you This is the Scripture-Driven Church broadcast brought to you by Teaching the Word Ministries. The Church of Jesus Christ must be the Scripture-Driven Church, relying on God's inspired and inerrant Word as our sole authority and our infallible critic in every area of life and ministry. And now, here's author, Bible teacher, and Teaching the Word president, Dr. Paul Elliott, to introduce today's program. Greetings and welcome to this special edition of the Scripture Driven Church broadcast. We're preparing this program as part one of a two-part presentation, and it's going to be on the air just before the United States Independence Day holiday. Americans are going to be observing the 234th anniversary of the founding of the nation. And we're doing so at a time when America is in terrible shape. The Bible-based legacy of the Founding Fathers is being devalued and discarded at a breathtaking pace. People are looking for answers to the crisis in lots of wrong places, and they're grasping at wrong answers. Well, to understand the solution to any crisis, you must first understand the cause. What is America's real problem? What is the solution? You'll find the right answer in only one place, and that is in the Word of God. The Bible's answer isn't the one that most people, and even many Christians today, are thinking of. But the Bible's diagnosis of America's present crisis is indeed the world's crisis. That diagnosis is far more relevant and far more realistic than anything you'll hear on talk radio or at a tea party rally. The answer is summed up in seven words in Ephesians chapter six, where Paul says this, we wrestle not against flesh and blood. The urgent need of the hour is for Christians, not only in America, but around the world, to face this fact and act upon it. This week's program presents part one of a two-part message, America's Real Problem, It's Not What Most People Think. Part two will air during the July 4th weekend. What you're going to hear is a recording of a sermon that I preached recently on this critical question at First Presbyterian Church in Rising Sun, Maryland. The date was May 30th, and the occasion was a Sunday morning worship service on the day before the United States Memorial Day. I believe this message is appropriate for our American listeners as we remember Independence Day on July 4th. But I believe this message is also very timely for our listeners all over the world, since all believers in Christ are engaged in the same spiritual warfare. Wherever you are, whatever nation you're in, whatever the nature of the problems that you and your country face, God's Word tells us that we are all dealing with the same underlying cause. And Heavenly Father, I pray that you will use this broadcast to cause us to wake up and pay attention to what your word says about the great need of the hour. I pray it in Jesus' name. Amen. I suspect there probably isn't anyone here this morning who would disagree with me when I say that America is in pretty terrible shape this morning. Tomorrow is Memorial Day, the day on which we remember those who have given their lives for this nation in time of war, And we've honored those who have served this morning. But we're remembering what they've done at a time when their legacy is being squandered. The principles and the liberties and the values that men have fought and died for are being devalued, discarded, forgotten at a breathtaking pace. We're living in a disturbing time. And part of the reason that it is so disturbing is that many people, and even many Christians, don't understand why America is in this kind of condition. Why the world is in this kind of condition. But in such a time as this, we turn to the Word of God for the answers. So turn with me in your Bibles, please, to the book of Ephesians chapter 6. This familiar passage beginning at verse 10. Ephesians chapter 6. I just want to read four verses there. down through verse 13. And I'm reading from the Old King James Bible this morning because there's a particular emphasis in that translation that will be important to what I have to say this morning. The Apostle Paul writes, beginning at verse 10 of Ephesians chapter 6, Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might, put on the whole armor of God. that you 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 armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Christianity is an exclusive religion, isn't it? It says that the Bible and the Bible alone is the truth of God. It is a book that tells the world how to be saved. It tells the Christian how to live. And all of it is based on propositional truth. And here the Apostle Paul is giving us propositional truth, vital facts. One particular fact. Paul says, because certain things are true, because a certain thing is true, you need to put on the whole armor of God. You need all of it. You need to know how to use it because certain things are true. And the thing that is true is that Satan is alive and active in the world and that he and his forces are behind all of the evil that we see. Now, there may be someone here this morning who is wondering about this. You may be saying to yourself, with the situation as it is in America today, the situation as it is in the world today, are we really going to spend our time talking about what the Bible has to say about the devil and about these principalities and powers? Well, if you have such a feeling, let me answer you this way. We could say many things, but let me say this. If you're saying that because you think that you're a realist, and because you think that what we're going to consider this morning is unrealistic, let me say to you that you are of all people most unrealistic. You are of all people not facing the national and the world situation as it is this morning. There is nothing more realistic, nothing more relevant to the terrible situation that our nation finds itself in this morning than the words that we're going to consider. What we read here in Ephesians this morning is more relevant to the condition of this nation and this world at this hour than all of the talk of the politicians and the statesmen and the talk radio people and the political movements today. Now, I know that I've just made a very strong and sweeping statement. And the only way that I can make that statement is on the authority of God's word. If you believe the Bible at all, you must believe that what we've just read tells us the ultimate cause of the world situation. And that this is more urgently relevant than anything else that we could say this morning. All of the talk of the politicians and pundits has a problem. And the problem is that it deals with symptoms. The moral problems of the nation are a symptom of something deeper, far deeper. The worldwide slaughter of the unborn, abortion, is a problem of a far greater life and death struggle. The problems of the global economy are symptoms of something far more serious. The wars that are being fought in various parts of the world this morning are a symptom of a far greater and more eternally significant conflict. The natural disasters, the environmental catastrophes that the world is experiencing at this hour are symptoms, are the outflow, the downfall of a far worse catastrophe that happened long, long ago in a realm outside of this world. And what I'm speaking of is the fall of the devil, the fall of Satan into sin, and the fall of a significant portion of the angels of God who joined Satan in his rebellion. These are the principalities and powers of which the Apostle Paul speaks. Satan's activity, his personal activity brought sin into this world. Brought death, brought the curse, brought all the things that we see. He is behind it all. The activity of Satan and his armies is behind all, all of the evil that we see in this world at this moment. Why did Jesus Christ come into this world? He came into this world to save sinners. He also came into this world, Scripture tells us, to do something else. 1 John 3, verse 8 tells us this, For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, was made visible in this world, that He might destroy the work of the devil. 1 John 3, verse 8. Why did Jesus go to the cross? Colossians 2, beginning at verse 13, we read this, and you being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against you. He's taken it out of the way, having nailed it to His cross. Notice, having disarmed principalities and powers. He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it, in the cross. The cross was not a defeat. Jesus Christ was defeating Satan, ensuring his doom. The only cure for the evils that are perpetrated in this world by Satan and his host this morning is the cross of Jesus Christ. That is the gospel message. Postmodern thinkers, the thinkers of our time, not only in the secular realm, but also in the church, constantly fail to do something that's vitally important. They fail to differentiate between the symptoms of the deep, deep sickness into which our nation has fallen and the root cause of the disease. And all that the world, the unbelieving world, can do, all that the church more and more frequently is doing is trying to deal with symptoms. Many evangelicals today are caught up in trying to make this world a better place, trying to make this life a better life, rather than recognizing that this world is passing away and that Jesus Christ Himself has commanded us to focus our attention, our efforts, on the things that matter for the life to come and for the world to come. Two things. The salvation of lost sinners. Go into all the world and preach the gospel. And the nurturing of the saints, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I've commanded you. Now, if a doctor were to spend all of his time only treating the symptoms of a patient who had a deadly disease, one symptom after another after another as they came. But he never tried to deal with the root cause, never tried to deal with the disease itself. That doctor would be guilty of a criminal act of malpractice, wouldn't he? And that's the problem of the world at this moment. That's why the politicians and the commentators are trying to deal with all of the world's problems in the way that they do because they never understand the cause. It's something they cannot face, they do not face, and that's true because with few and precious exceptions among them, They don't have regenerated eyes to see what the real problem is, according to God's word. And so they're constantly meeting and arguing about what needs to be done. Sometimes they're coming to an agreement, but then the agreement falls apart or the legislation or the plan of action that they put into place fails to accomplish its objective or it gets overturned in the courts or whatever the case may be. And they're disappointed. And the people are disappointed. And people have less and less hope that the problems can really be solved. But the real tragedy is that the Christian church, which has the message, which has the answer that can expose the cause and proclaim the cure, The tragedy is that the church itself, in many cases, is spending so much of its time doing and saying things that the unbelieving politicians can do and say, and not what God's Word says. And the church is doing it. Why? Because it wants to give people the impression that Christianity is relevant. And people only think that something is relevant if you talk in their terms. In other words, in terms of symptoms. And dear friends, that is tragic. The church that does such things is guilty of a criminal kind of spiritual malpractice, medicating the symptoms rather than proclaiming the cure. Only the Christian church can proclaim the cure. Only the Christian church has the cure. The Christian, if you really believe what the Bible says here in Ephesians chapter 6, the Christian has the only genuine explanation for the world situation as it is, and the only answer for it, Jesus Christ. And you know, one of the things that is most bothersome, I believe, is that most of the politicians and pundits who claim to be evangelical Christians think and talk and act as though Ephesians chapter 6, 10-13 did not exist. They think and act as though medicating the symptoms was enough. That proclaiming the real cause of the world's problems and proclaiming the one and only cure, that that's not even an option. That's not politically correct. Of course, this is a message that is utterly ridiculed by the world, we can expect that we. Should expect that the world is spiritually blind, but when the church. Ridicules that message when the church, when Christians act as though this were not even in the Bible. That's a far more serious problem in the eyes of God, it is sin. Now, first of all, Paul, in these verses, he's directing our attention to the fact that there is a conflict, obviously. We wrestle, he says. And Paul uses two different terms to describe the conflict that we're in. First, he says we wrestle. And then in verse 13 and following, he speaks of armed warfare. Well, why does he do this? Why? Why does he do it this way? He does it because it shows that there are two aspects to the conflict. There is, first of all, an individual aspect. We, as individual Christians, wrestle in this conflict. Paul is speaking here of the intimate nature of the conflict. It's true that Christians are engaged in this conflict as a mass army, as the Church of Christ, as the army of the Lord. But it's also true that there are two opposing armies arrayed against each other, the Lord's people and the principalities and powers. But at the same time, this conflict is an individual matter as well. There's wrestling. This is a picture of two men grappling with each other, one trying to overpower the other. And also, Paul uses the terms of warfare, as I said. Verse 10, he says, "...put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil." In the original language, that word wiles is actually methods or schemes The methods and schemes of the devil, that you may be able to stand against them. And then verse 13, put on the whole armor of God again, that you may be able to stand in the evil day and having done all to stand. Paul uses these terms to show that this is a serious and terrible and fierce conflict. And we as Christians are in it. We can't get away from it. You can either be in the conflict wearing the armor of God, being strong in the Lord and in the power of His might, or else you can be in the conflict unarmed, unprotected, unprepared, doomed to one spiritual defeat after another. The nature of the conflict is that of standing against an enemy that's attacking. That's the first thing that we have to do. We have to repulse, attack, And we have to keep doing it again and again because the enemy keeps coming again and again and again. And even when we get a temporary victory, we can't let down our guard. We can't say it's over. I'll go away on a spiritual vacation because that's just the moment when we're going to be under attack. When we let down our guard. This is a relentless war. There is never any discharge from this army. There's never any resigning your commission. And this, I believe, needs to be clearly emphasized because many Christians today don't face this. They don't realize this. That we're in a warfare. Most of the evangelical church today is the feel good church. The last thing that it wants to hear is that there is a raging spiritual conflict and that Christians are inevitably in that conflict. if we're truly believers. And that if you don't realize it, it means that you're defeated from the very beginning. No, the Apostle Paul says, we wrestle. You're in this conflict. Stand therefore. And even when there's victory, make sure you're still standing because the enemy is going to come right back at you again. And he's going to try all sorts of different means and methods and tricks to knock you off your feet, keep you on the ground, spiritually speaking. The great business of life for the Christian is to keep standing in the conflict. Now, what does Paul say about the nature of the conflict? We've seen some of that already. Well, here in particular, he brings us to the most important thing that every Christian must recognize today. If you take nothing else away from this message this morning, I hope that you'll take away this one thing. This is the fact, the vital fact, that every Christian needs to realize. It's the fact today that is the key to the situation in America, the key to the situation in the entire world, and in fact, it is the underpinning of the gospel message in the Bible from beginning to end. It's one of the underpinnings. You see, there's something unique about the Bible. We understand that this is the only book in the world that gives this teaching that we've just read. You won't find it anywhere else. That's because this is the only supernatural book, the inspired and errant, infallible Word of God. This isn't man speaking. This is God speaking. This isn't the world's wisdom. This is God's genuine wisdom. The world doesn't have this. Only the Bible has it. Only the Christian has it. The whole viewpoint of the Word of God is different from anything else in the world. And so our worldview, our perspective on what we see going on around us needs to be different from anything that the world has to say about the nature of the situation and how to deal with it. Nobody understands the world as it really is this morning, except the Christian. If you, in fact, truly accept this teaching, if you understand that it's true and if you think and act accordingly, What does it mean to think and act accordingly? What's the solution to America's present crisis? Well, you'll hear the answer from the book of Ephesians and also the book of Nehemiah as we conclude this message on our next program. As we close today, let me remind you once again of our current free book offer. The title of the book is, This Little Church Stayed Home, A Faithful Church in Deceptive Times. We'll be happy to send you this book without cost or obligation if you contact us and request it. This book explores the pressures that churches and individual Christians are facing, pressures to conform to ways of thinking that are not according to God's Word, and how we need to respond. Once again the title of the book is, This Little Church Stayed Home, A Faithful Church in Deceptive Times, and we'll be happy to send you a copy without cost or obligation. If you can enclose a gift to support this ministry and to help underwrite this offer, we'll be grateful, but we hope you'll request your copy of This Little Church Stayed Home, whether you can send a gift at this time or not. You can call us toll-free in the United States, 24 hours a day, at 888-804-9655. Once again, that's 888-804-9655. You can also make your request online by going to our website teachingtheword.org and clicking the contact link. That's the contact link at teachingtheword.org. Or you can write to us at Box 2533, Westminster, Maryland 21158, USA. Once again, our mailing address is Box 2533, Westminster, Maryland, 21158, USA. And once again, our toll-free number is 888-804-9655. And our website is teachingtheword.org. And please be sure to ask for the book, This Little Church Stayed Home, A Faithful Church in Deceptive Times. On our next program on July 4th weekend, We're going to present the second part of the message we began today titled, America's Real Problem, It's Not What Most People Think. And until then, may God richly bless your personal study of His inspired, infallible, and inerrant Word. of God.