Make no mistake, there is evil in the world.
Mass shootings, the sex trade, children being
abused. Are we in fact in a spiritual battle?
Is Satan, demons, are those things that are real?
Yes, you need to learn how to protect yourself
and win the battle. Stay with me. Welcome to
this weekend edition of Living on the Edge with
Chip Ingram. The mission of this daily program
is to intentionally disciple Christians through
the insightful Bible teaching of Chip Ingram.
Let me ask you, does the wickedness of our world
panic you to your core? You feel that evil is
running rampant everywhere, not just on the nightly
news, but at work, church, or even in your home.
Well, this past week, we began Chip's powerful
series, The Invisible War. For the next week,
Chip will dispel our fears and provide us with
some helpful insights into this relevant topic.
Join us in Ephesians chapter 6 as Chip highlights
the vital theology believers need to know about
spiritual warfare. Today we're revisiting the
first program in this series, so grab your Bible
and notes as we join Chip now for his message,
What is the Invisible War? If you want to open
your Bibles to Ephesians chapter 6. There was
one key text, verses 10 through 20, where the
Apostle Paul is going to explain spiritual warfare.
Now, what you need to understand, if you will
mentally go with me here, is chapters 1 through
3. He's telling them, this is who you are in
Christ. You're a brand new creature. You've been
redeemed. You've been sealed with the spirit.
You have an inheritance. God has made this brand
new thing called the church of Jew and Gentile.
And then chapter four says, in light of all that
God has done for you, I want you to walk in the
manner worthy of your calling. The word worthy,
we got our English word axis. It's a picture
of those balances. And it's saying chapters 1,
2, and 3 is all that God has deposited in you.
You are new in Christ, seated in heavenly places,
loved more than you can ever be loved. It'll
never, ever change. Now, live in a way where
your belief and your behavior tell the same story.
And then in chapter 4, he'll talk about how that
has happened and the role of the church. And
then he'll talk about life change and how that
occurs. In chapter 5, he'll talk about walking
in purity. He'll talk about walking in the light,
being filled with the Holy Spirit, what that
looks like in your marriage, what that looks
like with your children, what that looks like
in your employment in that day with slaves. And
then after giving all that, he's going to say,
this new life and all those relationships and
the Spirit of God living his life out through
you is going to occur in a hostile environment.
You're in a battle. And so beginning at verse
10 through verse 20, he's going to teach very
clearly what the battle is, where the battle
is, how to put on spiritual armor, and how to
actually experience the victory. that Christ
has also given us. So with that, you'll notice
verses 10 to 12. It says, finally be strong in
the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put
on the full armor of God that you may 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. I'd like you to underline the phrase,
be strong in the Lord and put a number one above
that. And then I want you to move over and it
says, put on the full armor of God. I want you
to underline that and put a number two. There's
two commands in this passage. The first is a
general command and it's grammatically what's
called the present tense and a passive voice.
And I'm going to give you, for some of you Bible
students, you'll appreciate that and others will
go, I don't know what that is and it really doesn't
matter. Here's what it means. It means this is
something that you are commanded to do right
now, but the passive voice, it's something that
you have to allow to happen to you. I'm commanded
to do it, but I can't make it happen. So for
example, right below the general command, I basically
took the text, and let me give you an expanded
translation. Allow yourself to be continually
strengthened by the power already made available
to you in your new position in Christ. in your
relationship with him. The power that raised
Christ from the dead now also dwells in you.
First and foremost, there's a general command
to be strong in the power that God has already
given us. Allow that power to work in and through
your life. And then there's the specific command.
This is, well, how do you do that? You put on
the full armor of God. And we're going to spend
some time talking about what that is and what
that looks like and very practically how to do
that. And then notice the purpose clause, that
you may be able to stand firm against the schemes
of the devil. Circle the word schemes. We get
our word strategies. And literally, it's a picture
of... literally holding fast or standing firm,
it's the idea that if you would understand that
you, when you trusted in Jesus Christ, were taken
out of the kingdom of darkness and you were placed
in the kingdom of light, then you were sealed
with his spirit. His spirit was deposited in
you. Spiritual gifts were given to you. You were
made a part of the body of Christ. You are now
protected in a part of it. Now he says, this
is all that you have. I want you to stand firm
or hold on to what you already have. And then
he says, the way you do that is by putting on
the full armor of God. And then he gives the
reason. He says, for our struggle, put a circle
around that word, is not against flesh and blood.
In other words, the... men and people and material
world, but against the rulers, against the powers,
against the world forces of this darkness, against
the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly
places. And so the specific command, if you want
sort of a little broader interpretation here,
okay, I'm going to be strong in the Lord. How
do I do that? By continually and repeatingly
putting on this at specific points of time, the
spiritual protection God has provided for you.
The spiritual armor. This is what's called an
aorist imperative, and I'm not going to throw
a lot of Greek words around, but here early on
it's really important because an aorist imperative
has a sense of urgency. In other words, what
you need to do is be ready and be urgent and
ready and continually when the battle comes,
you need to be strong in the Lord and you do
that by appropriating this armor at any time,
at any moment, when the darts of the enemy come.
Goes on to say, for the express purpose of holding
on to the position in Christ as you're bombarded
by satanic strategies designed to destroy you
and or render you ineffective in kingdom pursuits.
The reason is, it's because there is a real struggle.
And that word struggle that you circled literally
is a picture of a wrestling match. They would
have the gladiators go in and wrestle to the
death. And this is that word. This is serious
stuff. This isn't a little man in a red suit
with horns and a plastic tail. This is against
the physical, material adversaries. That's not
the problem. People, circumstances, organizations.
But he's literally giving us a hierarchy. You
know, if you're in the military, there's generals
and majors and lieutenants and sergeants. He's
giving us a hierarchy of demonic forces. Rulers.
powers, world forces of darkness, spiritual forces
of darkness in the heavenly places. And so what
I want you to do is, okay, we've got a general
command, be strong in the Lord. We have a specific
man. You do that by putting on the armor of God.
You do that so that you can stand firm against
the scheme strategies of a personal angelic being
with a third of the angels who are seeking to
destroy your life, render you useless. hurt you
emotionally, spiritually, relationally, discredit
Christ, and do anything possible to make your
life miserable, and get you to trust anything
or anyone other than Christ. Now, with that said,
I want to give you five basic truths. Five things.
This is 101. This is just directly what the Bible
teaches about spiritual warfare. Are you ready?
Good. Basic truth number one is there is an invisible
world that is just as real as the visible world.
There's an invisible world. There's a world that
you can't see. And let me show you that from
both Old and New Testament. If you have your
Bibles, you can look at 2 Kings 6. And as you
turn there, I'm going to be looking at verses
14 through 17. And it's about the prophet Elisha.
And Elisha has been used by God to frustrate
a certain king's plans multiple times, multiple
times, multiple times. And they can never figure
out where he is and they want to get him. And
so they finally find out what city he's in. And
I mean, he sends cavalry, chariots, soldiers,
and they surround the whole city. And so now
they've got him. And the story will... pick it
up, is his servant goes out early in the morning,
and he looks out in the city, and he goes, oh
my, we're done. And so notice we pick it up.
Now when the attendant, verse 15, of the man
of God had risen and gone out, and behold, an
army with horses and chariots were circling the
city. And his servant said to him, alas, my master,
what shall we do? So he answered, Do not fear,
for those who are with us are more than those
who are with them. And then it's very, very interesting.
Verse 17, Then Elisha prayed and said, O Lord,
I pray, open his eyes that he may see. And the
Lord opened the eyes of the servant, and he saw,
and behold, the mountains were full of horses
and chariots of fire all around Elisha. And when
they came down to him, Elisha prayed to the Lord
and said, Strike this people with blindness,
I pray. So he struck them with blindness according
to the word of Elisha. And then Elisha led them
back to that king. All I want you to get is there's
two realities. And there's one going on all the
time that we don't see. You're listening to Living
on the Edge. And Chip Ingram will be back to
continue our series, The Invisible War, in just
a minute. But let me quickly tell you that we
are more than a broadcast ministry. We're supporting
pastors globally, developing helpful resources,
and sharing the gospel with this next generation.
So if you'd like to join us in these efforts,
become a monthly partner by going to livingontheedge
.org. And thanks for your support. We'll hear
again as Chip. a warfare that's going on. Not
only is there an invisible world, but there's
a battle going on. And in Ephesians he says,
look, it's not about flesh and blood. I don't
know if any of you remember Francis Schaeffer.
He had a great impact in my early life. And he
wrote a lot, but he had a tiny little booklet.
And his booklet was called Two Contents, Two
Realities. And it really changed my life. I read
it and he was a philosopher and a brilliant guy
and did Labrie and all those things and traveled
all around the world. But it was just, he said,
there's two concepts, two realities. There's
a material world and an immaterial world. There's
a visible world and there's an invisible world.
And what happens in the invisible world has direct
correlation and impact on the things that we
see. Premise, basic truth number one. There is
an invisible world that is just as real as the
visible world. Basic number two, we are involved
in an invisible war, a cosmic conflict that has
eternal implications. He says in 2 Corinthians
10, 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. We're
destroying speculations and every lofty thing
raised up against the knowledge of God. And we're
taking every thought captive to the obedience
of Christ. So the apostle Paul is saying, I'm
in a battle, but I don't battle flesh and blood
in the same way spiritually. He says, and notice
the key words. He says, we have divinely powerful,
pulling down fortresses, speculations, knowledge,
and thoughts. The number one thing Satan is is
a deceiver. And he has a world system. He has
a world system that he takes what God says is
good and he twists it. And he wants to give it
to a good thing at a wrong time in the wrong
way or with the wrong person. He takes beauty
and he twists it. He takes what is right and
twists it to make what is wrong. He takes truth
and makes it relative and then he makes it different
and then he has All kind of things where what
he's doing, deception, deception, deception,
deception. And if he can get you to believe lies
about God, his goodness, his kindness, how could
a good God let this happen? Lies about you, you're
worthless. You're a nobody. You'll never amount
to anything. Or if that doesn't work, you are
wonderful. You're entitled to everything. You're
the most important person in the world. Lies
about what makes you secure, what makes you successful.
If you just had enough money, if you just had
bigger muscles, if you just had those little
purses that had the insignia on them so everyone
would know how important you are. If you just
had a car that had a little different emblem
than the car that you have, if you go public
and have so many patents, then you're a somebody.
If your kids make the traveling team, you'll
finally really be worthwhile if you get all A's,
right? And the lies are some way, somehow, your
performance, you can either possess something
or be something or impress people, and somehow,
some way, the lie is. That will bring joy and
meaning and purpose and happiness. And so that's
what he wants us to know. He says you're in a
spiritual battle. Look, speculations, knowledge
of God. And here's the deal. What you're going
to find is much of spiritual, much. of spiritual
warfare is about you putting good things in your
mind and renewing your mind so you look at life
the way God looks at life. So you are focused
on the truth because when you know the truth
and practice the truth, it makes you free. Notice
the Apostle Paul goes on, there was a situation
with a brother who had sinned. And the church
was not handling the reconciliation very well.
And Paul's writing to them to correct that. And
he says in 2 Corinthians 4 .4, in whose case
the God of this world, Satan, has blinded what?
Their minds of the unbelieving, that they may
not see the light of the gospel of the glory
of Christ, who is the image of God. Here's a
little application that I would just like you
to ponder. Because when you see that, there's
eternal implications. People not believing in
Christ is not primarily an intellectual issue.
It's a moral issue. It's not that people don't
understand, but there is an enemy blinding people
from understanding, making the connection. I
mean, if you just look at it logically, the proposition
of the gospel is like a win -win -win, how do
you turn it down, unless your brain's not working.
We all know we mess up. The Bible calls it sin.
We all know we fall short. We've all said things,
thought things, done things, hurt other people.
We all know that we long to be forgiven. We want
life and purpose. God, in His great mercy, sent
God the Son who lived a perfect life to reveal
what the Father is like. And then living a perfect
life, dies on the cross in our place to pay for
our sin. Literally, the word is atoned. He covers
it. He rises from the dead and proves it's true.
500 eyewitnesses. And this isn't some fairy tale.
This isn't another religion. This isn't like,
oh, can I ponder this? And then it starts out
with this mustard seed of a ragtag group of semi
-uneducated people, save one. They transform
the world. It's the largest movement in the world.
And we have some people in the name of Christ
that have done a lot of negative things. But
I will say, boy, when you see what's happened
to the last, go around the world with me. And
hospitals, orphanages, language. Man, it has
been Christians, God's people, salt, light, loving.
And he makes this offer. I mean, if someone said,
excuse me, sir, you could never have... a billion
dollars, because no matter how long you work.
And so I have a friend, he would like to give
that to you, but you need to receive that by
faith and put your trust in him in order for
him to give you a billion dollars. Would we go,
ah, that's too easy. It's probably a robocall,
you know? And yet, that's the gospel. I mean,
and it's clear, it's simple. It's the substitutionary
work of Jesus. But the issue is people's minds,
they're blinded. This is why intercessory prayer
is so important. There's a correlation between
praying and beseeching God, asking the Father
to cause His Spirit to work in the heart of someone
to open their eyes and open their mind where
they could lay down their pride or feeling unworthy.
in order to believe and to trust in what Christ
has provided. The question I have, and you'll
see this in your notes, when is the last time
you honestly considered some struggle or relational
conflict that was rooted in satanic opposition?
And what I mean by this is that C .S. Lewis has
wisely said, the greatest error when it comes
to spiritual warfare is to think far too much
about Satan or to think far too little. And I'm
amazed that we have a modern mindset and somehow
we just think everything's cause and effect.
I did this and this happens. I did this, this
happens. Look at the pervasive evil in the world.
All human beings are made in the image of God
and have amazing dignity and value. But there's
some unspeakable evil historically and currently.
I am not saying in any way everything is caused
by the enemy. But just for our purposes, would
you consider that there is an enemy that's seeking
to destroy you? And you can go the physical,
the psychological. But if you don't address this,
maybe nothing changes. This is Living on the
Edge with Chip Ingram. And you've been listening
to part one of Chip's message, What is the Invisible
War? From our series, The Invisible War. Chip
will be back shortly to share some helpful application
for us to think about. Right now, there's a spiritual
battle happening all around us. We can't see
it, but it's an epic struggle for our hearts
and minds. So what are we as believers supposed
to do? Well, through this eight -part study,
Chip shares some insights from Ephesians chapter
6 for how we're to think about, prepare for,
and respond to spiritual warfare. Learn why we
don't have to be afraid because of the armor
God's given us to fight back. And fight well.
To learn more about this series, visit livingontheedge
.org or the Chip Ingram app. Well, Chip's joined
me in studio now. And Chip, given that you're
addressing the reality of spiritual warfare over
the next several broadcasts, why should believers
dig in with us and get a better grasp of what's
going on around them every day? Well, Dave, this
is important because there is a real battle happening.
We need to understand that Satan is a fallen
angel with extreme power who led one -third of
the angels in rebellion against God, and his
goal is to destroy the work of God, the work
of Christ, you, your family, even your physical
life. And you're in a battle, and it's an invisible
battle. And my experience is the average believer
is either unaware or because it feels a little
scary, tends to be frightened from it. This is
a very biblical, practical series that will help
everyday believers understand, one, what's going
on. Two, that you don't have to be afraid that
Christ has accomplished victory. Three, that
there is a process and a journey you need to
understand on a daily basis to say no to lies
and to even be able to confront the evil that's
in the world in a way where you have a life.
that demonstrates the power and the love and
the light of Christ. I think few things are more
misunderstood or there's been such extremes in
the teaching that people literally don't understand.
Spiritual warfare is a reality. You need to understand
it, learn how to live it out, and win. We have
the victory. But if you're deceived or if you're
in bondage or if you're not aware of what's going
on, you are fair game to have the enemy literally
destroy your life. I can think of few series
I've ever taught that the church needs more than
this one right now. Absolutely, Chip. Well, as
we dive into this vital teaching, let me encourage
you to get your family or a few friends together
and listen to this series either at livingontheedge
.org or wherever you listen to podcasts. Get
ready to have your thinking about spiritual warfare
forever changed. Well, with all that said, here
again is Chip to share a few final words. As
we close today's program, I ask you a question.
I ask, when was the last time you considered?
that possibly some of the things that we think
are just everyday occurrences might in fact have
a spiritual warfare component. And as I ask you
that, no, for sure, we're not saying there's
a demon under every bush or all our problems
are because of Satan or demons. What we're saying
is, yes, it's a fallen world and bad things happen.
Yes, we make bad decisions and there are consequences.
But in addition, we are in an invisible battle
and we need to recognize it and learn to deal
with it. So right now, I want you to pray. Dear
God, will you show me if any of the issues I'm
struggling with today, any relationship, any
circumstance, could be rooted in demonic opposition?
He'll show you. Great challenge for us to think
about, Chip. You've been listening to a selected
program that we wanted to share from this past
week. To hear more from Chip's series, The Invisible
War, go to livingontheedge .org or wherever you
listen to podcasts. Until next time, I'm Dave
Drewy saying thanks for listening to this weekend
edition of Living on the Edge.