NEW CHRISTIANS-Basics of Discipleship-Spiritual Warfare-Part 1-by David Nelson

Posted: 2007-07-04 19:58:00

Scripture verses referenced in this study:

I Peter 5:8-9
John 10:10
Ephesians 6:10

I Pet. 5:8-9 says,  “Be sober.  Be watchful.  Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.”  If you are in a war and you are a soldier, you can’t be sleeping very much.  Watchful means keeping awake.  If you were in the trench and the enemy was out there and you said, “Well, I guess we can get a few hours of sleep.”  I’m telling you, if he knows you are sleeping, that is when he is going to come.  Somebody has got to stay awake, to be watching the fields.  Maybe some of the others can sleep, but someone has to stay awake and be watchful.  Being sober has to do with not being worldly.  We must be alert, and very intense on doing God’s will.  It is kind of like this, if somebody were standing crouched, ready to spring into action, ready for anything—and they are looking this way and they are looking that way, they are looking behind them.  They are looking for the enemy.  Where is the enemy going to come from?  They are alert and they are sober. 

A good definition of worldliness is anything that dampens your desire or your zeal to do God’s will.  Anything.  Satan is going to try to sidetrack you so that you won’t do God’s will.  You won’t rush forward and do the will of God.  Your zeal will be dampened.  It is like throwing a wet blanket on something.  It is when you REALLY want to do something for God and someone throws a wet blanket on it; so, you just say, oh well, I guess I’m not going to do it.  You should throw that wet blanket off and get strong again and be sober—because the wet blanket or the dampening of worldliness will cause you not to do God’s will. 

Satan has many tricks.  He is trying to destroy you.  That is the final thing that he is really trying to do.  That is his goal, to destroy you spiritually.  What he will do is whittle away at your life.  He will do things in your life to cause you to get discouraged, to go down, to separate from other people, and slowly but surely he will get you out of the will of God.  In John 10:10, it says, “The thief comes to steal, kill and destroy.”  His desire is to steal from you.  His desire is to kill you.  His desire is to destroy you.  He goes around as a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.  You have got to be a soldier.  You can’t be sitting in your living room with your feet up and drinking lemonade and watching television and going to sleep.  I mean, how are you going to fight a war unless you are standing strong.  You can’t be sleeping and you can’t be just letting everything go and you are just kind of resting back.  The enemy is ready to get you.  So, we have to be alert, sober, because he is going to try to destroy you.  He is very deceitful and he is very tricky.  Then, it says in I Pet. 5:9, “Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experience of suffering is required of your brotherhood throughout the world.” 

When you put armor on, and you are a soldier, and you are in a war, it is hard.  We are in a war and war is not easy.  War is:  You get tired.  Your uniform gets ripped.  You get scratched.  You get hurt.  You fall down.  Your legs are tired.  You want to get eight hours of sleep and all you can get is three hours of sleep.  You are weary with the battle.  You have been walking all day.  OK, we are going to settle in for the night.  So, you settle in for the night and you have your watchmen.  Then, the enemy attacks and you are tired and you say, “I don’t want to fight now” but, somehow, we are in a spiritual battle where God is going to make you ready.  Even, if you think you are not strong enough.  I remember reading in a book called, Pilgrim’s Progress, about this man, whose name was Christian.  He was walking along the road and, all of the sudden, this huge dragon-like figure came out to him and said “Who are You, I’m going to destroy you, you can’t walk down this path anymore, this is my path….”  Satan was facing him.  Somehow he knew that this was Satan and he drew out his sword and said, “I come in the name of the Lord—you MUST let me pass—now, get out of the way because I come I the name of the Lord.”  Satan said, “I’m not going to get out of the way.  I’m going to stand here and let’s see what you are going to do to me—(this was a big dragon).  So, Christian says, “OK, I’m coming at you, with the sword of the Spirit.”  He came at him.  But, Satan knocked him down.  Satan put his foot on his neck when he was down and said, “Ah-Haa, Now, I’m going to get you…I’m going to bite your head off.”  So, Christian’s sword had fallen out of his hand—but he grabs his sword again and he says, “In the name of the Lord, Lord help me,” and he swung the sword and Satan went back.  It is not going to be EASY fighting Satan.  Do you think that he is just going to do everything that you want?  Some demons, you have to yell at them and you have to get them out of the way.  They are not going to go easily.  Satan might come at you and you might say, “In the name of the Lord, get outta here.”  He might stop, but that doesn’t mean that he is going to go.  It might take some words to get him out of here.  So, we have to fight the spiritual battle.  That is way it says, “The same experience of suffering is being experienced by all your brethren throughout the world.”  We are in a war.

Being sober and being watchful is like a soldier who is watchful and alert.  He would be looking for what the enemy is going to do.  He wouldn’t be going to sleep.  Being sober, again, has to do with not letting worldly things sidetrack you.  Satan is going to use worldly things to sidetrack you.  Eph 6:10 says, “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might.”  How many of you have experienced that you do not have strength, that you are going to fall when Satan is coming at you and he bluffs you and he says, “I’m going to get you.”  We back off a little bit but God has something for us to do and we must say like Christian, “I’m going through.”  Then, Satan comes at you and he knocks you down.  God is going to allow you to be knocked down to see if you are going to give up.  And then you are knocked down, but you are still not going to give up.  Are you are going to say, “Oh, I’m down, forget it.  OK, fine, I’ll do whatever you want me to do, Satan.”  NO, grab your sword and say, “In the name of Jesus, get out of here” and swing at Satan and he will be gone.  You will be able to beat Satan.  Be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might.  He is the one who gives us strength.  Eph. 6 says, put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the Devil.  Put on the whole armor of God.  In spiritual warfare—what is the armor of God?  I am going to tell you about one piece of armor now.

Put on the whole armor of God.  Don’t leave anything out.  You are a soldier.  That is why you have armor and you have to stand against the wiles of the Devil.  Wiles are tricks.  He has “wily ways.”  Have you ever heard of “Wily Coyote?”  He is always trying to trick the Road Runner?  He is always trying to come up behind you.  Satan is wily.  He is trying to trick you.  He is trying to sidetrack you.  But, he is not playing a game.  He is playing for keeps.  He is playing for keeps to drag people down into hell.  He has come to kill and destroy and to devour.  We can’t think that this is a game.  You can play a game of monopoly if you want, but that is not real life.  We are playing a real life, life and death struggle, a real war.  The final result of the war is that you are either going to be in hell or you are going to be in heaven.  That is what Christian was doing on the path in Pilgrim’s Progress—he was on his way to heaven.  If he got sidetracked in to any little town or bog or whatever---there were a lot of things to sidetrack him.  A lot of tricky things.  We have to stand against the devil and keep moving forward as a soldier, and keep pushing Satan and his devious tricks away day and night.