Standing Firm against Satanic Schemes, Part 3

When we think about our spiritual enemy, the devil, working overtime toward our demise, it's downright frightening. Paul said our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the spiritual forces of wickedness.

So how do we maintain a healthy measure of fear while infusing our trepidation with confidence? How do we keep from becoming the latest victim of Satan's attacks? Today on Insight for Living, Chuck Swindoll teaches from Ephesians chapter 6. In this calming passage, Paul explains how to win the battle.

Chuck titled today's message, Standing Firm Against Satanic Schemes. The strength in the warfare is in the Lord, and the protection is in his armor, and with it, with them both, we stand against the schemes of the devil. Could you put on a three by five card two or three of his schemes?

Could you fill out that answer for the quiz today? Name two or three of the schemes that he regularly uses, and get specific and say he uses these on his own. The third thing I want to say, after saying that our strength is in the Lord and our protection is in his armor, is that our strategy is based on a knowledge of his schemes. Working from another angle altogether, he is brilliant. He is cunning. He knows what it takes.

And he is relentlessly at it. Back to Ephesians 6, 12, our struggle is not against flesh and blood. See the word struggle?

It comes from a verb, palo, which means to sway, S-W-A-Y, to sway. But this word is not about swaying, it's about wrestling. In fact, that's the better rendering. Our wrestling is not against flesh and blood. First, you've already turned me off. This is too raw for you. This is too ugly. I haven't been nearly vile enough. This is the most vicious, murderous, lie-filled, contemptuous, insidious struggle you can even imagine. He dances with glee.

Just keep thinking like that. It's not a place to bring him into that kind of world. The scene I will now portray for you in verse 12 is a scene of terrible truth in the enemy territory. Set forth here like no other place, and it is here the chilling expose of the enemy is brought to your attention. He is called one who works with the rulers, the powers, the world forces, and the spiritual forces of wickedness.

Look at him. All four right there in verse 12. This is what I call the spiritual mafia. This is the spiritual mafia. They're the cosmocrats.

Cosmic, supernatural, unseen, insidious, at work, relentless, vile. They are there. The top guns are called the rulers. Some have made this passage walk on all fours and divided into those that govern continents and those that govern countries and those that govern states and those that govern people. It's a nice thought.

I just don't see it here, so we won't go there. I do say that there's some sense of order. It's certainly arranged because of the word ruler could be rendered first place, those who are in first place. So these are the top guns of the mafia. And then there are the exousia group called the powers. These are the influential ones who control, perhaps control the group that they're over as well as control sections of our world.

Don't know. Against the world forces of this darkness. Listen to the Greek word cosmocrotteros. That's why I called them cosmocrats. These are cosmocrats. You can't see them.

You can't measure them. You don't hear them. But they are here by the multiple millions. And then there are those spiritual forces of wickedness, vast and powerful in the organized hierarchy of satanic activity. The mafia.

Think of the mafia. They're there, but we don't know it. We can't see them usually. They're constantly at work against the good and wholesome.

They're difficult to identify, even for the trained. They're hard to nail down and bring to trial. They are well organized and powerful and consistent and effective. They are committed to disrupting whatever is wholesome and good. They oppress by intimidation. They are diabolical to the core.

We know all of that. And to exacerbate it with the demons, their evil is only intensified because they work under the authority of ultimate evil who is brilliant and appealing and experienced and far reaching and determined. No remorse, no morals. He feeds on pain, anguish, and filth. Therefore, verse 13, take up the full armor of God so that you will be able to resist. In the evil day, that's now. It isn't coming.

It's now. Anybody ever known a more evil time? Not if you're thinking straight.

Not if you're thinking straight. Ever known a time when more wrong is called right and those who stand for right are called strange and lose their jobs because they're not politically correct in their language? It's all part of the system that is increasingly having its way as the god of this world. More and more following him without a struggle. Take up. Resist. Stand firm. And though this world with devil's fill should threaten to undo us, wrote Luther, we will not fear.

For God hath willed his truth to triumph through us. The prince of darkness grim, we tremble not for him. His rage we can't endure. Lo, his doom is sure. One little word shall fell him.

Did you know that? The Lord Jesus Christ, the blood of the Savior will move him away. It will resist him. I have never seen him penetrate the blood or the statement of the Lord Jesus Christ, nor will you ever. It's a power he cannot fight against.

But without it, you are absolutely at his mercy. John Stott writes, wobbly Christians who have no firm foothold in Christ are in easy prey for the devil. And Christians who shake like reeds and rushes cannot resist the wind when the principalities and powers begin to blow. I'm calling today for Christians to stand firm in the things of God and not to run scared because of what we see about us or portrayed in front of us. So with that in mind, I have four concluding principles to stand on. One for each of the four verses we've looked at.

Here's the first. No satanic assault is stronger than the Lord our God. No satanic assault is stronger than the Lord our God.

If you go to sleep tonight afraid, you've missed the message. This is not about being afraid. This is about standing strong. You can only do that in Christ. If you're without Christ, you're blind.

And that's why we appeal to you at the close of every service we hold. So when I'm saying for the first time in your life and finding a power greater than the one that's been controlling you, no satanic assault is stronger than the Lord our God. In his strength, we're safe.

Here's the second. No satanic scheme can penetrate the armor of God. You put it on, you're protected. No satanic scheme can penetrate the armor of God clothed in his armor, we're safe and sure.. satanic mafia can defeat the work of God. I want to pause there. No satanic mafia can defeat the work of God.

I want to talk to you straight. We're a new church. We're a brand new baby church and we just keep multiplying. We just keep getting bigger.

We can't hurry up our getting older, but we're getting larger. And as a result, we on the staff are feeling an increased intensity in spiritual warfare. We're not afraid of it. We're just aware of it. There is a growing sense of impatience on the part of some of you in the flock, and I understand that.

I'm not pleased with it, but I understand how you can feel that way. Whether it's a complaint in the parking lot or a complaint over some correspondence or a complaint about how something was or was not handled, I understand. But the tendency is to think in the midst of all of this that the enemy is in here, but he isn't. I remember old Hickory's words when two Confederate soldiers were having a fistfight in the chow line.

He grabbed them both with a collar and he said, gentlemen, the enemy is over there. What are you doing slugging each other? Please, please be patient. Please help us in the process of growth. Please pray for us. Without asking for pity here, let me just say we're all doing the best we can to just keep up. If you have trouble understanding what that's like, let me just tell the ladies, imagine having four sets of twins in about 40 months.

Would that work? And then be blessed with a set of triplets nine months later. By then you've moved your husband way out on the patio and on a romantic night once again you're there and you have quadruplets for a final session of romance.

It's delightful until you have to feed them, rear them, clothe them, bathe them, burp them, and love them. That's where we are folks. Lighten up.

Lighten up. We're all a part of the body. We're all learning how to do this together. I should have added to that story of all the twins and triplets, you don't even have your own home.

You got a two-bedroom apartment and the neighbors are complaining. We can handle the waves that come and the winds and the oppression if we pull with each other. We're building a ship while we're at sea. We're still building it, taking on water on one end and we're pumping the water out of the other. We're just trying to keep afloat and steering it in the right direction.

Back to the principle, did you remember it? No satanic mafia can defeat the work of God. We will be attacked, but he won't defeat us.

Here's the fourth and final. No satanic evil can withstand the prayers of God's people. No satanic evil can withstand the prayers of God's people. Let me tell you from experience, there is nothing like prayer in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, claiming the blood of the cross to resist the enemy. Pray for one another by name. Pray for protection, direction, peace, because it will be the prayers of God's people that will withstand the enemy.

True story. Os Guinness, the Christian author, went to England to give a lecture series at Essex University. He was being introduced to the audience and moments before he was about to speak, he looked and noticed a young woman sitting in the front row.

What caught his attention was that the young woman had the most peculiar expression on her face, a look of fierce anguish. Recalling a warning he had received that anti-Christian protesters might attempt to disrupt his lecture series, Guinness paused to pray that God would bless the meeting and restrain Satan so that God's message would go forth with power. Then Guinness stepped to the lectern and proceeded to give his talk.

The lecture proceeded without interruption and was enthusiastically received. After his talk, the young man, the young woman with the strange expression, walked up to him. She was angry and baffled. How did you do that, she demanded.

How did I do what? What sort of spell did you cast on me to keep me in my seat, she asked. You knew I'd been sent here by the witch's coven to protest your talk, didn't you? And you put some kind of spell on me to keep me silent. The only spell I used, Guinness replied gently, was to pray in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

A few weeks later, Guinness was back in America. A Christian lady asked him how his Essex lecture series had gone. The reason I asked, she explained, is that at the same time you were about to begin your lecture in England, I was suddenly overcome by an impression of you're standing on a platform and a woman seated in the audience near you. I had a sense that a battle was going on between the two of you, a spiritual battle between the power of God and the power of Satan, and I immediately went to my knees and prayed for you and for the woman in the audience. When you stepped into the Christian life, you didn't step onto a playground, you stepped into a battleground.

You'll never leave it, and it'll never get easier. Let's take this seriously, especially as we grow a new church. Let's take this seriously. Bow your heads, please. Assuming that most of you have met the Lord, I would say to you here in this room and to those in overflow rooms, it's probable that a few of you have never come to Christ. You've been living in the, if you will, in the lap of the evil one and not even knowing it, not even knowing it. You've been running his errands, carrying out his mission, playing right into his hands.

He's had your mind, and he's appealed to it in a number of different attractive ways. Today's the day to stop it. Regardless of your age or church affiliation or even lack of church involvement, I offer you today the victorious risen Christ as Savior and Lord. You're surrounded by believers in Christ, and this is your moment to join ranks on the victory side, where you will win in the end. You will have power to get you to that place of ultimate victory. Simple prayer, Lord, I know I'm a sinner, and I know I'm lost, and I need your son to become the God and guide of my life, and I take him now. I believe he died for me, and I place my trust in him alone by faith alone today.

Thank you for coming into my life. Now, Lord, I know that spiritual forces of wickedness worked against everybody's coming to this place today in a hundred different ways, but they're here, and they've heard. I also know the enemy, being insidious as he is, will try to convince us otherwise of what we've heard and hold us back from what we will hear next time about the armor. I pray that we will resist through the power of the Lord Jesus Christ and the blood of the cross all alluring temptations to hold us away from the truth, and help us, our Father, in the growing of a church to be protected from enemy attacks and from the carnal reactions of those who walk in the flesh. May we be people of God in heart, in motive, and action, and in prayer.

Keep us on our knees, Lord, especially through this week, for we ask it in the name of Christ, our victorious Lord, in his name alone, and all of his people said, amen. A very personal message delivered to the congregation in Frisco, Texas, where Chuck Swindoll serves as senior pastor. He titled his message, Standing Firm Against Satanic Schemes, and this is Insight for Living.

To learn more about this ministry, visit us online at insightworld.org. Right before we hear a personal illustration from Chuck, I'd like to remind you that Insight for Living Ministries has curated a wide variety of books and resources that are especially meaningful over the holidays. For instance, I'll draw your attention to an illustrated keepsake called, Kregel's Treasury of Illustrated Bible Stories. Many times we remember the stereotypical depictions of Bible stories from our Sunday school days, but this book is designed to engage every member of the family in these historic events, and to ignite imagination and curiosity. It's a collection of masterpiece paintings, each one paired with a favorite story. To purchase the hardcover book called, Kregel's Treasury of Illustrated Bible Stories, go to insight.org slash store, or call one of our friendly staff members.

If you're listening in the U.S., dial 1-800-772-8888. A long time ago, when our oldest children were still babies, Cynthia and I were living in the Northeast. Cynthia, whose father had been violently dysfunctional, was sinking into a pit of depression. She had seen one counselor after another, she had taken medications that doctors now know are in fact dangerous.

They didn't know that then. Everything we tried made things worse. We felt so alone. Behind our home was an alley.

One night as Cynthia slept soundly, and the babies as well, I went out for a late-night walk all alone. I got about halfway down that dark alley and I just stopped. I looked up and I cried out, help me Lord, I don't know what to do.

Please help me. I'm running out of hope. Have you ever been there?

Are you there right now? If 2020 has knocked you to your knees, you understand better than most. So listen to my next words closely. God is in that long, dark alley. He's not oblivious. He's not absent. He cares.

And best of all, He is working. In that alley, I couldn't fathom how we were going to make it through the next week to say nothing of the next year. How could the Lord set Cynthia free from such depression? I had no idea. I had no understanding that He would one day use her testimony to help others battling with the same darkness. Many years ago, Insight for Living Ministries wasn't even a dream.

It wasn't even a blip on the screen. I had no idea the Lord would take my calling to preach and build a wonderful ministry under the leadership of my wonderful wife who pulled out of that depression beautifully. Having suffered through such dark days, she became a woman of strength and grit with a heart set on reaching all the nations. We had no clue, but God did. Our God is the God of impossibilities.

Believe that. He's the one who brings light. When everything around us is night, when all hope is lost, He brings back hope.

Christmas demonstrates that truth so well because in that first Christmas, God set His Son as Immanuel. The word means God with us. God is still with us in this year of loss and violence, division and pandemic. God is with us in our own long, dark alleys. In 2020, God is still weaving His sovereign tapestry to accomplish His divine will. Don't overlook Him. Whatever dark valley you're adoring, Jesus is still Immanuel. God is still sovereign.

He is able to carry out His plan when we can't see it. This Christmas, would you please join Insight for Living Ministries in proclaiming this calming reassurance worldwide? You can do so by sending your generous donation before December 31.

Would you do that? Your much-needed gift will bring light to others who this very day are stumbling through a dark alley of fear, disappointment, discouragement, and depression. They need to know, as Moses said to the Israelites in their moments of terror, do not be afraid. Do not panic, for the Lord your God will personally go ahead of you. He will neither fail you nor abandon you. I'm counting on you for your gift. Thanks very much. And here's how to respond to Chuck Swindoll right now. To give a donation today, just call us. If you're listening in the United States, dial 1-800-772-8888, or give by going online to insight.org. And then starting with the next program, we'll be placing our study in Ephesians on hold in order to begin a brand new sequence of holiday messages.

And then we'll come back to our study in Ephesians after the new year. And while you have a little extra time this weekend, we encourage you to set your alarm on Sunday morning to join us online. You're invited to take a front row seat in the worship center at Stonebriar Community Church. Thousands are taking advantage of this weekend worship experience, not only as they hear Chuck's Bible teaching, but the majestic music as well. You'll find all the instructions at insight.org slash Sundays.

Join us again Monday as we begin a brand new series designed to prepare us for Christmas 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. Duplication of copyrighted material for commercial use is strictly prohibited.