Stand Against the Schemes of the Devil in an Abortion Rights State | Ephesians 6:10–20

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It is a joy to be here with you all, with my wife — thank you for welcoming us. I know some of you, not all of you; dear brother Craig just came over and hugged my neck, and it’s so good to see you, Craig. Koinos Church is a fellow sister church in the Greater Dayton Association with you all. I know your pastor, Pastor Jamie, well — we’ve spent a good bit of time fishing together in a canoe in the Boundary Waters. We’ve shared a lot of stories together, and we love your church. We think highly of your church and what you’re doing here, the ministry in Piqua, and I’m glad Pastor Jamie gave me the call to come and preach for you all this morning.

Please open your Bibles to Ephesians 6:10–20. In just a moment we’ll read the word — I’m going to ask you to stand for the reading in just a moment. This morning, the title of my sermon is “Stand Against the Schemes of the Devil in an Abortion Rights State.” This morning, the text is calling us to stand against the schemes of the devil. The grass withers, the flowers fade, but the word of God stands forever.

Please stand for the reading of the Scriptures. Ephesians 6:10: “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one, and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints, and also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly, as I ought to speak.” This is the word of the Lord. You may be seated.

The Church’s Mandate

I asked Pastor Jamie’s direction and guidance on the text and the sermon for today, and he said that a sermon focused on ending abortion in this state, in this country, in this world would be appropriate. This text calls the church, calls all believers here and everywhere in the world, to stand firm against the devil’s scheme of murdering babies. This is not a political speech. This is the word of God to God’s people everywhere.

In 2023, Ohio voters did the worst thing our state has ever done. Ohio voters made abortion a right for anyone who wishes to have one. That is worse than the COVID shutdowns, legalizing gambling, legalizing marijuana, or anything else our state has done. I say this is the worst thing our state has ever done because we have given full permission to murder unborn babies. In 2025, as a result, at least 25,000 babies were killed in the state of Ohio; nationwide, about a million. And that will happen again this year and next year and on and on, until the evil of abortion is ended. You can read it in the Ohio Constitution, Article I, Section 22 — the right is given there: every individual has a right to end their unborn baby’s life up to 21 weeks and six days.

The text of Scripture in Ephesians 6 tells the church how to live biblically faithful lives in a world of darkness that hates God and his truth. Abortion is a reality not because people hate babies — although that may be a truth — but abortion exists because people hate God. That is the reality. That is why every evil in the world exists. That is why the evil of abortion exists.

We come to this text on spiritual armor and spiritual warfare after having read through the epistle to the Ephesians. In the first chapters, 1 through 3, we are told great theological truths of the conquering Savior who has conquered our sins, risen from the dead, and is exalted in the heavens, giving life and all things to the church, putting all his enemies under his feet. He is seated at the place of authority at the right hand of God the Father, and we are told we are seated with him in the heavenly places. He is seated with all power and dominion and has a name above all names, so that all his enemies will be placed under his feet, and he is head over all things to his church.

And in chapter 2:10 we are told that believers — those born again — have been chosen by him to do good works, which he has prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. Ephesians names several good works — marriage, parenting, many instructions — good works that believers have been chosen to do, prepared beforehand for them to do. And then we come to chapter 6:10, and we’re told about spiritual warfare. You cannot mistake it — it is very clear. Every believer, every church, has been chosen by God to do the good work of standing against the schemes of the devil. That means, Christian, you have been called to stand against Satan’s schemes. And in our day, we have been called to stand against this scheme, this evil. It is not the only one, but I think it is the greatest one — it is the worst one. We are called to stand against the evil of abortion.

Again, I will say this is not a political talk — this is a sermon to the people of God. The church of God has a power that no other entity, no other body in the world possesses. It is the power of the word of God. It is the power of Jesus Christ dying on the cross, rising from the dead, returning to earth to redeem his church, to put the devil in the abyss for eternity. We have the power of Christ. We must, in that power, go to battle with the forces of darkness.

A Sleeping Church

I am not alone in thinking this — I’m sure many in this congregation believe this, and I hope all of you are engaging in this warfare. My experience, however, tells me that many Christians, many churches, are asleep — specifically asleep in addressing abortion. Many Christians, many churches, think we should not talk about the things that might upset some, that we should not talk about things that have a political flavor to them.

Dear friend, I would ask you: who is the Most High King? Who occupies the office of the highest government in the universe? In other words, who is the highest political officer in the universe? It is Jesus Christ, the reigning Lord, who has conquered Satan and sin, and we are to obey him and none other.

Charles Spurgeon was a pastor who thought so. He engaged with things that were very prevalent in the government, in the news, in politics. I want to read to you a bit of one of his sermons, given to his church in 1891, titled “War, War, War” — a time when the people of England feared their nation might go to war. He gave a text and an exposition on Ephesians 6. He said, “To be a Christian is to be a warrior. The good soldier of Jesus Christ must not expect to find ease in this world; it is a battlefield. Neither must he reckon upon the friendship of the world, for that would be enmity against God. His occupation is war. As he puts on piece by piece the armor provided for him, he may wisely say to himself: ‘This warns me of danger, this prepares me for warfare, this prophesies opposition.'” In his sermon, he charged his church not so much as to dream of winning the battle against Satan by accident, by remaining quiet, or by taking matters easily.

Faithful pastor Spurgeon, and many pastors through the centuries, have proclaimed to the people of God: we have been called, by the word of God and the power of the Spirit, to conquer Satan in this world, to lead the lost to salvation in Christ, because one day Christ will return and bring all of us home with him.

Strong in the Lord

So look at the words of verse 10: “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might.” Christian, you have been called to grow. You have been called not to weakness, not to laziness, not to comfort — you have been called to work, to grow, so that you will be strong. Strong how? Not strong physically — strong in spirit, strong in the truth.

This means we need churches like this one — churches like Piqua Baptist Church, where the pastors preach the word of God to God’s people for the strengthening of their people. I love the sermon series of this church — you’re going through 1 Kings. I looked at last Sunday’s sermon on 1 Kings 12 through 14. I love how this church preaches what happens to anyone when there is neglect of God’s word, and we see exactly what happened to the people of God in Israel. We see what happened following Solomon’s great sin. Solomon was the wisest, most blessed, wealthiest king of God’s people — God blessed him greatly — and yet, in spite of God’s blessing, King Solomon disobeyed God by embracing the many wives and the many nations and the many idols of the false gods.

And what happened to the nation of Israel? Because of Solomon’s sin, the nation became divided at the hands of Solomon’s son, Rehoboam, and Jeroboam. And what did Jeroboam do? In his great foolishness, the kingdom was divided — ten tribes versus the one tribe of Judah. Jeroboam continued to embrace idolatry and the worship of false gods, which led to civil war, a divided nation, and eventually the complete destruction of Jerusalem and the temple, and the deportation of God’s people into slavery.

What happens as a result of God’s people not standing against the schemes of the devil? Destruction. We should expect that of those who do not know God, who hate God. But we should expect of the church, of God’s people, to stand strong, to grow — because, as Peter warns in 1 Peter 5:8, there is a roaring lion, seeking to devour many. Christians should not live in this world thinking all is peace, all is ease, that there is no enemy. We believe, because the Bible tells us, evil is real. Lucifer is real. He is the one who hated God in the beginning and tried to take the throne of God and would have killed God if he were able — but he was not.

And now he is the roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. But we take great strength in the fact that Jesus is the Lion in Revelation. We are told he is the Lion of the tribe of Judah, who will return and seize the devil and bind him in a chain and cast him into the abyss. We are not weak. We do not have a weak Savior. We have a mighty God. In Genesis 49:8, Judah is the lion, and God says of him, “His hand will be on the neck of his enemy, and he will conquer his enemy.” Church, you are called to be strong, following after and obeying the Lion of the tribe of Judah. We are called to stand against Satan’s evil schemes, especially abortion.

Schemes of the Devil

But he has many schemes — abortion is not the only one. We’re called to stand against all his schemes, all of his deceptions. Every world religion, every other faith that is not obedient to the gospel, is of the devil — it is a deception. We’re to stand against all falsehood in the world, and certainly abortion must be the leading one of those.

Defeating abortion requires spiritual battle more than a political battle. We must engage it at every front, including the political battle, but it is more than that. Raising more money, getting more votes, will not be enough to defeat abortion. Abortion must be defeated by defeating Satan himself in the hearts and minds of men. What is needed is faithful, Bible-preaching churches who will teach and preach to God’s people, who will act, who will pray, who will lead, who will speak.

I want to say something to you, silver senior citizens, believers of this church. I do not mean to say that if you’re old or weak or tired, there’s nothing you can do, because you can’t stand very strong anymore. No — I think what the Bible means is that no matter how weak you may be physically, because of your age or your physical condition or your disability in some way, that does not mean you cannot stand firm. We stand firm because Christ is strong. You silver senior citizens have a power to wield against the enemy that is great — you have the power of prayer before Almighty God, calling upon him to crush the devil’s lies. I have a 90-year-old mother; she still teaches her old-lady Sunday school class at her church in West Tennessee. Those ladies pray, and I know God in heaven hears their prayers and answers them. My 91-year-old father-in-law, my wife’s father, in Atlanta, Georgia — he and his wife are praying people in their elderly years. They are praying against the evils of the devil. You pray. Church, pray.

Parents, teach your young children God’s word at home. Teach them to fear God, to follow and obey God, and to oppose evil in this world. And as your children are discipled, as the church does its work discipling its children, more and more disciples of the church are raised up in this culture who will defeat the evil of the devil. Part of the reason our nation is in the condition it’s in now, I believe, is a lack of family worship for over a hundred years. When God’s people do not obey him — not teaching their children at home for over a hundred years — what else do you expect than a culture that does not know God and does not fear him? Not only family worship, but also church discipline: over a hundred years of churches not taking sin seriously, not disciplining their own members when they disobey God. What do you expect of a culture that does that? This is what we have. Churches must return to obedience to God.

Verse 11: “Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities.” Verse 11 says stand against the schemes of the devil. What are schemes? The word means deceit, craftiness, trickery, tricks. The devil has many ways of deceiving, many ways of, in his craftiness, tricking and harming people.

You see those schemes throughout the Bible, beginning in Genesis 3, where the serpent appeared in the garden, at the tree, questioning God and his word — “Did God actually say…?” — that is a scheme of the devil. In Genesis 3:4, contradicting God, telling Adam and Eve, “You surely will not die” — God said they would die; Lucifer says they won’t. In 3:5, calling God a liar: “For God knows that when you eat of the tree you will become like him” — as if to say God is a liar. That is a scheme of the devil.

John 8:44: he is the liar and the father of lies. Revelation 12:9: he is the deceiver of the whole world. 2 Corinthians 4:4: he is the one who blinds people’s minds, preventing them from knowing the truth, taking them captive to the darkness. 2 Corinthians 11:14: he appears as an angel of light, disguising himself to lead many astray. 2 Timothy 2:26: he captures people in his deceitful schemes, darkening their minds, capturing them to do his will. And that is what the entire world does — and right now, in the state of Ohio, that is what is happening: he has captured people in his deceitful schemes to do his will.

John 8:44: Satan is a murderer — one of his schemes is murder, linked together with all his other schemes. His original aim was to kill God, and the Son of God, attempting to kill the Lord Jesus at birth, but he failed, because of course God is almighty. And Revelation 12 tells us that when he failed at killing the Son of God, he turned his attention to man, to the earth, to continue his long war against God — because he hates the glory of God and the truth of God — by attacking mankind. Read Revelation 12; it’s very eye-opening.

I believe that is exactly what is happening now through the murderous scheme of the devil of abortion. Abortion is a scheme of the devil — possibly the grossest, most widespread, deadliest of all time. First, Christians must grasp the reality that abortion is not primarily about killing babies. Although it certainly is the killing of babies, that is not Satan’s priority in itself — all murder is his scheme, his craft, aimed at bringing down God. Satan’s scheme is aimed at destroying God himself by destroying those who bear his image. This is why, in Genesis 9, the Bible prescribes the death penalty for anyone who intentionally takes the life of another person — that crime is not primarily against the person, it’s primarily against God in heaven, whose image the person bears. Christians must wage war on abortion because we must oppose Satan’s scheme to defeat God. It’s not a political matter — although politics is involved — this is a matter of worshiping and treasuring God. God does not need our defense, but he has commanded us to stand firm. It’s not because God is weak. Dear brothers and sisters, we must not be weak — we must be strong in his truth.

Roots of the Ideology

Where did this come from? Of course, it came from Satan, and he put it into the hands of men and women — women like Margaret Sanger, founder of Planned Parenthood, who aligned herself with the teachings of Karl Marx, Adolf Hitler, and other socialists who hated God and his truth and embraced the idea of eugenics. One of her board members said these words: “Let us conceive for a moment at least a world not burdened by the weight of dependent and delinquent classes — a total population of mature, intelligent, critical, and expressive men and women, instead of the ignorant, mentally passive class which now forms the barren substratum of our civilization. That would indeed produce a terrestrial paradise.”

You notice the God-hating socialists and communists always promise a paradise without God, and what they always produce is a hell without God — that’s all they produce. Margaret Sanger envisioned a world where the government owned the children and provided everything for all people. She promised a paradise but only produced death. She joined the American socialist movement. If you want to understand what’s happening right now in the world with this resurgence of socialism, trace the roots. Margaret Sanger joined the American Socialist Movement and sought to depopulate the planet, to rid the world of “subpar races” and give everyone sexual freedom. The things you’re hearing today are not new — and they were not new in Margaret Sanger’s day, either. They were new on the day of Genesis 3.

I have a question for you: what has caused the greatest number of human deaths in the history of the world? You might think, well, certainly some terrible disease did it — not even close. Then it must be war — not even close. If you add up the known wars and the deaths from those, it comes to about 570 million deaths due to war. You know how many abortions there have been? We don’t know for sure, but since 1920 — that’s when Russia legalized abortion, the first nation to do so, and others followed — it’s estimated there have been about a billion abortions. That’s twice the number of all wars we know of. The American socialist Margaret Sanger was among those leading our nation and others to do that.

What is murder? Murder is the intentional killing of an innocent person — an attack on a person who bears the image of God, and therefore an attack on the person of God himself. Therefore abortion is maybe the greatest attack ever on the image of God, and that’s why I say it is possibly the worst, grossest, most widespread evil scheme of the devil, and we are called to stand against the schemes of the devil.

Not Just Inside the Walls

But what about things outside the church? They say the church is to deal with things inside the church — Sunday school, communion, baptism, helping the poor — but the things outside the church, the church has to be hands off. You can only keep your worship and your religion inside your walls, inside your home; when you exit your door, you cannot speak. Dear friends, this is not true.

I’ll refer again to Spurgeon’s sermon, “War, War, War.” He called God’s people to fight the Lord’s battles. In his day, slavery had already ended in England, but he began preaching about slavery in the United States, where it was still legal at the time, and he called God’s people to war against the evils present in England of his day — child labor, prostitution, all kinds of evils. He called his church to action, saying: “Go down the dark alley, climb the creaking staircase, penetrate the dens of iniquity where the lion of the pit lies in his death lair, and go ye and pluck out of the mouth of the lion two legs and a piece of an ear, if that be all you can save. Count it always joy to follow the Lamb, to seize him in his den and fight him where he reigns most secure. Protest daily, by act, by word, by pen, by tongue, against evil of every kind and shape. Be as burning and shining lights in the midst of darkness, and as two-edged swords in the mouth of the host of sin. Why, a true Christian, who lives near to God and is filled with grace and is kept holy, may stand in the midst of sinners and do wonders.”

He opposed slavery in the United States, and he was invited by some wealthy people in the United States to come on a preaching tour. Do you know what happened? Do you think Charles Spurgeon, the great preacher, ever visited the United States? It never happened — he never came. You know why? Because Christians in America threatened to murder him, because he opposed the evil of slavery. Imagine that. And thank God slavery was ended.

Should the church preach and address evils outside the church walls? Spurgeon was a good example. Another is William Wilberforce in Parliament in England, who engaged in a decades-long battle against slavery as a Christian in Parliament, taking biblical truth to Parliament to end the evil of slavery. He told England that he believed God would punish England for the sin of slavery if they did not repent, even bringing down the nation. Here’s what he said: “It would be criminal to withhold the declaration that, of all the motives which press upon me to bring this subject before Parliament, that which operates on me with the greatest force is the consideration of the present state and prospects of our country — that the Almighty Creator of the universe governs the world which he has made, that the sufferings of nations are to be regarded as the punishment of national crimes, and their decline and fall as the execution of his sentence.”

Charles Spurgeon said it, William Wilberforce said it: God will punish the nations for their evils against him. And dear friend, I think this nation, this state, must take this to heart. God will punish the wicked. God will send Satan to hell along with all his servants. And church, we must stand against those evils — we must not join them.

Not Against Flesh and Blood

We wrestle against not flesh and blood. Look at verse 12: “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take the armor of God.” We do not wrestle against people — although people are involved, we seek to rescue people, but our work is against Satan himself.

“The rulers, the authorities” — those are angels and demons, Satan himself and all his followers. The authorities, those spiritual powers in high places, have been given power over this present darkness. This would include demons possessed of Satan’s power, and world leaders who serve as agents of those demons and Satan. We are to wrestle against them. The word “wrestle” means to throw your opponent down. Now, Jesus will do that literally, physically, with Lucifer and all his servants. We are not called to physical engagement — we’re called to spiritual and ideological engagement. We’re to throw down the lies of the devil with the truths of God.

How are we to do that? With the power of Christ. Hebrews 2:14 says, “Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery.” Christ died on the cross and rose from the dead to conquer sin and death. It is through his power that we do this, because he is now the enthroned Lord — he is the enthroned King on the throne of heaven. He died, he rose again, and he is enthroned now, ascended back to the Father’s side. That is where he rules and reigns. He is the conquering, reigning King, and so we resist Satan with the weapons of Christ the ruler. The weapons of our warfare are not flesh and blood, but have divine power to destroy strongholds — we destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ (2 Corinthians 10:4).

The Belt of Truth

Verse 13: we are to take up the whole armor of God. I want to point to just one piece: the belt of truth. Put on all the armor of God — but think about the truth. Be prepared with the truth in your own mind, in your own home, in your own church, and in the world. Be prepared to speak the truth and to live and act with the truth against the lies of the devil.

Such as: the unborn baby is not a human person, it’s only a blob of cells. That is a lie from the devil, because he hates God and wants to destroy God’s glory. The unborn baby bears the full image of God and must be protected, as the Constitution of the United States declares, because our founding fathers recognized that all rights come from God in heaven. This only agrees with what the Bible says. And this was said out loud, even by those who support abortion access. Bill Maher — one you can rely on to say something true every once in a while — talked about his shock at how many people who say they believe in protecting the unborn will not stand up to call abortion murder and call for the punishment of those who do it. He called this hypocrisy, and he was right. He finished that part of his monologue by saying, in effect, “Of course babies are humans, of course they are, everybody knows it” — and then said “good riddance” anyway. He’s for allowing it regardless. Christian, let me ask you: do you care? Do you care about the glory of God? Do you care about the enemy who wants to bring God himself down? Of course you do. You must.

There’s the lie that the church has no business in this fight. That’s not true. Look at the prophet Isaiah, the prophet Jeremiah — through God’s prophets, God’s word is spoken condemning the sins of God’s people and the pagan nations around them. God’s judgment will fall on all who disobey him — this nation, any nation, Great Britain, any nation. We must warn all: God’s judgment will come.

Another lie: abortion is necessary, it is healthcare, we must rescue dying mothers. The intentional killing of an innocent person is not healthcare — it is murder. Abortion is the intentional killing of an innocent person; therefore abortion is murder. I think, at the end of the day, everybody knows this. Lucifer himself knows this. Bill Maher, an atheist, knows this. You know this. And we must speak this and not budge.

Others say abortion is necessary in the case of rape. We live in a state where the death penalty has not been exercised in some years — or, well, actually that’s not quite right. The death penalty is exercised about 25,000 times a year in this state. Who’s being executed? The unborn baby, for a crime they did not commit. Think about that. We know it’s murder, and we know the death penalty must be exercised — we’re executing the wrong person. That is a horrific evil, and there are other lies.

The Gospel of Peace

This section ends with the gospel of peace, and I want to end with the gospel of peace. There is no way we can stand against the schemes of the devil unless we ourselves have acknowledged to the Lord God that we also joined forces along with Adam and Eve in the garden. They joined forces with Lucifer to stand against the glory of God. Every one of us joined forces with Lucifer as well, seeking our own will, living in our own sins to please ourselves, to disobey God — and we would all be cast into hell along with Lucifer, except that Christ died for our sins.

If you have confessed your sins to Jesus, he has forgiven you for your rebellion and your hatred of his glory, and he has saved you, forgiving your sins and making you righteous in Christ. Now eternal life is yours — you will not be cast into the abyss with Lucifer. You’ll receive eternal life. Dear friend, anyone in the room — if you have not yet confessed your sins and repented, submitting yourself to the Lord Jesus, believing the gospel and following Christ, your sins have not yet been forgiven, and you will be punished along with Lucifer. So today, dear friend, if you’re not saved, you must confess your sins. You must trust Christ. You must be saved. And if you will confess, he will save you today. Will you do that?

Let’s pray. Dear Jesus, I pray that every person in this room will submit themselves to you. If anyone in this room now is not saved, Lord, tug their heart, pull them, make them see, convict them, make them want to repent. Dear Lord God, save them. And God, I pray you would empower us, empower your church, to go and preach the gospel to all people and stand against the devil’s lies, for your glory, Jesus. We pray in your name. Amen.