Ephesians 6:10-13
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Have you ever been unprepared? From kindergarten to receiving doctorate of ministry degree I spent a total of 22 years in school. There were times that I was really prepared for tests, papers, assignments. And there were times I was not prepared and it showed. Preparation is important. I spent time to be prepared for this sermon today through prayer and study. We have to prepare at our jobs. You cannot just show up and expect to have things done for you. So why would we think it should be any different in our spiritual lives, are we prepared to face the spiritual battle?
Finally (the rest, as far as the rest is concerned, from now on) = so think of it in this way:
-Before the foundation of the world God predestined us to adoption in Christ
-It is only by grace you are saved through faith
-The gospel affects our lives, how we relate to one another as the church, how we relate in our marriage, to parents, to children, in the workplace
-Now Paul says from this point forward you must resist the attacks of Satan
-The whole point of this section is that believers can stand firm when facing temptation, and the reason we can stand firm is because our strength comes from God
-Paul has already mentioned the power of God given to believers
19 and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might
20 that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places,
21 far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come.
22 And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church,
23 which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.
-be strong (become strong, strengthen)
-Paul does not just mention the power the believer has in Christ but urges them to grow in that power
-We see many instances in Scripture of God empowering His people:
-Joseph in Genesis 39:2 - the Lord was with him
-David 1 Samuel 18:14 - he was successful in all his undertakings for the Lord was with Him
-Gideon Judges 6:34 - The Spirit of the Lord clothed Gideon
-Stephen Acts 7:52 - full of the Holy Spirit
-Paul instructed it in other places as well
1 You then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus,
13 Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong.
-How are they to grow in the strength of the Lord
-by putting on the armor of God, the armor that has been provided to them, when you look at the armor there is nothing we have done to receive any of it, but God has given it, we are only growing in what has been given, but there is the need to apply it
-we are strengthened by making use of the gifts that God has given us, similar to what we find in 5:18 be filled with the spirit
John MacArthur - The armor of God is to be the Christian’s lifelong companion
The reasons why we need the armor of God:
1 We are Fighting Against Satan
1 We are Fighting Against Satan
-put on (4:22-24)
Paul has in mind Isaiah 59:17
17 He put on righteousness as a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation on his head; he put on garments of vengeance for clothing, and wrapped himself in zeal as a cloak.
-the idea is to put it on and leave it, not to put on and take off
-the reason we need the armor of God is because we are not fighting against humans, but spiritual forces
3 For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh.
4 For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds.
5 We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ,
6 being ready to punish every disobedience, when your obedience is complete.
12 The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light.
-Paul definitely thought of the Christian life as a fight
-He encouraged Timothy to fight the good fight of the faith in 1 Tim, and then to suffer as a good soldier of Christ in 2 Tim.
-As we glanced at this past week in Phil 1, Paul defended the gospel
-And in order to be ready for the battle, a good solider needs the proper armor, and we not have any makeshift armor
-The reason we need the armor of God is because we are fighting against the schemes of Satan
-scheme = deceit, craftiness, strategies
-We find that Satan is the deceiver as we look throughout Scripture
-Paul has already stated in 2:2 - that he is the power of the air at work in the sons of disobedience
-He instructed them in 4:27 - to not give the devil an opportunity, in other words do not give him any room to bring in temptation
-Paul wrote in other places:
9 The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders,
10 and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved.
18 because we wanted to come to you—I, Paul, again and again—but Satan hindered us.
5 Do not deprive one another, except perhaps by agreement for a limited time, that you may devote yourselves to prayer; but then come together again, so that Satan may not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.
-notice we must put on the whole armor of God
-so we may stand - so we may not be moved, we are in Christ there is nothing Satan can do about that, we are sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, but we can be tempted, we can give him opportunity to move us, so in order to stand firm we must put on the armor of God, we must grow in sanctification
-Paul went into detail about who we are fighting against
-it is not just Satan but evil spiritual beings, they are attached to Satan
-Quite often we may have heard this verse in attempt to say that we ought not to fight with other humans because our fight is with demonic forces, which has some merit to it, but the point Paul made here is that we need the armor of God because we are not wrestling against humans by demonic spiritual forces
-darkness = alienation from God, in sin
-heavenly places = should be understood as another dimension
-Christ has won and is victorious and is the reason why the armor helps us to stand, we know that there will come a time where God will completely bind demonic forces forever, but until then we are in the fight
2 We can Only Fight in the Power of God
2 We can Only Fight in the Power of God
-We are to take up the armor of God because of the power of God
JC Ryle - The world, the flesh, and the devil can never overwhelm the weakest person who sets their face towards God
-It is the only way we can stand, how else could we overcome temptation?
-By our own efforts? Just try to be better? It doesn't work, we need the power of God
Oswald Chambers - if we tackle him in our own strength, we are soon done for; but if we stand with the strength and courage of God he cannot gain one inch of way at all
-Jesus gave us a great example in his temptation - quoting Scripture
-attack takes place in the evil day, when is the evil day? 5:16
-we could think of this in several different ways:
-the everyday evil we face
-the time to time evil hardships that the believer has to face
-that we are in the final evil days and there is a day to come when it is done away with
8 But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation.
1 Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons,
-This ever more why we need the armor of God, we cannot withstand temptation on our own
Be Thou My Vision
3 Be Thou my Breastplate, my Sword for the fight;
be Thou my whole Armor, be Thou my true Might;
be Thou my soul’s Shelter, be Thou my strong Tow’r,
O raise Thou me heav’nward, great Pow’r of my pow’r.