Transcription
Well, if you're new this morning, we're in a fascinating series on angels and demons. If you've been with us, then you know we've talked about the fact that we live in a supernatural world. We live in a world that is populated by unseen spiritual beings which we have summarized as angels and demons. And the purpose of this series is really three-fold.
To remind us as believers of the reality of the unseen world, that what we see is not all there is. That there's a lot going on behind the scenes as we're praying, as we're witnessing, as we're reading our Bible, as we're serving, as we're at work. When we come into our neighborhood, when we're at home, there's an unseen world that is active. Second, to help us think biblically about unseen beings, supernatural beings. Often times, people have a theology regarding both angels and demons that is really based more on tradition and legend than on the Bible. And third, to equip us to understand the good fight of the faith to understand what spiritual warfare is really all about.
This morning, what I want to do is I want to remind us again of God's original plan for the earth. His desire has always been that the earth would be a place that literally would be heaven on earth. His original plan was that the earth would be a place where people would enjoy a paradise setting free of sin, free of pain, free of sorrow, free of sickness, free of death, free of everything that makes life so difficult. Not only that, but a place where man reflecting the image of God would operate in a creative capacity that would accomplish things effortlessly and might I add joyfully. That it would be a place where men and women would fellowship with God, regularly, easily, tangibly, would interact with his presence. That was what the Garden of Eden was originally. Now, I remind you, the rest of the earth was not Eden, but it was to become like Eden. That was God's plan.
We know that because in Genesis 1 and verse 27, so God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God, he created them. Male and female, he created them. Then God blessed them and said, "Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and govern it." So there was a co-regency, a co-rulership. And God's plan was fill the earth, govern it, and rule it. And incidentally, that's not only God's intent for the earth, but at the end of time when you get to Revelation chapter 21 and 22, there is a new heaven and there is a new earth. And that is the reality. God's plan will be fulfilled. His plan was that someday mankind would righteously reign, righteously govern the earth. And not only that, but that we who now are made lower than the angels would someday rule and reign over the angels. 1 Corinthians chapter 6, don't you realize that someday Paul writes this, we believers will judge the world. And in 1 Corinthians 6 and:3, don't you realize that we will judge angels? Again, in the book of Hebrews, the writer of Hebrews says this, "And furthermore, it is not the angels who will control the future world we're talking about. For in one place the scriptures say, "What are mere mortals that you should think about them, or the son of man that you should care for him? Yet you made them a little lower than the angels and crowned them with glory and honor." That's a quote of Psalm 8. Then watch this. You gave them authority over all things. Now when it says all things, it means nothing is left out. That is God's plan for humanity. But we have yet but we have not yet seen all things put under their authority.
You say, John, why are you doing this? Because it's important for us to understand. Invariably, people say, well, why would a demon rebel? Why would an angel rebel? Why would Satan rebel? And we talked a little bit about his rebellion. But what is behind the rebellion? And what is at stake in spiritual warfare? If you don't understand what we just covered, you will not understand spiritual warfare in response to God's plan that we would not only rule and reign and that we who are lower would someday be over.
There was angelic rebellion. We know from the Bible three times there were celestial beings that rebelled. We looked at the first one. It was the deception in Eden. When Satan rebelled against God, tempted Eve, mankind fell. And we learned about where evil came from, where Satan came from, what Satan does, and where Satan is headed. Last time we looked at the second rebellion, which was a demonized human race as celestial beings came down, cohabitated with human women and produced a quasi human race of demonic warrior giants known as the Nephilim. And we traced them, not only saw them in the flood, read what the New Testament said about it, but then we saw them after the flood and saw how Joshua and ultimately King David eradicated the Nephilim, one of them whose name was Goliath.
Now this morning, I want us to look at the third rebellion. Let's call this the defection of the nations. The defection of the nations. And this really I would suggest to you is the most relevant though all of it has purpose in understanding in our day-to-day life. Though this is the most relevant aspect of spiritual warfare. This demonic rebellion affects the reality of the world in which we live. It affects the reality of the purpose of our Christianity in many respects. The third rebellion, the defection of the nations.
Following the great flood, God reiterates his purpose for humanity. And he says this in Genesis chapter nine and verse one to Noah. And God blessed Noah and his sons. And he told them, "Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth." There you have it again. Essentially the same man that I want you to go all over the earth. I want you to fill the earth. But in just a matter of a few generations, by the time you get to Genesis 11, what you have is you have manifested for us a demonic rebellion. We're going to look at two scriptures. The first one isn't going to say anything about demons, but the second one will fill in what the first one doesn't say.
Let's look at the account in Genesis chapter 11. Now, the whole earth had one language and the same words. As people migrated from the east, they found a plain land of Shinar and settled there. And they said to one another, "Come, let us make bricks and burn them thoroughly." In other words, bake them. And they had brick for stone and bitummen for mortar. Then they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top to the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves." What they're saying is they're saying we want they know that's not the way you access God. They understand the rudiments of worship. They saw Noah do that. They understand how righteous people approach God. But what they're doing is they are responding to gods other than the one true God who are in the line of Satan back in the garden saying, "Listen, build a tower. We'll come down. You can meet with us. We'll meet with you and we will make you like gods." And you can look at the ancient civilizations and see how the priests and the kings became or came to be viewed as gods. So they're building these ziggurats which if you again study ancient religion you find that there's human sacrifice, there's interaction with the gods. All kinds of occultic demonic things are happening. So they're wanting to do that. And their purpose is to make a name for themselves. In other words, you you can just hear the demons saying to them, "Listen, do this and you'll be like gods. You'll be famous lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth." What What are they saying there? We don't want to do what God has instructed us to do. We want rather than to multiply and fill the earth, we want to stay together.
And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the children of men had built. And the Lord said, "Behold, they are one people. They all have one language and this is only the beginning of what they will do." In other words, what God is saying, if they all speak the same language and they are all one people, then there is going to be very little opposition to the evil that they create. And God says, "I will stop it." One of the advantages of of nations through time and history, we can look at the Second World War and see that there were nations who stood against evil aggressor nations and stopped them. We've seen that especially in our own national history. What you see here is God is concerned about their uniting for the purpose of evil.
And the Lord came down to see the city, the tower which the children of men had built. And the Lord said, "Behold, they're one people. They all have one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. Nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. Come, let us go down there and confuse their language." And I want you to remember this, confuse the language, so that they might not understand one another's speech. So the Lord dispersed them and I want you to remember this word dispersed from there over the face of the earth and they left off building the city. Therefore the name was called Babel because the Lord confused the language of all the earth.
I want you to think about the reality of this. So you've got people together. They're building. They're working. And all of the sudden you've all been speaking the same language. You've all been speaking whatever language. If it's Spanish, if it's English, if it's whatever your language you you think would have been the original language, everybody's speaking the same, and instantly you turn to your neighbor, you say something and they don't understand you, and they answer you back in a language you don't understand. Can you imagine that? And all of the sudden there's this I mean, this is this is an unbelievable scenario. And so now you've got people that speak these diversity of languages and and we don't know how many languages there there were. I think today there are still 600 spoken or or or well-used languages still in the world today. That that number is a moving target but main groups 600 languages. And so here all these people they're speaking these different languages. Now think of this. So the Lord dispersed them from there. And we have a tendency to think well like somebody stood over here and said all the Spanish pe speaking people come here or Portuguese or French or you know and gathered their own people groups together but how about nobody gathered themselves. How about the Lord did what he did in the book of Acts with Philip and said uh I think I'm sending you to China. Boom. Man, there's there there is certainly within this the reading of the text the possibility for a supernatural dispersement because people get all caught up in well how long would it have taken for somebody to go from the Middle East from Iraq over to Russia? How about like one second? Yeah. As groups of people are moved because what you have here is you have a judgment by God. This is not mischievous action by God. This is God judging the people saying listen this is what you want. You want to follow false gods. You want to worship them. You want to align together. So guess what? I am going to give you what you want. And from there the Lord dispersed them over the face of the earth.
You say, "But where do you get the false god thing?" Deuteronomy chapter 32. Now, this is Moses. And what Moses is doing is Moses is giving the nation of Israel. It's the end of the book of Deuteronomy. Moses is going to die. And Moses is recounting their history and and what God has done for them. And you get into chapter 32 and listen to what Moses says. "For I will proclaim the name of the Lord, ascribe greatness to our God. The rock is perfect, for all his ways are justice, a God of faithfulness and without iniquity. Just and upright is he." In other words, what he's saying is when you look at his plan, it's perfect. It's just, it's upright. If it doesn't seem that way to you or to me, it's because we don't understand it. It's not because he's unjust or not upright. It's good. If it doesn't if it doesn't make sense to you, then you have to understand you can't see the big picture. And the minute the second that you see it, you'll say exactly what Moses is saying. Lord, you are just. You are upright. All your ways are perfect and your wisdom is unbelievable.
Now watch this. "They have dealt corruptly with him." Who's they? The nations. "They are no longer his children because they are blemished. They are a crooked and twisted generation. Do you thus repay the Lord, you foolish and senseless people? Is He's not talking to Israel. He's talking to the nations. God has been good. God God blessed them. God was working and they chose to reject it. They had the witness of Noah. They had the witness of his sons. They chose to reject it. He says, "Do you thus repay the Lord, you foolish and senseless people? Is not he your father who created you, who made you and established you? Remember the days of old? Consider the years of many generations. Ask your father and he will show you your elders and they will tell you." "When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance. And then he says this, when he divided mankind, he fixed the borders of the peoples according to the numbers, watch this, of the sons of God." What did we learn about that that term sons of God? It appears five times in the Old Testament. Every time it appears, it refers to celestial beings. "But the Lord's portion is his people, Jacob." And remember, sons of God is used of the demonic beings who cohabitated with women. When you read in the in the New Living Translation, it says he established the boundaries of the peoples according to the number in his heavenly court. And that takes us back to the beginning, the the first message, the council of Yahweh, where there are these these angelic beings who are a part of his counsel. Um, some of them evil. Yeah. You say they counsel the Lord. No, the Lord uses them to accomplish his own divine purpose. It's a mystery. What I'm simply saying is the nations rejected God, refused to worship him, rebelled against his will to multiply and fill the earth. So like Romans 1, he judged them and he turned them over. Listen, one of the one of the most fearful things God can do to any single person is give them what they want. So true. Good pastor. The person who says, "I don't want anything to do with God." That's a frightful thing for God to answer that request. For a person to say, "I want this sinful activity. This is what I want. This is what I want to do." And for God to say, "Okay, it's a it's a fearful thing. It's a horrific thing. This is what happens with the nations." And in this case now it's evil angels rule the nations. This is the backbone of spiritual warfare. And if you don't understand this virtually most of what the New Testament says about spiritual warfare will fly right over the top of your head. And you'll go through this life with a very limited understanding of spiritual warfare, thinking only in terms of people being possessed by a demon and glad it's not you and moving on like somehow everything's okay when it's not. Right. Right. Satan is the god of this world. But the nations are governed by evil angels. And I might add this. They rule nations. They rule regions. They rule territories. They rule states or provinces. They rule counties. They rule cities. And they rule neighborhoods. And we can virtually go anywhere we want in this world and show evidence of that. How there are certain places where it just defies explanation. But there is violence, there is murder, there is mayhem unusually so, or different kinds of sinfulness and wickedness.
Now again, we saw this highlighted in Daniel in in the book of Daniel chapter 10. Daniel's been fasting. As he's fasting, an angel comes to him. After he's fasted three weeks, he fast three weeks. Uh, nothing doesn't get an answer. 3 days later, an angel on the 24th day comes to him to give him an answer because he'd been fasting for understanding, for wisdom concerning a vision God had given him. All of that to say this, that as you and I are fasting, as you and I are praying, there is a spiritual warfare that's happening that you and I, unless God shows us, we don't have any understanding of. I mean, watch this. In Daniel chapter 10, the angel comes to him, and I'm going to read it from the message because it gives it a little more of our vernacular. Uh, relax, Daniel, he continued, don't be afraid. From the moment you decided to humble yourself to receive understanding, your prayer was heard and I set out to come to you. Now I want you to think about this. The minute you and I pray, heaven hears, right? Should be very comforting to every single person here. Well, then why didn't I get an answer? Because there's an unseen realm. There's an unseen world. And there's a whole lot more going on than you and I are aware of unless God pulls back the curtain and shows us. Look at this. "I set out to come to you as soon as you prayed 24 days later, but I was waylaid by the angel prince of the kingdom of Persia." Right here's an angel coming to talk to Daniel. And as he's coming to talk to Daniel, a demonic leader, prince in the Septuagint, which is the Greek Old Testament, archon, which is ruler, translated as ruler when we we see it in the New Testament. So this ruler demon stops him for three weeks. You say, "Well, now what about their battle? Could Wouldn't you love to see that happen? Scare you half to death." But then Michael, one of the chief angel princes, intervened to help me. I left him there with the prince of the kingdom of Persia. So Michael takes up in his fighting because the kingdom of Persia is not going to quit. And now I'm here to help you understand what will eventually happen to your people. Division has to do with what's ahead. Then we read in verse 20 these words. And he said, "Do you know why I've come here to you? I now have to go back to fight against the angel prince of Persia. And when I get him out of the way, the angel prince of Greece will arrive." The unseen world, right? Not just battling kings, but battling an 80-year-old man who knows how to pray. Come on. Wow. I'm just simply saying that there is an unseen world in a spiritual warfare that is happening around you. Right? This is why Paul says again in Ephesians 6, we wrestle not against flesh and blood. We have we're too easily thinking is just what we can see, what we can touch, what we can feel, what we can process with our eyes, our ears, our nose, our mouth. But there is a whole another world and with it a warfare. So good. Satan is the god of this world, but the nations are governed by evil angels. And if you do not understand that, if you do not understand that they govern nations and regions and territories and states and provinces and counties and cities and neighborhoods, if you don't understand that, then the terminology that the Apostle Paul uses for demonic beings throughout the New Testament will not make sense and you'll never understand the nature of spiritual warfare and you will be surrounded by spiritual warfare without any weapons or any knowledge. Can you imagine anything worse than being on a battlefield as the battle is raging and being clueless as to what's going on around you? Wow. This is I mean this is this is not optional. This is essential. When you look at the New Testament, you get a sense of how critically important this is because it's everywhere.
So, let me remind you this. What is God's plan for the world? The same as it was back in the Garden of Eden. In Genesis 11, you have the Tower of Babel and God judges the nations. But in his judgment, there is always what? Mercy. And the God who said to the nations, "You want to serve demon gods, go ahead. I'll turn you over to them and I'll distribute you to their territories." But that same God loves people. For God so loved the world and he can't leave people alone. And God says, "I'm going to redeem the earth. I'm not going to give up on my plan. I will redeem the nations. And I will finish what I started." And here's what God does. And it gives you, it's such a delightful thing, I think, to think about this that in the heart of the rebellion where where the Tower of Babel goes up, where mankind has rebelled, where God has judged, in the heart of all that, God says, "I'm going to start redeeming the human race, and I think what I will do is I'll go right into the heart of rebellion and pick a person, and I'm going to reveal myself to them." So we read in Acts chapter 7, "Our glorious God appeared to our ancestor Abraham in Mesopotamia before he settled in Haran." This is the place where the Tower of Babel happened. And he said, "Leave your native land, your relatives, and come into the land that I will show you." So Abraham left the land of the Chaldeans.
Now watch this. I want you to see this on this map. We've got a little map here. So here you have Babel and you have Ur of the Chaldeans and this whole plain's the plain of Shinar. This is modern-day Iraq. So what does Abraham do? Abraham goes up this way, goes over to Haran. He stops there for about 10 years. God appears to him again, which is what we read in Genesis 12 and God leads him right down to the land of Israel. And when you get to Genesis 12, God says, "Stop. This is your land." Now watch what God says in Genesis 12 because I want you to see this. "The Lord had said to Abraham, 'Leave had said because that was years earlier. Leave your native country, your relatives, your father's family. Go to the land that I will show you. I'll make you into a great nation. I will bless you and make you famous. You'll be a blessing to others. I will bless those who bless you. Curse those who treat you with contempt. And all families on earth will be blessed through you.'" How's that going to happen? Because Abraham is going to produce a Messiah. Centuries will pass, generations will pass, but Jesus is a descendant of Abraham, right? And he came to do what? To be a savior for the world. And his heart is to do what? To redeem the nations. Yeah. And what did he do before he left? He entrusted us. Yes. To do that, to redeem the nations. Remember Matthew chapter 28. Again, all of this critical. We're going to jump back into spiritual. You said, "What does this have to do?" This is this is the battle we're going to fight here, right? We're going to jump back in to God's plan. His plan for Adam and Eve was to rule the earth, subdue it, multiply, to make heaven on earth, to make the rest of the earth like Eden, that people might know God, that people might walk with God. That's always been his heart, that people might know him. And God is intent on redeeming the nations.
Watch this. Jesus came and said, "All authority in heaven on earth has been given to me. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them everything I've commanded you. And surely I'm with you always, even to the end of the age. Amen." He said this before he ascended into heaven in Matthew chap or Acts chapter 1 and verse 8. "But you'll receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you. You'll be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." His heart is to redeem the nations. God will redeem the earth. God will undo the curse and the separation at Babel. He will defeat the demonic powers that rule the nations. And when did that start? This is very interesting. Acts chapter 2. "When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were together in one place and suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind and it filled the entire house where they were sitting and divided." Remember back in the Tower of Babel, he divided the nations. Now he's dividing a fire among the people. The imagery is designed to say, listen, this is the start of something new. Watch this. "And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance." In verse 5, it says this. "Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven, and the sound of this multitude came and they were bewildered." Same word in the Greek as the word that's translated in the Greek Old Testament, confused. That that idea is there's a division of tongues of fire. There is a confusion and the confusion is from people of the nations. Now watch this verse 8. "How is it that we hear each of us in our native language? Parthians, Medes, Elamites, residents of Mesopotamia, Judea, Cappadocia." When you read the listing of the nation, we won't take time to do this. In Genesis 10, it goes starts at the west and moves east and you get to the Tower of Babel story. When you get to Acts, it starts in the east and moves west. It's incredible. Where does Paul want to go? He wants to go as far west as he can go. He wants to go to Tarsus. He wants to go to Spain. He tells them, I hope to see you in Rome and then I'm going, you can send me on my way to Spain. Why? Because Paul sees himself as on a mission to reclaim the nations and he's going to go as far as he has to go because he understands the purpose of the infilling of the Holy Spirit is that you and I might reclaim the nations. The nature of our spiritual warfare is that you and I might be a part of his redemptive work in redeeming the nations. So different languages saying the same thing. Because all of them here, we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God. Isn't this interesting? God takes different languages, has them saying the same thing because it's the same spirit. God taking the people who are separate. Wow. And making them one. So good. It's a it's an undoing of the curse at Babel. Wow.
Now, I realize I've taken you on this journey and wound you up, down, all around, and you've been so good to follow, or at least I think you have. I like to think you have. So, what does this say about our role in spiritual warfare? Let me give you four things. Before I give you the first one, let me just say this. We have a tendency to limit our view of spiritual warfare to being personally tempted, which certainly that is. We saw that with Satan. He he wants to tempt people or to being discouraged by the devil or people being demonized. And we have a tendency to almost confine totally the whole idea of spiritual warfare to our the personal attack on us. Oh, I got into it with my mate and that's spiritual warfare. Well, there is some truth to that. But in God's plan and God's economy and God's purpose for you, there is so much more at stake. And you were made for so much more than just overcoming personal temptation. You were made to rule. Amen. You were designed to reign. You were designed to judge angels. You have a purpose that is so much greater than you understand. And our warfare is a part of walking in that and seeing it. Right?
Number one, missions is spiritual warfare. When we take the gospel to the nations, we're battling the powers of darkness. When you give to missions, it's spiritual warfare. When you pray for the nations to come to know him, it's spiritual warfare. When you go to the nations, it's spiritual warfare. That's what you're doing. You're battling the powers of darkness. You're a part of taking back from them what they have taken from the Lord. You're a part of redeeming a people for God's name. It's a battle for the hearts and the souls and the lives of people. Who's being attacked? The gods of the nations. Who are they? They're the demonic powers who are over the nations. Listen, this is why Paul always talks about the forces of evil opposing his ministry, opposing the spread of the gospel. Look how Paul identifies these these entities. Whenever he talks about the spiritual forces of evil who opposed his ministry, he identifies them as rulers, archon, principalities. Let me just say this. All of these are terms used of human governmental leadership. But in Paul's writing and in his understanding of spiritual warfare, these are terms that speak of demonic leaders, right? Rankings of demonic leaders. There are rulers, there are principalities, there are powers, there are dominions, there are gods, there are lords, there are thrones, there are cosmic powers, there are forces of evil. Every one of those a a a level in the evil hierarchy. You say, "Well, who's Listen, we just know that's what they are." And you could look and study the Greco-Roman world and get some sense of who's where and what humanly speaking and maybe understand some of that. But suffice it to say these are ranks of demonic beings that govern what we said. Nations, regions, territories, states, provinces, counties, cities, neighborhoods. Listen to it. Let me give you just some scriptures because when you see it, you'll see how often it he worked. This is Paul. Ephesians 1. "He worked that's in Christ that's God when he raised him from the dead seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places far above all rule that's rulers archon and authority and power and dominion and above every name that is named not only in this age but in the one to come." Jesus Christ was raised above and these may also refer to angelic good beings because right now angels also are involved in government so it it could be both, but it certainly has an undertone of spiritual warfare as you'll see in the next verse. Colossians chapter 2, "by cancelling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands." This is talking about what happens at the cross. When you put your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, you see, until you do, you're just accumulating a wrap sheet. If you've never given your heart to Christ, I mean, if your wrap sheet is here, it's going to be like one of those big ginormous magazine rolls that the printer has, and we're going to roll it off the platform, and it's going to roll for like 10 miles with everything you've said, everything you've done, everything you've thought that was evil, and you will give an account for it. Wow. That's what the Bible says. The books are opened. The dead, great and small, were standing before the throne. The one whose eyes burn with fire. Revelation chapter 20. These are the people who didn't know Jesus. Jesus had warned this. He said, "I tell you the truth." Matthew chapter 12. "In that day, man will give an account of every idol word they uttered." Every time you use those four-letter words, you give an account. That's a That's a shocking thing. It's a it's an unimaginable thing. But at the cross, all of that was nailed to the cross. Amen. If you're a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, but watch what happens as your debt is nailed to the cross. Evil powers are disarmed. This is this is crazy. This is why in spiritual warfare, this is why the enemy doesn't want you to share the gospel with one person. Anywhere at any time because when they come to Christ, what happens? Evil spirits are disarmed. "He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame by triumphing over them in him." Look at this. In 1 Corinthians chapter 2, we talked about the fact that evil spirits and Satan himself cannot see the future. This verse is this one of the great proofs in scripture of that "yet among the mature we do not we do impart wisdom although it's not a wisdom of this world age or of the rulers of this age we're not talking about human rulers we're talking about spiritual rulers who are doomed to pass away but we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God which God decreed before the ages for our glory." He's talking about the gospel this mystery that God would come as a man would be crucified, be crucified, would bear our sin and be resurrected that we might be forgiven. "None of the rulers of this age understood this. For if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory." Had they known the future, had they understood what was going to happen, they'd have never let him go to the cross. But there again, rulers. Rulers. Ephesians 3 and verse 10. "So that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places." So what happens as as as the an angelic beings and the demonic beings are watching a people redeemed by the grace of God and imperfect people forgiven, washed in the blood, who now become victorious and are now more than conquerors who are now loving Jesus. And God has accepted them and made possible through his shed blood a grace and a forgiveness we could never earn on our own. The angelic beings are learning about God. They're learning about his grace. They're learning about his wisdom. They're learning about his plan. It's a spiritual warfare that is going on. Colossians 1:16, "for by him, this is Jesus, all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities. All things were created through him and for him." He created every celestial being. He created them. When they rebelled. He created them before they rebelled. He is over all things and all things exist by him and for him. And in 1 Corinthians chapter 8 and verse 5, "for although they may be so-called gods, Paul's talking about idols. There may be so-called gods in heaven or on earth, as indeed there are many gods and many lords." And then in Ephesians chapter 6, "for we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil." Who are you battling? That verse alone ought to make you get up early to pray. If you think you can go through your day without communing with God, walking with God, and relying on God, right? You simply don't understand what you're up against. For if you did, you would pray. This is I mean, unless you understand spiritual warfare, you unless you understand what you're up against.
Let me give you one more. 1 Peter chapter 3. And I said I would mention this last week. "Christ suffered for our sins once for all time. He never sinned. He died for sinners to bring you safely home to God. He suffered physical death. But he was raised to life in the spirit. So he went down and preached to the spirits in prison." Who are these spirits in prison? These are the demonic beings, the sons of God who cohabitated with women. Almost universally scholars will say that if they believe in that scenario. He goes down. You say, "What is he doing?" Well, they're kept in chains. And he goes down and he says, "Listen, I'm telling you my plan for the world and the redemption of the world is going to happen. And you couldn't stop it then and no one can stop it in the future." He declares victory to those who disobeyed God long ago when God waited patiently while Noah was building his boat. Only eight people were saved from drowning in that terrible flood. Now watch this. All of the sudden it's talking about Jesus preaching this great victory. You know, he dies on the cross. He doesn't go down and get mistreated in hell. He goes down, has the keys to death, hell, and the grave. And he says to them, "Listen, you lost. I won. See you." He declares his victory to them. And then it says this, "And that water is a picture of baptism which now saves you." Very interesting. And he goes on and says this, watch this. "And he's seated in the place of honor next to God. And all the angels and authorities and powers accept his authority. Hell has to accept his authority." What's that got to do with baptism? Because baptism is making a commitment that says, "I'm with Jesus." Baptism is a form water baptism is a form of spiritual warfare. Maybe you've not ever thought of it that way. Your your water baptism is a message to demonic beings whose side you're on. You're saying, "I'm with him. I'm with the one who went down to hell and proclaimed his victory and is now seated at the right hand of God over every authority, every power, and they all accept his authority. And I'm with him." In fact, you know, you'll find this interesting. The early church baptism rites included a renunciation of Satan and his angels because of this passage. So cool. Let me let me just say this. If you have not been baptized in water, this is another reason why you should be. Yeah. Because it's important for you to declare to the powers of darkness whose side you're on. Right. Wow. Can I just say to some of you that maybe the reason why you've not been baptized in water really is it that hard a decision? Something so crystal clear, something so elementary, something so basic to the Bible and you're struggling some of you for not weeks, not months, but for years. I think that in itself speaks to the spiritual warfare of it, right? You won't do it. Why? Because the powers of darkness are battling you, lest you in a new way declare your loyalty to God. So good. Listen, the powers of darkness, what this is saying is they know whose side you're on. By our salvation, by our baptism, by when we say no to sin, when we pray, when we read the Bible, when we give in an offering, when we serve in the church, they know they're watching. I found myself thinking about this. I finished reading my Bible and when I got done and it was especially victorious passage of reading. When I got done I shouted out, "So there!" [Laughter] Oh, there's something in me that just likes to poke the bear just to say, "So there, I'm on his side." Yeah. They also see us when we act disloyalty to God and they understand the vulnerability that brings into our lives. Can I just say you're being watched? I I think that a spiritual person understands that you're being watched. Remember we saw in in the first message there are there's a classification of spiritual being called the watchers and they're watching. You're being watched. Angels and demons are watching you. It's interesting Paul would say to the Corinthians as he's talking to them about something as as really I mean in our way of thinking not very important as women coming under authority is the whole theme. This idea of authority in the church and authority in the home and and authority and and here's what he says. Watch this. This is so interesting. "For this reason and because the angels are watching." It's a very interesting thing. They're they're watching.
Well, number three, standing firm is spiritual warfare. Very interesting. After Paul writes about our we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but principalities and powers and the rulers and the cosmic forces of evil and all of that. Look at what he says in in Ephesians 6. "Therefore, put on the full armor of God so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground. And after you've done everything to stand, stand firm." Anytime you say, "I will not be moved," that's spiritual warfare. Anytime you say, "I am ready for the fight." It's not it's not in my strength, but greater is he who is in me than he who's in the world. Devil, if you think I'm going to get discouraged, if you think I'm going to give up, if you think I'm going to stop believing, you got another thing coming because I am planted. My feet are shod with the preparation that comes from the gospel. I got the helmet of salvation on. I've got my breastplate of righteousness. I've got the belt of truth around me. I've got the the the shield of faith by which I'm going to extinguish every one of your fiery darts. And if necessary and as often as I can, I will pick up the sword which is the word of God. And then I'm going to pray on all times, on all occasions, with all kinds of requests. That is spiritual warfare. Come on.
Finally, can I just say one more thing? Spiritual warfare is sharing Christ with people. Right. It's a battle. Why do you think it's so hard for you to talk to people who don't know Jesus? You say, "Well, I'm just not very good at it." No, there's a battle. There's a battle. The enemy wants to stop you. The enemy wants to. You can't see him, but it doesn't mean he's not there. He Where do you think those thoughts come? They won't be interested. You can't. That's the enemy putting thoughts in your mind saying, "Listen, you're going to make a fool of yourself. You don't want that. They don't want they'll make fun." All those things. That's a spiritual warfare. But it's a battle we're called to fight. Listen, can I tell you something as simple as giving an invite card is spiritual warfare. That's right. Because it changes people's spiritual destiny. Hundreds of people get saved. The the enemy hates it. Come on. He hates it. He hates when people come to James for Christmas. He hates when people come on Sunday, on Wednesday. He hates when you live for for I mean, this is spiritual warfare. But it's a battle we've been called to fight. And it's a battle that through the power of the Holy Spirit in us, we can win. Amen. Amen. Let's pray.