Standing Firm against Satanic Schemes, Part 1

Becoming a Christian is the best decision a person can possibly make, but entering God's family is not devoid of danger. In fact, according to scripture, our loyalty to Jesus Christ opens the door to an enemy who is working against us. We've got a proverbial target painted on our heart, and Satan has us sighted in his crosshairs. To stay on Insight for Living, Chuck Swindoll teaches from Ephesians chapter 6. In this passage, we learn how to manage our fears and to equip ourselves for battle. Chuck titled today's message, Standing Firm Against Satanic Schemes. We had a number of dreams and hopes when we were putting together the thought of establishing a church, and one of those that was paramount in my mind is that we would sing the songs that would last.

Not out of touch with our times, but would be timeless. And that's why we do the hymns to this day, and we'll always do them. And my encouragement to you is that you always teach them to your young. I have a friend named David Roper who is now in his 60s in ministry up in Idaho. He says his fondest memories go back to when he was just getting out of the crib and into his own bed, and his mother would sing him to sleep at night, never with the lullabies, but always with the hymns. And when he reached adulthood, he realized that he knew most of them by heart. Teach the hymns to your children, to your grandchildren.

Teach them. They won't hear them many places, and they contain some of the great theology of our faith, and they give us roots that provide stability when the winds grow strong. And there's every temptation to flee.

They hold us close. I want to read for you just four verses to set the stage for this final grand hymn. Ein Feste Burg ist unsergot, Luther wrote, in a time of militaristic spirit around the church when people died for their faith and were sometimes killed by those who meant well but thought wrong and believed in error.

And he put together a song that has found its way to this day from his 16th century life to ours in the 21st. I want to read for you Ephesians 6 verses 10 through 13. Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the full armor of God so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenlies. Therefore take up the full armor of God so that you will be able to resist in the evil day and having done everything to stand firm. The hymn that we sing is a hymn you need to memorize to help complete your spiritual pilgrimage.

You need to have these words fixed in your mind and referred to frequently as you drive, as you prepare to retire for the evening and as you take on the day. This is a mighty fortress is our God of bulwark never failing. A mighty fortress is our God of bulwark never failing.

Though still our ancient foe could seem to work us wrong, his wrath and love are great, and our weak rule the main. The world is not his reason. The world is not our reason. No thanks to them all. The world is not our reason.

No thanks to them all. The body, faith, and will pass through the highest heaven, missing the peace of heaven. A mighty fortress is our God of bulwark never failing. Today's message is titled, Standing Firm Against Satanic Schemes. When you enter the Christian life, you did not walk onto a playground, you stepped into a battleground.

Even though you couldn't hear the bombs bursting in the distance, even though you couldn't hear the reports of the rifle shots around you, even though you couldn't see the jets fully loaded and ready to drop their bombs strategically into the right places, even though you couldn't see the fixed bayonets flashing in front of your face, you were and you are living in harm's way. There was never a time in your life when you were not a walking target and the enemy does not have the cross hairs of his scope fixed directly upon you. He knows your name. He knows your background. He knows how you're put together. He knows your weaknesses and your strengths.

He knows the places where you are most vulnerable and he has been studying you since before you came to the cross. You are in his sights. Your adversary, the devil, and his emissaries, the demons, have one goal for you and that is your downfall and ultimately your demise. His hope is not simply to cripple you, it is to ruin you. The demons work to that end whether you are awake or asleep.

While you are alone or with a group, you have an enemy that stalks your every step. Interestingly, he hopes that you think nothing of him, doubting his existence altogether. Or if you do think about him, that you will think of him in some form of caricature, which Webster calls a ludicrous distortion. A clever little imp with a red skin, carrying a pitchfork and dancing from one shoulder to the next. He'd love you to think of him in that way if you think of him at all.

Or some hooded beast with a black hood and dark sinister ways. He would love for you to think of him as that. As long as he can get you not to think of him or to think of him in some exaggerated manner, his mission is accomplished. And you're as vulnerable as a three year old child caught in the crossfire of warriors with loaded weapons shooting at one another. Do I have your attention?

I hope so. Your adversary has not had enough of it. You have probably not thought of him a half dozen times, if that, in the last year.

He's there, but what difference does that really make? And if you were schooled as I was before I came to adulthood, you were taught that it's a sort of a joke. That weird people think of a real devil, and very weird people think that there are demons. And if they are there, then there's sort of an entertaining lot, so that we have games about them called Ouija boards, and Dungeons and Dragons. And we play with them in our minds, as if they are just figments of our imagination. But nobody with any sense of intelligence thinks of them as actually existing. Because after all, when is the last time you saw anybody who saw the devil, who wasn't a little bit crazy?

And then on the other hand, he would love for you to think of him all the time. Because everything that happens to you is from the devil. A comedian of yesteryear made a living out of reminding us the devil made me do it, and we all laughed. Or perhaps you're one of those folks who believes that you're getting bald because of demons of baldness. Or you're fat because of the demon of overweight.

Or you're impatient because of the demon of impatience. That is stupid and totally unbiblical. He would love for you to think of him only in exaggerated ways, if in fact you must think of him at all. Preachers who have been faithful to God's word down through the centuries have talked about, taught on, and preached about the devil and his demons. Congregations may or may not have believed what he had to say, but he is responsible to tell the truth, not to give people what they want to hear.

You are one of those remarkable congregations I am learning each week we're together. You really want to know what the Bible says. And I will tell you, it says a lot about your adversary, the devil. As a matter of fact, you will be probably surprised at how much it says if you decide to make a serious study of Satan and the demons. I have a theology book that is now faded with age, second volume on angelology, in which Louis Sperry Chafer spends hundreds of pages on the one subject of Satan and the demons, all biblically based and nowhere near exhausting the subject. Years ago, when D. Martin Lloyd-Jones preached at Westminster Chapel, which he did for a quarter of a century in London, he decided to do an in-depth study of Satan and the demons. The result was remarkable. Two full-length volumes, 26 chapters each, the first entitled The Christian Warfare and the second, The Christian Soldier, basing both books on three verses in Ephesians 6, verses 10, 11, and 12, to which I'd like to have you turn. And he said with a sigh as he finished the second volume his regret is that he had come nowhere near exhausting the subject.

Two lengthy volumes on a subject most people haven't thought of six times, if that, in a given year. The scripture teaches to be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. The scripture says put on the full armor of God that you may be able to stand firm against the schemes, the schemes of the devil. Our struggle is not against the flesh and blood, says the scriptures, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Wherefore take up the full armor of God that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything to stand firm. Look at the verses. This is one of numerous passages in the scriptures that talk about the devil and his demons. Chances are good you have never studied the strategy of the enemy.

Chances are better you are in harm's way and don't realize it. I felt it in the preparation of the message on a number of occasions and only Cynthia knows how deeply I felt it. I have known this passage was coming and I've had enough experience with such subjects to know that he would pull out all of his stops. Because there's one thing he does not want and that is to be exposed in truth. He wants you to think nothing of him or to think foolishly about him. But if you begin to learn the truth regarding him and his ways, then he faces what he despises the most and that is the realization he cannot stand against God. Because there is no power greater than the power of God. Though his is just a little below it.

Just a little. Being supernatural in nature you cannot see him. He does not touch you. You cannot measure him and you will not feel him.

Except within. When we walk we leave footsteps on soft sand. When he walks there are no footsteps. When photographs are taken of us the negative reveals our image, photographs of him come out blank.

You can't photograph him. When we talk there are audible sounds that can be heard by human ears. When he talks with his enemies and to us there are no sounds. But there is great communication. All of this falls in the category of two words and I hope you will become a student of it. Not become so preoccupied with it that that is all you think of but you will become a student of it. The two words are spiritual warfare. My advice to you if you wish to be informed as you should be is to read authors you admire and respect who are biblical to the core and teach you what they have learned from the scriptures about spiritual warfare. Or better yet, get a concordance.

That is an alphabetical listing of all the words in the Bible if it is an exhaustive concordance. Look up the letter S. Find Satan. Look up the letter D. Find devil. Look up the letter A. Find adversary.

And a half dozen other titles I could give you. Look up demons, demonic, etc. Make a list of all the verses and systematically go through the scriptures on your own to learn about your enemy.

The best step toward dealing with the enemy is being informed of him. He preys on ignorant Christians. He blinds the unsaved but he prefers the ignorant Christian. Because without even realizing it, as you think you are walking in a testimony for Christ, you may very well be playing into his hands and not really seeing the world around you as you should be seeing it. It is one vast conspiracy.

It is a game plan designed to work against us and to break us and to ruin the cause of Christ. His days are numbered, of course. He's doomed. He's whipped. And it's only a matter of time before he will end up in the place built for him called the Lake of Fire, which is reserved for the devil and called in scripture his angels, fallen angels, otherwise known as demons.

That's where he's going. I taught my sons to play chess. Should never have done that. Because now they beat me every time I play them in the game of chess. And they always have this sinister little giggle as I make another move toward my doom. And I think that might very well be the way Satan feels. Every move he makes moves him closer to the day of his doom.

But he has a ways to go before he gets there. And if he can bring you with him, nothing would delight him more. Let's look back at the verse 10 in the subject of spiritual warfare.

Let's set the stage. If you like marking your Bibles, mark the commands. Verse 10. Be strong. Verse 11.

Put on. Verse 11. Stand firm. Verse 13.

Take up. Verse 13. Resist. Verse 13. Stand firm.

Verse 14. Stand firm. I don't read fear and trembling in those commands. I don't read anywhere where the Christian needs to worry about what goes bump in the night.

I don't see anything here that's about superstition or anything related to the whole world of darkness that we are to shake when we walk through. We have nothing to fear. Our strength is in the Lord.

Please observe our stance is stronger than his. There is an urgency in these verses. There's not passivity. And there is a knowledge, as he says, to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. There's not ignorance. If you are a Christian that is in touch, then you understand you are stronger, not weaker. That there was an urgency in this conspiracy.

It isn't passive. And you are to be discerning of it and alert to it. Even when you read the day's newspaper, even when you watch the day's media. Isn't it interesting that the entertainment world has found delight in turning this subject into something funny or a horror movie or leaving us on the edge of our seats concerned about the hollow man or a half dozen others we could name. And invariably, as they put their films together, the whole mix is put together apart from biblical truth.

And you're left believing a lie. Another example of his strategy. Many of us have viewed the year behind us, 2020, as one that was flooded with spiritual warfare. Well, please stay with us because Chuck Swindoll has much more that he wants to teach us from Ephesians chapter 6 about standing firm against satanic schemes. That's coming up tomorrow and again Friday on Insight for Living.

But that's not all because Chuck has prepared some comments about 2020 that he'll share in just a moment, so please keep listening. Just before I turn over the microphone, I'd like to direct your attention to a classic book that's become a favorite in the Swindoll household at this time of the year. It's a one-of-a-kind classic volume that illustrates with paintings and stories 250 favorite Bible stories. Now, the pictures are masterpieces, and the stories are written in simple language, making this the perfect book to read with your children and grandchildren at Christmas. It's called Kregel's Treasury of Illustrated Bible Stories. Either for yourself or to give to a friend, this keepsake will elevate your understanding of the Bible. To purchase the hardcover book Kregel's Treasury of Illustrated Bible Stories, call us. If you're listening in the U.S., dial 1-800-772-8888, or go online to insight.org slash store. Chuck? In these more than 40 years of ministry that Insight for Living has been teaching the Bible, I've never witnessed a year quite like 2020.

Chances are you haven't either. This was a year defined by ginormous disruptors. The disruptors are personal disasters that derailed our plans and stole any modicum of peace we'd come to enjoy. The number one disruptor, of course, was the unnerving coronavirus. But make no mistake, the chaos cannot be isolated to a contagious flu bug alone. In addition, COVID seemed to ignite a powder keg of emotions that exploded like bombshells in our political and civil discourse.

And the end result? Our world is embroiled in a diabolical war against itself. These are serious days.

And Al, you're probably thinking, come on, Chuck, lighten up a little. I know, I know. It's not like me to paint such a dark and hopeless picture, but I would deny the obvious if I didn't acknowledge the minefield of troubling issues that litter our path today. So here's where I turn the corner. Lest we think we're trekking through uncharted territory, let's pause to remember Jesus has been down this road before. In fact, when you think back, his times were rife with crisis, just as ours are. In fact, when the baby Jesus broke onto the human stage in Bethlehem, the political climate in Rome was deep and treacherous.

Caesar Augustus was demanding a census. And Herod the Great was on a rampage of fury. And it was no accident that Jesus arrived when he did. Remember Paul's words? When the fullness of time came, God sent forth his son.

Galatians 4, 4. What he meant was Jesus arrived right on time. Ultimately, Jesus died on the cross right on time, and later walked out of the grave right on time. I believe that God has appointed Insight for Living Ministries to declare the truth about Jesus for such a time as this.

It is right on time. He is our only hope. Christ is still the one who is able to bring light when all around us is dark as night. God is still with us in this year of loss and violence, division, arguments, and pandemic. So now, as we turn the page and come to the end of this chapter called 2020, I'm asking you to join me in proclaiming the truth about Jesus with a world that's overcome with fear. Look, I'm keenly aware that many of our listening family have endured financial setbacks this year.

I realize that, and I stand with you. Some, however, are capable of giving on their behalf, above and beyond. In any case, I can assure you that your much-needed year-end gift will become a light to those who are walking in darkness. Any amount God places on your heart to give to Insight for Living Ministries will make all the difference you can imagine, and it will make a difference to those in need. Together, let's assure them of this.

You are not alone. God is still on the throne, and He's always right on time. Thanks, Chuck. Perhaps you're in a position to give on behalf of others who have come to rely on Insight for Living, just as someone once did for you. Your generosity right now will arrive at just the right time. So here's how to connect. If you're listening in the United States, call 1-800-772-8888 or go online to insight.org. Now, it may be easier for you to use the convenient Insight for Living mobile app. If that's the case, just click on the donate button and follow the simple instructions. Or if you prefer the old-fashioned way and you're listening in the United States, our phone number once again is 1-800-772-8888 or go online to insight.org. Join us again next time when we continue our series, Becoming a People of Grace, right here on Insight for Living. The preceding message, Standing Firm Against Satanic Schemes, was copyrighted in 2000, 2001, and 2009, and the sound recording was copyrighted in 2009 by Charles R. Swindoll, Inc. All rights are reserved worldwide. The publication of copyrighted material for commercial use is strictly prohibited.