Battle Ready

If God’s people would take your
Bibles and turn to Ephesians chapter 6, turn to Ephesians
one last time as we are coursing very rapidly, I acknowledge,
through the entire book of Ephesians. We did it in seven weeks. And
we come this last time to chapter 6 in order to wrap it up and We come to a fascinating passage
that we’ll zero in on in due time, if you would, beginning
in verse one of chapter six. Children, obey your parents in
the Lord for this is right. Honor your father and mother,
which is the first commandment with a promise that it may be
well with you and that you may live long on the earth. And fathers,
do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in
the discipline and instruction of the Lord. Slaves, be obedient
to those who are your masters according to the flesh with fear
and trembling in the sincerity of your heart as to Christ, not
by way of eye service as men pleasers, but as slaves of Christ
doing the will of God from the heart. with goodwill, render
service as to the Lord and not to men, knowing that whatever
good thing each one does, this he will receive back from the
Lord, whether slave or free. And masters do the same things
to them and give up threatening, knowing that both their master
and yours is in heaven. There is no partiality with him.
Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might.
Put on the full armor of God that you may be able to stand
firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not
against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the
powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the
spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore,
take up the full armor of God that you may be able to resist
in the evil day and having done everything to stand firm. Stand
firm, therefore, having girded your loins with truth and having
put on the breastplate of righteousness and having shod your feet with
the preparation of the gospel of peace, in addition to all,
taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to
extinguish all the flaming missiles of the evil one, and take the
helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the word
of God, with all prayer and petition, pray at all times in the spirit,
and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance
and petition for all the saints. And pray on my behalf. that utterance
may be given to me in the opening of my mouth to make known with
boldness the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador
in chains, that in proclaiming it, I may speak boldly as I ought
to speak, but that you also may know about my circumstances,
how I am doing. Tychicus, my beloved brother
and faithful minister in the Lord, will make everything known
to you. and I have sent him to you for
this very purpose so that you may know about us and that he
may comfort your hearts. Peace be to the brethren and
love with faith from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace be with all those who love
our Lord Jesus Christ with a love incorruptible. Paul rounds out his Epistle to
the Ephesians, who knew very well that life and that this
life as a believer was going to be no picnic. Persecution
had not only dogged Paul’s steps, but it had already begun to erupt
against Christians, not just Jewish converts to the faith,
but especially Gentile converts. I’ve noticed in my lifetime there
are two errors, really two opposite errors with regards to spiritual
warfare. There is the tendency to downplay
it to the point of indifference. So that when a little child comes
to your door on Halloween dressed as a devil, we deem it as cute. because the devil doesn’t really
exist. The opposite end of that spectrum
is a preoccupation with spiritual warfare, primarily in charismatic
circles, but even in my day, I have seen these books, these
Peretti books that just seem to over-focus on all things spiritual
warfare. There’s a balance. There is no
doubt that the devil is real. There is no doubt that there
is spiritual warfare taking place at all times. But we are not
at a loss to that. We are not to give in to that.
And there is a means to prepare for this battle. Paul wants us
to have an appropriate demeanor. Paul wants us to have the correct
mindset to be fully aware that there really and truly is a spiritual
battle that takes place at all times, and that for the Christian,
the battle and battle readiness is not an option. It is an absolute
necessity. The attacks of this enemy are
constant. They’re unrelenting. The devil
never quits. They cut no favors and they show
no mercy. Charles Hodge, great theologian,
said it this way, the Christian conflict is not only real, it
is difficult and dangerous. It is one in which true believers
are often grievously wounded and multitudes of reputed believers
entirely succumb. It is one also in which great
mistakes are often committed and serious loss incurred from
ignorance of its nature and the appropriate means of carrying
it on. Men are apt to regard it as a
mere moral conflict between reason and conscience on the one side
and evil passions on the other. They therefore rely on their
own strength. and upon the resources of nature
for success. The source of strength is not
in nature. As we have superhuman enemies
to contend with, we need not only superhuman strength, but
divine armor and arms. The weapons of our warfare are
not natural, but divine. You see, the Apostle Paul knew
this. And that’s why frequently in
his epistles, he has this metaphor of donning spiritual armor, divine
assistance for the battle that he knew was all too real. First
Thessalonians 5.8, we are of the day, let us be sober, having
put on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet, the
hope of salvation. The same metaphor with a slightly
different Twist there the same metaphor
occurs in Romans 13 The night is almost gone. The day is near
therefore Let us lay aside the deeds of darkness and put on
the armor of light Paul in writing to these Gentile converts primarily
in the area the region of Ephesus he didn’t want so many little
victims He wanted them to be aware of the spiritual battle.
He wanted them to be prepared for the spiritual battle. And
he wanted them to have victory in the midst of the spiritual
battle. And there’s only one way. It wasn’t by building themselves
up. It wasn’t by their own self-efforts. It wasn’t by anything that they
could drum up from within. It wasn’t even banding together
necessarily. It was by the strength which
only God himself could supply. And Paul gives to them the lesson
that they needed most desperately for this spiritual battle. Paul wants here to muster believers
to a battle readiness. There is no option. Every believer
is now, if they have named the name of Christ, if they’ve placed
their name or their faith in Christ, they are now, as we see
in Sunday school, in the Lord’s army. They are now those with
targets on their back, essentially begging the devil to come after
them. Paul is mustering believers here
to battle readiness. They’re in the battle. And he
wants them to be ready for the battle. And he not only wants
them to be ready for the battle, he wants them to fight and he
wants them to win. He gives to us four means this
morning. If we would win the battle, of
the Christian life, we must, firstly, develop an inner fortitude. Look at verse 10. Finally, he
says, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might.
There’s one thing that I’ve noticed in the course of my Christian
life, now 30 years or so, is how many weak Christians there
are. Their lifestyle is weak. The
Bible knowledge is weak. Their witness to the world is
weak. They’re weak with regards to
sin and temptation. They’re weak with regards to
personal discipline. They’re weak with regards to
usefulness in God’s kingdom. They’re just plain weak. We might be tempted to look at
this when Paul says be strong and think that it’s just something
that we do as if we pull ourselves up by the bootstrap and make
ourselves strong. That isn’t the way it works.
It’s a passive verb. It literally says be strengthened,
be made strong. It’s not something that we do. Paul goes on in two-fold fashion
here to drive that point home. Not only does he use a weak verb,
be made strong, but he says, be made strong in the Lord. It
has nothing to do with human strength, human fortitude, human
determination. It is strength in the Lord and
he adds in the strength of his might. It’s no accident that
Paul uses exactly the same words and essentially the same phraseology
that he did at the opening of this epistle when he told us
about God’s power raising Christ from the dead. It’s the same
power that was used in creation. It’s the same power that God
used to raise Christ from the dead. And may I remind you, it’s
the same power that God exercised in bringing us to life through
repentance and faith. Ephesians 2. Back in Ephesians
1, here’s how Paul said it. I pray that the eyes of your
heart may be enlightened. Remember this? So that you may
know what is the hope of his calling, and what is the riches
of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, and what is the
surpassing greatness of his power toward us who believe. These
are in accordance. These all came to be These are
in accordance with the working of the strength of His might.
It’s the same wording, the same phrase that He uses here. It’s
God that makes the believer strong. It’s God that equips him. It’s
God that strengthens him. That’s the kind of power that
the Christian needs in order to survive this battle. It is the triumphant power that
God provides to the Christian. Paul was never ashamed to declare
that his ability did not come from within. It came from Almighty God. Writing
to young Timothy, a young man who certainly needed to hear
this message from the strengthened and faithful Apostle Paul, he
needed to hear this message. He needed to hear that Paul’s
strength had not come from within. Paul’s strength had come from
without. It had come from Almighty God. And Paul said to him, I
thank Christ Jesus our Lord who has strengthened me. It wasn’t
from him. Paul told the Philippians the
same thing. I can do all things through Christ
who strengthens me. It must have been something that
Timothy needed to hear over and over again because Paul said
it to him on his, arguably, his last epistle, last words that
Paul ever wrote, in the last chapter that he ever wrote. 2 Timothy 4.17, the Lord stood
with me and strengthened me so that through me the proclamation
might be fully accomplished. It never came from Paul. Paul
never built himself up Paul never strengthened himself, and that’s
what led him constantly to admonish others, to seek a strengthening
from Almighty God. It was a Christian strengthening.
This is the branches and the vine, which image we just feasted
upon in John’s gospel. Strengthening is not something
we accomplish. Is that clear? It’s not something
that we accomplish. It’s something that the Lord
does in us through his spirit as we commune with him through
his word and through prayer and through fellowship. If we would win the battle of
the Christian life, we must develop an inner fortitude. We must cry
out to be strengthened. We must seek to be strengthened.
We’ll talk about how that happens in a moment. Paul doesn’t address
it here. He just says, be strengthened.
And he tells us where. He says, be strong, be strengthened. See to it that you fully employ
the strengthening grace of Almighty God in your lives. Secondly,
in mustering believers to a battle readiness, He says, if we would
win the Christian, the battle of the Christian life, we must
not only develop an inner fortitude, but we must know our enemy. We must have a thorough knowledge
of who he is, what are his tactics, what is his approach, what is
his weaponry, how many are his troops, We must know the enemy. The Christian conflict we saw
is indeed real. The devil is indeed real. He’s not a little kid’s red suit
with a forked tail. The devil is the spiritual foe
of Almighty God. And you can absolutely believe
that If the devil is contrary to God and to Christ, he is absolutely
contrary to you as well. Look at verse 11. Put on the
full armor of God that you may be able to stand firm against
the schemes of the devil. He’s after you. You are his enemy. He hates God and he hates Christ
But make no mistake, He hates you. Put on the full armor of God
that you may be able to stand firm against the schemes of the
devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but
against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces
of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness
in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the full armor
of God that you may be able to resist in the evil day and having
done everything to stand firm. We’ve seen this metaphor before
in this epistle, right? Put off, put on. Put off the
sinful lifestyle that was theirs just naturally as Gentile converts
They could still recall very clearly their lifestyle, their
heathen lifestyle. Paul says, put that off and put
on righteousness, put on Christ. He uses the same metaphor here,
but now with spiritual armor. We’ll come back to the armor
in a moment and look at it in its specificity, but I want to
just I want to just acknowledge one thing. We didn’t plan it
this way. This is just God’s providence.
But there’s an old hymn that we very rarely sing, a Charles
Wesley hymn, that has an interesting line in it I’ll come to in a
moment. It’s called Soldiers of Christ Arise. Soldiers of
Christ arise and put your armor on. Strong in the strength which
God supplies through his eternal son, but it’s the second verse
that has this fascinating little word. Stand then in his great
might with all his strength endued and take to aid you in the fight
the panoply of God. And I don’t know how many dozen
times I sang the song without having even a clue what the panoply
is. The word panoply is the Greek
word in this passage for the full armor of God. And it basically
points, if you will, to the closet where the soldier would keep
his battle gear, his outfit, and his weaponry. Paul says here,
go to the closet, Christian, and don’t leave anything in there.
Put on your gear and get ready for battle. And that gear, as
we already noted, includes not only defensive, but offensive
armor. Put on the full armor of God,
and this points to what we’ve already seen already. Just as he said, be strong in
the Lord, this armor is God’s armor. This armor is God-given. It is given by him for his own
purposes, for his own children. As one pastor said, instead of
relying on the arms which God has provided, men have always
been disposed to trust those which they provide for themselves.
Our own intellect, our financial means, our associations, political
associations, God says, leave all that behind. Go to the closet, empty it, and
put everything on. We’ll look at the particulars
in a moment. Why? Why put on the full armor
of God? He tells us at the outset, let’s
look at it. Put on the full armor of God,
verse 11, that you may be able to stand firm against the schemes
of the devil. This isn’t just anybody that
we’re fighting. It’s not even like we are facing
some kind of earthly Goliath, right? This is the devil himself. This isn’t me drumming this up
and embellishing it. This is Paul telling these heathen
converts that now they are on the Lord’s side, and as such,
they have an enemy, and his name is the devil. We’re not fighting
men. We’re not fighting people who
get fatigued. We’re not fighting people who
scatter when their general is killed. We’re not fighting people
with various attitudes. We’re not fighting people that
might even give up in the midst of battle and give in and flee
the battlefield. We’re fighting the devil himself
who hates God with everything in him and will do everything
he can to destroy whatever he can. It’s the devil. Called the slanderer. He is the
accuser of God to men. He tries to lie to us about God
just as he did to Adam and Eve. Then he lies to God about us. Or even if you’re Job, he boasts
to God and boasts to Job. One. The pastor said that if
Satan is really the prince of the power of darkness, the ruler
and God of this world, if he is the author of physical and
moral evil, if he is the great enemy of God, of Christ and his
people, if he is full of cunning and malice, if he is constantly
seeking whom he may destroy, seducing men into sin, blinding
their minds, suggesting evil and skeptical thoughts, if all
this is true, than to be ignorant of it, or to deny it, or to enter
into this conflict as if we were in a mere struggle between good
and bad principles of our own hearts. That would be to rush blindfold
into destruction. It’s the devil. And note how the devil operates. Put on the full armor of God
that you may be able to stand firm against the schemes of the
devil. That word translated and the
only other place in the New Testament which it’s used, it’s actually
used in this book and we’ve seen it. It was used in chapter four,
verse 14. As a result, we are no longer
to be children tossed here and there by waves carried about
by every wind of doctrine by the trickery of men. It’s not just physical force
that is at the devil’s disposal, but what we used to call cunning,
trickery. The devil will tell you that
you’re a low life, that you’re a loser, that you deserve none
of God’s blessings. And in the same day, he will
turn around and slander those about you. How dare they treat
you in such a manner? The devil will whisper in your
ear and he will pull out no stop to get you to deny yourself,
to deny God, to deny his goodness and grace. He did it to Adam
and Eve. Introduced in Genesis 3.1, it
says, the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which
the Lord had made. Incidentally, when it talks about
schemes, it is in the plural here, and it just points to the
myriad of different approaches that the devil can take. His
craftiness knows no end. The devil, he doesn’t just have
a trick up his sleeve. He has an unending supply of
deceit. I gleaned a few things that the
devil does to trick us up. He mixes error with enough truth to make it
sound plausible. That’s how most cults are built.
Enough error with enough truth to make it sound reasonable to
an untrained, undiscerning, professing Christian mind. We saw that when
he pulled the Lord Jesus Christ into the desert, his misquoting
of scripture, the devil knows the scriptures better than us,
right? He can quote them and he can get us to justify things
with scripture. He masquerades as an angel of light. Sometimes
he comes and it looks so good and so right. Convinces people
that he does not exist, which is a masterful approach. Promises
people that actually their sin is justifiable. One of his frequent
tools, Paul says, put on the full armor of God that you may
be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For
our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers,
against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness,
against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly
places. Our struggle is not against flesh and blood. It’s not against
people. It’s not against a man-made army. And what he lays out to
us here with all of these various terms, rulers and powers and
world forces, is this great hierarchy of invisible powers, all engaged
in the rebellion against God. It’s not just the devil. It’s
the devil and all of his henchmen. demons. They’re all set about
to trip us up at every possible spot. When he enters into this list,
he’s not just talking about four different ranks or four different
groups. I think all of them collectively
point to the myriads and myriads of devils and demons that are
set against the believer. When he mentions the rulers,
he’s talking there about the powers of evil. He’s talking
about their rank. When he talks about the powers,
he’s talking about demonic authorities. He’s talking about beings that
are invested with some kind of power in the spiritual realm.
He talks about world rulers. He’s not talking about the Hitlers
and the Mussolini’s of this fallen world. He’s talking about what
stands behind them, the ideologies and the sinful tendencies. Jesus addressed this in John
14. We just read this passage a couple
of weeks ago. I will not speak much more with
you, John 14, 30, for the ruler of this world is coming. The
devil has a domain all of his own. And he’s been given, he’s
called the God of this world in 2 Corinthians. He’s been given
this domain for a season for God’s own purpose. That’s our enemy. That’s what
we’re up against. And we need help. These are not
PFCs, private first class fresh out of boot camp that we’re facing.
This isn’t as one president referred to another foreign army. This
isn’t the JV. This is the devil and all of
his demons with all of the powers that they have at their disposal
to bring us low, to do as God’s word points out, what the devil,
his purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. One pastor said the darkness
is that spiritual obscurity which so painfully surrounds the church. that zone which surrounds an
unbelieving world with an ominous and lowering shadow. Those evil
spirits have invaded the church. They’re attempting to pollute
and divide and secularize and overthrow and continually tempting
its members to sin and apostasy. They are ever warring against
goodness and obstructing its progress. The devil’s not going
to make it easy on you. The devil would love to throw
us all in hell. And he missed that opportunity.
He knows he can’t do that to Christians. And so all he can
do now is thwart and harass. And he is a malignant foe. He’s
never off his game. He never takes a break. Look at verse 13, therefore take
up the full armor of God. He repeats it and we’ll look
at that in a moment. Take up the full armor of God
that you may be able to resist in the evil day. I want you to
be absolutely clear. When he mentions an evil day,
he’s not talking about one day. The biggest mistake a Christian
makes is that if by God’s grace they are able to sustain and
last one of these attacks, is to sit back and relax and think
that that was their evil day. There are no more attacks. The
evil day is the day when the enemies make their assault. The
days are plentiful. The days are multiple and manifold. It’s the day of the devil and
his minions attack upon the believer. In those days, when they seek
to damage our reputation or tear apart our usefulness for the
kingdom of Christ, season us with just bitter regrets, that’s the evil day. And if we would win the battle
of the Christian life, there’s a third thing that we must do.
As Paul mustered us to battle readiness, we must not only develop
an inner fortitude and know our enemy, but we must equip ourselves
for battle. This is not a playground. Look at verse 14. Stand firm, therefore, having
girded your loins with truth, having put on the breastplate
of righteousness. having shod your feet with the
preparation of the gospel of peace. In addition to all, take
up the shield of faith with which you’ll be able to extinguish
all the flaming missiles of the evil one. Take the helmet of
salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of
God. Paul, if you recall, has now twice driven home this metaphor. Observed, and this is the beauty
of this epistle, This metaphor that he uses was observed from
his daily routine in watching the soldiers that were tasked
with guarding him daily get ready and get dressed for work. And
he would watch them come in. And they would put on their loin
coverings. And they would put on their breastplates.
They would put on their shoes. They would pick up their shield,
perhaps, depending on their particular calling, and their helmets at
last. Paul seizes upon this metaphor
and uses it under the Holy Spirit’s guidance just remarkably, doesn’t
he? And he says, put on the full
armor of God. He repeats that twice. He says
it in verse 11, then he says the exact same thing in verse
13. Put on the full armor of God. Don’t leave anything out. To
leave anything out is to leave a gaping opening for the devil
to strike you down. So Paul uses this image of a
Roman guard, and he points to the gear that was worn not for
the military parade, This is battle gear that he points to. These are not the dress blues,
attire that was reserved for ceremonies and parades. This
is battle gear that Paul points to. And he says, don’t go into
battle. Don’t try to go face your adversaries
in your street clothes. Don’t go in your dress blues. Go armed and dressed for warfare. because that’s exactly what you’re
entering into. Verse 14, stand firm therefore
having girded your loins with truth. You know the imagery. They wore oftentimes long flowing
gowns and they would gather them up and tuck those gowns in their
belts to be able to run or to be able to work or even to be
able to engage in battle. That’s the image here, but what
he points to specifically is in girding their loins, in girding
their loins with truth. The Christian has great need
of truth, not speculation, not inclination, not wishful thinking. We want to know what is absolutely
true and God has given it. God has given it in his word
and we take it and receive it and hold it to be truth, truth
about the human nature, truth about who Christ is, truth about
justification by faith, that by placing our faith in Christ
alone, we are forgiven. That’s the truth. To go into battle half-hearted,
Not really knowing if there even is a devil. Not really even knowing
if there is a God. Believing generally that there
must be some kind of higher power. Believing that I might be a sinner,
but I might be not such a bad guy. All that is doubt. It’s doubt
in disguise and that would position us for utter destruction. The
devil would wipe us out in an instant. without standing upon
the knowledge of the truth, the breastplate of righteousness. Still in verse 14, having put
on the breastplate of righteousness, this is where the breastplate
is, where the devil would try to thrust as so many soldiers
would at the core of the body. Without that breastplate, there
would be no protection from such thrusts, righteousness pointing
no doubt to justification by faith, to the righteousness that
is bestowed upon us, like because of anything we did, not because
of who we are, but because of what Christ did. This is what
Paul loved and longed for. Philippians 3, Paul said more
than that, I count all things lost in view of the surpassing
value of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I have suffered
the loss of all things and count them but rubbish, that I may
gain Christ and may be found in him, not having a righteousness
of my own derived from the law, but that which is through faith
in Christ. The righteousness which comes
from God on the basis of faith. not only truth and righteousness,
but verse 15 talks about the preparation of the gospel of
peace. This leads me to sometimes ask
people, do you really believe the gospel? Because if we really
believe the gospel, we would be much more apt to share the
gospel. Do you really believe that all
have sinned and fall short of the glory of God? Do you really
believe that By placing our faith in Christ, that our sins are
forgiven, that all of our sin goes on to Christ and all of
his righteousness comes on to the Christian. This is what gives us courage
in the midst of battle, isn’t it? That we know the truth. We have the gospel. And we go
forth to a lost world to proclaim Christ. Gospel is what gives us the ministry
of reconciliation as we go out into the world, right? There’s a fourth piece of armor
that he mentions here. Not only truth and righteousness
and the preparation of the gospel of peace, but look at verse 16,
and in addition to all, take up the shield of faith. with
which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming missiles of the
evil. When you talk about weaponry, now I can’t even begin to describe
what this looks like in the spiritual realm, but when you talk about
a flaming missile, what they would do in centuries past is
they would wrap an arrow with cloth, dip it in pitch, light
it on fire, and shoot the arrow. and it would either strike an
individual or some wooden structure and set the whole thing aflame. That’s the image that he projects. And believe me, if mankind can
come up with a weapon like that, believe me, the devil’s is far
worse. The devil could destroy somebody in an instant. One pastor said it’s a common
experience of the people of God that at times horrible thoughts,
unholy, blasphemous, skeptical, malignant, they crowd upon the
mind which cannot be accounted for by any ordinary law of mental
action. Do you hear what he says? These things come in, we don’t
even know where they came from, and they make no sense. We don’t
even want to think them. They stick like burning arrows,
he says, and fill the soul with agony. hate our thoughts. The only way we can fend those
off is faith. Believing in God, taking God
at his word. Isn’t it one of the believers’
favorite verses? There is therefore now no condemnation
for those who are in Christ Jesus. We take that in faith. We placed
our faith in Christ and no longer stand condemned. I’ve been forgiven. I’ve been placed in the Lord’s
service. I’m going to serve him with all
that’s within me as long as I can. It’s an unwavering confidence
in God. Settled confidence in who God
is and what he’s done on our behalf. Verse 17 tells us about the helmet
of salvation. This is that to which we constantly
revert, isn’t it? This is what happens when everything
is stripped away, when all looks to be lost. We look up and we say, it is
well with my soul. In the midst of our great difficulties,
hardship, in the midst of these attacks and persecution, we constantly recall our salvation. That God sent his own son to
pay for our sin, and that because of that, we are forgiven, and
that we are saved, and that regardless of how difficult things get here
on earth, we will be in eternity with Christ forever. We’re saved. We will not lose
that salvation, and one day we will enjoy salvation in its fullness. And he takes us back to the closet
for one last thing. It’s the only offensive weapon
in the closet. Not only girding our loins with
truth and the breastplate of righteousness and the preparation
of the gospel of peace, shield of faith, helmet of salvation,
but the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God. This is the
Christians offensive weapon. This is that which God has spoken,
it’s what God has given, it’s the Holy Scriptures that is the
believers one great weapon. And all he needs is one. It’s
what God has given. Hebrews 4.12 says the word of
God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword.
If it’s living, then there’s nothing greater that we can ever
set our mind to. We don’t need a message from
God in addition to what the scriptures speak. What we need to know is
what does God’s word say? So we have our gear. Truth and righteousness and peace
and faith and salvation and the word of God. And now we’re ready
for battle. Paul is mustering us for a battle
readiness. And he tells us not only do we
need to develop an inner fortitude, know our enemy, equip ourselves
for battle, which we have just done. Now he says, fight. Fight. But I’ll tell you, it’s not as
you think. I think men probably or perhaps even disappointed
when they come to this, because we think we’re gonna go out and
get to rattle sabers with the devil himself. Go charge the
hill and take it away from demons. But I want you to look at the
means of the fight, beginning in verse 18. With all prayer
and petition, pray. At all times in the spirit and
with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance,
and petition for all the saints. Pray? That’s it? We just got dressed for this?
Yes. We wrestle not against flesh
and blood. We go to God in prayer. God fights
the battle in the spiritual realm. We can’t even see our enemies. He tells us to make preparation,
take up our armor, stand, and the whole time we’re doing this,
we need to be praying. We pray for preparation, we pray
to be strengthened, we pray to know our enemies and to watch
for his schemes, we pray as we put on those various pieces of
armor, all the while we are praying. And look at the way he says it,
with all kinds of prayer. With petitions, specific prayer
requests, not just all kinds of prayer, confession and thanksgiving, but specific requests where we
ask God particularly for something. Look at how often, at all times,
at every season, this is one of Paul’s frequent admonitions
for prayer, pray without ceasing, 1 Thessalonians 5. Devoted to
prayer, Romans 12, 2. Philippians 4, 6, be anxious
for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication. If
the Christian is going to win the battle, he’s got to fight.
And if he’s going to fight, he’s got to pray. It’s that simple. With all prayer and petition
at all times in the spirit, this is the realm. This is an echo
of Romans 12, isn’t it? Or Romans 8, rather. that we
so align ourselves with the Spirit. That Romans 8, it says, in the
same way the Spirit helps our weaknesses, for we do not know
how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes
for us with groanings too deep for words. The Spirit aids us
in our prayer. And he says, pray and remain
on alert. This is a constant watch. After
victory, we don’t celebrate. We immediately go back to praying.
After defeat of various kinds, we don’t give up. We don’t cave
in. We don’t roll over. We continue to remain vigilant and
watchful. Watchful of a new attack. Watchful
of some kind of different attack. Watchful of the same attack. We don’t give up. This is Christ’s
admonition, right? Over and over again, Jesus told
his apostles while he was on earth with them, keep watching
and praying, Matthew 26. Luke 21, keep on the alert at
all times, praying. Mark 13, take heed, keep on the
alert. The Christian, the Christian,
is not one that goes and rebukes the devil. The Christian is not
one that goes and looks to pick a fight with a demon whom he
cannot even see. I’ve always regarded it as bad
practice to talk to God’s enemy. I talk to God. We talk to God,
we pray. We watch, we’re on the alert.
We’ve donned the equipment that we need for battle. We are strengthening
ourselves up, building ourselves up in the most holy faith. But we fight. And we fight when
we pray. Let’s pray. Our merciful King, we humble
ourselves in your glorious presence. And Lord, to read those words
at the outset, perhaps even sent sheer chills and shivers down
our spine as we thought about the nature of this warfare, that
it’s spiritual warfare, and after all, we can’t even see these
enemies. But Lord, we know that it’s your
battle and that you have offered us preparation. You see to it
that we have everything that we need for this battle. We have
you. We have you and all that you
have accomplished on our behalf. And we take heart in that. Lord,
grant us the grace that we may fight. that we may fight the good fight
of faith and be found faithful in the
end. We thank you and praise you in Jesus’ name.