Welcome to Reign of Grace. This
program is brought to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries,
an outreach ministry of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany,
Georgia. It is our pleasure and privilege
to present to you the gospel message of the sovereign grace
and glory of God in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that today's program
will be a blessing to you. Thank you for listening. And
now for today's program. Welcome to our program today.
I'm glad you could join us. If you'd like to follow along
in your Bibles, I'm going to be preaching from the book of
2 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians chapter 10. This is Paul's second
epistle letter to the church at Corinth in chapter 10. And I'm going to begin, the main
text will be around verse four, but I'll read some verses around
it. But the title of the message
is Gospel Warfare. Gospel Warfare. And this is where
the Apostle Paul is instructing believers at the church in Corinth
concerning the fight, and it is a fight, that believers, sinners
saved by grace, are to engage in in this world, while we're
in this world. The scripture tells us that we
have basically three great enemies. And this is the enemies of the
church. And two of those enemies are
outside the church. And they work to get inside,
but that's where they start on the outside. One of those enemies
is on the inside. Let me explain that to you. The
great enemies of every true believer, the great enemies of the church
are the world, and what we're talking about there is the fallen,
sinful, cursed world, the unbelieving world. The Apostle John spoke of this
when he was talking about a believer's loyalty to Christ. And he says,
we are of God. This is in 1 John chapter five. He says, we are of God. Who's
the we there? That's believers. People who
believe the gospel. How God saves sinners. They've
been brought by God, by the power and the grace of God, to believe
in the Lord Jesus Christ as their only way and only hope of salvation,
of the forgiveness of sins, of righteousness, all of that. So he says we are of God and
then he says in the next following up, the whole world lieth under
the wicked one, that's Satan, lieth in wickedness literally
the wicked one. And so what he's talking about
in the world there is the unbelieving world that is opposed to God's
people, opposed to Christ and His truth, opposed to the way
of salvation by God's grace, of salvation conditioned on Christ,
and all the way of salvation, the way of forgiveness, the way
of righteousness. You see, the world's way of righteousness
is false religion by the works and the wills of men and women.
And the world stirs people up. You know, when you think of the
world, don't only think of what people call the immoral, perverted
world. Think of the religious world,
but it's false religion, false gospels. And Christ told his
disciples in John 15 and verse 18, marvel not if the world hate
you. hated me before it hated you.
So the world is on the outside. But now, a lot of times, you'll
see so-called churches that are worldly in that sense. And that's usually in the way
of legalism. Taste not, touch not, handle
not. Paul called that in Colossians chapter, I think it's chapter
three, I'm not sure about that. But he called that worldliness. In other words, my holiness will
lie in what I don't do. I don't taste this, I don't touch
that, all of that. But that's not how righteousness
and holiness are measured in the scripture. Righteousness
and holiness is measured by Christ in the scripture. But anyway,
the world is opposed, that's an enemy. And we've got to fight
that enemy. We don't want the world creeping
into the church. And you'll see that that's a
problem today with most who call themselves Christian. The church
is like the world and they conform to the world. And the Bible tells
us, don't be conformed to the world, be conformed to Christ
and the Word of God. And then the second enemy is
Satan. Satan, he's on the outside, but
he works inside. He works subtly to get inside
the church. He did it in the churches of
Galatia when he brought false preachers in preaching legalism,
salvation by the works and the wills of men. He works in Corinth
here. Corinth was a church with many,
many problems. You talk about people who are
acting worldly, they were inspired by Satan and that's why we have
to wage the warfare against this and Lord willing, I'll talk about
next week, the whole armor of God, what he says, put on the
whole armor of God that you may withstand the wiles of the devil. Well, that's the enemy of the
church, the devil. And he cannot touch the true
people of God. in a sense of condemning us,
and we'll talk about that later on. But Satan is an enemy of
the church, and Satan is a subtle devil. He comes disguised, and
think about this now. Satan doesn't come in with horns
and fangs and a pointed tail and a pitchfork. That's not how
he does it. Satan disguises himself as an
angel of light, and you can read that in the next chapter here
of 2 Corinthians. In verse 11, or chapter 11, he
says in verse 14, or verse 13 of 2 Corinthians 11, he says,
for such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming
themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel, verse
14, for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. You know,
Satan can speak a lot of truth. he peppers it with his lies and
so we need to understand the wiles of the devil. And then
the third enemy is within, it's within every believer, it's the
flesh and when God saves a sinner, He gives that sinner new spiritual
life within, knowledge, spiritual knowledge, eyes to see and ears
to hear. He gives that person a new heart,
pliable heart, a humble heart to bend and to submit to God's
way of salvation in Christ by grace. To submit to Christ as
the only way of righteousness. I have no righteousness before
God but Christ. But we still retain the presence
and the influence and even the corruption of sinful flesh, sinful
thoughts, sinful ideas and motives. It's called the warfare of the
spirit against the flesh and the flesh against the spirit.
we have to fight the flesh so basically what I'm saying to
you is that all true believers all true churches collectively
are in a warfare but it's not a warfare fought with physical
weapons and this is what Paul's talking about here in 2nd Corinthians
chapter 10 now as I told you the church at Corinth was fraught
with many problems And Paul had to write a lot of letters. He had to be kind of stern with
them, and he had to be very truthful, just like when someone disciplines
a child. Sometimes you can do it gently,
sometimes you have to be a little sterner to make your point. And Paul says here that you have
to be engaged in a warfare of many things that you're condoning. And you have to repent of that.
He spoke of that in 2 Corinthians chapter seven, when he talked
about the church letting things go that should not be going on
and bringing them to sorrow over sin, godly sorrow that leads
to repentance. Not a legal sorrow now, but a
godly sorrow. And so he speaks of the warfare.
But listen to what he says. Look at verse three of 2 Corinthians
10. He says, for though we walk in
the flesh, we do not war after the flesh. Now, when you see
that word flesh, the context has to determine the meaning.
Sometimes when you see the word flesh, it means our sinful flesh,
the remaining corruptions of the flesh. Like the warfare,
as I said before, the warfare of the flesh against the spirit.
Our sinful flesh working against the Spirit of God. The Spirit
of God motivates and inspires and energizes God's people to
follow Christ, rest in Christ, obey Christ. But the flesh, our
sinful human part of us, fights against that. We want our own
way. Selfishness, pride, all of that. The desire after sinful things.
And so there's that warfare. So sometimes when you see the
word flesh, that's what it means. But here, the word flesh here
just means physical things, the physical nature, like our physical
hands, our eyes, our ears, our bodies, all of that. You see,
there's nothing sinful about our physical bodies, but our
bodies are dying because of sin. This body is dead because of
sin, Paul wrote in Romans 8 verse 10. But the spirit is life because
of righteousness, that's Christ's righteousness. So, but now I
can use this hand for sinful purposes or for godly purposes. And so I have to fight when I
have the desire, and it's in all of us now, when I have a
desire to use these hands or these eyes or these ears for
sinful purposes, I need to fight that. and I need to go to the
Word of God by His grace and the Spirit of God to do so. Now,
that's not gonna save me because works do not save us. Salvation
is by grace, but it's part and parcel of the desire that God
has given and put within us if we're believers, if we're sinners
saved by grace. So Paul says, we walk in the
flesh, we walk in this physical world, we who are saved. but we don't war that way. We
don't use physical weapons like knives and guns and cannons and
atom bombs. That's not the warfare that we
engage in, you see. Our warfare is a spiritual warfare.
And let me say this, I'm gonna read a verse over here in the
book of Matthew chapter 26 that kind of puts it in perspective. You've studied history, most
of you in school, and you may have studied the Crusades. And
the Crusades were inspired by the false Catholic Church, the
Pope, getting armies together, physical armies, wearing armor,
carrying spears and knives and cannons, going to what they called
the Holy Land. Jerusalem and surrounding areas
to take back the city of Jerusalem under their rule from the Muslims. And they went to war. Well, let
me tell you something about that. That was and is a travesty to
the word of God. Our warfare is not that way. And there's no holy land on this
earth. This world's cursed, even Jerusalem. Now God kept that nation together
in that city for a while, but that was temporary and it's gone
now. Now I know there's a city there
named Jerusalem, but it's not a holy city. It's fraught with
unbelievers just like the rest of the world. But that crusade
that was sponsored by the Pope of Rome was a sinful travesty,
an act of idolatry and human pride. Our warfare is not of
the flesh and not physical. And over here in Matthew 26, look at verse 51. Now this is
where Christ, Jesus Christ, after He had prayed in the Garden of
Gethsemane, And he went out to be betrayed by Judas. Remember
Judas brought the band of Roman soldiers and the band of soldiers
from the Sanhedrin, the Jewish soldiers, to take hold of Christ
and bring him to trial. And remember Christ, when he
came out and he saw Judas and he saw the rest of them come,
and remember he said, who do you seek? And they said, we seek
Jesus of Nazareth. And remember he said, I am. And
they fell backward, as we're told in the book of John chapter
18. And then when they got up, he said, well, I told you that
I am. And he said, take me and leave these to go free. In other
words, if you take me, leave my disciples to go free. It's
a picture of the gospel. But anyway, what happened there
is when they came and laid hands on him, look at verse 51 of Matthew
26. It says, and behold, one of them,
which were with Jesus, stretched out his hand and drew his sword
and struck a servant of the high priest and smote off his ear.
Now we're told in John 18 that that one who drew his sword and
cut off the servant's ear was Peter, the apostle Peter. And the servant's name was Malchus.
But you know what happened? It says over in John 18 that
Jesus picked up the ear and put it back on him, performed a miracle. Well, verse 52, In Matthew 26,
listen to what Christ said to Peter after he did that. Then
said Jesus unto him, put up again thy sword into his place for
all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword.
Christ never commanded anybody to take up a physical sword and
go to war against unbelievers and against false religion. He
says in verse 53, Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my
Father, and He shall presently give me more than twelve legions
of angels? If this was a physical war, it
would be over. He says, but how then, verse 50, for how then
shall the scriptures be fulfilled? And thus it must be. Christ came
to the world, into the world, into this earth, to do what? To die for the sins of his sheep,
his people. And that's what he's telling
Peter, put your sword up. This is not a physical war, and
I can't, how shall the scriptures that have prophesied and shown
the purpose of God for me to go to the cross and die be fulfilled
if I called 12 legions of angels, or if you fought them and won
the battle. Now go back to 2 Corinthians
chapter 10. Listen to what he says here.
Read verse three again. He says, for though we walk in
the flesh, we walk in this physical world, we do not war, battle
after the flesh. Verse four, for the weapons of
our warfare are not carnal. They're not fleshly, they're
not physical, but mighty. The weapons that we do have are
mighty, powerful through God. They're mighty because of God's
power and God's grace. And he said, through God to the
pulling down of strongholds. Now we don't use physical weapons
like swords and guns and cannons and bombs, but the weapons that
we do have are mighty, not because of us, but because of God. And
they pull down strongholds. Now, what kind of strongholds
do they pull down? Well, look at verse five. Listen
to what he says. Casting down imaginations. Now, what is an imagination?
Something you imagine in your mind. One of the translations
of this word is reasonings, thinking, thoughts. Casting down thoughts,
ideas. Look at verse five, and every
high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God
and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. In verse six, he says, and having
in a readiness to revenge all disobedience when your obedience
is fulfilled. So what is this gospel warfare? Number one, it's a spiritual
warfare, it's not physical and the power behind this warfare
is not bullets and fuel and atoms or hydrogen, the power behind
this these weapons is God, God Almighty. Sometimes in the Old
Testament, He's called the Lord of Sabaoth, or the Lord of Hosts. You know what that really literally
means? It means He is the Lord of a
great army that is invincible, cannot be defeated. We're winners
if we're in Christ. Christ has already won the battle
against the world. He told His disciples, He said,
in the world, you'll have trouble, you'll have tribulation, but
be of good cheer, I've overcome the world. And then he's overcome
the devil. The devil was cast down, the
scripture says, at the cross of Christ. Listen, the death
of Christ was the defeat of the devil. And then he's conquered
the flesh. Paul writes about that in Romans
chapter seven. We're in a warfare now. But the
battle's already been won. The outcome is sure and certain
because of Jesus Christ. Paul said, who shall deliver
me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ
my Lord. And that's it. Somebody might
ask, well, why are we going through this warfare then if it's already
over? Because God has determined that we should live life on this
earth seeking His sheep by preaching the gospel, which is our weapon
in the power of the Spirit. That's the power behind the weapon,
the power of God. and He will bring His sheep into
the fold for His glory and the good of His people until the
last sheep is brought in and then He'll come again and judge
this world and gather His sheep unto Himself. This is God's purpose. And this is why He says all things
will work together or all things do work together for them that
are the called according to His purpose. those who love God, who are the
called according to His purpose. He works them all together. And
what he says, our warfare, our warfare is spiritual, our warfare
is empowered by God, our warfare is using the gospel weapon, and
it's a warfare of the mind, casting down imaginations. If I were to talk to you about
the gospel, And I ask you a question such as, are you saved? Or how do you know you're saved?
Or what is your hope of salvation? And let's say for the sake of
argument, you reply something back to me that is totally unscriptural. You understand? Totally false.
How am I to combat that? Am I to pull out a gun, hold
it to your head and say, now you recant. Remember the Spanish
Inquisition? You ever studied that? That's
a false Catholic church too. They drew swords or they torture
people. Recant, they would say. Repent. Confess. That was a travesty. That was nothing but idolatrous,
sinful behavior in the name of God. But it denied God. No, I'm not. If you could reply
back to me things that are unscriptural, how am I to combat that? I'm
to draw the sword of the Lord. And what is that? That's the
word of God. I'm to take you to the word of
God, preach the gospel to you. And if God empowers it now, not
my persuasiveness, not my power of speech or anything like that,
But if God empowers it to your salvation, He'll cast down those
false imaginations, those false thoughts, and bring you to submit
to the truth. He'll defeat you in your mind
and in your heart. He'll give you a new spirit,
a new mind, a new knowledge. And that's what He's talking
about. Everything that you say, if you claim to be saved or claim
to be a Christian, if your salvation is not based upon the truth of
the word of God in the gospel of His free and sovereign grace,
in and by the glorious person and the finished work of Christ,
His blood, His righteousness imputed, very righteousness of
God, if it's not founded upon that right ground that glorifies
and honors God, If it's based upon a knowledge that you think
you have but your knowledge is a lie, if you're one of God's
sheep, one of God's elect, what He'll do is He'll conquer you.
That's what He did with me, He conquered me. He brought me to
submission. And it was a submission of the
heart and the mind, the affections, the will, the conscience. And
he replaced that lie that was pervading my mind, and he replaced
it with the truth. The truth. We're gonna talk about
that next week a little bit, Lord willing, with the armor
of God. But that's what happens. He casts
down imaginations, reasonings. How do you reason in your mind?
The Bible says in Isaiah 1, 18, come let us reason together.
Though your sins be as scarlet, they'll be as, well, though they
be red like crimson, they'll be white as snow. How is that
possible? And the way is only by God's
grace, undeserved, unearned, through the person and work of
Christ. Who is Jesus Christ? What are your thoughts? Now,
granted, your thoughts mean nothing if they're not according to the
Word of God. Well, who is Jesus Christ? Well, He's God, manifest
in the flesh. He's the God-man. Every bit God,
second person of the Trinity, the Son of God, and every bit
man without sin, God manifest in the flesh. That's the kind
of person that it took to put away my sins. God cannot die
but Christ in His humanity, He did die. That's to be attributed
to His humanity but it was a work of His entire person. Man cannot
create and give life but this person who is man, He did create
and give life. That's to be attributed to His
deity but it was an act of His entire person. How mind-boggling
that is. But that's who He is, the Word
made flesh and dwelt among us. Great is the mystery of godliness,
God was manifest in the flesh. His name shall be called Jesus,
for He shall save His people from their sins. His name shall
be called Emmanuel, which being interpreted as God with us. And
what did He accomplish in His work? He sealed the certainty
of salvation for all for whom He died and was buried and arose
again the third day. His blood put away all their
sins, satisfied justice, His righteousness, makes them perfect
before God. And so they stand justified in
Him. And that's what it means to bring
every thought in captivity to the obedience of Christ. That's
our gospel warfare. I hope you'll join us next week
for another message from God's Word. We are glad you could join us
for another edition of Reign of Grace. This program is brought
to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries, an outreach ministry
of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany, Georgia. To receive
a copy of today's program or to learn more about Reign of
Grace Media Ministries or Eager Avenue Grace Church, write us
at 1102 Eager Drive, Albany, Georgia. 317-07. Contact us by
phone at 229-432-6969 or email us through our website at www.TheLetterRofGrace.com. Thank you again for listening
today and may the Lord be with you.