DO WE REALLY NEED A PLAN?

MIKE CUNNINGHAM

September 10, 2006

I want to preface my remarks this morning by saying that in case some of you folks weren’t able to find the time to read and meditate on the first ten verses of the fourth chapter of James and try come up with a plan on how to resist the devil as I had suggested last week, it’s probably a good idea to consider if we even need such a plan in the first place. That’s what I would like us to consider this morning.

Each of you are no doubt aware that tomorrow marks the anniversary of a terrible evil that suddenly lashed out against our country five years ago. With me the horror of 911 is etched in my memory as is that of December 7^th. Both events were surprise declarations of war against America.

The more aware I become of the diabolical mindset and atrocities of the perpetrators of both of these world wars, the more it seems as though evil incarnate has been has been unleashed on our planet. Metaphorically speaking, these people are sub-humans who have without a doubt, been fathered by the devil himself.

When the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor on December 7^th I was a seven year old boy. My parents and the other adults in my life spent a lot of time, excitedly, but quietly, speaking with each other about the Nazi’s and Jap’s as they were referred to in those days, and how ruthless they were. At nighttime those grownups would hover around the radio listing to the latest news about the war.

However, there was no mistaking their facial expressions. These adults were very concerned. And no matter how much they tried to assure me things would turn out ok and that America and the Allies would win, I was one frightened kid at times. All sorts of worrisome thoughts raced through my mind. Suppose we didn’t win. Suppose we lost and these bad guys came swarming all over my neighborhood. What would happen to my Mom and Dad and to my younger brother and sister and me? What could we do to escape their clutches?

At the risk of belaboring a point, I’m going to mention something which some of you have heard me speak about several times in the past. It’s a World War Two scene that is imbedded in my memory. I’ll never forget watching a newsreel in a movie theater of laughing Japanese soldiers throwing a naked tiny screaming non-Asian baby high up into the air and then catching the helpless innocent child on their bayonets.

The more I thought about the possibility America might loose the war, the more convinced I was that the wisest thing for me to do would be to stay close to my family and as far away from those bad guys as I possibly could. I was absolutely certain these people hated all Americans with a passion and that each of them would enjoy torturing and killing us.

Now, almost sixty five years later, I remain convinced that my plan of wanting nothing to do with our enemies and to take whatever steps were possible to avoid those evil people was a good one. I was then, and I am today, absolutely certain that there was nothing anyone could do to get these guys not to hate me or anyone else who wasn’t one of them.

As I think about the present war against the worldwide terrorists that our country is engaged in, I can’t help noticing certain similarities with a couple of notable exceptions. Although today’s enemies are as ruthless and diabolically crazed as those during the Second World War, we Americans are not as united in our efforts to defeat them, nor are all Americans convinced that it’s impossible to persuade these evil people not to hate everyone who won’t convert to their fanatical version of Islam.

This morning I would like us to imagine the worse case scenario. Suppose our country lost the war and those demonic bloodthirsty butchers occupied America and were scurrying all over the place hunting us down and trying to enslave or annihilate us. Have you ever given any thought as to what you would do if this happened as I did when I was a seven year old kid? My guess is that most Americans haven’t. What do you think?

I bet there are many of our fellow Americans who are presently reaping the benefits of the incredible sacrifices our men and women on the front lines and others at home are making on their behalf who are more concerned with the price of oil or “Twinkies” or some other inconvenience than they are thinking about what their quality of life would be like if we lost. I seriously doubt if anyone of them stopped to think about how they would handle things if we lost the war.

I pray that God will continue to bless America and that our country doesn’t have to turn into a modern day Israel before everyone finally wakes up to reality that we are hated with a passion. Do any of you folks think for a moment that today’s Jews haven’t each come up with a plan as to how they would personally handle an enemy occupation or do you believe that perhaps they are too busy  watching the “boob tube” or worrying about a possible increase in the price of Matzo Balls?

Except for those Jews planning to commit suicide, I’ll bet dollars to donuts that every last one of them have planned to do everything they possibly can to resist their enemy even if it means they might die trying. Today’s Jews are not about to just roll over and allow themselves to become enslaved or butchered, nor should they or you and me.

I hope I made my point last week that all human beings are involved in a relentless invisible spiritual war from the moment of birth; a war that often involves fierce battles and which will continue until we enter into eternity. In the history of the human race I believe that this spiritual war against the devil and his fellow demons eclipses all other wars combined as to its intensity and consequences. In fact, those cosmic forces of darkness would make today’s terrorists look like “pussy cats” in comparison.

The evil Satan is capable of accomplishing to unsuspecting human beings by persuading them to disobey God is infinitely greater that anyone can imagine. Jesus drove home this fact to His beloved disciples more than 2,000 years ago. Before sending His disciples out on their first mission He warned them about this possibility.

Matthew 10:16-28 (ESV) ¹⁶ “Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. ¹⁷ Beware of men, for they will deliver you over to courts and flog you in their synagogues, ¹⁸ and you will be dragged before governors and kings for my sake, to bear witness before them and the Gentiles. ¹⁹ When they deliver you over, do not be anxious how you are to speak or what you are to say, for what you are to say will be given to you in that hour.

²⁰ For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you. ²¹ Brother will deliver brother over to death, and the father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death, ²² and you will be hated by all for my name’s sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. ²³ When they persecute you in one town, flee to the next, for truly, I say to you, you will not have gone through all the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes.

²⁴ “A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master. ²⁵ It is enough for the disciple to be like his teacher, and the servant like his master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more will they malign those of his household. ²⁶ “So have no fear of them, for nothing is covered that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known. ²⁷ What I tell you in the dark, say in the light, and what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops. ²⁸ And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.

It’s as though Jesus is saying to His disciples: “Peter, John, Thomas, James and Matthew and Andrew and the rest of you men; listen closely to what I am saying. Believe Me when I tell you not to fear your fellow men that are capable of killing your body. That’s the worse they can do to you, but no human being can destroy your soul.” Only God can do that.

“The word “destroy” is used here in the sense not of annihilation but of the inflection of everlasting punishment upon a person (25:46; Mark 9:47, 48; 2Thesalonians 1:9.[1]

“Each of you men has the freedom to choose whether of not to believe what I am saying to you. Don’t any of you allow yourself to be persuaded by the father of lies (John 8:44) not to take what I am warning you about seriously as Adam and Eve did. Our enemy Satan succeeded in convincing them not to believe My Father. Through their unbelief and disobedience, the devil murdered the entire human race.

That man and woman were the first victims of the devils spiritual war on God and human beings and they certainly weren’t the last. Among the disciples Jesus gave that warning to was a man named Judas Iscariot who also succumbed to the devils temptation not to take what God says seriously. And so it has been up to the present moment.

Listen to some of the things God the Holy Spirit warns us about through different divinely inspired authors. We must resist the temptation to allow ourselves to become deceived.

Matthew 24:4 (NIV) ⁴ Jesus answered: “Watch out that no one deceives you.

Galatians 6:7 (NIV) ⁷ Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows.

Ephesians 5:6 (NIV) ⁶ Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of such things God’s wrath comes on those who are disobedient.

2 Thessalonians 2:3 (NIV) ³ Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way, for that day will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction.

1 John 3:7 (ESV) ⁷ Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous.

Watch out! You and I should always be on guard and take these warnings seriously.

Luke 12:1 (ESV) ¹ In the meantime, when so many thousands of the people had gathered together that they were trampling one another, he [Jesus] began to say to his disciples first, “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.

Luke 12:15 (ESV) ¹⁵ And he said to them, “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.”

Colossians 2:8 (ESV) ⁸ See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.

2 Peter 3:17 (ESV) ¹⁷ You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability.

Romans 12:9 (ESV) ⁹ Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good.

1 Corinthians 10:1-11 (ESV) ¹ I want you to know, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, ² and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, ³ and all ate the same spiritual food, ⁴ and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ. ⁵ Nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness.

⁶ Now these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did. ⁷ Do not be idolaters as some of them were; as it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.” ⁸ We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in a single day. ⁹ We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents, ¹⁰ nor grumble, as some of them did and were destroyed by the Destroyer. ¹¹ Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come.

1 Thessalonians 5:22 (ESV) ²² Abstain from every form of evil.

1 Peter 3:11 (ESV) ¹¹ let him turn away from evil and do good; let him seek peace and pursue it.

Ephesians 4:22 (ESV) ²² to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires,

Hebrews 12:1 (ESV) ¹ Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,

1 Peter 2:11 (NIV) ¹¹ Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul.

Listen to the Apostle Peter as he describes the devils passion for evil.

1 Peter 5:8 (NIV) ⁸ Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.

James 4:7 (AMP) ⁷ So be subject to God. Resist the devil [stand firm against him], and he will flee from you.

But is this satanic threat really as serious as I am making it out to be and that each of us ought to go so far as to actually develop a plan as to how we intend to resist the devil and his fellow demons who are all over the place? Allow me to respond by asking a hypothetical question: If God suddenly stopped blessing America and instead allowed the war against terrorists to fail and our country was just two days away from being overrun by those demonically controlled bloodthirsty religious zealots; would you give some thought as to how you are going to resist them or would you allow the devil to persuade you through these self proclaimed prophecy experts that you will be raptured before they got here?

Many followers of Christ are appalled by the blatant sinful behavior of some of today’s church goers and rightfully so. So was the great Apostle Paul back in the days of the early church.

Colossians 3:5-10 (NIV) ⁵ Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. ⁶ Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. ⁷ You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. ⁸ But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. ⁹ Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices ¹⁰ and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.

1 Corinthians 6:9-10 (NIV) ⁹ Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders ¹⁰ nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.

Galatians 5:19-21 (NIV) ¹⁹ The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; ²⁰ idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions ²¹ and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Ecclesiastes 12:13-14 (ESV) ¹³ The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. ¹⁴ For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil.

Allow me to close by asking you folks your opinion; As far as resisting the devil is concerned, what do you think; “do we really need a plan?”

Lord willing, in two weeks we will revisit this concern.