The Christian At War

This sermon is from Grace Fellowship Church in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. To access other sermons or to learn more about us, please visit our website at graceedmonton .ca.

The Christian Is at War in Ephesians 6

Ephesians chapter 6, verses 10 through 17 is what we'll be looking at today. Before we start, let's go to the Lord in prayer and ask for His help. O God, we come now to Your Word, to Your perfect, inerrant Word, to the divine truths that You have preserved for us.

And we come with an anticipation to hear You speak, to minister to our hearts and to our souls, to glorify Your name and to magnify Jesus Christ. We ask that You would do just that, that You would be pleased to do just that.

O Lord, feed Your sheep now, not because of me but in spite of me. Feed Your sheep and glorify Your name in the preaching of Your Word. Help us to listen, help us to listen well and to internalize Your Word, to etch it into our hearts, to write it on the tablets of our hearts and help me to speak.

We ask all this for Your glory, for our good, in Christ's name. By God's grace and kindness, we live in a country in which we've been able to enjoy a tremendous amount of peace. Unlike people in other parts of the world, countries like Ukraine or Israel at the moment, we don't live under constant threat of an enemy standing on our doorstep ready to kill us.

We don't live under occupation as the Netherlands did during World War II. We can let our guard down, we can go about our daily duties and activities without fear, without having to always keep an eye on the sky for missiles, without having to grab our children and drag them behind cover to hide from enemy forces.

The concept of war, the actual experience of war, what it means as a nation to be involved in it is largely foreign to us and only something we often read or hear about in books or on the news. But as we come closer now to the end of the book of Ephesians, we come to find that there's not only this physical kind of war of which we can be part of or not be part of, of which we immediately see the destruction, suffering and death it produces and leaves behind, but Paul tells us there's also a war that we are not immediately able to see.

A war that as bad as the wars are in this life that we experience, is much more dangerous and bears with it eternal consequences. It is a war for the soul of man, not fought with human means and powers of flesh and blood.

It is a war that every man and woman and especially every Christian is involved in, whether it's your desire or not. You don't have a choice in this. It is a war initiated by Satan himself. And if you live in ignorance with blinders on, thinking you are at peace, when you're really not, it'll prove fatal to your soul.

I want to keep this introduction short. I want to get straight into it. What I want us to see really are two main points. First, I want us to see that we have a supernatural enemy that we're up against.

And then second, this is where we'll spend a little bit more of our time, is the divine means that we've been given by God to persevere in this war. And what we'll do there is look at each of the pieces of armor of God.

The Devil and His Schemes

With that, let's get into it. First, we'll look at the supernatural enemy. I said we've arrived at the Apostle's last exhortations in this epistle before his final greeting. And even though we're coming to the end now of this letter, what Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, has for us is most certainly of no small significance.

He begins in verse 10 with a charge to us, for us to be strong in the Lord and the strength of His might and to put on the armor of God. But before he expands on that and explains that to us some more, he immediately gives us the reason for why we need to do so in verses 11 and 12.

It's like we can sense a sense of urgency that we can perceive here. And so he writes, beginning in verse 10,. Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil.

For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

Paul has given it to us straight. He says, Christian, you're at war. John Bunyan called it a holy war. This is important. You need to understand this right from the beginning on the outset as we get into this.

Whether you like it or not, whether you want to be or not, you have an enemy that is always on the hunt for you. You are a marked man, a marked woman. And this enemy is none other than the devil. Satan himself, the great accuser and slanderer.

And he's got a wanted poster with your name and face on it. He'll do everything he can to destroy your soul, to bring you to despair, to bury you in this casket of sorrow and doubt and to entice your flesh to sin.

You have to realize that not only in the Christian life do we fight against the flesh, our evil desires from within, but we have an enemy on the outside that as a follower of Christ has nothing but disdain and hatred for you.

And you can't hide from him either. In verse 11, Paul tells us that our enemy operates by using schemes. In the Greek there, the word conveys a well thought out, a very methodical art of deceiving, of cunning, of craftiness.

And it's something that Peter tells us similar to it in 1 Peter 5 verse 8 when he says that the devil prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. Just like a lion, the devil stalks his prey.

He has his schemes, his snares set up. His sight is set on you, Christian, and he's lying in wait to attack when the time is right. And when he does, he comes to kill and to destroy. I confess that as I began to study this passage, I was challenged a lot in my own view of this spiritual war and this warfare that we're engaged in as Christians.

And it almost seems to me that our study of Satan and his demons has completely fallen to the wayside for many of us. Some of you may come from backgrounds where you used to see the devil hiding under every rock everywhere you go.

And now you found some peace finally in a theological camp where we hardly ever speak about him and his devices. We should certainly not speak more about the devil than we do about our Lord Jesus Christ.

But have we? By never or rarely speaking about him, by focusing almost exclusively on our own evil desires, have we lost the right understanding of this spiritual warfare that we're engaged in? Have we become prone to letting our guards down, putting ourselves in tremendous danger?

I wonder, could this perhaps be why we seem so regularly see pastors even gospel-preaching pastors fall? Have we, by not acknowledging our enemy and his schemes, have we given him the perfect hiding place to work so effectively against us?

Christians, you cannot live your life on cruise control. You must cultivate this wartime mindset. You must be sober-minded and watchful at all times. We don't use them much anymore in modern warfare, but in more ancient times, cities, camps would have watchtowers set up and have soldiers placed in them to keep an eye out for an approaching enemy.

Have you set up a watchtower? Are you in the watchtower? Do you know what the enemy looks like and how he operates? Listen, the devil did not shy away from going after our Lord himself. Don't place yourself above Christ.

Don't think the enemy is not going to attack you. If he comes after the Messiah, after the one on whom the Holy Spirit had descended, he'll most certainly come after you. You're not, by no means, above your master.

It was Satan who put it in Judas' heart to betray Jesus. It was Satan who desired to have Peter to sift him like wheat. Paul here is not speaking metaphorically or figuratively. So please, I urge you, for the good of your soul, wake up!

Realize you have a real enemy. Understand that you have a crafty enemy constantly trying to outwit you, even to the point of disguising himself as an angel of light, sending out false apostles, deceitful workmen as servants into the world.

We must wake up. Satan has centuries, millennia of experience. He knows the human heart much better than you do. He's been at work since the beginning of mankind in the garden. He's a most formidable foe.

Don't underestimate him and be on the lookout. Look at verse 12. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood. Listen, we're not up against mere man. We're up against a supernatural power, and we wrestle it as an intense fight, a real struggle.

It's not easy. We fight against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Paul is pulling back the curtain.

He's laying it bare for us. He's showing us the unseen. Father, Son, and Spirit, and their angels, they're not the only ones operating in a spiritual realm. This is the fifth time that Paul mentions the phrase heavenly places in this letter.

He consistently, every time, uses it to refer to a place that is not this earth, a place that human eyes cannot behold. If you will, there's another dimension in and from which the devil operates and exercises tremendous power over this world.

But he's not alone. Notice the nouns in verse 12 are all plural. In Revelation 12, verse 7, we read about a war between Michael and his archangels and the dragon and his angels. Jesus himself, if you remember, speaks of a place of eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels in Matthew 25, verse 41.

This prince of the power of the air, as Paul called him early in Ephesians 2, has an organized and invisible army of demons that exercise evil power. There's that power. There's that work in the unbeliever, the power that has reign over all those who are not in Christ.

John put it this way in his first epistle. In chapter 5, verse 19, he says,. We know that we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one. We fight against the God of this world, the one that blinds the minds of the unbeliever to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ.

We're up against an enemy, though, created by God and remaining under God's sovereign power that is much more powerful and has much more knowledge than man. We wrestle against the force behind the evil in the world.

And that's why we're given this charge in verse 10, to be strong in the Lord and the strength of his might and to put on the whole armor of God. I love this. Think back with me for a moment, if you would, to what we have already read in this letter.

Remember all the spiritual blessings in chapter 1 that we have in Christ are being chosen in him, are having been adopted through him, are having received adoption through his blood, obtaining inheritance in him.

Remember in chapter 2, are having been made alive and raised and even seated in the heavenly places in Christ and are being God's workmanship created in Christ and are accessed to the Father through Christ.

We could go on and on through Ephesians and read of our being partakers of the promise in Christ in chapter 3. Everything in this letter so far has been about Jesus Christ and what he has accomplished.

So when we come to chapter 6 and verse 10 regarding the spiritual warfare, the supernatural power, isn't it glorious? Isn't it sweet that nothing has changed since chapter 1? That it does not say, be strong in yourself, trust in your might and put on the armor of man.

Instead, it's all of God. It is all of Christ. It is in the Lord. It is his might and the armor of God. It should be tremendous comfort to you, to us. But why is it in the Lord? Why is it his might and the armor of God?

You know why. You don't need me to tell you why. I'm going to do it anyway. But you know in the depths of your heart, many of you have no doubt experienced this. Some of you may have not. The utter weakness of man that apart from Jesus Christ, apart from the power of the Holy Spirit, without the triune God working in you, you're but a pile of ash and dust, a heap of bones in this wasteland of the dead.

In Romans 8 .26, we're told that we're so weak, we even need the Spirit's help in our prayers because we know not what to pray for as we ought to. So please, don't flatter yourself. Don't lie to yourself by thinking you can withstand the devil and his demonic forces by your own might.

There's absolutely zero power in the arm of flesh. The only place to find your strength in and for this war is in the Lord, in your union with Jesus Christ. When you are united to him by faith, only when you abide in him will you be strong.

And he is mighty. Because he, who by having been raised from the dead, has defeated death. It is he who has delivered us from this domain of darkness and transferred us to his kingdom of light. So think much of Christ.

Put all your trust in him alone. Always look to him for strength and he will supply it. The devil is a mighty foe. Much more powerful than we are. He has, as Jonathan Edwards said, he's been educated in the best divinity school in the universe, that being the heaven of heavens.

But the fact remains, it is Christ. It is Christ who's seated at the right hand of the Father, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion and above every name that is named. Charles Hodge, commenting on this, put it this way.

He, therefore, who rushes into this conflict without thinking of Christ, without putting his trust in him and without continually looking to him for strength and regarding himself as a member of his body, deriving all life and vigor from him, is demented.

So in him.

The Armor of God: Truth, Righteousness, Peace, Faith, Salvation, and the Word

And we're being united to Christ as part of our being strong in him, we are to put on the armor of God so that we may be able to stand against the devil. The question is, what does that look like? How do we stand against Satan and his armies, practically speaking?

We're told that in verses 13 through 17 in our second point. That's where we'll see these divine means that we've been given to withstand. The apostle writes, Therefore, take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day and having done all to stand firm.

Stand, therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth and having put on the breastplate of righteousness and the shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. In all circumstances, take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God.

Verse 13 reiterates much of verse 11. It's a second call for you to take up the armor of God. Because it's the only means that you have to withstand your foe during these evil days until Christ returns or calls you home.

Yes, we have an enemy all too powerful for us, but we're not left alone out there to our own devices. God's given us all the needed equipment. All we have to do is put it on. Though there will be moments of defeat, you know this, you've experienced it, and times where we will still sin while we remain in this earthly tent.

But putting on this armor, we have the means to persevere until the end. So take first, as verse 14 says, the belt of truth. In the Greek, it's literally gird your loins. And in the context of armor, this would have been a form, a type of belt that these soldiers would use to tie up their loose tunics when they had to get ready for battle and attach their sword to it.

Paul is telling us, he's urging you to get ready for this battle, and it starts with the truth. He's talking about the truth of God's word, understood and believed. The fight against Satan and his demons is one of the mind as well as the heart.

In 1 Peter 1, 13, Peter urges his readers to prepare their minds for action and to be sober-minded in order not to be conformed to former passions, but to be holy. 2 Thessalonians, which we'll eventually get to, verse 9 through 11, we read, the coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing.

And it says this, because they refuse to love the truth and so be saved. Christian, if you want to persevere in this spiritual battle, if you want to fend off this most vile enemy, you must know, understand, and believe the truth contained in the word of God.

Jesus calls the devil a liar. He's the father of lies. There is no truth in him. So take up this belt. Immerse yourself in the truth. Hold fast to it. Allow it to first affect your mind and then etch it into your heart so that when the devil does come, when he does attack you with his lies, trying to entice you to sin, you know the truth, you believe it, and you cling to it.

When he paints for you this most beautiful picture of sin, you see it for this gross and disgusting evil that it really is. When he seeks to convince you that there are no consequences to your sin, you know that it's better to enter life with one eye than to enter eternal punishment with two.

When he tells you the same thing that he told Adam and Eve in the garden, you will not surely die. You know that the wages of sin is death. When the devil tells you it's okay to continue in sin so that grace may abound, then you know that you have died to sin and you walk in the newness of life.

You'll be able to discern false teaching that leads you to eternal destruction. Please, brothers and sisters, prepare your minds for battle. Be sober-minded by knowing the truth and holding fast to it.

And then second, you take the breastplate of righteousness. The breastplate, as most of you can imagine, was the part of the armor that protected the torso, all the vital organs of the soldier from deadly wounds.

And it's no different for the Christian. In this wrestling with the evil one, when it gets up close and personal, we are to protect ourselves with righteousness. Some commentators suggest that the righteousness Paul speaks about here is righteous conduct on the part of the Christian.

I don't believe that's what Paul has in mind. Our righteous deeds can't deflect any of the devil's attacks against us. Rather, Paul is speaking of the righteousness of Christ imputed to us. He's speaking about an alien righteousness.

It's the same righteousness that Paul desired when he wrote his letter to the Philippians. And he said that he wants to gain Christ and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith.

In a war against Satan, we must wear Christ's righteousness. The so-called righteousness of man is futile. If you trust in it, you're surely going to die. You can bank on that. But the righteousness of Jesus Christ, who perfectly obeyed, fulfilled the law, bore the penalty of your sins, is more than sufficient.

There's no better righteousness than that to be found anywhere. Why would you want man's so-called righteousness if that's exactly where the devil attacks us, isn't it? I'm sure you've experienced it.

The great accuser trying to make you question your standing before God, telling you that you're so evil that God could never possibly forgive you, that you're the vilest of men and will never be able to stand before God and live.

When he asks you in this condescending tone, why would God be gracious to you? Why would He forgive your sin? You know you're guilty. Let me tell you what to answer. You say, because of Christ alone. Because He is a greater Savior than I am a sinner.

Because He's the righteous one, not me. He's the sinless one, the Son of God, who took away all my sin. It is in Him that I'm righteous. It's the righteousness of Christ. Your unwavering trust in it that will fend off these vile attacks.

Christian, you must wear the breastplate of righteousness and never, never take it off if you want to stand. We find a third piece of armor. In verse 15 we read that we must put on shoes for our feet.

The readiness given by the gospel of peace. Footwear was really important to the soldier. Armies had to literally march a lot. And the majority of battling was done on foot. And so proper footwear was to cross the terrain and to have good grip in battle was of utmost importance.

It's no different for you and I. It's no different for the Christian in the fight against Satan and his underlings. The good news, the good news of your having peace with God, of your having been reconciled to the Father through Jesus Christ allows you to readily march into battle and take a stand.

Jesus' own words in the gospel of John should be a source of strength. In John 14, verse 27, he says, Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you, not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.

That's Paul's common greeting in all of his letters. He began this one with, Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Friends, if you are in Christ, if you have peace with God, if you have been reconciled to the Father, you can say, Oh death, where is your sting?

Oh death, where is your victory? And if God is for us, who can be against us? You were far off. You were at one point alienated, but you now have been brought near. And as citizens and members of the household of God, have peace with and access to the Father.

So let His peace, the peace that surpasses all understanding, let it guard your hearts and minds when the evil one brings a charge against you, when he afflicts you, when he tries to convince you that the wrath of God still abides on you, telling you that you stand condemned, that God hates you and is punishing you because you're suffering.

Let the peace of Christ rule in your heart. Look to Him and hear Him say, Peace be with you. You are not at war with God any longer. Put on the shoes of the gospel of peace. The second last item, as part of the defensive equipment and the armor of God, is the shield of faith, which can extinguish the fiery darts of the evil one.

The shield is one of the greatest defensive pieces in a soldier's arsenal. Some of them are fairly large, covering the entire body of a soldier almost. And they'd be used to deflect these flaming arrows that they were often using in warfare at the time, as ranged attacks.

In a similar way, faith is an important part of the Christian's armor. Faith is what you need to fend off these deadly darts of fire the devil shoots at you. Whether it's blasphemous thoughts, hateful thoughts, lustful thoughts, doubts about the promises of God, or fears for your salvation, this constant barrage of arrows raining down on you can only be defended against by faith.

By believing in God's promises and trusting in Him, by believing on the Lord Jesus Christ, entering the war without faith is going to be fatal. It's your faith that helps you to pray in times of need.

It's your faith that removes your doubts. It's your faith that says, I will not be afraid. And by your faith, you resist your evil desires and lust. Spurgeon said that any man can sing in the daytime, but that only the man of faith can sing in the night.

When the onslaught of the evil one seems too overwhelming for you, to borrow Spurgeon's words, when the night is upon you, take the shield of faith. Walk by faith and not by sight. The last piece that Paul mentions is the helmet of salvation in verse 17.

Helmets, of course, protected the head, as they still do to this day. They will cover all sides of the head, leaving the soldier with protection all around and his gaze fixed on what's ahead. Paul mentions a similar helmet in 1 Thessalonians 5, verse 8.

He talks there about a breastplate of faith and love, as well as a helmet of the hope of salvation in the spiritual battle. It's your salvation that keeps you protected and looking ahead. Looking ahead to Christ, completing the work that He has begun in you now.

Joel Beeke commenting on the helmet of salvation. He points out that salvation in the past is justification. Salvation in the present is sanctification. And salvation in the future is glorification. To those whom God predestined, Romans 8.

He also called, and those whom He called, He also justified. And those whom He justified, He also glorified. It's all in the past tense. It's done. When the fight against Satan gets tough, and it will, look ahead to what is to come.

Persevere in this battle. Don't give up. You may be tempted to lay down your armor and surrender. For there will be days when there seems there's no victory in sight at all. But one day, Christian, one day, the war will be over and then you can lay down your armor.

You'll no longer need it. And the enemy will completely and finally be crushed. Until then, hold fast to your salvation now, as well as future when you get to enter into glory. Remember that there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

Fight with boldness. No one can separate you from the love of Christ. Nothing that the devil throws at you. No tribulation, distress, persecution, danger, or sword. No death or life. Nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

So don't grow weary. Don't let the enemy discourage you in this fight. Behold eternity. Behold the future glory. No one will be able to snatch you out of Christ's hands. And likewise, he'll never cast you out.

If I can quote Jonathan Edwards again, stamp eternity on your eyeballs. And then lastly, in this long, intense, tiring war, we've been given one weapon. We do not only stand firm in defense. We can fight back.

We can fight against our adversary. And this one weapon, one, is all we need. We need nothing more, and most certainly nothing less is going to do. And that's of course the sword of the Spirit, the Word of God.

The Word of God. Praise the Lord, He's preserved His Word for you, and you have it readily available. You have access to it. It's active and living, sharper than any two-edged sword could ever be. It is God's power and wisdom.

It is divine truth that you can hold in your hands. So when you find yourself in the trenches, in the close quarter combat against the devil, take the sword of the Spirit and strike your enemy at the heart.

To illustrate this best, Jesus used the Word of God in the exact same way Himself. If you would turn with me to Matthew 4 for just a moment. There's much there, of course, but we'll just take a quick glance if I ever get there.

Beginning in verse 1, we'll read some of it. Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And after fasting 40 days and 40 nights, He was hungry. And the tempter came and said to Him, If You are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.

Verse 4, Notice Jesus' immediate response. He's in battle with the devil. He is really being tempted, but He doesn't mess around. He doesn't begin to argue with Satan and try to justify things. Instead, He goes straight to the Word of God.

In quotes from Deuteronomy 8, verse 3, He uses the sword of the Spirit. And so the devil tries again. In verse 5, They will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against the stone. Even the devil knows the Scriptures.

And he tries to use them against Jesus. So how then can you, Christian, how can you fight back against these deceitful and cunning tactics? Well, the same way that Christ did. By knowing the Word and applying it rightly.

And so Jesus again, in verse 7, He responds by quoting from Deuteronomy 6, verse 16,. And again the devil tries a third time. Then Jesus said to him,. Again, Jesus responds with the Word of God. Quoting from the Old Testament.

The devil is going to attack over and over and over again. Follow Christ's example and fight Him with the Word of God. When you sense temptation coming, take your Bible, open it, read a passage that applies to the current situation.

It is the mightiest weapon in resisting the devil to cause him to flee from you. You want to be effective in fending off the attacks of the enemy? Be familiar with the Word of God.

Read it. Pray it.

Memorize it. Know how to use it. And the Spirit will bring it to mind in times of need for you to wield it effectively. Brothers and sisters, you've been given all the tools you need in this war against the great deceiver and his demons.

In and of yourself you are weak, but in your union with Christ, having put on the complete armor of God, wielding the sword of the Spirit, you are strong in Him. And you are more than conquerors, and you can stand against Him.

Will you fall at times?

Absolutely.

But be of courage. Get back up. Take your stand again and persevere until the end. To sum it all up, I'd like to end with a verse of a hymn that we know well, that we like to sing here. O Lord, my rock and my redeemer, strong defender of my weary heart, my sword to fight the cruel deceiver and my shield against his fateful darts, my song when enemies surround me, my hope when tides of sorrow rise, my joy when trials are abounding, your faithfulness my refuge in the night.

Let's close in prayer.

Thank you for listening to another sermon from Grace Fellowship Church. If you would like to keep up with us, you can find us at Facebook at Grace Fellowship Church or our Instagram at gracechurch, y-e-g, all one word.

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