Who is the Source of Victory?

 

SERMON SEPT 5

 

This is part three of a three-part message whose theme has been spiritual warfare. Part one looked at the question, ‘Who should we obey?’ Part two asked, ‘Who is in control.’ Today, ‘Who is the source of victory?’

 

 

Therefore, I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. (Romans 12:1-2)

 

If you don’t recognize the supernatural evil parading across the globe, you’re not paying attention and you need to ask God to stir you awake. This is important! And this war is NOT against people – whether politicians, or terrorists, or the rich and powerful who control the various news media and social networks on the internet and who have in many cases successfully censored freedom of speech in this country and around the free world. These people are all – wittingly or unwittingly – servants of Satan, or as Scripture calls them ‘children of Satan’ (by the way, you can find those references in John 8:44 and 1 John 3:8-10).

No, this war is against forces of supernatural origin and power. That is one reason I want to focus our attention on today’s text in Romans 12, for unless we are daily carrying our cross, unless we are daily presenting ourselves to God as a holy and living sacrifice – how can we win our battles for Christ? Unless we, by the Holy Spirit, renew our minds through the wisdom provided us in Scripture, we can never be transformed into the mighty soldiers of Christ that He DESIGNED us to be. 

Of course, as every Christian should expect, the Holy Spirit has not left us without strategies, defenses, and weapons in this supernatural warfare. Romans 12:1-2 is only one of hundreds of examples. Another comes from St. Paul’s letter to the Christians at Ephesus where we will spend the bulk of our time today.

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. (Ephesians 6:10-12)

In the past 18 or 20 months I twice preached a series on the spiritual armor. I revisit the theme once more today, synthesizing the six-message sermons into one. I revisit it because the times in which we live demand – DEMAND – that we take seriously God’s warning to all of us to clothe ourselves in the supernatural armor of God. And the Christian who remains lazy and holds on to a laissez faire indifference about his or her faith will NOT do well in this war.

What I want us to first notice is God tells us to be strong in the Lord. This is not a new concept in the whole of Scripture. That instruction shows up on nearly every page of Scripture – our strength for battle comes ONLY from God. Our natural abilities and strengths and intellect profit us nothing.

 

Those are all natural. Earthly. And in this supernatural battle with our supernatural enemy, we cannot afford to wage war in any way natural and earthly. It must be waged with the supernatural and heavenly weapons and protection. As we find in the prophet Zechariah, God tells us, “Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ says the Lord of hosts.” (Zechariah 4:6). And then again in 2 Corinthians 10:3-4, “For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses.”

During the days when the Moabites and the Ammonites arrayed themselves for battle against Israel, the Holy Spirit said to Jehoshaphat the Judean king, “Listen, all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem and King Jehoshaphat: thus says the Lord to you, ‘Do not fear or be dismayed because of this great multitude, for the battle is not yours but God’s.” (2 Chronicles 20)

The point of it all? “Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it. Unless the Lord guards the city, the watchman stays awake in vain.” (Psalm 127)

We must not minimize even for a nanosecond the utter uselessness of our human resources without the supernatural power of God behind them.

You think it was a simple rock that killed Goliath? No, it was not. Rather it was the supernatural God who gave that rock its precise trajectory. It was the strength of the supernatural God behind David’s swing that put enough force into that rock to crack the giant’s skull.

Rightly did Martin Luther put the truth into that well-known hymn: Did we in our own strength confide, our striving would be losing, Were not the right Man on our side, the Man of God’s own choosing: Dost ask who that may be? Christ Jesus, it is He; Lord Sabaoth, His Name, from age to age the same, And He must win the battle.

So, back to Ephesians 6 where St. Paul urges us to: Stand firm therefore, having girded your loins with truth. (Verse 14)

Truth. What is God’s truth – that life-giving, life-sustaining truth? You remember what Pilate said to Jesus in their brief dialogue: “So You are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say correctly that I am a king. For this I have been born, and for this I have come into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.” Pilate *said to Him, “What is truth?” (John 18:37-38). And then, immediately, before giving Jesus a chance to tell him about truth, Pilate turned and walked away.

 

Do not YOU do that! Do you want to know truth? Jesus defined it for us in John 14:6, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.”

 

If we want to know God’s truth, the only truth that can save us in this supernatural battle, then we MUST take the time to wait patiently for the Lord to teach us truth – and He will do so when we sit at His feet, like Martha’s sister Mary sat at Jesus’ feet. (Luke 10). There is no shortcut to this goal of supernatural stamina. If we have time for movies and television shows and games, but no more than a short time to sit at Jesus’ feet – woe to us!

 

If you are still not taking time to meditate on the Bible—not just read it – but to reflect on what God says to you through its pages, then you are cheating yourself, and placing yourself in what might be grave danger. This is not hyperbole on my part. This is simply me pleading with you to get busy, if you are not already doing so, to make Bible reading AND reflection a daily habit.

 

It is God’s truth alone that will set us free – free from Satan-induced fears and doubts and confusions and temptations.  

Now let’s now look at the breastplate of righteousness. Paul speaks of it in Ephesians 6:14.

Biblical righteousness is much more than a life of moral purity, integrity and virtue. Biblical righteousness is that righteousness which God imputes to us – that which he credits to us – by and through our obedient faith in Christ’s substitutionary and sacrificial death He suffered to pay the penalty of God’s wrath for OUR sins.

Here is what St. Paul says to that point: “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” (2 Corinthians 5:21). And in Philippians 3:9 “[That I] may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith.”

In other words, don’t come to this battle in your own strength and thinking your good works merits you a claim to righteousness. No, our righteousness is granted to us only by God’s grace and kindness. It is His grace and kindness alone that renews our mind so that we can recognize His supernatural truth.

Which now brings us to the helmet of our salvation which, by the way, is intricately linked to the shield of faith in Ephesians 10:16-17.

St. Paul speaks also of the helmet in 1 Thessalonians 5:8-9 where he calls it the “helmet [which is] the hope of salvation. For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

The way Paul and other New Testament writers use the word ‘hope’ is to describe a confident expectation’ that something WILL occur – because God promised it would happen.

And so, the shield of faith, coupled with the helmet of KNOWING that we KNOW we are saved by God’s grace provides us an invincible defense against the onslaught of Satanic lies when he and his minions tell us we cannot ever be sure of our salvation.

Listen! If we can't trust THAT promise, then what else in Scripture can we not trust? Here are only two of a slew of God’s sacred promises to you concerning your salvation. Pay close attention to the verb tenses in these texts: 1 John 5:13 “These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life. (present tense) And John 5:24 (Jesus is speaking) “Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes in the one who sent me has eternal life and will not come to condemnation but has passed from death to life.” (present tense)

 

Then Paul tells us to take “the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” (6:17) Christian, hear this! Satan knows how critical God's word is for the Christian. That is why he tries relentlessly to diminish its authority and its influence in our lives. You may have read some of these heretical opinions in magazines and books, or heard them promulgated in movies, the workplace – and even in some churches; all of which are designed to seduce us into doubting God’s word. For example:                           

 

- Jesus is not God incarnate. Jesus is not Almighty God who took human form. To say it plainly, the lies says Jesus is not co-existent and co-eternal with the Father and the Holy Spirit.

 

- Then there is the lie promulgated every year at Easter -- The physical resurrection from the dead of Jesus is a myth concocted by His disciples.

 

- And who hasn’t heard this one: What was considered sin in Bible days was rooted in the ignorance of a nomadic and intolerant people. Twenty-first century humanity is far more knowledgeable and tolerant about what should be considered wrong.

 

Christian! Do not be ignorant of the devil’s strategies! Get to know the WHOLE of God’s word. To simply be knowledgeable of the Gospels, or the Epistles is totally insufficient to our task.  When the writer to the Hebrews tells us, “The word of God is living and active and sharper than a two-edged sword,” he is referring SPECIFICALLY to the Old Testament. The New Testament had not yet been written and formalized.

 

Now back to Ephesians 6. St. Paul adds in verse 15 a word about our feet being prepared with the gospel – our feet that bring good news to others lost in darkness. But we cannot share the hope of salvation with others if we rely on our own natural resources and not on our supernatural God. Nor can we share the hope of salvation with others if we ourselves do not have that confident expectation that God will do for us as He promised

 

Finally, for today’s message, Paul addresses the weapon of prayer: “With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints, ¹⁹ and pray on my behalf, that utterance may be given to me in the opening of my mouth, to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel . . . (Ephesians 6:18-19)

 

The apostle clearly recognized the deadly and daily supernatural battles he faced. And if you are paying attention, you know this battle has claimed more than its share of spiritual victims. How many high-profile Christians and pastors do you know who have fallen, and fallen hard? St. Paul lamented about his one-time compatriot, Demas, who traveled with him on missionary journeys, and who, in the end, walked away from Christ (2 Timothy 4).

 

He, like so many others through church history to this very hour ALL became casualties in this deadly spiritual battle. And some of you know the stories of people close to you – perhaps even those among your own family – those who once walked with Christ and have since turned away from Him.

That is why we must put on our battle armor every day, and never neglect prayer. Any of us can end up like Demas, who fell out of love with Christ, and fell back into his old life. We can become like Judas, betraying Jesus in exchange for a few dollars. We can become like the Christians to whom Jesus said, “I have this against you, that you have left your first love. Therefore remember from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first; or else I am coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place—unless you repent.” (Revelation 2:4-5)

If we fail to recognize the battle is a supernatural battle, our prayers will be anemic, and we will too readily follow the crowd to lay palm branches across the Lord’s path on one day, and then the next day deliver Him up to those who hate Truth.

And so, in closing, I will say it one more time: I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. (Romans 12:1-2)