Ephesians 6:13-17
If you are a Christian you also are in a battle everyday! And upon this battle depends your joy, overcoming sin, happiness in your marriage, and the well being of your children! The problem: most Christians don’t realize this is a fact of life and too many of us are asleep in the barracks rather than being active on the battlefield!
C. S. Lewis wrote, “There’s no neutral ground in the universe. Every square inch, every minute of every hour is claimed by God and counter-claimed by Satan.”
I was watching the other night The Crocodile Hunter and learned that snake are born and inbred with a reflex action that allows them to bite and shoot venom into a human body even after they are killed. A rattlesnake can still bit and kill a human an hour after its dead! Folks, I remind you that Satan was dealt a deadly blow on the cross, but he still is very dangerous!
And that’s why it takes special weapons for this supernatural warfare!
2 Corinthians 10:4 “For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds.”
Church – the devil doesn’t fear bombs, bullets, missiles and torpedoes – he only fears the supernatural weaponry given to every believer!
What To Wear To The Battle
6 weapons: 5 are defensive and only 1 is offensive. 5 to defend with and only 1 to defeat with!
When Satan woke up this morning he was ready to pick a fight with you!!! You may be asking, “Pastor, what makes you say that?” Vs. 16: “Fiery darts” – He’s got lots of fiery darts ready to shoot at us in order to weaken our walk with Christ – that’s his #1 goal today!
“Darts” = dart, arrow or even javelin
“Fiery” = intensity
His aim – YOU!
1. The Belt of Truth Is For The Dart of Deception. Vs. 14a
Romans soldiers put a belt in order to connect other items to it. So what is this belt of truth? The Word!
Ephesians 1:13 “And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation...” NIV
John 17:17 “Your Word is truth.”
This belt is a defensive weapon to keep our spiritual deception!
John 8:44 Satan is “The father of lies.”
1 Timothy 4:1 “But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons.” NASB
Do you now what will happen if you don’t wear the belt of truth? Besides getting caught with you pants down – if the belt of truth does not anchor your life, you will tossed to and fro! The stakes are high!
PHD’s out there who want to rip truth from you and your children!
Why is that collage professors attack the Bible so much? Because it is the truth and nothing but the truth! You see, Satan is sympathetic with other religions because they are not whole truth!
2. The Breastplate of Righteousness Is For The Dart of Disapproval. Vs. 14b
This was sleeveless piece of armor that covered the whole torso of the soldier! It was designed to protect the heart and folks, your heart is Satan’s primary target! WHY? Because where we spend eternity is determined by the heart!
Romans 10:9 “If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.”
Proverbs 23:7 “For as a man thinks in his heart, so is he.”
While Christ was on the cross the heart of Satan’s attack was the heart of man! When temptation comes and we give in, then Satan will condemn us because we have sinned!
Satan is the “Accuser of the brethren” and he loves to dig up the garbage of our past and bring it to our attention! He rattles the skeletons that live in the closet – which even the CIA knows nothing about!
The breastplate we wear is so important because without it there is no way to know the difference between the Spirit’s conviction and satanic accusation!
KEY: The Holy Spirit will use scripture to convict with and Satan uses feeling to condemn with. The only sin that the Holy Sprit will ever bring up is unconfessed sin!
2 Corinthians 5:21 “We are the righteousness of God in Christ.”
3. The Gospel of Peace Is For The Dart of Dissension. Vs. 15
Please do not forget that Satan has one opinion of you and God has another opinion of you! And Satan would love for you to believe his opinion of you and bring discord between what God says about you and what you say about yourself! WOW!
Romans 5:1 “Having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
If you are not at peace with God that means you are at war with the devil! This is why natural warfare is so different than spiritual warfare! In natural warfare we eventually seek peace with the enemy, but in spiritual warfare we never seek peace with Satan!
We need the boots of peace on our feet in order to walk through the rocky road of temptation, the thorns of depression, the land mines of lust, the pit of misery and the mud of tribulation!
Isaiah 26:3 “He will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Him.”
4. The Shield of Faith Is For The Dart of Doubt. Vs. 16
The shield was made of bronze covered in the front with leather that was soaked in water. WHY? The darts that the enemy would use were dipped in pitch or tar, but when the fiery arrows hit the shield, the water soaked leather put out the fiery dart!
One of Satan’s greatest threats to us is doubt! If he can get you to doubt the will of God, the work of God and ways of God – he’s won the battle!
We must starve our doubts and feed our faith!
Romans 10:17 “So faith comes by hearing and hearing the word of God!
I’m telling you some of us need to go on a doubt diet and restrict the amount of doubt we take in everyday!
1 John 5:4 “For whoever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory…our faith.”
5. The Helmet of Salvation Is For The Dart of Discouragement. Vs. 17
Let me ask, what body part does the helmet protect? The head and the mind! WHY? Because Satan’s primary target is the heart and the secondary target is our mind!
Satan will say at times, “If you are saved then you wouldn’t have done that or you wouldn’t have thought that!” There’s not amore discouraged person in the universe that the Christian who is not sure about their salvation!
Listen if Satan could make you lose your salvation, then why hasn’t he - and if he could then isn’t he being awfully good to you?
So what’s the helmet for? To protect:
• The knowledge that we are saved.
• The confidence that salvation can’t be lost.
Be careful, because I see a lot of Christians base their salvation on experiences and feeling lonely – the problem with this approach is the very fact that Satan can counterfeit experience and feelings!
6. The Sword of The Sprit Is For The Dart of Disbelief. Vs. 17
This is the only offensive weapon we have! God does not want any Christian to be on the defensive but rather on the offensive! We sing “Onward Christian soldier”, not “backward Christian soldier”!
The word is the weapon that we have to win the battle – score points to destroy the enemy! A sword in Roman days was a double edge dagger able to do massive damage to the enemy!
Hebrews 4:12 “For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”
“Powerful” = energy, effective
It’s powerful because it was not created naturally but rather supernaturally because it belongs to the Spirit! Remember last week - I said that you are saved with salvation in your heart and a sword in your hand!
Folks, this next statement is worth coming to church for – we have a weapon for every weapon the devil has, but he has no defense for the one weapon we have – the Word!
James 4:7 “Resist the devil and he will flee from you.”
Why is this verse so important? Remember last week I said the word “wiles” in verse 11 is the word “methods” –well in this verse James is literally saying, “Stand against the devil and he will escape from you.”
That’s why whatever Satan throws at you – you can handle it!
The successful team in sports is the New York Yankees; they have more victories in their column then any other baseball team ever! And when they go out on the field the team has the most momentum and confidence to go against the toughest teams! As a child of God you have a catalogue of victories to draw strength and confidence from every time you get onto the battle field of life!
It was 1854 Pastor Dudley Tyng was voted as the new pastor of a Philadelphia church at only 29 years old. At first the work went well until he started to preach against the sin of slavery – at that point to church did not want to make anyone mad so they told him to shut down such silly preaching. Pastor Dudley lasted only 2 years at that large church in Philadelphia.
So Pastor Dudley started Bible studies at the YMCA and he began rallying husbands to come to Christ. On March 30, 1858, 5000 men gathered in the streets of Philadelphia and the first thing he said to the sea of faces before him, “I would rather this right arm were amputated close to the shoulder than to come up short of my duty to you in delivering God’s message.” It was reported in the paper the next day that over 1000 people got saved.
Two weeks later Pastor Dudley was visiting a farmer as he was corn thrashing in the barn and all of the sudden Pastor Dudley’s sleeve got caught in the thrasher and ripped his arm out of his shoulder and the main artery was severed. Four days later Pastor was just about to die and he lifted his head and said to everyone around the bed, “Stand up, stand up for Jesus, Ye soldiers of the cross, lift high His royal banner, it must not suffer loss.”
And that birthed the hymn “Onward Christian Soldier”! The rest of the song was written by a Presbyterian Pastor who was so touched by Dudley’s conviction For Christ and wrote…
“Stand up, stand up for Jesus, Ye soldiers of the cross
Lift high His royal banner, it must not suffer loss
From victory unto victory, His army shall He lead
Till every foe is vanquished and Christ is Lord indeed!”
Take this thought with you today…from our armor comes our position, power, privileges and our praise!
