WINNING THE REAL WAR
Imagine for a minute that southeastern Michigan has
become a war zone. The big bombs have done
their work and now two armies are battling for control of what's left. Those of
us who have survived are staying in our houses and apartments. Food and water
are in short supply. We're trying to get up enough nerve to venture out and see
if some abandoned house might at least have a little rice or flour or a can of
beans. But the chatter of automatic weapons and the rumble of exploding shells
frightens us....
"Maybe we better wait and stretch
out what little food we have left."
Suddenly, in the middle of all this chaos, we hear singing. We pull back the drapes and look out on the
street. And to our amazement we can see an old truck piled high with sacks of
potatoes and rice and fresh fruit and corn. Behind it is another truck with
jugs of water. Man and women, singing at the top of
their lungs as if there were no war at all, are carrying food from the truck to
each house ... and water ... and singing all the time.
"They'll be
dead by the time they get to the and of the block," someone says.
"But how come they got this
far?"
"Where did they get the food?"
"And how can they be
singing?"
There's a knock on our door. There
stands a man loaded down with food. Behind
him is a woman with a jug of water.
"Here, take
this," they say, and head back to the trucks singing their hearts out.
Suddenly a burst of automatic
fire ... the woman is hit. From out of
a house across the street two women run to take her place. By the time the food trucks reach the end of the
block, the army of helpers has doubled in size ... still singing.
Two armies are batting for control ... both of them are pawns of Satan the Prince of this world. A
third army comes up the street without a gun ... this is the army that will
conquer because it is overcoming evil with good, even at the price of death
Now war arose
in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon; and the dragon
and his angels fought, but they were defeated and there was no longer any place
for them in heaven. And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent,
who is called the Devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world --- he was
thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. And I heard
a loud voice in heaven, saying, "Now the salvation, and the power and the
kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser
of our brethren has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our
God. And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of
their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death. Rejoice then,
0 heaven and you that dwell therein! But woe to you, 0 earth and sea, for the
devil has come down to you in great wrath, because he knows that his
time is short!..
Revelation 12:17-12
We could sit down and discuss for the rest of our
lives why God, if he is all powerful,
should permit any opposition from men or angel. Why does he allow this war to
go on? But that wouldn't change the fact that there is a struggle in the realm
of spirit, of which the political, military, economic wars being waged and prepared
for at this hour, are only a dim reflection. Evil is
not just the absence of good ... like cold is the absence of heat.
Evil is not just something inside our heads.
Evil exists outside of us as well as within us.
- Evil is intelligent.
- Evil is personal.
- Evil is organized.
- Evil is a kingdom.
If we survive all the wars that will ravage the earth in
the coming years but allow our hearts to be conquered by evil, we've lost the
real war. The real war is between good and evil ... between the kingdom of God
and the kingdom of Satan ... and every one of us has to
choose which side we're going to be on.
"I came
to cast fire upon the earth; and would that it were
already kindled! I have a baptism to be
baptized with; and how I am constrained until it is accomplished! Do you think
that I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division;
for henceforth in one house there will be five divided, three against two and
two against three; they will be divided, father against son and son against
father, mother against daughter and daughter against her mother, mother-in-law
against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against her
mother-in-law."
Luke 12:49-53
These are the words of a man who never carried a
sword,
never raised his fist,
never gathered an army, yet he came to divide the earth ... and he did. And
each of us has to decide whether we're going to surrender
our lives to the kingdom of evil or surrender our lives to Jesus, and by his
power conquer evil.
- We don't conquer
evil by hiding in the house with the drapes drawn.
- Nor do we
conquer evil by picking up a gun and going out there shooting.
- We conquer evil
by joining the army of the Lamb.
Observe how the Lamb, Jesus,
overcame evil: by walking right into it!
"Behold, we are going up to
Jerusalem, and everything that is written of the Son of man by the prophets
will be accomplished. For he will be mocked and shamefully treated and spit
upon; they will scourge him and kill him, and on the third day he will
rise."
Luke 18:31-33
He went up to Jerusalem and laid down
his life and conquered Satan. And so we overcome the
kingdom of evil not by running away from it, but by walking straight toward it.
And I heard a loud voice in heaven,
saying, "Now the salvation, and the power and the kingdom of our God and
the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren has been
thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God. And they have
conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for
they loved not their lives even unto death."
Revelation 12:10-11
They conquered him....
1. by the blood of the Lamb,
2. by the word of their testimony,
3. by loving not their lives even unto
death.
Thank God there are no shells
exploding out there. But to pretend there is no war
going on is to be willfully blind. The dragon has been thrown down and his
angels ... and things are out of control and there is not a man or a nation
that is able to bring things under control again. Yet the simplest child of God
can go out there like David before Goliath and conquer.
We are not helpless victims on a sinking ship. We are
sons and daughters of the most high God. And we are
given everything we need to conquer the lying spirit which has captured this
earth. We conquer him,
- by the blood of the Lamb,
- by the word of
our testimony,
- by defying the fear
of death.
We conquer Satan by,
1. The
blood of the Lamb, which brings peace into our own hearts.
In order to win the battle on the outside we first have to win the battle on the inside. You win this inner war
by getting your sin covered.
Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven; whose sin is covered.
Psalm 32:1
...."God be merciful to me, a sinner."
Satan only has scope
within us when he has sin-ground to stand on. Call for the blood ... the ground
drops away and Satan sinks.
- By the blood of
the Lamb we put away the old nature.
- By the blood of
the Lamb we call for the Spirit and put on the new nature.
- By the blood of
the Lamb we end the war inside us by driving sin, guilt,
fear of death and Satan himself out.
In mercy the Lord has instituted this meal so that we can come
together and renew our vision of
his atoning death, confess our sins, repent of them and join ourselves, with
thanksgiving and praise, to his broken body and his shed blood.
- Now we have peace.
- Now we can handle the battle on the outside.
We conquer Satan by,
2. The word of our testimony
....
they sang as they went down the street feeding the
hungry.
Thou art my hiding place, thou shalt
preserve me from trouble;
Thou shalt compass me about with songs
of deliverance.
Psalm 32:7
When the war zone around us begins
to hear those songs of deliverance ... begins to hear a word of testimony,
Satan will be driven back in defeat.
And what is the word of our
testimony? Our testimony is that Jesus of Nazareth is the Saviour of this
world.
- He alone is its healer.
- He alone is its
hope.
- He alone is its
peace with a holy God.
- He alone is the
escape from the false God of this world.
- Jesus is
Lord!
Jesus is King of Kings and Lord of
Lords now ... and we need to confess this to him, to each other and to the world.
We don't
conquer Satan by just being respectable and proper. We conquer Satan by a
strong, clear, bold Spirit-anointed word.
Lord
God! Open our mouths and give us tongues to speak your burning truth until it
sets fire to the earth!
We overcome Satan by;
3. loving not our lives even unto death.
Who of us can deny that far too
long we have loved our lives to death?
- We loved our
lives so much,
- We played it so
safe,
- We pampered ourselves so much ..... worrying
about dying .... we were dead.
Help us now, Lord
God, to throw away the fear of death and all the fears that hang with it.
God help us to go out into the streets
of the city of This World with the blood of the Lamb and the word of our
testimony and feed the hungry, and free the captives, and conquer Satan.
If in the process we lose our
lives ... praise God ... what better way to die?
Whether we like it or not,
- there is a war going on.
Whether we like it or not,
- we're in it ...
on one side, or the other.
God help us to see clearly who the real enemy is and
to conquer him,
by the blood of the Lamb,
by the word of our testimony,
by loving not our lives even unto death.