Sermonette: 'It Is Written'

Christian Defense Against Spiritual Terrorism
#599s
Clyde Finklea
Given 01-Mar-03; 11 minutes

Good afternoon to all of you. As always, it is a joy to be up here on the Sabbath day to fellowship with you again.

Brethren, America is at war with terror. The U.S.A. has five levels of terror alert warnings: low, guarded, elevated, high, and severe. In fact, the U.S.A. was on high alert for the past three weeks. Just this past Thursday it was lowered to the ‘elevated’ level.

But we as Christians have been at war with terror since we were converted. Every day of our life we are on severe alert for terrorist attacks. The major difference in the terrorists that we fight is that they are invisible.

If you would turn with me to Ephesians 6, verse 12 where it reads:

Ephesians 6:12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood [humanity], but against principalities [high ranking], against powers [invested with authority], against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.

We are fighting against the spiritual host of wicked terrorists—Satan and his demons. Now verses 13 to 17 will describe the whole armor of God, but I want to pick this up in verse 17 where it says,

Ephesians 6:17 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, . . .

The only offensive weapon that we have been given is a sword. The sword, of course, must be coupled with prayers, it says in verse 18, but we are going to concentrate on the sword in its proper use for the remainder of the sermonette.

Verse 17 also says that the sword of the Spirit is the Word of God. Now, the Greek term rendered word is not logos referring to the whole word of God. But the words used here is rhema and that refers to the certain portions of Scripture or selected verses of Scripture. In other words, we must be skilled and rightly dividing the Word of God.

Now, Jesus did not leave us defenseless in the use of the sword. Turn with me, please, back to Matthew. We will look in chapter 4, verse 1. Here, Jesus is showing us that there are three areas in which we will be attacked by these spiritual terrorists.

Matthew 4:1 Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.

Now the word tempt has a dual meaning. One, it means to test; to search out; to try; or to put to the proof. Two, it means to entice; to commit evil. Now to entice to commit evil means to deceive or lure someone into going contrary to God's way, breaking His laws. God will never entice us to sin, but Satan and his host of spiritual terrorists will, because they are evil within.

Matthew 4:2 And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterward He was hungry.

Actually, Jesus' physical body was being kept alive miraculously by God the Father, because He was actually near starvation. The average human being without God's intervention would probably be dead at this point.

These examples were written for us. This is not the entire battle between Satan and Jesus. If you put the gospels together, you would see that the battle actually began when Jesus on the first day was driven into the wilderness by the Spirit.

The first area in which we will be attacked is through the lust of the flesh. It says in verse 3,

Matthew 4:3 Now when the tempter came to Him, he said, "If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread."

Satan is trying to entice Jesus to act independently of God the Father. He is trying to get Him to satisfy natural hunger (or actually starvation) in an unnatural way. Of course, Jesus being an expert in the use of the sword of the Spirit, the rhema of God, He defends Himself and says, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God” (verse 4).

Now Satan and his host of spiritual terrorists will try to entice us through the lust of the flesh, through food, drugs, alcohol, sex, but in order to defeat them, we must have our swords unsheathed.

The second area in which they will attack is through the pride of life.

Matthew 4:5-6 Then the devil took Him up into the holy city, set Him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, "If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down. For it is written: 'He shall give His angels charge over you,' and, 'In their hands they shall bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone.'"

It is interesting that he uses the twisting of the scripture—actually a counterfeit sword—through the pride of life. And he only uses it here. It only happens through the pride of life. How many of our brethren have been deceived by this, being puffed up through knowledge, thinking that they know more than the teachers that God has placed over us? But in verse 7, Jesus sets the example again.

Matthew 4:7 Jesus said to him, "It is written again, 'You shall not tempt the LORD your God.'"

The third area in which they will attack us is through the lust of the eyes. Let us read verse 8.

Matthew 4:8-9 Again, the devil took Him up on an exceedingly high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to Him, "All these things I will give You if You will fall down and worship me."

Now, I was recently laid off from my job, so I went for an interview with a relatively new company in the area who was looking for somebody with my qualifications. The human resource manager was very interested in me and he began to show me what they had to offer. They offered me a high salary, good benefits; they are going to give me a vacation after 6 months. But there was only one small problem: I had to work every other Saturday. So, what I did was I had to explain to them about the Sabbath day, that I could not work on it. In other words, I had to pull out my sword, and say, “It is written, ‘Remember the Sabbath day.’” Of course, this was mentally to Satan and his demons.

But you see, the lust of the eyes is a desire for what can be seen. And you know, every time we lose the battle, it is like falling down and worshipping Satan. That is what he was saying. “Look what all you could have, Clyde. You can have it right now. All you gotta do is just worship me twice a month.”

Knowing from where your enemy will attack is a great advantage in warfare. Jesus has showed us that Satan and his host of spiritual terrorists will attack us through the lust of the flesh, the pride of life, and the lust of the eyes. But in order to be victorious, we must become experts in the use of the sword, the rhema of God.

We are going to close now in,

I John 2:15-17 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.

He who becomes an expert in the rhema of God will abide forever, because it is written. . .

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