Spiritual Warfare (Part 1)

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So we'll see what happens. But in all sincerity, glad to be on. Glad you listen.

Seriously, I'm really glad you listen. Talk a little bit today about spiritual warfare.

Are you in a battle? Are you engaged with spiritual warfare tactics and techniques?

This present darkness, Frank Peretti, what do you do? Do you bind Satan? Do you cast him into neighboring city?

Do you repel him? Do you rebuke him? Do you talk to him? I remember

I used to say to people, they talk to Satan. They'd rebuke Satan. Say, Satan, get behind me or something like that.

And I would say, it's kind of dopey, but I would say, when you talk to God, what do you call that?

And they'd say prayer. And I'd say, when you talk to Satan, what do you call that? Dumb. Just kidding.

Obviously, Puritans like to write a lot about a few verses, which is fine.

William Grinnell wrote a book called The Christian in Complete Armor. You probably know the book, and there's a mini version of that, a condensed or bridge version of that.

And everything's about Ephesians 6, 10 through 20. Now one of the best things about Puritan writings, if it's a good

Puritan, right, Puritan doesn't always mean good, i .e. Richard Baxter, bad. But if you read

Puritans that are good, oh, Thomas Watson or William Perkins, do you want to call

John Owen a Puritan? Well, if you do, that'd be fine. William Grinnell has a subtitle to his

Christian in Complete Armor. Here's the subtitle. The Saints' War Against the Devil, wherein a discovery is made of that grand enemy of God and his people.

In his policies, power, seat of his empire, wickedness, and chief design, he hath against the saints.

A magazine opened from whence the Christian is furnished with spiritual arms for the battle, helped on with his armor, and taught the use of his weapon, together with the happy issue of the whole war.

He said that this book of 1 ,472 pages with 261 chapters was a little present and just a mite on all the information that could be extracted from those verses.

Chapter 6 of Ephesians, verses 10 through 20, 11 total verses. But today on No Compromise Radio, you're just going to get like 24 minutes.

If you think about people that won't fight in a war, what do they call those people? Oh, you say sissies, you say traitors.

I'm thinking about the word pacifist. And in Christianity, we want to make sure that we don't fall into the pacifistic trap of pacifism out on the

Pacific Ocean. Violence, war, no matter what, the pacifist says, this is unjustifiable.

And any kind of dispute, we have to settle it in a very peaceful way.

That's not Ephesians 6, 10 to 20. We are in a battleground, weirs be said, not a playground.

And Ephesians has talked a bunch about walking, right, walk in a manner worthy of your calling.

He also says in the beginning of chapter 5, let me see if I can find Ephesians.

How does it go? Leviticus, Exodus, Ephesians, 2nd Hezekiah, 3rd

Assumptions, is that how that works? But he talks about walk in love,

Ephesians 5, 1, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

Verse 15 of chapter 5, look carefully how you walk. And so we're looking at a lot of walking here in this practical section of Ephesians, that is chapters 4, 5, and 6.

But now we work our way, not to walking, but to stand, to stand in war.

This is war talk, not just standing talk. Satan is real,

Satan deceives, Satan lies, Satan tempts, Satan uses the world's system.

Satan has all kinds of demons at his beck and call. And we want to make sure we think about Satan properly.

I think there's one extreme that we see in some of our charismatic friends' lives, and they're always rebuking, casting out, you know,

I have not a lust problem, I have a demon of lust, that type of thing. And it kind of moves everything from my own personal responsibility to I blame it elsewhere.

But on our side of the spectrum, since balance is so wonderful,

I'm broken, I'm wounded, I'm in a journey. No, what we do though, sadly, is we sometimes forget that Satan is real.

And we forget we're in a battle, and we just kind of coast along, and maybe we only think about the flesh and the world system, but we don't think about Satan as a real being who wants you to fall in temptation, to doubt

God's word, to doubt the goodness of God, just like he was after Eve and her nitwit husband,

Adam. We want to make sure that we understand our enemy, and in that, you say to yourself, hmm,

I think I don't want to overestimate Satan because he is a conquered foe, but I also don't want to underestimate

Satan. In the book of Ephesians, Paul has just been exalting the triune

God, and how the triune God receives great glory as the

Son is going to, in fullness of time, unite all things in him, things in heaven and on earth, chapter one, verse 10.

Paul for three years at Ephesus, teaching them all kinds of things, hour upon hour upon hour, it seems like, it could be at least, that Paul summarizes his three years of teaching in these six chapters, and everything about it is good news, right?

Good news, God proclaims through his messenger

Paul about Jesus, the risen Savior, the Spirit of God, the Father, one

God, and then he gives a practical outworking of not living the gospel, but living a life commensurate to, at least that would be our desire to do that.

Of course, we fall short in many ways, but it's a Christian's desire to live a life that's honoring

God, and to live a holy life. As a matter of fact, when you think about assurance, and how people struggle with assurance so much, if someone said to me, they're falling in all kinds of sins, and they're struggling with all kinds of sins, and they're anxious, and they're doubting, and they're wondering, and they're not sure of the future, and it's a job situation, a health situation, there's so many things that happen, and then somehow, now they're starting to doubt their assurance, because Christians shouldn't think that way, right?

Christians should think trustingly, not anxiously. Christians should think, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, but isn't that a sign of being a

Christian, is, well, I know what I'm supposed to do, and I want to do that in light of the great grace that God has shown me, but I'm not doing it, and I'm sorry, and I'm repentant.

Isn't that a sign of, shouldn't that grant you assurance, right? We're not talking about you running off with some girl that's not your wife, and you go live with her for six years.

We're not talking about that. We're talking about day -to -day life and struggles, and some days, we feel better than other days.

Some days, we get more sleep than other days. Some days, we seem to think more positively, and cup is half full days, and other days, it's just a struggle.

We all know we just slog through. You say, weather affects me, my hormones affect me, my job affects me, sleep affects me.

We don't want to blame anything on our disobedience. I make myself sin, but afterwards,

I'm thinking, hmm, shouldn't that be good for assurance when we say, I desire to live a holy life?

I mean, who gave me the desire to live a holy life? And here's the punchline for this particular show. Did Satan give a desire for living a holy life?

Does Satan have you as one of his top goals, or a goal, or any goal, for you to be obedient?

Does Satan want you to be obedient to the triune God? Does Satan say, hmm, I'm going to tempt him into doing good things and saying no to evil things?

No. Who gave you those desires? Who granted you the repentance? Who gave you a desire to, at your own sacrifice, obey the triune

God and to love him and love neighbor and love enemy? Well, we know the answer. Satan is real, and we want to make sure, in Ephesians 6, back on subject, see how

I just got off on that little assurance topic, but it's important. We are going through Ephesians, and all of a sudden, it's wives submit, husbands sacrificially love, children obey, fathers don't provoke but bring them up in discipline and instruction of the

Lord, slaves obey their masters, masters be careful how you teach your slaves, and then all of a sudden, boom, this transition, this obtuse, no, abrupt, yes, transition.

You go from serenity at home, hopefully, to this.

This is a struggle, and we need to be prepared. One man said that the change from chapter 6, verse 9, with the masters, stop threatening, to finally be strong in the

Lord and in the strength of his might, put on the full armor of God that you may be able to withstand the schemes of the devil.

We do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against rulers, against authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

Therefore, take up the whole armor of God. When I was a kid, you'd get those little gag gifts, and one of the things we liked to get was something you put in the palm of your hand, and then you would shake another person's hand, and when they squeezed your hand, it would push the button on that little silver round thing, that little hand shock buzzer, and you would try to shock them, right?

Not a real shock, but it was like buzzing. That's kind of what this is. It's definitely a tension getter.

We move from parent -child, husband -wife, spouse -talk to, hmm, rulers, authorities, cosmic forces, spiritual forces of evil.

We have to be very careful, and of course, I think there's some connection here, too. It's not just so abrupt, or not just only abrupt.

It's abrupt, but it's tied in. Ian Hamilton has an excellent commentary on Ephesians.

If you want to get one commentary, this might be the one to get for devotional type of reading.

I mean, exegetical reading, you get O 'Brien. Devotional reading that's of a reformed persuasion, you get

Sinclair Ferguson, or you get Ian Hamilton. Ferguson's book is called

Let's Study Ephesians, and Hamilton's book is called Ephesians, the

Lectio Continua series, and that is by Reformation Heritage Books.

Here's what Hamilton said. It should be no wonder then that the devil will do all he can to destroy the showcase that is the family.

Too often we link these verses about the devil and his schemes to times of persecution and pressing temptation and fail to grasp the immediate context.

The devil has plans and the devices to attack the family of the

Christian. Spiritual warfare is as present in the home, perhaps even more so as anywhere else.

Many Christians will testify that the home is the place of our greatest spiritual failures and inconsistencies.

It is often in the midst of the ordinariness of family life that the devil sets his most subtle ambushes, watch and pray.

I think he's right. I think that exactly this context of family and spiritual warfare, he's got a point to link these together.

Well, today on No Compromise Radio, I want to start diving in a little bit to the text. You say, why am

I doing this? Well, because I have to preach on it in a couple days, and I want to just talk about it out loud to see if I know what I'm talking about.

All right, so I've got the message here, and let's see what the message says about spiritual warfare. I'm pretty sure

I'm not going to like it, but this is just what we do here at the show. So let's find out.

Oh, I think I might have read this a little bit earlier. That about wraps it up.

God is strong, and he wants you strong, so take everything the master set out for you, well -made weapons of the best material, put them to use, so you'll be able to stand up to everything the devil throws your way.

This is the afternoon, this is no afternoon athletic contest that we'll walk away from and forget about in a couple hours.

This is for keeps. Okie dokie, 10 -4

Eugene Peterson. Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might.

Okay, the other thing that you haven't probably heard of when it comes to spiritual warfare, dear Christian, and we're here to tell you these things, these

Gnostic insights on No Compromise Radio. The first is the tie -in, right? Family spiritual warfare.

The second one is this. Paul is writing to encourage those at Ephesus and the other places that got this letter.

Remember, circular letter. How do you encourage people?

Well, the way Paul encourages people, because remember he says he's going to do that in Ephesians 6 .22,

that's one of the purposes of this letter. You encourage people with an exaltation of the great triune

God, chapter 1. You encourage them about mercy and love and kindness and grace of God is greater than all our sins,

Ephesians 2. How the mystery of the gospel and reconciling Gentiles and Jews together is finally unfolding.

You use somebody like Paul to tell other people about it. I mean, there's lots of ways to encourage. Another way you encourage is to say in Ephesians 6 .10

and following with spiritual warfare is you can be confident. You don't have to be scared.

You can imagine just going out in the battle on Normandy and D -Day and Battle of Bastogne and fighting on Iwo Jima and some other places, how nervous you must be and, you know, going to battle, how scary it might be.

Paul wants you, dear Christian, to be confident when it comes to spiritual warfare. If we really understood the enemy, we might be pretty scared.

Maybe we should be scared, but we can be strong in the Lord. We can be strengthened. There's strength, might, power.

God is strong. And if you're His child, well, you're already guaranteed in chapter 1, verses 13 and 14 to make it to the day of redemption.

You are going to make it. And therefore, when you look at the spiritual warfare section, I want you to see the tie -in to the family to make sure we don't somehow think, oh, this is only for church -related things and prayer walks around abortion clinics and other things like that.

I'm not discounting that. I'm discounting prayer walks, you know, seven times around the building and all the walls might fall down.

But secondly, I want to make sure we understand that this is trying to give you confidence.

God helps. God assists. God is there. God is close.

God of course dwells in us. The Holy Spirit is in us. And therefore, when there's a battle, you can fight.

You don't have to run backward. You don't have to go AWOL. You can be courageous. You say, well,

I've got some chinks in the armor. I've got some holes in the chain mail.

I don't know if I could do this on my own. Perfect. That's why he's saying right at the very beginning, be strong in the

Lord in the strength of your own intellect, your own might, your own Satanology knowledge, your own angelology, catechism.

No. He wants you to know that you can be strong, not on your own, but because of the

Lord. In light of everything that God has done for you, chapter one, in light of you being adopted as a child of God, chapter one, and you in the light of you being part of this program that God has put together, his decree, his purpose, his great plan of the ages that he's going to show to everyone else in light of the

Spirit of God dwelling in you. And you get to walk by the Spirit, filled by the Spirit. You can fight.

And therefore, when you read Ephesians 3 .16, that he would grant you according to the riches of his glory to be strengthened with power through his

Spirit in the inner man, you say, I can do it. You say, Lord, if you want me to fight, I'll be glad to fight.

It's the least I could do. I'm happy to do it. And I, out of gratitude and a desire for your glory, want to obey and be faithful and to fight.

I know it's not my own strength, otherwise it would be, be strong on your own, but it's literally to be strengthened.

It's passive. God is strengthening you. You say, well, I don't know. God's kind of a cheapskate when it comes to helping me.

Of course, we wouldn't say that, but sometimes we believe that. That's actually something that the enemy would say.

He's not good. Is God eager to help his children? If you see your children hurting, are you more apt to help them or less apt to help them?

When my children were little and one of them was sick and throwing up, did I say to myself, ah, they're still my kid, but now that they're sick,

I'm less apt to help. They're in a trial. I'm less apt to help. It is built into our system, is it not, to try to help our children?

God put a special love of our children in our hearts. And of course, that's reflective of divine love and how he wants to help and how he wants to provide strength.

Lord, I'm weak. Could you give me strength? Lord, this is a difficult battle. Could you help me?

Well, it'd be one thing if he didn't have enough power. It'd be another thing if he wasn't very self -sufficient. It's another thing if, it's another thing if, it's another thing if.

But no, we are enabled. We receive strength.

We are strengthened. We increase in strength. We need that. I need that. I want that. You want that.

Strengthen yourself in the Lord. And when you hear things like God to Joshua, be strong and courageous, then it's a litany of you shall give this people possession of land which

I swore to the fathers to give them and what God has done. Be strengthened. And I think one of the first things when it comes to spiritual warfare is we ought to say to ourselves,

I can't be self -sufficient. I can't do this on my own. Second Corinthians 10, for though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty in God for the pulling down of strongholds.

Does this not remind you of the Lord Jesus while on earth incarnate took on flesh, dependent on the

Father, obedient to the Father, in a spiritual battle, faithful?

Did not dependents epitomize and summarize and characterize Jesus on earth?

I think we know. I mean, of course, we could look at other people too, like David. It says in 1

Samuel 30, David strengthened himself in the Lord his God. Now, are we more than conquerors?

The answer is yes. But the verse is we're more than conquerors through him who loves us.

Therefore, when it comes to supernatural powers and their strength and their dominion and their mastery, there's a higher power.

And I don't mean God's my higher power, but there's someone more powerful than Satan. Satan and God, the triune

God, are not equals. They're not symmetrical in their power. Satan is not omnipresent.

He is not omnipotent. He is not of himself, I'll say. Therefore, when we come to spiritual warfare, and if you're in a battle today, and you don't know if it's

Satan battling you or it's just your own stupidity or my ignorance or whatever it might be, you can be strengthened.

Lord, I'm weak today. Would you help? I feel like I want to be dependent on my own resources, my own money, credit cards, doctors, and my own

IQ. But I'm in over my head. And therefore, what does that make you do when you stop looking to self and you say, please help me?

You're looking outwardly. You're looking upwardly. And then you start singing songs like,

High King of Heaven, my victory won. May I reach heaven's joys, O bright heaven's sun.

Heart of my own heart, whatever befall, still be my vision, O ruler of all.

Mike Abendroth, No Compromise Radio Ministry, Ephesians 6, whole armor of God, spiritual battle right after the family.

And so that you're confident that you can battle to the honor of the Lord. No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life -transforming power of God's word through verse -by -verse exposition of the sacred text.

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