WELCOME TO THE WAR
Spiritual Warfare
Ephesians 6:10-12
We’re finishing a series on Ephesians,
Chapter 6.
Eph 6:10-14
Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.
Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.
For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. (NIV)
Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.
A woman got sick and tired of her husband always getting home late from work, after stopping by the local bar on the way, so he’s half drunk, so she decided to teach him a lesson. She dressed up like Satan and hid behind the front door, and when he walked in that evening she jumped out at him and screamed.
He just looked at her calmly and said, you don’t scare me. I married your sister.
The Bible says that all of us,
whether we like it or not,
are in a spiritual war,
and we have an enemy that is fighting us.
If you are a believer, If you are following Christ, and trying to obey God,
trying to do what’s right in your relationships, in your marriage, with your family in your workplace, then you have an enemy,
you can be sure that Satan is after you.
Now most of us would say,
I don’t want to fight anyone.
I just want to be left alone.
Maybe you’d say,
I’m not even sure if I believe in Satan,
I’m not even sure if I believe in a literal devil,
who goes around trying to wreck people’s lives.
I don’t know if I believe that Satan can actually affect my life,
so maybe if I just ignore this whole area of spiritual warfare,
and if I just ignore the devil,
maybe he’ll just leave me alone,
because I don’t want to fight.
I’m sorry to say that
you don’t have a choice.
1 Peter 5:8 says, Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. (NIV)
There’s a notice from the Alaska Dept. of Fish and Game,
that warns hikers and campers to be on the alert for bears
in the Alaskan wilderness.
It advises hikers to wear noisy little bells on their clothing,
so that they don’t stumble on a bear and startle him,
and also advises hikers to carry pepper spray in case they do encounter a bear.
The warning goes on to say,
It is also a good idea to recognize the difference between black bear and grizzly bear droppings. Black bear droppings are smaller and may contain berries and squirrel fur. Grizzly bear droppings contain little bells and smell like pepper.
This verse tells us,
Be alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.
Spiritual warfare is not an option in the Christian life.
You’ve got an enemy who is out to get you,
and if you ignore him
you’re just making his job easy.
I think the church in past generations had a better awareness of this battle.
When I was growing up we used to sing the hymn, ONWARD CHRISTIAN SOLDIERS?
all the time.
Remember that one?
It goes like this…
Onward, Christian soldiers, marching as to war, with the cross of Jesus going on before. Christ, the royal Master, leads against the foe; forward into battle see his banners go! At the sign of triumph Satan’s host doth flee; on then, Christian soldiers, on to victory! Hell’s foundations quiver at the shout of praise; brothers, lift your voices, loud your anthems raise.
The fact is,
If you are a believer you are involved in spiritual war. and it’s a war that you have to fight.
no one else can fight the battle for you.
In this war there are no civilians
who can sit at home and send the marines off
to fight the battles for them.
You’re in the battle and whether you like it or not
we have to fight.
We can’t just ignore spiritual warfare.
When we try to ignore the devil,
or ignore the fact that we’re in a spiritual war,
its like a little child covering his eyes and going
You can’t see me, You cant find me.
The devil doesn’t go away just because we don’t believe in him,
and he won’t leave us alone just because we leave him alone.
In spiritual warfare, ignorance is not bliss.
Ignorance can lead to
bondage and defeat, and pain in our lives.
A few years ago a book came out called
This Present Darkness, by Frank Peretti
It became a bestseller,
and it described in graphic detail the invisible war between angels and demons,
that we can’t see but goes on all around us.
And in the book he described these huge angels with flaming swords,
that vaporized 5 demons at a time.
Well, we don’t know what that battle really looks like,
but we do know from the bible that there is a great cosmic invisible struggle between good and evil, between light and darkness, between God and Satan.
The casualties of that war
are men, women, boys and girls,
and people all over Hamilton and Fairfield or whatever town you live in.
--Max Lucado ------
I was in an emergency room late one night last week. Victims of Satan filled the halls. A child—puffy, swollen eyes. Beaten by her father. A woman—bruised cheeks, bloody nose. "My boyfriend got drunk and hit me," she said, weeping. An old man—unconscious and drunk on a stretcher. He drooled blood in his sleep. I’m convinced that Satan stalks today causing hunger in Cambodia . . . confusion in the Mideast . . . the egotism on the movie screen . . . the apathy in Christ’s church. And Satan giggles among the dying.
The first point about Spiritual Warfare is:
1. Our War is Real.
In v. 11 Paul says, Our struggle.
The fact is, all of us are involved in this War between God and the enemy.
People’s ideas about Satan usually fall in one of two extremes.
On one extreme there are those who don’t believe in the supernatural.
These people say,
I only believe what I see,
and they can’t envision any life beyond the physical plane. These people usually see Satan as a symbol of evil, not an actual evil being.
Its like the story about the two little boys who were talking about the lesson after Sunday School. They’d been studying about the devil, and Joey said to his friend Johnny, "Do you believe that stuff about the devil? Do you think there really is a devil?" Johnny thought a minute, and said, "Naah -- it’s just like Santa Claus -- it’s your dad.
A lot of people believe that the devil is just a symbol of evil.
This is a fairly popular idea even among Christians nowadays.
And let me tell you,
Satan likes that.
He likes it when Christians don’t believe in him,
because then he can mess up their lives all day long
and they won’t even realize he’s around.
Let me just ask you this morning,
If you’re one of these people that would say, I’m not sure,
I don’t know if I really believe in the devil or not.
I’d have to be convinced,
If that’s where you are this morning,
that’s OK, I just ask that you keep an open mind,
and just listen to what the Bible says about this,
because the Bible teaches an awful lot about the devil and his demons.
So I just ask that you keep an open mind.
Now on the other extreme are those who blame the devil for everything.
These folks see a demon behind every bush and around every corner. They cast demons
out of crashed computers and faulty traffic lights!
And if their kids get bad grades at school,
they say, get out, you bad grade demon.
I’m exaggerating a little,
but this can obviously be taken too far.
Every time I sin,
its not necessarily because I’ve got a demon in me,
or even that I have a demon whispering in my ear,
trying to tempt me.
Sometimes I sin just because I have bad habits,
or I’m in a bad mood,
or I just don’t feel like doing what’s right.
And I don’t need any demon to tempt me,
I just decide to sin
(thank you very much).
So there’s a balance here.
There is a devil and demons,
and they are active today,
but they’re not responsible for every sin we commit
or everything that goes wrong around us.
So somewhere in the middle between these too extremes,
is the biblical reality.
The Bible teaches that
Satan and his demons are alive and well on planet earth.
In fact, Jesus and his disciples both spent a good percentage of their ministry time casting out demons.
They recognized back then,
that they were in a spiritual war with the enemy,
and we’re still at war today.
So our war is Real.
2. Our War is Personal.
Notice the word "struggle" in v. 12. That word in Greek means hand to hand combat, elsewhere its interpreted as wrestle.
This isn’t a case where you stand back with a sniper rifle and take pot shots at the enemy, or you’ve got artillery lobbing shells at the enemy, but you can’t really see who you’re shooting at,
No, this is up close and personal,
down in the dirt, hand to hand,
blood, sweat and tears. This is a personal fight for each of us.
"Wrestle" doesn’t mean like Professional wrestling
where its mostly a show,
and they stop the match after time is up.
Here its talking about a fight to the death.
When Paul wrote this letter to the Ephesians,
the gladiators were fighting in the colosseum in Rome, and they didn’t stop till one of them was dead.
And whether you realize it or not, everyday you are locked in a personal battle with a spiritual enemy.
And everyday the enemy tries to get a new hold on you or attack some weak area.
Max Lucado writes: "(Satan) is the master of the trapdoor and the author of weak moments. He waits until your back is turned. He waits until your defense is down. He waits until the bell has rung and you are walking back to your corner. Then he aims his arrow at your weakest point and...Bullseye! You lose your temper. You lust. You fall. You take a drag. You follow the crowd. You rationalize. You say yes. You sign your name. You forget who you are. You walk into her room. You look in the window. You buy the magazine. You lie. You covet. You stomp your feet and demand your way. You deny your Master.
It’s David disrobing Bathsheba. It’s Adam accepting the fruit from Eve. It’s Abraham lying about Sarah. It’s Peter denying that he ever knew Jesus. It’s Noah, drunk and naked in his tent. It’s Lot, in bed with his own daughter. It’s your worst nightmare. It’s sudden. It’s sin." You need to be aware
that your enemy personally fights to cause you to be proud instead of humble, filled with lust instead of love,
walking in darkness rather than light, in foolishness instead of wisdom, in anger instead of self-control, in bitterness instead of joy, and drunk with alcohol instead of being filled with the Spirit,
Our war is real, its personal,
3. Our War is Supernatural.
Paul further says that our war is not against flesh and blood, but against …. the spiritual forces of evil
You can’t fight a spiritual battle with conventional weapons.
You can’t fight supernatural forces like you’d would fight a mere man.
That’s why v. 10 says we are to "be strong IN THE LORD and in THE POWER of His MIGHT."
You can’t control a flood with a flame-thrower. Flames have no effect on a wall of water.
You can’t put out a forest fire with a squirtgun. that will not stop it.
In the same way we can’t fight a spiritual fight with earthly tactics.
One of the reasons we lose the fight so often is that we try to win in our human strength.
The truth is. If you try to resist evil in your human strength you will always lose!
Because our war is not just real, and personal,
its supernatural.
4. Our War is Against Powerful Enemies.
The last part of v. 12 describes Satan’s army.
And Paul here, describes the ranks and organization of these invisible supernatural evil forces.
He says there are rulers, authorities, powers, and spiritual forces of evil
And he says
They inhabit the "heavenly realms,"
That doesn’t mean they live in heaven
in God’s presence,
where Christ is seated at the Fathers right hand,
It means they inhabit the invisible spiritual world.
These designations of ranks suggest
that Satan’s forces are organized in a hierarchy
with different ranks and different authority.
So we have powerful enemies in a disciplined army.
and they are constantly in battle against you and me. They want to hurt us, and destroy us if possible.
If they can’t do that, they’ll settle for ruining our lives with broken homes, addictions, bitterness, despair, depression, etc…
What do we know about Satan?
A. Satan is temporarily powerful.
Now He’s not as powerful as God is. God is Creator. Satan is a creation.
But, he is a powerful creation. and he temporarily dominates the world.
1 John 5:19
We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one.
In John 12:31
Jesus called him "the prince of this world"
Ephesians 2:2 calls him the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.
So we see that Satan is temporarily powerful.
He’s been allowed by God
to have authority on earth for a period of time,
and until that time is up,
he is a powerful enemy of ours.
Now Satan is not all-powerful like God is,
and he’s not all knowing like God is,
for example he doesn’t know your thoughts,
and he doesn’t know the future like God does
Satan is also not omnipresent like God.
God is present everywhere at once,
You can’t go anywhere that God is not,
but Satan can only be in one place at a time.
So when we say that we’re being tempted by the devil,
its probably not Satan that is actually tempting us,
its one of his demons.
Because Satan can only be in one place at a time,
and he’s probably not going to spend much time on little fish like you and me,
but he’s got demons that can.
Satan also knows that he can’t fight against God and win,
Satan doesn’t have anything near the power God does.
Satan has never directly fought God.
For him to try to fight God would be like an ant climbing up on my shoulder and saying, come on Ken, lets fight.
I can hardly see the ant.
I can’t fight him, if I did he’d immediately be squashed.
Satan can’t fight God.
So because He can’t do anything to God, instead he chooses to attack whats precious to God... Us.
Satan can’t get to God but he can get to us.
So he’s temporarily powerful,
and he temporarily dominates the world.
The 2nd thing we know about Satan,
2. Satan is completely evil.
One of the doctrines that theologians teach about in seminary,
is the doctrine of Total Depravity.
That just means that,
No one has to teach people to sin. No one has to teach a child to be selfish,
we don’t have to teach brothers and sisters to fight with each other,
or to tattle on each other,
or hit each other when they’re mad.
They pick that up naturally.
We’re all depraved, or sinful from the start.
However, that doesn’t mean that we are as bad we could be. We always have room for "deprovement" we can always get worse.
Granted, some humans fall to a deeper level of evil than others,
but we could always get worse:
But the devil could never get worse.
NO person has ever fallen to Satan’s level. because Satan is completely evil. He has no conscience, no compassion, and no remorse.
He feeds on pain and suffering. He delights in anguish and filth.
He’s completely evil.
Third we know that:
3. Satan is terribly cunning.
V. 11 speaks of the schemes of the devil.
When I was 19 years old,
I’d just finished my first year at the Naval Academy,
so in July they flew me out to San Diego to go on a 7 week training cruise
on one of the Navy ships stationed out of San Diego.
The second night in San Diego I had some free time,
so I went downtown to see the city, with a couple friends.
Late in the evening we’re sitting in a fast food joint that’s pretty well deserted,
and this guy comes over to us.
And he started doing the shell game con on us,
and I fell for it.
He had his act down, he was really good,
and I got pulled into his little scheme,
and I lost 20 bucks.
It was a good lesson, and it taught me not to be so naïve.
12 years later, I’m in New York city, on a business trip for GE,
and after work I didn’t have anything to do,
so I walked over to broadway to catch a play.
On the way there, I saw a cluster of guys all gathered around on the street corner, and I looked to see what was going on,
and they were doing the shell game con
right there on the street corner.
There were about 4 local guys, and they were trying to con these 3 other guys who were obviously not from New York – they looked like they must be from somewhere down south -- cowboy boots, etc.
And I could tell these 3 southerners were buying it, hook line and sinker, they were watching those little cups really close. I knew they were going to lose some money quickly if they hadn’t already.
So I quietly walked up next to the southerner who was closest to the outside of the little group, and I quietly told,
Hey, they’re trying to con you, don’t be fooled.
Well, one of the local guys heard me, and so he came up to me and said,
guys have gotten hurt before for less than that.
At that point I decided it was time to move on and go see the play.
So I did.
The point is, once I got fooled once,
there was no way I was going to get fooled again,
at least not by the same scheme.
Well, Satan is terribly cunning,
but he’s only got a few basic schemes,
and if you know what they are,
they shouldn’t fool you too many times.
Let’s look at 3 of his schemes:
Scheme #1: DIVERSION.
The devil is a master at hiding behind the scenes
and disrupting our lives,
without ever letting us know that he’s involved.
When he attacks us we often don’t even realize that it is him… so we blame other people
we blame circumstances, or we even blame God.
We think it’s a coincidence that
Just when we’re trying to make a good change in our lives,
maybe we’re trying to improve our marriage,
or quit smoking,
or spend more time with the kids,
or spend consistent time every day with God,
reading the Bible and praying,
Or whenever we try to make good changes in our lives,
We think it’s a coincidence that all the sudden little things start to go wrong,
and everyone’s in a bad mood at work,
and you fight with your husband or wife at home,
or suddenly you have really strong temptations to do something you know you shouldn’t,
and before you know it, you’re stressed out
and anxious and upset.
But we think its just a coincidence.
when many times it’s actually the enemy
doing whatever he can to disrupt our lives.
but he’s tricky, so we don’t know its him.
Satan can see when we’re trying to make good changes in our lives or in our relationships,
and he doesn’t want that,
so he uses his schemes of diversion,
to distract us from doing what’s good,
without us ever knowing that its him doing it.
Scheme #2: DIVISION.
Satan’s motto is divide and conquer. He knows that we can’t fight the enemy
if we’re fighting each other.
So he tries to divide us over little things.
This scheme hurts families,
it hurts friends,
it hurts the church.
Satan tries to cause division among people.
Scheme #3: DECEPTION.
2 Corinthians 4:4 describes Satan as "the god of this age" who has "blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ.
Some 80 years ago, Notre Dame football coach Knute Rockne was preparing them to face USC, and he knew that USC was a far superior team that year.
But he had one thing going for him it was a home game. So he had an idea. He searched all over the city for about a hundred of the biggest men he could find, each at least six-foot-five and 300 pounds or more, he put them all in Notre Dame uniforms.
With the shoulder pads and the helmets, they looked even bigger.
Then, when it was time for the game to begin, he sent these men out of the locker room first. As the USC team watched, they just kept coming, and coming, and coming until these hundred men were all the USC team saw. The USC coach kept telling his team, “
They can only field eleven men at a time.” But the damage was done. None of these men ever played one minute of the game. But USC had become so intimidated at the sight of them that they were completely psyched out, and Notre Dame won the game.
Satan is called the great deceiver,
and he’ll use deception to intimidate you too,
if you let him.
He deceives people and blinds people
by trying to make them believe lies.
Lies about who God is,
lies that God doesn’t really exist,
that He doesn’t really love us,
that he isn’t really a loving Father,
that Jesus isn’t really his son,
He tries to make us believe lies about other people,
and about ourselves.
and he deceives us.
So those are 3 of his Schemes,
Now lets talk about
Our POWER in Spiritual Warfare
and we’ll get into this more in the next few weeks.
a. The Enemy defeats us when We rely on our own Power.
If you are trusting in your own power and strength, you are issuing the devil an invitation to beat you up!
The easiest thing for us to do when we face some difficulty, temptation or struggle is to deal with it on our own.
But if you’re thinking, "I can handle it on my own" you’ve already lost and you don’t even know it.
b. We defeat the enemy when We rely on God’s Power.
When I was in the Navy in my early twenties,
I used to take pride in how tough I was,
in the fact that I once ran 50 miles in 8 hours,
or the fact that I could do 120 situps in 2 minutes,
or that I could do 30 chinups in a row,
or other things that really don’t seem too important now.
But of course we’re told from the time we’re kids,
"You should be tough, be strong."
But Paul says, "Be strong IN THE LORD."
Paul is saying,
if you want to defeat the enemy in this war,
you need to be strong IN THE LORD? Because God is greater than Satan is! 1 John 4:4 says, "…He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world."
If God’s in me, then I’m stronger than Satan.
Remember the scene in Exodus 7 when Moses and Aaron went before the Pharaoh. Aaron threw his staff down and it became a snake. Pharaoh’s magicians said,
we can do that too.
So they managed to do some magic tricks
and turned their staffs into snakes so now there’s snakes galore. Snakes all over the place.
But then what happened.
Then Aaron’s snake ate up all the others!
God was with Aaron,
so he was stronger.
God’s the only one with real power.
The fact is,
Satan has already been defeated.
Jesus defeated Satan at the cross!
Colossians 2:14-15 tells how
Jesus took our guilt of sin and "nailed it to the cross. Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it."
Jesus defeated the enemy,
through his death on the cross.
In other words, he took away Satan’s power over us.
And now the Bible says,
At mere mention of the name of Jesus,
the demons of hell tremble. James 2:19 says, "The demons believe and tremble!"
So Satan is ultimately defeated,
and because we are in Christ, we know that we will have ultimate victory.
But here and now we still have to fight.
So don’t trust your own strength. Be strong in the Lord. Find your strength in Him!
So how do you find your strength in God
for PROTECTION in Spiritual Warfare?
1. Our Protection Requires Putting on the Armor of God.
Paul says that we are to "put on the full armor of God."
The "armor of God" is just a picture
of the different parts of the Christian life
that help us live for God.
There are certain things we can do,
and certain things we can depend on
and put our trust in,
that will protect us in this spiritual warfare.
1. Our Protection Requires Putting on Armor.
2. Our Protection Requires Making a Stand.
Jack Handey tells a story - he says,
"There used to be this bully who would demand my lunch money every day. Since I was smaller, I would give it to him. "Then I decided to fight back. I started taking karate lessons, ----but the instructor wanted $5 a lesson. That was a lot of money. I found that it was cheaper to pay the bully, so I gave up karate."
God tells us we don’t have to pay the bully any more.
We can stand up to him.
The word stand here,
is a military term that refers to holding a critical position in a battle… making a stand.
There comes a point at which we need to say
Okay, Satan, you’ve beat me up enough,
you’ve torn up my family enough,
you’ve messed up my relationships enough,
or you’ve kept me from joy and peace,
and you’ve kept me stressed out enough,
I’m not going to put up with it any more.
You’ve taken all the territory in my life that you’re going to get.
I’m making a stand,
and from this point on, you’re going to lose.
You’ve got to make a stand,
and quit getting pushed around.
Eph 6:13-14
Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.
Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist,
Notice,
He tells us 3 times in a row, to stand.
The Bible is making a point here.
Its time to stop running away,
its time to stop ignoring the devil
or pretending he doesn’t exist,
or hoping that he’ll leave you alone,
and its time to stand your ground.
Stand up and fight.
Its time to make a stand and take back what the enemy has stolen from your life.
Quit running away and stand.
There’s 2 keys to making a stand:
1. Remember that we have been delivered.
Colossians 1:13 "He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love."
We’re delivered from any power
the devil ever had over us.
The only hold Satan has on you is what you give him. If you don’t give him anything,
he’s already lost.
And when we live a life,
filled with God’s Spirit and living in holiness and peace and humility,
by forgiving others,
and asking forgiveness.
If you live like that, Satan can’t find a place to attack you,
he can’t find a foothold,
and he’s going to lose every time he tries to attack you,
so eventually he’ll get tired and go find an easier target.
James 4:7 says, Submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.
The 2nd way to stand, is
2. Remember we are strongest when we are weakest.
God said to Paul in 2 Corinthians 12:9, "My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness."
Paul then said, in verse 9 and 10
I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me…... For when I am weak, then I am strong.
When we depend completely on God that’s when we are the most secure.
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn the great Russian author, was asked to speak at Harvard University at their commencement ceremony,
He gave a classic speech ….
". . . the fight for our planet, physical and spiritual, a fight of cosmic proportions, is not a vague matter of the future; it has already started. The forces of Evil have begun their decisive offensive. You can feel their pressure, yet your screens and publications are full of prescribed smiles and raised glasses."
He’s saying, recognize people,
that there’s a spiritual war,
its real, and we’re all part of it.
Let me close with one last verse, Romans 16:19-20 (MSG Paraphrase)
Stay alert …. and before you know it the God of peace will come down on Satan with both feet, stomping him into the dirt. Enjoy the best of Jesus!
And that’s the real key.
We want to enjoy the best of Jesus,
and the real life that he has to offer,
not just eternal life, but a great life here and now.
How do you get that life?
Not thru religion, but thru a relationship with Jesus.
Some of you this morning may not be sure that you have a personal relationship with God, thru Jesus.
I’m not talking about a religion,
where you show up at church and obey the rules,
and try to do your best.
That won’t do it.
You need a personal relationship with God.
You need to know him personally,
by inviting him to be the boss in your life.
STAND and PRAY
