The Landscape of War - The World, The Flesh, and The Devil

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Introduction -

Self: Abdiel Valerio, director of student ministries here in Faith Church Highland and Munster.

Topic: We are in our 2nd

TENSION

How many of you have ever heard the phrase “choose your battles?”

Some of us know what it means to choose your battles, especially if you’re married. Amen husbands? Thinking about this phrase, it helps us frame potential issues we are currently facing or will have to face in our lives. So we have to choose the most important battles and the battles that might take the most time.

When it comes to these daily battles it’s normal that we tend focus on what we see. What about the things we don’t see that also have an impact on the things that we do see? I am talking today about spiritual warfare.

The battles of the unseen realm are battles we don’t choose to fight, and it’s also important to know that we can’t fight these battles on our own power. The questions we need to answer about these battles are, what are these battles, who is in charge of these battles, and what is our approach to these battles?

Goal

Our goal is to understand the landscape of the war we are in so that we understand how we are meant to push back against the darkness.

PRAY

Transition to Scriptures

We will begin by looking at a specific passage in the Bible which has to be one of my favorite passages, but this passage will give us a grasp of the Landscape of the War we are engaged in.

We will be looking in the book of Ephesians where Paul is the author writing to a group of people who became followers of Jesus in a place where many gods were worshipped. These were a group of people who were outside of God’s chosen nation of Israel yet received life in Christ because of missionaries who brought the gospel to them. We will be reading a portion of this letter that Paul wrote for the purpose of helping these people understand what they were saved from, how they are saved, and what they are saved to and we can have the same hope in it.

Ephesians 2:1–3 (ESV)

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

Paul is laying out the state of all people before life in Christ. This is a description of all of us without Jesus and the powers at work against mankind. In this passage we notice that there are three powers interconnected and work together in the oppression of the state of humanity. This is what will layout the Landscape of the War.

These three powers are The World, The Flesh, and The Devil

What we have to know about these three powers are that they are cooperating together to separate humanity from God. It’s not enough to focus on one of them and then leave out the other two. It’s important we recognize each of the three so we know how to push back.

If you try and put all your energy in taming the flesh (moral changes), you still have the world and the devil

If you try and remove yourself from the world (materials, culture, education etc.) you will still have battles of the desires of the flesh and the power of the devil

If you focus too much on trying to defeat the devil, you will tire yourself trying to defeat an unseen enemy while still battling the unseen powers at work in the seen world and desires of the flesh.

So let’s describe these three powers in detail and how they are at work together.

Let’s start with...

THE WORLD

Ephesians 2:1–2 (ESV)

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—

So what we read here is that we were dead, but we were walking in our death. This is not a foreshadowing to the show the Walking Dead. This is talking about a spiritual death. It simply means to be dead, not ill, not in pain, straight up dead. In this death, we were under the influence of the course of the world.

The question we have to answer is,

What is meant by WORLD?

This isn’t talking about the created world: trees, oceans, sky…creation

What is meant by the world can be described like this:

It is the outlook and the mentality and the organization of life apart from God.

Martin Lloyd Jones

The world is a mentality, an outlook, a view of life without God. God is shut right out; it is man himself viewing and organizing life and controlling life. It is this mentality that is described as ‘the world.’

To be without God is to be ‘in the world.’ And to be ‘in the world’ means that you are governed by the outlook and the mentality of the world.

What we get from the understanding of the world is that the world is a society and culture without God and we naturally live under its influences.

Influence of the world example

For example, Who has an iPhone raise your hand. Now who has the latest model of the iPhone, the 13? Who has the 12? Who has an 11? Now who has a 10 or less raise your hand? Now if you have the iPhone 10 or less, raise your hand if someone you know has ever questioned why you haven’t upgraded yet?

Why do you think they ask that question? Is it because they really care that you have the best camera or the most storage or the most up to date system? I don’t think so. It’s as though when you don’t upgrade, you are going against the grain of the culture’s demands. And when you don’t, you get ridiculed or questioned. Why is that? I believe it’s because we naturally live under the mentality of the world to always be having the newest item instead of finding contentment with what we already own.

In John’s first epistle, he warns Christians not to love this influence.

1 John 2:15–16 (ESV)

Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world.

Does this mean that if we use iPhones that God’s doesn’t love us? I would think not. What it means to love the world incorporating the understanding that the world is a corrupt outlook a part from God, then we can conclude that to love the world is to love the outlook that is separated from God. It means that we get on board with ideas that are against the Word of God. We should be careful about how we are influenced by the world’s customs.

transition statement: And this influence of the world’s mentality is corrupted because of the flesh of those who have power in it is also corrupted.

THE FLESH

Ephesians 2:3 (ESV)

among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

Paul now is still talking about the dead nature of humanity’s spirit and because of that, before Christ, the understanding of this text is that whatever feels good to us we just do it. We fulfill the desires of the body and the desires of the mind.

What is the flesh?

The flesh in this sense can be described as that which represents everything in man that is opposed to the working and the power and the influence of the Holy Spirit.

There is corruption of the desires and the mind of humanity and this is what we are born into.

You don’t need to be a studious theologian to believe in this, all you have to do is take a trip to the toy aisle in Target and you’ll get a real life illustration of the depravity of man.

My baby doesn’t understand the word “no” yet and I can tell because she laughs at her mom and I when we say it to her. My baby is the most adorable little thing, but she still has to get saved.

Total Depravity

Here’s something else to note about those who live in the flesh, according to Paul in Romans.

Romans 8:7–8 (ESV)

For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

Paul is saying here that there is no way that anyone in the flesh can ever submit to God because of how hostile the flesh is to God’s law. Our natural desires are to break the commandments and sin like there’s no tomorrow.

Sometimes we think that sin is just making a mistake or doing something wrong, but the best illustration I think of sin is in the story of Jonah.

In short, Jonah was called to go somewhere by God, and instead of going where God called him, he ran away. Jonah could have honestly just stayed where he was already, but he chose to run twice as far in the other direction.

Sin isn’t just ignoring God’s will, it’s not just making a mistake, sin is active and deliberate disobedience causing us to be children of wrath. In the flesh, we were sprinting to our destruction and that is our natural state.

transition point: It is this power of the flesh that dominates the state of man and the power that is in cooperation with the powers of the world, which we will now come to grasp operates with the Devil.

THE DEVIL

Ephesians 2:2 (ESV)

in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—

Now sometimes we try and blame the Devil for a little too much. I tried to buy coffee once in college and my card declined and I instantly rebuked the Devil. But it was just my horrible spending habits.

The Power of the Devil

The power of the air here can be understood as an evil principle or force that is governed by the Devil.

At the fall, all of mankind became slaves to sin and became dominated by the powers of the Devil. Which is so interesting because this power the Devil has is so subtle that it tricks mankind into thinking they are the ones dominating and are in control yet they are dominated themselves.

What other power does the Devil have towards mankind?

This power the Devil has is to not allow mankind to believe in God.

2 Corinthians 4:3–4 (ESV)

And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

This power the Devil has is to not allow mankind to believe in God.

The Devil’s power can keep the dead spirit dead by blinding them from the power of the gospel. This is done continually by working this evil power in the world and in the flesh to make man indulge in their temptations while making them believe that they are not being tempted, they are just enjoying themselves.

The Devil’s force is at work in the world, creating a culture and society that opposes God and is also at work keeping the flesh in corruption so that mankind can stay dead in sin.

As believers we have a God who is three in one, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit at work in us, but those in the flesh have an unholy trinity constantly at work with the Devil being the head of it.

transition to GRACE Right now, if you are here and you call yourself a believer you might just be wondering, “how is it possible that I have believed in Jesus Christ if there are three evil powers at work against me.

It’s nothing but GRACE

GRACE

Ephesians 2:1–10 (ESV)

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

BUT GOD, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—BY GRACE you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches OF HIS GRACE in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

For BY GRACE you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

It was nothing but the unconditional choice of God’s grace to bring your dead spirit to life. There was nothing you could do, there was nothing you could think about, there was nothing in you that could have made this possible but His love for you.

Transition to response: And with His great love in us, there is a response that we have to consider if we want to push back the darkness that is currently at work so that others may also be set free from the bondage of the Devil and obtain freedom from God. I’ll just give you two.

RESPONSE

1. Empathy

Ephesians 2:1–2 (ESV)

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked...

You may have grown up in a Christian home or gone to church your whole life. However, the scriptures are clear, these powers were at work in you once. Just like these powers are at work in the people you disagree with the most, people who you question, “How could they do that? How could they behave like that?”

If they are not in Christ it means they are blinded from the gospel. Pointing fingers and posting things on social media isn’t doing anything to bring people closer to Jesus. Building relationships and displaying a humble attitude and a willingness to listen I think will cause some problems with the evil powers at work.

The second thing we need to do as a response to this grace is to share the Gospel.

2. Share the Gospel

Empathy and relationship building is key, but the true way to push back against the evil unseen powers in the world is through the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Romans 1:16 (ESV)

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

The gospel is the power of God that fights against the powers of the Devil in order to disarm him and bring those who are dead in their sins to life in Christ. If we are ashamed of the gospel and do not share it with the world, we are allowing them to sprint to their destruction. The Gospel is the most essential thing you need to know as a Christian. If you know nothing else, know the Gospel and share it with everyone who doesn’t know it, and share it with those who do know it.

The Gospel is that we were dead in our sin under the power of Satan, dominated by the course of the world, and blinded by the desires of the flesh to live separated from God for all eternity. Our desires to continue to sin come with a punishment exercised by the justice of God. But instead of justice on us, He placed it upon Jesus Christ on the cross and he rose again 3 days later to disarm the powers of evil that held us captive so that anyone who would believe in Jesus Christ would be set free and have everlasting life. We are then secure in Him by His Holy Spirit who gives us the power to please God and live in a way that brings Him honor. This is all a gift, nothing to be earned.

Invitation

Today if you have never believed in Jesus, today you can. You can trust in Him to be a Good Savior, to strengthen you by His Holy Spirit. All you have to do is believe in your heart and confess with your mouth that you believe that Jesus is my Savior and you can be so sure that He is yours and you are His.

PRAY