THE SPIRITUAL WARFARE OF THE CHURCH AS THE NEW MAN
Message One
The Church as the New Man Engaging in Spiritual Warfare to Defeat God's Enemy and to Bring In the Kingdom of God
Scripture Reading: Gen. 1:26, 28; Eph. 2:15; 4:24; 6:11-13; Rev. 11:15; Psa. 110:3a
I. The church as the new man accomplishes God's eternal purpose—Eph. 1:9, 11; 2:15-16; 3:9; 4:22-24:
A. God's intention in His creation of man was to have a corporate man to express Him and represent Him—Gen. 1:26, 28:
1. God's creation of man in Genesis 1 is a picture of the one new man in God's new creation—Eph. 2:15; 4:24; Col. 3:10-11.
2. The church as the new man is the corporate man in God's intention, and this new man will fulfill the twofold purpose of expressing God and representing Him—Gen. 1:26, 28.
B. God created a corporate man to represent Him by having dominion over all things—vv. 26, 28:
1. God's intention in giving man dominion is for him to subdue God's enemy, Satan, who rebelled against God, to recover the earth, and to exercise God's authority over the earth in order that the kingdom of God may come to the earth, the will of God may be done on earth, and the glory of God may be manifested on earth—vv. 26, 28; Matt. 6:10, 13b.
2. God's intention that man would have dominion over all things will be fulfilled by the church as the new man—Eph. 2:15; Col. 3:10-11.
C. If man has not restored the earth from the usurpation of Satan, he has not yet achieved God's purpose in creating him—Gen. 1:28:
1. Dealing with Satan is for the benefit of God and satisfies God's need.
2. Dealing with Satan requires that we pay a price that is extremely great; self must be utterly abandoned.
3. In order to recover the earth from the hand of Satan, we must be wholly and absolutely for God and His purpose—Rom. 12:2; 8:28.
D. The church as the corporate new man is the corporate warrior to defeat God's enemy and to bring in the kingdom of God—Eph. 4:24; 6:11, 13:
1. The church as a warrior is an aspect of the church as the new man—2:15.
2. The church as the new man is a warrior fighting against God's enemy, for the new man fulfills God's purpose to express God and to fight against God's enemy for God's dominion, God's kingdom—Gen. 1:26, 28; Rev. 11:15.
II. In order to know God's economy, we need to see the spiritual things behind the physical things, the spiritual world behind the physical world—Dan. 10:12-13, 20-21:
A. It is crucial for us to see that behind the physical scene a spiritual struggle, a struggle not seen with human eyes, is taking place.
B. In our fighting we deal not with things that appear on the surface but with the power of darkness behind these things—Eph. 2:6; 6:12; S. S. 4:8.
C. Revelation 12 presents a great vision concerning the war in heaven—the warfare in the universe between God and His enemy; the vision in this chapter unveils the true situation in the universe—the view that God's enemy is fighting against Him—vv. 1-4, 7-9, 13, 17.
III. Spiritual warfare is necessary because Satan's will is set against God's will—Matt. 6:10; 7:21; Isa. 14:12-14:
A. If we would know how the church as the new man can be God's warrior to engage in spiritual warfare, we need to realize that in the universe there are three wills—the divine will, the satanic will, and the human will—Rev. 4:11.
B. Spiritual warfare has its source in the conflict between the divine will and the satanic will—Matt. 6:10:
1. Lucifer's pride in his high position and beauty gave rise to an evil intention, which became the satanic will—Ezek. 28:12-19; Isa. 14:12-15.
2. Before the archangel of God rose up to contradict the divine will, there was no war in the universe; the rebellion of Lucifer was the beginning of all the fighting that is now taking place among nations, in society, in the family, and within individuals—cf. Rev. 12:3-11; Gal. 5:17.
C. God wants His creature man to deal with His fallen creature Satan; for this, the human will must stand with the divine will—Gen. 1:26; Matt. 26:39; 12:30; 7:21.
D. As the church, our fighting is to subdue the satanic will and defeat God's enemy—Eph. 6:11-13.
IV. The purpose of spiritual warfare is to bring in the kingdom of God—Rev. 11:15; 12:10:
A. Spiritual warfare is the warfare between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of Satan—Matt. 12:26, 28.
B. The kingdom of God will not come automatically; in order for the kingdom of God to come, there is the need of spiritual fighting—vv. 22-29.
C. The responsibility of the church is to continue the warfare that Christ fought on the earth; the church must continue the victorious work that Christ has carried out against Satan—Heb. 2:14; 1 John 3:8b; Col. 2:15; Psa. 149:5-9.
D. The kingdom of God is the exercise of the divine will and the overthrowing of the power of Satan by the power of God—Matt. 6:10.
E. Wherever the devil has been cast out and wherever the work of the enemy has been displaced by God's power, the kingdom of God is there—12:28.
V. "Your people will offer themselves willingly / In the day of Your warfare, / In the splendor of their consecration"—Psa. 110:3a:
A. In a spiritual sense, we are now in the day of Christ's warfare, and for this we need to be a voluntary offering, a freewill offering—Lev. 22:18; Deut. 12:6.
B. In order to engage in spiritual warfare to defeat God's enemy and bring in the kingdom of God, we need an absolute and thorough consecration to the Lord; in the eyes of God, such a consecration is a matter of splendor—Psa. 110:3a.