Spiritual Warfare –

Foundational TruthsOriginally preached by Dr. David Platt at

Secret Church 7 on 11/06/09

Adapted by Rev. Chas. Pendleton

for

Fitchburg Nazarene Church

January 11, 2015

(These are the Pastor’s notes. He may have said more which is not noted here. He could have ignored certain portions of these notes in our actual service.)

READ:

2 Corinthians 4:4. 4 The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

2 nd Foundational truth:

We are involved in a spiritual war.

And it is a war of conflicting kingdoms. We looked at the passage last week which stated:

“Our struggle is not against flesh and blood.”

The picture is that there is a kingdom of God and a kingdom of Satan.

Jesus talks about how his kingdom is not of this world in….

John 18:36 36 Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders. But now my kingdom is from another place.”37 “You are a king, then!” said Pilate.

Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. In fact, the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.”

The same picture that there is a kingdom of God and a kingdom of Satan is shown in Ephesians.

Ephesians 2:1-2 talks about the ruler of the kingdom of the air.

As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.

There’s a kingdom of God that coexists with a kingdom of darkness, and it is not a peaceful coexistence. There’s tension

there.

And history is the story of this tension. We need to realize that from the very beginning of the Bible, the very beginning of human history; it is a drama of war and peace and conflicting kingdoms from Genesis 3 on.

In the middle of pagan nations , following after the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the god of this age, little G god, the devil, God calls out a people to himself to be a light in the middle of darkness.

And yet even the most bright lights among his people still fall.

Noah, who had faith in God when no one else did, still gets drunk, and he dies.

Abraham still deceived and lied Moses still struggled with unbelief, and

he died. David, the man after God’s own heart,

commits adultery and organizes murder, and he dies.

And over and over and over again you see the brightest lights among the people of God still infiltrated with darkness.

Until we get to the Perfect Man. And he comes on the scene, and there is no sin in him. And

He conquers with his life. He conquers with his death. He conquers with his resurrection.

He shows us the kingdom of light, so that all who trust in him can be delivered from the kingdom of darkness and brought into the kingdom of light through him.

But even those who trust in him still have a sinful nature that wars within them, and the conflict continues.

We, in the Church of the Nazarene believe that there is a work of God in our lives that can help us to be “More Than Conquerors” in this battle against the FLESH – against our sinful nature

BUT THAT IS A SERMON SERIES ALL IT’S OWN!!!

And yet, there’s coming a day when the kingdom of this world will become the kingdom of our Lord and of Christ.

And he will reign forever.

But at this moment, we find ourselves in war. It is a continual struggle. I just want you to think real quickly with me about how the New Testament pictures the Christian life as warfare.

In the life of believers, it is a war against sin and a struggle against sin. It’s a war within our souls – Hebrews 12:4-15 4 In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. 5 And have you completely forgotten this word of encouragement that addresses you as a father addresses his son? It says,

“My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you,6 because the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and he chastens everyone he accepts as his son.”7 Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as his children. For what children are not disciplined by their father? 8 If you are not disciplined—and everyone undergoes discipline—then you are not legitimate, not true sons and daughters at all. 9 Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of spirits and live! 10 They disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God

disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share in his holiness.11 No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.12 Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees. 13 “Make level paths for your feet,” so that the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed.14 Make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord. 15 See to it that no one falls short of the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up, to cause trouble and defile many.

1 Peter 2 – a war against your soul. A struggle against sin, a war within our souls. We struggle for our faith.

Especially, 1 Peter 2:11-12 which states:11 Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul. 12 Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.

Jude 3-4 talks about how we have to contend for our faith. We have to fight for it. We struggle for the gospel.

3 Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt compelled to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to God’s holy people. 4 For certain individuals whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord.

Philippians 12:29-30:, 27 Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of

the gospel of Christ. Then, whether I come and see you or only hear about you in my absence, I will know that you stand firm in the one Spirit,[e] striving together as one for the faith of the gospel 28 without being frightened in any way by those who oppose you. This is a sign to

them that they will be destroyed, but that you will be saved—and that by God. 29 For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe in him, but also to suffer for him, 30 since you are going through the same struggle you saw I had, and now hear that I still have.

In 1 Timothy 6:11-12, Paul says we fight the good fight.

NOTICE the action involved in doing as Paul urges Timothy (and us).

11 But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness. 12 Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses.

See the active action of the life of the faithful in spiritual warfare!!!

Paul comes to the end of his life and ministry, and he writes in 2 Timothy4:7

7 “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.”

That sums up my life – he says...

I Fought. I Kept the faith.

He says to New Testament Christians in Chapter 2:3, we are soldiers. Endure hardship like a good soldier of Christ Jesus. We are soldiers.

The New Testament talks about how we have weapons. The weapons we fight with, not the weapons of this world.

2 Corinthians 6:7 Paul talks about weapons of righteousness in the right hand and the left.

The point is we are in wartime, not peace time. We need to realize this.

I’ll say it again -We are in wartime, not peace time.

This is why Paul says in Ephesians 6 a passage we’re going to come back to over and over and over again.

Paul says, “Our struggle is not against flesh and blood.”

It’s not a physical struggle.

And you think about what he had been through physically. He’d been stoned and beaten and harassed and abused and imprisoned and shipwrecked.

If anybody knew this was a physical struggle – but that’s not what Paul says.

He says that’s not what the struggle is. Not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the authorities of this dark world, and the

spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. This is a spiritual war.

And what’s going on in the spiritual realm is far deeper, far more meaningful, far more impactful, than even what’s going on in the physical world.

Let this soak in. You have an opponent in this world that wants to:

wreck your marriage rob you of your purity and wants to lead you to defame the name

of the God who saved you. pull you down and destroy your soul.

We’re in wartime, not peace time. There’s no room to sit back and relax. Peace time is coming, brothers and sisters, but it’s not now. It’s not now.

3 rd Foundational Truth:

the basis – now this is huge.

The basis for our understanding of the spiritual war is biblical.

It’s biblical.

But, we’ve got to decide to answer some questions:

What is going to be our authority as we think about Angels, Demons, and Spiritual Warfare?

A N D…

For us, what determines Fact from Fiction?

Are we going to be talking about Frank Peretti or the Bible? Fiction or fact?

Will we use our subjective experiences or careful, biblical exegesis?

"What is the difference between

exegesis and eisegesis?"

Answer:

Exegesis and eisegesis are two conflicting approaches in Bible study.

Exegesis is the explanation of a text based on a careful, objective analysis.

Exegesis is concerned with discovering the true meaning of the text, respecting its grammar, syntax, and setting.

The word exegesis literally means “to lead out of.” That means that the interpreter is led to his conclusions by following the text.

The opposite approach to Scripture is Eisegesis, which is the interpretation of a passage based on a subjective, non-analytical reading.

Eisegesis is concerned only with making a point, even at the expense of the meaning of words.

The word eisegesis literally means “to lead into,” which means the interpreter injects his own ideas into the text, making it mean whatever he wants.We see this happening quite a bit in Christendom, but it is not what we talk about when we mention being “biblical” or having a “biblical approach.”

So, while exegesis tends to be objective when employed effectively – eisegesis is regarded as highly subjective, and I will make every attempt to not employ it during this study.

That’s part of why

2 Timothy 2:15 infers that we use exegetical methods: “Present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.”

I’m not going to talk all morning about what’s going on over here and what’s going on over there – Experiences.

We are going to look at what we understand about the Bible!

We do this so we will have an objective standard of truth by which to evaluate any of the spiritual warfare experiences we

might have, and to investigate others’ experiences.

Then we won’t be carried out into all kinds of ideas and falsehoods.

Not Intuition (what feels right to us)

But, interpretation, or what God has declared to be right .

So where are we going to find our answers?

Where’s the basis of our study going to be?

Right, – the Bible!

Now remember, the Bible doesn’t answer every question we may ask.

This is true in all kinds of questions we might have and circumstances we might face, and it’s particularly true regarding spiritual warfare.

How did Satan become evil? The Bible really doesn’t answer that question.

How did the demon-possessed in Scripture become demon-possessed?

There are a lot of questions that we’re going to see and questions that we have in the world today that the Bible does not answer.

But the good news is that doesn’t mean we’re at a loss.

God is not up in heaven saying, “Man, I wish I would’ve remembered! If I’d have known they were going to be studying that, and had those questions, I’d have put it in there.”

God’s not saying that because – this is the good news, relax – the Bible does answer every question we need answered to live to the glory of God.

It doesn’t answer every question we ask, but it does answer everything we need to grow in Christ and to experience victory in this world.

And this is key. I want to put my cards on the table.

I am a Western Christian, born in the

Western world, with Western thinking. I readily admit that I have got a lot to grow in my Christian life. I have limited experiences. I’ve traveled around the world a little bit, but I still have not seen a lot of the things, so many of the things that God is doing around the world. And there are a lot of different experiences, so admittedly I am at loss when it comes to experiences.

But I want you to hear that even if I had spent the last 50 years traveling around the world and experiencing every single possible thing, my goal would still not be to share my experiences with you. My goal would be to share the truth of God’s Word

with you, because it is the measure by which we look at each of our experiences.

And so the key is to camp out here, and stick close to Scripture, and then bring Scripture to bear on experiences, stories, accounts from around the world. The Word is authoritative.

This is so key. We are an experience-driven people.

I am convinced one of the most dangerous places to be is in a Christian small group Bible study. It’s dangerous. Sit around, a

few people with their Bibles open in their laps, all happy to be there.

And the leader says, “Bob, why don’t you read a verse?”

Bob reads the verse, and the leader says, “Well, Bob, what does that mean to you?”

Bob says, “Well, guess it means this to me.”

Mary on the other side, what does this mean to you? Well, I got something totally different out of that, Bob. This is what it means to me. Bill chimes in, said, “I was just thinking about how this text relates to how

I relate to my dog, and yes, this is so meaningful.”

And then Jane chimes in. She says, “I got something totally different out of it.”

And they’re all excited and walk away saying, “Wow, what a great Bible study!”

The reality is they never studied the Bible. They studied each other the whole time.

And there was nobody in the room that was standing up and saying, “You know, Bob, Bill, Jane, Mary, it really doesn’t matter

what it means to you. I want to know what it means.”

So who wrote it, Paul?

Well, let’s ask Paul. Paul, what does this mean?

They’re walking away saying, “Look, we’ve learned so much about the Bible.” They’ve learned nothing about the Bible. They’ve learned about themselves, and they haven’t learned about God.

We’re an experience-driven people. And so

we’ve got to make sure to let the text be our starting point.

What does it say? What does it mean?

And then save our questions for later, until we have looked at the text. Does that make sense?

How are we going to approach the text, then?

Closing Prayer