Spiritual Warfare

Well, good morning. It's my privilege this morning to preach out of the book 2 Corinthians.

So I would ask you if you would open with me to chapter 10 of 2 Corinthians.

Our main passage this morning will be verses, chapter 10, verse 3 through 6,

but I wanted to start this morning in verse 1 so you get a bit of the context here.

This is Paul speaking to the church at Corinth in reference to his ministry.

And so if you will, in honor of God's Word, stand with me as we read this passage this morning.

Verse 1.

I, Paul, myself entreat you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ,

I who am humble when face to face with you, but bold towards you when I am away,

I beg of you that when I am present I may not have to show boldness with such confidence

as I count on showing against some who suspect us of walking according to the flesh.

For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh.

For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but have divine power to destroy strongholds.

We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God

and take every thought captive to obey Christ,

being ready to punish every disobedience when your obedience is complete.

Let me pray.

Father, I pray that you would empower the preaching of your Word this morning.

Father, if there's anything from me, I pray that it would wash away.

But Father, I pray that you would cause your Word to bear fruit.

And Father, I pray that you would open our hearts to hear and receive what you have for us this morning.

I pray in your name. Amen.

Y'all can have a seat.

You know, my story, my spiritual story, just a little portion of it is this,

is that I grew up in church.

From the time I was a baby, an infant, I've been in the church that whole time.

And yet, I was shocked when at 22 years old, someone shared with me the gospel.

Now, surely somewhere along the line I'd heard about Jesus.

Surely somewhere along the line I had heard someone say that He died on the cross

in order to save us from our sins, that He was God's Son.

Surely somewhere along the way I'd heard it.

But I'd not understood it.

And so I had a lady by God's providence share the gospel with me,

and she started with my sin.

And she asked me if I thought that I was a sinner.

And because I had a balance scale that had, in my mind, more morality than it had evil,

I didn't think I was lost.

I didn't think I was a sinner.

And I answered, no, I don't see myself as a sinner.

And yet, by God's grace, He showed me the truth.

She asked me a question about pride.

And I answered, yeah, I'm proud of all the trophies I have lying in my room

and all the successes and things that I've accomplished.

I said, yes, ma'am, I am proud of that.

She said, no, no, no, that's not what I mean.

Let me read a couple of verses to you.

So she read a couple of verses out of Scripture that have to do with pride that goes before a fall,

how God hates the proud and loves the humble.

And by the grace of God, He opened my eyes to see that my sin was much deeper than I ever thought.

In my pride, I thought I had achieved my own salvation.

And that day, I saw my sin in a way that I'd never understood it before.

And how is it possible that a guy who'd been all those years in church,

who had heard whatever was preached, I can't remember,

how is it that I'd heard it, I'd been around it, and yet I'd never understood it?

You know, I would say the reason is because of the war.

The war we see in this passage this morning.

And I would turn your eyes to verse 3 and 4.

And I think you will notice this morning as we read this passage that this is military language.

Paul is using this military language to illustrate the reality of a war that we find ourselves in.

You know, it's not a physical war that he's referring to as a spiritual war.

And so Paul says this to those who would claim that he's operating in the flesh,

that he's walking according to the flesh, that his ministry was according to the flesh.

He says, no, no, no, that is not true.

He says, though we walk in the flesh, though we're humans just like you,

though we have temptations that we fall to just like you,

though we are like you in the flesh,

we do not wage war according to the flesh.

And it begs the question, Paul, what are you talking about a war?

What war are you in?

And I would say this, that it's not a physical war that he refers to.

He's using this as an illustration to the church at Corinth.

And you know, Corinth would understand what he's talking about.

Perhaps the reason he shared this, there's no way to know,

is that he would refer back to a war that happened,

the Corinthian War in roughly 397 B.C.,

where their strongholds were destroyed, many of them,

where they were in an intense battle for a period of time.

Whether Paul had that in mind or not,

the illustration stands strong and allows us to see some insight

into this war that we have against our enemy,

our arch enemy, the devil, Satan,

and his kingdom, the dark kingdom.

So Paul says, yes, we walk in the flesh,

but we don't war with human wisdom.

We don't use human techniques.

We war in a different way.

We don't war according to the way men war.

He goes on to say, the weapons of our warfare are not this, but this.

The weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh,

but they're this, they're divine.

We wage war not in our own strength,

but we rely on the strength of another.

Christian, you and I would see what he's talking about.

We rely on the strength of the Holy Spirit in this war.

Paul relied on the strength of the Holy Spirit.

In chapter 2 of 1 Corinthians,

when Paul was talking about ministry with them

and reminding them of when he came to Corinth with the gospel message,

you understand that the gospel was not prevalent.

In this region of the world,

that Paul in his missionary journeys was taking the gospel

to those who didn't understand salvation,

to those who didn't understand their sin and their separation from God,

to those who didn't know why Jesus came

and maybe had never heard the name of Jesus the Messiah before.

And Paul says this to the Corinthians.

He says,

And when I came to you, brothers,

I did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God

with lofty speech or wisdom.

For I decided to know nothing among you

except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

And I was with you in weakness and in fear

and in much trembling,

and my speech and my message

were not with enticing words of wisdom,

but in demonstration of the Spirit and power,

so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men,

but in the power of God.

Paul was not trying to use wisdom and clever words

to share with them the need of Christ.

He says He came to them with this simple message,

the message of the gospel.

The message of their sin and their separation,

their need for a Savior.

Looking back at the passage in 2 Corinthians,

he says this,

The weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh,

but have divine power to destroy strongholds.

This morning, I want to look at this passage

from two different angles,

from two different perspectives.

When we talk about war,

we talk about often one entity or one nation

or one person or one group against another.

And in this war, it's the same.

We talk about those who are in war

against the enemy, that is Satan.

Paul says that he's in war.

He says our warfare, our fight

against the dark kingdom

is not something that can be accomplished

with human ability.

I want to look first from the perspective of Satan,

from the perspective of the dark kingdom.

And I think it would be helpful for us

to look at another passage.

And that passage is a common, familiar passage

probably to most of y'all.

It's Ephesians chapter 6.

Ephesians 6 · chapter mention

Paul, again, is sharing with the church at Ephesus

about this battle, this war,

this real spiritual conflict

that touches all of us.

You can turn there if you like.

No need to turn there for sake of time.

Chapter 6 says this.

He's talking to the church, Christians.

He says,

finally, be strong in the Lord

and in the strength of His might.

And I would note here,

he's not telling them to be strong

in their own power,

their own ability,

their own wisdom,

their own strength.

He's saying be strong in the Lord.

There is a means by which we fight

that's not our own ability.

There's a means by which we fight this war

that is spiritual.

He goes on to say,

put on the whole armor of God

that you may be able to stand

against the schemes of the devil.

Do you know that the devil has schemes?

You know what Satan is planning?

I don't think any of us really know all the details,

but we can get the general outline

by reading Scripture.

From Satan's perspective,

what he's attempting to do

in the lives of those who don't know Christ,

like me when I was young

and all those years,

20-something years in church,

he's attempting to do what he shares

in 2 Corinthians 4.

It says this.

It says,

the God of this world,

i.e. Satan,

the God of this world

has blinded the minds of unbelievers.

He's blinded the minds of unbelievers.

What is the methodology of Satan?

His methodology is to blind the eyes

of those who don't understand,

who don't know,

who don't recognize their sin,

their separation,

their need for a Savior.

He said he's blinded the minds of unbelievers,

not the eyes.

I want us to see he's blinding the mind

of unbelievers

to keep them from seeing the light of what?

The gospel of the glory of God.

What does Satan do in the lives of those

who are not in the kingdom?

You know what he does?

He blinds them.

He doesn't want them to hear

the gospel message.

He doesn't want it to hear it in their ears

and he doesn't want them specifically

to hear it in their heart.

How is he going to accomplish that?

How does he blind?

Well, we turn back to chapter 10,

our passage this morning.

How does he blind?

The eyes of those who don't know Jesus,

who don't understand the gospel message.

Here's an interesting look

in our passage this morning.

He establishes,

Satan establishes strongholds in their life.

So we look at this military language

and we envision a walled city,

a stronghold.

So when someone comes to fight against a stronghold,

they come up against a fortress,

a walled city.

And how is it we're going to take that walled city?

With great difficulty, correct?

In this case,

the illustration Paul is trying to represent here

is this,

is that Satan causes people to believe lies.

He establishes a thought process in their mind

that keeps them from hearing

and understanding the word of God.

Look at the next verse, if you will.

Paul explains a little further

what these strongholds are.

He says,

we, that is those of us who minister the gospel,

those of us that are taking the gospel

to the lost world,

to the places that have never heard it before.

We destroy arguments and lofty opinions.

A way of thinking that's not biblical,

a way of thinking that's not true.

It's based on lies.

It's based on fallacies.

We destroy arguments

and every lofty opinion

raised against the knowledge of God.

You know what Satan would say?

There is no God.

Are you kidding?

And God's good anyway.

God will forgive you all.

All of you will be in heaven.

You're fine.

You don't have to worry about that.

Just live life.

There's probably hundreds and hundreds of angles

that Satan uses to propagate the lies

and establish the stronghold

in our lives.

It's like a fortress.

They hear the gospel like I heard the gospel

and it just goes right over.

They don't really hear it.

They don't understand it.

And Satan wants to build up

these strongholds of lies

in the minds of unbelievers.

But what does Satan do with Christians?

Do you realize that all of us

were in that condition?

That all of us were lost?

That all of us were unbelievers?

That all of us were separated from God?

But by the grace of God

and His mercy,

we have received salvation.

Many of us have come to know

our need for a Savior.

Many of us have seen our own sin

by the grace of God.

What did He do?

He illuminated our understanding.

So all those years,

22 years I'm living,

I didn't see my sin

for what it really was.

I didn't think I was separated from God.

I thought for sure I was in the kingdom.

When God opened my eyes

to see the depth of my sin

and the reality that my sin

had caused me to be separated from God,

I was absolutely shocked.

blown away that I wasn't a Christian.

How did that happen?

You know, all of us are there.

Do you realize all of us

have a misunderstanding

about who we really are?

We have a misunderstanding.

We don't really understand

our separation from God.

We don't really understand His holiness.

Why?

It's because all this

stronghold of lies,

this stronghold of belief

that's not according to truth

is where we've lived.

And by the grace of God,

He's shined His light.

What is the light?

It's the gospel.

It's the truth.

He's shined the light.

You know what happens

when lies are exposed to truth?

Poof, they're gone.

It exposes the lies.

This lie that I'm good,

in good standing with God,

when the truth came

and I saw my sin,

I realized that was a lie.

The Holy Spirit

illuminated my understanding,

opened my eyes

that I might see

that I really, truly

was separated from God.

And you know what I did?

I bowed my knee

in a third floor room

in Winston-Salem, North Carolina,

a place I'd never been in my life,

the house of someone

I'd never met in all my life.

By the grace of God,

I got on my knee,

I said,

God, forgive me.

I didn't know I was a sinner.

I didn't know,

at least I didn't know

you saw me as a sinner.

Yeah, I had these secrets

that I didn't want anybody

to know about

during my life.

But I didn't realize

I didn't,

I wasn't in the kingdom.

I didn't realize

I wasn't going to heaven.

I didn't realize

I wasn't your child.

I didn't realize

that I wasn't forgiven.

I didn't realize God.

By the grace of God,

he opened our eyes to see.

You know, Satan doesn't want

your eyes to be opened.

But some of us

are in the kingdom now.

You know the call

to the church?

He says,

go.

All authority,

Jesus says,

all authority is given to me.

Now go

and proclaim my gospel

and teach them.

Baptize them

and teach them

to obey everything

that I've commanded you.

Take the gospel

to the far corners

of the earth.

Start in your neighborhood.

Start in your town.

Wherever I lead you,

go and take the gospel.

with you.

And what's the impact

going to be?

You know,

Satan can't stop

the spread of the gospel.

You know why?

Because the gospel

exposes a lie.

Satan's method is what?

To establish strongholds,

arguments,

lofty opinions,

philosophies

that are not

according to truth.

And you know,

we by nature

grab them

and believe.

What does it take

for the lies

to be exposed?

The light of the gospel.

The light of God's word.

You know what

they don't need?

They don't need

all these fancy arguments.

You know what Paul said?

I just read it.

He says,

I decided to know nothing

among them

except Jesus Christ

and Him crucified.

You know what someone

who's not in the kingdom

needs to hear?

The gospel.

You know the call

of God to Christians?

Take the gospel.

How does Satan

fight against you and me?

You know what he uses

the same way?

I go back to Ephesians,

this parallel passage,

and I want you to listen

to what Satan uses

against Christians.

So,

he's talking to Christians

here in Ephesians 6.

He's talking to the Christians

in Ephesus.

And he's saying to them,

fight.

He said in chapter 5,

walk in love.

He says,

walk not as unwise,

but wise.

Christian,

you are called

to live in a way

that is in accordance

with wisdom

and with humility

and with love.

And he's saying to them

that there's a battle.

And you're not going

to be very effective

in this battle

and this war

unless you

understand

how it's fought.

So,

if I ask you a question

right now,

church,

do you know

how to fight

this battle?

Do you know

how to be

successful

in this war?

Listen,

it's,

when you're

talking to people

that are not

in the kingdom,

that's one thing,

but when it's happening

in your own heart

and your own life,

how do you fight?

How do you stand?

Listen to the word here.

He says,

put on the whole armor

of God.

I'm not thirsty,

I really am not.

And I think

Jonathan's had his lips

on that one,

so I'm not going to,

I'm not going to drink

that one.

So,

he says,

put on the whole armor

of God

that you may be able

to stand against

the schemes

of the devil.

What are schemes?

Do you know?

Listen,

how are we going to fight

against the dark kingdom

if we don't know

the schemes?

Do you know the schemes?

Do you know what Satan does?

Do you know his methodology?

We would turn to many,

many passages

and here's what we'd see.

You know,

Satan is a tempter.

He's going to tempt you

to dishonor God.

He's going to tempt you

to walk in sin.

He's going to tempt you

to pursue the flesh.

And what is the flesh?

We turn to Galatians 5.

I'm not going to turn there,

but it's sexual promiscuity.

It's anger.

It's wrath.

It's sorcery.

It's chasing after things

of this world,

flesh, self.

You can read Galatians 5 later.

You can read Romans 10 later

and you'll see what the Word says

about walking after the flesh.

But the call of God

to His children

is to walk according

to the Spirit,

to walk in step

with the Spirit,

that the fruit of the Spirit

might be evident in our life.

So here we go.

The schemes of the devil.

Deception.

He wants to propagate lies.

Do you think that Satan

still lies to you and me

as Christians?

Do you think he throws lies our way?

How do you handle it?

Remember,

what is it that causes lies

to disappear,

to be broken,

to be shattered?

It's truth.

How do you war

when all these lies

come into your ears?

How do you war?

You war with truth.

How often do you hear

untruths,

lies that come to you

and say,

whoa, whoa, whoa,

that's not right.

No, no, no, no.

How often does the Word of God

come up in your mind

and you say,

no, no, no, no.

I don't believe that.

I don't accept that.

I reject that.

That's not true.

Deception.

Temptation.

He wants you

to be on the sideline

in this war,

in this battle,

in this mission

that he's called us to,

to take the gospel

to the lost and dying world.

He doesn't want you

to be effective.

And how is it

he's going to keep you,

Christian,

from being effective?

He's going to cause you

to live in sin,

to live in lies.

The temptations

are going to draw you away

from God's honor

and God's call in your life.

And he's going to accuse you.

Three things.

Temptation,

deception,

and accusation

are the main methodologies

of Satan

against the church,

against Christians.

Revelation chapter 12,

Revelation 12 · chapter mention

it's a story

and it talks about

a dragon

and it talks about

a woman

and it talks about

a child.

And it's,

in this story

in chapter 12,

the dragon is Satan

and the child

is a church

and the,

excuse me,

the woman is a church

and the child is Jesus.

And you can read the story

but the end of the story

is very revealing

in verse 17,

the last verse

in chapter 12

of Revelation.

It says this,

Then the dragon,

that is Satan,

became furious

with the woman,

that's the church,

and went off

to make war

with the rest

of her offspring.

Satan,

the dragon,

went off

to make war

with the rest

of her offspring.

Who are offspring?

Those who keep

the commands of God

and hold

to the testimony

of Jesus.

Church,

let me just say,

whether you're aware

of it or not,

there is a war

that's going on

and you as a Christian

are in the middle of it.

And Satan

is after you.

But greater

is he that is in you

than he that is in the world.

Amen?

Greater

is the Holy Spirit,

greater is he

that is in you

than he that is in the world.

Satan

doesn't stand

a chance

when truth

exposes the lies.

You know,

we don't fight

in human ways.

If we fought

in human ways,

we might be full

of fear.

We don't fight

in human ways.

Ephesians 6

says this,

We do not wrestle

against flesh

and blood,

but against rulers,

against the authorities,

against the cosmic powers

over this present darkness,

against the spiritual

forces

of evil

in the heavenly places.

You know,

we are in a

genuine battle

with the satanic kingdom,

with the demonic world.

And he says,

therefore,

take up the whole

armor of God.

Don't take up

your own strength,

your own wisdom,

your own ability.

Take up the armor

of God.

Why?

That you may be able

to withstand

an evil day

and to stand firm.

And the call is this,

is then take

the helmet of salvation

and the sword

of the Spirit,

which is the word of God,

praying at all times

in the Spirit

with all prayer

and supplication.

To that end,

keep alert

in this battle.

You know,

Satan desires

to devour.

Satan,

like a roaring lion,

is seeking

whom he may devour.

You know he's

after Christians?

Back to our passage.

The perspective

of Satan

is to destroy,

to kill.

I want to look at it

from a different perspective.

That's the perspective

of Paul.

You know what

Paul sees here?

He sees people

that hadn't yet heard

the gospel,

that hadn't come

into the kingdom.

And what is he doing?

He is going.

As God has instructed him

to go,

he's going.

He's taking the gospel

to the lost and dying world.

And what does he understand?

That the enemy

has sold them

this lie

and they've latched

onto it

and they believe it.

And so what does he take

as he goes

to the lost and dying world?

He takes the gospel.

He takes the gospel.

He takes the truth

of God's word

and he destroys

the arguments

and the lofty opinion

raised against

the knowledge of God.

How does he do that

with the truth?

What does the truth do?

It exposes lies.

Church,

you know

when we're sharing

the gospel,

what are we sharing?

We're not sharing

our opinion,

our thoughts.

We're sharing God's word.

It's needful

for us to know

God's word

that we,

like Paul,

would see this battle

that the battle

is against the light.

The real true battle

is Satan

in the dark kingdom

against the kingdom

of light.

And who's a part

of the kingdom of light?

Us,

Christians.

Do you think

God can destroy Satan

with a word of his mouth?

You think he can destroy

him right now,

just boom,

he's done?

You bet he can.

But by God's providence,

he's allowed you and me

to be involved

in this eternal thing,

this taking of the gospel

to the nations.

It's our great privilege

to do it

and that he would use us

in this call

of ministry,

of what he's doing

in the lives of people.

I love the verse here.

It says,

he's destroying strongholds.

Paul,

as he's looking at those

who aren't in the kingdom,

destroying strongholds,

these arguments,

these lies

that are not according

to truth.

And how's he doing?

He's taking the truth,

the gospel to them

so they might understand

and taking captive

every thought.

So have y'all ever

tried to do that?

In this battle

against the dark kingdom,

do you take account

of your thoughts?

Do you know how

this battle is fought?

Again,

I ask the question,

how is this battle fought?

It's a fault

against the lies.

The truth is what

exposes them.

You shall know the truth

and the truth

shall set you free.

And we'll end on this

as Paul's perspective

to fellow believers.

So Paul's perspective

to those who aren't

in the kingdom,

take the truth,

share the truth,

help them to understand

the truth,

expose the lies,

and it isn't going to happen

without the power of God.

And to the Christians,

he says this,

if you sneak over

in chapter 11,

verse 3,

it says this,

as Paul is speaking

to the Corinthian church,

he says this,

but I'm afraid

that as the serpent

deceived Eve

by his cunning,

your thoughts

will be led astray

from the sincere

and pure devotion

to Christ.

When I was younger,

I played a lot of golf.

I still play a little bit.

My heart,

my goal at the time,

as sinful as it was,

to be really,

really good at golf.

And briefly,

I would say this,

that the challenge in golf

is not learning

how to swing real well.

There's a lot of people

that swing well.

And if you do it

a million times

and you duplicate it

a million times,

the ball tends to go

where it's supposed to go.

You know,

the challenge is this,

is when I get up

on the tee box

and I look at the problems,

the trap,

and the pond,

and the out-of-bounds.

I don't know

if y'all play golf

and know what those things are,

but I'm hitting a golf ball

and I'm trying to keep it

on the grass, okay?

I don't want it to go

on those other things

because there's penalties involved.

Do you know the difficulty

is not in being able

to hit it?

Because I can go on the range

during practice

and I can just hit them

just boom,

boom,

boom,

boom.

Straight,

long,

make them curve this way,

that way could do a lot,

but when I get up on the tee,

you know what the problem is?

This.

The mind is the problem.

I get up

and I'm looking,

I'm here,

I'm like,

all right,

there's a pond over there.

The problem is

my mind is focusing

on those things,

focusing on the problems,

focusing on the danger,

and my body is not able

to do what it should do.

You know the hard thing

about golf?

You see it in the pros too.

If you watch any golf

on TV,

especially in majors,

and the pros are getting

close last day,

they're near or on top

of the leaderboard,

near the top of the leaderboard,

and what happens?

You see these guys

that are doing it for a living

that are incredible golfers,

and what happens?

They fold.

Why?

Because there's a battle

going on in the mind.

It is difficult

to remain focused

when I'm trying

to play golf.

Let me just say,

church,

you know the battle,

the spiritual battles

in the mind?

You know what Satan

is going to do

to you and me?

He's going to tempt us.

He's going to accuse us.

He's going to deceive us

so that we are on the sidelines.

And Paul says to them,

he says,

I'm worried that your thoughts

will be led astray

from sincere

and pure devotion to Christ.

Are we willing

to take every thought captive?

That's the call,

church,

that we would take

every thought captive

and make it obedience

to Christ,

that we would walk

in obedience

to Him.

Let's pray.

Father,

thank You for Your Word.

Lord,

we confess that

Father,

we're weak.

In many ways,

we're weak

in that we can be deceived

by the enemy.

We can believe lies.

Father,

many times,

we're weak

because we give

in to temptations

and the lust

of this world.

God,

and in a sense,

we're sidelined.

Father,

I'm grateful,

like Jonathan mentioned

earlier,

is that Father,

You say that You're

faithful and just

to forgive us

of our sins

if we will confess to You.

So Father,

I pray that You would help us

to live a life

of confession

because truly,

God,

we are weak.

We're so weak,

Father.

We try to walk

in our own strength.

I pray that You would

teach us to walk

in Your strength,

that we would not

be sidelined

with these sins

that we allow

in our life.

God,

that You would give us

strength to be faithful

to You.

And God,

I pray that You would

empower Your Word

so that many people

would come into the kingdom.

God,

take us,

Your church,

I should say,

send us,

God,

Your church,

to people that we

come in contact with

with the gospel message

that they need to hear

the gospel,

Father,

so their ears

could be opened,

they would not be blind,

God,

I pray that You would

use us in Your kingdom.

I pray in Your name.

Amen.