THE REAL ENEMY

Ephesians 6:11-12 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.

The Bible says we are to stand against the wiles of the devil, and we are to wrestle or fight against the principalities, powers, rulers of the darkness of this age, and against the wicked spiritual hosts. If you are a Christian, that is what you are to do.

I believe we confuse spiritual warfare with cultural warfare, and the two are totally different.

We obviously see the devil’s influence in our culture. As a matter of fact in 2 Corinthians 4:4, the Bible calls Satan the god of this age.

He is influencing this culture tremendously because, in general, our culture consists mainly of lost people, and a lost person is not engaged in spiritual warfare because lost people do not have a basis from which to fight.

What do I mean?

Spiritual warfare begins when a person becomes a Christian.

A Christian is attacked by the wiles of the devil, by his demons, and by all the tools the devil has in his shed. He fights an unending battle against you while you are on this side of the grave. The Devil’s goal is to oppress as many Christians as possible. Spiritual warfare, and I believe this is where we miss what Paul is saying, is the inward and outward battle we face against the enemies of God, but who is God’s enemy, and therefore, our enemy?

1 Peter 5:8 Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.

The Devil is our enemy. He is walking around like a roaring lion looking to devour every Christian.

Now, we might think the Democrats are our enemy. We might think the Republicans are our enemy. We might think that homosexuality is our enemy. We might think abortion is our enemy. We might think Communism is our enemy, but we would be wrong. The devil is our enemy.

Those things I listed are byproducts of a society that has dismissed God, and if a Christian focuses on the things I listed as the enemy, the devil has successfully attacked that Christian and kept that Christian from engaging the real enemy.

Spiritual warfare is to be waged against the devil, principalities, and powers of this world and not necessarily against the lost culture.

I. The Doctrine of Demons

Did you know there was a doctrine of demons? Did you know it is found in the Bible?

1 Timothy 4:1-3 Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron, forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth.

The doctrine of demons is the plan Satan uses to attack Christians.

The doctrine of demons has been used by Satan to attack Christians and the church since the Day of Pentecost, and his doctrine has some strategic elements.

(A) Speaking lies in hypocrisy

Satan attacks the integrity of God’s Word.

The Bible is inerrant. It is God’s Holy Word. It was inspired by the Holy Spirit and written over thousands of years, and Satan attacks it in the lives of Christians.

2 Timothy 3:16-17 All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.

When God’s Word says do not, guess what God’s Word means? Do not!!! When God’s Word says do, guess what God’s Word means? DO!!!!! But how many times do we hear Christian people say: “Well, I just do not believe that is what the Bible means.” Dear friend, if God did not mean what He says in His Word, He should have said what He meant.

How does this attack on the integrity of God’s Word rear its ugly head?

· Women preachers

· Preachers with a husband instead of a wife

· Preachers who have been divorced

· Christians not obeying God’s commands

· Forsaking church attendance

Listen if God’s Word says that we are not to forsake the assembly and you choose to do that, guess what the Devil has successfully done in your life? He has gotten you to dismiss the integrity of God’s Word.

God, in His Word, expects you to be in church. It does not matter what excuse you offer. You are losing the battle because Satan has gotten you to compromise on the integrity of God’s Word. He has spoken unto you lies of hypocrisy, and you have believed him.

(B) Having a seared conscience

A conscience that is seared is a conscience that does not feel the sharpness of the two-edged sword which is the Word of God. The Devil wants your senses to become dull to the convicting power of God’s Word.

He has successfully done this to you if you hold a grudge or harbor ill feelings toward someone. I heard that someone, now this is true, said this about a church member that attends the same church this person attends. I am not going to give the church name, but it is a local church. This person said, “I don’t like him, and he don’t like me.” Well, I am telling you friend that church would be better off if that person did not come.

We are to love our brothers and sisters in Christ, and if you refuse to do so, 1 John says that you do not have the love of God abiding in you.

If a person can sit through a church service, harboring those kinds of feelings, that person’s conscience has been seared to the point that God’s Word cannot penetrate his or her defenses.

That person is losing the battle, and while that person is losing the battle, he or she is dismissing God’s hand of chastisement trying to get him or her to realize the sin in his or her life.

( C ) Forbidding to marry

Forbidding to marry is a plank in the demonic platform.

Now, do not get distracted by what is going on in society in regard to marriage.

Forbidding to marry in this passage is a demonic strategy to attack marriage within the church.

Let me ask you a question. Is traditional marriage being attacked within the church? Absolutely it is. Let me ask you a serious question. In churches all across this nation, there are couples living together claiming to be Christians. That is not Biblical. The Bible says that is fornication. So, why would the church condone it?

The church gets all in an uproar over lost Tom marrying lost Steve, but where is the uproar over sweet little Suzie living with sweet little Tim? It is okay Jimmy; they are going to get married. I am telling you friend the Devil has successfully attacked you if you think one is worse than the other.

All sexual immorality is a sin, and Paul is specifically addressing marriage in the confines of a church, but I wonder why Christians view homosexuality as being worse than a cohabitation of heterosexuals outside the sanctity of marriage.

Well, I will tell you why. Satan has attacked the integrity of God’s Word in your life if you believe one is worse than the other, and your conscience has been seared to the point that biblical truth cannot penetrate you.

A man and a woman are not to live together as a couple outside of marriage, and churches should not condone. Marriage as an institution was sanctioned by God. It is to be the union of one man to one woman. It is to be as strong as the union between Christ and His church, and if you think you can live with someone outside of marriage, you are wrong.

II. Satan’s Soldiers

A. Lieutenant Doubt

Satan gives Lieutenant Doubt the orders to create just what his name suggests, doubt. Satan wants the Christian to have doubts. Do you remember how he started his conversation with Eve?

Genesis 3:1 Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?”

This joker is so slick. He did not just come out and say God did not say that did he? In his cunning, he tried to create doubt in Eve’s mind. “Eve, are you sure God said that? How do you know He said that Eve? You were not even created yet. How do you know Adam told you the truth?”

Satan successfully attacked the inerrancy of God’s Word, and his attack created doubt in the mind of Eve.

How do I know that? Did she eat the fruit of that tree? Why did she eat it? Because she doubted what God’s Word said in regard to the fruit of the tree. When Satan successfully attacks the inerrancy of God’s Word in your life as a Christian, you are in big trouble.

B. Captain Fear and Major Worry

Did you know fear and worry are evil spirits? Do you recognize them as enemies that we are to fight?

2 Timothy 1:7 For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.

If the spirit of fear and worry is not from God, from whom do they come? SATAN!!!

Captain Fear and Major Worry are soldiers used by Satan.

Did you know fear and worry keep you from living in God’s promises as a Christian?

Romans 8: 32 He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?

God has a purpose for your life if you are a Christian, and He did not spare Jesus so He could freely give you all things. Dear friend, God is not wanting to keep anything good from us, but we let Captain Fear and Major Worry rob us of those things God wants to give.

Can I tell you what the Devil does from recent personal experience? The devil gets us to worry about everything.

Do you know what the Devil gets us to worry about?

· Health

· Finances/Jobs

· Children/Family

· Politics

· Recreation

How do I know that worry/fear are both things we are to fight spiritually? Because Paul wrote that God did not give us the spirit of fear, and if it did not come from God, where does it come?

I could share a verse for each of those things I listed in which God tells us not to worry, fret, or fear over them. Let me ask you a question. Have you ever worried or feared over any of the things I listed? If you have, the Devil won the victory that day. Do you want proof? Well, Jesus will give it to you.

Matthew 6:25-27 “Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?

What good does worrying or fear do? It does you no good, but it gives the Devil a victory. Christ said you are more valuable than the birds of the air, and God takes care of the birds. How much more is He going to take care of you?

Christ did not die for you to live in fear and worry. Christ died so that you would have life more abundantly, a life in which He promises to provide for all your needs.

C. Colonel Anxiety

Anxiety is another soldier in the army of Satan. How do I know the devil attacks Christians with anxiety?

Philippians 4:6a Be anxious for nothing

The Bible says be anxious for nothing. If we do experience anxiety, who is attacking us? Our adversary is. The Devil creates in us an “uptightness” about many things.

God says, however, that we can overcome that anxiety. Do you know how?

Philippians 4:6-7 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

The peace that passes all understanding is the complete opposite of anxiety. Is it not?

You can have that peace through prayer and thanksgiving, but the Devil convinces us that what we are anxious over is bigger than what God can handle. How do I know that is true? Because the Bible says for me not to be anxious, and if I am, God will give me a peace that passes all understanding through prayer and thanksgiving, and if I get to that point, I am being attacked by Lieutenant Doubt.

III. God’s Plan for Victory

James 4:7-8 “Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.”

A. God does not dismiss the enemy.

James 4:7 says the devil will flee from where? It says he will flee from you.

If he is fleeing from you, where is he when he is attacking you? He is attacking you from the flesh because you have given him permission to do so. You have given him a place.

Ephesians 4:30-32 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice. And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.

When you sin, you give the devil permission to create a stronghold in your life from which he launches his attack with his Satanic soldiers.

Paul lists specifically some sins that open the door to that Ole Rascal, bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, evil speaking, and malice. God does not dismiss the enemy. Do you?

B. God demands submission.

Before we can chase the devil from his position of strength, we must submit to God.

The devil will never leave the stronghold we allowed him to establish without us submitting to God. So, how do we submit? In the Bible, submission means to yield to one who has Biblical authority. In a Christian’s life, that is supposed to be Jesus Christ. How do we submit to Him?

1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

We submit to Jesus as Christians when we confess our sins and are forgiven of those sins and from all unrighteousness. Do not expect to win the spiritual battle if you do not confess your sins.

If your try to tell the Devil to leave you alone without confessing your sins, he will laugh in your face, but if we do as God has said, we will be able to resist.

C. God strengthens our resistance.

When you submit to God, you recognize His authority in your life, and He will strengthen your ability to resist your adversary.

You can resist the Devil, and he will leave you alone if you are submissive to God. Submission is the key.

Satan is not sovereign. Only God is sovereign, and if you give God sovereignty in your life, He will give you the ability to resist Satan at least until the next attack comes.

1 Corinthians 10:13 “No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.”

Dear friend, I am telling by the power of God’s Word that you are making a big mistake if you frame what is going on in your life in a cultural framework. It is not cultural. It is spiritual.

Spiritual warfare began for you when you became a Christian. You are engaged in the battle. There is no such thing in this war as a conscientious objector. You will engage the enemy or be devoured by him. Our enemy is as a lion stalking its next Christian prey, but God makes it possible for you to resist him.