Attribution Note:
In part, this sermon was developed around the work of Rev. Hoke on this topic.

The Enemy We Face Eph 6:10-13

Last time we saw that there are four basic principles regarding the idea of spiritual warfare.

We have a problem. There is no question about that. We only need to look around to realize that the problem of evil is very real. Most important for us to realize that the source of the problem is God’s enemy, and consequently man’s enemy, satan.

Recognizing this we rely upon God’s provision for us in this battle. That provision is His strength. Because of His strength which is the only sufficient weapon against satan, we are assured of His protection. The protection that comes not through physical weapons, but weapons which are divine in nature. When we come to grips with this we are able to stand firm in our faith and receive the prize which is our final victory over satan and all of his schemes.

This whole question is not whether there is a devil and whether there are demons. It is the question of the authority of the Scriptures. Many of us may have our own opinions regarding spiritual warfare and the deeds of the demonic, but it is best we keep those to ourselves and take an honest look at what the Bible teaches about these things. More specifically what Jesus teaches about this subject.

Every other approach to the problem of evil and suffering is superficial and without effect. No other explanation gets a grip on the problems of life as this one does. Anything else is superficial, if not artificial. Anything less is shallow and inadequate.

So, as we study this passage, we approach it with the expectation of finding a solution to the problems connected to the kingdom of evil. Paul calls this a kingdom of wicked spirits in high places. The Greek word kosmokratos. A kingdom of "cosmocrats" which can only be brought down by those who are spiritually alive in Christ.(Hoke)

"For we are not contending against flesh and blood..." The "we" to whom he is referring to here are the Christians in the world. We are the ones who are, or at least ought to be fighting against spiritual forces. The world struggles on the physical level, but the Christian wrestles against principalities and powers.

Throughout the Bible we see that all men are victims of these invisible forces. All men everywhere, without exception, are victims; but only believers are victors. There is a story in the New testament that highlights what we are talking about.

Luke 11:14-26

Jesus was driving out a demon that was mute. When the demon left, the man who had been mute spoke, and the crowd was amazed. [15] But some of them said, "By Beelzebub, the prince of demons, he is driving out demons." [16] Others tested him by asking for a sign from heaven. [17] Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them: "Any kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and a house divided against itself will fall. [18] If Satan is divided against himself, how can his kingdom stand? I say this because you claim that I drive out demons by Beelzebub. [19] Now if I drive out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your followers drive them out? So then, they will be your judges. [20] But if I drive out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come to you. [21] "When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own house, his possessions are safe. [22] But when someone stronger attacks and overpowers him, he takes away the armor in which the man trusted and divides up the spoils. [23] "He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me, scatters. [24] "When an evil spirit comes out of a man, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. Then it says, 'I will return to the house I left.' [25] When it arrives, it finds the house swept clean and put in order. [26] Then it goes and takes seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that man is worse than the first."

This is a typical response to those who would approach spiritual warfare in an intellectual way. The Pharisees could not accept this principal that the believers weapons are spiritual in nature. They do not like this business of casting out demons, and explain it in various ways. Here some of them accuse Him of casting these demons out in the name of Beelzebub, the prince of demons. The name Beelzebub is derived from two different Hebrew words. Both are a very appropriate nick names for satan. The one is the lord of the dung. The word the Hebrews used for hell was gehenna which described the smoldering dung piles outside the walls of the city. So the name, Lord of the dung describes him well. The other name is from a similar word meaning "lord of the flies". The dung pile was a place that attracted flies, and so satan earned that name from the plague of flies around the place that gave them a picture of what hell could be like. Jesus refutes that idea on the basis of plain logic. Satan, he says, is much smarter than that. He does not work against himself. It is not his desire to cast out demons, but rather to gather them as we will see later in vs.26. Therefore, Jesus is suggesting that any man who is under the control of Satan has no possibility of deliverance apart from an outside, intervening force.

Notice how he puts that in verse 22 of Luke 11: "When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own palace, his goods are in peace."

Who is the strong man? Satan. What is the palace? The world. Who are the goods? Mankind, everywhere. In the three verses which present this figure of the strong man there are three great principles which emerge. The first, found in verse 21, is that:

I. Man Against Evil is Powerless.

This is the unchanging position of scripture. John says, "We [Christians] know we are of God, but the whole world lies in the lap of the wicked one." This is the problem. The whole world has fallen under the control of satan. Not the world of nature as we see it. Satan does not own that world. There is a hymn that correctly states "This is my Father's world." It is mans’ world of organized societies, systems and philosophies that is under satan’s control. It cannot be freed without outside intervention. This is what Jesus means when He says, "When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own palace, his goods are in peace." There can be no threat from within to satan's control. In other words, there is nothing that we can do as mere humans to break that strong mans grip on our lives or in society. His possessions are secure as long as we in our own strength try and do battle with him. The hymn says, "Did we in our own strength confide, this battle would be losing."

The world is deceived into thinking that we can solve our own problems of suffering and evil. We use psychoanalysts to straighten out our captivated minds. We use politicians to try and free up our captivated resources. We use education to try and free our captivated families. Then man pats himself on the pack and proudly says, "We have solved this problem!" But he has only moved to a different symptom of the same disease. As C.S. Lewis so aptly put it, "No clever arrangement of bad eggs will make a good omelet." We solve one problem and another comes up. And then we say, "History repeats itself." That is because we have not found the antidote for sin in our humanistic solutions. Our methods do not come to grips with the power of Satan.

We think that legislation, education, and an improved environment will solve every problem. Legislation is law. It is merely the control of the outward man. It merely restricts him so that he does not manifest certain qualities under certain conditions.

Education is one of the worst things we can do to a twisted mind. The position of scripture is that all of us are born with a twisted mind. All we do when we introduce education as a solution to the problem is create a bunch of clever devils. To educate a twisted mind is but to make it more clever in its wickedness.

Even an improved environment does not change a mans nature. Man in his depraved state has no more chance of changing than a pig. You can take a pig, scrub it up, spray perfume all over it, tie a beautiful pink ribbon around it’s neck and then release it into a beautiful clean pig pen and in no time at all it will be right back where it started. Wallowing in the mud. In the same way you can take a man out of the slums, but if his nature does not change, his problems will never be solved. In a little while, given time, he will make that new environment a slum as well. Man against evil is powerless. But now take note of the second principal:

II. Christ Against Evil is Matchless

verse 22 of our Lord's words in Luke 11:

"But when one stronger than he assails him and overtakes him, he takes away his armor in which he trusted, and divides his spoil."

Who is this stronger one? It is Jesus. He is speaking of himself. He says when a strong man, fully armed, guards his palace his goods are at peace, and nothing can be done about it, least of all by the goods themselves. But when one who is stronger comes, he breaks the power of that strong man and frees his slaves. This is the "good news" of the Gospel. We sing it:

He breaks the power of canceled sin,
He sets the prisoner free;
His blood can make the foulest clean,
His blood availed for me.

When we become born again, the mystery of the cross and the resurrection power of Christ is applied to our lives. The chains of sin are loosed and we are set free. There is no other power which can do it. That is why Christians can say without reservation that there is no other answer to the problems of man. There is only one "stronger one" who has come into the world and conquered this dark spirit and demolished his power.

You are testimonies of that today. There are testimonies of that power throughout the ages. Not only the prostitutes and alcoholics and dope addicts, not only those who have been gripped by the power of evil habits, but also those who are held by the power of evil attitudes---temper, lust, self-righteousness, bitterness, and pride. The strongest chains are not those around the body but around the mind. The greatest sins are not those that are most clearly seen, but those hidden in the heart.

The Gospel of Jesus Christ is that He has come to set men free. Jesus came into the world "to undo the works of the devil." Paul says he came "to deliver us from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of the Son of his love." In Acts 26:15-18 at his conversion he asked, 'Who are you, Lord?' " 'I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,' the Lord replied. [16] 'Now get up and stand on your feet. I have appeared to you to appoint you as a servant and as a witness of what you have seen of me and what I will show you. [17] I will rescue you from your own people and from the Gentiles. I am sending you to them [18] to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, …"

This is the crux of the gospel. To channel it first into other areas such as social action and liberation is mistake it’s true purpose. The Gospel will ultimately find its way there but it must make its first impact upon this basic problem of human life. Mankind is in the grips of a power which it is helpless to do anything about. The only one who can deliver us from it is Jesus Christ. He has already done so in the mystery of his cross and through the power and glory of his resurrection. When a man or woman believes that and commits himself upon that basis, he discovers that the whole thing becomes practical and actual in his experience. This is what we call conversion. That is the beginning of the battle. Do you Christians ever think of yourselves this way? You say, "My sins have been forgiven," but do you ever go on to say, "I have been delivered from the power of darkness, brought out of the power of Satan into the kingdom of God." Do you ever think of yourself that way? Or are we like those Peter mentions who "have forgotten that they were once delivered from their sins"?

This question brings us to the third principle:

III. Loyalty Divided Is Meaningless.

23: "He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters."

He is saying here that no neutral ground is possible and no mere profession is sufficient. There is no third group possible. Is this not the way it always is with Jesus? This is what makes the gospel so hard for so many to accept. Oh, if only we could meet Jesus half way, some say. If only we could make a deal with Him. If we could just have salvation from hell and assurance from heaven without all of this other stuff. Life would be so much better. Jesus never gives that option. He speaks about dying to live. Giving to receive. A narrow and a broad. A straight and a crooked. Death and life. Heaven and hell. Here He says, "He who is not with me is against me." There are others who say, "I believe there is great value in Christian faith. I believe it has great moral impact on society, but I cannot go so far as personally 'receiving Christ.' I think I will remain neutral." Jesus says this is impossible. There is no neutrality. "He who is not with me is against me." He who has not received the deliverance wrought is still under the bondage and control of the dark powers of Satan. There are no exceptions.

This is why Christ is the crisis of history. He spoke of himself that way---as the divider of men. Here He is doing exactly that. Dividing this congregation. In this audience, as he looks at it, there are only two groups. There are those who are with him, wholly with him because they are of him---they have received him, they know him, they love him, they have partaken of his life. And there are those who are against him. "He who is not with me is against me."

There are some who upon hearing this will try and negotiate even a better deal. They will agree that deliverance from evil necessitates receiving Christ, but they question the idea of inward control. Of holiness and intimacy. They will go along with all of the outward actions. Join the church, tithe, sing on the choir, and even go on a mission trip or two. But here is where they will draw the line. They will insist upon inwardly still directing their own lives. Running their own affairs. Jesus says you cannot do that, either. "He who does not gather with me scatters." The influence of you life upon others will determine whether you are with Him or against Him. The force of Christ in the world through His church is a gathering force. It binds hearts together, abolishes walls of prejudice, resolves anger and brings nations together. But there is also a force which scatters, which divides. This is a destructive force which exists in and out of the church. This is the force of the flesh. Self centeredness. The protection of our rights. The question we must ask is "are people being drawn closer to faith because of our influence, or are they being driven away?" Ultimately it depends on whether we are victors or victims. We are victors when Christ come into our hearts and reigns in victory. We become victims of satan’s strongholds when we allow what we see in vs.24-26. [24] "When an evil spirit comes out of a man, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. Then it says, 'I will return to the house I left.' [25] When it arrives, it finds the house swept clean and put in order. [26] Then it goes and takes seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that man is worse than the first."

We are absolutely helpless to do anything about this until that power is broken by the acceptance of the One who has come to destroy the works of the devil, and who comes to live in that now empty house and to fill it with all that He is. All of His power. All of His presence. All of His peace. Herein is the certainty of victory.