Grace Bible Church
Pastor Teacher
Robert R. McLaughlin
Sunday, July 21, 2013
The schemes of the devil is Satan attacking both the grace of God and the judicial decisions of God.
A nominative singular subject in the Greek made up of two words: the first is the definite article “he” and the second is the noun “pale” which means warfare or wrestling, not struggling as we know it but warfare.
The definite article identifies this as “the warfare” or “the spiritual warfare” and the good fight of faith which we are called to fight and to endure.
1TI 1:18, This command I entrust to you, Timothy, my son, in accordance with the prophecies previously made concerning you, that by them you may fight the good fight,
2TI 4:7, I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith;
The definite article also distinguishes this spiritual warfare from all other types of
combat life.
This word pale also means to be stuck together which is decided when the victor is able to hold his opponent down with his hand upon his neck and it is sticky because it is gluey.
The demon TOE (Table of Organization and Equipment), which is made up of four different categories.
The fantastic power and authority that Satan has and the vital reason why we are given a greater power from God, 1JO 4:4.
God the Holy Spirit has seen fit to give us a list of Satan’s TOE, Satan’s military table of organization and equipment.
Some of your warfare will be with human beings but even so, if you use the problem solving devices and the virtue that comes from divine righteousness, you can turn the curse into a blessing.
The word against is pros, meaning that the enemy which we are face to face with is about to be defined.
Each category of the demon table of organization (TOE) is introduced with this preposition pros plus the definite article tas to tell us what we are really against.
Each one of these prepositional phrases implies the idea of disadvantage, opposition, and a hostile relationship.
1. “the rulers” = the highest ranking demons in Satan’s organization, such as Abaddon or Apollyon and Beelzubul or Beelzebub.
2. “the powers” = refers to demon officers who have phenomenal authority.
They are extremely well-trained and under one of the greatest systems of leadership and organizations that has ever existed among creatures.
1CO 14:40, “But let all things be done properly and in an orderly manner.”
Because Satan is so well organized it is extremely important that we are as well or he will take advantage of our sloppiness and disorganization.
3. “the world forces of this darkness” = the world rulers which refers to Satan’s demon ambassadors who control many of the rulers of this world.
4. “the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places” = spiritual forces of evil in the atmosphere around the earth, the stellar u
niverse and even in the presence of God to represent Satan.
The definite article called the word “the” identifies this as “the warfare” or “the spiritual warfare” and the good fight of faith which we are called to fight and to endure.
This doesn’t mean that we have physical contact with the devil and his demons, it is simply showing the closeness of the battle.
When you consider that the loser in the Greek wrestling contest had his eyes gouged out with resulting blindness for the rest of his life…we can form some conclusion as to what happens in spiritual warfare when believers fail.
Emotional revolt of the soul.
Blackout of the soul.
Scar tissue of the soul.
“is not” is the pres-act-ind of the verb eimi which is estin and with this we have the negative ouk which means that our warfare keeps on being not against flesh and blood.
One of the easiest ways for a believer to fail in spiritual warfare is to get their eyes on flesh and blood or people.