A Christian Call To Arms

Introduction

I know that the Ladies Bible Study is looking at Spiritual Warfare this Fall, and no I don’t think I’m going to steal anybody’s thunder because this morning I want to look a specific area of that warfare. Besides, I scanned through the book they’re using and even many commentaries and have not found much on this part of our warfare! Maybe it’s just me, but, as I read Ephesians 6:10-20 again about a month ago, something stood out to me that I’d not dwelt on before. When I normally look at the Armor of God, I’ve spent a lot of time looking at each piece, and that’s good, but I failed to see the proper reason for it! Three times in the first five verses of this passage Paul prepares us for what the armor is for; to stand or stand firm! Now, also because there is so much evil in the world today, and of course tomorrow is Halloween, I also felt that this would be not just good or interesting, but essential for us to remember.

As we look at the immediate context of this passage we see that in chapter 5:22-33, Paul is talking about the marriage relationship and the mystery of Christ’s relationshipto us the church. Moving ahead to chapter 6:1-9 we see various “family like” relationships that Paul refers to: Children, Fathers, Slavesand Masters. I can’t help but think that these are not coincidence but on purpose as he thinks about Spiritual Warfare, because he knows that if Satan wants to get the most bang for his buck, he will targetthe family in all our relationships, he always has and always will. If he can destroy the worlds greatest institution; and no, it’s not our republic, he can take many people off course. It is his most strategic place of attack! And he seems to be doing a good job because we have failed to stand firmagainst evil and given ourselves up to our culture.

So now verse 10 says “Finally” (Therefore), because of all that I’ve just said, “be strong in the Lord and the strength of His might”. It is time for Spiritual Warfare! Back in the late 60’s early 70’s a book came out by Watchman Nee called “Sit, Walk, Stand”. He broke Ephesians down into 3 parts, all progressing forward, building on one another. Sit – In Chapters 1-3 Paul talks about Sitting in the confidence of our POSITION in Christ… Believing and trusting Him for “Every spiritual blessing” (1:3), Ex. “He chose us in Him” (1:4), “redemption through His blood” (1:7), from death to life, we are His workmanshipto be used by Him (2:10), For by grace you have been saved… (2:8-9), Gentiles are fellow heirs (3:6). This is our foundational Theology! Walk – In Chapters 4-5 Paul talks about the PRACTICAL outgrowth of our position in Christ. “Walk in a manner worthy of your calling” (4:1), “preserve unity” (4:3), spiritual gifts (4:11-12), put off the old self and put on the new (4:22-24), lay aside falsehood , anger, stealing, unwholesome speech(4:25-30), imitate God (5:1), do not be immoral (5:3), make the most of your time because the days are evil (5:16).

Watchman Nee caps off his book with STAND in Chapter 6. Because of your position in Christ, and because of your practically living out the Gospel in your life, here’s how you PROGRESS, you stand your ground with the Armor of God!

This sounds crazy to us right? Fight by standing still? Who ever heard of such a thing. Conventional wartime strategy and wisdom says armor up and advance on the enemy! That’s our problem! The struggles, temptations and evil that we are confronted with, we tend to battle them by conventional means. We get caught up in human thinking when God’s Wisdom is mostly contrary to man’s wisdom which is tainted by sin.

James 3:16-17 (NASB77) 16 (NASB77) For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every evil thing. 17 But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy… We are in the battle on;y with “His might” (6:10). When’s the last time you made a decision without selfishness or hypocrisy or revenge? We are tainted by sin, but not God. Look at our Salvation…If it were up to us, we would make people earn it somehow or wait till we felt they were worthy. But Ephesians 2:8-9

(NASB77) 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9 not as a result of works, that no one should boast.

How about the Weapons of our Warfare? 2 Corinthians 10:3-4 (NASB77) 3 For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, 4 for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses”. The battle, the fight, the war we all find ourselves in, is above our pay grade! Humanly, we do not have access to that battle except to be defeated by it! Why does God do things contrary to our thinking? Paul tells us!

1 Corinthians 2:4-5

(NASB77) 4 (NASB77) “And my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5 that your faith should not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God”. When we do something we think is good, we take the credit, on the other hand, when God does something and it is obviously Him, and it is amazing, He gets the credit!

Human wisdom in history and movies says you win a war by advancement… Be smart enough, do everything you can… right strategy… the best weapons… Not so in the Christians progress… We win the battle by STANDING in a defensive position maintaining our ground. Why not advance? No need because Jesus has already won! What could we possibly do better than Jesus?

Colossians 2:13-15

(NASB77) 13 (NASB77) And when you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, 14 having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us and which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. 15 When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through Him (Jesus).

The very thing that will hinder any person from a relationship with God and standing firm, has been taken out of the way by believing in Jesus, that is, our SIN! God is holy, we are not, Jesus paid the price for our sin on the cross. Jesus’s warfare in doing so was the offense, our armor is the defense! What does that mean for us? We are not fighting to gain ground, we are defending the ground that has already been won by Christ. As a believer in Jesus Christ the gates of hell are not strong enough against Jesus’ offense! (Matt 16:17-18). So when Christians stand up for the truth with the gospel armor on, we overrun those gates! They cannot stand! There is hope in this coming election to influence our culture! There is hope that children and adults alike will read those tracts you are giving out on Halloween or anytime, that God will speak to them through His Word! WE, are the overcomers through our spiritual warfare!

1 John 5:4-5

(NASB77) 4 (NASB77) For whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world-- our faith. 5 And who is the one who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? Satan is defeated already, therefore all we need to do is stand firm! So, How are we to STAND? Let me share 3 ways: (1) Stand against… (2) Stand in… and (3) Stand on…

1. Stand against the schemes of the Devil (10 – 13...).

Just know this, that Satan stands against everything of God. He is out there like a hungry, roaring lion “seeking whom he may devour” (1 Peter 5:8). He dresses up what is meant for good and twists it so it looks good, but, will ultimately destroy you. “The thief come to steal, kill and destroy but I have come that you might have life and have it more abundantly” (John 10:10). He is not flesh and blood. He deals with darkness that looks like light, and wicked forces in the places that are unseen to us and unknown by us. It’s no wonder the deck is stacked against our human warfare! Therefore we need the armor of God. The only chance we have of resisting the devil is by putting on the full armor of God. Remember I said earlier that the devil is out of our league when it comes to warfare. There is no way for us to take him on with conventional, earthly, human means and win, He is just too powerful. Scripture tells us that Satan is the prince of the power of the air (Eph.2:2) and the ruler of this world (John 12:31, 1John 5:19). God has given him some authority but not ultimate authority. ILL. What drives me nuts is that secular culture and even some people who call themselves Christians believe there is a fight between good and evil, and that Satan and God are of equal power. This puts fear in the hearts of all men not confidence. This causes us to doubt God’s agenda big time! To not trust Him, to give up! The truth is, we don’t have to worry about Who’s going to win!! All God has to do is say the word and Satan is done! He is no match for God. We give him too much credit. Satan is a created being. He is not all knowing (Omniscient), but he knows how to tempt us by he and his demons watching us! He is not present everywhere at once (Omnipresent), but has many demons and followers doing his bidding… He is not all powerful(Omnipotent), he can only do what God allows him to do, think about the account of Job… So, believers are no longer under the rule of Satan. When God says put on the armor, we should listen! This is the confidence we have to stand against Satan and all evil!

Col 1:13 says “God has rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of His Son” That means 1Corinthians 10:13 is true “No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, that you may be able to endure it.

This confidence, knowing our enemy is already defeated, makes it possible to stand firm and don’t give up ground in our Christian life! Stay strong in the Lord and the power of His might.

2. Stand in the full armor of God. (14-17...).

All the knowledge we have about Satan is not going to do much good without us jumping into the armorfor protection. So, what is the armor for? It’s for us to “put on”as believers to withstand the fiery darts, that Satan and His devils throw at us in this life. We cannot STAND with our human wisdom or self-will, so what is the armor God has given us to “put on”? (Remember, Paul is looking at a Roman soldier…).

Truth = Long flowing robe held up by a “belt” to keep it out of the way for unrestricted movement.

Righteousness = Breastplate protects vital organs. Living right! Doing the right thing.

Gospel of Peace = The truth that “in Christ” we are now at peace with God. You can stand on that! Shoes are what we stand on and they protect our feet from blisters and sores. They also prepare us to stand firm on slippery or dangerous ground. Roman soldierswould often embed nails or cleats or chard's of pottery in the bottom of their shoes so they would not slip as they advance or hold ground!

Faith = Faith is like a shield. Trust is a similar word, who are you trusting in? Satan is a liar and the father of lies scripture says. He is continually looking to shoot us with deadly arrows of temptation to wound us. The shield of faith keeps us safe. Movies Ill - Picture soldiers with 4 x 2 ft shields on the battlefield, when fiery arrows come, what do they do?...

Salvation = Helmet. The head is probably the most important to protect. It protects the knowledge of our salvation. The head affects the whole body, as does our right relationship with God.

The Word of God (Bible) = A Sword! It is both an offensive and defensive weapon. We cannot argue or stand against the devil or temptation without the Word of God. Jesus did not use His power as God to fight off Satan’s temptations in the wilderness (Matt 4: 1-11), even though He could have. He said “Thus saith the Lord… Satan left Him! Scripture says He was tempted in every way, just like we are, yet without sin (Heb 4:15). He did that as an example for us to use the Word of God as our ultimate weapon in our stand against Satan. Know the Word of God… All of these are important but Paul has one last thing,

3. Stand on the alert with prayer (18-20…).

Some commentators have suggested that prayer is another piece of armor symbolized by a spear that a soldier might have, as something that could be thrust forward and pierce through unprotected areas, but since Paul doesn’t list it here as such, neither will I. Maybe that is on purpose because I believe that prayer is the overarching umbrella that should cover every piece of armor as it is “put on”! WITH prayer and petition, pray at all times” (18). This keeps us on the “alert” as we don our armor daily. Alert means vigilant, watchful, awake to what is going on around you! This is how we should be for one another as we together, support and encourage each other to stand firm in the Lord. Prayer looks like a weakness to the secular mind, but God is doing a million things behind the scenes! ILL. T-shirt - Picture of man praying with the caption “The devil saw me with my head down and thought he had won, until I said AMEN”! This is also why we have prayers and praises in the bulletin, prayer meeting, Sunday morning prayer and a Day of prayer once per month, we all need to pray for each other and watch for God working constantly through our prayers! Especially as Paul asks for prayer here for himself to have boldness to make known the “mystery of the gospel” (19), which is our purpose… We should all have such confidence in the armor that we can “speak boldly as (we) ought to speak” (20).

Conclusion

So, If the armor we put on is mostly defensive, how do we progress in the Christian life? It’s not Do… victory in the Christian life is realizing It’s Done! The whole point is that we are only to stand in our armor, not fight! The armor we wear is so we have the confidence to stand firm in the Lord and not lose the ground fought for us by Jesus Christ!.

Goalie ILL… Think of yourself as a goalie on a hockey team; you are not an offensive player! – Not a forward, not fighting it out for the puck, that’s not your job! – Your job is to play defense. The battle is out there, but it’s not yours. You simply need to be confident in your goalie pads that you have “put on” as shots are taken at you. Edmonton example… (Optional) Goldberg…

No scripture on Spiritual Warfare (temptations, fear, worry, evil) ever says we are to ATTACK! That is nothow we fight our enemy. But plenty of scripture talk about standing and standing firm. We are to let the offense fight the battle for us, and that’s not us! Our battle is simply with putting on the armor, being on the alert, and taking our defensive position to watch the Lord’s victory.

2 Chronicles 20:15, 17

As the song says, “the battle belongs to the Lord” (NASB77) 15 …“Do not fear or be dismayed because of this great multitude, for the battle is not yours but God's. 17 (NASB77) 'You need not fight in this battle; station yourselves, stand and see the salvation of the LORD on your behalf”.

So, How do we make progress in the Christian life? Not by fighting, not by striving, it’s not by doing a bunch of things to please God, it’s by STANDING on the finished work of Jesus, praising Him for victory already won. That is a real stress reliever… When Jesus said “It is finished” as He was dying on the cross, salvation was completed and our battle with temptation, fear, worry and evil was won for those who believe! Stand on that promise! So live putting the armor on daily and don’t give up any ground and you will be advancing!Don’t be hoping that someday you will be strong enough to win your battles, because today, if you trust Jesus, the victory is already yours.