One very important truth that has been lost in much preaching today is the emphasis on the existence of the devil. Preachers, myself included, have tried to analyse the current situation facing our world and our countries, and the major emphasis has been on man, and on man's religious and moral failure to live as under the eye of God. Man has undoubtedly done great wrong to life in this world, and only a fool would deny this. He has lifted up his heel against the sovereign Lord of all the earth, and refused to submit to His rule. The result? A world in religious and moral meltdown.
But this is not the only, or even the greatest, force for evil in the world today. What has been forgotten, and to the sheer delight of the devil himself, is that he has been largely forgotten in the contemporary church. He has deceived multitudes within the church, not to mention all those outside her, into believing that he does not exist - his greatest achievement of all! He has convinced 21st century educated, cultured and well-read men that he no longer is around! And they have believed this lie.
Despite the evidence of his fingerprints everywhere, these great men do not preach about him, talk about him, rebuke him in the strong name of Jesus of Nazareth. he has wrecked havoc in the world - obviously; but he has also destroyed large tracts of the Christian church. Many of his successes are clearly seen - many churches and chapels are now warehouses, living houses, restaurants, cinemas, etc.
But the less obvious signs of his work are seen in those churches that still exist but which no longer preach the pure Gospel of Christ with power. Those dead churches that are perfectly orthodox; those lifeless churches that run mechanically. Look also at those evangelical churches that have invited in, and welcomed, the world into the way the church is run and organised. Look at much contemporary worship - it is unadulterated worldliness, and is unworthy of the term 'contemporary worship.' True biblical worship is always 'contemporary worship.' The world does not ave to be brought into the church in order to make its worship contemporary. When the living and risen Christ is present by His Spirit, the worship is contemporary; but if He is not present, the bashing of drums and the strumming guitars and the blowing trumpets does not, and cannot, make it contemporary.
the devil has been at work; but evangelicals have not even identified his handiwork. Indeed, many evangelicals no longer believe in the devil, equating such a belief with belief in Santa Clause! Why are so many churches full of unconverted members? Because the devil has planted his agents within her membership with the express purpose of destroying her witness. Why have church authorities acted to deal with troublesome evangelic preachers? Because the devil does not want a passionate and powerful gospel message preached in the church. Why are so many ministers at the pint of breaking and of giving up their God-given ministries? Because the devil has been at work. Why do ministerial colleagues refuse to support each other when the very Gospel is at stake? Because they may, wittingly or unwittingly, be in league with the devil! I say that because when the devil launches an outright attack on Gospel ministers, it is in the hope that he can silence them. If he cannot do it directly, then he inspires church members to go to the supervising body within that particular church (in Presbyterianism this is Presbytery), and call in its ecclesiastical support with a view to silencing the preaching the Gospel. The hates the Gospel being preached with power because he also hates the results of such Holy Ghost empowered preaching, which is the changed lives of those who come under its life transforming power, thus making them holy. Powerful Gospel preaching creates holy lives in both minister and recipients. And as Rev. Robert Murray McCheyne once famously said, "A holy minister is an awful weapon in the hands of God." The Gospel Gospel holiness, which very thing the devil hates.
Therefore we should not be surprised that satan's servants do not like the Gospel either. In fact, they hate it with a perfect hatred. They will do everything they know to get rid of Gospel influences in the church and in the world. And they don't care how! Within churches, if the ruling authorities help in this plan, so much the better, because this gives a level of credibility and a measure of cover to those who have fomented resistance to the Gospel when church leaders fall into line.
Keep this in mind. In the church, we are not ministering in a playground, but in a battleground. We are God's servants in a hostile world. Often we are God's servants in a hostile church! But a hostile church is a backslidden church, and one that has given in too much to the devil's strategies. And such a church knows only spiritual defeat.
How is your church today? More importantly, how are you in this regard?
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