Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - Ep 114

00:00:00.000 Hey guys, welcome to Relatable. I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend. Today is Monday,

00:00:06.600 which means it's Theology Monday, and I want to talk about spiritual warfare. This is something

00:00:13.540 that we haven't really touched, although of course we've talked about the things that are

00:00:18.240 at stake on a spiritual level and from a spiritual perspective on Theology Mondays,

00:00:23.900 but we haven't talked specifically about spiritual warfare. And honestly, I don't have

00:00:29.780 time to go into all of it. There are a lot of different aspects of spiritual warfare

00:00:34.500 that we could talk about, and there are different points about, you know, demonic power and how that

00:00:41.300 manifests itself, but I want to keep it relevant to the problems that a lot of us are facing right

00:00:48.320 now. I think I got more messages from people, from you guys, after the Alabama law was signed

00:00:57.220 and after the Georgia law was signed than I did after the New York law was signed. And this is

00:01:02.940 all pertaining to abortion. So as you probably already know, the New York law said that a human

00:01:09.280 being inside the womb is not a person. You are not a person unless you are out of the womb and

00:01:14.320 you are alive. That is their definition of a person. So that means that a woman can have an abortion for

00:01:19.480 almost any reason up to nine months, as long as it falls under the very broad umbrella of health,

00:01:25.360 which can mean emotional health or familial problems, anything like that. So a woman can

00:01:30.620 basically have for any reason an abortion up to nine months in the state of New York. There are other

00:01:36.500 states that have similar laws and other states that are following suit. Of course, that was a very big

00:01:42.180 deal for all of us who are pro-life and who are adamantly anti-abortion. It was one of the most

00:01:47.980 grotesque displays of draconian passion that we've ever seen. When we saw women in pink hats celebrating

00:01:58.780 when this law was signed by Governor Cuomo, when there were buildings in New York City being lit up

00:02:06.460 in pink because of the slaughtering of unborn children. I think it just churned our stomachs and

00:02:12.940 we were all sick because of that. I was laying in bed at night, just awake thinking, how can this

00:02:18.460 possibly happen? And how did we get here? And so a lot of us talked about that and talked through that

00:02:24.000 and how horrible and terrifying that was for us from a pro-life perspective and particularly for

00:02:31.440 unborn children in New York. And I had a lot of messages after that, but I think I've gotten more

00:02:37.780 messages from discouraged and disheartened and even despairing pro-life people after the pro-life bills

00:02:47.320 were signed in Georgia and Alabama just because of the vitriol that you guys have seen online. And I think

00:02:55.740 a lot of you guys have been surprised by some of the stances of maybe your friends, your colleagues,

00:03:01.840 your peers, people that you looked up to, influencers, authors, brands, companies, all speaking out against

00:03:10.280 the Alabama law in a very arrogant way. Not just saying, hey, this goes too far, but really taking

00:03:18.840 it to the limit of human depravity, of dehumanizing the life inside the womb and arrogantly expressing

00:03:26.740 some kind of pride in killing unborn children. And I think that a lot of you have just kind of come

00:03:35.160 to terms with the reality that what we are dealing with on the other side of this issue is not just

00:03:42.240 people who disagree with us, although they are just people who disagree with us in some sense. I'm not

00:03:46.740 trying to demonize them, but it's not just a disagreement. It's not just a policy difference

00:03:52.500 here. This is a real spiritual warfare going on because when you see some of the lines of so-called

00:04:00.620 reasoning from the other side, you really have to wonder how someone's mind could have gotten flipped

00:04:07.860 upside down this much, how this much corruption and depravity could be put on display by people

00:04:14.520 that you maybe thought were your friends. I'm not saying they shouldn't be your friends anymore,

00:04:18.960 but maybe these people who you thought you knew, who you thought you respected and how they have

00:04:24.940 just donned this anti-life mentality in favor of what the left has deemed a choice. So I want to speak

00:04:34.200 to that from a spiritual perspective. And I think that you are going to finish this episode feeling more

00:04:41.300 encouraged and feeling empowered and feeling emboldened. You know, I love those alliterations

00:04:45.920 than before you listened to the episode. I think that you are going to be uplifted by this. Yes,

00:04:56.260 it's scary when we think about what's at stake and we think about things that are going on that

00:05:01.220 we cannot actually see things in the heavenly realm, things in the spiritual realm, but it's good that

00:05:07.080 we take notice of it because the Bible has a lot to say about it. That means that it's important for

00:05:11.620 us Christians to know. It's so easy for us to get frustrated and to pull our hair out and to think

00:05:17.180 what is happening in the world? How can people think this way? How can people really go to the

00:05:23.740 point of thinking that, okay, not just a life inside the womb is expendable, but that it's not

00:05:27.700 even a human being. Like, how did you get to that place of absolute illogic and denial of reality? I'll

00:05:34.780 read to you some of the most popular tweets or some popular tweets that I've seen over the past few

00:05:39.600 days in regards to abortion after these laws were signed. If they're going to make it illegal for

00:05:45.320 women to get abortions, then I sure hope they're also putting a ban on using medications to get rid

00:05:50.000 of tapeworm. The government has no business telling its citizens which parasites they can or can't

00:05:56.040 remove from their bodies. This has over 32,000 likes on Twitter. Alyssa Milano says, dear press,

00:06:02.560 stop calling them heartbeat bills and call them fetal pole cardiac activity bills.

00:06:06.800 Um, here's another tweet that had a lot of retweets and likes, uh, the weeping. What about

00:06:12.560 dead babies? Pro-lifer is the worst kind. She prioritizes the fetus because it is not a person

00:06:19.400 an abstract fetish onto which she can project her rightness far easier than the messy business of

00:06:26.080 showing true Christian love to a living human stranger. Um, here's another one. This is from AOC.

00:06:33.360 There are so many logical reasons for a uterus owner to decide why they want to have an abortion

00:06:39.900 instead of adoption. Oh, I'm sorry. This one's not AOC. Uh, there are so many logical reasons for a

00:06:45.240 uterus owner to decide what they want that, why they want to have an abortion instead of adoption.

00:06:50.500 One, don't want a kid in the overpopulated adoption system. Two, physical, emotional trauma

00:06:55.720 pregnancy. Three, do not want a parasite in their uterus for nine months. Um, here's another one.

00:07:02.780 Anti-abortion laws affect all people who are able to conceive and incubate a fetus, but under, uh,

00:07:08.700 cis hetero patriarchy, they were invented to control cis women and limit our options. Pregnancy

00:07:14.240 has been a weapon used to stifle our options and access for centuries. Uh, I mean, if you want to see

00:07:21.920 the absolute, uh, cold-hearted stupidity on full display, uh, just type the word fetus into Twitter

00:07:32.280 and you will see some of the darkest, some of the dumbest, the most prideful, saddest, most illogical

00:07:39.880 refuse coming out of the depraved minds of overgrown clumps of selves that, that you have

00:07:45.540 ever seen. Uh, it is actually insane. Uh, we broke this down, all of this, not last Friday,

00:07:52.420 but the one before. And then of course this past Friday, I had an interview about these particular

00:07:57.160 bills. Um, it is just out of the realm of comprehension. I think, uh, most of the arguments,

00:08:04.460 if not all of the arguments being made from the other side. I mean, I really have yet to see one

00:08:10.060 good argument from abortion, not a single one, not, not one time. Yes. That includes the one that you're

00:08:16.300 thinking about in your head. Not, not one time. Uh, the whole, you don't care about the child after

00:08:22.440 you're born wrong. It is pro-lifers that are taking care of these mothers in crisis. It is pro-lifers

00:08:27.340 that are taking care of these children who have been born to parents who don't want them. It is

00:08:32.840 pro-lifers who are adopting for the most part. Christians are adopting more than any other group

00:08:41.040 out there. Uh, men should get vasectomies. What doesn't even make any scientific equivalent sense.

00:08:48.280 Uh, my body, my choice, not so much. Uh, it's all backwards. It is all illogical. It is all

00:08:54.860 depraved. Um, and what we have to remember, as we've said on this podcast before is that the

00:09:00.460 ignorance of the pro-choice position is much deeper than just intellectual dishonesty. It is

00:09:06.900 spiritual bankruptcy. Now that is not to say that if you don't agree with all of my politics, then you're

00:09:12.600 not a Christian or you're not a good Christian. That is not true. There are many, there are many

00:09:17.980 disagreements that we can have as Bible believing Christians on politics and policies all within the

00:09:22.340 realm of biblical Christianity. And I think that's perfectly fine, but that does not, uh, that does

00:09:27.440 not hold for the allowance of the deliberate killing of an unborn child. There is just no biblical basis

00:09:33.620 for that whatsoever. Not to mention there's not a logical basis for it either. There's not a moral

00:09:38.500 basis for it. There's not a philosophical basis for it, but most importantly for Christians, there is

00:09:43.040 no biblical basis for it. Now I have refuted all of the arguments, the common arguments that you hear

00:09:50.280 for abortion many times on this podcast. And so I would go back and I would listen to these. I know

00:09:55.480 I did one specifically from a Christian perspective called abortion ain't biblical, but I can't remember

00:10:00.580 the titles of, Oh, calling evil good. That was one where I talked about the New York bill. There

00:10:06.860 were, I'm sure I've talked about this several times and gone through all of the varying arguments that

00:10:12.320 have to do with abortion. I also have a new one that just tackles all of the arguments, uh, for

00:10:18.480 abortion that I am putting out this summer. So you can stay tuned for that. We're not going to get

00:10:23.520 into that. We are going to address the spiritual aspect of this that doesn't just have to do with

00:10:28.580 abortion has to do with every issue that we face and not just these culture war issues that we have.

00:10:34.120 It's not just a culture war issue, by the way, abortion, but I'm not just talking about cultural and

00:10:38.320 political issues. I'm also talking about real persecution. I'm talking about martyrdom.

00:10:42.420 I'm talking about the real trials that Christians are going through, not just in America, but throughout

00:10:47.460 the world where people in China, different parts of Asia, even in Europe are being mistreated for

00:10:54.040 their faith in a way that we in America simply, um, just are not completely familiar with. So this

00:11:00.480 doesn't just have to do with being pro-choice, but I'm tying it into that because so many of you

00:11:05.700 have reached out to me over the past few days and especially expressed confusion about your pro-choice

00:11:11.820 friends who say that they're Christians and who say, okay, well, this isn't a spiritual problem for

00:11:17.920 them. Yes, it is. Yes, it is a spiritual problem for them. They might call themselves Christians,

00:11:23.680 but they've got a deep seated problem in their heart because they don't take the word of God seriously.

00:11:29.280 The word of God is very clear about life inside the womb. You can read Psalm 139. You can read the

00:11:34.800 creation account. God is very clear that all human beings are made in his image and therefore have

00:11:40.600 value. You can read the Hebrew laws. You can read the new Testament to see what Jesus himself thought

00:11:47.080 about vulnerable life. So there really is no, like I said, biblical basis for it. So your friends who

00:11:52.760 call themselves Christians who are pro-choice, yes, it is a spiritual problem that they are dealing

00:11:57.500 with. It's not just cognitive dissonance. It's not just intellectual dishonesty. It is something

00:12:02.320 spiritual. It is something in their heart. That's what they have to reconcile with. And that is why

00:12:07.040 this conversation about what is going on in the spiritual realm in regards to all of the lies that

00:12:13.180 we see. And then in regards to, um, what I was saying before persecution, martyrdom, things like

00:12:19.340 that, it's all connected because it all comes from one place and that, um, is Satan. So if you are

00:12:27.080 asking yourself, if you are asking yourself, what is going on in the world, just know that you

00:12:32.360 are not alone. We are all asking ourselves that, uh, in John eight, uh, Jesus is speaking to people

00:12:39.940 who do not believe that he is who he says he is, that he is God. And he says this in verses 42 through

00:12:45.520 44, if God were your father, you would love me for, I came from God and I am here. I came not of my own

00:12:52.100 accord, but he sent me. Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot bear to hear

00:12:57.680 my word. You are of your father, the devil, and your will is to do the father, what the father

00:13:02.620 desires. Uh, he was a murderer from the beginning. That is Satan and does not stand in the truth

00:13:08.820 because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character for he is a liar

00:13:15.620 and the father of lies. So here is our reason. When we ask ourselves, why is all of this going on in

00:13:21.480 the world? How can people possibly believe all of these, uh, terrible depraved lies? How can people

00:13:28.440 act in this way? How can people treat Christians like this around the world? Whatever it is,

00:13:33.840 this is our reason because of Satan. This is not a political ideology problem. This is not

00:13:38.960 a political correctness problem. This is not a personality problem. This is not an intellectual

00:13:44.080 deficiency problem. This is a spiritual problem. That is what it is essentially. And that is what it is

00:13:50.620 ultimately. Uh, Jesus says you are of your father, the devil, and your will is to do your father's

00:13:58.480 desires. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth because there is no

00:14:04.260 truth in him. No truth. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character for he is a liar and the father

00:14:11.860 of lies. Uh, I love when he says, or I just think it's very poignant when Jesus says, uh, your will

00:14:19.480 is to do your father's desires and your father's desire. Satan is to murder and to lie. He has no

00:14:26.140 other choice. This is his nature. He is the father of lies. He brings forth all lies in him is all

00:14:32.800 deception and trickery. We see that from the very beginning with Adam and Eve, uh, he is cunning and he

00:14:38.560 is crafty in his lies. This Satan did God really say Eve that you couldn't have any fruit in the

00:14:45.000 garden. We'll know that's, that's not exactly what God said. He said, we couldn't eat from this tree.

00:14:49.880 No, forget, forget about that. Uh, Satan said, God just doesn't want you to be more like him knowing

00:14:55.300 good and evil. Uh, so you see what seems like truth weaved into this deception. Uh, God did not say

00:15:02.360 that they couldn't eat from any fruit. Adam and Eve did know good and evil after they ate it. But

00:15:07.400 just as Satan does today, he lied about the consequences. He made the fruit enticing and

00:15:12.980 the negative consequences non-existent. And so he does today. And abortion is a great

00:15:18.160 example of that. Um, so the lies that we see perpetuated that are so against what God's word

00:15:25.320 tells us is right and pure and good and true. They are not neutral misinformation. They are not

00:15:33.620 lie or they are not just, uh, innocent lies made out of ignorance. They are lies from hell. They are

00:15:41.740 from Satan. The Christian understands there is no neutral grounds in this world. There is truth

00:15:48.060 and there are lies. Uh, here is Jesus praying to the father in John 17. I have given them your word

00:15:55.180 and the world has hated them because they are not of the world. Just as I am not of the world. I do not

00:16:01.520 ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. Sanctify them in

00:16:07.240 the truth. Your word is truth. So what is truth? God's word is truth. God is the source of truth.

00:16:15.080 Satan is the source of deception. God is the source of truth. And there is no third alternative.

00:16:22.360 Ephesians two, we're going to stay in Ephesians for a while here. Ephesians two says this,

00:16:26.680 and you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked following the course of this

00:16:32.400 world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of

00:16:38.920 disobedience, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of

00:16:45.060 the body and the mind and were by nature, children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. Uh, so the Bible

00:16:53.020 says that Satan is the prince of the power of the air. He allowed by a sovereign God has power. He has

00:17:01.080 jurisdiction in this life. He has a realm in which he reigns. Uh, he is the spirit that is now at work

00:17:08.160 in what Ephesians calls the sons of disobedience. Who are the sons of disobedience? Are they just the

00:17:13.220 terrorists? Are they just the really bad people? No, the next sentence, uh, says among whom we all

00:17:19.880 once lived in the passions of our flesh. This is talking those of us, uh, who were pre Christ doing

00:17:26.580 what carrying out. This is what we were doing as sons of disobedience, uh, before Christ, we were

00:17:31.960 carrying out simply the desires of the body and the mind. So we were just doing what we wanted to do.

00:17:38.440 We were satisfying all of our selfish cravings. We were glorifying ourselves. We were serving ourselves.

00:17:44.440 We were doing the things our body and our minds wanted to do. And what were we when we were doing

00:17:49.680 those things? We were children of wrath, of wrath. We were of God's anger. We were under God's

00:17:56.060 judgment. We were under God's condemnation. We were enemies of God. We were literally offsprings of evil.

00:18:02.080 We were depraved to the core. We were children of the father of lies. That is the picture that God

00:18:07.740 through Paul paints, uh, of those who do not know Christ. Uh, and yes, uh, we can acknowledge the

00:18:14.960 very true fact that there are people who are not Christians who do not know Christ and yet seem to

00:18:21.380 resemble or reflect a biblical form of morality. That is true. There is, uh, there is a way for a

00:18:28.500 non-Christian to follow biblical morality without knowing Christ. But the Bible makes clear that apart

00:18:34.480 from Christ, not one of us is really righteous. Not ultimately we are not really righteous. No, not

00:18:39.860 one of us. And apart from Christ, we are dead in our sin. So it is possible for someone to have good

00:18:45.580 behavior and even seemingly good motives, uh, from as a non-Christian by following the biblical morality

00:18:53.140 that we see in scripture, but ultimately apart from Christ, no one is righteous. So I just do want to

00:18:59.380 make that clear because I can see a lot of you thinking that, and I would be wondering that too.

00:19:04.480 But this is the picture that the Bible paints of those who are apart from Christ, whether you are

00:19:09.780 a Christian or not, if you adhere to a principle that is of God, um, that is not of God, that is

00:19:16.420 not of God's word, then you are believing a lie that is from Satan. Uh, John 12 31 calls Satan the

00:19:22.820 ruler of this world. So again, it is no question that he has great power. And that is when we are

00:19:29.200 combating lies and movements and authorities and laws and powers that are contrary to what God

00:19:34.400 calls righteous and holy. That is what we are up against the ruler of this world, the prince of

00:19:39.860 the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, the father of lies,

00:19:45.280 the father of the children of wrath. That is what we are up against. First John 5 19 says that the whole

00:19:51.240 world lies in the power of the evil one. And what is his goal? What is, uh, the goal of the father of

00:19:59.120 lies of Satan to steal, to kill and to destroy as John 10 10 says. So since we are up against a

00:20:08.000 spiritual adversary, our weaponry against this adversary also has to be spiritual. Yes, we use

00:20:14.300 wisdom. We use logic. We use strategy. We use dialogue. As long as all of these things are rooted

00:20:20.160 in God's truth, they are helpful. But our first order of duty as Christians who are facing the schemes

00:20:25.980 of Satan every day is to know and to share the gospel, the message of Christ crucified, uh, immediately

00:20:33.600 after that paragraph I read to you from Ephesians 2. Um, so it says that we were all children of wrath

00:20:40.320 among whom we all once, uh, lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body

00:20:45.680 and the mind and were by nature, children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. The next sentence says

00:20:51.140 this, but God, but God being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us. Even when

00:20:58.620 we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. And then it goes on to say

00:21:03.680 by grace, you have been saved through faith. This is not your own doing. So the way people move from

00:21:09.560 being children of wrath, sons of disobedience, believing lies to being children of God, the father of truth

00:21:18.500 is through Christ, which God gave to us graciously to reconcile us to himself, to save us that by

00:21:25.620 faith, we may believe in him and have eternal life so that we no longer have to be ruled by the father

00:21:31.200 of lies, the prince of the power of the air, but rather are ruled by Christ and therefore are freed

00:21:36.560 from sin and death under the authority of a gracious God, the same God who said, while Satan comes to steal,

00:21:42.560 kill and destroy, I have come that you may have life and have it abundantly. So how do we make the world

00:21:50.100 see the light in anything? How do we spread wisdom? We first and foremost share the gospel. Ephesians

00:21:58.580 emphasizes this time and again, that we go from being under the father of lies to being in truth and in

00:22:06.800 Christ, uh, through the gospel. So chapter four of Ephesians says this, now this, I say, this is God

00:22:14.100 through Paul. This is Paul writing. Now this, I say, and testify in the Lord that you must no longer

00:22:19.840 walk as the Gentiles. That means non-Christians as the Gentiles do in this context. It means non-Christians

00:22:25.800 and the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God

00:22:31.560 because of the ignorance that is in them due to their hardness of heart. They have become callous

00:22:36.820 and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. But that is not

00:22:43.400 the way that you learned Christ, assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him as the

00:22:48.400 truth is in Jesus to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt

00:22:54.080 through deceitful desires and to be renewed in the spirit of your mind and to put on the new self

00:22:59.240 created after the likeness of God and true righteousness and holiness. So when people are

00:23:05.780 apart from Christ, the Bible says, when people don't know Christ, their minds are ultimately

00:23:11.100 futile. They are ultimately darkened in their understanding. They are ultimately alienated

00:23:16.940 from God. They are ultimately ignorant. Hearts are hardened. They are callous. They can give in to all

00:23:22.340 kinds of temptation. They are vulnerable to all kinds of sin. They demonstrate an eagerness to be impure.

00:23:29.780 But when we have Christ, we put that stuff behind us. We're free from it. We take it off. It's

00:23:34.920 corrupt through what? Through deceit, which is all that Satan speaks. And we are renewed. We put on a

00:23:41.320 new self and that new self, thanks to Christ, is righteous and holy. Chapter five of Ephesians says

00:23:47.540 this, for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light,

00:23:55.580 for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true. And try to discern what

00:24:01.620 is pleasing to the Lord. Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose

00:24:06.780 them, for it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret. But when anything

00:24:12.080 is exposed by the light, it becomes visible. For anything that becomes visible is light. Therefore,

00:24:17.500 it says, awake, oh sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you. Look

00:24:23.860 carefully then how you walk, not as unwise, but as wise, making the best use of the time

00:24:29.760 because the days are evil. Isn't that the truth? The days are evil. Therefore, no wisdom

00:24:35.880 and walk in it. The fear of the Lord, the Bible says, is the beginning of wisdom. I love

00:24:42.120 this. So in Ephesians 2, God says that when we are apart from Christ, that we are children

00:24:47.680 of wrath. In Ephesians 5, God says that when we are in Christ, we are children of light.

00:24:54.120 And he is even so great as to go on and define what that light is. What is light or what is

00:24:59.880 the product of light? It's simple, God says. The fruit of light is found in all that is good,

00:25:05.180 in all that is right, in all that is true. What is good? What is right? What is true? God is

00:25:11.600 the source of all of these things. And God tells us, if we go back to the abortion example,

00:25:16.260 that we are all made in his image, that he knits us together in our mother's womb. So

00:25:20.900 this is the passage that you guys know all very well. Psalm 139, 13 through 16,

00:25:26.760 for you formed my inward parts. You knitted me together in my mother's womb. I praise you for

00:25:31.540 I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works. My soul knows it very well. My frame was

00:25:37.540 not hidden from you when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the

00:25:42.520 earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance and your book were written every one of them. The days that

00:25:47.920 were formed for me when as yet there were none of them. So God values life. God values unborn life.

00:25:54.680 That's what he says is good and right and true according to his own word. And what is good and

00:25:59.820 right and true according to Ephesians 5 is the product of light. And what we are according to that same

00:26:06.340 passage is children of light. So in all things, not just abortion, but in all things, we are children

00:26:13.660 of light, children of a good, righteous, heavenly father who is by nature love as first John 4, 8 says

00:26:21.240 in fighting against a wicked and evil worldly father who by nature is lies. And the only way for someone to

00:26:29.100 be transferred from belonging to the lying father is through Jesus Christ. So our first and our primary order of

00:26:40.260 business in all that we do as Christians is to share the gospel of Christ that he who knew no sin became sin so that

00:26:48.280 we might become the righteousness of God. For children, from children of wrath, sons and daughters of disobedience,

00:26:56.100 slaves to sin, enemies of goodness bound for hell to the righteousness of God, all because of Jesus

00:27:03.140 Christ, not because of our own doing, but because of his, that is a miracle, miraculous reconciliation

00:27:08.300 that we did not deserve. Uh, so do not separate fighting for truth and for justice and righteousness

00:27:15.140 from the gospel. You cannot separate those things. It is all for not. If you do, uh, minds might

00:27:23.100 change superficially by our logic, which is important. Uh, but hearts are going to stay deceived

00:27:29.340 eternally unless we tell them about Jesus, who is the only one who makes rights.

00:27:35.500 Yet once we are in Christ, you've probably noticed in your own life, once we are in Christ, uh, God makes

00:27:44.440 clear that there's still a fight ahead of us, that we are still going to find ourselves contending with

00:27:50.160 Satan. Uh, we are still going to face temptation. We saw that with Jesus in the wilderness. He is

00:27:56.320 still going to lie to us. He is still going to try to deceive us. He is still going to make us and

00:28:02.200 others, uh, believe things that are not true, or he's going to try to anyway. And beyond what, uh,

00:28:08.520 we ourselves will experience now that we are in Christ, uh, we see the stupor that Satan is putting

00:28:14.860 over the world. Uh, and we have to be able to stand up against that. The Bible does not say once you

00:28:20.200 know Christ, you don't have to deal with Satan anymore. Uh, he doesn't say that now you escape

00:28:24.100 struggle and deception and temptation. No, he is. Satan is the prince of the power of the air. He is

00:28:28.920 the ruler of this world. And we are still physically in this world. We are still, um, we are still here

00:28:35.600 and we still have to deal with the things that are around us. It's just that now you and I as

00:28:41.080 Christians have the tools in Christ to conquer him. Uh, so what do we do or conquer his lies

00:28:47.180 anyway? So what do we do? Uh, Ephesians six has an answer. This is a long passage. Probably a lot

00:28:53.240 of you who grew up in Sunday school are very familiar with it. This is what we do in the face

00:28:57.380 of Satan's lies. Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might, put on the whole

00:29:05.100 armor of God that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle

00:29:10.060 against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers

00:29:15.140 over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore,

00:29:21.400 take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day and having done

00:29:27.040 all to stand firm, stand. Therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth and having put on the breastplate

00:29:33.180 of righteousness and as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace

00:29:38.960 in all circumstances, take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts

00:29:44.660 of the evil one and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of

00:29:49.380 God, praying at all times in the spirit with all prayer and supplication to that end, keep alert with

00:29:55.940 all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints. And also for me, that words may be given me

00:30:01.580 and opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel for which I am an ambassador in chains

00:30:07.080 that I may declare it boldly as I ought to speak. Ephesians, by the way, if you haven't noticed and

00:30:13.200 listening to my podcast, you probably have, is my favorite book of the Bible. If I'm allowed to pick

00:30:17.460 a favorite, it's my favorite book of the Bible. Genesis and Ephesians. Genesis, I just find genuinely

00:30:23.420 really entertaining. Like I can just read it like any book. And Ephesians just gives so much practical,

00:30:31.540 good gospel wisdom as of course every book does, but I love how it's put in this particular letter.

00:30:37.640 We could spend hours on this chunk of scripture, but just to break down what God through Paul just

00:30:43.360 said in that chapter of Ephesians 6. First, we are to be strong. So be strong in what? In ourselves?

00:30:52.000 No, in the Lord and the strength of his might. Romans 8 says, if our God is for us, who can be against

00:30:58.120 us? Then put on the whole armor. Whose armor? Our armor? No, the Bible says God's armor. All of it.

00:31:06.180 Why? So we can stand against the schemes of the devil. That tells us that he is still going to be

00:31:11.380 working on us and those around us, even though we are in Christ. Then it is clear after that,

00:31:19.080 the enemy that we have, our ultimate primary enemy are not politicians. They're not Twitter users.

00:31:25.080 They're not influencers. They're not your friends. They're not celebrities. They are not flesh and

00:31:30.480 blood people. They are against spiritual forces of evil. We may not be able to see them, but we

00:31:36.000 recognize them because they contradict God's word. That is not, by the way, this is not to just say that

00:31:44.140 this qualifies everyone who disagrees with you as a spiritual force of evil. This is not a nickname for

00:31:50.720 the people who disagree with you. These are the people who stand opposed to the word of God. And

00:31:54.440 therefore, therefore, if they are not in Christ, they are of Satan. Again, we're told take up armor.

00:32:01.960 How much of it? The whole armor. Whose armor? God's armor. Why? To withstand evil and to be able to

00:32:07.580 persevere. So what is this armor? It is a belt of truth. It is a breastplate of righteousness. It is shoes

00:32:13.360 of readiness to share the gospel. In all circumstance, we are to have a shield of faith.

00:32:19.060 Why? Your faith, the Bible tells us, extinguishes the flaming dart of the evil one. Put on your helmet

00:32:24.840 of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God, which is why all of us need to be

00:32:30.920 in our Bibles. And then once you have armed yourself fully with this armor, what do we do?

00:32:37.100 You pray. You stay alert. You persevere. You pray for your brothers and your sisters in Christ. You pray

00:32:42.500 the gospel would be shared boldly, which is something that all of us can do more of and be

00:32:47.340 better at. I love that the Bible gives us tools in the midst of this warfare that we are facing so we

00:32:53.600 don't have to despair, so we don't have to lose heart, so we don't have to be helpless. We have

00:32:57.740 commands to follow. We have a role in this. We have armor that God has given us in Jesus. We are equipped

00:33:06.020 to fight against Satan and his schemes. We are up against a real power, real authorities in the

00:33:11.960 spiritual realm, and in Christ. We are actually prepared and able to fight against them. And again,

00:33:19.220 who is our power and what is our trump card? What is our victory? It's Jesus and his gospel.

00:33:27.060 Colossians 2, 13 through 15. And you who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your

00:33:33.400 flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses by canceling the record

00:33:39.560 of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.

00:33:45.920 He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame by triumphing over them in him.

00:33:52.460 So we have triumph over these evil spiritual principalities in a symbol that the world sees

00:33:59.280 as humiliating, which is a cross, the cross of Christ. John Piper has this really good quote that says,

00:34:08.800 the decisive blow was struck at Calvary. The decisive blow against the enemy was struck at Calvary.

00:34:16.200 We already have victory. And when we fight, we are fighting from a place of victory, not from a place

00:34:22.780 of anxiety, of not knowing who is going to win in the end. We know, we know who wins. And now we are

00:34:29.660 waiting for Jesus to return to judge the living and the dead, as 2 Timothy 4, 1 says,

00:34:34.740 to destroy Satan once and for all so that he has no power. He will be non-existent. All truth will

00:34:42.480 be exposed. All lies will be snuffed out. 2 Peter 3, 8 through 10 says, but do not overlook this one

00:34:48.920 fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years and a thousand years is as one day.

00:34:54.820 The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient towards you,

00:35:00.680 not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. But the day of the Lord

00:35:05.880 will come like a thief and then the heavens will pass away with a roar and the heavenly bodies will

00:35:10.660 be burned up and dissolved in the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.

00:35:16.640 So we wait, not idly, but actively and urgently. We arm ourselves with the full armor of God. We pray,

00:35:24.180 we share the gospel. We love our neighbor. We do justice. We love mercy. We walk humbly with the

00:35:29.880 Lord. These are the things that we are called to do, even though we know victory is here and victory

00:35:35.260 is inevitable. We fight, we battle, we push forward with the power of Christ. That is what we are called

00:35:42.680 to do. So those of you who feel discouraged know that I feel your pain and I empathize with you. There

00:35:48.400 are nights that I lay awake thinking about unborn children and thinking about the brutality

00:35:53.980 that they endure and how sad it makes me that we have allowed, we have allowed and created a

00:35:59.600 culture in which convenience takes precedence over life. So we as Christians, we have a lot of work

00:36:07.540 to do, not just in helping our friends see what is true, but in loving the least of these, in loving

00:36:13.520 these children, in loving these mothers and doing all of the work that pro-choicers say that we don't

00:36:18.600 care about doing. They're never going to believe us. Why? Because of everything that we just

00:36:23.380 talked about. And so we have to arm ourselves with the armor of God. We know truth. We are

00:36:28.020 confident in Christ and we are called to do what God calls us to do. It doesn't matter how many insane

00:36:33.940 arguments they put before you. That doesn't change your and my responsibility to be representatives

00:36:39.720 and ambassadors of Christ. So I hope that this has made you feel like you have hope in the midst of

00:36:47.540 this, that there is purpose in all of this. There is a reason for all of this and you have a role

00:36:51.800 in all of this. We are not to just sit by and let this stuff happen. We're not. We have an active

00:36:57.760 role to play because of the graciousness of God who has given us responsibility in his kingdom to

00:37:04.960 carry out his commands. So thank you guys for listening. If you have any questions or if you

00:37:11.720 have any comments, anything like that, of course, you can email me,

00:37:14.300 Allie at the conservative millennial blog.com. And I will see you back here on Wednesday.

Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - May 20, 2019

Ep 114 ｜ This Is War

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