THE WEAPONS OF OUR WARFARE

 THE WEAPONS OF OUR WARFARE

2 Corinthians 10:1-6 (KJV)

Now I Paul myself beseech you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ, who in presence am base among you, but being absent am bold toward you:

But I beseech you, that I may not be bold when I am present with that confidence, wherewith I think to be bold against some, which think of us as if we walked according to the flesh.

For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh:

(For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;)

Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;

And having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled.

 

I said in the last lesson that verses one and two of this chapter give to us two “tools” for dealing with troublemakers in church. Those tools are

·   Beseeching and

·   Boldness

 

I not that the beseeching took place first. The Apostle Paul would have much preferred to see those troublemakers, the Judaizers, repent, get right with God and submit to the gospel message he preached.

 

But then he warned them, if they did not repent, he was quite capable of being so bold they might mistake it for “walking according to the flesh.”

 

I used the word “tools.”

 

The Bible defines that tool of boldness with the word “weapons.”

 

The Word of God takes troublemakers in the church very seriously!

 

It calls it a war and

It tells us there are weapons

 

*I. THE NATURE OF THE WEAPONS

2 Corinthians 10:4 (KJV)

(For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;)

 

I have no shortage of material to work with here because the New Testament is very specific concerning this subject and what these weapons are.

 

Ephesians 6:10-18 (KJV)

Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.

Put on the whole armour of God, that ye 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 armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.

Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness;

And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace;

Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.

And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:

Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;

 

Three things:

A. It’s not carnal

Ephesians 6:10-13 (KJV)

Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.

Put on the whole armour of God, that ye 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 armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.

 

But it is mighty.

That means it is authoritative. It’s not milquetoast. The devil will flee.

 

B. We have armor

Ephesians 6:14-17a (KJV)

Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness;

And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace;

Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.

And take the helmet of salvation, …

 

Armor is defensive. Its purpose is to stop the blows of the enemy.

 

C. We have weapons

Ephesians 6:17-18 (KJV)

… and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:

Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;

 

Prayer and ministry of the Word are the two things the Apostles said they would give themselves to.

 

*II. THE OBJECTIVE OF OUR WEAPONS

2 Corinthians 10:5 (KJV)

Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;

 

These Judaizers imagined all sorts of doctrines that deviated from those the Apostle taught.

 

The objective of our contest is to

A. Cast down imaginations

In other words, dispose of false doctrines

 

B. Capture every thought

I want to teach people not to let their minds run to and fro with every wind of doctrine.

 

C. Bring them into the obedience of Christ

The carnal mind is rebellious. It wants control. The objective of the Bible preacher is to stomp out the rebellious mind and bring it into the obedience of Christ.

 

*III. THE INCLINATION OF OUR WEAPONS

2 Corinthians 10:6 (KJV)

And having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled.

 

The inclination is “readiness.”

 

A good military is well trained and always ready.

 

The Apostle Paul was prepared and ready to deal with spiritual hooligans.

 

But there is an interesting construction to this verse.

 

He was ready, but not everyone else was.

 

Albert Barnes writes these words, 

“… Paul was ready to inflict

discipline when the church had showed a readiness to obey his laws, and to do its own duty - delicately intimating that the reason why it was not done was the lack of entire promptness in the church itself, and that it could not be done on any offender as long as the church itself was not prepared to sustain him.”

 

In other words, Paul was ready to take on the troublemakers, but he knew the church would not support him in it.

 

Barnes goes on to say, 

“The church was to discountenance the enemies of the Redeemer; to show an entire readiness to sustain the apostle, and to unite with him in the effort to maintain the discipline of Christ’s house.”

 

For his conflict with the troublemakers to have a successful outcome, the rest of the people of the church must support him by discontinuing fellowship with them.

 

Anything else will lead to less than complete victory and, rather than ever seeing those people repent, will likely lead to more getting wrapped up I their error.

 

It’s one of the problems we have these days with people like Stephen Anderson, post or mid- tribulation doctrine, Reformation doctrine and all the rest of the false doctrine crowd. 

 

Christians refuse to support their pastor’s ministry by separating themselves from those groups.[1]

 

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[1] Remember, the goal is always their reconciliation. By not supporting the pastor because you “love” the troublemaker or because you don’t like confrontation, or because you want to see them reconciled, you are actually preventing them from being reconciled.

THE PRESUMING HEART

 THE PRESUMING HEART

Esther 7:1-5 (KJV)

So the king and Haman came to banquet with Esther the queen.

And the king said again unto Esther on the second day at the banquet of wine, What is thy petition, queen Esther? and it shall be granted thee: and what is thy request? and it shall be performed, even to the half of the kingdom.

Then Esther the queen answered and said, If I have found favour in thy sight, O king, and if it please the king, let my life be given me at my petition, and my people at my request:

For we are sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be slain, and to perish. But if we had been sold for bondmen and bondwomen, I had held my tongue, although the enemy could not countervail the king's damage.

Then the king Ahasuerus answered and said unto Esther the queen, Who is he, and where is he, that durst presume in his heart to do so?

 

The story of Haman is one of the most tragic, I think, in all of the Bible.

 

This upwardly mobile and obviously gifted man went from:

·   Potential to Poverty

·   Power to Penury

·   Popularity to Pole hanging

 

And his fall happened because he hated the Jewish people so much that he could be satisfied with nothing less than the extermination of the entire race.

 

Genocide.

 

When the king found out he put the question this way, “Who is he, and where is he, that durst presume in his heart to do so?”

 

Presume in his heart.

 

It’s an interesting phrase I hope to explore during the course of this message.

 

Presume, this is the only time in the Bible where the specific Hebrew word is translated with the word, “presume.”

 

It’s not a wrong translation, but a specific one to this Scripture.

 

Presume.

Webster’s 1828 Dictionary gives these definitions of the word, 

·   “To venture without positive permission

·   To form confident or arrogant opinions … before the cause of confidence.

·   To make confident or arrogant attempts.”

 

I think the King James Bible translators knew exactly what they were doing.

 

In attempting to exterminate the Jews, 

·   Haman ventured to far with positive permission. 

·   He formed arrogant opinions without cause about himself and about the Jews. And then 

·   He made an arrogant attempt to exterminate the Jews without figuring the consequences of the attempt.

 

Presume is the perfect word for this account.

 

Presume. 

Most of the definitions for this Hebrew word sound something like this, “To fill up. To be full of.”

 

A New Testament parallel would be, 

Acts 5:3 (KJV)

But Peter said, Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost, and to keep back part of the price of the land? 

 

The Ancient Hebrew Lexicon traces it back to piling grains one upon another until full.

 

One of the ancient meanings is, “A recess for filling.”

 

When I was in High School, I drove a wheat truck during the harvest two summers. 

 

I am picturing right now that combine as it cut and thrashed the wheat from the stocks. 

 

The combine had a long chute to the side of it with an auger. At the right time I would pull alongside the combine, under the auger, and pace the machine so the combine operator could move the wheat he was threshing and place it, little by little into me truck’s bed.

 

My truck had a recess made specifically to collect and pile up that grain until it was full.

 

The Bible teaches us that the heart of man is a vessel, made to fill up.

 

In this corrupt world, it is most often filled with all the wrong things.

Matthew 15:17-20 (KJV)

Do not ye yet understand, that whatsoever entereth in at the mouth goeth into the belly, and is cast out into the draught? 

But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man. 

For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies: 

These are the things which defile a man: but to eat with unwashen hands defileth not a man.

 

I. HAMAN

When we study the life of Haman we learn that he had spent a lifetime, filling his heart, one grain at a time, with such hatred for the Jews, that he arrogantly presumed to have the power to exterminate the entire race and ended up instead seeing himself hanged.

 

In Haman’s story we have,

A. Past Family history 

Amalekites

Haman is identified five times as Haman, the Agagite.[1]  

 

Agag was the royal name of the kings of Amalek. 

The Amalekites were the sworn enemies of Israel all the way back to Moses and Joshua in the wilderness (it was the Amalekites Joshua fought as Aaron and Hur held up Moses’ hands).[2]

 

When Saul disobeyed the Lord and did not kill Agag, the king of Amalek, Samuel, the man of God, did the deed himself.[3]

 

It had been hundreds of years since Samuel had killed Agag, but family hatred lasts a very long time. Just look at what is happening in American today, all because of what happened in America prior to the Civil War.

 

B. Personal character

Pride

I doubt that there is anyone with much power who is not, in some measure, corrupted by pride. 

 

Pride was the downfall of Lucifer. 

·   It is one of his temptations to mankind (the pride of life).[4]

·   It is one of the sins of the heart.[5]

·   To be lifted in pride makes one vulnerable to the condemnation of the devil.[6]

 

Haman was growing in power in Persia and he loved to brag about it.

 

Except for one problem. 

 

There was this Jew named Mordecai who refused to bow before him.

 

Haman could not be happy so long as Mordecai was alive.

Esther 5:10-13 (KJV)

Nevertheless Haman refrained himself: and when he came home, he sent and called for his friends, and Zeresh his wife.

And Haman told them of the glory of his riches, and the multitude of his children, and all the things wherein the king had promoted him, and how he had advanced him above the princes and servants of the king.

Haman said moreover, Yea, Esther the queen did let no man come in with the king unto the banquet that she had prepared but myself; and to morrow am I invited unto her also with the king.

Yet all this availeth me nothing, so long as I see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the king's gate.

 

C. Prejudiced counselors 

Friends and family

Haman bragged to his wife and to his friends about all of his glory and then griped about Mordecai sitting at the king’s gate.

 

So they offered to him some counsel.

Esther 5:14 (KJV)

Then said Zeresh his wife and all his friends unto him, Let a gallows be made of fifty cubits high, and to morrow speak thou unto the king that Mordecai may be hanged thereon: then go thou in merrily with the king unto the banquet. And the thing pleased Haman; and he caused the gallows to be made.

 

The problem with taking counsel from people close to you is that they are close to you.

 

They seldom see, or if they do see, they are hesitant to point their finger in your face and tell you when you are wrong.

 

Turned out Haman was wrong.

And the gallows his friends and family counselled him to build was the very gallows upon which he was killed.

 

“Who is he, and where is he, that durst presume in his heart to do so?”

 

II. HEARTS

Your heart is a vessel designed to be filled.

 

Too many hearts are filled with things that lead to their own destruction.

 

It happens usually, slowly, over time, almost without us knowing it.

 

One grain at a time – until it is nearly too late to turn around.

A. Hurt

Maybe you’ve been hurt. A wrong was done to you. Perhaps more than once.

 

B. Bitterness 

Bitterness is a desire for revenge.

 

C. Unforgiving 

I heard the other day that forgiveness is a decision we make to release a person from the feelings of anger we have at them.

 

D. Family pain

Like what happened to the Amalekites, Haman’s family or to the slaves in America.

 

E. Memories of trouble

Some people say, “I’ll forgive, but I will not forget.” Each time we rehearse that trouble in our mind, we put another grain inside the recess of our heart.

 

F. Prejudices 

Haman was prejudiced against the Jews, wasn’t he? 

He had prejudged them.

 

He was predisposed to dislike their religion, their God, their customs and their culture.

 

G. Envy

To want what someone else has. 

·   It might be money 

·   It might be property

·   It might be a job

·   It might be a family

·   It might be perceived happiness

They’ve got it. You want it.

 

H. Jealousy

To want to be who someone else is.

·   Loved

·   Popular

·   Respected

It gnaws on you that they have risen to a place in life you have not been able to attain.

 

I. Greed

To want more than you have. Too much more.

 

There is nothing wrong with desiring to improve your circumstances.

 

Greed is an unnatural desire that can lead to using 

·   illegal, 

·   unethical or 

·   immoral 

means to get gain.

 

J. Lust for power

To crave authority, or influence.

 

Jesus said, 

Matthew 20:25-27 (KJV)

But Jesus called them unto him, and said, Ye know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them, and they that are great exercise authority upon them. 

But it shall not be so among you: but whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister; 

And whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant:

 

If we aren’t purposeful about it, our hearts will get filled up with these. The devil will make sure of it because he is purposeful.

 

All of that will lead to hatred. The Bible says hatred is equal to murder.[7] And listen to this, 

Revelation 21:8 (KJV)

But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.

 

You say, “I’m saved, so I can’t go to hell.”

 

Oh yeah? If you can hate a person and not have any desire to repent of it, how do you really know that the Holy Spirit dwells in you?

 

Conclusion

You heart is a vessel, created to be filled.

 

Dump all of that wicked stuff out. Repent of it and, grain by grain, fill it with:

·   The Holy Spirit

·   Humility 

·   Honest love

·   Hot preaching 

·   Home (local) church

 

There will be no room for the one when the other has filled it.

 

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[1] Esther 8:3 (KJV)

And Esther spake yet again before the king, and fell down at his feet, and besought him with tears to put away the mischief of Haman the Agagite, and his device that he had devised against the Jews.

[2] Exodus 17:10-11 (KJV)

So Joshua did as Moses had said to him, and fought with Amalek: and Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill.

 And it came to pass, when Moses held up his hand, that Israel prevailed: and when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed.

[3] 1 Samuel 15:32-33 (KJV)

Then said Samuel, Bring ye hither to me Agag the king of the Amalekites. And Agag came unto him delicately. And Agag said, Surely the bitterness of death is past.

And Samuel said, As thy sword hath made women childless, so shall thy mother be childless among women. And Samuel hewed Agag in pieces before the LORD in Gilgal.

[4] 1 John 2:16 (KJV)

For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.

[5] Mark 7:22 (KJV)

Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness:

[6] 1 Timothy 3:6 (KJV)

Not a novice, lest being lifted up with pride he fall into the condemnation of the devil.

[7] 1 John 3:15 (KJV)

Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him.