Well, good morning. It's my privilege this morning to preach out of the book 2 Corinthians.
So I would ask you if you would open with me to chapter 10 of 2 Corinthians.
Our main passage this morning will be verses, chapter 10, verse 3 through 6,
but I wanted to start this morning in verse 1 so you get a bit of the context here.
This is Paul speaking to the church at Corinth in reference to his ministry.
And so if you will, in honor of God's Word, stand with me as we read this passage this morning.
Verse 1.
I, Paul, myself entreat you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ,
I who am humble when face to face with you, but bold towards you when I am away,
I beg of you that when I am present I may not have to show boldness with such confidence
as I count on showing against some who suspect us of walking according to the flesh.
For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh.
For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but have divine power to destroy strongholds.
We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God
and take every thought captive to obey Christ,
being ready to punish every disobedience when your obedience is complete.
Let me pray.
Father, I pray that you would empower the preaching of your Word this morning.
Father, if there's anything from me, I pray that it would wash away.
But Father, I pray that you would cause your Word to bear fruit.
And Father, I pray that you would open our hearts to hear and receive what you have for us this morning.
I pray in your name. Amen.
Y'all can have a seat.
You know, my story, my spiritual story, just a little portion of it is this,
is that I grew up in church.
From the time I was a baby, an infant, I've been in the church that whole time.
And yet, I was shocked when at 22 years old, someone shared with me the gospel.
Now, surely somewhere along the line I'd heard about Jesus.
Surely somewhere along the line I had heard someone say that He died on the cross
in order to save us from our sins, that He was God's Son.
Surely somewhere along the way I'd heard it.
But I'd not understood it.
And so I had a lady by God's providence share the gospel with me,
and she started with my sin.
And she asked me if I thought that I was a sinner.
And because I had a balance scale that had, in my mind, more morality than it had evil,
I didn't think I was lost.
I didn't think I was a sinner.
And I answered, no, I don't see myself as a sinner.
And yet, by God's grace, He showed me the truth.
She asked me a question about pride.
And I answered, yeah, I'm proud of all the trophies I have lying in my room
and all the successes and things that I've accomplished.
I said, yes, ma'am, I am proud of that.
She said, no, no, no, that's not what I mean.
Let me read a couple of verses to you.
So she read a couple of verses out of Scripture that have to do with pride that goes before a fall,
how God hates the proud and loves the humble.
And by the grace of God, He opened my eyes to see that my sin was much deeper than I ever thought.
In my pride, I thought I had achieved my own salvation.
And that day, I saw my sin in a way that I'd never understood it before.
And how is it possible that a guy who'd been all those years in church,
who had heard whatever was preached, I can't remember,
how is it that I'd heard it, I'd been around it, and yet I'd never understood it?
You know, I would say the reason is because of the war.
The war we see in this passage this morning.
And I would turn your eyes to verse 3 and 4.
And I think you will notice this morning as we read this passage that this is military language.
Paul is using this military language to illustrate the reality of a war that we find ourselves in.
You know, it's not a physical war that he's referring to as a spiritual war.
And so Paul says this to those who would claim that he's operating in the flesh,
that he's walking according to the flesh, that his ministry was according to the flesh.
He says, no, no, no, that is not true.
He says, though we walk in the flesh, though we're humans just like you,
though we have temptations that we fall to just like you,
though we are like you in the flesh,
we do not wage war according to the flesh.
And it begs the question, Paul, what are you talking about a war?
What war are you in?
And I would say this, that it's not a physical war that he refers to.
He's using this as an illustration to the church at Corinth.
And you know, Corinth would understand what he's talking about.
Perhaps the reason he shared this, there's no way to know,
is that he would refer back to a war that happened,
the Corinthian War in roughly 397 B.C.,
where their strongholds were destroyed, many of them,
where they were in an intense battle for a period of time.
Whether Paul had that in mind or not,
the illustration stands strong and allows us to see some insight
into this war that we have against our enemy,
our arch enemy, the devil, Satan,
and his kingdom, the dark kingdom.
So Paul says, yes, we walk in the flesh,
but we don't war with human wisdom.
We don't use human techniques.
We war in a different way.
We don't war according to the way men war.
He goes on to say, the weapons of our warfare are not this, but this.
The weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh,
but they're this, they're divine.
We wage war not in our own strength,
but we rely on the strength of another.
Christian, you and I would see what he's talking about.
We rely on the strength of the Holy Spirit in this war.
Paul relied on the strength of the Holy Spirit.
In chapter 2 of 1 Corinthians,
when Paul was talking about ministry with them
and reminding them of when he came to Corinth with the gospel message,
you understand that the gospel was not prevalent.
In this region of the world,
that Paul in his missionary journeys was taking the gospel
to those who didn't understand salvation,
to those who didn't understand their sin and their separation from God,
to those who didn't know why Jesus came
and maybe had never heard the name of Jesus the Messiah before.
And Paul says this to the Corinthians.
He says,
And when I came to you, brothers,
I did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God
with lofty speech or wisdom.
For I decided to know nothing among you
except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
And I was with you in weakness and in fear
and in much trembling,
and my speech and my message
were not with enticing words of wisdom,
but in demonstration of the Spirit and power,
so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men,
but in the power of God.
Paul was not trying to use wisdom and clever words
to share with them the need of Christ.
He says He came to them with this simple message,
the message of the gospel.
The message of their sin and their separation,
their need for a Savior.
Looking back at the passage in 2 Corinthians,
he says this,
The weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh,
but have divine power to destroy strongholds.
This morning, I want to look at this passage
from two different angles,
from two different perspectives.
When we talk about war,
we talk about often one entity or one nation
or one person or one group against another.
And in this war, it's the same.
We talk about those who are in war
against the enemy, that is Satan.
Paul says that he's in war.
He says our warfare, our fight
against the dark kingdom
is not something that can be accomplished
with human ability.
I want to look first from the perspective of Satan,
from the perspective of the dark kingdom.
And I think it would be helpful for us
to look at another passage.
And that passage is a common, familiar passage
probably to most of y'all.
It's Ephesians chapter 6.
Paul, again, is sharing with the church at Ephesus
about this battle, this war,
this real spiritual conflict
that touches all of us.
You can turn there if you like.
No need to turn there for sake of time.
Chapter 6 says this.
He's talking to the church, Christians.
He says,
finally, be strong in the Lord
and in the strength of His might.
And I would note here,
he's not telling them to be strong
in their own power,
their own ability,
their own wisdom,
their own strength.
He's saying be strong in the Lord.
There is a means by which we fight
that's not our own ability.
There's a means by which we fight this war
that is spiritual.
He goes on to say,
put on the whole armor of God
that you may be able to stand
against the schemes of the devil.
Do you know that the devil has schemes?
You know what Satan is planning?
I don't think any of us really know all the details,
but we can get the general outline
by reading Scripture.
From Satan's perspective,
what he's attempting to do
in the lives of those who don't know Christ,
like me when I was young
and all those years,
20-something years in church,
he's attempting to do what he shares
in 2 Corinthians 4.
It says this.
It says,
the God of this world,
i.e. Satan,
the God of this world
has blinded the minds of unbelievers.
He's blinded the minds of unbelievers.
What is the methodology of Satan?
His methodology is to blind the eyes
of those who don't understand,
who don't know,
who don't recognize their sin,
their separation,
their need for a Savior.
He said he's blinded the minds of unbelievers,
not the eyes.
I want us to see he's blinding the mind
of unbelievers
to keep them from seeing the light of what?
The gospel of the glory of God.
What does Satan do in the lives of those
who are not in the kingdom?
You know what he does?
He blinds them.
He doesn't want them to hear
the gospel message.
He doesn't want it to hear it in their ears
and he doesn't want them specifically
to hear it in their heart.
How is he going to accomplish that?
How does he blind?
Well, we turn back to chapter 10,
our passage this morning.
How does he blind?
The eyes of those who don't know Jesus,
who don't understand the gospel message.
Here's an interesting look
in our passage this morning.
He establishes,
Satan establishes strongholds in their life.
So we look at this military language
and we envision a walled city,
a stronghold.
So when someone comes to fight against a stronghold,
they come up against a fortress,
a walled city.
And how is it we're going to take that walled city?
With great difficulty, correct?
In this case,
the illustration Paul is trying to represent here
is this,
is that Satan causes people to believe lies.
He establishes a thought process in their mind
that keeps them from hearing
and understanding the word of God.
Look at the next verse, if you will.
Paul explains a little further
what these strongholds are.
He says,
we, that is those of us who minister the gospel,
those of us that are taking the gospel
to the lost world,
to the places that have never heard it before.
We destroy arguments and lofty opinions.
A way of thinking that's not biblical,
a way of thinking that's not true.
It's based on lies.
It's based on fallacies.
We destroy arguments
and every lofty opinion
raised against the knowledge of God.
You know what Satan would say?
There is no God.
Are you kidding?
And God's good anyway.
God will forgive you all.
All of you will be in heaven.
You're fine.
You don't have to worry about that.
Just live life.
There's probably hundreds and hundreds of angles
that Satan uses to propagate the lies
and establish the stronghold
in our lives.
It's like a fortress.
They hear the gospel like I heard the gospel
and it just goes right over.
They don't really hear it.
They don't understand it.
And Satan wants to build up
these strongholds of lies
in the minds of unbelievers.
But what does Satan do with Christians?
Do you realize that all of us
were in that condition?
That all of us were lost?
That all of us were unbelievers?
That all of us were separated from God?
But by the grace of God
and His mercy,
we have received salvation.
Many of us have come to know
our need for a Savior.
Many of us have seen our own sin
by the grace of God.
What did He do?
He illuminated our understanding.
So all those years,
22 years I'm living,
I didn't see my sin
for what it really was.
I didn't think I was separated from God.
I thought for sure I was in the kingdom.
When God opened my eyes
to see the depth of my sin
and the reality that my sin
had caused me to be separated from God,
I was absolutely shocked.
blown away that I wasn't a Christian.
How did that happen?
You know, all of us are there.
Do you realize all of us
have a misunderstanding
about who we really are?
We have a misunderstanding.
We don't really understand
our separation from God.
We don't really understand His holiness.
Why?
It's because all this
stronghold of lies,
this stronghold of belief
that's not according to truth
is where we've lived.
And by the grace of God,
He's shined His light.
What is the light?
It's the gospel.
It's the truth.
He's shined the light.
You know what happens
when lies are exposed to truth?
Poof, they're gone.
It exposes the lies.
This lie that I'm good,
in good standing with God,
when the truth came
and I saw my sin,
I realized that was a lie.
The Holy Spirit
illuminated my understanding,
opened my eyes
that I might see
that I really, truly
was separated from God.
And you know what I did?
I bowed my knee
in a third floor room
in Winston-Salem, North Carolina,
a place I'd never been in my life,
the house of someone
I'd never met in all my life.
By the grace of God,
I got on my knee,
I said,
God, forgive me.
I didn't know I was a sinner.
I didn't know,
at least I didn't know
you saw me as a sinner.
Yeah, I had these secrets
that I didn't want anybody
to know about
during my life.
But I didn't realize
I didn't,
I wasn't in the kingdom.
I didn't realize
I wasn't going to heaven.
I didn't realize
I wasn't your child.
I didn't realize
that I wasn't forgiven.
I didn't realize God.
By the grace of God,
he opened our eyes to see.
You know, Satan doesn't want
your eyes to be opened.
But some of us
are in the kingdom now.
You know the call
to the church?
He says,
go.
All authority,
Jesus says,
all authority is given to me.
Now go
and proclaim my gospel
and teach them.
Baptize them
and teach them
to obey everything
that I've commanded you.
Take the gospel
to the far corners
of the earth.
Start in your neighborhood.
Start in your town.
Wherever I lead you,
go and take the gospel.
with you.
And what's the impact
going to be?
You know,
Satan can't stop
the spread of the gospel.
You know why?
Because the gospel
exposes a lie.
Satan's method is what?
To establish strongholds,
arguments,
lofty opinions,
philosophies
that are not
according to truth.
And you know,
we by nature
grab them
and believe.
What does it take
for the lies
to be exposed?
The light of the gospel.
The light of God's word.
You know what
they don't need?
They don't need
all these fancy arguments.
You know what Paul said?
I just read it.
He says,
I decided to know nothing
among them
except Jesus Christ
and Him crucified.
You know what someone
who's not in the kingdom
needs to hear?
The gospel.
You know the call
of God to Christians?
Take the gospel.
How does Satan
fight against you and me?
You know what he uses
the same way?
I go back to Ephesians,
this parallel passage,
and I want you to listen
to what Satan uses
against Christians.
So,
he's talking to Christians
here in Ephesians 6.
He's talking to the Christians
in Ephesus.
And he's saying to them,
fight.
He said in chapter 5,
walk in love.
He says,
walk not as unwise,
but wise.
Christian,
you are called
to live in a way
that is in accordance
with wisdom
and with humility
and with love.
And he's saying to them
that there's a battle.
And you're not going
to be very effective
in this battle
and this war
unless you
understand
how it's fought.
So,
if I ask you a question
right now,
church,
do you know
how to fight
this battle?
Do you know
how to be
successful
in this war?
Listen,
it's,
when you're
talking to people
that are not
in the kingdom,
that's one thing,
but when it's happening
in your own heart
and your own life,
how do you fight?
How do you stand?
Listen to the word here.
He says,
put on the whole armor
of God.
I'm not thirsty,
I really am not.
And I think
Jonathan's had his lips
on that one,
so I'm not going to,
I'm not going to drink
that one.
So,
he says,
put on the whole armor
of God
that you may be able
to stand against
the schemes
of the devil.
What are schemes?
Do you know?
Listen,
how are we going to fight
against the dark kingdom
if we don't know
the schemes?
Do you know the schemes?
Do you know what Satan does?
Do you know his methodology?
We would turn to many,
many passages
and here's what we'd see.
You know,
Satan is a tempter.
He's going to tempt you
to dishonor God.
He's going to tempt you
to walk in sin.
He's going to tempt you
to pursue the flesh.
And what is the flesh?
We turn to Galatians 5.
I'm not going to turn there,
but it's sexual promiscuity.
It's anger.
It's wrath.
It's sorcery.
It's chasing after things
of this world,
flesh, self.
You can read Galatians 5 later.
You can read Romans 10 later
and you'll see what the Word says
about walking after the flesh.
But the call of God
to His children
is to walk according
to the Spirit,
to walk in step
with the Spirit,
that the fruit of the Spirit
might be evident in our life.
So here we go.
The schemes of the devil.
Deception.
He wants to propagate lies.
Do you think that Satan
still lies to you and me
as Christians?
Do you think he throws lies our way?
How do you handle it?
Remember,
what is it that causes lies
to disappear,
to be broken,
to be shattered?
It's truth.
How do you war
when all these lies
come into your ears?
How do you war?
You war with truth.
How often do you hear
untruths,
lies that come to you
and say,
whoa, whoa, whoa,
that's not right.
No, no, no, no.
How often does the Word of God
come up in your mind
and you say,
no, no, no, no.
I don't believe that.
I don't accept that.
I reject that.
That's not true.
Deception.
Temptation.
He wants you
to be on the sideline
in this war,
in this battle,
in this mission
that he's called us to,
to take the gospel
to the lost and dying world.
He doesn't want you
to be effective.
And how is it
he's going to keep you,
Christian,
from being effective?
He's going to cause you
to live in sin,
to live in lies.
The temptations
are going to draw you away
from God's honor
and God's call in your life.
And he's going to accuse you.
Three things.
Temptation,
deception,
and accusation
are the main methodologies
of Satan
against the church,
against Christians.
Revelation chapter 12,
it's a story
and it talks about
a dragon
and it talks about
a woman
and it talks about
a child.
And it's,
in this story
in chapter 12,
the dragon is Satan
and the child
is a church
and the,
excuse me,
the woman is a church
and the child is Jesus.
And you can read the story
but the end of the story
is very revealing
in verse 17,
the last verse
in chapter 12
of Revelation.
It says this,
Then the dragon,
that is Satan,
became furious
with the woman,
that's the church,
and went off
to make war
with the rest
of her offspring.
Satan,
the dragon,
went off
to make war
with the rest
of her offspring.
Who are offspring?
Those who keep
the commands of God
and hold
to the testimony
of Jesus.
Church,
let me just say,
whether you're aware
of it or not,
there is a war
that's going on
and you as a Christian
are in the middle of it.
And Satan
is after you.
But greater
is he that is in you
than he that is in the world.
Amen?
Greater
is the Holy Spirit,
greater is he
that is in you
than he that is in the world.
Satan
doesn't stand
a chance
when truth
exposes the lies.
You know,
we don't fight
in human ways.
If we fought
in human ways,
we might be full
of fear.
We don't fight
in human ways.
Ephesians 6
says this,
We do not wrestle
against flesh
and blood,
but against rulers,
against the authorities,
against the cosmic powers
over this present darkness,
against the spiritual
forces
of evil
in the heavenly places.
You know,
we are in a
genuine battle
with the satanic kingdom,
with the demonic world.
And he says,
therefore,
take up the whole
armor of God.
Don't take up
your own strength,
your own wisdom,
your own ability.
Take up the armor
of God.
Why?
That you may be able
to withstand
an evil day
and to stand firm.
And the call is this,
is then take
the helmet of salvation
and the sword
of the Spirit,
which is the word of God,
praying at all times
in the Spirit
with all prayer
and supplication.
To that end,
keep alert
in this battle.
You know,
Satan desires
to devour.
Satan,
like a roaring lion,
is seeking
whom he may devour.
You know he's
after Christians?
Back to our passage.
The perspective
of Satan
is to destroy,
to kill.
I want to look at it
from a different perspective.
That's the perspective
of Paul.
You know what
Paul sees here?
He sees people
that hadn't yet heard
the gospel,
that hadn't come
into the kingdom.
And what is he doing?
He is going.
As God has instructed him
to go,
he's going.
He's taking the gospel
to the lost and dying world.
And what does he understand?
That the enemy
has sold them
this lie
and they've latched
onto it
and they believe it.
And so what does he take
as he goes
to the lost and dying world?
He takes the gospel.
He takes the truth
of God's word
and he destroys
the arguments
and the lofty opinion
raised against
the knowledge of God.
How does he do that
with the truth?
What does the truth do?
It exposes lies.
Church,
you know
when we're sharing
the gospel,
what are we sharing?
We're not sharing
our opinion,
our thoughts.
We're sharing God's word.
It's needful
for us to know
God's word
that we,
like Paul,
would see this battle
that the battle
is against the light.
The real true battle
is Satan
in the dark kingdom
against the kingdom
of light.
And who's a part
of the kingdom of light?
Us,
Christians.
Do you think
God can destroy Satan
with a word of his mouth?
You think he can destroy
him right now,
just boom,
he's done?
You bet he can.
But by God's providence,
he's allowed you and me
to be involved
in this eternal thing,
this taking of the gospel
to the nations.
It's our great privilege
to do it
and that he would use us
in this call
of ministry,
of what he's doing
in the lives of people.
I love the verse here.
It says,
he's destroying strongholds.
Paul,
as he's looking at those
who aren't in the kingdom,
destroying strongholds,
these arguments,
these lies
that are not according
to truth.
And how's he doing?
He's taking the truth,
the gospel to them
so they might understand
and taking captive
every thought.
So have y'all ever
tried to do that?
In this battle
against the dark kingdom,
do you take account
of your thoughts?
Do you know how
this battle is fought?
Again,
I ask the question,
how is this battle fought?
It's a fault
against the lies.
The truth is what
exposes them.
You shall know the truth
and the truth
shall set you free.
And we'll end on this
as Paul's perspective
to fellow believers.
So Paul's perspective
to those who aren't
in the kingdom,
take the truth,
share the truth,
help them to understand
the truth,
expose the lies,
and it isn't going to happen
without the power of God.
And to the Christians,
he says this,
if you sneak over
in chapter 11,
verse 3,
it says this,
as Paul is speaking
to the Corinthian church,
he says this,
but I'm afraid
that as the serpent
deceived Eve
by his cunning,
your thoughts
will be led astray
from the sincere
and pure devotion
to Christ.
When I was younger,
I played a lot of golf.
I still play a little bit.
My heart,
my goal at the time,
as sinful as it was,
to be really,
really good at golf.
And briefly,
I would say this,
that the challenge in golf
is not learning
how to swing real well.
There's a lot of people
that swing well.
And if you do it
a million times
and you duplicate it
a million times,
the ball tends to go
where it's supposed to go.
You know,
the challenge is this,
is when I get up
on the tee box
and I look at the problems,
the trap,
and the pond,
and the out-of-bounds.
I don't know
if y'all play golf
and know what those things are,
but I'm hitting a golf ball
and I'm trying to keep it
on the grass, okay?
I don't want it to go
on those other things
because there's penalties involved.
Do you know the difficulty
is not in being able
to hit it?
Because I can go on the range
during practice
and I can just hit them
just boom,
boom,
boom.
Straight,
long,
make them curve this way,
that way could do a lot,
but when I get up on the tee,
you know what the problem is?
This.
The mind is the problem.
I get up
and I'm looking,
I'm here,
I'm like,
all right,
there's a pond over there.
The problem is
my mind is focusing
on those things,
focusing on the problems,
focusing on the danger,
and my body is not able
to do what it should do.
You know the hard thing
about golf?
You see it in the pros too.
If you watch any golf
on TV,
especially in majors,
and the pros are getting
close last day,
they're near or on top
of the leaderboard,
near the top of the leaderboard,
and what happens?
You see these guys
that are doing it for a living
that are incredible golfers,
and what happens?
They fold.
Why?
Because there's a battle
going on in the mind.
It is difficult
to remain focused
when I'm trying
to play golf.
Let me just say,
church,
you know the battle,
the spiritual battles
in the mind?
You know what Satan
is going to do
to you and me?
He's going to tempt us.
He's going to accuse us.
He's going to deceive us
so that we are on the sidelines.
And Paul says to them,
he says,
I'm worried that your thoughts
will be led astray
from sincere
and pure devotion to Christ.
Are we willing
to take every thought captive?
That's the call,
church,
that we would take
every thought captive
and make it obedience
to Christ,
that we would walk
in obedience
to Him.
Let's pray.
Father,
thank You for Your Word.
Lord,
we confess that
Father,
we're weak.
In many ways,
we're weak
in that we can be deceived
by the enemy.
We can believe lies.
Father,
many times,
we're weak
because we give
in to temptations
and the lust
of this world.
God,
and in a sense,
we're sidelined.
Father,
I'm grateful,
like Jonathan mentioned
earlier,
is that Father,
You say that You're
faithful and just
to forgive us
of our sins
if we will confess to You.
So Father,
I pray that You would help us
to live a life
of confession
because truly,
God,
we are weak.
We're so weak,
Father.
We try to walk
in our own strength.
I pray that You would
teach us to walk
in Your strength,
that we would not
be sidelined
with these sins
that we allow
in our life.
God,
that You would give us
strength to be faithful
to You.
And God,
I pray that You would
empower Your Word
so that many people
would come into the kingdom.
God,
take us,
Your church,
I should say,
send us,
God,
Your church,
to people that we
come in contact with
with the gospel message
that they need to hear
the gospel,
Father,
so their ears
could be opened,
they would not be blind,
God,
I pray that You would
use us in Your kingdom.
I pray in Your name.
Amen.