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Have you ever wondered why there were so many references to warfare in the scripture?
Because when you think about it, uh you think about uh the fact that um Paul said to Timothy in second Timothy, the chapter two, he said, he said, suffer hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.
And in second Corinthians chapter 10, he talks about the weapons of our warfare pulling down strongholds.
Uh He talks about uh captives and he talks about uh uh enslavement and battles and strategy and all through the Bible.
There’s a lot in here about warfare.
Well, I wonder how that sort of matches to the fact, for example, that the Bible says that Jesus Christ is the prince of peace.
And um he said that you and I would be known by the fact that we love each other.
That’s how the world would know that we belong to him.
And then when I think about the fact that the Apostle Paul in one pass of scripture talks about warfare and weapons and uh the armor and in the same passive scripture starts talking about prayer.
Well, you know, when you think about it, you don’t think about prayer and fighting going together.
And so you have to ask yourself the question, what is all this in the scripture about warfare?
Well, that’s what I wanna talk about in this passage today because this is the first in our series on the Believers Warfare.
And the title of this message is Preparation For Warfare.
And the Apostle Paul had something very clear to say about that if you’ll turn to Ephesians chapter six for a moment.
Paul says, finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might put on the whole arm of God that you may be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil.
For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual wickedness in the heavenly places.
Therefore, he says, take up the full arm of God that you may be able to resist in the evil day and having done everything to stand firm and then he says, stand firm and he lists all the armor that the believe is supposed to have.
So I want us to look for just a moment and look at the nature of this battle that you and I face because the truth is that we do face a battle.
When you wake up in the morning, you are into a battle.
The moment you trusted Jesus Christ as your personal savior, you were born again onto a battlefield from which you will never leave until God calls you home.
You were born into a battle that will never cease.
It does not mean the intensity of it will always be the same, but the battle will always be there.
There’ll never be a time when the battle is over. Now, what is the nature of this battle?
Well, it’s a spiritual battle. How do I know that?
Well, first of all, because we are spiritual beings though, we have a body and a soul and a spirit that which is the most important part of us is our spirit because you and I could live and we will live one day without these bodies.
We leave them here and God takes us on a home.
We’re still gonna have our spirit and our soul, the real us.
That’s how we relate to God is through our spirit.
So the truth is that you and I are spiritual beings and this is a spiritual battle because what Satan is after He’s after every part of us.
He wants to get us in our body. He wants to get us in our soul, our mind.
Will our motion, our conscience, our consciousness.
And he certainly wants to deal with our spirit to do anything he can to tear us away in our thinking from Almighty God and our relationship to Him.
It is that personal relationship that you and I have with Jesus Christ, that is his ultimate target.
Now, he’ll hit us in our body, he’ll hit us in our emotions.
But what he’s after most of all is our personal relationship with the father, knowing that He absolutely cannot tamper with our spirit.
That is He cannot separate us from God.
He cannot in any way, reach down and take us and destroy anything about our eternal security.
We return to secure because God in His love and grace has made that a reality.
So since He can’t, uh he can’t take our spirit, what he will do.
He will harass us every way possible to make us miserable in life and to keep us from enjoying the Lord and being the kind of witness.
God wants us to be. This is a warfare.
It listen, it is, it is a war against your soul, your spirit, your body, your future and your present.
Listen and it’s against everything that you love and everything that you hold dear and especially those truths that you believe in with all of God.
He listen. He is against the belief system of the child of God. It is a spiritual battle.
Not only that it is a real battle. There’s no question about it.
The only people I know uh who do not believe in the devil are those who’ve been blinded by him.
And so when I look, for example, if you’ll turn to Second Corinthians for a moment, look, if you will in the fourth chapter and listen to what he says uh in this fourth chapter.
And the fourth verse, he says, speaking of the unbeliever, in whose case, the God of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving that they may not see the light of the gospel and the glory of God of Christ, who is the image of God.
He says that he’s, he’s blind in their eyes. Now think about this paradox for a moment.
Here’s the Lord Jesus Christ. And what is his goal to get us to recognize that he is real?
And we’re to believe in Him. What does Satan wanna do?
Satan wants us to deceive us so that we won’t believe there’s any such thing as the devil.
And secondly, listen, now we won’t believe there’s such a thing as he is and we certainly uh will not uh will not talk about him.
So as long as he can get people not talking about him and not believing them believing in him, then he’s got him where he wants them.
He can do all the kind of underhanded, dirty, nasty, low down works he does in a person’s life.
And as long as they don’t realize there is a Satan and that there is strategy going on, there are his victims, then he’s got them exactly where he wants them.
So when somebody says, I don’t believe in the devil, chalk him up, he’s got them right where they are because that’s the exact, in fact, that is, listen, that is his ultimate weapon.
If he can just get people not to believe any in him that he does not exist.
Therefore, his strategy, his works and his ways, they won’t give him any credit for that.
He doesn’t want any credit for it. He just wants to get what he’s after.
That is the enslavement of mankind. This is a real battle.
The devil is real and not only that but listen, the hardships and the difficulties and the trials he sends in their life, they’re real.
And when you are hurting emotionally, it’s real. When you’re hurting physically, it’s real, it’s real pain, it’s real hurt.
These are real situations, real circumstances.
It is where we live, we have to face things, financial situations, family situations, physical situations, all these things are real.
He’s behind every single act of sickness.
I’m not saying that God does not allow things in life, but ultimately, all death, all sin, all sickness, all evil ultimately is the result.
You have to trace it all the way back to Satan in the Garden of Eden.
That’s where it all began. And so therefore, you and I have an enemy who is out to destroy us at any cost and he’ll use any means, listen, any means to do so which God allows him to use because he is not unlimited in the things he can do it.
This is a real battle. So we’re talking about something that in the eyes of God is absolutely extremely important.
And this is why Paul says now, here’s what you have, here’s who you are. Here’s how I live.
But I wanna tell you, you’re gonna have opposition.
That’s the second thing he says, yeah, I want you notice and that’s this.
He says you to you to assume responsibility. Look if you will.
Now in verse 10, he starts off, he starts off this alarm.
Now, alarm is a sound or a signal that danger is close by something is about to happen.
So that’s why we call this an alarm.
Listen finally be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might.
Now, I want you to notice what that word when he says he says, be strong in the Lord.
The word means to be empowered and it is in a present tense which means here’s what it means.
It means continually, continually listen, continually being empowered. This is not something we do for ourselves.
This is something almighty God does for us that is God is continually empowering us to do to become in every decision, no matter what He’s the one who’s doing it.
Now, listen to what he says, he says, he says, finally be strong or be, he says to be empowered by.
And what is he talking about?
Simply this, that the Lord Jesus Christ who is living on the inside of us in the presence of the Holy Spirit.
Listen, he is the source of our strength.
Now, there’s not a single one of us who can, who can match it with the devil.
Not one of us, we’re not as smart as he is. We’re not as powerful as he is.
Is he more powerful than we are? Yes, he is. He’s smarter than we are. Yes, he is.
He’s had more experience and he has, listen, he’s brought down the greatest, he’s brought down the greatest.
There’s not a single one of us who’s smart as the devil.
And so when he says, be strong in the Lord, what is he saying?
He’s simply saying this, that you and I to so live our lives in this battle that we listen, that we draw our strength.
We, we, we draw our strength to stand against the devil from the presence of the Lord Jesus.
He is our strength. He is the source of our strength.
So we, we, we’re not, we’re not to draw this. We have to try to draw this from ourselves.
And so he says, we have to draw it from him. Now, I want you to look if you will.
In Ephesians chapter one, go back to the first chapter and look in this 19th verse, you’re gonna find three of the same words in Paul’s prayer here that we just saw in the sixth chapter.
Now watch this very important, becoming the most important part.
He says in verse 18, this is a prayer.
He says, I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened so that you may know what is the hope of, of, of God’s calling in your life.
What are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints?
That is what he’s gonna do as a result of what uh of having us as his Children.
Look at this and he says, I want you to know what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us, of his empowering toward us?
This what he says, I want you to understand how great the power of God is towards you.
Now watch this. That is you who believe these are in accordance with the working of the strength of his might.
Now look at that and go back to chapter six for a moment and look if you will in verse 10, notice what he says.
He says here finally be strong in the what in the Lord? In the strength of his might.
He said here spoke of the power of the strength, he says, and strength of his might.
Now what, what is he talking about here? He, he’s talking about, he’s talking about divine strength.
He’s talking about divine power. But I want you to notice what he says. Look at this now, be strong.
He says how he says be strong.
How in the Lord now it’s interesting and not an accident that he didn’t say be strong in Jesus because be strong in Jesus.
We think about the sweet name of Jesus and salvation forgiveness. He didn’t say be strong in Christ.
We think of the anointed one, the Messiah, he said, be strong in the Lord, the Lord God Jehovah.
And that is the sovereign, absolute complete final ruler and all authority in the world now has been the past and forever shall be.
That is, there’s absolutely no strength and no power to compare to the power of almighty God.
He is listen, he is omni that we say Satan is not Satan is not an omniscient.
He doesn’t know everything. He doesn’t know your thoughts. He’s not omnipotent, he’s not omnipresent. He’s not everywhere.
He doesn’t have all power and you and I will say and quote to other people, he that is within us is greater than he, that’s in the world.
There is a power that is within you that is greater than the power of Satan.
It is his power, his strength and his might.
Now you say, well, if I have all this strength and why am I not strong? Ok.
Here’s the thing I want. You to listen to. Are you listening? Say amen? All right. Look at this.
Now, go back to this sixth chapter again and I want you to look at these words for a moment.
Look at these words when he says in verse 10, look at them.
Now he says, finally, be strong in the Lord, be empowered in the Lord and in the strength, the might of almighty God, listen, the might of his, the the strength of his might of his authority and listen carefully.
Power and authority are not the same. Power and authority are not the same.
And when you look at this passage, you understand, authority is not necessarily power, but rather authority.
Authority is power that is imparted in a given situation or a given circumstance.
Now let me illustrate it by this. I could have some power without having any authority.
But let me give you a, a good example of what I’m talking about because this is true of all of us.
Let’s say that you are a policeman that you’re a traffic cop and in this big intersection, uh we don’t use lights here.
And so we gonna have you to direct the traffic and so the traffic is coming from our right to you right here to the left and it’s moving and you step out and you say what happens to the traffic stops and then in a few moments, you say what happens to the traffic, it moves then you turn up this way and you say so they come and then you, you, you do this and you do this and then people can just walk all across the walkway.
Now, I want you to think about something over on this side of four lanes.
There’s two big 18 wheelers loaded 23 panel trucks, four or five cars on this side.
Same thing on this side, a whole bunch of cars.
I’m just lined up back down over here just like, you know, like 85 traffic in Avenue. They just everywhere.
Now on the front up here is a little beetle bug that is a little Volkswagen bug real small.
And so you’re standing out there, let me ask you something. Do you have more power than that?
That Volkswagen bug? Couldn’t that Volkswagen bug run over you if it wanted to.
Other words, if you just stood there and he, he could run up, you couldn’t he now, you know, an 18 wheeler can.
So we don’t even worry about that one. So there you are.
But isn’t it interesting if you stand up there with your police uniform on?
And you say, let me ask you a question, what stops the traffic, your power of the authority you represent, you have authority that you have, listen, authority is power delegated to us.
So when you say the traffic stops, the traffic stops, the traffic moves not because you can stand up in front of an 18 wheeler and say stop, stop, stop, stop, stop.
No, because he just make a pancake and he thought it would happen.
But when, when you stand up with your uniform on and you say you could stop 10,018 wheelers because of the authority behind you.
Now, listen, here’s what he’s saying in this passage.
You and I listen, we have not only the strength of God, we have the delegated authority to be able to say Satan, get out of here, leave me alone.
And there’ve been times when I’d wake up in the middle of the night, me telling the Lord and Satan try to work on me.
I just say, Satan get out of this room, get out of this house and get off this and get out of this block you.
So that’s foolish. No, it’s not. You know why?
Because when you say in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by his precious blood, he is gone.
You know why? He, he hates the name of Jesus and he hates the very, the blood of Christ that listen, that isn’t.
Somebody says, well, that’s just, that’s just hocus focus. I’ll tell you what you tried it.
It’s not, it is the power of God released in a human being.
And that is the exact listen. Every single believer has Christ living on the inside.
So we have the strength of God, but the strength of God is not life.
We need the authority of God in life. We have, listen, we have divine authority.
When can we exercise that authority? Only when we’re walking in the spirit.
Listen, God’s not gonna allow us to exercise divine authority if we’re living in the flesh, living, living in our naturalness, doing our own thing, living in disobedience to God.
Somebody says, well, suppose I’m right in the middle of it. I’m, I’m having a difficult time.
Then you cry out to God. You cried to God Father in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And by your precious blood, I call, I call down, I call down your strength.
I, I’m, I’m, I want, I need your strength and just listen. Can we speak to Satan? Absolutely.
Listen. When you, when you tell him to be gone out of your life, he’s got to walk out if you’re walking in the spirit and you listen, remember it’s not our strength.
We can’t shove him around. Remember that what you and I do.
We’re calling, we’re calling into that circumstance, the authority of the sovereign of this universe. And Satan cannot do anything.
God doesn’t allow him to do.
Why would God just allow Him to keep on tantalizing us and harming us or whatever he’s doing when we call upon the name of the Lord.
This is not to say that you and I cannot go through situations and circumstances that are painful and difficult.
We say God, where are you right here, God, why you let this happen? I got a purpose in mind.
And so oftentimes, we may have to say, Lord, what’s your goal for me in this difficult and hardship?
But that doesn’t mean that I have to yield to the devil.
It doesn’t mean that I have to succumb to his temptation and it doesn’t mean I have to give up and be discouraged.
So we’re talking about two different things.
We’re talking about Satan trying to destroy you, trying to get you to make the wrong decision and trying to get you to follow the yield of some temptation.
We listen, we have the power of God and the authority of God. It is, it is his strength.
He says we are being empowered. Now, listen, I can be empowered.
But if I don’t take advantage of it, if I, if I don’t act out that power, if I don’t exercise my life out of that strength, then I have to do it in my own.
This is why we fall and fall.
You have the strength of God available and you have the, they have the authority of God behind your life.
Now, I wouldn’t even think about standing up here if I didn’t have the authority of God behind this message.
What’s that authority? Well, part of that authority is right here because what, what I’m all I’m doing is just telling you, here’s what God says.
Here’s what God says. Here’s the principles of scripture. Here’s what God says. Here’s the authority, almighty. God’s the authority.
I’m not the authority. He’s the authority. I’m, I’m just a mouthpiece. He’s the authority.
It’s not my strength, abilities and talents is this. This is God’s work being done.
God’s way in God’s power by God’s authority. Nobody can take credit.
That’s that be foolish and nobody can take credit for that.
The authority of God is from the word of God, from the spirit of God.
Now, he says, first of all, and my responsibility is to be strong.
The second thing he says, we have two responsibilities and that’s to stand firm. Look at this.
Now, he says it four times, but you only see three here and I want you to show you where the fourth one is.
Look at this, if you will.
He says in verse 11, put on the full armor of God that you may be able to stand how firm entrenched against the schemes of the devil.
And then if you’ll notice He says in um in verse um in verse 13, therefore, take up the full arm of God that you may be able to resist in the evil day.
That word in the Greek is the same as the word uh here, stand, stand firm only has a prefix on it.
And it’s used here to say resist or stand against in the evil day and having done everything to stand firm, stand firm.
So four times. He says this. Why, why would he say stand firm? I want you to notice something.
What’s, what’s missing in this whole passage on warfare is this?
And he tells us what our armor is in a few moments but nowhere in this passage does he say forward march?
Nowhere does he say attack? What does he say? He says, get ready for battle.
And what I want you to do is I just want you to stand firm.
You know why? Because he says to us exactly what the prophet said to Jehoshaphat in the 20th chapter when they were going out to face the enemy.
He says, he says, stand still and watch the salvation of the Lord.
He said to Moses on the bank on the bank of the Red Sea.
He didn’t say he ready to fight those Egyptians. He said, stand still and watch the salvation of God.
Now listen carefully. God doesn’t want you and me fighting the devil. He doesn’t want that.
What does he want us to do?
He wants us to be strong in him and he wants us to stand still and watch him do his marvelous, miraculous thing.
That doesn’t mean we’re just gonna say, well, God, what are you up to? Now?
We are aware of what’s going on. Our strength is in the Lord.
And we have taken our stand against evil, against sin, against the devil, against this temptation, against this trial, against this persecution.
We’ve taken our stand. Now, what, what is it we’re to do. We are to trust Him.
So when you say stand, how this is the way we stand, we stand in the strength of Almighty God, we stand patiently waiting for Him to intervene in that circumstance.
We stand dressed in the arm of God, the helmet of salvation, the breast to protect our thinking, the breast of righteousness, to protect our emotions, girl of truth, to protect what we believe and so on.
We listen, we stand in the authority of Almighty God who stands with us. Listen, and we stand confidently.
We don’t have to be fearful. We don’t have to flee. Uh We don’t have to falter.
We don’t have to fall. We just stand and watch God do his work.
Now, listen, this is what resting in the Lord is all about.
It’s not fighting, it’s resting in the Lord. That’s not inactivity.
Listen, you ask any soldier on the battlefield when he’s entrenched and waiting for the enemy to attack.
Well, well, are you just being passive?
No, that’s why he says, stand firm and stand against, take a stand against knowing that Satan is going to attack or you’re, you’re facing that attack.
Now, listen, if you want God’s best in a world that is so been out of shape and so messed up and fouled up.
Even in the midst of all this, you can still have life at its best if you place your trust in Jesus Christ, because without him, look who your friend is.
Without Christ, you’ve got the devil as your leader, you said, I don’t believe in it. You know what?
That doesn’t make a bit of difference in the world. That’s exactly what he wants you to think.
He doesn’t want you to believe in it.
Because if you start believing in him identifying what he’s doing, you want to change, he doesn’t want you to change.
But my friend, when you change for the grace of God, you’ll understand what you’ve been missing.
You want Christ to be your captain, you want, you want God the father to be your commander in chief.
You want life at its best yours for the asking if you will trust Him as your savior, father, we love you and praise you and bless your name and ask that the Holy Spirit would seal this message, seal it so tight, it cannot be escaped.
No one can ignore it, but it’s fruit will be the salvation of those who are lost.
Its fruit will be strengthening for those who feel weak and those who seemingly are faltering and falling over and over again.
We love you and praise you that you’re trustworthy, reliably, present.
Always there in every circumstance of life in Jesus name.
Amen.