Ephesians 6:11-12
Let’s give our attention to God’s
word. This is Ephesians chapter six,
and I’ll read 10 through 20. 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 all the heavenly places. 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 his shoes for your feet, having put on
the readiness given by the gospel of peace in all circumstances,
take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all
the flaming darts of the evil one and take the helmet of salvation
and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. praying
at all times in the spirit with all prayer and supplication.
To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication
for all the saints and also for me, that words may be given to
me and opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the
gospel for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare
it boldly as I ought to speak. Amen. This is God’s a holy and
inspired word. In Genesis chapter three, when
the Lord has gathered Satan, he’s gathered Adam and he’s gathered
Eve in front of him for that divine parenting council, you
might say. He’s telling them what they have
done and then what their punishments will be. He says to Satan, you’ll
be cursed above all livestock. He tells Adam, your work is gonna
be hard and unproductive. And then he tells Eve, your desire
will be for you to rule over your husband, but he’ll rule
over you and babies, they will be hard. And then after that,
he says, and by the way, there will be this cosmic battle, this
cosmic battle between your baby, Eve, that’s Jesus, and the babies
or the offspring of the serpent. And so we have this battle, this
seed to seed battle throughout human history. And this cosmic
battle of spiritual forces, this cosmic battle of the righteousness
of God and the wickedness of Satan is a battle that is fought
in the spiritual realm. This morning when I was getting
ready for church, I was listening to some of the James Montgomery
voice hymns. I’d really encourage you, if
you have opportunity, to buy the little CD and little accompanying
hymn book that go with it. Jim Boyce wrote maybe a dozen
or so hymns before his death in early 2000s, maybe 2001. And one of them is about being
seated with Christ in the heavenly places. being seated with Christ
in the heavenly places right from Ephesians. And it talks
about how when we become Christians, we are raised up with Christ.
We are seated with him in the heavenly places and we don’t
live on our earthly spiritual plane anymore. Now, Every one
of you will affirm that your feet are touching the ground,
that you walk on dirt, you walk on hardwoods, you walk on carpet,
you walk on tile, you walk in the grass, you are touching this
earth. But spiritually speaking, you are living in the heavenly
realms because you’ve been seated with Christ in the heavenly places.
And that brings you into this spiritual battle that the apostle
Paul speaks of here in Ephesians chapter six. Now you understand,
In this passage, in this little section of scripture, Ephesians
chapter six, Paul is not talking about your fight with the world.
He’s not talking about your fight with the world and its influence.
He’s not talking about whether your children should listen to
Britney Spears or rock and roll. He’s not talking about worldview
and should you homeschool, Christian school, public school. He’s not
talking about our battles with the world and its philosophies.
He’s also not talking about a battle between you and your flesh, you
and your remaining sin. He’s not talking about your personal
growth and holiness and your sanctification. Those are indeed
battles, and we’ve talked about them lots. We’ll talk about them
lots for the rest of our lives. This is the battle with that
third enemy, the devil. This is the battle with the enemy,
the devil, the serpent. This is the talk about Satan,
the evil one, the one who desires to derail the Christian church,
the Christian faith. How has he been trying to derail
it? Well, he came in the garden and he told Adam and Eve lies
about following God, and he did a pretty good bit of damage.
He’s the one that when baby Jesus was born, Herod wanted to know
him and to meet him in order to kill him. And we know that
wonderful outcome where Jesus and his family escaped to Egypt.
He’s the one who incited David to take a census, to count up
his people and his mighty men that he would know humanly speaking
how strong he was. He’s the one, this week I was
reminded in a sermon on Nehemiah, Ezra, the rebuilding after the exiles returned to Jerusalem
from Babylon, there was sand ballot. and Tobiah, and they
did not want the temple or the city of Jerusalem rebuilt. And so our enemy has always sought
to derail the church and Christians. This is the same Satan who wants
to subvert authority. He wants to, well, what do we
call him in the Bible? He’s the Antichrist. If he’s
not Christ, he’s the Antichrist. seeks to deceive the church and
to subvert the work of God. He wants to overturn God’s program
of redemption. And so this is a battle that
we all fight. In addition to the battle with the world, in
addition to the battle with the flesh, we fight this battle against
Satan. And what is God saying to us
in Ephesians 6? Well, last week we looked at
we are to be strong and to fight with the might of God, much like
Joshua, much like Moses. We stand firm in the strength
of the Lord and we fight in his might. Well, today he begins,
we begin to look at the resources for battle. We look at the resources
for the battle and these are resources for the church. Some
of you may look at this whole put on the armor of God and say,
well, this is me going to my spiritual closet and putting
on my armor. Now these are imperatives put
on and they are plural. And anytime in the Bible, particularly
New Testament, when you bump into plurals, it’s you, the church. And so I could look at this and
say, Brian, every day you need to get up and put on the whole
armor of God. Well, there’s some truth to that, but this is whole
church. Put on the armor of God. These are imperatives. These
are commands. These are marching orders for
the church. And so we need to see ourselves
not as a little band of separated, knights in shining spiritual
warfare armor, but as a platoon of soldiers, onward Christian
soldiers, marching as to war. It’s the church together. And so we read in verse 11, put
on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against
the schemes of the devil. Now there’s a whole host of words
in our passage that I think are really, really important. You’re
gonna find the verb, the command, put on, or take up, put on the
whole armor of God, or take up the whole armor of God. Those
are the marching orders for the church. And it’s gonna be for
the purpose of standing against those who are against us. Six
or seven times you’ll find the word in here, against. that you
may be able to take a stand against the schemes of the devil, against
the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of
this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil
in the heavenly places. You’ll also find not only the
word stand, but withstand. Some of you who’ve been in the
military know that when you’re told to go to a particular post,
your job is to stay at that post until you’re told to leave. Your
job is to keep that post, protect that post, and stay at that post
until you’re told to do otherwise. You will live and you will die
at that post. And so these are the words that
the Apostle Paul is using to help us understand of this spiritual
battle and the Lord’s strength. Now, in one of our hymns we sing,
I believe we sang it last Sunday night, when it talks about putting
on the whole armor of God, it says, soldiers of Christ arise
and put your armor on, strong in the strength which God supplies
through his eternal son, strong in the Lord of hosts and in his
mighty power. who in the strength of Jesus’ trust is more than
conqueror. And it says, stand then in his
great might, and with all his strength endued, But take to
arm you for the fight, the panoply of God. Leave no unguarded place,
no weakness of the soul. Take every virtue, every grace
and fortify the whole. But it says take to you, to arm
you for the fight, the panoply of God. It’s one of those 25
cent words you have to look up, you know, like Ebenezer. What
is the panoply? It’s the full, the full dress
of battle for the Christian, for the church. And so we’re
told to put on. Some of you may have read Martin
Lloyd-Jones. He was the doctor in the UK and
Britain last century. 50s, 60s, and 70s, I think he
was a big preacher. He was the medical doctor turned
preacher. A lot of people called him the doctor. But he preached
very long sermon series on little snippets of the Bible. The other
day I was reading his book, I think it’s called Soldiers of the Cross,
and he spends 180 pages on just verses 10 and 11. And so, you know, we’re spreading
this out a little bit, making our way through it, but we’re
not gonna quite go to the great lengths that he did, but he spends
a lot of time on the church’s warfare against Satan, because
it’s an important battle, and it’s an important battle to have
the right resources. But here’s what he says when
he speaks of the whole armor of God, and we’re gonna get into
these little tidbits, these little pieces of armor and battle armament
in the coming weeks. But he basically says this, put
on the church. What does he mean by that? Well,
put on truth, put on righteousness, put on the gospel, put on faith,
put on salvation, put on the word of God, put on prayer. What
do those begin to sound like in your ears? Something we’ve
been studying the last several Sunday mornings. Yes, the means
of grace. Put on the means of grace. Sometimes we over-spiritualize
the Christian life, and he’s simply saying, live the church,
be the church, put on the church. It’s, what did George Bush say? It’s not rocket surgery. Just
put on the church. of the whole of Christian faith
and life. And we’ll look in the weeks to
come about what each of these means. But there’s a few thoughts
there on the put on. Now I want us to think for a
few moments where it says, put on the whole armor of God that
you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. One
of the names, one of the names of the devil, which really reflects
his character is that he is a schemer. Think of Genesis chapter three,
verse one. Now the serpent was more crafty. than any of the
beasts of the field.” This word, schemes, really is better translated
the word, the word wiles. You’ve heard about the wiles
of the devil, or you say, he was a wily fella. You know, that’s
what they say about Ernest T. Bass on the Andy Griffith show. He was a wily fellow, but the
serpent was more crafty. He was more wily. And remember,
he came to Adam in the garden of paradise, but he also came
to Christ in the desert with nothing. And in the garden of
paradise, Adam was not able to withstand the devil. But Christ in the desert with
nothing, with no fruit, with no tree, no shade, no shelter,
no cool, no God walking with him in the garden, just there
all alone, he was able to withstand. Why? What was the difference?
Scripture. He knew the Bible. He knew the Bible and he spoke
the Bible. Here’s a question for you to
think about. Could you stand against the schemes of Satan
or could he get you? I mean, every one of you has
probably thought about, well, if I had been Eve, I would have done this. And maybe some of you men thought
about, if I was Adam, here’s what I would have done. Now,
what should Adam have done? He should have gotten a hoe.
I’m sure he had one. He should have gotten a hoe or
a shovel, and he should have chopped that serpent’s head off,
but he didn’t. And so history is where it is
now, and thanks be to God for Christ. But could you stand,
could you stand the schemes of the devil? Well, and a way to
answer that is, How much of the church have I been putting on?
How often am I under the word? How often am I praying? How often
am I thinking of my salvation? How often am I pursuing righteousness?
How often am I believing in the gospel? How often am I strengthening
my faith? How often am I in prayer? How
often am I putting on the church? It’s a good way to think about
it. Satan is our chief adversary.
You know, the latest heretic, the latest church growth guru,
the worst of Armenians, the greatest anti-Calvinist, the preacher
on TV with the whitest teeth, that’s not our greatest enemy.
It’s Satan. Now, he may be using all of them
in some way, shape, or form, but our greatest enemy, our arch
enemy, our chief adversary is Satan, and he is a wily devil. He is deceptive and he wants
to undermine the church quietly. John MacArthur, who we heard
from in Sunday school this morning, says one of the great weaknesses
of the church, and he says it in his own little way, he pronounces
the word discernment, discernment, we might say, the church lacks
discernment. discernment. And so every Tom,
Dick and Harry and Sally who writes a new book on the Christian
faith, what do we do? We go to the bookstore and we
buy it and we read it. And what do we go tell our friends?
This is the greatest thing since sliced bread. And then we hear
a preacher on TV or we hear something from somebody somewhere. And
what do we begin to do? We quit listening to the voice
of Jesus through the ministry of the church. And we begin to
listen to what we think is the voice of Jesus from everywhere
else. And guess what we realize over time? The church needs reformation. And why does the church need
reformation? It’s because it’s gotten away from the Bible and
it’s been subverted. It’s been deceived. It’s been
undermined little by little by Satan. And so we need to hold
our position. We need to stay close to the
church and close to the ministry of the word. Now, verse 12, when
we pick up there says this, we do not wrestle. That’s a hand-to-hand
combat word. We do not wrestle against flesh
and blood, but against, and it uses that word a bunch, rulers,
authorities, cosmic powers over this present darkness against
the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Here’s
a question that provoked a little thought in your head. Is my Christian
walk battle-free? Because if it is, that probably
doesn’t mean you’ve been prayed up and fortified. That probably
means you’re not sticking your neck out there. Because let me
just tell you from the truth of the scripture and from personal
experience, if you want to live a Christian life, be faithful
to Jesus, worship him in spirit and truth, keep the Lord’s day,
raise your family in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, and
be simply faithful in the basic, what is it? Christianity is not
rocket surgery. The church is not rocket science.
If you just want to do simple life church, it’s going to come
at you with both barrels. And so if you’re not feeling
the heat, if you’re not feeling the force, maybe you need to
step it up as a Christian. because we are fighting against
these great spiritual battles. We are fighting against these
hard enemies. And if you’re a Christian trying
to live a faithful life, you’ve got a target not only on your
back, but it’s on your front, it’s on your head, and it’s on
every aspect of your life. Just wake up on Monday morning
and change baby’s diapers. Just wake up on Monday morning
and go to work. Just wake up and keep your yard. Just wake
up and pay your bills. Just wake up and go to the grocery
and provide for your family and do basic Christian duties. And you’ve got a massive target
on your head, on your back, on your front. And this is a war.
It’s a war against the church, and it’s between Satan and his
angels. and we, the Christian people of God. And what Paul
is saying here is you need to stand firm, stand strong in the
might of God and his strength, and you need to use his weapons.
I wanna end by challenging us. And this is a little bit preaching
to the choir, because we just spend a little bit of time in prayer.
But do you know that in about the 1950s, 1960s, the American church laid down
one of its greatest spiritual weapons. And that’s the prayer
meeting. By all accounts, one of the last
commands that Jesus gave to his church was to pray together. I can remember growing up in
church where 70, 80 people would show up on Wednesday nights and
they would pray. and they would pray for an hour.
I can remember the first time I brought Mandy home from college
to meet family. She went to church with us one
Wednesday night, and it was impressed on her how much people prayed.
They broke into groups. They passed around the missionary
prayer tins. We had these old Danish cookie tins with prayer
cards in them, but people were praying. And at the end of the
service, if you came that night and you were sick and you wanted
the elders to lay hands on you, you could come up front and you
could sit and you could be prayed for. And that’s one of the most
important things I can remember over the life of growing up in
church. But where is the prayer meeting
in the church? Oh, we’ve got the youth group. I’m not saying
anything bad against youth group. We’ve got the men’s this, the
women’s that, the youth this, the children’s that. We’ve got
everything for everybody, but where is the prayer meeting in
the modern American church? Because otherwise, what are we
saying? Okay, God, we don’t believe you about the enemies. or we’re
fine in our own strength and in our own resources. That’s a pretty bold move, isn’t
it, to make? But only the American church would make that because
we’re comfortable. What do you think about our Chinese brothers?
Do you think they skip the prayer meeting? Or what about our brothers
and sisters in Eritrea, one of the most persecuted countries
in the world? Or how about our North Korean Christians? Or our
Iranian brothers and sisters? And so the results of laying
down the great weapons that God has given us are disastrous.
And we may make it a little while longer as the American church,
just because we’re prosperous, just because there’s enough money
to redo the organ every 25 years, or to put a roof on, or to shine
the copper on the steeple. We can get by with the appearance
of church for a while, can’t we? But when we lay down these
weapons, it’s only a matter of time. And you know, Jesus had
much to say about this. The seven letters to the seven
churches, he warned about unfaithfulness. He warned about being unwatchful,
even being asleep. So what do we think about Satan? He’s our enemy. He’s our adversary.
But we need to remember this. He was defeated at the cross. What are we seeing in a mighty
fortress is our God low, His doom is sure. One little word
will fail him. One of the favorite hymns that
I have, it’s a hymn singing of the consummation. It’s a hymn
that sings words about the time when Christ comes. It’s a hymn
we sing sometimes at Easter, sing choirs of New Jerusalem.
And in verse two, it says this, for Judah’s lion has burst his
chains and crushed the serpent’s head and crushed the serpent’s
head. Christ cries aloud through death’s
domain to wake the imprisoned dead. That is our future, that
is Satan’s future. The church will have victory
over him. But friends, the arrows are gonna
fly, the fiery darts are gonna whiz, and they are gonna puncture,
they are gonna wound, they are going to make the church have
difficulty. But thanks be to God, the victory
has been won, it will be won, but until then, we stand firm
in the Lord and the strength of his might, and we do put on
the whole armor of God. Let’s pray together. Our Lord,
we thank you for this encouragement that we have from the scriptures
not look to our own strength for this great battle that we
are in. but to look to you for both the resources and the victory.
We thank you that Christ has won the victory over sin and
darkness and that Satan has been put on notice. And we look for
the day when his head will be crushed. And we thank you that
by your power, he was only able to nip at the heel of Christ,
but Christ was raised from the dead. Help us to think on these
things and help us to fight well as a church by using your strength
and resources. and help us to be a praying church,
a word-centered church, a faithful church, a church full of faith,
one that stands firm in the midst of a wacky world, and one that
stands firm in the midst of all the fiery darts of the evil one.
Help us in this, we pray in Christ’s name, amen.