The Christian life is a battle. There are those who will tell you that life will be peaches and roses, if you pray and keep a good attitude that you will have health, wealth, and prosperity. These are liars, they are false prophets. They are mostly “for profit” charlatans. Jesus and throughout the Scripture tells us that to follow Jesus will be a struggle.
Matthew 16:24 (CSB) Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone wants to follow after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.
To deny oneself and to carry your cross does not sound much like health and wealth. We are to have our treasures in heaven. Jesus over and over again warns His disciples.
John 16:2–3 (CSB) They will ban you from the synagogues. In fact, a time is coming when anyone who kills you will think he is offering service to God. 3 They will do these things because they haven’t known the Father or me.
When we look at the world around us and we see the evil and wickedness. Things that Bible calls bad are now being called good and things the Bible calls good, wholesome things are being called bad (ref. Isaiah 5:20ff). As Jesus said, these things happen because they do not know the father nor Himself.
When we address the causes of racial discourse and try to satisfy those that are rioting, we are only treating the symptoms, and not the root cause. The root cause for all these things is godlessness in our culture. This is nothing new, I’ve brought all this out just in the last few weeks. So what are we to do? That is the purpose of this series. Today’s message was are looking at what this struggle is, what the battle is about and where the battleground lies.
As we go through this series, we will be examining who are players in this battle, who are the soldiers, who are enemy we are going up against (the devil, the world, the flesh, and death). And we will consider our weapons of war (Ephesians 6:14-20) in the weeks ahead. Some of these things may surprise you as we examine them.
Ephesians 6:10–13
The story has been told of a mental hospital that many years ago devised an unusual test to determine when their patients were ready to go back into the world. They brought a candidate for release to a room where a water faucet was left on so that the sink overflowed and was pouring water all over the floor. Then they handed the patient a mop and told him to mop up the water. If the patient had enough sense to turn off the faucet before mopping up the water, he was ready to be released. But if, as in the case of many, the patient started mopping while the water was still flowing, they kept the patient for more treatment.
As Christians, all of us face the world in which we live and are confronted with the need to do battle with the evil that dominates it. But, like the patients in the mental hospital, until we realize where the source of that evil is, we will make no real contribution. [1]
Are we just mopping up water that continues to spill? Look at the rioting going on around the nation because of perceived racial injustices. Listen carefully, I am not saying there are not any social inequalities and prejudices out there, but what I am saying is that until hearts are change towards God in repentance, nothing will change.
It is with this in mind, I believe Paul wrote these words to the church in Ephesus. Paul concluded about our relationship with one another and within the family, and with working relationships in chapter 5 and the beginning of chapter 6. Now Paul turns his attention to our relationship with the world around us.
Ephesians 6:10–11 (CSB) Finally, be strengthened by the Lord and by his vast strength. 11 Put on the full armor of God so that you can stand against the schemes of the devil.
This spiritual warfare is not a matter of contending against godless philosophers, crafty priests, Christ-denying cultists, or infidel rulers. The battle is against demonic forces, against battalions of fallen angels, against evil spirits who wield tremendous power. Though we cannot see them, we are constantly surrounded by wicked spirit-beings. [2]
We will often say we are battling against the liberals, the democrats, and the godless politicians. We blame a lot on the LGBT/gay agenda. The fact of the matter is we keep lashing out and spinning our wheels on just the symptoms. We miss the root cause. We have a nation, a people, a culture, who has turned away from God. They deny the very existence of God. Simply put, in today’s culture cannot tolerate the notion of God because that would mean they would have to answer to a power greater than themselves, and that cannot be tolerated.
This is the world in which we live. Do you know why? Because the world is under Satan, the ruler of this age.
2 Corinthians 4:3–4 (CSB) But if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. 4 In their case, the god of this age has blinded the minds of the unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ,, who is the image of God.
The devil rules in this age. In today’s passage, he is referred to as the ruler of the darkness of this age. He has blinded the world to the truth. This world is in a mess because it cannot see the truth. And we possess the truth. We have the gospel of Jesus Christ, and it is this gospel that the world desperately needs. And the truth is Jesus. Jesus said:
John 15:18–19 (CSB) 18 “If the world hates you, understand that it hated me before it hated you. 19 If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own. However, because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of it, the world hates you.
Because the world hates Jesus, the world hates us as well, because the world has been blinded to the truth. We need to realize that the battle we fight is an immensely spiritual one, one that we cannot fight in our own strength.
Ephesians 6:10 (CSB) Finally, be strengthened by the Lord and by his vast strength.
We are to be strong in the Lord. The Devil is strong, not as strong as God, but in comparison to us, to mere human beings, we are defenseless against the devil. We cannot fight against the devil our own strength. We must stand in God’s strength, we must stand in His might. The best soldiers know their weaknesses and how they are ineffective on their own. We, as soldiers in the army of Christ, must rely on God for all our strength.
Ephesians 6:11 (CSB) Put on the full armor of God so that you can stand against the schemes of the devil.
Paul uses a lot of military terms when he talks about our battle. We do battle with the evil in this world. Put on armor, making a stand. These are military terms.
We do not put a on our own armor. We put on God’s armor. We do not put on only part of it, we must put on the whole thing. We are going up head to head with the very source of evil on the planet and we need all the protection and defenses we can get. We wear God’s armor not to attack, but just to stand. Not give an inch. We are not to give the devil an inch. Paul tells us:
Ephesians 4:27 (CSB) and don’t give the devil an opportunity.
This is a life and death struggle we are in. Our eternity and the eternity of those around us depends on us taking a stand against the evil in this world. James tells us:
James 4:7b (CSB) Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
Ephesians 6:12 (CSB) For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this darkness, against evil, spiritual forces in the heavens.
Here is the reality. We struggle. Notice Paul said, “our struggle” We are in this together. Paul struggled, you struggle and I struggle. The Greek word here can be easily translated as “wrestling” as in the KJV and NKJV. The thought here is that we are in close contact, close-in combat, like in hand to hand combat. We are not talking about drone strikes, or long range missiles. This is not a battle that is way out there somewhere. It’s close and it’s personal. We are talking about hand-to-hand combat.
We do not battle people. We bring the light to them. We do not change people, God does that. Our battle is against the supernatural in heavenly realms. Yet what we do here in this life on earth matters. It is in the heavenly places where our rewards are. Does not Jesus say we are to store our treasures in heaven? Yet Scripture tells us it is in the Heavenly places where warfare takes place. What all is Satan doing in Heaven? We read in Revelation:
Revelation 12:10 (CSB) Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say, The salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have now come, because the accuser of our brothers and sisters, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been thrown down.
Satan is busy accusing us, to take away our rewards in heaven. His demons – the fallen angels are busy about the affairs of men.
In the book of Daniel, chapter 10 we read about this in graphic detail about Satan’s angels struggling with God’s angels for control over the affairs of nations. Dealing with Gabriel and Michael, the Prince over Israel, dealing with the princes over Persia. And if you do not think that evil demons are not fighting for the control over the affairs of nations today, you are not reading your newspapers or watching the news on TV or on the internet.
1 John 5:19 (CSB) We know that we are of God, and the whole world is under the sway of the evil one.
We are fighting a spiritual, supernatural battle, and we cannot expect to win it with natural, human weapons. We need divine weaponry. You may be wondering, what is a person to do? I cannot deal with the affairs of nations. But the devil is also hard at work controlling the affairs of our local community. What are we to do? We cannot hope to fight this alone and on our own.
This is another reason Jesus gives us the church and why unity in the church is so important – we stand together. We pray together, we fight together, and we proclaim the good news, the Gospel together to a lost and dying world. We are to put on the Lord Jesus. Jesus has overcome the world.
Ephesians 1:20–23 (CSB) He exercised this power in Christ by raising him from the dead and seating him at his right hand in the heavens—21 far above every ruler and authority, power and dominion, and every title given,, not only in this age but also in the one to come. 22 And he subjected everything under his feet, and appointed him as head over everything for the church, 23 which is his body, the fullness of the one who fills all things in every way.
Jesus, our head and our authority in the heavens, where the battle for our very souls are being fought. And we, the church, are His body here on earth. We fight, not for victory, but from the position of victory. Jesus is above it all and Satan knows his days are numbered. That is why he is working so hard now to take as many as he can with him. How many are we working on to take to heaven with us?
1 John 4:4 (CSB) You are from God, little children, and you have conquered them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.
Jesus is above all and greater than all. It is from Jesus we fight, It is only because we are in Jesus we fight.It is from Jesus the battle is won.
Ephesians 6:13 (CSB) For this reason take up the full armor of God, so that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and having prepared everything, to take your stand.
We are to put on Jesus. We are not to fear the world. We are no longer under the rule of the wicked one, under the rule of darkness, but now we are living in the light.
Ephesians 5:8 (CSB) For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light—
We are all once in darkness. So is the world around us. Yet we have been given the message of hope. The message of light. Remember we are called to be a kingdom of Priests, proclaiming His praises to the world (1 Peter 2:9).
Deuteronomy 31:6 (CSB) Be strong and courageous; don’t be terrified or afraid of them. For the LORD your God is the one who will go with you; he will not leave you or abandon you.”
This verse is repeated in Hebrews 13:5, speaking of Jesus. We should have not fear of the battle. Jesus has already won.
Knowing what the battle is; are you wearing the full armor of God? Perhaps you know about the evil in the world, you can see it and feel it, but you feel powerless against it. Do you know Jesus? Are you living in His power? No one ever said fighting this battle was easy. But we do not have an option. We all are in this battle whether we like it or not.
But if you are without Jesus, in this battle, you are defenseless, you have already lost. This battle involves all of creation. Only with Jesus do we stand a chance, because Jesus has overcome all these spiritual hosts of wickedness .
Do you have Jesus?
[1] Michael P. Green, 1500 Illustrations for Biblical Preaching (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2000), 357.
[2] William MacDonald, Believer’s Bible Commentary: Old and New Testaments, ed. Arthur Farstad (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1995), 1952.
