Building the House of God - Our Warfare — Phil Beach Jr.

Prayer for Spiritual Sensitivity and Preservation

Growing up, we have to pray and ask God to weep. We have to pray and ask God to weep through us. I know there's some that don't see these things as urgently, but that's okay. That's okay. The day will come for some sooner, others later, when we will all clearly see these things and be one in heart and have one heart and groan together.

And if the Lord should tarry, we'll be groaning that we would be preserved, blameless, kept by the grace of God to walk in accord to God's word, holding on to nothing but Him, living, yes, functioning, yes, but remaining unspotted, unpolluted from the corrupt world that we live in.

Did you say you wanted to say something? Oh, so I just am thankful for God's word, and I pray that we'll all just more and more and more fall in love with God's word today. Are you hungry for God's word?

Do you want to live by God's word? Jesus said, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. You know, Jesus is not running for office, you know that? You know, Jesus does not worry about, you know, which way the wind's blowing and then make sure he accommodates.

He's not like that. He's going to tell us the truth. He already has told us the truth. Listen, a great apostasy. How many knows what the word apostasy means? It means to fall away. A great apostasy is happening right in our midst, right in this country.

A great apostasy, beloved. Listen, it's not the falling away of an outward form of godliness. It's a falling away of an inward reality of Christ as Lord and King, an inward passion, an inward capacity by grace to forsake all and follow him and desire to be unspotted, unpolluted, undefiled before God in his presence.

Oh, yes, it's happening everywhere. God wants us to pray that we can be preserved from this great apostasy. Well, let's turn our Bibles to Ephesians chapter six. As you know, we're looking at the building of God's house and this building of God's house is it's more than just learning.

Building God's House Through Spiritual Renovation

It's listen, it's more than just learning new doctrines and Bible teachings. This building of God's house, the building of God's house is is literally well, like, Tim, you're you know what it is to literally.

Well, you did it in our home. You took out an old water heater and put another one in. It's it's a it's a renovation. It's a renovation that we can't assume that just because we're learning things that that is equal to the actual process that there's a place to be taught.

But the the building of God's house has to do with uprooting, taking out of us the things that are old and and literally implanting and and and placing that which is new inside of us. And that's what God is doing in his process.

And that's why sometimes it's painful and it hurts and it's difficult. But that's actually what he's doing. He's ripping out and putting new in. And that that that that can be hard. You know, Jesus was a carpenter, right?

Well, he still is a carpenter. He still is. He's a heavenly carpenter, and he's been commissioned by his father to build a house. And sometimes there's rusty nails in our life. You know how hard a rusty nail is to to yank out of the wood.

Sometimes it's got to be banged. And sometimes you take a hold of it and you pull it. And all you hear is this terrible grinding sound as it begins to move this squeaking sound. And then what you need to do is get that the oil WD -40 and squirt some of that on it.

Yeah, I get it. And that's the way it is. Sometimes there's rotten wood and and we think we've got rotten wood in our life and we think God's going to do a patch job. But he says now like in like in our home, we had a leak in our sink and it was there for years and years and years.

And finally, once we got the sink ripped out, we realized that the the wood was so rotten. It was unrepairable. So guess what we had to do? We had to rip it all out. And sometimes there's areas in our life where we think, well, the Lord can repair this.

And the Lord says, no, I can't repair it. I have to rip it out. And we can't understand why we go through things. But that's what he's doing. He's yanking rusty nails out and yanking rotten wood out. But it's not to destroy us.

It's to remake us so that we can be fashioned according to the new house that he's making. So how many feel like there's some rusty nails God's working on in your life? Or some rotten wood all the time?

That's good. It's true. Sure, it's true all the time. And sometimes we say, God, what in the world are you doing? Or what about why are you doing this, God? I mean, do you delight in being cruel? How many have ever said that to God?

Maybe you haven't. I have. Do you delight God in making me feel miserable? I mean, is there another book in the Bible that I haven't read that what he's doing? He's remaking us. He's reshaping us. He does it through suffering.

He does it through pain. He does it through perplexity. He does it through difficulties. He does it through allowing us to be disappointed, allowing our plans to fall to the ground. How many have ever had plans that fell to the ground?

I mean, like a like a lead balloon. How many have had hopes that have been dashed so much that now they're not even a hope? They're gone. Yes, hopes just crumble before your eyes. Dreams, things that you believed even God revealed to you.

And now you look and you say, oh, my God. It'll never happen. Why does God allow? Why doesn't God just give us a nice, happy life and everything works out? We have no pain, no pressure, no perplexity, no confusion.

Why? Because that's not God's way. And so we need to take heart this morning in the presence of of our Lord as he is in our midst and realize that he's the heavenly carpenter. He's got the blueprint. He's got the plans.

And even though it's grievous at times, what God is doing, it's grievous, it hurts. We cry, we weep. The Lord is meticulously working on the inside of our life. You remember, we several months ago, we did a series in the Book of Job.

You remember what the title of that series was? Gary, I remember he doesn't. The captivity of the righteous. Remember what we learned through studying the life of Job? Job's problem was not the circumstances he was going through.

Job's problem. Was the captivity, the prison that he was in on the inside. Now he knew God, he was a righteous man, he prayed for his children, but he was captive. To himself. God allowed Satan. Actually, God picked the fight.

You know that God picked the fight. God said, hey, Satan, have you considered my servant Job? That'd be a title of a good book when God picks a fight. He picked the fight. It was God who initiated it.

Why? Because he loved Job so much that he wanted Job to know the pure ecstasy of being delivered from the greatest captivity that men are held to. You see, we think that it's a sign that God's against us, but it's really not.

It's a sign that he's for us. And so Job went through a number. We went through it systematically. We took a lot of time. It was an eight. Believe it was an eight week series. We went through the life of Job and we saw how God put allow the devil to come and destroyed his children, destroyed his reputation, destroyed his health, destroyed his occupation, everything.

And then Job was hurled into a world of darkness and confusion. Why? Why? Because God, through the circumstances, allowed Job to see what was inside of him. You see, we can't see what's inside of us until God in his sovereign wisdom allows things to happen which surfaces what's inside.

And see, Job discovered in the midst of all of the evil that came upon him that his captivity was an inward thing. He was he was he was a prisoner to himself, loved God, was loved by God, was a righteous man.

But he didn't know the spiritual maturity that God wanted to produce in his sons that was demonstrated in the life of his son, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the way, when all the world was against him, maintained what?

A song. He sweat drops of blood and he willingly went to the cross. There's the perfect son through suffering. He revealed the true nature of his heart. He loved God for God alone. That's our Lord Jesus.

He's the perfect man. And that's what God was teaching us in the book of Job. And so Job discovered his captivity. And this is the book of Job is a pattern, it's an example of the triumph of the Lord Jesus Christ and the process that God will bring all of his children through to bring them to spiritual maturity.

And by the way, spiritual maturity is not measured by how much Bible, you know, or even how long you've been a Christian or whether you went to Bible college or whether or not the gifts of the spirit are working in your life.

Spiritual maturity is measured by the degree to which you have been emancipated, freed, not legally, because legally, if you're a child of God, you're free from the consequences and penalty of sin. No, no.

Spiritual maturity is the measure to which you've been emancipated from yourself so that you can live a life Godward, Christward, not caring. Oh, my. Does that sound familiar? Didn't Paul say something like, I count not my life dear unto myself?

Listen, he said, I do not hold value on my life. That is how things affect me, how things relate to me, how my circumstances make me feel, whether this is benefiting Paul, the apostle, whether I am becoming more known as a great apostle.

He got to the place by the grace of God, by the work of God in his life where he was able to say, I count not my life dear unto me. There is maturity. There's maturity. And oh, how God can reveal our maturity in such little things like flat tires and roofs that need to be repaired.

Oh, we're so mature until a little old lady is going 30 miles an hour in a 50 mile an hour zone and we nearly curse her. But we're mature, aren't we? Oh, if God would just deliver us from our pretense and our hypocrisy and we can see the means by which God reveals our stature and not despise it, we're so mature until we find out that we've been misunderstood or we've been neglected by someone.

You think someone should be doing something for you and they don't husbands, wives, and then we start festering inside. And we and this is what we do. It's your fault the way I feel. It's your fault, God says, is it?

Is it their fault or am I using that person to show you where the true problem is? If you weren't so selfish, bother you, perhaps you would be able to ignore and bless the one and pray for the one. Who has hurt you or misused you, so you see what God is after the inworking.

Of the character of his son in our life, that's what he's after, the inworking of the character of his son in our life. And so no matter what we're going through, no matter what you're going through today.

As we come to our father and say, Lord Jesus, have mercy on me. I recognize. That no matter what happens outwardly. I know inwardly you want to transform me. And I come to you and ask that you would do this, father.

I confess my anger, my bitterness, I confess my life. I've got I've gone astray. I've become self-centered or I've had I had an experience, God, and I can I can mark that experience as the beginning of when my heart started to get bitter.

A seed of bitterness, a seed of unforgiveness. Maybe I got mad at God. Maybe I got mad at someone and that marked a decline in my spiritual life, Lord. But I thank you that you're still my savior. I acknowledge that sin.

I realize, Lord, that my problem at that time was not what happened to me. My problem was that at that time I was found out. You showed me an area in my life that I had never known, an area of selfishness.

And instead of confessing it and looking to you to be changed, I held on to it. And in the scripture, he that seeks to save his life shall lose it. See, if we seek to hold on to that self-life, then we'll lose our true life, which is Christ is our life.

But whoever loses his life for my sake, Jesus said, shall find our true life. And that's Christ is our life. So no matter where you're at today, what you're going through, the word of God is clear to all of us.

It's clear. He's here to rescue us, not necessarily change our circumstance. But you know what? He wants to change you in the midst of your circumstance. Too many of us are always looking for a way for our circumstance to change because it makes us feel uncomfortable.

And that's valid. It does. But it's not our circumstance. That's the problem. It's what the circumstances revealing inside. You know what Jesus did when the ship was in the sea raging? He was sleeping.

Why was he sleeping? Because circumstances didn't bother Jesus, but they sure bothered his disciples, didn't they, Tim? They were outraged and they shook him and woke him up. And here's what they said.

And here was the fundamental problem in their life. Carest thou not that we perish? And some of us are now shaking the Lord. Carest thou not that we perish? And Jesus is like going. Contemporary language.

Chill out, chill. Did you forget what my name meant? Savior. I know. Trust me. Trust me. Trust me. You might lose everything, but you won't perish. Lo, I'm with you always, even unto the end of the age.

What more do we need? He's with us. See. So this is what he's saying to us now. Fear not, little flock. It's your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. But the Lord wants to give the kingdom to those who really want it.

Those who long for those who listen to those who have been able to leave the kingdom of this world, whose treasure is him alone. Ephesians chapter six. Father, thank you for your word. We love your word.

We thank you that you're teaching us more and more that man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of your mouth. We pray, God, that you will cause us to hunger for your word more and more that you would lead us to your word, even in the situation that we're going through right now.

Help us to see that your word will stable us. Your word will hold us and your word will feed us. OK. Ephesians chapter six, beginning in verse number 10. Finally, my brethren. Be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might.

The Whole Armor of God in Spiritual Warfare

Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

Wherefore, take unto you the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day and having done all to stand. Stand, therefore, having your loins girt about with truth. Our underline that word truth or circle it or write it down and having on the breast plate of righteousness now underline that word or circle it or write it down and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace.

There is another one underline that gospel of peace above all, taking the shield of faith, faith. Underline that wherewith you shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked and take the helmet of salvation.

There's another word salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. So the sword of the spirit and the word of God underline those two words or phrases and then praying always. Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit and watching.

There is another word watching these all these words have significance now with all perseverance. There's another word perseverance and supplication for all saints. Now, brothers and sisters, listen carefully to God's word this morning, building the house of God, our warfare, our warfare.

We're going to continue to talk about our walk, our walk. Remember, we've been dealing with this for a number of weeks now. Our walk. We've been learning what God's word says about our walk. Now that we're Christians, we have to learn to walk differently.

But this is an insert in the midst of that teaching on our walk. This is our warfare. Verse number 10, Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might in the process of God building his house, which is taking believers such as you and I and all those who are washed in the blood of Jesus and building into us the character that is inherent within his son, that godly character, the process that God uses in order to build this character in us requires that we learn to draw our strength and our power from the Lord Jesus Christ.

Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. Our power and our might and our tenacity and our willpower is going to faint. But in this process of being rebuilt into the people that God is looking for into the house that God is looking for, I don't know about you, beloved, but I have come to see and am coming to see more and more in this warfare that my strength is of no avail when it comes to the spiritual battle.

Have you come to see that? Our strength leads us to defeat, our might leads us to ruin. The transition that each and every one of us must make under the guidance and teaching of the Holy Spirit is we must make the transition from living by our own strength and by our own might and by our own energy.

The creaturely energy can can can go a long way. It can it can sustain us for a long time. But sooner or later, we will come to a crisis in our life when we have to take the ass off our chest. Superwoman, Superman, we don't have the strength.

But in order for that to happen, God has to deal with our pride. He has to deal with our self sufficiency. He has to deal with our unwillingness to admit that we don't have what it takes. If we're always trying to impress people, always trying to look good in front of people.

That's going to have to come down because you can't live in the strength and power of God and at the same time, always trying to want to impress people and be strong in the presence of people. Many, many months ago, we mentioned three words that have to be wrought in us if we're going to grow, mature spiritually, accountability, transparency.

And vulnerability. We must become vulnerable, we must become transparent and we must become accountable to God first in his word and then to one another relationally. So if you're going to know the strength and power and might that comes from God, you will have to be brought to the place where you're able to renounce and acknowledge, not just in your prayer closet quietly.

Oh, God, I have no strength. Every wife will have to come to her husband one day and say, sweetheart, I don't have what it takes to be a good wife, to be a good mom. I don't have what it takes to maintain a good Christian character in the midst of conflict.

I don't have what it takes. Pray for me. I need to grow in my capacity to live by the strength and might of God. Every husband will have to come to the place where they say that to their wife. And we all have to come to that place relationally where we acknowledge that.

How are you in relation to this revelation? Where are you at? If you and I are going to be built into the house that God is looking for, we will have to undergo the process of being stripped from our might and our power so that we can live by the strength of another, even Christ.

Verse 11, put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. Now, this armor here is something that was worn by soldiers in order to protect them in battle. And it's interesting to know that there is a piece of armor for every part of the body, except the back.

That means that you cannot turn your back in the battle, but you will turn your back in the battle if you or I don't learn that our strength is from God. Because what's the first thing we do when our strength fails?

We retreat. We want to turn our back and run when our when our when our strength fails, we want to give up. We don't realize that the failure of our strength is the threshold of what it's coming into his strength.

That's that's heaven's best moment. When we fail, when our strength disappears, then we say, oh, God. But if but if at the time when our strength fails, we listen to the lie of our emotions or the lie of the wicked one or maybe even the lie of a brother or sister.

And with friends like this, who needs enemies? But if you ever have a friend come to you and say, I'll just give up for I'll tell you. Yeah, but didn't Job's wife say that to him? Remember what Job's wife said?

Ah, Job, just curse God and die. Give up. What's the sense of going on? God is obviously against you, not for you. So if you turn around, you become vulnerable. To a part of your body that doesn't have any armor.

And so I believe strategically the Holy Spirit identified various pieces of armor that the Romans wore to specifically emphasize the fact that God's people cannot retreat in battle. I don't care what you're going through.

It doesn't matter how deep, how dark, how trying, how testing, how difficult what your past is. How unpromising your future looks. God is saying through this word here, do not give up. Don't give up. Listen, some of you may be on the eve of the greatest test of your life.

And right now you're saying, preacher, I've never been tempted to give up. Bless God. My Christian life's been going so good. God's been good. God's been good. God's been good to me. Everywhere I turn, I'm blessed.

That might be true, and I'm very thankful. But a time will come during a test when suddenly you're going to experience a temptation that you've never known before. And that temptation will be to give up, to abandon your faith, to abandon God, to abandon the church.

That's not an organized system I'm talking about. That's brothers and sisters in Christ. Just abandon. Just close your heart and forget about it. God is saying, don't give up. Don't abandon your faith.

Christ is here. Christ is present. Christ knows what you're going through. In your moment of weakness, in your moment when you feel that you can't go on, go to Him and let Him reveal the strength of another, even Christ.

Brothers and sisters, I feel prompted of the Holy Spirit to say this. Listen carefully. Please, everyone, don't give up. Don't give up. Don't give up. No matter how dark it gets, no matter how dismal it gets, no matter how trying it gets, don't give up.

God is with you. He'll see you through. He'll see you through our warfare. Our warfare put on the whole armor of God that you might be able to stand against the wiles. That word wiles means strategies, strategies, the evil schemings of the wicked one.

Brothers and sisters, please listen carefully. Don't think for a minute that the enemy is not strategizing and scheming a plan to destroy your faith. Don't think for a minute if you are a Christian with the Holy Spirit and God has determined that your life would make a valuable contribution in His kingdom.

Don't think for a minute the devil has just basically ignored you and is going on to someone else. You are a target because you are connected to Christ. You are a potential vessel through whom the glory of Jesus can be revealed.

And the devil hates Christ and anyone and anything that has to do with Christ. And so if you're part of the house of God and you're in the building project phase where you're having nails ripped out and rotten wood beaten out of you and God is dealing with you as sons, there's an evil scheme and plot going on right now in the midst of what you're going through.

And it comes to you in the form of thoughts, feelings, impressions, and the schemes and the thoughts are designed to accuse God of being unfair and unjust and unkind and unloving toward you so you would abandon your hope and trust in Him.

How many have ever experienced that in measure? The thoughts, the feelings, the emotions, the schemes, the strategies, the evil plans. And we need the whole armor of God that we might be able to stand against the evil to stand against the schemes.

Ask yourself this question. Have you bought into a lie recently? Are you buying into a lie right now? Has Satan successfully got a foothold into your life where you're trapped by one of his evil schemes?

I mean, there's so many evil schemes we couldn't even begin to go into this. But I'll tell you some of the evil schemes that come against a single person. God doesn't care that I have these needs. So I'm just going to go ahead and commit fornication, married couples.

God doesn't care that my husband doesn't understand my needs. So I'm just going to go out and commit adultery. That's a lie. That's a scheme. That's a strategy. My need is not getting met. So I'm going to become bitter toward that person.

That's a scheme. We could take years every week searching through the scriptures and looking at all the schemes and the plans and the strategies that Satan is unleashing against his people, against the Lord's people.

You see. What scheme have you bought into? What scheme have you bought into? Verse number 12, for we wrestle not against flesh and blood. You see, a wrestling match is going on spiritually speaking against the house of God, against those who are part of the living temple.

You're in a wrestling match. This is a call to war. This is a call to war, brothers and sisters. We're wrestling in spirit, in our mind, in our thought life. The culture itself is anti-Christ. There's a horrendous spiritual warfare going on everywhere we turn in the world.

There's a wrestling match going on, and it's not with people. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood. Listen to who the opponent is. But against principalities. Against powers, against rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

We are in a warfare. The church is in a warfare. What are we in a warfare over? Listen. Listen, everything that Satan is currently plotting and scheming and strategizing against you and I as believers in Christ is intended to do one thing.

Overthrow. Listen, overthrow a singleness of heart to remain. Utterly committed to what God has done in his son. And what God has done in the church to overthrow a single heart passion to obey his word.

At any cost, at any loss, that's what the warfare is about. Verse 13, wherefore, in light of the fact that we are wrestling against spiritual forces, we're wrestling against thoughts, we're wrestling against reasonings, we're wrestling, wrestling against ideas.

That contradict what God's word says. Because of this, take unto you the whole armor of God will day. And having done all to stand, brothers and sisters, please listen carefully to God's word. God must teach us.

And fashion us so that we are equipped with God's armor, Christ himself. So that we can oppose and withstand the enemy's desire. To overthrow our faith, there is no place in the Christian life for passivity.

You know what passivity is? Well, I'll just let it happen. Nothing I can do. Oh, dear God, you wouldn't do that if someone came knocking at your door. At three o 'clock in the morning and tried to enter in, tried to get through a window, you would oppose him.

You would oppose that intruder. No father walking with his daughter down the street would allow some thug to come up to her and begin to try and verbally or physically abuse her. Tim wouldn't. I wouldn't.

No, no father in his right mind would do that. No mother would allow their children to be hurt. If she had the power to stop it. But yet, when it comes to this Christian life, what do we do? We roll over and play dead and we just become the product of every wind and doctrine and thought and feeling and emotion and we let it take us captive.

And then that begins to affect our walk. And we start doing things and saying things that are opposed to God's word as if we're powerless and we can't do anything about it. Why do we let that happen? We're in a warfare.

We have to we have to oppose with the power of God's word. An intruder. Oppose that thought when it seeks to get into your mind and corrupt you. Oppose that temptation. Resist it. Our warfare. We're in a warfare, beloved Christianity, for the most part in America is the way it is because.

We have failed to resist and oppose that which has intruded that is contrary to the word of God. We've just let it happen. The reason why is because it corresponds to our own fleshly, selfish desires, and we like that.

OK, brothers and sisters, listen now. Verse number 14. Stand, therefore, having your loins girt about with truth. There's the first word that we wrote up here. Truth. See that word truth. John 17, 17.

Truth as the First Piece of Spiritual Armor

Thy word is truth. Sanctify him by thy word. Thy word is truth. Now let me ask a question. Please listen carefully. We have our loins girded about with truth. The first armor, the first piece of the armor is, listen, is truth.

You can be sure, brothers and sisters, that in this warfare that we are in this spiritual warfare, Satan is seeking to destroy the truth in our life. Truth is what we have to gird our loins with. Truth is what we have to live by.

Thy word, O God, is truth. Where has untruth penetrated your life? If untrue, if a lie has penetrated your life and is in it's part of your thinking process right now, an intruder has come and you need to pray, God, give you the power to resist.

Resist the intruder. The church must be girded with truth. The Bible says in Proverbs, buy the truth and sell it not. Don't give the truth away. Love the truth. Honor the truth. Thy word is truth. Seek the truth.

Jesus said you shall know the truth and the truth will make you free. People are more interested in profit than they are truth nowadays. They are. And it is a sad indictment. Truth. Be a lover of truth.

Now, listen, brothers and sisters, these are the pieces of the armor with. Listen, without these pieces of armor and all these pieces just are are are they point toward different aspects of the Lord Jesus Christ himself.

He is the truth. John 14, six. I am the way, the truth and the life. Jesus himself. So basically, this armor of God in Ephesians 610, which equips us for the battle and enables us to overcome the spiritual warfare that we're in.

It's simply Jesus and his word finding first place in our life all the time. Without that. We will be defeated. There's no question about it. We will be defeated. Someone says that's a negative confession, brother.

It's a true confession. We will be defeated. If we don't put on the armor of God. And oppose the enemy. And resist him. So in our warfare. We must first and foremost make sure that we are good about with truth every day of our life.

Does truth govern us? Is it the truth that you believe about money? Is it the truth that you believe about a career? Is it the truth that you believe about lying and stealing and cheating? Is it the truth that you believe?

About sexual desire, is it the truth that you believe or is it a lie that you've bought into. Truth. Truth. Truth. Lord, give us truth. Let us be lovers of truth. When this piece of armored truth falls from us, we lose the battle.

We can keep going to church. We keep doing our religious activities. We can be involved in programs. We can give good works. We can give money. But that's not going to substitute truth. We need truth.

Are you a lover of truth? Number two, and having on the breastplate of righteousness. Righteousness. The word righteousness is a word that identifies what God is. He is righteous. He does what is right.

Listen, this word righteousness has more to do with just being justified. A criminal could be declared justified and released from prison because somehow someone else pays the penalty that the criminal is deserving of.

But that criminal is still a criminal in heart. We have been declared justified by the blood of Jesus Christ and God has imputed his righteousness to us as a positional standing. But that righteousness must work itself into our life so that not only are we righteous in our stand before God, but we are righteous in what we do.