- [Narrator] The army of God.
There are many illustrations of God's people
in the New Testament.
In Ephesians, for instance,
God's people are presented through the following depiction:
a legislative assembly, a family, a temple,
and as the bride of Christ.
However, the final illustration
of God's people in Ephesians
is that of an army.
Our army is dedicated to fighting a massive global war
that impacts every corner of the world we live in.
The term global doesn't fully encompass
the enormity of this conflict.
This conflict is not limited to just the Earth,
but reaches beyond it into the vast expanse of the Heavens.
The most fitting word to describe it
is not global, but universal,
encompassing the entirety of the created universe.
The scripture that most clearly introduces this conflict
and describes its nature is Ephesians 6:10-11.
"In conclusion, be strong in the Lord.
Draw your strength from Him
and be empowered through your union with Him,
and in the power of His boundless might.
Put on the full armor of God,
for His precepts are like the splendid armor
of a heavily-armed soldier,
so that you may be able
to successfully stand up against all the schemes
and the strategies and the deceits of the devil."
Paul recognized that as Christians,
we are involved in a war
for which we need the appropriate armor,
and that our adversary is the Devil himself.
He then went on in verse 12
to explain more fully the nature of this war.
Ephesians 6:12.
"For our struggle is not against flesh and blood,
contending only with physical opponents,
but against the rulers, against the powers,
against the world forces of this present darkness,
against the spiritual forces of wickedness
in the heavenly, supernatural places.
We wrestle not," period.
In other words, all we need to do
is sit in the church and sing,
but Paul said, "We're in a wrestling match,
but it's not against flesh and blood."
Consider also the import of the term wrestling match.
Wrestling is the most intense
of all forms of conflict between two persons.
Every part of the body,
every skill and every trick must be used for success.
It is a total conflict.
Satan has a highly organized kingdom.
In that kingdom,
there are various areas and levels of authority.
The headquarters of this kingdom is in the heavily regions.
That is a staggering fact,
but it is quite clear.
The fact that Satan heads a highly organized kingdom
astonishes some people,
yet there are many clear indications of this in the Bible.
A spiritual war is going on right now
that affects everyone on the planet.
It is a clash between two kingdoms.
One kingdom is led by Almighty God,
the Prince of Peace,
while the other is led by Satan,
the prince of the power of darkness.
The kingdom of God.
The kingdom of God means the reign of God over the cosmos
and includes and embraces the kingdom of Heaven
and all other realms in the whole universe.
It is moral and universal,
has existed since the beginning,
and will continue to exist indefinitely.
The kingdom of God existed before the Earth was created.
When the Earth was created,
angels and another spirit beings lived in this kingdom.
The Lord has established his throne in Heaven
and his kingdom has dominion over all.
Colossians 1:16.
"For by Him all things were created in heaven and on earth,
things visible and invisible.
Whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities;
all things were created and exist through Him,
that is, by His activity, and for Him."
A spirit world surrounds us
far more populous, powerful, and resourceful
than our own visible world of human beings.
Spirits, both good and evil,
make their way through our midst.
They move from place to place
with a lightning speed and silence.
They live in the air spaces around us.
Some we know care about our wellbeing
while others are out to get us.
Where was the first battle fought?
How long will the battle last?
And who will win?
The war of all wars began before Genesis 1:1.
And what triggered this war?
We know that Satan was expelled from the Third Heaven
due to his rebellious pride.
The driving force behind this epic battle
is the same as it is in any war,
a struggle for power,
a struggle to obtain what is rightfully someone else's,
and the only way to achieve this goal
is to seize power by force.
War broke out in Heaven.
After being expelled from Heaven,
Satan and his followers pledged themselves to each other
and formed the rebel kingdom,
which still exists today
and will continue to exist until it is destroyed
by God's ultimate power.
In the Garden of Eden, Satan launched his first assault
on God's authority on Earth.
The God had created man and gave him a place,
a purpose, and a partner.
Adam and Eve were told to be fruitful,
multiply, and replenish the Earth.
Satan considered the Earth his domain
and saw Adam and Eve as God's invaders in his territory.
If God created mankind to live on Earth
in order to establish his kingdom,
Satan needed a plan of attack.
He must destroy man's destiny, but how?
The Devil, the old serpent,
made his way to Eve
and used three strategic tactics against her.
The first one was doubt.
"Has God indeed said," Genesis 3:1.
You can almost hear the father of lies
as he interacts with Eve.
The deceiver then used his second strategy, supposition,
to make Eve doubt
whether the consequences of her disobedience
would truly result in her death as God had stated.
"You will not surely die," Genesis 3:4.
The third and final approach
he used against Eve was temptation.
Adam chose to leave the state of innocence
and follow Eve into a world of suffering,
sickness, tears, and death.
Satan's subversive counter-attack
completely overwhelmed the humans,
but God established a beachhead in the Garden of Eden,
promising that the serpent's head
would be bruised by the seed of the woman.
By reversing the tables on the Tempter
before driving Adam and Eve out of the garden,
he demonstrated his complete mastery of Satan.
Though the fighting would continue,
the cross of Christ would be the final battleground
where Satan's fate,
and that of his fallen angel kingdom,
would be sealed for all eternity.
There was no room for diplomacy.
Sin had to be punished forever.
God expelled Adam and Eve from the garden,
knowing that the evil and violent and vicious war
would leave a trail of destruction,
with all of humanity wounded and many forever destroyed.
Invasion of the Nephilim.
As the self-appointed commander of the kingdom of darkness,
Satan summoned his evil legions to infiltrate humanity
with the intent of polluting the Adamic line
leading to the Messiah.
Genesis 6:1-2.
"When human beings began to increase in number on the earth
and daughters were born to them,
the sons of God saw
that the daughters of humans were beautiful,
and they married any of them they chose."
Who were the sons of God?
The Book of Job characterizes them as angels.
Two-thirds of the angels
stayed with God in the Third Heaven, elect angels,
while one-third were ejected, Satan's fallen angels.
Please note, Genesis 6
refers to a time when men began to multiply.
Seth did not have a son until 235 years after creation,
and his son did not have a son until 90 years later.
God's kingdom was thriving in number and in strength.
Feeling threatened, the Prince of Darkness
called upon his evil legions to infiltrate humankind.
These fallen angels descended on Earth
and gave birth to the Nephilim or giants.
The Hebrew word for Nephilim translates as fallen.
This Satanic invasion of Genesis 6
corrupted the whole world.
Know the enemy.
Knowing your adversary gives you the ability to defeat him.
Underestimating the enemy is dangerous.
It is similar to forming an alliance with the opposition
in order to ensure your own defeat.
As a result, every strategic military invasion
is preceded by extensive intelligence gathering
and in-depth analysis of the adversary.
Every battlefield position has been plotted,
each landmark has been identified.
Psychological profiles of opposing generals
are used to predict how they will react
under the stress of war.
No area is immune to scrutiny.
The war will be one or lost on the knowledge of the enemy.
The Apostle Paul, through divine revelation,
provided us with a clear picture
of Satan's chain of command in Ephesians 6.
The Devil is a roaring lion,
intent on devouring his prey,
and his demons have been given explicit orders
to seek out and destroy those who refuse to submit to him,
as well as to imprison those who do.
John 10:10,
"The thief comes only in order
to steal and kill and destroy.
I came that they may have and enjoy life,
and have it in abundance to the full, till it overflows."
Demons work together under Satan's command
to inflict every conceivable form of harm,
deception, and torment on humanity.
To triumph in spiritual warfare,
God's children must accept that the enemy walks among us,
employing every sinister scheme
for the sole purpose of dominance and destruction.
The enemy's kingdom is divided into levels of authority.
The hosts of wickedness, also known as demons,
hold the fourth and lowest position in Satan's realm.
They are his evil army's foot soldiers
dominated and directed by higher ranking rulers,
powers, and principalities.
The terms Devil, devils, and demons
are frequently used interchangeably.
There is only one prince of devils, Satan,
but there are numerous demons.
The term demon comes from the Greek word daemon
which means evil spirit or devil.
Demons is the plural form.
Satan, the Devil, has an angelic body
and cannot physically enter anyone,
but he can form an evil union with man.
Demons on the other hand are evil spirits who roam the Earth
in the form of humans or beasts.
Luke 8:33.
Satan impersonates God through deceptive means,
and demonic invasion is no exception.
Those who submit to the Lord have a divine personality
in the form of the Holy Spirit dwelling within them.
In Matthew 12:22-28,
the following incident in the ministry of Jesus is recorded.
Jesus had brought healing to a demon-possessed man
who was blind and mute
by driving out the evil spirit.
"Then a demon-possessed man who was blind
and unable to speak was brought to Jesus,
and He healed him, so that the man who was unable to speak
talked and could see.
And all the crowds were amazed, and were saying,
'This man cannot be the son of David, can he?'
But when the Pharisees heard this, they said,
'This man casts out demons only by Beelzebul,
the ruler of the demons.'
And knowing their thoughts, Jesus said to them,
'Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste;
and no city or house divided against itself will stand.
And if Satan is casting out Satan,
he has become divided against himself;
how then will his kingdom stand?
And if by Beelzebul I cast out the demons,
by whom do your sons cast them out?
Therefore, they will be your judges.
But if I cast out the demons by the Spirit of God,
then the kingdom of God has come upon you.'"
There is a clear implication that first,
Satan has a kingdom.
Second, it is not divided but highly organized.
Third, it stands and has not yet been overthrown.
Jesus here mentioned another kingdom,
the kingdom of God.
In particular, he described one point
where the conflict between these two kingdoms
is brought out into the open.
He said, "When I drive out demons by the Spirit of God,
then you know the kingdom of God has come."
The implication is that the ministry of driving out demons
brings the forces of Satan's kingdom out into the open
and also demonstrates the superiority
of the kingdom of God,
because the demons are driven out
under the authority of the kingdom of God.
In the final analysis,
there are two kingdoms in opposition,
the kingdom of God and the kingdom of Satan.
Again, in Colossians 1:12-14,
Paul said the following:
"Giving thanks to the Father,
who has qualified us to share
in the inheritance of the saints in light.
For he rescued us from the domain of darkness,
and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son,
in whom we have redemption,
the forgiveness of sins."
Notice again, there are two domains or kingdoms.
There is a kingdom of light
in which our inheritance lies,
but there is also the domain of darkness.
The word dominion is translated
as the Greek word exousia, which means authority.
In other words, whether we like it or not,
Satan has authority.
He is the ruler of a kingdom that the Bible recognizes.
So these two kingdoms are engaged in mortal warfare
and the war is coming to its climax in our day
as this age comes to a close.