A Mighty Fortress Is Our God (pt-3) - [Ephesians 6:10-20]

Bethlehem Bible Church iconBethlehem Bible Church

0 views

0 comments

00:00
I grew up in the 1960s and that was the decade where everyone got
00:05
TVs in their house and I remember Sunday nights, Monday nights, Friday nights watching
00:10
TV shows. I remember watching Ed Sullivan, I remember watching Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, I remember watching
00:19
Lassie, Sunday night Disney shows, I remember
00:24
Red Skelton, all these shows in the 60s as the family would gather around and one particular show
00:30
I remember is Flip Wilson's show. Flip Wilson was a comedian and he has some immortal words and those words now go, the devil made me do it.
00:49
Is that good theology? The devil made me buy that dress, as Flip used to say? On one extreme, people blame the devil for everything, on the other extreme,
00:59
Satan's not really real, he's just a concept. Paul Harvey once said, the radio commentator, if I were the devil,
01:07
I'd begin with the campaign of whisper. With the wisdom of a serpent, I would whisper, the
01:12
Bible. I would convince them that man created God instead of the other way around.
01:18
I'd whisper, what is bad is good and what is good is square. If I were the devil,
01:27
I'd encourage schools to refine young intellects but neglect to discipline emotions, let those run wild.
01:34
If I were Satan, I'd make the symbol of Easter an egg and the symbol of Christmas a bottle. Then I'd separate families, putting children and adults separate.
01:50
If I were Satan, I'd just keep on doing what I'm doing and the whole world would go to hell as sure as the devil, maybe some truisms there.
02:01
One thing's for sure, if you're a Christian, you are in a battle, you are in war.
02:06
I remember the words, this means war. If you'll turn your
02:12
Bibles to Ephesians chapter 6, if you haven't noticed in your Christian life yet, you are in a battle.
02:19
I guess the better question would be, how's your battle going? If you're a Christian, how is your battle? Ministry means conflict.
02:27
Christians are in a war. Opposition as a certain, as death, taxes.
02:36
We are in a supernatural battle with Satan and his hordes and we need to know what to do about it.
02:42
We've been in the study now for the third week, A Mighty Fortress is Our God, right from Ephesians chapter 6 verses 10 through 20, the third part of the 20 -week series.
02:58
Warren Wiersbe even said, sooner or later, every believer, you don't know if that's a joke or not, 20 parts, you're thinking that's right on the border of being maybe true or maybe not.
03:07
Is it hyperbole or is it exaggeration? Well, we're just going to take our time because it's important.
03:13
It's important that we do the right things and it is more important that we think the right thoughts when it comes to Satan, God.
03:21
There's all kinds of things floating around, kind of equal opposites. There are two forces in the universe. God's all powerful,
03:27
Satan's all powerful and they're at war, kind of like with salvation.
03:32
God cast for you to be saved, Satan cast against you to be saved, you cast the deciding ballot.
03:40
That's not right. We need to figure out what is right. What do we do? And Wiersbe said, sooner or later, every
03:47
Christian discovers that the Christian life is a battleground, not a playground.
03:56
We need to make sure we are dressed in God's armor if we're going to do the right thing, if we can stand against Satan. And I think when
04:03
I first became a pastor here, I was quite naive to the reality and to the depths and intensity of spiritual battle and spiritual warfare.
04:12
After all, if Jesus loves the church, Satan must hate the church. If Christ loves the aroma that go to his nostrils, as it were, when he hears biblical preaching, what must
04:26
Satan think? We need to know what to do as a church or we'll be undone. And as we've been looking at Ephesians chapter 6,
04:33
I've been giving you some strategies on how to stand your ground, hold the ground that Christ has obtained at Calvary, that we might hold our ground, watch our position so we don't go in retreat.
04:45
And let me just give you those three strategies in review again as we look through the passage Ephesians 6, 10 through 20.
04:51
Ephesians 6, 10 is the first strategy in review. The first spiritual warfare strategy is we mustn't rely on ourselves.
05:00
We're not strong enough. And that's why the passage says in Ephesians 6, 10, finally, for the rest, in conclusion, he says, be strong in the
05:11
Lord and in the strength of his might. And I love it because God is eager, God is willing, God is able to give us the strength that we need.
05:19
He's not up there in heaven saying, it's men, it's the church, it's women against Satan and boy, they're going to just be slaughtered.
05:27
No, he says, be strong, but not in your own strength, but in my supernatural strength that I inherently have.
05:34
Be strengthened in that. And this should make our minds stir up everything against trying to be self -reliant, self -sufficient, self -righteous.
05:48
Second strategy we've learned in the past weeks is we mustn't rely on, excuse me, we mustn't rely on our own weapons, but we must secondly rely on God's weaponry, verse 11.
05:58
If we are to be strong in the Lord, then how are we to do that? And he answers that how question in verse 11, like a commanding officer with just a command with not even a connective, not even a therefore or a but, or even, also, and he just says, put on the full armor of God that you may be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil.
06:17
Put on like armor, put on like when I was a kid growing up and I'd play football and when you would play football and at the varsity level and I'm sure even junior high and college, you would make sure in your locker you had every component that you needed.
06:32
You needed to have your helmet, you needed to have your shoulder pads, you needed to have your shin guards, you had all kinds of things.
06:38
And I remember we would even have a penalty, I don't know how the sports directors do it now, but there was a penalty if we didn't put our mouthpiece in, we'd be penalized.
06:49
And so the idea here is completeness of armor. Everything that God has to give us that we'll see in verses 14 and following, we want to make sure we put them on.
06:57
We don't want to go around playing football with the helmet off. I always imagine these men playing football and if you spike somebody hard enough with your helmet, have you ever seen those helmets just fly off?
07:06
What's the first thing they do? Run back to the line of scrimmage for the second down. No, they go get their helmet.
07:13
And so Paul is letting us know we can't rely on ourselves, we can't do it at all, we need to rely on God and His strength to hold that position in the battlefield.
07:23
And there are schemes, the devil's smart, he's been at it for thousands of years, that we may be able to stand against the schemes or the methods or the cunning strategies of Satan.
07:33
He's after us. The good news is we can kind of see what's going on. I love the story with General Patton in World War II.
07:39
He had a successful counterattack against the
07:44
General Rommel, Erwin Rommel. And Patton was supposedly saying out loud in the thick of battle to Rommel's troops and tanks,
07:57
I've read your book, Rommel, I've read your book. And Rommel had written a book called
08:04
Infantry Attacks that had all his detailed strategies planned perfectly.
08:11
And whether that's true or not, I'm not sure, but we can look in the Bible and see some of the methods and wiles that Satan has, whether it's back in the
08:17
Garden of Eden in chapter three of Genesis, or we can see how Satan is attacking
08:22
Paul and preventing him or giving him a thorn. We have lots of information and we know for a fact that Satan is after the saints and after the
08:32
Lord. Third strategy, we've seen so far you can't rely on ourselves, we can't rely on anyone except God and His weaponry.
08:41
But thirdly, we must be biblical because our enemies are real, many, and superhuman.
08:47
I could even add invisible. Look at verse 12. Here's the thought process.
08:52
You've got to be strengthened by God. How do you do that? Put on God's armor. Why should you do that right here in verse 12?
09:00
Why is the armor crucial? Why is God's strength critical? For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.
09:16
We are not playing around against humans. We are not playing around with flesh and blood, weak, transitory, people who need to get sleep at night, people that need to work out, people that need protein drinks.
09:29
We are after and against Satan and these invisible forces. And we must not,
09:36
Paul's point is, underestimate what's going on. Again, there's the one side that blames Satan for everything and the other side that thinks we don't have to even consider him or have any kind of defense at all.
09:47
And he says, it's a struggle. Do you notice the word struggle there? Remember from last week? It's hand -to -hand, it's close, it's personal, it's right up in your face.
09:55
It's wrestling. You can just imagine back in the days of wrestling when they would just wrestle close to close in the ancient games of Greece.
10:02
And that wrestling wasn't just to see who could win the trophy, but that wrestling was to death. And he said, you are in a death match with Satan.
10:15
Side note, why is there so much angel stuff going around these days? There's an angel craze.
10:21
Everybody's into angels. But I notice they're not into bad angels, they're into good angels. If you've got a personal angel, you've got a personal angel pin, it's always a good kind, a sweet kind, a loving kind.
10:34
People believe in angels, but I don't think they really believe in demons that much. In my study this week, magazines in Time, Newsweek, Ladies Home Journal, Red Book, ABC Specials in the 90s about angels, and they're always the sweet kind of best buddy angels, favorite friend.
10:56
Time Magazine even had the right answer why people love angels. For those,
11:02
Time Magazine said, quote, who choke too easily on God and his rules, angels are a handy compromise, all fluff and meringue, kind, nonjudgmental, and they're available to everyone like aspirin.
11:20
People believe in angels, but does the local church believe in demons and the warfare?
11:27
Do you? I mean, it's 2005, we're not that far from Harvard and Cambridge that we would believe in demons.
11:38
Paul believed in demons. He lines up these like a parade almost. Look at the text, against rulers, these personal intelligent principalities, against powers, they're strong, they have authority, they bear authority and rule.
11:52
Against world forces, they want to control the world. Against spiritual forces of wickedness, they're bad to the bone.
12:02
And Paul is saying there's an unseen battle, you better be careful, you better watch out. And lots of victims don't even know the war's going on.
12:11
First Peter 5 .8 we looked at last week, Satan is prowling around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour.
12:19
Arabs call Satan the busy one. That's the idea. Well, what do we do here?
12:30
How do we go around binding Satan? What's our strategy? Run, fight, flee, cast out?
12:38
What do we do? Well, let's keep reading. Look at Ephesians 6 .13. He almost gives an emphasis to summarize what he said in 10, 11, and 12.
12:49
He says, therefore, take up the full armor of God that you may be able to resist in the evil day and having done everything to stand firm.
12:59
Paul, you've almost told us that, but he's telling us it again. Take up.
13:04
In verse 11, be clothed in, now there's a bunch of armor here, pick those things up and get ready.
13:10
One was be clothed in, now it's pick up and get ready. And he's just trying to create the picture of our mind that we have formidable enemies, the battle and conflict is inevitable, and we need to be prepared.
13:20
It's an urgency that we have to resist Satan in the evil day.
13:27
Now, let's pick up where we left off last week. What is not in Ephesians 6, verses 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, and 20?
13:42
That is to say, when you read this, and I'll just read it now, ask yourself, what is this
13:49
Remember, there was all kinds of satanic warfare going on, demons, Diana, Artemis, sons of Sceva.
13:55
This was a town that was laced with all kinds of supernatural warfare. Paul, hopefully, will tell the church at Ephesus what to do.
14:06
He says in verse 14, stand firm, therefore, having girded your loins with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace, in addition, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one, and take the helmet of salvation, the sword of the
14:24
Spirit, which is the word of God. Beloved, I don't see any breaking down strongholds there, do you?
14:31
I don't see any territorial demons there, do you? I don't see spiritual warfare summits, spiritual warfare boot camps.
14:38
I don't see exorcisms. I don't see rebuking. I don't see loosing. I don't see binding. I don't see any of that, and the question
14:44
I ask to you is, why? When Paul wrote to Timothy, the pastor at Ephesus, in 1
14:50
Timothy, why don't you see this casting and binding language there? Hopefully, a pastor would know what to do, and I have this question.
14:57
Why is there so much binding, rebuking, and casting out today in Christian circles? Well, let's turn to Mark chapter 1.
15:06
The first reason is, and by the way, my purpose now as I go through these issues is so I want you to do the right thing and not spend your time on the wrong thing.
15:15
If you're going around casting and binding and having spiritual summits and warfare issues, when you should be girded with the armor of God, I think you're going to be off track, and I think
15:25
Satan would love you to be doing all the things you shouldn't be doing because there are some basics and essentials. So this week's almost what not to do.
15:32
Next week's going to be what to do. The reason why there's so much binding and rebuking and casting out is, one, we have a false assumption these days that Christ's authority must be our authority.
15:45
If Jesus does it, we must be able to do it. But look at Mark chapter 1. We looked at Mark chapter 5 last week for a little bit.
15:52
Very interesting, and again, we're just kind of slowly taking our time to make sure we don't do the wrong things.
15:58
I'll never forget the time I met a brand new Christian, and I was a brand new Christian. I was in Santa Cruz, and this person came over, and he was all excited about the
16:06
Lord, and he wanted to study and learn and everything. His name was Scott, and I said to Scott, oh, that's great, and then he said, you know, the first thing we did is when we bought our new house,
16:16
I got the oil out, and I anointed everything with oil all around the house, and I walked around the house, and I was casting out all the kind of demons that were in the house and everything, and everything was fine between Scott and I until he said, well, what do you think of that?
16:31
You know, you just typically just kind of smile and look and say, well, that's interesting, or how much was the oil, you know, something like that, and he got so mad at me because I tried to tell him, what authority do you have to do that?
16:47
Where in the Bible is it written to you to actually do that? Do you think you're apostle? Do you think you're Jesus?
16:56
He got mad at me. I want to do what
17:01
God tells me to do and nothing further, and it is a fallacy to think if Jesus does something, so can we.
17:08
Let me show you this other passage in Mark 1 where the neon light of the theme of this verse, and these verses should be the sole prerogative of Jesus.
17:20
That's the point, and you'll see it in the text. Mark 1, verse 22, they were amazed at his teaching, for he was teaching them as one having authority, note that word, and not as a scribes.
17:33
Just then there was a man in their synagogue with an unclean spirit, and he cried out. Can you imagine that blood curdling scream?
17:40
What business do we have with each other, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us?
17:46
I know who you are, the Holy One of God. Here's what Jesus did. He lit a candle.
17:52
Oh, sorry, I didn't see that in the text. He got a crucifix out. He did what happened down in Rhode Island several years ago when the person thought the family was demon possessed, and so they poured down all kinds of water down the person's mouth because demons come out through vomit, and so just pour enough water in the mouth so the water comes out, vomited out, unfortunately killed the little girl.
18:19
What does Jesus do? Now, if you don't have authority, you'll begin to add rules and procedures and flowcharts.
18:27
If you don't have any kind of authority, you're going to do all kinds of rites and passages and prayers and incense and everything else, but if you have authority, what do you do?
18:35
What did Jesus do? He said, shut up and get out.
18:43
Sometimes I meet children and they say, you're not allowed to say the shut up word, but we make exceptions for Jesus, don't we?
18:50
Absolutely. It is a fallacy to think whatever Jesus does, we can do for more reasons than one.
18:59
The NAS says, be quiet and come out of him. Literally, hold your tongue, be muzzled, be gagged, put a sock in it.
19:09
That's exactly the connotation. Stop. Gould renders it.
19:17
If you don't think I'm a scholar, and there's no reason you should think that I am, but Gould says, shut up, shut your mouth, stop your mouth, is the thought of that as quoted in A .T.
19:27
Robertson's word pictures book. Sovereign authority, single command.
19:39
The prerogative and authority of Jesus. And what happens to that demon? And throwing him into convulsions, the unclean spirit cried out with a loud voice and came out of him.
19:50
Throwing him means to tear and to rip and to convulse and to go to and fro. Cried out.
19:57
I like King James Version here. And when the unclean spirit had torn him and cried out with a loud voice, he came out of him.
20:05
Loud voice, by the way, in Greek, you know, these Greek words, megaphone. He cried out with a loud voice.
20:15
Now, here's the reaction. And this is what I'm trying to drive home over these weeks. It will help you so much in your life of Bible interpretation if you realize that not everything in the
20:25
Bible is written to you. Everything in the Bible is written for you, but not necessarily to you.
20:32
You understand the difference? Many times the Bible says something for the apostles to do, something that Jesus did, and we can't necessarily do what they have done.
20:41
Try raising the dead. Try going out in the middle of the desert for 40 days and not eating and having war to war conflict with Satan.
20:48
There are many things that Jesus has done that we are not allowed to do. And so why would Paul in Ephesians 6 say, here's what
20:54
I want you to do with spiritual warfare and not have all the extra extraneous flashy things? Answer is because we don't have that authority.
21:01
And you see the response right here, even in verse 27 of Mark Chapter 1. And they were all amazed so that they debated among themselves saying, what is this, a new teaching with authority?
21:12
He's got the authority because he not only teaches, he authenticates what he says by casting those out.
21:18
Even the unclean spirits obey him. Christ is superior. Christ is Lord. Well, let's develop this further.
21:26
Matthew Chapter 10. If you'll go back a book of the Bible, please, to Matthew Chapter 10. I usually have the style of getting into Ephesians 6 and just camping there and rarely turning.
21:36
But I want to develop this because I think it's helpful that we understand Jesus has the authority and we do not.
21:46
Look at the apostles in Matthew Chapter 10, verse 1. Again, the issue is, what kind of authority do we have over Satan?
21:53
Later, if we have time, we'll deal with this issue. Should we cast out demons? Can Christians exercise demons?
22:00
But for right now, what's the authority? Jesus summoned his 12 disciples. Who did he summon? The 12 disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits.
22:10
So now Jesus is delegating his authority to cast them out, to heal every kind of disease and every kind of sickness.
22:17
Now, in verses 2, 3, and 4, I want to see if you can find your name. If you can find your name, it's got to be first, middle, and last, social security number.
22:25
It's got to all match up. But look for your name. Now, the names of these 12 apostles that were given this authority are these,
22:34
Simon, Andrew, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Thomas, Matthew, James, Thaddeus, Simon, and Judas.
22:46
Why in the Bible is the issue of casting out demons never directly addressed to a local church?
22:57
Now, one other place, Luke Chapter 10. Let's turn there. Let's hit Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Luke Chapter 10,
23:04
Jesus has the authority. He delegates it to the 12, and now there's one other group that he delegates it to, close associates to the apostles, and these are the 70.
23:13
These are the 70. And I don't think you'll find any other place in the Bible where the authority of Christ has been delegated like that, unless you look maybe at a spiritual gift of miracles.
23:22
We can talk about that another time. But I'm trying to drive home the truth that we need to be careful if we try to do everything that Jesus does.
23:32
We need to, more importantly, do what Jesus tells us to do through his apostolic messengers, specifically in the epistles.
23:39
Luke Chapter 10. Now, after this, the Lord appointed 70 others and sent them in pairs ahead of him to every city and place where he himself was going to come.
23:49
Verse 17. Jump down there, please. The 70 returned with joy, saying, Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name.
23:58
And he said to them, I was watching Satan fall from heaven like lightning. Behold, I have given you authority. Who's been given authority?
24:05
You, 70, to tread on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing will injure you.
24:11
Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, verse 20, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are recorded in heaven.
24:21
One of the reasons why people jump into the problem of casting out demons and binding them and rebuking them is because they misunderstand the authority of Christ has not been delegated past the 12 and past the 70.
24:35
There's another reason why people bind so many demons and rebuke and cast out. The first reason is the misunderstanding of Christ's authority.
24:43
Secondly, they don't really respect angels like they ought to.
24:50
Let's turn to 2 Peter Chapter 10, please, as we develop this topic of being careful to just do what
24:56
God has told us and not going beyond that. 2 Peter Chapter 2, verse 10. 2
25:01
Peter is a book written about what topic? It's written about false teachers. And did you know, true or false, one of the signs of a false teacher is that they go around reviling and casting out and rebuking
25:16
Satan. If you do that, it does not mean you are a false teacher. But a sign of someone who's a false teacher is they have no respect for these unholy angels, albeit angels, and they just go around thinking that they are about the same in power and rank and authority.
25:33
And so Peter is trying to talk about this issue. And he says in 2 Peter Chapter 2, verse 10, as he is criticizing these false teachers who are going to invade the church soon enough, he said, and especially those who indulge the flesh in its corrupt desires and despise authority.
25:55
And you're going to see in a minute, that's even despising the authority of a demon, an unholy angel. What are they like?
26:02
Daring, self -willed. Oh, they're so presumptuous. They do not tremble when they revile angelic majesties.
26:12
When they are in their ministry, they don't even care if they blaspheme these demons.
26:20
They're bold. They're arrogant. They're not even afraid to slander them. Here's Peter's point that we'll see expanded in Jude.
26:30
If false teachers going around blaspheming, saying all these things, reviling demons and Satan, Peter's trying to say, we ought to be careful.
26:39
We ought to tread lightly. We ought not to be so boldly foolish to just go around saying things to these demons, let alone
26:46
Satan. And if you go close by 2 Peter, look at the sister passage of Jude.
26:52
Jude gets a little farther here. With Jude, only one chapter, verse 9.
27:00
If you take Jude and 2 Peter and put them together, you have two books that teach the same thing.
27:06
2 Peter is a book that says false teachers are coming. Jude is the book that says they're here.
27:12
So watch out for people that go around saying that they're going to, as one man on TV said, I'm going to stomp all over the devil.
27:22
The demons of hell are trembling, just knowing that we're coming. And I read one commentator this week, and he said those men who say that are dumber than Balaam's donkey.
27:32
We have to be careful. We're not to respect and give honor to, but we're to realize these are angels, and we are but mere men.
27:42
And if Michael the archangel doesn't go around rebuking Satan, do you think you should? Jude chapter 1 is the only chapter.
27:51
Jude 9, verse 9. But Michael the archangel, when he disputed with devil and argued about the body of Moses, by the way, when was that?
28:03
Moses died prematurely as a healthy man on Mount Nebo before he was to get into the
28:10
Promised Land. True? Where he's buried, we don't know. I was looking around when I went to Mount Nebo.
28:15
It was one of the neatest places in all the Holy Land because you could look down and see Jerusalem and the valley, standing up in Mount Nebo, this false god mountain, and here's as far as God let
28:24
Moses go. And Deuteronomy 34 says that God buried Moses.
28:30
Why did God bury Moses? Why did God not want the Israelites to know about Moses and where he was buried?
28:36
Well, who knows? Maybe they would have dug him up and started venerating him. We're not exactly sure. Why was
28:41
Michael fighting with Satan? Could it be that Michael was saying, no, God wants you buried, and that's my job to make sure it happens?
28:48
And Satan says, yeah, Moses, I own Moses because the guy's a murderer. And I own him.
28:55
Well, we don't know, but they were contending over the body. Look at the passage. He disputed with the devil and argued about the body of Moses.
29:03
And look at the passage. As we learn, if Michael, the archangel, the highest ranking angel, a celestial being with more power and glory than we have, he did not dare pronounce a railing judgment against him but said, the
29:17
Lord rebuke you. What is the point? He commits himself to the cause of God.
29:22
I'm in no position to do anything to you. I'm going to have to let the Lord do that. My old pastor said, this is the supreme illustration of how
29:31
Christians are to deal with Satan and demons. Believers are not to address them but rather to seek the
29:36
Lord's intervening power against them. And another scholar said,
29:42
Michael would not treat the devil flippantly or reply to him rudely. How much more then should the false teachers submit to and respect to God?
29:50
These angels, powerful angels, one angel can kill 185 ,000 men. And so all of a sudden, we're trying to tell them what to do when we don't have authority to do that.
29:59
We have to be careful. By the way, if you do cast out Satan and bind demons and all that stuff, I don't even like it when we...
30:06
Well, I'm going to set you up here. I admit it. When you talk to God, we call that what? Prayer.
30:12
When you talk to Satan, what do you call that? Oh, so you don't want to answer. I don't want to talk to him.
30:17
I don't want to address him. I don't want to tell him something to do. I'm not told to do that. I'm confined by Ephesians chapter 6 and some other passages and none of those include binding, casting out, or anything else.
30:29
By the way, I'm getting ahead of myself but that's okay. Jesus is going to die soon.
30:39
Peter is going to deny Jesus soon. Jesus says to Peter and the whole group, you know,
30:49
Satan's come to me and he's desired to sift you. He wants to get you.
30:55
He wants to take you apart. And you can just imagine
31:01
Peter. You told him no, right? Answer theologically.
31:09
I told him yes but I told him what he couldn't do and what he could do and by the way, next verse, I've prayed for you that your strength might not fail.
31:20
If God is going to use some demon to attack me and you and us, why would
31:25
I somehow with my authority that I don't have try to bind him away of doing something for God Almighty?
31:31
As the Puritans used to say, Satan is even the ape of God. Maybe God wants that demon to go.
31:38
Maybe God wants Satan. True or false, did God want Satan to be used as his instrument in the life of Job?
31:46
We have to be very, very careful. Why is there so much binding and rebuking and casting out?
31:53
One, false assumption that we have Christ's authority. Two, not a healthy respect for angels.
32:00
And three, some people, good people are just not taught. Good, honest, sincere people are just not taught.
32:10
Listen to our statement of faith here at our church. The sum total of God's revelation concerning all things essential to His own glory and to the salvation of faith and life of men is either explicitly set down or implicitly contained in the
32:25
Holy Spirit. That is to say, everything we need in our life is contained in the Scriptures. It is not contained in Frank Peretti's This Present Darkness.
32:40
When I was first saved, that book was out. How many people read that? And you started developing your theology out of a book.
32:50
But unfortunately today, here's how people would defend the idea that they can cast out demons and bind them and rebuke them.
32:55
I have done it and I have experienced it, therefore it must be what? True. Many, many good people have done something and then they try to prove what they've done because it's their experience, not because of what the
33:07
Bible says. And 2 Peter 1, that book about false teachers, says specifically that even if you stand at the foot of the
33:16
Mount of Transfiguration and see Jesus with your own eyes, you can trust something more than your own experience of seeing
33:23
Jesus at the Mount of Transfiguration. And that which you can trust is the Word of God, the more sure
33:28
Word. All experience, true or false, must be tested by truth. Or must all truth be tested by experience?
33:38
No, the first one. The test is always truth. And that's one of the problems today, is
33:44
I've experienced it, therefore it must be true. I've cast out demons before, it's got to be true.
33:50
They seem to obey me. How about this Baptist pastor? He said,
33:56
The attempt to interpret the charismatic manifestations of the Holy Spirit without a charismatic experience is as fatuous as the application of Christian ethic apart from a regenerate dynamic.
34:08
Understanding of spiritual truth is predicated upon spiritual experience.
34:15
Don't tell me it's not true because I've felt it and I've done it. Is that true? Rodman Williams, who's written many books, said,
34:23
Any vital information concerning the gifts of the Spirit predisposes a participation in them.
34:29
Without such participation, whatever is said about gifts may only result in confusion and error. As your doctrine increases, your experience should be read in light of your doctrine, not the other way around.
34:44
And I think that's very difficult these days, especially with all these demon caster -outers, if you want a new word for the day.
34:53
John Wimber said, When are we going to see a generation who doesn't try to understand the Bible, but just believes it?
35:02
It's difficult. Jack Deer said, The idea that fallen humanity can arrive at a purely biblical objectivity in determining all their practices and beliefs is an illusion.
35:12
You've just got to go with your feeling. You've got to go with the flow. And, beloved, if that's your experience, it's difficult because if we have the
35:18
Word of God that's the truth driver, experience must be read in light of that truth. Other men have said,
35:27
God will offend your mind to reveal your heart. In the topic and in the idea of casting out demons.
35:33
Last time I checked my heart, you know what? I didn't like what I saw. Jeremiah chapter 17 verse 9 says,
35:40
Do not trust your heart. We want to go with God's Word.
35:49
I think another reason why people like casting out demons is because it's flashy. You get to do something.
35:56
I mean, what would you rather do? You've got problems. You've got the problem of post -nasal drip.
36:03
That's a demon problem. I've read about it. See, I'm not kidding. I read this week,
36:09
Steve told me there was a demon and the demon caused somebody to be 7 1⁄2 inches shorter. I guess the
36:18
NBA must have some pretty good gurus to take care of those issues. But it's flashy.
36:27
It's something, even if we say, all right, what about this experience? Come to the front. I'll slay you in the spirit.
36:32
I know you're having trouble at home, trouble at work, trouble with your friends, trouble, all kinds of trouble, anger, everything else, and you can come up to the front and I just push you down and then problem solved versus every day when you get up and you say, for the glory of God, by His grace,
36:46
I need to say no to self and yes to God and tomorrow when I wake up, there's another day of that for me.
36:54
You almost want to do something. Satan's out there. I want to do something. And I think the last reason, and this will be the final reason of binding and casting out today is because we easily buy into excuse theology.
37:14
I read this week that when someone's toaster failed, the people cast out the demon in the toaster.
37:27
Cynthia said to her husband, said of her husband, true story, I saw the demon looking out of his eyes, glittering and murderous.
37:39
So I said, demon of anger, I bind your power in Jesus name. Then I claim the power of Jesus blood as a cover for all my demonic assault coming through my husband.
37:57
Is that what we do? When Worley said in his book,
38:02
I was in a men's prayer meeting watching as a friend was being prayed for deliverance. A spirit was named malicious temper and I suddenly realized that fitted me precisely.
38:11
I knelt by myself to pray only to find another personality taking me over so completely as to render me incapable of independent action.
38:18
I was delivered of demon spirits that had controlled me for over 14 years. Demons of sorcery, homosexuality, pride.
38:28
You've got the confluence of Christian psychology and wild extreme demon warfare put together and it's a match not made in heaven and we have all kinds of problems.
38:41
The problem with the husband isn't a demon, but it sure makes you feel better. This is not your husband. Neil Anderson said, and he's the largest proponent of all this nonsense, he said, anything bad that you cannot stop doing or anything good which you cannot make yourself do could be an area, listen, of demonic control.
39:05
So what are you struggling with? Contentment, pride, self -righteousness.
39:16
That's on Monday. What about Tuesday? Those are demons. That's a demon.
39:22
It can't be me. Little me, sweet old me, moi. How could I do that? Anderson said, what if you do make provision for the flesh by giving
39:33
Satan an opportunity in your life through sin? Do we as Christians have blanket immunity from Satan's invasion?
39:39
No. He goes on to say, it is my observation that no more than 15 % of evangelical
39:46
Christians are completely free from Satan's bondage. If 15 % are free, 85 % are bound.
39:58
All these deliverance ministries, somebody gave me a gift certificate for a new chiropractor and I went there and the man was nice enough, an evangelical
40:05
Christian. It's very difficult to debate theologically on the table of a chiropractor when he's got your neck like that.
40:13
You believe in the gifts? I do now. And I don't even look for these fights.
40:21
I just needed my back adjusted, my neck adjusted. I'm not trying to rain on anybody's parade. I mean, when I get up in the pulpit,
40:27
I want to speak forth the word of God, but I'm not looking for fights everywhere. They just come looking for me. And so I'm getting adjusted and the guy said, do you know what a delivery ministry is?
40:42
I can't lie. Yeah, I do. Well, that's what I'm into, deliverance ministries.
40:49
Well, may I deliver you from that nonsense? I said, no, I did not. Beloved, true or false,
40:55
Jesus cast out the demons of sin in people. Were they demons of sin or sinful demons?
41:03
Or did Jesus expose the sin, cast out the demons? They were never demons of lust, demons of bitterness, demons of anger, demons of whatever, demons of the toaster not working.
41:14
I even went to demonbusters .com this week and it says, if you cannot download some of the information, you probably have the demon of Boice in your computer.
41:21
Here's how you cast it out. By then,
41:29
Sheriff Cooley came in with his badge. Man came walking into my office one day years ago, six years ago.
41:41
He came barging in, a women's Bible said he was here. He started screaming all kinds of horrible words. Sat down.
41:46
I said, please sit down. I'm trying to shut the door, be all kind of hush, hush about it. There's a ladies
41:51
Bible study in here. And he started swearing at me at the top of his lungs. And I've not been a Christian all my life and I understand what those words are and sadly use them in my pre -salvation life.
42:01
But I'm not used to hearing them here in my presence. People just don't do that. And he started swearing at me and I said, what are you doing?
42:07
He said, I have Tourette's syndrome. I can't help myself from spewing out words, cursings.
42:18
I said, what are you doing? And the whole time I'm thinking to myself, this guy's smaller than I am.
42:24
I'm bigger, but he can knock down the monitor of my screen. I think I'm going to, in all this I'm going to give him the truth, but I'm going to lose my monitor, my computer monitor.
42:33
And I said, do you know the Bible says for every word that you utter, you're going to be held accountable on judgment day.
42:39
And then I quoted him from Ephesians 4. And I said, that's not because you have a syndrome. You have a habit of that in your life.
42:45
You're trying to use the syndrome so you're not accountable anymore. And you are accountable and you're going to be damned for those words one day unless Jesus pays for those sins.
42:54
He just looked at me. So I said, if you want to do some work around here, you do it without swearing.
43:00
You do it according to my rules and just be quiet about it. And so he went to the back and cleaned up a bunch of stuff and as I gave him some money,
43:07
I said, you know what happened? You've been here for an hour and you've not said one curse word. Not one curse word.
43:13
Because it's something that you are responsible for, then you have a little more aptness to say,
43:21
I want to try to do something about it. And if you think you've got a demon of bitterness, then you don't understand
43:27
James 1 .14 that says, but when each one is tempted, he's carried away and enticed by his own personal demon, by his own lusts.
43:37
That's as bad as us saying, I've got bad anger problem because I'm Italian. Don't be angry, my
43:48
Lord, Aaron said. You know how prone these people are to evil. They said to me, make us gods who will go before us.
43:53
As far as this fellow Moses who brought me out of Egypt, we don't know what's happened to him. So I told them, who has jewelry, gold jewelry, take it off.
44:00
They gave me the gold. I threw it in the fire. Out came this calf. If you do believe you can cast out demons, please at least have your theology amended to the fact that the demons are not some kind of demons of personal sin.
44:16
Because each one is tempted when you're carried away by your own lust. Satan may try to be involved in that process and goad us on and egg us on, but he's not responsible.
44:26
Proverbs 19 says, a man's own folly ruins his life, yet his heart rages against the
44:31
Lord. The deeds of the flesh are listed in Galatians 5 as some of the things people call demons.
44:42
Well, what do you do if you do meet somebody who's demon -possessed? I believe there are demon -possessed people today. I don't believe
44:47
Christians can be demon -possessed, but I believe there are demon -possessed people. Not as many as in Christ's day. I think when
44:53
Christ's on the earth, there's a special attack that comes and we see high marks of demon activity.
45:00
But what if you meet a demon, what do you do? 835 -3400, who are you going to call?
45:08
What do you do? We'll look at that next week.
45:16
As I read Proverbs 19 .3, a man's own folly ruins his life. Aren't you glad even apart from spiritual warfare that the man's lack of folly and perfect righteousness saves lives?
45:32
Aren't you glad that we have the God -man who when we get into our own trouble is the one who says, I'm a perfect man,
45:38
I'm perfectly God, my righteousness is of an infinite value that I can apply to each one's life, whoever believes.
45:46
And for those of us that struggle with bitterness and pride and envy and jealousy and lust and all the other kind of issues, there is a
45:53
Redeemer, Jesus, God's own Son. And so must we remember today that we have a risen
46:01
Savior and that we have one who when Satan almost tempts us to despair, as the songwriter says, we can say,
46:08
I have no righteousness. We don't say it to Satan. But when we struggle, we say,
46:13
I have no righteousness, I have nothing to offer God, yet my righteousness is in another. And so I am so thankful that my own folly ruins my life, but the man
46:25
Christ Jesus' own righteousness saves my life. And what a difference that God has made in our lives.
46:33
He's taken us from men and women who rage against the Lord to men and women who say, God, it's not perfect love, but I love you because you first loved me.
46:42
And I'm so thankful that we'll learn in weeks to come that if this great God has saved you, He is not going to let you be inhabited or indwelled or possessed by some demons.
46:57
Next week, we'll look at the real armor that we put on, and I think you'll be very encouraged. Be strong in the
47:07
Lord and in the strength of His might. Put on the full armor of God so that you may be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil, for our struggle is not against flesh and blood.
47:16
And I thank God that He's equipped us for every good work so we know what to do when it comes to these kind of demonic principalities and forces.
47:31
Bow with me, please. Father, we entrust these days and weeks into Your good care, and even today.
47:37
Tomorrow's got enough trouble of its own. We would ask that You would help us today, Father, to take responsibility for our own sins and not to blame
47:44
Satan. But, Father, more than that, not only taking responsibility, but then quickly looking to the cross where we have our sufficiency, our adequacy, and that now we are redeemed people who are safe and secure.
47:55
I think, Father, that if You have given us Your Son, won't You give us everything else, including protection from Satan? But we'll need
48:01
Your Spirit's help to encourage us and equip us to put on Your armor, the armor of God, to stand firm.
48:08
And, Father, would You bless our church? We are sure, Lord, that in the days and weeks to come, short of Your Son's coming, that we will experience satanic, demonic spiritual warfare at this church, and maybe we're even going through some right now.
48:22
And, Father, we need to be strong by You, because we're weak. We don't know what to do. We have Your Scriptures, yet we can't stand on our own.
48:29
So help us to live out the Scriptures. Help us to be strong. And, Father, would You use our church, small and weak as it might be, for the sake of New England, for the sake of Your glory in New England, that all might know that there's a risen
48:42
Savior who's a great lover of sinful people and who's been raised from the dead.