08-07-11 The War We Never See

We come this morning

to the 5^th principle given to us by Paul

in the final 5 chapters of his letter to the Roman Christians.

If you’ve been with us in this study

you know that Paul uses these final chapters of Romans

to equip his readers

with the 6 principles

that provide us with the foundation we need

for productive and effective life in the family of God.

These are the principles that, when applied,

equip us with the ability to fulfill the high calling given to us by our Lord.

Paul described that calling to us in a single verse in the letter he wrote to the Ephesians.

In Ephesians 3:10 he tells us

that God’s high calling for the church

is... “ that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places.”

In other words,

God brought the Church into being

to provide Himself

with the ultimate means by which

He can now reveal Himself to all of creation.

The manifold wisdom of God

is now made known to all of creation

through the Church...

through the people of God.

Does that sound strange to you?

Does it maybe even sound ridiculous?

When you hear what I just said,

does your mind think of Peninsula Bible Fellowship,

or some other local church,

or even all other churches put together,

and then do you think to yourself,

“THAT is the sum total of the manifold wisdom of God on this earth?

THAT is what God offers

as His ultimate statement of Himself?”

If so, let me see if I can place what’s happening here in a different perspective.

We live our entire life

with almost no clear idea

of what’s really going on in this world.

We see almost none of the raging battle

taking place around us,

none of the victories,

none of the defeats.

Most of us would tend to believe

that the most significant conflict in America today

is the war on terrorism,

or maybe...just maybe the turmoil in the Middle East,

or quite possibly the war for economic stability in the world.

We don’t even see

that there is a war that is far more extensive,

far more significant,

and far more intense raging right now world-wide.

It’s raging on streets of New York,

and Hong Kong,

and Seattle,

and Soldotna,

and every other inhabited location in the world.

It is a war that has implications

for every person alive,

not just for the next decade,

or the next 50 years,

but for all of eternity.

And the decisions we make in that warfare

are of far more significance

than any legislation congress will ever pass,

or any executive order our President will ever sign.

It will help us better understand

what Paul is saying to us in that Ephesians 3:10 passage

when we look at God’s primary audience for the display of His manifold wisdom.

It isn’t us,

with our dark and foggy vision of reality.

It is “...the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places.”

It is all those who populate the unseen world around us -

both Satan and all his demons,

and all the angelic forces faithful to God.

You see,

they have no illusions,

no misconceptions about what’s really taking place on this earth,

or about what it means.

We sometimes think that,

because we cannot, with our physical senses,

communicate with those who inhabit this unseen world

they are therefore less real.

Nothing could be farther from the truth.

They are as real as God Himself.

And when God wanted to communicate

the incredible depth of His own wisdom

to all those who inhabit the unseen world,

He did so by bringing into being the Church, the family of God.

And we are not talking here

about these public meetings

that we so often refer to as “church”.

We’re talking about the redeemed people of God,

all those, no matter what group or human organization they may associate themselves with,

who have accepted God’s offer of forgiveness

through faith in Christ’s death

as payment for their sins.

And let me share with you how I picture this.

This is how the Church,

that group of redeemed people

displays the manifold wisdom of God.

I mentioned to you a few minutes ago

that there is a war raging right now on this earth.

But it is not a war we are fighting,

but rather a war that is being fought for possession of us.

On one side is the Creator God

and all of His forces,

His created beings in the spirit world

who have remained loyal to Him.

On the other side is Satan

and all those who have joined forces with him.

We call them demons,

but they are really angels

who have aligned themselves with Satan.

And between the two is the human race,

all of us who enter this world

with hearts in rebellion against God,

and in league with Satan.

It’s not that we are all immersed

in deep, dark deeds of evil constantly.

It’s that we all enter this world

with hearts that reject the lordship of God in our lives.

And Satan looks over the human race,

and he gloats,

and he says to God,

“Look! Look at your great experiment in free will!

Look at these creatures you have brought into being.

You have created for them

the most incredible physical world imaginable.

You have filled their sky with stars,

and flooded their days with sunlight and warmth.

You have filled their seas with fish,

and their fields and forests with animals,

you continually flood them

with an endless harvest of plants for food, and for beauty.

You have placed them in a physical world

that screams Your creative genius

and Your love for them

in every drop of rain,

and every ray of sunlight,

and every sunrise and sunset.

And what do they do?

They shake their little fists in your face,

and, in their minds, form You

into some sort of vicious monster

who cannot be trusted,

who demands what they cannot deliver,

and who must be avoided at all costs.

And then, after all you’ve done for them,

after all you’ve given them,

when they still stubbornly turned from You in rebellion,

when You clothed Yourself in human flesh,

so that they could see the love and compassion in Your eyes,

and feel Your healing touch,

and hear You speak to them right out loud

about the endless depth of Your love for them,

when You did all of that,

they all gathered around You,

and striped You naked,

and beat You until Your flesh hung in strips,

and then nailed You to a cross.

I win, God.

And You loose.”

And in response God says,

“Oh, is that right? Then obviously you have not considered My Church, Lucifer.

Look at any of those who have come to Me.

Look at each of them.

Look at this one right here.

He wasn’t much by the standards of this world.

Just one more kid without purpose,

without understanding,

stumbling through life.

But then I showed him

just a glimpse of my love,

and invited him into my family.

Now look at him.

Look at the way he hungers and thirsts for righteousness.

Look at his heart of love for me.

Look at the way his failures grieve him,

and the way the knowledge of My love for him brings tears to His eyes.

Look at what he would have been

had I not stepped into his life,

and look at what my love

is forming him into now.

Oh! And look at this child of mine here,

and this one,

and this one over here.

Look at their hearts,

look at their lives,

look at the way in which I manifest through them

the knowledge of Me everywhere they go.

Look, Lucifer, at the depth of their knowledge of My love for them,

a depth that could never have existed

had I not shown them My love

when they were immersed in their sin.

You think I loose?

You think My great experiment in free will has failed?

Then look at My Church, my people,

and tell me what you see there.

Tell Me what you see in the hearts

of each of these who have come to Me

from every tribe, and tongue, and nation.

Look at what they know about the true nature of My love for them,

and the way in which that knowledge

is transforming their lives.

And know this too, Lucifer -

because they discovered My love

when they had nothing whatsoever to offer Me in return,

because they learned of My acceptance of them

when there was nothing within them that made them acceptable,

they will now share a depth of love with Me

throughout all of eternity,

a depth of love that could never have come into being

any other way.”

And the manifold wisdom of God is now made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places.

Have you responded to God’s offer of love through Christ?

Do you think your life matters very little?

Do you think those battles you now fight for righteousness mean nothing?

Do you think no one notices, or cares?

Do you know that you are God’s great proclamation of Himself to the unseen world around us?

Do you know

that your love for Him,

your heart for His truth,

and your hunger for His righteousness

has given you a place of great honor in His eternal hall of fame?

Immediately after graduating from high school

our daughter, Joni, attended Trinity Western University,

a Christian liberal arts school in Canada.

When, 4 years later, she graduated from Trinity

Sandee and I were able to attend the graduation ceremony.

It turned out to be a far bigger event in my life than I had anticipated.

There are some differences

between the U.S. and Canadian educational systems.

Here in the U.S.

when a student graduates with a high grade point average

they are said to graduate “with honors”

or perhaps “with highest honors”.

But in Canada they do not graduate with honors,

they graduate “with distinction”.

The afternoon of Joni’s graduation

Sandee and I were sitting in a packed auditorium

with hundreds of other proud parents,

watching more than 400 students graduate.

And when it finally came time for Joni to receive her diploma

I watched as my daughter stepped onto the stage

and then listened as the man reading the names

spoke these six words into the microphone for all to hear,

“Joni Sue Huntsperger...with GREAT DISTINCTION”.

Then I saw my daughter walk across the platform

and then pause as a robed university official

draped a double rope of gold around her shoulders.

Joni Sue Huntsperger...with great distinction.

It was all the more powerful for all of us

because we didn’t know it was coming.

Nothing had been said to her

or to us before that ceremony.

For the previous four years

Joni had just gone about the business

of doing the best she could with the work assigned to her.

And every semester throughout those four years

just a week or two before final exams

we received agonized phone calls from our little girl

sharing with us how hopeless it all was,

and how she was doing so poorly in this class or that class,

and how she wasn’t even sure she would pass them all.

And then we would talk about how unimportant the letter grade was,

and how what really mattered

was the growth going on inside her,

the things taking place that no teacher ever saw,

and that never showed up on the tests.

When I heard those words spoken that day,

“Joni Sue Huntsperger...with great distinction”,

I said something in response

that no one else heard at the time.

I said, “You have no idea how true that is!”

Do you think those battles you’re fighting right now

matter very little?

Do you think, perhaps, that your life matters very little?

Do you think no one notices,

no one cares,

and nothing of significance will ever come

from what you do or do not do?

Even now, here, in this life

we live our lives before all the rulers and authorities in heavenly places.

And the time will come

when Christ Himself will call your name

and He will bring to light every choice of faith you’ve ever made,

and then, as He speaks your name He will say “with great distinction!”.

You think perhaps my imagination is running away with me.

You can’t imagine yourself ever involved in such a scene.

What is going on in this world

is so utterly different than what we think.

The things our world tells us are so very important

do not really matter at all,

and the things, and the people that our world tells us

have little or no significance whatsoever

will one day be significant and glorious beyond anything we could ever imagine.

In his first letter to the Corinthians

Paul became irritated with their blindness to this truth

and told them the way things really are.

In 1 Corinthians 4:5 he said, “... do not go on passing judgment before the time, but wait until the Lord comes who will both bring to light the things hidden in the darkness and disclose the motives of men's hearts; and then each man's praise will come to him from God.

Each man’s PRAISE...

with great distinction.

And even at those times when we fail,

when we forget the truth,

and lapse back into the lies and the bondage they bring,

even then our God provides us with an opportunity to honor Him,

because through that failure

we can rediscover and reaffirm yet again

that it is “this GRACE in which we stand”,

and in that rediscovery we will find our hearts overflowing

with gratitude to our God

for His lovingkindness toward us that never ceases,

and His compassion that never fails,

and even then we proclaim the great wisdom of God,

because we proclaim His ability to create

not a perfect salvation for those who follow perfectly,

but a perfect salvation

for a people who long for more than they ever attain,

and hunger for more than they ever fulfill,

who, when they stumble and fall on their face yet again,

roll over and reach up to their Heavenly Father,

and allow His eternal arms

to once again lift them out of the muck and mess,

and place their feet back on the solid rock,

giving them a new song on their lips,

a song of praise to their God.

I tell you honestly

that the battles that are now raging

in the lives of those who populate this planet

as God seeks to reclaim each of us

through our discovery of His love through Christ,

those battles are of infinitely more significance

than the war in Afghanistan,

or the turmoil in Israel,

or the endless turmoil on Wall Street or Capitol Hill.

The triumph of one nation over another

is a very small thing

in God’s over-all plan for mankind.

A person’s discovery

of the true nature of God’s love,

and their response to that love

is a very great thing indeed

because it goes to the heart

of God’s plan and purpose for this world from the very beginning.

Now, I’ve gone through all of this

because I want to use it as background

for the next few verses we will study in the book of Romans.

Our study of the 6 principles

that govern life within the Church

has brought us to the 5^th principle

in which Paul outlines for us our role in this battle raging around us,

and how we can effectively fulfill that role.

I mentioned a few minutes ago

that the war being raged around us

is a battle between God and Satan

for the hearts of men and woman.

But that does not mean we have no part in the battles.

On the contrary,

we have a crucial part

because God has given to each of us

the right and the ability

to decide who wins in our own life.

And Paul’s comments to us in Romans 13:11-14

are designed to provide us with the information we need

in order to fulfill our part in this warfare successfully.

But our time is gone for the morning,

so we’ll need to end this here this morning

and pick up our study with Romans 13:11 next week.