Biblical Illustrator - Ephesians 6:11 - 6:11

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Biblical Illustrator - Ephesians 6:11 - 6:11


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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:

Eph_6:11

Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.



God’s armoury

There stands on the banks of the Thames a grim old fortress, well known to all as the Tower of London. In that fortress, with its memories of Roman and Norman, of Plantagenet, Tudor, and Stuart, there is a wonderful collection of weapons and armour. As you look on those relies of bygone ages, you seem to be reading chapters from the History of England. One suit of mail recalls the rush of the Normans up the hill at Hastings, and the bloody fight at Senlac. Yonder mighty two-handed sword brings back the meeting of stern barons at Runnymead, and the signing of the great Charter. There are arms which tell of Crecy, and Poitiers, where men fled before the sable armour of the Black Prince. There, two, are weapons which remind us of the fatal wars of the Roses, the awful slaughter at Flodden, and the fight at Bosworth, where a crown was lost and won. There are gorgeous trappings which take us back to the field of the Cloth of Gold; and sturdy breastplates which bore the stroke of Cavalier sword, and Puritan pike, at Naseby and Marston Moor. But I would take you into a different armoury today, where the weapons and armour tell of yet fiercer battles, and yet more brilliant victories; where we may not only look on the armour of others, but may choose some for ourselves. This armoury is God’s, and it recalls the history of His Church militant here on earth, the battles and the triumphs of the soldiers of the Cross. O grand and glorious armoury of God! Let us enter there and choose our weapons. But, first, be sure that you have a battle to fight. There are too many of us who like the name of Christian without its responsibility. These desire to be soldiers of Christ, but not on active service. The battle may be fiercer sometimes than at others, but to the end we must be fighting. Never forget that the true service of Jesus in the world means hardness, means watchfulness, means self-denial, means, above all things, fighting.. Come then, today, into the armoury, and choose your weapons; ask Jesus to give you the whole armour of God. Cast away any untried, worthless armour, in which you have been trusting. Say with David, “I cannot go with these, for I have not proved them.” Are you trusting to your respectability? The keen arrows of temptation will pierce right through it, and wound your soul! then the good name in which you trusted will be dishonoured and disgraced. What breastplate are you wearing? Self-righteousness? You have never committed grievous sin, you say, you are not like some of your neighbours. There is the grievous sin at once, the belief that you are better than other people. The devil will strike through that breastplate as easily as through one of paper. “Let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall.” O man of the world, walking among the worldly wise, whose wisdom is not of God, gird on your armour. See that you have the breastplate of righteousness, of right dealing. Let the weapons of the false, and the knavish, and the unjust, strike there and be blunted. See that the girdle of truth is not loosened, and feel that you dare not tell a lie. O brothers and sisters, who are sorely tempted in one way or another, be among those who fight. When David was once going to battle he had no sword, and they showed him that with which he had smitten off the head of the giant. Then said David, “There is none like that, give it me.” You have such a sword, and you can trust to it. Do you remember that prayer with which you conquered that giant temptation, that impure thought, that angry passion, that wrong deed? Try it again. Say, “There is none like that, give it me.” And, finally, have on your right hand, as a gauntlet, a firm determination, a fixed resolution to hold fast to that which is right, and by God’s help to go on to the end. (H. J. Wilmot-Buxton, M. A.)



The Christian armour



I. Explain the nature of the Christian armour.

1. It is armour for every part, except the back, which is provided with no defence, to show that the Christian is never to quit the field, but to face his enemies.

2. The armour is of every sort, offensive and defensive, both to protect the Christian, and to annoy his enemies.

3. It is armour that has been proved.

4. This armour is spiritual, and is intended only for spiritual purposes. It is called “the armour of light,” in allusion perhaps to the bright and glittering army of the Romans, and to show that it is for ornament as well as for defence. It is also “armour of righteousness,” designed only for righteous persons and righteous purposes; it cannot therefore be rendered subservient to acts of violence and oppression. It is provided by a righteous God, and His righteous word is the rule for using it (Rom_13:12; 2Co_6:7).

5. It is called “the armour of God,” to denote its transcendent excellency and usefulness, and that it is provided by His special grace.



II.
Consider the necessity of putting on the whole armour of God.

1. We are in a state of warfare, exposed to innumerable enemies: and if not called to fight, we should not need to be armed.

2. We are naturally unprepared for this contest, having no means of defence, and therefore need to put on the armour of God. We must be equipped from God’s armoury, for no weapon of our own will be able to defend us.

3. Putting on this armour implies that we see our need of it, and that we use it for the purposes intended. Though we are not saved for our endeavours, yet neither can we be saved without them. We cannot exert ourselves too much in this warfare, nor depend upon our exertions too little.

4. The spiritual armour is not designed for show, like weapons that are hung up in some houses, but for use, and therefore it must be put on.

5. We must be careful to take to ourselves the “whole” armour of God, for a part of it will not avail. Such is the variety of Satan’s temptations and the world’s allurements that the whole of it is but sufficient for our defence; and should any part be left unguarded, a mortal wound might be inflicted. He is also mightier than we are, and we are no match for him, unless we put on the whole armour of God, and place our trust in His holy name. (B. Beddome, M. A.)



The Christian warfare



I. The danger to which we are exposed. As in other cases, so in this: our greatest danger lies in not feeling our danger, and so not being prepared to meet it.

1. View the enemy we have to contend with. He bears an inveterate hatred against us, and seeks nothing less than our destruction and eternal overthrow.

2.
He is mightier than we are; and, unless we have help from above, we are no match for him.

3.
An artful enemy.

4.
Invisible.

5.
Near us.

6.
What is worse, he has a strong party within us.

7.
On the issue of this warfare depend all our hopes.



II.
The armour provided for us.

1. In general, this armour is the grace of the gospel.

2.
A whole or perfect armour, sufficient to defend us in every part.

3.
The use to be made of it is that we may be able to withstand and face the enemy.



III.
The necessity of putting on this armour, or taking it to ourselves. Armour is of no avail, unless it be used.



IV.
The inducement to do this. That we may “withstand in the evil day,” etc. (Theological Sketchbook.)



The means of standing sure

1.Christians are soldiers. Our life is a warfare. The Church here is militant. God has thus disposed our state on earth for weighty reasons.

(1) The more to manifest His pity, power, providence, and truth in keeping promise. The straits whereunto in this world we are brought, the promises which God has made to deliver us, and the many deliverances which we have, show that God pities us in our distresses, that He is provident and careful for our good, and wise in disposing evil to good; that He is able to deliver us, and faithful in doing it.

(2)
To make proof of the gifts He bestows on His children. A soldier’s valour is not known but in war.

(3)
To wean them the better from this world.

2. The graces of God’s Spirit are for safeguard and defence.

(1) Those who want them must seek them.

(2)
Those who have them must use them.

3. The Christian’s armour is the armour of God.

(1) It is made of God, even in heaven.

(2)
It is prescribed of God, even in His Word.

(3)
It is given of God, even by His Spirit.

(4)
It is agreeable to God, even to His will.

4. It is spiritual armour; therefore suitable for defence against spiritual foes.

5. It is a complete armour, every way sufficient.

(1) Sufficient to defend us in every part.

(2)
Sufficient to keep off and thrust back every assault and every dart of our spiritual enemies.

6. Christians ought to be well furnished always, and well prepared with the graces of God’s Spirit. They must ever have them in readiness at hand to use them, and make proof of them. As armour rusting by the wall side, as fire smothered with ashes, as money cankering in chests, so are the graces of God’s Spirit if they be not employed. Though in themselves they be never so excellent, yet to us and others they are fruitless and unprofitable, without a right use of them.

7. The power of every sanctifying grace must be manifest in the life of a Christian.

8. God’s assistance and man’s endeavour are joined together. Without God’s mighty power man can do nothing; unless man put on the whole armour of God, God will do nothing. (William Gouge.)



The end and benefit of Christian armour

1.There is no hope, no possibility of remaining safe, without spiritual armour.

2. They who put on the armour of God, and use it as they ought, are safe and sure, and so may be secure.

3. Those who are without armour can have no hope to stand.

(1) Without this armour we are naked, and lie open to every dart and shot of our spiritual enemies; and are no more able to free ourselves from the power of the devil than a poor silly lamb or kid from a roaring lion or ravenous bear.

(2) By neglecting to use this armour provided of God, we provoke God to east us into the power of our enemies, and to give them power over us.

4. Those who use their armour are sure to stand. (William Gouge.)



The spiritual warfare

That such a war subsists, and is carrying on, is told us in the text, wherein the armour of God and the wiles of the devil are set in opposition the one to the other. Christ invades Satan’s kingdom, arming His servants; and Satan leaves no art untried to maintain his dominion, and restrain the progress of the conqueror.



I.
Of the occasion of the war. This was partly the success of Satan upon our first parents; and partly God’s jealousy for His honour, and His pity for fallen man.



II.
The designs of the one and the other. Satan has lost nothing of the pride, rage, and malice of an apostate spirit, therefore he cannot cease sinning. His revenge and rebellion against God are implacable; however much he trembles before the Son of God, yet he will not submit to Him; his proud malice is nothing abated; he roars against the government of God, seeking whom he may devour. Ceaselessly he labours to defeat the kingdom of the Redeemer, and to set up his own against it.



III.
Where is the seat of action? In our hearts. There the devil has a natural right, and thence Christ would dispossess him. Satan, by the Fall, both ruined the original purity of man’s nature, and also introduced a sad defilement into both the parts of us, soul and body; rendering the one proud, and the other carnal. To destroy this work of the devil, restoring to us the image of God, taking away our pride, and spiritualizing our affections, is Christ’s business.



IV.
Let us consider the manner of the fight. The weapons of Satan are carnal; those of Christ, spiritual. Those of Satan are worldly things, whereby he endeavours to gratify pride, or to nurse indulgence. Jesus, on the other hand, comes with the word of truth, and the power of the Spirit.



V.
The issue of this war, on the one part and the other. This will be the triumph of the Redeemer, and the confusion of the adversary. (S. Walker, B. A.)



Christ versus Satan



I. We are to consider the method of Christ’s assault upon the kingdom: of satan in the heart of a sinner, in order to gain him out of the enemy’s hand; and also the wiles which the devil uses to disappoint the Redeemer’s attempt and to keep the sinner in his service. While I am opening this point, it will be evidently seen how the devil wars at all disadvantage; that he must set up falsehood against truth, and temporal against eternal motives; that he cannot foretell the issue of one step he takes, while all his steps are plainly seen and foreseen, in all their consequences, by the Redeemer; that while Satan hath not the least power or strength to oppose one motion of His, He can easily turn all the counsels of Satan back upon himself; in a word, that in respect of Jesus, Satan is a poor, blind, weak, insignificant enemy. What, then, gives him so much success? It is neither his power, vigilance, nor cunning; what are these in respect of the might care, and wisdom of the Redeemer? No, sinners, it is your wilfulness; it is this alone gives him advantage. Now, that I may plainly set before you the method of Christ’s attack upon Satan in the heart of a sinner, and Satan’s devices to disappoint the success of it, you must be shown the state wherein Christ finds the sinner; His methods with him; and Satan’s counterplot to defeat them.

1. The state wherein Christ finds the sinner. In sin--committing sin, an enemy to God, godliness, and godly men.

2. The methods Christ uses with the heart of the sinner, in order to dispossess Satan of his dominion over it. The Spirit working by the Word, and impressing the various motives which the Word contains effectually upon the heart.

3. Satan’s wiles to disappoint the convictions which the Redeemer, by the Word and Spirit, has made upon the heart of a sinner.

(1) He may try to catch away the word of conviction by exciting presumption. If the constitution be warm, and a man is naturally bold and hardy (not as many others are, apt to fear in any great undertaking), when the Spirit hath begun to awaken the soul, by the terrors of the Lord, to a strong desire of fleeing from the wrath to come, the work of religion will, of course, seem not so difficult a thing as it is spoken of. Satan, then, will correspond with these views. The sinner shall seem to himself as if he had already overcome.

(2) Another sort of awakened sinners may be as continually fearful, as these we have been speaking of are bold and hardy. When such are awakened, the enemy, most likely, will be working with them to make them discouraged, and to harass them with fears, till they yield. With these he magnifies everything, and swells up mole hills to mountains in their apprehension.

(3) If the enemy cannot prevail by means of presumption or fear, he will endeavour, by the pleasures or cares of the world, to catch away the impression which Christ has made upon the sinner’s heart by the Word and Spirit. These are his subtle devices against the soul of a sinner. When there are some stirrings of infelt concern about the judgment and wrath to come, the devil knows how to make advantage of worldly pleasure and care, upon those whom he hath held in subjection by the love of the one or the other. He can plead that pleasure is harmless, and care is needful, till, by the entertainment of the one, and solicitude of the other, the gracious conviction is done away.

(4) The last wile of the devil to keep the awakened sinner for his service, is an attempt to detain him from the throne of grace.



II.
I am now, in the second place, more directly with the design of the text, to describe to you the wiles of the devil against Christ in the persons of believers, whereby he endeavours to shake their constancy, and to render them disserviceable to the cause wherein they are engaged; and likewise the armour Christ hath prepared for their defence, as well as for making them fit to serve successfully under Him against the kingdom of darkness. Satan hath many wiles for those who believe, and are gone over to Jesus; if He cannot draw them back he will harass them, lay bars in their way, try to render them less fruitful, and less serviceable to the kingdom of Jesus Christ. In order to resist them we must put on--

1. Truth, or sincerity.

2.
Righteousness; that is, the practice of all holiness.

3.
The preparation of the gospel, or firmness, readiness, and constancy in all cases.

4.
Faith, namely, in the promises of God in Christ. This must be put on above, or over all, because faith preserves all other graces.

5.
The hope of salvation.

6.
The Word of God.

7.
Prayer.

8.
Watchfulness.

9.
Supplication for all saints.

Then the Christian is prepared for all the wiles of the devil. All these he must put on, not one excepted, because one and another of these things can only preserve us from this and that wile wherewith the devil will beset us. (S. Walker, B. A.)



The Christian armour

1. A call to arms. Religious life is sometimes called “peace in believing.” But let us not forget that there is nowhere in this world any peace which has not been wrought out in stubborn conflict, which is not now the achievement of valiant service for the truth. The soldiers of the cross do not enlist to go at once into the hospital, or sit around the door of a sutler’s tent. It is to be feared that too much stress is laid upon the emotional and experimental part of piety in this easy day of ours. Too many young princes go off into dangerous Zulu-land for curious inquiry or mere love of adventure. There was (so we are told) once an English poet, who took position in a lofty tower that he might see a real battle. He seems to have had great prosperity, for the world has not yet done praising his versified description of the rushing onset, the tumult, and the carnage, “by Iser rolling rapidly.” Now, nobody need hope to become acquainted with the solemn realities of life by merely gazing out upon it from a protected belfry, as Campbell did on Hohenlinden field. We cannot make a poem out of it. There are awful certainties of exposure, and necessities of attack, which disdain figures and rhythms of mere music. And, moreover, we are combatants, not spectators; we are in the onset, and the shock is at hand. “There is no discharge in that war.”

2. It is best to avoid all confusion at once, and ascertain who are our adversaries; specially, who leads on the host. Here the apostle speaks clearly, if only people would listen: “Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.” “Two kingdoms,” said Ignatius Loyola, “divide the world; the kingdom of Emmanuel, and the kingdom of Satan.” This the whole Bible admits; but nowhere can there be found even so much as one text which intimates that Christ and the devil are on equal terms. Satan is a created being; he had a maker, and he now has a ruler. He wages at present only a permitted warfare for a limited season. His onsets are well called “wiles,” for he shuns open fields, and deals best in ambuscades and secret plots. There is awful force in the expression, “the devil and his angels”; for it shows us Satan is not alone in his work. He is the prince fiend of a fiendish clan. I have somewhere seen a picture on which was represented a human soul in its hour of conflict. It was as if the invisible world had for a moment been made visible by the rare skill of the artist. There, around the tried and anxious man, these emissaries of Satan were gathered. Dim, ethereal forms luridly shone out on every side. One might see the tempting offer of a crown over his head; but he would have to examine, quite closely before he could discover how each braided bar of gold in the diadem was twined in so as to conceal a lurking fiend in the folds. Then there was just visible a serpent with demoniac eyes coiled in the bottom of the goblet from which he was invited to drink. Foul whispers were plying either ear. There were baleful fires of lust in the glances of those who sought his companionship. A beautiful angel drew nigh; but a skeleton of death could be traced beneath the white robes he had stolen. I cannot say it was a welcome picture; but certainly there was a lesson in it. Among the noisy critics who gaily pronounced on its characteristics, I noticed there was one thoughtful man who turned aside and wept. Perhaps he knew what it meant.

3. Is there no defence against all this? Surely, every Christian remembers the armour which Paul catalogues in detail: “Wherefore, take unto you,” etc. (C. S. Robinson, D. D.)



An exhortation and an argument

The words contain an exhortation enforced by an argument.



I.
The argument--“That ye may,” etc. In handling the argument we will consider--The devil is one who strikes through another by slander, or false accusation. Concerning this being, observe--

1. He is very miserable.

2.
He was once happy.

3.
Sin has made him miserable.

4.
He is very powerful, malicious, and vigilant.

5.
In his person and agency, generally, invisible.

6.
He has many associates.

Wiles--the arts used by a commander to take advantage of his enemy. These consist--

1. In assuming false characters.

2.
In suiting himself to the age, temper, connections, and circumstances of the tempted.

3.
In choosing the proper instruments to effect his purposes.

4.
In giving false names to good and evil. Zeal to persecution.

5.
In causing divisions in the Church.

6.
In hiding that from us what only can do us good. Ability to stand against them.

This implies--

1. Knowledge of them (2Co_2:11).

2.
Power to oppose them.



II.
The exhortation--“Put on,” etc.

Reflections:



I.
A Christian soldier is a wonderful object. In relation to his enemies--and his defence.



II.
How pleasing is our prevailing infidelity to Satan.



III.
The experience of believers proves the truth of the text. (H. J. Foster.)



The Christian warfare

St. Paul was a born warrior. Most of us are what we are by ordination of circumstance. Here and there one is what he is by ordination of nature. It was Paul’s genius to be belligerent, and his life would have been an epic, lived anywhere. Even in Eden he would have done what his great ancestor neglected to do, stood against the wiles of the devil. “His life,” Martineau says, “was a battle, from which in intervals of the good fight his words arose as songs of victory.” It was the supreme feat of the gospel to convert such a man. He is the superlative trophy of the Christian Church. Paul is the miracle of Christianity, one of those incontestible evidences of Christianity that leaves the mind satisfied. It was more to make Saul over into Paul than it was to make water over into wine. Power that could do the former would be at no less to do the latter. The martial quality of this old Napoleon of the cross betrays itself in what he does and in the way he does it, and in every bend and turn of life. The record of his moving hitherward and thitherward reads like the chronicles of an Alexander. He dared difficulties like Hannibal, and grasped details with the omniscience and omnipresence of the first emperor. His visits were invasions, his letters war dispatches, and his whole life campaign. It is noticeable how easily and habitually his thought drops into forms of the camp. “He is the only man I know of,” said Cassaubon, “who wrote not with fingers, pen, and ink, but with his very heart, passion, and bare nerves.” That is Paul, the Napoleon of the cross, the mailed and helmeted belligerent of the gospel of peace. And this martial impulse, I say, is everywhere in his letters incessantly declaring itself. It is in our text, “Put on the whole armour of God.” And the whole ensuing passage is in the same vein. Truth is to be the girdle, righteousness the breastplate, the preparation of the gospel of peace the sandals, faith the shield, salvation the helmet, and the Word of God the sword. There is no beauty in Paul’s eye, but war is in his eye and everything he sees becomes the reflection of his eye, takes the colour of his thought. And now it is precisely this war spirit of Paul that helps to explain his eminence in the apostolic Church. When God chose Paul (“He is a chosen vessel unto Me,” said God)--when God chose Paul, He chose him with regard to the work to be done, and with regard to Paul’s fitness to do it. He chose the Hebrews to be His people instead of the Chinese or East Indians, because there was something in the Hebrews that was apt to His purpose. His choice of Paul was an apt choice, because Paul was an apt man, and he went on in a way to adapt Paul, because Paul was already natively adaptable. And one element of his aptness was his combativeness. A fighting Church, a Church militant, belligerent, could be humanly championed by nothing less than a fighting apostle, an apostle militant, belligerent. St. John had visions of the Church triumphant, and was, in his temper and spirit, a kind of representation and prophecy of the Church triumphant. St. Paul stands for the Church of the present, the Church upon the field, the Church in armour, and the apostle of the armed spirit is fitly the historic champion of the Church in armour. And we shall gain in many ways by contemplating Christian service under Paul’s aspect and imagery. Christianity is in its very nature and intent a crusade. Ours is a gospel of peace, but it is anything but a peaceful gospel, and the more scripturally it is put the more it betrays its animosity toward everything that in spirit contradicts the gospel; as the brighter the light, the more it differs from darkness, and the greater and swifter the inroad that it makes into darkness. Christianity is in its nature belligerent, and the peace of the gospel comes only as the fruitage of battle, and as the aftermath of victory. “What communion hath light with darkness?” asked Paul. Between sanctity and sin there is deadly enmity, which will disappear only with the extermination of one or the other of the belligerents. The moral tranquillization of the world is obtainable by no policy of compromise. Diplomacy has no role to play here. “Put on the whole armour of God.” The call is for soldiers, not diplomats, for regiments, not embassies. The victory is to be fought out, not negotiated. Of course there is courtesy in war as well as elsewhere. There is a consideration due to men as such, be they wicked or otherwise, but there is no consideration due to wickedness. Wickedness has to be handled without gloves, and designated without euphemisms. The act and the actor have to be discriminated. The two lie a little apart from each other in God’s thought. Said the Psalmist to Jehovah, “Thou wast a God that forgavest them, though Thou tookest vengeance of their inventions.” Courtesy toward a wicked man is Christian; courtesy toward wickedness is poltroonery and perhaps diabolism. All such irresoluteness postpones victory, not wins it. Sooner or later the whole matter has got to be determined by the arbitrament of the sword. There are instances in which there is no evading Waterloo. The competition, of good and evil is such an instance. We may domesticate sin, and array it in terms of elegant Latinity, but sooner or later that same sin will have to be proscribed without mercy and hunted down as an outlaw. We will treat with all the beautiful tenderness of the gospel men and women that are knavish, yes, that are adulterous, but we must remember that honesty and dishonesty, purity and uncleanness, are in implacable feud, and that either righteousness or sin has got to go under before there can be peace on the earth. We want, then, the courage of our convictions to enable us to name things according to their true character, to state things as they are, to deal with things as they are, and heroically to refuse all quarter to everything that declines to be led captive into subjection to Christ. As soldiers of the Lord we want large bestowment of sanctified stubbornness. My friend, there are only two sides to this controversy, the side of Christ and the side of antichrist. You cannot be on both sides. “No man can serve two masters,” said Christ. On which one of the two sides are you? If you are not promoting godliness, you are hindering it. If you are not building up Christianity, you are breaking it down. “He that is not with Me is against Me.” (C. H. Parkhurst, D. D.)



Scope and function of a Christian life

This is a general view of the scope and function of a Christian life. You will observe that, as here represented, a Christian is not the inheritance of a quiet possession. We enter upon a campaign. You will take notice, also, that this is a conflict which is to be waged, not by physical arms. “We wrestle not against flesh and blood”--the meaning of which is, that it is not a physical quality--“but against principalities, and spiritual wickedness in high places”--the very highest places in human governments. We war not, therefore, by sword, or by spear, but we put on the armour of God--reason, conscience, purity, courage, and faith. And these qualities, not as they are developed under the inspiration of ordinary human life, but as they are derived from the Spirit of God itself--these are the weapons with which we enter into the war. And it is, as I understand it, the comprehensive teaching here--or the recognition, if not the special teaching--that when we become Christians, we enter upon that great, worldwide, time-long battle, in which the moral sentiments of the race are arrayed against the passions. And the question is, who shall control the vast machinery of this world? Shall it be controlled by appetites, by avarice, by selfishness in its varied forms? Or shall the vast machineries of the world be inspired and controlled by men’s higher reason and their moral sentiments? That is the real battle in the most comprehensive statement of it. And we have entered into that conflict just as soon as we have entered into the service of the Lord Jesus Christ. This whole world is to be reorganized. It is the aim of Christianity to reorganize the globe, and to deduce laws, maxims, policies, and principles from the moral Sentiments. In other words, it will yet be shown that every element of human life, individual, social, and civil, can be better pursued by the inspiration of religious feeling than by the inspiration of sordid, secular feeling. Truth will be proved to be better than deceit, always, and in all circumstances. Honour will be proved to be better than infidelity to obligations, and always. The day is coming when God, the supernal good, who organized the world that it might serve Him in virtue and true piety, will make it appear to all the earth and to all the universe that He is on the side of rectitude, on the side of purity, and that providence and natural law, and, just as much national law, and social and commercial law, and industrial law, are on the side of the moral sentiments, and not on the side of the passions and the appetites. There is now a supreme incredulity in this. Though, practically, men do not, perhaps, reason upon it, there is an almost universal impression that, while men are in this world, and performing their duties, they must be as brick makers are--that they must work in dirt; and that, when they have got, through working in dirt, then they must clean up and go to church. Men think, “As long as I am in the world and doing business, I must perform my business according to the way of the world; and then, when I have got through with the necessary sacrifice to the world, I must wash up and go to church, and be a Christian.” The first step in the working plan of this great campaign into which we are called--namely, of regenerating, reforming, recasting the world--is the reformation of individual character, until the supreme forces of it shall be moral forces. Do you not see that half the evils in society come from physical conditions? Do you not see that if society were more honourable, more just in its organizations, a great deal of that which you call sin would disappear of itself, that it is but the friction caused by the working of the machinery? But the question comes back, “How are you going to reorganize society?” It is assumed, in the Word of God, that the indispensable condition of any reformation in the organization of society is to proceed upon the primary conversion of the individual heart. Therefore it is that the gospel, when it declares that “the field is the world,” and when it undertakes the conversion of the world, so that human society shall act upon the highest conceivable reason and moral sentiment in its operations, says, “Preach the gospel to every creature.” And it is for this simple reason that the force by which we are to organize society is to be the force of the regenerated individual. Our battle is not accomplished in our own salvation. We are God’s soldiers to transform this world. The mere technical spread of the gospel is itself a great gain, but it is only the beginning of the work. The gospel is spread, so far as its technical spread is concerned, into continents, but the gospel is to spread in another way. It is to go down into society, as well as to lie upon the surface of it. As a creed, it is to lie in the disposition, and transform the processes of it. And the very first step that a man takes when he becomes a Christian, after the regeneration of his heart, is to carry those regenerating forces straight along with him. Wherever he goes, that light is to shine; and it is to shine on business, to shine on love, on pleasure, on wealth, on honours, on everything. Wherever he goes, he is to carry the transforming power of the Spirit of God, so that he shall do his part as one of the soldiers of the Lord’s host.

1. Men are called by religion to a personal reformation, and then to the reformation of the whole world in which they live. You are to carry Christ’s spirit into every relation of life, and to become a witness, and a martyr, if need be, in it. A little child, beginning to love Christ, and desiring to witness for Christ, comes home to its unconverted parents, and to brothers and sisters that are wilful and wayward, and seeks there to carry out the law of love. Its temper, quite infirm, is often lost. Alas, that of all the things that we lose, nothing is found so certainly again as our temper! The little child comes home, and its temper is often disturbed, often stirred up; and still, it means to be a witness for Christ. And it says in its little heart, “I do love Christ; and I mean that everything I do shall please Him.” It has read, “In honour preferring one another”; and it attempts, in the household, to prefer the happiness of its brothers and sisters. It refuses to join in the little deceits that belong to them. It refuses to conceal, when questioned, their little peculations. It comes to spiteful grief in consequence. And the little child is not old enough to know anything about the great laws of society and the great laws of nature. Just converted, it is undertaking to live so that the best part of itself shall govern itself; and then it is undertaking so that, in its little companionships, the best part of it shall all the time rule in its conduct. Now, no child can undertake that without having the epitome of the experience of every Christian in the whole world.

2. Religion must not be selfish--not even if it be the selfishness of the highest quality. We have no right to be Christians simply on the ground that we shall save our souls. We shall save our souls; but to come into religion as a mere soul insurance is selfishness. We have no right to go into religion merely because we should thus gain joy. The man that enters into religion must follow God. And what thought He, when He took the crown, every beam of which was brighter than the shining of a thousand suns, and laid it by? What thought He when, disrobing Himself of power, taste, and faculty, He bowed His head, and, trailing through the sky, became a man, and as a man humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross? The most odious and reputation-blasting death that man’s ingenuity had developed--all this had combined at the centre point of the cross, as the sign and symbol of degradation; and that was the death that He chose, that He might identify Himself with men, and not be ashamed to call them brethren. “I am going to follow the meek and lowly Jesus by cutting my acquaintance with the vulgar cares of the dirty world. I am going to be a select Christian, and seclude myself from these things.” Can you, and be a follower of Christ? Religion means work. Religion means work in a dirty world. Religion means peril--blows given, but blows taken as well. Religion means transformation. The world is to be cleaned by somebody; and you are not called of God if you are ashamed to scour and scrub. I believe that the day is yet to come when all the machineries of society will be controlled by truth, by purity, by sublime duty. I call you to be soldiers in that great warfare that is to bring to pass this victory. (H. W. Beecher.)



Satan and his warfare



I. The character of the great adversary. St. Paul here calls him the devil. He is also spoken of in other parts of the Bible as Abaddon, Beelzebub, Belial, the Dragon, the Evil One, the Angel of the Bottomless Pit, the Prince of this World, the Prince of the Power of the Air, Satan, Apollyon, and the God of this World. Although fallen beings, they, like the Angels of Light, “still excel in strength” (Psa_103:20), and are far “greater in power and might” (2Pe_2:11) than any of the sons of men.



II.
The nature of his devices. Having once been pure and holy, the lost Archangel realizes the greatness of his fall; and grief, anger, and revenge, all combine to render him the bitter enemy of everything good. Hence, all his arts are directed to one end, viz., to draw us away from God, and to accomplish our ruin. And very wonderful and successful is the mode of his warfare. Acting upon the rule of expediency, he never begins his assaults by a direct contradiction of the truth, but by a qualified admission of its claims, he seems to agree with his victim, while he is only making ready to come down upon him in an unguarded quarter. It might reasonably be supposed that one who ventured to make war in heaven is a skilful and experienced leader, whose craft and boldness would render him a dangerous enemy upon earth. “The wiles of the Devil” are marked by all those characteristics which prove him to be a most treacherous and deadly foe. His forces are scattered over the world, busy in executing his commands, and all our weaknesses are spied out, and the corresponding enticements presented. Naturalists report that when the chameleon stretches itself on the grass to catch flies and grasshoppers, it assumes a green colour to prevent detection; and that the polypus changes himself into the sombre hue of the rock, under which he lurks, that the fish may come within his reach without suspicion of danger. And thus the devil, in spreading his net for unwary Christians, turns himself into the shape which they least suspect, and allures them with temptations most agreeable to their natures.



III.
The means by which his dangerous wiles may be withstood. Our strength is perfect weakness; but the good and gracious Lord is ready to “open His armoury” (Jer_1:25) and equip those who acknowledge their helplessness and seek for His sustaining grace. This armour is given for use, and if we expect any benefit from it we must not delay to “put it on.” (J. N. Norton, D. D.)



The Christian’s “impedimenta”

The Romans were accustomed to call the baggage with which their army was encumbered “impedimenta,” hindrances, because the transportation of this baggage retarded their progress; so although the Evil One cannot destroy the soldier of the army of salvation, he can annoy, him, and cast about him so many discouragements as greatly to cripple his energies and impede his upward progress. These toils of the devil are the “impedimenta” of the spiritual hosts, by which the believer is led to halt, to turn aside from his onward course, to slumber at his post, and give way to discouragements, until he is far from accomplishing the high attainments which were within his reach, and at last is called away from the scene of his warfare with many of his glorious aspirations unfulfilled, with sad regrets over so much of the work of life to be left undone. Alas! the wiles of the devil! (J. Leyburn, D. D.)



That sin is more crafty than violent

But think ye for awhile what the ungodly man’s life is! I can only compare it to that famous diabolical invention of the Inquisition of ancient times. ‘They had as a fatal punishment for heretics, what they called the “Virgin’s Kiss.” There stood in a long corridor the image of the Virgin. She outstretched her arms to receive her heretic child; she looked fair, and her dress was adorned with gold and tinsel, but as soon as the poor victim came into her arms the machinery within began to work, and the arms closed and pressed the wretch closer and closer to her bosom, which was set with knives, and daggers, and lancets, and razors, and everything that could cut and tear him, till he was ground to pieces in the horrible embrace; and such is the ungodly man’s life. It standeth like a fair virgin, and with witching smile it seems to say, “Come to my bosom, no place so warm and blissful as this”; and then anon it begins to fold its arms of habit about the sinner, and he sins again and again, brings misery into his body, perhaps, if he fall into some form of sin, stings his soul, makes his thoughts a case of knives to torture him, and grinds him to powder beneath the force of his own iniquities. (C. H. Spurgeon.)



Successful wrestling

Imitate yon ancient wrestler, who, laying aside his robes and ornaments, and all the bravery of his attire, steps naked into the arena--limbs and body shining with slippery oil; closing with an antagonist, whose hands, slipping on the unctuous limbs, catch no firm hold, he heaves him up to hurl in the dust, and bear off the palm--honour won, less by his power than by his wise precaution. If prevention is better than cure, precaution is better than power; therefore ought a good man ever to watch and pray that he enter not in temptation; his prayer, that which our Lord has taught us, “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” (T. Guthrie, D. D.)



Resistance ensures victory

You know how John Bunyan represents poor Feeble-mind in the cave of Giant Slaygood. The giant had picked him up on the road, and taken him home to devour him at his leisure; but poor Feeble-mind said he had one comfort, for he had heard that the giant could never pick the bones of any man who was brought there against his will. Ah! and so it is. If there be a man who has fallen into sin, but still his heart crieth out against the sin; if he be saying, “Lord, I am in captivity to it; I am under bondage to it; O that I could be free from it!” then sin has not dominion over him, nor shall it destroy him, but he shall be set free ere long. (C. H. Spurgeon.)



“The wiles of the devil”

Colonel Stewart, with Gordon, was for months besieged in Khartoum--then taking ten vessels from that place he bombarded Berber and dispersed all the rebels. Nine of the vessels had returned in safety; Stewart, having remained behind to inspect, was returning in the tenth, with some forty men on board, when the vessel ran on a rock. Some of the enemy, under the guise of friendship, then offered to conduct them safely across the desert. Stewart was deceived, and trusted himself to them; but as soon as they landed the whole party was massacred to a man.