The art of war is a matter of life and death, a road either to
safety or to ruin. Hence it is a subject of inquiry
which can on no account be neglected.
These were the words of Sun Tzu, an ancient Chinese general and
legendary military strategist, commander of many men who wrote
500 years before Christ walked the earth, 5th century BC.
He wrote this book, The Art of War, and this book is a classic.
You can buy it today. It's an ancient military
treatise that teaches how to win conflicts through strategy,
through discipline, through adaptability rather than through
brute strength. And it teaches how to know your
enemy and how to know yourself. It demonstrates that victory
comes to the one who overcomes their opponent through superior
wisdom and preparation. So the subject is Warcraft, and
the subject is an important one because Moses says Exodus 15.
Three, the Lord is a man of war. The Lord is his name.
He's Yahweh, Sabaoth, which means the Lord of hosts.
He goes by that name some 260 times in the Bible.
And this is a terrifying thought to me.
We've talked about this before, that those who minister to him
and to us are called Seraphim, which means literally the
burning ones, these, these angelic creatures, one of which
destroyed 185,000 Assyrian soldiers in an evening.
And, and these are the ones that reveal themselves in the New
Testament. And one phrase always comes out
of their mouth the second they reveal themselves.
What is it? Don't be afraid of me.
And so of these 10,000 * 10,000 of these burning ones, bow the
knee to one person, the commander of the Lord's armies,
the God man, Jesus Christ. And Jesus Christ also wrote a
primer on warfare on military strategy, and it's recorded for
us in Ephesians 610 to 17 / 8 verses.
And we'll call it a lesson in Warcraft.
And what this is, is first a call to war.
And it's a call to take up arms because when God wants you to
think about your Christian life and your Christian experience,
he wants you to think about it as a kind of warfare.
And when you call your conflict with Satan and the flesh and the
world spiritual warfare, it's because this, this idea of
conflict and warfare is relevant and instructive.
We, we're soldiers in battle, and this emphasizes the reality
of our enemies and the incredible strength of our
enemies and the strategy that's required to to stand against
them. There's, there's parallels
between the Christian experience and war, which is why old
strategy books like Sun Tzu are so important and relevant.
It reminds us of the concrete nature of war, that timing is
important and strategy and training and terrain and supply
lines and morale and deception and formation, and reminds us
that war involves real enemies with real weapons, and winning
and losing involves real consequences.
And above all, it reminds us of the strategic nature of warfare
and Warcraft. If you'll turn to Ephesians 6,
verses 10 to 17, we'll read the Lord's primer together as we
press through the passage together, we'll go through it
and as a as a way of going through it, we'll call it
chapters. In the Lord's primer and chapter
1 is preparing for war, and we see this in Ephesians 6 verses
10:50 where Paul says finally. Be strong in the Lord, and then
the strength of His might. Put on the whole armor of God
and we want to stop. There this is preparing for war.
There's a man named Watchman knee.
This may have been helpful to know at the beginning of the
book, but he's got a, a book that he calls Sit, Walk, stand.
And it's a study of, of Ephesians and how he thinks we
got to view the book of Ephesians because it starts in
chapter 1 with what says Jesus Christ is sitting in the
heavenly places and we've been united in him and we sit with
him. Ephesians 26, sitting with him,
resting in Christ's achievements.
And so the book begins with this metaphor of sitting.
And then we, we transitioned in chapter 4 to the second-half of
the book, which involves a new metaphor.
What was it walking? Now we walk with him, walk in a
manner worthy of the calling to which you've been called.
And everything since then has been walking in a manner worthy,
walking in light, walking in wisdom.
We're walking out the Christian life practically.
And then as you come to Ephesians 6 in this, this long
metaphor of war. Now twice he says we're standing
on the ground that Christ has gained for us like a beach head
out in military and enemy territory.
We're we're holding the ground. We stand on what Jesus has won.
And that's why you'll see this whole armour of God passage is
framed defensively rather than offensively.
And that's going to be important.
We're standing, we're making our stand here.
And as we look at this, you see we're coming to the very end of
the book. Next week will be our our final
wrapping up session in the book of Ephesians.
And then comes Deuteronomy. So get ready in your minds for
that. But we come now to this, this
word. Paul signals that this is the
end. He says finally saying, this is
the climactic position of the whole epistle.
This is it, we've arrived. And it's a long illustration
that's going to summarize all of the teaching up to this point
and kind of bring it together, Marshall all of these teachings
together in one beautiful metaphor, the armor of God.
And rhetorically, commentators will say this is actually the
peroration, which means this is not only the climax, but it's
the emotional climax. It's meant to to hit you in the
emotions. It's meant to stir you up and
your affections and your enthusiasm as the reader or, or
they hear. And we see that this sit, walk,
stand is mobilizing. It's a mobilizing order.
It's a wartime order. We're called the war.
And now the plans are being laid out.
To quote the Gettys, we just saying that the call to war to
love the captive soul, but to Rage Against the captor or we're
an army bold whose battle cry is love reaching out to those in
darkness. We're not prisoners or
followers. Ephesians 2 two of Satan anymore
of this world and it's evil system.
We've defected and now we're the opposition and so our.
Enemy is now these invisible evil powers and the devil, and
so the objective is to defend the position that God has won
for you against these. Enemies, he says.
The onslaughts of the devil are coming.
We saw this in the last few weeks, he's already said.
We've already said that the devil hates your marriage, he
hates you, he hates your children, he hates your
worldview. He hates this local church.
He hates your stability and he hates your peace.
And so Paul's saying that he's going to target those things
with his tactics. And so victory is sure, but the
battle is real and inevitable, which means that he's going to
bring back with with force a subject that has been so
critical, a dominating feature of the epistle, and that is the
subject of power. Remember back with me over the
the book of Ephesians, you have tremendous power from the Lord
that has been made available to you.
Ephesians 119 says, what is the immeasurable, immeasurable
greatness of his power toward us who believe according to the
working of his great might. Ephesians 37 of this gospel.
I was made a minister according to the gift of God's grace,
which was given to me by the working of His power.
It goes on in verse 16, chapter 3.
According to the riches of His glory, He may grant you to be
strengthened with power in your inner being through His Holy
Spirit. Ephesians 320 Now to him who's
able to do far more abundantly than all we ask or think,
according to the power at work within us.
And He brings it up one last time in Ephesians 6.
If you don't get the point yet, he says be strong in the Lord
and in the strength of His might three times he uses this word
strength and it's 3 different words for strength here as he
kind of washes this subject over you in the original that
literally says be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his
strength. So is it in is, are you fighting
with your own strength or are you fighting with the Lord's
strength? That's clear.
You have no strength. It's be strong in the Lord and
we we look at our own strength and we think of strength in
terms of our muscles and you know there is a place for
muscles. Proverbs 31 woman says she makes
her arm strong. But when you compare our muscles
to the the evil 1 and the judicial system that he
influences and the economic system and the the marketing and
all of the cosmic powers and authorities, you realize your
muscles. Don't go very far.
And so Paul's teaching here that it's the strength of the Lord's
might and his incredible power that we fight with famously,
Paul says in Philippians 413, I can do all things through what
Christ who strengthens me. It's Christ's strength through
us. And so we don't fight with
muscle. It's not that kind of war.
We call it spiritual warfare. And in order to engage in
spiritual warfare, Paul says, you put on the armor of God.
Which means first you're called to war, which means you must
assume responsibility. It's a call to assume
responsibility. You've been drafted and now
there's an obligation on your part.
You've been summoned to the Armory and how you respond, 3
commands are given to you. The first one you've seen in
verse 10, be strong in the Lord. That's the first command, be
strong. Second one you can see in verse
13, take up the whole armor of God.
Verse 11 the 3rd and put on the armor of God.
Be strong, take up and put on the enemy as waging war.
He's waging war against you, against your family, against
your children, against everything you love and believe
in. And you have to protect these
things, which leads us to chapter 2 of Jesus treaties on
war. And it is waging war.
Read with me Ephesians 611 to 13.
I'm going to begin in the middle of the verse.
He says that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the
devil. Verse 12 For we do not wrestle
with 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.
So a reminder that Christianity is not entering into peace.
It's it's not the absence of conflict, it's actually entering
into conflict. That's what you're signing up
for when you become a Christian. And, and peace is not the result
of your passivity. It's actually the result of you
waging war according to Christ's terms.
Those who willingly engage in spiritual conflict can purchase
peace. And the nature of the war, as
you see here is not flesh and blood.
That's what the Crusades got wrong.
They tried to take literal swords and wield the literal
sword, which is for the government, not the church, and
they tried to go and take territory on behalf of Christ.
Jesus says we don't. We don't fight with carnal
weapons. He says you have to recognize
your enemies. The section 11B to 13 is about
who your real enemies are. You go back to the ancient world
and who Paul was writing to. The enemy was not Artemis, the
God that everyone worshipped in Ephesus.
And the enemy is not Rome or the godless political systems or
godless marketing agencies. Our ultimate enemies, Paul says,
are the spiritual forces that are influencing our
institutions. That's our real.
Enemy, our true enemy, the agencies behind them, and of our
opponents. Commentator Alan says that this
passage is teaching three things about our enemies.
This is really important if you want to write them down.
First thing is that they're spiritual forces as opposed to
military or political or judicial forces.
Spiritual number 2, they are evil, meaning they are
antithetical to the Kingdom of God.
They they live for evil means. And he says, thirdly, this evil
tyranny occurs. In the heavenly places.
And he defines what he thinks that what he thinks that means.
He says it's not otherworldly space, but rather a particular
Nexus within this creative order, namely the places where
God's presence is found thickest.
These evil spirits combat God's righteous presence in just those
places. Wherever you see the Kingdom of
God manifesting, he says, those are the spiritual places where
the tyranny comes. So rulers and authorities is the
is the phrase that Paul uses here.
That's always his phrase for evil demonic spirits.
It was back in chapter 1, verse 21, we talked about Jesus Christ
rule being high above all rule and authority.
That's what he meant. He says it again in chapter 3
verse 10. Jesus Christ rule is above all
authorities and powers, so our fight is against personal
supernatural agencies. And these agencies are capable
of influencing and infiltrating our institutions using social,
political, economic, judicial and marketing structures for
their ends. Which is why Jesus, you see,
even in his earthly ministry, exorcism was a massive part of
his earthly ministry, wasn't it? Or he would cast out and
liberate people. Luke 4 says this was
characteristic of his ministry. He told you before he ever
started, I'm going to liberate those who are in bondage.
Mark chapter one, verse 27. He commands even the unclean
spirits and they obey him. Jesus is the commander of all
armies. Now be they good or I'll they're
like. Water in his hands, you come to
Luke 10. When the the 72 are sent out by
Jesus, they come back and they're rejoicing because they
say Lord. Even the evil spirits are
subject to. US.
And God, Jesus says to them, the demons are subject to you in my
name. He says, Behold, I've given you
all power over the enemy, and nothing shall hurt you.
Nevertheless, don't rejoice in this, that the spirits are
subject to you. But rejoice that your names are
written in heaven. So we have all power over the
enemy in Christ, which is why he says we are called to take up
the whole armour of God for the purpose of standing firm and
withstanding the evil day. And again this word evil day,
this phrase is important. I'm going to throw 4 definitions
at you and and show where where most modern commentaries land.
It gets interpreted in several ways, some of them overlapping.
Some people say that this fight that we're engaged in, this evil
day is. Just the everyday difficulties
of living as a marginalized Christian in a secular, hostile
world. That's one take on it.
The second view is the the most popular view today among
commentators. It's the one that I take.
It's particularly difficult experiences of hardship that
arrive in your life. Those extreme trials and
temptations and times of trial are the evil day.
The third option is the the final day of intense.
Evil right that day. The day when wickedness, that
the power and of darkness is exposed, and then fourthly would
be the final day of evil, which the author of efficient of
Ephesians believes is now present, but not yet in its
fullness. That was Carl Bard, and that is
the theology of Ephesians. And we have to say yes, where we
are living in that evil day, and we say that evil is, is
strengthening its grip. The last day is here in the
churches. But that's exactly why we faced
these these tremendous trials and difficulties.
That's the evil day. And he's saying when Satan comes
with his arrows and he comes tempting you, that's the.
Evil day and you would stand by putting on the armor of God and
so how do you protect yourself moves us into chapter 3
strategies of war. I'm going to remind you again
what it what Paul said in verse 11 where he says put on the
whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against all the
schemes of the devil. Look with me to chapter 6 verses
14 to 15 for your strategy. He's a stand.
Therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth.
Having put on the breastplate of righteousness.
And his shoes. For your feet, having put on
readiness given by the gospel of peace.
So you have to resist what what Carson and Beale called the
insidious and clever attacks of the devil and Ian Hamilton says,
behind flesh and blood, the devil is invisibly but
unceasingly devising his stratagems, provoking godless
authorities and stirring up indwelling sin.
And so this word, schemes that it uses here is the word for
struggle or strategy. In the ancient world that was
related to wrestling. It was the word that described
the that Olympic game, The wrestling was the most subtle of
all of the games. And so he's saying this is what
wrestling with the devil. It's kind of showing this our
conflict with Satan and his advert, our adversaries is like
hand to hand combat. And he's saying that when your
your interactions with him are like wrestling, it's subtle,
right? He's using your weight against
you. It's subtle movements and subtle
advances. It's a subtle art and
summarizing warfare in the ancient world.
I go back again to Soon Zhu, who says all warfare is based on
deception. And as you work through his
chapter on, it's called attack by stratagems, it's this word
scheming strategies. He says that whatever you're
doing in the ancient world to engage in war, it's deception.
So he says if you're strong, then you're trying to reveal to
your opponent that you're weak. And if you're weak and few in
number, then you're trying to to showcase to your opponent that
you're strong and you're great in number.
And if you're near, you're trying to give the the illusion
that you're far away. And if you're far away, you're
trying to give the illusion that you're near.
It's deception, deception, deception.
Paul saying Satan likewise attacks the church with
deceptive plans. He's trying to subvert the
Kingdom of God, which is why he sends wolves in sheep's clothing
into his local churches. It's deception.
We want to look like Christians, but we're really here to undo
the whole thing. That's why he is the great Angel
of darkness and he disguises himself how as an Angel of
light. It's deception.
And everything that God calls good, there's Satan there subtly
subverting it. We see it in in institutions
like marriage. These things that God loves,
Satan's there to destroy. God says marriage is blessed
when it endures. Satan says you can be blessed if
you divorce. God says marriage is between a
man and a woman. And Satan says no, love is love.
Marriage is between a man and a man, a man and a woman, a woman
and a woman, whatever else you want to put in there.
God says marriage is characterized by fidelity.
Satan tempts you to enjoy outside partners.
God says authority exists for your good.
And Satan pushes back and he says no authority is wicked and
oppressive. God says love is a commitment
and Satan whispers love is an emotion.
God says the truth sets you free.
Satan says authenticity is real freedom.
God says suffering produces endurance.
Satan says suffering proves that God is unjust.
God says you're to enjoy rest and Satan says your worth comes.
From your achievements. So our enemy is a scheming,
manipulative liar, and the Bible says that he has been a murderer
from the very beginning. And so we're going to be at war
with our enemy until Christ comes home.
But praise God, there is what Richard Rodgers calls holy helps
for a godly life. He's not left us without
resource in this world. He says God's children have no
strength against sin at any time except by means of the armor of
God. You have no resistance against
sin except. From the armour of God so we
turn our attention to the only means that God's given to defend
ourselves, his armour and the. Passage is so famous and so
memorable that it gets distorted in predictable ways.
And so I remember being in college, being given a prayer
guide saying this is how you were to pray when you wake up
every morning. It was pray for your government,
pray for your church, pray for your spouse and your family.
And that's all good. But I remember the the first
part of it every day was kind of pray these armours on you pray
the helmet, you pray the breastplate.
And it was kind of like you're not putting truth out there.
You're just kind of mystically praying the helmet on, right?
It's kind of this mystical experience.
And so again, popular level devotionals, there's another
way. They kind of over emphasize the
armor to the extent that they lose what the metaphors talking
about. And so they're saying put on the
helmet, the helmet being spiritualized to mean your
brain, because Satan's going to attack your mind.
And then you put on the breastplate, which covers your
heart. So we're kind of spiritualizing
the breastplate as your heart because it's your emotions and
Satan's coming for your, your heart.
And so it kind of becomes a body map of what needs protection,
which may be, you know, a piece of the analogy.
But you have to stop and ask, what is Paul doing with the
metaphor of armor? What is the Armor of God about?
And remember that this is the climax, this is the peroration,
the conclusion to the whole book.
And so it's important to remember what Paul's doing is
he's gathering everything that he's already taught you and he
says assembling it into this illustration that you can
remember forever. It's meant to summarize more
than it's meant to instruct. So he's already taught us what
the armor represents. Go back to chapter one, verse
13. He already taught about truth in
him. You also, when you heard the
word of truth, the gospel of your salvation and believed in
him were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit.
He's already taught about righteousness in chapter 4,
verses 23 to 24, to be renewed in the spirit of your minds and
to put on the new self created after the likeness of God in
true righteousness and in true holiness.
He's already taught about peace in chapter 2 verses 14 to 17 For
he himself is our peace, who has made us both 1 and is broken
down in his flesh, the dividing wall of hostility.
He's taught us about salvation in chapter 2, verse 8.
For by grace we've been saved through faith.
This is not our own doing, it's the.
Result of God, not of work so that no one can boast.
It's the gift of God and then finally he's talked in chapter 1
all the way through to this point and in chapter 4 verse 29,
what he calls the word of truth. He's talked about the word of
God and so. Paul's assembling all of these
virtues together in the context of our spiritual war.
He's using the imagery of the armor of God to teach you to put
on virtue. What is the armor of God about?
It's about you putting on virtues, putting on truth and
righteousness and peace. And even if you go back to the
Scriptures that we've already read in Isaiah 59, where the the
armor of God was in the Old Testament, it pictured the
people. And Isaiah is trying to
emphasize to you, he says justice has turned back right.
These, these, these are missing. Righteousness stands far away.
There's no virtue. Uprightness cannot enter.
Truth is lacking. And then God looks around and he
says there's no one to intercede.
There's no one embodying these attributes.
That's the context where Messiah comes.
He says there's one coming who will put on the armor of God.
There's one coming who will have justice.
He will have righteousness as a helmet.
There is a breastplate. He will have salvation as a
helmet, garments of vengeance and zeal wrapped around him as a
cloak. He would wear the armor of God.
And so why? Why do we need this?
Why is it necessary? Because you're in a war.
It was necessary for the Lord of glory.
It's necessary for us. We put on armor as assuming
responsibility and falling in line in our place in the war.
It's about identity. Your armor identifies you with a
particular Kingdom. It identifies you with what
you're fighting for and who you're fighting for, and it's
reflective of your purpose. Ours is the armor of God, and
it's of God because it's the armor we receive from God.
But it's of God also because it's the same armor that Jesus
Christ wears when He was pictured.
When Messiah comes, this is what He will look like, and this is
what He will wear as He tears down the wicked from their lofty
places. As it is written in the prophet
of Isaiah, the Lord goes out like a mighty man, like a man of
war. He stirs up zeal, He cries out,
He shouts aloud, and He shows Himself against His mighty foes.
Isaiah 11 verse 5 also reveals the armor of God in the Old
Testament. He says righteousness shall be
the belt of His waist, faithfulness the belt of His
loins. And Isaiah 59, as you've seen,
He puts on righteousness as a breastplate, the helmet of
salvation on his head, garments of vengeance for clothing, and
has wrapped himself in zeal as a cloak.
So when Christ took on flesh, you saw Him embodying justice
and righteousness and truth and peace.
And you are His servants. You are His soldier in war.
And so fighting our common spiritual enemy.
It's the same enemies all these thousands of years later.
It's the same tactics. You fight them by spiritual
means. This is what Paul writes in 2nd
Corinthians 10, three to five. For though we walk in the flesh,
we are not waging war according to the flesh, but we have divine
power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments in every
lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every
thought captive to obey Christ. So this is the warfare, fighting
evil with virtue, putting on the armor of God, he says, so that
you may withstand all of the attacks of the Evil 1.
And so first I want to attribute something about Satan with
something about this armor that we have to put on first.
He says Satan is a liar. That's what the Bible says.
Satan is the father of lies and he's going to assault you in.
Every way with lies, but we know that there's no room for error
in the truth. And so he says to the deceiver,
we expose his lies. If we know the truth, the truth
will set us free. If we know the truth, we can
expose the lies. And so he says in verse 14,
Stand firm, therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth.
And. So you put on scripture, you
train yourself by knowing doctrine and theology in your
Bible, and that is how you arm yourself and protect yourself
against all the lies of Satan. Second, Satan is going to
slander you. He's called the devil, which
means literally the slanderer, but he says, but righteous
conduct empties Satan's slander of all its credibility.
So you put on righteousness. It's it's seen as as light in
the darkness in Scripture. You put on righteousness and
then what is he going to accuse you of?
If your good works go before you, if you're living above her
approach, then they just bounce off you.
Nobody believes them. I know that man's character.
I know her character. Proverbs 10/9 communicates the
idea. Whoever walks in integrity walks
securely first. Peter 210.
Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable so that when
they speak against you as evil doers, they may see your good
deeds and glorify God. First, Peter 316 When you're
slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ will be
put to shame. That's the value of your good
works. That's the value of your
righteousness. Paul says it's like a gleaming
breastplate put on the breastplate of righteousness.
It will protect you from the slander of your enemy.
We say there's there's kinds of two kinds of righteousness and I
think they're both in view here. There's imputed righteousness,
which is the righteousness that's been counted to your
account because Jesus lived a perfect life and so he's gifted
that righteousness to you. It's counted toward your
account, which happened at your salvation.
And then there's what we call imparted righteousness, because
our God is so gracious and beautiful and merciful that he
actually gives you his Holy Spirit and begins to make you
righteous. And these things coupled
together outdo Satan and his slanders.
You have both. Third, Satan is going to accuse
you. His name is Satan, which means
adversary or accuser. But your faith in the gospel
will ground you against all of his accusations.
This is your subjective faith, Paul says in verse 15 and AS.
Shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the
gospel of peace. So when Satan says look at all
the wickedness you've done, you're not really forgiven,
you're not really a child of God.
Your life is grounded objectively in the gospel.
And you remember the faith that you've put in Christ.
There's an author named David Benner.
He says he likes to ask people, what do you think about when you
think about God? Which, by the way, AW Tozer said
that's the most important thing about you.
What you think about when you think about God is the most
important thing about you. And people go on his
righteousness, His Holiness, he's my father.
And then he responds. What do you assume God feels?
When you come to mind and you can, you can ask that question
of yourself, what what do you think God feels when he thinks
about you? And he said his, his most common
response is disappointed. And I want to say this is
exactly the work of the devil and his accusations and his
slanders, that we would think that the Lord of glory is
disappointed in US rather than rejoicing over us.
So the the gospel grounds you when Satan accuses you, as the
famous hymn goes. When Satan tempts me to despair
and tells me of the guilt within upward, I look and see him there
who put an end to all my sin. The gospel brings readiness and
peace. Fourthly, Satan is Apollyon,
which means the destroyer. John 1010.
The thief comes only to kill and to destroy, but antithetical to
him is Jesus Christ who comes to bring life, and life abundantly.
First. Peter 5/8.
He seeks someone to devour, Paul says in light of this, take up
the shield of faith in all circumstances with which you can
extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil. 1 So this is your
active reliance, your faith in all of the promises of God, your
faith in the character of God, your faith in the promises of
God and the. Destroyer says to you God is
withholding from you and God is not really good and and you as a
Christian respond, God has graciously given to me all
things and God is working all things for good to those who
love him. That's your trust in God, your
faith. And it extinguishes all of the
flaming darts of the wicked one. It's a shield that absorbs all
of those attacks. And fifthly, finally, Satan is
the ancient serpent, the ultimate enemy of God, who would
lead astray if possible, even the elect Scripture says.
But if you go back all the way back to that ancient serpent in
the garden, and you see that him leading.
Adam and Eve astray was the grounds of the promise of the
gospel that would come 2000 years later.
And so from the very beginning, salvation has been.
Secure. It's grounded in the promises of
God. It was grounded in Ephesians one
to three where he said you've been predestined by God the
Father, you've been redeemed by Christ, you've been sealed by
his Holy Spirit for an inheritance that is certain and
secure. And so Paul says in verse 17,
take the helmet of salvation. Dee Martin Lloyd Jones wrote 2
fat books on these 10 verses of 10 to 20.
You can go read the most stairs in the library.
I haven't. But he says the piece of armor,
this piece of armor is your hope of salvation.
That's what it represents. You have hope that you use to
battle your adversary. It doesn't matter what he says
or what he does. You have the hope of salvation.
It's your identity. If the shield was your
subjective faith, and this is your objective faith, it's
settled in heaven. Your assurance is settled.
Your salvation is certain. And then after all this you can
see the completeness of the armour.
Paul says put on the whole armour of God and then he
commands you take up the whole armour of God, emphasizing this
is a set. You don't get to piece part.
You know, I want I want the breast actually, I don't want
the breastplate. That sounds hard.
The sword sounds fun. I'll take that right.
You don't get to piece part. What armour?
You take this is. The problem of a lot of modern
missionaries. They've got zeal like a cloak,
right? They take the sword and they
take their Bible and then they go overseas.
But they're I'll equipped to minister when they get there
because they have a weak understanding of the gospel and
they haven't been given the opportunity to exercise and grow
their faith. And they have a subjective faith
that they don't understand yet. And they have little external
righteousness to protect them. And So what happens is their
ministry is deficient. You take up the whole armor of
God, you take the complete armor of God.
And when you take it all, and it says having done all, that is
all that you can, then you will be able to withstand.
And what will you be able to withstand?
Again, all things. This word comes up over and over
all things. Verse 16 In all circumstances
you can extinguish all the flaming arrows, praying at all
times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication and all
perseverance, making supplications for all the
Saints. All that to say, you have been
prepared for war. You have armor sufficient for
the war that you fight. Praise God.
Which leads us to chapter 4, preserving in war.
The final chapter Paul gives preserving in war three times.
Paul calls the church to persevere in conflict comes
first in chapter 6, verse 11, put on the armor of God that you
may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil.
Verse 13, having done all, stand firm.
Verse 14, stand therefore having fastened on the belt of truth.
So the Lord tarries, which means we remain in wartime.
We're in wartime until the Lord returns and the Christian puts
on the armor and it does not come off.
It doesn't come off until it's replaced with robes of
righteousness in heaven. One Puritan named William
Gurnall wrote a book called The Christian Incomplete Armor
Because it's hilarious. I want to read to you the
subtitle. If you've read the Puritans, you
understand why this is funny. The subtitle is The Saints War
Against the Devil, wherein a discovery is made of that grand
enemy of God and his people and his policies, power, seat of his
empire, wickedness, and chief design.
He hath against the Saints. A magazine opened from whence
the Christian is furnished with spiritual arms for the battle,
helped on with his armor and taught the use of his weapon,
together with the happy issues of the whole war.
It's a long book. It's a legendary book.
What he says is incredible. He says in this he describes
when Satan will attack you with his fiery darts.
When can you expect your adversary to attack?
And his answer is when you're vulnerable.
And he says, think through this yourself.
And what ways are you vulnerable to these five ideas?
He says when you're newly converted and you're optimistic,
he says you're vulnerable to fiery arrows.
You're ignorant of the realities of spiritual war, and so he's
coming for you a second, he says when you're afflicted.
He says when when things are well, Satan's going to leave you
alone. But when things begin to get
bad, then Satan comes to suggest that God has abandoned you or
that you are not really his child.
The third thing he says is when the Christian has achieved
notable success he will be there to tempt you with pride.
And you can think of all of the so-called Christian celebrities
and how many of them remain and how long they remain in the
ministry when Kate Satan comes and and tempts them.
How many have been conquered by the enemy?
Fourthly, he says when the Christian is alone.
If if you're. Isolated and you're lonely.
Then he begins to surround you because you're not surrounded by
men and women. He surrounds you with carnal men
rather than Christians. He waits until you take the
armor off, and then that's when he strikes.
And you can think, is, is Satan beginning to separate me through
sin, through depression, whatever it is?
Am I beginning to be separated from the people I love and from
the people of God? And finally, he says he attacks
when the Christian is nearing greater usefulness.
He attacks growing Christians, those who are making incredible
progress in a short amount of time.
He wants to stop it. And so he sees you, and he stops
it. And what are the fiery darts
except for sudden temptations, sudden accusations from our past
sins, and sudden persuasions when we're the weakest?
And so as you persevere, you're not left just with defensive
items. As you well know, God leaves you
one offensive resource. You're left with the one, the
one weapon that Paul describes in verse 17, trying really hard
not to say the holy hand grenade of Antioch.
It's the sword of the Spirit. The sword of the Spirit is your
one offensive weapon, verse 17, and the sword of the Spirit,
which is the word of God that's using God's word against his
foes, that's your weapon, the word of God.
He says this is the sword of the Spirit.
Ian Hamilton Because it is the great weapon the Spirit uses to
advance God's Kingdom in this world and plunder and despoil
the Kingdom of Satan. I love that we know from
Scripture, it says that God has bound the strongman and now we
plunder his goods. We take up the sword and we go,
and we win ground for the Kingdom of heaven, Thomas Murphy
says of the sword. It's the sword which the Holy
Ghost has forged. Which He's given to be used by
his servants, Which He uses himself in the dispensation of
Providence, in which we may be positive He will bless of the
Holy Spirit. He asked rhetorically.
Will he not make its strokes effective?
It's beautiful. Jesus is our Commander and He
modelled in warfare us by wielding the sword perfectly.
He shows you what to do. He did war with Satan in the
wilderness. Satan comes tempting him just
like he comes tempting you. He tempts him in his hunger and
his thirst with satisfaction. He attempts him in his subject,
his subjection to God the Father, with opportunities for
dominion, and he in his humiliation he tempts him with
exaltation. And how does Jesus respond?
Three times. It is written, it is written, it
is written. He wields the word of God.
And Satan has has nothing because God has spoken and it is
true. That's why Jesus most asked
question on earth was have you not read and as you go through
Matthew and as you go through John, it is over and over again.
It is written it is written in your law.
It's written have you not read this is training.
He's given you the sword. He's taught you how to wield it.
He's revealed it to you. You read his life.
You see how to engage in battle, and it's the same armor of God
that was fit for Jesus Christ representing divine virtue is
being placed on. You, This is your call to war.
You've been enlisted. You've been summoned to the
Armory. I want to bring up John Bunyan's
book Pilgrims Progress, because there's a, a beautiful section
of the book right after he's converted and he steps into
palace beautiful and he enters into the Armory.
You see all this Ephesians Six language?
So Onion writes, they took him and had him into the Armory,
where they showed him all manner of furniture which their Lord
had provided for pilgrims, sword, shield, helmet,
breastplate, and shoes that would never wear out.
And there was a here enough of this to harness out as many men
for the service of their Lord as there are stars in the heavens
for multitudes. And he receives his armor, and
he puts it on and never takes it off until he comes into the
Celestial City. But he comes then into the
Valley of Humiliation, where he faces an opponent named
Apollyon. And I want you to hear how
Bunyan depicts our spiritual battles, he says.
Then Napoleon broke out into a grievous rage, saying, I am come
out on purpose to withstand you. Christian, says Napoleon, beware
of what you do, for I am in the King's Hwy.
The way of holiness. Therefore take heed yourself.
Then Napoleon straddled quiet over the whole breadth of the.
Way and said, I am void of fear in this matter.
Prepare yourself to die, for I swear by my infernal din that
you shall go no further here. I will spill your soul.
And with that he threw a flaming dart at his breast.
But Christian had a shield in his hand with which he caught
it, and so prevented the danger of it.
Then did Christian draw, for he had saw it was time to bestir
him, and Napoleon as fast made at him throwing darts.
As thick as hail by the witch. Notwithstanding all that
Christian could do to avoid it, Apollyon wounded him in his
head, and in his hand, and in his foot.
This made Christian give a little back.
Apollyon therefore followed his work with haste.
And Christian again took courage, and resisted as
manfully as he could. This sword combat lasted for
above half a day, even till Christian was almost quite
spent. For you must know that Christian
by reason of his wounds, must grow weaker and weaker.
Then Napoleon is spying his opportunity, began to gather up
close to Christian, and wrestling with him, gave him a
dreadful fall. And with that Christian sword
flew out of his hand. Then Napoleon said, I am sure of
you now. And with that he had almost
pressed him to death. So the Christian began to
despair of life itself. But as God would have it, while
Napoleon was fetching of his last blow thereby to make a full
end of this, Goodman, Christian nimbly stretched out his hand
for his sword, and caught it, saying, Rejoice not against me,
O my enemy, for when I fall I shallow.
And with that he gave him a deadly thrust, which made him
give back as one that had received a mortal wound.
Christian, perceiving that, made it him again saying No.
And all these things we are more than conquers through him who
loved us. And with that Apollyon spread
forth his Dragon's wings, and speed him away.
That Christian for a season saw him no more.
It's a picture of your spiritual battles.
And Christian, just to point out the obvious, didn't withstand
Apollyon by his own strength. He withstood him in the strength
of the Lord and in the strength of his strength.
And he won because his armor was truth and peace and
righteousness and the gospel and the hope of salvation and his
weapon were words of truth, even Scripture.
And so Church of the Day is coming, when your armor will
come off, and your. Robes of Glory.
Will go on, but until that day, the call is twofold.
Take up the armor of God and put on the armor of God.
Be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his strength, and
take responsibility for the spiritual war that is going on
around you and participate in it and pray with me.
And we'll go to the Lord saying, Lord, give us strength to
withstand that evil day. We know vividly what that means.
God, we've all been pressed by Apollyon and his servants.
We know what it means to be spiritually oppressed.
We know what it means to have our conscience accuse us and our
enemies accuse us, and to be lied to and to be deceived.
God, we all know well the hardships of this world.
But Lord, we have to defend the things that are precious.
And you've given us all manner of instruments or furniture to
do that. Lord, you've given us the armor
of God. You've given us the sword of the
Lord, and so train us to use it. Help us to put it into practice
for the good of your church, for the good of our families.
Lord, we love you. Thank you in Christ's name,
Amen. Thanks for listening.
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