Brothers and sisters, wonderful to be able to come together and receive these precious ministries of the Word.
My twin brother, Brother Wong, spoke this morning from the same passage that I am speaking on. I am speaking on the testimony of Paul: “I have fought the good fight.” Our brother has shared on, “I have kept the faith.”
In these afternoon sessions, we have also been trying to connect fighting the good fight with being aware of the schemes of the devil.
We would like to begin this afternoon by turning to Ephesians 6, that familiar passage about wrestling in our warfare, beginning in verse 10.
Finally, be strong in the Lord, and in the strength of His might.
Put on the full armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world-rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.
Wherefore take up the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and, having done all, to stand.
Stand therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness,
and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace.
Withal, taking up the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the evil one.
And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
With all prayer and supplication praying at all seasons in the Spirit, and watching thereunto in all perseverance and supplication for all the saints.
Then we want to go to 2 Timothy 2. I want to read verses 1 through 7, and then verse 22.
Thou therefore, my child, be strengthened in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.
And the things which thou hast heard from me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also.
Suffer hardship with me, as a good soldier of Christ Jesus.
No soldier on service entangleth himself in the affairs of this life; that he may please Him who enrolled him as a soldier.
And if also a man contend in the games, he is not crowned, except he contend lawfully.
The husbandman that laboreth must be the first to partake of the fruits.
Consider what I say; for the Lord shall give thee understanding in all things.
But flee youthful lusts, and follow after righteousness, faith, love, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart.
Let us have a word of prayer.
Our Father, we thank You that we can come to You in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. What a mighty name. We realize that You have given us all things in Christ, including the armour we need to fight the noble fight.
This afternoon, we pray that You would give us ears to hear what the Spirit would say to us. Indeed, we believe every heart here wants to fight the good fight, run the course, and keep the faith.
But even in saying these things, we feel the need to lay hold of Your life and to lean upon Your everlasting arm. We ask for Your help this afternoon, and we thank You for that help.
In the name of our blessed Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
If you notice there in 2 Timothy 2, Paul realizes that the time of his going to the Lord has come. What Paul is doing is passing the torch of the testimony to his younger son in the Lord, Timothy.
At the beginning of chapter 2, we see these verses. Some Bible teachers think there are three illustrations, but I believe there are four illustrations there.
You see immediately that he is talking about a soldier, an athlete, and a farmer. But some believe that in verse 2 he is making reference to the marathon.
In that ancient marathon, they took a torch and ran with it a certain distance, passing it on three times until it came to the end. So, in verse 2, there are four people involved in passing the torch.
The things which thou hast heard from me among many witnesses.
That is the Apostle Paul. He has been faithfully carrying the torch of the testimony. Then he is saying, “Timothy, take that torch and entrust these things to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also.”
We have a wonderful picture. Paul is passing the torch of the testimony to younger Timothy, and by the grace of God that torch has been passed down through the generations to faithful men and women.
Now it is time for Timothy to grow up. He has received much from the Apostle Paul. In the first verse of chapter 2, Paul says, “Be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.”
This Greek word is actually reflexive. In other words, strengthen yourself in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. All the grace you need to be a noble fighter has been given to you. Now you need to use that grace. Trust that grace. By faith, take hold of that grace.
How else can we fight the noble fight? As we shared last time, we call this a noble fight because we have been called to make the enemy a footstool under the feet of our Lord.
Even as we engage in this noble warfare, we find our lives perfected in the process. As we fight this noble warfare, we find ourselves fighting by the character and life of the Lord who dwells within us. It is by the Lord’s life that we fight the noble fight.
In verses 3 and 4, Paul says:
Suffer hardship with me, as a good soldier of Christ Jesus.
No soldier on service entangleth himself in the affairs of this life; that he may please Him who enrolled him as a soldier.
Now, this is our calling. We have been enlisted by the King of kings, Jesus Christ. As soldiers, we want to do what is right.
There are many affairs in everyday life, but we do not become distracted by these things. We defer their importance in order to serve our heavenly King. And so we fight the noble fight.
I want you to notice, secondly, that in Ephesians 6 it says we wrestle. This is a picture of individual warfare.
Next time, Lord willing, we will talk about corporate warfare. But we cannot engage in warfare as the church of Jesus Christ unless we are individually faithful in fighting the good fight.
And so we wrestle. You have never seen a wrestling match where ten people come in and start wrestling at the same time. This is one-on-one. Timothy must be faithful. He is the one who has to wrestle in this warfare.
Last time we spoke, for the most part, about wrestling against the deceptions of the devil. At first, this seems like an impossible task.
In Genesis, it says that the serpent was more subtle than all the beasts of the field. We cannot even understand how subtle the schemes of the enemy are. Throughout the generations and history of men, men have been deceived time and time again.
He rules in darkness, and in the darkness of our hearts he deceives us. How can we fight the noble fight? There is only one way: in the light.
The enemy has no power in the light. We remember that simple but wonderful passage in 1 John 1:
God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all.
Wherever Jesus went as He walked upon the earth, darkness fled. Even the demons scurried to the corners. God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all.
If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
But here is our victory: if we walk in the light. Isn’t that wonderful? Children of God, we can walk in the light.
But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanseth us from all sin.
Our Lord Jesus is with us in the light, walking with us. We have fellowship one with another. This is a picture of our church life: fellowship in the light. The church is the pillar and ground of the truth.
But you know what happens when we fellowship in the light? Sin is exposed. Deceptions are revealed. Now what should we do?
If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
This is our life. If we walk in this light, there can be no deception. The darkness of the enemy has no place in the light.
We need fellowship with one another in the light. We need to tell our brother or sister, “My brother, I think you are going into the shadows.”
But if we confess our sin, He cleanses us from all sin, because He is our Advocate. He is the mercy seat for our sins, and so we can live in the righteousness of Jesus Christ.
Deception will only be found in a dark place. Do you want to fight the good fight? Live in the light. Let there be light to you, and the enemy cannot influence you.
This afternoon we want to talk about some other schemes of the enemy: accusations, temptations, and sudden trials. As we talk about these, I want us to look at two pictures from David’s life as a good and noble warrior.
How can we stand against these schemes of the devil? First, stand in the Rock of your salvation.
How do we gain the victory in spiritual warfare? Stand. We will look at that from Ephesians 6.
First of all, you know the story of David. When he was a little boy, he was a shepherd. Some believe that while he was still a young shepherd, he found some caves, and they became a hiding place.
When we turn to Psalm 18, we find many references that David makes to the Rock of his salvation. This is not talking about a stone; it is talking about a cave.
I love Thee, O Lord, my strength.
The Lord is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer;
My God, my rock, in whom I take refuge;
My shield, and the horn of my salvation, my high tower.
I call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised:
So shall I be saved from mine enemies.
Psalm 62 says:
My soul waiteth in silence for God only:
From Him cometh my salvation.
He only is my rock and my salvation, my high tower;
I shall not be greatly moved.
And notice Psalm 61:2:
From the end of the earth will I call unto Thee, when my heart is overwhelmed:
Lead me to the rock that is higher than I.
For Thou hast been a refuge for me,
A strong tower from the enemy.
Out on the western side of Bethlehem were the caves of Adullam. Perhaps David found those caves as a young shepherd boy. But when he became a man, and Saul, full of an evil spirit, tried to destroy David, he ran to the rock. He hid in the caves of Adullam.
His family came to him, and other men came to him in the cave. This became his fortress. This became his refuge.
But it also became the place where David saw that God was his Rock. He could not always run to those caves in Adullam. He had to flee from place to place. But he found something great: the Lord is my Rock, my fortress, my shelter.
This is our first picture of how we stand against the enemy. Brothers and sisters, do we have a Rock? Do we know the Rock of our salvation? Do you have a hiding place, a place where you can go and flee from the enemy?
This is our first warfare against the enemy.
Now, with that little picture, we go back to Ephesians 6 just to underscore it in a few simple ways. Notice how Paul tells them to stand in this noble warfare.
Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
Wherefore take up the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and, having done all, to stand.
And note the beginning of verse 14: “Stand therefore.”
Here comes the devil like a roaring lion. He comes to attack you. He roars. What should you do? Stand firm. That is how we fight.
Is it you standing firm against the devil? He can beat you in a wrestling match, no problem. But you are standing in the Rock. Put on the Lord Jesus Christ. Put on the full armour of God.
Be strong in the Lord, and in the strength of His might.
This enables us, as it says in verse 13, to stand in the evil day. Sometimes the warfare is difficult. The enemy is threatening. The enemy is circling. It is an evil day.
You have been trusting God, and it seems as though God is not answering your prayer. What should you do? Stand in the Rock.
We have that wonderful verse in James 4:7:
Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
This is an amazing promise. Resist. Do not run away. Stand, and he will go away.
But remember what it says in James 4:6:
God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to the humble.
We are in the Rock of Christ, the Rock of our salvation. But the enemy tries to draw us out. He would draw us out of our position in the victory of Christ.
How does he do it? He accuses us night and day. We notice that in Revelation 12.
Now is come the salvation, and the power, and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of His Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, who accuseth them before our God day and night.
The very word Satan literally means adversary. Satan stands before God and accuses you, saying, “He is a sinner. She is a sinner. Look at this. Look at that.”
He is very busy. He has many things he points out—twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. No day off for Christmas. Always accusing, accusing, accusing.
He wants to draw you out. He wants to cause you to feel condemnation. He wants to bring you to doubt. So he accuses you.
But we overcome. How? We cannot tell him, “No, no, no, I did not sin.” If we say that, then the devil eats us up. We are his lunch. We cannot stand on our own righteousness.
But what does Revelation 12:11 say?
And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb, and because of the word of their testimony.
Now there is no more accusation, because Jesus on the cross washed our sins away. He sprinkled our hearts clean from an evil conscience.
In the blood of His new covenant is the promise:
I will remember their sins no more.
Satan is there accusing and getting hoarse, but God says, “There is no sin in My children.” But you need to stay in the Rock.
The enemy can get you if you get out from under the covering of the precious blood. It is like the Passover. You are in the house, and the blood is on the door. You are under the blood.
The enemy comes, and when he sees the blood, he must pass over you. But there is that warning: do not leave the house.
Brothers and sisters, stay in the Rock of your salvation. If we can only believe what the Word of God tells us, what a wonderful victorious life we would live.
My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness.
On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand;
All other ground is sinking sand.
Now you have sung it. Now do you believe it? Amen? Are you in the Rock? He is your salvation. He has applied His precious blood to you, beloved child.
Oh, value that salvation. Stand in that place, and know that the enemy cannot touch you because you are under the blood of the Lamb.
Do you have such a hiding place? It is possible to become uncovered through sin. The next thing you know, the devil is nipping at your heels.
It is such a tragedy to see God’s children go into the darkness and see how the enemy buffets them about. Here is the first and vital lesson of spiritual, noble warfare: stand in your hiding place, in the refuge of the Rock. This is our victory.
Now David often fled to this Rock. Later in his life, he often fled to the Rock of his salvation.
Now we come to the second picture. David was a soldier, and David was a king. You cannot remain a soldier if you stay in the cave all your life. David had to walk in the victory of the Lord.
Knowing that David was beloved by God, as soon as David became king and began to walk in his royal calling, the enemy immediately attacked.
Let us look at this second picture in 2 Samuel 5. We begin with verse 17.
And when the Philistines heard that they had anointed David king over Israel, all the Philistines went up to seek David; and David heard of it, and went down to the stronghold.
The Philistines, the enemies of God, were trying to attack David as soon as they found out he was king. As the enemy finds out you are a child of the King, he comes to attack. What did David do? He went to the stronghold.
Now the Philistines had come and spread themselves in the valley of Rephaim.
And David inquired of the Lord, saying, Shall I go up against the Philistines? Wilt Thou deliver them into my hand? And the Lord said unto David, Go up; for I will certainly deliver the Philistines into thy hand.
How is that for a battle strategy? When the enemy attacks, do you immediately attack him, or do you talk to the Lord? David said, “Lord, should I go?” The Lord said, “Go up.”
And David came to Baal-perazim, and David smote them there; and he said, The Lord hath broken mine enemies before me, like the breach of waters. Therefore he called the name of that place Baal-perazim.
This name, Baal-perazim, gives us some insight into the battle. When David went up with his armies, he caught them by surprise. The Lord broke through. There was a sudden happening, and they were so caught off guard that they left their idols behind.
When David attacked them, they were so caught off guard that they fled away and left their idols behind. What a loss for those idolaters. Now they had to go back and fight just to get their idols back.
Then we see verse 22:
And the Philistines came up yet again, and spread themselves in the valley of Rephaim.
And when David inquired of the Lord, He said, Thou shalt not go up: make a circuit behind them, and come upon them over against the mulberry trees.
When David inquired of the Lord, the Lord did not say, “Go up.” He said, “Wait.” Eighty percent of our spiritual battle is waiting.
David knew, “Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit.” With the enemy sitting right there, he waited.
Of course, the enemy was ready for him to attack. But David went around the back. The Lord said:
Thou shalt not go up; make a circuit behind them, and come upon them over against the mulberry trees.
And it shall be, when thou hearest the sound of marching in the tops of the mulberry trees, that then thou shalt bestir thyself: for then is the Lord gone out before thee to smite the host of the Philistines.
David did so, just as the Lord commanded him, and struck down the Philistines from Geba as far as Gezer.
David and his army circled around behind the Philistines. The Philistines were there with their chariots and spears, waiting: “Where is he? Where is he?” Now they were getting afraid.
Then they heard the sound in the trees. It was the army of the Lord. It was angels rustling the trees. Then David came from behind and struck them down. David said, “The Lord got the victory.”
David always gave the Lord the victory.
Doesn’t this remind you of that great battle against Sennacherib? Isaiah and Hezekiah were in Jerusalem, and Sennacherib said, “We are going to destroy all of you. Just quit now. Open the gate.”
But Isaiah and Hezekiah prayed. And what does the Bible say?
The angel of the Lord went forth, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians a hundred fourscore and five thousand.
Now, I want to do battle like that, do you? That is a pretty good victory. You just sit in the cave, watch it on television, and God does all the work.
Well, no, it is not that simple. But we can have the victory if we will follow the Lord.
Now, in Ephesians 6:16, we apply this story. When it comes to this warfare, this wrestling, it mentions one thing that the enemy actually does: he shoots us with fiery darts.
This is one of the enemy’s strategies. He wants to attack you with a fiery dart. It pierces you. It is meant to pierce to the heart.
It could be an accusation. It could be a temptation. It could be a sudden trial. Through all of these strategies, he wants to unsettle you and frighten you.
We remember Paul’s exhortation to Timothy: “Flee youthful lusts.” We walk by the Spirit and not by the flesh. But as we are walking, the enemy attacks us with fiery darts. He wants to draw us out of our place in Christ.
The first place he often attacks is our physical body: sudden temptation.
You might be walking down the street and singing, “On Christ the solid Rock I stand,” and suddenly you see a peach. That means a pretty girl in America. Suddenly a thought, a temptation, a lust comes into your mind, and somehow you feel that you have sinned.
No, you have been tempted. God does not tempt, but we are tempted when we are drawn out by our own lust. What do you do about that? Do you just let it pierce down to the heart?
Or do you say, “Lord, I plead the blood of Jesus Christ. I do not want those thoughts.” Thoughts can come to brothers and sisters. None of us are beyond the temptations that can come to us as darts.
But you do not have to live with that. You thank the Lord for His cleansing blood.
Then there are darts to the mind, to the emotions, and to the will. There can be sudden attacks. We are just walking along, and suddenly curse words come into our heads. An evil thought comes into our head, many times without warning.
But it unsettles us. I remember speaking some years ago to a young Christian whom the enemy continually attacked by flooding his mind with curse words.
This young believer felt condemned. Sometimes even in the worship meeting, these curse words would flood in. He said, “What should I do?”
I said, “Do you hate those curse words, or do you love them?” He said, “I hate them.” I said, “Then they are not from you. They are from the enemy.”
Resist those words. Every time they come, immediately give praise to God. Tell the Lord, “These thoughts have been thrown into my mind, but my heart loves You with all my heart.”
Within two weeks, there was no more problem. If every time he shoots these words into your mind, you respond by praising the Lord, he will not do that very long.
But the enemy shoots darts of doubt. You could even be in a meeting like this and suddenly think, “I do not believe any of this.”
Sometimes he throws a suggestion, a sudden suggestion to do something that is just in the flesh and wrong. Young people have to watch this all the time.
You are on the internet and some wrong sites come up. Do not say, “Let me just check that out. It is a website that says Adam and Eve. What could be wrong?”
These darts of the enemy attack our thoughts. Our emotions are also susceptible to attack, especially when we are selfish, self-centred, and needy.
We are walking, and suddenly we sense fear gripping us. We panic. We worry and worry and worry about something that comes to nothing.
Sometimes we suddenly feel all alone, forgotten by God, forsaken.
We remember that yesterday we read in 2 Corinthians 2, where Paul makes reference to the schemes of the devil. Here is what happened: there was a brother who had to be disciplined in Corinth.
They disciplined this brother. They told him he could not take the Lord’s table, or they placed some measure of limitation upon him.
Paul says, regarding that brother, “You forgive him.” We must restore a brother because the enemy can place a dart in his heart: “You have been forsaken by God.”
Even brethren going through discipline, we do not want them to feel forsaken by God. These are the enemy’s schemes. If he can touch our emotions, we can become offended by God or His people.
Then he would attack our will. We are walking in the Lord, but the enemy has a double-edged sword to paralyse you from serving the Lord.
You work long hours on the job, but you always feel guilty: “I should be studying the Word of God.” Then you get laid off, and you are studying the Word of God. The enemy says, “You should be working.” You cannot win.
Are you serving the Lord? You feel, “I should rest.” But then you go on vacation, and you feel guilty: “You should be serving.”
If you are in a meeting, you hear a voice: “You should be home with your family.” So next week you stay home with your family, and you cannot enjoy it: “You should be at the meeting.”
Do you spend time with your family? A voice tells you, “You should be witnessing to your neighbour.” Do you see how this works? Whatever you do, he makes you feel guilty about it.
He has a two-edged sword. Anything you do, he chops at the other side. These are just fiery darts of the enemy.
But we have a provision against all his fiery darts—not only the shield of faith by which we quench these darts. I will let my twin brother, Brother Wong, speak on that.
But all of the armour of God is our provision. These darts have no effect if you are girded with truth, if you have the breastplate of righteousness in the blood of Jesus, if you have the helmet of salvation on your head, if you have the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.
If you know the gospel and have your feet shod with the gospel, what can these darts do? This is the Lord’s provision. Put on the full armour of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil.
The enemy continues to shoot the darts, but they just bounce off. The enemy is such a liar. He makes those darts look so big, but they are all lies.
The devil cannot tell you the truth without lying. He always twists something.
Sometimes the Spirit of God is convicting you of sin, but the enemy tries to make conviction into condemnation by twisting it.
The Spirit of God convicts you and says, “That is a sin. That is a sin.” But the devil condemns you: “You are guilty. You are guilty. You are no good.”
We must not only live in the Rock. We must not only walk in the full armour. There is one more thing: we must be careful of unguarded moments.
We notice in 1 Timothy 4:16 that Paul says to young Timothy:
Take heed to thyself, and to thy teaching.
We must be careful of enemy attacks. We have one more example from David. You remember the story of his unguarded moment when he was up on the rooftop of his palace.
It was time for him to fight the noble fight, but he stayed at home. He had pride in his heart. He was a soldier, but he was not fighting. He was bored, and that gave an opportunity to the enemy.
He killed a man. He committed adultery. He hurt the testimony of God because of an unguarded moment.
Now I want to finish by speaking especially to those of you who serve the Lord. The enemy hates servants of God, and he will try to find an unguarded moment.
We see it even in the life of our Lord when, in the wilderness, He was tempted. Jesus was hungry and tired after fasting forty days. It was then that the enemy came to tempt Him. These were real temptations.
What were the issues? These apply to the servant of God. The enemy will tell you to take stones and make them bread: use your gift and your authority to make money.
Many servants of God have gone astray, using their gift. With one side of their mouth, they preach the Word of God; but with the other side of their mouth, they become super-salesmen at a big sales convention and all this kind of stuff. They use their gift for their own satisfaction.
When Jesus was tempted by the devil to jump off the top of the temple, how servants of God are tempted to show off—to do things that will gain a following.
“If you just do something dramatic, then what you share will stand out above the rest.” There are many servants of God, it is sad to say, who have built some kind of work based on extravagant doctrine and experience.
If you are a faithful servant of God, the devil will come to you and say, “I will give you a kingdom for a price.”
Does every man have a price? Can we be bought? “Just bow down. I will give you a kingdom.” It is a shortcut to a ministry. Many times, compromise comes just this way.
As we will see tomorrow, when we talk about corporate warfare, in these last days there will be many ways to gather a following and make a fortune in false religion.
We thank God that Paul could not be bought. His life could have been so easy if he had just compromised.
“Okay, okay, we will circumcise the Gentiles. No more opposition.” But he refused to compromise.
When the Gentiles’ freedom was in jeopardy, Paul came to the rescue and stood for them to stand in their liberty and not be yoked in the bondage of religion.
Paul spent ten years in prison because he would not compromise. Oh, how careful we need to be in our unguarded moments.
The enemy comes with a deal you cannot refuse. But by the grace of God, we remain a good soldier. We suffer hardship rather than go the easy road.
And we receive a crown of righteousness, for all those who are faithful to the end of their lives.
Dear saints, young people, be a good soldier of Jesus Christ. Stand in Him, in His armour. Be careful. May the Lord have mercy.
Father, we come to You this afternoon and thank You that You are calling good soldiers. There is nobody who has such a position as us: to be in the Rock, the great Warrior, who is King of kings and Lord of lords.
We want to walk in the full armour of God, to walk in the victory of Calvary. Cleanse us by Thy precious blood from all sin that would give the enemy any advantage over us.
We want to fight the noble fight, run the course, and keep the faith for the sake of our General, Jesus. Amen.