Sunday, October 10, 2021 PM

Ephesians 5 and the Christian Response to Witchcraft

To Isaiah and a little bit in 2nd Corinthians, so Isaiah chapter 5, I'm sorry, Ephesians.

Chapter 5, Ephesians 5, and we're going to be reading verses 6 -21, just kind of reading through this as part of our final point on our study about Christian resistance to witchcraft and this is about our actual opposition.

We worked a long time on definition, being able to recognize it for what it is and being able to spot it when it happens and having to do with the demonic appropriation of alternate authority, grabbing at new definitions of terms or new terms altogether or the illegitimate synthesizing of terms together and so on and so forth, the witchcraft that begins with trying to reset authority by claiming true and false independently from the Lord, claiming good and bad independently from the Lord, seeking an alternative form of authority to say what is true, what is right, what is good, what is beautiful, and to do that apart from the Lord, that's seeking alternate authority and Christ said we're either getting our truth from God or we're getting it from the devil, so that's why witchcraft is the demonic appropriation of alternate authority, so we did a lot of work on the definition of that and the scriptures prohibitions of that and then we considered the manifestations of that where it's showing up, we see how it shows up in the scripture and we consider how it's showing up today and of course the examples are numerous.

At this point we need to consider what is our opposition, what is it actually that we're supposed to do when we encounter this, whether people are intentionally in a campaigning kind of way trying to work against the truths of the Word of God, the truths of Christianity and so on, or if it's just that they're sucked into it and they're just kind of using the terms and definitions that are so commonplace that everybody just kind of thinks well that's the way things are.

Do Not Be Deceived by Empty Words

Well what is our opposition to witchcraft? So in Ephesians 5 verses 6 through 21 we receive several helpful instructions that would be very applicable. So Ephesians 5 beginning in verse 6, let no one deceive you with empty words.

So let's just stop right there. Let no one deceive you with empty words. And we talk about empty words or vain words or pointless words, words that do not have the content that they promise they have.

This is an expression of what we've been studying. You know the magic, the brand new terms that they invent to cover up the old terms they don't want to use anymore. The enchantments where they come up with new definitions for terms.

They keep the terms with the new definitions and change that around, etc. These are empty words and who is responsible? Who is responsible? Who does the Apostle make responsible about these empty words and the deception?

He makes Christians responsible, the Saints. It's your responsibility. Let no one deceive you with empty words. It's not something where it's like, well someone else is going to have to tell me. No, let no one deceive you.

You have to be thinking Christianly. You need to be thinking biblically. You need to be thinking and doing your best to live a life that is a confessional life, agreeing with God. How does He see things?

How does He see you? What are the words that He uses? What are His definitions? And living in agreement with Him. And in that way you're not going to let anyone deceive you with empty words. And he continues on, for because of these things, for because of these things, the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.

Now, what are these things to which Paul is referring? It's not the empty words. It's something that happens before in the context. What are some of the things that he lists in the prior verses? Do we see them?

What are they? Immorality, foolish talking, greed, uncleanliness, fornication, idolatrousness, covetousness. Now, in regards to those things, he says, let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things, the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.

We need to remember, going back to Samuel, when Samuel confronted Saul, Saul talked about his disobedience, and his fear of man, and the covetousness of the people, his failure to follow through, and all of that.

Saul talked about it, and he made it sound holy. He made it sound like, it really wasn't me, it was the people, and after all, we just grabbed it for sacrifice, right? He was disobedient. He was doing the wrong things, and then he tried to prop it up, and call it something else, to define it as something else, and when Samuel confronted him, he said, rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft.

Let no one deceive you with empty words. These things, being listed here, the uncleanness, the covetousness, the foolish talking, the fornication, covetousness, idolatry, and so on. Let no one deceive you with empty words.

Don't let anyone try to legitimize those things, call them something else, come up with a new term, redefine things, that these things sound like they're okay, and acceptable, and tolerable, and so on.

He says, don't let anyone put a curse on you. Don't let anyone work witchcraft around you, deceive you with empty words. Here's the fact of the matter, because of these things, the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.

They may try in their rebellion, in their witchcraft, to call it something else, but the fact of the matter is, God still sees it for what it is, and he's going to punish them. Therefore, okay, now here's our response.

So first of all, our first response, our first act of opposition to witchcraft, is let no one deceive you. Okay, so we have to be responsible for that. We've been laboring towards that end. If we can recognize the witchcraft for what it is, and then consider what the Word of God has to say, then we're in good shape.

Not letting others deceive us with empty words. Okay, so we're trying to be obedient there, but then also, here's something else. Here's the next exhortation. Here's our opposition to witchcraft. Verse 7, therefore, do not be partakers with them.

Walk as Children of Light and Expose the Works of Darkness

Do not be partakers with them. See, what happens when this list of these things are given, these things, these sins, these acts of rebellion against God, when they are given beautiful dress, holy linens, so on and so forth, polish it up and make it look better, then there's the idea that, oh, we can participate in these things.

We can call it something else, and we can be a part of these things. And he says, no, therefore, do not be partakers with them. Don't agree with them about these things. Don't approve of these things.

Don't practice these things. Don't agree with the way they're talking about them. Don't let them have their redefinitions. Don't let them have their new words. Call it what it is. Call it what it is. Do not be partakers with them.

Why? Well, things are different now for those who are in Christ. There's been a change. There's been a real genuine change, and this is such a blessing. For once you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.

Walk as children of light. This is a common contrast in the Bible. You get it in 1 John as well. Light versus darkness. Darkness is confusing. All kinds of things can hide in the dark. You miss all kinds of things when it's dark.

One of my main rules for my children doing chores is turn on the lights. Kitchen looks clean until you turn on the lights. I know from experience. I was told that. Turn on the lights so you can see. If we're going to walk as children of light, the fact that we are now light in the Lord, we're seeing things according to the Word of God for what they really are.

The empty words, the deceiving empty words is darkness. Clouds things over. Sooth saying clouds it over so that you can't tell one thing from another. Walking as children of light means walking so there's like, you know, high definition, sharp image, clarity of what that is.

And the Bible gives us that clarity. We can call things for what they are. That's how we walk in the light. Verse 9 says, for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth. Finding out what is acceptable to the Lord.

So just, you know, the ongoing finding out what is acceptable to the Lord. But he's the standard, right? He's the standard. Goodness is acceptable to the Lord. Righteousness is acceptable to the Lord.

Truth is acceptable to the Lord. And he's the standard and he has expressed those, his ways and his standards in the Word of God. And so as we walk as children of the light, the fruit of the Spirit, what is acceptable to the Lord will come out of our lives.

And by those, by those very standards of the Lord, we can see what things are, what they really are. So we are to let no one deceive us. We are not to be partakers with rebels. And we are to walk as children of light.

The title of Rob Jarrah's book is applicable, Live Not by Lies. It was from Alexander Solzhenitsyn's speech, Live Not by Lies. Don't allow the lie to just hang there. When someone says a lie, when someone practices witchcraft right in front of your face, just don't let it hang there.

Don't be partakers. Don't give the silent amen. Well, that's not true. If it's all you do, if all you can do is you shake your head, shake your head. Live not by lies. That's not true. You know, don't let, don't be deceived.

Don't let them deceive you. Don't be partakers with them. Walk as children of light. If you're not shining light on the darkness, saying things for what they are, we're not really opposing the witchcraft going on.

If all we have, if all we can do is you shake our head and mutter, that's not true. If that's all we can do, let's start there. Let's just start there. Okay? Well, someone might get upset. Well, then maybe somebody might hear the truth.

Maybe somebody might hear the Word of God. Maybe somebody might hear the Word of God. Maybe you can share a scripture with them, which is not return void. A scripture that is imperishable seed. And then another instruction, which is much the same as do not be partakers with them, but verse 11 is a little bit more intense.

Have no fellowship. And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them. See, children of light, you turn on the light, you expose what's there. So we're not fellowshipping with darkness.

You know, I like the dim light where you can't hardly see anything. I like the atmosphere. No, we're flipping on the light. It's our job as children of the light to expose the unfruitful works of darkness.

For it is shameful even to speak of those things which are done by them in secret. It is shameful, full of shame. Something that if brought out into the open in its full nature would cause someone to wish they could just melt away.

Verse 13, but all things that are exposed are made manifest by the light for whatever makes manifest is light. John chapter 1 tells us who the light of the world is. It's Christ. And as we are born again and following him filled with his spirit, we are called the light of the world.

One of the main jobs that Christians have is to shine light and call things what they are. This is why Paul calls the church the pillar and ground of the truth. Okay, this is what it means to be light, is to call things what they are, show them for what they are.

And it's not our light, it's the light of Christ. He's the standard. He's the one who tells us what truth is. He's the one tells us right from wrong and so on and so forth. Therefore, verse 14, he says, awake you who sleep arise from the dead and Christ will give you light.

Well, we can't wake the sleeping dead. We can't. If somebody is dead in their trespasses and sins, as Ephesians 2 says, you know, we're supposed to do our job and exposing what those trespasses and sins are for, you know, exposing them according to the light of the word.

But even more than that, we are to proclaim Christ because he is the light. He's the only light that can wake up the sleeper from the dead, right? As someone, if you were sleeping in and somebody to wake you up, they might put the light on, right?

Wake you up. Well, as much as we want to do that for those who are dead in trespasses and sins, there's only one person who can flip the light switch on and that's Christ. He gets loved by his spirit.

He will wake them up. He's the light of the world. So we need to proclaim Christ to them as the standard and as the Savior. So we have this mandate. How do we oppose witchcraft? Well, let no one deceive you.

We are to not be partakers with those who are in rebellion. We are to walk as children of the light, which means exposing the shameful deeds of darkness. And of course, it is Christ who gives the saving light.

Walk Wisely, Be Filled with the Spirit, and Give Thanks

Verse 15, another instruction, see then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time because the days are evil. In other words, think about the best way to use the time that you have.

Think about the best way to use the resources that you have. Think about the best approach to take. Obviously, you can drive your car from here to Tulsa in about a dozen different ways, if you put your mind to it.

But some of those are going to take way longer, be less efficient than others. Jesus did say not to cast our pearls before swine. He did say that at a certain point where you wipe the dust off your feet and move on.

He did say there are some priorities to attend to and to achieve, and you don't be wasteful with the time that he has given us to be stewards of. Therefore, do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is.

That goes back to considering what is acceptable to the Lord in verse 10. Therefore, do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And do not be drunk with wine, which is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit as an act of being filled with the Spirit.

Now, how do we do that? Well, let's look at verse 19. Speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing, making melody in your hearts to the Lord, giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another in the fear of God.

What's a really great way to oppose witchcraft? How about singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs? Yeah, that's a wonderful way to do it. Praising Christ, bringing glory to Christ so that His light will shine all the brighter.

That's an excellent way to do that. Giving thanks. Giving thanks. So much of witchcraft is fueled by covetousness and ungratefulness. If you go back to Romans chapter 1 and verse 18 and following, you see that those who are suppressing the truth in unrighteousness, those who are out and out denying what they know to be true in their hearts about God, are heading towards all manner of abominations and perverse desires and even giving approval to those who engage in all these acts of sin.

But one of the very first things it says about these folks, after saying they suppress the truth in unrighteousness, is that they were unthankful. Unthankful. They're not thankful for life, for the Creator, for the gifts that He has given, and everything else.

They are full of ingratitude, and thus they run headlong into all of these perversions and reprobations. So, our opposition to witchcraft is not complicated, really. It's about putting our attention upon the light who is Christ.

Witchcraft operates in darkness, and truth and righteousness and goodness operate in the light. So, that's not complicated, but the more of Christ, the more light of His name and who He is, well, that just gives no room for witchcraft to operate.

Okay. So, I think that's a very helpful passage, practically speaking, and we don't have to invent anything very complicated at all. Find out what's acceptable to the Lord, right? Consider what the will of the Lord is, right?

Be thankful. Sing praises to the Lord. Fellowship together in the fear of the Lord. That's not complicated, but boy, is it effective. Now, one of the ways to expose the works of darkness and to expose witchcraft for what it really is, is mockery.

Isaiah 47 and the Futility of Babylon’s Witchcraft

Trash talk, which is, again, a shining light. We see this again and again in the prophets. There's a really funny passage in Jeremiah. I forget which chapter it was, but he was just making fun of the idolaters up and down, calling them fields of cucumbers and stuff.

Jokes that we don't really get, but they were funny then. Had the crowd howling, I'm sure. Here, Isaiah 47, though, if you want, you can look there in Isaiah 47, describing the fall of Babylon and the fact that Babylon, even though Babylon was God's tool for bringing judgment against the Jews, taking them into exile and so on, that their day was coming, and in fact, their days were numbered because of their wickedness and cruelty and the fact that they did commit evil against God's people, and he was not going to let that go.

And so, Isaiah 47 deals with the humiliation of Babylon, how Babylon goes down and she's completely ruined, and at the end, as the plane of Babylon is going down, Isaiah takes the time to shoot it full of more holes as it's going down.

To make the point, I think also to the people whom he's writing to, the Jews, about how useless all of the pagan idolatry and witchcraft of Babylon really is. So, verse 12, he says, stand now with your enchantments and the multitude of your sorceries in which you have labored from your youth.

Imagine somebody committing themselves to a course of study from a very young age, and they've been studying it for decades, decades and decades and decades of learning about this one subject, so they will be an expert in the field.

Perhaps you will be able to profit. Perhaps you will prevail. Maybe there's something there that might help you. Verse 13, you are wearied in the multitude of your counsels. Let now the astrologers, the stargazers, and the monthly prognosticators, I love that, the monthly prognosticators.

It's probably not in your translation, but it's here in the New King James. The monthly prognosticators, we still have those today. Let them stand up and save you from what shall come upon you. Behold, they shall be as stubble, and the fire shall burn them.

So what image did he just give? He said, all of these astrologers and practicers of witchcraft, yeah, let them all stand up strong and tall and guard you like a ring of safety, and they stand as tall as the stubble of the harvested grain field, and they're just as flammable.

That's no defense at all. That's just making it worse, right? That's just making things burn hotter and more effectively. They shall not deliver themselves from the power of the flame. It shall not be a coal to be warmed by, nor a fire to sit before.

Yeah, they're not going to take care of you. They're going to bring you down. Thus shall they be to you with whom you have labored, your merchants from your youth. They shall wander each one to his quarter, and no one shall save you.

Notice the first verse of the next chapter, and of course, Isaiah didn't write the chapters, and he said, hear this, O house of Jacob. So what he's doing there is Isaiah is shining light on the futility of the witchcraft of Babylon, and he's saying, okay, people of God, are you paying attention to that?

Do you see how useless all that is? Don't be caught up into that trap. That's what he's saying, and this has a very important role in our walking as children of light to expose the absurdities of prideful men who make claims about things that they can't back up and put their trust in things that cannot say.

Now, we need to expose those false saviors and powerless gospels for what they are, and we should do so and say, hey, do you see how pointless that is? Do you see how useless that is? Because we don't want people trusting in that.

That's part of walking as children of light. It's part of being a city on a hill, part of being the light of the world, a lamp stand, lighting up everything in the room, make sure that we see things properly being sold to the earth.

Spiritual Warfare: Strongholds and Taking Thoughts Captive

Okay, let's look over in 2 Corinthians 10 now, 2 Corinthians 10, and we'll close our time together here in 2 Corinthians chapter 10. So lots of practical instructions in Ephesians 5 about how to walk as children of light and expose things for what they really are and pay attention to the light of Christ.

Isaiah says, it shows the exposing of the ways of man as powerless. And then in 2 Corinthians, we read this in verses 3 through 5, chapter 10 verses 3 through 5, for though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh.

Ephesians 6 says much the same thing. We wrestle not against flesh and blood. It's not as if we have to get into a wrestling match to prove who's right, to put on the boxing gloves or step inside the ring to try to prove who's right.

No, that's not it. We're not warring according to the flesh. We're warring in a different way. Verse 4, for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, meaning of the flesh, like a sword, spear, catapult, chariot, things that they would have thought of.

Weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty in God for the pulling down of what? Strongholds. Strongholds? You think of medieval fortresses and things like that. But now the pulling down of strongholds, the casting down of arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God.

You have encountered this when you talk with people who are exalting their personal philosophies and their personal beliefs against the knowledge of God, against the scriptures. And it seems almost impenetrable.

It's almost like you can't get through it all when you're trying to talk to them. That is a stronghold. But we are to not use the weapons of the flesh, those things that are carnal, but we are to use that which is mighty in God to cast down these very arguments by doing what?

Bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. Meaning that when you encounter these high things that are being exalted against the knowledge of God, and it seems like you just can't penetrate through it, instead of looking at the big stronghold as it is, the stronghold is made of several bricks.

Their way of thinking is made up of several different thoughts. So grab one and arrest it. Put it under arrest. You are now under arrest in captivity to the obedience of Christ. Again, who is the light of the world who sets the standards, who tells us what goodness and truth and righteousness are?

And so let's just take one of those thoughts that you have there, and let's bring it into captivity to Christ. All authority has been given to him in heaven and on earth, and all the nations are to be subject to him.

So let's evaluate this thought in light of who he is and the things that he has said. Would he agree with this biblically? Would this be something that would be true according to Jesus? Is this thought expressed in terms of, we invented a new term, but what does Jesus call it?

Is this thought expressed in terms of, we have enchanted the term with a new definition, but how does Christ define it? Has this idea been, where did you get this idea from? From your personal experience?

Did somebody tell you this? Why are they the arbiter of truth? To take a thought and then bring it under arrest to captivity of Jesus Christ. And so by doing this, again, what we're doing is to be mighty in God, not in the flesh.

We are hoping to pull down strongholds, hoping to pull down strongholds in people's lives so that they themselves, that their whole person, not just a few of their thoughts, but their whole person will be brought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.

In other words, they would be brought out of the darkness into the light. So somebody has a savior, somebody has a gospel, and these are false teachings, false truths, so on. People are putting their hopes in things that cannot save, and so on.

We are to grab those thoughts and bring them and show that these thoughts should be submitted to Christ, and what does he have to say about them in our engaging with those who are enslaved? All right, well, we'll go ahead and close our time.

That's just a brief look at the way to respond, but it's not anything overly technical or novel than what we have been taught. The main instruction that we've been doing in the study is to recognize witchcraft when it's being used, and then what is our response as children of light?

What is our response as those who follow Christ? All right, well, let's close by singing the doxology together. Praise God from whom all glory is due.