World at War II

Weapons of war

Last week we looked at our identity in Christ vs the identity of the world. We looked at who our real enemy is… Satan. This week we turn our attention to the weapons of war. These weapons are spiritual.... but they are not that much different from physical weapons. The enemies weapons hurt and wound people to their very core, while our weapons defend us from taking too much damage. Let us pray.

Prayer

Having been to Iraq and Afghanistan, it’s safe to say that I have seen a few battlefields in my time. The battlefields all look different but the enemy always attacks in similar methods. Sometimes their is a attack directly, sometimes they launch an aerial attack and sometimes they lay traps on the ground for us to walk into. What they use as ammunition for their assaults changes ever so slightly, but not so much that it’s unrecognizable. As we begin, let’s take a look at the enemies weapons of war.

Satan’s Battle plan

There are three basic types of ammunition that Satan uses. The lust of the flesh, The lust of the eye and the Pride of life.

The lust of the flesh: This is the desire for physical pleasure or gratification. Satan uses our desires to satisfy our bodies to tempt us into sin.

he lust of the eyes: This is the desire for material or visual pleasure. Satan uses this lust to deceive us into following our eyes instead of Trusting our God

The pride of life: This is the desire for recognition or status. This is man’s goal of receiving the glory and praise that belongs to God.

These are the types of temptations that Satan utilizes to deceive us. However, these temptations come in many forms. Let’s look at Scripture and a few stories to help us see how Satan uses these temptations to defeat us.

Direct attack

The first and most easily recognized battle that Satan uses is a direct attack. This is up close and personal. In a physical battle, this would be considered hand to hand combat Let’s look at the Scripture to see the fight. Jesus has just bee baptized by John the Baptist. His Ministry is about to begin.

Luke 4:3–13 ESV

3 The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.” 4 And Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone.’ ” 5 And the devil took him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time, 6 and said to him, “To you I will give all this authority and their glory, for it has been delivered to me, and I give it to whom I will. 7 If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours.” 8 And Jesus answered him, “It is written, “ ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve.’ ” 9 And he took him to Jerusalem and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, 10 for it is written, “ ‘He will command his angels concerning you, to guard you,’ 11 and “ ‘On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.’ ” 12 And Jesus answered him, “It is said, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’ ” 13 And when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from him until an opportune time.

Satan used all three forms of temptations against Jesus in this fight. First up the lust of the Flesh. Jesus had been in the desert for 40 days. Food and water was scarce and the angels were ministering to him. Satan offers a solution to satisfy his Hunger. Jesus withstands the attack.

Satan then tries again with the lust of the eyes. Look, if you and me join up, we can rule the whole world. We will be unstoppable. Jesus withstands another attack.

Then Satan went for one last temptation, the pride of life. He states that Jesus can prove Himself by Jumping off the highest building in the world at the time. Surely the angels will protect Jesus.

Notice that Jesus used Scripture as his defense. That will be important later. But Satan left the desert without a victory. Now he had to wait for another chance to attack Jesus. Dun dun Duh..

What is important is to remember that we fight these battles with Satan and his demons too. We must be prepared for these attacks.

minefield

Yet there are more ways that Satan devises his ammunition to trap us.In Psalm 23, Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I shall fear no evil. David talks about walking through of death. My job in the Army was to seek our explosives with a dog. We literally were walking and looking for traps that could destroy us. As we walk through the Spiritual battlefield, Satan has laid traps for us. These traps can be life changing traps. We are walking along and then suddenly, Boom… Our life has been majorly altered because we stepped onto the trap.

Distance - sniper fire

Another away that the enemy attacks is with Sniper fire. He lays in wait, looking for the right opportunity to take a shot. You don’t see the enemy at hand. Everything seems to be going ok, then suddenly a round is coming your way. Satan attempts this with Jesus again in Mark 8. Jesus was just telling the disciples that he had to die and Satan, through Peter, takes another shot

Mark 8:31–33 ESV

31 And he began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again. 32 And he said this plainly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. 33 But turning and seeing his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”

Satan takes a single shot here. He uses a friend to attempt to convince him to disobey the father. He does the same thing to us. Everything seems to be going well. We are living in obedience to God. No major issues at home or at work. Then out of nowhere comes a sniper shot. A pointed attempt at you to make you falter.

Aerial attack

The next attack Satan uses is an aerial attack. In combat, the enemy uses planes to drop bombs or mortars to attack over the walls of our defenses. Here’s an illustration with David.

2 Samuel 11:1–2 ESV

1 In the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle, David sent Joab, and his servants with him, and all Israel. And they ravaged the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained at Jerusalem. 2 It happened, late one afternoon, when David arose from his couch and was walking on the roof of the king’s house, that he saw from the roof a woman bathing; and the woman was very beautiful.

In modern culture this may sound odd. Here in America the our roofs have a pitch. In the Middle East, all the roofs are flat. So walking on the roof is not odd. In fact, it allows you to look out over the village. So here is David, just strolling along the roof. Then from over the walls of his castle comes this beautiful woman taking a bath as the sun was setting. Satan lobs this view in. This moment sets off an explosion of sinful events. First they have an affair, then she gets pregnant, He tries to cover it up and then he has the husband murdered while in battle.

But let’s not give Satan too much credit here. David knew where the bathing pool was. He was king. He could have ordered a wall or tree be built to block the view of the pool and give the ladies some privacy. Instead, he chose to let this potential hazard in.

Likewise, we have potential hazards that open the door for mortars and bombs to drop into our safe spaces. Satan is so good that he has convinced us to carry around a device that can explode the world we live in at a moments notice. A couple taps of the screen on our phones and there’s a beautiful woman taking a bath, literally. Watching a football game and suddenly a commercial pops up with temptation.

Inside Job

The hardest attack on us in war is the insider threat. These cause the most damage. Insider threats are attacks from people that are supposed to be on our side. They damage us because we care about the people that harmed us.

Judas

Take Judas. Judas had walked with Jesus for 3 years. Judas had listened to Jesus speak and was entrusted to take care of the money that the disciples and Jesus had. Then they come into Jerusalem for the last time. Jesus washes the feet of Judas. But Judas has devised a plan to make himself rich in his own eyes. In...

John 13:27 ESV

27 Then after he had taken the morsel, Satan entered into him. Jesus said to him, “What you are going to do, do quickly.”

Jesus knew this was coming. He knew that Judas this moment would come. Likewise, we often know those that are around us will eventually hurt us. We know that the ones around us that are not believers will eventually offend us. We also know that every believer is a sinner. Those sinners that are closest to us will at some point hurt us. They will tempt us to respond with a fit of anger. Remember how last week we spoke of how fits of anger is a work of the flesh. Then that fit of anger not only harms ourselves but those around us.

own worst enemy

We are our own worst enemy. This is one of the hardest realities we face. Satan and his demons will attack us. There is little question to that. However, It is us that allow him to win and fall back to sin. We allow the work of the flesh to be prevent as we slip back into our sin nature. Romans 7:15-17

Romans 7:15–17 ESV

15 For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. 16 Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. 17 So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.

Know that this is not a singular battle when you continue to struggle with this battle of sin. Every Christian has this battle. Even Paul had this struggle in his life. Satan uses these battles with Christians to damage the testimony of the believer and of the Church. This creates a bunch of sinners that see Christians as anything but Christ-like.

God’s Battle plan

Enough about the enemies plan for destruction. Let’s turn our attention to God’s plan. An important note here is that his ways are different from our ways. If we were to attempt to defeat Satan’s traps by our own means it would be incredibly difficult. We would put up barriers and blocks and shields of our own making that are so much more burdensome than what God has for us.

Think about David preparing for battle with Goliath. Saul trying to be helpful says that he can use his armor. He puts the armor on David who looks at him and says, I can’t even move in this Armor. It was to burdensome for him to bear and then battle Goliath and expect to win. When my oldest son was probably 5 months old, I laid him in my body armor and closed it in on him to get a cute picture. He had difficulty breathing because it was too much to bear. The reality is that when we try to put armor on us to protect ourselves, it burdens us and makes it difficult to breathe and hard to fight the enemy, Satan. Instead, we must go like David and fight with the Armor of God.

Ephesians 6:13–18 ESV

13 Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. 14 Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, 15 and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. 16 In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; 17 and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, 18 praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints,

There a a few components to this armor. Different pieces of armor to cover all the different parts of our body. So Paul tells us that we need to put it all on to protect ourselves from the enemy. The lack of any one piece of this armor can result in death.... Sin. Let’s explore this armor together.

Truth - belt

1 John 4:6 ESV

6 We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error.

John 16:13 ESV

13 When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.

The belts holds everything together. Belts prevent things from binding together and not working properly. The belts allow for smooth operation of the rest of the equipment.

The built of Truth originates from God the Father and is revealed by the Holy Spirit. This revelation of truth from the Spirit keeps everything else together. Satan tells lies to deceive us. These lies loosens the belts and causes things to come apart. So we must cling to the truth.

righteousness Breastplate

The breastplate is the part that protects the heart and lungs of a warrior. These are two of the most vital organs in the body. If the lungs do not operate properly, it becomes hard to fight. If the heart is punctured the fight will soon over. As such an important piece of the Armor, it is not light. The spiritual breastplate guards our heart and lungs against our enemy, but is not light.

Psalm 119:110 ESV

110 The wicked have laid a snare for me, but I do not stray from your precepts.

Psalm 106:3 ESV

3 Blessed are they who observe justice, who do righteousness at all times!

Psalm 119:172 ESV

172 My tongue will sing of your word, for all your commandments are right.

The breastplate of righteousness is an active part of spiritual armor. We must be commited to wearing it, even when it gets heavy. The breastplate is burdensome. Righteousness is doing what is right. This is an obedience to the Spirit and God’s Word. If we do what is right, then it protects us when Satan tempts us to do what we know we should not do.

Shield of Faith

A shield is a purely defensive weapon. But for it to be of any use we must pick it up. With a a shield, any attacks are deflected away from you.

Romans 5:1–2 ESV

1 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

Our shield is a shield of faith. Faith is what we believe. But for our faith to be strong enough to deflect enemy blows, we must fully trust in our God.We must believe, even when we cannot see what God is doing. This can’t be a yeah. I believe. No this is a deep internal belief.

gospel of peace -shoes

Shoes are another extremely important piece of the armor. Ever where a bad pair of shoes. We all have. When we put on bad shoes, after a day of walking around in them they get tossed in the trash. It brings irritation, stress, tiredness and anxiety. But a good pair of shoes brings comfort and ease in the difficulties of the day.

Romans 5:3–5 ESV

3 Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

In Paul’s description of peace, we see that it comes from God. It is not manmade. We see that it allows us to rejoice and endure the hardship of battle. It produces Character and Hope that prevents Satan from damaging our testimony, that of the church and our God.

Salvation Helmet

The next piece of armor is the Helmet of Salvation. The Helmet protects the most vital organ in the body, the brain. Without the brain, the rest of the body dies.

Psalm 25:5 ESV

5 Lead me in your truth and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation; for you I wait all the day long.

Psalm 18:1–2 ESV

1 I love you, O Lord, my strength. 2 The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.

Without Salvation, the rest of the Spiritual body is dead. In Truth, without Salvation and forgiveness of our sins, there is no life. In life, The helmet protects our minds as we learn who God is and His desires for our life. Because we know that God is our Salvation, we can take shelter when Satan attacks. We have no need for anxiety or stress because God is on our side.

Sword of the Spirit - God’s Word

The Sword is considered an offensive weapon, but an expert swordsman uses this weapon more defensively than offensively. It is only when then enemy overstretches and puts themselves into a weak position that the sword becomes an offensive weapon. He may poke and prod an opponent to expose an enemies weakness. It is only when the enemy reveals that weakness that he then uses it to pierce the enemy.

Hebrews 4:12 ESV

12 For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

if an expert swordsman uses the sword first as a defensive weapon, so to should we use Scripture. We should not come out swinging with Scripture attempting to smack someone over the head with the love of God. It’s not very loving. Instead, The word should be used to defend ourselves against the attacks of Satan. Then when the opportunity arrives to strike, and piece someone with the sword to cut to their bones, we can strike and souls our saved.

Prayer - in the Spirit

The last measure of defense is unlike any piece of Armor. Paul does not even compare prayer to any piece of armor. Regardless of the battle, every warrior prays regardless of their beliefs. We all know their are no atheists on the battlefield because every warrior cries out to God for help.

Jesus prays throughout His ministry. Some of these prayers are seen and others are simply revealed as he goes to a quiet place. As he enters the most important moment in ministry, the crucifixion, he stops to pray.

Matthew 26:36–44 ESV

36 Then Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to his disciples, “Sit here, while I go over there and pray.” 37 And taking with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, he began to be sorrowful and troubled. 38 Then he said to them, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch with me.” 39 And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.” 40 And he came to the disciples and found them sleeping. And he said to Peter, “So, could you not watch with me one hour? 41 Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” 42 Again, for the second time, he went away and prayed, “My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done.” 43 And again he came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were heavy. 44 So, leaving them again, he went away and prayed for the third time, saying the same words again.

Jesus prays in the hardest moment of his ministry. As we go through life, we must pray as we face the hardest moments of life. When we know there is a challenge coming, we must pray. When we are hit with traps and snares, we must pray. The more difficulty the batle, the harder we must pray.Prayer strengthens the Armor of God. Without prayer, our defenses are weakened. We must pray.

In Conclusion, our enemy seeks ways to destroy us . He tempts us in many ways utilizing the Lust of the Flesh, Lust of the eye and pride of life. He attacks in many ways. For this reason, We have to wear the full armor of God at all times. Even when we think we are safe, we need the armor. Even in our church and homes, we need the armor of God.

For the armor to be at it’s best, We must pray at all times. We must Pray, and put on the Armor of God as we face our enemy.