Joshua and Judges: The doctrine of leadership part 97 - Essential qualities of leadership: The filling of the Spirit; Overcoming the power and influence of Satan; Eph 6:10-18.

Title: Joshua and Judges: The doctrine of leadership part 97 - Essential qualities of leadership: The filling of the Spirit; Overcoming the power and influence of Satan; EPH 6:10-18.

 

Announcements / opening prayer:  

 

 

In review, the armor is the person of Christ in operation through the believer in time as he battles Satan and the kingdom of darkness. Its application is:

 

EPH 6:10 Finally, be strong in the Lord, and in the strength of His might.

 

EPH 6:11 Put on the full armor of God, that you may be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil.

 

We are not to be ignorant of his schemes, so as we review the armor of God, I want to spend some time on the schemes of the devil as they are presented in the scriptures.

 

The devil has strategy regarding unbelievers in the world. He blinds their minds when exposed to the gospel and he draws them away from the freedom of divine establishment law.

 

Freedom under God's laws of morality, which is the freedom code of the ten commandments, allows the gospel to freely spread throughout the country. In any era of history and in any nation, without exception, we see these laws attacked and discredited, and all in the name of the greater good in the function of Satan's deception. We see it today in the great progressivism in our nation and around the world. Falsehoods are propagated that attempt to convince the unbeliever that he is not in need of a personal Savior and that collectively man is going to save himself, or that the government is going to save him.

 

Freedom not only enables the gospel to flow more openly and freely, but it also opens the mind of the unbeliever to his need for a Savior. However, we must be clear that God doesn't need ideal conditions for His gospel to be heard. His power is sufficient to proclaim the gospel in the darkest places of the world, but we are here speaking of ideal conditions. God did give the freedom code for a reason and He does destroy evil nations for a reason. But if a person anywhere is ready to receive the gospel, if he is in the deepest dungeon on a long forgotten island in the middle of the ocean, God the Holy Spirit will easily bring that gospel to him.

 

Satan uses religion to blind the minds of both unbeliever and believer.

 

Religion is the devil’s counterfeit to the true worship of God by the creature to his Creator and Savior. It is always modeled after how Satan would like to be worshipped, but with Christian themes and overtones. I assume that Satan always uses Christian themes because he can create nothing that appeals to man enough that he will want to worship anything other than himself. Lust and the boastful pride of life are an easy sell to fallen man, but to get him to worship another in any fashion is a much harder sell, and so Satan uses God's truths in a perverted and misleading way and then mixes them with worship of himself. That is pretty much every religion summed up.

 

Satan accuses believers,

 

REV 12:10

"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 before our God day and night.

 

It is assumed that what is meant here is that Satan is in heaven accusing believers. In the book of Job, Satan presents himself before God, but he doesn't accuse Job of anything until God brings up the fact that Job was an upright and blameless man. We do not doubt that Satan accuses us before God, but the accusation we never hear of hasn't any effect upon us. What does need the armor of God is when the satanically deceived of the earth bring accusation against us, either directly to us or to someone else from whom we hear about it. The accusation may be the truth or it may be a lie. It may be a misinterpretation of something or a misunderstanding, yet the accusation comes none the less. The accusation may be against another believer, but you hear of it. Whatever the case may be, the simple fact of the matter is that no one's opinion of us has any weight at all. It is only what God thinks of us that matters.

 

Satan wishes to hit us at our weakness for approbation. Everyone's sin nature has this weakness and that is what he is trying to exploit. But, the new creature in Christ knows who he is and is unconcerned with what others think he is.

 

ROM 14:4

Who are you to judge the servant of another? To his own master he stands or falls; and stand he will, for the Lord is able to make him stand.

 

Satan sponsors idolatry leading to reversionism,

 

1CO 10:21

You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons; you cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons.

 

The Bible states multiple times that the new creature in Christ is an extraordinary creature. He possesses the life that is Christ as well as Christ's armor. His quality of life therefore is extraordinary. It is this quality of life which first enables us to see the natural in its light. The extraordinary never merges into the natural. Satan tries to bring us back down to the natural and so frustrate the will of God in our lives. We must have strict, simple, unreflecting obedience to the will of Christ.

 

Satan seeks to frustrate the will of God in the believer's soul; (we must be filled with the Spirit).

 

a. By deceit:

 

EPH 4:12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ;

 

EPH 4:13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fulness of Christ.

 

EPH 4:14 As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves, and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming

 

b. By using his minions to frustrate the believer's work:

 

1TH 2:17 But we, brethren, having been bereft of you for a short while —  in person, not in spirit —  were all the more eager with great desire to see your face.

 

1TH 2:18 For we wanted to come to you —  I, Paul, more than once —  and yet Satan thwarted us.

 

The Jews created a riot in Thessalonica when Paul was ministering there, which hastened his departure. It is likely that with time they had been able to convince many in the area that Paul was deserving of arrest and death. Paul and Silas were beaten and thrown in prison in Philippi, then the Jews caused a riot in Thessalonica, and then the Jews caused another riot in Berea. These towns are all in the same area of Macedonia. It is speculation, but it is likely the reason that he was not able to safely return. It was not his hour of death.

 

If this is the case then Satan thwarted them by using people and not by some physical presence or physical action by Satan. But again, this is mere speculation.

 

If it is the case then why would Paul write that "Satan" thwarted them? Because the fight isn't against people, but the kingdom of darkness.

 

1TH 2:19 For who is our hope or joy or crown of exultation? Is it not even you, in the presence of our Lord Jesus at His coming?

 

1TH 2:20 For you are our glory and joy.

 

c. By projecting thoughts to produce mental attitude sins such as worry, anxiety, and fear:

 

1PE 5:6 Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time,

 

1PE 5:7 casting all your anxiety upon Him, because He cares for you.

 

1PE 5:8 Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls about like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.

 

1PE 5:9 But resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world.

 

1PE 5:10 And after you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you.

 

1PE 5:11 To Him be dominion forever and ever. Amen.

 

Fear and God's response to our fears: