Living in Enemy Territory

Introduction

Do you ever feel like you’re outnumbered? You ever feel like you’re living in enemy territory? What do you do when you feel that way? How do you react? How do you feel about that? And how do you act when that is the case? As an introduction to this lesson, I’m going to do something a little bit different.

I want to explain to you how I decide what I’m going to preach and how I compile those lessons. I realize normally that’s probably not something you’re tremendously concerned about, but with this lesson, I feel like it’ll help for me to explain that. Sermon ideas or the sermon thoughts for me come from two different areas.

Reading or studying the scriptures, and something jumps off the page to me, and I say, that would make a good lesson. Or from observation. Sometimes sermon ideas just come from observation, observing kind of the world in general. Or maybe observing the church locally here that we need this kind of lesson. And so we try to craft the sermon based upon observations. I’ll tell you two things I don’t do, or I try not to do. Number one is I’ll never preach a lesson, a sermon, to one person. And so if you ever feel like that, it’s not me, it’s you. Try to preach to the entire congregation. And so if you’re going through something, I’m never going to preach a lesson just to you and embarrass and isolate you in that way.

Another thing I try not to do is to be too overly specific in a sermon. Or make too narrow of an application. Sometimes you may want that. Tell me exactly how long my shorts must be and how many times I have to pray in a week. I don’t think that’s my job.

And so what I try to do is preach the truth from God’s word.

Someone on this side of the room may be struggling with one thing, and that sermon would have an application for that very thing they’re struggling with. Someone over here may be struggling with something totally different. And hopefully the application would apply to them. This morning’s lesson is one of those kinds of lessons. I pray, literally, that it’ll be beneficial to you, that you can make an application. But I want you to know, and that’s what all of this explanation is about, I want you to know that I don’t have a narrow specific idea in mind.

And I’ll also add, I prepared this sermon before we knew the results of the election. You may feel outnumbered, like David and Dino, because he’s living in a house full of females. And so, however, you feel outnumbered, I hope you can make an application to this lesson for it to help you to be more of what you ought to be as a Christian.

And a simple reminder that that’s what it’s really all about. Let’s begin in two passages of Scripture. You may have already got a head start from me and go to 1 Peter chapter 2. It was difficult to narrow down what passages of Scripture to begin with, because there are so many that speak to this idea. That speak to the idea that we are outnumbered, that we are a minority as God’s children. 1 Peter chapter 2 tells us that in verse 11, where he says, Beloved, I beg you, as sojourners and pilgrims, to abstain from fleshly lust, which war against the soul. The pleading, the begging alone urges us to the difficulty of the task before us to recognize that we are sojourners and pilgrims, and that there are fleshly lust.

1. We Shouldn’t Be Surprised

And a whole devilish army that is warring against our soul. Paul would remind us in the Philippians chapter 3 and in verse 20 that our citizenship is in heaven. Surely emphasizing that our citizenship is not here, but it is in heaven. And so we are, the New Testament makes it perfectly clear, and I think our own human experience should have taught us by now that we are living in enemy territory. And I think there’s two applications we can make from that this morning. Number one is we shouldn’t be surprised by this. We shouldn’t be surprised that we’re outnumbered. We shouldn’t be surprised that we’re living in enemy territory. I’m constantly amazed at my own reaction that you may share.

I don’t know why that surprises me. It shouldn’t. And I shouldn’t be surprised by the fact that I’m living, if I am a godly, righteous, or at least trying to be, a godly, righteous child of God, why am I surprised that I’m outnumbered and that I’m living in enemy territory? Look at history. From the very beginning, Adam and Eve, because of their sin were forced to leave their perfect, serene paradise and to live in an unfriendly world. Noah surely didn’t feel like he was where he ought to be when he was outnumbered eight to everybody else. Abraham was a pilgrim and a sojourner who walked the rest of his life looking for a more permanent home. Joseph was ripped from his comfortable home and forced to live behind enemy lines.

And then his whole family, who would become the nation of Israel, lived in a foreign and increasingly unfriendly environment where they were forced to be slaves, and their own children were ripped from their arms and murdered. And by way of judgment, the entire nation would later, Israel and then Judah, be taken away into foreign captivity, forced to live and to serve under their vicious idolatrous enemies. And we may tend to think, well, yes, they did that because they deserved that. That was punishment. God was punishing those people for being ungodly and unrighteous, and so they had to live in ungodly, unrighteous, idolatrous nations. But not everybody. Think about the righteous remnant of Israel. Of men like Daniel and his three friends, who had to live and work and serve under Nebuchadnezzar, a wicked, idolatrous person.

And even before that, those righteous few lived even in Israel in enemy territory. Under men like Ahab, Manasseh, of their own countrymen, who made them feel in their own ancestral homeland, who made them feel like they were living in enemy territory. And then think about our Lord. Look with me in John chapter one. In speaking of the eternal Son of God who made his entrance into the world? Who should have been lauded and celebrated and worshipped by every living creature. What was his introduction into this world like? John chapter 1. Look at verses 4 and 5. In him, that is in the word or in Jesus Christ, in him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness.

And the darkness did not comprehend it. Skip down to verse 9. That was the true light, which gives light to every man coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him. And the world did not know him. He came to his own. And his own did not receive him. Why are we surprised then? We look at his first century disciples and those apostles who served him. Did they feel like that they were living at home? And so when we look at history, we shouldn’t be surprised that we’re living in enemy territory. And when we hear the warnings of the New Testament, we shouldn’t be surprised. Look in John chapter 15. Later in that book, where John introduced us to the light, the Creator, who should have been welcomed, lauded, and loved by his people, but they did not understand him, and they rejected him.

Jesus gives this warning in John chapter 15, beginning in verse 18. If the world, John 15, 18, if the world hates you, you know that it hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you’re not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you that a servant is not greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will keep yours also. But all these things they will do to you for my name’s sake, because they do not know him who sent me. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would have no sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin.

He who hates me hates my father also.

But this happened, that the word might be fulfilled, which is written in their law, they hated me without a cause.

Hated me. If they would hate and despise and cruelly treat and put to death the one who gave them life. And nailed to a tree the one who created that very tree. What makes you think it’s going to be different for you? Look in the book of 1 John, chapter 3, of what John says, 1 John chapter 3, to those living in enemy territory. 1 John chapter 3. Begin in verse 10. In this, 1 John 3, verse 10, in this the children of God and the children of the devil are made manifest. Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is he who does not love his brother. For this is the message that you heard from the beginning, that you should love one another.

And not as Cain, who is of the wicked one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his works were evil and his brothers righteous. Do not marvel, my brethren, if the world hates you. John says, don’t be surprised. In fact, he not only says, don’t be surprised, he gives us the clue as to why it’s this way. He says, Cain and Abel are the clue. Why did Cain hate Abel? Why did Cain murder Abel? He says, Because Abel’s works were righteous, and his were unrighteous. I can’t say that I like the language, but sometimes we jokingly say of someone who excels at something. Someone who could pick up a musical instrument and in two minutes be able to play it, and the rest of us can barely play the radio.

We may jokingly say, I hate you. Because you’re good at that and I can’t do that. Of someone who struggles with their weight, may look at some skinny person who eats four whoppers and Big Macs for supper and never gains a pound. We may jokingly say, I hate you. Because you can do that and I can. And again, I’m not condoning that kind of language. But that’s an illustration of the Cain Abel principle, isn’t it? You keep your nose clean. You love your family, love your wife or your husband and your children. You go to church every Sunday, you love your neighbors, you do what’s right. And you may naively think, people will appreciate that, won’t they? They only will if that’s what they’re striving, and to some degree succeeding in doing.

2. Learn to Live Like We’re in Enemy Territory

Because your deeds are righteous and theirs are wicked. And so why are we surprised? When wicked people do wicked things. And if we’re living in enemy territory, and we’re not surprised by it, then we must learn to live like it. To live like we’re living in enemy territory. And that means that we have to understand our limitations. Now, I don’t want this next point to be seen as a pessimistic point. I intend it to be a point of optimism. But if you’re living in enemy territory, it’s always been that way. It was that way for our Lord and Savior. We’re warned that it’s going to be that way to the end of time. Then one thing that can help us is to understand our inherent limitations.

Number one, we’re always going to be outnumbered. Don’t expect it to change. You’re not that good of an evangelist. To where you’re going to convince even your own neighborhood to serve and worship God as they ought.

And so maybe. And again, I don’t intend this to be of throw in the towel, throw your hands up and give up point. It’s to recognize that we can do what we’ve been asked to do, but we can’t do what we’ve never been tasked to do. Understand your limitations. Understand what God requires of you. Look what Paul said to the Timothy, the evangelist Timothy. One who walked and talked with the Apostle Paul. One who had Paul lay his hands on him and give him the power of the Holy Spirit. First Timothy chapter 6, look in verse 20. Oh Timothy. Guard what was committed to your trust. Guard what was committed to your trust, Timothy. Now this may not be Paul’s immediate point, but he’s saying, Timothy, you do what is your job to do.

What was committed to your trust? There was a lot that wasn’t committed to Timothy’s trust. And that Paul nor God never expected Timothy to do. Timothy, you do what was committed to your trust. I have to remember that.

That wasn’t my job. What was committed to your trust? As a husband and a father, what’s been committed to your trust? As a wife and a mother, what’s been committed to your trust? As a single person committed to living the godly life, what’s been committed to your trust? Maybe the best that we can do, and this is a lot. Maybe the best that we can do is save ourselves, our small family, and influence our little circle of friends. If that’s what God is committed to your trust. And see, rather than being a note of pessimism, I think that’s the greatest ray of optimism that I can do that. I can’t do that. But I can do what was committed to my trust. Look over in 1 Peter chapter 3.

We’re studying 1 Peter in our evening Bible classes. I hope you’re joining us for that as Zoom or on Facebook Live. There’s a little advertisement right in the middle of the sermon there. But we’re studying 1 Peter, and look at 1 Peter chapter 3, verses 15 and 16, what he’s going to say to us. But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts. And always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you with meekness and fear, having a good conscience, that when they defame you as evildoers, they may revile, those who revile your good conduct in Christ may be ashamed. What’s been committed to my trust? To live my life in such a way that those who can see my light may glorify God by my deeds.

And again, I can do that. And lastly, living like it. Living like we’re in enemy territory means, in fact, it demands that I live for there, not here. And I don’t know about you, but I need those reminders that I’m to live for there, not here.

From whence we wait the returning of our Lord Jesus Christ. I have to be reminded that my goal is not to make earth heaven, but my goal is to live in such a way on this earth that I might gain heaven. There’s a vast difference in trying to make this paradise than in trying to live through this so that I might gain paradise. Look with me in the book of Romans, chapter twelve. I must also remind myself that I may not be able to conquer this world. But I must not let this world conquer me. Romans chapter twelve, begin reading with me in verse nine. Rather lengthy reading, but I think it’ll help us. Romans twelve, beginning in verse nine says, Let love be without hypocrisy.

Abhor what is evil, cling to what is good, be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honor, giving preference to one another, not lagging in diligence, but fervent in spirit, serving the Lord. Rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer, distributing to the needs of the saints and given to hospitality. Bless those. Bless those who persecute you and do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep, and be of the same mind with one another. Do not set your mind on high things, but associate with the humble. Do not be wise in your own opinion. Repay no one evil for evil. And have regard for good things in the sight of all men. If it’s possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men.

Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath. For it is written, Vengeance is mine, I will replace, says the Lord. Therefore, if your enemy hungers, feed him. If he’s thirsty, give him a drink. For in so doing you may heap coals of fire on his head. Verse 21, do not be overcome by evil. But overcome evil with good. Do not be overcome by evil. I think there’s two applications of that to me. Number one is I can repay, if I’m losing that battle, I can just repay what’s been given to me. Somebody hits me, I’ll hit them back. Somebody curses me, I’ll curse them back. That’s being overcome by evil. But there’s another way in which I can lose that battle. Someone curses me or hits me.

And I just give up. I quit letting my light shine. I quit being the much needed salt of the earth. Because I let the turkeys beat me down.

Conclusion

That’s being overcome by evil. But I’m to overcome evil with good. Because it’s again, it’s not my task to fix the world. It’s not my task to judge the world. To avenge every wrong that’s been wronged. And I’m glad it’s not because I would fail miserably at it. That’s the task of a perfect, all knowing God. My job, living in enemy territory, is to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world. Realizing the whole time that I’m outnumbered and I’m living in enemy territory. And knowing that I won’t conquer this world, but with a bulldog tenaciousness, determined that I won’t let this world conquer me. And in so doing, win the reward. Would you become a child of God this morning? Knowing that you’re going to be outnumbered.

Knowing that you’re living in enemy territory, but also knowing that you’re not living for this world. Become a Christian this morning. Repent of your sins. Confess your faith and be baptized and do the best that you can to live the life that God has destined for you. And allow every disappointment, allow every defeat and discouragement to remind you that this world’s not my home. Let every disappointment, discouragement, or defeat make you long for heaven even more. And live in hope. And live in faith as you live in enemy territory. Can we help you spiritually this morning? Can we help you in any way as you try to live the life that God has given you to live? If we can, why not let it be known as together we stand and as we sing?