Mysteries of the Unseen World, Part 2

Today on Summit Life with J.D.

Greer. If you want to keep the devil out of your life, you have to have an active relationship with one much stronger than him, which is not you, it's Jesus. So if you want to go to war against demons, don't focus on the demons at all. Just let Jesus be large in your life.

Let him be in control. Let the gospel saturate every part of you. Welcome to another day of gospel-centered teaching here on Summit Life with Pastor J.D. Greer.

I'm your host, Molly Bitovitch. If you've been a follower of Jesus for any length of time, chances are that you fall into one of two camps when you think about angels and demons. Either you think about angels and demons as just interesting characters from the Bible with no real relevance in today's world or you obsess over spiritual warfare and are constantly worried about demonic influence. But today Pastor J.D. exposes the truth that neither of those approaches are biblical. He titled this message Mysteries of the Unseen World. We're in Ephesians chapter 6, verses 10 to 13.

We are in war and we live in a society that doesn't recognize the presence of the spirit world because we can't see it in a microscope. But don't be so naive. Just because you can't see it in a microscope doesn't mean it's not there. Some of you hear this and you're like, wait a minute, I am studying to be a scientist and I got the whole scientific method that I'm working on. And I mean, come on, if you're a scientist and you're analyzing the weather and you're like, well, that hurricane might have been caused by a low pressure system or a demon was just really ticked off.

I'm not really sure which one. You're going to get laughed out of the academy and you're like, if I believed in what you're saying, I couldn't be a scientist. Fair enough. But let me expand your mind just a tad. You need to realize that when the Bible talks about the effects of the spirit world, it puts them as moral and spiritual forces and not so much natural and biological ones. God set up the world to run naturally and what science does is it rediscovers the principles that God has already laid down known as natural law.

And they are consistent and that's why you can repeat them in a test too. If God ever does interrupt the natural laws of history, like when he raised Jesus from the dead, then he'll make it obvious, okay? Like in raising Jesus from the dead, that's pretty obvious. But that doesn't mean that you no longer let the rules of nature rule your experiments because God set them up.

So you don't have to abandon even slightly the scientific method. What I am saying to you is this, you need to realize that there are certain realities and dimensions to our world that are not captured by a microscope. And just like you have a category for scientific realities, you need a category for spiritual realities. And the instruments used to detect one are not the same, used to detect another. And when you use a microscope to try to detect spiritual realities, that's as crazy as me saying, I wonder if there's radio waves in here? And put my finger on me like, no, I can't feel them, they're not here. You're like, the wrong instrument. Or, you know, I want to see if a room had a light on. So I put my hand in there and was like, let me feel, nope, I can't feel any light, not there.

You have to be crazy, wrong instrument. Just like you got a category for scientific realities, you need one for spiritual realities and the instruments used to detect the one are not the same, used to detect the other. So the first error that people make about the spirit world is that they fail to recognize it is there. Here is the second error that people make. Engaging it wrongly. Engaging it wrongly.

So let's turn our attention to that one with our remaining time today. Paul talks about engaging in warfare with these demonic realities, and here's what he tells the Ephesians. Listen, put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil.

For now, let me just make a few observations about the list in general, okay? Pretty clearly, there are both defensive and offensive weapons. Your defensive armor is in verses 14 through 17, the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the shoes for the spread of the gospel of peace, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation. Those are all defensive. There are offensive weapons, there are only two of those, and they're given in verses 17 and 18, and that is simply the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God, and prayer. Now, here's the thing.

You ready? This is going to disappoint some of you terribly. It really is. These things that he gives you are not that weird. They're actually quite plain, at least the way you and I would think of them, they are.

Truth, salvation, faith, the word of God, prayer. And I want you to hear me out. Some of you, this is really going to offend you, and I need you to wait to the very end of this talk, and maybe even next week before you write me off totally, so just hang with me, okay? Paul does not here instruct them to engage the territorial spirits. He doesn't say, you've got to figure out who the prince of Ephesus is. Y'all, I've been in a lot of Christian circles, and so have some of you, where they tried to do just that, I've been told, pastor, and before your church grows at all, before you realize before you really do any good, you've got to bind the strong man of the area before God can do his work.

A lot of times, this gets combined with sort of a weird kind of prayer walking, where you go claim ground for Jesus, and you banish the demons out of the area. And again, I hate to disappoint you, but Paul doesn't mention that here at all. The same thing is true. Let me be really cautious here.

Again, please just hang with me, and I'll acknowledge there's a lot of stuff I don't understand yet. But the same thing is true here about what a lot of people refer to as warfare pray. I've been inundated with that all my life. I've been told, J.D., you know, your prayers are way too anemic.

They don't really work. You pray for things like greater love of the gospel. You pray for greater faith. You pray for opportunities to preach the word with boldness, and that's all good, but none of that stuff is helpful until we bind the strong man. Paul has given you in Ephesians two model prayers, which we studied in detail. Ephesians 1, 15 through 23, and Ephesians 3, 14 through 21, where he documents what he prays for the church, and in neither of them is he binding and casting out demons. Even here in this passage, verse 18, he tells them exactly what to pray. Look at verse 18, praying at all times in the Spirit, and all prayer and supplication, making supplication for all the saints, which means just asking stuff for stuff for them. Verse 19, and also for me that words may be given to me and opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel. He says, pray for open doors for the gospel.

Nowhere in this section or any other section does Paul instruct Christians to obsess over praying against demonic activity. The weapons of warfare are pretty simple. The belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, shoes of the spread of the gospel, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, the sword of the Spirit, prayer.

Can I summarize all of those for you? Faith in the gospel. He's saying let the gospel cover every part of you so that when it's on your head and on your feet and in your hands and in your heart and in your mouth and around your waist, then you will overcome the work of the enemy. You're like, wait a minute, wait a minute, praying in the Spirit, verse 18, that's got to mean something. Well, we already looked in Ephesians at what praying in the Spirit means.

Remember Ephesians 3? Paul said when you had a sense of the breadth and the height and the depth and the length of the love of God, then you would be filled with all the fullness of God. So what does it mean to pray in the Spirit? It means to pray with a sense of how wide and how high and how long and how deep God's love is. That's what it means to pray in and through the gospel.

But wait a minute, wait a minute, aren't we supposed to bind the strong man? I mean, didn't Jesus pretty clearly talk about that? The place he talked about that was Luke 11. And the place where he makes that statement, Jesus actually told a parable when he made that statement that explained what he meant. And a lot of times people separate those two, so let me put them together for you. You don't need to turn there.

But Jesus makes the statement about the strong man, the stronger man, and all that kind of stuff. Here's where he went. He said, okay, so there's this guy and he lives with a demon. And nobody really wants a demon as a roommate, right?

I mean, some of you had one this year and the year ended and you're really glad they're gone. And the demon didn't pay his half the rent, the demon never cleaned up. And so he says when he kicked the demon out, the guy went through and he cleaned up and he's excited because now the demon's no longer there to leave his milk and his, you know, leave the toilet unflushed and it's just a nasty place. So he cleans up the place, the demon's gone. Well, the demon gets out and realizes how good he had it back at this man 's house, which obviously represents his life. And he's like, hmm, that was a great place. But it was just really tough, just me and that guy, because we're always getting in arguments. What I need to do is I need to find some buddies so that we'll go back and just kind of take over the whole house.

So I'll, you know, have a majority rule. So we get six of his friends and Jesus said the seven of them come back and live in this guy's house. And Jesus makes the statement, and the last state of that man was worse than the first.

Now follow. In that context, Jesus talked about the stronger man who keeps out the strong man. And the point of his parable is this. The point is not just the kicking out of the demons.

The point is letting the presence of Jesus so fill your life and so rule every part, because he is the only one who is strong enough to keep out the devil when he comes back. You throw the demon out and don't put Jesus in control. See, you don't put Jesus in control and the demon just comes back with seven times more strength. Jesus says the only way to get rid of a strong man is the presence of a stronger man in that house to keep him out. Not strong man and you, by the way. A stronger man is not you. That's Jesus.

The point is clear. If you want to keep the devil out of your life, you have to have an active relationship with one much stronger than him, which is not you. It's Jesus. So if you want to go to war against demons, just let Jesus be strong in your life. Don't focus on the demons at all. Just let Jesus be large in your life.

Let him be in control. Let the gospel saturate every part of you. That's what Paul is saying here with these pieces of armor. Again, let it cover your head. Let it cover your, I mean, truth and righteousness and salvation.

My problem with those different is trying to figure out what the difference is in all those. Truth and faith and salvation, they're all the same, essentially. Because what he's saying is you're putting faith in the gospel in every single part of you, because when something is covered and fortified in the gospel, Satan can't touch it. You want to keep Satan out of your marriage? Then you need to learn what it means to establish and ground your relationship in the gospel.

Don't get out your wedding album and anoint it with holy oil and try to figure out what went wrong in the ceremony and what demon planted what. If you're married, you don't want Satan to mess with your marriage, learn to saturate it and ground it in the gospel. You want to keep Satan from messing with your self-esteem, driving you into depression, then learn to establish your identity in the gospel. You want to be able to resist his temptations in your soul that drive you and addict you, then let the gospel fill you with satisfaction in God's presence and love in your life.

The command is not to do warfare per se. Verse 10, the command, this is the command, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Be strong in the Lord. Scholars tell us, commentators, that whenever Paul uses the phrase hakirios in Greek, the Lord, it's a reference not to God-like universe, that dimension of God, but a reference specifically to Jesus.

So what Paul is telling them is be strong in the Lord and in the story of Jesus. Be strong in the gospel and in the power of his might and that is how you will overcome and banquish the enemy. Or just think about the metaphor of darkness that he uses. He calls these the power of darkness, right?

I mean, think about the metaphor. How do you do war against the darkness? If you walk into a room and it is dark, how do you go to war against the darkness?

Flip on the stinking light and the presence of the light drives out all the darkness immediately. Sometimes people focus on Satan when they ought to be focusing on applying the gospel to themselves. 1 Corinthians 1, when Paul is addressing the Corinthian church because they're so divided against each other. And you remember Paul in Romans 16 had said that the spirit of division came from Satan, right? And the Corinthian church was like the Jerry Springer show of churches because it was got dysfunction coming out the wazoo. So when Paul is talking to them about their division, he never tells them in 1 Corinthians to rebuke the spirit of division, not one time.

Instead, he tells them to be united in their minds and charitable to each other. In other words, apply the gospel to this relationship and that'll drive that demon out. 1 Corinthians 5, when he talks about the problem of immorality in the church. But you remember 1 Corinthians 7, Paul said that it's Satan who tempts the saints to immorality. And that church in Corinth, I mean, I mean, because you know the problem there if you remember when we studied this is you got a guy in the Corinthian church who was sleeping with his mom. And some scholars are like, well, maybe it was a stepmom.

You know, that doesn't really matter to me because if you call her mom and take her to the prom, either way, that's a bad deal, okay? We're talking about some messed up sexual stuff going on in the church in Corinth. Paul does not tell them in Corinthians to rebuke the spirit of incest. Instead, he urges the Corinthians to exercise church discipline and encourage this guy to repent.

That means when my kids are rude to each other, right? I don't pull them in this room and grab their head and be like, demons out! Now, I try to teach my kids what the gospel is because it is the gospel that transforms their relationships. Let Jesus be strong in your life.

Let him be present. The demonic cannot touch you. You say, well, pastor, what's the danger? What's the danger of doing some of the other stuff? Yeah, I realize on the scale of things it's probably not that harmful except most of the time it keeps you from focusing on what you ought to be focusing on. Christian growth is growing in the gospel and some people get so focused on the other that they forget the main thing that God has told them to do. I'll give you an example.

It's sort of an easy one to track here. I learned a lot of stuff because a friend of mine in college, his mom was, man, she was all into this kind of spiritual warfare stuff. And the first year of college, this guy had a pickup truck that he drove to college and it got stolen. And we ended up finding it, but somebody broke in the pickup truck and stole it. His mom came down and was like, man, it's my fault this truck got stolen. And I was like, really? She's like, yeah. And I said, I thought it was his fault because everywhere he goes, he left the keys in the ignition. I mean, I'm just throwing that out there.

No, it's my fault. Before he left for college, I got oil and I anointed the doors and I anointed the engine and the tires. I was like, like castrol oil? And he's like, no, no, no, like holy oil. And I was like, oh, holy spirit oil.

Yeah. And we anointed all the parts of the truck, but I forgot to anoint the back window. And that's where the guy broke in. Clearly, it's my fault. And I was like, I mean, I don't want to be respectful. I'm not trying to mock, but I was like, it actually would have been better for you to teach your son to be responsible and not leave the keys in the ignition.

When he went somewhere, that probably would have been a better time. And you get so focused, right? You see what's happening. You're getting so focused on some dimension that you neglect the very things you ought to be doing. What happens is some people get so focused on this weird kind of realm that they neglect the fact that the way you grow in God is to apply the gospel to every part of your life. And I am against everything that would distract you from that one great task. You want Satan out of your marriage? Ground it in the gospel. You want Satan to get out of your habits? You want him to get out of your self-esteem?

You want him out of your life? Ground your life in the gospel and cover your body in every part of you with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Be strong in the Lord. Be strong in Jesus and the power of his might.

And he can't touch you. Here's my point. People engage in warfare wrongly by making it weird and superstitious rather than by simply being strong in the Lord or strong in the gospel. Now, before I end this today, let me just real quick tell you what I'm not saying through all this because I don't want there to be any confusion because this is, I know, a big topic.

Two or three things I'm not saying then I'm gonna give you a conclusion and wrap this up. Number one, I'm not saying we never have direct encounters with demons. I am not saying we never have direct encounters with demons.

Probably you do more so than you realize. I have seen it personally with my own eyes and I want you to understand that every believer has authority over demons, the same authority of Jesus through the gospel. Remember the whole sons of Sceva story where, you know, Jesus, I know, Paul, I know, who are you? What Paul was telling these Ephesians is, here's what you would say back to that demon in that situation. In the middle of the demon's speech, Jesus, I know, and Paul, I recognize, you interrupt him and be like, oh, you know Jesus?

Oh, well, that's great because I know Jesus too. And I'm in Jesus and Jesus is in me. Therefore, I have his authority.

Therefore, by his authority, you have to flee and you have to leave, right? Because I am in him. I am in him. I am in Christ. If he is messing with a certain part of your life, what you say to him is, I've yielded the part of my life that you're wanting to mess with to him, to Jesus, and it belongs to him.

If you want to mess with that part, you gotta go talk to him. If you engage in warfare with Satan, you might get messed up. You might end up beating up like the sons of Sceva. But if you just stand strong in Jesus, you got nothing to worry about. Just be strong in the Lord, Paul says, and the power of his might. Number two, I am not saying that healthy Christians cannot be afflicted themselves by demons. A lot of times people ask, can Christians get demon-possessed?

It's actually, that question comes from a bad English translation. The word demon-possessed is never used in the Bible. The word in the Bible in Greek means demonized. Can you be demonized as a believer and afflicted or afflicted by a demon?

The answer to that is clearly yes. Any part of you that is not surrendered to Jesus and placed under the protection of his blood can be afflicted and manipulated by the demons. I don't even like to say any part of you that is not surrendered to God, because most of you will think that all of your life is surrendered to God and you're not openly rebelling in a particular area. What I mean is any part of you that is not grounded in the Gospel. Many of you, your marriage is surrendered to God, but you've never learned how to relate to each other through the Gospel. Many of you have never learned to see yourself and your dreams and your ambitions through the Gospel. And so even though it is surrendered to God, it is still open to manipulation by Satan, because you haven't learned to put the armor of God on top of it.

See? So no, a Christian cannot be demon-possessed in a sense that a demon takes over the core of your being, because at the core of every true believer is the Gospel. So Satan can't rule that part. But those parts of your life where the Gospel has not taken over and become the pattern and foundation, the demon can afflict and take control of you. And this includes your marriage, your temper, your emotions, your ambitions, your self-esteem, your love of money, anything. Many of you, listen, your problems are spiritually demonically empowered problems. And it's because you haven't learned to ground that part of your life in the Gospel. Finally, thirdly, I'm not saying that when we pray we should do so as if we're ignorant of the spiritual forces that work in our world. We're just not supposed to obsess about them or undergo a bunch of techniques and rituals to encounter them. I give you as an example how I pray for my children.

I did this last night. I say, God, after they've gone to sleep, God, please protect them from the lies and the deception. There is an enemy who is smarter than their daddy, who will make falsehood and idolatry and sin and wickedness look better than what I'm teaching them. Please protect them from the lies and help them to see the beauty of the Gospel. I pray with an awareness that that world is out there, but I don't fix it on it.

I focus on the progress of the Gospel in their hearts. If I could open your eyes to let you see that spirit world, it would drive you in such desperation to God. I mean, when people saw angels, they almost died. Imagine what it would be like to lay your eyes on a demon.

If you saw that, you would feel such a sense. It would drive you to God. You would realize that these temptations that you're engaging in are not harmless temptations.

They are the plan and the schemes of an enemy who wants your absolute destruction. You may think it's not that big of a deal. You're like, I'm not really surrendered to God, but I'm not a bad person. You don't realize that when you say, I will, I'll do what I want to do instead of what God wants me to do, you are participating in cosmic treason, cosmic treason that is led by Satan, cosmic treason, which is designed to take you to the same place that he is going. I will is the mantra of hell.

And some of you need to open your eyes to the fact that this is not a game. It's not harmless. It's not nothing.

It's not, I'm still a good person. This is, I am either under the Lordship of Jesus Christ, or I am marching to the drumbeat of Satan. For those of us in Christ, God is in perfect control of your life and his angels are ever watching, ever protecting. What a reassuring truth today on Summit Life with pastor, author, and theologian J.D.

Greer. We're in a series called Mystery and Clarity, and you can catch up on previous messages or download the transcripts at jdgreer.com. So J.D., we're in the final week of your teaching of the book of Ephesians called Mystery and Clarity. Can you help us sum up what this series is all about for those who may have missed parts of your teaching this month? Well, Molly, this is an older teaching series. In fact, I think you might've been in, I don't know, preschool maybe when I taught this one. But what we do is we open up the book of Ephesians. I'm just kidding. It wasn't that long ago.

And I mean, you're young, but not that young. But Ephesians is one of the most powerful books in the New Testament. I've actually taught through it more than once here. There's so much, so much truth in literally every word you could spend several days just peering into it. We hold up the mystery and the majesty of the gospel to show that no matter how long we go in Christ, how far we travel that road, that there's still a mystery of how great his love is and how incredible his plan is and how for all of eternity we will, like the angels, kind of stand in wonder at the grace and mercy and the glory of our God. But there's also clarity. There's clarity about who God is and what he wants from us. And the gospel is simple enough that a child can understand it.

The gospel is also majestic enough that the greatest theologian is never going to get anywhere close. We want to walk you verse by verse to this book. And so we do what we do a lot, and that is create a Bible study that will help take you deeper at the same time as you listen to these messages. If there's any book of the Bible that you can profit from a chance to ponder and go deeper, it's going to be the book of Ephesians. So take a look, reserve your copy right now.

Just go to jdgrier.com. To help you get a better understanding of God's love for you and who you are in light of that, we'd like to send you a copy of our exclusive Summit Life, Mystery and Clarity, the book of Ephesians Bible study. It comes with our thanks when you donate to support this ministry at the suggested level of $25 or more. Ask for your copy of our new nine-session study, Mystery and Clarity, when you call 866-335-5220. That's 866-335-5220.

Or request the study when you give online at jdgrier.com. I'm Molly Vitovich. Be sure to join us again tomorrow. Pastor JD is teaching us how to suit up spiritually. Thursday on Summit Life with J.D. Greer. Today's program was produced and sponsored by J.D. Greer Ministries.