Exhortation, October 26

Exhortation for October 26:

We pray every week that God’s kingdom would come. This is a very general prayer, that God would extend His righteous rule to the ends of the earth. But since we live everywhere, our prayer that God’s kingdom would come is a focused prayer that His kingdom would come here, in Moscow, Idaho. We are praying each week for the people of this city to acknowledge God as King, and bow before Jesus, the Son installed in heaven. We want this town full of peace, righteousness, and abundant life. We want this town to be full of the joy and gladness of the Spirit. We want the whole life of this town to be a living sacrifice giving off the aroma of the gospel.

But we learn in our sermon text that the kingdom of God comes only through conflict with the kingdom of Satan; the kingdom of light comes only by dispersing and conquering the kingdom of darkness. A strong man defends his castle; and he can be overcome only by a stronger man who comes into his house, attacks him, takes away his armor, and distributes his plunder. We hope and work for a town renowned for peace and justice. That only happens as the kingdom of God confronts and engages in conflict with the kingdom of Satan.

This text thus helps us to see a fundamental dimension of the conflicts that have been raging around Christ Church in recent weeks. We struggle not with flesh and blood but with principalities and powers. In an important sense, our opponents are not the people of this town; rather, we are involved in a battle to free the people of this town from the oppressive dominion of sin. But that doesn’t make the battle any less real; on the contrary, it makes it more real. Moscow is one very small front in a global battle between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of Satan. We shouldn’t foolishly be looking for conflict, and a love for strife is ungodly. But on the other hand, insofar as we are being faithful we can only expect the hostility of the world to increase and become more intense. We should especially expect slanders, libels, lies, and false accusations. Satan is the accuser, and we can expect to be accused satanically.

As we engage in this battle, it is essential to remind ourselves constantly that we do not war as the world does. Our weapons, Paul says, are spiritual weapons, powerful for casting down vain imaginations and every thought that exalts itself against Christ. We fight by preaching the gospel and faithful witness, by prayer and vigorous worship, by working diligently and by loving, disciplining, and training our children. Above all, we fight by faith in the Stronger Man. When the strong man sees that his goods are being plundered, he will lash out to protect them. But the stronger man is on our side. Don’t panic.

To say that we are involved in a conflict between God’s kingdom and Satan’s kingdom is not to say that everything we do is pure and everything our opponents do is demonic. If we are enlisted in God’s army, it is only by His sheer grace. And if we are to fight on God’s side in this conflict, we must be continually confessing and repenting of our own sins. This is one of the key “weapons” of our battle. Jesus taught us to pray for the coming of God’s kingdom, and as part of that coming, Jesus taught us to pray the Father to forgive our sins.