The Believer's Battleground - Walking in Victory in Our War - Part 2

Some of you may know that old hymn, "Be Thou My Vision." It's one that's been around for quite some time. If you'll notice, where the Keith sang some verses, portions of that song that you may not have heard before. Some of these old hymns have been culled down. The difficult verses and words have been taken out to make them more singable and acceptable. But when they do that, when people do that, sometimes they pull out truth, teaching things we need to see and study and sing and have in our minds and hearts. And I appreciate him taking those verses and leading us in those verses that worship. Thank you.

If you would take your Bible and turn back to Ephesians chapter 6. Ephesians chapter 6, again, we're going to be in verses 10 to 13. Now occasionally I will do this. I'll mention the fact that we'll be in some other verses in the message. There are quite a few that I'm going to reference. And if you need those, I can help you get those. But I want you to follow me with your mind and your heart. I don't want you to be trying to write down everything. We're not going to turn to all those verses. We're going to stay right here in Ephesians chapter 6.

Now last week we started these verses, verses 10 to 13 in what I called the Believer's Battleground. The Believer's Battleground, "Walking in Victory in Our War." That's a rather lengthy sermon title I know. And before we got into the verses, I took some time to make sure that we understand that the Christian life is not a playground but a battleground. I took some time to make sure that we see and understand what the Christian life truly is. Besides the teaching from verses 10 to 13, we glanced at several portions of Scripture that give us a picture of what the true Christian life actually is.

We saw that the Christian life is a lot like a strenuous athletic event that requires hard work, great discipline, and self-control. We saw that the Christian life is a fight, but it's also a good fight. In another Scripture besides Ephesians 6, we saw that the Christian life is truly a war and a lot like waging a war. Listen to what James and Peter say. We didn't look at these verses last week.

James 4.1 says, "What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you?" He answers the question, "Is it not this that your passions are at war within you?" 1 Peter 2.11 says, "Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh that would be sin, which wage war against your soul." And we must recognize how we especially can misunderstand the true nature of the Christian life. In many ways, we are respected by the local community and those outside of the church. In our day and in our culture, in many ways, it is easy for the church to be prosperous and to grow.

Being a true Christian and doing the true work of the church is really easy for us compared to other believers in other parts of the world, and also compared to other believers throughout church history. And this ease and this comfort and this cultural acceptance that we enjoy can lull us into a spiritual complacency and spiritual comfort. And all these things can lead us to forget or never understand that the true Christian life and the work of the true church is really a battleground and it really is a war. But a question, is it a sin to be in a time and a place where things are easy as compared to others?

Is it a sin to be accepted by the community and to be prosperous as a people in a church? Well, the answer to that is no. 1 Timothy 1, verses 1 to 3 says, "First of all, then I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings, for all who are in high positions and why?" Paul says that we, that's the church and believers, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life godly and dignified in every way. And he goes on to say that this is good and it is pleasing in the sight of God. So it is not a sin to be living in a time and a place where we enjoy peaceful, quiet lives.

And it is not a sin to be prosperous as a people and to be prosperous as a church. The sin comes when we let these things lull us into spiritual complacency and comfort so that we forget or we never understand that the true Christian life is a battleground and a war. Last week I said that Warren Wiersby titles these verses in Ephesians, "You're in the Army Now." That's true. I like that. "You're in the Army Now." That helps to put us in the right way of thinking about the Christian life. We are all in the Army Now if we're born-again Christians.

I also said that these verses resemble the exhortations that generals in Paul's day would give to their soldiers before the battle. Well, that is true as well and I like that. And I think that helps to put us in the right way of thinking about the Christian life as well. And as we got into these verses, these exhortations that are from our general, I said that we had two commands and then we had three important details about the verses. Last week we studied the two commands and this morning I want to quickly glance at those commands and then I want us to look at our enemy, our battle, and our victory.

So command number one, "Be strong in the Lord." That's from verse 10. "We saw the command and the expectation for these believers to be strong in the Lord and in the strength of the Lord's might." The Amplified says, "And the power of His boundless might." There are two things here that I did not highlight last week. These are two very important observations that will help all of us. First, the unlimited strength of the Lord's might. First, we need to see the unlimited strength of the Lord's might. This strength of His might is the same power that raised Christ from the dead as we see in Ephesians 1, verse 20.

This is the same power that brought these believers to life when they were dead in their trespasses and sins that we see in Ephesians 2, 1-5. So Christ's power that is available to us is boundless, it is immeasurable, and it is great in its greatness. And Ephesians 1, 19 says, "And what is the immeasurable greatness of His power toward us who believe according to the working of His great might?" So that means that the strength of God's might should be in our lives. But a question, how do we appropriate, how do we get our hands on this boundless strength through weakness? Yes.

Actually, weakness is our greatest asset so as to appropriate this strength. I picked this up from William McDonald last week, and it didn't make the cut in the last week's message, and we really need to see this. He says that I'm quoting, "God's best soldiers are those who are conscious of their own weakness and ineffectiveness and who rely solely on Him." Let me repeat that. He says, "God's best soldiers are those who are conscious of their own weakness and ineffectiveness and who rely solely on Him." Now here I want you to see something, folks. Some of you are weak, but you are weak in your weakness.

And the reason you are weak in your weakness is because within your weakness you're depending on self-effort to get you out of that weakness. McDonald goes on to quote 1 Corinthians 1, 27. He says, "God has chosen the weak things of this world to put the shame, the things which are mighty." He says, "Our weakness commends itself to what? To the power of His might." So what you must do is this, die in your weakness. You must have strength in your weakness. And the way you have strength in your weakness is to die to all of your self-effort. And when you die to all of your self-effort, then and only then can your weakness commend you to what?

The power of His might. And then second, this command is in the present tense, which shows us that this strength in the Lord should be continual. This means that this strength should be a constant part of the believer's life at all times. Simply this means that our Lord expects us to be strong in Him and to continue to be strong in Him. And we must ask ourselves, do we have times of spiritual weakness? Well, we shouldn't. We shouldn't. Spiritual strength in the Lord should be a continual and a constant part of our everyday lives as born-again believers. But before we move on, we need to remember that this is relational. This is relational.

That's why I emphasize being in the Lord. If we have sin in our life, if we have patterns of sin, if we have spiritual weakness, if we have this ebb and flow of weakness and strength, those things are an in the Lord problem, which tell us we have a problem in our relationship with our Lord. I'll give you an example. If I have sinned against my wife, I have not sinned against my wife. I have sinned against Christi. You see, my sin would be relational. And all of these things we're studying here are relational. So commandment number one, be strong in the Lord. And then command number two, put on the whole armor of God.

We see that in the first part of verse 11. Here we saw the command and the expectation for believers to put on the full of the whole armor of God. And here we learned quite a lot about this armor even though we never got into the actual pieces of the armor. We saw that this is God's armor and not man's armor. And we saw that God's armor is complete. It lacks nothing. And this armor was to be put on and to never be taken off. But there's one thing about this armor that I did not point out last week. Again, not everything can make the cut. And this is very important for us to see.

The full armor of God that is given here can be seen as the armor that God Himself wears. And it even can be seen as the armor that God is. And this comes right out of the Old Testament Scripture. Now the language describing the armor of God in these Ephesian verses may have caused these Ephesian believers to think of a Roman soldier. But this language actually comes from Isaiah. Isaiah chapter 1 verse 15, verse 5 excuse me. Isaiah chapter 52 verse 7 and Isaiah chapter 59 verse 17. So Paul may have been thinking about a Roman soldier. Of course that is speculation.

But it is safe to say that Paul was definitely thinking of these Old Testament Scriptures that he knew so well. Listen to these verses. Isaiah 11 5 says, "Righteousness shall be the belt of His waist and faithfulness the belt of His loins." Chapter 52 verse 7 says, "How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of Him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, 'Your God reigns.'" And in chapter 59 verse 17 the Lord says, "He put on righteousness as a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation is on His head.

He put on garments of vengeance for clothing, and wrapped Himself in zeal as a cloak." And as one commentator said it, "Some of the armor, truth, righteousness, and salvation suggest we are to put on God, or at least the characteristics of God." He goes on to say, "The idea is therefore close to Ephesians 5 verse 1, where Paul says, 'Be imitators of God.'" Now what does that tell us? We are to be imitators of God. By putting on the armor of God, we are to put on God. Therefore we can put on the very characteristics of God in our lives. And one false way of thinking about these things is this.

Is to think about the armor of God as the external, kind of like play acting. Think about it. When someone is an actor or an actress, they act in a particular character. They dress up in a particular part, and they put on a particular character. Although this may involve some emotions, it's all physical. They are acting like another, even wearing their clothes and even wearing that costume. But that is not what we have here. This is relational. And it can only take place if we know God and God lives within us. According to Romans 8-9, the Spirit of God dwells within us as believers.

Therefore we can put on the armor of God, which is God in the very characteristics of God. Again, this is relational. So command number 2, put on the full armor of God. And then we saw why we must be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. We saw why we must pull on the full armor of God. That is so that we would be able to stand, which is all defensive in nature. Let's look back at the verses. See if you don't see the defensive nature of what Paul is saying. We'll read verse 10 and 11. Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. Put on the whole armor of God.

It's almost like he's saying, "So that, so that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil." Now notice, this is all about preparation. This is all about readiness. This is even all about anticipation. This is all about being able to stand and to stand strong in the Lord when the battle in the war comes. So God is calling us as believers to be strong in the Lord and strong in the strength of His might. And He is calling us to put on and to keep on the very armor of God so as to be prepared, so as to be ready and able to stand, which means being firmly fixed in place when the opposition and the attack comes.

But there's one more detail here that we need to see before we see what we have to stand up against. Primarily, this is all about the church and the church's ability to stand, not the individual's ability to stand. That is because the commands here in the original language are all in the plural. We can think of these things individually and we should, but we must see that Paul's intent here was to call all of these believers in this church to be ready and to be able to stand. Paul's intent was to call every believer associated with this church to be ready for the battle that they were in and the battle that was to come.

Luke Church, if only one or two of us are able to stand in the strength of His might, dressed in the full armor of God, what happens to the rest of the church? If 10% of us are able to stand, let's say if half of us are able to stand, what happens to the church as a whole? Think about this with me. How many churches have been shipwrecked by false doctrine? How many churches have been shipwrecked by unsaved and uncalled leaders? How many churches have been shipwrecked by ravenous wolves who have risen up as leaders?

How many churches have been shipwrecked and destroyed by fights, divisions, and splits, all while 2%, maybe 10%, maybe 20%, maybe even 40% were able to stand in the strength of His might? See? And look, church, listen to you, pastor. When the day of evil comes against our church, and it will come, it will come. When the day of evil comes against our church, we must all be able to stand, all of us. And if you're a member of Grace Life Church, I'm especially aiming this at you. We must all be able to stand. You know, if you've been in ministry for very long, you always have some of these sad stories.

One of the saddest things that I experience is when I have seen true believers, people that I believe are really born again, and they're in a church, and the day of evil comes, divisions come, difficulties come, and they are not able to stand. And that difficulty, that day of evil comes, and it causes them to bail to run when they should stay. And I'm saying to you, church, we must all, all be able to stand because the day of evil will come. It will. Now, at this point, I want us to see who we must be able to stand up against. That is our enemy. And where we must be able to stand, that is in our battle.

And then I want us to look at our victory. So we're transitioning into some new material. So number one, I want us to see our enemy, our enemy. And this is in the second part of verse 11 and verse 12. Let's look at the verses. Paul says, "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 or struggle 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." Here we must see that we are dealing with a real enemy. But this enemy is not people.

Paul says, "We do not wrestle against flesh and blood." This real enemy is Satan and his demonic cohorts. And this is not a fairy tale, folks. This is not make-believe. Satan was and is a real being. And the New Testament and Old Testament scriptures are very clear about Satan and his existence. Old Testament scriptures like Isaiah 14, 12 to 17, Ezekiel 28, 1 to 10, and Revelation 12, 7 to 9 tell us a lot about Satan. He was once a chief angel in heaven. He was the star of the morning until he rose up in rebellion against God. He actually tried to take over God's power in God's position.

We see that Satan first made his appearance in the Old Testament scripture in Genesis 3 when he tempted E first and then he tempted Adam. We see that Satan first appeared in the beginning of the New Testament in Matthew 4 when he tempted Jesus in the wilderness. We also see Satan spoken of extensively all throughout the New Testament scriptures. Jesus spoke about Satan often and he even spoke to Satan directly when he was tempted by Satan in the wilderness in Matthew 4.

And when we study all of the letters written by Peter, James, John, and Paul and even the letter of Hebrews, we see that all of them wrote about Satan and they portrayed Satan as a real being. And we see that Satan has called many things in the scriptures. He has called the anointed cherub in Ezekiel 28 14. He has called the ruler of the demons in Luke 11 15. He has called the ruler of this world in John 16 11. He has called the God little G God of this world in 2 Corinthians 4 4. He has called the prince and the power of the air in Ephesians 2 2. But there's more. He has called the tempter in Matthew 4 3.

He has called a murderer and a liar in John 8 44. He is compared to a lion in 1 Peter 5 8. He has called a serpent in Revelation 12 9. He has also called an angel of light in 2 Corinthians 11 13 to 15. In the scripture, Satan is called Satan 52 times and that word Satan means adversary. He is called the devil 35 times and the word devil means slanderer. Now what's my point here? We must see that the devil is a real and personal devil. He is not make believe. And then we have the demons of the demonic forces. Look back at verse 12.

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. And just like with Satan, we need to see that these are real spiritual beings. Again, this is not a fairy tale. These are not imaginative beings. We see who these demonic beings are and where they came from in Revelation 12 4. The Apostle John seems to say that one third of the angels in heaven followed Satan in his rebellion against God.

So they were cast out of heaven and they fell with Satan, therefore becoming demons or evil spirits. So these demons were at one time angels. Yes, they were angels, but they followed Satan and they rebelled against God. So they were cast out of heaven and down the earth. And we see other listings and descriptions of these demonic forces in other places. Ephesians 1 21 and Ephesians 3 10, Romans 3 38, Colossians 2 15, 1 Peter 3 22. Those verses all give us listings and descriptions similar to what we see here in verse 12. And if we read verse 12 carefully, we will actually see several names and descriptions of those demonic forces.

The English standard calls them rulers, authorities, cosmic powers, and spiritual forces of evil. The New American calls them rulers, powers, world forces of this darkness, and spiritual forces of wickedness. But we have to make sure that we understand what Paul was giving us here in verse 12. He gives us different classes and orders of the demons of the demonic forces. But notice these classes are not explained in detail. Some scholars say this represents demons of different rank, of different power, and different operation.

But others say that this, that such a precise identification like this is difficult because of the ambiguity in this language and the language used in other verses that mentioned the demonic forces. So what do we, what do we do here? What should we have, what should be our approach? We have to make sure that we see Paul's purpose. He was writing to give these Ephesian believers a glimpse at these demonic forces and an understanding of the purpose, the planning, and the power of these demonic forces. He was writing to enable them to see who they were up against and what they were up against. Now what's my point here? The devil is real.

He is a real and personal devil. And we must see that these demons, these demonic forces, they are real as well. The demons are just as real as the devil. And Paul was writing to give these Ephesian believers a glimpse of Satan and his demonic forces and his ultimate purpose was to give them an understanding of the purpose, the planning, and the power of Satan and his demonic forces. Again, he was writing to enable them and to equip them to see who they were up against and what they were up against. But a couple of more very important details we need to remember and see and understand. Satan and his demons are created beings.

They were created as angels, but they rebelled against God. Satan is limited in his power. He is not on par with God or just a shade weaker than God. No, he is not omnipotent, which means he is not all-powerful like God. He is not omniscient, which means he is not all-knowing like God. He is not omnipresent, which means he is not everywhere all the time like God. Remember, Satan is a created being and God is the all-sovereign God. And he is a defeated foe, just waiting until his final judgment and damnation. And everything that Satan does is according to God's good and perfect will.

Yes, everything that Satan and his cohorts do, all those things are according to God's good and perfect will. If it was not, God would not be sovereign. So we see our enemy, Satan and his minions, the demons of the demonic evil spirits, all who were cast out of heaven for rebelling against God. And then number two, we see our battle. This is back in verse 11 and verse 12 again, or the second part of verse 11. Let's read the verses.

Paul says, "Put on the armor of God," here comes the battle, "that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil, for we do not wrestle, struggle." There's the battle, "against flesh and blood, but against, too, all of these demonic forces." Now, when we look at our battle, notice we are moving from information about our enemy to what we must do in the battle and end the war. And we see that we must do two things here. First, we must stand. Isn't that what we see in verse 11? Here we see that we are to stand in the strength of the Lord and in the power of his might, dressed in the full armor of God.

We are to take an immovable position against what? The schemes of the devil. This word schemes, the King James uses the word "whiles." This speaks of a properly laid out method or scheme that is laid out with great skill, great cunning, and great deception. Albert Barnes says, this means, and I'm quoting, "Cunning devices, arts, attempts to delude and destroy us, the wiles of the devil, of the various arts and stratagems which he employs to drag souls down to perdition." That would be hell. I like how MacArthur takes what Barnes says and he kind of continues.

MacArthur says, and I'm quoting, "The schemes of the devil include the propagation of individual beliefs and lifestyles that corrupt and damn. They include evil national and international policies and practices that deceive and destroy. They include the doubts placed into the believers' minds to lead them away from trust in their holy and loving Father. They include temptations of God's children to immorality, worldliness, pride, self-reliance, and self-satisfaction.

They include slander, ridicule, and persecution of the saints." So we see that the devil has a seeming infinite amount of deceptive schemes which are meant to destroy people and even destroy believers. He actually wants to destroy everything that God created and everything that God loves. But, but, we stand immovable in the Lord, dressed in the full armor of God, against the sinful schemes of the devil. And then second, we wrestle. Look back at verse 12. "For we do not wrestle, struggle against flesh and blood people, but against who? All of these demonic forces." Here we see that we are to wrestle.

The New American says, "Struggle in the strength of the Lord and the power of his might, all while being dressed in the full armor of God." We are to wrestle against all of these demonic forces. This is a very personal struggle. This word "wrestle" or "struggle" was used in their day to describe hand-to-hand combat and even wrestling like we have in our day. Very personal, very in-your-face, very hand-to-hand. But a question, what are we wrestling against? We wrestle, even fight against, these demonic forces who are working to carry out the many deceptive and sinful schemes of the devil.

We are struggling in a personal wrestling match against these demonic forces who are working to carry out all of these many schemes and sinful schemes of the devil. So we see our battle. We stand against the evil schemes of the devil and we struggle against the demonic forces that work nonstop to carry out all of the evil schemes of their leader, the devil. Listen folks, notice, all we do is two things. Stand and wrestle. Stand and wrestle. We do not chase down demons, no. We do not work to identify demons, no. We do not even see that we are to cast out demons.

Tell me if you find a place of scripture where we are commanded and expected to cast out demons. We are responsible to stand, to wrestle, to struggle when the battle comes our way, you see? And there's more that we need to see and understand here. Honestly as a pastor, as I seek to pastor you in these things, I understand that you need to be better equipped and better understand these things. And then number three, I want us to see our victory, verse 13. Here we see our victory. Let's look at verse 13. Paul transitions, kind of concludes this portion of scripture.

"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." Here we see really a repeat of what Paul has already commanded, but he gives some added instruction notice. Paul calls them to take up the full armor of God. This phrase "take up" seems to mean that as they were involved in the battle, they were to make sure that they take up their armor and to put it on and not leaving it laid aside. Now question, why did Paul repeat himself? I mean look at the verses. Verse 11 and verse 13 are very close together. Why does he say put on the whole armor of God in verse 11?

And then here in verse 13 he says, "Take up the whole armor of God." Why? That is because Paul knew that even these true believers can be unprepared for the battle that they are in. And could it be that some of you are not dressed in God's full armor as you should be? Could it be? So that you cannot stand and wrestle against the schemes of the devil like you should? Could it be that this repeat is for you? Now there are two details I want us to see about this victory, or defeat. It's either victory or defeat. First, victory in the day of evil. Paul calls these believers to be able to stand and to withstand the day of evil.

Now there is some debate about what this day of evil or evil day actually is. Some assign a lot of specific meaning. And I believe that that might be correct to some degree. But I think it is best to see this evil day as any day and any time that the enemy comes against us with what? His schemes, the evil schemes of the devil. McDonald says, "Satanic opposition seems to occur in waves advancing and receding." That's true. If you've walked with God very long, you know that.

McDonald says, "Satanic opposition, these schemes seem to occur in waves advancing and receding." So to me this evil day, it is a day and any day and any time that the enemy can come against us. And then second, the victory in the end. Look at the last part of verse 13 with me. This can be overlooked, and I really want us to see it.

He says, "Therefore, take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, and having done all to stand." Here Paul was concerned that these believers would stand firm in the battle and after they had done all in the end that they would stand and continue to stand firm. This is important. Listen, church, there's so many who have done everything, like we see here. They have done everything well, and after having done all, they did not stand. How many people have you known who have done everything well for years, but in the end they did not stand firm?

Again, I go back to some of my past and sad memories. I can give you a list of guys that I knew in my earlier years in ministry who were in ministry, who are now out of ministry. Now not all of them got out of ministry because of immorality or sins such as that. But I think about guys that I knew who went into the ministry, and oh, they went into the ministry well, and oh, they stood and they stood firm after they had done and done well in the end, they could not stand. They're out. Twenty-five years of ministry, they're out. Twenty years of preaching and leading the church, but they're out.

See, it's not enough for you to teach small group and small group well. It's not enough for you to teach small groups for twenty-five years. You must teach small group for twenty-five years and then continue to stand and to stand firm. What good would it do for you to be active in the life of the church and even be a leader in the life of the church, but in the end you cannot stand. And then you look back and say, "Well, I did it well for thirty years, but the last ten years of my life, I didn't." You see? So it's either victory or defeat. So here we see in verse 13 our victory.

The victory is making sure to take up the full armor of God so that we may be able to stand firm in the day of evil. And in the end, when we have done everything and everything well, to continue to stand and to stand firm in the Lord. Now, I want to close by showing you just how important these verses in this teaching is. This is all about proper knowledge. This is all about a proper understanding about how the Christian battle works and how we are up against a war and we are in a war. Now think about it. If we were going into a physical battle, we would want to know basic intelligence.

We would want to know who our enemy is and our enemy's vital plans and schemes. We would want to know how our enemy works and how he wants to attack us. That's just basic intelligence. And if we did not have proper basic intelligence, we would be very, very vulnerable to defeat. And most likely we would be defeated. Well, it is the same for the Christian life. Intelligence, knowledge, and understanding lead to what? Preparation and readiness. And preparation and readiness and being responsible in all of these things leads us to what? Victory in the believer's battleground and walking in the war. So what have we looked at this morning?

The believer's battleground, walking in victory in the war.