THE THIRD PART: 24 CRUCIAL LINES IN THE BIBLE
Spiritual Warfare
Message One—God’s Intention, Satan’s Strategy, and the Spiritual Warfare
Scripture Reading: Prov. 29:18a; Eph. 3:8-10; Matt. 16:18; Col. 1:18b; Eph. 4:3; 1 Pet. 2:5
I. God’s intention in His economy is to dispense Christ with all His riches into His believers chosen by God for the constitution and building up of the Body of Christ, the church, to consummate the New Jerusalem for the full expression of the processed Triune God—Eph. 3:8-10; cf. Jer. 2:13. (2010 ITERO-F, msg. 9)
II. Because the church has become degraded through the many centuries of its history, it needs to be restored according to God’s original intention and standard as revealed in the Scriptures—cf. 2 Kings 22:8; Ezra 1:3-11; Neh. 2:11, 17; Rev. 18:4. (2010 ITERO-F, msg. 9)
III. The word recovery means the restoration or return to a normal condition after a damage or a loss has been incurred: (2010 ITERO-F, msg. 9)
A. After Satan’s destruction, God came in to redo the things that He had done before; this redoing is His recovery, which is to bring back whatever has been lost and destroyed by God’s enemy, Satan—1 John 3:8b. (2010 ITERO-F, msg. 9)
B. In Matthew 19:8 we see the principle of recovery: “from the beginning it has not been so”: (2010 ITERO-F, msg. 9)
1. Recovery means to go back to the beginning; we need to go back to the beginning, receiving the Lord’s grace to go back to God’s original intention, to what God ordained in the beginning. (2010 ITERO-F, msg. 9)
2. The word recovery means that something was there originally and then was damaged or lost; thus, there is a need to bring that thing back to its original state and to its normal condition—Dan. 1:1-2; Ezra 1:3-11; 6:3-5. (2010 ITERO-F, msg. 9)
C. The words recovery and economy refer to one thing as seen from two different viewpoints—1 Tim. 1:4; Eph. 1:10; 3:9: (2010 ITERO-F, msg. 9)
1. With God, it is a matter of economy; with us, it is a matter of recovery. (2010 ITERO-F, msg. 9)
2. God’s economy was unveiled through the apostles, but because the believers lost the proper understanding of God’s economy, there is the need for it to be recovered—vv. 3-5; Acts 2:42. (2010 ITERO-F, msg. 9)
3. We in the Lord’s recovery must have a clear vision of God’s economy and then be governed, controlled, and directed by this vision, for we are here to carry out God’s economy in His recovery—26:19; Prov. 29:18a. (2010 ITERO-F, msg. 9)
IV. Satan’s strategy is versus the Lord’s recovery—Isa. 14:12-15; Ezek. 28:12-19; John 14:30; Matt. 16:18; Eph. 6:10-11: (2010 ITERO-F, msg. 9)
A. The first category of Satan’s activity is to produce many substitutes for Christ:
1. In Colossae human philosophy was brought in as a substitute for Christ— Col. 2:8; 1:12. (2010 ITERO-F, msg. 9)
2. Hebrews reveals that Satan utilized Judaism to replace Christ—8:6; 9:23; 10:5-10. (2010 ITERO-F, msg. 9)
3. Galatians reveals that the Judaizers were making the law a substitute for Christ—3:1-3, 24; 1:15-16a; 2:20; 4:19. (2010 ITERO-F, msg. 9)
4. In Corinth the gifts, signs, and wisdom were used by the enemy to replace Christ—1 Cor. 1:22-23; 12:31. (2010 ITERO-F, msg. 9)
5. Anything that replaces Christ or occupies the position of Christ is an idol that becomes a burden to the worshipper—Isa. 46:1; 1 John 5:21. (2010 ITERO-F, msg. 9)
B. The second category of Satan’s work is to divide the Body of Christ; the sects, denominations, and divisions in the Body wipe out the corporate expression of Christ—1 Cor. 1:10-13a; Gal. 5:19-20. (2010 ITERO-F, msg. 9)
C. The third category of Satan’s work is to kill the function of all the members of Christ’s Body by the clergy-laity system; we need to have the Lord’s hate for the works of the Nicolaitans—Rev. 2:6; 1:5b-6; 1 Pet. 2:5, 9. (2010 ITERO-F, msg. 9)
V. The book of Numbers reveals that the redeemed and sanctified Israelites were formed into a holy army of God, which was to proceed by following God’s leading and was to fight for Him throughout their journey—1:1-3: (2006 MDC, msg. 4)
A. The Bible shows us that God’s intention is to have a people formed into an army to take Christ as their meaning of life, testimony, center, Leader, way, and goal and to proceed on and fight for God so that He may gain the ground on earth and have a people built up as His kingdom and His house, which will consummate in the New Jerusalem—vv. 1-3; 2:1, 34; Eph. 6:10-20; 2:21-22; Rev. 21:2. (2006 MDC, msg. 4)
B. The picture in Numbers shows us God and His chosen people mingled together as one entity to conquer the enemy on earth—chs. 1—2. (2006 MDC, msg. 4)
C. The formation of the children of Israel into an army to fight for God typifies the New Testament believers being built up into the organic Body of Christ to fight for God and with God for the carrying out of His economy—Eph. 4:16; 6:10-20. (2006 MDC, msg. 4)
D. On the negative side, Canaan signifies the aerial part, the heavenly part, of the dark kingdom of Satan—Num. 21:1-3; Eph. 2:2; 6:12: (2006 MDC, msg. 4)
1. The Canaanites typify the fallen angels, the rebellious angels who follow Satan, who have become the powers, rulers, and authorities in Satan’s kingdom—Matt. 12:26; Rev. 12:4, 7; cf. Dan. 10:13, 20. (2006 MDC, msg. 4)
2. The fighting of the children of Israel against the Canaanites that they might possess the good land typifies the spiritual warfare of the church as a whole against “the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenlies”—Eph. 6:12. (2006 MDC, msg. 4)
E. There is an exceedingly real spiritual warfare in which we must engage; we must fight the battle for God’s interests on earth—vv. 10-12; 1 Tim. 6:12a; 2 Tim. 2:3-4. (2006 MDC, msg. 4)