Sermons from Lone
Rock Bible Church Dress for Success:
The Basics (Part 2) There is much of which we need to be aware as we consider “the schemes of the devil,” in light of the Bible’s command to “put on the full armor of God.”
Ephesians
6 There is something about spiritual warfare, the topic of these verses, where we will be for awhile. There is something about spiritual warfare as we understand it that reminds me of the war in Viet Nam, in certain regards. That war, for those who remember, was very frustrating. The enemy was difficult to see in the jungle, yet he might be in the streets of the city or even on the college campuses of the homeland. There was no clear plan for victory and the war ended much as it had begun in ambivalence, vagueness, and truly with a sense of did we really get anything done anyway? I fear that Christian people, Christian churches, Christian organizations may fall under that sort of sway even now. We have an enemy. Occasionally, we may suspect that he is at large, cannot often see him, could crop up anywhere, makes life frustrating. We are told we ought to be winning but we are not always so sure. Sometimes, it is because we lack a clear plan. We forget why we are here and sometimes we get confused and we think that abundant life is entirely all about how we are now. The Bible calls us beyond that. I am a believer in prayer for travel. I am a believer in prayer as you travel. I have driven a lot in Western Montana over the last 15 or 16 years, but Sunday night was the first night I had to seek shelter and found myself a $37 dollar motel room in Lincoln. The air dam of the Buick was actually pushing snow on Highway 200 and I couldn’t see a thing. I had enough devotions in 47 miles to hold me, I’m sure, for a week and a half. I spent the week at the Montana Wilderness School of the Bible. I teach twice in the morning and again in the afternoon and have plenty of time to reflect and time to study and read and pray. I did that this week and came back with a different perspective, at least in part, that is going to influence how we treat the book of Ephesians. Let me explain. This is my 17th time teaching a fall class. I am usually there in the fall and again in the spring. I reflect on the history of the institution. The institution was there first as a Bible camp and later as a one-year Bible institute, for over 30 years. The first four administrations to have oversight of the ministry suffered lapses into immorality on the part of the leadership. People had to be dismissed. It was in certain measure, scandalous. Somewhere along there the ministry, students, their families, their churches were hurt. It was an unpleasant thing. Somewhere along in there between the fourth and fifth administration, you might say there was a changing of the guard. At the same time an interesting discovery was made up the canyon in the Dearborn River of a Blackfoot Indian sacred site. The new administration going in did not take that lightly because Native American practice is overtly demonic in calling upon spirits of nature. There was, and has been since I have been going up there, a change of focus -- considerable prayer over the institution, over the space, over the valley, over the canyon, over the students, over the teachers, over the staff. The Bible says we are to be about the business of deliberately making disciples. That’s what they do. Those disciples now, in the course of all those years, are around the world sharing the gospel of Jesus. It is warfare. We need to study the Bible. Our enemy thinks it needs to be stopped or derailed or scandalized. I am convinced that we American Christians underestimate the nature of the conflict. I think largely we are saps. I originally thought not to spend too much time talking about the enemy. We want to spend more than originally intended. We need to understand our opponent. We need to understand the nature of the battle. We need to understand what the Bible means by spiritual strength and by spiritual warfare. It is not an illusion. It is not a superstition. It is real. In this regard I am learning a lot. I find myself both student and teacher and I am trusting God will benefit all of us for this time in His Word. Understanding our Opponent I want to follow some trails through the Bible. We are going to talk about history – the history of this warfare thing; about limitations – in what sense is the enemy limited; about his motivation; followed by his tactics. Understanding his history This is something that should be self-evident but sadly, it is not. If we say we believe the Bible, and I bet about every one of us here would make that claim, to believe the Bible is to believe there is a personal devil and that he presides over an unnumbered company of demons. That’s what the Bible teaches throughout the Scripture. At the back of my study Bible there is a glossary of terms. I looked up Satan, the name of our enemy. The word means adversary, and it means what it says. I’m going to read a quote out of the back of my Bible where it says “Satan is a recognized accuser (Matthew 4). He is strong, for Jesus is accused is working His miracles by the power of the evil one. He is able to make void good works. He moves to falsehoods in Acts and murder (John’s gospel). He is one who punishes those who have done evil. He rules over a kingdom of evil spirits (Ephesians 2 and 6). He is the instigator of at least some physical sickness. His power will come to an end. “He is called, in Scripture, Abaddon, adversary, angel of the abyss, Apollyon, Beelzebub, Belial, the devil, enemy, evil spirit, father of lies, great red dragon, liar, lying spirit, murderer, serpent of old, power of darkness, ruler of this world, ruler of demons, ruler of the power of the air, ruler of the darkness of this world, Satan, tempter, unclean spirit, evil one. See demon.” All throughout the Bible! Have you noticed this? Maybe it’s just me, noticing that from the beginning of the book certainly clear through to the end the enemy shows up. What do we know about him? Let’s talk about history. In the Bible, Satan or the devil is regarded as normally as any other creature. He is acknowledged not only in the Bible but is reflected in all the cultures of the history of the human race. From the animists of the Far East to the genies of the Middle East, to the idols, the false gods, the thousands of them in various world religions, right down to the occultic practices that we see so common in our culture today. He is worldwide. He is the topic of superstitution. He is the topic of the legend of the vampire, of the werewolf. He is part of the folklore of all cultures down to our world today. Perhaps that is why, because we can relegate this being to legend, to folklore, maybe that is why many in our sophisticated culture do not take him seriously. After all, the pagans do that. The heathen do that. Are we not more enlightened than they? And we sell him short. While they may not be accurate in many cases, heathen cultures understand they are up against a dark foe. We need to understand that as well. Our culture today, of course, is preoccupied with the supernatural, with the séance, with the Ouiji board and with astro-projection and with horoscope and with all manner of things of that nature. We flirt with it and occasionally are sucked in over our heads to our own personal harm. A few facts about the history of our enemy – one is, he is a created spirit being. Satan is an angel. He is a spirit being. He was created long ago. His realm is unseen to us and that is part of the problem. He lives in what some have described as – and this gets a little strange – a parallel universe. Some have said if God, in fact, dwells in the third heaven, if that is where Isaiah was translated in vision and where John the apostle went and where Paul did in II Corinthians 12, if God is in the third heaven, the first heaven is the sky we see and measure. The second heaven, it is theorized, is the place of the spirits and the devil is one of them. He cannot be seen. That limits us a bit. In angelic hierarchy – and there is one -- described in Ephesians 6:12 and in Colossians 1:16: 16For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens
and on earth, visible and invisible, The Bible simply assumes this stuff. It does not try to explain it, certainly does not apologize for it, just assumes the invisible world. What is that? Whether
thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities- all things have been
created through Him and for Him. There is a hierarchical structure to the
spirit world. We do not understand it thoroughly. In Ephesians 6:12 it talks about our
struggle being against the rulers, the powers, the world forces of this darkness,
spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly realms. There is a hierarchy. The devil is
at the top of it. He is the orchestrator, the overseer, the master enemy. Revelation 12 8 and they were not strong enough,
and there was no longer a place found for them in heaven. 9 And the great dragon was
thrown down, the serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole
world; he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. And here he roams. He is at the top. His underlings, his
minions, the demonic hoards – we do not know the number of them, but we know there is
a lot. If there are myriads of myriads and ten thousand times ten thousand good angels and
if as Scripture indicates, a third of the angelic host was cast out of heaven, that is
still a lot and we cannot see them, normally. The devil and his agents were exiled from heaven to earth as
rebels. We do not know exactly at what point they were created with regard to human beings
and angels. We only know that they were, and we know that they occupied heaven long, long
ago. In Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28 we get a tremendous insight about
the devil. In Isaiah 14 the king of Babylon is an agent of Satan and is used as a type for
him. That’s another explanation, but trust me with this. We are dealing with Satan
here, at least in type form. Isaiah 14 Ezekiel 28 Glimpses is what we are getting, glimpses
into a world we do not see and cannot get a complete handle upon. That leaves us with
angels in several categories. Let me try to describe them to you. The first category are
those we would consider to be, and blessedly so, good angels. They are Michael and Gabriel
and the heavenly host who sang at the birth of Jesus. There are those assigned as guardian
angels who look out after God’s people. They are ministering spirits (Hebrews 2) sent
to minister the grace of God to you and to me. They are good angels. We cannot see them, but the Bible does say
in Hebrews to God’s people, be hospitable. Have a home that is open and loving and
warm to entertain those you may not know because by doing so, some have entertained angels
without even knowing it. There is a mystique there with which we will probably never be
completely comfortable, at least until glory. The second category, other than good angels, would be the fallen angels. There are two kinds of angels – the good and the fallen. The fallen are in two categories. The fallen angels are either those who are confined, on the one hand, and those who are loose, on the other. Jude talks about this. Jude and II Peter parallel one another in these thoughts. Jude 6 We do not know where this is and we
don’t know how many there are. II Peter also mentions these confined angels who have
been through some sense through their rebellion in heaven against God. A certain number of
them, perhaps the most heinous of them – we do not know – were confined in a
place they cannot escape. They are being held there under bonds in darkness until the day
of judgment. Not a good place. We see mention of that
elsewhere in the New Testament when Jesus is dialoguing with demonic hosts. They say
whatever you do, please don’t send us there! They are well aware of it, and it’s
not the Holiday Inn. So there are confined angels, and then
there are those who are on the loose. These are the ones with whom we have to do. These
are the ones who obey the beck and call of their master, Satan. They are organized in a
certain structure, a certain hierarchy. They are also geographically oriented. Have you
though of this? They are created beings. We know they occupy space. One angel, like any
other created being, can only be in one place at a time. They are geographically oriented.
Sometimes they live in hosts. People can be possessed by a demon. Sometimes they live in
animals. I remind you of a couple thousand pigs on a hill outside Gadara on the shore of
the Sea of Galilee (Mark 5). Sometimes they are not in hosts. The Bible talks about
demonic forces moving around and looking for places to live and to occupy and to stir up
grief. Back again in the book of Jude, I will
remind us that wherever they are, whomever they occupy, they are always powerful. Our
enemy is powerful. When the demons inhabited the possessed man at the Gerasene shore where
the 2,000 swine were, remember he could break the chains and smash the fetters and could
not be held by anybody. In Jude 8 it talks about, in this case,
Paul’s teachers and heretics who reject authority and revile angelic majesties. They
should not do that, the Bible says. Michael, the archangel, the highest angel, disputed
with the devil and argued about the body of Moses. Evidently there was some antagonism
there. He did not pronounce against him a railing judgment. Michael did not even take on
Satan, but he invoked the Lord’s name. “The Lord rebuke you,” were the
words that Michael used. Organized, graphically oriented, and I am
convinced that the geography concerns not only possession of human bodies or animal
bodies, but I believe there are literal geographic locations where the demons have freer
reign they do in other geographic locations. That’s the history. I didn’t
answer, I am sure, every question, but that gives us the general idea. The devil is
created. He is powerful, and he has a whole lot of help to do what he is there to do. Let’s talk about his limitations.
These are significant. These are all purposely listed this way because we are headed to a
certain point. His limitation first of all is this: He is
not created in the image of God. He is not human in that sense at all. He is a separate
type of being. Because he is not created in the image of God, we need to understand he is
not redeemable. He cannot be saved. Only God’s highest order of creation –
people – are redeemable. Only people have been created in the image of God. It was
for people Jesus died on the cross and people will one day, according to Paul in I
Corinthians 6, rule angels in glory. The devil is not one of us. He is not a
person. Therefore, like any angel, he does not understand nor does he appreciate
redemption. It is lost on him. It is a concept that is foreign to his thinking. Remember
it was Peter through whom the devil spoke at one point. When Jesus asked, “Who do the
people say that I am?” Peter said, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living
God.” You didn’t get that out of the air, Peter. My Father told you that and now
I am going to go to the cross. Remember, Peter jumped in and said, “No, Lord,
no.” And Jesus said, “Get behind me, Satan,” because that was the
devil’s agenda. Peter unwittingly was verbalizing it. Peter says that the things of the cross and
the things of redemption and the things of the atonement, things that you and I will
eternally rejoice over in heaven before our Savior, these are lost on the angelic world.
These are things into which angels long to look, Peter says, but they don’t. That is
why when Jesus, the Messiah, was closing in on the cross at Calvary and he fully intended
to enter Jerusalem from the east side, he did everything he needed to do, everything was
right on time, right on schedule, perfectly positioned, Jesus is heading for the cross and
the devil wanted to accelerate that. It was the devil who put it in the heart of
Judas Iscariot to betray Jesus. The devil wanted the cross, not realizing that Jesus’
death on the cross would buy the salvation of millions and millions and millions of his
enemies. Otherwise, the devil would have sought to stop the crucifixion. He abetted the
cross because he does not understand redemption. That is why, also, I envision this from the
standpoint of the good angel. Remember when Jesus was standing trial before Pontius
Pilate, he let him know as he was preparing to be turned over to the troops to be
crucified that all he had to do was say the word and thousands and thousands of angels
would come and rescue him. Can’t we see this from the standpoint of the good angels
in heaven standing around watching their master be bound and spat upon and hit. We have to
imagine that they were thinking, “Why can’t we step into this? How dare they
treat our master this way! Let us at them! Let’s get Him off that cross!” The
good angels, the bad angels, were not privy to the idea of salvation through the blood.
That is one limitation. Secondly, the devil is not omniscient. Only
God knows everything. The devil does not know everything, but it is very safe to say he
knows a lot more than you and I. He knows a lot more than you and I put together. He knows
more than a Rhodes scholar, than a National Merit finalist. The devil has been around for
thousands of years. He is a student of the Scripture. He has had a long time to study it
and he is a student of human history. By virtue of his contacts around the world, he is
quite familiar with the movements of God’s people as the kingdom advances. He knows T.C. and Louisa and company are
headed for Mexico. He is well aware of that. He is well aware of our missionaries. He
knows their struggles. He knows the international students are up here at the University.
He does not want them to have Christian friends. He knows probably quite well some who are
incarcerated in the county jail. He certainly does not want the gospel there. He knows a lot. He is a student of the human heart and of the strategy of the Scripture. He could quote the Bible to the Son of God and he can use a Bible verse with us, can’t he? Something pulled out of context. This is how he has formed cults over the years. Just grab a Bible verse and pull it out of context and make it say basically what you want. He can do that, but he does not know everything. He cannot predict the future like God. He
is limited. He knows weaknesses. He knows strengths. But he is not omniscient. Secondly, he is not everywhere present.
Sometimes we think that way. We think the devil is just everywhere. No, the devil is not
everywhere. He is one being. He is a spirit being. We don’t know where he is, but we
do know he is not everywhere. He has contacts all over the world. He may have a demon
strategically placed most anywhere you go. We don’t know. But we do know that the
devil is not everywhere. Sometimes Christians get a little naïve or perhaps a little bit
proud and will say things like, “Boy, the devil has been hounding me today!”
Seriously, how long have you been that important? Don’t you think the devil has
bigger fish to fry? Some think the devil, because he is not
everywhere present, cannot read our mind either. He may be able to influence what we
think, and sadly, he does, but he cannot read our minds. He is unseen. His agents are
unseen, but he is not everywhere present. Third, while he is very powerful, he is not
all powerful. He is one with whom the angel Michael wasn’t going to argue because he
respected the power of Satan, his adversary. I go the first chapter of Job and there is a
little bit here that is somewhat alarming to me, if it were not for the fact that Lord had
the devil on a leash and still does. Remember in the book of Job there were two times that
Satan reported in to God and told him what he was up to. God said, “Have you
considered my servant Job? There is no one like him in all the earth. He is upright and he
fears God and stays away from evil.” The devil said Job is just doing that because
you bless him. The devil didn’t know, did he? God
knew. God knew Job’s heart. The devil didn’t know Job’s heart, so God said
go ahead, give him a try, but you cannot touch him. So what did the devil do? Have you
noticed the waves of assault that came down on Job’s life? We say “natural
disasters.” No, “supernatural disasters.” The first one was sons and daughters are
eating and drinking in their oldest brother’s house and here came the messengers and
said the Sabeans attacked and slew them. Now how did those Sabeans know to do this? They
were influenced by Job’s enemy and they attacked. This guy said I’m the only one
who got away. He was still speaking and here came another
messenger. The fire of God fell from heaven and burned up the sheep and the servants and
consumed them. I alone have escaped to tell. Where did the fire come from? This is the
devil’s working. He has some power. Now he uses it by permission. We don’t
understand how that all works, but we know he has power and we better be aware of it. While he is still speaking, here come the
Chaldeans. Somebody had to stir them up. Somebody had to open their doors, had to kick
their horses and get them going. They slew the servants with the edge of the sword. While
he was still speaking, here came a great wind from across the wilderness and struck the
four corners of the house and it fell on your kids and they are dead. Where did that great
wind come from? Connect the dots with me. There is power here. The devil at times is able
to unleash it. Speaking of leashes, he is on one.
That’s good. The devil is subject to God’s bidding. God will never let him go
where God does not want him. We think, boy, I’m not comfortable with that. Well, I
am. I am because God loves me and He sent His Son to die on the cross for my sins and He
is sovereign over all and He is bringing this whole thing to a happy end. What this means
is I best be trusting God along the way. So best you! Here is how it works. The devil is on a
leash, yet, there are times he is used in the judgment of unbelievers. God can turn him
loose on the judgment of unbelievers. There are times he is used to discipline wayward
believers. The Bible says whom the Lord loves, He disciplines. If He is going to use the
devil to do it, that is His call. If He wants to punish or discipline King Saul by
employing an evil spirit to do it, He is going to. If God wants to bring King Ahab down by
sending him up against the forces of Ramath-Gilead and he wants him them out of there, He
will send a lying spirit into the mouths of the prophets of Ahab. The devil is on a leash and God holds the
other end, and he does test the faith of believers. God will use him for that. Will we
pass the test? Who will we trust? Who will we obey when our circumstances, regardless of
whether the devil orchestrates them or not directly, who will we trust? This is the
challenge you and I face. That’s why the apostle Paul is going to go on in Ephesians
6 and say you had better have your armor on because it is a battlefield, brother, not a
recreation room. That’s where Paul is going with this. One other limitation of the devil comes to
us from a couple places, one is the book of James. This is Jesus’ half brother, they
shared a room, so he knows whereof he speaks. He says you say you believe in God.
I’ll bet you every one in this room would say, “Yes, I believe in God.” “You do well,” James says, and he starts
to smile a little bit, then concludes with, “The demons believe too, and they
tremble.” The demons believe and they tremble. You
say you believe. I don’t see you tremble. Where is your fear of God, he is implying.
The demons are trembling. It’s interesting when Jesus encounters people who are
possessed by demons in Mark 1 and Matthew 8 and places like that. They recognize him. They
come up to him in some instances and bow down before him. They plead with Him as in the
case of the Gerasene demoniac, “Have you come to torment us before the time?”
(the time of judgment). The demons say, “Please don’t send us into the abyss. We
don’t want to go with those demons who are confined. Please don’t. Please send
us into the pigs.” Jesus said, “Go ahead,” and then
destroyed them anyway. They fear Him. That is why we can name the name of Jesus as long as
we are not trusting in what monuments of faith we are. No, Jesus is the one they fear, not
you, not me. It is His name that makes them shudder and when we come against darkness in
His name, that is one they recognize, just like the seven sons of Sceva. They recognize
him. There is no cosmic tug of war going on.
Sometimes we think, “Oh, man, the devil is going to win this.” The devil is not
going to win a thing, not ultimately. He is not going to win anything God doesn’t
give him the leash to do. But he can sure bring defeat to your life and mine and we will
stand before God on account of it. He can sure mess things up. He can sure kick out the
props. He can torpedo a ministry and ruin a life. He is not equal to God, though. It’s
not like God is wondering what the devil is going to do next. Not at all. The devil has to
report to Him. The devil is an agent of God that God uses to accomplish his long term
will. Along the way our call is who are we going to listen to? Who are we going to submit
to? Who are we going to follow? Who are we going to let in? We covered only history and limitation
today. As long as all goes the way we predict, in a week we will talk about motivation and
tactics. By the time we get to the armor, we will have a fairly clear understanding of why
we need to put it on. We can leave the sanctuary we have here, the fellowship of brothers
and sisters, the singing of praise choruses with our hearts full of joy and peace –
we’ll go out there in the world and if we are not equipped for the battle we are a
hazard. We’re in trouble. Sometimes we do it and we don’t care. Oh, we’ll
care. God is ahead of us on that score. I would ask that you pray during the course
of the week because our fundamental weapon is prayer. That’s where Paul is going to
take us in Ephesians. Please pray all week. Pray for yourselves, for one another, pray for
me, pray for God’s working in this church, pray for the requests that are raised as
we have brothers and sisters heading to the mission field. Begin to pray and engage the
spiritual battle on that level, always in Jesus’ name and trust Him for what He is
going to do in our lives. "Scripture
taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, Jim Carlson 2006, Lone Rock Bible Church, Stevensville Montana, USA |