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Heavenly Father, it is an honor and privilege to be justified by your grace, to be here today, to encourage one another, to think about your resurrection, and to rejoice in what you've done on our behalf.
Lord, you are sovereign, your attributes are unchanged, no matter what our circumstances are. And we praise you, for you are holy, holy, holy. We thank you for the many privileges we enjoy because of our union with Christ, and we thank you for, once again, this opportunity to be here.
Would you be with the different Sunday school teachers, nursery women, and the preschool ministries who are teaching and admonishing the children today? Would you be with others who may be ministering to each other?
I pray that Christ would be exalted, that thoroughly our souls would be refreshed, and that you would be honored. In Jesus' name I pray, amen. I hate the topic of war. I hate battle, guns, tanks, shooting, all of those things.
I'm not interested in that. I like action movies, because they're movies, but war doesn't interest me at all. Yet the Christian life is often considered and spoken about as a war, as a battle. Here's a question as we begin to think about the armor of God.
If salvation is by grace alone, why are we fighting? Where's the war? If we are going to heaven based on Christ's meritorious work, then why is it that we have to fight? This is a question I struggled with a lot when I got saved.
But is there a simple, basic response that you can give? What is the fight? What is this battle that Paul keeps talking about? He even uses the term competitive event. He uses sports and competitive events in his explanation of how you should be prepared for battle.
Many of you are older than I am, more mature in the faith than I am. What is your response when somebody asks you, why should we fight? What is this battle all about? I'm going to heaven anyway. It's not based on my works.
So why am I fighting? What would some of your responses be? Sorry? It's a righteous anger. It's a righteous anger. Again, is the anger directed towards something or someone? Excellent. Excellent. So understanding who we're fighting against, that is understanding the enemy is very, very important, which is why my topic is the armor of God.
Today is part one and next week part two. But as I was joking with Elder Scott, I don't think I'll even get to the armor today because it's all prep material to understand who the enemy is, what the battle is, who Satan is, what are the privileges we have as Christians.
We can't even get to the armor until we get all of that understood. Any more answers as to why this is a war and a battle? Andrew? Excellent. And I couldn't agree with you more. Yes, contending for the faith is important.
Yes, you have righteous anger when you're fighting against false teachers. But the primary battle that the Christian goes through is the battle that he has against the false teaching that he may encounter as he studies the Word.
And how do you defend? How do you battle against sin? How do you battle against the onslaught of false teaching that you may be confronted with in your own life, that is truth personally? That is what, for the most part, the armor of God is focused on.
That is what Ephesians 6 is speaking about, both individually and collectively as a church. So that is very, very important to understand. Now, here's where the confusion is. Reformed Christians tend to be very cautious about the Pentecostal and the charismatic movements.
Rightly so. But why? What are the two main reasons why we, as Reformed biblical believers, tend to be worried or cautious about the terminology, the interpretation, and the language that charismatics and Pentecostal movements use?
Can you tell me two or three, or as many as you know about? Excellent. Just to repeat what Pastor Bob said, they run on experience, their own experience, as opposed to what the Word of God says. Charlie?
Right. Excellent. So there's also either a wrong view, or at least I can say confidently a low view of the Holy Spirit and what his role is and how that plays out every day in the life of the Christian.
Good. Holy Spirit? Excellent. Excellent. That's exactly right. They're always looking, they always believe that God is speaking and very, very, very much experiential. The two that I've written down here is, one is they have a low view of the Holy Spirit, and because we are concerned about the movement and cautious about them, what we do is we tend not to study up on the Holy Spirit as much, or we tend not to talk about the Holy Spirit as much.
True or false? Is that true or false? Do you agree or disagree? Because we're so afraid about maybe siding with them or being on their same side or sounding like them, we tend not to talk about the Holy Spirit or study up.
That's my main concern, study up on the Holy Spirit as much as we should. Agree? Disagree? For the most part? Tony? Okay. But there's another thing. There's just like, just like Reformed believers are afraid to study about the Holy Spirit, the charismatic movement also has a wrong view, or at least once again a wrong view of Satan.
They emphasize Satan's work a lot. I was briefly in that church, and I still have a lot of friends who are in that movement and come from that background, and what I've seen is they spend a lot of time trying to cast demons out of one another.
I know that sounds funny, and that sounds silly for the most part, but they do this a lot. They are busy casting out demons a lot. Another thing that I've seen is they tend to blame Satan for their sins.
They said, the devil made me do it. That's dangerous for reasons that are obvious, but these are some of the things that I'm going to go into more, very importantly. Now, not just the charismatics, but I've also heard some Reformed believers use this expression, I am under demonic oppression.
Anybody heard that? Anybody heard that before? Do you even know what that means? When I first heard that from a Biblical believer, I'm like, are you charismatic? What's your background? What do you know about Christ?
What do you believe about the Bible? I had to sit down and ask him these questions. Anybody heard that term before? Demonic oppression? And again, they continue to say things like, Satan made me do this, made someone commit this sin.
So, we as Biblical believers who have sound hermeneutics, by the grace of God, I'm not boasting in ourselves, but we do understand the Bible in a... the language and the history, we understand it grammatically.
We make the same mistake we do with the Holy Spirit. We tend not to study up on what does the Bible say about Satan, and we tend not to talk a lot about it either. Again, I'll ask you the question, agree or disagree?
Like I said, I'm not the youngest in this room, and I'm not the most mature in the faith in this room, so I could be saying wrong things here. Agree or disagree? Do we tend to be a little cautious about talking or studying up on Satan?
Most part? Two out of two. It's good. It's important to understand angels. And why am I talking about angels? Just as an introduction, because it's... we can't really talk about Satan without understanding angels.
I'm not going to go into details about angels because we're doing angels pretty well. I can't compete with Pastor Micah for the preaching. He's doing a wonderful job in teaching us about who angels are, what their purpose is.
They are primarily heavenly hosts used by God to do his work. And one thing we know for certain, Jesus Christ is greater than angels. We've seen that in Hebrews. We are studying that very well. Who is Satan?
Okay, excellent. He's a fallen angel. That's my first verse. But who is Satan? Again, what do you know about Satan? If somebody asks you, who is Satan, whether it's an unbeliever or even a believer, how would you explain, how would you describe him?
What would you say? Adversary? Adversary of believers? Yes, he's an adversary of believers. I have that as an important point. Excellent. He is the deceiver. We will go into what the New Testament talks about him.
And one of the ways he describes Satan is he's a deceiver. He is a slanderer. Excellent. What else do we know about Satan? Absolutely. That's an excellent way to describe him. Let's look at Isaiah 14 because that's exactly what that talks about.
The fall of Satan. Isaiah 14, 12 to 15. What happened? How did he fall? Where was he at the time of the fall? Good for us to know. Helps us to know exactly what we're up against. And as we look at the armor of God, how God has equipped us in Christ to fight what Satan brings against us.
Isaiah 14, 12 to 15. Does anybody want to read that? Eric? In the very beginning verse, he talks about star of the morning, sun of the dawn. King James uses the term word Lucifer. This is where we get the term Lucifer from.
And Satan is a part of the heavenly host. He's part of God's creation. But let's look at this verse and notice how many times Lucifer or Satan uses I will. He uses it repeatedly. And Charlie gave us a hint on why he's using the term I will.
What do you think is, why is he using the term I will so many times? What is he doing here? What is he saying here? And we see what God tells him in verse 15. But what is he saying here? What reveals about his character here?
Andrew? Absolutely. Yes. I like that. Subservient to God. He is very proud. He's very proud here. It clearly shows by his language and by his complete lack of respect or fear for the God of heaven and earth.
And you can see how his pride produces discontentment because he says, I'm not happy where I am. This is what I want to be. This is where I want to go. He is not happy with just being the top angel. There are hierarchies in heaven and he is right up there.
He's not happy with that. What does he want? He wants to be God himself. Now, this is one of the passages that a lot of unbelievers and even some believers, they struggle with this a lot and they come to me and you may have encountered this.
They'll ask, so God created Satan. God created evil. What's the problem here? Why do we need the Bible? God's at fault. Why do we need salvation? What is all this about? God created sin. He's to blame.
Yes, this is not a discussion on sovereignty of God and evil of man and how that all ties in. That's a huge topic. But how would you answer somebody who says, God did this. God created evil. God created Satan.
So what's the problem? How would you answer them? We need to be able to answer this question. Shall we? Yes. Excellent. Take that, unbeliever. I mean, that's what you would say. Wouldn't it be nice now, Amazon has these little things where you push a button and they'll send the tide or whatever home.
Wouldn't it be great to have like a like a little Charlie button where you just press the button and get a nice response? No, thank you. That was a perfect, clear response. Sin was not an inherent part of the being God created.
But as we see in Isaiah 14 and many of the parts of scripture, it was something that came up from within this, within Satan because of his pride. He, by his own evil heart, by his own evil intention, became proud, rebels against God.
It is not God who has to be blamed for something like for what happened. But verse 15 says, God, how did God respond to this? He said, you will be thrust down to Sheol to the recesses of the pit. There is both a temporary event here and then a long-term event.
One is he gets thrown out of heaven and then in the long term, he will be defeated where he will be going to the bottomless pit. Again, we'll study exactly what that means in the next few verses. Now, is, yes, again, Charlie did mention that or we were reminded that it's not just, Satan is not just a singular person, is he?
Do we have any verses that tell us that it is actually an army of hosts that were kicked out of heaven? It was how many fell? Do we have any idea of a number, a percentage of those who fell? Do we know where in the Bible it talks about that?
We're not dealing with a single entity here in terms of, yes, there's maybe a head, but there's still an army behind them. So where in the Bible do we go to get the evidence for that? Revelation. Thank you.
Revelation. Revelation 12 .4 talks about how a third of the angels fell. And this is John talking. And he's telling us that a third of the angels fell. We don't know a third of how many, what the total was, but a large number, or presumably a large number of angels fell.
That's Revelation 12 .4. John talks about... John says that in Revelation, then even in 1 John 5 .19, 1 John 5 .19, John tells us about what kind of influence or power this evil one has. What does he say?
He says, 1 John 5 .19, the whole world lies in the power of the evil one. And Paul talks about how Satan is the god of this world. Satan is the god of this world. Okay. What do we know by that? What does that mean?
He's the god of this world. God is sovereign. He reigns supreme. Okay, we have Satan who by his pride and by his own sin is kicked out of heaven, rebels against God. He is god of this world. What does that mean?
It's something that a lot of people struggle with because when confronted by charismatics or when confronted by even unbelievers, they just don't know how to respond to this. Yeah. Yes. Good. He has...
He... Oh, yeah. She was saying that it means that he has a certain amount of control and that he is worshipped. That's what Amelia was saying. He is clearly worshipped. He is worshipped primarily by unbelievers.
Let's look at some scriptures. He has influence, doesn't he? What kind of influence does he have? What does that mean with demonic possession? What do believers have to do with this? Let's answer those questions before we ever get to the armor.
Does Satan have influence? Yes, he does. Which book of the Bible? Starts... It's kind of the first book of the Bible when you look at chronologically. It talks a lot about Satan. Which book is that? Job.
It starts off in... If somebody wants to read Job 1, verses 6 to 7, the very, very beginning, we see who Satan is. And once again, you can look at his response even to God. Job 1, verses 6 and 7. Thank you.
A lot of people use this verse to say that Satan is more powerful. Not this verse. This entire book in Job. And they say that Satan is more powerful than God and can... and is equal to God. From that, they are often afraid about demonic possessions, satanic influences, and all of these things.
But that is not what we see in the book of Job. What do we see in the book of Job? What is happening in the life of Job? What is the purpose of what Job is going through and what is happening here? Do we see that God is equal to Satan here?
No. No. But what do we see? Amelia. Amelia said, God is using Satan for his purposes. And that is true. And we will look at even some New Testament examples of this. Anybody else? Corey. Excellent. Yep.
Excellent. Yes. Excellent point. We see that clearly Satan is asking permission. And would Satan touch Job if God had not given him permission? No. I don't think so. At least not from what we see in Job.
Charlie. Nice. I didn't even think of that. Yeah. That is excellent. Charlie said that Satan is finite. And that means that he has to actually travel somewhere to see what is going on. That is excellent.
We see the word term Satan used quite a bit. Even in 1 Chronicles 21, which is the first time in the Bible where it is used. But I am going to skip that and go to Ezekiel 28. Ezekiel 28, verses 12 to 18.
Let's read that on what kind of influence he had and just to show yet another aspect about him. We were talking about how he is rebellious. Here is another example of how he is rebellious. Ezekiel 28, verses 12 to 18.
Does anybody want to read that? Thank you. Now if you look at your Bibles, your title would be, if you are reading ESV, Lamento of the King of Tyre. Or if you are reading other translations, the section title is Prophecy against the Prince of Tyre.
So you may be wondering why am I talking about Satan here. Let's look at the context. In Ezekiel 27, verse 2, we see that this is the word of the Lord being given to Tyre. And as we work our way to 28, Ezekiel 28, verse 2, we see that this is the word of the Lord given to the ruler of Tyre.
And finally when you get to verse 11, this is a lament, a grief. That is expressed to the king of Tyre. But when you read it in context, and you realize what it's saying, it's specifically the one influencing the king of Tyre.
And in this case, it's Satan. What unrighteousness was specifically found in him, found in Satan? If you look at here, again, verse 17, very, very close to what we see in Isaiah 14. His spirit of rebellion against God.
That's what was the primary unrighteousness that is seen here. He says in verse 17, your heart was lifted up because of your beauty. This clearly shows that he allowed his perfection, not perfect as of God, but he allowed his pride and his beauty, his external beauty, to be the cause of his corruption.
He is very, very proud. He's very arrogant, very rebellious. In Ezekiel 20, it is a very good example of what kind of nature does he have, especially from what we see in the Old Testament. In the New Testament, Satan has several names, but it often represents his nature, his character.
What does he do? The Greek word for devil is diabolos. It means false accuser, slanderer. It means Satan. And it's the word from which the English word diabolical is formed. This morning, I was sitting, I had my daughter on my lap as I was revising my notes, and at the end of it, I asked her, OK, Sarah, so what did you learn today?
It's just a joke. I don't really expect her to remember everything I said. And she looked at me and said, diabolical. Perfect. Now you know what the word Satan means. So who is Satan primarily against?
Jesus Christ and the believer. We will get to this in Hebrews 2, 14 -15, when Pastor Mike preaches on this. But Satan is completely, horribly against the Lord Jesus Christ. And we see that Christ had a divine plan.
In Hebrews 2, 14 -15, through death, Jesus Christ, that through death, Jesus Christ might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is the devil, and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives.
This is Christ rendering Satan powerless. Satan and Christ are completely opposed. Satan hates Christ. We see that in several areas. We see that in how he opposes believers in the church. But we also see how Christ renders him powerless and even when he is cast into the bottomless pit, that will be complete.
How is Satan opposed to believers? Very important we understand this before we get to the armor. Again, which verse in the Bible, or especially in the New Testament, let's stick with the New Testament, talks about how Satan is an accuser, a false accuser.
How often does he accuse? What does he accuse of? Where do we go in the New Testament for that verse, for that reference? How about Revelation 12, 10? And can somebody read that? Revelation 12, 10. There are two, three other places, but this is as clear as it gets as to what he does in opposition to believers.
Thank you. So what is Satan doing here? What is he doing? Accusing. Accusing whom? The brethren, the believer. How often? Day and night. Satan brings vicious accusations continually against believers who are in Christ.
He doesn't stop it. He is on the rampage. He is continually accusing and attacking the believer. But Christ has not left us empty. He's given us weapons and the ability to stand firm and to defend the truth and to stand firm and fight against these accusations.
I mean, Christ is the primary one who's what? Our intercessor, our mediator, but we are supposed to fight the things that Satan brings against us. But here's where the charismatics get confused and sometimes, even from talking to some Reformed believers, they get confused in the same area as well.
Demon possession. What does that mean? We've seen biblical examples of it, but what does demon possession mean? Tony, okay? What kind of control? All over or complete? What does that mean? Okay, okay.
We see that in several instances, even with Christ casting out demons from a young man. That situation used for the glory of God used to show that Christ is powerful, mighty, and sovereign, and even greater than demons.
What else? What else do you know about demon possession? So important to understand that. And we're not even going to touch the armor of God before we get that. Because this is the way charismatics and even unbelievers attack Christians.
They come and say, ah, you could be demon possessed. You could have this in you and completely renders our usefulness and our joy to God and to ministry. So it's very important to understand this section, and we'll go to that in just a moment.
Okay, yes. Yes, yes. Demonic oppression is something that I've seen even Reformed believers use a lot. It's when they feel down or out, or especially, I've even heard some pastors, some pastors talk about how when they were going to preach and they just felt that they didn't feel like preaching, and therefore they felt like they were under demonic oppression.
Eric, you ever feel like that? Okay, yes. Thank goodness. That's important. And that is good to differentiate. Demonic possession, as Tony said, has been completely controlled by Satan. And oppression is these feelings, these emotions that sometimes...
I've heard it so much. I don't know, it's like scratching. What do you call that? Scratching? There you go, that one. Still getting my American idioms and analogies right. Okay, let's talk about Judas Iscariot.
John 13, 26 -7. John 13, 26 -7. We see what Jesus Christ is about to do. Jesus answered, it is he to whom I will give this morsel of bread. This is at the Lord's table. This is the Last Supper. Not the Lord's table, the Last Supper.
They're in the upper room. One of the disciples asks him, who's going to betray you? And Jesus answers, John 13, 26 -27. It is he to whom I will give this morsel of bread when I have dipped it. So when he had dipped the morsel, he gave it to Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot.
Then after he had taken the morsel, Satan entered into him. Jesus said to him, what you are going to do, do quickly. How long was Judas with Christ? Three years. He was with Christ, the Lord, the Savior, for three years.
Anything about his actions tell us that he's a believer? Does the Bible clearly say that he's a believer? I don't think so. His actions show that he's not. He's not. Judas was right with Jesus. He listened to him.
He saw the miracles he did. He was right in the close, in the intimate circle. He was aware of Christ's perfection at least at a certain level. He saw Christ's power, but what did he refuse to do? He refused to repent and believe in Christ.
He refused to repent and believe in Christ. God therefore turns him over to Satan. And we see that even Luke 22, 3 -6, he talks about exactly what happened after that. Then Satan entered into Judas, Luke 22, 3.
Then Satan entered into Judas, called Iscariot, who was the number of the twelve. He went away and conferred with the chief priests and officers how he might betray him to them. And they were glad and agreed to give him money.
So he consented and saw an opportunity to betray him to them in the absence of a crowd. Richard Lenski had this to say about that passage. Please hear me and let me know if this makes sense to you. And please tell me if you agree.
I would like to hear from you guys. This is what he says. Under Satan's influence, Judas sold out Christ. Satan himself makes Judas his tool by filling his mind with traitorous thoughts and moving his will to act on them.
This is mental possession, giving Satan control of the mind, heart and will. Satan entered into Judas by no compulsion but as a welcome master who was received by a willing slave. Gulp. Thoughts. That is something to chew on.
Do you agree? Do you disagree? Do you think there's some truth to it? Do you think it's too extreme? Tony? Your first thought was Judas was possessed? Are you taught? Okay. Okay. So that will lead me to the next question.
Can you blame Judas for his sin? If he was possessed? God does. But, yeah. He is to blame for his sin, but there's also a progression here. When did Satan enter Judas? When did God give him over to Satan?
Sorry? Right here at this time. It was even before. He was not regenerate. He was not saved. He had not repented clearly and he had not believed in Christ. He refused to bow down to Christ. He was 100 accountable for his sin.
So we cannot go away and say that Judas should blame Satan for his act. He should not. Cory? Absolutely. So it's not like if I was taken back 2 ,000 years ago, I would not do what Judas did. I would do absolutely that.
Yes. Absolutely. Charlie? I'm sorry. Did you raise your hand? Yes. Yes. I don't know the idiom. Clearly, this is a condemnation. Clearly, this is God judging based on continuous rejection of Christ. And like you even mentioned, and I'll get to that in the next point, believers cannot be possessed.
There's evidence against, there's clear teachings about that in Scripture. We know that for sure. So I don't know about the idioms. I won't be able to perfectly answer or comment to what you're saying.
Right, right. And this is something that, again, this is something unbelievers use a lot. They say that Judas was not to blame. Therefore, no man is supposed to be blamed for sin. And it's used a lot.
So it's good to understand that. Yes. Absolutely. Absolutely. He's still held accountable. Andrew? Excellent. Yes. Right. I think the relevance and why I brought this up here is Satan does have an influence.
But people often say that influence is that they can control and they control the sins of people. And this is a good passage to at least take us there. And a lot of scholars use this as an example to say that, no, look what happened to Judas Iscariot, God's judgment, unbeliever, demon possession.
It's just one clean routine to look at. Okay, let me close by talking about this because we're out of time. Believers cannot be demon-possessed. In Colossians 1 .13, Paul says, God delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son.
Salvation brings true deliverance and protection from Satan. True deliverance and protection from Satan. In Romans 8 .37, Paul says, We overwhelmingly, what? Conquered through Christ. In 1 Corinthians 15 .57, he says, God gives us the victory.
Victory in what? In specifically battle. In 2 Corinthians 2 .14, he says, God always leads us in triumph. Again, this is battle language, speaking against what Satan brings against believers. 1 John 2 .13, John says, we have overcome the evil one, and he goes on to say in chapter 4, verse 4, he says, the indwelling Holy Spirit is greater than Satan.
These are only seven verses. There's a lot more in the Bible. There's a lot more that talks about this. In light of these verses, it is impossible for a believer to be demon-possessed. Impossible. And we have the light and the word of the scripture here clearly.
But it is important we understand this correctly, because you cannot understand Ephesians 6, who Satan is, what he does, and what exactly the armor of God is without understanding this. Because for most charismatic and Pentecostal, and even some Reformed people, Ephesians 6 is talking about fighting against emotional problems that Satan causes, fighting against demon possession.
That is why you see in these churches and even in these families, you see parents busy trying to cast demons out of their children. Because they think their misbehavior is all because of that. Sorry. I think we've made it very clear today, I'm not saying the children are believers, but that is not what Ephesians 6 is talking about.
So we need to understand who the enemy is, what the battle is, what our privileges are in Christ, and what the weapons are. We also need to know that Jesus Christ is greater than Satan. That he has conquered Satan.
But that will be fully realized when Christ returns, and that will be fully realized when he casts him into the bottomless pit. So we really need to understand what demon possession is, what Satan is, what he's capable of doing, before we can understand what the armor of God is, and what he does.
Matthew 12, 43 -45, this is just a final verse for you guys to remember. This is Jesus Christ talking about clean spirits and unclean spirits. This is yet another place where Christ clearly states that while it is possible for unbelievers to be demon possessed, according to Matthew 12, once again it is impossible for a person in whom the Holy Spirit dwells in, it is impossible for that person to be demon possessed.
And a lot of scholars argue this, that indwelling by demons is an evidence of a lack of genuine salvation. And Andrew alluded to that as well. So if you see people foaming in the mouth, or whatever demon possessed people do, you need to preach the gospel to them.
Stop hitting them with a spatula. You need to preach the gospel to them, and their pastors too. And that is a very important way of salvation. It's a very important way to help them. I have a lot more to say, but we're out of time.
So anything else to add to this? I'll continue with this next week, although I hope to get into the actual armor next week. But I'll continue, I'll just wrap some loose ends next week and continue. Any questions, concerns?
Can defend the faith and fight against demons now? No? All right, let's pray. Lord, we thank you for Christ alone is Lord. His resurrection we joyfully celebrate today. And even as we remember the body and the blood that was shed on our behalf, as we partake in the communion today, we are overjoyed that by your grace alone we are saved.
We thank you for the abundance of privileges and benefits that we have in Christ Jesus, none of which we got by our works, but by grace alone. And we thank you, Lord, that even though there's a raging battle and a ravaging and savage enemy that you have already won and that you have enabled us through your word, through the truth of your word, that we can fight against him and stand against him for the sake of your name in the gospel.
We pray that you bless us all today and prepare us even for the rest of the service. In Christ's name I pray, amen.