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THE FORCES WE FACE

God is not interested in religion, but he is tremendously interested in life. God is not interested in stained glass windows, organ solos, congregational hymns, or even pastoral prayers half so much as he is in producing love-filled teens with generous hearts, and fearless young men and women who can live right in the midst of the world and keep their heads and hearts undefiled.

I am deeply convinced that we can only understand life when we see it as the Bible sees it. That is why the Word of God was given. When we get down to the bare essentials of life, and strip off all the confusing illusion, we find it is exactly what the Bible records it to be.

Here is where our perspectives are set straight, here is where we get our value systems righted, and our dreams weighed and evaluated as to whether they are real or only make-believe. It is up to us to listen to the words of Jesus and his apostles, for they are the authority which corrects us, not we the authority that corrects them.

In Eph. 6:10-17 the Apostle Paul is setting forth his analysis of life, especially as it relates to a Christian. This passage is so important that I propose you spend several days considering it.

                      6:10 Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.
                      6:11 Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
                      6:12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers,
                              against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
                      6:13 Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day,
                              and having done all, to stand.
                      6:14 Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness;
                      6:15 And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace;
                      6:16 Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.
                      6:17 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:  Ephesians 6:10-17

But first I want you to look at it only from a general, introductory viewpoint, and see what the apostle brings out about the nature of life in general, and then take a closer look at the specific character which he says a Christian life assumes.

Look at Verses 10-13: "Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand."

It is very clear in that passage that Paul's view of the basic characteristic of life can be put in one word: Struggle. Life, he says, is a conflict, a battle, a continual warfare. The apostle also says that in this struggle we must learn to stand, he says, "in the evil day," by which he implies that all days are not evil. There will come times which are worse than others.

There are seasons in the passing of life when pressures are more intense, when problems are more unhopeful, when everything seems to come upon us at once. These are what we recognize as evil days. Sometimes it is an actual day, sometimes it is a week, sometimes months. But thank God that all of life is not that way. We are not always being confronted with overpowering circumstances which call for agonizing decisions.

The reason we are not is due to the grace of God. All of life would be an evil day were it not for the grace of God which continually operates to restrain the powers that are against us. Paul says that these days, though they are not always the same in pressure, nevertheless constitute the general makeup of life. Life is an unending struggle, varying in intensity from time to time, but extending from the cradle to the grave.

But he further goes on now to analyze and define for us the nature of this struggle. We come now to that which is most important. For he says that the conflict is not against flesh and blood, that is, it is not a human problem, it is not a struggle of man against man.

As we look at life in our superficial way we are tempted to say that our problem is other people, that we struggle against flesh and blood. But the apostle says that the problem is not against flesh and blood. Rather, there is set against the whole human race certain principalities and powers, world rulers of darkness, wicked spirits in high places.

There is your problem, Paul says. Those are the enemies we are up against. And it is not just Christians who are opposed by these, but every man, everywhere. The whole race is opposed by the principalities and powers, the world rulers of this present darkness. There is Paul's positive explanation of the struggle of life.

There are those who say, "Are you going to insult our intelligence by talking about a personal devil? Surely you are not going back to those medieval concepts and drag out a devil, and tell us he is the root of all our problems?"

I heard a story about a boxer who was engaged in a boxing match and was being badly beaten. Battered and bruised, he leaned over the ropes and said to his trainer, "Please throw in the towel! This guy is killing me!" The trainer said, "Oh no, he's not. He's not even hitting you. He hasn't laid a glove on you!" And the boxer said, "Well then, I wish you'd watch that referee -- somebody is sure hitting me!"

The questions we must ask when we are challenged with this idea that there is no devil is, "How do you explain what is going on in the world? How do you explain what is happening? How do you explain the entrenched evil in human affairs?"

There is an organized kingdom of principalities and powers at various levels of authority who sit as world rulers of the present darkness, wicked spirits in high places.

The world says to the Christian: "Why talk about this kind of thing? Why do you not talk about something relevant?" They talk about being relevant! What could be more relevant than this teaching which puts its finger on the basic problem?  Talk about relevancy! This is what is relevant -- to listen to this analysis of what is wrong with the world, what its disease is, and what the cure is. That is what this passage so vividly and so accurately sets before us.

The fact is that the disease is growing so desperate that even worldlings, non-Christians, are recognizing the inadequacy of their diagnosis. Listen, We stand face to face with the terrible question of evil and do not even know what is before us, let alone what to pit against it.

Listen to this bewildered cry from one of the leading statesmen of his day, U Thant, former Secretary General of the United Nations: "What element is lacking so that with all our skill and all our knowledge we still find ourselves in the dark valley of discord and enmity? What is it that inhibits us from going forward together to enjoy the fruits of human endeavor and to reap the harvest of human experience? Why is it that, for all our professed ideals, our hopes, and our skills, peace on earth is still a distant objective seen only dimly through the storms and turmoils of our present difficulties?"

Here are the world's greatest leaders facing the dilemma of modern life, and all they can say is, "What is wrong? What is the unknown element behind this? We cannot understand this, we do not know what is going on, we cannot grasp these things. What is it that is missing?"

Talk about a relevant Scripture! This Scripture is the most relevant thing I know of today. For two thousand years it has been written down here. The Apostle Paul has given the answer to that baffled, bewildered cry for light from a modern statesman's heart. The world, Paul says, is in the grip of what he calls; "...the rulers of the darkness of this world,"

What an amazing phrase that is! "...the rulers of the darkness of this world", These world rulers of present darkness are headed by the devil, whom Scripture says is a fallen angel of spiteful power and cunning cleverness against whom Christians are called to wrestle daily. Now, that is not the claim of an isolated passage of the Bible. That is the teaching of the Bible from beginning to end, from Genesis to Revelation, and especially in Genesis and Revelation.

The Lord Jesus himself put his finger on the whole problem when he said to certain men of his day, "Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it." (John 8:44).

In that most amazing analysis, the Lord stripped the devil of his disguises and revealed his true character -- He is a liar and a murderer. What the devil does is because of who he is, just as what we do is precisely due to what we are. Because he is a liar and a murderer, the devil's work is to deceive and to destroy.

There you have the explanation for all that has been going on in human history throughout the whole course of the record of man. The Bible calls him, "the god of this world," in 2 Corinthians 4:4. The world listens to him, to everything he says. But the devil does not tell the world the truth but a lie, a very clever, a very beautiful, lie which makes the world drool with desire.

We are going to see much more about this and it is important that we do so, for this is the struggle of life. This is the explanation for it, and the only adequate explanation for what is going on in our day which has ever been offered.

The intelligent thing is to understand it and, understanding, to come to grips with it, and thus to be able to walk in victory -- as Paul says, to be able to stand in the evil day. "Well," you say, "This is all very depressing. I would rather not think about it." So would I, but I have discovered that you cannot get away from it that way.

There is only one way to handle this struggle and that is to "be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might," (Ephesians 6:10). That is the way of escape. There is no other. This is a call to intelligent combat. It is a call to fight the good fight, to stand fast in the faith, to be strong in the Lord right in the midst of battle, in the midst of the world.

We are to take this seriously and to learn what life is all about. We must learn to recognize how these dark systems work, and how they appear in life and where they are going.

Paul says the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, they are not of the body. Our weapons are mighty, through God, unto the pulling down of strongholds and bringing into captivity every thought -- there is the arena: it is the realm of thought; it is the realm of ideas -- bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. That is victory!

"Be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might!"