The Real Battle

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Transcript:

We’re going to be in Ephesians chapter 6 tonight. Ephesians chapter 6. I personally know people who say, who have said for a while and have said recently, that religion is totally irrelevant to the problems that we face in the modern world.

That religion is irrelevant to the problems that we face as individuals. And when they say that, based on the context, I will say most religions are irrelevant. But when they say that based on the context, I know that what they mean is that Christianity is irrelevant to the challenges that we face in the modern world.

Because we look at things differently. They look at the Bible as a book of fairy tales, a book of things that people believed thousands of years ago that don’t have anything to do with our present day reality. But I look at the principles that are taught in this book and realize that there’s no more relevant book on the face of this earth to deal with the problems that we face.

And I’ve heard this charge made even in the last few weeks in the aftermath of Sutherland Springs. And we’ve talked a little bit about this on Wednesday nights, or at least the last two Wednesday nights. We’ve talked about the problem of evil.

And despite what people would have us to think, the problem of evil is still real in our modern world. I know we live in a postmodern time when people like to say, well, there are no absolutes. You know, who’s to say what’s right and wrong?

We all should just follow our own morality. But there are still some things that we pretty universally accept as right and wrong. Even those who reject God, who reject Christian morality, Most people, unless they’re just insane, admit that it was wrong for a lunatic to go shoot up a church in a small town in Texas.

Okay, we all agree on that. It was wrong for another lunatic to shoot up a concert in Las Vegas. It’s wrong every time a lunatic goes to a mall or a school or where have you.

We all admit that that’s wrong. We know instinctively it’s wrong. And that’s not by accident.

The Bible says that God’s law is written on the human heart. The Bible tells us that God’s law is found engraved on each of our hearts so that whether we recognize where it comes from or not, there’s part of God’s law that we instinctively know. That’s why, as I told you last Wednesday night, most cultures around the world agree that murder is wrong.

Now, we may have different definitions of what murder is, but in every society there exists the idea of the unjustified taking of human life. We recognize that’s wrong. When I say different definitions, I mean there are different groups of people who say, well, this is not murder because it’s a revenge thing, it’s an honor killing, this is a tribal retaliation thing, this is.

. . But on some level, we understand that there is a taking of human life that’s unjustified and that that’s wrong.

In most societies up until recently, we’ve considered adultery to be wrong. That being unfaithful to one’s spouse is a sin. That theft is wrong.

Even children understand this. If I walked up to either of these two and took the pen out of their hand, what do you think their response is going to be? That’s mine.

Give it back. You’re right. Because it’s theirs.

Actually, it may be Charlie’s, but it’s theirs right now because their hands are on it. And that’s their property. We realize that taking is wrong.

And all of these things are found in God’s moral law and they are written on the human heart. And the human condition, human nature has not changed since the days of creation. And God explains all throughout his word what that human nature is and what the remedy is for it.

And when you realize that, there is no book on this planet more relevant to the problems that we face as a society today than this Bible. It has the answers for all of our most basic problems. It has the principles that we use to address all of our most pressing challenges. Now, will it tell you the answer to the math problem, the problem on the math test?

No, probably not. Will it give you tax advice? No, other than don’t cheat.

Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s. That’s hard to swallow because I like the philosophy that taxation is theft, and yet God’s word says give to Caesar what is Caesar’s. So I have to put my political views under what God’s word says.

God’s word has the answers for the most pressing problems. For our spiritual problems, God’s word has the answers. And we live in a world that’s increasingly dark. And we started last week on Wednesday night looking at Romans chapter 1 and dealing with the problem of the darkness.

And in Romans chapter 1, Paul describes the darkness of the world, the darkness of the human condition, specifically when we reject God, and how there’s been this sort of downward spiral of mankind. And it started with the simple act of saying, no, God, we know better than you. And as we get further from God and further from God and further from God, things just break down more and more.

And he begins that chapter by explaining the solution. The solution is that we combat the darkness around us with the gospel. I think that’s incredibly relevant for us to understand tonight.

Because as we see things, as we see the world growing darker, as we see the culture growing more hostile toward Christianity, our first response is probably to fight and argue back. We see this, and maybe we do this on social media. They’re hostile toward us, and so we’re hostile back toward them.

You know, you’re foolish for believing in God. Well, you’re just an idiot, or you would believe in God. And that solves nothing, does it?

It may make us feel better in the moment, but it solves nothing. Our human instinct is to fight back, to fight fire with fire. Our human instinct, as we see darkness like these mass shootings around us, our human instinct is to prepare to fight back.

And by the way, speaking of the Bible’s relevance, I’m not telling you that there’s no such thing as self-defense in the Bible. Jesus told his disciples that there was going to be a day when they were going to be targeted and told them if they had two cloaks, if they had two coats, to go sell one and buy a sword. And I struggled for years with what God’s word says about, with what Jesus says about turning the other cheek.

If someone smites you on one cheek, turn the other cheek to them also. Until I realized just since I’ve been the pastor here, I’ve studied this, trying to resolve this, You know, because I think at some point you’ve got to protect the innocent. You’ve got to protect the vulnerable.

How do we do that if we just lay back and let people do whatever to us? And I realize that what he’s talking about is revenge. He’s saying don’t go and take revenge.

But he’s not saying don’t defend yourself. Okay? And that’s an important distinction for us to understand, too, as believers.

He did tell the disciples to defend themselves. He tells us to defend the weak and vulnerable among us. So I don’t believe the Bible teaches anything at all against self-defense.

It teaches against revenge. It’s the difference between stopping the gunman who’s shooting and going later to the gunman’s house after the shooting stopped and gunning down him and his whole family. There’s a difference.

One is biblical, one is not. But as we’ve talked about these things, there’s the human instinct to fight back in kind. When the Bible calls us to fight against the darkness with the gospel, And how do we do that, I think, is explained very well in the book of Ephesians chapter 6, if you have not already turned there.

Ephesians chapter 6, we’re going to spend the next couple of Sunday nights talking about the armor of God. But tonight, I want to look at an introduction to the idea of the armor of God. And you’ll realize as we go through this that most of these weapons that he describes are defensive weapons.

There’s one offensive weapon, which is the sword of the Spirit, the Word of God. Many of these are defensive weapons, but he explains the armor of God, but before he goes into an explanation of the armor of God, Paul explains the fight that we’re in. Paul explains the battle that we’re in.

We’re going to start looking at verse 10. He says, finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. You know, God’s Word never tells us to be passive.

It never tells us to just lay back and let things happen to us. As a matter of fact, I’ve been reading a book written by, I can’t remember his name, but a gentleman that works with focus on the family called Raising a Modern Day Knight. And one of the concepts that’s taught in there is that real men reject the idea of passivity.

And I think one of the problems with our society today is that men have given up the leadership role that they’re supposed to have in their families and just tend to let their children run amok while the wives try their best to hold everything together. And God never intended the woman to do it on her own. Okay?

Now, are there single mothers out there who do a great job? Yes, there are. But God intended the man to lead his children, not just let them run astray.

And the concept of this book is that men reject passivity. Men say, no, we’re not going to just sit back and let life happen. We’re going to take an active role, and we’re going to be strong, and we’re going to do the things that God called us to do.

I realize that’s not a popular message in today’s culture, where we’re taught that men are just totally evil. but God’s word tells us to be strong. Not only strong women, yes it tells that, but strong men as well.

People who will be strong in the Lord. I think it’s a good message for men and women. Stop sitting back and just letting things happen.

Be intentional and move forward and press on and be strong in the things that God has called you to do. He says, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. Let God strengthen us for the work that he’s called us to do.

And we each have a different calling. God has called men to do certain things. God has called women to do certain things.

God has called children to go to do certain things. God has called us to each of us to different ministries within the church and outside the church. Brother Ken has a different ministry in the church than I have.

Brother Greg has a different ministry, in the church, than brother Ken has. Miss Kay has a different ministry in The Church than we all have, but also outside the church. Julie has a different ministry than I have.

If I tried to go and engage those women in your quilting circle, I’d be the laughingstock of the group, wouldn’t I? I’d be the laughingstock of the quilting circle because I don’t know the first thing about it. I’d probably be the laughingstock of town, too, for trying to take up quilting.

They’d think there’s something wrong with me. Charla has a different ministry than I have. Even in our home, God has called us to a different ministry.

And thankfully, we have both of them because we’re never on the same page about we just need to kill these kids. Not literally. By the way, I record all these messages.

Not literally killing them. But, you know, there’s always one of us saying we need to bring the hammer down. And the other one says, no, grace in this situation.

And God seems to use that to bring us to a reasonable middle ground. But God has called each of us to a different ministry and a different ministry role. and whatever that is, don’t be passive about it.

Don’t just sit back. Don’t just watch the world grow dark around you. He says, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might.

Let God empower you to serve in the way that he’s called you to serve. And put on the whole armor of God, he says, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. Don’t just put on part of the armor.

Put on the whole thing. Put on the whole thing. You wouldn’t want to leave part of your body unprotected as you go into battle.

yesterday I tried to go find a deer and bring it home and Charlie was very excited about this and there’s very little I know about it other than what I’ve read and what I’ve studied and researched one thing I do know is that you’ve got to be fairly well hidden because if the deer see you they’re going to run away right because you’re the deer and I have different jobs my job is to kill the deer the deer’s job is to not get killed and the deer pretty good at this. The turkeys have gotten even better. The deer have gotten pretty good at this, so I need to be in camouflage.

Imagine if I put on part of my, so I bought over the last year, as stuff was going on clearance, I bought all this camouflage gear, and I had camouflage gloves, camouflage shirt, camouflage pants, camouflage jacket. I couldn’t wear a camouflage hat because it had to be orange. I mean, you pretty much just couldn’t see me yesterday, but imagine if I had put on part of my camouflage armor to go do battle against the deer.

Remember, my job is to kill them. Their job is to not be killed, and they did a better job than I did yesterday. I put on part of my camouflage armor to go out and do battle against them, and then I decided to wear pants that had jingle bells attached to them.

It’s not going to work, is it? There’s a weakness in my plan. There’s a weakness in my armor, because yeah, maybe I’m good from here up where they can’t see me, but they’re going to hear me coming a mile away.

And you notice when you’ve seen suits of armor from medieval times, I’m assuming most of you were not there to see it actually in action, but when you’ve seen pictures of it and paintings of it of knights in armor, you know what, they didn’t just put on the metal pants and go out into battle, did they? Riding into battle on their horse, wearing their metal pants, and then they’ve just got their linen stuff on from here up. That’s crazy.

The other guy is going to run you through with his sword. Now he says put on the full armor of God. And over the next few weeks we’ll see what that is.

But he says don’t just take this a little one piece here and one piece there. He says you’ve got to use the whole thing. If you want to do battle for the kingdom, if you want to fight back against the darkness with the gospel, if you want to protect yourself and those around you, you’ve got to put on the full armor.

So everything that he explains in here is necessary. And he says you need this so that you’ll be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. The devil is incredibly crafty and incredibly tricky.

I don’t care how tricky you are, how clever you are. He’s cleverer, okay? He’s trickier.

My children like to think that they’re clever and tricky. And I’ve told my wife and I’ve told my parents that sometimes I’m not sure which to be more upset about the lying or the fact that they’re so bad at it. Because we can see right through it.

But they think they’re clever. You know what? That’s how we are at this spiritual stuff.

We think, oh, the devil will never get me. I’m too smart for him. The devil will never catch me.

He’ll never send something my way that I’ll fall prey to. I’m much too smart for him. And I think sometimes the devil, this is not in the scriptures, but I think, this is my opinion, the devil probably laughs at us sometimes and says, I don’t know what’s funnier, the fact that they think that they can stand up to me or the fact that they’re so bad at it.

God said, put on the full armor, not the full armor of ourselves, but the full armor of God that we may be able to resist the wiles of the devil. He is wily and he is tricky. And you and I, there are some smart people in this room.

There are some people with far more common sense than I have too. There are some people who could trick me on some things. There are some people who have hidden snakes in my pulpit.

And they got me. But no matter how wily the people in this room may be, he’s wilier than you, Satan, the devil. If we’re to resist him, we need something stronger than just the armor, just the protection that I can provide myself.

We need the armor of God, and we need the full armor of God. And he explains the reason for this. He says, for we wrestle not against flesh and blood.

This verse comes to mind all the time, especially in the wake of the things that we’ve seen in the last few weeks. We wrestle not against flesh and blood. The first thought is that that lunatic, and I don’t even want to say his name.

I can’t think of a better title other than that lunatic in Texas. The people like that ought to be put down. We ought to deal with them as a society.

We need to do this. We need to do that. But really, the ultimate battle here is not with flesh and blood.

Yes, he walked into a church, and yes, he killed people, and yes, he should have to answer for that in a court of law. He has answered for that in the highest court of law that there ever will be, and God has already sentenced him better than man ever could. But ultimately, it’s not us against people like that.

It’s God versus Satan and all of mankind caught in the middle. You see, because God created us because he loved us and desired a relationship with us, Satan hates God because he wanted to be God and never could be God. And realizing he never could defeat God, he decided that the best way to hurt God was to hurt the people that God loves.

And so he has spent thousands of years ensnaring people, leading people astray, leading people to hurt one another and hurt themselves, all in an attempt to get revenge on God. And as much as this lunatic should pay for what he did, as much as he deserves for what he did, and as much as he is being repaid for what he did, I can’t help but think that what he needed more than anything is the grace of God. I know that’s not a popular thing to say.

I hope y’all aren’t mad at me for saying it. I remember I made some people mad a few years ago when I said we ought to be praying for Osama bin Laden’s salvation. That made some people mad.

But folks, our ultimate battle is not against flesh and blood, he says here, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. the Apostle Paul speaking under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit explains to us what the battle is here and I’m going to leave off with that verse tonight we’ll start with the next verse next week but we’ve got to understand starting there at verse 12 that our battle is spiritual not physical if we want to fight against the darkness that we see encroaching all around us folks the battle is not going to be won by physical means it’s not going to be won this took me a long time to understand and it’s not going to be won at the ballot box. It’s not going to be won by the bullet either.

Our first thought is when there’s a battle, well, we need to be better armed. We’re never going to defeat evil with the gun. Now, again, I’m not against self-defense.

I think it’s a great thing. And we may very possibly stop an evil act from occurring by somebody having a gun. But it doesn’t mean it’s going to eliminate all evil in the world.

And let me tell you this. I spent many years from the time I turned 18, the better part of a decade, thinking we would turn this country around and we would turn this country back to God if we could just convince enough people to vote Republican. That didn’t happen.

Because I look around and I get, the more politically involved I get, the more disgusted I get with my own party than I’ve ever been with the other one. We’re not going to win the battle against darkness with bullets or with ballots because it’s not a physical battle and it’s not a political battle. The battle against evil is a spiritual battle.

We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. And speaking on this verse, I heard my pastor say several times growing up that if they bleed, they’re not your enemy. That was a convicting statement and one that took several years to sink in.

But if they can bleed, they’re not my enemy. They may be working for the enemy, but they’re not the enemy. They may be ensnared by the enemy, but they themselves are not the enemy.

There is an enemy. There is a very real enemy. And he’s the spiritual ruler of the darkness of this world.

He’s God’s enemy. And he’s the one that’s trying to get back at God by hurting people. Folks, we have an enemy, and he’s very real, and his name is Satan.

But if they bleed, they’re not our enemy. And we’ve got to realize that our battle, as we look at all this darkness around us, it’s not this group or that group or that individual. It’s Satan. And we will never win the battle.

We will never have success in the battle if we can’t call the enemy by the rightful name, if we can’t identify the enemy for who they really are. Now, we’ve heard for years some of the loudest voices in our country explaining why we’ve had such what they would call limited success in the war on terror compared to the battle against ISIS, let’s put it that way. When in just a few short years we defeated fascism and Nazism, and they would tell us it’s because we’ve not called our enemy by its name.

In World War II, we had clarity. We understood who the enemy was. It was Hitler.

It was Mussolini. It was Hirohito. and it was their countries, it was those who fought under their flag and for their ideology wanting to enslave the world.

And much of the Western world has been afraid to admit for a decade that we’re at war against radical Islam. You can’t fight an enemy if you won’t identify the enemy. And as long as we call this group or that group or that individual our enemy and make them out to be the enemy of God or the enemy of the church, we’re fighting the wrong battle and we’re going to lose.

We’ve got to understand we are in a spiritual battle and there is one enemy and it’s Satan. He’s the one we’re battling against. Our enemy is Satan and not our fellow man. That builds off of the first point.

He says in verse 11, put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. He identifies who the battle’s against. We’re trying to stand against the wiles of the devil. We’re trying to stand against the traps that the devil sets for us.

Folks, we’re not trying to stand against the wiles of the atheists. We’re not trying to stand against The Wiles of the Mormons. We’re not trying to stand against the wiles of the Democrats or the wiles of the Republicans or the wiles of whatever group you want to fill out.

The wiles of my annoying neighbor, the wiles of your annoying relative, whatever it is. It’s the wiles of the devil. And by the way, that’s not an endorseman of what any of those groups believe.

I’m saying our battle is against Satan. Here’s case in point. I mentioned the Mormons.

By saying our battle is not against the Mormons, I’m not saying, you know, throw your arms around the Mormons and we all believe the same things and we’re all good. No, no. I believe the Mormon church teaches some very dangerous doctrines. They teach doctrines that are completely contrary to the gospel that was taught by Jesus Christ and the apostles.

The Mormon church teaches a gospel that will not lead anybody to heaven. But folks, here’s what we need to understand. Here’s where this plays out.

Our battle is not against the Mormon. Our battle is against the one who brought false gospels and false doctrines into the world and ensnared the Mormon. The Mormon is a soul that Jesus died for and is a soul that’s been blinded.

So our battle is not against the Mormon or the atheist or anybody else. Our battle is against Satan, not our fellow man. And as we fight this battle, our strength comes from God, not ourselves.

We look at verse 10, and he says, Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. You’ve got to be strong, and you’ve got to be prepared as you go into battle. But as we’ve seen, for those of you who are here when I did the series on Gideon, when I did the series on Gideon, he needed strength to go in and do battle against the Midianites, but he didn’t have enough of his own.

Gideon was not qualified in a traditional sense as somebody to lead a military campaign, but God equipped him and strengthened him to go and do battle. God called him to do it, and so God equipped him for it. God strengthened him, and God equipped him for it.

Well, God will do the same thing for us. If we go out and try to do spiritual warfare, if we go out and try to beat back the darkness around us with the gospel of Jesus Christ, and we try to do it on our own terms and under our own power, we will be unsuccessful. Now he says, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might.

Go with the strength that God sends you. Which means we need to be in prayer every day that God would strengthen us, that God would send us and that he would direct us and that he would help us to be obedient to what he’s called us to do. Folks, this is a battle that we can’t win on our own and that we can’t even really enter on our own.

But it’s a battle that God has called us to. And you better believe that if God has called you into it, God will equip you for it.

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