Spiritual Warfare — Part One

the following message by Alistair beg is made available by truth for life for more information visit us online at truth for invite you to turn to Ephesians in chapter 6 and we'll read from verse 10 to verse 20 Fijian 6 and verse 10 finally be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might put on the whole armour 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 therefore take up the whole armour of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day and having done all to stand firm stand therefore having fastened on the belt of truth and having put on the breastplate of righteousness and a shoes for your feet having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace in all circumstances take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit which is the word of God praying at all times in the spirit with all prayer and supplication to that end keep alert with all perseverance making supplication for all the saints and also for me the words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel for which I am an ambassador in Chains that I may declare it boldly as I ought to speak and then the prayer Lord open our eyes open our hearts open my lips to declare your praise for Jesus sake amen well we find ourselves now at the tenth verse in our studies and that what is obviously the concluding section of Ephesians you will notice that verse 10 begins with the word finally when preachers use that word finally when you're sitting out there it's usually an indication that they're about to go on for some considerable time and that is also true here of Paul in a sense what he's saying is now in light of that or henceforth in final application of all that is being said so I say this because we're not going to hurry through this material we're not going to try and make a rush to the end because it is vitally important that we come to terms with it and for that ring in that respect what I want to do today is essentially a reconnaissance mission flying as it were over this material at a height of about thirty thousand feet in a way that isn't routinely the case if you miss this evening then you will miss this because I can only get so far in the fly over in the in the morning I say that not to try and induce others to attendance but to be very honest with you the prevailing notion of course in our secular culture regarding the things that we're confronted with here the prevailing notion is at least skepticism perhaps even a total disregard for the ideas that Paul is addressing the notion of a devil the idea of demonic personal intelligent forces and so on and yet at the same time as people find it easy to either poke fun at the idea or to disregard it entirely they continue to make movies about these very subjects and throughout the period of my life and your life to that we were confronted not in my case viewing it but with movies like The Exorcist or Rosemary's Baby or the witch or The Omen and so on and what are the questions that we must inevitably ask is why the preoccupation with these things why the interest in these things unless of course the very source of the preoccupation is an indication of the reality of the one about whom contemporary man likes to make fun in 1978 the 25th of November 1978 The Economist magazine ran an article under the heading is Satan dead the reason I know that is because I read it and having read it I filed it which was the way in which I could bring it out just now it's a very good article if you want to google it as I say The Economist November 25th 78 and it was on the heels of the mass suicide of the James John cult who all took their lives in Guyana and the writer of the article is expressing the fact that in the vacuum that has been created in and he's thinking expressly in British terms in the vacuum that has been created by the increasing decline in the influence of Christianity he views that in terms of attendance at church and numbers of young people involved and so on he says what what we've had then is the the vacuum and then the desire for people to fill that vacuum because you know as Dostoevsky said you know when people cease to believe in God they don't believe in nothing they start to believe in everything and the writer goes on to point out that in secular terms in terms of secular philosophy here we are in the late 70s the influence of Lenin and Stalin and Mao and Marx himself at that point had really begun to lose their appeal as well and he says of course what then happens is it's going to be filled with something and he says that when the quest for something takes place nobody knows where that's going to end and he says it explains this quest and this amazing engagement explains some of the appalling dismaying embarrassing things that have already happened from the Manson murders to the Guyana mass suicide by way of the intellectual dishonesty of some of the instant transcendental meditation cults and he says but perhaps there is more to come perhaps there is worse to come this is 1978 some of you weren't even born I was 26 what happened in Jonestown Guyana is a ghoulish cautionary tale for all these different people who in these differing ways are seeking God in a secular world in here's the sentence in that search for God it is all too easy to blunder into the arms of Satan himself and he concludes his piece is Satan not dead after all for if Satan in some sense is not dead that implies that God is not either now here we are all these years later and that which was so staggering in 78 has repeated itself again and again and again and when we turn to the Bible we discover that the Bible is alert to these things that the evil one is at his wiliest he's most skillful in his scheming when he succeeds in persuading people that he doesn't actually exist he then may be a figure of fun a conjecture of the imagination but he is not a reality there is one thing for a secular world to have that perspective what makes it all the more challenging and dangerous is the fact that within the framework of the church big see that within the framework of the church little is known about the devil little is known about the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places because you remember that is how Paul has begun his letter if you turn back a couple of pages to the way in which he begins his letter he's addressing not the man on the street in Ephesus because the man on the street in Ephesus would think this was absolute nonsense the way the man on the street in Cleveland thinks it's nonsense this is for the believer who has been verse 3 of chapter 1 blessed in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places now notice that phrase because what Paul is making clear now as he comes to Ephesians 6 is that that is the realm in which this great spiritual battle is being fought because the same grace that reconciles a man or a woman to God and taggin eise's that man or woman to the evil one to Satan so that we then find ourselves immediately engaged in what the Westminster Confession refers to as a continual and irreconcilable war if you think about it when we say the Lord's Prayer together it makes sense of one of the phrases in the prayer doesn't it where Jesus says to his disciples and you should pray this leaders not into temptation but deliver us from evil or as it may equally be translated but deliver us from the evil one deliver us from the evil one that that is a prayer for a Christian to pray why because Peter who was on the receiving end of that instruction for Jesus when he writes to his readers in his first letter reminds them that the devil is a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour therefore he says you need to know that and your response to it needs to be resist him firm in your faith now again you see what faith faith in the Lord Jesus Christ so that my faith in the Lord Jesus Christ has now introduced me to a battleground I find that immensely helpful just to ponder that for a moment you know when I think about trying to play rugby a Grammar School in England and being so fearful in it all and being miserable at it you know there's no point in me coming home and telling my dad you know people were throwing me on the ground and jumping on me and everything you know like your father said well is that a surprise why would that be a surprise that's what rugby's called you know that's what they do to you if you get involved in that well that's the point that is being made here now in what context well in every circumstances as we'll see later on but verse 10 follows verse 9 and verse 9 follows verse 8 and if you track back up through the beginning of the chapter and back into the fifth chapter you will rehearse what we have been dealing with for the last couple of months and that is what the practical implications of the Christian life lived in the realm of marriage in the home and in the workplace and it is in that context that Peter that that Paul now goes on to say and I need to let you folks know that the spiritual warfare in which you find yourselves engaged it's not a warfare that exists outside the realm of these things but it is a warfare that is there in the midst of them thereby reminding us that we would be foolish if we were to be naive concerning the desires and designs for our great enemy about whom we have just sang with Martin Luther we would be naive to think that his desires and designs would leave us with a pass when it comes to marriage or to family or to work and to do so would be to give to him an opportunity which Paul has said in 27 of for make sure you do not give him an opportunity one of the ways to give him an opportunity is to say well this will never happen to me or this would never be a concern for me you ever wonder why it is that sometimes in your marriage it just seems like a royal war he didn't mean to say that and having said it when you should have said sorry it just says no I'm gonna back it up and it was all my all my doing was all my doing this is not Tom Sawyer that devil made me do it I did it every sin is an inside job every time I say and I sin but in the midst of the world in which I live and you live as a Christian believer that are dark demonic spiritual intelligent forces that are seeking to undermine to destabilize to cause absolute chaos within your marriage within your family and within your work that's what Paul is saying and that's why I want to fly over this today before we consider the details let's just fly by first of all let's consider the fight or the war or the struggle or whatever you want to call it spiritual warfare look at verse 12 we do not wrestle against flesh and blood but against the spiritual against the authorities and the cosmic powers and so on so in other words the conflict in which we find ourselves rather than being a denial of our faith is actually in a strange way and evidence of our faith I hope none of us have fallen foul of the kind of teaching that says you know if you trust in Jesus and become a follower of Jesus you never have to fly in turbulence again or you can fly up way up with with the Gulfstream's you fly way above it all that's the great benefit of being in Jesus if anybody has told you that I hope you have very kindly nudged them in the ribs at least and said well what world are you living in because clearly the world that I live in it's not that way at all in fact I've discovered this since I became a follower of Jesus that turbulence has apparently increased fresh air turbulence clear skies and yet seat belts on why is this because we are no longer Ephesians 2:2 the sons of disobedience we have been transferred from that we are no longer in the kingdom of darkness we've been transferred to the kingdom of light we are no longer following the ways of the Prince of the evil age we are now followers of Jesus we are no longer in his camp we are in Christ's Kingdom and having been placed in that Kingdom we now find ourselves in this intense struggle not against human beings but demonic forces demonic intelligences now let's dispose and acknowledge that our immediately to dangers when we read this and think about it one is that we just set it aside and deny it we say well theoretically I suppose or this is a wonderful metaphor of a fact that life is difficult and thereby actually denying the reality of what the Bible is teaching or on the other hand we become amazingly preoccupied with it and you will find out there are people whose whole existence is is explaining all the time what the devil is doing the devil did this the devil did that the devil did the next thing and so on and sometimes it's just a scapegoat just an ability to say it wasn't actually me it was him when as I've just acknowledged to you every sin is an inside job now the great danger is that were ignorant of what is an objective fact the objective fact being the existence of the devil who is an adversary who is an accuser and who has a complete array of fiery darts at his disposal that's what the Bible says now one of the ways in which we can always test something when someone is saying well would you look at this this is in the Bible it's to ask the question well how does this theory work in relationship to Jesus so it was a very good question when someone says to you say well how would that work in relationship to Jesus well let's go to the beginning of the Ministry of Jesus Mark's Gospel begins the time is fulfilled the kingdom of God is at hand repent and believe the good news and what's the very first thing that happens he is opposed he faces temptation in the wilderness he goes into the temple precincts and he is opposed by demonic forces there well then if it was true of Jesus why would we be surprised if it was true of the followers of Jesus they go all the way back to the beginning of the Bible what happens in the in the beauty and purity of God's creation is that the rebellious angel who's cast out of heaven who appears as a serpent in the garden immediately attacks their marriage immediately causes chaos with the kids Cain kills his brother immediately sours the whole process of work which is a gift from God and so work becomes full of thorns and thistles and toil and sweat and everything else it's all broken and behind that brokenness is the one who is identified here by Paul in Ephesians 6 now the word that is used here and it's translated wrestle in our text verse 12 I think in the NIV by memory it was struggle but that's just memory for we do not wrestle in other words it is descriptive of of hand-to-hand combat some of you have been wrestlers and well I shouldn't really say anything because I admire you greatly but I have not the remotest interest in participating you say well you because someone will destroy you tie you up like a pretzel and put you out behind the building okay I get that point entirely but why would you want to be that close to another man I don't get that at all that is bizarre to me it's not it's this is not chess at arm's length this is hand-to-hand stuff right that's the word that is used here because that kind of wrestling was in Greece and was in Rome at any should have left it in Greece and Rome but that's another matter all-together but the evil one then comes in that kind of engagement he comes to sneak up on us he comes to ambush us he comes to grab ahold of us and when he grabs all of us he comes to insinuate he whispers in your ear he comes to intimidate he's the ultimate bully he comes to whisper in your ear some things that you can't even believe you would ever think that have you been a Christian any length of time at all you know what it is to be in to use the turbulence illustration again to be flying at 35,000 feet in a clear clear day and all of a sudden to hit it and drop 150 feet in an instant you say where did that thought come from I was singing a hymn how could I think such a thought I didn't engender the thought it wasn't a process he was like a fiery dart it was a fiery dart and then he comes to you and he says I can't believe you even had that thought back I mean you're the preacher and the singer and you're thinking that stuff what's the answer to that that's this evening this is the overview says my friends sink there were not aware how or why we face times of temptation stress conflict and evil pressure there is little doubt that some of our irrational thoughts fears and doubts should be traced to the ambush in which Satan heights I need to say this to you again you need to understand the sphere in which this is taking place in verse 20 of chapter one he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead seated him and seated us with him all right so we have been raised there and then verse six he raised us up with him of chapter two and seated us with him and then in verse 12 of chapter six and here we are wrestling against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places okay that's the fight or the struggle from struggle to strategy what is the strategy of the believer in these circumstances well it's aptly summarized for us by the repeated statement or the repeated use of one verb and that is the verb to stand look at verse 11 where he talks about being able to stand and then in verse 13 that you may be able to withstand or you may be able to stand your ground and then in verse 14 stand therefore having the belt of truth and so on taken to you Phillips paraphrase is that so that when you have fought to a standstill you can still stand your ground now how is this then to be done how is it to be done because most of us would immediately say well I'm not sure that I can stand or I can point at times when I have not stood when I have actually collapsed well he is already given the directive in verse 10 finally be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his mind strong in the Lord and in the strength of his mind we've paid particular attention in in beginning a letter at least to understand that Paul is saying to these Ephesians the most vital thing for you to understand is your union with Christ that you have been united with Christ tonight tonight when we have baptisms as well that will be identifying the fight that they have been buried with him in Baptism and raised with him to newness of life a picture of this Union we know that when we study chapter 1 that Paul wasn't referring to these folks as Christians but he was constantly reminding them of their position in Christ in Christ in him in the beloved and so on and the reason that that is so important is because it is only a life lived in union with Christ that we'll be able to engage as required in the struggle that's why in the hymn soldiers of Christ arise you have a great verse stand then in his great might with all his strength in dude and take to arm you for the fight the panoply of God Calvin in his Institute's has a wonderful section on this I may just read part of it for you and you can find it on on your own if you choose the tendons avail the tendency of all that scripture teaches concerning Devils is to put us on our guard against their wiles and their machinations in other words what the Bible does when it teaches concerning these things is not in order to arouse our curiosity to give us something to debate and to disguise but in order to warn us about what we're up against for when Satan is called the God and ruler of this world the strongman arm the Prince of the power of the air the roaring lion the object of all these descriptions it's to make us more cautious and vigilant and more prepared for the contest being forewarned of a constant presence of an enemy the most daring the most powerful the most crafty the most indefatigable let us not allow ourselves to be overtaken by sloth or cowardice but on the contrary with Minds aroused and ever on the alert let us stand not as a verb ready to resist and knowing that this warfare is terminated only by death let me just come back to that again if some some of us I think have got the idea that once you get to a certain age you know you get an exemption there's like you have free coffee at McDonald's and you're not in the warfare anymore no he says no you better not subscribe to that kind of notion because that may just bring you down at the final hurdle since it is only terminated by death let us study to persevere above all fully conscious of what our weakness and wand of skill so then let us invoke the help of God and attempt nothing without trusting in him since it is his alone to supply counsel and strength and courage and arms in other words all of that is given to us in Christ and that is the challenge that runs from the beginning to the end of our journey we're pilgrims when aliens were strangers were not out of the world in all of us disinterest and opposition to God and his truth we're in that world and we have an enemy and it's as they would say in Scotland is a sort of fact to the end it is a sore fight all the way to the end I remember preaching at a Christian conference centre in the north of England years and years ago and I had decided that I would preach on something like we wrestle not against flesh blood by spiritual wickedness in the heavenly places or maybe it was in Colossians I don't recall but what I do recall is that they they had someone singing a solo before I was due to speak and the person sang a song I don't remember what it was but it was something like no more struggle no more fight no more warfare no more nothing you know and I'm sitting there going this is a bad song before this talk and you know me you know that I would never ever mention it when I stood up but uh but I just remember thinking this is so wrong you want to tell these young people that there is that this is not part of it then what are they going to do when they face the evil day how're they gonna understand this as I was thinking along these lines I went back to reread the second part of the pilgrims progress and I was struck by the fact that Part one and Part two come to a conclusion in much the same way the pilgrims are they come to the enchanted ground and if you remember the enchanted ground was a place of tranquility and enchantment and had a kind of soporific quality to it it could induce sleep and casualness and so on and the point that Bunyan is making is that right close to the entry into the heavenly kingdom you have this place of enchantment and the place of enchantment is there in order to try and seduce the pilgrim to cause the pilgrim to fall asleep so close to the heavenly City and valiant for truth and honesty come into the realm of the enchanted ground and they come on a man who is on his knees and his hands and his eyes are lifted up to heaven and he's praying and he's praying for help in dealing with this enchanted territory in which he finds himself because he finds it very alluring and as he prays for help the help comes in the form of valiant for truth and honesty and as the engage with him they ask him senseless what's the deal and he says the problem is madam bubble so what's the problem with madam bubble oh he says she offered me her body her purse and her bed right on the threshold of the heavenly kingdom see Bunyan was so so aware of the truth of the Bible let he who thinks he stands take heed lest he falls and the progress of a lifetime may be brought to a crashing halt when unprepared for the battle naive about the opponent with silly assumptions about one's own for teach of it we find ourselves collapsed do you know what the fellow said to of madam bubble he said she's a witch she's a witch she was a real bona fide a witch a representative of a cosmic struggle that takes place in the heavenlies that expresses itself in time and in reality in the moment and so Paul says finally I need to talk to you about this it's all about your marriage it's all about your kids it's all about your job it's all about your entire life how good of God then to provide comprehensive our for engaging in the battle and to the armor we will come later on let us pray God our Father we thank you for the clarity of your word grant that we might with equal clarity of thought and humility of heart receive your word determining to not really hear what it says but to do what it calls for us to do but we want to be strong in you the Lord and in the power of your might and we want to take up the weapons you've provided for us we want to take our stand against the devil's schemes we want to help each other as we do so as we sing now grant that this may be the affirmation and desire of our hearts for we pray in Christ's name Amen this message was brought to you from truth for life where the learning is for living to learn more about truth for life with Alistair beg visit us online at truthfortheworld.org

Channel: Alistair Begg

Views: 116,051

Rating: 4.8946691 out of 5

Keywords: Truth For Life, Christian Living, Christian Thinking, Spiritual Warfare, Satan, Faith, Security in Christ, Security of the Believer

Id: _v4Fjrpt9n0

Length: 34min 1sec (2041 seconds)

Published: Wed May 23 2018