Sunday May 31, 2009

New Armor for Battle

Ephesians 6:10-18

Ephesians 6:10-18

¹⁰ Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.

¹¹ Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.

¹² For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

¹³ Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.

¹⁴ Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness;

¹⁵ And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace;

¹⁶ Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.

¹⁷ And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:

¹⁸ Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;

These are just a few pointers that I want to bring out in this lesson.  My intent is not to teach the lesson, nor take away from your teaching.  I simply want to share with you what God has placed on my heart as I write these few pointers.

1.      In the lesson today, Paul admonishes us to “be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might.”  In an earlier lesson we learned that we are strongest when we are weak.  This paradox can only become a reality for us when we are in Christ.  2 Corinthians 12:9 says that “And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee; for my strength is made perfect in weakness.  Most gladly, therefore, will I rather glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me.”  We can only be strong when we completely depend on Jesus for our strength.  We can be assured that when we trust in the power of His might, we are in “good hands.”  We must remember that when Christ rose from the dead, he rose with ALL power in His hands; both in heaven and on earth.  If we are to be able to stand against our enemy, we must tap into that power.

2.      Paul instructs us to “Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.”  The word “wile” means a trick or strategy intended to entice or deceive.  We must conclude from the passage that our enemy is the devil.  We also know that the devil’s mission is to kill, steal, and destroy.  Therefore, if we are to survive this warfare against the devil, we must put on the whole armor of God. 

Paul describes the devil’s tactics in verse 12.  The devil is not flesh and blood.  We would probably stand a chance of winning this battle by ourselves if the enemy was flesh and blood just like we are, but the devil does not fight like we do.  We are not as physically strong as the devil, because God has made man just a little lower than angels, and the devil is a fallen angel.  We know this from reading Psalms 8:4-5: “What is man, that thou art mindful of him?  And the son of man, that thou visitest him?  For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowed him with glory and honor.”  We find in the 32^nd chapter of Genesis that Jacob wrestled with an angle.  The 25^th verse tells us that “And when he saw that he prevailed not against him, he touched the hollow of his thigh; and the hollow of Jacob’s thigh was out of joint, as he wrestled with him.”  We are no match for the devil without God.

Secondly, we wrestle against principalities.  Principalities are powerful rulers or the rule of someone in authority.  In our lesson today it refers to a demonic spirit, or any type of rule other than God Himself.  The good news about this is that Christians can be victorious because Christ defeated all wicked spirits. 

Another attribute about our enemy is powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world.  In our world today, we have evil men who rule over other evil men.  The United States of America is under constant watch by evil men seeking to find a weakness so that they can destroy this nation.  They lurk in dark and dense places around the world.  They also lurk in places in the United States, pretending to be someone else.  They will trick you into being their friend in order to find out your weaknesses. When they find out how to destroy you, they will not hesitate to rip your soul or heart right out of your chest.  The enemy delights in destroying you, because the primary intent is to cause you to lose your salvation. 

Another description of the enemy is that they are spiritual wickedness in high places.  I believe that false teachers and preachers are our most devastating enemy today.  We have preachers who have not been called to preach in our churches.  They are talented speakers who can deliver a persuasive message, but they are not from God.  You see my brothers and sisters, Jeremiah 3:15 tells us that “And I will give you shepherds according to mine heart, who shall feed you with knowledge and understanding.”  This simply says that out of compassion for His people, God will give you shepherds/pastors.  Compassion simply means that your hurt will be in His heart.  When the least of the congregation is suffering the pastor will suffer right along with her/him, because of the love God has for His people.  Be careful who you call to pastor.  Make sure that the person is sent by God, to lead you in the direction God desires His people to go.

3.      Therefore we are to put on the whole armor of God, which will enable us to stand in these evil days.  We cannot afford to have a partial set of armor, we need the whole armor.  This means that we must stop playing church, stop singing songs that just sound good, but has no meaning to the performer.  We cannot afford to continue to live any kind of life, and bring our evil ways into God’s house and expect him to supply us with what it takes to be protected from the devil. 

We must girt our loins with truth, put on the breastplate of righteousness, and shod our feed with the preparation of the gospel of peace.  Above all, we must take the shield of faith which will enable us to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.  Remember that without faith it is impossible to please God (our strength and our protector).  We must put on the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit which is the word of God.  When we get all of this on, we still must pray with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit.  Also we must watch therefore with all perseverance and supplication.  In warfare we can never relax.  We must constantly be on guard because we do not know when the enemy will attack us. 

We could go on and on because this is a familiar lesson that must be taken to heart.         

May God bless and keep you.  Please pray that I am able to continue to share these pointers with you.  Contact me at the information below.  If you would like for me to visit your church, please have your pastor contact me.

James C. Mathews

1110 Grand Pass

Canyon Lake Texas  78133

(830) 935-2996 home—please leave your name and a message

(830) 660-5645 cell—please leave your name and short message.

[email protected] –email address

www.geocities.com/mathewslesson -website