the sodi
really expanse. It is the severe e o Heavens.
It's where you look up and see the stars.
You see all that? The Sun, the Moon, that is the
sidereal or the second heaven? You know what, the first Heaven
is it's the place where Satan is over and the It's of it is the
power of the air. It's talking about all that you
look up in this world. All that's connected to this
world. And Satan.
Is over that. so, let's talk about some titles of the devil.
2nd Corinthians chapter 4. He's called the God of this age.
In Luke chapter 11 and verse 15. He is called the prince of
demons. 52 times he's called Satan.
That means adversary. That is the most common Title by
the way. 35 times. He's called the devil Diablos
which means slanderer He is called the old serpent, he's
called the Great Dragon, he's called The Roaring Lion, he's
called the evil one. He's called the tempter, the
accuser and get this the spirit. Now, working in the sons of
Disobedience, did you see that? He can't work in your life.
If you're an obedient child of God, that's prepared, right?
It has the armor on. He cannot.
But he works in the children of Disobedience, that's how the
spiritual realm can have access to the Physical Realm, through
Temptation and disobedience. Next time I'm going to talk to
you about Lucifer's Army in Ephesians, 6 and 12 but remember
Satan is the enemy. He is a liar and the father of
it. He's a deceiver his whole
system. Deceives suddenly supernaturally
cleverly and powerfully he teaches a lifestyle that
condemns and I'm going to tell you something.
Our world is changed, so horribly in that regard.
Nobody wants to stand for anything.
You know what people do? People don't have a standard
like the Bible of what's right? And what's wrong or absolute
truth. People think that you can
determine what your own morality is or your own truth is but
that's never been the case. There is always been a standard.
There has always been the armor and it's always been about the
truth. People say, Well, they're not
bothering me. It's all right.
And people are absolutely scared at this to stand against what's
wrong. Paul said, here they are.
Here's the Army, principalities Powers rulers of the darkness of
this world spiritual wickedness, in Heavenly places.
These are terms that describe the Demonic world and let me
just say, one thing in passing. You know, I don't know.
All there is to know about the power of the ranking hierarchy
that's found in Ephesians 6, but I do know this.
Jesus dealt with the idea that some of those demons could have
more power than others. Do you remember when that man
brought his son to Jesus and he said I took him to your
disciples. They couldn't cure him on to say
this very briefly it could not do it and Jesus cast it out.
But before that they asked him. They said why couldn't we do it?
And This says, because of your little faith.
Remember what the second thing he said though.
However, this kind does not go out except by prayer and
fasting. This is during a time of demonic
possession. Now, Jesus describes this kind,
I don't know what he meant by that.
I know one thing has a doozy that's a tough one.
We don't ever want to mess with the occult.
Imma talk about that next time, the Satanism and the power of
the occult. Now interesting, the word
wrestle, Paul says, we don't wrestle against flesh and blood
but we wrestle against those demonic forces, you know, when
we think about wrestling, you know I think of I think about
the sport today where these guys get together on a map with those
ridiculous jumpsuits. And then they wrestle and roll
around and pin each other down and all that.
You know, this word wrestle Paul is talking about something else,
he's talking about the days in Rome, where it was more than
just an athletic competition. In fact, I read what they would
do is they would wrestle. They would hand to hand combat,
and then, they wouldn't just pinned their shoulders down for
a count of three. What they would do is they would
put into the ground pin their shoulders.
And then wrap their hands around their throat and squeezed and
shove their head down. And I'm pinned down their head
to, you know, what happened. If they kept the head down the
man died. If the man kept his head up, but
his shoulders were down. Guess what?
He got to live and fight again. That's the word wrestle.
We are in a battle with the devil and his forces and the
word wrestle that Paul uses is the kind that takes life.
It is a life and death matter. That's what we're talking about.
Spiritual life and spiritual death.
All right, how do you do it? How we going to fight the devil
in our life? Not, I'll say it again.
The devil does not have a strong hold in your life.
If you don't let him, you want to fight the devil.
There it is. Prepare yourself.
Draw your strength from God, put your faith and trust in God, be
a faithful member of the body of Christ.
Have the blood of Jesus, wash your sins away.
Become a child of God, be added to his church.
Then your translated from the kingdom of darkness.
And now you're in the Kingdom of God's dear son.
But now you got homework to do. What do you do?
Got to put the armor on, got to put it on, you know why we're in
a battle. Brian Elliott years ago was
talking about the shield. And I love this.
Because he was talking about the history of the shield.
He said, you know, those shields were big and they kind of walk
behind the shield like this. Now, look at the point, I said,
resist the devil, but we have to stand.
We flee from the youthful lust and the sinful Temptations, and
all of that. But when it comes to the devil,
we stand firm against him. And the shield of faith that is
talking about that Shield Brian said, that that Shield only
protected those that were coming at their front.
So if they chickened out and got out of the fight and turned and
ran there was nothing protecting them from behind.
You got to get in the fight. You got to get in the battle and
stand firm and resist, the devil.
And the Bible says he will flee from you.
Okay next time we're going to talk about more of the occult
and Satanism but also want to talk about some other things to
things that sometimes we don't think are very big deal but they
are connected to the occult. Here are a few Ouija boards.
Tear it cards. Palm readers.
Tea Leaf, readers astrologers horoscopes psychics mediums?
you know, that one, I'm not trying to make be sarcastic or
make fun of her, but the Rhode Island medium or Long Island or
whatever her name is Long Island, Medium lady that says
that she has contact with the debt and is such a farce You
know, when Jesus talked about the rich man and Lazarus.
You know the rich man knew he was lost and knew there was no.
Hope what did he want? He wanted somebody to go back
and tell his five brothers, don't come here, straighten your
life out. There's no connection at all
between the living and the dead. And by the way, I know that we
like to say it in our society. If it feels good to say, oh
they're up in heaven, they're looking down there so proud.
I don't know what where they are.
I don't know where they're looking, but they're not seeing
us. There's not one Bible passage
that proves or shows that there's a connection between the
two Realms. None at all.
I'm going to leave you with one more passage, and I'm finished.
Very encouraging fission 6 and 13.
Therefore, take up the whole armor of God.
Wipe all that you may be able to withstand in the evil day and
having done all to stand. You know, that means that means
we're going to win. That means we can have
confidence and it's going to work when we have the armor on
in the evil day. You might say, well when's the
evil day. I'll tell you.
When the evil day is. Here it is.
The evil day is yesterday. Today.
And tomorrow for the rest of your life.
And as long as Satan is the prince of the power of the air.
It's the evil day. Put on the armor, put your faith
and trust in God. Draw from his strength.
Live faithful unto death. Guess what?
He has no stronghold in our life and we win.
I like one man said, one time. No.
He said, when you talked about the Christian that child of God,
we win in the end. If you read the book of
Revelation, we win ultimately in the end.
But there's no reason to lose the skirmishes day by day.
Either put the armor on. And stand against the devil and
he will flee. From you next time, we'll talk
about some other things. Thank you for your kind,
listening to our introduction to what we're going to discuss over
the next at least one, maybe two more times.
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