Thursday, 3/22/18 - Ephesians 6:12 - The Angelic Conflict, Pt. 31, Conclusion. Lesson # 18-032

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0TlympFFoo 

Grace Fellowship Church

Pastor/Teacher, Jim Rickard

www.GraceDoctrine.org

Stand in Warfare – Eph 6:10-20.

2. The Enemy, vs. 11-12

Eph 6:12, “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.”

Last time we noted:

1. In Gen 10, we have the table of nations; 70 nations, which God established after the tower of Babel.

2. In Deut 32, we see nations related to the fallen angels, who establish false pagan religions to counterfeit God’s plan and to bring worship to themselves.

3. In Dan 10, we see demonic angels assigned to nations / empires, in the counterfeit to God’s system, as Michael is assigned to Israel by God.

 4. In Psa 82, God is Sovereign over all angels, both fallen and elect, and the fallen angels will be destroyed 

one day.

Now, in relation to the 70 nations, in the Feast of SUKKOT on the 15^th to 21^st of Tishri (the 7^th month), Num 29:12-35, which we call “Tabernacles,” or better yet “Booths,” Lev 23:42-43; Deut 16:13, 16, it is interesting that the Israelites where commanded to sacrifice 70 bulls over the seven-day period.

The 70 bulls are sacrificed to give thanks to God in the celebration for the deliverance of Israel out from the other 70 nations, and their pagan gods. This feast was to be celebrated during and after the wandering in the wilderness. YHWH delivered them from every other god, which is represented in this festival. It celebrates YHWH’s victory over every other god; victory over all the fallen angels.

This feast is also called the “feast of Ingathering” in Ex 23:16; 34:22. This major autumn festival marked the ingathering of the grape and vine harvest. It speaks to when the Lord will return and establish His Millennial reign here upon the earth, cf. Rev 14:10; 19; 16:19; 19:15.

It signifies that upon His Second Coming, the Lord will gather together all the people and nations under His rule. The 70 nations that He separated at the Tower of Babel with their demonic rulers will be regathered under the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ.

In Zech 14:9-16, we see that of all the feasts of Israel, this one will continue during the Millennial reign for all nations to celebrate. It is a model of thanksgiving. Cf. Amos 9:11-12 with Acts 15:16.

Zech 14:16, “Then it will come about that any who are left of all the nations that went against Jerusalem will go up from year to year to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, and to celebrate the Feast of Booths.”

“The setting (Zech 14:1-13) is the final victory of Yahweh over the nations, a battle in which Jerusalem is set apart and protected from the general carnage. When it all ends, Jerusalem reigns supreme, living water flows from its midst, and Yahweh is "king over the whole earth." What follows is nothing less than the fulfillment of God's promise to Abraham (Gen 12:1-3; 18:18-19): the blessing of all the nations. Those from all nations who survive the final apocalypse join in an annual pilgrimage, which now becomes the event by which every nation on earth participates in the worship of Israel's God and the celebration of his goodness. Tabernacles has become the feast to end all feasts and represents the full flowering of God's promises, through Israel, to all the nations.” (Dictionary of the Old Testament Pentateuch)

The number 70 in Scripture stands for “perfect spiritual order carried out with all spiritual power and significance.” (E.W. Bullinger, Number in Scripture)

It is interesting that the Lord sent out 70 disciplines to pave the way for His personal evangelism, as He set out to reclaim all the nations through His work upon the Cross, Luke 10:1, 17.

Luke 10:1, “Now after this the Lord appointed seventy others, and sent them in pairs ahead of Him to every city and place where He Himself was going to come.”

Luke 10:17, “The seventy returned with joy, saying, "Lord, even the demons are subject to us in Your name.”

Therefore, the world in which Paul viewed, (consisting of many more gentile nations, as is today), was dominated by invisible divine powers with cosmic geographical rulership, which we also call, Satan’s cosmic system. This is the true enemy that the believer is up against, and which we are to “pin to the mat,” when we pick up and put on the “full armor of God.” In other words, we utilize God’s Divine power to defeat the fallen divine authorities’ power over our lives.

As we have noted, the hierarchy of Satan’s cosmic system could look something like this:

 (See pic above or in video)

As they sit on or over Thrones / thronos; Powers, dunamis; and Dominions, kuriotes.

Now we have to ask ourselves the question:

“Do these passages form part of your essential thinking regarding life?” “Are they always a part of your daily thinking and viewpoint regarding your life and the world around you?” As you look around the world today do you say, “Here is the explanation?”

Do you normally think like that? I certainly hope so. But, if you do not, you have a very defective sort of Christianity and you are not prepared to face the enemy as you should be. The fact is, and your daily Biblical reasoning should be, “There is an enemy who is ever threatening and trying to knock me down.” Therefore, your great task in life, your great business in life, is to keep standing. And to do so, you must know your enemy and be adorned with the armor of God to be victorious in this mighty conflict.

You may think that this kind of talk is depressing. Yet, this is the most comforting, cheerful, optimistic teaching that is known to me. What is truly depressing to me is to be confronted by a situation that I do not understand. When I do not understand a situation I am in, that is when I feel lost, hopeless, depressed, fearful, and worried. But when I have knowledge and understanding of the situation, then I feel empowered, exhilarated, and unconquerable. That was the point of our Lord’s parable in Luke 14:31-32.

Luke 14:31-32, “Or what king, when he sets out to meet another king in battle, will not first sit down and consider whether he is strong enough with ten thousand men to encounter the one coming against him with twenty thousand?”

The believer who does not understand the teachings here is either a new believer or one fast asleep in the arms of the devil, or is an utterly defeated Christian. Yet, my prayer for you is the same as Paul’s prayer of Col 1:9-13, that you have a daily Divine viewpoint with knowledge and understanding by the strength of the Word of the Lord, knowing that you have been delivered out from the dominion of darkness and transferred into the kingdom of His beloved Son. That is why God, through Paul, gives us insight into the warfare we are a part of, and the enemy we can defeat.

Our Lord said to Paul, which He says to us too in Acts 26:16-18, “But get up and stand on your feet; for this purpose I have appeared to you, to appoint you a minister and a witness not only to the things which you have seen, but also to the things in which I will appear to you; ¹⁷rescuing you from the Jewish people and from the Gentiles, to whom I am sending you, ¹⁸to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in Me.”

It is strange that the world thinks so little about these things and they are not first in their thoughts regarding the situations of life. It is strange that they make these things strange.

Unfortunately, this way of thinking is strange to them because they are too subjective, they start with themselves and they end with themselves. “I want peace with God, I want my sins forgiven, I want to feel happy, I want joy in my life, I want this, I want that.” Because their focus in life is so subjective, they do not think in terms of objectivity and understand the world and their lives from the Divine perspective and the reality in which they are in. The reason for this is ignorance or the blindness they have allowed Satan to cause in their lives.

But the fact is, there is an angelic warfare that is led by Satan and His myriads of evil spirits that work their evil into this world, and if we are not careful, into our lives as well. Their nature is evil, their commission is evil, and their work is evil. They are evil in their object and purpose, and in all that they bring to pass.