Satan's Attack on the Spirit-Filled Church
Ephesians 6:10
Look with me would you in Ephesians 6. This morning again I'm not going to continue our series in Ephesians simply because we're going to take a little break in the next few weeks and I don't want to get into chapter 6 verses 10 and following until we can do it as a unit. It is the section on the armor of the Christian, and it deserves our concentrated attention, and rather than just begin and then depart and then come back to it again, I'd rather wait until after Easter and then really go at it with all of our efforts, and so this morning I want to sort of use Ephesians 6:10-12, which is our next Scripture, just as a jumping-off point to begin some thoughts that I think are really essential for us today.
About once a year I get the feeling that I need to speak pointedly to issues regarding the future of Grace Church, and this Scripture as I was reading it over and praying about what the Lord would have me share with you this week really sort of set the tone for me.
You'll notice in verse 10 of Ephesians 6, which is the next verse in our continuing study, "Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, againstthe rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in the heavenlies." And we'll stop there.
As I was reading that I was saying to myself, that really is the way to end the book of Ephesians. Because what the apostle Paul is saying is this. If you are a true Christian as defined in chapter 1, chapter 2, and chapter 3, and if you are living the way a true Christian should live as defined in chapters 4, 5, and 6, then you can be sure of one thing, and that is, that you are going to run right into the enemy. It is impossible to live in the manner that Ephesians outlines without having conflict with Satan--it's impossible. And that's why, having said all this, he says the final thing you need to know is that you have to be strong, you have to put on the armor of God, because you're in a spiritual war. It's a war.
I remember when I first came to Grace Church that I thought it was a honeymoon, and then a few years later I kind of felt that it wasn't so adventurous--it was more like work. I'd have to crank out all these sermons, preach them on Sunday, start all over again on Monday. And since I hadn't had any backlog I was telling you everything I knew--I was racing like mad to stay up, and it was work. A few years ago I woke up and realized it isn't a honeymoon and it isn't work it's war.
We're in a battle. It's a war. And that's essentially what Paul is saying here--if we are as Ephesians 4:1 says walking worthy of the vocation to which we're called, if we're walking in humility, in unity, not in the vanity of our mind as the gentiles, is we're putting on the new man, if we're walking in love not lust, if we're walking in light not darkness, if we're walking in wisdom not foolishness, if we're not drunk with wine but filled with the Spirit, if we're not singing the world's songs but songs and hymns and spiritual songs, and if rather than being proud and individualistic we are submitting ourselves one to another, and if we are submitting as wives should and husbands as to the Lord and if husbands are loving their wives as Christ loved the Church, and if children are obeying their parents and parents are nurturing and rearing their children in the things of God, and if employees and employers have right relationships biblically and with spirit-filled impact, then believe me--we will counter the system. We will run against the grain. And that's exactly what's happening in our society.
I received a phone call this week from C.B.S. Network-they wanted me to come on for an hour and debate a woman feminist from the National Organization of Women. We are becoming known around the world, not alwaysfor the things that we believe but for the things that people think we believe. I have received clippings almost every day from somebody in the country who has pulled out an article about our church misrepresenting where we're at or what we're trying to say to one degree or another and very concerned about whether I've gone crazy. (laughter)
But the point that I'm making is that we have begun to take a stand against some things in the world. We've always done this--it's just that our size and our impact and the great blessing of God has made all of this something that the world can't ignore any more. And so we're starting to make waves in the world. And it's kind of exciting. But believe me, when God begins to bless a church Satan begins to attack the same church, and if you think you've started coming to Grace so that you can just settle in your little nest out there in the corner somewhere and get real comfy, you're wrong, I think that we're about to be tested, maybe in ways that we've neverbeen tested before. The Bible talks about the believer being a solder. And I think that's right. And Paul said to Timothy, "As soldiers endure hardness." And that means suffer with. And I really feel that because of the fact that God has blessed us, He is requiring much of US.
You know, the world watches this Church--it's amazing to me. I receive mail every day from foreign countries, from pastors from every imaginable country in the globe. I receive letters regularly from pastors in obscure places in India, in places in the other parts of the Orient, in Europe, in South America, South Africa, the main part of Africa, New Zealand, Australia, and it goes on and on and on like that, saying tell us what you're doing in your church, how and why is God blessing? And then I see not only the eyes of the pastors in the churches of the world but the eyes of the media, people watching us. The unregenerate world watching us. And God is doing a wonderful thing, and I trust and pray that it's to His glory, but any time that begins to happen we need to be warned.
I think about the apostle Paul in the same town of Ephesus. He went into Ephesus and incredible things happened. He went into that town and he began to preach the Word of God in the synagogue, and some hardened their hearts, it says in Acts 19, but some believed. And the ones that believed listened to him and he taught, but finally the others were so antagonistic they ran him out of the synagogue and he went to the school of Tyrannus, and for two years he taught every day, probably from 1:00 in the afternoon to 5:00 in the evening. For two solid years, and it says that great things happened, miracles were wrought by the hands of the apostle Paul, The people who were involved in an incredible kind of magical worship began to burn their magic books. There was a riot and the guys who sold the little silver gods that were part of the trade found that they weren't able to do it any more. People were really becoming iconoclastic, they were smashing their idols, and the city was in incredible uproar, and it says in Acts 19 "so mightily grew the Word of God and prevailed." And that great Ephesian church founded by Paul later on given direction by Aquila and Priscilla and finally by Timothy and Apollos, with the best of men and the best of circumstances and the greatest history, and yet when they began to really move Satan began to attack. And he began to attack in very subtle ways because that is always his plan.
You know, I believe in Ephesians 3:20, "Now unto him who is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, Unto him be glory in the church." I believe He wants glory in His Church and I believe He gains that glory by allowing the Church through His power to do things beyond what we can even dream, and I think God wants to go way beyond where we are now.I think we're just beginning to see what God would do when a group of people as totally committed to walk a worthy, when a group of people is totally committed to live the kind of life that Ephesians 4, 5, and 6 calls for. But as soon as that begins, Satan will oppose it. We see it all around us. You go back into the Old Testament, for example, and you see God sending an angel in Daniel chapter 10, and a demon withholds that angel so that that angel cannot accomplish the divine purpose, and God had to dispatch a greater angel, a stronger angel, to blast that demon out and send that angel on his way.
You find in Jude 9 Michael the archangel having a battle with Satan over the body of Moses. Satan trying to restrain Michael from claiming the body of Moses for God. So there is a high level spiritual struggle and we're even involved. Ephesians 6:12, "We wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in the heavenlies. So we're engaged in this tremendous conflict, and that's why I say it's way. I think American Christianity is become very smug and very content and it is almost subcultural, rather than confronting we're just kind of waltzing along with the system, trying to accommodate. We believe we can win them by becoming what they are. But just the opposite is true--we have to counter the system.
Well, we need to be aware of the fact that Satan's going to attack. You know, James in chapter 4 says, "Resist the devil and he will flee from you." I Pet. 5:8,9 Peter says, "Be sober, be vigilant." Why? "Because your adversary the devil like a roaring lion walks about seeking whom he may devour. Whom resist steadfast in the faith, knowing the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world." In other: words, Satan is going to be there. Resist him. Be sober. Be vigilant, be aware. Be alert, and know what he is doing. II Cor. 2:11 says that we should not be ignorant of his devices lest he gain an advantage of us. In Acts chapter 20 Paul was talking to those same leaders in the Ephesian Church. And he said to them this, he said, "I know that after my departing grievous wolves shall enter in not sparing this flock, and of your own selves shall men arise teaching perverse things." He says I know as well as I know my name, I know as well as I know the sun comes up tomorrow you're going to get it as soon as I leave from outside and inside. Wolves from the outside and false teachers from the inside. Therefore, verse 31 of Acts 20, "I have not ceased to warn you night and day for the space of three years with tears," he says. Part of the ministry is a warning ministry. When God has blessed us as He has, when God had multiplied our audience as He has, and God is using us to cut a path through this evil world, then believe me, Satan is going to come after us. And we have to be ready, and we have to get the armor on. But first of all, we've got to understand his attack. We've got to understand his ploy. We do not want to be ignorant of his devices.
How does Satan attack us? Well, for the answer to that I want you to turn to Revelation chapter 1. You know, I had an interesting thing happen to me one time. I went into a room. I was called into where a girl was filled with demons and the demons all had different voices, they used her mouth and so forth to speak but the voices were not hersand it was amazing because there was a terrible thing going on in this room, and this girl had flipped over a desk and was slashing and smashing things around, and when I walked in the door all of a sudden she hit the chair and just looked at me in a frenzied look and in a voice not her own, because I knew her own voice, the voice said, "Get him out. Not him. Get him out." And my reaction to that was, I was excited. (laughter) Because I was glad those demons knew whose side I was on. (laughter) They know. Believe me. They know me and they know this church and they know what God is doing here. And they'll try to stop it. And the way they'll stop it, or try to stop it, is through you. Because the church is only a collection of links like a chain, and only as strong as its weakest one. Satan is going to attack.
How does he attack? I believe the Lord shows us in the letters of Revelation 2 and 3. 1 believe in the letters to the churches., the seven churches of Asia Minor, the first of which is Ephesus, and then the others that were literally born out of the Ephesian church, the other six being also in Asia Minor, I believe the Lord gives us insight into how Satan attacks the church. And at least once every year or so I feel compelled to warn our church in this regard.
Now let's set the scene by looking at Revelation chapter 1 and verse 9. John the beloved apostle is on the Isle of Patmos in exile for his faith and here it is that God gives him marvelous visions, and in these visions he sees what God wants to reveal about the Church. Now you will notice in verse 10 John says, "I was in the Spirit (by that I think he means that he is in a position to receive revelation from the Spirit) on the Lord's Day." That would be on a Sunday. "And I heard behind me a great voice it as of a trumpet, saying 'I am Alpha and Omega, the First and the Last, and what thou seest write in a book and send it unto the seven churches which are in Asia Minor, unto Ephesus, unto Smyrna, unto Pergamom, unto Thyatira, unto Sardis, unto Philadelphia and unto Laodicea."
Now the Lord has a word for these seven churches, most interestingly. These are seven historical, actual, real churches, but they are also prototypes of churches that exist in all periods of church history. Because each of them has a unique characteristic to which the Lord speaks, and there are churches in every age, including today, that could be classified as Ephesian churches, or Smyrna churches, or Pergamom churches, or Thyatira or Sardis or Philadelphia or Laodicean churches. And so they are not just historical churches, though they are that, but they present to us a prototype for other periods of history.
Now notice the scene in verse 12. "I turned to see the voice that spoke to me and being turned I saw seven golden lampstands," What are the seven golden lampstands; verse 20 tells you at the end. The seven lampstands are the seven churches. So here is John's vision--he sees a lampstand, which is symbolic of each of the churches, and the lamp is blazing, it's lit, and the church is to be a light in the world, isn't it? It's to be the place that lights up the darkness, and so there they are, the seven churches of Asia Minor, each represented by a lampstand, and in the midst of the seven lampstands one like the Son of Man. This is Jesus Christ, and He's moving in His Church, He's moving through the Church, and He's clothed with a garment down to the foot.
By the way, garmentslike that were worn by priests, prophets and kings, and so the consummation of all of those elements in Christ. He was girded about His middle with a golden girdle, His head and His hair were white like wool, as white as snow (speaking of His holiness and His purity) and His eyes were like a flame of fire, searching and penetrating. So here is the Lord, and we see Him in His kingly, priestly, prophetic garb, and we see Him with white so that He symbolizes purity, and then His eyes searching, penetrating, as He evaluates the Church. And His feet like fine bronze as if they burned in a furnace. Why? Because He has to judge His Church some times. Peter even said it--judgment must begin at the House of God. And we see also that His voice is like the sound of many waters, a great, commanding authoritative voice. He had on His right hand seven stars. What are they? Verse 20 tells you. The seven stars in the middle of the verse are the angels, or the ministers of the seven churches. And so in His hand are the ministers, and He moves among the churches evaluating, searching, penetrating, examining the churches, getting ready to write the seven letters. His evaluation is in chapter 1; the result is in chapter 2 and 3.
And so He begins, John does, with the letters in chapter 2, and what does the Lord say to these churches? Well, beloved, let me tell you. These are seven absolutely incredible letters. Five of them, mark it, are warnings. To two of the churches there is no warning. To the church at Smyrna and Philadelphia apparently there needed to be no warning. The church at Smyrna was the persecuted church; the church at Philadelphia was the evangelizing, aggressive, soul-winningchurch. It seems to me that those two things are wonderful preservatives.
When a church is persecuted it tends to maintain its purity, because all of the impurity drops out, you're not about to identify with an outfit where you're going to get persecuted unless you're pretty serious, right? So persecution has a way of purifying, and so does evangelism. Because as long as you're heartis toward the world and as long as you're aggressively reaching the lost you tend to be going outward rather than ingrown. And the Philadelphia Church, the church with the open door, was a blessed church, and the Smyrna church, the church that was being rained on by the fires of the opposition was a blessed church, but the other five stood in need of deep warnings, and there's a progression to the five warnings. They start at what seems a very light kind of a situation and they become so oppressive as to finally become apostate and a church which is utterly no church at all. There's a descending thing that we've seen happen in many churches throughout history.
As I look at Grace Church and I read those five warnings as I did this week I'm very much aware that the same thing can happen to us as has happened to thousands and thousands and thousands of churches around the world. You start out so good. You start out like the Ephesian church did, and the descent comes, and pretty soon you've got nothing left. I've been in auditoriums in this country that seat 4,000 people on a Sunday morning and there's 150 liberals huddled in the front and that's it. I've seen this. I've seen God write "Ichabod" on a lot of things, and a lot of churches. But I don't want that to happen. We're talking about putting a balcony in here. We've just added 200 and some odd seats because the city gave us permission and then we're talking about a balcony and an education building and all these things and I'm excited about that but only if I know that when that balcony's there it's going to be occupied by people who will hear the Word of God, and that building is going to be occupied by children and young people and adults who are going to love the Lord Jesus Christ with all their heart, soul, mind and strength. Otherwise, I'm not interested in it. And I want to do what I can to warn you,because I believe Satan would like to turn this place into a great big stone quarry, with nothing left but a bunch of rocks. So what do we need to be warned about? Let's look and see.
First of all, the thing that hit the church at Ephesus, they left their first love. They left their first love. This is enough to make a message all on its own. Notice verse 1, "Unto the angel of the church at Ephesus write, These things saith He that holds the seven start in His right hand and walks in the midst of the seven golden lampstands, (this is the Son of Man, this is Jesus Christ writing to His own Church--this isn't somebody's opinion, this is Christ) and He says in verse 2 to them, 'IT know thy works, (and man, it was a fabulous story in Ephesus. It was an incredible history there--how they had literally thrown a city into confusion and chaos. They had overturned a system of religion.
That little group of believers that had started out in the midst as if they were an island of purity and a sea of wretchedness had been able to so infiltrate and purify parts of that city that they had brought to a halt. Some of the most complex systems of religion at that time. That little group of people had an incredible beginning, and who could think of a better one to begin it than Paul, and whocould think of more wonderful pastors than Apollos, who was the greatest proclaimer of the Word of God and oratorical ability perhaps than had ever lived. And better than Timothy, who was one who would teach them the same things and the same way that Paul did. They had those people for their leaders. And they were a working church. "I know you he says, your hard work to the point of sweat." You really go after it, you're involved, you're labor, you're patience. You have you are able to endure through the tough times. And man, being in Ephesus wasn't an easy place. The center of the worship of Diana, one of the seven wonders of the world, the temple was an incredible mess. There were scores of eunuchs, thousands of priestess-prostitutes, herald singers, flutists, and on and on just creating an hysteria of music and orgy and drunkenness, and frenzy and sexual mutilation so that Heruclitus said that the morals of the people of that temple wereless than that of animals. But the preaching of Paul had so affected all of that that the idols sales dropped off and a riot resulted.
They were a tremendous church. They had endurance in the midst of a tough place, really tough. And he says not only that, but you can't bear them that are evil. You can't handle those that are evil, he says. You're dealing with sin. You don't tolerate sin for a minute. When somebody comes along and they're doing evil, you deal with that. You are intolerant of sinners.
Look at verse 6. It says, "This thou hast, that thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitanes which I also hate." And the Nicolaitanes apparently were resulting from an individual named Nicholas who was a man who espoused sexual immorality, someone said of Nicholas he abandoned himself to pleasure like a goat. Whatever this thing was, and we're not really sure, it seems to have come from that. We know that it has to do with licentious, lewd, immoral evil fornicating type of behavior. And he says, you hate that. You have the works going, you're laboring, you're patient, you don't tolerate sin, and verse 2 says, "you even trythem who say they are apostles and are not." In other words, you deal with the false teachers, you have a biblical standard, you've got a statement of faith, you've got a theology and you measure men by it. You're doctrinally solid, you're dealing with sin, you're working hard. Man, it sounds like a great church. And it says in verse 3, repeating, you have born, you've endured things in the past and you've come out all right, and you have patience, and "for my namesake you labored."
Listen, that's the greatest motive for anything a Christian does. "For My namesake you did it." The glory of God was their motive, the highest motive in all the universe. You even have the right motive--you were serving My glory, My name. And you labored and you didn't faint. Boy, what a great church. Man--doctrinally solid, busy, unmasking the false teachers, disciplining those that were sinning. They really had it together.
But they had one fatal flaw, and you go back to verse 14 of chapter 1 and you see that Christ's eyes are like a flame of fire. They search and they penetrate and the searching, penetrating eyes of Jesus Christ found a fatal flaw in verse 4. "Nevertheless, I have this against thee, because thou hast left thy first love." This is the church where love died. Orthodoxy, activity, without love. When they read it, it must have hit like a thunderbolt because nobody thinks he loves God as much as the orthodox do--the fundamental, the evangelical. And yet their definition of love wasn't God's. They missed the one basic thing that Jesus had said to Peter three times, "Peter, before I ask you to feed My sheep, I've got to ask you something else. Peter, do you love Me? Peter, do you love Me? Peter, do you love Me? If you say yes, then feed My sheep." Why? Because you cannot be effective for God apart from loving the Lord with all your heart, soul, mind and strength.
And you know, people, I can see this potential problem at Grace Church. We have so much; we are involved in so much, that it becomes very easy for us to get our focus off the personality of Jesus Christ. We lose the love, and all of a sudden we are satisfied with the activity. That's not it. This is one of the greatest churches in all history. And yet the Lord's penetrating eyes found this fatal flaw. They had turned in their hot hearts for cold orthodoxy. They were becoming those who simply carried out a very biblical ministry; there just wasn't any passion there. And I warn you about that, and I warn my own heart--from the elders and the pastoral staff right down to those that are visiting us. If we ever get to the place where what we do is an orthodox performance without love that's step one and Satan has a foothold. And you don't want to even know what the rest ofthe steps are but you're going to find out. And when you come to the place where the honeymoon ends and you don't do what you do out of an overwhelming love for Jesus Christ, you're in real trouble. Look at your own life. Is the enthusiasm for Christ there, or is the thrill gone? Is it a fair description of your Christian life to say well, I just kind of do it. I don't have the same love I used to have. If you love anything in this world more than you love Jesus Christ, you've lost your first love. Yourself, your family, your leisure, money, success, anything, you've lost it. If the honeymoon's over in your life like it was in Ephesus we're in real trouble. Real trouble. If you're serving the Lord Jesus Christ at this church as an orthodox performance rather than a passion of love for Him then you've missed it. You have missed it all together.
You say, well what do I do if I feel that way, verse 5, Three things. Remember, remember. You know, it's amazing. Spiritual defection usually comes from forgetting. Spiritual defection usually comes from forgetting. And so he says, remember--did you forget what it used to be? Remember how it was before your love grew cold. Remember that warmth and that fire and that joy and that exhilaration. Remember.
Secondly, repent. "Remember therefore from where you have fallen, and repent." It is a fall, you know. Not to love the Lord your God with all your heart soul, mind, and strength and your neighbor as yourself, not to have that first love for Him and for others; not to have that first love is a fall from which you must repent. Listen, if the first reaction you have to a believer is anything but love you've lost your first love. If the first reaction you have to Jesus Christ is anything less than consummate love you've lost your first love and you need to repent.
And then He says a third thing. Remember, repent, and repeat, and do the first works. Go back to how it used to be. If it's cold mechanical service and orthodoxy, go back to where it all started. Get back to your knees, get back to the book, get back to witnessing, get back to fellowship, get back to prayer, get back to sharing and praising the Lord. Stay close to the fire--that's what He's saying. You know what happened in Ephesus? They didn't do it. They didn't remember, and they didn't repent, and they didn't repeat, and so what it says in verse 5 happened. "I will come unto thee quickly and remove thy lampstand out of its place except thou -repent." The church at Ephesus died, went out of existence. Great evangelical orthodox historic monumental church went out of existence, because it lost its first love.
There's a second thing to be aware of. Verse 12 of chapter 2. We skipped the church at Smyrna because that was the persecuted church, and it isn't warned. But to the angel of the church at Pergamom write, "These things saith He that hath the sharp sword with two edges." That's the Lord and the sword is the sword of judgment coming out of His mouth, as in Rev, 19, Heb. 4. He says, "I know thy works (v, 13) and where thou dwellest, even where Satan's throne is: and thou holdest fast my name and hast not denied my faith even in those days when Antipas was my faithful martyr who was slain among you where Satan dwells." Stop right there.
He says, Pergamos I know everything about you, My searching, penetrating gaze reveals all these things. I know your works. I know you're involved. I know you're active, I know there's something going on. And I know that you are where Satan's throne is. You're in a tough place. And man, Pergamos was a tough city. Do you know that Pergamos was the center of emperor worship, the center of the worship of Caesar? Do you know that it was the center of the worship of Zeus, the great god; some say the greatest god of all that system of deity? And that in the city of Pergamos they had built a huge altar to Zeus in the shape of a throne, and so some feel that the throne of Satan as mentioned in verse 13 is a reference to the altar of Zeus, the greatest most famous largest altar in the world.
On the other hand, Pergamos had its own god by the name of Escalapeus. He was the Pergamese god who was associated with healing, the god of healing. He's always been associated with snakes, and in Pergamos they had a temple and a medical school. You still see a snake on the symbol of the physician. That really comes from Greek mythol