Ephesians 6:13-16
“…put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.” (Ephesians 6:13-16)
Today let us consider four lies of the devil, and God’s great weapons for overcoming. We come to God, in our confusion, in our helplessness and he delivers us out of the power of darkness and transfers us into the kingdom of His dear Son. Hallelujah! Out of the power, the control, the god of this world, out of the power of darkness. That’s where Satan’s power is, it’s in moral darkness. But God has transferred me into the Kingdom of his dear Son, into light and freedom. I was blind and Jesus touched my eye and struck my chains and set me free. Christ announced his program and his purpose to be in the world was that he had come to give light to those who sit in darkness, to open the eyes of the blind and to set the captive free. There’s a social dimension of that. There’s a political dimension to it in the last day when Christ returned. Can Christians be deceived? Can Christians be bound by Satan? Fooled by his tricks? Remember Paul’s great war cry in Ephesians 6!
There are those among us who today who are blind or bound. This is the trick of the enemy. There are many lies that he gives to Christians, I’ll just mention four. The first lie is this. “This isn’t a sin.” We have a fancy name for it. We call it rationalization. For example, Christians who say that divorce is not a sin because their spouse is not a Christian. And the Bible clearly teaches the person is not a Christian, is a spiritual adulterer or adulteress, and therefore they are free to be divorced and remarried. One man said, “Listen, God is on the side of happiness, and I’ve been miserable for 22 years.” That’s a lie. He is stuck in his chains. Criticism. There are people who are not safe from the mouths of other people – friends, teachers. Why? Criticism. “Well, if it’s true. It’s OK,” and with this, criticism gets a stronghold on us.
What about the lie of materialism? What Satan has done is to con us into thinking that things are important, that things matter. That happiness can be found in things, that a man’s life consists in his things.
Certainly, God wants to deliver you. He wants to shake the bonds; he wants to set you free. Not your personality. And Satan’s classic word in the garden of Eden where he says. “No, no, Eve, it is far from being a sin. It looks good. It tastes good. It makes you so smart. It makes you free?” That’s the first laugh. “This isn’t a sin.” And we rationalize this. Maybe, maybe not. But it doesn’t matter.
Here is the second lie to us: “ It’s an insignificant thing.” Little deceptions, cheating on a term paper by not giving credit to the original source or lie – just little white lies about why I did something, a good reason instead of the true reason. Cheating on that girl’s future husband, or your own future spouse by doing things together. Or looking at things that are lustful. It doesn’t matter. It’s such a little thing.
The third lie is “I can’t help it.” You say you see? Therefore, you’re doubly blind, says the Lord Jesus. Now here is the theological, Christian cop-out on this Christian view; “All sins, past, present and future have been forgiven.” True. So that “you never need be guilty, never feel sorry, never repent, never ask God to forgive you.” Oh my friend. It flies in the face of the whole teaching of the New Testament. Get the truth – to sin deliberately is to shame Christ openly and to treat his death as if it were nothing. That sin of mine nailed him to the cross and if I can say that it doesn’t matter, it’s to put him to shame before my brothers and before the world. There is deliverance.
The final lie is the opposite that takes us to the other extreme. “Total victory is possible now.” This is Satan’s final last-ditch deception and goes to the other extreme. Paul said, “For I am not yet perfect.” John says at the end when he was 90 plus years old, “If we claim to be sinless, we are self-deceived.” No, not perfection. To say total victory is possible, these are Satan’s lies.
Let us end our time with God’s great weapons to overcome the blinding and binding:
- Overcame him by the blood of the Lamb. Revelation 4:11- The death of Christ Jesus overcame your enemy. Jesus did it. Son of God destroyed the works of the devil. Jesus crushed the head of the enemy. We have confidence in and commitment to Jesus Christ.
- Name of Jesus. Jesus is given a name supreme over every name. Authority, power and salvation is given to Him, there is no other name. He proclaims release to the captives. Freedom from that besetting sin is found in the united prayer of faith and the power of God.
- Word of God. (John 8) If you abide in my Word, you will be my disciples and know the Word.… you shall be set free!
- Church of Jesus Christ. I will build my church. The gates of hell will not be able to overcome the church. We will stand together – responsibly stand together.