Okay, let’s begin with a word of prayer.
“On Christ, the solid rock I stand. All other ground is sinking sand.”
So, Lord, as we come this morning, we come to You, the Creator of the universe, the Creator of our souls, our lives. Lord, we come and we bow before You because You have made that great sacrifice of Your Son on our behalf, because You love.
And, Lord, we just come back this morning. We come; we want to hear Your words. Lord, we want to hear what You have to say to us. Lord, we open our hearts to Thee this morning. May You have the freedom, Lord, to share with us whatever and however You want to touch each heart this morning. We pray You be with us, illumine our spirits and our souls today. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
Well, the title to this message is “Awake, Sleeper, and Arise.” So, is everyone awake this morning? “Awake, Sleeper, and Arise.” That comes from Ephesians 5:13-14. And I’m sorry, it’s the ESV version.
But when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible. For anything that becomes visible is light. Therefore, it says, “Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine upon you.”
So, a little background. In recent months, I’ve just observed the saints and the chaos that’s going on in the world. And with the saints, it seems like the attacks of the enemy on our physical beings, our mental state, our emotional state, are to weaken and wear the saints out. I just feel like there is that wearing out that is occurring. He’s trying to weaken our inner man. And there are times when there is a heaviness and a darkness, not only over me, but I think it comes over the assembly at times.
Brothers and sisters, in the church, we see offenses, we see misunderstandings, suspicions, disagreements among the saints in the assemblies. And in some cases, there have been divisions.
This was really laying heavily on my heart. And I was drawn to reread Austin-Sparks’ book, The Battle for Life, because I felt like I was in a battle. And I was awakened. I’ve read this book before, but my eyes were opened afresh, and I was awakened to something that was going on.
And as I read the book, it just really was clarified to me once again that all that is going on from our adversary is to bring death into our spiritual lives and in the life of the assembly, to destroy the testimony of Jesus in your life, in my life, in the assembly. He hates the testimony of Jesus.
Brothers and sisters, we can be lulled into thinking that many things that happen in our lives are just natural occurrences. After all, our bodies do age. We get weak; we do get sick. We have our pains and aches. Even something I greatly noticed in my later years is that my mind doesn’t seem to work quite as clearly as it used to. But praise the Lord, the Lord is faithful, brothers and sisters.
But often, I’ve found in my life personally, and was reminded as I read this book, that actually the enemy is often behind what we see as just a normal part of life, or natural occurrences or events that are happening in our lives and in the world.
I think we need to be awakened afresh to the fact that the enemy is often behind these things and kind of puts his hand on them to make them more intense than just normal situations. Yes, we do have differences. I know that recently there’s been some division in the church, and it really saddened my heart greatly. But he’s behind it, brothers and sisters. It’s more than a matter of just flesh and blood and differences of human opinions.
Now, I’m not saying that every problem we have is the enemy. Recently, somebody brought up that book, Demons on Doorknobs, where you go around: there’s a demon here and a demon there. That’s not what I’m talking about, brothers and sisters. We all have normal, natural problems, weaknesses. But sometimes the enemy is behind these things, and that’s the reason I said:
Awaken, O sleeper, and arise.
The enemy doesn’t always attack us directly. He’s very subtle. And, brothers and sisters, he can put his heavy hand on things in our lives, particularly in the life of Christians. There can be a sinister force behind what we encounter. And this is basically what’s on my heart this morning.
How do I want to say it? I want this to be enlightening and an encouragement to stand fast in the Lord, not just to give the dark side of things this morning.
But, brothers and sisters, when we become Christians, we enter into a battle: spiritual warfare, individually and as a church. Ephesians 6:10-13 makes it very clear.
You know, Ephesians was a great revelation of God’s eternal purpose in those first few chapters of Ephesians. And then it goes into the need to give ourselves fully to the Lord and follow the Lord. Then he gets into some very practical things: husbands and wives, children, families. And he ends this great book with:
Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, against rulers of darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, stand.
The enemy is out to destroy the testimony of Jesus—the expression of the life of Christ in your life personally. He wants to destroy that. He wants to destroy the corporate testimony of Jesus.
Brothers and sisters, this is our calling: to be a testimony of Jesus. This is the purpose for creation: to reveal the glory of God. The purpose for which you are born, the purpose of the church, which is the vessel of the expression of the life of Christ. That’s why it’s called a candlestick. It lifts up the light, and that light is Christ Himself, brothers and sisters. This is our calling. This is our destiny. We must not fall short and allow the enemy to cut that short in our lives.
This battle—and I don’t want to discourage anybody—but this battle does go on until there’s a new heaven and a new earth. So it lies ahead of us as well.
I think of the Lord’s testimony of Himself, when the Lord told us Who He was out of Revelation 1:18:
I am He that lives and was dead; And behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen; And have the keys of hell and death.
This is His testimony. This is a testimony of Himself, of a life that has triumphed over death. Death tried to destroy our Lord. It tried to hold Him in the grave. It tried to imprison Him in hell. But He rose from the grave in resurrection life—His life. This is His testimony: His life has triumphed over death and hell.
Brothers and sisters, do you realize that is the same life that dwells in you? This life of Christ. We said it this morning. It says:
He was tempted in all ways without sin.
Now, brothers and sisters, you think about that, because we’re tempted a lot, aren’t we? But we have the life within us that was tempted, yet without sin. That is the life that we’re to testify to—a life triumphant over all the works of the enemy.
Just take a little while to go through some history. First, this battle from the Old Testament. The battle of spiritual death and life has been going on from the very beginning.
We look in the Garden of Eden. God had created Adam and Eve, the highest creation that He’s made, after His image and likeness. And what was the main feature, or so it seems, in the Garden of Eden? Wasn’t it the tree of life?
Adam was a moral being, as you and I are. We have the power of choice given to us by God. We’re not made robots. God wants us to have that power of choice. And He tested Adam. Was he going to live by this tree of life, submitting himself to God, or was he going to live on his own, by his own self-worth and effort? Effectively saying, “I’ll be my own god. I’ll make the decisions. You’ve given me that power.”
Brothers and sisters, we know that he did not partake of the tree of life. If he had taken the tree of life, he would have possessed the eternal life of Christ. And as he continued to feed on this tree of spiritual life, he would have grown and grown into the spiritual man that God intended him to be. He would be the humanity that God had intended.
But the enemy brought forth immediately into the garden the spirit of death. And he tempted Eve first, and the way he did it was he was very subtle. He challenged Eve:
Has God said?
He brought doubt into Eve’s mind. And she looked upon the tree of the knowledge of evil, and it was very attractive to her. And she ate and gave it to Adam, and he ate. They fell into spiritual death, brothers and sisters.
But we remember, God immediately intervened. What did He do? He safeguarded the way to eternal life from fallen man, from fallen Adam and Eve. He put them out of the garden of paradise and set up cherubim with flaming swords to guard the way to the tree of life.
Brothers and sisters, He could not have flawed, sinful humanity living eternally in that state. I’ll read that again. He could not have flawed, sinful humanity living eternally in that state.
So God suspends the possession of that life until His work on the cross through His Son. He takes that fallen state of man to death in Christ’s death. And Christ rose a victor over sin and death, making it possible once again for us to be able to partake of the tree of life, that eternal life.
Brothers and sisters, from the very beginning, the enemy didn’t wait. As soon as God acted, he moved.
The same was true of the creation. Very quickly, we know that God created, but it says it became dark and void. The enemy had moved in and brought in that great darkness. But thank God, He was not satisfied. The Holy Spirit brooded over all of this corruption. And finally, God said:
Let there be light.
And restored it. And His purpose was to have a restored earth for man to live in.
Well, there’s a lot, but all I’m saying is, right from the very beginning, the enemy has created war against all that is of Christ.
In the book of Revelation, we see the fulfillment of God’s purpose: the expression of the life of Christ in fullness. That’s what you see when you see the heavenly city. It is the full expression of Jesus Christ, and all of His glory comes out in that heavenly city. And it is presented to Him as a bride without spot and wrinkle. Does that sound familiar? That is the church, brothers and sisters.
What is the prominent feature in that city? It’s the tree of life, the river of life. Brothers and sisters, it says the river flows through the city. The tree is there. And it says, brothers and sisters, this tree of life, this river of life, is to give spiritual sustenance to the whole city.
Now, Jim spoke about spiritual sustenance last—was it last week or the week before? Anyway, it doesn’t matter. The difference between just food and sustenance is that sustenance is what you absolutely need for life. Food can just make you fat. But sustenance keeps you alive, brothers and sisters: the tree of life, the river of life.
God’s concern is always over the expression of His Son, the testimony of His life—a great battle.
Think of Cain and Abel. Abel offered an acceptable sacrifice. It was a slain lamb. Cain offered the fruit of his own labor. God said it was unacceptable, and a root of fleshly jealousy immediately arose in Cain, and he slew Abel. The work of the enemy immediately: death comes in to destroy life, God’s life. And once again, God reacts. Remember, He cursed Cain and sent him away.
Brothers and sisters, fleshly jealousy—beware. How evil and insidious fleshly jealousy is. I’ve witnessed personally its destructive power in both individuals and assemblies. Usually, in the beginning, it’s almost unnoticeable.
God does give divine gifts and ministry and works to us to serve Him. But remember, they are His works, not ours to possess as our own. You know, when it becomes our ministry, our service, we can’t stand for anyone else to step on our ministry or our service. “No, this is my territory. You need to stay away from it. I have a gift from the Lord; it is mine.”
Brothers and sisters, these are the thoughts that I’ve seen destroy a couple of brothers in my life and have a great effect on assemblies.
I remember our brother Hosea Wu, a dear brother. He’s not with us anymore, but we were at a Far East Conference in Hong Kong, in a meeting with leaders from various assemblies, and Stephen was there. He declared, “I am so distressed, brothers. I keep hearing over and over the words, ‘My church, my assembly, my people.’”
And he just said, “It is the Lord’s church, the Lord’s assembly, the Lord’s people.”
Brothers and sisters, in any service, whatever it is—and that applies to all of us—it’s not our service. It’s His service that we’re serving. If we take it on as ours, we become jealous over it.
And remember—well, I won’t go into that—but a dear, precious sister who was ministering in a certain way; well, it was over transcribing. It wasn’t Shirley Harrison, but it was the very, very beginning, and she was so thrilled with her service. And I remember we came to her and said, “Sister, we need to change the way we’re doing some things.” She became very offended and eventually left.
Brothers and sisters, jealousy over what we think is ours from the Lord—it’s just crushing.
At that same Hong Kong conference, Stephen Kong gave a charge to the leaders of the churches. He shared a Scripture as a charge to us from Acts 20:28:
Take heed, therefore, unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which He has purchased with His own blood.
Brothers and sisters, that sent chills through my being when I heard those words.
Feed the church of God, which He has purchased with His own blood.
Every brother and sister here in our midst is precious to the Lord. They’ve been purchased by His blood—the highest price that can ever be paid for any saint, brothers and sisters.
That really had an impact on me, I can say. It’s not my church. It’s not our church. It’s not your church. He purchased it with His blood. It is His church.
Ephesians 5 says He loved the church, and He gave His life for her, His church. She is to be His future bride, and she is precious to the Lord. And she should be precious, brothers and sisters, not only to leaders, but to every brother and sister in the church. God has purchased it with His blood.
In the New Testament, the battle goes on. Christ’s birth. Remember, at His birth, the wise men came to King Herod and said, “Oh, the King of the Jews has been born.” This fleshly jealousy immediately arose in King Herod’s heart. And what did he do? He sent soldiers out to slay all the children in Bethlehem two years old and younger. But God intervened and warned Joseph through an angel, and they escaped the death of Herod.
Once again, we see the fruit of fleshly jealousy. Brothers and sisters, it is the spirit of Satan himself, because he was jealous over Christ’s position in heaven. And that’s why he was kicked out. It is the very character and nature of Satan himself.
Christ’s wilderness temptations. You remember, He was taken out into the wilderness and tempted by the enemy. And what were the enemy’s tactics? He wanted Christ to act on His own, to act without the Father’s permission. He wanted the Lord to do something in His own strength rather than depending on the Father. He wanted Christ to act in His own self-interest rather than the Father’s. He wanted Christ to submit to him as lord.
He’s trying to get the same foothold, some ground in Christ, so that he could destroy Christ in His ministry, to keep Him from fulfilling God’s purpose. The enemy, of course, fails in his attempts, and we remember angels had to come and support our Lord. The battle was so intense.
Brothers and sisters, the enemy uses this same tactic on us to destroy the testimony of Christ in our lives, to keep us from fulfilling His purpose for our life.
Brothers and sisters, I’m a firm believer that every assembly and every brother and sister not only are called to serve the Lord, but He calls us in specific and divine ways, and it becomes the purpose He’s raised us up for. And yet the enemy wants to destroy all of that. We are called according to purpose.
And the enemy is always attacking us—what? To act on our own, just like he did the Lord, to act out of our own self-interest rather than the Father’s. He’s always tempting us to sin to gain ground from which he can attack us in this assembly. Brothers and sisters, he’s incessant.
I think of Christ’s public ministry. At the very beginning of His public ministry, He stood up in the synagogue in Nazareth, and He quotes Isaiah 61:1:
The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He hath anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted; To preach deliverance to the captives, the recovering of sight to the blind; To set at liberty them that are bruised; And to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.
Then He stood up and said:
Today, this Scripture is fulfilled.
He was declaring He was the fulfillment of that prophecy, that it was His ministry that He was to carry out, this heavenly ministry that came from the Father. And it was not just for Jews, but for the Gentiles.
They became angry, infuriated, and they took Him to a cliff to throw Him over. They became agents of the enemy to try to destroy Christ. But remember, He turned around and walked through the crowd because it was not His time.
The enemy is fully against any ministry of Christ because he knows it is his downfall, brothers and sisters.
Later in His ministry, the disciples are on the Sea of Galilee, and a storm comes up. Now, these disciples were fishermen. They were used to encountering storms on the sea. It was not an uncommon experience for them. But this one was so severe, they feared for their lives. And so they woke the Lord. He was asleep in the boat. He awoke, and, brothers and sisters, He rebuked the storm, and it immediately ceased.
The Lord immediately discerned it was not just a natural occurrence, a natural storm. There was a force behind it, a satanic power. The power of death was behind it, seeking to destroy Him and His disciples. That’s why He didn’t just stand up and calm the storm. It wasn’t a natural occurrence. It was, in one sense, but He spoke to it and rebuked it because there was a spirit behind it.
Brothers and sisters, I think we as saints need to be aware. We need to be awakened to these forces. And the Scripture is very clear about how we need to test things—“test the spirits,” it says. Every difficult situation, problems, or ailments are not always the enemy.
But, brothers and sisters, just a warning here: if we’re looking for the enemy all the time, it’ll destroy you. You can’t do that. You have to keep your eyes focused on the Lord Jesus. He’s the Victor. But you do need to be aware of the enemy’s attack. But the only way you’re gonna be aware is if you keep your eyes on Jesus, okay? The enemy is continually looking for a way to get at us.
So many times—and I fell victim to this myself, brothers and sisters—we begin to take everything in our lives as natural occurrences because that’s the way they appear. That’s the work of the enemy, the way he does it.
We need spiritual discernment. That voice inside you that says, “There’s something unnatural about this. It seems like a normal occurrence, but there’s something that seems unnatural. There’s more to this than outward appearance. There seems to be a force behind it, a power behind it.” We must be watchful, and we must keep our focus at the same time on Christ.
But, brothers and sisters, there’s a harmony in the spirit. I’ll put it that way. And when you get that jarring note that is out of place, it should become a warning to you in your spirit. There’s a disturbance. You can’t maybe quite put your finger on it, but it’s there.
1 John 4:1:
Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see if they are of God.
The Word says, “Test the spirits.” Don’t just take things for granted. Go to the Lord. Inquire of Him. Discernment comes by going to the Lord, from walking in the Spirit, from fellowship with the Lord. And as we grow and mature, we become more and more discerning because we have more and more experiences.
The opposition to Christ’s ministry continued to intensify. And on two occasions, they tried to stone Him to death. In John 7-8, He confronts the scribes and Pharisees over this issue. He says:
Why are you seeking to kill Me?
And later on, He says:
You are of your father, the devil.
In other words, the Lord uncovers what is behind all the resistance and the attacks. It wasn’t just man’s opposition and antagonism that He was encountering. The devil was behind it. He saw the force, and death was against Him.
Brothers and sisters, we see many attacks. We encounter them. Why? The Lord is on the throne. Death can no longer touch Him. The enemy can no longer touch the Lord. He is the Head. But His body—that’s us—is on earth still. And the enemy can’t attack the Head, but he can attack the body. And so we need to be awakened and spiritually alert.
I think of attacks on the ministry of the Word. I think most everyone who’s ministered the Word, even doing an opening, sometimes experiences resistance in being before the Lord about it and even sharing it as you do. It’s hard sometimes to prepare because the enemy is working against you. And the attacks are various and very numerous.
One of them I’ve experienced a number of times: just unexpected issues and problems come up. Everyday problems, but they seem to be more intense, more often, as I’m trying to prepare a message, even for this one. Problems arise from the enemy to distract you.
I remember, in my younger days, I was preparing for a ministry, and that week just little things kept happening to distract me, you know, to get me off-center. I’m trying to think of what the Lord would have me share and how to share it. These little things kept happening.
And finally, I think it was probably on a Saturday, I was mowing the grass, and I had a riding mower, and it threw the belt—the belt that drives the blades. Now, that had happened to me before, and I knew how to fix it. It’s pretty aggravating. You have to lie on your back on the ground and get under the mower and play with the pulleys and get the drive belt back on them. And I’d done it before.
Well, I got down there that day. I think it was Saturday. And I struggled with it and struggled with it, and it just would not go on. And I was getting really frustrated. And I was lying there on the ground, and I heard this voice—you know, that inner voice, not audible, but it was almost audible to me. It said, “Jerry, what are you doing lying on the ground?” He said, “Get up and resist the enemy.”
So I stood up, and I prayed, and I resisted in the name of the Lord, pleaded the blood of Jesus. Got back on the ground, put the belt on. No problem.
I say all that because there’s a great resistance when any brother wants to minister the Word. We have to be aware of the enemy’s attack and take our stand.
Brothers and sisters, there have been times when it’s like a fog comes over my mind when I’m trying to consider the Word for the saints. That doesn’t just happen to me. I think that happens probably to most every brother that’s ever tried to minister the Word.
Attacks on any ministry of any saint. I was thinking of this the other day. You know, the Lord may have laid it on your heart to visit someone who may be sick, or they just need some encouragement. They need a phone call; they need you to stop by and visit them. And the Lord lays it on your heart. And for some reason, other things come up, and you just don’t get around to it. That brother or sister misses the encouragement that they need.
You pray for someone. The Lord has laid it on your heart. But other things keep coming up, and you just can’t get back to praying for this brother or sister like you want to. And it just slips your mind and slips away. Attacks on the ministry that you’ve been called to.
Attacks on corporate prayer—oh, brothers and sisters. Prayer is the instrument that the Lord uses to bring about His will being done on earth. That was the Lord’s Prayer:
Thy will be done on earth as it has been determined in heaven.
And to restrain and to defeat the enemy’s attacks to delay or keep the Lord’s will from being done. The prayer instrument of the church. The Lord called it His house of prayer.
Yet, on the day of prayer—and for us, it’s Wednesday-night corporate prayer—don’t you seem a bit tired that day, more than other days? I did. I have. Just tiredness. Or sickness would come upon me, or you just don’t feel that good, or you just have that yucky feeling, as I call it. And you just don’t feel like going to corporate prayer. A heaviness kind of comes upon you.
Brothers and sisters, it’s the force of the enemy, the force of death in your life, trying to destroy this great weapon of the Lord’s, the church of prayer.
Once again, pardon me, but a personal testimony might help. I remember in the younger days, through the teaching of Stephen and Lance on corporate prayer, I became very aware of how important corporate prayer was. And I said, “Lord, I want to give myself to not only personal prayer, but to corporate prayer.” And I was determined to come. I think even back then it was Wednesday night.
Well, I had the right idea. But you know what happened to me? Kenny’s testified on this not long ago. I got sick. I would get nauseated every Wednesday night. It didn’t just occur once. Every Wednesday night, I would become nauseated. But the Lord would say, “Jerry, get up and go. The enemy is trying to resist you.” And so I would.
And as I testified, I would be nauseated all the way to the Huguenot Bridge, and once I crossed it, it would go away. That just reinforced to me the fact that it was the enemy’s work. It wasn’t just a natural problem that I was having with my digestive system. It was the enemy working on me.
And, you know, it didn’t just go away after a couple of times. This went on for months. And I was wondering. Every time, I’d have to take my stand, get to the bridge, and it would lift. And the Lord began to show me: “Jerry, you need to learn how to fight. You need to learn that you must stand up in this battle. You can’t be passive about it. You have to learn to stand, and to stand on My victory.”
And, brothers and sisters, you know what? It did finally pass. Thank the Lord for that. But there have been other things to try to prevent me from coming. But here’s what I want to say as a matter of corporate prayer: because of the battle I went through, corporate prayer became very precious to me in my life. And now I don’t want to miss it. Not for my sake, but I know the Lord counts it as being important.
Attacks on the Lord’s table—the ministry to the Lord’s table. There’s no greater ministry, brothers and sisters, than ministry to the Lord. That’s why the Lord’s table is so important.
We don’t come here to have our needs expressed or those kinds of things, but we come as His family together, to gather around Him and to remember Him. We come really to please Him, not ourselves, to offer up words of love and praise, admiration, songs, to bring Him some joy.
Now, have you ever thought about it that way? That expressing your love for the Lord at the table brings Him joy? It’s quite a privilege we have in doing that. It’s for Him and His Father.
So, brothers and sisters, why is your voice not heard when we gather around the table? I know you love the Lord. Many in here—oh, I would say all—love the Lord. You love Him in your heart. You’re full of love for Him. You’re grateful. But your voice is important. It matters.
We can commune with the Lord heart to heart silently. I know we can do that. Even when we gather together, it’s precious to us, that sense of fellowship with the Lord. But when the family gathers together and you openly voice your praise to Him, it not only pleases the Lord, it really edifies your brothers and sisters. It edifies me.
And not only that, but it is a testimony before angels. They can’t read your mind, but they can hear your words.
It’s also—excuse me—it’s also a testimony before the principalities and powers of darkness. Brothers and sisters, I think they must shudder when they hear your declaration of love for the Lord, that the love of the Lord Jesus Christ has conquered your heart over all their opposition. They must shudder when they hear your voice. How the enemy hates this with all of his being.
Brothers and sisters, the Lord takes note of this. Remember the ten lepers. And after He healed them, they started to go away, but one returned to give praise and worship to the Lord. And what did the Lord say? He said:
Where are the other nine?
Brothers and sisters, the Lord does take note. It matters to Him to hear your voice.
I would say this to all of us parents here: particularly as they have their own families and the grandchildren are out there, it really is something special when you pick up the phone and you hear the voice, “Dad,” or they come by the house: “Just wanted to see you today.” It’s a precious thing. That’s the way our Lord sees it.
I remember one time a dear brother loved the Lord. If I said his name, all would know it, and it’s not Stephen. But he came to me because I’d been talking about the glory of the corporate expression of Christ. And he said, “Jerry, you know what? I have to confess. The personal fellowship I have with the Lord is so precious to me.” And he says, “I feel like if I openly express that, that preciousness will leave me.”
And I understood what he was saying. It was so precious to him that if he voiced it verbally in front of others, it was like it was on display, and he thought he would lose something of the preciousness and the glory of his personal fellowship with the Lord. Brothers and sisters, it was the enemy. It was a lie. Oh, the voice of praise and worship brings joy to our Lord, and we cannot take it lightly.
Brothers and sisters, I ask the Lord for help.
Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection. On Calvary’s cross, all the forces of hell were defeated. And Jesus crushed him.
The Lord entered fully into death, and He conquered it. The principalities and powers of darkness were put to open shame. He rose from the dead in triumph, brothers and sisters. And by accepting Christ, all that He has accomplished through His death and resurrection on the cross becomes yours. That’s why it says the old man is put away, but you’re risen in newness of life. You now possess that victorious life. You can overcome all the assaults of the enemy. His victory is your victory.
Brothers and sisters, we don’t fight to gain victory. We fight from victory. There’s a great difference. We don’t fight to gain victory. We fight from victory.
1 Peter 5:8-9:
Be sober and vigilant, because your adversary, the devil, as 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.
James 4:7:
Submit yourselves, therefore, to God, and resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
One more personal testimony. In the early days, in our early history, back in the mid-'70s—we began in '72—the Lord was just opening revelation after revelation about His heart, about His purpose, His eternal purposes. But I began to experience a great fear. Fear would overwhelm me at times. It was a debilitating fear, and it went on for a long period. And it was extremely troubling in my life.
I remember it came to a crisis. One day, just before quitting time, my boss came to me and said, “Jerry, I need for you to stay over after five. I’m meeting with the director, and I need you in the meeting with me.” And I said, “Of course.” But, brothers and sisters, it immediately left my mind. I went to my desk, got my keys, and went home. Never thought about that meeting.
He called me in the office next morning. He asked me what was going on. I really didn’t have an answer for him. I knew I was in trouble, and that really woke me up. And I cried out to the Lord, “Lord, I’m losing my mind,” and I really thought I was.
And shortly thereafter, the Lord brought into my possession the book by Jessie Penn-Lewis, War on the Saints. Brothers and sisters, that book became alive to me. And I realized this was nothing normal, and that I wasn’t losing my mind. The enemy was trying to destroy my soul. He wanted to destroy my soul.
And that was the beginning of my recovery. And later on—I mean, these persisted for a while—the Lord told me, “Jerry”—this was another one of those almost audible voices, out of Psalm 23—“I will restore your soul.” Because I thought it was lost. It was gone.
Based on the Lord’s words, the Lord says, “Rise up. Awake, rise up. Stand on My victory. Resist the enemy, and stand in My victory. Plead the blood of Jesus over your mind.” And I did. But it didn’t immediately go away. It went on for almost two years.
But, brothers and sisters, the attacks got further and further apart. But I always had to stand on the Lord’s victory. I always had to plead the Lord’s blood over my mind. Thank God, I’m free today from those things.
I remember, though, one time, it had been about five years later, it hit me again. But as soon as it hit me, I said, “I refuse it.” I knew exactly what it was. It was the enemy. Brothers and sisters, we resist in faith, believing that if we resist our enemy, he will flee.
Attacks on the church. I remember the early church. The Holy Spirit had been poured out, and the church became the body of Christ, or the saints became the church. At the very beginning, Stephen was stoned because of his testimony to the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. Heaven was open to him. And he testified:
I see the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.
Brothers and sisters, what he was saying was the authority, the government, the power, is now centered in heaven, in Jesus Christ, Whom the scribes and Pharisees had crucified. The government was no longer centered in the scribes and Pharisees, with their headquarters in Jerusalem. The headquarters was now in Christ on the throne, brothers and sisters.
The Pharisees were shrewd enough to figure out the implications of Stephen’s testimony. And they were so furious that they killed Stephen over the testimony of Jesus.
The Lord was using Stephen to open their eyes, to see that Judaism was just a shadow. Christ was the reality. It is Christ. And they needed to let loose of Judaism because Christ was the fulfillment of all of those—of the tabernacle and of all the feasts that they had. But they immediately rejected him and stoned him. It appeared that the enemy had won.
But the fruit of Stephen’s ministry was the apostle Paul, who had approved of his death and was standing there and heard his words about the testimony of Jesus. And we know that Jesus later appeared to Paul on the Damascus road in that great vision.
And I think of the apostle Paul. The apostle Paul, in 2 Corinthians 11:23, said:
I was in deaths often, despairing of my life.
Brothers and sisters, he was flogged five times, beaten with rods three times. Three times he was shipwrecked, and once he was stoned. Brothers and sisters, he was in death often. It followed him around. And he had to continue in the Lord by the Lord’s grace.
The thorn in the flesh. Interesting. He asked the Lord to remove this thorn in the flesh. Most think it was from malaria, and that there was weakness in his eyesight. And he asked the Lord. He said, “You know, Lord, please remove this from me.”
And so he had inquired of the Lord. Now, it’s very important. He inquired of the Lord, “What’s going on, Lord?” And the Lord revealed to him. He said, “It’s a messenger from Satan.” But, you know, I thought it was interesting. He didn’t tell Paul to stand up and resist the enemy, and this thorn would leave him. He said, “No.” He said:
My grace is sufficient.
“I’m allowing this because I’m greatly concerned about you, Paul. You have seen such great revelations.” Remember, he was taken into the third heaven, and the enemy hated him fiercely. But the Lord was very concerned about one thing: pride.
He said, “Paul, I’m humbling you through this. I’m allowing it. Even though it’s from the enemy, I’m allowing it because you need to be humble.”
Brothers and sisters, the closer we get to the Lord, the more we see fruit in our service to the Lord, the more danger there is that we fall into pride. And I don’t know of any man that received greater revelation than our apostle Paul. It was the Lord’s mercy.
But you know what Paul learned? He learned that the Lord’s grace was sufficient in a way that he’d probably never known before, to the point that he said:
Now, I rejoice when I am weak, that the power of God will rest on me.
In other words, his life was to be a continual testimony of the triumph of the life of Christ over death. What the enemy meant for evil, God used for good.
There are the martyrs. Oh, the persecutions we’ve read about through the centuries. Multitudes and multitudes of Christians, brothers and sisters, giving their lives because of the testimony of Jesus. And the Lord, we see in the book of Revelation, has a special place for them under the altar.
This martyrdom is continuing even today. We see it in the news now quite often. But we may not be called to martyrdom physically, but we are called to be living sacrifices for the Lord.
The book of Revelation. We come to the seven churches in Asia. What is the Lord doing? He is examining those churches, determining if they can continue as a testimony to Him. He’s examining them to determine if they can still exist as a testimony.
The Lord’s testimony of Himself was that He was dead, but alive forevermore. Life triumphant over death. Brothers and sisters, what is the Lord looking for? He’s looking for that life, for His life, the life that is triumphant over death, in individuals and corporately, in the assemblies.
And what does He do? He points out where death has a foothold in these assemblies. The enemy has come in some way. And He calls for overcomers to maintain His testimony. Brothers and sisters, we must be awakened to the danger and be watchful, watchful.
I’m going to take about ten minutes. The tactic of the enemy in his attack on the church itself, on the assemblies, is to bring discord and conflict among the saints, leading to party spirit and pitting brother against brother. Failing to maintain the unity of the Spirit, the testimony of the oneness of Christ is lost, finally resulting in division. It is a terrible tragedy and a terrible loss to the Lord. Brothers and sisters, we’ve experienced that here in Richmond.
Brother Sparks addressed this matter once, and he shared: when matters of this nature occur in the assembly, it’s not going to be solved just by getting brothers and sisters to come together to agree. You have to recognize the spiritual force behind this, bringing in the power of death into the assembly, and deal with it in intercessory prayer.
Secondly, the cross must be taken up. Remember this in the Corinthian church. There were offenses, strong opinions and wills, the enemy stirring up their flesh, accusations, doubts, mistrust of one another. There was pride instead of humility, resentment instead of love, each party believing he or she was right.
This is not just flesh and blood. This is not just differences of opinion. It is the enemy. May the Lord open our eyes, brothers and sisters. And what was the answer in the Corinthian church?
Paul said:
I preach nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
It was the cross. Brothers and sisters, our flesh, our own opinions, our strong will can only be dealt with by the work of the cross.
Brothers and sisters, we’re often blinded to our own flesh. We get before the Lord and say, “Lord, Your testimony is preeminent over all of my opinions, over all of my thoughts. Lord, I believe absolutely I’m right. But, Lord, I have to lay down that opinion, that thought, before the Head, Jesus Christ. Lord, try me. Examine me. Show me my flesh. Put it away in Christ.” It must be dealt with by taking up the cross.
Thirdly, hold fast the Head. When we gather together and come together, there’s only one Head of the church. It’s not you. It’s not me. It’s not the leadership. There’s only one Head; it is Christ.
We come together not to compromise, to come to a compromise solution. We come seeking the Lord’s mind together. And we have to lay down our own thoughts and opinions, no matter how right we may think they are, and say, “Lord, we want Your will to be done, and Yours only. You are the Head.”
Look at Acts 15 if you don’t believe me. The church council—they were discussing whether the Gentiles should be circumcised and follow the law of Moses. The discussion actually got very intense. In the Word, it says there was much disputing. But in the end, James gave the decision.
It doesn’t say that they came to a majority opinion. It doesn’t say they all took a vote. It says they stood together with one mind, the mind of the Lord. The Lord’s mind came to the forefront because they weren’t seeking to get others to come to their side or to their view. They were truly seeking the Lord together.
First love. Brothers and sisters, in the assembly life, first love is absolutely necessary, not just for the Lord Himself, but for your brothers and sisters.
Remember 1 Corinthians 13. Paul says:
If you have faith that can remove mountains, but have not love, you are nothing.
Then he goes on to describe some attributes of love:
Awake, O sleeper, and arise.
This battle is ongoing. Brothers and sisters, the world experiences problems and troubles, but, brothers and sisters, we in the church experience troubles and problems. But behind a lot of it is the assault of the enemy to destroy the testimony of Jesus.
This morning, my heart was to just awaken us again, that we cannot be naive nor passive. We have to be on the alert, and the best way to be on the alert is keeping your eyes fixed on the Lord, with real discernment from Him. Because the enemy wants to destroy the testimony of Jesus.
Lord, we just come to You today. I just ask, Lord Jesus—I don’t know. I didn’t come to condemn anyone. Lord, my heart is that we would be awakened, to be aware, to not be passive, to enter the fight, to stand up and fight the good fight that Paul spoke of to Timothy.
Lord Jesus, we have truly been called to be warriors on Your behalf. Lord Jesus, we thank You that we now have Your victorious life in us. Lord, we have all the possibilities and capabilities that we need because of You.
We thank You, Lord Jesus. We’ve got many lessons to learn, much to open our eyes, to see more and more of You in these days. Lord, we thank You, in Jesus’ name. Amen.