The Church’s Spiritual War: Our Strength

Ephesians 6:10-20

Rapport:

By God’s Providence, we come to a passage of scripture that is the healing balm to hearts that concerned, maybe fearful this afternoon. By now you have seen the US has bombed three nuclear sites in Iran, who has seeking and preparing for nuclear armament.

The truth is there are elements in this world, activity unknown to our naked eye that is occurring at this very moment in the spiritual realm. We may not see it but it is there and it is real. Think of the passage in Job where Satan goes before God to get permission to attack God’s servant Job. That meeting took place in the spiritual realm and Job had no idea that meeting was going on.

Scripture teaches us about that spiritual realm and it teaches us that there is a connection between that spiritual realm and our physical world. God interacts with His creation daily in our lives and in all things as He rules on high as Sovereign King and Ruler. He causes the winds to blow, the rain to fall, the grass to grow.

In Scripture we see the spiritual world interact with our physical world through angels delivering messages to man, angels declaring the birth of the Messiah to Shepherds, angels freeing apostles from prison. We also see demons possessing the bodies of unbelieving people. We see Satan tempting Adam and Eve in the garden and our Lord Jesus Christ. There is a spiritual world. It exists and everyday there is spiritual warfare that rages daily and as Christians we are often times oblivious to it.

When I was in college, I was robbed while I slept in my home….

From that point forward, I was constantly aware of locking my doors, protecting my property, and even arming myself in defense.

Why are we as Christians not equally aware and conscious of being attacked spiritually as we are of being attacked physically? Many of us protect our physical property and person with an arsenal of guns and tazers, security systems and bob wire fences, pit bulls and Chihuahuas but we often ignore the spiritual attacks that we face every day in our Christian lives.

Review:

Paul wanted the believers in Ephesus to understand the spiritual battle that they were facing everyday of their lives and he wanted them to understand what to do in that battle. He had just exhorted three different groups of relationship units that made up the church in that day. He spoke to Husbands and Wives, Parents and Children, and Masters and Slaves. It is no coincidence that now Paul is speaking on spiritual warfare to these believers. It is these groups of relationships in Paul’s day that made up the church and to whom Satan prioritized and concentrated his most intelligent attacks. It is no different today. Satan wants to attack us in four main areas: our marriages, our families, our careers and lastly our church. All four are foundational in our lives at some point and Satan will attack us skillfully everyday in those areas relentlessly without apology.

So what do we do? Paul did not want believers to sit back while they were being attacked but instead he wanted them to prepare and fight in the battle. He taught them that God has provided what they need for this battle and the victory is already been won. They are not helpless, they have no need to be afraid.

Charles Spurgeon once said,

“You must either be overcome by evil or you must overcome evil: one of the two. You cannot let evil alone and evil will not let you alone. You fight and in the battle you must either conquer or be conquered.”

Today, in the time that I have I want us to look at USING THE LORD’S ARMORY IN SPIRITUAL WAR.

1. The Lord is the Source of Our Strength

Ephesians 6:10 “10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might.”

The Command to All Believers 10Be strong in the Lord-( verb-present passive imperative- )translated “BE STRENGTHENED” This phrase “be strong in the Lord” is a continuous command to believers in their lives. In the context of spiritual warfare, Paul is teaching us that our strength in battle comes from God and not from ourselves. We are told to be strong in the Lord or “be strengthened by God.” What Paul is going to tell us in the following verses is:

The source of our strength v. 10

The method of being strengthen by God v 11a

The reason we need God’s strength v 11b-12

Summary v 13

What Paul tells us initially is two fold: God is our strength and we are in need of his strength.

This is such an important conclusion to all that we were just told in those three areas of relationships. As the church exists in marriage, family and employment, we are to engage those areas as one who is being strengthened by the Lord.

Now we first must consider What God has to give before we focus on what he gives us. TURN WITH ME TO:

Isaiah 40:28–29 NASB95

28 Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth Does not become weary or tired. His understanding is inscrutable. 29 He gives strength to the weary, And to him who lacks might He increases power.

In this passage, the prophet Isaiah reveals great truth about God in the names he uses. The “everlasting God” speaks to the state of timeless existence of God. His power is displayed in the mere fact that He exists beyond time. As the source of power, we find courage in knowing that our God is one who is not confined to such a limit as time. God is never out of time. God is never early nor late. In saying this, God controls time, time does not control our God.

But secondly, the name YHWH, which is translated LORD in all caps in your english translation, means that God is the self-existent, unchangeable God. It describes for us an aspect of his power that as God existed in eternity past before all things were created, he existed there in complete sufficiency and in need of nothing.

AW Pink

“There was no heaven, where His glory is now particularly manifested. There was no earth to engage His attention. There were no angels to hymn His praises; no universe to be upheld by the word of His power. There was nothing, no one, but God; and that, not for a day, a year, or an age, but “from everlasting.” During eternity past, God was alone: self-contained, self-sufficient, self-satisfied; in need of nothing. Had a universe, had angels, had human beings been necessary to Him in any way, they also had been called into existence from all eternity. The creating of them when He did, added nothing to God essentially.”

Pink, Arthur W.. The Attributes of God (Function). Kindle Edition.

The last word that Isaiah uses is Creator. God is equal in power in his self-existence, self-sustaining aspect of his being. As humans, we need so much to stay alive to exist and God as creator has made such an amazing creation to allow us to do so. We look to the stars in amazement and we wonder about all the other planets out in our universe, but the earth by which God created out of nothing is enough to occupy our wonder of Him for ages to come.

All of these names of God point us to his power and his glory. But Isaiah is not finished. For wrapped up in the eternality, transcendent, sufficient Creator is the strength that does not fade or grow weary. Its an unlimited and sufficient power.

Think about the power of God on display in creation where God created everything in 6 days and rested on the 7th. His Sabbath rest was not required by God because he was tired or exhausted from creation. He didn’t walk into his bedroom and fall onto his bed in utter exhaustion. His power is unlimited so much so that he could have repeated his creative work over and over and over again without taking a break.

Isaiah draws one more truth that is worth pointing out… He does not grow weary (v 28) he give power to the weary(29)

The second idea in Isaiah’s message is the contrast between God and man’s ability. God has no inability where man is unable to anything without God’s power. Isaiah highlights the weary, tired, and feeble nature of man (30). Our bodies are limited. Our minds are limited. Our time on earth is limited. But physically and spiritually, man is wrecked and hopeless without God.

This is such a necessary truth for us to remember in a world where humanism reigns. Humanism is the belief where human needs and accomplishments are solely relegated to what humans can accomplish in this life. In 1973, authors of the HUMANIST MANIFESTO wrote these words

Illustrations for Biblical Preaching Humanist Manifesto

We believe that traditional dogmatic or authoritarian religions that place revelation, God, ritual, or creed above human needs and experience do a disservice to the human species.

Promises of immortal salvation or fear of eternal damnation are both illusory and harmful. They distract humans from present concerns, from self-actualization, and from rectifying social injustices.

We affirm that moral values derive their source from human experience. Ethics is autonomous and situational, needing no theological or ideological sanction. Ethics stem from human need and interest. To deny this distorts the whole basis of life. Reason and intelligence are the most effective instruments that humankind possesses. There is no substitute; neither faith nor passion suffices in itself.

No deity will save us; we must save ourselves.

One of the most popular lines of poetry that encapsulate this humanist thinking comes from the poem Invictus by William Earnest Henley who wrote, “I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul.” This thinking is a denial of the need for God and a denial the weakness of humanity.

The Bible teaches throughout that humanity needed God in its existence, in its sustainability, and its salvation from our enemies both physical and spiritual.

With that need, Isaiah promises

Isaiah 40:30–31 “30 Though youths grow weary and tired, And vigorous young men stumble badly, 31 Yet those who wait for the Lord Will gain new strength; They will mount up with wings like eagles, They will run and not get tired, They will walk and not become weary.”

This promise is the same of Paul’s message in Ephesians 6 as we return back.

In the Strength of His might-

Paul could have stopped with simply “be strong in the Lord” because Scripture repeats this truth about God’s power from the OT and throughout the NT. Paul second statement connects back to the statement of God’s power in Eph 1:19

Ephesians 1:19–23 “19 and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might 20 which He brought about 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 every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. 22 And He put all things in subjection 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.”

What Paul does in chapter 1 is show the theological foundation of the power of God’s ultimate flex in this world being in the death, resurrection, ascension and exaltation of Jesus.

Pastor Brian Borgman states,

“what is greater than the creation of all things…the death, resurrection, ascension and exaltation of the Son of God.”

This is a greater act of God’s power on display.

The incarnation of the sinless Son of God, born in the womb of a virgin is by itself leaves us dumbfounded in regards to God’s power. HOW ??? How can the eternal second person of the Trinity leave the glory of heavenly praise to enter into the world in total meekness and frailty, putting on weak flesh, entering the domain of sin and darkness? How was he not tainted by sin? How did he not succumb to sin? God’s power in Him!

Then we get to the power of God in the atonement. Christ’s sacrificial life is one that provides a sufficient supply appeasing holy perfection that every sin that has ever been committed by the entirety of God’s elect throughout history. No sin by any person slips into the cracks or void. Every sin is appeased for God’s people as it is marked as PAID in Full. HOW: God’s power through Him!

Then,of course the resurrection of Jesus where his life had expired days before and then is was granted again. Jesus resurrection from the dead was not the first of that year, for Lazarus proceeded him but it was the only one with such an effect to produce for the church populous to experience the effects of the resurrection both now in this life and in the life to come. The resurrection was the final act of God’s power on dispay over our greatest enemy Satan/Sin. This enemy was defeated at the redemptive work in Christ.

2. We Must Clothe Ourselves in Him

Ephesians 6:11 “11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil.”

11Put on all the weaponry of God- This is the second personal command in this sentence. It is an imperative verb that challenges us to clothe ourselves with the armor of God. We are to depend, not our own armor, but on the armor of God to fight the spiritual battle.

Paul will use the metaphor of the soldier’s armor throughout this passage in order to communicate the tools necessary to fight in battle. The armor , which included weapons, chest piece and helmet, for the solider in Paul’s mind was the greatest asset of protection that he possessed in battle.

Imagine for a moment that a soldier approaches the battle field standing in line with all the other soldiers, yet without his armor. In arrogance, he proclaims that he can handle the battle just fine without the extra weight of all that metal. Or even consider, that he chooses to wear just he chestpiece without his weapons, or just his sword with protecting those vital organs. All are examples of the wording Paul uses for the entire array of protection for the soldier in battle.

Now in our lives, we must reflect on how we approach trials and struggles. Paul’s message to the Ephesians is that God is the strength for the battle with sin and Satan and in that battle the full of armor of God is needed. He will be specific about these items of armory to show us that no area of our lives should be neglected in relying on the strength that God provides. We might be arrogant to think our parenting is in good shape while our marriage is dependent on His strength. That arrogant thinking will lead us to fall prey to successful attacks in our homes. All areas of the Christian life is dependent on strength of our Lord.

Paul has already used the language of putting on and putting off which literally refers to the clothing that we wear. Now he raises that metaphor to putting on armor to signify the DEPENDENT LIVING OF THE STRENGTH OF CHRIST.

Romans 13:12–14 “12 The night is almost gone, and the day is near. Therefore let us lay aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. 13 Let us behave properly as in the day, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual promiscuity and sensuality, not in strife and jealousy. 14 But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts.”

Putting on Christ is putting on the armor of God. He is our source of strength whereby his Spirit living within us empowers us beyond our own abilities to live Godly lives.

This is just another example in God’s word where believers are commanded to action in accordance with God’s divine provision. Is spiritual warfare about God working in us or us working through God’s power? I would say both. We are commanded to “put on the armor of God” but it is God who supplies that armor for the battle and strengthens us during the battle. This is the truth we see in Scripture of God sovereignty and man’s responsibility. Believers work out their salvation with fear and trembling but it is God who works in us at the same time. We are called to action and not idleness yet God supplies the power we need to succeed and he receives the glory and praise in the end.

What Paul is going to give us in his specific examples of the armor of God are characteristics of God like faith, righteousness, truth that believers are daily to live by and put on in their lives. This of course follows the same pattern of putting off before we put on the holy habits of the Lord. What we will look at in future sermons is that picking up the shield of faith must be preceded from laying down the hopeless fear of man and discouraging anxiety of uncontrollable and unforeseen circumstances. To put on Jesus is more than just to be saved in Him. It also requires that we live in Him, abide in him, rest in Him, be refreshed spiritually by him.

William Gurnall writes,

The Christian in Complete Armour Chapter V: Of the Use of Our Spiritual Armour, or the Exercise of Grace

it is not only putting on by conversion, what some of them might not yet have; but also, he means they should exercise what they have. It is one thing to have armour in the house, and another thing to have it buckled on; to have grace in the principle, and grace in the act…The Christian armour is made to be worn; no laying down, or putting off our armour, till we have done our warfare, and finished our course.

3. The Results Will Be Standing Firm

The purpose of the armor is given by Paul in verse 11,

11…To be able to withstand the schemes of the devil.

The armor serves the purpose of our protection against the schemes from our enemy. Notice the phrase “able to stand.” This means to have the power to resist or stand firm in your position. This is a military term that can be used to hold a watch post or to hold a critical position on the battlefield. Paul constantly uses this Greek word to challenge believers to persevere or stand strong.

Paul tells the Romans twice to stand firm. Paul urges the Corinthians, the Galatians, the Colossians the Thessalonians and his disciple Timothy to stand firm in Christ. So it is through God’s armor that He supplies us which strengthens us to stand firm.

Notice that four times in Eph 6, Paul gives the command to “STAND FIRM.” THIS IS THE PURPOSE AND OVERALL MESSAGE OF THIS TEXT.

11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. 12

13 Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day,

(this word comes from the family of ISTIMI. ISTIMI means to “stand firm, immovable”, you add and ANTI to the front of it and you get ANTHISTIMI which means to “stand firm against or resist.”)

13and having done everything, to stand firm.

14 Stand firm therefore,

Paul is repetitive with this phrase to emphasize the main idea of the passage. STAND FIRM IN CHRIST. Paul is not commanding us to defeat Satan and his cohorts of corruption, because Christ has already attained that victory at Calvary. Victory is already ours when our lives are surrendered to Him. Christ has already defeated our enemy when he shed his blood on Calvary and was raised in new life in His resurrection. Our command then is not defeating Satan, but we must hold our position while we remain on this earth.

Why just hold our position? Holding our position is important because it allows God’s mission to be accomplished. If we hold our position and remain protected in God’s power, we are still effective to minister and serve Him. As protected soldiers, we can share the gospel, go on mission, serve the needy and the orphans and widows. We can teach, serve and love one another. If we are unprotected, we are vulnerable to be tempted into sin and suffering, thus making ourselves ineffective for the work of the ministry.

1 Peter 3:13–17 (NAS)

13 Who is there to harm you if you prove zealous for what is good? 14 But even if you should suffer for the sake of righteousness, you are blessed. And do not fear their intimidation, and do not be troubled, 15 but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence; 16 and keep a good conscience so that in the thing in which you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ will be put to shame. 17 For it is better, if God should will it so, that you suffer for doing what is right rather than for doing what is wrong.