Ephesians 6: 10-24

June 21, 2009

Exordium: Here we are at Conquest Beach. You have been looking forward to this day, and so has God. His timing is always right. As we come to the last section of Ephesians, we find it all about “conquest”.

Explication: And so as beautiful and peaceful as we are here in this lovely setting, this passage reminds us that we live in enemy territory because we are still in this world. The Letter to the Ephesians has been peaceful and beautiful and full of hope, but Paul cannot close it without this section on the warfare in which we are engaged.

He wants to warn us and to instruct us about the present situation: What do we need to do while we are in this struggle with an enemy?

1. HE CALLS US TO STAND IN STRENGTH

We are not to fear in the face of the conflict. That’s what the 10 spies who searched out the Promised Land did. They saw the enemies as giants and themselves as grasshoppers. They were afraid and drew back from the battle. (Numbers 13) Jesus did not shrink back when the soldiers came to meet Him in the garden of Gethsemane. He went out to meet them. (Matthew 26:47-56) Paul faced angry mobs and hostile courts, but he was not afraid of the struggle.

That is where we start when we think about the war we have in the Christian life. “Be not afraid.” It is not strength of your own that you must exert. Otherwise none of us would be equal to it.

The word here really should be written “Be empowered, be strengthened by the Lord.” That is, draw so close to Him in faith and love that His strength can flow into you. You draw strength from Him. That is what is meant by the words “in the Lord”. It is not “a do it yourself” work. It is let God do it in you. If you are weak and afraid, ask Him to give you the strength you need for the battle so that you can stand under pressure.

This strengthening is not simply so that you can feel strong but that you can resist the enemy of your soul. It is so that in the daily contest you have with the evil powers, you can hold your own and conquer him. He is committed to your ruin and has many ways, strategies, to overcome you. He has used them from the beginning of his miserable work. Just about the time you think you have gained some ground in a temptation, he brings on a new one in order to wear you done. But we are told here, “having done all” we are to stand.

You and I are no match for him in our own strength. He brought the mighty King
David down, and many of the other kings of Israel and Judah. He leveled Judas and Demas. He knows where we are weak. He is a good marksman and can shoot his fiery darts very precisely to the open place in your character.

He knows how to surprise you He may come to your strongest place, the place you thought you could never fall, He will come when you least expect him.

We are called to gaining from God the strength we need to stand up to the adversary. You only have to last five minutes longer than he does and you win the battle, and when you do that your victory has an enormous influence not only on you but also on the whole struggle that is going on between good and evil.

1. HERE PAUL CALLS US TO SEE THE INVISIBLE ENEMY

Our real enemy in this battle is not human beings though it may seem so. But behind every wrong friend or seductive tempter is the prince of darkness himself. He is walking about like lion, seeking food looking for prey to devour. He is even here in this idyllic place. He tried to keep you from coming, and he will try to distract you during this message, or divert you from the spiritual message of our time together. He will seek to minimize the impact of the day on your soul, so that nothing really changes in you. He will try to keep you from the true purpose of this wonderful day.

The devil is not alone. He rules over an empire of evil, with an organization of principalities and powers, called the spiritual host of wickedness. So that while the devil is not omnipresent (everywhere at once as, God is), He is everywhere that he chooses to be through his army of wicked spirits who do his bidding.

If it seemed to us that the mafia is well organized and disciplined, and we do call them “organized crime.” They are nothing compared to the legions of fallen angels under their commander, the devil. They comprise one third of the angels God created in heaven and they fell with Lucifer and are now at war with the Son of God and with His people, the church.

They are at work in the world now. Today and here. Though we cannot see them, we can see the awful effect they have in individuals and homes, and churches and in nations. The evidence of their work is everywhere found.

But even more so they work in the celestial or heavenly realm where the contest is even fiercer than it is on earth. That is their element, the spiritual realm. That is home base to them and we see only the tip of their work here on earth.

But we must be careful not to underestimate the enemy, nor overestimate him. He is not in the same league with the eternal God, who holds him in the palm of his hand. Yet he is a powerful antagonist to a Christian life.

Someday the evil forces will be no more. On the day that the devil, that great deceiver, is judged finally for his rebellion, destruction and wicked works, he and all his angels with him will be cast into the lake of fire.

But for now the battle rages on and we are in the middle of the fray. So we cannot be “passive” Christians, or “balcony Christians” observing things from a safe distance.

If you are in Christ you are in a war. Our goal is not peace, but peace in the midst of a battle. It is not the carefree life – it is the conquering life.

Some of you may feel no struggle at all. You are already in the enemy’s camp. But when you step out of that dark place into the arms of Christ you will experience the wrath and fury of Satan and you will also know the great help that God gives the new believer as he begins his new journey.

(To know more read The Screwtape Letter by CS Lewis.)

1. WHAT IS OUR HOPE AND OUR HELP IN THIS DARK SITUATION?

Paul uses the picture of the armor of God. This is not an armor that you put on piece by piece in a succession of separate acts. Rather it is a complete provision of God for your safety against the enemy of your soul. We know that by the seven pieces, seven being the number of completion.

God is supplying everything you need, and you will need it all to stand against the enemy. When Jerome the early Church Father looked at this passage, he saw Christ being pictured here. These are the ways that the Son of God assists the believer to stand up to the devil. This is God’s way of helping us not forget even one aspect or His generous and gracious provision for us. God wants us to claim all the help He has planned for us. Let’s see what that help consists of.

God gives us three protective pieces, defensive padding for when we get hit with Satan’s attacks.

The breastplate of righteousness. It protects your heart, saying to us that the heart must be right with Christ if we are to win the battle against the devil. That speaks of personal integrity, of being beyond reproach, with no secret unconfessed sins. It means the absence of hypocrisy, seeming to be something with others that you really are not. It means inward purity. So that not only are your actions pure, but your heart is as well. The only pride you have is in the scars that you have suffered in your battle for Christ.

The shield of faith. God gives us the gift of cordial trust in Him. What a protection that is. We must mix no doubt with that truth about the basis of our faith. We are to be men and women of intense conviction. For us some things are settled, we do not wait for the next archeological evidence to be unearthed until we decide. Our faith is solid enough to rest in. We’re committed and nothing can change that. Our bed is made. The Christian knows who she is and to whom she belongs and is ready to give a reason for the hope that is within.

On his head is the helmet of salvation. He knows that Jesus Christ is Lord and the decisive battle with Satan has been won and is over; He knows that Christ in his life, His death and resurrection has dealt the decisive blow to the enemy and made show of him openly in His cross. In the great campaign for the kingdom only skirmishes and a mopping-up operation remains.

There also four offensive, proactive weapons God has given the believer.

The belt of truth – a girdle-like belt that enables the soldier to gather up his flowing clothes and fight aggressively. With it he is ready to advance against the foe. Truth here means sincerity, unreserved devotion to the cause in which and for which he was enlisted as a soldier in the army of Christ.

He is not on a search to find the truth. He has the truth, or better the truth has him. It possesses and encircles him; it is the atmosphere in which he goes forward. Truth runs interference for him making his way through the defense of the enemy. He is a person of the truth who dwells in the kingdom of truth. The “belt of truth” means a loving and almighty arm has him in his grip.

Shoes. In the footwear, God gives the Christian confidence to move out and up. He is sure-footed in dangerous places, and can easily adapt to whatever the terrain is. He can tread softly or trudge over jagged rocks. With these shoes he can take the gospel to the hinterlands – to the regions beyond, wherever God calls him to go. With these shoes he feels the urge to go everywhere; to walk all over God’s earth.

The sword enables him to take the offense into enemy territory. It is the Word of God. Jesus used it against the tempter and as He taught the kingdom to the ignorant and sinful masses. It is so sharp it can divide things that do not naturally belong together. It probes the core of human issues, rips away the masks of lies. With “the sword” the Christians pursues the enemy into his own territory.

Prayer is His greatest gift of God as an offensive weapon against the evil one. We are to pray “at all times in the Spirit”, allowing the Holy Spirit to pray through us with groans we don’t understand. We are to use all kinds of praying, and persevere in it, being alert in it, praying for ourselves for others in the church and for our brothers and sisters everywhere that they too might prevail over the enemy of our souls.

Conclusion: What a day at Conquest Beach it is. The day God wants you to aspire to be more than a conqueror. Paul says that we are that. Be what God says you are:

• A conqueror is one who is top of his temptations not beneath them. On top of his wealth not underneath it, on top of his appetites not underneath them.

• A conqueror is on top of the great serpent, and can feel him wriggle under his feet.

• A conqueror is a person, an individual, is you. An individual who conquers the enemy is greater than a civilization, greater than whole nations in the great battle that is raging between the seed of the woman who is Christ and the seed of the serpent who is the old devil.

One victory is celebrated far and wide in the heavenly places. That victory is your victory. You are more than conquerors through Him who loved you.

Glen C. Knecht

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