Word of Salvation – Vol.42 No.32 – August 1997
Be Strong in the Lord
A Sermon by Rev. K. V. Warren on Ephesians 6:10a, 12a
Scripture Readings: Matthew 12:22-32, 43-45; Ephesians 6:10-18
Suggested Hymns:
BoW 135B; 67, 374; 425; 531
Congregation of Jesus Christ.
Just imagine that someone would ask you: “What is your Christian life like? Is it nice and easy, comfortable, a pleasure-cruise? Or is it a war, a struggle, a fight?”
How do you answer a question like that? Is it a fair question to ask: is your Christian life a battle, a struggle? Does such a question annoy you? Does it make you feel awkward, uncomfortable? Should the Christian life be a struggle?
Well, Ephesians 6 talks very much in those terms. It talks about powers, armour, a shield, a helmet, a sword, standing firm, being strong. It talks about spiritual battles, a spiritual struggle. And it’s so important for us today to also think along those lines. For spiritual battles are still raging, even though – 2000 years ago – Christ gained the victory on the cross. The fight is still on; there is no cease-fire; spiritual forces are still at war.
You, too, young people, you are also involved in that battle. There are spiritual powers doing battle over you. For you, for your body and soul, the god of this world, Satan, is waging war with the armies of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The text says to us: Christians are not fighting against flesh and blood, not against people, not against man. It’s not a fight on the human level. Think of the Lord Jesus Christ, when He lived amongst us. Of course, there were plenty of unpleasant and evil people He had to face; nasty people, hostile ‘flesh and blood’; Herod, the cruel soldiers, the scribes, the Pharisees, and at times even his own brothers, and his disciples.
But Christ well knew the power that was behind all that hatred, misunderstanding, rejection. His quarrel was not with man; His wrestling was not with flesh and blood; that is not why He came to earth, so as to wrestle with humans, with people.
Why did He come to earth? What was the purpose? 1 John 3:8 – “The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work.” Yes, He came to forgive sins, He came to bring peace, He came to make people right with God, but in so doing He was to destroy the works of the devil! And in that battle, Christ’s battle, He was up against the wiles of the devil, the scheming of the devil, the cunning of the devil, the crafty methods of the devil.
Christ was not fighting against flesh and blood, and neither are His followers. God’s people are still fighting the devil and all his wicked armies. Yes, even today, even though the ultimate victory has already been won by Jesus. It is still a frightening battle! Terrible powers, unspeakably wicked!
Now it is clear from Scripture that at one time – in the beginning – the devil was one of the high and glorious angel-creatures made by God. Son of the Morning, Son of the Dawn, O Day Star, (that’s how he is called by the prophet Isaiah), he was once one of the greatest, one of the most able, one of the most powerful of all these many angels.
Then… somehow, some way… pride came in, ambition, rebellion. And this Son of the Dawn, one of the most glorious of God’s creatures… fell! And, suddenly… everything becomes ugly. Suddenly, the language of the Bible gives a sharp focus on destruction, chaos, evil, darkness. Revelation 12:3 – “Then another sign appeared in heaven: an enormous red dragon with seven heads and fen horns and seven crowns on his heads”, an ugly, repulsive picture of brute power and evil force, verse 4 – “His tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth”; a symbolic way of saying that the devil when he fell himself, dragged down with him many other angelic powers which God had created.
Powers of evil, wicked angels, a great number, together forming a kingdom, a kingdom of evil, a kingdom of darkness, where one thing is first and foremost: a hatred, and intense hatred of God and His people! The devil has only one aim; these world rulers of this present darkness have only one ambition: to produce chaos, to destroy the work of God, to destroy the church, to destroy the Kingdom.
And that is exactly what is going on in the 20th century, as it has been going on in all centuries! So often we make the mistake of looking at the symptoms, we are concerned with man, we start with man, we start with the world, and the bad state society is in, but we are only dealing with the symptoms. God’s people ought to realise the root, the cause, of all that concerns and disturbs us.
If we want to understand modern man, yes, post-modern man, what makes him what he is – if we want to understand this world, this present century, then it will not even be sufficient to go back to the beginning of human history, Paradise, Adam and Eve, the fall into sin, but we must go back beyond even that, before the world was ever made, and there you will see these great forces lining up; good and evil; light and darkness; God and the angels; the devil and his forces; God made the world; the devil sought to destroy it; God made man lord of creation; the devil came and tempted him to evil. And mankind willingly placed itself under the power of the evil one.
Paul writes to the Colossians (1:13) that Jesus has delivered them from the dominion of darkness, the power, the kingdom of darkness, and brought them into the kingdom of the Son he loves. Yes, but before that happened, the ugly truth is that they were under the dominion of sin, and the prince of sin; when you have not accepted Christ as your Master, you are still living in the kingdom of the evil one. Listen to how the apostle John describes it: “…the whole world is under the control of the evil one…” (1John 5:19). What a terrible description! An awful picture! The whole world, apart from Christian people, is in the clutches of Satan! Indeed, we are not fighting against flesh and blood!
Our struggle is not with man, but the ultimate and terrifying source of all trouble is the devil. Man is really the instrument that is being used; he is the pawn on the chess board; and back of him, back of society, behind all the nations, whether it is here, or in Africa, or Eastern Europe, or Washington, wherever, there are all the spiritual hosts of evil, determined to cause chaos, to overthrow God’s universe. Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against a tremendous power, only second to God, terrifyingly evil!
What about your struggle? Does such a question make you uncomfortable, uneasy, do you maybe shrug your shoulders, and say: What conflict? What struggle? But is there not this huge battle, even though Christ was victorious over Satan when he gave His life on the cross? Is there not this terrifying struggle, right up till the day that Christ returns? Is the evil one not bent on destroying us, our children, everything?
How are you standing up against the scheming of the devil, the crafty trickery of the prince of darkness? Do you ever think of the grim reality of the devil? Are you aware that the fight is not against flesh and blood? Most people in this country are not aware of it.
They don’t even want to be aware of it. Not so long ago the results of a religious poll were published in the newspaper, and the percentage of people who believed in the existence of the devil was quite low; it was again lower than the findings of a previous poll, a few years earlier. Most people would comment: “Well, maybe in the time of the Middle Ages, when there was plenty of superstition and people believed in witches and all those things, that surely was a time when believing in the existence of the devil came – as it were – natural! But in our scientific age, with Internet and space travel and virtual reality and megabytes, surely we have outgrown such primitive beliefs?!”
That’s exactly how the devil wants it to be. When people do not even accept the fact of his existence, he indeed is very, very pleased with that! Of course, for then he can go on with his destructive work without people even noticing!
How is that with you, my young friend? The devil would like nothing better than you throwing away your life into uselessness, throwing away your covenant privileges and being swallowed up by the world, where he – the devil – is king! The apostle Peter’s warning (1Peter 5:8-9) is also very much directed at you: “Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.” Looking for someone to destroy, to swallow alive! And then Peter adds: “Resist him, standing firm in the faith.”
Can you see, my young friend, when you do not have faith, faith in God, faith in Christ, how then can you stand firm, how then can you resist the devil? You cannot, and the roaring lion will overpower you.
The struggle is not against flesh and blood!
No, it is not!
The struggle is against the one
– Who “blinds the minds” of men to the truth of God;
– who makes man bitter and hostile to the Gospel;
– who seeks to sow the seeds of doubt, in your mind, in my mind;
– who is out to instil l in our hearts a spirit of fear;
– who delights in confusing the church, even setting brother against brother.
What hope do we have, against such an enemy? None! None whatsoever! Human effort is totally ineffective, human strength is absolutely inadequate when it comes to doing battle with the prince of darkness.
But… we have God on our side! In our Lord Jesus Christ we are on the side of God! And that’s the reason why Paul writes, in the text, Ephesians 6:1: “be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.” A little further on in this Chapter, the Apostle says that being strong in the Lord has to do with: “putting on God’s armour, believing the truth; being righteous, having faith, reading the Bible; praying always.”
Be strong. Stand against this fearful enemy. Take the power of God, and stand. How can we do that? Why can we do that? Because of Jesus Christ!
Remember again the reason why He came to this world, the way John describes it (1John 3:8): “The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work.”
And that has been done, oh glorious gospel truth, that has been done! Think of those powerful words of our dear Lord Jesus Himself in John 12:31, not long before His death: “Now is the time for judgment on this world; now the prince of this world will be driven out.”
That is precisely the story of the cross, the story of the open grave. The Colossian Christians are told about that victorious event in these words (2:15): “And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.” That is a glorious picture of the mighty power of the Lord. And by faith we – yes, small and weak and insignificant people that we are! – by faith we are sharing in that power.
That is the reason why James can say so confidently (4:7): “Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” Yes, he will. He will flee. Not just walk away, not just turn his back on you, no, he will flee! You resist him, and he will flee. He will run away, fast! That word ‘fleeing’ even has the idea of getting away quickly because one is afraid, one feels threatened.
Well, that’s how James refers to the devil when he is resisted by ordinary Christian people, women, men, girls, boys. Why would the devil do that? Why would he flee? Because he cannot stand the power of the Lord! In chapter 4 verse 7, just before James tells us to resist the devil, he writes: “Submit yourselves, then, to God.”
That’s it. When you submit yourself to God, when you surrender yourself to God, when you place yourself in His powerful hands, what hope does the devil have? None!
True, he is still the prince of this world, he is still the roaring, vicious, destructive lion. But Christ has defeated him. Think of those well-known words in Martin Luther’s hymn:
“And though this world with devils filled,
should threaten to undo us,
we will not fear, for God has willed
His truth to triumph through us.
The prince of darkness grim,
we tremble not for him,
his rage we can endure,
for lo! his doom is sure;
one little Word shall fell him.”
And that Word is our Lord Jesus. He is the powerful One, far above all earthly powers, far stronger than the devil. Whatever may happen to you, to your dear ones, to the church, to this world, never forget that the Lord is and remains in control!
Just picture in your mind an ordinary suburban backyard. And there is a powerful and vicious dog in that yard. Would you dare to climb the fence? The dog is in charge there, it calls all the shots; that angry animal is the boss. Now, just think of that backyard being the world, and that vicious animal being the devil. But wait, you suddenly notice that the animal has a strong chain around its neck. It is restrained, restricted. And the owner comes and can make that chain very, very short, even though the dog may still growl and bark and bare its teeth.
Is that terrible animal the boss of that backyard? No, it’s the person who lives in the house. It’s up to the owner to decide whether that chain will be longer, or shorter. Is the devil in charge? No, for it is the Lord God who decides how much power the devil is still allowed to exercise, how long the chain will be. Till the Day of the Lord will come.
And then, the words of Revelation 20:10: “…the devil …was thrown into the lake of burning sulphur, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day and night for ever and ever.”
That Day will surely come. In the meantime, let us never forget: “…our struggle is not against flesh and blood… Therefore, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.”
Amen.