In the sermon 'Weapons Mighty in God' by Gary Duff, the focus is on understanding and engaging in spiritual warfare as outlined in 2 Corinthians 10:3-6. The sermon emphasizes that though we walk in the flesh, our battles are not fought with fleshly weapons but with spiritual ones that are 'mighty in God' for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments, and bringing every thought into captivity to Christ's obedience. Gary Duff highlights the importance of prayer, the Word of God, and covenanted worship as key spiritual weapons. Paul’s letter to the Corinthians is used to illustrate how he dealt with false apostles undermining his work by relying on spiritual might instead of worldly power. The sermon underscores the necessity of humility, prayer, and community in facing spiritual battles and emphasizes that even though battles are difficult, the victory is assured through God’s power. Finally, the sermon calls believers to prepare for worship and spiritual engagement with joy and commitment, recognizing the need for spiritual discipline and the power of God's Word in overcoming the lies and deceptions of the enemy.

Praise God for His endless wisdom. You'll turn with me in the Word of God to 2 Corinthians chapter 10. Our sermon text is verses 3 through 6, but I would like to read verses 1 through 6. This is the inerrant Word of God. Now I, Paul, myself, am pleading with you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ Who in presence am lowly among you but being absent and bold towards you But I beg you that when I am present I may not be bold with that confidence by which I intend to be bold against some who think of us as if we walked according to the flesh for though we walk in the flesh we do not war according to the flesh for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled.

Let's pray. Father in heaven, this is your holy word, and we rejoice in it. We thank you for your revelation to us. And we are your people, Lord. We long to understand Your precious Word.

In fact, we must. It is our life. And so we ask now that we would receive it by faith, and we would go forth applying it as You give us strength by the Holy Spirit. And Lord, we pray that You would open our eyes, that we might behold wondrous things from your word, from your law. And we ask it in the name of our Savior and our King, Jesus Christ.

Amen. Please be seated. It's a blessing to be here. As always, It's a joy for Sherry and I. Whenever you let us come down from Nebraska and invade Texas, We are thankful to be here.

We are always thankful to be here, and have had two days of joyful fellowship. And it has been, I think, more than eight months since we were here last. And our desire would be to be here more often. Lord determined that. We still desire to do that.

But my dear brother Peter and I, at least twice a week, we talk and we pray. And so I am aware of a lot that is happening among you dear people. And so we pray for you, and Dominion Covenant Church prays for you regularly. I think I say that every time I'm here, but I want you to know that. I want you to know that.

And you're always welcome in Nebraska. Well, last year, Phil, there were three elders at Dominion Covenant Church, myself and Phil Kaiser, who is our senior pastor, and Rodney Schwab. And we thought it would be necessary and helpful in the year 2021 to focus in that year, in this year, our prayer, our time of prayer, we have several weekly prayer times at the church, to focus our prayer time, to focus a number of our sermons, and to focus many of our shepherding meetings, mostly with the men and the couples, on spiritual warfare. Spiritual warfare. And we are in it, brothers and sisters.

There's no doubt about that. We're all in the battle. We're all part of the members of the kingdom. And there is a war against the king of our kingdom and his servants. So we began looking this year in Matthew 11, 28 through 30.

And that is the passage that I shared some of the last time I was here. That passage reminds us that the Lord Jesus invited us to come to Him. And praise God, He invited us. He continues to do so. He does at the table each week.

Because He knows that we can be burdened. And he knows that often we need rest in the battles that we are facing And our Lord Jesus is indeed the source of rest He is the source of rest and he is our strength And he said in Matthew 11 verse 28 he said come to me all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. And it's a promise we have to cling to. We're to also submit to his will and to his authority, because we're yoked with him. And that's a yoke of pleasantness that says in that section of Matthew 11.

Praise God, we are never alone in the battle, because we're yoked with him. And he said, take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly of heart and you will find rest for your souls we find it as we are yoked and he wants us to learn from him especially in our battles I believe we're to be learners in battle He is our captain if we're gonna learn we're gonna learn from him We're gonna learn as we are yoked with him how to do battle. That's the safest place to do it how to do anything really for his glory and Resisting him that is like pulling against the yoke in the battles that we all have is dangerous it disables us I believe in the battles that we will face that come upon us by his sovereign will and As we deal with the three fronts of battle first one is our own sinful flesh It's called our own sinful nature and our the desires of war against his word is long And then there's the world around us the whole system of ungodly influences all around us in the air we breathe and then there's of course the enemy of our soul there's the demonic and all three and so in February elder Rodney swab gave four sermons I would encourage you if you it's on the DCC website But his first one was called Know Your Enemy.

Very important. The second one was on Master Your Weaponry, which is basically what we're talking about today. The third was engage your allies. Praise God we have allies, and we must be aware of those and rejoice in those. And then embrace your battle.

Embrace it. Run from it. And so today we'll look at this passage, which is related mostly to the weaponry that God has given us, which is mighty. It is mighty. And so a little background, though, I'd like to take a little time here to think about the context of Paul's letter here that will help us to understand the four verses that we're looking at.

First of all, Paul was dealing with some men in Corinth, a faction really of men, a group of people, who were undermining his work there and who were claiming an authority that they really did not have from the living God, as Paul did as an apostle. They were perverting the gospel. They were perverting the good news of Jesus by creating confusion especially in two ways who is Jesus and about salvation in him they were trying to create confusion and take advantage. Now, Paul said in verse 1, now I, Paul, myself, am pleading with you. He's pleading with the Corinthians.

He loves them. And he said, with the meekness and gentleness of Christ, which the Lord Jesus said in Matthew 11, which I referred to earlier, he is gentle and lowly of heart and Paul said I'm coming like him and I'm coming with the meekness and gentleness of Christ pleading with you and he said this me who am In presence am lowly among you humble but being absent and bold toward you now this I Believe is probably what he's being accused of or is being used against him But indeed he was humble with them and he could be bold toward them But it was being used against him by these false apostles. In verse 2 he says, I beg you though, when I am present, so when I'm there, he wasn't there then, when I am there, I may not be bold with confidence, With the confidence by which I intend to be bold against some who think of us as if we walked according to the flesh He's warning these people essentially I'm coming and I'm not going to deal I'm going to deal with this it won't be in the flesh So Paul was accused here by some deceivers in Corinth who wanted to take over basically while he was gone.

He was writing to the Corinthians, all of them, to let them know that he might be weak in body. He might not be a great speaker like some of these Polish deceivers were. And maybe he wasn't much to look at either. I mean, can you think of how disfigured he might be? He's been stoned, he's been shipwrecked, he's been beaten, he has suffered in many ways.

Many commentators feel he had some kind of malady that made it either hard to look at him or hard to listen to him. He might have had a speech impediment. I don't know. But he was not trying to be impressive in those ways. He knew that that was vain.

These other false apostles, though, they wanted to impress. They wanted to claim those kind of things. And so they tried to take advantage of his absence to undermine his authority from the Lord. Now, later in this chapter, Paul said in verses 12 through 14. So he's comparing himself with these people.

And he said, well, we, that is myself and those who are with me in the service to the Corinthians, we dare not class ourselves or compare ourselves with those who commend themselves. But they, measuring themselves by themselves and comparing themselves with themselves are not wise. Some versions say they are without understanding. Because all they're doing is comparing themselves with each other. And they think they're pretty swift.

You know? They think they're pretty good. They're not comparing themselves with the absolute Word of God. And then Paul said this, We, however, will not boast beyond measure, but within the limits of the sphere which God appointed us a sphere which especially includes you So they were in his sphere of authority for we have not overextended ourselves as though our authority did not extend to you for it was to you that we came with the gospel of Christ." Paul loved them. He suffered for them.

He brought the gospel to them. I doubt the others who were trying to take advantage and lord it over them had that kind of love. And Paul knew that his might, if you want to use that word or his strength was spiritual And even though he was not present with them That his weapons were not limited by a distance They weren't limited by his physical presence. And even if he was present, they weren't limited. God is not limited by his weaknesses either.

In fact, he uses it, our weaknesses. Praise God. But he knew that he could war against the enemy, because God is mighty and powerful. Paul knew he was mighty and powerful only in God and only through God. And he knew he had been called an apostle to the Gentiles here to the Corinthians and that he was rightfully exercising his authority.

Even though he wasn't there for the sake of the Saints in Corinth whom he loved in chapter 11 Paul showed them his love in This way he said I am jealous for you With godly jealousy so there is a godly jealousy for I have betrothed You to one husband that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ But I fear lest somehow as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness So your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. I might refer to that phrase later the simplicity that is in Christ for he who comes preaches another Jesus for if he who comes preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached or if you receive a different spirit which you have not received, or a different gospel which you have not accepted, you may well put up with it. So he's fearful. And so in an earlier letter, he told the Corinthians, he said, I, brethren, when I came to you, I did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified." This is the simplicity we have in Christ in which he preached.

He wasn't trying to show off anything. He wasn't trying to show off his rhetorical skills. He preached the gospel clearly. And he said, even further, he said, I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling. Do you picture Paul like that?

I guess I don't often. But he said, I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling. Well, that doesn't sound like a man who's trying to show off how strong he is and his own abilities. And he said, and my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom. I'm sure the false apostles were great at rhetoric, maybe.

But he said, but in the demonstration of the spirit and power. That's how he wanted to speak. That your faith should be not in the wisdom of man, but in the power of God. He wanted God to be glorified in His preaching, in His life. So Paul made it clear here that His speech and His preaching were not impressive.

He wasn't trying to be impressive with eloquent words like they claim to have. But what he said came in the demonstration of the Spirit and of power, the power of the Holy Spirit. And by that power, by the power that is from the Spirit of God. That is what made him mighty in battle, and he knew it And that is what dear family makes us mighty in battle If we are limited in battle Dear brothers and sisters. I believe we're limited because of our pride essentially When we think we can engage in battle on any of those fronts in our own strength.

And I'll talk a little bit later in our strength outside of our body of Christ. But praise God that we need not be limited in battle because our God is not limited. And the spirit dwelling in us is not limited. He knows all things and He has all power and He has all might to do His sovereign will. Even though He does it through us in our weakness, in these jars of clay.

The treasure of the gospel is in jars of clay so his strength praise God is in fact manifested more often because We are weak and we acknowledge it. He opposes the proud, it says, but he gives grace to the humble. And he can use, praise God, he can use humble saints in the battle. And most of the time you think of warriors, you know, they're not humble. We're talking about the kingdom of God here and how we do battle.

We do it for His glory. We do it in humility. So take heart that as you face your battles, He will give you grace. So first of all, let's just think a little bit about the weakness of the flesh and in spiritual battle. So Paul started getting a bit tougher here, I think.

He said, OK, for though we do walk in the flesh, we're being accused of being weak. We do not war according to the flesh. So he's going to contrast himself here. And he's going to be very bold. So he was letting these false apostles, these servants of Satan know, and the saints in Corinth also know that he may not be impressive in the flesh, and that he didn't intend, even if he was present with them, to compete with them, these false apostles.

But that he would war, he would war, he said. But he'll do it in a different way. Now certainly our soul is housed in a body. And we must be faithful stewards of this temple of the Holy Spirit to be able to engage in warfare, right? But our battles are primarily spiritual.

And our weapons are effective and they are mighty in battle because they are from God through the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus on the cross as we walk with him. And they are mighty. In fact, they are powerful because they are wielded or should be wielded in the Spirit. Ephesians 6-12, you know this passage, we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against. Think about what the list here, You can't do this in the flesh.

Principalities, powers, great powers, rulers of the darkness of this age against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. So Paul walked in the flesh, of course. He had human weaknesses, maybe many of them. But he didn't wrestle. And he didn't fight.

He knew he couldn't do that according to the flesh. He knew that to battle spiritual hosts of wickedness, he had to battle in the spirit. Walk in the spirit. And he fought by the power of the Holy Spirit also, because his human enemies, so he had human enemies, they were in the flesh, and they were controlled by their sinful nature. They weren't trying to restrict their sinful nature so they were controlled by that he knew it They were controlled by the world systems out there that they loved to use and used with apparent sophistication and or they were controlled by demonic forces.

In fact, probably all three. But the battle for hearts and the battle for righteousness is spiritual. Paul Tripp is a popular author. Maybe you've read some of his books, but he wrote a book called lead and The session and the the officers of Dominion coming to church have been going through this book It's been a great blessing and Paul trip said in this book and he has a chapter on war and basically in that he's calling the elder the leaders of the church to help the Saints go to war great chapter but he said this because we live in a fallen world because there really is an enemy Satan because there is evil and temptation around us all the time and because remaining sin still leaves us Susceptible to attack We live every day in a war zone Okay, how many Americans American Christians think that way I believe you do more So waging war according to the flesh can result I believe in getting beat up and is struggling in battles and losing some battles and can result in discouragement can result in fear and doubt Now the war can't be lost brothers and sisters, but battles can be tough.

And we all face them at various levels and different times in our life. And so we must use the weapons that God has given us. And praise God, our weapons are mighty in God. First of all, verse 4 says, for the weapons of our warfare are not eternal, but mighty in God. We don't win spiritual battles by the strength of our arms, or our legs, or skill in using weapons that kill the body or verbal skill even to subdue others the horse is prepared for the day of battle but deliverance or victory is of the Lord Psalm 147 10 says he does not dot God the living God does not delight in the strength of the horse.

He takes no pleasure in the legs of a man. So we must learn, and it seems often the hard way, that we are mighty in God. And we are mighty for God through the weapons that he has given us. So we shouldn't try to use other weapons, certainly of the flesh. Now, we do have marvelous bodies.

We do have amazing minds. And they are not, but they are not, sufficient alone for spiritual battle. So What are those mighty weapons from God to his people and I basically group them in three groups first of all prayer Well, this has been a growing emphasis in our church And I know I'm talking to Peter and praying with Peter it is a growing emphasis here and I believe any true church at this time in American Christian life is saying we don't know what else to do we must go to prayer we must be people of prayer and if we are not training ourselves to be prayer Warriors we will not be mighty to do what it says here mighty to pull down mighty to cast down or mighty to take thought captive Because prayerlessness usually means that we're trying to do battle in the flesh Now again right Pastor swab he had a sermon on the master your weaponry, and he ended that sermon, I remember, by saying that prayer and fasting and the ministry of the word always together will protect us and guard us. Paul Tripp said it this way in that chapter I just referred to, perhaps there is no better defense against spiritual attack than humility.

And prayer, it takes humility to pray. They go together. And prayer and fasting helps us to be humble and to pray and another thing Paul trips that I thought was very he said two things here and I guess I'll repeat this because I think it's important he said first of all These are two dangerous things he said in the Christian life first of all naive assumptions of peacetime safety Taking it easy hey we can sit back no we cannot do that so he said naive assumptions of peacetime safety. That was the first one. Second one, he said, proud assessments of personal invulnerability.

It's not going to touch me. It'll never happen to me. Naive assumptions of peacetime safety and proud assessments of personal invulnerability makes us weak in the kingdom. Now the saints at Dominion Covenant Church have prayed and have often fasted as a church. But recently, I believe, in the 16 years I've been there, we have done so more probably in the last year and a half than at any other time in the church's existence.

And I praise God that he is answering our prayer to make us a praying church. Peter and I are praying that You will be a praying church. Because then we will be a victorious church. We will be mighty in battle for the glory of the Lord. I believe our officers and the parents here believe that more battles are coming.

Maybe more intense, more often, I don't know. So thank God for his training program We are in that We thank God for his kindness in arming us to fight in His name and in his way, and that's what we must do must learn how to fight in the way that he's commanded us to John Piper in desiring God many of you know that book. He has a brief message Called winning that's not a book. It's also a website desiring God He has a short message called winning battles through prayer short Really really great, but he said this he said Christian vision is not the imagining of a possibility But the grasping of an inevitability That innovative inevitability is the triumph of the King of Kings overall. We're all opposition.

And we win battles in our warfare, in warfare, foundationally, I believe, in prayer. Now, there are some booklets, I believe many of you have this one, Prayers for Spiritual Warfare, I didn't bring many, but it's online on the Dominion Covenant Church website. And so, Maybe you have some more, I'm not sure. But that's a great aid. Also, I know your pastor prays the imprecatory Psalms, the war Psalms of the Prince of Peace.

It's like the nuclear weapons of our prayer, imprecatory Psalms. I'd like to read one more. Many of you, I think, know of the Valley of Vision, its book of Puritan prayers. It's a great blessing to me in my own devotional life. I would encourage you, if you struggle sometimes in your devotional times to pray a lot of times if my mind is not quite awake as I'd like it to be I will start and pour out in prayer through one of these and then I go to the Word of God.

Well this is called the servant in battle. The servant in battle and if you have this it might be good to review this at the time when you're in battle anyway. And I will try to speak this with the feeling I feel when I read it, but I probably can't do that, but by the grace of God. Oh Lord, I bless thee that the issue of the battle between thyself and Satan has never been uncertain, and will end in victory. Calvary broke the dragon's head and I contend with a vanquished foe who with all his subtlety and strength has already been overcome.

When I feel the serpent at my heel, may I remember him whose heel was bruised, but who, when bruised, broke the devil's head. My soul with inward joy extols the mighty Conqueror, Lord Jesus. Heal me of any wounds received in the great conflict. If I have gathered defilement, if my faith has suffered damage, if my hope is less than bright, if my love is not fervent, if some creature comfort occupies my heart, if my soul sinks under pressure of the fight. O thou whose every promise is balm, every touch life, draw near to thy weary warrior.

Refresh me that I may rise again to raise the strife, and never tire until my enemy is trodden down. Give me such fellowship with you, with thee, that I may defy Satan, unbelief, the flesh, the world, with delight that comes not from a creature, and which a creature cannot mar, cannot stop. Give me a draft of the eternal fountain that lies in your immutable, everlasting love and decree. Then, then shall my hand never weaken, my feet never stumble, my sword never rest, my shield never rust, my helmet never shatter, my breastplate never fall, Because my strength rests in the power of your might. Your family must be people of prayer.

We cannot do battle otherwise. Secondly, Another mighty weapon, another means of grace is, of course, the Word of God. The Gospel of salvation in the Word. This is from Revelation chapter 12. Apostle John said, Now salvation and strength And the kingdom of God and the power of his Christ have come For the accuser of our brethren who accused them before our God day and night has been cast down And we'll look at that word in just a minute cast down and they overcame him They here being the saints involved in battle.

They overcame him, the adversary, by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony. For they loved not their lives, even unto death. Revelation 12, 11. They overcame the enemy in the battles, by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony. So overcomers are mighty in God by the power of the sacrifice of the Lamb of God and by His word, which is truth, which is powerful, almighty.

The continual lies of the enemy, and that is what he does, and of the ungodly and the unrighteous world around us we live in And from our own sinful hearts Must be dealt with by the Word of God our sinful hearts lie to us the world lies all the time that we don't need Jesus basically especially the status in our government in any government but the status And Satan is the father of lies and the demonic hosts and those who serve them Are all liars as well and the word must be spiritually discerned And it also must be spiritually spoken So it's spiritually discerned in other words we comprehend the word of God by his grace to us and leading in power of the Holy Spirit So it's spiritually discerned, but brothers and sisters it must also be spiritually spoken and spiritually shared and spiritually taught Must be done in the spirit. It's meant to be spoken. It's living and active and powerful beyond anything the enemy can bring against us. The word of God is powerful in the battle. The enemy hates the word of God.

We sing it, we praise God by hearing his word here, as we testify of his word. If we are not consistent and actively growing in the knowledge of the Word of God, in the application of the Word of God, we will be much less able to be engaged in spiritual warfare, which we all face. So this is the true Gospel of who Jesus is, that's what I'm talking about, and of His work of salvation. This is the primary way, I believe, the enemy seeks to deceive us, anybody, and to weaken the saints. Now, of course, but also from the beginning.

His desire is to distort the gospel in Jesus. So the third mighty weapon is regarding covenanted worship. Covenanted worship. And you are learning here that you are strong when you are battling together. You're strong because you're covenanted together.

What a joy to see Jisoo and Sunni this morning covenant, and you covenant with them. To innocence, we didn't say these words today, but it's what we meant. We are in the battle now together. We are committed together We don't don't ever try to fight alone We fight together we have each other's backs and we worship together praise God which is part of our strength to go forward, if not a huge part of our strength in going forward in battle. And we worship together.

We read and rejoice in the scriptures together we pray we praise God from from our voices with singing and that gives us strength and worship together is war Really against all three fronts while we are worshipping. It may not be what's in our mind I'm going to go worship so I can get ready for war But you are ready as you worship to go to war Reverend worship according to the Word of God prepares us to do battle. So listen to this from the mighty Word of God, Psalm 149. It relates a little bit. It's one of many passages.

Relates worship and war. First of all, it begins, Let the high praises of God be in their mouth, meaning praise and worship to the living God. And then it says right after that, And a two-edged sword in their hand, to execute vengeance on the nations, and punishment on the peoples, to bind their kings with chains, and their nobles with fetters of iron to execute on them the written judgment. And then it concludes this way. This honor have all the saints.

This honor have all of you as we worship. Doug Wilson said it this way. The church is the worshiping assembly, and her mission is to call the nations to worship the living God. But worship is not only our goal, it is also one of the chief means assigned to achieving that goal. Worship is not a retreat from the church's work of conquest Worship is a fundamental strategy of the church militant Worship is not a retreat from cultural engagement rather worship is the driving engine of all true cultural engagement I know you believe in cultural engagement.

I know you've been active in it here, and I praise God for that. And don't think, but don't think you will ever be effective in cultural engagement without joyful worship together. Charles Spurgeon said this in his pithy way. He said the same thing. But he just said, the Christian faith is a lifelong street fight.

It's a lifelong street fight. Again, in American churches, you probably don't think of it that way very often. Our walk and our service and our fighting as Christians is not all comfort, of course. We should not really, really allow ourselves to have a peacetime mentality. Battles can be very hard.

They can be. They can be very painful. But the Lord, our captain, is also our rest. That's what I started with in Matthew 11. He is our rest.

He's promised rest. So I have a question with a few related questions to it. This is in regards to a possible application. This is regarding worship. The question would be, do you as individuals and do you as families prepare for worship before the Lord's Day knowing that it is vital certainly you want to desire it because you love the Lord Jesus you want to exalt him in your worship but it is vital for you to be able to move forward in spiritual walk and spiritual battle.

Are you ready for this time of preparation? How do you prepare during the week for this time of worship? And especially later on a Saturday. Do you ask the Lord to enable you to worship in the joy of the Lord because that is our strength The joy of the Lord is our strength And I pray with Peter that this congregation will be overjoyed in bringing praise to the living God. Because I know you'll be strong then.

Worshipping with joy strengthens you. Singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs strengthens all of us. Last question here, group of questions. Is your heart ready to give him joyful and exuberant praise on the Lord's Day how do you do that ask yourselves that you can't just at let's see you start at 11 you can't at 1059 come in and start cranking that up So this joyful strengthening praise must be done by faith in the spirit and regularly together. But I think it becomes during the week in your own personal devotion times.

And dear saints, the weapons of our warfare, prayer, the word, and covenanted worship, those are the ones I mentioned today anyway the weapons of our warfare may not be evident to the world in fact more often even if they are they're despised But the enemy of our souls knows that those weapons are effective. He definitely knows. Well, our last section here is what mighty weapons can do in the spirit. First of all, the weapons of our warfare are mighty in God for pulling down strongholds. Now, strongholds here in the context means falsehoods, I believe, that may have been established or built up in the hearts and the minds of the Corinthians, maybe by these false apostles, by the servants of the enemy, anyway.

So those are strongholds. And these falsehoods were probably primarily about the gospel, who Jesus is, and of his work of salvation his humanity and his divinity and that he was his fully God and fully man and Regarding his the reconciliation they would maybe say well. It's not finished. There's more you have to do Those kind of teachings and thoughts need to be destroyed they need to be pulled down In the spirit though, I mean you may be very eloquent and praise God for that, but offer that to him Let him use that now the verb pulling down here means to demolish or to destroy This is primarily a military term and it related to you can picture a fortress that literally pulling it down, completely removing it as an obstacle. It's just gone.

It's just rubble. Now, you can picture this as attacking the strong defenses of the enemy, which really will never be a match for the people of God with the weapons of God in the Spirit. Jericho is an example of literal high walls erected because the pagans trusted in that for their strength. But the people of God prayed, they obeyed the Word of God, and so the walls were pulled down, they were demolished. Now these deceptions and distortions of the Word, especially about our Lord Jesus, are dealt with by, must be dealt with by the truth of the Word of God.

Paul is in this letter reminding the Corinthians of these truths that he had already taught them. And he's grieved that they might be reconsidering some of those, or being swayed by these other people. And we, brothers and sisters, need to remind ourselves also of the gospel. We might be very confident. Certainly, I know what the gospel is.

I can convey that to other people. But we need to preach the gospel to ourselves every day. We need to rejoice in our salvation and in who Jesus is. It should begin every day that way. And we have other good reminders or summaries of course in what we believe and what we believe the word teaches in a summary fashion.

We have the creeds. We have the Apostles' Creed, the Nicene Creed, Athanasian Creed, Chalcedonian Creed. You may not read those other ones as often, but I hope you are aware of those, certainly of the Apostles' Creed. And then we have the three forms of unity that our denomination ascribes to, the Heidelberg Catechism, the Canons of Dort, and the Belgian Confession. Again, maybe not widely often read, but you should be aware of why those were written by godly men, why the Lord used those godly men to develop those.

And of course, the secondary standard of our Denomination and of this church is the Westminster Confession now these were written by godly men To refute error and to keep strongholds of error from being built up those strongholds which oppose the gospel from getting established. The enemy will always try to confuse people about who the Lord Jesus is, and about his work of salvation. And the creeds and the confessions have helped the church in this for hundreds of years. And so may we be alert so that strongholds are not able to be established in our lives, and in our families, and in this church. Secondly, the weapons of our warfare are mighty in God for casting down arguments in every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God.

So cast down here can also mean tear down. It's somewhat similar. And I'd like to read the new thing paraphrase of this. It says, we use God's mighty weapons, not worldly weapons, to knock down the strongholds of human reasoning and to destroy false arguments. That is by the almighty word of God.

Knock down strongholds of human reasoning and destroy false arguments. Plenty of those around. And they're very bold in presenting those right now. So the arguments here are wrong reasoning, wrong thinking, sinful thinking. Really, any obstacle that keeps people from knowing God, from knowing who Jesus is and of salvation in him.

And these high things may refer again to, you can picture it as a fortress, a very high barrier, something that is elevated anyway and seemingly impassable. Now we may look out and say, well, this country, what is going on? There are really barriers of big organizations, huge government, mighty companies. We should never think they're impassable, not in the Lord Jesus. And these lofty opinions, these deceptions of the enemy, and those in the world are based, again, on pride, based on arrogance and obstinate rebellion against the king of all and against his precious word.

They reject him as God. They reject him as Lord and Savior. They reject his word, his law. And we here are to have a part in casting down, in tearing down the rebellious thoughts that have been raised up, or are now being erected at a rapid rate, it seems. This present day and time, many organizations are trying to erect these kinds of things against the knowledge of God and against obedience to His word.

The whole government school system, as Pastor Peter prayed this morning, Medical establishments even in a way that I never thought I would see. Private companies, big or small. State and federal governments, liberal churches. But really, brothers and sisters, the key thought here is that we do, though, have weapons that are able to cast down these idols, these fortresses erected against the Gospel. We are not helpless, praise God, against this onslaught, or these barriers that seem to be being built a lot now.

And we should constantly and consistently pray in faith and claim the promises of God and continue worship, joyful worship together, and move forward in battle, in this battle of faith together. The weapons of our war, thirdly, are mighty in God for bringing every thought into captivity. Into captivity. To the obedience of Christ. So every thought of ours, as believers, and every thought of those who deny him also, are to be brought into obedience to him.

He's the king of kings. And so, and I believe the so-called prisoners of war here might be that, that are being taken captive here are the thoughts of those who rebel against the Word of God, or who are in rebellion against God, and their systems, their philosophies, vain philosophies. The enemy and those who serve him will always seek to distort the truth of who Jesus is and his work of redemption. So we should be aware of that. It might kind of come down to that in a lot of your discussions.

And certainly, they will try to denigrate the Word of God. They'll seek to create doubt in the truth of the Word to undermine, if they can, in your mind, it's inerrancy and sufficiency and inspiration. They have to do that. The enemy has always done this and will always do so. And we should not be ignorant of this as one of the enemy's main devices, Which is why we must do battle and be ready to take errant thoughts captive.

We must be apologists who rightly handle the Word of God, the Word of Truth. And we can and should at some level, at the level we can, defend the Word of God, stand up for it and its absolute truth. The errors of the unregenerate heart and mind regarding the Word of God must be refuted. False doctrine, false practice must be subdued under the authority of King Jesus and by his delegated authorities. I'd like to share another booklet I put a few out on the rack it's called the Canon of Scripture.

Canon of Scripture and I highly urge you to read that. This is written by our senior pastor Phil Kiser. And it's very helpful, I believe, in defending the veracity of the canon. And why is that important? The Bible itself proves the doctrine of the canon.

The word we have is sufficient to settle the question of canonicity. In other words, how did we get the scriptures that you have in your Bible? And if you're if you have doubts about that at all, if you're weak in understanding how we this these scriptures came to be it may hamper you in casting down arguments and in bringing thoughts into captivity to obey the Lord you're already starting with a weaker in a weaker position and we are presuppositional The word of God is the answer. It is the truth. And that's where we start.

You also know there are other books, many books, that would be a benefit to every thought captive. I don't know if Pastor Ellison knows that one. But it's called the study manual of defense of the Christian truth. It's very accessible. But then there's the Bonson Project.

Many of you know that. It's online now. It's available to anybody for a more thorough study of apologetics. So brothers and sisters, let's prepare and be more ready to take thoughts captive to obey Christ. And finally, related to strongholds and casting down arguments and taking thoughts captive is, in the church, the weapons of our warfare are mighty in exercising discipline discipline verse 6 says we should be ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled he's speaking to the Corinthians and he said well I'm ready to punish all the remaining disobedience of probably those false apostles or whoever else is with them as soon as your obedience is complete.

He had given them a discipline in the first letter to the Corinthians. And so he's ready. He's ready to discipline. And he realizes that's part of his call. Now, in Moffat's commentary, he continued the military metaphor here.

And he wrote that Paul is saying something like this. I am prepared to court-martial anyone who remains insubordinate once your submission is complete. That's kind of what he was saying. And I like that, the way He said that. I am prepared to court martial anyone who remains insubordinate.

So he was ready to bring discipline, in other words, at the right time, as another commentary called Paul the Apostolic Commander of the forces at Corinth. I like that. The apostolic commander of the forces at Corinth. So the forces of Conroe. You have the almighty word of God.

So the Lord will use leaders and parents and even civil authorities as much as we wonder about them, he will use them in discipline of his people. Those who have been given authority, because the Lord disciplines and trains and he teaches and he protects us and guides us through his leaders. Now, Paul believed that most of the Corinthians would be obedient to the discipline given earlier. And those who would not, he said, he was ready to punish all disobedience. He was ready to discipline.

Discipline is necessary in the Church of the Living God. It isn't often practiced well or in a timely fashion. This denomination in this Church and your elders believe in it and practice it. Now that faction of rebellious men didn't know, I believe, the man they were dealing with in the Apostle Paul. Pretty sure they didn't know what kind of guy they were dealing with.

Or they didn't also understand his office and the authority of his calling to do that. Now they saw him, you know, like I said in the beginning, they saw him as outwardly weak, maybe not very impressive, and he wasn't even present with them sometimes. And they likely did not reckon with, I believe, the mighty weapons that Paul was willing to use. Paul said, I'm going to use these mighty weapons. Well dear family, we cannot war, we cannot go to battle or struggle in the flesh, in our own strength alone.

We should not do so, we should not attempt. It usually is a very painful thing. Now, Pastor Phil, the senior pastor and I, are both about the same age, getting on to 68. And we're starting to feel that a little more. And so it's becoming obvious to both of us, and we kind of joke about it.

Wow, I just can't. I don't have the zip I used to have. So it's obvious, that is kind of obvious, you know? But praise God, more and more, we are seeing that that's a good thing, that we recognize. Well, we can't do this quite maybe the way that we maybe did in the flesh earlier.

We can't do that. We can't. We mustn't do that. And he is making us stronger to do battle in the Lord and with the saints. This has been a really important, doesn't quite cut it, year for our congregation In terms of going to spiritual battle and knowing how to do it and doing it together.

I'm sure in the 16 years I've been here, we have not exercised it as we are now. And we battle spiritual enemies with spiritual weapons And I know your pastor is doing so any will help you to do so your pastor on the ground Now some of you I know because pastor Peter tells me what some of you are struggling with Some of you may be weary here in your particular battle struggle And some of those battles you've had Are just tough beyond you on all three fronts And so my encouragement here at the end is Let's go to battle We must we have it's in front of us Let's go to battle together with the weapons that are mighty. First of all, because God, they are from God. He is a loving Heavenly Father. He gave us those weapons.

Secondly, because they are mighty through the victorious work of our Lord Jesus on the cross for us. And they are mighty because they are empowered by the Spirit that dwells within us. Let's pray. Lord Jesus we we do come to you as our king and as the Lord of the hosts of warrior angels. And we give you all praise that we are never alone in the battles and that the victory is assured in you.

Lord we are thankful that you have supplied us with mighty weapons to go forth in your name and we pray Lord that we would fight in faith and pull down strongholds and that we would cast down arguments and vain philosophies and sinful world views and then take thoughts captive to obey you. Lord we praise you for allowing us and for calling us to pray and we rejoice in your powerful living word and we give thanks for strengthening us even during this time of worship and for the strength of this communion with you. Lord, we commit this week ahead to you And we have come before your throne for your mercy and your grace as we serve for your glory And so we ask all of this in the name of the King of Kings our Lord Jesus Christ Amen