WILES OF THE DEVIL – PART THREE
Monday – April 10, 2017
Greetings in the name of our Lord and Savior Christ Jesus. If He is not your Lord and Savior make that right now. Hell is really hot and lasts forever, on the other hand the Kingdom of God and Heaven are wonderful beyond our expectations and imaginations forever. The picture is of me when I graduated Medical School in 1980, where have the years and the youth gone?
I will now continue with our Bible Study from the book of Ephesians chapter six.
Ephesians 6:10-13 (KJV)
10 Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.
11 Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
13 Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.
As you know we have come to the study of the whole armour of God. In preparation for diving into that study I have been spending time on the idea “of God” and last week I started reviewing the sins that the devil will encourage us to indulge. I do realize I have been down through these issues primarily from the preceding chapter, Ephesians chapter five. This is so vital that we have these sins, rebellions against God firmly in our thinking as “wiles of the devil” and to think of them on both a spiritual and physical level. There is no physical sin committed that was not first committed spiritually. The spiritual commission of crime (sin – rebellion) in the Kingdom of God takes place in our thought life first. I strongly encourage those of you who have not read (studied) my book “Temptation – The Battle for our Thoughts” to get it today. My books are not designed for casual reading or entertainment, they are designed for serious study resulting in a changed life.
Last week I left off our study in the following verse. I talked about fornication and uncleanness.
Ephesians 5:3 (KJV)
3 But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints;
The most important aspect of the sin of fornication is not the physical sexual acts between two persons who are not married to each other but the thought processes and beliefs that precede the act. When our thoughts followed by our words and actions leave the Word of God we are separating from Him, in rebellion against Him, and in fornication, adultery, and playing the harlot with a much lesser god.
I talked about uncleanness and its association with sexual perversions like homosexuality. It is also associated with deviance from the moral standards of God. Let’s take a look at what The Complete Word Study Dictionary – New Testament has to say about uncleanness (edited by author). To be unclean, uncleanness or filth in a natural or physical sense, moral uncleanness, lewdness, incontinence in general, avarice, any kind of uncleanness different from whoredom, any unnatural pollution, whether acted out by oneself or another (sexual perversion). Synonyms: defilement; dirt, filth, obscenity, impurity; moral defilement, defilement, lasciviousness, wantonness, contamination, uncleanness, foulness, pollution, stain, blemish defect, spot, stigma, mark scar.
Antonyms: pureness, purity, cleanliness, purity, cleansing, cleanness, or purification.
Can you see how poor housekeeping and a poorly kept yard, really all that we have stewardship over, is uncleanness and an abhorrence to God? What might the housekeeping stewardship standards be in Heaven? When we deviate from God’s moral standards, whose moral standards are we adopting?
Now I will move on to covetousness from our secondary text. Covetous people may be known as ‘money grubbers’ or ‘greedy persons’. Let’s take a look at what the Strong’s Talking Greek & Hebrew Dictionary has to say about covetousness. Being covetous is associated with avarice (greed, materialism) even being fraudulent, extortion, greediness, holding (desiring) more, i.e. eager for gain (avaricious, hence a defrauder) (edited by this author).
According to The Complete Word Study Dictionary of The New Testament covetousness is associated with hoarding. Hoarding is materialism and fear of not having enough. By a function of our will we must overcome the desire to skip this kind of material thinking it is boring or does not involve us. Praise God if it doesn’t truly involve any of us but it was apparently common in the Church at Ephesus. Is your Church or mine somehow more pure, are we viewing these folks as poor backward people?
The Complete Word Study Dictionary – New Testament defines covetousness as greediness, love of money to hoard away, avarice, connected with extortioners, covetous thoughts, plans of fraud and extortion, and the longing of the creature which has forsaken God to fill itself with the lower objects of nature.
Synonyms are desire, and lust.
Antonyms are self-sufficiency, and contentedness.
(Edited by this author)
Do we believe we are sufficiently supplied and are content or are we focused on obtaining more? There are many if not all of us that God wants us to have more. The question is; are we focused on God and the furtherance of the Kingdom of God or on obtaining more natural things?
Matthew 6:33 (KJV)
33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
By: Dr. David Wood, Author, Bible Teacher, and Prophetic Voice
I have recently published two books. First was the book titled “Temptation – The Battle for our Thoughts”. Perhaps this book will shed new light on this topic of temptation in ways you have not imagined. Second is the book titled “And God Said – The Creator’s Provision”. This book illuminates the will of God from the beginning for them and for us. These books are available at Amazon Books.
