Wangaratta Wesleyan Methodist Church Sunday 3rd April 2016
Know your Enemy
Bible Passages: Ephesians 6:10-18; 2 Corinthians 11:13-15; Revelation 12:7-12
Quote“If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.”
―Sun Tzu,The Art of War
Talk about strategy. Knowing the enemy and not knowing the enemy or underestimating the enemy. Ex. WW2 Germany & Japan
A number of things recently have made me more aware of the need of prayer to break the power of the enemy’s hold on people and situations.
Recently some of us went to the Watchman School of Intercession and the presenter, Brian Pickering shared that he almost always comes under spiritual attack on the eve of going to his weekend prayer seminars. The Thursday night before he heads out with his wife on the Friday morning they often experience some incident that threatens to derail this opportunity for ministry.
They have learnt to almost expect it and interpret it as a sign that God is about to pour out his blessing. They have learnt to not let it disrupt them. We all need to learn to…
1)Understanding Satan’s schemes
How important is it that we know our enemy? I suspect, particularly in western culture where there is a general lack of understanding and respect of the spiritual world, that we are way too naïve towards the schemes of our enemy.
By talking with people who have served the Lord in countries where the spirit world is more openly manifest, they would say there is a need for a heightened understanding of the devil’s schemes and you need to be ready to do battle in the heavenly places.
It is interesting to see how many times…
- Jesus battled the enemy
At the very beginning of his earthly ministry Jesus was taken by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.
- It was the Holy Spirit who took Jesus into the arena of temptation.
- As our High Priest, Jesus was tempted in every way as we are, yet did not sin.
- Not only does this give us confidence that he proved his worthiness to be both our High Priest and perfect sacrifice but he has demonstrated to us a model to follow in dealing with the enemy.
- Even at his weakest moment, after 40 days of fasting, Jesus did not give in to the devil’s temptations.
- He used the Word of God to counter the devil’s attacks. We have access to the same word of God.
Luke tells us that after Jesus’ time of temptation in the desert that the devil left him until an opportune time. Jesus’ battle with the enemy was an ongoing one.
- Many times Jesus came face to face with demons who had taken residence and control of people. He was not fazed by them and exhibited complete control over them. It is interesting that these demons knew more about Jesus than even his own disciples. They had done their homework!
I’m sure if Jesus were to stand here and give us some advice this morning he would say…
- Don’t be fooled!
In our passage from 2 Corinthians 11 Pauls says that Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. He says that some people, even in high positions, will pretend to be servants of righteousness to take our focus and devotion away from Jesus. They are in reality servants of Satan. Wow, that is pretty heavy stuff.
One of the schemes of the devil was to make Jesus king without going to the cross. Pretty tempting for Jesus don’t you think, I mean not having to go through all that agony?
- Even Peter became an unwitting servant of Satan when he tried to stop Jesus going to the cross. ‘Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Getbehindme, Satan! You are a stumbling block tome; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, butmerely human concerns.”’ (Matthew 16:23) Jesus also said, ‘He who is not with me is against me,’ (Luke 11:23)
- It is a scary thought that even well-meaning Christians may find themselves working against Jesus and therefore an unwitting servant of Satan if we are not careful. May we not be fooled by something that appears right rather than what is right. Always check things by God’s word and through the counsel of others.
- It appears that Satan will use whatever trick he can to thwart the blessing and extension of God’s kingdom.
Having said this, we also need to be careful that we don’t credit more to Satan than he deserves. There isn’t a demon under every rock and around every corner!
- A bit like ISIS trying to gain credit for every act of terrorism around the world. I liked a comment from someone after the recent Brussel’s airport attack to the effect, ‘Their aim is to produce fear in us. Well we will not stop doing our usual activities and give them victory. We will not fear them.’
Neither should we live in fear of Satan and his schemes. Remember, greater is he that is within you than he that is in the world. So a word of warning for those who are playing ‘pretend Christian’, you have no protection from the enemy if you don’t have Christ in you.
You may have noticed that as time marches towards Jesus’ inevitable return…
- The enemy is becoming more brazen
It seems wherever we look our world is becoming increasingly more hostile, more decadent and more ungodly. The temptations thrown at us are progressively subtler yet severe. The aim of this more brazen attack of the enemy is often at our most vulnerable.
An example: We now have a tax payer funded education departmentthat seems to have lost the ability to adequately nurture our kids. Firstly, they are running scared because minority pressure groups have fooled them into thinking that learning about God is actually harmful for children. They have stopped beautiful, caring and loving people entering our schools to tell children that God loves them.
Now they are bowing to the pressure of minority groups who want to socially engineer our kids to have them question their very sexuality and the natural way they express it. And don’t you dare question this or you will be called an old fashioned bigot. How brazen to call the ‘Safe School’s Program’ safe. Rather it represents another attack on the innocence and integrity of our vulnerable children.
On the morning of Good Friday as I was coming to church I was listening to ABC radio and I think it was Nicole Chvastek hosting a segment. I wish I had caught more of the discussion:
- Describe. Person from ACT sharing views on Good Friday.
- In one breath mentioned the safe schools program, and then a brazen, satanic attack on Good Friday. Explain what happened.
If you haven’t realised it, the goalposts of our world has changed and as Christians we need to figure out how we live in this world yet not become a part of it.
We have just celebrated Easter and have been reminded afresh about…
2)The battle at the cross
We catch a glimpse of Jesus’ battle at the cross as he prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane the night before he was crucified. What agony he suffered as he contemplated the work to be done for you and I and all other humanity on the cross.
- (Good Friday: Who won?) So who won on Good Friday?
- On the surface it didn’t look too good. Expand: Disciples, onlookers
- C.S. Lewis captures it in, The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe.
- Because Edmund had sinned, seduced by the craftiness of the witch.
- The White Witch and Aslan conferring together
- Aslan contemplates his death
- Describe the scene as Aslan is slain.
- The witch thought she had won but she had underestimated Aslan (Jesus)
On the Sabbath, the day after Jesus had been crucified, people woke to a grim day but little did they know the victory that had already been won. Sin had been paid for! Expand. Behind the scenes, in the devil’s camp, pandemonium had broken out. The power of sin had been broken, Satan’s power was smashed.
And then come…
- Resurrection Sunday: Some victory!
Now the reality of the victory was slowly dawning upon them.
The hymn says it all:
1.Low in the grave He lay,
Jesus, my Saviour!
Waiting the coming day,
Jesus, my Lord!
REFRAIN
Up from the grave He arose,
With a mighty triumph o’er His foes;
He arose a victor from the dark domain,
And He lives forever with His saints to reign
He arose! He arose! Hallelujah! Christ arose!
2.Vainly they watch His bed,
Jesus, my Saviour!
Vainly they seal the dead,
Jesus, my Lord!
3.Death cannot keep his prey,
Jesus, my Saviour!
He tore the bars away,
Jesus, my Lord!
One of the many things that we can be confident of as we read our bible is that…
- Satan will be crushed.
From Genesis through to Revelation we read about the victory of the Godhead over the enemy.
- In Gen 3:15 we see that the offspring of the woman will crush the head of Satan. Fulfilled in Jesus’ death and resurrection
- Rom 16:20 says, ‘The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet.’
- Our passage from Revelation 12 speaks about a time close to the revelation of the new heaven and new earth. A time when Satan was so furious that war broke out in heaven and he was thrown from the heavenly realm.
- The triumph over Satan was because of the authority of the Son of God through the blood of the lamb.
- ‘He is filled with fury, because he knows that his time is short.’ Comment.
I’m reminded of the song we sometimes sing,
Victory we have in Jesus Christ,
Forgiveness for He was crucified.
Wholeness in every part of me,
Deliverance His life has set me free,
I’m reining with Him upon the throne,
And conquering o’er Satan’s power below,
Living my life with Christ as Lord and King.
Now that we understand our enemy and appreciate the battle won at the cross we are now ready to…
3)Go into battle!
You may say, hang on, I’m not signing up for any battle, especially one with the devil. Get me out of here! Well if you love God and are saved by the precious blood of Jesus then you are already in the battle!
Let’s first…
- Be careful
I get nervous when I hear Christians boldly and naively proclaiming they are engaging Satan in battle.
- It is a bit like the alcoholic, a week after he has stopped drinking, stepping into the pub alone to tell his mates how bad drinking is.
- Or the young man who is struggling with pornography leaving his internet gadgets beside his bed at night and praying that he is not tempted. Leave them in the living room!
- I will not step into the ring alone with the devil! No more than I would step into the ring with Mike Tyson
If we are serious about fighting the battle, then that is not the way to do it. We need to have a good read of Ephesians 6:10-18.
- Read Eph 6:10-12Recognise who the fight is against. Expand
It is not against the unjust people or governments; not against drugs or alcohol; not against the crazy people on our streets...
- We have the authority, but it is not by ourselves, it is in the name of Jesus.
So how do we go about…
- Protecting our troops
What I mean by this is other Christians around us; we have an obligation to protect one another.
- Hold each other accountable
- Pray for each other, encourage, inspire, equip, mentor one another.
What is big on my heart is the ministry of…
- Protecting our vulnerable
Who are those who are most vulnerable in our midst?
- Young children: Kid’s Church, camps, schools
- Teens: Social media, sexualisation of our world, making life-changing choices
- Marriages: Why is Christian marriage under so much attack? Why are Christian marriages falling apart? There is evil out there, intent on destroying this wonderful institution.
- New Christians: The parable of the seeds was told by Jesus so that we could understand the pressure imposed by Satan on the new believer. Let’s protect them!
Conclusion: We have a weapon of protection called prayer. Let’s use it. I think this scene from the War Room movie explains it well. (Play scene where the wife is taking authority over her house, her marriage and her family in the name of Jesus and letting the devil know he has no place in her home.)
We need to be proactive and take ground.
- Every time we make our marriages stronger we take ground.
- When we teach our kids about Jesus we take ground.
- When we lead people to Jesus we take ground.
- When we express and retain our joy as Christians we take ground.
Let us be reminded that the church will be victorious and the gates of hell will not prevail against.
Message by Pastor David Lloyd
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