5th Wall - By Any Means Possible
Matthew 24:23-24
Then if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or ‘There he is!’ do not believe it. For false christs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect.
Introduction
Edward Burne-Jones, a British painter from the middle of the 19th century, known for his religious art, did a painting of Lucifer leading his army out of heaven after he was defeated by God. When asked about it, Burne-Jones gave this account as his inspiration for the painting. He had heard this, and related it to a friend who had written to him. He states “Once in Avignon a priest was hearing confession from his parishioners. As the parishioners came and went, a splendid-looking youth, broad-shouldered, stout-necked, golden-haired, and fierce, very tall, came to the confessional booth. He confessed so many things that the priest’s hair stood on end. The priest asked the youth “But have you lived hundreds of years to have done so much evil?”
“I have lived thousands and thousands of years,” said the youth: “I fell from heaven at the beginning of the world. I want to get back there.” The priest, who belonged to a glorious, ample, wide-hearted religion, said it could be done. He didn’t even ask him to be sorry, being wise, and knowing the story. The priest said “say after me these words, ‘God only is great and perfect.” The beautiful young man looked beautiful no more, strode away desolate and still damned. He would not humble himself.
Now, this story is of course just a story, but to me it shows us the true heart of the enemy. We know from the Bible that in Ezekiel 28:13-19 that God cast Lucifer out of Heaven for being haughty and for trying to be higher than God himself, which we find in Isaiah 14. Even if you have trouble with that in the Old Testament, we have an account of Satan being thrown down to Earth in Revelation 12:7-17. We know that Jesus spoke of Satan, too. In Luke 10:18, Jesus states that he saw “Satan fall like lightning from heaven” and that those who believe in Him would have power over demons. Jesus also tells us in John 8:44 about Satan’s attributes, telling us that “He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.”Satan is the great deceiver, the great counterfeiter, and the greatest fraud in all of history. He is a murderer because he tries everything that he can to separate us from the grace of God which saves us from the death we deserve.
That all said, Satan will use anything and everything to try to get between us and God. I could go on and on about the different things that he could use, but instead of preaching for 5 hours today, I think that there are three main weapons that Satan is using today against God’s church. These are three things that I think are affecting every church in America, and even to a certain extent, the world. The first of these is apathy.
Apathy
Romans 12:11 says “Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord.” Apathy, which is by definition is a lack of interest, enthusiasm, or concern, affects so many different parts of our society today. It’s the “who cares?” of today. Who cares if we don’t work? Who cares if we aren’t involved in the lives of our friends or neighbors? Who cares if we aren’t going to church at all, even if it’s not something on Sundays? Do you know who cares greatly? God does. God cares very greatly about how we live our lives. He wants us to not be apathetic in our lives, and especially not be apathetic in our relationship with Him.
I read an article in Christianity Today from November of 2018 about apathy in church attendance. They referenced that people would get up early for Black Friday sales, for sporting events, but not for church. But this is not about shaming people into coming to church. As they state in their article, “Jesus didn’t say “I have come that they may get out of bed early on their day off to sing songs together and listen to a sermon.” They state that guilting people into coming to church will not work either. Has it ever worked for you, at least on a continuing basis? Or do you come to church because you have made a habit of it, ensuring that you have not become apathetic in this part of your relationship with the Lord? It’s a barrier that some of us in ministry trip over, and that we let Satan use, when we equate church attendance with working within the kingdom of the Lord.
But this isn’t a sermon about church attendance. How else can Satan use apathy to attack you in your spiritual life? He will make you apathetic towards your relationship with God in a personal way. Satan loves to use sinister, personal attacks to lure you away from living a righteous life. It starts with not praying when you tell someone that you will pray for them. It continues when you realize that you haven’t touched your Bible in two days. It keeps going when you haven’t even looked at something that is slightly religious in nature in a week. And believe me, I’ve been there too! Apathy is easy to slip into. It’s comfortable. It’s familiar. And beyond that, one of the great ways that Satan lets apathy get into your life is to make you think that what you might be studying with God, or what you might discover with God is boring! How can the Lord Most High ever be boring?! I mean, look at his creation and see how fascinating it is!
Let me urge you in this. If you find yourself becoming disinterested in what God is doing in your life, take a moment to pray for God to provide you clarity, to provide you a spark in your spiritual life, and to provide you with the interesting parts of God to be revealed. If you truly do that, you will be able to fight against the apathy that is so rampant within the church today on a personal level, and encourage others to do so!
Over Acceptance
What I believe our second major attack from Satan comes from is an over-acceptance of sinfulness in the lives of people. This is not to say that we are to remove ourselves from society wholly. That would be what many people, including myself, have called the ‘Baptist Bubble’. Have you ever heard that phrase? It means that people are so concerned with being influenced by the world that they regress into a group of people who are only Christians, who only believe in what they believe, and are never once challenged to grow in their faith. It’s related to apathy because Satan will make that place comfortable as well. But in turn, the opposite is the over-acceptance that many of our churches, especially in America, have turned to. This is not to say that we are exclusive in our worship. At our church, we welcome anyone to come and worship within our doors. But we also recognize that Jesus Christ is Lord, and that He has a very specific set of standards which we are to live by as revealed through the Holy Spirit.
I was asked very recently a question about if a certain type of person would be welcomed into our doors here at Mount Lebanon. I had to think on my feet a little bit, but I think that I answered it well. I said, “well, yes, they are absolutely welcome to worship with us, especially since we have people who are sinners just like them.” We know that we are sinners that have fallen short of the glory of God. This is not a put down towards you or to me! It’s acknowledging that we are not perfect, and that we are accepting of people! But I followed up with this, though. After I said that we are all sinners, I stated that we worship a perfect savior that saves us from all our sins at Mount Lebanon, if we accept that we must live the life that Jesus commands us to. It’s a tough pill to swallow for many people in our country today, frankly.
But let me tell you one other way that Satan will use the over-acceptance of sinfulness in our lives against God and us. He will make us want to not listen to Christ and his commands. He will say to us “well, those rules and commands were written for a different type of person a LONG time ago, that doesn’t apply to us today, does it?” It’s a lie from the chief liar himself. When we accept that lie, we are missing out on the greatness of a savior that takes all people where they are in their lives and makes them even better when they come to Him. He accepts all people that come unto Him. He says in John 10:9 that “I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture.” That last part of that scripture reminds us that when we are saved, we are cleansed of sin, and that our ‘pasture’ is the fulness of God through Christ.
Deception
The final tool that Satan uses against us, and against the modern church, is his oldest one. It is deception. As I stated earlier, Satan is the great counterfeiter. He creates things that look like the real McCoy, but are truly fake. This falls into false doctrine, which are things like the prosperity gospel that so so many so-called pastors are pushing (which, incidentally, seems only to give the so-called pastors prosperity rather than those who are attending their meetings!). But this is only part of the deception that Satan uses against the church today.
I read a story of a pastor who had flown into Dallas, Texas with his wife. As they were returning to their car, they were mugged at gunpoint. After that happened, the pastor never made that short walk at the airport without looking around for danger, especially at night. He was on guard against danger that might strike at him. In that same way, we have to be on guard against deception by Satan in our lives. Just like we have mentioned, though, Satan will use subtle and conniving ways to attack us with deception more often than the huge frontal assault that we expect. Paul warns the church at Corinth in his second letter to them. In 2 Corinthians 11:12-15, Paul writes “But what I do, I will also continue to do, that I may cut off the opportunity from those who desire an opportunity to be regarded just as we are in the things of which they boast. For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ. And no wonder! For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also transform themselves into ministers of righteousness, whose end will be according to their works.”
Did you catch that in the middle of that passage? It’s verse 14 if you want to mark it for later. Paul writes that Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light. Satan doesn’t come at us in the red suit or with a pitchfork, he comes in the disguise of an angel of light from God! He offers us a great ‘light’. His servants are not outwardly evil, but they pose as servants of God, promising freedom, while inwardly they are enslaved to Satan and want to enslave you too! Remember what Jesus says in Matthew 7:15 to “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves.” Satan and his followers disguise themselves to look like they are innocent and wholesome, but when they are truly revealed, they will devour you.
Conclusion (By Any Means Possible!)
But how do we keep Satan from building walls between us and God? We’ve heard so many things not only today, but through this entire month of how Satan tries to break our fellowship with God. We know that this is not an easy thing to do, first of all, to fight against the enemy. But we have weapons that can attack the enemy when he tries to build these walls between us and God himself! Ephesians 6:10-18 tells us of the whole armor of God, but look at the weapons that God gives us. In verse 14, we have the belt of truth and the breastplate of righteousness. In verse 15, we have on our feet the preparation of the gospel of peace. In verse 16, God gives us the shield of faith “with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one”. In verse 17, we protect our mind with the helmet of salvation, and finally, our best and greatest weapon of all, we have the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. And finally, we have the Holy Spirit, which was promised to us by Jesus himself to help guide us. When we take up the entire armor of God, we are protected from the evil one. We are protected in all of our body, save our back. For if we turn and try to run from the enemy, from Satan, our backs are not covered, and he will destroy us. We must remember that this day, and every day, that God has already given us the tools to resist Satan in every way, if we will only take them up daily. Let’s pray.
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