Sunday school today we're doing things a little bit different.
We are doing Sunday school for youth and adults as we start
this new series in Ephesians called The Armor of God.
We also, because we're using the class forget to know R&O for new
people that's going to be in the older kids classroom.
And then next week we're doing membership class in there as
well. And so, so we're excited to have
all ages in Sunday school. I do believe that all ages can
benefit from this Sunday school. And so I'm going to be asking
questions along the way and trying to get participation.
And I just want you to know the format of this is that you can
raise a hand and ask a question if it's, you know, concerning
whatever the topic is I'm on at the moment where we're talking.
And I would answer those or we'll have, if you don't get
your question answered at the stop of every kind of point or
section, we'll have questions. I will ask you questions.
And I'm hoping to get some answers from you as well as
probably some scripture reading as well.
So please have your Bibles open and open them to Ephesians
chapter 6. And why, why we're excited about
this series is because we believe that there's a lot of
spiritual warfare going on right now that people don't recognize
it to be that. I think people just think in
general terms, and especially Christians.
Of course, all people, unbelievers don't really think
about spiritual things, but even Christians sometimes neglect to
remember or to know what Scripture says about evil going
on in the world. Has spiritual forces behind it
that are making things work, things that we can't see, things
that are happening, influences that are happening.
An organized system of evil that is happening behind the scenes
that may be at work in even some of the physical people that we
see in our world doing evil. And so putting on the armor of
God or the full armor of God. It's all about spiritual
warfare, fighting the spiritual battle.
And so I would like to start out by reading all of the verses
from Ephesians 610 through 20. So pull your Bibles there as I
pull my Bible there. Sorry, we've kind of had a crazy
morning with the projector not working.
So we had to do this, this quick fix here.
But it turned out great. I mean, other than the screen
being a little bit off, you wouldn't have noticed if I
didn't tell you, right? But the screen is a little bit
wonky today because of the projectors down here instead up
there. OK, Ephesians chapter 6, verses
10 through 20, I'm going to read.
It says, finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of
his might. Put on the whole armor of God
that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the
devil. For we do not wrestle against
flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities,
against the cosmic powers, over this present darkness, against
the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.
Therefore take up the whole armour of God, that you may be
able to withstand in the evil day.
And having done all to stand firm.
Stand, therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth,
and having put on the breastplate of righteousness and
as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by
the gospel of peace in all circumstances, take up the
shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming
darts of the evil. 1 And take the helmet of salvation and the
sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, 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
and also for me, that words may be given to me, and opening my
mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel for which
I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly as
I ought to speak. So in the context of the book of
Ephesians, which I think that we need to do, is understand that
Paul is in prison, chained to a Roman soldier at the time of the
writing of this book. This is the time where he wrote
Philippians, Ephesians, Colossians, and I believe
Philemon. And so all four of those letters
were written in a prison in Rome.
And so it makes a lot of sense that he's using this armor
analogy. He sees this in his everyday
life. In fact, he sees it every single
day, 18 inches away from him, chained to him.
No, I'm not saying that the I doubt the Roman soldier was
always in full armor, but as he walked around and as he saw
different soldiers changing in and changing out shift or, you
know, walking through the city, he could see a soldier that had
all this different apparel on it.
And this would also make sense to a lot of the citizens.
The Ephesian church and people in general would have understood
that he's talking about a soldier.
He writes this under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit
while using his own personal experience, logic, and reason to
teach the church how to do spiritual warfare.
Now to give a little more context of, of the book of
Ephesians, the first 3 chapters are all about theology and the
last three chapters are all about what do I do with that
theology. So chapter 1 is God's, God's
grace, God's glory, his spirit and his power.
We're going to have to look at some of these throughout this
series. Go back chapters to to find out
what he means. We need to have the full
context. Chapter 2, depravity,
regeneration and the church, an ecclesiology.
That's what the study of the church, a theology of the
church, that word is. Chapter 3, Mystery, prayer and
love. And then finally we get to
therefore. So when you are reading one of
Paul's letters or another epistle, often times this is how
the books are laid out. They are laid out with a lot of
theology up front. And then finally you get to this
place where it says therefore, and maybe you've heard this
before, but we got to find out what the therefore is,
therefore, and usually it's to apply the theology, apply
whatever Paul said about spiritual truths.
Now how do I use this in my practical everyday life?
So it goes on to talk about unity and maturity and
membership. And then in chapter 5, light
versus darkness worship, how it plays out in marriage in chapter
6 with children at work. And then it ends with this
section on spiritual warfare. So let's look at our verses.
Now knowing that all of the context, let's look at our first
verses as we get into this intro into spiritual warfare.
And I believe this, this this whole series is probably going
to take about 8 or 9 weeks. Is that right Mike?
Because each one of the armor every, we're not just going
verse by verse, we're actually going to break up some of the
verses have two pieces of armor in them.
And so we'll have to take two weeks on those verses to look at
what these the armor is. But I get the opportunity to
open us up with the first 3 verses before we get to the
armor talking about recognizing the battle and all that stuff I
just said, just so you know, is in this wonderful slide that I
made for you walking through kind of the context of the book.
But let's get to our first verses, 10 through 11.
It says, finally be strong in the Lord and in the strength of
His might. Put on the whole armor of God
that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the
devil. So I guess the question is,
First off of that first verse, whose strength are we doing
spiritual warfare in? What does that verse say?
Whose strength we're supposed to use?
Anybody want to answer that? His whose God almighty, right,
Because why? Because he is strong.
He is the strong man who, who can, who can bind the strongest
of any spiritual force. Actually in, in, in, in one of
the Gospels, Jesus tells a parable about first you have to
bind a strong man and then you can plunder his goods.
That is talking about and, and, and that's where the Pharisees
are, are trying to say he casts out demons by the power of
demons. Jesus.
That's what what what they're saying in that passage.
And he's saying, no, a house divided against itself cannot
stand. What he's trying to tell them
is, look, no, the house that I'm coming against is has been
infiltrated by a person he calls the strong man.
And so in order to get rid of this strong man, someone else
stronger has to be able to come in, be able to bind him up and
plunder his goods. That verse is talking that Jesus
is the stronger man, stronger than Satan, greater is he who is
in you than he who is in the world.
Jesus is the strong man and God himself is God Almighty.
That's talking about his omnipotence.
What is what is omnipotent means?
It means all powerful. Omnipotent potency is powerful
and so if we go back to Ephesians chapter one, verse 11,
as I said, we would look at different verses throughout the
book. In chapter 1, verse 11, it says
in him we have obtained an inheritance, having been
predestined according to the purpose of him who works all
things according to the counsel of his will.
So that verse right there is saying that he works all things
part of God's omnipotence or all being all powerful is that he's
in control of all things, that he's sovereign.
That's what the the word means. And so when we're talking about
be strong in the Lord, in the strength of his might, we're
talking about not just the strength of the creator who
spoke everything into existence and the power of Jesus name who
can cast out demons and defeat Satan.
We're also talking about the sovereign will and power of God,
that nothing can thwart God's will and power.
So when we're going through spiritual warfare, we must
remind ourselves of God's sovereignty.
We must say, OK, look, there are things like the book of Job
where Satan comes to Job and says, I want to test this guy
and God saying, OK, go ahead. Like in God's sovereignty, he
allowed spiritual warfare in Job's life.
And for a long time in that book, like most of the book,
there's a lot of lamenting and sorrow and pain, and that's what
happens during spiritual warfare.
But in the end, it's said that he was blessed greater than what
he had before this happened. And so remember, spiritual
warfare can be used for the good of God's people, for the good of
God's people. We always think of it as bad and
evil because there is evil behind it in the forces against
us. But just remember, God is
sovereign according to the purpose of him who works all
thing according to the counsel of His will.
He works all things according to the counsel of His will.
Now, does that mean that God is on the hook for evil and He
causes the evil to happen to you now?
But He certainly allows it, and it has to be a part of some sort
of plan, His sovereign will and plan that He has to glorify
Himself and ultimately for our good.
So in our spiritual warfare, we must not remember whose strength
we go in. So let's see whose strength
we've answered that. Whose armor?
Going back to that verse, whose armor are we putting on God's
armor, right? What are the pieces?
What are the pieces of this armor?
How many are there? I'd like to hear, you know, how
many. What's your opinion about how
many pieces of armor are there in Ephesians 6?
It's going to be 14 through, I think about 18 lists them all
or, or, or, or let's just say 10 through 20.
Take some time to look at those verses and I'd like to hear you
shout out how many pieces do you think that there are?
Six. OK.
And and so let's hear some of those belt of truth, breastplate
of righteousness. What?
What was that? Yeah, shoes of the gospel of
peace or gospel readiness of shoes of the gospel of peace.
That one's a little bit hard to label actually.
But that's then you said what? Shield of Faith.
OK anymore? Sword of the Spirit, Helmet of
Salvation. All right, so now is there
another one in there? That seems like it should be in
there, but it isn't quite an armor isn't quite a piece of
something praying, yes, prayer, praying in the spirit at all
times or prayer right. Like, like prayer is that one
underneath the sword of the spirit, which is the word of
God, but it doesn't have a, a, a piece of armor attached to it.
And so it's interesting to think there's, I like to say there's 6
+ 6 plus there's more than six, but there's, there's not at the
same time 6.1. But anyway, prayer is its own
thing. And so you could think of it
like this if you want. I don't want to steal all the
Thunder when we get to that. But you've got the armor.
And now prayer is kind of what brings it all together with some
confidence, with remembering all the things, all the pieces of
the armor we need to remember through prayer and through the
word of God. Word of God in prayer actually
work together very symbiotically as well.
I actually heard it said once that I know you've probably
heard me say this before, but if a man or a woman reads more than
they pray or prays more than they read, well, it's like
having two legs and one's longer than the other.
You got to try to figure out how to get them to both be even.
Otherwise, your walk is a little bit funny if you're not reading
and praying equal amounts or if you're stronger in one, try to
get stronger in the other. Anyway, so that's the pieces.
Yes, there are 6 pieces of armor.
God provides the armor, so let's move on.
These are it right here. The belt of truth, breastplate
of righteousness, shoes of the gospel of readiness, shield of
faith, helmet of salvation, sword of the Spirit, and the
bonus of prayer. So let's move on to these
verses, finishing 11 and 12. Put on the whole armour of God,
that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the
devil. For we do not wrestle against
flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities,
against the cosmic powers, over this present darkness, against
the spiritual forces of evil in heavenly places.
So the question is, who are we doing war against here?
That's my question. I'd like anybody to answer that.
Maybe it's one, maybe it's one answer, or maybe it's multiple.
Who are we doing war against according to this verse?
The devil, all right. And he's mentioned in verse 11
schemes of the devil. So who are these rulers,
authorities, cosmic powers and spiritual forces?
Because that's not just talking about the devil, is it?
Who are they? What'd you say?
Lori? And his army.
OK, so Satan has an army. Does that mean that Satan is
organized? Armies are pretty organized,
right? The military is a pretty
organized machine to some degree.
Often, I think Satan drives this train.
Also, every time we're teaching, he comes through trying to quiet
us down. So all right, so Satan has an
army. Yes.
These rulers, authorities, cosmic powers, spiritual forces
of evil, I would all call demons.
These are all the demonic realm. And the demonic realm ruled by
Satan as the leader has an organizational structure which
are called authorities rulers. Powers and spiritual forces and
where we get this from, I guess is we we've got to go to other
places of Scripture. So Daniel 1013, if somebody
could grab Daniel 1013, somebody else grabbed Jude 19.
Who's going to do that? Raise your hand if you've got
one or the other. OK, Leanna's got what?
Daniel 10130, you got Jude 19-K. Hold on to that.
Who's God? Daniel 10/13 OK, go ahead and
read that for us. Daniel 1013.
Be loud if you can. OK, I'll reread that.
It says the Prince of the Kingdom of Persia withstood me
21 days. But Michael, one of the chief
Princess, came to me, for I was left there with the kings of
Persia. What is going on here?
This is Michael. Here is Michael the Archangel.
OK, so this is talking about a spiritual battle between angels
and demons. And the demon there is called a
Prince, while the Angel is also called a chief Prince.
So both in the spiritual realm, angels and demons have these
these roles, these authoritative roles, this organized structure
of where what Daniel would say is he's the Prince of the
Kingdom of Persia. That could be talking about.
A lot of theologians believe that's talking about and a demon
who has authority over a place, because remember, Satan and the
demons are not omnipresent. Only God is omnipresent, which
means everywhere all at once. OK, Satan cannot be everywhere
all at once. He is just a fallen Angel.
We're going to get into who he is.
And demons are the same thing, fallen angels, They are not
everywhere all at once, reading everybody's mind all at once.
No, in order for them to play out this spiritual warfare, they
have to be organized and they've got to communicate to one
another. They've got to have a way to
communicate to one another and to kind of disseminate orders
and give directives and things like that.
And so they each have their own provinces and areas.
I know that sounds kind of weird, but this is the reality
of it. Let's go to what is Jude 19 say?
OK, so that's talking about in the book of Jude, apparently the
Archangel Michael was was fighting with the devil over the
body of Moses when he died at his burial.
Things that weren't exactly mentioned back at that time.
You know, I think that's in Deuteronomy where it talks about
Moses died and right before it goes into the book of Joshua.
But that gives us some idea that there were spiritual forces at
play back then. So there are there are angels
and demons fighting against Revelation 12, seven.
Let me just let me read that to you.
Revelation 12/7 says now war arose in heaven, Michael and his
angels fighting against the dragon, and the dragon and his
angels fought back. So this again tells us that
there are there's a spiritual war going on.
We can't even see it. And it's been going on since
before humans ever came onto the earth.
Because let's get into who the devil is.
We need to know our enemy, yes. Well, yeah, to some degree
because of things like the book of Job, where in the beginning
of Job chapter 1, it says that Satan and and the other sons of
God came into God's presence and brought this accusation against
Job. And so somehow got in a in the
heavenly realm. Like when it talks about heaven,
there's a heavenly realm, a spiritual realm where these
forces actually can communicate with one another.
Yes, yes. And when we're talking about
heavenly places, you know, right now.
So we, we believe in a heaven and a hell, but it's not quite
the eternal state of heaven and hell.
Jesus tells the parable about the rich man and Lazarus and the
rich man dies, goes to what is hell now, where he is in anguish
in a flame and he begs for water and he and he begs that someone
would go tell his brothers not to come to this place.
But from far off he sees Abraham carrying Lazarus in the bosom
and and it says there's a great chasm and we can't, can't
crossover. And so maybe from that in other
places, we understand that there is a spiritual realm where
humans can't interact in their state of judgement or in their
state of glory with God. If you go to heaven, your, your
spirit is with God. You go to hell, you're in
judgement. There's no interacting on that
part. But as far as the angels go and
demons, there's a there's a sense in which we don't fully
understand how they can move in and out of.
Yeah, there's a battle going on. So now I believe so.
This is the thing though. We always want to blame just the
devil and the demons for the spiritual warfare going on.
We need to be aware of that, and we're going to get into that.
But I also want us to look at there are three enemies, not
just the devil's one of them, but does anybody know the other
two enemies that we are at war with in this spiritual battle
flesh. There's one more, one more enemy
that we are at at war with. Well, let, let's let me read
this verse to you and maybe you can answer the question.
Ephesians 2, two and three. It says in verse one, it says we
were dead in our trespasses and sins in two in which we once
walked following the course of this world, following the Prince
of the power of the air, that Satan, the spirit that is now
working, the sons of disobedience among whom we all
once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the
desires of the body and the mind.
And we're by nature, children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.
I like how that rhymes at the end there, you know?
Anyway, so we talked about the devil.
We talked about flesh. What's the other one?
The world? The world.
OK, so we're going to walk
through as quick as we can. Not that we have to end right at
10, I don't think. But these three people or three
forces at work against us in spiritual warfare.
First we have the devil. He is the word devil means
slanderer or Satan means adversary who has an angelic
being who fell from his position in heaven due to sin and is now
completely opposed to God doing all in his power to thwart God's
purposes. You guys know the story that
before humanity was created there was a war in heaven.
Some believe that Revelation 12 that's actually talking about
that. Some believe that that's talking
about something in the future. But Satan and his demons were
cast out of heaven in in Revelation, it calls 1/3 of the
stars of heaven. But Satanist demons were cast
out of heaven because in Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel, what is it
Ezekiel? I have the verses here anywhere,
somewhere in Ezekiel. There are two places in these
these in the Old Testament that simultaneously are talking about
a king and Satan at the same time and it talks about him
being cast out of heaven. Revelation tells us the same
thing because of pride, because he said I will ascend to the
throne. And in Isaiah 14, I will
they're, they're called the five I wills of Satan in Isaiah 1412
through 15. I'm not going to read them, but
if you want to take notes, go look at those verses.
So who is Satan? Oh yeah, it's Ezekiel 2813
through 17 as well. So Satan is fiercely, fiercely
opposed to God's work. Satan rules the fallen world
system in rebellion against God. He is the liar and father of the
lies, as Jesus says. He's come to steal, kill and
destroy again. Jesus says that and John, he's
on the hunt for vulnerable Christians first.
Peter, 58, talks about he's a roaring lion ready to devour.
Satan's greatest tool is deceit because he is the liar and
father of lies and he will one day face God's judgment and
demons. Then our fallen angels who who
are cast out of heaven. Grudem says sometime before
Satan tempted Eve in the garden, a number of angels sinned and
rebelled against God. So let's look at second Peter 2
verse four and Jude 6. Leanna, you already had Jude.
Are you still close to that Jude verse 6?
Somebody else read Second Peter 424.
OK, go ahead. OK, so he's saying God did not
spare angels but put them in chains of darkness to be kept to
judgment. What does Jude 6 say?
OK, so there apparently are demons that are being kept in
chains. Well, now trying to understand
what that means is a little bit difficult because this is this
is apocalyptic language, This is spiritual language.
We don't know if there's literal change in the spiritual realm.
Just like in Revelation chapter 20, it says that there was an
Angel who came down from heaven with a great chain and he bound
Satan and put him in a pit and had a key and locked him with
the. Is that talking about a literal
chain with a literal key? That's the biggest, biggest
argument about the end times. There is actually is trying to
understand that passage about a a literal 1000 year reign
Millennium thing, right? So many people disagree about
the chain is a figurative chain that binds them in a sense.
Not completely, but binds him from completely taking over the
whole world, binds him from completely deceiving people so
bad that nobody can understand the gospel.
So. But evidently some demons are
bound and waiting for judgement. There are there are demons also
that are on the that roam the earth, just like Satan can roam
the earth and they have limited power.
Again, they're not omniscient, they don't know everything,
they're not everywhere all at once.
They are smart though. And let me just say it this way.
If you existed for at least 6000 years or more, however long, I
don't know when all things were created, especially in heaven
before earth was created. But if demons existed and has
has has observed us human beings for the last 6000 years and they
don't die, they would gain a lot of knowledge about humanity and
how it works, right? I mean, you ever been in a close
relationship with someone, a kid, a wife or a friend?
You just, you can complete their sentences, you know what they're
going to do just based on habit. And that's only after a couple
of years. Imagine these well organized
appointed spiritual beings in countries and States and cities
and provinces that are watching people assigned to families and
groups of people to take notes, to learn what they're doing, to
figure out how to thwart their plans, to stir up their own
rebellion against God. I mean, again, now here's a
controversial one. But demons cannot possess a
Christian. Demons cannot completely take
over a true believer who has the Spirit of God.
Now they could oppress A believer.
And if a believer is given in too much sin, like drunkenness
or, you know, different things, I think you're inviting satanic
or demonic influence into your life when you take in substances
like alcohol and drugs, so much so that you're inebriated.
You've now given over control of yourself to whatever wants to
take control, you know, So in a sense.
And, and by the way, you know, Paul talks about, you know this
in Ephesians 4 in the sin list and he calls it, what's that?
What's that word in Ephesians chapter 4?
He calls it, it's like a, a spell or a kind of a witchcraft
sounding type of a word. And my, my, my Bible's not
working right now for some reason.
Ephesians chapter 4 in the in the sin list.
Is there a sin list in chapter 4?
Maybe I'm wrong. That's maybe it's talking about
don't be filled with wine, which leads to bakery.
Maybe it's in Galatians. I don't know.
But it talks about oh, sorcery. That's the word sorcery when it
says the word sorcery. The word in Greek is pharmakeia,
which comes from our word for where we get pharmaceuticals and
pharmacy. What are those drugs?
Right. Well, why is he bringing that up
as a a sin? Because pagans have used drugs
and alcohol and certain, you know, medicinal herbs to have
kind of a euphoric experience, not just for recreation, but
also to communicate with deities who are, there are no other
deities or heavenly beings or other gods.
The only spiritual beings are God and angels or Satan and
demons. And so every time any religion
is reaching out to some kind of deity, they're actually, Paul
says in I think 1st Corinthians 10, what they offer as sacrifice
to gods. They give to demons and not to
gods. And So what I would say, I think
MacArthur actually said this very well, and I agree with it,
was any false religion is worshipping a demon.
And it's not just human forces that set up that false religion
with all of its history and all of its false teaching, with all
of its books. In fact, a demon is at the head
of every false church. This is the battle we're facing.
OK, let's talk about the other two, the other two that we're
fighting the world. The world is an organized
system, ideas and ideologies in opposition and rebellion against
God. Satan is actually not only
leader of the demons, but the second Corinthians 4/4 says he
is the God of this world who's blinded the minds of unbelievers
or the Prince of the power of the air, which we just read in
Ephesians chapter 2. Satan has a lot of influence in
the world. He uses his demons as this
organized system to communicate to people in power, to push
ideologies, false teachings, false religions on to the world.
I think it's first John 216 is a verse that says the lust of the
flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life.
That is the world. Everything that you can see.
I wish I had that right. The lust of the eyes, the lust
of the flesh is is passions and desires.
The pride of life is, you know, the success, and we look out at
the world and we see, you know, kind of.
The way things operate and, and, and and sometimes we look at it
and we're like envious and covetous.
I want this, I want that. I want their possessions.
I want to live like them. I want to have as much money as
them. I want to have as much power as
they do. And how did they get there?
I want to get there. It's all a ruse to try to get us
distracted, getting us to really say we yeah, we're believers, we
love God. But I think we sometimes, if
some people are honest or maybe in our own cells, we have idols,
idolatry and Satan. Not only the Satan is is trying
to invent idols for us to go worship out there in the world.
Colossians 28 says they see to it that no one takes you captive
by philosophy and empty deceit according to human tradition,
according to the elemental spirits of the world and not
according to Christ. There's philosophy and human
tradition that set itself up against God, philosophies and
ideologies pushed by even our government systems and school
systems. I love, you know, Vodi Baucom
passed away and man, I love that guy.
I mean, he was my number one guy that I went to for just about
everything. And one of the things he said,
which I agree with, and I'm going to say this caveating that
I have my own child is in public school, but he said he said
this. He says if we keep sending our
children to Caesar, then don't be surprised that they come back
Romans because the government ultimately who leads and and
rules what's going to be taught and educated in our public
schools. Also, not all of it's bad.
Math's not bad, right? English is all right, you know,
but but when we get to things that are theoretical or, or
political or ideologies that are just one guy's stance or
opinion, I mean, that's when the war sets in, in our kids.
And we better, if we're sending them to public school, we better
be having more influence than they get 6 hours a day there.
And that is difficult. That is very difficult.
And so that's one that we need to keep our eye on.
I think that's the world now. The last one is the flesh.
It is a compulsive inner force inherited from man's fall, which
expresses itself in general and specific rebellion against God
and his righteousness, our own flesh, talking about the
passions of the flesh, the desires of the body.
And it's not talking about our physical bodies, because when
God created our physical bodies, he said it's all good,
everything is good. We weren't created evil, but we
did fall. And so the fall causes this,
this built in nature. Now that's in us that only wants
to go the sinful way. We're bored.
And that's why in Ephesians 2 it says we were born dead.
We are dead in our trespasses and sins.
We are spiritually dead because of the fall, the inherited
nature. Even though we have a physical
body that's living, we have a dead spiritual nature that
actually wants to side with the world and side with Satan until
we're born again. When we get born again, we get
the new nature of the Holy Spirit, God's nature put in US.
And now when you become a Christian, now there's a war,
internal war, the Spirit and the flesh.
Galatians chapter 5 has a lot to say about this war.
It says the sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the
opposite of what the Spirit wants.
The Spirit gives us desires that are opposite of what the sinful
nature desires. These two forces are constantly
fighting each other, so you're not free to carry out your good
intentions. So the spiritual battle from
without and from within, we need to remember that three enemies,
the world, the flesh and the devil, Romans 87 the sinful
nature is always hostile to God. It never did obey God's law and
it never will. We're all included, even non
believers. They don't have the Spirit of
God, but they still are fighting against the world, the flesh and
the devil too. They just don't know it and
probably don't care. Nobody is exempt from this
battle as a human. So I want to close then with
this last verse for the day. Therefore, take up the whole
armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil
day that's today and all the days before this was written to
now 2000 of them, 2000 years of them having done all to stand
firm. How do we wage war according to
these verses? Let's hear some answers.
How do we wage war? By God?
His strength, right? God's strength.
We saw that in the first verse, Ephesians 316.
If we keep going back to our text in the context of what this
was written, Ephesians 316 that according to the riches of his
glory, He may grant you to be strengthened with power through
his spirit in your inner being. We get the power through his
spirit in our inner being. We need to remember we have the
Spirit of God another. What's another good principle on
how to do war? Who, who?
What information do you have to know who you're fighting?
Have you seen my notes? Knowing the enemy, You've got to
know the enemy. Who's the enemy again?
Tell me the three word The the world, the flesh and the devil.
The world, the flesh and the devil.
And then next, what did that verse?
What is this whole section telling us to do?
Fight. How are we going to fight?
What are we supposed to do? The major imperative is to put
something on, put on the armor of God.
We're putting it on or taking it up.
In the in the different verses it says put it on or take it up.
What does this mean? It's like putting on clothes.
It's a daily ritual. I hope you put on clothes every
day. You know when you get up.
I'm sure you all do, right? It would be weird if you didn't.
Why is it that we do this as a ritual?
Because it's just socially a thing I need to do and sometimes
forget. We've got to put on the
spiritual clothes, right? Spiritual clothes, put them on.
We need to have those habits and disciplines to remember, and
we're going to learn that in the series what those are.
And then finally, what do we do with this armor?
It says we're wrestling. We're fighting as as Leanna
said, but just remember, this is spiritual fighting, not
physical, spiritually wrestling. And then finally standing firm,
you know what's, it's always fun.
I've never been over to, you know, London.
But I always see videos of those, the, the Queen's Guard.
And all they do is stand there, you know, and people go up to
them and they take pictures next to them and they're trying to
get them to, to do something. And they won't do anything until
you get too close. And then they're pretty scary,
honestly. I mean, I've seen, I've seen
them if somebody gets in their face or pushes them or spits on
them, they'll eventually like do something, you know, after
several warnings. So I get that in my mind when I
think of standing firm, that dude is not letting anything bug
him. Like a lot of words are
happening and he is standing still.
Sometimes we're so unsteady, right?
Like on when things are happening in the world all
around us, we're tossed to and fro.
We can't stand still. And that's, that's part of the
battle is not being fooled into the little childish things that
the enemy is doing. Somebody read Exodus 1412
through 14? Somebody want to read that for
us? Exodus 1412 through 14,
Anybody have it? Do you want a microphone?
You don't want a microphone here.
Say it loud, OK? Didn't we say to you in Egypt,
leave us alone, Let us serve the Egyptians.
It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to
die in the desert. Moses answered to the people.
Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the
deliverance the Lord will bring you today.
The Egyptians will see you today you will never see again.
The Lord will fight for you. You only need to be still.
Isn't that beautiful? Stand firm, the Lord will fight
for you. We need to learn how to what it
means to stand firm instead of getting, you know, distracted
and pulled off of our post like that standing warrior, that word
stand firm means to maintain or abide.
You've heard that before to abide in the the Christian life.
Keep doing the things you need to do.
This life is about disciplines and habits and rituals.
That and listen to this last verse and I'll close with this.
It says in Thessalonians 2:15. So then, brothers, stand firm
and hold to the traditions that you were taught by us, either by
our spoken word or by our letter.
There are rituals, habits, traditions that come from
scripture that we need to keep doing over and over again, and
we will be ready to fight this battle.
Thank you for being here in this first introduction to the
series. I'm excited about it.
God bless you guys and you have any questions or need prayer?
Let me know. But otherwise, let's get some
coffee and greet some people.