Spiritual Warfare – Not Against Flesh and Blood

The opening section presents the sermon's main theme that spiritual warfare is not against flesh and blood but against principalities, powers, rulers of darkness, and spiritual forces of evil. A very successful strategy of demons is to make people deny their existence, so many modern people regard teaching about demons as outdated superstition. However, the reality about humanity and society today completely refutes the belief that knowledge, science, and technology will solve every problem. Although society becomes increasingly civilized, sin does not decrease but increases; although economies develop, the wealth gap widens; although science advances, it is used to create increasingly dangerous weapons.

The second section develops the theological argument that alongside the material world exists an invisible but very real world where spiritual warfare occurs between demons and God. Demons do not merely want to conquer the human body but desire to capture the soul, because the soul is infinitely more important than matter. Scripture teaches through the story of the repentant thief on the cross that although the body dies, the soul lives forever with God in heaven. Bible stories such as the siege of the prophet Elisha by the Syrian army, Daniel being helped by an angel but hindered by the prince of Persia for 21 days, and cases of demon possession all prove that spiritual warfare is very real and very powerful.

The third section explains Satan's deceptive strategy—disguise, masquerade, camouflage. Satan impersonates an angel of light to deceive people that he has good intentions and wants to help humanity, but behind that bright facade is malice and the intention to oppose God and cause people to oppose God as well. Satan is the highest angel—a cherub—perfect, full of wisdom, and extremely beautiful, but because of pride about his beauty, wisdom, and high position, he desired to become equal with God. Because of this pride, Satan transformed from the highest angel into a cunning, deceitful, deceptive, and evil demon.

The fourth section presents the destructive ways demons work in practical life. Demons seek to rebuild walls of division and hatred between Jews and Gentiles, between ethnic groups and races to destroy the unity and love that Christ prayed for. Demons tempt believers to sin, become proud and self-satisfied, and cause division and conflict among believers, between believers and pastors, and between different groups of believers. Satan's principalities need territories and differ between regions depending on whether Gospel light is present. Satan's powers relate to influence such as philosophies, ideologies, intellectual currents influencing schools, media, and entertainment.

The final section applies the message to practical life by emphasizing that no one can rely on his own strength to resist demons but can only become strong in the Lord by joining Christ's army. Each believer is a soldier in Christ's army and must be trained and equipped with God's full armor. Believers must realize that they are warriors and accept training and equipping to grow stronger day by day. Being strong in the Lord does not mean complete victory in one day but rather small victories achieved step by step, mile by mile on a long journey.