The Armor of God: How to Stand in the Evil Day 2

This is the third segment of my sermon entitled, "The Armor of God", delivered to Marion Park on 8/15/09. Before reading on make sure you've read Ephesians 6:10-20.

3. Wrestle Against God's Enemies
-Paul states it negatively, reminding us that flesh and blood, people, are not our ultimate enemies. It is not our personal enemies or the enemies of some pet issue that we have taken up that we are to wrestle against. We should not waste time fighting over trivial human affairs, when there is a supernatural war of such cosmic magnitude that must be fought. How often do we get caught up in party spirit or in useless dissensions or vain speculations! This too is one of the enemies tactics for getting us off balance. If he can get us to fight about trivialities, then he can blaspheme the truth by making it seem like the heart of Christianity itself is nothing but speculation, the type of thing that dissenters love to argue about and push on other people. What a tragedy it is when the devil brings disrepute on the church of God by infecting her with party spirit, not to mention actual violence against those who believe differently. Our war is not against flesh and blood, but for them.

-Alright, so we're not supposed to wrestle against people, but who are we to wrestle with then? Paul says we are to actively wage war "against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places". In short, we are to wrestle against the devil and his army of demonic forces. C. S. Lewis wrote in his book The Screwtape Letters, "There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them." Well, we don't want to make either of those mistakes here, disbelief or excessive interest. Very often we fall on the side of disbelieving in their existence, at least practically. We never think about the fact that we're in a war, or that, as Peter says, "The devil prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour." C. S. Lewis also expresses an important insight in The Screwtape Letters about how one of Satan's tactics, esp in cultured middle class America, is to hide his existence from view. He can get an advantage over you if you just ignore his existence. I would add that this doesn't mean he's any less at work in Wheaton than in, say, pagan tribes in Africa. The demons just go under the names of more culturally acceptable gods here: Money, Sex, Power, Comfort, Education, Art, Tolerance.

-Our work as believers is to actively fight against the demoniacally inspired lies of our society. Everybody around you is either worshiping the true God or they are worshiping false gods, idols. And behind every idol is a demon. That's why Paul calls them rulers and authorities and cosmic powers over this present darkness and spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. They are the big dogs above all the human big dogs. They are the ones in charge of the darkness of this world. They are the demons that have put themselves in the heavenly places, throwing God off his throne, at least in the hearts and minds of people all around you. The good news in all of this is that its our job to proclaim their defeat, snatching flesh and blood out of their grasp. When I preached about the mystery of the gospel to you many weeks ago, Paul made this point about the Mystery of Gospel Proclamation: Paul says in Eph 3:10 "so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places." One of the ways we wrestle against God's enemies is by proclaiming their defeat. We do this on the basis of what Jesus has done. Paul says near the beginning of the letter in Eph 1:19-21 that he wants us to know "what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might, that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come." On this basis, Jesus' victory and ascension to the right hand of God, we can be strong in God's strength, we can put on God's armor, and we can wrestle against God's enemies, so that we will stand in the evil day.