Joshua and Judges: The doctrine of leadership part 92 - 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 92 - Essential qualities of leadership: The filling of the Spirit; Overcoming the power and influence of Satan; Eph 6:10-18.
Announcementsopening prayer:
The shield was used offensively as well as defensively, and so is faith, in which we defend ourselves from falsehood and attack it by exposing it.
We are not to sit idly by while the deeds of darkness are being manifested and paraded as truth when we have a legitimate opportunity to expose them.
Christians will do this in order to be liked. These fear not being liked by others more than they fear not being pleasing to God.
Last night we looked at our Lord's appeal to the Pharisees, in Luk 11:39, by openly exposing the hypocrisy of their external system of righteousness that fully neglected any inward purity. Prior to this occasion a very similar instance arose.
Mat 15:1 Then some Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem, saying,
Mat 15:2 "Why do Your disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands [according to their traditional, ceremonial washing] when they eat bread."
Mat 15:3 And He answered and said to them, "And why do you yourselves transgress the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition?
Mat 15:4 "For God said, 'Honor your father and mother,' and, 'He who speaks evil of father or mother, let him be put to death.'
Mat 15:5 "But you say, 'Whoever shall say to his father or mother," Anything of mine you might have been helped by has been given to God,"
Mat 15:6 he is not to honor his father or his mother.' And thus you invalidated the word of God for the sake of your tradition.
If a parent was in need the child was to honor them. The Jews got around the fifth commandment by stating that their property was "corban" or dedicated to God and so could not be given to their parent.
The law said that a man should die who cursed his father, i.e., that refused to obey him, or to provide for him, or spoke in anger to him. Yet the Jews said that, though in anger, and in real spite and hatred, a son said to his father, "All that I have which could profit you I have given to God," he should be free from blame. Thus, the whole law was made void, or of no use, by what appeared to have the appearance of piety. So then, "corban" became a magic word used to get out of an obligation assigned by God.
Mat 15:7 "You hypocrites, rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you, saying,
Mat 15:8 'This people honors Me with their lips, But their heart is far away from Me.
Mat 15:9 'But in vain do they worship Me, Teaching as doctrines the precepts of men.' "
Mat 15:10 And after He called the multitude to Him, He said to them, "Hear, and understand.
Mat 15:11 "Not what enters into the mouth defiles the man, but what proceeds out of the mouth, this defiles the man."
Mat 15:12 Then the disciples came and said to Him, "Do You know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this statement?"
At this point in their lives the disciples would rather have not offended the Pharisees than to have exposed their darkness.
Mat 15:13 But He answered and said, "Every plant which My heavenly Father did not plant shall be rooted up.
Mat 15:14 "Let them alone; they are blind guides of the blind. And if a blind man guides a blind man, both will fall into a pit."
Mat 15:15 And Peter answered and said to Him, "Explain the parable to us."
Mat 15:16 And He said, "Are you still lacking in understanding also? [still thinking of defilement or cleansing as external ritual]
Mat 15:17 "Do you not understand that everything that goes into the mouth passes into the stomach, and is eliminated?
Mat 15:18 "But the things that proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and those defile the man.
Mat 15:19 "For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders.
Mat 15:20 "These are the things which defile the man; but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile the man."
Jesus had treated the ordinance of Pharisee ceremonial washing as not binding and then He showed how this externalism militated against thoughts of the internal and spiritual.
It is a truth to be recognized that when great attention is heaped on externalisms that inward purity is always ignored. One who is pure inwardly does not have to expend great attention on externals because, as our Lord taught us, what comes out of him will be pure. If he is pure of heart, by God's definition of pure, then he has the ultimate freedom and is not under law.
Christ did not remain silent in the face of their falsehood. It was robbing its adherents of understanding the true and critical issue and He was not going to stand idly by and allow that, not even if the perpetrators were insulted.
We see a similar example with Paul.
Act 18:5 But when Silas and Timothy came down from Macedonia, Paul began devoting himself completely to the word, solemnly testifying to the Jews that Jesus was the Christ.
Act 18:6 And when they resisted and blasphemed, he shook out his garments and said to them, "Your blood be upon your own heads! I am clean. From now on I shall go to the Gentiles."
In America, freedom of religion means the freedom of the people to practice whatever religion they choose, as long as it doesn't violate the rights and freedoms of others. (This is why Sharia law is not a matter of freedom of religion since it violates the law.) This is how it should be. But when my family, my neighbor, my community, the schools my children attend, my church, etc. are affected by falsehood and darkness and I have the opportunity in love, without violating the freedom of others, to expose that darkness, then it is my duty as a child of light to do so.
In the midst of Nazi tyranny: “Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.” [Dietrich Bonhoeffer]
This great man lived and died by his faith.
"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing." [Edmund Burke]
When it comes to correcting a humble believer who is simply ignorant of some truth, we are to do so in gentleness.
The shield of faith is faith in operation in the believer's life.
Eph 6:17 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
Helmet of salvation = protection of the mind, soul, spirit, and heart that is accomplished through our overcoming the sin nature by means of the crucifixion and resurrection of our Lord.
This goes quite a bit further than just knowing that you're saved, though it certainly includes that truth. Remember, the armor is for the function of power in the midst of conflict. Not all saved people pick up and put on the armor of God. It is a command to the saved. This is the protection of my soul so that it is not continually polluted and defiled by the sin nature.
2Co 7:1 Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.
Salvation in the Lord has delivered us from sin and death and this is the covering of our heads. Spiritual growth makes the power over sin and death operational in victory and courage.
The Christian who is mastered by his sin nature, which is always by consent, and presents his members as instruments of unrighteousness has a sick and deceitful head because he refuses to wear the helmet of salvation.
Since the context is the attack of the enemy, the helmet of salvation speaks of the protection to the mind that is accomplished as we overcome the sin nature. At salvation, the sin nature was crucified. It is no longer the master of the believer and through spiritual growth this will become a reality in experience.
Rom 5:17 For if by the transgression of the one, death reigned through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.
Rom 5:18 So then as through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men, even so through one act of righteousness there resulted justification of life to all men.
Rom 5:19 For as through the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the One the many will be made righteous.
Rom 5:20 And the Law came in that the transgression might increase; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more,
Rom 5:21 that, as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Rom 6:1 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace might increase?
Rom 6:2 May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?
Rom 6:3 Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death?
Rom 6:4 Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, in order that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.
Rom 6:5 For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection,
Rom 6:6 knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, that our body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin;
Rom 6:7 for he who has died is freed from sin.
Rom 6:8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him,
Rom 6:9 knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him.
Rom 6:10 For the death that He died, He died to sin, once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God.
Rom 6:11 Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
Rom 6:12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body that you should obey its lusts,
Rom 6:13 and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.
Rom 6:14 For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law, but under grace.
A saved person who lives a lifestyle of carnality does not have a healthy mind, soul, and spirit. He is deceived, weak, and sick. He has the helmet of salvation, but has been deceived from arrogance or lust that he need not wear it. |