Battle Ready: "Why Do I Need It", Ephesians 6:16-17 Pastor Daniel Reese

Well, if you have your Bibles, we're going to be in Ephesians chapter 6.

Ephesians 6 · chapter mention

We only got a few more weeks left in this book.

I don't know if that's good or bad for you, but that's reality.

For the past two weeks, we have been discussing spiritual warfare and how we can best be prepared

for the constant battle that is going on around us.

It is an invisible battle where we can't see our enemy, but we can for sure see and feel

the attacks that are against us.

Last week, we looked at three pieces of the armor that we need to have on at all times,

the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, and we sandal our feet with the peace of the

gospel.

This morning, we're going to look at three more pieces of the armor of God, remembering

that when we clothe ourselves with the armor, we are actually clothing ourselves with Jesus

himself.

I'd like to invite whoever the best dressed one of us is this morning.

I'd like to invite up here to come read our text this morning.

Anybody?

Oh, I see a tie.

Come on up here, Wesley.

Making me look bad, bro.

Making me look bad.

Hey, stand right here, buddy.

I want you to read our passage, all right?

Whenever you're ready.

If you want to, yeah, perfect.

In all circumstances, take up the shield of faith, which with you can extinguish the

flaming darts of the evil one, and take up the helmet of salvation and the word of God,

which is the, I mean, sort of the spirit, which is the word of God.

Amen.

Let's pray.

Father, thank you for Wesley.

Thank you for his willingness to read.

I pray that as we do look at this text that is very familiar to most of us, that you will

open our hearts and ears to hear from you this morning.

We pray that your spirit will just move in this place freely.

To your name we pray.

Amen.

Thanks, big guy.

I heard right before I came in here that Wesley potentially wants to be a pastor one day,

which I think is great.

And so that might be, he might be my replacement one of these days, all right?

So I think that's fantastic.

He does dress better than me.

And he has more hair.

I think that's good, right?

Not as distracting when I put my head down.

All right, so we look to the text.

The fact of the matter is that everyone has faith in something or someone.

We know that, right?

There is a sense in which almost everything we do in life is based on our faith.

Unless you are a child, every day we put faith in our water heater that it's going to work,

right?

I don't know what it is at my house.

It's like pulling tea to get them to bathe.

But most of us, we have faith in our water heaters that they're going to work.

When I get into my car and I push the button, that's what it is now, I'm having faith that

all the parts of the car will work together properly and it will get me to where I need

to go.

When I'm at a green light and I'm going through the intersection, I have faith that the people

that are on the other side, that number one, there is a red light and number two, that

they're not going to plow me on the side.

When I go to the doctor that he prescribes medicine, I have faith in the doctor's judgment.

I have faith in the claims of the drug makers that the medicine will actually make me feel

better.

But faith in faith or in someone or some person or in my shower or my car or prescription

medications or whatever is not going to protect me against the evil one, right?

It's not going to protect me against the things that he sends my way.

And so what exactly is the kind of faith that Paul is writing about here?

The first thing we need to understand is that faith is belief.

The word that Paul uses here and which is used consistently throughout the New Testament

is a word that means to have a firm persuasion.

It's a form of the word that means to hold on to something with confidence.

We see that in Hebrews when we read in chapter 11.

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

A few verses later he writes, and without faith it is impossible to please him for whoever

would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek

him.

So that definition gives us a clue about what we are to believe.

Obviously, the kind of faith that is described here and which Paul refers to in Ephesians

cannot just be any belief.

One missionary, John Patton, was translating the Scriptures to a group of people in Southeast

Asia.

He found himself in a tough situation.

There was no word in their vocabulary for belief.

There was no word in their vocabulary for trust or to have faith.

He had no idea how to convey that message as he's translating the Scriptures so that

the people that he was translating to would understand it.

One day as he was in his hut translating, a native came running up fast up the stairs.

He flopped himself into his Patton study chair and then he said, it's so good to rest my

whole weight in this chair.

And John Patton said, I had my word for faith.

Faith is resting your whole weight on God.

That's what the shield of faith is all about, resting our whole weight on God.

But faith is not blind faith only.

Faith is belief that is confirmed by historical evidence.

Paul points out the historical basis for his faith when he writes to the Corinthian church.

In chapter 15 he says, now brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to

you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand.

By this gospel you were saved.

If you hold firmly to the word I preached to you, otherwise you have believed in vain.

For what I received I passed on to you as a first importance that Christ died for our

sins according to the scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third

day according to the scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter and then to the twelve.

After that he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of

whom were still living, though some have fallen asleep.

Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all he appeared to me

also as to one abnormally born.

So the faith that comprises the shield of faith is based on historical events that have

been confirmed by a large number of eyewitnesses to those events as recorded in the scriptures.

And in this passage Paul does a real nice job of summarizing both the facts and the significance

of those facts.

In essence he outlines the basics of what we need to believe in order to put on the shield

of faith.

Jesus died for our sins, he was buried, he was raised on the third day, and all of that

happened according to what God has already revealed in the scriptures.

So that is what the shield of faith is, but we need to know why we need it.

It's interesting that this is the only piece of armor for which Paul describes exactly

how it operates.

The exorcist to put on the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, and to sandal

our feet with the gospel of peace to take up the helmet of salvation which we'll cover

here in a minute, and the sword of the spirit.

But he never explains exactly what their purpose is and how they work.

But with the shield of faith he makes it very clear exactly why we need the shield in order

to, and how it should operate in our life.

The last phrase of this verse describes why we need the shield of faith, to extinguish

the flaming darts of the evil one.

What Paul refers to when Paul refers to Satan as the evil one, he is making it clear once

again that our adversary is not some principle or some force or some philosophy.

He is a real being whose goal is to do everything he can to separate us from God.

That's his whole goal.

He is a real foe.

So we need real armor to be able to stand firm against him.

We've already seen that Satan primarily attacks our minds.

He primarily attacks our emotions using deceit as his main weapon.

But now Paul gives us some more detail about how he operates with another picture, and

that's flaming arrows, flaming darts.

So what exactly is Paul describing for his readers with that picture?

The word translated dart refers to any kind of pointed projectile used in warfare.

In Paul's time these were most commonly would look like javelins or weapons or arrows.

The tips of these weapons would be covered with an absorbent material and then it would

be dipped in some pitch where it can absorb it and then lit on fire.

These flaming arrows would be launched in large numbers at the beginning of the battle.

The purpose was not just to injure the enemy, but also to cause confusion and panic as flames

were going on around them.

So just what are these flames of arrows, of darts for the believer?

It seems pretty clear from the context as well as what we know about how Satan operates

that these flaming arrows are the temptations that Satan fires into our lives.

He fires darts of selfishness, of doubt, fear, lust, greed.

He fires flaming darts of pride into our lives, at times literally bombarding the follower

of Jesus.

But I want to remind us that we are to stand firm, not to go on the attack.

Our job is to not stop the darts from being fired, but rather our responsibility is to

stand firm by putting on the armor.

How many high profile Christians have we seen over the years who publicly campaigned against

some form of immorality, only to fall to similar temptation in their own lives?

Now I'm certainly not saying that we shouldn't stand firm against immorality, but based on

this entire section of spiritual warfare, I think that the more critical issue is to

make sure that we focus on putting on the armor in our lives, since that is the only

way that we can stand firm against a powerful foe.

The flaming arrows were designed so when they hit the enemy's shields, the fire would bounce

off the shield and it would spread.

So before a battle in which flaming arrows might be shot at them, the soldiers would

soak the leather that was covering their shields in water.

Then they would actually use the shield to catch the arrows and extinguish them so that

the fire would not spread.

Paul writes that the shield of faith not only protects the believer against the flaming

arrows of temptation, but it intercepts and it extinguishes every single one.

Even when we face insurmountable temptations, God has promised that his shield of faith

is adequate to extinguish every single one.

Not because of anything we do on our own, not because of our own abilities, but because

all of our weight is resting on God.

When we understand that he did die, that he did rise, that it was all prophesied in the

Scriptures that all of this is happening according to God's plan, and when we have our faith

in that, it extinguishes all these arrows.

Once we need to understand why we need the helmet of salvation.

Once again, understanding the nature and the purpose of a Roman soldier's helmet will

give us some insight into why the helmet of salvation is so important to those of us

who are followers of Jesus.

Roman military helmets could be made out of leather, could be made out of metal.

The helmet had a band to protect the forehead, it had plates for the cheeks, and it extended

back down the neck to protect it.

When the helmet was strapped in place, it exposed very little, except for the eyes,

the nose, and the mouth.

Although the helmet would protect the head from arrows that were being fired its way,

its primary purpose was to ward off blows from the enemy's broadsword.

The broadsword was this massive, I think it was like a baseball bat.

This is three to four foot long piece of metal that the soldier would use both hands to

attack with.

With the main goal of, can I get this sword on that guy's helmet and give him like a

split personality, right?

That's essentially, and the helmet was the primary means of protecting the head against

those blows.

Now, it's not too difficult to see the spiritual implications of the helmet.

We've consistently noted that Satan's primary, that he attacks us primarily against our minds,

against our emotions, and it's the helmet of salvation that protects us from those attacks.

Based on what we know about Satan's attacks, both from the scriptures, both from our own

personal experiences, we find that just like the broadsword had two sides, the attacks

of Satan also has two main sides.

The helmet protects our minds from doubt.

Satan loves to bring doubt into our minds.

Every time we sin, he'll try to make us doubt our salvation.

He'll bring into our mind thoughts like these, how can you call yourself a Christian and

still act that way?

Are you sure you're really saved?

You sure don't deserve to be.

You deserve eternal punishment in hell.

There is no way that God is going to accept you when you continuously do those kinds of

things.

It's coming to church in the rain, really worth it.

Those are kinds of doubts, and those doubts are never going to stop coming.

They're never going to stop coming, so we need to understand that whenever we have a

doubt about the goodness of God, about the importance of God in our life, about the importance

of anything that's going to draw us closer to Him, anytime we have a doubt, we have to

understand it means that you are under attack from the enemy.

We also need to protect our minds from discouragement.

Satan loves to discourage you in your Christian walk.

I think we can all have a testimony on that.

He tries to get us to question whether following Jesus is really worth it.

He brings all kinds of discouraging thoughts to our minds.

You go to church every single week.

You read your Bible every single day, but your husband still doesn't treat you the way he

should, does he?

Your kids are no different than anyone else's kids at school.

You prayed to God for your health, but your health hasn't improved a bit, hasn't it?

In fact, it's actually gotten worse.

You've taught in children's church for years now, but how do you know that they're really

getting anything out of it?

I wish I had time for us to all come up here and share testimonies of what God has done

in our life as a form of encouragement for all of us today.

I can give you my own testimonies of Mrs. Greaser.

She was my Sunday school teacher when I was little.

She was faithful.

She helped me memorize the first verses that I ever memorized that I still know to this

day.

I can give you stories of how people came alongside me and Sina in our early years of

marriage and helped us get through the difficulties of those times.

I can give you stories of how my prayers were not answered the way I thought they should

be answered because sometimes I feel like I know better than God.

I can give you testimony after testimony of how I've prayed for something faithfully,

and God didn't answer me the way I wanted him to, but he still gave me an unreal amount

of peace.

If you are facing discouragement in your spiritual walk, you need to understand that you are

under spiritual attack.

Finally, let's look at why we need the sword of the spirit.

Up until now, every piece of the armor has been strictly defensive.

These are those five pieces of armor, the belt, the breastplate, the shoes, the shield,

and the helmet were intended to protect.

Intended to protect the soldier from the attacks of the enemy.

But this last piece of armor, while it can be used to ward off the blows of the enemy,

also has some offensive capabilities.

And we need the sword because our enemy is real.

We need the sword because our enemy is powerful, and we need to be able to fight when he attacks

us.

Roman soldiers use two different types of swords.

We just talked about the broad sword.

It's this really heavy weapon, usually about four feet long when it was swung with both

hands in a manner that you would swing a baseball bat.

And that sword was used primarily to try to split open the head of the enemy as it came

down upon the head.

That was its goal.

The Greek word for that broad sword is used in the New Testament throughout, primarily

in the book of Revelation, where it is an instrument of God's judgment against those

who have chosen not to commit their lives to Jesus.

But the Greek word that Paul uses here in Ephesians 6, which was used frequently throughout

the New Testament, is a much smaller sword.

The word described as sword that was worn in a sheath or scabbard by the Roman soldier.

It could be anywhere from six inches to 20 inches long.

The most significant characteristic of this sword for us as we consider the armor of God

is that it's a weapon that's used in close hand-to-hand combat.

Because of its short length, it was only effective when the enemy was closed and engaged in a

fight.

And when Paul commands us to take up the sword of the Spirit, he is emphasizing, once again,

to each and every one of us, the seriousness of the battle and the danger that our enemy

presents.

This is not a battle that can be fought at a distance.

This is close quarters.

But before we go any further, I want to remind us that our responsibility when it comes to

our spiritual battle is to stand firm and maintain the ground that Jesus has already

secured on our behalf and not take new ground.

That's why Paul repeats the command, stand, throughout this section.

But since, as we've seen, the sword is also an offensive weapon.

So how do you reconcile this idea of we've got to stand, don't take new ground, but stand,

but also be aggressive?

Those seem like two contradictory ideas.

Given the entire context of the section, I think we can rightly conclude that for us

that are followers of Jesus, the sword is an offensive weapon that is used for defensive

purposes.

It's actually very easy to illustrate.

In my home, if you come into my home, you are in my garage, you will see that I have

a safe.

My safe is tens of thousands of dollars in cash.

Just kidding, I don't have any of that.

But in that safe, there's several guns and there's many, many, many rounds of ammo.

And I think we'd all agree that a gun can be an offensive weapon.

If you were to go hunting and you were to shoot some deer or some turkey or things of

that nature that you were trying to use to eat, you would view that gun as an offensive

weapon.

But if an intruder came into your house and you shot that person with your gun, you would

be using that gun as a defensive manner and you would be justified in doing so.

But if you knew that this guy was going to come break into your house and rob you on

this particular day and you just kind of jumped ahead and you went and got your gun,

and you went over to his house and shot and killed him because of his intention, you wouldn't

be justified in doing so and you would actually be committing a pretty serious crime.

So we don't encourage that kind of stuff.

But when Satan comes into our territory and he attacks us, then we are not only justified

in using the sword of the Spirit against him, but we must do so.

On the other hand, that doesn't mean that we are to go out looking for Satan in his

own territory in order to try and attack him with our sword.

Now I know what some of you might be thinking, you've been in church a long time, oh here

we go again, right?

Another lesson, another message that tells us that I need to read and study my Bible

more.

Now that's certainly true.

It's certainly true, but you can't use God's word effectively unless you know what's in

there.

It doesn't work that way, and you all know that.

So let's see if we can go a little deeper this morning.

We tend to use the word, the phrase, word of God as a synonym for the Bible.

But the issue is, do we really believe that the Bible, that you have on your phone, that

you have in your lap, that you have on your coffee table, do we really believe indeed

it is the very word of God?

Not just that we say we believe that, and we include it in our doctrine, and we include

it in our statement of faith, but have we made the determination once and for all that

this is indeed the word of God, and that therefore it deserves my full attention?

If you truly believe that the Bible is the word of God, then there is no way whatsoever

that an hour or two on Sunday mornings is going to satisfy your hunger for what's in

those pages.

It's not enough to just have God's word.

In fact, even an unbeliever can have the Bible.

Even an unbeliever can read the Bible and study the Bible, but those of us who are followers

of Christ have a resource that other people don't have.

We have God's holy spirit.

The word of God is called the sword of the spirit, not just because it was given to us

by the Holy Spirit and what it provides for us, but also because he makes it alive for

us.

He equips us to use it in the right way at the right time.

So many of us have read the Bible, but we don't understand it.

Have you ever read a passage of Scripture for years and years and years, and then one time

you're reading it and you're like, oh, that makes sense now?

I've been in ministry for over 20 years now, and I've preached passages of Scripture many,

many times, but each time I teach it, God shows me something.

That's the spirit of God bringing it to life.

You can read the Bible like a textbook.

You can understand all the facts, but unless the spirit of God is behind it, you're not

going to get it.

The Roman soldier would have never thought about going into battle without spending many

hours practicing with his sword.

The very best soldiers would try all different types of thrust, different positions in order

to determine what would work best in various situations.

Even today, soldiers and police officers and others who depend on their weapons practice

with them over and over and over again.

The idea is that when they get in the heat of battle, they'll not have to think about

how to use their weapon.

They just will do it.

They can react based on all their training, based on all their practice.

The same thing is true with the sword of the spirit.

If we want to be able to effectively use God's word in the heat of battle, then we need to

practice with it over and over and over again.

It's not just enough to read the Bible or even study it.

It's only effective if we put it into practice.

This passage from James is only one of many places in the Bible where this principle is

revealed.

He writes, but be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.

For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently

at his natural face in a mirror.

For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he is like.

But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty and perseveres, being no

hearer who forgets, but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.

When I first became an electrician years ago, there was all these different licensing exams

that I had to take.

It's really exciting to read through books of code and things that the government writes.

It's real intriguing.

I would study and study and study and I would learn all these different types of things

and then I would take a test and if I passed the test, I would move on to the next section

and pass the test and move on to the next section in order to get my license.

Once I passed the test and got all my licensing, I found out soon I wasn't ready to wire up

anybody's house.

You would not want me in your house.

I needed some on the job training and practice before I ever felt comfortable doing it on

my own.

Even then, I've realized that not all homes are wired the same.

Some were wired by your uncle for a case of beer, right?

And really didn't know what he was doing.

I learned that not all businesses are up to code.

And some are grandfathered in and you have to figure all that out.

So it once, it took me a while to figure out how to troubleshoot some of the various issues

that I faced.

It seems to me that Paul is imploring his readers to proclaim specific portions of God's word

that will be useful in helping others deal with specific situations that they are dealing

with in their lives.

When you proclaim the word of God to your kids and you help them apply it to a situation

they are facing at school, or you share it with a coworker who is facing a problem in

his life or her life, or when you teach a class of students here at our church and you help

them see how the Bible is relevant to their lives, you're cutting your way through Satan's

dominion and you're using the sword of the Spirit effectively.

Here's a great illustration that I found that might help you understand this better.

He writes, as I looked out into the garden one day I saw three things.

First I saw a butterfly.

The butterfly was beautiful and it would land on a flower and it would flutter to another

flower and then to another and only for a second or two it would sit and it would move

on.

It would touch as many lovely blossoms as it could but derived absolutely no benefit

from it.

Then I watched a little longer out my window and there came a botanist.

The botanist had a big notebook under his arm and a great big magnifying glass.

The botanist would lean over a certain flower and he would look at it for a long time and

then he would write notes in his notebook.

He was there for hours writing notes and then he closed them, stuck them under his arm,

tucked his magnifying glass into his pocket and walked away.

The third thing I noticed was a bee.

Just a little bee, but the bee would land on a flower and it would sink deep down into

the flower and would extract all the nectar and pollen that it could carry.

It went in empty every time and came out full.

So it is with people who approach the Bible.

There are those who just flutter from lovely sermon to lovely sermon from class to class,

fluttering here, fluttering there, bringing nothing and gaining nothing but a nice feeling.

I went to church today.

I learned something new today.

Then there's those that are spiritual botanists who take copious notes and they study the

Greek, they study the Hebrew and they understand all the grammar but they don't have the capacity

to draw anything from the flowers.

It's just a purely academic exercise.

Then there are those that are spiritual bees who draw out of every precious flower all

that is there to make the honey that equips them to stand firm against the devil and his

schemes.

Which one are you?

Are you the butterfly?

Are you the botanist?

Or are you the bee?

There's so many people out there that know so much more academically about the script.

I don't have a PhD, I don't want a PhD.

I've seen them study and study and study and they can dissect the text fantastic but the

spirit of God is not enough.

I've seen for years and years now, I see people, they come to church and they sit in the seats,

they go to class but there's no evidence whatsoever that the Holy Spirit of God is

living in them.

There's some of us that really just want to get to the heart of the text so that God

can move in our lives and change us.

I want us as cornerstone to be a swarm of spiritual bees where this is our hive and we're getting

everything we can from God's Word.

So that when we go into battle, empowered by the Holy Spirit, we can effectively attack

and protect those around us from the enemy.

I've said it every week since we've been in this section and I can't say it enough,

you are under spiritual attack.

Each and every day you are under spiritual attack.

You are lied to and deceived so often and so many times.

We have to take up the armor of God.

We have to stand firm.

We have to understand that the heart is deceptive and because the heart is deceptive, he's going

to use that against us.

And so we don't make decisions based on facts, we make decisions based on feelings and our

faith has to be rooted in facts.

Jesus came, lived a perfect life, died for our sins.

He rose again on the third day.

He ascended to the right hand of the Father and all of that is outlined in His Word.

Every single word that you have is God's word.

It's from Him.

It's to help us lead the most rich, powerful life that we can.

And so I don't know where you are in your spiritual journey today.

Maybe you are facing unreal circumstances.

Maybe you are facing an unreal amount of doubt and discouragement.

And is it really worth it?

Is it worth it coming here every single Sunday and listening to some guy who has no hair,

to some guy who's a sinner?

Is it worth it?

Those kinds of discouragements are going to come at you each and every day.

And my hope and my prayer for our church is that you'll be able to look past me.

You'll be able to look past all of our imperfections and you'll see the goodness and grace of God

in His Word.

That's my prayer.

And so we're going to wrap it up.

I'm going to pray for us.

And we're going to sing another song of worship.

And my encouragement and my hope for you is that as we sing, we don't just look at the

words on the screen.

We don't just try to get through this thing, but that we will respond.

Do I have on the shield of faith?

Am I able to extinguish the darts that are being shot at me?

Do I have on the helmet of salvation?

Where am I letting doubts and discouragement win?

So as you think about that, do I know God's Word enough where I can use it effectively?

If you're a police officer, you go to trainings, right?

You know how to use your weapons.

If you need help using your weapon effectively, we can train you.

We can help you.

We'll walk with you.

We don't expect anybody to be perfect.

But so many times we don't use our Bible.

We don't use God's Word because we simply don't practice.

So I want to challenge you on that.

Let's pray.

Father, I pray right now that as we respond to your Word, as we respond to your presence,

that you will once again remind us that we are in a spiritual battle.

I pray right now, Father, that you will eliminate any presence of the enemy from this place

in Jesus' name.

I pray, Father, that your spirit will move powerfully in our hearts.

I pray that your voice will be heard louder above all the distractions and all the noise

that has been our week.

And I pray, Father, that you will bring conviction, that you will bring restoration, that you

will bring salvation to this place this morning.

And so, Father, we hand over this time again to you.

We ask you to minister to our hearts.

We ask you to speak to our spirits.

And, Father, I pray for your protection as we put on the armor, that we will have faith

in it, that we will rest all of our trust on you.

And we'll feel peace.

We ask all these things in your name.

Amen.