Sermon preached on Sunday, January 3, 2010 at Garden Valley Chapel during our morning worship service based on Ephesians 6:12-16.

Take your Bible if you will and open it to the book of Ephesians chapter six - where we continue our "last leg" of our journey in Ephesians, where Paul expounds on the life of a believer.

According to Paul, the Christian life is warfare. It is a battle scene and Paul wants that ingrained in your thinking.

It is not against a battle seen to the naked eye, but a battle nonetheless.

It is a spirit-ual warfare that calls for believers to be soldiers, strengthened in the Lord to stand defensively against the onslaughts of the evil one.

Speaking of this evil one, John writes in 1 Jn 5:19 -

19 We know that ...the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.

And he is hell-bent on destruction as Peter warns in 1 Pet. 5:8 -

8 Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.

And so my Beloved, as soldiers in God´s army "be ready to stand strong in spiritual warfare!"

Read Ephesians 6:12-17.

CONTENT

With Paul you have three (3) exhortations – three exhortations that will help you to stand firm in warfare.

Put on the armor (vv. 10-13)

Stand with the armor (vv. 14-17)

Pray for the deployment of the armor (vv. 18-20)

First things first: put on the armor of God.

put on the armor (vv. 10-13)



You might recall that we began with the “what” if you will to putting on the armor of God.

What: be strong in the Lord (v. 10)

10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might.

how: Put on God’s armor (v. 11a)

11 Put on the full armor of God…

why: stand against the devil’s strategies (vv. 11b-12)

11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil.

Paul has a purpose in mind. “So that you will be able to stand.”

You are not to be pushed around but to firmly hold your position and stand.

Q: Stand against what?
A: “The schemes of the devil” – his tricks, plots, contrivances, stratagems.

The point is that you as a Christian should know about Satan’s tricks.

One of his tricks is an unforgiving spirit. This plays right into the devil’s hands and gives him the leverage he needs to split a church apart.

That is why you, as a believer, dare not be ignorant of Satan’s schemes.

*Therefore, put on the full armor of God for the purpose of being able to stand firmly against the lying strategies of the devil.

For he always looking to “catch believers unawares.”1

The reminder to us: What we are dealing with is supernatural not physical and my beloved it is a “struggle,” it is a “conflict,” it is a “fight.”

The good news is we are not alone in this spiritual conflict in v. 12 –

12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood…

*This is where we pick up where we left off last Lord’s Day.

That we face conflict is not news to a believer. The Bible tells us that the Christian’s conflict/fight/struggle is also seen:

Between the flesh and the Spirit (Gal. 5:16–26)
v. 17 – “the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another”

Between the Christian and the world (John 15:18–27)
v. 18 – “you are not of the world…I chose you out of the world…because of this the world hates you”

Between the believer and evil spiritual powers (Eph. 6:10–17)

This last conflict cannot be separated from the other two because evil powers will work through the world and the flesh.

There is a tremendous amount of opposition you face as a believer. You face opposition against the devil (v. 11) and from rulers, powers, world forces, and spiritual wickedness (v. 12).