Now today I'd like to speak on the
subject of war.
I would entitle it the real war.
The wars that are going on in the
world today are minor skirmishes, minor battles, compared
to the real war.
Now we looked at it briefly last night
with the youth, but you who were there
last night, listen again, because we will expand
upon it and perhaps collect those seeds of
thoughts together, and maybe there's something that can
blossom in your life because of it.
Let's turn to 1 Peter chapter 5 and
we read from verse 6 to 9.
Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of
God, that he may exalt you in due
time, casting all your care upon him, for
he cares for you.
Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the
devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking
whom he may devour.
Resist him steadfast in the faith, knowing that
the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood
in the world.
Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of
God, that he may exalt you in due
time, casting all your care upon him, for
he cares for you.
Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the
devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking
whom he may devour.
Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the
devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking
whom he may devour.
Brethren, there is a war.
There is a battle raging even right now
and has been and will continue until Christ
wraps it all up.
I say
that because sometimes Christians forget
that they are at war.
If you want to note some verses regarding
just the war in general, don't turn to
it but Daniel 7 verse 21 and Revelations
13 verse 7.
Ephesians 6 for instance speaks about the war
that is not between flesh and blood but
against powers and principalities in the air.
We are at war and we are not
on the playing field.
In this past week, have you been on
the playing field of life or have you
been part of the war?
In our text we have read there about
the devil who, like a roaring lion, seeks
whom he may eat and devour.
I am going to get to just two
or three points about battling in this war
but before we get there, let's look at
some misunderstandings about the war and just a
few points to remember.
This is important to consider and just forget
about those next to you now.
Just listen to the word of God for
you.
Firstly, the end of the war is already
foretold.
In fact, in Colossians 2 verse 15 it
says there that Christ has already triumphed over
the powers and principalities.
Maybe you are saying to yourself, but why
is life such a battle?
We are getting there.
Just listen to these introductory points about war.
Firstly, we must understand the facts about this
war.
Regarding Christ's triumph, Uncle Elo has been preaching
in these past days up at Malalane some
very important points that are about the strong
man, which one finds, don't turn to it,
but in Luke 11, maybe he will still
get a chance to share it with us.
Luke 11, verse 21, the strong man.
The strong man being the devil who has
taken control of homes.
The one who is described in Isaiah 14
as being an angel or a prince of
shining light before and who is now the
prince of darkness, Lucifer.
But as Uncle Elo shared, Christ is the
stronger man.
He has wrestled with and defeated the strong
man on Calvary.
And as it also describes there in Colossians
2 verse 15 and those verses around there,
Christ took the whole list of laws against
us which declared our guilt and that we
are worthy of death and it was nailed
with him to the tree.
So Christ has routed, has defeated the strong
man.
And as the verse says in Luke 11,
he has taken the booty or taken the
spoils, the goods, and that is you and
me.
Secondly, let's remember also regarding possible misconceptions about
the war that is raging.
And that is that demons are not running
wild and out of control.
This is of great importance to remember lest
you live a life of fear and despondency
and therefore of defeat because you say, well
the demons, they have all this power even
over me.
In 2 Peter 2 verse 4 it says
that the disobedient angels are chained up for
judgment.
God holds them in check.
God holds them in control.
Now I know you are asking, well how
come then do I suffer from this or
from that?
We will get there.
But remember, Christ has full control in heaven
and on earth.
And between heaven and earth, in the air,
has full control and has set the boundaries
where these demons may not go beyond in
obedience to him.
Thirdly, let us remember that the final war
as it predicts in Revelations, there is going
to be the final war, the final meeting
up of the battle lines between the powers
of light and darkness.
That final war's outcome is already predicted and
in fact is just a mopping up operation.
Christ has accomplished the victory on the cross.
When it comes to the final battle, Jesus
will be simply collecting his enemies.
He will be rounding them up.
He will do the mopping up operations.
Jesus needs no special weapons to defeat the
devil.
For he has conquered him through death.
And Colossians, back to that text that says
he removed the weapons out of the hands
of the powers and principalities.
Friend, are you living in some measure of
anxiety and fear about what is happening and
what may still happen?
And your pulse rate is measured by the
good or bad news that you hear?
Keep your eyes fixed on this.
Christ's battle, the final battle, the final end
is coming, but the battle is already won.
The war is won.
It's just the mopping up operation.
Are you living in fear of the coming
of the Antichrist and the mark of the
beast and the power that he will have
over the saints?
In 2 Thessalonians it says that when Jesus
appears, when the Antichrist, when the lawless one,
is at his peak of power In 2
Thessalonians it says Jesus will destroy
him with the breath of his mouth.
Isn't that something to cure your fear and
your fantasies that cause your fear to be
so awful and so overwhelming?
Jesus will not have to pull out a
sword.
He will not have to round up millions
of angels to get a coalition force to
fight for him.
He will do it all by himself because
he is God.
And what will he do?
He will do what he always does.
He will just breathe.
For he is the living one.
And by the breath of his mouth he
will destroy the lawless one.
Maybe you should be praying just now even.
Lord, breathe upon me.
But not in judgment, Lord.
But breathe your life into me and destroy
the lawless one in my heart.
The fourth thing to remember about this war
is that Satan only has the power which
you give him.
If he is a defeated foe, which he
is.
If he is a caged lion, which he
is.
Then only if you give him authority can
he have authority over you.
Satan's only powers are in these three domains,
all interconnected.
He can entice, he can deceive and he
can lie.
But he
cannot push you into sin.
Write that down in your heart and mind.
Satan cannot push you into sin.
So don't ever say again, the devil made
me do it.
No, his power is to entice, to deceive
and to lie.
There are some marvelous zoos in Europe, some
zoos where they have bear cages and you
can look over a wall and look at
these bears that wander around or lions in
a similar type of cage.
And it has happened through the years that
some adventurous folks, well, dumb really, have ventured
to go into the bear's cage and have
jumped from the wall.
At one place, the exact place where we
as the Choir were in a zoo, I
think it was in Switzerland, a man jumped
into the bear cage and the bear made
short work of him.
Some people don't even need to be enticed
to sin.
They throw themselves into the bear's cage or
the lion's cage.
They seek out the opportunities to sin.
They look for chances to be with the
lion in his close proximity.
So only if you venture into the devil's
turf by committing yourself to him, submitting to
him, bowing to him, getting close to him,
only then do you give power to Satan.
So if you forget all the other points,
remember this, if you have only a very
short term memory, Satan can only deceive, entice
and lie.
He cannot make you to sin.
Now, in this battle, in this war, I
just want to now point out two particular
things, two areas where you need to be
on your guard, as we've been told in
verse 8 of Peter.
Be sober, be vigilant.
Now, let's be sober and vigilant about two
areas.
The first one may sound strange for you,
the battle for faith.
The battle to have faith.
This will make more sense to you as
I share with you one or two stories
about it.
And as we reflect on the importance
of faith, it may sound like this is
a sin which just cannot trouble Christians, those
who go to church.
And that is the thoughts of atheism, the
thoughts that God is not there.
But let me tell you, it does.
Even John Bunyan says in his autobiography about,
I think it's something to do with abundant
grace, but he says there that he struggled
for years with thoughts that attacked him and
assailed him, atheistic thoughts.
The feeling that God is not there, or
if he is, and that's agnostic thoughts, then
he doesn't care, he's disassociated himself from my
circumstances.
Now, I'm over halfway, well over halfway in
this message.
If you're starting to be drowsy, shake yourself
a bit.
Nudge the one next to you if he
looks drowsy, or she.
And now let's really get into this last
half.
And I'm drawing towards the end already.
Listen carefully now.
So let's just really pay attention to God's
word.
You're not listening to me, you and I
want to hear what God has to say.
I'm going to tell you a story, a
true story, a tragic story of a man
associated with Billy Graham.
In
fact,
two men, let me just refer to two
men and then I'm going to concentrate on
the one in particular.
The one's name was Templeton and the other
was Clifford, C-L-I-F-F-O
-R-D, Clifford.
Now, in the 1940s, when Billy Graham began
to be well known and was on fire
for the Lord, an even
more popular preacher than Billy Graham was, he
wasn't a doctor yet at the time, but
his name was Charles Templeton.
And Templeton joined the Billy Graham team.
He was the preacher with Billy Graham.
He was from Toronto in Canada.
Originally, even before Templeton joined, he would attract
20,000, 30,000 people to come and
listen to him, a dynamic preacher who just
brought the message in such a simple, clear
way to the people.
Templeton and Graham formed the Youth for Christ
organization and they were both, Templeton was a
deputy president, in fact, of Youth for Christ.
But let me just go off on a
tangent for a moment.
Another colleague of Billy Graham and Templeton was
a man called Clifford, Bronn Clifford.
Bronn Clifford was a gifted young fireball evangelist.
I'm just going to read a few notes.
Many believe that Clifford was the most gifted,
powerful preacher to come up in the church
for many centuries.
People lined up for hours to hear him
preach.
On one particular occasion when Clifford went to
Baylor University to preach, the organizers cut the
ropes of the church bells lest they ring
during the sermon and disturb the people.
He had the students sitting on the edges
of their feet for two and a half
hours as he preached.
By the time Clifford was 25 years old,
he had touched more lives, influenced more leaders,
and had set more attendance records than any
other minister or clergyman in the history of
America.
He was tall, handsome, dashing, intelligent, and sophisticated.
Hollywood even tried to cast him in the
role for the famous movie The Robe.
He seemed to have everything.
Graham, Templeton, and Clifford launched out at the
starting block of preaching in 1945 like they
were at the Olympic Games, running for gold.
But why haven't you heard of Chuck Templeton
or of Clifford?
By 1950, Clifford had turned aside to his
own ways.
He had lost his family, his ministry, and
his health.
Eventually, he lost his life because of his
addiction to alcohol.
Financial irresponsibility left his wife and his two
Down Syndrome children penniless.
This once-famous preacher died of cirrhosis of
the liver, direct result of his over-drinking,
at the age of 35 in an unknown
run-down hotel in a little town in
Mexico.
He died unwept, unhonored, and unsung.
Some of the pastors from that area in
Texas got together enough money to buy a
cheap coffin and he was buried in a
beggar's grave.
But now let me get to the second
man who died recently, Dr. Chuck Templeton.
By the early 50s, as they were preaching
together, Billy Graham and Templeton, Templeton began to
have doubts about the faith.
He began to ask, is it really the
word of God?
Is the Bible really reliable?
He began to be sidetracked about evolution.
He said, but surely we are evolved.
Isn't there enough scientific proof to show us
that?
He had
long
discussions, hot discussions with Billy Graham.
But Templeton made the decision he's going to
Princeton University, which at that time was liberal
in its theology.
He's going to Princeton to become a doctor
of theology and philosophy.
By the time Templeton had finished at university,
he was an agnostic.
That means that he didn't believe that God
was there or wasn't there.
It didn't matter.
At
the
same time, just by the way, approximately the
same time, Billy Graham was at a camping
site more to the west of America and
it was at a certain place, at a
certain rock, which he even remembers, that he
bowed and said, Lord, I accept your word,
the scriptures as your inspired word.
Those were
early
decisions of faith.
Billy Graham and Templeton were already believers, but
Billy Graham confirmed his faith in the Lord.
And after that time, he has until today
always said, the Bible says, it's his most
famous statement.
Now let's fast forward the tape 50 years
later.
And remember, your life is perhaps in fast
forward as well.
Maybe you're getting right to the end of
your tape.
Just in around about the year 2000, Templeton
had started with Alzheimer's disease already.
He was in his 80s.
Two years before that, he had completed yet
another book called Farewell to God, Why I'm
Not a Christian.
Now, just shortly before his death, he was
interviewed by An Atheist Who Had Become a
Christian, and this is part of the interview.
Let me read it to you.
As the interviewer, Mr. Struble, and Templeton discussed
together, Templeton again defended his rejection of God
and the Bible.
Struble writes in his book, there was apparently
no chink in the armor of this callous
soul.
But then Struble asked the old man, Templeton,
about Christ.
Struble writes that Templeton's body language
softened.
Templeton said, among others, he said, Jesus was
the greatest human being who ever lived.
He was a moral genius.
His ethical sense was unique.
His commitment led to his own death, to
the detriment of the world.
Struble quietly commented to Templeton, so it sounds
like you really care about him.
Templeton said, he's the most important thing in
my life.
In fact, and he stammered, I adore him.
Struble, the interviewer, was stunned and shocked as
he listened.
Templeton's voice began to crack, and then he
said, I miss him.
And with that, the old man, Templeton, burst
into tears.
With his shaking shoulders, he wept bitterly.
But then, as if hardening himself, he waved
with his left arm and said, enough of
that.
It was in the early stages of Alzheimer's
disease, he died not very long after the
interview, and he died in the same condition,
missing Jesus and having missed everything.
He died an atheist.
Why do I tell you such a long
story?
It's to show you the battle, the war,
for faith.
There are some decisions which you may, like
Templeton, make in the early stages of your
life, and that decision will take you right
through, even to your deathbed, and you will
not be able to retract and turn back,
so hardened may be your heart.
You may have a good opinion about Jesus,
and about the Bible, a good opinion, but
at your heart, in the very seat of
who you are, you deny the faith.
And that crack will become ever wider the
longer you allow it to develop.
You will continue experiencing the gap until it
is an everlasting valley between you and heaven,
and God.
I urge you, if there is that crack
developing, and you are in a struggle for
faith itself, get back to God, get back
to his word, deal with the sin that
has caused you to get there.
Reaffirm your faith in him.
Deal with that which is causing you to
fall into that crack, which might result in
50 years more life, but it's a life
of bitterness and missing Christ.
I'd say there are two points regarding this
war, and your involvement in it.
I'd love to have commented on some of
those points from Peter, but you go and
study it yourself.
But just finally, let me end now with
this point, which is the battle against besetting
sin.
After all that we've heard about Christ's victory
in the war, why do you allow yourself
to remain entangled in your besetting sin?
In Hebrews 12 verse 2 it puts it
this way, the sin which so easily entangles
itself around you.
Now in these final moments, and we're going
to close and pray.
What besetting sin, what entangling sin is there
that is raging battle against you every day?
If you're really running the race of faith,
you have to cast aside every weight and
every besetting sin.
The besetting sin, dear brethren, is that particular
thing, and usually it's one thing, which crops
up again and again, and your bias of
nature and character, its tendency is towards that
same thing all the time.
Is it impatience and irritability and temper which
is associated with it?
Is it the lust of the heart, the
craving, the appetite, where you try to satisfy
the lust of the eyes and of the
mind and try and satiate that appetite that
rages within you?
Is your besetting sin simply your tongue and
its deceitfulness, its double talk?
Dear friends, if you confess that sin as
it is, you bring it into the light,
you deal with it and you bring it
to Christ and you lay it before Him.
Maybe you say, I've done it a thousand
times and it's still there.
Well, Hebrews 12 says in that verse, throw
it off.
You respond, easier said than done.
I've tried it as well.
Like Mark Twain said, smoking is very easy
to give up.
I've done it a thousand times.
The only one who can cast off the
besetting sin is the one who comes to
Christ because he has won the war and
then in obedience casts off his besetting sin.
Casting off means violently, rudely, crudely throwing it
away.
And every time it raises its ugly head,
you trample upon it in the name of
Christ for He has that thing under His
feet.
Have hope, dear struggling Christian.
He has conquered that besetting sin.
Yes, that very one you're thinking of now.
He has done that for you.
Let's bow and pray.
Lord Jesus, we thank you that you have
conquered and you will rule till all enemies
are under your feet.
You are the slain Lamb of God and
all power is given to you.
Even those powers, Lord, which have ruled over
us are now in your hands for you
have conquered.
Lord, liberate us and set us free by
the truth of your word.
Amen.