The DEVIL is an old sly fox, who by insidious artifice, will “go for your throat” all the while feigning a friendship with you. We must put on the ARMOUR of God.

“Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.” [Ephesians 6:11]

Beware of the WILES of the Devil! If we are to successfully STAND against the wiles of the Devil, we must become wise to what these wiles are (which leads us to this question).

What is the meaning of this so-called archaic King James Bible word: WILES?  It is not an ARCHAIC word, my friend! It actually is a very precision up-to-date term used by the Spirit of God!  These wiles are tricks performed for some stratagem. These wiles are meant to ensnare its intended victim.

The Devil does not play by the rules. Every method is legal to “the rulers of the darkness of this world” in this spiritual war to subdue the believer in Jesus Christ, and make him of non-effect. The DEVIL is an old sly fox, who by insidious artifice, will “go for your throat” all the while feigning a friendship with you. That is how Satan works! That is how he operates!

He will do anything to beguile you. He will do anything to fool you. He will do anything to deceive you. This means he will lie to you. While you are here sojourning in this old world, he doesn’t want to see you amount to anything in life, (not even so much as a plug nickel) for the LORD Jesus Christ. We wants to see you sitting on the shelf, collecting dust, and totally UNUSED. He wants you to be the salt … that has lost its flavor.

Our leader in this war is our CAPTAIN. “And, behold, God himself is with us for our captain …” [2 Chronicles 13:12a]. Our God is Jesus … WHO is our CAPTAIN! “For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings.” [Hebrews 2:10]

We have our orders … from our captain! God wants the believer in His Son to be conformed to the image of his Son. “For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be firstborn among many brethren.” [Romans 8:29]

If you are in Christ, my friend, then you and I are beholding the glory of the Lord, … and are being CHANGED or CONFORMED to Christ’s image! Amen! “But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.” [2 Corinthians 3:18]  Our ORDERS, therefore … are these.

Number One!
We are not to be CONFORMED to this world. “And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” [Romans 12:2] We need to PROVE all things. We need to TRY all “the spirits whether they are of God.” (I John 4:1)

Here is a principle: “The Bible-believing Christian needs to determine the spirit of the age in a particular matter, and with deliberate action, strike out in the opposite direction in that particular matter!”

Number Two!
We are not to love the world, nor the things of this world. “Love not the world, neither the things of this world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” [1 John 2:15] 

Why are we not to love this world? Why does the Spirit of God state so clearly that the Bible believer is not to love this world system? In John seventeen we see why; Jesus is praying to the Father (in verse 14). “I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.”

In verse 16, Jesus says it again: “They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.”  Then whose world is this? Who owns the world system? The Bible has this answer: The “god of this world” is the Devil. “In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.” [2 Corinthians 4:4] It is sad to see so many who profess Christ as their Lord and Savior kissing it up with the world.

The Apostle Paul by the Holy Ghost said this of Demas. “For Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world, and is departed unto Thessalonica.” [2 Timothy 4:10a]  Remember, brethren, Jesus died for our sins to deliver us from this present evil world. “Who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father.” (Galatians 1:4) Before the moment we got saved by the BLOOD, we already had wasted enough time “running” according to the “course of this world.” [Ephesians 2:2] [1 Peter 4:1-4]

We need to come out of it (separate) yet not altogether “out of it”, so we can WITNESS to those who belong to it. “I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil.” [John 17:15]

Number Three!
We are not to be friends with this world. “Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.” [James 4:4] (I am not stating this of myself. I am giving you this straight down the line.)

We are just sojourners, and are just said to be passing through … as pilgrims … on pilgrimage to their holy city. “And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.” (Revelation 21:2) “For here we have no continuing city.” [Hebrews 13:14]

We cannot afford to be secretly seeking friendship with this world system. An old preacher once said this “Reject anything and everything that makes you indisposed to press on the narrow way. Treat it as a mortal enemy!”

So we must fight!

Next: Wrestling With The Devil