Scriptures, the letter to the
church of the Ephesians. And we're in part two of a 58
part series, literally part two of sub part of that series, we're
in Ephesians chapter six, looking at verses 10 through 12 today,
10 through 12. Last week, I gave an introduction
to the idea of spiritual warfare. And in today's, I don't know,
crazy world and fascination with the occult, with the demonic,
science fiction, all of these things, we have this preconceived
idea because of the belief systems that we hold in our culture that
there is either a group of people who have one extreme that everything
is about the supernatural and they're seeking all sorts of
answers through supernatural means to everything. They see
the devil under every rock, every butterfly, every wind. On the
other side of that spectrum is a group of people who think it's
myth and folklore and imaginative things. And I would suggest to
you, as a reminder from last week, that spiritual warfare,
that the demonic, is absolutely real. It's absolutely at work
today while we sit in this room. Not only do we know that based
on that which we see, but we know that which we see is in
reality based on what God has given us in his scriptures, the
source of truth as God is truth and Christ is truth. And so today,
I hope, as I gave an introduction last week to the beginning of
spiritual warfare, where did it begin? It began, of course,
as we know it. The battle in the Garden of Eden,
we see in Genesis chapter 3, where through the serpent, a
created being, Satan, the angel of light, deceived Eve, the created
woman. She and Adam both disobeyed God,
and because of that, sin entered the world, thus death. We also
believe that the scripture teaches us very clearly that there is
no living human being except Jesus Christ, Christ being Christos,
his title, the holy anointed one of God. He is the holy one,
the eternal God, man who created the world and everything in it.
He is God incarnate, created the womb from which he was born
and came into the world to be a man so that he might live wholly,
satisfying the commands of God, therefore willingly passively
giving his life in obedience to be a ransom for many, for
all who believe by faith in him, then their sins are forgiven
and they have eternal life. So as that battle began, it is
ordained by God. God is the victor. He's not in
a competition with the powers of darkness. He is already victorious
over it. Until last week, we looked at
that. So let's look at this text here and remembering those things. And then we'll move forward from
there. Chapter 6 of Ephesians, starting in verse 10, looking
through verse 12. Paul writes, 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. And then
Paul exhorts, therefore, take up the whole armor of God that
you may be able to withstand in the day of evil, having done
all to stand firm. Now, with this argument that
Paul is bringing, comes many thoughts and feelings. In the
prelude last week, we need to remember something that there
was a beginning of this battle. We see in the book of Job where
Satan, a created being, a spiritual being, approached God as was
customary and is still customary today for Satan to approach God. And he spoke against God. saying
that he would be like Elohim, the Most High. That he would
sit as high as God did, and he would be exalted as God is exalted. Keep in mind that Satan did not
desire to overthrow God, but to sit adjacent to Him. Because
even Satan knows that he cannot defeat his own Creator. And so
because of that, God cast him And a multitude of the angels
with him who rebelled against him out of heaven, from service
and worship of God, Yahweh, to the realms of the earth, spiritually
speaking. And then sometime in the future, in a timeless future,
as we see in Genesis 1, it says, in the beginning, what? When God created the heavens
and the earth, what was happening? The Spirit of God was hovering
over the waters of the deep. And God said, let there be light.
And it wasn't the light of the sun, nor was it the light of
the moon, nor was it the light of any created thing. It was
the light of his self-existent glory, now about to be beheld
by something he created with his own hands for the praise
of his own glory. Understand that. And that which he created, then
his, if you will, enemy, Satan, and all the dominion of angels
that were cast out of heaven with him, purposed to thwart
the plan of God in creation. But in God's decree, he purposed
it prior to even Satan's knowledge of it. And that's another sermon. But we see the beginning of the
battle, and last week we saw the victory of the battle at
the beginning. That it's over. That God has
said, because, Satan, you have done this, you will be lowered. You have decided to be exalted,
so you shall be lowered. Not only have you decided to
be exalted, you've tried to be exalted through the means of
the creation of man and woman that I created from the dust
of the earth, and so it shall be your bread. You shall eat
it. So Satan has never had a victory. He never will have a victory.
And there will be no victory for him. When we rebel against
God, the only consequence is death. The only consequence is
condemnation. The only consequence is curse. We may think we're smart, but
as we'll see today, we've been deceived. So there's several
things I want us to see today. It just came to me like this.
It just popped out like this. I didn't try to. It just came
out this way. And forgive me, but it just sometimes
comes easily. It's alliterated. So maybe it'll
be easy for you to understand because I know for me alliteration
is easier. What does that mean? They all
start with the letter P. And so the first one we're going
to look at is the place of this battle. The second one is the
players in the battle. The third one is the powers in
the battle. And then finally, we see, if
I could be so bold, the preparation of the battle. And then we'll
move into that in the next few weeks, the next seven weeks to
be exact. And so, to begin, the place of
the battle. If you look here in this text,
Paul says, Be strong in the Lord 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. 4, verse 12. We do not wrestle
against flesh and blood, but against the rulers and against
the authorities and against the cosmic powers over this present
darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly
places. As we remember Ephesians 3 verse
10, God says the purpose of the church is to display His manifold
wisdom to the powers and the principalities of the heavenly
places. And so I suggested to you during
that time of preaching Ephesians 3 that because the church exists,
because there are a people redeemed for God's glory by His grace
and power and through Jesus, in Jesus, by Jesus, for Jesus,
then therefore the enemy knows he's defeated. He knows he's
defeated. Victory over death has been won. Satan awaits his
death, which will be an eternal death, not annihilation, but
a forever, forever reality of the consummation of God's wrath
that never ends. That's what the word eternal
means. So in that, Paul is helping us
see that we as a people are in a battle, but this battle is
not in this world. We think when we have arguments
with each other or we have disagreements in our own flesh and our mind,
we have controversies that arise. We think we're at war with nations
or that we're at war with ourselves or that we're at war with our
brothers and sisters or that we're at war with the government
or with the movement or philosophy or principality. But we are at
war with a demonic Magnificently powerful. And I use that word
in sarcasm. It is powerful, but it's not
magnificent at all. It's minuscule. It's microscopically
powerful. But in our understanding as finite
beings, the powers and principalities of darkness are mighty. But yet
they're nothing. So we do not wrestle on the earth. Nor do we wrestle with earthly
things We are fighting. We are in war with several things
in the cosmic rulers and the cosmic authorities and the cosmic
powers of the darkness, the rulers over darkness, the authorities
over darkness, the powers over darkness, this present darkness.
I'm just pulling it out and I'm going to break it down individually
for us. These spiritual rulers, these spiritual powers, these
spiritual authorities that are in the heavenly places. So these
rulers, these authorities and these powers and these forces
are not the physical, but the metaphysical. We are fighting
that which is unseen. We are fighting that which does
not manifest itself in bad breaks and frustrating times because
of weather. We are fighting an unseen enemy
that is extremely cunning, that is extremely empowered, and that
is never at rest. These angels who exist in the
spiritual realm. There is a war going on now.
There's a battle for your flesh to hear what I'm saying and your
flesh battles against an interest in even hearing it or a relative
idea of even how it applies to your life or an apathetic nuance
in your soul that you could care less. But yet, if I were talking
about the same thing in the context of entertainment, of how that
same demonic power might infiltrate the human body of this maniacal
world leader. And for two and a half hours,
you'd see him eradicate Godzilla and everybody else. And then
the Marines would come in and shoot him. Man, we'd be all in
it. But when it comes to our everyday
lives, we're so blind, we do not recognize that there is a
war. And it starts in the brain. It starts in the consciousness. Friends, don't be so naive to
think that you have full control over your faculties and full
control over your mind and your thoughts. You do not. The Scripture
teaches against that. As a matter of fact, your flesh
rules your heart or the Spirit of God rules your heart. And
if the Spirit of God does not rule your heart, that means the
devil is the master over your heart. Even if you do good. Some of
Satan's greatest soldiers are philanthropists and benevolent-minded
people who serve orphans and who feed the hungry and who rescue
the perishing. So that's the place. It's happening
in the spiritual realm. You cannot see it. We aren't
wise to see it. We're not intelligent enough
to understand how it operates fully. But what we do have is
the power of God's word to teach us fully how this battle has
ensued and how it continues and how it's going to end. And so
from the place, then let's move to the players. What does it
say here? Well, Paul says, Put on the whole armor of God, verse
11, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil.
So we're standing against the devil. And the devil schemes. For we do not wrestle who we
Christians do not wrestle flesh and blood, but the devil in a
spiritual place. It does not say, for God is wrestling
the devil. It does not say, for the devil
is fighting God. There is no fight against God. That's like the sailor standing
in the middle of the hurricane going, turn around, storm. Well,
no contest. It's irrational and illogical
for the infinite versus the finite. It makes no sense. We are at war. The players are the forces of
evil, the powers and the principalities of darkness, the rulers over
this present darkness and this world. This is the player. Number one player. Number two
are the people of God. What about the other people?
They're not at war. They're in harmony. Unlike our
pianist today, something was wrong with him. There was no harmony there, there
was discord. The world isn't fighting against
the devil. The world spits in the face of God and quietly And
softly withers away for John says that the world and everything
in it is passing away for it is not of God, but of the world. So who are the players? Let's
break them down. Rulers, authorities, powers and
spiritual forces of evil. Those are the four players against
the people of God. Let's look at rulers. What is
a ruler? A ruler is one who rules. What
do they rule? Well, sometimes in our homes
we have the ruler of the remote control. And that person is the
king or queen of the remote. Whatever is displayed on the
television is in their power. Nothing changes that which they
desire but them. Unless the power goes out. And
then they blame the devil. You know, and so, and that's
a joke. But a ruler is one who has a kingdom that it governs,
something that rules. And so what we're learning here
is that the scriptures teaching us is that the power of the enemy
of God is indeed in a ruling authority over a specific kingdom. We understand last week that
there are two kingdoms at odds, the kingdom of darkness and this
world and the devil and the kingdom of light, the kingdom of God,
the kingdom of Christ. And you and I sit in either one
or the other. It is not Satan worshippers who
are in the kingdom of Satan. It is good, benevolent, precious,
kind and generous people who are not in love with Jesus Christ
as their full satisfaction. And everybody else that's not
in that place. No good person has ever gone
to hell. Because there are no good people. the rulers. So in ruling, what
does it mean to rule? Well, that means that there is
a plural here. It didn't say the ruler, because
Satan is not omnipresent. He is not everywhere. He is a
single being who occupies a single space and a single position on
the universe. And I would suggest to you that
he's bound to the world, to the earth, because that's where God
threw him. And so if he's not talking to God, He's on the world. And what does the Scripture say
about the ruler? Is that he is like a lion. I
don't know about you folks, but I've seen some medium sized dogs
that have put me up on a truck bed before. I'd hate for a lion
to come busting through the door. You don't have to be fast. You
just have to be faster than at least one other person. But a
lion is scary. It has teeth. It has claws. It
hunts and it searches for prey. The Scriptures sort of metaphorically
say that Satan is like a roaring lion, a roaming lion looking
to see who he might not play with, but devour. Those are the
words. But it says plural there, that
there are rulers. And that means in order for there
to be a rule, there must be an organized rule. So go ahead and
just through a rational understanding of rulers, understand that Satan
and all the angels of darkness are organized against you, Church. They're working and plotting
and preparing to thwart your plans and your worship. And I
believe that this is part of the fall. This is part of what
God allows in the fall of man. Just like we suffer sickness
and calamity, we suffer a spiritual battle against the enemies of
God. So there are the rulers. They are rulers of darkness and
the church is at war with them. The authorities. These authorities
is sort of like the king and the king has other rulers or
governors. And so the authorities over the
darkness that is presently at work. So there are authorities,
they are looking after the plan to destroy and they can't, but
they want to destroy the church. Just as Eve was tempted by a
beautiful created being that was not odd for her to see and
to speak to, such is how Satan operates in the church and in
the heart and mind of believers, is that he uses natural means
to organize attacks. If Satan burst into my bedroom
or while I'm preaching here and comes out of a speaker and a
blaze of fire like a dragon starts burning children, we'll know
something's up. If he knocks on the door in a
shrouded cloak with blood dripping out of his eyes with like a sickle
or something you see on television and a forked tongue and a tail
swishing around, can I come in? I mean, come on guys, think about
it. Oh no, we know who you are, you're
the devil. But what he will do is he'll come through a well-meaning
brother or sister. He'll come through a disciple
like Peter who loved Jesus. who served Jesus and worked for
Jesus, and was surely just confessed that Jesus is the Christ, the
Son of the living God. And Jesus says, blessed are you,
Peter or Simon, Barjona, for it is not man or flesh or the
conscience or your decision that gave you this information, but
it is the Father who told you this. Blessed are you. And then
He turns around and says, the Son of Man must die. And then
Peter says, you don't have to die. And Jesus says, get behind me,
Satan, for you tempt me with fleshly and earthly things. The
Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of men. It must
be. These authorities, they are governing
over the darkness and scheming in their plans, in temptation. What does James 1 say about temptation?
James 1 says that we're never, number one, tempted by God, and
that when we are tempted, it is an influence of darkness,
but we're only tempted by that which we desire in the first
place. It's like putting a rat on somebody's
dinner plate. Only in certain cultures would
they eat that. Here, not so much. I was going to eat the pie, but
the rat looks great. You've tempted me. I'm sorry
it's not for sale. I'll give you a hundred bucks. That never
happens. It's not a temptation. But what is a temptation? That
is the baddest looking car I've ever seen. That is the hottest
looking woman I've ever seen. That is one stud right there. I would love to have that job.
I would love to have that income. I would love to have that house.
Lust of the eyes. Lust of the flesh. I need to
do something better about my face. No comment. Don't say anything. I need to do something better
about my waistline. I need to do something better
about my height. I need to do something better about my...
I need to... I need to get... Man, if I could just get that
food. If I could just have that drink. If I could just deal with
those things. Man, if I could just feel that.
That would feel great. If I could just enjoy that. The
pride of life. You know who I am? I'm somebody. I don't want to
be that. I want to be this. I don't want to be looked at
like that. I want to be looked at like this. I want to be made much of. I
want to be glorified and exalted and worshipped. Proud of possessions. Proud of
life. The lust of the eyes. 1 John 2, 15-17. It's the same
thing Jesus was tempted with by Satan in the wilderness and
it's the same thing all of us are being tempted with right now. And the
ultimate reality is that when we say no to Christ and yes to
the world, we are not in Christ. At worst and at best, we're just
rebelling against Him. And the governors, the authorities
of the darkness, are powerful. They are persuasive. They don't
come in and say, hey, come kill some kittens. And we all run
out and become these murderous animal killers. Why is the world not full of
maniacal world leaders? Because they're far and few between.
It's much easier just to put apathy in the heart of people
Put blindness in the heart of people. 2 Corinthians chapter
4, Paul says, do not lose heart. For we renounce underhanded,
cunning ways, but we basically present the truth boldly with
a clear conscience. And if our gospel is veiled,
it is only veiled to unbelievers. For the God of this world, Satan,
has blinded the eyes of unbelievers to keep them from seeing the
light of the gospel in the face of Christ. So they cannot believe.
So they cannot be saved. But we do not lose heart. Verse
6, For God, who said, Let light shine out of darkness, has shone
in our hearts to give us the knowledge of the light of the
glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. And what we proclaim
is not of ourselves, but of God, so that it may show that the
unsurpassing power belongs to God and not to us. Hence, we have no fear over the
authorities of darkness. But as I said last week, sometimes
we apathetically walk as though they're not active in our lives.
It is happening. And if you don't think it is,
you've already lost. You are losing. You are sucked
in and secure and choked by the lies of the father of lies. You
have been deceived if you think you're not at war, Christian. Powers. rulers, authorities,
and powers. The Scripture says they have
power over darkness, which means they have power over this world.
God gave reign to the demons over the world. He's the Lord
and God of it all. Don't believe the cults that
say they took it from Him. He gave it to them. Not His glory. Not His authority. Not His power.
Just as God gave me the governing of my home and the governing
of the flock of Christ, As an under shepherd and a type of
Christ, Jesus is still the God of it all, but he's given me
the responsibility. God has given the role to Satan
to rule the world in darkness. He had to take anything from
God and Satan and the demons, the rulers and authorities and
powers over this world are wicked and they walk with a plan to
beat people, to keep people in darkness. The spiritual forces of evil.
Think about this for a minute. Let me get through here. The
spiritual forces of evil. Those forces that do evil things. Like the evil forces that are
heavenly forces. They're fallen angels. They're
not seen and they're not heard and they're fast. They can go
anywhere they want to go, anytime. They're not bound by getting
in a plane or a car. And they're at work. How do they
work? Well, let's just think about Ephesians 5 for a minute.
I don't have to go there, but let's talk about the things that
the world does in darkness. Those who once were in the world. They did the things that the
world does. They were sexually moral. They were covetousness.
That means they wanted everything else they could get. They weren't
satisfied. They weren't content. They wanted
more. They were filthy in their talk and their thinking. They
were foolish with their mouths. They talked about sin and they
made fun of it and they joked about it. They were crude with
their joking. In Ephesians 5.15 it starts saying
they were foolish and unwise. They were drunk. They were disrespectful
and they were enticed by the sin of the world. In Ephesians chapter 2, Paul
is clear. You once walked in what? Darkness. You once walked in
death. Listen to what he says. The course
of this world was death and darkness. And you once walked there. You
were in the control of the Prince of the power of the air. Being controlled by the spirit
that is at work in the sons of disobedience. And you, by nature,
were a son of disobedience. And all who were in the world
were children of what? What is it? Say it. Wrath. Oh, but God. See, it doesn't
say, but you. It says, but God. Be rich in
mercy because of the great love in which He loved us. Caused
us to be born again. Made us alive in Christ to the
praise of His glory. These are the players. Friends,
you're at war with Satan. Or you're a pawn in his hands. But now let's look at the power.
First and foremost, I say this because it's not even worth dealing
with. Satan and all the fallen angels
are powerful, but even that power which they yield is God's. So let's go ahead and talk about
it. What can the devil do? Anything God wills him to do.
What is your responsibility as a Christian? Obey the Word of
God with the power of God inside of you. There's a nutshell of
what I'm about to preach in finishing this sermon today. I want you
to see that there's a power of the battle. That the battle in
itself is empowered by God alone. That it's already won. The victory
is over. For greater is He who is in us
than he who is in the world, John says. And what is it that
overcomes the world? Our faith. It's not how much
we have. It's not how strong it is. It's
the object of it. We don't trust in our own faith. We don't have faith in our faith.
We don't have faith in something we've done. We have faith in
Jesus fully. And that produces life. How do
we get that faith? Repenting and believing in the
good news of Jesus. Some people think about spiritual
warfare and say, it's bad news. It is bad news. But the good
news is, is that there's power in the battle and the battle's
won. We are victorious. The second type of power I want
you to see, and I alluded to it, we won't go any further than
this, is just know that there's a power of evil at work. It's
not passive. It's actively working. And thirdly,
is that there's a power of the people of God. And first, I mean,
excuse me, in John 15, 5, it says, I can do nothing apart
from Christ. So if we in our flesh are making
war, then we are failing already because Christ is the one who's
victorious, not us. Our trust is in his work, in
his power. So we are empowered by the gospel. But that's still not the power
that succeeds. The power that succeeds in the war against the
enemy is this, the power of the perfect. The power of the perfect. Who is the perfect? Jesus Christ. How does Paul pray at the end
of chapter three of Ephesians? Now to him, doxology. Now to him, who is able to do
far more abundantly than all we ask or think according to
what? The power at work within us. So it should bring to mind, if
I could impose some thoughts on you openly, Maybe here you're
looking, am I even empowered to fight? I feel like I'm losing
the battle. I'm fighting, but I'm losing. I'm apathetic towards spiritual
things. I'm disconcerned with fellowship with the believers.
I have no worship in me. I don't have joy. I don't find
joy in doctrine and truth and worship. I lust after all that
the world has. What's wrong? Why am I losing? Maybe some of you Christians.
Why so much conflict in my life? Why are the people in my family
at odds with me? Why are the people in church
not doing what they ought to do? How come everybody can't be holy
like me? Or how come I can't be holy like everybody else?
You know, that church up the street, that church down the
way, they're the enemy. Friends, listen to these things.
There is no man or woman or child who is your enemy. None. That's a lie of the devil. Lost people are not your enemy. You're supposed to love them
and die for them. Lay your life down for them,
forgive their debts, and let them walk all over you and back
up, beep, beep, beep, and walk over you again. Let the lost
be loved. They're not your enemies. That
heretic in the pulpit there is not your enemy. And that church
member who professes Christ and has a thorn up their rear end
and just won't stop being stubborn is not your enemy. Satan's your enemy, church. And
you're not fighting against your brothers or your preachers or
your fellow churches. You're not fighting against your
boss or your lost neighbors or the cults down the road. You're
fighting against the powers and the authorities and the rulers
and the spiritual forces of darkness and of evil. And if you don't
recognize that, you're not even at war. Here's another truth I want you
to see about the power of the perfect Jesus Christ is that there is
no enemy of God that has a stake in the fight. Usually when two opposing sides
come together, there's even a weaker side. There's a strong side and
a weak side and the weak side fights for all it has and it
gains something. And usually they gain, and sometimes
they push, and sometimes they win. And the bigger or the better
side, sometimes the underdog may overpower. Friends, there
is no enemy of God that has a stake in the fight. They've already
lost. It's already gone. And so when
somebody or something or circumstance... You know, when you think somebody's after
you, you need to take a second look. And you need to obey Jesus
and love that person. And when that person hurts you,
you serve them. Yes, there's time to rebuke.
Yes, there's always time for accountability. Yes, there are
times for people to straighten up their lives or be kicked out
of the church. Are we really there with most
of the circumstances in our lives? Or is it just our buttocks on
the shoulders are in the way of their buttocks on theirs?
And we're bumping buttocks and can't get through the door of
reconciliation. There's the image for your brain. Let's think about the power of
the perfect in the last few minutes. I can't really go to where I
want to go because I'll be here another hour. In Psalm 62, it says that
all power belongs to God. In Revelation 4 and 5, we see
the scripture as it unfolds to John, and we see glory and honor. Worthy, worthy is the Lamb to
receive glory and honor and wealth and power. All power is God's. God is the ruler of all things. He
does what he pleases. Listen to Daniel. Nebuchadnezzar speaking. If you
know anything about Nebuchadnezzar, this is after God dealt with
him pretty heavily. At the end of the days, I, Nebuchadnezzar,
lifted my eyes to heaven and my reason returned to me. God
made him crazy. God turned him over to madness.
And I bless the Most High, Elohim, and I praise and honor Him who
lives forever. Listen to His words. For His
dominion is an everlasting dominion, and His kingdom endures from
generation to generation. All the inhabitants of the earth
are accounted as nothing, and He does according to His will
among the hosts of heaven and among the inhabitants of the
earth. And none can stay his hand or say to him, what have
you done? Our God is in the heavens and
he does what he pleases. Job says, who can comprehend? I like how some translate it.
Who can comprehend the thunder of your power? I sort of like
what Paul is saying here. Strong the Lord in the thunder
of His might, the strength of His might. The word power, dynamos,
in the Greek, dynamite. I didn't know what else to name
it. Powerful. Oh, let's name it Greek for power. What kind of power does God have?
God has the power to be satisfied in His existence with nothing
else. God has the power to, in His
perfectness and His righteousness and in His glory, speak the words
and the universe goes boom! God has the power to breathe
life into nothing. Ex nihilo, out of nothing comes
the world. God has the power to look upon
all that He's created as the owner of it and do whatever He
wishes. For Scripture says, do not fear
what man can do, but fear He who can cast both body and soul
into hell. God has the power to judge the
world. God has the power to save His
people. God has the power to become a
man, to walk the earth. God has the power to take water
and turn it to the best wine that ever was. God has the power
to spit in the eyes of a man born blind and give him sight.
God has the power to make limbs grow. God has the power to destroy
nations with a word. God has the power to speak to
storms and they stop. God has the power to walk with
a people. To teleport boats three miles
over the sea. God has the power to walk into
a crowd untouched. God has the power to go to a
man's grave who is stinking with rot and say, come out. God has
the power to lay down His life for the ransom of His church.
And God has the power to take it up again by Himself and save
a people for Himself. So what is our problem? What
problem do we have that God is not more powerful than? What disease? Glory be to God
if a disease takes me young. Heaven. Christ. No more temptation. No more fear. No more struggle. You must have a death wish. Now
I've got a life wish for to live as Christ and to die as better. See how the devil tricks you
to make you think that life is worth living apart from Christ? So what do we do? We've got to be prepared. Take up the whole armor of God
and we're going to learn in the weeks to come what the armor
of God is specifically, but there is a preparedness. And friends,
I will tell you, not in lieu of moving forward, but to lure
you in to moving forward, that's what I'm trying to say. That
which is already commanded to us, we must understand something
in preparation for this war that we're already in. And there's five things I'll
close with. First, as we've already talked, we know the reality of
the battle that is happening. That's review. We've been prepared
by knowing that it is taking place. Stop turning a blind eye
and ear to it. Secondly, or let's say one B,
and we're on one side or the other. Either we're in Christ
for His glory and for His name's sake, or we're an enemy of God
and we will be judged. Secondly, we know and rest in
the power of God in the fight. We rest in the power of God.
And we see how that preparation for us is being laid out. But
as we've already learned, even through this letter to the Christians
here in Ephesus, we've learned that the ultimate power is knowing
the Gospel of Jesus and living in the will of God. And that
the will of God is to obey the Word of God. To believe the Gospel. And that being born again by
the power of God then purposes in us obedience and resistance
to sin and fleeing from temptation and standing in sanctification
in the power of the gospel. No Christian is a slave to any
sin. If you are a slave to sin, you are
dead. You are not in Christ. You're
a slave to lust. We're dead. We're a slave to
sin. If you struggle with it, then
fight it and win it in the power of the gospel. It's yours to
win. You mean I can be perfect? No,
but you can be perfect for a little bit. As far as you know, be perfect
for a few more minutes, and when that temptation comes, fight
it, win it, be perfect. It's when we grab hold of it
and we sweep down. What's Psalm 1 saying? Blessed
is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked,
for standing with sin and for sin. So I would have added something
to that. Blessed is the man who runs from temptation and fights for
the power of God. I think forth in preparation
we see the schemes of the devil. And we see that ultimately and
foremost that the enemy toys with and plays with and wars
with our brains, our minds. He bothers our thinking. He takes our thinking off of
heavenly things and glorious things and infinite things and
he puts it on stupid things. Like the world and the future
and the path and glory of humanity and power and prestige popularity. He puts it on stuff. What people think and what people
say. Instead of studying the gospel, we study what I call
the anti-gospel. We read everything that's not
right and talk about everybody that's not right and make fun
of everything that's not right. and proclaim everything that's
not right. And never, ever, ever do we give any good news there.
There's no gospel there. Well, he's not right. She's not
right. They're ugly and he's nasty and she stinks. But where's
Jesus in that? Where's the good news of God
on earth, Emmanuel, God with us, tabernacling with us to save
us from our sin? You know what happens when you
realize your doctrine's been wrong? You get nasty. You stop talking
about it. You start fussing about it. You
start wanting to tell everybody about everything that's wrong.
Friends, I stand before you right now. If you stay in Great Truth
Church long enough, I'm going to preach something incorrectly.
And by God's grace, I'll correct it sometime in the near future.
There's a big difference in a false teacher and just an oops. But let me tell you what the
battle really boils down to in the mind. It's where you put
your thoughts and where you put your time with those thoughts. You want to plan your future?
Plan it as under the glory of God. Would you take Jesus to
do what you're doing? Would you let Him sit with you,
known to everybody that He was the King of kings, the Creator
of heaven and earth? Would you participate in that conversation
while He's sitting on your lap? Would you look at that with your
eyes, with Him in the room next to you? Would you lay in the
bed with whoever, with Him laying right in the middle? Would you
put that in your body and offer some to Him? Because if you're
filled with the Spirit of God and you do those things, you
do them unto Jesus. And you invite Christ to come and participate
in the grossness of sin. And Hebrews says that when we
do that and we return to sin, that there is no more opportunity
for repentance. Because we crucify the Son of
God unto public shame again. And we spurn Him. Stop being so stinkin' comfortable
with an inadequate faith and a false Jesus and learns that to live is Christ
alone. I shudder for you when you're not at war against
sin. I shudder for you when you don't desire to know Christ more
and to be more holy. I shudder for you When you think
you're good enough, I showed it for you. We see the schemes of the enemy
in our mind and they move from our minds to our emotions, to
our actions. And then we do that, which we
think on this. You see, the mind is just thoughts
popping in. The motion then moves to concentrated
meditation. We think on that. Well, I wonder
if this is... I wonder if that... I wonder
if I'm even in unity with those people because they don't wear
the same type of shoes I do. They've got an earring, God bless
them. Their glasses might be gold. They wear Yahoo t-shirts. Who else is going to look around
and talk about it? And then we act. We act out those
things that go on in the mind. We follow sin. We fight. We feel
defeated. We have no conscious effort to
pursue righteousness and therefore we're pursuing lawlessness according
to 1 John. And just like Nebuchadnezzar,
when we follow our minds, the motion, we turn to madness. We
go crazy. We turn to madness. And Romans
1 says that God turns over people who reject his glory and exchange
it for the world. He turns them over to what is
coined by Paul as a reprobate mind to do that which is unnatural
and ungodly. To pursue the world and all of
its godlessness. And God can restore people from
that, but it is only by His grace as He enters the closeness of
that madness. Let me give you two ways of thinking
about madness. Just think about this for a second.
First way that we are turned over to madness is self-reliance,
I believe. I got it. I can do it. I know what I'm thinking. I can
do something about it. I have the right ability. I'm
working through this and I'm at war with it and I've got it. That's insane. Secondly, I believe we're in
madness when we are in disobedience of the commands of Scripture.
When we don't fellowship with the church. When we don't study
the Word. When we don't submit to the Word
of God. To the elders. To our husbands. We don't have an affection for
holy things. We don't have joy. We're disobeying God. We have
a terrible attitude and we're not thankful in all things. Rejoice. Be thankful in everything. When
we turn to self-pity. Oh look at me. Woe is me. Why
me? Why now? It's wicked. We're being
deceived. The final thing in preparation
is standing in the power of God's promise by putting on the full honor
of God. And next week we'll begin our venture there. But ask yourself
then, what is the final question? What's the purpose for all this?
What's the purpose behind it all? Paul says it. To the praise
of His glorious grace. We're in a war against the enemies
of God to worship and to praise God for His victory in Christ
Jesus. That's what we're doing this for. It is to that end which
we proclaim praises to God. Whereas the Scripture says you
joyfully accepted the plundering of your property because you
knew you had a better reward and an abiding one. As Peter
writes to the Jews in the dispersion who are dying by the throes,
being kicked out of their land. And he says the same words. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has caused us to be born again
to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ
from the dead, to an abiding, and he says, who by God's power
are being guarded until the day of the Lord. So God has purposed all this
to present us wholly in blameless and to prove that He's adopted
us as sons and daughters as we pursue righteousness. And so
the question then as I close and pray is, what should I do
now? Proclaim. Proclaim the Gospel of Jesus
Christ to yourself. And proclaim the Gospel of Jesus
Christ in the midst of every problem that sits around you
in every mind and heart and life of every person that's under
your voice. And proclaim the Gospel of Jesus
Christ to a dying world that through the hearing of the Word
of God, that God would save them and bring them to repentance
and faith in Jesus. I think we should speak the Gospel.
We should think the Gospel. We should live the Gospel. And
we should rest in the Gospel. I guess ultimately, you need
to look inside and see where you are. Are you fully trusting
in Christ? Are you fully your own God? Your
own Gospel? Your own authority? Repent and believe the Gospel
of Jesus Christ. while it is still today. Let's
pray. Lord God, as that rain showers, we don't scatter because we're
covered. We're covered by this roof, this building. There's
no holes in it. There's no leak. So we're not
running to get away from the weather. In the same way, when the showers
of suffering come into our lives, and the showers of spiritual
warfare rain down on us, we do not run, but we stand firm in
Your power through Christ. And in the same way, Father,
the showers of the Gospel saturate us with living water. that we
relish and we run into the depth of the spring that wells up to
life. Jesus the Christ. God, save those who are in need
of saving. Restore those who are Yours who
are fallen away. Bring life to those who are listless. Bring hope to those who feel
like giving up. Bring conviction to those who
are blind and let them see. Father, we pray these things
in the power of Your Son, Jesus Christ, Who is our great Savior
and our King. Who is greater than all the authorities
and the powers and the rulers of this present darkness. Over
Whom You rule and reign wonderfully. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.