A Lesson in Warcraft

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,

Ephesians 6:10–17

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

Isaiah 11:5

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.

You'll learn more about Heritage Church.

Or if you'd like to respond to this sermon, visit our website

at www.heritageshawnee.org.