If you have your Bibles, please turn with me to Ephesians chapter 6. We're going to be looking at that famous passage about the armor of God this morning. William Gernall was a Puritan pastor in the 17th century and he preached through these 11 verses and actually wrote a commentary on it that was 1,400 pages. Martin Lloyd Jones also preached to this and took him 26 sermons to get through it and he too wrote a commentary and it was 800 pages. So this morning I'm hoping to go through it in about an hour. This is God's Word Ephesians chapter 6 10 through 20. Finally, be strong in the Lord and a 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 and the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand the evil day and having done all to stand firm. And therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, 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 one 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 saints and also for me that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, to which I am a ambassador in chains that I may declare boldly as I ought to speak. Let's pray. Following heaven, we come to hear from your Word and a prayer by your Spirit you would encourage me to bring the gospel boldly to your people. We are thirsty, we are parched, we are broken, we are wounded, we are hurting people that need to hear the healing news of the gospel. As the Lord Jesus be present with us through your Word, Holy Spirit, apply it to our lives, pierce our hearts, comfort our hearts, calls us to know how much you love us, how much you've given up for us, how much you cherish us, and how much you protect us through this passage as is in Jesus' name, amen. As I said, there's a very famous passage and it's dealing with the armor of God. And we need to wear armor because there is a spiritual warfare happening around us. In this day and age it is true that the evil one is at work, the powers of darkness aren't work and as Westerners we don't have categories for that, it's hard for us to comprehend the spiritual realm. Paul begins this letter in the spiritual realm. We are blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms. In here he closes out this letter to the Ephesians talking about the heavenly realms. This is a unique passage in all of Paul's epistles because this is really where he concentrates most of his language, most of his time on spiritual warfare. We don't see him talk about it too much in Colossians or Philippians. He talks about a little bit in Corinthians, not much in Thessalonians, but here he spends 11 verses and he's intentional on doing this because the city of Ephesians is under siege. It's being besieged by the spirits, the evil spirits of those days. Clinton Arnold who wrote a book called Magic and the Power and Magic, the concept of power in Ephesus. Some people refer to him as the foremost scholar on spiritual warfare. Wrote this about this city Ephesus. Magical practices were prevalent throughout the entire Hellenistic world in the first century AD. The city of Ephesus, however, bore the reputation for bringing something of a center for magical practices. Of all ancient Greek Roman cities Ephesus, the third largest city in the empire was by far the most hospitable to magicians, sorcerers, and charlatans of all sorts. Perhaps even more than Poseidon Antioch Corinth or Antioch on the Arrantines. This was full of traders, prostitutes, womanizers, and hellraisers. It swarmed with sailors, tooth sails, and purveyors of charms. This is why Paul spends the last 11 verses of this important letter to the Ephesians on spiritual warfare because they are being besieged by the devil in all his minions and the power of darkness. And he wants them to stand firm. He knows that they are young in their faith. He's been talking about their union with Christ. He's been trying with the best of his abilities in the spirit to ground them in their union with Jesus Christ to see them grow up in him to live out that new identity that they have in Jesus. He talks about it practically in marriage. He talks about it practically in parenting, in children. And then he talks about it practically there in work that Richie talked about a couple of weeks ago. And here he comes talking about our union with Christ practically in the battle with the spiritual realm. I have three points that I want to draw out of this passage for us this morning. As I said, we could spend hours and hours and hours on this passage as men before us have. These are the core of this passage. It is this. We need to know our enemy. Who is it that we're fighting? Know our enemy. We need to be armed. We need to arm ourselves as we fight. In theory, we need to have a plan. What is our strategic plan against the enemy? First, we need to know our enemy. Any good soldier, any good captain, any good lieutenant will know as you enter into some military endeavor. You're going to need to know your opponent. Reconocence is important. Intelligence is important as we think to seek out our enemy and defeat him. We do this in our everyday lives and we think about friendships. We think about it work. How do we compete in the marketplace, understanding the weaknesses of one product as opposed to ours? We're not immune to this. It's something that we do. I did this when I was a sophomore in college. I was coaching fifth grade basketball and it was very intense and so I decided to scout the other team that we were playing the following week. This is wreck league church basketball people. It was serious and so I decided to scout the team we were playing the following week in the regular season, not in the playoffs regular season. And it worked. We won. Because I knew who the best players were, I knew they're offensive scheme. We knew how to defeat them defensively and so any good offensive endeavor militarily means you need to understand your enemy, you need to know who he is and the three aspects of the enemy that I want to draw out from this passage one, it's not your neighbor. It's not your wife, it's not your coworker, it's not your mom. It's not your dad. Paul says here, 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 and the heavenly places. The evil one is deceiving you, especially in our marriages, to think that our spouse is the problem that we're fighting against them. We're not fighting against flesh and blood. We're not fighting against our neighbor, we're fighting against a spiritual force in this world that is dark and that is evil. That is what we're facing. It's not flesh and blood. Secondly, we are the real enemy. We are broken. We know that God in His graciousness has given us His righteousness by faith and we are declared as righteous in His presence. We are justified before Him in every way, but we're still wounded and we're still hurt. It's an imputed righteousness that He gives us by faith. It's a declared justification. We are not infused as righteous people. We have the flesh that we have to battle with and Paul spins verse after verse throughout Galatians talking about this, listen to him and check your five of Galatians. When I say walk by the spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh for the desires of the flesh or against the spirit and desires of the spirit or against the flesh for these or opposed to each other to keep you from doing the things that you want to do. There's an internal battle that you have. It's a wound. It's a wound from the fall that the evil one will continue to attack and to prick at. To pick at. Pogo in the 20th century that cartoon character was right when he said we have met the enemy and he is us. We have a problem. We have this internal battle that's going on inside of us for authority in our lives, for decision making in our lives and it's real. And thirdly we have the spiritual force outside of us that knows our weakness called the devil and all his spiritual forces, verse 11, put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil, the deoblos, the liar, the accuser. He is real and you've heard it from this pulpit many, many times that he is a real spiritual force in this world. He is manipulating. He is lying. He is accusing you. He is causing you to stumble in your faith. He is causing you to doubt the goodness of God and the love of Jesus and he's real and he's here. A couple of things I want to draw this passage about him. He's powerful. He's a powerful force of darkness. Revelation John and Revelation chapter 12 verse 4 talks about how he's this huge dragon that by one sweep of his tail knocks down or breaks down a third of the stars. This is a metaphor for his power in this world, Matthew chapter 13 verse 18. We hear the parable of the sower and this is shocking when you read it. Jesus shares this parable about this man sowing all the seeds, the seeds of the gospel that they might grow and the first seed falls on solid ground and it doesn't grow and then Jesus explains what that means. He says that Satan comes and takes away the word of God from those that don't believe. He is a spiritual force to take away the word of God from people that don't believe. He is powerful. Paul and 2 Corinthians calls him the God of this world. John refers to him as the ruler of this world. He's able to bring about ailments and disabilities to us, only by God's permission but he still does it and God's grace in our lives. We see this in Job, Satan comes to God and God allows him to go to Job and to wound him and to take things from him. He calls us all these sores to be on Job's body from his toes to his hands, these ailments. And then we see in Luke chapter 13, the parable or the story of the crippled woman. If you remember the story, she's been crippled for years and years and years and Jesus says she's been bound by Satan and then just last week from this pulpit you hear from a missionary David Ferman who is doing God's work and the gospel is going forth there in Dubai talking about spiritual warfare and how the enemy has brought about ailments in his hands. Has a disability with nerve damage in his hands and he can't shake hands, he can't lift anything and he talks with confidence and with boldness that this didn't come about in his body until he landed in Dubai and started preaching the gospel and trying to build a church. The evil one is powerful to do all these things against you and against God's people. Secondly, he hates us, he doesn't like you, he doesn't like me either. Have you ever had somebody turn against you and not like you? In high school I was not the friendliest person and there was one teacher that turned against me and it wasn't her fault she should have. I was not the nice of a person I remember and maybe I've told this story before but you know she had a broom next to her desk and I told her one day she couldn't park there. She didn't like that, it's okay God's grace is big enough for me. She didn't like that right and rightfully so this is not her fault this is not a critique on her it's a critique on me and our relationship from that moment changed right. The classes I was taking were harder were more difficult you can imagine you've experienced this before you know I have different relations when people turn against you and they don't like you they want to harm you they're jealous of you they gossip about you the evil one does not like you he does not like me he does not like God's people and he has no moral compass at all there's no rules of engagement in this battle for him. He would he would not care if a little five year old kid stumbled in his faith because of what he was deceiving his parents to do or deceiving friends to do. He would delight in that to bring down a little child in his faith as much as he would delight in an older person's stumbling he's been walking with the Lord for years he does it like you right this is not this is not a message of conflict resolution between you and the evil one he's out to see us fall and to stumble and he hates you and he hates me because he hates God he wants to be God and he cannot five ways that he expresses this hate real quickly that he attacks you and me he attacks God in the reliability of his word he did this in the gardener with Eve you will not surely die if you eat of this fruit he takes God's words and he makes him unreliable and calls his doubt in Adam and Eve he attacks the character of God in his generosity to his people with his accusations and his whispers you hear him say God is not going to give that to you God is not going to be there for you God doesn't care to bless you you're not a good son you're not a good daughter you don't live up to his standards three righteousness of God and his dependability very similar he's going to attack this these truths of the scriptures in your life and in my life fourthly on enjoyment of God and its pleasures in our lives some of us in this room some of us day in and day out don't have joy that the Father loves us in Jesus Christ could that be because the evil one is deceiving you and accusing you and causing you to be focused on yourself that is attacking that wound inside of you and pushing on it and pushing on it so that it saps you if any joy that you would have in a relationship with the heavenly Father fifthly he destroys fellowship between God's people and themselves he does this all the time in churches he rejoices in seeing churches split based on relationships
that he weaves himself in and out of relationships encouraging people are accusing people of certain things and lying to them encouraging them to gossip about each other he does all this things all these things because he hates you and he hates God he's evil he schemes against us lastly what we learned about him and we see this in in that powerful passage with in Matthew chapter 4 well Jesus where Jesus is about to enter into his earthly ministry he was actually out in the wilderness for 40 days and he fasts for 40 days and he comes back and the evil one is there to meet him Jesus had a human body fully God fully man and I have no doubt that he was thirsty and he was hungry and there the evil one comes to tempt him in his weakness that he desires food and says if you are the son of God what will you do you'll take these stones and you'll make him into blood make him into bread you can do that and he tempts him in his weakness he tempts us all the time in our weakness he accuses us he accuses Jesus too there in Matthew chapter 4 where he says if you are the son of God if you are the son of God he basically is doubting Jesus to his face I don't believe you are who you say you are prove it to me he's attacking the dignity of the son of God he's accusing him of being a liar and you know what that feels like I grew up in a family of four brothers and when somebody accuses you of something that's a lie you get in a fight right somebody's going to get hurt but Jesus doesn't fight back with his with his physical strength he's fights back with the word of God and pushes back these accusations he's a liar these three way these these are the Satan's arsenal he tempts you he accuses you he's a liar he takes Jesus on the pinnacle of the temple and says if you bow down and worship me I'll give you all the kingdoms of the earth if you can see well Satan has no right to do that he doesn't own the kingdoms of the world he's lying to Jesus and Jesus sees right through him we need to be aware of our enemy and how he comes after us and tempting us and accusing us and lying to us I love to hunt I hunted when I was little with my father and my brothers and since I've been back in town and from the desert here in the Mid-South I like to hunt I'm not very good at it because I'm not very skilled I haven't spent a lot of time doing it but I can imagine if I spent years and years and years to learn the skills of blowing a duck call learning you know the migratory patterns of birds or deer whatever it is I would probably be a pretty good hunter at least I think I would no comments Satan has been at his schemes for thousands and thousands of years he is very skilled at what he does he has honed his skills to manipulate you to lie to you to accuse you to tempt you he's a powerful force in your life and in my life and that's the point of knowing our enemy that we have to start with this passage is that you are no match for him
you just are not not on your strength not on your confidence he will take you down and he'll take you down quickly because he's skilled at what he does and Paul knows that and Paul sees these people in Ephesus stumbling in their faith being attacked by the spiritual darkness that's happening there in that city and so he he communicates this honor of God that they should take on to protect themselves from the schemes of the devil listen to what he says stand therefore having fastened on the belt of truth having put on the breastplate of righteousness and the shoes for your feet having put on the readiness given to the gospel of peace and all circumstances take up the field the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one and take up the helmet of salvation in the sword of the spirit he paints this picture of armor that he wants these these Christians they are in Ephesus to put on the fight against the enemy there's six of them going to go through real quick and what they really mean this is a metaphor these aren't real things that we have to obtain but this is a metaphor it's a picture of being united to Christ the first thing is the belt of truth what does it look like to put on the belt of truth well we know the Paul's writing about the Rodney's letter in Ephesus as he's in jail in Rome there's no doubt there are soldiers next to him and so he sees their armor and he uses it as a word picture to communicate to the Christians in Ephesus and he knows the belt that is significant to the armor of a Roman soldier and that belt pulls everything together that's under the armor all the garments that the soldier puts on his armor are tied together and held together by a belt this is this is the truth that is important in your faith not so much doctrinally truth doctrinal truth which is important but it's integrity it's truthfulness in your life to fight back against the evil one means we cannot give him any room in our lives to accuse us to be truthful to be a person of integrity to put on the belt of truth secondly the breastplate of righteousness Roman soldiers wore these breast plates that were made of bronze that were heavy and they put them over their their breasts because it protected them from mortal wounds and arrows they covered the most vital organs in their bodies and this word picture is the righteousness of Christ that covers your heart the end Jesus Christ your righteous he has given you his righteousness and you stand right before God in Jesus it covers your heart it covers your vital or your vital spiritual organs to know your identity and your place before the Father secondly I mean thoroughly the shoes for your feet shoes for Roman soldiers were very important because they never know when they were they have to run off and go to battle and so they had to be taken care of and Paul is using this here to talk about the swiftness of sharing the gospel being ready soldiers were always ready to leave and go with where their emperor told them to go and we should always be ready to share the gospel to push back the darkness in our lives to share the gospel with ourselves what is it that the gospel tells me about myself what God has done and with each other be ready to do that to fight the enemy the shield of faith there are many different types of shields that Roman soldiers had this word here is the shield for protection this is a shield that's four feet tall as big as a door four feet tall and two and a half feet wide and the Roman soldiers carried it as a community as a group of men and so when there was a surprise attack or their enemy came in throwing spears they all would come together and lift their shields above their head and it created a wall so these arrows and these spears and these javelins whatever they were would not hit them and Paul is using this as a word picture for faith faith in Jesus Christ protects us from the attacks of the evil one being united him by faith faithfully the helmet of salvation the helmet protected any mortal wounds for soldiers as he went into battle and we know that our minds are very important God is concerned about your mind and what you believe being transformed by your mind and how you think about who God is and his character were rational beings and that's good to think about that and so the helmet of salvation who we are protects us from our minds wandering and doubting who God is and his character lastly the sword of the spirit the only offensive piece of armor that that Paul describes here that we should take the word of God and apply it to our lives and apply it to the evil one as he surrounds us and he surrounds the community here at IPC and to push him back with what is true in the Bible and to fight against him with the word of God Jesus does this when he's tempted in Matthew chapter four he constantly fights back with the word of God man should not live on bread alone but every word comes from the mouth of God during our May chapter eight verse three and then he quotes do an army six sixteen you shall not put the Lord to God to a test Jesus is constantly fighting the evil one in his accusations that's the armor that we have it's armor that you have that Paul describes here in Ephesians chapter six but it's important to know that it's not your armor it's not yours it's guys what did he say he said put on the armor of God it's a possessive genitive there in the Greek it belongs to God it's not yours God has been a warrior from the very beginning for the sake of his people he has fought for them in every way when David went to fight Goliath what did he say you come at me with sword and with a spear and with a javelin but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts the God of armies of Israel whom you have defiled he comes the name of the Lord Jehovah Seboth is the word there we sing about it and a mighty fortress is our God it's the word for an army for a warrior God is a warrior he too wears armor as a 59 tells us this the Lord saw it and it just pleased him that there was no justice he saw that there was no man he wondered that there was no one to intercede then his own arm brought him salvation and his righteousness upheld him he put on a righteousness as a breastplate and a helmet of salvation on his head he put on garments of vengeance for clothing and wrapped himself in zeal and a cloak this is a picture of your God Yahweh fighting for you it is his armor it's not yours and we have to understand that because our tendency is that we think we live in a video game right that there's certain levels to the Christian life once you pass a level then you will receive a piece of armor once you become more righteous in your life once you quit dealing with this sin then you will receive something that's not how life worked that's not what Paul's communicating here it's a God's armor and it's battle tested and it works it really does work and we don't have to strive to attain it it's already ours so often we read this passage thinking I need to do better
you know I need to have more faith to protect me from the evil one I need to believe more and more and more of my salvation to protect my mind we think it's something we attain in the future part of our sanctification part of our growth but it's it's not it's something you already have in Jesus Christ you don't have to obtain it it's yours what does he say stand therefore having fastened the belt of truth having put on the breastplate of righteousness and as a shoes of feet having put on the readiness given to you that is a passive verb in the Greek it's something you already have you already have the armor of God in Jesus Christ
as you're not into the sun of the living God the warrior God you have his armor it is yours it's not about your strength it's not about your resolve to fight back the enemy you can't protect yourself you're only protected in Jesus Christ it is his armor now a lot of the sounds when you talk about armor when you talk about you know what that looks like in the Christian life it talks it sounds a lot of like creature talk you know big words armor of God take this on but what does it really look like what does it really look like to have the armor of God it looks like being helpless it looks it looks like being a wounded person understanding that and crying out for help that's why Paul starts this passage with this finally be strong in the Lord and the strength of his might it looks like you being strong to fight back the enemy and the powers of darkness of the world in the world based on God's strength that is yours in Jesus Christ be strong in the Lord and the power of his might you cannot stand against the evil one and as forces by yourself you will fall you are no match for him but he is no match for your God the strong and mighty one that has armor that is yours in him how do we wear it if it's God's how do we get it it's because God fought for you he fought for us he fought for the nation of Israel then he comes to the cross and what does he do he doesn't strap on his armor and take up his sword he lays it down it's accessible to you and it's accessible to me because God gave it up he laid it down there on the cross and it was pierced by his father the wrath of his father he was accused and tempted there on the cross and blood out for you and for me so that one day we too can be armed he gave us his armor by faith we take it up in him that is the glorious gospel here in this passage that it's not about your resolve it's not about your willingness it's not about your effort to push back the evil one it's that you are inside Jesus Christ by faith you are related to him in every way and he is your protector he fights for you and he protects you Brian Chaplin is commentary on this passage says this we stand because we are confident of what God has done not because of our confidence and our doing what God requires if my only armor is the battle against Satan is my sufficiency that I am doomed I am no match for him but my God is Paul's argument for the church and Ephesus about being united to Jesus Christ now it changes your identity has now come full circle has now become very real for them they're in Ephesus with a spiritual warfare is at its height he's saying he can be strong in me I will protect you God's blood has always been a protection for his people think about the Exodus that last curse God draws his people out of out of Egypt and what does he do he sends the destroyer there to to kill all the the first born babies in Egypt and he tells his people if you slaughter a lamb a perfect lamb and you take the blood and you put it on door posts you will be protected you'll be you'll be taken care of God's blood has always been a protection for his people and to be united to him in every way means that you're washed in the blood of the Savior and you are protected the evil one cannot do anything to you outside of God's permission because you belong to him and you're protected by his blood that is what the armor of God is all about it's about being united to Jesus Christ and having the armor because he laid it down for you lastly what is our plan what is the plan for spiritual warfare Paul goes into it real quickly and verse 18 praying at all times in the spirit with all prayer and supplication to that in keep alert and persevere with all perseverance making supplications formal quick things how do we apply this to our lives we'll pray soldiers that are not physically equipped are not taken care of their bodies are really not any good in battle they might have the armor right but they're slow
and so it's important to understand that this is not just simply passive we're not simply passive in this fight we're active and praying taking up the means of grace looking to the Lord in faith to create an intimacy or to have him to have us know him intimately to pray at all times in the spirit as part of how we apply this secondly we live in community this phrase is here we for we do not wrestle with flesh and blood that you may be able to understand the evil one in his schemes these are plural pronouns Paul talking to a community of believers not individuals you need each other we need each other community is important to push back the devil and to live faithfully before the Lord to keep alert to be on alert for the scheme to the devil to know how he works to be on alert for your friends those that you love to know how they're tempted to know their weaknesses we must be in alert because he is always there always there to to accuse this and delight to us and it calls us to symbol lastly to persevere to persevere through this dark time we're Satan rules the world he's the God of the world as Paul says to lock arm and arm with your brother and sister in faith and to persevere knowing that Jesus is coming back and he's going to rid the devil forever and all the powers darkness will never deal with us ever again we need to persevere forward with each other hand in hand William Gernall has said who wrote a 1,400 page commentary on this passage ends his commentary this way he who has God's heart doesn't lack his arm my encouragement to myself my encouragement to you as we face the evil one in his accusations is to cry out to the Lord and know his arm is there for you through his community through this church through the pastors the elders he is there for us he is our protector because we've been washed in the blood of the lamb let's pray Lord Jesus thank you that you are a protector that you loved us so much you cared for us so much that you pierced the darkness you came into this world and you lived for us and you died for us and you rose again in victory over Satan over the world over the devil over our flesh you are triumphant over all of our enemies Lord Jesus we've resting you who rest in you as our friend as our redeemer we rest in you as our protector encourage us with each other as we commune together of this table in Christ's name amen