A Prepared Soldier Eph. 6:10-20

Introduction

When a soldier goes into battle there is some equipment he is required to carry, the same goes for the believer. There is a real enemy who wants to do nothing more than to wound you and keep you from serving God.

A good soldier has the right equipment to fight the enemy, and we as believers must have the right equipment as well.

This morning I want to look at a prepare soldiers equipment to fight the adversary.

Our strength vs. 10

Paul here is writing to the church at Ephesus about the spiritual battle they are facing.

He is reminding them where their strength and power come from

Be strong in the Lord

If you want to have the strength of the Lord you must be in the Lord

Be strong in the power of his might

God is all powerful and when we have him fighting on our side we have his power.

The Enemy vs. 11-13

Paul then tells them to put on the whole armor of God

Romans 13:12 “The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light.”

The only way to protect themselves from the schemes or strategies of the devil is by putting on the whole armor of God.

Paul then tells us who our enemy is

We wrestle not against flesh and blood. The battle we are facing is far deeper than the world hating us. This battle is a spiritual battle.

We wrestle against

Principalities - this is talking about the authoritative power of the fallen angels.

Powers

The rulers of darkness of this world

spiritual wickedness in high places

Satan is our enemy and he is real. He has an army that follows him and he wants to destroy and disqualify Christians from serving God.

Romans 8:37–39 “Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

The enemy is strong but our God is stronger!

The Full Armor vs. 11, 13-17

Twice in the portion of scripture Paul tells them to put on the whole armor of God

Paul was showing the importance of having every piece of equipment he was going to list.

Satan is looking for a weakness, and when we are missing a piece of armor we are susceptible to enemy attacks. He will exploit pur weakness.

Paul tells them they need to stand against the wiles or strategy of the devil and to stand in the evil day

The day and age we are living in is evil and it is getting more and more evil every day

it seems like right is wrong and wrong is right. We live in a day that says things to our young people like “follow your heart” but the bible says in Jeremiah 17:9 “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?”

The world says just do what makes you feel good, if what your’e doing isn’t of God it will only make you feel good for a period.

put on the belt of truth

The belt of truth held all the pieces of the armor together.

When your’e wearing the belt of truth, it helps you decipher the father of lies, Satan

Satan wants you to believe the lies he is saying about God

Satan deceived eve by getting her to believe a lie and doubt the goodness of God

The belt of truth is a very important piece of our armor

The breastplate of righteousness

The breastplate protected the heart and other vital organs.

the Bible tells us to protect our heart in Proverbs 4:23 “Keep thy heart with all diligence; For out of it are the issues of life.”

The righteousness of Christ protects us from the accusations of the Devil

The breastplate of righteousness is completely made up of Christ righteousness which he gives us when we trust in him.

2 Corinthians 5:21 “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.”

Philippians 3:9 “And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith:”

We must have our feet shod with the preparation of the Gospel of peace.

We need to put on or gospel shoes so we can march wherever the Lord leads us too.

1 John 2:6 “He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked.”

Satan will try to place obstacles in our path, but in Jesus’ strength we can walk forward, following our Lord, obeying Him, and advancing the gospel.

ill. walking outside barefoot and stepping on a grass bur, satan tries to put grass burs out to keep us from serving him, especially when we forget our gospel shoes

We must have on the right shoes, so we can take the path Christ has for us

The shield of faith

When Satan attacks with doubts, the shield of faith turns aside the blow. When temptations come, faith keeps us steadfast in following Jesus. We are able to withstand all the devil’s fiery darts, because we know whom we have believed (2 Timothy 3:12).

This faith is not something that comes from within us. It is God’s gift to us. He gives each of us a measure of faith (Romans 12:3 ). Then as we walk with Him, that faith grows and develops until it becomes a shield, protecting us and allowing us to live a victorious life in Christ.

This was Paul’s experience. He said, “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me” (Galatians 2:20).

And at the end of that life of faith, he declared, “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith” (2 Timothy 4:7). That can be your experience as well, as you use the shield of faith to turn aside everything Satan hurls at you.

The helmet of salvation

The helmet protects the head—perhaps the most vital part of the body since it is the seat of thought and the mind. When we have a sure knowledge of our salvation, we will not be moved by Satan’s deceptions. When we are certain that we are in Christ with our sins forgiven, we will have a peace that nothing can disturb.

Im thankful that we can know that we are saved without a shadow of a doubt

1 John 5:11–13 “And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.”

The sword of the spirit

We have a weapon to fight the enemy and its the word of God.

Jesus when he was in the wilderness being tempted by satan used the word of God to defeat him we can as well.

Prayer

Prayer is an important part of the armor of God as well

What does prayer do? It is our way of communicating with the father

Conclusion

As believers we must wake up everyday and put on the whole armor of God because the Bible says in 1 Peter 5:8 “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:”

He wants to catch you unprepared.

If you are here this morning and you’ve never trusted Christ as your savior, Satan might be whispering to you today that you don’t need a saviour, but i promise you do. Come this morning and I can show you from the Bible how you can know.