“Spiritual Warfare: A Winnable War”, Pt. 1
Ephesians 6:10-12
During one of the darkest periods of WW2 after the collapse of the French to Germany and before America got involved, Winston Churchill gave a speech on BBC radio that rallied his country in a powerful way. He said in part, “Now that the battle for France is over and the battle for Britain is about to begin, upon this battle depends the survival of Christian civilization.”
If you are a Christian you also are in a battle everyday! And upon this battle depends your joy, overcoming sin, happiness in your marriage, and the well being of your children! The problem: most Christians don’t realize this is a fact of life and too many of us are asleep in the barracks rather than being active on the battlefield!
Kind of like the guy who had too much to drink and he was driving -- all of the sudden he turns down a road going the wrong direction. The police finally pull him over and said to the man, “Hey fella, what are you doing, you could have killed yourself and someone else. Didn’t you see the arrows back there?” Then the driver responses, “Arrows, I didn’t even see the Indians!”
Billy Graham once said, “Much of church warfare is fought be blind-folded soldiers, who cannot see the forces against them, who are buffeted by invisible opponents so they respond by striking at each other.”
General Douglas Macarthur said, “In war there is no substitute for victory.”
Folks, its high time Christians stop sounding retreat and start shouting “charge”! Instead of the devil taking it to us, we should be taking it the devil –that’s the heart of spiritual warfare!
I heard a true story about a football player who graduated from collage. He wasn’t that great a player but he was a great strategizer with a quick mind. The head coach came to him one day and said, “Will you let me teach you to be my assistant coach?” He said, “Yes sir, what do you want me to do?” The head coach said, “I want you to be a scout for us and help me build a strong and competitive team again.”
So the new assistant coach said, “What kind of player do you want me to find?” The coach said, “There’s the kind of guy that when you knock him down he just stays down.” The assistant said, “Well we sure don’t want that kind of player!” Then the head coach said, “No way, but there’s the guy that when you knock him down twice – and he stays down.”
The assistance said, “We sure don’t want that kind of player!” The head coach said, “No way! There’s also the kind of guy that when you knock him down he gets up, and he gets knocked down and gets up and gets knocked down and he gets up again and again!” The assistant responded, “That’s the guy we need!” To that the head coach taught his new assistant a valuable lesson, he said, “No! What we need is for you to find the guy who keeps knocking everyone down!”
Church, we have to get off the defense and get back on the offense – we need to take it to the devil again!
How To Get Ready For The War
1. Realize The Attack We Face. Vs. 10
There’s no war like this in any history book because it’s a spiritual war!
There’s a war going on right here in this sanctuary! You may not see the bullets whizzing by or the bombs bursting in air, but its real! This war is being fought in every home, with every family and even in our hearts right now!
The big 4 “D”s are being hatched everyday in lives all around us and they are killing, destroying and stealing from more people: they are: Drugs, Divorce, Disrespect and Deception!
Notice Paul says, “WE” – in this war there is no deferment, no draft dodging and there’s only one way to get out of this war - by DEATH!
Folks, God not only put salvation in our hearts but He also put a sword in our hands! So the way I see it, we are in the Lord’s army and as Christians we ought to get ready to RUMBLE!
1 Timothy 6:12 “Timothy, fight (agonize) the good fight (struggle) of faith.”
2 Timothy 4:7 “I have fought (struggled) the good fight (agony).”
I’m concerned that most Christians have surrendered to the barracks with firing a single shot! Careful that we do not put our weapons down and just go the way of the world! We can’t straddle the fence any longer and we sure can’t be like Switzerland and be neutral! Do you realize that when you got saved you did choose sides – God’s side!
Colossians 1:13 “For He has rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of His dear Son.” NLT
C. S. Lewis wrote, “There’s no neutral ground in the universe. Every square inch, every minute of every hour is claimed by God and counter-claimed by Satan.”
2. Realize The Adversary We Fight. Vs. 11
Let me help bring this point to life with something that General Macarthur wrote about called “The Requisites For Military Success” – there’s great wisdom here – if an army is going to win any battle there must be a belief in these 4 keys:
• There must be morale – unity around the will to win and a cause worth fighting for.
• There must be strength – teaching the fundamentals of training and equipment.
• There must be supplies – devotion to keep the lifeline available to the hose on the frontlines of battle.
• They must know their enemy – knowledge of the enemy’s strategy for a full victory.
Verse 11: “Wile” = methods or strategies, schemes (notice it’s plural)
“Devil” = slanderer
2 Corinthians 11:3 “But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.
Verse 12: Look who Satan enlists to scheme against us:
• “Principalities” = originating rulers, from the very beginning of angelic creation.
• “Powers” = authority to rule with jurisdiction. In the O.T. the word implies territorial authority.
• “Rulers” = cosmos ruler, supernatural forces (a word that has no Hebrew roots and used only in this verse)
• “Darkness” = implies distress, death, depression, anxiety, affliction
• “Spiritual wickedness” = literally “spirituals of the wickedness” – invisible spiritual beings rotten to the core! The deepest depravity.
Folks, don’t be fooled, this satanic ranking is Satan’s best going after God’s redeemed!
Now I realize that whenever we bring up the devil we have a tendency to go from one extreme to the next. Sometimes we ignore that Satan is an invisible spiritual being and I think we tend to make fun of him and think he’s only a fantasy along with Mickey Mouse and Spiderman!
I’m reminded of the prizefighter I heard about. He was in a boxing match of his life, and he was getting the tar beat out of him. He was beat to a pulp, his eyes and ears looked like cauliflower and blood was flowing from everywhere on his face.
At the end of the 2nd round he went to his corner and sat down as his manager doctored his wounds. Then his manager said, “Get back in there tiger, he hasn’t laid a glove on you.” At the end of the 3rd round the bloody boxer sat in his corner and the manager said, “Get back in there tiger, he hasn’t laid a glove on you.”
By the end of the 4th round nothing’s going right for the boxer, now his nose is broken and the bruised cuts are now open sores flowing with blood and sweat. As he sat in his corner again, the manager said, “Tiger get back in there, he still hasn’t laid a glove on you!”
This keeps up for 7 rounds and finally he stagers back to his corner looking like a fountain of blood. His manager again says, “Tiger get back in there, he still hasn’t laid a glove on you.” This time the bloody boxer yells out, “Then will you keep an eye on that referee, because someone out there is beating the daylights out of me!”
Folks, keep a look out on your life because Satan and his minions are real and they will knock the daylights out of us when we put our guard down! Just as some will dismiss spiritual warfare as a trip to Disneyland others develop spiritual warfare as the next Armageddon!
A church was having a potluck picnic last spring and the ladies all brought covered dishes. On super spiritual lady (you’ve seen them) she asked another lady what she brought and the lady said, “Well I brought my special deviled eggs!” Right then the super spiritual lady yelled, “I bind those eggs in Jesus name!” Then the lady who brought them said, “Bind them all you want, but they still taste good!”
Get it down in your thinking - Satan is devising a method of trickery to destroy our spiritual supremacy and diminish our joyful journey!
3. Realize The Advantage We Field. Vs. 11,13
“Put on the whole armor”
Next week we will look at this more in detail, but Paul reminds even the 21st century believer to take advantage of our position in Christ and keep the spiritual supremacy!
Literally Paul is saying, “Keep on putting the armor on by yourself!”
“Whole” = panoply of armor
In this spiritual warfare there is no cease fire, no vacation because Satan is never out of ammo! The moment we take off the “Breastplate of righteousness” and bang – we get hit right in the deepest part of our heart!
Take off the “Shield of faith” and wammo – we get hit by daily doubts, chaos and confusion. Take off the “Helmet of salvation” and zap – we are overwhelmed by fears of God, loss of salvation and the greatest theological mind becomes the biggest mental midget! And when we get casual about the “Sword of the Spirit” and POW – here comes the cults banging at our door confusing us about the Word of God, the Son of God and the power of God!
Remember, Satan is not invincible, but he is invisible, he’s not a respecter of God’s people, but he has to respect the blood over God’s people! He’s not fearful of the culture’s elite, but he is terrified of Calvary’s eternity! He’s not silent as a lamb around us, but he is speechless at the sound of the Lion of Judah! Satan may not listen to our demands; but let him hear again, “IT IS FINISHED!” Say it with me…
Remember the first “Gulf War”? Everyone thought Saddam Husain had such a powerful army with his so-called “Republican Guards”. Within 24 hours his best were surrendering to cameramen in the desert!
General Norman Swartzkouff has a news conference and said, “Saddam is neither a strategist or is he schooled in the art of warfare, nor is he a great soldier – other than that he’s a great military man.”
That says it best about the devil - is not omnipresent, omniscient or omnipotent but other than that - he’s a very powerful foe! It’s high time that we stop thinking about what the devil can do to us and instead what we can do to the devil!
I remember one summer night my daughter Dena had a girly night at our house. And it was about 10:00p.m and all of the sudden it sounded like WW3 broke out in her room! So I walked to her room and the door was open just a crack and WOW! Pillows are flying everywhere, stuffed animals look like Underdog flying through the air and clothes on every inch of the floor! IT WAS A FULL ON WAR ZONE!
BUT AS SOON AS I WALKED IN…
I’m here to remind you that as a believer in Christ – born again by the blood of the Lamb - you are walking authority!
Ephesians 2:6 “And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus.”NIV
Even though Satan has his captains, sergeants and generals positioned in the atmosphere – we are positioned in Christ and He seats us even higher than every one of them!
