Ephesians 5 and 6 instruct believers on living a Spirit-filled life, which transforms relationships and equips them for spiritual battle. The text outlines how to conduct oneself within the family, urging children to obey parents and parents to raise them in the Lord, while also calling for integrity and respect in employer-employee dynamics. The focus then shifts to the spiritual conflict, encouraging believers to stand firm by donning the "whole armor of God" to resist the devil's strategies. Ultimately, this passage reveals that genuine Christian strength and triumph originate from divine power and a life aligned with God's Word and spiritual provisions.
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Last chapter of Ephesians, if you like I do, you'd like to go back and start over in the first chapter. I was noticing how many things I had picked up going through at this time, notations that I've made in the Bible of new thoughts that I've gotten. This was God's book, and it's inexhaustible. The more we study it, the more we see. It's warm our heart. lead his own for him. You will remember that we noticed that the book is divided into two sections. First, three chapters. I'll do something nice for you.
That's law. There are many Christians who think that way today. They haven't gotten over that legal attitude. Well, if I can just be a good boy, then maybe I can expect God to do something for me. The New Testament teaching is that God has already done everything that can possibly be done for us. We're blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavens. And we notice that there are spiritual blessings. They're not temporal ones. You may or may not be given. temporal things here in this area, but someone said material things are immaterial. It really doesn't make any difference whether you have things or not. It may mean a lot to you, but they ought not.
Now last week we noticed that he takes up the family and this follows the statement that we ought to be filled with a spirit. In fact, this is the command to be filled with the Spirit, the eighteenth verse of chapter five. And being filled with the Spirit, I might say, is a very simple thing. It's the norm for the children of God. This is not an unusual thing. It happens more than the lifetime that somebody is going to be a missionary at a ten-buck-two. And too many Christians feel this way about it. And this is unattainable and not even right sure if it's desirable. And so they just... be the usual for all of his own.
Our brother William MacDonald, who has written this very fine book most of you have studied, Christ Loved the Church, says that there are four things that he sees in the New Testament that are necessary to be filled with the Spirit. I see him and saw this in chapter four in verse thirty and if the spirit of God is grieved he's not going to fill you he's not going to lead you he's not going to use you and he's not going to comfort you and you're not going to be a happy Christian that's the first thing and the second thing is to yield your life to the Lord and this has to spirit-filled Christian maybe you have reservations I mean mentally you are reserving certain parts of your life certain areas of your life you would just assume God kept out it you might not state it you might not you might be shocked even admit that you think it but it's there and it shows up in so many different ways and in
our behaviors we're quite willing for God wanting to control our Saturdays. We're willing to trust God about how we're going to serve him, but we're not willing to trust God about whom we shall marry or if we shall. We're willing to be led by the Lord in certain ways, but we are not yielded to it. I suppose if anybody thinks that he's fully used, that would be a pretty good indication that he isn't, because that would be a mark of pride. check up on very often, re-examine our lives very often.
Then the third thing, he says, is to let the Word of God dwell in you. In fact, the parallel passage in the third chapter of Colossians says all these different things that are said here, only instead of saying, being filled with the Spirit, it says, let the Word of God dwell in you richly. And being filled with the Word of God is a prerequisite to being filled with the Holy Spirit. If you're willing to spend time over God's word. If you let God's word fill your mind and your heart and your soul and your life, you'll find that being led by the Spirit of God, being filled by the Spirit of God, is not an unusual thing at all. And then he suggests, according to Galatians, verse twenty, that there ought to be this self-empty.
I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live. Yet not I. That wouldn't be a bad motto, it is. When I was a boy, people put little gospel verses up on the wall that this is a great deal. I'd like to see that revived. It's a nice thing to see a text of Scripture, a place of an abstract meaning, or something else. It'd be nice to have the Word of God where you can see it often. And I've seen this used as a motto. Yet, not I. But Christ. And Now, following the statement that we should be filled with the Spirit, he tells us about the family.
We have wives, husbands, and now in the beginning of chapter six, we have children, and then servants, and then masters. Or we would say employees and employers. In that day, it was mostly slaves and slave owners. But many of the same truths apply anyway. First one of chapter six, children obey your parents in the Lord, for this is bread." Now you don't need any other reason than this. Some of you may still be minors. Some of you, I judge, have not yet reached your majority or not yet adults. You may feel that you are.
But here is an admonition to those who are still living under their parents' roof. obey your parents and the Lord. And if you're parents, you ought to teach this to your children. Don't be afraid of frustrating the little kids. Nobody was ever frustrated yet by having to obey. But there are many terribly frustrated people in the world today just because they were never made to obey. They were never asked to obey. I mentioned here another time that one of these so-called hippies when he was asked why he resented his parents though.
He said, I never got a thing from my parents but money. They didn't care where I was. They didn't care what time I got in at night. They didn't care if I got in at all. They made no regulations, no rules, whatever. They just didn't care. And when I wanted to talk to my father about things, he reached for his pre-bill folder, his checkbook. Say, I don't have time, but here's money. Go. Happy children are children who know where the ventros are. I think I know a little about this. My wife and I have been parents of several hundred now, the children's home. They don't all turn out right.
There's one thing about it, won't any of them turn out right. Now the reason given for it is a very simple one. This is right. It may be that as a young person you are wanting to do something for the Lord. And yet maybe your behavior in your own home is stinko. Maybe you're not doing what you ought to be doing at all. Maybe you're totally selfish. Maybe the way you're living in your own home is making it impossible for your parents and they won't say so, but they're just carrying the... the years and the months until you're old enough to get out of the nest, get out on your own.
Now, this is awful. It's awful for anyone to do this. But practical Christianity dictates that we behave ourselves in the home. A spirit-filled Christian will be an obedient person. Remember in the second chapter of Luke, that after Joseph and he was along and they went back, found him after three days in the temple. And then it says he went down with them to Nazareth and was subject unto them.
Isn't that wonderful? The Son of God, the eternal Creator, when he assumed humanity, he assumed all the responsibility of the being, a person, a human being. He assumed the responsibility of doing what he was told. And it must have been a little difficult sometimes, because he knew what was right. He knew the end from the beginning. And his mother and foster father didn't know what he was subject to. He might have known that it would be better to do a certain thing, but he never raised an argument about it. So what right did we have to raise arguments with those who were in authority over us?
Then he goes a step further in verse two, and says, Honor thy father and mother, which is the first commandment that was promised. So the verb in verse one is obey, and the verb in verse two is honor. I don't know what it's like in China now, but Hudson Taylor said that China had more old people than any country on earth, that is per capita. And he said he believed the reason for it was that the Chinese He said, in China, the oldest son has, as part of his birthright, the privilege of taking care of his aged parents.
And they were content for this. And consequently, the country was just filled. I don't know what it's like now. But in those days it was just filled with old people. And if an older child, the oldest son in the family, was unable to care for his parents, he very reluctantly gave them up to the second son, who would claim these rights and would gladly accept this privilege. You know where the old people are today, don't you? I'm putting in a plug and I want to take care of myself here. You know where they are? I know there are many cases where it is impossible.
For health reasons or for other reasons, it's impossible for the children to take care of the parents. And I know that there are parents who just don't want to live with the children. But the normal thing ought to be for the children to look after their parents. But they're shut it off here and there, and you don't want to see something sad. Just go around some of these nursing homes or old pensioners' homes and see how they live. See how they strain their necks to see everyone that goes down the hallway, just hoping there might be somebody coming in and pay them a visit. America has not honored a parent.
Now this is the first commandment with promise. The first four commandments have no promises tied to them at all. But this one is the promise that it may be well with thee, and that thou mayest live long on the earth. And this may be the reason. someone has suggested why the Chinese lived so long upon the earth, because they honored their parents, and now in turn they're allowed to live long, and their children honor them. Now from verse four, through verse four, we have the admonitions of fathers, and blessed that you mothers would just hand this to the fathers.
Let me tell you that the word fathers here is the same word translated parents in Hebrews eleven and twenty three. It's a common word for the heads of the family. Now, maybe the emphasis is intended to be on the fathers, and I wouldn't be surprised because fathers are more apt to do the things which he prohibits here. and the nurture and admonition of the Lord. It's so easy to hurt a child. It's so easy to discourage a child. It's so easy to make him angry. He's frustrated because he can't talk back.
He can't fight back. And it's cruel for parents to do things to make it harder on them. It's like we studied last week with the husbands and the wives. If husbands really love their wives, it would be easy for wives to be subject to. If wives really were subject to them, it would be easy to love them. So each one has a responsibility to do his or her own particular duty and let the Lord take care of the rest. I think the same thing is true here. It's easy for children to obey parents who don't provoke them and make it hard for them. On the other hand, it's much easier for parents to take care of obedient children. So each other's do our part.
Our home life can be so much happier. The sad part of it is that when you've done your best, you can't be sure what their choices will be after they reach their maturity. But that's between them and God. Let's see that we do our part. Now, servants is the word do us, which really means a slave. was four fifth slaves. However, many of the things that are said here, if not all, I think would apply to those who are employed in our day.
The first thing is the obedience of them that are your masters according to the flesh. If you're going to work for somebody, be loyal to them and do what they ask you to do. If you don't intend to do it, then get out. Find another place to work. If you're going to stay there and accept money for your time, then give them your time. I know a man who was fired from three jobs and always for the same thing. He was fired because he stood around and talked to people about the Lord. And he said, well, that's the kind of persecution that you expect. I don't know what other people have told him, but I was pretty blunt with him.
I said, that wasn't persecution at all. He was stealing from him. He bought your time. You sold him eight hours a day. And then you stole back that time to talk to those people around you. And you not only stole your time, but you stole the time of the fellow whose time you were taking up. I said, you had absolutely no right to do that. What you should have done was waited until your lunch hour, or wait till after work, go to his home at night to see. There are a lot of ways to do it. Most of us... not have what we need of this world good unless we sell our time in order to get that. Now, once you've done it, do it be obedient.
Do what they tell you to do. That is, if it is wrong, you're not expected to do anything wrong. You're to do it with fear and trembling, and this is not with fear of the boss, but with fear and trembling is a word which is used a number of times. praise used in a number of times in the Scripture, and which stands for our attitude toward God. In the fear of the Lord doesn't mean that I'm scared the Lord is going to do something to me, but it means a godly reverence. I do this because I don't want to offend the Lord. Let me be obedient because the Lord is watching me all the time. It doesn't make a difference where the boss is watching. You know, some people work on them when the boss is watching.
You don't hear them say to each other, have the boss. And everybody gets real busy. Everybody's all clattering. Everybody's working around, both coming through. You get perpetual motion. Tomorrow is the way that crowd worked. And nothing's been happening for a solid hour before he arrived there. Well, this is just downright wicked. So we have to do it remembering that the Lord is watching. He sees whether we're doing what we ought or not. There was an Italian who was carving statues. or a famous building going out in Italy. And these statues were, he placed them back in niches after they were done up on the facade of the building. And he was working on one of these statues and he was meticulously carving the clothing in the back.
Somebody said, what are you doing that for? You're going to set it in that niche. Nobody had ever seen the back of it. He said, God will. Now that's the right spirit. That's the right attitude with what we do. Let's do it because we know the Lord is watching it. Apply this as you need to in your own situation. And then it's to be done in singleness of your heart. I think this literally means insincerity. Doing it with one object, as unto Christ. This phrase is used several times, is used twice in the third chapter, Colossians.
Whatever you do, do it hardly as unto the Lord, and not unto man. And these things we ought to put into practice in our lives. Not with I service. Now, the word for service here is exactly the same word for servant in verse five. It's the word slave. And so if you translate it as literally as you do the word verse five, you would say not with eye slavery, not doing it because somebody's eyes on me, not doing it because the boss is watching, not doing it because people are watching, but as men pleaders, but as the servants of Christ. And the same word is used here also as slaves of Christ.
Are we slaves of Christ? How do you think about that? Bill, what do you think of that? Are we slaves of Christ? Yes. I forget to be slaves. Yes. Well, by obeying Him, by obeying His Word, by our own choice, sure. It's when we choose to obey Him. He didn't make us His slaves. In fact, one of the words for redemption is a word that means to liberate by paying the price. When the Lord redeemed us, He set us totally free. And we should never do anything because we have to. Well, we ought to do it because we choose to be the love slaves of the Lord Jesus.
Sometimes you see this between human beings, and it's a very beautiful thing. It isn't carried too far. It's a very wonderful thing to see a mother who just serves her children, her husband, because she loved them. She seems to be totally unselfish. The wonderful thing is to see a husband and wife. They're so devoted to each other. But they think of each other's needs and interests. And they seem not to be particularly concerned about themselves. And how wonderful it is when you see a Christian who is like this toward the Lord. Because the Lord is like that toward us, isn't he? Think how he serves that.
Think how completely he gave himself for it. Think what it meant for him to become poor. in order that he might do for us all that he wanted to do. And then be glad that you are, you can be. By your choice, every one of the New Testament writers call themselves a slave of the Lord Jesus. Now you can take this place. The Bible says you can obey. This is how you become a servant. You choose to do it. You say, I'm going to do this for the Lord. I'm going to do this because it'll please him. Never mind if anyone sees it or not. This will please the Lord, doing the will of God from the heart.
I think with a dignity that this would give to a poor slave. Maybe he doesn't even remember his family. Maybe he was stolen from some other country. And he was sold into this family, and now he's a slave, and he can't even call his life his own. And then suddenly he hears this epistle read, sent from the Apostle Paul, you are the servants of Christ doing the will of God. Well, he says, this is wonderful. I thought Paul was the one doing the will of God. He went out preaching. He came and brought us to gospel. I thought Paul was the one doing the will of God.
I thought missionaries and people like this were the ones doing the will of God. But he says, when I... scrub the floor or when I do what the boss tells me and the master tells me to do, I'm really doing the will of God. So I can do this from my heart. This will help you. The job that you have to do is kind of unpleasant. I'd figure that next time you have to do some particular duty you don't care for. Now here comes the nice part of it. with good will.
And this simply means heartily. Heartily doing service, add to the Lord and not to men, knowing that whatsoever good thing any man do it. The same shall he receive of the Lord, whether he be bond or free. Here's something to count on. God saw what he did. He appreciated it. He knew that that man carved the back side of that statue before he put it in that niche, and the man was doing it for God. And you can do that little extra because you're doing it for the Lord.
And you'll never forget it. He shall receive of the Lord. Maybe you don't get all the pay you ought to have. I don't suppose anybody gets as much as you think he's worth. But whether you feel you're getting adequately paid or not, You can do it partly as under the Lord. This is one of the favorite passages in the scripture of the Communists. I don't know if you're aware of this or not, but the Communists quote this passage in the parallel passage in Colossians as a proof that religion is the opiate of the people. They say, this keeps people in slavery, this keeps them satisfied with nothing, this keeps them from striking, this keeps them from asserting themselves and getting what's due to them.
It does absolutely nothing of the kind, but it does encourage them to do whatever they do with their eyes upon the Lord. And it does far more than communism can ever do to make them happy people. Now, Matthew's come in for their share of this, and while I suppose it can repeat. to servants and to masters or to employees and employers do the same thing. What do you mean the same thing? They're working for me. I'm the boss. Well, you do what you do as though the Lord is watching you.
You do what you're doing because you believe the Lord will recompense you. Did you give that fellow full time when he When he had to take some time off to take his wife to the doctor, he didn't have it coming to him. Why should you pay him for that hour that he didn't work? Well, you did it because you loved the Lord. The Lord said, I remember that. I got it down on my books. I'll see that you're recompensed. You do the same thing. And then he says, forbearing, threatening. It's a little bit sad when you see a Christian. who is a hard master.
Boaz is a wonderful example of the kind of master, the kind of employer he ought to be, or supervisor, or he's jobless to be. If you're in a supervisory capacity, read about Boaz sometimes, the Booker Ruth. When Boaz came out to these fields where the reapers were, he said, the Lord be with you, and they said, the Lord bless you. He wasn't in labor trouble there. but they were both Christians. See, they both thought of the other persons. And I think we can apply that in a very practical way. Are you thinking of the other fellow? Are you thinking of his needs? Whether you're an employer or employee, this will be the job.
Knowing that your master also is in heaven. Neither is there any respect to persons with him. I think you know that the Latin word for persons through a mask. Those who took the parts in plays wore a mask to fit the particular part. If he was a clown, he wore a mask with a perpetual grin. If he was playing a tragedy, he wore one turned down. Sometimes you see these two masks fastened together as a symbol of some of the arts, the theater arts. And so he's just saying here now what the Latin said, no respect of people who act parts.
God isn't interested in your pretending this or pretending that. God isn't interested in the mask you put off. He is not any respecter of persons at all. He wants you to be real. Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. Now this new section that begins with this verse has to do with the battlefield. We've been talking about the family and the business. Now he said, I want to talk to you about another problem. You're going to have to face difficulty.
Being a Christian is not all pleasant things. Being a Christian is not easy. I never tell a young person, if you just trust the Lord Jesus for your Savior from then on you'll be happy, happy, happy all the time. Nobody is that much as an idiot. And nobody is going to find the life of a Christian to be an easy one. It simply doesn't happen. We're in God's school from the moment of the accept Christ. Therefore you're going to have problems and difficulties and trials in order that you might learn something. And you're going to be in an unframely world. The Lord said, don't be surprised if the world hates you. It hated me before it hated you.
You can expect exactly the same kind of treatment from the world that it gave to the Lord Jesus. My father used to have an answer. It was a common saying when I was a boy. Well, how's the world treating you? And people never asked my father that of the Lord. Because his answer was, me exactly like it treated the Lord Jesus and every other Christian. Because the man wasn't a saved man, you see how he feels. And if he was a Christian, he felt kind of taken aback. And so nobody ever asked you the second time, how's the world treating you? Let me ask you that. What do you expect in this world in which you live? What do you expect when you have the flesh still resident within you?
And above all, what do you expect when you know that the forces of Satan are set to hinder you from going on for God. Well, he says your only hope is be strong in the Lord. The form, grammatical form of this statement, be strong in the Lord, is a little hard to express in English. It would be something like this. Be constantly strengthened. It isn't be strong, you are strong, so go ahead and be strong. It isn't that at all, but it's be drawing your strength, be receiving strength, be constantly strengthened.
Well, now this is something else, isn't it? Nobody has it. But anybody can receive. I mentioned one minute here about our capacity to enjoy. blessing and help from the Lord. And you may have a vessel to receive blessing from God that's the size of a barrel. And mine might be like a teacup or a thimble. But the point is, we can be having it constantly filled. Well, what difference does it make, really? After all, your vessel will expand as you continue to fill it.
But I mean, if you've got a very small amount of capacity... say you find that if you don't pray at least once an hour, that you get into problems. Well, that's fine. That's just fine. That way you'll be praying every hour. But you say, I can't even go more than ten minutes. Well, that's great. And that's six times as often. Because don't feel that your lack of strength exempts you from standing firm, standing strong. He's telling you, be drawn in for me. Now what most of us want is a bank vault. We want all of these supplies, everything that God can give us.
We want this all put in our own little private vault so we can get it any time. My Lord said, I can't give it to you that way. I want to give it to you a little bit of time, just as you need. You come to me. You draw from me. Because you have to be coming and coming and coming and coming, you're kept under the Lord's I don't know if I'm getting this cross enough. I want you to understand that if you want to be a happy Christian, you have to keep the telephone line clear. You have to keep close to the Lord. You will never be able to make it by yourself. Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.
And then He tells us how to do it. Put on the whole armor of God. Now, the armor that's listed here, six or seven pieces, depending on how you look at them. I think you could think of them as seven pieces of armor, because I like that number seven. I feel that's a little more complete. And in John Bunyan's Covenant's Progress, he speaks of the seventh one as being part of the armor, and I sort of like that idea. But anyway, this is the armor which God expects us to put on. Now, where do you put on armor? Well, you don't need armor on when you're in the family at home. This would look kind of silly.
And when you're going to meet another Christian, don't get your armor on. Don't get all buckled up for a fight. Some people are like this all the time. They're just about as cozy as a porcupine. You just feel that you can't get close to them at all. They're constantly holding you off. They're just unfriendly. Many Christians are like this. But the Lord doesn't give you this armor to wear when you're in the bosom of the family. He gives you this to wear when you're going to meet the enemy. That's the first thing. Let's distinguish. Fellow Christians are not our enemy. One time Lord Nelson was, I think, was in the, well, I'll hesitate to say, in a way, one of the battles, you remember he was the British Admiral.
And he came up on deck of the flagship, and here were two of the officers on the ship just going after each other. Oh, they were having a big old argument. The battle was supposed to be gone. They were so busy arguing with each other. He just walked up to them, took them by the scruff of the neck, and turned their faces away from each other and out to sea. And he said, gentlemen, the enemy is out there. And that's what we need sometimes, don't we? We need to remember this. My fellow Christians are not my enemies. Maybe I don't particularly care for their disposition, but they're on our team. They're on the same side we are, and we ought not to waste our time battling with them. He tells us what our opponents are in the following passage.
And by the way, when he says the whole armor, he means you need all of it. And when he says it's the armor of God, he wants you to know... that is something that you have to get from him. You don't have it yourself. Some people try to substitute for these pieces of armor such things as education or psychology or philosophy or they substitute their own particular temperament and say, well, you know, I have a naturally happy disposition, so I don't have any problems. But this must not be substituted. for the genuine armor, which is the armor of God.
Now, what do we use it for? I have heard this chapter mistreated so many times that it just floors me. When I hear somebody get up and say, well, now we want to put on the whole armor of God so we can resist all the temptations that would come to us tomorrow. You're not saying you want temptations? The temptations don't come to me outside. You could have on all the armor in the world and be enclosed in a twenty-ton tank. And you could get all kinds of temptations because they come out of your own wicked heart. You know that. You stop to think a minute. These aren't things that blow over.
These are things that come to me inside. The Lord clearly said that. And the seventh of Mark, on the fifteenth of Matthew, too. He said, out of the heart proceed evil thought and all these wicked things. So it's not that we're to fight temptation. Somebody says, well, we want to put on the whole armor of God and go out and fight the battles against the world. And Billy Sundy was a great one for this. Some of you are old enough to remember when he was around. Billy Sundy said, I'm out fighting the devil. You know what he was doing? He was trying to close up the solution. And this to him was fighting the world, you see, meant fighting the battle. He was trying to make the world better. I don't object to anything.
without them, just fine. Be glad if we didn't have any. But my job as a Christian is not to go out and fight the world. Here's the enemy that you'll be able to stand against the wilds of the devil. Now we have three enemies, the world, the flesh, and the devil. But the enemy in the sixth chapter of Ephesians is the devil, not the world or the flesh. We are fighting against the wilds of the devil. Now the word wild means the subtlety, the sneaky little thing. You know some of the cases like this. You remember in the Garden of Eden when Satan came to the woman?
Remember what he did? He just fooled us. It says the woman being deceived. Satan didn't overpower. He came as the son of a woman. Now it's true that Satan is likened to a roaring lion. That's in his persecution of Christians, verse Peter five. But in second Corinthians twelve, he is also called an angel of light. He says, marvel not if his ministries be transformed into the ministries of righteousness, for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Now of course if you saw an angel of light you'd do whatever he told you to do wouldn't you better not.
Because there are two kinds of angels. And Satan is a fallen angel. But one of his favorite disguises is to come to you and make you believe this would be a nice religious thing to do. And he floors more people this way than he does by the other way. And then he enhances it a little in verse twelve by telling us, we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities. in the first chapter it means the ruling powers of the spirit world it's a little hard for us to understand since we are earthbound people we think of this planet as being the whole thing we think of this world as and the people here as being the only creatures which God has but God has a great many more creatures The Lord Jesus said, I could pray and my Father would send me, how many?
Twelve, twelve legion. Twelve legion. Anybody know how many a legion is? About six thousand. Well, it depends on what country it's in. I heard somebody say six. I think this was the Roman legion, the six thousand. Well, say six thousand. I can ask him to send me twelve legions of angels. So six times twelve is seventy-two. when you think that one angel in the Old Testament was sent down to destroy the entire Syrian army in one man. And God could send seventy-two thousand angels to the Lord and not disrupt things at all in heaven.
But you see, not only are there many of the unfallen angels, but then the spirit world also contains the fallen angels. And I believe that what you have given in the book of the Revelation grew a third part of the angels of heaven after him so at least a third of all these angels are now on the devil's side they are fallen angels now angels are far superior as a man they are smarter they've lived longer their experience is greater they they are physically much greater much more capable they are impervious created for the devil and his angels.
They were made for man at all. Men only go there because they reject Christ. But over these hordes of evil beings, and I believe that the demons are simply these fallen angels doing Satan's service here on this earth. I can't exactly prove that, and if you know any proof to the contrary, I'd be glad to hear it. But I believe that the demons are... part of the fallen angel. But over these different regiments, or whatever we call them, there are principalities, chiefs, important ones. And then there are powers.
And then there are the rulers of the darkness of this world. There are just as angels are given specific, unfallen angels, the holy angels are given specific jobs. We're told in the eighteenth of Matthew that the angels of the children, who always go to face my father, which is in heaven. We sometimes call them guardian angels. And in the first chapter of Hebrews, we're told that these angels are sent forth to serve those who are called the heirs of salvation. So there's some way in which angels serve us. I used to hope I would be an angel, especially if I could fly. That'd be great. I used to watch the birds do it and wish I had wings like an angel, but I find out now that God has given us as believers, who were once as human beings lower than the angels, He came down lower than the angels to save us, and now He's taken us higher than the angels, higher than the angels, because He has made His companions, and He has made the angels to be the servant of those who are saved.
And just as the angels have a special work to do in blessing and helping, So the fallen angels have a special work to do, as he says here, the rulers of the darkness of this world. I need to take this for what it's worth, but during the Second World War, a missionary, a very reputable person, too, I have no reason to doubt what he had to say, came home from Africa, and he said, I've got a very strange story to tell you. He said, I knew when the world war started and i didn't have a letter i didn't have radio communication then i didn't have a letter for three weeks after but i knew when the when the first world war started and he said i knew it because the uh the drums had been going the natives the their uh which doctors had been calling uh a meeting they were going to have a great big that
they worshiped. And they were going to have a big confab, and all of a sudden they called the whole thing off. And he said, I said to him, why at the drum stop? Well, he said, we're not going to have our meeting. Well, why aren't you going to have it? Well, because the head witch doctor for the area said he just got word that all of our gods have a job to do over in the white man's country. Starting tomorrow. So we won't be able to have our meeting here. And tomorrow is the day the World War started. You make out of that what you want. But it's a kind of a significant thing when you think that God says, the rulers of the darkness of this world.
Who is behind these wicked things? Who is back of all these things which are done against God as well as against these people? Well, this was the answer here. John? Yes. In the tenth chapter of Daniel, the fall from thirteen verses. Daniel ten, fall from thirteen. This tends to break out what I read yours. Did you read that? Then said he unto me, Hear not, Daniel, for from the first day that thou didst set thine heart on this day, and to chasten thyself before thy God, thy words were heard, and I come for thy words.
But the prince of the kingdom of Persia, destood me one in twenty days. But lo, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, and I remained there with the kings of Persia. And then over in verse twenty, it says, Then said, He, Noah, thou therefore I come unto thee, and now I return to fight with the prince of Persia. And when I'm gone forth, lo, the prince of Persia shall come. Doesn't this indicate a The angel who said this, we don't know his name, but he was a special angel that was asked to do this work.
And then Michael has said several times in the Old Testament to be the special angel of the nation of Israel, the protector of the nation of Israel. So if an angel could be held back for three weeks, twenty-one days, verse thirteen says. taking place. We only see the human side of it. We only see the battles here. We don't see the opposition of evil spirits. I'm sure that there are plenty of people here who would like to send the man in the white coat and pick me up tomorrow for saving these things that I'm saying. They would say, well, that shows you how nutty a Christian can be.
But never you mind. The Bible tells us very definitely that we do have this kind of a And if you know anything about exercise in the Christian battle, you know that this does happen. Against spiritual wickedness in high places. Now, this word high places is exactly the same phrase translated heavenly places in chapter one. God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies or the heavenly places in the heavenly sphere. And spiritual wickedness in many translations is simply wicked spirit.
So God has told us about several different kinds. You have the devil in verse eleven, then you have principalities and powers, and the rulers of the darkness of this world, and wicked spirit. So here are five different classes of opponents, all of them in the spiritual realm. It might interest you to know that all idolatry is demon worship. is demon worship. We're told this plainly in the book of the Psalms. And this is why it is so licentious and wicked.
Almost all idolatry has an emphasis on immorality. And the wicked spirits are permeating the heavenly spheres. Some people say, well, the devil's work is getting people drunk. I just doubt that very seriously, and that's part of the lust of the flesh. But I wonder if even the devil isn't ashamed of a drunk man. I just can't believe that this has anything to do with Satan's work. Satan's work is that of counterfeiting what God is doing. Satan's work is that of hindering you from enjoying what God has for you.
Now, let me call your attention back to this statement that I made, I think, the first studies, I told you that the book of Ephesians and the New Testament is the counterpart of the book of Joshua in the Old Testament. In the Old Testament, Joshua led the people of Israel across Jordan into the land of Canaan, into the land of Palestine, and to possess their possessions. Well, now this is the most unfortunate thing. It came out of the dark days when people had no real understanding of the Bible. Back in the Middle Ages, somebody got the idea that Jordan is a picture of physical death, and Canaan is a picture of heaven, and our hymns are just, they're shot through with this notion.
You notice this. How many times you will read about on Jordan's stormy banks I stand? and then all of this kind of stuff. And this is most misleading. Jordan is not physical death at all. Jordan is death to self, acknowledging that I have died with Christ and I'm a new person now. And Canaan is not heaven at all. Canaan is the enjoyment of all that God has given us, which we ought to be entering into and enjoying here and now. I'll show you that Canaan can't possibly be a picture of heaven. Let me ask you, where did the children of Israel have practically all of their fight? There were practically all of them in the land of Canaan.
Now, it was no fight to get into the land of Canaan. God just opened up the Jordan and let them walk through on dry ground. Just that simple. And after they got in, and they camped there for a few days at Gilgal, nobody showed up. And then they walked over to the city of Jericho, which is not far from the river banks, and they marched around this city once every day. Seven times on the seventh day, nobody came out to fight them. Nobody as much as shot an arrow at them. And on the seventh day, the walls just fell down. He took the city. Just that simple. From the next day, the trouble started. From that time on, they had nothing but trouble.
They had to fight for every inch of it. Now, what God, I think, was showing us there is this. It does not take any battle at all. to believe what God said is yours. We've been studying this in Ephesians. You've already gone through the first chapter listening, most of you. You've seen that there's a list of nine spiritual blessings that God had for us. And you thought this was wonderful. And you enjoyed the thoughts of these things. But you just try to possess them. See what happens. As long as you stand back and look at them, the devil will leave you alone. But you just try to possess them. You just try to count on them. You just try to get these things for yourself.
You just start to plane these things. You just start to enjoy them. See what will happen. Did you ever yet pick up your Bible or try to have a little quiet time on the Lord that telephone didn't ring? Somebody comes to the door or thoughts start racing through your head and things you just got to do. You can't possibly put them off another very minute. Ever find that happens? Happens all the time. You think that's an accident? Now what do you do when you run into this problem? Or take this problem of unbelief. You read these wonderful things. You say, well, it says here, it says here that I am sealed by the Holy Spirit of promise. But I don't know.
It says here that I have been given the place of a Son, that I am accepted in the beloved one, that I am just as welcome as the Lord Jesus himself. But I don't know. What's happening? Satan is robbing you of your blessing through the simple expediency of unbelief. And it works every time. It works in the Garden of Eden. And you fall for it. After six thousand years, at least the history of the human race, and you've got a whole Bible to tell you that the devil does this regularly, and then he comes and puts unbelief into your heart, and you fall for it too. So do I.
Isn't that terrible? Well, that's because we have a Bible. We have a battle going on and you're not enough for this force. You simply can't face this for your own strength. That's why he says in verse thirteen, wherefore, because this is true, wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God. I'd like to say one other thing about verse twelve before we leave it, and that is that in the first chapter, verse, uh, what, nineteen. He wanted us to know three things.
One of them, in verse nineteen is, and what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us were to believe, according to the working of his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, in the heavens, far above all. See these names ring a bell. Principality. and power and might and dominion. Same thing we've been reading about, see, in the twelve chapter, twelve verse of the six chapters. Now what's he saying here in chapter one? He's saying that God has set the Lord Jesus far above all these opponents.
He is in an untouchable place. He is in a position where they simply can't do anything to it. You remember how they gathered around him on the cross. He was babbling then with us. When he rose again from the dead, he was taken part of all of that. What about us? Look at verse six of the second chapter. And it's raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places. Same expression occurs many times in Ephesians. In Christ Jesus. Now, we're not with him yet, but we're in him.
Don't ever stay receded in heaven as with Christ Jesus, because we're not. This is future. but we're seated together in the heavenlies in Him. We're accepted in Him. Whatever He is is counted to us. So we take a position in Him. That is, we count on His word. We're associated with Him. Now remember that. This battle is not hopeless. You read verse twelve and you say, I'm no match for these. I simply can't faith. That's the sixth chapter. You read verse twelve and you say, I just simply can't face these people or these spirits. That's why he says in verse thirteen, 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.
Now in verse eleven, the last phrase, Stand against the wilds of the devil. Verse thirteen, withstand in the evil day and having done all the stand in verse fourteen stand therefore so this is not a marching fight at all you don't need to go out looking for trouble let's find you all you have to do is pick up your Bible all you have to do is try to have a little time of prayer with the Lord all you have to do is begin to think about what God has given to you and every wretched thought that Satan can resurrect will start racing through your mind all right what do you do First of all, you have your loins gird about with truth.
Now, the loins is the middle. In that country, if you want to do any work, the men as well as the women wear long robes, you gather these robes up and you cinch your belt, which is called a girdle for men or women, you cinch this belt tightly around your robe and pull it up to your knees. This is so when you want to walk and work, it won't blow around and... and hinder you from doing what you need to do. And so the Lord is saying he wants you to gird your lawn. Now in two other places he says, having the loins of your minds gird. In other words, what he's telling us is that your thoughts do not need to drag you all around like a wild horse over a pasture.
If you allow your thoughts to wander and distract you. You have not learned to have your loins held in with truth. Let me show you what I mean. Suppose you're doing a job that doesn't take too much concentration. There are lots of these. So what do you do with your time? Why do you think of something? And that makes you think of something else. And that makes you think of something else. And here you go. All over the field. And the thirty minutes is over? And what have you accomplished? Absolutely nothing. Now you could discipline your mind by grace, but you have to do it with truth.
You have to fill your mind with truth. See, nature of horror is a vacuum. If your mind is a hollow, if your brains are just totally free, if you've got them in neutral, you can expect this to happen. But you can control your mind. while you're doing this job that doesn't really take much mental exercise you can say now I'm going to I'm going to concentrate on thoughts of the love of God for the next thirty minutes so you think about John three sixteen it's a good place to start God so loved the world you're thinking about God loving the world and then you think about something you saw on TV last night come back here you pull that mind back say I was thinking about John three sixteen the love of God then this thought makes you think of another, and of course the full ring.
When you answer the form, what do you do? Come back. See, this is having your mind's dirt about the truth. You tie in your mind, and this includes your imagination, and I think includes your conscience, I think it includes your worry apparatus, yours working fine, isn't it? You can keep this thing in total control, How? With the truth. There isn't any other way to do it. You simply can't say, I'm not going to think about that anymore. You're not going to think about what? Well, I'm not going to think about it. And you find you're thinking, you're not going to think about this particular thing.
And this thing is right there, you see? Sometimes I say to people, no, we're going to try this out. For the next thirty seconds, none of us are going to think about airplanes. What I did was to force you to think about airplane. See, I took the thought into your mind, and this is what the devil does all the time. But you can go for hours and never think about airplane. And the reason you do it is because you've got something else there. You fill your mind with the right kind of thing, and then you don't have any trouble with the wrong kind. This is not philosophy. This is a very simple thing. It's given to us right here.
This is an absolutely impregnable armor that you can put over your loins. Now, you know, of course, that the loins stand for a man's total strength. If the back is out of here, he's just no good for anything. And another place he calls the loins of your mind because it means the strength of your mind. But your mind is helpless when it gets You say, I don't want to think about that man. I don't want to hate him, Mr. Pinker. I don't want to hate him. I know what's wrong to hate him. But you can't do anything else because the man is on your mind and you are a slave to thoughts. But then when you, by the grace of God, apply the truth to your mind and you forgive that man, then you turn from that.
And if you do think of him, you think of him in pity or prayerfulness, and you're liberated from that. Now, this is absolutely possible. Whatever things are lovely and so on, think on these things. But I want to tell you, we'll never get through the second thing is in verse fourteen, having on the breastplate of righteousness. There are several kinds of righteousness in the Bible, self-righteousness, which of course is worthless. And then there is God's righteousness, which is his own. And then there is imputed righteousness, which is the righteousness which God gives you through the Lord Jesus.
It's not called the righteousness of Christ. It's called the righteousness of God in Christ. That is, He gives Christ to you. He takes your sins away. He does it righteously so that you have a righteous standing. You can come to God and call Him your Father. You can do it righteously. God can take you to heaven and make you not only his son but his heir and give you a place there with him to do it perfectly righteously. See? That's not what he's talking about here. The righteousness we have here is... personal righteousness. Now, if you want your, you know what a breastplate is for, that's where your heart is. That's vital. If you want your heart protected, if you want your emotions protected, you do so with a breastplate of an absolutely righteous life.
Don't you ever be afraid of being too righteous. Don't you ever be afraid of being too pious. Maybe people will think that, but never mind. The Lord Jesus was absolutely right. His whole lifetime was spent in doing only what is right. And if you let shady things creep into your life, if you let your guard get down, if you condone sin in any form, whether it's licentiousness, whether it's pride, whether it's covetousness, or whether it's bitterness, or whatever this is, if you condone that thing for a minute, you've got a hole in your arm. and the devil will get at your emotions.
He'll shoot you an hour. But if you keep your life the way it ought to be, by God's help, for this is armor which you get from God, you don't need to be afraid. Now the third thing in verse fifteen is your feet shod with a preparation of the gospel of peace. Somebody called these your gospel shoes, but that isn't right. It isn't your decision that you have the gospel on your feet, but you have your, and the feet always have to do with the walk. have to do with the way you live, the way you go, the way you progress, your total behavior. He says, if you behave in such a way that it prepares the way for the gospel, see what I mean? You want to talk to somebody about the Lord.
You know what you have to do? You have to walk in such a way that will come in the gospel for you. You don't want him to say, well, that's what you say, but I know the way you behave.