07192020 Ephesians 6:10-17 Prepare for Battle - Be Strong

A Call to Arms...

I Recently watched a show depicting The Battle of Culloden - fought on April 16, 1746 between the Highland Army of Prince Charles Stuart (Bonnie Prince Charlie) and the Royal Troops of King George II. This was the last battle of the Jacobite uprising as the Scottish highlanders tried to reclaim the British throne for the exiled Prince Charles.

As these men prepared for battle and were called to arms, their leader walked among them presenting them a rousing speech about commitment to a cause that seemed impossible to win and encouraging them to fight the good fight.

Throughout history men have stood before their troops or called the people to arms with words of encouragement and commitment...

William Churchill with his “We shall never surrender” speech

George S. Patton’s address to the US 6th Armored division May 31, 1944

The Apostle Paul has been laying the foundation for these final words in which he calls every Christian to prepare for battle in the Lord’s Army.

Going all the way back to Eph. 4:1 where Paul is ‘imploring’ his listeners to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called” he draws to a close with this call to arms - prepare for battle.

Last week we considered the previous section of Ephesians beginning in Ephesians 5:22 and going through Ephesians 6:9, dealing with God’s household rules pertaining to the relationships between husbands and wives, parents and children, managers and servants.

And now in this final section, the Apostle Paul exhorts his listeners to prepare for battle as he sets in context all that he has said so far.

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Ephesians 6:10–24 NASB95PARA

10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. 11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. 12 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. 13 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. 14 Stand firm therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, 15 and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; 16 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. 17 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. 18 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, 19 and pray on my behalf, that utterance may be given to me in the opening of my mouth, to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel, 20 for which I am an ambassador in chains; that in proclaiming it I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak. 21 But that you also may know about my circumstances, how I am doing, Tychicus, the beloved brother and faithful minister in the Lord, will make everything known to you. 22 I have sent him to you for this very purpose, so that you may know about us, and that he may comfort your hearts. 23 Peace be to the brethren, and love with faith, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 24 Grace be with all those who love our Lord Jesus Christ with incorruptible love.

Pray

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God’s Plan - Our Part

Before the foundations of the world, God decreed to create a people for Himself. Ever since the war began back in the Garden of Eden where Adam and Eve listened and fell into Satan’s lies and were sent away from the presence of God, God, himself, has been calling a people to himself. “I will be your God and you will be my people.”

Knowing that these people called by his name would always be a rebellious people, He sent His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh as an offering for sin for sin condemning sin in the flesh (Rom 8:3).

It is this commander of the Lord’s Army, Our Savior, Jesus Christ, who has bled and died on behalf of those he has called. He has called those people out of the world from every tribe and tongue and people and nation – Jew and Gentile into one household, one family – to be a new people giving those people a foretaste of the glory to come in the age to come - the New Heaven and New Earth.

And having presented this grand plan that God is working out in this world, the Apostle Paul calls us with more and more passion in chapters four and five and the beginning of chapter six where he draws all this to a close saying, “Finally” - live lives worthy of your calling.

If you’ve been called to be a part of God’s family, if you’ve been called to be a part of God’s household, if you’ve been called to be a part of this new community that God is creating in this world, then you ought to stand worthy of that calling, fit for that calling, suitable for that calling.

And so, we have been presented with several exhortations for us to live differently from the world, to live distinctively as Christians in this world, to live as Counter-culture people in this world.

Let’s put this challenge and these exhortations in context...

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Challenge and Exhortations

Paul knows that there are a many challenges in living out these commands

For instance, the Apostle Paul knows that our own sinfulness is one of the challenges or obstacles that we encounter when we try and live out these commands, these exhortations, these directions that he has given to us.

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Our Own Sin...

He understands that we still struggle with sin as believers, and that sin sometimes slows us down and even discourages us in our zeal (desire) to live holy lives - set apart as Christians in the world.

How does Pastor Paul know this? He is a man among men and understands the depth of our depravity.

Romans 7:18–19 NASB95PARA

18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. 19 For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want.

Romans 7:24 NASB95PARA

24 Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?

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The Sinfulness of Others...

The Apostle Paul also knows we all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23) - that there is not one righteous, not even one (Rom 3:10). He understand that the sinfulness of others has its own effect on us. Sometimes the things that others have done to us looms large in our minds and has a profound effect, but by God’s grace, on the way that we live, and so our having not only sin but also having been sinned against affects the way that we are able to live out these exhortations.

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The Imperfect Church...

Of course, another reality that the Apostle Paul is all too aware of, having ministered to the church in Corinth and other churches that was composed of imperfect people, is that the church is imperfect.

The church is full of sinners who are working out their salvation with fear and trembling. But God has designed that the church to be the place to help us live our Christian lives as we submit ourselves to the means of grace He provides for us.

In the church in Corinth, the place where these Christians ought to have found security and meaning, and family, and oneness and unity and harmony in the midst of a world in opposition to them and to Christ, there they found discord and strife, and selfishness and mistrust, and broken relationships and all sorts of other problems.

In the church at Philippi, Paul urged Euodia and syntyche to live in harmony in the Lord (Philippians 4:2).

Paul had disagreements with Barnabas (Acts 15:37-41). Peter and Paul had a disagreement in which Paul opposed Peter to his face (Gal 2:11-14).

He understood like Isaiah:

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Isaiah 6:5 NASB95PARA

5 Then I said, “Woe is me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips, And I live among a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.”

And so the Apostle Paul wants us to go into this battle wide-eyed to the challenges that we face as Christians in living out these calls that he’s issuing to live a distinctively Christian lives. The kingdom of heaven may be at hand (Mt. 3:2), but the world we live in is Satan’s playground where

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1 Peter 5:8–9 NASB95PARA

8 Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. 9 But resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world.

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The World’s Corruption

There are also challenges we face in the world - the opposition and the temptations of the world.

On the one hand, the world does not want us as Christians to live distinctively as Christians in the world. In fact, much of the world considers that a threat.

If we think distinctively as a Christian in this world, if we attempt to live distinctively as a Christian in this world, it is entirely possible that someone is going to put you into the same category as every other radical extremist because of your narrow-minded thinking - that there’s one God and there’s one truth, and there’s only way of salvation.

And so the world if you are properly taking your stand as a Christian - living a holy, set-apart way of life that you will face opposition.

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John 16:33 NASB95PARA

33 These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.”

The world most often infects us is by tempting us, not so much by a direct head-on frontal assault or a persecution (although we are seeing more and more of this) - it’s by subtly tempting us to adopt its own standards, its own way of thinking, its own way of living.

So we begin to compromise is little ways - looking at sin as if it’s normal, and to look at righteousness as if it’s abnormal...to begin to feel apologetic for holding to the things that we have held to because the Scripture teaches them and so many people seem to be getting along just fine without them.

That’s the way the world works. It started in the Garden of Eden with Satan taking what God had created good - twisting the truth so God’s commands are questioned tempting us. That sort of thinking infects our thinking.

It woos us over to its side, and it calls on us to abandon our Christian commitment ever so slightly and then even more and before you know it, like the proverbial frog in a kettle too many have become spiritually apathetic, missionally indifferent and prayerless irrelevant. Jesus warned some church in Revelation Ch. 2 & 3 about their precarious spiritual condition

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The Greatest and Most Subtle Obstacle

It is an obstacle about which we are often unaware, but it is a hidden. It is a reality about which no Christian can afford to be ignorant. It is an obstacle which especially in the wake of enlightenment, scientism, and naturalism has more and more faded into the background of the minds of Christians, but it is a real obstacle that the Apostle Paul is deadly serious as he calls our attention to it.

There is so much packed into these last words - 16 verses - about 260 words in the Greek - that we could spend the next 5 months on them. You’ll be relieved to know that I only have a few more sermons planned for this particular section of Ephesians, in spite of the fact that others like Martyn Lloyd-Jones preached 21 sermons on this passage from verses 10-19, and William Gurnall, the famous Puritan, in his book, The Christian in Complete Armor, wrote over a thousand pages on these ten verses.

Today we’ll focus on verses 10-12.

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Ephesians 6:10 NASB95PARA

10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might.

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Our struggle is not against flesh and blood.

There’s a real sense, then, in which this passage is a one-point sermon. And the one-point sermon is simply this:

We are living in a war zone.

That’s the context of our relationships and our discipleship. We live in a war zone, and it’s not a cold war, it’s a hot war, and it’s being fought in our dens and living rooms, in our classrooms, in our churches, in our neighborhoods, in our businesses, our communities, and there are casualties every day.

And behind this war that is being fought are principalities and powers, rulers of this present Dark Age, and ultimately, the evil one himself.

As we look at this passage, I’d like to draw our attention to four things in particular:

First is this Call to Arms to be Strong;

second is the nature of the struggle.

third, the armor necessary for that struggle; and,

fourth and finally, the call to never vigilance - never underestimate the enemy.

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Be Strong

“Finally, be strong in the Lord, and in the strength of His might.”

First of all, the Apostle Paul says “Be strong.”

Why would someone tell you to be strong? Maybe, to prepare you for something that takes great strength so you might be ready for difficult, challenging times.

We first hear these words “Be Strong” from the mouth of Moses as he is encouraging God’s people to go into and possess the land God has promised them:

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Deuteronomy 11:8 ESV

8 “You shall therefore keep the whole commandment that I command you today, that you may be strong, and go in and take possession of the land that you are going over to possess,

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Moses repeats these words to Joshua and Joshua repeats these words to God’s people:

Joshua 10:25 ESV

25 And Joshua said to them, “Do not be afraid or dismayed; be strong and courageous. For thus the Lord will do to all your enemies against whom you fight.”

800 years later we hear similar words from Isaiah to a troubles people...

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Isaiah 35:4 ESV

4 Say to those who have an anxious heart, “Be strong; fear not! Behold, your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God. He will come and save you.”

No soldier goes in to battle unprepared. So we hear...”Be Strong:

Several of you have been served in the military and have gone through some form of Basic Training where you learned how to work together as a member of a team to accomplish your mission. You learned discipline, proper dress, marching together. You were instilled with core values.

Where battles are won by overpowering the desire to quit with the perseverance to prevail.

The World tells us:

Strength can be learned if you put your mind to it. The World says the source of strength comes from the force within you...

but what does Paul says here is the source of that strength?

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In the Strength of His Might

Our strength is not found in our resources and ability, in how long we have been Christians, in how much we know about the Bible, or in how long we have been in ministry or what we have done or are doing to prepare.

Our strength is in the one who is our Lord - our union with Jesus Christ and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe (Ephesians 1:19)

This is the key to our preparation for our spiritual warfare.

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Consider what Paul said to Timothy:

2 Timothy 2:1 NASB95PARA

1 You therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.

Paul does not say, “Finally, be strong and rely on the strength of YOUR might.” No, he says, “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might.”

The cardinal reality presented in the book of Ephesians is that, as believers, we are in Christ and are one with Him. His life is our life, His power is our power, His truth is our truth, His way is our way, and, as Paul goes on to say here, His strength is our strength.”

It is important also to remember that Jesus’ war with Satan has already been won. Certainly, there are ongoing battles, and there will be until Jesus returns.

But, the ultimate victory has already been won by Jesus by his crucifixion and resurrection

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Romans 5:18–21 NASB95PARA

18 So then as through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men, even so through one act of righteousness there resulted justification of life to all men. 19 For as through the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the One the many will be made righteous. 20 The Law came in so that the transgression would increase; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, 21 so that, as sin reigned in death, even so grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

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1 Corinthians 15:56–57 NASB95PARA

56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law; 57 but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

When a person becomes a Christian by God’s grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone, he is united with Jesus in that victory. Knowing that Satan will be ultimately defeated, he continues to wage warfare against the people of God, and the battles are fierce.

But, believers—who are united to Jesus by faith alone by God’s grace alone—have no reason to be afraid, to fret or worry.

Putting on the full armor of God - “appropriation of [the Lord’s] strength comes through the means of grace—prayer, knowledge of and obedience to the Word, and faith in the promises of God” remembering that all of this is done by God’s grace. There is nothing we do or can do to save ourselves.

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This call to arms and our preparation means that we understand our union with Christ and that in and of ourselves we are not able to fight or face what we are confronted with in the world.

The secular version of this we could borrow from the lips of Dirty Harry, the cop made famous by Clint Eastwood in the movies. You remember what he said?

“A man’s got to know his limitations!”

That’s exactly what the Apostle Paul is saying to Christians here. You need to know your limitations. You need to know the source of your strength.

The Apostle Paul is telling us that our strength and even our wisdom is inadequate for the fighting of this war, that you do not have the power to engage in these battles on our own.

And this ought to cause in each of a certain amount of fear and trembling as we prepare for battle - soldiers in our Lord’s Army.

Joshua 5:13-15

Zechariah 4:6 NASB95PARA

6 Then he said to me, “This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel saying, ‘Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ says the Lord of hosts.

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