The Church: Its Meaning - The Playground for the Enemy of God, Part 1

I told you last Sunday that today would be the most important message I've ever preached in the 30 years I've been here. Now, I know that over the 30 years, there are times I have said that today would be the most important message. At that time, it was. But after 30 years of being your pastor, I believe that this is the most important message I will ever preach. And of course, because it is the most important, it won't be just part one, there'll be a part two and a part three, maybe even a part four, who knows?

But I'm gonna let you know, if you do not know this, that the church is in imminent danger. If you don't know that, I'm going to explain it to you this morning. The church, not just our church, not just Christ's community church, but every church around the world is in imminent danger. And that's because the church is the playground of the enemy of God. We started this series back in June. I wanted to preach this sermon first, but I decided to wait until almost the end to preach this one, just so that we can understand the importance of our mission and ministry.

The biblical truth, so eloquently stated in scripture, is that Satan has, is, and will be always trying to thwart the purposes of God through the people of God. If you don't understand that, I would invite you to turn with me to Peter's first epistle, chapter five, verse number eight, a very familiar verse.

It says this, be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. But resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world. Satan has always had a mission. His purposes are never the same as God's purposes. But Peter says you need to be vigilant. You need to be sober-minded. You need to be on the alert. You need to be awake. Why? Because your adversary, Satan is the adversary of God.

He's the adversary of the holy angels, but he is your adversary as well. Your adversary is relentless. Your adversary is coming against you. If you don't understand that, ask Job, ask the apostle Paul, who himself said that I have a thorn in the flesh given to me by a messenger of Satan. He asked the Lord to remove that three times, and the Lord said no, because his grace would be sufficient for the great apostle. He also said in 1 Corinthians 16, verse number nine, that a wide and effective door for ministry has been opened unto me, but yet there are many adversaries.

There is a wide opportunity, but with that opportunity comes much opposition. The apostle Paul understood that. Be on the alert, be sober-minded, because your adversary, Diabolos, the devil, the slanderer, the malicious one, is on the prowl. Jesus, three times in John's gospel, John 12, 14, and 16, said that the devil is the ruler of this world. The apostle John would say in 1 John 5, verse number 19, that the whole world lies in the lap of the wicked one, the evil one, Satan himself. He's the one who commands the demonic realm and administrates the human fallen world system.

And Satan and his demons are relentless, because they hunt to kill. Notice what it says, that your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking who he may wound?

No. Hurt? No. Devour. He's looking to devour you. He's not looking to wound you, to brush by you. He's looking to destroy you. In other words, his wickedness will always be relentless. And although hidden in the spirit world, Satan and his emissaries have always done their work through human agents. Paul talks about it in 1 Timothy chapter four. Peter talks about it in 2 Peter chapter two, when he says, false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves.

And many will follow the sensuality. And because of them, the way of truth will be maligned. And in their greed, they will exploit you with false words. Their judgment from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep. And then Jude, Jude himself would say it this way. He said, for certain persons have crept in unnoticed. Those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons, who turned the grace of God into licentiousness and deny our only master and Lord Jesus Christ.

The great example of this, of course, is our Lord. When the Bible says in Revelation chapter 12, these words.

He says, verse number four, and the dragon, who was Satan, stood before the woman who was Israel, who was about to give birth, so that when she gave birth, he, that is Satan, might devour her child. He couldn't devour the child, so he seeks to deceive and destroy the people of God. How did Satan do this? Through human agents. It was Herod who wanted to destroy all the children two years and younger because the Magi had told him there was a king that was born, the king of the Jews, and he wanted no rival to his kingship.

And so discerning the time in which the Magi came and they saw the star, realizing that the best way to do this is to kill every child two years and younger, to try to kill the Messiah, didn't work. So Satan decided to tempt Jesus in the wilderness. And as he was there, he said, "'Throw yourself off the pinnacle of the temple, "'and your angels who have charge over you will save you, "'and I will give you the kingdoms of the world.' But Christ resisted him steadfast, firm in the faith." Oh, by the way, Satan even used Peter in Matthew chapter 16 when Peter tried to distract the Lord from his ultimate mission of death.

And Christ said to Peter, "'Get thee behind me, Satan.'" He used Judas who betrayed him. He used the religious establishment to come against him. Satan always uses human agents to devour. And destroy the people of God. So Peter says, resist him, firm in the faith. The only way you resist the evil one is by sound biblical truth, by the body of doctrine that is so eloquently listed in scripture. That's why Jude says, contend earnestly for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. Why?

Because Satan is a liar and a deceiver. And if you're not firm in the faith, you will be easily deceived and you will buy into his lies. So you need to be sound in doctrine, biblical truth. Again, the church is the playground of the enemy of God. Over in 1 Corinthians chapter seven, listen to what Paul says. Verse number four, the wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does. And likewise also the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does. Stop depriving one another, except by agreement for a time so that you may devote yourselves to prayer and come together again, so that Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.

Paul says, you know what? You need to understand that in marriage, you cannot back away from sexual intimacy, except for one reason only, to devote yourselves to prayer and only when you are in agreement. The minute you stop having sexual intimacy in your marriage, you've given Satan a foothold into your marriage to tempt you and to lead you astray. Why do you think that pornography is such a major issue in the pew? Why do you think men cheat on their wives and wives cheat on their husbands? And they go to church every week simply because they've given a foothold into the marriage and Satan has tempted them.

But Paul wasn't done because in the book of Ephesians, he said this, be angry and yet do not sin. Do not let the sun go down on your anger and do not give the devil an opportunity. In other words, he says, listen, whatever you do, do not let the sun go down on your wrath. Don't go to bed angry. Don't go away from church angry. Don't let the sun go down on your wrath because if you do, you have now just opened the door for Satan to move in your life, to tempt you. Why do you think there is so much bitterness in people's lives?

They get angry. They refuse to solve the conflict. They go to bed angry. They begin to resent this individual or individuals or even the church. And they begin to resent it and become bitter. They become vengeful. Why? Why? Because they weren't firm in the faith. They didn't understand Ephesians chapter four and how important it was not to give Satan a foothold into your life by not dealing with the conflict early on. And a root of bitterness wells up and what does Hebrews 12, 15 say? A root of bitterness always defiles many.

Show me a person who's bitter and I'll show you a person who's defiled their husband and their children. Show me a person who's bitter and I'll show you a person who's defiled those closest to him. Show me a person who's bitter and I'll show you the evil effects of his life because the sun went down upon his wrath, gave place and opportunity for the devil. Why? Because the church is the playground of the enemy of God. Unfortunately, when Paul says this, put on the whole armor of God, Ephesians chapter six, so you can withstand the wiles of the devil.

But you see, most of us are not even aware of this. How do you know you're not aware? Because when you got up this morning, the first thing in your mind was not, I'm going to war.

First thing in your mind was I'm going to church or I'm gonna look at my phone and figure out what happened last night in the news.

You don't wake up today thinking, you know what? Today's a day of warfare. I'm going to battle. I gotta be ready. I can't afford not to put on the armor of God. I cannot afford not to resist him firm in the faith. You see, it was the Apostle Paul who said this to the Corinthians in 2 Corinthians chapter two. 2 Corinthians chapter two, he says this, but one whom you forgive anything, I forgive also for indeed what I have forgiven. If I have forgiven anything, I did it for your sakes and the presence of Christ so that no advantage would be taken of us by Satan for we are not ignorant of his schemes.

He tells the church of Corinth, there's a man who's fallen into sin. He's been disciplined by the church. Now he's repented of his sin. And now you need to forgive this person because if you're unwilling to forgive the person, he warns the church, you cannot be ignorant of Satan's devices. So he tells the church, you must be a forgiving kind of people because if you do not forgive this brother, his sin, it's going to affect the whole church because we are not ignorant of Satan's schemes, Satan's devices.

But unfortunately, we're not very aware of Satan's devices. But when you have an unforgiving spirit in your marriage, in your church, toward your boss at work or your employees at work, you have an unforgiving spirit. Satan will use that in such a way to cause you to become vengeful, bitter, resentful, angry. You see, that's not what the Lord wants. The Lord wants us to deal with people lovingly, graciously, with mercy and kindness. Satan doesn't want that. In fact, he doesn't want you to even confront sin at all.

He doesn't even want you to deal with sin. Show me a church that doesn't practice church discipline and I'll show you a church where Satan is having a heyday in that playground because Satan doesn't want you to confront sin. And if you confront sin, he wants you to do it in a harsh way, in an angry way, in a merciless way, not in a kind, loving way. Paul would later go on to say to the Corinthian church, in 2 Corinthians chapter 11, he says in verse two, for I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy, for I betrothed you to one husband so that to Christ I might present you as a pure virgin.

He's speaking to the church. He's speaking to the church at Corinth. He's speaking to the church at large because we are the bride of Christ and he wants to present us as a pure virgin. But I'm afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ. Paul was so aware of Satan's devices, he was concerned that the bride would be deceived like Eve was. Remember, Adam wasn't deceived. First Timothy 2.13 tells us that the woman was deceived.

Adam was not. He just engaged in sin. But the woman, she was deceived. How was she deceived? Satan planted seeds of doubt. Has God really said what you say he said? And then he openly denied God's truth. You will not die. And then he offered a lie in his place. You will be like God. That's how Satan operates. He gets you to doubt the truth. And then he denies what God says and then he offers an alternative.

That sounds really, really good. And Paul said, I am concerned that somehow you will be led away, led astray, distracted from your purity and devotion to Christ. I have seen this happen in our church hundreds of times in the last 30 years. You see people who are excited about serving the Lord, they're coming on Wednesday nights for Bible study, they're coming on Sunday morning, they're sitting down and having a great time, they're involved in service and they're excited about going to a men's study or a women's study and they're all fired up.

But sooner or later, they stop attending. They stop coming on Wednesdays, just on Sundays. And then it comes sporadically on Sundays. Then they begin to move from the front to the back and then they move out. What happened? Someone has stolen their purity and devotion to the truth and to Christ. What was once a passion, what was once a drive, what was once an excitement, what was once an absolute desire has all of a sudden been squelched because they've been deceived. They had not stood firm in the faith.

They believed a lie. And the next thing you know, they're no longer devoted to Christ. It's sad. Paul said these words in Acts 20 to the Ephesian elders. If you don't think the church is the playground of the enemy of God, listen to what Paul says. Verse number 29. I know that after my departure, savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. Savage wolves will rise up from within. They're not coming from without, they're coming from within. And from among you, your own selves, men will arise speaking perverse things to draw away the disciples after them.

Therefore, be on the alert, remembering that night and day for a period of three years, I did not cease to admonish each one with tears. Paul is saying that I preached the most important message for three years, day and night with tears, because after I leave, savage wolves will arise from within and lead the people of God astray. They were not alert. Timothy would become the next pastor. But if you read the book of Revelation and look at history, Ephesus was destroyed.

The church no longer exists because savage wolves came from within and destroyed the church. Paul says, I know that the church is the playground of the enemy of God. So I'm gonna warn you right now, day and night, I'm gonna do it with tears because I'm soon going to be leaving. Imagine a church pastored by the greatest preacher to ever live outside of Christ. Started, pastored, led, discipled, but it did not stand firm in the faith. It was not awake and alert. It was not vigilant. And thus they were destroyed.

Satan's activity is not overt. It is covert. It's subtle. It's indistinguishable and indiscernible to the untrained eye and the undiscerning mind. Christ said, after he gave a parable in Matthew 13 about how the word of God would be sown in the kingdom age, he gave another parable about how the enemy will sow tares among the wheat. And the tares and the wheat will grow together to the end of the age because the tares will be indiscernible. They will be indistinguishable from the wheat until the end of the age.

So let me illustrate it for you. These words are not mine. I came across them as I was reading once again this past couple of weeks. I want to share it with you. In the mid 20th century, there were two young and gifted evangelists. They came into the scene in the United States at the same time. They were called the Gold Dust Twins. One of those young evangelists, you know very well. His name was Billy Graham. The other, not so much. His name was Charles Templeton. It was Charles Templeton, Billy Graham, and Torrey Johnson who founded the Ministry Youth for Christ.

By all accounts, Charles Templeton was the more gifted preacher of the Gold Dust Twins. Intelligent, handsome, winsome, eloquent, oratorical, brilliant, persuasive, and effective. All those words were used to describe him. In fact, in 1946, the National Association of Evangelicals gave him an award. And the award was titled, The Best Used of God. For a time, Charles Templeton overshadowed Billy Graham. He was considered a better and more effective speaker. The two of them went on evangelistic tour of Europe.

They preached in England, Scotland, Ireland, Sweden, and a few other places. They alternated as they went preaching to large audiences. Charles Templeton was given an opportunity to have a weekly television program on NBC and CBS in the 1950s. In the United States, he preached to as many as 20,000 people a night. He often preached in youth rallies with thousands of young people. He attended Princeton Seminary. He became a church planter, a pastor, and an evangelist with the Presbyterian Church. He even had opportunity to do a week of gospel preaching at Yale University.

Charles Templeton was a formidable man, but in 1957, Charles Templeton declared himself an agnostic. He rejected both the Bible and Jesus Christ. He attached the firmness of that rejection to reading Thomas Paine and other authors. He said that in 10 days' time, he read Voltaire, Bertrand Russell, Robert Inglesoll, David Hume, and Aldous Huxley. By the end of those 10 days, he determined to leave the ministry. With $600 in the pocket, he returned to Canada and became a journalist. After being a journalist for a while, he became a politician and almost became the prime minister of Canada.

In 1957, he stepped into the eternal blackness of apostasy. He blasphemed Christ and signed off with a book entitled, Farewell to God. Farewell to God. What happened? What happened to Charles Templeton? That he would apostasize the faith? Well, maybe you'll understand it when you understand two other preachers. Two of them you know very well. Both were called by Jesus personally. Both answered the call. Both forsook everything and followed Jesus. Both declared repeatedly their personal devotion to Christ.

Both were personally taught and trained by Jesus for a preaching ministry. Both were intimately acquainted with him every hour of the day, every day of the week for years. They were taught by him with perfect clarity, power, conviction that no parallel or ever will happen. They were taught by example and everything he ever taught them, he lived to perfection. They were taught to know the will of God. They were taught the word of God, to know it, believe it, live it, love it and preach it. Both saw the miracles of Jesus day after day as he banished illness from the land of Israel.

No one has ever had a teacher his equal, not even close. Both clearly saw the revelation of his divine nature. They saw his power over demons, disease, nature and death. Both of them heard Jesus respond to every theological question perfectly. Clearly, both were confronted daily with the reality of their sin by living with the sinless one. Both were told day after day that every sinner needs salvation. Both were told about the reality of eternal heaven and eternal hell. Both received and used the very power the Lord Jesus delegated to them to preach effectively, to do healings and to cast out demons.

Both exercised that power and both preached Jesus as Messiah, Savior, Son of Man and Son of God. They shared all of this together. They were exposed to Jesus in identical ways. And there's more. Both were sinners and they knew it. Both were so aware of their sin that they were overwhelmed with guilt to a crushing level. Both gave themselves over to Satan and took up Satan's cause. In the end, both of them betrayed Jesus boldly, emphatically, openly, publicly and resolutely. They both did this at the end of all their training and experience.

Just before Jesus was crucified, both of them were completely devastated by what they had done. One of them, in spite of his wicked betrayal of the Savior, is considered so honorable, so noble and such a grand figure that millions of people have been named after him. His name, Peter. There's even a feminine form of his name across the world, Petra. The other man, not so much. He is considered so dishonorable and so despicable that although his name means praised, very few people have it. His name is hated and reviled by many.

One of those preachers ended his life by suicide, hanging himself and being eternally banished. The other ended his life as saint, crucified upside down, but eternally blessed. One of them, we will meet in heaven. The other one will be met in hell by those who reject Christ. You'd have to go to hell to meet Judas. And other apostate and defecting preachers. Two men, side by side with each other and with Jesus for three years. And then separated from each other for all eternity. One of them is the first name in each of the four New Testament lists of apostles.

The other one is the last name in every list. One of them is enthroned in highest heaven and the other one is consigned to the lowest hell. One of them will be honored forever and the other will be tortured forever. Amazingly, both betrayed the Lord Jesus and both regretted what they had done. Both were sorry. And all this brings us to a very important point. Salvation can't be by works because they both did the same works. They both did the same miracles. Salvation can't be by knowledge. They both had the same information.

So what was the difference between Judas and Peter? Think about that. The church, the playground of the enemy of God is filled with Peters and Judas's. Filled. People who are involved in ministry. People who go on mission trips. People who serve side by side with those involved in specific kinds of ministries. Those who come every Sunday to church. Those who are involved in Bible studies. They might even go door to door in visitation. They might even visit people in the hospital doing the same kinds of things, but yet in eternity apart from those who are true believers.

The question comes, what is the difference? Christ said it very well. He said, not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name cast out demons and in your name perform many miracles? And that I will declare to them, I never knew you, depart from me, you who practice lawlessness. Jesus warned, very first sermon, there will be many, not a few, many who will say to me on that day, did we not do all these things in your name?

And Christ said, I never ever knew you. So what is the difference between Peter and Judas? If they both did the same thing, and they both had the same teacher, and they both denied the same Lord, what is the difference between Peter and Judas? The answer, one loved the Savior and the other loved himself. That's the difference. When Judas realized that everything he had put his hope in, that he would rule and reign in the kingdom and be a part of the king's entourage, and that wasn't gonna come to fruition, he was done because he was in it for himself.

Peter really loved the Lord. The greatest commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. Not just partially, but with everything. Paul would say in 1 Corinthians 16, 22, if anyone does not love the Lord, he is to be accursed. Accursed. Jesus said these words in which Judas heard. Christ said, he who has my commandments and keeps them is the one who loves me. And he who loves me and will be loved by my father, I will love him and will disclose myself to him.

If anyone loves me, he will keep my word. My father will love him. We will come to him and make our abode with him. He who does not love me does not keep my words. And the word which you hear is not mine, but the father's who sent me. True love for Jesus responds to him in discipline acts of obedience. Because you love him, you keep his commandments. Peter denied the Lord, but he did not deny the Lord fully and finally.

Judas denied the Lord fully and finally, because he didn't love the Lord. In fact, it was the Lord who said to Peter, do you love me? Peter says, Lord, you know all things. You know that I love you. He says, then you follow me because you're gonna stretch out your hands. In other words, the symbol for death. You're gonna be crucified for following me. And Peter followed him because Peter loved him. It was Peter who said in 1 Peter 1.8, though you have not seen him, you love him. Charles Templeton died in 2001.

His last words recorded were, I miss him. Remorse, yes. Regret, some. Repentance, none. He went off into eternal hell. Imagine that. That's what the Bible says in 2 Corinthians 13.5.

Let a man examine himself. Paul would do this to the church at Corinth. Chapter two, he says, don't be ignorant of Satan's devices. Why? Because the church is the playground of the enemy of God. In 2 Corinthians 11, he says, you know what? It's very easy for you to be deceived like Eve was and be led away from your purity and devotion to truth because that's what Satan does. So at the end, in 2 Corinthians 13.5, he says, you know what? You better examine yourself, test yourself, prove yourself to see if Jesus is really in you.

And I can't think of a better way to do that than at the communion table because Paul would say, as he would give instructions about the Lord's table, he would say, let a man examine himself before he eats and drinks of the cup. Why? Because you don't want to eat and drink of the cup in an unworthy manner. You want to do it in a way that honors the Lord. The church, the church is seen as a playground of the enemy of God in Scripture. And next week, I'm going to show you five churches that succumbed to the enemy of God.

In those five churches, we'll give you Satan's five-step process in destroying every church he can. But that's next week. This week, we're going to examine ourselves. The worst thing ever is for you to think you're saved. You need to know you're saved. If you think you're saved, you're probably not. Because those who are saved know they're saved. They have the assurance of eternal glory. They don't worry about death because they know where they're going when they die. Because they know that Jesus Christ died on Calvary's cross for them.

And they've embraced that wholeheartedly. They love himself. Let me pray with you. Father, we thank you for today. Our prayer, Father, is that you would work in all of our hearts. Cause us to realize the importance of saving grace. You have warned all throughout the scriptures of false teachers, self-deception, Satan's schemes, how we need to be on guard, be vigilant, be sober. And that we are to resist him, firm in the faith. Sound in biblical truth. Knowing what you've said, so we don't believe a lie.

So we are not deceived. So we are not led astray from the purity and devotion to Christ. Lord, let each one of us examine ourselves this day as we partake of the Lord's table. In Jesus' name, amen.