The following message was given at Grace Community Church in Minden, Nevada. Good afternoon. We're going to be in Ephesians chapter 6 and verse 12. Ephesians 6, verse 12. Let me go back to verse 10. Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Please be seated. Let's pray. Lord, we do ask that you would teach us out of your word, God, that you would help us to understand, Lord, things that we Lord, the things that would help us, Lord, to grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray, God, that this afternoon that Jesus Christ would be exalted above all else. We pray that our eyes would be lifted up to him. We pray, God, that you would please enable me to be able to speak your truth and to do it, Lord, clearly. And we pray, God, that you would be pleased, Lord, to be blessed with this time, Lord, by blessing your people. And we ask this in Jesus' name, Amen. and he was talking about the Holy Spirit, and he said, the problem with preaching about the Holy Spirit in this age and time is there's so much bad doctrine that you almost can't say anything about the Holy Spirit. And I kind of feel like that with this. The idea of cosmic warfare is all throughout scripture, but there's just so much bad teaching that you almost run the risk of everything you say is gonna be interpreted through that grid, but we'll trust that God will answer our prayer. So anyway, In Ephesians, and Brian went through this however many years back, but very clearly, if you read it, it divides into two halves, right? You have your first section with all of your indicatives telling you about the church's standing, telling you about Jesus Christ, and then you have the second part that gives us the imperatives or the exhortations, right? And the idea of all this being lived out. For some commentators, this creates a problem because it seems to them it's just disjointed. Like, Paul goes for three chapters about all of this really exalting Jesus Christ, and then all of a sudden he's like, now what? Like, now I have to give you practical stuff on how to live or something. And I think they're mistaken when they do that, and other guys that have studied this have observed, and I think they're correct, that the theme that binds the two halves together is the idea of divine warfare, and it has to do with Paul's asserting and defending the triumph of God in Christ over all competing cosmic powers. And of course, when you read, we're blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, which is a reference to Christ being ascended, right? And that is the key to understanding Ephesians. That's really, if you want a hub of what it's all about. But that's the key to understanding our salvation and everything, and the fact that Christ is now ascended. He's ascended as our bodily savior, right? Again, we make this point, but it's important. The idea of Jesus going back into heaven is not the idea of the second person of the Trinity going back into heaven, because the Trinity is never fractured, right? He never is split apart. What we have is our mediator, the God-man ascending into heaven in triumph. And the idea there is that he actually merits the right to get into heaven, right? And Psalm 24 says that. Who has the right to come in? Lift up your heads, all you guys, if the king of glory may come in. Who is this king of glory? The Lord's strong in mind. It's his triumph. He's going into heaven as one who's actually won the victory and now actually merits the right to be in heaven, which of course, That's how we get into heaven, right? We don't merit it, but we get in through union with Jesus Christ. We don't get in technically, right? Just that he is the second person in the Trinity, because we can't share. We can't share in the divine nature of the triune God, but what we can share in is everything that the God-man won for us, right? Everything that he did becomes ours because of who he is. So as he ascends into heaven, he ascends into heaven as a triumphant, now lord over all these cosmic powers and principalities, lord over everything. And of course, his church, Ephesians, a lot of it is you send with him, but then the second part is, well, because we're still here, what does the fact that Christ ruling and reigning, actually really ruling and reigning, how does that look when we're still doing battle? So again, the cosmic warfare, it's a recurring theme. And in the Old Testament, Yahweh is the victorious warrior. And we actually see that in the very beginning with the gospel being proclaimed that one will come from the seed of the woman, he's gonna crush. right, the serpent's head. But in Exodus, and Daniel I think alluded to this today, the Song of the Sea, when he rescues the people of Israel and they sing, it's a victorious psalm, right? They're exalting God, Yahweh, who has won the victory. All kinds of psalms, talk about psalms 29, 68, 110. It's played out in picture form for us in the lives of Old Testament saints who are types of Yahweh, the victorious warrior, and of course, probably the one that would come to mind most easily is David as he defeats Goliath, right? Goliath stands for something more. He was a real person, he really existed, but he also stood for something. David, also a real person, but obviously he stands for something greater. Elijah, when he defeats the false prophets, again, is Yahweh against the false prophets? And then as we've, when we did our little thing going through biblical theology and seeing how the Old Testament's tied together and how it just flows right into the new, and one of the themes we brought out was the idea of Christ being the fulfillment of Yahweh, the divine warrior, and we see that And again, we brought this out a lot, as Chronicles ends and Matthew begins, and they both are tied together. And the way they're both tied together is they're both speaking of the line of the tribe of Judah, right? They end up with the genealogy and then Cyrus's decree of let him go forth. And again, that's the terminology that we find in the Old Testament when the children of Israel would ask God in battle, what tribes to go forth? What tribes to go up and go forth? And he would say, Judah's to go forth, right? So we end the Old Testament with this idea of Judah is to go forth, right? And it's a battle cry. And then all of a sudden you get Matthew and his genealogy, Chronicles and Matthews, the only two books that begin in genealogy. So they're kind of like telling you, hey, pay attention, pay attention. And then what do we have? We have the line of the tribe of Judah. And what's he do? He goes forth into battle right away. He goes out into the wilderness, and he's tempted. He's doing the battle. He's doing the battle that Adam should have done in the garden, doing the battle that Israel should have done. And then as we see him defeat demons, again, that's not simply this idea of, hey, look at me, I'm God. He's actually doing something. He's doing warfare. He's defeating the powers that be, and his kingdom is then spreading, right? So, this is also, and this is where I want to go with this a little bit, the Bible talks about these powers and principalities that Paul's saying that that's who we're doing warfare. Well, who are they? Well, in the Old Testament, there are several references to this divine council that God has, an assembly of the heavenly hosts that's under God's authority, under Yahweh's authority, but nevertheless, they seem to sit as something of a ruling council. So Psalm 82, God has taken his place in the divine counsel. In the midst of the gods, he holds judgment. Now, I'm not gonna develop this theme too much because it's kind of technical, but nevertheless, the word there is the Elohim. Okay, and it's God's. And that word is not used of humans in the rest of the Old Testament, unless you just want to import it, but it's actually used of things that are not human beings, right? So sometimes you'll hear that passage. interpreted as though he's just speaking of Israel's judges, but there's no way that actually holds up. For one, the word is never used that way. For two, that psalm is judgment over the nations, and Israel's judges are never given to judge the nations like that. But the other thing is Jesus actually uses that in his argument to prove his divinity, right? when he's talking to him, have you not, you know, in your words says you are God. And then he says, so if the word of God comes to them and he can call them gods, then why are you like condemning me? And if all he were saying is God sometimes uses the word God, oh, and he just means human beings. Well, that would not be much of an argument, would it? That would be what we just call an ambiguity of terms. You would just go, it would sound like Jesus saying, I don't know why you guys are so upset. He calls human people God sometimes, so why get upset if I call myself God? It just doesn't make any sense. But if you understand it in the sense of that God actually declared when he made the sons of God, he called them the sons of God, right? When he made these angelic beings, he called them or named them the sons of God. And then if Jesus says, and those can rightly carry the name, the sons of God, because when God created them, he named them the sons of God, then how much more the one who's not created, but the one who actually is the son of God be called the son of God. And the Jews understood this because what did they try to do? killing, right? They don't just go, oh yeah, of course, he uses God in all kinds of different ways, you know, sorry, my mistake. No, they go to killing, right, because they understand he's actually making an argument. You've got this divine counsel. We see it played out in Kings chapter 22. I saw the Lord sitting on his throne and all the hosts of heaven standing beside him and on his right hand and on his left. And the Lord, Yahweh, says, who will entice Ahab that he may go up and fall at Ramaph Gilead? In other words, it's a picture of God in his kingly throne room, in a sense, and all of these lesser things, for sure, but nevertheless, he's taking counsel, and in that passage, he says he's gonna go forth, and the evil spirit comes up and says, hey, I'll do it, and Yahweh says, how are you gonna do it? He goes, I'm gonna lie to him, and Yahweh says, oh, you'll be successful, go ahead and do it. And so we have this idea that's carried on with these things. Here's a real fascinating thing. Deuteronomy 32, when Moses is speaking to the people of, children of Israel, God actually disperses the nations, right, after the Tower of Babel. And what he does is he disinherits the nations. And he gives them over. Who does he give them over to? He gives them over to the Elohim, is who he says he gives them over to. And so when the Most High gave the nations their inheritance, when he divided mankind, he fixed the borders of the peoples according to the number of, and some will say the number of the sons of Israel, but that's just not a very good reading. It's the number of the sons of God. He divided them according to the Elohim. but the Lord's portion is his people. Jacob, his allotted heritage. So here God's disinheriting the nations at Babel, right? They raise up their things like they're trying to get to heaven. God confounds their languages, splits up the nations, and God in one sense now, of course he's still the ruler over all, but what he's done is he's given these rebellious nations over to these powers and principalities who now rule over them. And the idea of idolatry in the nations throughout the Old Testament, if you kind of have this view in mind, is really just fascinating to think about what God's doing. But again in Deuteronomy, beware lest you raise up your eyes to heaven. And when you see the sun and the moon and the stars and all the hosts of heaven, you be drawn away and bow down to them and serve them. Things that the Lord your God has allotted to all the people under the whole heaven, but the Lord has taken you and brought you out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt to be a people of his own inheritance as you are this day. Again, the idea of the nation's actually being given over by God to these rulers, to these powers, to these principalities, and yet he reserves Israel alone for himself. One writer says, God apportions the nations to the sons of God or apportions the nations to the Elohim, but he keeps Israel for himself. And then again, the same writer, linking the pagan Gentile nations and their gods in this way gave the biblical worldview its particular focus on making the Israelites distinct from other nations and their gods. These spiritual boundaries between Israel and every other nation indicated that loyalty to other nations could not be separated from loyalty to their gods. This distinction even extended to physical geography, which for the Israelites was cosmic geography. And again, as we went through studying biblical theology, it's very clear that the land of Israel stands for more than just the land, right? And as we play it out, we see that in Revelation, that the land, the promised land, actually ends up being the new heavens and the new earth. And then again, that's nothing less than the Holy of Holies, right? So the idea that geography even takes on this cosmic dimension was the worldview of the Old Testament. Israelites, at that time it would have been the worldview of everybody, I guess you could say. But nevertheless, when I put it this way, it's the worldview of the Bible. So again, Yahweh sentenced the nations and their gods to each other. At Babel, God, like a father dismissing and disinheriting his children, judges all the nations for their disobedience. Then in the very next chapter, this guy points out, he calls Abraham, effectively starting over and creating an earthly human family for himself. And this is one of the wonderful things about this. If you think about the calling of Abraham being called out of darkness, Abraham's a pagan and he lives in a land and they worship the moon. In other words, they're given over to these powers that are against God, arrayed against God. And then as Daniel was pointing out, the idea that idols are not just these they're not just passive things. The people that worship them become like them, right? And if you think about all the world being given over to these powers and principalities, and then what's the world look like? It looks like they've been given over to these things, right? And so here's Abraham, and he's in one of these nations, right? In other words, if you kind of look at it like this, like looking down, if we had a God's eye view, the whole of it's dark. There's no light anywhere. It's all dark. And it's all given to darkness. And it's all given to rulers of darkness. And then God reaches down and he grabs one man to do what? To make a nation. And that nation's to be a light. And so now in all this darkness, God reaches down and he has his nation that he claims for his own. The powers and principalities are not ruling over this nation. Yahweh claims this nation for himself, and it's the nation that is to be light to the world, right? And it's just wonderful because, of course, we can see how that's played out and to where it gets to us in the New Testament and to the church. In Acts, again, this is again one of the neat things about the New Testament is we get to see it, right? We get to see how this stuff is played out. All the nations given over to the darkness, they're all dispersed at the Tower of Babel. What happens at Pentecost in Acts? Well, the Spirit of the Lord comes down and all of a sudden people are speaking the language and they understand each other. right? And not only are they understanding each other, but he makes a point of saying they're all from different nations. There's all these different nations there, and now they're understanding, and what are they understanding? They're understanding as these men speak of the glory of God. So what is God now doing? Not only is he reversing Babel as far as the language, but now he's doing what? He's taking these dark nations, and he's bringing people in from these dark nations, and now the nations are actually becoming light. And, you know, a lot of Psalms tell, you know, the Moab is mine, Edom is mine, this is mine, and we read that, and, you know, you can think of it what you will, but it's the idea of these nations that have been given over to darkness, and the rule of darkness have now been claimed by Yahweh, right? And now will be part of his kingdom. They'll no longer be part of the kingdom of darkness. And so we get to the New Testament church, which is made up of not just Jew, So we always say, yeah, most everybody here, unless Gil's here, I don't know, most everybody here are Gentile. How about this? Everybody here, from nations of darkness. That's who we're from. We're not just Gentile. We come out of the land of darkness that was ruled by the powers of darkness. That's who we are. We weren't privileged. We weren't the part of the covenant community. We weren't part of the nation that God chose for His own that He ruled over. We're part of ones that He disinherited and gave over to powers and principalities. And so who are we? We're those who are brought out and brought into a marvelous light. And you think about when even when when the Old Testament talking about Jesus coming he said the land that was in the shadow of darkness right like on the on the outer edges of Israel's geography they're the ones who see a great light right because because what because that's what's going on here it's it's the power of God on a cosmic thing. What he's doing is he's turning the whole world, and I don't mean this in a sometimes universal way, what I mean is he will choose his people and in that way he will turn the whole world, remake the whole world, so that what? It will all be Yahweh's world. There will be no darkness, there will be no powers of destruction. So Ephesians is the only New Testament letter that opens with a blessing formula, and I think that's on purpose. One guy, Perkins, says that Ephesians telegraphs its intention to the audience. True to the convention of such speech, Ephesians and appropriate response to the benefits conferred. It's only natural then that this extended and lofty section of praise in Ephesians would precede the appearance of the pattern of divine warfare. Sorry for all that. He's just saying the reason it starts out for praise is because that's the way a divine warfare story or manuscript or letter in this sense would happen. You start out with praise. You start it with praise be to the one who just beat everybody up, right? Praise be to the one who won, right? And so that's how he starts out. The only New Testament letter that starts out like this, right? Well, because he's very soon going to assert the triumph of God in Christ, and then he does this other pattern is he follows with a rehearsal of his conquest, right? So it's doxology, but it's doxology that's focused on the triumph of God in Christ. And again, the very clear passage is the fact that he's in heaven, that we're blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. Ascension language is always victory language. It's always Christ victory, right? So, and then again, he'll go on, he says, it's all to the praise of the glory of his grace, right? And to the praise of the glory of Jesus Christ, who is the divine warrior. So being lifted up into the praise of God and Christ for the great blessings and salvation the church has received, right? This is Paul's point now with Ephesians. Jesus Christ is Yahweh, the victorious warrior, and now what does that look like for you, the church, right? What does that look like for us? And so Christ has been exalted to the seat of cosmic lordship at the right hand of God, far above all powers and authorities in the heavenly realm, right? And so here's this pattern that Paul will follow, and it's a pattern of divine warfare. It's the idea of conflict, victory, kingship, house building, and celebration, all of which we find in the book of Ephesians. He makes a big deal in Ephesians about what? How he builds his church. He builds his church because he won. When you win, you get a right to establish your temple wherever you want it. What happened in the Old Testament? What do they do when they defeat a power? They take everything out of the temple. They rob the temple. What do you do when you win? You put your image, you set up your image wherever you want because your image declares that you're an authority and you put your temple wherever you want. Again, this is a little bit off the, the idea of the image of God being where God puts his image is where God's saying he rules and reigns. And Adam, of course, falls. We retain the image, but it's fallen. But in Christ, who is the very image of God, God comes back and says, this is my image. And then who are we being conformed into? Into the image of God in Christ, right? So this is right here today, and this is really part of Ephesians. You are God's image being planted in the middle of a dark nation, and I don't just mean this politically, okay, I'm not saying that, ruled by powers and principalities, and what has he done here? He set his image right here, right? He set his image to proclaim his victory. Well, his image and his people in Jesus Christ, okay? So, again, Jesus' victory over the powers and rules of the present age. You get the victory shout in verses 17 and 18, celebration of the people of God. You'll get details of the construction of Christ's temple, which stands as lasting testament to his triumph. Then you get his lordship, which is proclaimed. You get the idea of the conflict victory, which he's won. You get the victory shout. Again, that's 217. You get celebration, 218. And you get the house building in chapter two, and then continuing on. So God makes his triumph known over the powers ruling the present, by how? By raising Christ from the dead and seating him at his right hand. So God's triumph in Christ is so complete It's so complete that it overturns the old world order in this way, that in the letter of Ephesians, Paul is writing as one who is triumphant. Well, where is he writing from? Anybody remember? Prison. Would that look like that's where you would write a triumphant letter from? It doesn't, and for Paul it goes, well, of course it does. Of course it does. because you know what's going on here? The gospel's going out, and people are being changed, right? So for Paul, he actually, and that's part of the encouragement. Okay, church, okay, we're hearing all about the victory of Christ, we're hearing all about powers and principalities being overturned, that Christ's victory is so overwhelming that it overturns everything, and I'm being persecuted, or I'm in prison, or you know, you know, bad things are still happening and stuff, you know, because of bad people. And Paul would look at it and say, yeah, you're not quite getting the picture here, because it is all overturned. It's just not overturned that way yet, but it will be But here's how it's overturned. I'm victorious as I labor for the Lord Jesus Christ in prison because it is God has set his church, which is now the divine warrior, and we'll get into that here, and we're winning. And how do we know we're winning? Because the gospel's being preached and people are coming to Jesus Christ. I know, it's just wonderful stuff. Think about it. There was this movie a long time ago, it wasn't a great movie, but the premise was pretty neat, called The Neverending Story. And this little kid gets involved in the story, but the upshot of it was, the climax was, he realizes that he's actually part of the story, right? So somewhere in it, the story's unfolding, and then the little kid goes, I'm in the story, right? Well, that's who we are, you know? I mean, we read the Bible, we hear about it, and all of a sudden you go, I'm in the story, you know? It's like, oh, I'm there too. Yeah, look at that. It's all about us right now. It's not, you know, it's the big story is also, it's also our story too. So Yahweh and Daniel brought this up, I think, not this week, but maybe last week. In Ephesians, with the armor, the armor of God is first told to us in Isaiah. And it's actually there. It is the armor of Yahweh. It's the armor that Yahweh puts on, right? It's Yahweh's own armor that he girds himself with. And so the divine warrior in Isaiah, He's gonna judge apostate people, he warns them to repent, and in order to get ready for the judgment that's coming, he starts to put on his armor. And his armor is made up of righteousness, salvation, vengeance, and zeal, and it just parallels so clearly Ephesians. So in Ephesians, Paul transfers now, because if we are now wearing the armor, then we're now the ones who are the divine warrior. That doesn't make us God, it just makes us God's divine warrior. He's taken his armor and actually given it to the church. We're engaged in warfare, and again, the warfare we're engaged in is often just far bigger than what we think. I mean, we deal with people, and I was telling somebody the other day, because they were having to put up with people who were just being real nasty, and I said, well, you know, turning the other cheek is actually waging cosmic warfare. It's not just the idea that I'm getting personal sanctification, for I meant I am, but there's a much bigger thing going on. Powers and principalities are actually being battled against when a Christian turns the other cheek. This is what God's doing in the world. The church now, we have his armor. We're engaged in warfare. The call is to be strong in the Lord and in the power of his strength. And again, it's an exhortation of the church corporate and individual to take up the power of God and to engage in the conflict. That was what, again, I keep referencing Daniel, but it was good. That's what he was talking about this morning in Sunday school, right? The idea that the conflict is going on. That is what we are about. I mean, it doesn't mean that life's a bummer, but it does mean that life is about engaging in your journey and engaging in warfare. So it's kind of interesting, kind of a little bit of a reversal, but now the church is to wield the Lord. So in the Old Testament, God's people are kind of his instrument. He wields them to do battle. But now in the New Testament, we're encouraged to wield the Lord, right? He gives himself over to us as a weapon, as it were, right? We're to be strong in the Lord and the power of his might. It's the idea of like, well, what is your weapon? Well, your weapon is actually Jesus Christ. Yahweh takes up his armor again to execute divine warfare, so the people of God are called upon to put on that same armor carrying out the divine warfare which they are commissioned. And in a very real way, now we are in the embodiment of the warrior, the divine warrior. And that primarily has to do with proclamation of the gospel, but not only with proclamation of the gospel. So just as Yahweh as the divine warrior would come to the aid of his people in the Old Testament, so now the church as the warrior, divine warrior, summoned to aid Paul in his struggle. Isn't that interesting? Paul's triumphant, but he's saying, I can't maintain this battle. and I can't be triumphant unless what? Unless the divine warrior assists me. Well, how does that happen now? Well, in the Old Testament, we see Yahweh's direct intervention. Oftentimes in here, though, this is what it looks like. You wanna wage cosmic warfare? Paul says, pray for me that the gospel would go out, that I'd be able to preach the gospel like I'm supposed to do. When God's people pray, yeah, we know that God hears us, and we know that that's edifying, you know, we can be here, And when we're praying, you just get stirred up, right? But there's also this, that is the way that God is battling cosmic forces. So when we talk about cosmic forces and you got all these guys write these books and all this stuff, and it's like, oh, I rebuke you, Saint, I rebuke you, Saint, or I do this or do that. No, it's this, pray that the gospel would go forth. When we do, pray that the missionaries that we've sent, that God emboldens them, that God captures their hearts even more so that they're not afraid to do what they're doing. And Paul's saying that is actually, when you do that, you're coming to the assistance of God's people in the same way that God came to his assistance of his people in the Old Testament. He's coming as a victorious warrior in that sense. So, again, Ephesians asserts the lordship of Christ over the powers and authorities that rule the present evil age. Paul vindicates Christ's lordship by, again, rehearsing his triumphs, such as freeing his people from bondage, under the powers that we were in, raising them from death, seating them with him in the heavenly places, overcoming the deep division within humanity created by the law, right? Paul makes a point of that there is a division and now there isn't a division. That division in part is because of the way the powers and principalities rule. We've been taken out of that. And this is just a key thing for cosmic warfare. If the church is, full of divisions, if the church is full of jealousy, if the church is full of envy, we can't wage the warfare that we're supposed to be waging. We are not then carrying out the battle that we're supposed to do. It's actually can't do it kind of stuff, right? That stuff, because why? Because that stuff reflects the powers and principalities. That's how they are, right? So we're no longer reflecting God. We're no longer reflecting Jesus Christ. We're reflecting the bondage that we were under at one point. And so all the exhortations to be united in Jesus Christ are more than just like, can't we all just get along? It's way bigger than that. It's that we won't be able to fulfill our commission if we're being bitter or jealous or angry with our brothers and sisters. He's gonna go on and again in the second part, he starts to say this is what this looks like in the life of the church, right? And he actually will point us back for this reason. In other words, I think for everything that went on before, but maybe for a few verses, more specifically the context. But when he says for this reason, I think he's talking about everything went on before for this reason, now I want you to act this way. So, in him, you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance, until we acquire possession of it to the praise of his glory. This is the idea of, okay, this is who you are. This is how God is working in our lives, and it will redound to his praise and glory. And so therefore, keeping this in mind, keeping this idea in mind, then move forward and actually do battle, right? So where Christ dwells by his spirit, we participate in that victory, and we will participate in all its fullness and all its glory in the age to come. But the victory of Christ, God's equipped and empowered the church for its task right now to engage in divine warfare, and we really are against evil powers. I mean, we really are. So the church is the earthly manifestation of the triumphant warrior again, and we are called to participate in this by living the way that the Bible tells us to live in the New Testament. There was a time, okay, we were scattered nation, and now we no longer are, so we live as new kingdom, new creation people. It's where the new kingdom or new creation people, where that life flourishes in the church as a local community, that's where the triumph of God is demonstrated over all competing cosmic forces. So yeah, the church, big thing, right? Big universal thing. But where the victory is being demonstrated is in the local community, as the Church of God lives like the Church of God. That's the demonstration of the power of God over the powers and principalities. God's freed his people from the grip of these powers that held us in death through transgressions and sin. He's conquered the law and its disastrous divisive effects, and he's made us now one new people made up of formerly divided people, and we're connected to God in Christ by the Spirit. So the overlap of the old and new age are such that their powers continue. They don't rule us anymore. We can certainly experience trial and tribulation and even temptation, but they no longer rule us, but they do rule everyone who's not in Christ. And you just go look at the world and go, okay, that's pretty evident, right? And so the conflict then takes the form of powers that they are bringing their influences against the church, while the church resists these influences, again, attempting to live in light of who we are in Jesus Christ. So how do these cosmic powers do this? Well, they're constantly fighting against God. I mean, we can see it in all different ways, but one of the primary ones is fighting against the image of God, right? I mean, you just think about it, like the world's gotten really weird real quickly, and you really do wonder, how could that just possibly happen? You know, I mean, really, there are times where you just go, how could you go from here to here in, like, in my lifetime, right? It's just too weird. And they all involve perversions. Well, because it's a spiritual thing, that's why. Okay, it's not just a political thing. It's not just a social thing. It's not just a cultural thing. It is really, truly a spiritual thing. I mean, it's an attack against Christ, an attack against his church, which means it's going to be an attack against the image of God. So everything that's attacking the image of God, everything that's attacking the image of God, from abortion, to men calling themselves women, women calling themselves men, to homosexuality, that's all a direct attack on the image of God. And for however much you guys want to be political, I don't care, I'm not talking about that. The point is, that stuff is not defeated. unless the church acts as a church. That stuff is just not defeated unless we are living in harmony and unity of one mind, worshiping God, right? And seeking to promote the gospel. Because it's a spiritual battle, right? And again, all that other stuff aside, you can be as political as you want to be, I really don't care. But that's just really not the point. The point is we all are called to do something, and we can't do it unless we're living like the church, right? So we wage war through the power of God in Christ, and he enables us to do battle, and we triumph. And the amazing thing, again, is our warfare takes the form of, our warfare against cosmic powers takes this form, and we see it because he just explicates it in Ephesians. You want to fight against cosmic powers and principalities? Well, then you resist temptation. You live a holy life. This is how we fight. We walk, again, in unity of spirit as we worship God together, as we bear one another's burdens. as we do what we did today, singing to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord. Do you realize when you do that, that that is actually, I mean, in this land of darkness, right, all of a sudden here's a unified voice of people who are in one accord, praising God through Jesus Christ, and that is battle being waged. That's powers and principalities being overcome. That is big-time stuff. So again, we come and we get blessed. I mean, you know, I sit in the back because I like the plastic seats. They're easy on my back. But one of the advantages is I get to see everybody, right? When you're up here, you get to, too, which sometimes you just wish. I wish everybody had at least one chance where they could come up here and watch everybody Praise the Lord, right? Because it's just this amazing thing. People aren't paying attention to the other person, they're just praising God, right? And Paul in Ephesians is telling us, yeah, along with all the individual edification that happens, along with your own personal sanctification that happens, the church is waging cosmic warfare when that happens. As we lift up our voices to God, as one people in a sense, light is being, we can't even imagine what God's doing, but light is going forth in a way that we don't even know. So for us, then, a lot of our big cosmic warfare stuff looks rather mundane. It just doesn't look like big cosmic warfare stuff. But it is exactly what the Lord has told us to do, and exactly how the Lord has told us to do it. So again, any rupture in the community life causes rupture in what we're able to do, and all the more reason. It's one thing to think, I've got something against that person, and it's awkward when I see him or her. It's another thing to think, I've got something against that person, and as long as I hold it against that person, we can't battle effectively. We can't do what we're supposed to be doing. I'm kind of holding, in a sense, I don't want to make everybody feel so guilty, but you know, I'm kind of holding everybody else back, right, when I do that. Like everybody else is wanting to do battle, and I'm like, well, no, we can't go that way yet, because I'm going to hold on to my bitterness, or I'm going to hold on to my anger. Again, the powers have ordered the present evil age in such a way to exacerbate divisions within humanity. Whenever you see divisions, that's not the Spirit of God, right? I mean, obviously, we divide over doctrine, stuff like that, but I'm not talking about that. Just the divisions that happen because we're yielding to the flesh, right? That's not the Spirit of God. That actually comes from powers and principalities that we don't want to be listening to. Right? And again, it's existing in the church is just simply like reverting back to what we were taken out of. You know, the leeks and onions tasted good, so we want to eat those instead of the bread and the wine. And again, so when Paul gets to, they're called the household, you know, things where he's exhorting us and stuff, sometimes it just sounds like the things of yelling to one another, just, I don't know, it takes on just a certain idea with us that's probably not what Paul's having. When Paul says for slaves to obey their masters, for wives to submit to their husbands, for husbands to love their wives like the church, for kids to submit to their husband, there's an order that reflects the lordship of Jesus Christ. When order like that is disruptive, it is a sign of a rebellion against the lordship of Jesus Christ, right? Because Christ obviously exercises lordship. So any hierarchy that he puts up is a hierarchy that in some sense is reflecting something that he wants us to reflect, which at least primarily is just the fact that he's Lord and so we obey, right? So even those things, are there and they help you navigate, they help you work stuff out, and they help you have a good marriage and stuff like this. They all help those things. But those things themselves are part of the battle. They're part of what's going on. They're part of the way that God has structured the church in order to do battle against the world. Again, not necessarily politically. I'm as apolitical as you can get, so I'm not saying that. But what I am saying is when husbands love their wife, as Christ loves the church, that makes for a real good marriage. And it's also waging war in a way that goes far beyond what we're cognizant of, but nevertheless is true, right? It's actually doing battle in a way that God has set us up to do battle. So, let me see here. The corporate life of the new kingdom conforms to its identity as the dwelling place of God by speaking to one another again in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, giving thanks always for all things in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and God the Father, subordinating yourselves to one another in the fear of Christ. These things are participation actually in the life of Christ and the order that he set up. So, the way we do battle then, again, is not in the abstract. It's actually just, most of the time, it just is rather mundane. You lay down your life, you resist temptation, you cultivate holiness, you spend time praying, right? You read the word of God, we attend the corporate gathering of the body together. And we wage this warfare through the power of Christ who enables us to do the battle, right? That new creation life flourishes despite the pressures brought to bear by the powers and, you know, powers and principalities that are against us, right? But nevertheless, as we seek the Lord in unity, that God's power is made manifest in these things. and that God's victory is demonstrated, right? He's already won the victory. What's happening now is he's demonstrating his victory throughout the world. And that's what it is to be the people of God, right? That's what it is. I mean, you guys are like, I think O.C.S. Lewis said something, you've never met a mere mortal in your life. Everyone is an eternal being, right? Everyone is just far more glorious than what we think. The church is far more glorious than what we think, right? The church is the bride of Jesus Christ. The church is the ones that he laid down his life for. The church is the one who he is interceding for continually, just by his very presence in heaven, right? He doesn't need to remind the Father, oh yeah, by the way, it's just his presence is a continual intercession for everyone here whose name's the name of Jesus Christ, right? And so we are part of this great big story, right? So let's not lose sight of it. Let's pray. Lord, again, we thank you and we pray, God, that more and more we would live our lives in light of the reality of Jesus Christ and in light of eternity and in light of, God, that you've taken us out of, Lord, complete and utter darkness and in a situation where we were lost and would have remained lost for all of eternity, and Lord, you brought us out of that, or that Jesus Christ, Lord, is the victorious warrior. So may we go forth in His name. Lord, as we go forth day to day, may we open up our mouths to tell people about Jesus. May we open up our mouths in kindness to our brothers and sisters. May we open up our mouths, Lord, in repentance where we need to. And Lord, we pray, God, that you would bless your church here. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. We hope that you were edified by this message. For additional sermons as well as information on giving to the ministry of Grace Community Church, please visit us online at gracenevada.com. That's gracenevada.com.