Acts 13, our scripture reading. I'd like to begin reading at verse 2. Just pick up two verses. Hear God's word. As they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, Now separate to me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them. Then having fasted and prayed and laid hands on them, they sent them away. So being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia, and from there they sailed to Cyprus. And when they arrived at Salamis, they preached the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews. They also had John as their assistant. Now, when they had gone through the island of Paphos, the island to Paphos, they found a certain sorcerer, a false prophet, a Jew whose name was Bargeses, who was with the proconsul Sergius Paulus, an intelligent man. This man called for Barnabas and Saul and sought to hear the word of God. But Elymas, the sorcerer, for so his name was translated, withstood them, seeking to turn the proconsul away from the faith. Then Saul, who also is called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intently at him and said, O fool of all deceit and all fraud, you son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, will you not cease perverting the straight ways of the Lord? And now indeed the hand of the Lord is upon you, and you shall be blind, not seeing the sun for a time. And immediately a dark mist fell on him, and he went around seeking someone to lead him by the hand. Then the procouncil believed when he saw what had been done, being astonished at the teaching of the Lord. May the Lord be gracious and merciful to us according to his word. Heavenly Father, please open your word to us in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, throughout his ministry, throughout Paul's ministry, he faced enormous opposition and relentless attacks, as he describes in a couple of places in his letters, one to the Corinthians. But he recognized that the humans who opposed him were moved by an invisible power that was operating behind the scenes. And thus he told the Ephesians in Ephesians 6, for we do not wrestle against flesh and blood. He recognized he wasn't dealing just with people. That the world that he was dealing in encompassed more than just the visible. That it extended to invisible. enemies, for we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. spiritual hosts often is a reference to spiritual beings, the angels. In this case, the fallen angels. These are the hosts of wickedness. So these fallen angels are the demons and the unclean spirits that Scripture speaks about. So Paul recognized that what he was battling was not merely flesh and blood. In fact, he says it isn't flesh and blood. That what he was battling was an invisible enemy. spiritual hosts of wickedness in heavenly places, principalities and powers. That's the battle that he was waging. And so we'd like to look this morning at two things, this attack of Satan, this Satan-opposed ministry, and secondly, Paul's or the Holy Spirit's ministry against this attack. So this, first of all, this Satan's attack, this invisible enemy that is attacking Saul's ministry, opposing his ministry. Satan's attack is strategic. We see that here in a couple different ways. He focuses on the centers of power and on the foundations of the faith. The centers of power and the foundations of the faith. He attacks where the gospel is being proclaimed. And he attacks most fiercely where the gospel is most powerfully and effectively. being proclaimed. He attacks where the greatest advances are being made in the kingdom of God. He attacks, we said, the foundations of the faith. He attacks the scriptures directly because they are the power of God unto salvation. And this attack today is seen in the corruption of the text of the Word of God. This field is dominated by scholars who bring unbelieving assumptions about the text to their work and to the process of the preparation of the text of Scripture, especially the New Testament. And the damage is not so much in the passages that have been altered or in some cases removed, Those appear to be somewhat superficial, but the attack really, the danger really is in the development of the mindset that we no longer have the infallible text of God's word. The creation of some doubt as to what the word of God is. See, he can attack the word without ever directly appearing to attack the word. Because having raised this doubt about the scriptures, it's much easier then to attack the doctrines themselves. And in a strategic fashion, as he attacks the centers of power, he attacks the three institutions through which Christ rules. The family, the church, and the state. we see that in the family, he attacks the authority of the home. And he seeks to prevent the ability of fathers to command their children and their households after them. God said of Abraham in Genesis 18, I have known him in order that he may command his children and his household after him, that they may keep the way of the Lord to do righteousness and justice, and that the Lord, Jehovah, may bring to Abraham what he has spoken to him. You see, CPS and government schools are the two principal agencies through which this attack on the family is carried out. The former attempts to intimidate parents from exercising godly discipline and the latter seek to directly undermine the credibility of parents and indoctrinate children against their parents and contrary to their parents' beliefs. That's a direct attack on this institution through which Christ reigns. This ability to pass on to our children the faith, to train them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. in addition to corrupting the Word through false doctrines or undermining trust in the Word of God and trust that we have the Word of God, he attacks the Church by making it a creation of the civil government instead of a separate institution that exists alongside of and in parity with the civil government. The Scriptures speak most frequently of civil rulers being moved by Satan or his demonic princess. Because Satan, in his strategic attack on the church, seeks those centers of power, and one of those great centers of power is the civil magistrate. And so they are frequently spoken of as being moved by Satan. In Isaiah 14, Satan is identified as the power behind the king in Babylon. And in Ezekiel 28, he's identified as the power behind the king of Tyre. And then Daniel 10, an angelic messenger who's sent to Daniel because Daniel has been engaged in prayer and fasting. He's sent to Daniel, he identifies or speaks about battling the prince of Persia, the demon, the demonic power behind the king of Persia who was moving him. Even David, King David, the sweet psalmist of Israel, the man after God's own heart, even David was moved by Satan at one point to number the people. And Peter, the apostle, before Christ died, was moved by Satan to attempt to persuade Jesus not to go to the cross. See, this was Satan working, moving people and seeking to attack Christ through that. And so Paul tells us in Ephesians 6, after telling us that we are not engaged in a physical battle here, primarily against flesh and blood, but we're engaged in a spiritual battle against demonic hosts, fallen angels in heaven. He says we have to take on, therefore, because that's the case, we have to take the whole armor of God that we may be able to withstand in the evil day. Because the weapons of this warfare, remember, are not carnal, but mighty in God. And so Paul tells us that we have to stand having our waist girded with the truth. The truth. Our waist girded with the truth. We have to be filled with the truth. It has to be, fill our mind. It has to be that on which we meditate. That which we know and understand. Having put on the breastplate of righteousness. The breastplate of righteousness is what protects us from the wounding of sin. Having our feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. This is the foundation on which we stand. This is what gives us sure footing. Taking the shield of faith with which you are able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one and the helmet of salvation. And he says the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. And then praying always with all prayer and supplication. So this armor works through prayer. And without prayer, it's ineffective. then he asks for prayer for himself, that utterance may be given to him that he might open his mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel, as he does in in this text. And so with this introduction into St. John's strategic attack upon the church and upon the family and upon the state, upon those institutions through which Christ rules. Let's look at his attack specifically upon Paul's ministry in this text. The first thing we see is that he uses people. He uses people. He can use ordinary people, but he uses flesh and blood people. In this account, Saul encounters a ruler, Sergius Paulus. Sergius wants to hear the gospel, but a man named Elemus seeks to prevent. Sergius from hearing the gospel. Elemus, we're told, is a sorcerer. That means he used demonic power to know things or to make things happen in the physical world. He used demonic power to gain knowledge or to make things happen in the physical world. When Moses and Aaron turned their rod into a snake, Pharaoh's sorcerers, you remember, were able to duplicate that sign and turn their rods into a snake as well. Pharaoh called the wise men and the sorcerers, and so the magicians of Egypt did exactly the same as Aaron did with their enchantments. But God forbids using demonic power to do things or to learn things. Deuteronomy 18 is one of these passages where God says, there shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or daughter pass through fire. That's human sacrifice. In case you think that's just limited to that day, it's common today. There are people who have testified today, living today, who have testified to being parts of, in this country, human sacrifices. In fact, there was a, in 1933, I believe, a Kabbalic celebration in Soldier Field in Chicago. The stadium holds 100,000 people or something. They had a ceremony and they had this God, this idol in this ceremony. This is in America. back when people suppose it was the good days in America. They had this huge idol set up with a great fire inside it, and a baby was thrown into that fire. Now, they probably wanted people to think that this was just an image, but I wonder, who knows what was in that? And given the testimonies that we have today, I wonder if that wasn't an actual baby in there. But God says, you shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or daughter pass through fire, or one who practices witchcraft, or a soothsayer, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, somebody who uses demonic power to make things happen in the physical world. Sorcery was a capital crime. Exodus 22 says, you shall not permit a sorceress to live. That's God's standard because it's that serious of a matter. The problem with the so-called Salem witch trials was not that people were seeking to obey God and put sorcerers to death. The problem was that they departed from other commandments in scripture regarding the standards by which facts were to be determined. But here were people who were seeking to be obedient to this command, that sorcerers were not to live. Just like we put murderers to death because God says those who take a life should be executed. Whoever sheds man's blood, by man his blood shall be shed. God also says that those who practice sorceries, we are not to permit or allow to continue living. So Elemas is a sorcerer. He's also a Jew and he's also a false prophet. So he presents this threefold threat. Remember the Jews were some of the strongest opponents of Paul's ministry. It was from the Jews that he was imprisoned and beaten and so on. He's a false prophet and he's a sorcerer. And Luke says that this man, this triple threat, Elimus, was with the proconsul. See, as we've seen here, Satan's strategy is to focus on those who exercise power, and so this triple threat is teamed up in some way with this proconsul of Cyprus. Here's a ruler, and Luke says that he is intelligent. He's an intelligent man. He's a thinking man. Paul and Barnabas, or Barnabas and Saul at this point, have been traversing the island preaching the gospel beginning in Salamis, which is the city on the eastern side closest to where they would have departed from Antioch and Seleucia, Seleucia being the port city for Antioch. It's on the east side of Cyprus, so they would have landed at the closest point in Cyprus or the closest point with a suitable place to land in a port city, significant city. And they had been waking their way westward across the island, and they've come to Paphos, which is the capital city on the west and south of the island. This is the island where Barnabas is from. Remember, he was a Levite from Cyprus. He's ministering in his hometown, in the regions that he comes from. And their ministry was having an effect. Sergius Paulus, being an intelligent man, says he wanted to hear from them to better understand what this man was saying and why he was having such a big effect on the territory that he was over. He wanted to hear what he was actually teaching. Who is this guy? But Elemas is right there to oppose this locally important figure from hearing what Saul has to say. You see, Satan attacks the Word. He seeks to prevent people from hearing the Gospel. In 2 Corinthians 11, Paul describes many ways that Satan has tried to prevent Paul from preaching. He describes being shipwrecked several times, being stoned, being beaten, being imprisoned, and so forth. All ways to keep him from preaching, keep him from ministering. Of course, we know that God's Word was not bound by these things that when Paul was in prison, he preached in prison, and he had converts in prison, and so on. When he was shipwrecked, he preached to those who rescued him. But in this case, Elymas couldn't stop Sergius Paulus from meeting with Paul. and hearing the gospel. Instead, what he does is seek to dissuade Sergius Paulus from believing what he is told. Now Luke doesn't tell us the details of his arguments. But they probably appeal to his intelligence. Because Luke has made it a point to tell us that Sergius was an intelligent man. So it's probably, I think, not unreasonable to assume that Elemis' arguments were an appeal to Sergius' intelligence as a scientist, as somebody who is interested in the way things work. In 1887, there was a boundary stone of Claudius, who was a Roman emperor, that was found containing Sergius' name and stating that in 1847, he was appointed one of the curators of the banks and of the channel of the River Tiber. That's the main river in Italy. Now, this would be a job for an intelligent person, someone interested in natural philosophy, as science was called. And so, like I said, while we don't know exactly how he would have tried to persuade, turn him away from the truth, we do know that Satan leverages our natural weaknesses. He uses pride. And intelligent people sometimes have a harder time believing the scriptures precisely because of their intelligence, which can be a source of pride. their intelligence and their need to understand everything creates a natural desire to account for everything that hinders them from believing God's Word, from faith, hinders them from faith. And so Paul said to the Corinthians, for you see your calling brethren that not many wise according to the flesh, not many intelligent people, Not many brilliant scientists, not many mighty, not many noble are called, but God has chosen the foolish things of this world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty, and the base things of the world and things which are despised God has chosen the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in his presence." So Sergius is being persuaded, in some ways being appealed to by Elemis not to believe what Paul is teaching. But countering Satan's attack upon his ministry is on Paul's ministry is a ministry that is powered by the Holy Spirit. It's a Holy Spirit-powered ministry. Paul, Saul, or Paul does not rely on his flesh in this battle. And we just think back a minute to last week, we remember that this is a Holy Spirit-initiated ministry. The Holy Spirit chose them. We talked about that last week. The Holy Spirit sent them. And our English word can have a number of connotations. You can send someone away because you don't want them messing with what you're doing or you don't want them around for whatever reason at that moment. But this word sent specifically means to cause someone to go away, to send someone away for a specific purpose, on a mission. So the Holy Spirit sent Barnabas and Saul on this mission, a specific mission, the one to which God had previously called them and for which he had particularly equipped them. In Paul's case, it's been over some 14 years that he's been training Saul for this ministry. And so they are ordained through fasting and the laying on of hands to exercise this gift that God has given to them. They were appointed to this specific task. So they received their commission from the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit is the one guiding them. There are two fasts that we saw last week and we read this morning. They were fasting and ministering to the Lord when the Lord chose them, and then they fasted separately and laid hands, probably the entire congregation, and laid hands on them, the other elders there, when they were ordained and sent away. So they were, that second fasting is a fasting for guidance and wisdom. And they were guided, we know, in where they went and where he preached. Paul was guided by the Holy Spirit. He said in a couple of chapters later in Acts 16 that when they had gone through Phrygia and the region of Galatia, they were forbidden by the Holy Spirit to preach the Word in Asia. So even where they preached and where they went, they were being guided by the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit now empowers them against Elemas. Elymas resisted them, but Barnabas and Saul did not resist him in the flesh. They resisted him by the power of the Spirit. Paul is here at this point filled with the Spirit and looked intently at Elymas. This is like Micah when he says in Micah 3, But truly I am full of power by the Spirit of the Lord and of justice and might to declare to Jacob his transgression and to Israel his sin. Micah said, I am empowered by the Holy Spirit to declare to Israel their sins. Because that takes a boldness that a natural man often doesn't have. So Paul is filled with the Spirit. and looking at him, this man who is challenging the truth, who is seeking to dissuade Sergius, he identifies Elemas as an enemy of the truth, calling him full of deceit and fraud, things that are contrary to the truth. He doesn't reason with him in his opposition to the truth, he denounces him. as an enemy of the truth, as a fraud and a deceit. And he does it with strong words as he's filled with the power of the Holy Spirit. He has a boldness and a power that's not of his flesh. To identify a fraud requires a knowledge of the truth which comes through knowing the word of God, through meditating on it, through reading it, through studying it, through memorizing it, and so on. Because remember, this truth, the girdle of truth is one of the weapons, one of the part of our armor. Paul then calls Elemas a son of the devil. I don't see this as saying that Elymas is actually a devil, but rather that he's being moved by a demon. It's like Jesus saying to Peter, get behind me, Satan. Satan was working through Peter. It wasn't that Peter was a demon himself. And this accomplishes two things, this declaration, you son of the devil. It speaks the truth about Elymas. He is being moved by the demon. And remember, truth is one of the pieces, one of the armors, armaments that God gives us. And secondly, Paul is also thereby rebuking the demon who is moving Elimus, calling him full of fraud and deceit. Thirdly, Paul calls Elimus an enemy of righteousness. Satan is opposed to all that is good and right. There is, you see, no middle ground. Satan may disguise himself as an angel of light, but even when he is speaking what is true, he is lying. He is deceiving. And so he is an enemy, an enemy of all righteousness. There is nothing right in him, even if he might at times appear to be doing something right. Now, Saul says, O full of deceit and fraud, you son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, will you not cease perverting the straight ways of the Lord? That's an imprecatory statement. This is the New Testament. So we see here that the New Testament uses these imprecatory or imprecations. And that, I think, should give us more confidence if it isn't enough that they're in the Bible. That should give us more confidence that the imprecatory Psalms of the Old Testament are appropriate to sing today. Here is Saul pronouncing an imprecation upon Elymas. And he's using spirit-filled words. Luke specifically says right before he gives us the words, he said, he is filled with the Holy Spirit at this point. So he's using spirit-filled words. He didn't make up his own words. And we ought to do the same, not make up our own words, but use the words of Scripture in our imprecatory prayers. And this we see, this warfare that Paul waged by the power of the Holy Spirit has an enormous effect on Sergius Paulus. He saw the power of God demonstrated immediately as Elemas becomes blind. And he starts asking people for direction. It's the same thing that happened to Paul when God confronted Paul. He was blind for a while. And that's what Paul says, you shall be blind not seeing the sun for a time. See, Paul's prayer here is that through this judgment upon him, Elimas would be brought to repentance. We don't know what happened there, but we do know that God used this to bring Sergius Paulus to faith. He saw this. And he believed when he saw what had been done. This was the power of the Holy Spirit to make a dead man alive through the preaching of the word. In his chapter on Paul, in his book on the lives of illustrious men, Jerome, who was someone who translated, who was a Bible teacher and scholar, and was one who translated the Bible into Latin, and was the text that was used throughout the Middle Ages, one of the main ones, He speculates that this is where Saul got his name Paul. He said, as Sergius Paulus, proconsul of Cyprus, was the first to believe on his preaching, he took his name from him because he had subdued him to faith in Christ. I don't think this was Paul's first convert. But I do mention it because this is interesting, and I don't say this dogmatically, but I mention it because it's interesting that it is in this text and in this context right in the middle of the account that Luke tells us that Saul's name is also Paul. And it's from this point forward that he begins calling Saul by the name of Paul. And instead of talking about Barnabas and Saul, he now for the most part talks about Paul and Barnabas. So I think it's worth mentioning at least. But right here, right in the middle of this, we learn that Saul's name is Paul. Paul was waging this war by the power of the Holy Spirit, but he is not inactive by any means. Remember, his trip began with two occasions of prayer and fasting. This is not a trivial part of our warfare, spiritual warfare. In fact, it is the main part of our spiritual warfare. It's a significant and indispensable weapon. And that's why Paul moves right into, in Ephesians 6, why he moves right into talking about prayer after he gives us what the armor of God is. We're to take all this armor, praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for the saints. Paul's the one who says we are to be those who pray without ceasing, to pray continually. to be the people of prayer. So this is, I think, the significant lesson for us in this text, that we have to be those people who are people of prayer. Even prayer and fasting, because there are some that Jesus said can only come out by prayer and fasting. So I would encourage each of us this morning, you and myself, that we continue steadfastly in prayers, both corporate prayers and in our personal and private prayers, as well as in our prayers as families. This is the means through which all of the benefits that we have, that we are partakers of in Christ, we are able to possess. It's the way that we recognize that we can't do this in our own strength. We can't. We can only wage this war by the power of the Holy Spirit as we as we lay hold of this grace and this mercy at the throne of grace in prayer. Let us pray. Our Heavenly Father, we thank You that You have won the victory over the evil one. And that you have given us this authority to share in this authority over the evil one in your name. We ask, Lord, for your strength that we might be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in your work. That we may be those who are given to prayer. As you described this church in Jerusalem, continuing in the Apostles' doctrine and the breaking of bread in prayers and in fellowship. Father, may You give us facility in prayer, that we might pray with effectualness and fervency. Or may You strengthen us, for our flesh is weak, And we need your grace to empower us and to equip us even to pray. And Lord, we know that even when we do not know how to pray as we ought, your spirit intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And so, Father, we come asking for the power of your Holy Spirit. We come asking for your grace to pray without ceasing. And we come asking that we might pray with fervency, that we might pray effectually for those things that are agreeable to your will. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.