Reality of Spiritual Warfare — George Verwer

The Reality of Spiritual Warfare

And I hope that this morning you'll get excited about reading the Bible through. I want us to look at the book of Acts and the chapter that's not so well-known, chapter 23. I want to share with you the reality of spiritual warfare.

The reality of spiritual warfare. We see in chapter 23 of the book of Acts a conspiracy to kill the apostle Paul. I know that there has been a conspiracy to destroy the ministry of Billy Graham from the earliest days.

There's a conspiracy against ministers in general. Fast-selling novel, This Present Darkness, rapidly becoming one of the most widely distributed books in the world, points out the conspiracy against God's people in the heavenlies.

And we know what Ephesians 6 says about fiery darts, about spiritual warfare, about wickedness in high places. There's a group of evil people in California that would send wicked women for counseling to pastors.

This is 25 years ago. These women would seduce the pastors. They'd get photos of the ministers in bed with these women and blackmail them. That's 25 years ago. Do you think they've improved in their methodology?

Have we seen any Christian leaders in this country or America or Canada or Australia or New Zealand wiped out because of fiery darts, money, of lust? I believe that's one of the hard questions that Wogan tried to put to Billy Graham.

Paul's Escape from the Conspiracy

Let's read this. Verse 12. And when Paul's sister's son heard of their lying in wait, he went and entered into the barracks and told Paul. Then Paul called one of the centurions unto him and said, Bring this young man unto the chief captain, for he hath a certain thing to tell him.

And he took him and brought him to the chief captain and said, Paul the prisoner called me unto him and asked me to bring this young man unto thee who hath something to say unto you. Then the chief captain took him by the hand and went with him aside privately and asked him, What is that that thou hast to tell me?

And he said, The Jews have agreed to desire thee, that thou wouldst bring down Paul tomorrow into the council, though they would inquire somewhat of him more perfectly. But do not thou yield unto them, for they lie in wait for him of them.

More than forty men who have bound themselves with an oath, that they will neither eat nor drink till they have killed him. And now are they ready looking for a prisoner or a promise, excuse me, looking for a promise from you.

So the chief captain then let the young man depart and charged him, See thou tell no man that thou hast shown these things to me. And so they removed Paul by night and took him to another place. Now many times I speak in ministers' meetings and missionary meetings, and many times in those meetings I've spoken on this text.

But this is one of the first times I've ever spoken on this text just in a normal church meeting. And I hope you can make the association, I hope you can contextualize what we see here in this passage into your own situation, even though you may not be a Christian leader.

Satan's Attacks on Young Believers

I had the burden to share this morning something about how Satan will attempt to destroy those young babes who have made professions of faith this week. Keep in mind that 50 of the people who have made decisions who went forward are already believers.

One of our OM women is working right through the night tallying up the statistics so we're getting rather accurate information, at least we hope. And that's quite normal. In a Billy Graham meeting, many who make a commitment or go forward are making a recommitment of their lives to Christ.

That's quite normal. I've done it a number of times in my life, in different meetings, especially when I was a young Christian. In my own meetings to believers, I often call people to recommitment to Christ, to make a deeper commitment to the Lord Jesus.

Sometimes I maybe just have them stand and then pray together. Other times I may call them to come forward. I believe the key to world evangelism is in the hands of the average Christian. And it's as believers are revived and renewed and make deeper commitments to Christ that we can see so much more happen.

To me, this is a time for all of us as believers to make a deeper commitment to God, whether we go forward in a Billy Graham meeting or not. We can do this in our own room. Many people are turned off the church.

I talked to a friend of mine yesterday morning. I said, where are you going to church now? She said, you know, she's through with the denominations. She's through with the churches, but she says she still loves the Lord.

I hope to meet her tonight, speaking in a church near Richmond this evening. People have been through very, very hard experiences. Don't think it's just with established churches. The new movements, which I'm very much involved in the last 20 years, now have hundreds, thousands of people who have gone through these new churches and have burnt out and are hurt and have quit.

In some cases, they have overthrown the Christian faith completely. You know, as God's people, sometimes we do get into a little bit of fantasy land. It's great to have Billy Graham back, but some of us lived here after Billy was here 10, 15 years ago when there was such backbiting on little details, something his wife did wrong.

And even God's people were quite proud, quite manifest in their bitter statements against Billy Graham, and very few of them ever wrote to him. You know, Billy Graham's just an ordinary person. Of course he's made mistakes.

Because the more you do, the more mistakes you're going to make. Some of you haven't made any big mistakes in your life because you haven't done anything. You haven't done anything. And maybe you don't like to be told that, but in your heart, you know it's true.

You're not filled with the Spirit. You're not reaching out to touch people for Christ. Paul said very clear, I am crucified with Christ. How totally different from the pride and the arrogance and the backbiting that is so prevalent in our churches in Britain today.

A lot of effort on our part. A lot of tears, a lot of repentance, a lot of hard work, a lot of being stripped of self, and taking the mask off. We're just deceived. It's like thinking if you get a real dynamic, the church extra special.

It may, it may not. I'm very involved in local churches, actually more than I am OM. I've blown the church into the church. It's our love, our spiritual maturity, our understanding of what we are in as believers.

Spiritual Warfare and Personal Holiness

This is spiritual warfare. Satan will not be happy with you tripping and falling on your nose a few times. We've all done that. Satan wants to destroy you. Do you know that? Do you understand that? Do you live in the light of that?

In terms of your use of time, in terms of your approach to Scripture, in terms of your relationships with others and keeping a clean slate, in your attitude, in your disposition, because it's easy to have an evangelical smile, but it's not so easy to have a godly disposition.

That's where my failure has been. Because without Jesus Christ working with me, I can have a disposition of a snake. And I think of Father's Day, and I think at Father's Day of the great patience and love that my wife has had for me.

And I'm a miracle. For a character like me to be married to one woman for 29 years, it's like a dinosaur dancing a jig on a pin. And people knew that when I was saved, because at 16 I was into pornography, I was into business, I was a liar, a loud mouth.

New York City was my turf. And when people saw me come to Christ in that Billy Graham meeting, you can be sure they were mighty skeptical. And when I started preaching six weeks later at 17, six months later at 17 years of age, you can be sure most people weren't too positive.

Just like when I landed here 27 years ago, most people backed up about 100 yards and said it was nice meeting you. Because I am. I'm a naturally bombastic, obnoxious, offensive type, loud mouth, gum chewing, overbearing, impossible, let's only have him once every 10 years, American.

But the amazing thing is God saved me. And God's kept me every day for 20, no, 33 years. Now some of you are going to twig how old I am. I don't care because the 50s are great. It was the fabulous 40s, it's the fighting 50s, and if you want to fight, meet me by the bookstall.

But I don't use my hands. My weapons are love. And that's what the Word of God teaches. I'm concerned about the people who flock out of Crystal Palace this coming week, having made a decision for Jesus Christ.

I'm concerned if any of them have any contact with you or with me, will we be a blessing to them or will we be an offense? I don't know if there's any young babe in Christ here this morning. Get babes in Christ into your church to the degree that you're willing to go and fight.

Because a lot of people make a profession of faith on a Thursday and don't even end up in a church on a Sunday because no one linked with them, no one got a hold of them. Now I believe in this well-organized campaign that is probably being avoided.

But you see, people can go to a church, and if we aren't wise, we aren't discerning, and Tozer said the greatest gift needed in the church today was discernment, we can be a stumbling block to those young.

And I would just remind you, as I remind myself, of the vulnerability of the young. The vulnerable who make decisions are not converted people. They have made a decision. They are on the way. If there's good follow-up, if there's love, history proves this.

Billy Graham states this. They will come probably across the line into true conversion. Others are soundly converted at the moment. So much is determined, humanly speaking, on the church, on our reception, even meeting them after, meeting them the next morning.

The next morning is one of the roughest periods for the babe in Christ, because he is going to have peers, he is going to have relatives, and I know because I come from that background, who are going to say, this is just an emotional trip.

There is an enormous amount of sarcasm. There's an enormous amount of cynicism flowing out in present-day Britain and in the States, so that if the babe in Christ is exposed to this cynicism, even some joke by some comedian on television, who are highly gifted cynics with their subtle British humor, that can make a young Christian.

The aggressive efforts, far more common in America, that are used to get their money when they're just a baby Christian, trying to figure out step A, step B in the Christian life. Let us humble ourselves in these days.

Let us open our homes, because if we open our stadiums and we don't open our homes, we play the hypocrite. Unless we have some special crisis in our home, that makes it impossible. And that could be, that could be, because opening your home is not a small thing.

If your husband or your wife doesn't agree with this, then you have to hold up. Easily, when Billy Graham comes and there's a great campaign, Christians of a certain type get over-committed. They get too much involved in all this.

And they open their home too much. And they go to too many meetings. And in the process of that, they get other attacks. Maybe we'd like to see daddy a little more. Some of you have read the article of the missing father, who's so caught up in Christian activities and important campaigns and counseling, that the children never see it firsthand experience.

Discernment, Humility, and Wise Follow-Up

Yes, Satan has a roaring lion, seeketh whom he may devour. There's another part of scripture that says Satan comes often as an angel of light. So subtle. He often can come with slick doctrinal clichés.

He's a specialist in easy answers. And he is a great promoter of spiritual pride and religious arrogance, which so often is an offense. Completely blew her away. Never. It is possible to come on too strong.

And even as you have a babe in Christ in your home, or you meet a seeker, someone who's not a Christian but is a seeker, don't feel it always has to be spiritual things. It always has to be some heavy exhortation.

Maybe they're sleeping with their boyfriend, and you feel suddenly you're John the Baptist, and you're going to really point out the dangers of this, and that AIDS will soon come jumping up through the loo, and they will be stricken dead.

If it wasn't for my own ability somehow to bring in a little humor in what I share, I would come on too strong. I, as a baby Christian, found some of God's people, I found them, as a new Christian, a real pain in the neck.

Now, don't get feeling all guilty. I had to work that through, and I did in the Word of God, and understood that Christians were human, and being born again doesn't mean you go from a one-talent person to a ten-talent person.

It doesn't mean you put a Jaguar engine in a Volkswagen. And one of the greatest things that will help young babes in Christ to grow is simply accepting them, and loving them, and being their friend, and not condemning them if they're still going in the pub to meet some of their old friends, and not condemning them if somehow they still light up their cigarette, and somehow they're still doing things that are considered worldly among the Lord's people, who have got their own sins, which are far uglier than going in a pub or lighting up a fag.

When will we be honest about pride? When will we be honest about religious arrogance? When will we be honest about our own traditionalism in the way we do tend to look down our noses at people of other races and people from different churches, and just let 1 Corinthians 13 roar through our lives like a mighty tidal wave?

That's what we need. If we're going to see biblical follow-up on all these who profess faith, and with that we can win men even like Terry Wogan to Jesus Christ. I wonder how many of us ever sit down and write letters, maybe looking for something we can compliment someone on.

That's the way to start, with a compliment, not a criticism. If you haven't learned how to compliment people, you have no credentials whatsoever for criticism. And maybe the next time Wogan or somebody else you see on TV does something good, write to them.

And then send them maybe a good book. It's amazing what you can do with books. I just wrote another letter to Maggie, Margaret Thatcher, and got a lovely letter back from Downing Street. I sent her Loving God by Charles Colson.

Brilliant. And I sent with it my own book, No Turning Back. I thought she might need that title. Satan as a roaring lion seeketh not just the apostles, but targets men like Billy Graham. That's why he's been so cautious and careful in his relationship with the opposite sex, classified as a Puritan.

He's had a policy that he wouldn't go alone with other women. We took that policy into our whole movement. I'm with a fellowship known as Operation Mobilization. And we decided also to walk a cautious road, and we encouraged our leaders, not as a fixed policy, but in general, to avoid just going around publicly or even privately with someone of the opposite sex, especially if you're a leader.

People have tried to push loose living women into Billy's arms and get a picture. Usually he has another man with him, or his own wife. What a miracle that this man and the press have tried in the States to destroy him, especially when these other TV evangelists collapsed.

What men like Billy have had to go through is quite... But Satan is not just out to get the Billy Graham. Satan hates the weakest saint, especially if he or she are Bromley. You know, as in Bromley and Forest Hill.

The British office is near Oswestry, Sharpshire. Believe it or not, this summer over 1 ,500 British people have signed up for Love Europe. And the letters have just come back from the continent saying the numbers for Love Europe have zoomed over the 6 ,500 mark.

Never in the history of our work have we had so many people mobilizing simultaneously for evangelism. Several hundred of them will be hitting the great city of Bristol, as Britain has now been targeted not only as a great sending field, which it has been for our work.

We have over 300 full-time British people in OM, but also as an evangelistic target field. And our new evangelistic program in England is called LUKE, L-U-K-E. Love UK Evangelism. Pray for Love Europe.

It's too late to go this summer, but it's not too late to pray. Prayer is where the action is. We see that in the life of Paul. We see that throughout the entire book of Acts, including the fact that many, many British missionaries cannot get financial support.

Many of them are praying and thinking about returning to secular occupation to make money to support others who can stay. General missionary giving in Britain is a proven fact to be mainly tokenism. There are a few beautiful examples.

Fighting Discouragement Through Repentance and Praise

Just looking in a mirror at times for me is a real downer. But I discovered what to do when I get discouraged. I repent. If that doesn't work, because listening to myself is also a bit of a downer, then I put on a praise tape with my little Walkman, the greatest invention since the printing press, and I fight my way out of that depression and that discouragement.

You have those exciting, mega-motivating jobs, and you just love to trung on down to Sidcup Station on Monday morning and sit with all the commuters, that smiling, happy crowd, and go in to London and work at the same desk you've been sitting at for six years.

I think I'd rather be a rugby player in America. Life is filled with sadness. Actually, Billy Graham said that. The sooner we have a balanced view of life, so that we can incorporate the joy as well as the sadness, and in the midst of the sadness not get discouraged, not throw in the towel, not get down, so that we spread that sadness and that discouragement to others.

Some are very gifted in that area. You really feel great until you meet these people, and then they start telling you about all their illnesses and about all their problems and about this thing. You go out of there, and you do need a praise tape after visiting with them.

Protecting Church Unity Through Prayer

Exciting to see. No wonder Satan is angry. No wonder Satan is trying to divide every church in Britain. There is hardly a church in Britain right now. The privilege of moving with them, meeting sometimes these people in the thousands, and ministering at places like Spring Harvest or Keswick.

Satan is out to destroy the church. Satan is out to bring disunity. Often it's small, very small. So we don't worry about it. It's under the carpet. So we drop our guard. Whereas if we're biblical, and if we're wise concerning Satan's methodology, we will constantly work toward God.

We will not allow wrong attitudes to develop toward a brother, toward a sister. We will not listen to bits of gossip that stain our mind in our thinking about a person. But we will in love and tenderness go and fellowship with that person.

Not in an accusation way, but it's not easy to find a new pastor. What's happening now? Do you have a committee? What's happening here to find a senior pastor? Are you the senior pastor? What's happening?

You're looking for a pastor. That's not easy. The whole church is split in two looking for a pastor. And they bring one in, and 40 of the people think, that's the man? But 60 think, he's not the man.

What do you think happens then? If you went home this morning to your home, and there was a little note on the door, signed by 25 of your neighbors, and they said, we are not going to eat today. I dare to say that some of you most flayed people would have a bit of a metabolistic upsurge reading that note.

This is what the Bible says. We must get down to prayer. We must get down to repentance. We must get into the Scriptures. We must guard and protect our unity. I sensed coming here this morning, a sense of expectation in this church, a sense of love, a sense of unity.

Continue to hold high that shield of faith to stop every fiery dart of Satan. And as you do... It's great having me for a Sunday, huh? What if I come back on Tuesday and say, Hey, I just thought your people were the greatest crowd around.

I think I'll join. You'd have an immediate meeting of the deacons. Where do you live? West Wickham. We don't really accept people from West Wickham. That's pretty far away. I dare to say that you might have some people in your midst who you personally...

Loving Difficult People and Exercising Wisdom

To love the person who disagrees with you. To love the person who is very different from you. To love the person who maybe has hurt you, or criticized you, or misunderstood you. That's what Christianity is all about.

To receive a young, on-fire baby Christian who grows like a beautiful spiritual flower and becomes a leader in the church, that's no great challenge. Struggling to get his acting, that will... Doesn't mean we don't need wisdom.

Doesn't mean... As Christians, we can't be conned by a false believer. In working with the Muslims and in the Muslim world, one of our greatest problems is false believers. And we've had little naive OM leaders taken...

I don't know if you know that expression. I love to use strange expressions. Taken to the cleaners, we say. Once in the streets of Brussels and another man came up to him and was really interested in the message.

Oh, come back to my apartment and tell me more. And this naive OM-er goes back to the apartment. And this man, an active practicing... We need wisdom. We need discipline. In some things that come our way, there's no easy answer.

Some people think there's always a solution to everything. Whatever comes our way, there's a solution. And the pastor is supposed to know what the solution is. No wonder more of them are having nervous breakdowns than ever before.

Number one nervous breakdown group in America, next to psychiatrists or pastors. In which whatever you do, someone will not... In which whatever you do... The problem is they're offering trips to the...

Sign up. But as long as you stay here, there'll be problems. And how sad when Satan deceives a young believer and he thinks that the problem is the church. The problem is God's people. When that's not the problem, the problem is the planet.

The problem may be himself. The problem is we live in a fallen world. The problem is this treasure is in earthen vessels. All of our life we will make mistakes. All of our life we will do dumb things and sometimes hurt people.

Even the ones we love. Blaming yourself for problems you have with your children when the problem isn't you. People being prayed for, one being healed and the other dying in a week. It's not something that I...

Persevering Through Doubt and Suffering

Amazing book. And to some of these hard questions. Why does God allow this? Why didn't God do that? To some of these tough questions. Maybe a tough question you are wrestling with in your heart and your mind.

There is no loving you, fellowshipping with you, putting His arms spiritually around you and asking you to come and worship Him not in the absence of struggle or doubt to know Him. This generation of new believers are going to be strugglers.

They're loaded with doubt. They're loaded with question. They're loaded with unbelief. They'll easily swing the pendulum one month and swing the opposite direction the next. And as a Christian leader, you'll be delivered from small mindedness even if it comes with a theological suit.

The love of God, the mercy of God, the patience of God who will often endure that young babe's struggles and problems much more than we are able to. And also teach him about God's purposes who will turn the world upside down for billions of people praying, millions are praying.

Living Sacrificially and Recommitting to God

Let's search our hearts in finding the balance, in finding God's perspective, in learning to live with ourselves, in learning to live with others and in building the church in order. Let's take a few moments for just silent contemplation, meditation.

The scripture that may be on your mind, one of the many that I've quoted, one that especially helps me is Romans 12, 1 and 2. I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies as a living sacrifice.

Present your bodies as a living sacrifice. On prayer, confession, repentance, recommitment, worship.