No. 26 - FOCUS ON THE REAL ENEMY (SERIES ON WAR - PART I) By: John J. Blanchard Saturday, November 02, 2002 The title of today’s sermon is “Focus On the Real Enemy”. I think all of us understand that our real enemy is not a physical enemy. Being part of the body of Christ, we know that our enemy is Satan who is a spiritual being. But I want to develop this subject by going through some of the basic scriptures on that. Then we will build into something that will get a more conclusive picture as to what we are to do and what our part is to play in the spiritual warfare that we know is taking place. If you would, turn first to Ephesians chapter 6. We will read one of those very basic scriptures about who we are dealing with as our enemy, which is Satan and wicked spirits in high places. Ephesians chapter 6, starting in verse 10: “Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.” So we are fighting spiritual hosts in high places with Satan the devil at the head of them. This is the battle that we are fighting. Notice that we fight principalities in high places it mentions here. So what does our power that we fight these principalities consist of and what does it do? We can continue on in chapter 6. Ephesians chapter 6, verse 18: “...praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints and for me, that utterance may be given to me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains; that in it I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak.” Paul says let us pray always that we will have power so that we will be able to battle these wicked spirits in high places, boldly preaching the mystery of the gospel and boldly uttering the words that need to be said. So these words that reveal the mystery of the gospel are the words we use in this battle. They are the words we use in this fight against spiritual wickedness in high places. Turn, if you would now, to Colossians. Colossians chapter 4, starting in verse 2: “Continue earnestly in prayer, being vigilant in it with thanksgiving; meanwhile praying also for us, that God would open to us a door for the word, to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am also in chains, that I may make it manifest, as I ought to speak.” Once again, Paul is saying pray that I will have the words to reveal this mystery. Pray I have the words to be able to speak the way I should, and let us be diligent and vigilant in our prayers to get this done. Pray these words would come so we can fight spiritual wickedness in high places. Let us now turn to Ephesians chapter 5. Read verses 8 to 13. Jesus Christ and the light we walk in makes the enemy manifest. We are not to walk in unfruitful works of darkness. So we need to obviously understand the word in order to do that. Continue in Ephesians 5:14 and reading to verse 16. We live in evil times but redeem those days and do it righteously. Continuing in verse 17: “Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is.” We have to understand that mystery. We have to understand those words to be able to fight evil spirits and wickedness in high places. THE DEEP MYSTERY OF THE BRIDE-BRIDEGROOM RELATIONSHIP Continuing reading in Ephesians 5:18 to 21. Part of the way we fight once we understand the words and the mystery of God is to encourage one another, to sing hymns with one another, to praise God with those hymns. Submit to one another in fear with respect or be kindly disposed to one another. This is how we fight, brethren. We have to understand those words and the mystery of the gospel in order to fight like this. Continue on where he takes this even deeper. Read Ephesians 5:22 to 33. We will continue reading in chapter 6, verse 1 to 4. Verse 32 of chapter 5 said this is all a great mystery. Now if you recall, we were reading in scriptures just a little bit ago that we need to understand and proclaim those mysteries with great utterance boldly. This is one of the greatest of mysteries right here! In the family of man and the individual family units we have pictured the body of Christ and we have pictured the bridegroom and the bride! Do we have to be married to understand this? No. We need to get the concept down. The concept that was mentioned in verse 19, 20 and 21: “...speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another in the fear of God.” So we need to encourage each other because we are collectively the bride that Christ is going to marry. It helps us to understand the way a marriage should be, but we are about to be married to Jesus Christ! When any one of us are encouraging and kindly disposed to another one, we are encouraging and kindly disposed to the future wife of God! We are all part of that body of Christ. That is why we are to love one another. When we properly understand what marriage is, it helps us see how deep our relationship is because we will all be married to Jesus Christ! That is why it goes on to talk about fathers to children and children to fathers. You will find many of the references that we will be known by our love for one another. So how we treat each other must reflect Christ’s love. We do not need to be married to do that. We have to do it on a very deep spiritual level. What we are being taught here is that this is a great mystery. This is a tremendous mystery just to understand this. These are the words we have to utter to people, to explain boldly. That means if we are married or we have children or we are children, (we all were children) there is a great deal that we can learn through the family setting. If our parents are deceased like in my case, I can still look back and see the things that I could learn from my parents and how I can be a better person. That is true of every one of us in this room. We all probably have nieces and nephews, aunts and uncles and brothers and cousins, the extended physical family that we need to learn to treat well. Because when we do that, we are practicing how the spiritual family of God will have to be and should be now. If you recall, there is another scripture that says no one has given up family in this life who will not receive one hundred times more in this life and the life thereafter. So we are each other’s family. We are part of the bride of Christ. We need to treat each other that way. Christ says He will marry us, we will marry Him and He dwells in us. Is it not true that the way we treat each other is the way we treat the bridegroom, our future husband? Of course! Are we treating others the way we should be? Whether we are man or woman, how we treat other members of the body of Christ is how we treat our husband! Because He dwells in each of us. Now you are seeing the depth of this mystery. HOW DO WE FIGHT WICKED SPIRITS IN HIGH PLACES? As we cannot have division in our physical families, it is far worse to have it in our spiritual family. If Christ dwells in each of us and is going to marry us and we have fighting and division among ourselves, are we not fighting our husband? Of course we are! So you see this is a great mystery we all can learn from. I wanted to spend a little bit of time on that because these mysteries and understanding them and comprehending them is how we fight wicked spirits in high places. When we see family divisions and family arguments in our physical families, we are understanding what Satan is trying to do with the spiritual family of God! We have to fight that on the physical level and we have to fight that on the spiritual level. That is what we are talking about today. Our focus should be on the real enemy - Satan. WHAT IS OUR ARMOR? Let us go to Ephesians chapter 6. You will remember we started out saying we must put on the whole armor of God to be strong (verse 10). What does this armor, our power, consist of? Ephesians 6, verse 10: “Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.” Verse 13: “Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God...” Then he continued on praying always that we can make known the mystery of the gospel. THE POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT GIVES UNDERSTANDING So we need to have this spiritual armor to fight wicked spirits in high places. That is the power we receive through the Holy Spirit. When the Holy Spirit helps us, He gives us the understanding of these words. We receive these gifts, which are spiritual gifts, to fight wicked spirits in high places. Now go to Philippians chapter 2, starting in verse 12: “Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.” So God is working in us, therefore work out our salvation in fear and trembling. Verse 14: “Do all things without murmuring (complaining) and disputing, that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world...” We are in the midst of an evil time. Mankind has been existing in evil times since Adam and Eve. But we, the lights of the world, exist in an evil time (a crooked and perverse generation); and among ourselves we must not be complaining, disputing and arguing. WE ARE LIVING SACRIFICES AND MUST BEAR FRUIT Continue reading verses 16 to 18. Paul says do these things for one another and get along because you are lights to the world. Do not dispute and argue amongst yourselves. God is working in you. He says I want you to be this way because I am being poured out as a drink offering on the sacrifice. Who is the sacrifice? We have studied that before in I Peter 2. We are living sacrifices. Paul gave his life for the living sacrifice, which is the Church. He is saying do not make my work be a vain thing. Do not make my work be for nothing! Please bear fruits. Let God work in us so we can bear fruits. So that is the purpose of understanding the mysteries and that helps us to get along and that helps us to learn, grow and bear fruit. Go to Ephesians chapter 3. We will start in verse 1. Gentile in verse 1 is non-Jew. Continue reading to verse 4. We just saw part of that mystery is understanding family and marriage because that pictures Jesus Christ and His relationship to the Church. If we claim to be part of that Church, we are part of that mystery. We need to understand it. Continuing in verse 5: “...which in other ages was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to His holy apostles and prophets...” Paul says until this time people did not understand this concept (this mystery of Christ) that has now been revealed. Verse 6: “...that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs, of the same body, and partakers of His promise in Christ through the gospel, of which I became a minister according to the gift of the grace of God given to me by the effective working of His power.” Paul says the power has been working in me so that I can explain this mystery to the Gentiles and they can be part of this body of Christ. Verse 8 of Ephesians chapter 3: “To me, who am less than the least of all the saints, this grace was given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to make all people see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the ages has been hidden in God who created all things through Jesus Christ; to the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the Church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places, according to the eternal purpose which He accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord...” He is saying through us (the Church, the body of Christ) these mysteries are getting revealed to the principalities in high places. They are essentially learning it the same time we are to a great extent! He is referring to the nuts and bolts and things that pertain to being part of Christ’s bride, His Church. Ephesians 3, verse 11: “...according to the eternal purpose which He accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through faith in Him. Therefore I ask that you do not lose heart at my tribulations for you, which is your glory.” He says I am suffering for you but do not be discouraged because of that. Continue reading in verse 14: “For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man...” Be strengthened inside by these things. HOW DO WE COMPREHEND CHRIST’S LOVE FOR US? Continue in verse 17 and read to the end of the chapter, verse 21. Here we are being told to allow Christ to work in us in the inner man to develop love one to another so that we can comprehend Christ’s love for us! We cannot hate our physical family and claim to know the love of God. We cannot argue amongst the brethren, tear each other apart, condemn one another and claim to know the love of God. Therefore, once we comprehend the mystery we need to apply that knowledge to our families, to the physical brethren, to the Church. Then we can comprehend the love of God. You cannot have one without the other. HOW WE GIVE GOD THE GLORY Then he says when we accomplish that, the glory in the Church (verse 21) will be for Christ because Christ dwells in His Church. The glory of His Church of loving one another and developing these fruits is His glory because He is the one working on us. As He works in us and we develop these fruits by allowing Him to live in us, we are giving Him glory! When we argue, condemn, accuse and judge harshly, we are robbing Him of the glory that should be His. We need to comprehend the mysteries and then apply them to our lives. Please go to II Corinthians chapter 4, starting in verse 16: “Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.” When we can comprehend these mysteries, we see something that cannot be seen! We see something spiritual. Therefore, when we see the body of Christ, the brethren, we see something far more than what other people would see. When we look at the concept of family, we see far more than what other people see. At least we should! We should love each other as part of the body of Christ (Christ dwelling in each of us) so that we give glory to Christ when we honor one another. When we dishonor one another and hurt one another, we are hurting Christ. AN IMPORTANT LESSON WE LEARN FROM OUR PHYSICAL FAMILIES AND MARRIAGE We should be able to see the things that are not seen, and those things that cannot be seen physically are eternal. These mysteries are eternal. The physical family that we can see on earth (the physical families and marriage) help us comprehend something far deeper, far more spiritual. WHAT IS SPIRITUAL HEARING? We also should be having spiritual hearing, another spiritual sense, that would allow us to hear things that cannot be heard by the physical ear. Turn, if you would, to Revelation chapter 3. A message to the churches of Philadelphia and Laodicea concludes this way. “‘He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’” (verse 13) Same thing for Laodicea. “‘He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’” (verse 22) So not only do we have to be able to see and comprehend these spiritual mysteries, we must hear them and understand them. This is a spiritual sense of hearing and spiritual sense of eyesight. What is it that we want to hear? Turn to John chapter 10, verse 3: “‘To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice; and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.’” So we are listening for the Shepherd. “‘And when he brings out his own sheep, he goes before them; and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. Yet they will by no means follow a stranger, but will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.’ Jesus used this illustration, but they did not understand the things which He spoke to them.” People listening with physical ears cannot understand spiritual things without God’s help. We can see here we are listening for the chief Shepherd’s voice (Jesus Christ). When we read His word, we want to hear His voice. When we see the physical things He created including family, we want to see His mysteries. We want to see and comprehend these things. Why? So we can fight wicked spirits in high places. These are the tools that we need to understand. We need to comprehend these mysteries so that we can utter them to people (explain this). Go to John chapter 17 to nail this point home. Verse 16: “‘They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth. As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctified by the truth.’” THE HOLY SPIRIT IS A REQUIREMENT FOR UNDERSTANDING Christ says to the Father, You sent Me with the truth so that they could hear it. Now I am sending them with the truth so that others will hear it. These mysteries that cannot be comprehended unless one has the Holy Spirit is what we need to understand. Then we need to convey this to others and encourage each other with them. This is very important because these are the mysteries that we need to comprehend in order to fight the spiritual warfare. So the armor is put on through comprehending the mystery of the word. The armor is put on by studying and praying and allowing God to work in us. Then we receive faith. We receive understanding. We receive the things that we need to fight. Now what do we do with it? We just said it. We fight. How do we do this? WE NEED TO TEACH THESE MYSTERIES TO OTHERS First of all we edify and prepare the body of Christ. Turn to Ephesians chapter 4. We will read verses 7 through 9. Christ had to die in order to give these gifts to men. Continue reading in verse 10 to 12. These mysteries need to be taught. This edifies and prepares the body of Christ to marry Christ. That is part of why we need this understanding. Continue reading in verse 13 to 14. If we understand these mysteries and are able to teach them, we can teach others not to be tossed about with every wind of doctrine. We ourselves will not be tossed about. Continue reading in Ephesians 4:15-24. You see, brethren, we put on righteousness and holiness by letting Christ work in us; and as we teach others to do this, we are edifying the body both by teaching and by example. We encourage one another as the body. COULD WE ACTUALLY TURN AGAINST THE BODY OF CHRIST? A body cannot be divided. Once it is divided and fighting itself, it is contrary to the love of God. We have actually turned Christ’s body against itself! This is why we must learn to love one another so much and understand these mysteries of God. We must understand the mystery that we are collectively marrying Jesus Christ, therefore, we must treat each other as we would treat our bridegroom, Jesus Christ. He lives and dwells in each of us. This is a tremendous mystery to understand and comprehend and apply. We have to apply it or it is useless to us. So we have to teach it and apply it. One of the things we do with this understanding of the armor of God is we edify the brethren. This is fighting the fight. Hebrews chapter 5 explains it further. Hebrews 5, verse 9: “And having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him...” So once Christ was perfected and suffered and died for us, He became the author of salvation of all those who willingly want to do this with Him and who want to obey Him. “...called by God as High Priest ‘according to the order of Melchizedek,’ of whom we have much to say, and hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing.” Today so many people have become dull of hearing because they have hardness of heart. Without the love of God within, the compassion, the love and the mercy, we cannot hear the word of God. We cannot see and comprehend the mysteries. Continuing in Hebrews chapter 5, verse 12: “For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.” It is very plain here. By understanding the word we can exercise our knowledge, our truth, the Holy Spirit within us to discern both good and evil. We develop those spiritual senses - the hearing and the seeing. If we do not study the deeper things of God and apply them to our lives, we do not exercise the Spirit within us and grow stronger. We need more milk. It is like a baby that never develops. We need milk. Actually what we are supposed to be wanting and desiring is solid food so we can go about doing these things and teach others. We need the strength from the armor of God to fight the spiritual battle. When you are an infant, you rely on mom and dad to fight your battles and take care of you. We need to get to the point where we are spiritually mature enough to help fight the battles for other people. STUDY TO UNDERSTAND THE DEEPER MYSTERIES OF GOD Continuing on in chapter 6 of Hebrews. We will read verses 1 to 3. “Therefore, leaving the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ, let us go on to perfection, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, of the doctrine of baptisms, of laying on of hands, of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment. And this we will do if God permits.” We need to get beyond studying the basics over and over again. We need to look at the deeper mysteries of God and apply them to our lives so that we can be useful in the spiritual war that is taking place. You cannot fight a war with babies. Christ cannot fight a war with babies. He needs spiritual mature members of the body of Christ. So this is what we need to do. Learn these well enough that we can edify and encourage one another and others. CHRIST DWELLS IN US Please go to Colossians chapter 1, verse 24: “I now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ, for the sake of His body, which is the Church...” Here he says I am suffering and I am willing to suffer afflictions as part of Christ’s body. As Christ suffered, I am willing to suffer for His body the Church. Verse 25: “...of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God which was given to me for you, to fulfill the word of God, the mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations, but now has been revealed to His saints. To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Him we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. To this end I also labor, striving according to His working which works in me mightily.” So here he is saying I am willing to sacrifice my life, taking on afflictions, taking on hardships, in order to help the body that Christ is dwelling in. This is a great mystery, he said! This is an awesome mystery that has been hidden for ages! That Christ would actually live in physical people is an awesome mystery. To develop a Church (a body of Christ, a bride) that would be done through physical people who willingly lay down their lives for each other is a mystery. They allow Christ to dwell in them. This is that mystery. Paul keeps coming back. This is mysterious. When you tell this to people they do not comprehend it! Because without special hearing and special vision, you cannot see and comprehend these things or hear them! You cannot know them. The crowd did not understand what He was talking when Christ Himself was talking about hearing the shepherd’s voice. We know we need to hear His voice right here and the word of God and apply it to our lives. Go to Colossians chapter 2, starting in verse 1: “For I want you to know what a great conflict I have for you and those in Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh, that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, and attaining to all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the knowledge of the mystery of God, both of the Father and of Christ...” He is saying I want you to know what a great conflict I have for you. How hard I am fighting for you and for those in Laodicea! I do not think that was an accident that that was put in there. I know that Church in the city of Laodicea existed back then, but we are being told something, I think, that will help us today. It will help those today who are fighting wicked spirits who have overcome the Church in the time of Laodicea. We have to understand that people have fought and died before us so that we could learn these mysteries. Now we are fighting. We need to pray that we fight the good fight. We need to put on the armor of God so that we can take up our cross and carry it on. Let us reread verse 2 of Colossians 2: “...that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, and attaining to all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the knowledge of the mystery of God, both of the Father and of Christ...” We need to put on love toward one another. Verse 3: “...in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Now this I say lest anyone should deceive you with persuasive words.” Paul suffered to reveal these mysteries to help us so that we will not be tricked by persuasive words, by craftiness and cunning. Why? Because are men crafty and cunning? Not nearly like Satan. We are fighting wicked spirits in high places. We see that this armor we put on helps reveal the mysteries of the word of God and it gives us knowledge of this mystery so that we can teach and edify the Church. We can prepare the body of Christ. But it also gives us spiritual weaponry. The comprehension of the mysteries and putting on the armor of God gives us weaponry. What kind of weaponry? Are we talking guns, tanks and bombs? No! We are talking spiritual weaponry. WHAT IS SPIRITUAL WEAPONRY? Go to II Corinthians chapter 10, starting in verse 1. What are these weapons for? “Now I Paul, myself am pleading with you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ - who in presence am lowly among you, but being absent am bold toward you.” Paul says I am pleading with you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ! He is not saying I am pleading with you because I have this big sword in my hand. I am pleading with you because I have an M16 here. No, he was not talking about those kind of weapons. He was pleading with his spiritual weaponry. It was meekness and gentleness. This is what made him strong. Continuing in verse 2: “But I beg you that when I am present I may not be bold with that confidence by which I intend to be bold against some, who think of us as if we walked according to the flesh.” He said I do not want to have to tell people off. Do they need to see someone walking in the flesh? I should be able to be bold in meekness and gentleness. Unfortunately, I have to be forceful with some people because they will not listen to meekness and gentleness. You know to many people, meekness and gentleness is weakness. That is the way many people are. If you are meek and gentle, you must be weak! That is the way of the world. That is the way of Satan. Continue in verse 3 of II Corinthians 10: “For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strong holds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled.” So he says do not think we walk and war in the flesh because we do not. We do not fight flesh against flesh, army against army like a soldier in a physical war. Yet we are fighting a very real war. Verse 4: “For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strong holds...” Those are those principalities we saw in Ephesians 6 (the wicked spirits in high places). God has given us strength to eventually pull them down. In verse 5: “...casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God...” We are given spiritual strength and spiritual understanding to cast down the arguments from Satan and man that are against God. That is tremendous power and knowledge! It has nothing to do with physical weaponry. Another way we do that is in verse 5. We cast down “arguments of every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.” The more we bring our thoughts into captivity and in line with Jesus Christ, the stronger we are in this fight. It is a spiritual fight in our minds and hearts. The more we come into Christ’s thinking and in line with His plan and His thoughts and let His love work through us, the stronger we are for pulling down arguments. The stronger we are for pulling down strongholds (wicked spirits in high places). This is real strength. Atomic bombs is not real strength! God can brush them off with a finger and contain them in the palm of His hand. We are talking tremendous power here. Something beyond the physical things of man. Let us drop down now to verse 12 of II Corinthians 10: “For we dare not class ourselves or compare ourselves with those who commend themselves. But they, measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise.” He is saying we do not fight against ourselves and argue amongst ourselves. What are we accomplishing when we do that? Let us back up to verse 7 and read the whole story here. Because after Paul says we are fighting this flesh with spiritual weapons, he goes to talk about some very physical stupid arguments among people which are vain and fruitless discussions. II Corinthians 10, verse 7: “Do you look at things according to the outward appearance? If anyone is convinced in himself that he is Christ’s, let him again consider this in himself, that just as he is Christ’s, even so we are Christ’s.” He says do not look at the outward appearance. If you call yourselves Christians (belong to Christ), you better start thinking like Christ. He does not look at outward appearance. Verse 8: “For even if I should boast somewhat more about our authority, which the Lord gave us for edification and not for your destruction, I shall not be ashamed lest I seem to terrify you by letters. ‘For his letters,’ they say, ‘are weighty and powerful, but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech contemptible.’” So some people were saying his letters are tough but he is not so tough. He is nothing! Paul says do not look at my physical appearance. I do not need physical weaponry. I have spiritual weaponry, and I have authority from Jesus Christ to use it. Verse 11: “Let such a person consider this, that what we are in word by letters when we are absent, such we will also be in deed when we are present.” He said now I will preach to you through these letters, but when I am there, I am going to back it up. Verse 12: “For we dare not class ourselves or compare ourselves with those who commend themselves. But they, measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise.” What is he saying here? Those of you who are arguing amongst yourselves (who is better, who is greater, who is wiser, who should be in charge, who has more authority, those comparing one another’s knowledge and understanding) they are being foolish he is saying. They are not wise. Verse 13: “We, however, will not boast beyond measure, but within the limits of the sphere which God appointed us - a sphere which especially includes you. For we are not extending ourselves beyond our sphere (thus not reaching you), for it was to you that we came with the gospel of Christ; not boasting of things beyond measure, that is, in other men’s labors, but having hope, that as your faith is increased, we shall be greatly enlarged by you in our sphere...” As the apostles worked with the people and helped them bear fruit, that is what they wanted and that is what gives glory to the body of Christ. That is what he is saying. This is what we want to see. We do not want to boast to you of our greatness. We want to see all of us improve as part of the body of Christ. Continue reading in verse 16 to 18. He says you can tell yourselves you are great. That is not going to do you any good unless God tells you are great. Unless you have done something nice in God’s eyes, it is waste. So all of this boasting and comparing one to another is fruitless and it is actually damaging. He says it is better to work hard in humility and meekness. It is better to fight the spiritual warfare encouraging one another, and let God tell you, “You did a good job.” That is the important thing to do. WE LEARN NOW HOW TO RULE AND JUDGE LATER So we can see in this one set of scriptures in chapter 10 of II Corinthians that we are fighting a spiritual warfare, we are contending for the faith and we are allowing Christ to clean our minds and hearts. We are learning to be obedient. What for? So we can boast? He says, no, not so we can boast. We are learning these things so eventually we can rule and judge with Jesus Christ. Because we will rule and judge with Jesus Christ. Turn back if you would to Revelation chapter 1. So all of these physical things that we are learning in our lives, how we get along with people (our relationships) and how we encourage one another is getting us ready for something much greater! Revelation 1, verse 4: “John, to the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace to you and peace from Him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven Spirits who are before His throne, and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler over the kings of the earth. To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and has made us kings and priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever, Amen.” We will be kings and priests with Jesus Christ, part of the firstfruits. He was the firstborn of men, and we will be part of the firstfruits if we hold fast. We must learn these things. We will be part of the firstfruits if we allow Him to work in us to develop the character that is Christ like. Turn, if you would now, to I Corinthians chapter 6, verse 1: “Dare any of you having a matter against another, go to law before the unrighteous, and not before the saints? Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world will be judged by you, are you unworthy to judge the smallest maters?” He says why can’t you get along? Are you even getting to the point where you are going to take each other to court before unrighteous judges? Can’t you solve your differences amongst yourselves? Can’t you apply love and forgiveness? These are the principles I have been teaching you. Can’t you do that? Do you know that you are going to judge the world someday? How come you need to go outside the Church to adjudicate little matters amongst yourselves? We need to know those things, brethren, now because we are being tested now. He continues to say in verse 3: “Do you not know that we shall judge angels? How much more, things that pertain to this life? If then you have judgments concerning things pertaining to this life, do you appoint those who are least esteemed by the Church to judge?” He says you are going to judge the world! You are even going to judge angels! Can’t you settle your differences between yourselves? Look at the Church at large out there. The true Church of God is broken up into all the groups. They are judging one another harshly and not getting along. They are not burying the hatchet and not forgiving each other. How can God allow us to judge the world and judge angels in this condition? He cannot! WE WILL BE PART OF CHRIST’S GOVERNMENT IN THE MILLENNIUM We need to learn these things now to be part of God’s government so that we can eventually judge the world righteously and get along. The family of God in the Millennium is not going to be fighting the way the family of God is fighting now. God will not allow it. We will be part of Christ’s government. It is a government that will expand forever. Turn to Isaiah chapter 9, verse 6: “For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given; and the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end, upon the throne of David and over His kingdom, to order it and establish it with judgment and justice from that time forward, even forever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.” If we want to be part of the body that will help establish judgment and justice and part of a government that will increase forever, we have to learn it now. We have to learn how to do it now amongst ourselves. This is the test. We are undergoing this test right now. If we are going to be handed this huge responsibility, Christ says to him I will give a little now and see how he handles a little before I give him great things. Many of us are failing that test! We have to learn how to get along and to love one another. We have to bear fruit and apply these wonderful mysteries that we have learned. INDIVIDUALLY WE MUST STRIVE TO TREAT THE BODY OF CHRIST PROPERLY We are the body of Christ. We are the bride. We cannot be hating ourselves! We cannot be hating the bridegroom by hating ourselves because He dwells in the other brethren. This is a case of us failing the test. Individually we have to get it right. Hopefully enough will see and start to get it right as well. We are responsible to do it to the best that we can ourselves. Within our group here we will try to do that. Apply these mysteries. Love one another the way we should. Love our families the way we should. I Peter chapter 2 is quite sobering. Starting in verse 7 and we will read to verse 8. We can be disobedient and stumble right over Christ! When we give each other a hard time, we are stumbling over part of the body of Christ. When we hate and accuse the other brethren, we are stumbling over the body of Christ. Let us read verse 9 to verse 11. He says, “...abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul...” because this is what weakens you and causes you to stumble over the body of Christ. This is why we must overcome. Verse 12: “...having your conduct honorable among the Gentiles, that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may, by your good works which they observe, glorify God in the day of visitation.” We need to be of the best character and example to people outside the Church as well. This will assist them when Christ does come for them and they have to repent. We do not want to be a stumbling block to the world either. Read verse 13 to 15. We need to do good works and be obedient so that we can get the praise for the body of Christ for Jesus Christ. Continue reading in verse 16 to 22. We need to be willing to suffer at the hands of men for nothing of our fault. There should be no reason that we should deserve it. If we do deserve to be persecuted and suffer that is to our shame. But if we get persecuted for following Christ and be an example to others, this is commendable. This is what happened to Jesus Christ Himself. Continue reading in I Peter 2:23-25. We need to hear the voice, stay close to Jesus Christ, follow His example and be an example to others. This is important because this is fighting the good fight. This is how we fight wicked spirits in high places. Drop down to I Peter 4:7 and read to verse 11. We need to do these things because love will cover a multitude of sins. All of us have sins and are guilty. By the measure which we judge others, we will be judged. If we abundantly love others, God will also abundantly love us, especially amongst the body of Christ. SUFFER FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS SAKE Continue in verse 12: “Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you as though some strange thing happened to you but rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ’s sufferings, that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy. If you are reproached for the name of Christ, blessed are you...” (this goes with what I was reading in I Peter 2) “...for the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. On their part He is blasphemed, but on your part He is glorified. But let none of you suffer as a murderer, a thief, an evildoer, or as a busybody in other people’s matters.” He says do not suffer persecution because you deserve it. Suffer persecution because you were doing the right thing. JUDGMENT BEGINS AT THE HOUSE OF GOD Read verse 16 to 19. So this is the upshot of it right here. The conclusion of the matter is right here. We need to apply the mysteries of God, to love the brethren as the family of God and bride of Christ. Then we are loving Christ at the same time. We need to bear suffering from those outside the faith and sometimes those inside the faith who have not learned these lessons yet. Suffer as part of the body of Christ because we are doing right. Do not suffer for what is wrong with us. Because we are being judged it says in verse 17 of Chapter 4. Judgment begins at the house of God. God is watching how we do these things and determining (judging if you will) how and to what extent He will use us to rule in the government of God. That huge responsibility will come to those who pass the test now. Those will be people who learned to love like Christ loved. They learned to be merciful as Christ is merciful. We are told in I Peter chapter 5, verse 1 that we need to feed the flock. We need to take care of one another. I Peter 5, verse 1: “‘The elders who are among you I exhort, I who am a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that will be revealed; shepherd the flock of God which is among you, serving as overseers, not by constraint but willingly, not for dishonest gain but eagerly; nor as being lords over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock; and when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that does not fade away.’” Verse 5: “Likewise you younger people, submit yourselves to your elders. Yes, all of you be submissive to one another, and be clothed with humility, for ‘God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.’ Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you. Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.” You see, in humility and meekness we are strong. Love and compassion is strength. Kindness and encouragement toward others is strength. These are putting on the armor of God. As we bear these fruits, we become impregnable to Satan. Then we can “pull down strong holds and cast down arguments”. If we allow Satan occasion to get into us and cause our human nature to kick back in by dividing one another, lusting, arguing and accusing, Satan is like a roaring lion who comes in there and devours us for we are then weak! HUMILITY LEADS TO STRENGTH! As Paul says, when I am weak, I am strong. When we are weak in our own eyes, and we are humble, meek and kind to others, we are impregnable to Satan. So when we are weak, we are strong! We need to understand the mysteries of God and apply them to our lives so that we become so strong we can help Jesus Christ tear down the strong holds (the principalities) that rule the world. These are the wicked spirits in high places. There is only one way to become strong. Love, meekness, kindness, gentleness and patience are the ways we become strong. When we do these things, we can resist Satan. This is why holy righteous character is so important and why being judged right now is so critical. God is measuring those of us who have been given the Holy Spirit and taught. He is measuring to see what fruits we bear to see if He can use us to rule the world. So we are judged first and then we can help Him judge man, the world and angels. This is the end of Part I but I want to conclude with this message leading into the second part of this series. Satan and his demons who give mankind a hard time (the wicked spirits in high places), why are they so vicious towards us? Because of what we just learned here. As we grow in holy righteous character, God judges us to allow us to rule with His Son, Jesus Christ. That concept to Satan and the demons is horrible! They want to rule! They want to judge. WHY DO SATAN AND THE DEMONS HATE US? Satan wanted to exalt himself over God’s position. It is bad enough to them that they cannot be over God but to them to have lowly man over them and judging them is awful. They cannot stand that! Therefore, they hate us. They hate us with a passion. They will do everything they can to fight us. How do they fight us? They fight us with spiritual weaponry. In the next sermon we are going to talk about this spiritual fight that we are involved in and the ramifications that are involved in that fight. I think you will be amazed at all of the places this goes. We are not to fear what can kill the body. We are not to fear guns and bombs. We are to fear these spiritual weapons. We are to put on the whole armor of God so that we can defend ourselves and in effect defend mankind. That is where we will go with Part II.