Satan's Attack on the Spirit-Filled Church (Includes Rev. 2-3)

We'll be right back. We'll be right back.

We'll be right back. And Satan goes about as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. Paul says we cannot be ignorant of his devices. The Apostle Paul graphically describes his combat with Satan. He says in Ephesus, for example, there's a wide open door and there are many adversaries, spiritual adversaries. So we have to battle the foe, the arch enemy of God, Lucifer, the fallen angel, and all of his demon hordes, and even all the human people who are a part of his kingdom of darkness. In order to go into that battle, we have to be protected and prepared. And each piece of armor has a very clear spiritual significance.

There are symbols of preparedness to do battle with the enemy. The believer's armor is going to be a powerful, powerful experience for those of you who listen through to this series. And especially if you have copies already of the study guide on this, you're going to be doubly blessed. We're going to be looking at 15 verses in Ephesians 6. These verses will help us define the battle, learn how the enemy attacks, learn what he uses to discourage, distract, and destroy. We're going to look at the spiritual weapons that we possess, the role of prayer, principles for the power of God to be unleashed in our lives.

This study is a really important one for the one who seems to be losing battles. And we all lose them sometimes. Some people seem to be losing them more times than others, and certainly more times than necessary. So to borrow the words of Peter, gird up your loins and put your armor on as Paul lays it out. God gives you plenty of protection and offensive power to win the spiritual battle. Each piece of armor is important.

Don't miss a day. How do you resist the temptation Satan throws at you? What defense do you have? Find out right now as John shows you the powerful protection you have as a Christian. Here he is to look at the believer's armor. You'll notice in verse 10 of Ephesians 6, Finally, my brother, and be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in the heavenlies.

And we'll stop there. As I was reading that, I was saying to myself, that really is the way to end the book of Ephesians. Because what the Apostle Paul is saying is this. If you are a true Christian as defined in chapter 1, chapter 2, and chapter 3, and if you are living the way a true Christian should live as defined in chapter 4, 5, and 6, then you can be sure of one thing and that is that you are going to run right into the enemy. It is impossible to live in the manner that Ephesians outlines without having conflict with Satan.

It's impossible. And that's why having said all of this, he says the final thing you need to know is that you have to be strong, you have to put on the armor of God because you're in a spiritual war. It's a war. I remember when I first came to Grace Church that I thought it was a honeymoon. And then a few years later I kind of felt that it wasn't quite so adventurous, it was more like work.

I'd have to crank out all these sermons, preach them on Sunday, start all over again on Monday again. And since I hadn't had any backlog, I was racing like mad to stay up. And it was work. I woke up and realized it isn't a honeymoon and it isn't work, it's war. We're in a battle.

It's a war. And that's essentially what Paul is saying here. If we are, as Ephesians 4, 1 says, walking worthy of the vocation to which we're called, if we're walking in humility, in unity, not in the vanity of our mind as the Gentiles, if we're putting on the new man, if we're walking in love, not lust, if we're walking in light, not darkness, if we're walking in wisdom, not foolishness, if we're not drunk with wine but filled with the Spirit, if we're not singing the world songs but psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, and if rather than being proud and individualistic we are submitting ourselves one to another, and if we are submitting as wives should to husbands as to the Lord, and if husbands are loving their wives as Christ loved the church, and if children are obeying their parents and parents are nurturing and rearing their children in the things of God, and if employees and employers have right relationships biblically and with Spirit-filled impact, then believe me, we will counter the system. I think American Christianity has become very smug and very content and almost sub-cultural. Rather than confronting, we're just kind of waltzing along with the system, trying to accommodate it.

We believe we can win them by becoming what they are, but just the opposite is true. We have to counter the system. Well, we need to be aware of the fact that Satan's going to attack. You know, James in chapter 4 says, Resist the devil and he'll flee from you. First Peter chapter 5 verse 8 and 9, Peter says, Be sober, be vigilant.

Why? Because your adversary, the devil, like a roaring lion, walks about, seeking whom he may devour, whom resist steadfast in faith, knowing the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world. In other words, Satan is going to be there, resist him, be sober, be vigilant, be aware, be alert, and know what he's doing. Second Corinthians 2-11 says that we should not be ignorant of his devices lest he gain an advantage of us. In Acts chapter 20, Paul was talking to those same leaders in the Ephesian church, and he said to them this, he said, I know that after my departing grievous wolves shall enter in, not sparing this flock, and of your own selves shall men arise, teaching perverse things. He says, I know as well as I know my name. I know as well as I know the sun comes up tomorrow. You're going to get it as soon as I leave, from outside and inside.

Wolves from the outside and false teachers from the inside. Therefore, verse 31 of Acts 20, I have not ceased to warn you night and day for the space of three years with tears, he said. Part of the ministry is a warning ministry. When God has blessed us as He has, when God has multiplied our audience as He has, and God is using us to cut a path through this evil world, then believe me, Satan is going to come after us. And we have to be ready.

And we have to get the armor on. But first of all, we've got to understand his attack. We've got to understand his ploy. We do not want to be ignorant of his devices. How does Satan attack us?

Well, for the answer to that, I want you to turn to Revelation chapter 1. You know, I had an interesting thing happen to me one time. I went into a room I was called into where a girl was filled with demons and the demons all had different voices. They used her mouth and so forth to speak, but the voices were not hers. And it was amazing because there was a terrible thing going on in this room and this girl had flipped over a desk and was slashing and smashing things around. And when I walked in the door, all of a sudden she hit the chair and just looked at me in a frenzied look and in a voice not her own because I knew her own voice. The voice said, get him out! Not him!

Get him out! And my reaction to that was, I was excited because I was glad those demons knew whose side I was on. They know.

Believe me. They know me and they know what God is doing here. And they'll try to stop it.

And the way they'll stop it or try to stop it is through you. Because the church is only a collection of links like a chain and only as strong as its weakest one. Satan is going to attack.

How does he attack? I believe the Lord shows us in the letters of Revelation 2 and 3. I believe in the letters to the churches, the seven churches of Asia Minor, the first of which is Ephesus, and then the others that were literally born out of the Ephesian church, the other six being also in Asia Minor. I believe the Lord gives us insight into how Satan attacks the church. Now let's set the scene by looking at Revelation chapter 1 and verse 9. John the beloved apostle is on the Isle of Patmos in exile for his faith, and here it is that God gives him marvelous visions. And in these visions, he sees what God wants to reveal about the church. Now you will notice in verse 10, John says, I was in the Spirit, and by that I think he means that he is in a position to receive revelation from the Spirit on the Lord's day.

That would be on a Sunday. Now the Lord has a word for these seven churches. Most interestingly, these are seven historical, actual, real churches. But they are also prototypes of churches that exist in all periods of church history because each of them has a unique characteristic to which the Lord speaks. And there are churches in every age, including today, that could be classified as Ephesian churches or Smyrna churches or Pergamum churches or Thyatira or Sardis or Philadelphia or Laodicean churches.

And so they are not just historical churches, though they are that, but they present to us a prototype for other periods of history. Now notice the scene in verse 12. I turned to see the voice that spoke to me and being turned I saw seven golden lampstands. What are the seven golden lampstands? Verse 20 tells you at the end, the seven lampstands are the seven churches.

So here is John's vision. He sees a lampstand which is symbolic of each of the churches and the lamp is blazing, it's lit. And the church is to be a light in the world, isn't it?

It's to be the place that lights up the darkness. And so there they are, the seven churches of Asia Minor, each represented by a lampstand. And in the midst of the seven lampstands, one like the Son of Man.

This is Jesus Christ and He's moving in His church. He's moving through the church and He's clothed with a garment down to the foot. By the way, garments like that were worn by priests, prophets and kings. And so the consummation of all of those elements in Christ.

He was girded about His middle with a golden girdle. His head and His hair were white like wool, as white as snow, speaking of His holiness and His purity. And His eyes were like a flame of fire, searching and penetrating. So here is the Lord and we see Him in His kingly, priestly, prophetic garb. And we see Him with white so that He symbolizes purity. And then His eyes searching, penetrating as He evaluates the church. And His feet like fine bronze as if they burned in a furnace.

Why? Because He has to judge His church sometimes. Peter even said it, judgment must begin at the house of God. And we see also that His voice is like the sound of many waters, a great commanding authoritative voice. He had in His right hand seven stars.

What are they? Verse 20 tells you. The seven stars in the middle of the verse are the angels or the ministers of the seven churches. And so in His hand are the ministers and He moves among the churches, evaluating, searching, penetrating, examining the churches, getting ready to write the seven letters.

His evaluation is in chapter 1, the result is in chapter 2 and 3. And so He begins, John does, with the letters in chapter 2. And what does the Lord say to these churches?

Well, beloved, let me tell you, these are seven absolutely incredible letters. Five of them, mark it, are warnings. To two of the churches, there is no warning. To the church at Smyrna and Philadelphia, apparently there needed to be no warning. The church at Smyrna was the persecuted church. The church at Philadelphia was the evangelizing, aggressive, soul-winning church.

It seems to me that those two things are wonderful preservatives. When a church is persecuted, it tends to maintain its purity because all of the impurity drops out. You're not about to identify with an outfit where you're going to get persecuted unless you're pretty serious, right? So persecution has a way of purifying and so does evangelism.

Because as long as your heart is toward the world and as long as you're aggressively reaching the lost, you tend to be going outward rather than ingrown. In the Philadelphia church, the church with the open door was a blessed church. In the Smyrna church, the church it was being rained on by the fires of the opposition was a blessed church. But the other five stood in need of deep warnings. And there's a progression to the five warnings. They start at what seems a very light kind of situation and they become so oppressive as to finally become apostate and the church which is utterly no church at all. There's a descending thing that we've seen happen in many churches throughout history. I'm very much aware that the same thing can happen to us. It's happened to thousands and thousands and thousands of churches around the world.

You start out so good. You start out like the Ephesian church did and the descent comes and pretty soon you've got nothing left. I've been in auditoriums in this country that seat 4,000 people. On a Sunday morning, there's 150 liberals huddled in the front and that's it. I've seen that. I've seen God write Ichabod on a lot of things and a lot of churches. So what do we need to be warned about?

Let's look and see. First of all, the thing that hit the church at Ephesus, they left their first love. They left their first love. This is enough to make a message all on its own. Notice verse 1, This is the Son of Man. This is Jesus Christ writing to His own church.

This isn't somebody's opinion. This is Christ. And He says in verse 2 to them, I know Thy works. And man, it was a fabulous story in Ephesus. It was an incredible history there, how they had literally thrown a city into confusion and chaos. They had overturned a system of religion. That little group of believers that started out in the midst as if they were an island of purity and a sea of wretchedness, had been able to so infiltrate and purify parts of that city that they brought to a halt some of the most complex systems of religion at that time. That little group of people had an incredible beginning and who could think of a better one to begin it than Paul? And who could think of more wonderful pastors than Apollos who was the greatest proclaimer of the Word of God and oratorical ability perhaps that ever lived and better than Timothy who was one who would teach them the same things in the same way Paul did? They had those people for their leaders.

And they were a working church. I know your kapas, he says, your hard work to the point of sweat. You really go after it. You're involved, your labor, your patience.

You have hupomone. You are able to endure through the tough times. And man, being in Ephesus wasn't an easy place. The center of the worship of Diana, one of the seven wonders of the world. The temple was an incredible mess. There were scores of eunuchs, thousands of priestess, prostitutes, herald singers, flautists, and on and on, just creating a hysteria of music and orgy and drunkenness and frenzy and sexual mutilation so that Heraclitus said that the morals of the people of that temple were less than that of animals. But the preaching of Paul had so affected all of that that the idol sales dropped off and a riot resulted. They were a tremendous church.

They had endurance in the midst of a tough place, really tough. And he says not only that, but you know, you can't bear them that are evil. You can't handle those that are evil, he says. You're dealing with sin. You don't tolerate sin for a minute when somebody comes along and they're doing evil.

You deal with that. You are intolerant of sinners. Look at verse 6. It says, And this thou hast, that thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. Whatever this thing was, and we're not really sure, it seems to have come from that.

We know that it has to do with licentious, lewd, immoral, evil, fornicating type of behavior. And he says, You hate that. You have the works going. You're laboring.

You're patient. You don't tolerate sin. And verse 2 says, You even try them who say they are apostles and are not.

In other words, you deal with the false teachers. You have a biblical standard. You've got a statement of faith. You've got a theology and you measure men by it. You're doctrinally solid. You're dealing with sin. You're working hard. Man, it sounds like a great church. And it says in verse 3, Repeating, You have borne, you've endured things in the past and you've come out all right.

And you have patience. And for My name's sake you labored. Listen, that's the greatest motive for anything a Christian does. For My name's sake you did it. The glory of God was their motive, the highest motive in all the universe. You even had the right motive. You were serving My glory, My name.

And you labored and you didn't faint. Well, what a great church. Man, doctrinally solid, busy, unmasking the false teachers, disciplining those that were sinning.

They really had it together. But they had one fatal flaw. And you go back to verse 14 of chapter 1 and you see that Christ's eyes are like a flame of fire. They search and they penetrate and the searching, penetrating eyes of Jesus Christ found a fatal flaw in verse 4.

Nevertheless, I have this against Thee because Thou hast left Thy first love. This is the church where love died, orthodoxy, activity without love. When they read it, it must have hit like a thunderbolt because nobody thinks he loves God as much as the orthodox do, the fundamental, the evangelical.

And yet their definition of love wasn't God's. They missed the one basic thing that Jesus had said to Peter three times, Peter, before I ask you to feed My sheep, I've got to ask you something else. Peter, do you love Me? Peter, do you love Me? Peter, do you love Me?

If you say yes, then feed My sheep. Why? Because you cannot be effective for God apart from loving the Lord with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. This is one of the greatest churches in all history. And yet the Lord's penetrating eyes found this fatal flaw. They had turned in their hot hearts for cold orthodoxy. They were becoming those who simply carried out a very biblical ministry. There just wasn't any passion there. If we ever get to the place where what we do is an orthodox performance without love, that's step one and Satan has a foothold.

And you don't even want to know what the rest of the steps are, but you're going to find out. When you come to the place where the honeymoon ends and you don't do what you do out of an overwhelming love for Jesus Christ, you're in real trouble. Look at your own life. Is the enthusiasm for Christ there or is the thrill gone? Is it a fair description of your Christian life to say, well, I just kind of do it, I don't have the same love I used to have? If you love anything in this world more than you love Jesus Christ, you've lost your first love. Your self, your family, your leisure, money, success, anything, you've lost it. If the honeymoon's over in your life like it was in Ephesus, we're in real trouble, real trouble. If you're serving the Lord Jesus Christ as an orthodox performance rather than a passion of love for Him, then you've missed it. You have missed it altogether.

You say, well, what do I do if I feel that way? Verse 5, three things, remember, remember. You know, it's amazing, spiritual defection usually comes from forgetting. Spiritual defection usually comes from forgetting. And so he says, remember.

Did you forget what it used to be? Remember how it was before your love grew cold. Remember that warmth and that fire and that joy and that exhilaration. Remember, secondly, repent. Remember therefore from where you're fallen and repent.

It is a fall, you know. Not to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and your neighbor as yourself, not to have that first love for Him and for others, not to have that first love is a fall from which you must repent. Listen, if the first reaction you have to a believer is anything but love, you've lost your first love. If the first reaction you have to Jesus Christ is anything less than consummate love, you've lost your first love and you need to repent. And then he says a third thing, remember, repent and repeat and do the first works. Go back to how it used to be. If it's cold mechanical service and orthodoxy, go back to where it all started. Get back to your knees, get back to the book, get back to witnessing, get back to fellowship, get back to prayer, get back to sharing and praising the Lord.

Stay close to the fire. That's what he's saying. You know what happened in Ephesus? They didn't do it. They didn't remember and they didn't repent and they didn't repeat. And so what it says in verse 5 happened, I will come unto thee quickly and remove thy lampstand out of its place except I repent. The church in Ephesus died, went out of existence. Great evangelical, orthodox, historic, monumental church went out of existence because it lost its first love.

Let's pray. Father, we know that judgment must begin at the house of God. Help us, Father, to be warned and aware. We've seen so many churches around us die, so many fade away. Lord, that's not our desire at all.

That doesn't bring you glory. God, help us to be faithful, to maintain that first love, never to compromise with the world, never to tolerate sin, never to substitute reality with form and program and function and organization, never to be filled up with those who are lukewarm pretenders. Help us to be real. Do your work in our midst.

As you move and trim those lamps, may ours be one that shines bright. For your glory in Jesus' name, amen. That's John MacArthur showing you not only how to recognize Satan's attacks, but how to withstand them when they come. The Believer's Armor, that's John's current series here on Grace To You. Now friend, we want to help you take in all you can from this practical series, so let me mention the companion study guide that we've created. It takes you deep into each lesson from the Believer's Armor series, giving you detailed outlines plus questions that will enrich your personal or group study.

It's about 200 pages and it's affordably priced. The Believer's Armor study guide is available right now. Order yours when you contact us today. Call our toll-free number, 800-55-GRACE, or go to our website, gty.org. The Believer's Armor study guide costs $11 and shipping is free. To order a copy of the Believer's Armor study guide for yourself or a few copies for your small group, call us at 800-55-GRACE or go to gty.org. And if you'd like to download the messages in John's radio series on the Believer's Armor, go to gty.org, and there you'll find every message in this series, plus dozens of other topical studies, as well as hundreds of sermons that you've never heard on radio. In fact, all of John's sermons, more than 52 years' worth of them, are free to download in audio and transcript format at gty.org. The website is also the place to purchase John's New Testament commentary series, the MacArthur Study Bible, the systematic theology called Biblical Doctrine, and much more. Our website again, gty.org. Now for John MacArthur and the entire Grace To You staff, I'm Phil Johnson. Thanks for tuning in today and invite a friend to join you tomorrow when John continues his study on the Believer's Armor with another half hour of unleashing God's truth, one verse at a time, on Grace To You.