The contemporary fascination with angels makes it very important for us to understand what the Bible actually has to say about them. But even more important, spiritual warfare pertains to angelic spirits and therefore it's essential that you and I understand something about them. A basic comprehension of the truth about angels is essential to grasping a biblical worldview and prevailing in spiritual battles.
Let's review briefly what we said last week, and that is that angels are created personal beings not human but real, not physical but spiritual. They dwell in a higher order of creation than humans, and yet they may appear in human form. There are two classifications of them, the good and holy angels and the evil or demonic angels. Both sides are highly organized into ranks and responsibilities to fulfill the assignment of their leaders.
The leader of the good and holy angels, of course, is God Himself, and the prince of the demons is Satan. These two forces battle in the spiritual realm. Angels carry out God's purposes and demons carry out Satan's schemes. Angels are at war, and you are at risk as a casualty in this angelic war. Listen with me to 1 Peter chapter 5, verses 8 through 11, where Peter concludes his book with these important words. 1 Peter 5, beginning in verse 8, be of sober spirit, be on the alert.
Your adversary, the devil, prowls about like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. Peter is writing to Christians. Now there are some people who have the idea that Christians are impervious to demons, that we need not worry about Satan, that he's been defeated and he has nothing to do with us. It makes Peter's words fairly strange, doesn't it, to take that position? He says he is our adversary and we're to be sober and on the alert about him.
He says, but resist him firm in your faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world. And after you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace who calls you to his eternal glory in Christ will himself perfect, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. To him be dominion forever and ever. Amen. Angels, you are at war and you are at risk as a potential casualty. Why is that?
Because the battle is about who will be the Lord of the earth, Jesus Christ or Satan. Satan hates all human beings because we bear the image of God our creator. He seeks to destroy the image of God in every person and erect the lives of all so that they cannot bring any honor or glory to God. That is true whether one be a Christian or a non-Christian. He hates all human beings.
He seeks to control human beings, human institutions, and human history in order to orchestrate his own coronation as the Lord of the earth. In light of these statements I've made, there are two areas of application that we need to explore today. Now I'm not going to say a great deal about the holy angels for our relationship to them is that of being allies in this warfare. Remember that the Bible doesn't ever tell us to seek communication with the angels or to trust them for their help.
We are to trust God. The angels serve him, they will do his bidding. We may pray for their protection, but we pray to God. We focus on him. And then he assigns his angels as he wisely chooses to do. So today in my application of these comments about angels I want to talk about dark angels. The first area of application is discerning dark angels, recognizing their reality and their determined opposition. How may we recognize their interference in our lives?
It seems clear that the apostle Paul recognized that. He told the Thessalonians that he had intended to come back to them to see them, but Satan hindered him. First Thessalonians 2, 18. In 2 Corinthians 11, verses 13 to 15, he is being hindered by false teachers in Corinth, whom he calls the servants of Satan who disguise themselves like he. He is able to appear as an angel of light in order to deceive.
And so his apostles, his false teachers likewise, are able to appear as apostles of righteousness, something they are not in fact. Paul looked upon them as opposition from Satan. Now in saying that Satan does oppose us and that we can recognize it, I do need to emphasize that not everything that happens to us can be attributed to the devil. We all remember the comic a few years ago that his famous line was, the devil made me do it.
We're going to talk next week about the fact that we have an enemy on a three-fold front, the world, the flesh, and the devil. But we're focusing right now nonetheless on the devil and it is appropriate to recognize at times his interference in our lives. It is appropriate for us to spot his strategies, to see him attempting to foil us in our walk with God. How does he do it?
Well we could talk about a number of different strategies that Satan uses, but I want to focus just briefly on the major one and a number of his other strategies really can be traced back to this one. From the very beginning Satan has been a deceived creature. Now he wasn't created that way, but somewhere back then he deceived himself into thinking that he could be like God.
And still today though he knows exactly what the Word of God says about his ultimate doom, he is deceived into thinking that somehow he is going to pull off a victory over God and he's going to reign on the earth instead of Jesus Christ. He is thoroughly self-deceived. And that brings me to his chief strategy. It is that of lying. Deceiving, tricking. His chief strategy is to lie and in doing that to foster fears and temptations in our lives.
For example he will whisper the lie in our mind, and by the way remember that's where the battle is. It's in the area of our thoughts. Did you know that you aren't the author of all the thoughts in your mind? Have you ever had the experience of saying, wow, where did that thought come from? Well I'm here to tell you that it may well have come from Satan. That's the area of battle. He whispers into our minds. He lies. He lies. You're going crazy. Or often it will be put this way, I'm going crazy.
No one cares about me. My life is going nowhere. I'm so stupid. I think I'm just going to end it all. I'm going to kill myself. Those are the kinds of lying thoughts that Satan commonly uses in the minds of people. And I would dare say that if I haven't struck upon the thought that you've had, you could probably give me some thoughts that you recognize have come to you from the enemy. We all have them every day. He seeks to whisper lies into our minds. And he seeks to foster fear in that.
I'm afraid I'm going crazy. I'm afraid I'm going to take my life. I'm afraid no one will accept me. I'm afraid I'm going to be rejected. He loves to use fear. He loves to use fear. And he generates fears by lies that he tells us. He also uses lies to further temptation. To further temptation. Now we have temptations, of course, that arise out of our own lusts. Out of our own fleshly appetites. Out of our own pride.
But Satan seeks to enhance those temptations, to excite those temptations for his own purposes. For example, somebody does you wrong and you get mad at them. And within every human being there is that desire to get revenge, but Satan hitchhikes on that desire. And he begins to lie to you and say, if you don't get your two sins in now, you're never going to get it in. You'd better strike back at them. You'd better get even. And so he begins to agitate by his lies.
Now what is the truth that counteracts that? God says, take no vengeance for yourselves, vengeance is what? He says, vengeance is mine. I will repay, says the Lord. That's the truth that counteracts the lie. But we'll get to that in a moment. He tempts us to wrong priorities. You need that. Oh, look at that beautiful home. Look at that wonderful opportunity. You need to work harder. Look at what those neighbors have and look what you've got. You're not being treated fairly by your employer.
He begins to lie to us and attempt us to get our priorities all messed up. He lies to us about immediate gratification, thinking, oh, we've got to have it and we've got to have it now. He lies to further temptation. It's okay to take that. It's not really stealing. Lots of people do that. After all, you've been cheated lots of times. It's about time that you get some yourself. So he sews the lies to further temptation. He attempts in any way that he can to influence the way that we think.
And remember, when he does that, he's always deceiving. He is always lying. Yet if he's able to find a foothold where we listen to him and we respond to him, he'll begin working even more to increase his control over our thoughts. And after he's got more control over our thoughts, it gets into our attitudes. And then our attitudes affect our decisions and our decisions affect behavior and our behavior affects our habits. And then our habits affect our character.
So you see, that's how he begins, just by influencing a thought, influencing the way that we think. And then he begins, once he's got that beachhead, he begins to work it for more and more and more control in our lives. So in spiritual warfare, it's important to begin discerning the dark angels who are lying to you. Now, maybe it's obvious, but I should probably say this. Satan can only be in one place at one time. He is a created being. He is not God. He is not like God.
He can never be like God. And so all of us have never messed with Satan personally, most likely. But he's got these minions of demons who serve him and who are just like him in character. They're all liars. He is the father of liars. And like their father, they lie to us, these demon spirits. Now, what are some of the symptoms of demonic oppression in a person's life? We're talking now beyond just the thoughts that all of us are confronted by.
But what happens when there is that beachhead that has made way and Satan has gained some control in the life where the person is really oppressed demonically? Well, some of the things that will give that away include powers of the mind like ESP, precognitive abilities to know things ahead of time, occultic dreams, inner perception of a separate personality from one's own, a friend or a voice who serves as sort of a guide, a sense of being different or special.
This is often in connection with reincarnation. Fearful or bizarre dreams during the night and very often around 3 o'clock in the morning for a specific reason that I'm not going to go into right now. Confusion, cloudiness of thought. You say, well, I feel that way about every day. Well, we're not talking about just the ordinary confusion that all of us have. We're talking about confusion and cloudiness of thought, especially with spiritual things.
A person just cannot concentrate on scripture, has difficulty in participating in prayer, uncontrolled fantasies and images, especially sexual fantasies, obscenities, violent thoughts that are totally out of character for the person. Uncontrollable compulsive behaviors, most commonly sexual sin, anger, hatred, fear. Pornography is a huge open area for Satan to infect the person's life. A friend of mine told me recently about his own experience with this.
He is an older man and struggled with pornography for years, hid it from his wife, from his family, had it at his cabin up in the woods and finally got convicted about that and knew it was wrong. So he went to his cabin, took all of the pornographic videos and magazines that he had out to a place and he lit them on fire. And as those things were burning, there were screams and whimpers coming out of the fire. You say, what's happening there? Well, he's not going crazy.
What's happening is demonic spirits were identified with those things and that stronghold in his life. Uncontrollable compulsive behaviors, uncontrolled surges of rebellion against authority, intense urges of violence, inability to submit to the lordship of Jesus Christ. I have seen people so under control of Satan they could not speak the name of Jesus. I mean, they would try to get it out of their lips, but they cannot say the name Jesus. Not first.
And then when they're able to speak that name, that's why I said what I did this morning about the power and the name of the lord. You just cannot believe the power of that name in the realm of the spiritual. Severe depression apart from any identifiable cause. I mean, severe, we all get depressed from time to time, okay?
But we're talking now about severe depression apart from any identifiable cause, uncontrollable sudden fears, intense guilt, accusations against oneself, a feeling of worthlessness, hate and anger and bitterness. Well, I could go on. Those are some of the symptoms of demonic oppression in the lives of people and even believers. You say, well, I think I might identify with one in there. Well, some of these things are general enough that all of us can identify with all of these things.
We're talking about intense things, uncontrollable things where we are dominated, urges that come upon us, attitudes, behaviors that are totally inconsistent with who we are. These are symptoms of potential demonic oppression. Discerning dark angels. You say, my goodness, what do you do? What do you do if you've got some of these symptoms? Well, my friend, you learn how to break the hold of the enemy. And it's not hard. It's not hard. Jesus has won the victory.
You have to apply the principles of spiritual warfare. And that's what we intend by God's grace to be talking about in these weeks. Let's go ahead and talk about a second area, and that is defeating dark angels. Can believers defeat them? Do we have authority or power to deal with them? My question is, if we don't, then why are we told to stand firm against them? Why are we told to resist them if we have no power to do that?
Indeed, we are in Jesus Christ, as we saw last week in Colossians chapter 2. It says that he is the fullness of the Godhead, and we are made full in him. We are identified with him and have everything that we need in this world to live victoriously. It says he is the head over all rulers and authorities, talking about all the spiritual realm, including the dark side. He's above it all. He's above it all, and you are seated with him.
And he has delegated to you the authority to carry out the responsibility that he's given you to make disciples and to become a disciple. Our need is to recognize the war and to understand the truth about our victory so that we can press that victory over the powers of darkness. How do believers claim their victory over evil angels? A key verse on that, there are a number we could turn to, but a key succinct verse is James chapter 4. Just turn back there with me. James chapter 4 and verse 7.
It says, submit therefore to God, resist the devil, and he will what? He will flee from you. If you have no other verse to memorize, memorize this one. If you have a hard time memorizing, get these three short thoughts into your mind. Submit yourself to God, resist the devil, and he will flee from you. These are key thoughts. Submit to God. What does that mean? It means to place yourself under him, in rank, to recognize that he is the supreme commander.
He is our Lord and our King, and to live then, submitted to his Lordship. Submit yourself to God, live with a cleansed heart. Trustingly obey God in the energy of the Holy Spirit. Put the armor of God in place in your life. Submit yourself to God. Number two, resist the devil. Now when the devil is mentioned, it means the devil and all of his minions. Resist the devil. Stand against him. How do we do that?
Let me just give you at least one secret very quickly, and that is discover what the lie is that he's using. Find a true statement from the word of God to counteract it, and you will resist him. Discover the lie by which he has deceived you. Find a statement of God's truth, which is actually a rama, a sword of the Spirit, and use that then to resist the devil. And coupled with that, learn to pray offensively. It's wonderful to pray for protection, but let's get beyond protection.
Hey, let's get in there and fight. Let's learn how to pray offensively. You say, how do you do that? The best way I know to do it, the way I've learned to do it is to go to the Psalms. Find the imprecatory Psalms. What in the world are those? Well, look it up. Imprecatory Psalms. The ones in which the psalmist is praying the judgment of God upon his enemies. Read those Psalms, and you will find secrets as to how to pray offensively in resisting the devil. And the result is he will flee from you.
Malcolm Collins, a missionary from Africa, was recently talking to some children, and he shared a helpful lesson with them. He told them what to do if they ever met or encountered a hungry lion. The first thing to remember, he said, is that you should never try to flee. That would mean certain death. The lion can run much faster than we can. Next he said, you should try to look very brave and stare right into the lion's eyes.
You know, spiritually speaking, if I can just take a moment here, there's nothing that so unsettles Satan as when a believer looks right in his eyes and will not budge, and will be steadfast in the faith. It shatters him. Well, he goes on to say, if you're successful, he will back down and run away. However, if that does not work, you should be prepared for the lion to attack you. Okay? So he says, have your spear ready so that when he leaps upon you, he will land on the spear and be killed.
Do you get the point? What's our spear? The word of God, the truth. You just put that into place, let him jump. Come on, jump. And when he jumps, give it to him. And that's it. Okay? Believers can claim victory over the enemy to avoid becoming a casualty of spiritual warfare. Let me suggest four things very quickly. Number one, understand the nature of the war. Don't be ignorant of Satan's devices. Study the scriptures about spiritual warfare. Buy some fine books about it.
Now I want to tell you, there's lots of junk out there about spiritual warfare too that I do not agree with that goes way beyond the teaching of scripture. For that reason, we are ordering in a lot of books into our bookstore. If you're interested in buying them, you may want to wait another week and we'll have the books here and you can select some that you can trust. Understand the nature of the war. Secondly, arm yourself with the panoply of God, his armor.
Along with the weapons that God has provided us for the pulling down of strongholds, for the defeat of Satan. The word of God and prayer. Three, recognize your identity in Christ and use your authority in Christ to pray and wage your warfare. I've just got to tell you this story before I go any further. I heard it from someone who was directly involved in it, so this is not one of those. All that happened is so and so's friend's cousin whose aunt had an experience.
This came as close to the source as I know how to get. A young lady by the name of Doreen in Southern California was saved out of a satanic coven. She had been delivered, had come to Christ and was starting to grow in her church, but she got discouraged at a particular point. When she got discouraged, the enemy began to flood her mind with all kinds of thoughts and so she decided that she would go to the bank, get out all of her money and go buy some cocaine and try to end her life.
By the way, thoughts of suicide almost inevitably are demonic. Most inevitably, suicidal thoughts come from dark angels and that was her thought. So she got in her car and she drove down to the bank and as she was getting out of the car, her door hit a truck parked right next to her. She looked up and there was an older man sitting in the truck and he said to her, well that's okay, it's God's truck. And then he said, don't do it.
She shut her door, started her car, got out of there as quick as she could go and decided that she was going to take the money she had in her pockets, about ten bucks, and go to a liquor store and buy some tequila and at least get drunk. So she drove immediately across town, ten miles near her home, to a liquor store. She got into the store, picked up the bottle that she wanted, was waiting in line. As she looked up, there was that same man standing in the store watching her.
So unnerved her, she put the bottle down, got some chips, went through the line and went out into the parking lot to go to her car and the man was in the parking lot. And he walked up to her and said, total stranger, Doreen, why don't you just go home? And that's exactly what she did. And she got home, she called the person that told us the story. Now this individual was so excited about what God had done that she immediately called Sue, who was a part of the network helping Doreen.
Sue began to weep as she heard the story and the lady said, well Sue, why are you weeping? She said, well I was so burdened this morning for Doreen that I just put the kids all in the basement, went to my bedroom and I prayed for hours for Doreen at that exact time. Now what had happened? Well she had recognized her identity in Christ and the authority that God had given her in her prayers and she began to wage warfare.
And the result was that God intervened in a supernatural way and sent an angel to stop Doreen from doing what she had intended to do in her discouragement. Number four, keep yourself in balance. What I'm saying here is that don't become so focused on the enemy that you lose sight of the Lord Jesus Christ. There's something about the dark side, about the occult that is very magnetic. It can allure the unsuspecting into it out of curiosity. So don't focus on the dark side.
Focus on the Lord, focus on his word. Spend time in worship with Jesus Christ and he will teach you how to fight victoriously. Now you say, well I've resisted, but the devil doesn't flee. You know it may be that there is some moral ground in your life that you've not given up to God yet. It says that you first have to submit to God, then resist the devil. You see if Satan thinks he has a claim on your life, he will not flee, though you resist him.
First, there has to be a thorough yielding up of all ground to God. But I want you to know we need not fear. For God has will that we triumph through Jesus Christ. And so let him teach you what it means to battle, to discern and to defeat the dark angels and to walk in victory in the Lord Jesus Christ in your life. Let's pray. Just before we go, I wonder as the Spirit of God is searching your heart if there is some ground in your life.
That God right now is putting his finger on you know exactly what it is and it's an area where you're defeated, it's where Satan has gotten a beachhead in your life. And the result is that instead of being victorious, you're defeated. And he will not flee until you yield up that ground to God. Will you do that now in principle? And will you seek help from someone who can lead you through important steps so that you can experience your freedom in Jesus Christ?
My friend, that is the freedom that Christ has died to give you. Don't take it lightly. Take advantage of it. Enter into it. Live in the light of it. You begin by submitting yourself to God. Now Father, I pray that the Holy Spirit will press home to every heart here the importance of what we're talking about.
And I pray that every area of our lives may be yielded to the Lordship of Jesus Christ so that we may not become prey to the roaring lion who walks about, but rather may we resist, steadfast in the faith, and see the enemy flee. Teach us to war. In Jesus' name I pray, amen. Well God bless you. We're going to not sing this morning, although I'd like to. Our hour is late. But God bless you and unite us together in battling as a congregation in spiritual warfare. You're dismissed.