The Whole Armor

Well I am excited for this week, I hope you all are too. I know that I say this often and I mean it every time I say it but I believe that this could be one of the most important weeks of your young spiritual life because we are talking about something this week that is inevitable. This week we are going to talk a lot about spiritual warfare and if you were here last Wednesday, you probably remember that as we went through Mark 5, we sort of laid the ground work for where we are going to go over the next 5 nights. We know that there is a physical world and there is a spiritual world. We know that there is a Kingdom of God and a kingdom of the devil. We know that there is a devil and we know that he does not just lie dormant waiting for his destruction, but that the devil is alive and well. The Apostle Peter gives us a great warning and a great reminder in 1 Peter 5:8 “Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” What do we do then? All I know is that if I am at the zoo and there is a hungry lion that has broken out of its cage and is wandering down the path next to me, I better have a plan. You and I are walking through the devil’s battleground every single day. Quite simply, if you are a Christian you are at war. The unbeliever is at war with God and the believer is at war with the devil. What are we to do then? That’s what we are going to find out together this week. The Church needs to be ready. You need to be ready. Adrian Rogers says that the church is not a show boat, it’s a battle ship and you were born for the battle. Now it would be a shame if we were to enter into this battle with no way to endure through it. How would you feel if God were to place you into this position to do war with the devil and give you no way to persevere through it? You would probably feel hopeless. Believe it or not, the devil, even the weakest demon, is stronger than you are. On your own you have no chance. Thank God that as we sang earlier today, the battle belongs to the Lord and not to us. This is God’s war, and while we serve as soldiers in His army, He has already won. It may not feel like it but at the cross, the decisive blow was given to Satan. He knows that he has lost but he is going to go down swinging and flailing. I’m not sure how familiar you are with World War 2 but I heard the defeat of Satan put like this: We can think of Satan’s defeat on Easter as sort of like D-Day in World War 2. D-Day on June 6, 1944 so the 80th year anniversary is on Thursday, was the day when allied troops stormed the beach of Normandy and it has been said that D-Day was the turning point of World War 2 and that it laid the foundation for the total defeat of the Axis power. The second coming of Christ will be sort of like what Victory Day was at the end of World War 2. On May 8th, 1945 Germany surrendered and at that point, Nazi Germany was totally defeated. For us as Christians, the decisive victory has been won but the complete and total victory is still to come. So, we endure and we stand firm. We are going to spend this week in Ephesians 6:10-18 and this is a very popular section of Scripture because it focuses on what Paul refers to as the armor of God. I cannot stress enough just how badly you and I need to know and understand what Paul says in these verses. Martyn Lloyd-Jones began his series on the armor of God with these words: “There is nothing that is more urgently important for all who claim the name of Christian, than to grasp and to understand the teaching of this particular section of Scripture.” So, let’s dive into this. We’ll read Ephesians 6:10-18 but our focus for tonight will be on verses 10-13. I think it’s important you get a view of the mountain range before we attack the peaks. Let’s pray and then we will read. Ephesians 6:10-18.

Ephesians 6:10–18 NASB95

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. Stand firm therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; in addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints,

We’ll focus on these first four verses and I’ll give you a bit of a map of where we are going tonight. We’ll look at why this section of Scripture was so important to the Ephesian Church, what we battle against, whose strength it is, and finally when the battle will be over.

Context

It is important for us to remember as we read our Bibles that the authors of Scripture are addressing things that happened in real time at real places. Paul is writing to the church in the city of Ephesus and we are first introduced to the city of Ephesus back in Acts 19. Paul loved the church at Ephesus and he spent over 2 years building up the church in that city. If you were to go through the New Testament and New Testament history, you would see that the church in Ephesus has a very rich history. The church was also home to some of the greatest pastors that the world has ever seen. To give you a bit of a taste of who preached in Ephesus, Paul did, Timothy did, and the Apostle John did. That’s quite the line up. The book of Ephesians is obviously written to the church that is in this city and Jesus Himself addresses the church in the book of Revelation. Paul’s heart is so connected to the church in Ephesus that when Paul is making his return trip to Jerusalem where he will be arrested and eventually sent to Rome, Paul makes sure that he says goodbye and encourages the elders and leaders of the Ephesian church. Paul loves this community but this community, and the city that this church is founded in was not perfect. Ephesus was a very spiritual city. There was a lot of occult activity that happened in Ephesus. In the middle of Acts 19, we actually read of a demon that was located in Ephesus that had attacked seven men that were known as the seven sons of Sceva. Ephesus was an important commercial and trading city. It was an enormous city with an enormous population of approximately 150-250,0000 people. The city has been called the Gateway of Asia because from Ephesus, you could go to practically anywhere in Asia. Ephesus was on the coast of modern day Turkey. It was the chief commercial district of that part of the world and it was the fourth greatest city in the entire Roman empire. It was a beautiful city but it was also a city that had experienced great turmoil in its history. Due to its location on the coast and its vast resources, Ephesus was a prime city to invade so seeing soldiers in the city was not uncommon which means that this was a city that Rome was determined to defend. With that in mind, the church in Ephesus knew what a soldier in armor looked like and the purpose that the armor served and we will come back to this throughout the week. I want you guys to know this because it is important for us to recognize that Paul is not just writing things at random. Everything that he says serves a purpose and that which he writes about is something that would be very easy for the church in Ephesus to visualize and I hope that we will be able to visualize it as well. Now that we have that context in the back of our head, let’s read Ephesians 6:10–13 again: “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm.”

What we Battle Against

Before we talk about who has the strength and where our strength comes from, it is important for us to recognize the battle that is before us. Do you believe that life is a battle? If you are a Christian, in what ways have you already experienced this reality? Based off of what we have read and what you might already know, who is it that the Christian is at war against? We may want to jump straight into verse 12 but Paul mentions it at the end of verse 11. We are to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. Our war is not with those that have been created in the image of God. The biggest source of pain in your life does not come from those that look just like you. No, your greatest source of pain and the greatest source of problems come from Satan. John Calvin said, “Paul lays a formidable enemy in front of us, not to overwhelm us with fear but to sharpen our diligence and earnestness. If we neglect our enemy he does his best to oppress us with laziness and reduce us to fear, so that we are defeated before we begin. By speaking about his power, Paul tries to put us on our guard.” Now I know that it can be easy for us to look at the world around us and only see a physical existence. It can be pretty easy for us to live a life as if the spiritual realms do not exist but that is not all that there is in this universe. Paul wants us to recognize that our foe is not made of flesh and blood. I think that this is an important reminder for us to remember because those that are made in the image of God are ultimately our friends to win and not foes to fight. The Christian I believe is in the midst of a far greater battle, a far bloodier battle, than any war that has ever been seen in history. Think about it, in every war, it is always flesh against flesh, man against man, but here in these verses, Paul points to something otherworldly. He that was cast out of heaven, he that rebelled against God first, he that tempted Adam and Eve in the garden, he that tempted Christ in the wilderness, he that has nothing but death in his eyes, he is the one that we are to fight against. Paul says that we are at war with the spiritual forces of wickedness. Knowing that we battle against the devil, we have to recognize that the traditional methods of warfare will not do us any good! We cannot fight the devil in the way that an army fights an opposing army. Paul himself says in 2 Corinthians 10:3-4

2 Corinthians 10:3–4 NASB95

For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses.

Now how do we know that our battle fights with different weapons? Because I would argue that most of Satan’s attacks do not consist of something physical but of something mental and spiritual. It starts with the heart and it starts with the thoughts. Look back to Genesis 3. You don’t see Satan grabbing the forbidden fruit and shoving it down Adam and Eve’s throat and saying sin right now! No, it starts with that question! Did God really say? That’s how Satan fights and it is so dangerous. Most wars they start with action right? Like look back to 9/11. Would we have invaded the Middle East if 9/11 didn’t happen? Probably not. Any war in history starts with physical action from an aggressor! But Satan does not fight the flesh of man, although he certainly impacts it, he fights the inner man! He makes you question the Lord and if he is fighting through a spiritual battle, our battle must also be a spiritual battle! What might this look like in your lives? I know that when people think of spiritual warfare that their minds instantly jump to fierce persecution and martyrdom and that is always a possibility but what might it look like right now for you guys? I think that for you guys it starts with Satan putting into your minds, “Don’t you think that person will look at you strange if they know you’re a Christian? I’m fine if you’re one, just don’t bring them into it! It’s far too much awkwardness!” Satan attacks you at your insecurities. He makes you question your standing with the Lord and this is something that he will do from the least to the quote on quote greatest Christian. He also may make you feel some sort of resentment towards other believers. C.S. Lewis in the Screwtape Letters has an excellent example of this sort of thing in I think the second chapter. Screwtape the demon is writing to his nephew Wormwood who has been given the task of tormenting a young Englishmen and in chapter 2, Wormwood writes to Screwtape with the news that this young man has recently become a Christian. Screwtape says to him, “Look, this is bad but not all hope is lost because he still needs to learn to deal with other Christians. Maybe one of them sings out of tune next to him in his pew, or smells funny, or has a double chin, whatever it is, use it and distort his mind as to what Christianity really is all about.” Lewis writes this: “Work hard, then, on the disappointment or anti-climax which is certainly coming to the patient during his first few weeks as a churchman. The Enemy allows this disappointment to occur on the threshold of every human endeavour. It occurs when the boy who has been enchanted in the nursery by Stories from the Odyssey buckles down to really learning Greek. It occurs when lovers have got married and begin the real task of learning to live together. In every department of life it marks the transition from dreaming aspiration to laborious doing. The Enemy takes this risk because He has a curious fantasy of making all these disgusting little human vermin into what He calls His “free” lovers and servants ” What Lewis is hinting at here is that one of the most effective ways that Satan works is by giving you a false view of what Christianity is supposed to look like. He wants us to think that their is really no joy in Christianity and no joy with other Christians. Is this a physical battle? Nope! Now of course he can use physical means to provoke but the battle is over the soul, not the body! That is again why Paul tells us that we do not struggle against flesh and blood. Now I don’t know about you but I’m not much of a fighter. If you were to throw me into the ring and tell me that I had to fight someone like Muhammed Ali or Mike Tyson in their prime, you can go ahead and tell Pastor Wayne that he can start planning out what to say at my funeral. That’s against another human being. If I get destroyed by human hands, what chance do I have against the Devil? Paul gives us the answer in verse 10 and 13. I think he puts it first to remind us of where our strength must always come from.

Whose Strength is it?

Paul says in Ephesians 6:10 “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might.” How do we stand firm against the devil and his forces? Not in our own strength and not in our own might. If you want to endure, it has to be in and through the Lord. Those that struggle the most in spiritual warfare are the Christians that start their sentences with the letter I. “I will endure, I will stand firm, I will be strong in myself and the strength of what I can do.” No, the Christians that struggle in this war are those that believe it is upon them and their power to win it. We are to be strong in the Lord and in His might. We need to recognize that just as we were utterly unable to save ourselves, we are utterly unable to do anything by ourselves when it comes to spiritual warfare.

Charles Hodge writes:

A Commentary on the Epistle to the Ephesians Commentary

We are to be strong in the Lord. As a branch separated from the vine, or as a limb severed from the body, so is a Christian separated from Christ. He, therefore, who rushes into this conflict without thinking of Christ, without putting his trust in him, and without continually looking to him for strength and regarding himself as a member of his body, deriving all life and vigour from him, is demented. He knows not what he is doing. He has not strength even to reach the field. With him the whole conflict is a sham.

Do you remember what Jesus says in John 15:5? He says, “I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.” Have you recognized just how greatly you need the Lord. We rely on Him for everything. The fact that you are alive at this very moment is a testimony to our reliance on Him. We cannot look at the spiritual battle that we face against Satan as a battle that we fight alone. God is not watching this grand narrative unfold before Him as He sits on the sideline. No, this is God’s war. We are soldiers in His army and He goes before us! What does this great truth mean to us? It means that we know that we are on the winning side and we know that our God is involved. Martyn Lloyd-Jones said, “God is involved because it is His world and we are His people. He is not going to allow the devil to defeat Him. God cannot allow the Evil One to mar His great work finally. God is involving Himself in the conflict. The whole movement of salvation is for God’s glory; not simply for our deliverance, but for God’s glory primarily.” This is not a small little skirmish with the devil that God is uninvolved with, this is God, jumping to the front of the battle and saying, “My name and my glory are on the line and I will not let evil conquer.” So we fight in the battle, but we fight it with the strength that God provides. We take up the whole armor of God so that we will be able to resist Satan. Have you made Christ the firm foundation that you stand on in the midst of this battle? Because if you are standing on anything but Christ, you are standing on sinking sand. Are you a shaky Christian or are you one that stands firm in the strength and promises of the Lord? Can you confidently look at the principalities of this world and say, “Bring it on, I stand firm in the Lord my God and in the strength of His might.” I love how John Stott phrases this, he says, “Wobbly Christians who have no firm foothold in Christ are an easy prey for the devil. And Christians who shake like reeds and rushes cannot resist the wind when the principalities and powers begin to blow.” Are you a wobbly Christian? If you are, stop looking at yourself and start looking to Christ. Ask Him to give you the faith to be strong and the strength to be faithful. As we read these verses, as we looked briefly at the armor of God, and as we will see more in the next four nights, did you notice that the armor describes Jesus perfectly? If you want to be strong in the Lord, you must put on the armor of He that has perfected it. Now one of the worst things about wars is that it isn’t always easy to tell when they are going to end. Did you know that some wars have gone on for hundreds of years? How discouraging it must be to think that you are part of a war that seems like it will never end.

When is the Battle Over?

The last question that I want us to look at tonight is this: When is this battle, when will this war finally be over? Will it ever be over? We know that it will. I think that something that is more important than knowing the day something will happen is knowing with certainty that it will. If we knew that our battle with spiritual warfare was to be done next week, chances are we wouldn’t see the need to fight or fight quite as hard if we thought we could tread water for a week. Better than knowing when, is knowing absolutely. There is a day on Heaven’s calendar when this age old struggle will end. It will be a complete and total victory. We know what Jesus did on Easter morning. Satan was defeated and now we feel the after affects of his bleeding out but his destruction is certain. Revelation 20:10 says

Revelation 20:10 NASB95

And the devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are also; and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.

The time is coming when this war will be over. The time will come when we will be able to rest from our labors but until that day comes, we fight on. We endure with all the strength that God provides and we stand firm in the strength of His might and we will see how we can do this over the next 4 nights. Let’s end with the encouraging words of Revelation 21:1-7

Revelation 21:1–7 NASB95

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them, and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away.” And He who sits on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” And He said, “Write, for these words are faithful and true.” Then He said to me, “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give to the one who thirsts from the spring of the water of life without cost. “He who overcomes will inherit these things, and I will be his God and he will be My son.

This day is coming and it will be glorious but until this day comes, you need to be ready for the battle now. Are you ready? Who is it that you stand on and who is it that you stand for? Let’s go to the Lord in prayer.