Fundamental Christian Attitudes: Strength, Part 3

Satan comes to you through the world system that engulfs you.

We are tempted through the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life. And the way Satan gets at you is not by sending some individual demon to mess you up, but by creating a world system around you that appeals to those three temptation avenues. You probably wouldn't consider yourself a violent person.

You may never have even thought about throwing a punch or fighting anyone, and that's good. But at the same time, if you're a Christian, you need to realize you are in constant battle. You face a savage, relentless enemy every day with clever ways of doing you harm. To make sure you're ready for the fight, stay here on grace to you as John MacArthur identifies that enemy and shows you how to withstand his toughest attacks. It's part of John's study designed to help you be what he calls the courageous Christian.

And now here's John. Turn in your Bible to Ephesians chapter 6. Listen to what verse 10 says in Ephesians 6. Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. Here again is a call for strength.

The Lord wants His church mature, full-grown, strong, courageous so that it can stand against the weaknesses of the flesh and against the stratagems of a very powerful supernatural enemy, namely Satan. We have a formidable battle in regard to the domain of darkness. Verse 10 then, finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. Put on the full armor of God.

In other words, don't engage yourself in this battle with anything less than complete armor. The foe is formidable, more formidable than any other foe, and it requires the greatest amount of spiritual strength to come out victorious. Put on the full armor of God that you may be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil.

You'll notice that he doesn't put us on the attack, he puts us on the defense. We're not called to assault Satan. We are called to stand against him. He will show up with his formidable, powerful invading force, and we need to be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. The devil is none other than the slanderer, Diabolos, the adversary, Satan, the one who structures the world system, and he it is that comes against us with his subtle schemes. He doesn't come alone. He comes with a sophisticated and powerful spiritual network.

Look at verse 12. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood. We're really not fighting against a human system. Obviously, we're battling in our own lives with our flesh, but when we get outside of ourselves, we're not really battling a flesh and blood system, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenlies, above the earth, in the spiritual domain, the spiritual dimension. There are sophisticated spiritual beings, and we're engaged in a war with them. Now notice that there are a number of terms that are used to describe these beings. They are called rulers, powers, and world forces, and then summarily, all of them, spiritual forces of wickedness. These are terms used to define the various responsibilities and levels of the order of the order of demons under Satan. The prince of this world, the Bible calls Satan. The god of this world, the Bible calls him, has under him a highly structured order of demons who carry out his plans.

They are given assignments and responsibilities under his leadership. And here we are in this world fighting against this very formidable foe. That is why in verse 10 it says, we need to be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. And what that translates into is putting on the full armor of God. Again, we find that where there is a command to be strong, there is immediate explanation as to what that involves. You remember last time when dealing with Timothy's weakness, Paul said, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus, and then got very specific and said in order to be strong, you must see yourself as a soldier and a teacher and an athlete and a farmer, and gave him a pattern for developing that strength.

You have the same thing here. To stand against the subtle schemes of Satan that are being pushed through a vast demonic host against us, we need to be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. And how do we do that? By putting on the full armor of God that you may be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. Now keep in mind that this very, very sophisticated, supernatural, powerful system of evil from Satan flowing through these demons basically operates in the world system around us. 1 John 5 19, the whole world lies in the lap of the evil one. He is the God of this age. He is the prince of this world.

He is in control of the world system. And I want you to understand this because I think people misunderstand it so often. Satan comes to you through the world system that engulfs you. According to 1 John, we are tempted through the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life.

Temptation comes through those avenues, what we see, what we lust for or desire and personal pride. And the way Satan gets at you is not by sending some individual demon to mess you up, but by creating a world system around you that appeals to those three temptation avenues. It's not that you as a believer need to fear that somehow the demon of lust is going to get in you, or the demon of deceit is going to get in you, or the demon of lying, or the demon of discontent, or as one guy even included, the demon of post-nasal drip. It's not that we have to live in some fear that some demon with a certain kind of wicked bent is going to take over our lives and catapult us into some category of iniquity over which we have no control.

That is not how it works. What Satan does is develop very sophisticated schemes, cunning craftiness, Ephesians 4 calls them. And those schemes are carried out by this vast host of demons who develop the world system into a massive source of temptation which is designed to assault you and me.

It's designed to assault, listen carefully, God's people. There is nothing in the Scripture to indicate anywhere that a believer can have demons living in him or her. Being possessed of demons is not characteristic of believers, either in the Old or New Testament. We don't find a believer who had demons in him or her. We never find in the New Testament any occasion of anyone ever casting demons out of a believer. When Christ and the apostles cast out demons, they were casting them out of non-believers.

This was messianic, supernatural power and apostolic power, the power that could also heal the sick and raise the dead which was given to the apostles and the apostles alone. So the objective of this spiritual war is not to attack demons, but to defend ourselves against the world wicked system which Satan has designed to attack us. And I say that because so many Christians are so confused about this, running around thinking that the way to deal with the issues of their life is to somehow chase the demons away.

If the demons all packed up and went away, the system they've created would still be here. And it is that system that which is the point of temptation. It is loving the world that is so deadly and all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life.

That's what's so devastating. It is that loving of the world that is enmity with God. Our flesh is vulnerable to Satan as he comes through the world system which he controls. Now the issue is not chasing the demons. The issue is if you're going to win the battle, it says very clearly, take up the full what? Armor of God. You're the issue that has to be dealt with.

And what do you have to do? Well, you've got this vulnerability and the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life. These are the bridges to sin and the world is going to come right at you, this satanic system that is all around you and it's going to cross those bridges if it can, and that's where you have to arm yourself. And that's why he gives us the armor in this text. Now before we look at the armor, I want to take you to a chapter that explains this warfare in detail, Revelation 12. And here we get an insight into spiritual warfare.

We're going to see how the battle shapes up here in chapter 12. All right, who are the participants? I want to talk about the participants. The participants are the participants.

I want to talk about the participants. Who is the enemy? First of all, look at verse 3.

John has an amazing vision here. And in verse 3 as a part of this vision, he has a sign that appears to him in heaven, and behold, a great red dragon. And this dragon is pictured in full authority and power, having seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads were seven diadems, each of them crowned. Now what is this? What is this great red dragon? Go down to verse 9. And the great dragon was thrown down. Here's the definition. The serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan who deceives...what?

The whole world. Now that is the main strategy of Satan. He is liar. He is the father of lies. He is the deceiver.

That's his name. And he has created a worldwide deception. His schemes are all about lies, lies about God, lies about life and death and morality, lies about relationships, lies about everything, the whole deceptive, wicked world system. So the first and major participant in spiritual warfare is this great red dragon who has all these angels following with him who is none other than the serpent of the garden who is the devil, who is the slanderer, the liar, the adversary, goes out to deceive the whole world.

He's not alone. Go back to verse 4. His tail, that is keeping Satan in this motif of a dragon, this image of a dragon. When he fell, he swept away a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth. This depicts the fact that Satan in his fall took with him one-third of the angels. Now that means that there are twice as many holy angels, two-thirds, as fallen angels, one-third, God's force being double that of Satan's. But there were angels who joined in Satan's rebellion.

You can read about his rebellion in Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28 which describes it. And when Satan fell, he took a third of the angels with him. They joined his rebellion against the true God and these fallen angels became the soldiers in Satan's great army.

Now that's not all. Go down to verse 11 and the implied addition to his force. It talks about believers here, the brethren, those who have come to know Christ. It says, they overcame him, that is they overcame the dragon and Satan, because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony and they didn't love their life even to death. Now what does this tell us? It tells us that through the years, Christians are going to be what? Killed, martyred, at the hand of whom?

Human beings. And that takes us down to the final participants in this tremendous warfare and that is the unredeemed people who reject the truth. So you have Satan, fallen angels and the unredeemed people who are hostile against the truth.

Now let me tell you something that you may not have thought of, but it's basic. Satan is not attacking the unregenerate world, okay? He's not attacking the unregenerate world. They're not his enemy. They're on his team.

You understand that? They're participants with him. He's not attacking them.

They already belong to him. They are soldiers in his army. They're his human troops that carry out the demon's wishes, that carry out his schemes. So the wickedness of the world, are you ready for this? The wickedness of the world, the wretchedness of the world is not for the sake of the unregenerate. It is to corrupt God's people. That's what Satan's trying to do.

Why? Because he's trying to destroy God's plan. He's trying to destroy the church, destroy the redeemed. He wants to defeat God. The great war is between Satan and God. Satan hates God, resents God, wants to be above God, and still that war wages in his wicked heart. Now he is not corrupting the world for the sake of the already corrupt.

He's corrupting the world in order that its influences might somehow destroy the purposes of God for his own people. So the whole war is being waged against the redeemed. That's why it's crucial to understand we better know how to fight this deal. And we can't get all caught up in trying to fight it politically or trying to chase demons around and pronounce formulas on them. And who are the targets?

Well let's talk about that more specifically. Verse 1 of this chapter, as this battle unfolds, a great sign appeared in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun and the moon under her feet, on her head a crown of twelve stars. And she was with child, sees this amazing image of this woman who is pregnant. She cried out being in labor and in pain to give birth. She's crying in the very last moments of birth pains about to issue the child. Down to verse 5, and she gave birth to a son, a male child who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron and her child was caught up to heaven and to his throne.

Who is that child? Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ. The first target for the satanic war is Christ. He's the first target. From the very beginning of God's redemptive plan, way back in Genesis, the enemy began to work his attack. In Genesis 3, 15, there is the promise that Satan is going to come out and bruise the heel of the Messiah, right? He's going to assault the Messiah when he comes. When the baby was born in Bethlehem, you remember that Herod sent out the decree that every male child at two years and under should be massacred.

What was that? That was Satan in another attempt to destroy the Messiah at his birth. And then he thought he could pin him on the cross and keep him dead and keep him in a tomb and had the Romans seal the tomb. It's always been that he wants to destroy Christ because Christ is, of course, the key to God's whole redemptive purpose. And why doesn't Satan want it? Because Satan does not want a whole redeemed humanity taken to glory to do nothing but praise God forever and ever because he hates God so greatly. He doesn't want that glory for God.

Secondly, as I already noted, he targets someone other than just Christ. Look at verse 6. Here we read about the woman who gave birth to the child.

You should have some hint about who this woman is. It's not Mary. On her head in verse 1, she had 12 stars. That refers to the 12 tribes of Israel and you come in verse 6 and find that this woman fled into the wilderness where she had a place prepared by God so that there she might be nourished for 1260 days.

That's three and a half years. That's the second half of the seven-year tribulation known as the time of Jacob's trouble. And the woman is Israel.

The Messiah was born of Israel. The woman Israel in the time of tribulation will be persecuted by Antichrist and the abomination of desolations in the middle of that seven-year period. He will come against Israel, try to do genocide again. And again, Satan always wants to wipe out Israel.

One way or another to destroy them, to wipe them out. Then verse 7, here we find another participant, the demons coming after another target, the holy angels. There was war in heaven, Michael and his angels waging war with the dragon. Satan goes after the holy angels.

I don't know about that warfare. We have a hint of it as I mentioned in Daniel 9, but there is a tremendous war going on between demons in the spiritual realm and holy angels and they are battling at that level as well. And then we come down to the last targets and that's us. Verse 10, I heard a loud voice in heaven saying, now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ have come for the accuser of our brethren has been thrown down. The first thing that Satan does against the believers is go up to heaven and stay there in the presence of God day and night and accuse us. It says he accuses them before our God day and night.

He is incessantly up there accusing us to God. What is he telling him? He's telling him about everything he knows about you and everything he knows about me, everything he knows about us. And he may not know all of us, obviously he's not omniscient and he's not omnipresent, so he doesn't know everything that goes on and he doesn't know everything about everybody. There's nothing in Scripture to indicate he can even read your mind. But he does know enough about Christians to have a long list of the things they do they ought not to do, right? And so he's up there and some he knows probably very well and he's up there in heaven constantly accusing like some lawyer trying to bring an indictment that sticks. And he's telling God how unworthy we are and how undeserving and how unfaithful and unloving and how we violate His commands and we continually sin and we continually fail, we continually disobey and he continually beleaguers God through all the years since redemption started about the unfaithfulness and the unworthiness of believers. He attacks us at that level. Then on earth, go to verse 17, the dragon was enraged with the woman who was Israel and so he goes off to make war with the rest of her offspring.

Now who is that? One thing that happens in the Tribulation is really interesting. Toward the end of the Tribulation there is a tremendous conversion of Jews and God picks 144,000 of them, 12,000 from every tribe to evangelize the world and they do that and they're successful. They're so successful that Revelation 7 says there's an innumerable number of people who are converted out of every tongue and tribe and people and nation. The greatest evangelism the world has ever known will be done by Jews during the Tribulation after they've come to know their Christ. So the Jews are going to have offspring, that's what verse 17 is saying.

They're going to have offspring, that is those people who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus, believers. And the dragon is mad at them. Now here we find it again, Satan is against Christ, he is against holy angels, he is against Israel and he is against believers in any age, in every age.

And that gets the battle right down to us. Satan's coming after you and he's developed a whole world system to do it. But you can stand against him. How do you do that? Go back to Ephesians 6.

It's very simple in terms of the expression. Put on the full armor of God that you may be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil, verse 11. Verse 13, take up the full armor of God. He says it twice, that you may be able to resist in the evil day. When's the evil day? Any day that evil really comes.

And that having done everything, you stand. The idea is to stand your ground firm against the onslaughts of Satan when he comes in the day that perpetrates evil. I don't know how it is in your life, but I've noticed that there are...there are those days that seem quiet on the front. There are those days when I don't feel too embattled, when my heart is filled with joy and there's a rest and a peace, and I accomplish things for the kingdom and the Word is alive in my life and quickened in my spirit.

I mean, there are those wonderful happy joyful days, and you rejoice because your mind is free and clear. And then there are those evil days when you just feel like all the guns are pointed and you just...the devil just rages. And in those evil days we need to be able to stand firm and resist the devil so that he turns and what?

Flees from us. And the way to do that is to put on the full armor of God. This is Grace to You with John MacArthur.

Thanks for being with us. John is a pastor, author, and chancellor of the Masters University and Seminary. He's titled our current study, The Courageous Christian. John, as you talked about spiritual warfare today, you reminded us that as Christians, we're like soldiers who need to arm ourselves before we go into battle. We have to prepare every day to face temptation and spiritual conflict, and you urged us not to walk into the battle with anything less than the full armor of God. Talk about what that preparation, that daily spiritual arming for battle, looks like.

Yeah, I think although there are different armor pieces depicted in the graphic description that Paul gives in Ephesians, they all come down to some divine truth. Your feet are shod solidly with the gospel of peace. You've made peace with God.

You understand that he holds you, and you can stand firm in him. The breastplate of righteousness means you're covered and protected by the righteousness of Christ, and you learn about that in his word, what it means to have his imputed righteousness granted to you as an unworthy sinner. And the helmet is the security of the believer, that no blow is going to take away your salvation.

The helmet of salvation means that you have the assurance of protection from all the blows that's going to come against what God has promised you, and the sword of the Spirit is the word of God. So everything goes back to what Scripture teaches. So the believer is armed for spiritual warfare and victory in that warfare by the word of God, by knowing the truth. And that means reading God's word every day, and that allows me to mention, since this is the last day of the year, the MacArthur Daily Bible. This takes you verse by verse through the entire Bible, one day at a time. Every day you'll read a section of the Old Testament, part of the New Testament, some from the Psalms and Proverbs, and 365 days later, when the year is over, you will have covered the entire Bible. Every day there's also a devotional that is drawn out of the section you've been reading. Great for husbands and wives to commit to reading through this one-year Bible together aloud, or even independently in kind of comparing your notes. Great for family devotions.

Great to have at the office when you're at work, wherever you are, even in your car when you get a break if you're on the road. So if you want a copy of the MacArthur Daily Bible, helping you read through the Bible any year, go to gty.org. gty.org. When our staff returns to the office, we'll process your order and get your Daily Bible to you in a few days. You can jump on the day you receive and catch up sometime later. But order the MacArthur Daily Bible today at gty.org. Yes, I encourage you to pick up the MacArthur Daily Bible. It really can help you read Scripture consistently. Plus, the select study notes by John will help you dig even deeper into the truths of God's Word. To order the MacArthur Daily Bible for yourself or for a few to give out as gifts, get in touch today. You can get the MacArthur Daily Bible for a reasonable price and shipping is free. As John said, our staff is currently enjoying some time off with friends and family, so the best way to order is by visiting gty.org. That's our web address.

Once more, gty.org. And just a quick reminder, this is the last day you can make a tax-deductible donation for 2020. Listener support is always crucial, but it's especially important here at year's end.

About 25% of our annual budget is met by year-end gifts. So as we prepare for a new year of ministry opportunities, thanks for doing what you can to help us start 2021 on a sound financial footing. To express your support and help keep Grace to You a strong voice in your community and beyond, mail your gift postmarked by December 31st to Grace to You, Box 4000, Panorama City, CA 91412. Or donate online by midnight tonight at gty.org. That's our web address. One more time, gty.org. Now for John MacArthur, I'm Phil Johnson, encouraging you to be here tomorrow as we kick off the new year with another 30 minutes of unleashing God's truth, one verse at a time, on Grace to You.