Spiritual Warfare Ephesians 6

 

Spiritual Warfare Bible Study

Ephesians 6

 

Ephesians 6:10-13 Part One

Ephesians 6 10-13

Christian Believers Warfare Part One

 

We will be looking tonight at Ephesian 6:10-13. Let me read it to you.  “¹⁰ Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. ¹¹ Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. ¹² For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. ¹³ Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm.”

We will be studying these verses for several weeks with multiple sessions. So tonight we will look at it in an overview and pick out some key things but let me remind you of the context of Ephesians chapters 1-6:9 briefly as we begin.  Paul has in this book presented to us the great realities of being in Christ, what it means to be a believer, what it means to belong to God, what it means to have the spirit of God in dwelling, what it means to become adopted into God’s family, what it means to stand in him, the position of the believer, who we are in Christ, where we stand, our identity, a definition of our character because of Jesus Christ. And we saw in the first three Chapters of Ephesians this great section on positional truth, who we are in Christ.  

We saw the great realities that we are blessed with all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies.  That we have been given adoption and love and predestination and forgiveness and enlightenment and knowledge and understanding and power.  We have been taken out of the dominion of Satan and placed into the kingdom of Christ.  We have been made to do good works which God has before ordained.  We have been moved as it were away from the style of living of the world and ushered into a whole new dominion, a union with God, a union with Christ, a union with the spirit, a union with every other believer.

Our attitudes change.  We think different, we feel different, we talk different, we act different and all of these things are identified as marks of a believer in the first three chapters in the book of Ephesians and all of it according to the tremendous purpose of God in the mystery of the church as he has made us one in Jesus Christ and filled us with resurrection power.  

And then as we came to Ephesians chapters 4, 5, and 6 we saw that our practice was discussed, our position, who we are, our practice how we live and the apostle delineated for us standards of living which we are to attain.  The idea I showed you could be illustrated by a car.  First three chapter describe the car.  It is engine, it is power plant, it is capability.  And then the second three the roadmap on which the car is to drive and we as believers are defined as high powered individuals and the second three chapters show us where we are to go with this power.  

As the spirit controls us we begin to move out in obedience to follow the directions God has given us.

And we also saw in that the way we are to live is different than the world.  We are to walk worthy.  It is a walk of oneness, a walk of unity, a walk different than the world, a walk of love, a walk of light, a walk of wisdom, a walk in the spirit.  Our relationships are different, our songs are different, our marriages are different, our families are different, our employment situations are different.  All of these things unique standard, principles by which the believer is to function in the world.

Now think of it then this way in summary.  You have all the resources, all the power.  You have all the principles to live the Christian life.  There is just one thing you need to know.  In spite of all resurrection power, in spite of all of the trues that you need to know being available, it will not be easy.  And that is the way Paul wants to end his letter.

Do not dare take anything for granted.  Because you know how you are to operate on the job does not mean you will pull it off.  Because you know how you are to conduct yourself and your family does not mean that you will fulfill it.  Because you know the truths about resurrection and about the power available does not mean you are going to apply it necessarily.  Because you know what God teaches about marriage is no guarantee that you will see the fulfillment of it.

Even though the power is there and the principles are there something else is there and that is the enemy, the adversary who wants to withstand any good thing God sets out to do.  The enemy will be there to thwart divine purpose in your life and so when you come to defining the Christian life the best term is simply warfare, spiritual warfare.  That is what Paul uses to speak of it in this passage.

In fact at the end of his life he said, 2 Timothy 4:7, “I have fought a good fight.”  In his ministry he said in 1 Corinthians 9:26, “I fight not as one who beats the air.”  To Timothy he said in 2 Timothy 2:3,“be a soldier who endures hardness.”  Repeatedly in Scripture the Christian life is seen as a warfare.  When Jesus began his ministry the initial thrust of his ministry was a war with Satan, a conflict with Satan after 40 days of fasting in which Satan approached him and tempted him subtly three times and the way his ministry ended was the same way as Satan began to besiege him in the garden of Gethsemane and he began to sweat as it were great drops of blood.  That shows us a lot of things, but it shows us one thing I would like to point out and that is that whether you are at the beginning of your experience or at the end of it you are going to be in the same battle and if you think it will get easier you are wrong.

Jesus had a conflict at the beginning, but he did not sweat great drops of blood in the wilderness.  That was at the end when he was in the garden.  There was if anything an intensification of the efforts of the enemy as Christ came closer to accomplishing his goals.  

I remember when I was young in the faith somebody said to me “You know you ought to begin to witness because the more you do it the easier it gets.”  That is not true.  The more effective you become the harder Satan works.

You know people say to me “You’ve been teaching and so long it must be easy.”  It is not any easier than it ever was.  It is the same.  If anything sometimes it is more difficult.  You might be surprised to know that Satan would want to thwart me any way he possibly could from teaching.  I fight more now to get the time to study than I ever fought in my life.  I mean it is early morning, and doing it wherever you can because there is so many things that Satan wants to do to undermine that priority of teaching the word of God.  

It never stops being a war and you always have a certain sense of weariness that goes along with a great sense of accomplishment because the longer you fight the battle the greater the string of victories, right, and the greater the string of victories the more the confidence you have in God and the more you know that God’s going to take you through and the more thrilling it is as you see God’s power working.

I can understand what it means in revelation when the saints die and it says they rest from all their labors.  I think about heaven in those terms sometimes.  But I will tell you as long as I am here the battle is there and I want to be in the midst of the battle. That is the personality God gave me.

The apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians 16:8-9, “⁸ But I will remain in Ephesus until Pentecost; why? ⁹ for a wide door for effective service has opened to me, and there are many adversaries.” He says, “I’ve got to stay here because this is where the war is the hottest.”  A lot of people in the Christian life say “I have got to get out of this.  It is getting difficult.  I have got to find an easy ministry.”  A lot of men in the pastorate as soon as it gets tough they have got to go and leave and Paul says “I have got to stay here.  This is where the battle is the hottest.  This is where the greatest victory is potentiated.”  It is a war.

The Apostle Paul looked at the Christian life as war and it is relentless.  It never ceases to be warfare.  Living for Christ is not waltzing through a meadow picking daisies.  It is walking through a minefield with snipers all around you, snipers you cannot see or perceive because they belong to a supernatural realm beyond your ability to conceive.  This is war and the enemy is hell bent on the destruction of every divine purpose and so the believer has to view himself in that manner.  We are sons, yes, and we are servants, yes, but we are soldiers too.

And as Paul says in 2 Corinthians 10:4 “for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses.” he says in10:5 “and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.”  We are fighting a war that is not simply physical, not simply fleshly.  It can have that element.  The battle against the enemy can come through human beings.  

It can come as it did to Jesus through the persecution of men.  It can come in the form of spit.  It can come in the form of mockery and cursing and abusive language.  It can come in the form of blows to the face.  It can come in the form of nails and spears in the side, it can come to the Christian today as it did to the apostles in the form of being beheaded or being killed for the sake of Christ.  It can come in those ways here in America and maybe real soon as we continue to preach Jesus Christ faithfully in increasingly godless humanistic society it will come to that.

But behind the physical, behind the hatred and the persecution we see from people there is a domain of spiritual beings that are at war with the believer and they simply use the physical world as a means to their ends.  It is not so much that men hate Christ as that Satan hates Christ and uses men as his pawns.  He is the force behind the warfare and so we face an enemy that is so strong and so clever and so deceiving and so subtle that if ever we are to fulfill the potential of our position, if ever we are to live and practice what we are in position, if ever we are to know the fullness of Christian living we must listen to what Paul says at the end of this book. Amen!

We cannot be so foolish as to think now that we have got all this data we can run out and make it the way it ought to be.  We are going to hit opposition at step one and all the way down the line as long as we endeavor to live in God’s kingdom on God’s terms because Satan will do his best to withstand us.  

And so as we look then at Ephesians 6:10-13 let me share five things with you, the preparation, the armor, the enemy, the battle, the victory.  And this is just brief and introductory tonight.  We will get into detail next time.

First the preparation and by the way this is basic.  You do not want the battle to begin when you are unprepared.  You do not want to be just sort of lollygagging around and all of a sudden you are halfway defeated before you make up and realize you are in the war.  So preparation comes first and this is Paul’s word in Ephesians 6:10, “¹⁰ Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might.” As a general principle in living depend on the strength of God.”  That is what he is saying.  “As a way of life my brethren depend on God’s strength.”  You will notice two times he uses the word “in”. In the lord and in the power of his might and that is a cardinal reality in the book of Ephesians.  We are in Christ.  We are one with him.  His life is our life.  His power is our power.  His truth is our truth.  We are one with Christ in him and so it is in Christ that we are strong.  It is in Christ that his might becomes our might.

And by the way no matter how strong our enemy is, and we will see how strong in a moment, Christ strength is superior.  I cannot help but think of the church at Philadelphia in Revelation chapter 3:8 and it talks about this church as a good church.  In fact it is one of the two out of the seven churches to which no condemnation was given.  This was a righteous community of faith, and our lord says to them “you will have an open door before you.”  

This was a church that was reaching out, a church that was blessed by God and then in Rev 3:8 it says, “because you have a little power,” and you know what is beautiful about that is the fact that even a little strength preserves the church.  God is so much more powerful than Satan that a little of his strength is enough to overcome all of the enemies.  

1 John 4:4, “Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world”.  And so infinitely greater that the smallest amount of divine power can overcome the greatest amount of the power of hell and the enemy and so the strength is ours in the lord.  In Philippians 4:13 Paul says, “I can do all things through Christ who’s strength in me.”  Again the resource is ours.

Gentlemen I believe that we have that resource.  To deny that to me is to deny a basic fundamental reality of the Christian life.  To say nothing of playing havoc with the thought of Paul and Ephesians chapter 6.  I believe at the cross Jesus Christ gave a death blow to Satan as recorded in Hebrews 2:14, “He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil”.  He destroyed him who had the power of death, and I believe all we need to do is enter into that victory.  Listen. Christ defeated Satan at the cross and as Satan is now subject to Christ so is Satan subject to Christ in me.  As he is under His feet so as Hebrews 2:8, Eph 1:22, 1 Cor 15:25&27 says is he under my feet.  I believe he is a vanquished foe.  I believe he can lay no just claim to a believer.  

A good summary of Romans 8 says “Who shall lay any charge to God’s elected, as God that justifies and if God has declared me just and if God has won the battle and if God has gotten the victory in Jesus Christ then that victory is mine and Satan has no power to withstand the resurrection resource that dwells in the life of every believer.”

The point is this.  We are in a war but there is no reason to lose and there is no reason to be afraid.  Divine resource belongs to us.  Timothy as a young man in the ministry had grown fearful.  He had grown timid.  He had been besought by the lusts that come to young men.  He had been besieged by people who were telling him false doctrine, and they were pretty strong at what they were doing.  He was being inundated by his own fearfulness so that he literally became ashamed of the testimony of Jesus Christ.  He became ashamed of his companion in the gospel, the beloved apostle Paul who had disciple him and in the midst of these terrible feelings of timidity, of fear, a lack of love, shame, lust and all of these things the apostle Paul calls to him in 2 Timothy 2:1 and says “You therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.”  

Paul is saying “Timothy there is no reason for this.  You claim the strength that is yours in Christ.”  And in 2 Timothy 1:7, he said “God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline.”  The point is this.  There is no Christian, no time in his life who needs to feel that he loses the battle to the enemy.  God has given us in Christ the resource for victory.  

Ephesians 3:20, “²⁰ Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us,.”

Now the fact is we can win.  We know we are going to win the war in the end because Christ has gotten us the victory.  There is no sense losing the battles along the way but there are some things we have to know.  First we have to have our strength in the lord and secondly we have to have the armor on.

We hear a lot about demon problems today.  Christians are supposedly worrying about how do you deliver each other from demons.  There is a lot of what is known as exorcism on a Christian which is totally foreign to Scripture.  There is no word about that in the Scripture.  In fact there is no incident in all of the Scripture where demons are ever cast out of a believer any time, any place.

Whenever Satan is dealt with he is dealt with in terms of two things.  One, the strength of the Lord and, two, the provision God has made for every believer in Christ.  It is always that way.  Rituals and exorcisms and all of that are foreign to Scripture.  Why?  We do not need that because the resource is there.  That is what I want to get across to you.  It is there.  

In Ephesians 1:19, ¹⁹ and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might,” it talks about the power toward us who believe.  

What kind of power?  Mighty power.  How strong?  Power that raised Christ from the dead and set him at his own right hand in the heavenlies far above all principality and power and might and dominion and every name that is named not only in this age but in that which is to come.  What kind of power do we have?  The power that conquered death on the cross.  The power that conquered death in the grave.  The power that exalted Christ to the right hand and set every angel and demon in the universe under his feet.

That is the power we have.  That is the power toward us so that I say to you that every believer has a resource within him with which he or she can deal with Satan no matter what onslaughts the devil may bring but on conditions.  One that his strength is in the Lord, not himself.  Two that he fulfills the conditions of the armor; the provision God has made.

And so preparation means we recognize that in the lord the power is available.  Colossians 1:10-11 says, “¹⁰ so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; ¹¹ strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might.”   Strengthened with all might according to his glorious might.  We have all might according to his glorious power.  Christ who has delivered us from the power of darkness and translated us into the kingdom of his dear son has given us this power.  There is no believer who cannot deal with Satan on terms of resurrection, power available in Christ.

In 1 Corinthians10:12, I want you to notice the word of Paul. It says this “¹² Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed that he does not fall.”  You know when you are vulnerable?  When you think you are not.  When you think “I have got all the information.  I have mastered the book of Ephesians.  I have even memorized it.  I have all the doctrinal data.  I will be all right.  I know what to do.  I have got the principles.”  Or when you think you can handle Satan.  “I can handle that.  I have got all the necessary equipment.”  The point is this, when you think you can do it you cannot.  But on the other hand when you depend upon God there is nothing Satan can do to you that needs to cause you to lose the victory.

Look at 1 Corinthians10:13.  “¹³ No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful.”  Now notice this whole thing is dependent on the character of God.  Not just his power but his faithfulness to make that power available.  Verse 13 cont., “but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it.”  God will never allow Satan any foothold in the life of a believer that is more than that believer can deal with.  There will never be a time in this warfare when you need to lose.  There will never be a time when you cannot overcome in Christ if you depend on him. In fact the resource is going to be most available to you when you are the weakest.  

 

In 2 Corinthians 12:9 Paul says, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness. Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.”  As long as you think you can handle it you cannot.  When you know you cannot and depend on him he can.  

Listen if you are a guard on duty and let us say you are guarding; you are looking for the approach of an enemy army.  All of a sudden the enemy army approaches your fort.  What do you do?  Do you run down from the parapet where you have been watching and run out there with your little gun and start fighting the enemy?  Not if you are smart you do not.  Guards do not go and fight the war.  They tell the commander.  And the sooner you learn that in the Christian life the better off.  When Satan attacks do not fight it.  Report to the commander.

As David said to the Philistines in 1 Samuel 17:47 “the battle is the Lord’s.”  The battle is the Lord’s.  Let him fight it.  He knows what He is doing.  Let Him be the one who fights the battle.  And so we simply need to face the reality that the power is there.  Ephesians 6:10 tells us, “¹⁰ Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might.”  There is no reason for feeling defeated.  There is no reason to think that a believer is so inundated by Satan that he cannot get out of it.  There is no bondage so great that there is not a way to escape if he takes the resources available and they are.

One, confidence in the power of God and then as we will see in the weeks to come putting on the armor is the other one and that must be done as well.

So the preparation.  The Holy Spirit said to King Jehoshaphat in 2 Chron 20:15, “The battle is not yours.  It is God’s.”  Boy what a great thing to know because I would not want to get into this warfare, which is something I cannot even see, something spiritual, something far beyond me.  I would not want to get into that and fight without even being able to see the enemy or know how he operated.  I am so glad the battle belongs to the Lord and when the temptation comes Satan sends his confusions.  Then I report to the commander in chief.  I ask him to purge my life and make me as righteous a vessel as can be and in that righteousness I stand fearless, protected by him.

From there we move to the armor because that is the second way we have to deal with the enemy.  Ephesians 6:11, “Put on the whole armor of God.”  We will stop right there.  We are going to get into that in detail, but a believer needs to have the armor.  It does not do a bit of good unless you put the armor on.  You could have people sitting around you calling demons off you until they are blue in the face and it will not do any good until the armor is on.  And if the armor is on you do not need all those people doing that.

Because the dependence upon God’s power and obedience to put on the available armor is the only resource the believer needs.  

That is the only way the Bible ever deals with this problem in terms of the individual.  The “phrase put on” by the way in the original Greek it means put on once and for all.  This is not like game uniforms you know where you just put it on Saturday when it is game time.  You put the armor on once and leave it on the rest of your life.  You never lay your armor down until you meet the lord.  You put your armor on and keep it on and if you do not have it on you become vulnerable at any point.

And so Paul, probably chained to a Roman soldier as he wrote this sees the whole of the Roman soldiers uniform and all the armor that went with it as a perfect illustration of how the believer is to be prepared to fight the enemy.  Ephesians 6:14-17  he speaks of this armor.  “¹⁴ Stand firm therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, ¹⁵ and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; ¹⁶ in addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. ¹⁷ And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”  We will be getting into these fabulous thoughts in detail in coming weeks, but this is the basic necessity for the believer.  Depend on the lord and put the armor on and leave it on.

And that is why I am saying we are so gullible sometimes because we think that because we have facts we are all right.  We need to have the armor.  The armor goes beyond the facts to the response of righteous living.  

We are going to see that.  If you want to win in the Christian life get the armor on, get your life right because it is going to be a battle till the day you die.  

That brings us thirdly to the enemy.  Ephesians 6:11, “ so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil.”  In other words we know we have the power of the Lord and his might.  We put on the whole armor.  We are ready, obedient with our armor, depending on divine power and are able to stand against the schemes of the devil.  Always the believer is to stand because Satan will attack him.  You do not need to go find the devil.

I always worry about people who rush into situations and start calling on demons and calling out demons and talking to demons because you are really delving into an area where you have no information.  You just hang around long enough they will be there.  And you really do not need to get involved with them.  You deal with the power of God, and you deal with the armor that you have and God through that will take care of the enemy.  You stand firm.

Now we are never told in the Bible to attack the devil either.  We are just told to resist him and he will flee.  Stand firm.  Hold our ground.  And that is what he says here.  Who is the enemy?  Easy to see.  The devil.  People say “oh there is no devil.  The devil is just a Halloween costume, pointed tail and two little horns, pitchfork.”

That is not what the Bible says.  The Bible tells us there is a real devil, that this is nothing but Lucifer the greatest angel.  Read Isaiah 14, Ezekiel 28 talks about this angel, the anointed cherub, the one who sparkled with all the jewels of heaven, the highest being God ever made.  This anointed angelic being wanted to be like God and in the sin of pride he was thrown out of heaven and Revelation 12 says “like a great dragon he fell and with his tail he swept a third of the angels with him.”  So Lucifer this fallen angel, the highest of the angels leads a host of one third of all the angels God ever created and there are literally millions of them, and these then become the demonic enemy.  This is the devil.

Jesus believed in him.  He talked with him in Matthew 4.  He talked about him in John 14, John 16 and elsewhere.  The apostles believed in him.  Paul talked about him, Peter talked about him, James talked about him.  If you look at history you know there is a devil.  He tempted Eve in Genesis 3.  He tempted Christ in Matthew 4.  He perverted God’s word in Matthew 4, and he opposed God’s work in Zachariah 3.  He hindered God’s servant in 1 Thessalonians 2, and he hinders the gospel in 2 Corinthians 4.  He snares the wicked in 1 Timothy 3 he desires the nations in Revelations 16.  He is an angel of light in 2 Corinthians 11.  He fights with Michael in Jude.  He brought sin into the world in Genesis 3.  He now has the whole world lying in his lap in 1 John 5.  He has been all through history.

He has personal titles.  The Bible calls him in Ezekiel 28 the anointed cherub.  In John 16 the prince of this world. 

In Ephesians 2 the prince of the power of the air.  In 2 Corinthians 4 he is called the God of this age and in Luke 11:15 the prince of demons.  52 times he is called Satan which means adversary.  That is his most common title.  35 times he is called devil, diabolos which means slanderer.  He is called the old serpent, the great dragon, the roaring lion, the evil one, Abaddōn, Apolluōn, tempter, accuser, the spirit now working in the sons of disobedience.

He is described by our lord in John 8:44 as a murderer and as a liar.  He works overtly and covertly with flat out doctrines of devils and with seducing spirits.  He is a sinner in 1 John 3:8.  He is an imitator in 2 Corinthians 11:13-15.  He is some formidable enemy.  Lucifer, fallen from heaven, the ruler of a vast host of demon beings who have been around for centuries and thousands of years since first they fell and first they were created.  They have been here a long time.  They are wily, they are clever, they are subtle, they are cunning, they are invisible, they are superhuman and they are our enemy.

And it says in verse 11 that they operate on the basis of the schemes of the devil, methodeia, methods and the word is used in Ephesians 4:14 and translated cunning craftiness by which they lie in wait to deceive us.  About what?  Like children tossed to and fro and carried about by every wind of doctrine.  The emphasis is that the schemes of the devil are lies, false doctrine, false religion, false teaching.

He is a liar and the father of it.  He is a deceiver.  His whole system deceives subtly, supernaturally, cleverly, powerfully.  He has deceived mankind the world over with false religious systems.  It is incredible how sophisticated they come.  Can you believe that in the old testaments Satan deceived Israel into worshipping idols and turning their back on the true God?  Can you remember that in the New Testament Satan deceived Israel into murdering their own Messiah?  Would you believe that in the future he will deceive Israel into thinking the anti-Christ is Christ?

He is a deceiver.  He is subtle.  His area is lies, heresies, and false doctrine.  He will lie about everything whether simple or sophisticated and if I sometimes get upset about false doctrines and false cults and false teaching the reason is because I believe all of that stuff whether it’s a denial of the truth of the word of God or whether it’s the new liberation that denies God’s order for the family, whether it’s homosexuality the new morality, whether it’s the cults and isms and schisms and spasms and the rest of that stuff or whether it’s old line religions of the world.

If I get excited about that it is because those things should be blasted with a fierceness equal to their hellish origins.  Because they are from Satan.  They are the wiles of the devil and he is clever.  He moves into the world and prevents the word from reaching the hearts of men.  He snatches the word Luke 8 says.  He twists and perverts it.

He has men stand in pulpits who deny the authority of Scripture, deny the deity of Christ, deny salvation by grace, deny the second coming, deny judgment, deny sin, deny everything.  

He teaches a lifestyle that damns.  He involves himself in politics and governments and nations as well as individual lives.  To Christians he comes and creates doubt in their minds as he did to Eve and did throughout the history of God’s people.  He creates persecutions against them.  He hinders their service.  He infiltrates the church with his terrors.  He tempts us to self-reliance, to doubt, to lies, to immorality, to worldliness, to pride, to discouragement and on and on and on and this is subtle, really subtle.

People might think the longer you are a Christian and the more mature you become the easier it gets.  No because the more you know the more subtle the temptations become and so this is a formidable enemy, but it is not just the devil.  Look at Ephesians 6:12.  ¹² For our struggle is not against flesh and blood” and keep it in mind men.  Our enemy is not the system, the world as we see it.  They may persecute us and some day they may do to us what they did to Jesus.  John 15:20 he said, “If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you.”  They hated me.  They persecuted me.  They killed me.  You would not expect them to treat the servants any different than they treated their Lord.  So do not be surprised.

 

Ephesians 6:12 cont., “but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.”  Those are all terms to describe demons.  It is a demon empire that is the real enemy and we wrestle.

And the word “struggle” in verse 12 is sometimes translated “wrestle” is not talking about a simple athletic  game.  In the roman times when the wrestlers went into the ring to wrestle the idea was to get two hands around the neck of the man in a strangle hold and press not only his shoulders but his head to the ground and if his head was on the ground for a certain time he died.  If only his shoulders touched and you did not get his head down he lived to fight again and Satan wrestles with us through his demons and we with him and it is a life and death matter.  

Demons read the Bible.  They know the way it is charted to come out.  They know there is a bottomless pit.  They know there is an eternal place created for them and they will do everything they can to get a stranglehold on the things of God to change that and so it is a warfare on a level unhuman, and it is anything but a sport.  In fact humans are just duped into a supernatural war.  They are just duped to fight Satan’s causes.  And so our enemy is a subtle enemy.

You know whenever I begin to think about how clever demons are and then you see people who want to delve into this demon stuff, boy, they do not know what they are getting into.  You cannot handle it.  

John Walden, who has done so much research on the cults is probably the most prolific cult researcher around created a report and in it he discusses something of this issue.

And this is what he says.  “God did not make us in such a way that we can function either safely or effectively in a demon environment.  Even if it is neutral, which it clearly is not, who knows what demons can do in their own environment and what inter-relationships exist or can be manufactured between their world and ours.  We were not made to fly around in astral realms.  Granted the existence of the demonic one is playing in an astral pigpen filled with evil and hostility.  We were not made with the intellectual capacities to separate the good from the evil, the true from the false in the occult realm.  

For example, the prophet Daniel was a brilliant and Godly young man.  However even he had to be given additional wisdom from God in a special way to be able to have discernment in occult matters.  Thus involvement in such will always produce faulty conclusions because man as a fallen creature does not have the necessary equipment or ability to sort out demonic matters.”

He is right.  Report to our Commander Jesus is all you need to do.  Get the armor on.  Do not mess with the dominion that you cannot even comprehend and so this is a look at the enemy for whom we need the armor, for whom we need the preparation and to understand the battle is important.

It is not going to be easy for you to live the Christian life.  It is not easy for me either.

But I will tell you one thing.  The only things that matter in life, the only things that taste sweet in life are the things you work hard to get, right?  The things where you see real victory.  The greatest joy day to day is to know that I have overcome Satan.  Listen, Satan is around.  His demons are all over the place.  

We are not to be contacting or talking to or seeking demons out!  I do not even fool with them.  You know why?  Because the Bible does not tell me to do that.  I do not know what they are doing.  I do not know what kind of games they play.  That is a domain I do not get in.  I do not talk with them.  I do not pay any attention to them.  I just get my armor on, I report to the Commander Jesus, and you know what  In 24 years God has continued to bless the ministry here and we have not paid any attention to that.

Listen.  They know we are here, but I do not care how many of them attack me, 1,000 – 10,000 – 100,000, a million.  I do not care if they all gang up.  I do not care if Satan stands against me himself.  You know something?  Greater is he that is in me than he that is in the world and I have a resource in Christ to deal with that domain.  I am convinced that for the last 24 years they have been trying to stop what God is doing here but they cannot succeed.  They cannot succeed as long as we are faithful. 

To put the strength where it belongs in God and humility to know we have no strength in our own and to keep the armor on, to live a righteous life.  I do not care what all hell amasses against us, it is impotent.  Even if we had but a little strength as the church in Philadelphia.

And so the story ends this evening with victory verse Ephesians 6:13.  “¹³ Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm.”  

What I love there is you may be able to stand, you can stand.  There is victory.  If the armor is on and the confidence is in the lord.  Do not get caught with your armor off.  So “Well when is the evil day?”  You want to know when the evil day is?  Today, yesterday, tomorrow, any day.  The evil day is the day when evil reins in the world and that’s as long as Satan is the prince of the power of the air.  Report to the Commander, the victory is yours.  Resist the devil, he will flee from you.

The hymn writer Issac Watts said, “Am I a soldier of the cross?” but that was the wrong question.  Yes, we are all soldiers of the cross.  The question is what kind of a soldier am I?  Do I win?  Do I lose?  No reason to know anything but victory and with victory comes joy, happiness, contentment, and peace.  Now that is the way God intended it and that is the way he wants it for you. END

 

Let us pray.

Abba Father we thank you this evening for the confidence that we have boldly to stand before the enemy in the power of God, to go on about depending on you and wearing the armor and letting you fight the war.  Oh God may we as individuals, be dependent on your strength, wearing the armor, knowing it is a warfare but knowing that even the warfare is joyous because victory is ours every day, every moment as we count on you.

May we know that the enemy can do nothing to us as long as our strength is in you and our armor is on.  And God in the weeks to come help us to see what this means practically and to be equipped for the battle we have been in all along but may be getting ever hotter now in these days in which we live as we approach the coming of Christ.  Father, minister to every one of us tonight  in Christ’s name.  Amen.