Man Camp Session 1: Our Call to Arms

3:34Well, thank you so much, Thomas. I appreciate your kind words. And, boy, it is just an honor and a privilege to be with you guys this weekend. Apart from going on a date with my wife tonight, there's no other place I'd rather be than with a group of guys doing man camp kind of stuff. And so, we're really glad that you guys are here. I'm really glad I'm here. And, yeah, we had a good run there for many years together and always enjoyed you guys coming up and being a part. And then we just kind of fell off there for a little while. And then, COVID hit, and then last year, last fall, was the first time we did man camp for maybe three or four years, and we actually did it here. And so, in fact, we're going to be here in three weeks. Weekends with our church. Lakeside's coming up here for our man camp. So, this is a good little dry run for me to kind of look around. And, man, you guys already scored the cool digs, man. This is like the best room here. I'm like, how did you guys get this? So, anyway, but honestly, I just am so grateful for Thomas and Matthew and just your church because whether you realize it or not, you have ministered to some of our young people that have gone off to Texas AM and they're up there, or even Blinn, or whatever other colleges they decided to go up to in that area. And they found your church, and they've been blessed by your church. So, we've had a number of our students that have left Lakeside and live up in the College Station area, and they attend your church, or they have attended your church in the past. And you guys have served them very well. So, thank you, Thomas. Thank you for being a faithful pastor that I can totally recommend 100% and say, Go sit under that man, he'll feed your soul. And just you guys are just a biblical church, and so we're super grateful for our partnership that we enjoy just about an hour away. So, it's just crazy. You'd think we would spend more time together, Thomas, right? We're so close, but we're busy, man, right? We just got our head on, we got the yoke on with our churches, and that's just usually what we have time enough to think about and do. So, but anyway. Thank you so much for the invitation. I'm really looking forward to what the Lord has in store for us the next 24 hours or so. And so take your Bibles and turn with me to Ephesians chapter 6. Ephesians chapter 6.

6:15And I'm going to be reading verses 10 through 20. Ephesians chapter 6, starting in verse 10. The Apostle Paul wrote this: Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the full armor of God so that you'll 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 forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.

6:56Therefore, take up the full armor of God so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything to stand firm. Stand firm, therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace, in addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.

7:26And take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit. Which is the Word of God. With all prayer and petition, pray at all times in the Spirit. And with this in view, be on the alert, with all perseverance and petition for all the saints, and pray on my behalf that utterance may be given to me in the opening of my mouth to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel for which I am an ambassador in chains, that in proclaiming it I may speak boldly as I ought to speak. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we are so honored and humbled to be able to have a copy of your word before us tonight, where so many other brothers and sisters in Christ around the world perhaps have never even held a Bible, let alone seen a Bible.

8:22And so I pray that we would not squander this precious opportunity to once again be instructed in your word. I pray, Lord, that you would give me utterance in the opening of my mouth tonight, that I would speak with boldness as I ought to speak. And Lord, that these men would be attentive listeners, receptive to what you want to say to them tonight. And responsive that this would not just go in one ear and out the other, but it would change all of our lives for your glory.

9:11We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, John Bunyan is best known for his classic book, The Pilgrim's Progress. I'm sure a number of you have read that book, and ever since it was published in 1678, this brilliant allegory of the Christian life, which follows one man's journey from the city of destruction to the celestial city, has taken its place second only to the Bible. Now, what some don't know is that during Bunyan's 12-year imprisonment for refusing to stop preaching the gospel, it was in that same imprisonment when he wrote Pilgrim's Progress, he wrote another fascinating allegory entitled The Holy War.

10:00How many of you guys have heard of The Holy War? Okay, just a handful of you guys. Well, listen to how it begins. And if you're a Bunyan fan, you'll love this. He writes: In this gallant country of the universe, there lies a pleasant and peaceful municipality called Mansoul. The picturesque architecture of this town, its convenient location, and its superior advantages cannot be equaled under heaven. Once upon a time, a mighty giant. Named Diabolos made an assault upon this famous town of Mansoul. He tried to take it and make it his own habitation. This giant was the terrible Prince of Darkness. He was originally one of the servants of King Shaddai, who had placed him in a very high and mighty position. Knowing they had lost their positions and the king's favor forever, Diabolos and his rebels turned their pride into hatred against Shaddai and his son. They roamed about in fury from place to place in search of something that belonged to the king on which to take their revenge. At last, they happened to find this spacious country of the universe, and they steered their course toward the famous town of Mansoul. Considering it to be one of the chief works and delights of King Shaddai, they decided to make an assault upon the town. When they found the place, they shouted horribly for joy and roared as a lion over its prey, saying, Now we have found the prize and how to take revenge on King Shaddai for what he has done to us. And so they called a council of war and considered what methods they would use to win this famous town of Mansoul for themselves.

11:48This is a creative description of the spiritual war that is continually raging between Satan and the saints of God. That the Apostle John alluded to in Revelation chapter 12, verse 17, when he wrote this: So the dragon was enraged with the woman and went off to make war with the rest of her children who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus. If you haven't figured it out yet, you and I are man-soul.

12:23And Diablos is Satan, who is furiously seeking to take revenge on God for casting him out of heaven. And we just happen to be the prime target of his revenge because he knows that by attacking the saints, he's attacking the very heart of God. But as God's beloved, he's not left us to battle Satan alone. He's equipped us with everything we need to withstand the relentless onslaught from our ruthless enemy of the soul. And so this weekend, I want to look at the clearest and most comprehensive instruction on this holy war found anywhere in the Bible. And I assume that you're familiar with the Apostle Paul's classic treatment here of spiritual warfare in Ephesians chapter 6. This text has been the subject of some of the most incredible expositions over the course of church history. The 17th century English Puritan William Gernal wrote a. Three-volume work on this passage called The Christian in Complete Armor. It was close to 1,500 pages.

13:38Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones, the renowned British doctor-turned expositor, wrote a six-volume commentary on the book of Ephesians. The last two volumes, The Christian Warfare and The Christian Soldier, cover these ten verses. And this is like a foot of my bookshelf. Okay, this is a lot of content. In fact, he preached 52 sermons on these 10 verses. I'll spare you this weekend. We're only going to do four. But that should just give you some indication of the depth and the breadth of what's contained in these 10 verses. However, because Paul was talking figuratively and metaphorically in this text, I think that the concept of spiritual warfare often gets misinterpreted and misapplied by well-meaning believers.

14:34For example, there are numerous fictional novels that sensationalize the spirit realm. There are, it's common to hear about prayer meetings that are dedicated to breaking evil strongholds over a city or over people's lives. There's deliverance ministries that specialize in dramatic exorcisms and casting out demons. And there's spiritual warfare boot camps designed. Train Christians in the art of spiritual warfare, and they all literally come with camouflage gear and face paint. David Powleson, who wrote a book years ago called Power Encounters, said this: A great deal of fiction, superstition, fantasy, nonsense, nuttiness, and downright heresy flourishes in the church under the guise of spiritual warfare in our time. For many people, the working worldview of spiritual warfare has the ring of a horror movie or a fantasy novel instead of the sound of scripture. Clearly, the time is urgent to reclaim true spiritual warfare. End quote. So, even for those of us who recognize the nuttiness and want to avoid the nuttiness often associated with spiritual warfare, we are left, it might seem, with nothing more than a theoretical or ethereal perception or perspective of this whole thing called spiritual warfare.

16:08And for many believers, spiritual warfare, particularly the armor of God that Paul described here in this passage, tends to be very nebulous and mystical and really kind of an intangible concept. We know that Paul used many analogies to explain and illustrate the Christian life. He talked about An athlete, he talked about a farmer, he talked about sheep, he talked about a vessel. But one of his favorite analogies of the Christian life was that of a soldier. And we know that throughout his letters, he likened believers to soldiers fighting in a battle. One of my favorites is 2 Timothy 2, verse 3. He says this to Timothy: Suffer hardship with me as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No soldier in active service entangles himself in the affairs of everyday life so that he may please the one who enlisted him as a soldier.

17:07And so, whether you realize it or not, when you became a Christian, you were automatically enlisted in the Lord's army. And the enemy immediately started to attack you. And you probably quickly realize that you're actually living behind enemy lines. And your survival depends on following our training manual and also wearing our divinely issued armor. And so, here in Ephesians chapter 6, Paul is like a seasoned war-hardened general. And he's briefing his troops for battle. And he laid out a strategy here involving four tactics for standing firm against the attacks of Satan and his forces. The first tactic is to solely rely on your commander. That's verses 10. Through 11. Secondly, the second tactic is that you need to wisely know your enemy. That's verses 11 and 12. Thirdly, the third tactic is you need to regularly wear your protective gear. And then lastly, in verses 18 through 20, we see we need to vigilantly fight on our knees. We need to vigilantly fight on our knees. Now, that was the outline that I used when I taught through this passage this summer with our church. And we had a great time. I was able to preach 11 sermons from this text. And again, I'm going to apologize ahead of time and say how sorry I am that you are getting 11 sermons crunched down into four. And you're going to figure that out pretty quick because you're going to feel like you're probably drinking out of a fire hose. And we're not going to be eating Sundays until about 11 tonight. I'm just kidding. We'll hopefully get done sooner than that. But I want to use a different outline this weekend that I think will be more helpful for us as we walk our way through this passage. And what I want us to see, again, we have broken this, our time down together into four messages. There's four sessions. So tonight, we're going to look at our call to arms. Our call to arms. That's Ephesians 6, verses 10 through 12. Tomorrow morning, We're going to look at our protective gear. That's Ephesians chapter 6, verses 13 through 17. We're going to do part one in our first session tomorrow. We're going to look at the belt, the breastplate, and the boots. And then the second morning session, we're going to look at the shield, the helmet, and the sword. And then, Lord willing, tomorrow night, we're going to crescendo this whole thing by taking a little, I don't want to call it a rabbit trail, it's a Jesus trail. Okay? And we're going to see how Jesus is our war hero. He is our war hero, and he is the one that inspires us and exemplifies all that we're to be as soldiers in arms. So, first of all, let's look tonight at our call to arms, our call to arms. And again, look at verse 10. Paul says, Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the full armor of God so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. So, the first thing Paul wanted to do here was to wake us up to the reality that we're at war.

20:49Again, he's like an old drill sergeant here calling his raw recruits to attention at boot camp. And he felt the weight of responsibility to provide us. With basic training that we need to survive in battle. And essentially, what he's saying here in these first two verses is: listen up, troops. You're in the army now, and it's my job to turn you into a soldier. And you need to do exactly what I tell you to do. If you follow my instructions, you'll come back alive, but if you don't, you're going to be coming back in a bodyback.

21:25And so, in these first two verses, Paul barked out two orders, two commands, which emphasize how dependent we must be on the power and the protection that God provides for us. And so, the first command, we could just call it be courageous. Be courageous. If you're taking notes, that would be the first call to arms, if you will. Be courageous. Again, notice verse 10. He says, Finally, be strong in the Lord. This is a present passive in the original language, which means this is something that we are to continuously do. We are to be continuously strengthened and empowered by the Lord. The fact that it's passive means we are, it's even emphasizing how dependent we need to be on the Lord. We don't have the strength in and of ourselves.

22:18In other words, what he's saying here is that don't rely on your own strength, rely on God's strength. And this be strong in the Lord phrase, I think it. It rings similar in my mind to God's order to Joshua. Remember in Joshua chapter 1 where he said, Be strong and what? Courageous before he led the nation of Israel into the promised land. So God followed up that call to courage to Joshua with a pre-incarnate appearance of Jesus to embolden Joshua. In Joshua chapter 5, he was strategizing how he was going to conquer Jericho. And he looked up and he saw a man holding a drawn sword. And he asked the natural question: Are you with us or against us?

23:12Are you an enemy or are you a friend? And the angel essentially said, Neither. I'm here to take over. And so, as the acting general of Israel's army, that must have been a huge relief for Joshua and really bolstered his confidence and his courage because conquering Jericho no longer depended on him, but on the captain of the Lord of hosts. And likewise, our confidence in Christ's strength should inspire us to be courageous in the battle against Satan.

23:47So Paul was exhorting us here not to be cowards, but to boldly go into spiritual battle, trusting and depending on the Lord. And like Joshua, as long as we trust in and depend on the Lord, On the Lord, victory is assured. Romans 8, 37, but in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through him who loved us. 1 Corinthians 15, 57, but thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Notice the next phrase, finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might.

24:26God is the source of our strength. Turn over just to chapter 1. Just flip back a couple pages to Ephesians chapter 1. We're going to see this same exact phrase used in Paul's opening prayer where he was interceding for the believers in this church, the church in Ephesus. And listen to what he says in verse 18. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened so that you will know what is the hope of his calling, what are the riches of the glory of his inheritance of the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of his power towards us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of the strength of his might. There is the same exact phrase, which he brought about in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion in every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in the one to come.

25:25In other words, the power that we have access to. Is the same power that raised Jesus from the dead. There's no greater power than that. Philippians 4:13, I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me. Colossians 1:29, Paul said about his ministry, for this purpose I labor, striving according to his power, which mightily works within me. 1 John 4:4, greater is he that is in me than he who is in the world. Now, Paul knew what it meant to be a soldier. He had his own combat experience, had his own personal struggles with the enemy. And what he discovered is that when he was the weakest, God was the strongest. I'm sure you're familiar with 2 Corinthians chapter 12, verse 7.

26:33Because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, for this reason, to keep me from exalting myself, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me, to keep me from exalting myself. Concerning this, I implored the Lord three times that it might leave me. And he said to me, My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness. Most gladly. Therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. God allowed Satan to afflict Paul to keep him humble and dependent so his power could be put on display in his life. And like Paul, we need to glory in our weakness. We need to boast about our weakness. We need to admit how weak we are in and of ourselves and how desperately dependent we are on the Lord.

27:32This whole battle-ready spiritual warfare thing isn't about being a tough guy. It's recognizing if left to yourselves, Satan will destroy you. You are no match for Satan. I am no match for Satan in and of myself, apart from Christ. So, the first command that Paul gave us as Christian soldiers is to rely on God's strength and not our own. But the fact that we have divine power is not the only thing that should inspire us to fight courageously. We also have divine protection. Listen to the second command or call to arms, and he simply says here, we could just call it be armed. So be courageous, be courageous, but be armed. Notice verse 11.

28:30Put on the full armor of God so that you'll be able to stand firm. Put on is the idea of clothing yourselves, getting suited up here. This is a present imperative, which means this is not something you just do once in your life. This is something you do continuously on a regular basis. This should be happening all the time. He says, put on the full armor of God. At salvation, God provides every believer with an impenetrable suit of armor, which Paul will go on to describe for us in verses 14 through 17. We're going to look at that tomorrow morning. But every piece of our spiritual armor has been forged by God and is vital for our survival. It's his armor.

29:21And the only way we'll ever be able to stand our ground against satanic schemes is if we're fully armed all the time. Notice he says here, put on the full armor of God so that you will be able to what? What does your Bible say? Stand firm. This phrase, stand firm, is used three times here in these opening four or five verses. Notice in verse 13, therefore take up the full armor of God so that you'll be able to resist in the evil day and having done everything to stand firm. And then the first phrase of verse 14, stand firm. For so, this word stand firm was a military term. It was to describe holding out or standing and holding out in a critical position on the battlefield. In other words, holding your ground, not falling back, not retreating.

30:20And the image that comes into my mind when I think of this concept of standing firm is this battlefield after a bloody battle, and there's dead bodies strewn all over the place. But as the smoke clears, you see one soldier left standing. And guess what? Paul wanted us to be that soldier. And we can be that soldier as long as we rely on God's strength and utilize the protective gear that He's provided for us. God has given us everything we need to stay standing in the fight against Satan. But without God's power, without God's protection, again, we are no match for Satan. We will fall every time.

31:12Classic example: Peter's hellish hat trick. Remember that? How'd that happen? Here's the guy that proudly proclaimed when Jesus said that all of you are going to fall away, and he said, No way, even if. If everyone falls away, I'm not going to fall away. And then he accompanied Jesus to the garden, and rather than praying like Jesus urged him to, what did he do? He fell asleep. And so it shouldn't surprise us that when the soldiers arrived to arrest Jesus, what did Peter do?

31:51It was Peter time. Pulled his sword out, right? And he was going to do this in his own strength and his own sword, and he would go on a few hours later to deny Christ three times. Why? All because he was relying on his own strength. Satan had asked permission of Jesus to sift Peter like wheat. And Jesus told him that he had prayed that even though he would fall, that his faith would not fail. And Peter learned the hard way: how the devil prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. Peter knew what he meant when he wrote that in 1 Peter 5, verse 8. He was talking about himself.

32:37He had got pounced on that night. Satan had been lurking like a lion, stalking Peter, knowing that he was vulnerable because he was dependent on himself rather than the Lord. So we need to solely rely on God's power and God's protection. But that's not all. We must also be aware of the awesome power of who and what we're up against. And unless we know who they are and what they can do, we are going to have a difficult time defeating them. And so, a third call to arms here: not only are we to be courageous, not only are we to be armed, thirdly, we are to be aware of our enemy. We are to be aware of our enemy. Notice the end of verse 11: put on the full armor of God so that you will 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 forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.

33:54When it comes to the devil and demons, there's pretty much two extremes out there that we need to avoid. Number one, we must not underestimate their power, nor should we exaggerate their power. Some don't believe that the devil and demons even exist. They're just a figment of our imagination. They're something that our parents made up to scare us, or Hollywood uses to entertain us. And the world often trivializes. The devil by portraying him as a cute little red guy with horns and a pointy tail and a pitchfork. I think about that every time I eat at Torches Tacos.

34:41And I just, you know, I'm kidding. I just kind of feel like, Lord, I'm sorry, but these are really good. On the other end of the spectrum, there are many who have this morbid preoccupation with the devil and demons. They're so obsessed with the devil and demons that they live in fear and confusion, and they think Satan is behind everything, and they blame everything on the devil, including their sin. Well, the devil made me do it.

35:13Well, the way for us to avoid these two extremes of underestimating Satan's power or exaggerating his power is to be sure that we draw our understanding of the spirit realm from the pages of Scripture alone. And so, what we have here in the last part of verse 11 and into verse 12 is basically angelology 101. You know what that is? Angelology? The theology of angels? Notice what he says here: that you would stand firm against the schemes of the devil. Literally, methadia in the Greek. And it was a word that was used of wild animals that. Would stalk their prey and unexpectedly pounce on them. Again, 1 Peter 5:8, Satan is like the devil is like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour.

36:11And what Paul was referring to there with that word methodea or schemes was the many devious tactics and crafty strategies that Satan uses to trick us and take advantage of us and lead us astray. 2 Corinthians chapter 2, verse 11, Paul mentioned that we should not be taken advantage of by Satan because we are not ignorant of his schemes. Listen, if you're ignorant of Satan's schemes, you're going to get taken advantage of. He is going to whoop up on you. You're going to be his punching bag.

36:52By the way, I'm proud of you for being here tonight because probably the majority of other men in the state of Texas are sitting under some lights watching a football game, right? That's what we do, Friday night lights, right? We love that. One of the main ways that football coaches prepare for a game is to watch game tapes, tapes of their upcoming opponent. And they sit there and they analyze the other team's strategy, the kind of offense that they use and their defensive structure, and they observe their strengths and their. Weaknesses and where they'll try to exploit them and where they can take advantage of them. And they look for specific patterns and special plays, and they try to get inside the other coach's head and anticipate their every move.

37:42And how well you know your opponent can make the difference between winning and losing. Well, guess what? God has provided us with some game tape of our opponent. The Bible shows us everything we need to know about the devil and demons. So, what do we know about Satan from God's word? Well, number one, we know where he came from. We know where he came from. Again, for the sake of time, we won't look at these passages, but I would just encourage you to write them down. Ezekiel 28, referring to the king of Tyre. Isaiah 14, referring to the king of Babylon. In the same way, there are types of Christ in the Old Testament, certain characters that depict or, in some ways, kind of foreshadow what Christ would be like. I think there are types of Satan in the Old Testament. And these kings were being prophesied, real historical kings, but the language that's used by the prophets under the inspiration of the Spirit of God is very Telling, very descriptive of Satan. And so, this spiritual war, based on Ezekiel 28 and Isaiah 14, this spiritual war in which we're engaged began in eternity past when Lucifer, the most powerful and beautiful angel God ever created, got too big for his riches. And he committed treason against the God of the universe, and he wanted to be worshipped like God.

39:32And so, God kicked him out of heaven, along with a third of the angels who followed Satan in his rebellion and condemned them all to hell forever. And ever since then, Satan and his minions have been actively and aggressively waging war against God, doing whatever they can to overthrow God's kingdom and thwart God's work. One example: the parable of the soils. As the seed of God's word goes forth, what happens to some of that seed? It falls on the road, and what comes and gets that seed and takes it away? Birds. And Jesus said that parable represents Satan coming down and scooping up, stealing away the seed of the word of God so people can't get saved.

40:25Well, Satan's first attack on mankind came in the Garden of Eden. When he took the form of a serpent and he deceived Adam and Eve and got them to rebel against God by sinning against him. And it's interesting, he appealed to them with the very same thing he was tempted by: that God knows when you eat that fruit, you'll be like God. You'll be like him. That's what Satan wanted, to be like God. And so, in that initial assault, Satan succeeded in recruiting the entire human race to join his cause. And ever since then, every person who's ever been born on this planet is born a prisoner of war and doomed to go to hell with Satan.

41:24The good news is, it was at that very same moment, that dark moment in human history, that God promised to send a warrior, a Savior, who would one day defeat and destroy Satan forever. Of course, I'm referring to the first mention of the gospel in the Bible, Genesis chapter 3, verse 15, and I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed, and he shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise him on the heel. And as we know, that was a prophecy of Jesus Christ, and God eventually sent. His son Jesus to this fallen, sin-cursed, war-torn planet to conquer Satan, death, and hell. And he resisted every single one of Satan's attacks against him, and he disarmed and defeated Satan when he died and rose again.

42:17But even though Jesus delivered a death blow to Satan, Satan is still at work in this world, isn't he? I'm sure you've all had the gruesome experience of killing a snake. It's just part of the territory around here, right? Whether it was with a shovel or a machete or your bare hands. No, just kidding. But what do you go for, guys? You go for the head and you chop that head off. And the first time I did that, I'm thinking, oh, I'm glad that's over with. Killed that sucker. I hate snakes. I'm like, Indiana Jones, man. Snakes. Why did it have to be snakes, right? I hate snakes. I'm terrified of snakes. If I see a snake, I get my wife to go kill it. I'm just kidding. I'll do that. But that's about how scared I am of these things. I'll find somebody else who can kill it. I'll go get my neighbor. I'll get one of my son. You know, he likes snakes, so go out and kill him for me.

43:15First time I cut the head of a snake off, thinking, okay, I'm done. What happens to that snake? Is it over? No. It's just starting, right? And there's a spiritual lesson. In the neurology of a snake. I remember reading an article in Christianity Today years ago about a missionary couple that was stationed in the jungle, and a huge snake had gotten into their hut. And they walked in, they saw it, and they went and got one of the natives to come and kill it. And so, anyway, the native went in there, and he killed the snake, cut his head off, and he came out, and they thanked him. He says, Well, don't thank me yet because it's going to take a while, and he's probably going to tear up your hut. And they're like, What are you talking about? They say, Well, you can cut his head off, but he's still going to writhe for hours after that. And sure enough, they sat out there listening to their hut get destroyed by this dead snake, decapitated snake.

44:28And it dawned on them, well, this is a picture of Jesus and Satan. That when Jesus died on the cross and re-emerged from the grave triumphant, he decapitated Satan and sealed his eternal doom. But Satan is still thrashing around the world, wreaking havoc, and will continue to do so until Jesus returns and banishes him to hell for all eternity. So, that's where Satan came from. Secondly, we know what he's doing. What he's doing. At present, God has permitted Satan to reign as the ruler of the earth. Again, if you're still in Ephesians, just turn back to chapter 2, verse 1: And you were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience.

45:33The prince of the power of the air. It's a reference to Satan. John 12:31, now judgment is upon this world. Now the ruler of this world will be cast out. Jesus referring to Satan. And then 1 John 5:19, we know that we are of God and that the whole world lies in the power of the evil one. So Satan is the evil mastermind behind all the corruption and wickedness in the world. You think Jeffrey Dahmer is a monster?

46:11I just said that because that's like everywhere it seems like this documentary, right, that they did on Netflix about Jeffrey Dahmer. And my sweet 26-year-old daughter came to me and said, Dad, why would they do a documentary on such a gross guy? I'm like, sweetheart, good question. That's an evidence of God's grace. You have no interest in watching that. But there is a sadistic appeal in the sinner's heart to want to watch that kind of stuff.

46:45Satan is the actual perpetrator who instigates and inspires and influences the Jeffrey Dahmers of the world. The mass shootings, the human trafficking, the abortion, and terrorist acts, and world war, and false religions, and false doctrines, and false believers. Satan's behind all that. And he has a highly sophisticated, well-organized army of fallen angels with differing degrees of authority and various ranks. And that's what he's referring to there in verse 12. Notice it says, 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 forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.

47:36It's as if Paul was parading the opposing spiritual army by us to intimidate us, like the Russians do, and like they do in North Korea and China, right? They get all their military out there and they have this parade and they broadcast it to try to intimidate the other countries of the world, the other nations of the world. And so here's this military parade. If you will. And so Paul gave us a frightening, sobering glimpse into the spirit realm.

48:08And he says, our real struggle, and that's the word for hand-to-hand combat there, is not against flesh and blood. It's not against another man or another woman or another human being. It's not godless philosophers. It's not evil dictators. It's not liberal media. It's not gays and lesbians. It's not abortion advocates or cultists. That's not our beef. That's not who we're warring against. They have simply been taken captive by Satan to do his will. The real battle is being fought in the heavenlies against spiritual forces.

48:53And so we see the stuff on the news, on the nightly news, right? We know that what we're seeing, right, is on a human level, but we know that there's a bunch of spiritual stuff going on all behind that. And even though we can't see these spiritual forces, we're constantly surrounded by them. I love the story of Elijah in 2 Kings 6. He and his servant were camping out, and the servant comes out in the morning, sleepy-eyed.

49:30And he sees they're surrounded by the army of the king of Aaron. And he goes back into the tent and he says, Elijah, you need to come check this out. This doesn't look good. And Elijah comes out, looks around, he says, Don't fear. He says, For those who are with us are more than those who are with them. And you can imagine the servants looking at him, going, Okay, one, two, fifty. What am I not seeing here? And so Elijah asked God to open his servants' eyes and give him a glimpse into the spirit realm. And behold, the mountain was lined with chariots of fire and horses.

50:26It's a great image of the spirit realm there. Some of you may enjoy reading missionary biographies. One of my missionary heroes is John Patton, who was the missionary to the cannibals in the New Hebrides Islands, which is down by Fiji, what we know today as Fiji. And it's fascinating that missionaries, that the first missionaries that went into those islands got eaten alive. That they knew they were going to likely be supper. For some cannibal. In fact, I have a cannibal, what they call a cannibal fork in my office that I got on a trip I took recently to Fiji. That's what they're giving away to tourists. Here, here's a cannibal fork. This is what we used to do down here. But now you can come to our resorts and lay out on the beach, and we'll be nice to you. We won't eat you, we'll serve you. It's interesting. So he goes with his family, his wife, and small child, infant, lands on the beach, and within the first several months, his wife dies and his baby dies.

51:42And he's got to bury his wife and his kid in the sand on the beach and sleep on their graves. Because if he didn't, he knows the cannibals are going to come out in the middle of the night, dig up the graves, and eat them. Well, in the providence of God, they didn't eat John Patton. And he had the privilege of sharing the gospel with these natives, and they got saved. And years later, they were sitting around talking, and one of the leaders said to John Patton in a very serious tone, he said, Hey, I've always wanted to ask you this question: Who were those soldiers with flaming swords standing around your tent every night when you first arrived?

52:28That just kind of gives me the goose chills. The truth of the matter is, we are fighting in an invisible war with an invisible foe, and we're wearing invisible armor. And so that's why this is so nebulous and speculative, it seems. What is all this talk about spiritual warfare and armor? Well, we know this: that Satan's minions are strategically networked through the world to carry out his wishes, and they're not little cute yellow guys that laugh in a high voice.

53:14This is kind of like the spiritual mafia. And I think that's what he's talking about, against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly place. They're everywhere. And that's how Satan is able to make it look like he's all-powerful and he's all-knowing, and that he's everywhere at the same time. But guess what? News flash. Only God is omnipotent. Only God is omniscient. And only God is omnipresent. Satan has divine limitations. He just can't do anything he wants, do whoever he wants, whenever he wants. He must ask permission from God. Job would be a good example.

54:03He couldn't do anything to Job unless God gave him permission to do that. Same with Peter. He had to ask Jesus' permission to sift Peter like wheat. Someone said it this way: In other words, Satan is a dog on a leash that is firmly held by the hand of our Father. He cannot do to us what God does not allow him to do. The Reformers used to like to refer to Satan as God's devil. He's God's devil, and he serves God's purposes.

54:45And yet, at the same time, Satan's goal is to lead as many human beings as possible to rebel against God and to follow him down that broad road that leads to destruction, just like he led his fellow angels astray. And his primary method is deception. Deception. Revelation 12:9, the great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old, who's called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world. He was thrown down to the earth. How about 2 Corinthians 11:3?

55:23Paul said, I'm afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be led. Astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ. In that same chapter in verse 13, for such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. No wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. So Satan has all these disguises that he uses. He's a master counterfeiter. He's the master of disguise, who camouflages himself as this beautiful creature that beckons us to come play with him. And then, when we least expect it, he takes off his mask, revealing himself to be this sinister, hideous monster that wants to kill us.

56:15John 8:44, Jesus said that Satan was a murderer from the beginning. He does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies. He lied to Eve in the garden. And she was not only duped, but she also died spiritually with the entire human race. He instigated Ananias and Sapphira to lie in Acts chapter 5. And guess what? They died.

56:58He is a murderer. And a liar. But he's also an accuser, a slanderer, who seeks to discredit us and create doubts in our minds and riddle our consciences with guilt. Revelation 12:10, it says, The accuser of our brethren has been thrown down, he who accuses them before our God day and night. Satan is always trying to tear down our reputation in the eyes of God and even in our own minds. We'll talk about that a little bit more when we get into some of the pieces of armor.

57:41So he's a murderer, he's a liar, he's a deceiver, he's an accuser, he's a slanderer, he also blinds and binds. 2 Corinthians 4, 4, the God of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel, the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. 1 Timothy 3:7, we must have a good reputation. Talking about an elder with those outside the church so that he will not fall into reproach and the snare of the devil. 2 Timothy 2, 26, that they may escape from the snare of the devil, having been held captive by him to do his will. So he blinds people and he binds people. He also torments people.

58:201 Samuel 16, 14, now the spirit of the Lord had left Saul and an evil spirit sent from the Lord began to torment him. And we already Referenced Paul's, 2 Corinthians 12, 7, to keep me from exalting myself, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me. And if that's not enough, Satan is also referred to as the tempter. The tempter. Matthew chapter 1, Jesus was led up by the Spirit, led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. After he had fasted 40 days, 40 nights, the tempter came and said to him, 1 Thessalonians 3:5, Paul said, This, when I could endure it no longer, I also sent to find out about your faith for fear that the tempter might have tempted you and our labor would be in vain. 1 Corinthians 7, 5, stop depriving one another, talking about husbands and wives and their physical intimacy, except by agreement for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer and come together again so that Satan will not tempt you.

59:35By the way, you figured this out, I'm sure, if you've walked with the Lord for any number of years, that we really aren't up against just one enemy. There's actually three. And we're surrounded. They've got us surrounded. What am I talking about? I'm talking about the world, the flesh, and the devil. Again, Ephesians chapter 2, verse 1 talks about. About all these, and you were dead in your trespass and sins in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, and of the spirit that is now working the sons of disobedience. That's Satan. Among them, too, we all formerly live in the lust of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and we're by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. So, how does this work? Well, the devil tempts us with something from the world that he knows will appeal to our sinful flesh, which we know our flesh often does things that we know it shouldn't do, or doesn't do things we know it should do.

1:00:42And guess what? Satan uses our flesh against us, he's got a mole, it's an inside job. James 1:14, each one is tempted when he's carried away and enticed by Satan. Know what it says? No, by his own lust. 1 John 2:16 talks about the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the boastful pride of lust. Guess what? That's Satan's tackle box right there. And he's a master fisherman. And he knows exactly what kind of bait will work with you and work with me. He's like, oh, I know that guy's weakness.

1:01:30I got something in here for him. And he pulls out either the lust of the flesh or the lust of the eyes or the pride of life and he runs that lure right by your face so that you'll hit it. I preached a message recently on James chapter 1, verse 14, and I titled it Don't Take the Bait because that's what he's doing. So Satan is evil and cunning beyond comprehension. We cannot begin to fathom how evil and cunning Satan is. He is relentless. He is merciless. He has no conscience. He has no compassion. He has no remorse.

1:02:22He is hell-bent on deceiving you and destroying you. And guess what? He's had thousands of years to practice and perfect his schemes, his tactics, his techniques for deceiving people and destroying their lives and damning their souls to hell. He's an expert. So we should never flippantly or foolishly underestimate the deceptive, destructive power. Of the devil because he is the most intelligent, most powerful, created being in the universe. And if we were to face him in our own wisdom and strength, we would be easily outsmarted and overpowered.

1:03:20So that's what he's doing. We know where he came from. We know what he's doing. How about we end with where he's going? Where he's going. And we know that Satan's rebellion will climax during the tribulation in the person of the Antichrist. 2 Thessalonians 2, verse 1 talks about that. Christ will return and destroy the Antichrist, and Satan will be bound in the bottomless pit for a thousand years. Revelation chapter 20, verses 2 and 3. He'll then be released for one last rebellion, after which he'll be cast in the lake of fire forever. Revelation chapter 20, verses 7 through 10. Matthew 25, 41, Jesus said, Then he will also say to those on his left, Depart from me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire, which has been prepared for the devil and his angels.

1:04:16And the only way that you and I can escape the snare of the devil, who has taken all of us captive, by the way, to do his will, and avoid spending eternity in hell alongside. Him and the demons is to turn from our sinful rebellion against God and surrender our lives to follow and obey his Son Jesus Christ. So we can be grateful tonight that Satan's present-day rampage won't last forever. Revelation 12:12 says, For this reason, rejoice, O heavens, and you who dwell in them, woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, knowing that he has only a short time.

1:05:08Satan knows it. He's got a window to work with. He knows his days are numbered. And there is coming a day when God will eventually crush under, or crush, excuse me, crush Satan under the feet of Christ's followers. Romans 16, 20. So knowing that we are warring against a defeated foe, while he's a formidable foe, a daunting adversary, he is a defeated foe. That should reassure us. That should embolden us as we live and minister in light of the fact that the one who lives in us. Is greater than that dead snake who's frantically but futilely flailing about in this world.

1:06:12Appreciate the guys leading us tonight in that famous hymn by Martin Luther. A mighty fortress is our God. It really captures, I think, the essence of Paul's teaching here on spiritual warfare. For still, our ancient foe doth seek to work us woe. His craft and power are great, and armed with cruel hate, on earth is not his equal. Did we in our own strength confide, our striving would be losing. Were not the right man on our side, the man of God's own choosing. Does ask who that may be? Christ Jesus. It is he. Lord, sabioth his name from age to age the same, and he must win the battle. Amen?

1:07:04Let's pray. Father, thank you for this helpful text that really opens our eyes to a part of the universe and a part of our existence that we often don't think about because we really can't see it with our own eyes. This is all going on. In the spirit realm, but it's no less real. And so I pray that as we contemplate what we've heard tonight, I ask that you, your spirit, would take the truths that are most vital for each one of these men, the one thing, perhaps, the one thing that encouraged them the most or convicted them the most, that your spirit would just drill down in their hearts with that one thing, that they could walk away with something to meditate on and to chew on and to contemplate and to pray about and to dive back into your word and study deeper on this subject, whatever that was that intrigued them.

1:08:20But, Lord, thank you that while we have a formidable foe, he's a defeated one. And while we could never, ever stand against him by ourselves, we don't have to live in fear of him because you have provided us your power and your protection. And we thank you for all that. In Jesus' name, amen.